Here's another positive voice of support for TekSavvy.
If you live in Canada, call and see if you can get them. They're a fantastic ISP (not to mention extremely competitive) and the company actually cares about their customers.
Actually, WHS no longer copies all the files you add to it onto the system (main) drive. This was the way that it originally worked, but it's been changed now (I forget which Power Pack release, but I want to say 3) so that the files are copied to their final destination as you add then.
That being said, for the cost difference, I think it's still good to have a decent 7200rpm drive as the system drive in WHS followed by gobs of energy efficient storage.:)
My personal setup is: - WHS running in a VMware Server 2.x VM - 1024Mb ram, 250G system drive - 5.5TB of WD 'Green' storage drives
I started out with only 1.5TB of shared storage and simply added the other drives to the shared pool as I needed. (That's one of the things I like best about WHS.. storage just works without need to reconfigure everything to expose newer drives...)
Its served me well and I've been using this configuration for around two years now. When Vail comes out (the next version of WHS, based on Server 2k8), I'll probably switch over to Hyper-V as my hosting environment.
Someone else had posted comments about the speeds over these lines so I figured I'd offer my experiences.
For doing large file transfers, yes they are a little slow. However, in terms of just about anything else they're completely sufficient.
In my house we regularly have up to three clients playing movies off the file server without issue. (In addition to standard internet browsing and occasionally running bittorrent off a laptop..)
I've got four of the DLink DHP-301 units running in my house and they're just terrific.
They're great for anyone unwilling (or unable) to tear up their walls to run CAT5. In my case, I'd have to go through three floors and I'm not exactly a do-it-yourselfer. These units were affordable enough (compared to losing a weekend and having to get help from a friend to run CAT5), and just plain work. I took a risk being an early adopter and I'd do it again if I had the choice.
I use them to connect my broadband connection and servers (in the basement), the media center switch (main floor), wireless AP(upstairs) and a second media center (upstairs).
Some of the advantages of these sort of units : - Zero setup. Unless you want encryption on the line (and they're rare enough that's probably safe without), you just plug them into your outlets and you've got an instant network bridge - Flexible. I've moved the placement of where I had my bridges plugged in a few times. With wired CAT5 through the house, I'd have to run Ethernet from wherever the drop is to wherever the computer or network printer happens to be. - Mostly problem free. I've had these for about two years now and the only problem I ever have is having to unplug a unit about once every six months. I can live with that easily.:)
If you're wireless is being difficult and you're unable or unwilling to run cable, think about using Homeplug bridges.
Homeplug is basically ethernet over the power lines in your house. They usually sell the adapters in pairs which act as a bridge. So you could have one adapter in the office with the modem and your access point, and another in your living room going to a switch for your xbox/ps3/wii/laptop. So it basically turns any electrical outlet into a potential bridge point..
I've got two sets of Dlink's DHP-301 and they're fantastic. (It was the first product I'd bought in a long time that 'just worked'). Most adapters also support encryption if you're worried about anyone watching the traffic since you might be on the same electrical circuit (I don't remember what exactly its called).
I switched when Rogers capped the 'unlimited' plan that I'd been subscribed to for three years at 85G/month. My typical usage is about 110G.
Switching to Teksavvy was a breeze. If you're in Ontario and don't have a Bell land-line, you'll have to call them to setup a dry-loop connection, but other than that, there's no real complications.
What impressed me most about Teksavvy is their response to customer needs. They went as far as organizing a rally on Parliament Hill to protest Bell and Rogers' Net Neutrality stances. (yes, it's in their best interests, but it's also in my best interest, and when was the last time you've ever had a company stand up for *your* rights?)
Would someone please tell me where I can an ISP in Ottawa (Canada's Capital of all places) that doesn't have a downstream cap, or throttling/traffic shaping and has (god formid) decent customer service.
I'm looking for a new ISP because just this week I got a notice from Rogers that they've decided to change the definition of 'unlimited' to 95Gigs + $1.50/Gig after that. While I understand that Rogers is utterly incompetent, once my services and billing were properly set up, they required very little maintenance once they were up and running (it took me almost two years for their 'system' to properly bill me automatically and send me a paper invoice). Because of this I haven't had a reason to switch. ***Attention Shareholders*** Now I do.
