[-] pedz@lemmy.ca 9 points 8 hours ago

Of course. My meat tenderizer connected to the internet has an accelerometer and sensors. For a small monthly subscription fee it tells me how hard I need to beat the meat, and for how long. All powered by AI for my convenience.

[-] pedz@lemmy.ca 12 points 14 hours ago

The rural town where I grew up had passenger trains for 120 years but they were discontinued in the 90ies. My mother likes to say "when I was a kid we took the train to visit my uncle". But now getting in or out of there requires a car.

So I had to move in a city for the "privilege" of having barely acceptable transit by European standards. And it still feels weird to take a train multiple times a week when some of my friends and family never did in their entire life.

[-] pedz@lemmy.ca 5 points 23 hours ago

A bicycle. No gas to pay, no parking fees, no insurance, and I can do most of the maintenance.

[-] pedz@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 day ago

I wonder if those are more popular with men.

Maybe they could also give copies of the song Benzin by Ramstein, to listen while you sniff your nostalgic gasoline scented air "freshener".

[-] pedz@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 day ago

I did tech support on the phone and sometimes I needed to guide people into installing the RSA Authenticator app for 2FA. I ended up describing the icon just to be sure people would install the right app, because even if they type its full name, the sponsored result will be first, and it's not what we want.

I type the EXACT name of what I want and the store still proposes another app as the first result. Such a frustrating user experience.

[-] pedz@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 day ago

Yeah. It's always a bit pathetic to watch or read about the efforts of cities to make things safer around here.

The scheme that is very popular here to "secure" intersections is to add an exclusive pedestrian phase (a scramble) to the traffic lights cycle. So everyone has to wait for everyone. No pedestrians are crossing while cars are moving through an intersection, and no cars are crossing the intersection while pedestrians are. But it's tuned for cars and pedestrians have to wait an eternity to have their exclusive phase. So what happens? Pedestrians are eventually losing patience and cross traffic like chickens.

Exclusive phases are also encouraging car drivers never to yield to pedestrians or cyclists, because they never have to. So in some cities where they mainly have this type of crossing, car drivers are not stopping where there's no traffic lights. Some cities even have to leave orange flags on the side of the road so that pedestrians can wave them in front or cars while crossing.

And don't get me wrong, scrambles are wonderful for pedestrians when they are in the majority, and when they are configured for pedestrians first. It's just that some cities here put them at every intersection as a way to separate cars and pedestrians, for safety, and it's frustrating. And then they scold pedestrians for not waiting "their" turn.

As a pedestrian and cyclist, it's one of the things I see when I change city. I really don't like walking in Québec City for this because you have to let cars pass in all the directions first before you are allowed to cross. In Montréal everyone crosses at the same time but they put straight arrows on green lights for a few seconds at the beginning of the cycle, so pedestrians and cyclists have a few seconds to start crossing before cars can try to crush them. And I prefer this. A lot.

[-] pedz@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

It depends what we are talking about.

[-] pedz@lemmy.ca 10 points 1 day ago

Why? It's made specifically so that cyclists and pedestrians can be at an angle where it's easy to see them from a car. Motorists have a better view of cyclists and pedestrians than in a + intersection.

They are rare here in Montreal but we have a few like this on Nun's Island and they work fine without any traffic lights.

[-] pedz@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 days ago

If you want to be serious, the word state and état are both coming from an older version of French when it was written estat. French replaced ES with É because it wasn't pronouncing the S, while English dropped the E and kept pronouncing the S. It happened to multiple words, although some also come from Latin.

Étrange - Strange. Époux - Spouse. École - School. Épice - Spice. Éponge - Sponge.

It also happened with circumflex.

Hôpital - Hospital. Forêt - Forest. Pâte - Paste.

Here's a whole video about exactly this.

[-] pedz@lemmy.ca 15 points 2 days ago

And as a Canadian, I'm even envious of the trains in the US. Pretty much the only thing but here we are.

