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    1. What did you do this week (and weekend)?

      As part of a weekly series, these topics are a place for users to casually discuss the things they did — or didn't do — during their week. Did you accomplish any goals? Suffer a failure? Do...

      As part of a weekly series, these topics are a place for users to casually discuss the things they did — or didn't do — during their week. Did you accomplish any goals? Suffer a failure? Do nothing at all? Tell us about it!

      8 votes
    2. What home network equipment do you use?

      Hey all, I'm interested in going down the rabbit hole with Ubiquiti equipment or other manufacturers, more specifically with access points, routers, and a switch. I want to ween off my...

      Hey all, I'm interested in going down the rabbit hole with Ubiquiti equipment or other manufacturers, more specifically with access points, routers, and a switch. I want to ween off my ISP-supplied all-in-one equipment as their newer hardware limits basic features such as port forwarding, and I'm interested in re-enabling my self-hosted software. Wi-Fi standards have been moving pretty quickly, as have hardware. What setups do you have established in your homes?

      I don't really have a budget in mind, and have a 2.5GbE port I'd like to utilize for media consumption over LAN.

      29 votes
    3. TV Tuesdays Free Talk

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows 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.

      11 votes
    4. What rooms would you deem necessary for a house, and how necessary are they?

      I know for basic living for one single person and no pets, a bathroom, and kitchen+living room+bedroom are the bare essentials. So basically a studio. What I'm looking for is some opinions on what...

      I know for basic living for one single person and no pets, a bathroom, and kitchen+living room+bedroom are the bare essentials. So basically a studio.

      What I'm looking for is some opinions on what separated rooms are needed/wanted for a house, and also how needed/wanted are they? I'd say the bathroom and "studio" room would rank as #1 and #2, unless you plan on having the "studio" area separate. In that case, these are ranked as:
      Bathroom -1
      Kitchen - 2
      Bedroom - 3
      Living room - 4

      Maybe add in closets here and there, and a laundry room?

      Bthrm closet - 5
      Laundry - 6
      Bdr closet - 7
      Pantry - 8
      Lvgrm closet - 9

      But I know nothing of what rooms are necessary (or lesser known possible rooms/areas) for living, or even how big they should be. I know in my state, NC, the bare minimum is 720 sq ft, so shooting for slightly over that would be ideal for me. I don't want to have a huge house to clean, and I love cozy, small spaces. If I want to see some larger space, I'll look out a window or go outside.

      So what would be your numbered list for priority rooms in a house?

      19 votes
    5. What creative projects have you been working on?

      This topic is part of a series. It is meant to be a place for users to discuss creative projects they have been working on. Projects can be personal, professional, physical, digital, or even just...

      This topic is part of a series. It is meant to be a place for users to discuss creative projects they have been working on.

      Projects can be personal, professional, physical, digital, or even just ideas.

      If you have any creative projects that you have been working on or want to eventually work on, this is a place for discussing those.

      4 votes
    6. Fresh Album Fridays: Taylor Swift, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, The Mountain Goats, and more

      Good morning ~ This is a thread to discuss new album releases that have arrived on our doorstep this week. Feel free to share albums and EPs that have caught your eye and interest. Discussion...

      Good morning ~ This is a thread to discuss new album releases that have arrived on our doorstep this week. Feel free to share albums and EPs that have caught your eye and interest.

      Discussion Points

      What are you looking forward to listen to?
      Have you listened to any of these releases?
      What are your thoughts?
      What have you enjoyed from these artists in the past?

      Why Friday?

      Most (but not all) new LPs release on a Friday, as labels want to give the release a full week of sales before entering the charts.

      ~~ Feedback on the format welcome

      12 votes
    7. What else is going on?

      With all the noise being generated by everything that's happening in Israel & Palestine, I'm starting to feel like governments and large corporations are going to take advantage of this to push...

      With all the noise being generated by everything that's happening in Israel & Palestine, I'm starting to feel like governments and large corporations are going to take advantage of this to push something under the radar that would normally be objected to.

      For the sake of staying informed - is there anything going on that seems like it's not being given adequate attention? What's going on in Gaza is horrible and I have no capacity to affect change in that situation, all I can do is focus on things that I have some degree of influence over.

      43 votes
    8. Solution for indirect lighting from top of bookcase

      Hey all. I have a room that's currently lit (during the night) by two light fixtures attached to the same wall and on the same switch. Each fixture has two LED lights with a 2700K or 2800K color...

      Hey all. I have a room that's currently lit (during the night) by two light fixtures attached to the same wall and on the same switch. Each fixture has two LED lights with a 2700K or 2800K color temperature (don't remember exactly), 230lm brightness, 3.9W power consumption, for presumably a theoretical total of 920lm and 15.6W. These bulbs are angled some 45 degrees forward aimed at the (white) ceiling in order to reflect diffuse light for the rest of the room.

      I'm going to add two tall bookcases to that wall which are going to cover where the lights currently are, so I need to figure out another solution for lighting. I don't want to damage the ceiling. Currently, my idea is to extend the wiring from the walls up behind the bookcases and place lights at the top of the bookcases, similarly angled forward so they reflect off the ceiling closer to the middle of the room.

      But I'm not finding appropriate fixtures, devices or anything else that I can place on a horizontal surface in order to angle a directed diffuse light forward. The closest I have right now would be something like these outdoor waterproof floodlights.

      They have a number of problems, though, chief of all the temperature being 3000K (that's the lowest available; you can get them a lot colder). For some reason, no one seems to be making 2700K/2800K versions of these. I'm afraid if I buy these, the light in this room will be noticeably different from the rest of the house. They are also very bright at 1000lm each (these are the darkest available; they make them even brighter) for a total 2000lm, more than twice the current brightness. I'm afraid if I sit in a room lit by these, it will affect the quality of my sleep.

