Good news: As of July 1st, 2013, a 10 year passport will be available for $160 (about double the previous cost of a 5 year passport, so it evens out). 5 year passports will cost $120 (from $87, I think it was).

 In theory, when they prompt you and say "Say High Speed Internet, Portable, Dialup..." you can just press "2" for Portable instead of saying it.

All of Rogers' Phone Numbers

Rogers Cable 1-888-ROGERS1 (1-888-764-3771)

Rogers Yahoo Hi Speed Cable Internet 1-888-ROGERS1 (1-888-764-3771)

Just going to do another order through my favourite Hong Kong Retailer, Deal Extreme. Check out my previous review of Deal Extreme here.

I'm going to order:

A guide on how to legitimately open a US Bank account as a Foreigner (Canadians can use this method, or this method without having to leave Canada).

Ever since a reader and I had a bit of a debate as to whether a criminal record could delay one's application for a passport in my Online Passport Application Article , I've gotten a few hits every day from people asking this very ques

Tracking Your Passport Application

All Canadian Passport Applications are trackable. Your receipt should have a file number, but even if this has been lost, you can still fill in your other relevant information.

Tip: Easily Fix Vista's Slow Speed

Speeding up Windows Vista greatly is very simple. Feel like your new "more powerful" computer with Vista is slower than your old computer?

Scroll Down for Pictures of the BMW 1-Series!

Regular Bell Sympatico Tech Support

Use these phone numbers:

ON&PQ: 310-SURF (no charge)
The rest of Canada: 1 - 800 - 773 - 2121

Do you have Bell Home Phone Service? Read this too, you may have to start paying a Network Charge as of May 2010

What's the Bell Network Charge?

Making Contextual Advertising Relevant to your Content

Just a quick article on the power of writing properly in order to gets ads to be relevant to your site's or page's content.

My Casio Exilim Digicam was having some problems. The wrist strap broke right off of the frame, and when it hit the ground, the tab that holds the lithium battery in place broke, so whenever I opened up the cover to change the SD card, the battery would be at risk of falling out. Many of the LCD pixels were starting to go dark, but not majorly. However, I feared the LCD was going to get worse over time.

The Problem: "wireless authentication failed because of a timeout"

There appears to be a bug in Microsoft Windows Vista with many notebook's/laptop's and other PC's wireless network cards where all you get is a timeout. The result is that setting up a wifi network with WPA or WPA2 security fails for no seemingly good reason.

This page links to stock quotes and prices (which also contain advanced analytical tools and news) for BCE's (also known as Bell Canada Enterprises) stock listing on th

Nortel , the Toronto-based Company now focusses on four product areas: Carrier Networks (for mobile products), Enterprise Solutions, Metro Ethernet Networks and Global Services.

 

This page links to both the Canadian and US Listings for Waterloo-based Research in Motion 's stock price, on Toronto's TSE/TSX Stock Exchange, and New York's NASDAQ Stock Exchange.

Here's what I learned about foreign cell phone plans and systems on my recent trip abroad to Germany, Austria & Croatia. The gist of it is to buy instead of renting if you're willing to spend a little time finding a shop and reading this article.

In order for your cell phone to work properly in Germany (or other locales in Europe, such as Croatia), your phone must be:

Very simply in fact, just hold down the "Menu" button for about 10-15 seconds, and that will reset it. Perhaps this will work with other Sansa players as well.

And don't forget, these mp3 players can have their capacity upgraded just by putting in a microSD/Transflash memory card, which have dropped substantially in price. A 2GB Card goes for just CAD$25 these days (around USD$23).

Tip: To reset your Sansa, hold down the Menu button for 10-15 seconds.

There's a very simple trick to getting your new Sandisk Sansa e260 (or other Sansas, like the e250 or the e280) to work with Windows 2000. Intially, Windows won't recognize it properly and fail to install the device, but the workaround is simple indeed.

The Basics of the Logitech V200 Mouse

I purchased a Logitech V200 Laptop Mouse off of Ebay for almost exactly US$20 including shipping. I found the mouse to work very well. The receiver is small, and the unit fits in my hand rather well.

The unit includes teflon feet, therefore they will slide rather well on any surface. Be warned, this mouse does _not_ work well on glass desks (especially when clean).

Check back here soon for my soon-to-exist article comparing the costs of getting propane trucked to your residence (and having the tank refilled), versus a continuous natural gas (mainly methane) hookup. I'll compare the actual costs for homeowners that have reasonable access to both, such as those in surburan and urban areas.

Bell to Raise Network Charge AGAIN

From Bell's website: "A network charge of $4.50/month also applies except for the Extra - International plan. Effective August 1st, 2007 the monthly network charge for Bell long distance plans will increase to $5.95." Unbelievable for a non-mandatory charge! This is a real problem.

Update: Passport Application Renewals:

The new "Simplified Passport Application Renewal" Procedure seems to be eligible for the same Epass short-lineups, but I think this might depend on the location.

September 2010 edit: 3.5 years have past since I wrote this article, and all of the items are still available, but substantially cheaper! The universal power adapter that cost me $7.70 now costs just $3.89, and that's still with free shipping (even if you buy just one)

Upgrading a Laptop Hard Drive is a special case. One needs to work with a laptop and its lack of IDE/SATA channels that would normally be used to mirror a drive. Things are usually easier when you're working with a big desktop, but quite workable with a laptop if you're patient.

Now, I'll outline how I was able to upgrade my hard drive from a 4200RPM unit to a 7200RPM unit, while keeping all my data, OS and programs. My drives were the same size, but the same steps should be usable for upgrading to a larger/bigger drive with one extra step.