OhRyan.ca

Canadian Tech News, September 1st – CRTC, Telco Refunds, WiFi is Bad, Google Games

RyanN — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 01:40:53 +0000

This week – in a bid to stay relevant to consumers – CRTC made a couple of good decisions; the cell phone industry still sucks; wifi wackos and Google acquisitions.

Canada avoids broadband duopolies, keeps line-sharing alive
In a decision that’s most relevant to Eastern Canadians – where telecom competitions actually exists – the CRTC ruled in favour of the little guy. After 4 years of flip-flopping the CRTC ruled that large cable and DSL ISPs such as Bell and Rogers must share their lines with smaller competitors at the same bandwidth speeds offered to their own customers. Unfortunately the ruling isn’t 100% good, the CRTC said it’s still ok to filter traffic and throttle things like p2p. (CBC coverage)

MTS, Bell, Telus forced to rebate customers and service rural communities
Get a load of this convoluted government logic:

In 2002, the CRTC allowed phone companies to charge above their normally regulated price caps so that new competitors entering the market for home phones — primarily cable companies such as Rogers and Vidéotron — could undercut them.

The extra charges went into deferral accounts, which over the years amounted to $1.6 billion. Phone companies were allowed to draw on these accounts to lower the wholesale rates they charged competitors…

The rest of it was supposed to be spent on rural broadband. Turns out, 8 years later the telco’s haven’t spent a whole lot of that money “the total remaining amount has risen to $770 million…” Yesterday the CRTC ruled that $421 million of the cache has to be spent expanding rural service, $310 million goes back to urban customers in the form of $25 – $90 rebates. Don’t ask about the other $39million, they’re probably sending it on internet filters or something.

The WiFi Debate is not over
So a drama professor named Fancy and a Cold War era microwave expert named Tower walk into a bar…
The head of the drama department at Brock University “…took the unusual step of issuing a news release to warn staff about Wi-Fi dangers.” I guess he’s trying to upstage Health Canada. I really don’t know what else to say about this ridiculous FUD.

Canadians still paying the highest cell phone bills in the world
Long story short: cellcos take in the highest average revenue per user at $55; we have the 5th lowest mobile penetration at around 75%; not only is mobile service expensive, it’s not affordable when compared against GDP per capita. Take a look at the wirelessnorth.ca post for all the fancy graphs and real analysis.

Google buys Toronto-based game developer
In “me too” news, Google Canada has acquired a Toronto-based cross platform game developer SocialDeck.

People Suck At Email #8, Order Lists

RyanN — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 01:16:51 +0000

After a 9 month hiatus I’ve been inspired to write another installment of “people suck at email.” In preparation for this post I read over the previous entries in the series, I realized that the previous post have been written from my perspective. I didn’t want this to turn into “people suck at emailing me” or “ohryan sucks at email.” My intention was to provide some useful tips for email and netiquette, not just annoying whinging.

This installment of PS@E concerns the use of ordered list. When I write an email containing multiple questions or comments on a general topic, I find that it can be useful to track each separate point with an order list. By doing this the recipient has an easy way to refer back to specific points in the body of my email, it beats inline replies and awkward sentences that start with “Re: XYZ” or “When you said Acme…” I also find that writing in point form has the side effect of helping me keep my emails short and sweet.

Of course, this system is completely useless if the recipient doesn’t honour the list items.

EFF THE CRTC!

RyanN — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 04:00:03 +0000

As an adendum to my last post, I would like to extend a giant FU To the CRTC.

Re: Skype and Google Voice

Both services are prevented from offering Canadians incoming calls by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. CRTC rules require all phone providers to include enhanced 911, which enables emergency operators to automatically locate callers.

~ Nowak, Peter. “Google launches free voice calls from Gmail”, CBC.ca. Aug 25, 2010

Canadian Tech News, August 25th

RyanN — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 00:46:54 +0000

This week – in my ongoing attempt to keep myself up to date on Canadian tech news – I came across two great sources:

Techvibes.com – they claim to be a “hyper local technology blog.” I don’t really know what that means, but they certainly have a great deal of Canadian Content.
@CDNTechNews on Twitter - Ex-pat living in The UK put together a twitter account republishing a bunch of his favorite Canadian RSS feeds.

