Yeah, but why bother with an expensive laptop, transciver etc etc. I wait till my friends are working counter at McD's (I'm 17, therefore I know between 50 and 100% of the staff working at any given time by first name) and have him casually slide me a burger or an ice cream. As for the gas, that normally comes a few hours after eating at McD's. *rimshot*
Err, I have no idea what you're talking about, but I'm not seeing any popup ads on Slashdot. Maybe you have some form of Spyware on your machine that generates ads that look like they're coming from Slashdot. If I were you, I'd run Ad-Aware (I lost the URL, but go to Hotfiles.com and search for it. See what you can clean up.
</helpful>
Next time try not to fly off the handle quite so much.
As a web designer, I would hate to see Flash essentially take over the web. I've never found a use for Flash other then for splash pages and cartoons. What I really hate about flash is that it can't be edited from anywhere, whereas you can do HTML in notepad, pico, or even DOS Edit if you wanted to. I don't want to have to drag Flash installation CDs around with me everywhere just to keep my website current. Also, adding content to a webpage for me is a simple copy and paste to create a new section for my comment/rant of the day and/or using a template page and filling it in. All text and typing. I've never really used Flash for content, but I imagine it must be somewhat more difficult then just simple typing, followed by CTRL-S, or File, Save or whatever.
I think Macromedia should stick to what people use Flash for, and not what they want it to be used for. Make it easier for animators to produce cartoons (a la All Your Base or joecartoon.com) or to do simple drawings and export them as jpeg. A friend of mine is working on a web project with me and he uses Flash to make some pretty nice buttons and drawings and whatnot. In jpeg.
Bathurst, NB is a profoundly dull industrial town populated by fat middle aged miners and paper mill workers, as well as people leeching off taxes to survive. Our winters are 6 months in a good year, we have 2 radio stations and both have only recently picked up such songs as How You Remind Me by Nickelback, which everyone is sick of, and it's a TWELVE hour drive to Montreal for the closest decent nightclubs. I really don't see Ottawa being that bad.
With apologies to the people of Bathurst, NB. It must be said we aren't ALL miners, mill workers and "tax leeches". Though I doubt many Bathurstians are/.ers...
I can't believe that nobody has mentionned Kanata, Ontario yet. Kanata is considered by many as being North Silicon Valley. Kanata is a small suburb of Ottawa, Canada's national capital. I've been there, and the massive amount of high-tech companies there is quite impressive. IBM, Texas Instruments, Boeing and Lockheed Martin all have at least satelite offices in Kanata (or sometimes a little outside). Mitel Semiconductor has it's world headquarters there, and so does Nortel and Corel (I was told that Nortel has approximately 40 good-sized facilities in the greater Ottawa area, but I'm not 100% sure on that.)
Not only is the NCR (National Capital Region) great for tech companies, it's also great for their employees. The city is just beautiful and there is even some great country land just outside town, with Kanata smack in the middle. My aunt works for Mitel Semiconductor and she lives in a log home surrounded by trees with a view of the river.
And no, this isn't a shameless plug for my hometown. I'm actually a New Brunswicker. However, I will be going to Carleton University next year and I'll be looking for a co-op placement in the years after. The more tech companies go to the NCR, the better.:]
PS: Canadians DO say "eh" a lot, but we don't use it to end every single sentence! And I don't know who started this whole "aboot" thing, but it's actually pretty rare.
We do something similar to this at the McDonald's in Bathurst, NB. There's this janitor there who is rather cranky. It's just plain funny to listen to him momble as he mops up. His favorite comment seems to be "god damn kids...". My friends work there so I usually go by to pick them up when they work the late shifts so we can go out for a game of pool. I've been kicked out of the restaurant by him about 5 times for being there too late, even though I know most of the staff there (That's kind of sad...) and they know I'm just waiting for a friend. He regularly gets his however. Apparently once while changing a light bulb in the drive thru, the (large) bulb fell on his head. The ensuing fit of profanity made my friend close the drive thru window because there were small kids at the cash. The best story about him is on his birthday, 2 of my friends emptied a massive amount of salt onto a table in the staff room and wrote "Happy Birthday" in it. Apparently the anguished screams could be heard from upstairs.
