Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.
Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.
Important Upcoming Dates
Wednesday, October 29 - Final Update Topic
Wednesday, November 5 - Timasomo Showcase Topic
November 1-4 are for putting the "finishing touches" on your project and readying it for the showcase.
While November 1 is technically the creative deadline, remember that there are no Timasomo Police, so if you need to keep working into November, go for it! We've had people submit to the showcase days and even weeks later.
Time for another update on your progress:
What did/didn't you get done this week?
Anything go according to plan?
Anything go off the rails?
Any successes or struggles to share?
Do you need feedback or help on anything?
This is your topic to share anything and everything you want about what you’ve made so far.
Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.
Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.
Welcome to the 2025 NFL Season Weekly Discussion Thread! 🏈 Share your thoughts on Week 7 — wins, losses, fantasy fumbles, predictions, or anything else football-related.
This weekend I lucked into three documentaries on YouTube and I’m looking for more. Each of them has small production teams, from 2 to maybe a dozen people, and they were excellent. I’m wondering if anyone else can recommend similar style documentaries. The one caveat is that I want to avoid a bunch of repeat topics— it seems like I could easily find a dozen or more videos on people doing ultramarathons. I’m interested in a greater variety of hobbies or sports.
Listers — birding — 2 hours, 2 guys, very good (probably better than you think)
The Finisher — Barkley Marathon — first female finisher.
King of Moab — 240mi ultramarathon in Moab desert
Day In The Life of The #1 BBQ In Texas —I don’t really care about BBQ (not saying it isn’t tasty), but this was delectable to watch.
When I was a kid, I remember going to a book store with my Mom and asking for a recommendation from the clerk there for something in the fantasy genre. He kindly pointed me to the Dark Elf trilogy by R. A. Salvatore. I noticed that it had a Forgotten Realms logo on the cover, and when I went back to the store I noticed other books with that logo as well. That was my introduction to a setting that is shared between authors who can write stories in the same universe.
On the smaller end, there are settings where 2 (or a few) authors collaborate (like the Malazan universe), while on the larger side of things you have settings with dozens to potentially hundreds of authors (like Warhammer 40k, Star Wars, Star Trek, etc).
Some quick questions I thought of that might be interesting below, but please feel free to share anything you'd like about this topic!
Ive been using Linux Mint for like 10 years now but my s/o still wants to use Windows
Win 10 is about to lose support, and they cant upgrade to Win 11 cause its missing some new chip?
Anyone have details or fixes? Im way out of the loop cause Linux is just plug and play for me so I don’t keep up with this stuff any more
Quick background: wife inherited an iPhone 8 plus from a recently deceased relative. Said relative used to have AT&T, wife and I do not. I was hoping to possibly use this phone on an upcoming international trip but it would need to be unlocked from the carrier first so I can put a new sim card in it. (Just to be clear, I don't mean getting into the actual phone, we've already saved the few photos and messages that were on there and reset the phone to factory settings). Tried doing the automated process on the AT&T website and it was denied immediately, no explanation given. Tried calling them and the automated system straight up hangs up on me because I don't have an account with them. So lastly we tried taking it directly to an AT&T store where they directed us to either call the number that keeps hanging up on us, or to "take it to one of those places at the mall that can unlock it for you". Useless.
I've done some research on this and seen various solutions online. Most of those solutions I have already tried (like calling the number or trying the online portal thing) or their situations don't apply to my case (like having purchased a new phone or having an account already with AT&T). One thing I've seen mentioned multiple times that seems to get results is to file a complaint with the FCC, so I went to do that and welp... government is shut down. FCC not accepting any complaints at the moment.
Another thing that I thought of was jailbreaking the phone, but I haven't done that to a phone in many years and am not even sure if that would resolve the issue of it being carrier-locked. But surely if 'those places at the mall' can unlock them without going through AT&T, then I might be able to as well. Hence I came here asking for help.
Anyone have any experience with this sort of thing?
What have you been playing lately? Discussion about video games and board games are both welcome. Please don't just make a list of titles, give some thoughts about the game(s) as well.
What food and drinks have you been enjoying (or not enjoying) recently? Have you cooked or created anything interesting? Tell us about it!
This thread is posted weekly - please try to post all relevant US political content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Extremely significant events may warrant a separate topic, but almost all should be posted in here.
