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Summary Ministerial Mandate Letters issued by Prime Minister Trudeau on December 16, 2021, directs Ministers to implement a right to repair, including for the repair of “digital devices and systems”. Quotes My thoughts This does not necessarily tell us much, but it is a start. It points out the importance of right to repair, at least from the environmental perspective. How this will be implement remains to be seen. Will this be done through legislation or another policy instrument? It seems it will be through legislation when it comes to the right to repair “digital services and systems”. I’m curious to find out more. This part may be aimed at the John Deere’s of this world. My apologies that there isn’t anything more detailed to share. I thought this would be of interest since right to repair was often brought up these past Wan shows. Sources https://pm.gc.ca/en/mandate-letters/2021/12/16/minister-innovation-science-and-industry-mandate-letter

In this WAN show, Linus talked about GoG pulling Devotion from its store due to pressure from the CCP. There he raised some questions to which I might be able to provide some valuable knowledge. I believe it would be helpful not only for Linus, but also for others who might be interested in this topic. However due to this discussion being political in nature, it goes directly against LTT Forum's Community Standards. Therefore I do not want to post without asking for permission. Is there a place, either on this forum or some other LTT-associated platform where I can do so?

Ugh. I have nothing clever or witty to say about this. I'm just horrified. So, from what I understand, they're going to be combating fake news, by further entangling themselves with the industry creating the fake news. Namely the "mainstream media" (Fox news, CNN, MSNBC, WAPO, NYT, HuffPo etc). Not sure how that works in any sane manner. But I do believe that it will likely have horrible results, for everyone. Seems like they're going to make the news even more dumbed down that it already is. Source: http://mashable.com/2017/01/11/facebook-make-journalism-great-again/?utm_cid=hp-hh-pri#eT1oNAnNwmq4 What I find sickening about this, is that they're going to be partnering with the same people who are creating fake news and false narratives. The same people who are still trying to push the idea that Russia was behind the hacks on the DNC. They continue to present this "intelligence community report" that literally provides ZERO. EVIDENCE. And only assertions. Mainly the report says "We think Russia did it. Trust us.". And yet......they want to combat fake news. Well here's an idea. I know it sounds crazy, but maybe, just maybe.... STOP MAKING FAKE NEWS?! I don't have a head-desk or facepalm gif strong enough for what the media is doing right now. We need to just call shenanigans, get our brooms, and start hitting people until they stop.

Overwatch has become so popular in Asian countries that politicians are starting to use them in their ad campaigns. What would you do or think if your politicians started using Overwatch? Could there be a Bernie Sanders montage out there using Overwatch? Could that have boosted his popularity even more? If Hillary used it would she have lost votes for being disingenuous? Source: VG247 & Youtube https://www.vg247.com/2017/05/08/overwatch-play-of-the-game-used-in-campaign-ad-for-south-korean-politician/ Youtube: Original Title: Overwatch Play of the Game used in campaign ad for South Korean politician --- From Below ---

Are we allowed to talk politics on this forum or should we not because it's a technology based website. (I'm going to delete this in 10 minutes)

Protestors in Paraguay set fire to the Congress today, after a bill to amend the constitution and allow the reelection of presidents passed at the senate. Some background: In Paraguay, the president is not allowed to be reelected, in any case and under no circumstances. This is because Paraguay had the longest dictatorship in South America, for 35 years. The constitution, made in 1992, greatly reduced the power of the Executive Branch of the Republic, and granted grate powers to the Legislative. The only mechanism the constitution allows to change the articles regarding the prohibition of reelections of presidents is the reform, after a plebiscite, and the conformation of a constituent body. But the ruling party,(the National Republican Association (or colorado party, as red is their color), had no time to make a reform, as it would take more than a year to accomplish a positive reform, and elections are due in early 2018. So, they begun pushing for an amendment, with is faster, as it only requires a referendum and no constituents body formed. But, the constitutions forbids this mechanism to change the articles regarding reelections. When the head of the Senate discarded a petition from the ruling party's senators to present the amendment bill, one of them took over the presidency of the senate, and in close doors, with only 25 senators, they passed the bill of the amendment, and the lower house president (where the republicans have a majority by themselves), and where about to vote on the bill, when protestors started a confrontation with the police outside the congress. And hell rose. Some pics of the congress burning: Two senators, from the opposition where assaulted by the guards of congress and the police. (WARNING: Images with graphic content) (redacted) Source in English: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-39465064

(US Members Only Please) Keep it civil.

In an attempt to stop people under the age of 18 to view pornographic material, the UK government has proposed an ID system for viewing porn online. Each citizen who want to watch porn would get their own ID, which they then have to type in when they want to browse a website which contains porn. There will also be a "great firewall of the UK" which will block websites and attempts to circumvent the ID system. The system will log what porn users view, and the proposal specifies that in order to protect this very sensitive information they will use cryptography (the part of the proposal about how the crypto will work is three sentences long and does not go into any details whatsoever). Anyone who is worried about a potential data leak can rest easy knowing that the proposal outlines such a strong security standard. Before anyone tries to hate on this proposal let me remind you that THIS IS FOR THE CHILDREN! UK politicians are notorious for both being, and protecting pedophiles but let's ignore that for a moment and remember that they just want to protect children. You wouldn't want to harm children, would you? Source: AlecMuffett on Twitter and BoingBoing. Seriously though, this is fucking stupid and scary. The UK government is really trying to turn the UK into Airstrip One.

Source: http://nordic.businessinsider.com/home-secretary-amber-rudd-real-people-dont-need-end-to-end-encryption-terrorists-2017-8 I get it. It is scary not to be in control. It is scary that someone might be planning horrible things and there is no way for the government to access the discussion. However, this is not new. Modern encryption algorithms have been around since the 70's. Modern governments have better capabilities for surveillance than ever. More importantly when there is a weak point in security someone (probably not a good guy) will exploit it. Then the normal people will suffer.

1. You might be asking your self why should I care, I'm not russian ? Well this shows that even Google has to obey the Russian government and who knows what relationship does it have with other governments.... 2. Okey, now that I have your attention... It is no secret that we survive in a totalitory regime here in This Country (a name for Russia, usually used while describing how bad it is), so for this reason most of our media is heavily government-sensored garbage. We turned to Youtube then and wouldn't you know, now it is sensored too... See Youtube has some rules about HATRED, but it uses them to ban oppositional channels (here in russia everthing against our GOD-LORD-RULER Putin or any other governmental politican (exept maybe Peskov, yeah the one who said "Idiots , shit." and cant speak English) is oppositon and should not exist acording to the Russian government). No big media companies have talked about this yet, so I turn to you: Please spread this information to all that you can! I want this to be public, we want to... live how we want, not how our government wants... Prof: Update : " To be or... " channel was revived thanks to this video. 3. Wanna hear some more ridiculous stuff about Russia? Great... Here in Russia a person was officially called a terrorist for filming himself catch pokemon in church. Prof: this is going to be a government controlled Russian media, but this guy was punished so expect truth... http://m.ntv.ru/novosti/1849058/ This means he wont be able to use any money exept paper and bitcoin:(. If you want to help this person then spread the information about him and try to make this public, his name is Ruslan Sokolovsky. 4. All of this was terrible and depressing, but here is a funny thing: The Russian government will check FIDGET SPINNERS for bad influence on children. Prof: https://m.gazeta.ru/social/2017/07/18/10792928.shtml So maybe everything isnt that bad after all...

Are You A Modern Alt-Right Nationalist, Or A Multiculturalist? Or None? NOTE: This is an anonymous poll Please be civil, or a Lefty mod might lock it /Jks

Greetings all, especially Luke, I have just listened to the portion of The Wan Show discussing the possible ban of the President Elect from twitter. I am sorry if this post seems hastily written and/or poorly thought out. I am posting it now because I am genuinely curious, and a bit riled up, but if I wait for a cooler head I will also be waiting for apathy to set in. After listening to the discussion I cannot but feel stanch disagreement with Luke on his position regarding not banning the President Elect because of his position. I want to clarify that I believe I understand that Luke is not saying all politicians should have blanket exemptions for statements made on social platforms, and that if someone, even the President Elect, were being toxic on his own forum he would act differently and ban them. But the position Luke takes where the twitter or facebook, or any social media, account belonging to or operated by a person in power is a place to get meaningful information regarding the current political administration I cannot help but feel wholly opposed to. I want to begin by admitting I have want I believe most would consider a rather cynical view on politics, perhaps people in general, and especially social media's role in politics. I believe I could make an entirely different thread just about some of those positions but that is not what this thread is about. So to begin, Luke, I completely disagree that the President Elects twitter is even somewhere you should look to get information regarding him and his political doings. I am of the position that if someone, anyone, is in a position of power and influence then you need to be incredibly weary of the things they say, period. I believe that you simply cannot trust anything they say, they have far too much incentive to lie, mislead, or otherwise attempt to misinform or misrepresent their own positions, actions, or those of their conspirators in order to maintain their outward appearance and their credibility. I am not claiming this view is some kind of a revelation in politics, in fact quite the opposite, I take it to be one of the most fundamental attributes of politics, and even social behavior in general. To put it differently I believe that the President Elect's twitter at best is a place they post 100% true and well meaning but only positive information regarding themselves and their administration, and at worst are fabricated pieces ment intentionally to misinform and to maintain face. I believe it is not true that if twitter or facebook where to ban the President Elect, and not just the current one as of the time of this post, or any major influencer, any meaningful information would be lost. I believe there are plenty of sources that one can use to attain information regarding the current political administration and that due to the amount of misinformation in the media one is all but obligated to use as many sources as they can to construct their viewpoints and "Internal Model of the World". I am of the opinion that the worst thing that could come out of banning these figures from the social forums is the loss of the ability to say, "This person has said this on twitter, I now need to go find every piece of information I can in order to vett this and find all the reasons why what they said is a gross misrepresentation of the truth". If you are lucky what they said is not a gross misrepresentation of the truth, but I am sure we all have a feeling of which is the exception and which is the rule. In conclusion I am of the opinion that all the users on the twitter platform, President Elect or otherwise, should be subject to the same rules as any other users of the platform. Further I believe the argument that banning them will cause anyone to be ill informed or less informed that otherwise rests on the assumption anything someone with influence says on the platform is trustworthy or is even capable of meaningfully informing. tl;dr: The President Elect's social media accounts are garbage places to try and stay informed about their politics.

