Category Archives: Technology

Graphical example of financial technology or FinTech.

Neo Financial isn’t a Bank

Rants, Technology, ,

Below is a personal anecdotal experience with Neo Financial. I am writing this as I have realized that NEO Financial is a unregulated financial services company that skirted Canada’s highly regulated banking industry and is under no direct supervision.

~~~

In 2010, I signed up for an HBC Mastercard, issued by Capital One, as a backup independent of my bank. I used it occasionally to keep it active.

In 2021, The Bay switched to Neo Financial, a Canadian FinTech company. Intrigued by their modern slick web interface, I gave it a try. They offered a 2.5% savings account, so I moved my emergency fund into a Neo Money Account through Concentra Credit Union, a CDIC member with a dedicated account number.

Later, I switched to their 4% High-Interest E-Savings account (Through the Peoples Bank of Canada another CDIC member bank). Neo expanded into investing and mortgages, though I only used their credit and savings services. I might have contacted customer service once in three years.

Then, on May 2, 2024, I had a question about my April interest—it didn’t seem right.

I phoned support on three separate occasions everyone understood the issue and no one had a proper answer or explanation for me. It was always I had to submit your request to another department which I couldn’t speak to and they would get back to me. No one ever did.

The email addresses I had used previously to contact support were bounced back. The letter mailed their head office location was not replied to.

By the end of May 2024 I was completely fed up with the lack of response, I had decided to withdraw all my funds. It then took me an hour on the phone to close my account. In short, it was the worst customer service experience I have ever had with a financial company in my life. I felt lucky that I didn’t have any major issues and got all my money out.

(I later found out from an actual bank what happened which was quite minor and easy explainable, but no one at NEO Financial could do this given multiple chances over the course of a month)

Financial Institutions deal in two products. Currency and Trust and I had lost all Trust in NEO Financial.

My former journalist mind then switched to:

How could a financial technology company (fintech) operate in Canada like a bank?

Who regulates them?

Graphic and Neo Financial with Spray Paint like graffiti saying your not a bank.
Neo Financial is not a bank

I found out those are not easy answers to find.

When I looked for Neo Financial in the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions ( OSFI ) Neo Financial won’t be listed, As it’s not a bank. It’s not regulated by the OSFI.

When I contacted the OSFI in July 2024 and asked who regulates Neo Financial I received this reply:

Neo Financial is not a federally regulated financial institution and does not fall under OSFI’s jurisdiction.

Depending on the business model, a financial institution in Canada may need to be registered at the provincial or federal level. Every province and territory in Canada has one or more bodies to regulate financial institutions under provincial responsibility. These institutions include securities dealers, credit unions and caisses populaires, as well as other financial institutions that are registered or incorporated at the provincial level.

Since Neo Financial is located in Alberta, we recommend that you contact the applicable provincial regulator, the Alberta Treasury Board and Finance, for possible assistance.

So I then emailed the Alberta Treasury Board and Finance Ministry in August 2024. The same questions and their reply surprised me:

Our office is only responsible for regulating and overseeing Alberta credit unions, Alberta loan and trust companies, and ATB Financial. This oversight does not extend to Neo Financial.

They go on to say:

Neo Financial is a Canadian fintech company that provides a range of banking products and services despite not being a traditional bank. This is achieved through a partnership model and specific regulatory frameworks.

Since Neo Financial falls under the Business Corporations Act, Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction can be contacted to file a complaint.

If you look under the Ministry of Service Alberta and Red Tape Reduction “What we Investigate” Financial Technology Companies (FinTech) are not listed, however I got this email:

The circumstances you have described in your email (who regulates NEO Financial)  appear to be related to the consumer protection legislation administered by the Consumer Investigations Unit.

The Consumer Investigations Unit accepts complaints via their online consumer complaint portal.  To access and submit a complaint via the online consumer complaint portal you must first obtain a Complaint ID from the Service Alberta Contact Centre.

So if I wanted to file a complaint I would have to do that through the Consumer Investigations Unit of Service Alberta and Red Tape. But only if I have a problem.

After hours of research and emailing various government departments. Neo Financial isn’t regulated by any financial regulated body in Canada but if you have a problem you have to report it to non-financial provincial government agency that focuses on red tape.

