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Hey all,
Over here in Australia (imagine in USA and a few other countries), the 3G/2G mobile networks are being shutdown. My carrier Vodafone is gradually shutting its down with Dec 15th 2023 being the final closure date. The 4G network will have VolTE but my device (LG V20) does not appear to support VolTE nor does it look like i can update the firmware easily (if at all) to do so.
Anyone else have this issue with their phone? (i realise it will be older ones)
Question about VolTE though - will sms and standard voice calling still work on 4G on my device or similar devices without VolTE ?.
thanks
Nig

Dear Tildes

I am thankful for this website and the people on it. I am here very often– more than I ought to be. Of late, it has been my sole recourse as I am usually alone and always drift toward idleness.

You are an honest and conscientious group of people. I am thankful to have here a community which is so thoughtful and full of so many interesting folks. I am always intrigued by people and their stories. Though I don’t usually comment on these topics, I am especially surprised by how willing many of you are to share very personal feelings and memories.

I am thankful for those who put up with me. On this website I suppose that means everyone who reads ~transport. I am thankful especially to those who share their perspectives and take the time to examine the particulars of ideas I present.

I am thankful for what is and not just what could be, even though I am characteristically focused on the latter.

I am thankful for those who love me. Yesterday, I made a somewhat foolish decision that brought me great pain (physically—literally, and otherwise). I suppose I would say I allowed my pride to supersede the reality of my body. I evaded further consequence only on the kindness of another. I was very fortunate to have such a resource in a time of need.

Occasionally (like everyone) I have some kind of mortal scare, or some kind of interpersonal realization, or some other serious emotional conflict which leads to a pivot in my life, or some better and more complete understanding of life and the world. So I am thankful that I am still here, and that I am yet able to see the world with my own two eyes.

I am not at my most mobile right now, nor my most comfortable, for reasons that are mostly my fault. So I may remain rather active here for the foreseeable future. Or I may not as it would possibly prove better for me to look at fewer screens altogether. In any case, I am thankful for all the interesting discussions I have had on this website, and any future ones I may theoretically have.

Spoken or sung (anon.?):

Blessings be upon this house
Mine family and friends
For thankfulness gathered here
God hath shown His mercy

Blessings be upon this meal
Earthly sustenance true
Till and harvest not forgot
O Lord– we are grateful

Blessings be upon us all
O brother lost to me
For your soul I wish rest
Thank you heavenly Father

Blessings be forevermore
Upon these lands and men
Body and spirit safekeep
For I love all the world

Sincerely
scroll lock

I'm interested in domain names that are remarkable in the sense that they are short or easy-to-remember.

This idea for a topic started because I find myself window shopping for domain names. Thing is, the only use I have for a domain is for my personal website. That's why I hesitate picking up these fun quirky domains.

What are some interesting domain names you've encountered?

Do you think it's worth it (in terms of utility and/or entertainment value) to have a more remarkable domain name for a personal website?

I was chatting with a friend about Thanksgiving. Neither of us find the holiday relevant to us, so this year we're going for something health-oriented (somewhat off-theme, but we liked it). I'd love to have lots of traditions, but I didn't grow up with them. If you found a tradition later in life, how did it come about?

I am preparing to make beef bourguignon for my Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow (Kyiv cake for dessert) so I am watching Julia Child's take on it.

She mentioned that if you want the dish to be really French than you could buy imported bay leaves from France because they have a different flavor than American bay leaves. It made me start thinking about where my spices were grown and if all of them have specific regional variances that can take specific dishes to the next level. I knew honey can taste wildly different based on the region's flora that was available to make the honey, but never thought too much about spices.

Have you found that using spices from their region of origin significantly enhances a dish?

Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like casinos, sam altman and catgirls. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, if anyone was speculating.

But one of my favourite tags happens to be offbeat! Taking its original inspiration from Sir Nils Olav III, this thread is looking for any far-fetched offbeat stories lurking in the newspapers. It may not deserve its own post, but it deserves a wider audience!

