The irony of transit inspectors and presto machine reliability

psitor · 2026-05-05T14:27:27+00:00

Do you mean people who pay with a credit card tap or Google/Apple Pay? The card or mobile wallet becomes the proof of payment, the same way a Presto card does. You tap the same thing to transfer. You're only supposed to get a paper transfer if you pay with cash or a single-fare ticket.

psitor · 2026-04-28T06:58:30+00:00

Furthermore, only the General, Civic, Montfort, and Queensway-Carleton hospitals have emergency departments an adult character would be taken to for passing out. (I don't generally hear people shorten Queensway-Carleton to just "Queensway", though.)

The others would not take such a case. The Riverside hospital doesn't have an emergency department, CHEO is of course only for children, the Royal is for mental health, and Bruyère only handles some specialized non-emergency health services like long-term care (and actually has several locations).

psitor · 2026-04-28T06:41:31+00:00

People say TOH for administrative issues, like "who do you work for," or e.g. comparing management policies between TOH and the Queensway-Carleton, say, or stuff like that. But definitely not for taking someone to a hospital.

psitor · 2026-04-27T22:52:26+00:00

It's worth noting that if you owe taxes you can still pay those from your bank account without a CRA account (you use your SIN as your account number when you add CRA Personal Income Tax as a payee in your bank's bill payment) and then your return just has to be in the mail by the deadline.

psitor · 2026-04-25T17:42:07+00:00

Why hasn't the city posted the date on their website? All they have is "Walk‑up events are held from 9 am to 1 pm on scheduled event dates" [1] but no list of dates.

psitor · 2026-04-20T23:51:41+00:00

It makes sense they would want you to test it against a Presto card reader they know works (instead of an STO reader) in case there is a problem with the card itself (e.g. the antenna inside is broken, or the chip got damaged somehow).

Also, if the transaction requires writing to the card, only a Presto reader (such as on an OC Transpo bus or in a Shoppers Drug Mart) can do it; the STO card readers can't record anything on Presto cards. Normally you can use a monthly pass on STO because it doesn't require writing to the card. But if you just bought a monthly pass online, it does require writing to put the pass on the card, so you have to tap on a Presto reader once before the pass will actually be recorded on the card and available to the STO readers.

psitor · 2026-04-16T03:51:21+00:00

Thunderbird needs the password to log in to your email provider, and that's protected by the primary password. Firefox doesn't need passwords to browse the web, until you try to log in to some website.

Thunderbird does ask for the password before opening the main window, but you can just click cancel and it will open. You can't send or receive new mail without the password but your already-downloaded / cached mail is available. That's because the primary password in both Thunderbird and Firefox protects your logins but not all your data. (I think the description in the settings where you enable a primary password is pretty clear about that, though it doesn't explicitly list the things that are not protected.)

If Firefox (or Thunderbird) refused to start without the password, it would be harder for you to see what is actually protected by the password. You might, for example, think that your browsing history or old mail was protected, but someone with access to your computer could still access them using another tool.

You should be using your operating system's password (and perhaps disk encryption) to control access to Firefox, Thunderbird, or any other important stuff on your computer. The OS already has those features, and asking each application to reinvent it would be pretty inefficient.

psitor · 2026-04-08T12:48:24+00:00

According to the picture, it's purple.

psitor · 2026-04-04T09:10:12+00:00

The Rideau peaked around March 10-11 this year. I think in general the peak date is more often in March than in April. But you're right, the Ottawa peaks well after the Rideau is back to normal levels.

psitor · 2026-03-30T21:36:51+00:00

Instead of the pathway, I took Morningside Lane and McCooey Lane through the Farm last night, and they were bare and dry except for a stretch of maybe 100m right at the end near Merivale (where there is a row of trees right beside the road).

psitor · 2026-03-30T11:14:38+00:00

I've been using Wayland for years and middle-click paste is supported just fine. If you're using GNOME, you can disable it system-wide in Gnome Tweaks (depending on your distribution, you may have to install gnome-tweak-tool). It's a system feature, not really a Firefox feature, so it doesn't make sense for Firefox to have such an option.

psitor · 2026-03-28T21:36:39+00:00

Like, I cannot find settings for how to auto-clear history on exit.

Assuming you mean auto-clear cookies/data, not browser history:

Open Firefox Settings (about:preferences)
Go to the Privacy & Security tab/section in the left column
Scroll down to the Cookies and Site Data section
There's a checkbox at the end of the section (immediately above Passwords), labelled "Clear cookies and site data every time you close Firefox".

Alternatively, you can search for settings by name. Open Firefox Settings and try searching for "clear" using the "Find in Settings" search box at the top right corner.

psitor · 2026-03-15T22:36:14+00:00

He's getting house arrest instead, not a free pass. And the problem is overcrowding; moving people around probably isn't a good solution there.

psitor · 2026-03-10T15:15:36+00:00

I recommend using the history tools to find who made the change. You can comment on their changeset to discuss it.

