Category Archives: Politics

Working as Designed

My ~3 month follow up to Installing Bell Fibre Internet is due and there’s not really a whole lot to say.

My observations:

  • I’ve had no outages and no technical issues between Bell’s CO and my own router.
  • Latency and bandwidth seem stable and consistent with what I’ve paid for, when measured. I plan on gathering data and publishing some analysis in the future.
  • The price is about the same as what I paid TSI for a lower bandwidth cable service.
  • The hardware is aimed primarily at bundling Internet and entertainment, but it works.
  • There is an acceptable method of configuring the modem to act as a pass through device so I can manage my home network using my Turris Omnia router.
  • Bell is difficult to deal with and likes to obfuscate their billing details.

So, I suppose this is to say that I’ve gotten more or less what I expected in the best case scenario.

In summary: It’s great to have a highly reliable fibre service into my home. It’s also a shame that Canada’s telecommunications industry is so moribund that Bell isn’t forced to do a better job. I have no complaints, just laments!

Asking all Canadians to vote on October 21, 2019

At the best of times politics can be complicated and there are a lot of reasons to avoid its discussion online these days!

The 43rd Canadian general election will be held on Monday, October 21, 2019. Elections Canada has a very good website dedicated to information on a variety of topics including how to ensure you are registered to vote, what sort of ID is required, and how you can go about casting your ballot.

Frustration with Ottawa’s seeming inability to govern in a unifying manner and the divisive nature of modern politics leads to at lot of less than ideal outcomes. This situation has had the effect of pushing people away from the process instead of engaging the public with the issues that face us in the 21st century. I’ve always felt that one of Canada’s strengths is that collectively we are pretty reasonable people even when the political class and populist politicians engage in pointless and self-serving grand standing. Broad public participation is one form of insurance that our representatives in Ottawa remain engaged in the hard work and compromise required to maintain peace, order, and good government in the immense country, of not insignificant complexity, that is our inheritance and charge.

With this view I ask that you consider voting on October 21st.

Sincerely,
Gabriel