ptz

Since most people didn't hate the pilot episode, I put together a second. Both rounds are in the same post this time.

How to Play

The rules for each round are below. Calculation and reporting of scores is on the honor system.

Round 1: Find the Connection

Clue 1 (5 points)

Clue 2 (3 points)

Clue 3 (2 points)

Clue 4 (1 points)

Answer

Round 2: Find the Fourth in the Sequence

Clue 1 (5 points)

Clue 2 (3 points)

Clue 3 (2 points)

Answer (0 points)

Bonus Connection Answer (add +1 to your score if you got it correct)

This is the second round of Trek Connect. If you missed the first round, it's here

How to Play Round 2

1. In this round, each set of four clues forms a sequence. Up to three clues can be revealed, and you are responsible for determining the last item in the sequence.
2. As before, clues are revealed one at a time, and the goal is to correctly identify the last item in the sequence using as few clues as possible.
3. A bonus point is awarded for correctly identifying the connection between the items in the completed sequence .
4. Also as before, scoring is on the honor system.

Clues

Clue 1 (5 points)

Clue 2 (3 points)

Clue 3 (2 points)

Answer (0 points)

Bonus Connection Answer (add +1 to your score if you got it correct)

Not sure how familiar Lemmy is with the game show Only Connect, but I'll try to simplify the rules and adapt them to the limitations of the medium here.

Example of the Format

How to Play

1. You will need to find the connection between the 4 clues. The first clue is in the post image, and the remaining three are in spoilers below.
2. You get one guess, and the goal is to use as few clues as possible.
3. Clues are given out one at a time, and you should only reveal the next clue if you cannot make the connection with the clues given so far.
4. Each additional clue reduces the points earned to the value indicated above it. e.g. if you get the answer after the third clue is revealed, you will receive only two points.
5. The later clues are usually easier to reveal the connection with the last clue sometimes being obvious.
6. You are on the honor system to report your score.

The first clue is in the post image and is worth 5 points if you can guess the connection with just that one.

Hopefully this post doesn't earn me a cease and desist from the BBC lol.

Clues

Clue #2 (3 points)

Clue #3 (2 points)

Clue #4 (1 point)

I realize the universal translator is just a hand-wave to avoid the "Aliens Speaking English" trope, but there are at least some basic rules established for it:

When it translates, it will use the closest approximation in the database, it can learn as it hears more of a new language, it's apparently a neural implant (at least with Ferengi), and probably a few more that I'm missing.

Does it keep the original speaker's voice, tone, inflection, and in this case, melody? Does Kira hear Vic singing in perfect Bajoran or is the universal translator belting out Frank Sinatra in Lwaxana's voice? Do the lyrics still make sense with the computer translation?

I very rarely complain about the UT, and I enjoy the Vic Fontaine component, but I just have a hard time combing the two lol.

Sometimes I wish they would have gone with a "standard" language like Space Esperanto that just sounds to the audience like English rather than the UT.

Update: I completely forgot Federation Standard existed, and that's probably the language Vic is using, and Kira is very likely fluent due to her time spent on DS9. It's kind of a retcon since that wasn't mentioned until DIS, but I can live with it.

Putting together a new Linux HTPC build and looking for a 10ft UI WM/DE to use with it. Essentially, it would be a launcher for a few PWAs (Emby, Netflix, etc) as well as Steam and maybe some emulators. Navigation would likely be a wireless keyboard and, if absolutely necessary, mouse (goal is to get a bluetooth remote working and use that, but that's the next phase).

I haven't used Kodi since it was still Xbox Media Center (running on an actual Xbox lol), but would it be a good choice? I used it forever ago as the dashboard for my modded Xbox, and it was great. However, for this, I'd rather not run Kodi, if possible, since Emby already covers those use-cases.

If there's no "dedicated" one, any recommendations for which regular DE might be best modifiable/extendable to work for that purpose?

Jazmin Jones knows what she did. "If you're online, there's this idea of trolling," Jones, the director behind Seeking Mavis Beacon, said during a recent panel for her new documentary. "For this project, some things we're taking incredibly seriously ... and other things we're trolling. We're trolling this idea of a detective because we're also, like,ACAB." Her trolling, though, was for a good reason. Jones and fellow filmmaker Olivia Mckayla Ross did it in hopes of finding the woman behind Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing. The popular teaching tool was released in 1987 by The Software Toolworks, a video game and software company based in California that produced educational chess, reading, and math games. Mavis, essentially the "mascot" of the game, is a Black woman donned in professional clothes and a slicked-back bun. Though Mavis Beacon was not an actual person, Jones and Ross say that she is one of the first examples of Black representation they witnessed in tech. Seeking Mavis Beacon, which opened in New York City on August 30 and is rolling out to other cities in September, is their attempt to uncover the story behind the face, which appeared on the tool's packaging and later as part of its interface.

