OT: Sens Lounge -The four seasons edition

[Micklebot]

it ends up being 4-6 hours one way and then back to Ottawa, but the biggest issue for me would be going away from home two nights a week. The gentleman stays in Barrie for 2 nights in the middle of the week.

I wouldn't want to be away from my GF or dogs in the middle of the week. To each their own though

I work with a guy that comes to Ottawa from Kingston, but he only does it two days a month so that we can schedule meetings around it. He doesn't have to ever come it, he chooses to (has kids that live in Ottawa so it gives him a chance to visit).

Personally, I think the hybrid schedule is ideal for me, I see value in having the option of getting staff in the same place a day or two a week, but as the saying goes, a lot of meetings could have been an email, so why drive 30 mins across town to sit in a cubicle to send emails, and join in on teams meetings with people from other departments or in other provinces if I could do all that from home?

 

[DrEasy]

TV question: Rogers is discontinuing their old cable boxes and replacing them with IgniteTV. One of my boxes is very old and falls in that list, while the other doesn't. I kind of want to keep the more recent one, as there's some movies recorded on the PVR I still want to watch.

I have many questions:

- can I just return the older one and keep the new one, or when they switch to Ignite will it stop servicing the newer one as well?

- Ignite seems to be some variation of IPTV, and it seems to have apps etc, kind of like an Apple TV. Well, I already have an Apple TV, so do I end up with redundant stuff? Can I just run Ignite as an app from the AppleTV and save a remote and a box (just to reduce clutter and complexity more than anything).

- my internet is not with Rogers, and I have no plans to switch to Rogers; is this a problem when using Ignite?

- how good is this Ignite anyway? Should I just cut the chord and switch to a grey market IPTV? I still watch live TV, like CTV News, TVO, TFO, sports channels, etc.

 

[bicboi64]

I work with a guy that comes to Ottawa from Kingston, but he only does it two days a month so that we can schedule meetings around it. He doesn't have to ever come it, he chooses to (has kids that live in Ottawa so it gives him a chance to visit).

Personally, I think the hybrid schedule is ideal for me, I see value in having the option of getting staff in the same place a day or two a week, but as the saying goes, a lot of meetings could have been an email, so why drive 30 mins across town to sit in a cubicle to send emails, and join in on teams meetings with people from other departments or in other provinces if I could do all that from home?

Couldn't agree more.

Hybrid is ideal. I work at a college, so getting to go to campus gives me a chance to use facilities that I pay for as well lol.

 

[Micklebot]

Couldn't agree more.

Hybrid is ideal. I work at a college, so getting to go to campus gives me a chance to use facilities that I pay for as well lol.

We've got a great gym that I never use at work...

 

[Masked]

I know slackers in the public service , that use s/w that makes it seem like their mouse is moving periodically, while doing other stuff.

And I've seen people in the public service spending their mornings in the office reading novels or articles online about the Habs.

Slackers are going to slack wherever.

 

[frightenedinmatenum2]

TV question: Rogers is discontinuing their old cable boxes and replacing them with IgniteTV. One of my boxes is very old and falls in that list, while the other doesn't. I kind of want to keep the more recent one, as there's some movies recorded on the PVR I still want to watch.

I have many questions:

- can I just return the older one and keep the new one, or when they switch to Ignite will it stop servicing the newer one as well?

- Ignite seems to be some variation of IPTV, and it seems to have apps etc, kind of like an Apple TV. Well, I already have an Apple TV, so do I end up with redundant stuff? Can I just run Ignite as an app from the AppleTV and save a remote and a box (just to reduce clutter and complexity more than anything).

- my internet is not with Rogers, and I have no plans to switch to Rogers; is this a problem when using Ignite?

- how good is this Ignite anyway? Should I just cut the chord and switch to a grey market IPTV? I still watch live TV, like CTV News, TVO, TFO, sports channels, etc.

All the over the top apps are baked in on Ignite. Netflix, Prime, etc, but you have to use the Ignite interface to access them. This is either good, or bad, depending on how you like the interface. It's better for elderly people or tech illiterates, because they can say "dance moms on netflix" and it will come up without them ever having to know how to work Netflix.

It's annoying because you used to be able to buy PVRs outright and not pay a rental fee. They were very cheap refurbished or used, to the point that after less than a year of not paying a rental fee you'd be ahead.