This is an inherently political thread; please try to avoid antagonistic arguments and bickering matches. Comment threads that devolve into unproductive arguments may be removed so that the overall topic is able to continue.
I saw a smart home the other day and I got to admit, my caveman DNA was activated and I got jealous. My caveman DNA demands that I also make my home a smart one.
The thing is, I kind of don't really know how and where to begin, thus why I came to you guys for help.
I know that I want to do this gradually, over months or years, apply new smart devices like smart plugs, sensors, cameras, and the like little by little. As for appliances, only when mine stop working and need replacement.
I also want to be able to control my AC, my electric shutters, check how much energy my house is using and how much my solar panels are producing. These ones, I admit, are the ones that I'm most unsure about on how to go about it. I'm not an electrician, and might need to hire one.
As for a server, that's already taken care off. I have a synology server, or a raspberry pi 5 if for some reason my synology can't handle it. I know of "Home Assistant", is this the best software or do you recommend others?
Needless to say, I don't want to be dependent on companies or cloud services. This is a self-host project. I'm tech-savvy, I don't mind to get my hands dirty, but I do want to build something that is stable. "Set it and forget it" kind of thing.
So my question are:
1- Do you have any recommendations of where I should start? Like for example, light switches first, then smart plugs, etc.
2- If I should take into consideration the number of devices. Could they potentially clog my router or my wifi AP's if they get too many? If yes, is there a way to prevent this?
3- Do you have any article or guide or video that you recommend me checking out?
4- Do you have any tips, advice or warnings in general? Like problems that you know that I'll run into later, or things that you don't think are worth smartifying, etc (whatever you want to say, give it to me, I'll appreciate anything)
When I first setup my NUC, I wanted to setup docker on it so that all the information is stored on the NFS mount I setup on my Synology mount. Meaning volumes and anything of that kind.
One issue that came up however, was that if my router experience a temporary glitch, the docker containers would then also experience an issue since they were trying to access information stored on the mounts and my system would freeze and I had to force a shutdown to get the mount to work correctly.
Which makes me wonder, what is the recommended way to have docker containers store their information on an NFS mount while also allowing taking into account that sometimes a networking issue or router issue might happen?
there is 2 pieces of media I want to get subbed and dubbed in different languages.
problem is, whenever I try to look into this, I get results of places that offer their services to companies only.
Are there no places that offer subs and dubbing for tv shows and movies?
I traveled back to this year to revisit the release of Chrono Trigger.
The game is out for the Super Nintendo Entertainment system in Japan and the United States. It is not available in Europe or Australia. Those regions won't get an official release until Crono uses the Epoch to visit the Nintendo DS in the year 2008 A.D., over a decade later.
I travel around and speak with different townsfolk. Everyone seems to have opinions on the game.
My first stop is a little cave called GamePro where I speak with Sir Scary Larry:
Chrono Trigger is another satisfying and superlative game from Square. If you've finished FF III and are itching for some fantasy field work, pick this one up. Thankfully, the fantasy isn't final yet.
I then meet Al Manuel in a little town square by the name of Electronic Gaming Monthly:
THIS IS AWESOME!! Chrono Trigger is an RPG that combines the best features of the FF series and Mana and puts them all in a game that easily gets my vote for RPG of the year! As with all Squaresoft games, the visuals are drawn with stunning detail, and the music immerses players even further into the quest. Of course, the game's best feature is its endearing story line. Add multiple endings to that and you've got a must-have for your RPG collection.
I wander into some houses and find Video Game Magazine lying on a desk. Geoff Higgins has written about it:
Chrono Trigger is the newest in an increasing number of quality RPGs to come out in the past year. Coming on the heels of games like Ogre Battle and Might & Magic III, Chrono Trigger could easily have paled in comparison. Instead, Squaresoft has brought us another reason to hold onto our SNES.
Right next door is Game Informer, with this posted on their bulletin board:
In contrast to Square adventures of the past, Chrono is a shining new star. [...] The characters that you meet during your quest all have well-developed storylines that make their small sprites seem larger than life. The magic spells advance and become more grandiose as they go to double and triple techs. To put it simply, Chrono is the pinnacle for RPG's on the Super NES and must be played to be believed.
