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    1. When is it okay to give up?

      When is is okay to give up on making a situation work? I legitimately ask, as I’ve pretty much given up on most “immediate” family in recent months. As an American federal civilian employee, I...

      When is is okay to give up on making a situation work?

      I legitimately ask, as I’ve pretty much given up on most “immediate” family in recent months. As an American federal civilian employee, I found the rhetoric of my immediate family crazy enough to warrant cutting them out of my life. I can’t get beyond their clear contempt for my livelihood. Despite conversations regarding how a certain admin’s policies are making my life worse, I have been told constantly not to complain because it could be worse. So I have “given up” and no longer interact with them. There have been further conversations prior to this, but I don’t think it’s necessarily important to the conversation.

      I ask this legitimately, as I am feeling guilt over it, despite the fact that I no longer feel dread or anxiety about it. I haven’t visited immediate family in over 2 months now, despite living within walking distance.

      At what point should one continue making attempts to repair to maintain relationships, even familial, and when is it okay to end them?

      34 votes
    2. Is there any source for news that hits the editing floor? That is, doesn't make the published edition?

      I figure that for each new story that hits a site like Reuters, theres at least a few that don't get chosen, hitting the editing floor so to speak (like scenes of a film falling to the editing...

      I figure that for each new story that hits a site like Reuters, theres at least a few that don't get chosen, hitting the editing floor so to speak (like scenes of a film falling to the editing room floor). Doe anyone know where these might be reported?

      Like, an rss feed of some editor somewhere that lists the stories they passed over.

      7 votes
    3. Are any of you fans of the older Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons games?

      I've been a fan of the farming/life sim/role playing/cozy games or however you want to label these games since I was a kid and my older brother brought home a new game for the Nintendo 64: Harvest...

      I've been a fan of the farming/life sim/role playing/cozy games or however you want to label these games since I was a kid and my older brother brought home a new game for the Nintendo 64: Harvest Moon 64. Over the years, I played several titles in the series through the Wii/NDS era, before my tastes changed, and I found myself playing more online games with my friends and just less gaming overall.

      Stardew Valley releasing was a huge event for the genre and I do greatly enjoy the game (even though I've yet to finish a play through as I keep restarting after taking a break from playing) as it captured the feeling of the early Harvest Moon games really well. It also got me to start the habit of having an N64 emulator and a copy of Harvest Moon 64 on practically every device I own.

      There have been some recent remakes of older games, specifically Friends of Mineral Town and A Wonderful life, but I didn't enjoy the art style and some of the changes made to the games, which ended up with me not picking them up.

      I was curious if anyone else was a fan of the series (or one particular game in the series), or if there are any recent games that you felt are great in this genre.

      9 votes
    4. Is it possible to completely hide one’s activity on the Internet from one’s ISP?

      As the years go by, I’ve become increasingly annoyed (I choose that word intentionally) at the thought that there’s some “record” of my activity on the Internet somewhere, which was probably put...

      As the years go by, I’ve become increasingly annoyed (I choose that word intentionally) at the thought that there’s some “record” of my activity on the Internet somewhere, which was probably put together by my ISP. I “don’t have anything to hide” (other than perhaps the one or other ROM or movie that I download), but I also don’t want to randomly get fined or put in prison if, in a few years, our governments decide to retroactively criminalize certain activities (I’m thinking mostly about piracy).

      I’m not tech savvy though. That’s not because I haven’t tried. I have. I spent countless hours reading about how one can keep one’s activity on the Internet “private”. To my knowledge, it isn’t actually possible. I mean, even if I didn’t use my real name anywhere, or didn’t have any social media accounts (thankfully, I don’t), just the fact that I have to use an ISP to surf the web means that at least they are “spying” on me.

      So, I’m approaching all of you wonderful, tech savvy people (rather than ChatGPT or a search engine) to ask you if there’s something that I’m missing, and if there is a way (preferably a fool-proof one) to stop my ISP (or “anyone” for that matter) from collecting data on my activity on the Internet (particularly when I download ROMs or movies, which is the only “illegal” thing that I ever do).

      24 votes
    5. TV Tuesdays Free Talk

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      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.

      9 votes
    6. Recommendations, specific folk tales: Sisphyus and others

      Hello, not sure if this belongs in books? Because I am looking for all forms of story telling (with an emphasis on folk tale, however). Are there any other stories out there similar to: Sisyphus,...