      Does anyone have any ideas that might yield something closer to what I currently have, but which can be placed atop the bookcases and directed forward and up, as desired? It's also important that replacements don't require waiting for a 6 week cargo ship voyage from somewhere in China, that the power consumption isn't significantly higher, and that there won't be some huge monstrous device on the bookcase visible from the ground.

      9 votes
    9. Fitness Weekly Discussion

      What have you been doing lately for your own fitness? Try out any new programs or exercises? Have any questions for others about your training? Want to vent about poor behavior in the gym? Started...

      What have you been doing lately for your own fitness? Try out any new programs or exercises? Have any questions for others about your training? Want to vent about poor behavior in the gym? Started a new diet or have a new recipe you want to share? Anything else health and wellness related?

      7 votes
    10. AI overview for tech illiterate TV people

      Hey folks I've got a couple of months to put together an overview for tools that a company could use as part of television production and I'm hoping for your input. It goes without saying that...

      Hey folks

      I've got a couple of months to put together an overview for tools that a company could use as part of television production and I'm hoping for your input.

      It goes without saying that everyone in the tech world is pushing ai heavily. Having been in IT for almost 3 decades I know what to watch, look at, out for, etc. AI is still very much regurgitation of its input but the input is vast. What I have right now is some bare bones of what I want to throw around for insight and discussion for what would help people in TV production tool wise.

      For those that do not know how TV production works it's a simple idea: you generate a huge raft of ideas for shows, absolute basic outline of what the show would be about and put that in to a paper. You then sit around in your research/Dev dept and pitch to each other and the ones that people go "yeah, that could make a good show" get some extra meat added. Those ideas get pitched to dept heads who then take the best ones to channel/broadcasters execs and see if any get hooked at all. If they do, they get given some development funding to put together a taster/pilot/video version with the funding they have. This means shot on camera, run through an edit for cutting, audio, graphics, etc, still in its infancy and development state. This video and a bigger padded Treatment (documented idea with its bones, flesh and now make-up added) goes back to the broadcaster and you wait for feedback. If you get lucky you get a greenlight and order for X amount of shows and then you have a production. The production is taking the idea to it's full potential, shooting it, audio and music, graphics, the works and that's what you see on TV.

      I'm after working out what tools AI offers today that would help them with this process. Right now, ChatGPT v4 will generate some great treatment ideas for shows, except I would imagine these shows already exist or have been tried to channel/broadcaster before? AI is regurgitation and not thoughtful to its own ideas and imagination. I suppose with great prompts it could generate great output.

      Okay, that's the process and I'm rambling. Right now I have a short list of LLMs such as ChatGPT and Bard types that will help with the idea stage for researchers. I could use some decent links for prompters to help the research know how to ask AI for what they want out of it.

      When it comes to generative AI for graphics I only have experience with txt2img using the likes of DALLE and Midjourney, along with some inpainting for changing images with lies, I mean, graphics (insert plane on fire, etc).

      Does anyone have any other ideas and tools which would help production or useful things I can look at and research myself to see how they could be helpful? Auto audio generation? Graphic building that takes less time? Think of those great show intros for the likes of Game of Thrones, can that be done using AI yet or are we no where near that level for AI? Even basic video edits, where are we for AI help? Can we feed it some clips and have it autostitch based on an input document? If so, what tools should I be looking at and researching?

      I'm asking here before I plop search terms in Google and Bing and then get swamped with whichever has paid the most or played the SEO game to be top of the pages. Asking for real human input is definitely better than asking AI which may actually be the whole point of my talk when it happens.

      Thanks for listening and any help/pointers/sites you can give.

      UPDATE:
      I went off and did some research. Enjoy these if you want. I had issues linking so if a mod wants to go ahead and do that, feel free:

      Pre-Production:

      Treatment idea generation

      Generating a great idea is usually through using knowledge and research, but these days you can literally ask an AI engine to come up with a show idea. Here I will list some good AIs that use a very large language model (LLM) to come up with ideas:

      ChatGPT4 from OpenAI

      ChatGPT is the best known AI out there, but essentially it's the AI that everyone uses. What's different is the data that is fed to it. ChatGPT from OpenAI has a lot of knowledge, however, it's generally backdated information and not up to the minute.

      You.com

      Built on ChatGPT4 AI. Data fed in more up to date as it's based around a search engine. Due to the plethora of sources being fed to the You.com Chat bot, you may find some more interesting results and ideas.

      Bing.com - Chat

      Directly leverages the latest version of ChatGPT4 from OpenAI but uses additional media from Microsoft sources. Responses are more natural due to the Turing Natural Language.

      Copy.ai

      A fun LLM designed for advertising agencies and the alike. The difference here is you can upload a back-catalogue of your own data for it to analyse to take on your brand voice, mix up your ideas and generally become one of the family.

      Prompting

      Just from picking one of the four AIs listed above, you can straight out ask for a basic show idea. All of them came back with interesting ideas from the prompt of "Generate me a great show idea for a television production treatment. The show should be a documentary for daytime viewing."

      Prompting is the hardest part of any AI interaction, the results can wildly vary depending on what and how you ask. Due to this, there's a new type of website to help with prompting:

      https://promptperfect.jina.ai/prompts

      Using the line from above about generating a great show idea, promptperfect injects a lot more information into the prompt before running: "Please create a compelling show idea for a daytime documentary television production. The show should be engaging and informative, catering to a broad daytime audience. It should focus on a specific topic or theme that is both educational and entertaining. The documentary should be well-researched and provide in-depth information on the chosen topic, presenting it in a visually appealing and accessible manner. The show should aim to captivate viewers and leave them with a better understanding and appreciation of the subject matter. Additionally, please provide a brief outline of the structure and format of the documentary, including the number of episodes, approximate runtime, and any unique features or storytelling techniques that will make the show stand out." The quality of the Treatment created will be far superior to the initial request.

      https://webutility.io/

      An interesting take on generation of prompting. It breaks down the prompts to dropdown boxes with key words such as create, design, analyse along with the focus type. This forces the ai to create some more complex and well thought out documentation for a treatment idea with explanation of how it got to where it did.

