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Who here's committed to not shop at Loblaws' companies this month (and beyond)?
  • Great list. In my area, I only need to avoid Maxi and Provigo.

    There are so many small "dépanneurs" and specialty grocery stores.

    They all have amaizing deals on their niche products:

    • rice, lentils, dehydrated beans, spices, chili, bitter gourd >>>> indian store
    • rice, sauces, noodles, mushroom, fish/seafood, daikon >>>> asian store
    • beans, spices, coconut, plantain, okra, eddo leaf >>>> jamaican store
    • arabic, latin american, senegalese, etc. grocery stores in addition to bakeries, fish mongers, butcher shops, etc.

    Every speciaty store has their own fresh produces from typical fruits and vegetables we see everywhere to uniques ones found nowhere else.

  • surreal war
  • An awesome image.

    How cool would it be if we all had a bunch of "giant self-expanding bubblegum-like sentinels" that would seek, adsorb and neutralize all weapons, missiles, artillery, etc? Making all wars/conflicts intractability impossible to wage.

  • Windows users don't want copilot on their taskbar
  • This is beautifully familiar.

    Am I seeing too many similarities between how Twitter/X was taken over and singlehandedly being irreversibly ruined?

    While Windows is stubbornly becoming increasingly user-adversarial (advertising, constant intrusive updates, forced transition from your favorite browser to Microsoft Edge, etc.) and unintuitive (sometimes even counter intuitive) interface design, placement and inaccessible settings.

    Well, delighting in schadenfreude, I won't complain. Microsoft is inadvertently helping me help transition many friends, family and colleagues to various flavors of Linux systems, namely Linux Mint (whichever desktop they prefer) and/or Pop!OS most of the time, but also occasionally Fedora or a particular flavor of Ubuntu.

    I never recommend Arch or rolling release systems or immutable systems to first time Linux user so as to preemptively avoid additional layers of complexity, learning curve, downtime and troubleshooting.

  • Changing consumer habits could spell the end of bagged milk
  • I just had a shower thought, probably dumb and I am tired, but how about pipes to deliver regular liquids/fluids? 🤔

    I think I read somewhere in Germany brewery would have pipes to bars delivering a continuous supply of beer.

    Now let's do that with ultrafiltered and/or ultra-high-temperature milk (less prone to spoiling).

    How about adding pipes for beer (or some other alcohol or wine), cooking oil (whichever most suitable), and any other frequently used liquid I forgot?

    If spoilage is well controlled, would that be a less energy intensive distribution method?

  • Revealed: car industry was warned keyless vehicles vulnerable to theft a decade ago
  • In Canada, car theft was a major problem before 2010 until engine immobilizers became mandatory since 2007 on all vehicles made in Canada

    Then everyone got too comfortable. The regulatory bodies and car manufacturers were too focused pretending doing some work and publishing all the buzzword-of-the-day "accomplishments" they were doing while patting each others backs without explicitely requiring manufacturers to comply/implement immediately anything. Meanwhile, manufacturers were happy to integrate almost off-the-shelf "children's RC" car starter pack obfuscated through invisible/non-existent security and protected under dubious industrial secrets.

    Obviously, criminals smelled the easy money. Starting around 2013 — mystery car unlocking device | 2015 — signal repeater car burglary, car thefts by relay attacks were known by automakers but ignored as one-offs, too technical, already dealt with by law enforcement to lets pretent it's not that big of a problem or leave it to the police. Meanwhile, insurance claim replacement vehicles are selling like hotcakes and it is "convenient" to ignore the problem.

    The following years various reprogramming theft become known and finally CAN bus injection — new form of keyless car theft that works in under 2 minutes or in depth investigation by Dr. Ken Tindell, becomes so easy, so cheap and widely available that even kids uses them to gain Youtube/TikTok followers.

    Car hacking was a becoming serious concern during the pandemic, but now it's simply ridiculous and as if current automaker included/provided anti-theft/GPS tracking were (un)knowingly made "defective".

    Hence, everyone is playing catch up and blaming left and right on who is responsible for this in-slow-motion public safety disaster.

