Editorial – April 2026: Arguments Are Neither Here Or There.

Hello everyone,

When does any argument become political? There’s a quandary from the start. What is ‘political’? Theoggle response doesn’t really make sense because if there’s a dividing line of choice, any subject can be influenced by it. Nothing ever becomes black and white in choices, but shades of grey need a balancing act of how much is right and how much is wrong, which will sway the argument, so there must be more than one answer and conditions under which. Ultimately, the issue boils down to motivation and determining who benefits from the choices made. Is it politically left or right or somewhere in between? From there, extremes are formed, especially if it’s a matter of choice.

Based on the world’s current crisis, decisions as to which side is right or wrong are getting seriously clouded, so you can’t tell who’s doing the right thing and who’s doing poorly. If you want a science fiction/fantasy allegory. The Emperor in Star Wars couldn’t have been all bad if most of his empire just tolerated his regime and went about their lives. The eradication of planets solely because they harboured rebels seems, even in the late 1970s, overly harsh and likely to provoke more rebellions than it would prevent, as no one wants the Death Star entering their star system.

Empires are very impractical to run, more so on a galactic scale. It requires a significant number of individuals to participate voluntarily. Having identical shopping malls in different towns and cities does not mean the local populations will have the same tastes; those tastes will change things. If this happens with environments, it says little about the political orientation on different planets, suggesting that diverse environments may lead to varied political systems and ideologies that reflect the unique preferences and needs of their inhabitants. Even democracies can have radical changes with each election. An empire would not be able to tolerate a democracy because it would quickly lose control. Well, unless each planet recruited stormtroopers to enforce the law.

Isaac Asimov’s empire in his ‘Foundation’ books would have fallen a lot quicker with what we know today. Asimov’s expertise was in the sciences, not political systems, and even the storylines were loosely based off the Roman Empire. His empire lasted for 1500 years, making it a relevant example of expansion through invasion across the world, followed by internal collapse as a new religion, Christianity, supplanted the existing multi-god beliefs.

Asimov chose to explore the self-destruction of his empire due to excessive bureaucracy, which resulted in too much red tape, indicating that it needed to be rebuilt. Hari Seldon’s knowledge of psychohistory was to be used to create shortcuts to shorten the decline and a future rise. Essentially, this meant eliminating the small print, even if it was not explicitly stated. There was no need to worry about different political or religious systems because everything else was uniform, even if we see it as simplistic today. What it couldn’t anticipate but should have is the rise of a dictator wanting to take advantage of the situation caused by a mutant, such as the Mule, who could bend people’s minds to his will. The right individuals, primarily those in the military, are needed. Dictators, even if they have family successors, do not last forever. They are essentially mini-empires. Their replacement could be worse or better.

The rise and fall of such systems is inherent to their functioning, as they involve interactions among people. Many people are willing to follow whoever is in charge, as long as their leadership does not become too oppressive in their lives; this is why taxation for public facilities often becomes a contentious issue. The potential for leadership and the ability to sway others depend significantly on a person’s strength of personality and their capacity to captivate a large audience. Things become difficult if leaders do not meet expectations and promises, as well as if they can be easily replaced.

The only real test is to see what they have done and how it will affect future choices. We have a current example of this situation that does not require me to mention specific names. Any political system which remains inflexible when it comes to change is going to have problems eventually, as it may lead to public discontent and a loss of trust in leadership. We’re all entitled to make mistakes in our choices of leadership, but it is the speed of change that really counts if they are really inadequate.

Changing a country’s constitution is a lot harder than it looks. The usual argument is that it has lasted so long thus far, so why shouldn’t it go on forever? It takes no account for changes in society. In UK law, some laws just become forgotten because they are no longer enforceable or applicable. A lot easier than revoking them. Considering this, any changes to the constitution require significant scrutiny to ensure fairness to all sides without bias. So even putting in various clauses can cause its own problems.

When issues arise, such as the interpretation of American gun laws that make it impossible to eliminate them on a large scale, society must endure the consequences regardless of the number of killing sprees that occur. It would need a majority consensus to change things. It is also unlikely any president will change laws to curtail their own powers, especially when such changes could be politically detrimental and face significant opposition from various interest groups.

