In an attempt to understand, I was able to find the signification for one of them. I hope I find more.

“299″ Line Mechanic call. There are “Line Mechanic’s” posted at Kipling, Keele, St.George, Bloor, Chester, Kennedy, Eglinton, St.Clair West & Sheppard.
“101 – 120″  Supervisors
“122″  Subway Line Supervisor
“199″ Subway Line Mechanic Supervisor
“143″ Chief Supervisor
“147″  Fare Supervisor
“148″ Transit Patrol Security
“201 – 220″ TTC Armored Trucks
“301-310″  Streetcar Track/Overhead Maintenance
“506″ Station Janitor

I liked ING Direct because of their high interest rate, not that high, but usually the higher of all, especially against Canadian banks.

Saving Account at 1.2%

ING Direct is an online bank like PC Financial that only offers saving account (not only, but there is no checking account). To and from where you can transfer money at no fee.

It is very easy to use and their “Goal Set” tools are really made for what it is for.

I have just set 2 saving accounts. One for Vacation saving and the other one to build my emergency fund. Using the Goal tool, I can just initiate my custom Automated Saving Program so that some money is put aside automatically. This can also be done manually between the banks you link ING Direct with.

TFSA at 3%

What really led me towards ING direct is their 3% TFSA rate. I had been looking for “conservative” place to shelter some money but never found anything interest as interest were very low. At least my first “conservative” TFSA sheltering is earning a bit.

Get $25 for opening an account

All they needed was basic personal info along with basic banking info from which the client will be transferring money from.  After that, a personal cheque needs to be mailed in to verify banking information.  From the beginning to end, the whole process took about 3 business days, with about 20 minutes worth of “work”.

You can use $25 using their referral program.

1. Apply for a new account
2. When asked, use the orange key code 33784873S1
3. Deposit at least $100
4. Get $25

After your account is opened, you will see a free $25 in your ISA account (or new ISA if you did not have one).

Very pleased

So far I am very impressed and pleased by the ease of use and competitive interest rates. I think ING Direct does a good job for your saving accounts!

How do you use your ING Direct account? Have you tried their other products?

In general insurance is only worth it when it covers events that are very unlikely and which, if they happened, they would pretty much ruin your life or the life of someone you care about. For example, life insurance if you have dependents, fire protection insurance, disability insurance. Those all protect you against things that are unlikely to happen but if they happen and you don’t have insurance, someone’s life gets ruined.

Insurance does not make sense for things that are cheap, or events that are likely. You shouldn’t insure a television (aka buy an extended warranty). Balance protection insurance most likely lies under this category.

To understand why I say this, let’s review how the insurance company makes money. Imagine a world where every house costs $100K and the chance of a house fire is 0.1%. Thus, the “expected cost” is $100K x 0.1% = $100. That’s not very much. The problem is the risk. If your house does burn, you lose your life’s savings. So the insurance company comes along and offers to insure your house if you pay them $120. The company does this for 1,000 houses. One of those houses does burn, so the insurance company received $120,000 and paid out $100,000 for the one house that did burn. The other $20,000 is profit.

The point of the example is that the insurance company will always charge you more than the “expected cost” of the event. You are guaranteed to lose money “in average”. In this sense, you are always “over-paying”. For events that are unlikely and would significantly hurt your life, this extra cost is worth it. For things that either happen very often or are low cost, insurance isn’t worth it.

Let me give you an example of the latter: Suppose that you know with 100% certainty that you are going to lose $100. This is a high-probability event. Would you pay $120 to be insured against the certain loss of $100? Of course not.

Were do you draw the line?

Well, that’s a personal choice. It depends on how risky something is for you and your tolerance for risk. But the basic principle is intact. Decide how you want to define “unlikely” and “significant cost” and make sure you only pay insurance for things that are unlikely and would incur a significant cost.

You may want to check this link for more statistical information:

http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/blog/credit_balance_insurance.html

The salesperson had failed to mention that the price on the front page was not the final one and that there were a great many extras not included in that figure.

The more I checked, the unhappier they became. I provided them with a long list of items classified as extras to be paid on closing in addition to the purchase price:

* The unit’s proportionate share of the cost of installation of gas, hydro, sewers and water service and meters, to an unlimited amount.

* Any new taxes imposed on the unit by any level of government after the agreement was signed (think HST) – also an unlimited amount.

* The Tarion warranty enrolment fee of $502.

* An unlimited levy against the unit for parks or other municipal charges.

* Provincial sales tax on the appliances included with the unit.

* An extra $300 for the paperwork to hold the purchasers’ deposits in trust.

* $150 to discharge the builder’s construction financing and give clear title after closing.

