New URL for the original "Camera Workers" site

Due to the impending closure of the Shaw.ca web space on which I had hosted since 1999 Camera Workers: The British Columbia, Alaska and Yukon Photographic Directory, 1858-1950, I have integrated the original site with the newer version. The integrated site, based on the design of the original Shaw-hosted site, uses HTML frames coding.

The integrated site is at http://cameraworkers.davidmattison.com/cw1858-1950

As of March 3, 2017 I had transferred all data from volume 1 of the original site to the integrated site. When you click on the New Site link in the contents menu on the left, the new version of Camera Workers appears in the centre or main frame.

I will continue to migrate data from volume 2 and once that is completed the URL will change again to the newer version as a standalone application.

You can access the newer version as a standalone application at http://cameraworkers.davidmattison.com

The newer version runs on The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding (TNG) by Darrin Lythgoe.

Time to switch (back) to Shaw? -- Telus to start charging BC and Alberta customers for data overusage

Telus is not getting any kudos for its decision to begin charging BC and Alberta customers who go over their monthly Internet data plan limit. This would include any Internet services accessed through Telus' Optik TV service. Shaw has no such plans (yet). Telus will be phasing in the charges between March and July.

Here is the Telus online statement about its course of action. And a CBC News story about customer backlash. I'm sure Shaw would love to welcome (back) any disgruntled Telus customers.

Freebase.com winding up

I see that Freebase, founded in 2007 with a goal of becoming a "Wikipedia for structured data" is being shut down by June 20, 2015. Users will be directed to Wikidata. I wrote about Freebase for the February 2008 issue of Searcher magazine, so kind of sad to see its demise.

Fun with timelines at Histropedia

Histropedia, powered by Wikidata, a data storehouse for Wikipedia and other sister sites, lets you make your own timelines of various events. The only catch of course is that the information has to be accessible through Wikipedia and Wikidata. It's pretty cool concept nonetheless and I hope to make some timeline contributions.

Camera Workers is live again

The newer version of Camera Workers is live again. There was a disconnect between the hosting company and its billing system and my e-mail back around 2011, so I owed 3 years worth of hosting. I think the company was sold at some point as when I started with Webserve.ca in 2009, it was based in North Vancouver. Now it's in Oakville, Ontario, and Niagara Falls, New York. When I tried to pay money I owed in December 2012 I was told an invoice would be sent, but it never was. After accessing the backend and generating a backup on August 31, I found the site was suddenly inaccessible the next day, both the public part and the backend. The bills have been paid. At least it's now less expensive to run than it was 5 years ago when I first started with Webserve.ca.

Springpad shutting down, June 25, 2014

Yet another reason not to trust your data to a startup: Springpad has announced it's shutting down effective June 25, 2014. They are providing some options on exporting your data.

CameraWorkers.davidmattison.com is being updated

September 27, 2013:

The update to CameraWorkers.davidmattison.com is complete. It mostly looks the same. One of the changes I implemented in the new release of the software powering the site is the ability to share any page through social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+.

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September 26, 2013:

I'm aware that CameraWorkers.davidmattison.com is no longer functioning. This is due to a update to the PHP programming language used by the software that powers the site. The PHP update broke the coding and the site is running an older version of the software that I had not bothered to update following the WebServe.ca server crash in December 2012 that I blogged about on December 17, 2012.

The update to CameraWorkers.davidmattison.com is going to take me a couple of days as it's a lot more complex this time round.

Ubisoft.com got hacked; change your account password advisory

Canadian software developer Ubisoft got hacked. Received an e-mail this morning advising me to change my password, which I did.

Here is the first part of the e-mail:

We recently found that one of our Web sites was exploited to gain unauthorized access to some of our online systems. We instantly took steps to close off this access, investigate the incident and begin restoring the integrity of any compromised systems. 

During this process, we learned that data had been illegally accessed from our account database, including user names, email addresses and encrypted passwords. Please note that no personal payment information is stored with Ubisoft, meaning your debit/credit card information was safe from this intrusion. 

If you happen to know anyone who's unsure whether this is a phishing e-mail, it's not, at least the version I received. After I changed my password, I got redirected to a page with images and links to three YouTube videos of upcoming Ubisoft games: Watch Dogs, Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag and Splinter Cell: Blacklist. At the top of the page it said "UBI.COM IS CURRENTLY UNDER MAINTENANCE."

Worst online shopping experience ever ... FutureShop.ca Web-only Sales

What a way to spend Christmas Eve ... in an online queue waiting for the FutureShop.ca Web servers to allow me to conduct a checkout of an item I ordered during this pre-Boxing Day Web-only sale that started at 8 pm EST. I got through the checkout process once and the system was processing my credit card, then failed because it could not connect to another server for a credit card security check. Way to go FutureShop.ca! I phoned their Customer Service and spoke to a very nice young woman who basically could not tell me anything, not even if my credit card had been charged. Her suggestion, which was my conclusion, was to go through the whole process again. We wished each other a Merry Christmas.

