So Mcguinty's pride and joy

[Shwa]

"Right. How could anyone forget your eminent qualifications? Because everyone equates the expertise gained by noodling around with Radio Shack parts in your garage as being qualified to evaluate regional power systems. "

Yeah right, Shwa! Tell us another one!

Buh-bye!

See how easy it is? You provide us your expertise in the esteemed area of guitar amp repair and some pc board sales back in the day as some sort of authority on modern regional power systems. You know, because the physics of them all are so similar. On some abstract level.

You probably have the ability to digest the technical material in such a way as to provide a layman's explanation in an informative way, but you appear to be too lazy. I dunno, maybe you are trying to be folksy or something?

At any rate, being on your ignore list is no matter to me.

I still get to respond to your easy pickins.

[Topaz]

I guess when it comes down to it, voters will have to say to themselves am I better off under the Liberals or under the Harris government. I would think more people would say under the Liberals because the Harris government hurt many people and groups and people don't forget that. The PC have another John Tory as leader so, if they don't like either of them, then the NDP will increase they numbers or form a minority government.

[capricorn]

I guess when it comes down to it, voters will have to say to themselves am I better off under the Liberals or under the Harris government.

Is Harris running again?

I would think more people would say under the Liberals because the Harris government hurt many people and groups and people don't forget that.

But the key question is will those people who "suffered" under Harris' government get out and vote against Harris?

The PC have another John Tory as leader so, if they don't like either of them, then the NDP will increase they numbers or form a minority government.

Yes the Layton factor may increase the NDP's numbers but a NDP government? Forget that. Horwath hasn't ruled out a coalition so the NDP might still end up in government after October 6.

[charter.rights]

Is Harris running again?

He is Hudak's key adviser. Haven't you noticed his "Change for a Better Future" platform is almost identical to Harris' "Common Sense Revolution".

[MiddleClassCentrist]

Any one can buy such a unit and be shown how to plug in the in/out cables. That does NOT make you a technician!

A technician would BUILD the unit! Inside are resistors, capacitors, transistors and/or integrated circuits, maybe a power transformer and so on.

Some of us can drive a car. Fewer can work on the engine. Fewer still can actually fabricate PARTS for an engine!

a1parts.com - general salvage and parts

sayal.com - have a few store fronts to go to too

solarbotics.com - good for small hobby robotics

some canadian electronics parts suppliers I use.

[capricorn]

He is Hudak's key adviser.

So I've heard.

Haven't you noticed his "Change for a Better Future" platform is almost identical to Harris' "Common Sense Revolution".

Nonsense. Plenty has been written about how little difference there is between the Tory and Liberal platforms. Where they mostly differ is on energy policy. Overall, Hudak touts change and McGuinty champions a strong, stable majority government. All very uninspiring.

[Wild Bill]

a1parts.com - general salvage and parts

sayal.com - have a few store fronts to go to too

solarbotics.com - good for small hobby robotics

some canadian electronics parts suppliers I use.

They are good sources for modern hobby style tinkering. I was the one who opened Paul Sayal's Burlington store, before it moved to down near Appleby.

Thank heavens for those places! They are the only chance for someone making a onesy-twosy, private sale. All the other distributors closed their counters back in the 80's, except of course for Electrosonic. At an industrial distributor order desk, not only did we have minimum dollar figures for orders but parts were sold in standard package quantities. If you wanted one IC and it came packaged 16 pcs to a plastic "rail" carrier, you had to buy 18 pcs.

We also couldn't take cash or credit card! Account orders only, thank you! Often, if we had what we called a "diddler" on the phone, tying up our time from where we made our commissions, we would give him a part or two FREE, as samples, just to politely get rid of him!

My brother worked for a large, US based disti that had bought out a Canadian one. By that means he had inherited Dofasco Steel as an account. Dofasco was used to buying their electronic parts for maintenance and overhauls onesy-twosy. They would issue an RFQ for 1 of a particular transformer, 5 of a transistor, 140' of a type of cable and so on. A month or so later if you had won the RFQ you got a purchase order in the mail.

This of course was 'horse and buggy' to modern distis! My brother's company was losing money on every Dofasco order. Their system was set up to sell standard packages, much of which was picked by automation from the warehouse to fill an order. To have someone manually break packages open to pick out odd quantities just for Dofasco was putting more labour cost into the order than the profit!

So my brother went in to try to persuade them to adapt a bit. Essentially, they were treating their electronic part needs like any other commodity. They used the same process to order a computer chip as a mop or a ladder for their janitors.

Dofasco's attitude, as described to me by my brother, was to get on a high horse and announce "We do nearly a quarter of a million dollars with you every year. YOU adapt to US!"

At that point my brother had no choice. He gently suggested that if that was the way things had to be then they should find themselves another supplier!

