Persistent, Niggling Questions

[NAHTMMM]

It's probably just a matter of not wanting to keep transferring tracks onto and off of the device every time you're in the mood for a different genre. Alternatively, it's nice to not have to worry about hitting the capacity limit.

[evay]

plus it's also possible to use the iPod as a drive to carry files around, and if you do a lot of photoshop work, those suckers get really big really fast. You can never have "too much" hard drive space.

[Tate]

Judging by the fact that my 2GB mp3 player is perpetually full, I can imagine that a lot more storage space than 2GB might be desired. 160GB seems way more than anyone would need, but I can imagine filling it up, particularly with all the audio-books I listen to.
Whether I would actually use all those files is another matter. The iPod would probable end up like the computer I use; filled with a lot of stuff that seemed like a good idea (or even important) at one point, but are completely unused for the most part.
As it is, I'm satisfied with 2GB. If I want to listen to something besides what's currently on the player, I just delete a few files and copy some new ones over. It may not be the best arrangement, but its good enough for me.

By the way, I noticed the message editor underling misspelled words in red as I wrote this post. PNQ: How long has this been going on? Or is this a feature of Firefox that I haven't encountered before because I only recently switched from IE?

[Zeke]

I use my PSP as an mp3 player fairly often these days (still prefer actual CDs, but this is convenient for individual tracks). I find 1 gig a little tight, but that's because the music has to share space with everything else I use the PSP for. I can't even conceive of filling 160 gig with just mp3s. Hell, that's nearly as much space as my (admittedly old) computer has.

On the other hand, I have no trouble at all keeping my 60-CD stereo full. But that's because I mentally divide it into sections and fill some of them with a band's whole discography, for when I'm in a mood to listen to that particular band. (Sometimes these are albums I know well, but more often it's a band whose albums I've picked up used and haven't yet given a proper listen to -- putting them in the stereo prods me to do so.) I would guess most people who use the full 160 gig are doing something similar. They probably don't listen to all of it regularly; some is current and some is "archives".

[Nate the Great]

It's Star Wars Prequel Day in the PNQ thread, partially inspired by confusedmatthew's reviews:

1: Was the definition of a "Sith" ever explained in the movies themselves?
2: Was what they were getting revenge for explained in the movies themselves?
3: So is the Trade Federation part of the Republic or not? If so, why are there these disputes in the first place? If not, why do they get a representative in the Senate?
4: Is Anakin and Padme's marriage really a secret? All the Jedi seem to know about it, so why is Anakin still a Jedi, and why wouldn't they tell everyone else about the marriage?
5: If the age at which a Padawan can enter training has passed for Anakin, and yet Anakin still got in, what's the point in having the age cutoff?
6: If Qui-Gon can't teach Anakin, why is Anakin still allowed to accompany him? Are Jedi really allowed to adopt children on a permanent basis without training them to be future Jedi?
7: We have loads of cartoons and novels about the space between Episodes II and III, but what about the space between I and II?

[Nate the Great]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESHN0L1uqZ0&feature=channel

Part One of SFdebris' review of The Outrageous Okona

PNQ: Why does this episode keep getting a bad rap? It's certainly not classic Trek, but I liked it, and there are far worse episodes available (Shades of Grey comes to mind immediately).

[Nate the Great]

I was just pondering this "every decision splits off a new parallel dimension" thing...

PNQ: Where would all this matter and energy come from to create zillions of new timelines each and every second?

[Nate the Great]

PNQ: Is anyone else ticked by people using up the first post in ANY online conversation with nothing but an announcement that they are indeed the first poster?

[Nate the Great]

http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/teamt/rooney/jg/14644-ep005

So That Jewish Guy has posted a video about some Hanukkah misconceptions...

PNQ: Why hasn't the Jewish community put their foot down and said "THIS is how you spell Hanukkah in English"? I mean, it's not like English-speaking Jews haven't been celebrating this holiday for hundreds of years or anything!

I just don't like multiple transliterations; it's annoying.

[evay]

As I learned the rule, as long as it has eight letters (for the eight-day festival), any reasonable combination of the consonants and vowels is acceptable.

Chanukah
Channuka
Chanukka
Hannukah
Hanukkah
Hannukka

all fair game.

[Nate the Great]

PNQ: But why? What purpose does it achieve to confuse all of the non-Jews in the audience every single year? And if no particular spelling is any more or less proper, than it shouldn't matter which the Jewish High Council (or whatever) deems to be "official."

[NAHTMMM]

Well, remember "chutzpah". The H-sounding C-H seems to be a pattern.


I'm not terribly fond of multiple trans-whatevers myself. But if they don't mind, neither do I.

[Nate the Great]

I've now heard two British video game reviewers pronounce NES as "nezz."

PNQ: Is this a common thing in places other than the U.S.? Here it's always "en-ee-es."

[Nate the Great]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok_VQ8I7g6I&feature=channel

First off, a plug for the Commoncraft Show and their "X in Plain English" series.

PNQ1: Why is a strict popular vote for President of the United States unfeasible? Why do we need electors again?
PNQ2: What's this "#electors=#senators+#representatives" business really all about? Doesn't this give smaller states a bigger voice than usual, with larger states getting a smaller voice? How is this fair?
PNQ3: How is it fair that some states allow multiple candidates to split the electors, while others are strictly "majority winner claims all electors"?

[Tate]

It all boils down to the way things were when the Constitution was written. At that point, the States considered themselves to be sovereign entities, entitled to make their own decisions. The Constitution was framed so that the States and their populations would be fairly represented in the federal government. The legislature, for example, was divided into two bodies, with the Senate representing the States and the House of Representatives representing the population.

Likewise, the electoral collage was devised with the same number of electors per State as the total number of the State's Senators and Representatives, so that the States are each fairly represented in electing the President. So, yes, the smaller States get a bigger voice in the electoral process than they otherwise would have, because the framers of the Constitution were concerned about fairly representing the States, not just the people.
As time has gone on (especially after the American Civil War), the States have become less autonomous and the federal government has become more important, so the idea of representing States equally has become less relevant, but the Constitution's rules for presidential elections stay the same.

As for why some States give all their electors to one party while others split the electors, that goes back to the days of the Constitution too. The States were each given the right to choose their electors however they wanted. Originally, I believe, the State legislatures chose the electors directly, without consulting their populations at all. As time went on, democracy became more popular and the States started to choose their electors by popular election. Some let the majority party take all the electors, while others split the electors, just because they individually decided how to choose the electors.

I wish more States would split the electors according to the proportion of the popular vote each party received. My own State of California has 55 electors (over 10% of the electoral college) and these days they all go to the Democratic party. There's not much reason to vote either way, because there's a large enough Democratic majority to make it unlikely that the State would ever go to the Republican candidate. If the electors were split, there would be more of a contest and more reason to vote. But that's just my opinion.

[Nate the Great]

I just find it unfair that there's such blatant hypocrisy in the selection. If I belong to Party A and live in a state where not only is it guaranteed that Party B will win the popular vote but all of the electors will go with the majority, why should I vote at all? What's the point? Seriously, what is the freakin' point in voting if the way the system is set up guarantees that my vote will be rendered utterly meaningless?

[Chancellor Valium]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok_VQ8I7g6I&feature=channel

First off, a plug for the Commoncraft Show and their "X in Plain English" series.

PNQ1: Why is a strict popular vote for President of the United States unfeasible? Why do we need electors again?
PNQ2: What's this "#electors=#senators+#representatives" business really all about? Doesn't this give smaller states a bigger voice than usual, with larger states getting a smaller voice? How is this fair?
PNQ3: How is it fair that some states allow multiple candidates to split the electors, while others are strictly "majority winner claims all electors"?

It exists solely to confuse foreigners.

[Nate the Great]

It can't solely exist to confuse foreigners, 'cause there are plenty of confused natives, too.

[Nate the Great]

Now that tgwtg.com is letting anybody post a blog for posterity, it's becoming far too easy for wannabe reviewers to put up drek without any regard for quality control.

PNQ: Why isn't there some quality control in there?

Major complaints:

1. There are far too many two-paragraph blogs that basically amount to "I am about to start a blog series. This is what it'll be about. See you next time!" Too bad I can't see any other posts by you on any topic; thanks for wasting time and bandwidth.
2. Far too many "part one" posts where I can't see where the "part two" post is, if one was ever made. Again, thanks for wasting time and bandwidth.
3. Rehashing topics that have been done to death already. Superman 64 stinks? I never knew that!
4. Incessant follow-the-leader tactics. If you're not going to differentiate yourself from a preexisting reviewer, why should I follow your stuff when the preexisting reviewer is better at doing his own style than you are?

Let me make myself clear. It's one thing to open up a forum to wannabe reviewers; it's quite another to allow anyone to post an entry on the real site without quality control.

[Sa'ar Chasm]

far too easy for wannabe reviewers to put up drek without any regard for quality control.

Welcome to the Internet, you must be new here.

[Nate the Great]

Let me repeat. Posting in a forum, your own blog, or in a comment section is one thing. Posting on a "professional" reviewing site is quite another.

[Nate the Great]

PNQ: How do we feel about the iSlate, the touchscreen tablet rumored to be announced by Apple soon?

[Nate the Great]

PNQ: So Raimi couldn't promise to get Spider-Man 4 out in May 2011, so they decide to reboot the franchise with the new movie coming out in 2012? Huh? I mean, seriously, HUH? If 2012 is okay for the reboot to come out, why couldn't they have given Raimi and company another year and have SM4 come out in 2012?

(Note: Another rumored problem is the fact that they've already killed off the major villains, leaving only the obscure baddies as options. Well, I don't have a problem with second-string villains if they're done well, and I DO have a problem with killing off villains to prevent a Sinister Six movie!)

[LtFielding]

PNQ: Am I the only person under 25 who listens to Frank Sinatra?

[Sa'ar Chasm]

If you'd asked me that question five years ago, the answer would have been no.

In slightly related news, how's 30 treating you, Derek?

[Nate the Great]

PNQ: How are we feeling about the imminent announcement of the Apple Tablet?

Speaking for myself, I find the idea intriguing, but I won't be buying one. I can't be dropping $800-$1000 for a gadget that will have impossible to update hardware and a battery that I can't replace (at least for less than a sack of cash).

[Nate the Great]

PNQ: Is anyone else getting annoyed by gadgetmakers using the word "thin" as a dimension?


Example, the new iPad is advertised as "0.5 inches thin". "Thin" is not a valid property! An iPad is 0.5 inches thick, or X inches _thinner_ than a iPod!

[NAHTMMM]

Eh, I'd say that's like a 3.0 on the Richter scale of Mind-Numbingly Stupid Things Advertisers Say. But then I may not be exposed to those commercials as often as you are.

[Nate the Great]

Once more I see the "DC comics publishes something called Shazam, even though the real name of the hero is Captain Marvel" thing.

PNQ: Why why WHY can't DC just give Marvel umpteen billion dollars to buy back the rights to have a comic book called Captain Marvel?

I mean, I like the Marvel versions of Captain Marvel just fine, especially the brainwashed Skrull version. But even so, when most people think "Captain Marvel," they think The Big Red Cheese, they think half capes and lightning bolts, they think Billy Batson.

[Nate the Great]

So I see an ad for a stage show that I'd like to see, but tickets start at $38...

