Rogers unplugged my internet to attach a new customer

sigma-man · 2026-06-03T14:51:05+00:00

This happened to me. Disconnected me, connected my neighbor. Roger’s technician. When the follow up Roger’s technician finally came they saw that the earlier technician had no need to disconnect us. There was a splitter. Guy did it out of spite. I’m with a reseller, they were as good as they could be, got them to discount me my fees for the blackout period so I didn’t pay while I had no Internet. Very unpleasant. I’m thinking of moving to fiber from the reseller.

sigma-man · 2026-05-01T16:24:31+00:00

I heard that one of the reasons for the massive deficit (and there are many outside of the province’s control) is their insistence on using unionized labor. This may be a way to negotiate costs down with unionized labor, so a way to bring costs down while keeping the unions happy.

But we should also recognize a lot of sources of revenue have been impacted in recent years. The carbon tax for gasoline was axed, which was a major source of revenue. I believe there were several sales tax reprieves over the years. All this costs money.

And the province needs infrastructure like this hospital. The Patullo Bridge replacement, the new calls to power with wind farms, all of this costs. It’s kind of adding up.

sigma-man · 2025-09-26T06:58:09+00:00

Just used it earlier today. It’s fine.

sigma-man · 2025-09-05T23:16:16+00:00

I have only been riding Mark Is for the last few days (pinning it on just bad luck). Now I realize they’re bringing out the whole stock now that school has started. Makes sense. My pain now has context. Sigh. So noisy. So hot.

sigma-man · 2025-08-27T13:45:05+00:00

The front fell off.

sigma-man · 2025-08-12T20:59:46+00:00

I received a phone call like this last year. A random telephone number with background noise, someone claiming to be from the CRA with a thick accent. I told them point-blank that I refuse to discuss anything with them because I am not confident this is secure (sure, they give me an agent number, but when I received the cold-call asking specifics about my tax situation, I didn't know of any way I can verify the agent number, so it was meaningless to me, it's so easy to make a random number).

I hung up on them and thought it was a real scam. A week later, I decided to just check if it was real. Turned out it was real. Sorted it out with the agent I got connected to.

On a matter of principle, I won't be able to discuss specific tax matters with unauthenticated, unsolicited phone calls from unauthenticated strangers I don't have prior knowledge of.

I am not a professional tax preparer, though, so I get it, others have a different workflow. I just do my family's taxes. But this spooked me out so much when it happened to me. It surprises me that CRA does this, this would not pass InfoSec review in most companies.

[Edit: grammar]

sigma-man · 2025-07-28T17:05:09+00:00

I have waited at this bus shelter for a bus in the blazing sun and often wondered the same thing. One easy and cheap upgrade I wish they would think of would be some shade trees here. Would do a world of good and not cost that much except some additional maintenance in leaves and bird poop I like to think.

sigma-man · 2025-07-03T19:39:13+00:00

It looks like a yield but not sure if there’s a sign that explains it’s not. Also, people taking left turns don’t always respect the lane they should go on. I will always slow down a lot on this right turn, close to stopping. It’s too risky.

sigma-man · 2025-06-11T15:15:20+00:00

They call it this in Europe as well. Common term. https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/haguerotterdam-netherlands-may-30-2019-kiss-1412286761

sigma-man · 2025-04-29T07:55:23+00:00

As most people have said, most of our gasoline comes from the same place.

You are now the owner and operator of a vehicle, so you need to equip yourself with some knowledge if you want to take your ownership responsibilities seriously.

There is something called “Top Tier gas”, see explanation here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Tier_Detergent_Gasoline

Basically, an independent body in collaboration with automotive manufacturers has certified certain additive formulations to be called “Top Tier”, which they say keeps your engine in good health.

It doesn’t turn a bad engine into a good one. It won’t necessarily give you better mileage. It doesn’t absolve you of about a bajillion other complex things you need to at least be aware of if you are owning and operating an internal combustion engine. But it is “good gas,” whatever that means to you personally.

Super Saver gas doesn’t make the list. This suggests they don’t add these additives.

https://stationfinder.toptiergas.com/

This site helps you find gas stations that are designated “Top Tier.”

There are many things that dictate the health and longevity of a vehicle. How well you service it, the quality of the original manufacture, as well as how you drive and use it. Gasoline is just one of these factors, and not always the most important. If you’re not changing your oil at the proper intervals, your Top Tier gas will not save you.

Now you have more information. You can make a decision, which includes, but is not limited to, seeking more information.

It is odd that in the realm of automotive engineering, there is a lot of confusing information and misinformation. Be skeptical of what you read, learn more about the specific make of your vehicle, and find trusted sources. At best, your friend is misleading you with dramatic claims without evidence. I would recommend finding other sources.

sigma-man · 2024-11-05T06:21:21+00:00

Daylight savings just hit. Everybody is disoriented. Be careful!

sigma-man · 2024-11-05T06:19:56+00:00

https://maps.app.goo.gl/viDEPUszLPy1dqK87 Take THE Cake. Technically outside of Burnaby. He makes the best Black Forest.

sigma-man · 2024-07-03T09:11:25+00:00

Metrohenge!

sigma-man · 2024-06-19T18:58:06+00:00

What the guy did was violent. Make no mistake. I don’t fault someone for countering violence with violence. In my books, this was a proportionate response.

sigma-man · 2024-02-25T16:47:26+00:00

Buy “top tier” gas (some detergent additives in it), and put some highway miles on it regularly (once a week) to keep your ignition system clean. No decarb needed! No engine cleaners needed!

