blindsight 8h ago • 100%
I just wiped and set up a laptop as a favour... It forced updating Windows (to 11, possibly?) before booting. No option to skip, and no indication how much it was downloading.
Such a pain. I had to wait an hour for it when it already had a gummy functional OS. What can't it download in the background and update at 3 when idle? That's what made me suspect it was as forced Windows 11 upgrade, since why else would they care to force it?
blindsight 8h ago • 100%
Especially for some crops, like leafy greens. Having a semi-sterile environment can also mean pesticide-free crops. (Or at least, that's my understanding).
Way less water use and transport costs for a superior (fresher, pesticide-free) product.
It only makes sense for some crops, though. Ain't nobody growing watermelons or carrots in urban vertical farms.
blindsight 20h ago • 100%
Well, sort of. The Conservatives won't be able to form government with 46 seats, but 45 NDP + 2 Green make the 47 required.
blindsight 1d ago • 100%
Thankfully, mail-in ballots skew slightly left, so there's little chance of a Con victory upset. No idea how many mail-in ballots are cast in BC, but the NDP eking out 1 more seat isn't outside the realm of possibility.
Edit: Am I right that the last "polling station" to report in most ridings is the mail-in ballots?
blindsight 1d ago • 100%
Or if you can't pull off the humour, just be honest: "Sorry; I remember you [from place, if you remember], but my blinky ADHD memory is terrible with names. Can you remind me your name? ... Thanks, [NAME]. And apologies in advance if I forget it again. It's not personal!"
blindsight 1d ago • 100%
I doubt it. The Green party will have limited leverage with the NDP since they have very little overlap with the Cons, so they can't demand too much for their support. An NDP-Green coalition will want to make it work at least long enough to have things settle after this election cycle, or they'll both be lambasted for wasting money and time on another election so soon.
blindsight 1d ago • 100%
Thanks for doing that work. It's important!
But that's brutal. 89 hours is insane.
blindsight 1d ago • 100%
What are you talking about? Nothing in my statement was falsifiable.
The Alberta election results are unassailable, and the rest was all speculation about how things could completely change in the next 4 years, with no predictions given.
As an example of how un-inevitable it is, I even gave an example of how the same events could result in completely different election results.
So, what are you talking about "proven wrong" and "statements false"? That doesn't make any sense.
blindsight 1d ago • 100%
That's not how it works. See the Conservatives/PCs in Alberta, and Social Credit before them. Combined, those two parties controlled Alberta for like ¾ of a century.
It's quite possible being in the spotlight as the official opposition for the next 4 years will give lots of opportunity for scandals to tear the party apart.
Global economic factors will likely play a large role. If inflation stays under control and housing prices come down to keep young people in BC, the NDP could win in a landslide. If Trump is elected and it tanks the North American economy then either the NDP will be blamed for BC's economy and get crushed, or voters will turn against the authoritarianism they're seeing South of the border and the NDP could cruise to an easy majority.
blindsight 2d ago • 100%
True, but I expect that wasn't meant literally; it was expressed that way for rhetorical effect.
Most of the capitalist system we're in has incentivized short-term cashflow over long-term revenue for most stakeholders (annual bonuses, for example), and AAA gaming is almost entirely following those trends, too.
blindsight 2d ago • 100%
“CO2 is presently at around 420 ppm, near the lowest level in over 1,000 years.”
blindsight 3d ago • 100%
That's how it's supposed to work. During boom times, pay down debt and let private businesses expand the economy. Then increase government spending to cushion downturns like, say, a global pandemic that caused unprecedented work stoppage globally, with massive far-reaching economic consequences (like inflation from supply chains breaking down).
Or do you think the BC NDP is influential enough to cause inflation and deficits globally?
Edit: Also, it's hard to take a party seriously when they base policy decisions on made-in-America QAnon conspiracy theory quackery, like that teachers are brainwashing children to turn them trans. Can we just call that for what it is? Punching down on trans kids to win points with Boomer bigots.
blindsight 4d ago • 100%
One of them is a literal fascist who has publicly stated they will become a dictator. Pretending they're at all equivalent is lunacy.
blindsight 4d ago • 100%
Interesting seeing Hotline Miami make the list since I just watched a short video essay the other day explaining how OTXO is just a better game in basically every way.
I'm still in the 80s working my way down the list, but I searched and OTXO doesn't appear to be on the page.
Edit: Conversely, I'm pleased to see Portal included instead of Portal 2. The Portal 2 goo was unnecessary and led to more boring puzzle solutions. Portal is a more pure, timeless game. And it has a lot of amazing mods... I should probably look into how to install Portal mods on the Deck...
blindsight 5d ago • 100%
I wonder:
- How many of those YouTube comments are posted by bots paid for by Russia/China/Iran?
