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.

A couple of things for me:

What is the significance of the monster group ? Is there some upper limit on the symmetry of the universe ?

Is the Riemann hypothesis true ? This looks weirdly abstract but has some significance for cryptography. It also seems part of intuitive but is one maths hardest problems to solve!

What the hell are black holes in the context of space time and reality ? I watched this really good interview of Brian Cox by Cloe Abrams. I was sort of semi comfortable with what I thought they were, but after watching this I am more profoundly confused by them than before

Dark energy/matter… ok. I stop. your turn.

This coming week, I'm taking delivery of a 2023 Chevrolet Bolt 2LT with 24k miles. [It's red, and I'm going to call it my "Cherriot". Awful puns make everything better, and I live in the Cherry Capitol, so.] Thanks to RTO, it's just not feasible to remain a one-car household any longer.

The Bolt EV was about $15,000 cheaper than a new hybrid. Even though the low-end Ford Maverick price new was only a couple of thousand more than I'm paying for used, I've grown to hate driving SUV-sized and configured vehicles. I'm attached to the vanishing compact hatchback variety of car - comfortable to drive and park, easy to load and unload. They've always had as much cargo and passenger space as I've ever needed, and the Bolt comes highly recommended.

I'm aware this car comes with some disadvantages compared to ICE or hybrid vehicles. The Bolt doesn't have the fastest charging speeds, but overnight Level 2 is fine. Range is supposed to be ~250 miles under ideal conditions. Typical use will average 10 miles/day. The longest road trips I'm likely to use it for should be well within range on a single charge, to destinations with plenty of charging stations.

I don't have a 220v outlet in the garage yet. Public Level 3 CCS chargers should meet any expected needs in the interim even if that takes 2 hours of charging every couple of weeks. It's understood that the range will drop up to 40% in cold weather. I'm hoping to have the garage outlet installed by the time that's a problem.

Otherwise, I've got all kinds of questions about the fine points of the EV driving experience.

1. Regenerative braking. I'd think this is safer on wet or icy roads than using the mechanical brakes. I drove a manual transmission for many years - is the effect of regenerative braking similar to using the clutch to slow down? Should I use the "one pedal driving" setting all the time?

2. Tire wear - how often should I expect to replace tires, and is regenerative braking a plus or minus for tire life? It's a front-wheel drive with all-wheel traction control. By all accounts, I will still need to swap to winter tires for safety in snow and ice. The odds are that I won't need new tires for a while. I try to save up in advance, and it would be helpful to have an idea of when I can expect that expense to arrive.

3. How much do I need to worry about extreme high or low temperatures? Do I need to park in the shade all the time when it's above 30°C, or use a heater in the garage on very cold (< 0°C) days?

4. Aside from the manufacturer's recommended maintenance schedule, is there anything I should be doing to prolong the life of the car?

Please feel free to give any other advice, positive or negative experiences, etc.

I was a fan of GameRevolution’s reviews for a long time. They always seemed to have a criteria to reviews that not only sold me on what to pursue, but what to truly avoid even if I loved the franchise. (MGS: Ground Zeros, I’m looking at you.) They have seemingly reduced to one reviewer…

I love the weekly Tildes thread of “what games are you playing” and it has truly opened my eyes to some games I would never have heard of, or even tried (Balatro).

Anywho the point of this is to ask where everyone else looks for reputable/intelligent reviews currently? I enjoy listening to Luke Stephens talk about the industry, but it’s not as concise as an A-F or star or 1-10 rating system. IGN doesn’t have my attention… I just don’t know where to turn, as there are so many options.

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!

I use Android and I don't like and I suspect I would like ios about that much. The sw practices and manufacturer behavior is not what I would call exemplary. Compared to the desktop the mobile os landscape is locked down without much choice.

I have personal experience only with Pinephone released around 2020 which I used for about a year with postmarketOS for most of that time. I finally replaced it due it low battery endurance and call reliability with sleep due to inflexible requirements on that front but I actually liked it more that the Samsung I use now.

Other than that I only know about Librem 5 released around that time. Are there any recent examples of phone hardware that is meant to run a linux distro and what do you think about the future of that?

