Toronto Electricians and Electrical Contractors

California Is Still Trying to Gag IMDb. We’re Telling A New Court: Don’t Let It. California is still trying to gag websites from sharing true, publicly available, newsworthy information about actors. While this effort is aimed at the admirable goal of fighting age discrimination in Hollywood, the law unconstitutionally punishes publishers of truthful, newsworthy information and denies the public important information it needs to fully understand the very problem the state is trying to address. So we have once again filed a friend of the court brief opposing that effort. The case, IMDB v. Becerra , challenges the constitutionality of California Civil Code section 1798.83.5 , which requires “commercial online entertainment employment services providers” to remove an actor’s date of birth or other age information from their websites upon request. The purported purpose of the law is to prevent age discrimination by the entertainment industry. The law covers any “provider” that “owns,...

EFF Asks Court to Unseal Secret Docket in Case Involving Wiretap of Encrypted Facebook Messenger Calls EFF joined an effort to unseal court records today in a groundbreaking case where the government reportedly tried to force Facebook to compromise the encryption in Facebook Messenger voice calls. Earlier this year, Reuters reported that the government sought the company’s assistance in carrying out a wiretap and intercepting Messenger calls in connection with the investigation of suspected MS-13 gang activity. Although later reports indicated that the court ruled Facebook did not have to comply, the entire proceeding took place under seal, so we could only speculate about the legal arguments made by both sides and the case’s implications for user security. According to press reports, the U.S. Department of Justice tried to get Facebook to turn over customer data and unencrypted Messenger voice calls using a wiretap order. To our knowledge, this hasn’t been done before, and it ...

Questions We Should Be Asking About Facebook’s Smear Campaign Against Its Critics The New York Times published a blockbuster story about Facebook that exposed how the company used  so-called “ smear merchants ” to attack organizations critical of the platform. The story was shocking on a number of levels, revealing that Facebook’s hired guns stooped to dog-whistling, anti-Semitic attacks aimed at George Soros [1] and writing stories blasting Facebook’s competitors on a news site they managed. As Techdirt points out, however, while the particulars are different, the basic slimy tactics are familiar . Any organization that runs public campaigns in opposition to large, moneyed corporate interests has seen some version of this “slime your enemies” playbook. What is different here is that Facebook, the company seeking to undermine its critics, has a powerful role in shaping whether and how news and information is presented to billions of people around the world. Facebook cont...

Over the last 20 years or so, and especially in the last 10, we’ve seen data centers evolve from cost centers to drivers of businesses, in the process raising the profile of CIOs and putting ever-more stringent demands on data center availability. Realizing that the data center is the heart of their business has executive leadership teams thinking about data center operations , and who is best positioned to do the job effectively. For most organizations, it seems increasingly likely the answer is “not us.” These are some of the points I raised in a recent webinar with eWeek (which you can access on demand ). The title of the webinar neatly describes what it was all about: “The Data Center as a Business Enabler: Everything a C-Level Should Know About Data Center Strategy & Operations.” Data centers: once strictly a cost center  In this post, I want to focus on that data center evolution story, and the ramifications it has for the CIO’s role as well as data center operations...

Industrial Internet of Things is gaining popularity as most of the industries are heading towards automation. Studies by researchers and analytics have brought this into notice that the technology is bringing in revolution in the computation sphere. However, the fact cannot be denied that every machinery is prone to breakdown. To make the plant sustainable and to avoid downtime, it is important to have a foolproof system that monitors the functioning of the machine. Unexpected downtime can be a cause to major industrial and equipment loss. Here is when predictive maintenance and HMI systems come into picture. The primary objective of predictive maintenance system is first to predict failure that might occur in the equipment and then, prevent it from happening. The monitoring system analyses the machinery and intimates the operator before any failure is bound to occur. It makes sure that the maintenance frequency is as low as possible to prevent unplanned reactive maintenance. Havi...

The prominence of electrical systems in modern times is immense. These electrical systems have gone above and beyond the call of duty to ensure that technology takes precedence in modern times. Without the proper devices to take care of these modern forms of technology, it’s only a matter of time before this technology implodes and fails to function as it should. This makes it the need of the hour to maintain optimal electrical systems that can ensure a sustained flow of electricity in industries and homes. Only by doing so can one utilise these electrical systems without worrying about the potential ramifications that can arise as a result. This is where various electrical devices come into play (such as light switches and miniature circuit breaker ), that can help accomplish the goal of optimal electricity management, while also seeing to it that any problems that might arise as a result can be negated to a certain extent. One such device – that is the main focus of this article ...

Photovoltaic (PV) energy offers the quintessential picture of self-sufficiency: A home with solar panels harvesting the energy of the sun to supply all of its own electrical needs. And yet, while that is a wonderful ideal, the situation in reality turns out to be not quite that straightforward. The reason is simple: The demand for electricity typically doesn’t coincide with the electricity production rates offered by solar panels. This mismatch occurs for a variety of reasons, including weather, demand patterns, and so on. So, what’s a person to do? Fortunately, technology provides some easy-to-adopt answers for those who are opting to self-consume PV electricity. Demand management to the rescue Self-consumption is the model promoted and supported today by a growing number of countries for various reasons. However, PV electrical production varies throughout the daylight hours, based on available sunlight, but doesn’t ordinarily coincide with household demand. Thus, the typical sy...

International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standards are by nature extensive because they have to cover all types of equipment and technical solutions. While they must be adhered to, they are not all that helpful in terms of explaining how best to comply. Schneider Electric wants to help fill that void. Our free 2018 Electrical Installation Gu ide is intended to help electrical engineers who need to design, select, install, inspect or maintain low-voltage electrical equipment in compliance with IEC standards. Translating standards into practice The guide is intended to be a working handbook that answers the same question – “Which technical solution will guarantee that all relevant safety rules are met?” – for a variety of circumstances and applications. It’s targeted at electrical professionals working in commercial, industrial, or domestic electrical installations, including consulting engineers, specifiers, designers, contractors, panel builders, facility managers, electrical...

