I live in Saskatchewan, Canada. We have a Province owned ISP/Mobile provider. The government owns the network and leases access to the network to other big providers on the mobile side. This allows the other providers to keep their prices reasonable in order to compete.
Prices are reasonable. I am paying $99/mo for 100Mbps down, 20Mbps up internet service, with no cap.
The Province also owns the energy companies (gas/heat and electricity). Again, rates are pretty reasonable.
I, personally, believe it should be handled this way. The province owns the infrastructure and everyone benefits. Even small towns of less than 100 people have access to broadband in the 10-15Mbps speed range, though not FTTH like I have. The city I live in is approx 36,000 people.
I was going to mention Reader Mode on Firefox but someone already beat me to it. Though it should be noted this feature is not just limited to the Mobile Browser, and is available on the Desktop version as well.
Not personally, no. But I do some IT work for a couple of non profits in my community.
Just two short weeks ago had to install drivers for an HP OfficeJet Pro (can't recall the exact model) on 3 Windows 10 PCs via Network. I most certainly did have to download a 400MB package (on a 5Mbps connection) because they tossed the disc and packaging out before I got there.
As I mentioned, I use Funtoo Linux. It's a pretty bare-bones, do it yourself kind of distro so I expect to have to do/some/ manual set up.... But printers have certainly become easier over the 13 years or so I've been using Linux, even for the obscure distros.
I recently purchased an HP LaserJet Pro MFP M127fn from my local office supply store.
I was expecting a fight to install the drivers and configure it. A really quick google search suggested to install hplip. I typed 'emerge hplip' (I use Funtoo) on the cli and it installed. I ran hp-setup and selected Network Printer and it auto discovered, and auto set it up.
On Windows I would have had to find the install disk, or go to the HP site and download a 500MB package just to install a printer driver. I don't actually have a CD drive on my laptop, so I would definitely have to download that huge driver and try to pointy-clicky through the interface.
Printing has become MUCH better over the years on Linux. My previous printer, a Samsung Laser (not sure of the model) was a similar setup to this HP, except it was over USB and not my local network.
I feel like their long term goal is to actually use their original programming as a bargaining chip.
They can offer licensing deals on their own content in exchange for access to some of the popular non-original content to put in the online library.
Personally I am not a fan of much of the Netflix stuff. I enoyed Unstoppable Kimmy Schmidt, and The Ranch... which I guess says a lot about what I like for television entertainment.
I think many people believe.web will be the next.com only because.com is so saturated. Even really obscure names are being registered and squat on.
Personally I also believe.app will be incredibly popular. Google bought it for $25 Million USD. If the price of a.app domain is reasonable (around.com's price), it will do well. If they try to price it higher I'm not certain it will do as well.
Netflix now works nativelt in both Google Chrome (or Chromium) if you have Widevine installed. Also just recently Firefox is supported natively, as long as your on the most recent version.
One of the arms of my business is web hosting (among web application development, and other online services). LetsEncrypt is fantastic. Automated SSL/TLS certificates makes life easier, and my small business clients really appreciate the free certificates. I really appreciate not having to deal with renewing them every year or two because its kind of a PITA.
For my own business sites I do use EV certs and its definitely a hassle to renew them.
I'm not even a speed demon, but I have a fairly basic list of necessities in a laptop, and i keep finding crap after crap.
In 2012 I got an HP Envy 6-1030 with an AMD CPU. It was stupid cheap, close to CAD $300. It came with a slow 500GB 5400RPM drive, 4GB RAM, dual core cpu, decent graphics. I upgraded the RAM and put in an SSD over time. Still using it today as it works for my needs.
Now I'm on the hunt for a new one. Hoping to get one with 8GB RAM and an SSD, but willing toto upgrade myself if necessary.
My basic requirements: - 15" screen - full HD 1920x1080 resolution - backlit keyboard - must not have an optical drive (waste of space and adds weight)
I recently came across the HP Envy X360. Unfortunately I can not find them here in Canada. The cheapest I havr found is BestBuy.com for ~$700 USD, after currency exchange we're looking at over $900 CAD plus shipping and import fees.
I dont want the stupid flip it inside out into a tablet feature, but it meets all of my other requirements. Hoping to catch one on sale during Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale, but we'll see.
