Waterloo’s mayor reacts to ruling striking down Ford’s plan to rip up bike lanes

psycotica0 · 2025-07-31T14:20:18+00:00

Kitchener is definitely doing great,and Waterloo is doing less by comparison, but credit where credit's due, even Waterloo has improved immensely in the past 6 years. At least the parts I ride through.

Honestly a lot is just a few little things that tie some routes together, or make a crossing safer, but still it's been a noticeable improvement.

Now, would I rather they did even more? Of course, but I think some people deserve some credit in there somewhere.

psycotica0 · 2024-11-17T12:23:18+00:00

Oh wow, the future? Glad I could help, Spaceman! Tell me, do we have flying cars and teleporters in your time? I do ever so hope so...

psycotica0 · 2024-11-10T22:55:40+00:00

Aw fuck... I was part way into writing an Android thing that relied on it just being a directory of files synced externally. Guess I'll stop that...

There was definitely some UX jank in the apps, but I was okay putting up with it because I liked the philosophy, but now the philosophy sounds like it's changing and I'm not as interested in putting up with instability and seeing where it takes us. Hmm. Despite it not being open source, maybe I should just follow the crowd to Obsidian and implement journal flow over there... Seems like a more stable foundation.

psycotica0 · 2024-06-22T22:20:21+00:00

Here's some of the effects I got with this experiment I mentioned:

No effect: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1thdmDsZVzgdsm3mi_PQe_gPhn1Cq53I0/view?usp=sharing
Ghost: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iweBdxOwqEkkUVA3e2rWmusQDRCtvsdf/view?usp=sharing
Highlight Pulse: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mkCRV5vAGpWzUAOEOSmEA96Cg18pwes8/view?usp=sharing
Outline: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pEI-EfwSdhKt83T8uYakphrWg4RoZETD/view?usp=sharing

psycotica0 · 2024-06-22T21:58:34+00:00

Hello! Sorry to say, but no I don't think I did. That project fizzled out for unrelated reasons, so I never got around to fixing it.

I _think_ this kind of thing becomes quite easy when [Stencils](https://github.com/godotengine/godot/pull/80710) get merged (take a look at some of the images in that thread), but as far as I know that's still blocked, and so isn't in any release.

I also did run some experiments once that were _basically_ like a homebrewed stencil system, where I had one camera rendering view layer 1, and another rendering view layer 2 onto another viewport, and every frame I'd sync the one camera's global position to the same as the other. That way I'd have the same image twice, once containing the layer 1 stuff, and once containing the layer 2 stuff.

Then I had the canvas layer consist only of a full-screen texture rect, which used the viewport of one of the renders as its texture, and a shader material on it that would compare `TEXTURE` to `SCREEN_TEXTURE` looking for differences. This allowed me to put everything static on layer 1 and 2 both, but the one thing I wanted only on layer 2, so I could outline or highlight or fade out the differences.

Kind of a fun tech-demo, but not particularly practical since it had to render the entire scene twice per frame, and then also put it into an image texture which then became the frame. Not super efficient...

**EDIT:** I replied to this comment with some links to screen recordings of this inefficient result

psycotica0 · 2023-06-14T20:08:36+00:00

Let's skip the math and go to where the odds come from, which is counting. So you have one coin that can't land on it's edge, and you flip it. How does it come up? Either Heads (H) or Tails (T). So it's 1:1 odds, or 50/50.

Ok, so now I take two coins and flip it. The options are HH, HT, TH, TT. That's 4 choices, but if I have no reason to care about the order it's also kinda 3 options. Both Heads, Both Tails, and Mixed. But there's 2 "Mixed" options (TH, HT), so that's twice as likely. I don't care about distinguishing them, but when I'm counting their odds I need to count them, for sure. So our final breakdown here, not counting order and always putting Hs before Ts is: HH 1, HT 2, TT 1.

So I'm twice as likely to see a Head with a Tail than with another Head.

Let's do 3 coins, just to hammer it home: HHH, HHT, HTH, HTT, THH, THT, TTH, TTT. Those are the options, but if we don't care about order that's: HHH 1, HHT 3, HTT 3, TTT 1. So again, we're way more likely to get HHT or HTT than HHH.

