Thursday, September 23, 2010

Netflix and the Roger's Bandwidth Cap

Rogers doesn't have a "Cap" - rather a "threshold", over which you will pay for your extra useage up to a maximum of $50 per billing period.

Contrary to the CBC news reports that claimed that Rogers lowered their "caps" earlier this year when Netflix got approval for providing service in Canada, what they actually did was to raise the "Extra Usage" charge from a maximum of $25 to $50 per billing period.
So the real cost of Netflix in Canada, if you are near or above your alloted bandwidth is not $7.99 per month as Netflix say on their website but rather up to $57.99 per month (not such a bargain as the bill of fair is much more restrictive than what is available in the US and on P2P file-sharing sites).

For those that are on an "Extreme" plan you are currently paying for 95G per monthly billing period, so if you use the Netflix service heavily (they say on their website that you can expect 1G per hour for normal DVD quality and 2G per hour for HD) you will be paying this extra rate if you go above 95 (or 47 and a half) hours per month.

Of course if you are well about this $50 threshold maximum it makes sense to use more bandwidth rather than less - this kinda makes a nonsense of the concept of a "Cap"????

Monday, September 20, 2010

libdehdcp

Now that the HDCP key**** is loose will the ghost of Dr. Peter Gutmann emerge from the shadows?

Halloween is coming up after all.

Is there really a need for an AACS defeating version of good old libdvdcss? It would seem that many are content with the DVD quality and the step to BD is not worth the hassle of wrestling with HDCP keys and the like.

Oh, for those that may be lost in the acronym soup:
AACS - Advanced Access Content System (for High-Definition Video discs)
HDCP - High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection
BD - BluRay Disc (of course - but it still needs to be said)

 **** in fact the usage of HDCP is not really relevant as the discussion is more likely to be about libaacs.dll

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Remote administration of a webserver using VNC

I use VNC to remotely configure and monitor my webserver. At the present time this is all over a Local Area Network although it would be possible over the Internet.


  • VNC

Asus M4A785TD-M EVO motherboard

This motherboard is used in my Windows 7 experimental computer




Other links on this blog relating to the Asus M4A785 motherboard series:

Mac EFI facts and myths

This is only a synopsis - please see the rEFIt page on Sourceforce

The list below is a starting point for my own research.
  • Myth: You need Boot Camp to run Windows/Linux/...
  • Myth: You need BIOS compatibility to boot Linux
  • Fact: You need a MBR partition table to use LILO/GRUB
  • Fact: You need BIOS compatibility for 2D/3D acceleration
  • Fact: You need BIOS compatibility and a MBR partition table to boot Windows
  • Myth: Mac OS X requires GPT
  • Myth: Mac OS X requires a hidden EFI System Partition
  • Myth: EFI requires GPT
  • Myth: GRUB overwrites GPT tables;
  • Myth: You need rEFIt's reiserfs driver to boot Linux from a reiserfs partition with LILO/GRUB
  • Myth: You need rEFIt to install/boot Linux
  • Myth: You need rEFIt's gptsync after using Boot Camp Assistant

Links:

Monday, September 13, 2010

Step-by-step on how to configure Vitualbox to run DVD43 on a 64 bit computer

I have configured many 64 bit computers so that I can run DVD43 both in Windows 7 XP-Mode and Virtualbox.

The original Ste-by-step was featured on my website, www.tempusfugit.ca. This has been taken off-line but I am more than willing to share the techniques with you if you contact me.

NotebookReview.com

Home of the famous "Questionaire"!


Thursday, September 9, 2010

my Windows 7 experimental computer

This computer was assembled with the express purpose to test out the new features of Windows 7, particularly XP-Mode.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Asus Core Unlocker - How To

When you update your BIOS on your Asus motherboard you may see an option that says:

"Press 4 for Asus Core Unlocker".

This option may not appear if you processor does not have any locked cores to unlock.
Or;
It may appear on all boards that have had the BIOS update irrespective of the capabilities of the processor.



I see this option on my M4A785TD-M EVO with an AMD Phenom II X6 1055T
(I can't seem to unlock it to an X7 or X8!!!!)

UPDATE: The option changes to a message that "all 6 Cores are unlocked!!!" when I press 4 on boot.
Question is? will it come back when I put my 550 BE on the m/b? and can I unlock it to an X4?

 Links:

Email Systems

A start page for the discussion of Email Systems

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Basement

How to host a website from your basement for free

This is a re-post of some of the pages from my website. For a more general synopsis of this project see here.

The pages that were previously on my website included a detail description of the hardware and software setup, the configuration of the DNS and the steps you need to complete so that your website can be seen on the Internet.

This post is a work in progress - it will be added to as I see interest in the topic.

GRUB - GRand Unified Bootloader

GNU GRUB is a Multiboot boot loader. It was derived from  GRUB, the GRand Unified Bootloader, which was originally designed and implemented by Erich Stefan Boleyn.

  • Enable VT on InsydeH2O based Sony Vaio laptops, the EFI way - GRUB2

Whether the Mac uses a System BIOS or an EFI


This discussion is relevant to the configuration of OSX on non-Apple hardware (Hackintosh). Whether the BIOS needs to be configured in a particular manner to allow the operation of Snow Leopard for example. Does the SATA type have to be set to ACHI and the boot loader need to be a Linux/Grub derivative (the
Windows 7/Vista bootloader does not seem to work on a Mac)

It is really a moot point (the discussion on the differences) and the rhetoric you see on the web relating EFI partitions makes the whole thing so much more mysterious than it is.

The Insyde h2o BIOS is based on an EFI

To use a computer that has an Insyde BIOS you still need to configure an alternative boot loader. It is not a question of finding the correct BIOS settings.

Those looking for the "magic" BIOS settings are barking up the wrong tree!

  • The vmx-var-set.efi utility
  • The Mac and EFI - the myths surrounding the MAC and EFI



Wednesday, September 1, 2010