The Random Thoughts Thread

[Streety McCarface]

15 hours ago, captaintrolley said:

I like it. I never have much to contribute (because I live in Deadmonton), but it's fun to read.

Meh, you have the high bridge streetcar line and (pretty much) a subway. Better than many other areas of the country. 

[captaintrolley]

4 hours ago, Streety McCarface said:

Meh, you have the high bridge streetcar line and (pretty much) a subway. Better than many other areas of the country. 

The HLB streetcar is cool.  The original leg of the LRT (subway) is fine, but the new line has been plagued with problems and possibly the future 'streetcar' line will be plagued with problems as well, seeing as how lately nobody seems to know what they are doing.

[FutureHeartsJunkie]

Many telecom providers in Canada are starting to offer what's called "Universal Network-Level Call Blocking". This is a good step because, many of us are very sick and tired of those annoying robocalls and even those displays that show like"000-000-0000". 

 

While it's a start, it won't necessarily block those "Duct Cleaning Services" calls or those calls from the tax agency.

I would have suggested this:

scammer attempts to call a randomly innocent phone number -> got stumped by an automated attendant

While I would want to implement this in my scenario, it would potentially confuse the legit caller who's trying to immediately get a hold of someone. 

What's more, I don't know why scammers use local numbers of innocently legitimate businesses I don't deal with.

Some further reading:

https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2018/2018-484.htm

 

[captaintrolley]

52 minutes ago, FutureHeartsJunkie said:

While it's a start, it won't necessarily block those "Duct Cleaning Services" calls or those calls from the tax agency.

I have Telus Call Control and YES, it does block those calls too. A legit caller will get the prompt and press what ever number is requested. If they are startled by it and hang up, they will redial, get the prompt (and be ready for it) and press accordingly. You can program 'Accepted Callers' into an Accepted Callers field, and those calls will not get prompted and continue through uninterrupted.  It works great. I like having Telus Call Control.

[Loud-Invero]

For those who do not have the protection, hiya and calls blacklist is a good alternative and can be downloaded from the play store or app store

[captaintrolley]

40 minutes ago, Loud-Invero said:

For those who do not have the protection, hiya and calls blacklist is a good alternative and can be downloaded from the play store or app store

Do those work on a landline ???

[Loud-Invero]

2 hours ago, captaintrolley said:

Do those work on a landline ???

Does not, has to be a smart phone

[Thomasw]

On 9/19/2019 at 5:50 PM, captaintrolley said:

I like it. I never have much to contribute (because I live in Deadmonton), but it's fun to read.

I feel ya. Translink is soo boring to actually get some fun buses you gotta go all the way to Surrey or Richmond just to hope on a D40lf, D60LF or Orion V. I just gotten bored of the regular Nova Bus LFS and the New Flyer Trolleys and XDE60s.

[captaintrolley]

53 minutes ago, Thomasw said:

I feel ya. Translink is soo boring to actually get some fun buses you gotta go all the way to Surrey or Richmond just to hope on a D40lf, D60LF or Orion V. I just gotten bored of the regular Nova Bus LFS and the New Flyer Trolleys and XDE60s.

I never get tired of trolleys

[J. S. Bach]

On 9/19/2019 at 8:50 PM, captaintrolley said:

I like it. I never have much to contribute (because I live in Deadmonton), but it's fun to read.

Hey, at least you have some form of public transit where you live!!

[FutureHeartsJunkie]

On 9/21/2019 at 12:01 AM, captaintrolley said:

Do those work on a landline ???

 

On 9/21/2019 at 2:41 AM, Loud-Invero said:

Does not, has to be a smart phone

If there was a physical solution to those scam calls, I would use it. In fact, If I have the technical skills, I would build a "Raspberry Pi" device prototype on block these calls on a landline (POTS or VOIP). Still with that matter, I found a video for you to see:

 

[captaintrolley]

3 hours ago, FutureHeartsJunkie said:

Still with that matter, I found a video for you to see:

Great video. Thanks for posting that.  I enjoyed it.  I have Telus Call Control for my landline and have not had ANY annoying calls. Even the Duct Cleaning, Credit Card Fraud, Income Tax scams have all stopped.  Rogers is implementing a Universal Call Blocking (as per CRTC) in November 2019. My cell is with Rogers but I rarely get nuisance calls on it.

[STO_1601]

What the heck it wrong with everyone...

Is crediting a original source really required on this board? It doesn't say anything about that in the guidelines.

[captaintrolley]

3 minutes ago, STO_1601 said:

What the heck it wrong with everyone...

Is crediting a original source really required on this board? It doesn't say anything about that in the guidelines.

IMO   If you don't know the original source, just say 'credit unknown' (or something along those lines).  What's worse than not crediting the original source is trying to pass something off as your own. I think this is what they are trying to avoid here.  Just my thoughts on the subject.

