Re: Personal Status Updates!

Thanks. I'm trying to stay positive. It's been an incredibly sucky summer, but there were many great summers before this and I truly am thankful for that.

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'm sorry to hear about your dogs, Informant.  It's hard to fill that hole in your heart, but hopefully you can begin to feel better.  How many dogs do you have?  Are you going to get another one?

Re: Personal Status Updates!

A few years ago, I had three (not counting my brother's dog who came to live with me for a while back then)

Today, those three are all gone. I have one dog now (my brother's dog who has since come to live with me permanently, since my nephew is allergic). I don't know if I'm going to get more. On the one hand, I love dogs and it would probably be good for the one I have if she had a friend to play with. On the other hand, these last two years have killed me. I don't want to get a new dog until I can do it without trying to replace what I once had, since no dog will be my old dogs and it's not fair to ask it to be. If that makes sense.

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Re: Personal Status Updates!

That makes sense.  My last dog died a few years ago, and I never replaced her.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

It is sooooooo damn quiet though. And I have far too much free time. My three boys were all pretty old and had their medical issues and needs over the last few years. Now I have a spry young dog, and she can take care of herself for the most part. I don't know what to do with myself. smile

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Re: Personal Status Updates!

Finally got book 5 in my series published today! With the craziness of this year, it's been really hard to get these out, but I only have one more to go after this, so I can see the finish line! Eventually, someone will have to remind me why I thought it'd be a good idea to release six books in two years.
http://a.co/eUW1U2w

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Re: Personal Status Updates!

I upgraded my Moto G4 from Android 6.0.1 (Motorola's Marshmallow build) to Nougat (7.1.2, a custom Lineage OS ROM). Some very interesting results.

Apparently, all this time, my phone has had a notification light that the Motorola Marshmallow software ignored. Why install a light and not write software to use it? Lineage OS uses the light. A flashing notification light uses much less energy. Previously, the phone used Ambient Display which would flash notifications across the screen and every time you picked the device up. But this was a huge power drain because it meant keeping the light and motion sensors permanently engaged to detect unpocketing, flipping and picking up.

The phone can now read the battery life of my Bluetooth earpiece and headphones where it couldn't before. Bluetooth performance on the whole seems to be greatly improved with devices pairing instantly and automatically when they previously had to be connected individually, manually and repeatedly.

There are a lot of effective little tweaks, too. Messaging apps now hyphenate words. Security features will allow the phone to stay unlocked in sleep if you keep it on your person and stay in motion. Snapchat didn't load before; it does now.

And everything is responsive: apps load faster, all the animations have been additionally smoothed. The camera app used to take 4 - 5 seconds to load up, now it takes 1 second, if that.

The phone was now so fast that it began to overheat regularly. That's right! All eight CPU cores were perpetually at maximum clockspeed. The phone got so hot that I had to put it in the freezer while I tried to think out what to do.

The phone's battery drained from 100 to 0 in five hours of mixed use and in sleep mode. Even when idling, the phone was extremely heated. I set the phone to Power Saver mode and its longevity stretched to six hours.

Eventually, I decided to lock the CPU to the lowest clockspeeds. The Moto G4's processor contains two quad-core arrangements, the first at 0.84 GHz to 1.2 GHz, the second from 0.96 GHz to 1.5 GHz. I've set the processors permanently at the base speed and this put the phone back to the icy cool it had on Marshmallow. I'm hoping the multi-core setup will negate any performance loss for me. It seems good enough for Facebook and Twitter and ebooks and Chrome.

I haven't noticed any loss of speed beyond a slightly longer pause to wake the phone from sleep mode (which is better than the phone going dead inside six hours). But I suspect that if I were a gamer (and I'm not), the processor being locked to lowest speed would lead to slow load-times and poor framerates.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

Damn, that sounds like a hot phone. smile
I'm not sure what else to add to the conversation. I find your phone stories fascinating, but I don't have much to add.

