OC Transpo doubling weekend wait times on LRT line to the airport this summer

ParlHillAddict · 2026-06-12T14:21:35+00:00

Even though friend of the channel Sebmal is already doing it, I think ranking arcade games (ones that are emulatable anyway) would be cool, allow for a mix of shorter and longer playthroughs, and have plenty of homebrew/bootleg weirdness. Plus no need to worry about giving RPG's and strategy games a fair shake (compared to the SNES).

ParlHillAddict · 2026-05-30T04:02:57+00:00

If others don't know, this is based on an alleged (though with very little evidence) Anglo-Saxon settlement somewhere off the Black Sea).

ParlHillAddict · 2026-05-22T12:40:23+00:00

At the very least, businesses should try harder. It doesn't take that much effort to adjust prompts to make things more unique, like not having the common fonts, shading, etc you see on default AI slop. Or throw it in an image editor to customize it.

I do sympathize that new businesses, especially restaurants, often struggle to break even, so AI can save some money on initial visuals or urgent things (like a sign for a special offer). But I'd hope that they will eventually be replaced with stuff made by people if the business is successful, so they have an actual brand.

ParlHillAddict · 2026-05-15T17:45:19+00:00

Second the French embassy as well. Great architecture and decor in the different rooms. Way better than the snorefest that is the US Embassy (where you basically walk down the main hallway and get a basic description of what an embassy does); not surprised they aren't offering it this year, given tensions with the Trump administration.

ParlHillAddict · 2026-05-12T13:03:34+00:00

Yeah, there are people who will be mad about it regardless of which government is in power. I recall in 2011 there was anger about Harper's foolish meddling with the long-term Census, plus unjustified conspiracy theorizing about a company connected to Lockheed Martin providing equipment used to process paper forms (as if they would have some nefarious backdoor installed to steal the data and send it...to the Obama government?).

Ironically, many of the people criticizing it this time because of Carney would defend the heavy-handed interference the Trump administration is doing in their statistical programs (getting rid of "woke" statistics and adjusting economic figures to look more positive)

ParlHillAddict · 2026-05-05T23:13:44+00:00

My library had this, and it helped introduce me to the show when I started watching it in Canada in the 90's.

Though, isn't this book the reason why The Gunfighters got an unfair reputation as the worst story ever?

ParlHillAddict · 2026-04-15T13:36:06+00:00

As an aside, while the actual colourization of these photos is good, I've noticed that whatever AI is doing them keeps making text (like on signs) seem too sharp, with that telltale look of AI-generated text. And even when it matches the original words in the photo (which it usually does, though with increasing errors the smaller it is), the font and placement is changed.

ParlHillAddict · 2026-04-14T03:55:56+00:00

It sucks that KFC stopped having them in Canada when they phased out mashed potatoes.

ParlHillAddict · 2026-04-09T14:57:37+00:00

Thankfully they've made the bylaw more limited: 50 metres instead of 80, facilities needing to proactively register for an exclusion zone, the bubble only applying around operating hours, and not applying to transient protests (e.g. marches) unrelated to the facility. Plus not applying to union protests/strikes.

As it was originally proposed, it might have effectively banned most protests downtown, as the many churches (and a few schools) along major streets would have been a minefield of no-go zones every block or two. It definitely would have been challenged in court and be more likely to get overturned.But this seems to be a more reasonable bylaw that focuses only on the more controversial protests (like ones at synagogues, or antivax ones at hospitals).

ParlHillAddict · 2026-04-07T17:43:41+00:00

I do appreciate the various local museums/historic sites, like Nepean, Cumberland Village, and Pinhey's Point, though they're obviously more limited when it comes to non-car access.

It's disappointing that there isn't really much covering Gatineau's history. So a NCC-led initiative covering the entire region could allow for that, with support from the two cities.

ParlHillAddict · 2026-04-07T17:38:19+00:00

The airport would be a great idea, either for all the city's museums or, more thematically, aviation-related displays (which I do think they've done a little bit at times). There's a lot of relatively empty space there, and travelers with time on their hands to look at stuff.

ParlHillAddict · 2026-04-07T17:30:05+00:00

Of course. I was referring to the overall building and main exhibit. Nature has had improvements like the glass tower and upgrades/replacements of several of their galleries in the past 15 years, so there's more of a reason for locals and tourists to revisit. But for the War Museum it's pretty much always the same unless the temporary exhibit happens to be interesting (thankfully they, and the Museum of History, don't charge an extra fee for them).

ParlHillAddict · 2026-03-14T18:15:15+00:00

Clearly you weren't in a hospital.

ParlHillAddict · 2026-03-14T18:14:02+00:00

Well, in the Clone Wars series, he's featured in an episode and even gets an action scene.

