VoIP, tech details and sanzhai or 三無產品

Our telephone bill from Bell Canada is ridiculous : 63$, no unlimited long distance. So it was time for a move

I found the best rate was with Acanac http://acanac.ca/ (10$/month unlimited)however I wanted to receive the adapter before making the change over or ordering the service. Upon receiving a "Linksys PAP2 VoIP SIP ATA" purchased on E-bay, I noticed that the documentation that was apparently for Vonage customers. It was filled with typos, formatting (no justification or hyphenation etc.) Nor was there a manufacture date printed on the device三無產品 (No date of manufacturer, No address, No Contact Information - actually there was Linksys but no serial number). Clearly a counterfeit. The device's MAC address, through a vendor lookup, was related to Maxcess International. Unfortunately I cannot give you their website, as none of the first listed sites on Google are related to IT communications hardware! I do not know the history of the device, and even though I am tempted, I will not open it to see the motherboard. Maybe it is a legit board in over production enclosure.

Nevertheless, it seems to work. I got an account with Acanac, mediocre sales service as the was apparently no number in my region, but my suggestion of the Greater area worked quite quickly. Call display is fine, call quality is good, I just have to see how it goes for bandwith. Will definitely cancel Bell Sympatico - expensive, cap (25Gigabyte per month) so using the phone, internet TV or whatever else is a problem.

I am not even inclined to download thousands of movies, although I now have a video card and screen that can support HD, it would be nice however to be able do download demos, or game clients that are 4+ GB - legally and not be fined because I have restrictive ISP!

Loving humanity - simply hating people

If you think TV sucks, you are probably right. Chatroulette is a fun experiment, but it does not say much about society, how we interact or what we think.

Exhibitionist - euh. I do not know. Telling people off, insulting people, giving the finger. Ich verstehe nicht. Changing hoping to get a match, meaning someone to speak to is a struggle so may take the time to do something like language lessons or the radio.

SSD is the way to go - stay away from Seagate!

I replaced my current hard drive because it was pretty much full and I hate wasting time managing my disk space. So I went ahead with a 500GB at 5400RPM. 5$ difference for the 7200RPM was not was deterred me, but my fear of the noise.

I was wrong, apparently the 7200 RPM Momemtus is quieter! However power consumption is greater.

Either way, the noise unacceptable. I hear it across the room. In fact I think it is louder than my CPU fan!

Stay away from seagates...

It seems, albeit speed is not top, that Hitachi drives are the quietest.

BCK-08 - Windows 7 and a Thinkpad T61P

I am not sure where is the weak point in my system, but I am quite sure it is the BCK-08. It is a nice stereo bluetooth receiver or headset, but there are a few problems :
- Not well balanced - it will not stay at one place when clipped to clothing
- battery life - I only get a few hours- not quite enough for a film nor a video game
- hiss - In ear bud headphones make the electronic noise worse. I put the volume up and use a pair that has a rheostat to control the volume. Unfortunately the high end is cut out, but I avoid the constant hiss.

I will add a heavier battery to the device. I do not think it will be a problem given it seems to discharge on its own. It may not be so pleasant to look at considering I will be using electrical tape to hold it together.

It makes me think it would be nice to find a way to have a "set" of AA batteries which are lithium based and voltage dropped to work with my digital camera so that the voltage is always around 1.6V rather than the NiMH of 1.2 taking so long for the flash to come on.

Samsung CLP-310

I got it on clearance. Cheap. I　should have bought two. Cheaper than getting refills for toner, but I didn't.

As for refilling the toners, it seems that it needs a chip or a mod to the EEPROM AMTEL 24c64 before it reaches the limited number of prints.

http://fcartegnie.free.fr/lines/?p=25

I guess the program estimates how much toner is left in the cartridge from the starter ones which have no chip, then will restart the count with the new cartridge. A waste really, but I guess that manufacturers are struggling with ways to make their products profitable. How much can you make of black powder?

Chrome printing features suck!

I like chrome. It opens up quickly, minimal add ons make is faster than Firefox, but the lack of addons, or even built in functions make it a pain to use.

I intended to printout a graphic that took the whole of the window, but the printout, good thing not on photo paper, only took the top edge of the sheet, even if I set it landscape!

I thnk I will stick with Firefox for good. Page rendering may not be the fastest, but the features make it the most pleasant to use.

Rédaction et langue normale

J'avoue que mes habiletés d'écriture ne sont pas tout à fait les meilleures. Elles sont adéquates pour des communications simples, mais la construction de phrases plutôt élaborées qui sont normalement écrites pour expliquer un concept plus compliqué me pose certaines difficultés.

L'autre jour passant une boite sur la rue, j'ai justement trouvé un guide intitulé "Le Savoir Écrire Moderne" par RETZ 1980. Si je savais écrire aussi bien qu'une personne des années 1950, je serais sans doute meilleur que je le suis aujourd'hui, mais je n'ai aussi pas les mêmes habitudes qu'une personne de cette époque. La technologie dévore beaucoup de mon temps. Un peu isolé, je ne suis pas capable de gérer mon temps, justement parce-que je n'ai pas d'obligations particulières qui me permettront de réfléchir sur la gestion de mon temps.

Quant à la lecture et l'écriture, les actualités françaises ne me stimulent pas. J'ai aussi une réaction viscérale contre les actualités québecoises. Si on parle du local, le Canada, le Québec, on voit le "local" du sens péjoratif: une arrogance, un sens de supériorité créé par les médias pour faire croire que c'est la meilleure place au monde. Si on voyage un peu, on mange, on a vraiment honte de chez soi...

(j'écris un peu plus à tous les jours, - rien à dire, mais c'est de la pratique)