Free telephone number Montreal. Free Canada DID. Get a free phone number. Free fone

Possibly my final discovery for you in 2009 is http://www.freephoneline.ca. Here you can get a free Montreal number. The cool thing is you can set it up in followme mode and have it forwarded to the Canadian number of your choice. The second cool thing is you can call all of Canada for FREE. Or you can call globally unlimited for $14 a month. Check it out!

2010 ComunAuto

CommunAuto is a late find.
Basically it is like Bixi (boooo) for cars.
I have some friends who rate it highly

I will try it in 2010 and report back.
They reckon it costs $500 returnable membership, $500 anual fee and a further $500 in mileage costs...
So $1000 a year..sounds a lot? Well it includes gas and insurance. Insurance is $1000 a year at least anyway and gas maybe $1000 a year or more so it is not a lot is it? Checked on a saturday afternoon and there were 9 cars available within a 3 minute walk.
Unlike stupid bixi, (where is it now?), this is sensible and practical and a great scheme if you need a car occaisionally (shoping, going out etc)...

I'm a bit unsure on the parking thing and where you pick it up...but let's see.

For now here are the rates...seems similar to car rental prices but has advantage of local drop off and pick up and can be booked by the hour..Access to AB&C require the $500 deposit.

Free Phone Calls to Canada (or wherever)

This enables people to call you for the price of a local call from wherever they are (and often local calls are free)

What you will need.

1) a Voip account with a DID number, that means a telephone number that people can call you on, (see http://www.voip.ms/ voipbuzzer, voxalot, callcentric etc). Currently if you are in Montreal I can recommend http://www.voip.ms/ After some time you'll figure out why....


If you don't have one it will cost you $1.49 , yes that is one dollar forty nine cents per month...
(Top Voip.ms tip...pay by paypal and there is no tax on top)

Assuming you have all that sorted, (see previous post)

Step 1. Find the access code for your voip company..here


So for example if you type voip.ms in the provider name box then you get the following results


















which if you can't read it says *9783 for sip.us4.voip.ms

this is the New York server.

Step 2. Register your DID to the new york server sip.us4.voip.ms (if you are in Montreal with voip.ms)

Step 3. Find the local phone number for your friends and
family..Here

So if your sister lives in London she calls
020-71006747

then she dials *9783 (in this example...from Step 1)
then your phone number 1-514-123-4567 , (example number is montreal 514-1234567)
then #

et voila...they will be connected, you will not be charged...all is good....isn't it nice?

Army Surplus, Winter Clothes

I begin to end 2009 by sharing with you my latest find, see below

This shop is on Notre Dame, 1 block west from Atwater Market

It sells as the name suggests uniforms, but also thermal undies, shoes, boots, coats, gloves, hats etc to keep you warm in winter at a cheap price...Forget Canadian Tire, even if you don't like uniforms you can go there to step back in time, long wooden counter, servers with tape measures...in short a Great Shop! Perrier approves, go there and you will be pleased. I think from now I will buy everything from there.

going going nearly gone

At the risk of turning this into a dieting blog, a while back I posted my gut and attempts to get rid of it. Here it is again, I lost a stone or more by combination of running and calorie counting, and I am sticking my gut out as far as it can go so no one can think I'm sucking it in....




week 1



Week 3

week 8

Week 31




Week 54
so I am 13 stone and could lose another 10lbs or so take 5 weeks unpleasantly or 10 weeks less unpleasantly..So a year back i had just started jogging and was told i'd have to be on statins

it has been v tough and has required being very anal at times but doable the worst thing is wanting results fast....

Bell Rip Off, VOIP, cheapest Phone

So I am sick of Bell, somehow it costs a fortune, the internet works erratically and finally I will do something about them. I have figured out cheapest solution and unpicked the geek speak so you don't have to.

My plan is to get internet and cable tv only through VDN . Then I will run a VOIP phone from the internet. This will work out at about $58 per month.

So far I have got as far as trialling the VOIP phone. If it runs trouble free for a month then no more Bell.

