Credit Card Balance Protection
Today I had to renew my credit card and as a good marketer my RBC tried to bring me into their scam. They tried to force me into their Balance Protection product.
In general insurance is only worth it when it covers events that are very unlikely and which, if they happened, they would pretty much ruin your life or the life of someone you care about. For example, life insurance if you have dependents, fire protection insurance, disability insurance. Those all protect you against things that are unlikely to happen but if they happen and you don't have insurance, someone's life gets ruined.
Insurance does not make sense for things that are cheap, or events that are likely. You shouldn't insure a television (aka buy an extended warranty). Balance protection insurance most likely lies under this category.
To understand why I say this, let's review how the insurance company makes money. Imagine a world where every house costs $100K and the chance of a house fire is 0.1%. Thus, the "expected cost" is $100K x 0.1% = $100. That's not very much. The problem is the risk. If your house does burn, you lose your life's savings. So the insurance company comes along and offers to insure your house if you pay them $120. The company does this for 1,000 houses. One of those houses does burn, so the insurance company received $120,000 and paid out $100,000 for the one house that did burn. The other $20,000 is profit.
The point of the example is that the insurance company will always charge you more than the "expected cost" of the event. You are guaranteed to lose money "in average". In this sense, you are always "over-paying". For events that are unlikely and would significantly hurt your life, this extra cost is worth it. For things that either happen very often or are low cost, insurance isn't worth it.
Let me give you an example of the latter: Suppose that you know with 100% certainty that you are going to lose $100. This is a high-probability event. Would you pay $120 to be insured against the certain loss of $100? Of course not.
Were do you draw the line?
Well, that's a personal choice. It depends on how risky something is for you and your tolerance for risk. But the basic principle is intact. Decide how you want to define "unlikely" and "significant cost" and make sure you only pay insurance for things that are unlikely and would incur a significant cost.
You may want to check this link for more statistical information:
http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/blog/credit_balance_insurance.html
Attempt to buy a house
A few month ago I had the opportunity to almost buy a condo stacked townhouse. Of course in order to get a peak read and understand what I was getting into, I had to sign agreement of purchase. Although I am always outraged by such practice, it seems it is common among north American way of doing contracts. The agent tried to be reassuring letting me know that it is by-law that one has 10 days to read, understand and bring to a lawyer the agreement and cancel it within those 10 days, pass this it is firm. Basically the purchase price was $305k with discount and all, price that was reported on the first page of that purchase agreement, but the following 40 pages were full of surprises.
The salesperson had failed to mention that the price on the front page was not the final one and that there were a great many extras not included in that figure.
The more I checked, the unhappier they became. I provided them with a long list of items classified as extras to be paid on closing in addition to the purchase price:
* The unit's proportionate share of the cost of installation of gas, hydro, sewers and water service and meters, to an unlimited amount.
* Any new taxes imposed on the unit by any level of government after the agreement was signed (think HST) – also an unlimited amount.
* The Tarion warranty enrolment fee of $502.
* An unlimited levy against the unit for parks or other municipal charges.
* Provincial sales tax on the appliances included with the unit.
* An extra $300 for the paperwork to hold the purchasers' deposits in trust.
* $150 to discharge the builder's construction financing and give clear title after closing.
* The builder's $52.50 transaction levy payable to the Law Society.
* $150 to subsidize the builder's legal fees.
* Interest on the balance of the purchase price from the day of final closing to the next banking day.
* The amount of any increase in municipal, education or transit development charges imposed between Oct. 10, 2008 and closing.
* An unlimited contribution to the builder's proportionate share of all costs associated with a development agreement entered into with the city.
The total cost of these extras could easily exceed $10,000 to $20,000. And since they are classified as extras or "adjustments," they are typically not eligible for mortgage financing. Not one of them was mentioned in the sales office.
To make the purchasers' cash flow even worse on closing, the offer requires that the purchasers prepay to the builder estimated property taxes for the year of closing and the year after – another $4,000 or $5,000 for taxes that won't even be assessed for at least a year.
