YellowJersey

I can't really recommend one as I've only ever used two, and both of them are super old. I find with a bike computer, you buy one and keep it forever (the one I'm currently using was purchased in 2008). I just took a look at my local bike shop and you can get a pretty basic one for around $50 CAD. I noticed that the expensive ones all have GPS built in. If you don't need GPS, then you should be able to get one for a much more reasonable price.

At the very least, you should get one that includes:
-current speed
-trip distance
-odometer
-clock / ride-time

(based off this listing on my bike shop's website: https://www.thebikeshop.com/product/bontrager-gotime-179294-1.htm

Everything else is a "nice to have" IMHO. For example, mine tells me the incline of any uphill/downhill as well as max incline and average incline as well as the temperature, which can be handy. (I know of some areas that look flat but actually have a slight incline, so it's nice to know that my drop in pace is due to that, not just because I'm crap) 

 Just keep in mind what I said above: You buy one and keep it forever. So it may make sense to buy something that has more features than you need since you might want those features later on.

 Feel free to DM me if you'd like further help in tracking one down.

One more thing, some of them are wireless, meaning that there's a transmitter taking a reading from a magnet attached to a spoke. I've found that my data can go haywire when I'm cycling around cars that have their radios on or there are other wireless signals around. I know this because I'll be stopped at a red light and all of a sudden my bike computer says I'm doing 99kmph! So having a wired computer where the reader and the handlebar mount and connected via a wire would probably avoid those situations.

13 hours ago, AyaanMAG said:

I'll be honest with you, I've sailed the seven seas and beyond, i have no antivirus and honestly even windows one disabled, i Run a scan with malwarebyte every few months for hidden stuff, apart from that, nothing, you're more than secure just do that what the other guy said. Sketchy sites and downloads in a VM that's all

I talked to my company's IT guy and he said the same thing. We ended up having an hour long conversation about tech. It was awesome.

10 hours ago, Applefreak said:

Best practice if you have a somewhat decent and capable computer: Do all your downloads in a virtual machine. Once done you can just delete it and don't have to worry. If that is not an option, use linux or mac os. As for what to check right now, well that depends on how sketchy we are talking about. Last resort if you are super paraonoid, backup your data, format the drive and reinstall windows, that acutally takes less time than running AV and malware scans.

I've never done the VM thing. I should probably look into that. I'm not super paranoid, maybe more mild/medium paranoid. I just really don't want to have to go through the hassle of doing a clean reinstall.

So I had to visit some pretty sketchy sites when putting together my emulation library,  mostly to download the roms. As always, malware is a concern. So here's what I did:

Had Avast (free) running while I downloaded. It blocked a lot of stuff in the browser, mostly sketchy redirects.
When I finished downloading all the roms, I then:
Did a full system scan on maxed out leave-no-stone-unturned-mode.
Uninstalled Avast, installed Bitdefender (free) and did a full system scan on maxed out settings.

Uninstalled Bitdefender, installed Malwarebytes (free) and did a full system scan on maxed out settings.

Uninstalled Malwarebytes, installed Avast (free) and did a boot-time scan.

 No malware was detected during any these scans. Would it be safe to presume that my system is malware/virus free?

 Is there anything else I can/should do to check the system (other than just doing a clean reinstall and tossing out my emulation project) (Yes, I am a little unreasonably paranoid)

And, yes, I was downloading roms of games I already down and have paid for (in some cases, multiple times). I just want emulated versions so that if/when my old consoles give up the ghost that I can still play these games.

The photos you posted look fine to me. Makes me wonder if maybe there's a colour management issue.

I love Alex's crazy adventures in doing dumb shit

I'm looking at maybe buying an air purifier since my apartment is always ridiculously dusty. I don't care about reducing odours, killing viruses and bacteria, etc. I just want to reduce the amount of dust. Is my only realistic option (other than dusting and vacuuming more often...) an air purifier with filters that always need replacing? I have a feeling an effective dust-reducing filterless air purifier doesn't really exist, but I thought I'd try my luck here and see if anyone has any ideas.

You can tell that Linus isn't from the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) just by how he pronounces "Toronto." It's pronounced "cherana!"

Also, given GTA traffic, their offices are probably more like an hour apart. The joke is, Toronto is an hour away from Toronto. One of the reasons I don't live there anymore (but I still like to visit).

