Re: Personal Status Updates!

Maybe, but I'm seeing it from fully grown adults too. People that really don't have the excuse of youth.


(I was going to say that I was never such a pig-headed youth, but I think that a couple of people around here might do a spit-take and destroy their monitors if I said such things)

Please be informed that the political, scientific, sociological, economic and legal views expressed in Informant's posts and social media accounts do not reflect any consensus of Sliders.tv.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

Avoiding those sites made me more productive... In a way.

I hacked my NES Classic and added a bunch of games. Now I have about 50. I will be doing more, but I just wanted to see if I could do it. I've heard that someone got an SD card working with it. If that happens, I will have pretty much all the old NES games smile

Please be informed that the political, scientific, sociological, economic and legal views expressed in Informant's posts and social media accounts do not reflect any consensus of Sliders.tv.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

Just to bring the discussion on relating to people over the internet back to SLIDERS...

I spent various periods of January 2015 to December 2016 writing SLIDERS REBORN with three different editors who called me completely insane at different points. I had a fundamentalist view of SLIDERS (that it's all canon, all 88 episodes are best integrated into a grand tapestry of infinite storytelling possibilities) to which they were fundamentally opposed (they advised a straight reboot). The great thing about having had three editors is that I can talk about them bluntly without indicating which of the three to whom I refer.

One editor described my writing as a clumsy and witless collection of empty set pieces unleashing the Season 3 monsters for no good reason whatsoever and when I explained that they served as metaphors for mental illness, he told me I was clearly well-acquainted with the subject matter and remarked that Hong Kong slapstick comedy and superhero movies had melted my ability to tell stories.

One editor kept rewriting my dialogue, feeling that my desire to imply and indicate through context and action was ineffective and didn't communicate emotion well while observing that my scientific exposition was an impenetrable fog. I would read this editor's suggested revisions with horror where my subtext was simply text and I would wonder if I'd spent so long inside my SLIDERS bubble that I had lost the ability to explain anything to anybody.

One editor told me that that my writing was an overstuffed shopping list of story elements that would result in an incomprehensible, unreadable story and characterized my outline as "an unworkable beat sheet of nonsensical stream of consciousness written by a crazy person."

One editor would offer opinions in an oddly deferential manner -- which is to say he would provide a positive opinion, and then when forwarded fan mail with negative criticism from other readers, would promptly reverse his opinion to match the criticism.

I certainly don't excuse myself from all the difficulties here; my outlines were often a list of unstructured ideas and very difficult for any editor to review. However, at various points, I found myself telling each of the three editors that their job was not to take my story and replace it with their own; their job was to share with me how they felt my story could be told effectively and engagingly.

(This was hard for them because my outlines often left it frustratingly unclear what my story even was.)

Anyway. When their ideas added clarity, depth, points of interest and meaning to a celebratory tribute to all five seasons of SLIDERS and created warmth and joy and love and wonder for the characters and their world, I worked them in. When their ideas were caustic or insulting to SLIDERS or diluted the happiness and thrill of having Quinn, Wade, Rembrandt and Arturo back together, I declined to use them.

When they called my story incomprehensible and told me to just do a continuity reboot and rewrote my dialogue, I set aside my frustration and tried to grapple with what was confusing and find a way to simplify; when they called me and my material crazy, I would ask myself if the plausibility were an issue or if the madness could be communicated within the tone of the writing to enthuse the reader.

I tried to take the very best of what they had to say, not dwell too much on that which was unhelpful or paralyzing, while accepting that sometimes, people aren't always going to communicate with you in the terms you personally would find ideal and if I couldn't deal with that and do my job, SLIDERS REBORN would have sat unfinished on EP.COM forever.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

Informant wrote:

Disney could release a movie that is nothing but a chimp eating a banana for two hours, and the world would cheer them on as long as it had "Marvel's" or "Star Wars" before the title (don't get me wrong, there may be examples of good work from each franchise, but there are also definite weaknesses that nobody cares about)

It's not that they don't care, they are just willing to overlook the problems because of the elements they enjoy.  Fans nitpick Star Wars films to death.

If you can't enjoy media in spite of its flaws, what are you doing posting here?

Re: Personal Status Updates!

ireactions wrote:

I tried to take the very best of what they had to say, not dwell too much on that which was unhelpful or paralyzing, while accepting that sometimes, people aren't always going to communicate with you in the terms you personally would find ideal and if I couldn't deal with that and do my job, SLIDERS REBORN would have sat unfinished on EP.COM forever.

True. But when it comes to the real world and real consequences, with real facts and real details, keeping your head down and letting things roll off your back is less productive.



pilight wrote:

It's not that they don't care, they are just willing to overlook the problems because of the elements they enjoy.  Fans nitpick Star Wars films to death.
If you can't enjoy media in spite of its flaws, what are you doing posting here?


To be clear, I'm not having a freak-out "Leave Brittany alone!" moment. I'm just burned out, frustrated by the willingness to believe lies because they say what you want, and a complete lack of scale when it comes to disagreeing with people. Suddenly, anyone who didn't vote for Hillary is a KKK member, a rapist, a murderer, a fascist (and most people who use that word don't even know what it means), and whatever other negative words people can think of, and you are completely unworthy of life, much less talking to.

That is not rational thought. It is not productive. It is insane. Balls-out crazy. It's the most intolerant, hateful, ugly people calling other people intolerant, hateful and ugly... And that would just be laughable if it weren't coming from news outlets and other supposedly sane people. This is crap that kids say, it isn't supposed to come from adults!