Onto the news:

Google Launches “Call Phones from Gmail” in Canada
Today Google released a calling service allowing you to make free phone calls within North America via gChat. The big news here is that they released this for Canada and the USA at the same time! The even bigger news: google.com/voice is now accessible within Canada! I’m hoping this is an indication that full-fledged Google Voice will be available soon, with inbound numbers and the whole spiel. At the moment it’s limited to a call history for numbers dialed through gmail. Note: your language needs to be set to “English (US).”

Federal Computers Caught Vandalizing Wikipedia
In two separate cases Federal government computers have been implicated in some pretty nasty Wikipedia vandalization. In the first case an employee at the Federal Corrections services HQ re-titled the Official Languages Act, changing it to “Quebec’s Nazi Act.” In another incident, someone at Air Force HQ in Winnipeg removed quotes critical of the Joint Strike Fighter and accused a politician of using the word “awesome.” This genius tried to edit the article 9 times during work hours. Clearly the internet is serious business and these people should all be sent to jail.

Saskatchewan Man Charged with “crashing an internet chatroom”
In a story that sounds like it was pulled from the archives circa 1998, a northern Saskatchewan man is being charged with “mischief, illegal use of a computer and possession of a device to commit a computer offence” in an apparent DDOS on “the chatroom of a commercial website in New York.” I’m really curious about what constitutes a “device to commit a computer offense.”

Canadian Online Ad Revenue Growing
In optimistic news for Publisher, online advertising is expected to each $2Billion dollars in 2010 only two years after hitting the $1Billion mark.

Telus Wants CRTC to Keep Eye on Shaw
As you may be aware Calagary-based Shaw recently purchased Winnipeg-based Canwest’s broadcasting assets. In other words a large ISP (and backbone provider) now owns a bunch of TV stations. Telus is worried. You should be worried too. It’s a little early to tell, but there is a really possibility this could turn into a net neutrality issue. I’m sure the CRTC is wetting the rubber stamps as we speak.

City of Ottawa Launching App Competition
If you’re an Ontario resident, the city of Ottawa is looking for your “cool apps that make life easier for Ottawa residents.” They’re offering a total of $50,000 in prizes, with a top prize of $5,000. I’m a big fan of open-government initiatives, hopefully this is a trend we continue to see fan out across the country.

Pomodoro Techinque, One Day Impression

RyanN — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 14:00:03 +0000

The Pomodoro Technique is one of those nebulous life hacks I’ve heard about on the internets in the past but never given much credence to. In 50 words or less: it’s a time-management method wherein you spend 25 minutes intently focused on a single task without distraction, then take a 5 minute break. Every 4 cycles you take a 15 minute break. As someone who works from home, distraction from social media (and sometimes household emergencies) are my main productivity killers, any time-management magic that could help me defend against those distractions would obviously improve my productivity.

After hearing Scott Johnson talk about Pomodoro on a few of his podcasts, I decided to give it a try last week. In all honesty, I did very little reading on the subject, I based my implementation on his description and reading through the (short) Wikipedia entry. In theory the Pomodoro Technique is supposed help you force yourself to stay 100% focused on a given task, by giving you a 5 minute break as a reward. At the end of the day, the sum of the breaks is should be less lost productivity than the sum of all memes, IM jokes, emails and reddit visiting, etc that you’d normally be distracted by throughout the day. It worked for me, for about 6 hours. Overall I had mixed feelings about Pomodoro.

My main productivity boost came from shutting down IM and twitter clients; turning off email checking; and making a conscious effort to avoid all web usage. After the first couple of pomodoros it became really easy for me to do this for a 25 minute stretch. Once I was in the zone, I felt really productive and got a lot of work done.

While 25 minutes was the prefect amount of time to try to trick myself into doing a small task, it didn’t leave a lot of time for larger tasks (hell, this blog post has taken me way more than 25 minutes to write) and it didn’t give me a lot of leeway to sync up with other people’s schedules. I found myself needing more than 25 minutes for some programming projects and I had to postpone a phone call in order to stay on target.

In conclusion: all that said, give it a shot. Especially if you’re self-employed or self-motivated. You’ll probably learn something about yourself, your workflow, the kinds of things that distract you the most. Who knows, it might be a better fit for you.

PS.

Check out PomodoroTechnique.com for a bunch more info.
I used a little desktop timer Focus Booster. It’s great, except it doesn’t give you the 15 minute breaks after 4 pomodoros.
There are a bunch of iPhone apps for Pomodoro.

