Markus’ Blog

Brigette’s mom came to visit this weekend, and since I had to return my US visa waiver stub (I-94W) by September 28, we decided to go down to Bellingham for the day and do some shopping. The fact that (after this decision had been made) the Canadian Dollar reached parity with the US Dollar, didn’t exactly deter our plans.

We expected quite a bit of a border lineup — and we got it. We decided to try out going to the duty free store on the Canadian side to see if that would shorten our wait. It probably did, but only by a bit. They had a system in place they called “ferry lineup” where you had to wait your turn like a regular ferry lineup. So, it took about an hour to leave the parking lot of the duty free store. They must have put that system in place to deter people from jumping the line too much.

We did buy quite a few things, though, at the duty free store, because they looked to be good deals: a bottle of vodka for Brigette and me for $27.25US. Brigette’s mom got some cigarettes and baileys. After crossing the border, we had a nice brunch at Denny’s and a good three and a half hour shop at Bellis Fair Mall. We got some really good deals on clothing and books.

Then, at 3:30pm, came the trip back home, with a very short lineup at the border. It took about half an hour to drive from Bellingham right to the custom’s booth (including a stop at the Starbucks drive through to get some coffee). So, really good. We made it before the crowd, which was the plan.

Since we figured it would be quite obvious that we had been shopping, we decided to declare our purchases. We were asked to park and go inside to pay duties and taxes. We weren’t very concerned. That changed very quickly, when we saw how the face of the custom’s officer got very somber. He said taxes on our “duty free” liquor/tobacco purchases would hurt. Since we hadn’t been out of Canada for at least 48 hours, we weren’t eligible for any personal exemptions. We still didn’t think very much of it at that point. We figured it’d be maybe $50 in taxes on a $110 purchase.

Very wrong!

Apparently the provincial government marks up alcohol purchased outside of Canada by at least 100%. Our $30 vodka bottle would have required a $70 duty payment. It somewhat works like this:

• they take the price of alcohol ($30)
• they add provincial a markup of another $30 or so
• then they add GST and PST on the combined amount

And that’s what you have to pay. Absolutely ridiculous. Brigette’s mom was asked to pay $170 in duties and taxes for her $110 purchase.

The Customs official was very nice, though, and totally didn’t want to charge us all that money. He let us go across the street to the duty free store to return our purchases (luckily we had bought everything on the Canadian side).

The duty free guys took our merchandise back without any issues. They’ve obviously had this happen to them before. They even apologized for not pointing out to us that we would have to be out of the country for at least two days to be eligible for the exemption. We had the sneaking suspicion, though, that they were doing it on purpose, because they know people would buy less otherwise and they wouldn’t make as much money.

In the end we didn’t have to pay any duty or tax. We returned our alcohol and tobacco purchases. And the Customs officials didn’t charge us tax on our books or clothes.

It was a good trip, all things considered. And a valuable lesson learned: provincial tobacco and alcohol markups are ridiculously insane. Don’t buy any alcohol unless you’re gone for 48 hours (or more) and if you do, do not go over the exemption limit.

It has been coming for a while, but it still surprised me to find it happening that soon. For the first time in 31 years, the Canadian Dollar was briefly worth more than the US Dollar!

The Canadian dollar rose as high as C$0.9996 to the U.S. dollar, or US$1.0004, according to Reuters data, before dipping back below the level. At 11 a.m. (1500 GMT), the currency was at C$1.0003 to the U.S. dollar, or 99.97 U.S. cents, up from C$1.0152 to the U.S. dollar, or 98.50 U.S. cents, at Wednesday’s close.

See Reuters for the full story.

The Canadian Dollar dropped slightly beneath the US Dollar again. But exchange rates always go up and down, up and down. The trend for the Canadian Dollar has definitely been to gain on the US Dollar for a while. So, I am guessing that we’ll see the Canadian Dollar rise again and probably stay above the US Dollar for a while.

This news doesn’t come entirely unexpected. Apparently SCO filed for bankruptcy protection shortly after they lost their lawsuit against Novell. The courts ruled that “Novell is the owner of the UNIX and UnixWare copyrights” and not SCO. That was on August 10, 2007.

If SCO doesn’t own the copyright to UNIX to begin with, they don’t really stand much of a chance suing IBM for copyright infringement, which was going to be their ingenious next step. So, on Sepember 14, with nothing else left to do, SCO filed for Chapter 11 protection.

Dear SCO Customers and Partners,

This afternoon we took the extraordinary step of filing for Chapter 11 protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court to protect assets for our creditors and stockholders and to ensure the continuation of our normal business operations. This decision was not taken without extensive consultation with the board of directors, and many outside experts and legal counsel.

SCO intends to maintain business as usual throughout the Chapter 11 proceedings. Subject to court approval, SCO will use the cash flow from its operations to meet its capital needs throughout the reorganization process.

Other companies such as Delta Airlines, Texaco, Dow Corning, K-Mart, United Airlines, Toys R’ Us, Macy’s Department Stores and others have emerged from Chapter 11 protection after restructuring themselves for success. We intend to do the same.

We value our relationship with you and want to provide the assurance that you can continue to order product, and receive exemplary service and support from us during this restructuring period.

