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Her career was basically over... she never was very funny to begin with other than just being a fat, obnoxious clown. This is just another ploy to call attention to herself. Rosie, you are a washed-up has-been give it up. Nobody cares. Try to find some constructive outlet and live your life.

Why aren’t the usual suspects calling Donald Jr. a Puty Lover and accusing him of being on the Russian payroll? Of course, Hunter was giving a percentage of his ill-gotten gain from corrupt Ukrainian leadership which actually came from US taxpayers back to the “big guy”. Yet our all-knowing Zeepers still worship the corrupt ground under Hunter and the Big Guy, along with their idiotic policies.

People like the Bidens and their buddies view a conflict such as this one, as the perfect opportunity to pull in $100s of Billions of unaccounted funds into their coffers. None of this is what it seems and because of the way the reactions to this have shifted the world economic system to the point where BRICS now controls more assets and trade than G7... it is going to cost us far more than the $100s of Billions spent directly on this lunacy.

It bears repeating that if President Trump had not been cheated in the 2020 election, none of this would have happened.

Ok, I figured it out! V-ger = Voyager.

The unforgettable Harry Mudd bringing babes to a mining planet to be miners’ wives.

Now that one rings a bell. As far as civilians go.. I can remember encounters with government officials on other planets as well as the OK Corral episode and one with them on earth in the 1930s. I am pretty sure that I have seen all the episodes from the original series but that was all decades ago.

For whatever reason my wife has mostly prevented me from watching much Star Trek from any time period for the past 35 years. So, I am just not that familiar these days with the lingo. But by the 60s Hollywood had already hired a bunch of writers who were young socialists, so I am sure whatever point you were making is completely valid.

I assumed that there was some type of joke associated with your post. I further assume that ST stands for Star Trek and TOS stands for The Original Series. But I am not familiar with V’ger and do not know what that means. So, I still am not sure what you are referring to.

As far as jobs go... it is supposed to be like an aircraft carrier that travels to different parts of the universe. The original Star Trek mission was the five-year mission of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), focused on exploring strange new worlds, seeking out new life and new civilizations, and boldly going where no man has gone before. How many civilian jobs do you find on an aircraft carrier?

They took V’ger and turned it into a super successful Bitcoin mining operation. Result wealth for all! That’s why no one has a job in the Star Trek universe.

You would have to explain your post to me, because I have no idea what you are even referring to.

My next-door neighbor is a software engineer for Amazon; he spent a bunch of money on a small crypto-mining operation that he had in his garage before he moved here. He said he made enough money to get back his initial investment, but that was about it. He sold most of his equipment on eBay before moving here.

That type of work not only is hard on computer equipment, and costs a lot for power... it has to be updated fairly frequently to stay competitive

Speaking of Star Trek....

I totally love it. It is a good example of the way you can come up with an idea and turn it into something that other people can enjoy with comparably little expense or effort.

I purchased my first software AI tool in the late 1990s. It was contained on several 3.5” floppies. I cannot recall what exactly it was called, but I almost never throw old software packaging away. It probably already has collector value, so I am going to find it someday soon.

One of the real value of AI tools these days is that depending on the model that you are using and the platform it has the ability to recall your previous discussions. So, you don't have to keep rehashing the same points. This is especially true if you are running models locally (on your own computer equipment).

I really enjoy using song writing, along with video and audio creation AI models. It is astounding how much the tools can expand your own creative desires that have not been exploited for decades. It allows one to go in completely different directions than you did not realize were even possible previously.

Here is an example of a silly prompt that I started with that actually resulted in several very amusing and actually pleasant-sounding songs when input into Suno AI.

“Theme song for large cuddly Teddy the ginger Siberian Tomcat's YouTube channel which covers his amazing adventures as a small-town western Sherrif fighting criminal racoons and coyotes. With slow laid-back whistling, harmonica and banjo in a folk style ballad with soft low 40s style tenor male and alto female harmonized trio vocals similar to an old black and white tv series.”

