Around the Cabot Trail

What a nice way to spend your weekend? Yeap, struggling with the rain and the fire was one such fun among others.

Cabot Trail, also called as Scenic Route, is approximately 300 KM and is one of the famous tourist sites in Canada. The Cabot Trail loops around the northern tip of Cape Breton and passes through the Cape Breton Highland. Most of the trip is along the Atlantic Ocean with lots of look-off to enjoy the panoramic view.


Cabot Trail: Image 1 | Image 2 | Image 3 (This one is from my collection) | Image 4 | Image 5 | Image 6

We didn’t have a plan as we agreed to let the wheel take us where it can. However, we had a plan to pitch our tents in two locations namely Ingonish and Cheticamp.

The first day was good and fun but the second day was a disaster. I had to sleep in my car as my anti-rain-proof tent didn’t have a chance to survive in the harsh rain fall. Akkk … the next morning I had small red itching bites on my legs - courtesy of the stupid small crazy black flies.

The trip was cool. We also visited Neils Harbour, a small and quiet fish village, and Meat Cove, the North Point of Cape Breton island. The road to Meat Cove was the coolest trip. The end part of the road, almost 7 KM's, was steep high and steep low and was made of mud. Surprisingly, Meat Cove has a small restaurant with my favorite, chicken fry and French fries, in their menu. Yummy ... What a good time for a hungry stomach!

Neils Harbour: Image 1 | Image 2 | Image 3
Meat Cove: Image 1 | Image 2 | Image 3 | Image 4 (On the way to Meat Cove) | Image 5 (On the way to Meat Cove)

The Route:
The red line is the route and the blue line is the direction.

Friday – Aug 17^th 2007
Starting point: Sydney
Destination: Ingonish

Saturday – Aug 18^th 2007
Starting point: Ingonish
Destination: Cheticamp with a stop at Meat Cove, the north point of Cape Breton

Sunday – Aug 19^th 2007
Starting point: Cheticamp
Destination: Sydney

Aerosmith @ Blast at the Beach – Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada

Writing mood: Mr. Keith :-)

First of all, I must say it was a good trip from the get go till the end. The experience I had during this trip is on the par on what I thought. For two nights I was in a real-crazy crowd. Let’s make it simple, I was there to watch Aerosmith play their songs and I was 1 among thousands.

{I took couple of video shots from my cell phone. I know the video quality is bad but it is enough for me to refresh my memory and so does this blog. Video clip requires Real Player.}

Moment 1: The long wait for the PEI ferry.

Yeap, time passed by quickly. I didn’t know. After 20 minutes drive from highway 104 we arrived at the ferry terminal. I could see hundreds of vehicle waiting for their turn. We reached around 6:00 PM but were able to embark on the last ferry around 9:00 PM. I know it would be late but not damn 3 hours. Again, as i said the time passed by quickly.

By the way the trip to PEI is 75 minutes and is free. If you are traveling to PEI always have cash with you. There is a huge difference between to and fro PEI. To is free but fro is not. It's around $40.00, simply a mouse trap, to upgrade/maintain the services! Anyway it's my first experience in such a big ferry (big for me - at least for me).

• Waiting for the ferry: Movie 1
• Trip: Movie 2 | Movie 3
  

Moment 2: The Vista bay campground.

The wild camping site. I hope it explains. The wildest and the craziest camping site I have ever been to. That's it. The below video explains it all.

Relax! Hmmmm … it was hammer time and it had to be Alexander Keith (name of the beer brand – pride of Nova Scotia) moment.

Note: Always take extra cloths especially pant if you plan to camp and if possible try to avoid dog house (a short name for a meter high small tent).

• Fire: Movie 4
• Camp site - morning: Movie 4
  
• On the way to silent hill: Movie 5
• View of the noise zone: Movie 6

Moment 3: The concert

Around 6:00 PM we finally reached the venue. The crowd was huge. People here and people there. People with shoes and people with slippers. People singing and people drinking. People dancing and people struggling for beer and piss. People fighting and people showing off. People trembling and people half way to the floor. Yeap, lots of people.