The film shows the duo setting up a detective room, conversing over FaceTime, running up to people on the street, and even tracking down a relative connected to the ever-elusive Mavis. But the journey of their search turned up a different question they didn't initially expect: What are the impacts of sexism, racism, privacy, and exploitation in a world where you can present yourself any way you want to? Using shots from computer screens, deep dives through archival footage, and sit-down interviews, the noir-style documentary reveals that Mavis Beacon is actually Renee L'Esperance, a Black model from Haiti who was paid $500 for her likeness with no royalties, despite the program selling millions of copies. [...]

In a world where anyone can create images of folks of any race, gender, or sexual orientation without having to fully compensate the real people who inspired them, Jones and Ross are working to preserve not only the data behind Mavis Beacon but also the humanity behind the software. On the panel, hosted by Black Girls in Media, Ross stated that the film's social media has a form where users of Mavis Beacon can share what the game has meant to them, for archival purposes. "On some level, Olivia and I are trolling ideas of worlds that we never felt safe in or protected by," Jones said during the panel. "And in other ways, we are honoring this legacy of cyber feminism, historians, and care workers that we are very seriously indebted to."

You can watch the trailer for "Seeking Mavis Beacon" on YouTube.

I had no idea "Mavis Beacon" wasn't a real person until well after graduating college.

Note: The title is a bit clickbait (they'll merely become invisible from our line of sight), but I'm not going to editorialize the article title.

Come March 2025, Saturn's majestic rings will become virtually invisible to earth-based observers. This phenomenon occurs due to the unique tilt of Saturn's axis, which will position the rings edge-on to our line of sight. [...] Saturn's axial tilt, which is the angle its axis leans compared to its orbit around the Sun, is about 27 degrees. As Saturn moves during its 29.5 year orbit around the Sun, this tilt means different parts of its rings and moons get sunlight at different angles, changing how they look. So, the rings are not really disappearing but rather playing a celestial game of hide and seek. At their reappearance, we can also enjoy an accentuated view of Saturn's moons.

I'm finishing up DS9 and about to start Voyager, so hopefully will have a few more of these as I watch through.

Just setup a new de-Googled phone and figured I'd share some of the good FOSS apps I'm using. Please feel free to chime in with any you'd recommend (or better options than what I have listed)

• Weather: Breezy Weather. Note that the version in F-Droid is the "freenet" version and only has one source (Open-Meteo I believe). The "standard" release is available on Github and has additional sources like AccuWeather, OpenWeather, etc. Absolutely gorgeous app as well as widgets.
• Maps: Organic Maps What Google Maps should be. Absolutely gorgeous, functional, and works 100% offline.
• Google Play Store: Aurora Store. Sometimes you need an app that's only available in the official Play store. Aurora store lets you download apps without having Play services installed or requiring a Google account. Even if you do have Play services and Play store available, Aurora is just so much more usable since it's not a flaming dumpster fire of "suggestions", "recommendations", and ads.
• Email: K-9 Mail. Basically Thunderbird Mobile. Enough said.
• Calendar: Etar Fast and efficient, syncs easily with my DAVx5 synced calendars from Nextcloud
• Tasks: OpenTasks. Create, edit, update, and complete tasks. Can sync to a CalDAV server via DAVx5.
• Contact/Calendar/Task Sync: DavX5 WebDAV sync utility that I use to sync my calendar, contacts, and tasks from Nextcloud to my phone.
• Matrix: SchildiChat. So much better than Element for Android. Was having constant issues with encryption keys failing to sync in Element that hasn't (yet?) been a problem with SchildiChat.
• Launcher: FastDraw: This is more of a preference, but I really like this launcher for its simplicity and ease of organization. Don't recommend this if you use a lot of widgets as it only supports one at a time (feature, not bug).
• Authenticator: Aegis
• SIP/VOIP: Linphone I really wish the desktop version of Linphone had this kind of polish.
• MPD Client: M.A.L.P Absolutely gorgeous and intuitive MPD client. I pair it with Snapcast to control my whole-house audio.
• Quick Share: Snapdrop/Pairdrop I don't use the app (rather, I have my self-hosted one pinned as a PWA), but this is great for sending one-off files or text between devices.
• Music: Tie between Apollo and Mucke. The default LineageOS (AOSP?) music player is nice, but the phone I setup wasn't supported with LineageOS and didn't have a good music player included. Additionally, those two scale well on the small screen of the device I'm using where others would crop off the controls at varying points.
• Web Apps: NativeAlpha. Uses the Android System WebView to wrap any website into a standalone "app". While most mobile browsers will let you do that with the "Add to home screen" button, only ones with a manifest.json will work as apps; the rest are just shortcuts. Also includes other niceties such as adding adblock, controlling cookies, defaulting to a desktop version, and modifying the user agent string (among other options).

I may not know much about warp theory, but I do know the Nebula Class looks ridiculous.

Imagine the TNG opening but with the Nebula Class Enterprise D zooming across and also the theme is played on a tuba.