mlekoszek

Hahaha, good morning Eastern Time folks. Heck of a day ahead.

Needs an 'always online' requirement

What else do you have?

Fair play. There's a quiet truth to what you're saying, and it's worth pointing out

Never say never. People are paying through the nose for a pair of JNCOs these days.

> But if I went to a “high end” place with an AI menu and instagram decor - bad, bad sign.

Sometimes I wonder if this will settle into its own form of kitsch over the years, and whether people will someday try to emulate it (with a wink and a nod).

At least we can talk about it.

Oh, I remember these. Those kits were a lot of fun.

Explain this a bit. I'm interested, but I don't fully understand how you mean this.

Not saying this is what you're doing, but I find requiring someone to solve a problem immediately after sharing it can (ironically) stifle finding a solution. The act of identifying and the act of solving rarely happen all in one motion, and often the first step to solving a problem is to establish its validity among peers so meaningful solutions can arise.

Unless, of course, it continually has been becoming Reddit, but Reddit has been constantly changing too ;)

Arranged like a Skinner box -- something which dispenses reward stimuli for desired behaviours with the aim of maximizing those behaviours.

Interestingly, a Skinner box can be made to dispense rewards randomly after a while, or stop dispensing them entirely -- but the desired behaviour is likely to continue. Think doomscrolling, slot machines, loot boxes, dating apps, etc.

A worthwhile survey of this I was introduced to in my undergrad: https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691160887/ad...

And as a follow-up, Lewis Mumford, Technics and Civilization.

Where McLuhan argues technologies shape worldviews, Mumford argues worldviews also shape technologies.

And then perhaps into the world of science and technology studies (STS), where these questions are explored more deeply, and specific cases are examined.

Unless you're reading at the top of the screen (i.e. on a phone), scroll up to recap on something you missed, and then the header slides in and covers the exact thing you were trying to read.

Bonus points if the header is absolutely massive and takes up a full fifth of the innerHeight.

> It's not that polls are imperfect, it's that they're often entirely misleading and incorrect.

Can you point to the source of your argument? Furthermore -- can you point out how this particular poll is one of the misleading and incorrect ones?

They're really using every tactic they can -- and for the life of me, I have no idea why. They've pushed so hard, for so long, to make Bing succeed -- even forcing it in the Start menu -- and it's still not owning the search space.

Ontologically, it implies the existence of Turbobloat 3000.

I can see that, but I think calling it just nostalgia-driven is judging a book by its cover.

First off, I want to say you can totally have a design ethos that covers game engines as much as irrigation systems -- Lee Felsenstein explicitly cited Ivan Illich's notion of 'convivial technology' as an influence on his modems. And Illich mostly talked about bicycles.

What I see in this project is a specific kind of appropriate technology -- 'toaster compatibility' -- mixed with conscious adoption of old methods and aesthetics to serve and signal that end. Which is cool, IMO.

HTMX uses similar techniques in trying to 'bring back' hypermedia and reduce dependencies, although I think they're after a different kind of simplicity. And of course, their Hypermedia Systems book makes similar nods to 90s-software aesthetics: https://hypermedia.systems/

To an absolute hardliner for appropriate technology, probably -- but simplicity isn't necessarily all-or-nothing, and (IMO) helping people pull off cool things with simpler tools isn't so bad.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appropriate_technology

"Some might say "just get a better computer". This is why getting a better computer is bad:

1. Affordance: A lot of people, especially from 3rd world countries are very poor and can't afford to buy hardware to run Turbobloat.

2. e-Waste: Producing computer chips is very bad on the environment. If modern software wasn't Turbobloated you would buy new hardware only when the previous hardware broke and wasn't repairable.

3. Not putting up with Turbobloat: Why spend money on another computer if you already have one that works perfectly fine? Just because of someone else's turbobloat? You could buy 1000 cans of Dr. Pepper instead."

Took the words from my mouth. What a great project. Please keep posting your progress.

A lot of the family-friendly stuff was specifically for the cameras. A few things I can speak to:

* It definitely wasn't peaceful -- activists and Ottawa residents documented numerous incidents of violence, harassment, threats, vandalism, and so on in Ottawa. This document compiles some of it: https://docs.google.com/document/d/13-Zg8yjEPYyybbLy70njbWxG...

