That, and they’ve done the best job at sabotaging the public’s ability to understand the spec in the first place.

Satisfactory 1.0 released.

Okay, so you know the trope in spy movies where the launch codes or the diamonds or whatever are at the end of a hallway full of lasers, and the protagonist has to do some cool flip moves (if male) or some slinky contortions (if female) to get around the lasers?

I made that as an arcade game with an Arduino. Some red laser pointer diodes, some photosensors, a few lights, bells and whistles, a fog machine, a few big ol buttons, and you’ve got spy laser hallway. It had a separate “break as many lasers as you can” mode as well, played like a combination of DDR and whack-a-mole.

The second coolest thing I ever programmed was probably the GPS MP3 player. A farmer wanted to add an automatic soundtrack to his Halloween hayride, like when the drove through the spooky graveyard it played ghost noises, it would play music for longer stretches on the road. I used a Raspberry Pi with a GPS HAT and wrote up a script in Python that would compare the actual position with a set of coordinates stored in a text file, and if one matched, it would play an associated mp3 file. The effect was kind of lost because the audio was coming from the vehicle itself, but it’s a hay ride, it’s supposed to be kind of lame. The bedsheet ghosts said woo as you drove past, I’m in the special effects industry, dad.

That’s why they killed off Z’an on Farscape, the blue makeup was apparently harming Virginia Hey’s kidneys so she had to quit the role.

There’s makeup, and then there’s having carpet laid on your face.

Indiana Jones’ nazi fighting credentials:

• got Hitler’s autograph

I’ll note that the exact same thing happened to Hayden Christensen. His reputation took a big hit for being the guy who portrayed Anakin Skywalker. He was in the same boat Natalie Portman was and weathered the same storm. The older actors were able to weather it better because they’d had successful projects prior, the younger actors didn’t have that.

Here’s the problem with the Strong Female Character^®: They are never found in movies made out of genuine creative vision. A Strong Female Character^® is always the lead character in a movie whose production has been authorized for the purposes of monetizing an intellectual property the studio has rights to that polling data shows would be popular among the 18-24 demographic within the next 16 months, and the writers and casting directors are hereby ordered to pander to the attached list of races, genders and sexual orientations as per the company Never Offend Anyone Ever policy.

Movies that were made to bring a cool idea to life tend to have better characters in them, because their characteristics are story telling devices and not business decisions. Stunt casting is ALWAYS a business decision.

I watched Episode 3, on DVD at an in-law’s house, basically to get it over with. And on that day ceased being a fan of Star Wars. And as far as I can tell listening to the rest of you, I haven’t missed much.

It seemed to be the pioneer of that, yeah. That was the first one where I got “Say you like this, or we can’t be friends anymore.”

I do shop at Best Buy, usually for computer parts and accessories. Because my local alternatives for computer hardware and peripherals, AV gear etc. are Wal-Mart and maybe our increasingly pathetic Staples. Or Amazon. Best Buy is literally the only place within 20 miles to buy a GPU in a brick and mortar store.

I don’t watch TV ads though. Is this chick a spokesman?

Mario analogy. In Super Mario games, a green mushroom gives you an extra life, a chance to start over from a point in the past. A red mushroom makes Mario bigger, allowing him to survive some damage that would have killed him. Also in many games it makes him able to do things he can’t when small. RAID arrays often run faster than individual disks would.

It’s not an extra life, it’s another health point. Red mushroom, not green mushroom.

I also have a Synology NAS. It’s okay. I got a mid-range two-bay one. I could be happier with it. Also, I heard that they’re going toward requiring their brand hard drives, so I’m not buying another one.

Now, when that containership a few years ago wrecked and containers full of BMW motorcycles washed ashore…

You know what the problem with USB-C is? In 2010 or so, you could have a fistful of unique USB cables, A-B, A-MiniB, A-MicroB, 3A-3B, 3A-Micro3B, A-Lightning, they’re all different, but you can look at the cable and tell exactly what it does. Most of them are identical in capabilities but have physically different plugs, and the two USB 3 cables are also identical in capabilities but with different client side plugs. ALL of them will plug in and work in the same host-side port.

With USB-C, I can have a fistful of visually similar cables, with drastically different capabilities, and I have no way of telling them apart. The USB consortium has been inconsistent with their branding, it has been applied even more inconsistently or even fraudulently by manufacturers, and there’s no way to inspect the cable’s features without trying it to see if it works.

One actual reason I can think of is they haven’t passed customs inspections. There’s a reason they ask you if you have any fruit or vegetables when crossing national borders, or even some state borders in the US: To prevent the spread of invasive pests. All there need to be is some Brazilian Screaming Mites on those bananas and no plants will ever grow on the island of Britain again.

That tracks.

In fact, Indiana Jones clumsily aided the nazis until he defeated them by literally doing nothing and looking the other way.

I use htop over SSH, otherwise any DE I’m using usually provides one and I use that.

Jesus. Fuck. Are they STILL making superhero movies?