It is now easier for the divorced, widowed, and those who have annulled to revert to their former surnames. The process is simpler and only costs $25. Previously, the application was required within only 90 days or it was a more expensive and lengthy process. The new law eliminates the 90 day time limit.
This will impact skip tracers as this change becomes more widely known. While it is now harder for debtors to use an Ontario name change to elude creditors, it still happens.
You get an email or send one, then you forget all about it and find you have missed an opportunity or a deadline. A common enough problem.
Try using FollowUpThen to solve this problem. To remind the recipient, put a time interval in the CC field. For example, 2days@followupthen.com. To remind yourself, put the time interval in the BCC field. The time interval can be minutes, hours, days, weeks, or years.
Let me help you with your new year’s resolution. In a previous article I dealt with the exercises that help prevent the damage computers inflict upon the upper back. In this installment, I will deal with the main compound exercises you need to do to stay strong and fit.
Compound exercises are multi-joint movements that work several muscles or muscle groups at one time. This type of exercise is the foundation of physical fitness — don’t try to become a body builder using isolation exercises if what you really need is functional strength and general fitness.
Isolation exercises work only one muscle or muscle group and only one joint at a time. Examples of isolation exercises include the biceps curl or the quadriceps extension. To get the most out of isolation exercises you must have a preexisting strength to protect the joint and to prevent injury to the related connective tissue.
Don’t fall into the trap that I see so often. A small man trying to become a big man. This guy gives-up on the compound exercises because they make him feel like he was hit by a freight train. He wants to be a big man like the body builders. He quickly discovers that the machines in the gym do all the body builder’s exercises and they are easier. He then starts to suffer injuries in and around the shoulders, knees, low back, and hips.
Compound exercises are tough work. To avoid the worst of the ‘I was hit by a freight train’ feeling you need realistic expectations and a proper set of progressions designed to get you to a realistic level of fitness and strength.
An exercise progression is one in which the workload is increased in predetermined steps. Ideally, the increments are sufficient to stimulate improvements but not great enough to cause damage.
Progressions are based upon the principle which states that fitness improves only when workloads are greater than those normally encountered. The workload can be quantified in terms of training intensity (rate of doing work which is usually the time allowed or number of repetitions) or training volume (the total amount of work done or most often the weight or resistance level). The principle applies to all aspects of fitness including strength, speed, and endurance of muscle contractions. It also applies to improvements in flexibility and the strength of bones, joints, and ligaments. This is normally called the overload principle.
Please notice the word ‘overload’. The progressions will leave somewhat sore. However, once you are able to do the the number of repetions that is your goal, then the soreness will go away. The number of repetions that is your goal becomes the ‘normal’ workload.
Squats, abdominal crunches, and push-ups are the most basic compound exercises. They are also the exercises that create the foundation of strength and endurance.
I’ll deal with the basic squat first.
A great example of a compound exercise is the squat exercise. This engages many muscles in the lower body and core, including the quadriceps, the hamstrings, the calves, the glutes, the lower back and the core.
Leg strength is often ignored by men. After all, who comments of how good a man’s legs look. This is a mistake because the legs and hip muscles account for over half the body’s weight. Building leg strength can lead to a decrease of overall body fat as the increased lean muscle mass will speed-up the metabolism.
The key to doing a sufficient number of squats is in the progressions. To be considered fit, you should be able to do 200 body-weight squats in one non-stop set.
The progressions found at Two Hundred Squats are well designed to accommodate a wide range of initial fitness levels. This site has several related sites, but I have reservations about the progressions offered for some of the other exercises.
I’ll try to do one article per week for the next few weeks. These articles will cover the basic body-weight compound exercises and suggestions regarding suitable progressions designed to achieve an adequate level of fitness.
I know you secretly rebel against exercise in all its forms, but it is something we all must do. Being an Investigator is the world’s most dangerous sit-down job, and computers have made it much more dangerous. No matter what type of investigations we do, we spend too much time sitting.
I know you have made a resolution to start exercising. You don’t need to go to a gym to become stronger and more fit.
In 2008 I wrote a series of articles on building a stand-up desk and I know first-hand the benefits and draw-backs of this. Alex Hutchinson wrote about this in the Globe and Mail recently. His article illustrates that a stand-up desk is not a panacea for a sedentary computer-based job.
I have a typing desk for the lap-top computer and a writing desk in my office to prevent overuse type of pain that develops from staying in one position , so I guess I’m on the right path.
As a very devoted orthodox digital troglodyte (AKA Expert Searcher) I slave over a hot computer all day. This can quickly turn one into a weak, fat, and unfit troglodyte. This is a bad thing — a very bad thing — if a marauding felonious geek wants to invade and take-over my state-of-the-art cave.
These exercises help prevent me from becoming the weakest digital troglodyte on the block and they deal with the specific problems associated with using a computer all day.
This video is from the guys who wrote a book called Felon Fitness.
Be careful with these if you are really out of shape or you will be very sore and have headaches. It’s best to do only 3 or 4 repetitions of each, three times a day for a week to understand how your upper back and shoulders will react to the unaccustomed exercise.
