July's Trailers

I really like movie trailers. I also like knowing what's coming out in the next month. It's worth my time, y'know? Anyway, to get those lists I use sites like thenumbers.com and RottenTomatoes to get info. If you have any site which does the same for streaming movies, let me know. 

Mr. Malcom's List

It's a romantic comedy. A slightly more modern romantic comedy than most. It's...novel. I'll give it that.

Sometimes the Best Fight Scenes

Aren't fight scenes.

LPL: 1452: Theory

So what is this lock for?

It returns one elapsed time and another elapsed time, presumably to return three time values (E1, E2, and E1-E2).

It's secured and tamper-proof, so it has to change hands.

If the box was going from point A to point B and then back to point A, then why wouldn't A synchronize one clock in the box with their own and send it off? Why not start it with a clock running? That's a three point affair.

The box has to end up in the hands of an authority of some kind instead of a one of the parties. Otherwise, the recipient could tamper with it. The first two points of travel aren't trustworthy.

It's stamped. If was worried about someone making a duplicate box, I would assume they could stamp whatever they wanted on it. It should be one box of many so that we know which is which. But the wristwatches in the design let us know it wasn't mass-produced. This was made for a small operation, like a small business or criminal enterprise.

It's from after the 40's, so it's not prohibition.

The groove and shackle. Why not a switch that JUST starts a clock? Why tamper-proof this box a ton, but leave whatever is being transported outside? On the other hand, why have that long groove at all if the shackle and groove don't serve a purpose? It could be easier to create a long groove than one just long enough for a thin ring to run through it, but let's assume its design is purposeful to its function It seems like something flat and hard would fit under the shackle. Flat so it will fit and hard so that it can't be wriggled out. If it's broken, it's intentional and the 'cargo' tamper-proofs itself. A "flatrod."

---

So the first person creates their flatrod and shackles it into the groove. Technically, this marks when their flatrod is complete and not when they hand it off, but close enough.

The first person hands it to the second, who can look at (most of) one side of the other flatrod and then add their own.

The final product with two running clocks is delivered to an authority who verifies neither of the first people tampered with the device. They then remove the flatrods and compare the clocks inside to determine how long it's been since the second clock was started (delivery time), the difference between the two (second person flatrod generation time), and delivery time from person 1 to person 2 (the remainder of the first clock minus second person's flatrod generation time).

--

The theory is that Person C sends the box to Person A. How long that takes doesn't matter. Person A adds a flatrod to the box and transfers it to Person B. Person B adds their own flatrod (perhaps based on information contained on the back of Person A's flatrod) to the box and sends it to Person C. Person C confirms the box number and monitors the time that the transit took from A to B to them and uses the flatrods.

Sandman is Coming

Look, I like a pale, wiry guy as much as the next gay. Probably more, now that I think about it. However, I never got into Sandman. I tried the book, but it seemed kind of...pretentious? Loose? Maybe there's an impressionist (dare I say 'dreamlike'?) quality to it that isn't to my taste. 

I don't like hard sci-fi as a rule, but I definitely prefer sci-fi over fantasy and I prefer my settings to have rules. What little I saw of Sandman seemed very much a style over setting affair. And also I remember some sexual assault which isn't a deal breaker for me on its own, but it was enough to put down a book I just wasn't into.

Yeah, it's a classic and Neal Gaiman is very talented and I probably just don't get it.

I like Preacher. That is my answer to that statement.

Picard Season 2: Preamble

The thing about Star Trek: Picard season one was that I could describe it to friends--without embellishment--and entertain the room for an hour with just one episode. It was clearly in "so bad it's good" territory. I--

Let me start at the beginning--2015. When CBS Television Studios and Paramount Pictures decided to put Star Trek at the helm of their new TV service. You may remember this from such events as Star Trek: Voyager helming the UPN network. The planned TOS sequel series, Star Trek: Phase II being placed at the helm of the aborted Paramount TV Network of the 70's. 

[As mentioned in the 17 to 01 episode for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, true believers!]

So: Star Trek: Discovery helmed what is now Paramount Plus...Paramount Puss? I'll work on it.

Discovery was fine. I watched some and didn't care. It was like the idea of a Star Trek episode ramped up to 75 RPM and with an action dial turned up to 11. There were a series of things happening that seemed to use acting and music and telling us to create a staccato series of action and emotional beats. Not bad, actually, but not that smart and not for me.

Then they drove a dump truck of money up to Patrick Stewart's house and started making TNG's 30-year-later-sequel, Star Trek: Picard. I may be mistaken, but I recall being promised a show that was slower and more contemplative than Star Trek: Discovery. I was interested.

Barry

 I haven't watched this show, but I've heard good things.

 I like a good fight scene where people get tired.

The BattleMech Equipment Survey: Round 1

Some pieces of Battletech equipment are better than others. Sure, you've got good all-rounders and solid niche equipment, but some stuff just doesn't cut the mustard.

Sure, it's subjective, but I trust the wisdom of the masses on shit like this. I'm always of the opinion that everyone with less [FANDOM] knowledge than I have is a scrub and everyone with more [FANDOM] knowledge is just waaay too into it, but I know I'm full of shit.

So I've prepared a series of polls which ask you, your friends, and anyone else who has a subjective opinion--"In your subjective opinion, which one piece of equipment out of two is better?" I set up a Swiss-Style Tournament and have randomly generated pairings. I considered seeding, but I'm not familiar with a lot of newer equipment. Randomness would be better than a poor seeding.

A few notes:

• All equipment is Inner Sphere, except for Clan-only equipment which is listed as [Clan].
• Groups of equipment are listed as plural while individual equipment is singular. For example, "standard autocannons" includes AC/2's, AC/5's, AC/10's, and AC/20's, while "Heavy Gauss Rifle" includes just the Heavy Gauss Rifle and not the Improved Heavy Gauss Rifle, which is listed separately. There are some exceptions for equipment like Spikes.
• I've included some standard equipment (standard fusion engines, standard heat sinks). On reflection, I think that was a bad idea, but I expect them to land somewhere at the top. There are enough pieces of equipment (about 200) that I don't feel they will either sully the responses or require the addition of other standard equipment (cockpits, gyros). 
• Initial polls were 10 questions long and shared via Reddit. Response was negative so I cut them back to fewer polls of 20 questions to mollify folks who felt negatively about it. That seems to have worked and subsequent posts have been met with more positivity.
  

Polls are below.

Battletech Missile Equations, Part IV

Two weeks ago, I talked about the difficulties of reverse engineering Battletech missiles with linear regression and I posted some examples of the results of some of the regressions. Let me share another set of results

Name Dmg/Msl Cl  Min  SR  MR    LR   Tubes    Tons   Heat  Crits Ammo

SLRM    1   5    0    3    6     9    5         1.5     0    2    33     

LLRM    1   5   10   13   25    38    5         2.5     3    1    14 

LSRM    2   2   10   13   27    40    2         1.0     3    1    17

Somehow, tonnage of a launcher ended up being invariant with range. I added improved one-shot launchers and LRMs with specialty ammunition like dead-fire munitions. I also created flags for non-linear qualities, like being indirect-fire capable, being able to use specialty munitions, and having cluster roll maluses.

Maybe all those duplicate LRM profiles made the ton per tube correlation so strong that the equation didn't give a shit about range. I don't know if that follows since standard LRM 5's and LRM 10's can't manage to hit 2.0 and 5.0 tons like they're supposed to. Those are modeled separately by number of tubes, so you'd expect it to hit right.

One of My Favorite Fight Scenes

I'm 95% sure I've posted this before, but it's so great. The missed shots, the mix of a few clean shots and scuffling. The way they're both sweaty and tired less than two minutes in. A classic.

I'm so glad they never made a sequel to this movie.

The Umbrella Academy Season 3

I enjoyed The Umbrella Academy comic book series enough that I was skeptical about the series.

I enjoyed The Umbrella Academy series' first season enough that I was skeptical about the second season.

I enjoyed The Umbrella Academy series' second season enough that I am still skeptical about the third season.

