What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

You know what my problem is? When I was young, and I got into a game, book, or any kind of series, I eventually found myself spending hours on a wiki, reading manuals, books, and Internet posts, watching videos, trying to discover every last detail about the subject that I could find. I still distinctly remember reading about the Celestials from Star Wars, the Forerunners and the Precursors from Halo, or the distant continents of Akivir and others in Elder Scrolls.

My problem is that I've always had this thirst to read about the worlds that I am interested in and to consume every last bit of knowledge about them.

As a writer, or rather, when I try to write something, I far too often just have the urge to explain everything so the reader doesn't need to go to a wiki or watch a video to get the extra context. This means that, because of the way I engaged (and still engage) with worlds, I have a very hard time letting go of all the details and just letting what I write lead the reader's imagination into something of their own making.

I shouldn't need, want, or try to explain that these aliens are strange and mysterious. The dialogue, thoughts, and actions of characters familiar to us should illustrate that just fine on their own.

And that's it. That's exactly what I have trouble with. I struggle to communicate indirectly, to lead readers to a conclusion instead of plainly telling it to them.

Oh god, I've done it again.

(Someone posted a thread like this but for triple-a videogames rather than software and people said no so I wonder if software is gonna be different.)

If you would or not, why? I'd you would, how much? What would be the side effects of this change if it was applied on a mass scale? What would be the potential drawbacks?

I'm currently re-watching all episodes of Detectorists and it's one of my favourite tv things ever, so I thought maybe Tildes would be interested. Detectorists is a single camera sitcom about two men and their friendship around their metal detecting hobby.

Here's the link to the BBC Four webpage for it: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06l51nr

Some review sites -

Rotten Tomatoes 100% (few reviews), 99% audience score: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/detectorists

IMDB 8.6 : https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4082744/

Guardian review (because she writes about it far better than I can): https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/dec/09/detectorists-rich-portrait-unremarkable-lives-gone-slightly-awry-mackenzie-crook

Detectorists is about nothing and everything. Made with palpable love, it’s about people and their passions; camaraderie and community. As a portrait of male friendship, it is closer to documentary than drama, delving beneath the topsoil of mid-life ennui via the sparsest of exchanges. You won’t find a laughter track, or smart-arse punchlines or an oh-so-subtle veil of irony here; instead of begging for your attention, Detectorists is notable for its avoidance of snark. It’s the drama least likely to culminate in alpha plonkers blowing up cars, taking down baddies or ravishing beautiful women.

Instead, it lingers lovingly over dewdrops on grass, magpies on gateposts, scudding clouds and gently fluttering leaves. Even an alfresco wee takes on a painterly aspect, viewed solely through the steam cloud billowing from behind a sunlit tree. Meanwhile, the camera makes high art out of Lance’s face in closeup, crestfallen as he unearths a scaffolding bracket instead of an Anglo-Saxon nugget, and from Andy’s silent incredulity when a colleague jokes about Richard Attenborough when he means David.

Radio Times review https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2017-12-13/detectorists-series-3-review/

If all British programmes took this much care over their tone, look and overall distinctiveness, the golden age of television would never go away.

Modern comedies are often predicated on cruelty: laughs are hard, clanging or sharp as barbed wire. In its quiet, undemonstrative way, Detectorists has ploughed its own furrow. Buried in its field of fun are evergreen truths about life, and the things we don’t say but should. So if kindness and companionship are unfashionable, I know which side of the hedge I’d rather stand.

BTW this is based on this post from mid 2018.

In my case it would be 1:

A grand strategy game but with way deeper simulation of not just the nations warring but the land they are warring in as well, complete with procedurally generated worlds. Thankfully for me this already exists.

2: a dating or just general social interaction sim that isn't just for fapping or fetish indulging with randomly generated people with personalities which aren't just anime archetypes which you can socialize with as the game gives advice to you and explains what you are doing right or wrong.

3:KSP but with top-notch graphics and more planets, dwarf planets and star systems. This one is also real thankfully, and even coming somewhat soon!

4:Outside: the game. Please.

I'm a facilitator of a project that, ultimately, publishes its work to YouTube. As the facilitator I am the one and only administrator of the YouTube channel. If, for instance, I became incapacitated for a long period of time (such as my untimely death) how would I pass the mantle onto someone else to handle the channel?

Can I entrust administrative privileges, of said channel, to others as a precaution?

The Mandalorian is set after the fall of the Empire and before the emergence of the First Order. We follow the travails of a lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy far from the authority of the New Republic.

The first two episodes of this first season have dropped. What do you think about it, so far?

Some more info about the PinePhone

Pre-order page on the Pine Store

The early adopter edition of the PinePhone is now available for pre-order. This batch is 3000 units, from what I know ~1000 are already sold. These units are currently being produced, and are planned to ship in December/January. Mass production of the consumer edition of the phone is planned to begin in March 2020.

I just pre-ordered mine, is anyone else getting one? Any thoughts on the state of Linux smartphones, whether it's the PinePhone, Librem 5, or something else?