Category Archives: COMMENTARIES

Recent Experiences with my Mobile Phone in Germany

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For many years traveling abroad I have been using an older LG prepaid phone and never had a problem, when arriving for example in Europe, removing my SIM card and buying and installing a local SIM. Limited in scope, but perfect for those who need a simple unit for call, text and some camera options. For me this was perfect for travel. Most cellular services do not carry this older device anymore. Amazingly, in Germany where I rented for a while the owner still used the same LG phone, despite the fact that he was a student of AI Engeneering.

Any countries for example in Europe I visited and stayed for a couple of months, I could get a SIM from a local provider and install to use locally, avoiding expensive roaming charges. Being able to call using a mobile phone has become more and more important, especially in Europe, as there is no other way of making international calls and emergency calls. Never had a problem with any services, being Telekom, Vodaphone or Orange.

Until now. A year ago I had bought myself an iPhone 14. Before leaving Canada in May of this year, to travel across the ocean via ship (only WiFi available for a high cost), then visiting, passing through (USA), or staying for a while in Germany, Netherlands, and the UK, I did need emergency phone service. But had not bought and installed an international eSIM card and plan before leaving Canada.

Before leaving I had this cell phone reconfigured for eSIM use. Maybe shouldn’t have done this. Anyways to avoid expensive roaming charges. But then simply deleted my SIM with my current cellular service provider. Which was stupid of me, because its irreversible. So, no more phone. For two months I had no phone service. And did I have problems because of this.

In Germany, where cell phone usage is controlled by strict government regulations, I found out from Deutsche Telekom (in US its T-Mobile) and Vodaphone (which are both the dominant providers), that their SIM plans are only for two year contracts, for iPhones. For prepaid devices like Samsung Galaxy Android SIM cards can easily be bought in any grocery store and installed. Again, strict regulations for installation. Important to note that not only name, address, and email contacts are required, but also passport data from tourists like me. It makes your skin crawl.

Unless you have a eg. Samsung prepaid unit and can get a local SIM card. Simple Samsung units sell from €100 in any larger store. SIM cards can be bought in any supermarket, but again must be registered, using your ID, passport, an email address and other private data.

In my case we tried an older Samsung phone to revive and install the Telekom SIM (Magenta mobile M SIM, starting at only €10) I had bought. By using an email address (so far the most secure I had), in my case this resulted in excessive advertising and invading my email with endless SIM-related SPAM messages. Absolutely very annoying. I hope to resolve the problem of avoiding expensive roaming charges by using both my old Android phone and my new iPhone. When traveling. I prefer things simple and easy to use and install.

Besides the point: When traveling internationally with an iPhone you need some eSIM bought online and installed prior to departing. As iPhones allow two eSIM cards. One needs to be then deactivated.

TELUS versus Google email

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TELUS vs Google mail – telus.net versus gmail.com

I have been using both emails for a long time, until TELUS (one of the largest Canadian telecoms) which had started in Alberta, Canada as AGT (that is Alberta Government Telefones) company. In fact when we came to Alberta in the 1970s from the United States, this company offered me my first job in Edmonton. Therefore my loyalty to them, still being a customer for their internet, telephone, and fibre optic services. This is also why I decided to go with their email : @telus.net. Until they decided to hire Google to run their email system. Apparently to make it more efficient ?  Isn’t it typical, that every time something works quite well until Google gets into the picture. To be clear, TELUS email system is not owned by Google, but by TELUS. As I am also using Gmail for a long time now, I had both mail apps on my Apple iPad. Until recently, when things started to get merged, and the major (former gmail app) became now the telus.net system.  And every so often my gmail.com mail app disappeared. Or I am missing important mail. 

Why this is also is also a hustle is  because of 2 factor authorization, required to pick up a security code when signing into my major bank accounts, needing access to a specific email. This mostly happens when I travel and must rely on my iPad for my banking.

blue is now gmail.com, colour is telus.net, before was the opposite

Returning to the Past

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What could be more crazy, and also more rewarding. Word Press asking all bloggers to share their thoughts about the future, looking forward to the year 2025. Here are my thoughts.

Since the 1960s we (as technical people) have been involved in the early stages of building a world wide web of ‘knowledge sharing’. [For me it had been Geneva, Switzerland, working with my friend, a Professor of the University of Alberta, the WLO and Unesco.].  Then for many years after that, looking forward to actually building the first stages of an Internet. Which by now has more and more turned into an impersonal nightmare. Why is that ?

Not only has this Internet turned humans towards alienation, but for years now has turned this world wide net of communication and sharing knowledge into a construct which implies that the whole universe is now artificial.

Looking forward to the year 2025, would it no be much more rewarding to actually look back and learn from the old values ?

