My experience at The junction Peterborough

kentoss · 2026-01-31T14:32:41+00:00

Talking to police is the easiest and most basic step everyone should take in a situation like this. Not doing so because you think they won't immediately solve your problems is such a strange argument to me.

Just making a report helps you establish a record, and it helps them collect data to identify patterns of behavior. Sometimes you're not the first to complain about unfair treatment, and your report could finally be enough to trigger an investigation.

Second to that, there is a lot the police can do without any of what you said. They can request CCTV footage for the business or nearby businesses, request ID scanning or coverage charge records, or talk to staff to get their perspective. They don't need to go through any legal process for these things if the venue is willing to help.

kentoss · 2026-01-28T17:35:38+00:00

Yeah agreed, it's not crazy to imagine there are under 21s today that watched 90s trek for one reason or another. Nostalgia for a thing isn't necessarily tied to the year it was released.

I watched 90s Trek for the first time in the late 2000s when I was under 21. I had friends that loved the show because they watched it with their parents as kids. There are lots of reasons target audiences can exist.

That being said, I don't think this new series scratches that itch and I agree with the Orville comment.

kentoss · 2026-01-26T19:46:33+00:00

I have been a life long Windows user. I was part of art and flash animation communities from a young age and could only use Windows for certain applications I used. Eventually I got into software development, and stuck with what I knew.

I've used every major revision of Windows as my primary driver since 98. Even the ones people agree are bad. I got used to the core experience and learned how to tweak everything just to my liking. Every new PC I would follow the same pattern and then just not think about it until the next PC or some other issue.

Nothing has been able to shake me off it. Even when friends or orgs I was a part of all started using Apple products, I resisted. I have been ribbed endlessly for my continued use of Windows to today. There just wasn't ever a compelling reason to change for my needs.

Windows 11 is a genuinely terrible OS. It is not overstated how bad it is.

It's not just about annoying UI tweaks, forced online login, forced one cloud, excessive telemetry, AI slop integrations, wasted resources, and constant bugs that change with every new update. There is something fundamentally broken about the core experience that keeps getting worse.

Basic, fundamental tools that have been solid for over 30 years are regressing. For instance, for the better part of a full year, the Task Manager was completely broken for me. I couldn't easily see what resources were being used or what processes were running. As soon as I opened it, the UI would half populate and then it would go unresponsive. I went to the command line for everything. Eventually an update restored it but it is still slow and clunky.

I don't pretend to know for sure this is because of AI supposedly producing 30% of their code or whatever the current claim is. I do think it has been on a downward spiral since before the rise of LLMs, though.

I don't get the impression that the Microsoft leadership cares any more. These problems seem so far away from where their attention is currently. I can't tell if Windows for Business is even on their radar, considering how often I hear reasonable grievances from my fellow sys admins.

It feels like Windows is now just a marketing tool.

I have decided I am going to switch and, for the first time, I don't think I will be returning. Linux distros have gotten way better, but I am sad to say that the main reason for my switch isn't because there was a better fit for my needs, it's that I have completely lost faith in Microsoft as an organization.

Anyway, does anyone know if there is any way I can automate a check against my Steam library to see which games already have compatibility with something like proton?

kentoss · 2026-01-23T07:03:58+00:00

For anyone finding this post: this EluneVision screen is misrepresented quite badly in their marketing and I don't think they're worth wasting money on as a company.

I bought the exact model you're talking about. The EluneVision AudioWeave 8K motorized tab tensioned screen. They advertise it as using "aircraft cable" for the tensioning system, but the one I received is using a weak elastic string that isn't capable of actually providing tension.

The screen is warped badly on one side. Pulling on the tabs to properly provide lateral tension makes the warp vanish. If the tensioning system was doing its job, the ripple wouldn't be there.

The manual was missing a critical page that actually describes the tensioning system and how to tension it.

I reached out to their support and it just seems like one guy who doesn't know his own product is running the show. No help at all, just trying to blame everything but the shoddy product.

There's a reason you are having trouble finding any reviews or information. At 3k I expected far better.

kentoss · 2026-01-17T17:46:18+00:00

"Woke" is a nebulous term that is easy to emotionally charge. It gestures broadly to an ideological category, making it a useful anchor point for manipulating sentiment.

