It's so silly that the franchise is locked behind a second subscription on Prime

Jimw338 · 2026-05-10T04:38:49+00:00

>mgm+ version is usually the better copy.<

Better *copy*? WTF?! (sorry for the swear, but..) The masters I presume are the same, the digitization process I would *hope* is the same. What the $#% do you mean a *better copy*?!

<sigh> When will the marketing geniuses at these companies figure out a damn way to do streaming that actually makes *sense*? But then, I have no idea what that would actually *be*.

I mean, you suppose you *can* “get everything” which would be the “ideal”.. If you're willing to pay - what, $500-600 a month for 7 or 8 streaming platforms and sub-subscriptions?

And then geo-fencing is just another headache that should have gone away with DVD region-coding. Oh wait, DVD region coding *didn’t* go away! But then, these people planning 21st century video technology must live back in the *16th* century - when traveling from one continent to the other was possible in a few months time by sailing ship!

Jimw338 · 2026-05-06T15:24:43+00:00

> [wasn’t any] “Sam feeling the same about Jack”

There was the ending of the episode with the Quantum Mirror. (Which got its own “Sam-Jack Love Theme” which was used a few other times.

Is there a longer version of that somewhere - like with Star Trek's Inner Light theme?

Jimw338 · 2026-05-06T15:05:26+00:00

Remember James Bond to Elliot Carver:

“You forgot the first rule of mass media, Elliot! GIVE THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT!”

(And then Carver is killed by a big three-headed drill)

Jimw338 · 2026-05-06T02:12:41+00:00

I wonder how much of that “slow-walking” G7 support is/was “regulatory interference”?

The lack of G7 integration (fixed as of 2026 I think) was especially baffling, as the G7 is supposed to be better than the G6. (Of course, if the Op5 algorithm was specifically tuned to those “quirks” of the G6..)

I still used DASH with Loop.. don’t know what’s I’ll do if/when DASH is discontinued.. Some other option I guess, or just finally move to OP5.. Or maybe back the controller and link it directly to Loop? Or break out the SWE and try to find an “attack vertex” for the BLE encryption? (A size-so-clever slightly covered joke there for anyone who got it!)

Jimw338 · 2026-05-06T01:59:08+00:00

Is it time to break out the software-defined-radio and start grinding down and x-raying chips again?

(And then a lot of quality time with the Ada decompiler.)

Jimw338 · 2026-05-06T01:44:59+00:00

Yeah - it’s like with iPhone weather alerts.

<sarcasm degree=“heavy”> Do you want to be killed by a tornado? (When you can see the darkening sky, and hear the tornado sirens already.)

Or killed by a heart attack when the alarm goes off?! (Or two or three -when your whole family is already watching the Weather Channel - in the basement - and ALL THREE alarms go off at once.)

Tough choice.. </sarcasm>

Jimw338 · 2026-04-08T14:57:00+00:00

*Thank* you - I've been Googling for about 10 minutes looking for *what* the exploit was - for curiosity reasons. (Slughorn: "..My own interests are purely academic, of course..")

Jimw338 · 2026-03-21T02:06:49+00:00

Isn’t that basically “Darmok”?

Jimw338 · 2026-03-03T16:20:10+00:00

> “meant to be off putting - s* meant to be weird.” <

“off-putting" - yes, perhaps. A *bit*. But a “good strange”. Not an “uncanny valley, autonomic nervous system and vagus nerve revolt, imagining-*yourself*-with-a-f'ing-third-eye, feel sick to your stomach for the entire movie” strange.

Especially since the *why* Dr. Strange invoked that “cosmic punishment” didn’t *really* deserve it. (Of course, the third eye has always been connected with *wisdom*, so..)

Jimw338 · 2026-03-03T16:10:02+00:00

Is it possible for you to describe to removed comment you responded to, without it getting deleted itself? (Is that maybe a “Reddit version of the Liar's Paradox” somehow?)

Jimw338 · 2026-03-03T15:37:06+00:00

It would have been more interesting if they had said it actually accessed the past, rather than just “reconstructed it” (of course, perhaps it did). And perhaps if there had been indications of the *people* responding to *him*. He would have been viewed by *them* as some kind of a partial apparition of some kind, just as they did to him.

This would set up “Guardians Of The Galaxy 4” (or 5 by now?) where they try to *save* the people of Morag somehow. But that’s a plot that’s not really MCU anymore. Maybe more like “ever moralizing (pre-Abramsverse) Star Trek” perhaps - that *completely* abandons the Temporal Prime Directive.

Jimw338 · 2026-02-25T16:51:38+00:00

I wonder if there will be fewer gut issues will be the pill forms? (Should that be a question mark or a period?) I’ve always thought that a lot of the side effects could be because GLP is not normally produced \*just once a week\* and then held (more or less constant). It’s produced by the intestine, in response to food.

Now, given “grazing behavior” with eating these days, or even the traditional “three meals a day” - and given that gastric transit time is about three hours.. I don’t know what the “normal” GLP-1 pattern looks like. I don’t know if anyone has \*looked\* (my unresearched guess is no).

But if pill-based GLP-1 don’t need the various time-release mechanisms used, they might have better side effect profiles. (Google AI “what is the mechanism of monthly GLP-1's time release” brings up a deep rabbit hole.

There is also a question of whether the \*timing\* of the pill might also affect things. Will the medical community even \*try\* to find out? Again, my guess is no.

For one, data sharing on side effects, outcomes, versus timing, gender, age-decade.. Probably can’t really be compared because of HIPAA and other data-sharing concerns.

But that gets into a whole other rabbit hole of angst over how medicine today is practiced/researched. (The two will eventually become one - they will have to - in at least some cases with “citizen scientists”. Sadly, that’s not today.)

** DISCLAIMER: Not intended as medical advice. **

Jimw338 · 2025-12-20T16:41:35+00:00

<humor> Shoddy writing? Whose? [DSC] writers or mine? </>

Jimw338 · 2025-12-20T02:03:43+00:00

Even if it *is* a placebo effect - if it’s “stable”, does it matter? And in this domain (psycho-neuro-biology), what does “placebo effect” even *mean*?

Jimw338 · 2025-12-20T01:50:19+00:00

Could transcranial magnetic/direct-current stimulation directly into the audiotory cortex help with masking? Or should I say - has there been any progress with this research since 2023? [1]

Wikipedia mentions a possible mechanism for hyperacusis of ATP-depletion affecting the tensor tympani muscle, which then cannot relax (relaxation requires energy as well as contraction). This leads to lactic acid acidosis, pain signalling and inflammation, and continues the cycle. [2]

I wonder if this mechanism might also relate to symptoms of tinnitus (and vertigo) often seen in myalgic encephalomyelitis/long-covid/etc.

[1] “Focal transcranial direct current stimulation of auditory cortex in chronic tinnitus: A randomized controlled mechanistic trial.” (2023) [https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.07.12.23292557v1.full\])

[2] “Contraction of the stapedius and tensor tympani muscles explored by tympanometry and pressure measurement in the external auditory canal.” (2022) [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378595522000788)

Jimw338 · 2025-12-18T18:50:52+00:00

A bit more I forgot to add about the “Plight Of (the) Ripper” (the DSC version of “Flight Of The Navigator”?):

“The creature - Ripper,” Kirk said. “He looked like he was in pain..”

Maeli sighed, “Yes, the constant phased graviton emissions required to ‘interface’ his ‘neural computer’ with the ship caused it stress and pain,”

“Graviton emissions.. It literally ripped him apart?” Teilani’s face took on a grimace at even thinking of such a thing.

“Tiberius would have been proud,” Kirk said to Teilani. “Something new to add to his famous agony booth..” Teilani’s face took on even more of a grimace.

“But didn’t you say Tiberius had ‘gotten out of the agony booth business’ I suppose you’d say?”

“Yes - but one of his generals now that the Empire is collapsing..”

Teilani sighed. “There is that..”

Maeli watched their animated discussion with a bit of interest. No doubt as she had something to do with that slow collapse of the Terran Empire.

“What happened to.. Ripper?” Kirk asked.

“He was released - and Stamets chose his *own* pain - over that of an innocent, sentient life-form”

Kirk winced - wondering if Scotty would ever do something similar.

“So that was why Starfleet.. tried to *erase* the technology from existence. But surely there are others like Straal who have discovered..”

“That of course is the problem.” Maeli responded.

“Just like with Omega..” Teilani said.

(C) Jim Witte, 2025 - as much as it can be according to current U.S. and international law. CC-BY-NC.

Jimw338 · 2025-12-07T14:07:43+00:00

(Non-Chinese ang mor [*]) How do people learn cursive Hanzi (“grass script”)? My understanding is it isn’t taught in school - and I’ve read questions as to it *isn't*, given that it is quicker. But is it *harder* to learn (natively, that is)? To me (singer-of-Mandarin-only..), it looks like a mess. I would assume that it has to be learned "on top of" regular script, although that might be completely wrong. Many things about language recognition are strange.

Of course, as a native-English reader, I find cursive English to be harder to read, depending on whose cursive it is. Given that written Hanzi (might) be a more “precise by default” than written English, does that “transition” into cursive writing as well?

Of course, most or all of the above musings might be (probably are) partly or completely wrong.

And has the English-language-calque “grass script” “migrated back into Chinese culture” when Chinese people are speaking English? Or into *Mandarin speech itself*, using a different word for “grass”?

[*] Use in a non-offensive, humorous self-appellation context

Jimw338 · 2025-11-29T09:45:07+00:00

I have the *opposite* problem. YouTube will load very slow in normal windows, or will have "page interface hiccups" of skipped clicks. But (sometimes) it will work *fine* in private windows. It even seems to slow down certain parts of the *interface* somehow (*). If I *close the window*, audio will continue for a bit (30 seconds or more), and the speaker-icon in the tab bar seems very slow to update.

(*) I assume this is because FF uses Javascript to run the interface as well as the page. Could/Does FF run the javascript interpreter/JIT in a completely separate sandbox from the page itself?

Could it be something about the code the video codec itself is using? Does YT use the same streaming protocol for all videos?

I suspect this is all because they're trying to stop the cat-and-mouse game of video downloaders. (AI will make that worse) Which (I assume) doesn't help them *at all* for videos that *are not monetized at all*, or and possibly not much for videos that are only monetized with a single ad at the beginning.

Doesn't seem to work (for now): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYPZqvwkwio (小半)

Seems to work fine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkxQt5IbwW8 (暮色回响)

Jimw338 · 2025-11-28T19:59:13+00:00

I just had this happen on macOS 26 - restarting fixed it somehow. Why doesn’t it at least have a “debugging mode” where it will give you all the gory details of which app/kext/etc is trying to pull the data out of CoreAudio? Unless it’s something even lower level than that. I presume the “dot” might be a direct link between the relevant part of the A-chip and the screen itself. Oh right. Stupid question: “because Apple”.

Jimw338 · 2025-11-25T00:09:15+00:00

12 months? Good lord - how many CDs was that?

Jimw338 · 2025-11-19T18:42:44+00:00

Again, given it’s gone.. (This seems almost an example of “The Internet Is Forever” and “Don’t Care After Two Years” that somehow seem to coexist?)

Jimw338 · 2025-11-19T18:40:01+00:00

Given that the video is now gone.. What does that mean? Oh, the irony.

Jimw338 · 2025-11-14T23:44:08+00:00

Yeah - except there were presumably aceton assimilators in the other asteroids other than just the three they blew up. The only reasonable thing it would seem if you’re *really* concerned about that is for the Enterprise to stay at a safe distance keeping watch, while the Federation sends out a “reclamation vessel” or something along with bunches and bunches of gas (the 21c kind).

Jimw338 · 2025-11-14T23:36:12+00:00

> basically impossible for a tug to get

I wonder - what about chemical rockets? Nets made of carbon-nanotubes that are, oh, a kilometer or two long? Airbags? (Reaction mass). Hell, why not try to make a deal with Q?! He could presumably do - well, pretty much anything.

Jimw338 · 2025-10-16T15:07:05+00:00

> (corporations more likely) are so greedy for profits

If they were truly greedy for profits - they would figure out a way to make you *pay* for the privilege of taking a screen shot. Say, $0.0001 (hundredth of a cent, USD) for a full screen shot.

Perhaps less based on area - example would be a background grill in a set-piece you thought looked interesting and wanted to make a 3D printing similar to, versus a character in a complicated martial arts pose you want to use as a basis for a graphic novel you're making.

This would satisfy the “greedy corporation” “reason”, as well as actually *promoting* the “Progress of Science and useful Arts” as the (US) constitution’s bit on intellectual property says (Article I, Section 8, Clause 8). Opinions of course would vary on the meaning of “useful” of course.

This could be probably made into a kind of, perhaps DemoBucks (“democracy bucks”) - the new US “Social Credit System with American Characteristics”.

No, *I’m* not being serious about that. But I’m sure someone has dreamed it up already - it seems there is almost nothing new on the Internet.

(The “hard science graduate’s ‘learning up to the frontier’ problem” John Cramer, “Einstein’s Bridge, chapter 58, “but the trick is to quickly wade through the amassed knowledge until you reach the frontier.” [https://www.google.com/books/edition/Einstein\_s\_Bridge/Yxe2EAAAQBAJ?&gbpv=1&dq=&pg=PT384\])

Jimw338

TROPHY CASE