Anecdote time: I was visiting Europe, sitting in Liège and arrived there from Aachen with a train ticket I bought the day before. My next step was Brussels or Ghent but I wasn't decided yet and didn't have a ticket, so I just bought one on the spot for the next train, in an hour. While eating fast food and waiting for that train, I was trying to book a train in Canada next week when I'd return, to go from Montréal to Drummondville. However I was already too late. There was still available tickets but there were over $100 CAD for a trip that would normally cost about $32 CAD if I would have booked it a month in advance. And the next departure was 3 hours later, still overpriced. So, no train in Canada for me, even a week in advance.

In short, in Canada, there's only 5 trains a day between major cities, and you have to book weeks in advance otherwise the prices can triple if you're last minute. And they don't take bikes. And they weigh your bagage.

So I was in Europe, taking trains last minute here and there, while unable to book a train ticket at a reasonable price for the next week in Canada. VIA Rail sucks so much.

[-] pedz@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 days ago

In short, Montreal gets a new metro (the REM), financed by a pension fund (CDPQ) in a Private-Public Partnership. But the contract makes it illegal for public transit to compete with the new metro, slowly cannibalizing the public system (the ARTM).

Not even people in Québec are very much aware of this. It's pretty much only transit users and transit fans in Montréal that are aware of this, because it's affecting the quality of transit.

I think it's what makes this model perfidious. People can only see the new shiny metro system and don't care how it's financed. In fact, they see it as a success! Lots of foamers/transit enthusiasts are skipping this part because we got a new metro built in record time.

I'm not a fan of Cult MTL but they have a pretty complete article on the situation:

It’s a private, for-profit system that eats away at public transit funding, saps consumer confidence and is designed not to complement public transit, but compete with it.

So, of course it would be good for pension funds to invest in local projects. Just, please, not like this one.

[-] pedz@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

As long as it's not like the PPP with the CDPQ and the REM.

The REM itself is fine but the no competition clause from public transit entities is unacceptable. The REM makes it illegal for public transit to compete with it. Everything must feed into the REM to maximize the return on the investment. And the return is coming from public money.

If a suburb doesn't have adequate transit but is not projected to be a good return on the investment, no transit for the citizens. It now has to be profitable and it's going to slowly make Montréal/the ARTM dependent on an investment fund to get more transit.

What a shitty way to invest in your own community.

3
submitted 5 days ago by pedz@lemmy.ca to c/montreal@lemmy.ca

Reportage intéressant sur la piste et les abords du canal en 1987.

À la fin elle retourne au centre-ville et c'est impressionnant de voir le côté nord du canal, qui a un moment était complètement remblayé, et toute la transformation qui s'y est produite.

J'ai essayé de trouver un emplacement similaire pour faire une comparaison

En fait, voici une image aérienne de la tête du canal en 1988.

23

I knew steamboats were common on bigger rivers between cities, but I didn't expect to find out that there were steamboats on a small rural river between a town and two villages in southern Québec. I wonder how long it must have taken for the 30 km trip.

This boat must have been rendered obsolete by two railway lines running parallel on each side of the river, which are also now both abandoned.

For context, in red, the itinerary of the steamboat, and in brown, the abandoned railways.

Source in French

23
submitted 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by pedz@lemmy.ca to c/bicycle_touring@lemmy.world

I wanted to explore this rail trail for a while and was finally able to bike most of it. Le Parc du Corridor Aérobique is a 58 km rail trail somewhat isolated from the rest of the cycling network.

As I have no car, I took a train from Montréal to Saint-Jérôme and cycled to the trail head in the village of Morin-Heights, via the very popular P'tit Train du Nord rail trail. Here's my return itinerary and the profile.

The surface quality varies quite a bit. Sometimes it's crushed gravel, sometimes it's dirt with rocks pointing out and painted orange. There's a few bits on roads but the vast majority is a dedicated trail. Wild camping is not permitted in Québec but there are three sites with platforms along the trail, where one can pitch a tent and spend the night.

I just got back and didn't expect such a spectacle of colours. It was glorious. I'll have to go back!

Here are some more pictures.

116
submitted 2 months ago by pedz@lemmy.ca to c/pareidolia@sh.itjust.works

In a Montreal exo commuter train.

