Between early holiday shoppers, festive decorators battling for LED lights, and bedlam in the grocery stores, it’s beginning to feel alot like Christmas. But at approximately 4:00 pm this afternoon, the Interac Network in Canada came to a crumbling halt, impacting debit services and ATM machines alike. All transactional services with Canadian banking institutions were impacted, even independants who rely on Interac for integration. For the better part of 4 hours, the shopping option was cash or credit card only. It smelled like the ’80s in line at Canadian Tire.
Believed to not be related to a telco issue, the nationwide outage could be signifying the beginning of chaos for the christmas shopping season. Details are still sketchy…. stay tuned for what crashed the Interac network….
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Update on 2006-11-25 02:35 by jules
Systems restored at 8:41.
Funny - no mention yet of the outage or what caused it, anywere….. curious.
You know... you are killing time, waiting for conference calls, and you pop around to your favourite (and no doubt favourited by zillions of others) blog....and
Dooce never fails to amaze me.
But then I wonder, her life is almost entirely in the public domain, not to mention VERY digitally loud. Her blog gets zillions of hits. When she allows comments to her posts, she receives hundred of responses, usually ending in a vicious flame war. Her Flickr photo album is inundated with more comments.... even this interesting
capture of pigeons in an airport received 9 comments.
How can she find a little anonymity when she wants? How can she turn down the digital volume that her life blares out? Is there a magic pair of headphones she has for those days when it's good to hear the quiet?
It's nice to go to places where people know your name, but isn't it also nice to be able to disappear into anonymity at times too?
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You got me, I'm addicted....
Virtual City is amazing.Go, look, see. It's an ingenious mash of google and Toronto. The images are outstanding, the interface is easy, and on every street you can do a virtual *walk through*.....
I just strolled down Wellington St. It was great!
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Holy Cats. One of the hurdles with PDA devices that weren’t Blackberries was the trick of getting push email. Not having to “act” to receive emails is a big deal, especially when you are spoiled with the Blackberry. I’ve had a heck of a time trying to convince the wiz that he could get something cooler and sexier, but he’s grown up with having insta-email, and it’s just not an option with him…..
While looking for device options for the wiz for christmas, I just stumbled across a wicked new application that can push mail to any device, with no user intervention needed. *blink* Yes, I said it.
Now how yummy is that!?!? All those amazing phone/pda handhelds that were withering in the vine because you had to “check” your mail can be instantly “berry-ified” with emoze. emoze will automatically push your email to your phone/pda as soon as it’s sent. No proactive connection needed!
There have been other companies that offer push email, Good Technology was one, and it’s just been bought up… but it’s pricetag illustrated that it was decidedly targeted to an enterprise application. Who says consumers don’t deserve insta-email? I pulled this quote right from their website, it looks like it can’t get any easier:
To use emoze 1.30 all you need to have is an email account and a compatible device; the interface will be familiar to anyone who’s used a traditional email program. The emoze software can be downloaded free from www.emoze.com and set up quickly and simply.
You have to peek at
www.emoze.com to see for yourself.
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Funny, stumbling across an idea that can resonate and make you twig. "Irregular Reinforcement". Knowing that there is a chance that something outstanding could happen, and enjoying the suspense and uncertainty.
Seth compares it to getting dessert for free in a snappyh restaurant.
Seth's Blog Irregular reinforcement is a hugely powerful message sender.
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I have been a huge Pandora fan, for years now. At work, at home, you name it, if my laptop is on, usually Pandora is playing in the background. But Musicovery might change all that…. especially with it’s ability to dig down into years and genres. Comes in mighty handy when you are reliving your ’80s. Now, the big trick would be for someone to build a mobile device, with wireless IP capability, so you could stream music with you, wherever you are. It would certainly fix my dilemma with commuting.
;-)
etc: quick links to good stuff
With Musicovery : interactive webRadio you can determine what music to listen to by your mood, define it by genre or narrow it down to a particular decade. Choose to hear only only hits or only non hits or set it to discovery mode to, um …discover.
