MiltonSearch.com blog

Today, many good boys get caught up in a path they may not have chosen if they had a mentor to help see options, weigh consequences and make positive choices.

Like many Little Brothers, 11-year-old Kevin lives in subsidized housing with a single non-working parent. He is used to going without and each day can be a struggle to fit in around kids who live in better circumstances.

About six months ago, Mike became Kevin’s Big Brother. It didn’t take long before both realized the relationship was helping Kevin discover and develop his individual strengths, talents and gifts.

To illustrate how important it is for a child to have a role model for validation and direction, Mike recently related a story about a trip to a local ice rink he took with Kevin back in February. Although Kevin had never skated before, at 11 he was bold enough to think he’d master the sport as soon as he hit the ice. Little did he know that hitting the ice was more of a reality that skating circles around his Big Brother.

“He held my arm tightly as he moved a few feet and then – splat – he fell on to his butt,” recalls Mike. “His spirits were hurt more than anything else but he managed to get up.”

Mike says it would have been easier to have taken Kevin home and considered the day a right-off. Fortunately he recognized the strong spirit inside his little brother and both agreed to give it another try. After quite a few more attempts, Kevin was able to move around on his own.

“Kevin spent the next couple of hours practicing his skating on his own and trying out his new hockey stick,” notes Mike. “I eventually had to drag him away from the rink!”

While Mike realizes this is just the beginning of Kevin’s “skating career”, he says he’s thrilled the book isn’t yet closed and Kevin has learned a valuable lesson about not giving up.

Mike’s message to other men considering becoming a Big Brother is that the role is easy, figuring out what to do with your little brother is simple, and it’s fun.

“You don’t need to give a lot to have a lot to give,” he adds.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Halton has launched a campaign to find 100 good men in 2008. If you are interested in finding out how you can make a difference please call (905) 339-2355 or visit www.bbbshalton.ca.

Look for the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Halton monthly feature on MiltonSearch.com

Some of the following “hypermiling” tips may seem a bit over-the-top, but hey, with gas at $1.30+/litre, every little bit counts, right?

Maximize your gas mileage by “hypermiling”

Hypermiling tips: How to hypermile, according to expert Wayne Gerdes:

Maintenance

• Inflate your tires to the recommended maximum.
• If it’s not already equipped, install a fuel-consumption display gauge in your car.
• Switch to synthetic oil.
• Remove excess weight from your car and roof racks when possible.
• Change your air filter annually.

Basic driving habits

• Don’t let your car warm up in winter – new technologies have made it unnecessary.
• Avoid heavy braking.
• Avoid quick acceleration.
• Always drive the speed limit, or just below.
• Always drive in the right lane.
• Turn off your car’s air conditioner, or use it sparingly.
• Plan your route to avoid congestion, hills and left turns.
• Avoid idling.

Advanced driving techniques

• Drive without braking: Imagine that your brakes are limited or degraded. This means driving slower, creating buffers between your car and the vehicle in front of you, and looking far ahead to predict traffic flow.
• Drive with load: Instead of using cruise control when driving in hilly territory, keep your foot locked in the same position on the gas pedal. Allow your speed to drop as you climb a hill and rise when you go downhill.
• Drive with buffers: To drastically improve fuel efficiency in congested traffic, leave three car lengths between you and the car in front. As traffic speeds up and slows down, the buffer allows you to avoid braking and fast acceleration.

Parking tips

• Park in back corners to avoid braking for pedestrian traffic near entrances.
• Park in the highest spot of a parking lot to take advantage of gravity – coast to a stop, and roll downhill to get started.
• In double rows, roll through the first spot to park facing outward.

What do you think, Milton? With soaring gas prices and assuming a large percentage of Miltonians drive into Toronto every day (I’m basing that on the huge increase of traffic along Hwy. 401 through Milton), do you see yourself employing any of these techniques?