Consider, why is it that classic values become more and more appreciated. Starting with TV channels like Turner Classic Movies (TCM).  Listening to classical music has also proven that it is beneficial to the mind and relaxation of the mind.

Why is it that most younger people are constantly on their mobile phones communicating with their friends, the answer may be that all this communicating via mobile devices is that they can also see their friends.

So, what is easier, go get together or call your friends and talk to a real live person. In a business setting, a team gets together and has staff meetings and exchanges of ideas. More productive than texting, Tik Tokking, Internetting or Facebooking.

Who knows, some of the many mass shootings among young people could have been prevented if others had taken the step of talking this out with those who suffer silently.

Looking forward to 2025 means for me to step back into the past, as it where. And enjoy what we had. [BTW – that does not mean that I take a big hammer to my iPhone and splatter it. Only using it for emergencies and when needed.].  Thanks.

BRITISH COLUMBIA and Family Doctors

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These two very important concepts do not fit well together, here in this province, where thousands of  Canadian citizens, tax payers and residents do not have the luxury of actually having a family doctor. The latest system – since this year – requires patients to call into one call centre, one phone line, early in the morning. From there you may request a secondary centre. To be put on a phone wait list (I was told that 2000 call in daily),  to somehow get a doctor appointment for the same day. Strangest thing is, that when I call at exactly the time those phone lines open, I may be already #50 in line. Thanks a million. To expect to see a doctor that day when there are only a few working.

Family doctors are needed for all and anything, like requisitions for tests, prescriptions for medications, referrals to specialists and treatments.

Should you ever be so lucky to see a specialist (let’s say for a long-standing serious heart condition), you can be assured that wait times are up to 3 years. 

Of course you’re dead by then. Probably the intention of this system.

As far as FAMILY DOCTORS go:

I have had a regular family doctor all my life, since I was born. During World War 2, when our entire country was destroyed, then later when working and residing in other European countries, then after leaving Europe in 1974, as a foreign student at a US university, then after coming to Canada, 30 years working in Alberta, until the year 2002.

That’s when I came to live in British Columbia.  This shows clearly that the problem is not the patient, but the Government and their non-functioning system.

Over and above, should one have the rare “privilege ” to have an appointment with a specialist, often the patient without a family doctor is not treated nicely and with respect, but like an outcast.

BTW. Probably it would have been better to keep the old de-centralized system in place, with multiple walkIn clinics in all areas of the capital region, instead of the now not well-functioning centralized one, after closing all WalkIn clinics.

Signed: A hardworking and tax paying Canadian citizen

Cyber Security Data Breaches Smartphone

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Since when did we have to worry about having our identity stolen, hacked, – or worse – our banking information stolen or funds removed.

[ https://www.identityguard.com/news/risks-of-using-mobile-banking-apps ]

Tell you a little insightful story: Not long ago I talked to a security specialist at one of the largest Banks in Canada. I mentioned that I would never have a so-called banking app on my smartphone or perform any financial transactions on a smart phone. He congratulated me and told me I get a special medal from this Bank. Enough said.

For the past almost 30 years I do my banking online using my PC which also has a pretty safe security system installed. Never had any money stolen or bank accounts hacked into. (‘Knock wood.’)

Fact is, that since the Internet became the most widely accepted method of communication and getting things done (or getting things undone), security breaches have skyrocketed, so have the companies who provide and sell data security systems. Now including AI controlled secondary software, which is even more easily hacked into by those who actually write those AI programs, using a simple code.

When I got my last – very sophisticated – mobile smartphone, of course the provider’s bank app was preinstalled. First thing for me was to remove all preinstalled apps not needed including the banking app. [I do my banking on a secure PC.] And go through all the settings that are automatically installing or re-installing apps.

I agree, it seems easy to do things on the mobile phone while about and not at a desk, but much more difficult to undo mistakes and recover from (sensitive) data breaches.

[NOTE. The Internet is listing and advertising thousands of tech companies who are selling and installing cybersecurity systems. No need to mention the best here. Important is to know which devices are best suited to install an enhanced data security program.  I suspect, not a mobile phone.].

Talking about cybersecurity software: WARNING [ https://www.security.org/antivirus/totalav/ ] – the website selling this Total##  antivirus software is attacking users by email, telling them “bla, bla, bla … received hundreds of complaints, bla, bla, bla – about you”  (obviously SPAM). This is meant for anybody who is not smart enough and hooks up with their link. I personally never had anything to do with this antivirus product !

Login and Passwords

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Amazing, how many times I am (and forced to) change my passwords, even if totally and just a day old, and no matter how many websites and businesses- except my Banks, they always work more or less consistently. But the worst is Word Press on iPad. Wasting too much time on password changing and fooling around instead of being productive. Plus writing on Apple iPad and this automatic filling in words – some ending up like idiotic “what are you talking about ?”.