Around 9:20 PM, the bad boys from Boston (Aerosmith) showed up. They played ‘Dream On’, ‘Sweet Emotion’, ‘Living On The Edge’ and ‘I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing’ among others.

• The crowd: Movie 7
  
• The real fun: Movie 8 | Movie 9 {Not a good quality but still}
  

Moment 4: The Confederation Bridge

The Confederation Bridge connects PEI and New Brunswick and is 12.9 KM. http://www.confederationbridge.com/. This is the longest bridge I have ever seen.

Desktop background

When it comes to desktop background for my laptop and my office PC I rely on my Flickr account. From more than 70 pictures posted on my Flickr account I find some of the picture perfect for the background. Here are some of the pictures I have used:

- http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=420598227&size=o
- http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=420598227&size=o
- http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=235551890&size=o
- http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=234564722&size=o
- http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=233428001&size=o

Yeap, I will keep on hunting for better pictures.

Building a tea table

This is my second tea table. The first table was built from scratch.

To build the second table I had to spend 45 minutes of close inspection of products in Home Depot.

Material gathering

After 30 minutes of inspection I finally purchased:

1. Sand paper (120) - 2 sheets: For fine and crisp surface
2. Wood finish - Cherry 235 - 236 ml: For wood color
3. Polyurethane - clear semi gloss - 236 ml: Same as waxing the car, for shinny surface
4. Brush - 2: Each for 2 and 3
5. Pine wood - 36" x 16" (table top)
6. Table stand - 4 pcs
7. Mounting panel - 4 pcs: I selected slanted style panel rather than straight one
8. Screws: A pack of screw

Sand paper, brush, wood finish and polyurethane

Table leg

Mounting panel (slanted)

Hmmm ... let’s start

As soon as I reached my apartment I unpacked the shopping bags and started to paint the table surface and legs. Both the table surface and the legs was painted twice with an interval of 3 hours to let it dry. Remember ... too much color is not good.

Please note, it is always recommended to do the painting job outdoor.

Finally the color is now clearly visible ... the cherry 235.

The designing process

I started to mark 2" x 2" intersection with my pencil and ruler. The intersection, 2" x 2", is from the corner of the table surface and is for the slanted panel placement. So, why did I use 2" scale? The reason to go for 2" x 2" is to place the legs such that it is not on the way of the passerby.

After marking the 2" x 2" intersection I mounted the panels onto the wood surface and subsequently screwed the table legs onto the panels.

Hmmm ... the table is almost ready . Then I made sure the surface was smooth enough, using sand paper, before I applied Polyurethane twice with an interval of 3 hours.

The final result

Invitation to ...

I got an invitation to a workshop "Fundamentals of High-Tech Marketing with the Chasm Institute" today. This workshop is for a day presented jointly by InNOVAcorp and NRC-IRAP. To be in same page with the presenter, who will be from Chasm institute, they gave us a book "Crossing the chasm; Geoffrey A. Moore; HarperBusiness Essentials; 2002", free of charge. From what I have heard, yeap word of mouth, this book is awesome. Yes, I do have to read page 3-87 on or before March 16 2007. Hmmm ...

Related link:
http://www.womma.org/

Positive image worldwide - Canada is # 1

A survey conducted by BBC concluded that Canada has the best positive image worldwide with Japan and France in second and third position respectively.

However, some urge that the survey included basic questions such as - which country do you like and what do you like? - and did not cover detailed questions regarding weather condition, business and trade and involvement in Afghanistan through NATO. Surveyed people believe Canada is

• a peace country,
• devoted to hockey, and
• most importantly the BEER. Yeap ... BEER .. aka 24 ...
  

Taking a look on the worldwide news, Canada is definitely a peace country. And with better public service provided by federal, provincial and local government I have no doubt on the result.

First found in Digg.com and further linked to Toronto Star for detail information.

