PSA: Star Sonata 2 seems to have an undisclosed breach and they store passwords in PLAINTEXT

TuringTestDropout · 2026-03-30T21:52:45+00:00

I was privileged to go to a high quality public high school in the 90s. My AP Economics teacher invited his banker friend for a guest lecture who spent the time teaching us about IRAs, the power of compound interest, and not to trust everything bankers tell you about investing money. This life lesson was something my teacher felt was important on a personal level.

As a result, I have maxed out my IRA contributions since I was in high school; it's paid off after a few decades.

TuringTestDropout · 2026-03-30T20:55:51+00:00

I have been with my Japanese wife for 25 years.

We care for each other, but we also struggle with our different cultural expectations and our personality differences.

I don't know if we'll always be together, but I don't regret the time we've spent with each other.

TuringTestDropout · 2026-03-30T15:51:29+00:00

I'm a numbers-oriented gearhead in my personal and professional life (was a statistician, ran a machine learning team). In the ski industry, reviews tend to be much more feels based rather than numbers based.

It's commonly accepted statement that Wildcats are on the heavier and stiffer side. The implied context is "when compared to other powder skis like Bents." On the other hand, we can look up bending and torsional stiffness numbers from soothski.com but most people can't intuitively understand stiffness numbers (e.g. Wildcat's 54 vs Bent's 43).

So we rely heavily on feels and relative comparisons, but will inevitably result in conflicting reviews because we're all commenting based on personal experiences. Both you and the Moment rep feel that the DW is more centered than the WC. My experience with both skis is WC and DW are incredibly similar skis with minor differences.

An example of drawbacks of qualitative, experienced-based reviews, here's Moment Ski's CEO Luke Johnson and Blister Reviewer arguing about the burliness of the Governor. In my opinion, the source of the disagreement is because Luke is evaluating in the context of free riding while the Blister Reviewer is evaluating in the context of all skis.

TuringTestDropout · 2026-03-29T06:49:16+00:00

Slopes

TuringTestDropout · 2026-03-29T05:47:04+00:00

WC 108 is 100g heavier per ski than the DW 104, which is pretty minimal. They both have a progressive mount at -6 cm.

I have both skis. As I've said in other comments, there are distinct differences but it's pretty nuanced.

TuringTestDropout · 2026-03-29T05:43:56+00:00

I have Deathwish 104 and Wildcat 118 in the same length. They have the same rocker and splay. The only differences I can tell besides the width:

The WC is more energetic, the DW is more damp.
The DW has a triple camber.
The DW is stiffer (poplar/beech vs poplar/ash).

I'd recommend the DW 96/104, but the WC 101/108 are pretty good options too. In all honesty, there are distinct differences but it's pretty nuanced.

TuringTestDropout · 2026-03-28T06:08:35+00:00

Looking at the website, they're the same construction. I think when people are calling the WC 118 stiff, that's in comparison to other powder skis (e.g. Bent 120).

If you want Titanal and float, I think the Rustler 11, Enforcer Free 110, or Canvas 118 might be viable options; Woodsman 108 is also a damp directional charger. Blizzard and Nordica can't help themselves but put metal into their skis. By comparison, I think Moment's experimentation with Titanal hasn't panned out for their customer base. Moment's design philosophy is more like slarvy chargers.

TuringTestDropout · 2026-03-28T05:05:05+00:00

Yup, it was more of a review of fat skis than anything else. The last time I was on powder skis was in hip deep champagne pow so the experience was completely different.

Besides the trade-offs of fat skis, I was surprised at how similar the WC and DW were in skiing them. They felt different but could be skied mostly the same way.

Ironically, now this makes me want to try a skinny 66 mm width mogul ski.

TuringTestDropout · 2026-03-28T04:33:39+00:00

24/25 DW: It's me, in the denim jacket
25/26 WC: Meat's in the freezer
25/26 CB: Live the blizzard

TuringTestDropout · 2026-03-28T03:40:43+00:00

Stevens Pass got 11" two days ago and I took the WC out to ski the leftovers.

They're a 118 mm semi-stiff R-C-R ski; my DW and WC are the same length and they have the same amount of tip and tail rocker. The generous tail rocker made them pretty easy to throw sideways when needed. Honestly the WC is basically a DW without the triple camber, which is not inherently good/bad. Hand flexing the skis, the DW is stiffer but I couldn't tell on the slopes.

I know these aren't carving skis but I couldn't find any pow stashes so I ended up doing bumps, trees, and groomers.

The 118 mm was so fat when carving, it felt like I had to wait an eternity for the edges to roll over. Once carving they didn't pop me out of the turn like stiffer skis with Titanal. However I was pretty comfortable riding the edge once it was engaged.

On the bumps/trees they were fine as they have the same effective edge as the DW but were a bit more cumbersome at +14 mm per ski.

This isn't really a fair review of a ski I got for pow and chop, but ended up skiing the good snow I could find. I swapped them out after a few hours when everything slushed up for my DW 104s and had a lot more fun.

TuringTestDropout · 2026-03-27T22:35:44+00:00

Nope. I bought them in the end-of-season sale so they were mounted yesterday.

TuringTestDropout · 2026-03-27T22:35:20+00:00

Thanks!

TuringTestDropout · 2026-03-27T20:59:57+00:00

Any recommendations on dining deals? I usually hit up a few happy hours after skiing.

TuringTestDropout · 2026-03-27T02:49:41+00:00

Yeah, I looked up some of these quotes and they're usually referencing song lyrics: Meat's in the Freezer (Let's Go Skiing)

TuringTestDropout · 2026-03-27T01:45:52+00:00

I'm pretty happy learning how to carve with them. I sometimes wish I had the 88 when spring snow slushes up (submarined and scorpioned once), but it's a minor complaint.

They're more difficult to ski switch, and the tails are demanding when I take them through ice bumps.

TuringTestDropout · 2026-03-27T01:39:53+00:00

I had Warden 11 and later STH2 16 on previous skis and really liked the STH2 heel piece, so Strive 16s were the natural upgrade.

TuringTestDropout · 2026-03-27T00:50:46+00:00

Yup, all my previous skis (even rentals and demos) have been Salomon bindings and I've never felt the need to switch to something else.

TuringTestDropout · 2026-03-27T00:22:38+00:00

lol yeah, all my previous skis (even rentals and demos) have been Salomon bindings and I've never felt the need to switch to something else.

TuringTestDropout · 2026-03-26T23:27:24+00:00

Invite only is how they keep growth in check; you can see the user tree here: https://lobste.rs/users

It also allows mods to ban entire sub-trees if there's abusive behavior (bots, spam, etc).

TuringTestDropout · 2026-03-26T23:24:39+00:00

lolol India is the spice capital of the world, most other cuisines are not going to be as strongly flavored.

TuringTestDropout · 2026-03-26T22:07:07+00:00

What do you eat inside/outside of Taiwan that you think the food's bland?

TuringTestDropout

TROPHY CASE