canis_majoris

canis_majoris, 1 day ago

This is magical. I am so glad it was captured on film and uploaded to the internet.

Thanks for sharing!

canis_majoris, 1 day ago

I bought this when it originally launched, and unfortunately never really found the time to play a campaign.

We were workshopping a TMP-era story based around a crew serving on a Miranda class vessel. Kind of a “back to basics” sort of campaign. I had really high hopes because Star Trek is absolutely my favorite universe to roleplay in.

I hope a bunch of people pick this rulebook up and have a fun time with it!

canis_majoris, 2 days ago (edited 2 days ago)

This is my new favorite gif. Thank you.

I collect rare Gowrons.

canis_majoris, 3 days ago

This is like Pakled logic. Biggest helmet = most powerful .

canis_majoris, 10 days ago

I dunno man, LD is like half fan service and half universe building, and it’s my favorite thing they’ve produced in the last decade and a half.

Can we just get Mike McMahan in charge of everything, please?

canis_majoris, 10 days ago

I am very aware of Kurtzman’s influence on the franchise. I think he’s not the right guy to be in charge. It really feels like this is a Dave Filoni/Kathleen Kennedy situation but in Star Trek.

canis_majoris, 10 days ago

I wouldn’t say mishandled but I would say both Disco and Picard’s first two seasons were incredibly sloppy due to a clear lack of planning, vision, and the difficulty of transitioning to a fully serialized format.

By contrast Lower Decks and Strange New Worlds were really able to find their footing quickly because they had season-wide arcs but outside of that they were generally episodic and allowed for a lot more exploration of the core of the universe. This is just a better format for the franchise in my opinion.

I find Kurtzman is occupied with making the series more cinematic than it needs to be. Overly cinematic Star Trek results in eye bleeding lightshows like the finale of Disco S2, while grounding the shows a bit more allows for more character growth and development. You can’t just always have Sacrifice of Angels all the time, you need to cut it with some Take Me Out to The Holosuite.

canis_majoris, 10 days ago

Sure, the fanservice can be a lot.

My main thing is just that it’s clear how much McMahan loves the source material and it’s great how he can operate within the parameters of the universe with reverence despite being jocular.

canis_majoris, 11 days ago

Wait, but we already went crazy about a woman firing torpedoes. We went so crazy, we counted them.

canis_majoris, 11 days ago

Honestly, my thought was always just that they could replicate equipment and components as needed but it was a power intensive process.

There is a whole episode of Voyager where they land the ship to do repairs on it, and I just figure that happens more than we’re shown.

I agree though, I would have preferred Voyager to have all crazy Borg shit forever. Would have been sick to have all this jury-rigged bullshit, almost like how DS9 is totally fucked.

canis_majoris, 11 days ago

SNW rocks. I’ll follow Pike and the crew anywhere.

canis_majoris, 11 days ago

They can farm it out to an existing provider like Dropbox or something.

It doesn’t have to (and probably shouldn’t) be proprietary, just like Twitter integration wasn’t.

canis_majoris, 11 days ago

We can replace the words “magic” with “strongly telepathic” and it’s basically the same problem.

It’s a great idea to fuck warp travel right on its head as a concept, but the execution was majorly lacking for me. I would have much rather had a continuation of the plot from Force of Nature where warp had significantly damaged subspace gradually (like a climate change allegory), rather than a universe-wide explosion that happened all at once in a flash.

canis_majoris, 11 days ago

I think putting the face onto the source is what made it lose the value, unfortunately.

My comparison is what they did with the Borg and the Queen. Wolf 359 is a terrifying, tragic ordeal, made all the more serious by the fact that it was done by one cube that could not be negotiated or reasoned with. As soon as the Borg had a way to negotiate and reason, they became less scary because they had understandable motives and goals that could be bargained with, as excellently demonstrated by Janeway.

Ultimately, I agree with you that it’s kind of more of a TOS-y sort of plot device. I do feel like back then they really followed the science being indistinguishable from magic logic, and we’ve progressed over time to wanting more hard and serious technobabble. I think that’s kind of a disconnect for me, personally, is that they had to dip into a serious explanation for something that effectively functions like magic.

canis_majoris, 13 days ago

Tell me you didn’t read the article without telling me you didn’t read the article.

canis_majoris, 16 days ago

I wonder what kind of changes they will make to this iteration. I know VI was a big change from V, but eventually I learned to enjoy the different mechanics and have a ton of hours logged.

canis_majoris, 18 days ago

Yeah, but it doesn’t come standard on these devices. It’s literally just a full install of 11, with Teams and everything.

canis_majoris, 18 days ago

Yeah, the Windows handhelds are basically glorified laptops. This was kind of the approach with the ROG ALLY anyways with the XGM port, allowing connection to an eGPU enclosure with up to a 4090 inside. It just runs a full blown version of Windows and you can even put on a pro license and do dumb shit like have WSL or Hyper-V available on the device.

