Archive for June, 2017

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Calgary’s Beakerhead 2017 Program Announcement

Posted in Commentary with tags on June 13, 2017 by itnerd

This September there will be a new way for visitors and locals to explore Calgary – through a playful tour of city sites bundled up in a Beakerhead experience called Snakes and Ladders. Snakes and Ladders is a flagship feature of the fifth edition of Beakerhead running September 13-17, 2017, and is a Canada 150 project.

This is not a typical board game! It’s a larger-than-life adventure that will take attendees to more than a dozen sites of engineered artworks and interactive experiences, united by a theme: the ups and downs of invention. The snakes and ladders on the map are the guide to different jaunts.

Additional ticketed shows, hands-on workshops, roaming contraptions, theatre performances, and community-created events will explode on streets and in venues across the city – all in the name of smashing up art, science and engineering.

A Sneak Peek at Beakerhead Snakes and Ladders

  • Calgary Municipal Space Station. It was just a matter of time before public transit was extended to the solar system. A group of artists called Humble Wonder is turning the Calgary Tower into the world’s first public transit space station. Yes, virtual reality is involved. Media Launch will happen here on Wednesday, September 14 – Save the Date.
  • Serpent Mother. This is the largest fire-breathing installation at Beakerhead to date – stretching 168 feet long and with 40 pillars of fire.
  • Nest. Tread quietly on 11 Street SE, just around the corner from MacLeod Trail. A giant dragon (or little dragons?) may lurk … It’s impossible to see exactly what’s behind the hoarding but it sure sounds ominous!
  • Impulse. A premiere in western Canada by Montreal artists, Creos; these 15 giant see-saws are equipped with sound and lights and will animate River Walk in East Village.

    Tickets Now on Sale for Select Beakerhead Shows

  • The Ape Inside You (Wednesday, September 13, 2017). Enjoy a hilarious look at the social and behavioral norms of apes with help of a primatologist and improv actors. You might see how primitive you and your friends really are …
  • Science of Cats and Dogs (Thursday, September 14, 2017). An evening at the Bella Concert Hall exploring the ins and outs of our furry friends guided by scientists, musicians, and a bit of animal instinct
  • Seven Wonderers (Friday, September 15, 2017). The world of science and engineering is full of wonder…and wonderers. In fact, some say it holds the greatest adventure stories on earth – in the hands of the right storytellers. This is the third year for this always sold-out show

Beakerhead 2017 will take place in Calgary, Alberta on September 13 – 17. Find preliminary highlights and tickets to select events at http://www.beakerhead.com. Additional events will be added this summer, with the full program released on August 1, 2017.

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OpenTable announces 100 Best Outdoor Dining Restaurants in Canada

Posted in Commentary with tags on June 13, 2017 by itnerd

Grab your sunglasses and appetites! With patio season in full swing, OpenTable, today announced the 100 Best Outdoor Dining Restaurants in Canada for 2017. These awards reflect the combined opinions of more than 515,000 restaurant reviews submitted by verified OpenTable diners for more than 2,000 restaurants in Canada.

The official start of summer is almost here and Canadians can take advantage by indulging at some of the best outdoor dining experiences across the country. From the panoramic views of Grapevine Restaurant & Patio at Gray Monk Estate Winery in Kelowna to the vibrant rooftop of The Chase in Toronto, this second-annual list features outdoor tables from coast-to-coast to suit any occasion. Including restaurants with multiple locations, Ontario has the greatest number of restaurants featured with 44, followed by British Columbia with 27 and Alberta with 16. Québec has eight restaurants recognized, while Manitoba has five. Nova Scotia is also represented on this list.

“Canadian patio season never lasts as long as we want. With this list from OpenTable, locals and tourists can spend less time hunting for the perfect spot to grab a drink or share a meal and more time soaking up the beautiful weather,” said Ziv Schierau, Head of National Accounts for OpenTable Canada. “From West Coast estate wineries to Rocky Mountain retreats and al fresco urban escapes, this list showcases some of the country’s best outdoor dining destinations this summer.”

The 100 Best Outdoor Dining Restaurants list is generated solely from more than 515,000 restaurant reviews collected from verified OpenTable diners between April 1, 2016 and March 31, 2017. All restaurants with a minimum “overall” score and number of qualifying reviews were included for consideration. Qualifying restaurants were then scored and sorted according to the percentage of reviews for which “great for outdoor dining” was selected as a special feature.

The complete list may also be viewed at https://www.opentable.com/m/best-outdoor-restaurants-in-canada. Diners can also read more about the 100 Best Outdoor Dining Restaurants in Canada by visiting the OpenTable blog.

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HP’s EliteOne 800 G3 Healthcare Edition All-in-one Announced

Posted in Commentary with tags on June 12, 2017 by itnerd

HP Inc. announced the HP EliteOne 800 G3 Healthcare Edition All-in-One (AiO), a purpose-built AiO based on the world’s most secure and manageable PCs tailored to combat customer pain points like security, infection control, and telemedicine in the healthcare industry.

