To realize the value of a sibling,
Ask an only child.
To realize the value of ten years,
Ask a newly divorced couple.
To realize the value of four years,
Ask a graduate.
To realize the value of one year,
Ask a kid who just failed a final exam.
To realize the value of nine months,
Ask a mother who just gave birth to a stillborn.
To realize the value of one month,
Ask a mother who just gave birth to a premature baby.
To realize the value of one week,
Ask an editor of a weekly newspaper.
To realize the value of one minute,
Ask a person who just missed the train.
To realize the value of one-second,
Ask a person who just avoided a twenty car pile-up.
To realize the value of a friend,
LOSE ONE.
I was looking at Dan's Twitter and started following Michael Geist. Then I read his blog. I wanted to do something, and at first was disappointed that he didn't provide a form letter. I spent almost two hours on the following, and in the end was glad that I took the time to put my own concerns in my own words. I sent it by soft and hard copy to the contacts below.
I'll try to keep this succinct. I'm concerned about Bill C-32. Obviously the world of 2010 is very different from previous decades with respect to the production, transmission and consumption of information and media. Obviously copyright reform is required. I am a software developer. I have a vested interest in copyright. I vote.
I support many aspects of Bill C-32, but the DRM section is simply ridiculous. The issue is that if a producer has shipped some media protected by a "digital lock", then removing that "digital lock" or building a device that can remove that "digital lock" would be a crime. As has been pointed out by many others before me, this idea is fundamentally flawed.
1. Bill C-32 is intentionally vague about the definition of a "digital lock". Even if the lock is simple, so long as it is there, it would be illegal to break it. Furthermore, devices that can break it would be illegal. But these devices are just algorithms, which a person could perform by hand. There was a time that MD5 was considered a cryptographically secure hash algorithm. Today it can be defeated by paper and pencil. My point is that smart humans are devices capable of defeating "digital locks". The law would make smart humans illegal.
2. It is impossible to prevent the reproduction of media with a "digital lock". Most media enters a person through their ears or eyes. By putting a light recording device in front of the eyes and a sound recording device beside the ears, any media can be copied. This example is extreme, but the idea of copying the media after the controlling device has formatted it for output (i.e. at the audio/video-out layer) has been used for a long time.
3. The above two points demonstrate that the digital-lock-as-law idea is non-functional. It should matter what people do with media, not how they do it. If I store a copy of some media in a box in my back-yard to protect against the risk of loss in case my house burns down, that should be okay, no matter how I made the copy. If I start copying and selling someone else's intellectual property, that should be a crime, no matter how I made the copy. I think that much is obvious to everyone.
4. Information and technology moves faster than all of us. Look at iTunes. Look at Google. They are obviously successful. Their focal point is obviously not DRM. Those companies who have made DRM their flag-ship are dinosaurs. Don't tie our country, our citizens, our economy to their sinking ship. We need copyright reform, not copyright imprisonment.
I don't require a reply. I'm just stating my point of view.
<my address, occupation, signature>
Find your MP
Mine is Paul Dewar:
Dewar.P(at)parl.gc.ca
Paul Dewar c/o House of Commons, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6.
The Prime Minister:
Used this instead of email.
Stephen Harper c/o Office of the Prime Minister, 80 Wellington Street, Ottawa, K1A 0A2.
Tony Clement, the Minister of Industry:
minister.industry(at)ic.gc.ca
Tony Clement c/o Office of the Minister of Industry, 235 Queen Street, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0H5.
James Moore, the Minister of Canadian Heritage:
moorej(at)parl.gc.ca
James Moore c/o House of Commons, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6.
Michael Chong, the Chair of the House of Commons Industry Committee:
Chong.M(at)parl.gc.ca
Michael Chong c/o House of Commons, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6.
Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff:
Ignatieff.M(at)parl.gc.ca
Michael Ignatieff c/o Liberal Party of Canada, 81 Metcalfe Street, Suite 400, Ottawa, Ontario, K1P 6M8.
NDP Leader Jack Layton:
LaytoJ(at)parl.gc.ca
Jack Layton c/o House of Commons, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6.
Canadian Heritage's Copyright Policy Branch:
Used this instead of email.
Department of Canadian Heritage, Copyright Policy Branch, 275 Slater Street, 7th Floor, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0M5.
Industry Canada's Intellectual Property Policy Directorate:
copyright-droitdauteur(at)ic.gc.ca
(couldn't find a hard-copy address)
Two Tone Farm Cabernet Sauvignon
Chat-en-Oeuf
Funky Llama Shriaz
NathanBurgoine retweeted fj who tweeted about Selene Luna who reposted Lady Bunny's FaceBook, “YOU WANT TO GET MAD?” (Author unknown).
Here it is:
We had eight years of Bush and Cheney, but now you get mad!
You didn’t get mad when the Supreme Court stopped a legal recount and appointed a President.
You didn’t get mad when Cheney allowed Energy company officials to dictate energy policy.
You didn’t get mad when a covert CIA operative got ousted.
You didn’t get mad when the Patriot Act got passed..
You didn’t get mad when we illegally invaded a country that posed no threat to us.
You didn’t get mad when we spent over 600 billion(and counting) on said illegal war.
You didn’t get mad when over 10 billion dollars just disappeared in Iraq.
You didn’t get mad when you found out we were torturing people.
You didn’t get mad when the government was illegally wiretapping Americans.
You didn’t get mad when we didn’t catch Bin Laden.
You didn’t get mad when you saw the horrible conditions at Walter Reed.
You didn’t get mad when we let a major US city drown.
You didn’t get mad when we gave a 900 billion tax break to the rich.
You didn’t get mad when, using reconciliation; a trillion dollars of our tax dollars were redirected to insurance companies for Medicare Advantage which cost over 20 percent more for basically the same services that Medicare provides.
You didn’t get mad when the deficit hit the trillion dollar mark, and our debt hit the thirteen trillion dollar mark.
You finally got mad when the government decided that people in America deserved the right to see a doctor if they are sick. Yes, illegal wars, lies, corruption, torture, stealing your tax dollars to make the rich richer, are all okay with you, but helping other Americans… oh hell no.
AND NOW YOU’RE MAD!
What to do when your phone stops working.
Luckily there are two hand-sets. Swap batteries and the broken handset starts working. So the battery is dead. What now?
Phone says: vtech DECT 6.0
Google finds: phone, picture, model: LS6115-2
And sidebar shows: NiMH replacement battery, model: 89-1337-00 (BT 28443), $19.99
But the obvious route is not usually the best.
www.alexanderbattery.com
technical@alexanderbattery.com
Answer: Unfortunately we do not carry this battery in stock. We can order an equivalent. Our part number is 70AAAH2BMJ. Price is $14.97/ea. Delivery would be about 1-2 weeks.
These (US) sites show a sample of the competition:
www.batteriesdirect.com
www.batterymart.com
www.batterydepot.com
Ten seconds research convinces me that phone batteries last ~1year.
So, I'll take two from alexanderbattery. Their price is decent, Canadian, and I don't have to deal with any hassle. I just reply: "Great. Please order two for pickup. Thanks." and when they arrive, I get notified, and I drop by to pay and pick them up. Easy.
Fail
Placed order March 24, arrived March 31, picked them up April 1, installed them April 5. They work fine, but are slightly shorter and wider and consequently don't fit in the phone, so now they're duct-taped to the back of the phone, which sucks.
Next time, I'll obey the manufacturer.
I stayed up until 3am Saturday finishing phase one of evilgobin cleanup (take the working code of ver4 and re-architect it so that it's good enough to build on), and Sunday I cleaned the house and packed. We left the house at 3pm, drove to Montréal airport, checked in at aloft hotel (which included parking the car for the week), and had dinner at St. Hubert's (a short drive away, but without directions we wandered though Dorval for a long time). Back at the hotel we watched figure skating Olympics, saw (not live) the first Canadian at-home gold medal and had a great night. Next morning, Amanda "lost" her wallet (actually it was on the night-stand beside the phone) which caused some unpacking and re-packing and general unhappiness. But the juice/croissant/fruit breakfast provided by the hotel put us back in good spirits.
The shuttle got us to the airport in no time. We flew Air Canada 1810 YUL-UVF departing 9:05am. Self check-in was easy except for figuring out how to put the stickers on the bags, and there was a ~10 minute line up at the baggage drop-off. Security had almost no line, but they took more time than usual looking at the bags in the x-ray machine, and my boots and rings set off the metal detectors so I got the "detailed" screening. Finally on the plane, our seats were separated by several rows, but the ride was good. There was almost no waiting on-plane before take-off or after landing. We deplaned via stairs, but it was much quicker than boarding because we were able to use both the front and rear exits. There was ~15min wait at customs and we were met at the exit by a taxi (8-person mini-van) driver named Ed who had been booked for us by the Oasis Marigot. He was really great. The drive took about an hour, but he showed us on a map where we were going and talked the whole way about what we were seeing and answered all our questions about St. Lucia. It cost $70us but we gave him $80.
The Oasis had suggested a taxi rather than a rental because "it's hard to find" but I think we could have done it ourselves with a decent map. That said, I really appreciated Ed's commentary and avoiding the stress of driving on the left after a long flight, so no regrets. At the end of the road we were (eventually) met by the Oasis' water taxi that took us and our luggage across the bay and were shown to our room (which was fantastic). To get up the hill side they have a trolley which is a great idea considering our luggage. I asked, and was told that both the trolley and the no-road-access are not common in St. Lucia.
There is some shared space (with a pool) outside our room (ocean cottage four aka Large Floor Plan 4) where we met Yan and Dean from Kingston Ontario (they'd arrived the previous day). They advised us that the restaurant at the bottom of the hill (Doolittle's) had a special on: "Lady with a flower in her hair accompanied by a gentleman gets her meal for free". We were starved so we ditched our stuff, picked a flower and made our way down, but the kitchen wouldn't open for another hour. We had drinks while we waited and I talked the bartender into fast-tracking us some chicken fingers from the kitchen. He was great. He brought me a second bottle of beer (Piton) without asking and didn't charge us for it or for the chicken fingers. Dinner was fairly good but it took a very long time and we were both exhausted after the walk back to our cottage. We slept almost twelve hours.
Next morning was another beautiful day. I went to the office to check-in. The lady there (Nahdjla) was great, she set me up with a car rental and talked them down to $75us from $85us. She also gave me the lay of the land and confirmed our boat pickup/drop-off. She was really good at summarizing at the end of a booking phone call so that it was obvious what both parties had agreed to. Afterwards, I picked up Amanda and we headed down to the public ferry and bought two 4day passes. On the other side (which has road access) we had lunch at a bakery on the shore (again expensive for average quality food). Afterwards we spent $200ec at the grocery store and took the loot back to our flat. It has a nice little kitchen (actually bigger than our kitchen back home) well stocked with pots, cutlery, etc, but lacking in some critical respects: salt, pepper, matches (to light the gas range). Also the propane tank (under the sink) had a safety switch in the off position. So it took some figuring. We scored matches from the neighbors and used the toaster to light them.
