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We have that where I live in Ontario (the idea of charging upfront taxes that equal the cost of disposing of the item).

The only problem is that some places abuse it to double dip (Waterloo Region, Ontario -- Fourth largest city area in the province). Even though people already pay an environmental tax to purchase a TV that is supposed to cover throwing it out, residents have to pay again to dump it.

(I'd link to it on the official stewardship site, but they screwed things up terribly, to the point where the latest set of eco fees on asthma inhalers [seriously!] were repealed, but this list is as good as any for what still exists)
http://www1.ca.dell.com/content/topics/reftopic.aspx/gen/en/alberta_edr?c=ca&l=en#ont_edr

(And here's the fees you pay to throw away the items you already paid fees on to throw away)
http://www.region.waterloo.on.ca/web/region.nsf/97dfc347666efede85256e590071a3d4/312623eb1574fb6285256efb005879a3!OpenDocument

Guess what most people do? Yeah, that's right, they illegally dump the things. Instead of the items ending up sorted at the landfill so "hazardous" items are held separately, they are mixed in with dumpsters at stores and apartment buildings. The garbage from those is then sent to the landfill and added, unsorted. Lucky I live in an area where you can mix the trash, but I'm moving somewhere that I can't. So I'm throwing away all my perfectly working electronics that I can't easily illegally dump and replacing them with ones I can (eg: LCD monitor instead of a CRT, projector instead of a full size TV, etc). ;-) I may as well join in on the party, why not?!

I really wish Canada made taxation without representation illegal already. I wouldn't mind paying one tax, but two is just not right.

Yes, it's the same in some cities in North America, too. However, most people here are smart enough to find a dumpster to dump them in when nobody is looking. Or they get left illegally in a farmer's field in the country (popular option). Which is *clearly* *far* safer and smarter than throwing them out in the proper bin at the dump (/me shakes head at the stupidity of encouraging unsafe dumpster practices through higher taxes).

Nicely done. There are restrictions on water use in the city, but that doesn't seem to bother you. http://www.city.waterloo.on.ca/DesktopDefault.aspx ?tabid=1256

From the Regional Website: "Waterloo Region is a vital, prosperous area, located in Southern Ontario in the centre of the triangle formed by three Great Lakes: Ontario, Erie and Huron. Three urban municipalities Cambridge,Kitchenerand Waterloo , and four rural townships North Dumfries, Wellesley, Wilmot and Woolwich. make up Waterloo Region. With a combined population of over 450,000, Waterloo Region is one of the fastest growing areas in Ontario. Our unique balance of the urban and rural, our proximity to major North American markets and transportation networks, our diverse ethnic makeup, and our excellent education, health, cultural and recreational facilities contribute to the allure this area has for families and businesses."

From the Regional Website: "Waterloo Region is a vital, prosperous area, located in Southern Ontario in the centre of the triangle formed by three Great Lakes: Ontario, Erie and Huron. Three urban municipalities Cambridge,Kitchenerand Waterloo , and four rural townships North Dumfries, Wellesley, Wilmot and Woolwich. make up Waterloo Region. With a combined population of over 450,000, Waterloo Region is one of the fastest growing areas in Ontario. Our unique balance of the urban and rural, our proximity to major North American markets and transportation networks, our diverse ethnic makeup, and our excellent education, health, cultural and recreational facilities contribute to the allure this area has for families and businesses."

From the Regional Website: "Waterloo Region is a vital, prosperous area, located in Southern Ontario in the centre of the triangle formed by three Great Lakes: Ontario, Erie and Huron. Three urban municipalities Cambridge,Kitchenerand Waterloo , and four rural townships North Dumfries, Wellesley, Wilmot and Woolwich. make up Waterloo Region. With a combined population of over 450,000, Waterloo Region is one of the fastest growing areas in Ontario. Our unique balance of the urban and rural, our proximity to major North American markets and transportation networks, our diverse ethnic makeup, and our excellent education, health, cultural and recreational facilities contribute to the allure this area has for families and businesses."

From the Regional Website: "Waterloo Region is a vital, prosperous area, located in Southern Ontario in the centre of the triangle formed by three Great Lakes: Ontario, Erie and Huron. Three urban municipalities Cambridge,Kitchenerand Waterloo , and four rural townships North Dumfries, Wellesley, Wilmot and Woolwich. make up Waterloo Region. With a combined population of over 450,000, Waterloo Region is one of the fastest growing areas in Ontario. Our unique balance of the urban and rural, our proximity to major North American markets and transportation networks, our diverse ethnic makeup, and our excellent education, health, cultural and recreational facilities contribute to the allure this area has for families and businesses."

Check this site:

http://locator.region.waterloo.on.ca/

(warning - I have only seen it work in IE).

The region of Waterloo (ON, CAN) has aerial photography at 10cm resolution (~4in) in B&W for 2000 and 2003. I've been looking for a house, and this is a really great site for checking out the state of yards without visiting them. You can see trees, fences, the size of driveways, if the house is going to be in the shadow of an apartment building . . .

I honestly have no issue with 10cm resolution being available to the general public. No tin foil on my head.

Here in Canada, some places have GIS data available on the internet.

The Region of Waterloo Locator web site is one such example.

>RIM has sued tons of companies on patent infrigment (they patented every little thing they could).

Yup. That's how they got the nickname, "Lawsuits in Motion". Let's not forget about RIM Park, which they managed to weasel their name on to despite the city's population having to pay an additional $35.26 tax (5.47% of taxes overall) just to cover the city's funding of the park. Can someone explain to me how you can get your name on a park without either paying for the whole thing, or being a dead celebrity?

>RIM has sued tons of companies on patent infrigment (they patented every little thing they could).

Yup. That's how they got the nickname, "Lawsuits in Motion". Let's not forget about RIM Park, which they managed to weasel their name on to despite the city's population having to pay an additional $35.26 tax (5.47% of taxes overall) just to cover the city's funding of the park. Can someone explain to me how you can get your name on a park without either paying for the whole thing, or being a dead celebrity?

Oddly enough, Sybase bought Powersoft a few years later so that they could use Powerbuilder to compete against Oracle's front-end tools. This meant Sybase ended up with Watcom's assets, even though they were not particularly interested in them.

And to continue the story...

1. Sybase bought Powersoft in 1995.
2. The "Watcom" group, still based in Waterloo Ontario, became the Mobile And Embedded (MEC) division of Sybase.
3. In 2000, Sybase spun the MEC division off as its own company: iAnywhere Solutions Inc.

iAnywhere makes the very powerful, popular (and developer friendly!) SQL Anywhere Studio as well as other products.

See more:

• Sybase Milestones
• iAnywhere Solutions History and Milestones

You might want to know about their local exploits.

Too bad that by percentage, I'm told they only bought the R. :-) At least they didn't rip off the city.