Canadian Payment Gateways

These solutions are all ones where your website must be configured to securely accept payments online. You accept the credit card on one of your site pages so the client never leaves. A payment gateway is most useful when you are doing more than $5000 in monthly sales.

If you already have a merchant account with any of these providers you're already half way there.

• Moneris (Royal Bank & Bank of Montreal)
• Paymentech (Scotiabank & National Bank)
• Global Payments (CIBC and CITI Corp.)
• TD Merchant Services (combination of TD and First Data)
• Desjardins

Source Some of these accept low risk and others accept high-risk accounts. High risk stuff includes web hosting and anything related to adult services. InternetSecure resells for Paymentech if that is what you are looking for.

Update: we now recommend Stripe, which is a US-based service that allows you to receive USD and CAD, and will pay out in CAD unless you have a USA-based account that can recieve ACH transfers (Canada-based US dollar accounts typically require SWIFT, not ACH).

Interac Online

This is a new "pay page" service that is offered with some payment gateways listed above. Basically the bank has to allow their web banking interface to be used as a pay-page. So you get redirected to your own bank or credit union to pay then kicked back to the site at the end of the payment process. No confidential data is revealed to the merchant using this system. It takes a week or more to get your money if you use Interac Online according to one provider. They initiate a transfer from the source bank, wait two days, then hold the money a week(?! not sure why this is necessary), then two more days for the transfer. I'm sure what they probably meant to say was that it takes about a week in total.

Using Canadian Dollar Payment Services

Here is where things get interesting. For processing less than $5000 in monthly sales. Not advisable for non-profits and some others because sometimes PayPal withholds your money, for up to 6 months! Usually it takes about two days (as with most services listed on this page). There are no Drupal modules for Interac Email Money Transfers because people need to add you as a payee in their web banking using your email address as the "target account". Configuration varies by bank or credit union. If a client were to ask for this in Übercart I would recommend making it like a Cash/Cheque option where you acknowledge payment after.

• PayPal - can be used as a gateway and/or pay page in Canadian dollars
• Interac Email Money Transfer - payee must add your email address as a recipient **transfers complete in about 4h! **
• Hyperwallet - allows you to transfer between any Canadian accounts

Cheques and Cash On Delivery

Sounds absurd but it is more common than you think. Many small businesses make deliveries and bring the product direct to the consumer. In these cases we often provide a cheque or a pay by cash option just in case the client needs a "live" option to pay. On our websites we produce when you choose the cheque option customers are then presented with a billing address to "complete" the sale. The transaction is marked as a pending order until you as the store owner update the sales record.

The old configuration was getting dated. Here's a quick summary of my existing network architecture:

• An iBook from 2001, running Debian (no Mac OS for me, thanks). This machine has now suffered the loss of a second LCD screen, is running on it's second battery, has routine hard disk failures among other bugs. It acts as a gateway to the servers since it is incapable of maintaining files reliably.
• The original Linux server, built in 2004 with recycled materials generously provided by members of the Linux Users Group of Vancouver. The processor is by far the slowest of the lot, coming in at an awesome 350 MHz, but works just fine with nearly any task you throw at it. It serves up files and applications remotely and powers my in-house radio station I started back in 2003.
• The DMZ server, built in 2005 with more donated hardware from co-workers and personal friends. This machine acts as a firewall and NAT in addition to providing web services and email hosting. It is much faster than the other two machines.
• A Blackberry, purchased in 2006 to remotely manage the machines. It's slow data throughput makes it an ideal candidate for replacement as well, though the user interface is generally pretty nice.

These computers make for a very busy household with wires abounding from every angle. The processing power is minimal on the user side of things and productivity wanes on two of the boxes due to vastly insufficient memory installed in the boxes.

The roadmap for the fall includes a new desktop system, upgrades to the servers and repurposing of the laptop to become a media server for my TV.

All three "desktop" systems (2 servers, 1 desktop, laptop excluded) will be rebuilt using Mini-ITX hardware and tiny cases that will move the servers onto the bookshelf. It will reduce energy consumption in my house, almost eliminate the noise from the computers (moving it below the ambient noise level of the street), and allow more flexibility with application development by separating the testing environment from production areas of work. Lastly, the new setup will remove many of the wires that are currently under siege from the new kitten and allow serious media work to commence in the new studio.

Earlier this week I purchased a new LCD monitor which will facilitate the work on all of these new machines. Now that it's up and running the cleanup of the old servers has begun and ordering of the Mini-ITX components is set to begin. It's nice to finally be organized again.

Ready to start talking about your upcoming business plans? I'd love to hear from you.

