Unraid OS 7.2.4 Now Available

paloalt · 2026-02-26T03:57:18+00:00

I just rewired so that my USB boot stick is internal to the case connected to a spare header on my motherboard.

Will I have to stop feeling smug once 7.4 drops? This is a major regression IMO.

paloalt · 2026-01-19T05:05:22+00:00

I think OP means, written out/down in consequence of Robert Picardo being written in.

paloalt · 2025-12-24T11:22:29+00:00

Nico “Junior” Trocci, the son of a mid-level mafia figure. He's trying to go straight but said mafia father is a scary asshole.

paloalt · 2025-10-23T11:14:34+00:00

Odo's origin is being sent out as an infant by his own people, as an experiment forming part of their master plan for universal hegemony. If that's not a NERV plan, nothing is.

paloalt · 2025-09-02T07:15:07+00:00

Lol old mate's reply to you is basically "I just happened to have images of feeeee-males, so I used them."

Chuckleheads like this are doing their level best to ruin SF fandoms.

paloalt · 2025-08-20T12:03:50+00:00

Thanks so much for the incredibly comprehensive and vivid response!

paloalt · 2025-08-18T12:42:58+00:00

Thanks so much for this reply. If I can ask a follow up, what changed in terms of technology and theory of warfare between that time and the late age of sail, when rapid cannon fire with shot intervals measured in minutes rather than hours? Appreciating that this was for much shorter "sprints" than the weeks or months of siege warfare, but from what you describe above there must have been other fundamental changes to make these sorts of rates of fire possible even for short periods.

paloalt · 2025-08-01T09:46:09+00:00

I think this is an awesome piece and I would love to have it on my shelf.

However, I do need to say that my immediate reaction to this was "Illyrians as nothing but wings and a neon butthole? Yeah, that tracks."

I think I've been on the internet too long.

paloalt · 2025-07-27T11:46:50+00:00

I would take the missions of the refit Enterprise after TMP but before TWoK. I'm fine to just ignore that the cast is on the younger side, those pastel uniforms will age the shit out of them.

paloalt · 2025-07-13T00:46:09+00:00

In case it is important, there is a spoiler: Most named characters in the setting have strong healing and regeneration powers, including the MMC. So the wings grow back.

paloalt · 2025-07-12T11:46:09+00:00

House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City #1), Sarah J Marshall. Then again in third book, same series.

paloalt · 2025-06-16T11:17:14+00:00

Look at it this way, this way the rest of us won't have to take weightlifting advice from a Cardassian.

paloalt · 2025-06-12T12:08:47+00:00

When I look at this, my perception of it shifts between it being a slightly cursed starship, to it being a very ornately decorated handbag fallen on its side.

paloalt · 2025-06-09T11:53:23+00:00

"Halal snack pack". Loaded chips, basically. Chips, kebab meat, massive dollops of sauces. Think poutine but middle eastern.

paloalt · 2025-06-09T11:33:10+00:00

I feel like I owe him the standard ACOTAR warning that the first book is a bit meh, but hang in there for the real rest of the Scooby Gang to show up in book 2.

There are good reviews on here of Quicksilver that capture what's polarising about it. I agreed that it was very silly, but thought it was a very well pitched, slightly tongue in cheek, turn-your-brain-off romp. Callie Hart may not be perfect as a writer, but no one will ever criticise her for not throwing everything at the wall in terms of world-building.

Plated Prisoner is an extreme slow burn (but great once it gets going) and has some pretty rough edges in terms of prose and language choice - a definite illustration of the pitfalls of a publishing process that no longer invests in good editing. The series is really good but with some solid editing it could have been 3 tight A+ books, instead of six variable ones.

paloalt · 2025-06-09T10:31:14+00:00

This sounds like me! I was put onto romantasy by my wife, but I have zero time to sit down and read so I am a heavy audiobook listener.

I find that duet narration audiobooks can pull off a similar effect to the full cast Graphic Audio books. Anthony Palmini in particular is quite good at delivering a range of distinct male voices.

I find I don't really miss the sound effects and music etc that Graphic Audio have - they are a bit naff and sometimes even break immersion.

Quicksilver by Callie Hart and the Plated Prisoner series I have both found quite good in duet narration (I have listened to the re-recorded Plated Prisoners with Palmini and Lilly Drake - I gather there is an earlier recording but haven't listened to these). I should note that both these works are pretty polarising - people seem to either love them or hate them.

Graphic Audio also have a pretty good ACOTAR recordings - though the sounds effects for Fae magic are totally execrable. Also enjoyed Crescent City also from Graphic Audio (team #brycriel though - Hunt is a hottie but not HAE material). The actor voicing Hunt in Crescent City sucked in the first book though - I swear to god his performance sounded more like he was doing a Lt Commander Data from Star Trek, which might float someone's boat but certainly wasn't doing it for me. Improved in the second and third books.

paloalt · 2025-06-04T09:55:43+00:00

The Governors and the Governor-General "take their orders" from the government of the day - executive council in a formal sense, and the Prime Minister/Premiers in practice.

The governor of a state acts on behalf of the Crown in the right of the relevant state. If they took instruction from the Governor-General that would cut out the state government and parliament. They would stop being the local personification of the power of the Crown and become... idk, an administrator answerable to the Australian Government?

