Peter's Useful Crap

2009 update: I did NOT renew my magicJack after the first year of service because the call quality was inconsistent, they never officially offered Canadian numbers, and I simply didn’t use it much. I ended up using Skype and other VoIP options such as voip.ms.

2010 update: Looks like magicJack now offers some Canadian area codes, although I don’t use it anymore and thus cannot comment.

Got an existing landline (or a cell phone with free incoming calls) and want to make free calls within Canada and the US? Check out GrandCentral or Jajah.

Don’t have a landline, travel lots, can’t give up the plain old telephone, or work frequently around the city on a computer, and still want to make (unlimited) calls to Canada and the US? Consider purchasing a magicJack.

2009 update: I did NOT renew my magicJack after the first year of service because the call quality was inconsistent, they never officially offered Canadian numbers, and I simply didn’t use it much. I ended up using Skype and other VoIP options such as voip.ms.

No, the magicJack isn’t free, and it gives you an American number. But from my limited experience so far, it is legitimate, and Canadians have reason to look into it. It’s been getting some major coverage in the US, but almost nothing in Canada, so I will chronicle what I did from the purchase and installation to the actual usage so far.

Note that I haven’t used the magicJack enough in order to comment on its continual reliability, although initial experiences have been good.

If you’re only interested in the usage and features, skip to the bottom of the post.

What is the magicJack?

The magicJack is a bit weird. It is a device with a USB end that plugs into your computer and a phone jack on the other end where you can plug in a telephone. In other words, it’s as if your phone service provider runs your calls through the Internet, through your computer, to your normal telephone. It’s not quite Skype, it’s not quite Jajah, and it’s not quite GrandCentral. And it intrigued me enough to try it out.

The purchase

The magicJack website has an awful telemarketing feel to it. But that sort of works, because it shows you videos of the major media coverage it has been getting in the US. Unfortunately, you cannot get the magicJack shipped to Canada from that site.

I found the Canadian magicJack site. This was at the end of December 2007 and the price was $59.99 + tax (it’s cheaper now, so you should probably purchase it there), so I found it for sale on eBay and paid $51 CAD after shipping and the exchange rate. This is supposed to include one year of unlimited calls in Canada and the US, and subsequent years are $20 US.

After about two weeks, it arrived:

Installation problems

I have a computer running Windows XP (magicJack also supports the Mac). I plugged in the magicJack, which is about 2/5 the size of a deck of cards, to a USB port. The computer did the usual things that happen after a new USB device is plugged in:

After about a minute, there was a magicJack shortcut on my desktop and the magicJack software starting running automatically:

I noticed that it had installed two virtual drives:

Unfortunately, it gave me this error about how the magicJack wasn’t found:

Of course, the device was lighted up and things were busy installing themselves, so I didn’t think there really was a problem. I clicked OK. I got to a registration screen and thought all was well. After filling it in, though, I got another error saying “Failed to contact your service provider. Make sure you have working connection to the internet.” The magicJack main interface then loaded, but I couldn’t make a call, and it was telling me there were proxy problems or something.

So off I went to the magicJack site, looking for a fix. They have this magicFix diagnostic that said nothing was wrong. There’s a Windows Vista download, but I figured I have XP so that won’t help. Anyway, some Googling got me to this magicJack hacks website, which pointed me to the unofficial magicJack forum. All I can say is thank goodness for users helping users, because the forum pointed me to an upgrade file that turned out to be the same Windows Vista download from the magicJack website that I had brushed off.

Everything working!

So 45 minutes after unpacking the magicJack, I’d found the solution! If only the software had a built-in check for upgrades mechanism. Anyway, the updated, “4.0 beta” interface works nicely and looks like this:

A nice registration page popped up and I successfully created an account, picking a number in Florida so that my uncle there can call me by making a local call

Usage and features

So with the magicJack device plugged into the computer, the magicJack software running automatically (it loads when you plug the magicJack into your computer and closes when you unplug the magicJack), and a normal telephone plugged into the magicJack device (instead of the wall), I have a new Florida number and phone calls work!

The magicJack software interface is quite intuitive. I can pick up the phone and dial as normal, or use the buttons on the screen.

