“Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.”

“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”

-George Bernard Shaw

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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 4th, 2023

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  • Ugh that’s awful for you with the house.

    Our gas Fireplace crapped out when it was coldest and we are waiting on repairs. We have baseboards as a back up but they aren’t keeping up and I’m not looking forward to the hydro bill when it comes.

    It’s nowhere as bad as your situation by any means but we are glad to have them.

    I bought electric blankets for the bed and couch this winter based on a gut feel in November and with how warm it’s been this up until this point the gf has been right that we didn’t need them. That was until this cold snap. Bloody thankfully to have them as they can’t be found in the stores now.

    I hope those leaks get sorted out soon!


  • In Vancouver we don’t know that kind of cold. Wet and damp cold yes, but it’s been a unusually warmer winter. Low 50s even for Xmas and not at much rain and hardly any snow for local mountains.

    Now it’s down to low 10s F it’s bloody super cold for us. With the wind chill it has been down to -10F. Not breaking your car quite yet but you don’t want to be out and about for too long without one. Usually the couple of days we get snow here it’s chaos and the major routes are a mess. It was just as bad the one day we did get some during the cold snap and it wasn’t even the wet and heavy stuff we normally get.

    I usually go for short walks daily but not during these days - 10F days. We are warming up to near 32F for highs and I’m thinking this is probably nice BBQ weather for Edmonton now.

    It seems all relative. I was down in Arizona this past winter. It was one of the coolest ones they had in Yuma and the day time temperatures were reaching high 60s to low 70s during the day with a lot of sun. I thought I was in heaven for winter. The locals were so disappointed.

    Mind you at one point it was snowing in California, northern AZ, Phoenix, Tuscan, NM, and Texas while I was in a sun pocket so they may have had something to complain about but I would still take their dry and warm during the day over my normal wet and soggy days.






  • This seems to be the model I’ve witnessed with many apps over the years. Free at first to get traction and users, then ads, then pay one time fee to get rid of ads, then subscription to keep using the app.

    Then there are those that wouldn’t even pay a single fee and get upset at the thought as everything should be free.

    The part that is upsetting is the contributions the early community made is monetized when they were they there for the benefit of the community.

    I do see there are costs to maintaining and updating these apps so I can understand a need to keep revenue flowing for these future costs. The one time payment is a hell of a deal for years with updates to accommodate the revisions needed for each system update let alone functionality improvements.

    In the old days we would buy software for our PC and that was it. There wasn’t really any updates or further support for newer versions of Windows. The software would become very insecure or just stop functioning altogether with enough changes to windows.

    It’s hard to find the right balance. I know I only want to pay once, or heck never, but I want these upgrades and updates too.



  • I wonder if they were taking notes from John Deere and the automotive industry or will it be the reverse here soon?

    Just imagine all these vehicles that could be bricked for not going back to the stealerships for outrageous prices on parts and incompetent service.

    Also the vehicles that could be disabled for not paying for device protection plan that allows your vehicle to operate safely. It would be a shame if your vehicle stopped working on your way to work or the hospital.

    I suspect Tesla, BMW, and John Deere are the closest to this reality.

    I sure hope the government doesn’t help with another great cash for clunkers national program to get rid of more cars too old for these measures. Sure is a great way to drive new car sales though…


  • For me it’s a big F you to HP and it has been that way for a many years now. I loved their HP 4250 series laser printers for work. Those things were work horses, almost every part could be replaced, and the toner was cheap for what it put out. I had various HP multifunctions after and they were just garbage. Updates breaking them and disabling them. Not being able to function without all ink and the ink being very expensive.

    Canon and Epson came in second for me on the F you list. I had some great Canon multifunctions but Canon would just abandon them on the support side. If a windows update came along you would lose the ability to use the printer.

    Epson was a true pain in the ass as the driver would constantly break and need to be reinstalled or it would reinstall itself each update and switch back to the default settings. When dealing with many of them in a office environment it was a hell.

    The one special gem that deserves it’s own place in hell is the Xerox 7855. That was one of the worst POS they ever made. It was a contract service unit. It was always breaking down, there was never a tech available to fix it, and when they did fix it, it was not long before it broke again. We paid a lot up front for the thing.

    We had a office party where we rolled it off the shipping deck in the warehouse into the parking lot below. There wasn’t a dry eye in the place. Tears of joy. We never used Xerox again after that.

    The multiple home office brother printers we bought just seemed to work. Next time I need to outfit a factory it will be Brother. I currently have a small brother “inkvestment” multifunctions that works great at home due the little printing I need. Comes with a ton of ink and it was cheaper than replacing the ink in my last printer.