Canadian Tech News Round-Up

RyanN — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 19:05:33 +0000

I listen to a fair few tech podcasts every week, I often find myself quite frustrated by the US-centric nature of the stories they cover. While most of the major tech stories have global implications, just as many – if not more – are about US companies and issues. In an attempt to keep myself up to date on clearly Canadian tech stories I’ve decided to seek out 5 or so important tech stories from North of the 49th every week.

Ontario Parents Try To Ban Wi-fi in School: Parents group blames wi-fi for headache and nausea reported by their children. Health Canada rejects their claims, citing science. Teacher’s federation rejects proposal. Chalk one up for science.

iPhone Competition, Galaxy S Comes to Canada: To my knowledge this is the only phone in available on a Canadian carrier capable of running Android 2.2. Bell launched the Vibrant August 6th. Rogers, SaskTel and (possibly) Virgin are following suit…soon.

CRTC Requires ISP’s Financial Data: I’m totally sure exactly what this is about, it almost sounds like the CRTC is trying to get a handle on just how much profit the telecommunication industry is making. In any case, the industry seems ticked and I can get behind legislation that’s going to make those money-grubbing grubber’s lives harder.

Digital Lock Rules “Fundamentally Flawed”: Canadian Library Association is sticking it to the man, well, as much as they can without raising their voice.

Police “Body Cameras” Becoming Common-Place: cameras worn by police officers directly on their person (on an ear clips or helmet) are making there way into forces across the country. Good move, imho.

Indian Television Reviews the $35 Tablet

RyanN — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 20:49:05 +0000

“Gadget Guru” from India’s NDTV speaks to the creator of the $35 tablet. It’s like Cranky Geeks from India!

Lifehacker Hulu Hack Coverage

RyanN — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 15:56:42 +0000

Lifehacker reposted my Hulu Hack a few days ago. Over 130,000 views to date!

The instructions are a little more straight-forward if you’re on a Mac.

How To: Watch Hulu in Canada. The Definitive Guide.

RyanN — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 03:46:45 +0000

Unfortunately, the internets report this method no longer works

Disclaimer: The method described below almost certainly violates Hulu’s Terms of Use. I do not know the legal ramifications of breaking these TOU. I am not suggesting that you actually follow my fictional instructions.

I’ve finally cracked the nut on watching Hulu in Canada. At the time of writing, this method is 100% successful; I’m confident the method also works internationally, but I have not been able to get any corroboration. Before you read on, let me warn you that these instructions require basic tinkering skill on OS X, Linux and routers; advanced tinkering skill on Windows. At the bare minimum, you’ll need to know how to open a command prompt/terminal window in your operating system.

Instructions:

Open Firefox. The workaround requires a Firefox add-on, so unfortunately the method is Firefox-only at this point in time.

Install the “Modify Header” add-on, download it here: http://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/967

Configure the add-on using the instructions I previously posted for watching Comedy Central in Canada. Here’s a quick reference image: http://imgur.com/Feb4 VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: The IP address referenced in the instructions “12.13.14.15″ is being actively blocked by Hulu, You’ll need to replace it with a known American IP address. Ask an American friend for their IP or see Appendix A for instructions on how to find a US IP address. The address you use should not affect the method, it’s merely being used to trick a portion of Hulu’s geo-location algorithm.
NOTE: These settings interfere with other sites that you WANT thinking you’re from Canada. You can always disable the rule in modify headers when not using Hulu.

Block port 1935.
This is the real breakthrough I came across. Turns out Hulu’s flash video player attempts a direct connection to your computer via the RTMP port to verify your real IP. When you block this port it the falls back to HTTP allowing the video to play. Blocking ports is fairly straightforward on Mac and Linux, but looks to be somewhat difficult on Windows. See Appendix B for complete Port blocking instructions for all OSes.

Notes:

If you are able to navigate Hulu.com, load a video and watch the commercial but then get a blank player or an error message afterwords, then you have not properly blocked the port.

If you are not even able to navigation Hulu.com, you have misconfiguration the modify headers plugin, or you are using an IP address Hulu is actively blocking.

This work-around also works for other sites that have video players powered by Hulu on the backend. Discovery Channel for example.

It’s likely that non-Hulu-related restricted video websites may use a similar RTMP verification method will not function. You may want to disable the Port block when not watching Hulu. See Appendix C for instructions.

It’s unclear whether the holes that allow this workaround are a bug or a feature. My guess is that closing them my results in certain IP on US soil to be blocked inadvertently.

