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    1. Weekly Middle East war megathread - week of November 4

      This thread is posted weekly - please try to post all relevant Middle East war content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Extremely significant events may warrant a separate...

      This thread is posted weekly - please try to post all relevant Middle East war content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Extremely significant events may warrant a separate topic, but almost all should be posted in here.

      Please try to avoid antagonistic arguments and bickering matches. Comment threads that devolve into unproductive arguments may be removed so that the overall topic is able to continue.

      5 votes
    2. Vegan recipe log

      Hi all. I cook as often as I can and thought it might be fun to chat about any recipes you’ve tried or would like to try! I’m vegan so anything I post in this thread will be too. Maybe even share...

      Hi all. I cook as often as I can and thought it might be fun to chat about any recipes you’ve tried or would like to try! I’m vegan so anything I post in this thread will be too. Maybe even share snacks or restaurants that are you’ve tried that you’ve liked!

      To start is a simple sauce/stir fry recipe I make when I’m pretty tired after a long day:

      Spicy salty sweet sauce:

      1-2 tbsp gochugaru
      1 tbsp white or black rice vinegar
      1 tbsp mirin
      1 tbsp soy sauce
      1 tbsp agave or maple syrup
      1 tsp corn starch

      I usually put all of the ingredients together except for the corn starch and then set aside as I do the rest of the prep.

      The rest of the recipe is a bit more variable as I have certain ingredients but looks like this:

      1 cup cooked white rice OR hand pulled noodles

      Noodle recipe:
      250g all purpose flour
      125 ml water
      1/4-1/2 tsp salt
      Canola oil

      I add the flour, water, and salt to a bowl, mixing with my fingers. It starts to form pretty quickly into a mass. I knead the mass of dough into a ball until uniform. With the large, smooth dough ball I cut it into 8 pieces with a knife, roll them into a sort of prolate spheroid shape, and coat with canola oil. Put the oiled dough shapes into a bowl and cover with a damp towel. Let them rest for about an hour or so.

      Heat a pot of water. Flatten the dough pieces into rectangles with a rolling pin. Use the rolling pin (if it’s a thin one, otherwise I use large chopsticks), to press the dough lengthways to create a sort of seam. Hold each end of the dough and slowly pull to stretch. Slap on counter as you pull a few times. Stretch it as long or short as you’d like. On the seam you made with the rolling pin, split the noodle apart so that the noodle is now a large loop. Put into the boiling water and wait roughly a minute /or until it’s floating. Can cook a few noodles at a time, though I usually do one or two and roll/pull while they boil.

      With the noodles or rice done or going and the sauce almost ready, start to chop vegetables, maybe a cup or so of 2-3 types. I like Napa cabbage, squash, green onions, bell pepper, and carrots but really get whatever you’d like or have on hand at the time. Sauté the vegetables in a tbsp or so of oil (I use canola or olive), starting with onions/garlic and then adding others as you see fit. Once the vegetables are done to your liking, add the noodles or rice, then the sauce (adding in the corn starch to the sauce at this point) and stir.

      Often I’ll actually fry a half block or block of tofu I’ve cubed before adding vegetables into the oil. I usually do this as the noodles (or if I’m doing a pot of rice, as it begins to cook) are about done resting, maybe with 15-20 mins to go, since frying tofu can take awhile.

      I like to serve in bowls, topping with a dash of sesame oil, black sesame seeds, and fresh green onion.

      I’ll post more recipes in the thread as I make them but this is probably the most frequent thing I make in a given week. Feel free to share your own!

      28 votes
    3. Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of October 28

      This thread is posted weekly - please try to post all relevant US political content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Extremely significant events may warrant a separate...

      This thread is posted weekly - please try to post all relevant US political content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Extremely significant events may warrant a separate topic, but almost all should be posted in here.

      This is an inherently political thread; please try to avoid antagonistic arguments and bickering matches. Comment threads that devolve into unproductive arguments may be removed so that the overall topic is able to continue.

      26 votes
    4. Weekly Middle East war megathread - week of October 28

      This thread is posted weekly - please try to post all relevant Middle East war content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Extremely significant events may warrant a separate...

