Canadian software engineer living in Europe.

  • 6 Posts
  • 17 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 7th, 2023

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  • That you cannot understand technology without understanding the people. And you cannot understand people without understanding politics. Every choice you made has an impact on the world.

    As it happens, I had this very conversation with a high school kid yesterday who was in my office on work experience. She said something to the effect of “I’m not political” to which I looked her dead in the eye and said: “You should be. Everything is political”.

    Thanks for sharing. It’s always good to see people advocating for Free licensing for the right reasons.


  • I like it, and I’d bet dollars to doughnuts that you’re talking about Discovery. I’ve said in the past that the show should be called “Star Trek: Michael Burnham” as it would at least be more honest.

    To be fair, I think every series has a lot of episodes that would fail this test, some of which were excellent, like DS9’s “In the Pale Moonlight”, and “Far Beyond the Stars” or TNG’s “The Inner Light”, but if used to assess a series, I think this could be a good metric.

















  • Remember that the beautiful, vibrant neighbourhoods we campaign for aren’t monocultures, but diverse spaces for all kinds of living (within reason). 4-6 storeys is expected, as are 1-3 and even 26. The magic is in the planning and use, not so much the verticality.

    Have a look at Vancouver’s West End for example. I lived there for around 10 years and it’s really doing a great job in all the right categories. There’s some single family homes, some town homes, small apartment blocks, historical homes, and some skyscrapers, all situated around mixed use commercial/residential areas, parks, cycling, and transit. It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty great for North America.

    Amsterdam, our favourite model (I lived there for 5 years) also has a broad mix of densities. Though it definitely favours 2-4 storeys, there are many different elevations and I lived in a gorgeous 6-storey apartment block off the Veemkade for some of the greatest years of my life.

    So don’t worry so much about the height. Worry about the spaces between and how they’re planned. Is the transit good, are they prioritising people over cars? Are there parks and other walkable spaces, as well as space for cafés and grocers? That’s the magic right there.


  • Let’s see, an honest question posted about voting Green nets you a current score of -8. Yeah I’d say you’re justified in feeling attacked.

    I’m Canadian and don’t know much about the US Greens, but I can tell you that any party that would run Joe Biden twice is not a party I’d ever vote for, especially now given his miserable response to literal genocide.

    The Democrats can do this because they think they have your vote by default. It’s not like you’re going to vote Republican, right?

    But here’s the thing: you don’t get progress that way. The Democrats are never going to run someone who doesn’t support Israel unequivocally or isn’t fixated on helping capitalism destroy the planet so long as they think they can count on you voting “not Republican” every time. Yes, the Republicans are worse, but contrary to appearances, they’re on the same team, presenting the illusion of choice so long as that choice favours as little actual change for the rich as possible.

    So yeah, fuck the Democrats, and definitely fuck Joe Biden and any other “let the world burn” candidate. Vote green if you want, or stay home if you like. Just make it clear to Democrats (and their apologists in this thread) that your vote isn’t a given. That’s how you drag them kicking and screaming toward progress.