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    1. What's your unpopular food opinion or idiosyncrasy?

      It's been more than a year since I asked that question, and we have a bunch more people now! As I said before, let's keep this light-hearted! This is meant for fun and mutual amusement. So, if an...

      It's been more than a year since I asked that question, and we have a bunch more people now!

      As I said before, let's keep this light-hearted! This is meant for fun and mutual amusement. So, if an opinion surprises or shocks you, be a good sport and act nicely towards other users ;)

      To reinforce the question: what are your uncommon opinions or idiosyncrasies regarding food?

      32 votes
    2. Seeking a replacement for Motor City Online

      Set your Wayback machine to the early 2000s, and you'll find me in hog heaven, building and racing old muscle cars from a catalogue of real world parts that interacted as they would in real life....

      Set your Wayback machine to the early 2000s, and you'll find me in hog heaven, building and racing old muscle cars from a catalogue of real world parts that interacted as they would in real life. EA released this game as a racing MMO, but I spent most of my time treating it as a single player game, building my hot rods and racing against the computer.

      In 2003, they pulled the plug. Since then, nothing has come close. There are mechanic simulators, but you don't get to drive the cars when you finish them. Then there are the racing games, but none of those have the.level of detail in the build and tuning portion that MCO did. In MCO, you needed to actually build your engine in a way that the parts would work well with each other in order to get the best performance. It wasn't simply an upgrade chain, as you could easily spend ten grand on parts and come out with a 200hp brick.

      Most recently, my search has led me to a.game called Revhead from Australia. It scratches a LOT of the itch, but it's still missing a lot of the stuff I miss from MCO. You can build cars with parts and race.them, but the build still feels like a more money=more power equation instead of an exercise in research and testing to figure out the perfect recipe for my particular driving style.

      Am I chasing a pipe dream in the hopes that there is a.modern equivalent for that old gem?

      12 votes
    3. Are there any games that you have enjoyed playing without the HUD or mini-map? If so, which ones and why?

      I just posted this as a comment to someone who mentioned Horizon Zero Dawn, but figured there might be more discussion if I made a new post for it, so here goes: Are there any games that you have...

      I just posted this as a comment to someone who mentioned Horizon Zero Dawn, but figured there might be more discussion if I made a new post for it, so here goes:


      Are there any games that you have enjoyed playing without the HUD or mini-map? If so, which ones and why?


      One of my favorite gaming experiences was playing Zelda BOTW in its entirety without any HUD elements, just using the game's scenery and story to guide me. I loved it so much that I tried doing the same in other massive open-world games like Skyrim, Fallout 4, The Witcher 3, and Assassin's Creed Origins, but found that they relied too much on small details or markers in the minimap. So instead of feeling more immersed and in-tune with the game world, I just felt more frustrated at not knowing exactly where to go or which specific person or item to click on without the game explicitly telling me. I'm sure it can be done, but I found it nowhere near as pleasing as BOTW.

      I just recently picked up Horizon Zero Dawn and wondered if it could be played in a similar manner, without the map or other HUD elements, or if I'll end up needing some of them to know where to go or who to talk to.

      I'd love to hear any other recommendations or thoughts on this matter.

      16 votes
    4. Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2023 - Season Finale - Results

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      And the 2023 Formula 1 Season has ended!

      This isn't a spolier this "late" in the game, so congratulations to Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT for winning the 2023 World Constructors' Championship, and their driver Max Verstappen for the winning the 2023 World Drivers' Championship. Plus all the other records Max has smashed this year—talk about domination!

      The 2024 schedule is out and the first GP is February 29 - March 2 in Bahrain.

      Pre-season testing will also be in Bahrain, Feb. 21-23 (the week prior). We usually get a little bit of sneakpeak, I think.

      Anyway, enjoy the break, everyone. I know I'll enjoy not waking up at odd hours or not sleeping for F1 sessions for a few months! See you all -- according to David Coulthard -- in 97 days for testing!

      GRAND PRIX Results -- SPOILER
      POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
      1 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 58 1:27:02.624 26
      2 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 58 +17.993s 18
      3 63 George Russell MERCEDES 58 +20.328s 15
      4 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 58 +21.453s 12
      5 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 58 +24.284s 10
      6 81 Oscar Piastri MCLAREN MERCEDES 58 +31.487s 8
      7 14 Fernando Alonso ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 58 +39.512s 6
      8 22 Yuki Tsunoda ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT 58 +43.088s 4
      9 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 58 +44.424s 2
      10 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 58 +55.632s 1
      11 3 Daniel Ricciardo ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT 58 +56.229s 0
      12 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 58 +66.373s 0
      13 10 Pierre Gasly ALPINE RENAULT 58 +70.360s 0
      14 23 Alexander Albon WILLIAMS MERCEDES 58 +73.184s 0
      15 27 Nico Hulkenberg HAAS FERRARI 58 +83.696s 0
      16 2 Logan Sargeant WILLIAMS MERCEDES 58 +87.791s 0
      17 24 Zhou Guanyu ALFA ROMEO FERRARI 58 +89.422s 0
      18 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 57 DNF 0
      19 77 Valtteri Bottas ALFA ROMEO FERRARI 57 +1 lap 0
      20 20 Kevin Magnussen HAAS FERRARI 57 +1 lap 0

