Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

I am not sure if I should tell him... My coworker spent nearly 100 dollars on one of those Bluetooth/USB remotes for his laptop so he could control Power Point presentations without being at the computer. It has less functionality than a 15 dollar wireless mouse... It's literally just forward and backward buttons. The only thing else it has is a slot to keep the USB adapter in when not in use and an extremely low power laser pointer that can't be seen when pointed at a TV screen because it's too weak. But the thing is, I am pretty sure he can't return it now because he's opened and used it. He could only exchange it...

I think it might be better to just leave him in blissful ignorance than to ruin his day by telling him he spent several times more than he needed to... What do you think?

@NEStalgia Although Apollo 13 was a disaster, I loved the movie based on it. My father and I must have watched it together a dozen times.

Also, if I had ANY opportunity to go to space, I would probably take it. Unless it was a blatant suicide mission.

@Heavyarms55 leave him in ignorance... No use telling him the toy he's stuck with is a rip off when some joy can be had from the lie.

Wow, this thread feels like an RPG now. Do i get Paragon points? Oh wait, if this were Shepard, the above would be the printed Paragon option, but what I'd actually say when selected is "let the half wit play with his toy... " And then I'd get renegade points despite seemingly selecting a Paragon response...

Ron Howard makes amazing movies, no question. Not that the whole story of 13 isn't amazing in real life too but Howard's movie certainly makes it more thrilling than the "oh f###" real life reactions . Absolutely one of my top films to always return to!

Of course space was more interesting then. And the government more competent. Since then we "lost" the blueprints for the Saturn V heavy lift..... Were limited to the silly space plane compromised by the USAF insistence on clipped Delta wings they never used, and now we don't even have that and just rent tourist space from Russia....... I know we're working in a new heavy lift... But it would have been easier if we hadn't "lost" the blueprints to the most powerful rocket ever built... (Well, the only one that actually flew... The Soviets had that crazy 12 engine monstrosity that couldn't fly father than a penguin....)

I'd eagerly go on any space flight..... That isn't numbered 13.....

@NEStalgia Yeah, I think I will leave it be. It wouldn't do him any good to tell him. And he might take it as mockery if I do. He seemed to get mildly annoyed last time I explained something computer related to him. And don't talk about Mass Effect. You'll make me want to play it again! And I am still holding on to that irrational hope that we get the trilogy on Switch!

All in all I think space R&D is better left to groups like Elon Musk's SpaceX. While I'm generally loathe of big business, I think a potential profit motivation is much more preferable to the inevitable militarization of space that will come of nationalized development.

Honestly I think we're right on the cusp of a major shift in the world. Although few talk about it, technology is advancing quite rapidly. The first group, private or national, that makes a real breakthrough and develops a truly viable means of space flight is going to change the world. We'll have a real Space Race that will make the lunar missions pale in comparison. I think it will come down to the first group that finally builds a practical nuclear rocket. Plans for such devices date back to the 60s but have always been held back from for fear of failure. On paper though, such rockets are more fuel efficient, can accelerate longer and faster too. I could see a system where mass drivers and low power re-entry vehicles are used for get people and equipment up into orbit where they would dock with nuclear craft assembled in orbit and ultimately at space based construction facilities.

Maybe I've spent too much of my life reading sci-fi and wanting to believe I'll see that sort of thing sometime in my life - but seeing the progress SpaceX has made in recent years gives me hope that it is indeed possible that we could see it in the next 30-50 years. At the inside, I'd still be young enough to go on one of those potential space tourist trips! At the outside... well I'd be 77. My father died well before that but my grandparents all exceeded it by a healthy margin, so it's possible.

Played some of the DQXI demo and decided to watch some gameplay of the 3DS version to compare, and...

The 3DS one looks like it has better facial expressions! Like, the main character on the switch version looks like in a constant state of Mona Lisa, while in the 3DS he actually emotes.

Would've loved to have the 3DS one. Oh well. I may buy the switch one, I'm enjoying the demo so far.

Happy Friday the 13th! Hope nothing bad happens to you! 🙃

@NEStalgia @Heavyarms55
kicks down the door
Hey, are we talking about Mass Effect??? My bones were tingling.

Speaking about number 13 ...

I saw number 13 on under construction building this evening.
Number 13 & 4 (including any numbers with number 4 such as 14/24/34/40's/etc) are considered as Taboo numbers since i live in Asian territory which number 4 considered as Death number if spelling in Japanese / Chinese, while peoples still believe in superstition about unlucky number 13.
But, this picture.... I guess not everyone believe in silly superstitions.

@Tyranexx Ah, okay. Yellow-tinted shades won't do much good, then.

@NEStalgia Aliens must have once visited @StableInvadeel's pueblo to do genetic experiments. Or maybe they live near a former secret underground nuclear test facility, causing a certain percentage of the population to become freakishly tall...

@Heavyarms55 I generally agree about SpaceX and such. Plus even the "government" programs are just profit motive aerospace military industrial complex companies as well (Boeing, Lockheed, the usual suspects, so it's not even very different there short of union versus non-union type companies.) Though NASA never really got into militarization....USAF has their own projects for that, while NASA acts largely as a distraction. They shifted to that model half way through Shuttle development....so NASA or not, the military's been doing their own stuff up there for quite some time.