 

With healthcare data breaches up 23 percent in the past year and stolen patient medical records costing organizations up to $355 per record – the highest in all industries – healthcare providers need more security protection than ever before. The EliteOne Healthcare Edition is equipped with HP’s comprehensive security features like HP Sure Start Gen3 BIOS protection, HP Multi-Factor Authenticate, HP WorkWise and the HP Manageability Integration Kit to protect the healthcare sector from ever-increasing cyber-attacks, ransomware and malware.

Physical security from infections is also a major concern, as 1 in 25 hospital patients develops a hospital acquired infection. The EliteOne Healthcare Edition is designed for increased sanitization with a glass cover that healthcare professionals can wipe using commonly-used sanitizing agents without worrying about damaging the screen. The device also comes with the IP-65 rated HP USB Keyboard & Mouse Healthcare Edition, meaning that it can be wiped down with commonly used germicidal agents without damage.

Simultaneously, with experts estimating that telemedicine will grow 35 percent per year, video and audio conferencing are playing an increasingly important role in care delivery. That’s why the EliteOne Healthcare Edition offers collaboration and premium audio features, such as HP Audio Boost, HP Noise Cancellation and audio by Bang & Olufsen, so healthcare providers can have crystal clear audio communication with patients, even if they’re thousands of miles away when tending to them.

Availability

The HP EliteOne 800 Healthcare Edition AiO will be available in July for a starting price of $1,299.

For more information on the HP EliteOne 800 Healthcare Edition AiO and other HP healthcare solutions, visit: http://www8.hp.com/us/en/campaigns/healthcare/clinician-access.html.

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Tips From Waze For Your Summer Road Trip

Posted in Commentary with tags on June 12, 2017 by itnerd

Just in time for summer road trips, here’s a reminder that Waze is Canada’s most popular driving and navigation app and it boasts features that will helps get the best route.

Thanks to technology, going anywhere in the summer is easier than ever.

Waze Features:

Fellow Users Are Looking Out For You.

You never drive alone with Waze. When using the app, icons pop up when fellow Wazers note that there are traffic jams, police, or road hazards ahead. It allows a driver to plan alternate routes

Planned Drives + Waze Calendar

Waze can connect with your iPhone, Android or Google calendar to send you a push notification reminder to let you know what time to leave based on real-time traffic conditions.

Parking

Weather you’re at home or away Waze can help you find parking before you leave for your destination.

ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival)

Drivers can share ETAs with other Wazers and you don’t have to text them to let them know you’re late. People from your contact list automatically receive a text message with your estimated arrival time.

Find Gas Wherever You Are and Save When You Fill Up

Every driver has gotten into “empty tank” jams when driving in unfamiliar places. Waze solves this situation wherever you are. Under Gas Stations & Prices a list of gas stations near you will pop up and it will include the per-litre price.

Personalized Voice Recorder

Customize your drive with turn-by-turn voice prompts in your own voice. This new feature allows you to record your own directions and reports while navigating with Waze.

Check out Waze here.

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Infographic: Why Your Tires Matter

Posted in Commentary on June 12, 2017 by itnerd

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Source: Nonda

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Shady iOS Developer Using App Store Search Ads To Scam People On An Epic Scale

Posted in Commentary with tags on June 12, 2017 by itnerd

A rather shocking report has come to light over the weekend of a scam app charging people a staggering $400 per month through an in-app purchase disguised as a free trial. Oh yeah, the app does nothing and was approved by Apple who supposedly has tight controls on what get approved in the App store. Now if you read through this story, it’s quite shocking that this was even approved by Apple in the first place. Here’s why:

I scrolled down the list in the Productivity category and saw apps from well-known companies like Dropbox, Evernote, and Microsoft. That was to be expected. But what’s this? The #10 Top Grossing Productivity app (as of June 7th, 2017) was an app called “Mobile protection :Clean & Security VPN”.

Given the terrible title of this app (inconsistent capitalization, misplaced colon, and grammatically nonsensical “Clean & Security VPN?”), I was sure this was a bug in the rankings algorithm. So I check Sensor Tower for an estimate of the app’s revenue, which showed… $80,000 per month?? That couldn’t possibly be right. Now I was really curious.

I tap into the app details to see that the developer is “Ngan Vo Thi Thuy”. Wait so, this is a VPN service offered by an independent developer who didn’t even bother to incorporate a company? That’s a huge red flag. For those of you who don’t know why this is bad, a VPN basically routes all your internet traffic through a third party server. So in this case, a random person who couldn’t piece together a grammatically correct title, who also didn’t bother to incorporate a company, wants access to all your internet traffic.

What’s even worse is that in the description for the app, it is apparently “full of features.”

#EpicFail

So one has to wonder how many people have forked over $80K a month, of which Apple nets a 30% cut, for this scam app? One has to also wonder how many apps like this Apple has approved either through greed, which I would hope isn’t the case, or lack of care and attention, which is more likely the case? All I know is that Apple needs to address this and address this now. Otherwise, they’ll start looking like Google Play which is a app store that they’ve criticized for this sort of thing in the past.

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Does Your Printer Spy On You? The EFF Can Help You Find Out….

