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It’s your future

If you didn’t happen to make it to the Whistler. It’s Our Future workshop last Saturday (Nov. 15), it’s not too late to get involved.

If you didn’t happen to make it to the Whistler. It’s Our Future workshop last Saturday (Nov. 15), it’s not too late to get involved.

Basically the municipality has tabled five different scenarios for the development of Whistler, and possibly the Callaghan Valley, in the future. Assuming our municipality takes our suggestions to heart in the Community Sustainability Plan, residents of Whistler have a unique opportunity to suggest what route future developments will follow.

Judging by the real estate guides, there is more than enough housing for millionaires in this town. What’s needed is more housing for staff and residents, the people that make this town function.

The sticky thing is that any new approved housing projects will force Whistler to readjust, or completely abandon, the bed unit cap that was set to keep this town liveable. As it is, the slopes and parks can get pretty crowded at times.

Adding more bed units to town will likely create more demand on public services, but I would argue that adding new staff restricted bed units will only compensate for the inevitable sale-off of market housing to the highest bidder. In other words, all the staff housing that is being lost when older homes are torn down and replaced with million dollar "chalets" will be replaced and protected from the market. Most of those new million dollar homes will be empty most of the time, so in the end we will probably only see a minimal increase in the number of the people that are here at any one time.

That’s opinion, not fact, but I’ve seen it happen.

And yes, the demand for staff has increased, but not as much as the demand for housing. But it’s not infinite. If we limit the market development of hotels and homes, then eventually we’re going to hit a magic number of staff needed to keep this town running – a balance that is beneficial for everybody.

My suggestion is to visit the Whistler. It’s Our Future site at www.whistlerfuture.com, and start at the beginning. Download the work book in the Create It section, and complete the questionnaire.

There’s an old saying that if you don’t vote you can’t complain. This is the same thing – if you don’t take part in the process to determine Whistler’s Future, than don’t come bitching when you’re lease comes up and you landlord announces that he’s selling your place to the highest bidder.

The new dial-up

The broadband Internet craze is well-justified by many, but it creates a number of other issues as well, including security issues. It can also be expensive and is as unlimited as many people believe – use too much bandwith, and some Internet Providers are going to present you with additional fees on top of your monthly bill.

For some people who just need the Internet to send e-mail, read a few papers, and look up recipes, AOL Canada has come up with a middle-speed solution.

The new service, released as Netscape Online, uses a standard 56 kilobits per second modem – the standard about five years ago – that is capable of speeds up to 256 kbps when downloading graphics and text.

That’s more than five times slower than broadband and cable Internet services, but it’s still more than four times faster than dial-up used to be and it’s just $18.95 a month – less than half of what other high-speed broadband services charge.

The dial-up service is also portable, enabling subscribers to dial-up through the phone line in 52 cities and towns across Canada. For people who travel a lot and have to figure out how to stay in touch with family, friends and the home office, that’s a definite benefit.

For more information, visit AOL Canada at www.aol.ca.

Chalk one up for carbon-based lifeforms

It was a hard battle, but at last man triumphed over machine.

No, this is not a spoiler for the final instalment in the Matrix trilogy, but the latest round in the ongoing "man verses computer" chess saga.

Garry Kasparov, the undisputed world number one in chess, easily beat the chess program X3D Fritz on Sunday with an aggressive style of play that the computer couldn’t keep up with.

The day before, Kasparov made a critical mistake that cost him the win but earned him a draw.

According to chess and computer experts, Kasparov won by using a long-term strategy that a computer can’t anticipate, but a human player could have easily picked up on. Kasparov timed his play to win in over 40 moves, while Fritz can only look about 19 half moves ahead.

Kasparov and the computer are now tied in the four game series.

Hackers hijack computers

The growth of broadband Internet services has opened doors to computer hackers and created a whole new form of extortion.

In the recent months, authorities have seen an increase in targetted "denial of service" attacks, where hackers effectively tie up servers with data requests indefinitely. The hackers then contact the companies who have been targetted and demand money to stop the attacks.

Online casinos have been heavily targetted for many reasons. The first is that they have deep pockets, and can afford to pay extortion. They also make a lot of money, so the longer their casinos are off-line, the more money they stand to lose.

Online casinos will also do anything they can to hush up any suggestion that they are vulnerable to attack because players, concerned over the safety of their credit card information, would pull out. As a result, the casinos won’t even inform authorities when these types of attacks take place, making it harder to track down hackers.

Another reason casinos have been targetted is the fact that many of them are located in the Caribbean because of the lax laws for commerce and banking, and law enforcement agencies in those countries don’t have the resources to investigate the attacks.

Organized crime groups in Eastern Europe and Russia are thought to be responsible for most of the extortion.

Information Risk Management, a cyber forensics company, is working with online casinos to build up their defences against hackers, and encouraging companies that have been hit to share information.

Home computers are often hacked into help with these schemes, sending e-mails and making data requests of the targetted servers to help tie up connections and create a denial-of-service emergencies.