    Brian Kingston, president and CEO of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers' Association, which includes Ford Motor Company of Canada, General Motors of Canada and Stellantis, said increasing the risk of prosecution is the most effective way to deter vehicle theft.

    "And at the same time, providing more outbound inspection controls at the ports to prevent the flow of stolen vehicles to foreign markets by organized criminal organizations," he added.

    New vehicle safety standards have been published (rushed?) recently. We will see if all the panic settles down like after 2007.

    Moreover, the exponential prevalence of car theft also laid bare the incredibly poor and ineffective security at the various ports of Canada. Unsurprisingly, it has been a known constant devolution:

    The devolution of port authorities in Canada has not been without debate over the past 70 years. This paper provides a brief introduction to the role of ports in Canada and then examines the history of port policy and devolution, concluding that past policies were considered to have failed due to their inability to respond to changing circumstances.

    (A partial repost of my same reply for a similar thread about the Canadian Government rushing to look like they are doing something, please check my post history for the other thread)

  • John Oliver offers to pay Clarence Thomas $1m a year if he resigns from supreme court
  • That is fine too. Better be more expensive for them.

    However, I'm rather inclined to suspect that they have enough "blackmail" over the course of his life's proclivity (including some before he even became a judge) hence money is probably not going to sway him that much.

  • ‘They lied’: plastics producers deceived public about recycling, report reveals
  • TerraCycle dumping "recycling" items in poor countries with inadequate regulations/enforcement (article in French). Moreover, a insightful documentary available on CBC The Recycling Myth regarding all the recycling fraud many multinational companies engages in.

    It is not surprising to see environmental fraud happening so overtly under our nose or in plain sight in front of our eyes when there is little to no repercussions for doing so (legal or otherwise). I would even go as far as to suggest it is currently financially extremely profitable for corporation (and people) to lie about all the greewashing they carry out.

    Youtube: The Recycling Myth

  • Canada to ban the Flipper Zero to stop surge in car thefts
  • Honestly, I am embarrassed with the whole "look like were doing something" shtick by my government. An expensive gathering of decision makers from various sectors, a National Summit, just to say: we are now gonna be soooo tough on crime and let's ban the toy we just saw on TikTok.

    Car theft was a major problem before 2010 until engine immobilizers became mandatory since 2007 on all vehicles made in Canada

    Then everyone got too comfortable. The regulatory bodies and car manufacturers were too focused pretending doing some work and publishing all the buzzword-of-the-day "accomplishments" they were doing while patting each others backs without explicitely requiring manufacturers to comply/implement immediately anything. Meanwhile, manufacturers were happy to integrate almost off-the-shelf "children's RC" car starter pack obfuscated through invisible/non-existent security and protected under dubious industrial secrets.

    Obviously, criminals smelled the easy money. Starting around 2013 — mystery car unlocking device | 2015 — signal repeater car burglary, car thefts by relay attacks were known by automakers but ignored as one-offs, too technical, already dealt with by law enforcement to lets pretent it's not that big of a problem or leave it to the police. Meanwhile, insurance claim replacement vehicles are selling like hotcakes and it is "convenient" to ignore the problem.

    The following years various reprogramming theft become known and finally CAN bus injection — new form of keyless car theft that works in under 2 minutes or in depth investigation by Dr. Ken Tindell, becomes so easy, so cheap and widely available that even kids uses them to gain Youtube/TikTok followers.

    Car hacking was a becoming serious concern during the pandemic, but now it's simply ridiculous and as if current automaker included/provided anti-theft/GPS tracking were (un)knowingly made "defective".

    Hence, everyone is playing catch up and blaming left and right on who is responsible for this in-slow-motion public safety disaster.

    Brian Kingston, president and CEO of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers' Association, which includes Ford Motor Company of Canada, General Motors of Canada and Stellantis, said increasing the risk of prosecution is the most effective way to deter vehicle theft.

    "And at the same time, providing more outbound inspection controls at the ports to prevent the flow of stolen vehicles to foreign markets by organized criminal organizations," he added.

