How it started:

• “hey portal, call my kids” and it shows up on the fucking TV. That’s the workflow. It lights the TV, switches inputs and starts a call. Boom.
• microphone array works from everywhere
• digital-ptz camera was game-changing
• “hey portal, answer call” when the TV was off would light the TV, select the right HDMI and start the call. The workflow again was a single command.
• setup: plug in HDMI, plug in power . Use QR to auth the unit to your account.
• it was loss-leadered at like $100, which is why we outfitted the entire family during covid for the cost of a single tablet.

How it’s going:

• the M agent is dead, so its voice control for calling no longer works.
• the Alexa link is dead, so it no longer works as an Alexa agent for home control
• the streamer apps are dead, so it can’t do Netflix, britbox, prime, etc
• zoom is too weird to set up with the remote, so no zoom
• video works
• Cam still crushes it
• sound still rocks
• poking the remote HDMI-CECs over to the portal still, like what voice commands did

But it still - and here’s the thing - is a single set-top appliance with an easy UI and controller that puts video chat on the damned TV

Grandma can no longer use her voice, but she can use the tivo-style remote to start calls. And, again, they’re on this gorgeous big screen so nana can see everyone.

I simply cannot describe the difference between a phone, even a tablet, and a monster fucking TV image to make you feel really connected with people of normal size. I’d say it again if I thought it’d make a difference.

Pearl Milling is Canadian.

Nope.

Owned by PepsiCo and headquartered out of Chicago, you may know them by their old name (same box): Aunt Jemima.

Flatpaks and snaps are two examples of deliverables with terribad integration and low SLSA scores. They should be considered toxic.

Now do the Portal TV!

(Which has been a life-changing device for us, by the way)

Liberal Party has been in power for much longer than I can excuse them ignoring this.

Is that Canada’s version of “thanks Obama” or “blame Biden”?

I’m not sure what you’re talking about.

Aw hell no.

Carney the conservative clown

Every conservative accusation is secretly an admission.

but even pears and peaches

Those all burned up last week. 25000 hectares of burning ruin.

They’ve always been the sycophant looking for a greenback hand-out. That’s why American (now known as Lesser Canadian) rich people own like 99% of every oil company doing business in Alberta. Really-really. They’re the least Canadian canadians, even beating Quebec for that. Hell, Minnesotans are more Canadian than Albertans.

Describe, in single words only, the good things that come into your mind… about your mother.

Ghost-wrote, right?

this is what people have warned against for decades since the neoliberal era began.

The Avro Arrow was canceled by a Conservative government. Completely shoots down your neoliberal argument.

If you’re suggesting that a conservative killing a good project is not proof that the conservative era is filled with bad decisions, then I’m just confused.

(I’m assuming neoliberals is jargon for short-sighted oppositional-defiant conservative snowflakes, but I can never get it right)

You laugh. I dream of this.

imdoingmypart.jpg

People who proclaim others are Grammar Nazis generally may need to focus more on spelling and less on cheesy melodrama.

a big dessert so not a great trading partner

Ya can’t trade with a banana split!

And those who do need heckling every time.

Not sure whether you don’t understand the complexity of supply chains and federal levies

Spineless banker

… or you just live in Alberta.

https://www.eia.gov/

We’re still trusting this kind of source after hearing about how deeply it’s being edited?

I can’t tell whether you’re taking about Ontario or Alberta.