Category: ~cestlavie

July 13, 2022, another Bank of Canada meeting and a huge 1.0% (cool kids say 100 basis points) Interest Rate hike.
Four rate hikes, 2.25% in total so far, and it is still 2022 on my calendar!
Must be good for your Savings Account and bad for your Mortgage…
Continue reading “Canadian Real Estate and Interest Rates”

I was thinking of going to Banff and Jasper National Parks many times, but each time I was postponing the visit and going somewhere else instead.
My thoughts were always the same, that they were here in Canada, so I could go anytime.
Finally, this “anytime” has come!
In a short 2 weeks vacation I was able to see breathtaking views of Banff and Jasper Parks, plus visit not too rainy Vancouver and Seattle along the way.

Here is a short video of me skipping a stone across Moraine Lake.

Back in 2016/2017, I’ve spent around 5 months traveling around Asia: China, Japan, but mostly South Asia, like Thailand, Indonesia, and a bunch of other countries.
The two longest stops were the island of Koh Phangan in Thailand, where I’ve stayed for about a month, and Bali, Indonesia, where I’ve spent almost 2 months. (and did a visa run to Australia… a bad idea! 😀 )
Both islands are full of spectacular views and fun things to do, and the most popular mean of transportation on both islands is a scooter.
Continue reading “This is Scootterre!”

Real estate is kind of a national obsession in Canada (like everywhere else). Those, who have already bought the house, feel like they won a lottery, those who haven’t, still dreaming to win.
Both are checking prices and trends regularly.
Interest rates are as low as they can get, but prices went up a lot.
Checking from time to time what’s on sale around me, I can’t stop wondering how prices can be so high.
Anyway, I’m not writing about gambling on real estate today. 🙂
Continue reading “Gambling on interest rates… no more!”

So, I was able to switch both Solitaire games to HTML5, and they look and function much worse then Flash versions, but have no choice anyway.
Putting updated version to Google Play caused lots of complaints, as usual…
OpenFL still has some nasty bugs, like it crashes a lot on Android 4.4 specifically, and I don’t know why.
Next year I should move all of Mahjong games to OpenFL/HTML5 and finally start developing something new.

Amazon is shrinking.
They have closed Underground program.
Also they stopped distributing PC/Mac games, without any notification. Sounds like a big corp, that doesn’t care.

Google Ads getting worse as well. Their Video Ads often freeze and don’t allow users to play, causing lots of problems to me, as I have to block these ads manually.

Cool-hazckers still trying to brute-force my website, more then 600 IPs blocked and counting! 😎
Someone also trying to break SSH and mail server. Fail2Ban helps a lot here.
On a positive side, finally I have properly setup my mail server and it now cuts 95% of spam!
Also an email from Apple was rejected, cause they can’t properly setup they mail server… or is it me?

Did I mention every Big Tech company here?
Ah yes, Facebook… well I don’t like it. 😀

Anyway, hope everything will change for the best next year! Right??? 🙂
Merry Xmas and Happy New Year!

I’m one of the Top Developers, that’s funny! 🙂
https://www.fgl.com/other/ninjaawards2013/

YouYouwin has recently bought “exclusive” license for almost all my games.
I just don’t understand, why they call it “exclusive”.
They simply took games “as-is” with all the links and logos, just asked to remove ads and leaderboard. They don’t even require to add their own logo.
Of course, the price is low too, the average price was ~$15 per game. 🙂
Also, they have added their own ads to the games, and pay %40 commissions to developers.
Let’s see, how it’s gonna work.

Finally, I have started to develop my first multiplayer game.
As I’m cheap, it will be peer-2-peer game, so no need to purchase a server.
Gameplay is quite simple, there is a room with cats and rats (players) in it, so rats should eat cheese and stay alive, and cats should eat rats and “protect” cheese.

I have recently singed up with AlertPay.
Some of their advantages:

1. Lower fees for receiving instant payments: 2.50 % + $0.25 for any amount comparing to PayPal’s 2.9% + $0.30. But after $3000 PayPal has a lower fees of 2.5% + $0.30, and they can be even more lower.
2. AlertPay supports some countries that PayPal doesn’t, for example Pakistan. This is the main reason why I’m going to use AlertPay, some of my customers just can’t pay me with PayPal, so I hope they will can do that with AlertPay.
3. Better considered user interface and Business Tools, comparing to PayPal.

And some disadvantages:

1. Bank transfer: $0.50 for any amount, while PayPal is free for $150+.
2. Higher fees for receiving payments by credit cards, AlertPay: 4.90 % + $0.25 USD, PayPal: 2.9% (3.9%) + $0.30 USD
3. Verification process. Although they don’t ask for scan of personal documents, they have 3 types of personal account verification:
   a. Bank Account Confirmation – like PayPal.
   b. Credit File Confirmation, “For Credit File Validation, we submit your name, address and date of birth to a credit bureau to verify your identity.” – an interesting way toverify my identity.
   c. Attestation Form, “An Attestation is a form that you must fill out and have signed by a guarantor or Commissioner of Oaths.” – well…
   You have to complete two out of three verification types to be verified. I just wonder, why is one type (like bank account confirmation) not enough?
4. While AlertPay’s home page says, that they have 4500 sign-ups every day, I actually don’t know any website that accept AlertPay, but I know many websites accepting PayPal.

So, are you looking for PayPal alternative? Try it!

Well. I have created an ePassporte account to receive payment from one of my client. It was a couple weeks ago and ePassporte asked me to verify my account by adding US checking account. And what if I don’t live in USA? So, I submitted my US saving account that I have opened in my bank, just hoping that it will work and voilà… My ePassporte account is blocked, they ask for numerous scans of personal documents, checking account statements and blah-blah-blah.

Thanks to PayPal, for 2 years of use, no stupid account blocks and personal documents’ requests.

It’s a very strange thing, but the most popular flash game on my website is… Crescent Solitaire.

And I still don’t know what to do with that, because I’m going to remove all not my flash games from website with new design.

I guess, I have to make something like a clone, to replace this game, but it’s so boring.