Feu Vert Program in Montreal

The house in the burbs in Montreal that we’ve now been living in for quite a while came with a fireplace. It’s been the source of many misteries so far and we’ve never really felt too comfortable using it.

So recently the “Feu Vert” program (should probably be seplt programme, consider where I reside, no?) was established in order to reduce winter smog in our city, often caused by wood burning fireplaces, which are quite popular as an alternative to the ever present electric baseboard heating during our flash freezes in winter. The program allows for replacement or removal of any oldschool non-certified fireplaces.

Since the website for the program had an email address, I had tried emailing the team there before, but basically I was told to call – which I did today. From what I understand is that the program is meant to run until the end of 2012, but basically will end when the funding runs out. From what it sounded like from the agent I talked to today, it appears there’s no huge run on the program yet. I was also told that our fireplace would qualify for the program and it would have to be exchanged for an electrical heather, gas fireplace or a wood pellet stove. I believe that there’s no natural gas in our area, but I’ll double check that again. However we do have a gas tank on the property which is being used for the pool heater – or rather meant for it, as we haven’t really been using it either.

So now is the time to shop around to see how much the rebate would help us when buying and installing something else… We’ll see if it’s worth it. i think I’d rather have a refund for a solar pool heater, but there’s no such program in sight – so far.

Apparently any fireplace built before 1990 is eligible. I’m not exactly sure when ours was built, but the model doesn’t appear to be certified. Also notably enough it appears the manufacturer has long been out of business and there’s no manual to find. The only related search result I can find is a technician who is looking for more information on the same model

So if the cell that contains the domain name is “A1″, this is my formula:

=RIGHT(A1;(LEN(A1)-SEARCH(“\.”;A1)))

The search statement determines the location of the first Dot counting from the left. This number is then deducted from the total length of the text in A1 and then separated from the rest of the string by using the “RIGHT” function.

Hmm, just noticed that the permalinks to individual posts don’t work yet, will have to work on that later.

Since there’s barely any chance that my support email to Google will be answered, I was wondering if anyone else has experienced anything similar. I wasn’t able to find anything. Am I the only one encountering this problem?

With horror I see the country is making everybody a suspect by default. Now they are even discussing a database of fingerprints for all foreigners (German). Everyone is a threat, everyone is a suspect. I know that some within the country are very aware of those changes and are trying to work against what is happening. Unfortunately with little success.

I would be happy to say that it is only one paranoid Minister of the Interior, who’s gone through attacks himself. Unfortunately this is not the case. During the G8-meeting in Germany, basic human rights disappeared with hesitant, but nevertheless with approval of the highest German court. The German military (by law only permitted to act in order to defend the country) has been used to spy on the people demonstrating against the G8 even with military planes.

[Update]: It’s back up – but it’s running off one hard drive instead of two.

Check out Licensed To Pill, a flash animation about this topic, surprisingly this is one flash animation I like.