      AIs to help with show production

      Location finding/scouting

      With the latest AI image searching features, you can now upload an image and get a "related" search. Using this technology, you could, for example, look for English Country Gardens that you would like to film out of. Uploading this image would give you a list of locations, similar places and website associated with the image:

      On each of the following sites, in the search bar, click the Image Icon to upload the image:

      https://www.bing.com/images/
      https://images.google.com/

      Scheduling (not specifically AI)

      Scheduling shoots should be simple. We've seen all the fun from an Excel spreadsheet that's laid out like a calendar, through to the most complex diary entries in a shared Google calendar. We already have the tools for this in Microsoft Office:

      Microsoft Bookings: This is a great tool for scheduling a diary of a single person or a whole team. It allows to have a Web Page where people can book in time for appointments, whether virtual or in person. Perfect for a researcher trying to book interviews with a host. The AI lies in the ability to cross search a calendar and pick associated times available.

      Microsoft Planner: A tool for project and time management. Breakdown the show in to buckets (categories) and assign out tasks to people and teams, due by dates or exact dates, etc. You can even keep all of the documents in the plan.

      Microsoft Shifts: Team management for your production using Shifts. This allows you to schedule team members in Teams, allowing them to clock in and out, as well as specifying when they need to be available.

      The three tools all work with the Outlook Calendars so each person knows what their plans are well in advance.

      Post-Production

      This is the one most people are interested in for AI at this time. The tools used for image generation, manipulation, etc. The market is currently being flooded with tools and not all of them are equal, but here's a few ones to watch and use.

      Auto-Clipping & Social Platform

      OpusClip, using the power of OpenAI, can take a long video and create 10 viral clips from it at the click of a button. The AI behind it analyses the video, looks for compelling sections and highlights, then seamlessly rearranges in to short videos. This tool will be great for generating short promotional videos of long form shows, documentaries, etc.

      Descript is a great tool that can take a video, give you a transcription, then you can edit the transcript, where it then edits the video to match. You can remove words, create studio quality audio from a standard mic, remove common error words such as um, and er, etc. One of the bigger cool things it can do is voice mimic using AI. You read it a line and then you can type out a whole transcript and it'll narrate it in your voice and allow export.

      AI Generative

      Moving on to the more scary AI platforms, we have completely generative AI. This is where AI generates absolutely everything including the "avatar" of the human speaking. It's getting so real, you could probably make a documentary using nothing buy AI voice for narration and even have an interview with the AI Avatar.

      Video Generation

      Synthesia has 120+ voices, over 140 AI Avatars and an editing tool that is extremely easy to use. Mostly aimed at Sales, Training and Marketing Teams, but could easily be used to create development tasters and cuts by mixing in the AI with real video. An example video here.

      AI Studios from DeepBrain is another tool, similar to Synthesia. The avatars are based on real humans being recorded but then converted in to AI models. Again, lots of models, full text to video.

      Spline AI is a 3D modelling engine that will generate models from text prompts. It's still in Alpha stages but specifying something like "A cube", "rounded corners", "floating", "spinning slowly" will generate exactly that. This tool is aimed at animators but is likely where CGI effects will head.

      Still Image Generation

      Txt-2-img is amazing and growing at an ever rapid pace. With the wealth of images out there to learn from, the styles, etc, it's no wonder it's doing great. However, it's far from perfect, even now. You'll often find that it adds limbs or fingers to models, shadows completely wrong, crazy styles that are not what you asked for, and that's just the start of the issues with it. However, when it gets it right, it's amazing.

      DALL·E3 from OpenAI is the current leader in image generation. If you need to whiz up a picture of a steam train, crossing a suspension bridge at sunset with a woodland in the background, this is the tool of choice.

      Bing Image Creator is probably the second biggest right now and has very good accuracy of text to image due to the absolutely huge database of images with high detail being fed to it by Microsoft. It's also free.

      I'm not going to list too many more as a lot of them stray off in to fantasy land, being trained on Anime, comics, however, DeepAI definitely deserves a mention. These are the folks behind a lot of the viral videos where you can scan your face and and speak a few lines, then it adds you to a section of a movie as a "Deep Fake". You can have it chat, generate images and even AI edit images with txt-2-img.

      Video Edit Tools

      The biggest AI enhancers right now are tools that help in the Edit at a professional level.

      Topaz Video AI is one of the leading tools in Post production. Upscale footage from SD to 8K and HD to 16K. Full denoise, sharpening, 16x slow down with AI interpolation including building new frames. Corrects people and faces. AI Stabilized video to stop bounce and tracking issues. This is a complete Post Swiss-army knife.

      Adobe After Effects which everyone knows. The Adobe AI, called Sensei, is under constant development. Easy animations of text and logos via text to video, rotoscoping video objects to remove the background of a person and replace, or removal of all objects in a scene using AI generative filling is all extremely easy.

      Adode Premiere deserves a mention, but again, this down to Sensei. The current AI tools coming in to the suite are things such as Auto Rough Cut using the transcript to generate the video, full auto transcription with subtitle creation for multiple languages. Auto Colour will fix most colour issues using AI to save time in grading. AI Morph Cut adds visual continuity to cut transitions, remix for music matching with visuals, and Auto Ducking – popping dialogue over background audio to make sure you can hear voices correctly.

