Subscript5676 @ Subscript5676 @lemmy.ca

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10

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190

Joined

9 mo. ago

Every time I see Hespler Stroad I wince.

That said though, 4.5B is a really big ask. I think I sorta have an understanding as to why it’s so expensive: Stage 1 was already expensive, so using that as a point of reference and inflation, walla; crossing the Grand River requires infrastructure that’s more complex and involved than almost everything we’ve seen in Stage 1; lots of land acquisition, etc. None of these are easy, but man, 4.5B :(

RM Transit made a somewhat emotional video after reading this article, if anyone has followed that channel. IDK if it’s on YouTube, but it’s on Nebula.

This is definitely a sad one to read. I can’t say I’m incredibly privy to the matters there, so I’m saying these based on the article and Reese’s (from RM Transit) comments. Metrolinx brought in foreign transit companies, with decades of experience under their belt, to advise and help build our transit system, but execs and seniors are somehow just stuck with their own idea of what transit looks like and wouldn’t budge on it. It’s such a disgraceful episode of working with people from other countries. Regardless if the people at Deutsche Bahn were actually insensitive to local sensitivities and have their own working style, you’ve signed that contract, so at least show that you’re willing to take in that advice and argue constructively. And heck, where is the public input on this?

That’s such a dumb statement from an exec member at Metrolinx. Let’s take an example here. The Kitchener line connects some of the most populous cities in Ontario after the Lakeshore line, and is, optically on a map, the closest point to expand all the way to London, another populous city. Many people have to frequently go into Toronto for work, family, education, etc. Do they think that number’s gonna go down in 30 years’ time? What the heck gonna happen to make that number go down?

And the GTA is not even bigger than the Greater Tokyo Area by both its urban and metro land mass. Sure, it’s 3x denser in Tokyo, but it’s dense not cause people have nowhere else to live, but cause the infrastructure IS there to facilitate it. Induced demand works for railways as much as they do for highways.

I wish there’s a better meme to describe the current Malaysia-China relationship lol

The Malaysian political class has always played the strategic hedging game with more powerful nations. In the case of China, they’re super happy to take Chinese investments and even take their aid in building out large-scale infrastructure (just earlier this year, I learned that Penang accepted the large above-water power transferring cables on floats, from China, in order to replace the existing old power cables underneath the first Penang bridge), and meekly complain about China encroaching on the South China Sea. I sometimes wonder if they’re happy to play that game just cause of how little they care about East Malaysia, which is more dependent on the South China Sea. Overall, Malaysia is playing a risky and IMO losing game against China.

In Canadian context, the Eastern Malaysian states are kinda like BC and Alberta in some ways: a lot of political decisions are West-Malaysian-centric, so separatist sentiment rises from time to time. East Malaysia more rich in off-shore oil fields, but West Malaysia don’t particularly lack them. In terms of political culture, all of Malaysia’s considered culturally conservative so both sides aren’t too different in that sense (but at least East Malaysian governments aren’t jerks, unlike the government in that one province we know of). Their local cultures differ quite a lot though.

Could we share this with MPs or even Carney so that they’d see this? Cause I really wish they can see this to know that this is what we’re facing, and we really hope they’ll do the right thing. I’m probably just trying to feel hopeful though.

If more people can actually care about the lives of others, the problems that our world and humanity face right now would’ve been much easier to solve.

Oh I’ve heard of this, but for a different country:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelfth_Malaysia_Plan (for years 2021-2025) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleventh_Malaysia_Plan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenth_Malaysia_Plan And you can find older ones from there. The first one started in 1966, just about 10 years after Malaysia’s independence: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Malaysia_Plan

There’s also a 13th plan in the making from various news sources in Malaysia, for the next 5 years from 2026.

Most of these plans have some amount of controversy that come with them.

• In the first plan, they’ve been happy to even support the US in the Vietnam War, in order to get some money out from the US for economic development. It was a rather unpopular move, but here we can already see how Malaysia chooses to play in the international scene, which generally continues even today.
• Throughout many of the plans, there are sections that clearly give preference to the Malay race and the indigenous people, typically grouped under the term bumiputra; though this sort of affirmative action is actually enshrined in Malaysia’s constitution as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_153_of_the_Constitution_of_Malaysia; and from the word of mouth passed through generations of the Malaysian Chinese, there’s a strong belief that the ancestors of the Chinese and Indians there made this concession so that their people may stay in Malaysia, as many of them left their home countries due to strong push factors back home, and they aren’t welcomed back either.
• If you’re wondering what other sorts of preferential treatment have they given to the Bumiputras over the years: a percentage of enrolment in universities, a percentage of employment in sufficiently large enterprises (from somewhere medium and up I believe), and attempts at essentially emboldening rich Malays to own even more of Malaysia’s wealth in terms of percentage (there’s a common theme where previous governments will use the word Bumiputras when they really mean the Malay people, almost as if it’s a useful facade or shield against criticisms from non-Bumiputras and sometimes even foreigners; the indigenous people are fractured and generally don’t care about Malaysian politics).

