When do you decide you can no longer ethically work somewhere?
What would be your line?
Would your ability to do harm reduction or meaningfully change the situation make a difference in your decision?

Have you acted on these stances before?

Add awesome game deals to this topic as they come up over the course of the week!

Alternately, ask about a given game deal if you want the community’s opinions: e.g. “What games from this bundle are most worth my attention?”

Rules:

• No grey market sales
• No affiliate links

If posting a sale, it is strongly encouraged that you share why you think the available game/games are worthwhile.

All previous Save Point topics

If you don’t want to see threads in this series, add save point to your personal tag filters.

Bureaucratic nonsense; a glaring inefficiency; “that’s just how we do things here”; etc.

Whatever it is, it’s absurd, but you’re also powerless to do anything about it and just have to live with it.

Tell us all about it.

Note: “workplace” can refer to career, school, home — wherever you do work in the face of absurdity

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.

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.

Moving right along myself.

Links with more information for anyone undecided: LibraryThing:StoryGraph

Content Warnings based on user submissions from StoryGraph.

Plot summary of the previous work in the series (From Russia, with Love) from Wikipedia.

Asked in ~comp thread, figured it should be its own post.

Thinking about whether I want to do some upgrades to my 10 year old PC or buy new. I could bump RAM to 16 without breaking the bank since its DDR4, and maybe splurge on a new processor, but I'm not sure if I'd just want to go with a new machine at that point, thoughts?

AMD Ryzen 3 1300
8.00GB Dual-Channel DDR4
MSI B350M PRO-VD PLUS
4GB ATI Radeon RX 480

Edit: To follow up some questions about what I'm using this computer for, not a whole lot at the moment. I was thinking of making it into a media server or a Steam OS console now that it's available to download, but it's more of a whim and a project itch to keep my mind off of personal and global events.

Edit 2: I did pick up a AMD Ryzen 5 5500 for $75 and 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4 3200 from Corsair for $115 from Newegg. I'll roll the die and see if it works out. Thanks for the help!

Before your time = you weren't old enough to otherwise follow the zeitgeist at the time the show was made. If you grew up watching reruns of The Honeymooners with your grandparents or something, that still counts.

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?

This is the eighth Tildes Book Club Discussion for 2026 and the twenty-eighth overall. We are discussing Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki. At the end of September we will discuss Dr. No by Ian Fleming.

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.

Hey, wanna listen to some tunes? throws a tape at your head, causing Out With The Old to play

Introduction

Legends come in many forms. For some, it's charting unknown space in a wildly complicated ship. For others, it's carving their own path as a pirate on uncharted seas. And for many gamers, it's stopping every "big bad" you can think of: chaotic embodiments, pantheons of mythic gods, egocentric wizards, and so on.

But this month, we're not chasing cosmic threats or fantasy epics. We're hitting the skatepark to prove our mad boarding skills, with Tony Hawk himself as the centerpiece.

He's the same guy who landed the first-ever documented legendary 900° aerial spin in competition on June 27, 1999, popping it out of a half-pipe in a single leap. He'd later land two more 900s in the 2010s, get credited with inventing 88 named tricks, and appeared in countless videos, films, and TV shows, both as a skater and as himself.

Just ten days ago, the second and final day of Vert Alert, his own vertical skateboarding competition in Salt Lake City has wrapped up. That pedigree is exactly what backs the entire Tony Hawk's franchise, especially the first four Pro Skater games and the gloriously unhinged Underground series.

Pro Skater 1 took the bare-bones fundamentals of real-world skate tricking and mapped them onto a video game blueprint. Suddenly, you could chase mastery without wrecking your body through endless falls.

The core loop has you choose a skater and board from a roster, each with different tricks and stats that shape your playstyle. Then, drop into one of several skate parks to chain stunts for big scores and complete literal fetch-style goals within a tight time limit.