• Find a friend in your destination city. Stay with them awhile. If they have an available room, even better! Might also be possible for them to look at places for you.
• If you have pets, get a carrier for the flight. Check your airline for pet blackout dates.
• On the pets topic, get a *large* carrier to store up to two pets while in transit.
• Buy your plane ticket! Be sure to pay any pet cargo fees after you buy.
• Get a postal redirect to your new/temporary address.
• Buy "bankers boxes" for things you wish to bring with you. I would suggest 8 of them. On that last point, the "bankers box" format is perfect because you can load it up with books and/or heavy dishes and still meet postal regulations. Yup, you're going to send these by post! It is the cheapest method for few items. Greyhound is ok too, but requires you to drop off and pickup the items. In Canada, you can send things by "expedited mail" (faster than standard, slower than express). By doing so, you can opt for insurance and for a signature on delivery. The boxes will come right to your door if you are home. Each box cost me about $50 on the high end to send (I think probably $35 on the low end). Be sure to check the maximum dimensions for the post and also the maximum weight. I also purchased some 2'x2' cubes (4 square feet) from Budget rent-a-car. They are perfectly postal + airline size compliant however it is very easy to overload them. Send the boxes a day or two before you leave. Pack your angry cats and go! Transport Canada will ask you to remove the pets from the carrier so they can swab it for potential cuteness explosions. An airline attendant helped me hold the cats as they do *not* like being in an airport. Fortunately they were both too scared to run amok at the airport. When you arrive you'll remember everything you forgot. So go buy those things at a local shop. Get ready to replace a lot of stuff. I highly recommend checking the classified sites like Kijiji and Craigslist for those items.

Of course, Quebec was locked down for most of the time I lived in Lachute so meeting new people was very limited. I focused my plans on my tiny-house dreams that had been ongoing for the better part of ten years. I decided Saskatchewan was best... not because I grew up here, but because of all the factors I was considering for homesteading.

Finally I had decided on "Northern" Saskatchewan (even though I had never been there, being from the southern part) and planned a "dry-run" Christmas drive to visit family and put myself at ease for the coming move. Technically I had not made the final decision until the end of that trip though. As I was readying the days of travel back to Lachute the Quebec government announced new (round 2) of curfews. For days I was driving and enraged by the government's decision, which was later proven to be entirely political and not medical in nature at all.

When I was a child I never had curfews. Here I was driving back to what was essentially a virtual prison. On my way out of Saskatchewan my brother in law mentioned that Starlink now was available in Saskatchewan. That was the final piece of the puzzle I needed to hear.

I had to take an extra day driving to Lachute because I would have arrived in Lachute at 11pm, but of course due to the curfew I would be fined if I tried to go home at that time of day. So I got another hotel room in Ontario and added yet another day to my travel itinerary.

When I finally arrived in Lachute I unpacked the car, dropping all of my stuff just inside the doorway. My roommate was not impressed that the pile remained there for months, until I was ready to drive back to Saskatchewan again.

At that point, starting in January of 2022, I reviewed my notes about places to live. I started looking seriously at properties and regretted that I had not taken the opportunity on the Christmas drive to look at some of the places (but to be fair, time was limited). After talking to my family my sister suggested there was an abandoned house on one of my dad's properties. It had not been lived in for 20+ years. Somewhat ironically I had not lived in Saskatchewan for 22 years. Was it meant to be?

It turns out the house had electric and water (from a well). I asked if I could safely keep my cats there while I looked for something else... and decided that was good enough for now. I ordered a Starlink and a U-Haul shipping container. And at the start of May I left Quebec for good.

So I decided, sight unseen, to go live in a falling apart house rather than continue living in the virtual prison state of Quebec.

It was a great decision.

I loaded up the U-Haul box that was parked at my house, got it ready for shipping, and then loaded the car with my essentials and my cats. I decided on 4 days of driving rather than 5-7 days as it would be easier on everybody, and it was.

During the final hour of the drive one of my cats, Lionel, who was the most stressed at the situation suddenly became calm and excited. He knew we were almost there.

There was a light rain that day. I got in pretty late, just before sunset. My parents wanted me to stay somewhere else the first night, but I was committed to making it work so I met them at the house. They brought the Starlink I had shipped to them. The road into the property was very rough and muddy. The stairs to the door were long gone. Sometimes the doors didn't even shut or popped open randomly.

I climbed in using a step ladder. Picked the bedroom that seemed the most "secure" and set myself up in there with a space heater.

Being a technical person I was super excited about the Starlink so I unboxed that after the car was unloaded. The setup was easy, plug it in, pick the WiFi network on your phone, and use the captivate portal to set a new network name and password. Great... but then I could only get one-way (send a request) but nothing came back. I decided to give up. I went outside to bring the Starlink in the house when I noticed it had re-oriented itself and was pointing at a wall. So I moved it 30 feet away, and suddenly I had great Internet, pretty much the same as I had in Lachute (besides the additional $100/month, because I'm 30-45min drive from any town).

