I’m actually not sure if it was the number of shows or the fact that Star Trek has historically been episodic (even with DS9’s larger arcs), which is suited to longer seasons. The limited runs of modern shows places a lot more pressure on them to succeed instantly (and have a higher percentage of highly rated episodes) than the TNG/DS9/VOY/ENT era.

Joplin has encryption and can use some sync services (or you can set up your own instance).

I’m more wondering that if all consumer network routers have to be made in the US (e.g. forcing people to use the ISP-provided one), it makes it easier for them to utilise the ISP’s backdoors for monitoring of people’s LANs. If that’s actually the goal, then the next logical step would be to deny anyone access using a third-party router or ISP-provided router that didn’t have their firmware.

Are there actually any US-made consumer network routers on the market? All the brands I can think of are pretty much made in Asia these days.

This. Some countries (like Australia) do provide additional support services or allow you to access accommodations through your employer if you have a diagnosis.

Not sure if it’s wise in the US at the moment, though.

Gotta have strength of the soul to keep persisting through all those failed cookies…

It wouldn’t surprise me if China does eventually step in and demonstrate that it’s the adult in the room, but only after the US has completely embarassed itself.

ADHD and autism are thought to have about a 60-70% genetic overlap. You can have either one separately or both.

Current research suggest that it is more likely that you have AuDHD than standalone autism, though (again, about 60-70% of people on the autism spectrum are estimated to have ADHD as well). I have not yet seen an estimate of the ADHD vs AuDHD population, though, so I’m not sure if the same pattern (more likely to have the combination than just ADHD) applies.

As others have said, there’s also some overlap in how the two conditions present and the challenges faced by an individual with either, even though the underlying mechanisms are different.

In that case I’d recommend just reading up on ADHD and the various coping strategies and techniques that one can use. If those seem to help, or you identify with people describing their experience of ADHD, then it may be worthwhile pursuing a diagnosis.

This is actually one of the few applications for which these tools make sense. LLMs can be useful for brainstorming and planning (which seems to be what he used ChatGPT for - he developed the plan and then went to the relevant experts) and other machine-learning tools are good at identifying patterns. He still had to put in a lot of work and had the advantage of being a data analyst with experts in the relevant fields to lean on, so this is not just a random person using “AI” to solve a problem.

Honestly, that would be living the dream… I have too many other things I want to do!

I am old enough to understand this joke. Sigh.

Star Trek: United is top of my list of the rumoured/wishlist shows. I don’t trust them not to mess up Star Trek: Legacy and I think it would be interesting to see a political drama set in the early days of the Federation, before we get to the near-utopia of 23rd & 24th Century Earth (TOS & TNG).

Pips can’t be replicated and Voyager only had a limited supply of spares. Janeway set aside the only spare pip for the bridge crew for Tuvok’s eventual promotion.

He wants attention. One of mine does this (including the repeated walking around and flopping dramatically in my line of sight) but only wants a cheek scritch. Everything else is off limits. Sometimes they also want you to play with them (if you have cat toys). But almost never do they want a belly rub.

No, it’s pointing out that these sort of claims are flawed and the need to be careful not to undermine one’s own argument. People on both sides of the argument use the Bible incorrectly or are unaware of the nuance of the text.

As I said, I’m all for calling out the hypocrisy, but it’s important to get it right. And if different translations have different views (and one isn’t willing to get into the weeds of what the original text actually says), then perhaps we shouldn’t be using those passages as a “slam dunk”?

Please be aware that those are common misrepresentations of those texts popularised by the NIV translation.

Many translations show Exodus 21 demands life for life and a fine if the child survives but suffers injury. The NIV is one of several exceptions (although probably the most popular one) that instead translates it as a fine for a miscarriage (the original NASB also said this, but the 1995 revision corrected it).

Numbers 5 is a religious test and requires God to enact punishment. The “potion” has no abortifacient components and commentaries suggest that the punishment was infertility. The NIV is again an exception here suggesting miscarriage when most other translations (eg. NKJV, NASB, RSV, ESV, Amplified, Young’s Literal, etc.) do not.

By all means call out their misuse of the Bible or their lack of consistency with it, but please be careful making claims like this – it just undermines credibility.

* twitches *

That word lost all meaning a few years ago…

Professor Lisa Given, director of RMIT University’s Centre for Human-AI Information Environments, said the Reuters findings were unsurprising because “most of these tools are being designed without a view to potential harms and the need for those kinds of safety controls”.

That’s basically the history of the Internet. The vast majority of security, privacy and safety mechanisms have been bolted on after the fact. Not only should tech companies know better by now, but they are deliberately exploiting the human need for connection. So-called AI is even worse since many LLMs are borderline sycophantic and there is no easy way to filter out all the adult or dangerous content from them without rebuilding the model from scratch using a carefully curated dataset.

On another note, it will be very interesting to see what X does about Grok… It would almost be funny if the platform ended up blocked here.

Ugh, being the outcast at school… I’m sorry you’re going through this, but rest assured you’re not alone.

There are heaps of unspoken social rules, especially at schools and even more so in your teens. Personally I think that’s the most difficult phase of life socially, and being neurodivergent just amplifies that.

It takes time to find people you can get along with. I would recommend looking for any group activities that involve something you’re interested in - often it is easier to meet and start to get to know someone when you’re doing something together.

Some other thoughts:

• Most conversations start with some kind of greeting and courtesy “how are you”. This is rarely a real question; it’s basically the social equivalent of a TCP handshake (if you’re into IT) for establishing communication. They’re expecting a very short, brief answer without details (e.g. “Yeah, not bad”, “Doing great”, “Ugh, lousy day, how was yours?”) that they can either echo or offer a short response to before moving on with the conversation. Exceptions to this are things like a family member being seriously ill or passing away, major life changes (starting a job, starting a relationship with someone, etc.) where, if you’re talking with a friend, it should be mentioned so that they have the opportunity to respond.
• Try to be concise / brief when responding to questions or adding to the conversation. For NTs, social conversations are mostly about talking with the other people involved and spending time with them, not about the transfer of information. It can be really tempting to add everything you know about subject X to the conversation, but most of the time the NT participants are only expecting a sentence or two in response.
• Ask people about themselves and what interests them (most people like to talk about themselves, apparently). This will also help you identify what topics people like to talk about.