The in-person audition starts with individual pictures, an occasional conga line, and some informal Q&A with the contestant team. You’ve already passed the online test, so the emphasis here is to have fun and let your unique personality shine. They’ll also lead the group through some interactive clues to get you warmed up and thinking like a contestant. This is followed by a written test similar to the online test but with completely different material. You’ll have a few minutes to relax while the tests are graded. After the paperwork is assembled, the contestant coordinators will lead the group through a brief game-playing tutorial. After the tutorial, everyone will take turns playing a mock version of the game in groups of three. At the end of the mock game, each applicant will be asked to tell a little bit about themselves: likes, dislikes, career, family, hobbies, etc. 
 
 Remember: The contestant coordinators are there to help you perform your best. Two things you’ll hear often are “Speak up!” and “Keep the game moving!” These are two critical elements in your being considered for the show. Listen to them and be ready to make adjustments based on their feedback. 
 
 The whole process takes approximately two hours. Please arrive early. Because of the strict format of the testing process, latecomers simply cannot be admitted. No exceptions. Only the test takers will be permitted to enter the audition room – guests and spectators will not be allowed. We encourage you to dress as you would on the show. ||||| Alex Trebek may be one of the only Canadians on Jeopardy! next season. Producers from the show have barred Canadians from taking the most recent round of online tests, which recruit future contestants, because they are concerned about complying with Canada’s online privacy regulations. 
 
 Could Alex Trebek could be the only Canadian on Jeopardy!? ( AP ) 
 
 “As international laws governing how information is shared over the internet are ever-changing and complex, we are currently investigating how we can accept registrations from potential Canadian contestants,” spokesperson Alison Shapiro said in an email. “The Jeopardy! Adult, Teen, and College tests have already taken place this year, and we are making every effort to find a solution before the next round of testing is available.” It’s a blow for the legions of Canadian Jeopardy! fans who dream of asking Trebek the right question and winning fame and fortune. The show’s silver-tongued host even felt compelled to comment on the exclusion, telling the Ottawa Citizen that it was “an issue affecting my native country and the show I love.” 
 
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 “It is true that for the most recent Jeopardy! contestant tryouts, Canadians were precluded from taking the online test, since the show must now comply with new rules set down by the Canadian government,” he told the Citizen. Because people stay on the Jeopardy! contestant list for 18 months, there may be some Canadians from last year’s test that could still be eligible, Trebek said, adding that several Canadians have already appeared this season. “We have had many Canadians as contestants throughout the history of the show, and we hope that will continue, because Canadians make great game show contestants. We look forward to having more try out as soon as we are sure we can comply with all Canadian online privacy laws,” he said. Neither Trebek nor the producers were able to pinpoint what exactly the issue is with Canada’s privacy laws that prevent Canadians from completing the online tests. Requests made by the Toronto Star to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission and Industry Canada were similarly fruitless. 
 
 No government department could say what the problem might be with the online test, or which department questions about the test should be directed to. Ultimately, it shouldn’t be too hard to create an online test that is compliant with this country’s privacy laws, said Chad Finkelstein, a lawyer with Dale and Lessman LLP who has written about business compliance with privacy laws. 
 
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 “It seems to me that those hurdles are very easy to get around,” Finkelstein said. The biggest difference between here and the United States, Finkelstein said, is how we treat spam. In force since July 1 2014, Canada's anti-spam legislation forbids companies from emailing citizens without their express or implied permission. In the U.S., it’s enough to allow customers to opt-out. If a person signs up for a product or service in Canada, companies can only communicate with the person about that product or service. Ryan Black, lawyer at McMillan LLP, said the decision could have been triggered by a new feature on the website, or the producers could have just gotten nervous. The penalties for breaking anti-spam laws are steep, and can rack up fines up to $10 million. “It’s especially onerous,” said Black, who specializes in anti-spam legislation. It’s not the first time an international enterprise has gotten cold-feet about Canadian anti-spam laws, Black said. For about one day in 2014, Microsoft decided it couldn’t send out notices about security patches. “They very quickly realized, ‘yes we can, we just have to do it in a different way,’” Black said. ||||| These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites. ||||| Canadians Left With Questions After Being Barred From 'Jeopardy!' 
 
 Enlarge this image toggle caption Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP 
 
 A decision to bar Canadian citizens from being future contestants on TV's Jeopardy quiz show is causing a range of reactions in Canada, particularly among those who note that show host Alex Trebek has dual citizenship in the U.S. and Canada. 
 
 Media outlets in Canada recently noted that their country is singled out in Jeopardy's eligibility guidelines: 
 
 "At this time we are precluded from accepting registration information from Canadian residents. We are currently evaluating this matter." 
 
 That led the Toronto Star to note, "Trebek may be one of the only Canadians on Jeopardy! next season." 
 