Depending on your area, you might be able to get most of the channels you listed for free using an over-the-air antenna. You can potentially get CTV (NFL), CBC (NHL playoffs, HNIC), TVO, Global, and City and a few other channels via OTA. You can also buy an OTA PVR. Global and City are harder to get in Ottawa. If it turns out that your located in an area where you get all of the above, you can also consider spending a one time fee to get an actual proper outdoor antenna setup that can be fed into your different rooms with coaxial.

I don't think there is much reason to stick with one specific cable provider. You might be able to pull the "I'm going to cancel!" routine and get the best possible deal via Rogers or Bell, then just rinse and repeat when your promotional period is up. If you already have other over the top services like Netflix, and you can get a few of the channels you want with an over-the-air antenna, the only reason to stick with cable is hockey or sports. Because of how regional deals are structured with sports leagues, unless you're out of the territory of the team, there is no cheaper (legal) way to follow a specific sports team or watch specific sports that you want. With that said, if you just want to watch a few hours of sports a week and don't care about the specific team, there are games on both over the air, and some streaming services.

Cable is going to die as soon as the regional sports bubble collapses and/or streaming services get all the sports, along with their older user base all dying. Sports are the only non-negotiable reason for most people to get cable.

 

[jbeck5]

Major layoffs coming with the next governments over the next decade.

No way the country can sustain that many employees.

They won't need as many buildings.

They'll just let people retire and won't replace every position. They won't do forced lay offs.

They should get rid of all their buildings except for a few that need to be in office. Let everyone work from home. Companies reduce expenses big time by going that route.

Even if you got 10% reduction in productivity but saved 20% on the cost, it would more than make up for it.

 

[StoicSensFan]

Going back to my childhood roots digging trenches to divert all this water, goddamn

 

[DrEasy]

All the over the top apps are baked in on Ignite. Netflix, Prime, etc, but you have to use the Ignite interface to access them. This is either good, or bad, depending on how you like the interface. It's better for elderly people or tech illiterates, because they can say "dance moms on netflix" and it will come up without them ever having to know how to work Netflix.

It's annoying because you used to be able to buy PVRs outright and not pay a rental fee. They were very cheap refurbished or used, to the point that after less than a year of not paying a rental fee you'd be ahead.

Depending on your area, you might be able to get most of the channels you listed for free using an over-the-air antenna. You can potentially get CTV (NFL), CBC (NHL playoffs, HNIC), TVO, Global, and City and a few other channels via OTA. You can also buy an OTA PVR. Global and City are harder to get in Ottawa. If it turns out that your located in an area where you get all of the above, you can also consider spending a one time fee to get an actual proper outdoor antenna setup that can be fed into your different rooms with coaxial.

I don't think there is much reason to stick with one specific cable provider. You might be able to pull the "I'm going to cancel!" routine and get the best possible deal via Rogers or Bell, then just rinse and repeat when your promotional period is up. If you already have other over the top services like Netflix, and you can get a few of the channels you want with an over-the-air antenna, the only reason to stick with cable is hockey or sports. Because of how regional deals are structured with sports leagues, unless you're out of the territory of the team, there is no cheaper (legal) way to follow a specific sports team or watch specific sports that you want. With that said, if you just want to watch a few hours of sports a week and don't care about the specific team, there are games on both over the air, and some streaming services.

Cable is going to die as soon as the regional sports bubble collapses and/or streaming services get all the sports, along with their older user base all dying. Sports are the only non-negotiable reason for most people to get cable.

Thanks for the detailed answer! I don't see myself going the OTA route though, and I'm way too attached to my sports... Also, the quality of IPTV options out there hasn't convinced me to go the grey market route yet.... Hmmm, what to do...

 

[frightenedinmatenum2]

Thanks for the detailed answer! I don't see myself going the OTA route though, and I'm way too attached to my sports... Also, the quality of IPTV options out there hasn't convinced me to go the grey market route yet.... Hmmm, what to do...

For most people with sports, there isn't going to be a better legal option than cable. It's more about just working their systems to get the best possible deal.

OTA is really underrated, but it depends a lot on your location. If you're one of the lucky people who can manage to get the entire catalogue of what is available to Ottawa OTA, you get a lot of major sports but it's just impossible to be choosy. As in, you'll get weekend NFL games on CTV, but you can't follow the Redblacks or CFL because it is exclusive to TSN. So it's good for someone who just needs a few hours of random games a week and doesn't care who or what is playing, but that probably isn't your use case.