Chicken curry (Nepali style)

I remember my past. My past where my mum used to cook chicken curry for us. Yummy. No doubt she is the best cook. Today, I had some time to remember those old days and cooked chicken curry.

Chicken curry is made of chicken and lots of spicy ingredients, also called as masala in Nepal. Usually, it takes an hour or less to make chicken curry, which includes preparation and the total cost is around CND $ 8.

Ingredients:

• Chicken: I prefer skinless with bone.
• 4 T of oil
• 1 large onion: finely chopped or your style
• 1 large tomato: fin ely chopped or your style
• 1 T of turmeric
• 2 medium size chopped peppers: you may want to increase or decrease the number of peppers
• 2 T of salt
• 5-7 gloves of minced garlic
• 2 T of chopped ginger
• 1 T of black pepper
• 2 T of chicken curry masala

Preparation:

• Heat 4T of oil over medium-heat
• Once the oil is hot add onion and stir until it turns light brown
• Add 1 T of turmeric and nicely chopped 2 medium size peppers
• Reduce the heat to low-heat
• Add garlic and ginger and stir for a minute
• Add chicken and cook it for 15-20 minutes. Stir it in every 2-3 minutes.
• Add chicken curry masala and stir it. Let it cook for 5-7 minutes. Stir it in every 2 minutes.
• Add tomato and 2 T of salt and stir. Let it cook for 5 minutes. Stir it in every 1.5 – 2 minutes.
• You are done

If you like you can serve with yogurt or add some fresh green ginger leaves on top.

Result:

What a walk

Do you like to walk on frozen river? It does sound fascinating. However, it is scary. This picture is taken just few meters away from my office.

For enlarged picture visit my flickr page.

IT as a marketing tool for fund raising

I know information technology (IT) directly influence business policies to achieve various objectives. But what about it's influence on non government organizations (NGO) for fund raising.

We should remember one most important fact, NGO has low funds to spend in IT.

Yesterday, I got a newsletter from a technical community to participate on this topic. After reading the content I realized that the newsletter very much helped to spread the word. Ting ting ... after all it is using email as a medium to communicate. IT helps, that's what I think.

Furthermore, NGO can use various other website as a medium to spread a word. Yes, a banner would do a lot. With a rise of audio and visual media in the Internet domain, the NGO can use YouTube, for an example, to directly communicate with the viewer. United Way of Canada has used this technique. Here is a link to their advertisement.

In large scale, I would suggest data mining and analysis methodologies. One particular example would be to build a model to list potential donors, in other words segmentation. An introduction of a project which I did during my school years for knowledge and data mining course can also be taken as an example.

Apart from it what other methods are there?

Dell losing it's market

Dell Inc. was the # 1 computer maker, until last year when HP overtook the title. Since then they have regularly been in business news domain covering topics such as poor computer service, laptop battery recall and missing market target. But why and how?

Take a look at HPQ vs. DELL 1-yr chart [1].

Are they lacking proper market research or is it the competition? HP has been chopping the price ... hmmm this might be one of many reasons.

Human nature has always been unpredictable in terms of purchasing goods. Yeap ... if i had to buy a system i will definitely do competitive analysis. Having said that, i will buy a system which is of low price but most importantly i will prefer good customer services. Having read articles of poor customer service from Dell, customers will definitely hesitate buying a system from them. After all word of mouth matters. But for me, Dell did a good job changing a power supply of Dell dimension 3000 within 4 business days.

Dell has to bring better and INNOVATIVE services on the table for a customer like me. Hola, remember the word innovative i used. Here are some suggestions i found in "Dell 2.0 needs a strategy".

Moreover, the ONE IN ALL series from HP is awesome. Their photography and printer components are well known and adapted for a user like me. However, on the other hand I would prefer the desktops, server and storage components from Dell.

Hurry up Dell.

Related links:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6410279.stm
http://money.cnn.com/2007/03/01/technology/dell/?postversion=2007030116

[1] http://hardware.seekingalpha.com/article/24524