      This thread is posted weekly - please try to post all relevant Middle East war content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Extremely significant events may warrant a separate topic, but almost all should be posted in here.

      Please try to avoid antagonistic arguments and bickering matches. Comment threads that devolve into unproductive arguments may be removed so that the overall topic is able to continue.

      11 votes
    5. Cmake strategies or alternatives for building (different) code for different platforms

      Okay, so this is getting really long, I'll put the ask up front: I have a strategy, I think it is reasonable. Now is a point where I can easily change things, and it won't be so easily later. So...

      Okay, so this is getting really long, I'll put the ask up front: I have a strategy, I think it is reasonable. Now is a point where I can easily change things, and it won't be so easily later. So I'm looking to see if anyone has trod this road before and can recommend any of:

      1. a different build system that will be easier to manage for this use case
      2. a different strategy for using cmake that will be easier to manage
      3. any gotchas I should be aware of, even if you don't have better solutions.

      Background

      I have a project I'm working on where the ultimate deliverable will be a hardware device with 3-4 different microcontrollers coordinating with each other and interacting with a PC-ish platform. This is a clean rewrite of a C++ codebase. Due to the microcontroller (and some of the PC APIs) being C++, the language of choice for most of it is likely to remain C/C++.

      I'm succeeded in setting up a build system for embedded code. The old code was arduino, so it relies a lot on those libraries, but I've managed to set up enough custom cmake to get off of the ardunio tools altogether, even if I am borrowing their libraries and some of the "smarts" built into the system about setting build flags, etc. So far, I have a dockerized toolchain (cmake + make + gcc-arm-none-eabi) that can successfully build ARM binaries for the target platform.

      The thing that I'm up against now is that I'd like to have a robust off-target unit testing infrastructure. My ideal case is that everything in the embedded system will be broken down into libraries that have clear interfaces, then to use unit tests with mocks to get high coverage of test cases. I'll still need some HIL tests, but because those are harder to set up and run, I want to use those for integration and validation.

      In terms of OSes available, we're mostly working on Windows systems using WSL for linux. I'd like things to be as linux-based as possible to support CI on github, etc.

      Goals and Cmake limitations

      I started out using cmake because I hate it least of the tools I've used, and I am at least pretty far up the learning curve with it. But a limitation I'm hitting is that you can't do a mixed compile with two different toolchains in one build. The reasons why cmake has this limitation seem reasonable to me, even if it is annoying. You can easily change the toolchain that your code is built with, but that seems to be largely targeted at cross-compiling the same binaries for different systems. What I want to do is:

      • build my code libraries with embedded settings for linking to the embedded binaries and build those embedded binaries (the end product)
      • build my code libraries with linux-ish tools and link them against unit tests to have a nice CI test process
      • (eventually) also be able to build windows binaries for the PC components -- when I get to that point, I'd like to get away from the MSVC compilers, but will use them if I have to

      Current strategy

      My current plan is to configure a library build like this (pseudocode):

      add_library(mylib sources)
      if (BUILD_TYPE STREQUAL BUILD_TYPE_EMBEDDED)
      <embedded config>
      elseif (BUILD_TYPE STREQUAL BUILD_TYPE_LINUX)
      <linux config, if any>
      endif()
      
      #unit tests are built for each library
      if (BUILD_TYPE STREQUAL BUILD_TYPE_LINUX)
      add_executable(mylib_test sources test_sources)
      target_link_libraries(mylib gtest etc.)
      endif()
      

      For the rollup binaries, I make the whole target conditional

      if (BUILD_TYPE STREQUAL BUILD_TYPE_EMBEDDED)
      add_executable(myembedap sources)
      target_link_libraries(mylib)
      endif()
      

      Then the build script (outside cmake) is something like

      cd build/embedded
      cmake <path to src> <set embedded toolchain> -DBUILD_TYPE=embedded
      make
      cd ../../build/linux
      cmake <path to src> -DBUILD_TYPE=linux
      make
      

      Things I like about this strategy:

      • It's relatively simple to do all the builds or just one of the builds (that control would go in the shell script)
      • I have one source tree for the whole build
      • It lets configuration be near code
      • It lets tests be near code.
      • I think it's extensible to cover the PC component builds in the future

      Things that worry me:

      • It feels like a hack
      • Support for off-target tests feels like it should be solved problem and I'm worried I'm missing something

      Thanks for reading. If you made it this far, you have my gratitude. Here's a video with funny out of office messages that I enjoyed.