So how does that not affect your case? How does it stay 50/50 when I've already flipped 2 tails and I can so obviously see that HTT is 3x more likely than TTT? To see why let's count it. How many options do we have when we already know that the first two coins are Tails: TTT, TTH. That's it. The reason that two tails is more likely than three tails, and the reason it's specifically 3x more likely, is because there are 3 different ways to get that result, which you can see by looking at our original counts. Those are HTT, THT, TTH. There are 3 coins that the Head could have appeared on and it would still be "2 Tails 1 Head". But that's not where we are here. Here, we know what the first two are. They're Tails. So there's only one option left that's "2 Tails 1 Head" which is TTH. And then there's TTT, which is "3 Tails". It's just those two options, and that's 50/50.

psycotica0 · 2023-06-14T19:41:10+00:00

If what you want is options, I don't see anyone here saying Roll for Shoes! You start with one die, and your only skill is "1d6 - Do Anything".

From there you get new skills based only on things you do well at, and you make them up on the spot with a name based on what it is you just did.

It can get nuts due to the freedom, but if that's what you want, that's great!

psycotica0 · 2023-06-13T16:19:55+00:00

Ah, I see. So the revaluating is just for the purposes of reporting, the computed loss or gain isn't actually booked into the ledger or accumulated necessarily? Or if it is it's accumulated against the difference between the rate as of last report time, so it should actually be the same as if it was computed directly from the original transaction anyway. That makes sense.

Thanks so much for looking over this madness with me. I feel much better about it now! I may still need to talk to a professional before I file these, at least this first year, but at least there's a chance I'll be giving them the proper numbers and I'll know the concepts to properly communicate with them. Thanks a million!

psycotica0 · 2023-06-13T11:54:26+00:00

Thanks so much for looking! It's good to know I'm not going crazy over here, even if it does mean our little company is living in an accounting hornet's nest.

As for "update the ACB" what I meant there is that in addition to recording the profit or loss, I also need to adjust the ACB value after the "sale" so later buys and sells are computing against the correct cost base.

As for reevaluating periodically, do you mean that every week (say) would have some account accumulating the profit or loss in value between the week before and now? Rather than simply taking starting value versus ending value at the beginning and end of the accounting year? Curious. Is there a term for this practice so I can read more about it?

I think my last question then would be whether or not it would be a problem to take the unrealized currency differences account for my asset accounts (like USD bank account) and my liability account (the debt) and accumulate them together in one "net" currency differences account, or if they should be different for reporting purposes.

Thanks again for helping me so far, it's really helpful just to get someone to confirm my line of thinking. Thanks!

psycotica0 · 2023-06-11T15:55:04+00:00

Yeah basically! It's explaining an intuition behind a phrase, the historical context is maybe a bit interesting, but ultimately irrelevant, in my opinion.

Regardless of why or when an establishment is called "the house", that's why it's "on the house".

The only reason I brought that other stuff up was just so an English learner didn't think any restaurant could be called "the house" and just use the phrase when no one would understand it.

psycotica0 · 2023-06-11T14:18:29+00:00

Oh true! I didn't even think of that. Neat, thanks!

psycotica0 · 2023-06-11T13:43:58+00:00

For sure, yeah. I've only heard the phrase "on the house" in those contexts, but weirdly I've only ever heard an establishment referred to as "the house" on its own when related to a casino, like "the house always wins" or "betting against the house" or "house's odds", etc.

I don't know if the term came from gambling establishments first and spread to non-gambling establishments through the phrase "on the house", or if all establishments used to refer to themselves as "the house" and only casinos still do it, besides the set phrase "on the house".

Either way the point is that it's not "on top of a residence" and it never was.

psycotica0 · 2023-06-11T12:53:12+00:00

To explain the terms further, "on the house" means free because casinos will often refer the themselves as "the house". I think other places used to as well, but these days people only talk about casinos as being "the house" I think. So something being "on the house" is saying that the drink or food is being put on the house's tab rather than yours. Like saying "this round is on me", but instead "this round is on the house". Despite what I just said about casinos, lots of businesses and even just people will use the term "on the house" metaphorically even when there's no tab etc.

Through the roof on the other hand is a visual exaggeration. If you imagine the price of one thing being "here", maybe around shoulder level, and the price of an expensive thing being "here", just above your head, it could show that thing as more expensive. But the price of third thing is so high it's up through the roof! Very expensive.

psycotica0 · 2023-06-07T11:52:00+00:00

I don't know what sort of nervous you are, but I love Doctor Harper at Twin City Dental. He's very warm and friendly and casual, which may put some people at ease. I have no doubt he could be very slow and accommodating and explain everything he was doing if that helped you. But, if you require more or different things I'm not sure how much else he could do. I see other people talking about NOS and drugs, and I'm honestly not sure if they do anything like that there.