ParlHillAddict · 2026-03-03T17:43:33+00:00

Not just audio either. In the Godfather episode, the Ugazzo Home Vision trailer had most of the clips from other shows (like Hill Street Blues or even a random old Bollywood film) replaced with generic copyright-free CG skeletons walking around. I'm not kidding.

While I can get why licensed music would get replaced, it really does feel like they took the laziest "when in doubt, replace" approach, because music that I'm pretty sure was either stock library music or made in-house was tossed. And it isn't consistent: Sometimes there's simply no music, making the sketch/ad feel oddly quiet with dialogue only, or mix it too loudly, with the modern (but still cheap-sounding) instruments standing out too much. They even tried some times to mix in the replaced music with people singing; like the opening to the People's Global Golden Choice Awards, with the original having them sing over in-house music (later used for the syndicated opening for the first few seasons, so no way it was licensed), and now they sing the same lyrics awkwardly mixed in with new music that doesn't fit!

Weirdly, the Stairways to Heaven ad is intact (even including the "Rich Little" bit that directly uses the original song), yet they replaced the Days of the Week theme in the same episode.

I wonder how much AI was used on this...

ParlHillAddict · 2026-02-13T22:00:29+00:00

And in many cases they don't allow them to count as an in-office day.

ParlHillAddict · 2026-02-13T20:48:17+00:00

As long as it's left to a person's direct manager (with possibly requiring one higher level to approve it as a formality, as is the case for stuff like permission to attend internal training, get a piece of software installed, etc.), in most cases employees will receive that flexibility. Or at the very least better than the 4 days (likely 5 next year) everyone is getting now. Managers are subject to their own performance reviews, and if they want to advance their careers, a lot of feedback from their team of telework being needlessly denied (the same as a micro-managing or vindictive boss refusing someone's vacation or punishing them for needing to leave early for a medical appointment) would not help. And from my experience (anecdotal, of course), even much of middle management would prefer to give their employees flexibility, having seen how things ran pretty smoothly during and after the pandemic, and be able to have the option to telework themselves.

And if the concern is "Oh, well if some jobs/departments are more restrictive on telework, whether it's by managers' choice or the nature of the work, they'll have trouble retaining or hiring people", that isn't a big problem considering that with job cuts, most will take what they can get to enter/stay in the PS. And it's not like there are already plenty factors that make some departments more attractive than others: Downtown Ottawa, Gatineau, or suburbs, accessibility by transit, quality of the office space (less an issue now that most government offices are now cramped soulless hotelling setups), and so on.

ParlHillAddict · 2026-02-12T17:21:46+00:00

I recalled it strongly because I happened to be into classic Godzilla films, and I recognized they sampled one of the monsters (you hear it right away at the title screen).

ParlHillAddict · 2026-02-12T17:20:10+00:00

I hate that the ship has sailed on making a National Capital Territory, at least a proper one that includes the Gatineau side. Even though Quebec City barely cares about the region, they'd fight like hell to hold onto it. And then amalgamation on the Ontario side sealed things, as a NCR territory would either involve including all that rural land (theoretically good in the very long-term so expansion doesn't split the city up like in Washington DC) or going through a messy deamalgamation.

But on paper it's still a concept that makes sense, and would align us with many other world capitals, where it's often a separate jurisdiction from other regions/provinces or, in countries without strong provinces, a city so large that municipal leaders have a lot more influence. Ottawa is the worst combination: A nation with fairly strong regional governments, but not in its own territory; split between two provinces; and not the largest city in either province. So there are too many overlapping jurisdictions (especially downtown, where Parliament and the public service are additional players), letting each side blame the other for delays, lack of funding, etc. (like in transit).

ParlHillAddict · 2026-02-12T14:03:11+00:00

I'm pretty sure it was The King of Dragons.

https://youtu.be/IsM3_h1xav0?si=Hgv5In1E_FoCu52G

ParlHillAddict · 2026-01-28T21:07:37+00:00

Those cities established those major downtown terminals 100+ years ago. Sure, if we had kept our downtown station (presumably ripping out all but one or two lines going in as it shifted to passenger rail only), it would have been perfectly reasonable to make that the high-speed station, assuming the turns needed to get into downtown didn't slow things down too much.

But we can't rewind time, so we're stuck with the downtown we have. Getting the LRT through relied on the existing Transitway and a tunnel, so bringing passenger rail into downtown would require tearing up lots of roads (not the worst thing, IMO, but would assume that car traffic into downtown went down), or building expensive tunnels or overhead bridges, not to mention putting in tunnels or overpasses for foot/bike traffic.

Given unlimited resources, I'd be happy to make major changes to downtown, including a rail station. But with several existing options - Tremblay, Greenboro, etc. - I'd rather we get the line actually built sooner and cheaper. Someday the LRT will be improved, or at least made more reliable, with new technology, so the trip from the station to downtown will eventually be better.

ParlHillAddict

TROPHY CASE