Remember ArtsCanada, the CBC’s ill-fated “arts portal.” It was a Flash-drenched “hey, let’s do TV in a web browser” kind of portal the design of which was described by its creators as:

…influenced by modern living spaces, promoting a sense of comfort and personal fulfillment with a provocative and intriguing design aesthetic.

In other words, visiting it once was enough to convince you never to visit again.

I’m happy to report that the CBC has seen the light, and has ditched the non-functional whizbang for some good old HTML: CBC.ca/arts is the result. It features nifty innovations like “text you can cut and paste” and “hyperlinks.” And, on first blush at least, some interesting content. Stay tuned.

Some computer programming flows out of me like water. It’s effortless, and interesting.

But there’s also computer programming that feels like a heavy mallet smashing into my brain.

I’ve figured out the difference: when I’m writing programs that conform to my understanding of the world, it’s easy.

And when I’m working with people with whom I share a fundamental understanding, it’s easy.

But when I’m working to specs provided by a client with a totally different conception of how the world works, it’s a long, slow slog.

The reason for this is that I have to, in essence, adopt the client’s world view, see the world as they see it, and believe in their way of understanding. It’s only by doing this that I can effectively muck around in their world and do what needs to be done.

It’s hard enough just being me; having to mind-morph myself into an accountant or a biologist or a bureaucrat is hard work. And maintaining that state of mind while letting code dance out of my fingers is even harder. And if I lose focus, or lose faith in the client’s world view, it’s tantamount to falling into an abyss.

Programming is easy. Wearing several different belief systems a day is hard.

I don’t get paid for the code I write, I get paid to be a nimble, effective, faithful chameleon. Who writes code.

Hrvatski jezik is an excellent resource for English or Russian speakers who want to learn basic travel Croatian. It includes audio files for keys to how to pronounce. As a special bonus, if you learn the basics of Croatian, you’ll do fine in Slovenia and Serbia (although Dad and I did encounter some situations in Slovenia and Croatia where a certain word was considered “the Serbian word” for something).

The CBC is reporting a CRTC ruling that will allow the American channel “Spike TV” to remain on the air in Canada. Most interesting in the CBC report:

The CRTC saw a difference between Spike, which targets middle-class American males, and Men TV which features lifestyle programming for men from an urbane, sophisticated perspective.

Here’s what the CRTC wrote in its decision:

Spike TV argued that it is not competitive with Men TV for four key reasons. First, it argued that its nature of service is different from that of Men TV, given that Spike TV focuses on programming for “middle class American working men” while Men TV focuses on “men’s lifestyle programming from an urbane, sophisticated, cultured and slightly older Canadian men’s perspective.”

In other words, Spike is claiming that its programming is aimed at people who aren’t urbane, sophisticated, or cultured. American men.

This is another one of those “I’m putting this here because I know that someone, someday, somewhere will be looking for a solution to this problem” posts.

If you have a delimited ASCII file that you want to import into the OpenOffice.org spreadsheet, in the File \| Open dialog, you need to select Text CSV (*.csv;*.txt) as the “File type.” You have to scroll way down the list of file types to find this option.

If you just open the file, or open it with file type of “Spreadsheet” or even open it with file type of Text (*.txt) near the top of the file type list, the file will open in the word processor, not the spreadsheet.

In what can only be called a stunningly generous and sensible move, Aliant is making all residential calls to 13 tsunami-affected areas free until February 28, 2005. Here’s their news release; they’re also running ads to this effect.

Regular overseas long distance rates to these countries are expensive: Thailand is $2.29 a minute, India is $1.69 a minute, Burma is $5.69 a minute. Even Somalia, with Aliant’s most expensive per-minute rate of $5.79, is covered under this offer. Bravo Aliant!

Another post from Steve today: this one concerns his memories of appearing on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.

Via my friend Harold Stephens comes a report on the post-tsunami situation in Phuket.

In a move intended to solve, once and for all, the problem of how to best arrange its parking lots and the various entrances thereto, administration at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown today unveiled details of a new “Entrance 2000” plan in a report to the public.

The hospital, which has rearranged its entrance road system several times in recent years, has been plagued with “chronic underperformance of entrance schemology,” says the report.

Under the new plan all parking for the facility will be moved across the Hillsborough River to Stratford. Patients and visitors will be routed to the hospital by a series of high technology pedestrian bridges and zodiac boats.

To ensure the needs of emergency patients are met, a special high-speed luge ramp will be installed over the river, terminating in the outpatient department.

An unnamed source at the hospital, responding to questions about the plan from the media, said “We know there will be challenges adjusting to the new system, but we have faith that this new plan, by moving parking offsite and introducing high technology, will ultimately prove successful.”

Construction is to begin immediately. During construction, patients and visitors will be bused by special high-speed shuttle, from a remote parking lot in Cornwall.

The CBC is reporting that “Northwest Airlines will be offering a new nonstop service between Detroit Metropolitan Airport and Charlottetown this summer.”

On first blush, you might think “who the heck wants to go to Detroit?”

But remember that Detroit Metro Airport is also served by the low-fare Southwest Airlines. Direct service to Detroit means direct service to connecting Southwest flights, which might turn out to be an excellent thing both for Islanders leaving and visitors coming.

For example, an early-June flight from Detroit to Chicago is $39 each way; Burbank, California is $99 each way; New Orleans is $104 each way. Depending on where Northwest sets the Charlottetown to Detroit fares, this could make for very economical travel within North America.

Besides the Southwest possibilities, travel on Northwest itself might prove to be interesting: Detroit is a major hub for Northwest, and they offer direct flights to Tokyo.

Here’s the Detroit Free Press coverage of the story.