binaryfactory.ca » Internet

I don’t need backups because I have RAID

Guillaume — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 11:08:04 +0000

Next time you hear someone say that, send them to my latest built-in-three-minutes website:
Is not a backup dot Info

Liberals on broadband part 2: Australia!?

Guillaume — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 17:54:14 +0000

Emphasis mine:

Thank you for taking an interest regarding the CRTC’s decision on user-based billing for internet services. Thank you for taking the time to raise this important issue with me.

I believe in an open internet that promotes fair competition and access for all. For that reason, I have taken a strong position in support of net neutrality and wholesale access, and remain opposed to any rulings or regulations that would limit either of these objectives in the sphere of internet services. In this case, the CRTC’s decision clearly limits competition and choice for consumers.

Echoing the concerns raised by my colleagues, I believe that the high prices Canadian consumers pay for internet services are an impediment to competitiveness. As such, it is my belief that concrete proposals must be advanced to lower prices for internet services for Canadians. One of those proposals relates to the implementation of regulations for wholesale internet services, which encourage investment in internet infrastructure and helps keep the prices incurred by consumers to a fair level.Models from countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia can provide suitable inspiration, as these models have been successful in fulfilling the prescribed objectives.
Additionally, as of February 1st, the Liberal Party has officially announced that it will stand up for Canadian consumers by opposing the CRTC’s decision. My party and I will bring the fight for an open and innovative internet environment to Parliament, and will lobby the Minister of Industry, Hon. Tony Clement, to reverse the CRTC’s decision. If you are interested in taking action in opposition to the usage-based billing decision, or simply wish to stay updated on the Liberal Party’s efforts to have it overturned, please visit http://lpc.ca/ubb.

Once again, I wish to thank you for writing to me on this important issue.

So Australia, which has low caps and censorship, is a model to the liberals. And the NPD wants us to pay tons of money on storage to compensate artists.

Liberals on the state of broadband in Canada

Guillaume — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 14:29:15 +0000

What Alexandra Mendes, M.P. (Brossard-La Prairie) had to say regarding broadband in September 2009. Elections now please!

I wish to acknowledge receipt of your e-mail urging me to look into the recent CRTC decision, which clearly fails to understand how important these services are, and how vital it is that we have the benefits of competitive service providers. Thank you for taking the time to write to me.

Under the current Conservative government, compared to other developed countries, Canada’s quality of service and accessibility to high-speed internet declined. Canada also has some of the highest-cost internet access compared to other developed nations. May I remind you that in 2002 Canada ranked 2nd out of 30 OECD countries in number of broadband users per 100 inhabitants. In 2007 we dropped to 10th. This is unacceptable.

I agree with you that we need more competition and better service for Canadian consumers. We need to lower the price and improve internet service for Canadians. My party, the Liberal Party, pledges to take steps to increase competition and look at how we can change Canadian law and programs to get more investment into internet infrastructure, to lower prices and improve internet service for all Canadians. The economy of the future will be very dependent on digital technology and it is imperative we invest in broadband infrastructure today.

Once again I wish to thank you for taking the time to bring this important matter to my attention.

Please accept my kindest regards,

Alexandra Mendes, M.P.

Brossard-La Prairie

QoS For Facetime (And Firewall config)

Guillaume — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:36:21 +0000

To get facetime working on your firewall you need to be sure some ports can be used. For most home users this won’t be a problem but it may be different at work. Here is the Apple KB Article on it :

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4245

If the Wi-Fi network router that you are connected to uses a firewall or security software to restrict Internet access, contact the network administrator and reference this technical article. To use FaceTime on a restricted Wi-Fi network, port forwarding must be enabled for ports 443 (TCP), 3478–3497 (UDP), 16384–16386 (UDP), and 16393–16402 (UDP).

Make sure those UDP port ranges have a good priority in your QoS configuration and you should be good to go. It is worth noting that DNS and HTTP must be open to the outside as well, but they are probably used only to establish the call (same for HTTPS/443) so the QoS config should not matter.

How to package Firefox extensions for Global installs

Guillaume — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 00:44:48 +0000

Firefox extensions are distributed in XPI packages (pronounced zippy).

XPI packages are in reality just a ZIP file with a standard file and folder structure in it.