I've been looking at CIA.com (www.cia.com) recently as they come highly recommended, but I'm waiting until I can get some more concrete numbers before signing up.
And yes, I will be cancelling my Rogers account now (After nine years), and have no plans to switch over to Bell.
>> Do you understand the job security you have as an employee of a company?
Yes. Absolutely zero. Especially in the five to ten-year time frame. (Unless you're in a union shop doing IT/dev work..)
>> It's my job to work ridiculous hours and be on call for things you can't even imagine.
It's my job to work ridiculous hours to keep the projects that earn YOUR much more lucrative salary on schedule while dealing with technological issues that you (typically as a CEO) can't even imagine.
Since your base salary is often 4-5 times an employee salary, you usually walk away with a 4-5 times higher bonus. As an actual employee however, what most of us can hope for is a 3-5% raise/bonus in a good year. In a bad year, while you get a golden parachute, most of us merely get to hang on to our jobs.
Given these options, don't you dare fault a non-upper-management employee for not putting down permanent roots in *any* company.
Sorry, the Bloc doesn't count. National political parties in Canada need to represent the interests of Canadians in ALL provinces. They also have to at least make an attempt at running candidates in all ridings across the country. (So yes, I very much consider the Greens a national party.)
The Bloc is not a NATIONAL political party. They may be a major one since catering to the whims of Quebec is aways a factor in getting anything done in parliament, but they're definitely not a national party and never will be.
I'd say extremely unlikely. We've been fairly (and rightly) entitled to fair use, personal copying etc for a while now thanks to the levy. All this will do is create confusion and cloud the issue.
That said, if there is any sort of Canadian Consumers user group that I could contribute to in order to help oppose ridiculous lobby-funded wastes of our government (and people!)'s time like this, I'd be more than willing to contribute...
I picked up Carcassonne recently, and it's extremely fun to play. My regular gaming group and I find Settlers to be a little too random for our tastes, but we definitely like Carcassonne.
I've also found that Carcassonne works well at parties as it's very quick to pick up and since the games are short, it's easy to get new people to play.
My first real exposure to using a computer for something other than games was 'drawing' things in LOGO during third grade (I'm 27 now). When I think back on it, I believe that the experience was fundamental in shaping the way that I view development now.
If I was ever in a position to expose today's kids (at an early age) to something like that, I'd be all for it. I say an early age simply because it's the thrill of being able to make the computer do something that hooked me (and figuring out how to solve my early mistakes), not how flashy any of the graphics were.. (I'd think older kids would get bored quickly and say 'well, I can draw a flower in Paint, why the hell would I use this?' and miss the point completely).
I agree whole-heartedly. I'd love to see a philanthropist buy the rights to TOTD and make it available for free. Think of what that would do to the next batch of kids going through school. (Typing is a foundation skill).
Well then I can tell you with relative certainty that the services Aramark provides must be radically different at Wake Forest than they are at U of O (where I went to school).
I went to the University of Ottawa for four years and avoided using the cafeterias and meal plan as much as possible. The workers from Aramark were unfriendly, didn't care a thing about customer satisfaction and were at many times rude. The food choices have gotten better since I had the meal plan, but that I believe the attitude and treatment of students is still a problem.
Aramark also provides food services where I work and there is a completely different attitude between how they treat students and professional employees.
I'd really like to see them implement big armies/battles on a massive scale.
If they'd setup the game where you have the different races fighting for control over massively regions of space, I think that an RTS-based MMORPG could definitely work. I think Dark Age of Camelot had something similar to this from the first-person view. If they gave you control over an army and had to work together/against other players in massive/group battles, I would definitely sign-up.
>>(for those who make a distinction, and there's a valid argument to making one, at several levels)
No, I'm sorry, but there's not. Get over it.
Do the rest of Canada a favour and pull your head out of your ass and get along with the rest of the country. We love Quebec, but frankly I'm getting more than a little tired of this separatist bullsh*t.
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Wow. Where do you live? Because that sounds pretty damned sweet. (Speaking as a unionized (not my choice or preference) programmer in Canada.)
Here's another positive voice of support for TekSavvy.
If you live in Canada, call and see if you can get them. They're a fantastic ISP (not to mention extremely competitive) and the company actually cares about their customers.
Just curious, who did you hire to do the 3rd-party wage review? (I'm also in Canada, the NCR specifically.)
