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I usually keep the GPS and Bluetooth disengaged on my phone. It saves battery. But I've locked the CPU base speed now. As a result, the battery drain doesn't seem terribly severe at all. Three hours on data with full GPS and the Bluetooth connected to both my smartwatch and earbuds and the battery only went down 10 per cent.
FWIW, I was in the Toronto airport on Saturday morning, heading to the Fan Expo downtown, and spotted Jerry O'Connell there reading a script! Briefly said hello and exchanged pleasantries. A lot of science fiction is shot there now, so he could be popping up in something soon....
FWIW, I was in the Toronto airport on Saturday morning
Don't be coy - you were in town to film Ib's fan fiction extravaganza "SLIDERMAN"
FWIW, I was in the Toronto airport on Saturday morning, heading to the Fan Expo downtown, and spotted Jerry O'Connell there reading a script! Briefly said hello and exchanged pleasantries. A lot of science fiction is shot there now, so he could be popping up in something soon....
That's cool. He films in North Bay, Ontario (for a new series Carter), and I think he commutes back home every weekend, so he's probably in the airport quite a bit. Did he remember your encounter with him at all for the broadway show? (Once Upon a Sandwich or something?)
Grizzlor wrote:FWIW, I was in the Toronto airport on Saturday morning
Don't be coy - you were in town to film Ib's fan fiction extravaganza "SLIDERMAN"
NEVER! Only in Vancouver!
Grizzlor wrote:FWIW, I was in the Toronto airport on Saturday morning, heading to the Fan Expo downtown, and spotted Jerry O'Connell there reading a script! Briefly said hello and exchanged pleasantries. A lot of science fiction is shot there now, so he could be popping up in something soon....
That's cool. He films in North Bay, Ontario (for a new series Carter), and I think he commutes back home every weekend, so he's probably in the airport quite a bit. Did he remember your encounter with him at all for the broadway show? (Once Upon a Sandwich or something?)
Ohhhh, I didn't know he was on a new show. Didn't remember me, he meets thousands of people I'm sure.
Ohhhh, I didn't know he was on a new show. Didn't remember me, he meets thousands of people I'm sure.
A guy with a Sliders t-shirt outside a broadway show? Seems pretty memorable to me 
Although you are right, he does meet a ton of folks.
Carter is a series from Sony that went into production for their international TV channel. It actually got picked up by Bravo not long after. It's a different sort of thing for Bravo to do but Jerry got a lot of exposure and interest from his Live with Kelly gigs, and Andy Cohen seems to love him, so I guess they are taking a chance on it for him.
I've been reading up on the new IPhone X, just to see what they're doing with it. Everyone is referring to it as being completely bezel-less. What am I missing here? The design is fine. It seems like something that Apple fans will like. I think it's cheating to include the notch in the official screen size (that whole section of the screen is now useless for everything except battery status, wifi, etc. It isn't a functional part of the display), but that's just me.
However... The phone has a pretty substantial bezel. It is far from being the bezel-less wonder that some are reporting... It looks like it already has a case on it! Like I said, I'm sure Apple users will love the phone. It's fine. But are we all supposed to pretend that we don't see the bezel?
I dunno what Apple thinks they're getting away with in claiming that this thick-framed phone has no bezel.
I continue to be happy with my Moto G4 on Nougat, which stood in for my DSLR camera last week due to a crisis and acquitted itself rather well. That said, if the Samsung A5 ever drops to a much lower price...
Yeah, I've managed to get some really solid photos on my S4's camera too. I'm looking forward to seeing what I can do with a newer camera (and the ability to shoot RAW is nice too). My brother and his wife sometimes get a photographer to take pics of their kids, and they're all nice and well shot, but since I know the kids, they look really staged to me most of the time. Whenever I'm spending a lot of time with the kids, I take a lot of pictures (I'm trying to cut back because it annoys them), and their house has really nice lighting in a couple of the rooms, at different times of day. So I get some really, really nice pictures of the kids that have the benefits of the lighting and framing of a portrait, but with the bonus of just whipping out my phone and taking the picture. When I have the DSLR out, the kids just aren't as natural, because it's a big camera.
