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Boycott Arcane Services

I highly recommend that the good people of Ottawa boycott Arcane Services (also known as Arcane Landscaping, Arcane Snow Removal and a few other names). The reason for this call to arms is simple: the company cold dials Ottawa area residents, completely ignoring the Do Not Call registry list, and ignoring requests to be removed from their calling list.

We received yet another call from this company again tonight. Upon inquiring how they came into possession of our phone number, the gentleman from Arcane Services who called informed me that he was random dialing people in the area. This is completely against CRTC regulations and could lead to fines ranging from 1500$ to 15,000$ per offense/complaint. We have had no prior business relationship with the company, nor have we ever contacted them, filled out any type of surveys or any other type of communications.

This isn’t my first beef with this company. Arcane Services thinks that its perfect fine to plaster permanent, very hard to remove stickers on community mailboxes. Those mailboxes are not there for free advertising.

All you’ve done at this point is guarantee that I will never do business with your company, and strongly urge that others do the same.

Update August 24th

Arcane Services yet again called our house this evening. Again I asked to be removed from their calling list, and again I informed the caller that what they were doing was illegal, that we were registered with the CRTC Do Not Call Registry and that this is the 2nd time that I have informed them of this. So yet another complaint was sent to the CRTC.Â I wonder if anyone at this company has a clue, or maybe they just don’t care. Either way, it’s not a way to run a legitimate business.

Luc "Sandman" G. July 20, 2011

Software

Firefox 4 with Delicious and Google Addons

Firefox 4 came out a few weeks ago, and with it introduced bugs to 2 of my favorite addons: delicious and google toolbar. The delicious addon won’t work at all, as it is incompatible with Firefox 4, and the google toolbar has a few bugs which makes using it a big headache. The biggest bug of all is the autocomplete not working properly, where clicking on the suggestion doesn’t fill out the search. But behold, there are fixes for these 2 issues which will allow you to upgrade to Firefox 4 and still use these 2 must-have addons!

For either fix, you’ll need to install the Firefox compatibility addon located here:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/add-on-compatibility-reporter/?src=api

Fix delicious addon for Firefox 4

– In Firefox, go to Help menu and click Troubleshooting Information
– Now click the Open Containing Folder button at the top in the Application Basics section
– Close all Firefox browser windows
– Next (in the containing folder) go inside “extensions” folder and then the{2fa4ed95-0317-4c6a-a74c-5f3e3912c1f9} folder
– Right click the install.rdf file, select Open, then choose “Select a program”. Then click on Notepad from the window that pops up.
– Change em:maxVersion=”4.0b3pre” to em:maxVersion=”5.0″
– Save the file, close Notepad and restart Firefox
– Once Firefox restarted, click on blank space before the URL bar and select customize
– Click and drag the Delicious icons that you wish to have between the left/right arrows and the URL bar
– Click “Done” in the Customize Toolbar window when you’re done.

Fix the Google Toolbar addon

-Click on Tools, then Addons
-click Extensions and then remove Google toolbar. This will uninstall the addon.

Go to http://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/toolbar/ff/index.html and re-install the google bar

-Restart Firefox

There you go! This will fix the 2 popular addons until Yahoo (Delicious) and Google put out proper addons to that address these bugs. Enjoy!

Luc "Sandman" G. April 19, 2011

Soapbox

Cellphone Drivers Still Not Getting the Message

It appears as though Ontario drivers are not getting the message. The OPP released numbers stating that they gave out almost 46,000 tickets last year to people who were using their cellphones while driving. At 155$ a ticket, that added 713,000$ to the coffers. The statement also didn’t say if this included all tickets, including from municipal police forces like Ottawa Police. Regardless, this high number clearly shows that a majority of Ontario drivers don’t care about this law, and don’t care that their carelessness could easily cut a life short.

When talking on a cellphone, or texting, using an app or any other activity that can be done on a cellphone/smartphone, you’re taking away from your concentration and are putting the lives of everyone around you at risk. Without exaggeration, every time I get behind the wheel I see at least one driver using a cellphone; a soccer mom with 4 kids in the back seats of the minivan, a worker driving a company truck, a 70 year old man driving 60 in the fast lane on the Queensway, all blabbing away.

Studies have shown that using cellphones behind the wheel reduces your reaction time even worse than someone who’s drunk. So why do people continue to do so? Education seems to not be making any difference. I think that the fines and penalties need to be increased. The fine should be in the 400-500$ range, and drivers should lose 2 demerit points. Get caught a 2nd time and lose your license for a month or more. If the driver is driving a company van, not only should the driver be fined 400-500$, but the company should also be fined 1000 plus dollars. This would encourage companies to educate their drivers to not use cellphones while driving, and the stiffer penalties would hopefully make most people think twice before grabbing that cellphone while driving.

30 years ago or so it wasn’t illegal to drive drunk. Cooler heads prevailed and now not only is it illegal, very few people do not find it immoral. Hopefully it won’t take that long for people to realize how much of a danger it is to use a cellphone while driving.

Luc "Sandman" G. February 2, 2011

Hockey

Senators Trade Rumours; Murray Off His Rocker?

The rumours of a Senators blow up/mini blow up have been floating around for a few months now, which is not unusual considering how the team has been playing this year. What is a little disturbing though are the latest rumours to come out from the Hockey News Rumour Roundup. The rumour states that “Senators GM Bryan Murray, meanwhile, would be willing to shop everyone on his roster except defenseman Erik Karlsson, center Jason Spezza and captain Daniel Alfredsson.”

I think that this is completely wrong. On that list should also include Chris Kelly, Chris Neil and Mike Fisher. Those 3 guys give 110% every game, play the full 60 minutes and give it their all game in and game out, wearing their heart on their sleeves.Â You could probably also include Matt Carkner on the list too.Â These are the kind of veterans that you need on the team to be role models for the young players that are bound to join the ranks next season.Â Guys that lead by example, guys who work hard every night and give it their all. Murray, I’ve never been one to call for your job, but I do think that if you get rid of any of those 3-4 guys that you’d be doing a huge mistake. They are part of your core that must remain intact.

Luc "Sandman" G. February 2, 2011

Hardware Tips

How to Mute a GN Netcom 9120 Wireless Headset

I inherited a GN Netcom 9120 headset at work. This also meant that I didn’t get a manual so I had no idea on how to use it. With a lot of playing around and some long google searches, I was able to finally figure out how to mute the wireless headset. Hopefully this finding will help others out there.

To mute the 9120 wireless headset, you press the middle (on/off button) twice in under 1 seconds. This will mute the headset. To unmute it you do the same thing; hit the middle button twice in less than 1 second. Its that simple!

Luc "Sandman" G. November 24, 2010

Has it been 12 years?

Star Wars The Force Awakens Wallpapers

SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!!!

Sens March 2012 Desktop Wallpaper

Senators Desktop Wallpaper February 2012