This past year has been difficult due to the economic upheaval that has seen some of our largest clients suffer financial set-backs. This has meant we have had to make adjustments. We have had to find new markets and develop new products.
The first developing market that we have found is for training. In the past two years we have attended many seminars by U.S. based presenters. While they all had something unique and valuable to offer, we noticed that they know very little about Canada and its laws. This usually means critical details are wrong in their sources and methodology. This is not a small thing for the individual or company paying to learn something that turns out to be impossible in Canada.
The second developing market is Investigative Internet Research (IIR). Investigators are now starting to understand that conducting research using the Internet is not just a matter of a simple Google or Facebook search. Unfortunately, they don’t yet know how to best explain this to clients or how to price and sell this service. In the new year, we will be offering IIR reports that will help both our Private Investigator clients and their end-users with these problems. These reports clearly identify the sources used, along with the significance of the reported data. Of course, we report our methods to illustrate that no impropriety occured in the collection of the data and to show the sophisticated effort and tools used to collect the data.
Lately, Google has begun eliminating as much search functionality as they can. One of their recent efforts is the revamped advanced search page. If you don’t think so, then just try to find the advanced search page on your own, I dare you. Did you find it?
Evidently Google thinks you aren’t smart enough to use such advanced stuff. If you really want to find the advanced search page you have to start your search first and then go all the way to the bottom of the SIRP where you will find a link to advanced search.
Under the guise of “people don’t use it”, the similar pages and links to a specific page (backlinks) options have been removed. Now why would anybody want those nasty things anyway?
Similar pages now have to be searched using SimilarPages.com and WhoIsLike.it. This type of search is important to the expert searcher to develop search syntax and to find other players in a given market. The Google search syntax related:www.ConfidentialResource.com is most often a poor substitute for the above search engines.
To find the sites linking to a particular page you have to do it in the main search box using the Google search syntax, link:ConfidentialResource.com. Google’s link command isn’t very useful because Google collects so few backlinks. Bing is no help with backlinks. Yahoo closed its Site Explorer some time ago. It might seem like searching backlinks is now limited to the scant Google results or nothing if you don’t have SEO tools on hand. Fortunately, that is not true.
Blekko is an excellent alternative for finding backlinks.
The search syntax is to use their slashtags /links or /domainlinks with a URL or domain name. The /links slashtag will find pages that link to a particular page whereas the /domainlinks slashtag finds all inbound links to a particular site.
The second route is via your search results. At the end of each search result is a downwards pointing arrow labelled SEO. Click on this and select links from the pop-up box. This creates a /links search syntax for the page given in the search result.
We have also used ReverseInternet.com successfully. Search by the domain name, then select [backlinks] next to the domain name in the resulting table. At the top right of the backlinks table, select External Only: On to get the external backlinks.
I’m a digital troglodyte that doesn’t like change, but sometimes there is no avoiding it.
Recently, Google stopped paying Mozilla for the little Google search window at the top right of the Firefox browser. Google has paid Mozilla about $1 per copy to have that window. Last year, that Google search window accounted for 84% of Mozilla’s $123 million of revenue, or about $100 million. However, Google’s Chrome browser has made remarkable strides against Firefox and the rest of the the browser field.
The loss of funding to support FireFox, and Chrome’s association with the largest search engine, may herald the end of FireFox. No other browser gives so much control to the user like Firefox does. Most users don’t understand that Firefox is more customizable than either Google Chrome or Internet Explorer. If Mozilla doesn’t find a way to replace the lost revenue, then expert searchers may loose their most fundamental and productive tool. That will lead to a forced change for this digital troglodyte expert searcher.
MakeUseOf Cheat Sheets list shortcuts for common programmes that you use daily. These will make you more productive.
I have used Copernic for years, and just accepted its lack of a Google search. I just got used to it, and never sought a way to add Google.
At a recent conference, Kevin Ripa told me that a registry entry would solve the problem after I mentioned that it didn’t search Google. If you’re going to feel like an idiot, its good to shown-up by a really smart guy like Kevin.
Go to the registry key:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Copernic\Agent\System]
and insert the following string:
EngineUpdateAddress=
with value, http://updates.copernic.com/k2upd/agentex
Sales of large quantities of stock or the sale of assets and equipment of the business itself outside the regular course of business are considered a sale “in bulk”. The Bulk Sales Act is designed to protect the creditors of a business owner by requiring the owner to follow the procedures of the Act for sales outside the regular course of business.
If a buyer wishes to purchase the assets and equipment of a business, the seller “in bulk” must provide an affidavit stating that all creditors have been paid, or they will be paid from the proceeds of the sale. In some cases the buyer pays an assigned trustee and creditors of the business may wish to waive their rights in which case the proceeds are paid.
A ‘Bulk Sales search‘ determines if a bulk sales affidavit has been filed with the relevant Ontario Superior Court of Justice office.
