MegaBytes

Giant robotic spiders, bacon curers knitters and quilters may not seem to have a lot in common, but all these, and more, were present at the first Vancouver Mini Maker Faire recently.

The faire, which took place at the Great Northern Way campus June 24-25, was a “celebration of making, crafting, Do-It-Yourself, tinkering, hacking and sharing”, according to organizers. It was based on similar faires held in California, Detroit, New York and Ghana. The largest maker faire, in San Francisco, attracts 90,000 people annually.

Not only did the “makers” show off their creations, but, true to the maker ethos, they invited faire-goers to make things as well -- such as model airplanes, electroluminscent bike kits, flashing LED lights (I made one and it works!) and wind-driven sculptures.

When I rented my first apartment in Vancouver, I simply bought the Vancouver Sun, looked in the rental listings, found a place close to where I worked, phoned the number given in the ad, arranged for an appointment, inspected the place and half an hour later, signed a lease. I won’t even tell you how little I paid for my one-bedroom apartment with the large balcony, open concept kitchen and stunning view.

That was back in 1984. It’s more difficult today, of course, with stratospheric rents for dank, dark, pestilential rooms, landlord vetting procedures that include background checks and personal essays, and intense competition from other desperate wanna-be renters.

But renters take heart. A new website called padmapper.com can make the apartment search much easier. True, it won’t magically increase the stock of livable apartments or lower the monthly rent, but it helps in other ways.

Vancouver municipal election 2011: If the provincial government approves, Vancouver residents will be able to vote for their municipal representatives online this fall.

Vancouver is set to join a small but growing number of Canadian municipalities that allow internet voting, subject to the province’s approval. That approval, according to City Councillor Andrea Reimer, is very likely, as the province is also interested in exploring the potential of internet voting.

November’s vote will be a pilot test and will only apply to advance voting, not on the actual day of the election, according to the motion passed by council earlier this month. The city will assess the results of the test and decide whether to allow all voters to cast their ballots online, Reimer says.

In the past few months, I’ve received five email invitations to take part in surveys -- two of them from the City of Vancouver, one from my local MLA, one from Translink and the other from Think City.

All of them link to surveymonkey.com.

By the time the fifth survey invite rolled into my inbox, my paranoia tentacles were twitching. I can understand the temptation to use Survey Monkey. It’s well known, it’s free (for basic surveys; more sophisticated questionnaires will cost you) and it’s easy to use. But I also know that it’s an American company and its data is stored in the United States. As such, it is subject to the U.S. Patriot Act, which allows American authorities access to its data.

Many Canadian provinces, municipalities and educational institutions don’t allow their departments to use data-collection services that store data outside of the country. Canadian university research ethics boards require researchers using Survey Monkey to include a warning such as that mandated by Mount Allison University: