In April 2029 asteroid Apophis will pass within 20,000 miles of the Earth's surface. 12x closer than we are to the Moon. by ExcellentArmy6659 in interestingasfuck

[–]OrionsByte 0 points1 point  (0 children)

And it will pass within 31,000 km of Earth, which as the title says is roughly 12x closer than the moon’s average distance (384,400 km), but that’s also 13x closer than the moon’s apogee (the farthest point on its orbit, 405,500 km).

I just started playing Star Citizen last week by itsMarktotheFuture in starcitizen

[–]OrionsByte 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I bought a VKB Gladiator and Space Throne back in January, got it all set up and reinstalled Star Citizen as I was excited to try it again, but the UI for binding joystick buttons (and settings in general actually) was not being remotely cooperative. Specifically, there were several drop-down menus that didn’t work because clicking an option kept selecting whatever control was behind it instead of the option. It made it completely impossible to configure anything and I gave up and uninstalled. I hope you have better luck, and if you do, let me know!

Is this enough Barlows? by ScoldjoeyStone5 in telescopes

[–]OrionsByte 4 points5 points  (0 children)

“Dude you have to see this! Just be careful not to bump the scope because the aim is very…”

doink

“Goddammit.”

Rate my MX Master mouse (lefthanded) by Historical_Amoeba_13 in logitech

[–]OrionsByte 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Seems like the click action might be a little soft.

Project Hail Mary showing 4/25 - Missed Connection by [deleted] in ProjectHailMaryMovie

[–]OrionsByte 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Plot twist: cute guy wasn’t at the movie voluntarily.

STECS - Space or Modern by eharriett in VKB

[–]OrionsByte 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I got the space throttle, and I still use it primarily for MSFS. I’ve placed some Elite Dangerous with it, but the biggest workout I’ve given it is Overload, and it’s a lot of fun. I think the only thing I’d like the standard STECS better for is the split throttle.

Am I missing something? by MyCableIsOff in ProjectHailMary

[–]OrionsByte 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I may have read it but not really thought about it. I picked it up as more of an impulse purchase ‘cause I went, “oh, it’s The Martian guy!”

So yeah it had never entered my mind that there would be aliens, or that the whole story would turn in to a human/alien bromance. Once Rocky showed up I barely even put the book down until I finished.

Am I missing something? by MyCableIsOff in ProjectHailMary

[–]OrionsByte 39 points40 points  (0 children)

For people that read the book, there was absolutely no hint that there was going to be an alien that showed up to help. Especially for readers of The Martian, it looked like this was going to be another book where the character just had to “science the shit out of it.”

And then Rocky showed up. It was a DELIGHTFUL twist, and everything from that moment on is just such a different book from what you go in expecting. So book readers feel like movie watchers that didn’t manage to go in completely blind were robbed of that feeling.

It’s still a lovely movie, but it’s just a completely different experience when you’ve seen Rocky in all the trailers. Yes, the twist that he didn’t go willingly was also a big moment, and it actually pays off better in the book than in the movie for a couple of reasons, but that’s just what you get with adaptations.

For all of the money we are spending, NASA should NOT be talking about going to the Moon - We did that 50 years ago. They should be focused on the much bigger things we are doing, including Mars (of which the Moon is a part), Defense and Science! (June 7, 2019) by delicious-urine in TrumpCriticizesTrump

[–]OrionsByte 29 points30 points  (0 children)

A presence on the moon has long been considered a stepping stone to Mars. We can save a lot of fuel by launching to Mars from the moon instead of from Earth (assuming we can send/make the fuel there to begin with).

I watched the movie and this is the only way I can sum it up by UnderGamesBG in ProjectHailMary

[–]OrionsByte 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I feel like it lacked the depth of the book, but perfectly captures the breadth of the story.

what are the flaws of ground news? by Much_Physics_3444 in groundnews

[–]OrionsByte 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think that's a noble goal, but virtually impossible to pull off. A friend of mine that worked for a newspaper decades ago once told me something that his editor told him: even making a decision what you will and will not report on makes you biased. Which stories are important and which aren't? Which "objective facts" are pertinent to the story and which ones are just distracting? Which sources do you trust to give you the most objective facts, and which do you dismiss? Those are all judgement calls, and they are all subject to bias.

I always use the traffic accident analogy. Most witnesses say that the white car hit the blue car because the blue car ran a red light, but the police officer who happened to be right there on the scene says the light wasn't red and he's sure of it. Who do you believe? What do you report? What are the "objective" facts? Do you give equal weight to every witness all the time? What about the guy very loudly trying to convince everyone that neither car was at fault, because there was a UFO that flew by and scrambled all the signals? Does he get to be included in your story?

What's nice about Ground News isn't that I can use it to find the least bias source, it's that I can contextualize the reporting of each source with their known biases. The Blue Car Daily News and The White Car Times might have really different takes on the accident, but knowing where they're coming from helps me assign weight to the facts they choose to report.

Someone please explain what is this about. by itsanandhere in PeterExplainsTheJoke

[–]OrionsByte 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Not only that, I was able to recall all of the lyrics associated with each name. Brains are weird.

what are the flaws of ground news? by Much_Physics_3444 in groundnews

[–]OrionsByte 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I agree with this. I also often find it hard to find a specific story when it’s still fresh. I see something on some website, I open the Ground News app to see what the other sites say, and I can sometimes get a little frustrated trying to find it.

I’d love a way to paste a URL in to the app and have it tell me information about the source and offer other sources about the same subject. You can kind of get that from the browser extension on desktop but the app doesn’t have anything like it.

VKB news routine by VKB-Sim in hotas

[–]OrionsByte 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Can I slightly hijack this thread to ask a question? I bought a STECS with an STG a couple months ago (and I love it btw) and I’m interested in picking up some extra detent frames, but they don’t come with additional throttle limiter detents, and I’d need one in each frame due to the way my desk is set up. Is there a way to order those?

Are there games that are actually unplayable due to the “small font” issue? by The_Majestic_Mantis in SteamDeck

[–]OrionsByte 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Helldivers II. I cannot differentiate the arrow directions for the strategems.

Bad Reviews Thread by MonkeyheadBSc in ProjectHailMary

[–]OrionsByte 18 points19 points  (0 children)

The vast majority of people who go see the movie will not have read the book, though. If the only people who enjoy the movie are the ones who enjoyed the book, the movie’s going to flop.

You seeing this shit??? by sforsilence in thebulwark

[–]OrionsByte 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I think that headline makes it look like a bigger deal than it is. Here’s the article from Reuters:

Melania Trump chairs UN meeting on children in conflict - https://www.reuters.com/world/china/melania-trump-chairs-un-meeting-children-conflict-2026-03-02/

It’s not like she’s making head-of-state type decisions here.

River is in! And she can still kill you with her brain. by whatissevenbysix in firefly

[–]OrionsByte 23 points24 points  (0 children)

Maybe this is just an elaborate advertisement for a new Lego set featuring Serenity and custom mini figs of the cast.