I was able to make a call right away using the normal phone attached to the magicJack, and the caller ID on the other end showed my new Florida number that is attached to my magicJack. I made a 33 minute call, and the quality was clear on my cable Internet connection (which isn’t fast by cable standards but is still broadband) except for some choppiness when I was downloading a file (since the call uses the Internet connection). It sounded like the quality on a regular landline.

A cool thing about being able to plug in a normal phone is that I can use an existing cordless phone. I can walk around, making and receiving calls, instead of having to initiate them through the computer.

magicJack also enables you to use a computer headset, so you have the option if you are sitting in a public place and it’s too bulky to carry a normal phone around.

I tested out incoming calls to my new magicJack Florida number and they work fine. When there’s an incoming call, a dialog pops up on the screen to say that a call is coming, and the normal phone plugged into it also rings.

Call forwarding is another option, which can be configured through the online management page. When I’d set it up, calls to my magicJack Florida number were successfully sent to my British Columbia pager number.

You can configure voice mail by calling your own number, then pressing *. The options are similar to what I have at work (in fact, I think it uses the same system) — for example, you can record unavailable, busy, and temporary messages.

You should also be able to carry the small magicJack device around to plug it into other computers, thus taking your magicJack number around wherever you are. Thus, it is a portable and versatile phone device.

magicJack verdict

The magicJack definitely works for me so far. I had high hopes for the intuitive “plug and play” install, but I had to hunt around to find out that I had to upgrade. Once I did the proper upgrade, all is well! It is really nice to be able to plug a normal phone into the magicJack, even if it has to be attached to the computer. The magicJack is a unique concept that I hadn’t seen yet.

Is the magicJack worth the $50 initial purchase for a year plus $20 for subsequent years? This will depend on your potential usage frequency, the quality of your Internet connection (I tested it on an average home cable connection and it’s fine; dial-up might work but probably isn’t recommended), and also whether the magicJack can be consistently reliable. As I stated in the introduction, I haven’t used it much, so I cannot comment on the reliability of whatever network it uses.

For a Canadian, I can think of several use cases for the magicJack:

• You have a cell phone and a computer with Internet access but not a landline. You can probably save a lot of cell phone minutes by using the magicJack when you’re at home or out where there’s Internet access. Note that there is no 911 access since you can only get a US number.
• You need to make long distance calls within Canada and the US. Remember, there’s an initial purchase price and subsequent yearly cost, but you can make unlimited calls within Canada and the US and receive unlimited calls from anywhere. If you have friends or relatives that you frequently talk to, the magicJack definitely pays itself off.
• You know someone in the US who calls you often. Since you can get a number for many parts of the US, you can potentially get the same area code as your friend or relative. Then, they can call your US number (which is local for them) and you can either forward that to your home or cell number or have it ring your magicJack that is attached to your computer.
• You travel quite a bit and there’s Internet access where you will be. No matter where you are, as long as you have an Internet connection, you can make unlimited calls to Canada and the US. Therefore, if you spend a month in England, you can call home as much as you want without incurring any additional costs beyond whatever it takes for you to get Internet access.
• You have family members who always yak on the phone and could use a second phone line.

Be sure to do your own research on the unofficial magicJack user forum, the magicJack site, and the magicJack creator’s blog.

The magicJack has the potential to be a great product and if and when it provides Canadian numbers, it could really catch on in Canada.

February 18, 2008 update: the magicJack now offers international calls at rates comparable to Skype’s long distance rates

November 24, 2008: Due to the number of comments on this post, all discussion about the magicJack has been moved to the forum

2009 update: I did NOT renew my magicJack after the first year of service because the call quality was inconsistent, they never officially offered Canadian numbers, and I simply didn’t use it much. I ended up using Skype and other VoIP options such as voip.ms.

2010 update: Looks like magicJack now offers some Canadian area codes, although I don’t use it anymore and thus cannot comment.