At that point I was basically settled in.

I left the front door open 24/7 for at least a week for the Starlink cable and to air things out. Gradually I started to fix things and figure out all the problems with the house. Eventually the cable got a hole drilled in the wall for it and the door stayed mostly closed, with the exception of about 3-5 times when it would suddenly blow open in the middle of the night. Very spooky, but always based on the direction of the wind.

Eventually that door got replaced with a full-length glass door so I can see the cats coming and going. The cats were in heaven: the property has 1.25 square miles to roam, as my dad's cattle live here in the summertime. The cats were pleased that we have TONS of mice, and TONS of gophers.

We later identified that there is a family of weasels that live near the house, many jack rabbits, coyotes (of course), foxes, and owls (which can be very deadly for domestic pets). Before moving in there were reportedly raccoons in the house, although I have not seen any around even 2 years later. The house also had been taken over by birds for a period of time before I arrived, but a cleaning crew took care of that before my arrival.

Now it has been over two years and I am really loving the country life. I started a small "back-yard" chickens operation last year and got a second round of birds this year. The owls have taken out a few of them, but the eggs are delicious, and the owls seem to only strike during a full moon when there is no wind. So it is a workable situation.

This idea was largely inspired by "Tara's Place", which was a fictional restaurant I thought I was going to visit in Santa Cruz, California years ago. When my colleague brought me there I realized, it was actually the home of the Tara who we worked with... and she had a back yard full of chickens! It was a wonderful visit and inspiration that I could have never predicted.

When the first batch of chickens were ready to move into their coop I noted a badger that I had not seen before. It turns out the badger's tracks were everywhere and I should have been paying attention to that. Anyway, my cats were not intimidated by the badgers, and the badgers were happily eating all the gophers, but I decided to get a dog anyway "just in case" to protect the chickens.

The first dog didn't last long... six months? I can't even remember. After that I decided to get a pair of beautiful Labrador-Retrievers. We had a great first year with them going to the dog park in the city, going for long drives, and hanging out at the yard with the chickens (and in the summer, also the cows). Recently one of them passed due to eating some inedible "net-wrap" for bales. Farm life is what it is sometimes.

Throughout this time period I have continued to work on my software projects. Sales are a bit harder to do... as my sales pipeline was primarily based on going to conferences in the US and Europe and partnering up with other developers. Effectively the lockdowns had killed that anyway, so I don't consider living out in the country detrimental in that sense.

One thing I learned about not going to conferences: I never get sick anymore. I used to get sick about once a month! And I used to travel about once a month too. Coincidence?

Unfortunately I don't spend any time on social media at all, and I am not a fan of Discord or Slack for contributing to open-source projects, so I will have to figure out some new strategies for finding future work. I am hoping to continue working with small and mid-size businesses on their data-driven projects. I have learned a little about how "farm networks" are setup as well, so there are some opportunities in the local market that are tangentially software related.

With that in mind I have been creating my own software projects just for fun. Eventually I'll release some of them as I find projects that align with my code. It is nice to have a more relaxed pace of life. The zen of being alone is very conducive to creating new things.

Living in the country is great and my only regret is that I didn't do it a long time ago. People ask me if I feel isolated being by myself out in the country, but how can you feel isolated with two cats, a dog, two-dozen chickens, and being surrounded by wildlife all day long? To be honest, what is truly isolating is living in a city, in a small box apartment, never talking to your neighbours, and being far away from family.

• Keeping email under control is important.  People like when you get back to them quickly with real information.  Being organized facilitates this.
• Getting a VOIP line is valuable if you have a fast network and are running out of daytime minutes. 
• Designing is something I enjoy, but, not something I do all the time - I am used to working with professoinal designers.
• Health is even more vital to your success.  That means sleeping, getting over colds and flus quickly and having a stable work space.

These things all said, I'm ready to launch some new sites.  They have been steeping for awhile and they are now ready for prime time.  With any luck next week will be full of announcements of new client work. 