Opinion

Video links go unwatched.

This gets even more true the longer the videos are.

I think it helps to post a 2-3 line summary of what people can expect to find in the video.

There is just too much content in the Internet for many people to watch a video, just because it is posted, even if it has an interesting title.

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.

This isn't just about crimes like the identity of Jack the Ripper, DB Cooper, the fate of the two English princes locked in the Tower of London, or what happened to Jimmy Hoffa. There are so many mysteries throughout history that are unlikely to ever be fully solved or explained, that we can only theorize about.

What is the Voynich Manuscript? Who was the Man in the Iron Mask? Why was the Mary Celeste abandoned? What's up with the Dyatlov Pass Incident? What's the real story behind the Pied Piper of Hamelin? What did Anne Boelyn really look like?

There's an infinite wealth of mysteries throughout history, so which ones do you find the most intriguing? Bonus points if they're more obscure, or a smaller local one!

Sorry if this is a dumb question, I've done some browsing and haven't found an obvious answer. Subscribing to the a tildes rss feed works great, except that link topics open the link itself, not the Tildes thread. I'd ideally want it to open the thread in the first instance, not the link directly. Is this something that's possible that I just haven't been able to figure out?

A little over a week ago I picked up a 3x3 Rubik's cube after seeing a coworker mess with one. I love fidgety things either as a stimming activity or as a puzzle. Do any of you have other fidgety puzzles to recommend?

I was thinking about this during my run today. I have a playlist where I put songs that I consider to be the "most iconic" and I want help filling it out a bit. I'd also like help determining if some of these aren't iconic enough, but the main ones I'm asking about are literal theme songs, so that may give them some extra points.

Now, this is of course at least semi-subjective, but I have tried to not put songs that are just really great or that everybody knows or that nobody will be singing next summer.

There are certainly multiple ways to define "iconic." I'm really trying to stick to the songs where you don't have to explain how or why it's iconic. It just is, and "everybody" knows it. The way I see it, this could actually exclude some of the biggest songs of all time because yeah, they're popular, but they aren't an icon.

So, before I use any more awful, self-justifying logic, let's get into my list so far!

In the Air Tonight
Born in the USA
Roundball Rock
CBS March Madness Theme
Monday Night Football Theme
Bridge Over Troubled Waters
Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley
Hey Jude
American Pie

Some songs from Grease because I'm sure at least one qualifies, but I grew up hating it because my sister loved it so I don't know which one(s) to include (or exclude, rather)

I can obviously think of a lot of other obviously extremely iconic songs but I've only added songs when I happened to listen to them. So what are Tildes' thoughts?

I've always been a big fan of going to a second hand book store/thrift store and searching around for some cheap books to add to my bookshelf. When I was younger, it helped me get more bang for my buck, and growing up in the greater Portland Oregon area, I had access to Powell's Books which was an amazing place to go and see how many books I could get for $10-20 when my parents would take me.

I don't get to shop for books often as I made a foolish (joking) agreement with my wife that I would read all of the books I own before buying new ones, but when I do, I love that sense of going into a used book store/thrift shop and seeing what I might find.

I tend to try and complete series that I'm missing books in or that I know are on my to read list and will often pull out my phone to check. But when I was last browsing through the used book stores near the market my family goes to, it got me wondering how other people search go thrifting for books and I thought up a few questions below

Do you:

• judge books by their cover?
• have a list of books you search for?
• set a spending limit and see what you can get?
• go with family or friends, or is it a solo venture?
• frequent the same shops or try to cast a wide net?
• use online sites to purchase your second hand books?
• have any fun stories you'd want to share?

If you have other thoughts on buying books second hand, feel free to share them!

Most of my professional work involves the plumbing side of things (e.g. APIs, integration etc.) So I've come to front end quite late, and dabbled in HTML/CSS/JS frameworks, and tried to create a thing or two using Python GUI frameworks too.

After spending a bit of time learning about game development in Godot, I decided it might be fun to try and build a simple desktop app in the engine, and it surprised me how easy it was, it took me a day or two to build a basic git front end.

