Category: General

I don’t know the exact date, but on a cold, wet day in November 1995 I got out of a Physics test at MUN and I didn’t feel too good about it. I went into one of the Computer Labs on campus around 11am and decided to play around a bit. After asking a few people for some help getting started I managed to find the AltaVista search engine (then www.digital.com/altavista as far as I remember) and started doing some searching. I was amazed at what I could find. It was 9pm before I got up again. I never ate, drank or used the washroom in the time I spent discovering the Internet. I guess you could say I was hooked!

From there I proceeded to call home. I found out my father’s email address. He was a bit of a pioneer in those times. He was using a dial-up, long-distance, SLIP account. His web browser was SlipKnot (???) and allowed him to view webpages. I don’t remember what he was using for his email client (Eudora maybe??) but I was using some terminal based text application at MUN.

Dad had a website up already and I had actually scanned some pictures for him while I was in Grade 12. Why I didn’t see the light then is beyond me! I had also been active on a few Dial-Up BBS’ during my teenage years. The adult folders on those were a godsend for me and my buddies. In November 1995 I put my first website online at www.geocities.com/Colosseum/2772. It was very rough. I only had 200 kilobytes of space and each file had to be individually uploaded using email.

Things changed then. I became very interested in the Internet… I eventually got into computer networks in general and have since completed my CNE (Novell) and MCSE (Microsoft) certifications along with my A+ and loads of experience building and maintaining networks and computer systems.

I find it even harder to believe that I started with computers at the ripe old age of 5. When, back in 1982 or thereabouts, Dad brought home our first computer. A Tandy TRS-80. I guess I should thank my Father for the way my life has turned out. If he had not introduced me to computers way back when I was just a boy I might be where I am now… and I like where I am now. 🙂 Thanks Dad.

Enough writing for me now. Gotta get to work!

Rene

Looks like our favourites to win have gotten themselves eliminated. We were rooting for the Gaghan Family since day 1, and they were always able to hang on. Unfortunately last night night they never overcame the bad luck that seemed to follow them around.

Who to root for now… the Linz Family or the Bransen Family???

Can’t wait for next weeks episode!

Rene

Hey all,

I got a bunch of new pictures online in my Gallery. Check them out here.

There’s some pictures of us getting ready for the Bar on Saturday night as well as a bunch taken at the bar. I also have some pictures of our house and some of the Trick or Treaters that came to get some candy!

It was a good party at the bar and the kids had an excellent starry night for roaming the streets in the search for candy!

Later
Rene

I received the screen in the mail from Canon yesterday and last night I set out to (hopefully) fix my camera. After about 45 minutes of blood, sweat and tears my SD 500 is as good as new.

You can check out the details in my SD500 Album.

I have one more upgrade to make to my camera. I have da’Oly protector on the way from daproducts.com. This is a clear, hard acrylic screen protector. It attaches to the camera leaving an air gap between it and the lcd. Hopefully this will work for me. Right now I am carrying my newly fixed camera with an old credit card in between the screen and the leather case.

Thanks for Derek at Newfoundland Camera for the suggestion on fixing the camera myself. He saved me about $150! Canon wanted $210 to fix it and I did it myself for about $60.

Enjoy!

Rene

Search Engine keywords – canon powershot sd500 lcd digital elph sd400 sd450 sd550 broken cracked fix fixed

I was talking to the service department at Adventure Sales yesterday and they have almost everything fixed up with the camper. The only thing left is the tub surround. They have a whole new surround coming to be installed.

As far as I know the things that have been replaced are the stove and oven (due to some bends in the trim that they pointed out to me), the dinette ends and the slide mattress.

I let Gulf Stream know about the issues with this camper and they have yet to get back to me. This is very disappointing. Fortunately Kerry and the crew at Adventure Sales and Service stand behind the products they sell. This is our fourth major toy purchase we have made from them and they have always taken care of us… even when we got a flat on our quad on our first ride “Bring her in and we’ll put on a new tire for you” was the response I got.

I’ll update with more information when I get my Gulf Stream 23TRS back… hopefully by the end of next week!

I’m still tempted to spend a few nights in her, but with the temps hitting the freezing points some nights I dunno, and then there’s the fact that there is no way Siobhan will be staying in her at those temps! 🙂

Rene

We got up yesterday morning and the temperature was after hitting as low as 0.9 degrees celsius. Thick frost on the vehicles and everything!

This morning was a bit of a different story though… 15 degrees and the rain is pouring down!

Here’s a pic of yesterday’s frost.

Hopefully we’ll have a good winter for the snowmobile!

