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Since you decided to pick on that one detail, allow me to put minimal effort into it:

https://www.att.com/shop/digit... http://www.bce.ca/news-and-med...

Perhaps those cameras that you have 'experience' with use 100BaseTX Ethernet as physical medium. That doesn't mean that they are using the full bandwidth (pretty much guaranteed by design), nor that video cannot stream over the Internet (cell phone video streaming and Netflix). I'm not saying that everything is stored all the time, but the client doesn't necessarily control it. Further, this one just one example of how ubiquitous cameras have become. Cross it off the list, it changes nothing.

To keep things in context, this statement: "Does any of that really work when massive facial recognition systems exist and cameras are everywhere."

Was replied to by: "..most of the cameras are privately owned to watch over someone's property.."

[CITATION NEEDED] ? Seriously.

Note: The networks you're mentioning from Telus and Bell are UMTS only, with no 2G GSM support at all. Won't matter in 5-10 years, but just a heads up.

The problem people don't really seem to get about mobile pricing and "competition" in Canada is that it really is a system with only two sides Rogers and Telus/Bell. Telus and Bell themselves barely compete as their pricing structures are nearly identical beyond minor differences, which makes sense given their Network Sharing Agreements.

Fido is effectively the WestJet of our carriers, cherry picking the majority of their clients within high population density areas, which did make them a competitor within the major cities and a large portion of the market until about 2004 when they became wholly owned by Rogers.

Some people may mentioned the MVNO's Koodo and SOLO Mobile not realizing that Koodo is effectively a slightly lower margin Telus, and Solo Mobile is Bell (down to the same exact 'customer service' tools, except I believe Solo CSSR's are primarily through Canadian based subcontractors only).

Given these details, you see we have effectively two sides only. Two sides which somehow magically conviced everyone in the country that it makes sense for them to have doubled the price (two-sided billing) of per usage SMS's from 15c to 30c a piece. Two sides that maintain suspiciously close pricing that tends to vary only by small amounts for specific cases. Two sides that maintain a consistent CHURN back and forth between the two sets of groups generating Long Term Contract Charges and a variety of fine print charges so that when One is considered the evil, users switch to the other (with similar THEY ARE THE WORST rants concerning the business model in either case, rogers OR bell). The only reason it works is that the worst things only happen to a low enough percentage for each carrier that after they ragequit and go to the other side, its unlikely for it to happen again to the same person (post 90 day billing errors that are considered valid so long as client wasnt able to ask the right question to a CSSR before the 90 days was up thanks to the Consumer Protection Act [HAH], defective merchandise that is considered not covered under warranty but still generated a contract with a valid LTCC charge if cancelled [*cough*AUDIOVOX*cough*], etc).

The long and short of it is Telco companies have us by the short hairs up here in Canada. Heres hoping WIND Mobile takes off, but given that they only launched in friggan December, i cant have an opinion quite yet.

I doubt it will be that easy for the CRTC this time. Wholesale GAS service is covered by a CRTC tariff, tariff 5410. Nowhere in that tariff does Nexxia have the right to throttle traffic. Nexxia is claiming it is under Section 8 - Restriction on use of service of the general tariff that covers abuse of the phone system causing disruptions in service (specifically section 8.3, check your white pages, "Customers are prohibited from using Bell Canada services or permitting them to be used so as to prevent a fair and proportionate use by others."). That rule is clearly intended to cover only landlines, and even if it did cover anything else, other traffic has been working fine on most all access points where the throttling is occurring, negating the use of this rule.

Can't wait to see what the lawyers do about this...

To the internet. But then I moved to a new apartment and my new internet service provider failed to provide working service for me for almost two months. I waited it out thinking they would fix it any day. In the mean time I discovered something interesting, which was that I'm really not addicted to the internet, but rather I waste all the time in the day anyway doing next to nothing. So in my case anyway, what seemed like an internet addiction turned out to be general laziness! I was so relieved.

I've been Beta testing Bell.ca's Internet Voice for about a year now,
It works great, there were a few slight hiccups at rst (mostly dealing with my non standard [not a store-bought router firewall situation) but that's all long since been resolved. I've taken it all over the place and it works great on any high speed connection. As more people discover computers and what they can do with them, more people will adopt this type of tech, anyone who can grasp the concept of configuring their home networking router (eg. pointing a browser at 192.168.0.1 etc..) will have no problem setting up a voIP adapter. I think a lot of tech still has to be simplified for the masses, but the quality is ready for prime time, I haven't paid a long distance bill in a year.. yippee!
/nev/dull/c

Just thought I'd reiterate what an AC has posted below...

Bell Canada is owned by BCE group, headquartered in Montreal, PQ. See their Fact Sheet.

Both of which are owned by Bell GlobeMedia, a division of Bell Canada Enterprises, BCE

Here is a working link which talks about the service.

Should be interesting competition for starbucks and the like who wanted to come to Toronto and setup hotspots.

> So when did this turn into a discussion on Windows?

You pounded away at how these features *DEFAULT TO OFF*. My counterargument was that in Windows, "NO" doesn't necessarily mean "NO", and various stuff has ended up being executed without the end-user being asked.

> I totally understand the flaws inhertent to Windows, and
> therefore do not run it in any sort of server configuration.

That's where I disagree with you. There is a difference between rendering data and executing code, and Macromedia has crossed the line. I remember the days of BBS's when it was *POUNDED* into people not to download and execute every program you came across. Yet today, webpages *DEMAND* that you download their code and *EXECUTE* it.

The difference between *RENDERING DATA* (text, pictures, streaming audio/video) and *EXECUTING MOBILE CODE* is clear in my mind. If I ran telnet server, and you typed in a shell script and executed it, I assume you understand the security risk. That is *EXACTLY* what happens when I run a browser and a webpage sends javascript or SWF commands to it. Just like telnet, thare is *SUPPOSED* to be a sandbox to prevent malicious stuff. Too often, it doesn't work. That's true in unix, and it's true in Windows. You *ARE* running a server if your browser executes java, javascript, activeX, or shockwave. Macromedia *BRAGS* to developers about their improved scripting language. Hello... one of the first things I did back in my Windows days was to remove Windows Scripting Host, now someone else wants to execute their scripts on my machine. Screw them.

> Your arguement is flawed because it works off an almost Luddite fear of an unknown.

In linux one of the basic principles of security is not to run unnecessary public services. SWF is one that any web page can access, I don't want to run it any more than I want to run ftpd or httpd. What's "Luddite" about that ?

> I will not deny that this feature poses some sort of a security risk,
> but what feature doesn't in some way. This offers a benefit to the user

That last part is absolute bull. On a small number of sites, a 3D-VRML plugin is nice. At sites like http://www.joecartoon.com shockwave is actually useful. At 95% of webpages, it's not really necessary. Not being able to get into the Bell Canada website without Flash is an obscenity. I notice that they do do offer a by-pass for registered shareholers who want to vote online. Web designers take this too personally, and don't allow bypass options often enough.