Page 3 - RJ Pioneer - Winter

Remembering
Janice Gill
The next time you are in the River John Library,
go to the computer area and take a look at the photo
on the wall. That lovely lady is Janice Murray Gill,
whom we have to thank in large part for the present-
day library’s existence.
As the plaque beside the photo tell us, Janice was
a great promoter of River John, who took great pride
in the village where she was born and spent much
of her life and her final years. She was a generous
supporter of many of River John’s organizations
and was a well-known figure at many local events.
One of Janice’s interests, although not mentioned on
the plaque, was computers, and she, along with her
husband, Chris, would often share their knowledge
with anyone who needed help. One of the many
organizations of which Janice was a member was the
River John C@P Society, where she freely shared
her knowledge and expertise in computers.
River John suffered a great loss with Janice’s
passing in 2012, and the naming of the library as the flow to and from your home or business. Regulations
“Janice Murray Gill Memorial Library” is a fitting
tribute to a wonderful lady.
Computer scams to watch out for!
One of the most common calls I get is “My
computer tells me I have a virus and is giving me a
number to call for help”. Quite often, the message
looks like a legitimate warning from a company
as reputable as Microsoft. To make things worse,
there’s no way to close the message to get back to
what you were doing.
So the message must be right – there must be a vi-
rus on the computer? Nope – and the fix is simpler
than you might think!
What’s actually happened is you’ve reached a
web page that has created a “pop-up” window that is
designed to be difficult to close. Although it looks
legitimate (and sometimes downright intimidating!),
it’s simply a web page and can do no harm to your
computer.
If you do decide to call the number given, you’ll
more than likely end up giving the scammers access
to your computer – and at that point who knows
what they’re doing to it without your knowledge!
They’ll also charge you for the privilege of harming
your computer – nice guys eh?!
So what can you do if this happens? There’s
no way to close the window, so how do you get
around this? Well the easiest approach is to restart
your computer. This closes all programs and gets
you back to working again. You can restart your
computer by clicking on the start menu and choosing
Power/Restart. Once the computer boots up again,
you’ll find everything back to normal.
Set back for
Enhanced Net Metering
Were you planning on purchasing solar panels
to help reduce your electricity bill and help reduce
greenhouse gas emissions? Well it appears Nova
Scotia Power (NSP) has other plans - ones you won’t
find helpful.
Enhanced Net Metering allows NSP customers to
generate electricity using renewable energy while
still being able to draw power from the provincial
power grid when needed. If you produce more
energy than you use, the extra electricity will flow
onto the grid and a bi-directional meter monitors the NSP’s perspective, the only value worth considering
require that generating equipment is sized to not
exceed average annual power usage, but if at the end
of a year you’ve produced more electricity than you
used, NSP provides a cash payment for the surplus
energy.
Currently, customers are credited for power
generated at the same rate charged for power used –
14.8¢/kW-hr. This allows customers to effectively
“bank” power generated during periods when more
power is produced for use during periods when more
power is needed. So if a customer sizes their equip-
ment to generate as much power as they produce,
they end up paying nothing for electricity each year. energy costs should express their concerns about the
According to an October 12 presentation made by
NSP at a meeting hosted by Solar Colchester, they
plan to reduce the rate paid for power to between 5
and 7¢/kW-hr as soon as new regulations make that
possible. In addition, they want to change the way
customers are credited so the surplus power would
be credited at the lower cash value each bi-monthly
billing period.
Taken together, these changes would result in
many people being discouraged from using En-
hanced Net Metering. The only people who would
benefit from these changes would be NSP share
holders. The regulations currently in preparation
don’t allow NSP to make these changes, and DoE
says it will be a couple of years before such changes
are made, but the Provincial Cabinet could make
So how can you stop this from happening in the
first place? The first tip I can recommend is be
careful when clicking on links. Most of the time
this happens when you click on a link in Facebook.
The link could be an offer for something free, or
maybe a coupon for a store. The old motto – “if
something seems too good to be true, it usually is” is
especially true when it comes to Facebook! Scams
like this are designed to entice you into clicking on
something and are called “click-bait”.
Always keep Anti-Virus installed and updated.
The same goes for your computer, as keeping
updated gives the scammers less chance of actually
harming your computer through vulnerabilities.
Web filtering is another level of protection, where-
by each page you visit is checked first to see if it
could potentially cause problems. This way you’re
protected from scams even if you mistakenly click
on something that would otherwise cause problems.
All sound a bit overwhelming? Don’t worry – it’s
actually pretty straightforward and once you’re prop-
erly protected, you’ll never even notice anything is
happening (except you wont receive any of these
annoying pop-ups!).
Give me a call (902 957 2575) or drop me an
email (ngunn@scotiasystems.com) if you’d like help
setting up these levels of protection.
Safe Surfing!
-- Nick Gunn
changes at any time. When the regulations are
changed to allow tariff reductions, the Electricity
Act specifies that the new rate must be “based on
the net value of the electricity to the public utility’s
electrical system, and any other factors that may be
prescribed by the regulations.” (italics added) The
important question, then, is what those other factors
should be.
Naturally net metering has value to the people who
participate, in the form of reduced power bills. From
is how much profit they can generate for their share-
holders. However, when you look at the big picture
perspective which includes value to all Nova Sco-
tians, there are a number of additional factors which
should be considered in determining the value of the
power generated by net metering customers. These
include reduced emissions, the resulting impact
on climate change, the value of meeting our green
house gas reduction commitments, reduced need
for importing fossil fuels, and a reduced need to
build new generating capacity. These last two items
have direct impacts on the price everyone must pay
for electricity. Citizens worried about the environ-
ment and about protecting themselves against rising
future of NSP’s Enhanced Net Metering program.
To make your voice heard, contact the following
people:
Energy Minister Michel Samson
(energyminister@novascotia.ca)
MLA Karla MacFarlane
(pictouwestmla@bellaliant.com)
Premier Stephen McNeil
(premier@novascotia.ca)
-- Solar Colchester Committee