I recently slapped an NH-D15S (single fan) on my 7700X. Works great and nice and quiet. Idle temps around 28C. Gaming temps around 60C. I haven't put a full all-core load on it yet, but I'm pretty satisfied with my decision. Plus, it came with thermal paste. It's probably overkill, but I like knowing that I can likely carry it forward to a future build.

I do want to thank Linus for making it abundantly clear why having a smart house, or nearly any IOT things at all, is something I will never ever do. Computer, phone, roku, game consoles: these are the only things allowed to connect to the internet in my house.

So I'm currently watching this week's WANShow where Linus and Luke talk about the mercedes subscription to unlock the true power of the engine.

The problem: Having to pay a subscription for absolutely bloody everything, which is especially egregious when it comes to features that are already present on the hardware and are just soft-locked out (ie, held for ransom)

The cause: as Linus pointed out, the economic model expects and requires recurrent revenue. We've reached a level of absurdity that says selling a product for a profit is not enough as shareholders demand not just a return on their investment, but ever increasing returns at any cost. This mentality means that if there is something that will make a business money, they will do it, no matter how sleazy, morally reprehensible, unethical, or, in some cases, illegal it is.

The solution(?): This is not going to be a "market will sort itself out" kind of thing. Corporations will keep doing this and they will do it more aggressively as time goes on. There is no such thing as "enough." The only solution is legislation to outlaw this kind of practice and, as L&L mentioned during the smart doorbell bit, meaningful fines and liability that don't just amount to "legal for a fee." I would propose legislation that
1) Outlaws locking users out of features that are already physically present in the hardware. If you buy it (ie, you own it), you get to use it. No extra money to unlock heated seats when the hardware is already installed. No day 1 DLC. None of that.

2) Subscriptions are permitted when there is an ongoing cost of development to provide both the present functionality and future additional functionality. For example, netflix can operate as a subscription because (1) there is an ongoing cost to maintain the existing service (data centre costs, bandwidth costs, etc) and, (2) the subscription provides additional functionality as time goes on (ie, new content).

 You cannot except the users to revolt. Even if they do, corporations often announce something sleazy, back pedal after backlash, and then quietly implement the sleazy thing later on once the backlash has died down and people have started to get used to the idea. Remember when the very idea for DLC was frowned upon? Now look at where we are. They will keep pushing the envelope and getting away with it unless there is legislation.

 How likely is that legislation? That depends on your jurisdiction. The EU is probably the most likely large consumer jurisdiction to act, but whether Canada, the US, Australia, etc will follow is a big, "maybe."

/rant

I'm going to go to bed now and hopefully stroke out in my sleep.

 

Welp, I put my money where my mouth is and bought an AMD GPU to fight the big green monster. I'm pretty happy with my 6600 XT, actually, and it was significantly less expensive than a comparable nvidia card.

 I would have bought Arc, but I have a strict policy against buying first generation products.

2 hours ago, Heliian said:

Shhhhh.  Don't ruin it. 

 

Seriously though, Manitoulin Island is a great place to tour through.  I've heard lots of good things from the cyclists. 

The day we rode into Manitowaning was fantastic.

6 minutes ago, oali24 said:

What about the cities there?

What cities? lol It's a vast expanse of forest and mountains.

I'd say Northern Ontario. Most people dismiss it as a wasteland, but I biked through it in 2008 and thought it was quite beautiful.

@Somerandomtechyboi @dizmo

 I dunno, I just did a test using Memory Express' system configurator and I couldn't come up with a system that was substantially better without spending a lot more. Even after selling off the old components, I think that's more than I'm willing to spend. Like I said, I'm pretty happy with what I got, especially without wanting to run the used parts gambit (other than for the 6700k).

