Wow! What a pleasant surprise. There, as CTV Vancouver’s local news top story tonight (Tuesday), was a hidden-camera investigation into B.C.’s program to prevent voluntarily self-restricted problem gamblers from entering casinos.  The system failed … repeatedly … as a supposedly “listed” problem gambler entered three Vancouver-area casinos, gambled, and cashed in his proceeds without a single security […]

I’m going to stray, this week, from my “free software” series to talk about Facebook. It’s great to stay in touch with old friends, and there are some really entertaining games … but Facebook has its dark side, too. Two issues have put the Facebook in the news lately. The first is privacy. There has […]

B.C. Southern Interior MP, Alex Atamanenko said he is extremely disappointed that the Conservative budget bill C-9 was adopted in the House of Commons on June 8. “This bill paves the way for the privatization of Canada Post and authorizes the sale of the Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. with no debate or public scrutiny. It also...

As parents, we may not be willing to believe that our babies are having sex, but they are. Whether we accept this fact or not, the hard reality is this: Teenagers are going to have sex! And for many of them it will be sooner than later, this is why sex education in the schools […]

There comes a time for every parent when they realize they’ll soon need to have “the talk” with their child (ren). I don’t know what made me think I was exempt, except maybe that I blocked the idea to avoid the sheer horror of it – they say your mind can just delete certain memories, […]

NDP MP Alex Atamanenko is calling for an immediate independent investigation into the horrendous attack by Israeli Defence Forces against the Freedom Flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza. “This deadly assault on peace activists who were providing very much needed aid to the people of Gaza is simply, not acceptable in ...

When it comes to free software, I think Google is the King. Most peopleknow about the Google search engine, but there's so much more. Gmail is a full-featured email client that will connect to your existingaccount, or let you use your Gmail address with Microsoft Outlook orMozilla Thunderbird. It offers seven GB of storage,...

When the concept of a Castlegar Sculpturewalk was first brought to city council, I thought it was a neat idea – but let's face it, tons of neat ideas are floated through those august chambers, and few of them ever amount to anything. Usually they just kind of fizzle out, or are so poorly executed that the 'neat' part doesn't...

We’ve all heard the saying, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” Usually that is excellent advice, but there are a few exceptions. Over the next few weeks, I’m going to look at some of these exceptions within the world of computers. Before I get into specific examples, there are a […]

Castlegar & District Community Services Society (CDCSS) is a non-profit social agency whose clients cross all demographic boundaries. The City of Castlegar is a community in which the residents cross all demographic boundaries. The difference is that the city’s “clients” are all the people who live in the community, while...