If you are interested in an Ontario business’s assets, debts, cash flow, and general financial condition, then a a Bulk Sale Act search is an important search. It may tell you if the business is failing or if it has suffered a set-back. You may learn of an abandoned line or the sale of a production facility. You may learn of a legal action in another jurisdiction by contacting or researching the other parties to the bulk sale. Any sale that indicates that creditors will be paid from the proceeds of the sale may indicate a judgment that is being satisfied or it may be part of the settlement of a claim.
The Bank Act (1991, c. 46) is an Act of the Government of Canada respecting banks and banking. The Canadian banking industry includes 20 domestic banks, 24 foreign bank subsidiaries and 22 foreign bank branches operating in Canada.
Canadian Banks have the right to lend money to wholesalers, retailers, shippers and dealers in “products of agriculture, products of aquaculture, products of the forest, products of the quarry and mine, products of the sea, lakes, and rivers, of goods, wares and merchandise, manufactured or otherwise” on the security of such goods or products, and to lend money to manufacturers on their goods and inventories.
When doing a background investigation of a person, the PI will be looking for previously unknown assets, banking and financial arrangements, or corporate affiliations. When investigating a company, the PI will be looking for previously unknown assets, banking, and financial arrangements. In both cases, the equity held by the subject in the assets will be of interest. Searching the Bank Act Security Registry may reveal all of the above.
Under S. 427 of the Bank Act, the borrower must sign a document that provides the bank with the first preferential lien on the goods or equipment. The Bank then registers a ‘Notice of Intention‘ to take the goods as security, to perfect its security interest.
The Bank of Canada offers a Security Registry service which may be searched for registrations. The search will reveal whether the Bank of Canada has taken security on property that may interest you. If the Bank does have a claim on the property, then it means that it has loaned the customer money and that it has the right to take possession of and sell the property if the loan is not paid. This is important for you to know for two reasons. First, it shows that the person or business is indebted to a Canadian chartered bank and may have equity in the property listed in the security agreement. Second, it may uncover previously unknown assets, banking and financial arrangements, or corporate affiliations. You will need to provide the name of the person or business being searched.
Years ago, we only did this when we suspected the subject person or company might have an interest in an agricultural business. Today however, we find more non-agricultural businesses in the Bank of Canada registry. We have online access to the Bank of Canada registry to search for Bank Act Security items. The search results often indicate that a business assigned its inventory to a bank as security under the Bank Act.
A manual search for Notices of Intention filed under Section 427 of the Bank Act are conducted at the agency of the Bank of Canada in the province or territory where the debtor’s place of business is located. For Bank Act searches, “agency” means, in a province, the office of the Bank of Canada or its authorized representative but does not include its Ottawa office, and in Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut means the office of the clerk of the court of each of those territories respectively [see S. 427(5)].
This displays the IP address of the page you are visiting and the IP data that you are revealing about yourself. The IP data seems more up-to-date than a whois search.
Ghostery lets you see who’s tracking your web browsing when you visit a webpage. It looks for third party page elements (3pes) on the web pages you visit. These can be things like social network plugins, advertisements, invisible pixels used for tracking and analytics, etc. Ghostery notifies you that these things are present, and which companies operate them. You can learn more about these companies, and if you wish, choose to block the 3pes they operate.
This replaces short urls with the originals, so you can see where links will send you.
When I first looked at this search engine on 29 Oct 11, its ‘about’ and ‘privacy policy’ pages looked suspiciously like what was on another search engine’s ‘about’ pages. Worst of all, it didn’t find any results when I searched for my name. That was in the first days of November 2011, today this thing is working much better and the about pages have been rewritten, but still confusing in places. However, I am not sure I would trust the results or the privacy features yet.
Given the scale of the improvements I have seen in less than one month, this is a search engine I will keep tabs on. For example, in their @UseStealth Twitter feed they say, “we don’t pass info through http refferer”, if this is true, then this will become one of my search tools. The news search returned good results from an interesting assortment of sources during my tests today. The video search only seems to search Google and YouTube and the image searches return poor results compared to other, larger search engines.
Google announced the demise of the ‘+’ operator a few weeks ago. The new Verbatim tool supposedly replaces the ‘+’ search operator to get exact terms users search for.
To switch on the verbatim search tool, go to “2. More search tools” in the column on the left side of the screen.
Verbatim is not the same as the unary operator ‘+’. In a unary operation, in a mathematical system, one element is used to yield a single result. Verbatim forces all terms to be searched “verbatim” not just one term. Verbatim searches also switch-off some of the standard corrections. Sometimes this hinders your search. According to SearchEngineLand, Verbatim searches without the following:
If you want to conduct a search where one word is misspelled, but the other is correct, and you also want synonyms, stemming, etc., then you can’t use verbatim unless you put the required word in double quotes. This will make searching for misspelled names (the “27 Mohammeds problem”) along with other search terms more difficult.
Verbatim may help limit the impact of “personalisation” that makes some searches difficult in Google, but the loss of functionality isn’t worth the gain in my opinion.
If as Google insists, it dropped the + operator because it wasn’t used, then I shall begin worrying about search operators such as intitle, allintitle, ~, *, – and other advanced search features that make Google my first choice.