    New vehicle safety standards have been published (rushed?) recently. We will see if all the panic settles down like after 2007.

    Moreover, the exponential prevalence of car theft also laid bare the incredibly poor and ineffective security at the various ports of Canada. Unsurprisingly, it has been a known constant devolution:

    The devolution of port authorities in Canada has not been without debate over the past 70 years. This paper provides a brief introduction to the role of ports in Canada and then examines the history of port policy and devolution, concluding that past policies were considered to have failed due to their inability to respond to changing circumstances.

    (Reposting my same reply for a similar thread about the Canadian Government banning the Flipper Zero, please check my post history for the other thread)

  • Canada declares Flipper Zero public enemy No. 1 in car-theft crackdown
  • Honestly, I am embarrassed with the whole "look like were doing something" shtick by my government. An expensive gathering of decision makers from various sectors, a National Summit, just to say: we are now gonna be soooo tough on crime and let's ban the toy we just saw on TikTok.

    Car theft was a major problem before 2010 until engine immobilizers became mandatory since 2007 on all vehicles made in Canada

    Then everyone got too comfortable. The regulatory bodies and car manufacturers were too focused pretending doing some work and publishing all the buzzword-of-the-day "accomplishments" they were doing while patting each others backs without explicitely requiring manufacturers to comply/implement immediately anything. Meanwhile, manufacturers were happy to integrate almost off-the-shelf "children's RC" car starter pack obfuscated through invisible/non-existent security and protected under dubious industrial secrets.

    Obviously, criminals smelled the easy money. Starting around 2013 — mystery car unlocking device | 2015 — signal repeater car burglary, car thefts by relay attacks were known by automakers but ignored as one-offs, too technical, already dealt with by law enforcement to lets pretent it's not that big of a problem or leave it to the police. Meanwhile, insurance claim replacement vehicles are selling like hotcakes and it is "convenient" to ignore the problem.

    The following years various reprogramming theft become known and finally CAN bus injection — new form of keyless car theft that works in under 2 minutes or in depth investigation by Dr. Ken Tindell, becomes so easy, so cheap and widely available that even kids uses them to gain Youtube/TikTok followers.

    Car hacking was a becoming serious concern during the pandemic, but now it's simply ridiculous and as if current automaker included/provided anti-theft/GPS tracking were (un)knowingly made "defective".

    Hence, everyone is playing catch up and blaming left and right on who is responsible for this in-slow-motion public safety disaster.

    Brian Kingston, president and CEO of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers' Association, which includes Ford Motor Company of Canada, General Motors of Canada and Stellantis, said increasing the risk of prosecution is the most effective way to deter vehicle theft.

    "And at the same time, providing more outbound inspection controls at the ports to prevent the flow of stolen vehicles to foreign markets by organized criminal organizations," he added.

    New vehicle safety standards have been published (rushed?) recently. We will see if all the panic settles down like after 2007.

    Moreover, the exponential prevalence of car theft also laid bare the incredibly poor and ineffective security at the various ports of Canada. Unsurprisingly, it has been a known constant devolution:

    The devolution of port authorities in Canada has not been without debate over the past 70 years. This paper provides a brief introduction to the role of ports in Canada and then examines the history of port policy and devolution, concluding that past policies were considered to have failed due to their inability to respond to changing circumstances.

  • UK Gvmt Say Mask Wearing At Protests Will Soon Be Illegal
  • Hmm… I may be mistaken but can they not already arrest troublemakers, arsonists, violent/aggressive individuals and other sort of rioters/agitators with preexisting laws/bylaws/regulations ?

    On the other hand, I'm trying to see the silver lining here… perhaps this new law will make it difficult for agent provocateur¹ from operating without repercussions and anonymity unless the law specifically has a carve out for them (I wouldn't be too surprised, but it would be another major blow to the resiliency of democracy in the United Kingdom).

    Source: Pentney, K. (2021). Licensed to kill…discourse? agents provocateurs and a purposive right to freedom of expression. Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, 39(3), 241-257

  • Microsoft revives aggressive Windows 11 upgrade campaign with intrusive popups for Windows 10 users
  • Usually, I help family and friends setup their computer to something familiar/similar to their routine (especially those that do everything in their browser). Otherwise, I let them slowly adapt to some new alternative software for their case use by preconfiguring it with them.