Those familiar with taking the GO Train into Toronto from Milton are well aware of all of the trials and tribulations involved. Those of you thinking about or who have recently moved to Milton and plan to commute into the city via the GO Trains might be interested in this recent article on why you can just throw that handy, dandy train schedule out the window when the temperatures heat up…

From Tess Kalinowski, Transportation Reporter at the Toronto Star:

GO Transit is warning of 15- to 30-minute delays on the Milton line in light of today’s extremely hot weather.

But based on last summer’s experience, which saw delays usually in the two- to three-minute range, those delays could be much shorter, said GO spokesperson Jessica Kosmack this afternoon.

The Milton line is owned by Canadian Pacific, which slows its trains to 64 kilometres per hour (40 miles per hour) once the temperature hits 32 degrees C, she said.

That allows the engineer and conductor in the locomotive to see if a kink has developed in the rail ahead due to heat expansion, explained CP spokesperson Mike Lovecchio.

CN also slows its passenger and freight trains once the temperature hits 30 degrees C but the delays in the Toronto-area tend to be insignificant, said company spokesperson Mark Hallman.

In many cases, because of the number of stops on the GO lines, the trains wouldn’t normally exceed the hot weather speed limit of 105 kilometres per hour. ( 65 miles per hour)

The Apple iPhone arrived in Toronto this week to a Beatles-like reception

It’s arguably the most-hyped consumer electronics gadget in history and Apple’s iPhone is finally available in Canada through Rogers Wireless. With all the media hoopla surrounding this sexy smartphone there’s probably very little you don’t already know about it.

Here are the things people are saying they love about the iPhone 3G, and the things they don’t, as compiled by the Toronto Star last week:

What people love

1. It’s so wireless. Ten different radios are under the hood of the iPhone 3G, including Wi-Fi (to surf the Net while on a wireless network), Bluetooth (for hands-free headsets), GPS (to navigate to a destination) and 3G connectivity for high-speed wireless connectivity through Rogers’ HSPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) network.

2. The display. The 3.5-inch multi-touch screen makes it a breeze to navigate through the phone’s features. Use your fingertip to flick down your contacts like a digital Rolodex. Pinch and expand to zoom into your photos. Tap to preview and play music via the iTunes Wi-Fi store.

3. Shhh, it’s really a computer. You haven’t surfed the Net on a phone until you’ve used an iPhone, thanks to a real HTML-based Safari browser with support for photos and some videos (such as QuickTime). Turn the iPhone sideways and the built-in accelerometer automatically flips the screen horizontally.

4. It’s an iPod. Store up to 8GB or 16GB (depending on the model) of music, podcasts, audio books, photos and videos – all copied over when synched with your iTunes software. But unlike any previous iPod, the iPhone also has a built-in speaker so you don’t need ear buds if you don’t want to wear them.

5. Programs galore. Apple opened up the platform for third-party developers. The AppStore means you can download thousands of applications to run on the iPhone, ranging from 3-D video games and song-writing software (think GarageBand for your pocket) to medical encyclopaedias and digital cookbooks with video tutorials.

6. It’s stable. The operating system is rock solid. We haven’t experienced a crash once. Any time you want to get out of a program you don’t have to look for an “X” to tap in order to close it – simply tap the solitary “Home” button at the bottom of the iPhone. It might not be a sexy feature, but there’s nothing more un-sexy than a crashing OS with a complicated interface.

7. Coffee is close by. Type in something you’re looking for in the Google Maps search field – such as “coffee,” “gas station,” “Indian food,” “CIBC” or “hotel” – and you’ll immediately see pushpins fall onto the satellite image. Tap the closest “point of interest” and it will present the phone number (tap to call), website, address and directions.

What don’t people love about the iPhone 3G?

1. The soft QWERTY keyboard takes some getting used to – especially for those with fat thumbs. And while you can hold it horizontally while surfing the web (to make the keyboard bigger), emails must be typed on the vertical layout.

2. No video recording. What gives? Plus, the 2-megapixel camera is the same as last year’s model (5 megapixels would’ve been nice).

3. No MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) support. You can take a photo and email it to someone but you can’t send it to a friend’s phone with a message.