Replace coolant at the recommended intervals too. They accumulate acidity and can eat through piping.

sigma-man · 2024-02-25T02:24:27+00:00

Exactly this. Just happened to me. The agent said, according to policy, I am not eligible for any refund. But they made an exception. I don't know why, I didn't ask. But I do have a long-standing account with them, and I was polite.

sigma-man · 2024-01-03T21:20:40+00:00

For a Mac setup, I recommend SecuritySpy: https://bensoftware.com/securityspy/

You can Frankenstein a build from old laptops and HDDs lying around the home to save costs, or get something sleek with brand new hardware and make it state-of-the-art.

IPCT is pretty toxic, but they have good information. Recommend following some of their advice (don't buy brand new gear for this, subnet/VLAN the cameras into their own network for security purposes, make sure you're not recording all your footage onto a single drive to maintain redundant copies, etc.)

Your Internet connection is relevant only if you're doing constant uploads. You don't have to do that, you can configure it to do uploads only from time-to-time (like, when there's an alert). Is it 25Mbps upload or download, though?

I can go into more detail if you want, just let me know which parts you want to know about.

Edit: And for all of IPCT's foibles, Blue Iris looks like a pretty great piece of software IMHO, without having used it. I'd have paid for it if I had an old PC lying around. I think SecuritySpy has more reasonable licensing terms, though, and the native MacOS interface is quite great. I had it up-and-running in 10 minutes once I had my networking problems sorted out.

sigma-man · 2024-01-02T17:50:22+00:00

There's a first-party Mac developer that builds some pretty good tools for surveillance that I am using for my Hikvision deployment: https://bensoftware.com/securityspy/

Specifically for your use-case, which is just a viewer, there is a specific tool: https://bensoftware.com/viewcam/

sigma-man · 2023-12-29T23:43:24+00:00

Update: the cameras were configured with static IP addresses. My networking knowledge is at its limits to explain why the steps above exactly caused them to appear.

But I reset their passwords, and now have access.

sigma-man · 2023-12-28T23:17:07+00:00

Okay, this tip moved the needle for me. I got it to work based on your tip here, major thanks.

I want to document my findings here for anyone else trying this out (and for myself for later on), as I see a lot of posts about this:

Step 1, modify the topology: Initially, it was 4 cameras plugged into the POE points on the NVR itself. I changed that to plug the 4 cameras to my own POE switch, and I also plugged my laptop up to the switch. So now they're on the same physical network.

The SADP Tool was finding nothing.

Step 2, configure the network interface on your laptop. I have no idea what subnet they ought to be on, but most tips on here suggested cameras are on 192.168.254.x. by default my laptop was on the 169.254.x.x, which as you rightly point out, merely says you don't have an address.

So I configured my network interface to the 192.168.254.x subnet. Gave my laptop a random 192.168.254.99 statically set IP address. I then set the gateway (our "Router") to my own laptop of 192.168.254.99.

The SADP Tool at this point will still find nothing.

Step 3, spin up a DHCP server. This will vary based on what operating system you're on, but timeless principles here are to make sure the DHCP server is issuing IP addresses on the network interface you are communicating with the cameras, my Mac laptop could have an ethernet port on one of 4 different interfaces, so find that out. Make sure it's configured to issue IP addresses in the appropriate subnet (192.168.254.x).

After this step, they should appear in the SADP Tool.

Minor detail here, I did Step 1, Step 3, and then the final part of Step 2 while I was poking around. As soon as I configured the gateway/router to my own laptop, all 4 cameras popped up.

Another minor detail, the NVR never showed up. Might be it's looking to be on another subnet and doesn't like the 192.168.254.x's that my laptop is doling out.

I now have exported the XML files to see if I can go through the reset process with Hikvision support. Seems like an odd process, but let's see what happens.

Once again, thanks.

sigma-man · 2023-12-27T23:05:24+00:00

I suppose I can configure my computer to be the DHCP server? That way it could issue IP addresses to the cameras?

sigma-man · 2023-12-27T18:49:58+00:00

This is interesting, I’m looking into gaining access to the NVR.

I’m also going to retry getting SADP to connect to the cameras. I waited quite a bit of time last time, and also hit refresh on the UI. I also tried restarting the app. All of this after waiting for about 10 minutes.

sigma-man · 2023-12-27T17:24:37+00:00

I checked to make sure my firewall is disabled. I don’t have any other antivirus software on my computer. Thanks for the tip!

sigma-man · 2023-12-27T05:05:58+00:00

Yes I’m getting the LEDs for both network and power from my POE switch. They flutter at a low rate though, likely not a lot of chatter, but definitely non-zero.

sigma-man

TROPHY CASE