While there, I also speak with Andy "The Game Hombre" McNamara:
Let me tell you a little story. Everytime one of these Square Soft RPG's comes to the office I can't get any sleep. I get so involved in the storyline that I stay up late trying to see what happens next to this soap-opera on a cart. You'd think that one of these days these guys are going to screw-up and I may finally get some sleep, but noooooo. It never happens. Once again, this game put me into that guru floating sensation of "wow." If you're looking for an RPG, you don't need to look any farther. Chrono is the feel-good game of the summer!
I am about to leave, but he keeps going:
Originally, the cover of this issue of Game Informer was going to be graced with Chrono Trigger [...] However, the artwork created for the game was done by a well-known Japanese artist known as Akira Tomiyama. This man is famous in Japan for such artistic feats as Dragon Ball Z and Chrono Trigger -- the hottest game right now in Japan. In his ride to glory, however, he managed to forget the little people.
He and his company refused us the rights to use his artwork on the cover because they felt that any magazine that featured Akira Tomiyama artwork on the cover would instantly be worth quadruple its original cover value. They even went as far as to say that it would be traded on the black market because his artwork is so sought after in Japan.
I think he meant "Akira Toriyama" but I don't mention it. And now that I think about it, none of the places I visited had Chrono Trigger artwork on their main displays. Sure, you can see some of the characters and screenshots tucked away in individual houses and shops, but the banners I see when entering the locations are always for different games: Killer Instinct, Lunar: Eternal Blue, Super Bomberman 3, the Virtual Boy.
Everybody is talking about Chrono Trigger, with many people seeing it as the hero of the time, but nobody is featuring its artwork.
But then I notice a little Game Players shop, and it, quite surprisingly, does have a small picture of Crono and Marle on its door. Interesting. Inside, I talk with Chris Slate, who doesn't mention it:
Can Square Soft do anything wrong? I mean, look at the track record: Secret of Mana, Breath of Fire, Final Fantasy II and III [...] it's hard to criticize near-perfection. The graphics are beautiful, the interface is slick, and the gameplay is just plain fun. It's RPGs like this that wil eventually win over the mainstream.
As I'm leaving, I notice Super Play, the shop across the street, has a full, front-and-center display: Chrono with the Epoch! Did they get permission from To[m|r]iyama? Did they break the rules? Was this actually just fan art drawn by someone else?
Wil Overton doesn't have any answers for me, but he does share this:
This is a fine game and one Square fans will get a lot out of. The time travel premise is superbly implemented, and the way things are intermingled through the different periods means the main underlying story stays strong throughout all the individual quests. Definitely recommended... if you've got the time (ha!).
Having thoroughly explored the region, I hop back in the Epoch and return to...
It is here that I noticed that the threat of Lavos still remains, his heat steadily growing, slowly placing the entire planet in peril. Meanwhile, despotic royals lust after power and oppress their subjects to pursue their own selfish glory and greed.
We can use a hero. Maybe Crono will visit our time?
Or maybe we have to pursue this quest ourselves.
Team up, level up, fight for good, support one another, and...
...maybe...
...against all odds...
...change the course of history.
So concludes this month of our COLOSSAL GAME ADVENTURE!
For anyone wondering, u/ali asked me to step in and host because they are traveling and weren't sure if they'd have consistent internet. I hope what I wrote is up to their standards!
This topic is to share your thoughts on Chrono Trigger:
Because we are now removing the cartridge, spoilers will not be hidden in dropdown blocks so please be aware of this if you haven't yet finished the game.
This topic remains open, so you are welcome to post in it whenever you do finish the game, even if it is days or weeks later.
Up Next:
Our next month, November 2025, is our very first Arcade Special, which is a group of shorter games that are intended to be played together.
The theme is: PlayStation WHAT? and will be hosted by the esteemed u/Lapbunny.
It's a collection of oddball, off-the-wall games, 4 of which are on the PlayStation and 1 of which is on the PlayStation 2 because someone forgot to check the games' information before bundling them up.
It was me. I'm the someone.
I hope everyone is having a good day. After writing that plea to let Star Trek die and do nothing with it for a while, I decided to be a necromancer for a day. Not sure where to put it so I went with ~misc. In doing it, I know I'm probably forgetting some of the lore/timeline details. I haven't read a lot of wiki material, fan books, etc. I just watch old reruns now and then and had an idea rolling around in my mind.