Forum/Topic	Started	Last post	Posts
magicJack Living Abroad	March 26, 2009 5:37 pm by Ejc	December 7, 2013 3:33 am by cleophus	10
magicJack Magic Jack keeps cutting out	November 20, 2012 6:52 am by Patricia	November 20, 2012 6:52 am by Patricia	1
magicJack MagicJack contact email or address	February 16, 2009 1:35 pm by a doss	November 7, 2012 2:24 am by zafar sultan	12

Note: this review will slowly become out of date. Information on 7-Eleven Speak Out Wireless is now maintained at http://www.speakoutwireless.ca

Because 7-Eleven doesn’t run annoying mass media ads, you might not have heard of its cell phone service. When I first learned about it, I thought: “7-Eleven? They sell Slurpees. I used to buy sports cards from there. And they sell long distance phone cards and lately they sell Virgin Mobile phones. But their own service? Really?”

In December 2006, I wrote about why I switched from Rogers Wireless Pay As You Go to 7-Eleven Speak Out Wireless. To sum that article up, I don’t use my cell phone much — perhaps 100 minutes or less per month. If you have similar cell phone usage, consider a prepaid / pay as you go plan, and more specifically, 7-Eleven Speak Out Wireless.

It’s been just over a year and I absolutely love Speak Out Wireless. In fact, I even started a website for its users (and no, I don’t work for 7-Eleven!). Here’s an outline as to why I think Speak Out Wireless is so good.

The cell phone scene in Canada

As a reference, here’s a list to the product pages of Canadian pay as you go services and Wikipedia has a list of Canadian mobile phone companies.

Surprisingly, there are more carriers than you might think. But when you look closer, cell-phone-wise, Canada is the land of three-year contracts, prepaid plans that charge system access fees (Bell charges you $3.95 per month… making it hardly “pay as you go” if you ask me), and the absence of off-the-shelf SIM cards (which is common in the US and many parts of Europe). Expectations are already low for the consumer. Speak Out Wireless is what I consider a no-nonsense service that eschews most of the things that I dislike about Canadian cell phone services providers.

A note before I continue: Petro Canada has a similar cell phone service to 7-Eleven (both services are run by the same company), so if those gas stations are more common in your area, you might want to check that out.

7-Eleven Speak Out Wireless features

I encourage you to check the front page of speakoutwireless.ca, which is an FAQ about its prepaid account features.

Pros

Here are the main reasons why I like 7-Eleven Speak Out Wireless:

• 20 cents per minute in Canada, 5 cents for incoming and outgoing text messages in Canada: Cheap, uncomplicated rates. Everybody gets the same rate at all times of the day. [Update: In July 2008, they upped the calling rate to 25 cents per minute] [Update: In October 2009, they changed the outgoing text message cost to 10 cents per message and made incoming texts free]
• Airtime vouchers or $25, $50, $75 and $100 all last 365 days: Some months I might use $5 of airtime. In other months I might use $20 of airtime. One thing I never have to worry about is when the airtime is going to expire. No wasted “hey, I need to use up my minutes” calls or “I’m topping up not because I need the airtime but so that I can carry over previous airtime” situations.
• Call display, call waiting, and voice mail are included: No hidden rates here. There’s a monthly $0.99 911 fee, and when you check voice mail from your cell phone, you are charged regular airtime minutes. You aren’t charged when people leave voice mail messages or when you check your voice mail from a landline.
• Instantly activated: You don’t have to give them any personal information. The second you walk out of the store, the phone has a phone number and works.
• 7-Eleven stores are quite common: It’s easy to buy phones and airtime when the store is just around the corner. I’ve even done phone and airtime transactions with fellow neighbours on the unofficial consumer website. While there are no 7-Elevens in Quebec, you can try Petro Canada Mobility, which is very similar to this service.
• Runs on the Rogers footprint: You might think it’s a small-time operation, but it has the same coverage area in Canada as Rogers and Fido.
• Uses GSM phones and SIM cards: GSM and CDMA are the two types of phone networks in Canada. You can tell them apart because only GSM phones use SIM cards. 7-Eleven (as well as Rogers and Fido) uses GSM phones, as well as most of the rest of the world. CDMA phones from Bell, Telus, and others are completely locked to the service provider. Generally, many GSM phones are locked to the service provider, but when you unlock the phones (sometimes for free), they can take any SIM card. Also, you can take a 7-Eleven SIM card and put it in any unlocked North American GSM phone. GSM generally means more freedom!
• Simple account management: It’s a free call from your cell phone to 1) Check your balance; 2) Add money to your account; and 3) Talk to customer service (and there’s no annoying voice recognition menus).
• Good customer service over the phone: The customer service reps over the phone are quite nice. Moving? Call up customer service to switch the phone number assigned to your 7-Eleven Speak Out Wireless SIM card. Porting an existing number? They do this quite painlessly too.