PNQ: Do they ever sell out performances at that price in this economy? Where are these people getting this much disposable income?

And I'd like to note that this is not a hoity-toity fine arts performance, either. You won't be seeing tuxedos and champagne here, just ordinary folks. How many ordinary folks can drop $80 for two tickets on a mere two hour show these days?

[Nate the Great]

So I attempt ("attempt" being a very key word) to follow the connection between CardCaptor Sakura, Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, and xxxHolic.

PNQ: So Watanuki is the son of the Sakura and Syaoran from CCS? Yeah, um, what?

I mean, I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the idea of the TRC Syaoran being a clone or whatever of the real one.

[MaverickZer0]

Oh dear lord, don't even try. Trying to make sense of CLAMP's plans with all the Sakuras and Syaorans causes insanity.

That being said I think that Watanuki is an alternate timeline version of real!Syaoran, who is Cardcaptor Sakura's Sakura and Syaoran's son. Or a twin. Or...something...

[Zeke]

I decided to check out Tsubasa recently so I could understand its frequent crossovers with XXXHolic, but I stopped at one volume. It's clearly a series for CLAMP aficionados; I liked it on its own terms, but I can tell how much I'm missing. ('Holic is the only CLAMP series I've read much of.) I'm not yet invested in the "real" Sakura, Syaoran, etc. What's more, there have been two "what the hell is going on" guides published for Tsubasa, so I get the feeling even faithful readers have trouble keeping up.

As for 'Holic, I checked that out on the strength of <a href="http://community.livejournal.com/kirei_dakara/14201.html#cutid1">this crossover</a>, which I found while looking for Hell Girl fic (there's not a lot around). As I implied in the latter show's fiver, Yuuko really does look like a grown-up Enma Ai -- albeit one who's gone from impassive to mischievous. The theme song shot of <a href="http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt243/CZeke/shot0070.png">Yuuko in a yukata</a> makes me double-take a lot.

I like 'Holic so far, but the art style is a major impediment. "Spindly" does not begin to describe people's limbs in this series. <a href="http://i616.photobucket.com/albums/tt243/CZeke/tinytinyhead.png">Watanuki gets the worst of it.</a>

[Naki]

Spindly nothing, that boy makes me look well filled out

[LtFielding]

How come the only time I have used my Boy Scout medical skills is when my friend Radmer cut himself on the carpet?
More importantly, How did my friend Radmer cut himself on the carpet?

[Nate the Great]

Yet again I see an ad for the new fancy iMac. My PNQ this time is "what's the big deal about wireless keyboards and mice?"

I mean, seriously, are these two wires just THAT annoying? Furthermore, rechargable batteries where they aren't necessary (and where a hardline would be perfectly acceptable) make me cheesed more than an exploding Velveeta box.

[Nate the Great]

It's National Debt Day! (again, I think)

http://www.cracked.com/funny-4136-national-debt/

Yes, I know, always take statistics derived from Cracked with a grain of salt, but let's take these figures of "13.7 trillion dollars" and "the debt will match our gross domestic product in 2019" at face value.

PNQ1: Is it even possible for the debt to be repaid, or is this a high-pressure hose with no off valve?
PNQ2: Foreign interests couldn't really repossess American property, right?
PNQ3: If the debt really is owed to other countries, why are we giving them foreign aid without taking a "debt writeoff"?
PNQ4: If the debt is owed to the taxpayers, why are we still paying taxes if the nation theoretically owes us?

[Nate the Great]

Since Smallville has been renewed for a tenth season, much is being made of the fact that they are tied with Stargate SG-1 for the longest-running consecutive (sorry, Doctor Who) scifi show.

PNQ1: Is Smallville really "scifi"? Isn't it more of a drama?
PNQ2: Does this really count as the same show anymore? A few commentators have noted that we really don't focus on Smallville itself anymore, plus the only original characters still around are Clark and Chloe, so would treating the last few seasons as a successor series make more sense?

[Katy Jane]

PNQ1: Is Smallville really "scifi"? Isn't it more of a drama?


I don't think Drama is the right words, maybe fantasy would be better than scifi, but Clark Kent is an alien i suppose, that's scifiish i guess.
PNQ2: Does this really count as the same show anymore? A few commentators have noted that we really don't focus on Smallville itself anymore, plus the only original characters still around are Clark and Chloe, so would treating the last few seasons as a successor series make more sense?

As long as the show has ran with out stopping and the name hasn't changed and the production numbers haven't reset or anything like that I don't see why it shouldn't be considered a consecutively running show. Look at ER, where there any original characters left when they wen't off the air?

my PNQ is wasn't the original Doctor who run longer, nay, much longer than 11 years? /:)

[Chancellor Valium]

Doctor Who was originally on-air between November 23rd 1963 and December 6th 1989, which makes 26 years for those of us who aren't maths whizzes. :p

A television movie was co-produced with Fox and Universal in 1996.

A range of novels covering continuing stories - the "New Adventures" was published by Virgin between 1991 (starting with Timewyrm: Genesis) and 1997 (last book published was So Vile A Sin, but, IIRC, the last in-sequence was The Dying Days).

A range of BBC tie-in novels covering continuing stories for the Eighth Doctor of the TV Movie, Paul McGann, was produced between 1997 (The Eight Doctors by Terrance Dicks) and 2005 (The Gallifrey Chronicles, by Lance Parkin).

Both book series were paired by a run of books chronicling stories for previous Doctors, often slotted in-between their on-screen serials. The New Adventures were paired with the Missing Adventures, and the Eighth Doctor Adventures with the Past Doctor Adventures.

Big Finish Productions have been producing past- and Eighth Doctor audio plays since The Sirens of Time which came out in about 1999.

There were also two stand alone Dalek films in the 1960s starring Peter Cushing as the human scientist, "Doctor Who". There was also a 1979 (?) TV spin-off pilot for a series called K9 and Company.

Oh, and Telos Publishing, which was set up in 2001, have published some DW novellas; I think the only other spin-off matter worth mentioning from before the revival is BBV (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBV).

So uh, does that answer your question? :p

[Nate the Great]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzDyh3HrlMg&feature=related

After watching sfdebris' review of "Tuvix" a number of times the following occurs to me...

PNQ: Was it necessary to present the story such that Janeway had to execute Tuvix? That's exactly what that was. Tuvix had committed no crime, and she executed him!

Being reminded that the alien symbiogenetic plant was still within Tuvix's body, I couldn't help but wonder why they couldn't have had the plant slowly kill him. After all, when the plant fuses other plants it never becomes part of the third species itself. And having a plant inside our bodies would sure cause trouble, right? If the plant was killing Tuvix anyway, the separation back into the component species would avoid the moral dilemma, right?

[NAHTMMM]

Well, but then people get annoyed that the writers went with the easy way out to avoid forcing their characters to come to a hard decision about the little dilemma that has been building through the episode. And given that there's already criticism that the show suffered from cop-outs in the form of endless shuttles and torpedoes and such, that would probably be a worse way to go.

[Nate the Great]

So I'm in a chat and we're talking about pizza toppings. One person says they like ranch dressing on their pizza.

PNQ: Is this a common choice? Or is this person a few shuttles short of an Intrepid-class starship?

[Tate]

Talking from experience in the pizza industry, I can say that the practice is not unheard of. In fact, some of my co-workers have been known to eat pizza dipped in ranch dressing. It sounds bizarre to me, though.

[Nate the Great]

So I'm at the Wikipedia List of Superheroes and Villains Without Superpowers:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_superheroes_and_villains_without_superpowe rs

And a few of these entries don't really seem like "superheroes" per se. Just being a protagonist in a universe that defies the normal laws of physics doesn't seem like justification for the "superhero" moniker, if you ask me. Here is my list of those on that page that don't qualify for the title, in my opinion. Discuss. While we're at it...

PNQ: How do you define "superhero?"

James Bond. What, is he supposed to have superseduction powers or something?
Lara Croft. Seriously? Just being an "adventure archaeologist" (as TV Tropes calls them) doesn't mean you're a "superhero." Ditto for Indiana Jones.
Sherlock Holmes. Oh, come on. You could make arguments for Zorro (who is also on this list), but Sherlock Holmes?
MacGyver. Awesome human being, but not a superhero.
Kim Possible. Well, this is a sticky widget. Yes, she's basically James Bond crossed with Lara Croft, but she does have a bona fide "rogue's gallery" which is a necessary component for the title. In fact, if she had a "secret identity" I'd be a lot more in favor of granting her the title.

[NAHTMMM]

A superhero should have one or more super qualities and should succeed, with super-high stakes, at heroic tasks where it would be ridiculous to expect a normal human being to succeed.

Roughly speaking.


I wouldn't consider anyone on your list to be a superhero(ine), barring K. I. which I really don't know anything about.

[Nate the Great]

It's fairly easy to run into the "a superhero has superpowers" trap, but there are a number of dogooders that have no powers, but still get the title. Batman (and most of his associated characters), Hawkeye (and Green Arrow and associated archers), The Question, and so forth.

Here's a sample definition that I'm just now inventing off the top of my head:

"A superhero is a person who uses their talents and gifts (whether natural or artificial) to fight crime and injustice wherever it occurs, usually using an alias (a costumed persona) in order to protect those close to them."

By this definition James Bond is not a superhero. He's an agent of his government. He doesn't fight "injustice", he fights threats to his nation's security.

Along these lines, agents for hire are not "superheroes." Also note "fight crime and injustice," not "fight enemies to a particular government or organization."

[Tate]

First of all, I agree with you in disagreeing with that list. King Arthur's on there. While a great character, Arthur is decidedly not a 'superhero'. A better case could be made for Robin Hood, who is also on the list. He, after all, did fight injustice. And he had something of a secret identity (his real name was Robin of Locksley). But I would probably exclude him from the superhero list as well.

I think, however, that an exception could be added to your definition of superhero. I would say that agents for a specific government could be considered superheroes if they in fact have super powers. I would point to WWII era superheroes who, if I'm not mistaken, spent a lot of time fighting Nazis (e.g. the original 'Human' Torch http://www.fiveminute.net/comics/marvelcomics1.html). Also, I believe that Captain America was originally a super-soldier

Along the same lines, would the Scarlet Pimpernel be considered a superhero? The Scarlet Pimpernel was the secret identity of Baroness Orczy's character Percy Blakeney, who smuggle aristocrats out of revolutionary France. He was definitely fighting injustice and wasn't working on behalf of any official government organization. But his actions were directed primarily against France. I would be hard pressed to classify him as a superhero or not.

[NAHTMMM]

I did deliberately say "qualities" rather than "powers". ;)

[Nate the Great]

Well, I do have "injustice" in there. And fighting Nazis would certainly involve striking blows in the name of the universal concept of "justice." And I did have "usually using an alias", which allows for guys like Luke Cage, who uses the name "Power Man" less and less often these days.

It could be argued that WWII-era heroes may be using the resources of their governments to get around and fight bad guys without actually being a "soldier" of their government. And Captain America has said many times that he doesn't fight for the America of today (which is growing far more corrupt and/or indulgent in his opinion), but for the America he knows we could be. That's an ideal, not a government.

Consider the Great Ten of DC's China. They are "superfunctionaries" that have powers, aliases, and so forth but fight for China's interests. Furthermore, they go where China sends them, whether that involves fighting for or against Black Adam, for example. I don't necessarily call them "superheroes."