All that said, China's already working on the militarization of space. Like it or not, militarization of space is inevitable and essential. If one does it, everyone must do it (or just surrender early?) So that ship already sailed. The Deathstar will be built, yadda yadda.

Nuclear rockets.....that makes me instantly think Asimov.... It makes sense...but while I think propulsion is advancing rapidly, it's not advancing rapidly enough for that kind of overnight shift. I think we have to go through a long period of mining drones exploiting resources in space before we get there (assuming adding/removing ridiculous mass to/from the planet by doing so doesn't destabilize the Earth's orbit and send us hurtling into/away from the sun!) The big hangup is even if we can get propulsion going well, we'll still be a long way from the FTL propulsion needed to get to other solar systems to find habitable environments, and we don't appear to have made much headway in terminating for inhospitable environments. I'd love to see it happen as that's really the only alternative to my mass population reduction theories....but I don't see a pace of advancement in those essential areas that indicates either of us will see it in our lifetimes, unfortunately.

I'll settle for my esatz black nubian goat.

@HobbitGamer Assuming direct control.....

@ThanosReXXX I can firmly stand behind the theory that @StableInvadeel is the result of secret underground nuclear research.......

It's certainly possible that FTL travel will never actually happen in reality, @NEStalgia .... I think there'd have been some progress on that by now if it was going to
In which case, options for serious space exploration are limited & that's probably always going to be the problem

@BruceCM As long as it's not physically impossible I imagine eventually it will happen. I don't think we have sufficient physics stating that it's not possible to prove it's not. It can, of course, come through various forms of simply FTL propulsion, or "wormhole" type transport, or discovering that time is in fact malleable or non-linear etc. In the absence of proof it's not possible it's best to assume it is possible. If nothing else, some civilization will figure out a way to subjugate people with it. Light is pretty fast.....but when talking huge distances, it's actually quite slow. It's hard to believe some form of energy can't travel at faster rates.

It may be impossible....but...too little knowledge either way to decide, for now.

Plus there's the little problem that if it does not happen, the sun is absolutely guaranteed to go red giant and consume the entire solar system, so absolutely nothing matters at all and humans are just a temporary phenomenon. So it's fair to say, that if humans still exist in the distant future, FTL had to happen. If FTL does not happen, humans already have a doomsday clock running that nothing can prevent.

I haven't been very active in the chat this week. But i hope everyone is doing well. Sorry if you sent me a note and i didn't reply. TGIF! Picked up Sydney Hunter yesterday and played 2 levels. It's pretty good fun. Think 8bit Indiana Jones/castlevania/shovel knight, zelda 2. High asking price of $20. But, I like the idea the dudes were going for and it was self funded so I took a shot. Lot of Easter eggs in there too. What's everyone up to this weekend?

Meanwhile, i felt ignored even i have posted something on this thread. 😔

@Anti-Matter whats going on? What did you get ignored on?

@NintendoByNature
This evening i found an interesting under construction building with number 4 & 13 as their floor when i went home. I thought it was very unusual to defy those taboo numbers as peoples still consider those bad numbers as part of the superstitions.

So, in my country the numbering of floors usually like these:
LG, G, UG, 1, 2, 3, 5, ....., 12, 15, etc.
They skipped number 4 & 13 to avoid bad luck.

Oh, look at my post above.

@Anti-Matter hmm. My family loves the #13 for some reason. But I think alot of places in the states USED to do the same thing with hotels and elevators(Not having 13th floor) but I could be wrong.

@Anti-Matter I think the whole "4 & 13 taboo" thing is a much bigger thin in Asia than the West. 4 isn't a thing here at all and unless you follow Japanese or Asian things most people have never heard of any taboo with 4. 13 is a thing as a commonly associated superstition here, but rarely is it eliminated on buildings, stations, or anything else etc....it would be far more odd here to see a tall building skip numbers due to superstition. I'm sure there's a few, probably built in the late 19th, early 20th century, but it would be unheard of today....13 follows 12, and it's linear.

Referencing the Apollo 13 movie Heavyarms mentioned, it's sort of an "enhanced documentary" with lots of true moments in it, plus some spiced up or altered moments. But one thing did come from reality, when Jim Lovell the mission commander for that space flight got the assignment, his wife was superstitious and worried and asked him why it had to be #13 he got. He looked at her and told her "It comes after 12...." That's just how that sort of thing is treated here....Asia is, in general, much more superstitious in the modern age for some reason. Link-Hero above may be on the extreme end of Vulcan logic-obsession but that does seem to be the Western way overall.

So your picture comes across as "Yep, that looks like a picture of a building..." to us over here

Oh that's right Friday the 13th! Marathon movie night later watching some good ol Jason

Woohoo! Happy Friday the 13th! I'm not superstitious when it comes to numbers or anything like that; it's just another day to me. A particular day isn't special or has any positive or negative meanings unless one mentally makes it that way. It's all about perspective IMO. Most of my Friday the 13ths have ranged from meh to pretty decent.

I'll be spending my evening at my seasonal job (haunted house). It's technically our dress rehearsal before the real action starts next month, but we are open with cheaper admission.

And yes, there will be a Jason Voorhees.

@NintendoByNature, @Anti-Matter Some older hotels that I've been to do omit the 13th floor and don't have a thirteenth room on each floor. I've always found it quite humorous.

@Tyranexx lucky! I love haunted houses.