So yeah, I'm burned out. I'm a facts and details guy who loves discussing and debating with people who don't agree with me, because I'm capable of respecting people who aren't exactly like me. This insanity is, to me, like forcing a germaphobe to lick the floor in a hospital. But I'll get over it. Probably sooner rather than later.

This board isn't really like that though. We discuss differences and debate topics, but usually in a more rational, grown-up way. We may argue, but I genuinely don't think that anyone here wants to resurrect Hitler or rape anyone. I have never gotten the impression that anyone here thinks those things of me.

To use the Star Wars example... It is one thing for fans to debate details of the movie that they all love. I think it is something else for someone to wave off the idea of criticism because they think the movies are perfect and if you disagree with that beliefs, you are an ugly human being who isn't worth talking to.

I think the discussions about comic book movies have especially gotten close to that point. Those discussions sound a lot like political debates at times. Critics will praise the one they want to love, blind to any weaknesses, and they will rip into anything that challenges that beloved franchise in any way.

The reality is, some people like Marvel, some people like DC. Both have made pretty good money. Both have made movies that solidly appeal to their audience. The success of one doesn't really harm the other. There doesn't need to be a winner or a loser, but a lot of people are in a battle mindset. They can't just let people like what they like, they have to make sure that nobody likes the other one.

Like I said, it looks a lot like a political discussion at times, which is odd.

Please be informed that the political, scientific, sociological, economic and legal views expressed in Informant's posts and social media accounts do not reflect any consensus of Sliders.tv.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

Informant wrote:

True. But when it comes to the real world and real consequences, with real facts and real details, keeping your head down and letting things roll off your back is less productive.

I don't know if I recommended "keeping your head down," but I do champion "letting things roll of your back" in addition to "doing whatever it is you need to do" in both the fictional world and the real world.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

It only works in real life if you're not willfully ignoring facts, just for the sake of continuing to hate someone. In real life, letting fantasy outweigh reality doesn't lead to good things. I do tend to smile and ignore people that I know when they say crazy things, but watching them go insane over something that they're essentially made up in their head is frustrating. An the more frustrating part is that I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I could show them video proof that proves that they are wrong about X, Y or Z, and they would refuse to absorb that information. They would deny it, and then forget that it existed as soon as it wasn't right in front of their face.

It reminds me of the Ben/Glory thing on Buffy, in a way. smile

Please be informed that the political, scientific, sociological, economic and legal views expressed in Informant's posts and social media accounts do not reflect any consensus of Sliders.tv.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

Once again, you seem to be discounting / ignoring the central part of my philosophy, which is not tuning out what you don't want to hear or engaging in self-delusion or prioritizing fantasy -- but not letting that which is distressing and upsetting prevent you from making efforts to accomplish your goals, whatever those are.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

Yeah, I get that. Like I said, I'm not having a breakdown or anything. I'm just tiring of specific topics and mindsets. Easily avoided for a little while.

I'd love to see if I could go completely low-tech for a while and swear off of cell phones and laptops entirely, but that isn't realistic while I need to get work done.

Please be informed that the political, scientific, sociological, economic and legal views expressed in Informant's posts and social media accounts do not reflect any consensus of Sliders.tv.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

I should say, your philosophy isn't very different than what I usually do. In normal life, I usually take things in, shake my head and then move on with my life. But it's just gotten harder to ignore the crazy, so I wanted to limit my exposure for a while.

Please be informed that the political, scientific, sociological, economic and legal views expressed in Informant's posts and social media accounts do not reflect any consensus of Sliders.tv.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

Okay, avoiding didn't work. Just can't be done.

I just have to take a deep breath and not let the crazies get to me.

Please be informed that the political, scientific, sociological, economic and legal views expressed in Informant's posts and social media accounts do not reflect any consensus of Sliders.tv.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

The Earthprime.com webmaster informs me that SLIDERS REBORN is the third most visited section of the website, coming in behind the home page (#1) and the Season 3 episode guide (#2). That's right. Twenty years later and Season 3 is still stabbing me in the back. Damn you, Season 3!

(But thank you to everyone for all the page views and the TV Tropes page and the plugs.)

Re: Personal Status Updates!

About a year ago...

ME: "I miss posting on Sliders.TV so much! I keep writing up long posts and just saving them in the cloud!"

TRANSMODIAR: "Do you feel better now that you've admitted it?"

ME: "It's been really hard ever since the moderator banned me from Sliders.TV."

TRANSMODIAR: " ................... YOU are the moderator."

ME: "Yeah, I needed a time-out."

**

Two months ago...

ME: "You know, it's hard to keep going with SLIDERS REBORN when the first editor and now the second have told me the exact same thing -- that my story is crazy and unworkable and that I am insane."

TRANSMODIAR: "You'll prove 'em all wrong!"

ME: "But you were the first editor."

TRANSMODIAR: "Yeah! I know!"

ME: "But I can respect that you both gave up on the project because you understandably didn't believe in it."

TRANSMODIAR: "Hey, don't confuse giving up with never starting."

**

Two days ago...

ME: "Hmm. All in all -- between your intolerance for implausibility, Nigel's world-building skills and Slider_Quinn21's typo-spotting and troubleshooting with the prose, you all made the perfect editor."

TRANSMODIAR: "Cool! It's good to know I'm thirty three per cent of a man."

