TCN July update
TCN May update - Webmail changes
TCN December update
TCN November update
TCN August update
Welcome to 2006 and Supper Made Simple
Backbone upgrade - Saturday December 3 - 8:00 AM
Mail system upgrade - Saturday October 22
Callcasting invests in new Linux Standalone Boot DVD
GardenImport.com launches redesigned site
TCN's Dave on a roll - Part 4
Virus Alert
TCN's Dave on a roll - Part 3
Thanks to Kelly at Paton Publishing - ICE
TCN's Dave on a roll - Part 2
TCN's Dave on a roll
Callcast and TCN team up to deliver new system to 241 Pizza
New client tracking software for the Salvation Army
TCN delivers planning and scheduling software for Marshall Homes
TCN launches redesign for Coastal Synergy Group.
TCN deploys payroll application for Canadian businesses.
New TCN spam filtering email service.
Bogus TCN email contains virus



August 1 2007
Well the run to Port Dover for the Friday the 13th gathering was as great as always. Thousands of bikes of all shapes and sizes. For those of our customers that made it down and didn't buy me a beer, I KNOW WHO YOU ARE!! Next time for sure.

A recent server crash reminds me to remind our customers that although TCN makes every effort to keep the servers backed up, the ultimate responsibility for the web pages, database and anything else stored on your web site is yours. All customers are reminded to continue to keep good working copies of the site. If there is a need for a hot backup or a second site please give us a call to discuss and we'll be happy to go over the options with you.

Here we grow again! TCN is embarking on switching to a new pipe with 10 times the capacity of our current one. Over the next month you may experience the occasional outage as we switch addressing. Our dynamic DSL customers have already switched over and should be enjoying some faster access now. We are in the process of issuing new IP address's to the static DSL accounts and will be notifying those customers when we're ready to work on a cutover plan. If there are any questions on how this may impact you the customer please let us know.

Hope everyone is enjoying the summer!

Cheers everyone - Dave

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May 24 2007
A little late with the news for 2007 but better late than never a wise man once said!. IMPORTANT news - TCN Webmail is being replaced. As of the the 24th of May we've upgraded our webmail to a newer version which I think you'll all appreciate. Please contact TCN and let us assist you in setting up your new account.

The year so far ---- The last few months have been pretty busy thanks to our friends at Livexchange who've required our programming skills to develop new products for their customers. Livexchange does work for some of the top companies of Canada and shortly the world so thanks to Brian and Robin for entrusting us with those complicated builds and we look forward to many more challenging projects.

Jesse Cook has launched a new site and with Lucie running the show could do no wrong. Excellent site Lucie and thanks to Jesse for putting on such a great concert in Markham. If you haven't caught Jesse on tour you should.

July 13 ride to Port Dover - all interested TCN bikers should let me know if interested in joining us on the Friday the 13th run to Port Dover - and since I'm a fairweather rider - weather permitting. We're going to take the long way around so if a slow run to the Port is more your style come join us. The more the merrier.

More as it happens or as I get around to writing !

Cheers everyone - Dave

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December 28 2006
I Hope all of our customers had a great holiday and from all of us at TCN we wish everyone a safe and prosperous New Year.

On the spam front : With 25 domains taking advantage of the new spam/virus filter and since November 20, TCN has received 3,654,142 emails and allowed 277,663 emails at the writing of this note. I hope the spammers get it ! Whatever they're sending is just not getting through here now. So far so good and the false postives have been really so low they've not been an issue. Very pleased so far as are all of those who have taken advantage of the offer.