So Micheal Cohen is going to prison for lying to congress. just wanted to hear other people's opinion on this. debating is fine just no personal attacks please. other than that, lets talk

Recently I'm seeing lots of news about US government shut down. Since I'm not from America (not even from Canada for that matter) I have a hard time understanding what's happening there. So can someone please explain it to me. I'm wondering how on the earth the president could shut down the whole government without asking the parliament, it seems like US is having a dictatorship rather than democracy (please don't get mad at me, but it seems like that)

I thought it would be nice to have a sounding board here for anyone who wishes to raise concerns or seeks clarification on Trumps behavior and/or actions. Not only that but lets also put everything politically related on the table. Nothing is off limits politically or ideologically. All I ask is that we keep the debate somewhat friendly and respectful. Even if we have differences of opinion does not mean we cant learn from each other or grow in a better understanding of the topic at hand. All that being said I will list a few examples and if we don't generate any interest I will pose some of my own questions to y 'all a little bit later in the day. Lists below are by no means exhaustive. And feel free to add your own talking points. 1) Abortion2) LGBT Adoption Rights3) Gay Marriage4) Planned Parenthood Funding5) Gender Identity6) Confederate Flag7) Death Penalty 8) First Amendment 9) Safe Spaces10) Political Correctness 11) Climate Change 12) EPA: Obama vs Trump Policy Regulations 13) Energy Sector Obama vs Trump 14) Obamacare 15) Border control - i.e. Do you support the wall 16) Sanctuary Cities 17) Gun Control

Think there's any chance of Assad not winning? Anyone still care? Seems to not be important now that politians aren't putting it in the limelight for elections, especially now that the focus has very much shifted to asia.. kinda a depressing thought...

Summary Animal Crossing for Nintendo Switch now has political signs for one U.S. presidential candidate that you can place to show your support. The Joe Biden campaign has introduced signs you can place in your virtual front yard showing your support. You can also wear Biden style aviators. And of course, political comments from both sides ensue, including comments that we may see more of this in the future.1 Quotes My thoughts Maybe it's just me, but it seems like political campaigns should stay out of video games. If you choose to put political statements in a game, that's one thing. But for a campaign to target video game users seems wrong. It is especially worrisome to me that this is in a game that has probably well over 3 million users under the age of 18 (~20 million copies sold2 and ~14% Nintendo users under 183). Note that this is very much a back-of-the-napkin calculation. And yes, I made an account just to post this in hopes of hearing Linus and Luke discuss it. I really like hearing their commentary on topics like this on the WAN show. Sources 1 - https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/01/us/politics/biden-animal-crossing.html 2 - https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/6/21356750/nintendo-earnings-q1-2020-switch-animal-crossing-sales 3 - http://chuyplays.com/why-demographics-matter-for-animal-crossing-switch

With the ever changing US immigration laws it's getting harder and harder for tech companies to hire the skilled workers they want from abroad. It seems microsoft is now planning on moving some of it's operations abroad if these problems persist. If the administrations is going to make the rules even more strict it could mean that a lot of employees won't be able to work at microsoft anymore: But altough we sometimes want to believe microsoft is a very evil company they do actually value their employees and said: It's good to see companies valuing their employees and looking for solutions. Personally I wonder if these kind of concerns are related to more and more tech companies having branches in Europe or moving research facilies to europe like google recently announcing they would open a Machine Learning center in Amsterdam. What do you guys think about this? Should microsoft do this or should they do what the US want and drop these foreign people and only hire american people? Sources: https://multiculturalmeanderings.com/2018/07/14/microsoft-might-move-jobs-abroad-due-to-us-immigration-policies/ https://www.fastcompany.com/90201246/microsoft-might-move-jobs-abroad-due-to-u-s-immigration-policies

Looking to build an exiled government right quick Any ideas?