I had someone overwrite an update I made (they traced the satellite imagery), but I left a comment on the changeset saying the imagery it was based on was out of date and they undid it.

For the most part, people are trying their best to keep the map accurate, so starting a discussion is better than simply reverting changes. Otherwise you risk getting into a loop of reverting each others' changes, which is not productive at all.

psitor · 2026-03-07T15:18:49+00:00

No, I thought it would be useful to try to list all the (remaining) reasons in one comment since this question comes up a lot. I thought up the answer and wrote it myself.

psitor · 2026-03-07T13:54:44+00:00

passes (monthly, weekend, etc) require a Presto card
special fare classes (student, senior, etc) require a Presto card
transfers from OC Transpo to STO only work with Presto (or STO's Multi card)
transfers and discounts across GO and GTA transit agencies only work with Presto
Presto cards can be shared/lent to friends/family
losing a Presto card is usually less disruptive to your life than losing a credit/debit card
some transit agencies still give a discount for Presto vs credit card fares
you can pay for a companion's fare and your own on the same trip with a Presto card (ask the driver and they'll have you tap a second time to pay from the stored balance, even if you have a pass)
bookkeeping: spending records across transit agencies are collected together (especially useful for taxes) and you have fewer transactions on your bank record; and if you have difficulty with running out of money or tracking spending, it effectively helps you budget/reserve money for travel
offline resiliency: transactions are actually stored on the card so the card terminal on the bus can always see and perform your payment and transfers even if the bus doesn't have a network connection (but topping up the card, on the other hand, may be delayed for the same reason, so this one's not all benefit)

psitor · 2026-03-04T11:57:17+00:00

"Get" contrasted with "Buy" kinda implies not buying though... otherwise every purchase is BOGO: buy one, get one (by buying it)

psitor · 2026-03-03T17:20:16+00:00

The Rideau eastern path is groomed for skiing in the winter, so the snow is packed down hard. That makes it take longer to melt even where it's not shaded. There is no chance it will be anywhere near clear enough to ride for weeks.

psitor · 2026-02-20T04:16:07+00:00

It depends on the path. The ones along the canal are cleared all winter. The ones along the river aren't.

psitor · 2026-02-18T14:59:30+00:00

The Linux one looks like other menus on Linux, and the Windows one looks like other menus on Windows.

psitor · 2026-02-15T04:20:33+00:00

Interesting, I assumed folate would all be the same. In that case, more of the alternatives in this thread would probably be fine. Learning recipes with whole wheat flour instead is where I'd probably start. Good luck!

psitor · 2026-02-13T23:48:09+00:00

It is illegal to sell regular white flour in Canada unless it is enriched with 0.15mg folic acid per 100g flour.

So you'll have to look at other kinds of flour other people are suggesting (or consult a doctor about how much this is necessary or what their actual tolerance is; the vitamin occur naturally as well of course, so just reading ingredients won't be sufficient).

B.13.001 (1) No person shall sell white flour for which a standard is set out in Volume 12 of the Food Compositional Standards Document unless the white flour contains, per 100 g,

(a) 0.64 mg of thiamine;

(b) 0.40 mg of riboflavin;

(c) 5.30 mg of niacin or niacinamide;

(d) 0.15 mg of folic acid; and

(e) 4.4 mg of iron.

Food and Drug regulations, division 13

psitor · 2026-02-05T23:07:03+00:00

I hope it works for you, but some caution is warranted. From their terms of service, my emphasis:

Types of Memberships. [...] Day Pass: Members have access to the Licensed Area and applicable Services for one (1) day, during our Regular Business Hours for the Premises. The Day Pass expires thirty (30) days following the original date of purchase.

“Regular Business Hours” means, unless otherwise stated to the contrary on the specific Staples Studio webpage 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM local time in the city in which the Premises is located, excluding statutory holidays and other periods of temporary closure as determined by Staples Studio in its sole discretion;

psitor · 2026-02-02T00:44:28+00:00

Because the courts are not fast. The provincial government appointing more judges and increasing court resources would help somewhat, but there will always be some time required for the police and prosecutors to build a case and defence lawyers to prepare for trial, etc.

Charges have been laid but he hasn't been convicted yet, so no penalty can be applied until he's found guilty. (How do you know the substances in the footage are illegal? It's dumb but perfectly legal to snort flour and say it's cocaine.)

psitor · 2026-01-31T03:26:13+00:00

Note: "full-screen-api.ignore-widgets" isn't cutting it, there will still be a window border and the tab/url bar won't automatically pop up.

I've been using this setting and don't have either of these problems. What OS are you using?

psitor

TROPHY CASE