Posts filed under 'General'
If you’re a regular to this blog, you might have noticed something is different about the site this morning. I’ll give you a minute to think about what it is… (Cue appropriate gameshow time passing sound effect). Time’s up! If you guessed either the Art Of Geek logo, the header background image or both, you’re correct!
I’ve wanted to change the header background for a while to make my website more ‘my own’. The previous gradient/pattern was based on the default image that came with the wordpress template I based my design on, called Blix by Sebastian Schmieg.
This new header background image is based on a great photograph I came across (shown above, click for the full size image), which was taken by Kevin Hiscott, who was kind enough to give me permission to use it for my website (thanks Kevin!). Check out his photo blog, Portway Ave : No Exit, if you want to see more of his work. He’s got a lot of great photos on there that showcase his talent. From the looks of some of the photos on his blog, he’s also a Mac fan, which means he’s got taste too. 
Now as I mentioned, I also changed the Art Of Geek logo. Specifically, I’ve updated the gadget icons to be a bit more current. I’ve also made the entire logo a bit bigger, to fill the height of the header more. Can any of you identify the make and model of each of the gadgets featured in the new logo? Post your guesses in the comments. Bonus points to the first person who can correctly identify what gadgets have been added and removed from the previous logo!
May 16th, 2008
[Update 1] Just a quick note for those of you who may have missed it, Rogers has made an official announcement that they have reached a deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to Canada “later this year”, according to MacDailyNews:
Ted Rogers, President and Chief Executive Officer of Rogers Communications Inc. today issued the following statement:
“We’re thrilled to announce that we have a deal with Apple to bring the iPhone to Canada later this year. We can’t tell you any more about it right now, but stay tuned.”
No more details are provided, nor is a link to any press release or article to back it up. We’ll just have to take their word for it I guess…
This is great news! Hopefully it will be in time for the launch of the rumored 3G iPhone and Apple AppStore software download service slated for June.
Update 1 - 11:45 am: It’s been
confirmed by TheStar.com this morning. Check out the full article which also has a short video report on the news.
April 30th, 2008
[Update 1] Well that couldn’t have gone any smoother. For those that have just tuned in, we switched Internet service providers this morning. I’m happy to report that the migration went smoothly and without issue. I’m actually quite pleasantly surprised that this is the case, since I haven’t had the best of luck in the past when it came to dealing with ISPs. They almost NEVER deliver what they promise. The fact that I was dealing with two ISPs in order to make it all happen borders on a miracle.
Bell was scheduled to suspend my Sympatico DSL service at midnight, so I decided I’d stay up and wait for it to happen so I could connect my new Thomson SpeedTouch 516 DSL modem up in preparation for my TekSavvy DSL service to be activated in the morning. So I figured I’d get some last minute email and websurfing in and then settled into playing Call of Duty 4 online on my PS3. In other words, what I do almost every night. My plan was to play until I lost connection, then install the new DSL modem, then go to bed and reconfigure my router to connect to Teksavvy in the morning. Midnight rolled by and I was still taking out tangos. One o’clock AM came and went and I was still defending democracy from terrorists. By around 2:15 am, I decided that my tour of duty might never end, and called it quits for the night, Sympatico Internet connection still operational. In the back of my mind, I worried that Bell’s delay in disconnecting me was going to delay the activation of the new TekSavvy connection.
Looks like those worries were unfounded since when I got up this morning at 7:00 am, I found my AirPort Extreme router’s connection light flashing amber, indicating a connection problem. I connected the SpeedTouch modem to the phone line and was happy to see the DSL and Internet status lights turn solid green. A few minutes later, I had my AirPort Extreme reconfigured with the TekSavvy settings and was connected to the Internet with our new static IP. A quick trip to my domain registrar’s self-serve website to reconfigure the artofgeek.com domain to point to our new IP and disable dynamic DNS and I was done. Then it was just a matter of waiting for the change to propagate to Internet DNS servers around the world and we were back in business. Total downtime was under 6 hours.
First impressions? My web surfing seems a bit faster, and my wife said the same thing when I asked her if she noticed a difference, but the difference isn’t immense from the limited amount of time I had to test it. There’s not much else to say at this point. It’s an internet connection, and it’s working. If you have any questions about our transition or the service, post them in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer them.
Update 1 - 3/18/2008, 9:41 am: For those interested in performance info, here’s my results from Speedtest.net on three seperate tests:
As you can see, the download speeds seem pretty consistent around 4,270kbps. The upload speeds vary more, but solidly between 500-600kbps. I only wish I had done these same tests with my Sympatico connection while I still had a chance. Keep in mind these speeds may vary depending on the time of day. I’m fairly impressed since right now is near peak hours for internet usage (between 9-10pm). I’ll run the tests again at different times of day to see if it stays consistently fast or not.
March 18th, 2008
Please note that Art Of Geek will be unavailable for a good part of Tuesday, March 18 due to an ISP migration. We’re migrating from Bell Sympatico to Teksavvy DSL. Unfortunately, there’s no way to be sure about how long the outage will be, but trust me when I say I’m going to try and make it as short as possible.
See you all when we’re back up and with a static IP address. No more short bouts of downtime because I have to reset my router. Yippee!
