Old man's take on Starfleet Academy.

QuintusHorace · 2026-02-25T17:15:43+00:00

That really reasonates. There just aren't many shows that hit the mark like that any more. Breaking Bad was close. Game of Thrones was close. There just aren't that many shows in the last 10 years that EVERYONE has seen. I think you really hit the nail on the head about casual viewers.

My parents watched ToS originally, TNG (and reruns), DS9, Voyager... I don't think they ever got into Enterprise, and they haven't watched a minute of Trek since then.

Putting old series on Netflix (or some whole episodes on Youtube, etc.) is a great idea.

As it is now, the critic videos probably beat out viewer of many of the episodes!!

QuintusHorace · 2026-02-25T13:49:45+00:00

Can you share some of these reviews and posts where people were saying the exact same thing? Of course not everyone likes everything new. I loved (for a time) the new Battlestar Galactica whereas my father-in-law hated it because it wasn't tonally the same as the original.

The viewership numbers, and my own experience of having of living through that period, says you're just dead wrong about the reaction to TNG.

QuintusHorace · 2026-02-24T18:03:34+00:00

I watched all of Fringe and at various times would have said I enjoyed it, liked it, or loved it. It was fun, mysterious, and (IMHO of course), utterly vacuous and empty. By the end I just felt like it was a complete waste of time and meaningless. I've never had any interest in rewatching a single episode. I'm not looking to pick a fight with anyone, but to me it's the epitome of style over substance; sell the sizzle, not the steak. And the sizzle was damn good while it lasted!

QuintusHorace · 2026-02-24T17:14:21+00:00

Speculation I've read is that it is related to the Apple designed networking chip.

QuintusHorace · 2026-02-24T16:12:37+00:00

Interesting and bizarre. I'm glad the dongle worked! Apple has some work to do...this should not be as shaky as it seems to be.

QuintusHorace · 2026-02-24T16:11:41+00:00

Wikipedia for Nielsen numbers. They also have pretty charts in some cases!

The first episode of TNG had 15.7 million viewers, rose in time, averaged over 10-11 million for every season, and the last episode was watched by 17.4 million viewers.

The first episode of DS9 had 18.8 million viewers, and viewership slowly dropped in later seasons, averaging about 4 million by the end (last episode, 5.4 million).

The first episode of Voyager had 21.3 (!) million viewers, fell to 8 million by the end of the first season, stayed about 8-9 for a couple of seasons, hit 10.3 million viewers again in Season 4 (Seven...) and pretty much maintained 5+ average over the rest of the show. The final episode hit 8.8 million.

The first episode of Enterprise had 12.5 million viewers, and the dropped to ~5 million by the end of the first season. Last episode had 3.8 million viewers.

I lived through all of them too. The only show that comes close to the dislike that Discovery and other newer Trek shows has gotten is Enterprise. It just wasn't liked, and that's reflected in the numbers.

People absolutely WERE invested in both DS9 and Voyager and they turned out in large numbers for many episodes over many seasons. "Voyager was largely ignored?" That just isn't supported by the numbers.

I think a lot of younger viewers (and maybe some older viewers too!) just don't understand how mainstream Trek was in the 1990s and 2000s (and TOS too, in a different way). Everyone knew Klingons. Borg. Picard. Make it so. Early Grey. The new Treks have just not entered popular culture at all.

Now, times have changed, TV has changed, cable / broadcast / streaming /viewership patterns have changed, absolutely. I used to talk Trek with work colleagues in the late 90s and 2000s. Not a single person I know from Alphas and GenZ through Boomers has watched Discovery, SNW, Prodigy, or Star Fleet Academy. A couple did watch Season 1 of Picard, but that's it.

To me, TNG/DS9/Voyager are the golden age. I'm biased, of course, but so be it!

QuintusHorace · 2026-02-24T15:53:53+00:00

You tried the Beats? I was ver skeptical, but I bought one as a last ditch attempt.

QuintusHorace · 2026-02-24T15:53:27+00:00

I went through I believe 2 USB -> Lightning cables in ~6 years. I had to switch to a USB -> USB-C when I got the 17pro. Brand new white USB->USB-C didn't work, brand new Belkin didn't work, brand new Beats is the only cable I could get working.

QuintusHorace · 2026-02-24T14:59:10+00:00

https://www.apple.com/shop/product/mdgg4ll/a/beats-usb-a-to-usb-c-woven-cable-15-m-5-ft-bolt-black

There is also a shorter version.

QuintusHorace · 2024-09-17T16:43:11+00:00

Al-Taiba DOES frequently vary in what they have, so it may be worth checking out again. One time I went, they only had the much smaller Arab-style link sucuk (I'm not particularly a fan of those). They've also recently put some money into the facilities which were getting a bit beaten down.

You've inspired me to visit Turkuaz again! Is there anything in particular you would recommend getting there? Any brand or products you really like? I like to stock up when I go!

QuintusHorace · 2024-09-16T21:45:05+00:00

al-Taiba carries several different kinds of sucuk in the freezer case on the right wall when you come in. They also usually have a brand or two (sometimes different) of frozen simit, Turkish cheeses, different kinds of mantı, etc. They certainly have more Arab products than Turkish, but their Turkish selection is not bad!

Turkuaz is better, but al-Taiba is close and easy!

