Pretty much. Musk is far from a free speech absolutist as he proclaimed himself to be. I would go further and say he’s substantially worse, unpredictable and inconsistent in free speech matters.

Old Twitter would hardly be a true paragon of free expression, but they were at least relatively transparent. Good luck getting any answers from new Xitter or any consistency.

Yeah, it being Lauren Southern is more notable than a former candidate as a Langley MP.

I’m assuming this is related to those two Russians with RTv recently indicted funneling something like 9.7 million USD through presumably Tenet Media, where Lauren is a… media personality? Influencer? Pundit? Host? Streamer? Cam girl?

The standard I recall being established back in the nineties as to whether strong encryption was even legal in the US was “substantial non-infringing use” or similar. It’s been awhile.

The problem with key-escrow or anything similar is that any proscribed circumvention is also available to the “bad guys”.

I think Telegram’s stance would be that they can’t moderate because of strong end-to-end encryption. Back in the day the parallel would have been made to the phone system or mail.

Of course this is all happening in France, so I have no idea what the combination of French and EU laws will have on this, but I would still broadly expect that if a parallel can be made to mail or phone, Telegram would be in the clear. The phone company and mail service have no expectation of content moderation.

I guess we’ll see.

I watched the final, it was impressive, but I have no technical knowledge about what was happening.

I remember in the 3rd round, Dany Dan made a mistake, the announcers commented on it, and I had no idea what the mistake was.

I’d have to agree. An official Mastodon instance for announcements, and then just echo posts wherever desired.

Could go further, have public libraries get funding to run public instances or similar, but I think you are already seeing non-profits and maybe some co-ops formed to run Fediverse instances, so the need is less.

I like the old yearbook photo and yearbook write-up. Cute! Good thing I’ll never ascend to high office, since I never submitted a write-up for my year book. Boring!

Considering that her HS yearbook write-up mentions “California” first among “Cher Mem” (cherished memories presumably) and that Kamala grew up in California before Montreal, and returned to California after Montreal, I would expect her attachment to Montreal and Canada is little more than (hopefully) some fond memories.

But do you have stale doughnuts?¹

¹ Tim Horton’s spells it donuts as well now anyways. Canada is a failed state.

Howdy neighbour! You are absolutely correct, there are several different Co-ops all using the same logos and such. There has also been some consolidation. Peninsula Co-op merged with the Comox Valley Co-op and North-Island Co-op. There used to be more co-ops.

Although the US/Aus deal scuppered a Aus/France deal for subs IIRC.

Could be argued that the US administration is more interested in making military equipment sales than bolstering NATO.

I figure you’re right though. All our allies should be happy when Canada pulls it’s own weight.

FPTP was fine when elections were held within a riding, and results were delivered by horseback. You were voting based on a local candidate, not the national party.

Then the railroad, telegraph, telephone, and internet were invented, politics became national, and we’re still using FPTP.

Flashbacks! This reminds me of my first Gravis Gamepad (IIRC). Was a disappointing joystick, even compared to old Intellivision controllers.

It was okay with fighting games, and I do recall a nineties PC giant robot fighting game (One Must Fall maybe?)

Still, my first joystick that I actually loved and made a game much better was an old CH Products flightstick. Early flightstick, so it only added a throttle to the base, so no rudder control.

I remember playing Comanche Maximum Overkill with that stick and just popping in and out of canyons. Also Earthsiege and Strike Force Centauri. I ended up with a Saitek Flightstick, and it was even better (Independence War is a fond memory) but the difference was not as revolutionary as going from a regular joystick to that first CH Products flightstick.

Probably, but I think that every month that CDL went unchallenged was slowly building a precedent. I wonder if they had stuck to CDL if we’d still be waiting for the publishers to blink.

During the pandemic, Internet Archive very publicly announced they were relaxing their one physical copy per digitally loaned copy.

I think of they had maintained their 1:1 CDL method, the publishers would still be uncomfortable to be the one to sue first, especially since there was a decent argument and IA would have been pretty sympathetic.

Their pandemic policy was effectively not substantially different from a shadow library., and just set up a slam dunk case for the publishers.

I think if they hadn’t abandoned the CDL modern during the pandemic, they could have kept it going indefinitely. Even if it wasn’t likely fair use, it might have been. More than that, it would have been bad press for the publisher to make the first move.

Abandoning CDL during the pandemic was just waving a red flag and giving the publishers a slam dunk case.

I think if IA had just held the line with CDL, they could have over time just effectively established a precedent. Lost opportunity.

Other than newsprint (and maybe bond) almost all pulp & paper products seem to be only increasing in demand. It’s just that new mills are being built overseas.

In BC though, between beetle kill and forest fires, fibre has gotten a little tight, although there is still enough to export whole logs.