Re: Personal Status Updates!

My iPad Mini 2's charge port is broken. I am trying to figure out if it's worth repairing -- by switching all tablet stuff over to the Surface 3 and seeing how well it goes!

... the wifi keeps switching off and on again. I feel like I spend more time fixing Windows PCs than I do using them.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

So the touchscreen keyboard on the Surface? It's awful. The spacebar/isn't/wide/enough. I keep hitting the slash key instead. And weirdly, the keyboard + touchpad Touch Cover -- it randomly loses connection with the tablet at times. It occurs to me that in all the time I spent using the iPad, I was never dealing with random, time wasting glitches where software designers and hardware engineers' problems were suddenly my inconvenience.

But the Surface screen is really big. Everything pops! And when the Touch Cover does work, I type a heckuva lot faster than I ever could on an iPad. And the speakers are front facing so the sound is very strong when I'm watching a show. That's importan




The keyboard stopped working again just now. And now I seem to have lost the cursor.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

The flu is no joke

Re: Personal Status Updates!

pilight wrote:

The flu is no joke

Turns out, not the flu

Re: Personal Status Updates!

Did you get a flu shot?

Re: Personal Status Updates!

Slider_Quinn21 wrote:

Did you get a flu shot?

Yes, but what I have is pneumonia

Re: Personal Status Updates!

That sucks. Get well soon.

Please be informed that the political, scientific, sociological, economic and legal views expressed in Informant's posts and social media accounts do not reflect any consensus of Sliders.tv.

501 (edited by Slider_Quinn21 2017-02-01 15:17:45)

Re: Personal Status Updates!

I've had pneumonia a couple times.  It's awful.  I've been wondering if I should get the pneumonia vaccine since I seem to be susceptible to it.  Although I have no idea what it'd be for since pneumonia is more of a situation than something specific.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

A dramatization. May not have actually happened.

IREACTIONS: "A friend of mine said that now that all the first-tier shows have been revived, it's time for second-tier shows like SLIDERS to come back. I said that calling SLIDERS second-tier was an insult to every genuine second-tier show."

TRANSMODIAR: "Hahah!! SLIDERS would be lucky to make it to third-tier! And isn't it weird that people would rather bitch about politics on the Sliders.tv Bboard instead of talking about the massive find that's the 'Raging Quinn' script?"

IREACTIONS: "Isn't it weird that this glorified spec script of generic set pieces is what qualifies as a massive find in SLIDERS fandom?"

TRANSMODIAR: "Isn't it weird that people would rather talk about how shitty the DC superhero movies are rather than read an overelaborate and ridiculously overcomplicated six part series of SLIDERS screenplays?"

IREACTIONS: "Isn't it weird that the biggest fan of SLIDERS will never read that series and the other biggest fan of SLIDERS only read it when he was roped into editing it?"

TRANSMODIAR: "Isn't it weird that you don't even think of me when you're talking about the biggest fans of SLIDERS?"

IREACTIONS: "Isn't it weird that you're a public pariah in the very fandom that defines your online interaction?"

TRANSMODIAR: "Isn't it weird that you're seen as the village mental patient in the very fandom that defines your online interaction?"

IREACTIONS: "Isn't it weird that we're both Big Name Fans in TV show fandoms that nobody actually watches and you and I spend more time mocking the series than its worst critics?"

A dramatization. May not have actually happened.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

I will read the scripts when I can!!! I spend my days either writing or reading! My eyes get tired!

You should make an audiobook or radio show.

Please be informed that the political, scientific, sociological, economic and legal views expressed in Informant's posts and social media accounts do not reflect any consensus of Sliders.tv.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

Slider_Quinn21 wrote:

I've had pneumonia a couple times.  It's awful.  I've been wondering if I should get the pneumonia vaccine since I seem to be susceptible to it.  Although I have no idea what it'd be for since pneumonia is more of a situation than something specific.

This is my first experience with it.  It's bad, but I've had worse.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

Going back to the question of whether the Sliders are superheroes, I recently started reading The Evolution of the Costumed Avenger: The 4,000-Year History of the Superhero by Jess Nevins.  It's a fascinating look into the history and antecedents of the modern comic book hero.  Nevins claims the defining characteristic of a hero to be a selfless mission.  I don't think that describes the Sliders, whose primary mission was always to get home.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

Going back to my opinion that pilight is a jerk --

I find pilight's view of superheroes toxic in trying to police what a superhero is or isn't, primarily because pilight's views are in terms of defining what a superhero isn't, what a superhero shouldn't be, what a superhero can't be -- and pilight's view is that superheroes (and Sliders) should never be whatever ireactions thinks they are because pilight doesn't like me. pilight is regularly belittling my views despite the fact that pilight shares them.

Because, I dunno, I was critical of pilight's ideas for rebooting Sliders and thought it was absurd to pick up off of "The Seer." Shame on me for looking at stories from the perspective of the average TV viewer! One could argue that Sliders Reborn is then a hypocritical work, except Reborn was made for a diehard audience and the Redux was my pitch for a general audience revival.

When I rambled about how I thought the Season 3 monsters could be integrated into the Season 1 - 2 style of Sliders, pilight told me my ideas were too much like MacGyver, shouldn't be used for Reasons -- but when asked how pilight would use the Season 3 monsters, pilight laid out a proposal that was no different than mine, which means pilight's issue with my opinions is that they're my opinions.