Sure, the Scarlet Pimpernel is a superhero. Good book.

[Nate the Great]

Once again I read about how "Big Ben" is the bell, not the clock or the tower it resides in.

PNQ: Why can't the owners just give in to public opinion and officially rename the entire thing "Big Ben?" What is this exercise in semantics achieving other than frustration?

[Nate the Great]

PNQ: How do you get a cat to ignore and stay away from you?

[Sa'ar Chasm]

Feed it.

[Nate the Great]

But she ain't my cat. I want to get it through her thick skull that I never want her around.

[Sa'ar Chasm]

Oh. In that case, stop feeding it.

[Nate the Great]

I don't feed that beast. I don't pet that beast. I carry it to the other side of a door that I can put between us and that's it.

[NAHTMMM]

Direct, sustained eye contact might work. (KJ says: "It could also get your face taken off.")

Other than that, maybe making freaky noises would weird the cat out enough. Especially if the cat connects the noises with you paying attention to it. Or maybe the cat would just be fascinated by you all the more, or would ignore the noises after a while. I dunno. As KJ says, you can't really make cats do what you want.

[Nate the Great]

Is there a limit to how many Facebook pages can exist? I stumbled upon TWO based on the same quote from Friends:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/It-tastes-like-feet/333598119393?ref=mf

http://en-gb.facebook.com/pages/It-tastes-like-feet/299441159200

WHY do both of these pages have to exist?

[Nate the Great]

Okay, a little background. Dr. Ashens has created a minor Internet meme by making fun of the "whimsical marketing fiction" known as Chef Excellence, a character made to sell cheap products at dollar and pound stores. A guy chooses to name his Facebook and YouTube accounts Chef Excellence in homage. Cue an idiot on YouTube saying in a comment, "Chef Excellence has a facebook!!  search chef excellence on facebook on click... HE IS A REAL PERSON!!!"

PNQ1: How sad is it that some people take the most flimsy evidence and treat something as a fact?
PNQ2: Seriously, is proper capitalization and punctuation just plain impossible for some people online? If you're in a hurry on Twitter; that's one thing. But for proper posts you should take the extra time to make something that looks proper.

[NAHTMMM]

PNQ2: Seriously, is proper capitalization and punctuation just plain impossible for some people online? If you're in a hurry on Twitter; that's one thing. But for proper posts you should take the extra time to make something that looks proper.

Entirely agreed.

[Wowbagger]

i dunno wut you 2 are complaining. Calm the heck DOWN!!!!(!)

:P

[Nate the Great]

For some reason I still attempt to follow the debacle that is Duke Nukem Forever. The current word is that until the lawsuit is resolved no announcements can be made, and any trailer we may see are completely fanmade. Furthermore, the case will last for at least another year.

The game engine already looks dated. Nobody at 3D Realms is working on it right now in any real capacity. Nobody else can work on it until the lawsuit is resolved. Thus if it's another year before anybody can actually work on it, it'll be at least another year past that before anything remotely presentable can be released. Now we're getting up to 15 years since the thing was announced.

PNQ1: If 3D Realms actually wins this case, where is the money going to come from to rework the game for the umpteenth time to keep up with technology? Who's going to trust them with ten million dollars or whatever?

PNQ2: If Take2 wins this case, odds are they'll start over from scratch on a new cutting-edge game and not use the Duke Nukem Forever name at all. How long will that take, and will anybody be interested?

[Nate the Great]

I just saw a new message on a pre-online video ad. "Is this advertisement relevant to you?"

PNQ: Um, what? Like I could seriously click "no" every time and never see ads again because none of them are relevant?

[Nate the Great]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttZjvfj_P0E

A German dub of the "You Are My Sunshine" segment from "Someone To Watch Over Me."

PNQ: Why wasn't the singing dubbed? It's not like matching the mouth movements precisely was ever absolutely required for the dialogue. In addition, hearing the German voice actor cut to Robert Picardo just breaks a person out of the experience, right?

[JVTruman]

Actually, out of all of the characters on Voyager, isn't the Doctor the only one where that happening could be logically explained? He just has a separate voice program for singing. Unless someone specifically mentioned him not doing something like that...

[Nate the Great]

Having discovered the miracle of Super Mario Crossover, I'm contemplating getting a gamepad to play the thing properly.

PNQ1: Are there USB gamepads out there that I could also use to play older DOS games?

I should probably know the proper terms for these connectors, but I don't. Here's a Wikipedia page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-subminiature

I have a few older joysticks and gamepads, but they all have 15-pin (DA) male connectors, and my serial port is meant for stuff that uses 9-pin (DE) female connectors.

I suppose it's time for...

PNQ2: Can a Flash game on Windows XP even use a gamepad plugged into a serial port?

[Nate the Great]

From listening to a commentary for the 1966 Batman movie...

PNQ: How does a dehydrating ray help in making alcoholic beverages?

[Sa'ar Chasm]

Assuming the beverage is already somewhat alcoholic, a dehydrating ray can remove some of the water and concentrate the ethanol, basically turning a glass of near-beer into a shot of moonshine.

If there isn't any alcohol there already, you'll just be left with dehydrated beverage (just add water!).

Q: Why are you trying to make sense out of the 1966 Batman movie?

[Nate the Great]

That raises another question. If the Commodore Schmidlapp's invention removes water and only water from the test subject, what about the liquids humans contain other than water? Fat and so forth.

[Nate the Great]

So I just saw "In a Mirror, Darkly"...

PNQ: What's the point?

Okay, I know what the point was: Mirror Universe stories always get lots of viewers, and seeing the cast in TOS uniforms especially when they're miniskirts doesn't hurt the ratings.

But I mean, in the grand scheme of things, what affect did this have on the main crew? It's like that episode of Voyager when the duplicates fell apart into metal ooze. Our crew didn't learn anything at all. No morals about the human condition were imparted. Once again it just feels like the creators were getting bored with the small box that THEY HAD WRITTEN THEMSELVES INTO, and the only solution was to ditch the boring characters that they'd written to make a plot that has no impact on the show they're supposed to be making.

(Actually, this is reminding me of my complaints about Trek 11. The existing characters were deemed boring, so make new ones without any regard for continuity)

But really, pull these two episodes out and nothing is lost. The regular versions of the characters never appeared, so there was no characterization.

And by the way, where did that mainline Archer hallucination come from? It wasn't the mainline NX-01 that the mirror guys found, it was the Defiant. In the timeframe the Defiant left, Archer was long dead. Mirror Archer read the file on Regular Archer and became haunted by it? Haunted by a guy he'd never meet who was long dead?

[Nate the Great]

I'm still trying to wrap my mind around this Ultimate Comics "reboot" over at Marvel...

PNQ1: If all of the previous Ultimate Marvel books still happened, how is this a reboot?
PNQ2: If using the Avengers name is okay now, why wasn't it okay before? Seriously, a superhero team called The Ultimates? Doesn't that sound like a team that believes in eugenics or something?

[Nate the Great]

I was watching an episode of DS9 that used the holocommunicator and decided to look it up at Memory Alpha...

http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Holocommunicator

I'm especially annoyed at the line "you have to move the camera around so that audience can see that it's 3-D, but then it could look to them like the guy beamed in."

PNQ: Do we, as the audience, feel insulted by that?

All the writers had to do was drop the word "holocommunicator" and "hologram" into conversation every now and then and make sure the holographic base is visible to remind us the thing was in use. And make the guy talking on our end to step on an identical platform to make cuts between the two ships easier. And toss a subtle glow on the guy to remind us it's a hologram. And, oh, I don't know, not use any form of transporter effect, whether audio or video? If I see and hear the distinct effect of a holograph forming, I'd think it was a hologram, wouldn't you?

Or just think it through and not introduce the device at all. Nah, that's just crazy-talk.

[Nate the Great]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/102262-Nintendo-Places-Skyward-Sword-in-Zelda-Timeline

From an interview regarding the upcoming Zelda Skyward Sword...

"The reason that Nintendo kept the timeline under wraps, Aonuma said, was so that it didn't constrain itself when it came to making new titles; saying that if he said a particular title was the first Zelda game, Nintendo would be unable to make a game before that. 'For us to add titles to the series,' he added. 'We have to have a way of putting the titles before or after each other.'"

PNQ: Erm, what? How does creating an "official timeline of all released games" mean that future games can now never exist at particular points in the timeline?

Seriously, I'm NOT FREAKING JOKING. Interquels have existed for DECADES. One of the Narnia books is set entirely within a single chapter of another. Announcing an official timeline of the Zelda universe does NOT mean that each and every major event in the history of Hyrule has now been revealed and there is no possible way to fit further events in between them.

[NAHTMMM]

Well, but if one of the selling points for a particular game is that it's "Link's First Adventure EVAR!", then somebody's going to be annoyed if Nintendo later releases a game starring Link that takes place even earlier.

[Nate the Great]

Why? Would people not really understand that the statement "this is the first game" only refers to the set of games that was out at the time? OOT used to be first, now it's not. The world did not end. Gamers did not riot. "Addition" does not mean "rearrangement".

[NAHTMMM]

Upon looking at the interview, Nintendo's probably just afraid of people quibbling over continuity errors. It's probably also assumed that people who care about the order in which the games occur will be able to piece it together well enough for their own satisfaction.

[Nate the Great]

I just hate fence-sitting. If they want to claim absolutely no interconnectivity between games, that's their prerogative. But I want them to stop teasing us with bits and pieces of continuity. Either the games are part of the same universe and history, or they're not. If they are, give us a timeline and add a note saying that it'll be modified as new games come along. If not, stop giving out clues and acting like they share a universe!

[Nate the Great]

PNQ: In your iTunes, Windows Media Player, or whatever, what songs do you have multiple copies of?

I just noticed that I have three identical copies of "Come On, Come On" by Smash Mouth in my library. One from the studio album Astro Lounge, one from the Kim Possible soundtrack, and one from a Radio Disney compilation.

P.S. It also seems I have four copies of the Christina Aguilera song "Reflection" (and the original Lea Salonga version, and three covers, and a remix).

[NAHTMMM]

The tracks from Descent and Descent II. MIDI sounds different from OGG, and someone did some really nice "tribute" versions a few years back.

(Well, you asked . . .)

[Nate the Great]

It just seems weird to have nine copies of the same song (when covers and such are added).

[Nate the Great]

In watching the SFDebris review of "The Measure of a Man" the following occurs to me:

PNQ: Is Geordi's VISOR really superior to human eyes?

After all, the VISOR can see a lot of things we can't, but this is balanced by its inability to properly process visible light. Geordi can only see blotches of color, like a really low resolution camera. He manages to function, but I'd hardly call it "superior."

Furthermore, on the occasions his eyes are healed and he sees stuff like Tasha or a sunset, he never fails to remark that he's getting something new from the experience. Something intangible that cannot be replicated by technology.

So why does Data remark that everyone should be fitted with VISORs?

[Zeke]

You're really asking why Data, at this early stage in the series, doesn't understand the value of "something intangible that cannot be replicated by technology"?

But I agree that Geordi's "sight" isn't particularly impressive when we get to see it. That's one aspect of the series that's unlikely to age well. My view (get it get it ha ha) is analogous to Gene's explanation for TOS Klingons: what Geordi really sees is much more complex, they just didn't have the budget to show it on TNG.

