My Paypal account was hacked a few weeks ago. I didn't want to actually talk about it until the issues have been resolved.

A few weeks ago, I was doing my work, my Outlook notified me that Paypal received payment from me to a Germany-based VOIP Company.

Of course, I freaked out and checked my Paypal to see if anything was tampered with. And of course, it was not just some phishing thing-- someone actually withdrew money from my bank account and used the money to pay for their VOIP service.

Anyways, I called my bank to see if I can block the transaction, and they said that they could, as long as the transcation hasn't already gone through. Since my Online Banking numbers are not updated in real time, it's hard to say it actually went through.

Then I frankically changed my passwords. This process was so damn annoying because even when you have a password in mind, different sites have different pasword rules, which means you end up having so many different variations of the password.

An hour after, Paypal's bots recognized some suspicious activity with my account and froze it. While I guess this is impressive, they did not make retroactive my account to what it was before the unauthorized transactation. I was still required that I go through the 'Resolution Centre' process.

It turns out that my bank was able to block the transaction, so actually I don't really give Paypal any credit. I know this because Paypal notified me that my bank declined the fund transfer, and that my Paypal account will be charged as a result.

Luckily, a few days later, the whole dispute was resolved, and by account was back to the expected amount.

Wow. Online security concerns are quite serious. Maybe I'll return to making transactions the old-fashioned way. Geez.

What's not to like? Cashmere Mafia is Sex and the City meets Desperate Housewives-- and it came in the best timing too. There's still seems to be a big 'dramedy' void to fill since the ending of Sex and the City, and Desperate Housewives-- well, it's just getting a little dull.

Like Sex, Cashmere follows four very successful and ambitious friends in New York City. The four women, each interestingly with a different hair colour (almost like a L'Oreal hair dye commercial), run around with their crazily busy jobs, clicking away at their blackberries, balance their personal lives, while at the same time being able to sit down and have lunch or sip martinis with each other regularly.

While the writing is definitely not as clever as Sex, I find these characters to be refreshing-- particularly Lucy Liu, who looks absolutely stunning on each show. Her clothes seriously look like as if she was walking down the runway.

The women are not the only gorgeous people, so are the men! While the men, like Sex, don't have significant roles, I can't help but admire their fabulous looking suits! Not to mention that the guys are just gorgeous.

Yep, now reviewing my review of the show made me realize that the show is based on hot characters and hot clothes. How completely queer of me. Anyways, it's hard to say if the show's going to stick around, because I think it will take more than some fashion hotties to keep this show afloat.

Carrie Bradshaw, for example, had a whole lot of good clever quotes! I don't know if Cashmere has the same quality of writing, but there are a few lines here and there.

Denise, who has also been catching the show, was interested in a short monologue made by Lucy Liu's character.

It's a high time to accept the fact that a woman won't just be your co-worker, she could be your boss. And you're going to have to be prepared to deal, to be a man about it in the true sense of the word. sure, more working women means more competition, but instead of being threatened by it, be challenged by it-- let's bring the best of each other. Win or lose, if you're a good sport, everybody wins.

But sure how this show will go, but I'm definitely going to keep watching.

Cashmere Mafia - [wikipedia.org]
Cashmere Mafia (spoiler alert) - [livejournal.com]

The UW Library is definitely the best operated university organization on campus, and perhaps even the best operated publicly-funded (Canadian) organization ever.

I was almost blown away last night by the dedicated staff and their strong desire to help students find what they need. I was attempting to get access on the RACER system. RACER, which stands for Rapid Access to Collections by Electronic Requesting, is a interlibrary loan system for books outside of the Tri-University Group of Libraries. I am dumb to have not used RACER before, because it's just so easy. The librarian literally sat down and went through it with me for about 20 minutes. He actually went through all the nooks and crannies of the web site, which definitely helped me save time in fooling around with the web application.

Anyway, there were a few other memorable moments I've encountered through my university career.

I really commend them for their passion not only for providing unparalleled customer service (through instant messaging, email, telephone, and in person), but also for their great initiative in analyzing information needs.

From all the experiences at UW I can recall, I can say that I have nothing but compliments to the library staff. (Browsers, the Dana Porter coffee shop is another story), but they're not part of the library organization). If there is a organization worthy of funding and awards, it's the library.

I remember that Leo also had positive stories about the U of T library. I wonder if this good 'library work ethic' is consistent throughout the region or something?

UW Library - [uwaterloo.ca]

Wow, British Columbia follows Ontario's footsteps and announced today a largely comprehensive plan for improved transit in the Greater Vancouver, Victoria, and communities in the Fraser Valley. Coincidentally, both Ontario and BC plans are expected to be complete in 2020.