      Hello, not sure if this belongs in books? Because I am looking for all forms of story telling (with an emphasis on folk tale, however).

      Are there any other stories out there similar to: Sisyphus, "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly", and the Herculean task of slaying the hyrda?

      For me the theme is, if you don't deal with the root problem, you're screwed/can't win.

      Doesn't have to be English based, but I'll need a translation if it's not.

      Thank you in advance!

      12 votes
    7. Recommended podcasts by experts in their fields?

      I have been listening to the PreHistory Podcast, written and produced by an actual academic archaeologist. I enjoy the rigor and specificity but i’m having trouble finding similar content I like,...

      I have been listening to the PreHistory Podcast, written and produced by an actual academic archaeologist. I enjoy the rigor and specificity but i’m having trouble finding similar content I like, especially without the promotions and ads and fan service. I know that in the age of social media personalities such dry content is hard to come by.

      I particularly enjoy ancient history, but feel free to offer other podcasts that feature people who have mastered their discipline and have found clear, effective, and even entertaining ways of sharing it. Thanks!

      25 votes
    8. I'm rate-limited to one comment reply every two hours

      I understand that Tildes implements rate limiting for replies to comments in order to discourage excessive back-and-forth debates or arguments. My current rate limit is one reply every 2 hours....

      I understand that Tildes implements rate limiting for replies to comments in order to discourage excessive back-and-forth debates or arguments. My current rate limit is one reply every 2 hours. So, if I reply to a comment on one post and then try to reply to a comment on another post, it tells me I have to wait 120 minutes (minus however many minutes since my last comment) until I can comment again.

      Is this the normal rate limit? If so, don't people find this... limiting?


      Update (2025-04-09 at 08:22 UTC): I was just able to comment twice within ten minutes, so it seems the rate limit has disappeared as mysteriously as it appeared.

      20 votes
    9. Offbeat Fridays – The thread where offbeat headlines become front page news

      Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like advetising.digital, cory booker and april fools day. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days,...

      Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like advetising.digital, cory booker and april fools day. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, if anyone was miffed.

      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
    10. 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.

      6 votes
    11. What's an atypical thing you do that you'd recommend to others?

      You do it, and it's against the grain -- outside the norm. But you like it, or think it's worthwhile. In fact, you'd recommend that more people do it, so that it can shift the grain or become the...

      You do it, and it's against the grain -- outside the norm.

      But you like it, or think it's worthwhile.

      In fact, you'd recommend that more people do it, so that it can shift the grain or become the norm.

      What is it, and why do you recommend it?

      65 votes
    12. The ARC-AGI-2 benchmark could help reframe the conversation about AI performance in a more constructive way

      The popular online discourse on Large Language Models’ (LLMs’) capabilities is often polarized in a way I find annoying and tiresome. On one end of the spectrum, there is nearly complete dismissal...

      The popular online discourse on Large Language Models’ (LLMs’) capabilities is often polarized in a way I find annoying and tiresome.

      On one end of the spectrum, there is nearly complete dismissal of LLMs: an LLM is just a slightly fancier version of the autocomplete on your phone’s keyboard, there’s nothing to see here, move on (dot org).

      This dismissive perspective overlooks some genuinely interesting novel capabilities of LLMs. For example, I can come up with a new joke and ask ChatGPT to explain why it’s funny or come up with a new reasoning problem and ask ChatGPT to solve it. My phone’s keyboard can’t do that.

      On the other end of the spectrum, there are eschatological predictions: human-level or superhuman artificial general intelligence (AGI) will likely be developed within 10 years or even within 5 years, and skepticism toward such predictions is “AI denialism”, analogous to climate change denial. Just listen to the experts!

      There are inconvenient facts for this narrative, such as that the majority of AI experts give much more conservative timelines for AGI when asked in surveys and disagree with the idea that scaling up LLMs could lead to AGI.

      The ARC Prize is an attempt by prominent AI researcher François Chollet (with help from Mike Knoop, who apparently does AI stuff at Zapier) to introduce some scientific rigour into the conversation. There is a monetary prize for open source AI systems that can perform well on a benchmark called ARC-AGI-2, which recently superseded the ARC-AGI benchmark. (“ARC” stands for “Abstract and Reasoning Corpus”.)