Another thing I like is the lack of a commercial nature. There aren’t any Speak Out Wireless cute animals that have nothing to do with the service, nobody tempts you to buy ringtones, and they can’t even mail or e-mail you because you didn’t have to give any personal information to activate the account in the first place.

And as a bonus to the green movement, vouchers are printed on recyclable paper; there are no plastic Speak Out Wireless airtime cards. (Sorry, I had to add that one in.)

Cons

I feel that Speak Out Wireless has all of the basics. I never think “if only I could do this with the phone” but then again I have pretty simple needs. I use it as a portable pay phone, for peace of mind if there’s ever an emergency, and to be reachable when I’m off to meet people.

Limitations include:

• No international roaming. This might be a good thing as it’s often cheaper to buy a SIM card for your destination than to pay roaming fees.
• No call forwarding.
• The choice of phones from 7-Eleven is rather limited, although since it uses SIM cards, you can put the SIM card in a different unlocked phone and then sell the phone you bought from 7-Eleven.
• There is limited online account management service. Update: As of the end of 2010, you can now check your balance and activate (but not purchase) vouchers online.
• You are charged for text messages received. Some carriers and plans give you free incoming text messages, although their rate for outgoing messages is often more than 5 cents. [Update: In October 2009, they changed the outgoing text message cost to 10 cents per message and made incoming texts free]
• You don’t get to pick what phone number you get. (It’s within your local area, though!)
• You generally cannot walk into a 7-Eleven store to nitpick about the service. The customer service reps there often don’t know much about the company’s cell phone service. You can only return or exchange the phone.

Conclusion

For light cell phone users, I am convinced that 7-Eleven Speak Out Wireless is currently the best overall pay as you go cell phone service around. Not everybody will agree with me, as some might think that some of the above-mentioned unavailable features are absolutely necessary. If you have any questions, I encourage you to check out speakoutwireless.ca, which is run independently of 7-Eleven.

In short, you cannot and should not. In MySQL, if you have a column that is assigned the AUTO_INCREMENT count, you can reset that count by using this statement (or check out the Operations tab in phpMyAdmin):

ALTER TABLE tablename AUTO_INCREMENT=0

However, if you have existing rows, the AUTO_INCREMENT value will only reset to one higher than the maximum current ID. For example, if you have a table with the following entries…

ID	First name
3	Peter
6	Paul
7	Mary

… and the AUTO_INCREMENT count is set at 60, the statement to reset the AUTO_INCREMENT count to 0 will only reset it to 8. Only if there are no rows remaining will it reset to 0.

There is good reason for this limitation. If you were to successfully reset the AUTO_INCREMENT count to 0 in the case above, eventually you would hit existing rows at IDs 3, 6 and 7, triggering errors or overwriting important information.

However, if you want to keep the existing rows and still reset the AUTO_INCREMENT count to 0, MySQL will not let you.

There is a way around this if you absolutely must reset the AUTO_INCREMENT count to lower than the maximum current ID. What you need is two tables: one that simply keeps track of the AUTO_INCREMENT count and the other to store your actual data.

Table 1 fields: Unique key “id” auto_increment (just one field)
Table 2 fields: Unique key “id” NOT auto_increment; other fields like first name, last name, etc.

For example, you might have temporary data that is deleted after, say, 24 hours. Therefore, if you inserted 10,000 rows per day, your AUTO_INCREMENT count would be up to 3,650,000 after a year. However, the current IDs might only be between 3,640,000 and 3,650,000, leaving no rows with IDs less than 3,640,000. If you tried to reset the AUTO_INCREMENT count to 0, it wouldn’t work. And you cannot just delete all rows because you need those 10,000 rows that were created in the last 24 hours.