Of course, if you ever need to build something outside of GDscript, it'll require building an extension, probably in C++, but it makes me wonder if those sorts of tools exist outside of games engines? It feels like game devs get a wonderful tool that they use as a garnish on top of the real work (the game).

I'd be keen to know what people who regularly build front end tools tend to prefer to use.

ETA: I just realized the title is a poor summary of what I'm actually asking about, sorry!

Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like seismology, minimalism.digital and charles dickens. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, if anyone was nerding out.

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!

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.

Right now in the US Joann is going out of business and Ditto pattern projectors are ultra-cheap. That being said I don’t have much hobby money these days so I can’t just impulse buy. I have done some research and they have some very mixed reviews since it’s a very closed ecosystem. So I was hoping to get some opinions and see if it’s worth it at ~$75. Right now I want it primarily from FOMO because of tariffs on Chinese goods.

Honestly half of me wants to buy it just because it comes with a cutting wheel and board.

Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix
Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari
May 16-18, 2025

Qualification:
Saturday, May 17, 2025 - 14:00 UTC / 10:00a US EDT

Grand Prix:
Sunday, May 18, 2025 - 13:00 UTC / 9:00a US EDT

See your local time here

Next race:

Monaco Grand Prix
Circuit de Monaco
Sunday, May 25, 2025

I'm currently living in a place where we have a bit of backyard space, complete with a porch and a raised planter bed down in the yard.

We wanted to take advantage of this and try to grow some plants this summer, even though it might already be getting late to plant. According to this USDA site, we live in a 10a plant hardiness zone.

Currently, the plan is to plant some tomatoes and possibly hot peppers in the raised planter bed, and to grow some basil and oregano in pots on the porch. I don't have much of a plan other than to buy the plants, buy some soil, and plant, so I wanted to check here to see if anyone had good resources for getting started with gardening for the first time. In general I'm just wondering if anyone has advice for a new gardener to get off on the right foot — I'm novice enough to not even know the questions to ask!

EDIT:

I was busy the last few days so just came back and wow! Such good advice from everyone, I'm very excited to get planting. Even if I haven't replied to you I've read your post and appreciate the information!

Everyone, proud to announce that after a week and nine hours the tildes archipelago is complete as of 6:51 AM ET! We, astoundingly, had only one release due to excessive backtracking and only one technical DNF out of sixteen games. (As a first-time host I'll take that as a win!) Otherwise two Radiances and the Hollow Knight said good night, the Ender Dragon ended, the Spire was (mostly) Slayed, Red ...'d, Bowser blasted big, Ganon's gone, Ganon's gone again, Rogues Legacied, John Darksoul prevailed, Doomguy doomed all over the place, and... Poker. Also we found that last strawberry. Jesus.

Big thanks to everyone who participated and hope you had fun! I'm thinking I'll throw a sign-up thread in a month or two to gather YAMLs and we'll trek through it again. Definitely excited to try some new games!

_{(FAQ for those out of the loop)}

How do my fellow KH fans on tildes feel? I'm honestly kind of relieved. Gacha is an inherently predatory business model, and the game by all accounts was extremely unfun. It's still the first KH game to be outright cancelled mid development, so I'm still worried about what this means for the series.

I'm hoping that the devs never return to the mobile space.

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.

I've seen some discussion on self-hosted stuff, but a lot of it depends on docker or droplets or some such.

As a user of dedicated servers and the shared hosting environment on them, although Virtualmin gives me much more freedom than cPanel did, I still can't run a lot of the fun stuff I want to play with.

So I'm curious to know what you run in that sort of environment that's awesome.

Although I will start with one: NextCloud has been around for a while - taking over from whatever-Cloud they forked from that I've now forgotten the name of. heh. It was not a bad project, but it really wasn't featured enough for my needs.

