I learned about the row/column grouping feature in Google Sheets. If you’re anything like me, can’t believe you didn’t already know about this.

The company I helped start, silverorange, is now 25 years old. I wrote a bit about how it feels 25 years in (it feels good!).

When we got started in 1999, we were 7 people in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.

In 2024 we are 38 people spread across 8 provinces (and one Canadian working abroad in the US):

• 12 on Prince Edward Island
• 9 in British Columbia
• 7 in Ontario
• 3 in Alberta
• 2 in Quebec
• 2 in Nova Scotia
• 1 in New Brunswick
• 1 in Manitoba
• and one Canadian working in the US

(read the rest)

I wrote in 2021 that my dream car is a mythical 3-year-old electric minivan (that doesn’t exist). Later that year, I wrote up a summary of the prospects of an electric minivan (as of 2021). As of 2023 there wasn’t much of a change.

Here in 2024, I’ve given up on the dream of an electric minivan, at least for my purposes and for now. The dream is closer than ever.

• I was actually able to sit in a 2024 Kia EV9 at a local dealership. It’s a big 3-row SUV, but it’s the closest thing to an EV minivan that actually exists. It’s not cheap, but it’s not ridiculous either.
• Volkswagen says their EV minivan, the ID.Buzz is “coming to Canada in late 2024.” I suspect that means I wouldn’t be able to test drive or buy one for at least another year, and even then, I expect it will be quite expensive.

For my family, we still have (and love) our 2013 8-passenger Honda minivan. We’ve been finding we’re driving it around a lot more with one or two people in it lately though. With three kids often heading in three directions, we’re also reluctantly accepting that we have use for a second vehicle.

So, we’ve added a 2024 Hyundai Kona EV to our fleet.

• It’s the cheapest and least cool EV we could find.
• It was actually available on the lot to test drive and buy.
• Provincial and federal rebates add up to $10,750.
• It doesn’t have stupid door handles (though it does have a stupid key fob).

Farewell electric minivan dream. I hope we meet again.

Today some tourists ask me to take a photo of them. I happily obliged. They thanked me, and then they asked me to take another, this time with the phone vertical please.

I could almost feel my hair turning grey.

It’s so easy to complain about poorly-designed and poorly-built systems, and just as easy to forgot to note (or even notice) when they are well done.

I filled out the 2024 Census Test from Statistics Canada yesterday and it was pretty good. The interface was simple, understandable, fast, and allowed for a combination of mouse and keyboard input.

Well done.

Is (are?) Aurora Borealis the only phenomenon that actually looks better when photographed than in real life?

There was a minor internet brouhaha over an Apple iPad ad where they crush a bunch of musical instruments and creative tools. It was just a video in (very slightly) poor taste. No one got hurt.

I also didn’t really like the ad – it felt like if Amazon made an ad where they burned thousands of books, and dumped the ashes into a Kindle. Burning books is never good a good look (unless it’s The Day After Tomorrow and you need to keep warm), neither is crushing pianos.

That said, I’m not sure apologizing is a necessary or appropriate step. I’d save the apologies for when people get hurt.