Checking My Predictions About Clinton’s Health

In a blog post I wrote on December 27th, 2015, I said this…

Bonus Thought 1: One of the skills a hypnotist has to master is reading people’s inner thoughts based on their body language. That’s a common skill for people in the business world too, but hypnotists go deeper than looking at crossed arms and furrowed brows. We learn to look for subtle changes in breathing patterns, tiny changes in muscle tone, variations in skin color (blushing or not), word choice, pupil dilation, and more. I assume law enforcement people look for similar tells when doing interrogations.

As regular readers know, I’m a trained hypnotist. And to me, Hillary Clinton looks as if she is hiding a major health issue. If you read Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Blink, you know that so-called “experts” can sometimes instantly make decisions before they know why. In my case, I am going to make an “expert” hypnotist prediction about Hillary Clinton without knowing exactly which clues I am picking up, or whether I am hallucinating them.

Prediction: I’ll put the odds at 75% that we learn of an important Clinton health issue before the general election. That estimate is based on my own track record of guessing things about people without the benefit of knowing why. I think Trump is picking up the same vibe. He has already questioned Clinton’s “stamina.”

On December 29th, 2015 I blogged that Trump would be seen as “running unopposed” before election day. I mentioned Clinton’s health as a possible reason.

While I’m on the topic, I’ll add another prediction to the Master Persuader series. I predict that by the time Trump is in the general election and running against Clinton, you will start hearing that Trump (Lucky Hitler) is – for all practical purposes – “running unopposed” as Clinton’s poll numbers plummet.

That can happen in a variety of ways. One way is if Clinton’s health or legal issues rise to the point of being disqualifying, and Trump persuades us to think about those things more than we think about anything else. Once you imagine there is one candidate in the race who is eligible and one who might not survive the term, or might be in jail, you start to imagine it as a one-person race.

And you will. That’s how you get a landslide.

Look for the words “running unopposed” in pundit articles and quotes within a few months of election day. And it still counts if it started here, because it won’t catch on unless it actually fits.

On April 29th of 2016 I expanded on the thought in this post.

I have blogged and tweeted that Hillary Clinton looks unhealthy to me. And I have mentioned on Twitter that one of the skills of a hypnotist is identifying subtle bodily changes. Observation is a huge part of a hypnotist’s skill. You look for micro changes in muscle tone, breathing, posture, and anything else that can tell you whether your technique is working or you need to quickly pivot to a new approach. Think of it as rapid A-B testing on humans. And like any skill, one gets better with practice. I have more than three decades of practice for this specific skill.

What I see in Clinton’s health is an unusual level of variability. Sometimes her eyes bug out, sometimes they are tired and baggy. Sometimes she looks puffy, sometimes not. It would be easy to assume fatigue is the important variable. And that is clearly a big factor. But notice that the other candidates have little variability in their physicality. Trump always looks like Trump. Cruz always looks like Cruz, and so on. Sometimes we think we can detect fatigue in their answers, but visually the other candidates appear about the same every day.

Clinton, on the other hand, looks like an entirely different person every few days. That suggests some greater variability in her health. And that’s probably a tell for medications that are waxing and waning but rarely at the ideal levels. Or perhaps the underlying conditions have normal variability. Or both.

Under normal circumstances it would be deeply irresponsible for a cartoonist to give a medical diagnosis to a stranger he hasn’t met. I trust you to ignore my medical opinions. I do this to build a record of my persuasion-related predictions and to show you the method.

I give Clinton a 50% chance of making it to November with sufficiently good health to be considered a viable president. Judging from her performance on the campaign trail, she is managing her health effectively to get the job done. But I would think most people who run for president end up sacrificing their health in some measure. The big question is how much buffer she has left.

To be clear, there is no dependable evidence of Clinton having an undisclosed major health issue. But it looks that way to observers.

via Scott Adams’ Blog
Checking My Predictions About Clinton’s Health

Five lessons for founders

Fundraising is something all of us as entrepreneurs worry about constantly and discuss pretty much whenever we meet.

A lot of people think you should meet for the first time with a VC or a potential investor with your pitch in hand, ready to start the process. I disagree.

Raise Long Before You Raise

Scrap around and find a way to get warm intros early. It’s like picking a partner for anything important – tapping into your network and doing your homework on who is interested in your space, who’s actually insightful in the space and good to work with, means you’ll have a lay of the land before you desperately need money.

Why would they want to meet with you? Well, figure out what you know about the industry that’s interesting to them, what’s intrinsic to their portfolio companies, and make that the hook. Once they understand your capabilities, you’ve started the process.

Like any relationship, it takes some care and nurturing, but it’s worth it, because the relationship sets the foundation for them to take that leap of faith when you’re bringing them an idea to fund. Even if they’re interested in the space and the product is intriguing, the leap of faith is team x product x market.

