things!

[jazzfish]

My email provider has been hungry lately. For patches of an hour or so over the last two or three days all mail to me goes curiously missing. A Missing Email Report has been filed but the police can do nothing. It's getting on time to take matters into my own hands. (Cue dramatic music.)

Here, have some links from the past month or so.

Grammar, from merseine0613.

John Kerry, funnyman: "Q: On what types of products do you never go cheap, for the sake of quality? A: Ketchup." (via adamcadre)

I LEGO N.Y., from Making Light.

ML also gives us Peanuts Watchmen.

Speaking of Watchmen, there's Saturday Morning Watchmen. It's been a very long time since I've seen that much sheer wrong packed into one minute thirty.

Terror: The Director's Cut: "Black is an identifiable thing. What I faded into wasn't identifiable, because identity of anything had gone away. It's impossible to describe what I 'faded' into, but I'm going to try my best." (via salzara_tirwen)

And I leave for OMG Vancouver in two days. My knowledge of Canadian telecom suggests that net access will be Spotty At Best. I /think/ the hotel we got has wireless. . .

Suggestions of things to do or not do are welcome.

Comments

[jazzfish]

nixve just got a Kindle, which led to questions about whether it'll work in Canada, which Google answered with "mostly not." The reasoning behind this seems to be that Canadian telecom is pretty monolithic and resistant to competition (even more so than US telecom), so they've got no real incentive to offer better net service. Or cell service, come to that.

Short version: the Internet said so.

[vond.livejournal.com]

There are 1xRTT CDMA providers in Canada that the Kindle theoretically could use, but I suspect the issue is that there's no roaming agreement between Sprint and them, or restricted against WhisperNet devices etc. Your iPhone may have a better shot at roaming from ATT onto.. Rogers I think is the GSM provider there, I suspect that that roaming agreement is intact, though you may incur charges, best to either turn off data or check with ATT ahead of time.

[tulip-tree.livejournal.com]

Yes, Rogers is the company that sells the iPhone here, so I expect that's how you'd be able to roam - but I don't recommend it. In general, crossing the border in either direction with a cell phone means charges of over a dollar a minute (more like $1.50, I think). I only use my phone for very urgent calls and things like "hi, I'm at the terminal, please come pick me up now" when I'm across the border. I would expect that things are no better, and possibly worse, with the iPhone, but I don't have a phone with a data plan, so I've never tried. (And yes, Canadian wireless is indeed monolithic with apparently no incentive to offer reasonable plans... it's quite an adjustment after the US.)

However, plenty of coffee shops in Vancouver have wireless. Blenz is a Starbucks-like chain (but I like it better than Starbucks) which often has free wireless with purchase. As you mention, hotels often do, too.

Have a fantastic time! I love Vancouver.

[jazzfish]

plenty of coffee shops in Vancouver have wireless

This is good to know. I was slightly nervous about email and such.

I'm rather looking forward to it, myself. Slightly nervous, mostly excited.

[tulip-tree.livejournal.com]

We're not *that* backwards up here. :) Lots of stuff costs more (although the exchange rate is greatly in your favor these days) but we've got pretty much the same stuff - hotels with wireless, libraries, cafes, etc. :) Finding email when traveling can be a hassle, but it's not worse in Canada. (Except, of course, that you have an iPhone and are now used to having internet access anywhere - which I am horribly jealous of. :) )

Glad to hear you're excited about the trip! Are you nervous because it's out of the country, or just 'cause it's somewhere new to you? (You don't have to answer that... I'm just curious if travel to Vancouver is somehow more nervousness-inducing than travel somewhere else.)

[jazzfish]

I was kind of disturbed by the number of hotels that /didn't/ provide internet access with the room. Some had it for an exorbitant fee, and more seemed to not have it at all.

The Device /is/ rather handy. :) I've gotten a bit spoiled by being able to check email (or, more importantly, a map) anywhere and anywhen. Still not a fan of the screen keyboard thing, though.

Nerves. . . Partly it's the first time E's been out of the country ever, and the first time I've been since I was five. It's more that it's a new city, with no native guide whatsoever. And there's a slight worry that E (or I) won't actually like Vancouver and we'll have to start all over again trying to find a place to live.

[tulip-tree.livejournal.com]

Ah! I didn't realize you were so seriously considering it as a place to move to (in the relatively near future?), although I do think you mentioned it vaguely the last time I saw you. That would certainly explain the nerves.

I also didn't realize that neither of you had been out of the country ever/in a long time. Canada's pretty easy- they more or less speak the same language :) and the customs/immigration and airport security people tend to be nicer here. (Actually, everyone tends to be pretty nice - it's one of those stereotypes that's clearly grounded in reality - and we've noticed it particularly with bureaucracy.)

Hmmm... if I'd realized this earlier, I'd have given more advice, but you're probably gone by now. The main thing that comes to mind is that while your credit cards will almost certainly work, people occasionally have problems. Ours didn't usually work at gas stations at the outside pay-at-the-pump but they worked inside, so if you rent a car, that's good to know. ATM cards have always worked fine for us.

Unfortunately I heard from my boss (who lives in Vancouver) that the weather is supposed to be boring and rainy all weekend, so I hope you packed rain jackets.

[wyrdone.livejournal.com]

When we were in Vancouver last, it was only like $0.10 per minute charge for calls to or from the US. This was with T-Mobile roaming on Rogers.

I did have to specifically enable "Worldservice" from my provider before it would even roam onto Rogers though.

[tulip-tree.livejournal.com]

That's a big improvement over AT&T's rates a year and a half ago, which is the last time I took at US cell phone to Canada. Glad to hear it's improved!

Now I take a Canadian cell phone to the US, and Rogers charges an arm and a leg, but they're like that for everything. Cell phones, cable, internet - all more expensive here.

[wyrdone.livejournal.com]

Looks like roaming has gotten more expensive in the past couple of years on Rogers. Still for work or emergency calls it's useful.

Canada
Rate per minute : $0.49
Country code : 1

http://www.t-mobile.com/International/RoamingOverview.aspx?tp=Inl_Tab_RoamWorldwide

[jazzfish]

Oh, yeah. Data roaming is going into the OFF position. (Actually, that's the default, but it's staying there.) AT&T says I /can/ get data, but they'll charge me an arm and a leg. Or at least a measurable fraction of a cent per kbyte.