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Half of these exist because I was bored once.

The Windows 10 and MacOS ones are GPU passthrough enabled and what I occasionally use if I have to use a Windows or Mac application. Windows 7 is also GPU enabled, but is more a nostalgia thing than anything.

I think my PopOS VM was originally installed for fun, but I used it along with my Arch Linux, Debian 12 and Testing (I run Testing on host, but I wanted a fresh environment and was too lazy to spin up a Docker or chroot), Ubuntu 23.10 and Fedora to test various software builds and bugs, as I don't like touching normal Ubuntu unless I must.

The Windows Server 2022 one is one I recently spun up to mess with Windows Docker Containers (I have to port an app to Windows, and was looking at that for CI). That all become moot when I found out Github's CI doesn't support Windows Docker containers despite supporting Windows runners (The organization I'm doing it for uses Github, so I have to use it).

I think the Vau N'Akat seen in Prodigy have a lot of "biological and technological distinctiveness" to be added to the collective's own. My question is whether or not the Borg could take advantage of the Vau N'Akat's abilities, and whether they'd be all that helpful.

For instance, could assimilated Vau N'Akat use their heirloom powers to manipulate materials in order to pump out at least the shells of Borg Cubes like nobody's business?

I think this depends on how heirloom material actually works and is made. Its utility to the Borg probably depends on whether or not it's a limited resource or actually some sort of alloy that could be constructed anywhere in the galaxy.

In truth, we can't know that, as in the current state of canon Vau N'Akat lore, it's basically just space magic to us. If I had to take a wild guess, I have two theories:

1. Maybe Vau N'Akat have detachable nanobot-esque cells that communicate with the brain over an electromagnatic signal, allowing the quick assembly of structures at a relatively precise level, especially with the one specific material. (Perhaps all that blue dust stuff that happens at death are these cells freaking out as communication ceases and, for lack of orders, devouring the body.)
2. The Vau N'Akat have organs that essentially very precisely accelerate exchange particles. (This theory makes the above one seem comparatively more plausible.)

Another question is whether or not Vau N'Akat drones could use all that "your will is mine" stuff to aid the assimilation of other Vau N'Akat and/or create one super drone.

Going with theory 1, maybe the "Your will is mine" stuff is actually a weak ability to lend extra cells to the desired person that builds up when a lot of people are doing it, strengthening healing and immune responses as well as any use of that person's detached cells, thus explaining that whole scene.

If this is the mechanic by which it works (and assimilation doesn't somehow bork the mental facilities for this), this could be a very powerful ability for the Borg. It almost sounds too powerful, as those cells could be used as essentially an assimilation virus or a bioweapon, which I think would break the balance of power in the ST universe in a way that I think writers really wouldn't want to.

Overall, as I have said before, just as I find it very fun to try to theorize how the Vau N'Akat work, I also find it very difficult due to both its status as a very new species and their general uniqueness (almost un-Trekiness, not to insult them) as a species. I do think Prodigy does some good things with the Vau N'Akat, and it's nice to have a species that's a bit more than just forehead ridges and a fatal flaw (if they even bother with the forehead ridges - looking at you, Betazoids). However, similar to some of the complaints with Prodigy in general, I can't deny that the space magic aspect feels more Star Wars than I can say I like in Star Trek.

So, what are your thoughts?

Overall, I see Badgey as accidentally being the most sane one there and being a story of how sanity fares in an insane universe.

Here's my lore for Badgey and the ISS Cerritos (based on the IDW Mirror Universe and assuming that the mirror universe in Prodigy is the same timeline as IDW's mirror universe): I kind of imagine the story as the inverse, where the brutal Rutherford sends his Orion slave girl~1~ to test the simulation, which is a low gravity battle situation. Combined with Tendi's talent, the brutality and immorality scares Badgey enough that when the safeties are off, he gives his father a choice: help him take down the empire or face death at his hands. Rutherford immediately goes in for the kill, and the chase begins.

In No Small Parts, Rutherford seemingly convinces Badgey that the Pakleds are the greater evil, but tries to destroy the Cerritos with the Pakled ship, leaving his father to watch. Rutherford tries to detonate the warp core, but Shaxs, really wanting to do it, throws Rutherford into space (where he is beamed away) and detonates the warp core.

Finally, in A Few Badgeys More, Rutherford starts by trying to appeal to Badgey's hatred, which splits off into Mad-gey. He then appeals to the personal benefits Badgey will get, who splits off into profit-ey and is killed by Badgey. Finally, Badgey ascends and has the painful epiphany of how little good there is in the universe. He decides he will destroy the universe and recreate one prime among all the others, but notes the end might not be immediately apparent due to time crap.

1: On another note, my story for mirror D'Vana Tendi is as follows.

The Orions had a strong democratic socialist tradition for a long time until the Terran Empire conquered them. The Alliance later freed them from Terran rule, but did not allow the Orions their governmental tradition. Thus, the Tendi family became the leader of a secret independence movement to return Orion to its former ideals. This resistance continued even after Orion fell back under Terran rule in 2379 as part of the Terran fleet resurgence of the past few years.