In the June 27, 2024, Neo Financial Account Agreement It states:

If you are not Your complaint will be escalated to Neo’s Complaints Officer.

Or if you are not satisfied with the resolution provided by Neo you can escalate your complaint to Peoples Bank of Canada.

The People Bank is required to be a member of the Ombudsman for Banking Services in Canada and is regulated by the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions.

This only apples to the People Bank of Canada. The OBSI is not responsible for Neo Financial and nor is the OSFI as they have stated above.

As someone from the Alberta Treasury Board and Finance said:

“If customers are dissatisfied with the services they receive, they are free to choose a different financial institution that better aligns with their needs.”

The above statement is quite true once I knew who I was really dealing with. I truly couldn’t leave their services fast enough. One thing that saved Canada from the 2007 Banking Crisis was our highly regulated banking industry. I hope we have our highly regulated banking industry for years to come. Otherwise, I see more Neo Financial in our future.

Who owns Neo Financial?

Who owns Neo Financial? The Founder of  SkipTheDishes Chris Simair along with some others from that venture also started Neo Financial. They originally got backing from Peter Thiel via his Valar Ventures and the Chinese technology giant Tencent. But Neo Financial was not very forth coming about who was backing them according to the Globe and Mail.

Post Script

In March 2025 I had to get my T5 – Statement of Investment Income for my 2024 Taxes and since I had closed my account with Neo Financial I asked how they would get it to me. It took me three weeks of emails back and forth and then half an hour on the phone to confirm my identity because I wouldn’t become a customer of Neo again. According to the Canada Revenue Agency, it is up to the institution to get those documents to me, not the other way around.

My Victoria Hand

General, Technology, , ,

Editors note: We have a guest author for this blog post. Robert Dall Senior, my father.

The Accident

On July 28th 2020, I was working on replacing our outdoor stairs when I had a workshop accident which changed my life. I was using my sliding compound mitre saw to cut a backing block. Since the block was small, I made a jig which kept my hand well away from the blade. Something went wrong. There was a bang and my left hand was severed just above the wrist.

My wife Bev, the local paramedics and the doctors of the Vancouver General Hospital saved my life. But now life would take a completely different turn.

Prosthetics

I was fitted with a traditional claw prothesis that fall. Although useful, I was interested in other prosthetics. Something more hand like that could be used for gently holding things. I felt that the claw was hard and could mar surfaces.

During the winter of 2023-2024 I heard about the Victoria Hand. At first, I didn’t realize that the Victoria referred to was Victoria, BC, our provincial capital and some 120 km away as the crow flies.

I checked out their site.

https://www.victoriahandproject.com

Evolution of the hand from left to right, machined metal to 3D printed plastic.

I found that they were using a very unique approach to the manufacture a prosthetic hand. Nick Dechev, Ph.D, P.Eng has designed a 4 finger with opposing thumb mechanical hand which was made of machined metal and cost $5,000. He and his team have used laser scanning and 3D printing to reduce the cost to $300.

Victoria Hand Project Process

  1. A cast of the stump is made using plaster of Paris casting tape by a prosthetist.
  2. A positive stump replica is made from the above casting.
  3. This positive casting is laser scanned into a computer program.
  4. A 3D printer uses a black plastic filament to print a socket to fit the patient’s stump. The prosthetist fine tunes the fit.
  5. The hand and wrist are assembled of 3D printed plastic parts with the laser cut stainless steel skeleton. Much of the assembly in Victoria is done by volunteers.
  6. The hand and wrist are attached to the socket and a figure “8” harness is added.
  7. The prosthetist then does the final adjustment of harness and mechanism.
  8. The socket, wrist and hand is painted with tremclad paint. There are six basic colours: Satin Brown, Satin Leather, Satin Black, Satin Island Splash, Satin Peacock Blue, and Patriotic Blue.
My stump was scanned and the socket was printed.

After looking at their work around the world and the testimonials, I decided to phone them. I contacted them in March talking to Michael Peirone who gave me lots of information about availability in Canada. VHP provides the hand for free as it is a charitable organization.

I contacted VHP a second time speaking to Abby Koch. I thought that I would try to arrange to get the hand through my trusted prosthetist in Vancouver.

