Author Archive for Boo Radley

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Boxing Day Canada Deals & Flyers

Boxing Day Canada Deals

Thanks  FallenPixels for posting a list of all Boxing Day Deals and Flyers in the Boxing Day Canada Deals and Flyers Forum :D

Click here for more Boxing Day Canada Deals and Flyers

Published
by
Boo Radley
on December 26, 2011
in Canadian Deals & Coupons and Canadian Discount Coupons Canada
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3 Comments
46Comments

Attention Shoppers Drug Mart: Simple solution to Optimum Points theft

Recently there has been a series of Shoppers Drug Mart Optimum Points thefts that were a result of several factors, including people giving out their Optimum account numbers without knowing that is almost enough for their accounts to be hacked into. Although the reasons behind the thefts can be attributed to poor judgment on the customer’s side, I believe  there’s a major loophole in the Optimum points system that attracted so many scammers. So I decided to investigate the root of the problem:

Why are Shoppers Optimum points so easy to steal?

First, I analyzed the online login system, which can be found here.

As a Computer Engineer with more than 8 years of experience in developing (programming) websites, I figured I’d be able to understand the backend and the logical problem behind the system. However, I quickly learned that it doesn’t require backend analysis, or in fact much computer knowledge at all, to see the huge loopholes and problems in the system.

At login, after inputting your Shoppers Optimum Card number, you have 3 options to log in:

  • Date of Birth OR
  • Postal Code OR
  • Password

The very simple combination of Shoppers Optimum Card number and postal code are two things that are relatively easy to get.

Another potential weakness in the system: the Shoppers Optimum Card number is not really a secret.  Although Shoppers Drug Mart is finally starring-out the Optimum number on receipts, it didn’t do that in the recent past. And unlike credit cards, I never personally felt or treated my Shoppers Optimum Point Card number as a secret. I think many people share the same feeling, and have operated the same way.

Furthermore, customers don’t feel secure entering their date of birth on the website. Unfortunately, it’s just a very poorly designed website system.

And a weak system leaves the door open for scamming and social engineering, the art of manipulating people into performing actions or divulging confidential information.

One Shoppers customer recently provided a nice illustration of what’s at stake and how easy it is to become the victim of Optimum Point theft on the Shoppers Facebook Fanpage:

I have many different cards in my wallet and I really do appreciate the Optimum Points program. However even though I have not given out my card number to anyone, I am very aware that the simple act of leaving my Optimum card on the counter or losing my wallet means that the points could be gone in the blink of an eye. No identification whatsoever is required to use the card and just a postal code is sufficient to access my account. For those whose cards have 350,000 points on them it is like carrying close to $1,000 cash in your wallet. Not something most of us would do....
All Shoppers Drug Mart developers needed to do to prevent this situation was require what almost every system in the world has right now: an email address and password to log into the Optimum system. And for recovery of a lost Shoppers Optimum login password, an email would simply be sent to the customer’s email address on file. I’m really not proposing anything unusual or out of the ordinary here. I’m suggesting that Shoppers use a system that has been tested and is known to work properly. Facebook, Twitter, Google Services, Best Buy—and many others—all  use this type of login mechanism.
Shoppers Drug Mart, your developers created a system that is vulnerable to social engineering and scams. If not corrected, it will continue to result in a lot of angry customers and you will spend a lot of money on customer support trying to fix problems and catch scammers. I humbly suggest doing yourself and your customers a favour: hire a good web development team and fix the Shoppers Optimum login interface to prevent further problems.

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Published
by
Boo Radley
on December 8, 2011
in Tips & Tricks
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46 Comments
1Comment

Threadless: 50% off Tees & 40% off Hoodies with Coupon Code

Threadless T-Shirts canada Coupon Code

Missed Threadless' $10 tee sale? Not to worry!  'A Very Fuzzy Holiday' continues with 50% off tees and 40% off hoodies - that's even better than before! Score $10 tees on an original price of $20 and only $5 for tees originally priced at $10! $29 Hoodies with 40% off are then reduced to only $17.40!

To take advantage of this discount, enter coupon code FUZZY2011 at checkout.

*Discount code is not valid towards UNICEF, Threadless Labs and DTG, The Muppets, or gift certificates. Cannot be combined with other offers.

Click here to shop at Threadless now

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Published
by
Boo Radley
on November 29, 2011
in Canadian Deals & Coupons
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1 Comment
4Comments

Threadless’ ‘merriest sale of the year’ strikes today!

Threadless Fuzzy T-Shirts Canada
$10 tees are back! Pile your cart high with presents (and some for yourself). At 11am you can pick and choose from your basket based on what goes on sale and check out before your fav tee gets snagged (don't you hate that?).
How long will it last? No one knows - so take advantage of it while you can.
Shipping and Handling is dependent on the number of items in your basket - but if you spend $75 or more, it'll only cost ya $6! No tax, but be aware that pricing is in US dollars, yes, they do international orders but the chance of being dinged for customs is also possible (though, I never have been).

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Published
by
Boo Radley
on November 24, 2011
in Canadian Deals & Coupons
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4 Comments
106Comments

Lululemon’s (unintentional?) Joke: Funny or Racist?