The company was shocked! They couldn't believe that a supplier would close an account of that much money over such an issue. They just didn't understand that the world had changed and that they were expecting a supplier to lose money supplying them in a horse and buggy fashion.

This left them in a situation where for their electronic needs the larger sources, which offered many parts they could get nowhere else, would not deal with them in their fashion. So they had to turn to smaller sources and brokers, who of course charged them MORE for their trouble! Their costs went up, a lot! Still, appearances were maintained as those smaller distis were willing to do things their way.

My needs are even more specialized. Vacuum tube electronic parts are quite different from mainstream types, since vacuum tubes operate at hundreds of volts or more, rather than tens. Filter caps for power supplies are typically 500 volt rated, coupling caps in the same ball part. Even resistors are at least 1/2 watt. 1/4 watt or less are not suitable at all. Power transformers are high in voltage with perhaps only a few hundred ma. of current, not the other way around.

So I use Hammond in Guelph for most transformers. There is a tube disti who markets internationally on the Net right here in my home town and they don't mind a cash sale at the back door. Other stuff I get from niche market distis in the States.

My biggest worry is solder! The 'tree huggers" have forced a shift to lead free solder in electronics. I guess they feel that lead locked in a solid form on a circuit board can somehow jump off and get into a baby's bloodstream. I wonder when they are going to insist on masks for babies transported in cars, that have a lead-acid battery under the hood? Anyhow, this caused incredible problems in that industry because lead free solder has a much higher melting point, to the level where often parts would melt before the solder! At great cost, they eventually came up with solutions with automated soldering with machines but with hand soldering there really isn't any solution!

So I've gone out and bought about 20 lbs of oldfashioned lead-tin solder for a lifetime supply. Meanwhile, not a month goes by without some customer bringing me an amp he tried to fix himself, where he had gone to Crappy Tire for solder and they had sold him the lead-free stuff, which is all they carry nowadays. Of course, this meant the poor guy fried more than the fixed!

I should bring my local Crappy Tire store some doughnuts next Christmas. They're making me money!

Edited September 24, 2011 by Wild Bill

[jacee]

He is Hudak's key adviser. Haven't you noticed his "Change for a Better Future" platform is almost identical to Harris' "Common Sense Revolution".

If Hudak (Harris-lite) wins there will be mucho labour unrest, possibly the spark that will cause nation-wide unrest to coalesce into a general strike, etc.

Those who think 'a firm hand' on the labour movement is needed will learn that sometimes that 'hand' is the last straw.

If the NDP won, we could end up with a Bob Rae rerun where, not really prepared to handle the economy, they make the mistake (again) of expecting their supporters to take the economic hit 'for the public good', another spark for protest. The safe bet, in these volatile times, is a Liberal minority.

[capricorn]

If Hudak (Harris-lite) wins there will be mucho labour unrest, possibly the spark that will cause nation-wide unrest to coalesce into a general strike, etc.

Uh oh, a Canadian style Arab spring, so to speak. Sounds ominous.

Those who think 'a firm hand' on the labour movement is needed will learn that sometimes that 'hand' is the last straw.

There is absolutely no doubt that McGuinty has a firm hand on the labour movement and knows how to keep the peace with unions.

That Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty isn’t exactly tight with a buck would surprise few. The failure to meet his own promise to freeze growth in Ontario’s public-sector wages, likewise, is no mystery. But what might surprise many Ontarians — it certainly surprised the Progressive Conservative opposition — is that while calling for wage freezes publicly, the McGuinty government was negotiating secret wage hikes for the members of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), the largest in the province.

During the economic downturn in 2008, Ontario signed a new contract with OPSEU, providing 2% wage increases for four years, which it trumpeted as a victory over the union’s demand for a 3% annual increase. As was revealed on Wednesday, it also signed a separate, undisclosed agreement with the union, granting them an extra percentage point — 3% — in 2012.

http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/05/05/matt-gurney-no-excuse-for-secret-opseu-pay-hike/

Not only that, he kept the peace with Ontarians by keeping the secret wage increase secret. This makes one wonder how many other secrets he's keeping from Ontarians.

The safe bet, in these volatile times, is a Liberal minority.

McGuinty says a "firm hand on the tiller" and "a strong stable majority" is what Ontario needs. Actually, he's right. In tough and uncertain economic times, a majority is preferable to a minority.

[scribblet]

The scary scary 'Harris Lite' narrative keeps popping up, just as it did with Harper, and has of course, failed to materialize. I think that one is getting a mite thin LOL

[PIK]

How do you have labour unrest when you give in to them all the time. We are screwed because the big unions now own the goverment, we small people are going to pay big time for the unions greed.

[Shwa]

How do you have labour unrest when you give in to them all the time. We are screwed because the big unions now own the goverment, we small people are going to pay big time for the unions greed.

Except your lifestyle was likely built with union greed. Damn those unionized electricians, plumbers and framers!