Here's what I've got lined up:

• Introducing your business to web analytics. If you're still using plain web statistics to observe the preferences of your visitors it's time to move on. The modern website requires a little more attention than how many pages are downloaded in a given day. I can introduce you to your global audience, show you who comes from where, how they got there, and what they are ultimately looking for.
• Copywriting content for your business. Let's face it, writing is "easy" but not everyone reads things the same way. I can help you refine your content so that it is appropriate for the many different audiences visiting your website. As you would expect, writing samples are available upon request. Topics can vary as I enjoy writing on a number of subjects. I can also write very clear documentation for your technical projects that any geek would love and end users will appreciate too.
• Graphic production, post-procssing and hosting of imagery. Over the past few years I have been utilizing the tools beyond Photoshop that are used to process graphics for websites. As such, I can configure automated systems for you to browse, categorize, and publicize images as you wish. Need a watermark for sharing your photography? I can make it happen over any medium: email, ftp, website, or post straight off your computer without you needing to lift a finger. Or maybe you just want this photo touched up on the cheap but with stellar results. Send all that stuff my way.
• Website design and implementation oversight. I have managed a variety of web projects in the past ranging from large to small. The needs of each project differ but genarally have a lot in common. Designers are needed, they often work with different developers on the project and lots of different technologies can be involved. I try to keep the technologies and the timelines focused so things don't get out of control. Sometimes simpler really can be better. These projects tend to be somewhat larger so check in with my schedule if you need this on the fly.

So there you have it. I do these four particular things and have sufficent experience with all of them to guide you along the process of whatever online business project you are working on.

If any of these items are of interest to you pick up the phone and call me. I can be reached at 604 505 4060. I am available 7am-8pm, please leave a message during standard business hours (typically 9-5) as I am occupied with other activities during this time.

While we're on the topic, it's probably important for you to know that I've generally worked with larger organizations in the past but I hold small business owners with a high regard. With this in mind I research both ends of the spectrum, keeping in mind the bigger picture which includes your average "mom and pop" shop.

Does it work on Linux? Yes. It does. All of the "Internet Sticks" or "USB Internet keys" currently sold in Canada support Linux. In Debian 6 the device will be detected within about a minute and will then appear in your Network Manager menu. Don't click the connection yet - you have to configure a couple things first. You should open your network connections, click the tab where your "modem" should be and select "add provider". This will ask you what country and provider you are using. Do that! It has the 'dialup' info for your carrier ready to go for you. The other thing it will need to know is a PIN number if you are on Telus. I put that in the PIN field and the password field. I put my wireless number into the username fields as some forums recommended. Apparently does not like that field to be blank.

What is the coverage like? Which network? All of the Canadian offerings are currently on the same network technology, HSPA+, which is a variant of GSM. Those familiar with wireless will recognize that Bell and Telus are jumping over to the GSM side of the spectrum. Because of this, I considered all operators equally. Telus and Bell have roaming agreements with the prairie telecoms and I plan to do some traveling though that region regularly... so they win in this case. I have Rogers network access already with my cellphone but they only really have coverage in Manitoba and some parts of Alberta. For those new to this, Rogers runs it's own network, while Telus and Bell roam with each other's networks. They all use the same technology, but there are effectively two big networks in Canada. Fortunately, I checked in on Sasktel's LTE/HSPA+ rollout and the places I'm traveling to are already running on the "new" network Telus/Bell/Sasktel network. So from now on I should always have a connection while I'm in the country, having the new Internet stick and my existing Rogers phone to rely on.

What is the pricing like? How much data? Even though I am a web developer I use very little amounts data each month. Seriously. My work is all done on the server, so I connect to that and all the dirty work is done there. No uploading/downloading/uploading process in my world. I also do not watch a lot of video or listen to music online. Having monitored my laptop bandwidth for a few months I can say I use about 5gb of data on wifi, where I assume no limitations, and about 0.5gb on my wireless account if I use it a lot (full time for 10 days will do it). I plan on using about 3x more data on the new wireless connection than my old one, so 1.5gb should be about right. All of the network operators in Canada basically offer the same plan. Due to the potential for going wildly over budget I recommend the "flexi" plan (it is roughly $5 more but automatically adjusts to the next level if you go over). Again, all major operators have this on offer: $35 starter rate (500mb or so) $55-60 midrange (up to 2gb on most or 3gb on Bell) $70ish high/fulltime (5gb) Anything over that will cost you about $50/gig and in my case Telus is going to stop the card from functioning at the 10gb mark. Probably a good idea since that would mean an extra $250 on top of my monthly bill.

Which Card is Best? Telus offers two cards, Bell one, and Rogers two. The best one on Telus is the Sierra series, so sayeth the forums. Construction of the card is better? The best one on Rogers is the MTE variety. It seems to get higher speeds. The best one on Bell is... well who cares about Bell. I ended up with the lower option of the two Sierra cards Telus had on offer, the Sierra 306. I chose this one for a few reasons:

• It only required a 1 year contract
• It supported the same network(s) as the higher end model
• The difference between high speed and ultra high speed is irrelevant (it is just reason to use more data)
• The pricing for the higher end model is dumber than dumb. The outright cost is $29 more than the lower one, but you pay $79 up front on contract vs. $0... why so much more? Dumb.
• Currently the bulk of users on the Telus/Bell network are using the older network technology, so there should be no harm in choosing a mid-range card on the new network... the network has few users thus lots of bandwidth.