So the deal with the phone is you register at VOIP.ms . This is fairly painless but it is not very user friendly, but worth it.... Once you register you get a username and some password stuff, you also need to know the IP address of the montreal server which is on their webpage but nowhere blindingly obvious, it is 67.205.74.164 for montreal.
the you deposit funds by credit card.
To use it by computer you just download a free phone program like this one (X-lite). You enter your VOIP account details and off you go, you can make calls.
You can get a montreal phone number for $2 a month. You get free voicemail and lots of nice features. The X-lite phone can record conversations too. If you want to call 911 then that costs $1.50 a month. In short Voip.ms is pretty high powered and very customizable and cheap. The price you pay is some head scratching, but the customer support by web chat is pretty good and available most of the time, they talked me through some setup questions..

That's all fine, but what you really want is a real telephone, not to be sat at the computer to make a phonecall.

Well then you need an adaptor. I bought a thing called HandyTone 486 by ebay for about $42. In fact I went to the seller direct and picked it up. Saved waiting and post charges...

It worked fine at work but I had some bother getting it to work on my Bell-Sympatico Speedstream Modem. I fixed this by following these instructions.
You need the bell account name b1xxxxx and password.


So I have a $15 Dollarama phone hooked up to my modem and it works a treat...So far so good. I have switched modem on and off a few times, everything still works..Get voicemails sent to my email...

Soon I will check out VDN and disconnect from Bell.....hooray!The X lite phone is pretty good and cheaper than Skype, voice quality with VOIP.ms blows skype out the water...plus you can upgrade call quality for really important calls if you want...Like I said tons of features...
You can buy local international numbers in UK etc, not done it, but could be handy...

where are montreal speed cameras

They are here

Red is red light camera, blue speed, yellow mobile

And really...who cares? At least speed cameras don't apply the law at random, I am surprised Quebec has been so slow to take advantage of this free money, walk down sherbrooke at rush hour and no-one respects the red lights, and what is the big deal with slowing down near schools? Fuss about nothing, bring it on...

Get on yer Bixi, montreal bike rental scheme

I think I am not alone in thinking this is a complete waste of time and as there are 300 stations I'd say that's 600 parking spaces wasted.

Bixi is the new Montreal bike renting scam whereby you can be lumbered with a rubbish bike at $250 liability to you and 30 minutes are free and its $80 a year plus no doubt deductible tax (so why charge it morans?)

Don't get me wrong I'm all for less cars but just buy a bike from Canadian Tire and create some real jobs, they cost $100 (plus non-deductible tax......go figure) and it's really cool you can lock it up wherever you like and even take it home and the first 3 years is FREE.

The stupidity of it makes me want to kick the spokes in, but that would be childish...I can't believe the Observer didn't sack their monkey of a journalist for making them pay her to come here and write a pile of crap about how good it is. It's the same scheme they had in Paris some years ago.

I understand it is a private scheme so they better not have used one $ of my tax to pay for this lunacy, or else I'll swear a lot.

Modified Corn Syrup, Fructose-Glucose, high fructose corn syrup

Well in canada it is called Fructose-glucose or something

there is a large body of evidence that it not only is bad for you but it actually stimulates fat deposition.

I'd say steer clear if you are a little 'well-built'

see all this:
http://www.bioedonline.org/news/news.cfm?art=966
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_fructose_corn_syrup
http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/abstract/139/6/1257S

The lengths they go to to avoid paying out our pensions...

Family Doctor Scam

So I finally figured it out. They give you a doctor but then you can never get to see them, they just keep postponing the appointment. I have been waiting since the begining of september and they have postponed the appointment three times. Others I have spoken to have experienced the same thing at other clinics. So thanks to the overpaid twerp of a public 'servant' who thought that crap up, nice way of dealing with the problem, thanks....

Gold trading live calls

I have been playing at gold trading on and off for some years and am now live with real beer tokens. I am posting my trades in the comments section of this post. This last week has been pretty good, around 40% profit. I am using an oanda account geared at 10:1, so I'm buying an ounce of gold for about $100 and make $10-15 per trade. I can't share my trading system because I'm not sure I understand it. Most trading systems can work as long as you have covered the what if I lose scenario..Most people don't like to think about that...and when I say most people I mean you, me, citibank, lloyds, bank of scotland and other amateurs. Anyway what with the ups and downs of the world there's money to be had. Of course this is not a recommendation to trade and my trades are as a record to myself only so I can analyse performance. I would not encourage anyone to follow what I do, but they're there if anyone has any feedback on the performance etc..