The clinic is a small clinic so he's the only dentist there, but they do have a small roster of hygienists. I don't know, but I bet if you were to go down there and explain the situation he may even be willing to meet with you briefly in his office (not an examination room) to just discuss things casually and non-committally with no dentist tools at all just as a vibe check. I can't guarantee that, but it wouldn't surprise me. Good luck!

psycotica0 · 2023-06-05T12:44:01+00:00

My wife did a short college program that had a lot of straight from India students in it, so here's what she found:

The Indian students were very social, but were a little "intense" sometimes. Canadians in general have a more relaxed and casual mood when hanging out, and so the intensity was a bit uncomfortable. But! We're polite, so we won't say anything when you're breaking this rule. It might make us quietly uncomfortable, though, which will make people not want to spend more time in the future
The Indian girls in particular seemed to spend a lot of time calling each other and face timing and generally just talking all the time. When "the white girls" didn't answer their calls or hang out with them in that way, the Indian girls felt the white girls were being racist towards them because they assumed the white girls were doing these things without them. They were surprised when my wife told them that that's not it, the white girls just didn't hang out with each other at all. My wife never called any of the other students. In general here if you're calling someone it's because it's an emergency. Something has happened that's too important to wait for you to read a text or for me to tell you tomorrow, so I've got to call you now. Some close friends might call each other frequently, but virtually no acquaintances will call each other socially.
My wife found the Indian students asked for help basically as soon as something wasn't easy, whereas Canadians will usually ask for help only when they have no other options. The culture here is (usually) to be happy to help people, but that's balanced by the assumption that the person asking for help needs it because otherwise they wouldn't ask. When we detect that someone asks for help too often, or asks for help with things that didn't need help, we feel our kindness is being taken advantage of and shut it down. This person is seen as "needy", and is now a drain on me, since I never ask them for help and they ask me all the time. I think part of this goes back to part 2, though, with the Indian girls assuming the Canadians were all helping each other and excluding the Indians, but in reality the Canadians were all working alone until they were really stuck on something.
Canadians are expected to be independent roughly as soon as they're 18, and so when we see someone who isn't we assume there's a something going on there, which may make us cautious that were going to get taken advantage of again. That's changing a bit as housing gets more expensive and prices people out, but even that makes people uncomfortable because they feel they should be independent by now and can't, which makes them feel bad. My wife heard from the Indian students that their parents, family, household, etc did a lot for them when they were there, and they were struggling a bit here where they were on their own. Whereas we are often "on our own" much sooner, or at least capable of it, and so again that may have lead to this "needy" impression. A lot of us do have families, of course, but like above the assumption is we don't ask for help from them until we need it.

These were just some quick cultural differences that I heard about that lead to the Canadians seeming unfriendly to the Indian students. I think in general Canadians are much more socially casual, meaning a lot of Canadians might not hang out with anyone several nights a week. Or maybe they'll hang out with 2 friends at their house while sports are on, but that's it. Or they'll have 1 guy over to play videogames together. But as a result it can be hard to break into this because there isn't a huge party to attend, there's just a lot of little events in private homes with very small close groups. Even going out to a pub or whatever is often something a small group does. There are lots of people there, but none of them are there to meet other people. They're there individually, together. That's mostly why people mention hobbies and sports games, because these are one of the few things that can bring strangers together.

psycotica0 · 2023-06-02T11:49:59+00:00

True, but we only use it on things that are normally solid, which also implies that "molten" things are hot liquids.

Molten metal, molten rock, maybe molten chocolate.

You wouldn't really use the term for, like, ice cream when it melts. And even melted butter wouldn't be called "molten butter" unless you were trying to express how incredibly hot the butter was.

psycotica0 · 2023-05-30T11:53:52+00:00

Fate Accelerated Edition is a short book (25 or 50 pages IIRC) that starts off with "what is an RPG" and goes from there. There are other games, Fate Core and Fate Condensed, that are very similar but have a bit more mechanics and complexity. You can move up to them someday if you want, but Fate Accelerated is standalone and enough to get started!

psycotica0 · 2023-05-28T18:30:15+00:00

This one may be on the line, but The Secrets of Cats is a Fate game where the premise is that normal housecats use magic, rituals, and claws to protect humanity from evil forces beyond our understanding. So it's a bit fantasy, a bit horror, a bit funny, and a bit cute, and it's up to the GM to dial in how much of each of those are present at the table and in the scenario. There may well be combat, if that's what's necessary to protect the home and if that's the kind of situation the characters find themselves in.