 

[Relapsing]

Thanks for the detailed answer! I don't see myself going the OTA route though, and I'm way too attached to my sports... Also, the quality of IPTV options out there hasn't convinced me to go the grey market route yet.... Hmmm, what to do...

For what it's worth, I watch all my sports through the tsn and sportsnet apps installed on my TV. Granted, I have access to a fibeTV login so I'm not paying their monthly/annual fees, and I'd probably be using something like caststreams if I didn't have access to it, but the streaming quality has generally been great and I don't remember any games last year I couldn't watch.

For most people with sports, there isn't going to be a better legal option than cable. It's more about just working their systems to get the best possible deal.

OTA is really underrated, but it depends a lot on your location. If you're one of the lucky people who can manage to get the entire catalogue of what is available to Ottawa OTA, you get a lot of major sports but it's just impossible to be choosy. As in, you'll get weekend NFL games on CTV, but you can't follow the Redblacks or CFL because it is exclusive to TSN. So it's good for someone who just needs a few hours of random games a week and doesn't care who or what is playing, but that probably isn't your use case.

I went OTA for years and it was a great experience overall. Worth paying for a decent antenna

 

[Micklebot]

Thanks for the detailed answer! I don't see myself going the OTA route though, and I'm way too attached to my sports... Also, the quality of IPTV options out there hasn't convinced me to go the grey market route yet.... Hmmm, what to do...

You can trial run OTA almost for free, you don't need an expensive antenna to get a solid signal, he'll, you can very easily build a bowtie antenna out of coat hangers and a 2x4, the only thing you probably have to buy is a UHF/vhf matching transformer (the dongle thingy the older folks among us remember using to connect really old tvs to cable).

You can also play around with other designs, and with a little math tweek the antenna to match the channel(s) your after.

My personal favorite is the fractal antenna,

Fractal Antenna for DTV – MOHIT BHOITE

 

[frightenedinmatenum2]

For what it's worth, I watch all my sports through the tsn and sportsnet apps installed on my TV. Granted, I have access to a fibeTV login so I'm not paying their monthly/annual fees, and I'd probably be using something like caststreams if I didn't have access to it, but the streaming quality has generally been great and I don't remember any games last year I couldn't watch.



I went OTA for years and it was a great experience overall. Worth paying for a decent antenna

Even if people don't want to put in the low three figures it would take to install a decent antenna, I think everybody should own a basic antenna. Depending on the location and the placement, a $10-$30 antenna will still pick up channels. It's redundant if someone does have cable already, but for the cost of a basic antenna it is a good thing to have kicking around as a backup.

The other thing about cable is that if you do not have a commitment, and you're strictly using it for Senators games, you can cancel during the offseason or even at the start of the playoffs since almost everything beyond the first round is (for now) on CBC.

 

[Micklebot]

Even if people don't want to put in the low three figures it would take to install a decent antenna, I think everybody should own a basic antenna. Depending on the location and the placement, a $10-$30 antenna will still pick up channels. It's redundant if someone does have cable already, but for the cost of a basic antenna it is a good thing to have kicking around as a backup.

The other thing about cable is that if you do not have a commitment, and you're strictly using it for Senators games, you can cancel during the offseason or even at the start of the playoffs since almost everything beyond the first round is (for now) on CBC.

Honestly, I went years with a DYI fractal antenna in my atic combined with a cheap antenna amp to allow me to pipe it through the lines in the house and get it distributed to all the rooms with a great signal strength, all in I probably spent about $20 and was getting a solid signal on CTV, global, CBC, City tv ect. Location is probably the biggest factor though,

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

I don't know if all providers do it, but worth checking... with my Cable subscription (more specifically my subs to TSN and Sportsnet packages) I get subs to the apps too, so it's like the best of both worlds. Cable TV is just easier, more reliable, and has much better PVR options when at home imo, but the apps are great for when out and about, at work, or if I want to watch a 2nd game off to the side while I watch the main game on the big screen. They're also great for re-visiting a game if I forget to record it.

I've grinded down my Cable provider to the point (that and my internet bundling discount from same provider) that the cost of my TV isn't much more than TSN GO and Sportsnet Now on their own anyways.

 

[Loach]

I just bought a fish. Been looking forever for a good one. Pick him up tomorrow. I'm so happy. Giant Betta.

 

[Loach]

He's here! He's great!

 

[Stylizer1]

He's here! He's great!