      Fastest Lap: Max Verstappen

      Source: F1.com

      2023 World DRIVERS' Championship Results -- SPOILER
      POS DRIVER NATIONALITY CAR PTS
      1 Max Verstappen NED RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 575
      2 Sergio Perez MEX RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 285
      3 Lewis Hamilton GBR MERCEDES 234
      4 Fernando Alonso ESP ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 206
      5 Charles Leclerc MON FERRARI 206
      6 Lando Norris GBR MCLAREN MERCEDES 205
      7 Carlos Sainz ESP FERRARI 200
      8 George Russell GBR MERCEDES 175
      9 Oscar Piastri AUS MCLAREN MERCEDES 97
      10 Lance Stroll CAN ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 74
      11 Pierre Gasly FRA ALPINE RENAULT 62
      12 Esteban Ocon FRA ALPINE RENAULT 58
      13 Alexander Albon THA WILLIAMS MERCEDES 27
      14 Yuki Tsunoda JPN ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT 17
      15 Valtteri Bottas FIN ALFA ROMEO FERRARI 10
      16 Nico Hulkenberg GER HAAS FERRARI 9
      17 Daniel Ricciardo AUS ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT 6
      18 Zhou Guanyu CHN ALFA ROMEO FERRARI 6
      19 Kevin Magnussen DEN HAAS FERRARI 3
      20 Liam Lawson NZL ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT 2
      21 Logan Sargeant USA WILLIAMS MERCEDES 1
      22 Nyck De Vries NED ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT 0

      Source: F1.com

      2023 World CONSTRUCTORS' Championship Results -- SPOILER
      POS TEAM PTS
      1 RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 860
      2 MERCEDES 409
      3 FERRARI 406
      4 MCLAREN MERCEDES 302
      5 ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 280
      6 ALPINE RENAULT 120
      7 WILLIAMS MERCEDES 28
      8 ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT 25
      9 ALFA ROMEO FERRARI 16
      10 HAAS FERRARI 12

      Source: F1.com

      16 votes
    5. What programming/technical projects have you been working on?

      This is a recurring post to discuss programming or other technical projects that we've been working on. Tell us about one of your recent projects, either at work or personal projects. What's...

      This is a recurring post to discuss programming or other technical projects that we've been working on. Tell us about one of your recent projects, either at work or personal projects. What's interesting about it? Are you having trouble with anything?

      0 votes
    6. What do you think about other users' usernames?

      This is kind of silly. I've been tild'ing a lot recently and have come to recognize some other users, and am wondering how accurate my simple reactions are, or whether they're shared by anyone...

      This is kind of silly. I've been tild'ing a lot recently and have come to recognize some other users, and am wondering how accurate my simple reactions are, or whether they're shared by anyone else.

      • deimos - Moon of Mars, and also a character in either one of the early Unreal Tournament games or Quake 3 Arena. Uh, also a figure from Greek or Roman mythology or whatever 😅
      • cfabbro - "C fab bro" - Identifies as a "bro", and does something involving fabrication?
      • douchebag - Expects to get hated on maybe?
      • akir - For some reason makes me think of Admiral Akbar from OG Star Wars.
      • algernon_asimov - Has been explained. I too love Flowers for Algernon and Isaac Asmiov.
      • boxer_dogs_dance - I picture three dogs on their hind legs "holding" each other's forepaws, merrily dancing in a circle. It makes me happy 😅

      Sorry if I've forgotten your username! Reply and I'll tell you what yours makes me think, I'm feeling associative.

      53 votes
    7. What have you been watching / reading this week? (Anime/Manga)

      What have you been watching and reading this week? You don't need to give us a whole essay if you don't want to, but please write something! Feel free to talk about something you saw that was...

      What have you been watching and reading this week? You don't need to give us a whole essay if you don't want to, but please write something! Feel free to talk about something you saw that was cool, something that was bad, ask for recommendations, or anything else you can think of.

      If you want to, feel free to find the thing you're talking about and link to its pages on Anilist, MAL, or any other database you use!

      9 votes
    8. Vote for "Movie of the Week" in December - 1990s edition

      Thanks to everyone who have so far participated in the five movies we did in November. We need to pick four movies for December and it is going to be any movies from the 1990s. Rules Must have a...