Whether these plans are inspired by Soviet Union plans, I don’t know, as no one seems to talk about that. The Malaysian government’s approach to international relationships has never really changed throughout the years, despite changing governments recently: they will deal with the country regardless of whichever side of the power struggle they’re in, be it the US, Europe, Soviets, Russian, and today, China, as long as they would throw money at it without seemingly hurting the country, as well as other Islamic countries. So there’s a good chance that these 5-year Malaysian Plans are very much inspired by the Soviets.

Recent news all really just make me wonder if we just voted the Conservatives into power.

I played the first Nioh and really liked it. Been planning to play 2, but dang there’s now a 3 upcoming?

Really hoping their recent mixed records won’t carry forward here though.

It’s baffling to me how a fucker who would lie straight in your face with no change in their facial expression is even allowed to hold any office without people being up in their pitchforks to force em out of power, and for decades too.

People are just selfish

Not sure if you’re stating that as a “humans are selfish beings”, or just stating that people you know (from the example you gave) are selfish. Either way, while it may make you feel good saying that, lumping all of humanity as one and sweeping them all with a blunt stick is frankly pointless and non-constructive.

In any case, your very article is an illustration of your own selfishness. Just look at what you said yourself:

But frankly, this isn't what I wanted to hear. I wanted to hear that prices are going to plummet. I don't care if investors, REITs, and people who own more than one home will suffer. I want them to burn.

What of the older generation that only have that one unit they’re planning to sell off after their kids have all grown up and moved out, so that they can buy a cheaper, smaller house, AND use whatever money they make out of their old house for their retirement? What if the families that just have 2 places because they frequently work between the two cities? Or those who have a significant number of the family members living in another city? These families are all over the place, and you’re fine with them being burnt so that YOU can afford to buy a house?

What you’re saying here makes you not much different than that person beside you at that dinner, except you’re either hiding or ignoring some of the people that will be hurt in the process.

Yes, housing shouldn’t be an investment asset. Yes, allowing the rich to just buy up every single housing unit without constraint is bad. Yes, people shouldn’t be shit to other people. And yes, housing prices should come down. But the problem is more complicated than how you’re treating it in the article. I don’t deny that a strong reason why this problem isn’t solved today is because a lot of rich and powerful institutions and people are benefiting from it, but a lot of people who’s already passed that ever-growing gap aren’t there because they wanted to join the other side and pull that ladder up; they’re there because that’s the setting of the game as it is right now, and they were just fortunate enough to make it there.

I understand your anger and frustration. I can’t afford a house too, and probably for a very long time as well. But literally burning the “other side” just so I can own a house and own “the other side” is not the way for us all to win this, practically and morally so.

It’s frustrating. It feels hopeless. But it does no one any good going at the problem naively.

Unfortunately I don’t :/ I’m renting a place after all, so I’ve never looked into in-wall switches or outlets. But hope you find one there!

Awesome! Thanks for the info! I’m getting some then :)

Oh! I forgot that IKEA has smart plugs too.

Do you have to get the Dirigera hub though? I tried looking around and there’s not much info about the TRETAKT and HA, only a few Discus threads where people suggest using zigbee2mqtt or ZHA with quirks (and it does seem like the quirk is in their repo), but no mention of whether they had the hub.

There’s no good reason today and in the future, period.

There are “experts” who still claim these, but they are based on a very dated recommendation from at least 15 - 20 years ago at this point. To some, such non-sensical requirements (by the fact that we should be storing passwords as hashes today) have become doctrine, rather than any fact based in reality.

And some users have been conditioned into thinking that these are good security practices as well, because governments and banks still make use of them, and these are the very organizations that should be the best-in-class when it comes to security. Some of these users become CEOs or product designers with more say than their IT and security experts in the company. The rest is history from there.

I’ve heard many say DLink’s a Canadian company but I guess we now know it’s Taiwanese. So I don’t blame ya there for mistaking it.

That said though, DLink is mired in controversies, and in my experience using any of their devices, they’re pretty terrible to use.

I read that you can flash some of those with ESPHome if you don’t want them tied to their OEM. I don’t have the tools for doing that though.

Oh interesting! But dang it’s pricey! $40+ for a smart plug!

Just to add to the list or clarify further

• Arresting a mayor despite him obeying ICE orders
• Deport citizens and non-citizens without credible evidence and without due process
• Weaponize the judicial system against political dissidents and rivals
• Punish citizens and non-citizens for their First-Amendment-protected speech (which they claim to oh-so-love)
• Withdraw funding for USAID to immediately cripple the agency and deprive millions of people of basic human needs around the world

Ahh that’s gonna be a real hard find.

I thought OpenRGB would be able to give some starting point so I looked it up, but there’s a grand total of 11 supported gamepads, half of which are the PS controllers. So we’re out of luck there.