* Organizers encouraged participants to bring more children when it became clear police action was imminent, presumably to complicate law enforcement efforts. A Facebook post even suggested adding bouncy castles to "contribute to the fun" during these escalations. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/02/17/freedom-conv...

* In the case of Ambassador Bridge, some reportedly put their children in front of the police. https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/convoy-protests-total-ar...

* There’s academic discussion suggesting that children and family-friendly elements were intentionally brought in for PR and to slow the police response. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cag.12909?af=R

* Despite claims of peaceful protest, there were reports of ambulances being blocked or even pelted with rocks. https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/ambulances-pelted-...

* This is without getting into the hate speech. https://www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Committee/441/CHPC/Brief/B...

Glad you asked.

* Pushing a reporter live on air: https://x.com/mylenecrete/status/1494874304814751744

* Beating a counter-protestor on camera: https://x.com/timabray/status/1488231660260839430?t=Bx4fGVxR...

* Attacking a shop employee for masking up on their way to work: https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=23006638534070...

* Smashing windows of a business with a Pride flag: https://imgur.com/a/80bmPQ8

* Trying to handcuff shut the doors of an apartment building: https://x.com/gray_mackenzie/status/1492705868697198593

* Encouraging harassment of the lawyer leading the class action lawsuit against them: https://www.facebook.com/groups/217129079397701/permalink/62...

* Threatening public officials: https://www.ottawapolice.ca/Modules/News/index.aspx?newsId=7...

* Spamming emergency services so they could not be used: https://x.com/OttawaPolice/status/1491788988654383115

* Harassing children at an elementary school: https://pressprogress.ca/elementary-school-students-and-teac...

* Bomb threats against a children's hospital: https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/cheo-targeted-by-bomb-threat-monda...

* Pelting ambulances with rocks: https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/ambulances-pelted-...

These are just the things that were recorded, reported on, and archived with the links functioning three years later. Scroll up and you can read about what many of us saw in person. And yes, there's more where that came from. But it's much better to read from people who live in Ottawa and want to share their experiences: https://www.opc-cpo.ca/

That's really great work, thanks -- could you share a link to the 50% polls? This is probably worth porting back to the Wikipedia page to set the record straight.

I'm so in love with the philosophy of this project. It's one of the few frameworks that I feel can do no wrong.

To be honest, I can't shake the suspicion that a fair share of the talking is not homegrown.

> Facebook stated that they had removed fake users that were set up in overseas content farms, in Romania, Vietnam, and Bangladesh, which were promoting the convoy protests in Canada. (https://ca.news.yahoo.com/u-congress-asks-facebook-role-2258...)

> An Economist/YouGov poll conducted from February 12 to 15 found that 80% of Americans had heard of the convoy protests. [...] Among Republicans, 71 per cent supported the convoy protests, compared to 18 per cent of Democrats. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_convoy_protest#Opinion_...)

When you consider how much attention the convoy got in America, and how sympathies fell on such partisan grounds, it gets more concerning. Suddenly, Canadian politics is a hunting ground for the likes of Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, online bot mobs... I think you see where I’m going.

It’s difficult to approach these discussions and not feel like bad-faith actors are artificially making a bugbear out of it. This is especially true when many of the loudest defenders of the convoy weren’t even there, aren't even Canadian, and -- three years later -- may not even be people.

That said, I can agree the Emergencies Act probably shouldn't have been used here, and I have question marks about freezing people's bank accounts -- but this is really a conversation actual Canadians should be owning, since it concerns us most directly.

It's definitely not 'overwhelmingly popular,' but polling shows majority support (66%) from Canadians for use of the Emergencies Act at the time of the protest.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergencies_Act#Opinion_pollin...

Even if they achieve it, the reputational damage would be hard to understate. I think anyone with a bone to pick with the States would happily and repeatedly point to us Canadians as an example of what happens when you trust Americans. And that would be enough to achieve a lot of their regional policy goals, if not much more. Mexico would probably seek other political partners to make sure they're not next.

That's a great point; I'm glad you added that context and I'll take back that characterisation. I was mostly speaking through the lens of Farage's antics, and lacked the viewpoint of someone from the UK proper.

Is this a runaround way to say you don't have any reliable sources to share with us? I'm sure if you linked them they would be very convincing.

I think the Overton window has become much easier to slide around with social media influence campaigns. If someone powerful wants something -- even if it's against everyone else's interests -- it's now much easier for them to drum up popular support for it through underhanded tactics. Remember that Brexit started as a joke.