June 2024 - Roundtable

Llama.ttf is AI, in a Font
by Adam Thompson 27 Jun '24

27 Jun '24

https://hackaday.com/2024/06/26/llama-ttf-is-ai-in-a-font/ Anyone remember how many years it's been since I started complaining about fonts being Turing-complete being a bad thing? -Adam Get Outlook for Android<https://aka.ms/AAb9ysg>

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MWL's State of Email talk, as promised
by Adam Thompson 27 Jun '24

27 Jun '24

https://youtu.be/HT3N8YWaGsg As I promised 😊. -Adam

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For the font geeks...
by Adam Thompson 22 Jun '24

22 Jun '24

https://www.tiktok.com/@wisdm8/video/7382287766064745759 -Adam

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I'm back!
by Brian Lowe 16 Jun '24

16 Jun '24

Hi everyone, TL;DR: My email was down for a week while I migrated to a new provider. I've been using valuehost.ca to host groupbcl.ca's mail for over a decade now. On June 3 they sent me an invoice for service renewal just 3 days before expiration. The only payment option was credit card via PayPal. When I attempted to pay, PayPal demanded a mobile phone number in addition to billing address information, which in my opinion is unnecessary for a simple credit card transaction. As far as I'm concerned, a mobile number is the 2020s version of the SIN/SSN: a unique identifier that can be used to link disparate accounts together. I simply do not trust PayPal to use that information solely for the purposes of this one transaction. I opened a support ticket on June 6 requesting alternate payment methods. There was no response for over 40 hours, despite a follow-up I posted nearly 34 hours later. On June 8 my account was suspended for non-payment, despite a ticket being open on this matter with their billing department for a day and a half. (The only thing to Valuehost's credit in this entire affair was they waited two days past the invoice due date before suspending my account.) That cut off my groupbcl.ca email address, which I've been using for over 20 years for most of my email correspondence. I updated the ticket 7 hours after my follow-up, requesting to be billed only for the domain renewal and not the hosting package. They replied 2 hours later stating that my domain is not registered with then (which was true) and had marked my hosting as cancelled. This was the only time they made any sort of comment on the ticket. Seven hours later I replied to the ticket, noting my email was now down and requesting options to get it going again. They never responded to that note. Late in the day on June 10 I sent a letter of complaint to the only other contact Valuehost has on their site, hoping that would get someone's attention. They never replied; not even a pro forma message indicating they received my email. By the evening of June 12 I had given up on Valuehost and signed up for mail hosting with HostPapa, who accepted my credit card without any problems. I had to provide them with a phone number, but because they're in Canada they're subject to PIPEDA. After updating my MX record, I spent a fair bit of time getting the HostPapa account to show test messages I sent them from my ISP's email. I had problems getting KMail talking to HostPapa. Their documentation for Thunderbird says to use port 995 (pop3s) with TLS for receiving and 465 (smtps) for sending, but when I duplicated the settings in KMail it failed on both. Eventually I configured KMail to connect to port 25 using STARTTLS for receiving and to localhost for sending, both of which worked. I then configured my postfix server to relay outbound mail via HostPapa's mail server. On June 13 I updated the ticket at Valuehost to say I had migrated to a different provider, and closed it. Unsurprisingly, I'm very disappointed in Valuehost's almost complete lack of action to my ticket and will no longer do business with them. Brian

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Mikrotik routers
by Kevin McGregor 10 Jun '24

10 Jun '24

Hi all, I'm thinking of getting a Mikrotik hEX router for light OpenVPN service. Is this a good choice? Are there better ones? Where would you recommend buying one?

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Fizz (and Freedom) Mobile cell phone plans are now available in Manitoba
by Bradford Vokey 06 Jun '24

06 Jun '24

As I mentioned during this month's MUUG round table meeting: I have recently switched 2 of my family's mobile cell phone lines to Fizz Mobile and I am loving them so far! fizz.ca Cell Phone Plans in Manitoba | Fizz <#> Discover Fizz customizable mobile plans for Manitoba. Adapt yours based on your needs and budget. Plus, you get rewards on day 1. 🔗 https://fizz.ca/en/mobile/manitoba?ADDONS[0]=18&CVRG=108&DATA=231&PLAN=1&SM… <https://fizz.ca/en/mobile/manitoba?ADDONS[0]=18&CVRG=108&DATA=231&PLAN=1&SM…> I had mentioned that Quebecor was delaying bringing their Freedom Mobile brand to Manitoba (in favour of launching their own Fizz Mobile brand here first), but it looks like I missed their official new Freedom launch! Quebecor has now officially launched their Freedom mobile brand (which they acquired from Shaw during the recent Rogers/Shaw merger) to Manitoba as of May 23, 2024! https://www.freedommobile.ca/en-CA/article-freedom-manitoba "At launch Freedom is offering customers in Manitoba a deep discount on its 10GB Canada-U.S. mobile plan which is available for $14.50 per month ($29 reg.) for six months." You can view the Freedom plans for Manitoba here: www.freedommobile.ca Cell Phone Plans Winnipeg (Manitoba) | Freedom Mobile <#> Discover Freedom Mobile's cell phone plans in Winnipeg, Manitoba. 🔗 https://www.freedommobile.ca/en-CA/manitoba/plans <https://www.freedommobile.ca/en-CA/manitoba/plans> I still think their Fizz Mobile brand offers greater flexibility with: - data rollover, - data gifting, - generous perks (like free unlimited data days and additional free data every month), - the ability to change your plan every month to fit exactly what you need, - and it has slightly lower overall prices for <= 10 GB data plans. But you can't go wrong with either company compared to what the big 3 (Bell, Rogers, and Telus) are charging us here in Manitoba. *If you do decide that you want to try Fizz Mobile, don't forget to use my referral code "16KPK" to get a $25 credit (for both you and me!) during your second month of membership.* If anyone has any questions about my experience with Fizz, just ask away. It worked flawlessly in the US during my recent trip to Huntsville, Alabama and I haven't had any issues with it in the Winnipeg area so far. -- Bradford C. Vokey Treasurer Manitoba UNIX User Group

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Fizz (and Freedom) Mobile cell phone plans are now available in Manitoba (Bradford Vokey)
by Vicki Nemeth 05 Jun '24

05 Jun '24

On 2024-06-05 13:00, Brad Vokey wrote: > But you can't go wrong with either company compared to what the big 3 > (Bell, Rogers, and Telus) are charging us here in Manitoba. Can you go into more details about the history of mobile service gouging and MTS privatization in Manitoba? As I didn't arrive in Winnipeg until after that event, I missed out on learning the context. Vicki Nemeth -- Freelance Technology Writer | IT | Sustainability | OT | Cybersecurity | Canadian Businesses | Remote Work VickiWriter.com

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