CTV’s Newchannel has taken to giving the national forecasts in “Real Feel” as in it feels like -25 today. Just dumb. I feel the same about the humidex, too.
I see Blackberry 10 has been released; I’m pondering replacing my Galaxy S as my contract is nearly done. I really want to support Canadian business, and I hope this will mark RIM’s return to some decent market share.
EnviroCan actually changed the way they reported wind chill values about ten years ago – right when I was studying thermodynamics, heat transfer, and fluid flow in university. Anybody remember this? For a short time in the winter, they started reporting wind chill in watts per square metre instead of the customary ‘synthetic temperature’ thing (“Minus 29, but feels like minus 40!”).
Anyway everybody howled and they changed it back pretty quickly. I was pretty interested in it, though – they’d done a new, better model of the heat loss from a human body in partnership, I think, with the NRC, and come up with more realistic values. So instead of reporting what equivalent still air temperature would give the same rate of cooling as flowing air at the actual temperature, they just reported the actual temperature and the cooling power.
Anyway we’re back to these pretend temperatures. But in case anyone was wondering, there is actually some sense behind them. The only hand-wavy bit is the model of the human body they used, which won’t be perfect with respect to shape or thermal interface.
I’m curious myself. I have the sII LTE, but BB has to be BETTER than that to get me back. I feel like it’s too little, too late. Either way, it’s brand new hardware, brand new operating system. Even with all the delays, I’m anticipating launch bugs. Wait at least until September, if not Christmas, before even contemplating getting one!
I remember those weather reports. I couldn’t understand them at all.
-26 with a windchill factor of 3500. Bundle up!
I loved the watts/m^2 windchill reports. It’s this cold, and the wind will suck this much heat out of you on top of that. “Feels like” is just bullshit, and changes depending on such radical factors as which direction you’re facing and if there are trees across the street.
I wish it would get colder – the snow keeps melting, which makes for a really poor ski season. Seeing as skiing is the best reason for winter, I wish we’d actually have a decent winter rather than this ongoing thaw, thaw, thaw nonsense.
Apparently it’s not even going to be RIM anymore. They will be calling the company “BlackBerry.”
Presumably because their research has gotten a little stagnant. 
I wouldn’t count them out yet. They have security features that governments and corporations like. They won’t be the dominant phone maker they once were, but they should continue to do well in their key markets.
The new phone and rebranding looks positive thus far.
Woo-hoo! Our little city makes the national news:
Alberta man charged with trespassing after BASE jumping off 95-metre-high railway bridge
The bridge in question is a local landmark, and still in use by the CPR. Trains regularly cross it. At the landside approaches, fences keep the curious away, but they are not so intimidating that a determined person can be kept from the bridge. Looks like this guy was determined. And he survived!
It is not often that our little city makes the national news, so I had to share.
That’s a great bridge - I stare at it every time we drive by. I don’t, however, feel a great need to jump off of it. 
Alberta Labour Federation says Alberta should process more bitumen locally - from the “no duh” file.
A family down the river from us when I was growing up moved to Florida in the late '80s.
Two of the daughters have long since returned permanently, but the other family members regularly visit the area.
I remember talking to the mother of the family, who had been my piano teacher, at a summer party. This was about 10 years after they’d moved south. One thing she mentioned about “home” (Little Village Ontario) has always stayed with me:
“It seems like all anyone wants to talk about is the weather.”
It’s so true.
Our weather is interesting, I think; it affects everyone, it’s nobody’s fault (directly, anyhow), anyone can have an opinion on it without hurting anyone else’s feelings, and no matter how shitty it is, there’s nothing we can do to change it, so we just complain to each other.
How very Canadian.
My grandfather was an ironworker on that bridge!
I miss the old-style watts/m^2 windchill values, too. When I was a kid, we watched a film (or video?) with local Saskatoon weatherman and Kinsmen Kingo Bingo host Greg Barnsley explaining what the values meant (e.g. 2400 = exposed skin freezes in 1 minute).
My friend’s pet peeve is when people say that the temperature is below zero, if you include the wind chill. “Wind does not make water freeze!”
I think it’s because that we know in our bones that weather is out to kill us.
The only thing keeping their numbers afloat worldwide is their sales in the developing and third world. That was motorola’s honey pot; now they’re on life support.
It’s better, but it’s not great. I have an Android phone; this blackberry looks O-K, but is it better? I don’t see it. They need to get the IP lawyers together, and figure out a way to emulate iOS apps, in addition to the Android apps they’re emulating, and figure out a way to do it fast and clean. BB has already opened up its enterprise servers to Android and iOS, because they knew they were bleeding deep. They can’t use that reasoning for their devices, so emulation is their only hope in hell, IMHO.
-33C this morning, no windchill. <sigh> Still lots of snow to be had for skiing and sledding so I guess that’s a plus.
It is supposed to be in the plus temps by Saturday; I love my murderous Canadian schizophrenic weather. heehee…
I’m thinking the BB Balance feature alone will make it attractive to people who live and die on thier phone. Having one device that enables you to have a work side and a personal side separate along with the Hub is going to be a winner; if it works.
This morning was 9C (from last week -32) but the windchill was at 80KM… dang it was scary!
Hey by the way if there is an Ottawa Dopefest, Winterfest I’d like to go and bring anyone else from Montreal who doesn’t have a car!!!
We really need to do this: a couple of hours skating, followed by a couple of hours in a pub.
Sounds marvelous.
I’m leery of meeting people off of message boards myself, but idle curiosity makes me wonder what y’all look like, haha. I might be a fly on the wall for an Ottawa dopeout. 