On my second round, more errors and an even longer wait in the online queue. I finally get to the order page, put in a different credit card, and the system goes off to process the payment then finally comes back with another error page: "An error occurred while processing your request." Followed by a reference number that's part of the Checkout process URL.

The folks who programmed the system obviously didn't proofread or test the process very thoroughly. On the Queue Status page below the bar that measures your progress in terms of a meaningless percentage the first thing it says is "Once you reach the front of the queue, you'll automatically be taken to the checkout." Actually, that's not true, because when your progress bar reaches 100% a greyed out button turns red and you have to click "Continue Checkout" to go anywhere.

This reminds me of online computing in the 90s. Over 1.5 hours wasted. My first two attempts were in Internet Explorer 9. My third attempt, ongoing as I write, is in Google Chrome, which was noticeably faster up to the Queue Status page.

Success with Google Chrome! Let that be a lesson for me, never try to order anything online with Microsoft Windows' Internet Explorer.

DavidMattion.com and CameraWorkers.DavidMattison.com temporarily down

Update for December 19, 2012

Spoke by phone with the billing people who weren't much help. Checked the site this morning and it's been restored but it's back to version 7 of the software. Time to look for a new Web hosting company.

Original post, December 17, 2012

I just learned this morning, December 17, 2012, that the reason DavidMattison.com and CameraWorkers.DavidMattison.com are inaccessible is due to a hardware failure of the Web server from the hosting company I'm using. I've been trying to get in touch with them as well about a billing issue but their much-vaunted 24/7 live support is not working even during their business hours.

My first digital music store opens at Nimbit Music

I created my digital music store through Nimbit Music. My Trance Doctor storefront's not fully enabled and there's only one track there for you to listen to or purchase (a mere $0.99 of awesome tribal-techno beats), but have a go at it and let me know what you think. I have at least 3, maybe 4, audio CD's worth of music to upload (yes, audio CD quality, not MP3s). At the moment (July 13, 2012), that's the only audio format Nimbit Music is supporting. You can pay by four major credit cards (VISA, MasterCard, American Express or Discover) or by PayPal.

LinkedIn security breach (June 7, 2012), change your password

In case you have not heard or been informed, as I was not, LinkedIn.com has had a security breach and 6.4 million member passwords were stolen. The theft was publicized on Thursday, June 7, 2012. As of June 10, 2012, all LinkedIn has done is to post a notice on its site that you should reset your password. In my case, the site remembered I was logged in from a previous visit and did not automatically log me out. I'm not sure whether that's a plus or a minus.

Pay with a Tweet, now there's a novel approach

Got an offer to download some music samples by paying with a tweet. That's a novel and innovative approach to drumming up business. The Pay with a Tweet site explains the philosophy and technology. The "price" also gets you a 30% voucher in the company's online store.

Here's the URL: http://www.analog-factory.com/?page_id=575

"Searching for the Stars" (the real ones in the heavens) through Searcher magazine

My most recent article for Searcher magazine, "Searching for the Stars: Cosmic Views and Databases", made the cover of the September 2011 issue as you can see below and is available online (just select the hyperlinked article title in this sentence).

Searcher magazine cover, September 2011

CRTC will re-examine its Internet usage billing decision & Shaw suspends it usage caps

OpenMedia.ca announced on February 8, 2011 that the CRTC will re-examine its Internet usage billing decision. You can join this campaign by sending a Web letter (already filled out) from the OpenMedia.ca site. I added some comments to my letter from my blog post about this situation.

The Vancouver Sun published an article online that Shaw has announced it will suspend its usage caps for two months during a public consultation.

I still fail to understand how the big telecomms like Shaw can sell bandwidth to smaller companies that then turn around and offer "unlimited" bandwidth to their customers. I'm on one of those "unlimited" plans myself and I'd really hate to give it up since it is so cheap.

Internet usage billing in Canada: who watches the watchers?

I, along with many others, are deeply troubled by the CRTC's decision on Internet usage billing. Here are some of my thoughts collected over the past two or three weeks on this subject. Some of these were intended for a letter I plan on sending to Shaw, my home Internet Service Provider (ISP).

First and foremost is the problem of the CRTC itself. The Victoria Times-Colonist in a February 4, 2011 article called the regulatory agency a "watchdog". This is a watchdog that appears to have the run of the yard with no restraints. Who watches the watchdog? What is the court of appeal for CRTC decisions? Is the appeal process something that is affordable for the ordinary Canadian? Is the CRTC public input process simple enough that the ordinary Canadian can understand the issue? If I understand the Internet usage billing decision sequence of events, it came about due to a submission by Bell Canada in October 2010 which wanted to charge its smaller customers who provided "unlimited" bandwidth Internet service plans more money based on actual bandwidth usage. Could anyone have predicted this outcome, a public backlash by individuals, organizations, corporate Canada and the government?

