StrandedonEarth

Here in the province of British Columbia, the public auto insurance company ICBC (which is the only provider for basic auto insurance) is undergoing a "dumpster fire" of record losses (over $1 billion for the last fiscal year). This, a year after the old government sucked over $1 billion in "excess profits" from ICBC. Of course the new government didn't even consider giving that money back. So now we're facing big hikes in the insurance rates to try and cover the shortfall. The cause, aside from gov't raiding the piggy bank? Rising repair costs (all those radar systems, cameras and such in new cars), fraud, and too many crashes. Traffic is often congested, leading to frustration which results in risky maneuvers. For my neck of the woods, the driveway for my townhouse complex exits on a busy four-lane (two each way) road (which is the main north-south artery in this city), just past an intersection. On the other side of that intersection is a mile of undeveloped green space under a triple run of long-distance power transmission lines. Needless to say, speeds often get excessive coming into that intersection, resulting in many red-light runners. So accidents are pretty common there; twice in the last year a car has hit the power pole on the corner, killing power to our complex for several hours and snarling traffic while crews replace the pole. )This year they are going to put in left turn lanes at that intersection (a year after repaving ) so traffic will be more of a mess. But that's beside the point). So needless to say, I'm quickly becoming a fan of red-light speed cameras. As part of extinguishing the dumpster fire, the gov't is planning on more red-light and speed cameras (both average speed and point speed). Red-light cameras will be full-time (instead of rotating between locations, working as long as there's film) and will also operate as speed cameras regardless of the color of the light. Some people decry it as a cash grab, but if one follows the rules of the road it won't cost them anything. AFAIC, they should put these everywhere. Reduce crashes, with revenues going to ICBC to reduce rates (politicians probably won't do that, but that's how it should be). I just got a dashcam for Christmas, and would get a blackbox too (if available; apparently that's a pilot program here) when my teenage son starts driving. They don't have to be built-in, as I've heard that they (some, at least) simply plug into the OBD2 (diagnostic) port and stay there. As for governors; the highway I take to work has a speed limit of 100km/h, and I often pass trucks with a sign saying it's governed to 90km/h. So of course we get other rigs passing them on our two-lane-each-way highway. It is being widened to three lanes, working their way out the valley, so it'll probably be a decade until three lanes reach here. If you are paying attention, that should rarely be needed. Besides, they shouldn't care if it happens once in a while, but if it's frequently required, then that driver isn't paying nearly enough attention. They had speed-cam vans here back in the 90's, and that was a cash grab, as they tended to be at the bottom of hills, and yeah, that system was a joke. But I'm sure that having speed/red-light cams at ALL intersections would lead to a huge reduction in insurance claims, since it seems that a majority of injury-causing crashes happen when someone trying to turn left on a yellow gets smoked by someone (who should have stopped) speeding through the intersection. Of course, if all cars drove autonomously and communicated with each other, that would also practically eliminate crashes.

Yeah, like, even kerbals build their rockets indoors. They seem to be treating it like a seaship instead of a spaceship

I assume so, I may be wrong. I’d need to research

Yeah, I've only ever described it as "snow pellets", which is what UT is probably made of

I've asked for dual-display for a long time. Having my laptop show the flight screen and the big TV on the wall showing the Map mode would be ever so Mission Control-ish

Probably too late to help, but every so often the game autosaves (situation change?). I'm pretty sure it writes a new persistent.sfs save when there's a scene change, and persistent.sfs files are backed up in the "backup" folder (not accessible in game) so there's usually a few of those going back in the backup folder (PC, not console). And if you don't mind mods, there's the "Dated Quicksaves" mod which tacks a date onto the quicksave so all your quicksaves can't get overwritten. Even better, it dates the Autosaves too so those won't get overwritten either. To load a specific save, use Alt-F9 or Esc -> load save, but the folder structure is not available when loading a save; everything is usually piled in one folder so if you want something from the backup folder, you need to move it from outside the game.