      ColourLab AI is a new kind of grading tool where you no longer need to spend time with an artist grading every scene. The tool is a plugin to Davinci or Premiere and will do cool things such as film grain matching or stock emulation, which allows you to match any scenes together to look exactly the same. Take a video of a pigeon flying over a statue in London, and have it grade using a still frame from The Martian to get those awesome colours automatically, for the whole scene.

      Audio/Narrator/Voice Over

      The final piece is the new voiceover AI generation. No longer do we need voice over artists. In fact, Hollywood thinks the same and fired the whole staff of Snow White and replaced the Dwarfs with CGI and AI voices.

      Altered Studio can change any persons voice, in any way you wish. Record your voice for narration and then adjust it to be male, female, Elvern, whatever. It also does full transcription and allows for VO with text-to-speech using AI voices.

      A quick shout out to a member of Tildes who wants to remain anonymous for some of the cool links that they sent over - much appreciated.

      6 votes
    11. What everyday things can you replace with a higher-quality alternative?

      Some normal everyday things have "premium" alternatives which are more high-quality and pleasant to use. Some examples of what I mean Ballpoint pens -> Fountain pens Cartridge razor -> Double edge...

      Some normal everyday things have "premium" alternatives which are more high-quality and pleasant to use. Some examples of what I mean

      Ballpoint pens -> Fountain pens
      Cartridge razor -> Double edge razor
      Nespresso -> Brewing coffee
      Membrane keyboards -> Mechanical keyboards

      Those things can be overkill, but if it's something that you use often, it can become a great investment.

      What other similar improvements have you found?

      73 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.

      10 votes
    13. State of EVs in Fall 2023?

      My RSS reader has turned up a lot of pessimistic articles about the state of EVs in the last few days, for example:...

      My RSS reader has turned up a lot of pessimistic articles about the state of EVs in the last few days, for example:

      https://www.thedrive.com/news/gm-is-stalling-ev-production-because-demand-is-falling-off

      https://www.thedrive.com/news/gm-delays-expanded-silverado-ev-production-orion-assembly-by-year

      https://www.thedrive.com/news/mercedes-dealers-struggling-to-sell-evs-complain-eqs-isnt-aspirational-enough

      https://techcrunch.com/2023/10/17/gm-delays-4b-ev-truck-factory-plan-by-another-year/

      https://techxplore.com/news/2023-10-vietnam-vinfast-struggles-electric-cars.html

      https://english.elpais.com/economy-and-business/2023-10-18/europe-is-looking-to-fight-the-flood-of-chinese-electric-vehicles-but-europeans-love-them.html

      Caught this YouTube video also:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZlsZwcIgpc

      Because of the car industry's obsession with XXL vehicles, Australia is thinking about increasing the size of the standard parking space

      https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/oct/15/australia-may-increase-standard-car-parking-spaces-as-huge-vehicles-dominate-the-streets

      meanwhile, given a choice, consumers are snapping up the reasonably sized and highly efficient (40mpg!) Ford Maverick

      https://www.thedrive.com/news/the-ford-maverick-is-outselling-every-midsize-truck-but-the-toyota-tacoma

      maybe those American consumers might desire a bigger truck but they can afford that one.

      When I read between the lines I'm inclined to think that there isn't any shortage of interest in EVs, but there is a shortage of interest in $80,000 EVs because very few people can afford them. What are you seeing in your neck of the woods? What intervention can you imagine that would help get the industry come to its senses?

      31 votes
    14. What are your thoughts on how a vet should interact with a dog?

      I'm curious about people's thoughts/opinions on how a vet (or someone offering a pet service) should interact with a dog. It seems as though people have wide ranging and shifting opinions about...

      I'm curious about people's thoughts/opinions on how a vet (or someone offering a pet service) should interact with a dog. It seems as though people have wide ranging and shifting opinions about how dogs should be interacted with and how they interpret the dog's behavior. Some people are extremely sensitive about their dog's mental well being. They do acupuncture and meditation exercises with their dog, speak about the dog's mental health and choose vets that take a very non-threatening and holistic approach to dealing with dogs.

      On the flip side is the vet that, although kind and somewhat sensitive, takes a more treatment focused approach and are more direct (the "gentle but firm" approach). Although the dog may be nervous and scared, IME that's pretty common for many dogs. This more direct vet would acknowledge the nervousness but still do what they need to do, often saying "I know you don't like this buddy, but we've gotta do this".

      I'm curious what people's thoughts are on this. I'm asking about this because I had an experience at a vet that took a more sensitive approach. And while I appreciate that, my dog was sick and needed treatment. Because of this sensitive technique, the vet didn't examine my dog. He did the "let the dog come to me" approach, which, heh, doesn't really work when you have a sick dog that needs a diagnosis and treatment. You kinda HAVE to put your hands on the dog, feel their vitals, chest, check for lumps, etc. The vet also did the "don't make eye contact" approach, which, heh, means you also aren't looking at my dog to see what their issue looks like. Basically the vet crouched down in the corner of the room, didn't look at my dog and didn't touch her. Because I'm very cuddly with dogs, my dog took his behavior as being uninterested and ignored him. When the vet pointed to her ears and said they were laying down because she felt threatened, I corrected him and said her ears were down because she was being submissive (she was calm, sitting with her ears relaxed, not flattened down against her head). I was getting frustrated because I just wanted my dog examined and treated. I'm fine with my dog being uncomfortable during a wellness exam because that's just the way it goes, even for humans! I do want a vet to be somewhat sensitive but firmness and directness can be done sensitively. Idk if it's because I'm older and have an older mentality about this. I grew up watching vets kinda manhandle dogs and saying "they're dogs, they're fine, don't worry so much". I don't treat dogs like hunting dogs (that's just too harsh imo) but I acknowledge that dogs are tougher than we think sometimes.

      What are your thoughts and/or opinions on this?

      (This is my first post, so please do add tags or tell me if I've missed anything. Thanks!)