Second, while CRTC Chairman Konrad von Finckenstein rationalized that "Internet services are no different than other public utilities," I don't think the CRTC has ever reviewed bandwidth capacity and the caps set by the large providers such Bell, Rogers, Shaw, and Telus. If the CRTC is equating itself to the provincial regulatory bodies that oversee, for example, the amount of money charged to consumers for electrical consumption, then should the CRTC also not ensure that bandwidth usage caps for various Internet subscription plans are also reviewed and regulated. The fact that various large ISPs have different bandwidth caps partly demonstrates to me that the caps should be much higher than they currently are given that the large providers are also selling excess capacity to smaller providers in much the same way Canadian electrical utilities export excess power.

Third, the idea that there's some super-class of Internet consumers identified by von Finckenstein who use it "heavily" and are engaged in "excess use" (the words quoted by the Times-Colonist in its February 4 article) and are being subsidized by "the vast majority of Internet users" (Times-Colonist, February 4) sounds fair on the surface, except for the fact that all the ISPs already and have always billed "heavy users".

Fourth, who are these heavy users? If you are not one now, you likely will be in the future.

I, along with others, believe the CRTC's decision will have unintended negative consequences for the Canadian economy. The most immediate consequence will be, given that the "unlimited" bandwidth option provided by the smaller providers that lease bandwidth from the large ISPs appears to be doomed, more Canadians, myself included, who run their own Web servers will be looking for unlimited bandwidth services outside of Canada, thereby taking dollars out of Canada that really should be spent here.

As people worry about their bandwidth consumption, they will likely spend less time, money and thought online. It's the last that's particularly frightening because unlike any other telecommunications medium, the Internet allows for real-time collaboration in a synthetic environment that the stuff of science fiction a couple of decades ago.

Federal court ruling on Cabinet authority may dampen Internet usage billing reversal

According to this Globe & Mail report, a Federal Court ruling around a Cabinet decision from 2009 that saw it reverse a CRTC decision involving a wireless carrier may dampen the same and current government's enthusiasm for reversing the CRTC's decision on Internet usage billing.

CRTC ordered to rescind Internet billing decision or federal government will overturn it

Update for February 3, 2011: This is a good news story for everyone, except maybe shareholders of the Big Three Canadian ISPs, but the federal government has ordered the CRTC to either rescind its Internet usage billing decision or the government will quash it. For details see this Globe & Mail report.

This decision has affected me as I have an "unlimited" bandwidth account through a small Canadian ISP as well as one through an off-shore company. One of the unintended outcomes of the CRTC's ill-thought decision of course is that it will drive Canadians to off-shore providers and take Canadian dollars out of the country when those dollars should be supporting Canadian businesses.

February 1, 2011: According to this Globe & Mail Update on the Internet Billing Crisis, Prime Minister Harper has intervened by asking for a review of the CRTC's decision.

Mind the Cap, stop Canadian Internet usage billing

According to OpenMedia.ca, the Canadian Radio-television & Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) affirmed the ability of Canadian Internet Service Providers such as Shaw, Rogers and Bell, the Big Three in Canada, to charge customers for usage over their allotted monthly bandwidth quota.

If you want to help Stop the Meter On Your Internet Use, you can do so through an online petition (below) as well as by writing to the Hon. Tony Clement, Canada's Industry Minister who indicated on February 1, 02011 that he will review the CRTC's decision. You can also use Facebook and Twitter to support this campaign.

My New Year's Anthem Producer Challenge track on SoundCloud

I saw an advert for a musical challenge that I couldn't resist: a New Year's Eve anthem. The entry cost was nominal: $5 US for some sound samples you had to incorporate into your piece. I smashed together a seven-minute long club dance/disco/tech-house extravaganza with a wee bit of Latin and Indian flavor thrown in for global measure. The entry had to be made via SoundCloud, kind of like a Facebook for musicians. Since the entry is part of a SoundCloud Group run by the contest's sponsors and the group is moderated, my entry, if it qualifies, may or may not be live at this URL (see below for an update, but it got rejected and I've made it public but not downloadable):

http://soundcloud.com/trancedoctor/dance-the-year-away-new-years-anthem

The contest closes on December 16, 2010 and as of December 15 there are a mere 20 entries (excluding mine). So as not to be influenced I never listened to any of the competition. And still haven't. Honest.

Update for December 16, 2010: So far I've been unable to get my track uploaded via either Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer. The fact that SoundCloud had undergone scheduled maintenance when I was trying to upload it yesterday did not help. And today the site is still having problems! Comments from members of the group that was set up for this contest are varied, with several negative comments. I may end up posting something there myself as it looks as though technical difficulties may hinder my entry attempts.

Update for a little later on December 16, 2010: I finally managed to get my track uploaded and converted to the SoundCloud audio format. You can't listen to it until and if it gets approved by one or more of the moderators.

Update for December 17, 2010:  My track got rejected by the record label that co-sponsored the contest. No real info on why other than "not fitting." I objected as the contest rules and a blog posting by the other co-sponsor implied that the track only had to meet the qualification of including one or more of the purchased sound samples. I've made the track public but you can't download it.

TranceDoctor