For context, let's pretend everything after 2005 just didn't happen, that the TNG movies were mostly dreams, and it's 15 years later. We're relying mostly on TNG/VOY/DS9 for the setting. The show runs for four seasons, with each season being one big arc. I don't know what to call it. If you have a fun name we can do that, and if you want I can try to fill in spots where folks have questions.
ok, let's go (boldly)
Eventually, the Enterprise is assigned a rescue mission. A science guy on an outpost near the Romulans got himself into some shit with the locals and the Federation would like to avoid a violent misunderstanding. The Enterprise sets out, and when they get there do a pretty typical heroic thing - they battle some angry aliens, find the scientist, and recover his stuff for him. Aboard the ship though, they find that some of what the scientist had is odd. There are tools, weaponry of a kind they haven't seen before, that do things uncharacteristic of Federation technology. The scientist denies knowing much about it, but it's clear from how they're engaging something is being kept from the Enterprise crew. The guy knows more than he's saying, but because he won't explain all they can do is take him back home and hand over what they found.
When they arrive at a starbase and check in with Starfleet, the captain is puzzled by their reaction to his report. They acknowledge what he found, but offer no real explanation/details. He's told it's simply not part of his mission to know. Before they're done, he checks out the equipment one more time, and discovers an insignia - Federation Security, the apparatus that grew and expanded during the Dominion War. Federation Security didn't disappear when the war ended, but its role was greatly reduced. A landmark moment in that history involved a new civilian government legislating various constraints on its activities and paring back the surveillance machinery built up for the Dominion War. The captain is puzzled why this organization would be operating on a remote outpost at the edge of the territory, and tries to investigate further. He finds bits and pieces, communications to and from the outpost in an indecipherable format. He tries to find out more about the scientist, and discovers he has always been in close contact with various structured linked to Federation Security. Those monster-of-the-week encounters were all also associated with the scientist's work - he was communicating with them, and to some degree may have orchestrated some of the moments the enterprise was sent there to resolve.
Before the captain can put things together though, they receive orders to head out again on another mission near Romulan space. Along the way, strange things begin to happen. System failures, computer glitches, mechanical problems crop up and no clear explanation for them emerges. When the Enterprise reaches its destination, they are unable to locate the folks they're meant to rendezvous with. They try to reach Starfleet, but their communications start screwing up, and the engines become nonfunctional. As the crew tries to work out what is going on, multiple explosions rock the ship. Cloaked vessels are firing upon it, and the system malfunctions mean the Enterprise is more or less adrift. The ship is badly damaged, but in the nick of time engines get restored and they warp away. They set off for a starbase, but without the ability to communicate out to anyone.
When the Enterprise makes it to the starbase, they come to find this incident is already known to everyone. Across Federation space it's been broadcast that the Enterprise was attacked by the Romulans. Though it's unclear exactly why they would do that, the incident is such a surprise that folks are scared, and leadership is saying this portends a larger conflict if the Romulans don't have a good explanation for what happened. While the Enterprise is docked, the captain/crew try to get in touch with Starfleet to inform them of what happened, but everyone they speak to seems dead set on seeing the incident as an unprovoked attack. The system malfunctions and original mission details aren't being included in folks' accounts of what happened and they won't correct their stories after hearing from the Enterprise crew.
On their own, the captain and crew try to figure out what they can about the vessels that attacked them. The Enterprise didn't pick up much, but what little it did seems to indicate weaponry in some way similar to the weird stuff they found when they rescued the scientist. Before they can land on anything definitive, repairs are completed and Starfleet orders them out to rendezvous with other ships to help prepare for a border operation. Before they leave the starbase, the captain alone in his office is approached by Federation Security. He is told, they know of the particulars he's been trying to communicate, but they are ordering him to stay silent about the reality of his encounter. He must also ensure his crew stays silent too. If he tries to defy these orders, they will be removed from their posts. The captain, knowing at this point how wide the narrative has been broadcast about the attack, reluctantly agrees. The Enterprise then sets out for its next mission.