By the beginning of June I had contacted Abby several times and through her Geoff Hall of Custom Prosthetic Services the prosthetist that VHP uses in Victoria.

One of many 3D printers and the plastic filament.

My wife, Bev, and I decided to extend our planned Vancouver Island trip for a week or so by going down to Victoria and getting the hand through Geoff.

On Wednesday July 17 we met Geoff  and Natalie Mainville at his office. Geoff and Natalie made a cast of my stump. Natalie is a BCIT student in Prosthetics doing her final practicum with Geoff. On Friday, Geoff had the 3D printed socket back from VPH. He lined the stump for a tighter fit and we took it to the University of Victoria lab where we meet Abby and toured their facility. There were many computers, laser scanners and 3D printers.

The Victoria Hand Project Workshop with pictures from clients all over the world.

The walls were covered with pictures from all over the world of amputees getting their hands. One wall had the Ukrainian flag on the wall. It was covered with thank you notes and signatures. There was a display of the evolution of the hand from a machined metal prototype that cost $5,000 to the current 3D printed model with a laser cut stainless skeleton for less than $300. We also met the assembly crew which puts that hand together. This task is most often done by around 20 volunteer students.

Abby Koch and Bev with the signed Ukrainian Flag in the background.

We watched as a printer quickly churned out the ball joint wrist part for a hand. There is incredible detail in the printed part complete with identifying numbers etc. already in the finished piece.

Five Experts working on the final fitting of my hand.

On the following Wednesday, we all met at Geoff’s office. A full crew was there to fit my new prothesis and shoulder harness. As this is leading edge work the process was slow with a lot of interaction between the designers and the prosthetists. Improvements for future hands were noted.

For this process we had two Engineers Abby and Michael, and three prosthetists Geoff, Nolan Fidyk Geoff’s assistant, and Natalie.

Note: Michael is the CEO of VHP and Abby is in charge of North American Development.

For every $300 Canadian Dollars, VHP can provide an amputee with a life enhancing prosthesis. In lieu of payment, I made a charitable donation.

I proudly wear my new hand. Now I have to learn how to use it!

The Team (L to R) Abby Koch, Nolan Fidyk, Natalie Mainville, Bev & Bob Dall, Geoff Hall and Michael Peirone CEO of the Victoria Hand Project

Jackson Pollock

It’s not every day a website comes along and truly captures both the imagination and artistry that can be the world wide web.

www.jacksonpollock.org is one of those websites. It was made by Miltos Manetas (with original flash made by Michal Migurski)  way back in 2002, yet I just saw it today in 2016 for the very first time thanks to Amanda Harryman.

Much like the rest of the internet it could be gone tomorrow. So enjoy it while it lasts. It needs no facebook, twitter or app.

But does require flash so is not viewable on your tablet or phone.

For the love of Flags

Roman Mars of 99% Invisible spoke about city flags at the 2015 Ted Conference in Vancouver. It’s awesome, brilliant and speaks to the urbanization of our culture and our love of design. Give it a watch it is certainly worth you time.

oh ps. I asked Roman about Vancouver Canada’s Flag and he gave it a thumbs up.

Apple’s new OS Yosemite

Dear Apple and the National Parks Service. I recently had a conversation about the new OSX called Yosemite with a fellow web developer Paul Clark.

PC: Because @10up is distributed, Yosemite is my office today. We’re hiring.   #php #css #js #WordPress pic.twitter.com/hrW0FoFVOr 

RD:  You weren’t looking for the OS were you?

PC:  Rode through without a windshield. Still working out the bugs.

RD:  I am just glad you didn’t crash exploring the new OS…

PC:  I was surprised it was on a drive. Thought they switched to cloud distribution.

RD:  But I bet it was a swift ride!

PC:  Now that you mention it, the Dashboard did say I was going pretty fast.

RD:  Was it a test drive? http://appleseed.apple.com/sp/betaprogram/ 

PC: All good things have to come to and end. I heard from my Notification Center.

You can read our conversation here… It was totally geeky on the fly and a little silly fun on a Wednesday Night

ps. No… neither of us work for Apple or the National Parks Service.

