Mariner asking about the purple carpet of the Enterprise D also references a somewhat vulgar saying about women.

Then he shouldn’t have asked a question if he isn’t open for answers. If an answer is obviously wrong or dismissive of some important detail I would understand it. But if the complaint is It’s not a one-click-fix or I don’t understand what you’re talking about then that’s the best way of not learning anything and not solving the problem.

On Android you have to disable the use of Private DNS (or something like that) in the WiFi settings. If this is enabled it will not use your WiFi’s broadcast DNS, but a predefined one. The reasoning behind this (you can believe this or not) is so that on public WiFis your DNS queries cannot be tracked or manipulated by setting up a local DNS.

I can imagine there is something similar for iOS.

If this only affects some apps then they have decided to hardcore their DNS servers. The only thing you can do now is to identify these and block the calls, but this may also break other stuff if the servers are not only used to resolve ad URLs.

First of all: you don’t have to like it.

I agree with you that the first chapters are confusing and overwhelming, but as others have already said this is deliberate. The storylines converge later on which makes it easier to follow what’s happening. In my experience the book handles it very well to balance its sci-fi themes with a compelling story you want to follow.

According to Steam the top 3 are:

1. Oxygen not included
2. Civilization 5
3. Factorio

But that of course does not include the games not running from Steam and pre-Steam games. So World of Warcraft is somewhere in there too. And the final Top 1 must be Transport Tycoon Deluxe (even if you don’t include OpenTTD).

Because you can game it?

There are several guides on what episode can / should / mustn’t be skipped.

Let’s watch Star Trek has it for every classic show: https://www.letswatchstartrek.com/tng-episode-guide/

But there are of course other guides and as they’re subjective ratings you might want to give episodes a chance even if others didn’t like them.

My main advice is: Don’t be afraid to skip an episode if you watch it and you don’t like it. Especially the early seasons of TNG, DS9 and Voyager have some episodes which can easily be skipped. You won’t lose any context.

I can see what Jadzia liked about them…

Who said they were contacted by Starfleet? They could have known about his opportunity by any means and were just the first to take it? A normal thing for a free looting based economy…

They are hiring them to handle the disposition of unneeded tokens of currency. I don’t see how that violates the prime directive…

I believe kill is the wrong verb…

Considering the name you may need to use a negative exposure time on your camera. 🩶🕑

Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.playstack.balatro.android

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/balatro/id6502453075

I started playing it last year because my nephew wanted someone to play (apart from his friends at school). I kept playing it on a regular basis (I had bought the base game years ago, but have not paid anything since). I enjoy the colorful graphics which run fine even on my 10+ old gaming PC. Some rounds are short and you’re dead within minutes but often I reach top ten, but even then the rounds aren’t taking that long (20 to 30 minutes), which is something I like about the game, because I barely take the time to have hour-long gaming sessions any more. Despite its looks skill makes a difference when it comes to aiming and movement (most special weapons are movement skills). I mostly play the no building mode because I can’t manage shooting and building at the same time.

Are the two of them so different that it would matter?

Quake 3 Arena, but only if the tournament lasts no longer than 15 minutes. My heart can’t take more…

I can imagine the sandworm ride was a blast on the big screen and with the big speakers. I haven’t felt so much being blown into my seat since Fury Road…

I remember as a kid that the main thing I liked about the game was that there was a pogo stick in it. Me and my brothers played it a lot. It was only in the last years I learned that it was also a technical masterpiece.

Commander Keen (1990) on Steam