I agree. There certainly is a market, until you try to ask for money. People are cheap, and the free services offered by their ISP and the likes of Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, etc. have really put a damper on trying to sell this type of service.
The typical response is "why would I pay for it when Gmail is free?". Then you have the issue with people wanting a certain domain name, only to find out it's taken. There are the gTLD's now that open up a whole new world for domain names, I suppose.
I think the next approach is trying to roll other services into a a "personal cloud" service. Basically a hosted OwnCloud instance, with e-mail service, contact and calendar sync, etc on your own domain name and built to be as easy as possible to use. The margins will be really thin, because as always, the big players already give this kind of stuff away and the general population doesn't care about privacy.
I could see it priced on a per-domain basis. You get the domain for "free" and can create as many e-mail accounts as you like (or have a reasonable limit of like 25 or something) and a shared chunk of storage space. So you're only really paying for the storage space. Example plans could be like: - Personal Plan, 50GB for $3/month receive a free domain name if you pay annually. $3x12=$36. subtract cost of domain (~$10) and you just made $26 for a whole year. - Family Plan, 500GB for $9/month receive a free domain name if you pay annually. $9x12=$108. subtract cost of domain (~$10) and you just made $98 for a whole year.
As I said, small margins. Servers, storage, and bandwidth are cheap, but not free. You'll need to oversell that storage space in order to turn a profit. Even many people would have a hard time paying for the above plans because as I already mentioned the big guys already give these types of services away for free.
I should point out, these kinds of services already exist for businesses... but with much higher prices, and usually per mailbox ($5-$15 a mailbox). But thats because business/are/ willing to pay for them.
I've been using OwnCloud personally for both Contacts (no need for Calendars) and File Sync across my devices. Works well. OwnCloud server/could/ be more efficient, but it works for my needs and recent versions support proper file encryption.
It's kind of funny how it's coming full circle. Way back in the day it was common to host your own email service. Then the ISPs started to push their own services included "for free" with internet service. Then the common "free" providers cropped up (hotmail, yahoo, then eventually gmail) as a way to not get locked in to your ISP provided email. Now people are having a hard time getting away from the free services that they once loved because people are now realizing you cannot trust anyone and are going back to hosting their own email.
This has largely been made possible with the commoditization of "virtual private servers" and easy/free tutorials and solutions to setting up and maintaining those services.
Personally, I've been paying for email service from a fairly reputable provider, but I am now transitioning into running my own servers to manage it. Partly cost reasons (I maintain email services for clients, over 30 domains) and partly the provider I was using was bought out by another company I don't really trust.
Wellz not 100% accurate because I've since moved on to Funtoo. Only because Gentoo stopped making OpenVZ templates at one point, and Funtoo was "close enough" for what I needed at the time.
Since then, I've moved all of my machines to Funtoo with the exception of two cPanel VM's I have running for clients that required cPanel and weren't open to an alternative.
Honestly I can't see myself using anything else. OpenRC does everything I need. Honestly the fact it depended on udev was worrying, but then they forked it into eudev so its completely uncoupled from systemd.
I was in Reno, NV last month and got LTE everywhere with T-Mobile.
I'm Canadian, and bought a Prepaid SIM while I was down there.
I think the issue is many people's phones don't support the proper frequencies or bands to utilize LTE everywhere it exists. My phone supports all of the T-Mobile frequencies and bands they provide.
Most vehicles have the option to not sync your contacts, but still connect via Bluetooth for hands free driving.
If you do sync your contacts, there is normally a fairly easy way to remove the data. I would hope that the rental company would reset the system in part of their cleanup/inspection after return, however.
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I live in Saskatchewan, Canada. We have a Province owned ISP/Mobile provider. The government owns the network and leases access to the network to other big providers on the mobile side. This allows the other providers to keep their prices reasonable in order to compete.
Prices are reasonable. I am paying $99/mo for 100Mbps down, 20Mbps up internet service, with no cap.
The Province also owns the energy companies (gas/heat and electricity). Again, rates are pretty reasonable.
I, personally, believe it should be handled this way. The province owns the infrastructure and everyone benefits. Even small towns of less than 100 people have access to broadband in the 10-15Mbps speed range, though not FTTH like I have. The city I live in is approx 36,000 people.
