November 16th, 2009

Tickets.com services for Vancouver Winter 2010 Olympic Games crashes during first release of tickets

Posted by Doug Hanchard @ November 16, 2009 @ 3:56 AM

Categories: Canada, Commerce, Contracting, Web, Web services, Winter Olympic Games

Tags: Ticket, Tickets.com, Web Site Development, Web Technology, Internet, Doug Hanchard

Vancouver Olympic organizers must be getting nervous as the entire year has been plagued with challenges beyond its control. People looking to buy tickets for the Vancouver Winter 2010 Olympics wound up shutting down the system Saturday morning (14^th) after the system crashed with high volumes of ticket requests. Complicating the system’s capability, are the limits on how many tickets one person can buy online. The system is now back up and running smoothly later in the day.

November 17th - Correction: The shutdown was on November 7th, ONE WEEK PRIOR, delaying the official launch date and rescheduled to Nov 14th. During the relaunch, the site operated without any outages. In an telephone interview with Chaeli Walker, Marketing Manager for Tickets.com, states that the problem was not caused by Tickets.com but by a partner that creates the virtual waiting room portion of the ticket site web portal. Their official statement reads as follows;

“Tickets.com is very disappointed that the on-sale for the remaining tickets for the Vancouver Olympics was delayed a week due to technical issues.  These issues were not a result of a Tickets.com system failure but of a configuration error by an upstream partner who provides our Virtual Waiting Room services.” 

End Correction 

The Olympic Games have been controversial in Vancouver as many of the projects have gone over budget with many of the projects requiring government guarantees due to the credit crisis last year.  Two of the official suppliers went through bankruptcy (Nortel and General Motors) and the last thing the Vancouver Olympic Organizers (VANOC) needed was any more glitches - and then it happened.  According to a CBC report, some ticket buyers tried for up to 40 minutes - just to log onto the website just to register to get tickets - without success. Over 100,000 tickets were released for sale, including the hottest event, the Gold Medal hockey game.

Tickets.com was awarded the contract for the system in January 2008. It’s not known if Sun Microsystems, the official server system for the games, which is being acquired by Oracle, is the hardware supplier for the Ticket.com solution. Bell Canada supplies all internet and internal network connectivity for the website servers and VANOC operations.

November 13th, 2009

Life insurance may prove difficult to get if you contract H1N1

Posted by Doug Hanchard @ November 13, 2009 @ 11:06 AM

Categories: Canada, Congress, Databases, E-government, Healthcare, Obama, Privacy, Public health, Regulations, State & Local Govt, White House

Tags: Insurance Company, Health Care, Life Insurance, H1N1 Flu, Insurance, Benefits, Vertical Industries, Healthcare, Financial Planning, Personal Finance

President Obama wants to ensure health insurance companies cannot deny you coverage if you have a pre-existing condition. This has key component of the President’s health care reform package going through the U.S. Congress.  He may have another challenge lying ahead - life insurance.  Already some insurance carriers in Canada, because of the pandemic H1N1 Virus, are asking on application forms if they have contracted it. In a Sun Media / Peterborough Examiner news article, this could lead to future profiling of consumers health and may eliminate the ability to get life insurance for some.

This may also force strict guidelines on health information privacy that a health insurance provider has in its database and ensuring that life insurance companies do not have access to it. It is legal to ask about a consumers current health and personal lifestyle habits such as smoking, but it does not bar you from getting coverage, only that it may have affect on what your monthly or yearly premiums will cost.

The debate this opens up is more than a few simple questions and no easy answers.

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November 13th, 2009

Google hit again with Street View privacy concerns - in Switzerland

Posted by Doug Hanchard @ November 13, 2009 @ 7:50 AM

Categories: Canada, Copyright, Courts, Databases, European Parliament, Google, Government technology, Intellectual Property, Privacy, State & Local Govt, Switzerland

Tags: Google Inc., Switzerland, Image, Privacy Concern, Doug Hanchard

First it was Canada, then in Google’s own back yard in the U.S. and now other countries are following suit with privacy concerns over Google’s Street View image database. Switzerland has been reviewing privacy concerns about Street View for the past year.