      6 votes
    6. best option for a bare-bones message board/forum?

      hello tildes, i am searching for a bare-bones forum/message board. i'll describe what i need and perhaps someone can point me in the right direction: must have the ability to create an account...

      hello tildes,

      i am searching for a bare-bones forum/message board. i'll describe what i need and perhaps someone can point me in the right direction:

      must have the ability to

      • create an account
      • create topics with the ability to reply
      • fully customizable front-end (html/css) so i can make it match my website
      • either self-host or use a custom domain on ext hosting

      unimportant but nice to have

      • display images in posts via external urls
      • different boards (categories?) to post into (would be nice but not vital)
      • nested replies (or some visual way to see what you're replying to)

      free would be ideal (dreams are nice) but probably wouldn't want to spend more than $5/month as this is a supplement to a website where i don't expect much traffic at all due to the nature of the project. no images/video/audio will be hosted ideally.

      i'm ok with "hacker news" or "reddit-like" software but my backend knowledge if very limited. for instance, i looked into self-hosting lemmy but i don't understand how to setup docker. options like phpbb would be fine if i could strip away everything aside from the above-mentioned features.

      i want it to be extremely simplistic in appearance and for the end-user (tildes is a great example of the simplistic end-user experience). tildes could be a cool option but i think getting it setup is a bit out of my skill-range.

      can anyone offer any suggestions/guidence?

      edited to emphasize important aspects and clarify things that are not vital but would be nice to have.

      15 votes
    7. I'm liking Webflow - is there a (free?) way to get the similar design experience on WordPress?

      Hiya, coming off as cheapskate since if I love Webflow so much why not just pay for it? Well a few reasons, but mostly because I'd rather like to be not tied to any single service that can just do...

      Hiya,

      coming off as cheapskate since if I love Webflow so much why not just pay for it? Well a few reasons, but mostly because I'd rather like to be not tied to any single service that can just do away with me with a snap of the fingers.

      I've been playing around locally with WordPress and the block editor actually gets me to the finish line. It's pretty easy to design what I want to design -- just everything's lacking that final little detail, I can't easily overlap text with images etc.

      So am I just incompetent and the WordPress' block editor is actually capable of these things? Most of the plugins (like Elementor) you need to pay for before you can actually do anything custom, which is kinda no-go for me. I'm also not opposed of trying something else, just that it needs to be free (as I want to be certain I know how to use it before I commit).

      (Sorry for the rushed post, I'll make corrections it if need be.)

      6 votes
    8. Announcing the Tildes Backlog Burner event for November 2024: Shrink your unplayed games list this coming month!

      It's almost time... ...for another Tildes Backlog Burner -- the event where you try out games you've always wanted to play (but haven't yet -- for whatever reason). The Backlog Burner for November...

      It's almost time...

      ...for another Tildes Backlog Burner -- the event where you try out games you've always wanted to play (but haven't yet -- for whatever reason).

      The Backlog Burner for November 2024 will officially begin in two days on November 1st.

      If you're new to the Backlog Burner, check out our previous events to get an idea of what's going on:


      Backlog Bingo returns again!

      Backlog Bingo is a backbone of this event, so it's of course back and better than ever! u/Wes has made some new tweaks to his amazing site, and we've also further developed our category sets.

      For this event, you can choose between two different official Bingo lists:

      • Flow: A conceptually abstract list of ideas to guide you. Let your imagination flow.
      • Flux: A tweaked and updated version of the May 2024 category list.

      If you participated last time, clear your old card and start fresh with a new one. If you're new to the event, simply go to the Backlog Bingo site to generate your card.