I download music off P2P applications quite regularly. Because I only have dialup Internet access, if I like songs from a CD, I`ll buy it, whether I downloaded those songs or heard them from a friend's CD, or on the radio, etc. However, there are some CDs that may have 1 or 2 GOOD tracks, 2 or 3 mediocre ones and the rest will be pure crap. (I'm sure we've all seen these before.) So I'll download those tracks, but I still want to support the bands who's music I like. My solution: buy band merchandise!
In the past year, I've bought 5 live concert or documentary DVDs, some tshirts and a box set. This way I figure the artist still gets some form of financial remuneration, the RIAA (for the mostpart) gets bypassed and I can feel good about not totally ripping off the bands I like to listen to just because I don't like the RIAA's practices.
Maybe they should get Jim "The HAMMER" Shapiro to be the official spokesman for this.
Side note: I'm not sure if that commercial was shown nationally in the US. I used to catch it on Fox Rochester (the Fox affiliate carried by my canadian cable provider) all the time. Anyone who's seen the ads will however understand how Jim would be effective in selling, well, anything really.
Actually, my best management came with my tech jobs whereas my only non-tech job resulted in managerial hell. 2 summers ago, I got a summer job pumping gas on weekends. I figured it would be great; 10 hours a week or so, only weekends, close to home. The perfect job for a 15 year old kid. I soon found out that was only one side of it. After working there for 6 weeks (6 weeks of working long shifts doing nothing, leaving at 10:30pm and coming in the next morning at 6), I requested some time off to go to Ottawa and visit my uncle. Of course, my boss got the request wrong and gave me the wrong weekend off. I had an argument with him right there in the parking lot about it. Finally he agreed to give me the other weekend off if I would come in the next morning at 6. It was late and I was tired so I refused. I went to Ottawa the following day. One week later, I was coming home and I called from Montreal to tell my parents I was on my way home. My mother had told me my boss had called and said my summer work project was over. I can't remember a happier time.
One year later, I got my first tech job. Almost. I was hired by the local bishop to do web design for the diocese. As such, they provided me with a PC (A nice P3) and an office. The catch was I also had to cut the lawn. And this is a HUGE lawn, covered with hills. My supervisor for the indoors work and the bishop were great to work for. They gave me whatever I asked for to get the job done. Unfortunatly, the groundskeeper who was supervising the lawn-cutting aspect of it was a real pain in the ass. I remember having to go outside in 40 degree celsius plus humidity to push a heavy lawnmower up and down hills of burnt grass. My protests fell on deaf ears. The first day I got heatstroke, and I was on my way to another attack a few weeks later when a priest told me I was insane and to get back inside and do some nice office work. Thank you father!
Right now I'm working in a Community Internet Access Center. Government job, pays better then anything my friends do and when nobody is using the machines (which is maybe half of every shift I work, sometimes all of it), I get to use them (as well as the attatched network and DSL line) for my own personal use. And since I'm the only one working there who knows anything about anything technological, I get to do pretty much what I want.
If there's something I've learned, it's to get a tech job in a traditionally non-tech environment. This way the managers don't harass you because they know absolutely nothing about what you're doing, whereas someone who knows a little will probably think himself superior.
Acutally, we (I'm assuming you're also Canadian due to the reaction on Canada winning the gold in Bridge) have what's called Skills Canada. It's not quite so open as the Olympics, as the competitors must be under 22 years of age, and some events are restricted to high school students. It's not a total geek event, but it has it's share of tech events, such as website design, PC Software Specialists, PC Hardware and Networking, CADD and graphic design. Some of the non-techie events include plumbing, carpentry and even aircraft mechanics. These competitions take place annually, with provincials in every province. The winner of each provincial contest moves up to the Canadian Skills Competition. Every even-numbered year is a World Skills qualification year. The gold medallists from every event move up to Team Canada and go to the worlds the following year.
I've had the honor of representing New Brunswick for each of the 2 years we've sent a team to the Canadian Skills Competition in Web Design. The first year, my teammate and I placed 2nd, and last year we placed 4th. This is probably as close to a coding event as they'll have for now, but it's still an incredible event. The 2002 competition will be in Vancouver in late-May and/or early-June, and it's open to the public.
