Free HD TV in Toronto - My Experience From Scenic, "Downtown", Pape and Danforth

When Rogers was instructed to cut the cable connection to our home, a lot of fleet-lipped questioning filled the phone line as to "Why?" from their agent. A wall of "What's it to you?" came from me. What precipitated the cancellation was yet another bill that said one thing rather starkly to me and others in the home: "Hello. We are Rogers. And we make a lot of money doing ^*#(loads of *^&^-all for you." A nudge up here, a tax there, and well... You get the idea. It is a lot of coin for what is to me about an hour or two worth of television viewing in our home a day - if that! What is worse is that the more they add to your tier, it seems the less there is worth watching!

The questions I get asked most by friends is: How many stations do you get? and What is like without cable?

The answer to the first question is simple. If you live in Toronto, have outdoor access with your antenna, and even if you do not have a television tower, mast, or rotor, you can enjoy at least eight channels in your day with perfect clarity if you have the barest minimum of set-up and a half-assed placement of your antenna. A more realistic number would 18 to 20 or more if you have an IQ greater than 37. And no... I am not kidding. It is that easy with an affordable jobbie such as the one below.

 

If you have your own private Idaho, complete with television mast that makes the Rogers syndicate green with envy, and a rotating platform that moves your one, two, or more antennae heads into ye most advantageous of positions, you are going to get a great deal more than Joe Six-Pack in his north-facing apartment at Keele and Finch that uses a piece of barbed wire as an an arial. If your mast reaches to the sky and gives your set-up a clear line of sight to Peterborough, Oshawa, Orilla, Kitchener, or London, you have the best of all. For extreme, all-out set-ups such as that, I would suspect a minimum of 35-40 channels "on a clear day", and probably more.

Most of the lumpen proletariat are somewhere in between absolute zero-investment and absolute total-investment in their home, over-the-air, television set-up, myself included. For me, there is no antenna mast. The antenna (mast-type) is simply placed at ground level at an advantageous position (A mast is not an option for me). My north/south street has what is essentially a barricade of buildings on my east and parts of the south blocking me. Anything transmitting from the east or south-east has to run a gauntlet of obstructions before it reaches my home. Even so, miracles have happened from the east.

I occasionally leave the antenna indoors (all planned viewing is of local, strong-signal stations), but this causes distant stations to suffer tremendously. On a bad day indoors, 4 or 5 channels (without interruptions in signal!) is probably realistic. On extremely averse days, even the mighty stations bouncing their signal from the CN tower can be eclipsed by a black mass of clouds that give Satanists the willies!

On good, clear, or reasonably pleasant days, I can pick up 25-30 stations on average. More if skies are clear and nothing untoward is interfering with signals. Best has been 36 stations received for me in one sitting where I actually bothered to count them. I suspect there might have been a day or two where that number have risen were I to have counted. But I am long over that phase! To put it bluntly, I am happy with what I have, and know I can actually do well with it! For those that count the stations I reference, do consider the notes or the categories these stations are filed with. Just because I mention a station does not mean I enjoy viewing or even having any access to it at all. Whenever you have reason to re-program the TV, you lose some stations in the process (More at the end about this).

Averse weather conditions have always plagued over-the-air television. Stratospheric conditions made my old black and white Philco floor model go from perfect picture to absolute snow (no signal - or signal washed out by background noise/stratospheric signal), and today, it is no different, except the results. Instead of a screen full of snow, or a picture that gets snowy (low signal of transmitter still getting through), you get the digital version of snow. Long, vertical blocks disengaged from an image (or mono-colored strips of - whatever!), seemingly placed over different images or different parts of one on a screen whose entire image-as-canvas has suddenly stopped moving. The new millenia's version - digital snow-job.

So... All is not absolutely rosy without cable. But then, if you don't mind the thorns, and saving a thousand dollars a year or more in cable or satellite, you aren't getting that monthly kick in the ass. Yet there are prices to pay in addition to "what you can get".

See the bottom of this post for a run-down of what stations I can watch rated by percentages.

For people who have an infernal need to be seen by friends as having "watched everything I watch", "see everything I see", then perhaps you won't be able to live yourself down after cutting your pay-television service connections. You probably have an iPhone or similar and pay for feeds wired to these devices (320x240p?). If you live off at-the-minute news reporting a la CBC-Newsworld or CNN, you are going to start on a bad day, every day with over-the-air HD television! The closest thing that comes to it is CHCH-TV in Hamilton. They got rid of the Hilarious House of Frightenstein, and replaced it with a version of CITY-TVs Ticker news. Only trouble is the ticker disappears at times and is itself replaced with infomercials, unwatchable matter (to my tastes), and on weekends, a gamut of ye olde favorites, including Tiny Talent Time! If the world is ending, you'll miss it watching a young girl in leotards performing a Hamilton studio version of Swan Lake.

The same issues are suffered by persons who have a mandatory minimum of sport broadcast requirements that are measured hourly or daily. On any given day, over-the-air television is not going to provide you with what TSN or other sports networks on cable give you. Of course, if you are on Tier one Rogers where TSN's primary channel miraculously transmogrified itself into its less-than-prime status overnight, you're probably already getting tired of watching re-runs of the Thrilla in Manilla and the back-catalog of "sport film" that TSN seems to have dredged from some hole and offers it up to Tier one viewers as "The TSN we have always been - oh... Have you seen our new channels yet? Haven't signed up yet to get rid of this channel's crap?! Why?!"