Creating a country or world, especially in science fiction, often shows survival and failure close to our current reality. None of them are completely flawless or executed exactly as described. An enforced political regime will always have dissenters, but if they have no real leadership, let alone weapons, then they are always going to fail. Even if dissenters are given weapons, they become beholden to others and simply replace one set of leaders with another from a different country or world. Given the numerous examples in our world, one must question how any fiction genre could compete if it were treated as a game. There must be some underlying issues if a person chooses such a taste, but who can truly predict someone’s preferences?

All fiction can do is illustrate the differences in consequences, and even reality surpasses it in identifying who the bad guys are. Therefore, should fiction go up to a new level based off our reality’s current choices and where it will lead? Therein lies the problem. Fiction takes up to two years to write and publish, so reality will always win. Therefore, it’s time for our science fiction genre to regain its prominence. It doesn’t have to be set in modern days; just show the consequences of our present time and where it could go, such as exploring themes of technological advancement, environmental changes, or societal shifts that reflect current issues.

Thank you, take care, good night, and take a deep breath.

Geoff Willmetts

editor: www.SFCrowsnest.info

A Zen thought: You cannot shave with an Occam’s razor.

What Qualities Does A Geek Have? Not to panic but to sort things out.

Computer Reveal: Ever tried to get a circular image out of a picture in Paintshop Pro and got stuck trying to find the ‘final’ command?

This rule should apply to any of the shape commands. Any capped word is addressing a particular command.

1. Ensure the overall picture of the photograph is straightened.
2. Select the Shape command – usually towards the bottom in the left hand. You get menu options and a command bar. Widen the bar if you can’t see all the commands.
3. On the picture, you should have a square with a circle in it. Each one should have an adjustment dot and a centring spot. Select the ‘Edit’ command to create a square around the circle, providing you with 8 points and a centre point to manipulate the shape.
4. You can’t see the picture under it, but press the ‘eye’ command, and it’s there.
5. Use the centre spot to move as close to the centre as you can.
6. Adjust the outer dots to get the circle you want. The ones on the circle will widen or close on both sides at the same time. The ones on the square only move up one side. You might have to play with that, especially if the original eclipse or circle wasn’t done properly.
7. The Shape Cutter is to the left of the Eye command. Press the shape cutter, and you will obtain a separate image of the circle or ellipse. The explanations on Google never say so. It might not be perfect, and a background erase can be used to remove any excess until you improve.
8. Close the original picture, and then use “Save As” to either overwrite the original file name or save it under a different name.

Computer Reveal: Probably the most annoying thing is adding a gadget to your computer and finding it not recognised. I can’t speak for all flatbed scanners, but the Epson Perfection V36 and the Epson Perfection V36 II have different drivers, and the latter won’t be recognised until a new set is downloaded. Ignore the notes supplied with the scanner, but put the name through Google and ‘add drivers’ and the country from the manufacturer’s orientation to your country, and you’ll be directed to the correct website, and then follow instructions. With the drivers, the light comes on.

Computer Reveal: Yeah, I know. There has been very little activity for a while, but now three updates are arriving at once. This one should certainly draw your attention if you’re using Windows 11. We have no control over when an update is downloaded, and we cannot choose when to install it; the installation occurs when you shut down your computer, leading to a cycle that cannot be broken. To be fair, my laptop did close down, but I didn’t fancy a long wait in the morning and then rebooted, and it got stuck in a cycle of nearly getting to the end and then repeating itself. After entering your password, up pops the message ‘Driver Power State Failure (0x9F)’, and it immediately reboots. I shut down the laptop after it went through the cycle three times and started again in the morning, but it continued to repeat the issue, indicating that changing the day and time did not help.

I used my backup to see what was supposed to happen and check what to do. Although I looked it up related to my manufacturer, I had to resort to this option. Make a note of this option below because you might not have a second computer to check on.

