Happy end of year, everyone!

I saw a comment today on Tildes that reminded me of a type of thread that I really enjoyed back on Reddit: end-of-year awards. Those were typically in individual subreddits and involved a lot of specifics and inside jokes related to that community, but I think Tildes is a small enough place where we could do one site-wide. (Full disclosure, I am not sure if this is a great idea and am open to any and all suggestions.)

Brief explanation:

• For starters, there are no actual awards to give out, sorry. Just some pats on the back and maybe some street cred to go with it.

• The purpose of the thread is mostly to highlight cool, helpful, and interesting things or users you've seen here on Tildes in the last year. This thread is hopefully a gateway to those interesting posts/comments/discussions that you might have missed.

• Top-level comments should be an award category (for example: Most Interesting Thread, Best Discussion, Most Helpful Comment, Funniest Joke, Most Helpful User, Best Prediction, Favorite Recurring Thread, etc.) Note that none of these examples are negative because again the goal of this thread is to highlight awesome stuff that others might have missed over the last 12 months.

• Responses to those top-level comments should be the actual nominations, preferably with a link to said comment/thread, and a quick explanation as to why you think it deserves recognition.

• Upvotes serve as the votes for each category, though I encourage you to vote for as many nominees as you'd like since the awards aren't real and the points don't matter.

That's pretty much it. I'll post a few comments as examples, but hopefully it should be pretty straight-forward. Feel free to add your own award categories, and please nominate as many users/comments/threads as you'd like!

If this thread helps at least one person discover a helpful thread from 6 months ago that they might have missed, then I'll consider it a success.

This was partially inspired by kwyfre... (damnit)... @kfwyre's thread on 2024's reading retrospective, partially by talking to @cfabbro and @DefinitelyNotaFae about 2024 being much grimmer than post-scarcity sci-fi, and partially because a lot of my reading is re-reading my favourites.

Whenever I get down about the state of the world, I re-read Iain M. Banks' Culture series, with my favourite reading order. My job can be quite high stress and deal with a lot of casualties, so it is comforting reading stories about hyper-smart machines working with humans to provide a utopia for the vast majority, and intervening to stop barbarism where they can.

For the last couple of years, I've been re-reading The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers, which I think a Tildes user recommended to me. It feels very cozy and happy to me, which I don't often find in sci-fi.

I've found that some people online look down on re-reading as kinda lazy, but I figure it's like finding something great on a menu at your favourite restaurant - you're not being a coward for not trying something new every time.

I used to think my parents were crazy for rewatching old episodes of formulaic detective dramas when they knew the outcome, but as I get older I realise there's a big comfort in knowing what's coming. It's way easier to wind down when you know things are going to be okay (or not, but, you know - at least no depressing surprises).

What are your favourite comfort re-reads?

I was contacted by a recruiter regarding a job in my field but they wanted someone with data analytics skills. I'm taking this as a sign that I should improve my skill set. Does anyone have advice for where or how to start with a very small budget?

Thanks for your help.

If you know me you probably know I hate advertising with a passion. I have blocked ads on my computer but I have limited control on my TV and phone when it comes to YouTube advertisements. And the other day I got this incredibly bizarre ad.

I only speak the tiny amount of Spanish I have learned through osmosis, but the phrase they are using is essentially “we’ll eat at home.” The scenario is a familiar one; you’ve got a kid in the car out in town and they see a restaurant they want to go and they ask if they can stop to eat. The parent says no, we’ll eat at home, because there are a lot of reasons why it’s better for them. Home cooked meals are cheaper. They can be higher quality, both in terms of taste and nutrition. They might have food that will go bad soon and so they want to go and eat it first. They don’t want to normalize eating rich unhealthy foods for their kids.

But this isn’t an ad for groceries or processed food products. This is an ad for DoorDash. A food delivery app. Literally none of the reasons you would want to eat at home apply here. Actually, using DoorDash in this particular situation is dramatically worse, because you are paying more money to get food you could have just picked up on the way only to get a worse version of it because it is no longer freshly prepared and is likely cold.

I just can’t get over this because it’s so incredibly out of touch with reality. Many people have had to have signed off on this for me to see this ad. What were they thinking? Are they so out of touch with reality that they think this is something that people do? The fact that this is clearly targeting Hispanic Americans makes it even worse. I live in Southern California and about a third of the people I know are Hispanic and all of them would laugh at this. I can’t help but wonder if the teams working on them were full of privileged white guys who are saying “yeah, this is what Mexicans are really like” or if there are also rich Hispanics on board who thinks this is something that people really do.

But this is just the most egregious example of out of touch advertising. YouTube ads are supposed to be targeted right? But why do I get ads for CRM, ERP, and accounting products when I don’t own a business? Why do I get ads in languages I don’t speak? Why is it that I can report and tell Google that an advertiser is inappropriate or against their terms and still they will show me the ads again?