      Notification List

      If you are interested in participating in the Backlog Burner, please comment in this topic. Anyone commenting/replying here will automatically be added to a notification list for the Backlog Burner, unless you specify otherwise.


      Start Planning (or Playing)

      Technically the event starts in two days, so you have time to roll your cards (if you're playing Bingo) and plan out what you'd like to play for the month. That said, if you're eager to jump right in, and start early, I certainly won't stop you!

      Let's get ready to burn through these backlogs!


      Backlog Burner FAQ

      What exactly is the Backlog Burner?

      Your "backlog" is all those games you've been meaning to play or get around to, but never have yet. This event is an attempt to get us to collectively dig into that treasure trove of experiences, scratch some long-standing itches, and knock a few titles off our to-play lists.

      It runs every May and November. New discussion topics will go up once a week during those months.

      You do not need to sign up in advance -- the topics are open to all. If you would like to be included in the notification list, comment in this topic to be added.

      How do I participate?
      • Choose some games from your backlog and play them.
      • Then tell us about your experiences in the discussion thread for the week.

      That's it!

      Optionally: you can play Backlog Bingo which is a fun way of cutting down the choices you have to make and playing games you might not have normally selected on your own.

      Do I need to finish the games that I play?

      Nope! Not at all.

      There aren't really any requirements for the event so much as this is an incentive to get us to play games we've been avoiding starting up, for whatever reason. Play as much or as little as you like of a given game.

      Try out dozens for ten minutes each or dive into one for 40 hours. There's no wrong way to participate!

      Can I make multiple posts in the same topic?

      Yes! Each discussion thread stays live for a full week, so feel free to make multiple comments in the topic as you play different games. This isn't considered noise -- it's considered valuable participation in the event!


      Backlog Bingo FAQ

      Important: All data for your Backlog Bingo card is stored on your device, not the server. Clearing your browser data will irrecoverably delete your card.

      I'm a returning player. How do I reset my previous card?

      If you've already created a card and wish to start over, click the Edit Rules button in the header to access your card settings. Then click the Reset button, and confirm the prompt. This will irrevocably delete your present card, allowing you to start fresh.

      Where is my data stored?

      All data is stored by your browser in local storage. There are no accounts, and nothing is sent to the server, so it's privacy-friendly by design. This does mean that you are responsible for not deleting any browser data on wescook.ca, either manually or through automatic cleanups performed on browser close.

      Backlog Bingo is open-source, and licensed permissively under MIT.

      What is the difference between the "Standard" and "Golf" modes?

      In Standard Mode, each square on the bingo card corresponds with one single game. Duplicate games cannot be entered into different squares. A winning card would have a row of five different games that each filled in one square.

      In Golf Mode, duplicates are not only allowed -- they are encouraged! The purpose of Golf mode is to try to find a single game that will fill multiple categories at the same time. For example: Stardew Valley might fulfill You got it on sale, A solo-dev project, and Has romanceable characters all at the same time. A winning card would have all twenty five squares filled, but possibly only six or seven different games.

      What is the star space in the middle?

      That is the "wildcard" or "free space."

      In Standard Mode, there are no requirements to fill it. You can choose any game you want! Anything goes!

      In Golf Mode, it does not need to be filled. Because Golf is all about stacking up categories on a single game, any game used in Golf would fill it automatically, meaning it has no real function. As such, the square will be pre-filled for you if you play in Golf mode.

      Can I create custom bingo categories for this, or other events?

      Absolutely! The Backlog Bingo app reads in simple JSON files which define the available categories. We've created a couple prebuilt lists for this event, but you're free to tweak our categories, or create completely new ones. You could even use them for books, anime, movies, recipes -- anything!

      If you are interested in learning more, you can find documentation on the wiki, and use an example JSON category file. You can also ask for help in the topic!

      31 votes
    9. 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!

      6 votes
    10. Tildes Book Club - Voting thread winter spring 2024-2025

      It's time to vote. This thread is for voting on the next set of books for book club. Voting will close end of day Sunday. If you would like to read with us, please upvote as many as five titles....

      It's time to vote. This thread is for voting on the next set of books for book club. Voting will close end of day Sunday.