 The situation is being attributed to differences in online privacy laws – but some Canadians aren't buying it. Here are the two top-rated comments on the CBC's story about the ban today: 
 
 "We kept winning that's why! If you can't beat'em, ban'em" – ComplacentCanadian 
 
 "This is in keeping with the general 'dumbing down' of Jeopardy questions. The last college championships were laughable. You only require knowledge of TV shows, American Presidents, and the Bible." – Maggie M50 
 
 That CBC story, we'll note, was under the headline, "I'll take Bummer for $400: Canadians no longer allowed on Jeopardy." 
 
 An Ontario native, Trebek told the Ottawa Citizen last week that while Canadian contestants have been on the show in the past — and more are also competing in the current season — "for the most recent Jeopardy! contestant tryouts, Canadians were precluded from taking the online test, since the show must now comply with new rules set down by the Canadian government." 
 
 But Trebek also noted that once they're in the pool of contestants, people stay there for 18 months, meaning that Canadians who registered before the ban could still appear. He also said the show's producers hope to make sure it is in compliance with Canada's laws. 
 
 The precise snag that's keeping Canadians from signing up for future episodes of the show isn't being discussed in detail. Reports in Canadian media cite a statement from the producers of Jeopardy! in which they said, "As international laws governing how information is shared over the internet are ever-changing and complex, we are currently investigating how we can accept registrations from potential Canadian contestants." 
 
 Citing two legal experts, the Star says the law in question could be Canada's anti-spam legislation, which carries potential penalties of up to $10 million for abuse. The newspaper reports that the law, enacted in July of 2014, "forbids companies from emailing citizens without their express or implied permission. In the U.S., it's enough to allow customers to opt-out." 
 
 One other notable piece of online privacy legislation that recently took effect in Canada is the Digital Privacy Act. Enacted last summer, it sets rules for how personal information can be collected, used and disclosed. It also regulates how companies handle cybersecurity breaches and sets steep fines for companies that don't handle them properly. 
 
 When The National Post asked the office of Canada's Privacy Commissioner how many complaints Canadians had filed about Jeopardy! potentially violating their privacy, spokeswoman Tobi Cohen replied, "I can tell you that our office has not been engaged in this matter." ||||| A reader calls with disturbing news: Jeopardy! — the best game show ever — has barred Canadians from applying as contestants. 
 
 I’ll take Canadians Are Way Too Smart for $200, Alex. Could this rumour really be true? I didn’t believe it. 
 
 And yet there it is on the Jeopardy! website (yes, they exclaim the name!). Potential contestants are told to take an online test, which could lead to a live audition in an American city. To take the test, however, a person must register and provide a zip code which, of course, Canadians don’t have. 
 
 Dig a little deeper in the site and you come across a Q & A section. 
 
 Q: ARE CANADIANS ELIGIBLE TO TAKE THE TEST? 
 
 A: “At this time we are precluded from accepting registration information from Canadian residents. We are currently evaluating this matter.” 
 
 Wow. And we thought Donald Trump would build that wall, like, after the election. 
 
 Here’s the awkward part. The iconic host, the ever-gracious Alex Trebek, a household name in a household game, is not only Canadian-born but rather fond of Ottawa, arguably his second home north of the border. 
 
 Though originally from Sudbury, he spent several years here studying at the University of Ottawa, where he earned two degrees before graduating in 1962. He later worked in radio and television for the CBC. Local? As a student, he roomed in a house just a couple of streets over from me. So he’s something of an Ottawa homie. 
 
 A well-known philanthropist, Trebek returned to Ottawa in 2015 to inaugurate the Alex Trebek Alumni Hall on the campus of the university. It was no empty gesture. Trebek, now 75 and the host since 1984, has donated more than $2.25 million to his alma mater and a sign on Séraphin Marion Private bears his name. 
 
 David Barnabe, 43, a public servant in Ottawa, has long wanted to be a contestant on the show. His interest goes back to the 1980s when he travelled to Pittsburgh in an effort to make the teen Jeopardy! tournament. “I even met Alex Trebek down there.” 
 
 The show opens up its online test period usually once a year and, in 2016, it was in January. When Barnabe went to take the test again, he had to re-register, then stumbled on the zip code request. No go. On to Google, which had a discussion of the new barrier on Reddit, where users were floating various theories about the anti-Canuck rule. 
 
 He’s hoping the Canadian exclusion is a temporary thing. 
 
 A publicist for the show was unable to provide a detailed explanation as to what has changed with Canadian participation in Jeopardy!, but hinted the country’s new anti-spam legislation, in effect since mid-2014, might be a factor. 
 
 “As international laws governing how information is shared over the Internet are ever-changing and complex, we are currently investigating how we can accept registrations from potential Canadian contestants,” reads an email response from Alison Shapiro. 
 