[Nate the Great]

But he DOES understand. This was a rhetorical question he asks of Picard to make him think. Data is actually showing personality growth.

He wasn't actually asking why people don't have their sight augmented by VISORs. Data was asking why Starfleet doesn't use any and all technology at their disposal to increase the utility of their officers. Including androids if necessary.

[Nate the Great]

This isn't really Persistent or Niggling, but I'd still like to ask...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x246fAqPjYo&feature=related

Does the theme for Digimon Data Squad sound more like the opening for a Pokemon season to anybody else?

[Nate the Great]

Over at TV Tropes the issue of "should you put one or two spaces between a period and the next sentence" has come up.

PNQ: Opinions?

I use two spaces 'cause that's what I was taught. Back in the days of typewriters that was the standard, and I don't see why it needed to be changed, especially since we're still using QWERTY keyboards for some inexplicable reason.

[NAHTMMM]

I don't care which, just as long as it's kept consistent within a given work.

/editor

[Nate the Great]

PNQ: How come Japanese names that have already been translated to English on signs or whatever that have "U"s on the end have these "U"s dropped when translated for the official dub?

I especially refer to Tatewaki Kuno of Ranma 1/2 and Yugi Moto of Yu-gi-oh. Both of their names are rendered with extra "U"s (Kunou, Motou) within the series, but these are dropped in the dubs.

It's just weird, is all. If a word in an anime is written in English to begin with, shouldn't that be taken as the official spelling?

[PointyHairedJedi]

Over at TV Tropes the issue of "should you put one or two spaces between a period and the next sentence" has come up.

I do at work, but otherwise I tend not to. Definitely not something I was taught in school.

[Nate the Great]

You do what at work? One space or two?

[Nate the Great]

Although I'm hardly the biggest fan of Daniel Craig's 007 (when I don't feel deprived by not having seen QoS, you can believe that), rumors that if Bond 23 doesn't start production soon it'll mean the end of the franchise disturb me.

PNQ1: What do you think should happen to the James Bond franchise?
PNQ2: If the studio is in such dire straits, isn't it a good idea to put out a James Bond movie AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, even if they have to borrow more money? After all...
PNQ3: Isn't a James Bond movie a guaranteed source of money?

[NAHTMMM]

I can't conceive of the Bond franchise ever actually ending. It might get set aside for an unusually long time, but end? I don't see how. As you say, it's a popular franchise.

[Nate the Great]

Oh, well. Maybe if there's a huge gap and they have to recast again; they'll realize that James Bond and Jason Bourne are NOT the same kind of character or movie franchise. James Bond is supposed to be about humor and the gadgets as much as action and sexy women. And did James Blonde ever feature that much in the way of either humor OR gadgets?

[NAHTMMM]

It does occur to me that it's probably getting harder to come up with new Bond gadgets that are impressive and useful without being too powerful or anything.

[Nate the Great]

I wouldn't mind gadget recycling. In fact if he had a set artillery that was standard from movie to movie, it would only make things more consistent.

[Nate the Great]

PNQ: Can anyone recommend a good harem anime for me?

Preferably a relatively obscure one. The only mainstream one I haven't really seen is Negima, but for some reason I can't get into that show. Or should I give it another chance?

[Tate]

The only one I've ever seen is Clannad, though considering that I've actually seen it, it probably is more mainstream than it is obscure. I really liked it.

[Tate]

Here's a PNQ: Why do so many TV shows not bother to give a name to their premiere episode? It seems like half of all new shows begin with an episode called 'Pilot'. I understand that that is the pilot episode, but couldn't they call it something a bit more creative?

[evay]

Helmsman?

[NAHTMMM]

"Pilot of the Awesomest TV Show Ever"?

[Sa'ar Chasm]

"Sure, It Sucks Now But It'll Be Better By Next Season, We Promise"

[Nate the Great]

http://dcanimated.wikia.com/wiki/Bat-Embargo

The Bat Embargo has long been a thorn in my side, even though the DCAU is old news. However, the page at the DCAU wiki indicates that this nonsense is still continuing to this day during preparation of the Young Justice series.

Hello? The DCAU ended in 2006 and The Batman ended in 2008. Any and all conflicts related to these shows should be OVER.

Furthermore, I'm reminded of when this happened back when Batman was on Superfriends AND The New Adventures of Batman, but nobody else could be on both shows. Who cares?

PNQ: Why would kids NOT be confused by two Batmans but WILL be confused by two Jokers, or two Wonder Women, or whatever?

[Nate the Great]

You may or may not know that Chef Boyardee's real name was Ettore Boiardi. He changed it to Boyardee so people could pronounce it properly.

PNQ: What other way is there to pronounce "Boiardi"?

Well, I could see "Boy-ee-air-dee", but it's a bit of a stretch. "Bo-yar-dee" would certainly occur to me first.

[Nate the Great]

So the masses are getting a little restless waiting for the white iPhone 4...

PNQ: Do white phones look that good?

I mean, they may disguise fingerprints like the black iPhone can't, but whoever said white and black are the only choices? Why not silver, or burgundy, or navy, or camouflage, or whatever?

And wouldn't scratches and stains show up more obviously on white plastic?

[evay]

Here's my PNQ, or just call it a rant:

This is the time of year when many folks are sending out cards. Holiday, Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, Saturnalia, Solstice, whatever. And given the ease and ubiquity of stores and websites which allow you to upload a photo, throw on some text, and print out a hundred personalized cards for thirty bucks or so, many folks are sending cards with a picture of themselves and the kids, or the pets, or kids and pets. I think these are great. I love seeing how the sprogs have grown.

Additionally, many computer-using people have their address books in some kind of database, so they can use a mail merge function to print out address labels for all the people to whom they wish to send these cards, and practically everyone has return address labels (even if they're the ones you get as a "free gift" from some nagging charity). I certainly do this; after 20+ years of keyboarding, my handwriting has deteriorated to the point where even my poor husband needs a Rosetta Stone key to decipher the grocery list. If I didn't mail-merge my to-labels, none of my cards would ever get out of my zip code.

To recap:
You have a pre-printed card.
You have a pre-printed "to" address label.
You have a pre-printed "from" address label.

So WHY, for the love of little green apples, can't people SIGN THE DAMN CARDS?!?!?!

They don't have to be personally addressed with thoughtful comments ("to Bob and Mary, hope Junior and Muffin are well! throw Spot a bone for us! can't wait for next year's Arbor Day BBQ!"). They don't need some cheery holiday-specific sign-off ("Merry Christmas! Happy Chanukah! Bitchin' Bacchanal! Reason's Greetings!"). I'm just talking about SIGNING YOUR DAMN NAME at the bottom of the card to prove that you didn't hand off the entire project to a fulfillment house.

Hubby and I are graphic designers, so we put a little more effort into the creation of the pre-printed cards, but we still take one or two evenings and personally sign every. single. card. we send. It may just be "Merry ho ho! evay and mr. evay," and I often sign the ones for the distant in-laws because hubby doesn't care, but there is physical proof that <i>somebody</i> touched every card before it went into an envelope.

Is it so much to ask?

[Nate the Great]

I was just reading an article over at Cracked, and the following suddenly occurred to me...

PNQ: Why DID Data have to die? It was the last TNG movie, we'd never be seeing these characters again anyway, so what's up with that?

[Nate the Great]

Yet another question inspired by Cracked...

PNQ: If you could see any movie on the big screen (in a proper theater) again, which one?

For me, Speed Racer. That was a fun time.

[Nate the Great]

PNQ: Did they need to remake the classic Sesame Street segment "The Ladybug's Picnic?"

Original: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX9J7WcYtxI

Remake: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXwIiYMJuWU

[NAHTMMM]

Yet another question inspired by Cracked...

PNQ: If you could see any movie on the big screen (in a proper theater) again, which one?

For me, Speed Racer. That was a fun time.

Probably Fellowship of the Ring for me. That movie really benefits from being on the big screen, with all its panoramas.

[MaverickZer0]

Speed Racer. Yes. Provided we were walking home; I don't want to get into a car with a driver who just saw Speed Racer.

[Nate the Great]

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Miracle-on-34th-Street-Blu-ray/5584/

The original black and white version of Miracle on 34th Street on Blu-ray?

PNQ1: Can a sixty-year old black and white movie possibly be restored to a quality (colorized or not) beyond what DVD can do?
PNQ2: Doesn't a Blu-ray have enough room in it to present both a B&W and a color version on the same disc? After all, there are some connoisseurs that prefer their movies to be the original version. And the director shot the movie to be B&W in the first place.

[Nate the Great]

I'm watching Stuart Ashen's review of the Nintendo 3DS and he raises a valid point...

PNQ: How long should a portable gaming console expect you to play in one sitting? Should all portable games be able to stop and start in short increments (say ten or twenty minutes)?

[NAHTMMM]

I dunno, but that Rocky & Bullwinkle Game Boy game we have ought to allow saved games. <_<

[Nate the Great]

It's a valid concern. Even taking the 3D out of the equation, how often are we playing handheld consoles with the view that we're going to be lying on our bed doing it for hours at a time? I thought portable consoles were supposed to be able to provide enjoyment in smaller chunks than that.

[Nate the Great]

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/04/30/rumor-ocarina-of-time-3d-to-see-limited-initial-release/

I'm just gonna quote on this one:

"Japanese retail news blog Sinobi (http://ameblo.jp/sinobi/) (translated by Andriasang (http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2011/04/30/zelda_3ds_shipment/)) reports Nintendo has a somewhat surprising supply strategy for its upcoming, three-dimensional remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (http://www.joystiq.com/game/the-legend-of-zelda-ocarina-of-time). According to the blog, Nintendo's initial shipment of the title to retailers will be "extremely small." Furthermore, Nintendo supposedly isn't letting retailers order extra units of the game, and is allotting a limited number of copies for all retailers, regardless of their respective size.

It seems bananas to limit supply on the 3DS' most anticipated title to date, but Sinobi suggests this could be a reaction to the overstocking of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (http://www.joystiq.com/game/the-legend-of-zelda-spirit-tracks), which ended up in Japanese bargain bins faster than the franchise is likely used to. If that's the case, then Nintendo is forgetting one very important factor: Spirit Tracks is a pretty okay game, while Ocarina of Time is the best game ever made."

PNQ1: Is this a valid criticism?
PNQ2: If a retailer wants to buy X units and a game company is able to manufacture X units, should the game company be obligated to sell them X units?
PNQ3: Isn't there a certain ratio of "number of pre-orders" to "number of games sold in the first three months of release" that's pretty consistent? If X million people have preordered OOT 3D, should this be considered a hint to Nintendo to manufacture 5X (or whatever) copies of the game?

[NAHTMMM]

PNQ1: Is this a valid criticism?
Never played any of the games, but the implied logic seems sound to me.
PNQ2: If a retailer wants to buy X units and a game company is able to manufacture X units, should the game company be obligated to sell them X units?
Not unless they have an agreement to that effect. The retailer can make it clear to the consumer that the company is the bottleneck, though.
PNQ3: Isn't there a certain ratio of "number of pre-orders" to "number of games sold in the first three months of release" that's pretty consistent? If X million people have preordered OOT 3D, should this be considered a hint to Nintendo to manufacture 5X (or whatever) copies of the game?
I would guess that that ratio varies from one game to the next. That said, I don't think of Link and Zelda as being a niche game series (strong, broad name recognition), so I would expect the actual number in place of your 5 to be fairly large.

