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data1701d data1701d (He/Him) @startrek.website

"Life forms. You precious little lifeforms. You tiny little lifeforms. Where are you?"

\- Lt. Cmdr Data, Star Trek: Generations

Posts 98
Comments 470
Finally found it. Darmok and Jalad would be proud.
  • I wonder why there aren’t any construction firms called Shaka?…

  • If I had a slip of latinum for every time a DS9 character went to an alien afterlife...

    In all seriousness, though, I swear I'm going to break into Rick Berman's house and send him to Gre'thor for what he did to Jadzia (and honestly, most of the female cast members at he time).

    0
    B’Elanna’s stance on afterlife.
  • I think B’Elanna’s not sure what to think of her “Barge of the Dead” experience and can’t tell if it was real or just some weird hallucination.

    “I hope so” indicates that uncertainty.

  • Preview ‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’ Episode 507 With New Images From “Fully Dilated”
  • Why does the phrase "humans with a silly hat" make me think of this meme:

  • Preview ‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’ Episode 507 With New Images From “Fully Dilated”
  • Bearded Rutherford actually looks pretty sharp.

    Also, I find it rather funny that the prewarp civilization kind of just looks like a bunch of bargain bin Andorians. I bet Mariner will say my words almost verbatim.

  • I Just Go Nuts that this song has never seen a proper lease

    I’ve heard Linnell didn’t like it, and I think he’s wrong. 😂

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    Debian 13 Is Quickly Approaching - Desktop Artwork Voting Now Underway
  • This isn't quite Debian red - more of a mix of reddish pink and purple, which is common in Ubuntu backgrounds.

    Despite the Debian logo being red, Debian has tended towards blue-ish backgrounds for several versions.

  • [rant] everytime i give it a chance, btrfs lets me down
  • Sad to hear. I don’t know if it’s luck or something else.

    I’ve been running Debian on btrfs on my laptop for 3 months without issue; I still use ext4 on my desktop, as I just went with defaults when I installed the operating system.

  • Debian 13 Is Quickly Approaching - Desktop Artwork Voting Now Underway
  • Based. I find Desert Moonrise kind of vile. I don’t hate painting, but the colors look too Ubuntu.

  • escaping windows/macOS and want to get work done? here's my list of dos and dont's
  • 1: Agree, mostly. I bought a Thinkpad E16 for its Linux support, though I accidentally got a Realtek one that had few bugs that I've since ironed out. My only thought is if you own existing hardware that is still usable, it is worth your time at least trying.

    2: I somewhat agree. On my note taking laptop, I go by this philosophy. On my desktop, though, I theme away and still get lots done.

    3: I sort of agree with you; I think like you said, if you have one drive for each OS, you won't have problems - dual booting is fine. I've got 2 internal drives in my Thinkpad, though honestly, I hardly use the Windows one. I remember 2 partitions being livable on my Surface Go, but again, I barely touched Windows, so I don't think it had much chance to bork the bootloader.

    4: I agree on the Arch and Gentoo part - after trying to use Debian Testing on several laptops, I found rolling release just isn't conducive to a no-frills productivity device. Honestly, though, I don't see that much problem with immutable, especially if you go with Flatpak. I also think any stable distro you like should work so long as it has a backports kernel - I'm using Debian 12 that way on an E16 and it's been pretty smooth (besides the Realtek thing at the beginning, but I fixed that months ago).

    5: Wholeheartedly disagree, mostly because XFCE was excluded. 😭 I feel like X11's still not that far off the beaten path. This feeling will probably change when XFCE switches; 4.20 comes out with preliminary support in a few weeks, and my bet is 4.22 in 2026 will have full Wayland support.

    6: I don't totally agree with this either. I feel like when it works well natively, go for the native package. If you're having trouble, switch to the Flatpak. I've actually had problems with the VSCodium Flatpak on my laptop not using system environment by default, though there is a fix.