- How many of those YouTube comments are posted by people who have been radicalized by Internet echo chambers?
- And how many are getting most of their news from alt-right, conspiracy theories, and Fox?
It's a cesspool.
blindsight 5d ago • 100%
For visual novels, it depends how you play them. If you're happy with getting a single story/ending, then yeah. But if you want to 100% them, then there's a lot of backtracking.
blindsight 6d ago • 100%
Portal Pro I remember being great. So good that Portal 2 was a disappointment for me when it landed.
I needed to cheat (watch the YouTube solution video) on a few solutions, iirc, too; not because they're badly designed, just because I couldn't wrap my head around the solution.
It should be noted that a couple of the portal solutions need reasonably quick portal placement, so I don't think it would be as good without KB+mouse. It took me a few tries to nail one of the techniques.
blindsight 6d ago • 100%
Exactly. Group policies give lots of control to mass enable/disable features.
It's one of the reasons to pirate Enterprise Windows instead of Home/Pro, so you can write your own group policies for your own device.
blindsight 6d ago • 100%
A protest vote does nothing. The system sucks, but with an election this close, a protest vote is a half vote for fascism. Project 2025 makes it very clear that a Republican victory might very well be the end of democracy in the US. Literally—not speaking hyperbolically.
As a non-American, it's very disturbing to see how few Americans seem to take the rise of fascism in their country seriously. There are so many parallels to the Third Reich it's deeply unsettling.
It's also becoming abundantly clear that Russian/Chinese/Iranian interference in elections is pushing for fascism, and their anti-democratic rhetoric, memes, and talking points are being shared widely.
Voting for a third party, with what the Republican Party is saying they'll do if elected, is voting for fascism being an acceptable outcome.
The fact the polls are in a dead heat is disturbing.
blindsight 7d ago • 100%
The face of the NDP candidate was cut out of most signs here, on Vancouver Island, too. I also noticed several big ones that were knocked over, and others that were stolen.
Small lawn signs on private residences seem to be untouched, it's just the big signs on public property, that I've noticed.
It's ridiculous. Not very surprising that it seems to be coming nearly universally from supporters of the party that bases policy on American QAnon conspiracy theory talking points (that teachers are brainwashing kids to turn them trans), punching down on trans kids for political points with bigots.
Fanatical is running a Steam Deck games bundle right now. Are any of these games worth the time? I feel like I've heard good things about Arise, but I'm out of the loop. I don't recognize many of the others by name. Prices are reasonable, so it's less a question about if it's worth the money, more if its worth the time. (3 for CA$6.79, 5 for CA$9.59, or 8 for CA$13.69) Terror of Hemasaurus Jack Move Garden Story Castle on the Coast The Tarnishing of Juxtia Arise: A Simple Story Zombie Army Trilogy Beyond the Long Night ATONE: Heart of the Elder Tree The Smurfs - Mission Vileaf Röki Home Sweet Home EP2 Hero's Hour Moonlighter Pathologic 2
I'm just curious if anyone else tried to get one of the Limited Edition Steam Decks before they sold out. I tried for it (on 3 devices) but kept getting error messages until it sold out. I just ordered the 1 TB edition instead. This will be my first portable gaming device since the DSi, so I'm really excited for it. Getting the clear LE one would have been cool, but I'm probably better off not spending the extra $40 CAD, lol. So, what's your Steam Deck situation? Did you try for/get the LE? Do you already have one? Getting one? Don't want one?
All over Twitch, about half the streamers I usually watch playing turn-based strategy games are all suddenly playing the same new game. I watched a few streams, and it looked interesting. Normally, I never buy games when they just come out because I have such a backlog and can wait for a sale, but I figured if *everyone* (figuratively) is playing it, it must be amazing. Turns out, they're giving the full game away for free during their "early access" phase as a "demo". But it's the full game, just with only 2 class choices. I had a blast! And now I'm probably going to buy it on release. The last time I remember doing this was for Minecraft. I see lots of games doing free weekends on Steam, which is very similar; doesn't work well for me since I only have a few hours for gaming each week, but I imagine that must be successful for a lot of games, too. What do you think of that business model? And/or, what do you think of Backpack Battles, if you've played it?
