February 2023 – poz!rk

Pixels for dollars

Facebook, like Twitter, will begin charging $11.99+ for a verified status.

Source: Meta Platforms adopts paid subscription plan to verify Facebook, Instagram accounts

And here I am, paying $10/month for Linode VPS (there is a cheaper option for $5) and having a website with games, a blog, my own mail server, a “VPN”, a backup server, a database, and an SVN server.
Basically, it’s just a regular PC connected to the internet 24/7 at 40/2 Gbps speed that can do anything I want.

Damn, anyone can run the whole IT infrastructure of a small business for just 10 bucks a month!

Compare this to someone paying $8 just to have a blue checkmark near their name; you still can’t write whatever you want, and your account can be blocked at any time, sometimes just by mistake.

Indigo got hacked

I’m speculating here, but the recent cybersecurity incident at Indigo might not be so recent.
It just so happens that I purchased a book from the Indigo website a few weeks ago, and they were already experiencing issues:
1. I ordered to pick up the book in store, but I didn’t receive any email notification on pickup day, and my order status got stuck at “Shipping Pending”;
2. I have cancelled the order and was planning to re-order again from Amazon;
3. The next day, an employee from the Indigo store called and told me that my book was ready for pick up, and I had never been notified about that because there were some problems with their system;
4. I picked up my book, but my credit card has still not been charged two weeks later;
5. There have been no unusual charges either. 🙂

Good book, btw.

Goodfood Market and Beyond

Guys from Goodfood (TSX:FOOD) are getting creative.
They issued C$12.65 million in new debentures with a 12.5% interest rate, C$10 million of which were purchased by Investissement Québec, aka my taxes.
Debentures have a C$0.75 conversion rate (share dilution) and an interest that converts into shares (more share dilution) at a market price plus 50% premium in the first 2 years.
In my humble opinion, it looks like La Belle Province is propping up this unprofitable business by giving them $10m and charging “nothing” for 2 years.
This extra $10m will buy FOOD some more time, but 12.5% interest is crazy expensive.
Continue reading “Goodfood Market and Beyond”