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On the DEWLine 2.0: Dwight Williams ([personal profile] dewline) wrote2019-09-28 10:35 am

Bus Pass Tech, Movies, Eco-Protests

Okay, I got my bus pass updated for next month. I'm still not happy with my bus pass becoming a surveillance device, thanks to Presto tech. The fact that I can look at my own travel data patterns this way still means that others who have no business wanting to know can find out too by criminal means.

Movies? I saw Ad Astra last night. I've heard it argued that it looks like a defence of toxic forms of masculinity...and I don't see it. If anything, it argues for better self-awareness among male humans. The influences of Apocalypse Now, Heart of Darkness, 2001, The Martian and so on are certainly there. Ruth Negga is certainly under-used as an actor here, which I think is a mistake. But it's not one that's confined to her alone, I'd say. Between the VFX work, Brad Pitt and Tommy Lee Jones...that's the core of the show. And Pitt and Jones put in the work as much as the VFX artists did.

(I'd like to have a separate, nerdish discussion of what decisions and how much work went into the infrastructure as depicted in Ad Astra. I will probably write a separate post for that topic.)

I didn't get to participate in the Global Climate Strike demonstrations yesterday here in Ottawa, but from what I saw on Kent Street between Albert and Slater at noon hour, it was well attended in its own right.

More on other topics later.
armiphlage: Ukraine (Default)

[personal profile] armiphlage 2019-09-29 01:19 am (UTC)(link)
Presto has pinky-sweared that they will stop giving out data to police (and security guards, or basically anyone in a suit) without a warrant or good reason.

Or at least do a better job of hiding it.

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/transportation/2018/03/01/metrolinx-gave-presto-users-personal-info-to-police-30-times-last-year.html

[personal profile] notasupervillain 2019-09-30 06:15 am (UTC)(link)
I want fewer items keeping all my data, please.