The TV Tax

You've all seen the commercials. Local TV stations are going head-to-head with cable providers on whether they should be paying to deliver. To be frank, I didn't know whose side to take, at first, but now I can state with certainty that the providers are BSing buttholes who should pay up and shut up. You and I, the consumers, need know only two facts:

1) Rogers, Telus, Bell and the rest pay millions to American networks and 0 for Canadian.

I know, I know. "Cuz American showz r bettrrrr." Yeah, they're better; and guess who's paying for it?! Logic would dictate that the more money that cable networks have to invest in their shows, the better they would be. Maybe if CBC had a few extra dollars lying around, they could get the cameras to stay steady on the Border. Maybe Mercy Mosque could afford its own place; then Thorn could go away and the show would start being funny again!

2) If the stations win, the providers are just going to increase 10$ on all of our bills in order to pay for it.

The commericals that Rogers, Bell and Co. put out keep saying "if they win, taxes are going to go up for us aaaaaaaalllllllllllllllllllllllllllll." Umm, no. If your bill goes up, it was because the providers were the ones who increased their charges. Which might be fair for the providers to do, except...

Come to think of it, last year when the recession first hit hard, did anyone hear Rogers, Bell and Co. whine about how much money they were losing?

I'm going to leave you with a picture of an incredibly ugly piece of furniture. It might have belonged to Uncle Sam at one point...

Photoshop Mobile

Coolest Library Garage Ever

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonathan_moreau/418008212/sizes/l/

Nintendo signs Nvidia in contract for next-gen DS

Nintendo just recently announced their partnership with Nvidia and their Tegra series mobile processing units. Nvidia Tegra system on chip processors are said to create new benchmarks for the mobile gaming platform. Nintendo ( which currently owns 68.3 percent of the worldwide market share of the gaming market) has made the move official and we could see a new Tegra-powered device by next year (2010)

More info can be found here.

Rocketfish power saving surgeprotectors

Rocketfish (Bestbuy's very own brand) now sell their the power saving surge protectors in Bestbuy retailers worldwide. These surge protectors save power by cutting power to electronics that aren't in use. They also come with a 200 thousand dollar connected device warranty, unprecedented for a surge protector of its price.

With 4 energy-efficient master-controlled outlets, this 7-outlet, 2250-joule surge protector helps protect your computer and other peripherals from power surges while saving energy. A 43dB noise filter helps shield your equipment from electrical interference.

Rant of the Week #1

Since one of my fellow bloggers have started doing Joke-of-the-Weeks, I thought I'd do the blog a favour by balancing the laughter with some good old fashioned rage. I know I already bitc - er, blog about many issues, but most of them are kind of weighty. So I'm going to make it a point that the Rants of the Weeks are going to be about stuff that isn't going to make the world stop spinning if something isn't done about them. So dear bloggers, if there's something out there that the rest of the world considers benign, but it really grinds your gears, send me a message and I'll rant about it. (It probably won't take care of the problem, but at least you can take comfort in knowing that someone out there (yours truly) is as ticked off as you are.)

So the first subject to be clawed, chewed, killed and then left for vultures: the lack of debit machines at Tim Hortons. Okay. Now I'm mad.

Firstly, I've worked at one of these places. The hardest job to be done there as a cashier (other than spitting in cups without getting caught) is to say the following to a customer: "I'm sorry, sir/madam, but we don't take debit. Only cash and MasterCard." Because the conversation that follows always goes like this:

Customer: You don't take Visa either??
Cashier: No.
Customer: ... Why?
Cashier: Tim Hortons and MasterCard have an unholy alliance. They plan to take over the world by 2011.
Customer: Of course! It all makes perfect sense now!
Cashier: If you would like, there's an ATM 20 miles from here. Why don't you go there and return? Hopefully, your coffee'll still be warm enough not to choke on.

Don't ask the cashiers why they don't take debit or Visa. These poor people are overworked and underpaid; it's a miracle I got through work without hijacking the store with frozen timbits. The true jerks here are the Tim Hortons Headquarters in Oakville, Ontario.

Why are they doing this?! Excuse me if I sound like a five-year-old comparing my toys with those of my snotty rich neighbour, but Starbucks even has Wifi! WIFI! Why is one of Canada's icons insisting on staying in the technological dark ages? Tim Hortons, you know that wierd thing that you see all around you? It's called the 21st Century! JOIN IT!!!

Alright, I'm now going to leave you with the one and only reason that we put up with this:

Ho-Lee-Chow Closes Down

Also known the Pizza Pizza of chinese food, Holy Chow has closed its doors after 20 years of business. Anyone who tried ordering over the phone today recieved the following message "Due to circumstances beyond our control -- one of which is the poor economic climate -- another of which is a refusal to compromise on quality and service you've come to appreciate, Ho-Lee-Chow has closed down operations" Most of the locations will close down but the franchise owners have been given the opportunity to keep the restaurants, but they must change the names. So be on the lookout for a lot of new Chinese restaurants that serve the exact same food.

Read more at CTV.