For the next week or two, I will be watching YouTube videos about the Note 8. I'm partly doing this because I am considering buying one (keep in mind, I don't replace phones often. This is a four or five year commitment), and I'm partly doing it because I have no gas for my car and every station around my area is sold out. People were convinced that Harvey would create a shortage, so they rushed to fill up. There is no real shortage because of Harvey, but the rush to get gas has resulted in a shortage that will probably last about a week. So... I'll be here... Waiting for gas...

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Re: Personal Status Updates!

If I had to buy a new phone today, I would get the Moto E4. It's a budget device with a 5-inch, 720p screen, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, microSD and it would be sufficient for my ebook reading and social media and total lack of gaming. The 8-megapixel camera is adequate; decent in daylight, needs a flash in low light. It's about $130 USD and I just wouldn't recommend buying a superphone because phones are too fragile and easily lost in my experience.

In your case, I'd probably recommend the Samsung S7. It's about $340 USD and you'd get about the same user-experience as on an S8 except you wouldn't have the bezel-less look.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

I'm considering the Note 8, possibly going to the S8 Plus if I can find a deal that I like (trade-in, plus bonus accessories that I can sell on eBay). The 6GB of RAM and dual cameras with good low-light photos are big selling points for my use. The S-Pen is also something that I could probably use quite a bit with my work, and the screen resolution is pretty great too.

The Note FE (Note 7 rebranded) would be another option.

Like I said, for me it's about getting a phone that can last five years without falling too far behind. If I go for a phone that's already a year or two old, I'm cutting the life by about that much. The 6GB of RAM in the Note 8 should keep it in the race for a while at least.

I've been using my S4 for a good long while now, and it really only became a problem within the last year, and getting progressively worse. I haven't had a case on it for most of the time that I've had it, and I haven't dropped (severely), scratched or lost it, so keeping a phone for several years is doable for me. I just need to future-proof it as much as I can. I've looked at some other phones and I've considered some, but I just can't do Motorola again and a lot of the phones just don't fit my needs in terms of resolution, camera, future proofing, etc.

I think I could get a solid deal on the S8 Plus. I'm just hoping that I can work my way into a Note 8 instead. 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!

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.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

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....

Re: Personal Status Updates!

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"

Earth Prime | The Definitive Source for Sliders™

Re: Personal Status Updates!

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?)

Re: Personal Status Updates!

Transmodiar wrote:
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!

RussianCabbie_Lotteryfan wrote:
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.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

Grizzlor wrote:

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 smile  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.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

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?

https://www.apple.com/iphone-x/

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Re: Personal Status Updates!

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...

Re: Personal Status Updates!

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. sad


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.

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'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*

Re: Personal Status Updates!

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. smile

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Re: Personal Status Updates!

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.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

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.

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Re: Personal Status Updates!

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.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

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.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

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.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

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.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0796FWRG3/

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Re: Personal Status Updates!

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.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

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.

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!

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.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

I don't write a lot in here, but I wanted to write and say that I got married last weekend smile

Re: Personal Status Updates!

That's awesome! Congrats!

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!

Congratulations man!!!

Re: Personal Status Updates!

Congrats! 

and while we're at it, congrats to Charlie O'Connell on his engagement.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

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.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

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.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

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.

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!

So, my sister recently demanded that I stop dressing like Clark in Season 1 of SMALLVILLE and start dressing like, um, Clark, but in Season 8 of SMALLVILLE. During a recent visit, she threw out all my old clothes so that I'd have no choice but to wear the new ones she got me. I now have a collection of men's suits and sport jackets.

I have this one very classic cut suit with somewhat wide lapels and a window-pane black, and it's been tailored to drape well on my figure while still looking quite traditional. It reminds me of the suit that Lois stole for Clark to wear on his first day at the Daily Planet when he walked in wearing flanel, jeans and a knapsack. I call this suit the Clark.