    Generally, I recommend Linux Mint for those that are used to the Windows "feel".

    Guide: Linux Mint Installation Guide

    Video: Linux Mint 21.3 (Wayland) Install Guide Note: I have not watched the whole video, I just quickly skipped around to see if they made sense.

    Ideally, try to get a relative or friend who already use some flavor of Linux to sit down with you and help you get going with the transition, guaranteed they would be overjoyed. It'll help avoid some obvious pitfall/mistake depending on your expertise level on IT stuff and streamline the experience by sharing knowledge.

  • Bluesky opens to public registration
  • I'll skip. Just like how I skipped AOL, MySpace, LiveJournal, 4Chan, Friendster, Hi5, Orkut, Bebo, Tumblr, Facebook, Pinterest, Blogger, Google+, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram, Quora, Twitch, YouTube, Vine, Netflix, OkCupid, Tinder, Grindr, Bumble, Discord, TikTok… oh all of the Apple ecosystem, and many other I missed by being oblivious or simply never heard of…

    I liked the Slashdot, Digg, Reddit and now the Lemmy format/style. Will continue to move on to whatever I find stupid simple and publicly accessible I guess. I am naturally lazy, advertisement averse and hate having to provide personal info just to use something non-governmental or non-essential.

    Now, with the increasing prevalence of LLM based bots, I will probably ineluctably reduce my time spent posting anything (I certainly hope it doesn't get that bad, only time will tell) on any kind of “social media” and focus on current and new family, friends, coworkers, colleagues and acquaintances.

  • Is global heating accelerating?
  • Man… I never complained about Winter, I actually love everything about it; the cold, the wind, the hoarfrost, the blizzards, the ice storms, the freezing rain, even the brown slush on the road. However, nowadays snowfalls have become thinner and thinner or even just raining instead and melting away whatever little snow had accumulated. It's sad.

    On the other hand, Summer, I turn into a lazy Grinch that avoids the heat and the Sun as if I was a human snowman.

    Everytime I see that graph, beyond the constant reminder of the hyperobject that is Climate Change, I am anticipating the dread of a even more scorching summer on its way in a few more months. On top of that, I also have take forest fires in consideration and prepare air filters and/or n100/n95 masks and replacement cartridges for myself, family and older relatives.

    It is sad to see we still, all considered, have not yet even begun to lower emissions and will probably continue to argue over keeping the status quo for as long as possible until maybe, unfortunately, entire cities are regularly assailed by amplified natural and man-made disasters in back-to-back sequence and until everyone is affected directly or indirectly by those irreversible damages.

    (Reposting my same reply to an identical post as this one regarding daily sea surface temperature; you can check my post history)

  • Which OS do you use for your homeserver?
  • Yes, 😅. Thank you for letting me know.

    I typed correctly I'm pretty sure, but typing it again now it autocorrects to "C - C - P" now 🫤. Even more confused.

    I'll edit my original post.

  • Which OS do you use for your homeserver?
    • Alpine on Pi4.

    • LMDE on recycled AMD systems (phenoms, opterons, FM2 APUs, oh and a recently dead bulldozer fx-8150).

    • TrueNAS, OPNsense on dedicated hardware.

    • VMware ESXi on my older workstations (currently transitioning toward LXD/Incus and XPG-ng XCP-ng with Xen Orchestra).

  • What's the best type of food to eat in a shower?
  • Concentrated lemonade…? 😳

    • You let it it dilute as you go, as per your taste.

    A block of hard cheese…? 😆

    • It would be water resistant (waterproof) enough to last the whole shower.

    That is an interesting thought experiment that never occurred to me.

  • InitialsDiceBearhttps://github.com/dicebear/dicebearhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/„Initials” (https://github.com/dicebear/dicebear) by „DiceBear”, licensed under „CC0 1.0” (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)XA
    Xavier @lemmy.ca
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    Comments 106