Doug Nix

Blog

  • What being Canadian means to me

    What being Canadian means to me

    Back in the early 2ks, Molson Brewery ran an ad campaign called “I AM.” One of the ads from that campaign really resonated across the country. Here it is in case you haven’t seen it.

    Jeff updated the original ad during the recent “51st state” fracas between the US and Canada. The video and the image below effectively capture what being Canadian means to me. Jeff Douglas’s passion for our core values and the differences between Canadians and Americans resonates with me.

    We Are Canadian by Jeff Douglas, 2025

    Pierre Elliot Trudeau was one of Canada’s great Prime Ministers. His words, spoken in front of the Ukrainian-Canadian Congress in 1971, are still relevant today. Ironically, he said these words to a group of people, many of whom had fled the Soviet Union to escape the Holodomor in the 1930s. Canada has welcomed many Ukrainian refugees fleeing the war being waged on them by Russia. Canadians help people in need. That’s what we do.

    Pierre Trudeau's Remarks to the Ukrainian-Canadian Congress, 1971-10-09. "Uniformity is neither desirable nor possible in a country the size of Canada. We should not even be able to agree upon the kind of Canadian to choose as a model, let alone persuade most people to emulate it. There are few policies potentially more disastrous for Canada than to tell all Canadians that they must be alike. There is no such thing as a model or ideal Canadian. What could be more absurd than the concept of an "all-Canadian" boy or girl? A society which emphasizes uniformity is one which creates intolerance and hate. A society which eulogizes the average citizen is one which breeds mediocrity. What the world should be seeking, and what in Canada we must continue to cherish, are not concepts of uniformity but human values: compassion, love, and understanding."
    Pierre Trudeau’s Remarks to the Ukrainian-Canadian Congress, 1971-10-09.

    Finally, despite all the criticism, I like the video by Mark Carney and Mike Myers that was released just before the 2025 federal election.

  • Getting ready for school

    I signed up for ham radio license school today. Classes start on September 18th and run for 8 weeks. The course price is reasonable at CA $ 50, but then there is the study guide, which is another $45, etc. Anyway, this is the basic entry into the hobby, so I’m ready to go.

    I want to learn Morse Code too, but as they say, one step at a time. I’ve been shell-shocked by the cost of the gear needed for everything, starting with Morse keys. There are various types, starting with cheap and shitty at $15, up to Wow! That’s gorgeous! at > $300. If I buy a transceiver, then I can likely use it as a Morse Trainer. There are trainer keys that have a sounder built into the base, and then there are kits that can be built that even include a decoder so you can see just how bad your keying actually is.

    I found a reasonably priced key on Amazon, built by Putikeeg.

    Then I need a trainer before I get a transceiver. Here’s the one I’m thinking about.

    Anyway, I’m gonna wait on the CW1 (Morse) kit for now, as I want to get my Basic license in order first. Then my Advanced licence, and then my CW licence.

    Maybe I can buy a Silent Key’s2 station assets outright, for a single price. Yeah, that could work…

    Footnotes

    1. “CW” stands for “Continuous Wave” in ham-speak. It means that a continuous tone (700 Hz or so) is used to modulate the transmitter’s carrier wave when the key is pressed. Each key press creates the characteristic dots (dits) and dashes (dahs) of Morse Code. ↩︎
    2. A Silent Key is a ham radio operator who has died, and thus gone silent. ↩︎
  • Becoming a Ham Radio Operator

    Becoming a Ham Radio Operator

    This is the first entry in what I hope will be a series of entries about this new hobby that I’ve chosen to get into. I’ve been interested in radio since I built my first crystal radio kit when I was a kid, probably 8-10 years old, but I don’t remember exactly.

    I built a Remco 106 that closely resembled the one below. Sadly, I don’t have it anymore.

    Remco No. 106 Kit Crystal Radio

    I needed about a 50-foot [15 m] antenna, and access to a cold water pipe for a ground. I lived in an old house in Montréal then, which was nearly 110 feet front to back, and the upstairs hallway was more than long enough, so I was able to install the antenna inside.

    The downside with crystal radios is that they can only receive AM radio, so the sound quality is only as good as the station is broadcasting, and the quality of the headphones you’re using. Forget stereo. The headphones that came with the 106 were… meh.

    So now, many, many years later, I’ve decided to get into amateur radio. I have a friend who has had his licence since he was 10, and he’s 10 years older than me. He’s acting as my mentor in a way. He’s got a beautiful station, one I can’t even aspire to.

    So my first job is to get my licence. In Canada, if you score over 80 on the exam, you get wider access to the bands than if you don’t do so well on the exam. I recently took the practice exam and, going in cold (no studying at all), I scored a 74, so with a bit of work, I’ll be able to hit the magic number.