But what if someone finds a way to cheat in the game? Or a programmer modifies the game code to give himself extra weapons or gold or any other game-related item? Said person then takes the items and sells them for real cash. It may seem like a remote possibility, but when real money is involved, people tend to become pretty creative...
Time and time again on this topic, people complain that 80 Canadian dollars is little more then 50 US dollars and how their high-speed access is costing them about that much. In some of those threads, there are usually a few comments about what I am about to say, but since many readers don't go too deep into the threads, I feel it's important to bring it out for all to see. If I have to be modded down as redundant, so be it, but it has to be said.
80 Canadian dollars in Canada is NOT equal to 50$ in America!
Though 80$ down south is worth about fifty bucks, we're not spending it down south. We're spending it here at home. And in Canada, prices are not 40% higher to match US prices. The purchasing power of the Canadian dollar on Canadian soil is actually about 80% that of the US dollar on it's home soil.
Also, not many Canadians that I know of are being paid in American dollars (professional athletes and entertainers aside). We take in Canadian money, and we spend Canadian money.
Finally, the cost of living is not the same in Canada and the US. Although it may be close, there is still a difference. Canada has a slightly lower cost of living, therefore wages in Canada are slightly lower. This ties back in to buying power. Many people working in Canada could be earning a significant amount more if they were working in the US, and getting paid in US dollars (after those US dollars are converted back to Canadian of course) for the same work. However, since the cost of living is higher, it makes up for that increase.
So that's it. Canadian dollars ARE worthless, but only when spent in the US.
Shaw Cable (AKA Rogers Cable in beautiful British Columbia)
Sorry, but Shaw Cable isn't the BC version of Rogers. Sometime last year, Rogers and Shaw did the lets-trade-victims dance. As a result, Shaw got the BC market and Rogers got the New Brunswick market, where they screw me over at every turn by not making cable internet availible to my city. There was a piece of Ontario involved in the trade too, but I'm not sure which way that went. Well, at least when they DO get here (and I'm getting cable instead of DSL to boycott the Teclo which refuses to run the DSL line an extra few kilometers down the street to me and everyone else in my neighborhood), I won't have those caps. Our telco, NBTel (an Aliant company of course), used to have caps on DSL service too. 5GB total, up AND down. Now that was bad.
I think what you mean by the charge per MB transfered is the old pricing of Vibe. They used to charge the current price for 5GB of transfer (up and down) per month, but not counting what was transfered over the internal network (to/from someone else using their DSL service). When you exceeded that charge, there was, if I recall well, a 5$ per GB (not MB) charge added on to the bill. Of course they later pulled this limit when they realised that 5GB was just not enough, especially for someone who likes to keep his Linux ISOs up to date.
As for port scanning, I've never heard of anyone getting in trouble for running servers. And I've seen it done quite a bit. I've have seen, however, NBTel employees on IRC, mass messaging people to ask for a list of what they've downloaded recently under the pretext of wanting to trade. (Some of the worst social engineering I've seen in a long time.)
The worst problem with NBTel's DSL service right now is the service. I live just outside a "Vibe-Serviced Area" and they refuse to bring it to our area, even though there is a strong interest. And there's also the example of my friend who burnt out 2 DSL modems in the span of 6 months. They called him to tell him that he was slowing down the network in his area, but refused to bring him a new modem until he made it VERY clear he wasn't going to go get the new one on his own.
But you're right on the PPPoE. The guy that thought this idea up is right on par with the guy who thought up the new sandwich cut at Subway.
And there was me thinking "CRTC" stood for Commision for Restrictions and Thought Control.
Actually, to quote the old Air Farce gag, it's the rt. And it you say the CRTC has no cents, that's what we've been saying all along.:-]
Re:Interconnect those Messenger Networks...
on
AOL vs. Trillian
·
· Score: 1
I only had the problem of being disconnected from the AIM network with Gaim once. I was using the Oscar protocol and I got the same message. So now for my AIM needs on Gaim, I use the TOC protocol. It offers less functionality then the Oscar, but it still meets my needs. And as for there being a new version of Gaim, I'm using 0.50. I believe this is still the latest version, but I'm not 100% certain.