Yes there are college football games on the weekends, and NFL on the American networks. Yes there are the occasional NHL hockey game on CBC on Saturday night. For those that remember what it was like to actually ENJOY a Habs game on over-the-air TV, CBLFT has not offered that for ages, probably before Bell or Rogers got their fingers into the hockey markets. So no en Francais la Belle Habs du Fromage for you! In fact, the average night has absolutely zero sports to offer you. So stay where you are, pay your bills, and get your fix and consider yourself lucky if you're the sport TV nut.

What is on?

Well, for the average house-person who is at home during the day, the same bill of fare on offer on cable is what you pretty much get over the air from an antenna. Lots of children's programming, soap operas, game shows, all of it new, modern, and with faces I try to forget. Afternoons are not much different than they were 10, 20, or 30 years ago. Again, different crop of content, much the same offerings. Then again, I have NOT seen Oprah over-the-air, and a number of other forgettable mugs from my cable period whose names escape me. There are losses at EVERY hour going from cable to no-cable.

It is during the later parts of the day and night where things get more interesting. In order to grasp the market that is watching over the air, stations are getting a bit more creative and coming up with the thematic channels that cater to segments of the audience who are actually looking for what they offer. You can watch particular network episodic television content that everyone else in America watches in the evenings. But if that crop of material is not what you want, you'll flip to another channel, and people are.

For instance, 49-3, "CometTV", is a new channel offered by WYNO-TV in Buffalo . Its yet another "old movies" channel for those who flip past. But for those who like the schlock sci-fi scene, tepid 70s/80s horrors, and some actual good ones, this channel could replace 99 percent of what the pay-television services offer in this genre for fans. Sure its old as the hills. But then watching a N-th rendering of new Star Trek episodes is your idea of great, then so be it. Have at it. For me, this is televised crack. Rough around the edges, lots of bad acting, swords, sandals, and a gila monster standing in for Godzilla. What more could you want?

The over-air broadcasts do a lot of the same "edited for format, time, communism, social reasons" as any TV does, including pay services. So while you might think you are going to enjoy an over-the-air rendering of Shaft (23-2 played it a while ago with a bit of trimming), the same thing happens no matter where you look. A few exceptions do turn up. But all stations live in fear of the religiot who is so unhappy with his or her world, he or she will go to the CRTC and make it stick because... They have the time to sit through 96 hours of talking heads.

What is more?

I would say that over-the-air, I get more public television. The WNED station transmits 2 television channels from Buffalo, and a classic music "channel" (its a radio station) that you can listen to over your television (Suitable for getting rid of your business' TV viewing customers that hang around too long drinking refills). You get the first channel on pay service cable, but not the second. Much of the material on the second channel is grind-housed (repeatedly re-broadcast, oftentimes an hour or two later). But even so, all of this material is both educational, of public interest, far more watchable than afternoon fare offered elsewhere (my view), and equivalent to being able to watch Les Stroud instead of that foreign-accented nit who roughs it in the outdoors.. with a crew of six. I can watch old Les broadcasts on CITY, and thankfully, the nit isn't available over the air! Miracles do happen for free!

The number of stations seems to be increasing, as opposed to decreasing. While "opportunity" in the form of people wanting to make a buck have a lot to do with that, there is also the aspect of people like me and you who may not be so enamored with pay television services. We are getting off the teat, and doing our own thing. Cable and satellite has proven to have its "must have" content for those that want Leaf TV (Ha!), Discovery (Severely less watched as time went on), History (Always good), Turner (Old movies, always reliable, but then, its a particular market that goes for it), etc.

Speaking of Turner's old movie channel on pay cable, there is a similar one also transmitting out of Buffalo. It too is all old, black and white fare from what I have watched (Bogart). While Turner's channel has a lot of the material locked up unto itself, the fare is similar enough to my tastes to call it even. This content is a particular type the average person isn't going to watch. But if you like ye olde movies, you'll get your fix.

Half of all the content you can watch will be American broadcasts. Again, some of it is duplicative - stations that run the same material as sister stations do. But there is plenty that is not carried on pay channels (one over the air channel is exhorting their viewers to demand they be kept on the pay cable services), and plenty that is. Finding a home in this largely generic marketplace, with its few niches, is a difficult prospect, but certainly not impossible - for me. I do not watch all day. So it is of no consequence if I cannot see the Leafs on a Wednesday - or any day! Maybe CBC will broadcast a live curling match at the same time, and likely, capture every Habs fan in town in the process.

Ranking of My Ability to Capture a Channel

The information below presents my version of how well I can get a station reliably, or not. The percentile figure is a personal estimate of my confidence in being able to watch the station identified. It is also seasonal in nature, as the data reflects my winter-time success watching over the air. Now that it is summer, I find success improved somewhat.

A number of the stations are listed separately under defined categories. These are either stations I cannot receive reliably, or are stations I might be able to receive reliably, but prefer not to. ie: If there were an all day su.... One Hundred Huntley Street channel, odds are it would be un-selected in my television's list of channels to browse (The clicker would never display it's broadcasts to me). So count these sorts of stations as "there" for most.