Here is one of the songs that came from this with a little tweaking:

https://teddycat.fun/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Teddy-the-Ginger-Sheriff.mp3

Will it make money or be found entertaining by others, probably not. But yet it seems amazing to me how you come up with prompts that produce songs that come close to what you initially imagined and then sculpt them into something that is pretty entertaining. The process and the use of your own imagination is what I find so interesting.

These were my only words in this thread up until your idiotic comment.

“After spending 25 years responding to idiots who have destroyed their health with frequent pot use... I have learned that mentioning the crap that I saw goes in one ear and out the other of the potheads who post here.”

“But believe it or not even in a society that basically worships alcohol use, habitual consumption, smoking or vaping marijuana is somehow a bigger threat to most peoples’ health than pickling your brain with alcohol.”

“Why? Hell, if I know, but it is the God’s honest truth.”

I am curious. What about that post triggered your delicate sensitivities?

I hope there are consequences for you, in this life and the next.

There are... and I can guarantee that you are in deep trouble you nasty little lout.

I doubt that, but to the extent that this is even a real syndrome and not some made-up BS, I would imagine one would have to ingest a ridiculous amount of cannabis to achieve this.

After spending 25 years responding to idiots who have destroyed their health with frequent pot use... I have learned that mentioning the crap that I saw goes in one ear and out the other of the potheads who post here.

But believe it or not even in a society that basically worships alcohol use, habitual consumption, smoking or vaping marijuana is somehow a bigger threat to most peoples’ health than pickling your brain with alcohol.

Why? Hell, if I know, but it is the God's honest truth.

Ugh. I have absolutely no use for AI. It can't be trusted.

I am going to have to make a confession here... This is completely my fault along with millions of other people and businesses who have learned how to use AI for fun and to a much more limited extent... profit.

I even bought a very capable mini-PC that I use as an AI model server over my local network and I have been shopping around to get the best deal on remote VPS server time and storage space. Why, because AI is friggin’ amazing once you start to learn about all the possibilities.

One of my favorite past times is throwing prompts at Suno AI which generates your own music in basically any genre that to me is more fun to listen to than the crap that is shoved down our throats by the music industry day after day. Artists my butt. I would rather listen to my own music that Taylor Swift, or worse. I forget the exact numbers, but I believe that Suno generates 800,000 songs a day. I even put up a website with the songs that I generated about my cat! Totally for fun, and of basically no interest to anyone other than myself...

https://teddycat.fun/

But you are right you can't trust the results you first get back from AI, but berating the AI models after they give you bad info is half the fun.

Your witty and sagacious response is what we have all come to expect from your brilliant intellect.

Surprised all you Russian bots who blame everyone but Putin are still getting paid to tell lies and attack those who are defending themselves from Russian Invasion...

Trump wants to end the war regardless of the future consequences of rewarding Putin's aggression. Europe does not agree, as it remembers the lessons of giving Hitler the Sudetenland. Appeasement encourages further aggression.

Putin invaded mostly because European leadership long with Biden were projecting nothing but weakness and ham-handed and self-serving corrupt idiocy. Now you believe that Europeans are somehow wiser than President Trump who projects strength and power? None of this would have happened if President Trump had not been cheated out of the presidency, by the same group that is basically responsible for setting up the factors which resulted in a war which has already basically killed or maimed most of Ukraine's young men and destroyed the country. I love to hear wishy washy mealy-mouthed apologists Euro-weenie homo trash which are letting their countries be over-run by Muslim invaders imply that they have more insight than President Trump.

This group should take this line of BS somewhere else; it is not flying here these days.

I didn’t mean to hit a nerve or start an argument. And I apologize for using the money wasted on a botched foreign policy initiative that never would have occurred if President Trump had still been in power as an example. I completely agree that innovation from the private sector is much more cost effective than letting government bureaucrats pick the winners and losers in any situation.

The scale is what I was referring to... the entire civilian drone market in the US represents about $3.5 Billion. This is a drop in the bucket compared to the money spent by the government for the military, foreign affairs, social programs, or even focused interests such as Medicaid for illegal immigrants which currently costs more than $4 Billion a year. (Please disregard this example if it causes you similar distress to my example of wasted expenditures in Ukraine.)