Who says that this setup will allow high bandwidth transfers? Hell, if my local airport offered free high-speed connections, I would never leave the terminal! An idea is to cap connection speeds at about those of a plain old 56k modem (you remember those, right?). This would allow the network's users ample bandwidth for regular surfing, emailing, instant messanging, IRCing and other basic web activities. Also, this would help curb some of the scenarios mentionned above, such as the warez d00d pulling down ISOs and lagging the network, and the uploading of virii to the network from a curbside check in. (Granted a virus wouldn't take that long to upload anyway, but it's easier to catch someone in the act if he's there a minute rather then a few seconds).
Ever been to Montreal? I think it's the Victoria Bridge that the deck is made entirely from a steel grill of some form. I've gone over it on a train (it's a rail bridge with vehicle lanes on either side of the track) and every time it just freaks me out looking down on it. I could never imagine driving on something like that, but last summer my uncle took me out for a drive around town and we crossed that particular bridge. Because of the angle you see the deck at over the hood of the car, you can't see below. (Of course, he drives a 91 Hyundai or something of the like, so you're not too high off the ground to begin with..) The wire grate makes all kinds of noise on the tires however. There must be huge chunks of rubber on the floor of the St. Lawrence river because of this bridge...
Can someone explain to me exactly how an article on the free use of the Canadian flag on the Internet has escalated into a debate about Quebec Sovereignty? I'm surprised the whole thread hasn't been marked off-topic.
As for the comment on Acadians and sovereignty, Acadians are just too weak to do organize themselves in the way Quebec can. We've been getting shafted for years, from the Deportation in 1755 onwards. And before I get modded down as a troll or flamebait, I just gotta say that I AM an Acadian. Bathurst sti!
Our sysadmin was handling all negotiations for the domain registration. I got copies of everything. We dealed with Kelly Beath at CIRA. She did all she could to help. Might want to talk to her as well. I don't know where my sysadmin got her email, but I'm guessing it should be somewhere on the CIRA site.
I can do that too. Everyone used to just tell me I was insane, and until now I just accepted it. But seriously, it's actually kinda fun when I hear my sister turn on my monitor and I just pop out of nowhere and say "GET AWAY FROM THAT!!!!"
Slashdot Mirror
But wouldn't that be tough to play, with the necks sticking out of opposite ends of the body?
Yeah, but why bother with an expensive laptop, transciver etc etc. I wait till my friends are working counter at McD's (I'm 17, therefore I know between 50 and 100% of the staff working at any given time by first name) and have him casually slide me a burger or an ice cream. As for the gas, that normally comes a few hours after eating at McD's. *rimshot*
Err, I have no idea what you're talking about, but I'm not seeing any popup ads on Slashdot. Maybe you have some form of Spyware on your machine that generates ads that look like they're coming from Slashdot. If I were you, I'd run Ad-Aware (I lost the URL, but go to Hotfiles.com and search for it. See what you can clean up.
</helpful>
Next time try not to fly off the handle quite so much.
Or -1 Fried if you're not careful.. :]
As a web designer, I would hate to see Flash essentially take over the web. I've never found a use for Flash other then for splash pages and cartoons. What I really hate about flash is that it can't be edited from anywhere, whereas you can do HTML in notepad, pico, or even DOS Edit if you wanted to. I don't want to have to drag Flash installation CDs around with me everywhere just to keep my website current. Also, adding content to a webpage for me is a simple copy and paste to create a new section for my comment/rant of the day and/or using a template page and filling it in. All text and typing. I've never really used Flash for content, but I imagine it must be somewhat more difficult then just simple typing, followed by CTRL-S, or File, Save or whatever.
I think Macromedia should stick to what people use Flash for, and not what they want it to be used for. Make it easier for animators to produce cartoons (a la All Your Base or joecartoon.com) or to do simple drawings and export them as jpeg. A friend of mine is working on a web project with me and he uses Flash to make some pretty nice buttons and drawings and whatnot. In jpeg.
Bathurst, NB is a profoundly dull industrial town populated by fat middle aged miners and paper mill workers, as well as people leeching off taxes to survive. Our winters are 6 months in a good year, we have 2 radio stations and both have only recently picked up such songs as How You Remind Me by Nickelback, which everyone is sick of, and it's a TWELVE hour drive to Montreal for the closest decent nightclubs. I really don't see Ottawa being that bad.
/.ers...