I cannot stress enough how beautiful this bay is.
Anyway, after stowing the groceries we went down to the beach. It's small but pleasant enough. The guy in charge of the chairs (which are free for tenants) said: "Your lady told me that she likes the ganga". I replied: "Oh. No thanks. We don't need that." To which he countered: "No? You don't need no cocaine?". I think in the remainder of the trip we were offered marijuana five or six more times and cocaine a second time. People in St. Lucia are forward but not too pushy and are easily dealt with if you are polite but firm.
After setting up Amanda with a beach chair, I snorkeled around the little swimming area for a while (which was relatively barren and polluted) and eventually found lots of fish, anemones and urchin type things around a little rock jetty that marked the left boundary of the swimming area. That was neat and I spent a long time staring at them. Afterwards we retired back to our cabin, but on the way I checked at the office to see if it is permitted to climb the hill. It turns out that the land behind the Oasis Marigot is a nature preserve and there is a trail to the summit. So I changed clothes, grabbed my camera and set off.
I was surprised to discover that the Oasis is enclosed in a razor-wire fence. I don't know if that keeps out animals or criminals. There are two little gates that you though. During the day they are left ajar. I assume they're shut in the evening. They can only be opened from the inside, so don't stay out past dark! The trail was a good climb (and pleasantly deserted) but there wasn't much to see. I did find a tiny bird's nest and on the way down ventured off the track several meters and found a giant caterpillar (maybe 11cm long, 2cm thick). The view from the top was fairly spectacular, but not really much better than from our cottage. And there were millions of tiny insects (which may or may not bite) flowing past me on the prevailing winds, so I didn't stick around for long.
At the grocery store, I had picked up a few bottles of Piton (their local lager, quite good) and a bottle of "Guinness Foreign Extra" which sadly tastes like a cross between real Guinness and tobacco juice. Yuck. Amanda made fruit, cheese, shredded cucumber and garlic-butter-pasta for dinner, then we played a game of scrabble which neither of us could finish because we played our words so densely.
Next morning we had muesli for breakfast and footed our gear over to the parking lot for our 9am meet with Jeanine from Avis. She arrived after a few minutes wait (early, I'm fairly sure) and I filled out our the rental agreement on the trunk of the car. With insurance, etc. it came to ~$100us/day (as promised), was a Nissan automatic, was shockingly scratched and dented, and had a big red sticker on the inside reminding you to drive on the left and to put it in 2nd when going down steep hills. Along with the rental, you must purchase a driver's permit, but she didn't have it with her. We arranged for it to be left at a nearby hotel. A driver was coming to pick her up and he'd have it with him.
So with that settled, we embarked on our crazy adventure. The driving is tricky. Its on the left, narrow, steep, windy and most intersections aren't posted. We went the wrong way that the first turn and were advised by an old man to turn around and "Go to the shanty, turn left, then at the other shanty, turn right". We drove (through much bedlam) to Anse Le Raye, Canaries, and on to Soufrière where people on the very narrow downtown streets continually offered directions (presumably wanting a dollar). By following other touristy cars we found ourselves on the way out of town and at the "Drive-in Volcano". It was interesting to see but was definitely a tourist trap. It was very crowded and we felt thoroughly corralled.
We got directions from two different staff at the Volcano (back through town) to the Diamond Waterfall, but when we arrived, it was thick with cruise boat tourists -- literally an infinite line of people standing three abreast. The ticket lady said they'd be all gone in a few hours so we drove back through town, parked at the waterfront and walked past "local's territory" to the beach (which was rocky and strewn with garbage). We persevered around the point and were rewarded with a great view of The Pitons and proper beach (although still quite rocky). After relaxing for a while we decided to head back to search for ice cream. I stopped at the car and re-applied sun-screen (having already burnt the tops of my feet). We picked up supplies at a local grocery store but no ice cream (because they only sold large tubs). Back at the Diamond Waterfall we had the place almost entirely to ourselves. It's definitely worth the visit when the crowds aren't there. We took our time wandering the paths and just sat around several times.
The drive home was relatively uneventful. We stopped at a few road-side lookouts. Back in Marigot we again took a wrong turn and had to be advised by a local: "Hey Papa, wrong way!" Before the long climb back to our cottage we took a swim at the beach and I started stared some more at the fish clustered around the rocks. Then back at our cottage we took a short dip in the pool to wash off the salt. After a rest we cleaned up than went to Chateau Mygo for dinner. It was characteristically expensive and took ~2.5 hours but was really superb. Amanda had scallops and I Had fried fish. That doesn't sound too exciting but let me assure you it was excellent.
I've forgotten to mention that each of us had picked up a variety of bug bites, mostly around the feet and ankles. So before dinner and again before bed, we started putting on DEET, and that seemed to significantly reduce the problem. There's nothing like scratching mosquito bites on sun burnt feet.
Next morning (Thursday 18th) we had muesli again and it was another beautiful day. But quelle disaster, I'd lost the car keys. I'm normally a very careful person and this sort of thing doesn't happen to me. I double searched the room, checked the path to the car and back and decided they must have been in my shorts pocket when I went swimming, and were irrevocably lost in the sea. I asked around but no one had found any keys, so I got Nahdjla to phone Avis for me and ask for another pair. They said that the spare keys were in another facility and they'd find them and call back with a quote (for delivery cost). So I agreed to check back with her later and fetched Amanda from the house so I could snorkel for the keys. Unbelievably, I swam right to them. They were beside an urchin beneath a buoy that I had been looking at the other day. Hooray! This un-ruined my day. I ran back to advise Nahdjla.
Amanda and I had egg salad sandwiches for lunch before driving to Castries. The drive north is much easier than the drive south. The roads are wider, less windy, less steep, less fast. But Castries is a city and there were three huge cruise ships in the harbour. After some sweating and swearing we found a multi-level car park and walked around the markets. After driving, I was in no mood for shopping, but I did my best not to grouch on Amanda's parade. Seeing my eminent collapse, she stopped us at a grocery store and scored me some Snapple and two bananas. Then we drove on to Rodney Bay and went swimming at their beach. It's nice but not as good as Varadero or Manual Antonio for that matter.
After our swim we walked the length of the beach and back and got a look at the free-with-the-flights hotel: very depressing. I much prefer Marigot Bay. On the way home we had to punch through some rush-hour traffic, but got back to the Oasis in time to watch the last light fade from the horizon. We had a quick swim in the pool, then Amanda cooked and amazing meal: carrots, orca, garlic potatoes, fried fish. But she had a stomach ache, so I ate alone.
There is a lot I love about Marigot Bay, but it has its faults. There are mosquitoes. Although I never saw them I had ten or twelve nasty bites to remember them by. There is hot water but the water pressure (both hot and cold) is bad. When you run the tap or flush the toilet or take a shower it comes in fits and bursts as though the pump is drawing air. The birds are pretty but there is a lot of forest noise all night and the walkway lights shine into your room so that it's never dark enough for proper sleeping. The bed is large but is hard and you can feel the springs and despite its hardness passes all your partner's slightest movements to you as little earthquakes, almost as efficiently as a waterbed. Also, I hate the pillows.
Anyway, for whatever reason (I blame the pillows), I woke up mid week with a stiff neck. And Thursday night it got so much worse that I couldn't sleep. Near morning I took some Advil and switched to a towel for a pillow and the situation improved but I was largely incapacitated until noon.
After lunch we drove out to Barre de L'Isle, which is an Inland hike along a ridge and up a mountain. The ridge was beautiful and breezy and the mountain (steep hill) was a very difficult climb but a great adventure. The views were nice but not spectacular. The value was in the journey.
Back home after a leisurely dip in the pool, Amanda made dinner and we packed for the boat. We read some of "The Last Chronicle of Barset" together (Amanda caught up to me the previous night), and went to bed. I slept with a towel for a pillow again which helped but next morning my next was still quite stiff.
Saturday was another beautiful day. I met Avis at 9:30am to return the car. They were on time and the process was easy. I stopped at the bank to pickup some cash and luckily they were open. Unluckily, the only way to get cash (I have TD debit and visa) is as a cash advance on a visa (which collects interest immediately) plus a bank fee of $20ec. Hotels and restaurants take visa but everyone else (taxi, park admission, ferry, grocery store) requires cash (us or ec). So after waiting forever in line, getting the bad news, trying (rejected) my debit card in the ABM, waiting again forever in line trying (rejected) my visa in the ABM (fee is only $5ec if you use the ABM), I eventually got $200ec form the bank teller (after handing over Visa, Driver's License, foreign address, local address, and signing ~nine times).
In the mean time, Amanda's attempts to email the Girl Guides were frustrated by repeated IE crashes. We were both late so she brought down all the luggage all by herself (therefore super pissed). But finally we were on the boat and under sail to Pigeon Island in Rodney Bay.
The journey by boat is very different and much better then the journey by car. Our skipper "Mike" (born and raised in Marigot Bay) anchored near Pigeon Island and motored us in (via little rubber dingy) and we agreed to meet at 3pm. We paid entrance (it's a national park), used the washroom, had an excellent lunch (Roti) and climbed the hill, which has an unbelievably great view. Then motored back to the boat, went for a swim and sailed back to Marigot Bay.
We were both pretty burnt but not yet incapacitated (I actually bummed some sunscreen from a Brit on Pigeon Island beach). Three things we were short on: Cash, Sunscreen, Water. On the sail home we saw a pirate ship "The Unicorn", a big turtle, and the green flash as the sun dipped below the horizon.
Mike dropped us off at the Chateau Mygo and arranged to meet us in the morning. We had drinks and dinner and Amanda read aloud from "The Last Chronicle of Barset". She's the best.
Later in the evening we met a great couple from Lunenburg who run a bed and breakfast there. We got the ferry to take us back to our boat (a distance of maybe 20m) for $10ec. We pretty much went straight to bed.
Next morning Skipper Mike was very drunk. I didn't notice at first (when he boated us to shore where we bough two Pain aux Chocolat and 4.5L of water and a baguette). But it was obvious to both of us, and he mentioned it as he boated us to the Oasis side. We agreed to met him at 10am (so that he could sleep it off) and Amanda went to the office to use the internet (and finish off the Girl Guide emails).
10am came and went with no skipper. I found him passed out and snoring on one of the lounge chairs on the beach. I spoke to him but he didn't wake. I spoke and nudged him several times, and finally he came-to. Eventually we were under sail (downwind) to Soufrière. He did most of the steering asleep, which is to say lounging in the back of the boat until the sails made a lot of noise at which signal he would nudge the wheel with his feet. But he did keep us on course and it was a beautiful day.
We went snorkeling near Jade Mountain (~$1500/night) north of Soufrière and saw lots of neat ***fish and motored in to Soufrière, tied up at the pier and walked to the Hummingbird for a late lunch. We also bought take-away sandwiches for dinner. They were characteristically slow and had trouble with the visa lines (had to take an imprint). So we didn't get back to the boat until ~5pm. We motored back to Marigot Bay (although I think we could have made just as good time sailing). The sun set as we went and the stars were out by our journey's end. It was very beautiful. Mike left us on the boat, and I re-packed our gear. Before bed we played a game of scrabble and read aloud. I slept with a proper pillow and had my first restful sleep all week.