It’s not additive, it’s multiplicative and if any of them are zero, it takes the entire equation down to zero. So, especially in this anemic macro-economic environment, it’s a lot less risky for them if they feel like they already have a sense of the team.

If you know them before you take money from them, it’s good after the money hits the bank too. You start with higher credibility and a better understanding of one another’s working styles before the first board meeting. You have a more acute understanding of their beliefs around the space and there’s a foundation of trust and benefit of the doubt in the face of any conflicts.

In short, if they know you and trust you, they’ll be a lot more open to your ideas after the funding hits and a lot more likely to make that leap and write you the check in the first place. It’s not rocket science, but it does take a good amount of elbow grease up front and a substantial amount of prep and time.

Fire Faster

I have yet to hear a CEO or founder say they regret firing someone too quickly. Seriously. We have a rough rule of thumb – if there’s a team member I’ve had a conversation five or more times in about the span of a month (and that includes other people coming and giving feedback, me having discussions on what to do for them with co-founders, etc), we know we have a serious problem.

The worst thing we can do is let that problem fester. We know we either have to resolve it fast, or let the person go.

There are a hundred reasons we wait too long. It’s the part of my job that I hate the most. I hate it so much it triggers a physical reaction for me. I know and care about every single member of our team. I know about their sick parent, their spouse that’s having trouble finding a job, all of it, and I take all of it home with me.

The decision to let someone go is never made lightly and it always costs something emotionally. The key indicator for me is if thoughts of the situation or person come flooding in right before bed or right when I get up, I already know what needs to be done, I just don’t want to do it. But that’s exactly when the team needs me to suck it up and get it done for them.

Walk and Talk

I get 6-8 miles a day by walking during my one-to-ones and pacing during calls. Headsets are a great thing. This is most of my exercise for the week, and my doctor says I’ve never been in better cardiovascular shape. Seriously, my resting heart rate is in the low 60’s now!

But, the biggest benefit is that people feel more free to talk about the hard things if you’re not sitting across the table, staring at them. If I really want to hear what someone thinks, I’ll ask them to walk with me.

Now the whole team does this with one another and it’s become part of our culture. I also think people have better ideas when they’re walking and the blood is flowing. I find that walking side-by-side, facing the same direction, it has the effect of making it feel more like we’re solving a problem together, or that the solution or idea is ours as opposed to mine or theirs.

The Hidden Benefits of Your Advisory Board

Most people think of an advisory board as just advising on functional areas along with some strategy. Of course, we’ve included domain experts to help us in areas where we need it – and there are plenty of those – but there are less obvious benefits to an advisory board, too.

The first is recruiting. The referral aspect of this is obvious, as advisors all have their own extensive networks. The bigger bonus is having them help you close on a candidate you really want. From the candidate’s point of view, they’re more objective than an employee or an investor in the company. They’re also a great conduit for ongoing correspondence with the candidate after you’ve made the offer.

You can have contact with a potential hire every 24-48 hours without making them feel like someone from the company is bugging them or pressuring them to make a decision.

The second benefit is on the fundraising side. Every investor has people that influence their opinions and if some of your advisors happen to be those people… That they’re willing to go to bat for you and support you is a massive reputational benefit, which is something that can’t be overstated when you’re asking a person to make that leap of faith. The third benefit is that they’re usually more than happy to spread the word when you go to press, a time when it’s important that all the talking doesn’t come from you. You need as many different types of advocates as you can get. The right group of advisors is chomping at the bit and raring to go at press time.

Don’t Discount the Kitchen Cabinet

There’s only one CEO but there are a lot of team members. There are days where you give and give and end up feeling a little emotionally tapped out.

That’s where my ladies come in, my Kitchen Cabinet. It’s a group of women that acts as an unofficial group of advisors. It’s really a safe place where we understand each other and have permission to be be vulnerable.

Problems become a lot less scary when you can talk them through. We’re available to each other by phone pretty much anytime and we get together for slumber parties once a quarter. We spend a whole day and night just kicking back. We eat, drink, talk, and decompress. We support each other.

These get-togethers aren’t just a couple of hours of light conversation – having a large chunk of time to relax into means you can really get into things and help each other.

I’d urge you to pick a handful of savvy, awesome, and trustworthy women you feel would gel together, kick your significant other and/or kids out of the house for a night, and slumber party it. Spending a day and night away is big investment but it has a massive payoff from an energy and happiness perspective.

Featured Image: a-image/Shutterstock

via TechCrunch
Five lessons for founders

Basic Housekeeping for MySQL Indexes

MySQL Indexes

MySQL IndexesIn this blog post, we’ll look at some of the basic housekeeping steps for MySQL indexes.

