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    1. This site is fast

      I have decent internet at home. I have great internet at work. Despite the speeds of those though, seemingly every website out there feels laggy and heavy. You click, you wait, you get a skeleton...

      I have decent internet at home.

      I have great internet at work.

      Despite the speeds of those though, seemingly every website out there feels laggy and heavy. You click, you wait, you get a skeleton of the page, with different elements that rapidly pop in until you're staring at the full site. You see the little loading animation on the tab for one, two, three seconds. It isn't exactly "slow" by any means, but it's far from instantaneous either.

      Clicking around the web these days feels like I'm playing a game with unignorable input lag.

      And I get it. The modern web is complex. It's genuinely a miracle that this is possible in the first place, so I really shouldn't be complaining that the bits traveling through the internet from dozens of servers thousands of miles away aren't getting here immediately.

      I get that high resolution screens require large images, and the ubiquity of video these days adds even more weight. I get that many websites are closer to applications than they are static pages.

      I'm not trying to take away from the awesome magic that is our modern miracle of connectivity in the slightest, and I'm appreciative to all the people here who spend their livelihoods working on it. Y'all are awesome.

      I'm just trying to say that, well, sometimes moving around on the web can drag. And when you've been using it for a long time, the dragging can get under your skin a little bit.

      However, my real point lies not in the rest of the internet, but here. I'm talking about this "heavy web" baseline as a contrast for one of the things I love about Tildes:

      it. is. so. snappy.

      I click, and BAM, the page is there. Immediately.

      It's sharp. It's crisp. It's no-nonsense. No waiting for elements to pop in. No subconsciously watching for the loading animation to stop so that I know I can start to interact with site.

      For general design reasons, I've always loved that Tildes is text-only, but more and more I appreciate that aspect simply because Tildes feels good to use because it is so quick and responsive. I don't know how much of that is due to the text-only part of things and how much of it is Deimos being a genius code wizard who made an amazing platform, but I'm happy about it regardless.

      This site has got zero input lag.

      And that feels great.

      97 votes
    2. Post your goodreads profile and add friends thread

      Here is my goodreads, I accept every friend request I get, add me! I like seeing reviews from people who hang out in similar places as I do pinned above general user reviews. Warning, if you don't...

      Here is my goodreads, I accept every friend request I get, add me! I like seeing reviews from people who hang out in similar places as I do pinned above general user reviews. Warning, if you don't have many friends on there I will flood your activity feed (but hopefully this thread changes that anyway)

      Inspired by this post

      13 votes
    3. 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.

      7 votes
    4. What's a product or service that you use but don't want to pay for and why?

      I started this in ~life even though my own response is a tech service, to enable more diverse conversation. For example, this could be something people normally pay for but you'd rather DIY, or a...

      I started this in ~life even though my own response is a tech service, to enable more diverse conversation.

      For example, this could be something people normally pay for but you'd rather DIY, or a subscription service you use but don't see the point in paying for.

      47 votes
    5. 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.

      4 votes
    6. Does anyone here use a SAD lamp?

      Hello! Hopefully this is the right place to ask this, but I was wondering if anyone here was using a SAD lamp, and if you have any recommendations. Tangent: I currently live in a fairly dark...

      Hello! Hopefully this is the right place to ask this, but I was wondering if anyone here was using a SAD lamp, and if you have any recommendations.

      Tangent:
      I currently live in a fairly dark apartment, and have a cheapish SAD lamp that is pulling double duty to not only brighten the room, but also keep me from going crazy in the darker winter months. It seems in an age of smart-everything, I've struggled to find something to replace mine with.

      I currently have a Verilux HappyLight, but it kind of sucks ass. The power cord always falls out, pressing the power button might be enough to loosen the power cord. The settings have to be set every time you turn it on. It's just total garbo in my opinion. I looked at smart bulbs, but they don't seem to hit the lumens I'm looking for.

      I think part of the issue with my current setup is that I have to actually turn the light on, which you would think would be fairly easy, but with the issues above, and my sheer laziness it's basically an impossible task.

      What I'm looking for is something that can be automated, I think one of my major issues I've had in the last year is that I haven't been able to wake up to the morning sun as I had previously. It takes hours before I actually feel awake. I've gone from a morning person to some sort of bizarre afternoon person.

      Anyway, I'm looking for others experiences and recommendations.

      28 votes
    7. Forgot Chrome's unusable, any recommendations?