In the morning, Mike (sober) boated us to shore and we bought water and two chocolate twists and two Pain aux Chocolat from the bakery and relaxed on the beach. Amanda read aloud for most of the morning. It was another beautiful day. I went on an adventure down the rocky shore of the bay until I found a large rock outcrop which I climbed. Then back at the beach we went for a swim and met a nice couple from New York with whom we shared a cab to the airport (organized by Nahdjla). At the top of the hill out of the bay we stopped for ice cream. At the airport, I remembered my customs form just before we checked our bags (which was lucky because it was in one of the bags). Past security we bought a delicious lunch and were soon on the plane. All US flights had to do a second security screening but since our was a direct to Montréal, we just waked though.
There was considerable turbulence on the flight home, but I like that. The Montréal airport was smooth and efficient with short lines. We were pretty exhausted and Amanda (bless her) drove us the two hours home to Ottawa. To bed after midnight, and straight to work in the morning. Ouch.
St. Lucia is a great country. I had a great time. But for inland adventures, I think I prefer Costa Rica. However I would like to meet a skipper I could live with and go on a Bahamas sailing trip for a few weeks or a month where all nights and most meals are spent on the boat.
I didn't get underwater photos, but here's some of the fish I think we saw.
Conclusion: Last minute sucks. Book in advance.
The Long Story
I've always wondered why you can't just go to the Ottawa airport's website and ask: "What are all the locations that fly direct from here?". I want to know this because most of the time I'm flying to escape winter and a lay-over in Chicago delayed by a snowstorm can really rain (or sleet) on my parade.
Andy says that he's seen flights from Ottawa to Cuba (Varadero or Havana) for as low as $299 (including tax) via Sunwing or AirTransat, and that at last minute the prices get better and better. James says that WestJet Vacations also flies to Cuba, but the flights aren't on their website. You have to call them to get the prices. When he booked, they had by far the best for Ottawa to Varadero.
Here's a list of direct flights from Ottawa that I got from www.ifly.com. Note that "Non-Stop" means that you fly from A to B without landing whereas "Direct" means that you fly from A to B but may stop at C to pickup more passengers before arriving at B. You don't have to deplane, but there may still be a connection.
# Boston Logan (BOS)
# Calgary (YYC)
# Cancun (CUN)
# Fort Lauderdale Hollywood (FLL)
# Halifax (YHZ)
# Memphis (MEM)
# Omaha Eppley Airfield (OMA)
# Philadelphia (PHL)
# Quebec Jean Lesage (YQB)
# Regina (YQR)
# Saskatoon (YXE)
# Vancouver (YVR)
# Winnipeg (YWG)
Here's a list of international flights from Ottawa that I got from www.flylowcostairlines.org. For some of them, I've also provided the www.expedia.ca price for a February 13-20 one-person return flight from YOW booked on Jan 13 2010, with one stop unless noted.
# Paris CDG
# London LGW
# Philipsburg SXM $1,287 (7hr)
# Freeport FPO $805 (20hr) (2+ stops)
# Nassau NAS $934 (6hr)
# Bridgetown BGI $1,114 (8hr)
# Puerto Plata POP $1,505 (20hr) (2+ stops)
# Punta Cana PUJ $1,010 (4hr)
# Montego Bay MBJ $992 (8hr)
# St. Lucia UVF $1,957 (8hr)
# Providenciales PLS $1,264 (7hr)
# Cancun CUN $897 (5hr)
# Cozumel CZM $1,354 (7hr)
# Mazatlan MZT $783 (22hr) (2+ stops)
# Puerto Vallarta PVR $1,316 (13hr)
# San Jose Del Cabo SJD $1,011 (10hr)
# Zihuatanejo ZIH $1,213 (22hr) (2+ stops)
I really like Costa Rica. I've been there once and we flew from Toronto to Liberia with a stop (change planes) in Miami. We booked ~2 months in advance. The flight cost $790.69 return per person, with 7hr 40min duration. The main airport in Costa Rica is SJO in San Jose, and unless you're exploring the western part of the country, it's the logical choice.
Here's a list of carriers that go from YOW to SJO.
# Air Canada
# American Airlines
# United
# LACSA
# Continental
# US Airways
# Delta
# NWA
I've booked flights through www.expedia.ca several times and I've always wondered what cut they are taking. So, I looked up some flights on the www.continental.com website and sure enough they looked cheaper, but once you go through the hassle of half-way purchasing the tickets, they rack on significant extra fees. With zero effort I found the exact same flights on www.expedia.ca for almost the same price. Here's what I found (one-person, return).
YOW to EWR to SJO
CO2892, CO1754
Fri Feb 5th, depart 11:25am, arrive 7:40pm, duration 9h 15min
SJO to EWR to YOW
CO1797, CO2762
Mon Feb 15th, depart 7am, arrive 4:48pm, duration 8hr 48min
Continental Final Total: $1,048.52
Expedia Total: $1,096.24
So it looks like there's a little overhead, but in my opinion it's worth it. I wanted to get an idea of the flight possibilities from YOW to SJO, so I did an expedia search from every day from Feb 1st to Feb 13th with the following criteria: one-person, one-way, YOW-SJO, duration under 11hr, booked Jan 26th 2010 via expedia, cost in CAD$.
mon 1, 6:00 am, 1:55 pm, 8hr 55mn, $835, Air Canada 479 / 998
mon 8, 6:00 am, 1:55 pm, 8hr 55mn, $635, Air Canada 479 / 998
wed 3, 6:00 am, 1:55 pm, 8hr 55mn, $1045, Air Canada 479 / 998
wed 10, 6:00 am, 1:55 pm, 8hr 55mn, $705, Air Canada 479 / 998
mon 1, 12:05 pm, 9:30 pm, 10hr 25mn, $787, American Airlines 4300 / 1374 / 2141
mon 8, 12:05 pm, 9:30 pm, 10hr 25mn, $787, American Airlines 4300 / 1374 / 2141
tue 2, 12:05 pm, 9:30 pm, 10hr 25mn, $494, American Airlines 4300 / 1374 / 2141
tue 9, 12:05 pm, 9:30 pm, 10hr 25mn, $787, American Airlines 4300 / 1374 / 2141
wed 3, 12:05 pm, 9:30 pm, 10hr 25mn, $853, American Airlines 4300 / 1374 / 2141
wed 10, 12:05 pm, 9:30 pm, 10hr 25mn, $853, American Airlines 4300 / 1374 / 2141
thu 4, 12:05 pm, 9:30 pm, 10hr 25mn, $853, American Airlines 4300 / 1374 / 2141
fri 5, 12:05 pm, 9:30 pm, 10hr 25mn, $853, American Airlines 4300 / 1374 / 2141
sat 6, 12:05 pm, 9:30 pm, 10hr 25mn, $787, American Airlines 4300 / 1374 / 2141
sun 7, 12:05 pm, 9:30 pm, 10hr 25mn, $787, American Airlines 4300 / 1374 / 2141
thu 11, 12:05 pm, 9:50 pm, 10hr 45mn, $853, American Airlines 4300 / 1207 / 2141
thu 11, 12:05 pm, 9:50 pm, 10hr 45mn, $1314, United & American Airlines 6744 / 1207 / 2141
thu 11, 12:05 pm, 9:50 pm, 10hr 45mn, $853, Air Canada & American Airlines 4229 / 1207 / 2141
fri 12, 12:05 pm, 9:50 pm, 10hr 45mn, $853, American Airlines 4300 / 1207 / 2141
fri 12, 12:05 pm, 9:50 pm, 10hr 45mn, $1349, United & American Airlines 6744 / 1207 / 2141
fri 12, 12:05 pm, 9:50 pm, 10hr 45mn, $1349, Air Canada & American Airlines 4229 / 1207 / 2141
sat 13, 12:05 pm, 9:50 pm, 10hr 45mn, $853, American Airlines 4300 / 1207 / 2141
mon 8, 11:25 am, 7:40 pm, 9hr 15mn, $648, Continental 2892 / 1754
tue 2, 11:25 am, 7:40 pm, 9hr 15mn, $628, Continental 2892 / 1754
tue 9, 11:25 am, 7:40 pm, 9hr 15mn, $628, Continental 2892 / 1754
wed 3, 11:25 am, 7:40 pm, 9hr 15mn, $628, Continental 2892 / 1754
wed 10, 11:25 am, 7:40 pm, 9hr 15mn, $838, Continental 2892 / 1754
thu 4, 11:25 am, 7:40 pm, 9hr 15mn, $628, Continental 2892 / 1754
fri 5, 11:25 am, 7:40 pm, 9hr 15mn, $648, Continental 2892 / 1754
wed 3, 6:10 am, 2:35 pm, 9hr 25mn, $984, Air Canada & US Airways 7730 / 2269 / 1707
wed 10, 6:10 am, 2:35 pm, 9hr 25mn, $976, Air Canada & US Airways 7730 / 2269 / 1707
wed 3, 6:10 am, 2:35 pm, 9hr 25mn, $986, United & US Airways 8402 / 2269 / 1707
wed 10, 6:10 am, 2:35 pm, 9hr 25mn, $977, United & US Airways 8402 / 2269 / 1707
thu 11, 6:10 am, 2:35 pm, 9hr 25mn, $997, Air Canada & US Airways 7730 / 2243 / 1707
thu 11, 6:10 am, 2:35 pm, 9hr 25mn, $998, United & US Airways 8402 / 2243 / 1707
fri 5, 6:10 am, 2:35 pm, 9hr 25mn, $835, Air Canada & US Airways 7730 / 2269 / 1707
sat 6, 6:50 am, 1:50 pm, 8hr 0mn, $805, US Airways 3645 / 1923
sat 13, 6:50 am, 1:50 pm, 8hr 0mn, $734, US Airways 3341 / 1923
wed 10, 11:54 am, 9:30 pm, 10hr 36mn, $1092, Air Canada 4229 / 1374 / 2141
wed 10, 11:54 am, 9:30 pm, 10hr 36mn, $1092, United 6744 / 1374 / 2141
thu 11, 2:31 pm, 9:35 pm, 8hr 4mn, $812, Continental 2623 / 1796
fri 12, 2:31 pm, 9:35 pm, 8hr 4mn, $1035, Continental 2623 / 1796
sat 13, 6:03 am, 4:02 pm, 10hr 59mn, $917, Continental & United & LACSA 2369 / 3714 / 621
So, they're all expensive, but they're not booked well in advance and they're only one-way which presumably doesn't get some kind of return discount. It's important to note that [wed,thu,fri,sat] have arrivals [1:55,2:35,1:50] with [Air Canada, United, US Airways]. Unless you want to spend the night at San Jose or drive in the dark, you'll want these arrivals.
