sharkey - Link to source

This is the first I've heard that Alto is going to be a wholly owned subsidiary of Via, which is fantastic news.

Ignore everything after that, it's mostly just some curmudgeon they found in Toronto moaning.

montrealgazette.com/news/canad…


Ottawa-Montreal first up for high-speed rail link, but money could be better spent, expert says

The corridor represents about 25 per cent of the total length of track needed to build the entire Toronto-to-Quebec City network.
Jason Magder, Montreal Gazette (Montreal Gazette)
in reply to Hubert Figuière

mastodon - Link to source

somecanuckchick

I read the official readout.

In November 2022, the Government of Canada created a Crown corporation, VIA HFR (now Alto), to provide oversight of this project.

pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases…

It was always tied to VIA Rail. ALWAYS.

@driusan


Canada is getting high-speed rail

The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today announced that Canada is developing a high-speed rail network in the Toronto-Quebec City corridor.
Prime Minister of Canada
@D

Hubert Figuière reshared this.

mastodon - Link to source
I tried to open an app so I could dive into some fiction podcasts and VoiceOver jumped to 30 spaces without me touching the screen. I wish I could sue society for this kind of lackluster treatment by companies. Can lawyers and I connect? Frankly, I've got the time and knowledge and I'd honestly love to take some CEOs money and just live off settlements because I'm beyond angry. I'm tired. Tired of having to beg people for mutual aid while venture capitalists debate about graph lines. Turn me into a plaintiff that takes your opponents money if they're a giant corporation. #Apple
#apple

mastodon - Link to source

Ich habe gestern einen Gastbeitrag von Kristina Schröder auf WELT online gelesen. Darin geht es um den Sozialstaat – und um persönliche Assistenz für behinderte Menschen. Und ehrlich gesagt: Er hat mich tief getroffen.

Denn wenn über Assistenz als „nicht mehr tragbare Kosten“ gesprochen wird, dann geht es nicht abstrakt um Haushaltszahlen. Dann geht es um mein Leben.

Assistenz ist für mich kein Luxus. Kein Extra. Kein Wunschkonzert.
Assistenz ist das, was mich morgens aufstehen lässt. Was mir erlaubt zu arbeiten, Verantwortung zu übernehmen, mich einzubringen, selbstbestimmt zu leben.
Ohne Assistenz wäre mein Leben kleiner. Abhängiger. Fremdbestimmt. Vielleicht sogar institutionell verwahrt statt frei.

Ich brauche Assistenz 24 Stunden am Tag, weil Behinderung keinen Feierabend kennt. Weil Notfälle keine Bürozeiten haben. Weil Würde nicht um 22 Uhr endet.

Wenn Politik und Medien darüber diskutieren, ob Menschen wie ich „zu teuer“ sind, dann erzeugt das Angst. Die Angst, dass meine Freiheit an einem Verwaltungsakt hängt. Dass mein Leben jedes Jahr neu infrage gestellt wird. Dass ich mich rechtfertigen muss, warum ich so leben darf wie andere ganz selbstverständlich.

Dabei zeigt die Geschichte etwas anderes:
Stephen Hawking, Helen Keller, viele andere – ihre Leistungen waren nur möglich, weil Assistenz und Unterstützung ihnen Zugang zur Welt gegeben haben. Nicht trotz Assistenz. Sondern wegen ihr.

Ja, Assistenz kostet Geld.
Aber die eigentliche Frage ist: **Was kostet es uns als Gesellschaft, wenn wir anfangen, Menschenwürde zu kürzen?**

Ich bin keine Kostenstelle.
Ich bin ein Mensch.
Und mein Leben ist kein Sparposten.

Quelle: Kristina Schröder, „Sozialstaat: Was wir uns künftig nicht mehr leisten können“, WELT, 11.12.2025.

#Inklusion #Assistenz #Selbstbestimmung #Behindertenrechte #Teilhabe #Menschenwürde

#inklusion #teilhabe #selbstbestimmung #assistenz #behindertenrechte #menschenwurde

reshared this

mastodon - Link to source
Questions aux médecins (ou d’autres qui savent éventuellement): est-ce que la rage existe encore en France ? Ma belle sœur et sa mère se sont fait attaquer par des chiens violents qui se sont introduits dans leur jardin. Les médecins ne leur font pas le vaccin contre la rage parce qu’ils disent que la rage n’existe plus. Mais ça les inquiète. Les médecins ont raison ?

mastodon - Link to source

Your chat profile/identity: a tar file.

Your social web app: a zip file.

chatmail.at and webxdc.org are spearheading ever new and more fun ways to deny power to servers and platform billionaires.

Unlike classic email servers, #chatmail relays do not store user identities which solely live on end-user devices.There also is no encrypted value on the server like with Proton Mail or Signal. There are only relays, endless federating networks of relays to onboard safely :)

Neo-spoon meme (scene from matrix movie where neo looks at a child bending a spoon which eventually tells him "there is no spoon") with the following words top: "On which server is your account?" and below the bending spoon "there is no account."