Our CGA Game of the Month, Pro Skater 2, expands and refines that foundation in almost every way, including:

• Manuals: The game-changing addition that lets you chain tricks on flat ground without being forced into a stop when you run out of rails or airtime.
• Bigger, more varied levels: More complex park design with more routes and secrets.
• Deeper Career Mode: Instead of just grabbing tapes, smashing objects, and chasing high scores in 2-minute runs, you get more varied and elaborate objectives.
• Expanded roster and tricks: More skaters, more moves, more ways to play.
• Create-a-Skater and Create-a-Park: Full customization for both your rider and your levels.

The one big mechanical piece still missing? Reverts to chain aerials into each other. That wouldn't arrive until Pro Skater 3, and is finally addressed in the 2020 remake, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2, which also folds in various gameplay tweaks from later entries up through Underground 1.

My Personal Background

When I was a kid, I vaguely remember seeing Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 and 2 everywhere: for sale and rent in every store, featured in strategy and tips magazines, and even in those massive Sears holiday catalogs. We also had friends who were always messing around on real skateboards.

All of that eventually convinced my brother to rent Pro Skater 3 on GameCube. We both took turns with it. We loved how addictive and technical the gameplay loop was, but we didn't end up buying it, or any of the sequels, because we assumed it would be a short, shallow experience that wouldn't stay relevant.

We were wrong.

In 2004, our parents bought us a PS2 copy of Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 instead of renting. That game blew us away: twice as many intricate, unique levels, plus new gameplay elements layered on top of the already addictive core.

A few months later, I beat both Story and Classic modes, which unlocked a set of hidden characters. The most shocking (and hilarious) one is tied to a movie finally coming out in 2027, an icon of the 2000s both commercially and as a meme.

The fun didn't stop there. I accidentally discovered a bunch of out-of-bounds glitches thanks to weirdly programmed boundaries (the Los Angeles level sticks out in my mind; I loved those rebounding invisible walls I could endlessly jump off). I also managed to clip Player 1's position marker into odd places in Create-a-Goal mode. We felt like we were game developers, which might be what inspired my brother to pursue a career in the video game industry. Good times.

Fun fact: at one point, he even helped debug the then-upcoming Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5. Many of the bugs he found and documented still made it into the critically panned final release, because the game had to ship before the licensing deal between Activision and Tony Hawk expired at the end of 2015. And it barely had any development time… Yikes!

Regardless, I'm looking forward to trying the original PS1 version of Pro Skater 2 for this month's CGA, warts and all. It has the gameplay loop I know and love, and I can get over the fact that I can't walk off my skateboard anymore, something I haven't dealt with since beating American Sk8land on Nintendo DS over a decade ago.

Game Information

Years of the release: 2000, 2001, 2006, 2010, 2020, 2021

Platforms: PS1, PC, GBC, Dreamcast, Mac OS, GBA, N64, Xbox, Windows Mobile, iPhone, PS4, Xbox One, PS5, Xbox Series, Switch 1

Genre(s): Action, Sports

Links: Original - Mobygames, Original - Wikipedia
Windows - Mobygames
GBC - Mobygames
GBA - Mobygames
2x - Mobygames, 2x - Wikipedia
1 + 2 - Mobygames, 1 + 2 - Wikipedia

A brief overview at some of the versions:

• PS1

  • Easiest to access in terms of controller layout and emulation.
  • Great baseline "classic" feel.

• Windows

  • Potentially the most authentic way to experience Pro Skater 2 if you're comfortable with modding and tinkering.
  • Requires tracking down a out-of-production software and configuring it properly.

• Dreamcast

  • Similar to PS1 in feel, but with a noticeable visual fidelity boost.
  • Often considered the best-looking original-console version.

• N64

  • The most technically compromised 3D version.
  • Still functional, but stunts feel awkward with the C-button layout.

• Xbox (Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2x)

  • Essentially "what if Pro Skater 1 + 2 came out right after Pro Skater 3?"
  • Adds mechanics and quality-of-life improvements from later entries.

