RedEye9 wrote on Dec 4, 2020, 22:18:
6.5% flat tax for everyone (businesses included) no exemptions no loopholes.
End the marriage and housing tax break. And end the church exemption.
It would be enough to fund free healthcare, and free higher ed.

Well... I liked to see a floor. No reason to tax the first $20k per person. And some kind of similar base for businesses varied by number of employees (only full time employees with benefits count). And truthfully, I don't know if the economics behind such a plan would work well. I'm fine on taxing the churches though.

Brilliant.

MoreLuckThanSkill wrote on Dec 4, 2020, 15:26:
Make the decision on a per country basis if the studios must, but holy shit, we're up to 3,000 people dying a day in the US, over 100k hospitalized, 300k new infections a day.

Yep. Getting close to being a 9/11 each day, and yet the Rs are unconcerned. So glad they are running half the states in the country, not to mention the Senate and POTUS (for another 47 days)....

MattyC wrote on Dec 4, 2020, 20:49:
The NSA story still doesn’t seem that well known by a great many Americans.

Meaningless. 73m+ US citizens thought it was a good idea to vote to re-elect Trump. A "great many Americans" are complete idiots. There is little doubt in my mind if you ran a poll a large portion of Americans would say Snowden was a traitor. I hope history remembers him well, even if it does, most Americans probably won't learn that history.

jdreyer wrote on Dec 4, 2020, 20:56:
Remember when the top tax bracket was 90%? We need to get back there.

I'm old, but I'm not THAT old. My dad would be that old, if he hadn't died 13 years ago....

Nice work if you can get it

I would not oppose a Presidential pardon for Edward Snowden.

BGP is definitely one of the hardest things in network administration. There is a good reasons the experts in it make big bucks.

The Flying Penguin wrote on Dec 4, 2020, 10:16:
And those of you who liked it, I can highly recommend The Bobiverse series. He just released a new book.

Hmm, somewhat interesting concept. Reminds me a bit of Frederik Pohl's "Heechee Saga" where the main character eventually becomes an electronic version of himself (along with others). Speaking of which, I should probably re-read the Heechee Saga, I can only recall a few of the details...

Greentiger wrote on Dec 4, 2020, 09:00:

Mr. Tact wrote on Dec 4, 2020, 08:40:
Yeah, I guess I should have left that out, my important comment was me thinking it was "okay". Unless I missed something The Orville is not in this category, it is a comedy.

It started off that way, but it's cut way down in season 2. I've enjoyed all the episodes so far. B-story humor is the best, like when Dan was hounding Mercer to put musak in the lifts.

I'm not fully opposed to humor in sci-fi. I read all six of John Scalzi's "Old Man's War" series which is sprinkled with humor, especially in "The Human Division" which is centered on the Harry Wilson character. And it was all very enjoyable. But unless I misjudged it, The Orville is more in the "American Pie" category of humor -- which can be pretty funny, when I'm drunk. For better or worse, it has been a long time since I have been drunk.

Razumen wrote on Dec 3, 2020, 23:10:

Mr. Tact wrote on Dec 3, 2020, 21:56:
there are some good episodes and some bad episodes.

I think this is true for every show in existence.

Yeah, I guess I should have left that out, my important comment was me thinking it was "okay". Unless I missed something The Orville is not in this category, it is a comedy.

Jonjonz wrote on Dec 4, 2020, 06:34:
I had a friend in silicon valley who worked at one time or another at some of the real biggies there, Apple, General Dynamics, and Oracle. She said Oracle was the absolute worst place she had ever worked and taking a job with them was the worst decision of her life. She was an very accomplished competitive alpha type, so I hate to think what it would be like to work for Oracle if you were just an average person.

I know someone who interviewed with Apple. Based on that, it seems they expect you to always be on the job, to respond to calls any time of day or night. Being from the IT world I had to deal with that on a rotating basis and let me tell you, if they had ever told me it would be required all the time, I would be gone the instant I could find another job. And this person was applying for a finance related job.

It wouldn't help, would it? There aren't many H-1B workers who couldn't do their work remotely -- or so I would have thought anyway. All those jobs are bound for getting off-shored sooner or later...

jdreyer wrote on Dec 3, 2020, 21:39:
I've always wondered about Farscape and Stargate, but never got around to watching them.

Stargate is ten seasons and not surprisingly, there are some good episodes and some bad episodes. Pretty sure I've seen them all at this point. Not sure I would recommend it truthfully -- overall it is "okay". Although I have wondered over the years if anyone has actually sat down and counted how many times Christopher Judge says "indeed" throughout the entire series.

I liked Stargate Universe a lot more than the original series.

PHJF wrote on Dec 3, 2020, 18:26:
My partner and I recently tried Farscape... we made it ~three episodes before throwing in the towel. Then I tried to watch Enterprise... and made it ~half dozen episodes.

Farscape is just goofy enough that it can be tough to get attached to it. Enterprise is much better, despite the criticism it received I thought it was good and was hoping for the "standard" seven season lifetime of a ST franchise. Unfortunately that didn't happen...

Simon Says wrote on Dec 3, 2020, 17:21:

And yes, Babylon 5 is in my top three best TV series ever, INCREDIBLE acting by Andreas Katsulas and Peter Jurasik, their characters were epic, easily eclipsing the main protagonists ( Sheridan and Delenn ).
...
I really wish they'd give that serie the HD/4K facelift treatment. It hasn't aged well visually, but the story and shades of grey plots... man that story, pure genius. Season 1 might be a tad painful to get through as it's basically setting up the stage for the other seasons unrelenting epic rollercoaster, but the pain of S01 is well worth it in the end.

I'm guessing they'd have to simply redo most if not all of the special effects. A HD remaster would be awesome, but even if it was possible I doubt the demand for the finished product could cover the costs of the remastering. However, I have faint recollection that it is known a HD remaster simply isn't possible due to the way the show was produced -- but I'd be happy to be proved wrong. The show is actually almost better when you watch it a second time. When you can see ALL of the foreshadowing, some which is subtle enough that it can be missed in the first viewing.

As I believe we have discussed here before, there are some accusations DS9 was at least in part based on a B5 presentation given by JMS in a pitch to sell it to the studio. I'm not sure how much if any actual evidence there is of that, but there are certainly clear parallels between the two shows. The two of them are what made clear to me how much I like the long story arcs -- watching the characters develop and change.

I've had limited interactions with Oracle, but I do recall thinking (at least it seemed like it to me) that their pricing model for using their software was, "rape the customer for every damn penny we can".

Yeah, I probably should have "got it"... but to tell the truth, I didn't even realize you had capitalized "five". There is so much non-standard grammar/writing on the web I have learned to mostly ignore it...

Simon Says wrote on Dec 3, 2020, 13:55:
Episode "Chain of Command" Season 6 Episode 11, involving Cardassians and torture.

Ahh.. didn't catch it... ah well... (no need for the video)

Simon Says wrote on Dec 3, 2020, 12:56:
I see FIVE ethical quandaries.

The TNG fans will understand.

Out of those five, the DS9 one was by far the best episode, followed closely by the TNG episode.

I'd like think of myself as a fan of TNG, although admittedly I like DS9 more for the long arc story-lines. But I don't understand what you mean..