I'd love to go to Costa Rica again, but we're going to just wait until the week prior to our trip and then book (to some place warm) whatever flights are cheap. I've never tried a last-minute vacation before, so I'll let you know how it goes. Hopefully we won't have to take some package-sit-at-a-resort-all-week deal.
On Jan 31st, I checked for flights from Ottawa to the airports on my map for one person, return. When no flight less than $1000 / 11hrs was found, I marked it as expensive.
Feb 6th to FEb 13th
SXM $872, 6hr 55mn
FPO $950, 9hr 8mn
NAS $751, 6hr 2mn
BGI $826, 8hr 4mn
POP expensive
PUJ $488, 4hr 25mn (charter)
MBJ $693, 6hr 56mn
UVF $824, 8hr 19mn
PLS $830, 6hr 50mn
LIR expensive
SJO expensive
Feb 13th to Feb 20th
SXM expensive
FPO expensive
NAS $839, 6hr 2mn
BGI expensive
POP expensive
PUJ $716, 4hr 30mn
MBJ $896, 6hr 56mn
UVF expensive
PLS expensive
LIR expensive
SJO expensive
I found some blog that says that flights from Jet Blue, Southwest, Spirit, and Air Tran aren't searched by expedia. I searched on those sites and the others below but didn't find any good flights to SJO.
Jet Blue (doesn't fly from ottawa)
Southwest (doesn't fly from ottawa)
Spirit (doesn't fly from ottawa, but you can fly very cheaply from detroit to SJO)
Air Tran (doesn't fly to costa rica)
Last Minute Travel expensive
Priceline (us departure only)
Sunquest Vacations expensive
Red Tag expensive
Flight Centre expensive
From Sunwing you can get very cheap round-trip flights from Ottawa to:
Cancun, Mexico
Cayo Coco, Cuba
Holguin, Cuba
Jamaica
Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
Roatan, Honduras
Varadero, Cuba
On the same site, you can get good round-trip flights from Toronto to many destinations, including:
Cienfuegos, Cuba
Acapulco, Mexico
Cozumel, Mexico
La Romana, Dominican Republic
Liberia, Costa Rica (but you have to travel on monday)
Los Cabos, Mexico
Manzanillo de Cuba
Panama
Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic
Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Santa Lucia, Cuba
Santiago de Cuba
St. Lucia
I did some more digging and found these expedia competitors:
www.cheapoair.com
www.flightnetwork.com
I also found this site that lists airlines flying to Costa Rica.
* JetBlue: Orlando, Miami, daily flight
* Air Canada : Toronto
* American Airlines : Miami, Dallas
* Continental : Houston, Newark
* Delta Airlines : Atlanta
* Delta : New York to San Jose (Juan Santamaria) non-stop flight 5 x per week
* Delta : New York to Liberia Guanacaste non-stop flight twice x week
* Northwest: Mineapolis
* Sky Service : Toronto, Calgary (seems to only operate in the summer)
* United Airlines: Chicago
* US Airways : Charlotte
* Iberia - *new ( May 2007 ) 10 direct flight Madrid / San Jose per week
But finally, the gold mine: Charter flights from Expedia, but they're not easy to find. You have to click "Deals" on the right side of top bar, then "last minute getaways", second from top of left bar, then "charter flights" (middle tab). Don't forget to select origin and region in the drop downs. Note that Costa Rica and Mexico are in Latin America, not the Caribbean.
When searching on Feb 1st, I found the following departing from Ottawa.
Feb 12, 7days, Jamica, 616
Feb 12, 8days, Punta Cana, 699
Feb 13, 7days, Punta Cana, 716
Feb 14, 7days, Aruba, 839
Feb 14, 7days, Aruba, 833
Feb 12, 7days, Puerto Plata, 589
Feb 12, 7days, St. Lucia, 608
Feb 14, 8days, St. Lucia, 951
Feb 12, 7days, Jamica, 617
Feb 13, 7days, La Romana, 618
Feb 14, 7days, Puerto Plata, 649
Feb 13, 7days, Punta Cana, 649
Feb 12, 7days, Punta Cana, 649
Feb 14, 7days, Punta Cana, 649
Feb 12, 7days, Bermuda, 912
Feb 13, 7days, Bermuda, 912
Feb 14, 7days, Bermuda, 912
Feb 14, 7days, SanJuan, 915
Feb 13, 7days, St. Martin, 962
But I'm not really interested in any of those destinations.
Search expedia on Feb 2nd
YOW - PLS, Feb 6, $662, 6hr 29mn
YOW - PLS, Feb 13, $1188, 6hr 29mn
YOW - SJO, Feb 6, $953, 8hr 0mn
YOW - SJO, Feb 13, $1239, 8hr 0mn (6:50am-1:50pm, US Airways 3341 / 1923)
Search expedia on Feb 3rd
YOW - PLS, Feb 6-13, $707, 6hr 50mn (west jet YOW-YYZ-PLS)
YOW - PLS, Feb 13-20, $1301, 6hr 50mn
YOW - SJO, Feb 6-13, $953, 8hr 0mn
YOW - SJO, Feb 13-20, $1239, 8hr 0mn
Search expedia on Feb 4th
YOW - PLS, Feb 6-13, $599, 6hr 29mn (connect in philadelphia, westjet is $870)
YOW - PLS, Feb 13-20, $1288, 6hr 29mn
YOW - SJO, Feb 6-13, $953, 8hr 0mn
YOW - SJO, Feb 13-20, $1229, 8hr 0mn
So it appears that you do get a discount when booking the week of your trip. But that same SJO flight booked 3 months in advance costs $987, so the last-minute discount is inconsequential.
The plan: on the morning of Tuesday February 9th, book flights Feb 13-15, either to SJO, PLS, or failing those two, to whatever is available (maybe an all-inclusive in Cuba). Then scramble to plan the rest of the trip that same day.
Charter Flights From Ottawa (searching Feb 3rd)
St. Lucia, 8 Days, Feb 14-22, $736
Jamaica, 7 Days, Feb 14-21, $803
Aruba, 7 Days, Feb 14-21, $833
Puerto Plata, 7 Days, Feb 14-21, $865
Bermuda, 7 Days, Feb 14-21, $912
San Juan, 7 Days, Feb 14-21, $915
Punta Cana, 7 Days, Feb 14-21, $935
Grand Cayman, 5 Days, Feb 14-19, $967
This site says that YYZ flys direct to the following:
iFly Direct from YYZ to:
* Barbados Grantley Adams (BGI)
* Bermuda (BDA)
* Cancun (CUN)
* Hong Kong (HKG)
* Mexico City Benito Juarez (MEX)
* Montego Bay Sangster (MBJ)
* Nassau (NAS)
* San Francisco (SFO)
* Vancouver (YVR)
* Victoria (YYJ)
But that's obviously an incomplete list because WesJet flys direct from YYZ to PLS.
Well, our plan didn't work.
Searches on Feb 9th, YOW-SJO
13-20, $1290
14-21, $1282
15-22, $1427
16-23, $1267
17-24, $1045
feb 20-27, $1005
f/m 27-06, $1240
mar 06-13, $1008
mar 13-20, $1458
mar 20-27, $953
What about St. Lucia? YOW-UVF
13-20, $1336
14-21, $1117
15-22, $1136
16-23, 20hrs
17-24, 20hrs
Okay, what's available on West Jet?
Feb 13-20
YOW-BGI, $1370
YOW-BDA, n/a
YOW-SJD, n/a
YOW-CUN, n/a
YOW-CCC, n/a
YOW-CZM, n/a
YOW-HOG, n/a
YOW-ZIH, n/a
YOW-MBJ, $828
YOW-NAS, $1408
YOW-PLS, $1420
YOW-PUJ, $770
YOW-UVF, $1000
YOW-VRA, n/a
YYZ-UVF
14th 6am-11am
21st 12:30pm-5:55pm
$632
Okay, Air Transat.
Nope.
We just couldn't get cheap flights to anywhere good. So we bought an Air Canada Vacations package (flight and hotel) to St. Lucia (monday to monday when we wanted saturday to saturday, and flying from Montreal when we wanted to fly from Ottawa) for $1,000/ea, but we don't intend to actually stay at the hotel. It's just that the package was the cheapest way to get the flights.
Juxtapose that to the earlier $900/ea for roundtrip flights YOW-SJO on Sat-Sat, if you're willing to book in advance.
Conclusion: Last minute sucks, book in advance (unless you want a flight/hotel package).
My dad has (over the years) written several poems and short stories, and I thought it'd be a nice idea to get them bound into a book. A quick survey of book publishing options gave me the following.
Low cost, mini-mass production -- www.scaruffi.com
Summary of self-publishing options -- mashable.com
Lulu (books, media, storefront) -- www.lulu.com
Blurb (has booksmart) -- www.blurb.com
Xlibris (for serious authors) -- www.xlibris.com
Photo Books -- www.apple.com
Discussion on Self Publishing -- www.fonerbooks.com
Semi-useful blog about how to use Lulu -- www.makeuseof.com
Cafe Press (low cost) -- www.cafepress.ca
My requirement was to print (not for resale) ~4 books of ~30 pages with flexible layout options using roughly the standard novel paper size and with the ability to embed illustrations. After reading the above, I decided it was a draw between the following two options:
LuLu: Perfect Bound, 32 pages, Softcover, 5.83in x 8.26in, $5.14 USD/book.
Blurb: Perfect Bound, 32 pages, Softcover, 5in x 8in, ~$5/book.
I'd previously heard of Blurb's booksmart software, and Lulu looks like its niche is more for helping you re-sell your final product, so I went with Blurb.
Big mistake.
In the end I was able to produce what I wanted, but the path was full of pain and misery. If I ever try something like this again, it'll be with Lulu.
In the booksmart software, there are three modes: preview, edit and layout. The preview mode (presumably) shows you exactly what your final product will look like. This is a nice feature and is pretty much the only thing I appreciated about booksmart.
Edit mode is where you add your text. It has a zoom feature but as soon as you move your cursor from one editable area to another, it reverts to the default zoom, making the zoom feature frustrating and effectively useless. Another pisser is the restriction on window size (in all modes). They have scroll bars, but for whatever reason, you're not allowed to resize the window much smaller than full-screen -- again, useless.
There are two types of text areas: fixed size and flowing. Fixed size means that if your text fills more space than the available area then it just disappears past the bottom. This isn't very useful for anything other than captions. Flowing means that when text goes past the bottom of the page, a new page is started and the text appears there -- not a break-through technology, that's how every other word processor functions. But here's the coup de grâce: if you have text flowing from page 5 to 6 and you later add text to page 5 or change font size or do anything to effect where in your text the page-break occurs then:
1. extra line-breaks are arbitrarily inserted
2. characters from you text are arbitrarily deleted.
Insane. Unbelievable. Garbage. Just to be totally clear: you add a paragraph on page 3 and text is deleted from every following page. That's totally unacceptable.
