When I turned 18 (legal drinking/voting age in Alberta (Canada for anyone who doesn't know)) I did not have a drivers license, I also didn't have a credit card, I didn't see a need for either one at the time, however it quickly became apparent why I needed them, I tried to buy my books for school with a cheque, (I don't carry several thousand dollars in cash around with me) they wouldn't take that without either a drivers liscence or a credit card as ID (if I had a credit card I would have paid with it and I DID have school ID and this was the school bookstore, you'd think that would cut it) I was also kicked out of a bar because I didn't have a drivers license, again, I had at least 3 or 4 pieces of ID (including a birth certificate and several pieces of photo ID), but none were a drivers license so they wouldn't let me stay in the bar (not that we'd ever want to promote drinking and driving or anything, but you can't drink unless you can drive???), there have also been numerous other times I've needed a drivers license as "photo ID" when no other form would be accepted (including picking up a parcel at the post office!), so a drivers license may be "optional" however there are a LOT of things you can't do without one (at least here in Alberta)
on the lighter side of things: milk bags... we used to get them here all the time... but after my GF pointed it out to me I realized that I haven't seen one out here in the west (Calgary) in many many years... (though they still appear quite popular in the east) (guess it's time to throw out that old milk pitcher designed for it....)
on a more serious note: health care... the system may not be in perfect shape (ok... I'll admit it's often in pretty sad shape), however I'd still much rather have the level of health care we enjoy here over the system provided south of the border...
Canada does have a Tariff on all blank media sold, they CLAIM to have taken in to account that only some of these are used for illegal copies when they set the price of the tariff (otherwise there would probably be a tariff on each cd of roughly $15 to cover the cost of the CD that's not sold...) more information on the tariff including exactly what figures were used to decide the price is available at http://www.cb-cda.gc.ca/
this tariff also changes some of the previous copyright laws in canada, among other interesting parts is an excerpt mentioned at the following link regarding copying CDs owned by someone else:
http://neil.eton.ca/copylevy.shtml#copy_for_frie nd s
Try taking away all telephones and telephony equipment. That leaves communication where exactly? And the internet? How would you get access to it? Would it even exist if telephony had never been invented?
Quite right... but did you know that the telephone was a CANADIAN invention?
Ham radio operators already have a package like this, we callit APRS (Automatic Position Reporting System) basically you hook the GPS up to a radio (usually via a TNC and optionally a computer) to send position reports every few minutes, this is picked up by other APRS stations as well as by base stations which among other things put this info on the internet. as a result there have been several cases almost exactly like the case example above ("oh darn. someone stole my truck.", http://www.aprs.org , 911 "yeah my truck is at the corner of 5th and centre wanna pick it up for me?") the coverage on this is actually pretty good, most cities in north america and many elsewhere have coverage, this protocol also allows for simple text messaging, and all with no monthly fees...
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When I turned 18 (legal drinking/voting age in Alberta (Canada for anyone who doesn't know)) I did not have a drivers license, I also didn't have a credit card, I didn't see a need for either one at the time, however it quickly became apparent why I needed them, I tried to buy my books for school with a cheque, (I don't carry several thousand dollars in cash around with me) they wouldn't take that without either a drivers liscence or a credit card as ID (if I had a credit card I would have paid with it and I DID have school ID and this was the school bookstore, you'd think that would cut it) I was also kicked out of a bar because I didn't have a drivers license, again, I had at least 3 or 4 pieces of ID (including a birth certificate and several pieces of photo ID), but none were a drivers license so they wouldn't let me stay in the bar (not that we'd ever want to promote drinking and driving or anything, but you can't drink unless you can drive???), there have also been numerous other times I've needed a drivers license as "photo ID" when no other form would be accepted (including picking up a parcel at the post office!), so a drivers license may be "optional" however there are a LOT of things you can't do without one (at least here in Alberta)
speaking as a canadian... eh... ;)
on the lighter side of things: milk bags... we used to get them here all the time... but after my GF pointed it out to me I realized that I haven't seen one out here in the west (Calgary) in many many years... (though they still appear quite popular in the east) (guess it's time to throw out that old milk pitcher designed for it....)
on a more serious note: health care... the system may not be in perfect shape (ok... I'll admit it's often in pretty sad shape), however I'd still much rather have the level of health care we enjoy here over the system provided south of the border...
And I just got Windows OFF my hard drive...
Canada does have a Tariff on all blank media sold, they CLAIM to have taken in to account that only some of these are used for illegal copies when they set the price of the tariff (otherwise there would probably be a tariff on each cd of roughly $15 to cover the cost of the CD that's not sold...) more information on the tariff including exactly what figures were used to decide the price is available at http://www.cb-cda.gc.ca/
e nd s
this tariff also changes some of the previous copyright laws in canada, among other interesting parts is an excerpt mentioned at the following link regarding copying CDs owned by someone else:
http://neil.eton.ca/copylevy.shtml#copy_for_fri
Quite right... but did you know that the telephone was a CANADIAN invention?
Imbed this with a cheap GPS unit...
hate to jump on the bandwagon but... it's been done. Garmin Street Pilot III
Ham radio operators already have a package like this, we callit APRS (Automatic Position Reporting System) basically you hook the GPS up to a radio (usually via a TNC and optionally a computer) to send position reports every few minutes, this is picked up by other APRS stations as well as by base stations which among other things put this info on the internet. as a result there have been several cases almost exactly like the case example above ("oh darn. someone stole my truck.", http://www.aprs.org , 911 "yeah my truck is at the corner of 5th and centre wanna pick it up for me?") the coverage on this is actually pretty good, most cities in north america and many elsewhere have coverage, this protocol also allows for simple text messaging, and all with no monthly fees...