But recently, I've discovered that they have been expanding their features rapidly. What I love and use:

• NextCloud Talk is almost on par with Teams. Featureful chat. Shared files. Links to various things on NextCloud.
• With the local app installed, syncing a folder to the server, I can edit files locally or in the browser and it's a really nice synced environtment. The web view works well, almost like File Explorer - dragging and dropping files around, etc.
• Ability to share files publicly. And even the ability to have a chat with users visiting the file page if you want. Ability to "hotlink" shared pics - like to embed in a forum
• The "Cards" app is... I forget the original name for teh layout, but you get cards in lists. Cards have details, due dates if you want, things like lists you can check off items, embed pics, etc. Also, each card has a chat related to that card and you can @ people
• Passwords app - share passwords with certain people, click to opy to the clipboard. Storing credit cards means I can copy-paste easily to use on my phone instead of typing.
• Calendar that can sync to other sources
• Tables - lke Microsoft Lists - custom set up of columns, handy for any number of things from making a ticket system / issue tracker, to lists of resources for a particular site. Can ahve edit access, or make it into an "app" where it gets stuck up on the nav bar and view-only for your clients, for example

Basically, while there are still some rough spots, it is really pretty slick and works well. And the awesome part is that being self-hosted, I control it. There's a large number of apps you can add to it, of varying quality.

So I'm curious to know what other projects you love and find useful! :)

I'm in the planning stages of a Viking-themed game I'll be running sometime next year, and I'm noticing a nice little progression in the armor types that ends with chain mail. When combined with a silver-based economy that cares more about the weight of the silver over the number of coins you have, that puts a lot of emphasis on looking towards magic for your better AC values, as armor will generally be more expensive and the (typically) highest tiers of armor--namely, plate mail, but also things like splint and banded mails--are simply unavailable for sale or amongst the majority of the enemies you might face.

That magic will most commonly be from the runecaster, probably, since there's a rune available that can be worn like a necklace and improve AC, as well as another that can reduce damage taken. Magic armor will still be--likely even moreso--coveted and sought out by the players.

A PC with average Dexterity can reasonably hit AC 3 (or AC 17 if you're used to ascending values); this assumes chain mail, shield, and a protection rune. Normally AC 3 (banded mail and a shield) is the best a starting PC (with no adjustment from Dex) can hope for in a traditional game.

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!

PSA: If you don’t know what the Eurovision Song Contest is, then I recommend you to watch this funny but highly informative video, ironically made by an American.

What is your favorite entry this year and why?

Mine is Latvia’s song, Bur man laimi by Tautumeitas. You can watch their live performance at Latvia’s national contest (which took place in February) here.

Full disclosure: My wife is Latvian, and I have lived in Latvia with her since 2018, so I’m 100% biased in this opinion. In my defense though, Latvia’s entries throughout the last few years have been underwhelming in my opinion. I did enjoy Eat Your Salad by Citi Zēni in 2022, because it was catchy, but that’s about it.

But this year, Latvia shot it out of the park for me. I will go as far as to say that Bur man laimi is the best song in terms of “artistic value” at the contest. I hope that it makes it at least to the finals. I would be very happy if it placed in the top ten.

I was over the moon when they won the Latvian Supernova 2025 contest. Apparently, the jury tied them with two other participants out of the ten finalists, but ultimately took the title because they had been given the most votes by the public:

They took to the Supernova stage, where Latvia decide upon their Eurovision entry, against 9 other finalists. Tautumeitas performed their song Bur Man Laimi, which means “A chant for happiness,” in amongst a floaty fringe curtain and a series of rainstorms. They delivered catchy folk pop with a dreamy vibe, tight dance moves, and some impressively high notes. Both the public and jury were rightly impressed. But when all the votes were counted, the points were tied three ways.

I have known the Tautumeitas for many years and love a lot of their songs. They are commonly thought of as an “ethno-pop” group, but they have created all kinds of music. It is true though that a lot of their pieces are centered about folklore, and are inspired by the famous dainas:

A daina or tautas dziesma [“folk song”] is a traditional form of music or poetry from Latvia. (...) Latvian dainas often feature drone vocal styles and pre-Christian themes and legends, and can be accompanied by musical instruments such as Baltic psalteries (e.g. kokles). Dainas tend to be very short (usually four-liners) and are usually in a trochaic or a dactylic metre. Dainas are being translated into English by Latvian American Ieva Auziņa-Szentivanyi.