 “The Jeopardy! Adult, Teen, and College tests have already taken place this year, and we are making every effort to find a solution before the next round of testing is available.” 
 
 The online test consists of 50 questions, with a time limit for each. Those who score best are placed in a pool to be invited to a live audition. Since 2006, more than a million people have tried the test. 
 
 “The online test has expanded JEOPARDY!’s contestant pool to include more women, minorities, and students,” the website crows. But not bloody foreigners, apparently. 
 
 Could it be we’re just too smart for Americans? 
 
 In April 2014, Ottawa public servant Frédérique Delaprée won about $22,000 after twice being Jeopardy! champion. In November 2010, two of three contestants on the same show were current or former Ottawa residents. So there. 
 
 Jeopardy! is one of the few game shows during which important things actually happen. In 2011, IBM’s super-smart computer, nicknamed Watson, made news around the world when it easily defeated two legendary (human) champions. 
 
 It was a frightening display of a machine’s ability to comprehend speech and syntax, not to mention having a lightning-quick way of retrieving tiny bits of information. Watson, by the way, was built with key components developed in an IBM lab in Ottawa. So there. 
 
 The daily double? Trebek’s had two heart attacks in the past 10 years. Pray this doesn’t give him another one. 
 
 To contact Kelly Egan, please call 613-726-5896 or email kegan@postmedia.com. 
 
 Twitter.com/kellyegancolumn 
 
 Here’s Alex Trebek’s response to the Citizen: 
 
 Kelly: 
 
 Thanks for today’s article which brings attention to an issue affecting my native country and the show I love. It is true that for the most recent Jeopardy! contestant tryouts, Canadians were precluded from taking the online test, since the show must now comply with new rules set down by the Canadian government. However, people are in our contestant pool for 18 months, and we have featured several Canadians as contestants on Jeopardy! this season (at least 7 at last count), including one who will appear this Monday, February 22, and two more who have already taped for appearances in March. We have had many Canadians as contestants throughout the history of the show, and we hope that will continue, because Canadians make great game show contestants. We look forward to having more try out as soon as we are sure we can comply with all Canadian online privacy laws. 
 
 Alex Trebek ||||| Just mere moments ago, I received word that Microsoft will be resuming the email notification service for security professionals. 
 
 The official word is as follows… 
 
 “On June 27, 2014, Microsoft notified customers that we were suspending Microsoft Security Notifications due to changing governmental policies concerning the issuance of automated electronic messaging. We have reviewed our processes and will resume these security notifications with our monthly Advanced Notification Service (ANS) on July 3, 2014.” – a Microsoft spokesperson. 
 
 So, good job community! Microsoft has heard your complaints, and after careful review of the Canadian spam law, will resume the service this week. 
 
 A more formal blog post by the company will follow. ||||| Kelly: 
 
 Thanks for today’s article which brings attention to an issue affecting my native country and the show I love. It is true that for the most recent Jeopardy! contestant tryouts, Canadians were precluded from taking the online test, since the show must now comply with new rules set down by the Canadian government. However, people are in our contestant pool for 18 months, and we have featured several Canadians as contestants on Jeopardy! this season (at least 7 at last count), including one who will appear this Monday, February 22, and two more who have already taped for appearances in March. We have had many Canadians as contestants throughout the history of the show, and we hope that will continue, because Canadians make great game show contestants. We look forward to having more try out as soon as we are sure we can comply with all Canadian online privacy laws. 
 
 Alex Trebek
– Residents of this North American country can no longer compete on Jeopardy! What is Canada? The TV game show's eligibility guidelines now single out Canadians, saying that "at this time we are precluded from accepting registration information from Canadian residents. We are currently evaluating this matter." The Ottawa Citizen reports potential candidates must take an online test during a once-annual test period, and 2016's test went live in January—with a required ZIP code field; Canadians don't have those. "Wow," the Citizen quips. "And we thought Donald Trump would build that wall, like, after the election." The Toronto Star weighs in, noting, "Alex Trebek may be one of the only Canadians on Jeopardy! next season." Indeed, Trebek hails from Sudbury, Ontario, and holds dual citizenship, NPR reports. In a response to the Citizen, Trebek says the Canadian exclusion is an "issue affecting my native country and the show I love," and he suggests "Canadian online privacy laws" are responsible for the ban. As far as which law, the Citizen speculates that anti-spam legislation in effect since mid-2014 may be to blame. (Companies must now get express permission to email Canadians, rather than just provide an opt-out.) The Star surveyed government departments to get to the bottom of it and came up empty-handed. A lawyer well-versed in privacy laws says, "These hurdles are very easy to get around" (after all, Microsoft was able to figure it out). Trebek mentions that people are in the contestant pool for 18 months, so there will be Canadians on the show this year. In fact, there will be one competing Monday night. (A Jeopardy! rarity happened in January.)