Okay, so because I have a back injury that's kept me from sitting at a desk and working too much, and a knee injury that's kept me from moving around too much, I've been doing a lot of research on the new iphone since it was announced, and I have to say... it seems like a scam to me. It's obviously the product of a need to update their approach to phones, but failing to meet their deadlines to do so. The result is just weird.
To start with, the display. It is an update, because it's their first OLED display (!!!). However, it is a 5.8 (ish) display, with 458 ppi. For what is considered a huge player in the smartphone field, this is pretty low. To compare, the 5.8 inch (legitimately) Galaxy S8 comes in at 570 ppi. This means that the lines on the S8 are going to be much cleaner. Since you use a Moto G4, I'll add that here as well. It comes in at 401 ppi.
In terms of brightness, the phone comes in at 625 nits. The Moto G4 comes in at 463 nits (based on the info I could find, which is a bit harder than with my two other samples). Now, 625 isn't bad for a phone in general, however, the Galaxy S8 comes in at over 1000 nits, and the Note 8 beats at at 1,200 nits. This means that the Galaxy phones will be much easier to use in direct sunlight.
When it comes to RAM, I think the iPhone will comes with 3GB. The G4 has 2GB. The Galaxy S8 has 4GB, and the Note 8 has 6GB.
In terms of processors, I really don't know how the iPhones function in day to day life, since I don't use one. I imagine that they are solid. This is one area where the iPhone X is supposed to beat out the competition by quite a bit. I'm going to assume that the iPhone is the winner here, though I am having a hard time quickly finding exact numbers right now, possibly because the phone isn't in use yet.
The iPhone X is making a few claims. We've discussed the bezel-less thing, so I won't go there. They're promoting their new Face ID as the replacement for fingerprint scanners. This feature failed on stage during the presentation. Apple tried to gloss over it and explain it away, but it really just failed on stage. That's a problem. The phone was supposed to have a fingerprint scanner, so their failure to put one in there wasn't about innovation, it was about failing to achieve what they were hoping for, and not wanting to get the same kind of crap that Samsung got when they put the scanner on the back of their phones. The lack of a fingerprint scanner is a mistake in every way. The phone also lacks an iris scanner, so the only options are passcode and Face ID.
The notch on top is also worse than I thought it would be. I've heard rumors that they wanted to have all of those scanners and cameras behind the display, so you couldn't see them at all. This makes sense, but is obviously hard to achieve. So... the notch. Now, originally, I thought that they wouldn't use that part of the display most of the time, while watching videos, etc. However, it now seems like the default setting would use the notched-off section of the screen, resulting in a notched-off video, pictures, etc. They're basically putting a thumb over the lens of everything their users look at.
Fast charging! Yay! Except you have to buy both the cord and the power brick separately, increasing the price of your phone significantly. They also have wireless charging now... but their overpriced charger won't be available for a while.
Still no return of the headphone jack, because the refuse to acknowledge any mistake that they've ever made.
In terms of water/dust resistance, the iPhone has an ip67 rating, which means that it can last in 1 meter (3.2 feet) of water for about 30 minutes. Most current smartphones have an ip68 rating, which means that they can last 30 minutes in 1.5 (4.9 feet) meters of water. I probably won't go swimming with my phone, so I don't know if there's a huge difference here for me, but it might mean something to others.
The 64GB base version of the iPhone X is going to sell for $999, with the 256GB costing $1,149. The S8 is available (unlocked) for $724. The Note 8 is available (unlocked) for $929. You also get the fast charger with those phones, and usually some sort of bonus gift like Gear VR or a 360 camera. To take advantage of fast charging on an iPhone, you'd need to pay another $75.
All of the currently Galaxy phones have the option of expanding storage with an SD card, up to an additional 256GB.
