Say what you will about the Conservatives, but at least they would have stabbed you in the front.

I enjoyed The Beast in Me but my god Aggie Wiggs is a crappy writer. Absolute guff. We deserve better fictitious bestsellers

Merci de signer! Le gouvernement ne peut changer les règles du jeu en court de route! Ce sont des vies, des parcours souvent difficiles, on demande un peu d'humanité! Les personnes immigrantes ne sont pas des ennemies et le programme du PEQ concerne des gens bien implantés.

“Enshittification” is the word of the moment. It’s the reason Google is all ads and Amazon serves you crappy overpriced products. Cory Doctorow, who coined the term, joins @nndroid.bsky.social and @rafaelbehr.bsky.social to discuss how we can combat it ➡️ linktr.ee/ohgodwhatnowpod

The unconventional life of late railway writer Ian Marchant:

Résultats de l’election à Montréal en détail (par rue) — Detailed results of the Montreal election (by street) — par @gabfortin.com www.gabfortin.com/blogue/carte...

Does anyone have experience (good, bad or neutral) migrating Apple App Store purchase spread over two accounts to a single account?

@mashdash.bsky.social Still making waves: mstdn.social/@ianrogers/1...

Monday's Friday Reads for 24 November:

For crying out loud, the weather needs to make up its mind. Either go above zero or below. Don’t just hover around it.

Why can’t we convince Exo to do this?

bring it back!!

Over the past week I managed to tick off all the new REM stations, but there was one in particular which kind of got my hackles up. mstdn.ca/@heliomass/1... #Montreal #REM #transit

Every year, around Climate COP conference, I remember this street art by Isaac Cordal "Politicians discussing climate change"

This train leaving Île-Begras definitely creates a pleasing effect as the winter sunbeams are unblocked.

There’s a surprisingly long stretch of operational track beyond the REM’s terminus at Deux-Montagnes. The depot is some distance away.

The one thing I wasn’t expecting to see on the North Shore? A Bixi dock. This one by the new Grand-Moulin station. This is waaaay outside Montreal. 🚲

📞 Surprised to see one of these in Montreal. I especially appreciated the sketches on the placard of the other types of phone boxes once found in the UK.

📱 App Defaults 2025 (feat. Roast my Homescreen) heliomass.com/posts/2523-a...

I sometimes think about this ZX Spectrum game.

This is the most positive Friday Reads I’ve compiled in a while. Lots of good news this week!

McGill station has a few issues… mstdn.ca/@heliomass/1...

I feel for the engineers who had to trace this issue down.

It will be telling to see whether our new mayor values something in which Montreal has become the top city on the continent, or whether she trashes it because parking and woke. I hope pragmatism wins out.

Also worth noting how REM has elegantly they're able to declutter overhead cable runs by consolidating everything into neat utility conduits combined with lighting This is easy when you're doing greenfield construction and major station rebuild projects but I feel like you can also plan this

Uncle Bezos has done it! Amazon deliveries which have no mass and no discernible dimensions and best of all no origin. We can finally have emissions-free Amazon deliveries from the ether, and about time too!

This still blows my mind. Last week it took 23 minutes and two changes to get from the office to Édouard-Montpetit. This week it takes just 3 minutes with zero changes. #Montreal

There’s probably some rule of thumb that if you travel on a new transit system within a few days of opening, you’re more statistically likely than not to run into Miles in Transit.

Owning a couple of devices from Retro Games Ltd (one of which was completely bricked by a firmware update) it’s worth noting they provide zero customer support. Just an email address which they ignore. You’re on your own with these devices.

Monday's Friday Reads for 17 November:

Welcome to Toronto’s newest partially open transit hub!

Y’all wanna hear a wild story? Charlie is right — this medley Prince made 30 years ago, blending many of his greatest hits & fan favorites into an extended mashup, is one of the most fun “only Prince could do this” things he made in the 90s. BUT: he told us he was gonna do it. In an AOL chat room…

Mistakes were made 😅

When the apocalypse comes: I’m ready.

Really sad news. His book ”Parallel Lines” is excellent and a must-read for any rail fan.

Note from my notebook (2017). Still true. Still ok.

“Feed them, love them and play them drum’n’bass: vets’ tips for keeping pets happy and healthy” www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle... #caturday

Big day for Montreal’s transit! If you’re curious as to how the REM is run, then this article has a visit to their signalling and control centre. It explains the amazing work which happens behind the scenes in order to run an automated metro system. heliomass.com/posts/2411-rem… #Montreal #REM

Montreal's @remgrandmtl.bsky.social Newest Branch to Deux-Montagnes: First Look & Preview Ride. In this video, you can discover 2 of the new stations, along with the ride between them in both directions, from Deux-Montagnes to Pierrefonds-Roxboro. youtu.be/68V5nRw3Vag

Excellent photos from one lucky person who not only got to attend today’s inauguration of the REM, but is also a pretty good photographer. Soon we shall all get to partake in this transit goodness… www.flickr.com/photos/lea-kim… #Montreal

Front-end view of the snowy first-day of service of the REM line to Deux-Montagnes. #Montréal ‘s elevated automated light metro adds 14 stations this week. I’ll be getting a sneak-peek tomorrow. (This video from my man on the scene. Thanks, Dan!)

Schrödinger’s Parking: When parked cars have enough space between them they can get in and out, and yet somehow so close together a person can’t pass between them. How do they do it? Physics be damned.

Friday Reads for 14 November:

I was thinking about Montreal’s boat network the other day, the watery undersung sibling of the city’s land-based transit. More fun than you could ever have on a bus. heliomass.com/posts/118-mont… #Montreal #BoatyMcBoatface

“Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.”

Nailed it.

Not great. The DLR has been in desperate need of these new trains for a while, and removing the few which are in service isn’t a good look, especially after so many delays.