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So for some reason two of my apps are suddenly switched to French. It wasn't a big deal as I can read it, but it was annoying.

I had my system languages set as follows:

  1. English (Canada)
  2. English (United States)
  3. French (Canada)

I assume it was because these apps didn't have localisations for my first choice, but I don't know why they instead jumped to the third option, skipping the second.

in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

I have swedish as my second language and that happens to me sometimes too.
I don't mind, but it's surprising.


Just heard someone unironically use the term "real AI".

Real artificial intelligence? What the hell does that even mean?

in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

It means not actually an outsourced team of humans in India like that startup that was recently in the news.
in reply to Matthew Skala

@Matthew Skala I guess, but that wasn't the context in this case.


@Judy Anderson Fair, but this guy talking about how Zork "faked AI" instead of having the "real AI" we have now.

Edit: context




For the first time in a wile I've had he mental bandwidth to put a nice dent in my to-do list today. I'm very happy about this. Don't know if it'll last, but I guess I'll ride the high while I can.


Peaches come in a can. They were put there by a man, in a factory... in China, apparently.



infosec - CW: potential malicious link (obfuscated)

So Katy got a scam text claiming to be Canada Post with an underliverable package. I'm in the process of gathering information to send a report to their registrar's abuse department, but they're doing something clever to cover their tracks that I haven't fully been able to unravel.

For context, here is the link (with spaces added to prevent it from turning into an actual link and being accidentally clicked):

https:// canadapost-postecanadadeliverylivraison .com/canadapost/index.php

When opened from Safari on her phone, it loads a realistic looking phishing site, but when opened from any other browser, it returns an empty (0 bytes) page. I assume this is to hamper attempts to investigate abuse claims (though the domain name is already pretty incriminating).

Since there doesn't appear to be any kind of unique identifier, I assumed this to be some kind of spear phishing attack that was based on her browser's User-Agent string, but when I tell curl to mimic it, I still don't get a result.

Any ideas about how they're doing this?

reshared this

in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

infosec - CW: potential malicious link (obfuscated)

Sensitive content

in reply to Isaac Ji Kuo

infosec - CW: potential malicious link (obfuscated)
@Isaac Ji Kuo Perhaps, but that leaves me wondering why using private browsing trips it up.


I just got an email today from my doctor that there will be a charge of $25 for prescription renewals when requested by the pharmacy effective... at the beginning of this month (retroactively?).

Katy and I just renewed five prescriptions this way yesterday.

It's been a morning of interesting and stressful phone calls.

in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

too many people try to avoid calling the doc by letting the pharmacy do it and some docs are inundated by the e requests.

It's easier on everyone if you can try to get all prescriptions updated during your doc visit.

in reply to e bored

@e bored Sure, but up until this point that was the way he specifically told us to do it.

The thing that's changed is that he can no longer bill OHIP* for these renewals.

* Ontario Health Insurance Plan


in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

@Jonathan Lamothe I wonder how the jacket would look with two bands of contrasting colour bias tape sewn (by hand, if I had to do it) around the cuff seam.

but I'm not sure it would last long, if the rip is because it's a high friction area, maybe you'd need something stronger than bias tape




Thought I had berry juice on my hand from the food I was eating so I licked it.

It was ink.

I love my #FountainPen but sometimes...

in reply to Jigme Datse

@Jigme Datse It was strangely flavourless, actually. The ink was Damine Sleigh Ride. You'd think the sheen would've tipped me off, but the room was relatively dark.

Jigme Datse reshared this.

in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

Not that knowledgable about that ink/line. I have noted that stuff like walnut ink, tea ink, sumi ink, very much can have a distinct flavour. A fair amount of ball point ink I've noticed certainly has a flavour. But some of the potential fountain pen inks, I can see basically not having anything you'd note.

I'll have to look up that ink.



Huh. I appealed the speed camera ticket online. They sent an email saying that it was being reviewed but nothing else since. Suddenly this morning when I try to check the status of the ticket, it doesn't seem to exist any more.

I don't want to just assume they've waived it, but I don't know what else to make of this. It'd be nice to have some sort of confirmaion.

in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

My best guess is that they're so backlogged with the appeals process that it just timed out and the appeal was auto-approved. I'll have to call the city Monday to confirm if I don't hear anything from them by then.
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

Welp, the ticket exists again today. It's still pending a review of the appeal.


I was always bothered by the scene in #StarTrek II when they used Reliant's prefix code. The input device they used made absolutely no sense from an electronics (or user interface) standpoint.

