The Granite Newsletter
published July 1, 1999
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The Granite Newsletterpublished July 1, 1999 |
Welcome to the July edition of the Granite Newsletter. We enjoyed the first day of summer this past month. The flowers are blooming, and there have been a handful of warm days to enjoy. June was a pretty busy month around our region and beyond. Enjoy the read!
Local artist, Peter Symchuk, of Pinawa, Manitoba will be features in the 67th annual open art competition and exhibition put on by the Manitoba Society of Artists.
His art work will be displayed on the main floor of Eaton Place for the summer, will be a part of the art walk and will be promoted and endorsed by the Pan Am games.
The Show was juried by Ian Cook of Red Deer Alberta. Their were over 300 art pieces entered and three where selected out of each medium. Artist that entered came from all over the province.
Peter was born and raised in The Pas, Manitoba. Peter started carving in the autumn of 1995 and chose Diamond Willow as his medium. "One vacation day while sitting and relaxing out at the lake in The Pas I found a nice piece of drift wood and decided to carve an old man. When I finished it looked good and I received positive comments from my family. Since that time I have pursued carving as a hobby."
Peter's work can be visited on the Internet at www.granite.mb.ca/symchukp. Peter's work is also often available at Rustic Charms Gift Shop in the Pinawa Mall.
June 12th saw Granite Internet serving up Internet Access and showcasing the
new Grand Beach Web site. A few technical glitches, due mainly to not having
quite enough telephone line. Lucky for us the good fellows from North Star
Security were there with a spool of wire to splice us up a length or two.The Trade Fair was held in Walter Whyte School off Highway 59. The event was very well attended by both contributors and visitors. We enjoyed showing off the beginnings of Grand Beach on the net.
by John Scott
The other day my van was snatched from a parking lot in the city. One minute I'm at the art gallery looking at van Gogh – the next minute it's van gone. You know, Selkirk refers to itself as Steel Town but I think its bigger sister to the south should start calling itself Steal Town.
Lesson learned: Don't park your vehicle in a public place. Message to thieves: It's o.k. to steal a base in baseball or steal the puck in hockey but it just ain’t good to steal someone's personal possessions. Anyway, if you see a late model dark blue Dodge Caravan cruising down the highway it's mine. Actually it may be any colour now – in fact, it may be parts of several vans somewhere between here and St. John's. Keep your eyes peeled.
The sad part of the story is I don't have my van to travel around Manitoba in – something I love to do – especially in the summer. So when grounded I turn to the Internet. Around here the La Vérendrye Trail and links provide some interesting views . But really, the ‘net is a great way to discover our neighbours around the province and find out first hand what is going on in their neck of the woods.
The Internet has its pros and cons and of course one of the big concerns is it just isn't secure enough. (I guarantee it is more secure than a parking lot in a big city) What it certainly does do, however, is level the playing field. Whether you're an individual selling fishing lures on the ‘Net or a small town with a story to tell the world the net makes it much simpler to do.
Personally, I haven't been a big proponent of the Internet but I am slowly being converted to many aspects of it. I feel that some of the biggest benefactors of this new world phenomenon will be communities like Neepawa, Lac du Bonnet, and Pinawa and the people who live in these towns. These places may have a lot to offer but often cannot afford some of the advertising/promotion that larger cities can. This is where the Internet comes in. If you are smart and have some good ideas as to what you want to post you can do it for next to nothing. A couple of keywords used for links and suddenly you are attracting people interested in that particular subject world wide. Take Neepawa, for example.
As luck would have it, my job sometimes requires me to travel to various places around the province (when I have a vehicle) and I get to meet some friendly people and see some interesting parts of Manitoba.
Recently, I went to Neepawa (Cree word for plenty) and it's obvious why the town lays claim to being one of the prettiest places in Manitoba. Situated on the rolling countryside against the backdrop of Riding Mountain (Galloping Hills) it's easy to see why Margaret Laurence was so inspired there.
Neepawa has a very good web site and one of the links is to the lily festival. One of the driving forces behind the festival is a local woman that I recently had the pleasure of meeting -Eleanor Nicholson. Eleanor is a great organizer who has been behind the Lily festival there.
A local man had been growing lilies in a huge field south of town for a number of florists and a couple of years ago Eleanor realized that there was some untapped potential there. The idea of a lily festival was hatched and is now three years old and growing. Since they posted “The Lily Nook” on the net they have had hits from all over the world. The site has generated inquiries from everywhere and people have started to come to this relatively small Manitoba town from all over the world. Last year they had people visit from Europe and Japan.
Driving back home, I came through the Lake Manitoba narrows. I stopped in at the lodge and had a bit of a talk with the new owner. He too, had an Internet site which was also attracting attention world wide. It seems that with new ideas and someone to drive them, places can attract attention in ways that in the pre-internet era were just not possible or feasible.
A final trip up to our northern shield country yields the town of Lynn Lake (home of Tom Cochrane). As their web page points out - Lynn Lake is located at the end of the northern highway P.R.#391 approximately 1058 km from Winnipeg. As part of the Northern Shield, the community is surrounded by lakes, trees, and unspoiled wilderness.