March 17th, 2008
[Update 5] AppleInsider’s report today on a new Rogers wireless $20 unlimited on-device browsing package called the $20 Communicate Value Pack got me super excited about finally having a data plan worthy of my iPhone:
Canadian wireless carrier Rogers Communications, often criticized for its exorbitant data rates, has just introduced a $20 per month unlimited data plan that could knock out one more barrier to an official iPhone launch in Canada.
The Toronto, Ontario-based carrier said customers could start adopting the new plan, dubbed the $20 Communicate Value Pack, beginning today. In addition to unlimited on-device mobile browsing, it also offers 2500 standard outgoing text messages, 1000 outgoing picture or video messages, call display and voicemail.
I immediately called Rogers to find out more about the package and sign up if it was true. I was connected with a sales rep who seemed adamant that the unlimited browsing was limited to a 3 month promotion period, afterwhich it was limited to 5MB of data. So I jumped on Rogers website and found the plan listed exactly as AppleInsider had reported here and here. I took the following screenshots, just to prove it, in case the website changes:
I pointed this out to the customer service rep, and she seemed to disagree on what the website actually said, continuing to argue that the unlimited browsing was for the promotion period only, no matter how hard I tried to convince her that the website didn’t mention that at all. So I asked to speak with a supervisor. After a good five minutes on hold, the supervisor finally came on and after she was sure where I was coming from, she put me on hold for another five to ten minutes before coming back, apologized sincerely and explained that it was an error on the Rogers.com website. The plan is only a 5MB data plan, with unlimited browsing for only the first 3 months. Apparently I raised a serious shitstorm over at Rogers HQ, because she said they were working to have the error corrected on the website, and thanked me for bringing it to their attention.
Needless to say, I was quite disappointed, but pleasantly surprised when she then offered to credit my current $10/10MB data plan AND give me unlimited data for the next 6 months. I guess I couldn’t argue with that deal. I would have rather been able to pay $20/month for unlimited data forever, but 6 months of unlimited data for free is a pretty good consolation prize. I guess I was so pleasantly surprised because for once Rogers actually offered to try and make me happy without me having to get mad or threaten to cancel my service. If I’m really lucky, Rogers will actually start offering an unlimited data plan for $20/month by the time my 6 month freebie expires.
If any of you actually manage to get the $20 plan as was advertised above, or a sweet payout like I got, please post your experience in the comments below or discuss it in the Art Of Geek forums!
Update 1 - 2/6/2008, 2:35 pm: Well, if the plan posting on Rogers website is a mistake, they’re taking their sweet ass time correcting it. I’m starting to doubt the information provided by the rogers reps I spoke to, but I would caution anyone adding this plan to their iPhone to be extra careful that you have them confirm that it will work with an iPhone, and make a note of the person’s name and the date and time of your call to Rogers in case they try to bill you additional charges. The fine print listed on the first page I link to above states the following:
* Plan includes unlimited on-device mobile browsing only. Plan is available on select phones only (PDAs such as Blackberry or Windows Mobile devices, PC cards and non-Rogers certified devices are not eligible). Data usage incurred on ineligible devices, incurred while tethering (using device as wireless modem for laptop) or incurred using non-Rogers (3rd party) applications downloaded to your device will be subject to pay-per-use charges of 5 cents/KB.
That sounds a lot like Rogers might very well be able to get out of honoring the “unlimited on-device browsing” for iPhone customers by claiming that it’s not one of the ’select phones’, or is classified as a PDA, or is ‘a non-Rogers certified’ device. I have to say though, if they do want to play hardball, they’re going to have a bit of a legal issue if their customer service reps aren’t explaining this to customers and the fine print is missing from the 2nd link I posted detailing what’s included in the plan.
Update 2 - 2/11/2008, 4:05 pm: The news has finally been picked up by the mainstream media. CBC.ca posted this article earlier today:
Rogers ‘unlimited’ cellphone plans draw fire.
Update 3 - 2/11/2008, 4:25 pm: Ars Technica is covering the story as well:
Rogers Unlimited data plan not so unlimited after all. Do you think if they get enough bad publicity over this that they might do something about it? Yeah, I know, wishful thinking. This is Rogers we’re talking about…
Update 4 - 2/12/2008, 6:20 pm: The Register, a little late to the party, has also picked up this story:
Rogers wraps ‘unlimited’ mobile browsing in small print
Update 5 - 3/7/2008, 1:30 pm: Well, I just got screwed. Just got my Rogers bill, and they have switched me to the $20 Communicate Value Pack, even though I had explicitly told them I didn’t want my plan to change. Now I’m being told they can’t put things back the way they were because the $10 Mobile Internet Plan no longer exists. They still can’t give me a straight answer about the iPhone and the $20 Communicate Value Pack or $7 Unlimited on-device mobile browsing. So in 6 months when my unlimited data runs out, I’m probably going to have to either take a cut in data usage, or start paying more than I used to, maybe even for less data than I was getting before. The Data representative told me they only have $30/8MB or $60/30MB plans available now. This is progress?!?
February 5th, 2008
Today’s scheduled server OS upgrade has been completed successfully. We’re now running on Mac OS X Server 10.5 Leopard. This is my first production experience deploying Mac OS X Server, so I anticipate some learning challenges, but hopefully the learning curve will be worth it in the end.
We’ve tested all the major features, and everything seems to be working fine. That being said, it’s quite possible that we’ve missed something or that a compatibility issue creeps up and bites us in the ass, so please let us know if you notice any bugs so we can get them fixed.
February 2nd, 2008
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