Tootfinder

Great, my bank decided that it would release a new version of their app that isn't compatible with my phone...
Reason: They require "Google Play Integrity API" to pass before installing...
For those unfamiliar with it: the Integrity API is just a type of DRM to discourage people from using custom ROMs.
It is often cited to be "because of security" but when a phone that hasn't had any updates for 3 years passes it with flying colours, it's highl…

One of my VR Lighthouses died last month. These things are gyroscopically spinning 24 hours a day for, what, a decade now? Nearly.
No wonder. Mostly the industry seems to be settling on using head-mounted cameras rather than sweeping infra-red beams and receptors on the head anyway.
It is true that lighthouses give accurate positioning, but means I can't easily take the headset next door, say. Or to a party.
So inside-out, as they call it, is fine for the headset now and mostly okay for the hand-controllers.
But it offers no solution at all for the foot-trackers and hip-tracker that I need for puppetting the characters in the #vr #slimeVR #trackers

Still not feeling great, but figured today would be a great day to finally test out the entirety of the custom FF6 cart I built so long ago. Broke out the Sony PVM-2530, got everything hooked up, and now it's time to beat all of the things down.
The SNES is modded with Voultar's SNESRGB mod, and the video/audio goes out via a SCART connector into the SCART switch (`gscart`), then into the CMPTR adapter, _then_ into the Sony PVM.
I do have two SCART switches, and if you…

"When you focus on growth in GDP as your primary goal without any concern for whether what creates that growth is of real value rather than simply being capable of being counted, whilst being indifferent to the distribution of the gains, those already vulnerable are bound to suffer as a consequence... The policy failure this chart exposes is not an accident; it will be achieved by #Labour by d…

Labour is failing people by hidden design. Reform would do so explicitly.
As The Guardian notes this morning: The country’s most deprived neighbourhoods will have higher crime rates and worse unemployment by the end of the parliament, according to a report written at the request of No. 10 Downing Street. No. 10 has apparently focused its attention on what are called

United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta went public with her own account of being raped by Cesar Chavez, following a NYT investigation.
Huerta said she kept the secret because, “I believed that exposing the truth would hurt the farmworker movement I have spent my entire life fighting for.”
https://w…

Dolores Huerta worried her abuse by Cesar Chavez would hurt farmworker movement
The New York Times uncovered a pattern of abuse by the civil rights icon, including of young girls.

Very proud and excited to vote in the NDP leadership race today!!
This is not the first time I've voted in a Federal leadership race... more on that later but first, my choices! I considered only voting for two people, but I ended up filling in all 5 choices.
#1: Tanille Johnston @…
#2: Avi Lewis @…
#3: Heather McPherson
#4: Tony McQuail
#5: Rob Ashton
Why?
You might ask why I would publicize my choices. I don’t expect others to of course. It is a privilege and a right in Canada to exercise your democratic choice freely and privately, but I also think there is value in knowing how others voted.
#1 why Tanille? #electoralReform and proportional representation myself, I didn't just want to pick my top two. I wanted to make a statement on each of these candidates an influence each one.
To be blunt, Heather is #3 because she is the middle-of-the-road candidate. She is an excellent representative as MP and has gathered the support of other MPs including my own, but while I would be OK with her leadership, I would see her as a continuation of the status quo, and that is not what the NDP needs as a party, nor is it what Canada needs as a country.
We desperately need a vigorous and clear alternative to the Centre-but-mostly-Right Liberals, and the MAGA-wannabe Conservatives. The only way to do that is to catch the attention of Canadians and inspire them. I am not sure that Heather has the ability to do that, and if we continue with the same leadership crew in the NDP, I am not confident that the policy choices will be strong enough to inspire and attract Canadians.
That is why Tanille and Avi are far better options.
#4 Why Tony:

Tony is the real deal. Honestly, I would have loved to rank him higher. He represents the true life blood of rural, socially progressive, environmentally aware, Canadians. You should go check out his platform. I am so glad that he was able to participate fully in the race and we need his voice in the NDP.
#5 Why not Rob?
I have been an active member in my Union for more than 10 years. Unionism is The Way. Rob is representing a division within the union movement that claims that working people can't have jobs if the environment is put first. This is a lie.
We need union leaders that look to the future and speak honestly to people. We need union leaders who are genuinely progressive, not ready to do the bidding of corporate masters to the benefit of a few.
Working people need honesty, and when an industry is on decline, a clear path to new, excellent, union, jobs!
#CanPoli #CdnPoli #Liberal #CPC #Canada #Democracy #NDP

Ever notice how you're watching your own life from a slight distance?
Not depressed. Not burned out. Just... slightly absent.
When overwhelm lasts longer than we can process it, we adapt by feeling less. We function but don't fully inhabit our days.
The long dissociation kept us safe when feeling everything wasn't possible.
But survival was never the same thing as being alive.
What would it mean to gently come back?