Again - I have issues with south, east, and south-east stations - stations that are that direction from my location (Pape and Danforth area). A great many of you will not suffer these issues as I do, but may in turn have issues with others.

Channels that are programmed into my TV... and rated for viewability

Virtual.................. Physical.....% chance of un-interrupted signal
2-1 WGRZ-HD       33      25%
2-2 WGRZ2-2       33      25%
2-3 WGRZ2-3       33      25%
4-1 WIVB-HD       39      85%
5-1 CBLT-HD       20     100%
7-1 WKBW-HD       38      20%
7-2 LAFF          38      20%
7-3 ESCAPE        38      20%
8-1 WROC-HD       45      <1%
8-2 BOUNCE        45      <1%
9-1 CFTO           9     100%
11-1 CHCH-DT      15      75%
15-1 STARRAY      22      30%
17-1 WNED-HD      43      90%
17-2 THINK        43      90%
19-1 TVO          19     100%
23-1 WNLO-HD      32      90%
23-2 BOUNCE       32      90%
25-1 CBLFTDT      25     100%
26-1 WNYB-SD      26      65%
26-2 WNYB-HD      26      65%
26-3 WNYB-SD2     26      65%
29-1 WUTV-HD      14      60%
29-2 TCN          14      60%
29-3 GRIT TV      14      60%
36-1 CITS-HD      36      90%
40-1 CJMT         40      60%
41-1 CIII-HD      41      95%
41-2 CIII-SD      41      95%
43-10 (audio only)43      90%
47-1 CFMT         47      65%
49-1 WNYO-HD      49      50%
49-2 GETTV        49      50%
49-3 COMETTV      49      50%
57-1 CITYTV       44     100%
 
Channels that ARE NOT programmed into my TV... and rated for viewability

Virtual.................. Physical.....% chance of un-interrupted signal
21-1 WXXI-DT      16      <1%
21-2 PBS WORLD    16      <1%
21-3 PBS CREATE   16      <1%
51-1 IONTV(WPXJ-TV)23     <1%
51-2 QUBO         23      <1%
51-3 IONLIFE      23      <1%
51-4 IONSHOP      23      <1%
51-5 QVC          23      <1%
51-6 HSN          23      <1%


Note: The channels that are not programmed into my TV but are listed above are channels I have, at least once, captured and watched un-interrupted. Conditions as ideal as this are rare, and their absence from the list of programmed channels reflects how rare their signals are to my TV. The channels 8-1 and 8-2 in Rochester are programmed into my TV. However, I am confident that should a power outage occur and the TV needs to be re-programmed that those two channels WOULD be listed as not programmed.

About Manual Programming of Your Television

For most, I would not recommend manual programming if your wish is to have channels that are always watchable. The more channels you find, the more channels you have programmed that are not viewable. The above percentage figures should give you an idea of what you are likely to enjoy, week over week, if you are setting up an antenna at ground level as I am. Even auto-programming by the television's own self-programming function does not always provide channels with strong signals. Some of the channels it tunes in, while viewable at the time they were programmed, will not be viewable at times of high interference (weather, time of day, etc.) If anything, you will probably want to prune some of these from your TV browser functions.

Manual programming does offer the one advantage that self-programming does not. Your TV can be made to detect more distant signals by properly directing the antenna toward the transmitter, and when possible, elevating the antenna as high as possible (Ignore this if you are in an apartment and want to avoid balcony diving). Having all these channels registered within your TV set makes it possible for you to view the channel if/when you find you must tune in. If they were not present after the TV was self-programmed, they will NOT suddenly appear while browsing.

For example, the channels 8-1 and 8-2, which I have only watched once, never are recieved by my TV. But the fact they are programmed means that if I ever flip to them and pick up the channel's signal, I will get the benefit of watching the channel. Furthermore, a month or two ago, channels 49-1 and 49-2, which I am not always able to watch (and which were NOT picked up during the TV's self-programming session), did not have a 49-3 channel accompanying them. The third channel is very new, and a blast to watch. I flipped past 49-2 one day, and suddenly my TV was offering me an old time monster movie! If the two other 49 channels were not programmed into my TV, it would never have picked up the third channel. The only reason that incident occurred was because I am willing to flip past all three channels, and enjoy a blank screen (no signal) with only the call sign and virtual channel numbers shown. That occurs roughly half the time I flip to them.

For many, this is not what they want. But if you want more from your less than stellar set-up, this is how you go about grabbing more than what your television tells you is there. Each TV is different. But most will permit you to manually browse by INPUTTING THE CHANNEL VIA KEYPAD. That always takes you to the physical channel IF THAT CHANNEL IS NOT ASSOCIATED WITH A VIRTUAL CHANNEL. As long as you know what the physical channels are, you can always get to them when/if needed. The trouble is, most of us can't remember what they were once their virtual channel numbers become their identity to us (they are on display when you change channels). So keep a written list as I do, and you will never have trouble looking for or finding channels.

That about sums up my experience. I am glad I disconnected the cable. I cannot say I did not suffer, for certainly I did. But now, its no skin off my backside. I am enjoying free HD TV. It is worth disconnecting, for me, and I recommend it to anyone that has the capacity to learn and adapt.

Purging Prefetch Files For Under-performance Improvement!

