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Comment: Re:Honest? (Score 1) 50

by Jucius Maximus (#46720531) Attached to: Canada Halts Online Tax Returns In Wake of Heartbleed
This is a good Use Case for why Certificate Patrol can be invaluable. It stores certificates and notifies you when they change, and whether that change would be expected or maybe suspicious.

Because I was running Certificate Patrol, my browser had already saved the previous certificates from the bank websites and was in a position to automatically notifiy me if anything changes. (I've been seeing a lot of Certificate Patrol notifications recently across the web in general, right after this HeartBleed problem came out.)

As for the Canadian Banks, I can say that I saw no Certificate Fingerprint change in TD, RBC and Tangerine. But PC Financial had changed their certificate very recently. I don't use BMO or Scotia so I can't comment on those ones.

Comment: Root Cause (Score 5, Insightful) 433

by Jucius Maximus (#34810114) Attached to: Internet Downloading Costs To Rise In Canada

The root problem here is the monopoly on infrastructure owned by a company that also provides services. For years now, other competitors offered uncapped DSL using Bell's infrastructure, while Bell offered a fraction of the bandwidth for much greater prices (and hassles.) I guess enough people woke up and started switching away from Bell's native service and jumped to other providers. And naturally, Bell uses their governmental friends to kill the competition, instead of, you know, competing and improving their services. BELL CANADA IS THE WORST COMPANY IN ALL OF CANADA. BELIEVE IT.

For much of the most densely populated area of Canada, Bell and Rogers own both the infrastructure and provide services to end users. I don't think that should be permitted. Companies should not be able to perform both functions. This is already what happened in our electricity industry in Ontario, when Ontario Hydro was broken up into separate generation and transmission entities.) Bell continues to use the CRTC, which is an impotent and ineffectual organization that seems to be on the leash of the same politicians that decided their friends at Bell would get a monopoly, to prevent other organizations from laying down wires underground in new residential developments.

This problem would not exist if a real competitive market was in place.

I am continually surprised by the amount of energy that Bell puts in to creative marketing, customer disservice, finding ways of adding hidden fees, and downright screwing people. If they just put a fraction of their efforts into actually improving their services, they would actually be a competitive company. But wait, they aren't interested in fair competition. Bell just wants passive income through forced usage of their monopolistic network.

By the way, it bears repeating again, Bell Canada is THE WORST COMPANY IN ALL OF CANADA. I am seriously not joking. Imagine the incompetence, bureaucracy and arrogance of government incorporated into a business. Add the fact that it's their intent to screw you at every turn and "accidentally" add 48 month contracts onto every deal that to which you've never agreed, and for which they somehow lost the audio recording of that CSR's call. That's Bell. They're like government for much of the Canadian population because you pretty much HAVE TO USE THEM because they own the wires.

*Note for other Canadians: I am fully aware of the other Telus / MTS / and other monopolies outside of Ontario/Quebec.

Comment: Train Your Hand / Arm Muscles (Score 5, Insightful) 569

by Jucius Maximus (#31057230) Attached to: Pen Still Mightier Than the Laptop For Notetaking?

Although I graduated some years back, I still advocate the use of pen and paper to students because of final exams. You are going to be sitting in the gymnasiums writing 15 hours of exams in the space of a few days. By hand. On paper.

If you haven't been training up your hand all semester, your arm is going to break down after about 20 minutes because your muscles are not used to manual writing. Good luck being effective on your exams when your wrist is about to fall off.

I experienced this a couple of years out of school when I chose to write the Professional Practice Exam. About 45 minutes into the three hour exam in the freezing cold gym at University of Toronto, I just about gnawed my hand off.

Comment: Re:So wait... (Score 1) 197

by Jucius Maximus (#29341803) Attached to: Password Hackers Do Big Business With Ex-Lovers
"As opposed to a client-based email, where you can simply get it all through the filesystem? Physical access is game-over. So if you have 30min with your ex's machine, that's pretty much game over, if residing in clients."

I've been storing my Thunderbird folders inside a truecrypt container for some time now. It's peace of mind.

This is an unauthorized cybernetic announcement.