Posted in Commentary with tags on June 12, 2017 by itnerd

Recently we’ve had the case of a woman named Reality Winner…. Yes, that is apparently her name…. being arrested for leaking sensitive info to The Intercept that the NSA had in its possession. She was apparently busted because the printers that she printed this sensitive info out from had microdots which were used to hunt her down. Now, you’re likely wondering what these microdots are and if the printer in your home or business does this or something similar. Well, the Electronic Frontier Foundation can help you find out. They’ve not only posted a document that lists printers known to do this, they’ve also got a document that explains this tracking tech. But the first document that I linked to does have this warning:

Some of the documents that we previously received through FOIA suggested that all major manufacturers of color laser printers entered a secret agreement with governments to ensure that the output of those printers is forensically traceable. Although we still don’t know if this is correct, or how subsequent generations of forensic tracking technologies might work, it is probably safest to assume that all modern color laser printers do include some form of tracking information that associates documents with the printer’s serial number.

Thus consider this to be a starting point. It will be interesting to see if any printer company fesses up to doing this now that it’s got a rather bright spotlight.

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HP Announces The Wolf Season Two

Posted in Commentary with tags on June 11, 2017 by itnerd

If you want to watch a web series that serves as a cautionary tale about network security, look no further than The Wolf. The series stars Christian Slater and is directed by BAFTA and Emmy nominee Lance Acord. The basic premise of the The Wolf is that depicts real-life hacking scenarios targeting the healthcare industry. Why healthcare? Healthcare has seen the number of reported breaches increase by more than 23% this year and HP believes dramatizing cyber risks will help improve people’s cyber habits and draw attention to the many vulnerabilities that exist in our current technology. This continues a trend started with the short film Rivolta that I reviewed recently.

Season two just posted this week, but if you want to see it from the beginning, the entire playlist can be found here. It is very much worth watching.

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In Depth: Nuvyyo

Posted in Commentary with tags on June 10, 2017 by itnerd

There’s a problem with broadcast television in Canada. There’s a lack of distribution channels that are available for Canadians. An example of this is when Bell and Rogers took issue with Netflix’s unregulated distribution in Canada. Contrast that with the US where you can get an over the top services like Hulu and Netflix with ease. Never mind being completely able to cut the cord while not losing access to local TV among other things.

This is why Nuvyyo exists. This company makes a product called Tablo which is a small device that works with an antenna so that consumers can discover, stream and record their favorite broadcast television without a cable subscription. I’ve written about this company on three separate occasions in the past and they are now hitting the market with a new version of the Tablo. Called the Tablo DUAL, people can watch their favourite television programming any time they want by streaming and recording up to 40 hours of television without the need for additional storage. The slim form-factor makes it easy for anyone to plug-and-watch their local broadcast television whenever and wherever they choose, and on any device. Cord cutters will love this device. Besides the Tablo, the companies has been integrating its technology with Roku, Amazon Fire TV, AndroidTV.

I spoke to Grant Hall who is the CEO and Founder at Nuvyyo and he is open about the fact that Tablo sells like wildfire in the US because of their ability to cut the cord and not lose anything. As I mentioned above, Canadians don’t have that option at present. The way he sees it, the CRTC has a real opportunity here to really change that if they so choose. There just has to be the will for them to do that. Regardless, the demand for new distribution channels for TV in Canada is strong and that gives opportunities to companies like Nuvyyo to provide products to fill this demand.

Hopefully, the environment will change in Canada to make devices like the Tablo take off in Canada like it has in the US. When that happens, Nuvyyo will be a company to watch as they’ve already proven that they have a product that will give people the ability to cut the cord without giving up the TV options that they are used to.

 

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In Depth: Secret Double Octopus

Posted in Commentary with tags on June 10, 2017 by itnerd

Besides having the coolest name that I’ve come across, Secret Double Octopus is a company that you should keep an eye on. Here’s why. They’re on the bleeding edge of multi-factor authentication. Now, I will admit that multi-factor authentication is being implemented by everybody from individual corporations to companies like Google. The thing is, that the belief of Secret Double Octopus is that multi-factor authentication can be done better.

Secret Double Octopus offers a keyless multi-factor authentication technology, that eliminates the need for passwords while ensuring a secure and user-friendly experience. By doing that, they believe that they can increase the adoption of multi-factor authentication. On top of that, they offer a product that does single sign on that is password free. That reduces the possible avenues of attacks and increases security for network resources and company applications. To lessen the burden on your help desk, Secret Double Octopus offers a self-service enroller which allows users to get access to network resources. Transaction approval is another area that the company can help secure while providing ease of implementing with high security. Finally, Secret Double Octopus is on the cutting edge of the Internet Of Things by offering security for IoT devices.

I spoke to Amit Rahav who is the VP of Marketing and Business Development and found that he is passionate about making sure that security is top of mind for those need it. Clearly that passion translates to their products which are very much on the cutting edge of security. And that’s a good thing because with data breaches happening every day, you need all the security that you can get.

The bottom line is this. Secret Double Octopus is offering solutions that make security simple. That’s important because security often isn’t simple. Whether it is in terms of usage or implementation. It looks like to me that Secret Double Octopus can make those roadblocks non issues, then they will be a company that will make waves. Thus they are one company to watch.

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