Counterpoint: you could not have TPM and secure boot requirements that needlessly alienates a large player base of Linux users.

Seeing any em dash in the wild makes me immediately suspicious

I’m going to have to watch the episode again to give it a fair chance, but I think I agree. The characters were acting pretty much exactly like the teenagers you see in a cliche slasher film.

I know that the episode has to happen, but discovering a facility like they did during a dig should have called for a thorough study before proceeding, but they just strolled in. Chapel even gave a sample of her blood to an unknown alien mechanism just to see if the door would open.

Then when they walk in the first thing they should see are a couple of corpses lying on the ground, but it takes them several minutes of wandering around the room before noticing. Scanning the bodies reveals that they died a long time ago of starvation; possibly a hint that they were trapped and sealed in maybe? At this point Spock should have deduced that the door was going to lock.

They also lost contact with the Enterprise pretty much immediately, but with the front door still wide open it doesn’t occur to them that it might be a good idea to set up a comms relay. These are 8 skilled professionals that just waltzed in here without a plan or backup, and then lost contact with their only support and chose to keep going anyway.

And then Gamble, in full view of everybody, and after just hearing the chief of security say not to touch anything, grabs the shiny glowing orange sphere of destiny and holds it up for a good last look.

From here most of the rest of the episode is actually really good. I enjoyed the puzzle of them figuring out that they’re all still in the same room.

I didn’t enjoy so much the explanation that Gamble is brain dead but is somehow still being controlled by a non-corporeal being. If his body is moving around then surely there are still signals in his brain indicating life. I suppose this could be explained by the entity taking control of his lower brain functions only.

And finally I don’t know why they made such a big deal about crossing the invisible bridge to reach the door. After taking a single step the bridge is revealed to be solid, so why couldn’t they have just stuck a toe out or thrown something to see what would happen? Or hold on to Chapel by the arms and carefully lower her down over the edge.

Just so many unnecessary risks taken again and again this entire episode.

In fact Gareth Coker’s soundtracks for Ori are so good, they are one of the few video game OSTs that I’ve bought on vinyl. That and Signals from the Outer Wilds.

Pure magic and they definitely helped make the games.

Immich is a photo/video hosting solution à la Google photos

I adored Moss (mostly for its theme but also for the highly innovative gameplay) but I haven’t had a VR system in some time. This one might be first on my list to buy if I ever get into VR again.

Heyyy relax guy!

The idea behind a ransom is that all parties need to believe with certainty that as long as money is exchanged, then nobody gets hurt. As soon as there’s doubt about getting paid or about being released, then suddenly there’s turmoil for any other party to hold up their end.

If I’m told I need to pay a ransom to get somebody freed but I know they may not be released even after I pay, then I may not pay. So it’s in the captors best interest to always release them upon receiving payment.

Then again we’re dealing with desperate, possibly evil people with no sense of morality and who will never have considered game theory before. Real life is messy.

Is it comfortable in the hand? The surface looks super rough