      18 votes
    15. Computer savvy people of Tildes, do you have any advice re setting up a new MS Windows personal computer?

      Any advice should be suitable for a non tech person who knows how to google and follow instructions but not code in any way. Can anyone suggest which firewall and or antivirus might be best? All...

      Any advice should be suitable for a non tech person who knows how to google and follow instructions but not code in any way.

      Can anyone suggest which firewall and or antivirus might be best? All suggestions for making life easier while dealing with a new machine are welcome.

      37 votes
    16. What have you been listening to this week?

      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...

      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.

      5 votes
    17. 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.

      6 votes
    18. Gardeners of the northern hemisphere, how did it go this year?

      The growing season here in southeastern Australia is just kicking off, so I'd love to hear (and see!) your successes and failures, what you will repeat and what you want to change, what your...

      The growing season here in southeastern Australia is just kicking off, so I'd love to hear (and see!) your successes and failures, what you will repeat and what you want to change, what your future plans are, etc.

      43 votes
    19. How often do you 100% games/in what circumstances would you try to?

      I just got my Spider-Man 2 Platinum trophy and was looking through my trophy list, I wonder how many people will also obsessively chase the 100% or Platinum trophy and under what conditions. My...

      I just got my Spider-Man 2 Platinum trophy and was looking through my trophy list, I wonder how many people will also obsessively chase the 100% or Platinum trophy and under what conditions.

      My personal favorite 100% achievements recently and why:
      Slay the Spire - I dumped almost 500 hours in this game and finally got Eternal One last year, it was an incredible journey and I definitely feel myself getting better as I play
      God of War Ragnorak - I'm a lifelong God of War fan since the originals and getting through this game was definitely a journey. Finishing the final final boss was incredibly satisfying
      Resident Evil 4 Remake - Another one of my personal favorite games of all time, I grinded a week for 50 hours to grab this over about 4 or 5 playthroughs
      Spider-Man 2 - My fastest platinum, not too difficult but very satisfying (I do love Spider-man though lol)

      12 votes
    20. I've been looking into self-hosting, what's the best cost-efficient option?

      I host a couple of very small websites for personal stuff and a Foundry server for my weekly RPG. Not exactly resource-intensive. And I've been paying for webhosting for a while for it, and it...

      I host a couple of very small websites for personal stuff and a Foundry server for my weekly RPG. Not exactly resource-intensive. And I've been paying for webhosting for a while for it, and it just feels unnecessary.

      I always figured when I finally decided to do it, I'd just grab a Raspberry Pi and go to town. But they're... weirdly expensive. The Zero 2 W is sold out everywhere, they have insane resale prices, and you still need to essentially buy the 'kit' first time to have most of the stuff to set one up. So is it worth it?

      I've been toying between that or just grabbing an old server off craigslist or Facebook Marketplace for $25-$30 and just going to town from there. What do you guys recommend?

      31 votes
    21. What creative projects have you been working on?

      This topic is part of a series. It is meant to be a place for users to discuss creative projects they have been working on. Projects can be personal, professional, physical, digital, or even just...

      This topic is part of a series. It is meant to be a place for users to discuss creative projects they have been working on.

      Projects can be personal, professional, physical, digital, or even just ideas.

      If you have any creative projects that you have been working on or want to eventually work on, this is a place for discussing those.

      9 votes
    22. Have you learned a foreign language as an adult? What did you find effective?

      I would love to know of your experiences. I do speak multiple languages, but was lucky to learn them through immersion as a child. I would be super interested to know how people learn languages...

      I would love to know of your experiences. I do speak multiple languages, but was lucky to learn them through immersion as a child.

      I would be super interested to know how people learn languages (with a goal to speak them fluently) as an adult. What techniques worked? What techniques didn't? Do you have any funny stories (perhaps miscommunication anecdotes)? Was it worth it? Or your things generally in relation to language-learning!

      31 votes
    23. What do you like about your job?

      We all have things we hate about our jobs — for many of us it’s the actual job itself — but I’m interested in hearing about the things that you actually like. They can be big, satisfying things...

      We all have things we hate about our jobs — for many of us it’s the actual job itself — but I’m interested in hearing about the things that you actually like.

      They can be big, satisfying things (like the fulfillment of completing a big project) or they can be tiny little insignificant joys (like writing your to-do list with a really smooth pen).

      Let us know what you genuinely like about your work.

      38 votes
    24. How do you get through a moment?

      I hear people saying to suicidal people that its easier to get through life if you just try to get through the next moment, but tbh for me its at a point where depending on my mood i can't get...

      I hear people saying to suicidal people that its easier to get through life if you just try to get through the next moment, but tbh for me its at a point where depending on my mood i can't get through one moment, and i have used drugs much more frequently and made 3 attempts in the past week as a result (though they were all when cptsd and psychosis was bad so i wasn't thinking at all rationally, and i didn't completely expect them to work).
      For me "getting through the moment" is just continuing to exist, or just trying to distract myself/take drugs.

      So does anyone know of any ways to keep going without drugs if things are really severe?

      12 votes
    25. 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?

      14 votes
    26. Formula 1 US Grand Prix 2023 - Results

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      I don't know about you all, but I thought that was a great race. The tire strategies featured very prominently again, though for typical degradation reasons instead of Qatar's safety reasons. Some surprising moves made it an exciting race all the way to the end.