The Long Dissociation and the Cost of Nonchalance: Why We Feel Numb, Detached, and Distant
An essay on how prolonged overwhelm teaches us to care less—and how we gently relearn presence, desire, and participation in our own lives.

of course... it's actually much worse than just policy dredged up from the days of Paul Martin and Stephen Harper… it's a gigantic step backward at the behest of fossil fuel interests in order to keep people burning fossil fuels.
EV mandates should be 'sold’ as an affordability measure! Because they are!
No, I don't mean grants, I mean everyday use. Real impacts on your pocket book. How much money would you save if you *never* went to a gas station. Just think about that for second.
Then we can do the math.
My 2019 Hyundai Kona Electric just passed 251152km (palindrome!) yesterday and gets around 6km/kWh on average.
I pay about $0.13/kWh at home to charge so that's $0.02/km. That is $5,023.04 in total energy expenses so far.
Our 2012 Toyota Prius C is at 270,000km and gets about 5.5L/100km or 0.055L/km. At (a discounted) $1.25/L that’s $0.04/km or $10,800 in total energy expenses so far.
Per kilometre the EV is half the cost to 'fuel' than one of the most fuel efficient gas cars out there.
In general, why would *anyone* choose something that costs double to run!?
And yet, the government doesn't sell this as ‘affordability’ it sells it as 'environmental responsibility'.
Let's be honest, they do that because they *know* the environmental message is *less* motivating than money.
Now I said at the beginning, "imagine" never going to the gas station. Obviously that doesn't mean you're fueling for free... but there is another overlooked aspect to this.
Fueling your car is a day to day thing. It's one of the biggest pulls on people's bank accounts precisely because it is such a frequent cost.
Now imagine if that 'bill' was just rolled into your home electricity bill. Which you could do other things to reduce cost overall?
EVs are not just an environmental game changer, they are a financial one for the average person.
That is why oil companies are throwing absolutely everything they have at government (and also fomenting fascism) to keep their good times going, at our expense.
#CanPoli #CdnPoli #EV #ClimateChange #ClimateAction #Driving #Affordability

Day Five in the Improv Narrative house, and we're in the format I like most really. A few instructive games in the first half and a couple of longer narrative stories in the second half.
The island game was supposed to teach something about not deliberately getting obstructive.
A scene where your players are told they are on one island and must end up at some point all on the other one the other side of the stage.
Set a scene, make some characters, but nobody said it was supposed to be difficult to get from one island to the other.
Yet barriers are deliberately thrown up, actually imaginary barriers since the whole thing is imaginary after all. Why should there be sharks or a quest for a boat or the sea deep and cold.
You can just wade across. You can just have a boat. You can just levitate yourself over with your hive mind psychic abilities.
Unsure about this.
There must be conflict and peril and challenges which are mastered in a story, you can't set up a hero's quest only to have the hero just happen to have a holy grail in the stationary cupboard. Already got one you see. Use it for storing pens.
Still. Finding the crowbar doesn't have to be a quest. There can just be one in the boot. Don't let things get bogged down in difficulty.
Watched a story about a lazy fellow falling into a life of crime and villainy because of his tardiness and fulfilling his teacher's prophecy that he would indeed end up as a criminal if he didn't buck up his ideas. Good repeated themes of characters making lists of his failures and nice stage-focus work when everyone was on stage at once.
Played a preacher organizing a wedding in a story about friends running a hotel.
Fun to have Reverend Priest finding sin everywhere again. Easy wipe-off sin in this case. We may have come to an end too early. Perhaps not enough obstructions put in the way. 😆
#improv #london #hooplaImpro

I see no sign of any recognition from those who would want such a ban that they see any of the collateral damage a successful ban would have on the majority of kids who are not falling for this bullshit. That they are banning any good at all along with the bad.
Under 18s only
I see that the lobbying for these laws are funded by the absolute worst companies on the internet, those who will be entrenched by the legal compliance costs, that will cement themselves as the arbitrators of who is allowed to access the internet.
It’s a gift to Palantir and other surveillance companies. The very people running these algo-feeds are the ones who benefit from IDing every user and stalking them across the internet on their government-approved internet-licence IDs.
I don’t think even a successful ban on social media for kids would actually address the issue of kids being exposed to sexism and misogony or reduce the kids alienation and depression.
A ban can’t help, will make many things worse, won’t address the problem, and will make competing with the worst surveillance capitalists on the planet more difficult.
Going to war with every internet site and advice forum and making internet access harder won’t fix anything, and will have massive collateral damage against everyone seeking support from strangers or trying to learn things their parents won’t teach them.
But I see we are going to do it anyway.
The direction is clear.
Those companies do get what they lobby for, and they are lobbying hard for ID checks on every website, wrapping their desire to enclose the internet commons for themselves in a faux concern for children’s welfare.
And governments wish to monitor and control the internet, so they will pass these laws.
I wonder how many parents have a family group-chat that they’re going to accidentally ban their kids from using, not realizing that ‘social media’ might include Whatsapp? 😆
It won’t fix anything, it will make the situation for kids worse, impose costs and rents and hacks and exploits on all of us, and increase government and corporate power.
Many will lose access to their networks of support and help.
So it goes.
We will build a better more censorship resistant internet. It’s already here really: Briar. Matrix. Nostr. Bitchat. Veilid. Spritely. And the rest.
The laws may push us there faster.
The race will go on.