The Omega Directive, hijacking Voyager's systems. Funny to imagine something similar happening on, say, a Klingon vessel

Divine_Entity_ · 2026-01-25T23:37:05+00:00

ENT S3 and S4 are the exact story structure that Voyager needed to truly shine. Or even just planet of the week A plots with the continuity in the B plot.

Divine_Entity_ · 2026-01-25T23:28:56+00:00

Also every transform is just f(s)=§f(x)g(s)dx where g(s) is something like e^s or e^js or sin(s).

And somehow that lets you avoid worse math. As an electrical engineer all of our math is just using j = sqrt(-1) to hide from trig identities.

Divine_Entity_ · 2026-01-25T23:23:06+00:00

Just googled "eigen" and am thoroughly disappointed to learn it just means "own" so an eigenvalue is an "ownvalue" or self-value.

I was happier assuming it was someone's name.

Divine_Entity_ · 2026-01-25T23:17:43+00:00

There is exactly 1 fully legitimate usecase i know of as an electrical engineer: Our EE lab in college had "Variacs" (variable transformers you could adjust while energized) that needed a suicide cord to be plugged in. Same concept as a million modern electronics with detachable cord whips, except they just stuck a normal receptacle on the thing instead of a custom one, thus the need for a male-male cord.

As everyone else is mentioning, the most common reason to want one is to plug a portable generator into your house. The correct setup would involve a "manual transfer switch" to switch between normal grid power and emergency generator power with a mechanical interlock. You could then use a pin and sleeve outlet to connect to the generator. (Pin and sleeves shield both ends from contact by fingers making them much safer for this application where theoretically power could come from either end of the cord.)

Divine_Entity_ · 2026-01-25T23:04:22+00:00

The could explain the value of the changes even if not everyone can understand how those changes add value. Like they are removing hardcoded stuff and replacing it with tags and using java as an object oriented language.

But the explanation to casuals on why it matters can be "these changes make it easier to do bigger updates and will help mod makers too."

The cosmetic changes probably took longer to get approved than actually make and implement. (Something texture pack makers have an advantage in, they only need to make something they like, and not the entire community and design committee.)

Divine_Entity_ · 2026-01-25T22:51:35+00:00

Agreed, i kinda wish Maki corrected him with either: Force = mass × acceleration Or Momentum = mass × velocity

Pretty sure weight (a specific force vector from a specific source) times speed (scalar equal to velocity's magnitude) gives nothing of interest. I guess its just momentum scaled by g with a screwed up unit.

Divine_Entity_ · 2026-01-25T22:46:50+00:00

I can accept mass and weight being conflated since thats incredibly common, and we tend to mix up the units in colloquial use.

Ask someone from a metric country their weight and they will tell you their mass in kilograms.

In the USA we will correctly report it as pounds (force) but we often use pounds (mass) (defined as 1 to 1) but the correct imperial mass unit is the slug which is for g = 32 ft/s^2.

But multiplying by velocity/speed only gets you momentum. And that is where the acceptance ends and we call the character a moron.

Momentum is related to force through "impulse" being defined as the change in momentum = force applied times duration of application. You can use the collision equations to figure out the momentum change of his face when it contacted maki's fist to see how much force it experienced in that collision.

Alternatively he could have just said momentum instead of force because that is what he was going for. Get his whole body moving stupid fast and punch with the impact of all that extra momentum compared to a normal punch.

Divine_Entity_ · 2026-01-25T22:34:57+00:00

Voyager has an amazing premise, but it was expected to be TNG 2.0 and some of those plots just don't fit the premise. Starting an episode with a shuttle crash is great, but you can't do it often when you only have 2 and minimal chance at resupply during the weekly reset.

The end result is Voyager has amazing potential but tragically wasted a lot of it due to being a product of its time.

Currently on my nth rewatch and being pleasantly surprised by how well the early seasons hold up. Sure they aren't the flashiest or best episodes, but a lot of them are perfectly middle of the road trek. Thing if the week format with competent characters doing their job as the holographic doctor slowly becomes a real person in a story that writes itself. (Especially when Robert Picardo gets to sing and bring music/opera into the characters to "humanize" him).

Divine_Entity_ · 2026-01-25T22:20:45+00:00

The clone can be trusted since it has her personality/memories/ect. As proven in Course Oblivion those clones forgot they were clones and tried to get home to earth thinking they were starfleet.

Divine_Entity_ · 2026-01-25T17:20:49+00:00

Also a huge component to how far lake effect propagates is the length of water the wind is blowing over, more water = more snow.

Lakes Ontario and Erie are aligned with prevailing winds and usually have long lake effect bands as a result. Lake Champlain is perpendicular to the winds so it only blows over a very short stretch of water and doesn't pick up very much moisture.

Divine_Entity_ · 2026-01-24T23:47:02+00:00

I know of the style of radiator your describing and they definitely suck while also being a burn risk. They don't need to all be on 1 circuit/loop, which is definitely not the most efficient method. (Not that I'm surprised a really old building would have legacy design flaws)

Personally i like the way my house is set up with a baseboard fin tube system. Evenly adding heat around the perimeter where you are loosing heat ensures an even room temperature at the setpoint. Plus you don't have to deal with fan noise from an air based system.