[Nate the Great]

In watching the sfdebris review of "The Maquis" something suddenly occurs to me...

PNQ: Okay, the Federation/Cardassian treaty made a border that put Federation colonies on the Cardassian side. Were there any Cardassian colonies that were put on the Federation side?

I mean, if the border was set to be more or less a straight line, presumably the line was set to split the difference and maintain an equal number of planets/area of space, right? So why was the border set to disrupt a bunch of Federation colonies, but not Cardassian?

[Nate the Great]

Once again I read an article warning us about the fact that nuclear disposal site warning signs will be unintelligible a thousand years from now...

PNQ1: Hasn't it been proven that widespread printing has slowed down the evolution of the English language dramatically? Yes, new words are invented, but will old ones like "radioactive" really disappear into the mists of time and become meaningless?
PNQ2: Don't government radioactive disposal sites have to be inspected at regular intervals? It's not like we lock up nuclear waste into a vault, toss the key into a junk drawer, and walk away, right?
PNQ3: Okay, forget words for now. Are you telling me that the radioactive symbol itself will become meaningless gibberish at any point in the future?

[Nate the Great]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spinning_Dancer

An optical illusion of a woman in silhouette spinning on one foot. The article claims that depending on where you observe it from, the dancer could be spinning clockwise or counterclockwise. Specifically one could take the foot touching the ground to be the left or right.

PNQ: Try as I might, the lower foot is clearly her left and she's spinning clockwise (if seen from above). Can anyone see her spin counterclockwise with the lower foot being her right?

I see the extended leg sweep from the right to the left and the vertical leg hop up and down as the foot sweeps from right to left. The other way is not presenting itself, it doesn't matter where I'm viewing it from.

EDIT: There's a YouTube video explaining how to do it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udfDvXMU5os&feature=player_embedded

[Nate the Great]

Not so much a PNQ as a tech support question. I'm contemplating buying this:

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0352098

You see, my DVD player is in the computer, but I want the ability to send the video signal about ten feet over to the big TV by the couch. That's not the problem. I'm really wondering...

PNQ: Could I use the additional VGA port on the card to run two computer monitors at once to have a larger desktop?

[Nate the Great]

I've been watching some New Super Mario Bros. Wii gameplay...

PNQ1: Does four-player co-op really work as an enjoyable experience for all?

The footage I saw seemed to imply that there was always going to be one player far ahead and one player straggling behind. Someone is always going to be stealing the powerups, and someone is always going to be mucking up the plan by warping ahead (pipes, whatever) before someone else is ready.

Furthermore, given my bile for the two generic Toads as Players 3 and 4...

PNQ2: Would a focused two-player mode go over better?

[Nate the Great]

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2392678,00.asp?obref=obinsite#fbid=Pd1zTFoQ sQV

Someone has made an effort to reproduce the shoes from 2015 as seen in Back to the Future Part Two. But they don't have power laces.

PNQ: Isn't this entirely missing the point? We don't want shoes with oversized soles and lighted panels, we want power laces!

[Nate the Great]

Today I had my first hands-on experience with the Nintendo 3DS (demo kiosk at Target), and I have to echo the main question from other commentators:

PNQ: What's the point of glasses-free 3D if the motion controls ruin it?

[Nate the Great]

It's Nintendo 3DS time again!

http://crave.cnet.co.uk/gamesgear/nintendo-3ds-slide-pad-packs-second-analogue-looks-funny-50005042/

PNQ: Is there a reason this controller extension couldn't be symmetrical? i.e. have a D-pad to the left of the analog stick instead of beneath it?

[Nate the Great]

http://money.msn.com/shopping-deals/article.aspx?post=8096d186-5c72-4433-adea-0d404695ef82

Stores are complaining about customers combining Buy One Get One Free (called BOGO from here on) coupons with BOGO sales to get both items free.

PNQ1: Why did these stores offer BOGO coupons and BOGO sales during the same time period in the first place?
PNQ2: Don't coupons already say "cannot be combined with any other promotion"? I'd call a BOGO sale a promotion, wouldn't you?

[Nate the Great]

I was recently reminded of the Pokemon FireRed And LeafGreen games and remembered...

PNQ: Why "LeafGreen?" I know that the original two Japanese games were Red and Green. But in the rest of the world they were Red and Blue. So why not rename LeafGreen to WaterBlue for the Western version?

[Nate the Great]

Nintendo says that they won't have two tablet controller support on the Wii U because they don't want to force people to buy two controllers.

PNQ: Who says Guy A will have to buy a second controller if Guy B comes over? Did it not occur to Nintendo that Guy B could come over with the controller from THEIR Wii U?

Really. If two Gameboy or DS owners want to play multiplayer, they each come with their own system. Same principle, only with a big screen and a single copy of the game.

And is it really impossible to resync Wii U controllers between multiple Wii U consoles? It sure doesn't seem like syncing Wiimotes is that complicated.

[Nate the Great]

Not really a PNQ, but a tech support question.

I'm doing a lot of writing in Microsoft Word right now that requires me to insert a lot of symbols (Greek letters for variables, mathematical operators, etc.). And using Insert->Symbol is getting tedious. Is there a way to set up a toolbar that just shows a row of symbols so I can click the toolbar and instantly add a symbol in just one click?

[NAHTMMM]

Not really a PNQ, but a tech support question.

I'm doing a lot of writing in Microsoft Word right now that requires me to insert a lot of symbols (Greek letters for variables, mathematical operators, etc.). And using Insert->Symbol is getting tedious. Is there a way to set up a toolbar that just shows a row of symbols so I can click the toolbar and instantly add a symbol in just one click?

If you have pre-ribbon Word, yes, you should be able at least to add the Symbol dialog to a toolbar or to a keyboard shortcut. Certainly you should be able to give the symbols their own keyboard shortcuts, I think. I never tried assigning buttons to individual symbols. I would doubt that that would be available.

However, if you've got a ribbon Word, congratulations! You have the most stylish Microsoft Word ever created. Unfortunately I guess maintaining code for useful things like editing toolbars and keyboard shortcuts was too hard, so instead Microsoft gave us a bunch of pointless visual "upgrades". I think the ability to add and remove pre-existing toolbars has finally been added, however, so maybe they'll get around to full customization within a few years.



Personally, whatever word processor I use, I keep all the symbols I use in a convenient place -- either I put them in another window or I keep track of where I just used them -- and copy + paste from there, rather than going to Insert Symbol or Symbol Map every single time I want to put in a theta.


[edit] I checked on Word 6 and there's no way to do a toolbar button, aside from a macro. Which you could totally do if the symbol has a keyboard shortcut. So if newer versions don't have the symbol-on-a-button capability, you could record a macro and assign it to a button.

[Nate the Great]

By doing a little research, if you mean "pre-ribbon Word" to be 2003 and earlier, then yes, I have Word 2002. So how do I insert a Symbol dialog?

[Nate the Great]

So I just saw Ponyo (on the Cliff by the Sea, if we want the full title)...

PNQ: Why does everyone else love this film when I see very little to recommend it?

I mean, the plot is continually taking a back-seat to Miyazaki visuals. And yes, I admit that they have a style that you can't get anywhere else, but eventually it turns into the special effects shots in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. I reach my capacity of fluid, naturalistic visuals and just start hoping that the plot starts moving faster.

[NAHTMMM]

By doing a little research, if you mean "pre-ribbon Word" to be 2003 and earlier, then yes, I have Word 2002. So how do I insert a Symbol dialog?
See here (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/291292), under "How to add a button to an existing toolbar" or "How to create a new toolbar". The command you want to add, assuming there isn't a pre-programmed Symbol button just waiting to be activated, is probably Symbol... or Insert Symbol or something like that.

[evay]

However, if you've got a ribbon Word, congratulations! You have the most stylish Microsoft Word ever created. Unfortunately I guess maintaining code for useful things like editing toolbars and keyboard shortcuts was too hard, so instead Microsoft gave us a bunch of pointless visual "upgrades."

The technical term for this kind of upgrading: "Always helpful, never useful."

[Nate the Great]

Okay, so now I've got an Omega symbol in a toolbar. Clicking this jumps right to the symbol selection screen. This has removed all of one click from the process, but I suppose I should take what I can get.

[NAHTMMM]

Yeah. I would just keep a second document open off to the side with every symbol I've used, so I can select+copy from there when the symbol comes up again. I'm not one for alt-codes or macros.

[Nate the Great]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz22cw9ulLA

The theme song to Digimon Data Squad (the English dub of Digimon Savers, if you want to get pedantic).

PNQ: Is it just me, or does this song sound WAY more like it'd fit better as a theme to a season of Pokemon? The basic melody, tempo, energy, that is, not the lyrics per se. Cause seriously, when I close my eyes and focus on the tune, it doesn't sound like Digimon, it sounds like Pokemon!

[NAHTMMM]

Um, well, it sounds more organic than digital . . .

[Nate the Great]

So I find myself contemplating the list of simple machines, just like I've done on and off for years:

Lever
Wheel/Axle
Pulley
Inclined Plane
Wedge
Screw

PNQ1: Aren't these six machines really only two?

This link may explain:

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Are_there_only_2_simple_machines

Lever Family: Lever, Wheel/Axle, Pulley
Inclined Plane Family: Inclined Plane, Wedge, Screw

The Lever Family redirects forces around a pivot (rotation), and the Inclined Plane Family redirects forces against an angle (reflection).

PNQ2: So why do people still insist that there are six simple machines?

[NAHTMMM]

It really depends on how you want to sort them. If you like, you can consider the six simple machines to be types of the two fundamental categories. The fact remains that each of the six requires its own equipment and affects the target mass differently. The lever tends to push, for example, while the pulley pulls (or, to go the other direction, doesn't pull). The screw, wheel, and pulley all go around in a circle, but the mechanism in each case is quite different.

It comes down to having cases where one of those six is clearly the best way to deal with the problem. This differentiates between the actual machines. You wouldn't use a lever or a wheel to get a bucket of bolts six stories up a building under construction. A pulley would be best . . . or an inclined plane if you want your workers to have powerful leg muscles.

[Nate the Great]

A story from Not Always Right:

http://notalwaysright.com/john-hancock-goes-shopping/430

A guy scans his card to pay for a purchase, but refuses to sign, so he tries to walk away. The clerk says that the stuff is still his, so don't leave it behind. The guys says that he didn't sign, so he didn't buy anything. But apparently he DID buy $120 worth of stuff.

PNQ1: If the signature isn't required for the money to be taken from a person's card, WHY is the signature asked for at all? I kinda thought that the signature was a protection for everyone involved from fraud.
PNQ2: Why didn't the store just refund the money? There should be a procedure for "customer changed his mind, return the money to his card", right?
PNQ3: Did the store not have anybody to chase this guy down and hand him his purchase?
PNQ4: How has this guy managed to exist this long with a credit card when he "never" signs for anything?

[Nate the Great]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/headphones-really-help-040100314.html

A discussion of the pros and cons of allowing headphones and music in open offices.

PNQ: Why hasn't someone invented a telephone that interacts with the computer playing the music? Let me explain:

1. An employee is listening to music while they work.
2. The supervisor needs to talk to them.
3. In the current system they'd have to walk over to the individual desk or yell across the room.
4. What if there was a module attached to each computer and set of headphones? Boss wants to talk to Employee X at Desk Y. They press a button that pauses the music at Desk Y and then routes the interoffice phone call through to the employee through the same phone call.

