I guess my notes are unstructured, as in they’re what I type as I’m in the meeting. I’m a “more is better” sort of note taker, so it’s definitely faster to let AI pull things out.
Infosec … I guess people will have to evaluate that for themselves. Certainly, for my use case there’s no concern.
I use it to review my meeting notes.
I’m not counting on it to not miss anything, but it jogs my memory, it does often pull out things I completely forgot about, and it lets me get away with being super lazy. Whoops, 5 minutes before a meeting I forgot about? Suddenly I can follow up on things that were talked about last meeting. Or, for sprint retrospectives, give feedback that is accurate.
To add: I’ve also started using AI to “talk to podcast guests.” You can use Whisper to transcribe a podcast, then give the transcript to AI to ask questions. I find the Modern Wisdom Podcast is great for this.
(I say this naive of all sorts of things, but…) I wish Canada would do something bold and actively court all these high-skill people who are probably interested in jumping ship. Make it easier for whole companies to move and bring their employees, make it easy for entrepreneurs to start a business serving this new migration, relax some tax rules for those in the process of moving, make it easy for extended family to tag along, make it clear it’ll be easy for them to go back… ehh, and do something about housing.
Then, take out billboards in big cities. Put on events in the US. Partner with Canadian companies to handle logistics for potential employees, etc., etc.
Don’t just go “Hey smart people, come to Canada” and afterwards say “I bet they’ll do smart-people things!” Go for an unprecedented scale migration and actually shape the process for long-term benefit and payoff.
In the past I figured we didn’t do this because we didn’t want to piss off people in the US, but, I feel like who gives a shit now.
My dog was getting dental work done and my vet was worried about her leg. She said while my dog was sedated she’d throw her up under the x-ray to take a look at the joint. “Well that’s super nice!” I thought.
I leave my dog at the vet and get a call an hour or so later. It’s the vet, she says she’s really sorry but not only can she not do that x-ray for free, but I’ll have to pay a consult fee too if they’re going to look at anything not related to the teeth. She was very apologetic.
When I go to get my dog we’re going over discharge notes and at the end this poor vet says “I now need to recommend this particular water supplement. I don’t use it with my dogs. Some people think it’s expensive and ineffective. If you think you might be interested I can also tell you about other options that may be more effective.”
This poor woman who was all happy and concerned about my dog turned into someone who seemed supremely uncomfortable. I can only imagine it was VCA that was forcing this vet to go contrary to what she felt was best.
I was watching CBC coverage of some press conference Poilievre was doing, going on and on about the need for an “axe the tax election” (??). Someone asked Poilievre what he was doing to fight against Trump’s proposed tariffs and Poilievre says he’s not the prime minister, but if Canadians give him a mandate, he’ll fight for their interests, etc.
Then the CBC commentator cuts in and says “It should be noted that there are many people who aren’t the prime minister who have decided to adopt a “team Canada” attitude and are doing what they can to make the case against tariffs.”
The bluntness and absurdity I just found hilarious.
I don’t think the government should have done this but, being as they did, I think they punish both sides somehow in order to discourage future foot dragging by other unions/companies.
Maybe force Canada Post to accept the last offer made, only give half of that to the postal workers, then give the other half to Uber eats drivers.
I don’t see what would be wrong with a world where businesses just satisfied themselves with providing employees with a reasonable living, contributed to the communities they were in, and provided a good or service that was needed. Sitting under a tree and reading a book sounds better than watching the world burn in your name-brand clothes and 5 bedroom 2.5 bath house.
I have to say that hearing this story initially, then reading this update has made me question how I might jump to conclusions.
The security footage sounds really damning. In the least, it proves the woman lied about the police not talking to her. Her and the neighbors cursing at the guy suddenly makes the “neighbors agree this guy just complains a lot” fact a lot more suspect.
In all, I can totally see this might be a case of racist neighbors, and not simply “police charge teaching assistant with a water gun with assault.”
CBC Hamilton spoke to two other homeowners who purchased houses by Marina Homes in the same subdivision. They said they’ve experienced serious issues with how their homes were constructed, but are reluctant to speak out and worried it will jeopardize their property values.