4. No voice-activated dialling (e.g. “Call Home”), as you can with most other phones. On a related note, there is no voice recording feature (an invaluable tool as a journalist).

5. Google Maps doesn’t give you audio-based turn-by-turn instructions, so it’s basically useless while driving.

6. You can’t copy and paste text on the iPhone, such as a copying some words from a website to the Notes section. With any luck this oversight will be fixed with a firmware update.

7. More memory, please. Rumour has it a 32GB version is in the works. At the very least offer support for expandable memory cards, no?

– Compiled by Marc Saltzman, special to the Toronto Star

Plasma TVs, which use more electricity, can offer a superior picture because they can display truer black colours and have higher contrast ratios than LCD screens.

Choosing between the two technologies may hinge on price and how the TV will be used

It’s an inevitable question when looking for a flat-panel HDTV these days: Will it be plasma or LCD?

It was easier when there were only cathode-ray tubes and choice came down to size and brand. Now, we are confronted with different and confusing technology options. How do you choose between plasmas and LCDs?

Price could be one way.

Plasma HDTVs 50-inches or larger cost less than similar sized LCD HDTVs, but the price gap is closing, especially with the popular 42- to 46-inch sizes.

As for life expectancy, both plasmas and LCDs are capable of running around 60,000 hours, or eight hours a day for 20 years, before half brightness occurs. And they are both now capable of an exceptional 1080p HD resolution.

Plasmas are known to be somewhat of an electricity hog, but Barry Murray, marketing director at Panasonic Canada, feels that tag is a bit unfair.

“Government regulations require plasmas to list the maximum watts used, when, in fact, they consume closer to half that power in real-world conditions,” he says. “Plasmas light each pixel individually, as required, but LCDs always have a backlight running and block the light to produce colours.”

With all this in mind, how do we choose?

Ultimately, it comes down to how you want to use your HDTV.

If you are a videophile looking for the true home-theatre experience, an HDTV plasma might be the way to go.

Generally, plasmas are known for their superior picture performance because they can display truer black colours than LCDs. Plasmas can run a very low level of luminance to create the colour black and have higher contrast ratios than LCDs, producing a more detailed true-to-life picture.

LCD HDTVs are no slouches on picture quality but they still can’t block out enough of the underlying backlight to produce the same level of blacks as plasmas.

Plasmas are also believed to offer smoother and more realistic video motion with quicker pixel refresh rates, but LCDs are quickly catching up.

The new 120Hz refresh technology being incorporated in LCDs is considered one of the biggest breakthroughs in some time, according to Patrick Lapointe, director of marketing for LCDs at Sony Canada.

“Our MotionFlow technology (120Hz refresh) provides smoother motion and seamless action for sports scenes,” he says. “By doubling the number of frames on the screen every second, the eye perceives much less judder (instability) and blurriness than before.”

Viewing angles are also better on plasmas, up to an extreme 160 degrees. At that angle, you would be just about beside the screen with no loss of brightness or colour saturation. Higher-end LCDs like ones from Sony have decent viewing angles and are fine for most family room seating arrangement.

Of course, if you don’t have an HDTV set-top box from your television program provider or a Blu-ray DVD player, you just won’t get the video quality you’d expect. If your TV set-top box or DVD player doesn’t support the new HDMI interface, they probably don’t provide HD video.

If you plan to also hookup a PC/Mac or a game console such as an Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, you might want to consider an LCD HDTV.

While plasmas can do an excellent job projecting these, they still have a slight risk of burn-in, a permanent ghostlike image associated with prolonged display of a static image. LCD HDTVs are immune to burn-in so they are the safe bet, but they do suffer from stuck or dead pixels (permanently lit or unlit).

Another reason to consider an LCD is viewing distance. LCDs tend to have a smoother picture in a shorter viewing distance, making it optimal for using a computer or game console with it when you want to get up close. But note that if you are hooking up a computer, you won’t get a decent picture unless it has a DVI or HDMI video card.

– by Tom Katsiroubas of YourHome.ca and the Toronto Star