Google had some significant challenges deploying street view images of Canadian cities and towns based based upon complaints from the Canadian Privacy Commission. Google’s solution was to blur out the images of licence plates and faces. Canada’s Privacy Commissioner (and others) and reviewed the solution and blessed it. Google thought this would be the right path for other countries. Turns out, it’s not enough. In a BBC report, a Swiss court has instructed Google to pull all images in Street View, saying that it did not make sufficiently ‘unrecognizable’ people in images published.

It’s not just images of people that also concerns the Swiss authorities - it’s where, such as hospitals, prisons and other sensitive areas. That has not been brought up in other countries as an issue - yet. Google has blurred images of licence plates and peoples faces in all the cities I checked, Vancouver, B.C. near Canada Place, New York City on Wall Street and Geneva, Switzerland.

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Here are three images I created using Google’s Street View service.

Vancouver, B.C.

New York City, New York

Geneva Switzerland

November 11th, 2009

Our freedom comes at a price

Posted by Doug Hanchard @ November 11, 2009 @ 7:29 AM

Categories: Australia, Canada, Defense, International, New Zealand, UK, United Kingdom

Tags: Link, E-mail, Web Site Development, Web Technology, Fax, Online Communications, Internet, Doug Hanchard

It’s easy for all of us to complain, debate, and argue over what’s right and wrong in our part of the world. But it comes at a price that all too often we take for granted. On this Veteran’s Day / Memorial Day, Remembrance Day and Armistice Day, take a moment to pay respect for those who sacrificed so much to enable us to have freedom.

As tensions rise on the Korean Peninsula with patrol boats firing at each other, Columbia and Venezuela heating up political rhetoric, in addition to the war going on in Afghanistan and Iraq, those that serve in armed forces around the world should be remembered and supported.

You can always write letters to troops stationed anywhere in the world. Now you can email them;

Australia: Messages can be sent via e-mail to: messagestothetroops@defence.gov.au or sent via fax to +61 (0)2 6266 7701.

Canada: Support our Troops Message Board: http://news.gc.ca/web/article-eng.do?m=/index&nid=492289

New Zealand: Could not find a link on the website.

United Kingdom: There is no link for such an option on the main Ministry of Defence website or RAF, RN or RA.

United States: http://www.ourmilitary.mil/Message.aspx?SectionID=5

If you know of a link, please post them on a talkback for those that I could not find.

November 10th, 2009

Canada announces mandatory corporate tax reporting via Internet

Posted by Doug Hanchard @ November 10, 2009 @ 12:23 PM

Categories: Budget, Canada, Canada Revenue Agency, Databases, E-government, Government technology, Servers

Tags: Internet, Canada Revenue Agency, Tax Return, Taxes, Free Trade, Personal Finance, Financial Planning, Finance, Doug Hanchard

It was announced by the Canada Revenue Agency that any corporation with gross revenues exceeding $1 million will have to file their T-2 statements electronically via the internet.  This will apply to tax years ending in 2010 or be subject to fines.  The tax filing changes come into effect by the end of 2009.

This is a significant milestone investment and adoption in methodology by the Canadian Government.  The amount of paper it will save is something of an unknown because there’s bound to be more than a few printed review copies prior to submission, yet this is clearly one of the goals of the government. The cost reductions (listed below) subsidize the capital investments required such as security and data storage.  File transfers are done with 3DES 256 bit encryption, better than many financial online banking transactions. Read the rest of this entry »

November 6th, 2009

Human x-ray machines: Coming soon to an airport near you

Posted by Doug Hanchard @ November 6, 2009 @ 5:00 AM

Categories: Canada, Congress, FAA, Government technology, Homeland security, Intelligence, International, Justice, Law enforcement, Privacy, Public health, Science, Security, Transportation, UK