  • [CONTAINS LD 5x05 STARBASE 80 SPOILERS] The most distressing scene in the entire Star Trek franchise
  • A weird VCR board game called Star Trek: The Next Generation - A Klingon Challenge. Honestly, I feel like I'd heard of it before, but I was reminded of it in the annotations for "A Farewell to Farms" recently, as it is the origin for the quote, "Experience bij!"

    On a funnier note, the character is not Gowron, but is the same actor for some reason.

    Here's a compilation of the camp in all its glory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjAvGNn20Y8

    As well as a bit that compilation missed: https://youtu.be/3_739DxrMOs?t=3344

  • Does anyone else feel like tech peaked around 10+ years ago?
  • I wouldn't call 4K mainstream in 2014 - I feel like it was still high end.

    I didn't have a 4K TV until early 2019 or so when unfortunately, the 1080p Samsung one got damaged during a move. Quite sad - it had very good color despite not having the newest tech, and we'd gotten it second-hand for free. Best of all, it was still a "dumb" TV.

    Of course, my definition of mainstream is warped, as we were a bit behind the times - the living room had a CRT until 2012, and I'm almost positive all of the bedroom ones were still CRTs in 2014.

  • Hypothetical Pips

    I have a weird question. Some numbers of pips can have the black pip. However, the 4 captain pips have never been depicted with this.

    In some ways, this makes sense; a "lower" captain wouldn't make sense, and we've seen that the highest first officers hold commander pips. It's most likely that have 4 pips with one black is totally invalid.

    However, I wonder if there's ever a circumstance where the black pip would be there. For instance, let's say someone gets field promoted to acting captain, but Starfleet either takes their time making it official or it's going to take a while (a few weeks) for the ship to get back to starbase to pick up a new captain (meaning the acting captain will be a bit long-term)? Could it be used then?

    I imagine most of this is speculation, but I'm wondering if there's any example in canon of a long-term acting captain that could disprove the use of this pip configuration.

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    I made Cathode - don’t vote for it (or at least, don’t give it a high rank, since Debian uses ranked choice). It kind of sucks, honestly; I was just having fun.

    I have a feeling Juliette Taka’s going to keep being the de facto face of Debian for a long time - I ranked hers first in the voting.

    9
    Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Lower Decks | 5x06 "Of Gods and Angles"
  • I felt that too and cried a little when he wasn’t in the IMDB

  • [Solved[ Is ChatGPT hallucinating about "umount /dev/sdx && sync"?
  • Yes to the first question. I could be wrong, but I think you have to run umount on the directory sdx is mounted on, not sdx itself.

  • Federating Issues with Lemmy.world?
  • Thank you! My crappy TMBG meme is now showing up in my TMBG community!

  • Episode Discussion | Star Trek: Lower Decks | 5x06 "Of Gods and Angles"
  • Yeh. I think part of it is it's just hard to match season 4. I think the series' single funniest dialogue comes from "Trusted Sources".

    Ransom: "How much do bench?"

    Magistrate: "We don't do it for the numbers. We do it to quiet the voices in our heads!"

    Ransom: "Cool. I bench 25."

  • StarTrek.website has updated to Lemmy 0.19.7
  • As a side effect, the i386 theme is fixed now.

  • Seems like a strong pick with lots of first hand knowledge and experience
  • (Starts Daystrom Institute post on how US OSHA became UE OSHA became UFP OSHA)

    Also, half-dead macrovirus infected with a worm put in charge of Starfleet Medical.

  • This Ramones Song Kind of Reminds Me of "No One Knows My Plan"
  • Another test post to see if federation has improved.

  • Federating Issues with Lemmy.world?
  • The camera dramatically zooms into Mr. Spock, who raised an eyebrow. 3 days. Wow!

    But I guess we just have to have faith… faith of the heaaaaaaaa-art.

  • XFCE Vs MATE
  • I’ve never used MATE - almost always been an XFCE guy since I got serious about Linux.

    It was sort of an accident. After a while of using Ubuntu in a VM (including a weird IceWM stint), I tried installing Debian on an old laptop I had sitting around. The first attempt, where I tried KDE, something went wrong with the Network Manager install. At this point, I can never know what went wrong - it’s been years All I know is that I chose XFCE on the second attempt and didn’t have the problems, likely due to coincidence. Still, I stick with XFCE out of satisfaction.