We invite you to consult with your SCO representative if you have any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,

Darl McBride
President & CEO
The SCO Group

That’s what you get, suckers. Instead of being a technology company (like you once were) and trying to innovate, adapt and change, you decided to become a lawyer shop whose sole reason of existence was to find parties you can sue for copyright infringement: parties who actually did some productive work. Some parties didn’t even make profit off their work, because it was released to the community for free. Yet, you tried to make money off of them. Impressive business model, I have to say. Why do productive work if you can just sue those who actually do work and make them pay you?

Well, because it didn’t quite work, did it? And that’s good. You are a disgrace to the technology industry and I hope you either go under and disappear, or re-emerge as a new company with new goals. A company who will actually focus again on creating and selling a product and making their customers (and shareholders) happy.

Hard to believe that a full year has passed since I started http://blog.mmayer.net. But it has. Quite a few things have happened, but it still seems like time is just flying by.

Some items in this list are fairly small, others quite important. The list is somewhat chronological.

• We moved into our new condo, shortly after I started the blog.
• We had our fair share of move in / previous owner / contractor trouble.
• We went on our honeymoon.
• We bought a new car (and got rid of our old cars).
• Brigette finished her HR diploma and started her CHRP designation.
• We went on a couple of great trips (from Napa to New York to Victoria).
• We got some new electronic toys (a new printer, a new computer for me, an LCD for Brigette).
• I updated Wordpress several times, including the big steps from 2.0.x to 2.1.x and, just recently, 2.2.x.
• My job is still fun and challenging.
• We celebrated our 1^st anniversary.

Undoubtedly, there are a lot of things that I missed in that list.

Not all that happened was good, of course, but over all I think I am a very lucky guy. Thanks, my sweetie pie, for sharing your life with me and participating in mine.

Just finished uploading the photos from our trip to Victoria last week. Also included are shots from our wine tasting trip. This shot happened before we had a single drop of alcohol. I swear! (Clicking on this link is not for the faint of heart. You have been warned.)

Looks like Translink finally switched the last two remaining trolley bus lines that were still being serviced (almost) exclusively by old trolley buses (Flyer E901/902) over to the new models.

As of yesterday, it seems, both, the #8 and the #20 are now being serviced by the new New Flyer E40LFR buses. Just in time for the new school year.

It is no coincidence that both lines were switched to the new trolleys the same day. The #8 and the #20 route are “interconnected”. Both lines overlap in the downtown core of Vancouver. Several times a day #8 buses “become” #20 buses while in the downtown core and vice versa, meaning a bus will enter that area as either #8 or #20 and will leave the area on the respective other route.

Update

Maybe not “all the way” after all. It looks like the old trolleys are still servicing some lines. They just got moved from #8 and #20 to #4, #7 and #16 (which used the new trolleys before).

We are back from our trip to Victoria. We got home Monday night, tired, but otherwise feeling good.

It was indeed a lovely trip. Even traffic was good — surprisingly good. The drive down from Vancouver to Tsawwassen on Saturday morning was a breeze. People must have either left Friday night or stayed home or something. There didn’t seem to be a major line-up at the ferry terminal, either. We had reservations, so I don’t know how long the wait actually was. The terminal was certainly busy, but there were also many lanes still available to take on more cars.

Saturday evening, we were taking it easy, having dinner at an Irish pub and sampling some local beers.

Sunday, we spent most of the day on the road, participating in a tour of wineries in the Cowichan valley. For good measure, a cidery was thrown in as well. Not only did we sample tasty wines and ciders, we also took full advantage of the fact that, unlike Napa, there were no import limits. We brought home quite a nice inventory of wines, ciders and ports. We also learned that the Canadian government apparently charges tax and duty equivalent to 50% of the purchase price of any alcoholic beverage over and above the free allowance. I knew it was bad, but I had no idea how bad. (The US, on the other hand, charges 25 cents per bottle over the limit.)

Sunday dinner was at Pescatore’s. It was very tasty.

Monday morning we spent at the Royal Museum, watching the Titanic documentary and then the exhibit. It was quite impressive seeing the well preserved artifacts.

For “lunch” we had tea at The Empress. Food and tea were very delicious. We even got to take some tea home with us.

Afterwards, we wandered around Inner Harbour a bit and eventually took a harbour ferry to Barb’s place, where we had a little snackie. That’s when it first started to rain (or rather drizzle). A pretty good record, considering they had been predicting rain for the entire weekend.

We were running a little late as we were taking a little harbour ferry back to the Empress. We had to hop on a cab to make it back to the B & B as fast as possible (that’s where we had left the car). It was almost 5pm by the time we caught the cab, and we had to claim our reservation for the ferry by 5:30.

What followed was a somewhat tense drive to the ferry terminal. The roads were busy, but still not too bad for a long weekend. However, it was raining quite a bit by that point, and people simply don’t know how to move into the right lane after passing somebody or if they are going slowly. We weren’t all that sure that we’d be able to make it in time, but we did. The time stamp on the ferry ticket read 5:31pm. Phew.

The ferry ride back was eventless. Highway 17 on the mainland side was very busy and slow going, but by the time we reached Highway 99, it was all good.

All in all, a great weekend. I’m only sad it went by so fast.