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Swordgeek @lemmy.ca
Posts 21
Comments 478
What’s Wrong With Donald Trump?
  • We have language to describe Trump, and have had for about a century.

    Fascist. Nazi. Psychopath.

    Or we could go with much older language and call him incompetent, insane, crooked, twisted, sadistic, power-hungry, evil...

    It's not that hard.

  • A third of Americans agree with Trump that immigrants ‘poison the blood’ of US
  • So a third of the country are Nazis.

    Not racists, not misinformed, not uneducated, but actual Nazis.

    In ~20 days, the most powerful and dangerous country on earth may well elect a party of Nazis to rule them.

    God help us all.

  • Do you prefer ads or paywalls?
  • Apple is worth THREE AND A HALF TRILLION DOLLARS!!!

    Say that again. Three and a half trillion dollars.

    They have cash-on-hand reserves of in excess of $60bn. They could give every single employee $200,000 and still have half of it in the bank.

    Tim Cook is a relative pauper in the CEO game, with a net worth upwards of two billion. He could personally pay a team of a three thousand reporters with full benefits and remain a billionaire.

    It's not people refusing to pay for journalism, it's robber barons refusing to pay journalists.

  • Do you prefer ads or paywalls?
  • People always have.

    How many people get paid to go to ham radio clubs, to write up plans for model airplanes, or to share telescope mirror polishing techniques? How many people try to profit off of community seed/plant exchanges?

    The only difference is that people are now looking for venues to generate profit by producing content, rather than producing content for its own sake. The concept of "every sharing of information must be financially profitable" is a sickness - a festering disease.

    Domain names cost about $50/year. Self-hosting can be done for free with most ISPs; and if you're getting enough traffic that you need to pay for hosting, it starts pretty cheaply.

    Profit is destroying community at every turn. Resist the relentless lust to make an extra buck, and ENGAGE with people.

  • Do you prefer ads or paywalls?
  • No, you really really really don't.

    I'm old enough to have been online when commercial content was illegal, and I've watched as aggressive commerce has crept into every single corner of the internet.

    You don't need to have ads to support a website, you need ads to profit from a website. The idea that everything - information, news, community, society - not only CAN be monetized but MUST be monetized is relatively new, destructive, and anti-human.

    The mere idea that you have to choose between two ways of throwing money at billionaires is a symptom of the terminal stages of capitalism. We're going to have a rough 50 years or so, but this has to end.

  • Do you prefer ads or paywalls?
  • Yeah, "good journalism" is definitely what you're paying for with ads or paywalls.

    To be clear, I support journalists - and they deserve to get paid for their efforts.

    But (a) OP didn't specifically mention news sites, and (b) the revenue from websites via ads or paywalls is going directly into the coffers of the ultra-wealthy. Find me a news outlet that successfully implemented a paywall and then started paying their journalists and reporters vastly more money.

    You won't, because they don't.

  • What game has the best thunderstorm?
  • I'd say Red Dead Redemption 2 (RDR2). Everything about the atmosphere in that game was immersive - graphics were good enough that I didn't notice they were graphics. I genuinely felt cold, wet, hot, windblown, or joyful at the various weather/environment situations in the game.

  • Do you actually care about your friend's new baby, vacation abroad or similar life events or are you just being nice?
  • So I'm in my mid-50s, and I've honestly only come up with genuine lasting interest in my friends' lives in the last few years.

    I noticed that I'd get together with friends and they'd say "hey, how did your kid's sportsball tournament go back in July?" What struck me about it is that they cared enough to actually hear what I said, and remember it - not because they have a deep abiding interest in my kid's life, but because they cared about me and the things that were important to me.

    And I wasn't repaying the care.

    So I've tried to change. When people tell me stuff about their kids or vacation, I make a concerted effort to remember it and remember the significance of it, because the fact that it's important to the people I care about means that to some degree, I care about it as well.

  • Five key takeaways from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's testimony on foreign interference
  • I would agree, except that it may be legally prohibited. At present, I believe JT would be violating national security laws by revealing the names.

    Meanwhile, PP would much rather falsely scream "LIAR!" than admit that BS like that is exactly why he refuses to get a security clearance.

  • Is Lemmy an effective alternative to Reddit?
  • Depends on what you mean "effective."

    The structure is very similar, and on the surface, it works about the same way. So in that sense, yes.

    The lack of centralization improves on reddit - no authoritarian rule-making, no limitation of content by the laws of a single country, etc. - but also adds flaws. The biggest one is the potential for redundant groups on different servers, but also a concern is the potential for someone taking down their server and leaving the users high and dry. (I don't know exactly what happens to the content in this case, but that could be another issue.)

    Practically speaking though, it is not a meaningful replacement for reddit because it is lacking content. I browse "all", and get fewer total posts that I saw on reddit on my 20 or so subscribed subreddits alone.