As always, I'm intrigued by the trailer in spite of myself. 

TUA should be the model folks look at when they're adapting comic books. Well, I guess the Marvel Cinematic Universe should be the model, but TUA should get a sidebar. It has only a passing symbolic resemblance to the original text, but it keeps the concepts and the tone. 

It feels the same without succumbing to idolatry...Star Trek.

We'll see on the 22nd.

Race for the Galaxy is Going Good

The first time I played Race for the Galaxy, it was at a friend's house. He completely sideswiped us with it, we had no idea what was happening, and, IIRC, we all lost. I tried to do a military build because those are usually the simplest.

Poor, silly VanVelding.

Since that night, I was intrigued; had we been hustled? Was this game as terrible as it seemed? I wasn't intrigued enough to actually buy the fucking thing. Gods no. I was just curious.

Until I saw it on Steam. I finally got to play it and I kinda didn't like it. It didn't "taste good"? It just felt bad. I like my games simple and elegant with 'vanilla' game pieces that can have additional complexity later. 

Still One of the Best Star Trek Movies

 I gotta watch this thing.

Battletech Missile Equations, Part III

Analysis

So it's easy for Python to perform linear regression on a set of data and spit out coefficients. So that's the answer, right? Put in the range, damage per missile, cluster size, tonnage, etc. into a computer, plug the numbers that come out in front of new ranges, damages, etc. and enjoy your new, canon-consistent missiles.

That doesn't work for a few reasons:

Negative Coefficients

It turns out that as medium range goes up, the tonnage and crit requirements for the missile drop. I'm not sure why; I think it has something to do with MRMs and Rocket Launchers having a range distribution that doesn't match the 1/2/3 pattern of most weapons. 

Most coefficients for missiles per shot are positive, which means that somehow the more capable a missile is the more of them you can cram into one ton of storage space. 

Those types of effects would be a problem--and they are: a super-light missile system with a 1/20/21 range bracket would be a problem. Fortunately, we're deriving tons/missile tube, crits/missile tube, heat/missile tube, and missiles/ton from our set of data. That means that if we try to min/max one stat with a 'bad' coefficient, the other stats will swing back around and cancel it out.

The Orville: Season 3, aka New Horizons

Guess what comes out today? After three years. It's the third (and final) season of Seth MacFarlane's capable ode to Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Orville.

I think that The Orville 'grew its beard' in episode six, and that beard is a show that's slightly out of phase with TNG, much to my consternation.

Everything that tries to be TNG (including TNG movies) makes me feel like I've got Capgras Syndrome for TV shows; the same look and feel--the lunchbox iconography--but it's something different and hollow behind the eyes. 

I'll be the first to admit it's 50/50 me. Maybe everything trying to be TNG isn't just putting itself up against a TV show from 1987, but also against my own nostalgia. I feel that doing The Beige and The Bold was a good antidote for that. 

I do like shows in the same way I like TNG. But maybe they're better at being the show I imagined TNG was when I look back at it. 

That show is The Good Place, and describing it as "as good as TNG when viewed through nostalgia goggles," is the highest compliment I can think of. Accurate though.

I like The Orville, but I have remembered and forgotten it's coming out about six times since the release date was announced. Say what you will about them, but those Spotify ads work.

Book Club on the Edge of Forever - Stormfront

A few of us decided to start a book club for genre fiction (science fiction/fantasy). And while we were discussing, we thought we'd record it. The podcast is called The Book Club on the Edge of Forever.

The this months selections?

The City and the City by China Miéville (17 points) - Inspector Tyador Borlú, of the Extreme Crime Squad in the fictional East European city-state of Besźel, investigates the murder of Mahalia Geary, a foreign student found dead in a Besźel street with her face disfigured. He soon learns that Geary had been involved in the political and cultural turmoil involving Besźel and its "twin city" of Ul Qoma. His investigations, which start in his home city of Besźel, lead him to Ul Qoma to assist the Ul Qoman police in their work, and eventually result in an examination of the legend of Orciny, a rumoured third city existing in the spaces between Besźel and Ul Qoma.