The iPhone X is certainly priced as a high-end beast of a phone, but it doesn't come close to the level of the similarly-priced Note 8 in most respects. The Note 8 is supposed to be used as a tool, for work, etc. I don't think the iPhone X is that type of phone. One of it's biggest features is the ability to make yourself into an animated poop emoji. In terms of size and function, the X is more comparable to the Galaxy S8 (no bloody Plus, no bloody Note...), but it's littered with missteps and bad decisions.
The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus are improperly named (they should be the 7s and 7s Plus, while the X should be the 8), but they are probably the better bang for your buck when it comes to iPhones this year. Even in those cases, it's not worth upgrading if you already have an iPhone 7, since a lot of those phones have remained the same.
So there you go. I've put far too much time into researching a line of phones that I have never and will never have an interest in using. I wish I could work. 
In other news, it's possibly that Samsung will release their foldable screen on the next Note! I've been waiting years for the phone that can expand into a tablet! Unfortunately, I'm going to be upgrading a year too soon for that one. Oh well. I guess it'll be first gen anyway, so I'll get to wait until the tech is proven a bit more.
I'm with Informant regarding iPhones. And for awhile, I was against expensive smartphones anyway. They are too expensive and too easily broken or misplaced, so I buy decent budget models like the Moto G4 and have a tablet like an iPad Mini for luxury mobility. Except my service provider is now offering a replacement plan. For a monthly fee, they'll give you two replacements a year for accidental damage, loss or theft. I still don't know if I'd spend iPhone money, but I might be willing to get a mid range phone instead of sticking to budget models.
That said, the Moto G4 is mostly of flagship standard. I have no trouble reading the screen on direct sunlight. The camera is excellent in the day and good with flash at night. It never freezes or labs and all games play great. It lacks a good low light camera, it's splashproof rather than waterproof and it doesn't support mobile payments or have a fingerprint sensor, but it's a very good phone. Best unlocked model on sale at brick and mortar retailers at the time I bought it.
**
About a year ago, I updated my iPad Mini 2 to a new version of iOS because the new version was needed to run Google Keyboard and I wanted the swipe typing. I figured that when a jailbreak was developed, I'd use it to prevent any subsequent upgrades and dodge having my iPad getting a new OS that wouldn't run well on older hardware. Except the jailbreak never came. And then Apple started forcing iPads to update while in sleep mode and despite my efforts at round the clock monitoring, I passed out one night and awakened to find my iPad running iOS 11 and so slow that it couldn't fully load webpages -- they'd cut off to blank whiteness when scrolling -- and the screen can't seem to maintain the finger tracking needed for swipe typing. The keyboard loses the gesture trail halfway into words and often crashes.
I sold it for $200 today and bought a Samsung Tab A 10.1 for that same $200. *sigh*
Apple sucks. They've always been bad, but the last few years have been mind boggling bad, and the new phones just don't make sense to me.
BTW, I'm writing this on my new Note 8. I didn't pay full price, since my brother got me some discounts, but it was still wicked expensive. Still, I will probably have this phone for five or six years, so am I spending more money than I would on a cheaper phone that I'd have to replace in two years?
That's my logic and I'm sticking to it. And I love my S-Pen.
Nice to hear you're happy with your hardware. How's the Samsung version of Android compared to the S4?
I was very reluctant to buy a tablet. The truth is that while I liked the iPad Mini 2 (until iOS 11 was forced on it), I was using it less and less. I had a tablet because web browsing on a phone used to be unworkable with fonts too small and data too costly, meaning it was best to read all my news feeds at home on wifi and do all my research and planning on my tablet. But data's gotten cheaper. Websites are built for mobile phones and smaller screens. So, while I might have preferred the tablet aesthetically, it was faster to do look things up and read news and messages on my phone.
Eventually, I found myself removing all my social media and email apps from the tablet because I wasn't using them enough and the tablet became a Netflix and PDF machine and a second screen for my online courses. I would play the tutorial videos on the tablet and execute the assignments and take notes on my laptop. If I were at home and were looking something up, I'd use the tablet.