    Community is the key. Community is what made reddit, and lemmy doesn't have a developed community. Yet. We can get there, and then discover what other problems with the platform are.

  • why does every single flashlight have multiple settings that you have to scroll through?
  • Here's a feature I want that doesn't seem to exist in any modern flashlight:

    DON'T DRAIN THE BATTERY WHEN TURNED OFF!!!

    Seriously, the constant drain on the battery means that you cannot have an emergency flashlight in the drawer. How FUCKING STUPID is that?

  • homelab @lemmy.ml Swordgeek @lemmy.ca

    When adding disks to a Synology SHR volume, is the data re-laid out?

    Anyone an expert in Synology here?

    Synology's Hybrid Raid (SHR) is a funky little system, especially since it's built on standard Linux tools.

    What I'm wondering though, is how data is distributed when you change the disks in the system.

    Imagine I have 2x1TB drives and 2x4TB drives in a system.

    • First it creates a 4x1TB "chunk" which is essentially RAID5. (3TB available)
    • Next it creates a 2x3TB chunk which acts like RAID1 (although internally may be calculated like a RAID5 parity.) (3TB available from this)

    Now let's say I replace those two 1TB drives with 4TBs (safely, preserving data, etc.), and tell SHR to expand to use the new drives. I can see a number of scenarios from this point:

    • It mirrors the two new blocks into another 3TB chunk, giving me 9TB total. (3 from RAID5, 3 from first mirror pair, 3 from second mirror pair)
    • It expands the 3TB mirror into a second RAID5 group, giving 12TB total. (3 initial plus 9 in the second group)
    • It does the same thing and also rewrites the data on the (former) 3TB mirror pair to be striped across all four disks
    • It expands the 3TB mirror to RAID5, *and merges it with the original 3TB RAID group, giving a single 12TB RAID5.
    • Again it does the same thing but with rewriting of the data that was formerly just mirrored.

    This isn't likely to be a huge deal, but I'd like to know how it works under the covers.

    4

    Is there a difference between drawing a random card, and mathematically generating a random card?

    OK, I had a hard time coming up with a single sentence title, so please bear with me.

    Let's assume I have a computer with a perfect random number generator. I want to draw from a (electronic) deck of cards that have been shuffled. I can see two distinct algorithms to accomplish this:

    1. Fill a list with the 52 cards in random order, and then pull cards from the list in sequence. That is, defining the (random) sequence of cards before getting them. This is analogous to flipping over cards from a the top of a well-shuffled deck.

    2. Generate a random card from the set that hasn't been selected yet. In other words, you don't keep track of what card is going to come up next, you do a random select each time.

    Programattically I can see advantages to both systems, but I'm wondering if there's any mathematical or statistical difference between them.

    17

    Fallout London - I just can't anymore

    This game...

    I love it. I love how true it is to the (Bethesda, et al) spirit of the Fallout series. I love the humour, the clever touches, the obvious love with which it was crafted.

    But holy fuck, the bugs. The bugs, the bugs, the fucking quest-breaking BUGS!!!

    Also, the "FO4 too easy? We're going to make this incomprehensible" attitude.

    Let's consider companions. First companion was Churchill, followed shortly by Archie then Arthur. I was travelling with Arthur when I finished Archie's questline, and then shortly after, I finished Arthur's as well. Then Arthur swapped his massive gun for melee, so I dumped him.

    Unfortunately, I couldn't re-join with Archie. After every interaction, he goes into an unclickable merchant menu, and you can't get him to join you no matter what.

    Back to Arthur then. I sent him to Biggs Airport, and...he's not there! FUCK!

    Kiera? As soon as I didn't sign on, she went to a location I can't yet reach!

    Fine, I'll solo it. Except that the Roundels are stuck in the basement of the bar, which breaks THREE SEPARATE QUESTS!

    We'll see if 1.02 fixes any of this shit, but I honestly can't play anymore. Everything - EVERYTHING - in the game is broken for me now.

    18

    Body shop recommendations

    Hey Calgary!

    The kid got our car banged up, and we're getting it fixed under insurance.

    Looking for recommendations of body shops in town, preferably ones who work directly with insurance companies.

    Of the ones proposed by my insurance co., CSN Lou's and ProColor Collision are looking hopeful. Any thoughts?

    1

    Calgary Folk Fest thread Y'all!

    Who have you heard? Who did you fall in love with? What were your moments? Share 'em all here.

    1

    Question about Maori icons

    Hey all.

    Canadian here. A number of years ago my family visited New Zealand, and while falling in love with the country and the culture, I also discovered the Hei Matau - the Maori fish hook.

    This has haunted me ever since, and I want to carve one for myself. However, we've spent the last decade starting to understand the relationship between European settlers and the North American Indigenous people.

    So what I do in my basement with carving tools is my own business, but I ask honestly if wearing a Hei Matau in public is considered respectful or appropriation. And also if the material matters in this context. (It would likely be from a tagua nut - "vegetable ivory" - although it's possible I could get some whale bone from my coastal friends.)

