I incurred my first Prince Edward Island library fines today.

In the olden days — before May 1, 2004 — Prince Edward Island didn’t charge fines for overdue library books. You received a polite notice in the mail, or by email, telling you your book was overdue. And you brought it back.

That was then, this is now. Today I had to shell out just under $5.00 for an overdue book and an overdue VHS tape.

As much as I appreciated the novelty of PEI being fine-free, I don’t have a huge problem with paying penance for keeping materials longer than I should, especially if there’s evidence that this system generally keeps materials more available to everyone.

And I can always take comfort from the notion that the money from my fines will be used by the library for Good.

Except it isn’t. I learned today that money from library fines flows into general revenue. It goes to pay for potholes and MRI machines and wind turbines. And, I suppose, in some small, small way, to buy books. A small, small, small way.

That’s a shame.

Liberal candidate Shawn Murphy is scheduled to join us on Thursday, June 3 at 4:00 p.m. here at 84 Fitzroy Street, Charlottetown. Like our meetings with Will McFadden, Dody Crane and Darren Peters earlier in the week, this will be an informal opportunity to learn more about the candidate and his ideas. All are welcome.

Federal NDP candidate Dody Crane is coming to a gathering here at 84 Fitzroy Street in Charlottetown on Tuesday, June 1 at 4:00 p.m.. This will be an informal opportunity to learn more about Dody and her ideas, and for us to provide feedback to her. All are welcome. Please drop me a line if you’re going to be coming, so we can plan coffee capacity.

A reminder that Green Party candidate Will McFadden is dropping by here today at 2:00 p.m.

Here’s the latest update of the table listing candidate websites for the 2004 Federal Election on Prince Edward Island. Comments below.

I’ve added new website addresses for Lawrence MacAulay and Reg Harper, and changed all of the Green Party addresses to point at their Island-based party website candidate pages.

There are now pointers to candidate weblogs where they exist.

Dody Crane’s website is being moved to a new address at Eastlink, and I’ve been told it will be live later today; I’ll update this page when it’s available online.

There are now NDP candidates in Malpeque and Egmont, although the national NDP office can’t give me telephone numbers or website addresses yet. I do have local email addresses, and I’ve sent out a query looking for information, which I will post when it arrives.

I have become addicted to the BBC series Coupling again. After renting season one on DVD last summer, I’ve found seasons two, three and part of four online. I’ve been watching all week. It’s very funny.

Wily-eyed friend Gary found this Robert Harris watercolour in the online Confederation Centre Art Gallery.

From the church, count three buildings to the left: that’s our house at 100 Prince Street. When the watercolour was painted, in 1870, our house was already 33 years old (see also this photo taken 34 years after the watercolour).

Kudos to the team at the Centre for developing this wonderful, elegant online resource. Who would have ever thought that the Centre would employ people with the job title of Metadata Technician.

I do shudder to think that our house is now part of the grade 4-5 curriculum, although I do take some pride in knowing that this will help students “identify and describe how people create places that reflect human needs, values, and ideas.” That’s certainly the effect we’re going for here, now.

So far Dody Crane, Shawn Murphy and Peter McQuaid are the only candidates with blogs. Only Dody’s has a complete feature-set, with things like an RSS feed (she’s using TypePad). Shawn’s “Daily Update” is built using DotNetNuke and Peter’s looks like HTML homebrew.

By the way, Dody’s website has gone dark; it’s still being pointed to by the federal NDP site, though.

And Shawn has a campaign website to replace his regular MP website during the campaign.

This morning I took another look at Prince Edward Island candidate websites for the upcoming federal election. Some candidates moved their websites, others set ones up since I first published this table, so herewith I present an updated list. This time I’ve added information about what operating system, webserver software, and Internet Service Provider the candidates are using. Comments below.

Where are the sites hosted?

• Only two candidates — Darren Peters and Wayne Easter — are hosting their websites at a PEI-based Internet Service Provider (ISN).
• Three candidates — Peter McQuaid, Lawrence MacAulay and Dody Crane — are hosting their websites at Aliant, where workers are currently on strike.
• Three candidates — Mary Crane, Shawn Murphy and Joe McGuire — are using U.S.-based Internet Service Providers to host their sites (Joe McGuire’s site currently returns magazine subscription offers; I was given the address by the campaign office, and double checked with them; they’re getting back to me).

What are they running?

• Seven of thirteen candidates — over 50% — use servers running the open-source Linux operating system.
• All of the Liberal candidates but Wayne Easter use Microsoft servers.
• Eight candidates are running the open-source Apache webserver, three are running Microsoft IIS, one is running WebSitePro, and one is running Lasso.

I used the Netcraft service to gather all technical data on ISPs, operating systems and server software. All Green Party candidates have websites based on a central Green Party server. I identified candidate’s websites either by phoning the campaign offices, or by following links from the central party sites.

I received an invitation yesterday to attend a “round-table discussion on ‘Developing a Marketing Brand’ for Downtown Charlottetown.” I am told that “professional moderators from Cossette Atlantic will guide us through a discussion” and that the end product will be “positioning for the new Downtown Charlottetown Brand and subsequent marketing plan.”

Is it just me, or does Downtown Charlottetown (I prefer the more humble downtown Charlottetown myself) need a brand like it needs a hole in the head?

Sure, the brandocrats will tell us that a brand is all about “positioning your qualities in the consumer’s mind” and associated rubbish. But brands are really, at their core, about telling a Big Lie. Or a series of Big Lies.

Downtown Charlottetown is in the process of withering away. Why not concentrate efforts on stanching the wither, and working for real improvement instead of wasting time painting a coat of socially-engineered artifice on the problem?

We’re hosting an informal gathering with Green Party candidate Will McFadden at 84 Fitzroy Street, Charlottetown on Monday, May 31 at 2:00 p.m.. This isn’t a debate or a speech or a formal Green Party event, it’s simply an opportunity for some of us to meet Will, hear his ideas, and ask some questions.

If you’re interested in coming by, please drop me a line, just so we can get an idea of how many people are coming.

We’ve sent out invitations to other candidates in the Charlottetown district to come to similar gatherings over the next couple of weeks; watch this space for details.