* The builder’s $52.50 transaction levy payable to the Law Society.

* $150 to subsidize the builder’s legal fees.

* Interest on the balance of the purchase price from the day of final closing to the next banking day.

* The amount of any increase in municipal, education or transit development charges imposed between Oct. 10, 2008 and closing.

* An unlimited contribution to the builder’s proportionate share of all costs associated with a development agreement entered into with the city.

The total cost of these extras could easily exceed $10,000 to $20,000. And since they are classified as extras or “adjustments,” they are typically not eligible for mortgage financing. Not one of them was mentioned in the sales office.

To make the purchasers’ cash flow even worse on closing, the offer requires that the purchasers prepay to the builder estimated property taxes for the year of closing and the year after – another $4,000 or $5,000 for taxes that won’t even be assessed for at least a year.

Going to my lawyer to check the agreement I am told this is common practice and that no builders will want to amend any of this.

I have no problem at all with builders charging whatever they want for houses or condominium units, and for imposing any extra charges they see fit.

I have a serious problem with the total lack of disclosure of the charges in the sales office – a typical failure in many builder sales offices.

The better builders are open and transparent when it comes to disclosing extra charges in the sales offices. They are a credit to the profession and help support a positive public image for the home-building industry.

The rest of them are the ones who may force the government to step in and require full written disclosure of the total purchase price and all extras in a builder offer.

I have tried to compile all the criteria that you would think about and evaluate in order to assess positions.

Pay/Salary
This is obviously the most common but I really think it should not be depending on your lifestyle and age – young people indeed more incomes than older one. You will find this criterion important if you have to pay your studies, debts or even if you are trying to buy a first home.

Over Time and Workload
Knowing the salary pay tag, one will want to understand how many hours of work are included. How many hours a week will you have to work in order to earn this amount? Also you want to know when O.T. kicks in, if you are entitled to any. The point here, no one should be a work slave. You may want to think of it as some sort of salary aka earning / sanity ratio. Earning a lot of money is yet important, but your sanity is even more.

Incentives
Along with the regular salary a company will pay you, one needs to look at all the other things that the company may (or may mot) pay for you. Those includes things such as: Cellphone, car, Internet, work from home

Bonus
Most of the private companies offer some kind of bonus. You want to know how it is calculated. Goal based? Fix?

Benefits
It is hard to find out during the hiring process but it is the source of a few legitimate questions to your future employer. As an employee you should already know what is covered. Here are some points one should inquire about:

• Regular coverage, you know the regular medical expenses as an individual
• Spouse/Family coverage, will they cover your family?
• Dental, those can be expensive
• Eyes
• Accidental Death and Dismemberment, a nice to have

Holidays
Everyone needs a break. Along with regular “paid” days off, you should find out how many floaters you will get – days you can use during the year anytime. Also you need to find out the sick day policy, while you are not planning to be sick for a long time, you will want to know how they can be used.

Pension
RSSP does not suffice if you are just a middle class worker. Check out what rate is your company contributing to your retirement. It is nice to have a company who matches your contribution. Of course, you want to find out the percentage of contribution as well.

Commuting Time
Commuting takes time and can be tiring. Depending on the length and comfort of your ride, commuting can be useful and pleasant. You could spend some time reading or playing mind games. Obviously it is not a good idea if you are driving. If possible chose a job to where commuting takes less than 1 hour and more than 20-30 minutes so it provides a break from work. This criterion should be included for your sanity ratio.

Workplace
While it is hard to find out at first. You may want to have a tour of the workplace. Check for social things like: kitchen, agora and even a gym. Also be sure to find out the amount of light present in the office…winter can be hard on you sometime. It is all about working a la google or cubicle rat. Reports publicly visible should give you an idea if your company is a probable great workplace.

Coworkers
Well you know what you lose but never what you will gain. This is the very same with your coworkers. It is hard to know with whom you will be stuck with. From the interview, maybe trying to talk to current employees, you will want to subtly find you about the ambiance and probably about your future boss!

Reasons for this job
Not the reason for you doing this job but the reason of existence of this very position. Is this a new position? Taking over someone else? you may want to find why the previous person left or why a new position is created.

Company’s Health
This is the hardest thing to evaluate, unless you are a senior psychic analyst. It could be based on how the company’s stock is doing. But yet in economicaly difficult period it is hard to understand. However the help of search engine and other social networking (facebook, linked…) you should find some articles and feedback about the company.

And yes there is a so called “Sys Adm Appreciation Day” and yes I really think this is an appropriate day to instigate! And you know the best admins are lazy admin I am just going to copy there definition of this great site: www.sysadminday.com.

