I'm heading north but I'll try to make my way past you in the next month
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Several Regions have held meetups already, but others are being planned or are evaluating the interest. The Calgary Area Meetup is set for Saturday July 12th at 10am. The signup thread is here! Arbutus has also explored interest in a Fraser Valley meetup but it seems members either missed his thread or had other plans. Let him know if you are interested in a meetup later in the year by posting here! Slowpoke is trying to pull together an Ottawa area meetup later this summer. No date has been selected yet, so let him know if you are interested here! We are not aware of any other meetups being planned this year. If you are interested in doing something in your area, let everyone know and make it happen! Meetups are a great way to make new machining friends and get hands on help in your area. Don’t be shy, sign up and come, or plan your own meetup!
Home Security System
- Thread starter Elektrishun
- Start date
I don't really care about memory, I don't have windows and want to know who's knocking on the door
I guess it might be nice to know if anyone's waiting at the front door before I roll in, or if patrols have been sent out prior
But it's mostly knowing how to answer knocks on the door with some heads up
Elektrishun
Ultra Member
slow-poke
Ultra Member
Elektrishun
Ultra Member
Rogers/Shaw service technician was supposed to arrive sometime between 11 am - 1 pm to verify the analog phone line. At 12:30 I received a text that the appointment was cancelled and someone would be contacting me to make a new appointment. 2 pm and I still hadn't been contacted me yet. I went online and used the Rogers/Shaw chat feature to schedule a new appointment. The appointment has been rescheduled.
Since they make it clear that a customer will be charged $75.00 for cancelling an appointment with less than 24 hours notice I asked they add a note:
"Yes, but please make a note that if I sit and wait for a technician on that day and receive a text after the expected arrival time that the appointment is cancelled I will be demanding a $75.00 discount on my next bill. Your company can't hold customers to a standard without being held to the same standard. Thank-you."
We wrote our cherry good-byes and I had the transcript emailed to myself.
If I lived alone I would get rid of everything but my internet service.
Since they make it clear that a customer will be charged $75.00 for cancelling an appointment with less than 24 hours notice I asked they add a note:
"Yes, but please make a note that if I sit and wait for a technician on that day and receive a text after the expected arrival time that the appointment is cancelled I will be demanding a $75.00 discount on my next bill. Your company can't hold customers to a standard without being held to the same standard. Thank-you."
We wrote our cherry good-byes and I had the transcript emailed to myself.
If I lived alone I would get rid of everything but my internet service.
Man do I sympathize!
I do something similar. When a company calls me and then puts me on hold for the next agent, i wait till they answer, and then I say, "Can you please hold till he is done in the bathroom?" And then I put them on hold for as long as I waited. If they complain, I very nicely ask them to explain why they think their time is more valuable than mine?
I do something similar. When a company calls me and then puts me on hold for the next agent, i wait till they answer, and then I say, "Can you please hold till he is done in the bathroom?" And then I put them on hold for as long as I waited. If they complain, I very nicely ask them to explain why they think their time is more valuable than mine?
Elektrishun
Ultra Member
Well, I can stop beating this dead horse. My old alarm system is 100% no longer functional.
Currently connected to the phone modem so the analog signal from the alarm is interrupted by the modem.
If it were to be reconnected to the old copper phone line that comes to the house (like it was originally) once the signal gets to the pedastal the cable has been upgraded to fibre optic. This was confirmed by the Rogers/Shaw technician.
I politely cancelled our Telus account. Then I contacted an installer who works for a local company. Time to upgrade.
Currently connected to the phone modem so the analog signal from the alarm is interrupted by the modem.
If it were to be reconnected to the old copper phone line that comes to the house (like it was originally) once the signal gets to the pedastal the cable has been upgraded to fibre optic. This was confirmed by the Rogers/Shaw technician.
I politely cancelled our Telus account. Then I contacted an installer who works for a local company. Time to upgrade.
I just cancelled my Telus land line after how many years of bleeding money for no good reason other than my own naivety. What was I waiting for? Zombies attacking cell towers? Maybe when dinosaurs roamed the phone line might have had utility for other purposes, possibly alarms. AI told me that is very old technology, apparently everything is wireless based. Maybe it never was awesome anyway if bad guy just jerks the line out where it enters the house. Squirrels were capable of disconnecting me. While I'm ranting on this, I went from 26$/mo to an offer of 1.89/month for 1-year plus $100 credit for my <cough> loyalty. Why didn't I make this call a long time ago? I declined anyway. But it gave me motivation to call the Mobility side right after & sure enough - reduced the base bill 30% just switching to new current plan, with more data, more savings switching to auto-debit... One really has to make a conscious effort to go through the family expense list annually & ride the phone. Squeaky wheel gets the grease. End of rant.