      ARC-AGI-2 is not a test of whether an AI is an AGI or not. It’s intended to test whether AI systems are making incremental progress toward AGI. The tasks the AI is asked to complete are colour-coded visual puzzles like you might find in a tricky puzzle game. (Example.) The intention is to design tasks that are easy for humans to solve and hard for AI to solve.

      The current frontier AI models score less than 5% on ARC-AGI-2. Humans score 60% on average and 100% of tasks have been solved by at least two humans in two attempts or less.

      For me, this helps the conversation about AI capabilities because it gives a rigorous test and quantitative measure to my casual, subjective observations that LLMs routinely fail at tasks that are easy for humans.

      François Chollet was impressed when OpenAI’s o3 model scored 75.7% on ARC-AGI (the older version of the benchmark). He emphasizes the concept of “fluid intelligence”, which he seems to define as the ability to adapt to new situations and solve novel problems. Chollet thinks that o3 is the first AI system to demonstrate fluid intelligence, although it’s still a low level of fluid intelligence. (o3 also required thousands of dollars’ worth of computation to achieve this result.)

      This is the sort of distinction that can’t be teased out by the polarized popular discourse. It’s the sort of nuanced analysis I’ve been seeking out, but which has been drowned out by extreme positions on LLMs that ignore inconvenient facts.

      I would like to see more benchmarks that try to do what AGI-AGI-2 does: find problems that humans can easily solve and frontier AI models can’t solve. These sort of benchmarks can help us measure AGI progress much more usefully than the typical benchmarks, which play to LLMs’ strengths (e.g. massive-scale memorization) and don’t challenge them on their weaknesses (e.g. reasoning).

      I long to see AGI within my lifetime. But the super short timeframes given by some people in the AI industry feel to me like they border on mania or psychosis. The discussion is unrigorous, with people pulling numbers out of thin air based on gut feeling.

      It’s clear that there are many things humans are good at doing that AI can’t do at all (where the humans vs. AI success rate is ~100% vs. ~0%). It serves no constructive purpose to ignore this truth and it may serve AI research to develop rigorous benchmarks around it.

      Such benchmarks will at least improve the quality of discussion around AI capabilities, insofar as people pay attention to them.


      Update (2024-04-11 at 19:16 UTC): François Chollet has a new 20-minute talk on YouTube that I recommend. I've watched a few videos of Chollet talking about ARC-AGI or ARC-AGI-2, and this one is beautifully succinct: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWHezX43I-4

      10 votes
    13. Do you have games that you play (almost) exclusively?

      I was reading the recent post about strategy games, and I'm still astonished to see for how many hours (at least hundreds, often 1000+) people are playing these. I'm guessing that in these cases,...

      I was reading the recent post about strategy games, and I'm still astonished to see for how many hours (at least hundreds, often 1000+) people are playing these. I'm guessing that in these cases, all your gaming time is exclusively taken by that single game.

      So, do you have (or did you have) games, or series, like that? Do you play solo or multi? What compels you to spend so much time on a single game? How do you feel about it?

      39 votes
    14. 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?

      2 votes
    15. Introductions | March 2025

      The previous introductions thread was waaaaay back in June of 2023, figured it might be time for a new one, eh? This is a place for new and existing users to post an introduction with a few fun...

      The previous introductions thread was waaaaay back in June of 2023, figured it might be time for a new one, eh?

      This is a place for new and existing users to post an introduction with a few fun facts about themselves. You will find the post box at the bottom the page. Maybe say "Hi!" to someone else you see while scrolling down?

      If you like, you can also write something about yourself in your profile. See "Edit your user bio" on the settings page. Anyone who clicks on your username will see it in your profile. (It appears on the right side of the page.)

      You can find out more about how to use Tildes in this topic: "New users: Ask your questions about Tildes here!.

