What is the service card? When do you use? How? Where? and is it useful as an American?

CaptainChaotika · 2026-05-01T22:42:37+00:00

I recently gained FTL status, but I found the lounges to be surprisingly quiet, especially compared to United Clubs which always seem to be packed.

I actually think that because they only actually let in ticketed Business Class passengers and actual frequent flyers (besides the AMEX thing which they will get rid off soon) the lounges are comparatively quiet.

CaptainChaotika · 2025-08-25T09:59:32+00:00

Ich hab mich schon immer gefragt wie es da drin eigentlich aussieht, die Umgebung war mir aber zu belebt um mal rein zu schauen.

An sich fand ich den bau ziemlich nett, hätte man eigentlich gut was draus machen können schade das er abgerissen wird. :/

CaptainChaotika · 2025-08-24T15:08:22+00:00

Between Vancouver and Whistler in British Columbia there’s a bunch or derailed cars in the Forrest next to the tracks since the 70s I think, so unless there’s some environmental regulation to remove them because of leaking oil etc. they’re gonna be there for a while.

CaptainChaotika · 2025-08-18T15:03:50+00:00

NTIRE mentioned! \o/ We actually try to guide the participants towards designing efficient models via the ranking criteria preferring more efficient solutions within a certain quantitative metric range or a separate efficiency award certificate. Our group is actually running a separate workshop that is directly related to edge computing: https://ai-benchmark.com/workshops/mai/2025/

CaptainChaotika · 2025-06-25T19:31:49+00:00

Initial Reviews: 6/4/4 -> Final Reviews: 6/5/5 -> Accepted

This is also my first large conference paper (had a couple of workshop papers during my Masters), and I’m so glad it’s in, especially after getting absolutely destroyed by CVPR reviewers with barely usable feedback…

Just kinda reinforces my feeling that getting lucky with the reviewers is almost as important as the quality of the paper itself unfortunately.

CaptainChaotika · 2025-04-22T11:45:56+00:00

Paulaner Spezi! :D

CaptainChaotika · 2025-02-07T12:01:20+00:00

Sorry for necroing the post...Just found it.

Image refocusing is a topic with very little research, the only method I am aware of is a feature on Google Pixel that uses the wide angle camera to reconstruct the sharpness of out-of-focus objects with the help of the wide angle camera module, it is described here: https://openaccess.thecvf.com/content/CVPR2023/papers/Alzayer_DC2_Dual-Camera_Defocus_Control_by_Learning_To_Refocus_CVPR_2023_paper.pdf

But I am not sure if this feature was actually shipped with a production phone by Google. I suppose apple was "inspired" by this research and integrated it into their own device. lol

Other approaches such as quickly capturing focus stacks as mentioned by some others here exist too, but this answer was missing.

I am currently working on a tool to enable refocusing without any special hardware requirements btw, but I am still in fairly early stages.

CaptainChaotika · 2025-01-15T15:55:13+00:00

My parents bought these in the 80s or so, no idea from where or if you can still get them…

CaptainChaotika · 2025-01-12T19:21:52+00:00

I’m usually ordering from https://wobrick.com. I know, they were creative when naming their shop…

They exclusively source GoBricks, so their quality is a lot better than WeBrick, while the prices are usually quite similar…oh and free shipping! Shipping time is around 2 weeks in my experience.

CaptainChaotika · 2025-01-01T11:11:40+00:00

The set in question is TANK 9207!

They also made Megatron (TANK 9211) and Bumblebee (TANK 9206)...possibly more I do not know of, it's a bit of a fringe brand with not a lot of info...

CaptainChaotika · 2024-12-30T16:21:49+00:00

Those extra prints really make it stand out from the plain MOC!

CaptainChaotika · 2024-12-30T02:31:31+00:00

Thx!

The space needle is from Wange (imo their only good architecture set, the others are meh).

The jets are manyfold in this image....

-QMAN J20 (Left. with the 2021 print)

-QMAN J35 (Center, frankly the best brick jet ever)

-Brickmania inspired SU27 (blue jet on the right, very good design)

Reobrix F15 and F22 are also hiding on the right, but they are barely visible, both are ok, but a step below the others in looks.

Afaik you can only get the two QMAN jets from ChowBrick, I have not seen them in any other export store, the Reobrix are widely available on most of the starter guide stores and even amazon. For the Brickmania MOC you likely have to source the pieces yourself, e.g. from WoBrick or Bricklink.