And then there's the tactic of pilight's analysis -- it's wholly in terms of negative definition. Superheroes aren't this. Sliders isn't that. It's anti-creativity; pilight looks at something that exists and subtracts from it rather than adding to it. It's an argument style that isn't about exploring different points of view, but redrawing boundaries so that any opinions from people pilight doesn't like are outside what pilight deems acceptable.

The eliminative method for fiction is destructive. If a character having personal goals (like getting home) disqualifies them as a superhero, then characters who aren't superheroes include Spider-Man (he goes looking for crime to photograph himself doing it to sell the pictures and pay his rent), Iron Man (Stark Enterprises earns money), the X-Men (fighting to survive their own future genocide), the Flash (gets paid by local hospitals as part of an ambulance service), Green Lantern (toy salesman), Aquaman (trying to protect his home from water pollution), Green Arrow (Queen Industries earns money) -- which means that pilight's process of defining superheroes entirely in terms of which ones don't count is so flawed as to be worthless, useless and incompetent.

There is a futile foolishness to declaring that fictional characters should be reduced to selflessness or any one specific trait. Drama is about conflict and if characters are granted only a single characteristic, there are no opposing forces within the character, no contradictions, no points of view. It's a simplistic, clumsy concept of writing characters and stories presented by people who are only ever inclined to tear things down and have no ability (or interest) in building things up.

The only requirement of a superhero is that they have an ability that the characters around them don't. Even superpowers aren't necessary; Batman technically has none, and his power is represented through usually mundane aptitudes operating at peak performance. The sliders also have abilities and advantages in that they are visitors who can sidestep consequences of each world they leave behind, making them free to do things others can't.

The sliders have ideas and perspectives the characters around them lack, matched with the ability to cheat normal narrative rules in that they have experienced madness, horror and death, but the nature of the sliding concept means they can survive anything, even their actors being fired and their show being cancelled.

And, to wrap up the last time I will ever bother to directly address pilight unless I get some apology for all of the above:

  • Defining characters in terms of what they aren't is a dead end for creativity and criticism.

  • It is a route taken by people who attack other people's ideas because they have none of their own.

  • Your means of reviewing fiction is toxic.

  • Your approach to analyzing superheroes is ineptly idiotic.

  • Your Sliders reboot ideas are terrible.

And also -- y'boring.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

ireactions wrote:

A dramatization. May not have actually happened.

IREACTIONS: "A friend of mine said that now that all the first-tier shows have been revived, it's time for second-tier shows like SLIDERS to come back. I said that calling SLIDERS second-tier was an insult to every genuine second-tier show."

TRANSMODIAR: "Hahah!! SLIDERS would be lucky to make it to third-tier! And isn't it weird that people would rather bitch about politics on the Sliders.tv Bboard instead of talking about the massive find that's the 'Raging Quinn' script?"

IREACTIONS: "Isn't it weird that this glorified spec script of generic set pieces is what qualifies as a massive find in SLIDERS fandom?"

TRANSMODIAR: "Isn't it weird that people would rather talk about how shitty the DC superhero movies are rather than read an overelaborate and ridiculously overcomplicated six part series of SLIDERS screenplays?"

IREACTIONS: "Isn't it weird that the biggest fan of SLIDERS will never read that series and the other biggest fan of SLIDERS only read it when he was roped into editing it?"

TRANSMODIAR: "Isn't it weird that you don't even think of me when you're talking about the biggest fans of SLIDERS?"

IREACTIONS: "Isn't it weird that you're a public pariah in the very fandom that defines your online interaction?"

TRANSMODIAR: "Isn't it weird that you're seen as the village mental patient in the very fandom that defines your online interaction?"

IREACTIONS: "Isn't it weird that we're both Big Name Fans in TV show fandoms that nobody actually watches and you and I spend more time mocking the series than its worst critics?"

A dramatization. May not have actually happened.

I'd like to believe this happened.

Earth Prime | The Definitive Source for Sliders™

Re: Personal Status Updates!

It did happen. Albeit not in one conversation and not in those exact words. I said it was a dramatization, not that it was a complete fiction.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

With regards to the cast of SLIDERS as superheroes (and without any interest in responding to the person who re-raised the subject):

There are two ways of portraying Quinn, Wade, Rembrandt and Arturo that I like to present in writing them. The first is to present them as idiosyncratic dramedy characters, the cast of a quirky sitcom of life and death situations with highly distinctive voices and some truly crippling character flaws that make them hilarious, capable and intensely troubled -- so Quinn is both a hypercompetent scientist and a troubled shut-in whose only friend is his mother; Wade is a relentlessly practical problem solver who finds it easier to focus on other people's problems while ignoring her own needs; Rembrandt is a highly adept social engineer with a completely delusional self-image (either thinking of himself of a superstar when he's not or an inept civilian when he's not) and the Professor is a man of wisdom and intellect who is deeply insecure about his own competence and scientific skills. And when you play up the first halves of the characters, you can tap into their (somewhat mundane) superpowers, but if you want a more grounded story, you use the second halves.

And this leads into the second way of handling SLIDERS' cast: presenting them as iconic, legendary figures of infinite potential and limitless possibilities propelled by a boundless storytelling engine -- and the neat thing about SLIDERS is that they can be both those iconic characters and the shambling, clumsy human beings we met in the Pilot.

Temporal Flux, years ago, came up with a superhero story where a superhero character used vortex technology in order to lift heavy weights, instantly transport to different positions for combat purposes, to manipulate gravity for transport or propulsion or as a weapon. Sliding does have application as aggressive and defensive weaponry.