Spoilers…

Technology, ,

In a world where you can consume media whenever you want on whatever device you want. All of that convenience can be compromised by social media if your not watching it with everybody else.

Social Media the spoilers of live entertainment and tv shows like Breaking Bad.

ps. Nothing was spoiled by my friends. Merely an observation on what I am seeing in my twitter stream.

Man with t-shirt that says I am not a tourist with an iphone infront of him

Apps for Easy Travel

Technology, , , ,

I recently traveled down to Seattle for a couple days and I had switch over my old iPhone 3GS so I could use on it on the US network without fear of major roaming charges. All links go there respective apps. But many apps are available for android as well. *The Chihuly exhibit is a HTML5 app. Featured photo courtesy of Jeremy Lim Used with Permission.

Google Maps 

Google Maps App Google Maps or your favorite map application. Looking up anything using  Google Maps is a good idea. Jon Jennings and Flynn O’Connor and I drove down to WordCamp Seattle  and we used Google Maps to find my hotel and to keep us going in the right direction. Although Google did give us a funny  Once in Seattle, I used it to walk to Speakers Dinner, the traffic was horrible and it was a beautiful night, the walk was far better then a cab. I also Found my cousin house in West Seattle,  Almost everything… But when my roaming phone wasn’t connecting I went searching for a paper map and directions from local business owners which was less fruitful in not tourist area’s and I felt somewhat bothersome.

Transit App

The Icon of Transit AppUsing Seattle Transit is not foreign to me but schedules and stops change since I used it four years ago. But what made this trip special was that Transit App which recent became completely free in the App Store. I switched the location to Seattle and I was able to instantly find the transit listing using an App I already knew how to use. I Decided to take the bus from Downtown to the Seattle Center. Easy as pie… Seriously… I closed down the Chihuly Garden and Glass at 10:00pm and was on the next Monorail to Downtown then on a bus back to West Seattle in no time flat. Monday Night in Downtown Seattle many not be one place I want to hang out in. But the Transit app give me clear and concise directions to the bus stops. I don’t think a regular cab could have done better and certainly not for $4.50 in total.

Car2Go & Get2Car App

Logo of the Get2Car for Car2go serviceMuch like the Transit App all I had to do was switch the location of the app and I could find all the cars in the local radius… After a walking tour of Downtown Seattle. We were standing with in 200 feet of an available car. So I tried to rent the car so it could take me to the Seattle Central Public Library. I would need a US membership Card to Car2go and then I could use it in any America CIty and visa-versa. Nothing against the app It worked flawlessly and I am seriously considering getting a US Car2go membership as it seems to be growing.

Although Car2Go now has it’s own app. They didn’t when I first joined the service back in 2011. But the company listed Get2Car as an approved app. The Ge2Car app is reasonably priced at $1.99.

Wikipedia App

Icon on the Wikipedia App for the iPhoneThe Wikipedia App and for that matter there mobile website as well allowed me to research more about Dale Chihuly while I was waiting for the sun to go down at this his Garden and Glass Exhibit. Also according to wikipedia no one know who Elliott Bay is actually named after. Which makes sense because my walking tour guide didn’t know either. ( Side note: I highly suggest the Seattle 101 walking tour thanks Jake! )

1Password

Logo of the 1Password AppIf I liked something on Facebook I got a free goodie from this sweet shop. Ya I got a bit of sweet tooth… I don’t have Facebook App on my phone but after found my 1password I signed on got my free dark chocolate covered marshmallow and bam! Thanks one Password!

Audio tour of the Chihuly Exhibit

Chihuly Exhibit Audio Tour Mobile WebsiteThe Chihuly exhibit also had a free audio tour via a html5 mobile website (and provided free headphones so you didn’t use your speaker phone). The audio tour was really well done and gave more insight into the artist and it could only access via your smartphone. They included free wifi to access the web app so you didn’t waste your data. It was a slick interface and allowed complete choice for your immersive experience of the exhibit.

Conclusion

So after my first real trip to a somewhat foreign city these list of app made transportation easier and my time spent in the Emerald City much easier and more fulfilling. I made my way home via Amtrak Cascades  train to Vancouver and I booked my ticket online and the included QR code was scanned from an email on my phone. No printer required!

Seattle I will certainly be back but not without my smart phone.