With apologies to the people of Bathurst, NB. It must be said we aren't ALL miners, mill workers and "tax leeches". Though I doubt many Bathurstians are
I can't believe that nobody has mentionned Kanata, Ontario yet. Kanata is considered by many as being North Silicon Valley. Kanata is a small suburb of Ottawa, Canada's national capital. I've been there, and the massive amount of high-tech companies there is quite impressive. IBM, Texas Instruments, Boeing and Lockheed Martin all have at least satelite offices in Kanata (or sometimes a little outside). Mitel Semiconductor has it's world headquarters there, and so does Nortel and Corel (I was told that Nortel has approximately 40 good-sized facilities in the greater Ottawa area, but I'm not 100% sure on that.)
Not only is the NCR (National Capital Region) great for tech companies, it's also great for their employees. The city is just beautiful and there is even some great country land just outside town, with Kanata smack in the middle. My aunt works for Mitel Semiconductor and she lives in a log home surrounded by trees with a view of the river.
And no, this isn't a shameless plug for my hometown. I'm actually a New Brunswicker. However, I will be going to Carleton University next year and I'll be looking for a co-op placement in the years after. The more tech companies go to the NCR, the better. :]
PS: Canadians DO say "eh" a lot, but we don't use it to end every single sentence! And I don't know who started this whole "aboot" thing, but it's actually pretty rare.
We do something similar to this at the McDonald's in Bathurst, NB. There's this janitor there who is rather cranky. It's just plain funny to listen to him momble as he mops up. His favorite comment seems to be "god damn kids...". My friends work there so I usually go by to pick them up when they work the late shifts so we can go out for a game of pool. I've been kicked out of the restaurant by him about 5 times for being there too late, even though I know most of the staff there (That's kind of sad...) and they know I'm just waiting for a friend. He regularly gets his however. Apparently once while changing a light bulb in the drive thru, the (large) bulb fell on his head. The ensuing fit of profanity made my friend close the drive thru window because there were small kids at the cash. The best story about him is on his birthday, 2 of my friends emptied a massive amount of salt onto a table in the staff room and wrote "Happy Birthday" in it. Apparently the anguished screams could be heard from upstairs.
I download music off P2P applications quite regularly. Because I only have dialup Internet access, if I like songs from a CD, I`ll buy it, whether I downloaded those songs or heard them from a friend's CD, or on the radio, etc. However, there are some CDs that may have 1 or 2 GOOD tracks, 2 or 3 mediocre ones and the rest will be pure crap. (I'm sure we've all seen these before.) So I'll download those tracks, but I still want to support the bands who's music I like. My solution: buy band merchandise!
In the past year, I've bought 5 live concert or documentary DVDs, some tshirts and a box set. This way I figure the artist still gets some form of financial remuneration, the RIAA (for the mostpart) gets bypassed and I can feel good about not totally ripping off the bands I like to listen to just because I don't like the RIAA's practices.
Maybe they should get Jim "The HAMMER" Shapiro to be the official spokesman for this.
Side note: I'm not sure if that commercial was shown nationally in the US. I used to catch it on Fox Rochester (the Fox affiliate carried by my canadian cable provider) all the time. Anyone who's seen the ads will however understand how Jim would be effective in selling, well, anything really.
Actually, my best management came with my tech jobs whereas my only non-tech job resulted in managerial hell. 2 summers ago, I got a summer job pumping gas on weekends. I figured it would be great; 10 hours a week or so, only weekends, close to home. The perfect job for a 15 year old kid. I soon found out that was only one side of it. After working there for 6 weeks (6 weeks of working long shifts doing nothing, leaving at 10:30pm and coming in the next morning at 6), I requested some time off to go to Ottawa and visit my uncle. Of course, my boss got the request wrong and gave me the wrong weekend off. I had an argument with him right there in the parking lot about it. Finally he agreed to give me the other weekend off if I would come in the next morning at 6. It was late and I was tired so I refused. I went to Ottawa the following day. One week later, I was coming home and I called from Montreal to tell my parents I was on my way home. My mother had told me my boss had called and said my summer work project was over. I can't remember a happier time.