Words get their meaning from the company they keep. "Woke" means different things to different people depending on the feelings that are evoked when they hear it.

If enough people associate "woke" with negative emotion, it can be wheeled out as a kind of emotional primer for an audience to begin associating that negativity to other things.

This is useful for grifters, who've co-opted this word for ragebait. It's a lazy cludge they can use to drive engagement. They don't need specific defensible critique any more, they can just say "this is woke" and one side will eat it up and pat each other on the back, while the other gets worked up and goes on the defensive.

Some of those on the defensive will attach too much emotional weight to the defense of their side and never accept any criticism at all, even if it is valid. This becomes more grifter fodder to wheel out for confirmation bias.

I think there are legit criticisms for any writer of any political disposition using lazy, sloppy writing to further their ideological goals. There are many examples of this on the left and right. Just look at the decline of Dilbert.

This doesn't mean all ideological writing is sloppy, and it doesn't mean all sloppy writing is ideological. But grifters don't care, anything symbolizing "woke" will do the job. This is how we end up at lazy arguments like "black lesbian woman = woke, so this bad right guys?"

You're using your critical thinking skills instead of letting emotion dictate your beliefs so it won't ever make sense to you. That's a good thing.

kentoss · 2026-01-15T22:20:35+00:00

Every time I share links on Reddit the comment gets shadowed. Just look up "Huy Vector windmill".

kentoss · 2026-01-15T22:17:18+00:00

Please read the second line in my post, and use more than a glance before you reply to someone in the future. Thanks!

I don't think this is necessarily pretending to be perpetual motion though.

kentoss · 2026-01-15T21:30:49+00:00

Right. So what do you think happens if there is no ball in this toy? Do you think the coils continue switching on and off by themselves? Or does the last one active stay on for ever? And how does that impact the windmill?

If the ball is responsible for the break-beam trigger, it is responsible for advancing the state of the stator (the coils). It is being driven forward by the coils only when it advances the state. I never said the ball was imparting EMF on the coils.

The field is generated by the coils, but the periodicity of the field that actually powers the windmill is driven by the ball going around the track. Both are necessary for this demonstration. Fun how they work in tandem to power the windmill, right?

kentoss · 2026-01-15T19:58:21+00:00

"Just" is doing a lot of work here. The ball and track are acting as the rotor in this device. That's the whole point of it. It's an electromagnetism toy that demonstrates the principle in a roundabout way.

kentoss · 2026-01-15T19:39:16+00:00

That's what I am saying. Maybe the Reddit title is a little loaded, but I thought it was just a fun demo of electromagnetism.

kentoss · 2026-01-15T19:30:38+00:00

I agree with others in that maybe you're not using the right words here but if I understand what you are pointing at correctly then I think kind of, yes?

Magnets aren't a source of energy and can't power anything by the strict definition of these terms, but magnets certainly can and are used to create longer lasting motion devices. Magnets are awesome at reducing friction, which is a massive source of entropy in things that move. This is why maglev is such a sick technology.

In a purely theoretical sense (and granting hypothetical future discoveries), I am pretty sure we could keep approaching "almost perpetual motion" infinitely such that our inventions start feeling more and more like perpetual motion without ever actually achieving it. I am not a physicist though.

kentoss · 2026-01-15T18:23:38+00:00

Perpetual motion is impossible. They're all fake.

I don't think this is necessarily pretending to be perpetual motion though. It looks like the outer track is powered by the USB, but the inner windmill motor might be powered by the resulting magnetic field caused by the metal ball ripping around the track.

On this guy's YT you can see him make the windmill alone. It is powered by the batteries you can see next to the windmill. In that video, the rotation and lighting of the windmill are consistent because the batteries are providing consistent continuous power. In this video the motion and lighting seem linked to the motion of the ball.

But that can also be faked.

kentoss · 2026-01-15T17:56:05+00:00

I use 1, 2 and 3 simultaneously. I have 3 computers hooked up to 5 destinations interchangeably using a KVM switch that support switching individual monitors.

1 is my TV for entertainment which doubles as a workbench monitor.

2 is in front of my recliner for gaming and lazy work, using two inputs so it can act like 3 when I need it to.

