More like it doesn’t want to get the money to maintain those infrastructure by going into further debt.

I’m not following German politics very closely but the article mentions that this restriction is in their constitution.

There was something in that genre in my province decades ago when a government dedicated itself to ‘zero deficit’ by cutting on infrastructure maintenance for many years. A bridge eventually fell. Classic story. It seems like a common thing.

A rich phoque

This can also be practical in places where the police can force you to unlock your phone with biometrics but not with the PIN.

Ever since I’ve seen the police here force people to delete the videos of them abusing citizens, I have been very wary of biometric identification.

So far my ‘emergency’ procedure would be to restart my phone, as it’s asking for a PIN after a reboot.

Meh. I have a cabin in the countryside 130 km away from my apartment and I can cycle the whole way, or take a coach with a foldable bike and pedal the 30 km left.

It’s actually in the region where I grew up so I have to get there frequently to see my family. It’s a hassle sometimes but it’s only because my government can’t adequately fund and maintain a decent transit network.

I also bike to national parks nearby, and sometimes haul my inflatable kayak with a bike trailer.

People overestimate distances and think the country side justifies a car but it’s usually just excuses. I did move in a big city eventually but I lived in small towns and cities for a decade before that. I still hated cars and didn’t have one.

For example, my mother lives on a rural road outside a village of less than 2000 people. And she works in the next town that is 7 km away. Meanwhile I live in a city and work in the same city but I have to bike 9 km to get to work.

So sometimes distances are shorter in smaller cities and towns but people still insist they need a car. People will give any excuse to use their car. It’s like cocain.

Also, here Uber is only available in major cities where it’s competing with public transit anyway. AFAIK you can’t take an Uber to a small town or a rural road.

EDIT: Also, most people DO live in a city anyway. And they still have excuses to use a car.

Today, some 56% of the world’s population – 4.4 billion inhabitants – live in cities.

I prefer to be compared to Diogenes of Sinope, thank you.

Jokes on them, I hate cars, don’t have one, and would never take an Uber.

My very anecdotal theory is that those seeing humans frequently get used to us (up to a point) and usually just end up hissing when we get too close.

Where I live geese are omnipresent in parks and people are cycling, jogging and walking through their flocks. They will certainly act inquisitive, hiss and act like they own the place, but I’ve never seen them attack.

However, maybe a flock in a place less busy with humans and less used to seeing them would be more willing to attack.

Oh they’re not suing anyone for a change. I guess they have the means to give some of that money away now.

I still remember them from the times they threatened to sue their fans for not buying their music.

Metallica hadn’t sued fans directly, but were making clear their intent to hunt them down. A consulting firm was hired, and complied a list of over 300,000 internet users in a single weekend who were alleged to have downloaded Metallica songs.

AFAIK Kodi can use pulseaudio and probably pipewire. I use Kodi too on those computers and I just leave it to use the default PA device that I’ve set. I switch the default devices with pasystray.

What’s usually breaking for me is paprefs. Every so often after an upgrade, the options are greyed out and I can’t share or access my devices over the network.

I never tried to setup simultaneous output before because I just switch from device one to another, but I just enabled it in paprefs and it’s working too.

I won’t bother reading AI stuff. I don’t appreciate cars in large parts because of their environmental impact. And the same goes for AI.

Just as cars, AI is also polluting our spaces, and wasting energy.

I work in a call center where we are all speaking English as a second language. At one point we had a pharmaceutical company as a client. They had employees in different countries but the American employees whined that we didn’t speak English correctly or made bad comments about my coworkers. Eventually we lost the contract and they went with an all American call center for their American employees, because apparently they didn’t like our English.

Of course, Monsieur le Marquis de SuddenDownpour.

Also, it’s obviously inaccurate as he would have said it in French, not English. Duh!

In certain areas, a bug net for hammocks is a must.

We (Canadians) actually have two layouts to type French characters. The modern Canadian multilingual layout, and the traditional “French (Canada)” layout. As an older French speaking Canadian, I prefer the traditional layout but both work. You can even type English words with these.

I work in IT and I have coworkers that use caps lock to capitalize single letters, like the beginning of a sentence. It hurts a bit every time I see it.

For me it’s an old habit from IRC. Instead of sending 5/6/7 lines of text, I just cut it with … and continue typing on the same line. I could make complete sentences with capitals and periods but instant messaging is not a medium well suited for full sentences and paragraphs, so you get …

🎵 We’re whalers on the moon, we carry a harpoon. But there ain’t no whales so we tell tall tales and sing a whaling tune. 🎵

I never noticed any latency when I’m not using bluetooth. And no, the devices do not speak to each other. For PA/pipewire, this is just an audio sink as any other.

There is latency when using bluetooth but this is pretty standard. It just doesn’t increase (or not noticeably) when streamed to another computer.

For some people there’s a point where riding in the rain turns from sucking to being fun. For me it’s when it’s pouring down and water is sloshing around in my shoes. I meet other drenched cyclists and we just smile at each other. We can’t get any wetter, might as well enjoy it.

I don’t enjoy going cycling when it’s raining, but I get used to it and sometimes end up liking it. Same with the cold.

Bah, j’ai pas terriblement envie, non. C’est le fait de se faire mettre dans le panier des conspirationnistes, ou en fait, conspi, et de se faire automatiquement coller une étiquette. Je suis vacciné plusieurs fois et on m’a évidemment dit que j’étais contre les vaccins. Je me suis fait bannir de /r/onguardforthee. Ça a été très décevant de voir que la majorité de la société va jouer le jeu, comme une équipe de sport. Et comme j’étais le dernier choisi dans les sports d’équipe à l’école, j’ai eu le temps d’observer ce comportement souvent depuis longtemps.

Je suis probablement neurodivergent et j’avais déjà consulté avant la pandémie, mais vu notre système de santé, j’ai laissé tombé, et il m’a laissé tombé de toute façon. Lire des commentaires, en faire, et recevoir des réponses, sur des discussion politiques qui vont impacter mes libertés et bouleverser mes habitudes du jour au lendemain, ça créé de l’anxiété inutile et j’ai pu de temps ou de place pour ça. C’est déjà décidé, ou ça a déjà été décidé. Inutile d’en parler ou de lire là-dessus.

En fait, je sais pas si c’est tant /r/quebec que la pandémie, les médias sociaux, et le fait de voir que des gens vont sacrifier les libertés des autres pour du fanatisme. Comme dans les films de fin du monde. Je me dis que ça pourrait pas arriver comme ça… que les gens serait pas si… Donc je me suis éloigné de reddit, et des gens en général. Je parle aussi moins à ma famille.

Au final, je me suis acheté un kayak, je fais encore plus de vélo et de camping, je voyage, je pollue, j’essaie de parler le moins possible aux gens, et je regarde le déclin. J’ai beau être ici, pour combler un besoin de médias sociaux malgré tout, mais c’est probablement pas une bonne idée.