    6

    Where to find a preload adjuster/cap for Rockshox Dart 3?

    So after a hard winter of riding, the preload adjuster snapped off on my old Dart 3 fork.

    The plug itself is still usable to hold the spring in place, but there is now a clear opening for water, dirt, and whatnot to get into the spring side of my shocks.

    They do well enough for the riding I do, so I'd just as soon not get new forks. If I could find a replacement adjuster I'd be a happy camper, but alas - Rockshox/SRAM doesn't have decade-old parts available that I can see.

    Any other leads you good folks could offer?

    1

    Anyone at the Comic Expo last weekend? What did you think?

    Just looking to start up some chat about the event. Would love to hear how the Gina Carano panel went!

    0

    City reveals it has $818 million in working capital to help pay for new downtown arena

    Greater transparency cited as reason for pulling back curtain on previously unreported cash

    7

    Former Conservative O'Toole leader alleges Chinese interference may have played a part in his ouster

    The party member behind 2021 petition for a leadership review, Bert Chen, vehemently denies allegations

    3

    Poilievre wants to topple the Liberal government with a non-confidence motion on the carbon tax

    "Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre will introduce a non-confidence motion Wednesday designed to topple the government and trigger a federal election — a parliamentary manoeuvre that's likely to fail."

    13
    Canada Guns @lemmy.ca Swordgeek @lemmy.ca

    Anyone applied for their PAL online

    Apparently you can apply online for your (R)PAL now. Great to hear and very convenient since I just passed my exams today, but it's a very new process, and I'm curious about how smooth it goes vs. the old paper submission.

    Has anyone tried it? If so, what was the delay in getting your license?

    1

    Copy/Paste/Copy/Paste to terminal without formatting

    This is killing me.

    We have a snippet of code on a web page. Users copy the code to a text editor, make a small change, then copy the modified version and paste it into a terminal window.

    And it fails to run.

    I've confirmed this happens with both Textedit and Notes, and also that copying from the web page and pasting directly into a terminal works fine (although without the necessary code changes).

    It's something in the text editor copy; and there's no way to either "copy as plaintext" or "paste without formatting" into a terminal.

    Does anyone know how I can work around this?

    EDIT Apparently some (but not all) spaces (octal 040) are being converted to octal "302 240". I can't figure out how to stop it!

    2
    Ukulele @lemmy.world Swordgeek @lemmy.ca

    What strings come on a Leho?

    So I recently picked up an arch-back ebony concert ukulele from Leho. It is a sweet little instrument for the price!

    What I'm wondering is what sort of strings come on it from the factory. Odds are decent that they're "Aquila new nylgut" from all I've heard, but I'd like to know for sure so I can help choose where to go when I wear these out.

    I've asked on their facebook page, but no answer so far.

    1

    Post was removed on this instance only - is there an appeal process?

    I created this post on my local server, calling for what I thought was reasonable action against a self-proclaimed threat to Canada.

    Someone in the community disagreed (fine), and reported the post on their hosting instance (lemmy.world), which led to an immediate deletion of the post (on that single instance only).

    Think is, I really don't feel that it was warranted - and neither do most of the community members over on lemmy.ca.

    I realize that instances are autonomous, but is there an appeal process to potentially have this reinstated?

    16
    Lemmy Support @lemmy.ml Swordgeek @lemmy.ca

    "Post has been removed"...on a different server?

    Yesterday I created a post on a regional community on lemmy.ca.

    Fairly quickly thereafter, I got a DM saying that the post had been removed because someone who disagreed with me complained. Oddly though, the DM came from a @[email protected] - not the server hosting the community.

    Furthermore, I still see the post when I go looking - and there has been a bit of discussion about it.

    So my questions:

    (a) Can a post be removed from a specific federated instance without being removed from the original instance? (b) Is there an appeal process for removed posts? I'm sorry that the guy got all butthurt, but my post was sincere, measured, and (I think) reasonable. If it offended someone, they should discuss it.

    24

    Kia is holding imported cars on locked compounds, rather than sell or deliver them.

    "New Kia cars are not being released to Ontario dealerships — and reportedly many more across the country — to sell. Instead, they’re being stored on this compound, 30 kilometres south of Kitchener, Ont. and allegedly on other similar compounds across Canada."

    16

    Kenneth Law charged with 14 counts of 2nd-degree murder in multiple Ontario deaths

    A charge sheet from the Ontario Court of Justice in Newmarket shows Law was charged Monday with 14 counts of second-degree murder, in addition to the 14 counts of counselling or aiding suicide that he was already facing.

    1

    3 people found dead after shed fire at Crowfoot Crossing in northwest Calgary

    2

    Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek explains property tax hike

    Calgary mayor explains why homeowners are facing a 7.8% increase.

    3