UPDATE. How to quick fix endless requests for new passwords: On Windows I am using a document (sorry, difficult to hack) containing lists of complicated passwords. If another new one is required, I simply COPY and PASTE it. Easier than try invent new ones all the time. Maybe that’s dumb, but we’ll see. Point is, keyboards are very sensitive, and often users with compromised finger touch miss a key. Hence, a NEW password is required.

Word Press on Apple iPad

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I mostly write my posts on my Windows PC, no problems. However, when traveling I need to construct a post using my iPad Air 2.  It’s nice, convenient, mobile, but not as easy. Firstly, I could not get any access to Word Press, because – haven’t been using it for some time –  to access my Word Press sites was impossible, as the last update has been 14.7.1. That was 2021. After trying multiple approaches, I found out that Word Press needed at least update version 15.

The real reason has been that in 2021 I had temporarily lost my Wifi on my iPad and therefore needed to reset the entire IOS system to factory settings, dating back to 2015. (Of course first unloading all my stored photos and uploading to my PC.) Which even resulted in a much nicer system.

To make it short. The other day I downloaded all missing versions, if there were more than one, to my iPad. Took a long time, but “the bugger did it.”. Was I lucky to have bought the latest and 64GB version of it in 2015.

And now, finally get into my Word Press posts again. Only difference is, that they changed my login ID, and my former password also does not work anymore. Plus, on iPad after starting a new post, and switching to Classic Editor, the post may not publish. Also, sharing your post on Facebook and LinkedIn may be more difficult with using the Classic Editor, because of the permanent link needed to share posts.

Stereotyping Societal Values

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With all the social media networks hype, opinions by certain segments of society should be examined. Example of what happened lately while at the YMYWCA where I am a long-time member and work out in the swimming pool daily. The other day while talking with a friend quietly and privately about a specific issue, including a remark on Face Book. A young woman in the locker room had been honing in on our private conversation, and suddenly – out of nowhere – proclaimed “Face Book should only be for young people”. Where is that coming from ? Oh, I see, “being on FACEBOOK means must have a YOUNG FACE”. Is that the reason why all those who have been on Facebook a long time and are getting older, still keep their younger looking photos on it ?  So, there you have it: “Face Book is only for YOUNG people”!

Does that also mean, that the YWCA is only for old people ? Sometimes I wonder how people like that can exist in a world of a multitude of online media networking and the many social activities that are both enjoyed by old people, young people, any people anywhere in the world.

Stereotyping is the most questionable side of societal values.

Whether it be government regulations that require inputs or opinions by the public at large, or private institutions or commercial agencies and companies, any such questionnaire-type information gathering inevitably always assumes that each person only exists in a family group, meaning that there are at least two that constitute a social unit.

In fact, this stereotype assumption turns out to become very costly for single people. Best example can be found in the travel industry. Examples: Planning a cruise, prices per cabin are always quoted assuming that there are two per cabin. [Of course, several cruise hip companies have already started those so called “solo cabins”. Which in reality are not any cheaper than paying almost double for it.]. Bookings for rooms, suites or other, prices always assume at least two persons. Unlike a flight, at least price is always for one person, one seat. Luckily !

Well, doesn’t matter to me, I book a nice cabin all for myself, have lots of space and pay more. Better than being cramped into one with someone else and maybe some children, too.

What I am saying really is, get society to adjust to the fact, that there are more single people than you think there are. Adjust your thinking !

Canadian Citizenship

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Citizenship is an acquired right at birth. For most people and in most countries whose families have lived in a country for even many generations. [The changes to the Canadian Citizenship Act, the most comprehensive in more than 35 years, make it much harder and more costly to become a Citizen of Canada. One of the most important changes is the requirement that an individual must now physically reside in Canada for 4 years over a 6-year qualifying period.]

Dual citizenship is different. In general, my opinion about dual citizenship is: “Citizenship is not a (more-or-less) God given right, but a privilege and entails the commitment to ‘residing in this country CANADA, working here, paying taxes and contribute to society and economy in a responsible way.” Dual citizenship has no meaning in this context, because you either live here or there. And do not feel a real commitment to either.  In fact, for many it has become an opportunistic way to exploit a government, for example during war situations or to pursue illegal financial gains, or maybe for tax gains.

In Canada certain rules apply to dual citizenship. Canada, whose main government rests on a deeply entrenched constitutional monarchy – the King of England, or the United Kingdom, being the Head of State – dual citizenship for British subjects is a given. Especially here in British Columbia (the name British already implying that it is more British than anything) British born citizens would never loose their own birth citizenship, and are therefore permanent dual citizens.