    I plan to attend the local Radio Amateur Club of Canada chapter meeting in September, and I’d like to have my licence before Christmas. I need to shake some time loose to study now…

    I’m also looking for some used equipment to get started with. My budget is limited, and I need everything—transceiver, power supply, antenna, mast, microphone, CW key.

    Once I get my regular licence, then I want to learn Morse Code so that I can add the CW certificate.

  • Lest We Forget

    Lest We Forget

    In fields of Flanders, poppies grow,

    Amidst the trenches, row by row.

    From Vimy Ridge to Ypres town,

    Our brave Canucks laid their lives down.

    Beyond the Somme, their courage shown,

    On battlefields, they’d never known.

    Passchendaele’s blood-soaked ground,

    Echoes still with wartime sound.

    In Normandy, they stormed the shore,

    Defeating tyranny and war.

    In Korea’s cold and bitter chill,

    Our soldiers fought with dauntless will.

    On peacekeeping missions far and wide,

    Canadians stood with fearless pride.

    In Cyprus, Bosnia, and Rwanda,

    We saw the pain of war’s grand horror.

    Afghanistan’s dusty plains,

    Etched in memory, forever stained.

    From Vimy Ridge to Kandahar,

    We pause, remember, and honour.

    On this Remembrance Day, we stand,

    United in our cherished land.

    For freedom’s price, they bravely paid,

    In sacrifice, their lives were laid.

    In gratitude, we shall recall,

    The valiant souls who gave their all.

    Lest we forget the lives they led,

    In service to our Maple Leaf.

    ~ Douglas Nix, November 11, 2024

  • Melbourne, VIC, AU

    I visited Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, at the end of November 2023. This was my first international trip since the start of the pandemic and my first trip to Australia. I was travelling to Melbourne for ISO standards development meetings.

    (more…)

  • Ford’s Election

    Election – A Haiku

    by wristPin

    Beautiful leaping
    A sad conservative win
    Progressive dreams lost

    Bonhoeffer‘s Theory of Stupidity – Sprouts

  • Metric system

    A vernier scale is a visual aid to take an accurate measurement reading between two graduation markings on a linear scale by using mechanical interpolation; thereby increasing resolution and reducing measurement uncertainty by using Vernier acuity to reduce human estimation error
    Photo by Ag PIC on UnSplash

    The USA, along with 40 other countries signed the the Treaty of the Meter in Paris in 1875. In the late 1960s, both the US and Canada decided that continued use of the Imperial system of measurements, or inch-pound system in the US, didn’t make sense since the rest of the world worked and lived in the SI Metric system. If you were in grade school in Canada during the early 70s like I was, you will remember learning both systems.

    Failures in conversion lead to mistakes

    Violet will never be able to instinctively judge temperatures in Celsius, she wasn’t raised to. And being raised without the metric system is like being born with weights on your brain.

    In metric, one milliliter of water occupies one cubic centimeter, weighs one gram, and requires one calorie of energy to heat up by one degree centigrade, which is 1% of the difference between its freezing point and its boiling point. And amount of hydrogen weighing the same amount has exactly one mole of atoms in it. Whereas in the American system, the answer to “how much energy does it take to boil a room temperature gallon of water?” is Go fuck yourself, because you can’t directly relate any of those quantities.

    Wild Thing – Josh Bazell

    The US gave up on conversion to SI Metric, at least in part because replacing all of the speed limit signs and milage marker signs with new signage showing the metric limits was just going to be too expensive. In 1999, the Mars Climate Orbiter burned up in the Red Planet’s atmosphere because of a unit mix-up between NASA and Lockheed Martin [1]. Today, only the United States, Liberia, Myanmar and a handful of island nations use versions of the imperial system [2], [3], [4].

    Canada completed the transition but requires dual unit markings on product labels. Many Canadians continue to cook in Imperial measures (cups, quarts, teaspoons and tablespoons) while driving in km/h and deciding what jacket to wear based on ºC, but set their thermostats using ºF.

    The consequences for Canadians include tape measures and rulers with both inches and millimetres, dimensional lumber only measured in feet and inches, i.e., a 2 x 4 x 8′. Dimensional lumber is smaller than the “trade size,” just to make things a bit more confusing. A 2 x 4 is actually 1-3/4″ x 3-1/2″. Sheet lumber, like plywood and OSB flooring, has the thickness measured in millimetres, but the sheet size in feet, i.e., 4′ × 8′. The confusion continues in many other materials as well. But I digress.

    Failure to progress

    In 2022, then Prime Minister Boris Johnson of the UK announced that he intended to rescind the UK’s conversion to the metric system in favour of reversion to the Imperial system of weights and measures [7]. This is yet another example of mindless decisions made on purely populist ideology since most of the UK’s business is done with metric countries in the EU and elsewhere. As Mr. Johnson is no longer the PM, this particular bit of madness may have passed the UK by. Unless, of course, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak decides that Mr. Johnson had a good idea.