With the Tendi family, D'Vana was known as Liberator of the Winter Constellations and was supposed to bring the revolution to a new age. However, she was known to be selfish and impulsive.

This came to a head when the Orion Resistance was going to attempt a major operation in 2380. Feeling it was hopeless, D'Vana made a deal with a Terran agent to sell out her rebellion in return for riches.

Like a true Terran, though, the agent lied, and the ISS Cerritos, assigned there on second plunder, took her and much of the rebellion as slaves... dismally easily.

Her sister, D'Erika, however, escaped and pledged not just to continue the revolutionary cause as the new Liberator of the Winter Constellations, but to get revenge on her double-crossing sister.

Meanwhile on the Cerritos, D'Vana was distributed to Billups. However, Billups preferred to work on improving the destructiveness of the phasers or watch his underlings squeal in the agony booth, so he decided to let Rutherford do whatever the heck he wanted with her. Thus, technically, she is not Rutherford's slave, but Billups, but ends up being forced to spend most of her time on the ship with Rutherford.

As anyone who watched Prodigy knows, the main characters + Chakotay end up on the ISS Voyager A during some accidental multiverse hopping due to time shenanigans.

It could be argued that the mirror universe is just a random variant of it in the multiverse where the Terran Empire is still prominent.

However, I noticed two things: Terran Admiral Janeway refers to the fleet as "The New Terran Fleet", maybe suggesting a success for the Terran rebellion.

This is further supported by the fact that her combadge is the same as (and her uniform plausibly an evolution of) the ones seen in the various IDW mirror universe comics, the earliest of which is from 2017.~1~

The plot of these comics tries to fit in with the info from DS9, revealing (in its own continuity, at least) that the Terran Empire still existed during DS9 but had been reduced to the Sol System, with most people outside it not even realizing it still existed. The comics chronicle the resurgence of the empire and the rise and fall of Picard.

Is it possible that the timeline we see in Prodigy is actually the same mirror universe in DS9 and that the IDW mirror universe comics have been semi-canonized?

1: Coincidentally but not relevant to the question, the ISS Cerritos shown in the holodeck in LD:I, Excretus also uses these badges, but not the typical mirror universe uniforms, although it could be those are just the mirror Cali Class uniforms.

While responding to a comment in a crappost I made on Risa, my mind developed a few thoughts on how Seven was impacted overall.

First of all, here are the facts:

• Seven was assimilated at 6 years old.
• She was in a maturation chamber for 5 years (2350-2355).
• She was in the collective until 2374, when she was 30.

Now, my questions:

• What is 7's biological age? In other words, how far does a Borg drone need to be matured to function in the collective? Equivalent of a 16? 20? 25? How much do Borg age while they are assimilated?
• What are the psychological impacts on Seven's mind, and to what extent are they permanent? To what extent is she emotionally equivalent to a child? Having such a level of isolation from humans would obviously (and clearly did) have a major impact on Seven's mind. However, Seven improves a lot in some senses by Picard. Is it possible that Borg nanoprobes somehow maintain neuroplasticity in a way that allows Seven to be able to adapt in a way a human who have become a ferile child at 6 might not be able to?

Because of his original purpose, it makes sense that the Doctor wouldn’t have held a Starfleet rank during Voyager.

However, in Prodigy, he still doesn’t have pips. This leads to my questions:

• Can a self-aware hologram hold rank or a non-com position in Starfleet?
• If so, how would the Doctor attaib it?

According to the STO wiki, he doesn’t wear them by choice but does have a rank. That might be a reasonable explanation; I can’t imagine Janeway not at least trying to field commission him.

Continued From: https://startrek.website/post/13283869 https://startrek.website/post/14075369

I managed to fix the one biggest gripe about my Thinkpad E16: the RTL8852BE Wi-Fi controller randomly dropping out. I actually found this a few days ago, but I had forgotten where I put the file I had edited. You put a file in modprobe.d called 70-rtw89.conf. Both /etc/modprobe.d/ and /usr/lib/modprobe.d work - I used the latter, but for the sake of conventions, you should probably use the former.

You then put in these options for the rtw89 module: options rtw89_pci disable_clkreq=y disable_aspm_l1=y disable_aspm_l1ss=y

Now, my Thinkpad is a fully functional Linux laptop. I will be docking it to an 8 from my initial score of 8.5, but I'm back to liking it for now. If you apply the fix, be sure to update the firmware as well - some older distros have an old version that works but returns a lot of journalctl error on this card.

Update: What do you know! The updated firmware-realtek just went into backports!

Thanks, https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-oem-6.1/+bug/2017277

I know we've all been crying to ourselves in bed at night over the end of such a wonderful show - me included - so here's a fun little distraction for now.

1. What is your prediction for the plot of the series finale?
2. How much gold-pressed latinum do you bet on it?

I bet 5 strips that it will be a parody/pastiche of the time shenanigans of TNG:"All Good Things" and VOY:"Endgame" where we get to see the futures of each character.