And beyond that I am astonished at how many ads I see that exist to mislead you. Almost every time you see something compared or tested there is somthing they aren’t telling you. The most obvious example is Scott toilet paper; they advertise that they have rolls that are significantly longer than their leading competition. But what they neglect to tell you is that their product is single-ply while their competitors are double- or triple-ply. They actually have a very comfortable amount of toilet paper on each roll. Weirdly, all toilet paper is misleading though; what is a “mega roll”, how does it differ from an “ultra roll”, and why is one roll of it somehow equivalent to six of some unspecified other type of roll? In the meanwhile Old Spice is trying to take advantage of balding men like me by telling me that their shampoo increases the volume of hair by however many percent while there is fine print at the bottom saying that it is compared to unwashed hair, meaning their shampoo probably doesn’t do anything the cheapest generic product at the dollar store won’t.

I know this is basically just a rant, but I can’t be the only one who notices this stuff, am I?

I've been thinking about this question lately. We have so many options for consuming literature these days - checking something out from the library, listening to it on your platform of choice, etc. Many options don't require spending money specifically on that item (for example, if you use the library, Kindle Unlimited, or other options where you might pay for a subscription but not for a particular item).

For me, because of this abundance of choice in consumption for free, I've started to feel a bit paralyzed by decision fatigue when trying to decide if I want to purchase a book - either physical or digital. Digital is easier to make a final call on - I'll check the library. If they don't have it, I may or may not buy it in digital form, depending on how compelled I am by reviews or peer pressure. Recently, I've been snagging anything interesting-looking that is available for free on Kindle, so my digital purchasing might increase in the future, or I might subscribe to Kindle Unlimited.

But physical? Recently, physical books have come to mean a couple of things to me: first, clutter. I am less likely to accept even a free book because we don't have room to hang onto something I'm not actively invested in. We have two bookshelves and they're both full. Second, owning (and keeping) a physical book says that it's special to me in some manner - I either really like it or wanted to support the author or both. When I do buy a physical book, I try to buy from a local bookstore (though I'm not amazing at this yet). I just preordered two books after maybe a month of debating and comparing purchasing avenues. (Meanwhile, I purchased a set of 8 children's books at 6 am yesterday because I dreamed about a character from them... so my decisions aren't always rational!)

What are your criteria for buying books? Feel free to share how you make your decisions for any format - and also anything about your personal setup that might make decisions for you!

I want something like typingmind but for free, and that doesn't require installation. mainly for gemini and mistral (or perhaps groq too) I just want to be able to paste my API key and just use it. I know about OpenWebUI and msty but OpenWebUI requires installation, and msty doesn't have an android version.

anyone know something like this ? (would also be nice if it supports LaTeX)

Hi folks--I am very excited about a gaming PC that I just bought for my family (mainly 13yo son into gaming, coding, and digital art).

I installed the video card (only piece sent separately), went through Windows setup/updates. Installed peripherals. Updated video card drivers. Installed Steam/GIMP/Krita. Made 13yo an adult in my Steam Family. Installed a few of the games so something is ready to run right away. I even have the small Wacom tablet working in GIMP and Inkscape with a good pressure profile!

All that said, I used to set up my own Windows PCs (looooong) ago, and I'm wondering if it's really that simple. It was very easy.

I did small utility things like run Startallback and install PowerToys. I figured MS Visual Code is next?

Anything else you all can suggest?

(P.S. is there a way to move all his Minecraft stuff to his new Microsoft account? He's tired of logging in as me, and I'm tired of sending him auth codes.)

Good evening, everyone. I was wondering if any of my fellow Tilders had experience with using Android's Private DNS feature on unconventional android devices e.g. WearOS, Android TVs etc.

It was quite easy to figure out exactly how to set up an alternative DNS server on these devices. By default, Google has hidden the private DNS setting on them, but it is still accessible from ADB. In both of my examples it is likely easiest to enable “Wireless Debugging”, pair the devices successfully, and then run the commands.

settings put global private_dns_specifier one.one.one.one (replace this with the pertinent server!!)
settings put global private_dns_mode hostname

The issue I have been running into, however, is if there is seemingly any form of content filtering enabled on the DNS server of your choice, the WearOS device seems to think internet is unavailable when first connecting. If you open the Settings app and leave it open for long enough on the Wi-Fi page, it will switch from “Internet not available” to “Connected”. Contrary to this, if you open an app like Samsung Internet for, it does not take this time and just refuses to use any configured Wi-Fi network.

To go into my specific situation in a little more detail, I use NextDNS configured with Hagezi Multi PRO++ block list. I have no issues on my S24+ with regard to internet being deemed unavailable by the OS (sure the occasional public Wi-Fi network blocks DoT—I just use mobile data then). I have also yet to try it on my Smart TV, which is frankly the more important target device than my watch (I will get around to it in the new year once the holidays are over).