  Final Thoughts / Observations The stick is much faster than I expected. It is amazing to use. As I had been warned by some friends who have used these things, the USB sticks get hot really fast. It is okay though. They are tested to run that hot. On a busy day my bandwidth usage is about 65-70mb. Primarily using SSH to connect to servers and a lot of page reloads while I'm developing.

This year it's totally happening! At least that's the plan so far. I'm trying to refocus my energies on online marketing with a bit of writing and photography. That rounds out my offerings to be a "full service" web shop to businesses large and small.

For larger organizations I prefer to work on an advisory basis, while for smaller clients I'm ready to dive in and actually write some code as well.

You'll probably notice that the template on my new site is greatly improved over the one on this blog. That is intentional as well - it is a complete rewrite of the templates I was creating in a past life for my favourte resorts in North America. Updates to my other sites (including this one) will occur more frequently to promote the business. Having my own templates as a starting point helps immensely.

If you visit my personal site you will see my general outline of services for the coming months. Some things are still in the works so stay tuned for more. Until then, if you need help communicating with technology please let me know. I'm always available for lunch should you want to pick my brain for ideas.

Having taken the same trip last year at this time I will be traveling to the cities in reverse order, suggesting that I may stay in Ontario longer than planned. What are my plans when I'm there? Largely the same as what I do here: lots of reading, coffee and writing emails. Catching up with things I haven't had the time to do in Vancouver lately.

Another component of the trip will include interviews with people in the communication and journalism circles of the region. Networking in Vancouver is limited to a few industry associations and the eastern markets offer some commentary you just won't get at the local gigs.

Though technically this is my vacation I'm holding steady on a commitment to travel east to get a feel for the culture of other Canadian cities. The hope is to develop a network of contacts that will support the work I do on the coast.

1. Writing software is a creative endeavor. It is effectively like writing a book, but for a machine to read. It just needs a special language and has lots of grammar rules must be followed. Have some respect for your developer and you will get the best results.
2. Developers cannot code when they are upset. This is important to understand. If you wrote a novel on your way to work, while stuck in traffic every day, nobody will want to read your book at the beach. Why? It would just not be that laid-back friendly book you want to read at a beach. The same goes for software. Making a dev angry doesn't help get the code flowing. Give your developer space when things flare up.
3. If you know how to do it, you don't need a dev. Telling anyone how to do their job is generally a faux-pas in any situation but lots of clients love to do it with software. Focus on constructive feedback. Things that help everyone progress through the project.
4. "That should be easy" Just because a piece of software or a practice you want to emulate is out there in the wild does not necessarily make it easy to setup in your environment. Talk to your developer about how long things should take and ask for alternative ideas if you need things done sooner.
5. Focus on your goal, not the implementation. What do you want your users to do? It is better to approach a developer with an idea that they can find a way to implement. If you dictate how the implementation should happen, which modules, what type of code, etc, your project will likely take longer and cost more... unless you are in some sort of privileged position to understand how all of those elements work together (ie, if you are also a developer working with a sub-contractor).
6. Formalize your requirements up-front. There is nothing worse for a software developer than a client who at the very last minute decides that they wanted something completely different. This sounds absurd but it happens. Get a statement of work from your developer and make sure everything you need is on it. At the start. If it isn't, do not be surprised when components are missing or add-ons get billed out differently than the rest of your project.
7. Do not lie to your developer. This is just basic. If you lie to your developer it will eventually catch up to you. Due to the creative nature of programming breaching trust can have a catastrophic effect on your project. Respect the professionalism of your developer and you will get the same in return.

Any other suggestions? If you have some that I feel are worth publishing I'll add them to the list.

Montréal is great for is meetups. There are tons of software meetups, every night of the week! So I put my hiking shoes on and started going to a lot of events.

I took to the streets

For awhile I got involved with DevLab and for a few weeks I did Blitzweekend events. The former was great French practice for me, I learned all about git, and then I took that knowledge to Blitzweekend where I coded my first code release Drupal projects. Then I became an approved maintainer on Drupal.org. Progress! I also connected with Montréal's Drupal association. The association has grown over the years and 2011 marks the start of the group as a registered society under Québec's non-profit system. We also planned out a Drupal Camp (and I learned a lot - not having done this sort of thing before). Some of us are discussing running an "actual camping" event in the summer. Would you like to help? Let me know.

A new company was born

This was also the year that I channeled all of this good energy into rebranding my company. From 2008-2010 I had run under the name "Granola Systems" which was registered in British Columbia. It is a suitably apt name for a company out west, but doesn't carry the same meaning in eastern North America. For much of 2011 I reverted back to billing as Ryan Weal until our incorporation documents were complete. In the fourth quarter of 2011 I officially relaunched as Kafei Interactive Inc. / Kafei Interactif Inc. We're registered nationally, so as long as we're based in Canada we will always have the same name. In case you're wondering, kāfēi is how you say the word "coffee" ( 咖啡 ) in Chinese. We drink a lot of coffee at our studio.

