layout: post title: "Residential VoIP in Canada: Not looking so good" created: 1087203003 categories:

• Canada
• VoIP

Brad’s talking about Primus Talkbroadband and how their entire network recently went down, and how this reflects on them:

When your entire VoIP network crashes you prove a number of things:

1. You must have a single point of failure, which means that somebody in your organization doesn’t get that whole "up-time and reliability" thing.
   

2. You should not be charging anything like the price you are charging for the service, given that you have demonstrated a lack of interest in investing in reliability (ie: re-read the first point).
   

3. You have power washed any good will or early adopter enthusiasm out of the product.
   

4. This does not yet seem to be a good business proposition for an investor or a prospective customer.

   Brad Gibson’s Current Thinking: What happens when the Category Killer Dies?

After the network problem and some further thinking, I might be just about ready to stop using Primus for now. I’ll tell you why:

1. I had been waiting for voicemail-via-email. This is the killer app for me, other than the “second number” capability that lets me have an Ottawa number as well as my Vancouver one. No sign of this feature, and no news on when it is going to be available.
2. I just upgraded my cellphone to a P800, so now I have a “spare” cellphone that I can give to Kate
3. Quality has been sporadic. I do have the gateway behind my router, but there have also been echoes, it’s unusable with our cordless phone, etc.
4. Lastly, I’m not saving any money. I don’t do enough long distance calling to make the “free” North America-wide long distance worthwhile. I can see where this factor all by itself would convince people to keep it, but I suspect these will be special cases for individual residential users. Lots of business users would fall into this category, but they are also likely highly dependent on quality and reliability.

I’m glad I experimented, and I’ll likely keep trying out different options, but I don’t think Primus meets my needs as a reliable provider of primary line services. For now, two cellphones is going to be the answer.

42. TECH FOR GOOD§

A : [[podcast]]

URL : https://shows.acast.com/reasonstobecheerful/episodes/episode42.techforgood

Series : [[Reasons to be Cheerful]]

~00:09:43 Digital revolution has to be combined with democratic revolution

~00:15:25 [[Data commons]]

~00:15:50 [[Participatory democracy]] rather than just consultation

~00:19:52 [[Community mesh networks]] in [[Red Hook, Brooklyn]] and in Detroit

~00:22:26 Mesh was only network that worked in Red Hook during [[Hurricane Sandy]].

~00:23:01 Red Hook mesh works in emergency and to help those who have no connection otherwise

~00:36:30 [[Connectivity]] is fundamental to human life these days

~00:37:22 The deep value of something like WiFi is in empowering people (same true of repair cafes?)

~00:40:32 [[Bristol Approach]], damp sensing

• You can burn resources for greater [[good]].
  • It’s more like running an [[engine]] than setting fuel on [[fire]].

• [[flancian]] https://social.coop/@flancian/108216714715353956 pull
• [[flancian]] https://social.coop/@flancian/108216714757992004 pull

• [[flancian]] https://twitter.com/flancian/status/1520103500247621634 pull

• #pull [[burn burn burn]] [[burn for the greater good]]

• [[burn for good]]

• [[flancian]] https://social.coop/@flancian/108069152469834218 pull

• [[flancian]] https://twitter.com/flancian/status/1510659009736552451 pull

• [[ctc@mastodon.me.uk]] https://mastodon.me.uk/@ctc/109948976547670905 pull
• [[ctc@mastodon.me.uk]] https://mastodon.me.uk/@ctc/109999938410182761 pull
• [[ctc@mastodon.me.uk]] https://mastodon.me.uk/@ctc/110003957630878458 pull

• [[flancian]] https://social.coop/@flancian/107357243202994236 pull

• [[flancian]] https://twitter.com/flancian/status/1465097641629523977 pull
• [[flancian]] https://twitter.com/flancian/status/1495058392720842762 pull
• [[EricLortie]] https://twitter.com/EricLortie/status/1495070758116249600 pull
• [[flancian]] https://twitter.com/flancian/status/1502627539226959874 pull

These are general notes about #do-good

• I sometimes visit Flancia with others; I’d stay in Flancia with them if I could.
  • We’d be [[gone]] for [[good]].

• [[2026-01-18 01:51:36+00:00]] [[amblergee@indieweb.social]] https://indieweb.social/@amblergee/115913595027805662 pull

Onshore wind is good§

[[onshore wind]] is good.

Because§

• It is cheap
• It is quick to set up
• It is clean

Once an onshore windfarm has secured a contract to supply energy, it can be fully operational within about two years, compared with four or five for offshore projects, according to the trade body RenewableUK.

Electricity from onshore wind is also about 20% cheaper than offshore, which is in turn cheaper than nuclear or gas.

– PM to put nuclear power at heart of UK’s energy strategy | Energy | The Guardian

And§

• [[People like wind power]]

Discuss and Connect

Working out how you should help is worth puzzling over. Join some EA Groups.

Engage in CTZN’s EA group!

Talk about the change you wish to see in the world, and the roadblocks you hit in making that happen. Reward someone for doing good.

