dejected_warp_core

the use of language as a means of control [...] well may have been his most prescient point.

While I think Orwell's "newspeak" was contrived, it did illustrate the point in strong relief as something unfamiliar... at least at first. But I don't think he was predicting the future. Instead, I think he was warning the reader of what dangers are already with us.

Honestly, I think this has always been a thing. The spoken word is often inexact as a form of communication efficiency; if the other party has the same ideas in their head as you, pronouns, idioms, recalling past events, are all powerful ways to compress dialogue. However, that same inexactness leaves the door open for doublespeak, dogwhistles, and suggestion in place of fact. Language as a means of control is just in how you use it; the underlying mechanisms were always there.

I'm with you on Voyager. A big problem with the story was it's premise: it's kind of hard to run into the same people more than once when you're bee-lining for home every chance you get. So they should have focused more on every last stinking crew member onboard that little ship. Or start a small fleet and do it BSG style. Lots of options, but they're all outside the usual Trek box.

Lower Decks is easily the most entertainment for my time I've had out of Trek in a while. I'm conflicted, since calling this my favorite feels like cheating: it doesn't entirely stand on its own since it riffs on everything else Trek.

In that case, SNW takes the top spot on my list. It's an incredibly well-oiled production and it shows at every level.

Bottom of the list is Enterprise, but that's only because I personally feel the writers squandered a fantastic setting. Star Trek at a lower technology tier just begs for more edge-of-your-seat stakes and problem solving. At the start, it had grit: the ship had no shields, puny weapons, limited warp, a janky universal translator, and everyone was terrified of the transporter. Add to that operating under interplanetary tensions and a fledgling federation that is a relative unknown in the galaxy. Much of this got thrown out in record time, and for what? A temporal causality loop hundreds of years wide, thereby eradicating any agency the crew had, and by extension, our disbelief that they may pull through the next encounter.

I'm with you there on Picard. Season one was... okay, but it had some very interesting worldbuilding that was just thrown away at the end. Season two had all kinds of problems: the story was writier's-strike-levels of half-baked, and the forced time-travel plot just stunk of budget slashing. Season three was fun, but it was wall-to-wall fanservice and that's why we like it; this too also ignored a lot of plot points from seasons one and two.

I would have loved to see a more genuine attempt to establish a Next(er) Generation with the support of so much established star power. IMO, there should have been an entire new crew at the end of season three that has us clamoring for season four. Instead, we got that out of Prodigy of all things.

Oof. Thanks. I hate it.

For those that may need it:

1. Right click and select "inspect"
2. A new panel will open, and the text <img ... will be highlighted. Right click that.
3. Select "Delete Node."
4. Impress your friends with your new hacker skills.

Put any distro in front of me and provided I don't need to master it, I'm good. Ubuntu is fine. Debian is fine. RedHat is fine. Fedora is fine. I even have a tiny low-end system that is using Bohdi. Whatever. We're all using mostly the same kernel anyway.

90% of what I do is in a container anyway so it almost doesn't matter; half the time that means Alpine, but not really. That includes both consuming products from upstream as well as software development. I also practically live in the terminal, so I couldn't care less what GUI subsystem is in play, even while I'm using it.

The only time I've encountered people that care a little too much about what distro is being used, is right after having transitioned to Linux; the sheer liberating potential of the thing can make you lose your head.

I've come across a lot of professional bias about Linux distros, but that's usually due to real-world experience with tough or bad projects. Some times, decisions are made that make a given distro the villain or even the hero of the story. In the end, you'll hear a lot of praise and hate, but context absolutely matters.

There's also the very natural tendency to seek external validation for your actions/decisions. But some people just can't self-actualize in a way that's healthy. Sprinkle a little personal insecurity into the mix and presto: "someone is getting on great with that other Linux I don't use, so Imma get big mad."

Most Americans in such a situation would wind up defying their ancestors in similar ways. A lot of families in the USA can trace their lineage back to people that fled religious persecution, racial injustice, famine, war, and tyrannical government. Migrating to a dictatorship that is currently drafting/conscripting their populace straight into a shooting war is a monstrous step back from all that.

Nevermind that the Russians have/had nuclear stockpiles aimed at our heads. And the USA has Russia targeted in return. Come to think of it, choosing to be down range of the US is not a good idea in general.

Real question is: how far could a barely functional illiterate person (knowing only English and the barest of Russian) go in the Russian Army? Would they even take them? Follow up question: what if they're obese, diabetic, or have other American-sized health issues?

The thing that baffles me about Wing Commander is that Mark Hamill was right there and already had an established character in the game's canon. But even with a different story and cast, I don't understand how anyone could have screwed up a bog-standard space opera that badly.

Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat deserve their respective paydays. They're both stupid and fun. That's what the source material is after all. But Mortal Kombat might do well with a little love: just throw a few million at Corridor Digital and update the CGI effects and re-release it.

It's worse than that. They think that toeing the line and refusing to deviate is the strong position to take here. Always has been.