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After reading Mark Evans' posting about what's to come with Blackberry, I had to do more digging. Someone in this house has a Pearl on their wishlist, and I've got to stay ontop of things like this. So when Mark mentioned the Crimson, I thought, "oh Boy, now that sounds interesting", and off I went, Crimson hunting.
And it was good. The Crimson is actually going to be the "real person's" Blackberry. Qwerty keyboard, being the number one feature, (god how I hate the "suretype" of the most recent berries, it's simply NOT GOOD. The Crimson has the cameraphone, with zoom, the mp3 player, and the snappy styling. It's GSM, (bah, humbug) but that's ok for the wiz, considering he's been stuck with rogers for the past 10 years, another few years shouldn't hurt. Word is that it won't be available for christmas, but maybe for Easter..... ;-)
BlackBerry Crimson | RIMarkable | The official, unofficial BlackBerry Weblog
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I'm sure I'm not the first one to gush about
The Good Blogs but perhaps I will be the most recent ;-) I love that I can pluck something interesting out of their magic bag every time I look. And there is ALOT of looking, considering how quickly the Good Blogs widget is fast becoming the add-on of choice for bloggers.... just a few minutes ago, reeled in Netintrigues, simply by accident.... and WOW. Bits of gadgetry, bits of shopping bits of bits! Go, look, see.
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It's staying around this time, the snow, that is. Just a skiff, butenough to let you know that winter really is coming this year, despitethe global warming buzz. Damn. And to think I almost had myselfconvinced that this could actually be the year of global change.
Christmas shopping started late this year... and as usual, the goal is to accomplish as much on line as possible.... river city sports, Chapters, The Kids Top Shoppe,and of course, LLBean
have been hit so far... who knows what's next? Art.com likely, and maybe a little something something from Cafepress.
Decking the halls will be the next challenge
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Imagine, you read something that resonates with you. You decide to post a few comments either in addition to what the author has written, or in support of. You’ve made sure that the article allows for comments. Some don’t, you know, and that’s fine too.
Your comment is submitted.
Poof. You comment disappears into the blogovoid.
Is it a glitch? Is it editorial liberty? Is it personal? Was it something I said?
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It's come down to this - another day of rain on the Oak Ridges Moraine, and I'm gonna have to start building an ark. Another day of no sun, and I might hafta take a hostage.
Between the wet dog feet all over the house, and the lack of a dry pair of shoes within a 5 km radius, I'm just about ready for everything to freeze up and make life cleaner, if not easier.
The weather makes it painful to commute (changing a 40 minute drive to a 90 minute drive), and plays havoc with the hair. I don't own enough umbrellas for this nonsense.
To go into my ark:
- the wiz
- the smapp dog
- 2 laptops
- figs
- Sony MP3 player
- a hockey stick
Really, what else do you need?
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Ottawa to block CRTC on Internet phone regulation
SIMON TUCK
From Wednesday’s Globe and Mail
OTTAWA — The Harper government will announce Wednesday its intention to rewrite the CRTC’s key ruling on Internet-based telephone services, a highly unusual move that could mark a big step toward a more open and consumer-friendly sector.Industry Minister Maxime Bernier will say in a speech in Toronto that the Conservative government will again block the CRTC’s repeated efforts to regulate phone services that run over the Internet.
globeandmail.com: Ottawa to block CRTC on Internet phone regulation
Holy Cats! What are the implications of the Harper government overruling the CRTC? Likely it’s a good thing, changing the rules of how digital voice services are treated, but the implications of the government getting involved in CRTC policy making are wide reaching. First VoIP, then the world? This first forray into the CRTC domain is positive, but what if the conservatives what to delve into something and change it for the worse? Does the CRTC have any recourse?
Mark, you probably know more of the answers - what do you think?
technorati tags:CRTC, Harper, Canada, Telecom
I’m drowning in vendor information. I don’t even know if what I want to do can be accomplished with a single soft switch/media gateway device. I don’t even know if I know the difference between the two any more.
