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Domain: msn.ca

Stories and comments across the archive that link to msn.ca.

Comments · 13

  1. Re:Lol... by Headcase88 · · Score: 1 · on Microsoft and Yahoo Reach Deal

    Apple is still taking an unfair advantage, and IMO even without a monopoly this is still bad. Goes to show that the top management at Apple runs exactly like MS in a lot of ways, they just don't have the OS monopoly to take advantage of.

    You can see it with the iPod; there's a lot of stuff that's proprietary that could have been standard, especially when it comes to docking stations that only work on iPod. Please correct me if I'm wrong here, but docking stations that can use both the iPod and other MP3 players need to have a separate port for both? That's the vibe I get from this article (admittedly from an MS affiliated site).

  2. Re:Bandwidth versus latency... by ratboy666 · · Score: 5, Informative · on Bell Canada Ordered To Justify Traffic-Shaping Practices

    Wha, wha, wha, WHAT?

    1 - "Geeks" do work around "latency" issues -- I have been doing so since the dialup era. I run my own DNS server for this reason, and use nscd on local machines. I use SquidProxy.

    2 - I don't work around traffic shaping. But a packet is just a packet. What the fuck does the ISP think it is doing when (re)prioritizing my packets? I guess I simply don't deserve ANY priority, right?

    3 - You didn't address your argument for keeping shaping private. Explain WHY it should be private. I will gladly add quality of service requests to my packets -- IF THE SHAPING POLICY IS NOT PRIVATE.

    4 - "A few geeks demanding maximum bandwidth". Sure, why not? What does Bell DSL advertise?

    Let me give you a hint:

    http://www.bellvideostore.ca/help/

    This is Bells "download video" service.

    "Technical Specifications:
    720x480 maximum resolution, 30 fps, 1,500-2,200 kbps average bit rate. These videos will play on all 4th and higher generation Archos portable media players. THESE VIDEOS WILL NOT PLAY ON MOST PORTABLE VIDEO PLAYERS AND ARE NOT IPOD COMPATIBLE."

    http://www.bell.ca/support/PrsCSrvGnl_mover_offers.page?region=ON&language=en&EXT=PDL2_SA_MOVE_2008Q2_AR_EN_ON_Google_bell%20dsl&s_kwcid=bell%20dsl|1920763120

    "If you're moving, now's the perfect time to move up and into a Bell Better HomeTM: ...
            * The most powerful Internet"

    Of course Bell (the ISP) offers a music store in addition to the video store:

    http://musicstore.sympatico.msn.ca/help_en/index.html

    Conflict of interest? No, they really need to shape traffic to keep up with that audio and video goodness.

    Let's see how Bell advertises the service for new buyers (note the lack of fine print):

    http://www.bell.ca/shopping/PrsShpInt_NewAccess.page?userType=NEW

    "Total Internet Performance
    Download high quality music files, stream video,or play games.

    Best price
    in a bundle$42.95/mo.
    Bonus: Get 2 months free

    Regular price: $47.95/mo. *"

    (editors comment - the * footnote is NOT on this page, I have no idea what it means)

    And my personal favorite:

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=ArpmbnxIQIQ

    This ad aired until fairly recently.

    So this ISP does bandwidth shaping -- why? Aren't they selling Total Internet Performance, the Bell Better Home (tm), Audio downloads and Video (even streaming) at near HD quality?

    A FEW GEEKS DEMANDING MAXIMUM BANDWIDTH??? Hell, I would like to see the beavers deliver a fraction of the promises. And let's not get into "never shared, never slow" crap they advertised.

  3. Real reason for Microsofts tactics by Emetophobe · · Score: 3, Insightful · on Microsoft to Sue Cybersquatters

    You want to know the real reason why Microsoft wants to get rid of cybersquatters? If you use Windows, fire up iexplore and type in some address that doesn't exist, you are redirected to a MSN Search page.

    If Microsoft can get rid of thousands of cybersquatters, they get more redirects going to http://sea.search.sympatico.msn.ca/dnserror.aspx?F ORM=DNSAS&q=non.existent.domain for example. Microsoft wants all mistyped urls redirected to their search engine.

    Microsoft is no better than the cybersquatters, the only difference is they have the money and lawyers to bully them into submission.

  4. Re:They just don't get it by Vacuous · · Score: 1 · on Microsoft Trumps Google, Yahoo! R&D Budgets

    That's funny, I just ran a search for linux on msn.com, my results?

    linux.org
    linux.com
    kernel.org
    linux article on wikipedia
    IBM
    and more, that doesn't seem very biased to me.