Costco cashback

So afer a year I got $200 back from Costco and $250 from the Costco Amex (see money for nothing post) which is about a month of 'free' groceries.  I use the Amex all the time when I can.

I guess it almost makes up for having to visit the 7th level of hell once a fortnight and having a feeezer full of frozen pork or whatever I can't eat from the $20 megapack...

My additional challenge is to get a free lunch there, the pizza samples are OK but it cracks me up seeing grown men and women queuing up to try a 1 inch square of mmmmmmm bread and  butter or AN olive, you have to be discerning and take like 5 samples of the good stuff and come round and do it again...

flock of crows

This has nothing to do with money but has anyone else seen thousands of crows flying at night around Park King George?  I am sure I'm not imagining it, every now and then there are swarms of them at night

View Larger Map

They are quite eerie but somehow beautiful to see as long as you don't think about the film...

When I saw them people were nearly crashing the car as they were driving around looking up out the windows..

The trees were black with them, pretty cool..

See Doctor Today

So another recent find was the McGill Sports clinic. If you are physically injured and say it was sport or exercise related you can see a doctor very fast here.

(514) 398-7000

http://athletics.mcgill.ca/sportsmed_home.ch2

It is not free and McGill people get it on insurance apparently but it is quick and if you are in pain maybe $50 is worth paying....basically they offer lots of physio after check-up by doctor.

It is open to the public.

Dying for the snow to go away, fatal 'accidents' an annual event.

Well I warn visitors to Montreal that the snow removal people are total cowboys who are irresponsible at best and darn right aggressive at worst. I have to dig out press clippings to prove that they kill someone every winter and after visitors have had the pleasure of some prick ing a mini snow tractor AT them at 60 km/h., they soon realise that snow clearance is best avoided if you'd like to live.

Well this winter they surpass themselves, 4 dead and 3 more months to go. It is pretty clear what that limp dicked mayor needs to do but of course he'll do nothing, because what's a few dead when there are private drives to be cleared...

They even have the nerve to give us instructions on how to assist them. My only interactions with them have shown them to be rude, agressive and ignorant, so I say do what you can to piss them off, like hit the emrgency off button, throw snowballs at them and drive really slowly in front of them..Mind you they might kill you for daring to inconvenience these overpaid morons.

Talking of pavement clearance I want point out that the quality of it depends on where you live. Westmount is a pleasure to go running in on clear ice and snow free pavements and NDG has a 5 inch thick layer of perma-ice welded to the pavement. I am sure if those lazy buggers tried clearing it instead of trying to beat the land speed record for minitractor racing then we could do crazy shit like go for a walk. Perhaps they should be paid on square feet of clear pavement, then they's be pretty cheap. Oh, hang on these are the guys who smashed the windows of the homes of councillors who tried to sue them for not doing their jobs properly about 4 years back...Errr..Sorry then I meant great job, worth every thousand of those reasobale city taxes.

restore, photos, undelete, pictures, memory card recover, Picassa, Google, picassa help, Camera get back my photos fotos videos

So I borrowed a camera and the new version of Picassa made it look like all the photos had been uploaded to hard drive, I pressed delete...and in one click and woosh had erased all my friend's photos and videos. No, not in recycle bin, gone.

Sadly for me they had great value and I had to get them back. Picassa help page recommended a program that cost $110. No fanx.

Anyway I found a good program PC Inspector Smart Recovery which is free and works.

Just select JPG or AVI and off you go, takes a while but who cares?

XXXXXXXXX2 APRIL 09XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Just found a better one called Recuva
http://www.recuva.com/
It is a ton quicker and has quite a good function to make deleted files unrecoverable, quite useful if lending out memory sticks cameras etc

Also they do a defrag program that helps freshen up a bulging computer HD.
http://www.defraggler.com/

And of course Ccleaner is nice...