Going to my lawyer to check the agreement I am told this is common practice and that no builders will want to amend any of this.
I have no problem at all with builders charging whatever they want for houses or condominium units, and for imposing any extra charges they see fit.
I have a serious problem with the total lack of disclosure of the charges in the sales office – a typical failure in many builder sales offices.
The better builders are open and transparent when it comes to disclosing extra charges in the sales offices. They are a credit to the profession and help support a positive public image for the home-building industry.
The rest of them are the ones who may force the government to step in and require full written disclosure of the total purchase price and all extras in a builder offer.
Hive corruption Fix Access Restore Point using Recovery Console
A colleague came to me today with an interesting issue.
Windows XP would not start as some system hive was corrupt.
Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM
Stop: c0000218 {Registry File Failure} The registry cannot load the hive (file): \SystemRoot\System32\Config\SYSTEM or its log or alternate
CAUSE
This issue can occur if the System or Software hive for the Windows XP installation is missing or damaged.
Microsoft does describe the issue very well and it appears quite simple to fix. You want to check this KB for more info.
The fixing process is fairly easy and requires to use the recovery console to make a copy of the current corrupted system files (or not if they are totally missing) and replace them with a backup that windows does.
We are talking about files on c:\windows\system32\config to be replaced by copies.
Everything would have been easy and neat if everything was there as said. Yes, windows is to backup those up into the repair folder. But sometimes it happens.
I was interested in that SYSTEM file, but it was not there. The remaining option would have been to reinstall windows XP offer and have quick and dirty fix.
There had to be another way. Digging into my memory I though about other ways that Windows would have made another copy of those files. Restore Point snapshot was the answer!
Actually restore point are easily accessibly to the recovery console.
Booting from the XP CD. I started Windows Setup and press R to access the recovery console.
Just using the following command, you can get into the restore point files.
cd c:\
cd "system volume information\_resto~1"
dir
You'll see a list of restore point folders with names such as RP1, RP2 and so on. Pick the restore point you wish to use, using the folder date stamps to guide you. Enter the commands:
cd RPx (the restore point you chose)
cd snapshot
This takes you into the folder containing the restore point snapshot files. Then I could just copy what I needed to the target.
copy _Registry_machine_system C:\Windows\System32\Config\System
Sometimes, it is not because you don't see or if it is not where it is supposed to be that it is not there!
Make sure your PC is ready when you arrive in the office
You know you try to make your personal PC as efficient as it can be. In the office it is a different story especially when you have bunch of mandatory compliance stuff to load on startup. That's when regulatory compliance becomes a real pain. Well if it takes 20 minutes to load everything and you cannot do anything then you should try to use from technologies that are available around you.
1. My computer's BIOS supports autostartup, so I have it set to come on at 7:20AM every day (I arrive at the office at 8AM).
2. I use TweakUI to autologin to the computer, use kb315231 otherwise. This gets it starting and lets all the startup programs take however long they need to get going.
3. REMAIN COMPLIANT. I have a shortcut in my startup menu with a target of: %windir%\system32\rundll32.exe user32.dll, LockWorkStation, which locks the workstation. This way, if anyone tries to power up my computer when I'm not there, they can't do anything, remember you are an admin.
4. I have a batch program in my startup menu with this command shutdown -s -t 7200 -c "If I'm not here, this computer will shut itself down." -f, which will shut the PC down in 2 hours. That way, if I'm out sick, the PC isn't on all day. Of course, if I'm late, I have 'till 9:20 or so to make it to my desk and abort the destruct sequence with #5...
5. I have a subfolder of Startup called Abort Shutdown, with a batch file in it with the command shutdown -a, which will (duh) abort the shutdown when I click it. The folder is open when I arrive, and the batch file is sitting there, waiting to be clicked on.
So, in the 40 minutes before I arrive, everything gets rolling. While 40 minutes might seem excessive, they are other things you may want to have your computer do while waiting for you such as backup or other sync.