There is a lot of material published that suggests purging your Windows prefetch files is a standard order of operation for "cleaning" your system of chaff. The sages say that by purging them, you will free up all that space for new prefetch files which will be up-to-date, and will no longer include old prefetch data that your system no longer uses. They will tell you that the prefetch files get regenerated the next time you use the application the prefetch file was associated with. A considerable number of un-used prefetch files may in fact be preventing currently used applications from gaining a prefetch file in your Windows system.

All of this is good information, and true, and I will be the last to suggest that it is counter productive. By far, most people that purge their prefetch files tend to benefit from it.

But there are pro-purge-prefetch phrases that are a bit too flabby that should give anyone pause when they read them.

- That the system recreates them "anyway".
- That no harm is done by purging them.
- That it will improve performance.

These ways of discussing prefetch files have a bit too much finality to them. But I wont cry because I know that many people benefit from these tips, as proffered.

Yet there are instances wherein purging prefetch files is not only counter productive, but is doubly counter productive and damaging to system performance. It may not happen to many, and I am not going to provide any definitive proofs here (Welcome cat callers!) But these occasions can and do exist, and they aren't one-in-a-million occasions. Odds are, some readers will stumble on this long after they have been immolating their machine's potential.

While I will discuss such an instance here regarding a specific program, I am sure there are similar situations that occur for other programs. If you are someone in a similar situation or think you may be, purging prefetch files may not be a "simple operation" that has "enhanced performance". At least, not if you want to enjoy better computer performance. For those of you that think you may be such a person, I will say one thing:

Keep searching, and keep reading until you know you have found an answer!

One application I am very fond of is a disk defragmentation program called MyDefrag. Amoung it's characteristics that endear users to it is it's use of Window prefetch data files. MyDefrag doubles-down on the performance-enhancing benefits of Windows prefetch data. Windows will use prefetch files to improve file access for frequently accessed processes. So too does MyDefrag by elevating priority of files referenced in Windows prefetch files. It gives these files improved placement on the hard drive.

As the sages say, if these files are sorely out-dated and no longer referenced by Windows, they just occupy space and serve no purpose. But for MyDefrag users, they are a critical part of the defragmentation and file-placement process. So it is a natural process for a MyDefrag user to keep any and all prefetch data if it is of any substance, especially when "cleaning the system" before a defrag operation.

For a MyDefrag user, pruning un-used prefetch files while keeping those prefetch files in use by Windows is a wise thing to be doing. It involves manually inspecting them, comparing older to newer copies, and pruning based on merit - not a wholesale clean sweep of all prefetch files. To a MyDefrag user, purging them all is equivalent to instructing MyDefrag to "undo all the performance enhancement you have done by no longer processing any prefetch data". That is literally the instruction given! MyDefrag will not have any prefetch files to deal with, and thus, no benefit will come of whatever valid prefetch data was lost to purging.

This happens to a lot of MyDefrag users, I suspect. Dozens of programs are developed under the sage guidance of purging all prefetch data. Some do not even ask you or allow you to do otherwise. They just purge it all, and tell you "Hey! I just did you a world of good!"

So before you swallow the purge prefetch mantra/fetishism, be aware it isn't all Pravda. For most, it is. But not all. To me, the mantra is in sore need of a big, fat Sticky note attached to it. "Good advice, except when it bites you in the ass!"

For MyDefrag users, there are additional considerations. If all you do is keep prefetch data and run MyDefrag, chances are, you may be doing some counter productive things with your prefetch files. You can be forgiven for this since there seems precious little you can do with prefetch data. For most of us, the files are "there" or "not there". What else could possibly be done with them?

Windows will continually update valid (in use) prefetch files. As part of the prefetch maintenance process, its a double-edged service performed that cuts two ways.

If you have a video editor such as VirtualDub, and import and export a lot of video and audio data into it, the files you used most recently will feature prominently in your VirtualDub prefetch file. This is all part of what Windows does with prefetch data, and it keeps it current with your patterns of system, process, and file usage.

For someone defragmenting a hard drive in MyDefrag, these media file references appearing in their prefetch file data for VirtualDub will be counter productive. MyDefrag will elevate the priority of VirtualDub and give its executable and files pride of placement on the hard drive. But then, it extends this to the media files!

Example: You wanted to snip out a scene from your favourite movie - an 8GB video extraction you performed on your own, just to secure that ten second clip! Aren't you a clever boy!

Now with that movie still idling in the temp folder you made for it, MyDefrag pushes this huge 8 gigabyte file up to the front of your hard drive. When you reboot your system subsequently, you may find yourself wondering why the system wasn't up and atom as spritely as it was last time! Or why your other video editing suite is taking longer to load. Your movie file gained priority, especially because it may be one of the most recently accessed and created files on the system, and because it showed up in a prefetch file!

The way around this issue of prefetch files that get updated is quite simple. It may involve a total purging of the Windows Prefetch folder! In fact, it will involve a purge, but with a twist.

Instead of purging the Prefetch folder of it's content, create a sub-folder in your Prefetch folder named "Pristine". Create a second sub-folder named "Updated". Once you understand the process, you can rename these folders to whatever seems most apt to you. These are the names I use for the folders, whose purposes I describe below.

Go through the Prefetch folder and winnow out any un-used prefetch files. If Windows is not using them, neither is MyDefrag. If no other program is, then delete them. This should leave you with a host of well maintained prefetch files which are currently helping improve matters with Windows. Select all the prefetch files, and push them into the "Updated" folder. This will leave you with an empty Prefetch folder (or possibly an ini file or two).

