Maëlys McArdle

Category: Life

Every other post.

  • Bypassing Websense

    Bypassing Websense

    Odds are, if ever you’ve worked in a corporate or institutional environment, you’ve run across this lovely screen:

    For the employees who are censored by it, the filtering technologies provided by Websense can significantly hamper efforts to get the job done. Take for instance the more obscure compilation errors that arise when I’m developing software. I’ll instinctively Google the problem and find how others corrected similar issues.

    Unfortunately, the more relevant a search result appears to be, the higher the chances that Websense will block the site. This means that I’ll have to spend even more time on less promising sites, wasting time that could have otherwise been spent doing actual coding.

    I likewise remember the time that I was asked to design software that needed to communicate through a proxy. I went to look up the specifications of the proxy – but Websense filters all sites that were categorized as discussing the issue. In the end it was easier for me to use Wireshark and reverse engineer the packets from existing (closed source) software than it was for me to find documentation online.

    Over time, I’ve developed tricks to bypass the filtering. I’ll share with you the easiest trick thus far: use the Opera web-browser. Opera is one of the big names out there, alongside Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla’s Firefox. Primarily catering to the mobile browsing market, Opera has integrated a technology in their desktop software called “Opera Turbo.”

    Essentially, using Turbo reroutes all traffic through Opera’s servers, where they compress the content and images to accelerate the web surfing experience for people with slow connections.  We can however use this to trick Websense. Because Websense filters by who you connect to, you aren’t censored: as far as it knows, you’re just constantly connected to Opera’s servers. It doesn’t censor Opera’s domains/subdomains, ergo, your web surfing proceeds unfiltered.

    To enable Turbo, download and install Opera. It’s free.  Then, click on the Turbo button at the bottom of the browsing window (the green button):

    That’s it! Your experience will be censorship-free.

  • Letter to my HR Department

    Letter to my HR Department

    Hi [HR Person],

    I was reading through our Manulife insurance policy. This is the bit where the term “spouse” is defined:

    “Spouse”, means an individual under the age of 70;

    a) to whom you are legally married,
    b) of the opposite sex with whom you have continuously cohabitated and who has been publicly represented as your spouse for a minimum of one (1) year immediately before a Loss is incurred under the Program.

    I’m in a same-sex relationship. Thus, short of marrying my partner, he would never be covered by the policy under the current wording. For me, having a work place that will cover my partner and my (future) children is very important. It impacts my decision making process when I evaluate where I want to be in five years.

    I thought the policy might be worded as such because the definition of common law unions in Ontario might itself be discriminatory. But nope, common law in Ontario extends to same-sex couples as well. Thus, this discrimination against my relationship is entirely Manulife’s – there is no federal or provincial law that imposes these policies unto them.

    I would like for us to ask Manulife to correct their wording. This policy is discriminatory, and I know that I’m not the only person in this office that would benefit from the inclusion of gay and lesbian couples. That said, I wouldn’t want to push this issue at the expense of having Manulife reciprocate by removing this second clause entirely. My aim is to make things better, and ending up by making things worse would defeat the purpose.

    Thank you,

    – Julien

    Update: I received this reply back:

    Thanks for sharing this with me, Julien. Now is a good time to know these things bec we are in the process of all these [redacted]…will make sure this item is in the discussion agenda for future decisions.

    Thanks and hopefully all these will be sorted out.

    [HR Person]

    I hope so too.

  • Goodbye Rogers!

    Goodbye Rogers!

    I switched cellphone carriers this past week from Rogers to Wind Mobile, finally putting an end to my relationship with the service provider.

    I wasn’t a fan of Rogers. The problem was that there wasn’t any competition to switch to. The Canadian cell phone market was controlled by the big three: Rogers, Bell, and Telus. Together, they charged rates far beyond any of their international counterparts.

    With investigations into their activities by the government, the big three decided to roll out discount service providers. Telus started up Koodo, Bell went into a joint venture and created Virgin Mobile, and Rogers acquired Fido.

    The competition was purely illusory. The market was still controlled by the big three, and the prices were still high. Finally, there was a wind of change: through the actions of the CRTC and government intervention, outside competition was allowed in.

    Three new, entirely independent, companies are now setting up shop in Canada. I switched to Wind Mobile, the first to be available in my area.

    (more…)

  • *cough* fags *cough*

    *cough* fags *cough*

    Those were the words of a twentysomething on the bus today as he passed me to disembark. I had my hands wrapped around my boyfriend and the man apparently took offense. Never you mind that he was himself displaying affection for his Gucci-clad girlfriend.

    We get these sorts of comments more frequently than I care for. No one has the balls to say it in our face (with the exception of one gentleman* last week), but these comments are always vocalized in our presence. Loudly. Unmistakably for our ears.

    My boyfriend has been out since he was 13, and has a thicker skin to these things. I don’t. It bothers me that such adversity still exists in a country as progressive as ours.

    The odd thing is the age group of those that make comments. Older folks don’t care. Neither do kids. It always seems to be those in the 25-35 range that spurt out these idiotic remarks.

    * Some friends may know him as the crazy homeless black man from the Market.

  • Ann Coulter in Ottawa

    Ann Coulter in Ottawa

    Yesterday I went to go to the speech that Ann Coulter was giving here in Ottawa with my boyfriend. Unlike pretty much every single person I had talked to there, we had registered for the event. It was going to be awesome: we were going to witness extremist bigotry first hand. Unfortunately, the speech was canceled due to “security concerns.” Here’s how it all went down. (more…)