      EDIT: Updated the results due to the news of post-race DQs for HAM and LEC. (Thanks @deknalis)

      Results -- SPOILER
      POS NO DRIVER CAR LAPS TIME/RETIRED PTS
      1 1 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 56 1:35:21.362 25
      DQ 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 56 +2.225s 0
      2 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 56 +10.730s 0
      3 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 56 +15.134s 0
      4 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT 56 +18.460s 0
      DQ 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 56 +24.662s 0
      5 63 George Russell MERCEDES 56 +24.999s 0
      6 10 Pierre Gasly ALPINE RENAULT 56 +47.996s 0
      7 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 56 +48.696s 0
      8 22 Yuki Tsunoda ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT 56 +74.385s 0
      9 23 Alexander Albon WILLIAMS MERCEDES 56 +86.714s 0
      10 2 Logan Sargeant WILLIAMS MERCEDES 56 +87.998s 0
      11 27 Nico Hulkenberg HAAS FERRARI 56 +89.904s 0
      12 77 Valtteri Bottas ALFA ROMEO FERRARI 56 +98.601s 0
      13 24 Zhou Guanyu ALFA ROMEO FERRARI 55 +1 lap 0
      14 20 Kevin Magnussen HAAS FERRARI 55 +1 lap 0
      15 3 Daniel Ricciardo ALPHATAURI HONDA RBPT 55 +1 lap 0
      NC 14 Fernando Alonso ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES 49 DNF 0
      NC 81 Oscar Piastri MCLAREN MERCEDES 10 DNF 0
      NC 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 6 DNF 0

      Fastest Lap: Yuki Tsunoda

      Source: F1.com

      F1 heads "South of the Border" to Mexico City next weekend (Nov. 3-5).

      17 votes
    27. Seeking advice: How have you navigated misogyny in the workplace?

      After a recent incident I've had with a male colleague at work this past week, I feel lost and downtrodden on how to move forward in my career. I've experienced various forms of misogyny in most...

      After a recent incident I've had with a male colleague at work this past week, I feel lost and downtrodden on how to move forward in my career. I've experienced various forms of misogyny in most roles I've held, but this has been the worst offense I've encountered. It honestly has me sick with stress and I feel so alone in how to handle it.

      For context, I am often the only woman on meetings and regularly have to lead groups of all men. I've done this all throughout my career and have accepted it as a norm. While I have encountered issues in the past, never anything as egregious as what I dealt with the other day. I am often having to verify and source technical information to ensure project items are on track and this requires me to connect with various individuals. When some recent concerns were brought forward for an ongoing project, I was continually given the runaround by this male colleague. Due to days passing and the lack of cohesion for the issue of concern, I attempted to have a group discussion amongst the relevant folks.

      This action sent that male colleague into an absolute rage of which I was the target. An action that I have regularly done for months without issue and is a run-of-the-mill thing for communication was misinterpreted by him. Instead he viewed it as an attack and ran to my lead to accuse me of running to higher-ups to assert he isn't doing his work properly; a completely opposite story from what I had done. This male colleague proceeded to yell at me like an abusive ex and is proceeding with excluding me out of important discussions. My lead is also male and due to this male colleague running to him first, he sided with him when I attempted to connect about how I was treated. When talking with both men to explain or try to understand their perspective, I was continually talked over, hushed, and essentially silenced into submission. I was told I am now a risk to team cohesion and that I am causing problems when I have been receiving nothing but praise from all others for my work.

      I'm honestly so distraught from this experience and the lack of support from my lead. Each meeting with the male colleague that screamed at me has me on edge and I feel sick when determining how to get the answers I need for my work. Instead I am having to find a way to get placed on another project and the stress of sorting this with my company's HR. My confidence in my capabilities feels wounded and I am filled with anxiety now even when talking about topics I am familiar with. I am struggling to move past this and have the energy to find something better.

      For those of you who have experienced similar misogyny in the workplace, how did you overcome incidents like these? How did you stop feeling so broken by how it affected you? I'm so worried about landing another project or job that will have these same issues and I really don't know if I can take being treated by men like this in the professional world anymore. How do you interview or gage a company to determine you won't encounter this again? I am so bitter of continually seeing men have this behavior, yet have been rewarded in their careers by being elevated to positions of authority. Any advice, sharing of wisdom, or any support would be greatly appreciated.

      45 votes
    28. Follow-up question: For those who made a significant change, how did it affect your relationships, whether romantic, social, familial?

      A few of you mentioned in comments to my previous question that changing your mind could or did affect relationships. To those who did go through such a significant perspective shift, please share...

      A few of you mentioned in comments to my previous question that changing your mind could or did affect relationships. To those who did go through such a significant perspective shift, please share your story!

      20 votes
    29. Tildes Video Thread

      Find yourself watching tons of great videos on [insert chosen video sharing platform], but also find yourself reluctant to flood the Tildes front page with them? Then this thread is for you. It...

      Find yourself watching tons of great videos on [insert chosen video sharing platform], but also find yourself reluctant to flood the Tildes front page with them? Then this thread is for you.

      It could be one quirky video that you feel deserves some eyeballs on it, or perhaps you've got a curated list of videos that you'd love to talk us through...

      Share some of the best video content you've watched this past week/fortnight with us!

      13 votes
    30. Do you know any other good online communities?

      So far I only managed to find two online communities in which people are able to hold a productive discussion and share interesting stuff - Tildes and LessWrong. Do you know if there are any other...

      So far I only managed to find two online communities in which people are able to hold a productive discussion and share interesting stuff - Tildes and LessWrong. Do you know if there are any other great online spaces like this?

      65 votes
    31. TV Tuesdays Free Talk

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows 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.

      10 votes
    32. Any interest in a weekly movie discussion?

      With some inspiration from the Album of the Week over in ~music I was thinking of having something similar for movies. A weekly discussion on a specific movie - we just need to find a selection...

      With some inspiration from the Album of the Week over in ~music I was thinking of having something similar for movies. A weekly discussion on a specific movie - we just need to find a selection format that works. We already have a fine weekly thread with free for all discussion, but I was thinking more like a movieclub type thing.

      I was thinking a format where every Monday a new topic is created for a specific movie, and the first Monday of the month it will also include the titles for the rest of the month.

