Wednesday, December 30/2009

Last day of regular business before the New Year's shut down and frenzied activity at the supermarkets. Last day at student internet too before 4 day holiday. Steady stream there of genuine students, free of classes now, mostly engaged in highly unacedemic pursuits. Games are forbidden on these computers but the tell-tale sound effects are unjistakeable. There is a censorship system installed which works rather unpredictably. Maggi reports that it denies access to OANDA's foreign currency exchange site, and I struggle to remember whether one can use the site for speculation as well as information. More annoyingly, the Globe and Mail's website is verboten. The reason given is that it is, or may be, a sports site. Of course it does, like any newspaper, have a sports section, but that's scarcely a defining feature of what is, arguably, Canada's most serious newspaper. But no point in arguing with a computer - or in this case with computer centre staff.