Depressingly, Canfor just idled one of their Prince George mills (Northwood IIRC), joining a long list of mills that have closed over the last few years.

Curiously, the nitrocellulose they talk about in the article comes from the"Red Liquor" process (IIRC), and the last mill in BC that used that process was Port Alice which closed a few years ago as will. And IIRC the mill was sold to a Chinese company as well. Skeena Cellulose in Prince Rupert was originally built in WW2 just for gun cotton manufacture, although all their Red Liquor digesters were idled years before they shut down (around 20-25 years ago IIRC).

That oat milk is more expensive than cow milk always seemed like “virtue pricing”. An acre of oats makes more oat milk than an acre of dairy cow feed makes cow milk.

Veritasium just released a video about people picking 37 when asked to pick a random number.

Arguably one of Canada’s greatest contributions to WW2 was our production of the CanPat trucks.

“Amateurs talk strategy; professionals talk logistics” was the quote from Gen. Omar Bradley IIRC, and I imagine in any conflict we become embroiled in (or wish to dissuade someone else from becoming embroiled in) we can contribute greatly to the logistics side.

I’d like to see a Canadian version of the US’ Army Corps of Engineers. Right now, it could help with natural disasters, and could also help with infrastructure projects. In a conflict, they could prove invaluable in actually getting fuel and supplies to the conflict zone.

Coastal patrol and Arctic patrol are two other areas where I think Canada has to stand alone to some extent.

On the topic of games with an online component, wouldn’t it be great if they could run indefinitely?

https://www.stopkillinggames.com/

Can’t you use Proton on Mac? I’d think that would solve most compatibility problems.

Just finished an “About Here” video looking at the absence of new “small” single-lot apartment buildings in North America.

Thought it was another interesting take on how zoning can contribute to housing prices.

I’m just honoured to be considered threatening enough to bother with interfering.

Doesn’t matter. We can change the schedule instead of changing the clocks.

In BC’s case, we have passed legislation to move to permanent Daylight Saving Time… when Washington State, Oregon, and California do. The hold up is that US Federal law allows the states to stay on Standard time, and stop switching to Daylight Saving Time, but not the other way around. It has been before Congress a few years now, but the US isn’t really good at getting things done, and this is low priority.

Technically we (BC) could just go ahead and do it. Or Washington, Oregon, and California could all just stick with Standard Time instead of Daylight Saving Time^1.

^1 I really don’t care, PDT or PST. All arguments about “I like an extra hour of sun in the morning/evening” are pointless. The numbers are made up, and we can change start and end times. Do the kids need an extra hour in the morning for sleep according to the latest study? Set the school start times an hour later. Changing the clock against which all these times are measured is like changing rulers instead of using different measurements.

Ever notice how touristy places have seasonal hours? It’s possible. Just stop changing the clocks instead of setting different times.

I have profound technical reasons to hate the time change. You know how you cell phone automagically changes the time? It’s not magic, and it comes with technical consequences in Industrial Automation.

Also, large organizations. North America and Europe start and stop DST on different dates (thanks Bush). The northern and southern hemisphere start and stop DST in different directions. On top of that, most countries don’t change the clocks. There’s a reason you’ll see references to UTC on the Internet.

The developer of Fist Puncher has an insightful “Promoted Comment” now on the Ars Technica article:

therealmattkain I’m one of the creators and developers of Fist Puncher which was also published by Adult Swim on Steam. We received the same notice from Warner Bros. that Fist Puncher would be retired. When we requested that Warner Bros simply transfer the game over to our studio’s Steam publisher account so that the game could stay active, they said no. The transfer process literally takes a minute to initiate (look up “Transferring Applications” in the Steamworks documentation), but their rep claimed they have simply made the universal decision not to transfer the games to the original creators.

This is incredibly disappointing. It makes me sad to think that purchased games will presumably be removed from users’ libraries. Our community and our players have 10+ years of discussions, screenshots, gameplay footage, leaderboards, player progress, unlocked characters, Steam achievements, Steam cards, etc. which will all be lost. We have Kickstarter backers who helped fund Fist Puncher (even some who have cameo appearances in the game) who will eventually no longer be able to play it. We could just rerelease Fist Puncher from our account, but we would likely receive significant backlash for relaunching a game and forcing users to “double dip” and purchase the game again (unless we just made it free).

Again, this is really just disappointing. It seems like more and more the videogame industry is filled with people that don’t like and don’t care about videogames. All that to say, buy physical games, make back-ups, help preserve our awesome industry and art form. March 7, 2024 at 12:51 am

The developer of another game distributed by WB, Fist Puncher, commented on the Ars Technica story about this.