Now that you have a clean prefetch slate (Windows has nothing to update), it is time to begin creating new, application-specific prefetch files that have no file references to files that are not part of the application itself! Now that Windows has no prefetch files to deal with, you should purposely set out to create prefetch files for each of your applications. It is important to do so without involving any other files in the launch process.

ie: Do not double-click on an image file, causing your image editing application to load the image. The prefetch file that gets created in this instance will have a reference to the image itself, and that is what you want to avoid (for MyDefrag's sake). Creating prefetch files in this way insures that only the application and its libraries and such benefit from the prefetch file, and that means you have to launch the application by itself. Try the shortcut to it, or just go through the Program Files folder launching those applications you actually care about. Yes, my Internet Explorer has no prefetch file.

The same time you are launching these applications in the manner described, you should be creating copies of them and placing them in the "Pristine" sub-folder within the Prefetch folder. This is important because it will stop Windows from updating these copies of the file.

Once you have created all the prefetch files you could ever care about in a pristine state, and safe from Windows, you can resume using Windows normally. You can restore any of the prefetch files from "Updated" back to the Windows folder, or just leave copies of the newly created prefetch files in there (this is easiest).

Any new applications you acquire and install should also get the same pristine-prefetch treatment. You also must to do this whenever any existing application is updated (and off the old file). This may be hard to do if your machine is automatically updating software (most are). In these instances, you will need to make a habit of visiting the Prefetch folder, sorting by date, and inspecting the new crop of prefetch files that get created by Windows, and again, making pristine copies of them.

The payoff for all this excess work is having a Pristine folder chock full of every application on the system. A folder whose contents you can copy into the Prefetch folder, overwriting existing files and/or replacing them after you have manually deleted/moved the updated files out of the way. Moreover, you can have as many application prefetch files as you like. Whether or not Windows uses them, MyDefrag will when it finds them in the Prefetch folder!

With a Windows Prefetch folder full of pristine prefetch files, you can then begin the process of defragging the hard drive with MyDefrag, confident in the knowledge that no big, fat media files, or ridiculous series of MP3s and such get top placement on the hard drive. The only files that will get priority are you applications themselves, Windows own series of processes and data files, and anything else you have ear-marked for special treatment in your .MyD files. The resulting defragment operations will do more of what you want, and less of what you do not want. And your system will love you for it.

All the same, keep nodding to the sages. More often than not, they have good advice. Usually!

Also grab a helpful tool: WinPrefetchView. Nir Sofer's Prefetch viewing tool is a perfect accompaniment to anyone interrogating prefetch files. See what is in them, and do what you will with what you discover.

Billions of Internet Users Should Have Internet Access?

Husbands and wives, dalliance partners, and sundry other people that think they know, understand, and can use the Internet have found their "personal information" stored on Ashley Madison's web site exposed on the Internet. Billions more have enrolled their kids on the Internet, and they too think themselves intelligent and forward/right-thinking in doing so. That they and their families are somehow served by and for the Internet, and that anything untoward occurring to them via the Internet is now something we - members of the Internet and the communities we live in - are now beholden to them, to protect them, and anyone else like them that think they know the Internet.

The Internet is like a billion train tracks, all requiring a single step in order to cross them, or to fail crossing them.

It does not matter who exposed Ashley Madison user information, to my thinking, merely because the very same people crying foul exposed it to Ashley Madison, and likely, thousands upon thousands of other web sites they haunt. In fact, using the Internet for sharing of personal, private, and sensitive information of any kind is something smart people avoid doing. Just ask the experts! You know them! The same ones who recommend you shop here or there, offer "top ten ways to make your web page popular", twat this, twit that, yadda yadda! Even those behind the Ashley Madison "brand"  exposed it to the world. How else did it become public knowledge if the very same people who hype the secretiveness and privacy offered by Ashley Madison's site haven't somehow proven how secrecy and privacy, on the Internet, only exist in the minds of those who think such things exist.

Quite obvious. Ashley Madison haven't "got" security. In fact 99 percent of the Internet-using populace cant wipe their own collective asses online, let alone "manage" their personal lives on it. That all AM's clients somehow expect them to have security, when they themselves are likely using a box even less secure, sorta shows where all this "I want the web policed with my/your/everyone's tax dollars" is going. Toronto police made a public plea for help from white-hat hackers, and anyone else that tramps through the Intarweb unnerground. Brilliant!

"People" are being hurt by this, we are told. People that, a decade or so ago, would balk at doing anything personal, private, and monetarily sensitive online!

As someone who has been using computers long before the Internet boom of the 90s, I can with confidence tell you that I fully expect all of my private and public information to be exposed to public scrutiny on the Internet. Anyone that knows me personally, and those who can dig up dirt on the net, are people who exist in my mind, and people whose powers and capabilities I fully appreciate. That any of my personal information should remain hidden is only a matter of time, luck, and perhaps a tiny modicum of skill on my part.

Be assured. The only privacy that exists is that which you keep in your head, to yourself, and off the Internet. When you wave at the world online, they ride the same rails you, and all can get run over. The Internet police? Good luck with that. Why not watch the Do Not Cross signals blink and enjoy the view.