One year later, I got my first tech job. Almost. I was hired by the local bishop to do web design for the diocese. As such, they provided me with a PC (A nice P3) and an office. The catch was I also had to cut the lawn. And this is a HUGE lawn, covered with hills. My supervisor for the indoors work and the bishop were great to work for. They gave me whatever I asked for to get the job done. Unfortunatly, the groundskeeper who was supervising the lawn-cutting aspect of it was a real pain in the ass. I remember having to go outside in 40 degree celsius plus humidity to push a heavy lawnmower up and down hills of burnt grass. My protests fell on deaf ears. The first day I got heatstroke, and I was on my way to another attack a few weeks later when a priest told me I was insane and to get back inside and do some nice office work. Thank you father!
Right now I'm working in a Community Internet Access Center. Government job, pays better then anything my friends do and when nobody is using the machines (which is maybe half of every shift I work, sometimes all of it), I get to use them (as well as the attatched network and DSL line) for my own personal use. And since I'm the only one working there who knows anything about anything technological, I get to do pretty much what I want.
If there's something I've learned, it's to get a tech job in a traditionally non-tech environment. This way the managers don't harass you because they know absolutely nothing about what you're doing, whereas someone who knows a little will probably think himself superior.
Wow! Something from Radio Scrap that actually needs help in falling apart! :]
Acutally, we (I'm assuming you're also Canadian due to the reaction on Canada winning the gold in Bridge) have what's called Skills Canada. It's not quite so open as the Olympics, as the competitors must be under 22 years of age, and some events are restricted to high school students. It's not a total geek event, but it has it's share of tech events, such as website design, PC Software Specialists, PC Hardware and Networking, CADD and graphic design. Some of the non-techie events include plumbing, carpentry and even aircraft mechanics. These competitions take place annually, with provincials in every province. The winner of each provincial contest moves up to the Canadian Skills Competition. Every even-numbered year is a World Skills qualification year. The gold medallists from every event move up to Team Canada and go to the worlds the following year.
I've had the honor of representing New Brunswick for each of the 2 years we've sent a team to the Canadian Skills Competition in Web Design. The first year, my teammate and I placed 2nd, and last year we placed 4th. This is probably as close to a coding event as they'll have for now, but it's still an incredible event. The 2002 competition will be in Vancouver in late-May and/or early-June, and it's open to the public.
Do they make Athlon XPs in heart-shape? What about red thermal paste?
But what if someone finds a way to cheat in the game? Or a programmer modifies the game code to give himself extra weapons or gold or any other game-related item? Said person then takes the items and sells them for real cash. It may seem like a remote possibility, but when real money is involved, people tend to become pretty creative...
Time and time again on this topic, people complain that 80 Canadian dollars is little more then 50 US dollars and how their high-speed access is costing them about that much. In some of those threads, there are usually a few comments about what I am about to say, but since many readers don't go too deep into the threads, I feel it's important to bring it out for all to see. If I have to be modded down as redundant, so be it, but it has to be said.
80 Canadian dollars in Canada is NOT equal to 50$ in America!
Though 80$ down south is worth about fifty bucks, we're not spending it down south. We're spending it here at home. And in Canada, prices are not 40% higher to match US prices. The purchasing power of the Canadian dollar on Canadian soil is actually about 80% that of the US dollar on it's home soil.
Also, not many Canadians that I know of are being paid in American dollars (professional athletes and entertainers aside). We take in Canadian money, and we spend Canadian money.
Finally, the cost of living is not the same in Canada and the US. Although it may be close, there is still a difference. Canada has a slightly lower cost of living, therefore wages in Canada are slightly lower. This ties back in to buying power. Many people working in Canada could be earning a significant amount more if they were working in the US, and getting paid in US dollars (after those US dollars are converted back to Canadian of course) for the same work. However, since the cost of living is higher, it makes up for that increase.
So that's it. Canadian dollars ARE worthless, but only when spent in the US.
Shaw Cable (AKA Rogers Cable in beautiful British Columbia)
Sorry, but Shaw Cable isn't the BC version of Rogers. Sometime last year, Rogers and Shaw did the lets-trade-victims dance. As a result, Shaw got the BC market and Rogers got the New Brunswick market, where they screw me over at every turn by not making cable internet availible to my city. There was a piece of Ontario involved in the trade too, but I'm not sure which way that went. Well, at least when they DO get here (and I'm getting cable instead of DSL to boycott the Teclo which refuses to run the DSL line an extra few kilometers down the street to me and everyone else in my neighborhood), I won't have those caps. Our telco, NBTel (an Aliant company of course), used to have caps on DSL service too. 5GB total, up AND down. Now that was bad.
