sbv

joined 2 years ago
MODERATOR OF
repostbot_comm
sorted by: new top controversial old
We always imagine personal defense weapons as a hand held point shoot thingy. If anything was possible what alternatives could you think of? in c/[email protected]
[–] sbv 5 points 2 hours ago

Body odour

We always imagine personal defense weapons as a hand held point shoot thingy. If anything was possible what alternatives could you think of? in c/[email protected]
[–] sbv 6 points 2 hours ago

also good for making grilled cheese sandwiches

Perception Check (Official Music Video) - Tom Cardy in c/[email protected]
[–] sbv 6 points 19 hours ago

In his defense, he didn't try to seduce anyone.

One of the major reasons for the iconic fencing pose was to help reduce your hitbox 🤺🤺🤺 in c/centuriichan
[–] sbv 14 points 19 hours ago (3 children)

I'm not sure it's reduced, but point taken.

If you consider the early 2000s to be some sort of cultural peak do you think we will have another in your lifetime? in c/[email protected]
[–] sbv 24 points 1 day ago

Up until 9/11, for North America, maybe. After the collapse of the Soviet Union things felt pretty good. In my social circle there was a lot of optimism.

But we were on a neoliberal tear. A lot of the benefits we were enjoying (of globalization) are the cause of the spasm of conservatism we're seeing today.

Developer Builds Tool That Scrapes YouTube Comments, Uses AI to Predict Where Users Live in c/[email protected]
[–] sbv 14 points 1 day ago

“I decided I launched [sic] these tools in the first place as a project to build the tool that could be use by LEAs [law enforcement agencies] and PIs [private investigators.]”

According to the developer, they’ve provided the tool to cops in Portugal, Belgium, and “other countries in Europe.” They told 404 Media that the website is meant for private investigators, journalists, and cops.

It sounds like they're actively peddling it to cops.

Canada sees surge in temporary foreign workers applying to escape abusive employers in c/[email protected]
[–] sbv 27 points 1 day ago

We see ourselves as a progressive country. It's an absolute embarrassment that we invite people into our country and then treat them like this. If Canadians can't/won't so the work, then we should ensure that the people who come in to fill those jobs have the same protections that a successful worker world have.

The deathly gaze passes over all of you... in c/[email protected]
[–] sbv 1 points 1 day ago

My response was (is?) tongue and cheek.

Generally, I think it's best for the GM to give the players an accurate, understandable, and consistent view of the world. If the local townsfolk have said The creature up the hill turns people to stone when they gaze upon it! then this is a perfectly reasonable course of action, even if the monster doesn't have a gaze attack, so long as the PCs trust the villagers. The villagers just happen to be wrong in this case.

If the PCs have a reason to doubt their senses (in D&D/Shadowrun that might be due to a charm, etc; or in Cyberpunk/Shadowrun it could be cyberpsychosis) then it's also pretty reasonable.

Can the GM do it once to troll the players? Sure.

Would it be annoying if the GM made a habit of it? Probably.

Is it funny for a meme? Yes.

Circle Of AI Life in c/[email protected]
[–] sbv 9 points 2 days ago (3 children)

A flare as large as the Carrington Event (or bigger) could cause pretty severe problems.

STOP DOGS IN KILLING 🐕 MOROCCO in c/nosafetysmokingfirst
[–] sbv 4 points 3 days ago

I've always wanted to visit Killing Morocco.

When you marry someone who thinks ahead in c/funny
[–] sbv 13 points 3 days ago

finally, someone asking the right questions

PLANEGIRL GATHERING in c/[email protected]
[–] sbv 4 points 3 days ago

35
TD’s new CEO Raymond Chun faces the mountainous task of rebuilding trust in the bank (archive.is)
submitted 5 days ago by sbv to c/[email protected]
4 comments fedilink
 

TD isn't fixing its money laundering problem because of Canadian penalties, but because the US regulator wouldn't put up with their shit:

It had become clear TD needed a new leadership team to usher in the sweeping changes required to fix its anti-money-laundering failures, which in October resulted in U.S. regulators announcing more than US$3-billion in fines by the Department of Justice and a host of non-monetary penalties that will carve deep trenches in the bank for years to come.

Money laundering has pushed up costs in our real estate sector and enabled the drug crisis. It's bizarre that we haven't done more to stop it.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-td-bank-raymond-chun-ceo/

310
“How you design the beep is important.” Behind the movement for calmer gadgets. (arstechnica.com)
submitted 1 week ago by sbv to c/[email protected]
56 comments fedilink
 

The Eight Laws of ~~Robotics~~ Calmness:

  1. Technology should require the smallest possible amount of attention.
  2. Technology should inform and create calm.
  3. Technology should make use of the periphery.
  4. Technology should amplify the best of technology and the best of humanity.
  5. Technology can communicate, but doesn’t need to speak.
  6. Technology should work even when it fails.
  7. The right amount of technology is the minimum needed to solve the problem.
  8. Technology should respect social norms.

I'm a little suspicious about a certification body that's paid for by producers, but it's fine if they can make it work.