    Why convert to metric

    For the most part, science and engineering are done in SI Metric, even in the USA. Medicine using SI Metric as well, again, except in the USA. At some point, I hope that the idealistic hold-outs recognize that clinging to obsolete systems of weights and measures does nothing but hamper trade and innovation. Still, I doubt that such logical thinking will prevail before the end of my life.

    Hope is the thing with feathers
    That perches in the soul
    And sings the tune without the words
    And never stops at all.

    Emily Dickinson

    References

    [1] “Math Error Equals Loss of Mars Orbiter”, Science News, 1999. [Online]. Available: https://www.sciencenews.org/archive/math-error-equals-loss-mars-orbiter. [Accessed: 18- Jun- 2022].

    [2] “Countries That Don’t Use the Metric System 2022”, Worldpopulationreview.com, 2022. [Online]. Available: https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/countries-that-dont-use-the-metric-system. [Accessed: 18- Jun- 2022].

    [3] C. Martin, “The U.S. has resisted the metric system for more than 50 years”, Science News, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/united-states-has-resisted-metric-system-more-than-50-years. [Accessed: 15- Jun- 2022].

    [4] “Supporting American Choices on Measurement | We the People: Your Voice in Our Government”, Web.archive.org, 2012. [Online]. Available: https://web.archive.org/web/20161216191145/https:/petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/make-metric-system-standard-united-states-instead-imperial-system. [Accessed: 18- Jun- 2022].

    [5] “Ten Years to Metric”, Science News, 1970. [Online]. Available: https://www.sciencenews.org/archive/ten-years-metric. [Accessed: 15- Jun- 2022].

    [6] P. Gallagher, “Make the Metric system the standard in the United States, instead of the Imperial system.”, We the People, 2012. [Online]. Available: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/make-metric-system-standard-united-states-instead-imperial-system. [Accessed: 15- Jun- 2022].

    [7] “Boris Johnson to reportedly bring back imperial measurements to Mark Platinum jubilee,” The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/may/28/boris-johnson-set-to-bring-back-imperial-measurements-to-mark-platinum-jubilee (accessed Aug. 25, 2023).

  • Tokyo 2019

    In the fall of 2019, I travelled to Tokyo to attend some standards development meetings. At the time I left, there was no indication that the world was about to head into a pandemic.

    The coming storm

    Just before I was about to leave Canada, I learned that there was a massive typhoon headed out of the Pacific Ocean towards Japan. This was Typhoon Hagibis.

    Typhoon Hagibis probable track map
    Typhoon Hagibis probable track map

    I got on the plane anyway, partly because the ticket was already bought and paid for, and partly because I really could not cancel on the committee. I figured that, if you had to ride out a massive storm like this, Tokyo would be just the place to do that. The Japan Times was warning readers about the expected path of the typhoon.

    Arriving in Tokyo

    I landed on October the 9th, and I got off the subway near the hotel just in time to witness an Australian colleague heading to the airport before the storm was to arrive.

    I was staying at the Comfort Hotel Tokyo Kiyosumi Shirakawa, close to Kiyosumi Gardens, and I used the subway to get from Haneda airport to the hotel when I arrived. It’s about a 40-minute ride for under $10. The same trip by cab is about 15 minutes for $100.

    image: Rome2Rio.com
    Comfort Hotel
    Comfort Hotel Lobby

    Meetings

    On October 10th, we started our meetings at Kiyosumi Garden. Kiyosumi Garden is a beautiful place with a lot of history. Tokyo citizens took shelter in the park during the American bombing raids that destroyed much of the city during WW II. You can learn more about the park from the Tokyo Parks website. You would never know from this photo that a huge storm was coming in hot.

    Storm watch

    During the meetings, we watched the typhoon bear down on Japan. The storm kept on growing, and after our first day, we had to meet at the hotel as the Garden was closed.

    As the storm bore down on Tokyo, the track predictions started to look like this:

    It became clear that we were going to take a direct hit from the storm.

    I was booked to leave Tokyo on Sunday, October 13th, the day after the storm passed, but it seemed unlikely that my flight was going to happen. My partner and I started to work on booking new flights to get me home.

    From the International Space Station, the typhoon was both beautiful and terrifying.

    image: NOAA

    The storm hits

    The storm hit Tokyo. We were hunkered down in the hotel along with quite a few other guests. Restaurants were closed, so we had to make a trip to the local grocery store to find provisions that we could keep without needing a fridge or a microwave since we didn’t know if the power would stay on.

    But wait, there’s more!

    Around the time that the storm was rolling into Tokyo, we also experienced a small earthquake. It was only a 5.7, but it was more than I’ve experienced before at home.