      Some sample questions you *could* answer (but not required!)
      • How long have you been on Tildes? How did you find out about us?
      • How did you choose your username?
      • What are your interests? (This could be music, tech, art, video games, board games, books, anything!)
      • A/S/L (the standard old school intro for an old school kind of forum, but not required!, we value our pseudonymity around here!)
        • for those born post 1998: age/(sex|gender|identifier|pronouns)/location
          • Example: 27/nb trans woman (she/her)/USA or 54/M/USA or 907/Timelord/Gallifrey
        • You don't have to follow the structure, or include it at all!
      • What do you do? This could be in your spare time, for work, your passions.
      • Do you want other users to PM you from this thread?
      • Give us a fun fact or link, if there is anything to know about tilderinos, we value knowledge sharing!
      Here is a template if you need something to kickstart your intro
      **How long have you been on Tildes? How did you find out about us?**
      
      **How did you choose your username?** 
      
      **What are your interests?** 
      
      **A/S/L (age/(gender|pronouns|identifier)/location)**
      
      **What do you do? This could be in your spare time, for work, your passions.**
      
      **Do you want other users to PM/DM you from this thread?**
      
      **Give us a fun fact (or a link!)! If there is anything to know about tilderinos, it's that we value knowledge sharing!**
      
      
      49 votes
    16. What programming/technical projects have you been working on?

      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...

      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?

      7 votes
    17. Request recommendation: temp controlled teapot

      Hello, as the title implies, I am looking for a temp controlled teapot. I own an ember mug and have to say, it is one of my favorite purchases/splurges. For those that do not want to click on the...

      Hello, as the title implies, I am looking for a temp controlled teapot.

      I own an ember mug and have to say, it is one of my favorite purchases/splurges. For those that do not want to click on the link, this is a temperature controlled mug that holds a hot temp for liquids in a mug wirelessly. It does this with quite good precision IMO, have not whipped out a thermometer to check accuracy.

      I have been looking for some time for a teapot that could do the same. The requirements I have are that no plastic or otherwise health adverse heat volatile materials come into contact with the heated water, and I would like it to be a teapot, because I like the ritual of pouring the tea out of the pot. I want to be able to steep and pour the tea from the same temp controlled vessel(I don't mind heating water and then pouring it into the temp controlled teapot), so I'm not looking for a temp controlled kettle, necessarily.

      I think last time I looked I ended up on pages showing things like this set up, which I'm open to, but would like some guidance or reviews, if possible.

      Thank you!

      Bonus, what are your favorite mint teas or other teas that have a sensory experience outside of temp?

      EDIT: On the same website I linked, I forgot to direct people here. Has anyone ever used a teapot warmer like the ones on that website?

      14 votes
    18. Megathread: April Fools' Day 2025 on the internet

      Over the next day or so, the internet will be filled with jokes, pranks, fake "announcements" from companies, fun interactive activities, games, and so on. A lot of these can be quite clever and...

      Over the next day or so, the internet will be filled with jokes, pranks, fake "announcements" from companies, fun interactive activities, games, and so on. A lot of these can be quite clever and interesting so I think posting about them in general is fine, but in the interest of preventing them from completely taking over Tildes, let's try to keep as many of them restricted to this thread as possible. Ideally, a separate top-level comment for each individual item would be good.

      If something particularly discussion-worthy comes up (like an ARG or activity that a lot of people want to talk about), a separate thread is reasonable, but please make sure it has the "april fools day" tag. That way, if anyone wants to avoid seeing the April Fools' Day threads, they can use the topic tag filters and filter that tag out.

      I'm going to use the "official" styling for this topic (that's usually only for ~tildes.official topics) to make it stand out more to try to encourage people to notice it. If you notice people making individual topics for April Fools' Day things that don't really warrant their own topic, please (nicely) encourage them to delete and post in here instead.

      109 votes
    19. Midweek Movie Free Talk

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      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.

      9 votes
    20. You get to choose your favorite director's next project. What is it, and why?

      I think about this from time to time. Good directors often switch gears. They abandon beloved themes, franchises, or entire genres. Sometimes they become producers for the series they initiated...

      I think about this from time to time. Good directors often switch gears. They abandon beloved themes, franchises, or entire genres. Sometimes they become producers for the series they initiated and the quality takes a dip. In any event, for whatever reason, talented movie directors sometimes decide to dedicate their careers to something we are not as fond of. Perhaps you read a book that would be perfect for them! This post is an opportunity to put them on the right track! (in our imaginations at least...)

      27 votes
    21. Hey parents, how many of you read vs. tell stories before bedtime for your kids?

      My son loves reading time before bed, but he’s only 3.5 so the books have mostly been picture books until now. Lately though he’s been getting more into stories with plots and an extended...