58
Canada has a measles problem (www.cbc.ca)
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by sbv to c/[email protected]
11 comments fedilink
 

Interesting podcast about the measles outbreaks in Alberta and Ontario. I got:

  1. The outbreaks are primarily among unvaccinated Mennonite communities.
  2. Heard immunity (thanks to vaccination) among the general population has prevented exposures from turning into infections.
  3. Provincial health ministries are avoiding talking about Mennonites because they want to avoid stigmatization.
  4. Provincial health ministries aren't holding regular briefings for political reasons.

But it's a podcast (and I'm too lazy to read the transcript) so maybe I got some of that stuff wrong.

Edit: Fixed the link to the transcript. Thanks @[email protected]!

1
mod me! (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 1 week ago by sbv to c/repostbot_comm
0 comments fedilink
 

this one

0
token frame 1 (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 1 week ago by sbv to c/repostbot_comm
0 comments fedilink
 

original. Should not be modded.

1
repost-bot 0.1.4 - start of mod config (self.repostbot_comm)
submitted 1 week ago by sbv to c/repostbot_comm
0 comments fedilink
 

In version 0.1.4, mods can now configure the repost-bot to watch a community and complain when a user reposts an image too often. The mod configures the community by PMing the bot with something along the lines of

{"https://sh.itjust.works/c/repostbot_comm": { 
  "action": "comment", 
  "minRepostIntervalSeconds": 60, 
  "allowRepostsFromOtherCommunities": false 
}}

You can see an example of this groundbreaking behaviour here.

Next up: adding reporting and removal of posts.

1
Third repost, but outside of 60s window (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 1 week ago by sbv to c/repostbot_comm
1 comments fedilink
 

are you gonna ignore this, bot?

-2
second image (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 1 week ago by sbv to c/repostbot_comm
1 comments fedilink
 

catch me bot

-2
test: initial image (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 1 week ago by sbv to c/repostbot_comm
0 comments fedilink
 

go bot go

19
Finance Minister Champagne suggests Ottawa won’t present budget this year (archive.is)
submitted 2 weeks ago by sbv to c/[email protected]
1 comments fedilink
 

Former parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page said there isn’t enough time left before the summer recess for the government to produce a full budget with new policy announcements, but he said the Liberals should at least produce a fiscal update before the summer that shows where things currently stand. He said campaign platforms didn’t fully account for the various U.S. tariff moves that have disrupted the Canadian economy.

“They are out of date,” said Mr. Page, who is now president and chief executive officer of the University of Ottawa’s Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy. “Parliament will be asked to approve spending authorities without a reasonable planning framework.”

and lil context:

Federal governments almost always release a budget early in the year. One rare exception was in 2020, during the pandemic, when the government didn’t table one.

The absence of a budget would leave Canadians without a clear picture of the new government’s spending plan, or how recent economic events have affected Ottawa’s bottom line.

Original: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-new-energy-minister-hodgson-planning-western-canada-trip-as-carneys/

38
Carney’s housing fix needs a dividend for millennials and Gen Z (archive.is)
submitted 2 weeks ago by sbv to c/[email protected]
9 comments fedilink
 

I think Kershaw is trolling in this op-ed, but it's hard to tell. He's saying that the $14 billion planned increase to OAS for seniors will subsidize many people who are already well off. So he suggests younger Canadians (who don't get to participate in the housing market) should get a similar amount:

Millennials and Gen Z deserve a greater share of the $1.5-trillion windfall generated by rising home values since boomers were young adults.

A $1,000 annual payment to every adult aged 18 to 39 would be a start. The simplest way to deliver this compensation would be through a refundable tax credit, claimed when young people file their annual returns. Governments seeking more visible credit might directly deposit $250 every three months into young people’s bank accounts, clearly labelled as a housing wealth dividend.

I know $1,000 doesn’t stretch far in today’s housing market. It may only cover a few weeks of rent or mortgage payments. But over 21 years, that same annual payment adds up to real money that can help with costs.

Of course, there are less spendy alternatives:

Options include eliminating outdated Age and Pension Income tax shelters, which could pay for half the cost. The other half could come from beginning the Old Age Security clawback at $100,000 of household income, rather than continuing to provide the full $18,000 subsidy to retired couples with $180,000 in income.

I think Kershaw is using the $1,000 per year "you were born too young to get a house" tax rebate as an illustration of the amount of cash going to retirees. But maybe he isn't.

Original: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/personal-finance/young-money/article-carneys-housing-fix-needs-a-dividend-for-millennials-and-gen-z/

36
The Great Tabletop Hackathon: Hacking the Gibson in Multiple Cyberpunk Systems (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by sbv to c/[email protected]
4 comments fedilink
 

A really fun comparison of some sample hacking/decking/netrunning runs in Shadowrun (1st, 4th, 5th), Cyberpunk (2020, RED), and a couple of systems I'm unfamiliar with.

It's interesting to see the ludic philosophy for each system:

  • Shadowrun seems to value stealth for deckers, meaning cybercombat only occurs when something goes wrong.
  • Cyberpunk seems to expect netrunners to steamroll everything in the system they're attacking.

I have a personal attachment to the Shadowrun style, and I'm trying to figure out how "sneaking" works in Cyberpunk RED. I think the short answer is it doesn't, and I'll have to figure out what an alarm means in this system and how it should be triggered.

view more: next ›