Teams is down or was down for pretty much everyone I know (work context).

Thinking in terms of business continuity, what is your fallback plan. Is your fallback a managed, enterprise class service?

Might get everyone internally to install Signal since it's end-to-end encrypted, has a desktop client and can handle file transfers. That's just off the cuff.

Thoughts?

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?

Edit: Voting closed

Lets try something a bit different for February, with one of the favorite discussion topics among cinephiles - with setting up superheroes against Martin Scorsese. We will need 4 movies for February and we will need 2 from each category. Directed by Martin Scorsese or a superhero movie (interpret that however you seem reasonable). Based on top number of votes the schedule will be:

• 5th: Superhero movie
• 12th: Scorsese movie
• 19th: Superhero movie
• 26th: Scorsese movie

Not a hard rule per se, but I would recommend to at least consider that especially the superhero movies should be reasonably standalone and not require having seen several other entries in a series.

Rules

• Must be directed by Martin Scorsese or be considered a superhero movie
• 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.

My wife and I have just finished playing Chants of Sennaar together. I know it's a single-player game, but working on the puzzles together is very satisfying, and the controls are simple enough (i.e. point and click) that it doesn't feel like the person controlling the game is "playing" the game, and we can discuss what's going on at our own pace.

Does anyone have any suggestions for other, similar games with (a) relatively simple interactions that let us play the game together, and (b) an interesting, engaging, and beautiful story?

I've seen a lot of recommendations for Obra Dinn as a similar game around gaining and then applying knowledge in order to solve the puzzles of the game. I confess the style isn't quite as appealing, but maybe we should give that a go next. Alternatively, Heaven's Gate looks like it's more explicitly a similar game about translation, but doesn't look like it'll be as easy to play together. I also thought about more old-school point-and-click games, but from everything I remember about those, they were less about figuring out puzzles with logic, and more about trying all the items in your inventory until something works...

I have a teenage child. They're going to be doing "design and tech" at school, and they've shown an interest in light maker / builder projects.

I want to put together a small toolkit for them.

The difficulty I'm having is that when I look at precision screwdrivers I pick a Felco set for £80. For regular screwdrivers I pick either Felco, Wira, Wiha, or Sandvick Bahco. This is probably a bad idea - they're going to end up with a lot of very expensive kit that they will not appreciate yet.

The other thing I'm struggling with is knowing which bits of kit are essential and which are nice to have.

I'd be really grateful to hear your thoughts about this kit. I'm especially interested to hear discussion about balancing "good enough" with "avoid garbage" -- I do prefer to spend more on quality rather than buying cheap buying often.

Screwdrivers:

A handle and a set of bits to fit the handle - £10
A set of weird bits (security, hex, torx) to fit the handle £5
Screwdrivers - pz1, pz2, 4 flat head screw drivers in sensible sizes (still working this out) (probably stanley FatMax) - £30

Snips - they're getting my Bahco snips and my ancient lindstrom snips. I want to get them something they can destroy through misuse, so I'll buy something for around £15

Pliers - needlenose serrated pliers £10
Pliers - big pliers - they'll be getting my ancient RS pliers.

Wire strippers - I like the scissor type that have a range of holes. A nice pair is about £20.

Wrenches and spanners - I have three adjustable spanners in different sizes. I'm looking at micro-ratchets, so something like Kerr or felo (xs33) (but the felo is expensive!!) or Bahco 2058/S26 for £20

Soldering iron - I'm super tempted to just get Hakko's intro model for £100-£150. But I don't know whether I should go instead for some cheap thing like tenma. My own preference for me is strongly Weller - I used weller irons for decades and they were so solid and robust for what I was doing, but not a great choice for tinkering about. I'm struggling to understand the build quality of Tenma bought from a reputable company. I don't want my child fixing things in a mains powered box.

I need a tool box to put it all in.

I need some kind of cutting and filing tools - cheap set of files and a little handle.

I need some measuring equipment - I don't know whether to include a nice set of steel rules or a cheap digital calliper.

Alongside all this there will be a dremel multitool and some useful accessories for it.

And also safety equipment - dustmasks, eye protection (from a reputable supplier!!)

The company I work for laid off half of my office this week. I'm one of the survivors, and trying to process what happened.

The company has been transparent about revenues. However, we had no idea that we would be so badly penalized for management choices that created significant operating cost overruns in the face of a projected short-term demand decline. I've lost half the members of my immediate team, good friends, people whose work and thoughtfulness I deeply respected. The entire department structure is being upended. The harshness of the selection for people who were being laid off included a teammate who's in the hospital, parents of young children, people on the edge of retirement. I'm suspicious and extra hostile towards the company - it's very significant to me that all the people of color and people who've had recent medical leave are among the lost.

It's not the first time I've watched and survived a company's poor management and bad choices, but this is by far the worst. I've worked very hard at staying professional with the customers this week. I'm still inwardly seething with rage. I'm trying to figure out how to be supportive to the people who are leaving. I'm trying to figure out how to help a team lead who's in his first management job, and is totally devastated and nearly frozen with helplessness. I'm decent at my job, but don't know why I was kept and others with equal or greater skills were let go. I don't feel good about what qualities I might have had that corporate desired to keep - dutifulness, compliance, amiability, reticence?