      My son loves reading time before bed, but he’s only 3.5 so the books have mostly been picture books until now. Lately though he’s been getting more into stories with plots and an extended narrative, but entirely in the form of movies. There aren’t a lot of kid’s books to go around with the sorts of dramatic stories he likes, they’re more like “caterpillar eats food” and “train engine climbs a hill with grit and determination” type stuff. And whenever I’ve tried to have him just lay down and listen to me read a story without any pictures to stare at he has absolutely no interest. He really likes having pretty visuals to look at.

      I know when I was a small child these sorts of board/picture books weren’t really a thing in India. The pre-sleep ritual was usually “storytime” instead, where my parents would tell us stories. I’m a little bit concerned that my kid has been so accustomed to always having visual cues presented to him that it’s stunting his imagination a bit, like failing to exercise his capacity to visualize ideas and concepts for himself without being anchored by some artist’s depiction.

      So I’m curious to hear from other parents or caregivers/educators (@kfwyre?). Did you find there was a natural transition point between going from picture books to telling/reading stories? Was there any sort of work you had to do to enable it? Are there “exercises” I can work on to help my son exercise his imagination? I have been working with him to have him tell me stories about his day, which he does pretty well. But his stories are always quite grounded and he’s usually telling me what he’s actually done and seen. When my nephews and nieces were his age they tended to spin out a lot of random stories that pretty obviously did not happen, and I assume this is because they had more experience being told stories themselves rather than just factual reporting about the happenings around them.

      25 votes
    22. Graduated and moving to an apartment in a major city in the US, advice/tips?

      I graduated in the spring and spent the last few months at home with family. I'm hoping to find an apartment/job in a major US city working as a legal assistant or paralegal. I've never rented...

      I graduated in the spring and spent the last few months at home with family. I'm hoping to find an apartment/job in a major US city working as a legal assistant or paralegal.

      I've never rented before, so I have questions, but due to circumstances related to the ones pushing me away from staying at home any longer, I don't have any parents or older siblings to ask for help, so I'm hoping to crowdsource wisdom here. I have specific questions, but also happy to hear any general advice for someone renting an apartment for the first time.

      Some relevant context:

      • Studio apartment is nonnegotiable. I don't know anyone I trust enough to be my roommate. If that weren't enough, I'm one of the only people still wearing a mask and trying not to get COVID, so it's gotta be a studio for me to be able to relax.
      • I'm looking for a walkable neighborhood and good public transit in addition to affordability, so really looking at Chicago and Philly right now.
      • I love to cook, but I know studios often have really lackluster kitchens. Hoping to find one with a usable amount of counterspace.

      Those questions I had:

      1. If you offer to pay a landlord the cost of the lease in full, is it typical for the landlord to waive the requirement that you provide proof of employment, or if you asked them to waive that, would they be likely to say yes? I would really like to take some time off, and coming home was intended to be that, but toxic family means I've just been stressed the whole time, so being able to get a place without needing a job right off the bat would be a fantastic setup to make sure this new start goes well. (If I save up part-time earnings for the next 2-3 months, I'll have enough to pay a lease on a $1200 studio in full, furnish it with the necessities, and feed myself.)

      2. Recently I realized that when apartments are listed as unfurnished, that means no bed or mattress either. (I kind of see now why futons are a thing.) How do people usually address this issue? Do you buy a mattress and bed frame with the expectation that you'll take it with you whenever you move out to the next apartment?

      3. Since I don't live in the city I'll be moving to, I most likely won't be able to see the apartment in person before committing. Any particular ideas on how I could handle this or what I should be wary of? I've heard of services where you can pay someone to show up to a tour and video call you so you can follow along (https://www.gandertour.com/). $50 doesn't seem too steep, but I don't know if that specific service is trustworthy, or if there's a cheaper or simpler way to deal with this.

      Those are my questions, and like I said above, any advice not 100% related to these questions is welcome too!

      38 votes
    23. [SOLVED] Is there an easy way to tell if a laptop has USB-C charging?

      Background: I've been using a 9-year-old 13.3 inch Dell Latitude 7370 laptop running MX Linux to stream games via Moonlight from a beefier desktop machine. It is SO good and works flawlessly. My...