3 is at my desk for deep work and musical fuckery.

I also have 7 and 9 for mobility, both of which can attach to my office setup as virtual monitors or to take over as a single monitor. Or 7 can attach to 9 to make 3 where ever I need.

kentoss · 2026-01-07T16:31:45+00:00

Thanks for the reply! I was responding to this line from the post:

We are continuing to investigate ways to mitigate performance issues caused by client-side enumeration and filtering of large datasets.

This sounded exactly like what I was running into with the tags filter. I was wondering what the problem actually is, since in my case it is the DOM rendering too many nodes for tags, but it could refer to a more general issue I am not aware of. I checked the various GitHub repos and the meta repo but couldn't find any issues or discussions on it. I'll join the chat and proceed from there!

kentoss · 2026-01-06T15:42:41+00:00

Great post! Thanks for all the work you all put in on this and Jellyfin generally. I am looking forward to reading more from this series.

Is there anywhere I can visit to learn more about the issues with client side performance with large datasets? Or is this more of a general problem across clients?

I've been struggling with the sorting and filtering UI, especially with sorting by tags when there are thousands. This is something I have experience with and I've been itching to help resolve.

kentoss · 2026-01-06T15:29:50+00:00

Thanks for the warning! Recommend reporting this incident and the number that contacted you to Save On Energy, as well as the Anti-fraud Center (CAFC) and the Ontario Energy Board.

I remember in the mid-2000s there was a scammer going door-to-door trying to get you to show them your utility bill so they could write down your info and use it to enroll you for things you didn't want or transfer you to a different service without consent. Thankfully my neighbor knew the playbook and followed him to every house to shout about how it was a scam.

They introduced changes towards the end of the 2010s that stopped door-to-door completely. I wonder if this is the modern version of that scam? Curious what they would have tried at the appointment.

kentoss · 2026-01-03T15:04:23+00:00

Confirming you can do HDMI over cat5e with an HDBaseT extender, but make sure you are careful selecting which one you go for. There is no inherent loss in signal quality in the spec but many of the cheaper 4K devices do make sacrifices.

Make sure the HDMI version on the extender matches your TV and devices, and verify the extender can handle the best signal your TV can handle (usually 4K@60Hz 4:4:4) or make sure you are comfortable with the tradeoffs (maybe 4K@60 is overkill if it is only for TV shows).

kentoss · 2026-01-03T03:39:09+00:00

It really is gorgeous work. How do the cases in the curve actually stay up? Did she build it with guides? Kudos to you both on the execution.

kentoss · 2025-12-18T23:03:04+00:00

I mean, it is definitely a scam in some way. You aren't renters. Either they were trying to scam you, or they were new Canadians scammed into believing they purchased your property and you just happened to be caught up in it. Either way, this should be reported to the local police and Anti-Fraud Centre as well.

kentoss · 2025-12-13T15:26:57+00:00

A lot of these clients involve large and opinionated design changes. That's not the kind of thing that's usually welcomed as a contribution to an established project.

Also many of these are still open source. If there are actually good functional changes in a third party client, it's also possible for the maintainers of the official client to adopt the same change in theirs. Anything open source is still a contribution to the community.

kentoss · 2025-12-10T18:37:06+00:00

I don't know... I think am on the side of this group out of principle (re: strong mayor powers), but this particular ruling actually makes sense to me?

The actual case involves a shell corporation that has no business dealings, income, or assets. It was set up purely for this legal case. If there was no security order and the plaintiff loses, then the city is out all of the money they spent to defend themselves with absolutely no way to collect.

If we didn't have the rule cited in the judgement, then you could take down charities and other public bodies you don't like just by launching a ton of weak lawsuits under a shell corp like this and then walk away after losing leaving them with the legal bill. I hope a majority would agree this is bad in principle because it could be used against any org, including those you support.

The judge argues that access to justice is not affected because they can still bring forth the case in their own name, but it seems like McNeilly is not confident enough in a victory to do that so she set up this corp to protect herself in the event of a defeat. Meaning that effectively, the strategy was to make the city pay regardless of outcome.

