Peter's Useful Crap

In an effort to help limit spam, many Internet service providers block all traffic to port 25 unless that traffic is directed at one of the service providers’ servers. What this means to you is that if you use an e-mail client (as opposed to webmail) such as Outlook or Thunderbird, and are travelling and/or connected to a different network than you’re used to, you might not be able to send e-mail.

In Thunderbird, you will see a error message similar to this:

“Sending of message failed. The message could not be sent because connecting to SMTP server smtp.gmail.com failed. The server may be unavailable or is refusing SMTP connections.”

For the purposes of this post, think of an “SMTP server” as the outbound mail server.

There are two relatively simple ways around this.

You can configure your mail client to use your default SMTP server but on a different port. To do this, you’ll have to know what alternative ports are available, and even in that case, the service provider might block that port too.

Or, you can configure your mail client to use the service provider’s SMTP server. To do this in Thunderbird, first click the Tools menu, and select the Account Settings option. The left menu on the resulting window should show a list of your configured accounts, and at the very bottom of that menu there should be an “Outgoing Server (SMTP)” option. From there, you can add a new SMTP server:

Usually you can do a Google search for “Telus SMTP server” (replacing “Telus” with the name of the Internet service provider that you are currently connected to). If you’re connected to a public network but don’t know what service provider you’re using, try visiting a site such as this one. Here’s a list of SMTP servers for the various networks that I’ve had to connect to recently:

Service provider	SMTP server
Telus	mail.telus.net
Shaw	shawmail.wp.shawcable.net (replace “wp” with a two-letter code representing your nearest city)
Lightspeed	mail.lightspeed.ca
AT&T	smtp1.attglobal.net
DCCNet	mail.dccnet.com

Once you’ve added a new SMTP server, set your mail client to use that one. In the left menu for the Account Settings window in Thunderbird, click on your account, then specify the SMTP server that you just added.

Note: the credit cards mentioned in this article are available in Canada only.

September 2009 update: there is now a page about the Smart Cash credit card on the MBNA website

Scotiabank has a compelling new credit card (and well-made, accompanying TV ads) called the Scotia Momentum VISA. This credit card gives you 2% cash back on grocery store and gas purchases and 1% cash back on all other purchases. Assuming that you don’t carry a balance (and thus the interest rate on a card is irrelevant), this a great way to save money without having to change any of your habits. However, this card has its drawbacks, such as a $39 annual fee and a $15 fee for additional cards.

MBNA has an even better offering called the MBNA Smart Cash credit card. It gives you 3% cash back on grocery store and gas purchases and 1% back on all other purchases. It has no annual fee and there is no fee to have additional cards (or what they call “authorized users”).

The MBNA Smart Cash credit card is not advertised, and has no official web page from what I know. You’ll have to do your research by reading forum posts and the like. It is also available only to people who already have an MBNA MasterCard. If you fall into this category, you can call the customer service number on the back of your card and ask to convert your existing card to a Smart Cash card (technically they send you a new card; but at least you don’t have to fill out another application form).

And while you’re taking the time to do this, remember that you can tell your credit card company to stop sending you promotional junk and paper statements.

When you’re living in a tight space, it’s advantageous to have fewer things and to have smaller versions of the essentials. The kelvin.23 is a tool that combines many “tool box” tools into one item that you can keep close-by in a drawer and that fits in your hand. This tool was invented by Vancouverite Kevin Royes (although it’s not that green or local as it is made in China).

The introduction video is what sold me on the product, and the video does quite a good job at outlining the tool’s features and uses. The kelvin.23 includes the following:

• hammer
• screwdriver with magnets on the sides
• 16 screwdriver bits, including several Philipps, Allen, and slotted varities
• 6-foot measuring tape
• flashlight
• liquid level

The kelvin.23 is useful for many day-to-day tasks, such as: assembling new furniture; hanging things; tightening screws around fixtures; measuring short distances; and inspecting corners and other dark spaces.

Including shipping, it costs between $33 and $40 if you purchase it directly from the Canadian website.