Rene

Well, it looks like this is not such an uncommon problem afterall. I started digging yesterday with a simple google search. I got way more results then I expected to find and most of them say that they didn’t do anything to cause this to happen. I also learned how to replace the screen myself and save a bunch of $$$. I called 1-888-832-4719, pressed 1 and ended up talking to Canon’s parts department. I ordered the LCD (SKU CK9-1137-000) for $47.72 (Canadian dollars) plus shipping. Just waiting on that now before I get started with the dismantling.

Here’s a bunch of pictures of my broken LCD.

Here’s a few links to some of the other sites I have found regarding this issue:
Zimmerman, Levi & Korsinsky, LLP. Attorneys at Law
Replacing the LCD Screen by Andy
Webshots Digital Camera Forum – SD200 and SD300 Cracked LCD
DPreview.com – SD400 Broken Screen
DCResource.com – LCD Problems with SD500 (good replacement instructions here!)

My Google Search for +broken +canon +lcd

Enjoy! I didn’t, but that’s besides the point.

Rene

My camera has a broken screen.

I’ve babied this thing but it seems the one thing I did to ensure it wouldn’t get dirty and scrathed up caused damage to happen. I constantly have the camera in it’s leather case… along with my spare battery in the little front pocket of the case. It looks like the battery cracked the screen. 🙁 Canon tells me it’s gonna cost about $210 to repair plus shipping. 🙁 Remember when you could buy a camera for $20. Then along comes digital and we gotta have it.

Sometimes you just can’t win.

Rene (very upset)

P.S. The camera is a Canon Powershot SD500 that I bought this past April.

I finally got some pictures taken during our camping trip this past summer.

We started out with 4 nights at Kinsmen Prince Edward Park near Corner Brook. My Sister, her Husband and two kids joined us along with their friends and their kids. We had a full service site which had everything including sewer hookups on each site. Unfortunately the site was small and not very nice. We also discovered a lot of Earwigs in the area. We didn’t like that much. We spent four nights here and we actually had to use the furnace quite frequently. It was a cold week in August. We did manage to go on a nice hike up to a waterfall and we met some crazy people who were diving into a pool right at the top of the falls. After that we headed down to the Humber River and rented a couple of Kayaks for an hour.

From there we moved on to Kona Beach Campground. This place was beautiful! I was a little disappointed with the lack of privacy but it didn’t seem too bad. I had to hunt for water for our camper for about 20 minutes. While everyone was back at the sites enjoying their time and Sio was braggin about my driving abilities with the camper in tow. I then proceeded back to the sites and backed the camper into my brother-in-law’s truck. Once we got past that issue I finished setting up the camper and had a well deserved Labatt Lite. The first evening we were there the water was as smooth as ice. Me and Sio pulled a couple of our chairs out onto the beach and enjoyed the serenity of it. It wasn’t long after the sun sat that we started shivering though. Back to the campfire and some warm clothing. At around 5am the first night, after comsuming a number a beverages and being asleep for a few hours the wind decided it would start. Not a big deal normally except we had our awning out. I swear if we had an awning on the otherside of the camper I would of had to start calling Max Toto. So here I am, not in the best of conditions to get up, having to get out of the camper to put the awning up. It’s a lot easier on a big machine like our new camper then it was on our old Viking luckily. So out I go, almost blowing away myself, and start trying to put the awning up… Oh, how nice, I had used the awning for a clothesline support. No problem, just pull on the end and away comes the slipknot… not! I just drew the know tight. Maybe I should have put on my glasses. About 5 minutes later I finally get back into bed, Sio lets out a little grunt and rolls over. I start to laugh to myself.

The whole three nights at Kona beach were cold. The days were mostly nice and warm though. We visited a few towns and another waterfall (Little Rapids) and introduced my nephew and niece to geocaching.

From there we said goodbye to our camping companions and we went to Beothuk Park near Grand Falls-Windsor. We invited one of my other sisters and her two kids along for the night. This place had beautiful sites! The serviced sites were actually private and much like the more rustic unserviced sited you would find elsewhere. The weather turned around and it was warm all night. I was able to keep my shorts on after dark for the first time this entire trip. The kids played in the nearby playground and I BBQed some chicken wings. We later sparked up a campfire and chatted ’til around midnight.

We had to get up the next morning to pack up and head home. Back to work for us.

Hope you enjoyed the reading. We enjoyed our trip and I can honestly say
having a shower on your campsite is a nice thing. 🙂

Pictures are here!!!.

Rene

I finally got the Targa Newfoundland 2005 pics online. View them here.

These are the pictures I took at the car show the night before the Prologue 1 racing event in St. John’s.

Me and my cousin Steve went to the racing event the next day. It was cold, windy and raining. I only took a couple of pics but I did shoot lots of video. Unfortunately the amount of space the video would take up on the server is too much for my liking unless I move up to a more expensive package and I don’t want to do that right now. 🙁

Enjoy!

Rene