Chatmail

Chatmail provides FOSS infrastructure for interoperable, secure, speedy and reliable end-to-end encrypted messaging. Check out clients as Arcane Chat, Bots or Delta Chat today!
chatmail.at
#chatmail

reshared this

mastodon - Link to source

So, given WP is willing to sell all its users down the river for some quick "AI" buzz, what fedi-enabled alternatives exist for human-centric websites? therepository.email/wordpress-…

I know of write.as, plume. They're to ascetic to match the brief. ClassicPress could be an option, provided the WP-ActivityPub add-on works with that.

#wordpress #ActivityPub #CMS #noAI #fediverse
cc @davidgerard


WordPress AI Team Outlines Vision for AI as a “Fundamental” Part of WordPress

The AI Team has published a series of posts laying out a vision to make AI as fundamental to WordPress as the database, calling on developers and hosts to adopt…
Rae Morey (The Repository)
#activitypub #fediverse #wordpress #noAI #cms @David Gerard

mastodon - Link to source

If Trump threatens to stop all federal funds, including road paving, to reliably conservative Indiana, because it didn't do his political bidding, what makes any other conservative state feel safe the whimsical and demented Don won't do as much or more to it?

The folks along its northern insterstate, its principal cross-state thoroughfare, along the banks of the Ohio River, and those calling Tornado Alley home, should be the first to call out Trump's extortion and harm to their daily lives.

This entry was edited (1 week ago)

mastodon - Link to source

Some worry this might set a precedent.

I hope it does.

Every regime that invades another country, committing countless mass atrocities, should have their foreign assets taken & handed to their victims.

This might get all would-be invaders to think twice.
euractiv.com/news/eu-greenligh…


EU greenlights indefinite immobilisation of Russian assets

The move comes a day after Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever openly questioned the legality of the European Commission’s proposal to permanently freeze Moscow's funds
Martina Monti (Euractiv)

mastodon - Link to source

It's finished!

@Derek, @nick, and Gianluca just put the finishing touches on this year's OSARA Christmas album, Christmas Through the Years. Here from old favorites like Kevin Reeves, @JessicatheVIArtist, and Abby Hips, as well as new friends like Árpád Király, and Jessica Thierjung of Lyriel fame. The Gala presentation is tomorrow at 2 PM EST, right here on HKC Radio!

HKCRadio.com

The Home of Kickass Creatives | HKC Radio

www.hkcradio.com
@Nick Giannak III @Derek Lane @Jessica the VI Artist🎚️🎹🌈
This entry was edited (1 week ago)

Derek Lane reshared this.

mastodon - Link to source

Zohran Mamdani - the new mayor of New York is an islamist.
And as a true islamist he starts to dismantle the state and particularly the justice system of USA.

nypost.com/2025/12/11/opinion/…

#US #uspol #USA #Mamdani #NYC


Douglas Murray: Zohran Mamdani appointing radical transition team has NYC in for a rude awakening

Well, New York — we’re going to be in for quite a ride.
Douglas Murray (New York Post)
#USA #uspol #nyc #us #mamdani

mastodon - Link to source
Nektere navstevy jsou za trest 🫣
Dlouho se vam nechce jit, ale nakonec se rozhoupete a jdete s virou, ze tentokrat, tentokrat to bude treba lepsi. Omyl jeste hur. Na onu navstevu chodim v nosenem obleceni a nejlepe po kole. Proc? No prototoze navsteva u zname je kolikrat horsi, nez navsteva hospody v casech kurackych. Minule za 1h 4x 🚬, dnes za 1h 7x🚬. 😵‍💫+🤢.
Ja jsem tedy taky sice kourila cca pres 20 let a v hospodach velice hojne. Dochazela jsem do ,,pajzlu", kde nebylo pres dym skoro ani videt, a tak me tyhle nastevy vraci do mladi, ale zrovna ne tak jak bych cekala a chtela.
Tedy po skonceni huliciho krouzku a nevolnosti manzela jsem hned letela do vany a drhla i oci 🙄 Dostala jsem to skoro ze vseho akorat z nosu a ust ne 😮‍💨
Tohle je proste i na me moc. Nevadi mi 🚬 venku ale v nevetrane mistnosti s takovou razanci to je humac. Priste se nevyhnu tomu, ze to budu muset rict natvrdo.
Mate podobnou zkusenost?
This entry was edited (1 week ago)

mastodon - Link to source
#Exo station #accessibility is a problem, thanks to defunding... ctvnews.ca/montreal/article/di… #CAQASTROPHE #transpoQC #QCtranspo #polQC #QCpoli #assnat