Tags: U.S., Canada, Airport, Transportation, Security, Doug Hanchard

In the movie Total Recall, Arnold Schwarzenegger (Gov. of California) runs through a security check point corridor operating using X-Ray technology. That film was released in 1990. Today that technology is being installed around the world at airports, border check points, marine ports and high risk security environments such as court buildings. They are currently being assessed or used in Canada, the U.S., U.K., Russia, Japan, and Australia. Some countries, such as India, have outright rejected them based on privacy and considered too offensive to passengers. Significant concern is being raised as to the long term medical impacts to humans going through the devices.

In Canada, the Canadian Air Transport Security Agency (CATSA) organization has completed some field trials at smaller airports (Kelowna, B.C.) and is looking to purchase a half dozen of the machines to continue further assessment. There are approximately 18 airports in the U.S. using them. In the U.K. several airports now have them including Manchester. Testing in several countries has been going since 2004. In the U.S. the Transportation Security Administration began field trials in 2007. The technology offers security details to process passengers quickly and determine if weapons or other contraband is on a person without doing physical body search. Such technology would significantly improve the detection of hidden materials. Read the rest of this entry »

November 5th, 2009

FCC Chairman testifies on driving while texting

Posted by Doug Hanchard @ November 5, 2009 @ 2:30 PM

Categories: Canada, Commerce, Congress, FCC, Law enforcement, Mobile/wireless, Obama, State & Local Govt, Transportation

Tags: FCC, Phone, Chairman, Cell Phone, Federal Government, Cellular Phones, Telecom & Utilities, Government, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology

Last week I posted that the Government of Ontario has implemented a ban on driving while using a mobile phone or CB radio. U.S. Congress is now holding hearings on the issue.

Chairman Julius Genachowski of the Federal Communications Commission testified before the Subcommittees on Communications, Technology and the Internet, Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection, Committee on Energy and Commerce on the topic of Technological Devices and Vehicle Safety. Chairman Genachowski’s testimony brought out some interesting facts.

1995: approximately 34 million people had subscribed to a mobile phone.

2009: 276 million

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported in 2008 that driver distraction is the cause of 16% of all fatal crashes - 5,800 people killed - and 21% of crashes resulting in an injury - 515,000 people wounded.

I posted last week that 6 U.S. states have banned driving while talking on a cell phone. 18 states now have some kind of law, primarily aimed at texting while driving.

President Obama signed an Executive Order banning all Federal employees (except in an emergency) from texting while driving any government vehicle or driving while on the job.

According to the Automobile Association of America (AAA), nearly 50% of teens admit to texting while driving.

Bluetooth and speech-to-text technology sales are likely to skyrocket, along with civilian versions of Heads Up Displays (HUD) in rear view mirrors.

November 5th, 2009

Flu pandemic disproportionately infects, kills young people; are some getting preferred treatment?

Posted by Doug Hanchard @ November 5, 2009 @ 10:46 AM

Categories: Canada, HHS, Healthcare, Nova Scotia, Public health, State & Local Govt, UK

Tags: Team, Health Care, Flu, H1N1 Flu, NHL, Alberta Health Services Board, Team Management, Vertical Industries, Healthcare, Management

The Vancouver Sun reported that a study analyzing the first 1000 H1N1 cases in the State of California, reveals younger people were dying at a higher rate. This Flu season is one of the worst on record.

“If you’re under the age of 50, this is a bad flu. This might be the worst flu experienced in 50 to 100 years,” said Dr. Bela Matyas, acting chief of the emergency preparedness and response branch of the California Department of Public Health

“If you are a teenager or younger, the chances of dying from this flu are much, much higher than any other flu we’ve seen maybe since the 1918 flu.”

The Center for Disease Control website indicates that 2,025,700 doses of vaccine have been sent to California so far with more being shipped daily. Governments across all boundaries have ramped up to ensure everyone gets vaccinated. Web portals dedicated to Health in each region are plastered with information putting the H1N1 Flu as the #1 topic and primary focus ensuring that information is readily available.