1. I was going to say "Needs to show more Gurdy," but the Gurdy quotient was much higher nearer the end. 2. New to you maybe, I see the video was posted in May of '16 3. Reading through the comments, I note that Patty has left Storm Seeker. Too bad for them. But I think I'll buy the album anyways. Noticed a few albums titled "Stormseeker" on iTunes... 4. Favorite comment: "Great sound! Makes me want to drink rum and make someone walk the plank." 5. When the video ended, one of the featured videos was this metal cover of a classic Dire Straits tune. Leo's wife is a pretty good singer

Luckily there are a several radio stations in my area that expose me to new (if overplayed) music, especially at work where I listen to the allegedly "world famous" CFOX. The Fox Rocks! I have far less opportunity to listen to streaming services, although the fancy new car stereo I got for Christmas (I wanted and got one with Bluetooth) does support Spotify and Pandora and such. But it also plays great from my phone, so again, I don't have much use for streaming music services. But my daughter (who drives) is on Spotify.... I also got a dashcam to keep an eye on her driving, not that it's suspect. But her brother will be sixteen soon... Now excuse me while I go see if Storm Seeker is on iTunes... the "what music is stuck in your head" thread is my other source for new tunes

Yeah, that’s the problem with, um, well, everything. Someone comes up with a good idea that works, and then everyone has to copy it and grab their slice of the pie. Now there’s a zillion video and music streaming services trying to lighten my wallet, including the cable companies trying to compete. And that’s another complaint lately, cable companies upgrading the home equipment every few years, leaving us with functional but obsolete stuff. The last batch of stuff was barely paid for (still cheaper than renting the stuff) when we renewed our loyalty discounts, when they insisted on upgrading our gear to the latest equipment for free. That’s great, but the menus and everything is completely different so we have to figure out how to use the PVR all over again. Oh wait, why record it when we can just stream it... Back to music. I won’t pay for a music streaming service when I already have tens of gigs of music built up over the years, some ripped, some downloaded, some bought from iTunes. I think there’s even some I “borrowed” from Napster. But the downside is that the recording levels are all over the place. When I have my headphones on, my phone likes to play something quiet, like “Here for a Good Time” so I have to turn it up, then it throws on a live cut of “Bawitdaba” with the audience at full roar, making me jump out of my skin...

I don’t remember seeing that black stripe down the side before. Did I never see that angle or is it new? Painting the weld line black to quickly locate it for inspection between flights? That strongback looks fit for a Heavy...

Are you referring to Boomer from the BSG reboot? I say we call it “Frosty”

Non-Steam player. I also had the bug where selecting the new Mk2 lander can apparently disabled the PAW. Deleting the loadmetas did not seem to help, but maybe it was a necessary step? What did work (after deleting loadmetas) was deleting the PartDatabase.cfg, loading to main menu, exiting, and restarting the game. Now it’s just profit! Switching ships still takes forever, probably because a bunch of errors show up in the log. IIRC it’s from a non-critical mod that I need to get around to removing, once I’m home from work...

I wonder what kind of bitrate this is capable of...? Cant't wait to see the hi=res flyby images

Okay, who’s been messing with the infinite improbability drive?

I believe that the pusher plate was supposed to ablate, providing more superheated reaction mass than just the vaporized bomb casing

Indeed...

Could Musk actually be a descendant of this guy?

What blows my mind is how the astronavigation is so accurate at such distances

"I try to make everybody's day a little more surreal" - Calvin & Hobbes (paraphrased from memory): "Despite centuries of research, the nation's number one killer remains... DEATH!" - SNL (or was it MadTV?)

StarLink sounding good about now? As long as you still have power. Still no power for 4,000 of the more remote (Gulf Islands) customers in my region after a windstorm a week ago. That was no problem here; we only lose power here when a car takes out the pole on the corner (twice in the last year)

Well yeah, whenever it is most inconvenient for the kids is the best time to do those things. As for my complaint, the other night we were in a reverse draw at the Ram dealership for a $10k prize. I was getting myself all prepped to loudly say "Doh!" when our name was called, especially when it was down to the final twenty contestants (who received consolation gift bags). But I was a little annoyed that I never got to say it, because they never called our name until the final three, who all agreed to split the prize. So I didn't get to win the 10k, but I guess winning $3335 overshadows my small complaint.

Bring it!

I keep hearing this on the radio lately, and this lyric has caught my ear... "Said the Shepard boy to the mighty kingDo you know what I knowIn your palace wall mighty kingDo you know what I knowA child, a childShivers in the coldLet us bring him silver and goldLet us bring him silver and gold" The kid is cold, so let's bring him some metal? How about a blanket maybe? The queen would've stopped off on the way to trade some of that gold for a freakin' blanket. Wise men, yeah right...

Got to work this morning to wrap up production for the Christmas break, and the power was out. So now we get to try it again tomorrow morning.