Be humble

I would really like to hear the justication for any sector of an economy having an expectation of financial support from a provincial government (when their industry is in a down turn).

I am a compulsive weather watcher and absolutely love weather extremes.  There are numerous weather recording devices available and for some years I have has one of these on my roof. This device constantly outputs data to a device that looks like this:This device will store data for extended period of time and periodically I download the data to a weather database on my computer.

Looking back over the past year, I note the following extremes:

• High ambient temperature was 34 C on August 03, 2004 at 1:37PM
• Low ambient temperature was -22.1 C on January 27, 2005 at 4:51AM
• Low wind chill was -44 C on January 28, 2005 at 1:38AM
• High wind was 109 KPH on December 27, 2004 at 5:16PM

The has to be a Mike Currie punch line here somewhere?

The war continues. ...and so does my satisfaction with the SpamArrest product.  It has now been 3 weeks since I started this service and as the statistics indicate, spam elimination has been the result.  SpamArrest, which continues the (now closing) Knowspam service has proved to be a good decision. 

If you have two (or more) computer systems that each have a keyboard and mouse, you probably have had moments of confusion remembering which keyboard etc to you when you are working on both system.  Synergy lets you easily share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems, each with its own display, without special hardware. It’s intended for users with multiple computers on their desk since each system uses its own monitor(s).

Redirecting the mouse and keyboard is as simple as moving the mouse off the edge of your screen. Synergy also merges the clipboards of all the systems into one, allowing cut-and-paste between systems. Furthermore, it synchronizes screen savers so they all start and stop together and, if screen locking is enabled, only one screen requires a password to unlock them all.

Synergy is open source and cross-platform.  It also works as advertised.  While is is not a KVM (you don’t share a single monitor), it does fill a need in my little office.  Based on 24 hours use, I can confirm it is a keeper here.

Those who know me in the real world know that I have worked for many years in the insurance industry.  For most of my 35 year career, I have been proud of what I do and content in knowing that I work for a firm and industry that has character and integrity. 

I am still incredibly proud of the firm I am employed at.  While terms like honesty, integrity and utmost good faith are not the terms that the insurance consumer first thinks of when thinking about insurance delivery, from the other side of the counter, it is what I have seen for 3.5 decades. It is our mantra.  I have been privileged to work with people who actually take the trust that has been placed with them seriously and do their very best to exceed the expectations of their clients.  I see many thousands of claims presented to insurers each year and it continues to amaze me that the insurance industry lives up to its obligation and pays the vast majority of claims promptly and fairly.  As in any industry, there are exceptions, but they are few and far between.  Of course, those are the ones we all hear about.

Most of my career has been spent placing business with British and Canadian insurance carriers.  Most of the time these carriers have been run by honourable and honest people who understand that at the end of the transaction is a person who had just reached in their pocket and paid a premium.  Some of the finest men and women that I know have managed insurance companies or worked at the front line of insurance companies.  These people lived the concept of utmost good faith.  I remember a few years ago a client called to report a claim.  The claim was not covered, but my client clearly thought it was covered.  He has made a mistake and assumed that it was something that was insured.  This client had been with me a long time and I felt terrible.  I discussed the situation with my employer, and the boss and I came to the conclusion that if (in this particular situation) the client thought he had insurance, he did have insurance and we reached in our pocket and paid the claim.  It was the right thing to do.  Equally interesting is that, hearing of this claim, the manager of the insurance company called me and asked why we had paid a claim our of our pocket.  I explained the situation and his comment was, “why didn’t you call me?” A cheque arrived the following week to reimburse us for our payment, just because it was the right thing to do.  Utmost good faith.

Yesterday, we leaned that a fine old insurance firm in Yarmouth has been sold.  They were people who understood the concepts of doing proper business and it saddened us.  It saddened us because there are not many firms left that really understand and respect the faith that is put in us.  The insurance carriers have changed.  Now they are run my chartered accountants and while they pay lip service to utmost good faith they really don’t understand it.  It is all about money and the bottom line. 

In many ways the insurance consumer is getting exactly what they have demanded.  They have demanded lower premiums and to do that, insurance carriers have responded with reduced expenses to lower premiums.  There are fewer people doing the job, they are poorly trained, and they simply do not understand the concept of a contract of insurance.

As the insurance delivery system evolves, there will be less and less demand for people like me, people who stand between the insurance carrier and the consumer.  It is interesting, in that there has never been a time in my 35 year career, when there has been a greater need for people who do what I do.  We see banks pushing insurance direct to the consumer (you do trust your bank, right?), we see insurance carriers delivering directly to the consumer (I know you trust them), we even see insurance purchasing on the Internet and we will see some form of government involvement in insurance delivery in the future. 

If you don’t think you will need a quick pink card because you just bought a new car (or have misplaced yours and can’t locate it when you are stopped by the police), if you don’ t think that you will ever have a claim that might entail the need for advice, if you don’t think you will need the advice of someone who understands the complex nature of an insurance contract or the confusing processes of the industry, if you trust the response you will get from someone who is an employee of the insurance carrier or if you simply begrudge the small commission that is included in your insurance premium, then by all means, buy your insurance through one of the alternative delivery schemes.

Last evening, my phone rang and it was a friend who purchased an auto policy from The Royal Bank.  His 16 year old daughter just totaled his car and he had not (yet) added her to his policy.  He has called RB and they declined his claim because she was not a listed operator.  The person he spoke to could barely speak English and was situated in a call centre (probably in India).  It is interesting that the Indian call centre staff are taught to speak with a Maritime accent (poorly) and discuss Canadian issues.

I explained to my friend that there was no question about coverage, the standard auto policy would respond and that he should call the person back and explain that he understood the contract and to demand a response.  I have not heard back.  I do know that the savings of $110 that my friend obtained, is looking somewhat tarnished today.

I have two items of advice.  Buy your insurance from an independent agent/broker and be prepared to pay a little more for the fact that you will have someone who is responsible to respond to your needs.  The second bit of advice is to seek out someone who represents The Dominion of Canada General Insurance Company.  They are a company that still understands the concept of utmost good faith and that understanding starts with the company President and flows down to all of the people that work for the company.

Interesting that Kingston, Ontario, Summerside, PEI and Charlottetown, PEI were all described as uncooperative when the press attempted to obtain public information under the freedom of information legislation.

Self-appointed expert on all things, A.C. Holman has asked a provocative question about the viability of Islander’s expectations of having full-service hospitals in our small communities.  This is a question that all citizens of PEI should consider objectively (but will not).

I have considered this question often (and I hope objectively) and have come to the conclusion that a small jurisdiction simply can’t afford to have full-service hospitals in small communities.  It is reasonable to have expectations of being 10 or 15 minutes drive from a full-service hospital?

I live in an area that is a 30 minute drive to QEH.  I am not troubled by that.  If my health deteriorated to a point where this was a concern, I would consider relocating. 

If Islanders are truly concerned about the health issues VS “I have it and you are not taking it away”, I wonder if it would be more logical to redirect the monies spent in some of the rural full-service hospitals towards highly qualified first-response paramedics located close to many rural area.

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Microsoft sends news today that founder Bill Gates has announced a MSN Virtual Earth service is to debut in the summer. The service is promised to provide:

* Satellite images with 45-degree-angle views of buildings and neighborhoods

* Satellite images with street map overlays

* Ability to add local data layers, such as showing local businesses or restaurants

The service will allow users to choose from a number of different data types plus allow people to contribute their own information. The announcement came today at the D3 conference happening this week

There are times when Kes feels the need to remind the rest of the pack who is boss.

Even Que, who outweighs her, knows there are times to put the breaks on.