The end of 2006 ... been a busy year here and a very successful one thanks to all of you - our faithful customers and especially to our team here without which it wouldn't haven't been a good year at all. So thanks to everyone and again Happy New Year - bring on 2007!! Cheers everyone - Dave

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November 29 2006
UNCLE! I think I speak for all TCN users when I say I've had enough of spam! Some of you may ask "How come it took you so long" and my answer is - high tolerance to pain! We've tried a number of solutions to curtail the spam and most have had some moderate succes but with this latest onslaught of spam it was time to bite the bullet and attack the problem head on. To that TCN is pleased to announce that our new "industrial strength" spam/virus filter is now in place. Just to give you an idea of how well its been working for us we have received since November 20th through to November 29th, 414,676 emails of which 47,507 were allowed through the filter. Pretty significant numbers actually and we've just started adding domains to the service. All tcn.net, tcn.ca and tcnsystems.com addresses are now being filtered and we're pleased the way this is going over with our other test customers. For more information and rates - really cheap - please contact me (Dave) at the office. On a sad note we bid a fond farewell to Elena who has now moved on to bigger and better things. Elena, it has been an extreme pleasure and you will be greatly missed by us all but don't be a stranger. Also we would like to welcome Linda and Sherry to the TCN clan for Oracle, MS SQL and .Net programming amongst other talents.
A final word for those of you that know about my motorcylcing activities - its not put away yet... just one more ride... :-)

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August 22 2006
Well as they so no news is good news! Not that there has been nothing happening here at TCN but got a little lazy in updating. So lets start with the updates! Blackbook.com contracted TCN to do the backend programming for the new site and work with the graphics designers to make the new site fantastic. Compliments to Jack for doing such an amazing job with the all the backend and especially the photo manipulation. Going down the list there's contractxchange.com - a long term customer but thanks to Elena for continually working her magic on some very tricky interfacing to Telephony at work systems and tackling some big customer requests. We're proud to welcome York Community Services to TCN and Elena and Michelle are working on that site. Etihad Airways has joined TCN for ongoing support and service and we're very pleased to have them with us. Stashmedia.tv, a long term client that Tracy works with has updated their site and made some addtions and is definitely worht checking out. Now if you haven't heard TCN has multiple mail servers with Spam and Virus control. If anyone wants to switch over please contact us and we'll go over the details and server options. More as it happens - or when I get back to this !

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January 20 2006
Welcome to 2006 TCN users! Ok a little late with the Happy New Year but there you are! So thanks to all of you for a good 2005 and all the best for a great 2006.

Now my 2006 has started up just grand thanks to Denise from Supper Made Simple. Denise and her web designer Odette came by our office to discuss the new site changes and in so doing Denise was kind enough to bring a sample dinner that her company produces. Supper Made Simple has a menu of items that are created for those that really enjoy the freshness of food but do not have the time, or in my case, expertise to create. Denise brought me a chicken cacciatore dinner which included the pasta, garlic, parsley, salad, cut up chicken breast, salad dressing, real grated parmesan!, chilis and I'm sure a couple of other ingredients I'm missing but sure did enjoy, all in individual portions and ready to go. Now I can't speak for how well the cooking went since I did pass it off but I can relay the fact that it took less than 30 minutes to prepare, the cooking instructions were easy to follow and it was an excellent meal for 2! One of the nicest chicken cacciatore's that I've had with no fuss no muss and all fresh ingredients! Thanks Denise for the sample dinner and I look forward to the rest of the menu!
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November 23 2005
Here we grow again! On December 3 at 8:00 am TCN will be upgrading our backbone to the internet. The outage should be less than an hour. Thanks for your patience.
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October 21 2005
At long last its time to update the mail server with new hardware. On Saturday October 22 there will be mail service interruptions but its all for the better. If you have any problems or need to get mail out/in asap please let me know - Dave that is. My cell phone number is in voice mail. Again we're sorry for the inconveniece. On another note we've had a a lot of our customers looking for email back up service. For anyone interested in this please let me know.
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August 30 2005
Callcasting, a long term TCN client, has invested in TCN's customized version of Linux that incorporates all of Callcast applications (including VPN, SSH, Remote Desktop among others) for use by its home agens. This software includes fingerprint scanning and video imaging to allow security and 2 way communication between the client and the remote agent. This new DVD version allows us to take advantage of the extra storage capacity that a DVD allows to incorporate more applications and functionality that our previous CD. The remote agent simply boots up their computer with the DVD and all the applications required are available. No changes to the users system at all. This new DVD is now in Beta and we will be helping Callcasting to develop the remote call centre application.
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August 30 2005
At long last the new gardenimport.com site has launched. Designed by Dugald Cameron and Michael Cavanaugh with all the programming PHP/DB work done by Elena, Jackie and Dave from TCN the site is probably the nicest and quickest on the net in its category. A ground up rebuild the site took a little longer than expected but is now working just fine with the exception of the normal teething problems. Congratulations Dugald and we can't wait to see the traffic stats.
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August 30 2005
I finally got around to taking my Hurricane 1000 out and about the other day and have to admit that Zdeno cycle did do something right. The bike runs not too bad considering it had a top down rebuild. Still running hot though but to their credit Zdeno did call and ask about it and told me to bring it in. Uhhh for another 3 months ?? Let me get back to you on that. I think I'll just go really fast to keep it cool. On the other side of the bike spectrum I have a Magna 750 purchased from GPBIKES in Ajax that works just fine and is excellent for cruising. If any of you TCN customers or readers want to go for a ride or have a suggestion for a nice ride let me know. Ted and I might even supply TCN hats and shirts ! The next Friday the 13th run that I'm going to attend is October 2006 since its a little too chilly on January the 13th. If anyone has any bike stories they wish to share or ideas they want to explore on bikes let me know. If we get some interest out there we can start a TCN bikers section. Are you listening Arnis Budrevics ? Cocoo?
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August 8 2005
Thanks to echannelline.com and Panda Software Canada for sending us the link for the latest update for Windows to fix the latest Windows exploit. All TCN Windows users are urged to go to http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms05-039.mspx and get the latest hot fix. .....................................................................................................................

