The issue I’ve had with the “Just shop somewhere else. Don’t use Amazon” is that it’s very US-specific response. Amazon has absolutely dominated the online shopping space in Canada for years because they are one of the few companies that dealt with the biggest reason why shopping online in Canada has been difficult: Shipping. $20-$40+ domestic shipping fees are normal in Canada for most other retailers which means you could be paying double the cost of your order (or more) just on shipping alone, so as soon as Amazon came in and offered free coast-to-coast shipping they had basically won the market instantly. There were teething issues, of course, and their earlier shipping contractors were horrendous but they did smooth most of that out.

Nowadays they still have very little competition that can beat them on shipping, but there are more and more options popping up. There are some Canadian online stores that offer free shipping or free if over a certain reasonable amount. The COVID pandemic really pushed a lot of local retailers to set up affordable online ordering and delivery systems for local customers, so that has also become an option. Aliexpress has also greatly improved their free shipping process to Canada and considering most of what Amazon sells is just rebranded Aliexpress stuff, it’s a great way of getting the same items for cheaper if you’re ok waiting a few extra days. So most of my online purchases these days have been a mixture of Canadian retailers and Aliexpress.

Many news agencies that operate in Canada (and claim to be Canadian) are owned by Americans, including several mentioned in this article. Post Media needs to be kicked out of the country.

Israel will never accept a ceasefire. They will never accept peace. They will never accept anything other than complete genocide and annihilation of the Palestinian people and their homes.

To even entertain the idea that Israel would accept and respect a ceasefire is an insult to the Palestinian people.

Triple O’s (local chain) is my favourite.

McD’s for 2nd least favourite due to giving me the runs every time. Burger King for 1st least favourite for being disgusting.

As you’ve pointed out, Vivaldi is based on Chromium so you are still indirectly supporting Google’s browser monopoly.

Qwant is a decent search engine but they share certain information, including IP’s, with uptream search providers such as Microslop and Google. I do believe they have a partnership with Ecosia to develop their own joint search engine/crawler but until then they both rely on Bing and Google and have to share information as per agreement terms. As always, check privacy and ToS agreements for full details.

Search engines are kind of in shit place right now with so many being either A: American, or B: relying on Bing or Google (secret third option: both A and B). As for browsers, Firefox is also in a shit place right now but there are numerous excellent forks that strip out all of Mozilla’s stupid stuff. Waterfox, Librewolf, just to name a couple.

Sometimes I use my phone so little that I only need to charge it every 2-3 days. Nearly everything that it does my PC can do better and not try to lock me in to a dozen different monthly weekly subscriptions.

Don’t worry, I’m sure they will get a hefty $10,000 fine.

It is wild to me that Brave still maintains such a highly regarded position amongst privacy “enthusiasts” and websites. The godawful news about the browser, its company, and the CEO has been constant since the day it was first announced and it’s clear as water that the browser is not private nor even remotely ethical. Far as I am concerned, it should have faded from the public conscious back when they were injecting their crypto referrals to skim money without you knowing. Or all the times the CEO opened his mouth and revealed that he is a supreme piece of shit.

And even if it was private, just the fact that it’s yet another Chromium browser is a total non-starter for me. I am so sick and tired of the ocean of alternative browsers that directly or indirectly support Google’s browser monopoly, often while proclaiming they are a great Chrome alternative.

In an ideal world Canada would not need to choose between such nations for economic stability but we got caught with our pants down and need to scramble for solutions fast.

China has been greatly expanding their projection of soft power while the US surrendered theirs almost entirely to focus on hard power. Surprising literally nobody, making threats of invasion and abducting leaders of other nations is a great way to drive away your (ex) allies and trade partners.

What the fuck

Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t. Also subreddit mods will sometimes remove such posts.

I’m so fuckin tired of Israel.

Sim has got to go ASAP.

thanks!

Thanks!

I’m lightly active in the headphone enthusiast space. Even in the more light-hearted circles there is still an elevated amount of placebo bullshit and stubborn belief in things that verifiably make zero difference.

It’s rather fascinating in a way. I’ve been in and out of various hobbies over the course of my life but there is just something about audio that attracts an atmosphere of wilful ignorance and bad actors that prey on it.

American exceptionalism at work. Decades of being lead to believe they are the solver of the world’s problems and the centre of the “free” world. I’d also many don’t even know that the French were involved because US education is very good at altering history to make them look superior.

Indeed. I ended up with the 4 because a local electronics shop had it for a good price back in the day.

I have a Pi 4 running as a PiHole and Pi 5 running as an SDR server with 2 radios attached to it. Both are connected via Tailscale as well so I can access both from anywhere I want, especially useful for the PiHole so I have adblocking anywhere on any device.

They’re done. I hope their devs can find better employment elsewhere.