[M. Parsons]

47 minutes ago, captaintrolley said:

IMO   If you don't know the original source, just say 'credit unknown' (or something along those lines).  What's worse than not crediting the original source is trying to pass something off as your own. I think this is what they are trying to avoid here.  Just my thoughts on the subject.

Don't give him ideas! He'll just start posting "source unknown" every time he reposts images he pulls off of the internet.  

53 minutes ago, STO_1601 said:

What the heck it wrong with everyone...

Is crediting a original source really required on this board? It doesn't say anything about that in the guidelines.

It's the ethical thing to do when people take the time and effort to put images out there for your consumption. Since you have figured out how to save an image to your computer, and then upload it to this board, I'm sure you have a few seconds to give proper credit to the original source. If not, feel free to not post images. Simple.

How many times have you been called out for this??

[T3G]

52 minutes ago, STO_1601 said:

What the heck it wrong with everyone...

Is crediting a original source really required on this board? It doesn't say anything about that in the guidelines.

There's nothing wrong with anyone. If you post an image, and don't post a source, you are lying by omission - giving off the impression, whether intentionally or not, that you are the original creator of the content.

Why does something need to be in the guidelines for you to follow? This is Internet Courtesy 101.

Of course, if it bothers you, you can just not share content that is made by another person.

[Wayside Observer]

10 hours ago, PCC Guy said:

There's nothing wrong with anyone. If you post an image, and don't post a source, you are lying by omission - giving off the impression, whether intentionally or not, that you are the original creator of the content.

Why does something need to be in the guidelines for you to follow? This is Internet Courtesy 101.

Of course, if it bothers you, you can just not share content that is made by another person.

More to the point, don’t share your own content so other people can’t pilfer it.

[T3G]

6 hours ago, Wayside Observer said:

More to the point, don’t share your own content so other people can’t pilfer it.

I'd be lying if I said I had any kind of notable audience, but personally speaking any time I've stumbled upon interesting transit related content on the web, especially archival stuff that can no longer be replicated, I've always been thankful to the creators that they chose not to sit on that, and I'd like to hope that someone, somewhere felt the same about something that I shared. Though I do understand and sympathize why the lack of respect among some practitioners of the hobby might turn someone off from making their stuff public.

Plus, it's a lot more convenient for me to have a Flickr where everything is organized, than trying to look through years of folders ordered by date to locate a photo of a particular unit or route.

[captaintrolley]

I've posted things and have discovered some of those images on Google Images. I'm not too concerned though. I'd rather have the images where others can see them rather than sit on them and keep them all to myself where no one else can enjoy them.

[M. Parsons]

12 hours ago, Wayside Observer said:

More to the point, don’t share your own content so other people can’t pilfer it.

You sound old! 

Although in all seriousness I totally sympathize with that. I know of more than a few people who feel the same way.

And here's the thing that a lot of kids like @STO_1601 don't get. Those of us who share a lot of older stuff (negatives and slides) go to a lot of time and expense to share them because we need to purchase the equipment to digitize the images in the first place. I went to the expense of buying a scanner, and a new hard drive to support that scanner, and software, and then I pay for webhosting and Flickr, and even someone like @PCC Guy is probably paying to host digital photos on Flickr.

Hell, I even buy slides off of eBay. I have a collection of May 1978 Edmonton LRT images hitting Barp.ca in the next little while, but despite all the money I invest I ask nothing in return.

And then people go to those lengths, only to see people reposting images with no credit. Yep. @STO_1601 has no clue what he's missing out on because of all the people who are choosing not to share because they know their material, time, and effort won't receive the credit it is due.

I didn't answer STO's question earlier I'm afraid. 

"What the heck it wrong with everyone..."

Nothing wrong with anyone. Just with you my friend.

[Wayside Observer]

4 hours ago, M. Parsons said:

You sound old! 

Old enough to have been burned a few times.

4 hours ago, M. Parsons said:

Although in all seriousness I totally sympathize with that. I know of more than a few people who feel the same way.

And here's the thing that a lot of kids like @STO_1601 don't get. Those of us who share a lot of older stuff (negatives and slides) go to a lot of time and expense to share them because we need to purchase the equipment to digitize the images in the first place. I went to the expense of buying a scanner, and a new hard drive to support that scanner, and software, and then I pay for webhosting and Flickr, and even someone like @PCC Guy is probably paying to host digital photos on Flickr.

Hell, I even buy slides off of eBay. I have a collection of May 1978 Edmonton LRT images hitting Barp.ca in the next little while, but despite all the money I invest I ask nothing in return.

And then people go to those lengths, only to see people reposting images with no credit. Yep. @STO_1601 has no clue what he's missing out on because of all the people who are choosing not to share because they know their material, time, and effort won't receive the credit it is due.