It just recently occurred to me though that it makes absolute sense from a quick and dirty movie prop standpoint.

in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

Oh, of course. But it can be fun to rationalize what is in the movie with what we know today.

The switches you mention in a different post are part of what tells me that there is some sort of additional security infrastructure behind the scenes we don't see.

#startrek #Khan



Had the car towed to the mechanic's and walked to my brother-in-law's to wait for the mechanic to call us with the damage.

That was a longer walk than I expected. We also took a "shortcut" along a walking trail that I found on OpenStreetMap.

I was sure we were going to spawn a true crime documentary: couple disappear into woods never to be seen again.

in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

On the plus side, I was right. It was a snapped alternator belt, so it shouldn't be financially ruinous.



Had to power cycle my router and my sshfs mounts... persisted somehow?

I'm not complaining, but I am confused.





We were driving home and suddenly heard a clunk and the battery light on the dash suddenly came on.

Fantastic. We've been driving Instacart to make ends meet. We can't afford a huge repair bill right now. Hopefully it's just the alternator belt that snapped.

This car is 20 years old. It's not like it owes us any favours, but it's still a problem. The one positive thing I can say about this car is that of the two major issues it's had, it's always had the courtesy to break down a couple blocks from home so that we can limp back there and figure out what to do next.




Hmm... I just managed to pop this padlock open without even turning the plug somehow. Master locks really are trash, aren't they? #locksport


Just saw lemons priced at .98¢

I wonder if Verizon's gotten into the grocery business.



@🅰🅻🅸🅲🅴 (🌈🦄) A question about security pins:

My understanding is that the said pins are the key pins, not the driver pins, so if I'm gentle enough to not over set them, the shape of the pin should be completely irrelevant, right? I mean, they'd only pose a problem if they were pushed beyond the shear line, wouldn't they?

Unknown parent

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source
Jonathan Lamothe
@🅰🅻🅸🅲🅴 (🌈🦄) so I had it backward then. I guess that's the more logical (and effective) way to do it.


And it's the first day of Oktoberfest. I didn't want to sleep for the next few days anyway.

Shannon Prickett reshared this.



Just getting home and as we got out of the car some middle-aged guy on a moped blew through the parking lot blasting some weird hip-hop version of the national anthem... so that's a thing that just happened.

reshared this

in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

@purplepadma I’d imagine he was responding to an emergency call about some streetlamps that had been missed in the great flagging. What you heard was his siren.


Wanted to know if I could set gelatin faster by putting it in the freezer instead of the fridge. This is the first paragraph of the first result I found on the subject.

When it comes to culinary creativity, gelatin is a versatile ingredient that can bring remarkable textures and flavors to our desserts, jellies, and savory dishes. However, those who have worked with gelatin often find themselves asking: “Will gelatin set faster in the freezer?” In this article, we’ll explore the science behind gelatin, how it sets, and whether using a freezer can indeed speed up the process.

That's a lot of reading for what the author knows damn well is a yes or no answer I'm looking for. I kind of understand why people like the idea of "AI summaries". Though I imagine this whole article was spit out by an LLM in the first place. Gotta keep people on the page as long as possible to drive up potential ad revenue, right?

Bob Jonkman reshared this.

in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

Don't keep us in suspense: Does gelatin set faster in the freezer or not?



Sometimes it's demoralising how I take steps to safeguard my sensitive data only to have my government deliberately hand it over to US megacorps without my consent.

reshared this



Working on a simple #web site for a client, and I'm trying to balance keeping it from becoming a bloated mess of unnecessary code, and minimizing the amount of unnecessary work I have to put into it.

For one feature they want, I'm tempted to install #jQuery. It feels like unnecessary bloat, but it makes the process easier. How much overhead does it really add?

AdiposeOverclocked reshared this.






ph: blood work
God damn it! I just got turned away from the lab because the card they gave me for the blood work is expired. The doctor wants these tests every three months for the rest of my life, but every nine months I have to get him to re-confirm that he still wants them because reasons.
in reply to Jonathan Lamothe

the last time i had a blood test at a proper lab place (given my weight) i had to go out of my way for i passed out and then felt bad for like 2 weeks.. i hope yours goes better than that when you do get it
in reply to AdiposeOverclocked

@AdiposeOverclocked Yeah, I have a habit of fainting around needles. It's usually fine if I'm laying down though. The doctor wrote on the form that it's a perpetual thing, but their damn cards expire anyway.

Folks, I promise I'm not just here for kicks.






I live very close to a large German club.

As always, It's going to be a long (and loud) October.

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