Is the government capable of wasting far more than the $3.5 Billion currently spent on drones in the private sector; it is not only possible it is very likely. I think we are in agreement on that as well.

But I doubt that the American companies which successfully lobbied to get DJI kicked out of the US drone market actually have plans to spend large sums on R&D which would be helpful to the military. And the hobbyists who build their own drones almost completely from parts that come from China or other countries are not likely to be a source of useful R&D for the military as well.

So, I tend to disagree with your assessment... “For us, here in these United States, developing a truly domestic infrastructure to build drones is now a matter of national security. Urgently so. In order for it to be something other than a ridiculously expensive, not very effective, boondoggle the infrastructure will have to primarily support civilian hobby and business users.” It is wishful thinking that hobbyists and business users will be able to support much of anything that will result in a newly created infrastructure used to create domestically produced drones. Government regulation is already taking its toll on drone users of all types. Increasing the expense by several times will change the equation for most to the point that this country will have much smaller segment of the population which will have any interest in drones... business or private.

The camera creates beautiful video. Usually all I do is bump up the chroma and pedestal levels to suit me.

And I love the links to video that you have shared with me over the years... You might think about posting a link or two in this thread?

My most recent DJI acquisitions were an Avata 2 Fly More Kit, and a DJI Mini 5 Pro Fly More Kit. I assume that these will be the last DJI drones that I will be buying for a long while. The shortage that is already starting to take hold has increased the value of both by $hundreds since I purchased them.

In order for it to be something other than a ridiculously expensive, not very effective, boondoggle the infrastructure will have to primarily support civilian hobby and business users. That's where the real innovation comes from.

I do not have any idea whether that is an accurate assessment or not. According to Grok, “DJI makes about $2.8 billion from the U.S. drone market based on its 80% market share and the total U.S. drone market revenue estimated at $3.5 billion in 2024.”

That sounds like a lot, but when you consider that the US budget is now approximately $7 Trillion a year, or that $100s of Billions were spent on the Democrat/Ukrainian money laundering boondoggle... $2.8 Billion seems like a drop in the bucket.

I have a DJI Mini 4 Pro but...

Yes, I have one as well, but you don't have to crash it to cause it not work well enough to be useful. If you do not properly store and maintain your batteries, they will become useless within two or three years. 3rd party batteries tend to have very poor reputations, and what if you damage the camera or gimbal. The supply of repair parts will be extremely restricted, which translates to expensive.

A person with certain skills can build a very good multi-copter drone from openly available parts.

This is only partially true at this time. Currently when one assembles drones from parts here you have two choices, digital or analog. An analog drone has inferior video quality transmitted back to the controller and you use the drone to carry around a high-quality action camera like a Go-Pro, Insta360, or others if you need high quality video or pictures. Most of the components still come from China. I have gone this route in the past.

If you decide to go digital your choices are much more limited with the vast majority of people currently purchasing the DJI O4 Air Unit Series with a camera. What you end up with is something that is basically a customized drone built to your own specifications which likely will be meant to be superior to a DJI drone for the purpose that you intend for it. This option will likely no longer be available after the “ban”.

The biggest problems with either approach for most people is that they do not have the skills or knowledge to do this; and the drone and additional equipment needed typically added up to more than what a fully assembled DJI drone with similar capabilities costs. But if you wanted a customized drone for specialized applications this was the way to do it. There are also a couple of firms who specialize in producing kits and completed drones like the ones that hobbyists put together. There are American companies who are big donors to key politicians who are hoping to take advantage of knocking DJI out of the market. DJI produces around 75% to 90% of the drones which are more than toys sold in the US. The companies which are hoping to take advantage of the vacuum created in the consumer market have not cared a great deal about drones which are under $1000.

The vast majority of the drones that will be sold in this segment of the consumer market will still be manufactured abroad. Many of them will likely be assembled from parts manufactured by DJI. Some will merely be shell companies operated by DJI affiliates. The same is true of companies wanting to sell drones in this segment of the market which are assembled in the US. WE do not currently have the infrastructure to supply the parts needed.