I changed my Background Image today…
Just because I can.
IAMCanadian
Reply
Shrinkflation
This is a topic people have been talking about for years, since I was a child.
I recall my mother and father talking about that tin of whatever becoming so many ounces ligher but selling at the same price.
Or the “temporary” increase in the price of sugar due to an exeptionally bad hurricane season impacting cane production in the Carribean (in the 1950s, I believe). “Of course the price will never go back to what it was,” my dad said. He was quite right.
Today even more people are talking about the same thing. Will the ordinary folks get any resolution to this activity from producers who are among the top 10% money makers of food products in the world.
Well let us thank whomever for France’s Carrefour chain of stores who are now posting signs at the products which now come in smaller packaging but are to be sold at the same price.
To see what is going on please read the following BBC News article on the topic.
I guess Carrefour is trying to get in front of the movement by shaming producers before France Legislates this type of signing in markets and stores as was reported on the TV5 (Journal de France 2) News (6:30 PM EST) last Thursday. They seem to be thinking strongly about this topic. They have not been shy about going after the big tech companies for various infringements of French and E.U. laws, so why not these food producers?
Just to make it clear, I have no affiliation with either the BBC, BBC News, TV5 or Journal de France 2. I just have them available through my cable subscription.
I may be posting more on this issue as I try to gather more information (there may be too much). This affects so many people worldwide.
Don’t change that channel. 😉
For all that follow the pseudoscience of Economics
I have been thinking upon this for some time now, even though it does not really affect me as I can no longer drive but it still gets on my nerves.
Here we go:
A few years back (2019 or so) the price of gas and related products skyrocketed (more than doubled where I live) almost overnight. OK maybe it was a few weeks or so *but it was quick.*
About 8 or 9 years previous the same thing had happened but there seem to be grave differences in why this happened.
- Previously prices rose to $1.50 – $1.60 /litre. OK
– The cost of crude oil was at around $150± / barrel.
– Quite understadable.
- Today prices are at$1.60 – $1.70 /litre. OK
– The cost of crude oil is at around $50 – $60± (even a little more occassionaly).
– Quite un-understadable. (I’ve just invented a word :-D).
I realize people in the oil and refining industries need to be paid fairly and are getting raises and possibly bonuses. No problem there as I do believe strongly the people should be paid fairly for their work. But I digress.
Having said the above we have lost a few refineries (at least one fire, not sure about the others) so those wages and raises should come close to balancing out, maybe.
The thing is I hear oil producers (OPEC & OPEC+) and companies grumbling that the prices are low and production must be reduced. I know there were surpluses in certain coutries but now they have been mostly depleted, or perhaps I am misinformed.
Anyway, as you can see, I am confused, to say the least. The last long weekend (bank holiday) the price of gas / petrol went up about $0.10 / litre. That happens every long weekend (bank holiday). Yet the prices of everything else remains stable !? It is only gas / petrol that rises at those specific times. Am I mad, or is there some sort of collusion going on, ’cause everybody’s in on it.
<><><><> <><><><> <><><><> <><><><> <><><><> <><><><> <><><>
I realize this topic may irk some of you and because I do not feel I could keep up with answering Comments, they have been disabled
Finally, final jab
After several delays we both got our second jabs yesterday (and here I was hoping for Oktoberfest!). Again the Bride is a bit under the weather and has a sore arm but I am feeling no ill effects. Possibly because I didn’t even feel the needle go in…
On a separate note the keyboard on this old HP2000 is going. I will try to clean the innards but may have to get a newer old computer 😦 .
Oh well, (round hole with water), that’s Planned Obsolescence for you.
‘Till next time.
Cheers
A mobile phone and why I don’t have one…
The primary reason I do not have a mobile is that I am retired,on a primarily fixed income (my pension rose by 0.9 something % last year) and I simply can’t justify adding an extra 50 odd dollars a month to my expenses.
In a few revealing article from Reuters (unreported in the Canadian press as far as I know) some details emerge in why.