August 8 2005
Well got my bike back from Zdeno Cycle on St. Clair after lmost 3 months to the day. The Hurricane 1000 sounds not bad but time will tell. Really haven't had a chance to take it for a good run as of yet but will this weekend so we'll see. Picked up a lot of extra scratches after 3 months of storage plus the battery was dead and had to wait 2 hours for them to charge the battery up. On the plus side the price seemed to be reasonable for the amount of work done and even after my yelling at them they did not get too steamed at me. Time will tell on how well the work was done. .....................................................................................................................

August 2 2005
Paramedics will turn to a victim's cell phone for clues to that person's identity. You can make their job much easier with a simple idea that they are trying to get everyone to adopt: ICE. ICE stands for In Case of Emergency. If you add an entry in the contacts list in your cell phone under ICE, with the name and phone no. of the person that the emergency services should call on your behalf, you can save them a lot of time and have your loved ones contacted quickly. It only takes a few moments of your time to do. Paramedics know what ICE means and they look for it immediately.
ICE your cell phone NOW!
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July 21 2005
TCN's Dave on a roll - Part 2
An update to the previous item. Turns out the car driver that caused the accident with the 2 members of the Southern Cruisers group, passed away from his injuries. What a waste. For the sake of a few minutes of listening to the radio and enjoying the bikes in front of him. The phrase slow down and smell the roses has a lot of extra meaning in this instance.

My condolences to the family of the driver and a speedy recovery to the bikers. .....................................................................................................................

July 20, 2005
TCN's Dave on a roll
I was watching the news the other day and a news item about an auto/motorcyclist accident came on. Not too unusual in itself since for some car drivers bikers don't exist until they hit them and being a biker myself I can attest to the fact but more on that in a second. In this particular accident there was a group of riders from the Southern Cruisers club, and if I'm wrong about the club named I apologize, apparently riding in a group of 10 riders on large bikes on a 2 lane paved road somewhere in Caledon and from the TV clip a very flat piece of highway. Enter the driver who tried to pass 10 bikes, and again from the TV description, timed it wrong and had to move back into the lane and took out a rider in the process. This rocket scientist not only rolled his car and suffered severe injuries but the biker he hit and the bikers passenger ended up losing limbs on the spot. For what ? So this car driver could get home 5 minutes earlier? Guess that didn't work out very well did it. PEOPLE!! If there's a group of bikers in front of you relax and enjoy the chrome. Its a summer night and it should be spent enjoying it not in a hospital maimed for life. TOTALLY senseless and my heart goes out to the bikers injured. That's the bad. The good is thanks to all those drivers that were kind enough to slow down on July 16 as a new rider plus myself was slowly winding up highway 25. Thanks to all you nameless patient drivers for making the day an excellent one and a very safe one.