pressprogress.ca
There's a big protest being organized across Canada to protest SOGI being taught in schools, and I'm fed up with it. There are so many vulnerable students who need to know that what they're experiencing is normal, and right-wing extremists are politicizing human rights and spreading manufactured controversy about children being shown pornography in schools. The linked article is just one of many anti-SOGI protests happening across Canada on Wednesday. Anyway, the reason I bring it up here is that some of these right-wing anti-SOGI [redacted; unkind] are parents of kids in our kids' classes, and a couple of them are close friends with my kids. How do you handle that? Kids shouldn't be held accountable for their parents' beliefs. But what about playdates and birthday parties and such? Should we discuss the friendship? It feels wrong to ostracize the child. They deserve to feel safe and have friends. Also, I'm thinking of taking time off work to counter protest, and making a sign like this one:  Not really related to parenting, but I think it's important kids feel supported and bigots are told their archaic world views are unwelcome. It'll be super awkward if a parent I know is standing on the other side of the protest.
Saskatchewan is fairly conservative leaning, from a Canadian perspective, so perhaps this isn't surprising, but it's a shame that drug use continues to be viewed through a criminal lens instead of a healthcare and mental health crisis. My understanding is that even suicide is generally covered by life insurance policies after a two-year vetting period; I would have thought that drug overdoses would at *least* get the same treatment. It doesn't say in the article how long this policy existed, but the context implies it was longer than two years and I would have thought it would have been a relevant detail to include in the article if it was a newly opened policy, so the omission of that detail further supports it being an older policy. I have great sympathy for his family, especially because of the long legal battle that I'm sure has retraumatized them over the intervening years.
# My context / use case I got Fire 7 tablets for my kiddos a few years ago and they're dreadfully slow and can't really run many apps at all. With my daughter needing some educational support at home, I was looking for a cheap replacement that actually had enough power to manage recent education apps, and hopefully be future proof for a while. # Alternatives The cheapest tablet at Costco.ca, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite, is $500 CAD, has a weak processor, only 4GB RAM, and 64GB storage. I'll never touch Apple products for a zillion reasons, but cost was completely prohibitive for a device my child could drop any day. Even used ones are insanely priced. And the app ecosystem for education on iOS is almost entirely paid apps, increasingly using a subscription model. (Or so it seems.) Newer Amazon Fire "HD" tablets suck, too, but at least they're cheap. And they might be powerful enough to run some things? idk. I wasn't enthused. Then, I thought to check AliExpress and found an 8GB tablet with 128GB storage, a processor better than the S6, and a 2K (1440p) display. After reading reviews to check if it's legit, I ordered one. # Informal Review **The great:** Price/value for the specs. I paid ~$240CAD for a bundle that includes a nice case, screen protector, charging block and cable, and a child-size Bluetooth keyboard. (It doesn't have a digitizer, so I skipped the stylus.) **The good:** The tablet is snappy. The battery lasts a long time. The screen has plenty enough resolution to render everything crisply on a 10.4" display. It's a perfect tablet for my kids use as an educational tablet. It's great for PDF ebook reading (mostly picture books and early reader chapter books to date, lol!) and has handled all the education/edutainment apps without any slowdowns. 3.5mm jack. 18W fast charging. Build quality feels solid. Well positioned hardware buttons and 3.5mm jack make it easy to use in either orientation. The included case works as an angled stand. SD card slot for expansion. SIM compatible for phone/data. **The bad:** The viewing angle is pretty terrible. It's completely fine for solo use or for applications where colour accuracy isn't important, but it's very noticeable. The speakers suck. I'm not a sound geek, so I don't know the correct terms, but the sound is muddy and distorted. They also have a fairly low maximum volume, and become increasingly distorted at higher volume. They work well enough, but it's not enjoyable for music. I would definitely use headphones for music/video/games. I haven't tried the camera at all, but I've heard it's not great. Can't comment on that. **The purchase** The vendor I ordered from (ALLDOCUBE Direct Store) swapped the EU plug for a US plug at no extra cost. It arrived quickly (3 weeks?) from China. The package arrived with the retail box crushed, so the included screen protector broke. After using it for a day, I decided to buy a second one for my other child, and asked them to include a replacement. Not only did they include a replacement, but they pre-installed the screen protector on tablet #2 so it couldn't break, without my asking them to. I would recommend the seller, but ask them to pre-install the screen protector (if you plan to use one) so there's less risk of damage in transit. **Discussion** Anyway, not sure if this is the kind of content people want here, but I thought I'd do my part to add something! Has anyone else experimented with cheap AliExpress/Chinese Android devices? Based on my success with these, I'm considering getting a phone for my wife there. I'm a bit more worried about data vulnerabilities and software support longevity on a daily driver phone, but it's really hard to find a small quality phone for a reasonable price. Also, it needs to have a good camera or it's a nonstarter. Do you have any experience or thoughts on this?