“Uhhh, no comment. We’re hoping we can scam someone else into buying this house like we were scammed into buying it.”
Some of the videos of this are really frustrating to watch. Like, what are you trying to do!? You just found your spot, now you’re coming back out?? More circling, stopping, going back, going forward. Uughghhh…
As someone who lives rurally, I just want to make sure everyone is aware of how important mail service is. FedEx, UPS, DHL won’t deliver to us - not even to our nearest town. If we absolutely need something and they won’t ship Canada Post, we have it sent to a friend’s house a 1.5 hour drive away.
Do this! Years ago a very nice post lady asked me if I wanted to get flyers in my mail. I said “hell no.” And, now I don’t! Now I just get junk mail from companies that send their junk as actual mail. So, 100% my credit card company.
I have similar feelings, but I’m not sure how to put them into words. Maybe “disappointment”? Like “Oh, not you too, Israel.”
Yes! What is with that? We’re almost assured a terrible wildfire and growing season at this point and everyone is gushing about how nice it is. I mentioned at a coffee shop that I wouldn’t mind snow for some snowshoeing or skiing and the look I got was like I had smeared shit on myself. Well they enjoy not shoveling the walk or need to brush snow off their car.
I thought mentioning farmers and crops would back me up, but no. You know those farmers, always complaining… 🙄
I’m loving the new camera update and I don’t have anyone to tell… I think it’s awesome they’re doing this for a previous-generation phone.
If you are reading this, and you live in an area that got hit with forest fire smoke last year, prepare now and get supplies to build a DIY HEPA filter setup for your home with guides like this:
https://deohs.washington.edu/edge/blog/how-make-box-fan-filter-clean-indoor-air-smoke
I’ve already got my set up ready because I had to last year.
You’ve inspired me to make one for my parents. It really is cheap and easy to do, you just need the foresight to do it because box fans get hard to find in the summer.
I don’t know if this is related, but occasionally I get some new insurance quotes just to make sure I’m not missing out on any deals, and this year I’m being asked for all sorts of details I’ve never been asked before. I’ve been asked for pictures inside and out, documentation from the county, information about my pets, specifics about my roof material, letters from past insurers.
I’ve been with three different insurance companies in the past and it was always just basics like square footage, distance to fire hall. I get the feeling these companies don’t really want my business, but they also don’t want to tell me no, so they just send me on irritating errands to get strange info for them.
I think most people waaay under estimate the risk of reusing passwords. I don’t know if that’s what happened here, but in the security incidents I’ve seen there will often be the initial “No, I only use this password for banking!” and then “well… it’s just for my important accounts.” I’ve also seen the misconception that a complex password means it’s ok to reuse it.
The other thing I’ve seen is people just mashing “agree,” "ok, “yes,” or any kind of prompt. This probably isn’t what happened here, but with device-based 2FA, like when Google sends you an “Allow device?” message, it’s pretty easy for someone to just mash “Allow” so they can get back to whatever it was they’re doing.
I don’t want to come off as victim-blaming, or as overly sympathetic to a big bank, but at some point I think it’s fair to expect individuals to have their own shit in order. I think a reasonable step towards this is that consumers should start demanding safer devices and software.
It’s not immediately obvious how snow pack differs from rain (and not that I’m claiming to know all the ways), but you see it in ponds, sloughs, and dugouts. Once the ground thaws in the Spring, rain doesn’t do much to replenish these bodies of water. It’s the initial melting of snow that fills them, as the water runs until it hits a spot where it can collect. So, a dry winter can affect things for the entire summer.
We didn’t have much snow last winter, and this summer - and continuing to today - we’ve had a lot of thirsty animals around our house. We’ve started putting rocks in the dog water dishes because we’d wake up with mice that had drown in the bowls over night. Deer drink from our birdbath, and this summer any standing water was getting swarmed by bees.
I’m not old enough to say “it’s never been this bad!” but, things definitely don’t feel right.
What is happening in that picture?!