We all know that indexes can be the difference between a high-performance database and a bad/slow/painful query ride. It’s a critical part that needs deserves some housekeeping once in a while. So, what should you check? In no particular order, here are some things to look at:

1. Unused indexes

With sys schema, is pretty easy to find unused indexes: use the schema_unused_indexes view.

mysql> select * from sys.schema_unused_indexes;
+---------------+-----------------+-------------+
| object_schema | object_name     | index_name  |
+---------------+-----------------+-------------+
| world         | City            | CountryCode |
| world         | CountryLanguage | CountryCode |
+---------------+-----------------+-------------+
2 rows in set (0.01 sec)

This view is based on the performance_schema.table_io_waits_summary_by_index_usage table, which will require enabling the Performance Schema, the events_waits_current consumer and the wait/io/table/sql/handler instrument. PRIMARY (key) indexes are ignored.

If you don’t have them enabled, just execute these queries:

update performance_schema.setup_consumers set enabled = 'yes' where name = 'events_waits_current';
update performance_schema.setup_instruments set enabled = 'yes' where name = 'wait/io/table/sql/handler';

Quoting the documentation:

“To trust whether the data from this view is representative of your workload, you should ensure that the server has been up for a representative amount of time before using it.”

And by representative amount, I mean representative: 

  • Do you have a weekly job? Wait at least one week
  • Do you have monthly reports? Wait at least one month
  • Don’t rush!

Once you’ve found unused indexes, remove them.

2. Duplicated indexes

You have two options here:

  • pt-duplicate-key-checker
  • the schema_redundant_indexes view from sys_schema

The pt-duplicate-key-checker is part of Percona Toolkit. The basic usage is pretty straightforward:

[root@e51d333b1fbe mysql-sys]# pt-duplicate-key-checker
# ########################################################################
# world.CountryLanguage
# ########################################################################
# CountryCode is a left-prefix of PRIMARY
# Key definitions:
#   KEY `CountryCode` (`CountryCode`),
#   PRIMARY KEY (`CountryCode`,`Language`),
# Column types:
#      	  `countrycode` char(3) not null default ''
#      	  `language` char(30) not null default ''
# To remove this duplicate index, execute:
ALTER TABLE `world`.`CountryLanguage` DROP INDEX `CountryCode`;
# ########################################################################
# Summary of indexes
# ########################################################################
# Size Duplicate Indexes   2952
# Total Duplicate Indexes  1
# Total Indexes            37

Now, the schema_redundant_indexes view is also easy to use once you have sys schema installed. The difference is that it is based on the information_schema.statistics table:

mysql> select * from schema_redundant_indexesG
*************************** 1. row ***************************
              table_schema: world
                table_name: CountryLanguage
      redundant_index_name: CountryCode
   redundant_index_columns: CountryCode
redundant_index_non_unique: 1
       dominant_index_name: PRIMARY
    dominant_index_columns: CountryCode,Language
 dominant_index_non_unique: 0
            subpart_exists: 0
            sql_drop_index: ALTER TABLE `world`.`CountryLanguage` DROP INDEX `CountryCode`
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

Again, once you find the redundant index, remove it.

3. Potentially missing indexes

The statements summary tables from the performance schema have several interesting fields. For our case, two of them are pretty important: NO_INDEX_USED (means that the statement performed a table scan without using an index) and NO_GOOD_INDEX_USED (“1” if the server found no good index to use for the statement, “0” otherwise).

Sys schema has one view that is based on the performance_schema.events_statements_summary_by_digest table, and is useful for this purpose: statements_with_full_table_scans, which lists all normalized statements that have done a table scan.

For example:

mysql> select * from world.CountryLanguage where isOfficial = 'F';
55a208785be7a5beca68b147c58fe634  -
746 rows in set (0.00 sec)
mysql> select * from statements_with_full_table_scansG
*************************** 1. row ***************************
                   query: SELECT * FROM `world` . `Count ... guage` WHERE `isOfficial` = ?
                      db: world
              exec_count: 1
           total_latency: 739.87 us
     no_index_used_count: 1
no_good_index_used_count: 0
       no_index_used_pct: 100
               rows_sent: 746
           rows_examined: 984
           rows_sent_avg: 746
       rows_examined_avg: 984
              first_seen: 2016-09-05 19:51:31
               last_seen: 2016-09-05 19:51:31
                  digest: aa637cf0867616c591251fac39e23261
1 row in set (0.01 sec)

The above query doesn’t use an index because there was no good index to use, and thus was reported. See the explain output:

mysql> explain select * from world.CountryLanguage where isOfficial = 'F'G
*************************** 1. row ***************************
           id: 1
  select_type: SIMPLE
        table: CountryLanguage
         type: ALL
possible_keys: NULL
          key: NULL
      key_len: NULL
          ref: NULL
         rows: 984
        Extra: Using where

Note that the “query” field reports the query digest (more like a fingerprint) instead of the actual query.

In this case, the CountryLanguage table is missing an index over the “isOfficial” field. It is your job to decide whether it is worth it to add the index or not.

4. Multiple column indexes order

It was explained before that Multiple Column index beats Index Merge in all cases when such index can be used, even when sometimes you might have to use index hints to make it work.