    The room bounced and swayed when the tremor struck, but nothing was damaged, the power stayed on, and even the elevators continued to work unaffected. My colleagues and I continued our conversation, working hard on finding ways home once the storm passed and our meetings were done.

    image: Japan Meteorological Agency

    The Japan Times wrote a little about the earthquake. The Japanese are much more accustomed to earthquakes than people in the part of Canada where I live. Toronto is in a seismic zone, and we have experienced some very small tremors, but nothing like what I felt in Tokyo.

    The storm raged all night on Saturday, making the building shake and sway. Somehow, the power stayed on. Sunday, we woke to find that the subways were flooded, as was Haneda airport. Even worse was the damage in areas around Tokyo.

    Flooding in Nagano
    image: Reuters

    While Tokyo took little damage, outside the city hundreds of people’s homes were damaged in the flooding. According to Wikipedia, over 760 mm of rain fell in parts of Japan. Japan’s Fire and Disaster Management Agency stated that at least 98 people have been confirmed dead, seven people are missing, with 346 people were injured by the storm. More than 270,000 customers lost electrical power during the storm. The typhoon is ranked as the second-costliest in history, with damage totalling US$15.2 billion in 2020 dollars. The impact was so great that the name has been retired.

    Getting home

    Flying home was “interesting.” Some of our Japanese colleagues helped get us closer to Haneda airport so we could get to our flight more easily on Monday. We were treated to a trip to the onsen spa at the Tokyo Dome, where we had a wonderful experience. We also had a chance to see the Yomiuri Giants play on Sunday afternoon. This was my first experience seeing the famous Tokyo Dome Beer Girls in action.

    One of my colleagues flew home with me, and we ended up flying a day later than planned from Haneda to Seoul where we stayed overnight, then onward to Toronto. I ended up getting home three days later than expected.

    It was quite an adventure. I would not change my decision to travel to Tokyo and experience a typhoon + earthquake. The Japanese were wonderful hosts throughout. Thank you to Ryuta Otsubo and Tomomasa Maruyama for looking after us!

    Little did I know that I had another adventure coming in January 2020 when I flew to Thailand for another work trip.

    [1] BBC, “Typhoon Hagibis: Japan suffers deadly floods and landslides from storm”, [online]. 2021. Available: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-50020108. Accessed: 2021-12-16.

  • Expertise

    Expertise

    The various kinds of expertise and the components that make consulting work.

    An apocryphal story about expertise and consulting

    A giant ship’s engine failed. The ship’s owners tried one expert after another, but none of them could figure but how to fix the engine. Then they brought in an old man who had been fixing ships since he was young. He carried a large bag of tools with him, and when he arrived he immediately went to work. He inspected the engine very carefully, top to bottom.

    Two of the ship’s owners were there watching the man, hoping he would know what to do. After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped something. Instantly, the engine lurched into life. He carefully put his hammer away. The engine was fixed!

    A week later, the owners received a bill from the old man for ten thousand dollars. “What?!” the owners exclaimed. “He hardly did anything!”

    So they wrote the old man a note saying, “Please send us an itemized bill. The man sent a bill that read:

    Tapping with a hammer………………….. $ 2.00

    Knowing where to tap…………………….. $ 9,998.00

    The effort is important, but knowing where to make an effort makes all the difference!

  • Canoes

    Solo canoeist in a green canoe on a mirror-calm lake. Mountains in the background.

    Paddling a canoe is one of my favourite ways to spend some time, alone or with someone.

    I first learned to paddle a canoe as a young Scout leader in the 1980’s in Guelph, Ontario. Another young leader, D’Arcy Grant, taught me the basics and helped me grow my skills over the years. His friendship and mentoring helped me gain the confidence to develop my skills and be ready to take our Troop out on the water.

    The rhythm of paddling, the quiet lapping of the water along the hull, the pace that allows for quiet observance of the environment around are all things that have brought me deep joy.

    I’ve paddled back-country rivers and lakes in Northern Ontario and urban and rural rivers in Southern Ontario. I’ve paddled solo and with friends. It all brings peace and joy to my heart.

    Predominantly blue image of a solo canoe and paddler on a calm lake with sunbeams coming through the trees.

    Movies

    Bill Mason is arguably one of Canada’s most extraordinary wilderness paddlers and documentary filmmakers. His movie, Song of the Paddle, speaks to the joy of exploring the Canadian wilderness by canoe. The National Film Board of Canada has made this movie available to stream for free. There are quite a few of his films available through the NFB site if you like this one, including instructional paddling movies.

    Books

    Some books in no particular order, all pretty old now that helped me get started:

    A red wood and canvas canoe with a single paddle, drawn up on a rocky shore with a mirror calm lake behind it, evergreen trees on the bank, and mist rising above the lake behind.