"I Got #ChatGPT to Rewrite My Blog Posts" – It was time to jump on the #AI hot take bandwagon. I did have fun with this one though, and it yielded some interesting results. https://heliomass.com/posts/098-chatgpt/
"The Computers of London" – I went hunting for microcomputers in London, and found a few. Quite a few in fact. https://heliomass.com/posts/093-the-computers-of-london/ #retrogaming #c64 #London
📰 "Ontario says ‘colonization’ costs mean it does not owe First Nations billions. Canadian province argues in court it is not responsible for compensating Indigenous people over broken treaty obligations" – Geez, it's even right there in the Canadian citizenship oath: "I swear / affirm that… I will faithfully observe
The laws of Canada
Including the Constitution
Which recognizes and affirms
The Aboriginal and treaty rights of
First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples…". https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/03/ontario-colonization-costs-billions-first-nations-treaty
“I increasingly saw senior officials interpreting their role as doing what ministers say and providing protections to ministers. It was almost as if their first loyalty being to their political leaders rather than to the public,” she said.
“Essentially people who said ‘yes’ and went along with it and bought into this shift in culture and approach were those whose careers went well. Those who resisted either found themselves buried somewhere or looking for jobs elsewhere”
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/feb/03/whistleblower-who-revealed-fall-of-kabul-chaos-sues-uk-government-after-sacking
📖 “Getting bus priority right. Lessons from Bologna” – I'm a big fan of these 'comparing city A and city B' type pieces (in this case #Bologna and #Montreal). They challenge the "tabula rasa" of transit planning in North American cities. They show these problems have been solved elsewhere and can be solved here. #Buses don't have to be rubbish, and rubbish buses don't have to be normal. #transit https://marcochitti.substack.com/p/getting-bus-priority-right-lessons
Calculating Florida DL#'s
Florida driver's license numbers, for better or worst, can be calculated by hand if you know three things about them:
🔎Name (First MI Last)
🔎Date of Birth
🔎Gender at birth
Florida DL# number have the format of
🅰️#️⃣#️⃣#️⃣–✴️✴️✴️–✳️✳️–⚧️⚧️⚧️–0️⃣
[A-Z][0-6]{3}-[0-6]{3}-[0-9]{2}-[05]00-[0-9]
🅰️ → First letter of last name
#️⃣#️⃣#️⃣ → Soundex of rest of last name
✴️✴️✴️ → Soundex of first name + MI
✳️✳️ → Last two of birth year
⚧️⚧️⚧️ → DOB + birth gender
0️⃣ → [0-9] Zero usually, overflow for duplicate id #s
Winter whinge
I think the lack of public holidays between New Year and Easter is just a Québec thing though. The other provinces seem to get at least one day of respite during the Winter months.
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People love to harp on cultural differences between countries, but regional idiosyncrasies within each country are an oft overlooked source of fun:
French people from Brittany refuse to acknowledge the mere existence of unsalted butter. Northern and Southern Italians will start a civil war over the proper way to make a ragù sauce. Japan's Kantō people love natto, to the dismay of Kansai people. Brits spread cream then jam on their scones, except for a marginal minority of inbred southerners.
🇬🇧🇨🇦(❤️🇪🇺)
🌐 https://heliomass.com
I mainly post about:
• #transit and #urbanism
• #retrocomputing and #retrogaming
• #Apple (#iPhone and #Mac) things
• Life in #Montreal (often from the perspective of a Brit)
• U.K. and Canadian politics
• Photos of my #cats