182
submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by pedz@lemmy.ca to c/whatisthisthing@lemmy.world

Went to a camping in the Laurentians in Québec (Ste-Agathe) and there were those things near some camp sites. The sites are only accessible by footpaths. No car access. And if you bring a bike, you have to walk it up a hill, so I doubt they are bike racks.

EDIT: I have sent an email to the park and they have been kind enough to reply. It's just a type of fireplace with a grate. They didn't give more info than just this. Thanks to everyone for pitching in!

64
submitted 5 months ago by pedz@lemmy.ca to c/bicycles@lemmy.ca

Spring has sprung, the cycling networks in Québec, the Route Verte and other regional or municipal paths, are now mostly open.

So it's again possible to explore or use the network to go camping, as part of touring, or just to get from point A to B.

And you should know that if you are touring or arriving on a bike, there is a program called "Bienvenue Cyclistes" where all national parks (provincial parks here) will offer you a campground for less than $10. Keep in mind you also have to pay entry fees that are around $10 too. About the same for some wood. This is also possible in some other establishments. Consult the map linked above.

You should also know that you can use public transit around Montréal to bring your bike with you. It's included in the ticket. So you can take the metro, but more importantly, the REM, and the commuter trains. There are also some exo buses with bike racks. So you can go to St-Jérôme for Le P'tit Train du Nord in a commuter train with your bike for a few dollars. From that trail you can also reach another park, Parc national du Mont Tremblant

Today I'm going to see my family from Montréal to the Drummondville region. In the other direction. The ~140 km to get there is entirely bike trails/paths. I cut the itinerary in two stages and stop in a small national park called the Parc national de la Yamaska for a night of camping.

The first part to get there is using a network of local bike trails. The first from Longueuil to Chambly is called La montée du Chemin de Chambly. Then from the other side of the Richelieu river there is a trail called La route des Champs to Granby. And from Granby to the park it's local trails. They have very nice cycling infra in that region.

Here are some pictures of La route des Champs and the local trail before the park.

Then tomorrow, I will use another trail connecting to the park called La Campagnarde. This one goes to Drummondville, entirely on small gravel, and sometimes very remote and quiet.

I do this multiple times a year so I thought I would share some tricks and adventures. And I've been encouraged to by /u/Evkob.

Have fun cycling everyone!

38
submitted 1 year ago by pedz@lemmy.ca to c/canada@lemmy.ca
2

I've been doing some rail trails on the "green roads" (routes vertes) to visit my parents for the last three weekends and I stopped at the park for overnights as I didn't want to cycle the full 140 km in one shot and then back. It's getting greener!

The Yamaska National Park is a small park located around a reservoir in southern Québec. From there it's possible to access multiple rail trails and "linear parks" going in all directions.

More pictures in the comments.

316
submitted 1 year ago by pedz@lemmy.ca to c/linuxmemes@lemmy.world

The last two upgrades have broken my audio setup.

First the options for Network Server and Network Access in paprefs were greyed out and my sinks disappeared after upgrading to bookworm. I just had to create a link to an existing file and it was working again but, it's weird that it was needed in the first place. Pretty sure it has something to do with the change from pulseaudio to pipewire but I'm not very up to date on that subject and I just want to have my current setup to continue working.

Then yesterday I just launch a simple apt-get upgrade and after rebooting my sinks disappeared again. The network options in paprefs were still available, but changing them did nothing. I had to create the file ~/.config/pipewire/pipewire-pulse.conf.d/10-gsettings.conf and stuff it with "pulse.cmd = [ { cmd = "load-module" args = "module-gsettings" flags = [ "nofail" ] } ]" in order to have my sinks back.

I know it's not only a Debian thing, as I can see this happening to people on Arch forums, but as Debian is supposed to be the "stable" one, I find it amusing that a simple upgrade can break your sound.

178
submitted 2 years ago by pedz@lemmy.ca to c/boostforlemmy@lemmy.world

Using Boost for Lemmy, I got an obvious political ad from the right asking to sign a petition to scrap the gun "ban" in Canada (it's a registry not a ban).

Now I understand this is an ad but I don't appreciate having propaganda from the right injected into my browsing on lemmy. Have better ads, or let us report them.

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pedz

joined 2 years ago