There are many mostly smaller countries who also allow dual citizenship, even when Landed Immigrants into Canada assume the Canadian citizenship. It really is up to the country, but not to Canada, who is very welcoming to immigrants, and whose rules can be easily taken advantage of. Canadian citizenship can not be revoked, once acquired. [ https://travel.gc.ca/travelling/documents/dual-citizenship ]

While for other countries, outside Canada born citizens loose their birth citizenship when becoming Canadian. In my case, the same had happened.  My birth citizenship was revoked when becoming a Canadian. Which later in life can have its difficulties when re-visiting ones former homeland. Europe is a good example. When I became a citizen of Canada, it had been before the EU (European Union) was formed. Of course, I would have very much liked to become a EU citizen, when re-visiting. Many years later when I started travelling again, after many years hard and constant work in Alberta, I as a former citizen by birthright needed an extension of stay (from 3 to 4 months) by the domestic immigration service over there. Like all other foreign-born immigrants to that same (former) homeland of mine.

How can children of Canadian citizens become also Canadian citizens ?

To be eligible for a grant of Canadian citizenship, the minor:

  • must be under 18 years of age on the day you sign the application.
  • must be a permanent resident (landed immigrant) of Canada.
  • must have been physically present in Canada for at least 1,095 days in the 5 years immediately before you apply.
  • Question is, how can those children also acquire a Canadian passport prior to

A minor born outside Canada to a Canadian parent on or after April 17, 2009, is a citizen by birth if the minor is in the first generation born outside Canada, and the Canadian parent was born in Canada; Dec 7, 2023.

If the parent was not born in Canada, but has acquired Canadian citizenship through a parent, how can a child obtain Canadian citizenship, a child also born and residing outside of Canada ?

Another take on this:

Canada allows biological and legal parents to pass citizenship to their children who were born outside of the country, provided at the time of the child’s birth the parents were first-generation Canadians. Once Canadian citizenship has been passed down, it cannot be passed down again. So if you were born abroad to Canadian parents, your children will not automatically get Canadian citizenship if they were born abroad as well.

Remember, for some obscure reasons, there are still cases that people who want to acquire Canadian citizenship for their children – even if they fully reside in their own home lands and never live in Canada again and are second-generation Canadian citizens – manage to somehow get Canadian citizenship and Canadian passports for their children. In general, no matter what, a child cannot have its own Canadian passport before the age of 16.

[ https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/application/application-forms-guides/application-canadian-citizenship-minors.html ]

Ask your doctor

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– Talk to your doctor, tell your doctor. Onus is on the “your”.

That’s a good one. Which doctor ? Or, Dr. Internet. The all inclusive, universal answer to all the questions about medical procedures, medications, and often to also identify any health problems. Self-care, self-management, that is the name of the game when a government cannot come up with safe, reliable and consistent health care services for its tax payers.

Like here in British Columbia, BC, Canada. We do have doctors, but we lack access to doctors. The majority of BC residents have no family doctor. And the government which controls all medical care procedures and processes, requires that a family doctor must provide primary care. Meaning seeing patients, identifying any underlying health conditions and problems, finding the right solutions, and the right treatments and medications.

In the absence of any well-trained physicians, often nurse practitioners will fill the gap. The training for nurse practitioners, mainly because we need many more than we have, is not very extensive. [ https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/marketreport/requirements/25524/ca ]  [ https://www.bccnm.ca/NP/applications_registration/how_to_apply/Pages/Default.aspx ]

Take a Nurse Practitioner in one of our health care clinics: When is their education completed ? when does a Nurse Practitioner Family had his/her last update training ? As medical science changes daily, it should be imperative to continually update one’s education and training in order to provide safe healthcare advice and treatment.

This is not done. Most health care workers are over-worked, and spend a major part of their workday filling in forms and attending to other bureaucratic measurements, controlled by the government. Then there are all those regulations: what can be done, what should be done, what is not allowed, where does the government needs to save money. And of course the triage system. Like “flipping a coin” – who should be treated and who must wait, or die.

In those years I have been assigned to a NP, the only treatment easy to receive were X-rays (practically for any or all conditions, not necessarily bones), cremes and lotions to “heal nerve injuries and nerve pain”, and of course prescriptions to medications (no monitoring blood or other tests, which should be required to control any medication).

Why ? Because prescribing medications is a lucrative business for many health care professionals.

[ https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/pharmaceutical-drug-company-doctor-physician-payment-disclosure-transparency-1.4169888 ] [ https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/doctors-pharmaceutical-funding-1.4164625 ]

Although paying my medications out of my own pocket. despite, I cannot get regular blood tests to monitor, if those medications are any good.

Old news: [ https://www.cma.ca/sites/default/files/2018-11/the-state-of-seniors-health-care-in-canada-september-2016.pdf ]