While the Enterprise is en route to the other Federation ships, the captain can't help but be fixated on that encounter with Federation Security. Something has to be afoot, but given how quickly everything evolved since the encounter with the cloaked ships, he knows he has to work out what to do on his own. As the Enterprise travels between systems, picking up different missions and coordinating with other ships, he notes areas in space where their communications will be less effective, and takes those moments to conduct investigations. During some of their encounters with the other ships, they meet people descended from characters in TNG/DS9/VOY. Through these characters, the captain comes to learn about stuff that never got told to folks, like the 29th century time traveler, covert operations surrounding Deep Space 9, etc. He learns details about what happened with each of the other Enterprise vessels, and is made to confront the idea that his Enterprise isn't like those. Those really were about exploration and discovery; his is more of a pawn in a larger scheme, the resurrection of an old image to serve a malign end.
The captain becomes convinced, there is something deeply wrong with what is happening - Federation Security seems to have a much larger role in the Federation's leadership than what was known to most people, it didn't lose the power it had accrued. At this point, the captain pulls together his most trusted crew members (the bridge crew, basically) and lays out what he's come across. The Enterprise continues its missions, and when another opportunity to work in secret presents itself, they get together.
They determine the cloaked vessels were in fact using weapons identical to the kind they found with that federation scientist. The tools he had were for intercepting and altering communications. The Romulans don't appear to have been doing anything of note anywhere near the part of space where they were attacked. As they get the details straight, a dark truth begins to emerge - Federation Security, not the Romulans, attacked them, utilizing cloaking technologies derived from some of the weird 29th century shit Voyager came across. They were attacked so as to give pretext for a conflict with the Romulans, which would mean a newfound need for Federation Security to take up a leading position within the Federation power structure. Much of the history they understood simply wasn't true - while on the surface, the Federation backed away from security/surveillance, in truth these aspects were being consolidated behind the scenes using much of what prior Enterprise excursions came across.
The captain and crew decide, they have to reach the Federation's civilian leadership with what they've uncovered. They quickly come to see though, that will not be easy to do. Their investigation allowed them to understand some of how Federation Security operates, and in a revelatory moment they see that Federation Security is practically everywhere. They can observe what the crew does on their ship computer, they can see through the cameras, everything they're doing can in some way be observed. As its dawning on them that their entire effort has probably been seen, the Enterprise comes under attack.
This time, it's a fleet of Federation ships. Communications are established, and the captain is told they are being apprehended for having sent sensitive information out to the Romulans. The captain and crew know, this is a setup, and so instead of surrendering they fight back and haul ass toward the nearest edge of Federation space. They escape. The ship is damaged but still functional, and once past the border their pursuers eventually turn back. Alone, in need of repairs, the Enterprise charts a course to an unpopulated system.
With the Federation now hostile to them, and without means of getting in contact with anyone inside the Federation, the Enterprise crew devises a plan to get their ship fixed up and contact the other, non-human species within/around Federation space. The Klingons, the Romulans, the Vulcans, so on and so forth. They work on outfitting a shuttle to be able to cross borders undetected, so they can get to the various homeworlds and see if they can inform these species of Federation Security's scheming.
With each encounter, they outwit and fight it out with the intelligence apparatus of each species, in stories based on wild shit actual intelligence agencies did. For example, in one episode they pick up some supplies only to find they've been laced with poisons. They reach the Klingons and have to deal with the Klingon KGB thinking this is all some triple agent stuff. They reach the MI5 Romulans and have to throw off pursuit by cloaked ships. They make it to Vulcan in disguise and feed false information to their Federation associates. Lots of room for half-monster-of-the-week material. In the end, they manage to reach important people with each species, and come out with a new plan to get the truth broadcast to the whole of the Federation all at once.
A coalition of ships, outfitted for secrecy/evading detection, along with a similarly outfitted Enterprise, will penetrate into Federation space on a course toward Earth. Using every dirty trick, they will attempt to distract and throw off Federation Security enough for the Enterprise to make it to Earth's big communications relay, where they can broadcast to everyone the truth of Federation Security's false flag op. They're under the gun, because while they've been doing all this the Federation has been gearing up for a bigger conflict. The border with the Romulans is destabilizing, folks are getting in petty skirmishes, the populace is being brought to thinking they must go and fight. If they don't make it in time, the war will begin proper and there's no telling where that will go.