I have another suit that is black with pinstripes and it's a slim-fit suit with skinny lapels that, instead of draping, wraps around my body and sits rather closely for a lean, streamlined fit that looks very modern and casual while technically meeting all the requirements of a formal business suit. I call this one the Quinn.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

Wait... Jeans and flannel or a t-shirt is how all guys dress, isn't it?

I mean, I have the suits and stuff too, but I rarely have a need for them.

Are slim fit suits still fashionably acceptable to wear? I got a really good price on one a couple of years ago, but really never wear it. When I had it tailored, the woman who was taking the measurements made a point to tell me how much she hated the style, because the legs are too short. smile
I just see it as retro. I actually got it because the color reminded me of the suit that I wore for the 11/22/63 miniseries, which I liked.

But I'm not sure if people still wear the slim fit suits.

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!

While clothiers separate suits into classic, modern and slim fit, no two manufacturers ever have the same measurements in the same divisions. I’m not sure what you mean by trouser legs being too short as most ready to wear trousers are deliberately too long — so the customer can have them hemmed for their height.

Slim fit generally refers to clothes hanging close to the body in contrast to a more loosely fitted design. If you watch FRASER or a Sean Connery Bond film, jackets and trousers were large and wide whereas on SMALLVILLE, Clark’s suits were very fitted to his figure. The latter is how most modern suits are cut for average sized men. Some manufacturers call it slim fit.

https://ezrapaul.com/blogs/news/are-you … -too-tight

Re: Personal Status Updates!

Yeah, the jacket and pants/trousers are fit more to the body with that suit. Now, I know very little about these things, but my tailor was measuring me for three suits on that day, each with different fits. With the slim fit, she was telling me something about having the shorter leg, because of how it fits around the ankle and shoe (there's a term for this. Something about a "break", I think). I've seen this a lot, with dudes showing off their fancy socks when wearing suits that are slimmer, so I kinda-sorta followed what she was saying, but no totally. I think she just likes a more classic fit, with longer legs.

Can you tell that I know nothing about suit tailoring? 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!

Courtesy of my sister:

Some slim fit suits have trouser legs that taper, narrowing from thigh to calf. However, this can cause problems where dress pants that feel great when standing feel tightly constricting when sitting. An alternate approach is trousers with a crease down the center of the pants to create a tapered look. These days, there's the supercrease technology which uses a line of adhesive to make a permanent crease that doesn't need to be maintained with an iron and can survive laundering and dry cleaning.

What you're referring to in terms of leg length has nothing to do with slim/modern/classic fit. Trouser length is addressed regardless of the fit. It's the question of whether to have a full break (the trousers drape over the shoe), a half break (the trousers make slight contact with the shoe) or no break (the trousers don't touch the shoe). This is adjustable when you first buy ready to wear pants which are sold too long so that you can choose, and you can have whatever break with whatever fit.

A full break creates 'ripples' in the pants when clean lines are preferable, a half break has a good effect and no break can make your legs and pants look oddly short (but gives you a clean trouser line). The half break is probably best.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

I shall trust your sister's intel. She knows more than I do. 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!

ME: "How does THE KARATE KID get a revival with #COBRAKAI when #SLIDERS gets nothing?"
LAUREN: "People actually watched THE KARATE KID and the sequels and the reboot and nobody cares about SLIDERS and are you CRYING?"
ME: (shaky) "No!" (quavering voice) "Not yet!"

Re: Personal Status Updates!

So Friday was a bloodbath for TV, as networks canceled a ton of shows ahead of next week's up-fronts. The only cancellation that really bummed me out was Brooklyn Nine-Nine...

But NBC just picked it up. So I think I might be in the clear this year, unless Gotham gets canned.

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!

My Moto G5 Plus started freezing up and crashing and I got really excited -- I thought I'd have an excuse to buy a new phone! But then, it turned out that the Google app was being a memory hog and ripping it out of the phone freed up about half a gig of RAM, so it's all fine now.

