This Globe and Mail article has confirmed what I’ve seen in the past two years. More and more employers are refusing to give out references to past employees. I’ve experienced this from the bank I used to work for and many of my friends are finding the same problem.

The Globe mentions two possible reasons for this new trend. One is the result of penalties from lawsuits for inaccurate or negative references. Another is tightened privacy legislation that affects the company’s ability to mention information about their employees.

The article ends with some good “Do’s” and “Don’ts” for employment seekers.

Since Gmail came out with it’s large 1gb email accounts, millions and millions of people have signed up for it and use it as their primary email. However, one of my friends just had his email account disabled for no apparent reason. Moreover, a Google search of “Gmail disabled” reveals that this has happened to thousands of people over the past few years. Some of the people get their account back, but many just don’t hear from the Gmail team at all and are forced to lose their email and switch to another provider.

We rely so much on email these days that it’s hard to imagine someone being so careless with handling their customer service this way. However, Goggle is a virtual company and there’s no phone number to call, and their email is not answered by many of the people that have contacted them.

For now, I’m going to lessen my reliance on Gmail.

Johnnie Walker Blue was introduced to me by a friend that went to a tasting event last summer. Since that time I’ve tried it and I must say it’s excellent! Their blending formula really has hit a winner.

If you’re a fan of single malts, don’t pass by this blend - it’s worth a try.

My sister has begun shopping around for a new car. One of the priorities is to get power seats with a memory option so that its easier for her and her husband to share the car. Unfortunately after doing some research into the Japanese brands, none of them offer power seats with memory. Only two offer power seats and one with memory.

acura csx (same car as honda civic) $28,290-29,990
no power seats

honda civic $16,990-23,480 (not including Si model)
no power seats

mazda 3 $16,895-25,745
no power seats

mitsubishi lancer $16,598-22,998
no power seats

nissan sentra $16,798-24,298
no power seats

subaru impreza $20,695-23,195
no power seats

toyota corolla $14,565-23,210
power seats on the LE model

toyota matrix $15,705-26,775
no power seats

volkswagon jetta
power seats with memory on 2.0T model

The Cheap Eats book available around Toronto has a companion blog. They actually have quite a bit of an empire as I also noticed a Cheap Eats flickr group and now a blog.

This article the New York Times has the following quote, “They found that a 5-foot-8 man was just as successful in getting dates as a 6-footer if he made more money — precisely $146,000 a year more. For a 5-foot-2 man, the number was $277,000.”

Ouch.

When I first moved to Toronto as a summer student for one of the country’s banks, I got to know the city through the eyes of one of the only channels I got using rabbit ears: CityTV. However, the forced sale of CityTV to Rogers has only brought worse and worse news to the station that defined the city.

First they lost their Queen St. location, arguably the heart of the city. However their new Yonge/Dundas location may be closer to the true heart - if it wasn’t located in a concrete wasteland surrounded by advertising. Someone please plant a big tree in that “park”.

Then they cancelled Silverman helps, despite the show’s host wanting to host one more year - his 20th - before he retired. Finally today they announced that “Speaker’s Corner” has also been axed.

What’s left is a TV channel that is just like all the others. The innovative features that made CityTV unique and saw it’s brand spread across Canada (and imitated outside the country) is now just another channel. I’m not surprised Rogers did not understand what they got. Nor am I surprised they moved so quickly to ruin it. They just never understood what it was like to live in the “City”.

I’ve always been more of a fan of small and light laptops rather than bulky powerhouses that most people use. Even the new sleeker Dell’s seem pretty big to lug around. My current laptop, the LG T1 Express Dual is getting pretty old - it doesn’t even have a Core 2 Duo processor - I need to start looking for a replacement.

The leading contenders for the replacements were the trio of the MacBook Air, Lenovo X300 and Sony TZ. However, the LG i had, even with a 14″ screen and internal DVD burner, was 0.84″ at it’s thickest point. Only the MacBook Air was thinner - it’s thickest point is 0.76″; 0.92″ for the X300 and 1.17″ for the TZ.

Voodoo PC, now a division of Hewlett Packard, has introduced a new laptop called the Envy 133. It’s only 0.70″ thick throughout it’s base - it’s not angled like many of the other ultraportable laptops. It has a carbon fibre case, LED backlit screen, LED backlit keyboard, HDMI-out, non-SSD option (SSD’s are too expensive), and an e-SATA port that is combined with one of it’s two USB ports.

No Canadian pricing has been announced.

Unfortunately, my favorite rib recipe I cannot call my own. I use the recipe from Alton Brown’s show, Good Eats. His recipe involves a dry rub and then a bake in the oven with a braising liquid. It’s a quick prep, slow cook recipe (3 hours).

The full recipe is at the here at the Food Network.