‘Botmageddon’: Surge in anonymous Asia Twitter accounts sparks fears of social media manipulation 22 April 2018 10:59 5 min read It has been being jokingly referred to as “Botmageddon”. But a surge in new, anonymous Twitter accounts across swathes of Southeast and East Asia has deepened fears the region is in the throes of US-style mass social media manipulation. Maya Gilliss-Chapman, a Cambodian tech entrepreneur currently working in Silicon Valley, noticed something odd was happening in early April. Her Twitter account @MayaGC was being swamped by a daily deluge of follows from new users. “I acquired well over 1,000 new followers since the beginning of March. So, that’s approximately a 227 percent increase in just a month,” she told AFP. While many might delight in such a popularity spike, Gilliss-Chapman, who has previously worked for tech companies to root out spam, was immediately suspicious. The vast majority of these new accounts contained no identifying photograph and had barely tweeted since their creation. But they all seemed to be following prominent Twitter users in Cambodia including journalists, business figures, academics and celebrities. ..... The rest of the article is linked below https://www.hongkongfp.com/2018/04/22/botmageddon-surge-anonymous-asia-twitter-accounts-sparks-fears-social-media-manipulation/

I know it only lasted less than a year but it was still one of the most influential events of the later half of the 1800's, in fact I would say only the American Civil war/Unification of Germany was more signifigant than the whole Franco-Prussian war It inspired marx, demonstrated that a commune government could be set up, and so much more, why does it not get more love nowadays?

In Norway, children have some special rights, and every town have something called "barnevernet", which translates to "the child/children protection", to enforce these rights. Barnevernet has received a lot of international attention lately, and there's a lot of rumors. What have you heard, and what's your opinion on barnevernet? I'm posting my own opinion later, not to affect your conclusions.

At the moment I'm researching political ideologys and general discussion around it. Generally just want opinions on different types and why exactly you think said type is better. Don't want flame comments about each one, just a general idea of what people are thinking. I have a survey here if you have some free time https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1OF4iDpYK5iYW1t1Uqg3GStLIf0RAYIgktPNE6G2-XqM/viewform

https://www.politicalcompass.org/test I'll start Looks like a lot of us are still dirty civil or left libertarians, with a few conservative libertarian stragglers. Prepare the tinfoil.

first off: this is news, but its not tech related, hence in off topic. but this story is that juicy its worth an international share. Two days ago the very controversial "Geert Wilders" launched a tweet, saying "The PVV is searching candidates. People with courage, love for the netherlands and a disgust of islam. interested? sent motivation and CV:" followed by the party's e-mail address for applying. A flemish student called "Mohamed Ouaamari" heard about the tweet, and saw a chance. (by now you see where this is gonna end) Mohamed has been in the news before, for a tweet that was received as threatning, but that story died quite quickly. He ended up sending a quite ironical solicitation letter: With all the hate back and forth lately, its nice and refreshing to see someone who is a follower of a religion seen as "more agressive" by a lot of people around here show how a problem like this can be solved in a humouristic way. Instead of spreading hate, or a class action lawsuit (you know what you're good at, USA) he decided to protest in a comical way. This joke going semi-viral may send a wakeup call to some more close minded people in belgium, and the netherlands. here muslims rarely get in the news in a positive way, because most of our news is very negative in general. And to some people, thats a message that all muslims are bad (i have one of those people in my house, save me please...) I feel like the "problem with muslims" we're dealing with in belgium, isnt the muslims, but the people generalizing. My own parents have shunned me for saying the muslim guy in class is a really nice guy. (here we have a "muslim guy" an "asian guy" a "perv" etc. in class, its normal. its how we work. in my last year of high school the "small guy" wasnt even the smallest one ) and however much i dont like to say it, it may take a slide to the next generation so the new "working generation" can continue with what most teens of today see as normal (equality is a big point here) and let the last generation become grumpy old people waving their stick at them youngsters. If i havent bailed out of belgium because of the general dysfunctionality of of our system, i'll let you guys know in 20 years how it has turned out. the sweet sauce (in dutch) http://www.knack.be/nieuws/ondertussen/vlaamse-student-solliciteert-voor-plekje-bij-partij-van-geert-wilders/article-normal-632713.html