Lululemon Canada

Click here and select the black colour for this shirt

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Published
by
Boo Radley
on November 14, 2011
in Other / Canada
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106 Comments
79Comments

Durham Clean Air Company Threatening to Sue Me. What’s my position here?

I got an email from the president of Durham Clean Air Company earlier today:

There is a blog on your site reading "SCAM ALERT (MAYBE) DURHAM REGION AIR QUALITY TESTING". There are now legal documents and voice recordings on your site from my company and employees. I demand that you remove this or I will be proceeding with legal action. This is not legal or acceptable. If you have any questions please contact me at: <email removed>

I wasn't sure what she was referring to so I ask her for links and she emails me:

http://forum.smartcanucks.ca/124667-scam-alert-maybe-durham-region-air-quality-test-canada-3/

this specific page has my company’s paper work, pictures  and voice recordings.

http://forum.smartcanucks.ca/124667-scam-alert-maybe-durham-region-air-quality-test-canada-6/

This forum needs to be removed. It is all very false and dangerous information. I am seriously considering taking very powerful legal action against your site for the damages you have caused us by having this illegal information on there.

So I go through the thread which starts here and I can see it's basically people writing about their experience with the company. It seems like many people didn't have such a good experience though so I can see why she's concerned.

Now I'm wondering what my position here is? Should I just delete the thread? I don't want to cause her company any harm if it runs a legitimate non-scammy business. I also don't want to get sued obviously. Anyone with legal experience know what I can do here?

Published
by
Boo Radley
on October 6, 2011
in Announcements
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79 Comments
71Comments

Stay Classy Canada

Canada please stay classy

Out of all the things we could have legitimately rioted about over the past year, from metered Internet Caps to introduction of HST to G20 Police brutality, losing a hockey game is what got the riots going?

[image from cbc]

Published
by
Boo Radley
on June 16, 2011
in Other / Canada
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71 Comments
15Comments

Congrats cheapNcheeky for winning Dove Canada photoshoot for Elle Magazine

cheapncheeky-dove-canada-elle

Our beautiful SmartCanucks member cheapNcheeky won a Dove Canada contest and went to a photoshoot that is to appear in Elle Magazine! Congrats :D

Click here to read more about her experience with the contest and photoshoot

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Published
by
Boo Radley
on June 11, 2011
in Other / Canada
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15 Comments
17Comments

Girl Fight at the Grocery Store

Came across this on reddit and thought I'd share:

This video was embedded using the YouTuber plugin by Roy Tanck. Adobe Flash Player is required to view the video.

The guy in the above video clearly made a big mistake:

This video was embedded using the YouTuber plugin by Roy Tanck. Adobe Flash Player is required to view the video.

Published
by
Boo Radley
on June 11, 2011
in Other / Canada
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17 Comments
38Comments

How the Grinch Stole Easter

Grinch stole Easter

I just found out today - thanks to a CTV artice - that Kinder Surprise eggs have been banned in the US since 1997! The ban is a result of the toys within the eggs failing to meet their small parts requirements for children less than three years of age. I searched online for any incidents of death by Kinder Surprise but couldn't find any. Given the other more life threatening things we come across daily, I personally think that Kinder Surprise eggs should be the least of our worries. Even worse, the US Customs and Border Protection agency actually strongly enforces the ban and would confiscate any Kinder Surprise eggs smuggled into the country.

I hope this ban never makes it to Canada. To me, Kinder Surprise is not simply a fun toy inside a chocolate egg, but it's part of my fond memories from childhood.

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Published
by
Boo Radley
on April 23, 2011
in Other / Canada
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38 Comments
53Comments

This is why I never pick up the first box on the shelf

Old El paso Canada

When grocery  shopping, do you just grab the first box on the front of the shelf or do you dig deep in for a newer "untouched by mankind" box?

[picture source]

Published
by
Boo Radley
on April 19, 2011
in Other / Canada
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53 Comments
37Comments

How Canadian Troops Make Coffee in Afghanistan

I came across this hilarious video on reddit.com! On top of learning how to make coffee in the desert I found out that there is such a thing as a "boot band" :P

Warning for coarse language and excessive use of the F word. If that offends you don't watch.

This video was embedded using the YouTuber plugin by Roy Tanck. Adobe Flash Player is required to view the video.

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Published
by
Boo Radley
on April 9, 2011
in Other / Canada
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37 Comments
72Comments

Religion may become extinct in Canada

I came across an interesting article on BBC through reddit that talks about how, based on mathematical modeling, religion is expected to die out in nine countries. These countries are

  • Australia
  • Austria
  • Canada
  • the Czech Republic
  • Finland
  • Ireland
  • the Netherlands
  • New Zealand
  • Switzerland

The result was reported at the American Physical Society meeting and you can read the full paper here. Being in the academic research field myself I know how a lot of research could be bogus and meaningless (while a lot is very useful and valuable) and since I don't have much knowledge of the techniques these scientists used I can't come up to conclusions of my own.