We still have a land line. It costs me $5 a year. There is no phone attached to it. Just the alarm. The alarm has 3 ways of calling in: internet, cellular, and land line - it will try them each in that order till it gets through.
I was gunna dump it cuz its easy to cut a phone line. But an article I read said that crooks are usually under 40 and don't even know what a phone line is anymore.
Now that's a consideration.
There's a new way of faxes getting sent to an email
Ask me no questions because I have zero clue how it works
But you can print a fax from an email somehow, apparently
A fax is really just a form of linear digitization sort of like a Dot-matrix printer. There are many programs that will emulate, copy, and convert fax format. So yes, today you can even email faxes. But almost everyone uses PDFs now.
Elektrishun
Ultra Member
We stupidly threw away some $$$, too. Just by testing the alarm even once every few months would've revealed this issue sooner. For all we know, we've been without active monitoring for a couple years. Just kept arming the system and assumed it was being monitored. So many things went wrong but fortunately no break-ins. The late 90's microwave and my wife's spoon collection are still safe....for now.
For once, you're incorrect and I don't mean to be disrespectful about it
Yes, largely we've moved to PDF's, however fax machines are still alive and kicking
Elektrishun
Ultra Member
This site does a good job of explaining it:
Internet FAXing
Couple things I learnt:
- there is such a thing as FAXing using software instead of traditional FAX machines.
- the legal necessity of a FAX for certain industry, whether traditional or digital, means FAXs are not being phased out.
No disrespect taken.
I don't believe I said they were gone. Just not anywhere near as popular or used as they once were. If I had to put a number on it, I'd guess only 10% of what they used to be. Keep in mind that I am referring to actual usage rates, not whether or not a fax machine exists or is required in a given office.
If I remember correctly, it is worth noting that Canada's latest electronic documents laws no longer require faxes or physical presence for corporate legality. Of course, there are other countries that are ahead of us and those that are behind us too.
Anyway, I stand by what I said originally. Almost everyone uses PDFs or electronic images now instead.
At least in Canada, this is no longer true. Our laws no longer require faxes or originals as a legal necessity. But yes, there are still companies and other countries that still insist on it.
Whether or not they are being phased out is subject to interpretation. There is a difference between being deliberately discontinued and optionally discontinued. I am sure that many companies still have fax machines in their office. But I'd bet big bucks that they are being used waaaay less than they used to be. Personally, by my own definition of the term, I'd say that they really are being phased out. But I would agree that there is no global mandate or deadline.
A good example of the change is the rocketing popularity of "DocuSign", an electronic signature system that is now ubiquitously used by entire industries including Canadian institutions like banks, law offices, the courts, and real estate offices.
Elektrishun
Ultra Member
My wife and I updated our wills earlier this year. While signing the paper work I asked if something like digital signing similar to what I've experienced at my bank would replace the paper signing in his profession. He said it won't happen and there are laws to prevent it from changing. He sounded almost thankful that it is a protected practice.
Elektrishun
Ultra Member
Quoted source from 2023 article
The fax machine persists in Ontario largely because the province's doctors, hospitals, labs and pharmacies use an array of different systems for electronic medical records and many of those systems can't communicate with each other in the way that faxes can.
I am going to assume that Ontario's desire to get rid of the FAX in healthcare and find a way to move to a single system is in the works since this 2023 article.
I seen a similar attempt in Saskatchewan when healthcare amalgamated across the province and tried to implement software for payroll, scheduling, etc. This was for a similar purpose which was to eliminate different payroll systems between the former health regions. Spent over a hundred million and it failed miserably the first attempt to implement. Absolute chaos for about 2-3 weeks. Last I heard they spent a lot more money and are still at stage 1 of a second attempt that is far behind the expected roll out timeline.
Getting away from older technology can be a very disruptive and damaging process.
The fax machine persists in Ontario largely because the province's doctors, hospitals, labs and pharmacies use an array of different systems for electronic medical records and many of those systems can't communicate with each other in the way that faxes can.
I am going to assume that Ontario's desire to get rid of the FAX in healthcare and find a way to move to a single system is in the works since this 2023 article.
I seen a similar attempt in Saskatchewan when healthcare amalgamated across the province and tried to implement software for payroll, scheduling, etc. This was for a similar purpose which was to eliminate different payroll systems between the former health regions. Spent over a hundred million and it failed miserably the first attempt to implement. Absolute chaos for about 2-3 weeks. Last I heard they spent a lot more money and are still at stage 1 of a second attempt that is far behind the expected roll out timeline.
Getting away from older technology can be a very disruptive and damaging process.