One more item to add to this - Zdeno Cycle - Well its been slightly more than 2 months since I brought my 1987 Honda Hurricane 1000 into them and still no Hurricane to ride. I've heard of parts taking a while to come in but this is ridiculous. I did say to them 2 weeks ago to make it right and I'll see you 2 weeks. That was to the owner Mike. Well no word from Mike on the bike status. The kid that answers the phone doesn't know anything and I put 1000 down 2 months ago as a sign of my good will but nothing in return from Zdeno Cycle on St. Clair Ave West in Toronto. Can't wait for the search engines to pick up this rant. .....................................................................................................................

May 2005
Callcast and TCN team up to deliver new system to 241 Pizza
Callcastand TCN recently teamed up to deliver to Afton Foods in Burlingtond new software to for the remote callcentre agents to take orders and print the order at the appropriate location closest to customer. Along with the ordering and receiviing software a number of database reporting and call tracking reporting was provided. TCN also provided hardware and franchise communications support for 60 local 241 locations throught out the GTA. TCN is proud to be able to deliver this application and we look forward to working with Afton and Callcast in the future. Many thanks to Brian and Mara from Callcast and Manny and the rest of the crew at Afton Foods. .....................................................................................................................

October 2004
TCN creates client tracking software for Salvation Army.
Working with Dar Computer out of Richmond Hill, Ontario TCN has developed new software to assist the Salvation Army in handling the many requests for assistance during the holiday season. The new system will allow order takers to quickly confirm eligibility and record pertinent information as well as schedule pick up dates to balance arrival and delivery times.
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October 2004
TCN creates home building scheduling and planning software.
TCN is happy to announce the completion of scheduling software for Marshall Homes. This software allows project site managers to monitor delivery dates and update contractor scheduling and completion times as well for managers to have a quick and easy way to identify problems and take corrective action as needed. The next step is for the software to be viewed using a wireless PDA to allow site managers to enter house status information while doing site inspections. We're proud to add this component to the System One construction management software. For more information on Marshall Homes click here.
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August 2004
Bogus TCN email contains Virus Warning.
TCN is warning all users to be careful about opening emails with attachements and to conatct us if they receive an email with a TCN email address attached to it. We've received information regarding emails with a fake TCN address on them that have attachments. As a rule when we send out emails they will be in plain text and addressed directly to the user with no CC or BCC information. As always keep your virus definitions up to date.
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August 2004
TCN launches redesign for Coastal Synergy Group.
TCN has created a set of three websites for the Coastal Synergy Group, a direct sales business. Since marketing is central to Coastal's business model, they relied on TCN’s expertise in branding and marketing. The three sites included one for the general public, one for sales agents
and one for wholsale marketing. Each site includes online forms for qualifying leads and sales support. Each site is a variation of the same basic look and feel, with differences focused on the different markets in each case. Click here to view the site.
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June 2004
TCN deploys payroll application for Canadian businesses.
TCN's Canadian Payroll application has been rolled out successfully to a division of a large Canadian automotive manufacturing facility. Using proximity readers and cards to control and track access and combining that with an application to allow department managers to quickly confirm attendance. This full featured payroll system uses state of the art database technology and contains many modules including education and training tracking, multi user capabilty, multi shift tracking and direct deposit banking interface. This payroll application has a fully graphical solution and is particularly good for Canadian companies with 100 employees or more. This will be the third generation of payroll application software that TCN has developed over the last 10 years and is currently in 3 locations with employee sizes from 100 to 1000.Click here to learn more.
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May 2004
New TCN spam filtering email service
TCN has installed a new spam filtering email service which includes a virus scanning feature. It also allows you to manage all your settings from password changes to autoresponding messages. Contact us for more information.