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| The Granite Newsletter |
This is the time of year when we Manitobans look out the window and dream of those
Caribbean beaches. It has been a pretty nice winter so far, but 2 weeks on a beach
sure is nice right about now. If you're looking for that perfect destination, this
webmistress would like to recommend Cozumel, Mexico from which I just returned
yesterday. Let me take you on a short tour of a part of Mexico rich with history,
reefs and yes, even a touch of night life.Cozumel is a small island in the Caribbean off the coast of Cancun. The main city on the island is San Miguel with a population of about 50,000 people. The east coast of the island - facing the main land - is dotted with coral reefs and resorts, while the east coast faces the open Atlantic with its rip tides, huge waves and wonderful sandy beaches. This side of the island has no resorts at all, but is pleasantly populated with the odd restaurant or bar - every one with a view to die for. The majority of the island of Cozumel has been set aside as protected natural reserve. With any luck this will preserve the natural beauty of the island. The locals are down right scary when it comes to protecting those famous coral reefs. We were kindly threatened with broken fingers if we dared to even touch any of it (everything was said with a smile, of course but...). This island was originally made famous by Jacques Cousteau because, as beautiful as it is above the water, its under the sea where the magic really happens.
The island of Cozumel is also rich with Mayan history. Mayan ruins are dotted throughout the island. The mainland is only a 30 minute ferry ride away and sports the world famous ruins of Tulum - a walled Mayan city abandoned 450 years ago. Tulum is famous for the white sandy beaches it was built along.
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Coba, another ancient Mayan city with a population in its prime of over 50,000
people is not as well known as some of the other ruins in the area and is mainly,
as yet, unexcavated. One can walk jungle trails alone and come upon the highest
pyramid to be found in the Yucatan peninsula - 42 metres. Mounds along the trails
are indications of the civilization that once was and remains buried and mysterious.
I am hesitant to recommend this site just because its such a great secret spot,
but it is at yet quite far off the beaten track and so should remain quiet for a
little while yet. You can't mention Mexico without mentioning cervesa. Cervesa is the most delicious beer I have ever tasted. Every bottle is delivered to you with the required twist of lime stuck into the mouth of the bottle. The spanish phrase "dos cervesa por favor" is usually the the first one learned by visitors to Mexico (it was mine, anyway), followed quickly by "muchos gratias" for that wonderful beverage. |
Donna Warenko
Glad to be back (sort of)
Modems, the internet, and you
Ever wonder why there are so many different modem brands out there? What the difference was? How this all affected you? And why does it take so darn long to download your favorite site?
Well, being the technical kind of dude, I guess I should probably answer all those burning questions, and add some other stuff to the fray.
First, there was Hayes. I'm sure this guy was a nice fellow who really had the best intentions around. What decisions he made to build his first modem, I don't know. What I do know is the Hayes modem has been the "standard" for a long, long time. Unfortunately, a Hayes compatible modem doesn't really mean much, anymore.
See, there were a lot of companies to quickly jump on the band wagon. The idea was to create a proprietary modem which the entire world would need, in order to transfer information from one computer system to another. Kind of like Microsoft dominance, but different. Of course, this soon turned out to be publicly unpopular and the demand for a standard, and subsequently Hayes became the standard.
Believe you, me. One of the most difficult things back in the early '90s was to first, get that internal modem to work at all, and second, try to get it to connect to another modem. It was truly a nightmare as people started wanting modems in their computers, especially for faxing.
Well, the quick story here is, then came Windows. Quite a change from how DOS modems used to be set up. Then, to make things easier, Software configurable modems became available. The were called WinModems. Then came plug and play and Windows 95. Well, you get the idea. This doesn't even begin to talk about the difference between a standard modem and something like an MWave or similar modem. An MWave is a sound card that "pretends" to be a modem.
Well, this begins to tell you why some modems work, some don't, some don't work well, and others, well, work well, maybe. *grin* For more information on modems, please see the site of the month.
Site of the month: http://www.56k.com/
"I have long been impressed in Canadian poetry by a tone of deep terror in regard to nature…..It is not a terror of the dangers or discomforts or even the mysteries of nature, but a terror of the soul at something that these things manifest."
-Northrop Frye, The Bush Garden
Oh Canada. It's our home, but we sure don't understand it. We always complain about people's lack of knowledge of this country. Friends had visitors from Europe to their home in Winnipeg who asked if they could drive to the Rockies for the day. American tourists thank us for providing plugs in parking lots for their motor homes. Others ask why they don't see Mounties on horseback on every street corner.
