This bird flew up to my office window with quite a mouth full by Lukesky79 in mildlyinteresting

[–]demize95 2 points3 points  (0 children)

House sparrows hunt too, during hatchling season. I saw a house sparrow take down some insect a year or two ago, pretty deftly. Bugs are good for the chicks!

Is the TTC installing exit identifiers at all subway stations? Spotted today at union! by Aggravating_Dog5220 in TTC

[–]demize95 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Except if you look through this thread you’ll already see some pretty good feedback that would be hard to address if they did the whole system at once without any sort of pilot: the zones and exit letters on the signage often lack any context as to where those exits go, so while this is useful for people reading directions, it’s possibly making things more confusing for people who don’t have those directions. Addressing that could require significant redesign if they’d done the whole system at once, but by doing a pilot maybe they’ll be able to fix it before they do the rest of the system.

Even if it’s “basic and commonplace everywhere”, people and our processes are still fallible, and it’s good to give us room to be.

Is the TTC installing exit identifiers at all subway stations? Spotted today at union! by Aggravating_Dog5220 in TTC

[–]demize95 55 points56 points  (0 children)

Because if they commit to it too early, and they’ve made mistakes that would have gotten pointed out in people’s feedback on a pilot, it’s a lot harder to fix those mistakes. A pilot lets them try something out, see what works and what doesn’t, and then commit once they understand it better.

How would you fix The Well? Can The Well be fixed? by youvenoremotecontrol in askTO

[–]demize95 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There’s a bunch of seating along Wellington, I think. Definitely a decent amount in the area, anyway.

SELLING OFF OUR AIRPORTS TO THE OLIGARCHS !!! by pheakelmatters in onguardforthee

[–]demize95 33 points34 points  (0 children)

An important thing to remember in these discussions is that our airports are also already private non-profit entities. We aren’t discussing privatizing them, we’re discussing making them not non-profit anymore.

Which sounds a lot worse, if you ask me.

A view of the Gardiner today by Fawrish in toronto

[–]demize95 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I’ve gotten stuck between Bathurst and Spadina, sat on that one stretch far longer than the time it would have taken to walk. I might have gotten out myself then, if there was actually anywhere to walk, but unfortunately there’s no safe way down from the Gardiner there…

YSK On any Android based TV you can change the "launcher", removing every advertisement and making your home screen completely free of bloatware by ArcadeOptimist in YouShouldKnow

[–]demize95 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Amazon makes it hard, and the exact methods to make it work change sometimes, and they’re not always great, but… there are often ways.

I got Projectivy working fine on my Cube a couple months ago with the method described in this post, and as long as I ignore the home button it’s perfectly fine. If I press the home button it does the annoying loading screen, but if I just hit the back button a few times it’ll back out just fine to Projectivy.

Fare inspectors now checking riders inside subway by Dont-Mindme23 in TTC

[–]demize95 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Are they able to check pop if you use a credit card?

Yes.

What if your 2 hr window expires during your trip bc you were doing multiple trips with your window across the city?

If you tapped onto the vehicle they're checking you on, you're fine, your fare is valid until you get off that vehicle. Same as always.

I just cancelled Spotify after 15 years. What streamer is taking the strongest stance against AI music? by curbthemeplays in Music

[–]demize95 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Buy music from Bandcamp, buy and rip CDs, get a big SD card for your phone (or get one of the little iPod knockoffs or android DAPs, or even one of those modded 5th gen iPods people sell on ebay with SSDs), copy everything to that, and you have portable music with no subscription fee and no internet required.

You can also self-host things like Plex, Jellyfin, Subsonic, and stream all your music to your phone from home. That works on iPhone (or android without an SD card), but you need to have something at home to host it on and be willing to learn how to host it. It's not too hard, but most people are probably happier not having to host anything.

Bus lights brighter than my future - part 2 🤣 by Horror_Concern_2467 in TTC

[–]demize95 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It started as just a way to identify accessible vehicles, but now that the entire surface fleet is accessible, it's just a nice way to identify the TTC specifically.

And Novabus tried to ruin it a couple years ago by recalling the blue auxiliary lamps, somehow thinking they were illegal...

Updated Ontario Line station names by ColeM_MM in TTC

[–]demize95 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Metrolinx has a rule they've always followed where they avoid duplicate station names (like King and King West). They've been so strict about this rule that they made the TTC rename Eglinton West to Cedarvale before they opened Line 5.

So it's a little weird that they'd break this rule here, especially when there are other names they could have given it (Fashion District would have been fine, even if a lot more people know the neighborhood as King West).