Budget (including currency): Best bang-for-buck (sub-$900 CAD)

Country: Canada

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: 1080 and 1440 gaming, photo editing (Affinity Photo, Photoshop CS5, Capture 1 Pro

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): 100Hz (max)

 So a buddy of mine sold me his old gaming rig for $85 CAD, which included: 
Intel i5-6400 w/ stock cooler
Corsair Vengeance 16GB 2100MT/S
MSI GTX 1060 (3GB)
Kingston 240GB SATA SSD (don't recall the exact model number)

Gigabyte GA-Z170-HD3 mobo
EVGA 850w PSU
Corsair Graphite 230T Case
x2 intake fans on the front
x1 vent fan on back

I upgraded it with the following: (gross cost of upgrades: $860 CAD, net cost of upgrades after selling off old components, $640 CAD)
Intel i7-6700k (overclocked to 4.4GHz) $150 CAD (used) (Explanation: I wanted to go 7700k, but I thought used chips were too expensive IMHO given the cost of the 6700k)

Noctua NHD-15S CPU cooler $130 CAD (new) (Explanation: I wanted a good air cooler, I don't want to fuss with AIO or water cooling, and I wanted something that could be carried forward to a future build. I originally wanted the full fat NH-D15, but I couldn't find any ram that was low enough due to clearance issues)

GSkill Ripjaw 32GB 3200MT/S $110 CAD (new) (Explanation: 3200MT/S seems to be the max supported by my CPU and mobo and the 16GB of ram in my previous system wasn't enough for my photoshop work, so I decided to go with 32GB. My CPU's memory controller didn't seem to be able to handle 3200MT/S and I was getting stability issues with XMP enabled, so I downclocked it to 3100MT/S and that solved the stability issues, so I doubt it could have handled any faster ram anyway)

MSI RX 6600 XT  Mech X2 OC Edition $360 CAD (new) (I don't care about ray tracing or 4k, I wanted to give the finger to nvidia, I run Linux on one partition of my SSD, and I only really wanted/needed something that could perform around the 3060/3060 TI area, and the 6600 XT seemed to fit my needs nicely and the cheapest 3060 at Memory Express is $480. I was actually going to go with an RX 6600, but I found the discount on the 6600 XT enough to buy it, even compared to available used 6600 XTs in my area)

Western Digital Black SN 7700 NVMe 1TB SSD ($140 CAD)

Net cost of system after selling off old components: $640 CAD

 What do you guys think? Did I achieve a good cost-to-performance? Would you have done anything different? So far I'm pretty happy with the build and have had no issues after a 6 hours gaming session yesterday in Grounded (playing it on game pass with a few friends. I killed all the ladybugs and wolf spiders)

 

30 minutes ago, RTX 3090 said:

Also is it very difficult to shoot auto on the XT3 ? From what I've heard it doesn't have a full auto mode and a lot of the times I might need to get a shot quite quickly and not have too much set-up time

I honestly don't know. But I think out of your options, the XT3 is probably your best bet. Lens support for the APS-C E-mount cameras hasn't been great.

I'd rule out the  5D MKIII. The video is pretty bad, especially by today's standards.

As an Affinity user who gave adobe the finger years ago, it would have been nice if Linus included the fact that a perpetual Affinity license for each major release (currently on 2) is peanuts compared to what adobe used to charge for something like CS6. I recently bought Affinity 2 and paid something like $50 CAD, which is about on par what I paid for Affinity 1 when it first came out, and is also less than what one month of CC costs (Though, the $50 CAD is promotional, it will go up to around $80 CAD a bit later on, but that's still a far cry from what adobe was charging) By comparison, CS6 started around $250 USD (IIRC). The video implies that the cost is similar.

 This kind of shit (adobe and pantone, not Linus making a little goof) is also why I've clung to my legit copy of CS5 in the event that I don't know how to do something in Affinity but know how to do it in photoshop and why I avoid subscriptions. How long I'll be able to avoid subscriptions, though, is another question entirely.

My guess would be that they nerf the desktop/browser experience to try and push you to use the app in order to harvest more of your tasty tasty data. (This argument is not strictly limited to googlemaps). Either that or they're just incompetent, which, in my experience, is also highly plausible.

Memory Express gets another vote from me. I'm lucky enough to have one down the street from me.

1 hour ago, CerealExperimentsLain said:

It's not that they are 'reasonable' it's that they only charge 'what it costs'.  The import fee you owe on something brought into Canada from the US is nothing but the sales taxes.  That's it.

 

...But lots of other carriers will 'handle the fee for you, as a helpful 'favour', then ask you to pay them later.. Plus a bunch of other costs for doing you that 'favour'.  Canada Post on the other hand is just like 'Hey CBSA says you owe taxes, pay and it's yours'.

I don't know, I'd say "they only charge 'what it costs" is pretty reasonable compared to UPS, which basically holds your parcel for ransom.

I find regular Canada Post and USPS are the most reasonable when it comes to customs.