• UPS “Brokerage fee” class-action

    Apparently a guy in British Columbia has filed a class-action lawsuit against UPS, for the ridiculous “brokerage” charges they demand from the recipient of any US->Canada shipment. Frequently the brokerage fees will be more than the shipment is worth. Unfortunately, the case is in BC only at this time, but if one starts up in…

  • Spam: will it ever end?

    It has been observed by many people that spam levels have shot up tremendously in the last half year. Largely due to bot-nets of cracked Windows PCs, which tend to make the older spam-fighting mechanisms like server blacklists ineffective. And largely image-based spam defeats heuristic analyzers like Bayesian filters. Somehow even email addresses that I…

  • Trans-Siberian Orchestra

    Sabrina and I went to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra in Toronto last week. We saw them last year too, and enjoyed it quite alot. The same again this year. Trans-Siberian Orchestra, for those who haven’t heard of them, does a bunch of classical music, Christmas songs, and original instrumentals driven by weedely-deedely electric guitar. You…

  • D975XBX / Conroe build hassles

    Assembling the new computer proved to be quite a source of frustration. But I got it going.  And so begins the epic saga…

  • Christmas came early!

    The last of the parts for my new studio PC finally arrived today.  I received a big box of almost all the parts within a couple days of placing my order with NCIX.  But the just-released Seasonic M12 power-supply was back-ordered. But now, at last, all the parts are in my hands.  Tonight… we build!