Vancouver General Discussion Thread

[LeftCoaster]

Originally Posted by Klazu

I added myself on both Urbanfibre and Novus waitlists for my new address, but currently those two are not available. Maybe one day.

Seems that my only options are Telus, Shaw, TekSavvy or VMedia. From those TekSavvy seems to be the best option with 25/5Mbs being $45/month (not a 3 month promo price but permanent) without any contract. I think that is the best option without Urbanfibre or Novus. Telus and Shaw prices suck after the few month introduction and I am not keen on keep changing between ISPs.

I have never had TekSavvy, but recall them being know for excellent customer service and stable internet. I think I will go with them.

I use TekSavvy here, their service is great. Would never go back to one of the major ISPs if I can help it.

[Klazu]

Yeah, TekSavvy is getting great reviews year after year, so I am pretty confident going with them for now. Too bad that they only offer slower internet speeds in most places and not much over 100Mbps.

LeftCoaster, do you have their Cable or DSL internet?

[Klazu]

I would also really like to keep receiving Canadian television channels, but those are surprisingly expensive (for what they are worth). I have to look into receiving them over-the-air, which I take is free of charge but of course requires an antenna of some sort.

[LeftCoaster]

DSL.

Would recommend them, or Lightspeed who my family uses in Vancouver, without hesitation.

[Klazu]

I have never heard of Lightspeed before. Seems like a small shop with ancient internet pages, but their pricing is not bad and they have a promo to waive all installation fees. Not sure if I want to jump on their train tough, as some of those small shops occasionally struggle to provide the service they are selling. TekSavyy would be a more reliable choise here.

http://www.lightspeed.ca/personal/ratesadsl.html

[LeftCoaster]

Yep, like I said both are good.

My fam uses lightspeed (I helped them set it up) and though they are small I got personalized service the whole way through. After set up one of their employees from their Barnaby office even took the time to call to make sure everything was OK. Very nice touch. Tek Savvy is a bit bigger but same deal, you deal with someone in their Chatham Ontario office directly and I've never spent too much time on hold if I need to get a hold of anyone.

[Klazu]

First night in Burnaby. It is such a nice feeling to be reunited with our furniture after one year in a furnished place. There is just so much unpacking to do... I am completely exhausted from the moving day!

It is our first night up here and boy is the night view something else! We have an incredible 300-degree view of the Metro below us, so yeah, we can see pretty much everything from here. Just wait until I get my camera unpacked and Telus bothers coming in to install our internet...

[SpongeG]

I drove around Gilmore Brentwood area tonight, lots of pedestrian action, outdoor patio at Starbucks at Gilmore was full, back in 2009 the area was so dead at night was surprised to see how lively the area has become

[SpongeG]

ruh roh

Dozens of small earthquakes under Mount St. Helens suggest Washington state volcano is "recharging"

by Charlie Smith on May 7th, 2016 at 11:28 AM

There have been more than 100 tiny earthquakes in the past two months near a Washington state mountain that blew its top off in 1980.

The last two earthquakes under Mount St. Helens today were magnitude 0.58 and 0.61 at depths of 1.45 kilometres and 1.65 kilometres, respectively.

"The earthquakes have low magnitudes of 0.5 or less; the largest a magnitude 1.3," the USGS revealed in a May 5 statement on its website. "Earthquake rates have been steadily increasing since March, reaching nearly 40 located earthquakes per week. These earthquakes are too small to be felt at the surface."

Mount St. Helens is 150 kilometres south of Seattle. When it erupted on May 18, 1980, 57 people were killed and hot ash fell across a large swath of the Pacific Northwest.

According to the USGS, recent "volcano-tectonic earthquakes beneath Mount St. Helens are likely associated with the recharge of the volcano".

"After the 2004-2008 eruption, subtle inflation of the ground surface and seismicity indicate that the magma reservoir beneath Mount St. Helens is slowly re-pressurizing, as it did after the conclusion of the 1980-1986 eruption," it added. This is to be expected and it does not indicate that the volcano is likely to erupt anytime soon."

Mount St. Helens remains the most seismically active volcano in the Cascade Range.

...

http://www.straight.com/news/694271/...-state-volcano

[Klazu]

ICBC disagrees with everyone who told me that Metrotown is a perfectly safe area to live. Today I went to update my address with a local Autoplan broker, just to find out that Metrotown is actually a much higher risk area and because of that I will be paying some $250 more for my annual car insurance. I was slightly surprised by this, as I would have thought Downtown being more prone to break-ins and collisions, but apparently not.