1. Reboot the computer and press the F12 button until you see a stripe appear. You do not have to disconnect anything else connected to your computer.
2. There are many BIO options shown. The one you mouse or direction arrows down to is the ‘Support Assistant OS Recovery’, and press the button. This is an automatic system that will repair your computer. It doesn’t show everything it’s doing, and the 3-minute estimate is false; it can take much longer, depending on the issue. This time it took a long time, so go read a book or something.
3. Once the process is completed, the program will scan the hard drive, displaying numerous numbers across three stages, allowing you to see that it is actively working. The process might take half an hour, but it is time well spent to make sure the hardware is OK.
4. In the next stage, it’ll go back to completing the original task, which is the update. When it stuck around 35% for so long, I did try a reboot, but it went back to 35% again, and I decided to let it go on. Just don’t reboot and be patient. The objective is to get Windows functioning well enough to resolve the issue, and seeing the opening screen is a reward in itself.

  Now Microsoft really does need to sort out this kind of problem. It shouldn’t be that difficult to put in an algorithm in to spot this continual loop and realise there is something wrong and either resolve it or break the cycle and go back to Windows so you have access to your software and complete the update later. It might not happen every time but, when it does, I’ll bet you’ll find a new vocabulary and trying to remember what to do so don’t be afraid to download this time.

  You almost didn’t get me. After I did all of the above, every time I got past my password into Windows 11, I kept getting the message ‘Driver Power State Failure (0x9F)’ and rebooting. I spent most of Friday trying to get into it, including soft reboot without any success. It’s amazing how the thought of having to fork out on a new computer gives more motivation to not be beat, especially as the Recovery Disk proved the hardware is OK. You did make your own Recovery Disk or USB version, didn’t you? In situations like this is when you need to check.

  Sleeping on it over night, the need to stop the reboot, I called up the Task Manager and W11 stayed put this time but, obviously, you don’twant to this every time. In the Control Panel, its device manager showed no red lights and the W11 update had taken effect.

  So I turned to the ‘Driver Power State Failure (0x9F)’ itself and how to get rid of it. Looking it up, this message only appears when some of the drivers are in conflict and so goes into sleep mode but doesn’t say which or how to beat it. Except it does, it’s a reboot. Up popped WindowTechies which said that Fortext would do it. The free scan downloed showed all the things that needed inclusive updating and sorting out and be prepared for a wait as it done it over an hour. Considering how much I was going to spend otherwise, I opted for the full version for both of my computers. It went through everything from BIOS firmware updates to W11 itself which it went through several times after each password and, finally, no more ‘Driver Power State Failure (0x9F)’. Although it didn’t say, don’t leave any other utilities there. I should point out that there might be other software utilities that do this but haven’t tried them out.

  Fortext takes about 10 minutes to appear when selected so be very patient and don’t keep pressing its button. Oddly, the software itself will show you everything it does which is a pity why even a loading screen doesn’t appear initially. It warns it will disconnect the Internet and, depending on how many corrections it is making to W11’s start-up will ask you to put in your password, go in and then come out again. This is the point where you shouldn’t stray from your computer. Once it thinks everything is resolved, it will allow W11 to completely appear and work and no pesky messages and reboots.

  Of course, we come to today as I type this. W11 loaded and promptly after the password, up popped ‘Driver Power State Failure (0x9F)’ and rebooting. However, it only happened the once. So I spent part of the morning running Fortect again and will have to see how it looks tomorrow. I tried it on the BUP computer which went a lot smoother.

  03.04.2026 Just to add some more to above and with permission to reprint it here from Fortect. If, like me, you suddenly find you can’t play the likes of Fortnite and I presume it might appear to affect other software, this is the solution:-

1. Open Fortect.
2. Go to Settings.
3. Search through the setting for the Allow List/Whitelist.
4. Add the directory where your game or whathave is.
5. You’ll then have to reboot for it to take effect and try out.

  If that doesn’t work, then contact them. There’s contact details in the software.

The Reveal: We don’t use stars with our reviews because we think you people are intelligent enough to read them.

The Reveal: Eating sugary food does not turn people into type two diabetics because, if that were the case, the world would be full of them. Generally, overweight individuals have insufficient insulin to support their excess body mass.

Observation: There’s going to be a return of the pigeon post. That’ll be a coo.

Observation: I wouldn’t like to be Officer Down; he’s always getting shot.

Feeling Stressed: This is a stressful world.