New BleachBit Cleaners - Simutrans & TeraCopy and more

I have created Simutrans.XML and TeraCopy.XML CleanerML files (and more. See update below), for use with the popular program, BleachBit. The files are available from my GoogleDrive and need to be placed in the Share/Cleaners/ folder of your BleachBit installation in order for them to become available in the program.

Note: As a precaution, I suggest you obtain BleachBit from the developer, and use the cleanerML mark-up provided by his program.

All the usual caveats apply when using the CleanerML files I have created, and you are free to edit and share them - and I would hope you share your changes/improvements with the developer. Mine have been submitted to the developer, and may or may not be included in updates of the program (The reason why you should use caution with them as the developer may not approve them). Of note, the Simutrans cleaner has facilities to clean out all files stowed in the user height maps, screenhots, and saved games directories/folders. All of this content is either placed there manually by the user, or initiated by the user in Simutrans. So no warnings are issued as it is assumed the user is aware of what he or she has in these locations.

Enjoy, and look forward to more in future.

Update 06/08/2015:

Additional cleanerML mark-up has been created for Akelpad, Audacity, DirMaster, Goldwave, kchmviewer, Paint.NET, SketchUp Make, Textsrch, and VirtualDub, all being Windows software, all being available on my GoogleDrive and Github. I have also altered the mark-up to make it more compliant with the BleachBit developer's own mark-up, and have made it available to him. When/If it becomes part of the distributed BleachBit program in it's current or an altered form is solely up to him.

One additional cleaner - "virtualdub-scripts-and-sparse.xml" contains warnings and mark-up that may delete files that VirtualDub users might not want deleted. I do not expect this to become part of BleachBit (see comment below). The files it targets have the following extensions: .JOBS, .SYL, .VCF, and .SPARSE. All are user created/generated and in my opinion, fall within the scope of what BleachBit is meant to clean. But I am not all users, so I leave it up to you and suggest you heed the warnings if you use this mark-up.

Update: 03/09/2015:

Created a cleaner for Stuffit.

Update: 06/18/2016:

Created a cleaner for PokerTH.

Canadian cities file for Simutrans

I created a different Canadian cities file for Simutrans, the transportation simulator game. I also created a new "en.tab" file which generates city names when no city file present which I feel also renders as more Canadian.  The Simutrans site message forum already has a Canadian cities file, but I wanted mine to reflect a more diverse cultural influence that has existed in Canada.

Changes to the "en.tab" file include the changing of city name generating affixes and prefixes, the generating of stations/stops names, and of course, the game will no longer announce that it has given a "blue riband" for breaking a speed record. I am presuming, with this last change, that the intent was to award a blue ribbon.

If you have a cities file, the "en.tab" file only affects station/stop names and the "blue ribbon" statement. If you want to use the Canadian cities file, depending on your OS language settings, you may need to rename the file in order for Simutrans to automatically load it.

Trash and Hornet's Nests - Cleaning logs and expendable data with BleachBit

Trash and hornet's nests...

When you are tasked with finding, interrogating, and punting unnecessary data from a computer system, the above phrase describes the ever growing phenomenon you deal with. With OS developers serving as the alpha dogs, myriad programmers with a notepad program and a compiler take the alpha dog's cue and run with it, adding ever more reams of data-cruft to our hard drives.

One of my new favorite toys is a program whose sole existence is to provide a standardized tool for dealing with a computer's honey holes of trash and other un-needed data. A link to BleachBit turned up in my inbox, and as of late I've been discovering it to be very capable. It not only will allow Windows users to target this unwanted data; but Linux users can also enjoy purging made easy.

Select targets in the left pane, and read what damage trash wrought in the right.

The program has a number of features that look to be just right for continuous enjoyment.

Trash is addressed by use of a mark-up code that is easily understood by anyone who has ever worked with web page and similar mark-up. Known as Cleaner Mark-up Language (CleanerML), it is XML-based and looks near enough to what you might put in a web page. Objects, whether internal file data structures (Windows registry, SQL databases, etc.) or files themselves, can be located and addressed using CleanerML, and the data viewed or purged. Disk and file content can also be overwritten to avoid recovery. Because the mark-up is open source, you can freely share it, as can others, and all parties enjoy the benefit in doing so.

The program comes with a number of cleaners files which provide the program with the ability to cleanse specific application/process data, or collections of such objects once installed. Sample files are also included. But reading the documention/help on the web site allows you to sample from a treasure trove of shared cleaning code that BleachBit can use and to learn how to roll your own cleaner files.

Adding and removing cleaners is as simple as copying or deleting files from a centralized folder where all cleaner mark-up files are kept. If you feel any cleaner offers too much or too little to be purged, a simple text editor allows you to customize any to your liking, if you have that sort of initiative. This can also be done to nibble down the selectable cleaners and their functions in the left pane so that only relevant cleaners to your specific system are made available.

As many can appreciate, such a publicly and freely accessible/extendable tool is what makes a good tool great. I have only touched on it's features. There are many more. You may find me posting a few additional cleaners of my own for use with BleachBit in the near future when I get around to it. In the meantime, visit the site, and enjoy. Be sure to check the documentation/help pages to find additional cleaners including Winapp2_ini and how it's used with the program. That alone will add hundreds upon hundreds of accessible cleaners to your installation.