This is all a potentially very convoluted way to ask what people's experiences are with this, and if they have faced similar problems to me when using providers like NextDNS, AdGuard etc. that provide content filtering options on their encrypted DNS connections.

Merci beaucoup !

This is the ninth of an ongoing series of book discussions here on Tildes. We are discussing The City We Became by N K Jemisin. Our next book will be Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson at the end of January.

I don't have a particular format in mind for this discussion, but I will post some prompts and questions as comments to get things started. You're not obligated to respond to them or vote on them though. So feel free to make your own top-level comment for whatever you wish to discuss, questions you have of others, or even just to post a review of the book you have written yourself.

For latecomers, don't worry if you didn't read the book in time for this Discussion topic. You can always join in once you finish it. Tildes Activity sort, and "Collapse old comments" feature should keep the topic going for as long as people are still replying.
And for anyone uninterested in this topic please use the Ignore Topic feature on this so it doesn't keep popping up in your Activity sort, since it's likely to keep doing that while I set this discussion up, and once people start joining in.

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!

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.

Hello Tildutes!

I have an elderly relative (91) who spends a lot of time alone in her house. I was thinking it would be nice to do an offbeat bonding activity in town somewhere to relax her.

I’m looking for suggestions on things she might enjoy, ideally something interactive but low-stakes.

Requirements/notes:

• Something one can do in a place like Newark, Wilmington, or maybe Philadelphia.
• She can walk and stand (her cane helps), but not too fast or for too long. She would need to sit.
• She can see alright with her glasses and can hear you with hearing aids, but not from a distance.
• She is astute and can follow conversations just fine, thought it can take a moment for her to put together her thoughts.
• I’d like to get her out of the house—managing her own living space is stressful and she is more relaxed when she does not feel obliged to be hostly.
• I would like this to be calming or relaxing or refreshing for her. She has some obsessive/compulsive habits and I kind of want her to zen out more. Or just have fun—she’s often worrying.

Some ideas I had (input/feedback/additional suggestions welcome):

• Some sort of guided meditative or zen garden-type relaxation thing, but suitable for a kinda tired senior with OCD. I don’t know what to look for exactly. Maybe even something a little New Age. She is nominally Quaker and I would say a good-natured and open-minded person.
• She mentioned once that her dream job was to be an artist. I was thinking about an abstract painting session at a studio where they provide all the materials. Some way for her to let out her inner Jackson Pollock?
• I thought about a spa day. Do they have specialists who work with seniors? She has some aches and pains but is obviously fragile and extremely unused to being “treated.” She might have to overcome some… guilt (?) for being attended to.
• Some sort of guided cultural experience—but maybe more engaging than walking around a museum? She is well-traveled and remains interested in world cultures. She used to be a teacher of English and French, spent a considerable amount of time volunteering in Mexico (before it was developed), and seems to often appreciate learning about cultural things on Wikipedia or in magazines.
• She seems to be quite pleased with animals, at least cats and dogs. I considered going to a cat cafe but, having been in those before, I know the animals are not always accessible. Are puppy cafes a thing? Indoor petting zoos?

In contrast it would be unsuitable for us to play any sort of competitive game, or to do something requiring a lot of physical strength or dexterity, or anything that would be emotionally overwhelming.

If you have experiences of activities or programs that might be fulfilling to my relative, I would love to hear them!

My goal is mostly just for her to have a nice time for that day. If I can get her to be more relaxed generally, that’s great too.

Thank you!

Important: This will be a noisy topic. If you do not wish to see it in your feed, please use the Ignore feature to hide it!

Tip: If the large number of comments are cluttering up the topic and you just want to see the main giveaway posts, click Collapse Replies at the top of the comments.

🎵 It's the most wonderful time of the year 🎵

This is our annual holiday game giveaway topic. Spread some goodwill and holiday cheer with others!

Before you participate, please make sure you read the rules below.

Rules

-Gifters

Post your available games, the platform and method of delivery, rules for your giveaways (e.g. first-come first-serve, random draw, etc.), and any additional info or requirements. Feel free to get creative!

-Giftees

Request giveaways. Please make sure you follow the gifter's posted guidelines.

-Guidelines

Anyone can choose to be a gifter, giftee, or both! Giveaway rules are set by individual gifters, but there are handful of guidelines everyone should follow:

1. No grey market keys! Only give away games from reputable sources. If you're not sure what this means, please ask.
2. Requests for games should be done in this topic, but if the gift is a key, those should be delivered by PMs only. Please don't post keys publicly in this topic, even obfuscated ones.

If you're new to these, check out previous giveaway threads to see how these usually go.