Register your wireless router to enable iPod touch location-awareness

The iPod touch, unlike the iPhone, doesn't have a GPS to help it know where it is. Yet the iPod touch manages to know its location using its wi-fi capability. How does it do this? The term "wi-fi triangulation" has been bandied about, but there's no triangulation involved.

Instead, Apple utilizes the services of a company called Skyhook Wireless. What Skyhook does is maintain a worldwide database of wi-fi hotspots containing their GPS coordinates and MAC addresses. Once you connect to a wi-fi network, your iPod can then submit the MAC address of the network's router to Skyhook's servers, and if that hotspot is registered with them, it will return the latitude and longitude of your location to your iPod touch. (You can also enable wi-fi location awareness on your laptop or desktop, by installing a plug-in here.)

What this means is that an iPod touch can benefit from most of the advantages of GPS-enabled devices without having a GPS. In fact, when in large urban areas and indoors, where it can take a long while for a GPS to acquire a satellite lock, an iPod touch can be aware of it's location in seconds.

To submit your wireless router's MAC address and location to Skyhook's database, click here. If you're a location offering wi-fi access to the public, you'll help improve the iPod's location-awareness. If you submit your home router's info, you'll enable location-awareness for your personal devices at home.  You gotta admit that's kinda cool.

An Inconvenient Truth

I watched An Inconvenient Truth tonight. Very well done, I highly recommend it. Watching it, though, I was really struck by how unconscionable it is that they've known about this problem for decades, and they've just sat on it, or worse, obstructed the path of people trying to fix it. An entire generation of people have stuck their heads in the sand rather than address the issue. Pathetic.

Watching AIT just three years after its debut, it was interesting to see how prophetic it is. Gore talks about how naysayers have claimed we have to choose between the economy and the environment, and then shows a chart comparing Japanese and American auto companies to demonstrate that building fuel-efficient vehicles is economically beneficial. Flash-forward to the present day, and we know how well the American auto companies are faring!

Global warming is real, and it's affecting our species' ability to live on this planet. What can you do? Well, as a unionist, I've seen and firmly believe in the power of people acting collectively. If we all do something, all our individual actions add up to something collectively huge.

Some suggestions: Buy electricity from Bullfrog Power. Support environmental groups like The Bruce Trail Conservancy. Walk or bicycle instead of using your car. Vote for political parties (such as the NDP and Green) that will actually do something meaningful to protect the planet.

There are tons of sites out there such as Lighter Footstep, One Million Acts of Green, TreeHugger, EcoGeek.org, and GreenLivingIdeas.com. Consult them, learn from them. Do something.

Here's a summary of my green lifestyle choices that I created a while back.

Participated in my first Scrabble tournament tonight...

I participated in the Niagara Region Literacy Council's Scrabble for Literacy fundraising tournament tonight, my first Scrabble tournament ever. It was a ton of fun. Great buffet dinner, followed by three games of Scrabble. Silent auction, penny sale, and door prizes, too (I won a package of gourmet jelly beans -- 28 flavours!).

I had no idea of the scale of the event... there were at least a couple hundred people there, and they had a waiting list for registrations. For next year they say they've reserved double the space!

Scrabble-wise, it was a new experience. It was a team Scrabble event. 20 minute games, they provided the first word, and then each team/table worked together to fill the board. All tiles were face up. Quite a lot of fun... twenty minutes for a game, plus time to score, made me think this team Scrabble format could easily be adapted for use in schools.

So I'm definitely planning on doing it again next year. Next time, though, I'll be more organized, and get a whole team signed up, with our table reserved well in advance.

Overall, I had a blast playing Scrabble, ate a great meal, and supported a good cause. Time well spent.

My Debut as a Videographer

This past Saturday, I made my debut as a videographer. Well, I ran the video camera at least. ;-) I was at the Ontario NDP leadership convention with Ish Theilheimer of StraightGoods.ca, running the camera while he conducted interviews.

It was an interesting experience. I saw a lot of familiar faces at the convention; labour activists and NDP members have a definite membership overlap. Just like going to ETFO AGM, provincial meetings of occasional teacher Locals, or my local Labour Council, attending the NDP convention helped give me a different perspective on my work. It's easy to become myopic and think all the issues we face as occasional teachers are specific to our workplace, but our issues are really universal. Attending big events lets you know you're not just a lone voice in the wilderness, and reassures you that you've got a whole lot of people with similar values standing behind you.

One of the people we interviewed was a cab driver who'd filed a complaint under the Employment Standards Act because he was being paid less than minimum wage. He won his complaint, but he never worked for that company again. His story really resonated with me, because occasional teachers who try to uphold their contract rights will never again teach in the school where they complained. The complete lack of accountability for employers, and the lack of protection and recourse for employees who are victims of this kind of passive, invisible reprisal are issues that need to be addressed.

"It’s time that part-time, casual, cultural, and migrant workers are recognized as the real workers that they are!" - Andrea Horwath

Which brings me back to the NDP convention. In her final speech to delegates prior to the commencement of voting to choose the new leader, Andrea Horwath said "It’s time that part-time, casual, cultural, and migrant workers are recognized as the real workers that they are!" I'm glad somebody is putting out this message. Part-time work is what keeps many people afloat, and we need to address the fact that part-time workers are often paid less than their full-time peers, have lesser benefits or none at all, worse working conditions, and receive much less respect from their employers. This divide between full-time and part-time workers is not acceptable.

Amazing Harvard Commencement Address by JK Rowling

JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, recently gave a commencement address at Harvard University and was awarded an honourary doctor of letters degree.

This is an excellent read, and gives great insight into the books. Of course, I was also happy to read that she was a Classics major (as was I). What was truly enlightening regarding the books, though, was her recounting of her experiences while working for Amnesty International. I'd say that those experiences very clearly informed the darkness present in the books.

Two themes she addresses very well are the importance of failure, and the importance and power of imagination. I strongly recommend reading this commencement address, whether you're a Harry Potter fan or would simply enjoy an insightful essay.

Addendum: Here's the video.