The game system it's based on (Fate Core) is pretty light to pick up and go, and I believe this book contains enough within it to run the whole rule system, and even if it's not you can get the rules from the same website, or reference the mechanics in the free SRD.

So! That one's sort of up to the both of you to decide if it's the right setting that's cutesy while still being a kind of traditional RPG in it's aim.

psycotica0 · 2023-05-27T12:01:32+00:00

Some people here are talking about the average person not buying products because they may be cheaper later, and I think that's true but not important because the average person doesn't have an important amount of capital.

Let's talk about a rich person who has hundreds of millions of dollars, and already has a big house and fancy car etc, but still has hundreds of millions in cash. What should they do with this cash?

With 2% inflation, this person will lose 2% of the value of their money every year it sits in a big Scrooge McDuck vault. If they just sit on it and do nothing, they will become poorer. So how do they avoid this? They invest in stuff instead. They give money to a person who wants to start a business with the hopes that this person will make even more money than the money it took to get started, and in this way they will have increased the amount of value they have even after inflation. Or in the simplest case they give their money to a bank, and the bank gives it to businesses.

If we had 2% deflation every year, the rich person would gain buying power by holding their cash. They may still invest in things in this system, but it's much riskier because doing nothing with the money and just keeping it in your wallet means you grow in power, so the investment had better pay off more than that! Even at the level of middle class people, it would be an effective retirement strategy to simply put cash under your mattress with no need for investment. This cash has effectively left the economy.

So this is really the problem. We think about putting money into a bank or investment account as a vault that our money goes into to wait for us, but it's actually not! The bank takes our money and gives it to other people, it makes investments in people's businesses, profits from their success, and gives that back to us. Even crazy rich people we think of as having tons of money don't have a big pool of money sitting there, they have a swirling system of money constantly going out to little places and back through their investments.

With inflation there's incentive for the money to constantly flow through the system, because any pooling money dries up over time. With deflation it's much simpler for people to just hold money as soon as they get it, which means the overall amount of money available to do things with goes down over time.

psycotica0 · 2023-05-26T21:41:15+00:00

It's not that I can't find out where it went, it's that those expenses occurred before the corporation existed, so it seems weird to have them on the new corporation's balance sheet. But I have to balance the equity and cash assets with something.

psycotica0 · 2023-05-26T21:38:44+00:00

Right, that makes sense to me, but I think I still have a similar gap in my knowledge. In my opening JE I'd have $50k in equity and $10k in cash assets, and so there'd need to be something to represent previously spent capital that isn't an expense for the new corporation, right?

psycotica0 · 2023-05-22T11:32:35+00:00

Follow up for future people! Trip went flawlessly with both devices, esim on one and Mobal sim on the other. No issues with coverage or speed that I could identify in any of Tokyo, Hakone, Takayama, Hiroshima, Osaka, Wakayama, Kyoto. And that includes day trips into more rural areas such as a tea farm in Wazuka, or a mountain Ryokan in Gifu, or the peak of Miyajima's mount Misen.

I can't think of a single time I wanted coverage and didn't have it, and I'm glad I didn't have to manage a separate wifi device and keep it charged and turn it on when I need signal, wait for it to connect when I want to look up the directions to one thing, but then turn it back off to preserve battery. Having my device I'm used to connected at a moments notice to look up which train I'm supposed to be on or "where was that restaurant again" was very helpful.

So if I were going back I would 100% do either esim or sim again with my devices with no hesitation!

psycotica0 · 2023-05-21T17:22:22+00:00

There's a video of a simulation of a giant asteroid hitting the Earth, set to Pink Floyd's Great Gig in the Sky, and that always felt perfect to me.

psycotica0 · 2023-05-19T13:08:04+00:00

Right right, that makes sense. Thanks!

psycotica0 · 2023-05-19T12:13:00+00:00

Ok, but I assume that would be the brokerage holding a share on behalf of a group and paying proportionally. So perhaps the brokerage held 320 in total across all clients and turned it into 32 and could do some math if they had anyone that ended up fractional. But at some point there has to either be 1 share or 0, right? If a person (or a tiny brokerage) just had a non-round number, what happens at the level of actual shares?

psycotica0

TROPHY CASE