The coalition fleet assembles, pinpoints where they've got the best chance to cross back into Federation space, and get going.
Eventually they get near the Sol system. The Federation's warships are all over the place, with enough firepower that the Coalition Fleet stands no chance in a direct encounter. Through the use of all their weird intel agent tools they manage to evade detection and throw off pursuits, but not without some having to escape and others getting destroyed. Eventually the time comes, where the Enterprise alone has to get to Earth while the fleet performs a distraction.
The Enterprise nears the moon, and figures out a way by which they can evade detection by maintaining a stationary orbit in a spot of weird stuff in between moonbases (I gotta technobabble that one I'm sorry). The captain and bridge crew man a shuttle and head out for the communications array, a big structure in between the Earth and the moon (again not sure whether that exists but let's just say it does).
At the array they encounter almost no resistance. By now they know, something is up, but they have to complete their mission so they keep on. The goal is to send out a broadcast through the array that provides irrefutable proof of what they've found about Federation Security's attack as well as what information they could put together from their encounters up to this point. The hope is that once this is out there, Federation Security will lose enough credibility that it will be isolated - the rest of the Federation will hopefully turn against it.
As they near the station they need to use, they are stopped by Federation Security's topmost people. They're offered a deal - surrender, hand over their information, the captain will be put on trial and the crew will be spared. For a moment it's uncertain how this will play out, because the experience of getting to this point has been one of continuous paranoia, suspicion, betrayal and exhaustion. However, together, they refuse, and fight it out while the captain and first officer get to where they need to be to get the broadcast done.
They succeed. The Federation, all at once, is informed of what has happened. The remaining ships of the Coalition Fleet phone home, and ships from all over the quadrant approach to take down what forces Federation Security can muster. Most of the Federation turns against FS as well, so their leaders get apprehended and their power structure dismantled. The captain and crew, exhausted, head back to the shuttle, board the Enterprise and reveal themselves to the wider populace as this coalition effort secures the space.
The show picks up again a few years later. After this incident, the Federation underwent a radical stage of transformation, in which the warmongering security apparatus was taken apart for good. In doing so, there were times of difficulty and disagreement - the other species came to learn of stuff that made relations harder to maintain, but because of the Enterprise's efforts in 2540 these ultimately were resolved. The captain and crew were eventually lauded as heroes of Federation, though none took up positions of leadership. Instead, many of them resigned, to live as civilians after having seen a bit too much. The captain stayed for a time, but eventually decided it was best for someone else to captain a new model, one that could conduct its exploratory missions without the burden of having been at the center of a big nasty scheme.
THE END
If I could summon infinite money and good actors, I think I'd focus a lot on the idea that following the end of DS9, the Federation wasn't quite the same thing as before their war with the Dominion. My read of DS9 was of the Federation slowly transforming into a security state - it was losing some of its freedom and exploratory nature for the sake of defending itself. By the end of DS9 it felt like the Federation had lost some of its spirit, and was left in a situation where it needed to seriously interrogate what it was all about. Voyager went further along in time but I don't remember it having much to say about the state of the Federation broadly.
My beef with post 2005 Trek (as in, after Enterprise was over) was that instead of heading on into the future the franchise kept going back. I wanted to know, what happened to them after the war was done, when the need for surveillance and security fundamentally changed. Did they just go back to being about discovery and science and stuff, or did they go down a paranoid, Terran Empire sort of path? I think either could have been interesting, but more importantly I think leaving off with that kind of uncertainty was a good setup for doing a show that would have landed real hard years down the line. We all lived through the emergence of things like mass surveillance and the algorithmic internet and I feel like Star Trek should have been there to show us some of what could be done with that. I would like to hope that if a deep truth got sent out into the world it would mean something, so that's what's in what I wrote here. I think there would be a lot of room in a show like this to reexamine the role of the stuff we experienced, grew up with, etc., through the lens of an Enterprise captain realizing his mission isn't what it appears to be.
I hope that was fun. Always happy to take feedback and hear what kinds of stuff ya'll think would make for a good show.
Edit: Guess I'm adding Babylon 5 to the storage drive. I don't know why I never saw it but I will happily follow ya'll's suggestion on that one, sounds good to me