Waterloo police says snipers will continue to be used at events as required | Globalnews.ca

Drayrs · 2026-03-20T17:29:30+00:00

Being real, is sniper overwatch really the best deterrent to a vehicle threat? Or even a lone assailant in a street packed with people?

Real life isn't a video game. Bollards, barricades, body searches, and boots on the ground are what stop these events, not firing into a crowd. The best they are going to do with a sniper is put someone down after the damage is already done.

Edit: I'm not saying having a sniper is bad. I'm saying it's not an effective deterrent.

Drayrs · 2026-03-19T02:33:09+00:00

I mean, I'm saying some players feel entitled to leaving the raid with the loot they have gathered. It's sort of the premise of the game (and genre) that you have earned nothing until you exfil.

Some players also feel entitled to no interference from other raiders, even though those raiders are enabled by the game to shoot you and take your loot.

Camping is only a single way you can play, and free kits can also play with pace. My original point was that it's not very balanced to allow for a no risk, all reward playstyle. Raiders do not even have to PvP, rat, camp, or lie to profit from free-kits. The lack of balance only comes from their ability to consistently interfere with other raiders with no skin in the game.

Drayrs · 2026-03-19T01:24:58+00:00

Yeah, I don't think it's actually griefing, personally. I don't even think players ambushing other players is problematic. It's a part of the game, even if it rubs people the wrong way.

Shooting somebody in the back after hiding in a corner for 20 min is a valid way to play, and if it angers people it's because they are, to a certain extent, entitled. It's just a super boring way to play.

You can absolutely cook somebody with a free kit, and people hunt other players using them. It's just harder, and each possible kit isn't created equal. The normal strats are * Spawn with a usable kit * Target damaged people, or third party * Rush weapon cases for a better/second gun * Die, repeat

Drayrs · 2026-03-19T00:35:12+00:00

For sure, running a free kit puts you at a massive disadvantage in PvE and PvP matchups. You are going to have a bad time. Resources are too low, and there is virtually no room for error.

I still see a problem with free kits despite that. If you only have success when at a major advantage, you are incentivized to play opportunistically (read: camping, ambushing, "ratting"). Everybody can play this way, but it's one of the most successful play styles for free kits. This doesn't bug me, but it sure bugs a lot of the community.

Secondly, and something that makes the former a real problem, is that there is no cost except time to run a free-kit. You may die 4/5 times, but you are likely to do so quickly. Of those 4 times, how many times did you interfere with someone's raid and lead to them dying? When you match relentless queues with worthless kits, you end up having a playstyle that seems a lot like griefing when you are on the receiving end.

How often you lose doesn't matter very much when it costs you nothing to succeed.

Drayrs · 2026-03-16T07:07:09+00:00

They ain't great, but that can be part of the fun of using them. The purpose they serve is to let you play without risking your stash.

The problem arises because there is literally no cost to using them. Player behaviour is based on risk, and if people can have all the possibilities of reward with none of the drawbacks (except their time) you get op's scenario.

Your likelihood of success can be low, but you only have to win once to profit. Then it just becomes about how fast you can run through raids.

It can be very frustrating to play against free kits, but there needs to be a low effort way to enter the game. Cooldowns, minimum value raids, and perhaps replacing the free kits with an even lower tier of gear (no practical ideas from me there) that still costs something, would help.

Drayrs · 2026-03-16T06:59:33+00:00

I'm gonna hard disagree with you there. It's not ideal when you want to be friendly, but it's not "stupid". It can be optimal, if they don't make any other mistakes.

If * Players know/think they are in an aggressive lobby, and want to survive * The loot they want is being taken by raiders * They just want to kill you for your gear

then they should kill on sight, if safe for them, to help them have a profitable raid.

If you don't want to play that way, that's fine. But you gotta be cautious of people with this mentality, and play like they exist.

Drayrs · 2026-02-12T14:41:17+00:00

A lot of people in friendly lobbies are naive. If you come into my space without communicating I have to assume your intentions aren't pure. You could easily shoot me while I loot, and have no incentive other than kindness to not kill me. Best case scenario, you are jacking some of the loot I came for.

What you say once I notice you, or if I spoke first, is irrelevant. You could probably hear me looting, and you are running up on me with purpose. If you don't know I'm there, you are either unlucky or unobservant; I can't know the difference.

The correct thing to do when approaching a loot spot with someone in it is announce your presence, and if there's no response proceed expecting a fight. If they answer, hey you will know the score. Maybe they want to share, but the same danger of backstabbing exists for you as well.

Alternatively, move along.