I was going to mention Reader Mode on Firefox but someone already beat me to it. Though it should be noted this feature is not just limited to the Mobile Browser, and is available on the Desktop version as well.
Not personally, no. But I do some IT work for a couple of non profits in my community.
Just two short weeks ago had to install drivers for an HP OfficeJet Pro (can't recall the exact model) on 3 Windows 10 PCs via Network. I most certainly did have to download a 400MB package (on a 5Mbps connection) because they tossed the disc and packaging out before I got there.
That's great to hear.
As I mentioned, I use Funtoo Linux. It's a pretty bare-bones, do it yourself kind of distro so I expect to have to do /some/ manual set up.... But printers have certainly become easier over the 13 years or so I've been using Linux, even for the obscure distros.
I recently purchased an HP LaserJet Pro MFP M127fn from my local office supply store.
I was expecting a fight to install the drivers and configure it. A really quick google search suggested to install hplip. I typed 'emerge hplip' (I use Funtoo) on the cli and it installed. I ran hp-setup and selected Network Printer and it auto discovered, and auto set it up.
On Windows I would have had to find the install disk, or go to the HP site and download a 500MB package just to install a printer driver. I don't actually have a CD drive on my laptop, so I would definitely have to download that huge driver and try to pointy-clicky through the interface.
Printing has become MUCH better over the years on Linux. My previous printer, a Samsung Laser (not sure of the model) was a similar setup to this HP, except it was over USB and not my local network.
I feel like their long term goal is to actually use their original programming as a bargaining chip.
They can offer licensing deals on their own content in exchange for access to some of the popular non-original content to put in the online library.
Personally I am not a fan of much of the Netflix stuff. I enoyed Unstoppable Kimmy Schmidt, and The Ranch... which I guess says a lot about what I like for television entertainment.
I think many people believe .web will be the next .com only because .com is so saturated. Even really obscure names are being registered and squat on.
Personally I also believe .app will be incredibly popular. Google bought it for $25 Million USD. If the price of a .app domain is reasonable (around .com's price), it will do well. If they try to price it higher I'm not certain it will do as well.
Netflix now works nativelt in both Google Chrome (or Chromium) if you have Widevine installed. Also just recently Firefox is supported natively, as long as your on the most recent version.
This.
One of the arms of my business is web hosting (among web application development, and other online services). LetsEncrypt is fantastic. Automated SSL/TLS certificates makes life easier, and my small business clients really appreciate the free certificates. I really appreciate not having to deal with renewing them every year or two because its kind of a PITA.
For my own business sites I do use EV certs and its definitely a hassle to renew them.
I am not the only one!
I'm not even a speed demon, but I have a fairly basic list of necessities in a laptop, and i keep finding crap after crap.
In 2012 I got an HP Envy 6-1030 with an AMD CPU. It was stupid cheap, close to CAD $300. It came with a slow 500GB 5400RPM drive, 4GB RAM, dual core cpu, decent graphics. I upgraded the RAM and put in an SSD over time. Still using it today as it works for my needs.
Now I'm on the hunt for a new one. Hoping to get one with 8GB RAM and an SSD, but willing toto upgrade myself if necessary.
My basic requirements:
- 15" screen
- full HD 1920x1080 resolution
- backlit keyboard
- must not have an optical drive (waste of space and adds weight)
I recently came across the HP Envy X360. Unfortunately I can not find them here in Canada. The cheapest I havr found is BestBuy.com for ~$700 USD, after currency exchange we're looking at over $900 CAD plus shipping and import fees.
I dont want the stupid flip it inside out into a tablet feature, but it meets all of my other requirements. Hoping to catch one on sale during Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale, but we'll see.
I agree. There certainly is a market, until you try to ask for money. People are cheap, and the free services offered by their ISP and the likes of Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, etc. have really put a damper on trying to sell this type of service.
The typical response is "why would I pay for it when Gmail is free?". Then you have the issue with people wanting a certain domain name, only to find out it's taken. There are the gTLD's now that open up a whole new world for domain names, I suppose.
I think the next approach is trying to roll other services into a a "personal cloud" service. Basically a hosted OwnCloud instance, with e-mail service, contact and calendar sync, etc on your own domain name and built to be as easy as possible to use. The margins will be really thin, because as always, the big players already give this kind of stuff away and the general population doesn't care about privacy.