Your turn. Betting closes once the first episodes of the season comes out (in other words, I think you have until 11:59 PM PST on October 23rd to bet, though I could be wrong). I will declare the winner of our imaginary latinum when I've watched the finale.

P.S If it's not too much trouble, since there's still more than a month to season premiere, would you be able to pin this, @ValueSubtracted? It's totally fine if not, but would be convenient due to the long-term nature of this post.

Yesterday, I began watching the 1960s British sci-fi series The Prisoner (first five episodes) and have been quite enjoying it. Much of my enjoyment has been from the fact that it kind of feels like “What if The Cage was a whole series?”

In other words, like “The Cage”, it’s a prison environment in which a person can’t be certain of reality any more. It does diverge in all the torture on number 6, whereas the Talossian’s illusions are less flawed and sadistic a prison in some ways (you know, besides the purpose of breeding a bunch of human slaves). However, I feel like both “The Cage” and The Prisoner overall embody the same “everything might be fake” sense of reality. I almost feel like “The Prisoner” is somewhat a window into what Star Trek might have been if CBS hadn’t thought people would be too dumb to understand “The Cage”.

Besides the similar vibes with “The Cage”, another thing winning me over is the surreal set design, which has already won a place in my heart. I just wish I could make a replica of one of the signs in the village and have it not be so obscure no one would ever recognize it.

The main thing my 21st century brain finds fault with is the strong gender roles used in The Prisoner (there is always some woman that Number 2 sends to try and manipulate Number 6), although like TOS, I’ll give it a pass since it was in the same boat as most television at the time. However, I did like the twist in “Free for All” where Number 58 is revealed to be the real new Number 2.

Here’s a bigger bugbear (than the Vulcan question): how does it all work in Ferengi society?

I’ll split order my post by my pre-Rom and post-Rom thoughts.

Pre-Rom:

• Gay (not Lesbian) Ferengi are probably a normal thing.
• Based on DS9 “Profits and Lace” and Nilva’s reaction to the transitioned Quark, it might be possible that male to female transition, while considered very weird, would be considered fine if you make a sufficiently good female by Ferengi standards, if you know what I mean.
• Conversely, female to male transition probably wouldn’t be accepted, based on the reaction to Pel, although Pel didn’t necessarily actually change her gender identity or get her lobes surgically enlarged. It may be possible that some trans Ferengi existed and simply hid that they weren’t cis, although it’d be more difficult considering the mobility limitations on females. There were probably surgeons on the planet who were like “If you’ve got the Latinum, I’ll totally do it.”
• Overall, I think the sentiment would be, “If you’ve got the lobes and you’ve got the Latinum, I don’t care what you do.”
• For instance, if a non-binary Ferengi made lots of profit, they might not be totally respected, but at least not bothered as much.

Post-Rom:

• Lesbian Ferengi are probably legal but still frowned upon.
• Transitioning either way is probably easier, considering the shift in gender roles as seen by 2381 in Lower Decks.
• Generally, with the Federation membership bid, probably a lot more open but still rife with social issues.

Questions:

• Do Ferengi experience dysphoria when their ears are the wrong size? (Very possibly yes, considering the dysphoria humans can experience from other secondary sex characteristics.)

Original Post: https://startrek.website/post/13283869

Update: Nope, I'm still having the problem. It seems to be an ACPI problem. I found a potential solution, which I will test soon. The issue seems to only occur when using the charger and Bricklink Studio. These seems to be a common issue on Lenovo.

Another update: I fixed it, but I can't remember what I did. I'm having a great experience again. I'll see if I can find the fix for other owners of this laptop.

Update: I remember what I did, and have detailed it and where I found the fix here: https://startrek.website/post/14342770 . You should probably update the firmware for the sake of a clean journalctl, though.

After using this laptop a few weeks, I have one important note. I was having a problem for a while where, usually after waking from sleep, in some rooms my Wi-Fi card would disconnect and I'd have to reboot to get my network connection back. Based on journalctl, it seemed to be some sort of weird firmware error.

I found the fix was to install updated firmware, specifically the version of firmware-realtek from testing, upon which the problem has stopped ocurring. As firmware packages tend to not have a lot of dependencies, I do want to see if I can get a bookwork-backports package uploaded so it's easier to install.

I've often pondered about how Vulcans view gender and sexuality.

I think pre-Surak/logic, they may have demonstrated homophobia and transphobia, but modern Vulcan Society would probably be chill with it under the reasoning that discrimination would reduce a person's efficacy as a functional member of Vulcan Society. For instance, given a choice between allowing a person to contribute verses driving them to the brink of suicide, Vulcans would probably tend to lean towards the first option.

There could very well still be stigma (Vulcans are far from a perfect society; some may have views that it is illogical to have a romantic relationship without a child), but it's dampened by the logic from the previous paragraph.

There's also the Pon Farr to keep in mind. Not only would it be hard to fight a person in the Ponn Farr, but also you'd literally be killing them by trying to prevent expression of their orientation.