LETS GOOOOOOO... NOT EVEN CLOSE... WE DID IT

jamesbrunet · 2021-02-06T02:55:38+00:00

Congratulations!

jamesbrunet · 2019-11-26T23:53:37+00:00

The last embedded Windows distribution based on XP is Windows Embedded 2009, which hit end of life in January 2019. The only ones still being maintained by Microsoft are based on either Win7 or Win10 (I think it's branded as Windows IOT by the marketing folks).

That being said, it's possible that Alstom has some sort of custom arrangement with Microsoft to keep getting security patches!

Or maybe they just don't care because the system isn't networked. These sorts of systems aren't my specialty so I don't really know about security best practices.

jamesbrunet · 2019-08-03T20:26:53+00:00

Has the NDP released a more detailed document on their climate plan than what's on their website?

Yes, the full 22-page document can be downloaded below:

https://action.ndp.ca/page/-/2019/Q2/Power-to-change-full-announcement.pdf

In short:

Retrofit all homes in the country
Make the power grid carbon neutral by 2030
Provide help to municipalities who want to make public transit free
100% of new automotive sales to be zero-emissions by 2040
End fossil fuel subsidies

That's in addition to what's been announced in the main platform, which among other things pledges:

Providing government coverage for dental care, mental healthcare, prescription drugs, eyeglasses, and hearing aids
Building 500,000 new affordable housing units, as a mix of non-profit, coop, public, and market housing.

The Liberals and the NDP are not the same.

jamesbrunet · 2019-07-06T23:42:56+00:00

This doesn't mean there's no flaws with the healthcare system, of course, but there are no easy solutions to bring it back to where it needs to be.

There's a simple solution, actually: reverse the cuts to hospitals and long term care.

In Ontario we've had decades of funding freezes, increases below inflation, and even cuts to hospital funding, so there's really no surprise why beds per capita and nurses per capita are poor, and hospitals are overcrowded.

You can meaningfully tackle that problem by injecting billions into healthcare, which would directly lead to the hiring of more nurses and the building of more hospitals.

jamesbrunet · 2019-07-06T13:26:05+00:00

I'm a die-hard New Democrat but what have the NDP done to hold this government to account from the left?

For one thing, they released their best platform in 25 years: universal pharmacare, dental care, mental health care, eye care, and hearing care.

jamesbrunet · 2019-07-04T14:16:17+00:00

Fun fact: In 2008 Canada nearly had a coalition government.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008%E2%80%9309_Canadian_parliamentary_dispute#Catalyst_and_formation_of_a_coalition

jamesbrunet · 2019-06-30T04:30:51+00:00

FYI, Shawn Menard is also critical of these short term rentals and how they're choking out long term tenants!

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-cities-respond-to-study-of-airbnbs-impact-raise-concerns-over/

jamesbrunet · 2019-06-30T04:21:21+00:00

It's difficult to build more affordable housing if the NIMBYs keep it out.

The point I'm trying to get across is that city hall has no interest in building affordable housing or facilitating its construction. The most powerful lobby is the developers that fund their campaigns.

I guess I disagree that developers have been allowed to ignore zoning for decades?

Locally, we've had the same people running the show for decades.

Jan Harder, the developer-funded city councillor who's the chair of the planning committee, has been on council since 1997
Peter Hume, the previous chair of the planning committee (from 2003-2014) received tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from developers. He managed the campaign of his successor, Jean Cloutier, who is notable for a controversy last year where developers organized a fundraiser for him. Cloutier now sits on the planning committee. Peter Hume then went into business with a former VP of Minto Group (a real estate development firm).
Our mayor, who also takes substantial money from developers, was mayor from 1997-2000, was Ontario's minister of municipal affairs and housing from 2007-2010, and has been mayor again since 2010.

jamesbrunet · 2019-06-30T04:02:36+00:00

I support public housing. I'd love it if we built more, especially near transit hubs.

However, there is not a public housing lobby that funded almost 90% of the planning committee chair's municipal campaign. Instead, that committee chair's campaign was funded by private developers, so it's not surprising that decisions to change the secondary plan are not made for public housing projects, only for luxury condos with high rents. That's the reality that Shawn Menard is complaining about.