When you're in layout mode it looks like the following. Because of the "arbitrarily delete your text" bug described above, I ended up making my own layouts (one for left pages, on for right pages). And because I didn't like the dimensions of their header, I added my own. These choices made production of the book very tedious, because I had to copy (and align) my header text for every page, and I had to decide before-hand the layout of all my page text because I had to use fixed size containers and text couldn't flow from page to page. So if you're editing page 20 and you change your mind about page 3 you basically have to redo pages 3 to 20 if the page 3 changes at all effect page 4.
Finally, it has an automatic save-as-you-go feature, which I normally appreciate. But since the interfaces and controls were so horribly non-intuitive and buggy, it was difficult to know the effect (sometimes sweeping) of your actions and how to reverse them. They do offer the ability to archive the current state of your book, which I used often as a means to recover from the devastating effects of their frequent bugs.
In the end, I managed to cobble together an acceptable product and placed an order for four copies on Dec. 22nd 2009. They arrived about 30 days later, and my dad was delighted.
My advice: do publish books; don't use blurb.
I keep track of everything. Here's my sick record. I hate being sick. Perhaps this time it was my fault because I was riotously drunk two days previous, but sometimes that just can't be avoided.
Here's the facts: Sunday, not feeling very good. Monday morning, sore throat. By Monday evening, throat is very painful, no white spots on back of throat (assume not strep), lots of thick yellow mucus from sinuses, no body aches-pains, no fever of note. Self diagnosis: bacterial infection or common cold. Treatment: rest, fluids, NeoCitran and Strepsils (because that's what my mom always gave me), Tylenol Cold and Tylenol Sinus (because we have it around the house), and Chloraseptic Sore Throat Spray which I had never heard of, Amanda bought for me, and I fully endorse, and on which I am hereafter dependant.
I hate having a sore throat. It hurts so bad that I have to clench my teeth to swallow. I clench my teeth so hard that I'm worried my teeth will break. Eventually my jaw gets tired and starts to ache. It's a downward spiral of misery.
Anyway, eventually I get better and trade bedridden-sore-throat-exhaustion-with-blowy-nose for blowy-nose-with-occasional-evil-cough-that-hacks-up-green-phlegm. Yum. I never bother going to the doctor when I'm sick because they never do anything, but on the seventh day I thought I'd reconsider. So I walked to Appletree and after waiting for an hour tried to ask my question. They wanted to jam me into the tell-current-symptoms-send-him-home mould, but I eventually shook them out of it. What I wanted was three minutes to describe my week (my symptoms, my actions) and ask if I should have done anything differently (i.e. come in and asked for antibiotics). Also, seven days sounds like a long time to be sick. I didn't really get straight answers, but that's probably your standard evasion of liability. Hereafter, I will live by the following algorithm.
Never visit the doctor unless:
- You have unusual symptoms (i.e. this isn't a simple cold/flu/infection).
- You are apocalyptically sick.
- You were sick, were getting better, have started to get worse.
- You've been sick for more than ten days.
There are 6 men, 3 good and 3 bad. They stand on the east side of a very deep chasm. An electrified (untouchable) cable spans the chasm from which hangs a little car (which luckily is also on the east side). The car can transport one or two men from one side of the chasm to the other, but can't span the distance unmanned. If at any point the bad guys outnumber the good guys, they will kill the good guys. I.E. if a good guy and bad guy are in the cable car, traveling towards a side on which there is only a bad guy, then when they arrive the good guy will be outnumbered and will surely die.
How can everyone get across the chasm alive (such that all six men are on the west side at the same time) using only the car? (No funny business with the cable or alternate routes across the chasm.)
Solution in ASCII-HEX. (here's a converter)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There are 100 doors, all closed and numbered 1 to 100.
There are 100 monkeys, numbered 1 to 100.
The monkeys are sent one by one (in order) to change the states of the doors (open to closed vs. closed to open).
Monkey 1 opens every door (1, 2, 3, 4...)
Monkey 2 changes the state of every other door (2, 4, 6, 8, 10...)
Monkey 3 changes the state of every third door (3, 6, 9, 12...)
And so on for monkeys 4-100...
After the monkeys make all their changes, what is the state of door N?
i.e., give a formula or script that computes the state of an arbitrary door.
Solution in ASCII-HEX. (here's a converter)
4C657420282073203D3D2030202920696E646963617465207468617420646F6F72204E206973
20636C6F7365642E1F4C657420282073203D3D2031202920696E646963617465207468617420
646F6F72204E206973206F70656E2E1F4C6574202520626520746865206D6F64206F70657261
746F722E1F1F73203D20313B1F666F722028206D203D20323B206D203C3D203130303B206D2B
2B20291F7B1F20206966202820284E2025206D29203D3D20302029207B2073203D202873202B
203129202520323B207D1F7D
May 2007 - October 2008, we lived in Kanata and had Rogers cable internet. For unrelated reasons, I hate Rogers, but the quality of the internet was decent. October 2008 - present (December 2009) we live closer to downtown (K1Y 1W6), and we have a Primus phone/internet package. The price is decent ~$70/month (taxes included). The phone quality is good. We've never used more than the allotted long distance minutes. But the internet sucks. Our Primus DSL is unbelievably bad. Here's the add: Triple Value Bundle.
The first problem is that they give you an idiot's install package. When you sign up, they tell you that you have to pay them a sign-up fee. Sounds reasonable. What they don't tell you is that you're buying a useless modem/router device, and that if you thereafter want to use any other device they will refuse to support you. That wouldn't be 100% stupid if the device was a wireless router, but it's not. You can buy such a device from them, but since they don't tell you any of this at sign-up time, it's too late and you're screwed.
So, you get a Thompson SpeedStream modem (which is a DSL modem and wired router combined). They don't tell you your username and password, so you can't connect it to your wireless router (which no doubt you already have unless you've lived in a cave for the last decade and they are your very first internet provider). Solution: call them, get the user/pass for DSL, change the modem to bridged mode, setup your router with the user/pass as PPPoE. But good luck with this as their support staff speak almost no english.
Bridge Mode
TekSavvy provides this article that shows screenshots of how to set the modem to bridged mode. Basically: wired connection to modem >> 192.168.1.254 >> SpeedTouch >> Configuration >> Setup >> Bridge >> 0.35 >> new user/pass >> yes DHCP >> Finished.
Once in bridged mode you won't be able to connect directly to the internet via the modem. You'll have to setup PPPoE on your router and talk only to your router.
Why bridge mode? Well I made a bunch of changes before getting usable internet and this was one of them. The idea is that if both your modem and your router are in "Routed PPPoE" mode then they conflict. Also the idea is that the routing capability on the modem is a flaky add-on.
You access the SpeedTouch modem via: 192.168.1.254
The original setup was:
Routed PPPoE on 0/35 and 0/33 (modified by user)Speed
Factory Defaults
Configuration modified by CWMP
(UTC+01:00) Amsterdam, Bern, Rome, Stockholm
Web Browsing Interception: Automatic
I've never much cared about speed before. But the Primus DSL would sometimes drop to such an abysmal crawl that I was obliged to get some measurements. You can go to speedtest.net or speedtest.primus.ca to measure the speed of your internet connection.
Kbps = Kilo bits per secondWired to the SpeedTouch Primus modem in default (Routed PPPoE) mode:
Mbps = Mega bits per second
1 Mbps = 1000 Kbps
KBps = Kilo Bytes per second
X Kbps = X/8 KBps
speedtest.net (preferred server: toronto) 1808-2111 Kbps download, 111-127 Kbps upload
Wireless Router PPPoE to SpeedTouch modem in bridge mode:
speedtest.net (preferred server: toronto) 1639-1956 Kbps download, 96-152 Kbps upload
One site I found said that average high-speed internet is 1.9 Mbps = 1900 Kbps = 237.5 KBps = 1 GB in 73 min. Which is probably okay.
But from my box at work, the internet is 40x faster:
speedtest.net 42,368 Kbps download, 5,932 Kbsp upload, ping 17 ms.
speedtest.primus.ca 38,392 Kbps download, 12,914 Kbps upload, latency 6 ms.
Primus says you will get up to 7 Mbps = 7,000 Kbps, and I'm getting 1,800 Kbps, so that's 25% of what I might expect. Not terrible. But before all my fixes, I was getting 300 Kbps. That's unbelievably bad.
Wireless Channels
Initially, I had horrible download speeds, so I tried all channels 1-11 on my wireless router. It's true that some of them (2 and 3 in my case) really sucked. But the others were all about the same and didn't give me much improvement over my initial config (ch6). In the end I settled on ch7.
An easy way to test for bad channels is a ping test:
cmd> ping -t 192.168.1.1
This sends pings directly to my router. My good channels had 0% packet loss and almost all times shorter than 3ms.
Software
I did three things to my laptop before I got usable internet. I'm not sure if all were required, because I didn't do reboot tests in between each.
1. install the latest drivers for the wireless card
2. install the latest management software for the wireless card
3. tell the wireless card to always use full power
4. use WPA instead of WEP at the router (this seems like an all-around good idea)
5. shut off the macbookair
MacBookAir
It's possible that our MacBookAir was causing part of the problem. It seemed that when the MacBookAir was powered off, then my ASUS L5GA laptop with Intel Pro Wireless 2200BG card would get ~30,000kbps. But when the MacBookAir was powered on, I would get 600kbps. Although those results weren't very consistent. Perhaps it had nothing to do with it. Perhaps there was some other intermittent interference from other apartments in my building.
Here's some ideas I've gathered:
http://forums.macnn.com/92/networking/305303/mysterious-crashing-with-linksys-wrt54g/
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/990169.html
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1080253&tstart=645
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=489910&tstart=15
Current Status
I now run the ASUS always wired with a static IP. The MacBookAir runs wireless with a dynamic IP. When we have intenet, it is decent ~2,500kbps. But the router will intermittently become disconnected from PPPoE, which is solved by rebooting the SpeedTouch modem (toggling its power switch) and asking the router to reconnect (via the router's status page at 192.168.1.1). This might not happen for several days, or it might happen several times in a given day. It may be correlated with bad weather. It doesn't seem to be correlated with rate of internet usage. It's a real pain, but it's work-around-able, and I'm not willing to waste more time debugging it.
I think I'll probably just go back to Rogers.
Here's something drawn on paper.
Add one mark to make it mean nine fifty.
Here's an example of one mark.
Here's an example of two marks.
Solution in ASCII-HEX. (here's a converter)
44726177206120686F72697A6F6E74616C206C696E652061626F766520746865207365636F6E
6420766572746963616C206C696E652E1F5468697320676976657320796F753A202231302054
6F20313022207768696368206973207468652073616D65206173207468652074696D6520393A
35302E
Gently mix 1 cup lukewarm water, 2 tbsp vegetable oil, 1 tbsp honey, 1/2 tsp garlic or onion powder (no salt) and 1 tbsp dry yeast. Put 2.5 cups of flour in a large bowl and mix in the liquid. Mash it around with your hands a bit so that it's thoroughly mixed and cover and let sit for 10 minutes.
Preheat your oven to 450.