Can you imagine it? You're listening to music, then hear a tone as the music pauses that tells you someone wants to talk to you. You talk, then when your boss hangs up the music comes back automatically at the same point when it went away.

[Nate the Great]

http://www.actsofgord.com/Chronicles/chapter36.php

Summary:
A father wants to rent a video game for his son. It must have:

1. No violence.
2. In fact, no conflict. You can't damage another character.
3. You can't even instakill monsters with no visible gore.
4. Your character can't die in any circumstances.
5. No racing or competition of any kind.

PNQ1: Is there a console game besides Tetris that meets these criteria?
PNQ2: With moral standards like this, why does this father let his son have a console at all?

[Nate the Great]

PNQ1: Why do YouTube viewers keep asking for stuff that's in the description?
PNQ2: Should YouTube force all descriptions to be "expanded" by default until you log in and tick the box that says "I agree to always check the full description before asking a question"? Only then will descriptions be minimized by default.

[Sa'ar Chasm]

YouTube comments are what happen when you take a broad cross-section of society and carefully remove any trace of intelligence, common sense and civility. It cannot be explained, merely shunned.

[Alexia]

*surfaces for a brief appearance* I concur with Sa'ar :)

[Zeke]

Lexy! Good to see you. Stay a while.

[Alexia]

You may find me lurking :P It's either that, or do some work...

[Nate the Great]

In listening to the Tom Lehrer song "New Math", I started wondering...

PNQ: Aside from base-10 and base-2, are any other bases actually used by anyone.

I mean of the bases from 2 through 10. Sure, sometimes we use something akin to base-12, but only in an abstract sense. Schoolhouse Rock proposed two new symbols (dek and el) to represent "ten" and "eleven" in a base-12 counting system, but we'd never use them to convert Imperial units or traditional British currency.

So yeah, what point was there in teaching other bases to kids? Even the base-2 calculations we have to do seldom require pencil and paper, we use base-2 for the benefit of the computers, not ourselves.

[Zeke]

Hex! Programmers use hexadecimal all the time. Its usefulness stems from the fact that it's basically shorthand for binary.

Teaching arbitrary bases is important, just nowhere near as important as the New Math tried to make it. (Same goes for set theory.) Historically, not every civilization has used base ten. The Babylonians used base 60, the Mayans base 20, and so on. It's good to have some introduction to the concept.

[Nate the Great]

Yeah, but there's absolutely no reason to attempt teaching other bases to children before high school.

[Zeke]

I might hold out for junior high, but we basically agree. And it was even sillier at the time New Math was actually developed -- computers were nowhere near as important as they are today, and programming is really the only field where knowing other bases is of practical importance. (Yes, this means that before computers came along, other bases were just a curiosity. That's still true of all bases except 2, thanks to one of the great insights of the last century: if you can represent everything with 1s and 0s, you can do it with open and closed circuits.)

That said, I <i>love</i> mathematical curiosities. There's quality time to be spent at Wikipedia looking up different bases and their obscure applications. Did you know a couple of cultures have used base 8 because they counted by spaces between fingers, not by fingers themselves?

[NAHTMMM]

Did you know a couple of cultures have used base 8 because they counted by spaces between fingers, not by fingers themselves?

That I did not. :)

[Sa'ar Chasm]

That said, I love mathematical curiosities. There's quality time to be spent at Wikipedia looking up different bases and their obscure applications.

Says the math major. :P

Actually, I discovered today that I count music in base 4. Most musical phrases are 4 or 8 bars long, and the melody is usually with the flutes or clarinets or trumpets or saxes or French horns or anywhere except the trombone, so I tend to get a lot of long stretches of rest measured in multiples of 4 bars. I count 4 bars on 4 fingers of my right hand, then increment a finger on my left hand and start over. That gets me to 16, and if the rest goes even longer (I've seen it go up to 40), I'll stick my left thumb out and do everything over again (32 bars).

Sometimes I think composers hate the low brass. Then I switched to stage band, and it was awesome (and freaking *hard*).

[Nate the Great]

So Jennifer Lopez is starring in a Carmen Sandiego movie...

PNQ: Who would you cast as the greatest fictional thief in modern history?

Elsewhere on the web I saw speculation about Catherine Zeta-Jones, which makes more sense than J.Lo.

The thing to keep in mind when casting Carmen is the fact that you have to balance beauty, cunning, humor, pride, and a bunch of other things. Can Lopez do that?

[Nate the Great]

Not really a PNQ, just a general request for tech support.

I have a USB keypad that I want to use as a remote control for Windows Media Player. Nothing fancy, just play/pause and previous/next track controls. Does anyone know of a program that would let me do this?

[Zeke]

If you're using WMP 12, there are still <a href="http://www.blogsdna.com/3716/keyboard-shortcuts-for-windows-media-player-12-on-windows-7.htm">keyboard shortcuts</a>, but some of them only work if focus is in a particular pane. If that's not enough, try AutoHotkey. It seems to be the keyboard equivalent of StrokeIt, my beloved (if unfortunately-named) mouse gesture program.

Sa'ar: I'd somehow forgotten you play an instrument. Which one is it?

[Nate the Great]

Sorry, should've specified. Windows Media Player 11 on Windows XP.

[Sa'ar Chasm]

Trombone. I actually didn't play for all the years I was in Ottawa (grad school and tutoring are something of a time-hog), but I went back to the City Band when I moved to Kelowna. I thought I'd be worse than I turned out to be, but I actually remembered what all the little squiggle marks on the page went, and my upper range hadn't atrophied as much as I'd feared.

And then Canada Day was the last concert for the year. Still, six weeks of playing is better than no weeks, especially after 9 years of letting the horn rust.

[Zeke]

The shortcuts in 11 are <a href="http://www.shortcutworld.com/en/win/Windows-Media-Player_11.html">about the same</a>. Otherwise, try AutoHotkey.

[Nate the Great]

http://www.startribune.com/local/161389685.html

A new development is being built using smaller lots than were originally intended. The claim is that today's homeowners want to spend less time and money on lawn maintenance.

PNQ: If a person wants to buy a house with less lawn maintenance responsibilities, why not buy a townhouse or condo where they don't have to worry about lawn maintenance at all?

[Zeke]

Houses have other advantages over apartments and condos. You don't have to take an elevator, you can park your car right there, you don't have to share laundry machines, etc. Maybe the answer for these people is Astroturf.

[Nate the Great]

I don't know about Canada, but in the U.S. a townhouse is one of a row of houses next to each other. Each house has its own door directly to the outside. Whether you rent or own the townhouse, you generally pay a fee for someone else to do lawn and driveway maintenance. No elevators or parking garages. Your garage is accessed via the back, and the townhouse is usually a split-level.

[Sa'ar Chasm]

Houses have other advantages over apartments and condos. You don't have to take an elevator, you can park your car right there, you don't have to share laundry machines, etc. Maybe the answer for these people is Astroturf.

Xeriscaping. The house I'm renting now has no lawn, just paving stones and lots of decorative gravel and shrubbery beds. The sprinklers are on automatic, so all I have to do is sweep the tree debris off the front path (which reminds me...). My parents' place is on half an acre, and guess who got to mow all of that with a push mower? As soon as I moved out, Dad got a ride-on. And an automatic door opener (prior to that, Mum would just pull into the driveway and honk the horn until I came and opened the garage door for her).

I should also figure out how to turn on the fountain in the back yard.

The other thing houses have going for them is the lack of noisy neighbours on the other side of a thin wall (or, conversely, a lack of people to annoy by being noisy).

[Zeke]

Oh, I missed where you said townhouses. I lived in one in Waterloo. Never had to mow our little patch of lawn, although shoveling was occasionally needed.

Returning to WMP for a sec, have you tried some of the free alternatives? Media Player Classic is a good one; I use GOM Player and SMPlayer myself. They all have customizable hotkeys.

Sa'ar: I hear mowing builds character.

[Sa'ar Chasm]

I've got enough character. In fact, I've got several characters. And hayfever.

[Nate the Great]

PNQ: What do you call the decade from 2000-2009?

An episode of Mythbusters called it "the naughties." A local radio station calls it "2K" as in "music from the 90's, 2K, and today."

I was just curious.

[NAHTMMM]

"The noughties" is probably my favorite. There's also "The aughts" or whatever.

[Zeke]

"The 2000s." It doesn't work for older century years -- "the 1600s" means that whole century, for instance -- but nobody will be using "the 2000s" to refer to a century or millennium until we're farther into it!

[Nate the Great]

So Stuart Ashen keeps using the word "lanyard" to refer to what Americans call a "wrist strap." To Americans a "lanyard" is something that goes around your neck, not your wrist (besides the flag-related definition, of course).

PNQ: Is this just another example of British/American definition drift, or is Stuart just confused?

[Nate the Great]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peyojyJh7k4&feature=g-u-u

This guy comments on the possibility of Sony and Microsoft joining forces on the next generation of consoles. That is, instead of PS4 and X-Box 720 fighting between themselves, they'll just have one console to battle Wii-U and the emerging casual phone game market.

PNQ1: Opinions?
PNQ2: How many essential exclusives do the PS3 and X-Box 360 have?

Seriously, I keep seeing games that are released for both, with both being essentially identical. In the old days of Genesis vs. Super Nintendo, there were many subtle differences between the variants of a game to justify taking a stand as a Sega guy or a Nintendo guy, but does that principle still stand?

[NAHTMMM]

I've seen one or two man-on-the-street opinions that Nintendo's next console could make or break its hardware division -- if the Wii U (or whatever) fails, they may have to just focus on making games for others' consoles. This may reflect that possibility.

Consoles are expensive and, I guess, sometimes have to be sold at a loss to get a big enough market for the games. And if you don't devote enough resources to developing a console, it can have nasty shortcomings (such as those leading to a Red Ring Of Doom) that lead to bad publicity for your entire company. Nintendo and Sony may think it's better to join forces in that regard.

[Zeke]

I have a PS3 and a Wii, so the choice is fairly simple for me: PS3 if I want to admire the graphics, Wii if it has better gameplay and extras. Sometimes both if they're cheap. (I like to replay games, and it's fun to try a different system at the same time.) I have no idea how I would choose between PS3 and XBox if I had both. For some time now, I've wished there were a site just for this -- WhichVersionShouldIBuy.com or something -- where the different versions of games would be compared and the differences explained. That information is generally out there, but not always easy to find.

Nowadays, even handhelds are worth comparing. GBA versions of console games were usually pared down to sidescrollers. (That didn't make them bad necessarily -- the GBA <i>Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time</i> is great. Playable Farah!) But with the PSP and DS lines, they've been trying, with gradually increasing success, to just slap the whole game on a cart. I have <i>Spider-Man: Edge of Time</i> for 3DS; it's almost exactly the same experience as the console versions, just delivered differently. I intend to get it for PS3 eventually just to enjoy the hi-def, but playing as Spider-Man <i>in 3D</i> is well worth owning a second copy.

[Nate the Great]

I don't want to get into handheld vs. stationary variant comparison. Naturally a handheld has different capabilities than the stationary counterpart.