That being said, I think the idea they propose is very interesting. Looking at how the prominence of religion has slowly faded away over the past few decades, do you think we will one day live in a fully religion-free society?

Please keep the responses constructive and respectful to other people's beliefs.

Published
by
Boo Radley
on March 22, 2011
in Other / Canada
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72 Comments
46Comments

How to Terminate your Rogers TV, Internet, Home Phone (and possibly Wireless) Contracts.. NOW

I came across a very interesting post on Facebook by Al McGale that explains how you can get out of your  Rogers TV, Internet and Home Phone contracts without paying termination fees. It depends on declining changes to your terms, one of the oldest tricks in the book. But it's always good to post it every now and then to remind people of how it can be done and I also really like how Al explained it.

Here is a direct link to the article on Facebook and just in case Rogers manage to get it removed from Facebook I've pasted it below:

By Al McGale:

If you use Rogers services then you, like me, are likely hooked into a contract of some sort that ties you to their service for a couple of years for the promises of deep discounts and extrodinary customer service.  It's quite likely that you, like me, have been disappointed by their customer service and are still waiting for these deep discounts (15% off of an over priced service is not a deal).

Well, today is your lucky day (and it was mine, too).

I received the following letter in the mail outlining changes to the fees that I pay for the services that Rogers provides;

Continue reading 'How to Terminate your Rogers TV, Internet, Home Phone (and possibly Wireless) Contracts.. NOW'

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Published
by
Boo Radley
on February 25, 2011
in Tips & Tricks
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46 Comments
11Comments

What is Toronto?????

As many of you probably know, IBM's computer Watson has been competing on Jeopardy and managed to beat Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, two very knowledgeable human beings and  the best Jeopardy players. Well in the final Jeopardy category the question was about US cities. As soon as I read Watson's answer I couldn't stop laughing :D

Here's the video:

This video was embedded using the YouTuber plugin by Roy Tanck. Adobe Flash Player is required to view the video.

Published
by
Boo Radley
on February 17, 2011
in Other / Canada
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11 Comments
17Comments

Costco Canada Photo Center 4×6 Digital Prints: 9 cents

Costco Canada Photo Centre

Looks like it's time to print your Christmas photos! Kris just emailed me about this. Thanks Kris:

Costco.ca Photo Center is having an unadvertised deal on 4x6 prints. Order 50 or more prints between Jan 14 and Jan 17 and get them for 9 cents each. It isn\'t showing on the website yet, but they will change the price at store level when you pick them up.

Please note that I have not personally verified this deal yet so if someone tries it out or has more information to confirm the deal please let us know!

Extended until January 26th! (Thanks Kris for the heads up)

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Published
by
Boo Radley
on January 21, 2011
in Canadian Deals & Coupons
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17 Comments
0Comments

The Source Deals: Toshiba Canada 8″ Digital Picture Frame with WiFi $69.96

TOSHIBA Canada DMF82XWU

Not a bad deal for a digital picture frame with WiFi support. Toshiba DMF82XWU 8" Digital Picture Frame is on sale at The Source for $69.96. The regular price is supposedly $179.99 but I have a hard time believing it should be that much. Still good deal at $69.96.

Click here for Toshiba DMF82XWU 8" Digital Picture Frame

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Published
by
Boo Radley
on January 19, 2011
in Canadian Deals & Coupons
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0 Comments
23Comments

$20 Amazon.com Gift Card for $10

Amazon.com Canada

Thanks tdub for letting me know about this :D

LivingSocial has a sizzling hot deal today! Get a $20 Amazon.com gift card for $10! Yes you can but most items off of Amazon.com even if you live in Canada. And yes as far as I know you can order deals from LivingSocial US cities even if you live in Canada. The same applies to Groupon ;)

Click here to get your Amazon.com gift card

Published
by
Boo Radley
on January 19, 2011
in Canadian Deals & Coupons
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23 Comments
24Comments

Is Canada…

Is Canada

Does anyone else find Google's autocomplete feature amusing? It's very interesting what people search for. Try anything from "Is Canada" to "I think my" and you'll discover a new silly world of amusement :P

Published
by
Boo Radley
on January 16, 2011
in Other / Canada
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24 Comments
5Comments

Future Shop Deals: PlayStation 3 320GB + 4 Games + Alice in Wonderland + Blu-ray Remote: $399.99

Playstation 3 Canada

If you're planning to buy a Sony Playstation 3 soon this deal from Future Shop is excellent!

This Future shop bundle includes:

  • PlayStation 3 320GB with one wireless controller
  • Gran Turismo 5 (game)
  • Batman: Arkham Asylum (game)
  • Uncharted 2 (game)
  • ModNation Racers (game)
  • Alice in Wonderland (blu-ray movie)
  • Blu-ray Remote control

It is on sale at Future Shop for $399.99 (regular price $519.97). You can probably price match at Best Buy Canada as well and ask them to get the same deal for the Future shop price. They are usually happy to do so.

Overall I think this is an excellent deal with a very solid set of extras.

Click here for more info on Future Shop Playstation 3 bundle

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Published
by
Boo Radley
on January 14, 2011
in Canadian Deals & Coupons
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5 Comments
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