Granite Internet

The Granite Newsletter

published May 1, 1999

Dilbert

For Sale

36" Arcrylic Showerstall (4 piece), with tempered glass door. Ideal for 2nd floor bathroom or cottage. For more information call (204) 753-2622 or e-mail guthriej@granite.mb.ca.

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Payment Plans

Granite Customers can now use VISA to pay monthly bills. To use this service, print out this Pre-Authorized Payment Form, complete and return to our office. Never give your VISA number out via e-mail!

The Royal Direct Internet and telephone banking will be available mid-June.

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HTML Courses

This past month, 15 students participated in a Whiteshell Workforce Adjustment Centre sponsored Internet Training Course. The course covered many aspects of Internet use, but Granite was involved in teaching the Simple and Advanced HTML sessions.

The course focused on Standard HTML tags using a basic text editor (Notepad). Some of the students had no idea what to create for their first web page, while others showed up armed with graphics and images, ready to built a specific page - or even pages some one cases. Check out their sites at:

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Introducing Carl Thor - Granite's Newest Technical Help Representative

Granite Welcomes Carl ThorGranite would like to take this opportunity to welcome Carl Thor to the staff. Carl is our newest Technical Help Representative. Carl has been busy over the last two weeks learning all there is to know about the Granite Network so he will be able to provide the best technical help possible to our customers. Staring May 3, Carl will be manning the telephones on the evening shift Tuesday through Saturday.

Carl comes to us with extensive practical experience on several operating systems including UNIX. He is well versed in networking protocols and Internet setups. Telephone support is a challenging position, and Carl is looking forward to the opportunity to provide you help. Welcome Carl!

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Another new Granite Addition

Origin Web Server Meet our New O200 Origin Web Server

In order to meet the demands of our ever-expanding Web Hosting services, Granite has recently added an SGI O200 Origin Web Server to the Granite Network.

This new machine will be busy serving up all of our hosted sites (those with individual domain names). Access to this web server will not be available to Granite customers. Only those sites hosted and maintained by Granite will be hosted on this machine.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our Web Hosting customers for allowing us to continue expanding our repetoire of toys er, I mean tools.

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Spring has Arrived in Eastman

by Donna Warenko

Spring arrives in Manitoba just a little differently than it does in most other parts of the world. Manitobans often get to enjoy several springs, and this year has been no exception. One day I wear shorts to work and swear off socks until September, the next day I am wading through snow with my bare toes. This cycle has to repeat itself several times over before I can be assured winter has really "left the building" for good.

Spring in Eastern Manitoba

Spring time in Pinawa
Spring in Pinawa



The last of the ice in the Whiteshell
good bye to the ice (for now)
Open water in Lac du Bonnet
time for the boats in Lac du Bonnet
Snow is almost gone at Great Falls
Great Falls

Granite maintains websites for many of the towns and regions in Eastern Manitoba. Spring is a time to refresh all those graphics posted that reflect the beauty of this entire region. While many of the graphics in these websites are produced by Granite staff members, some of the more remarkable shots found on those sites have come from local residents of the different areas. Granite is always interested in that great shot you may have hidden in the photo album, or any interesting piece of history you may want to share about your region.

To provide a picture for one of our sites, mail it to Granite Internet Services Inc, Box 672, Pinawa, MB R0E 1L0. Include a return address and your picture will be returned to you. Credit will be given to all those providing pictures. To suggest information, send e-mail to donna@granite.mb.ca.

Granite maintains the following regional sites:

In addition to providing pictures and information for these sites, each of these regions sports an interactive events calendar designed to be used by local residents to place upcoming events listings for free. The calendars are beginning to get used, so use them to find out what's happening in your region. There are many spring and summer events happening throughout our region. Enter these events into the appropriate calendar to help get the word out.

Interested in advertising on any of these regional sites? Just $100.00 per year provides you with a hotlink to your website on the regional site of your choice. $500.00 per year will get you onto the front page of every town site AND the Whiteshell Provincial Park.

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A Loon Again - Naturally

by John Scott

The loon has been around a long time. No, I’m not referring to the Canadian loon presently plunging to the depths of West Hawk Lake relative to the American dollar. I’m talking about the bird that we are all familiar with. The one that greets us to “the wilderness” with it’s haunting cry.

The loon is the oldest bird in North America and one of the oldest on the planet. In fact, they have been here 60 times longer than we have. Of course, the call of the loon reminds us always of our home here in Eastern Manitoba. Whether in Pine Falls, Pinawa or Falcon Lake, their call is never too far away. But it’s in the small, secluded lakes that the loon is most noticeable – it’s cry echoing off the water and forests surrounding the lake.

From the Pacific to the Atlantic and from Minnesota and Michigan to the Canadian Arctic the birds are at home. Loons are also found in many other countries such as northern Russia, Norway and Japan.

There are 5 different species of loon, each with slightly different characteristics but they all have one strikingly common feature. Their unmistakable red eyes. These red eyes give them an advantage when stalking their next meal because under water the red is filtered out and their eyes appear black to their prey camouflaging them with their black head.

The loon generally stays with the same mate for life – one of the few bird species to do so. They are also excellent swimmers and divers known to have dived as deep as 60 meters but generally they feed in shallower waters. I remember one of my favorite memories of the bird happened in a small secluded lake here in Manitoba. I was with two of my children and as we slid the canoe into the water we were greeted with the “cry of the wild”. Not wanting to disturb the family – a male, female with a chick on her back – we paddled in the opposite direction. It wasn’t long, however, until we were headed back toward them. The male’s cries grew louder and more intense as we neared. Finally he submerged and we put our paddles on the gunwales and glided across the water waiting. It was like a scene from Jaws. Finally, he came to the surface, stood up on the water, puffed out his chest and started dancing across the surface back and forth between us and the other birds. This is a common dance of aggression performed to frighten off intruders such as other birds, animals and canoes. (There is an Inuit legend that says that the raven made fun of the loon’s spotted back which is why they always face the aggressor when performing this “dance”. This way they show off their white chest – hiding it’s “ugly” back from the enemy). We watched in amazement as he performed this ritual to keep his family safe from the big red canoe. That was about four years ago but the kids still talk about it whenever they hear a loon.

To get back to the comparison between the bird and the currency, maybe they do have some things in common. The loon has developed a technique where it will compress air inside itself causing it to slowly submerge beneath the surface leaving it’s head as the only part of it’s body above water. The loon’s ability to “sink”, of course, was designed as a means to protect itself.

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Dilbert
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Network Manager’s Report


by David Hnatiw

David Hnatiw - managing your network with a smile

Network Manager Report

April 1999 Changes

LAC DU BONNET - New business web server was installed. All town sites (pinawa.com, lacdubonnet.com, pinefalls.com, etc) and some major business site were moved.

WHITEMOUTH - No changes.

PINE FALLS - 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.

May Upgrades/Maintenance

LAC DU BONNET - Mail will be moved to a new mail server thus reducing the load on the current server.

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
December 34% 11% 3% 24% -
January 37% 13% 23% 27% -
February 38% 12% 32% 24% 0%
March 31% 20% 28% 31% 10%
April 29% 89% 31% 28% 12%

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 16770 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 1594 calls

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