Wipe off your counter and kneed the dough on it until it looks good. Holding it up in the air, stretch it out as best you can. Lightly flour the counter and roll out the dough. It probably won't look much like a circle. We have a large round perforated pizza pan. I roll it out larger than the pan, grease the pan, lay it on the pan, rip off the parts that hang over and use them to patch the parts that don't quite reach.
Bake the crust (with nothing on it) for 10 minutes. Take it out and add toppings. Bake another 10-15 minutes.
There exists 1 incandescent light bulb and 3 independent binary switches.
The light bulb cannot be observed from the location where the switches can be manipulated.
On/Off positions for the switches are marked (known).
First, manipulate the switches. Second, observe the light bulb.
You only get to manipulate the switches once, you only get to observe the light bulb once.
Which switch controls the light bulb?
Solution in ASCII-HEX. (here's a converter)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• write a new config spec with private branch (by hand)
• this doesn't work unless the "branch type" already exists (see below)
element * CHECKEDOUT
element * ...\my_private_branch\LATEST
mkbranch my_private_branch
element * \main\LATEST
element * \main\0
• windows example of creating the "branch type"
• you might have to do this on all vobs from which you plan to checkout
cd /d "X:/my_vob"
cleartool mkbrtype –nc my_private_branch
• here's where the help files are on my computer
file:///C:/Program%20Files/Rational/ClearCase/doc/help/cc_ref/ct_rmname.htm
• to remove a file from a view (it still exists in clearcase) you use the rmname command
• the folder must already be checked out
cleartool rmname myfile.cxx
• to move a file from one place to another, you use the mv command
cleartool mv myfile.cxx somewhere\myfile.cxx
• to add a new file to source control, you use the mkelem command
• here's an example in unix
cd /vobs/myvob/myfolder
cleartool checkout -unr -nc mysubfolder
cd mysubfolder
cleartool mkelem myexistingfile.cxx
.
cleartool checkin myexistingfile.cxx
<your comments here>
.
cd ../
cleartool checkin mysubfolder
.
• to see the difference between two versions of a certain file
cleardiff \myvob\myfolder\myfile.cxx@@\main\mybranch\2 \myvob\myfolder\myfile.cxx@@\main\anotherbranch\3
• to get/set permission info for a file in clearcase
Z:\myvob\myfolder>cleartool describe -long myfile.exe
version "myfile.exe@@\main\1"
created 2009-03-30T13:45:41-04 by Michael Holtstrom (myname.mygroup@mymachine)
"checkin comments"
Element Protection:
User : DOMAIN\myname : r--
Group: DOMAIN\mygroup : r--
Other: : r--
element type: compressed_file
predecessor version: \main\0
Attributes:
Z:\myvob\myfolder>cleartool protect -chmod 755 myfile.exe
• to get help
cleartool man
• for a given view, what are the versions of a certain set of files
Z:\myvob\myfolder>cleartool find . -nr -type f -name sk*.h -cvi -print
. All elements in and below the current directory [Z:\myvob\myfolder]
-nr Don't recurse. Only look at elements within this directory.
-type f Only look at elements that are of type file (i.e. not directories, not symlinks)
-name sk*.h Only look at files whose names start with 'sk' and end with '.h'
-cvi Display the version that is currently selected by this view.
-print Print the result-set to screen
• same as above but the search location is explicitly specified
Z:\>cleartool find "Z:\myvob\myfolder" -nr -type f -name sk*.h -cvi -print
• for a set of files, find those that are on a certain branch and report the version selected by this view
Z:\myvob\myfolder>cleartool find . -nr -type f -name sk*.h -branch "brtype(mybranch)" -cvi -print
-branch "brtype(mybranch)" == First eliminate all versions of selected elements that *aren't* on branch 'mybranch'
-cvi == Then from the remainder, only keep the versions that are currently selected by this view.
See above for meaning of [ . -nr -type f -name sk*.h -print ]
• for a set of files, find those that aren't on a certain branch and report the version selected by this view
Z:\myvob\myfolder>cleartool find . -nr -type f -name sk*.h -branch "!brtype(main)" -cvi -print
-branch "!brtype(main)" == First eliminate all versions of selected elements that *are* on branch 'main'
-cvi == Then from the remainder, only keep the versions that are currently selected by this view.
See above for meaning of [ . -nr -type f -name sk*.h -print ]
• find all files of a certain type in a certain location
Z:\>cleartool find "Z:\myvob\myfolder" "Z:\myvob\another" -nr -type f -name *.h -cvi -print
"Z:\myvob\myfolder" "Z:\myvob\another" == All elements in and below these directories [Z:\myvob\myfolder], [Z:\myvob\another]
-name *.h == Only look at files whose names end with '.h'
See above for meaning of [ -nr -type f -cvi -print ]
• find all files from a set of types/extensions in a certain location
Z:\>cleartool find "Z:\myvob\myfolder" "Z:\myvob\another" -nr -type f -name *.[tch]* -cvi -print
-name *.[tch]* == Only look at files whose names contain '.t' or '.c' or '.h' (i.e. '.txt', '.cpp', '.cxx', '.c', '.h')
See above for meaning of [ "Z:\myvob\myfolder" "Z:\myvob\another" -nr -type f -cvi -print ]
Here's some wisdom from my brother:
The Boondock Saints
Tomatometer: 16%
IMDB Rating: 7.9
The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day
Tomatometer: 21%
IMDB Rating: 7.5
First of all, if you believed the Rotten Tomatoes rating, you would never watch either movie [edit: for those of you who don't know, Boondock Saints is one of the best movies of all time]. Second of all, there is almost zero chance of the sequel being better than the original, as RT would suggest.
Rotten Tomatoes: Boooooo.
Jill: I don't know the ages of any of your three children.
Jane: The product of their ages is 36.
Jill: I still don't know their ages.
Jane: The sum of their ages is your street address.
Jill: I still don't know their ages.
Jane: The oldest has red hair.
How old are the children?
Solution in ASCII-HEX. (here's a converter)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There exist four sticks and a fire source.
Lit from one end, a stick is guaranteed to be entirely consumed by fire in exactly 1 hour.
Each stick is different and burns non-linearly (i.e. it is not the case that the burning behaviour of one stick tells you anything about the burning behaviour of another stick, and it is not the case that half a stick burns in half an hour).
Measure exactly 1 hour and 45 minutes.
Solution in ASCII-HEX. (here's a converter)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There exist 8 balls, seven of equal weight, one heavier.
There exists a balancing scale.
Find the heavy ball with 2 weighings (uses of the scale).
Solution in ASCII-HEX. (here's a converter)
4E616D65207468652062616C6C733A20312C20322C20332C20342C20352C20362C20372C2038
2E1F576569676820312C322C3320616761696E737420342C352C362E1F496620746865792077
65696768207468652073616D653A1F205765696768203720616761696E737420382E1F205468
6520686561766965722069732074686520736F6C7574696F6E2E1F456C736520696620312C32
2C332069732068656176696572207468616E20342C352C363A1F205765696768203120616761
696E737420322E1F204966207468657920776179207468652073616D652C2033206973207468
6520736F6C7574696F6E2E1F20456C7365207468652068656176696572206973207468652073
6F6C7574696F6E2E1F456C736520342C352C362069732068656176696572207468616E20312C
322C333A1F205765696768203420616761696E737420352E1F20496620746865792077617920
7468652073616D652C20362069732074686520736F6C7574696F6E2E1F20456C736520746865
20686561766965722069732074686520736F6C7574696F6E2E
Moving from vs6 to vs9 breaks Latin1 support
I have a database that contains latin1 data and is accessed by several applications. One application runs in the msdos console. We used to build it with vs6 (msdev98) but recently moved to vs9 (microsoft visual studio 2008). We call setlocale(LC_CTYPE,"") near startup.
Default winxp is oem cp437. That means that not all latin1 characters can be displayed in msdos. Consequently, we detect these characters and display simple-ascii escape sequences instead.
Default winxp is LC_CTYPE English_United States.1252. In vs6 that didn't matter, but in vs9, when using printf, a magic last-minute best-fit mapping occurs. This is very painful for me.
I put together the following app so that I could see what's going on. As far as I can tell, the only way to defeat vs9's best-fit mapping is to instead call setlocale(LC_CTYPE,".OCP").
My interest in Monty Hall isn't in the solution, but in the clarity of the solution. For whatever reasons, if you just (without much forethought) try to explain the solution to someone, most people seem inclined to resist the truth for quite some time. I believe that the solution can be made simple. Here's my latest stab at it.
Let me describe a game. There are three doors. Two are empty and one hides a prize. I always know what's behind the doors. You pick one door. Of the remaining two, I will open one that is empty (never the prize door, remember I know where the prize is hidden). Now that two doors remain, you may open one (stay or switch). If you reveal the prize, you win.
You might want to believe that once only two doors are closed, each has a 50/50 chance of hiding the prize. But that's not true. Here's why.
The same game can be described as follows. There are three doors. Two are empty and one hides a prize. You pick one door. Now you may have the contents behind the door you picked, or you may have the contents behind both of the other doors, but when opening them, I will always open the empty one first. It's the same game, but it's hopefully clear to everyone that two doors are better than one.
My Advice
Learn some Spanish. Bring colónes (their money) into the country, and withdraw more from their bank machines. Don't use USD because it'll be harder to know what it's actually costing you. Get a good guide book with details on small towns and lots of maps. Get good road maps or a GPS. Rent a car from adobe and get a cell phone from them. If you get into trouble, they'll help you out. Note that your key chain probably has a RF security device in it, so it has to be next to the drive-shaft or the car won't start. So don't take it off and chuck it in the glove compartment. If you get lost: backtrack. Don't try an alternate route. Book only hotels in advance. At the hotels, someone will speak English. Ask them about local tours and services. Pay for the expensive tours. You'll get smart guides with small groups. Costa Rica is great. Go soon. Go often. And here's a video from Amanda.
Why Not To Book With Gap Adventures
Gap looks like a great company, and they probably are good at their core business which seems to be low-cost group tours on a well worn route. But they will also book custom self-directed tours for you. For $25, they give you a suggested itinerary which I've copied most of below in case that link dies. We were exclusively in contact with Cindy Kwan from Gap, so maybe it's just her, but in any case I was totally dissatisfied with their service.
Feb 7 Liberia - Tamarindo
Pick up your car at the airport and transfer to your Tamarindo
Overnight at Hotel PasatiempoFeb 8 - Tamarindo
Get ready for your 2hr surf lesson today! Spend the rest of your day testing out the waves.
Overnight at Hotel PasatiempoFeb 9 Arenal
Transfer to Arenal today and take part in the Arenal Volcano Hike followed by a relaxing soak at the Tabacon Hot Springs. Tonight your dinner is included as well.
Overnight at Arenal Paraiso HotelFeb 10 Arenal
After breakfast get ready for the Venado Caves Tour. The rest of your day is at leisure.
Overnight at Arenal ParaisoFeb 11 Manuel Antonio
Transfer to Manuel Antonio and this small beach town.
Overnight at Tres Banderas HotelFeb 11 Manuel Antonio
Spend the day at leisure. There are plenty of watersports or other outdoor activities to take part in.