But when using them, don’t forget that the order matters. MySQL will only use a multi-column index if at least one value is specified for the first column in the index.

For example, consider this table:

mysql> show create table CountryLanguageG
*************************** 1. row ***************************
       Table: CountryLanguage
Create Table: CREATE TABLE `CountryLanguage` (
  `CountryCode` char(3) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
  `Language` char(30) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
  `IsOfficial` enum('T','F') NOT NULL DEFAULT 'F',
  `Percentage` float(4,1) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0.0',
  PRIMARY KEY (`CountryCode`,`Language`),
  KEY `CountryCode` (`CountryCode`),
  CONSTRAINT `countryLanguage_ibfk_1` FOREIGN KEY (`CountryCode`) REFERENCES `Country` (`Code`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1

A query against the field “Language” won’t use an index:

mysql> explain select * from CountryLanguage where Language = 'English'G
*************************** 1. row ***************************
           id: 1
  select_type: SIMPLE
        table: CountryLanguage
         type: ALL
possible_keys: NULL
          key: NULL
      key_len: NULL
          ref: NULL
         rows: 984
        Extra: Using where

Simply because it is not the leftmost prefix for the Primary Key. If we add the “CountryCode” field, now the index will be used:

mysql> explain select * from CountryLanguage where Language = 'English' and CountryCode = 'CAN'G
*************************** 1. row ***************************
           id: 1
  select_type: SIMPLE
        table: CountryLanguage
         type: const
possible_keys: PRIMARY,CountryCode
          key: PRIMARY
      key_len: 33
          ref: const,const
         rows: 1
        Extra: NULL

Now, you’ll have to also consider the selectivity of the fields involved. Which is the preferred order?

In this case, the “Language” field has a higher selectivity than “CountryCode”:

mysql> select count(distinct CountryCode)/count(*), count(distinct Language)/count(*) from CountryLanguage;
+--------------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
| count(distinct CountryCode)/count(*) | count(distinct Language)/count(*) |
+--------------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
|                               0.2368 |                            0.4644 |
+--------------------------------------+-----------------------------------+

So in this case, if we create a multi-column index, the preferred order will be (Language, CountryCode).

Placing the most selective columns first is a good idea when there is no sorting or grouping to consider, and thus the purpose of the index is only to optimize where lookups. You might need to choose the column order, so that it’s as selective as possible for the queries that you’ll run most.

Now, is this good enough? Not really. What about special cases where the table doesn’t have an even distribution? When a single value is present way more times than all the others? In that case, no index will be good enough. Be careful not to assume that average-case performance is representative of special-case performance. Special cases can wreck performance for the whole application.

In conclusion, we depend heavily on proper indexes. Give them some love and care once in a while, and the database will be very grateful.

All the examples were done with the following MySQL and Sys Schema version:

mysql> select * from sys.version;
+-------------+-----------------+
| sys_version | mysql_version   |
+-------------+-----------------+
| 1.5.1       | 5.6.31-77.0-log |
+-------------+-----------------+

via MySQL Performance Blog
Basic Housekeeping for MySQL Indexes

Understanding the Law of Patience in the Innovation Cycle

As humans, we naturally lack patience. This is even more true when it comes to innovation. We picture great innovations in our mind and we launch into those projects brimming with excitement and enthusiasm. But as the project wears on, the sparkle of a new idea starts to fade, and the pressures of deadlines, budgets, […]
via Phil McKinney | Virtual Innovation Coach and Mentor
Understanding the Law of Patience in the Innovation Cycle

The Easy Way to Catch Up on 50 Years of Star Trek

Star Trek is big. Like, really big. There have been six TV series


A Beginner’s Guide to the Star Trek Franchise




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Most people know about Captain Kirk, Spock, and the Starship Enterprise. But beyond that, how much do you know about the Star Trek franchise? Our beginner’s guide answers all of your questions.
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totaling more than 700 episodes, 13 movies, and a whole host of companion novels, comics, and video games. Which all adds up to more Star Trek than you could hope to get through in years of hardcore binge-watching


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.

In spite of, or more likely because of, this ridiculously large universe, Star Trek remains a hugely important cultural icon. It has inspired dozens of other science fiction movies


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, some great sci-fi television shows


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, and countless ludicrous online debates


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There are three topics that should never be discussed at the dinner table: religion, politics, and the relative merits of Star Trek and Star Wars. Luckily for us, MakeUseOf isn’t a dinner table.
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between nerds.

If you’ve never watched Star Trek before, or have just caught some of the recent movies or old episodes in syndication, it can be hard to know where to begin. Today, in honor of Star Trek‘s 50th anniversary, let’s look at some of the ways you can get up to speed.