I didn't answer STO's question earlier I'm afraid. 

"What the heck it wrong with everyone..."

Nothing wrong with anyone. Just with you my friend.

I've had problems with stuff being stolen, plagiarized, etc. and photos turning up all over the internet until I stopped posting stuff except for the odd cellphone photo.

The incident that sent me around the bend didn't even take place on the internet.  There was a fan trip and I managed to take some pictures that turned out really well.  The lady at the counter at the photography shop I was getting my processing done at back then told me there were some good ones in there when I went to pick up the prints.  Anyways, someone else's pictures didn't turn out well and that person asked to borrow the negatives to get replacements made for the ones in his set that weren't good.  I said sure.  Afterwards, I found out it wasn't just replacements for pictures that didn't turn out, it turned into a bunch of enlargements as well with a bunch of copies struck for several of that guy's friends as well and nobody asked me if this was ok.  It turned into a total free for all with my negatives.  I was a barely employed student at the time so it's not like I could afford to get 8x12s made for myself and nobody thought to get a set done for me as a thank you when the cost would've been incremental since every photo lab gives discounts on multiple copies of the same thing.  It was quite a few years later until I had enough disposable income to get my own set of enlargements done meanwhile all these people that horned in had been enjoying their own large prints of my pictures.

A couple of people used to pilfer my pictures and repost them which was annoying, but that incident with the negatives really soured me on a whole other level.

[SMS]

On 10/9/2019 at 8:18 PM, STO_1601 said:

What the heck it wrong with everyone...

Is crediting a original source really required on this board? It doesn't say anything about that in the guidelines.

Let's put it another way. You currently have the feature photo on the main page. How would you like it if your photo was circulated without giving credit to you?

[J. S. Bach]

6 hours ago, SMS said:

Let's put it another way. You currently have the feature photo on the main page. How would you like it if your photo was circulated without giving credit to you?

It would not bother me at all.

[Doppelkupplung]

@STO_1601

http://www.comedycentral.com.au/key-and-peele/videos/high-on-potenuse

[Wayside Observer]

On October 10, 2019 at 2:21 PM, PCC Guy said:

I'd be lying if I said I had any kind of notable audience, but personally speaking any time I've stumbled upon interesting transit related content on the web, especially archival stuff that can no longer be replicated, I've always been thankful to the creators that they chose not to sit on that, and I'd like to hope that someone, somewhere felt the same about something that I shared. Though I do understand and sympathize why the lack of respect among some practitioners of the hobby might turn someone off from making their stuff public.

Plus, it's a lot more convenient for me to have a Flickr where everything is organized, than trying to look through years of folders ordered by date to locate a photo of a particular unit or route.

I've appreciated what's been put online too for the same reasons which is why I do feel bad about not sharing my stuff.  To be honest, it is hypocritical and a double standard to enjoy what other people have made available while I don't put anything out there anymore and I've been giving advice saying not to post material because it gets ripped off.  And I hate double standards.  Everyone that knows me knows how and why I have an absolute hatred for double standards which is why I'm extremely unhappy about being boxed into a position where I've ended up using one.  But on the other hand, and then...

On October 10, 2019 at 8:51 PM, M. Parsons said:

And here's the thing that a lot of kids like @STO_1601 don't get. Those of us who share a lot of older stuff (negatives and slides) go to a lot of time and expense to share them because we need to purchase the equipment to digitize the images in the first place. I went to the expense of buying a scanner, and a new hard drive to support that scanner, and software, and then I pay for webhosting and Flickr, and even someone like @PCC Guy is probably paying to host digital photos on Flickr.

Hell, I even buy slides off of eBay. I have a collection of May 1978 Edmonton LRT images hitting Barp.ca in the next little while, but despite all the money I invest I ask nothing in return.

...you start to break down the components of how much time it takes, what are the costs involved, how much effort has to be put in, basically what does it take to make this happen, what ever this is, be it photography or other aspects of the hobby.  I truly hate to say this but Canadians seem to be the worst, most miserly tightassed bunch of jerks.  I haven't had problems with stuff getting lifted by people in the UK or the United States and I've never been made to feel either totally unwelcome or taken for granted one way street you cough up and do the work, we have the fun type of deal anywhere except here.  I agreed to do a favour and I honoured that commitment I made but wow, on distance driven multiplied by the Revenue Canada mileage rate alone, I'm looking at an eyepopping amount of money, never mind the time, never mind having to bend schedules and shove things out of the way but boy was it ever taken for granted that I'd be willing to do what I had to do to meet the obligation made to the people that made the original request way back and I'm so sick and tired of this shit which is why I have less and less of a problem with telling Toronto foamers to go take a flying fuck at a rolling donut hole without any hesitation whatsoever.