**

I feel the need to build a website to prove that I can do it. Except -- there's only one thing I can think to build a website around right now. I could build a website for SLIDERS REBORN -- a site that presents the content in a format that is suited to reading on the webpage itself without needing to download PDFs (although you could). Plus a side blog in which I'd present all the behind the scenes discussions that Transmodiar, Nigel Mitchell, Slider_Quinn21 and I had regarding the project.

I just wonder if I *should*. I've made no secret of how I often feel like SLIDERS REBORN is the crowning -- and only -- accomplishment in my life to the point of writing faux-web articles and pastiches of real-life reviewers reviewing the series and writing imaginary podcast transcripts and even roping REWATCH PODCAST into performing a REWATCH segment where they presented the REBORN storyline in their review format. I don't know if I should sink any more time into it. Except... I guess, since all the content is written, it would merely be building the structure of the website. Is that okay, or is it a backwards step when I should really be moving onto newer (if not better) things?

Re: Personal Status Updates!

My buddy and I are considering doing a podcast in an area that's already saturated with no serious hope of it being super successful.  When we were talking about it, we decided that we wanted to do it because it'd be fun - it wouldn't even necessarily be for other people, it'd be for us.

I'm only saying that to say if you feel any compulsion to make a REBORN website, you should.  Web space is cheap or free, and website-building skills are relevant.  If that's the area you want to build around, you should.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

Don't know. I've actually been considering taking down my someplacethatiselse.net site lately. I always say that I'm going to do something productive with it, but I'm too busy to actually do anything. Next time it's up for renewal, I may just archive it and let it go. Buffy Season 8 was a huge accomplishment for me. It was a great learning experience and it proved a lot for me, in terms of what I could accomplish, and what I could do on a strict deadline. But it was a stepping stone.


That's just me though.

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!

ireactions wrote:

My Moto G5 Plus started freezing up and crashing and I got really excited -- I thought I'd have an excuse to buy a new phone! But then, it turned out that the Google app was being a memory hog and ripping it out of the phone freed up about half a gig of RAM, so it's all fine now.

**

I feel the need to build a website to prove that I can do it. Except -- there's only one thing I can think to build a website around right now. I could build a website for SLIDERS REBORN -- a site that presents the content in a format that is suited to reading on the webpage itself without needing to download PDFs (although you could). Plus a side blog in which I'd present all the behind the scenes discussions that Transmodiar, Nigel Mitchell, Slider_Quinn21 and I had regarding the project.

I just wonder if I *should*. I've made no secret of how I often feel like SLIDERS REBORN is the crowning -- and only -- accomplishment in my life to the point of writing faux-web articles and pastiches of real-life reviewers reviewing the series and writing imaginary podcast transcripts and even roping REWATCH PODCAST into performing a REWATCH segment where they presented the REBORN storyline in their review format. I don't know if I should sink any more time into it. Except... I guess, since all the content is written, it would merely be building the structure of the website. Is that okay, or is it a backwards step when I should really be moving onto newer (if not better) things?

Definitely put it up if you like but let me add, I find your reviews and criticisms excellent.  And I quite enjoyed how you broke down Into the Mystic.  It made me see the episode in a whole new light.  And you spoke really well, I felt like I was listening to NPR. I definitely think criticism on not just old SLIDERS episodes but any other tv/film/book/comic stuff your interested in is an avenue for you.  You might be able to parlay it into professional work as well.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

Coffee with a new lady friend:

ERIN: " -- and my dream's to become a rich dental hygenist and then a really big name stand-up comedian and then move somewhere warm but cheap. Do you have a dream?"

ME: "Hmm. No."

ERIN: "What? You have no dreams?"

ME: "Uh. I had one. But... I mean... I achieved it."

ERIN: "You achieved your dream?!? What was your dream!?"