Assuming that you are working in PHP, whenever you need to insert a row to Table 2, execute the following steps:

1) Insert a row into Table 1

mysql_query('INSERT INTO table1 (id) VALUES (NULL)');

2) Get the row via the PHP function mysql_insert_id();

$row_to_insert = mysql_insert_id();

or

$result = mysql_query('SELECT last_insert_id()');
while ($theresult = mysql_fetch_array($result)) {
$row_to_insert = $theresult[0];
}

3) Delete the row you just inserted into Table 1 (this is optional as you can clear Table 1 periodically)

mysql_query('DELETE FROM table1 WHERE id = ' . $row_to_insert);

4) Insert the row with all the important data into Table 2 using the ID that was just generated in Table 1 (since Table 2 doesn’t use AUTO_INCREMENT):

mysql_query('INSERT INTO table2 (id, createtime, firstname, lastname) VALUES (' . $row_to_insert . ', ' . time() . ', ' . $first_name . ', ' . $last_name . ')');

5) Delete rows from Table 2 that are older than 24 hours

mysql_query('DELETE FROM table2 WHERE ' . time() . ' > createtime + 86400');

Whenever you want to reset the count, just clear Table 1 and use the ALTER TABLE statement to successfully reset the AUTO_INCREMENT count back to 0 (since there is really no data in Table 1).

mysql_query('DELETE FROM table1');
mysql_query('ALTER TABLE table1 AUTO_INCREMENT=0');

In our example, new rows into Table 1 get IDs starting at 0 and new rows into Table 2 get the IDs from Table 1. Therefore they also start at 0, even though there are existing IDs in Table 2 between 3,640,000 and 3,650,000.

Last updated: November 20, 2013

Update: I can also recommend MuseScore, which is also free and has a community of downloadable sheets.

The few times that I’ve tried to compose or transcribe music for the piano, I’ve always written on blank staff paper. But what if you’re serious or good enough to want to share your music? (Ahem, I’m not, but I still looked into it anyway :D) There are some good software programs that enable you to create sheet music digitally. It’s much easier to share and duplicate a digital file than messy scribbles.

Unfortunately, there aren’t many good free programs, especially ones with a friendly graphical user interface. (If you’re creating music for sale then you should probably be looking at paid alternatives.) I’ve been experimenting a bit with Final NotePad (runs on Windows or Mac) and think it’s quite good.

Some highlights from my brief testing include:

• It’s easy to add crescendos, ties, rests, sharps, key changes, slurs, repeats, and even glissandos. All you need to do is click on the appropriate tool and then click on the appropriate place in the score:
  
• You can preview how your piece sounds
• There’s a handy text tool as well as a free-form line shapes tool to create things like double bars and pedal marks
• The program is quite well documented
• You can create sheet music for many instruments using up to 8 staves
• There are no watermarks when you print your composition

Difficulties so far include:

• I don’t think it’s possible to change the time signature mid-piece or after you’ve created the document
• Creating pedal marks takes a while and is difficult to copy (would be handy to have a pedal tool)
• There’s no direct to PDF export, although you could just download a free PDF printer

I managed to create a rough transcription of Ingrid Michaelson‘s Men of Snow in about 20 minutes with Finale NotePad.

If you find the features in the free Finale NotePad too limiting, you can always demo or purchase the more high-end version.

Related posts:

1. Create pdfs for free
2. Free Canadian income tax software
3. Create your own custom Flash tutorials for free
4. DRM-free mp3 music in Canada from Universal through Puretracks

2014 update: The free travel for family members of monthly pass holders on Sundays and holidays was discontinued by TransLink on January 1, 2014

This is a little known fact because it’s not printed on the back of bus passes in Vancouver…

As quoted from the TransLink website:

On Sundays and Statutory Holidays you can use your FareCard and take five others with you for free. A total of six: Two adults (14 and older) and up to four children (13 and under) ride on a single Adult FareCard, West Coast Express 28-Day Pass, or Annual Employer Transit Pass (does not apply to Concession Passes).
Note: A child can be substituted for one adult passenger.

If you don’t have children, this means that you are pretty much taking one friend or family member around for free. Note that on Sundays and holidays, all public transit trips are “one zone” trips, so you can bring people around everywhere no matter which monthly pass you have!