Introduction
It's time for another edition of the Granite Newsletter. If you would like this
newsletter e-mailed to you every month, send mail to
webmistress@granite.mb.ca with
newsletter as the subject line and we'll put you on the list. You don't have to
be a Granite subscriber to get this newsletter. There will be lots of local
information available here, as well as contributors from our local internet
junkies, so subscribe today, or just check it out on the 'net at
http://www.granite.mb.ca/newsletter.
Season's Greetings!
Christmas has come and gone for another year! We've all pulled through the
season, hopefully successfully. We here at Granite are very optimistic about 1998,
and it appears the rest of Manitoba agrees with us. It looks like sunny times will
be shining on our province this year.
Christmas at Granite was very exciting. We set up a site to allow children to e-mail Santa, and e-mail they did! We just received a message from Santa himself, and I thought I would post it here for all of you:
Dear Granite, Thank-you so much for setting up that site to allow children to e-mail me. I received 120 e-mail messages through your site. I managed to reply to every one that left an e-mail address behind. If you could thank all the children for their nice letters I would really appreciate it. I even got some messages from some of the adults there. Those were very interesting. I'm glad to see the spirit of Christmas so alive in hearts young and old. Mrs. Claus and I are now resting from the big day, but we would love to hear from anyone who cares to continue sending e-mail. That address for sending me e-mail is http://www.granite.mb.ca/Christmas/Santa.html. Thanks again and Happy New Year to One and All!
Santa and Mrs. Claus |
So there you have it, folks. A message from the big guy himself!
The 12 Sites of Christmas Contest wasn't quite so popular - mainly due to an internal error that temporarily prevented people from entering. That error has been fixed now, and you need only answer as many questions as you can. We'll leave the site around for another week so those of you taking some holidays can try your luck (and your internet searching ability).
The technical help-line was ominously quiet over the Christmas holiday. Perhaps you thought we wouldn't be here, but our help-line magically becomes a cell-phone during holidays, so even if we're not in the office you can always reach us if you need to.
Granite wishes each and every one of you a happy and prosperous 1998. Enjoy celebrating the New Year, but please remember not to drink and drive. Start the year off right!
El Nino - We Love You
Last month we featured some great snowmobiling links as well as a map of the cross
country ski trails here in Pinawa. There just might be enough snow for some very
careful sledding now, but the ski trails haven't even been tracked yet! Is anyone
complaining? Well, there are a few out there, but this weather has been unbelievable!
They called it a brown Christmas in Winnipeg. I visited Winnipeg on
Christmas Eve, and although it sure didn't look like a Manitoba December, I'd have
to disagree with the brown part. Every yard had a little bit of snow. In our region,
the snow started falling on Christmas morning. By afternoon, the weather was
breathtakingly beautiful for those of us not having to drive anywhere. It seems
there was more snow here in Pinawa than in other locations.
Despite the snow on Christmas Day, I have not yet really needed to wear a hat when I go for my walks. Considering the days are now getting longer, that's remarkable. I have lived in Manitoba all my life and I've never seen anything like it. We should all feel very lucky. I tried an internet search on El Nino. I found lots of hurricane watch centres, emergency flood preparation sites and other ominous sounding titles, but I saw nothing on our Canadian Prairie El Nino. It seems we are alone in the world in welcoming this phenomenon. I've also been watching the debate between the global warming scientists and the natural cycle people. The consensus seems to be that El Nino's are definitely part of a natural weather cycle, but this El Nino may be so much more powerful than others because of the added effect of global warming. There are so many factors to consider, though, that even the scientists that spend their life studying this stuff can't agree on what's going on.
If you're interested in this sort of thing, check out this Global Warming Simulation. It starts in 1985 and runs for 70 years. There is an El Nino phenomenon simulation here as well. You also might be interested in reading about the Farmers Almanac predictions for the prairie provinces. They've been right on so far. I couldn't find too much El Nino info on Canada, but if you're planning a trip south this year, check out the latest in El Nino research for some weather maps of the United States. This might not be the best year to winter in Florida.
Many of our local libraries are now on-line. Check them out at:
If you update your homepage with something you'd like to share, please e-mail the webmistress and we'll post the address here.
Network Manager’s Report
Problems
No significant problems where reported from Escape or Mbnet.
Upgrades
On December 1 and 2, 1997 Granite changed providers for its Pinawa feed to the
Internet. With some minor MTS problems, the line was up and functioning on Tuesday
December 21, 1997. This did cause some outages for Whitemouth and the schools.
New Features
Granite is now a "value added reseller" (VAR) for Zoom Telephonics, Inc.
(http://www.zoomtel.com) and Transend Corporation (
http://www.transendmodems.com).
January Upgrades/Changes
No planned upgrades or changes to Lac du Bonnet.
Granite is looking into ways of relieving the congestion on the Pinawa link (link is shared by Agassiz School Division, Eastman Freenet, Granite (Whitemouth), and the School District of Whiteshell). This would increase the performance for all users of Pinawa link.
What's Coming
There will be an Internet Training Session
held on January 22 from 7 - 10 PM at the Lac du Bonnet Senior School Computer Lab.
E-mail granite@granite.mb.ca to register.
There will be an open house at the Business Access Site in the Granite Office
at the Kelsey House in Pinawa. The dates not set yet, but will be announced on
the Granite Homepage and in The Clipper. Come out and learn about all the services
available at this site while enjoying coffee and muffins in the company of other
local business owners.
There will be no new contests this month (whew!). We will be leaving the 12 Sites of Christmas Contest open for awhile instead and getting ready for the next major holiday - Valentine's Day! We've got some ideas, but we're open to suggestions.
Check out our previous newsletters: