Although the whole “Lake America” thing is nonsense and frustrating, I agree with Michael Geist that we want the large internet companies to follow government direction:

While critics may respond that Google was under no legal obligation to make any change since the executive order changed the official U.S. designation rather than imposing duties on private companies, the real digital sovereignty risk comes from Internet giants that disregard national laws and official designations and decide for themselves which to follow. Google could have ignored the U.S. designation, just as it could ignore a Canadian designation or law. But the better approach is to ensure that national laws and policies are respected and the services are tailored to national legal frameworks. In other words, when offering a service to Canadians, abide by Canadian law. But just as U.S. designations should stop at its border, so too should Canadian designations at ours.

🇨🇦 Early thoughts on digital sovereignty

I’ve been thinking (perhaps too much) about digital sovereignty recently. As a Canadian, the idea that we need to have independent, domestic control over our digital infrastructure, data, and policy has been a widely debated topic with fresh urgency.

As an individual, I think there are three reasons for considering the location of our technology choices:

  1. Canadians’ quite reasonable dislike for Trump and MAGA trolling of our country. This is all intertwined with our trade war and various boycotts.
  2. Concerns about being vulnerable to having our access revoked to important digital services. This came up in a different context a few months ago, when I worried about my vulnerability to losing my Apple ID.
  3. Interest in supporting new Canadian providers that could, ultimately, help enhance Canada’s competitive advantages and economy.

The first reason is both totally understandable and the least important in the long run.

Adopting Indie Web principles and good technology practices (like reliable backups) mostly take care of the second reason. I own my own domain name and use it for my blog, social networking, and email. The domain registrar is Hover, a Canadian company based in Toronto. I can readily swap out backend providers for my blog or email without too much trouble. The Micro.Blog service that I’m using does have an option to use EU servers, instead of US ones, but that’s only swapping one foreign government for another (though one of them is much more reliable these days). So, a nice feature to have available that I won’t enable for now.

Given I like tinkering with technology, the third reason has some appeal. I’m trying two specific services for this reason.

I’ve switched to Augure as my AI service. Not only is it Canadian-made, it also has been specifically tuned for Canadian context, which also often makes its answers more useful. Although the iOS app isn’t quite as polished as Claude’s, I’ve found the actual responses to be absolutely suitable to my needs. That said, I don’t use AI for any complex coding, so can’t comment on how well Augure works for this.

I’m dabbling with Gander.Social as a social network. In addition to being Canadian owned and operated, they also have many good ideas about how to do social networking properly that are worth supporting.

These seemed like two good places to start and I’m keen to keep exploring. I’ve found Michael Geist to be a useful resource on the policy side of this topic.

Finished reading: I like the idea of Origin Uncertain by Anatoly Liberman. The book really demonstrates well the fluidity and creativity of the English language. The chapters do get daunting though. Lots of details that are hard to keep track of and a bit of a slog 📚

🏃‍♂️ Approaching the time of day when, having run into work this morning, I debate if I should just take the train back. The return run seemed like a much better idea this morning

🏡 Our Haliburton cottage

After fifteen years of renting various cottages in the area, my wife and I are very excited to have purchased a property in Haliburton.

Auto-generated description: A smiling couple stands on a wooden dock by a lake with a golden retriever sitting in front of them on a sunny day.

This had been our long-term retirement plan: sell the Toronto home and move up there year round. So, we’ve been keeping an eye on the market and happened to find the right place at the right price. After renting seven different places on seven different lakes, we had a very clear sense of what we wanted and this one had all the right attributes. We’re just about ten-years earlier than planned.

Our rental experience always felt very contained. We’d go up for two or three (glorious) weeks. Then pack all of our stuff back up and plan for the next year. Now we’re in this new circumstance of being able to go up north on any particular weekend. This flexibility really extends the experience which infuses our weekly planning with the potential of getting out of the city and up to the lake.

I’ll confess that it is very surreal to reach what seemed like an unattainable goal and I don’t want to take this for granted. We are very fortunate to be able to do this. That said, I do now have a whole new list of projects, decisions, and expenses to manage. This is both exciting and daunting.

All that aside, we’re looking forward to welcoming friends and family to our cottage and to building a new community.

Auto-generated description: A golden retriever stands on a wooden dock near a stone staircase leading to a house partially hidden among tall trees and lush greenery.

We really enjoyed having so many friends and family join us for our fifth, and final, year renting the Torch Lake cottage. Such a special place!

Three people wearing casual summer clothes are standing together on a path by a lake with trees and a bench in the background.A multi-generational family, accompanied by a golden retriever, poses smiling together outdoors near a lake on a sunny day.A calm lake reflects a partly cloudy sky during sunset, with a floating dock in the water and a wooden pier on the right side.A group of five people and a golden retriever are posing together outdoors near a lake with trees in the background.A smiling young man and woman stand barefoot on sandy ground outdoors, with trees and greenery in the background.A group of six people and a golden retriever are posing together outdoors near a body of water with trees in the background.A group of eight people and a golden retriever dog are standing together outdoors near a lake, smiling for a photo on a sunny day.A group of six women and one man stand together outdoors on a sunny day, smiling with a golden retriever lying on the ground in front of them.

Thanks to my sister for bringing these whiskeys from the Elora Distilling Company. I’m starting with the Royal Amber

Three different bottles of whiskey liqueur from Elora Distilling Company, labeled as Limited Edition Release Maple Brulee, Royal Amber, and Sugar Maple, are displayed on a kitchen counter.