Lyrically, dainas concern themselves with native mythology and traditional festivals but, in contrast to most similar forms, do not have any legendary heroes. Stories often revolve around pre-Christian deities like the sun goddess Saule and the moon god Mēness. There are dainas that do not have a mythical theme as well – many simply describe the daily life of agrarian society and nature. However, these still often include personifications of natural phenomena. Another major theme is the human life cycle, especially the three major events: birth, wedding, and death (including burial). The dainas concerning birth are deeply emotional, and usually feature a mother figure not only as the person who gives birth but also as the one who determines the fate of the child. These also often feature the fate deity Laima and were historically sung immediately after birth, which traditionally took place in a bathhouse. (...) The dainas devoted to death describe an individual preparing for death and often relate to funeral customs. These often feature a female god related to the world of the dead, variously known as kapu māte, veļu māte, zemes māte or smilšu māte (mother of graves, mother of dead, mother Earth, mother of sand). The first collection of dainas was published between 1894 and 1915 as Latvju Dainas by Krišjānis Barons. There are well over two hundred thousand collected dainas in written form.

Notice the “fate” (or “fortune”) deity “Laima” mentioned there. I’ll come back to her.

I showed the song to an American friend who told me that she liked it, but didn’t appreciate the repetition of the stanzas. Well, that’s intentional. Dainas are usually short poems with just two or three stanzas. Hundreds of thousands of them were written by ancient Latvians, who survived the horrors that their people endured under the Russians and Germans since the 12th century, preserving their way of life and wisdom through song and poetry in written format (and previously through oral transmission) once Europe acquired the printing press.

I’m not Latvian nor an expect on the subject matter, but the way that I see it, the vast majority of these dainas are themed around nature and perseverance. These are two traits that really define Latvian culture and the Latvian people as a whole.

First, they are very connected to nature. Even young Latvians today still know a lot about the natural world and enjoy spending their time outdoors, participating in traditional rituals and seasonal activities throughout the year, all around the many beautiful forests, plains, and lakes of this green country. Latvians gift each other flowers for absolutely no reason, all the time. When my wife manages to get me out of the house, she loves pointing at random plants and telling me what they are called and how they can be used. Foraging berries and mushrooms is a popular family activity. Whenever there is a weekend that’s extended by holidays, the capital city turns into a ghost town, because they all retreat to their countryside homes. They’ve even managed to grow their forests.

Second, perseverance is one of their defining traits of character because they have an attitude of “better things are yet to come”. That’s why, I think, you also often find words like ozols (“oak tree”, which I see as a symbol of strength and endurance) as well as laime (“good fortune”, I would translate it as, rather than the usual “luck” or “happiness”). And yes, the word “laime” and the name of the fate deity “Laima” are related. Even a famous brand of delicious chocolate is named after her. The depth of the word “laime” can’t be summarized by a single English word, I think. Latvians use it in so many different contexts, but there’s almost always an undertone of “gratitude for the blessings that fortune brought about” to it. It’s really hard to convey the word’s breadth of meaning, but I think that the ladies conveyed it really well through their performance.

I don’t know about the translation of the title of the song. I would have gone for “conjure me good fortune” instead, but my own Latvian is still only at an intermediary level. Probably best to ask a Latvian about all of this if you want an informed opinion. Maybe the Tautumeitas (“tautumeita”, or “folk girl” itself being an ancient, archaic word with a much deeper meaning) chose to go with “a chant for happiness” to keep it simple for international audiences. I feel confident telling you that the title means a lot more than that though.

Yesterday I collected some 10 or more reaction videos to the song and watched four of them. In one, the lady actually started crying. All of the others loved it. Nothing but praise for the song can be found in all the comment sections. People say (and I agree) that they feel connected to nature listening to it.

This song is the winner of the contest for me. These six stunningly beautiful ladies put a lot of thought behind it’s composition. It masterfully integrates ancient Latvian lyrical and music culture with modern instruments. The vocal harmony is as professional as only Latvia’s best-trained vocalists can be (and let me tell you, music education is a big deal in Latvia). The performance spectacularly illustrates the deeper meaning of the lyrics. The song and visuals are an explosion of Latvian culture.