ME: "When I was a kid, my favourite TV show was SLIDERS and it had a really troubled production history where by the fifth season, three-quarters of the original cast had been fired and killed off and the original creator had fled the series after the second season and the show ended on an unresolved cliffhanger. And my dream was always to bring the show back somehow -- and I wrote six screenplays that resurrected the original characters and gave them a new adventure and a happy ending and I put it all online and now I'm happy."

ERIN: "SLIDERS -- that's that time travel show, right?"

ME: "Sure."

ERIN: "So -- you have no more dreams. That was your one dream and you did it. And now you have nothing to live for any more."

ME: "Nothing at all! It's why I thought I'd start dating again. I seem to have a thing for stand-up comedians. I've been trying to date a stand-up comedian or two."

ERIN: "Oh, I don't see us dating. You're nice and honest and easy to laugh with, but you're like ten years older than me and you dress like my dad."

ME: "Well, that is heartbreaking, but I really like talking about SLIDERS, so I'm pretty satisfied with this outing."

ERIN: "We can still, like, hang out and be acquaintances if you don't try to hit on me after this."

ME: "I'd take that deal. You're very funny. I'm a fan. I'd like us to see each other socially; I'm not concerned with the details. My clothes are based on Tom Welling in Season 8 of SMALLVILLE. Do I really dress like your father?"

ERIN: "Yes."

Re: Personal Status Updates!

Does Tom Welling have an age-appropriate daughter named Erin?

Or is there a version of Smallville comics where Clark and Lois have a daughter named Erin?

Re: Personal Status Updates!

As far as I know, Tom has no children and also as far as I know, Tom doesn't dress like Clark in any season of SMALLVILLE. He seems to alternate between sweatshirts and T-shirts and either shorts or jeans. He always looks like he's going jogging. I imagine that having spent most of his life being coiffed and primped for modelling or TV, he prefers to keep it casual. I recently met Erin's dad and it was hilarious to observe that we were both wearing the same red dress shirt, black trousers, formal shoes and a sport jacket.

I like formal menswear. Or at least I like mine; it's all been altered to fit how I sit, stand, walk and move, so these clothes always feel like my second skin.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

I truly respect people who dress well consistently.  I've always been a fan of casual/comfortable clothes, and I always feel out of sorts dressed up.  Even at formal events, I just feel awkward.

I'm much more like Tom Welling.  Only fashion-wise haha.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

To be fair, dress shirts and dress pants are a pretty uniform and narrow range of clothing for me; I just found two labels with shirts and trousers that suit my body type and have enough shirts, pants and jackets to rotate so that I can wear something different each day of the week. If you want to dress well, it's less about trends and more about finding items that have a shape and colour that suit your body and complexion -- and having the lengths and widths tailored to your size whether it's sweaters and jeans from Wal-Mart or a high-end suit.

The other side is having enough items to rotate (so that each article of clothing has a few days to hang and regain shape after a wearing) and being able to maintain them. I didn't wear formal wear until this past year because, even though my sister bought me some suits, I didn't want to spend the time and money constantly getting jackets and dress pants dry cleaned. I hated spending hours ironing shirts each week.

But I bought a steam cleaner to sanitize my stuffed animal collection and I discovered that it also did a great job of cleaning jackets, shirts and pants, and not only did the steam kill bacteria and loosen dirt to be brushed off, it removed wrinkles and left garments smooth and clean with 4 - 5 minutes of steaming and brushing per item. And a local dry cleaner now offered supercreasing -- in which a line of resin creates a permanent center crease in dress pants that will survive washing and dry cleaning, eliminating the need for an iron. I only need to spend a half hour every three days steaming what I've worn, and easy maintenance was the main reason I finally changed my look.

