Blog Virus
The world's first blog virus has infected 'That's My Stapler'!

Do not be alarmed, I am assured by various computer experts that your computer will not be harmed by reading my blog - unless of course you're using Internet Exploder from Micro$oft. In that case, you have more problems to worry about ...

Symptoms of the virus include an uncontrollable urge of the blogger to infect five (5) other blogs. Not three or four and six is right out. I caught mine from a fellow Canadian (Maple Lounge), but that's no reason to ban content from the great white north eh ?

Okay, that's enough of that. I'll go along with answering the few questions to rid my blog of any bad karma that may come my way. (I needed something to write about today anyway.)

1. Number of books I own
   I own probably less than I should - about 100. Mostly techie books that I need/use for work. Otherwise when I'm finished with one, I either loan or give to somebody who might enjoy it.
   
   
2. Last book I bought
   "Five people you meet in Heaven" - for my wife for Christmas (no really). Okay, after hearing more about it, I might actually take the time to read it.
   
   
3. Last book I read
   "America - the book" (The Daily Show)
   
   
4. Five books that mean a lot to me
   
   In no particular order :
   
   • It's not about the bike - Lance Armstrong. He's not the hero nor a perfect role model, but he did go through a lot and winning six (6!) Tour de France races is no small feat.
     
     
   • America (the book) - The Daily Show. I am Canadian, but having spent a few years in the US, the subject matter in this book all too funny/true.
     
     
   • Canadian Legal Guide for Small Business - Nishan Swais. Title says it all (why would I want to pay 55% tax when I can start a corporation and ... ?)
     
     
   • Design Patterns - GangOfFour. Geek stuff, mostly about re-using object oriented programming techniques to their full advantgage (not that you cared).
     
     
   • The More Than Complete Hitchhiker's Guide - Douglas Adams
     
     
5. Tag five more
   
   1. These go to eleven
      
   2. The Blog of Daniel Sale
   3. Extra Strength Boredom Relief
   4. David Duchovny
      
   5. CalgaryGrit
      
   
   

- posted by Steve @ 8:28 PM 5 comments

 
Mindbender
Today is the nineteenth anniversary of an unfortunate accident on the Mindbender roller coaster at West Edmonton Mall.

Due to negligence of Triple Five Corp., the owner/operator of the ride, the wheel assembly sheered off on the last car. This caused it to fishtail and hit a concrete foundation before entering the third loop. The train then didn't had enough speed to complete the loop - so it stopped and rolled backwards, when the last section hit the foundation again, where it came to rest. Three people were killed and one was seriously injured when they fell to the concrete floor below.

Sprechen Sie Deutsches?
Triple Five Corp. claimed there was a design flaw that caused the accident. But evidence showed that they had ignored a special inspection order from Schwarzkopf GmbH, the manufacturer of the roller coaster. Cars were checked only by visual inspections and not by taking them out from service. It was later determined that visual inspections alone would not have been adequate to determine if screws or bolts were loose.

Furthermore, the Schwarzkopf manual had never been translated from German into English - It directed workers to perform weekly checks on all the screws and bolts. After the accident it was discovered that one-quarter of all the axle bolts on the trains were loose and/or had damaged cranks.

The ride was closed for several months and reopened in a modified form with shorter trains using non-trailered cars and over-the-shoulder restraints. After the inquiry and several other incidents at other rides around the world, shoulder bars and/or lap bars became mandatory on all rides that traverse loops like the Mindbender.

Nine Lives
Would I ride the Mindbender roller coaster again ? Maybe, but probably not. And not just because we shouldn't trust our lives with minimum wage earners who weren't trained to maintain the ride properly (or can't read German).

I haven't been on the Mindbender since 1986. You see, the night it crashed, my friends and I were gathering at my friend's acreage so we could all go the "mall" and ride the roller coaster. Some of us hadn't yet been on this thrilling new ride at the world's largest indoor amusement park.

We would have been on that ride, possibly at the time of the accident, but something else occurred. I decided to take my friend's motorbike out for one last go at the subdivision's twisty corners. I didn't make the first turn.