I could see it priced on a per-domain basis. You get the domain for "free" and can create as many e-mail accounts as you like (or have a reasonable limit of like 25 or something) and a shared chunk of storage space. So you're only really paying for the storage space. Example plans could be like:
- Personal Plan, 50GB for $3/month receive a free domain name if you pay annually. $3x12=$36. subtract cost of domain (~$10) and you just made $26 for a whole year.
- Family Plan, 500GB for $9/month receive a free domain name if you pay annually. $9x12=$108. subtract cost of domain (~$10) and you just made $98 for a whole year.
As I said, small margins. Servers, storage, and bandwidth are cheap, but not free. You'll need to oversell that storage space in order to turn a profit. Even many people would have a hard time paying for the above plans because as I already mentioned the big guys already give these types of services away for free.
I should point out, these kinds of services already exist for businesses... but with much higher prices, and usually per mailbox ($5-$15 a mailbox). But thats because business /are/ willing to pay for them.
What are you using for Contact Sync?
I've been using OwnCloud personally for both Contacts (no need for Calendars) and File Sync across my devices. Works well. OwnCloud server /could/ be more efficient, but it works for my needs and recent versions support proper file encryption.
This is really the only way forward.
It's kind of funny how it's coming full circle.
Way back in the day it was common to host your own email service. Then the ISPs started to push their own services included "for free" with internet service.
Then the common "free" providers cropped up (hotmail, yahoo, then eventually gmail) as a way to not get locked in to your ISP provided email. Now people are having a hard time getting away from the free services that they once loved because people are now realizing you cannot trust anyone and are going back to hosting their own email.
This has largely been made possible with the commoditization of "virtual private servers" and easy/free tutorials and solutions to setting up and maintaining those services.
Personally, I've been paying for email service from a fairly reputable provider, but I am now transitioning into running my own servers to manage it. Partly cost reasons (I maintain email services for clients, over 30 domains) and partly the provider I was using was bought out by another company I don't really trust.
Yet another Gentoo user here.
Wellz not 100% accurate because I've since moved on to Funtoo. Only because Gentoo stopped making OpenVZ templates at one point, and Funtoo was "close enough" for what I needed at the time.
Since then, I've moved all of my machines to Funtoo with the exception of two cPanel VM's I have running for clients that required cPanel and weren't open to an alternative.
Honestly I can't see myself using anything else. OpenRC does everything I need. Honestly the fact it depended on udev was worrying, but then they forked it into eudev so its completely uncoupled from systemd.
1. He's French
2. Twitter character limit
3. Software translation
Here in Canada they always expressly state "Non transferable. No cash value.", and voila, no taxes.
The US tax system is fucked if they are considering consumer rewards points as taxable income.
Not to mention the various devices designed to encode or decode data over that port.
Square being the first thing to come to mind.
I was in Reno, NV last month and got LTE everywhere with T-Mobile.
I'm Canadian, and bought a Prepaid SIM while I was down there.
I think the issue is many people's phones don't support the proper frequencies or bands to utilize LTE everywhere it exists. My phone supports all of the T-Mobile frequencies and bands they provide.
I've noticed this as well.
My HTPC struggles with 1080p encoded x.265 video, so I don't believe there is any real benefit to the consumers if we need to upgrade our equipment.
For the record, my HTPC has an AMD Athlon 5370 APU.
Spotify as well in their web player.
I use Firefox Beta for Android, and despite the odd crash here (it /is/ beta) and there it doesn't seem to use much power.
Wifi, Display and Cell Standby are the biggest battery suckers (in that order).
Most vehicles have the option to not sync your contacts, but still connect via Bluetooth for hands free driving.
If you do sync your contacts, there is normally a fairly easy way to remove the data. I would hope that the rental company would reset the system in part of their cleanup/inspection after return, however.
Alternatively you can get Comodo brand PositiveSSL certs for about $10 for 3 years.
Tell me again how expensive SSL Certificates are?
I've /never/ had a problem with memory when I compile it myself, optimized for my system environment and CPU capabilities.
When I use the prebuilt binaries from Mozilla it is a terrible experience.