I've suspected for a while that I'm underpaid for my area, so I'd be interested in doing something similar, just to assuage my own doubts...
Actually, WHS no longer copies all the files you add to it onto the system (main) drive. This was the way that it originally worked, but it's been changed now (I forget which Power Pack release, but I want to say 3) so that the files are copied to their final destination as you add then.
That being said, for the cost difference, I think it's still good to have a decent 7200rpm drive as the system drive in WHS followed by gobs of energy efficient storage. :)
My personal setup is:
- WHS running in a VMware Server 2.x VM
- 1024Mb ram, 250G system drive
- 5.5TB of WD 'Green' storage drives
I started out with only 1.5TB of shared storage and simply added the other drives to the shared pool as I needed. (That's one of the things I like best about WHS.. storage just works without need to reconfigure everything to expose newer drives...)
Its served me well and I've been using this configuration for around two years now. When Vail comes out (the next version of WHS, based on Server 2k8), I'll probably switch over to Hyper-V as my hosting environment.
Someone else had posted comments about the speeds over these lines so I figured I'd offer my experiences.
For doing large file transfers, yes they are a little slow. However, in terms of just about anything else they're completely sufficient.
In my house we regularly have up to three clients playing movies off the file server without issue. (In addition to standard internet browsing and occasionally running bittorrent off a laptop..)
I've got four of the DLink DHP-301 units running in my house and they're just terrific.
They're great for anyone unwilling (or unable) to tear up their walls to run CAT5. In my case, I'd have to go through three floors and I'm not exactly a do-it-yourselfer. These units were affordable enough (compared to losing a weekend and having to get help from a friend to run CAT5), and just plain work. I took a risk being an early adopter and I'd do it again if I had the choice.
I use them to connect my broadband connection and servers (in the basement), the media center switch (main floor), wireless AP(upstairs) and a second media center (upstairs).
Some of the advantages of these sort of units : :)
- Zero setup. Unless you want encryption on the line (and they're rare enough that's probably safe without), you just plug them into your outlets and you've got an instant network bridge
- Flexible. I've moved the placement of where I had my bridges plugged in a few times. With wired CAT5 through the house, I'd have to run Ethernet from wherever the drop is to wherever the computer or network printer happens to be.
- Mostly problem free. I've had these for about two years now and the only problem I ever have is having to unplug a unit about once every six months. I can live with that easily.
If you're wireless is being difficult and you're unable or unwilling to run cable, think about using Homeplug bridges.
Homeplug is basically ethernet over the power lines in your house. They usually sell the adapters in pairs which act as a bridge. So you could have one adapter in the office with the modem and your access point, and another in your living room going to a switch for your xbox/ps3/wii/laptop. So it basically turns any electrical outlet into a potential bridge point..
I've got two sets of Dlink's DHP-301 and they're fantastic. (It was the first product I'd bought in a long time that 'just worked'). Most adapters also support encryption if you're worried about anyone watching the traffic since you might be on the same electrical circuit (I don't remember what exactly its called).
Switch to Teksavvy.
I switched when Rogers capped the 'unlimited' plan that I'd been subscribed to for three years at 85G/month. My typical usage is about 110G.
Switching to Teksavvy was a breeze. If you're in Ontario and don't have a Bell land-line, you'll have to call them to setup a dry-loop connection, but other than that, there's no real complications.
What impressed me most about Teksavvy is their response to customer needs. They went as far as organizing a rally on Parliament Hill to protest Bell and Rogers' Net Neutrality stances. (yes, it's in their best interests, but it's also in my best interest, and when was the last time you've ever had a company stand up for *your* rights?)
Anyone who's been a Rogers customer should not be surprised in the least by this.
Attn Rogers Customers : Switch to Teksavvy, its so nice to actually be appreciated by an ISP.
Forget IRC, bring back the member-only BBS's! :)
Would someone please tell me where I can an ISP in Ottawa (Canada's Capital of all places) that doesn't have a downstream cap, or throttling/traffic shaping and has (god formid) decent customer service.
I'm looking for a new ISP because just this week I got a notice from Rogers that they've decided to change the definition of 'unlimited' to 95Gigs + $1.50/Gig after that. While I understand that Rogers is utterly incompetent, once my services and billing were properly set up, they required very little maintenance once they were up and running (it took me almost two years for their 'system' to properly bill me automatically and send me a paper invoice). Because of this I haven't had a reason to switch. ***Attention Shareholders*** Now I do.