Overnight at Tres Banderas HotelFeb 12 Manuel Antonio
Tour Manuel Antonio National Park today and spend the rest of your day hiking the trails or relaxing and one of the many beaches found in the park.
Overnight at Tres Banderas HotelFeb 13 Liberia
No services booked.Feb 14 Liberia
Tour ends today. Bring your car back to the airport and prepare for your flight home.
The Pre-Book items below are the things we were considering having her to book for us. Note that I easily found all this detail on the internet. None of it was provided by her. What you see above is all we ever got: "Pick up your car at the airport". What kind of car? I only drive automatic.
Another important thing completely lacking from Gap was any help with transportation: "Transfer to Arenal today". What route? How long will it take? Will I be able to get there in time for whatever we've booked next? I googled around and found some discussion boards (links below), so I was able to roughly estimate travel times.
So anyway, I sent the following to her as a suggested itinerary based on her original itinerary. I wanted to know: Can you book this? What will it cost? What benefit do I get by booking with you instead of booking it myself?
--- Feb 7th ---
3:45am Arrive at Direct Flight Economy-Park (map). Shuttles run 24hrs with max 20 min wait for pickup.
4:15am Arrive at Pearson Airport.
6:15am American Airlines flight 1409 departs from Terminal 3 (food for purchase).
9:40am Arrive in Miami (3hr 25min air time).
11:05am American Airlines flight 2127 departs.
12:55pm Arrive in Liberia (2hr 50min air time).
Pre-Book Pickup rental car from Budget 100m west of airport.
- Rental for 7th at noon to 14th at noon of a CFAR compact 4x4 automatic, with coverage for supplemental liability, an additional driver, and a GPS. $387.30 USD (+taxes?)
- An extra $132.65 USD (+taxes?) for "super collision damage" coverage.
- Cost of GPS is $69.95 USD (+taxes?)Drive to Tamarindo (~1hr?) (~total travel time 11.5hrs)
Pre-Book 2 nights~3:00pm Check in to Hotel Pasatiempo. 2 nights, standard room, $109.00 x2 (USD+taxes?) (a different hotel would be okay)
--- Feb 8th ---
Pre-Book Surfing Lessons
--- Feb 9th ---
10:00am Check-out and drive to Arenal (~2.5hrs?)
Pre-Book 2 nightsArenal Paraiso Hotel "superior" room (unless the "standard" room has a better view), $110.00 x2 (USD+taxes?)
Pre-Book3:45pm Volcano Hike (~3.5hrs?) $35 x2 (USD+taxes?)
Hike to the Arenal Volcano along the Silencio path with a professional local bilingual guide. The walk to the Silencio viewpoint takes about 1.5hrs. There you will be able to see lava flows. After this you will head for the Arenal hot water springs for a relaxing hot water spring bath. $35.00ea
10am-10pm Hot Springs (no cost)
[edit: at the time, the arenal paraiso website was much less sucky and provided lots of details on bookable events like the volcano hike and their free hot springs. I turns out that Cindy was talking about completely different hot springs which were admittedly awesome.]
--- Feb 10th ---
Pre-Book2:00pmVenado Caves Tour (~3.5hrs?) $45 x2 (USD+taxes?)
--- Feb 11th ---
10:00am Check-out and drive to Manuel Antonio (~6hrs?)
Pre-Book 2 nightsHotel California "deluxe" room (unless the "standard" room has a better view), $160.00 x2 (USD+taxes?)
--- Feb 12th ---
Tour Manuel Antonio National Park ($3 parking, $7ea entrance, $20ea group guide 2hr tour, not pre-booked)
--- Feb 13th ---
Drive back to Liberia
Pre-BookBest Western Las Espuelas (or similar), $76.00 (USD+taxes?)
-- Better than this would be to drive back to within a 3hrs drive of Liberia and spend the day/night there. That way we can wake up and drive straight to the airport, and we don't waste the entire day.
could stay at "Canas"
could stop at waterfall in "Bagaces"
could stay at ots.ar.cr or at the ranger station in "Parque Nacional Palo Verde"--- Feb 14th ---
11:30am Arrive at Liberia Airport and return rental car.
Pay $26 x2 cash (USD?) exit tax.
2:00pm American Airlines flight 2130 departs (food for purchase).
5:40pm Arrive in Miami (2hr 40min air time).
8:05pm American Airlines flight 646 departs.
11:14pm Arrive in Toronto at Terminal 3 (3hr 9min air time).
So, I give her all that, and I point out that neither of us have ever driven a manual transmission and eight days later she replies with that no-details itinerary that I copied above. As far as I can tell, she's simply offering to book you at a hotel, and book some of the hotel-provided tours for you. But since she's only offering major hotels that are bookable over the web, you can easily do it yourself. And that way you can choose from the 10 tours they offer rather than just doing what Cindy supposes you'll prefer. Better yet, don't book the tours in advance, just show up and ask the people at the hotel what kinds of local services are available. There's no shortage of advertisements.
Now about the car. She sends us itinerary #1. I send her the details above and call her to discuss them and make a big deal on the phone about absolutely requiring an automatic. She says sure, no problem, give me a couple of days. Eight days later she replies with itinerary #2. Amanda calls her to confirm that she'll book us an automatic (because it's not specified in the itinerary). She says no, sorry, that'll cost extra (what? wasn't I clear?). She replies with itinerary #3 which is identical except the price has increased.
At this point I've lost all confidence in her, but it's Jan 19th and our flight is Feb 7th. On the 14th we told her to make it an automatic and book it. But on the 20th she sends us an itinerary (the identical one with the increased cost) for approval. What approval? We've already approved it. Book it. I should have backed out then. I could probably have booked the whole thing myself in a couple of hours.
Jan 23rd. Still not booked. Now she tells us that we must provide proof of "travel insurance with emergency evacuation and repatriation up to US $200,000" or pay for hers. Well, we do have travel insurance (from work benefits) but I have no idea if it covers "emergency evacuation and repatriation", so I send her my policy and ask her to confirm that it is acceptable (after all, I might as well get her to do some work for that $500+ that we're paying). No reply.
That's my biggest complaint. No reply. She sends proposals that are always in the same cut-and-paste style, never with the detail I request, and when I ask a question to which she can't provide a cut and paste (albeit insufficient) answer, she just doesn't reply.
Jan 23rd. She's booking stuff now. We get this message:
The Suzuki Jimmy is not available and we can also offer the Tucson for an extra $72 CAD. Also the Hotel California in Manuel Antonio is sold out, the other hotel we use is the Tres Banderas. Let me know if this is ok and to go ahead with the confirmation.
I reply:
Hi Cindy,
Yes the Tucson is fine.
Yes the Tres Banderas is fine.
Please book them.Once everything is booked, can you send us specific details for our itinerary.
For example:
- checkin at Arenal Paraiso Hotel after Xam/pm + description of room
i.e. superior/standard
- Volcano Hike departs from X at 3:45pm, duration ~3.5hrs
- etc.
All these details were of course on the itinerary I sent her. But I've lost all faith in her ability, so I want a written record of what to expect when we arrive. Is that too much to ask? Yep. She ignores me again.
Jan 26th
Hi Michael and Amanda,
Please send me your flight details as soon as possible so I can your final documents to you.
What the hell?
Hi Cindy.
Our flight details are included in our suggested itinerary.
[dead url here]
Here's a copy.
...
Jan 26th at 3:10pm
Services booked:
Attached are your final documents. Please review them and ensure all details are accurate. You will be met by your representative at the airport and brought to Adobe Car Rental. All of the details regarding your trip, activities, maps, check in's and hotel information will be given to you once you arrive.
Ensure the details are accurate? What details? The final documents are really just the itinerary that we already approved. Very vague. But she has let some detail slip: Adobe Car Rental. I'd suggested Budget in my proposal. Who cares. I check out the site anyway. Big surprise.
Thank you.
Could we possibly see the details regarding our trip, activities,
check in's and hotel information before we depart?One other thing.
Below, you mention "Adobe Car Rental".
http://www.adobecar.com/ describes the "Suzuki Jimmy" and "Tucson"
that you mentioned in you Jan21 email as manual transmission.Please confirm that the car you book for us is automatic transmission.
Thanks.
Her reply
Hi Michael,
The car booked for you is automatic as we have discussed. In fact you have been upgraded to a Mitsubishi Nativa at no extra cost.
I cannot send you the details regarding check ins and hotel info as the operator that we work with in Costa Rica will meet you once you arrive and give you those documents. We don't issue them from here.
Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit. It's obvious to me that she didn't book an automatic. We were billed $2,447.00 on the 21st when we approved her itinerary. Then a separate $72.00 on the 23rd for the upgrade from (manual) "Suzuki Jimmy" to the (manual) "Tucson". Note that I expected a $160 room at Hotel California but received a $70 room at Hotel Las Tres Banderas instead but this didn't reduce our bill. It's obvious to me that she only upgraded us to the Mitsubishi Nativa when I for the 3rd time pointed out that we requested an automatic but she provided a manual. I'm convinced that I spent more time checking up on her shoddy work than I would have spent booking the entire thing myself.
Okay, what about: "The operator that we work with in Costa Rica will meet you once you arrive and give you those documents." Also bullshit. The free airport shuttle from adobe car rental met us at the airport and had a little packet of vouchers to give us. That's it. No detail. No maps. What follows is the entire deliverable from Cindy Kwan (minus the vouchers for Adobe Rent-A-Car and Hotel Pasatiempo which I didn't think to photograph).
So that's my big long angry story about why not to book with Gap Adventures. I've heard good things about them, so maybe it was just Cindy, or maybe they're only good at their pre-packaged group tours, or maybe there more useful in a less internet-enabled, tourist-friendly country than Costa Rica. But next time I go, I'll just book a car and some hotels in advance and leave everything else to chance.
Here's what actually happened to us in Costa Rica
--- Feb 7th ---
3:15am Get in the car and drive to the park-and-fly at 655 Dixon Road. (map).
3:45am Arrive at Direct Flight Economy-Park. (requires voucher) Shuttles run 24hrs with max 20 min wait for pickup.
4:15am Arrive at Pearson Airport.
6:15am American Airlines flight 1409 departs from Terminal 3 (food for purchase).
9:40am Arrive in Miami (3hr 25min air time).
11:05am American Airlines flight 2127 departs.
12:55pm Arrive in Liberia (2hr 50min air time).
We were met at the airport by guy from Adobe Rent-A-Car with a sign with our name on it. He had some English. He drove us to Adobe. This service is free with the rental.
At adobe they gave us our vouchers. We paid an additional $160.89 CDN for extra insurance (i.e. the maximum that they offer), cell phone rental, and coverage for both of us as drivers. Basic insurance was covered by the GAP voucher. They said that they were giving us the cell phone for free. We should have also rented a GPS. They gave us a free map, but it didn't have nearly enough detail to navigate.