YOu should name him Gold Dust

 

[Loach]

YOu should name him Gold Dust

Maybe. I generally don't name fish. I'll give him a bit to settle in and see what he's like. He was in Thailand just over a week ago so he's been through a bit. Lol

 

[Loach]

Pet time! Post the pets!

 

[Stylizer1]

 

[Ralph Malfredsson]

Thanks for the detailed answer! I don't see myself going the OTA route though, and I'm way too attached to my sports... Also, the quality of IPTV options out there hasn't convinced me to go the grey market route yet.... Hmmm, what to do...

I'd love to hear what you decide. I also spend way too much on freaking Rogers just for sports.

 

[coladin]

I don't get the governments strategy. They're trying to get people to go back to the office more often while also trying to reduce the amount of buildings they own.

Something has got to give...

I know plenty of people in the private sector and in high tech who work from home permanently. The business makes more profit by not renting office space. If ever they need to meet a few times a year they can do it at some conference center or something. It makes much more sense.

Looking at spreadsheets...no need to be in office.
Working calls all the time...shouldn't be disturbing others...the list goes on. It makes no sense.

And then you'll here some construction worker saying "if I need to be on site to work, so should you!" Without realizing we work on a computer and that's way different than construction or retail or something. Heck, in the future you might be able to work machines from a controller in your living room, and I would support that.

The whole thing is annoying. Just make everyone pay $10 for gas and $20 for parking 4x more per month...premiere ford says "go back to restaurants. Go buy things on your lunch"...can't. were spending all our extra income on gas and parking. Before, we were actually stimulating our own local economies. Way more restaurants options in Orleans today than in 2005. Why was that a bad thing?

If downtown Ottawa wants to attract more people and business, they should make it more fun to be around. More touristic stuff. I see walking only streets in Nashville that look like a permanent music festival. Do something like that with sparks street for example. Extend it to LeBreton area. Build a casino. Build a stadium. Have this party central street that goes all the way from LeBreton to the market. Revitalize the market like you did bank street a decade ago.

I could go on forever..

WFH was a temporary thing due to a global pandemic, as we all know.

Our insdutrial society business model was built around the commute to work. Restaurants, coffee shops, tailors, sandwich shops, etc...you name it, there was an entire industry and business model that relies on theis model.

We can certainly have the discussion that the business model may beed changing, as there are better efficiencies to be found, and a better work/life balance. However, there are a few factors that always needed addressing:

1. The business owners whose livelihoods were destroyed, they need to be fully compensated and retrained should the business model change. I won't hear of "well find another line of work" crap that PS people say. That's bullshit. The PSW should find another line of work because they were hired under a certain structure and the onus is for them to return to their workplaces, not the other way around. If they help the business owners properl.y that are affected, then change it.

2. If they are going to chage this business model, the govt has to further accelerate sales of these buildings, even at 1$, in order revitalize the core with more affordable housing paid for by government. This govt is really good at wasting money, but this terrible investment will pay dividends in the end. They have to have the right people to convert, and maintain and control the rents in these buildings. It is the only way. It is incredibly socialist, but capitalism has its limits. If you flood the rental market with 4,000 units downtown, at rent controlled prices (which those waiting lists have thousands of people on their lists), this will drive down demand, and lower rents across the city. It is the only way.

 

[bicboi64]

If you flood the rental market with 4,000 units downtown, at rent controlled prices (which those waiting lists have thousands of people on their lists), this will drive down demand, and lower rents across the city. It is the only way.

yes please, especially in dt Toronto.

There's been a surge of condo's going up for sale, but they're shitty condo's that were designed to be investment properties instead of having people live and thrive in them.

I'd love to see the gov't (or anyone) find ways to make more cleared office spaces redundant and be a part of the housing solution where people aren't stuck spending 40-50% of their paycheques paying other leaches mortgages.

 

[Masked]

1. The business owners whose livelihoods were destroyed, they need to be fully compensated and retrained should the business model change. I won't hear of "well find another line of work" crap that PS people say. That's bullshit. The PSW should find another line of work because they were hired under a certain structure and the onus is for them to return to their workplaces, not the other way around. If they help the business owners properl.y that are affected, then change it.

This is nuts. It's like saying that we should compensate and retrain business owners who were destroyed by Amazon in the past decade.

Running a business does not entitle you to anything. You do that knowing there are risks involved. Having technology advance so that the local office space becomes obsolete is one of those risks.