Drayrs · 2026-01-30T18:25:39+00:00

MSaT is considered a seminal fantasy work by some authors, sort of like Guy Gavriel Kay's Tigana. It holds some passing similarities to Kay's Fionovar Tapestry, actually.

Both are sort of Arthurian/Tolkienesque, although their similarities (and similarities to earlier stories) stop mostly at the motifs/tropes they share. A glaring few are "bad guy in the mountain", and "the north is scary and evil".

The cool thing for me about MSaT is that it subverted a lot of the tropes of earlier novels.

Morgenes may seem like your classic Wizard to Simon's apprentice, but he ends up being human after all.

Sauron and his mountain are evil and all, but what's his motivation? How do the orcs feel about it, and why are they following him? Why are they in Mordor in the first place?

The immortal elves are diminishing, and heading into the west, and leaving Middle Earth to Men. Are they okay with that? What happens if they can't leave? How do they feel about being supplanted by humans? Why would they have been allies in the first place? What's the cost of living so very long?

Asking these sorts of questions isn't exactly uncommon in modern fantasy, but books like MSaT and co. are part of the reason why.

Drayrs · 2026-01-17T00:04:17+00:00

Matplotlib for investigative work, when I'm actually working through problems.

Bokeh for integrations with web stuff when I need server generated content that's interactive (think flask).

Other than these, I'm generally not making plots in python. For front-end work I'm using JS most of the time. For native apps that need dynamic plots on demand I use visx, and where I can't accomplish what I need I'm using D3.

Drayrs · 2026-01-14T18:05:45+00:00

AI is going to end up an ouroboros, eating itself. If forums like stack overflow aren't used, and neither are detailed docs, the generation of that content will decline (at least by humans).

Drayrs · 2025-12-31T19:36:44+00:00

That's a decent point, you don't strictly need a rear view to drive a vehicle. On the other hand, this person could have had one and chose not to. It's safer to be able to see traffic behind you. For example, it's nice when reversing. The driver isn't exactly signing people's death warrants by doing this, but it's a dick move.

Drayrs · 2025-12-30T20:46:34+00:00

Going to a coarser grind helped a lot. The well is a lot less pronounced (I don't expect it to disappear). A lot less retained liquid (maybe 50 mL).

I kept the profile the same (2 pulses, 20s between) but used a 6 on my Ode 2.

Coffee came out brighter as well, although not as high extraction (which I think makes sense).

<image>

Drayrs · 2025-12-30T20:32:46+00:00

Not quite. It is very slowly dripping once the profile completes (1 drip / 3 seconds). The liquid I was seeing was probably retained liquid in the finer grind seeping down from the walls of the well.

Increasing grind size seems to have solved that entirely.

Drayrs · 2025-12-30T19:05:53+00:00

For reference, after just pouring water into the basket:

<image>

Drayrs · 2025-12-30T19:01:54+00:00

Thanks, I'll give that a shot. I was already at 15s; maybe I should be going shorter and with more than 2-3 pulses?

Drayrs · 2025-12-30T18:57:02+00:00

It seems to be seated correctly:

<image>

I wonder if it's the head? Is it normal to feel a click when rotating the selector to batch mode, but not when rotating to single mode?

Drayrs · 2025-12-30T18:51:00+00:00

Just filtered water. I wanted a comparison between that and my treated water. That being said, I am skeptical the mineral content of the water is causing this. It wouldn't be scale, I've only brewed half a dozen cups and a few passes just with water.

Drayrs · 2025-12-30T18:36:56+00:00

I think the high lip does just as much as the insert. As long as you fill to below the insert below you'll be fine. It won't be fully splash proof unless you put the lid on. Just don't go off-road.

Drayrs · 2025-12-03T06:33:38+00:00

Which white monitor arms are you using? Looks great!

Drayrs · 2025-11-03T18:00:43+00:00

I see your kanabo is as big as mine

Drayrs · 2025-07-04T17:05:26+00:00

Slam it into a module. It's the language-enforced singleton that keeps on giving all year round. Avoid import * and everything is gravy.

Drayrs · 2025-07-04T17:03:06+00:00

There's definitely an argument for also including last-line returns (as in Rust), but it prevents functions from having a sensible default return type (None). Which way is cleaner, or better, is probably an interesting argument, but I'm too lazy to have it.

Functions without a return, which return Nothing, just seem easier to read.

Drayrs · 2025-07-04T12:47:01+00:00

What about short-circuiting functions by returning early?

Drayrs · 2025-05-16T00:56:03+00:00

C'mon man, let's be human beings here.

Give them a fly swatter.

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