But it's just not sexy :-)

Seriously, I live in Canada and during the last federal election campaign my head almost exploded when I saw that the Liberal party (now the governing party) was promising to seriously look at online voting if elected. Online voting - a problem-ridden solution in search of a problem.

This is what Canada should have done rather than phasing out home delivery of mail in favour of not-so-super "super mailboxes".

For those not in the know "super mailboxes" are basically community mailboxes located somewhere in your neighbourhood. The not-so-super aspects of this is that they are subject to vandalism, theft, and arson (yes, arson). Additionally, some people feel it acceptable to drop their junk mail straight on the ground, rather than take it home for recycling. And, finally, for some folks (elderly, disabled) fetching mail by trekking out to a super-mailbox in the middle of a Canadian winter is a less than pleasant experience.

One can only assume that the sensible approach of cutting mail delivery from 5 to, say, 3 days a week was not taken so as not to upset the postal union (CUPW).

The US has forced (via threat of financial sanctions) FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) on numerous countries in order to obtain financial account information on US citizens. Meanwhile the US has so far refused to reciprocate in any meaningful way. The result is that for non-US citizens, the US is the best tax haven around (google "Delaware Nevada Wyoming tax havens").

Meanwhile the US also refuses to sign up for the OECD CRS (Common Reporting Standard).

So, the other guy is totally correct - the US is indeed being monumentally hypocritical when it comes to offshore tax evasion.

In the case of Canada, it can be seen by even a layperson that the particular use of an Isle of Man tax haven was tax evasion with just enough lipstick on it to be able to later claim, in an emergency, 'gosh, I didn't realize that was a pig I was kissing'. Look up the details of it and tell me how any reasonable person could think what was being done was legal tax avoidance. !

In the case of Canada, it can be seen by even a layperson that the particular use of an Isle of Man tax haven was tax evasion with just enough lipstick on it to be able to later claim, in an emergency, 'gosh, I didn't realize that was a pig I was kissing'. Look up the details of it and tell me how any reasonable person could think what was being done was legal tax avoidance.

Too true.
The US refuses to sign on to the OECD Common Reporting Standard automatic exchange of information, and refuses to implement true reciprocity in FATCA IGAs. The result is that the US will be the last tax haven standing. Hypocrisy abounds.

Agreed. Sad as it may be, I have also found that procrastinating solves a surprising number of issues.

Bill C-343 was introduced but never passed AFAICT. Hence, Canadian carriers are still free to charge ridiculously high fees to unlock the crippled cell phone that they sold you.

FWIW, Vancouver's "Skytrain" has neither drivers nor conductors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SkyTrain_%28Vancouver%29

Not entirely sure what point is trying to be made with the reference to emigrating to Canada, but as a FYI, on a per-capita basis Canada takes in *far* more immigrants than any other country in the world.

But .. but ... but ... who designed the designer? And who designed the designer that designed the designer? And who ... ah forget it.

A "smartwatch" needs to support NTP or something very similar. Having to have to manually set the correct time on a watch every few weeks or months is ludicrous in this day and age.

"And there is a reason for the old rule of thumb of buying a house at 2.5 times your annual income. "

Off topic, but ....
In Vancouver you can't buy a shack for that, let alone a house. And to make it more fun, interest on mortgage payments is not deductible in Canada.

I see people successfully using Raspberry Pi as a xbmc box. I'm wondering if anyone is using it as a MythTV frontend?