colin dellow's bln

To HMV and back.

I cashed in my $25 gift certificate from mathNEWS (plus $9.50 cash) for three DVDs:

• The Birdcage
• Hot Shots
• Hot Shots, Part Deux

2AM + 3 frisbees + 8 people + Laurier Stadium football field = 3 dazed, bloody people walking into 7-11 looking for slurpees

But fun.

So I was worried about how cavalier RBC was with my password (recall my previous experience) and I decided to call them on it.

Never worry, an RBC agent assures me that:

Since your password had to be changed over the phone with our agent, the fact that he revealed what you previous password was is meaningless. It does not affect the safety of your account and personal information.

Ay carumba. An excerpt from my response to that gem:

What if the person on the phone was not me, but an impostor? What if I was phoning from an insecure device such as a cell phone or a cordless phone, and someone was eavesdropping? Although I would be able to change my new identification word securely through your online system, the impostor/eavesdropper now knows one more password that I use and can use that to compromise other accounts of mine.

Would it surprise you if I told you that a recent survey of British businesspeople found that 67% of them use the same password for multiple sensitive systems (office intranets, online banking, etc) and 57% of them believe it is the responsibility of the corporation who maintains the account to ensure the secrecy of their passwords? This survey also found that the these people subscribed to 20 services on average, each encouraging the user to use a unique password. Unfortunately, that sort of mental prowess just isn't in the cards for a lot of us -- turns out the average person has 4 passwords that they spread out amongst online services.

I also asked them why they felt it was necessary to store passwords in clear-text, which (pardon the pun) clearly goes against industry best practices.

A sprint around the neighbourhood.

So I've read HP6 and the Pragmatic Programmer (Thanks X 2, Jenn!)

Now I want to read It's Not What Happens to You, It's What You Do About It.

Recently, I've started exploring freelance sites such as RentACoder.com and GetAFreelancer.com. After all, they represent the Evil of Outsourcing/Globalization; an evil I ought to learn about if I am to be a Software Engineer.

Of course, other than gaining a deeper understanding of the talent market, I'm also interested in making a few dollars. I accept that this is no long-term moneymaker, but as a student, I'd be open to the odd $100-$200 payment for a contract that took 2-4 hours of work. While I can't compete with the people who are willing to do a 40-hour work week for $50, there *does* seem to be a niche for a Western coder, someone with whom the buyers (largely North American/western European people) could deal with effectively.

Update: There's absolutely a need for someone the buyers can deal with. My new account on RentACoder, with neither complaints nor compliments for or against it, is ranked as being 77.2% better than all the rest.

Down to Blockbuster and back, for everyone's favorite 1976 Oscar winner.

So I phoned RBC to set up my identification word.

Turns out, I already had one.

I couldn't guess what it was (even after the rep hinted, "It starts with a V!"), so the helpful agent changed it for me. And then he told me what it was.

Great. . . Good to see they're keeping these passwords all confidential-like, hyuk, hyuk.

RBC Financial Group lets its Visa cardholders check their balances online by entering their 16-digit Visa number in combination with their "Visa identification word".

What's a Visa identification word? Glad you asked! According to their site, it's "not case sensitive, however, it is recommended to utilize upper and lower case letters where possible".

Did that make sense to anyone else? No? Good, me too.

Today is the day I get published in that august journal of independent mathematical thought, mathNEWS. Or something.

Also, go watch Mr. and Mrs. Smith - it's good.

Today's a busy day:

• I had an hour-long meeting with UW co-op people to present the OARBS concept to them
• I had a CS246 assignment due
• I had an Econ 102 assignment due
• Today's the day to make the decision for the OARBS logo
• ... oh yeah, it's my birthday!

My friends mean very well, but a trio of incidents recently (collectively, "the birthday bungles") has convinced me I never need to worry about them keeping secrets from me.

1. Dan's mail - I step into Dan's room to say hi, as I usually do. He's sprawled oafishly across his bed, so I sit in his chair. Which happens to be facing his computer screen. Which is opened up to the most recent e-mail he got, from Jenn, specifying what they got me for my birthday.
2. Jenn's printout - Ignoring this, I print out the Econ assignment and head downstairs to the printer to pick it up. I scoop up all the paper there. At the end of my assignment, I realize I grabbed Jenn's printed receipt with the purchase price of my gift. (And her MasterCard number - cool!)
3. Denver's phonecall - "Hello?" "Oh, hi Colin! So, I hear you're having a birthday party tomorrow?!" "Erm. Nope, no-one's told me anything about that." [awkward silence for 30 seconds] "Is anyone else home?"

Yay for friends and "surprises". :)

...with Will, Dan and me. We drove north of Waterloo and ran in the country. Enjoyable!

The run

Around some parks, to Will's place, and back

It felt really good to run after so long without (stupid temperature! get cooler!). This was a short path, but even so, it felt like an easy run. I'll definitely do this again.

Recently read:
Secrets of Power Marketing
Peopleware [1st ed., should look at the 2nd ed.]
Agile Web Development with Rails
PickAxe 2.0
Speak up with Confidence

Reading:
Harry Potter 6: The Half-Blood Prince
Business to Business Direct Marketing


Want to read:
First, Break All The Rules
Pragmatic Programmer
Coder to Developer

Why do some people have multiple personal blogs? It would seem like a lot of work for the authors and their readers.

In other news, OARBS is testing out DesignOutpost.com! View our logo as it goes from concept to final design in this thread here!

We explored the private community near Midwood - lots of construction, we turned back when we hit Rhineland Place.

Discussed the timeless question: where do you see us in a year?

Phew,

Dan and I have collated the feedback from our trials with Thornhill Secondary School and now have our work cut out in order to get OARBS in its 3 versions shippable by mid-September 2005.

First, the bugfixes! [23 of them]

I think I will post here whenever I go for a run.

Today's run

Earlier, I said that the Google maps API did not allow for creating routes. I was wrong!

Jogging to campus and back
Jogging to the school on Keats Way and back

Try it for yourself!

So after my trials in trying to get credit cards (even those for which I have been pre-approved by branch staff) and even bank accounts (boo, President's Choice!), I was left more than a little confused about my credit rating.

So imagine my concern when I ordered a $10 credit report only to discover that I had *two* credit cards, even though there's only one in my wallet. As a matter of fact, I had to go through a rigorous identity verification system over the phone due to the fact that I erroneously (??) stated that my credit report should only have one active credit card.

As it turns out, the RBC credit card that I applied for (and was declined for) 3 months ago has suddenly approved me and opened the account -- 16 days ago.

The world's a weird, weird place.

Jenn, Dan and I beat a waiting list of over 50 applicants for an apartment by calling the sales agent every 2-3 days for the past three weeks and politely asking if their vacancy situation had changed.

Immediate pluses? We will be living in the same towers complex as one pair of our friends, and on the same floor as another friend. Yeehaw!

Google has recently released an official API for interacting with their Maps service, leading to such amazing results as this transparent overlay of street maps on satellite data.

Unfortunately, there's no support for setting waypoints and showing a route - bike/run maps will have to wait, I guess.

Interview an MBA for a career position by age 20

Ok, that wasn't on the list to begin with, but it's definitely an interesting anecdote. This was one of the many qualified candidates that I had the pleasure of interacting with today while assisting William and Jonathan at Customers Come 1st in their interview process.

It was refreshing to hear the candidates enthusiasm for the customer-focused business proposed by Customers Come 1st. With a great team behind them, they will undoubtedly find success and excellence in their field.

The visually appealing if impractical KartOO search engine (suggested searches: 'oarbs' and 'cldellow')

The International Society for Technology in Education