      The big problem is how to select the movies and what considerations to availability on various streaming services should be done. Which is not easy since the catalog isn't even the same across countries for the same service. I would like there is some element of random discovery, but with some intent of finding quality titles.

      I personally enjoy older classics and film festival type movies such as what is on The Criterion Channel and to an extent Mubi. They also have the benefit of being curated services with monthly selections we could simply piggyback on. But maybe that is a bit too niche. There are of course tons of various "best movies of all time"-lists to use and the 1001 movies you must see before you die would be a good candidate to get a mix of all time classics and some titles that aren't mainstream.

      We could also do various thematic selections based on decade, genre, director or actors, but I really just want to get started and see how the traction is.

      Feel free to chime in if you are interested and have suggestions on how we could choose the movies to watch, and hopefully I can get this thing started Monday the 30th of October.

      15 votes
    33. People who manage small websites, how much does it cost you in time (and finances)?

      Between "enshittification" and my general admiration for hobbyist websites, I have felt more and more pressed to learn how to make the websites I want to see and offer it at low cost. At the same...

      Between "enshittification" and my general admiration for hobbyist websites, I have felt more and more pressed to learn how to make the websites I want to see and offer it at low cost. At the same time, people usually have to maintain their day jobs and development expenses. I am curious how easy or difficult it is for people to do. (Also, I guess please share your small website if you'd like)

      24 votes
    34. Taking sea passage across the Atlantic—how?

      I’m looking for realistic alternatives to flying across the Atlantic Ocean. I write this from an airport. I utterly despise flying. I hate it. I dislike literally every step of the process. I find...

      I’m looking for realistic alternatives to flying across the Atlantic Ocean.

      I write this from an airport. I utterly despise flying. I hate it. I dislike literally every step of the process. I find the security screenings degrading despite the supposed advantages of TSA Pre-Check and Global Entry. I find the inefficient, class-based boarding process to be a complete waste of time. I am offended by the ridiculous itemized charges for luggage. Flying wreaks havoc on my body—my legs do not fit in their tiny seats and my head does not rest comfortably against their poorly adjustable headrest. Breathing stale, recirculating air for eight hours next to a coughing madman is unpleasant. When landing, without fail, the change in air pressure annihilates my sinuses, causing me a non-trivial amount of pain. I do not like it.

      These factors, primarily, as well as some preference for an environmentally friendly lifestyle, have led me to ask for ways to avoid using an airplane to cross the pond.

      I would be willing to pay somewhat more and spend considerably more time in transit to avoid flying. If it’s to be a particularly slow voyage (more than a week, as I imagine is typical), I would need an internet connection to work my job; something that can sustain a connection to a virtual machine, or in an ideal world take video calls. I have no other particular needs.

      I obviously cannot take a train. I am left with only two options as a non-working passenger (I think): a cruise, or a cargo ship. The former sounds expensive. I have heard of people doing the latter but at a glance all I see online is “service paused due to COVID-19.” Surely that cannot truly be the case in 2023, though?

      Does anyone have experience doing this? Can you offer advice on where to get started, what the experience is like, and what pitfalls to avoid? I am honestly almost at a breaking point here. I am obligated to take several transatlantic flights in the next year and I really cannot bear to continue doing this. I am open to ideas even if not all my criteria can be met. I appreciate any comments.

      19 votes
    35. What were your favorite Canadian bands of the 1990s?

      Always a fan of Sloan here, but I was recently reminded of Pure and have been grooving to “Spiritual Pollution” and “Anna”. So make me a virtual mix tape: What were your fav Canadian bands,...

      Always a fan of Sloan here, but I was recently reminded of Pure and have been grooving to “Spiritual Pollution” and “Anna”. So make me a virtual mix tape: What were your fav Canadian bands, albums, or songs of the ‘90s?

      31 votes
    36. Do you think dreams have meaning?

      Asking because I have been having such vivid dreams lately and sometimes they touch me so much to the point that half a day, sometimes even the entire day, will be negatively affected - although...

      Asking because I have been having such vivid dreams lately and sometimes they touch me so much to the point that half a day, sometimes even the entire day, will be negatively affected - although that might also be my poor mental health (decided against posting this in ~health.mental as I wasn't sure it had that much to do with it).

      I definitely have more bad dreams when I'm in a bad place or going through things, like if I feel lonely I will dream about relationships. If I've been really into something, like a game or watching a lot of the same genre of tv or film, I will dream about things towards that genre. If I'm having interpersonal issues, I will dream about those and even have conflicts and fights in my dreams very much related to that person - I have so many nightmares about my father for example.

      I'm not into astrology, tarot cards, witchy stuff, etc., beyond it being just for fun. And I feel like dreams are more along those lines although I don't know. I just know they can really affect me.

      What's your take?

      24 votes
    37. Fresh Album Fridays: Sampha, Jane Remover, The Rolling Stones and more

      Good morning ~ This is a thread to discuss new album releases that have arrived on our doorstep this week. Feel free to share albums and EPs that have caught your eye and interest. Discussion...

      Good morning ~ This is a thread to discuss new album releases that have arrived on our doorstep this week. Feel free to share albums and EPs that have caught your eye and interest.

      Discussion Points

      What are you looking forward to listen to?
      Have you listened to any of these releases?
      What are your thoughts?
      What have you enjoyed from these artists in the past?

      Why Friday?

      Most (but not all) new LPs release on a Friday, as labels want to give the release a full week of sales before entering the charts.

      ~~ Feedback on the format welcome!

      10 votes
    38. Substacks?

      Discoverability seems to be an issue, so I figured I'd outsource finding "good" publications to you fine intelligent folks. What are you subscribed to? Do you have any paid subscriptions? Where...