      I'm streaming Firefox to watch Riverdale, so I opened up Chrome to browse while I wait for them to join. Youtube has ads on it, and I realized I can't grab uBlock or anything (meaningfully)...

      I'm streaming Firefox to watch Riverdale, so I opened up Chrome to browse while I wait for them to join. Youtube has ads on it, and I realized I can't grab uBlock or anything (meaningfully) privacy focused. So, I wanna try out one of the cool new browsers, what do people use and recommend?

      I'm on Windows and a proper techie, so give me anything that's a bit strange and off the wall as well! The only one I tried out recently was Comet, but it needs more time to bake, total waste of time IME. I remember using IceWeasel for some reason lol

      33 votes
    8. Offbeat Fridays – The thread where offbeat headlines become front page news

      Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like cryptography.post quantum, chatfishing and curses.wizard. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven...

      Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like cryptography.post quantum, chatfishing and curses.wizard. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, if anyone was getting befuddled.

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

      11 votes
    9. Please help me pick my next book to read!

      Hello fellow readers! I am finally close to finishing the book I am reading (maybe 2 weeks away or so - I am kind of a slow reader). That book is 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. However, I am already...

      Hello fellow readers! I am finally close to finishing the book I am reading (maybe 2 weeks away or so - I am kind of a slow reader). That book is 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. However, I am already getting excited about the next book and I have a few on my "to read" list. I have read nothing by any of these authors, so I am going in blind, based only on some browsing and very basic non-spoiler reviews. Please, no spoilers. I thought it might be fun to post this here and see if your thoughts can help me prioritize my "to read" list and pick the next book I'll read. I think I am leaning towards "The Tunnel" or "The Seventh Function of Language", but anything on the list will be very fresh to me.

      Title Author
      Life: A User's Manual Georges Perec, David Bellos
      Lives Other Than My Own Emmanuel Carrère, Linda Coverdale
      The Door Magda Szabo, Len Rix +1
      The Melancholy of Resistance László Krasznahorkai
      The Seventh Function of Language Laurent Binet
      The Tunnel Ernesto Sabato
      The Pillars of the Earth Ken Follett
      13 votes
    10. Reading challenges

      I started using the Goodreads annual reading challenge years ago. I generally treat it as an arbitrary target to see if I can read that many books in a year. I have found myself in recent years...

      I started using the Goodreads annual reading challenge years ago. I generally treat it as an arbitrary target to see if I can read that many books in a year. I have found myself in recent years enjoying hitting that goal, and have found myself slotting in more shorter books in my reading between larger stories that I'm reading to help me reach that goal. This has in turn helped motivate me to dive in to some older sci-fi and fantasy works, which are usually shorter or standalone.

      If I'm a couple of books off the goal I set at the end of the year I don't mind, but it is interesting looking back over the last few years seeing how this goal has shaped how I read since I've needed to adjust my reading habits to maintain a similar number of books now that I have kids.

      I thought it would be fun to see how other Tilders approach this, if at all:

      • Do you participate in any reading challenges, and if you do, which one(s)?
      • Have you found the reading challenge changing how you read, or which books you read?
      15 votes
    11. 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!

      3 votes
    12. Who's tried durian?

      Inspired by the beetroot question: Who has tried durian, and what are your thoughts on it? Known to some as the king of fruits and to others as something incredibly smelly. I've become a big...

      Inspired by the beetroot question: Who has tried durian, and what are your thoughts on it?

      Known to some as the king of fruits and to others as something incredibly smelly.

      I've become a big durian fan, but try not to eat too much of it during the season here, since it is calorie dense and very "heaty" if you follow traditional Chinese medicine.

      26 votes
    13. 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?

      6 votes
    14. 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.

      13 votes
    15. Financial collapse?

      I'm extremely bearish on the US dollar and stock market and am wondering what other people think about how to prepare financially for the medium term future. I don't there's any other way you can...

      I'm extremely bearish on the US dollar and stock market and am wondering what other people think about how to prepare financially for the medium term future. I don't there's any other way you can cut it: there's a debt crisis and, worse yet, I don't think the US will be able to convince bond buyers that they're serious enough about the issue to avoid a debt spiral. The fact that gold has cracked 4000 (almost 4200 now, with BofA setting a 5000 target) seems to suggest that central banks are similarly pessimistic about a financial collapse. What do y'all think about where things are likely headed?

      40 votes