According to the press release, the plan is a $14 billion package includes:

• $10.3 billion investment in four new rapid transit lines in Metro Vancouver—the Evergreen Line, the UBC Line, the upgraded Expo Line and the Canada Line


• $1.2 billion for a new, cutting edge energy efficient, high capacity RapidBus BC service along nine major routes in the high growth urban centres of Kelowna, Victoria and Metro Vancouver


• $1.6 billion investment in 1,500 new, clean energy buses and related maintenance infrastructure to provide communities around the province with improved bus service


• increased security measures to enhance transit safety and use

I am particularly the RapidBus BC service in areas in Kelowna and Victoria where no rapid transit services currently exist. The Vancouver projects aren't particularly new, since plans have existed for the UBC Line for quite some time, and of course the Canada Line and the Evergreen Line have already been announced-- in fact, the Canada Line is currently under construction.

Now I think it's the race to the finish! Which province will accomplish their projects sooner, Ontario or British Columbia? Anyone confident enough to place some bets?

The Provincial Transit Plan - [th.gov.bc.ca]
B.C. unveils huge transit plan - [theglobeandmail.com]

Canada Computers is like Wal-Mart.

I hate the place, but I find myself continuing to go there just because their stuff is so darn cheap. Being the poor student that I am, I just cannot afford to support other stores 'for the greater good' or 'for the customer experience value'. I've essentially been priced out of other places.

Yep. Canada Computers and I have had a struggling relationship as long as I can remember, back when they only had one location at Pacific Mall. Pacific Mall's location is notorious for having bitchy sales reps. I have been to the others in Scarborough, North York, and Waterloo since their massive expansion within and outside the GTA in the recent years, and I will admit that these locations have much better customer service than at Pacific Mall. The dudes at the Pacific Mall location operate as if they they ruled the world of cheap computer goods, and that PC's everyhere would suffer had they not existed.

For sure, they do sell very cheap computer goods, but it's just good business sense not to be so 'inch'. Canada Computers could definitely be even much more successful if they just paid better attention to customer service. I am not a picky shopper. I don't care if you don't greet me and all that crap. Just give me the products that I want to buy without making me angry.

So yes. Canada Computers' pompous attitude has given me great passion to find other stores to support. I will desperate hunt to see if other stores are at least selling at about the same price as Canada Computers. I will only give in when the price isn't right.

Here's my list of alternatives.

PC Village, First Markham Place
This store rocks. Their prices are competitive as Canada Computers, and they actually provide awesome customer service. I always leave the store happy, confident, and satisified about my purchased. Highly recommended!

PC Gate Computers, Pacific Mall
They have awesome service, the dudes there are always helpful. Prices are usually more expensive however.

Premier Computer Canada, 3311 Lake Shore Blvd. West, Toronto
Never visited their Etobicoke location, but have purcahsed a few things over the web. Prices are a hit and miss. Selection is excellent.

Infonec, 351 Ferrier St, Markham
Prices are fairly competitive, but selection not as comprehensive as Canada Computers'.

ICCT, Splendid China Tower
Service is pretty good. Prices are a hit and miss, selection is limited.

Do you have any suggestions for cheap computer goods?

My web page skills are getting really crappy.

The holiday break is always the best time to do some website maintenance, but my progress this year has continued to be not-so-good.

I thought that I would be ambitious and try to set up Textpattern after recommendations from Ram. While I found the initial setup and importing to be a piece of cake, I was unable to integrate my blog and linklog into one page. While I tried to follow Ram's comprehensive post about doing so, I gave up after a while, as I was overwhelmed with the things that I don't know how to do.

Then I tried upgrading to Movable Type 4. Wow. The frilly Movable Type presents users with a gorgeous backend interface, but again, the setup to integrate of blog and linklog entries are almost impossible, since some of the variables used in MT4 have since been changed or discontinued, causing the rebuilding process to be full of errors, may of which I do not know how to resolve.

I knew this was going to happen, as I recall going through the same procedures some time ago, so I backed up my Movable Type 3 platform.

Then, I thought that I would finally enable dynamic publishing from my current MT3 platform. While I was successful in getting it to work, I realized that my plugins then didn't work. According to this article on learningmovabletype.com, it doesn't work because MT plugins are written in Perl while the dynamic system uses PHP.

So there you have it: back to square one. I guess it's true what they say, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Nevertheless, I implemented a few modifications to make browsing through the site a little easier. The bottom of the this index page lists the most recent entries and comments from both my blog and linklog. In addition, I managed to merge the two lists of comments from the Recent Comments page into one integrated list, rather that two separate blog and linklog comment lists.