Damn you, ICBC. Owning a car in BC is ridiculously expensive.

[jlousa]

That doesn't make too much sense. There is a difference from area to area but it's usually pretty minimal. In the old aircare days when we used to insure the race cars out in the valley to avoid testing the difference was always under $50/yr. Are you sure you didn't make any other changes? Also remember insurance rates did go up over last year as well so that might account for some of that, but certainly not all of it.

[Klazu]

We saw them go up already at the beginning of this year so this was on top of that. I checked and they entered correct post code and discount (20% from four years of ownership). Still paying around $300/month (after the discounts) for a small SUV (2014 BMW X1) does feel alot.

Insurances can be so strange. Our home insurance for our previous condo was astronomical because of several water leaks in the building in the past. Now we have 3x larger pad and pay less for it. Go figure...

[Alex Mackinnon]

Originally Posted by Klazu

We saw them go up already at the beginning of this year so this was on top of that. I checked and they entered correct post code and discount (20% from four years of ownership). Still paying around $300/month (after the discounts) for a small SUV (2014 BMW X1) does feel alot.

Insurances can be so strange. Our home insurance for our previous condo was astronomical because of several water leaks in the building in the past. Now we have 3x larger pad and pay less for it. Go figure...

Some cars cost a lot to insure. ICBC determines rates based on what people who own that car drive like. If you buy a car which costs a lot to fix (ie a BMW) and is popular with people who are awful drivers (ie the crowd who buys expensive luxury cars and has an N) then it's unsurprising that the rates are high.

When I bought my first car, I wanted a Corrado but the insurance was almost $4K per year. So I bought a GTI instead, which was about $2400.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by Klazu

ICBC disagrees with everyone who told me that Metrotown is a perfectly safe area to live. Today I went to update my address with a local Autoplan broker, just to find out that Metrotown is actually a much higher risk area and because of that I will be paying some $250 more for my annual car insurance. I was slightly surprised by this, as I would have thought Downtown being more prone to break-ins and collisions, but apparently not.

Damn you, ICBC. Owning a car in BC is ridiculously expensive.

ICBC is yet another cash cow the BC Liberals love to milk. When out of power they threatened to privatize it, once elected they saw how much they could skim in the form of "dividends".

[Klazu]

Yeah, it sucks. I am all for good public services, but they need to be accountable for delivering efficiently run public service. I don't know enough about how ICBC is run, but insurances in BC seem expensive to me. How is it in other provinces?

ICBC has recently been having a radio campaign where they claim that 15-20% of all ICBC claims have fraudulent elements to them. Interesting if this is a hyperbole or there is something to that...

@Alex: Yeah, different car models are for sure more expensive, but in my case the car stayed the same and the address changed, so the the hike in price is due to location. I wonder how expensive Richmond would be to insure a car?

[Klazu]

Placed an order for a and much longer new zoom lens yesterday. Look forward to some very interesting shots in next couple of weeks.

[Klazu]

Canada's gold medal in the world hockey championship was an excellent excuse to test drive our new Weber. Get grillin' guys!

[s211]

Originally Posted by Klazu

Yeah, it sucks. I am all for good public services, but they need to be accountable for delivering efficiently run public service. I don't know enough about how ICBC is run, but insurances in BC seem expensive to me. How is it in other provinces?

BC vs AB auto insurance = crazy

About 15 years ago, my car insurance in AB was about half of what the same coverage cost in BC.

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by s211

BC vs AB auto insurance = crazy

About 15 years ago, my car insurance in AB was about half of what the same coverage cost in BC.

I have not lived in other provinces and had to insure a vehicle, but I always hear from AB and ON drivers that they are either way more expensive, or way cheaper than BC. I'm guessing it has more to do with driving record than anything else.

[bluefox]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

I have not lived in other provinces and had to insure a vehicle, but I always hear from AB and ON drivers that they are either way more expensive, or way cheaper than BC. I'm guessing it has more to do with driving record than anything else.

Private insurers can also refuse to insure you if they feel you're too risky. I may be wrong but I've never heard of that happening in provinces with public auto insurance systems. ICBC would just raise your premiums and your deductible.