High Impact Careers§

• Apply to a position on the 80000 Hours Job Board
• Find jobs and side projects with EA Work Club
• Introduce EA concepts & initiatives at your own company

Donate to Effective Charities§

• Effective Altruism Funds:
  • Animal Welfare Fund
  • Long-Term Future Fund
  • Global Health and Development Fund
  • Effective Altruism Infrastructure Fund
• Giving What We Can Pledge
  • Try Giving: 1%+ of income, any period you choose
  • The Pledge: 10%+ of income, Lifetime/career-long
  • Further Pledge: Income above a living allowance, Lifetime/career-long

Volunteer Your Time§

• Facebook Group for EA Volunteering

• Facebook Group for Editing and Review of EA Documents

• Build lists of useful people, organizations, and resources

• Identify impressive math students or graduates

  • Introduce them to EA topics. Mathematics gives people the chance to do uniquely high-leverage EA activities. You can recommend that they use 80,000 Hours’ career decision tool and apply for individualized coaching if they find the tool helpful.

Outlook good§

public good§

Table of Contents§

• [2019-07-21] hacked seaborn to display vs on pairplots
  • [[why python is good: patching seaborn bootstrap]]
• [[hacking logging.Logger to do basicConfig]]
  • [2019-09-17] could publish in r/python?
  • [2019-09-17] sometimes it makes sense for your library to configure other loggers (e.g. requests)
• [[why generators are good: fbchat export example]]
• [[another example of cool generator use in fbchat]]
• [example of hacky setup_logger](#xmplfhckystplggr TIDDLYLINK)
• [[hacky ‘autonaming’]]
• [[why mypy is good: injector DI library]] [[toblog]] [[mypy]]
• [[Why python is good]] [[toblog]]
• [[Literal types and demonstrate mypy? Perhaps timezones as example?]] [[toblog]] [[mypy]] [[configs]]
• [[By highlighting this i will know what patterns to look for in other languages]] [[toblog]]

[2019-07-21] hacked seaborn to display vs on pairplots§

used inspect to extract directly from local variables, lol
https://github.com/mwaskom/seaborn/blob/master/seaborn/axisgrid.py#L1340-L1341

why python is good: patching seaborn bootstrap§

I’ve had nondeterministic behaviour due to random seed
was not propagated, but with a patch it’s possible to achieve

https://github.com/mwaskom/seaborn/blob/065d3c1ed58b029d61913cca8fc315cc985ffc91/seaborn/regression.py#L235

# TODO careful.. need to do this ONCE
bootstrap_orig = sns.algorithms.bootstrap
def bootstrap_hacked(*args, **kwargs):
    return bootstrap_orig(*args, random_seed=0, **kwargs)
sns.algorithms.bootstrap = bootstrap_hacked

https://github.com/mwaskom/seaborn/issues/1924

hacking logging.Logger to do basicConfig§

logging.basicConfig(
    format='%(asctime)s %(levelname)-8s %(message)s',
    level=logging.INFO,
    datefmt='%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')

However if you are a well-mannered person, you don’t want to mess with other loggers and you’re probably providing your own logger method

This is a bit horrible
https://stackoverflow.com/a/28330410/706389

For my personal projects I’m using logzero which has got a single line setup method. However, for code I’m sharing with other people I prefer to have as little external dependencies as you can

e.g. libraries should never configure logging
https://www.reddit.com/r/learnpython/comments/69grzn/logging_confuses_me/dh6ngvo/

[2019-09-17] could publish in r/python?§

[2019-09-17] sometimes it makes sense for your library to configure other loggers (e.g. requests)§

why generators are good: fbchat export example§

separating network retrieval and storing in database. with generators can do it simultaneously

another example of cool generator use in fbchat§

mts = int(r.timestamp)
if newest is not None and oldest is not None and newest > mts > oldest:
    logger.info('Fetched everything for %s', thread.name)
    break # interrupt, thus interrupting fetching data
db.insert_message(thread, r)

example of hacky setup_logger§

hacky ‘autonaming’§

import ast
import traceback
import inspect

src = ast.parse(open(__file__).read())

def find_name(lno: int):
    # TODO end_lineno is not set??
    node = None
    for x in src.body:
        if x.lineno >= lno:
            break
        node = x
    [tg] = node.targets
    return tg.id

class Namer:
    @property
    def auto(self) -> str:
        stack = inspect.stack()
        fr = stack[1]
        lno = fr.lineno
        return find_name(lno)

N = Namer()


aaaa = (
    1,
    N.auto,
)
bbbb = (
    2,
    N.auto,
)

print(aaaa)
print(bbbb)

why mypy is good: injector DI library [[toblog]] [[mypy]]§

Why python is good [[toblog]]§

generators, decorators and random dynamic things with examples

Literal types and demonstrate mypy? Perhaps timezones as example? [[toblog]] [[mypy]] [[configs]]§

By highlighting this i will know what patterns to look for in other languages [[toblog]]§

• [[jonny@social.coop]] https://social.coop/@jonny/109887545577084320 pull

• [[ctc@mastodon.me.uk]] https://mastodon.me.uk/@ctc/109999938410182761 pull
• [[ctc@mastodon.me.uk]] https://mastodon.me.uk/@ctc/110003957630878458 pull

• [[ctc@mastodon.me.uk]] https://mastodon.me.uk/@ctc/109879386812707463 pull
• [[ctc@mastodon.me.uk]] https://mastodon.me.uk/@ctc/109885049111140709 pull
• [[ctc@mastodon.me.uk]] https://mastodon.me.uk/@ctc/109994275130876837 pull
• [[ctc@mastodon.me.uk]] https://mastodon.me.uk/@ctc/110468031088351786 pull