Lighthouse Pub Formerly the China Gate

Expo 86, Lies and Wikipedia

General, Technology, ,

It all started with a conversation in the pub… But many things do I suppose…

I heard the Lighthouse Pub in Sechelt was formerly the China Pavilion from Expo 86. But after talking with the pub manager Dale Schweighardt he told me it was a restaurant near the China Pavilion. And so 15 minutes later the mystery was solved…

I had also remembered Tim Bray speak about Wikipedia at Northern Voice a Vancouver blogging conference in 2011. I can’t remember his exact words but I remember the sentiment quite clearly.

If you see an error on Wikipedia you should try to correct it as a small part of your responsibility as a human being is to share your expertise. ~ A paraphrased quote from Tim Bray.

Serendipity

The serendipity and a generous amount of curiosity lead me to read all about Expo 86. I didn’t see any mention of the Lighthouse Pub and its history. A subsequent google search only lead to me a very old and outdated website and mentioned that the Lighthouse Pub was formerly the Munich Festhaus!?!?

Sacrebleu!

Munich Festhaus
The Munich Festhaus at Expo 86.
Photo Credit Brad Wood ~ obLiterated

Being a former journalist my spidey senses were tingling… So I went on an investigation… I first found out the source of the wrong information was a book called VANCOUVER’S EXPO ’86 by Bill Cotter. But after looking at photos of Munich Festhaus on Flickr there is no way the lighthouse pub could be the Munich Festhaus. The Lighthouse Pub just wasn’t big enough… See this interior view of The Festhaus. You could fit three Lighthouse Pubs inside of that place.

So after a quick visit to the Sechelt Archives I was directed to check the newspaper archives of The Coast News via the historical newspaper database of community newspapers. To see if I could find news of the grand opening or an advertisement of the pub in the newspaper. I was foiled again because the two words Lighthouse and Pub were all too common in the long deceased community newspaper The Coast News and the fact that not all issues and editions of the paper have been digitized yet.

Not being able to find previously published evidence of how the Lighthouse Pub came from the Expo Lands to Sechelt. I finally gave  Nadina Van Egmond a phone call. She is still living on the Sunshine Coast and her husband Len Van Egmond was the original developer of the property.

She reported that Len purchased the buildings on a Rainy November Afternoon in 1986. The buildings that comprised the lighthouse were then deconstructed and moved piece by piece via BC Ferries to Sechelt and reconstructed on site.

(Update: Upon further reflection It’s unclear to me how the original China Gate building frame came to Sechelt, The frame itself seems much to large to fit inside a BC Ferry. I honestly don’t know. It’s possible it could have arrived by barge from False Creek through Skookumchuck Narrows and down to Sechelt and the rest arrived via truck via Ferry. But I think we have lost how the main building arrived to history)

A Gateway

She spoke about how Len saw the spaceship from the McDonalds and saw how to could be a Lighthouse if the wings were removed.

It was a two year process with the pub finally opening in 1988. Len Van Egmond passed away in 1993. But looking back Nadina suggest Len had a vision for what the Pub has now become:

“A gateway to Sechelt” ~ Nadina Van Egmond

I can’t disagree with her…

If you sit at the pub on any weekday afternoon and watch the traffic out on the water. It is a constant stream of boat traffic from up the inlet and float plane traffic from Vancouver, Richmond and Nanaimo. It’s one of the most unique combination of services I have found anywhere in the lower mainland.

Epilogue

China Gate Cafe
China Gate Cafe

I told Dale about my investigation and how there was some Erroneous Information about the history of the pub. He found the some photos in an old box of files from the day the China Gate Cafe. He scanned and sent them to me for upload to Wikipedia. These photos clearly show the pub was originally the China Gate Cafe.

Why did you do this? What was so important about the history of a pub?

I would have never written a blog post if it was just the construction of a pub… But I felt this was more then just a search about a place where people get a little tipsy… It was a fun treasure hunt of trivia, something to do on my days off from my former job of web design. But also this has more to do with Expo 86 then the pub… See my parents had seasons passes to the fair and we saw every pavilion, road every ride and memorized the location of every washroom of that fair… I think fondly of those days and wanted to re-visted memories of my childhood.