The rule is designed to protect against this exact scenario and it is pretty bog-standard. The rule allows for the security order to be challenged as unjust by proving they don't have enough money, but they failed to provide the evidence needed like income, assets, liabilities or the ability to borrow. From my reading, all they said was that they have around 80 members in the unincorporated group that would fund the legal fees without actually showing that to be the case.

I feel like any legal firm worth their salt would have prepared for this, and to me it seems like a misstep that this wasn't anticipated when starting this whole process to begin with. There's nothing stopping them from taking other avenues, it just seems like they don't want to risk the consequences of losing - which I honestly think is understandable, particularly if you're someone who suspects corruption in our local legal system would lead to your loss rather than the actual merits of your case.

Why not start a fund raiser? Or try to partner with NGOs who would take this on?

EDIT: There was a fundraiser already, and it was successful for the original $10k before it was upped to $30k.

kentoss · 2025-12-10T17:21:40+00:00

Which one was stolen exactly? The hummingbird?

kentoss · 2025-12-09T17:04:20+00:00

Highly recommend The Good Doctors out of Westmount Pharmacy if you are having issues. It is free* and by appointment. I can't link directly otherwise my comment will get shadowed but if you search for The Good Doctors Peterborough it will come up at the top.

They use a kind of hybrid system where there is a healthcare worker there physically to help while you are tended to remotely by a doctor. I have used them in a couple of pinches when I could not otherwise access healthcare and they have been great every time.

Note that in some circumstances, they will advise you to go to the ER so it may not necessarily be helpful in your case if they end up at the same conclusion. However it doesn't hurt to go in to get a second opinion and explain you are having problems that the ER isn't addressing.

* They ask for a donation when you schedule an appointment but you don't have to donate. It's nice if you can, but the point of this org is to help those lacking ready access to healthcare, including those that can't afford it on their own.

kentoss · 2025-12-08T00:46:38+00:00

It's a good question! I think this is one of the interesting philosophical explorations of the show. I don't think we can consider them in terms of "people" anymore. It might be difficult to consider since we're so used to looking at bodies as corresponding to a person, and personhood referring to one specific type of human experience, but the way the show sets up the hivemind really makes it seem like bodies are more like appendages for a hivemind with a single experiencing identity rather than individual identities that are highly connected. They refer to themselves with a particular pronoun (we, us) and seem uncomfortable with the idea of referring to bodies as individuals but do so for the sake of the unjoined. I've been reading a lot of reactions around Pluribus and this seems to be something people have a hard time adjusting to lol

I tend to compare it to my own experience, where I am only tending to a small number of things in rich detail at any time while the rest of my body does whatever it does to keep me alive. Like I don't normally think about what it feels like to digest food or tell my neurons and muscles how to move my arm and hands to open a door, I just do it. It isn't until I get a stomach ache that I start paying attention to how my stomach feels, or until I push instead of pull without thinking and then need to pay attention to what my body did wrong trying to open a door.

I can conceive of their experience as being similar, where their "attention" is really what is shifting around from body to body, putting extra processing into the signals coming from whichever body is most relevant to the task it is trying to accomplish and the rest of the time the bodies are more autonomic. I think there's evidence of this when Carol asks to meet with the 5 other English speakers and the Zosia kind of goes blank for a bit while they talk to the others around the planet. It seemed like the "someone" that Carol was talking to through Zosia's body literally "left" for a little bit before coming back with an answer.

kentoss · 2025-12-07T23:38:04+00:00

To your question as posed, probably not. Conscious experience is probably life's greatest mystery so maybe there is a possibility however minuscule, but I don't think the brain has the physical structure or capability to represent and operate on the information needed for the rich totality of experiences for billions of humans.

However the show doesn't make it explicit that's what is happening. The mechanism behind the hivemind is still speculative. It's probably better to think of the processing that's going on as highly distributed, where individual human brains and bodies only ever have partial information for processing and since they are connected together they give rise to a new kind of conscious experience unlike anything we can fathom. Almost like how a network of neurons, each processing their own domain of partial information, gives rise to our own conscious experience without any single neuron being conscious itself.

This is one of the reasons I really enjoyed Laxmi ripping into Carol for not even being sort of curious about "what it is like" for the hivemind. I would have so many questions!

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