I have a thing for rock songs that include a piano playing the same note every eighth-note. For example:

• Go With the Flow by Queens of the Stone Age has it going for the entire song.
• The Sweetness by Jimmy Eat World has it at the end.
• Do It or Die by Die Mannequin has it during the intro and chorus.
• In It Doesn't Matter Why by Silversun Pickups, it's not a piano, I'm not even sure what it is, but it's a high pitch repetitive percussive sound.
• Party Hard by Andrew W.K. gets an honorary mention, but the piano note is only every quarter note rather than every eighth note.

Can anyone think of any other songs like this? I know I've heard a bunch, but when I try and come up with any more examples, I can't.

There's a lot of amazing stuff out there that we take for granted these days, but today's normal is yesterday's dream for the future.

What's something possible/happening now that is decidedly futuristic?

You know, like the idea that I can type these words and within seconds they can be read by people across the globe!

My MSI motherboard recently had an audio issue and crashed/corrupted my PC.

I RMA'd it and did a fresh install of windows.

I fire up my PC - no internet. After some fiddle-fucking around, I try an Ethernet to USB-C adapter. Works fine.

I try a wifi dongle, no issues.

Okay, motherboard issue related to the Ethernet port then, right?

Except, I plug my Ethernet cable directly into my modem, and now it's working totally fine.

Hmm, router issue? But why is it working with the usb-C adapter? Why does it work when I plug it into my steam deck? Factory reset. No dice.

Drivers updated, windows updated, everything has been disabled, re-enabled, reset, turned off and back on, etc. I'm losing my mind.

I would really like to be able to plug my expensive PC directly into my router via Ethernet, but I can't seem to make it happen. Tried two different cables (which work with other devices).

When I connect, it says it's identifying network and then gives me a 169 IP address - DHPS error then? But why wouldn't that be resolved by the clean install and the factory reset?

Everything is set to auto in terms of IP and DHPS. Everything is enabled as it should be. No firewall. No security. No blacklisted devices. Why won't my router assign an IP address to my PC when connected directly via Ethernet? And why is it working fine when connected to my modem?

msi motherboard and TP-link router by the way.

Edit: Alright folks, I'm just going to squeeze in a network card. I don't want to do another three weeks with no PC and this mobo is just old enough that I don't feel like RMA'ing repeatedly unless I have to. I really tried everything and have ruled out the router and Ethernet cable. Thank you all so much for your help.

Edit: Threw a new network card in. Used my second PCIEx16 slot. Nothing will fit there anyway since it's microatx and my gpu takes up so much space. Working great. So probably the mobo having an ethernet defect - not terribly surprising considering this was just RMA'd and they sent me back the same mobo after repair. If it shits the bed again, I'll just get a new mobo entirely. it's not an expensive one luckily. Thanks again everyone!

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 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?

Hey everyone, I am attempting to go vegan.

I just wanted to do a "vegan weekend", but I’m about a month in, and I'm feeling like I can keep this up. I've tried in the past, but there are far more vegan options than there were several years ago. If you are a vegan, please let me know any tips, tricks, etc. that you wish you knew sooner. If you are on the fence or curious about it, ask questions! Post your favorite vegan recipes in the comments or any online resources you recommend on veganism. General veganism thread.

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?

Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like windows.10, tech industry and changemyview. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, if anyone was curious.

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!

I just got back from the 'Nintendo Switch 2 Experience', so I though I'd share my thoughts on the console for those who didn't/won't get a chance to check it out.

The Console Itself - 8/10

The S2 is a decent amount larger than the original, which really helps with the ergonomics. Pretty much all the controls are bigger, and the rounder shape might alleviate fatigue when holding it (I never got to hold it for long, the demos were mostly on TVs). I think it looks a lot worse than the original, but that's neither here nor there. The pro controller was a huge upgrade from the (already great) original, super comfortable materials and nice buttons. The screen is not OLED, which I think is ridiculous for the price tag. It theoretically has HDR, but I could not tell. Overall, it's bigger and better, but nothing super special.

Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour - 0/10

For the price of $10, Welcome Tour is a complete joke. There's absolutely nothing to say about it, it's basically an ad for hardware you'll already own. Should be free, don't buy it.

