Tubes to Transistors to Today’s Chip Crisis
When I was a young lad, in the latter part of the 1950s (not long after the Stone Age ended…), one of my self-taught technical skills was to be able…
computers
Generative AI Problem
Dear Canadian Government human: Here are my answers to your points in your survey on Canadian leadership in Generative AI. https://ised-isde.canada.ca/site/ised/en/public-consultations/help-define-next-chapter-canadas-ai-leadership “accelerate safe adoption of AI across the economy and…
Mastodon and Bluesky
I don’t blog as often as I once did. That will change now and then. For now, I’m mostly posting on Bluesky, but that might switch to Mastodon at any…
Will A CPC MP Respond To Clean Air Concern?
July 30, 2025 Dear Mr. Kram: As you may know, Regina’s air quality is now routinely worse than the air quality of Beijing, China. Our weather monitoring service by Environment…
Environment Canada Bad Air
I sent this to their feedback form: I’ve noticed an ongoing problem with the AQHI calculated for Regina the past week. 2 nights ago it was reported as moderate, while…
Home on the Open World Range
A recent article in the Journal of Internet Research described a study that came to the conclusion that open-world games (OWGs) “may offer unique cognitive escapism opportunities, potentially leading to…
Protected: After the Internet
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post. The post Protected: After the Internet appeared first on mark a. rayner.
SaskTel’s email bait and switch
After offering free email since the 1990s, to start charging per email account is an absurd insult to customers and should probably be illegal. The problem is the provincial government…
How Secure Is Your Phone?
Your phone’s security is probably not too bad, aside from it being a tracking device. And especially when someone buys state-sponsored spyware to attack you and your network: It's been…
Musings on Computer Gaming, Storytelling, and Seniors
Every day, for an hour or two, I kill demons. Or I build houses and shopping malls. Sometimes I command armies in battle. Or fly an airplane into a foreign…
Stonks Game Stops At This Stop
Hedge funds that bet against Game Stop are crying foul as they lose a fortune, because the crowd noticed their weakness and exploited it. Sounds very Wall Street. Is it…
Cory’s 20th Blogiversary Cake With FBI Icing
Notable author and blogger Cory Doctorow got a call from the FBI for his blog anniversary. Yes, it's harassment, and the FBI enabled it by not doing some investigating to…
How Bad Is WordPress’s Block Editor? Bad.
I have over 2 decades experience editing websites. 18 years of writing blogs, from Angelfire, to CMS systems like WordPress. And the latest update to the editor is mystifying. Who…
Toxic Deadly Gaming Culture
One of the strangest things about modern tech is that you can easily hear what a dead murderer thought of himself and others. There are hours of video of this…
On Being a “Boomer”
Generations When I was growing up in the 1950s and onward there was not all this talk about generations that seems to have become a fascination of the last twenty…
WikiLeaks: Sweden Tosses Unneeded Investigation
This article makes it sound like he was preventing the Swedish phony investigation from proceeding by hiding (in a location known to the whole world!). No, the reason for the…
Podcast on Sunday
Jeff Cliff interviewed me for his Facebook Live stream on Sunday. We discussed Saskatchewan politics, media, blogging, censorship, and the Amazon Fires. For instance, I can link to Facebook, but…
Can We, Should We, Will We Live Forever Online
When typing for this blog I have often wished I could just think my thoughts at the computer and have them type out on the screen. This, no doubt, has…
“Andrew Scheer here”
Billy Mays here with your latest As Seen On TV fad/junk: Andrew Scheer here.Trudeau's carbon tax will raise gas prices 4.6 cents on Monday, so fill your tank! Storm the…
Civic Hatchback vs. LEAF Hatchback
Should you buy a Honda gas burner, or a pure electric Nissan if you need a family hatchback motor vehicle? “2019 Civic hatchback and coupe models are priced at $20,150US…