Disability advocates denounce cuts into Exo station accessibility

Montreal’s main commuter rail and bus system, Exo, is dropping long-term projects and investments amid a financial crunch – and accessibility advocates are pushing back.
Erika Morris (CTVNews)
#Accessibility #assnat #polqc #caqastrophe #qcpoli #exo #transpoqc #qctranspo

mastodon - Link to source
I feel like the android keyboard is really bad with talkback at the moment. Like, really bad.
This morning when I was in the car I had an issue with my Pixel Buds. I wanted to google it, but this is where the issue appeared:
As you may know, typing on Android devices with Talkback is already a quite slow experience even using direct touch. But imagine even if your finger is on the proper letter, if you lift it it chooses one that is next to it basically every third letter. If you have at least some bit of imagination, this will probably be very bad in said. And let me tell you, it infact is as crappy as it sounds.
I sincerely hope this is something which gets fixed as soon as possible. I already noticed it two or three days ago. If this won't be fixed, my phone simply isn't workable with and I will need to use voice messages and dictation for everything.
#accessibility #a11y #google #android #pixel #googlepixel #talkback #blind
#a11y #Accessibility #android #google #blind #talkback #pixel #googlepixel

reshared this

hometown - Link to source

lol just as expected

---

The Canada Revenue Agency paid $18 million for a chatbot the auditor general says gave her team the wrong answer 66 per cent of the time.

..

“We found that Charlie provided accurate answers in only 2 out of the 6 questions we asked it, while the other public web-based conversational artificial intelligence tools answered 5 out of 6 questions accurately.”

The finding stunned Liberal MP Anthony Housefather, who asked Hogan at the time “how is it that the government’s tool specialized for the CRA is worse than the average tool that anyone else can access anywhere?”

unpublished.ca/news-feed-item/…

The CRA spent $18M on 'Charlie,' a new tax information chatbot that is wrong most of the time

Unpublished
in reply to Zazzoo 🇨🇦

mastodon - Link to source

Hubert Figuière

@zazzoo
I posted about it in Feb 2024. mapledice.ca/posts/2024/02/14/… (shameless plug)

It has a link to the original news

Air Canada chatbot

CTV News Vancouver reports Air Canada’s chatbot gave a B.C. man the wrong information. Now, the airline has to pay for the mistake: Air Canada has been ordered to compensate a B.C. man because its chatbot gave him inaccurate information. Good.
Maple Dice
@Zazzoo 🇨🇦

mastodon - Link to source

Do you remember NFTs? I remember NFTs. They exploded onto the scene in 2020 and were *everywhere* in the public discourse. At their peak in 2021, there were something like $25 billion in NFT sales globally. There were NFT Super Bowl ads. Jimmy Fallon had Paris Hilton on his show to awkwardly shill for NFTs.

And then, by 2022, 2023 at the latest, the bubble had burst and NFT market had lost up to 99% of its value.

Blessedly, I never have to think about those fucking Bored Apes ever again.

I remember thinking, when NFTs first appeared, that they were so obviously a scam, but also a vague sense of surprise that such an obvious scam was proliferating while we were still living through the previous blockchain-related scam, cryptocurrency. And since the NFT bubble burst, we moved on absurdly quickly to the next tech scam-bubble, AI.

1/

A chart, sourced to Bloomberg News Reporting, depicting the AI bubble. A handful of companies—Nvidia, Microsoft, Intel, AMD, OpenAI, xAI, and a few others—are depicted as overlapping circles covered in a tangle of arrows depicting the flows of trillions of dollars back and forth between these same few companies.

mastodon - Link to source
Kdo mi to tu nevěřil, že tyhle staré fláky od Alphaville nestárnou? Jo, tohle mít na silvestrovské TV show, snad bych se po letech i chvilku díval. :)
youtube.com/watch?v=kMqg0DB7-s…

Alphaville - "Big in Japan" & "Forever Young" Live (Silvester Schlagerboom, 31.12.2024)

Der Live-Clip von Alphaville aus der Show "Silvester-Schlagerbooom" mit "Big in Japan" & "Forever Young" am 31.12.2024Follow Alphaville on:Instagram: alphavi...
YouTube

mastodon - Link to source

Trump’s DOJ Pressured Lawyers to “Find” Evidence That UCLA Had Illegally Tolerated Antisemitism
---

“The end goal was never to conduct a thorough, unbiased investigation,” said one DOJ lawyer. “The end goal was to file a damn complaint — or have something to threaten the university.”
propublica.org/article/ucla-an…

#News #UCLA #College #DOJ #Trump #USPolitics #Law #Palestine #Protest


The Shakedown: Trump’s DOJ Pressured Lawyers to “Find” Evidence That UCLA Had Illegally Tolerated Antisemitism

An investigation by ProPublica and The Chronicle of Higher Education reveals how the U.S. government ignored due process to gin up its attack on the University of California.
shoshana.gordon@propublica.org (ProPublica)
#Trump #News #law #palestine #doj #protest #uspolitics #college #ucla

mastodon - Link to source

I'm really glad I switched to #Linux.

Being able to understand what the issue is then having the ability to solve it by yourself is a great feeling.

And I'm by no means a tech person!

My computer is finally "mine".
I'm the one in control, not a f***ing corporation making billions by sucking out my private info.

Honestly, it feels like I'm back in the 2000's when computers were fun to use.

#tech

#linux #tech
⇧