But after the update, iOS just couldn't function. Udemy kept freezing up on me. Netflix would crash. I couldn't type. Websites wouldn't load. But because tablets have become so limited in their purpose, I couldn't justify buying another one. I couldn't justify buying an iPad Pro or Mini that I couldn't stop Apple from upgrading to an eventually unusable OS.
I switched to using my laptop for all my webwork, films and TV and used my phone for the online video courses. But I just couldn't maintain workflow with videos playing on a smaller size; I needed them on a larger screen so I could make out the details. I decided to get by with the phone and laptop combo, but if a new tablet could be purchased for the same money earned from selling the old one, that was acceptable.
There's this place in my town that sells open box tech. Recently, they got a bunch of Samsung Tab A 10.1's. I'm quite impressed with the polycarbonate casing and 1080p screen. Samsung's build of Android on this tablet is very restrained; it looks almost like the Google version once I replaced the launcher. The hardware is powerful.
It's a little cumbersome in that on the iPad, you could rest your fingers on the edge of the screen and the OS would know you weren't doing a long-press. Android isn't so clever and there are also capacitive buttons that mean you can't hold the tablet from the bottom frame. But I've figured out how to hold it on the buttonless edge with one hand and at the edge with another.
Android apps are almost all all 5.5 inch phone apps stretched out to 10 inches and some look downright silly -- but I don't really need it to do much more than run Chrome, Netflix and Udemy. I'm going to wait until the 14 day return period has ended before I root it, but I only need to do that to install a bluelight filter.
I can't exactly recommend any tablet given how it's a limited, luxury item and you can't do anything this 10-inch slab that you couldn't on a more compact phone. I just need one for my peculiar workflow.
So far, I'm liking this version of Android. Both Android and Samsung have done a lot of work in optimizing battery use since the S4, which I appreciate. I end the day with battery to spare, and my pocket no longer feels like it's going to burst into flames.
Of course, there are other things that have improved as well. I have the unlocked Note 8, so I don't have the bloatware. AT&To still managed to mess with my by taking away my ability to use Google Voice for my voicemail. I don't appreciate that, but it's less intrusive than what they did to my S4.
I can't really compare Samsung's Android to the standard Android, since I haven't used any non-Samsung versions in years. However, I do like what I've seen so far. I love the ability to doodle or take notes on the always-on display. The phone is fast, and there wasn't much work for me to do in adjusting to the newer features. My blue light filter is already there, and I have it set to go on at a certain time. The 4K HDR videos on YouTube are amazing. They look almost 3D at times.
I now just swipe up on the screen to go to the apps screen, which is nice. And pressing the power button twice brings the camera up pretty quickly, even if the phone is locked. I really like the live focus feature on the Note 8, and there are other camera and picture editing features that are cool too, but I haven't properly explored some of them yet.
Bixby... Is still developing. Right now, I don't use it much, because many of the apps that I would want to use it with aren't supported. I hope that changes in time.
Some people complain that the Note 8 is too big to easily use. I haven't had any trouble at all. It is actually pretty comfortable. I don't use my phone as a phone very often, so the big screen great for how I actually do use my phone. Lately, I've been testing out recording for audiobooks. I have a real nice which hooks up to my computer, but I need to keep my computer out of my actual recording space because of the noise. I can't fidget around too much while reading, so to Note 8 is perfect. I can pull up a chapter of my book in Word, highlight the dialogue with different colors, so I can keep characters straight, and then use my little phone tripod thing to hold the phone as I read. I can get a lot done without having to scroll. The text is so crisp that even at a small size, I can still read it with no problem.
So far, it's been smooth sailing. I have a case on it, so I can't say how sensitive the sides are, but the phone has the infinity display, so I would imagine that they've done some work to keep accidental taps to a minimum.