We scaled up a bit

As I launched Kafei Interactive, the new business opened up to include many more people in our production process. It was really a huge step up that has been needing to happen for awhile. This year we brought in many more people to our nimble shop. We had one person loading content on a couple projects, a translator, at least three types of designers, a database guru, a support guy. The list goes on. In total, there are probably about ten different people we work with now.

New invoicing system

To handle the increased capacity this year we opted for a new banking and invoicing arrangement. We now invoice with our time tracking system and clients can pay online.

For clients who pay by credit card, you can now collect travel points with your card.

We also started accepting Interac e-Transfers. These changes reduced the number of trips to the bank and also has the advantage of taking the post man out of the equation for collecting payments. Canada Post was on strike for a few months this year. It was a frustrating experience. We also began a new effort to quote more accurately on our projects. This one is tough, and it has certainly taken a bite from our paycheques in the past. Estimating software is hard to do is a pretty accurate statement. In the new year we will be linking our work orders with our invoices so clients will have a complete overview of all account activities. Lastly on the infrastructure front, we maintained a brick and mortar office for most of the year. Though looking back it seems counter to all of the "virtualization" of our business practices. At the end of the year we decided to consolidate our shared apartment situation and our office into one private studio in the heart of Montréal. We're now located in central Villeray!

Our business has changed

This one was planned but it is always interesting to see how it plays out in real life. We took on a lot more coding this year. In fact, most of what we do now is strictly programming. We also do brochure websites, theming, and internationalization of websites. That is a pretty wide variety of stuff, which is why we use a narrow set of tools to get things done. The coding stuff is really enjoyable and we hope to be doing more and more of it in the future.

The great give While taking on additional coding projects

we started to release our work on drupal.org. This week I finally published a variety of modules which have been in development at different points in the year. Unfortunately our module work has been focused on Drupal 6 because that is the API we were really "steeped" in and it had the body of supporting modules we needed for our clients. We plan on releasing D7 versions of anything we post on drupal.org, but much of it will come in the new year.

What's next for Kafei Interactive

The new year is all about Drupal 7 for us. We're full time coders, so if there is anything lacking in D7 we're equipped to take on those little bits and pieces. While we're at it we're going to push ourselves closer to the current development of Drupal... that is to say, we're also going to be chasing Drupal 8 but we will be using Drupal 7 for all projects until it is declared stable and meets our needs.

So after a few short hours I successfully moved one box. All I needed to do was uninstall IE 7, reboot, start all my programs again, then test and play till things looked right before installing IE 7 again. What a waste of time.

All this just so Microsoft could look innocent when they were trying to "prove" IE was integrated with Windows back when they were being sued by the DOJ. I can't believe the US govt bought the story. Sigh.

What is getting me thinking about this is where other companies are taking their email connectivity. Both Google and Microsoft are working on small business solutions where you don't just get a website, but email hosting, site maintenance and organizational tools as well. This is probably the best categorical fit for the work I am currently doing but clearly that can't last long. So which direction to move in next?

I'm thinking the next move is to integrate with my media servers. Sure, Google and Microsoft will do a great job with managing information. Adding up numbers and crawling the web. Media distribution is a lot more fun though so I'm going to focus on facilitating content driven networks in the coming months. Am I jumping the social networking bandwagon? I don't think so. So far it's a lot of vanity uploading and convenience streaming of media. Google has video, they sure do. Will they play my music though? Unlikely so far...

The reasons behind this shift in strategy? Well, I'm thinking about moving again so I might move this server to a remotely hosted facility. It will cost about the same but I will have a lot more bandwidth to play with and the added protection of battery backups and monitored facilities. After all, cats cannot reboot servers when they go down (well, they never go down, but that's not my point).

Initially I thought this was kind of absurd but after some time I am starting to think that he is on to something.  Social media is limited by the form fields big companies place on their sites.  As of yet, none have done a good job of tying information together across services like a custom site can.  But what happens when you are ready to step up to a custom website but you are not quite ready for a full-fledged multi-page CMS site?

The business case for a really small site

Some say that blogging is the answer but a lot of people who work on their own are not keen to be writing all day or even once a week.  A business card is all these clients need... a simple design project and some plain text somewhere on the page so they can start getting into Google's index.  Something that will still be there if they forget to post for six months.  With a setup like that a business can start defining it's own image rather than leave it entirely up to online commentators. 