I'm told that this subject is extremely tiring and a total snooze to hear me talk about, and the universe seemed to agree with me because I wanted to get a few new shirts on the weekend and went to my favourite menswear shop and found it was now a mattress store.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

ireactions wrote:

But I bought a steam cleaner to sanitize my stuffed animal collection

lol

ireactions wrote:

And a local dry cleaner now offered supercreasing -- in which a line of resin creates a permanent center crease in dress pants that will survive washing and dry cleaning

lol

ireactions wrote:

I'm told that this subject is extremely tiring and a total snooze to hear me talk about, and the universe seemed to agree with me

lol

Earth Prime | The Definitive Source for Sliders™

Re: Personal Status Updates!

Matt, I would appreciate it if you would take your mockery of anything and everything you find absurd about me and apply it to critiquing:

a) My obsessive comparisons regarding Tom Cruise/Jerry O'Connell/Ethan Hunt/Quinn Mallory

b) My nervousness over a SLIDERS REBORN website and that it could be a backwards step

c) My inability to stop talking about SLIDERS even on dates

And if you wanted to just pick out sentences and write "lol" after them, that'd be fine. Thank you.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

ireactions wrote:

Matt, I would appreciate it if you would take your mockery of anything and everything you find absurd about me and apply it to critiquing:

a) My obsessive comparisons regarding Tom Cruise/Jerry O'Connell/Ethan Hunt/Quinn Mallory

b) My nervousness over a SLIDERS REBORN website and that it could be a backwards step

c) My inability to stop talking about SLIDERS even on dates

I can do this

Earth Prime | The Definitive Source for Sliders™

Re: Personal Status Updates!

Informant wrote:

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?

https://www.apple.com/iphone-x/

I had a look at the iPhone X recently. A guy at work has one. The look is great -- a black frame around a front surface that is entirely a screen -- as opposed to a conventional phone where the screen is a rectangle in a rectangle. Samsung's curved screens also eliminate the rectangle look.

But these cost at least a thousand dollars without adding much function. I don't see myself spending more than a couple hundred bucks on a phone because they're easily lost and broken. Despite a reputation for destroying phones (two Samsung S3s, a Samsung S5), I've been good for the last two and a half years. The Moto G4 I had was randomly rebooting; I switched to a G5 Plus that's going eight months and counting. But I'd still rather buy a phone that, if destroyed, could be replaced once a year at a reasonable cost.

If I needed a new phone, I'd want a minimum 5-inch screen, octa-core processor, 32GB of storage and 4GB of RAM, a microSD slot, a 3.5mm audio jack -- a bezeless look is not a priority. I'm also not all that fussed about a camera: I'm fine with using a flash in dark situations, I have no interest in dual-camera setups -- I just want something to photograph documents (receipts, business cards).

Re: Personal Status Updates!

My Moto G5 Plus with Android Nougat its 2 GB of RAM had been struggling lately. It kept lagging and freezing and this was a serious problem when driving with Google Maps where the navigation would be unable to tell me I was coming up on an exit until I'd driven right past it. The Chrome browser kept freezing. I disabled the Google app, removed Chrome and took out the Assistant app and the phone returned to adequate function, but it'd still freeze up from time to time.

It became clear that apps were calling for more RAM than the G5 Plus had to offer and I wondered if I ought to buy a new phone, but it seemed insane to replace this one when it's only nine months old. However, I downloaded the Oreo update and now the performance is back to where it was even with Google apps re-enabled. Oreo seems to be more aggressive in preventing background apps from using system resources for too long. The device feels new again.

Apple seems to be having a good year as well with iOS updates. I'd prevented OS updates on my iPad 5, but the reports came in that iOS 12 has improved performance on all older devices, so I updated before restoring the update block. The iPad 5 is running just the same as the day I bought it.

Re: Personal Status Updates!

I'd be careful, if anyone is considering a new iphone. I've seen some videos on YouTube where they're talking about the new phones not recognizing the charging cable when the screen is off, and therefore not charging when people think it's charging. Some even have issues with the phone not charging when the screen is on.

The selfie camera also apparently applies some sort of beauty filter automatically, without the option to turn it off.

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.