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Complaining about Toronto...
Oct. 8th, 2004 09:50 amIt's not that I have any major issues with Toronto, per se, it's just that I never thought I'd have to take along my passport to go to a conference of the American Translators Association. (We'll not get sidetracked by the question of whether American is the best of adjectives to describe something "of or pertaining to" the country known as the United States of America. It may not be the "best," but it is used that way.)
In fact, somewhere around here are instructions I received from the conference organizers recommending I bring along my passport and another government-issued photo ID to get into Canada.
Yikes!
Frankly, I only needed my passport to get into the UK, France, and Switzerland on the return trip from Kazakhstan this past summer. What's with the second form of ID business?
Then again, maybe I need the extra ID to get back.
As it stands, I've already received mail from one perennial conference exhibitor informing me that they would not be bringing any inventory (books, dictionaries, tapes) to Toronto, owing to some export/import rules of some kind. (From my experience at the store, I know that sending anything of commercial value to Canada involves unsightly paperwork.) I wonder if anyone else is going to bring any inventory? And if they don't, why on earth would they rent booths in the exhibit hall?
In other news, Verizon tells me that although my cell phone will work in Toronto, it'll cost me US$0.69/min to roam and an additional US$0.20/min to call long distance, so I guess my phone will be turned off once I hit the border.
On the other hand, I must say I am looking forward to seeing Toronto again.
* * * I had toyed with the idea of taking along my Zaurus and a wireless access point to help with my wiki presentation. It turns out the hotel already has WiFi on the premises, and I am told that if I wanted to use it for a presentation, the charge would be a mere $500 (a number so large, it doesn't really matter if the price is quoted in US or Canadian dollars).
Too, the Z won't run Twiki because I'd need to install a whole pile of additional software on the unit (e.g., version control software) to make it work.
So, I've loaded MyWiki (a simple Perl-based wiki), Twiki, and WackoWiki (MySQL based) on my "spare" Linux server, and I'll doubtless do what I did last year in Phoenix: set up a two-machine network in the presentation room.
Daylight is burning. Gotta get to work.
Cheers...
In fact, somewhere around here are instructions I received from the conference organizers recommending I bring along my passport and another government-issued photo ID to get into Canada.
Yikes!
Frankly, I only needed my passport to get into the UK, France, and Switzerland on the return trip from Kazakhstan this past summer. What's with the second form of ID business?
Then again, maybe I need the extra ID to get back.
As it stands, I've already received mail from one perennial conference exhibitor informing me that they would not be bringing any inventory (books, dictionaries, tapes) to Toronto, owing to some export/import rules of some kind. (From my experience at the store, I know that sending anything of commercial value to Canada involves unsightly paperwork.) I wonder if anyone else is going to bring any inventory? And if they don't, why on earth would they rent booths in the exhibit hall?
In other news, Verizon tells me that although my cell phone will work in Toronto, it'll cost me US$0.69/min to roam and an additional US$0.20/min to call long distance, so I guess my phone will be turned off once I hit the border.
On the other hand, I must say I am looking forward to seeing Toronto again.
Too, the Z won't run Twiki because I'd need to install a whole pile of additional software on the unit (e.g., version control software) to make it work.
So, I've loaded MyWiki (a simple Perl-based wiki), Twiki, and WackoWiki (MySQL based) on my "spare" Linux server, and I'll doubtless do what I did last year in Phoenix: set up a two-machine network in the presentation room.
Daylight is burning. Gotta get to work.
Cheers...