Found it, it’s the “Promoted Comment” now.

therealmattkain I’m one of the creators and developers of Fist Puncher which was also published by Adult Swim on Steam. We received the same notice from Warner Bros. that Fist Puncher would be retired. When we requested that Warner Bros simply transfer the game over to our studio’s Steam publisher account so that the game could stay active, they said no. The transfer process literally takes a minute to initiate (look up “Transferring Applications” in the Steamworks documentation), but their rep claimed they have simply made the universal decision not to transfer the games to the original creators.

This is incredibly disappointing. It makes me sad to think that purchased games will presumably be removed from users’ libraries. Our community and our players have 10+ years of discussions, screenshots, gameplay footage, leaderboards, player progress, unlocked characters, Steam achievements, Steam cards, etc. which will all be lost. We have Kickstarter backers who helped fund Fist Puncher (even some who have cameo appearances in the game) who will eventually no longer be able to play it. We could just rerelease Fist Puncher from our account, but we would likely receive significant backlash for relaunching a game and forcing users to “double dip” and purchase the game again (unless we just made it free).

Again, this is really just disappointing. It seems like more and more the videogame industry is filled with people that don’t like and don’t care about videogames. All that to say, buy physical games, make back-ups, help preserve our awesome industry and art form. March 7, 2024 at 12:51 am

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2024/03/its-kind-of-depressing-wb-discovery-pulls-indie-game-for-business-changes/

It’s been years since I used a private tracker (pre-Netflix), but your experience seems to mirror mine.

I’ll expand on the quality angle for video, I’m going to be watching on my tablet, anything beyond 720p is going to be marginal at best. I also wear glasses, so reality rarely reaches 4K. For music I appreciate FLACC, but I’ll be hard pressed to notice the difference between that and a 128kbps MP3 I encoded 25 years ago most of the time.

Still, a well seeded deep collection is something I miss. Public trackers are fine for popular stuff, but trying to load my wife’s MP3 player with musicals is proving the limits of public trackers.

On the other hand, running a seedbox is a bit more involved than a VPN. In order to maintain ratios, keeping a seedbox is highly recommended from what I recall.

Fair enough, if the wealth isn’t benefiting anyone, than it’s exodus won’t hurt anyone.

I’d be satisfied with 90% for a top tax bracket.

Problem is that once you are wealthy enough you can move around the world. Similar to how Microsoft Ireland is somehow where most of Microsoft’s profits occur. I think there is a big role for international treaties here.

I’m pretty sure that the people that want to “fix” LGBTQ people with violence don’t differentiate between being forced to submit and be silent versus actually being converted/fixed/whatever. It doesn’t matter if you are satisfied with your role in the hierarchy, only that you submit.

I think Samsung subs in their own “Gallery” software on their phones. Other manufacturers may as well.

That is exactly the XKCD I pictured.

It’s the exclusive deals that fuel the fragmentation. If you could watch the same content on any streaming service, you wouldn’t need to subscribe to a half dozen (or turn to piracy).

Of course that’s exactly why Netflix, Prime, Apple, et al started making their own exclusive content that they totally control.

Just finished the James Burke “Connections” reboot on Curiousity. It will probably be the last thing I watch as a subscriber.

The last few years have been nothing but price hikes, fragmentation, and reduced offerings among the streaming services.

I’ll pay for a seedbox again before I pay for another streaming service.

Correct. When people say “ChatGPT isn’t real AI” they mean it’s not AGI (Artificial General Intelligence). The term “Artificial Intelligence” has been the proper term for the study of machine learning since the 1956 Dartmouth Workshop.

It’s all AI, from the computer player in Battlechess to ChatGPT. It’s not all using the same techniques, or have the same capabilities.

But still, what is the difference between a Syrian refugee in Jordan being served by the UNHCR and a Palestinian refugee in Jordan being served by UNRWA?

As a staunch critic of Hamas, and having been long dubious of UNRWA, I think having a smaller organization looking just after Palestinians as opposed to using the UNHCR was always kind of weird. Hearing overwrought pundits proclaiming how only the UNRWA can look after refugees, when the UNHCR is already running refugee services all over the world, including for Syrian refugees in Jordan seems nonsensical.

Why not just dissolve UNRWA and hand their responsibilities over to the UNHCR?

Curious on what Tencent’s attitude to the OGL would be. I imagine Larian Studios to be respectful, and it sounds like Larian is the Tencent subsidiary that would be taking over the TTRPG.

Also, “back in my day” it was D&D, not DND.

I’d be happy to have an “official” Mastodon instance. If individual politicians want to engage with their constituents, they can use any old Mastodon (or Lemmy, or whatever) instance. But having government agencies use a Mastodon instance for official communications would provide some insulation from the whims of capricious corporations.