I do feel Samsung's Android is now good, based on this Tab A 10.1. They've left Google Material design alone or kept close to it in modifying the toggles. It's so close that by installing Google's launcher and keyboard, the only hints of Samsung skinning are in the lockscreen, settings, toggles and status bar. I don't think I'll install a custom ROM on this. I just found an app to remap all the buttons, too. I set the buttons to take action only on double tap, so I can rest my fingers on them without triggering the back or recent apps functions. And I've found a bluelight filter that doesn't need root, so I might never root the tablet.
This open box tablet was about 1/5 the price of an iPad Pro and considered a budget model, but it was a good trade fot the sluggish iPad Mini 2.
Still getting to grips with using a 10 inch tablet again. Given how phones have gotten bigger, it made no sense to buy a device that wasn't much larger. The main problem was input. The Samsung Tab A 10.1's capacitive buttons were too easily triggered by holding the tablet and some had to be disabled with a third party app. Also, the screen is too big for typing with Google Keyboard which required my thumbs to stretch farther than possible. And for some reason, Google Keyboard's one handed mode is disabled on tablets, so I had to install Swype for a right sided keyboard.
Most apps are just stretched phone apps, but given that this device is for video and the web browser, it's fine. Once again, I would not have bought this if not for it being priced as a discounted open box item that cost exactly what I got for selling the iPad Mini 2.
So, I'm pretty happy with how the Tab A 10.1 is working out as an instantly on bedside computer. It's superior to my iPad Mini 2 by performing smoothly and having a bigger screen to justify picking it up over a phone. But. Occasionally, as I grip it to type or rotate it in my hands, there's a click or a creak, like the casing seal isn't entirely rigid. Even though Samsung did a great job of making the plastic have a faintly metallic feel, plastic just doesn't feel as solid as the aluminium of the iPad. But... tablets just don't do enough to justify spending more (or any) money on them.
It'll probably feel fine once a case comes in the mail and I grip the outer frame of the case instead of the tablet.
I'm free! After working on the project for about five years, I just published the sixth and final book in the Freedom/Hate series. Technically, I still have to publish the paperback, but that isn't too involved. So now I am free to work on other projects! Woohoo! I want to play with some wacky ideas for a while.
March 31, 2016
TRANSMODIAR: "Hey, check out the redesign at www.earthprime.com/reborn "
ME: *begins weeping*
TRANSMODIAR: "Zuh!?!?"
ME: "It is beautiful."
TRANSMODIAR: "You're crying FROM THAT?!?"
ME: "It's a dream come true."
TRANSMODIAR: "Well, I'm glad to be your genie. And once it's done, you can move on with your life!"
ME: "I was thinking that after SLIDERS REBORN, I'll turn my attention to REDEARTH88."
TRANSMODIAR: "What is that, a video game?"
ME: "It's this unfinished web series about a video blogger who's unknowingly the center of a mysterious espionage operation involving two rogue spies. The fun thing about it is that the vlogger's videos tend to be very dramedy and romcom-esque while the spies' videos are a mix of paranoia and surveillance footage and intense action. I think maybe I could convert the existing vlog entries to blog format, then spin the story in a direction where -- "
TRANSMODIAR: "Stop."
ME: "I'm thinking one of the spies is actually an artificial intelligence developed by -- "
TRANSMODIAR: "What the **** is wrong with you?"
ME: "What?"
TRANSMODIAR: "Jesus Christ! Would you take a good look at yourself? You are not ******** patron saint of every unfinished story ever **** out there and left to rot. You have wrapped up LONELYGIRL15. You have wrapped up SLIDERS. Now you're doing SLIDERS again -- like once wasn't enough! Stop writing fanfic, you ******** moron. Finish this ridiculous twentieth anniversary special you roped me and Nigel Mitchell and whatshisname Informant into with your ******** Status Updates thread -- and move the **** on. Why do you spend so much time and energy on writing you can't sell?"
ME: "I think you fail to understand the joy and pleasure of writing a pastiche, of recreating -- "
TRANSMODIAR: "You've done enough recreating! Isn't it time you actually created? SLIDERS REBORN was supposed to be three chapters, now it's six parts, four hundred ******** pages of script, that novella, the posters, that stupid social media campaign -- enough is enough. If you devote your writing skills to fanfic, I swear to God that I will start to hate you. I will have to hate you if you keep doing this."