I was just wondering about the PS3 vs the X-Box 360. In terms of graphics I have yet to see or hear about a significant difference in gameplay between the two. I see no reason why the successor couldn't be a unification of the best qualities of the proposed PS4 and 720.

[Nate the Great]

I try to follow the latest iDevice news (who knows, maybe one of these days I can actually afford one of them) (rimshot), so I'm looking at this smaller dock on the upcoming iPhone 5 with some concern...

PNQ1: Couldn't they fit the headphone jack on the side of the device, near the bottom, and still keep the old dock?
PNQ2: Could they make a set of official Apple headphones (with inline controls, Siri, and all that), that attach directly to the dock (instead of the headphone jack) to accommodate those who want base-mounted headphones?

[Nate the Great]

So I'm a huge garage saling nut...

PNQ: Why do so many sales operate on the "make us an offer" system?

Look, some people like to haggle and some don't. I don't. I want prices on the item or on a master price sheet. Having to make an offer means that one of the two scenarios will occur...

1. You offered too much, and you feel ripped off.
2. You offered too little, and you feel guilty; like you're taking advantage of the people running the sale.

I don't like feeling either of these two things.

[Nate the Great]

PNQ: Why does Microsoft Word autocapitalize Greek letters?

I mean, in English versions of Word we generally use Greek letters as mathematical variables only, so we want them to be lower-case. Furthermore, the lower-case and upper-case versions of a Greek letter often mean different things. It gets worse when you consider that I'm inserting the letter from the Symbols menu. That is, I'm treating it as a symbol, not a lower-case letter that needs to be automatically capitalized.

[Nate the Great]

So I just watched another review bashing New Super Mario Bros. 2 because it doesn't bring anything new...

PNQ: Shouldn't all games be held to one rule above all others? Namely "is this game fun to play?"

I mean, messing with a formula that works just because it's been done a million times before is something they tried with Sonic, and failed at. Over and over again.

[NAHTMMM]

Well, to be fair, if it says New in the title then the game should bring something new to the table. Otherwise just continue numbering with the old system . . . ;)

[Nate the Great]

Okay, I'll give you that. But I'm one of those freaks who thinks that once you start numbering sequels, you shouldn't stop unless the formula radically changes.

[Nate the Great]

PNQ: Other than the Wizard of Oz, Anne of Green Gables, and Little Women, what Western books have been turned into anime?

I know of other English-language novels that have been converted, but a complete list would quickly become tedious. The three above are the most common, so I didn't want to waste people's time in suggesting them.

PNQ2: I've read rumors of a Harry Potter anime. Opinions of whether or not this could work?

[NAHTMMM]

The most nonsensical literary thing I have ever seen is a The Little Prince graphic novel. Why? Why do you want to lose the charm and simplicity of the original prose (translated or not) and the original pictures? The pictures are part of the story. Just . . . why?

[MaverickZer0]

I believe Howl's Moving Castle was originally written by Diana Wynne Jones, and it's an anime movie now too.

[Nate the Great]

So I'm reviewing my old college textbooks, and I keep getting annoyed by expressions like this:

(variable)=(equation) (less than or equal to) (constant)

That is, if if the equation yields a value greater than the constant, you're supposed to use the constant instead of the value from the equation.

PNQ: Why can't the books simply use

(variable)=min (equation, constant)

Isn't this an easier way and less confusing?

[Nate the Great]

So if you hadn't heard yet, Disney bought LucasFilm and is planning a sequel Star Wars trilogy...

PNQ: Am I the only one that's more interested in the fact that Industrial Light and Magic was part of the deal?

I mean, Star Wars 7-9 will happen and I probably won't watch them. Maybe Indiana Jones 5 will happen, maybe it won't. But consider what will happen when Pixar and Industrial Light and Magic can exchange ideas and team up where required. Magic, that's what'll happen.

[Nate the Great]

I've just finished reading an old book that has hundreds of different solitaire games in it...

PNQ: What's the most obscure solitaire game you've ever played more than one game of (one game experimentation doesn't count)?

I guess Grandfather's Clock is the most obscure variant I've ever played.

[Nate the Great]

I'm contemplating Kirk's split into good and evil versions in "The Enemy Within"...

PNQ: Doesn't this episode render all arguments of "the transporter carries your original molecules to the destination, so you aren't killed and cloned" rather moot?

[NAHTMMM]

There are a lot of solitaire games out there. I couldn't say which are more obscure than others. Aces Up, Poker Solitaire, and Grandfather's Patience come to mind as ones I've played.

[Nate the Great]

Prelude: I have not seen The Amazing Spider-Man, nor do I intend to.

PNQ: Why didn't Uncle Ben use the "Great Responsibility" line?

Seriously. This isn't hard to mess up. It's only the single defining moral of Spider-Man's universe after all.

In an interview the director said that they couldn't find a way to fit it in. Well, that seems to call for a little more effort, doesn't it?

[Nate the Great]

I'm watching a Let's Play of Ocarina of Time: Master Quest, and the guy is confused as to whether "Deku" is pronounced "Deh-coo" or "Dee-coo."

PNQ: How do you pronounce it?

Personally, I've always gone with "Deh-coo". It just sounds better.

[NAHTMMM]

I would probably pronounce it as Deh-coo as well.

[Nate the Great]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0TJbFoCTVOs

CR of Channel Awesome reviewing a tabletop game called Pirates at Ocean's Edge. It sounds very complicated to me, and requires a cheat sheet to keep track of what's going on.

But then again, I've never played it. And I used to play Yu-gi-oh, another insanely complicated game that has entire pages of errata for most cards.

PNQ: Are all games (MMORPGs, tournament fighters, etc.) like this? I mean, do they all look more complicated than they really are?

[NAHTMMM]

I imagine it depends on how well-designed they are. Some games, the complications all matter at some point. Other games, you just focus on one or two winning strategies.

Then there's power creep over time, like in Kingdom of Loathing, where there may be thousands of items but only a few dozen currently have any relevance for the serious power gamers. A new item gets introduced and there are a dozen forum posts debating, among other things, whether it saves 0.7 of a turn compared with a similar item from a year ago, and under what circumstances. :D

It's really a question of a learning curve. You just learn a little more the more you play, until you know the relevant details inside and out. Then it doesn't seem so complicated.

I used to play Yu-gi-oh, another insanely complicated game that has entire pages of errata for most cards.
Hah, that just sounds badly constructed. Maybe you mean exceptions or something rather than errata?

[Nate the Great]

Most Yu-gi-oh errata consists of "If you play this card against another card, which wins or what would happen?"

[Nate the Great]

PNQ: How many five-year missions do you think the original crew went on?

Most indications tend to lead to a guess of three: the original, the one between the first and second movies, and the one between the fifth and sixth movies. But I suppose it's a matter of opinion.

[Nate the Great]

PNQ: What's the deal with Mr. Bill?

I've seen both Spoony and Paw mention him in videos. I vaguely knew of his existence. I don't watch Saturday Night Live, so I had to look up his origin.

Really, is it simply "claymation is funny" combined with "funny voice"? Is it really as simple as that? Why is this guy so memetic?

[NAHTMMM]

Seems to me that the simplest things are often the most memetic.

Really, though, I have no idea about Mr. Bill. I've seen him in a commercial once and referred to once and have no knowledge of him beyond that.

Somehow I shouldn't be surprised that he started in SNL. SNL seems to have started a lot of little cultural things.

[Nate the Great]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJpBYByNiAg

So Stuart Ashens (if you're not following his YouTube channel, etc. etc. plug plug) got a floppy disk at a convention as a promo item. It contains one jpeg. He had to dig out a USB external floppy drive to use it.

PNQ: When's the last time you used a floppy disk?

I want more interesting stories than "I used a reboot disk to recover my corrupted hard drive", so reboot disks are banned.

[NAHTMMM]

I just retrieved the Win '95 and XP machines from my parents' place, so yeah. I'm gonna be retrieving some stuff off of floppies in the near future, and possibly saving stuff as well. When your hard drive has ~100 MB free space, you appreciate being able to save an ~800KB game file elsewhere.

[Nate the Great]

Yeah, there are places where floppies are far superior. That's why I'm one of the (relatively) few people to use a Zip Drive back in the day. Exactly like floppies, only they can hold 100 MB? What's not to love?

Okay, the Click of Death. But thankfully I've never encountered that.

[Nate the Great]

So once again I stumble across a discussion of whether paper or plastic bags are better for the environment. And in almost every store I go to they're more than willing to sell you cloth bags to carry your stuff in so you don't have to use either. But...

PNQ1: Have you ever been worried and afraid that if you carry a Store X bag into the same Store X that you purchased before, you'll be accused of shoplifting, if only the bag?
PNQ2: Have you ever worried that by showing a Store X bag at their competitor, Store Y, that you'll be treated differently?
PNQ3: Why can't the city or some nonprofit organization sell these bags that explicitly have the name of said city/nonprofit organization on them that you can use everywhere? Obviously you didn't steal that bag, right?

[NAHTMMM]

1: Not really.
2: I got ribbed a bit once by the cashier, that's all that's happened.
3: I'm sure there are such bags. I'm sure I've seen them sold in stores, which kind of negates your hoped-for benefit here. We have a few bags from city and from church, but they were given away free at events.

[Nate the Great]

PNQ1: Now that two Hobbit movies are out, can anybody tell me if all of the dwarves are given unique personalities and character arcs?
PNQ2: If the answer is no, what do you think would've been a manageable number? 4? 6? 8?

[NAHTMMM]

I think it's safe to say I have no idea what Peter Jackson's doing, but in the book a lot of the dwarves are pretty interchangeable, quite possibly existing for the sake of forming a large number and having fun names. And allowing for long introduction scenes.

[Nate the Great]

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/nvidia-reveals-3000-gtx-titan-z-graphics-card-for-supercomputer-inspired-performance/1100-6418530/

PNQ1: Do you know anybody who has paid anywhere near $3000 for a graphics card?
PNQ2: Do you know anybody who has paid anywhere near $3000 for an entire PC?

[Nate the Great]

Someone solving a 11X11X11 Rubiks Cube. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOilnrGrKsYhttp://)

PNQ: What's the largest Rubik's Cube you've ever solved? I'm still at 3X3X3.

[Nate the Great]

PNQ: What holodeck programs would you have liked to see more of?

Bashir's James Bond parody? Vic Fontaine's lounge? Dixon Hill?

[Nate the Great]

PNQ: If you had to set a cutoff for anime where:

Before Year X: The vast majority of dubs are going to be sanitized and edited within an inch of its life, and generally speaking if you want the intended experience you have to go sub.
After Year X: The vast majority of dubs are loyal to the source material, censorship is minimal, and you can get the intended experience in English.

What year would you choose, or has that time not yet come?

[NAHTMMM]

I'm not quite sure what you're getting at, honestly. Is that calendar year or viewer age year or . . . ? Are you suggesting anime is getting more or less raunchy as time goes by?

I tend to prefer subs by default to get the original voice actors, anyway.

[Nate the Great]

Calendar year. This has nothing to do with target age or content level, this has to do with the competence and integrity of the dubbers

On the whole, I prefer dubs IF they can be done properly. I hate HATE having to read the bottom of the screen because it continually pulls me out of the experience. Authentic, loyal dubs can be done, because I've seen them. I just wish more companies would do it.