I have a ROG ALLY and I’ve debloated it to hell, but it’ll never match the power savings I would achieve if it was Linux-based.

I’ve been following Chimera and Bazzite on their progression for developing distros for the Windows handhelds, but it’s going to be a while before they will be fully viable on any handhelds.

Steam will always be ahead because they control the hardware and the software and they are able to fine tune the software to their very specific hardware, which is simply not happening for the Windows handhelds.

canis_majoris, 25 days ago

As a fan of both, and of ironic t-shirts, you would immediately pique my interest for a conversation.

Something, something Dave Filoni…something something Mike McMahan…

canis_majoris, 24 days ago

I would give you the Vulcan hands and say “May the Force be with you”.

canis_majoris, 1 month ago

Yeah but it’s NatPo, so you have to have some conservative angle about how spending money on social issues is literally the devil.

canis_majoris, 1 month ago

Most of them, honestly.

When you look back, it was cool what they were doing at the time, but progress is such that all newer games have iterated on those groundbreaking formulas and improved upon them, making the older games seem less spectacular than they were at launch. I have fond memories of playing PS2, N64 and Dreamcast, but when I go back to play some of those games I enjoyed as a kid, I find that there’s always something super sub-optimal like the controls or some arcane mechanic that doesn’t make much sense. I find this to be the consistent issue going back to PS2 era and earlier.

I think the PS3/360 era is the one I have the most nostalgia for all things considered. There were a lot of stellar RPGs like KOTOR and Mass Effect that generation. Stuff like Red Dead Redemption was coming out. Control schemes finally became generally standardized and understandable. Tutorials, saves and decent graphics were really finally all combined properly for the first time.

I find the same sort of issue with movies. When you go back passed the 80s, you start hitting pacing issues. Same with video games. When you go back passed the mid-2000s, you’re going to run into early installment weirdness.

canis_majoris, 1 month ago

I agree.

Even using my examples of KOTOR and ME, comparing them to (relatively) modern counterparts, Jedi Survivor and Andromeda, you can see that the storytelling has taken a back seat to the open world. ME 1-3 were all very tight corridor cover shooters, going from fully constructed combat environment to another, while Andromeda tried to shoehorn in survival crafting and exploration. KOTOR has more deep RPG mechanics and overall a better story than Jedi Survivor, and I would agree it’s because the focus changed on providing sprawling open worlds over more bespoke environments. I would also say that the combat in Andromeda and Jedi Survivor are superior to their older counterparts, but at the loss of other things.

canis_majoris, 1 month ago

On paper the Intel processor is much better than the Zen 1 Extreme chip, but lack of optimizations remains the main bottleneck.

I knew Intel would incrementally improve the support for the device, because we saw how they handled the Arc cards. They were not great at first but then a driver update was pushed that increased efficacy by almost double bringing the cards on par with low and mid-rangers from the other manufacturers.

Hopefully Intel’s support improves more and the field becomes additionally competitive.

canis_majoris, 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago)

There are a few projects like Bazzite and Chimera which have versions for desktops and other handhelds, but they’re not really at maturity yet for the handhelds other than the Steam Deck.

Since they’re all running AMD hardware, what I anticipate is that eventually the Linux variants designed for them will be significantly more optimal for the devices, much more than the bullshit full Windows install. You do lose out on Gamepass games though, but that’s pretty much the only thing you gain by going Windows in the first place.

I compromised with my ROG Ally and ran a bunch of debloating scripts so I could have my Gamepass games available. I would rather be running Bazzite on it, which runs excellently on my laptop. It requires some funky BIOS fuckery to achieve basic functionality right now though, so it’s definitely a project to undertake later.

canis_majoris, 1 month ago

I am pretty sure the entire library is not available to stream, but you can install all of it on Windows. Bazzite is also not fully compliant with the hardware yet.

There’s a list of problems and workarounds, but it’s listed as gold rating which is better than a lot of other handhelds. I would not be able to stand the LEDs being at full brightness all the time, it would infuriate me.

canis_majoris, 1 month ago

TSMC equipment only has the materials to function for about two weeks before needing a shipment of replacement parts for the fabs when they wear out.

canis_majoris, 1 month ago

It does. Apple has Rosetta and Microsoft has Prism. They are effectively the same thing, being a translation layer for x86 to ARM.

canis_majoris, 1 month ago

Microsoft has a translation layer like Rosetta. It’s called Prism.

canis_majoris, 1 month ago

I think you are misunderstanding the article.

Windows for ARM is designed specifically for ARM, and it has the translation layer. The translation layer effectively allows it to function as if it’s running an x86 Windows install off the bat by offering the ability to run x86 applications on the ARM hardware. It’s not actually running an x86 OS.

