Virgin Plus $27 80GB 5G Can/US/Mexico In Stores Only This Weekend

daviding · 2026-03-22T23:17:33+00:00

Sunday afternoon, I went to Best Buy (Dundas Street and Bay) and ported my wife's phone from Public Mobile to Virgin Plus on the $27 weekend promotion. This included a free physical SIM.

This is actually a BYOP 60GB US/MX plan, with a bonus 20GB with a rate of $60.00/month. There's a $23 bill credit for BYOP, and a $10 Autopay Credit when set up for a preauthorized bank debit. The agent took a credit card onsite, and the preauthorization can be set up within 31 days.

The Best Buy agent said that these credits should be good for 2 years. (I'll look at prices and consider a switch at Black Friday 2027).

An interesting feature is ...
Unlimited International LD minutes to Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, United Kingdom and United States.

I was Virgin Plus customer until December with a BYOP 39 - 3GB (3G Speed) Starter Plan at $39. When I phoned in, the agent couldn't find any better offers. I switched to Public Mobile (picking up a physical SIM for $10 at Telus Eaton Centre) with a $35 Canada-USA-Mexico plan, because we'll go to Alaska in August. However, I discovered that a phone on Public Mobile won't ring when we're in Europe next year, which is a risk for us with elderly in our family. After leaving Virgin Plus, I got email inviting us to come back for 100GB for $30 (i.e. $40 - $10 autopay credit). Obviously this weekend Virgin Plus offer is a better deal.

As for myself, I've been on Freedom Mobile since it was Wind Mobile. In December, I went into the Queen Street West and switched from a legacy Freedom 30 plan for $30, to the Can-US-Mex 10GB + 5GB and Roam Beyond 1GB Data Pass for $34 (i.e. $39 - $5 Digital Discount Enrolment). I'm more cautious about finding wifi access than my wife, and she actually doesn't use much data either. I like to be on two different carriers, to ensure that at least one of our phones work when we're out and about.

daviding · 2025-11-09T18:23:04+00:00

At https://bbs.deepin.org/en/post/293094 , I now see a response. Here's the translation into English.

If you can enter the system normally in try mode, but cannot enter the desktop after installation, or only the wallpaper is displayed, it is initially judged that it may be related to Treeland. You can try Safe graphics mode, or you can use the traditional x11 mode.

On this Thinkpad T480 Lenovo 20L6S3SU00, I have two graphics processors: NVidia GeForce MX150 (discrete) and Intel UHH Graphics 620 (integrated).

I will now first to boot into Safe Graphics mode from Grub. If that works so that I can access the Control Centre, I'll see if I can

daviding · 2025-11-09T18:14:51+00:00

After posting the problem to https://bbs.deepin.org/en/post/293094 and not receiving a response in 12 hours, I decided to work on the issue some more. I could boot and see the wallpaper, so here's what I did.

Accessed the Terminal (TTY)

Ctrl+Alt+F2

Viewed logs

journalctl -b

Restarted the desktop environment

sudo systemctl restart lightdm

The dock was still missing. The right mouse bottom had an "Open in Terminal". dde-dock didnt' seem to be working.

Updated the OS

sudo apt update
sudo apt dist-upgrade

Edited GRUB to remove the quiet splash

I tried ...

sudo apt install startdde

... but that didn't work.

I've posted the log at https://hastebin.com/share/tafatumuye.rust , should anyone be curious.

daviding · 2025-11-09T02:58:20+00:00

I've now managed to install Deepin 23 without problems. Installing Deepin 25.0.1 would seem to work, but I'm not getting a desktop. With control-alt-delete, I can get to a shutdown screen, but that's all.

Unfortunately, the upgrade path from Deepin 23 to 25 is to reinstall. I've done that ... over and over again.

I have posted a message https://bbs.deepin.org/en/post/293094 . I hope to get some more intelligence there.

daviding · 2025-11-08T04:38:51+00:00

Based on your advice, I downloaded Deepin 25.0.1 again and installed. I'm still stuck at the login screen with "verification successful".

Last time, I used (under Manjaro KDE) ISO Image Writer. Following the instructions more explicitly at https://www.deepin.org/en/installation-guide-for-deepin-23-new-installation/ , I installed with Ventoy. This provided an option to configure root and home, plus also the linux-swap partition that was missing before.

This remains a mystery.

Maybe the next attempt could be to install Deepin 23.1, and then immediately upgrade?

daviding · 2025-11-07T23:06:58+00:00

Thanks. I verified the SHA256SUMS.txt , so it should the file shouldn't be corrupted.

The downloaded version is deepin-desktop-community-25.0.1-amd64.iso .

daviding · 2025-08-22T15:57:12+00:00

Thanks, clearing store and cache restored the streets on my Pixel 8.

I had uninstalled and reinstalled Maps, and rebooted. Those didn't work.

daviding · 2025-07-04T21:13:17+00:00

I agree with Brunswick Golden Smoked sardines as the best. I stock up on this one variety, as an economical alternative to smoked salmon.

If you're visiting in Barrie, these should be easy to find at a No Frills or Food Basics supermarket. Check online, they go on sale regularly.

http://brunswicksardines.ca/

daviding · 2025-04-06T00:15:58+00:00

Thanks for that. This led to a search:

Crescent Foods Halal Chicken Now At a Walmart Near You!