So what's the year where most prior dubs aren't faithful (and you must watch sub) and most subsequent dubs are faithful (so you can watch them without unnecessary censorship or cultural whitewashing)?

[NAHTMMM]

Ah, well, I wouldn't know. I think it may also be a function of which company is involved in the dubbing.

[Nate the Great]

PNQ: Putting aside the technological and political implications, if you were to serve in Starfleet which "era" of uniform would you wear?

A. Enterprise.
B. TOS-series.
C. TOS-movies. (The Monster Maroons, of course, not those hideous STTMP uniforms)
D. TNG-series. (black shoulders and pants, colored torso)
E. TNG-movies. (colored collar, gray shoulders, black torso and pants)
F. DS9/VOY. (black pants and torso, colored shoulders)

[NAHTMMM]

TOS-series, of course. I like color. :)

[Nate the Great]

In watching an old game console review, I got to wondering...

PNQ: Has there ever been a console that had five games at launch that were legitimately great, with ample replay value?

[Nate the Great]

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/apple-killed-the-ipod-classic-because-it-couldnt-get-101170637989.html

So Apple isn't selling iPod Classics anymore because they "can't get the parts anymore."

PNQ1: Does this seem like a bit of a copout? Haven't they had years and years to buy out whatever companies and patents are required to make said parts in house?
PNQ2: How does not having parts for an older-model iPod Classic preclude the development of a new model? A model that has a similar form factor but more modern parts inside?

[NAHTMMM]

If that were where the profit is, I'm sure they'd find a way. I guess the profit must be elsewhere.

[Zeke]

To answer Nate's uniform question, TOS Movies by a mile. Those and the ENT outfits are the only ones that look like plausible military uniforms, and I'm a sucker for the dignified, naval look.

That said, the only kind I've actually worn is TNG-style, which was my homemade Hallowe'en costume several years running. Easiest thing in the world -- the only part I had to actually make was the shoulderpiece. Like any Trek-loving kid, I already had a delta badge (they came as bases with the action figures), and a blank red sweatshirt and black pants took care of the rest. Of course, it wouldn't have "passed inspection" lacking the black triangle pieces at the belt and sides, but the point got across.

[Flying Gremlin]

In watching an old game console review, I got to wondering...

PNQ: Has there ever been a console that had five games at launch that were legitimately great, with ample replay value?

PlayStation 2 and 3 count, only because they were backwards compatible with their previous generation's games.

...maybe the Wii? Definitely had "ample replay value" attached to it, as Wii Sports, for example, I still see people play. Five games is questionable. Wii also did have backward compatibility with GameCube, but then again I can only count great GameCube games on one hand.

[Flying Gremlin]

Here's a PNQ:

How many people still remember this place?

[evay]

Here's a PNQ:

How many people still remember this place?

there are about half a dozen of us who stop by regularly, and the occasional flyby from a few others. For me fivers are a cross between Jim Wright's Delta Blues and MAD Magazine, so I'm not forgetting this place any time in the next decade or so. 8)

[Nate the Great]

That's another one: who still remembers Delta Blues (http://www.reviewboy.com/#)?

Their front page still has a link back to us, after all.

[Flying Gremlin]

there are about half a dozen of us who stop by regularly, and the occasional flyby from a few others. For me fivers are a cross between Jim Wright's Delta Blues and MAD Magazine, so I'm not forgetting this place any time in the next decade or so. 8)

If you stop by regularly, why no discussion then? Or is it a long dirt road in the middle of the prairie with only one house on it and an annoying starship captain visiting with some of her crew and two beings, one really wanting to die and the moral of the story is that some people want to die and we should let them?

...what was my point again?

[Nate the Great]

Less a PNQ and more a general request for technical advice.

A long time ago, I had a radio-based set of wireless headphones. The power brick broke, and I'd have to spend twenty bucks online for a replacement. I'd kinda like to avoid online purchases if possible, so I've been looking for brick-and-mortar alternatives. Advice most desired.

A nearby electronics store sells a Bluetooth headset for $30, but I'd also have to get a $15 USB Bluetooth dongle for my PC. How hard is it to change the headset between receiving from the PC dongle or receiving from my iPad or Android tablet instead?

[Flying Gremlin]

Not hard at all, though I always found PC Bluetooth sync to be problematic at best.

[Nate the Great]

I just read a Star Trek novel passage where the Romulans are attempting to board the ship and someone makes the Enterprise change course suddenly in the middle of transport (only the glow of the incoming beam is visible) such that the Romulans end up beaming into space.

PNQ: Comments? Issues?

Reference materials state that a Federation transporter cycle takes about five seconds, and we can assume that the transporter computer can deal with known speeds and courses at both ends ("we have matched velocity for transport") so the factors are known. But what would happen in this case?

[Flying Gremlin]

In theory, yeah. Or they could just adjust course a hair and all of a sudden they're in the middle of a bulkhead. Would a navigator be able to receive an order and react in time in an approximate 5 second cycle to move the ship enough in order for it to be a viable tactic is a good question.

Then again, if you think of it, there's a really obvious solution to this: computer compensation. Unless we're talking 8472 ship, usually ships are pretty consistent in size throughout; a cursory scan could allow the computer to use the dimensions of the target ship as their reference, and any sudden movements would be instantly adjusted by the ship's computer. This would also make sense within context of the show, as the transporter becomes more and more sophisticated as time marches on and can do more things.

[Nate the Great]

Yeah, let's just say that someone from Ship A is trying to beam onto Ship B. The transporter operator on A has access to the latest scans of B to know where it will be at every instant during the transport cycle. Technically, even during a five-second cycle any two origin and destination points will move relative to each other unless it's two ships that have specifically matched velocity. Therefore the computer can "smear" the beam during the cycle, moving it as the person goes. But the "smearing" is based on the assumption that Ship B will be going at a specific course relative to Ship A during the entire cycle. But a sudden course change should trigger the sensors, setting off an automated recall in the transporter, right?

[Flying Gremlin]

In theory. Also could explain Spock's mom in the reboot movie.

...yes, I went there.

[Nate the Great]

Since I only read the script for that movie once years ago, whatever subtle meaning you intend is lost on me. I don't want to know, either.

[Nate the Great]

So Alan Rickman died today...

PNQ: What Alan Rickman role will you remember the most?

I realize that for a lot of older folks it'll be Die Hard and for the younger folks it'll be Harry Potter, but for me it's Sense and Sensibility all the way. As a Trekkie it should be Galaxy Quest, but I confess to not being very fond of that film.

[Flying Gremlin]

Dogma, GalaxyQuest, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Die Hard, his one guest spot on King of the Hill, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves...

Take your pick. Great actor.

[Zeke]

Oddly enough, I think for me it'll be Marvin. Rickman was born to voice that guy. Second would probably be Galaxy Quest (which I love, unlike MST3K or Sev Trek... weird how this forum and I seem to consistently disagree on which Trek parodies are good). Another one I'll remember fondly is the HBO movie <i>Something the Lord Made</i>, where he plays Dr. Alfred Blalock, the doctor who basically invented modern heart surgery. It's a classic Rickman role: a man who's brilliant but flawed, somewhat withdrawn, and doesn't suffer fools.

Don't get me wrong, he was great as Snape -- but he didn't really match my mental image of the character, and that makes the role less memorable for me. I'm only a moderate Die Hard fan and haven't seen Robin Hood or Dogma yet.

[Nate the Great]

He did a good job as Marvin but there wasn't enough of him in the film and I'm just too fond of the original Stephen Moore from radio and TV that anybody else would always come in second place.

[Zeke]

No question, Moore is the true Marvin -- but Rickman was still a great fit. One of the highlights of that odd take on Hitchhiker's Guide.

[Flying Gremlin]

Here's one for you:

Why is everyone dying so early in 2016?!?

[Nate the Great]

As long as Marvin is still a recent memory, here are some songs!

Marvin (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTXOW_jJdKE)
Metal Man (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKuIRamCTbU)
Reasons To Be Miserable (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YX-IPyjFmuQ)
Marvin I Love You (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0HSUOaoZCM)

[Katy Jane]

The Harry Potter movies are what made him memorable for me, the reason I know his name. I've seen Something the Lord Made but it was long time ago and I didn't remember him being in it. He's good in Hitchhiker's and Galaxy Quest but I didn't say "oh it's Alan Rickman" when I watched them until after I'd seen the Harry Potter movies. I think those are the only one's I've seen.

[Nate the Great]

Regarding the Groundhog Day tradition...

PNQ: What is the definition of "early spring" or "more winter"?

I mean, on a scientific, can't-be-disputed level. I suppose you'd have to choose a representative plant species, plant a seed in a representative location, and see how long it takes to sprout. Before Date X means "early spring" and so forth.

[NAHTMMM]

I think it's intended to work on more of a "Can I plant crops yet or go outside without a heavy coat" level.

[Nate the Great]

If we're only talking about one city, it'd be easy enough to define "spring" as "the temperature hasn't dropped below X degrees in Y days, so it probably won't get colder than that anymore until next winter", but people seem to act like a single groundhog predicts the end of winter for the entire country, if not the entire continent.

[NAHTMMM]

That's the game. People read horoscopes for fun too.

[Nate the Great]

PNQ: What are we going to do for the big fiftieth anniversary?

[Flying Gremlin]

Publish 50 Star Trek Fivers?

Maybe a Top 10 List?

Change the banner graphic to a progression of ships from the start until the end of Trek?

Publish a Fiver of the new reboot movies with Spock Prime being a fanboy pointing out all the inconsistencies in the new universe?

The possibilities are as endless as Zeke's ability to ignore his inbox.

[NAHTMMM]

Publish 50 Star Trek Fivers?
It'd have to be 1/12 of 50, so 4 1/6.

[Nate the Great]

Today is Dr. Seuss' birthday...

PNQ #1: Favorite Seuss book?
PNQ #2: Favorite Seuss cartoon?

[NAHTMMM]

#1: I want to say either the Sneetches or Yertle the Turtle.
#2: Have to go with How the Grinch Stole Christmas! for the song.

[Nate the Great]

I'm particularly fond of And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street.

Putting aside Grinch as all of our favorites, what's in second place?

[NAHTMMM]

I guess the Grinch Grinching the Cat in the Hat. The only other one I can remember seeing is The Cat in the Hat itself.

[Flying Gremlin]

How the Grinch Stole Christmas was good, but I saw the cartoon for The Lorax and I thought that one was better, but a little more obscure.

And for book? Green Eggs and Ham. Used to read that to my kids.

[Nate the Great]

So the title of the newest Spider-Man reboot movie is Spider-Man: Homecoming...

PNQ: What were you expecting?

There are plenty more comic book titles that could be used. I was fond of The Spectacular Spider-Man myself. Disney could've even gone with Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man if they wanted to skew a bit younger. The Web of Spider-Man would fit for a more ominous, mysterious movie.

[Flying Gremlin]

Actually, I think it's perfect just the way it is, considering he's getting his debut in the MCU during Civil War.

[Nate the Great]

The toy at 9:04 in this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lK92fRHw3ao&t=9m4s) (pause when the video loads, the timecode is included) is supposed to be the Silver Surfer. That's clearly not the Silver Surfer, beyond them both being silver skinned bald guys.

PNQ: Who does it look like?

I think it's Yul Brynner, and at least one commenter on the video agrees with me. Other commenters go for Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Putin, Voldemort, and so forth.