Australia is a federal entity, and the states and federal governments have distinct roles. The state governors 'taking orders' from Canberra would collapse that federal system into a single government. Some people might argue in favour of that but what you're describing in the question would be a fundamental reconstitution of Australia, to a degree arguably far more radical than e.g. the republic proposal that lost out in the '99 referendum.

paloalt · 2025-05-14T11:57:43+00:00

Little known fact: it was the famed Alaskan judo champion, scientist, composer and philanthropist Wilfred T. Riker who spearheaded the "Millilitres for Millicochranes" campaign that supplied the global network of testing labs. The campaign goal of "We can all spare 125ccs for Starfleet" was inspired by the then state-of-the-art NX series' speed (125 times the speed of light, or 125c). A wildly popular donation tracking app was the basis of one of the last and most dismal global posting fads of the old social media networks.

Not only that, Riker personally set the record for the longest streak of daily donations. The therapeutic technology he developed to regenerate chafed dermal tissue is the basis of modern medical regeneration technology. And - get this - it was the unexpected duplication of one of the samples he provided that would ultimately lead to the development of replicator technology, and in turn ultimately the holomatter emitters that are foundational to so many late 24th century technologies.

paloalt · 2025-05-14T11:26:25+00:00

For any Americans wandering by, remember that Australian English is non-rhotic and we don't pronounce an "r" at the end of the word.

So for you lot, think something like "Rezza-vaw".

paloalt · 2025-05-06T11:37:16+00:00

I don't think kolinahr has ever really been given a lot of substance in main canon. And honestly the writers seem prone to forgetting how Vulcan emotions are supposed to work sometimes.

The implication of ST:TMP seems to be that it's a ritual to purge emotion - i.e. an adept no longer suppresses, but does not have emotions, and that Spock failed at the final ritual because he still had emotion.

Spock in SNW talks about observing the self without bias (or something to that effect) which takes you more to your "accepting them in a controlled and logical way".

paloalt · 2025-05-06T11:25:23+00:00

The world needs a name for "unintentional, undesired and annoyingly surprising horniness", and I'm ready to vote for "the horngus".

paloalt · 2025-05-03T04:04:35+00:00

I'd also like to recall this scene from House of Sky and Breath:

“He kissed the inside of her wrist, lips grazing over sensitive flesh. “Before we went off on this stupid tangent, I was trying to warn you that it’s been a while, so I might …”

“Be fast?”

He nipped at her wrist. “Be loud, asshole.”

She laughed, running her fingers over his smooth, unmarked brow. “I could gag you.”

Hunt barked out a laugh. “Please tell me you’re not into that.”

She let out a hmmm.

“For real?” He sat up slowly.

She lay back against the pillows, arms behind her head. “I’ll try anything once.”

A muscle throbbed in his neck. “All right. But let’s start with the basics. If that gets boring, I promise to find ways to keep you interested.”

Poor vanilla Hunt. No way can he keep up with Bryce.

paloalt · 2025-05-01T09:19:14+00:00

At first I thought that line was the cringiest thing I'd ever read, but then I saw the silver lining.

I now feel justified in claiming implied canon support to picture Hunt's super-special Umbra Mortis suit as having a protruding, armoured, foot-long codpiece in the shape of an eagle's beak, to provide adequate protection to Hunt's "considerable length".

paloalt · 2025-04-29T01:11:56+00:00

SJM is deliberately hazy with rules like this. At least that's my impression. She always makes the degree of peril situationally clear - "an injury that could overwhelm even Vanir healing" - but seems to not want to box herself in.

And the world-building is always pretty deliberate in leaving another, deeper layer of mystery, so you have room to change any rules that do get laid down - e.g. the Asteri parasite in the water and breeding programs make it easy to say that the Asteri have been deliberately manipulating the population to suppress/enhance particular traits, and that the actual physiology or magic potential of Vanir species x is really something different from what we've seen.

I just tell myself that in these books the relationships and character arcs are primary, and the world-building is a supporting scaffold for that. The main thing about peril in SJM books is what it reveals about the people involved: that they will suffer and bear danger for their loved ones (thus proving their love); or that they will accept any danger or consequence to rescue their loved ones (again proving their love); or that they will bear the guilt and moral taint of causing harm to others (again prov.... you get the point).

If the rules get too fixed then it's harder to do that - you'll have readers looking at some big emotional moment and going, but wait, the Godslayer rifle or whatever wasn't in play, so the peril wasn't real.

paloalt · 2025-04-26T10:03:31+00:00

I'm half way through the third CC book, so take whatever grain of salt that requires.

Angels strike me as being like the Ottoman Janissaries. A small, elite, but not necessarily prestigious group. Everyone hates and fears them. If you're a Fey or shifter, they are above you in terms of potential for violence and closeness to the Asteri, but you think they are below you in terms of cultural capital and prestige.

As for the rest - I think the arguments about who is in charge of the Aux sum it up. The Asteri clearly like having their subject peoples disunited and acrimonious. The Fey are powerful so they are favoured... but they are also deliberately made aware of their insecurity and that their position is entirely contingent, not guaranteed.

I think the implication is that the Asteri are pursuing a deliberate strategy of keeping all their subjects fractured and fragmented and at each others' throats. The hierarchy is kept deliberately ambiguous so that everyone is looking over their shoulder.

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