We grumble about their inaccurate perception of our country but the reality is that we don't really know that much about our own country. I wonder why. My guess is that we just don't like what we see. Let me explain.
Every day we look in the mirror and a lot of us just aren't happy with the image we project of ourselves. We tend to exaggerate the things we feel are our good points and ignore what displeases us. We disregard these things or even try to hide them from o urselves and whoever else happens to cast their eyes our way.
Canadians are like that. We like our postcards of Niagara Falls, Banff, Peggy's Cove and the CN tower. When talking to foreigners we admit that Canada may be a cold place but are quick to point out that places like Vancouver are more likely to get rain th an snow in January. But is that the real Canada?
The fact is that most of us are huddled into the warmest corners of this huge chunk of land. If you've ever read Don Starkell's "Paddle to the Arctic" and have some knowledge of Canadian geography, you realize that when Don left Manitoba's northern port t own of Churchill, he was still well south of the geographical center of the country. This is one big place we have here.
Many of us hate our long, cold winters but I like this time of year. The first time that I really felt Canadian came one snowy February day during the Festival du Voyageur. It was one of those days when the snow was falling quite heavily and there was ver y little wind. As I walked along the bank of the Red River at The Forks I could here the sound of the Aboriginal drums beating as someone played a Metis jig on a fiddle. A fire crackled near some teepees they had set up. The falling snow hid the building s from view and muffled the air. I felt as if I had gone back in time - kinda like Michael J. Fox in a parka. It seemed to me that this was the real Canada. Even more than Villeneuve winning yet another snowmobile race at Beausejour.
The people that live here are very much what one could call "your run-of-the-mill Canadians". Aboriginal, Metis, . English, French , European (eastern and western), Asian. You get the picture. People of the world. The fact is that this province is really very representative of what this country is about. Now if one were to describe the most typical features of Canada they would fall into a few prominent categories. Most of this country is forested lake country of t he shield, treeless tundra, rugged arctic coastline and windswept tall and short grass prairie.
Funny thing! Manitoba is the only province that can lay claim to all these features. Here, one can find examples of Great Lakes St-Lawrence forest, tall and short grass prairie, boreal forest, treeless tundra and northern coastline. These areas were, or are, inhabited by a large variety of waterfowl such as the loon, Canada geese and a variety of ducks, fresh and salt-water fish from sturgeon to walleye to arctic char , bison, moose, elk, caribou, bear, deer, cougar, beaver, polar bear, seal, walrus, bel uga whale etc. Typical Canadian wildlife eh?. Hmmm. Do you think it's possible that Manitoba is just TOO Canadian for most of us?
So why do we put forth such a misleading and blurred image of ourselves? My guess is that our press, TV, and other media - mainly located in "central Canada", flood us with THEIR image of Canada. You know, Mounties, waterfalls, mountains, large cities, ' warm' rainy winter days. We allow this to happen and even encourage it. I guess we're all really to blame for this skewing of the image we project of Canada and subsequently the image we adopt as our own.
Well, I love this here nation of ours and accept it for better or for worse - but sometimes I get the feeling that I'm in the minority. Are we hiding from the dangers, discomforts or mysteries of nature? Are we afraid of the dark, cold winters? Maybe we s hould learn to accept what we see in the mirror and be thankful for it. Besides, we all know that summer will eventually arrive and that's good news. I hear it's going to be on a Sunday this year.
Network Manager’s Report
by David Hnatiw
Network Statistics
Modem pool usage
| Lac du Bonnet #1 | Lac du Bonnet #2 | Lac du Bonnet Digital | Whitemouth | |
| December | 34% | 11% | 3% | 24% |
| January | 37% | 13% | 23% | 27% |
| Highest Speed | |||
| 50000 kb less than 1% | 44000 kb 10% | 38000 kb less than 1% | 31200 kb 21% |
| 49333 kb 4% | 42667 kb 1% | 37333 kb less than 1% | 28800 kb 8% |
| 48000 kb 2% | 42000 kb less than 1% | 36000 kb 1% | 26400 kb 4% |
| 46667 kb 2% | 41333 kb less than 1% | 34667 kb less than 1% | 24000 kb 4% |
| 46000 kb 5% | 40000 kb less than 1% | 34000 kb less than 1% | 19200 kb less than 1% |
| 45333 kb 1% | 38667 kb less than 1% | 33600 kb 24% | 14400 kb 3% |
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