I think most Canadians would agree. We just don’t care about it enough to try to change it because if something came up where we actually needed to force the issue we could fairly easily, and it has it’s own benefits in being closer allies with other Commonwealth countries.

Steam does not force you to only buy games from Steam, even on hardware they sold.

Yeah, the big difference is you don’t have to use Steam on PC, nor does Valve appear to pursue exclusivity agreements to for consumers to get any particular game only from them. For Playstation, you use the PS Store or you don’t play.

Gabe doesn’t need to buy new boats, he owns a company that builds them…

It’s not the citizens having no confidence in the government, it’s the other members of parliament. If the government cannot get a majority of MPs to support their bill, they have lost the confidence of parliament, which will trigger and election (or technically could have the GG assign government to another party who DOES have the confidence of parliament, though to my knowledge that has never happened, but it is a tool in their toolbox).

Our federal elections are run by Elections Canada, which reports to parliament as a whole, not to the Government of Canada. It is a non-partisan agency. We have a similar setup in the provinces with each having their own provincial election agency. I am unsure how it is handled in the territories.

Pretty much. If the current party in power is not able to gain sufficient support for confidence motions (there are a number of things that qualify as a confidence motion, the budget being a big one) Then the Governor General (the official representative of the King / Queen) can offer control to another party if they ARE able to gather that support, or simply call an election.

Technically the (currently King) is our head of state, but for most functions our Prime Minister fills that role. The current government losing confidence of parliament is one of the functions where the King still holds de facto power in addition to de jure power.

Note that while they are titles held by the same person, the titles of King of Canada and King of the United Kingdom are legally distinct, and while referring to his role in Canadian governance, it is appropriate to refer to Charles III as King of Canada specifically, and inappropriate to use his other titles in that context. Mostly because the King of the United Kingdom has no role in our government, but the King of Canada does.

That’s the point of the agreement. It locks in that demand by contractually requiring the companies agreeing to it to buy a certain amount of product regardless of whether they actually want it.

Personally, I view this as a sign that Micron believes the AI bubble is going to burst within 5 years, so they’re locking people in at bubble prices now.

Geeze, I hope not. 2x8 is a huge difference from 1x16.

Looks like a custom GPU configuration based on AMD hardware to me. So not an iGPU, but also not a mainline card.

Maybe at some point telling him that you can buy your own things, and that it is not the reason why you’re spending time with him, could lead to a more constructive discussion… If you’re not afraid to have it, that is

Yeah, plus his reaction to this would be pretty telling. If he takes it with grace then you’re probably good. If he gets offended or upset at you expressing some autonomy and ability to take care of yourself, fucking RUN.

Damn straight people defaultism :(

Yeah, I’d be careful with this one. It’s pretty love-bomby, which at this stage in my life just stands out as a red flag.

That said, you’re both young, so he may be legit and just not learned how to not be over the top when into someone lol.

Right? Drives me crazy.

but using it as a tool as a professional can very much improve your work and how quickly you do things.

Maybe it’s just my 20 yoe, but that has so far not been my experience with it. It is improving, but definitely not there yet. Even standard boiler plate I can typically bang out faster than asking the AI to do it and then needing to double check it’s work because it somehow still manages to screw that up occasionally. Sometimes it does manage to be better than one of the juniors, but using it that way also cuts the legs out from under the career development pipeline which will result in an intermediate and senior dev drought down the road.

AI will make money, it’s currently in the make users happy stage which is the least profitable but most important lock in stage.

Stage two comes post IPO when they shift value from users to businesses. They will start printing lots of money at this point.

The problem is, they’re starting to run out of real money. They’re having to start jacking rates up already, before the IPO stage. They thought it would monetize more than it has, and they didn’t have enough runway to make it to stage 2 before they started enshittifying.

Swappable batteries would be cool, though it would be a significant redesign from our current EV designs. Not insurmountable though. Do it propane tank style maybe? Put your drained battery in a receptacle, pay, get charged battery, continue. That would definitely solve the main area where ICE currently can’t be beat by EVs.

Big issue with EVs as daily commuters are with apartment / condo dwellers. Typically there is little to no charging infrastructure available to them for overnight charging like a home owner can. Again though, not insurmountable, though I suspect harder to get uptake on comprehensively than the swappable batteries would be, and the swappable batteries would already solve the issue anyway.

But yeah, I’m a big supporter of public transit and alternative transport. Sucks that we spend so much time and money investing into car centric planning. Love the 15-minute city concept, with everything walkable within 15 minutes of a passenger rail stop where the train comes regularly and often. It’s more complex than that, but yeah.

I guess my point was, better for what?

Travelling? Definitely not. Hard to beat a minute or two to fill your tank and get back on the road.

Daily commuting? Probably, I’d say this is probably the sweet spot for EVs. Charge overnight and you’re good for your commute.

Fun? Definitely better options available, and even when sticking to cars while the EVs tend to have better acceleration, pumping fake engine noises through a speaker is just fucking weird lol.

I could see them taking the fun vehicle spot if people don’t care as much about the fake noises, but the long distance one is gonna be a tough nut to crack without significant increases in battery tech to either get to the point where charging is absurdly fast or battery capacity is capable of going 8+ hours along with much more widespread charger access.

Sure, but sometimes people will drive for pleasure, particularly in the summer with sports cars and the like. But typically those people have never ridden a horse or motorcycle, which are, imo, far better suited for pleasure riding.

Depends what you mean by “better” I suppose. Riding a horse is more enjoyable for me. Car is more efficient for long distance travel. I pretty much never drive a car for pleasure though.

He, uh, lived up to his namesake as a kitten lol. Feisty AF.