173238349
submission
innocent_white_lamb writes:
In June, a Court of King's Bench judge ordered Swift Current farmer Chris Achter to pay more than $82,000 to a grain buyer with South West Terminal (SWT). The ruling stems from a text message when the buyer, Kent Mickleborough, asked Achter to confirm a flax contract that requested more than 85 tonnes of flax to be delivered in the fall at about $670 per tonne.
Achter responded with a thumbs-up emoji.
The case hinges on whether the emoji confirmed the contract, or only confirmed receipt of it â" and whether an emoji can ever be used as a signature
144790398
submission
innocent_white_lamb writes:
The Saskatchewan government will implement a new tax for passenger electric vehicles. The announcement was made Tuesday. The new $150 annual tax on passenger electric vehicles (EVs) will take effect Oct. 1, 2021. The government said the reason for this tax is that EVs do not contribute to highway maintenance through the provincial fuel tax.
The new tax will be collected when the vehicle is registered.
100723150
submission
innocent_white_lamb writes:
Even with its miniaturization and trendy technology, an Apple Watch is no safer âoethan a cellphone taped to someoneâ(TM)s wrist,â said a justice of the peace, while convicting a Guelph woman this month of holding or using a hand-held wireless communication device while driving.
64882793
submission
innocent_white_lamb writes:
The 2015 Corvette has a Valet Mode that records audio and video when someone other than the owner is driving the car. Activating the Valet Mode allows you to record front-facing video as well as capture audio from within the car so you can help keep your Corvette safe when itâ(TM)s in the hands of others.
Well it turns out that recording audio from within the car may be considered a felony in some states that require notice and consent to individuals that they are being recorded and now GM is sending notices out to dealerships and customers alerting them to this fact as well as promising a future update to the PDR system.
57031843
submission
innocent_white_lamb writes:
Ford has announced that their in-vehicle technology called Sync will be based on Blackberry's QNX operating system and will no longer use Microsoft Windows.
My own 2013 Ford Escape has the Windows-based Sync system. I wonder if they will issue an update to change it to QNX.
55140293
submission
innocent_white_lamb writes:
Current laws make the driver of a car responsible for any mayhem caused by that vehicle. But what happens when there is no driver? This article argues that the dream of a self-driving car is futile since the law requires that the driver is responsible for the operation of the vehicle. Therefore, even if a car is self-driving, you as the driver must stay alert and pay attention. No texting, no reading, no snoozing. So what's the point of a self-driving car if you can't relax or do something else while "driving"?
49655971
submission
innocent_white_lamb writes:
The Canadian military is currently testing a $620,000 hybrid-electric stealth snowmobile. Testing includes speed, towing capacity, endurance, mobility, usability, and of course, noise emissions.
The testing and most other information about the stealth snowmobile is secret and very little information has been released other than the fact that it does exist. One document reads ""The noise level of an internal combustion engine cannot be reduced to an acceptable level for missions where covertness may be required, especially given the increased propagation of sound in cold, dry, Arctic air". Therefore, National Defence's research agency is "pursuing the development of a 'silent' snowmobile for winter operations in Canada, specifically in the Arctic."
Michael Byers, an Arctic policy expert, questions the need for a stealth snowmobile. "I don't see a whole lot of evidence that criminals and terrorists are scooting around Canada's North on snowmobiles and that we have to sneak up on them," he said.
42376439
submission
innocent_white_lamb writes:
In what appears to be a more-and-more common occurrence, Ahmed Al-Khabez has been expelled from Dawson College in Montreal after he discovered a flaw in the software that the college (and apparently all other colleges across Quebec) uses to track student information.
His original intention was to write a mobile app to allow students to access their college account more easily, but during the development of his app he discovered "sloppy coding" that would allow anyone to access all of the information that the system contains about any student.
He was initially ordered to sign a non-disclosure agreement stating that he would never talk about the flaw that he discovered, and he was expelled from the college shortly afterward.
42222901
submission
innocent_white_lamb writes:
A researcher says that some letters are over valued and some are under-valued in Scrabble, due to recent changes to the lists of allowable words. Z and X are now much easier to play and should be worth less, while U, M and G should be worth more than they are now. Joshua Lewis wrote a program to re-calculate the value of each letter to better reflect the current usage. The co-president of the North American Scrabble Players Association says that he often hears criticism of Scrabble's scoring system, but any change would bring about "catastrophic outrage". A spokesman for Mattel says that they have no plans to change the game.
21693898
submission
innocent_white_lamb writes:
Make it easy to self-publish books and the spammers will be right along too. Amazon's Kindle marketplace has been deluged by low-quality "books" selling for 99 cents each.
18536472
submission
innocent_white_lamb writes:
Sony Music Entertainment Canada Inc., EMI Music Canada Inc., Universal Music Canada Inc. and Warner Music Canada Co. have agreed to pay songwriters and music publishers $47.5 million in damages for copyright infringement and overdue royalties to settle a class action lawsuit.
16824186
submission
innocent_white_lamb writes:
A man has been fined ONE BEELYUN DOLLARS (yes, really) for sending 4,366,386 spam messages that were posted on Facebook. He was fined $100 for each message, and including punitive damages he now owes $1,068,928,721.46. A ruling by by a U.S. District Court judge in San Jose, California has now been upheld by the Quebec Superior Court (the defendant lives in Montreal).
13104184
submission
innocent_white_lamb writes:
Telephone directories are available on the Internet, and many phones even store their own directories.
There is less and less demand for a printed phone book, so residential phone books will no longer be printed and delivered in Canada's seven largest cities.
Do we now expect everyone's grandma to look up phone numbers on the Internet?
Of course, the Yellow Pages, where businesses pay for a listing, will still be delivered.
11826720
submission
innocent_white_lamb writes:
Domtar, a major paper manufacturer, has launched an advertising campaign to encourage people to print more documents on paper.
The younger generation has shifted away from printing. Domtar CEO John Williams opposes campaigns by other companies asking employees to be responsible with what they print.
The industry expects that paper demand will decrease by 4% annually.
9162898
submission
innocent_white_lamb writes:
30% of freshman university students fail a "simple English test" at Waterloo University (up from 25% a few years ago. Academic papers are riddled with "cuz" (in place of "because") and even include little emoticon faces. One professor says that students "think commas are sort of like parmesan cheese that you sprinkle on your words". At Simon Fraser University, 10% of students are not qualified to take the mandatory writing courses.