      Discoverability seems to be an issue, so I figured I'd outsource finding "good" publications to you fine intelligent folks.

      • What are you subscribed to?
      • Do you have any paid subscriptions?
      • Where does Substack fit in your daily life?

      Thank you kindly in advance


      PS: I have other interests I'd like to see long-form content about, but this post isn't limited to these. But if you provide publications about them, I'll love you more than the other commentors:

      • reverse engineering/binary analysis
      • smoking meats
      • moral philosophy
      • philosophy of religion
      • critical theory
      13 votes
    39. Upgrading from Cricut

      This is more aimed at professional folks I think, or small business from hobby printers. My wife is hitting the limits and frustrations of using Cricut Explore 3 to cut her heat vinyl projects....

      This is more aimed at professional folks I think, or small business from hobby printers.

      My wife is hitting the limits and frustrations of using Cricut Explore 3 to cut her heat vinyl projects. Suddenly, they've released a new machine type and adjusted the software they use which makes her machine cut faster (yay) but now it's more sloppy and not cutting as well as it did (it's not the blade, I repeat, IT IS NOT THE BLADE!)

      Her frustrations are becoming mine due to the earache. Does anyone on Tildes do heat transfer and normal vinyl work? She's also looking at printing to vinyl roll and cutting; her aim is mostly tees and teddies. Due to this, loading a full roll and having a lot of waste isn't ideal.

      We're after advice and what her upgrade steps are. We looked at printing to film (DTF) and garment (DTF) options, but we are definitely going to stay with vinyl for now.

      Thoughts, advice, options, anything of value to say is all welcome. Not to self promote or anything, but to give you ideas of what she makes Https://thunderlizard.co.uk/shop and look at near any item. You can see it is like 2x4", 8x8" and max usually 12x12" sizes and a mix of vinyl types from plain through to glitter. Hopefully seeing that should allow for better and more accurate advice.

      Thanks all!

      23 votes
    40. T-shirt collars ride up on neck after top surgery?

      Hey all! Long time no see. So, I'm dealing with a problem that I can't find many other people having online and I thought I would ask you very well informed people. So, I recently got a double...

      Hey all! Long time no see.
      So, I'm dealing with a problem that I can't find many other people having online and I thought I would ask you very well informed people.

      So, I recently got a double mastectomy, went from I believe C cups to an extremely flat chest.
      Since then, I've had quite the trouble with shirts, specifically t-shirts.

      They never did this before, but now, the shirt collar rides up on my throat every few minutes. It doesn't seem to matter too much what the size is, large or medium(the 2 sizes of shirts that I regularly wear).
      Of course, they also fit looser, but I expected that.
      Is this causing the shirts to ride up? Is there any way I can fix this?
      Additional, may or may not be relevant details:
      I have been on testosterone for 2 years, so could it have something to do with mass increase around my shoulders/neck?
      My weight is around 210lbs, and I'm 5'7/5'8.

      If anyone knows anything, or could point me to a better place to ask this question I would really appreciate your insight!

      23 votes
    41. Anyone else have horrible user experiences with Piped?

      With the Youtube adblock debacle going on, and my account on Firefox+Ublock getting the dreaded popup, I was trying out the Piped alternative frontends for Youtube. If you're unaware, this is...

      With the Youtube adblock debacle going on, and my account on Firefox+Ublock getting the dreaded popup, I was trying out the Piped alternative frontends for Youtube. If you're unaware, this is basically lets you browse Youtube without using the actual Youtube site or your Google account, and there's no ads. Whenever this adblock issue comes up, everyone starts pushing other frontends like Piped as the solution. There's also a dedicated bot that automatically replies with the Piped link when anyone posts a Youtube link on Lemmy. People seem to think very highly of this site! The simping for it can be very strong.

      I tried using the main instance, https://piped.video, but it was laggy! Completely, unusably slow. I've also had it crash whenever I try to watch certain videos. I heard there were other instances that would have less users and less pressure on the servers, so I tried out the other public instances. One of them worked great for a couple days, now it just stopped loading videos all of a sudden. All the other instances I've tried either don't load videos, or the domain is down.

      Are they cracking down on Piped now, or are all these instances just not good and you need to self-host to get anything out of Piped? Are there any other alternative frontends that you've liked?

      20 votes
    42. 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?

      15 votes
    43. How do you help someone find a job?

      I am helping someone look for a job related to coding (in Canada). Software development, web development, app development, etc. You get the idea. I have no connections in tech to help them...

      I am helping someone look for a job related to coding (in Canada). Software development, web development, app development, etc. You get the idea. I have no connections in tech to help them network. And I don't understand what the difference is between an intermediate/intro position, what qualifications to help them highlight on their resume, or what is preventing them from finding a job. I know they've applied to hundreds of posts on LinkedIn and Indeed, etc. but they have only received a single interview (but no job).

      I am at a loss - how do I help this person? How do you help someone find a job in a field you don't understand or have any network to help them meet the right person? Tech specific advice would be a godsend, but really any job-search related tricks, tips, etc. that I can pass on would be greatly appreciated.

      16 votes
    44. Anyone have recommendations for a CD player I can charge via USB and play via BT (or USB) in my car?

      A recent post here made me realize how much I really wish I just could pop in a CD while driving (you can skip those, and I can make mix CDs, so no need for cassettes haha). I commute a decent...

      A recent post here made me realize how much I really wish I just could pop in a CD while driving (you can skip those, and I can make mix CDs, so no need for cassettes haha). I commute a decent amount and I'm using a Pixel with GrapheneOS. Adding a streaming service would just be one more piece of Google I'd have to add to my "work" profile. I'm listening to some great podcasts, but I'd rather go full nostalgia without ripping all my CDs.

      That being said, I'd like any recommendations. USB would be nice for the constant power option, but blutooth is doable as well. TIA!

      9 votes