Postal Talks Broken Off
I’ve just received an email from Canada Post, informing me that talks inbetween the Canadian Union Of Postal Workers have broken off.
Sega Pass Hacked
An undisclosed amount of Sega Pass users have had their personal information stolen, along with encrypted password information.
Email addresses and birthdates were compromised and Sega Pass appears to be offline. The incident happened last Thursday but no details in regards to the network’s Canadian users have been published.
Postal Strike Information
It appears that the Conservative government is planning of tabling back to work legislation to end the postal strike that started today.
Canada Post had decided to lock out their employees and now mail service to and from the urban centers has stopped.
Mail is no longer being accepted, collected or distributed in most Canadian cities except for select government issued cheques. But some smaller communities may still recieve mail because their postal services are handled by the Canadian Postmasters and Assistants Association, thought it should be noted that they will not accept mail from customers.
Canada Post‘s e-Post site is still up and running so you can get your bills from that service or online directly from the businesses you deal with.
BTW, some retailers do offer alternative shipping methods to their Canadian customers.
The following Canadian retailers offer an option to ship to their local stores :
The following Canadian retailers offer courier shipping :
chapters.indigo.ca
(Greater Toronto Area)
Sony Style Canada(Major Cities/By Appointment)
Tigerdirect.ca – FREE SHIPPING* on selected PC Deals at TigerDirect!
Amazon.ca
It should be noted that Amazon.com
They use DHS Global Mail for Standard and Expedited Shipping, and UPS or DHL for Priority Shipping. BUT shipments valued above $20 Canadian may incur importation fees, which in this case would be administed by the courier, in addition to the standard duties and taxes.
International shipments valued at less than $20 are not subject to duties, taxes or importation fees because of the Low Value Shipment (LVS) process at the Canadian Border Services Agency, with some restrictions.
Additional information in regards to the possible alternatives will be added to this blog entry a.s.a.p. You can also keep track of the strike using these two links :
Hewlett-Packard Cloud Service
It appears that HP might unviel a new cloud service for their new Touchpad, according to Billboard, who confirmed the labels were in negotiations with this company.
The new Touchpad will be released on July 1st in the United States and July 15th in Canada. It will be available for pre-order from HP Canada on June 19.
Gouging Canadians – Mobile Data Roaming
So the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has confirmed what every Canadian cell phone and mobile data user has suspected for years, and more so. Canadians are being gouged when it comes to mobile data roaming charges.
According to their May 30th study, Canadians that download and upload whilst roaming are charged some of the highest fees in the world, at up to US$24.61 per 1 MB transfer on a laptop.
These rates are of course prohibitive when it comes to the viewing and uploading of digital photographs and videos. But the use of cloud services whilst roaming are also subject to these enormous fees, as are music downloads.
I personally believe that though somewhat inconvenient at times, WI-FI is the preferable option for any traveler that wishes to transfer files to and from their devices.
Free WI-FI is available in many hotels, motels, campgrounds, airports and chains like Starbucks and McDonalds though-out Canada and the United States. And some hotels also offer faster wired connections, in select rooms of course.
Personally i’ve saved quite alot of money using Skype in hotel rooms and campgrounds in the past, using these free connections. And there is an option to limit transfers to wi-fi on the new iCloud service, so there are ways to avoid these fees altogether.
Sony Ericsson Hacked
Sony Ericsson‘s Canadian site has been hacked and information from 2000 of this company’s customers have been posted online.
Though the information doesn’t include credit card information, names, email addresses and passwords have been exposed.