And finally, SLIDERS is an innately multi-genre series where you can plug the characters into any kind of story: legal drama, horror, romcom, espionage, space opera, a workplace dramedy, mumblecore, standup comedy -- I'd love a SLIDERS cookbook of recipes from alternate dimensions and a SLIDERS self-help book with chapters alternating between characters writing them. The superhero story is one of many genres the sliders could visit. Any story is conceivably a SLIDERS story.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

I can be a bit obsessive compulsive about my gadgets. I put tempered glass on my smartphone and put a plastic case around it, thinnest I can find on eBay or Amazon. My tablet is sheathed in a matte anti-glare protector and a bumper case. My Surface 3 laptop is protected in the same way -- except the plastic shell case cracked in the upper right and left corners. Given that both corners cracked, I think it’s a design flaw in the case. There aren’t a lot of other Surface 3 case options. The kickstand’s hard to encase without impeding.

The only other case options for the Surface 3 besides this flawed design that’s prone to breaking is the full body skin -- a transparent and protective film that can protect devices from scratches (but not impact damage), is very expensive and after a few months, it starts to peel off at the edges which makes it kind of a ripoff.

Anyway. I bought a three dollar zipper sleeve for the laptop. It’ll protect it during travel. I imagine the laptop will start sustaining scuffs. I accept it. At least the screen’s protected.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

Informant wrote:

The new Samsung Galaxy is coming out soon and I need to save money for one, because my S4 is slowing down. So that, and maybe some marketing for my books to reduce the stress level... Then I can promise to pretend to have fun for a while.

I cannot in good conscience support the purchase of Samsung's overpriced, overdesigned, overly incendiary products, and I say that as someone who bought the Samsung Galaxy S3 three times. There was a time when to get a decent Android phone, you had to spend $700 - $800 USD; that's simply not the case anymore.

You can get a 1080p, 5.5-inch Android phone with 16 GB of storage, microSD and a clean version of Android in the Motorola G4 for $180 off Amazon. (I'm using one now.) You can get a 5.7 inch LG Stylo 2 Plus or a Sony Xperia XA for $200. You can get a BLU Life One X2 Mini with 64GB of memory and a 5-inch screen for $180.

Once you're at 1080p, you can't really distinguish between that and higher resolutions on a phone sized screen, all these 'budget' phones have the gyroscope and compass sensors, so the only thing you get for all the extra money is Samsung Pay. Is that really worth it?

Re: Personal Status Updates!

I'm a Samsung fan. I've had other brands, but found them incredibly frustrating. I finally stopped messing around with other brands when I had a Motorola and they released an update that wasn't stable and made the phone unusable... Then they stopped supporting the phone and wouldn't respond to customers who wanted their phone to be functional again.

I've had my S4 for about four years now, I think. Something like that. It is starting to get a bit slow and glitchy, but that could be because I'm constantly adding new technology, like watches and smart home  technology. Overall, the phone has lasted quite a while, despite not being kept in any sort of case unless my niece or nephew are around.

I want the S8. Yeah, I want Samsung Pay, but I could get that with a refurbed S6 or S7. I want the better camera. The new AI which is supposed to be really good (Alexa has spoiled me). I want the 6.2 inch screen of the S8 Plus, despite the smaller frame. I like the rumor that you'll be able to plug into a monitor and use  a the phone like an Android computer. I'm not saying that I will necessarily get an S8, but I want one. smile

I hate that providers have taken away the option of free or reduced-price upgrades, because cell phones are ridiculously expensive now. If I go for a cheaper option, it will probably just be an older Samsung.

Please be informed that the political, scientific, sociological, economic and legal views expressed in Informant's posts and social media accounts do not reflect any consensus of Sliders.tv.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

Well, it's your money. But it does occur to me that this discussion highlights the differences you and I have in approaching hardware. To me, a company sending out a software update that bricks the phone wouldn't be a problem; I'd either reflash a backup or go so far as to reflash the entire ROM. That's not a chore for everyone.

There's stuff I like about Samsung and stuff I don't. I really like their hardware, but I really hate their software. Before I lost my Samsung S5, I wasn't running Samsung's Android; I put Cyanogenmod (now Lineage) on it because I wanted the plain Google experience but mostly because Samsung doesn't let you hide the status bar.

And that's a huge problem on an AMOLED screen because images retained tend to burn in and most Samsung Galaxy phones have ghost images of text, the keyboard and the status bar burnt into the screen after a few months. And the only way around that is to use expanded desktop mode (hiding the status bar) and adjusting the visual settings in a way Samsung's blocked off. It also irritates me that Samsung's method for shifting apps to microSD seems completely broken and outright sabotaged and the only way to get Google's measures for merging a microSD with the internal memory was to replace Touchwiz with a cleaner ROM.

Motorola doesn't actually exist anymore. They were bought by Google who turned it into an outlet for Nexus style phones that were a lot cheaper, then sold to Lenovo who dissolved it while maintaining the Moto brand. Lenovo kept the great prices but stopped doing the regular software updates -- but it doesn't matter to me because I'm not even using their ROM anymore; I've switched to Lineage OS.