The added advantage of doing things this way is that the account is not terminated due to lack of activity.   It also ensures someone is seriously looking at your SEO and that you can track the results of your campaign(s).  That can be important for people that do not work online but see their presence as a distant cousin to their Yellow Pages ad.

Restaurants fall into this category for sure - how many eateries do you love but either do not have a website or have a really terrible one that you can never find? My favourite pizza delivery shop has no online presence at all, except for a few comments on a restaurant review site which happens to have the phone number listed there.  It would be great for them to have their name and a phone number somewhere consistent.  Even better if it had a menu.  That's really all I need to order a pizza... and a one page site would do the trick.

A "business card on the web" would help businesses like these - where they already have some online presence but they want to have some control over their identity.  It is a bit of web design, some programming and search engine optimization.  That can be beyond a lot of business owners but fairly trivial for those of us who love code. 

• University Hours - I have reverted back to my old schedule prior to my workin' man days. Sometimes I work until all hours of the night if a project is due, other days I have breaks to disconnect.
• Telephone Centric - Since I'm working outside of the downtown core the phone has become a lifeline of social activity.  I have added a VOIP line so I can talk for free with people all over Canada.
• Tougher Love - A lot of planning needs to go into my projects.  Trying to keep on schedule means I need to put the nice guy routine on hold sometimes. 
• Seriously Organized - I had to edit my time-tracking script to have it log work for clients directly into their file.  My email is all sorted out now too.  I even have a server-based address book syncing all devices.

It feels good to be here.  In my zen days of university I dreamed of being this organized and having the ability to script some of the business logic.  The coming months shall be productive ones.

Since November 2008 I have been working with Geist Magazine helping to build out new functionality on the website and relaunch the site after upgrading it from Drupal 5 to Drupal 6.  For nearly all of this work I have been coding from my home in East Van and/or nearby cafés.  I love cafés, a lot, but after awhile you just feel like you need your own space.  So here I am.

Geist occupies a shared office space with other arts groups at 341 Water Street.  There is at least one book publisher, a performing arts group and others.  My desk fits into the web corner, bounded by archives of the magazine and a window from which you can see the sun adorn the red brick of the building next door.

Today when I reviewed my purchase of computer equipment from a company in California that focuses on tiny energy-efficent machines I found that the Canadian border was the holdup. My goods are sitting in customs. I learned this when I called Canada Post and they ran a lookup on the United States Postal Service tracking code I have. Nothing in the system... yet. The items are still in processing at a government facility.

It then dawned on me to check around online to see what my expectations should really be. It turns out my concerns were premature, things are still in processing and that's normal. The difference with this package seems to be that the parts are reasonably more expensive than the t-shirts I love to buy. Or perhaps the t-shirts travel by land? Whatever the case, such is life. When it does finally arrive, tax slip and review fee in tow, it will be great to use a tiny perfectly silent computer.

Fortunately I spent my vacation camping rather than configuring computers. The next few weeks make up some of the greatest weather Vancouver has to offer all year and as usual the city is busy with activity. When September eventually does roll around I'll be in good shape to configure these little boxes as the rain sets in for the season.

Noting that the service allows for much more than just reading RSS I discovered I could "claim" ownership to my blog and present a public profile for both it and myself. So in the coming days you should see some information about this blog showing up in Bloglines.

The great thing about creating these profiles is the cross-linking that starts to happen when people get a better idea of what you're talking about. This type of linking drives a lot of traffic to websites which will hopefully lead to improved performance with search engine optimization.

Lately I've been observing a new trend in my analytics reports where profiles are becoming more and more relevant to driving new traffic. As it happens, much corporate traffic comes from employee referrals and profiles on sites like LinkedIn and Facebook. It's surprising, but word of mouth works just as well on the web as it does in person.

Thus far I'm not certain whether this type of linking helps or hinders search optimization techniques but any new traffic seems to be good traffic when it's coming from a group of real individuals.

The site is comprised of a simple HTML file and some hand-coded CSS that should work on nearly any browser out there. It is overkill for a simple one page site but my intention was to build myself a template that I can use for future projects.

The content on this landing page is an attempt at dealing with "Web 2.0". On it, you will find links to my blog postings, references to publications I read, and of course links to the network services that I rely on (such as my secure webmail zone, for instance). In essence, it should capture most things about my internet persona that show up on a Google search. It is therefore a profile which exists outside of Facebook's walled garden like others have been talking about.

As of yet, I have still not taken the plunge to try Twitter which apparently alleviates some of the "walled garden" concerns that others have. For now, the website can tie things together and you'll just have to send me your status updates through a social network I participate in. Those links will be up on the site soon enough.

With this milestone behind me I am now looking forward to doing some code to generate pages in a somewhat automatic fashion. Whether I use PHP or some cgi scripting remains to be decided, but the content will likely be based on a photo gallery application that I have utilized inside my network for some time. Another possibility is to roll out a streaming server for internet audio.