    URL: http://search.sympatico.msn.ca/results.aspx?q=linu x&srch_type=0&geovar=56&FORM=REDIR

  5. Hmm... by goodgoing · · Score: 1, Funny · on Google Might Disappear in Five Years

    Where I live, there are ads for MSN search on tv that feature this short, catchy URL:

    http://search.sympatico.msn.ca/ (I think that's it)

    There is no way that will become a verb.

  6. Re:Why is it better? by Headcase88 · · Score: 1 · on Microsoft 'under attack' On All Fronts
    Even out of the box, FireFox is marginally better than IE, though. It is nearly impossible to argue that IE is actually better than Firefox, 'cept perhaps two points:
    1. Some sites that I've never been to don't support FF fully (The so-called /. bug doesn't affect much)
    2. IE comes with Windows, but Gates wouldn't want to admit that that is the reason IE is "better", would he?
    Meanwhile, FF renders pages faster (it seems faster to me, anyway), doesn't accumulate Spyware as quickly (and the Open Source community reacts as fast to it as IE ever will), has tabbed browsing, more inuitive text searches (by this I mean ctrl+f), a less cluttered toolbar, uses a capable search engine by deault*, is less likely to lose time-consuming information**, and all this on top of the ability to quickly add themes and plug-ins (Forecast Fox and Tabbrowser Preferences are some of the better ones).

    Gates is following Hitler's rule; people are more likely to believe a big lie (IE is better than Firefox) than a small one (IE is comparable to Firefox). Hell, they're both big lies if you ask me.

    *Don't believe me? Try typing "video games" into the address bar of both browsers; Firefox does a Google I'm Feeling Lucky and brings up Gamespot. IE uses MSN search and, after 10 lines of sponsers and news, brings up the Cincinatti tourism page as a first choice. I wish I was making this shit up.

    ** Example: Sometimes my mom will be typing up an email for a few minutes and accidentally click on some link and leave the page. In IE, this oftentimes loses the information forever. In Firefox, click "Back" and it's almost always still there. Your mileage may vary...
  7. Re:Food in tin cans by AndroidCat · · Score: 1 · on Linux-Based Cat Feeder

    MSN/Sympatico is like that.

  8. Microsoft way of results by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on MSN Search Has Arrived

    Search for Microsoft Sucks on the Swedish version, and you know what I mean. The Canadian one shows up correctly though.

  9. Re:Nothing new by pipingguy · · Score: 1 · on Linux, Inc.


    Good post.

    Now if you could just give me the winning numbers for the upcoming Super7, I'll happily drop $2.5 million into open source efforts (just to be a Slashdot hero).

  10. Re:Well, I'm one example by remikun · · Score: 1 · on Why Offshore When Canada's Next Door?

    MSN is not offered in Canada?

    Anyways, it is now! Sympatico MSN

    I used to work for a company who had a contract with Bell Sympatico. I recently quit my job just in time, as the MSN services just started to be offered as a valued product with the Sympatico Internet access services.

    This means that the staff was doomed to all support the MSN products, including MSN Messenger, which we used to be outside our scope of support. We were already having enough fun with customers settings up their Internet access and trying to sell crappy antivirus software... Imagine now inserting pictures in HTML e-mails with customers who can't double-click. I'm glad I'm not there!

    The Canadian company I worked with also had contracts with some American ISPs.

  11. Re:MSN messenger? by dubbreak · · Score: 0, Troll · on MyDoom.C Making Its Way Across The Net

    Personally i like this status page.

    For those too lazy to click the link it says and i quote,
    "All systems stable and running".
    Microsoft calling something stable, that's a bit of a reach...

  12. msn.ca by thebatlab · · Score: 4, Informative · on How Objective Is Microsoft's Search?

    A search from msn.ca on the term "linux" gave some reasonable results I think. There was Linux.com as the first, followed by sites like linuxcanada.com, some provincial/city linux organizations from places like Edmonton, BC and Alberta, some links to online linux certification classes.

    Doesn't seem too unreasonable to me and it was interesting to see how tailored the results were given there were a lot of canadian sites up there and canadian area linux organization links. I have to say I was actually impressed given what I was ready to see from the headline of this article

  13. An excellent product by Blind+Linux · · Score: 2, Informative · on CryptoHeaven Available For Mac OS X

    Wow... Cryptoheaven sure is great. Now I don't have to mess around with OS X Mail client, or use bad Mac ports of Windows IM products.
    I believe there's a huge market for a product like this.
    On another note, doing some research, I found that there were several interesting ways of achieving secure e-mail connections in OS X.