The Moto E2 and G4 have yet to receive an update from Marshmallow in my area, but I've already skipped ahead to Android Nougat. So... I guess I deliberately buy phones with lots of custom ROMs and don't depend on the manufacturer for software. I'm less about features and more about how active the device is in the XDA forums.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

I've tried flashing new ROMs in the past, with a mixed record of success. I have never had trouble with Samsung's interface though, so it hasn't been a huge point for me. Either way, I definitely prefer to have the option. My S4 is locked, preventing me from flashing any ROMs, which annoys me. But that's more of an AT&T thing, I think.

What I am really looking for in a new phone is something that will last me a while. When I get a phone, it's the phone that I'm going to have for the next four or five years. I want something that won't be obsolete within a month. I still like my S4 in a lot of ways, but I know that the processors now are faster, the battery life is longer, screens are crisper, the phones are resistant to water and dust (which is a nice feature, considering that I really don't use a case very often). I don't plan on using fingerprints or anything like that, so that's not a big deal for me, but if the new Bixby AI is everything that it's supposed to be, that could be a pretty big deal as well.

I just like Samsung products. I like their phones, their watches, their TVs, etc.

I think the SD card merging thing has been resolved in more current models, but I could be wrong. I would love that.

It might be worth holding off for a while though. There's a rumor that they will be announcing another phone later this year that could be more impressive than the S8. Even if it's just a Note, the S-Pen might be worth the wait. My brother has a Note and it seems like a really nice feature to have.


But yeah, there's a chance that I'll eventually flash a custom ROM. I just don't always have the best of luck with them.

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Re: Personal Status Updates!

I want a Galaxy S8+, but I don't have $850 of bonus money to throw around without a care. So... I may have gone about doing something that some people on the internet find distasteful (not porn), but with relatively little time invested, I've solved the money issue.

Now I'm thinking that maybe I should hold off and see what they do with the Note 8. If the S8+ is about as big as a typical Note 8, they can't just slap an S-Pen on it and call it innovation, right? There's a voice in my head that's telling me that they're going to want to do something big and impressive with this thing.

Or I could end up spending several months yelling at my quickly-dwindling S4, only to find out that the Note 8 is just an S8+ with an S-Pen.

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Re: Personal Status Updates!

I have never done this and would never countenance doing it -- but have you thought about going on one of those two year payment plans where you pay your $850 in installments? The reason I would never advise this: I imagine it would be deeply depressing to lose the device and still be paying for it years after it's left you and your life.

But if you want a big screen phone that feels borderless, I say get the Sony Xperia Ultra for $300 and tell me if it's any good.
https://www.amazon.com/Sony-Xperia-unlo … B01FJT7E4Q

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I considered one of the payment plans, but they usually go together with a service plan that I'm not interested in. Plus, as you say, there are downsides to spreading that cost out over the course of a year or two. Typically, when I want something, I set that goal and then figure out a way of making it happen without costing me "real" money. (meaning, I find a way of making money specifically for that purpose, so I don't feel bad about spending that money on something that I could probably live without).

This time, right around the time I decided to set the S8+ as my goal (I may end up with the Note or even the S8, but I set the S8+ as my goal), Nintendo announced that they were discontinuing the NES Classic Edition, but would have a few more shipments to various stores until the end of April. So, I did my research and got my hands on several of those (with a little bit of help). Reselling them earns money for a high end new cell phone!

It also earns me the scorn of many people online, but I don't care. If people really wanted these things for retail price, they would get them. I did. But the people complaining didn't want to put in the effort, so they wouldn't have gotten any of them anyway. Now I'm playing personal shopper for people who are willing to pay for my services. Capitalism at work! smile

I'll have to take a look at the Sony, but when I was looking at phones not too long ago (my brother needed a replacement), I noticed that a lot of those other phones had lower quality screens than I'm used to, and there were some other aspects that I wasn't a fan of with a lot of them. Samsung has their weaknesses too, but their screens are beautiful and crisp, their cameras have given me a lot of really great images (with the right lighting, I've gotten images of my nephews and niece that look like professional portraits).

We'll see. I'm probably still going to wait a little while before buying a phone, unless my S4 gives me no other choice. I swear, it was running incredibly smoothly until it suddenly took a sharp dive in functionality. I'll look at some other options, but I've been happy with Samsung phones for a while now, after some unpleasant experiences with other companies.

What are your thoughts on unlocked vs. carrier phones? I'm liking the idea of no bloatware, and no chance of AT&T bootlocking my phone, like they did with my S4 (which is why I haven't flashed a new ROM), but I've heard that the unlocked phones can take longer to receive updates. I guess that would be where the custom ROMs come in.

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Re: Personal Status Updates!

The Sony LCD screen is good enough. Well saturated, high contrast, extremely bright at 530 nits. But it's not an AMOLED and while I liked the AMOLED display on the S3 (black is just a switched off pixel, rich colours), I'm kind of over them. The burn-in on AMOLED is hideous; I had ghost images of my keyboard and status bar seared into my screen after a few months. I did buy the S3 a few more times and I had to install a custom ROM to hide the status bar because Samsung permits you no option for that. I also had to run a screensaver sort of app once a week for several hours to flash red, green and blue screens to make sure any burn-in could be avoided through 'exercising' all the pixels.

While I miss the higher contrast now that I'm on a Moto G4 and I especially miss reading ebooks with white text on a totally black background, I don't miss (a) not having a status bar (b) fretting that an overly long Google Maps-guided journey would burn the navigation app into the screen (c) running the screensaver every week. It was a lot of work.