      Thanks to everyone who have so far participated in the five movies we did in November. We need to pick four movies for December and it is going to be any movies from the 1990s.

      Rules

      • Must have a release date between 1990 and 1999. If in doubt, whatever it says on IMDb
      • Not one we have already done
      • Only one nomination per user
      • Please only nominate if you intent to participate

      In case of ties in the number of votes, random.org will decide. Voting closes Sunday.

      This overview on Letterboxd can be of some inspiration.


      In addition, I think it will be too much to do a vote on voting categories, but I am curious to get some feedback and ideas. Should we go narrower like genres (westerns, horror, science fiction) or perhaps niche genres (road movie, murder mystery, historic)? How about directors - like I had an idea of doing a Kubrick versus Spielberg for example. Actors, countries, film festivals? Or is it okay to have the category be very broad?

      9 votes
    9. Douglas Adams and Iain M. Banks

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      I've just started reading The Culture novels by Iain M. Banks, and am currently reading A Player of Games. This might be a controversial thing to say, but I'm getting some Douglas Adams vibes, especially in his depiction of the drones. Am I the only one who feels a certain connection there?

      13 votes
    10. Three Cheers for Tildes: App updates and feedback (December 2023)

      I'll start posting a recurring topic for the Three Cheers for Tildes mobile app. This first one's a little early, but I wanted it to coincide with the Android v0.6.0 release. A recurring...

      I'll start posting a recurring topic for the Three Cheers for Tildes mobile app. This first one's a little early, but I wanted it to coincide with the Android v0.6.0 release.

      A recurring megathread will make it easier for people to hit Ignore on each one if they want, without feeling like they're missing out on bigger announcements surrounding the app.

      I'll make an effort to summarize the previous month's updates at the start of each topic, so people can read the updates and then hit Ignore if they don't care about more frequent updates or user feedback.


      Recently:

      Android v0.6.0 (Nov 26, 2023)

      • In-app notifications of comment replies
      • Highlight and jump to linked comments
      • Fixed tapping titles in ~music to open comments

      Known bug: You can't manually mark notifications as read. I overlooked this because I have the "Automatically mark all notifications read when you view the Unread Notifications page" setting enabled on the website settings. I'll fix this soon.

       

      Also the iOS version is still getting feedback on TestFlight after its November 1 release—thanks everyone for trying the app and giving feedback. The Android app will tend to get features sooner than iOS; I expect it to continue this way in general, just because I'm more familiar with Android development.


      Android version on Google Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.talklittle.android.tildes

      iOS version on TestFlight: https://testflight.apple.com/join/mpVk1qIy

      86 votes
    11. Two documentaries about Twin Flames Universe. Is the Michigan based group a new cult?

      Prime has the documentary "Desperately Seeking Soulmate: Escaping Twin Flames Universe" while Netflix is running "Escaping Twin Flames" which were produced by different investigative reporters but...

      Prime has the documentary "Desperately Seeking Soulmate: Escaping Twin Flames Universe" while Netflix is running "Escaping Twin Flames" which were produced by different investigative reporters but take a similar approach to exposing this new group. Both rely on the testimony of ex members of the group to expose the founders power and control and how things changed when the group wasn't working out as they planned.

      Apparently the group has a strong presence on facebook and there is also an entire reddit sub for its adherents.

      I watched both of these multi part documentaries and was fascinated by the origin and rise of this group. The founders, Jeff and Megan (who now goes by Shaleia) are preying on the desperation of mostly female followers who are desperately seeking their 'one and only true love', their "twin flame". Using a technique of turning all hurts and pains inward the pair asserts they will help heal people who will practice their 'mirroring' technique.

      But it starts to get really strange. Shaleia appears to be the one who started with the 'spiritual' aspect of the enterprise and Jeff appears to be the one with a fervent entrepreneurial bent who has turned it into a money making proposition.

      They were living in a run down apartment when they began, but now a few years later, have bought a large home with a lake view in Michigan, with Jeff boasting about his Corvette and Porsche in the driveway. Even stranger, they have people living and working in their house to keep their enterprise running. There are shades of other religious communities with a strong 'messianic' leader that have started this way with Waco being mentioned in the documentary. Jeff even suggests, very strongly, that he may be the Christ.

      The adherents pay for private or group facetime sessions with Jeff and Shaleia and are encouraged to take their video courses, which can be anywhere from $100 to $8,888. And those who have taken on the role of being life coaches under them are also encouraged to find more life coaches - it seems to be a combination of multi level marketing, religion and some kind of mass delusional 'teaching' to desperate and gullible people.