I think what you mean by the charge per MB transfered is the old pricing of Vibe. They used to charge the current price for 5GB of transfer (up and down) per month, but not counting what was transfered over the internal network (to/from someone else using their DSL service). When you exceeded that charge, there was, if I recall well, a 5$ per GB (not MB) charge added on to the bill. Of course they later pulled this limit when they realised that 5GB was just not enough, especially for someone who likes to keep his Linux ISOs up to date.
As for port scanning, I've never heard of anyone getting in trouble for running servers. And I've seen it done quite a bit. I've have seen, however, NBTel employees on IRC, mass messaging people to ask for a list of what they've downloaded recently under the pretext of wanting to trade. (Some of the worst social engineering I've seen in a long time.)
The worst problem with NBTel's DSL service right now is the service. I live just outside a "Vibe-Serviced Area" and they refuse to bring it to our area, even though there is a strong interest. And there's also the example of my friend who burnt out 2 DSL modems in the span of 6 months. They called him to tell him that he was slowing down the network in his area, but refused to bring him a new modem until he made it VERY clear he wasn't going to go get the new one on his own.
But you're right on the PPPoE. The guy that thought this idea up is right on par with the guy who thought up the new sandwich cut at Subway.
And there was me thinking "CRTC" stood for Commision for Restrictions and Thought Control.
:-]
Actually, to quote the old Air Farce gag, it's the rt. And it you say the CRTC has no cents, that's what we've been saying all along.
I only had the problem of being disconnected from the AIM network with Gaim once. I was using the Oscar protocol and I got the same message. So now for my AIM needs on Gaim, I use the TOC protocol. It offers less functionality then the Oscar, but it still meets my needs. And as for there being a new version of Gaim, I'm using 0.50. I believe this is still the latest version, but I'm not 100% certain.
Who says that this setup will allow high bandwidth transfers? Hell, if my local airport offered free high-speed connections, I would never leave the terminal! An idea is to cap connection speeds at about those of a plain old 56k modem (you remember those, right?). This would allow the network's users ample bandwidth for regular surfing, emailing, instant messanging, IRCing and other basic web activities. Also, this would help curb some of the scenarios mentionned above, such as the warez d00d pulling down ISOs and lagging the network, and the uploading of virii to the network from a curbside check in. (Granted a virus wouldn't take that long to upload anyway, but it's easier to catch someone in the act if he's there a minute rather then a few seconds).
Ever been to Montreal? I think it's the Victoria Bridge that the deck is made entirely from a steel grill of some form. I've gone over it on a train (it's a rail bridge with vehicle lanes on either side of the track) and every time it just freaks me out looking down on it. I could never imagine driving on something like that, but last summer my uncle took me out for a drive around town and we crossed that particular bridge. Because of the angle you see the deck at over the hood of the car, you can't see below. (Of course, he drives a 91 Hyundai or something of the like, so you're not too high off the ground to begin with..) The wire grate makes all kinds of noise on the tires however. There must be huge chunks of rubber on the floor of the St. Lawrence river because of this bridge...
Can someone explain to me exactly how an article on the free use of the Canadian flag on the Internet has escalated into a debate about Quebec Sovereignty? I'm surprised the whole thread hasn't been marked off-topic. As for the comment on Acadians and sovereignty, Acadians are just too weak to do organize themselves in the way Quebec can. We've been getting shafted for years, from the Deportation in 1755 onwards. And before I get modded down as a troll or flamebait, I just gotta say that I AM an Acadian. Bathurst sti!
Our sysadmin was handling all negotiations for the domain registration. I got copies of everything. We dealed with Kelly Beath at CIRA. She did all she could to help. Might want to talk to her as well. I don't know where my sysadmin got her email, but I'm guessing it should be somewhere on the CIRA site.
I can do that too. Everyone used to just tell me I was insane, and until now I just accepted it. But seriously, it's actually kinda fun when I hear my sister turn on my monitor and I just pop out of nowhere and say "GET AWAY FROM THAT!!!!"