      Background:

      I've been using a 9-year-old 13.3 inch Dell Latitude 7370 laptop running MX Linux to stream games via Moonlight from a beefier desktop machine. It is SO good and works flawlessly. My only complaint is the smaller screen size.

      I would like to upgrade to a larger computer, and given that the computer will literally only be used for streaming games, it doesn't need to have great stats. I'm looking at used/refurbished models -- both for price and because buying something new feels like complete overkill for my needs.

      My only requirements are:

      • 17 inch screen
      • USB-C charging

      That's it! I'm assuming that literally anything I can get with that will work for what I need given that my small, decade-old laptop is already doing the same job perfectly. USB-C charging is a must-have for me. I already have USB-C power cords in all the places I plan on using it, and I don't want to have to use a separate charger for it.


      My Situation:

      Because I'm searching for used/refurbished models, I'm limited to what's available rather than going for any specific model of computer. I can easily find listings for computers with 17 inch screens. What I can't find easily is whether or not they support USB-C charging. Most sites don't have a filter for that, and a lot of the listings don't specify the type of charger used and just list "AC adapter" (or don't mention it at all). Many sites don't have pictures of the ports, or the pictures they do have are stock photos that aren't of the exact model.

      Is there some easy way to find these that I'm missing? Some keyword, or a site that does have a filter for that, or brand knowledge that can point me in the right direction?

      Also, if anyone has any recommended sites for used/refurbished laptops, let me know. I have had success with Backmarket for used tech before, but I'm open to recommendations.

      19 votes
    24. Confess your food crimes

      Do you devour dessert first? Do you eat your pizza with a fork and knife? Do you put ketchup on your steak, or eat it well-done? This is a place to confess your food crimes -- the worst, oddest,...

      Do you devour dessert first?

      Do you eat your pizza with a fork and knife?

      Do you put ketchup on your steak, or eat it well-done?

      This is a place to confess your food crimes -- the worst, oddest, or most atypical ways/things/combinations that you eat.

      In addition to confession, you may also take a moment to preach. Win over some converts. Convince others of your ways. It could be that, after hearing your defense, the jury here will actually find you not guilty...

      58 votes
    25. What are your goto cocktails?

      My partner and I like to have a drink while we cook/ after work, and we've usually switch between some wine or more recently nice cocktails. I'd like to up my cocktail game when I'm hosting...

      My partner and I like to have a drink while we cook/ after work, and we've usually switch between some wine or more recently nice cocktails. I'd like to up my cocktail game when I'm hosting though.

      What simple cocktails would you guys suggest?

      So far my favourite cocktails are Negroni, White Russian, Old fashioned, and for after dinner a friend of mine made that Im not too sure about that's a 50 50 mix of whisky and amaretto with a cherry that's surprisingly good.

      27 votes
    26. Tildes Book Club - off topic - question re spinoff/ parallel to Storygraph

      User and book club ping recipient Maevens said that it would help them if the book and questions were posted to Storygraph, so I created a basic book club template, but I haven't done anything...

      User and book club ping recipient Maevens said that it would help them if the book and questions were posted to Storygraph, so I created a basic book club template, but I haven't done anything with it yet.

      What do you all think? Options include simply posting the book title each month, posting the book title and the discussion questions each month or posting and including a link to the Tildes book club discussion. I'm going to do something minimal regardless, to honor Maevens' request but I want to know what you all think and whether there are things you specifically don't want me to do.

      Bottom line, the two book clubs could run in parallel with crossover and links, or they could be essentially separate. Please advise.

      9 votes
    27. When is pet insurance worth it?

      My fiancee and I are considering adopting a dog, most likely in the age range of 6 months to 2 years. I've read before that pet insurance is only worth it if you get the dog as a puppy, but I'm...

      My fiancee and I are considering adopting a dog, most likely in the age range of 6 months to 2 years. I've read before that pet insurance is only worth it if you get the dog as a puppy, but I'm wondering what real people think, particularly for a dog that's 2-3 years old. Does anyone else have a pet insurance policy? Who is it with? How's it working out for you? Would you do it again?

      27 votes
    28. Can you repair coil zipper without replacing the entire zipper?

      Hi [insert tiles demonym here]! I have an LTT backpack, and the zipper is wearing out. The other zipper already broke, which LTT paid to repair under warranty. This ended up being quite a...