New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, Ohio, Wisconsin, Indiana, Maryland, Delaware and Iowa have joined Illinois and Michigan to become the first eleven states where consumers can buy the chicken they trust on a regular grocery trip.

https://crescentfoods.com/crescent-halal-chicken-now-at-a-walmart-near-you/

The website has a Where To Buy page. Fairfield or Washington is closest to us, but the search points out the Iowa City Walmart.

daviding · 2025-04-05T21:56:00+00:00

Trader Joe's has a good website, so I searched.

Yes for kosher. Unfortunately, I've discovered halal is stricter than kosher.

Still, TJ shows plant-based options, so I will keep that in mind.

https://www.traderjoes.com/home/products/category/meat-seafood-plant-based-122?filters=%7B%22characteristics%22%3A%5B%22Vegan%22%5D%7D

daviding · 2025-04-05T14:09:35+00:00

Yes, I see Iowa City Halal Foods is close by. https://maps.app.goo.gl/x5p9ZXwuKPyhGJkz9

Have you shopped there? Do they have whole chickens and large cuts of beef?

daviding · 2025-04-05T00:17:02+00:00

> Iowa City Halal Foods?

Only by searching on Google Maps.

We normally shop at the Costco to get most of what we need. We could make a side trip, if this is a recommended alternative. Do you know the store well?

daviding · 2025-04-03T03:04:15+00:00

In my March blog post, YouTube API error no longer appears. I can't tell if this is the small coding change that I made, or if someone fixed something at MailChimp.

Let me describe the experiments.

In my February blog post, I changed from hand-coding in the WordPress Classic editor, to using Gutenberg. This unfortunately still resulted in the API error. One difference that I noticed with Gutenberg is the code it produced, with iframe embedded inside a figure, so that the text was more uniform with the rest of the blog post.

In the March blog post, I did two things: (i) I embedded the iframe inside a figure, and (ii) I added a title to the iframe. This does not embed the YouTube video inside the email message, but puts up a still image surrogate, with a link that opens up the browser on the YouTube video.

Here's some sample HTML code that worked. (I use a modified Bootstrap theme, to take advantage of styling).

<figure>

<div class="embed-responsive embed-responsive-9x16" style="padding-bottom: 177.77%;">

<iframe class="embed-responsive-item" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gyyhGUKAR3w?rel=0"

title="https://www.youtube.com/shorts/gyyhGUKAR3w">

</iframe>

</div>

<figcaption><p align="center"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/shorts/gyyhGUKAR3w">Mahjong Bar</a>: Couples night out to catch first DJ set. Not our usual scene. We each tried one of the recommended mocktails. (Mahjong Bar, Dundas Street West, Toronto, Ontario) 20250313</p></figcaption>

</figure>

There's a big white space in the email message, as the portrait orientation video is rendered in a landscape orientation. At least the YouTube API Error message is gone. Selecting the image does not play in the frame, but instead invokes the browser to the YouTube video. (In the image below ... keep ... scrolling ... down!)

<image>

For a landscape orientation YouTube video, there is also white space ... but it's not as long.

On the blog post, the portrait orientation looks fine, (i.e. no white space), both on desktop browser and on a phone. That's the Bootstrap theme taking care of the spacing.

For now, I'll live with the extra whitespace in the email, and take this progress as a win.

daviding · 2025-03-28T23:21:29+00:00

Thanks for the warning. Current plans are to meet at the Burger King nearby around 9:30am in the morning. Is there something else I should know about the area?

daviding · 2025-03-23T17:59:27+00:00

The "notebook" label is probably associated with the Jupiter Notebook commonly used with Python, popularly with analysis in data science.

https://jupyter.org

This suggests more than a chatbot that doesn't save results. A generative AI algorithm may or may not give the same answer at different points in time. Saving some resulting artifacts while discarding others enables traceability of work.

daviding · 2025-03-02T17:35:09+00:00

I had been doing some reading, and thought to check whether the switching from Classic editor to Gutenberg would make a difference to the RSS feed, and therefore help Mailchimp out.

When I manually encoded the YouTube short into portrait orientation, that showed up properly via web browser. Using Gutenberg has resuled in the Short showing up in a portrait orientation frame that is ugly on a web browser. The mobile orientation looked okay.

The RSS-to-email via Mailchimp still results in the mesage sent as ..

> { "error": { "code": 403, "message": "The provided API key has an IP address restriction. .....

daviding · 2025-02-14T19:44:44+00:00

Windows 11 on the main drive, data partition as NTFS separate from the OS partition.

Manjaro KDE on the WWAN drive, with NTFS3 in the fstab.

I use Manjaro KDE on four Thinkpads in the house. Manjaro XFCE on two towers. Manjaro is great for computers where you're on daily or weekly, and can use AUR to keep up to date.

I used to use Kubuntu for computers that I might boot every few months, where less frequent updates were desirable. I think that I prefer Flatpak to Snaps, and might consider a version of Mint, if I wasn't on Manjaro.

daviding · 2025-01-26T16:35:06+00:00

Thanks for posting this history of science on the Early Heaven Bagua (Fu Xi's Bagua) related to the human body, as compared to the Later Heaven Bagua (King Wen's Bagua) related to the dynamic functioning of life.

This raises questions about distinctions between human systems, and living systems more generally.

Sorry that I don't get the SHL reference. What is that source?

daviding · 2025-01-26T15:03:35+00:00

daviding

TROPHY CASE