So if Life is a Highway it would seem you don't really need a vehicle to get around Manitoba, Canada, or even the world….unfortunately, the ‘Net can't get my son to baseball practice.
On June 28th, at the beautiful Dockside Resort in Traverse Bay, the Winnipeg River
Brokenhead CFDC had their annual general meeting. The WRBCFDC is made up of a
group of energetic staff devoted to improving the economic and community development
in the Eastman region of Manitoba. The board of directors directs the activities
of the staff members.The highlight of the WRBCFDC AGM is always (for me) the awards ceremony. There are 3 categories of awards given out and they are:
Community Initiative Award
This year the Cottage County Business Association earned this award for showing
tremendous local initiative, without reliance on significant government sources
or funding , to promote businesses and attract tourism to the area of the North Eastern Beaches.
Youth Entrepreneur Award
And the winner is... Duncan Jessiman, the ambitious owner of Hangtime Wakeboard
Watersports in West Hawk Lake since July 1996. He has earned a reputation
as a top-notch instructor AND businessman, and recently completed his
Batchelor of Arts degree at the University of Winnipeg as well.
Business of the Year Award
This most prestigious honor was awarded this year to Rick Backer, owner of
Pioneer Bay Resort and Campground located in Pinawa, Manitoba. Pioneer Bay has
been in operation since 1994. Rick developed and built all aspects of the business
and continues to manage, promote and expand it every year.
A new award was announced at this meeting. The Warren Besel memorial Award will be awarded to recognize a local business / business person's outstanding effort in contributing to their effort. This award was not given out at the meeting, due to the absence of one of the recipients.
Dear Members:
An old enemy (Happy99.exe,W32/ska) has resurfaced, this Trojan Horse
Worm was released late 98 and has turned up in an email message to several
of our members.
If you receive an email message with an attachment "Happy99.exe" delete the message without opening it and phone the sender telling them to fix their system.
Symantec tells how to manually remove the wee beastie on this page: http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/happy99.worm.html.
Needless to say, a good antivirus program is great investment, so long as it is updated regularly and that we all follow reasonable surfing habits.
by David Hnatiw
Network Manager Report
June 1999 ChangesLAC DU BONNET - A new mail server was installed on June 5, 1999. Most customers did not notice the change. If you are not receiving new mail please go to http://www.granite.mb.ca/general/mailupdate.html
WHITEMOUTH - No changes.
PINE FALLS - Some hardware was changed on June 10, 1999. This seems to help a little but Granite and Cisco Systems are still looking into the problem with some modems dropping calls. Granite would request that all users using the Pine Falls POP that are have problems email support@granite.mb.ca with their modem type, manufacture, computer brand/model and any other information about their modem/computer. This will help us compile a database to look for a pattern. On June 17, 1999 the access server was down for about 45 minutes. The equipment had to be relocated because of construction.
July Upgrades/Maintenance
LAC DU BONNET - No planned maintenance.
WHITEMOUTH - No planned maintenance.
PINE FALLS - No maintenance planned; just continual monitoring and work with Cisco and MTS to solve unresolved problems.
Network Statistics
Modem Pool Usage
|
LdB Analog #1 |
LdBAnalog #2 |
LdB Digital |
Whitemouth |
Pine Falls |
||
|
February |
38% |
12% |
32% |
24% |
o% |
|
|
March |
31% |
20% |
28% |
31% |
10% |
|
|
April |
29% |
89% |
31% |
28% |
12% |
|
|
May |
28% |
88% |
27% |
24% |
14% |
|
|
June |
30% |
95% |
26% |
23% |
17% |
|
Lac du Bonnet Digital Modem Information:
Highest Speed
|
50000 kb < 1 % |
44000 kb 12 % |
38000 kb <1% |
31200 kb 19 % |
|
49333 kb 6 % |
42667 kb 2 % |
37333 kb < 1% |
28800 kb 6 % |
|
48000 kb 4 % |
42000 kb < 1 % |
36000 kb < 1% |
26400 kb 3 % |
|
46667 kb 2 % |
41333 kb < 1 % |
34667 kb < 1 % |
24000 kb 1 % |
|
46000 kb 6 % |
40000 kb < 1 % |
34000 kb< 1 % |
19200 kb 2 % |
|
45333 kb 3 % |
38667 kb < 1 % |
33600 kb 19 % |
14400 kb 3 % |
|
< 14400 kb < 1% |
Sample based on 25814 calls
Pine Falls Digital Modem Information:
Highest Speed
|
< 50000 kb < 1% |
|||
|
50000 kb < 1% |
44000 kb 3% |
38000 kb < 1% |
31200 kb 12% |
|
49333 kb 7% |
42667 kb 1% |
37333 kb < 1% |
28800 kb 9% |
|
48000 kb 4% |
42000 kb 2% |
36000 kb 1% |
26400 kb 5% |
|
46667 kb < 1% |
41333 kb < 1% |
34667 kb 0% |
24000 kb 19% |
|
46000 kb 3% |
40000 kb < 1% |
34000 kb 0% |
19200 kb 7% |
|
45333 kb 2% |
38667 kb < 1% |
33600 kb 9% |
14400 kb 4% |
|
< 14400 kb < 1% |
Sample based on 2446 calls
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