The Completist

For the completist, there’s only one way to do Star Trek: start at the beginning and work your way through everything (except the Animated Series, even Gene Roddenberry disowned that). If you really want to get your uber-nerd membership card you’re going to need to watch every minute that’s been broadcast on TV or screened in a cinema. The best viewing order for the completist is:

That IS a hell of a lot of content, but it will give you the complete Star Trek experience. It’s not in a strictly chronological order (Star Trek: Enterprise is a prequel set before The Original Series, and The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine overlapped for a while) but it’s near enough to it that you’ll see the development of the universe.

If you’re serious, go ahead and dedicate several years of your life to getting through it all! However, for most people, the completist order is a pretty bad fit. Star Trek is great, but it’s not “lose all your friends and disregard personal hygiene” great.

Thankfully there is an alternative way of plowing through 50 years of Star Trek, which we have outlined for you below.

The Alternative

The best way to watch Star Trek in any reasonable amount of time is to skip huge chunks of it. And by huge chunks, I’m talking complete series and runs of episodes. This viewing order might prove controversial (realistically, it will prove controversial) but let’s take a look at what parts of Star Trek are truly unmissable.

The Original Series

First off, skip The Original Series. Yes, that’s right, skip the one that started it all. No Kirk, no Spock, no Bones. It’s all skippable. I know it’s a bold claim but hear me out.

When The Original Series was being broadcast it wasn’t the cultural monster we know today; it was just another TV show competing for air time. Although Roddenberry was a visionary and had very definite views on how Utopian the future would be, the network had other ideas. He had to make compromises to get his show on TV. These compromises show.

The Original Series also doesn’t hold up very well. It’s a product of the swinging 60s and is about as cheesy as it gets. The various human-shaped-body-but-with-bad-prosthetics-stuck-to-their-faces aliens the crew encounter look ridiculous. There’s a certain nostalgia value to it, and it did kick off the Star Trek franchise, but it’s really not very good. If you must, pick a few random episodes to get a feel for The Original Series, but otherwise skip it entirely.

The Movies

By throwing out The Original Series you also get to skip Star Trek I through VI. This is far from a bad thing. The movies are, at best, overlong TV episodes and at worst, time traveling capers involving whales.

Actually, while you’re at it, skip movies VII through X too, as they’re awful as well.

The Next Generation

The Next Generation is almost universally recognized as being the best Star Trek series. Patrick Stewart brought a level of acting skill to the role of Captain Picard that was sorely missing in William Shatner’s Captain Kirk. Everything about the series is miles above The Original Series. Rather than having to bow to the whims of the network, Roddenberry had a lot more creative control over this series, so his vision of the future was more fully realized. It’s the show The Original Series should have been.

Produced in the late 80s and early 90s, The Next Generation holds up a lot better than The Original Series (although there are still a few too many bad prosthetics for my liking).

This isn’t to say The Next Generation is perfect. There are plenty of skippable episodes. Luckily, the wonderful Max Temkin has created a viewing list that condenses the show’s 178 hours down to just 40. This makes the whole thing manageable in just a few weekends. Star Trek: The Next Generation in 40 Hours is flat out the best way to watch the best series of Star Trek. If you’re looking to invest as little time as possible, this is the way to do it.

Deep Space Nine

While Roddenberry was fully able to realize his vision in The Next Generation, his Utopian ideals were even criticized in the writer’s room. Roddenberry banned crew members from having any conflict with each other, because a bunch of people crammed together in a tin can wouldn’t fight in the 24th Century… obviously.

After Roddenberry died, the writers who had been limited creatively on The Next Generation decided to push the boundaries and explore the limits of Star Trek‘s Utopian future. What happens when the ever-tolerant Federation comes into contact with a truly intolerable group? It makes for compelling viewing.

Deep Space Nine is set on a space station. With all the major characters confined to one main location, the writers were able to take a more continuous approach to the story rather than the episodic nature of the previous two series.

Although this is great for fans of character development, it makes it harder to skip episodes as the series works best as a whole. Still, Max Temkin had a shot with his Medium post condensing Deep Space Nine down to 82.5 hours. He wasn’t able to condense things quite as much as with The Next Generation, but it’s still a good deal shorter than the original run.

Deep Space Nine divides Star Trek fans because it strays the most from Roddenberry’s vision. This controversy is, to me, what makes it such essential viewing for Star Trek fans. It will get you right into the middle of one of the biggest Trekkie debates. Nerd cred engage!

Voyager

Voyager, while either the second or third best Star Trek series depending on who you ask, isn’t essential viewing. It’s another 200 hours of a crew banging about in a spaceship. It’s a lot more serialized than The Next Generation so it does have more character development, but it also makes it much harder to drop in and out.

If, after watching The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, you’re still hungry for more Star Trek, then it’s time to dive into Voyager. You’re probably going to have to tackle the whole thing, at least until Max Temkin tackles the unenviable task of condensing Voyager down.

Enterprise

There’s not much to say about Enterprise than to advise you to skip it. While it’s not bad, it’s far from great. It was cut short after only four seasons, making it one for the completist rather than the casual fan.