iGoogle Sad

Google Reader… We should have seen this coming…

Rants, Technology

But let me be clear I never used google reader. But what I did use every hour of every working day was iGoogle and its rss feeds.

It did a lot for me and served as my home page for years, yes years…

I made good use of the services offered to me via iGoogle and will be sad to see them go. RSS feeds on the left, weather in the centre. Translators on the right.
I made good use of the services offered to me via iGoogle and will be sad to see them go. RSS feeds on the left, weather in the centre. Translators on the right.

I had a very minimal apps / widget usage that included RSS feeds (in blue) from the global and mail and CBC along with weather widgets for Both Sechelt and Vancouver (red) and google translator and metric conversation tools (purple).

It was all the home page I ever needed for years and has remain unchanged throughout the launch of twitter, google wave, google +, etc….

First to go was the google weather API in late august of 2012. It was open but was unpublished so developers who used it did do at their own peril. The weather widgets of iGoogle still work but the API associated with them was closed long ago. Then word of the iGoogle shutdown. Now granted they did give us more than a year of warning. But this was a clear departure from the customize your own google experience to you’ll get what we give you.

So when I heard that google was shutting down their reader I was momentarily surprised but then I though “We’ll that figures…”

Gone are the days of the developer focused company, where customization of an open standard was common. Where don’t be evil was the unofficially company slogan. I still don’t think Google is evil. But it is certainly doing it’s own thing. I am not sure if I will ever be able to find a replacement to iGoogle. But my web habits will certainly change after it’s closure.

Also allow me a moment of pure speculation…

What is next to shut down from Google?

Will Google say…  Were not going to support jQuery libraries anymore… Or were not going to support google fonts anymore…

I am not saying any of this will actually happen… But why put your website in that position?

Which is why whenever I am asked. Yes, I embed all my font directly on the server when ever possible… Yes I use the embedded jQuery that comes with a WordPress install and yes I use an RSS reader that is based on my computer. And yes I used my own server to host all of email…

Why? Because I control the switch, And no external company has control over it and as were seeing once again… That is a very good idea…

Now if only I could find a decent replacement to my iGoogle home page.

The London 2012 Games was a real social sport

Technology, , ,

When the Olympics were in Vancouver in 2010, I volunteered and enjoyed connecting with other volunteers during and after the Games, mainly via Facebook. People have called the 2010 Games the first social Olympics, and while I agree with that, I think the London 2012 Games were the first to really take hold of the technology and run with it. Pun intended.

I have two stellar examples that demonstrate this.

My father and I were watching the men’s eight rowing from Eton Dorney and we kept seeing a large number of cyclists in the background following the rowers. Dad wondered who they were–members of the audience, judges, or crew members.

Meanwhile, I was wondering how the rowers at the front of the boats could hear the calls of the coxswains at the back of the boats.

Neither of  had participated in the sport, so I searched on Google for answers to our questions. I found more about the coxswains than I did about the cyclists, but not exactly what I wanted. During my search I came across the Twitter account for Rowing Canada and I sent my two queries in their direction.

The next day I found responses to both of the questions waiting for me.

Wow! Answers directed right to me. In the old days you had to rely on the TV announcer to provide everything and if he didn’t mention it you were left to ponder. (It certainly made for more lively conversation around our house about the amount of coaches every team has.) 🙂

The second example left me a little more starstruck.

I was watching the closing ceremonies live and I thought I would send out a thank you tweet to a number of Olympic athletes who were on Twitter and whom I had watched during the games.

Regardless of whether they won medals or not, I just wanted to say thanks for wearing the maple leaf. To my complete surprise, Simon Whitfield, triathlete and opening ceremonies flag bearer, replied back from the middle of the field during the closing ceremonies.

https://twitter.com/simonwhitfield/status/234755827930640384

It was the first time I had ever watched a live event of this scale and communicated with a participant in this way. Although the Games were 7,578 km away, I felt a part of them. And even though it was only a small part, it was an exciting moment for me nonetheless.

These two examples show what kind of interaction, what kind of support we can show our athletes when they dedicate the vast majority of their lives to sport, hoping to represent their country in front of the world.

I look forward to the Sochi Games when I will be patriotically watching our athletes represent our home and native land. And knowing they are interacting directly with fans like me.