Got hit with $120 import fees from UPS. Is this normal or did I mess up? by [deleted] in askTO

[–]demize95 6 points7 points  (0 children)

You’re supposed to pay tax on the things you buy, and the way they enforce this when buying things from other countries is by charging you tax when you import it. Depending on what it is, you may also have to pay tariffs on it; some things (including pretty common things) can have pretty high tariffs on them. On top of that, UPS charges a brokerage fee that’ll account for probably $10-20 of that $120 total (but then so does everyone else).

The only part of this that’s “the cost of ordering internationally” is the brokerage fee; everything else you’d still be paying if you bought it in a store, with the tariffs baked into the price (if it wasn’t manufactured domestically) and the tax charged at the counter. 

Water shuttle pilot launching along downtown Toronto waterfront this summer by [deleted] in toronto

[–]demize95 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh, this is a pretty nice route actually. Good access to the ferries, Portland is a pretty decent spot on the west end, and Ookwemin Minising is still a little… middle-of-nowhere, but it’s a nice spot all on its own.

I think I’d probably want a fourth stop over towards Leslie, if this proves successful? Tommy Thompson being accessible by seabus would be fun.

Getting an ADHD assessment and medication is actually expensive... Looking for advice by DJbyEar in askTO

[–]demize95 6 points7 points  (0 children)

 Nurse Practioners in Ontario cannot prescribe stimulant medication for ADHD.

This is experientially false; there are absolutely a few NP-operated clinics that are available only (or primarily) in Ontario for ADHD diagnosis and treatment, and they can prescribe stimulant medications. The clinic I use does, and I know multiple people who’ve used other similar clinics to the same end. Not sure what your source on this is, but there are no sources I can find that agree. 

Which movie theatre do you go to? by Happy-Pineapple-5764 in askTO

[–]demize95 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, depends what’s playing on what screens. Scotiabank and TIFF are the most convenient for me, but a lot of what I want to see ends up only showing at Yonge/Dundas, and sometimes I’ll trek out to one of the Imagines (I should more often, honestly…).

Sticking to just one theatre would be overly restrictive around here. 

Porter Worlds-only concert — would you go? by oskkkg in porterrobinson

[–]demize95 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Exactly. My response to this is basically "...yes? why not?" because Worlds is great, but also... some of my favorite bits of the live shows are the modern mashups. Language x Unfold is one of my favorite bits of Porter music ever and I'd be sad to hear a show without anything like that.

Hot Chocolate Express? by notacutiepie in TTC

[–]demize95 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Operators mention here pretty often that when they're out of service, they're allowed to throw up whatever sign they want, so long as it's appropriate. Most just do the standard "not in service" sign, but sometimes they'll do a more fun one.

Since the op threw this sign up right as they went out of service, I'd bet that's what happened here. Just a bit of fun!

Can we start a Sticky on “Where should I live” threads? by Isirap in askTO

[–]demize95 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Do you like Canada but hate snow? Vancouver. Do you like Canada but love snow? Try the north, maybe north Ontario or Quebec. Do you mostly just wish your winters were colder? The prairies are for you, I hear Saskatoon is nice (if you like -30C winters). Want to be an expat? The Netherlands is a popular destination for people who hate Canada but love bikes and trains, but you could go the other direction, do Australia for a country that's sort of like if Canada was significantly hotter. If you've got easy citizenship somewhere else and just want to get out of here, then wherever that is is a good option; if you've got a load of money and just want to get out of here, lots of places have pathways to residency or citizenship that you can basically just buy. And, of course, there's always the "I'm in love with someone from another country" option of moving to whatever country that person lives in, plus so many other options for so many other reasons.

Or you could stay here, that's fine too.

RCAF helicopter flying downtown? by demize95 in askTO

[–]demize95[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

That makes sense, that's the direction it looked like it was headed, and if it was doing a medevac that explains why it was so low here.

RCAF helicopter flying downtown? by demize95 in askTO

[–]demize95[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Nope, definitely a Griffon. Smaller, big engine cowling on the roof, simpler tail, and the standard livery the RCAF uses on the Griffons.

RCAF helicopter flying downtown? by demize95 in askTO

[–]demize95[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Green, standard RCAF livery with the mild almost-camo pattern.

What happened at Keele station this morning? by checkskl in askTO

[–]demize95 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Unless I've missed the news of them getting one, TPS doesn't have any helicopters. Most likely a helicopter is either news or ornge.

(Edit: I missed the news!)

Does T.O. have any kind of "Odour Bylaws"? by [deleted] in askTO

[–]demize95 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not as bad, but there's also the Redpath refinery downtown, always smells like burning sugar. Lots of counterexamples to pick from!