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’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.
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.
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).
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?
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.
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
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.