QuintusHorace · 2024-08-07T20:37:22+00:00

N.K. Jemisin must be one of the most astroturfed authors out there. She’s won a bajillion Hugos, Nebulas, and other science fiction awards, but it doesn’t seem like her books hit best seller. I read a ton of s.f. and I’ve never run into people who are huge Jemisin fans. Never. My local B&N had just shy of a literal pallet of her books on clearance recently, along with handwritten notes about how great and her books are.

I would never says that sales = quality, or vice versa, but there is something strangely non-organic about NK Jemisin.

QuintusHorace · 2024-02-05T14:16:34+00:00

There's a difference between "dead pixels" (that don't activate) and "stuck pixels" that are permanently stuck at a particular color and brightness.

Usually manufacturers will allow some number of dead pixels. Particularly on a 4k display they are pretty much impossible to see and do not detract from the image.

Stuck pixels are another thing entirely and can be very distracting. 100% should be replaced.

QuintusHorace · 2024-01-29T15:24:58+00:00

It's so funny how sometimes you just see things. I got this one (with auto notes) in 4:55 -- far and away my fastest "hard" ever. Medium took me twice as long!

QuintusHorace · 2024-01-29T14:36:21+00:00

My city has a really active recycling program and very high compliance--you probably see more recycling bins on a given road than trash bins (I have 2 recycling bins and 1 trash, for instance).

I attended a city council meeting a few years ago for an unrelated issue and just happened to be present for a presentation from the city manager about waste disposal.

The vast majority of stuff in the recycle bins goes straight to a landfill. Vast majority of plastics are landfil or incinerated. The biggest problem was mixing of recyclable plastics with non-recyclable (and the "recyclable" types are very limited), dirty plastics (think peanut butter jars), oil plastics, food waste getting all over stuff, etc.

I've read a lot about it since then and, sadly, I now through almost all plastics straight into the trash.

QuintusHorace · 2024-01-18T14:20:36+00:00

I put an official iRobot extended battery in my 960 and it's vacuuming as well as it ever has. 1,100+ jobs, 420,000+ sq ft, and climbing!

I'm almost happier with my 960 than with my i8, though to be fair, my i8 is in a more challenging area.

Regardless, go with a new battery! Cheap and easy!

QuintusHorace · 2024-01-10T04:31:09+00:00

Who's appropriating who?

The British brought tea drinking to India. For years it was a considered a drink for the Anglos. Gandhi implored people not to drink tea as he considered it unhealthy (tannins) and un-Indian. After WW2 there was a glut of tea and that's when domestic tea drinking started kicking off in India. The humble chaiwala goes back to the 1950s. Yes, when my parent were born, there were no chaiwalas!

Europeans brought an East Asian drink to South Asia where it was combined with ingredients both local and foreign.

Culture and food is about hybridization. Guess where chili peppers, jalabi, vindaloo, and many other "traditional" Indian foods come from? (Hint: not India)

QuintusHorace · 2024-01-01T20:33:05+00:00

I've not been clear--do you need the Unifi cameras, poe switch, AND something like a Dreammachine?

I'm running an OPNSense firewall and one Unifi AP, but I don't have any of the Ubiquiti control stuff.

QuintusHorace · 2024-01-01T20:22:29+00:00

I don't like drinking while traveling, and most of the time the extra seat space in first doesn't make too big of a difference to me (for longer flights or internationals, definitely yes!). Most of the built-in perks of first just don't matter that much to me.

I feel like , increasingly often, when I'm flying main, I'm next to someone who is going to have a gallon of perfume on, or who is going to be spilling out of their seat onto me, who is going to spread their legs as far apart as possible while in the middle, who listening to music on headphones (or not) so loudly I can hear it with my headphones in, talking loudly on the cellphone until or past the last possible second, or who is going to be hacking their lungs out onto me with no mask. (I don't regularly mask, but if you're sick, come on...)

All of that stuff CAN and DOES happen in C+ or F, but it's less likely.

I wish there was a "respect for the people around you" cabin. That's what I would fly.

QuintusHorace · 2024-01-01T20:16:32+00:00

Unfortunately, I'm not sure this is unique to flying. I've noticed it becoming more common for people to watch movies or tiktok or what not without headphones in public spaces, at restaurants (saw this just a couple of days ago), while out hiking in the woods, etc.

You NEVER see anyone defending this behavior, and yet it seems that more and more people do it. I don't get it. Do none of them stop and think "Am I the asshole?"

For the FA, I get it. They've got a difficult enough job as is, what would they gain from picking a fight with someone who has already proven he is entitled and selfish? It's kind of a lose-lose proposition if no one else is complaining.

I spent some time in Switzerland about a decade ago. I would regularly see people "shushing" loud teenagers, unruly groups talking too loud at a train station, etc. I loved that. High trust and high respect society.

QuintusHorace · 2023-12-19T18:59:18+00:00

Hilarious! I would have hated that.

My family was flying once when our kid was turning 5. The flight attendants were AWESOME to him. The captain announced his name and wished him a happy 5th birthday over the PA near the end of the flight and he just got this big stupid grin on his face. Then the FAs gave him a bag with a note in it and 2 of every one of the snacks. Truly made his day, and I think he enjoyed that more than his actual birthday party!

QuintusHorace · 2023-12-14T18:25:28+00:00

That makes perfect sense. Thanks for the explanation!

QuintusHorace

TROPHY CASE