The New Movies

The new Star Trek movies are a total reboot of the franchise. You don’t need to have seen any of the TV shows or earlier movies to watch them (although you will catch plenty of references and in-jokes if you have). They’re a lot more action driven than the rest of the Star Trek universe, so some Trekkies


The 10 Best Sites To Go On A Star Trek & Become A Trekkie




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aren’t fans. For everyone else, these are three fun movies worth watching with friends (if you didn’t catch them in the cinema


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).

Live Long and Prosper

Star Trek has a long history. It’s been a big part of pop culture for the last 50 years, and its popularity shows no sign of waning. There are new movies on the way and a new TV show too. Star Trek: Discovery looks rather promising, and it will hopefully become essential viewing for generations to come.

In this article I’ve had to make some pretty big calls about what the highlights of Star Trek are. I openly admit I could be wrong about some of them.

So, if you’re a massive Star Trek fan, feel free to let me know in the comments just how badly I’ve messed up. You should also recommend some of your favorite series, individual episodes, or movies so that everyone gets to hear more than just my take on this wonderful franchise.

via MakeUseOf.com
The Easy Way to Catch Up on 50 Years of Star Trek

The Making of Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Greatest Episode, ‘The Inner Light’

This episode should’ve never worked. It was a one-off, inconsequential story about characters we’ve never seen before nor would ever see again. It had no battles, no enemies, no star trekking of any kind. And yet, “The Inner Light” from Star Trek: The Next Generation lives on; not just as one of the best episodes of Star Trek, but as one of the finest pieces of modern television. And I’m not the only one who thinks so.

We talked to writer Morgan Gendel, and stars Margot Rose and Daniel Stewart (Patrick Stewart’s real-life son) about the episode, which not only tops most Star Trek best episode lists, but also won the 1993 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, the first television show to do so since Star Trek: The Original Series won for “The City on the Edge of Forever.”

Airing during the show’s fifth season, “The Inner Light” is your classic “the road not taken” story. At the beginning of the episode, Captain Jean-Luc Picard is hit with a probe beam that transports him to another reality. In it, he’s an iron weaver named Kamin, living on a dying planet called Kataan with his wife, Eline.

Most of the story takes place over the course of Kamin/Picard’s life. At first, he’s scared and suspicious, yearning to get back to his former life as a starship captain. As the years progress, he accepts and embraces his new reality, starting a family, integrating into the community, and living a rich, full life that spans decades. In the final moments, it’s revealed that Kataan (dead for over 1,000 years) built the probe so that one person could live as one of them and tell their story. Picard lived 40 years in less than half an hour, and he ends up alone.

“I’m amazed they let me do this episode as I ended up writing it, because it’s so unbelievably, heartbreakingly sad,” Gendel said. “Picard did have a wife, he did have children, he did have a family and they’re all fucking dead.”

It wasn’t actually the original story Gendel sent to Star Trek. A freelance writer at the time, he first pitched a story about an advertising blimp that would transmit experiences into someone’s brain. In it, Picard would envision being on an island with Commander Riker and Ensign Ro Laren, and a love triangle would ensue. Gendel told me the story evolved into Picard’s solo journey over time, after some rejections and rewrites. He got called in five times before they moved forward with the script.

Similarly, it actually took eight tries for Margot Rose to get a part on Star Trek: The Next Generation before she finally got the role of Eline. Rose said she kept getting called in for auditions, but none of the parts worked out. Still, she told me she’s glad it ended up being Eline, calling it one of her proudest roles as an actor.

“I never in a million years could’ve asked for a better part,” she said. “It was the best part I ever got to play on television. I’ve gotten to play some great parts, but it was the penultimate.” Rose added what she loved most about the part was Eline’s genuine sincerity, what she described as “guileless.” Eline was never mysterious, cunning, or had something up her sleeve. She was just a woman in love with a man who seemed to be going crazy, talking about another life.

“He’s her husband, and she’s thunderstruck, let’s say, that he’s behaving the way he is. And she adores him, and it’s a little bit, it’s not just unnerving… it’s horrible for her because she adores him,” Rose said.

Kamin/Picard’s children and grandchildren were just as guileless in their portrayal, partly because one of the children was actually Picard’s real-life son. Daniel Stewart explained how The Next Generation was his first major role as an actor, and he was terrified not only for himself, but also because he was representing his father, in a way. He’s proud of the episode but doesn’t like watching his performance, saying he looks like a “deer in the headlights.” (The pair have since worked together on several projects, including Patrick Stewart’s show Blunt Talk, where he also plays his son.)

Daniels said the tense scene between Batai and Kamin, where he drops school to focus on his music, reminds him of his family talks about becoming an actor. “I’m not sure I clocked it at the time, but I was very determined to act as a teenager. And my parents were quite keen that I shouldn’t. I had to really prove to my dad that I wanted it,” Stewart said. “He once told me that to make it in this business … unless you had an enormous drive and commitment, you would never succeed. I had to prove to him that I had that.”