My new website, once again, is weal.ca.

Kafei Interactive Inc.. The new company continues the work that I was doing as Granola Systems (BC) and takes on some of my work for Groupe Rutagi (NS/QC). I look forward to continuing my work with the Drupal community under this new banner from my new office in Montréal.

Make Soup

Here is a recipe my Wordpress dev roommate and I developed over the winter. It has two tracks for most ingredients so there are usually enough foods around the house to make it happen (provided you have 1 cup of lentils). We usually just cook it in one big pot and add things until it is done. This soup is vegan. It is a life saver if you cannot digest anything else. If you really must add meat, I highly recommend bacon: the programmers' choice in meats. Our recipe follows. Everything in the "eat" section is optional. We have never had a bad experience with this recipe! Even better if you include all the options and use broth rather than water... but we never have all that stuff in stock. Enjoy!

Wash

• 1 cup brown lentils OR 1 cup large green lentils

Fry

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion OR garlic, chopped/minced
• 1 medium red bell pepper OR tomato, chopped

Spice

• 1 tbsp fennel ½ tsp ground cumin OR coriander
• ¼ tsp. ground red pepper OR cayenne pepper

Boil

• 4 cups water
• 1 cup lentils
• ½ tsp salt

Eat

• 1 tbsp lemon!
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 2 tbsp chopped parsley

Now get back to work, hippy!

Kafei Interactive is now based in Lachute, Québec.

Lachute is a small francophone town of 12,000 people. It is about an hour north of Montréal where the forest begins. There are multiple different highways that connect here as well as many bike routes. My first bike tour after arriving in town was 38km (24 miles)!

Now that we are settled in we are hoping to get to work with some small and mid-size businesses in the area to compliment our existing US-based clientele.

If you need help with your website, app development, or technology systems please get in touch with us!

Si vous parlez français je peux connecter vous avec mon colleague Marc. Je parler français aussi mais il est mieux!

A repetition rut

One of the reasons I got into building and migrating Drupal sites was that repetition. At first it was good... I could accurately tune any migration using mostly familiar steps each time. Estimates started to become more reliable (like most software developers I have often struggled with estimates). For the first time I was repeating mostly the same offering and just doing the "rinse and repeat" cycle to make a reasonable living until it became not enough to keep me happy.

In the past I have criticized myself for not doing more of this type of thing. I always learn something and then immediately shift my interests to something new. Which is great, except, I never really get a chance to profit from what I learned. In many cases I have watched other agencies pick up my ideas at this point and run with them. I'm glad I finally slowed down enough to actually make some money while the going was good.

Shiny new things

The summer of 2016 had me investigating new things and I spent some time doing Vue.js tutorials, which led me to create Bulletpad; a progressive web app that demonstrates "offline mode" capabilities which I talked about at Badcamp 2016 and DrupalCamp Northern Lights (Iceland) 2017. It also landed me a gig building an Electron-based kiosk app for a museum (also with Vue.js). My first-ever software gig that had nothing to do with Drupal(!!), except it was for an agency where I knew some Drupal developers. Very exciting stuff.

Months have gone by and I have iterated on my thoughts about these technologies and it dawned on me that if I wanted to do more with these tools I could no longer recommend Pantheon (my recommended Drupal provider) to host it, so I brushed up my Nginx skills to make a static host. Along the way I discovered the reverse proxy capabilities in Nginx and promptly put reverse proxies in front of all of my Drupal sites. It led me to go even deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole and long story short now I find myself making static sites, rendered with metalsmith.io, self-hosting with multiple mirrors (or "an International CDN") that I built myself using vagrant and docker, and it is much faster (and way more exciting) than everything I was using before.

It was even cooler when I re-launched this blog and there was literally not even a single second of downtime during the transition. That was something I have never accomplished on my own just doing Drupal, and suddenly it was easy, and also the only obvious way to do the change. The process for doing this with Drupal would be exactly the same, but would I have ever looked into it if I didn't go back to doing static sites and server builds? Highly unlikely.

Looking back

Even though the time I spent doing full-time migrations was fun and lucrative it did not make me happy to be doing it all the time. Especially when it became "features rerolling hell" and neverending requirements changes. Even though I continue to do migration gigs, I balance them with projects that allow me to learn new things... but only in my personal time; because estimating what you don't know for clients is very hard to do, and can be a frustrating experience if things do not go as planned. That can ruin a technology for you and cause you to burn out. Completely unnecessary and avoidable scenario if you have things to inspire you in your life.

Over time I hope to make these new tools a greater portion of my consulting time, at least until I find something even shinier and even newer... and that is OK. :)