Hey, thanks. I wrote that response to be jokey, and I didn’t expect an actual, useful reply in return. I will check that out, thank you.

Oh, I can recognize good code from code that works… I’m just not skilled enough to produce the former. (Does that put me ahead of most people by default?)

Thanks for articulating it this way for me. It’s the hypocrisy that gets me, at least in my situation. I reported my boss to the directors. He was (still is) planning to cut a guy from our team, claiming he costs too much. But when I did the math, I found that my boss’ personal expenses on food, gas, phone, vehicle, etc. (with increasingly unaccounted-for amounts) are more than that guy’s pay.

My boss isn’t worried about the financial health of the organization, he’s worried he won’t be able to keep spending it on himself if he has to pay the workers.

I can’t believe it took Starfleet that long to figure out what Nustopher took. Do they not have inventory in the future?!?!

I’m pretty sure Caleb didn’t mean the things he said to Darem and Genesis. He was trying to convince them (and himself) to leave. That’s why Sam said he’s full of shit.

Truly, I don’t understand why, but there are fully grown adults who believe that anything an LLM says is true. Maybe they think computers are unbiased (which is only as true as programmers and data are unbiased); maybe its the confidence with which LLMs deliver information; maybe they believe the program actually searches and verified information; maybe it’s all of the above and more.

I know a guy who routinely says, “I asked ChatGPT…”, and even after having explained how LLMs are complex word predictors and are not programmed for factual truth, he still goes to ChatGPT for everything. It’s a total refusal to believe otherwise, but I can’t fathom why.

To be pedantic, Ake was there, too. (She said the Doctor and Sam were not the only ones who spent 17 years on Kasq.)

But to be not pedantic, I thought the exact same thing. What kind of resilience building experiences could she have had in that environment? Falling and hurting her knee? I feel that one is the biggest tantrums (some) kids have are over food, and Sam doesn’t even eat. Reading does increase people capacity for empathy, so there is that opportunity for her, but even so, there’s a vast difference between sympathy and resilience.

I hope they actually fill this in in a reasonable way. Even though this episode was beautiful in some ways it still had some glaring problems.

You’ve written into your mind that he was a competitive asshole before the academy, but the entire point is he was not like that until he got to the academy. He had to be perfect for his parents, not an asshole. You’ve decided that perfect = asshole, but that is not supported. You can watch that episode again and listen to what he says about his parents.

We’ve known very little about Khionian society till now. Darem was competing hard with Genesis because his parents would, if we believe he was being truthful, leave when he made a mistake. That’s what that episode was about: him dealing with the insecurities caused by his parents’ neglect (and realizing there was another way). He and Genesis had a bonding moment over living up to their parents’ expectations. They wouldn’t even call him back, hence his going to Reno saying his PADD was broken as it wasnt receiving calls. And Reno saw through the situation and talked about people who do show up for him, referring to Genesis.

I understand why they didn’t want to put all the time (and money) into everyone’s make up, but, story-wise, that was pretty inexcusable.

I mean, have you really never met anyone who’s one way around some people, and another way with others? We should all be so lucky! I’ve had co-workers who are total assholes to colleagues, but become simping ass-kissers in front of higher-ups. Or kids who are angels at home and absolute terrors at school. Or the other around: they’re angels at school and terrors at home.

Darem was sweet, deferential, and dutiful for Kaira (and his parents’ approval), and then he let himself loose for the first time at the academy when he didn’t have any of that baggage on him. That’s not at all different from kids who grow up in strict homes, then basically go hog-wild when they go off to college, and then later grow out of that wild phase.

Personally, I hope Jay-Den and Darem become/stay close friends. I think boys and men need more close, intimate, platonic friendships as a whole.

The change in Darem was the whole point of the Calica/prank episode. He went from needing to be the best (because of his parent issues) to apologizing to Genesis, supporting her as their team leader (with the prank as well), and telling his parents he’s found another way.

With the Miyazaki episode, he immediately gave Genesis credit for the idea of how to find the cloaked ship, and while he didn’t have lines for it, when she was getting frustrated with the search, his body language and gestures were essentially encouraging her.

Hello Karim, what are you most recommended/most stay-away-from-this experiences in Toronto (and area) so far?

I, for one, am a fan of bringing back the ascot. (but perhaps not during the height of the summer months.)

Around two or three years ago, I was on a sales call/app demo as a potential customer–not for TikTok, of course. It’s an American company and I’m based in Canada. I asked the sales guy about their data storage, encryption, privacy, and the like; he didn’t know. I said I needed to know that if our group uses the application to communicate internally about, for example, helping refugees, the government won’t be able to access it. The guy asked me if that really was a concern.

Well, you tell me now, sales guy, is it really a concern?

Turning off the targeted ads settings indeed prevents Google from showing you overtly targeted ads. It makes no claim that it prevents Google from harvesting the same data that is used to target ads

I watched every episode, all the seasons. It does get better over time, and the last season is the best of them (imo). I feel like they started to actually figure themselves out by the last season, but I’d still say it was okay, not “good”. I think I would have liked a sixth season to see if it would have become “good”.

If we think of Discovery as a drama show that’s about people’s relationships that happens to be set in a sci-fi universe, I guess it’s an okay show. It’s just not what Trek or sci-fi fans want: sci-fi. Was it a good choice to make that kind of show? Well, you know, I wouldn’t necessarily say “no”, but I don’t think it should have been “Star Trek”. You can have drama shows in space, just call it something else. Trek as a franchise has a certain level of expectation, and disappointment exists in the gap between expectation and reality.

Historically, the mongers of violence and war have only been ended by stronger violence and better war strategies and resources. The whole take the higher road and tolerance thing is what got America into this current mess in the first place. These assholes are cowards and only come out when there are no consequences, but go back into hiding when there are.

People should not be punched in the nose for their race, religion, sexuality, gender, etc., basically who they are. People should be punched in the noise for being assholes, their bad behaviour.

I thought I understood this as a Canadian until this current World Series. “My team good, your team bad.” Then I saw comments from the fanbases of the teams that the Blue Jays faced, and now I understand that people are absolutely deranged. Calling for violence for opposing players for daring to face their team? Yikes.

And this is literally just a game. It doesn’t actually have a bearing on people’s lives in the long term. (Except the actual teams, I guess.) No wonder American politics is the way it is. Unfortunately, parts of Canada are trying to emulate this here, too.

I watched all of Discovery. It is, by far, the worst of all Star Treks. (Disclosure: I have not seen TAS.)

The reason is simple: Discovery is really the Michael Burnham show. She is the Mariest Sue who ever Mary Sued. Discovery could have been a really great show if it had been an ensemble show because it has a lot of very interesting characters whom we never explore.

Instead, everything centres around Burnham. She is the reason for the war at the start of the show. She is the magical, fated solution. She is Spock’s (adopted) sister and had immeasurable impact on his life. Even through timey-wimey things, her (biological) mother comes to save her and the universe.

And on top of all that is the crying. Oh, gosh, everything is so emotional on this show. There is a time and place for emotions, but Discovery was too much of it, including inappropriate times. Burnham and her maybe-broken-up-boyfriend stop in the middle of an infiltration in a hostile station to talk about their relationship.

Even the really great characters, Saru and (Emperor Georgiou) centre around Burnham. She is like a sister to Saru, she saved his life, he gives up being a Captain to continue serving under her captaincy. Burnham is Georgiou’s daughter (not actually), and Georgiou’s love for her (as much as she can love) changes her.

No one has a story unless its actually about Burnham. Or they get a story and then get killed off.

The best thing about Discovery is it brought Trek back on TV and it gave us the rest of this era of shows.