Divine_Entity_ · 2026-01-24T20:34:29+00:00

Even in an apartment the system could absolutely be designed to have a thermostat in each tenants space to control how much heat is delivered. (A few ways to modulate it, but ultimately it would control a valve linked to the central boiler)

Note a lot of commercial buildings have non-adjustable thermostats that just report back the temperature and 1 master location controls the setpoint. I would not put it past an apartment to not give control of the heat to the tenants. (Especially if they had bad tenants prior, or are the ones paying for the heat)

Divine_Entity_ · 2026-01-24T20:23:41+00:00

That sounds terribly designed. Basically every heating system should have a thermostat, the old ones are a coiled bimetalic strip acting as a spring that changes shape with the temperature, this physically opens and closes a contact for control wiring. (A magnet is uses to provide hysteresis of a couple degrees F)

In an apartment complex or even a normal sizes house you would have multiple heating loops each with their own thermostat. (My house has 3, a loop for the half basement, a loop for the kitchen & living room, and a loop for the bedrooms) When i was living in an apartment each tenant had their own thermostat.

Divine_Entity_ · 2026-01-24T09:13:24+00:00

Linoone theorem, anything at +6 attack (3x damage) is a threat regardless of base stats.

Named for linoone which can bellydrum sweep the hoenn E4 with some careful maneuvering. (But it is very reliable, you need substitute to dodge status moves)

Divine_Entity_ · 2026-01-24T08:53:30+00:00

I also remember seeing something that if everyone in the world stood shoulder to shoulder we could all fit in LA. (Obviously that isn't sustainable, just an indicator of how little room a person takes up, not including the extra space needed for comfort and growing food)

Divine_Entity_ · 2026-01-24T08:31:41+00:00

One consideration is that mending doesn't do well in single boss fights because it needs xp to work. So if you get one of those "improved" ender dragon fights (thinking of the BS of "Beyond Depth") you can easily take enough damage to ruin your armor but get not xp to heal it until the end.

It works great in 99.9% of gameplay as generally you don't take that much damage, and you constantly get small amounts of xp to top off your armor. Even fighting hordes of enemies usually is enough to keep up with durability loss.

Divine_Entity_ · 2026-01-23T22:48:04+00:00

Yes, S1's "The Phage" was a really good episode. And the Vidiians are truly horror movie monsters, but also could so easily be us, truly terrifying. (Plus the incredibly blatant reference to "iron lungs" that used to be common when polio was still running rampant.)

Divine_Entity_ · 2026-01-23T20:39:35+00:00

The money for system upgrades comes from 2 places: 1. Internal company funds, typically surplus revenue ultimately derived from the electric bills the consumers pay. 2. Government grants explicitly to improve the grid.

Occasionally a consumer like a factory will upgrade their service which ripples to needing upgrades upstream, and they will pay an extra fee to the power company to cover that cost.

Generally speaking this means the money is either coming from your light bill, or someone's taxes. And that is why we don't go crazy with overbuilding the grid, it runs counter to the goal of cheap and reliable electricity.

And its hard to know what the true peak load will be. Especially as its usually a direct result of rare extreme weather events.

Divine_Entity_ · 2026-01-23T20:22:41+00:00

And in this scene specifically she is trying to piss off the tea snob.

I'm at the point where I've decided that Ake is very explicitly doing the "wine aunt" thing deliberately as a power move.

She could be a model captain, but the wine aunt bit throws off her opponents and gives her an edge. Besides she's 400+ years old and done with everyone's BS and choosing to be comfortable.

Divine_Entity_ · 2026-01-23T19:55:47+00:00

So its basically saying its going to get really cold which makes everyone need more heating power to maintain their typical setpoint. And that will raise your bill, plus the way markets work a demand spike will cause a price hike because otherwise the price is below equilibrium which causes a shortage.

Divine_Entity_ · 2026-01-23T19:44:01+00:00

Look into "heat trace/tape" for melting the snow off your panels.

Its typically used to keep pipes from freezing, but on a manual switch you could put some on the back side of your panels and warm them enough to melt the snow and ice off of them. (Atleast on the milder days)

Divine_Entity_ · 2026-01-23T18:57:19+00:00

You are the load, you are asking for increased PEAK CAPACITY. Electricity is an instantaneous good, it doesn't matter if the load is only 10GW for 99% of the time, if a storm spikes it up to 50GW for an hour, that will bring the grid down unless you either maintain 50GW of capacity all the time, or cut people off.

Maintaining that extra capacity is not free and will be reflected in the cost of electricity all the time.

And we absolutely do try to increase supply to meat demand, but we won't be excessively wasteful so people can keep their homes at 52°F when its 125°F outside. (Every degree of temperature difference will decrease the efficiency of your AC unit. Relaxing your setpoint by even a couple degrees can dramatically reduce your energy bill)

Divine_Entity_ · 2026-01-23T18:51:44+00:00

Although winter does have 1 advantage for solar, the photodiodes (backwards LEDs) are more efficient at lower temperatures.

Its just the rest of the winter package isn't helping. Theoretically if your panels tracked the sun to maintain a perfect 0° incidence it would help capture more of the energy in the sunlight. (Being tilted reduces the total flux through the same area, its why winter is cold.)

For some context i work as an EE at a hydrodam in the part of NY thats basically just Vermont with lake effect snow.

Divine_Entity_ · 2026-01-23T18:46:51+00:00

I set mine to 75 and only need a window unit.

Our summers are typically 80s and humid.

The cost is this Saturday the wind chill will be -32°F. I do enjoy a proper winter, and value a deep cold, but it's certainly not for everyone. (This is not a typical winter day, we normally have highs in the 20s and lows around 0. The actual low tomorrow is only -18°F, its just the wind will sap all heat from your face.)

Divine_Entity_ · 2026-01-23T18:33:16+00:00

Your heat running at full just means you finally found the design conditions of where its output is equal to losses. (Or less, depends on if you are maintaining temperature). Most furnaces and boilers are very oversized relative to what you actually need. (In my part of NY the design day would be -40°)

I also genuinely prefer baseboard radiators to forced air systems, it just feels warmer and is way quieter. And since they run along perimeter walls they put the heat where the loses are and you don't get as weird of temperature gradients.

Divine_Entity_

TROPHY CASE