      Hi [insert tiles demonym here]!

      I have an LTT backpack, and the zipper is wearing out. The other zipper already broke, which LTT paid to repair under warranty. This ended up being quite a headache, because the repair shop couldn’t find an equivalent zipper anywhere in the EU for shipping (located in France). I eventually found a company in the UK that did custom orders, but the taxes and shipping to France was expensive. The warranty paid for it, but I won’t be using the warranty for the other zipper repair (it’s already an extremely generous warranty, and the damage should absolutely have been classified as normal wear and tear, so I don’t want to take advantage of it again.

      Anyway, the zipper for the laptop pouch is showing the exact same signs of wear. I asked the shop if they could repair this one too, and they said no, because the pouch is too narrow to get their sewing machine into. So I can source a zipper, but I would have to hand sew it into the backpack. I feel like I am capable of this, I just don’t really want to do it. I think their might be a way to reinforce it without replacing the entire zipper. I haven’t been able to find any info online about my theory, so I wanted to see if you all had any insight.

      The important part of the post:

      This zipper is a plastic coil zipper from YKK. They have a continuous coil that is sewn into the tape with thread. The top surface of this thread is ruined by the slider when you zip. This thread is starting to abrade. The other zipper abraded fully in a spot, and the coil separated from the tape.

      Here is my theory. If I get a very strong and relatively thin thread, I can hand sew through the coil to replace / reinforce the factory thread.

      Has anyone done anything like this before? Any tips, or things to watch out for? Will this change or ruin the smoothness of the slider when zipping?

      9 votes
    29. 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?

      5 votes
    30. Cameras/software for watching roofs

      Lately there's been a rash of people ripping apart AC units on small business' so they can sell them for parts (mostly the copper). Tends to take days to months to discover, and by that time...

      Lately there's been a rash of people ripping apart AC units on small business' so they can sell them for parts (mostly the copper). Tends to take days to months to discover, and by that time they're long gone and the police are rarely interested in it (in my experience even when you figure out who's actually buying stolen copper, or car parts....but i digress).

      I was asked as a friend to help with this for a couple of small business locations that otherwise don't need normal security. To start it's just one large, 60x300', roof with a couple of units on it. They're willing to spend money, but also don't want to get scammed, so I've been looking into it for them.

      They're getting a quote from one of the big security companies like ADT, but didn't feel they were getting it right since they just wanted a camera pointing at the access ladder, when it sure looks like the first time this happened it was someone who brought their own, so they really do need some good coverage and not just one camera pointed at a ladder while they pay for some 24/7 person to stare at the feed.

      The rough requirements are:

      1. Some decent weatherproofing, as this will be on a roof all day. We can put an enclosure around it but trying to keep this simple.

      2. Easy remote access to footage, ideally with notifications that can be setup for things like human motion, or lost connection.

      3. Ideally fewer cameras. Not exactly because of cost, but because of the difficulty of getting the power/network up there. Be a lot easier to do one drop in the middle of the roof than say a drop at every corner.

      4. Probably not wifi cameras. I figure we need to run power up there anyways, so it might as well be POE if at all possible. Added bonus being that you don't need to worry as much about wifi signal and the rare enterprising criminal with a jammer/scrambler/whatever?

      and the tricky one
      5. No on site storage. Likely they'll want cloud.

      My first thoughts:
      I have ubiquiti at home, and this seemed fine for it as a nice in-between since they probably need 2-4 POE cameras max (was going to see if i could get away with 2 in the middle of the roof, one looking each way). Was going to mess around and see what level of alerts they give and make them a couple of accounts (basically one alert to the person who'd call the cops and one to the person who'd look at it if the feed went down).

      The no on site storage thing however, complicates stuff....i think?

      The short version is there's no way to do even a basic NVR there (i've been over this thoroughly, and it's more a drama thing than a business thing). I figured that wouldn't be an issue, they'd just have to pay extra for some cloud storage and host it there, and it would probably scale well for them if they liked the solution and rolled it out anywhere else. Rather than having a bunch of NVR's they could just have one cloud based one, neat.

      buuuuut it seems ubiquiti doesn't really do that. The people i'm helping are somewhat technical but i'd like to keep this turnkey as possible. I don't think there's any clean/easy way to accomplish this with ubiquiti, or at least that I can find?