• GBA

  • A surprisingly playable top-down/isometric conversion of the full Pro Skater 2 experience for a low-powered handheld.
  • Requires adjusting to the perspective and controls, but it holds up.

• GBC

  • Drastically different due to hardware limits and too few buttons.
  • Becomes a sidescrolling, scope-limited version of Pro Skater 2 with mediocre controls, despite being an improvement over the GBC Pro Skater 1.

Where to find the game:

• Physical Release: Prices seem to be fairly reasonable on eBay. A loose cartridge/disc is usually much cheaper than a Complete-in-Box copy (which includes the game, manuals, and box), but not by much.
• Digital storefronts: A convenient fallback solution, especially with its frequent sales. Only applies to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2.

Game Setup

The main purpose of this topic is to get people up and running with the game. As such, it's recommended that you:

• Share what hardware you're playing it on
• Share if there are any tools/mods that you recommend
• Share anything you think is important for people to know before they start the game
• Ask questions if you need help

Another purpose of this topic is to revisit the game and its time period:

• Do you have any memories or associations with this game itself?
• What about its system or era?
• What aspects of retro gaming were common at the time?
• What other games from the same time period are you familiar with?
• What are you expecting from this game in particular?

Finally, this topic is the beginning discussion for people starting to play it:

• Post updates sharing your thoughts as you play.
• Ask for help if you get stuck.
• Offer help to others.

It is recommended that you reply to your own posts if you are making consecutive updates so that they are in the same thread.

IMPORTANT: Any links to the game should be legal distributions of the game only. Please do NOT link to any unauthorized copies.

IMPORTANT: Put any spoilers in a dropdown block. Copy/paste the block below if needed.

<details>
<summary>Spoilers</summary>

Spoiler text goes here.
</details>

FAQ

Without further ado, let's hit the parks and go buck wild with tricks and stunts!

> CONTINUE

(Credit to @Boojum for the splash screen. Still rock-and-rolling after a year!)

I'm thinking of this in a "pitfalls of being self-taught" context, but I'm sure there's plenty of other places these moments happen. Feel free to also interpret the title as "How did I not know that?", "How did I miss that?", "Why did no one tell me that?" and the like!

The inspiration for this post is that I am over a year and a half into my Linux journey, which has involved a solid amount of tinkering and eagerly getting familiar with the command line, and I just now realized that you can do man <literally any command> to quickly get to the manual for it. And also that whatis exists. For the last 18+ months, I've been just doing <command> --help or <command> <subcommand> --help and searching the internet to supplement that. I knew that man pages exist, but I guess for some reason it didn't occur to me that there would be a way to access them that easily.

I love learning things on my own and building understanding by doing, just picking a direction and running with it, but... man. I often wonder how many little things that "everyone knows" I've missed through sheer random chance. And then there's things like my man pages revelation that I can't believe I didn't piece together on my own, considering all the other crazy stuff I've figured out. Oh well lol. I suppose it's good when the humbling reminders of my own capacity for ignorance arrive via something low-stakes like this than via something that could wreck my system!

Anyone else have similar stories to share?

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?

I recently got promoted and my new position is about 70% travel.

Planes are loud.
Airports are loud.
Malls are loud.

I'm looking for really good noise cancelling, over ear headphones that have a hidden mic.

Ideally they would be good at playing audio on a plane and for taking zoom calls on my laptop. Bonus if switching between my android phone and MacBook is simple/without known issues.

Price is not a concern.

Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like gpl, linux and 1password. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, if anyone was observing closely.

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!

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!

What have you been watching and reading this week? You don't need to give us a whole essay if you don't want to, but please write something! Feel free to talk about something you saw that was cool, something that was bad, ask for recommendations, or anything else you can think of.

If you want to, feel free to find the thing you're talking about and link to its pages on Anilist, MAL, or any other database you use!