Inside the mind of Jamie Starke

Like everyone else I know, I was happy when I heard that the iPhone would be coming to Canada, but that happiness quickly turned to reluctance when I found out that Rogers and Fido (a subsidiary of Rogers) would be carrying the iPhone.  Of course, this was not really a big surprise, as the iPhone is a GSM phone, and neither of the other 2 big Wireless companies in Canada (Telus and Bell) are GSM.  

Rogers has this way of taking something good, and screwing to make a really good profit.  For instance, the iPhone 8 GB in the states will be going for $199 on a 2 year contract.  With Rogers, of course, its on a 3 year contract.  You can't tell me that with the Canadian dollar and the US dollar being at almost parity (they seem to flip flop with who is on top) that the iPhone costs so much more that they need to subsidize it by another years contract.  Exactly, pure profit.

As I told everyone I know, the big thing I am waiting on to decide if I get the iPhone is, of course, the rate plans.  I have been on 3 year contracts for years so they don't scare me, they just piss me off with the discrepency.  This morning, I finally found Rogers rate plans (Fido's are identical) .  I've included them below

Wow, so not only are they not unlimited, but they include very little air time, and additional air time is Exorbident!

I wanted to include a comparison of the basic plans between the US and Canada, however I found that someone else had already done it in the blog iPhone Costs UK vs US vs Canada. Rogers Ruins it for Canada!  I have included the image below.

So why do I say the 'iPhone is coming to Canada, kind of'?  Well in true Rogers Style, Everyone else has 2 year or less contract, Rogers opts for a Full 3 years!  Everyone else has over 400 minutes of daytime Airtime, Rogers 150.  Everyone else has Unlimited Data, Rogers has 400 MB.  Everyone else includes atleast 200 Text Messages, Rogers includes 75 (Wow).  Everyone Else includes Call Display, but not Rogers, thats extra.  All said and done, it costs you about the same in the US, UK and Canada, but with Rogers you get a lot less.

Thanks Rogers, Way to Ruin a beautiful thing!

No surprise that someone has already set up a petition, which is available at http://www.ruinediphone.com/

Before you read on. Take a deep breath. Don't panic.

I have received reports of messages like the following one:

Before dismissing this message I decided to look into it. By actually looking at the link above, it was Obvious that this was a hoax, as the page it self, with regards to a message similar to the one above said:

In March 2008, a new warning began circulating that erroneously linked
the name of the 'Mail Server Report' worm with elements of the Life is
Beautiful virus hoax and claimed that the resulting amalgam "HAS BEEN
CONFIRMED BY SNOPES", thereby creating yet another hoax virus warning

This is a hoax. Said virus is not in the wild, and has not been confirmed by Snopes, infact, their message above said that the message people contacted me about is infact a hoax.

Let me just take a moment to remind everyone some email safety:

• Consider the source: Is this source credible in this area? Do they have the sufficient knowledge in the area? If they said that "X" said something, do they provide references to the source of this comment, such as links to "X"'s website? Does "X"'s website even say this? If any of these do not apply, its probably not a good idea to send this email on to anyone.
• Is an attachment something your actually expecting: Is the message from someone you don't know? Is the message from someone you know, but contains an attachment that is unexpected, or seems fishy? If any of these apply, its probably a good idea not to open these attachments.

If you can't answer these questions yourself, ask someone who knows.

When I was working on this article this morning, someone asked me, "Well, why would someone send these kind of messages out in the first place?"

Thats a very good question, one to which I really don't have a definate answer. This question is similar to "Why would someone make a virus?". Realistically, the only reason that I have for either of these two is, because they can, and they want to see how well it will work. If no one sent these messages on, would they go very far? Probably not. If the messages didn't go very far, would someone want to make one of these hoaxes in the first place? Probably not.

So for that reason, if we all just follow these simple rules, We will get less hoaxes, we are less likely to spread viruses, and we are all more likely to have a safe internet experience. Do the right thing, follow the rules.

Today while having some free time, and getting sick of remote desktopping into my Windows box to print things, I decided to take another stab at getting my Lexmark E210 to work with my Mac OS X Leopard laptop. Unfortunately, I found a long time ago that this printer had neither driver support from Lexmark, nor Apple.

The page I found on how to Make A Lexmark E210 Printer work with Mac OS X detailed extremely well the steps for hooking this printer up via USB (and if you are looking at this for USB, go there now!).

If on the other hand, if like me, your using a Lexmark E210 that is shared from a Windows Machine, these steps seemed to work for me.

First off install the Samsung-GDI-Foomatic driver and the GPLGS (GPL GhostScript) both of which are available on that page.

Second, install Gimp-Print Printer Drivers. As it said on the other page above, neither Lexmark nor Apple have driver support for this printer, so this will act as what you need to be able to print.

Finally, Open System Preferences, Print & Fax. Hold Option while clicking the + sign (add, I don't know why, don't ask, again from the page above). Now select this Windows Button. With any luck, your workgroup will show up. Select the computer the printer is attached to, and then the printer. Once you have selected the printer, in the "Print Using" drop-down select "Lexmark E210, Foomatic+gdi".

You should now be able to print, and you won't just get blank pages, or the first page of documents.

Is your information secure? Many operating systems these days come with some type of a disk encryption system that protects the files on your hard drive. But how secure is it? Studies have shown that in a lot of cases, these tools can be broken with little difficulty if the attacker has physical access to the computer. How can this be done? Well, if the computer is on, or in a hibernated state (when you open it, it immediately shows a password prompt) the encryption key is regularly stored in memory. If the power is cut, and specific software is used, the encryption key can usually be taken before it is lost from memory. Check out the information available at this site.

For those of you who are not familiar with the Wii, its the new gaming system from Nintendo. Ok, not exactly new, its been out on the market for over a year now.

One of the more revolutionary aspects of the Wii is the wii mote. It is equipped with a number of sensors to detect everything from motion, to pointing direction.

A while ago I came across some interesting research by a fellow named Johnny Chung Lee. Some of the research that he is doing involved Wiimotes and how they can be used in different and innovative ways. These include things such as performing finger tracking to give different a new and innovative way to interact, using a wiimote to creative low-cost interactive white boards, and performing head tracking for Desktop Virtual Reality Displays Wii Remotes.

I would have to say that the last one was the most interesting to me. But you have to see it yourself. I have included the video of it below.