      In theory I think there might be some clever network way to host the NVR at some other physical/central location (with less drama) and then route all the traffic there, but that's beyond my current ability, and i'm skeptical that even if I learn how, i can keep it simple enough that i'd feel comfortable suggesting it.

      The followup research:
      So there's huge professional companies like verkanda/axis. I did some basic pricing research and it looks like $2kish, minimum, a year for these things. That might be within their budget (i'm told the damage done was easily into the 5 figure territory), but it also feels like extreme overkill for something that should be easier to solve?

      Another one i've come across before is Reolink, but I have 0 experience with it and haven't found much in either direction that makes me think it'd be a good solution or a terrible one.

      I'm pretty against ring/nest just due to a mixture of "fuck em" and also feeling like you don't get what you pay for.

      Overall-

      Anyone have any experience or guidance with this sort of thing? I really feel like my own home network/camera setup has me right on the edge of being able to say "ah yeah here's what you need...." and yet i've fallen at the finish line. Is there some easy way to make ubiquiti work (seems to meet all the needs except the cloud storage)? Or some system you're familiar with that does have that feature?

      I feel like i bump into these kinds of problems more and more where the options are "make it a second hobby/job" or "pay through the nose" when it feels like there should be a reasonable inbetween.

      12 votes
    31. Midweek Movie Free Talk

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      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.

      10 votes
    32. What keeps you up at night?

      Anxieties, fears, bad habits, childcare, etc. What keeps you up? This is a place where you can get those thoughts out of your head and into words instead. For those reading the responses here,...

      Anxieties, fears, bad habits, childcare, etc.

      What keeps you up? This is a place where you can get those thoughts out of your head and into words instead.

      For those reading the responses here, please practice empathetic listening — especially for those sharing difficult thoughts or feelings. It is much more important that someone feel heard and understood than it is to try to solve their situation.

      35 votes
    33. What quotes inspire you?

      I loved the notes app post (h/t @kwfyre) and that led me to think about the motivational or inspiring quotes that mean something to you whether they're well known or more obscure, whether said IRL...

      I loved the notes app post (h/t @kwfyre) and that led me to think about the motivational or inspiring quotes that mean something to you whether they're well known or more obscure, whether said IRL or in fiction!

      26 votes
    34. TV Tuesdays Free Talk

      Warning: this post may contain spoilers

      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.

      9 votes
    35. 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.

      10 votes
    36. Offbeat Fridays – The thread where offbeat headlines become front page news

      Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like yemen, brave and septic tanks. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, if anyone was...

      Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like yemen, brave and septic tanks. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, if anyone was documenting.

      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
    37. What's the oldest tech you use, and why do you still use it?

      Oldest doesn't have to mean absolute age and can be relative to that tech's particular "lane" (e.g. your "old" cell phone might be newer than one of your game consoles, but it still "feels" old...

      Oldest doesn't have to mean absolute age and can be relative to that tech's particular "lane" (e.g. your "old" cell phone might be newer than one of your game consoles, but it still "feels" old when compared to cell phones exclusively).

      And "tech" can be, well, anything you think counts as "tech!"

      65 votes
    38. 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!

      7 votes
    39. What are your top two strategy games you play competitively?

      Command and Conquer Generals Zero Hour: It has a very active community and there are lots of tournaments. Matches are very intense and fun. Europa Universalis IV: At this point of my life, I can...

      Command and Conquer Generals Zero Hour:
      It has a very active community and there are lots of tournaments. Matches are very intense and fun.
      Europa Universalis IV:
      At this point of my life, I can say I am almost super pro at this game with thousands of hours 🥲

      I also want to get into Red Alert and Star Craft series but I find them super complicated for some reason lol. Maybe I lost my game learning skills at the age of 29…

      20 votes
    40. How come the mods on here keep editing the titles of my post to be exactly what they already were?

      I was going to get screenshots to backup what I am talking about but apparently they aren't kicking around in the system forever so most of the evidence is gone but I often see mycketforvirrad...

      I was going to get screenshots to backup what I am talking about but apparently they aren't kicking around in the system forever so most of the evidence is gone but I often see mycketforvirrad editing the title of a post I make to exactly what it already was while they are editing tags as they see fit.

      What's up with that?

      20 votes