I've been looking at CIA.com (www.cia.com) recently as they come highly recommended, but I'm waiting until I can get some more concrete numbers before signing up.
And yes, I will be cancelling my Rogers account now (After nine years), and have no plans to switch over to Bell.
>> Do you understand the job security you have as an employee of a company?
Yes. Absolutely zero. Especially in the five to ten-year time frame. (Unless you're in a union shop doing IT/dev work..)
>> It's my job to work ridiculous hours and be on call for things you can't even imagine.
It's my job to work ridiculous hours to keep the projects that earn YOUR much more lucrative salary on schedule while dealing with technological issues that you (typically as a CEO) can't even imagine.
Since your base salary is often 4-5 times an employee salary, you usually walk away with a 4-5 times higher bonus. As an actual employee however, what most of us can hope for is a 3-5% raise/bonus in a good year. In a bad year, while you get a golden parachute, most of us merely get to hang on to our jobs.
Given these options, don't you dare fault a non-upper-management employee for not putting down permanent roots in *any* company.
Sorry, the Bloc doesn't count. National political parties in Canada need to represent the interests of Canadians in ALL provinces. They also have to at least make an attempt at running candidates in all ridings across the country. (So yes, I very much consider the Greens a national party.)
The Bloc is not a NATIONAL political party. They may be a major one since catering to the whims of Quebec is aways a factor in getting anything done in parliament, but they're definitely not a national party and never will be.
I'd say extremely unlikely. We've been fairly (and rightly) entitled to fair use, personal copying etc for a while now thanks to the levy. All this will do is create confusion and cloud the issue.
That said, if there is any sort of Canadian Consumers user group that I could contribute to in order to help oppose ridiculous lobby-funded wastes of our government (and people!)'s time like this, I'd be more than willing to contribute...
I picked up Carcassonne recently, and it's extremely fun to play. My regular gaming group and I find Settlers to be a little too random for our tastes, but we definitely like Carcassonne.
I've also found that Carcassonne works well at parties as it's very quick to pick up and since the games are short, it's easy to get new people to play.
My first real exposure to using a computer for something other than games was 'drawing' things in LOGO during third grade (I'm 27 now). When I think back on it, I believe that the experience was fundamental in shaping the way that I view development now.
If I was ever in a position to expose today's kids (at an early age) to something like that, I'd be all for it. I say an early age simply because it's the thrill of being able to make the computer do something that hooked me (and figuring out how to solve my early mistakes), not how flashy any of the graphics were.. (I'd think older kids would get bored quickly and say 'well, I can draw a flower in Paint, why the hell would I use this?' and miss the point completely).
I agree whole-heartedly. I'd love to see a philanthropist buy the rights to TOTD and make it available for free. Think of what that would do to the next batch of kids going through school. (Typing is a foundation skill).
Just lovely... now I have coffee all over my desk. Thanks alot!!
Well then I can tell you with relative certainty that the services Aramark provides must be radically different at Wake Forest than they are at U of O (where I went to school).
I went to the University of Ottawa for four years and avoided using the cafeterias and meal plan as much as possible. The workers from Aramark were unfriendly, didn't care a thing about customer satisfaction and were at many times rude. The food choices have gotten better since I had the meal plan, but that I believe the attitude and treatment of students is still a problem.
Aramark also provides food services where I work and there is a completely different attitude between how they treat students and professional employees.
I'd really like to see them implement big armies/battles on a massive scale.
If they'd setup the game where you have the different races fighting for control over massively regions of space, I think that an RTS-based MMORPG could definitely work. I think Dark Age of Camelot had something similar to this from the first-person view. If they gave you control over an army and had to work together/against other players in massive/group battles, I would definitely sign-up.
>>(for those who make a distinction, and there's a valid argument to making one, at several levels)
No, I'm sorry, but there's not. Get over it.
Do the rest of Canada a favour and pull your head out of your ass and get along with the rest of the country. We love Quebec, but frankly I'm getting more than a little tired of this separatist bullsh*t.
.. cause it sums up my feelings exactly.
Would you like to know more?
:)
Excellent. Thanks for the link!
Does anyone have decent Canadian Salary Data? I'm particularly interested in figure for the Ottawa area...