Of course I missed it as it was/is every last Friday of July. Next year I won’t miss it.

What Does a System Administrator Do?

What is a system administrator? Well, look at the title. Administrator of systems. A system administrator takes care of systems.

Now, most people read “system” to mean an individual computer, and think that all a sysadmin does is clean viruses off your computer and replace your monitor. That’s not wrong — but it is only one page of the whole story.

A real computing system is larger. Very few computers work just on their own anymore; when you use the web, play a game online, share files with a friend, or send email, you’re using a complex and intricate collection of computers, networks and software that come together to do the job you’re asking.

A sysadmin manages these systems — they figure out how to bring storage from one server, processing from another, backups from a third and networking from a fourth computer all together, working seamlessly. For you.

a good end to the sys admin

It’s not an easy task. Your sysadmins need to understand in depth computing protocols. They often have to know something about programming, something about hardware, a lot about software — and even more about the people using their system.

A sysadmin is a professional, with complex skills, ethical challenges, and a daunting job. Many, if not most, people find computers difficult to use, and sometimes they’re unreliable. Being a sysadmin doesn’t absolve someone of dealing with unreliable computers. Oh, one can dream of such a day, but the opposite is true; no one sees more dead computers in a day than a sysadmin. No one sees them doing truly baffling things, and no one has more stories of computers failing, acting possessed, or even catching on fire.

The challenge of a sysadmin is making a computing system — a whole network of resources and servers and software — work together, work right, work even when parts of it fail — and work for you.

That’s the most important job of the sysadmin: to work for you. To take the staggering array of technologies, acronyms, protocols, networks, vendors, budgets, limited time, competing products, and threats to the computing network, assemble them all together in a working system. Their job is not only to be the geek in the corner who types all day. What they’re doing is bringing these diverse pieces of technology into order, and fitting them together to fill your needs at work and home; to translate the world of computing into human terms.

This is a daunting task and we’re still at the cutting edge; we’re not perfect, and the field is still figuring itself out. Being a sysadmin takes a certain boldness, to be one of the first people to take on the challenge of turning difficult computers into easy to use systems. But hundreds of thousands of people are working in that field now, from the entry level help desk tech to the corporate CIOs and everyone in between.

So when you think of a sysadmin, think of the people who run the servers that help you clean it off, the people who run your backups to make sure your data is safe, the people who bring you the network, the people who monitor it for security — and yes, the person who cleans the virus off your computer and replaces your monitor.

Flickr and their pretty handy picture sending feature. (check my flickr
at http://www.flickr.com/kitkatneko)

I have to say Flickr has done a pretty good job with my photos sent from
my mobile phone. Although Flickr allows me to sending pictures directly
to my blog as well I wanted to try the embedded feature of wordpress

So it took me a bit to figure out how to configure it so that I could
use a gmail account to do so. Look below for the fun information you’ll
have to input if you ever wanted to do the same.

This said, a littre cron task on your server will become very handy as
of course WP needs a little push to trigger to email check for it to
post it on your blog!

Enough say, this is a try anyway.

Mail server: ssl://pop.gmail.com Port: 995
Login name: yoursecretlogin@gmail.com
Password: yourpass*word

I think I found something I want (yet again). There are  some USB clip drives in the shape of Domokun. Who is and used to be my idol – who is not?. Well I don’t need one. Not at all. Even more of a problem is the price. For the 1 Gig model its $50. For the 2 Gig its $80. For the 4 Gig model, the one I probably could get some use, comes in at $110. Too pricey for me as you can easily find 4 Gig USB drives for under $20, well maybe more for a good quality one – just saw a nice OCZ 4Gb or $24.69 at CanadaComputer.

There is a big problem though, those aren’t the shape of the dear Domokun, he doesn’t have ears!

In case you’re wondering they do have different designs. Star Wars, Happy Tree Friends, HALO, and Hello Kitty USB clips can also be found on their webpage. Also just as expensive. Anyways, check out Mimoco’s webpage for product information and purchasing.

So yes, I ended with a some long garden tabi that I never really wear as to be honest even if it gives great walking sensation, it is quite time consuming to wear them on and off. Fastening the tabi takes me a bit. Maybe it is just because I did not (yet) understand how to use the patented Japanese style laces.

But the other day, when browsing for some Japanese books I found a brand that also work with Le Coq Sportif: Sou Sou. I was surprise to see tabi cooked with all different kind of sauce: slippers, socks, boots,snickers…

I guess I have found something I’d like to wear better than my long tabi. Just some tabi kutsu (tabi shoes – たびぐつ) would be fine and stylish…

It sounds fun but in fact this is pretty boring.