Attention Metro Shoppers! Today's Special: Fresh Bagels... Err, Frozen!

Having darkened the doors of a Metro location for many years, it has come as quite a surprise to me that the company's own brand - Selection - which has been marketing fresh bakery products for decades under that name, and the Equality/Master Choice lines that preceded it, have taken to freezing their fresh product, and pretending that there is no difference.

When I inquired at a store - Metro's thriftier store operations - Food Basics, I was told that this is standard practice. Not just for Food Basics, but Metro as well.

Bags of 6 Selection bagels - a bakery product - arrives in a frozen food truck at all their stores.

Moreover, someone in head office arrived at this brainwave idea, and somehow, no one seems to notice the entirety of this brave, new wave in product development and advancement is reducing their selection bagels to a slimy, wet sponge product on the store shelves. Oh, sure! They do dry out inside the nicely moistened bag that has invariably gone from sub-zero and back to room temperature at least twice during it's product life cycle. Each time, the bag fills with the misty, bilge-watery mess as the plastic bag's interior fights with the warm air outside it, and the frozen air surface of the bagels fighting back.

Apparently, the developer of this "lets save a few cents and ship it with the Cap'n High Liner!" is probably one of those clowns that thinks everyone toasts their bagels. "Doesn't every body?" Even if they are the Z-grade, low priced product, it never seemed to enter his/her mind that perhaps, some people don't look forward to waking up in the morning to a plain, slime-covered, wet bagel with butter or cream cheese. The people in logistics could have told anyone at the meeting - if there ever was one where this was discussed as a new protocol - that the mere idea of freezing a fresh product is akin to taking something worth more as a fresh product, and magically transforming it to something infinitely less marketable. Anyone appreciating fresh bagels, Z-grade to pompously up-marketed grade, could tell you the same. If they wanted frozen bagels, they would go to the frozen food section, which is a place these frozen Selection bagels are never stocked.

No sir.

They put these frozen bagels in and amongst all the other fresh bakery products, early in the morning to be found the only product "drying out", as a competitive, alternative product.

It aint.

As an idea or money-saving process, it's dunder-headed. Its just the sort of thing the grocery manager at the Yonge/Eglington store would have dreamed up, surprising his store manager and his customers with a much welcoming sight of frosted, misty bagel bags, every morning thereafter!

And there is one aspect to it that smacks of the real genuine disingenuous of it. Never is the product advertised or discussed or labelled or marketed and manufactured as a frozen food product - which is what it now is.

Had anyone ever walked into a Metro and been overhead by me discussing this whatever-saving precedent it began its life as, I would have promptly and sufficiently left enough verbal excrement running down the collective necks of all those proffering it as a "win". Whatever the win it may seem to be, it is developed, resulted, and tabulated as a loser in anyone's mind, but a bean-counter. And if that is what Metro/Food Basics are stooping to, then let the fucking bean counters eat their own shit. Because wet bagels in soupy bags does not cut it!

Do You Remove Your Shoes and Jacket on a Cross-Town Bus?

I sympathize with those Air-Canada passengers left on the tarmac on a cold day in Halifax when their plane went down. But the fact that people were outside the plane in their socks makes me wonder just what people think of when they take off their clothes upon boarding public vehicles, of which a commercial passenger jet plane qualifies.

The television news shared the concern of passengers that they were left out on the tarmac for over 50 minutes in such cold conditions. The inference being they were cold and shouldn't someone be doing something about the situation? (It apparently took a while for all resources - not just the fire brigade - to arrive).

I sympathize with that too. But when you get on a plane that is routed through Canada, and you are expected to board or depart the plane at a destination that happens to be in Canada during the winter, shouldn't your shoes and jacket be on your person, as opposed to the over-head compartment behind someone else's carry-on luggage?

Doubtless finger-pointing will occur over many issues. But passengers must be responsible travellers, and be prepared for contingencies that can and do occur in flight, or as a flight begins/ends. They should be listening to the emergency procedures, and place themselves in a frame of mind where they contemplate themselves participating in them.

As someone who has flown in and out of Canada, it has been my experience that passengers quite often are oblivious and/or do not care to observe that being prepared is in their own best interests. That talking on your cell phone or blabbing to the person sitting beside you is the last thing you should be doing during the pre-flight demonstration given by the stewards and stewardesses on just what you should make yourself ready for. If you paid attention to them, they discuss precisely the event that transpired.

Planes do go down. People do need to de-board, sometimes in a hurry.

The demonstrations given in all commercial passenger flights refer to events that transpire on the ground. They aren't teaching you how to open the exit door during flight. There would actually be a parachute fitting demonstration were that the case. And since you may be de-boarding on the ground, it would behoove you to wear something appropriate.

An Hour, A Horse, An Hash of A Harry

It seems that many of us have word processors that correct our spelling. Even Blogger, the host of my various screeds, seems quite unwelcoming to my support of the letter U in the word honour or honourable (It underlines every one just as my primary school teachers did). Some of these programs correct words automatically the moment the space following the word is entered. But what is really important is that many of the word-processor-using public, it seems, are apparently unaware that word processors and their developers did not invent and are not familiar with the languages we speak.

It is how you and I and all those that preceded us speak that determines languages and their use - not the written word! Sometimes the written word is our only guide, such as in ancient texts. But language is a living thing that exists in our conversation and heads. It wasn't developed in source code.