Somewhere on that turn, at breakneck speed and carrying a passenger (my friend's little brother), I lost control and I don't remember anything other than the engine racing as the bike flew into the ditch. My friend's brother was okay. I spent a week in the hospital with pulled back muscles, scratches on my face and arms and several compressed vertebra - one broken/cracked.

Hindsight
I was young and I recovered eventually, but of course my back does hurt when I get tired or strain it. I consider myself lucky as the hospital's therapist gave me daily lectures (with a life-side bone model) of how close I came to paralyzing myself. The scars are still visible (to me) and I am very sorry for what I put everyone through.

Anyway, I don't ride a motorcycle anymore. I don't think I've been on a roller coaster since the accident either. Suffice is to say that I know I enjoy speed too much and that I don't have that many lives left (see the other posts in this blog).
- posted by Steve @ 8:22 PM 0 comments

 
Identity Theft
Identity theft is unnerving. It's not like when you had your house or car broken into or your wallet stolen - and you knew right away that you were a victim. When someone steals your identity, you don't know if/when it will stop.

If you were a victim of identity theft you would know what I'm talking about. That paranoid feeling I remember having after our house was broken into just doesn't compare. You see, our problems were not the direct result of lack of diligence regarding our personal information as the Royal Bank's minimal webpage on the subject describes :

While there is no silver bullet in preventing identity theft, there are things you can do to help minimize your risk and protect your identity...

One Friday, a few years ago, my wife was traveling to visit her family. As was the case every once in a while, I logged on to our RBC account on the internet and noticed that $800 had been withdrawn that day. My wife and I hardly ever withdrew large amounts so I immediately phoned that bank to try and track down the anomaly.

They noticed that it was a joint account and suggested that my wife had withdrew the amount - especially if she was traveling and thought she needed the money. I was still suspicious, but agreed that I should check with her.

The blame game
My wife confirmed that night that she had not withdrawn any money ! We went down to our branch that next Monday to find out what was happening. I had not known anybody that was a victim of identity theft before and still didn't suspect that was the case with our missing money. The teller redirected our inquiry to the manager...

The bank manager produced documents that "showed that my wife not only withdrew the money, she paid the phone bill!" When the manager left the room for whatever reason, we stared bleakly at the paperwork thrust at us.

"Don't leave mail lying around"
My wife realized that she had paid that phone bill the week before by cheque in the mail AND the signature on the facsimile of the withdrawal slip hardly looked like hers ! We asked them to look closely at it. They said it was a little shaky, but looked somewhat like the one they "had on file." I was about to suggest that they don't check signatures against what they have on file, but I didn't think that comment was going to help our quest.

After a few more terse comments, they finally agreed to "start an investigation" - but if it was not 'their' fault, we would have to pay for it !?! We were also told that if we felt we were the victim of a crime, we would have to fill out a crime report with the RCMP. I think they also suggested they would need it for the investigation.

Before we left, I queried them about "how is that anybody can withdraw money from our account without ID nor a debit card - you guys ask me to swipe it each time I come in !?" They replied that it isn't always convenient for some of their customers to provide ID and debit card.

So, we eventually got our money back. The police determined that the street corner mail drop off box got broken into that week and it was probably Meth-heads that perpetrated the crime. They said that may be the end of the identity theft against us - but we changed all our credit cards, bank accounts and automatic withdrawals anyway. I don't believe Canada Post ever entered the investigation.

A Scene from Falling Down (the movie)
The day I went into the bank to pick up the new cheques (we insisted they not be mailed to us), I told them my name and that they "had some new cheques for me to pick up." They just handed them to me - without asking for ID, debit card, anything. They couldn't understand my displeasure that they "weren't being very diligent (AGAIN) regarding their customers' information."

Free Toaster ?
And RBC-Royal Bank's stance after all this ? They finally apologized after we complained the next time they made a major mistake and we wrote a terse letter claiming we were going to take our mortgage, line of credit, resp, rrsp's elsewhere.

They even gave us several months free of "service charges."
- posted by Steve @ 10:23 PM 0 comments