Toronto Electricians and Electrical Contractors

Win in Washington State: Judge Strikes Down Unconstitutional ‘Cyberstalking’ Law Chilling Free Speech Great news out of Washington state: a federal judge has ruled that the First Amendment protects speech on the Internet, even from anonymous speakers, and even if it’s embarrassing. EFF has been fighting this  statute for a long time . It’s a prime example of how sloppy approaches to combatting “cyberstalking” can go terribly wrong. As we explained in an amicus brief filed in this case by EFF and the ACLU of Washington, the law could potentially block the routine criticism of politicians and other public figures that is an integral part of our democracy. Online harassment requires careful and sophisticated solutions , but this law instead banned using all “electronic communications” intended to “embarrass” someone that are made anonymously or repeatedly or include an obscenity. It’s easy to think of a host of perfectly reasonable criticisms that could be criminalized by th...

Cyber-Mercenary Groups Shouldn’t be Trusted in Your Browser or Anywhere Else DarkMatter, the notorious cyber-mercenary firm based in the United Arab Emirates, is seeking to become approved as a top-level certificate authority in Mozilla’s root certificate program. Giving such a trusted position to this company would be a very bad idea. DarkMatter has a business interest in subverting encryption, and would be able to potentially decrypt any HTTPS traffic they intercepted. One of the things HTTPS is good at is protecting your private communications from snooping governments—and when governments want to snoop, they regularly hire DarkMatter to do their dirty work. Membership in the root certificate program is the way in which Mozilla decides which certificate authorities (CAs) get to have their root certificates trusted in Firefox. Mozilla’s list of trusted root certificates is also used in many other products, including the Linux operating system.  Browsers rely on this lis...

Energy distribution modernization requires a coordinated, strategic, research and development effort, and an implementation that involves collaboration between public and private sectors. Economic growth and prosperity, national security and the health and safety of a nation’s citizens depend on the reliable delivery of electricity. New technologies, such as Advanced Distribution Management Systems (ADMS), are now opening doors for modernization of electrical systems on a national scale. For Ecuador, with a land surface of nearly 110,000 square miles and diverse landscape including the Amazon jungle, Andean highlands, the wildlife-rich Galápagos Islands and a population of over 16.6 million people, power stability had long been an issue. A highly fragmented electrical distribution network managed by 20 different electrical companies presented a challenge for implementing a world-class ADMS while an aging infrastructure caused frequent power outages. As a result, the Ecuadorian Min...

FOSTA Would Be a Disaster for Online Communities Frankenstein Bill Combines the Worst of SESTA and FOSTA. Tell Your Representative to Reject New Version of H.R. 1865. The House of Representatives is about to vote on a bill that would force online platforms to censor their users. The Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA, H.R. 1865 ) might sound noble, but it would do nothing to stop sex traffickers. What it would do is force online platforms to police their users’ speech more forcefully than ever before, silencing legitimate voices in the process. Back in December, we said that while FOSTA was a very dangerous bill, its impact on online spaces would not be as broad as the Senate bill, the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA, S. 1693 ). That’s about to change. The House Rules Committee is about to approve a new version of FOSTA [.pdf] that incorporates most of the dangerous components of SESTA. This new Frankenstein’s Monster of a bill woul...

Future growth hinges on the appropriate response to present conditions while strategically developing longer-term plans. For most industries, social, environmental, and political issues are having increasingly greater impact in reshaping the present and future business environment. In particular, the oil and gas (O&G) industry is challenged to reliably and economically deliver transportation fuels in the present day while working strategically to provide “cleaner” energy products in the future. Globally, governments are passing legislation to address climate strategy. New laws promote sustainable operations and lowering carbon emissions from mobile and stationary sources. Low-carbon fuels and renewable energy are also strong options to achieve sustainability goals. Looking ahead, the global economy is progressively moving toward clean, green, and affordable energy. Accordingly, O&G companies must find a balance in providing energy and the shift toward sustainable operations. T...

My family has caught the HQ trivia bug, but the app is also bugging us, with its tendency for glitches including stalled video. It appears to be an example of an application becoming so popular so fast that the technology platform it runs on can’t keep up. In that, there’s a lesson – and opportunity – for colocation providers. If you’re not aware, HQ trivia is a free, interactive iPhone trivia game (with Android in beta as of this writing) where twice a day (3 p.m. and 9 p.m. EST) you get the chance to correctly answer 12 questions to win a share of a real money prize, usually $1,000 or $2,000. Although on Sunday, January 21, the prize was $15,000 – not coincidentally attracting the largest audience to date,  more than 1.6 million players . Indeed, the game has surged in popularity over the last few months. On Oct. 16 of last year, the 9 p.m. game had  about 3,600 players . On Jan. 7, the 9 p.m. game we played had 1.2 million players, a record at the time – but a short-lived...

If you own or manage any large building, plant, or public infrastructure, you depend on reliable electrical distribution services. You also need equipment to be as sustainable as possible in terms of maximum lifespan and minimum cost of ownership. Most switchgear manufacturers and design engineers have recognized that new approaches are needed to protect equipment from increasingly extreme environmental conditions. Medium voltage (MV) equipment is getting particular emphasis due to its critical role in keeping operations running, as well as it typically being more exposed to the elements. In this two-post series, we’ll discuss some of the conditions that expose MV equipment to special conditions that may influence its ratings and lifespan. We’ll also look at some of the advances in testing and technology that are helping switchgear survive those conditions, lasting longer with higher levels of reliability. Understanding service condition changes in IEC 62271-1 Electrical switchgea...

Could you make your medium voltage electrical installations safer? There could not be a more important goal. The latest digital training innovations can give students an edge and a perspective that wasn’t previously achievable within the confines of a classroom experience. Specifically, I’m talking about training using virtual reality (VR). It’s an effective teaching tool because the technology allows operators to familiarize themselves with MV electrical installations and prepare them for real-life scenarios. It gives field personnel hands-on training by simulating situations in a controlled environment. VR training gives users visual, real-time, simple-to-follow instructions and operating procedures as well as key messages, which help reduce the chance of human error and direct operators to the correct equipment for handling particular tasks. This training comes in many shapes and sizes and can be used by either individual learners or groups and either in-person or remotely. The t...