Thanks to Jason Pollock, who’s slashdot comment pointed me in the right direction; and the Reddit /r/Canada community – especially MarshallX and got_milk4 – who helped me out with my initial instructions.

Thoughts about Hulu:

In the past I’ve had some limited experience checking out Hulu in hotel rooms on trips to The States, I’ve generally been impressed by it and I’m sure I’ve written about my impressions in previous TV posts. After a few days of “real world” usage, I’ve changed my mind a little. I no longer see Hulu as this Holy Grail of online TV watching experiences that Canadians could only dream of. It’s not a real alternative to torrenting and it’s only somewhat better than Rogers On Demand or the various individual Canadian network TV experiences.

The selection of available shows is (I hesitate to say “terrible,” Hulu has a metric tonne of content) not great, I was not able to find full episode of any recently aired show I wanted to watch. As far as I could tell, if the show is new Hulu only has short clips. On the other hand, I was able to find full series of shows I’d have difficulty finding in torrents or elsewhere online – like Sliders and Firefly. Hulu’s movie selection is not even worth mentioning.

Aside from the selection, I was astonished by the amount of ads. Full length shows typically have a 15-90 second pre-roll ad, plus network ID, plus 15-60 second interstitial ads during the show at broadcast TV; due to the heaps of praise Hulu generally receives in the Tech media, I was under the impression that they served little to no advertising. Granted it’s less than regular TV, but more than I’d accidentally watch on a PVR and it’s more than the 0 I’d see in a torrent.

The TV industry needs to find a better way to make money.

Appendix A. How to find a US IP address.

As I mentioned above in step 3, the X-Forwarded-For header requires a valid US IP address. It’s best if you use a unique-ish IP address, instead of the ones listed in my example. There are 2 simple ways to find a US IP address.

Method 1)
Ping a known US domain name, record the result. For example:

PING google.com (74.125.95.104): 56 data bytes

Downside: it’s hard to know for if the server that responds is actually located in the USA. If it works, run with it.

Method 2)
Pick a random valid IP address for a known US Organization. A few examples:
AT&T: 12.0.0.0-12.255.255.255, 32.0.0.0 – 32.255.255.255
MIT: 18.0.0.0-18.255.255.255
Xerox: 13.0.0.0-13.255.255.255

Downsides: none

Appendix B. Blocking Ports.

This is the tricky part. If you have a router or firewall that gives you a simple interface for blocking ports, I’d suggest using it, rather than OS-level configuration. Anyways, here are the instructions for various OSes:

Mac OS X:

sudo ipfw add 0 deny tcp from any to any 1935 sudo ipfw add 0 deny udp from any to any 1935

Third-party firmware routers (Tomato, DD-WRT, OpenWRT):

iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp --dport 1935 -j DROP iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p udp --dport 1935 -j DROP

Windows XP, Vista, 7:
See section 3 of MarshallX’s stellar Google doc for instructions. Based on comments I’ve seen on the Reddit post, this method is a little finicky.

Linux:

iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 1935 -j DROP iptables -A INPUT -p udp --dport 1935 -j DROP

Appendix C. Undoing the Block.

Mac OSX:

If these are the only firewall rules you’ve ever added:

sudo ipfw delete 00100 sudo ipfw delete 00200

If you’ve got other rules in the firewall run:

sudo ipfw list

Output will look similar to this:

00100 deny tcp from any to any dst-port 1935 00200 deny udp from any to any dst-port 1935 65535 allow ip from any to any

Use that first number as the ID for the ipfw delete command.

Windows: Delete the policies and filters you created (the ones with “Hulu” in the name).

Linux: you’re on your on. I think you run the same commands you use to block the ports, instead of “DROP” use “ADD”. But I can’t guarantee that.

US Customs and Border Patrol and SEO

RyanN — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 16:03:06 +0000

I was going to post the text of some email feedback I sent to the USA CBP last night regarding my recent border crossing experience. I stopped when I was reminded that the CBP will Google you if you are ever detained and such a post may be used against me.

For one, they do have internet at CBP offices. So if you’re flagged, and you have to go for secondary interviewing, realize that you may be Googled. And as such, blog posts talking about said code camp or eating a Chipotle Burrito may appear as well (“So how was the burrito?” was a question I was asked).

Done With US Travel for Awhile – Boarderfail, April 22, 2009

This got me thinking.
Would it be possible to design an SEO campaign surrounding your online presences in such a way that Customs agents would be most likely to find posts about how much of a nice and honest guy you are?