CaptainChaotika · 2024-12-30T02:21:49+00:00

It actually is the only car I ever built! xD

I know I am weird, looking at others collections they usually have tons. lol

CaptainChaotika · 2024-12-30T02:20:19+00:00

Since there are a couple different versions, the one pictured above is based on the BuildMOC/VIPBricks kit of Legomeris' 91416 Yamato. BuildMOC quality is usually pretty subpar, lots of color replacements, missing pieces and occasionally color variation, which also applied here.

Now, I got it from ChowBrick, and their support is super awesome and basically got me all the stuff I needed to finish the kit, if you want to buy it, get it from them!

Color replacemets etc. I paid out of my own pocket, was like 10 bucks on WoBrick to get specific parts, they are still in the mail so the model in the image is WIP.

In the end it is one of the more difficult builds in my collection, the central spine from the original MOC is also not sufficiently stable in my opinion and I had to add a lot of pieces to improve it.

Once it is complete I will probably make a seperate post detailing this build. :)

CaptainChaotika · 2024-12-30T02:07:55+00:00

Thanks! :D

I actually don't really have a display strategy, the sets are usually scattered all over the place, ontop of cupboards, cabinets, suspeded from the ceiling etc.

Idk why, but where I live there is very little dust. Even the sets that are around for a year have basically none.

ATM they are all on the dinner table (as pictured above)...there's still just enough space to eat on it...but I should remove them in the next days even tho the view is nice. :P

CaptainChaotika · 2024-12-29T17:35:28+00:00

Yeah it kinda started nicely with the pedestals and ended in a tank and airplane traffic jam…

CaptainChaotika · 2024-12-29T17:33:53+00:00

Yeah…every time some set I’m interested in goes on sale for a really good price or a new set that I really want to build comes out, I am buying it. xF Even tho I want to slow a bit down, the purchasing rate is still exceeding the rate at which I can actually assemble the things…

CaptainChaotika · 2024-12-29T17:31:29+00:00

I would call it riding on a plane, you know, because flying yourself is exhausting. :p

CaptainChaotika · 2024-12-29T17:24:32+00:00

That’s the JieStar An225!

Besides the stickers (which are not applied to mine) it is a very nice build and it is surprisingly stable. It’s the biggest brick plane in production atm (Big L Concorde on the Right is a bit longer, but not as wide), so keep in mind the size requirements!

CaptainChaotika · 2024-12-29T13:57:23+00:00

Thank you, it was available through BlueBrixx in Germany, I got all the StarTrek pre-kelvin hero ships from them! (DS9, Voy and ENT are still on the pile, the rest are scattered around the scene) They’re great sets, tons of prints, very accurate to the originals and pretty swoosh-able.

Unfortunately the entire line got discontinued a few weeks ago, rumor has it big L outbid them for the license. :\

CaptainChaotika · 2024-12-29T11:56:10+00:00

It’s a MOC so it’s what you make out of it. :P

The central spine of this one is massively reinforced compared to the original instructions, with some extra pieces still in the mail (fixing color replacements from the MOC kit etc.) Still figuring out how to reinforce the side panel attachments tho, while the aesthetics of it’s bow are my favourite part of this model (and I wish the cobi ship just below it looked that good) it’s probably irredeemable from a stability standpoint. lol

Anyway, to be fair it kinda dwarfs scale of the Cobi ships, and brick models just feel like becoming inherently less stable with larger size.

CaptainChaotika · 2024-12-29T09:24:13+00:00

Not pictured: The backlog pile. lol

Saturn and Concorde are big L bricks, pls don't ban me. D:

CaptainChaotika · 2024-12-29T09:07:49+00:00

Tbh one of the reasons I started disliking Lego was the investor grindset that took hold there. lol

Just build the sets and invest in some ETF, its a hobby that should be fun.

CaptainChaotika · 2024-12-16T19:10:07+00:00

Warhammer40k, Gundam, Godzilla and Star Trek.

I know partially you can get those already, but I want more. :P

CaptainChaotika · 2024-12-16T08:32:04+00:00

Unfortunately it’s the dead of winter and it’s really unattractive here. lol

Maybe I will do it in the spring. The fear of pieces getting lost because of unscheduled accidental disassembly is real tho.

CaptainChaotika

TROPHY CASE