My forehead is wrinkled and my eyes burn. I want a piece of carrier grade gear that i can partition for various wholesale type customers. I want to manage it (not me personally), and I want to provide all the CLEC type services off the back end of it.
What have I gotten myself into?
Someone, anyone, please point me in the right direction.
technorati tags:VoIP, Softswitch, Media Gateway, Alcatel, Nortel, CGI, Hosted VoIP, SIP, IP-PBX
What is it?
It’s National Blog Posting Month!
Fussy | NaBloPoMo
Imagine my suprise, I had no idea there was more to November that Remembrance Day.
It’s also National Blog Posting Month. A nifty idea to increase traffic, increase readers, and heck, it’s getting colder, who needs another excuse to keep their bum closer to the fire for longer?
An interesting idea, I’m just sorry that I’ve only got 17 days left to participate. - and there’s more - you can try out the randomizer.
Already I’ve seen a few gooders:
- The Earth is Blue
- Formation of Me
- Forking Madness Over Here
- PopWatchCanada
:-)
Happy Monday!
technorati tags:NABLOPOMO
Out of the archives- an oldie but a goodie……..
Originally published, April 2006…..
A few nights ago, whilst enjoying the merits of belgium beverages, the Wiz and i had a thought provoking discussion about the history and the future of blogs. Not your normal “couple conversation”, but that’s pretty par for the course with the Wiz and I.
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I attended an eye opening session with nortel recently on the next great thing for network architecture - IMS - IP Multimedia Subsystems.
I have read a bit on the subject, and initially was under the impression that it was all about converged communications. Regardless of access type, IMS would offer the ability to put applications right on the network, and have them accessible from any device, be it cell, VoIP, TV, laptop, anything. IMS would allow you to travel from different networks seamlessly. From landline to Wireless LAN to cell and back again.
Yes, IMS does that, but those things are just neat little features that are value-adds to the real technology.
Read More
One of the topics I'm wrestling with is the ability or the requirement to build reputation and credibility in the blogosphere. How does one go from zero to 60 in respectibility points? Is it something that can happen over the course of time, or is it something that has to be acquired, rather than home grown?
By acquired, I'm referring to "borrowing" respectibility in other writers, guest posters, folks who "already have the badge of credibility"?
Is it about what your bio looks like? Is it about the profound things you've said before or posted elsewhere?
How does a corporate blog create credibility and reputation? Stick with me on this...
Technorati Tags: Corporate Blogging, credibility, respectibility, reputation, creed
Last night the wiz and I had our first official dinner event. It was essentially a beta test of the new place, and specifically the dining room. We invited over Mr and Mrs K. Mr K used to work with the wiz and I in previous lives and now he works here.
Mrs K used to work at Telus Mobility and now she’s the head web master and owner of yorkregionbaby.com. It was quite an evening full of shop talk, comparisons of managers, becoming a stay-at-home domain name squatter, hilarity over how small the tech and telecom industries are in canada, and the lack of good childcare resourses in York Region. And the recycling! I recycled 5 empty wine bottles this morning. Mrs K and I highly recommend trying the Vidal Blanc Icewine but be careful, it can sneak up on you rather nastily ;-)
A good time was had by all, despite the fact that nothing got slopped. Next time!
technorati tags:telus, oracle, allstream, yorkregionbaby.com, Vidal Blanc Ice Wine
What better way to get over hump day than a little tyrade?
Can i tell you how tired I am of rain? How about cell phones that ring at 8 am? Guys who need to talk about their hockey pool incessantly? You'd think they were budding Mark Cuban types.
Oh, and there's a Honda CRV that has been parked on my street, across from my driveway for the past 8 days now. It hasn't mvoed once, but it's come very close to being backed into. I'm to the point that if it does't move in the next 24 hours, it may need to be towed away.
Who am I kidding, i don't have much to rant about ;-)
technorati tags:rant, rain, ringing cell phones
