Qui sont ces experts? Les gens qui se promènent dans les magasins Future Shop? It can’t be, because I just had a very strange encounter.

Quand je suis aller chez Future Shop au marché central cette fin de semaine, je savais que j’allais acheter un écran widescreen d’au moins 22 pouces. L’écran 22″ que je regardais était à côté d’un écran qui semblait être un 19″ normal. Un des employés passait et je lui ai demandé quelle était la résolution des écrans. Il m’a répondu avec certitude que c’était 22″. Quand je lui ai expliqué ce que résolution veut dire, il m’a répondu avec autant de certitude que c’était 1280×1024 pour les deux. Il a aussi ajouté fermement que c’était pareil pour les deux écrans 19″ (not wide) et 22″ (wide). C’est à ce moment là qu’une voix a éclaté de rire dans ma tête.

If the resolution of your widescreen LCD monitor has a ratio of 1.25, I can tell you with more certainty than that clerk that you will return the monitor. Actually, you shouldn’t even buy it in the first place, because everything on your screen would be very much stretched.

Je sais que les employés chez Future Shop et ailleurs passent des entraînements, mais est-ce que leurs connaissances sont mis à l’épreuve à la fin de l’entraînement ou est-ce que c’est trop couteux pour les compagnies de viré les employés incompétents.

Ce n’est probablement pas le cas de tous les employés, mais je demande rarement l’avis des employés dans les magasins électroniques. Je me tourne plutôt vers l’internet et les geeks que j’y trouve. Les compétents, c’est vraiment ceux là.

Mon conseil: pour vos prochains achats d’articles électroniques, allez en magasins pour pouvoir prendre l’objet dans vos mains, mais gardez en tête que ce n’est pas le meilleur endroit pour avoir des opinions valables.

According to local media reports, an agreement in principle has been reached between the STM and the Syndicat du transport de Montréal. Both sides must still ratify the agreement, which would end the four-day old transit strike.

In other news, a protest called yesterday to denounce the striking STM workers drew exactly three people: the organizer and two of his friends. Maybe if they had offered to provide transportation…?

UPDATE: The agreement has been ratified. According to the STM, bus and metro service is being gradually resumed and will return to full service by Saturday morning. Negotiations between the STM and the union will continue with conciliator Jean-Pierre Gosselin.

Via La Presse:

Les pourparlers entre la Société de transport de Montréal (STM) et le syndicat des employés d’entretien ont été vains. Ce dernier a déclenché une deuxième grève des transports en commun en quatre ans, ce qui perturbera les services d’autobus et de métro dès aujourd’hui.

For the full scoop, click here.

Okay Metrobloggers, we’re less than 24 hours away from a city-wide transit strike, and with talks between the STM and the Syndicat du transport de Montréal at a virtual standstill there’s nothing much to do except resign ourselves to it. As a community service, I’ve compiled a list of strike survival tips which are waiting for you after the jump. Use them well.
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A Metroblogging Montreal reader left this comment on Laiya’s post about the looming STM strike, and I thought that it deserved a wider audience. If any other STM employees happen to be reading, I encourage you to share your thoughts with us here.

Just to let you guys know, that maintenance people at the STM are not ONLY the people who clean the stations and garages. I work as a maintenance employee at the STM and my job involves repairing electronic equipment, which, with the aging of our metro, fails more often. We are asked to patch equipment that is over 40 years old with parts that we do not have. Our job just keeps on getting harder and harder over the years. Meanwhile, the personnel that retires is not being replaced/re-hired, so we end up with more and more work for the same salary.

It’s unfortunate that the strike affects the public, and personally, I am against it, BUT it is the only way that our employer and the general population will listen to us. We have tried talking to our employer, and they have closed their ears, saying that they cannot negotiate with us, even though our collective agreement has been expired since January.

I know that the majority of people are not on our side, but understand that this strike is not illegal, it has been allowed by our government. Essential services will continue, and the maintenance employees, although on strike, will still be working at maintaining the Montreal metro and repairing all of the obsolete equipment, so that you can get to work/school/etc on time.

I am not asking for sympathies, just for a bit of understanding. We do not want to take the population hostage, and believe it or not, but we are also left to ourselves when it comes to transportation, since we (dept I work for) start and finish at a time that essential services are not operational. I will be biking to and from work for the duration of the strike.

Hope we don’t end up going on strike, and that the STM has the decency to at least start negotiating with its employees, but if we do go on strike, rest assured that it’s not a vacation for us, on the contrary it’s more of a hassle than anything else.

Posted by: STM Guy at May 10, 2007 09:49 PM

The next time that you see somebody flashing his fancy RBC Platinum Visa card try not to look too impressed. We got an offer for a pre-approved card in the mail today.

The problem is that it was addressed to my 14 years old daughter.

Fortunately I got to it first.

This Friday is the last day to notify your landlord if you are leaving July 1st. That really doesn’t give you much time. If you haven’t done so, you are probably best giving it to them in person or sending it ExpressPost.

My search for an apartment is over. Na, na, na! I’ve been living in my current apartment for seven years and 16 years total in Le Plateau. The thought of moving puts the fear of God into me. So I stayed put. That, and my current apartment, while rather small was awesome. Without getting too personal, at 35yrs old, it’s time to ditch the wild and crazy bachelor life. (HAHAHAHA!) and and move in with my girlfriend.

My girlfriend has a very particular problem in that she’s often not in town due to work. Not only that, but we can never be quite sure when she will be back in town and for how long. Therefore, it was important that we start our search very early.

My fears of searching for an apartment were not unfounded. It’s a complete zoo.. especially in Le Plateau. Of all the places we searched, of all the places we called, on average there were 15-20 others also looking and many of them very interested in signing.

So where to look? We used 4 main websites.
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If you meet the conditions, then it’s possibly an offer that would be difficult to refuse. It’s an example of what is now described by the buzz phrase, Social Media Marketing (SMM). I thought it so novel that I wrote a little piece on the Volvo S80 and SMM. Now Jesse Ship of Matchstick.ca tells me they’re still looking for more volunteers here in Montreal. Might you be who they’re looking for!

\parkavenue\, v. (municipal)

1. Embracing the tools of the Internet to support grassroots activism.

Usage: We will parkavenue the mayor for raising parking rates.

Source: The Montreal Gazette

Mayor Gérald Tremblay wanted to fire the messenger, and keep quiet about this, even though city cleanliness was one of his campaign promises. Charles Lapointe, CEO of Tourism Montreal, pointed out the dirty state of the city at a business lunch earlier in the week. Now his board of directors has given him their full support and the Tourism Montreal head stays on. You can see the text of his speech here. (PDF in French).

Rather than forgetting about this, we should all pitch in and do our bit to keep our streets clean in whatever way we can help.