This also works well in the middle of the day when a restart is required. I can fire and forget -- go get a double-double or something, and I don't have to come back just to log in and wait some more. By the time I'm back, it's ready to rock and roll.
Blackberry upgrade 4.2.2 to 4.5
I have had my BlackBerry Curve aka 8300 for quite a long time and I have been using it heavily from telneting/sshing to server to maps and calendar syncs. I thought I had done it all. I rejoiced when I've read while looking for something else that the OS revision 4.5 was available from my carrier.
There's a lot of awesome stuff here, with multimedia streaming support, Microsoft Office document editing and HTML e-mail support at the fore. I am still waiting for RIM to tune up its Web browser, though—it's falling behind the options available on Windows Mobile, Symbian, and the iPhone.
Some of the new features are handheld-only; some require server upgrades. If you're on BlackBerry Enterprise Server, your IT department will need to upgrade; if you're on BlackBerry Internet Service, you'll need to wait a few months for your carrier to upgrade.
bberry-upgrades
I have read a lot of posts and things about how to upgrade its BlackBerry and it sounded somehow dangerous and scary as some users reported some bricking... In fact, it is very very easy. I got tired reading all the bad stories and warnings on forums and decided to get the information from the source. The download section of the blackberry.com site had a comprehensive listing of the good stuff.
My upgrade followed these steps:
- Download and install the latest BlackBerry Desktop Manager. This was the first time for to use it and I found it pretty neat, never had the need for it as a BES user.
- Reboot
- Download the OS update from the very same site. It even checks your PIN so you download the right one.
- Install the OS update. Once done connect you BBerry and follow the update instructions.
I ran into a few issues while upgrading but nothing was relate to the upgrade itself. I got scared when it fails during ROM upgrade. In fact, my usb drivers for my devices were not installed properly and it would not connect to the device as the device "was not working properly" as per windows. this said, the install retry went well as I installed those drivers once and for all - it probably asked me 3 times for the very same drivers.
The only bad things about this upgrade it that it is very slow, if not very very slow. While the ROM upgrade itself is fast (10min), the first boot up after upgrade is painfully slow and it took my Blackberry about 35 minutes to come back from the upgrading dead.
So what's new in this new OS revision?
If you have a BlackBerry Pearl 8100 or BlackBerry 8800, you'll get:
- Spell check
- BlackBerry Maps with Points of Interest
- Improved media player with play list support and automatic playlist generation
- Voice note recording
- Streaming support for YouTube and Sling Player
- Bluetooth stereo music
- Microsoft Office document editing with DocumentsToGo
If you have a BlackBerry Pearl 8130, you'll get:
- Automatic play list generation in the media player
- Microsoft Office document editing with DocumentsToGo
If you have any BlackBerry Curve or the BlackBerry 8820 or 8830, you'll get:
- BlackBerry Maps with Points of Interest
- Improved media player with play list support and automatic playlist generation
- Voice note recording
- Video recording on Curve models
- Streaming support for YouTube and Sling Player
- Microsoft Office document editing with DocumentsToGo
If you have a BlackBerry 8700 or 8703e, you'll get:
- Spell check
- BlackBerry Maps with Points of Interest
- New pictures and ringtones applications
- Voice note recording
- Microsoft Office document editing with DocumentsToGo
Also there are a bunch of BES advantage that I was not able to test as I don't have full BES authority at work but they list as below:
- Native format attachment downloading
- HTML e-mails
- Over-the-air device upgrades
- Free/busy calendar lookup
- Searching the server for old e-mail messages
Twits
- Hail to cydia and sbssettings!! 10 hours ago
- Always fresh is here! (@ Ha gow Dim Sum House) 4sq.com/JsUSJh 14 hours ago
- I just ousted @sarsteele as the mayor of Ha gow Dim Sum House on @foursquare! 4sq.com/tY8No3 14 hours ago
- I'm at Kim po 4sq.com/Lorf2I 14 hours ago
- I'm at SilverCity Fairview Mall Cinemas for Marvel's The Avengers 3D (Toronto, ON) 4sq.com/JnRFkN 18 hours ago
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