  • Federating Issues with Lemmy.world?
  • On another note, it looks like federation should be sped up in this commit, which is in the recently-released version 0.19.6 (and 0.19.7, which has come out since). I would think lemmy.world would have to upgraded as well, though.

  • Why? - Weird Pi 5 RAM upgrade

    I guess for the thrill, same reason that I’m attempting LFS?

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    Federating Issues with Lemmy.world?

    I’m wondering as a relative fediverse noob - are there any known issues when federating with lemmy.world?

    I ask because I run a They Might Be Giants community there that I created with an alt account and moderate with my account on this instance, in part because as giant as they may be, I feel like a They Might Giants community doesn’t fit this instance (if I am wrong, might consider migrating it).

    I made a post ~14 hours ago and it still hasn’t shown up on other instances. I’m guessing it’s either lemmy.world is a ginormous instance or it’s still on 19.3. I just find it weird because I’ve made posts without problems before.

    Anyhow, glory to the admins of this instance; they honor their houses.

    9

    The Life of Cetacean Ops Officers

    When the LD SB80 episode mentioned Matt and Kimolu were infected on an away mission, it reignited some thoughts/questions about how the lives of Cetacean officers in an era of Trek where whales are beginning to become more common as crew members.

    Here's the discussion that I think can be had within current canon: I can't help but notice what seems to be a difference in the quality of life between Gillian on Voyager-A and Matt and Kimolu on the Cerritos.

    Sure, Matt and Kimolu don't have as flashy or futuristic-looking of an aquarium, but in addition to having each other, the pool-like design of their accommodations allows them easy interaction (a.k.a parties) with the crew. I feel like there's much more opportunity for them to have a fulfilling social life on the Cerritos.

    In comparison, Gillian feels very enclosed and isolated from the rest of Voyager; there's always glass between here and the crew (as humpbacks sometimes need to surface, I image there's probably an area with some air in the aquarium), and people are shown having to wear full suits to be in the same space as her. In addition, there's no other whale with her. In fact, we don't really see a staff of officers in Cetacean ops - just Rok. It seems like a very lonely existence.

    Of course, a lot of these seeming inequalities can be attributed to circumstance rather than neglect on Starfleet's part. For one, Gillian, canonically a humpback, is more than triple the size of Matt or Kimolu, belugas, so it's much harder to design any space at all for her on a starship, let alone one that gives her the freedom to safely interact with crew.

    As for being the only humpback on Voyager, this is probably because there just aren't that many - her species was only repopulated less than a century ago during the whale probe incident.

    Now, here's some more difficult-to-answer questions:

    • How often do whales go on away missions?
    • What precautions do they have to take on away missions?
    • Do these missions come up organically, or is there some sort of quota?
    • How does their shore leave work?
    • What is the Academy like for whales? Is there an aquatic division? Do they sometimes have co-ed events with land-based cadets?
    • Honestly, what is the life of a civilian Federation whale like? Do they have mobility accommodations should they e.g want to go see Vulcan or something? Do they live like 21st century whales, or are there LCARS panels in the ocean?

    These questions definitely can't be answered with current lore, but I guess we can imagine and/or extrapolate from how Starfleet has accommodated other non-humanoid officers.

    0

    This Moment is Canon Now: O'Brien Suffers More

    I was rewatching DS9: "Bar Association" and totally thought this is what should have been done instead, so here it is.

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    It's been a while. Here's a meme for your troubles.

    Flans looks like the statue really did get him high in that last frame frame

    If you want to buy the thing: https://tmbgshop.com/collections/all/products/the-spine-surfs-alone-rarities-1998-2005-180g-translucent-red-vinyl

    0

    Best (or least terrible) Flag Officer

    In Trek fandom, we often think about the badmirals. However, we never consider radmirals. With that in mind, who do you think is the best admiral? This includes commodores, vice admirals, rear admirals, etcetera.

    I’m not counting main characters who got promoted after their main series e.g Picard, Kirk, Janeway, La Forge, etcetera.

