Computer Gripe

Depending on how long he is running the survey it could be worth reaching out to groups like @ecologyaction.bsky.social and/or geonovascotia.ca to see if they are willing to share his effort & include mention of the survey in their newsletters or boost on social media.

I'll be sure to share around some more; it's a great initiative and I wish him nothing but luck with it & would be happy to support something similar happening in my own community!

Teen climate activist (my son) needs Canadians to respond to a 2-minute survey to help him build data to bring to local Cdn politicians to urge them to make it easier for Canadians to donate used electronics for reuse (after wiped clean) and recycling. Pls share: marketing4health.formaloo.me/b8j3vp

part of my resentment towards LLMs is to do with them crowding out anything else we could be talking about. there are so many things I could be reading to get better at my craft but I'm presented with "you should actually get worse at it on purpose because nothing matters any more"

This is a great example of linking a global problem to our local context, and it took a long time to see commentary that actually says "climate change". I'm glad to see it here though!

It's a "fix your heart or die" situation. Literally

Also, at least in Canada, companies & organizations that decide to rely on AI are accountable: "accountability for decisions rests with the organization, and not with any kind of automated system used to support the decision-making process." Air Canada experienced this first hand in 2024.

Nova Scotia teachers have been encouraged to use AI for lesson planning, which will end up providing all sorts of errors. But, parents & guardians should also be very wary about any Individual Program Plan (IPP) being suggested for their kid. Ask specifically if AI was used & push back hard.

The victim-blaming logic for ChatGPT and related “AI” tools has already been established. When the technology puts people in danger, even deadly danger, folks will say it’s the user’s fault for trusting the technology—even as the media, the industry, workplaces and even schools encourage that trust

I have "Read" on my to do list for the day... I'm going to count playing disco elysium as reading.

Alberta’s Perverse New Barriers to COVID Vaccines | The Tyee The virus hits the old and poor hardest. The province is erecting hurdles for granting them protection.

"Twenty per cent of the population is now making anti-vax conspiracy policy that harms 80 per cent of the population.”

Alberta’s Perverse New Barriers to COVID Vaccines: thetyee.ca/Analysis/202...

Why isn’t bell hooks’s writing around men and love not seen as a progressive text on how men can get laid, i.e., form healthy romantic relationships with people in their lives?

What’s a technology that you think is overhyped? I’m going to give a sideways answer to this, which is that the venture capital business model needs to be understood as requiring hype. You can go back to the Netscape IPO, and that was the proof point that made venture capital the financial lifeblood of the tech industry. Venture capital looks at valuations and growth, not necessarily at profit or revenue. So you don’t actually have to invest in technology that works, or that even makes a profit, you simply have to have a narrative that is compelling enough to float those valuations. So you see this repetitive and exhausting hype cycle as a feature in this industry. A couple of years ago, you would have been asking me about the metaverse, then last year, you would have asked me about Web3 and crypto, and for each of these inflection points there’s an Andreessen Horowitz manifesto. It’s not simply that one piece of technology is overhyped, it’s that hype is a necessary ingredient of the current business ecosystem of the tech industry. We should examine how often the financial incentive for hype is rewarded without any real social returns, without any meaningful progress in technology, without these tools and services and worlds ever actually manifesting. That’s key to understanding the growing chasm between the narrative of techno-optimists and the reality of our tech-encumbered world.

Stand by this: www.politico.com/newsletters/...

The number of interactions between residents and municipalities in Nova Scotia where a resident brings up "hey this is a safety issue" and the municipality says "that's a provincial responsibility and our requests to change it have been rejected a few ways" is out of order imo.

A CEO saying their AI will solve climate change doesn’t have a bin full of scrunched up papers with failed ideas for a solution. That’s the very work they don’t want to do. The hard work. The design work.

Even if their climate concerns are genuine, it's still anti-design.

3/x

If you're a Canadian dev directly affected by these changes on Itch or Steam, I want to talk to you.

I won't be ready this week, but aiming for next week!

👋😷 Any fellow still coviding/covid conscious folks; if you have secondary sources (eg local newspapers) covering the covid prevention related mutual aid or advocacy that has been done in your region, please send 'em my way! I've opened DMs for a bit of time too, boosts appreciated.

We are overjoyed to announce that the CR Box Lending Library is now LIVE! We are limiting this pilot project to the Fredericton Area for the time being.

Book A CR Box Here -> docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Request Masks and Rapid Tests -> docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Nova Scotians said no to uranium mining. The Houston government said “too bad”. This week we’re digging into the B.S. behind their plan – and how you can help stop it.

👉 Sign the petition: ecologyaction.ca/no-more-bs-uranium

#NoMoreBS #UraniumMining #NSPoli #KeepNSRadiationFree

Short plants that are completely white and pipe shaped with downward facing bell shaped blooms.

Ghost pipes!! A very cool plant that lacks chlorophyll and is instead parasitic. It gets its nutrients from tree roots by way of myccorhizal fungi.

Text in yellow and black in a white box, overlaid on an image of nuclear reactor stacks.

Yellow and white text on a brown background.

Yellow and white text on a brown background.

Yellow and white text on a brown background.

For decades, we had a ban on uranium exploration and nuclear power for a reason: it’s risky, radioactive and wildly expensive.

Learn the facts and help us keep the “know” in Nova Scotia: ecologyaction.ca/our-work/politics-policy/keeping-know-nova-scotia

#NSPoli #NuclearNovaScotia

Relance économique: l’exploration de l’uranium face à l’opposition du public Le gouvernement Houston a lancé un appel de proposition pour permettre à des entreprises d’explorer l’uranium dans trois zones ciblées, dans le but de relancer l’économie provinciale.

"Now they feel like they have to start all over again." - Dr. Geldenhuys

NS repealed its uranium ban & is pushing new exploration -despite health risks & local opposition. Doctors & residents are speaking out.

Read the full article here: lecourrier.com/actualites-p...

accidentally started learning wasm 😩

NS Power changing the billing cycle to sending a bill *before* the last bill was due is an extremely WTF? move, esp. from a service where every email from them needs to be treated as possible fraud.

Nova Scotia also has so much to gain by embracing remote work as a first class employment option where possible 😔 like come on, let people be where they are.

Missing the boat on so many opportunities w/this.

It's a shame, I'm sorry you're having to deal w/navigating what is a total backslide in workplace expectations. Even if the pandemic were over, the hotseat model erodes the ability to build comradery/relationships that comes with sharing a space regularly with folks. It is all so unreasonable.

This!!! I think this is something that got WORSE with the return to office push, as employers no longer had the real estate to actually provide a real office for people to work in.

It's the worst of both worlds + unsafe given the lack of infection mitigation during a pandemic that is ongoing.

The next Halifax Indie Devs Play & Tell is this Sunday, July 20th, at 2pm! The meetup is being kindly sponsored by Maritime Digital Art and Design and will be held at their office: 5516 Spring Garden Rd, Floor 3

The next Halifax Indie Devs Play & Tell is this Sunday, July 20th, at 2pm! The meetup is being kindly sponsored by Maritime Digital Art and Design and will be held at their office: 5516 Spring Garden Rd, Floor 3.

www.meetup.com/halifax-indi...

#novascotia #hrm #halifax #gamedev #videogame