      If you would like to read with us, please upvote as many as five titles. We will select at least four, probably more if there are books with solid support. I look forward to reading and discussing with you all.

      There are a few people who voted before the thread was complete so books with authors earlier in the alphabet got a slight statistical advantage. I will take lessons for next time to avoid this.

      20 votes
    11. Does the Great Pumpkin really exist in the Peanuts Universe?

      Recently my family was watching "It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" from 1966 and I recalled how the plot of the show came from comics that were written over time in the years before the...

      Recently my family was watching "It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" from 1966 and I recalled how the plot of the show came from comics that were written over time in the years before the cartoon game out. And one thing we talked about was whether Linus was correct that The Great Pumpkin actually exists, or was everyone else right and it was in his imagination.

      It seems a reasonable question, because one thing about Linus is that he's usually the wisest character on the show. Like the rest of them, he has flaws but he tends to see things more clearly than the rest.
      Well, I was looking for old Peanuts strips and I found one that seems to answer the question in this article:

      https://screenrant.com/funniest-peanuts-comics-about-great-pumpkin-linus-disappointment/

      It is under item 4, "Great Pumpkin, You're Going To Drive Me Crazy!" November 1 1961.
      Here is a direct link to the comic in question, (not sure if it will work long term).

      In the comic, Charlie Brown says: "Hey wake up, Halloween is over... You missed The Great Pumpkin. It just came over the radio... He appeared in a very sincere pumpkin patched owned by someone named Freeman in New Jersey!"

      When I was a kid we had a book that had a lot of the older Peanuts comics in it, and I'm pretty sure that I had seen this one and just forgotten about it.

      So I think one of the following is true:

      • The Great Pumpkin really exists in the Peanut's world
      • Charlie Brown is lying
      • Charlie Brown is teasing
      • The radio was lying, like when NORAD reports where Santa's sleigh is on Christmas eve
      • Charlie Brown misunderstood the radio

      This question may have been answered in a later strip a day or two later, but I don't currently have access to the strips in the order they appeared.

      This question is mostly about whether Charles Schulz decided to have magic in his "universe" or not.
      What do you think?

      16 votes
    12. Timasomo 2024: Final Updates

      Important Upcoming Date: Timasomo Showcase Thread -- Tuesday, November 5 (one week away!) Technically all work should be finished before November 1st (but don’t worry, it’s not enforced 😉)....

      Important Upcoming Date:

      • Timasomo Showcase Thread -- Tuesday, November 5 (one week away!)

      Technically all work should be finished before November 1st (but don’t worry, it’s not enforced 😉).

      November 1-4 are for putting finishing touches on the project to ready it for the showcase.

      To get a feel for what the Showcase will look like and how to prep your project, check out past ones:


      Update us on your progress so far!

      • What did/didn't you get done this week?

      • Anything go according to plan?

      • Anything go off the rails?

      • Any successes or struggles to share?

      • Do you need feedback or help on anything?

      This is your topic to share anything and everything you want about what you’ve made so far.

      17 votes
    13. Best solution to extract PDF data?

      Hi folks-- To those more knowledgeable than I am: What would be the best local solution to extract numerical data from a batch of PDF file reports? The values I want are interspersed among word...

      Hi folks--

      To those more knowledgeable than I am:

      What would be the best local solution to extract numerical data from a batch of PDF file reports? The values I want are interspersed among word processor formatted tables and irrelevant text. The text and table formatting are (nearly) identical across reports. The data I want vary across reports. The PDFs are not of images...I can select and copy text without OCR. I have thousands to process, and the data themselves are confidential (I have clearance) and cannot be shared. I can use Windows or Linux but no MacOS.

      I am technically inclined, so I bashed my head against regular expressions just enough to use notepad++ to find and delete most of the irrelevant stuff and make a CSV, but it's a hacky, imprecise method and not nearly automated enough for batches. For reference, I don't code for a living or even as a hobby, but I use R and bash, am familiar with IDEs, and can follow pseudocode well enough to edit and use scripts.

      Any thoughts? Thanks in advance!

      24 votes