Firstly the Canadian telecommunications market is highly centralised. Three companies are the primary service providers and the Canadian telecommunications regulator (the CRTC) has ruled that they (the Three) will be allowed to raise the fees they charge minor competitors. (See the article here.)
This also applies to internet services as small providers piggyback on unused bandwidth provided by the big Three providers.
It will not be long that only the elite in Canada will be able to afford all the services considered as normal household services some years back. A complete TV, internet and telephone package (with supposedly high def) now runs about $300+. Then if you want Netflix, Prime, Disney…. You can see were this a going.
As I’ve said before we are downgrading some of our packages and reconsidering our optional extras. If every Canadian does this it will just mean higher prices resulting again in price hikes, the never-ending cycle of the pseudo-science of Economics.
Just sad to see in this day and age where one is looked at with derision of one does not have a mobile or internet but having to pay extraordinary rates for these services takes good off the table and clothes off the backs of many.
I will leave this for you to ponder.
Norwegian Consumer Council calls for ban on Surveillance-Based (Targeted) Advertising.
Well finally someone (Country) is taking a stand.
For many years I have supported those who seek to ban the surreptitious collection of personal data from ads and/or websites (fully realizing there are some valid reasons for collecting limited data from users for subscriptions or transactions).
It was back in the ’90s when I first noticed this behaviour. Looking for some radio equipment (I think) I ran across a search item with what I was looking for so I clicked on it. It came up on a reputable site, with a good image, proper description, specifications and pricing.
Looking further at the site I noticed a greeting at the top telling me my location (Xyxabcd), my OS (Windows 98), my browser (Opera) even my IP address and perhaps more.
At the time, working for a large corporation and providing some limited IT functions in our satellite office I was introduced to something called B.I. (Business Intelligence) which is just what this practice was described as at the time. It was only then I came to know of some of the methods used. The false premise that we want to be surveilled for Targeted Ads (equals Surveillance-based advertising, how does that sound?) simply this leads to the erosion of personal privacy and can lead to serious consequences to users.
These can include:
- Unwanted data manipulation
- Discrimination (based on Political affiliation(s) or sex, race, sexual preference)
- Privacy Violations
- Misinformation
- Anti-Competition practices
- Lack of Security and Security Risks
- Fraud, identity theft and criminal activity
We (those who willingly provide information to companies via their websites and by accepting Newsletters) really do not expect you (the companies) to be scanned for our IP address, or using other obfuscated and surreptitious methods to track our every web search, browsing or shopping activity.
We have a right to personal privacy including the securing (properly firewalled,encryption, deletion) by you, of our data.
How many hundreds of thousands of users have had personal information exfiltrated from Facebook, Equifax, Capital One and countless others.
The other issue here is a lack of transparency involved in Surveillance-based (Targeted) advertising. While a few companies collect and store user data themselves most use third party data aggregators with the hope they can sell off portions of their user data to other interested parties.
There are no clear guides here as this is the Wild West of the internet with masses of personal user data available for sale (or theft). The major winners here are the aggregators, taking a cut from every transaction and each transaction impossible to control with proprietary software and algorithms. Accountable only to their Boards of Directors and bean conters.
I have listed only a few points here but I think we can see the results coming.
- An erosion of our privacy (as mentioned above)
- An erosion of trust in technology and digital services
What then advertising platforms?
External Links:
Privacy. Feel You’re being Followed? (Thanks to: Jon von Tetzchner, CEO / Co-founder Vivaldi)
Norwegian Consumer Council on Targeted Ads
Norwegian Consumer Council’s Paper (PDF)
MS Edge – Hijacking my Default Browser
When I got this laptop (HP Pavilion) it came with Win 10 installed. Although I’d heard many negative things about Win 10 but what the hey, at least give it a chance. Actually it wasn’t the negative experience I thought it would be, at least after I’d removed a lot of bloatware that came with it. Somewhere I’d found or patched together a Powershell script to delete bits and pieces I didn’t want and I didn’t even mind the experience of MS’s pre-Chromium Edge browser. Different and not chrome.
