Recent story in The Globe and Mail regarding the throttling of P2P traffic as well as recent discussions on various forums, have determined that Bell Canada is now throttling all P2P traffic. Not just theirs, that is on Sympatico, but anyone who happens to be a client of Bell including independent 3rd party ISP’s such as TekSavvy.

I’m surprised, but not really. The Achilles heel  of all of these DSL outfits was that the last mile is Bell Canada. And Bell Canada being what they are, have a tendency to do things the way a monopoly feels it should. I am proud to say that for the past two years, not one Bell bill enters my home. I am completely free of them. I’ve been scorned once too often by that company and therefore have sworn them off.

This latest move by them only reinforces this idea.

So the battle by all these 3rd party ISP’s now begins. Bring in the lawyers, the government lobbying and everything that goes with it.

It’s a shame but it’s a perfect example of why we need Net Neutrality in Canada.

Mid-November feels like a strange time of year in Montreal these days. The weather feels like it’s not quite Fall-ish yet not quite Winter-ish. Do you wear a spring coat with layers or just go for the all out winter jacket? Time keeps marching on nonetheless and to keep things exciting, we have several interesting developments taking place in and around the city.

I think I’ll just curl up with a nice hot cup of chocolate and wait out this lunacy limbo period. Meanwhile, don’t forget to head downtown and catch the annual too-early-to-be-happening Santa Claus parade taking place today.

Approximately once per century, the federal Liberal bastion of Outremont falls to another political party. In the twentieth century it was the Progressive Conservative Party, which broke a 71-year Liberal winning streak when they scooped the seat in 1988. In the twenty-first century, the victors are the New Democratic Party, which won the riding by an impressively wide margin last night. Of course, the NDP candidate was himself a Quebec Liberal not too long ago, which actually makes him something akin to an old-school Conservative, but that would be splitting hairs, wouldn’t it? In any case, enjoy the intermission while you can.

Plus que deux "dodos" avant la deuxième édition du Festival Osheaga, sans doute l'un des évènements musicaux les plus importants à Montréal cette année. Plus d'une trentaine de groupes seront à l'oeuvre en fin de semaine, dont Smashing Pumpkins, Bloc Party, Interpol et Arctic Monkeys.

Pour ceux qui n'ont pas encore leurs billets, il sera possible de se les procurer directement à la billetterie du Parc Jean-Drapeau. Prix: 150$ pour la passe de fin de semaine, 79.50$ pour un billet d'une journée.

I had guests over on Saturday night at my place in Little Burgundy, and as it got later we began to hear a bit of a ruckus outside. By midnight or so, we saw crowds of youngsters outside on the street. There was what looked to be an evacuated party and some police cars were on the scene. The crowd got rowdier, and a gunshot rang out, then later on another one. The police did nothing but sit in their cars. What were they waiting for. A gang fight broke out on the neighbour’s lawn destroying the daylilies as a hoodlum in a red shirt with a white skeleton printed on it shoved a guy over the bush and through it.

We had been out on the balcony worriedly watching the scene until we decided to go back inside and out of the way of any stray bullets. At some point there was a mad rush and about a hundred youths ran down the street past the cops. At around 1:30am the cops finally got out of their cars and started herding people. They seemed to have caught one perpetrator, and an ambulance had at least one victim. By 2am things had quieted down.

Why the police waited until people had been shot to take any action whatsoever I do not know. This was a case of a situation very badly handled by the police, it should never have been allowed to escalate. Curiously, nowhere in the news did I hear about this, or even online. Has anyone else heard anything on the shootings?

So it seems that the Lachine Canal (yes, the actual canal) is throwing a celebratory mass picnic party this coming Sunday, August 19th. Being a resident of the general hood, I find any neighbourhood activity to be very exciting and am swift to encourage them.

Running from 11am to 4pm, food, circus acts, chess tournaments, kids’ stuff, general festivities and yes, our very own TamTam Jam will be taking place along the canal at the crossroads of St. Patrick and Charlevoix. You can bring your own picnic or buy food on-site. They’ve promised a big chapiteau in case of rain. Join in on the fun, it’s free.

http://www.canaldelachine.com/familial.html

One might have hoped that the Célébrations Canada website would help us all get into the party spirit. However as Kate McDonnell says its coy design and programming make it nearly impossible to find a simple listing of events.

With a city with so many talented web designers, it’s a shame to see such a poor example of User Experience In Montreal.

Nevertheless a Happy Canada Day to all our readers.

Vanou said it best, Flickr really knows how to throw a party!

Celebrating not only the release of its 24 hours of Flickr mini-book, but also its new multilingual format, Flickr ended a four-cities tour with its biggest party yet. Yes, we beat London, Paris and Berlin when it came to attendance.

The city’s photographers and bloggers were treated to lots of schwag, including t-shirts, excellent food from Angus Dei, an open bar, great music (but not too intrusive) and an excellent ambiance in the perfect location.

As you can expect, lots of photons were captured during this event and more than 400 images are already online.

The Montreal Island Citizens Union (MICU), Mayor Gérald Tremblay’s party, has been rebranded. It’s now called Union Montréal.

If you want to know more of what Union Montréal can do for you then you should visit their slick new website. It relies heavily on video clips to communicate party messages to users. Gérald Tremblay wants to make sure you get his message so you don’t even get the opportunity to switch off the sound. Nevertheless it’s a pretty effective production.

Related: Union Montréal - Brand New

As you now doubt have read, listened and watched all over, this is the 40th anniversary of Expo ‘67 - Man and His World.

You’ll no doubt have seen photos posted on Flickr, newsreels of the great events and listen to Baby Boomers all over lament as how those really were the good old days.. when Montreal made its mark on the world.

You’ll also hear later some of these same people complain, that our society today no longer has this vision. That these types of projects are no longer tolerated. They will point to the Casino/Cirque du Soleil as an example of ‘great’ projects that were killed.

I’m 35 years old. I wasn’t around for Expo ‘67. I don’t remember the Olympics. But I am quite aware of the mess that was left over after these grand ideas. I am quite aware of the deficits and more importantly the environmental cost that was left over.
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