% fortune -ae paul murphy

Happy Holidays!

With the identity crisis in remission, I got another chance to visit Alberta's Lake Louise.

The tree on the left is blocking the Chateau and what you see in the middle is 1600 feet of the front hump on Mount Whitehorn. Its peak is at 8,765 feet - giving you nearly 3,500 vertical feet on the front, about half of it accessible from the base high speed lift system.

Lake Louise is great ski-hill if you just want to go up and down as fast and as often as possible - but be warned: leave the family at home and don't speed on the roads. The reason? Canada's national parks are run by people who hate people, and therefore put a cop on every corner while thwarting any effort at building public facilities for those who aren't rich enough to overrule them.

And did I mention that Alberta's politicians don't seem clued in about the internet? I think there's another department whose people are a bit out of date too:

I've never before wanted a vanity plate, but if I can decide between WTF-411 and 911, I'll probably have to go for it.

And would you believe Ski hill marketing influenced by Red Hat?

Check this out:

It's hard to read - because I saw the billboard while driving west and took the picture while driving east two days later -in heavy traffic and an Alberta blizzard.

Luckily, I found a similar ad in the newspaper:

Yep: that's what it says: three days of free skiing for only $69.95. Oddly, you don't have to wear a red toque to qualify.

But, bottom line? I love being back in Alberta - and hope that you and your family have as good a Christmas as we do.

Back Wednesday with some comments about 2007 followed, on Thursday, by some predictions for 2007 - and please come armed with your ideas on both because I'm hoping for a lively discussion.


Paul Murphy wrote and published The Unix Guide to Defenestration. Murphy is a 25-year veteran of the I.T. consulting industry, specializing in Unix and Unix-related management issues.