The chipset is very powerful but it doesn’t require additional hardware to achieve this translation. The additional processing power built into these chips are NPUs (Neural Processing Units) which are designed to more effectively run ML/AI/LLM workloads. The translation system just works on the normal raw processing power of the machine, just the same as the M-series Macs.

canis_majoris, 1 month ago

Classic conservative playbook, accuse the opponents of what you’re doing.

canis_majoris, 1 month ago

I really like The Drumhead from TNG. It establishes the nature of Star Trek at its most essential. It’s mostly a talking episode, although there’s some action with an explosion, which is perfectly average to me. It gives you a feel of the dynamics of some of the politics in the universe, which I think is a great way to get people involved. It’s got one one of those great Picard speeches that puts a badmiral in their place, solving the problem non-violently. It’s also a great parallel to any slippery slope security tightening after a major event happens, which is basically always a timeless message of avoiding overreaching authoritarianism at all costs.

Another TNG one I’d pick is probably The Ensigns of Command. It’s another example of an episode that’s mostly talking, a little bit of action, with a non-violent resolution. It’s fun watching Picard come up with inane legal bullshit to deal with the very strictly by the books alien species, satisfying their requirements in a way that meets his agenda while also being within the rules.

Honestly, I could rationalize different episodes all day, but since those were the first two that came to mind, I’ll just leave them at that.

canis_majoris, 1 month ago

I used to play against the computer as the particle weapons general, build up a massive defensive perimeter, build a bunch of particle cannons, and then draw dicks in the enemy base with the laser.

It’s one of my favorite games of all time.

canis_majoris, 1 month ago

I was happy with them when they were actually baked in store and not at a factory.

canis_majoris, 1 month ago

Nah, it was way better back in the day. Everything was baked in-house, and your meals were served to you on proper dinnerware with porcelain cups. It was closer to a diner than a fast food place. They changed suppliers for their beans in the mid 2000s and it all went downhill from there.

canis_majoris, 1 month ago

It’s been a while since I’ve been to Tim’s but is McDonald’s coffee not similarly priced?

canis_majoris, 1 month ago

Sour cream glazed blueberry was the last good donut I had from them. Existed for like two weeks a few months back.

canis_majoris, 1 month ago

Between Chinese police stations, election interference, and Indian assassins, yeah we need to tighten up our security.

canis_majoris, 1 month ago

I agree with the Arc cards.

They are good, they are cheap, and they’re targeting the midrange to low-end hardware segment which is not covered by any other manufacturer.

I have a 3090 in my desktop but I have an Arc card on my server for Moonlight/Sunshine streaming, as well as Plex transcoding. It’s the cheapest card to have AV1 encoding built in.

I also keep seeing them increase performance significantly with every driver update, which is pretty cool.

canis_majoris, 1 month ago

The new dedicated cards are actually very good. They sell them at a competitive price because they are not powerhouses, but they get the job done. If you’re targeting 1080p at your top end, it’s almost a no-brainer to go with an Arc card. If you’re pushing a higher resolution, it’s probably better to go with another manufacturer, unless you’re fine with higher resolutions and lower framerates.

canis_majoris, 1 month ago (edited 1 month ago)

I had a 1050ti in the machine and I bought an A770. It’s overpowered for transcoding but I do remotely stream games at 1080p, which is a good workout for the card.

For simple transcoding I would buy the A310 since it’s the cheapest card with AV1. I’m running an old 6th Gen i7-6600k and I had to mess with the UEFI to allow REBAR, but I used this tool to do it.

canis_majoris, 2 months ago

https://lemmy.ca/pictrs/image/3d59829b-d87c-47fb-a23d-bcb6e6ee345d.png

canis_majoris, 2 months ago

Basically nothing posted on here is uplifting anymore. It’s become a catch all for anything with a marginally positive outcome.

canis_majoris, 2 months ago

The decentralized nature of the fediverse means nobody can “control” it really. You can have control over your own instances and that’s pretty much where it stops. I doubt the Canadian government would want to run more than a Mastodon instance like we’ve seen in the EU for open communication.

I would rather they invest in this with a tiny tiny sum to keep open communications available with the populace as compared to being beholden not only to corporations, but corporations that are generally outside of our jurisdiction.

canis_majoris, 2 months ago

It does cater to the adult cartoon crowd but it caters to trekkies in general. Mike McMahan has been a fan of Star Trek forever and as the showrunner did a lot of good universe building within the confines of the TNG era. It has a lot of callbacks and references and is just a fun and funny way to enjoy Star Trek.

I really liked it, I considered it one of the better shows in general, because being lead by a true fan and not just a writers room with notes allowed the show to be a fun little exploration and expansion of the universe, showing us the side of Starfleet we don’t see very often.

Some people have criticized it for being too goofy with the argument that Starfleet officers are supposed to be professional. My counter is simply that not all officers are bridge crew material and there are so many mistakes that happen across all the random ships in the fleet that it’s fun to center on one and see how it’s going.

canis_majoris, 2 months ago

Nice, good call! Thanks!

canis_majoris, 2 months ago

There is a hack to get ReBar on those older machines. I have a 6700k as well and it’s running a 1050ti, but this utility I heard about allows any modern system running a UEFI to have ReBar.