      Jeff and Shaleia encourage people in their group to cut off relationships with anyone who is not supportive of Twin Flames, a sure sign of a cult, and there are several testimonials from hurting parents who are desperate to be back in touch with their children.

      And in probably the strangest twist, when very few people were finding their "twin flame" to be responding, Jeff proclaimed that their twin flame already was part of the group - but since most of the group were women, he insisted that several of the women pair up and that one of them was now a "divine male", to the point of asking some to change their clothes, hair and go by a new male name.

      It's all quite fascinating, and I couldn't believe that in an age where information on cults and cult activity is so easy to find, that so many people would be sucked into Twin Flames Universe and not see the control and manipulation going on in their lives.

      Both are well worth watching but if you only have time for one, I'd recommend Prime's documentary - seems to be a bit more professionally produced.

      14 votes
    12. Midweek Movie Free Talk

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

      Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

      3 votes
    13. Tildes Minecraft Survival Bi-Weekly Thread

      Server host: tildes.nore.gg Dynmap: https://tildes.nore.gg Playtime counter: https://tildes.nore.gg/playtimes.html Verification site: https://verify.tildes.nore.gg Tildes website extension (show...

      Server host: tildes.nore.gg
      Dynmap: https://tildes.nore.gg
      Playtime counter: https://tildes.nore.gg/playtimes.html
      Verification site: https://verify.tildes.nore.gg
      Tildes website extension (show online status): Firefox - Chrome (soon)

      The server operates on a soft whitelist. Anyone can log in and walk around, but you need a Tildes account to gain build access.

      26 votes
    14. "Java is fast but in practice, PHP sites run faster as PHP coders take more straightforward approach to design and don't get lost trying to implement exotic design patterns and endless abstractions"

      Granted that it's highly subjective and opinionated, but what this author James Anderson states in this StackOverflow post very much resembles the voices of many like myself who are trying to...

      Granted that it's highly subjective and opinionated, but what this author James Anderson states in this StackOverflow post very much resembles the voices of many like myself who are trying to switch from interpreted/dynamic languages to static and compiled ones like Java/C#. How do Java programmers tackle or respond to this stance?

      33 votes
    15. How is your experience with various programming ecosystems?

      Honestly, coding languages are no longer just "languages" today like they once were. They're not even just compilers or interpreters. In the modern day paradigm, programmers soon realize that it's...

      Honestly, coding languages are no longer just "languages" today like they once were. They're not even just compilers or interpreters. In the modern day paradigm, programmers soon realize that it's one thing to solve and practice their university's CS problems and quite another to re-invent the whole wheel for things like math, I/O, databases, networking, etc. They often need these reusable packages or libraries, this has resulted in this gigantic "package ecosystem" surrounding each programming language today. How has been your experience with these ecosystems in terms of:

      1. The comprehensiveness and robustness of packages they have.
      2. How well documented are the packages?
      3. How helpful are the people at solving issues you raise?
      4. Where is the scope for earning potential - getting more freelance projects?
      30 votes
    16. What minor or inane decisions have had the biggest butterfly effect on your life?

      Throughout our lives we make tons of pivotal decisions. Some of these are significant enough that we give them lots of thought and it’s not a surprise when they greatly affect our life path -...

      Throughout our lives we make tons of pivotal decisions. Some of these are significant enough that we give them lots of thought and it’s not a surprise when they greatly affect our life path - things like beginning or ending a relationship, or moving to a new area, or changing our lifestyle.

      Lately though I’ve been contemplating which thoughtless, inane decisions I made have had the largest butterfly effects in my life.

      One example: when I was entering middle school I was, for the first time, allowed to choose which elective courses I wanted to take by filling out a paper slip. I thought playing a brass or percussion instrument seemed pretty badass so I signed up for band. Before I turned it in, though, my older sister saw it, said “band is dumb, do chorus instead,” erased my selection and marked choir instead. Being 11 years old at the time I had no strong feelings about it so I said whatever and went on with my life.

      And now, several decades later, I have sang in choirs since then, the vast majority of my friends are those I met in choirs (or theater, which is choir adjacent), and I have spent most of my adult life making money working either in or around choirs in some capacity. It’s my life.

      I often wonder how my life would be different if she hadn’t changed my registration sheet. (She didn’t even enjoy choir that much and quit two years later). Would I be living a parallel path of loving and working in music, but with bands instead of choirs? Would I have switched sometime during middle school and then reverted to the same life path I’m on now? Or would I have simply been less hooked to music and instead lived and worked in the field of one of my other interests that are mere hobbies right now?

      I’ll never know, of course. But it sure is interesting to think about. Probably the vast majority of the tiny inane decisions we make don’t end up having much of an effect on our lives. But every now and then there’s one that randomly changes a lot.

      You ever been there, Tildes?

      66 votes