2:00pm Pickup rental car Mitsubishi Nativa / Automatic 4WD from Adobe Rent a Car(requires voucher)
Drive to Playa Tamarindo (took a little over an hour, paved the whole way)
4:00pm Check in to Hotel Pasatiempo. (requires voucher) (booked for 2 nights) (we left Scarborough 13 hours and 45 minutes ago)
This hotel was fantastic. In my opinion, it's the best in town. Very private.
Had dinner at Taco Stop. Run by an American girl. Excellent. Walked on the beach at sunset.
--- Feb 8th ---
Breakfast at some place by the water. Not so great.
Went walking around the outskirts of town. There is a sort-of nature preserve. Saw some monkeys, and lots of birds. Also climbed up a huge hill behind the centre of town. Great view. Lots of land cleared as if they will be putting up condos soon.
12pm 2hr Surf Lesson. (requires voucher) A guy met us at our hotel at noon. We walked down the street to the surf shop and picked up boards and rash-guard. Then down to the beach for some surfing. Was lots of fun.
Have been buying food at the local's grocery store. Great banana bread. Another great sunset on the beach.
Dinner after dark at an Italian place at the end of our street, near the water. Great lady runs the place, but didn't much like my sandwich. Amanda's pizza was excellent though.
--- Feb 9th ---
9:00am Check-out and drive to Arenal Volcano near La Fortuna (got lost, ~6hrs)
Instead of backtracking to Liberia, we took the only other obvious route on our map. It was very slow dirt roads at first, but then was paved for the rest of the way. But we missed a turn off and were lost for hours. Finally arrived at 3pm. Rescheduled Volcano and Hotsprings to next day.
3:00pm Check in to Arenal Paraiso Hotel. (requires voucher) (booked for 2 nights)
This place is a resort. It's very beautiful, but very American. Relaxed in the hot springs. Very great. Dinner at the Hotel restaurant. Decent.
--- Feb 10th ---
7:45amVenado Caves Tour(requires voucher)
Okay, this is exactly why GAP sucks. This tour was great, but we didn't know that it would be early morning or that we were going to crawl through a muddy cave, get soaking wet and need a complete change of clothes. Happily the guide warned us of all this when he picked us up.
This tour is lots of fun if you like crawling around in dark, dank, humid caves. On our tour there were five people total: us, the guide, and a couple from Lithuania.
3:15pmVolcano Hike(requires voucher)
Great tour. Guide picks us up and drives us to the other (active) side of the volcano. We hike through the park (jungle with very wide path) to about 1km from the volcano (actually on top of the rubble from an old eruption). He tells us about the area along the way and we see some interesting birds and termites. Little white clouds of dust roll down the slope as the volcano spits out white hot chunks of rock. This sounds like gunshots. This is what they mean by "you will see lava". Not what I expected, but very much enjoyed it. There were four other tourists on the tour with us, and the guide was excellent.
6:30pm Tabacon Hot Springs (requires voucher)
After the volcano, they drove us to a nearby resort: The Tabacon Grand Spa Resort. We played in the springs then had buffet dinner. I cannot begin to express how amazing and decadent these hot springs are. Not sure how I feel about it, but was very amazing. Quite an experience.
--- Feb 11th ---
9:30am Check-out and drive to Manuel Antonio (stopped for lunch so took about 7 hours)
Before we left, stopped for souvenirs at Galeria Aguas Verdes Alajuela. Lunch at a great little place called Rancho Ceci Alajuela where they have as little English as I have Spanish.
4:30pm Check in to Tres Banderas Hotel. (requires voucher) (booked for 2 nights)
This place is decent. It's run by a Polish guy. They have an open kitchen and a bar, but the cook and bartender seem very grouchy.
--- Feb 12th ---
7:25am(requires voucher) A bus picked us up and took us to Manuel Antonio National Park. We had a guide and a group of about 12 people. Definitely tour this park with a guide. You walk through the jungle basically on a dirt road. He sets up a scope on a tripod when he spots something (i.e. bat, tree frog) and you get a great view and can take great pictures through the scope with a standard pocket sized camera. Don't bother taking pictures of the monkeys if you seem them on this hike. There will be lots more, much closer near the beach at the end of the hike.
Spent the second half of the day body-surfing. Great day. But separated the key from the keychain, so later the car wouldn't start. The keychain contains an RFchip that has to be near the steering column or the car won't start. Good thing we had the cell phone.
Dinner at Ronny's Place (Resturante Mirador Mi Lupuntarenas). Amazing food. And would have an amazing view, but we went after dark.
--- Feb 13th ---
10:00am Check-out and drive to Playa del Coco. (about 7 hours)
Stopped for groceries at the Supermercado in Canas. Also got lost looking for a waterfall in Bagaces.
This was our rebellion from Cindy's bad advice. Instead of spending the night at a Best Western, we had a fabulous time at the Hotel Villas Del Sol in Playa del Coco. We just looked them up in the Lonely Planet book while driving toward Liberia and called with the rental cell phone (unlimited calling in Costa Rica) and booked for that night. (Here a little Spanish is necessary).
The guide book says that Playa del Coco is no great shakes. But I loved it.
--- Feb 14th ---
11:30am Arrive at Liberia and return the rental car at the airport.
Pay $26 x2 USD cash exit tax.
2:00pm American Airlines flight 2130 departs (food for purchase).
5:40pm Arrive in Miami (2hr 40min air time).
8:05pm American Airlines flight 646 departs.
11:14pm Arrive in Toronto at Terminal 3 (3hr 9min air time).
Go to the courtesy phone near the reservations board in Terminal 3 and select "Direct Flight Economy Park" and request a shuttle. Wait at the post they indicate.
--- Cost (in canadian dollars) ---$790.69 x2 -- Flights Toronto to Liberia and back for 2 people (all taxes and fees included) via Expedia
$58.47 -- Park-and-Fly via Expedia
~$130 -- Travel doctor consultation and hepA shot each ($240 but was partially covered by benefits)
$10.31 $85.72 $13.45 $22.89 $14.43 $31.60 $6.49 $24.44 $9.20 $35.00 $4.72 -- Misc. supplies (like fuel to drive to toronto, sunblock, airport food, magazines)
$22.59 -- Photo for International Driver's Permit
$15.00 -- International Driver's Permit (from CAA, should have also got the photo here, cheaper) (note, this permit is not required, I was just being over cautious)
$72.00 $2,447.00 GAP
$120.26 for 50,000c cash
$505.20 for $400usd cash
$160.89 for additional insurance, both drivers covered and cell phone from Adobe Rent-A-Car
$123.04 for dinners and drinks at Hotel Arenal Paraiso
$76.61 for souvenirs at Galeria Aguas Verdes Alajuela
$12.11 for lunch (black egg soup) at Rancho Ceci Alajuela
$95.84 for dinner at Ronny's Place (Resturante Mirador Mi Lupuntarenas)
$70.18 for breakfast/dinner and drinks at Hotel Las Tres Banderas
$27.51 for groceries at the Supermercado in Canas
$82.54 for one night at the Hotel Villas Del Sol in Playa del Coco
Notes
Sunrise 5:30am, Sunset 5:30pm. Costa Rica uses 120V 60Hz ..1 CAD = .....453 CRC $0.50 (USD) - loaf of bread | Hotel Meals |
While ATMs are widely available, there are no guarantees that your credit or debit cards will actually work in Latin America. Check with your bank. You should be aware that to purchase products or services on a credit card a fee of 5%-10% usually applies. Do not rely on credit or debit cards as your only source of money.
It is customary in Latin America to tip service providers such as waiters, at approximately 10%, depending on the service. Please note that in Costa Rica, a 23% charge is added on to almost every meal (13% tax, 10% tip). Further tipping for wait staff is appropriate in the case of excellent service.
Canadian Embassy
Travel Report for Costa Rica
- There is no Official Warning for this country.
- Leave copies of your passport identification page, itinerary and insurance policy with friends or family.
- Visitors should be vigilant at all times when travelling in the country due to high levels of crime.
- Petty crime such as pick pocketing, bag-snatching and theft from vehicles, buses and hotel rooms occurs regularly. Crimes against tourists are particularly common at airports, bus stations, ports, car rental lots, crowded tourist attractions and resort areas.
- Travellers should also be cautious in Tamarindo and Manuel Antonio.
- Beware of "good Samaritans" offering their help to change a flat tire, as they are often the cause of the situation.
- Remain vigilant in a stopped car (e.g. at traffic lights) and always drive with the doors locked and windows closed.
- Travellers should also avoid leaving their drinks or food unattended in bars and places of entertainment.
- Visitors to jungle areas should always be accompanied by an experienced guide.
- Few people outside major hotels, and very few public service providers (e.g. police, lawyers, hospitals) are able to communicate in English or French.
- Tourist Visa: Not required.
- The passport must be valid for at least thirty days from the date of arrival in Costa Rica.
- A tax of US$26 is charged upon departure.
- Canadians arrested or detained have the right to contact the responsible Canadian government office
- It is illegal to photograph official buildings. You should verify with local authorities before taking photos.
- Costa Rica has one of the highest accident rates in the world. Drivers and pedestrians should exercise great caution since traffic laws and speed limits are routinely ignored. Traffic signs are not sufficient. In some areas, potholes, sharp curves, landslides, and narrow or unpaved roads create dangerous road conditions, therefore be careful after dark, especially on rural roads.
- Terms and conditions of car rentals in Costa Rica are unlike most North American contracts. You should carefully review contracts and, in particular, be aware of the mandatory insurance liability coverage. Many driving situations can nullify insurance.
- Traffic enforcement is the responsibility of the Transit Police (222-9330 or 222-9245). Transit Officers often perform roadside inspection of vehicles and request the driver's permit, vehicle registration, and insurance documents. Traffic fines are not supposed to be collected on site. Travellers involved in driving accidents should call 911 to notify authorities of the accident. Do not move the vehicle until advised to do so by the police.
- The currency is the Costa Rican colón (CRC). To avoid complications, carry U.S. dollars (USD) or colónes. Street money changers often pass counterfeit U.S. dollars and local currency. Credit cards are widely accepted. Credit card fraud is a growing problem.
- It is extremely difficult to exchange Canadian currency and traveller's cheques in Costa Rica. Access to cash via ABMs is available in major cities. Only local currency can be withdrawn.
- Credit cards and debit cards should be used with caution due to the potential for fraud and other criminal activity.
- ABMs should be used during business hours inside a bank, supermarket, or large commercial building. Leave copies of your card numbers with a family member in case of emergency.
- An International Driving Permit is recommended. (I got this from the Kanata CAA Travel Store. They take the photo and issue the permit on the spot. ~30min. $15 for permit. $15 for photo.)
Costa Rica - SAN JOSÉ, Embassy of Canada
Address: La Sabana Executive Business Centre, Building No. 5, 3rd Floor, behind the Contraloría General de la República, San José
Postal Address: P.O. Box 351-1007, San José,
Tel.: 506 2242-4400
Emergency toll-free to Ottawa: 0-800-015-1161
Fax: 506 2242-4410
E-Mail: sjcra@international.gc.ca
Internet: http://www.costarica.gc.ca