The fact that some bit-napper with a penchant for creating rules such as "Nouns beginning with the letter H must be be preceded by An and not A" and simultaneously holds a job in the software industry does not make him or her right. Neither does that get anyone using the word processor off-the-hook for allowing themselves to write wrong in text editors.

It is altogether a different story when people purposely choose to use acronyms and dubious time-saving spelling devices such as "l33t", "LMAO", and the perfect target for derisive arrows, "<3". Whether or not you find these devices of typed text in our language a boon or a bane, there is actually a protocol followed. Even among those of us who avoid these acronyms like plague understand and follow the logic, or illogic, if that is your perception of them. We are aware that little Johnny and Janey L33t-Sp3kker (Yes, northern-European forms exist), are employing well understood forms of written language.

The rule "Any H-word preceded by 'A' should be changed to 'An'" is not a device that any person speaking agrees with "in all situations". There is one quite obvious reason that is observable in practically all speech wherein this rule has occasion to be followed and it is determined solely by how the word beginning with the letter H is spoken. It is so simply observed, or heard, that even a Hello_World programmer of any stripe can master it.

When the H is audible, as stressed and quite clearly distinguished when the H-word is spoken, it is preceded by 'A', such as a horse, a horticultural centre, and a horrible day at the keyboard. When the H is not audible, as in when the existence of the letter H, or it's removal from the spoken word does not alter how the word is spoken, then it is preceded by 'An', such as an hour, an honourable person. As spoken, our and on-or-able is identical, when spoken, to hour and honourable in most spoken English and English variants. If it is spoken in this manner, it should be preceded by 'An'. If the H is clearly stressed when spoken, it should not be.

Even when English speakers use H-words differently than others do, they still follow the rules I outline here. To people in United Kingdom that talk about their friend Harry, he is either an 'Arry or a Harry, depending solely on how they speak his name. Anyone giving Harry full value will say "Oh, he's a Harry of the first order" while others will suggest "'e's an 'Arry I'm proud to be acquainted with."

Why do word processors fail to account for this and saddle us with programs that incorrectly alter our written noun-ish H-words?

Convenience or an aversion to making their rule-ridden, correction-happy word processing sloth become even more glacial by adding a single rule that requires each instance it's used to reference a word list in memory as big as the document itself before it impliments the correction.

Little Stores and Markets Need Unions Too!

As someone who has been a member of a union, I can honestly state that, when the union works together - with it's members and vice versa - they all benefit.

Why doesn't the small businessman do likewise when big-box, corporate cows move in their large operations and decimate the little guy?

For specialty stores, it's much harder. But the mom and pop food and vegetables markets, or variety stores? As far as I can tell, every freaking street corner in a large city is chock full of these places. Why in hell do they whine when the corporate cows move in with their big store operations, and do nothing? I guess it is far easier to close your doors and say "Uncle!"

There are some that have learned.

Organizing and co-operating with your small store competitors to bring a better quality, and/or cheaper product. If you are resigned to losing - then ignore me and your like-small competitors. Otherwise use your head, work with your partners - they can be across town - and organize into a single "logical" business.

Cigarette monopolies dictating your profits on smokes and cigars? Easy. Work together, and CLOSE OFF YOUR POINT OF SALE TO THEM. In fact, when any monopoly moves in, an organized union of small stores can do much to beat the living shit out of the big, corporate cows, and the corporate wholesaling cows.

Denying points of sale - EN MASSE - to little Johnny wholesaler decimates HIS business!

I know from experience that the Canadian wholesalers of all those Pall Mall brands are actually DICTATING PRICE AND PROFITS to every single mom and pop store in town (I live in Toronto). Only every single mom and pop store is NOT so stupid as to allow them to do it! At some stores, if you try to tell the store operator where and how far to go to make a buck, they'll have no hostile feelings about telling them where to go and what they can do with their product.

Big stores and chains can buy in bulk and offer cheaper prices by acquiring product at reduced prices.

Apparently, running a warehouse where large volumes of stuff is housed is a concept small business types are unable to fathom, manage, or undertake on their own, OR TOGETHER. If you look around the web, that is the reaction to big box stores and chain stores and large retail. They act like the only people in the world allowed to operate a warehouse, or to receive large quantities of goods, are big businesses.

I say, that's bullshit.

If Pepsi Cola or Farmer's Wholesaler A-Z  can drive a truck, or a freaking train-load of product to "your warehouse", I am certain you and every small store that works with you operating that warehouse can buy the same damn stuff they do at the same price. Moreover, you can learn to do it better, stronger, and faster. And if you are really smart and get THOUSANDS of those small operators together and run a mega-warehouse, you can dictate prices to the wholesalers that will find themselves dreaming of the profits they lost.

Small stores can have "door crasher sales" too. They only need to learn how to do it as nimbly as their competitor.

PS: Nothing takes the wind out of a door crasher better than finding a better offer for identical or near-identical product at a lesser price. Walmart is supposedly the king of prices. Their ad campaigns hammer away on this theme - dropping prices. I hate to tell you this, but very often, even during the same week of a "price drop" on a product at Wallymart, you'll find the same price or better at practically any of the food retailers operating nearby, or even in the same mall/plaza location.

If they are killing business, there are some communities thriving on making Wallymart and any competitor look damned stupid.