General comments

The kelvin.23 works as advertised, and all of its parts are downright useful.

I recently used it to hang a framed picture, and took advantage of the following:

• the measuring tape to make sure that I placed the hooks on the back of the picture evenly
• the hammer to put nails in the wall
• the liquid level to align the frame properly (see below)

The flashlight is bright enough for small spaces. The included screwdriver bits, while they obviously don’t include some larger varieties, will handle most of the screws around the house. And of course, the kelvin.23 fits nicely and conveniently in a drawer (and your glove compartment if you have a car). It would be of use around some office environments as well.

Downsides

After the picture hanging exercise, I noticed that the top compartment, which opens up to reveal the screwdriver bits, is stiff to open. I don’t know if this was caused by the hammering (the hammer part doesn’t feel as sturdy as it could be) or just a stiff design.

Update: The top compartment is plain difficult to open if you don’t use the correct technique. I had a group of 6 people try out the kelvin.23 and every one of them had trouble opening the top compartment at first. One of them even pinched one of his fingers (causing it to bleed a small amount) trying to open that compartment. Do not try and use brute force to open it — grip the kelvin.23 firmly with one hand, and apply medium pressure to either side in order to wedge your first and third fingers into the grooves on either side.

Also, for me the everyday usage scenario would be satisfied by the kelvin.23 if it had a knife of some sort for opening packages.

Other nice features

The screwdriver can be used straight out, or locked at 90 degrees for extra torque and better maneuvering in certain circumstances.

The magnets on the side of the screwdriver and not only handy for holding screws and the like, but they also hold the screw bit firmly in place — a simple feature that is definitely lacking in my cheap screwdriver.

Although the kelvin.23 comes in a clamshell package, I do appreciate that there are little tabs to pull open the plastic. This way you have less chance of injuring yourself and can open the package faster.

Conclusion

The kelvin.23 is well thought out. It could use some small improvements, and you should keep its limits (mostly relating to the size of its items) in mind. However, overall it is likely to come in handy and help you to get most of your minor household tasks done!

While Google Street View will soon be available for many major Canadian cities, Canada’s own Canpages has already been offering a similar service for Vancouver, Squamish, and Whistler maps since March 2009.

For those who are unfamiliar with Street View / Street Scene, it adds yet another dimension to online maps by showing pictures from the street level, rather than zoomed in satellite pictures (which already provide a lot of detail). Some might find this creepy or Big Brother-ish, but it can be quite useful to explore an unfamiliar area before you go there (for example, you could get a pictures of a weird intersection before you actually drive onto it going the wrong way).

To access Canpages’ Street Scene, simply run a search (such as this one), then click the “Street Scene” checkbox in the top right.

The map on the bottom will show you which streets have pictures available. The picture at the top can be navigated, turned, zoomed, viewed full screen, and more.

It’s bad enough that many printers force you to replace ink cartridges well before they are empty.

Since we purchased the Brother 685CW inkjet printer, we have printed almost exclusively in grayscale or black and white. But when the black cartridge ran out, the printer reported that the yellow, cyan, and magenta cartridges were empty as well. That was hard to believe, and it defeats the purpose of having individual ink cartridges. At any rate, we figured we would replace the black cartridge and abstain from printing in colour.

Sadly, the printer refused to print in black and white until it received new colour cartridges. Well, if that’s the case we should really find a more reasonable printer. It’s an inconvenient and costly situation.

Thankfully, as suggested in someone’s comment on amazon.com, there is a solution that doesn’t involve getting a different printer or unnecessarily buying more ink. After placing a piece of electrical tape over a “window” on each colour cartridge, we were able to “trick” the printer into thinking the cartridges were full.

After a bit more searching, I discovered that this is a common issue, especially regarding Brother printers. The reasoning given by printer companies is along the lines of having to continuously flow ink to clean the system. I’ll take my chances, as the potential loss of colour printing isn’t so bad in our case; I’ll also keep hoping for either a smarter, more convenient and economical printing design, or a printing company that isn’t trying to rip us off.