Two types of add-on installations can be performed : Per-user, and per-workstation (Global). Typically, extensions are installed per-user, especially if the user is not a local administrator on his workstation.

However, there may be cases where a global installation is preferred: a standard extension would need to be installed multiple times for every user of a shared workstation. It would also be harder to push extensions out to users instead of machines.

Here is how to create install a firefox extension globally in a way that can easily be packaged with anything that allows running batch files. The same information can easily be used to create clean MSI packages as well, using WiX or anything else, just put the files in the right location and set the proper registry keys. It would probably be more reliable to do it with an MSI than batch files.

1) Obtain the XPI package

2) Unzip the XPI package

3) Open the install.rdf file in the package.

We need to identify the “ID” of the package. Look for something similar to this:

Blah blah

The ID contained in the EM:ID anchors may be a name or a GUID. Note it down.

4) Create a registry import file

Create a .reg file.

This will be used to tell Firefox where to look for the new globally installed extension. This can be anywhere you want as long as the user that will open firefox has read access to it.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Mozilla\Firefox\Extensions]

“em-id-of-extension”=”C:\\Program Files\\Mozilla Firefox\\PathToExtension”

5) Create a registry import file for uninstallation

This file needs to be identicaly to the above, but with a minus instead of the path to the extension. This simply deletes the string we created before.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Mozilla\Firefox\Extensions]

“em-id-of-extension”=-

6) Create a batch file for installation

This batch file simply needs to copy the files to the location you specified in your .reg file, and then run regedit /s regfile.reg to import the registry changes.

7) Create a batch file for uninstallation

This batch file simply deletes the directory containing your extension and runs regedit /s on the uninstallation regfile.

Online Payment | SAAQ

Guillaume — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 22:36:17 +0000

Online Payment | SAAQ.

Did I wake up in 1995, or is the SAAQ restricting my choices to two banks in Quebec?

I can renew my license plates online with a credit card, but for some reason, they seem to want to force me to either waste paper and a stamp, or to go to their location to pay.

And yes, paying at their location will cost you an extra $3 on top of that $86/year driver’s license.

Google’s DNS Versus my ISP’s

Guillaume — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 23:20:55 +0000

In an attempt to see if it was worth it to switch to Google’s DNS, I made a quick performance comparison.

Using DNS Performance Test (DPT) , a tool that uses a random list of domain names, I tested performance over 500 (502 to be precise) queries. First, to my ISP’s servers, then to 8.8.8.8 (Google’s).

This test is far from scientific as I ran both test back to back, didn’t try multiple periods in the day, etc. But whatever, it’s fun !

ISP / Google

Worst Query time: 1166ms / 880ms

Average query time: 167ms / 145ms

Timeouts: 8 / 4

So it would seem that for now Google is slightly faster. However, this is probably nowhere near enough to convince me to give Google some even more logs to profile me, no matter what the privacy policy says..

Vehicle Storage – SAAQ Cliq

Guillaume — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 04:15:19 +0000

Online service available

* Monday to Saturday 7:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.

* Sunday noon to 11:00 p.m.

Note: Any operation completed after 11:00 p.m. will not be recorded.

via Vehicle Storage | Online Services SAAQclic | SAAQ.

What ? The government computer only gets in at noon on Sundays ? ??

Experiment of the week..Chromium on OS X

Guillaume — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 03:03:06 +0000

Latest build of Chromium 4 as my default browser for a week, on OS X.

Let’s see how I can survive this.

First step: Install AdBlock+ And Subscribe to EasyList. That was why I could never survive Chrome before. Oh well that and the fact that the window decorations on Chrome for Windows make me want to jump out of the Window. (no pun in…yeah it was intended).

OS X 10.5.8 Problems with Firefox

Guillaume — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 21:53:35 +0000

I have just upgraded my Macbook pro to 10.5.8.

I didn’t use the combo update for two reasons:

1) My ADSL is totally messed up, waiting for Bell to fix it, so 700+megs is insane for an update
2) I figured that since my OS X install was about a WEEK OLD that it could handle updates easily.

The install went fine, I rebooted.. and now I can’t even launch Firefox 3.5 !

Update: I rebooted a second time, and now Firefox seems to work fine. My spotlight index appears to be wiped, which I assume is normal.

Weird.