**
June 2, 2016
ME: "Could use some advice here."
TRANSMODIAR: "WHY?! Every time you ask me to do this, you ignore what I say and do what you want."
ME: "That's not true. I didn't write the REDEARTH88 story."
TRANSMODIAR: "I did not know that, kudos on your restraint, what's up?"
ME: "So, when Quinn asks Mallory if he's really there or if he's just a hallucination, is it really Mallory or is it just Quinn's survival instinct?"
TRANSMODIAR: "Oh for ****'s sake."
**
December 22, 2016
ME: "It's done! It's all done! I finished the last SLIDERS REBORN script! Now you'll never have to hear about it again!"
TRANSMODIAR: "Music to my ears! Congratulations. You did what no one else except for Chris Carter could do -- you put a bow on a 90s cult sci-fi series long after everyone stopped asking for one. Time to do some original work!"
**
I continue to agree with Transmodiar about the importance of original work, but I constantly feel like SLIDERS REBORN was the greatest (and only) achievement of my life.
Anyway. I have bought Informant's last three books.
I totally get the fun of reworking someone else's project (I've been chipping away at a Supergirl pilot script for a long time, whenever I have some time, just for fun), an finishing a story that you feel wasn't properly resolved (I did a season of Buffy. That's roughly 1,100 pages. You think <i>you're</i> crazy?). But those projects need to be used as a means of sharpening your tools and practicing your craft in a safe and familiar environment. They're a stepping stone. Now you create your own world that the sliders don't get to see, and when you manage to put that crazy little daydream on paper in a way that you're happy with, you will feel a whole new type of rush.
If all else fails, just take the vague idea for an episode that you had for one of those other shows and turn it into a unique story of your own. All of the original elements of my Buffy scripts belong to me, and don't think that I don't plan to mine that crap someday.
One of the fun things about being a SLIDERS fan is looking at other shows and movies and trying to find glimpses of the original sliders in other characters. Ever since MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: ROGUE NATION, I've seen Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt as the perfect distillation of what Quinn Mallory would be in his 50s: a cunning, resourceful, hypercompetent, unstoppable force of limitless knowledge and ability whose absurd proficiency at everything is balanced by... actually, I dunno. Ethan Hunt never seems to have any weaknesses, Quinn would have lots. Ethan Hunt is really the hyperathletic and heroic aspects of Quinn.
On the other side of the spectrum, we have Chuck from CHUCK who is without question what Quinn would have been had Jerry played the character as scripted rather than as himself: an awkward, insular, troubled, lonely geekboy thrust into situations of danger and peril that bring out his inner Ethan Hunt, but it's always an uneasy fit.
Sorry. I meant fun for me.
I don't write a lot in here, but I wanted to write and say that I got married last weekend
That's awesome! Congrats!
Congratulations man!!!
Congrats!
and while we're at it, congrats to Charlie O'Connell on his engagement.
Torme & James Fox's UFO documentary 701 has a bit of an ETA as to when it's expected it will be shopped to buyers. Fox estimates another year and a half of editing, then they will look for distributors.
He recently visited Australia, here is a talk he gave in which he explains when he first got called by Tracy to collaborate.
https://youtu.be/Zd4DqH5xCNI?t=7054
I didn't watch the video through but he mentions the project has picked up steam lately. I am not sure if Tracy is still contributing in the process as I know at one point the intention was to make the project half documentary / half scripted feature but the scripted part ended up not happening, I believe.
While I'm happy for Slider_Quinn21 to have wedded, I wonder if we as a community should have weighed in on this life decision and discussed it amongst ourselves and arranged for the wedding to be held at the Alamo Drafthouse with Informant officiating.
It'd be too risky to have all of us in the same place at the same time. We would need to have a designated survivor, so the future of the Sliders board could be safe.
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