I don't really like carrier phones; I don't like all the bloatware. But to me, I tend to root the phone and remove all the bloatware anyway. I don't like it that carriers install all this space-consuming rubbish for their own commercial concerns when apps are getting bigger and bigger. That said, it's less of an issue with Android 6.0 and onward having the option to merge the internal memory with a microSD card -- except Samsung disables that option in their version of Android.

The NES Classic-propelled fundraising is very impressive, that's a highly in demand product.

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I kinda enjoy the thrill of the hunt for these NES Classics smile

I haven't really had major burn-in issues with my S4. There may be some, I guess, but it's hard to tell, so I don't think it's a major thing for me.

The storage merging issue seems to have a fix!
https://www.instohub.com/tech/how-to-en … y-s8-plus/

That said, my storage space is so low in my S4 that even basic S8 storage will boggle my mind. smile

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Re: Personal Status Updates!

So... Anyone happen to know a veterinarian neurologist who would be willing to consult on a mysterious spinal issue for a charitably low price?

One of my dogs went to the vet a little over a week ago. Aside from a skin infection, for which he was given antibiotics, he was fine. He got a normal vaccination and we went home.

Within a couple of days, he was having some trouble standing up on his own. Soon, he couldn't stand or walk at all, without help. He simply has no strength in his hind legs. He isn't totally paralyzed or anything, just... Weak, I guess.
He had been at the vet's office since yesterday. Blood work initially showed some elevated liver numbers of some kind, but they were normal today. An x-ray shows what I've had described to me as either inflammation or collapse of a disk... But my vet really doesn't know what's going on or why. He made some calls, but the better specialists are out of their offices until Monday. Another vet suggested degenerative myleopathy, which I think I've seen in another dog, but that doesn't explain such a sudden onset.

So now he is at the vet for a second night, getting anti-inflammatory medication that doesn't seem to be working. We may have to go to a neurology specialist who can do more scans and possibly surgery, but that will cost a lot of money.

I have no idea what I'm supposed to do with this information, but this dog has gotten me through some very bad times. I need to fight for him... If someone could just point me in the right direction.

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Re: Personal Status Updates!

Informant wrote:

So... Anyone happen to know a veterinarian neurologist who would be willing to consult on a mysterious spinal issue for a charitably low price?

One of my dogs went to the vet a little over a week ago. Aside from a skin infection, for which he was given antibiotics, he was fine. He got a normal vaccination and we went home.

Within a couple of days, he was having some trouble standing up on his own. Soon, he couldn't stand or walk at all, without help. He simply has no strength in his hind legs. He isn't totally paralyzed or anything, just... Weak, I guess.
He had been at the vet's office since yesterday. Blood work initially showed some elevated liver numbers of some kind, but they were normal today. An x-ray shows what I've had described to me as either inflammation or collapse of a disk... But my vet really doesn't know what's going on or why. He made some calls, but the better specialists are out of their offices until Monday. Another vet suggested degenerative myleopathy, which I think I've seen in another dog, but that doesn't explain such a sudden onset.

So now he is at the vet for a second night, getting anti-inflammatory medication that doesn't seem to be working. We may have to go to a neurology specialist who can do more scans and possibly surgery, but that will cost a lot of money.

I have no idea what I'm supposed to do with this information, but this dog has gotten me through some very bad times. I need to fight for him... If someone could just point me in the right direction.


I don't know anyone, unfortunately. I hope you can get it figured out though, it does seem strange. I understand the feeling of wanting to fight for your pet (I did for a cat a few years ago). How old is the dog?

Re: Personal Status Updates!

12 years old. Unfortunately, we never figured out what was wrong with him. Boo died last night at the vet's office. Nobody saw it coming.

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Re: Personal Status Updates!

I'm sorry to hear this. :-(

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Really sorry to hear that. Pets are as much members of our family as humans are.

Is it possible whatever caused the skin infection just became worse? I also wonder if he had a wound and then caught something at the vet.

It's so sad to hear about your dog, my condolences.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

Wow, that's awful, so sorry to hear this. I know the feeling of losing a pet. It's just as bad as losing a human in many cases.

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Thanks for the support. Right now, I keep going back and forth between feeling numb and feeling like a part of me was amputated. I have another dog who is older than Boo was, and he has been close to death twice before. It's horrible to say it like this, but most people were expecting him to be next, and for Boo to be around for a year or two more. Losing him is just shocking and painful. I have so many regrets about leaving him at the vet's office, even knowing that I'd be feeling the same way if I'd brought him home. It's just a horrible, sick feeling.

We still don't know what happened. The vet theorized that it could have been a blood clot, but we really don't know. I guess we never will. The best I can do is hope that my dog didn't think that I was one of those d-bags who abandons their dog just because they got older or sicker. I never planned to leave him there alone.

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Re: Personal Status Updates!

Something weird happened today. My Moto G4 started showing ghost images. The status bar and the text messaging app were burned into the screen with phantom images of the keyboard, notification icons and time embedded the background over top of any app. But the burnt in image was from half an hour previous. I restarted the phone twice and it wouldn't go away. And so, as I am wont to do with many things that irk me, I froze it out -- which is to say I put the somewhat hot phone in the freezer and the ghost image was gone a half-hour later.

I think there's a weird glitch where high heat when the phone's under load and at maximum brightness causes images to briefly be retained in the display. I'm going to limit myself to 70 per cent brightness from now on, which is still pretty bright. And at least the 'burn in' isn't permanent like it'd be on a Samsung.