I have something I need to vent about, that I've tried to vent to friends about as well, but where nobody has been on the same page as me before.

In short, I despise gambling (casinos, sports betting, loot boxes in games, etc.), I think it destroys lives, often slowly and discreetly, and I think advertisements for it should be as taboo as tobacco advertisements and should even be illegal.

In long:

I've seen a trend in the last few years of sports betting becoming advertised to an unbearable degree. I can't watch any sport without a commercial for draft kings or fan duel. I can't even watch youtube without content creators being sponsored by draft kings. Advertisements for sports betting, specifically, are literally everywhere. I'm even in a basketball chat and there are several people there that DON'T EVEN WATCH BASKETBALL, they're specifically there to talk about the bets they make for a sport they don't watch.

I've seen at least a dozen friends sign up due to the ridiculous amount of advertising and with almost every single one, they claim they're getting "free money" since DK does give you free bets on a first deposit or something, but then every single one, after running out of the "free money" doesn't cash out and delete their account, they put five more dollars in, then put ten in, etc. until it starts to control their life and their finances. There shouldn't be a person alive that doesn't know how gambling can destroy you, but people still sign up for this bullshit. Nobody seems to understand that the only reason draft kings can give you free money on signup is because, on average, they make MORE than that per person.

On the subject of casinos, I went to Las Vegas for the first time last year. I already knew how elaborate and rich the casinos on the strip are, that part did not surprise me. What did surprise me is that if you go just a few blocks off the strip, it's almost entirely run down low income housing. You have possibly one of the richest areas in the United States in the form of the strip and seemingly none of that wealth is being shared to neighboring communities. It just goes back into the strip, getting sports teams to move to Vegas, getting F1 races, etc.

It just baffles me that so many people gamble and, even when warned about it, even after losing money, they insist that it's fun or that it's not so bad, but I truly think that gambling culture and companies running gambling schemes are some of the biggest evils out there. My parents divorced partly because of gambling. My dad permanently fucked his life up because of it. He has zero money, is now at an age and health where he can barely work, and my sister and I will likely be stuck footing the bill for his care later in life when just 15 years ago he was in a position to be set up pretty well for the rest of his life.

And yet, people still go to Vegas and lose hundreds or thousands on slots or cards, people still sign up on draft kings and lose hundreds or thousands on bets, and seemingly everyone I talk to is entirely blind on how bad of a situation this is and thinks me radical when I say that gambling advertisements should be illegal.

I value personal freedom, I don't think gambling should be banned, but I do think it can pose just as much of a danger to ruining someone's life as cigarettes can, but as a society, nobody seems to have any issue with ads for sports betting and casinos.

In addition to all of the above, we still have loot boxes in video games and collectible card games as a whole, but that would be another 2 pages of writing and I don't want to get in that deep.

If you stuck with me this whole time, thank you. I don't expect many people to agree, but I at least really needed to vent this out, even if it's into the void.

Do any of you have positive or negative experiences regarding gambling to add?

Hello!

I've tried looking for it, but I can't find it. It was an essay about how a large increase of new members alienates the community feeling. How the income of stranger must be kept low so they can become "not a stranger" and how many strangers at once stop that from happening because people know each other less.

Unfortunately I can't find it at all. Does anyone still remember/have it saved?

Thank you very much!

Being Danish I've never really had any reason to know anything about this holiday - all I know is cursory stuff from movies and whatever one might stumble upon on the internet. Something about pilgrims and eating and/or pardoning birds. But yeah my friend invited me for Thanksgiving because her wife is American and wants to celebrate. But I don't know what I've gotten myself into 😅

There will be other expat Americans as well which makes me a little more nervous, so I'm hoping to learn a thing or two from you all on tildes so please give me any and all advice you can!

I'm looking for general advice about it but I guess I have a couple of specific questions too. They are not very traditional people so it's not going to be formal, and they have called it both Thanksgiving and Friendsgiving - but is there any particular difference between the two? And my other question is what would be a good present for the hostesses - do guests usually give anything particular? Or will the usual flowers/wine kind of thing be okay?