Source of Graphic: Center for Disease Control

Read the rest of this entry »

November 5th, 2009

Copyright associations want enforcement for free

Posted by Doug Hanchard @ November 5, 2009 @ 10:41 AM

Categories: Canada, Censorship, Congress, Copyright, Courts, Cyber Security, Cybercrime, Defense, E-government, European Union, Intellectual Property, International, Justice, Law enforcement, Privacy, RIAA, Regulations, Security, State & Local Govt, Telecom, UK

Tags: Monitor, Internet Service Provider, Deep Packet Inspection Technique, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Monitors & Displays, Internet, Hardware, Components, Doug Hanchard

The internet has opened the Pandora’s Box - that everything that can be duplicated - will be. This simple truth will drive up costs for you the consumer. You will pay one of three ways: through the government and the court system (taxes);through your monthly internet access fees paid to your ISP (network operations and infrastructure); or, finally, through higher product costs. More than likely, you will pay all three.

The first generation of technology, copyright protection was easy to target and manage. Organizations such as the MPAA, RIAA, and others lobbied and won governing laws and regulations that ‘taxed’ (in some countries it is defined as a levy) blank tape cassettes and eventually blank CD and DVD products to ‘pay’ for potential infringements of copyright materials. Products that were not taxed (so far) were hard drives, memory cards and Next Gen (NG) Personal Video Recorders (PVR’s) used to record television shows. The time has probably come in which artists and vendors will have to contribute funding for enforcement through sales of their products directly in each jurisdiction they wish to have copyright protection.  That cost would then be passed onto consumers through increases in prices. Read the rest of this entry »

October 29th, 2009

Start up cellular provider Globalive denied license to operate in Canada

Posted by Doug Hanchard @ October 29, 2009 @ 7:17 PM

Categories: Canada, Courts, Mobile/wireless, Regulations

Tags: Financial, Commission, TELUS Corp., Canada, Bell Canada, Globalive, CRTC, Orascom, Canadian Law, Telephony

In a stunning victory for Bell Canada, Telus and Rogers, the CRTC denied new start up Globalive a license to operate as a telecommunications (cellular) service provider in Canada. Over the past month the CRTC held hearings whether or not Globalive met ownership rules required to operate as a carrier. The commission’s hearings today determine that it did not. In a press release issued this afternoon:

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission today determined that Globalive Wireless Management (Globalive) does not meet the Canadian ownership requirements set out in the Telecommunications Act. Under the legislation, a telecommunications company is only eligible to operate in Canada if it is not at any time owned and controlled, in law and in fact, by non-Canadians.

Orascom is one the largest cellular players in the Middle East, Africa and parts of Europe and is based in Eygpt. Managed by CEO Naguib Sawiris, he and Canadian CEO of Globalive Tony Lacavera believed that majority financial investment did not translate into the mandatory Canadian ownership Laws.

Canadian Law requires majority control of the company be Canadian controlled. The CRTC stated:

The Commission found it particularly important that Orascom owns 65.1 per cent of the equity, has entered into a strategic technical arrangement with Globalive, controls and holds the “Wind” brand under which Globalive will operate, and holds the overwhelming majority of the outstanding debt.

Orascom has invested over 400 Million (Cdn) into the new company’s cellular operations which are to be called Wind, which is also Orascom’s European brand.

All three major incumbent players, Bell Canada, Telus, and Rogers, aggressively argued that Globalive was not a Canadian controlled entity, submitting strong evidence and regulatory requirements were being sidestepped under illegal pretenses. The CRTC commission agreed with just about every argument the three made during hearings in September.

No public announcement has yet been made by Globalive appealing the CRTC’s decision. Several options are possible including bringing in a majority Canadian financial interest into the company. The CRTC did not mandate Globalive to halt construction on any of the towers that they have currently being built.