At the same time, I'm looking at months of double workload even though corporate management claims they'll outsource part of the duties (so that's another symptom that I'm replaceable) and manage the task pipeline. There's a frankly insulting retention bonus if I stay for another year. We've gotten the usual anodyne HR garbage about the employee assistance program and coping skills. The corporate management's left us with the ominous "stay tuned for further announcements over the coming weeks".

I don't have a lot of choices here. I'm trying hard to stay focused on the present, without looking over the cliff of dread at the future. At the moment, I'm the sole support for our household and source of health insurance. My spouse is badly burnt out, and I don't want him to look for work a minute before he's healthy and enthusiastic about a job. I'm a late-50's end-career professional who wouldn't normally have much interest in restarting yet again elsewhere. I very deliberately chose this company, job and location, liked the work I was doing, the people I was doing it with, and I was looking forward to building on it. There's still the possibility that our half-vacant remote office will be closed and consolidated with the corporate headquarters. I have less than zero interest in relocating, and plan to keep separated coworkers who live here as personal friends.

I'll be grateful to hear any advice on coping with this situation, and hope the replies will be helpful to others in future.

I do not like using mouse. I feel it disturbs the flow of things I am doing. Moreover, I like quickly pressing through a bunch of keystrokes that results in what I want. There is a sense of satisfaction in that.

For starters, I use Vim and love it. I liked it so much that all my browsers have Vim-like keybindings (through Vimium or Tridactyl). But that is as far as I have gone in making my life easier (apart from switching windows via Command+Tab, but for all else I need to use mouse).

I recently bought a MacBook and it is kind of disappointing that the keybindings are not so intuitive or don't exist natively as they do in Windows. For example, resizing the window was easier on Windows with Win+arrow. There are many such things I find lacking on Mac. Broadly, I am asking for what other improvements can I bring into better my keyboard-centric workflow.

I made my first mistake coordinating this project. Gormenghast was nominated, but it's the second book in a trilogy so I excluded it. Turns out, @azaadi meant to nominate the whole trilogy. It hadn't occurred to me.

So what are your thoughts? I haven't known book clubs to include trilogies, but my experience is limited.

Please vote below and feel free to comment.

Meta: This is a new post series I'm trying out. I've planned a trial run for three months to see if it catches on. If it does, I'll continue it. If not, I'll phase it out.

Tildes Gaming Club is a space to play and discuss games that fit a loosely defined theme. I see it like a Book Club, or similar to our current Album of the Week and Movie of the Week series. Instead of everyone focusing everyone on the same game, however, we're all focused on the same core theme, and we independently choose a game (or games) that fit the theme. I'll also be posting the topics monthly instead of weekly, especially because many games take much longer to appreciate than a movie or an album.

To participate, play at least one game that fits the monthly theme, and talk about it here. You can make one post summarizing your game(s), or you can make multiple posts as you make your way through the game(s).

This month's theme is: Tinkering

In the future, I plan to simply give the theme with no additional clarification, because I like the idea of people interpreting it as they wish, but I feel like giving some examples for the first go-around might help people better understand what I'm trying to get at:

You might choose to play:

• a game in which one of the characters is a mechanic
• a game that lets you build things and take them apart
• a game in which you have to fiddle with the graphics settings to get it to run
• a game that you've modded
• a DOOM WAD you have to set up yourself
• a Windows game on Linux that doesn't "just run" through Proton/Wine
• a game that has "tinker" somewhere in the title
• a game you pirated back on your Dreamcast that you had to burn six different times with different settings before it would actually boot
• and so on...

"Tinkering" is an open-ended theme, not a closed task. Anything that you can personally fit underneath it counts, even if it's an absurd interpretation! Part of the fun is figuring out how the theme can work best for you.

My goals for this are the following:

1. I'm hoping this can be a fun way of choosing something to play.
2. I'm hoping this can bring a group/community aspect to people independently enjoying their hobby.
3. I'm hoping this can yield some interesting discussions about different themes.

I can't get my head around President Biden polling poorly and Trump polling well.

I don't think I need to provide details for people on this site, but Trump was so horrible as a president and President Biden has done such a good job. Even if Biden was a passive placeholder four years of him would have been better than 4 more years of Trump.

I don't understand where the low polls are coming from. Particularly for groups that would not do particularly well under a Trump regime like African Americans and youth.

I see some people complaining about President Biden's age, but his administration has been doing a good job and Trump is only about 4 years younger ( and in much worse shape ).

I don't get where the hate is coming from.

I remember the "red wave" that never happened and articles explaining why polls aren't as accurate as they used to be. However, that answer feels too easy to me, a cop out.

Maybe people are angry about greedflation. However, Trump's presidency when it wasn't about vindictiveness was all about neglect. I can't believe people think Trump would be better for the economy -- that he would even try beyond the stock market so he polls well.

*Disclaimer:

My apologies if this is the wrong place for this conversation. I thought here or "talk" would be the best choices, though people in "talk" might not want political conversations.