Now also with this laptop also came an HP programme “HP Support Assistant“. Probably more akin to HTA’s I used to write in the early 2000’s for IE actually. It always opened my default browser to an HP page showing various messages, diagnostic tools and computer / driver updates. It sits on my Taskbar and occasionally sets a flag showing me how many messages there are (I have been ignoring).
Well today I opened it to check on a new new message and guess what? If you read the title you win today’s prize…
You guessed right and your prize is <sarcasm> “in the mail” </sarcasm>!
Yes Microsoft in it’s infinite wisdom has thought for me and pre-empted my opening this location in my default browser, which you all know by now is something far more useful as a browser, Vivaldi and is telling me how much better off I’d be opening this site with their browser. Hah !!
Yesterday I wrote about the time lost to Microsoft Updates on my WordPress site and just one day later I have another complaint.
I am sure this Hijacking by Microsoft contravenes many anti-monopoly laws worldwide, possibly (probably) even here in Canada. I will be checking…
Updates, bleepin’ updates
So I didn’t get my Windows updates yesterday so I decided at 11:00 A.M. (EDT) today to manually check for them as it had been reported that this one would be a big one.
There were five or six things to update so I clicked the Update All button and put my computer aside. I knew it would be a while…
In the meantime I decided to grab my Linux laptop and update it also. The minimal updater told me there were sixty-six items that needed updating. So update i did. By 11:30 (ish) it was completed. Remember I started after checking for Windows updates.
It is now 14:52 (EDT) and I am still awaiting Windows to complete updating my system.
It is lucky I am not working, I would be billing Microsoft for time and earnings lost. A few months back I lost an entire day to MS updates.
To:
Mr Microsoft,
You’ve some pretty bright people down there in Redmond, can’t they figure out a better way?|
Sincerely
A Potential x-Microsoft user
15:05 Hrs now… (All my computers, except my Kindle Fire, use NTP for time protocol.)
Grumble (a.k.a.. google) now wants my Birthdate !?!?!
When I tried to log into gmail account it told me I had to give my birthdate. It further stated it was the Law.
Well I declined. They already have my name, location and Lord knows what the h*ll else they’ve collected about me since 2004(?)*.
I verified this was actually a Grumble page then clicked on the link that would explain why they needed such info. It explained nothing to me regarding why I needed to provide my birthdate or what Law required them to collect this information.
I clicked that the page was Not Helpful and left a comment that:
there was no Law in Canada requiring me to provide my birthdate and furthermore as a Canadian citizen, living in Canada, there is no requirement for me to provide this info.
That’s enough PII Grumble! No More.
Jabbed
Well The Bride and I got the Jab today… Made the appointment weeks ago and after a cancellation due to a conflict with our chauffeur it was confirmed for today.
They are having the vaccine injections in local sports centres. Handy as there are Handicapped Parking near the doors but as usual they didn’t think it all the way through as the Exit was on the other side of the building !?!
So far no side effects for The Bride but I had a little stiffness for an hour or so afterwards.
Only concern now is my IvIG on Thursday & Friday although my neurologist says there is nothing to worry about. Some areas recommend leaving a week to ten days between the Jab and treatment but there are no such recommendations from the Neurological Society in this country. So fingers crossed.
Will keep you all posted.
The barometer reading here at 44.5, -81.0 is 30.12 inHg and steady with clear skies (for now) and a temp of -5°C. Snow is expected.
Day 1
Well here we are, both awke this morning. The Bride says her arm is sore. My arm is fine but I have a headache (Could be weather related as di get headaches, migraines, when the weather changes.
The snow didn’t show up here. Didn’t even call to say it wasn’t coming !?!
Day 2
Both still breathing so I guess all is OK. Just have to wait ’till August !?! for the next shot… Or maybe Octoberfest. Sounds good to me.
The Spryte's blog 