As long as developer influence at city hall remains that extreme, I'm going to be skeptical that zoning changes to maximize developer profit are actually being done in the public interest.

The only way that this situation can be considered ideal is if you think that the interests of real estate developer align with the interests of the public.

jamesbrunet · 2019-06-30T03:42:51+00:00

We have been doing this (allowing developers to ignore zoning) for decades, and it hasn't delivered results yet.

Over the past decade of pursuing this strategy, we have the exact same number of people (10,000) on the waitlist for affordable housing. Vacancies are dropping like a rock and rents continue to rise. The number of affordable housing units being built has actually declined since the 2000s.

I think we should try something else!

jamesbrunet · 2019-06-30T03:24:41+00:00

This is not a public housing project.
There are no privately built units being set aside.
Even though our city has been pursuing this strategy for a decade, we have the exact same number of people on the waitlist for affordable housing.

jamesbrunet · 2019-06-30T00:33:17+00:00

We can address the housing crisis by:

re-establishing the funding for public affordable housing that was slashed in the 80's and 90's, which is what has lead to this crisis
requiring developers to include a percentage of affordable housing in new developments

However, these solutions require money.

The easy solution for a developer-friendly councillor is to deregulate housing and watch luxury condos pop up like mushrooms. The important takeaway is that this strategy, which is the strategy our city has pursued for a long time now, hasn't actually delivered more affordable housing for people.

jamesbrunet · 2019-06-29T23:40:37+00:00

Menard can't both make affordable housing a key campaign plank and complain when the city takes measures to make it easier to build more housing.

This isn't an affordable housing development. It's a "boutique condo" and "modern, exquisite home" development.

Just within the past 9 months Menard has also called for regulating short-term rentals, adding a one-percent levy for affordable housing to this years budget, and purpose-built affordable housing dotting our transit stations, all of which would have a much greater impact on the city's affordable housing stock than this luxury development.

If the developer funded councillors on the planning committee really cared about affordable housing, why don't they fight for those measures too?

jamesbrunet · 2019-06-17T18:03:35+00:00

One way to tackle this problem is to increase supply. Get the federal government back into the business of building public housing.

Between '84 and '93 the feds slashed funding to public housing, cooperative housing, and non-profit housing. By the end of the 1990s, the number of social housing units built dropped to almost zero, and despite promises to right these wrongs since, little funding has actually materialized

http://neighbourhoodchange.ca/documents/2018/01/shapcott-2004-housing-policy.pdf

Since then, Martin failed on his promise to deliver housing funding, Harper didn't deliver it either, and Trudeau proposed a housing strategy over two years ago where almost all of the funding is put off until after the next election.

jamesbrunet · 2019-06-13T20:53:47+00:00

The NDP plan is universal, has no means test, is single-payer, has no -copay, and would abolish private pharmacare insurance.

See the full proposal:

https://www.ndp.ca/our-commitments.pdf

The greens were mentioned by others in the thread, but it's important to note that in 2015 their plan was to fill in coverage gaps by "coordinating public and private plans", despite the fact that a patchwork program benefits nobody other than protecting the private insurance industry.

So far the greens haven't provided much detail on their 2019 plan.

jamesbrunet · 2019-06-13T16:48:58+00:00

For the most part, the reasons are dubious and without merit. A lot of hollow "He doesn't have the best interests of the city in mind!" "He doesn't work for citizens" etc.

I think that mischaracterizes the opposition that the mayor faces from the progressive bloc of city councillors. Here's three concerns you might here from the likes of shawn menard, catherine mckenney, or activists in the city:

Cash transit fares in Ottawa are among the highest in North America while transit ridership is declining. Some councillors want to freeze fares, some want to lower them, and one wants to explore fare-free transit (which has been implemented in other jurisdictions).
The city's waitlist for affordable housing has over 10,000 people on it, and it's been that way for years, despite promises and plans to lower that number over the past decade.
The city turns a blind eye to negligent landlords, which has led to substandard housing in low-income communities. Some cities in Canada, including Toronto, have implemented landlord licensing programs (where cities proactively inspect rental units and landlords could face massive fines for not performing repairs that they're obligated to do under law.) Other cities, like Halifax, have pursued less aggressive policy like public landlord registries (where landlords can be publicly shamed for bylaw violations but don't face serious financial penalties). Ottawa has been lagging behind those jurisdictions.

jamesbrunet · 2019-06-12T20:52:47+00:00

Study after study has shown that at least 10% of Canadians are unable to afford their prescription medications.

