What’s everyone’s favourite? I’ve been using wealthsimple for the last couple years, honestly surprised to learn its Canadian and I don’t need to switch 🤷‍♂️

That is devastating

Just change the name dumbass, this shit ain’t going away in a month like he thinks.

Ya as a Canadian I love the EU and support you guys; I hope we build stronger trade and relationships. I know I’m shopping more EU companies, just wish more could figure out how to ship to Canada.

However, why tf would Canada join the EU… We are not in Europe, its in the title folks 🤷‍♂️

The push to regain more control of our sovereignty does not sit well with the idea of joining yet another distant organization we will be beholden to.

FWIW I had my reservations about the “source first” licence grayjay uses as well, but I’m impressed by the FUTO org’s principles, how they respond to bugs, how fast fixes and improvements come, amount of sponsoring other FOSS projects they do, etc. Plus Rossman’s work for R2R and other generally good ethical behaviour. So I believe their reasoning when they say its necessary.

I ended up purchasing the licence and am happy with that decision. I just look at it as a donation to support the development, and the fight against big tech which would have happened if it was FOSS too in my case.

Also the best/only source available app to access nebula.tv content AFAIK 🤷‍♂️

You should; grapheneOS is a lifechanging breath of fresh air after living with a normal smartphone spying on you for so many years 👍

Ya marketplace sucks. Kijiji is Canadian at least!

I shopped used before I got my pixel 8 (and graphene). People wanted more money on marketplace for a used pixel 7 128gb than a brand new pixel 8 256GB costs on contract. AS LONG AS YOU UNDERSTAND THE CONTRACTS, you can take advantage of the deals.

Here’s the deal I got. Similar deals throughout the year on current models, just wait for the price to drop and snag it.

Koodo BF 2023 Deal (wait for current model to be <$10/month IMO, seems fairly common.) I went thru a best buy mobile kiosk to also get the $100 GC.

• Pixel 8 256GB (no expansion so unless you like running out of space for apps and stuff don’t get a 128GB in 2025 ppl) - $6/month for 2 years = 6*24= $144
• Buyout amount after 2 years to keep the phone= $240
• Plan amount stayed the same from $60/month for 50GB to $60/month for $120GB CAN/US, so zero increase in cost
• Received $100 Best buy gift card
• Received free pixel buds.

Total cost for phone over 2 years = $388. Try and find a used pixel for that cheap 🤷‍♂️ obv the bonus items are usually just around BF, but the cost is still cheaper than buying outright or used, and you get a 0% interest loan on the $344 cost for 2 years, if you needed it.

Eww I did Nazi that coming

Internet infrastructure is a national security issue and should not be contracted out to hostile nations.

I’ll trade you some for some QC cheese curds! Lol

Matrix, XMPP, SimpleX, Molly (signal fork without closed source blobs) lots of good opensource options out there.

Same in BC. Prices magically go up exactly the amount of insert current rebate as soon as they go into effect

If they are shipping those with steamOS now that’s a great option too, and avoids Valve.

If they are still shipping windonts versions I wouldn’t bother yet.

Yes I realize that, unfortunately I believe the pros outweigh the cons when you consider Valve within the video game industry, especially vs Nintendo.

• Valve: US company, BUT privately owned by a great guy. Atleast Gabe Newell hates the US and lives in New Zealand. He fought tooth and nail against even going back to go to court against one of these other videogame companies if I remember right. Also the only reason it hasn’t been enshittified is cause its not publicly traded. Worship GabeN folks.
• Nintendo: umm ya tons of US investment firms own it actually… checks notes… 2nd and 3rd largest investors are US investment funds. JP and BlackRock. Many more on the list.

• Valve: uses profits to launch the steamdeck so you can escape the abusive relationship of the switch. Steamdeck has been the biggest boost to linux and opensource gaming in history, thanks to Valve’s efforts. Your (reasonably priced) money goes towards improving an opensource product, opensource OS (now used on ASUS gaming portables too, more soon to come), and opensource game development in general as linux marketshare grows.
• Whereas Nintendo uses their outrageous profits to snuff out small studios, C&D opensource indie devs working on expanding and keeping alive 40 year old abandonned IP, killing any aftermarket product a third party invents to make their shit equipment more usable. Oh and most importantly, enshittify your experience to ensure those American investment funds keep seeing their line go up.

• Valve supports indie development whereas nintendo does not.

• Steamdeck: Steam has PC gaming prices, ie. Regular massive discounts, especially on games a year or two old. Steamdeck also has access to alternate marketplaces, emulators, sideloading, etc. Want to buy from itch.io, GOG, etc? You can! Its a fully functional linux computer too!

• Switch: locked into nintendo’s store. Games rarely go on sale, never for much off. Charges $89.99 for a reskin of their old IP in literally every series and can’t even be arsed to atleast hire voice actors for that price??? These games require ZERO effort on nintendo’s part, zero imagination, and they continue to rake you over the coals like they are putting out AAA games. Closed off areas in supposedly openworld? Lame. Fog instead of rendering a beautiful landscape? Lame. Maybe if the switch wasn’t made to be as cheap as possible and struggle with low fidelity graphics it would have a reasonable render distance.

• Valve: online play is free for everyone since… ever? You already pay for internet why tf would you need to pay a membership to access online play, its not 2009 still is it? xbox live?

• Nintendo: Ah yes, greed, thats why. $45 CAD/year for a “family” switch online membership, that increases every year, and you are still capped at 8 accounts? What if you have 7 kids and 2 parents that want an account nintendo? Think of the children.

I mean I could keep going on but do I need to? For any product/company in any market its worth thinking critically about what the options on the market offer, support, and represent. Not just oh I had a switch, better get a switch 2.

Valve may be US based legally, but they are certainly less of an abusive asshole murikkkan company than Nintendo IMO, who fully embraced US capitalism in every sense of the word.

Nintendo sucks. Both as ethically as humans and the quality of goods and games they put out.

Just get a steamdeck (or any linux (steamOS) handheld) and stop paying $89.99 for the same rehashed games from 1996. Plus absolute crap components on switches not designed for repair.

Can run emulators for any Nintendo IP you want to play without giving them another $90 everytime to feed their lawyers.

Unfortunately I don’t have an answer for cast iron but I’d be interested too if anyone else knows a brand as I’d like to acquire a cast camp oven.

Have you tried a carbon steel skillet? Similar performance/use case for skillet sized stuff IMO but lighter. Not sure if there’s a Canadian brand for commercially available carbon steel skillets either honestly; but plenty of euro options, or a local blacksmith could make one. I plan on attempting a small skillet myself once I get my smithy setup this spring.

Air horns aren’t the problem, assholes in Grand Forks are.

And if your excuse is a remote area, Amazon is so slow at delivering knockoff goods, you might as well get anything you’d normally buy from amazon directly from Aliexpress et al if you can’t afford made in Canada for some items. Atleast then you save 60% off Amazon, it arrives in 2 weeks with choice shipping, and Bezos doesn’t get to be the middleman.

Maybe Canadian publishing houses should make the books in Canada intead then? You don’t get a pass just cause you are an important industry IMO. The point is to cause change; without any outside motivator there is no reason for publishers to change.

For small bookstores idk maybe pivot to independent authors and whatever subset of Canadian publishers print in Canada in the meantime?