The current federal campaign surrounding the upcoming elections (in less than a week already!) has been many times labeled as flavourless by many media outlets. The very minute that parlement was suspended and that the government was out of office, everybody was expecting a repeat of the last federal elections: a month of futile of partisan brawl that would eventually result in another Conservative minority. Every party would get it’s usual seats, and life would go on.

The purchase of my Klipsch S3 was pretty much a spur of the moment thing. Two years of accumulated rage against the old Sony earbuds that I owned took its toll, I guess. I use full-sized headphones normally when I'm not in the gym, and rediscovering how crappy my old earphones were when switch between pairs was growing old. On my way to the gym one day, I decided enough was enough, and went to my local Futureshop to purchase some new workout earphones.

Moar like last month’s iPhone pics amirite? Anyways, this week’s combo is Jimmy on Blanko.

• Last bit of Montreal before takeoff: smoked meat in a bagel. It's doesn't get more local than this. Best airport food I've had so far.
• Something more exotic: Jamaican beer. I'll be honest, it ain't got shit on the bitter lagers I usually drink up, but in it's context, it's a very nice drink to have. 35SPn in the background: it was on beach duty for a part of my trip.
• In Florida, cars are clean. This particular picture shows a set of pristine BMW Z3 M Roadster wheels, dubbed Roadstars. 17x9, et8 in the rear... how's that for width and low offset? Near impossible to fit on any vehicle without serious bodywork, camber and tire stretch. Check the lip out on these bad boys. It's the kind of stuff I dream about these days...
• That's actually a real name for a real shop. Wow.

Jeudi dernier était jour de manifestation nationale contre la hausse des frais de scolarité, manifestation pour laquelle vous avez probablement vu amplement de collants, pancartes, et autres pubs de tout genre. Un grand rassemblement pour la défense de nos droits à une éducation accessible (lire: gratuite) et de qualité, regroupant des milliers de jeunes (60 000 selons les organismes responsables) de partout au Quebec venus des CEGEPs et des Universités de notre province, sous diverses affiliations à des regroupements etudiants. Le tout etait visiblement chapeauté par la Coalition opposée à la tarification et à la privatisation des services publics et l’Alliance Sociale, selon le materiel promotionel distribué dans notre propre établissement.

As an in-store technician for a big box retail, I am shocked by how little people are aware of the evanescence of computer storage. Countless times I have seen customers come back with defective hard drives in their 6 month old laptop and be dumbfounded when they are told that their data can not be recovered. Of all the ways that the computer industry has found to make customers spend, it seems that too little effort has been put into making the public aware that hard drives, like all other things, will eventually die, and that when they do, you better be prepared. That's why I am happy to see D-Link come out with a product like the DNS-323 that facilitates practice of safe data storage.