The Savvy Boomer

CBC Olympic coverage

Keep up to date with how Canada's athletes are doing.

3 Canadian boomers win Olympic silver medal

Ian Millar, Gillian Henselwood and Mac Cone won silver medals for the Equestrian team show jumping competition.  Ian, who is 61 years old from Perth Ont., is competing in his  ninth games and is the seventh oldest medal winner in Olympic history.  He said "Age does not matter unless it matters to you."  Mac Cone who turns 57 in a few days is from King City Ont. Gillian Henselwood is 45 and the last member of the team Eric Lamaze, just missed the boomer window as he was born in 1968.  The Canadian team narrowly missed gold in a jump off with the U.S.

Congratulations Ian, Gillian, Mac and Eric!!  Canada is proud of you.

Ian Millar

OH (as in Zero) CANADA!

Day 4 of the Olympics and Michael Phelps already has more gold medals than all of Canada may get in the Olympics.  As a matter of fact, we have no medals-ZERO-NADA, not even a bronze.  Compare this to S Korea which has just a few million more people than Canada and they already have 12.

As Cam Cole, a Vancouver sports reporter said on TV tonight- Canada basically sucks at the Summer Olympics.  Other reporters were a little more generous when they said that it is just a scheduling hiccup-that Canada's medals will come later in the Olympics.

I sure hope so.  It would be embarrassing for the host of the 2010 Winter Olympics to get shut out in Beijing.  I'm sure that won't happen, but watching the results every night is pretty frustrating when they list the Canadian athlete's placements as "24th, 19th, 52nd" etc.

C'mon guys, give us a medal I can brag about here.

Hottest woman in Beijing Olympics is a Canadian

OK OK, I realize this has nothing to do with being a boomer (other than I might be accused of being a dirty old man for posting this), but as a proud Canadian, it is my duty to bring to your attention that rhythmic gymnast Alexandra Orlando has been selected as the #1 hottie of the Olympic games.  You can see the list of the top 50 here.  Maria Sharapova was #2 and Amanda Beard from the U.S. was # 5.  That's some pretty tough competition.  Dara Torres, the 41 year old American swimmer was voted #50.

Sorry ladies,  I can't find the hottest guy, but then again, I didn't spend any time looking.  Maybe Rhea at the Boomer Chronicles can accept that task.

6 Boomers on the Canadian Olympic team

Good luck to all our Canadian athletes at the Olympic games which start on Friday.  As a boomer site, I particularly wanted to draw attention to the 6 boomers on the Canadian team.

Igor Tikhomirov,  - Fencing

Malcolm Cone,  - Equestrian - Jumping

Ashley Holzer,  - Equestrian - Dressage

Jujie Luan,  - Fencing

Leslie Reid,  - Equestrian - Dressage

Last but not least, the oldest member on the Canadian Olympic team is 61 year old Ian Millar - Equestrian - Jumping who is competing in his ninth Olympics.

Canadian flag bearer (no, not a boomer) Adam van Koeverden.

Happy B.C. Day

The first Monday of August is a legal holiday to be observed as "British Columbia Day". 

It's also a holiday in most other Canadian provinces, so if you don't live in Canada, enjoy your day working.

Roger's pricing problems reveals difference between business and consumer markets

Blackberrys are mainly used by business consumers and iPhones are not.  And that is the main reason why Rogers and other cell providers are facing protests over the iPhone voice and data plans.  It is nothing for a Blackberry business user to incur $100+ monthly bills.  So what?  It is a cost of doing business and tools like the Blackberry that can give users a competitive edge or at least keep them on a level playing field, are absolutely necessary to utilize.

But I don't know any business that buys iPhones only for their employees.  Why?  The same reason that most businesses buy Windows or Linux PC's instead of Apple.  Apple has always been known as the "younger, edgier, hip" product and most mainstream businesses tend to shy away from that niche of supplier.  For example, I know that all employees who must work for the most part away from the office of a very large insurance company are issued Blackberrys by the company. To issue them iPhones would seem highly unusual and well, it ain't going to happen.  Steve Jobs learned a long time ago that Apple will only get its PCs into a limited number of areas of a large company such as graphics or advertising, but it has no chance in hell of getting into the hard core departments of business such as finance, production and inventory control etc.

So as the iPhone targets retail consumers who must pay for the phone and plans themselves, they have to charge the Blackberry business rates or they are going to piss off their business customers.  And believe me, it takes a lot more administrative work and time  to sell 100 iPhones than it does 100 Blackberrys.

When consumers started buying PC's, the real winner was the business community because the cost of PC's came down for them.  The same will happen with cell phones.  Businesses will be thanking Apple in a couple of years for bringing down voice and data plans because sooner or later the carriers are going to have to cave.  Until then, companies like Rogers will take the heat as price gougers -and rightfully so.

Happy Canada Day

141 years ago, the Dominion of Canada was born.  Thousands of men and women have died defending these flags and today, our Armed Forces are still suffering casualties .  If you are a Canadian, take the time to look at these brave fellow Canadians who have paid the ultimate price in Afghanistan.

There is no greater country in the world and I'm proud to be a Canadian.

Canada's current flag replaced Canadian Red Ensign (below) in 1965

Canadians protest Rogers iPhone data packages

As expected, the new rates announced last week by Rogers, the only Canadian carrier that has the technology compatible with Apple's iPhone, are much higher than other countries.  If you are a Canadian, you can voice your disgust with Rogers by signing the petition at Ruinediphone.com. 

Or, if you want to get even more active, call Apple.

"The rates also took Apple employees by surprise. A manager in a Toronto-area Apple store said the staff there was "very disappointed" upon learning of the rates on Friday.

The manager said all customers complaining in-store were also being told to call Apple's customer service phone line in the United States, which is keeping a tally of grievances."

Source:CBC.ca

There's a reason Rogers can afford to put its name on Toronto's baseball stadium

 Look at their plans for their marketing of the new 3g iPhone.  That's the kind of crap you can get away with when you have a monopoly on a product.  But at least the Blue Jays are in last place in the American league east.  Karma.