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Netflix has decided that anyone with a rooted Android shouldn't be able to use their service anymore, so it doesn't even show up in the Play Store for anyone with a rooted phone.

Considering that this is a pretty standard function, and one of the primary draws of Android in the first place, I don't see how this goes well for Netflix. It's not like people are going to throw up their arms and decide not to root their phones or tablets anymore, just because Netflix doesn't work. If anything, they'll just side load Netflix, which gives the company even less control than they had before.

This looks a lot like shooting themselves in the foot to me.

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Re: Personal Status Updates!

I agree. However, I must confess that I don't even have Netflix on my phone. It's always been a home theatre and tablet app for me and Android tablets aren't very prominent these days.

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I rarely use it on my phone, but it's been known to happen. My tablet hasn't worked in a while, but I used to use it all the time while working out.

I just don't see how this could possibly be good for Netflix, or even really what the point is. I am on a Windows machine right this second... and it's far more capable of pirating anything than my rooted Android phone is. Is all computer/mobile device support going to disappear? I just don't see the point to this.

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Re: Personal Status Updates!

I almost never use Netflix on the phone. I use it on my tablet most, with occasionally using it on the Apple TV. Phone is too small to commit to watching anything longer than a clip of 10 minutes or less. I've only used it I think twice on my phone (I do t like to kill the battery on the phone too much when I'm out and if I'm not out I use the tablet or Apple TV for tv viewing

Re: Personal Status Updates!

So, one of the key plot points of SLIDERS REBORN is that all these mysterious little digital clocks have been scattered across three Earths, all counting down in perfect sync, all accelerating in their countdown with each natural or sociological disaster, all thought to be counting down to the end of all things and referred to as doomsday clocks.

And the storyline for how the sliders all came back to life (a joyful timeline of wonderful adventures corrupted by cynicism and horror through the reality alterations of a malicious mad scientist) bore an uncanny resemblance to the plot of DC UNIVERSE: REBIRTH, written by Geoff Johns, where it's revealed that the current DC Universe of depression and darkness has been corrupted by the manipulations of Dr. Manhattan.

Well, the big finale for this DC superheroes vs. Dr. Manhattan storyline has been announced and the title of this Geoff Johns written story is DOOMSDAY CLOCK. I've clearly been reading comics for too long.

**

In other news, I listened to half of the latest Sliderscast and... did not finish it. It was fine, there was nothing wrong with it. It's just -- I think I may have gotten over SLIDERS.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

ireactions wrote:

In other news, I listened to half of the latest Sliderscast and... did not finish it. It was fine, there was nothing wrong with it. It's just -- I think I may have gotten over SLIDERS.

And, with that, the Sliders BBoard disappeared. 

But for those of us what lived and died in them furious days, it was like everything we knew was mightily swept away.  And no matter what they did to build the internet up again, for the rest of time, it'd be like no one even knew we was ever here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-8Lu7MRjQs

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So I didn't get around to watching the DC movies this weekend as planned, dangnabbit. I found a 55" Samsung 4K TV at Walmart for super cheap ($250) and setting that up took more time than I expected.

The movie is going to look amazing on this TV when I get around to watching it, even at 1080p (there's upscaling that seems to work pretty well), but I need to find the time. I did watch the Justice League trailer in 4K a few times. Damn that looks good.

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Re: Personal Status Updates!

ireactions wrote:

**

In other news, I listened to half of the latest Sliderscast and... did not finish it. It was fine, there was nothing wrong with it.

The last portion of that episode was one of the more interesting conversations I think we've seen on the podcast so far.  Starts at about 1:12:45 mark.  I found it engaging, at least.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

RussianCabbie_Lotteryfan wrote:
ireactions wrote:

**

In other news, I listened to half of the latest Sliderscast and... did not finish it. It was fine, there was nothing wrong with it.

The last portion of that episode was one of the more interesting conversations I think we've seen on the podcast so far.  Starts at about 1:12:45 mark.  I found it engaging, at least.


I think the problem with that podcast episode is that the Sliders episode they were reviewing was a bad episode. And not bad in a "so bad it'll make an an amazing podcast review episode" way  (like Paradise Lost I'm sure will). I was looking forward to the podcast episode (since I love the podcast series), but found myself struggle to stay focused for the first part as well. I agree, it did get better when the content got better (through no fault of the hosts). I suspect future episodes will be back to being just as entertaining if they get back to a normal schedule again. I can't wait to hear their thoughts on many of the episodes remaining in the series.

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I think I am just taking a little break from SLIDERS. I tried to watch the new episodes of DOCTOR WHO recently and didn't finish the new episode with Capaldi and Pearl Mackie. It was good, I just wanted to rest. I think finishing SLIDERS REBORN just left me feeling like I'd done my part for the cause and it was time to retire or at the very least, take a leave of absence.

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Decisions, decisions.

My someplacethatiselse.net site is up for renewal. Do I keep it up, or let it go? Hmm...

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Re: Personal Status Updates!

I lost another dog this weekend. The second since May and third in the last two years. This one, Rocky, was 15 years old, which is amazing for his breed (he was a lab) and he was an overwhelmingly awesome dog. I can't even put it into words right now, but if you've read Freedom/Hate, Ammo was based on Rocky.

This summer has sucked a whole lot.

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Re: Personal Status Updates!

I'm sorry to hear this. It is an unavoidable yet painful consequence of pet ownership that we outlive our companions. Please hang onto your 15 years of memories as best you can.