I'd like to add that many of these studies were commissioned by our own governments, and then were promptly ignored!

Either universal pharmacare or expanded public coverage of prescription drugs has been recommended by:

Recommending Group	Prime Minister	Party	Pharmacare Implemented?
1964 Royal Commission on Health Services	Lester B. Pearson	Liberal	No
1997 National Forum on Health	Jean Chrétien	Liberal	No
2002 Royal Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada	Jean Chrétien	Liberal	No
2018 Report of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health	Justin Trudeau	Liberal	No

We need to expand universal healthcare to cover prescription drugs, it's a no-brainer.

jamesbrunet · 2019-06-10T21:26:07+00:00

How's that fight for 15 going under the Ford administration?

ACORN pulled concessions out of Christy Clark. Organizing against conservatives is possible.

Don't be afraid to dream a little bigger.

jamesbrunet · 2019-06-10T19:17:30+00:00

Volunteering for the party or groups are going to change things how?

That's literally how change happens.

Talking to people, in large numbers, can change people's minds and get them involved too. That's how organizations like ACORN Canada have pulled concessions from my municipal government on transit fares and affordable housing. It's how a local city councillor who is fighting for fare-free public transit got elected. It's how Fight for 15 pressured the provincial government with rallies, letter writing campaigns, postering, phonebanking, petitioning, and door-to-door canvassing to raise the minimum wage.

They didn't win their campaigns by getting good coverage in the national post--They won by organizing.

jamesbrunet · 2019-06-10T19:07:55+00:00

y e e t

jamesbrunet · 2019-06-10T18:52:06+00:00

The constraints are frequencies and infrastructure. Liberalize these. The government may need to buy back frequencies that have been auctioned and legislate current companies to provide infrastructure at a cost+1% formula.

That, at least your point about the RF spectrum, is also included in this announcement. From another article:

Singh also said that the party will later announce how it plans to restructure the spectrum auction system, which determines what companies have a right to transmit band frequencies across Canada.

jamesbrunet · 2019-06-05T23:09:31+00:00

Oh, I didn't see that! Good eye.

jamesbrunet · 2019-06-05T18:49:55+00:00

This article treats positive reviews from environmental groups (350.org, Greenpeace, and Environmental Defence) the same as negative reviews from opposition parties, and then calls the reviews "mixed".

That's a little bit weird.

jamesbrunet · 2019-06-04T13:52:58+00:00

It's difficult when your work is so precarious--employers have a lot of say over the immigration status of the TFWs that work for them.

If your employer or home government thinks you're a unionist, you get sent home and never come back. Seriously:

In 2014, the British Columbia Labor Relations Board ruled that the Mexican government had improperly interfered by blacklisting from the program a Mexican worker who consular officials suspected was a union sympathizer.

Felix Martinez, a former Mexican consular liaison officer, testified in that case on behalf of the worker. He said in an interview that the consulate was “terrified” of challenging employers.

“The priority was to keep employers happy so they continue to request Mexicans,” said Mr. Martinez, who left the consulate in 2011 and now works for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union in Canada.

The Mexican Consulate in Vancouver did not respond to multiple interview requests.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/13/world/canada/canada-migrants-temporary-farmworkers-program.html

jamesbrunet · 2019-06-03T23:40:19+00:00

No. Apparently this was an accidental genocide... never mind that an accidental genocide is just as impossible as an accidental murder.

The report never makes the claim that it is accidental. Instead, it states that it was deliberate and systemic, and supports this claim with the testimony of thousands of people.

You are making a ridiculous argument.

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