As the only specialized IDC in Chungcheongbuk-do, Core Computing Center offers IT infrastructure management and advanced networking services to Ochang Science Industrial Complex, Osong Life Science Complex and other members of the core innovation cluster of Chungcheongbuk-do. It also serves as the backbone of IDCs in central Korea. Limited space, insufficient power To meet ever-increasing computing demands, Core Computing established plans to build a new data center and began to enhance its IT infrastructure and perform full-scale maintenance on its data center equipment. The biggest obstacles to data center flexibility and efficiency were the constant temperature and humidity system that utilized room-by-room cooling and the parallel UPS where the battery bank filled the entire UPS room. The traditional room-by-room cooling method and parallel UPS were inadequate to meet the fast-growing demand and rapidly changing customer needs, but there are other factors to be considered for ...

How to Debug Your Content Blocker for Privacy Protection Millions of users are trying to protect their privacy from commercial tracking online, be it through their choice of browser, installation of ad and tracker blocking extensions, or use of a Virtual Private Network (VPN). This guide focuses on how to correctly configure the blocking extension in your browser to ensure that it’s giving you the privacy you expect. We believe that tools work best when you don’t have to go under the hood. While there is software which meets that criteria (and several are listed in the final section of the guide), the most popular ad blockers do not protect privacy by default and must be reconfigured. We’ll show you how. AdBlock Plus (Firefox) AdBlock Plus (Chrome) Adblock (Chrome) Ghostery Tracker-Blocking Alternatives AdBlock Plus (Firefox) Adblock Plus participates in the Acceptable Ads initiative, in which companies have their ads whitelisted in exchange for meeting a set of format requi...

Panopticlick 3.0 Today we’re launching a new version of Panopticlick , an EFF site which audits your browser privacy protection. Conceived to raise awareness about the threat of device fingerprinting, Panopticlick was extended in December 2015 to check for protection against tracking by ads and invisible beacons. This new update adds a test for trackers whitelisted by the so-called “Acceptable Ads” initiative. Acceptable Ads is a program involving the popular adblockers Adblock Plus and Adblock, whereby companies can have their ads deemed “acceptable” if they meet certain format criteria. These ads are then unblocked and any company operating above a certain threshold must agree to pay Eyeo, the owner of Adblock Plus, a fee of 30% of the resulting revenue from the ads for administering the process. This revenue is divided between the participating ad blockers. By default, Panopticlick will now check browsers for trackers from the Acceptable Ads list by testing against a...

Proposed “Right to Know Act” Would Empower Users of Digital Devices to Decline NYPD Searches New York City is considering a range of legislative measures to increase civilian control over the New York Police Department (NYPD). Earlier this year, EFF endorsed the proposed Public Oversight of Surveillance Technology (POST) Act to increase transparency into the NYPD’s acquisition of surveillance technology, such as license plate readers and cell site simulators. Now EFF also supports the proposed Right to Know Act to guard the digital rights of New Yorkers and visitors impacted by so-called “consent” searches of their digital devices during stop and frisks. The NYPD is the nation’s largest police department, with global operations and an unfortunately long history of acting outside its authority. Given its size and presence among domestic law enforcement agencies, NYPD policies can set national norms, which are why its abuses—and policies enacted to curtail them—are important no...

To Protect our Democracy, We Need to Protect Anonymous Low-Cost Online Political Speech As Congress and the Federal Elections Commission explore ways to counter foreign influence in U.S. elections through greater campaign finance disclosures, EFF has filed comments  reminding policy makers of the danger of going too far. While the FEC’s goals are understandable, it must take care not to undermine the right of ordinary Americans to speak anonymously about political issues. What we need is transparency from Internet companies about their advertising practices across the board—not laws that strip ordinary people of their constitutional rights and undermine our democratic values. For everyday Americans, the Internet offers one the most effective and inexpensive ways to make their voices heard in our nation’s political debate. It’s also a way to do so without fear of retaliation if your voice offers an unpopular view. An LGBTQ individual who is not “out” to their family or employer...

Extreme weather appears to be all too common of late, with multiple devastating hurricanes and major storms hitting the Caribbean, southeastern U.S. and even Ireland over the last couple of months. It seems a good time then, to remind those responsible for power in commercial and industrial buildings of some precautions they should take in recovering from a power outage, especially one that involves water. Once a building has been without power for any length of time, it’s tempting to want to turn everything back on once utility power comes back online. But that could leave the building in a compromised position with respect to future power protection requirements. The main concern is the uninterruptible power supplies ( UPSs ) that protect various loads within a building. The number and type of UPSs installed will vary widely depending on the building and what it’s used for. Hospitals, for example, will likely have multiple UPSs protecting sensitive medical equipment such as MRI an...

The main mission of any healthcare facility is to provide cost-effective care, patient satisfaction and safety, and financial performance. However, according to a recent survey commissioned by Schneider Electric, many healthcare facilities don’t have the right power solutions in place to support these goals. Aging infrastructure unequipped for the digital age More than one-third (36 percent) of the 150 healthcare executives and facility managers surveyed indicated their power distribution infrastructures are more than five years old. While not old by power infrastructure standards, these systems are certainly outdated, designed before the energy requirements and interconnectedness of the digital age were upon us. In fact, just 18 percent of healthcare facilities represented in the survey are taking advantage of the internet of things (IoT) in their power systems, and the percentage is even lower in smaller facilities where just nine percent have implemented significant IoT-enabled p...