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    This happened to me while getting a refresher on Memory Alpha

    Seriously, though. I think I've seen this guy in the grocery store down here in AZ.

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    The most distressing scene in the entire Star Trek franchise

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    SHUT UP EDDINGTON! NOBODY LIKES YOU!

    Okay, I admit Vendome came after, but still, it's not like ops/security/engineering people have never become captain. Plus, come on. Vendome's face was just begging to be memed.

    The main example I can think of from canonically before this moment is Uhura, though everyone was wearing red uniforms at the time.

    4

    More Secure Handling of Transporter Clones

    After rewatching DS9: “Defiant”, I had a thought; to prevent transporter clones from impersonating each other, could Starfleet require, as a part of duty, that transporter clones receive slight genomic resequencing that changes no major traits but allows DNA scanners to distinguish them?

    I can think of a few issues. One, would it break genetic experimentation laws even though there would be negligible changes to each transporter clone? Two, is this too sever a violation of personal liberties for the Federation to be allowed? Three, is the technology there to do this effectively in a starship’s sickbay?

    3

    Bradward Boimler is actually a deceased USS Pegasus Ensign. Prove me wrong!

    13

    What is your top TMBG Halloween song?

    I have several that I've leaned towards over the years, but I recently added "Cyclops Rock" to my repertoire.

    7

    Where Do You Guys Throw Your Local Git Repos?

    Personally, to keep my documents like Inkscape files or LibreOffice documents separate from my code, I add a directory under my home directory called Development. There, I can do git clones to my heart's content

    What do you all do?

    77

    This Ramones Song Kind of Reminds Me of "No One Knows My Plan"

    I wonder if it's just coincidence, if this inspired the Johns (I know they're Ramones fans, or if the two songs share a common ancestor.

    3

    Confusion on Trek Eras

    TLDR; Is PRO TNG or PIC era? Do Trek eras as we know them even matter anymore?

    Edit: Fixed TOK to be TWOK era. My 2 brain cells had failed me there.

    Before I give my problem, here's what I find the conventional Star Trek eras to be (including some common sub-eras that some might consider distinct):

    • ENT era: 2150s-2160s
    • TOS era: 2250s-early 2290s
      • TWOK era: 2270s-early 2290s
    • Lost era: 2290s-roughly 2330s
    • TNG era: 2340s-early 2380s (I count Enterprise C as roughly the start of the TNG era. At the very least, the shuttle for the Hansen's ill-fated trip in the 2350s has the trappings of the TNG era).
      • DS9/VOY/TNG film era: 2370s, maybe early 2380s
    • PIC era: mid 2380s-early 25th century (I think the Utopia Planetia in 2385 is my cutoff)
    • DIS era: 32nd century

    I think most newer series have obvious placements, e.g:

    • DIS starts in the TOS era, then starts its own era.
    • SNW is in the TOS era (I'd argue it's straight up canon, based on LD).
    • LD is TNG era, based on LCARS designs and the story conventions it parodies/pastiches.

    However, the main thing that is ruffling my feathers is that PRO's placement in my framework is very confusing. It exists on an awkward border between TNG and PIC.

    On one hand, some of its storytelling conventions fit better with PIC, not to mention the fact that the Utopia Planetia attack occurs at the end of PRO.

    On the other hand, PRO continues some TNG era characters that aren't yet elderly versions of themselves.

    This goes back to the initial question: Do we place the vast majority of PRO in the TNG era (and have like the last five minutes of season 2 [hopefully not the show] in PIC era), or do we extend the Picard era backwards to 2383 to include PRO in its entirety?

    The 2383 solution might work, as that leaves 2382 in the TNG era for the 5th season of Lower Decks.

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    SPOILERS A Dos Cerritos Fan Theory

    I have a random guess about the problem with the alternate, bearded Boimler: he’s actually William Boimler, who killed (or imprisoned) Bradward and took his place on that Cerritos for mysterious Section 31 reasons.

    That Boimler even says, “nobody deserves to be replaced by their own double.”

    1