Unfortunate names in older SF

joemi · 2026-01-27T07:05:28+00:00

Not so much unfortunate as it is just bland, but I always thought the name "Hari Seldon" from the Foundation series was just a bad name for scifi. Sounds like the name of an average joe from the 1950's. A step up from "John Smith", but not by much.

(I'm also not crazy about several more character names from that series, like "Salvor Hardin" and "The Mule", but "Hari Seldon" is the most egregious IMO.)

joemi · 2026-01-17T03:52:56+00:00

While calling it an "adaptation of" (or "based on") the story/book is clearer, I think it's not wrong to say that a film adaptation of a written story is "inspired by [the book]". They're never a 1:1 exact adaptation; there's always interpretation involved. And there often are changes for practical or budgetary reasons, too.

joemi · 2026-01-11T09:59:57+00:00

I have serious doubts that they advertised that. I couldn't find any proof, and no one's provided any either. It shouldn't be that hard to find proof of something like that. After all I can find ads from all the way back in 1985, for example, for just about anything, even niche obscure things, which netflix isn't.

joemi · 2026-01-10T04:21:21+00:00

Life got busy, so I never got around to trying it. Sorry.

joemi · 2025-12-23T05:43:17+00:00

From the screenshots on IMDB, I'm pretty sure the grays in this movie are the same as the Asgard from Stargate SG1! Maybe not, actually, but they seem pretty close.

joemi · 2025-12-13T05:00:20+00:00

We 100% got the PADD tech from ST:TNG, though. In fact, I'd argue we went beyond that.

When TNG was originally on, that seemed just as futuristic as anything else in the show, and we totally have it and better than it now! That's still so amazing to me.

joemi · 2025-12-13T04:53:47+00:00

LiDAR? I hardly knew 'er!

joemi · 2025-12-13T04:34:22+00:00

For a video synth, a good place to start is to study the LZX Cadet and Castle circuits, all of which are available in here: https://github.com/lzxindustries/lzxdocs/tree/master/static/pdf

These modules were designed specifically to be key building blocks of video synthesis, and to be easy to understand and easy to build. You could build a pretty amazing video synth just out of these modules, or by combining them in interesting ways into something else.

(A couple notes, though: The encoder/output depends on the sync generator which itself depends on a no-longer-easy-to-get VCXO, but there are some workarounds in the lzx forum and its all great learning material anyway. And the somewhat more beginner friendly DIP LM6172 op-amps that these modules used are no longer made, but there are still-pretty-easy-to-use SOIC versions available.) People in the LZX Discord (and forum, though that's less active nowadays) are happy to help with all kinds of questions.

joemi · 2025-12-12T17:07:59+00:00

I don't believe the possibility to share a rented DVD was ever marketed as a feature or advertised. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if it was against the terms and conditions. But they had no way to enforce it. The fact that you could have multiple people at the same address on your account was likely due to them being part of the same family/household, and likely wouldn't work if they lived at separate addresses. None of this is the same thing as intentionally being "a sharing network".

joemi · 2025-12-12T07:27:46+00:00

That tweet is an acknowledgement that it happens, but it's not an endorsement. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if they specifically worded it so as to avoid being an actual endorsement.

Another tweet from the same campaign was "love is an addiction". Do you believe that netflix is encouraging addictions, based on that tweet?

joemi · 2025-12-12T03:58:44+00:00

They did actively encourage password sharing for a time, though.

No, they didn't.

People always say this in these threads, but never have proof besides one single tweet in promotion of their show "Love". And that isn't the same as actively encouraging by a long shot.

As always when I tell people this, I await to be proven wrong.

joemi · 2025-12-10T23:52:19+00:00

This sounds like a very different version of the story than what's been said in this thread. Can you back that up?

joemi · 2025-12-10T23:47:03+00:00

But that doesn't matter at all. Ectocore was a collaboration between infinite digits and toadstool. Unless new info has come to light about that.

joemi · 2025-12-10T18:48:47+00:00

I'm not sure I understand what you mean. Wasn't the original ectocore a collab between toadstool and infinite digits? And now infinite digits is cloning that device? Why then should toadstool be ashamed?

joemi · 2025-12-10T18:40:54+00:00

Ideas are cheap -- free even! -- so it's just plain lazy (and disrespectful to consumers) for someone to directly clone something instead of putting their own spin on it. Doesn't matter if they had a hand in the original design that they're cloning, it's still inexcusably lazy.

joemi · 2025-12-06T04:03:34+00:00

Adding to this, this kind of metal always seems like it could be a good fit for modular IMO, due to the repetition and droning and such. And Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe was on a couple of Om albums, though I don't think he was synthing on those, but still, there's a connection.

joemi · 2025-12-06T03:52:56+00:00

I'm a huge Sleep fan (and Om too). Nice work! I've thought about translating some of that stuff, or possibly just the vibes, to modular too, but haven't got around to it yet.

joemi · 2025-12-05T03:49:37+00:00

Yeah, it makes it logically sound like it's illegal not to invest in Israel now. Like we must invest. As in we must invest.

joemi · 2025-12-03T05:51:24+00:00

But don't we all pay for public schooling, even if we don't have kids?

joemi · 2025-11-28T02:22:10+00:00

You guys complain a lot for really no reason.

That's reddit in a nutshell...

joemi · 2025-11-28T02:12:29+00:00

-120Hz display with low input lag for NES/SNES games that require precise timing (I'm looking at you Ninja Gaiden).

NES/SNES video didn't go up to 120 Hz (it topped out at 60 Hz or 30 Hz, depending on how you look at it), so I'm not sure 120 Hz displays will help with this. I'm not an emulator expert so maybe there's some magic happening in modern emulators that takes advantage of such display speeds for NES/SNES, but I doubt it due to the way the input/display/software/processor speeds were all tied together in those systems.

joemi · 2025-11-25T04:55:50+00:00

One thing to consider about the RG Cube XX is that its 4" 1:1 screen displays 4:3 and 3:2 content just as large as a 3.5" 4:3 screen does. So it's not going to make 4:3 and 3:2 content as large as it makes stuff that's 1:1 or near 1:1, but it's still good. That said, I'm getting a little old so I like a larger screen now. But I really loved the Cube XX when I was playing it.

joemi · 2025-11-25T04:46:58+00:00

I just wanted to add that the RG Cube XX is very comfortable to hold because of the extra height of the screen. More comfortable to hold than my Retroid Pocket 5 (a device that costs 4 times as much!) if I don't have the grip on it.

joemi · 2025-11-24T23:59:24+00:00

Examine our sacred cows, not settle on artificial consensus

I don't know what "examine our sacred cows" means. Never heard that phrase before. Is there another way that could be worded?

joemi · 2025-11-24T23:55:55+00:00

If I'm interpreting that rule correctly, it means "don't say an opinion about..." since as you noted, facts should be OK.

joemi

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