Gendel, Rose, and Daniel Stewart unanimously agree that the glue that holds the entire episode together is Patrick Stewart’s performance. His portrayal of Kamin was not only genuine, but it also deepened our understanding of Picard as a person. For many of us, Star Trek is the ultimate escape, a fantasy world where we can pretend we’re the brave starship captain. Picard’s dream life is a quiet, subdued one, with a wife and children, and by the end he loses it all. That’s pretty messed up.

But sadly, the series doesn’t really explore this beyond the end credits. At the end of the episode, Picard wakes up, back in his reality. His wife died before his very eyes. His children are gone, along with the life he spent decades building and making his own, but he doesn’t really address it again. There are references to his experience, like in the season six episode “Lessons,” but it’s never really given the gravity it deserves.

“He doesn’t have a gravesite,” Gendel said. “He’s just stuck alone carrying the burden of this.”

In truth, the only truly lingering proof that “The Inner Light” happened to Picard at all is his flute. Gendel said when he first brought up the flute in the writers’ room, someone actually laughed. They later reconsidered, and rightly so, because it’s now one of the show’s most iconic symbols. It’s been featured and mentioned several times over the series, and the melody got a full orchestral treatment. Daniel Stewart said he originally learned to play the song by composer Jay Chattaway, but he never got the chance to do it onscreen. His dad did, though, even if didn’t quite master the melody.

“I spent hours learning that bloody tune on the tin whistle,” Daniel Stewart said. “Then he gets to play it at the end and he’s basically making it up. Fingers all over the place. And there it is forever. One of the most iconic moments in the series. Typical.”

The episode also had a lasting impact on Star Trek as a whole. As Gendel put it, every show that followed had its own “Inner Light” episode. Voyager had “Memorial.” Deep Space Nine’s version, “Hard Time,” actually featured Rose as Rinn (seen above), the alien who induces Miles O’Brien’s virtual 20-year prison sentence. Rose said she doesn’t know if she was cast on purpose, to connect the two episodes together, but she thinks that’d be cool if true.

Gendel remembers a time at a Star Trek convention where he met a former Hell’s Angel who was inspired to change his life after watching the episode, and now has a family of his own. “This was a guy who was on one path, and realized he could change it and pick another path,” Gendel said.

As it turns out, “The Inner Light” almost had a sequel. Gendel pitched a follow-up episode, where Picard helps out a group of Kataan survivors, including his wife Eline. It would have explained the technology behind the probe beam, and given Picard some closure from his decades-long experience. The story was rejected, so Gendel later turned it into a fan comic called The Outer Light, seen above.

But “The Inner Light” still works on its own, and works beautifully. Rose, who’s accumulated dozens of acting credits over the years, said she still gets emotional whenever she watches the episode.

“I literally have to tell you the truth, I can watch it and I’m brought to tears myself,” she said. “Not because it’s me, but because I think it’s really good. And I’m really moved by it, and I’m really proud to have been part of it.”

via Gizmodo
The Making of Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Greatest Episode, ‘The Inner Light’

This Star Trek Combadge Actually Works… With a Little Help From Your Phone

It’s linked to your mobile phone rather than a ship’s computer, but hey: This is the best attempt yet at getting a Trek-style combadge, and it’s pretty dang neat.

To mark the franchise’s 50th Anniversary, ThinkGeek has just announced this Bluetooth-powered replica of the Next Generation-styled combadge. The device (which can last for 10 hours on a single charge), can be connected to your phone or smart device. A tap of the badge—which, of course, is accompanied by the distinct chirping sound they have on the shows—can answer or end phone calls, play and pause music, or bring up Siri or Google Now for voice-control (man, that’ll be even better when they eventually get Majel Barret’s voice!).

It might not be the most perfect version of Trek’s combadge—no universal translator, for starters—but it’s a very cool (and incredibly nerdy) way to use your phone hands-free. And for $80, it’s not too eye-watering a price to fulfill your dreams of being part of Starfleet. Hopefully they’ll do one in the Voyager/Deep Space Nine design, too!

You can preorder a badge of your own at ThinkGeek now, ahead of a release in November.

[H/T Alex English]

via Gizmodo
This Star Trek Combadge Actually Works… With a Little Help From Your Phone

It’s a long, hard road from idea to IPO

It may not seem it, but coming up with an idea for your startup is probably the easiest part of launching your own company. As one industry insider told me, there are a million ways to screw up that idea through poor execution, and many, many lose their way in spite of having a good initial idea. Yet a precious few fight through the problems and the challenges, and somehow with a bit of luck and a lot of moxie, make it to IPO.

The four original founders of Box, one of those companies that made it through that long journey, talked about their experience in a panel discussion this week at BoxWorks.

While CEO Aaron Levie and CFO Dylan Smith have long been the public faces of Box, there were two others — Jeff Queisser, chief systems architect and Sam Ghods, services architect — all childhood friends in Seattle, who quit college to follow the startup dream.

The idea

The group seemed destined to launch some sort of startup, and often bounced ideas off one another, even after they went their separate ways to college. After Levie came up with the idea of what would be Box as part of a marketing class, the group saw potential, at least Smith did. Ghods didn’t see the value right away, but eventually all four were on board and Box was born.

These guys were living a Silicon Valley cliche in the early days, giving birth to their idea in a dorm room, then quitting school and renting out a converted garage that acted as their office and living space. You have to remember, these were four young men in their early twenties with no business experience whatsoever, yet they fell into their roles, as Levie with some marketing classes would be CEO, Smith with his financial sensibilities became CFO, Ghods with some coding background headed up engineering and Queisser, who had spent summers installing cable modems, became the de facto head of IT.

Box's four founders around 2005 outside their converted garage apartment/headquarters.

Box’s four founders around 2005 outside their converted garage apartment/headquarters.

The core group soon began selling Box subscriptions and were making a little bit of money. They even found an early backer at DFJ, who gave them some initial funding and helped form their fledgling board of directors.

Moving beyond the core group

One of the first inflection points for any startup is when you move beyond the core group of founders and begin to look for additional employees. The core group has passion, and in the case of Box, were four guys who had grown up together, further complicating the hiring dynamic, but as with everything, they had some luck in the deal (and they have some advice for those starting on that journey now).

The core team knew they were looking for a good cultural fit, but they warned don’t get people who have the same exact skills and think just the way you do because you just get an echo chamber. Early on, any startup needs people who can cover a lot of jobs. When you get a little bigger, specialization begins to take over.

Even if they weren’t quite sure what they were looking for, they had a sense. They definitely had a “no asshole” rule and they needed someone they would be comfortable brainstorming with in a small room for hours. They lucked out when they brought in Karen Appleton as their 8th or 9th employee. She brought a level of professionalism and business experience the founders lacked and she encouraged them to form partnerships.

“We were 19 or 20 years old. We didn’t know how it would work to hire more experienced people. Karen was the first of those hires and changed our hiring trajectory from cultural fit to cultural add,” Smith explained.

Changing direction

One thing that most startups do is pivot from the original idea, and Box was no exception. In about 2007, they began to recognize that consumer online storage was becoming increasingly specialized with Flickr handling photos and YouTube video. They didn’t think they could compete with that, and at the same they began to recognize a need for a file sharing product for business.

“I had a simple rule of thumb. Bet on whatever Steve Jobs is betting on.

— Box CEO Aaron Levie

There were a lot of heavy discussions about how to proceed. Eventually Box switched to the enterprise, but they didn’t make the transition willy-nilly. They actually went out and hired a consultant, who made some calls and gathered some data for them to confirm they were making a sound decision. You have to remember in 2007, the iPhone was just coming out and it wasn’t obvious that content and collaboration would move to the cloud. The consultant confirmed that some companies were thinking about this and there would be a business in that space.

There was still a lot of discussion among the founders, but they eventually all agreed it was the way to go — and it turned out to be a good decision.

A couple of years later, the iPad came out and this was a major turning point.. “I had a simple rule of thumb. Bet on whatever Steve Jobs is betting on,” Levie joked. The company turned its attention to the iPad right away and was one of the first enterprise companies with an iPad app. It was then that they realized content management was changing in a big way and it was going to be about protecting content in motion.

It’s a learning process

The founders learned you need to compromise and that was all part of the process. They also were voracious readers and reading books like The Innovator’s Dilemma and Crossing the Chasm helped shape the company philosophy over time.

They all recommend getting mentors and learning as much as you can because it’s tough going it on your own. You don’t know what you don’t know and mentors who have been through the startup experience can help point you in the right direction — and they found when they asked, people generally wanted to help.

They also say that there will be scary moments in the life of any company. They point to 2008 when they went looking for a Series B round in the middle of a huge economic crisis as one of those times.

There will also be tough times. You will definitely fight with your co-founders and you may question what you’re doing, but if you believe in the core mission, you can reach the goal of becoming a public company. It worked for Box — and it’s worth noting that the four founders remained close friends through it all.

via TechCrunch
It’s a long, hard road from idea to IPO

Star Wars Movie Realization Yumi Ashigaru Stormtrooper

Star Wars Movie Realization Yumi Ashigaru Stormtrooper

It’s good to see that Bandai isn’t done with its samurai-themed Star Wars action figures yet. While I’d love to see samurai Jedi and droids, this archer stormtrooper is still badass. He’s got a short sword, a folding bow and five arrows, as well as a cool shoulder-mounted shield and a jingasa, i.e. pointy hat. The figure will be available for pre-order on September 30 for around $85 (USD).

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via MightyMega
Star Wars Movie Realization Yumi Ashigaru Stormtrooper