Donkey Kong Bananza - 5/10

This is the Mario Odyssey formula applied to Donkey Kong, you run around, collect bananas in some semi-open worlds. All the environments are destructible, which is super fun but adds one huge caveat: the game runs like shit. A nice 60fps when running around, but as soon as you try smashing stuff (the main gimmick of the game) the framerate jumps all over the place, and going to the world map tanks the fps to 20-30. I enjoyed surfing on chunks of the ground I pulled up, but I was constantly pulled out of the fun by performance hiccups. It looked about as good as Mario Odyssey (but at native 4k ~60pfs, of course).

Mario Kart World - 9/10

Okay, now I can start saying nice things! Mario Kart World is–as you might expect–awesome. It's a really fun twist on the formula that was perfected in 8 Deluxe. There's no more kart customisation, which I don't mind, but each kart looks really nice and detailed. I got a slight taste of free-roam mode before each knockout tour I played, and it was... fine? The open world looks great and plays well, but I'm curious to see how it's "gamified". The knockout tour was the main booth on the floor, with 24 people playing at once with the last placing racers getting eliminated at different checkpoints. It was chaos, but that classic Mario Kart chaos that works really well. I managed to come 2nd on my first race. It looks quite a lot better than 8 Deluxe, but that's mostly in the art style and animations.

Drag X Drive - 9/10

This is the gimmicky competitive game for this system (like Arms or Splatoon), showing off the mouse controls in the form of Wheelchair Basketball. I was super surprised by this game, the gimmick clicked with me instantly. I got dunked on like twice, but I also only had 5 minutes to prepare, so cut me some slack!

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond - 7/10

Again, the mouse controls work super well. It all felt pretty simple and intuitive, but that might be because I'm a PC player most of the time anyway. I don't know anything about the Metroid series, so I can't comment on the story or gameplay beyond that. It looked pretty good and ran at (I think) the full 120FPS the whole time.

Cyberpunk 2077 - 4/10

Cyberpunk was... rough. It had that classic "really really upscaled" look, and dipped down to 10fps a lot in combat. I tried both "performance" and "quality" mode, but both looked and played about the same (which might be a bug).

Breath of the Wild: Nintendo Switch 2 Edition - 2/10

I can't believe they're charging for this. It's literally just the original game running at 60fps with slightly better draw distances. You can get this look with CEMU. This is how I felt about all the "Nintendo Switch 2 Edition" games that I tried.

Conclusion

While the games were pretty good and the experience was nice, I don't think the console has justified itself costing as much as it does, and so I'm not going to buy it on launch. I'll probably pick it up used when there's a reliable jailbreak, but the preview event really dissolved any feelings of FOMO that I might have had about it, which I'm glad about because now I can save that $800! I hope there's still people playing Drag x Drive when I get to it in a few years.

Feel free to ask me any questions, and hopefully I can answer them.

What's the best way to link a photo from my gallery to share here? My go to with friends and family is a Google drive link. Is there something I'm unaware of that means I shouldn't create links through my Google drive for general public sharing?

I'm looking to better organize all the computer and electronics parts I have laying around and am looking for recommendations for software from people who are already doing this. I saw InvenTree but wasn't sure if there are other alternatives I should look at. Most of what I found so far is focused on companies and is therefore a bit more than I need. My only major requirement is that I can self-host it, or at least easily export all my data out of it. Ideally, the same software would work well for organizing home workshop parts as well (e.g. bolts, sockets, glues), though that's not a hard requirement.

Also, I'm not sure if this makes more sense here or in ~hobbies, but I figured the computer/electronics focus means it makes more sense here.

Hello everyone,

I wanted to provide a litmus test, of sorts. This test helps you figure out if you are engaging in the Sunken Cost Fallacy.

Sometimes I find myself asking if I should quit something, let something go, move on, etc.. It can be hard to figure out what the answer to those questions are. I heard a piece of advice regarding this very struggle, and wanted to share it with you all.

Ask yourself:

Knowing what I know now, would I still make the same decision that I did?

If the answer is "No" then you are most likely in a Sunken Cost Fallacy mindset. It could be argued that you should stop whatever it is you're considering stopping.

If the answer is "Yes" it is likely you are not in a Sunken Cost Fallacy and you made a decision in line with your values, even if it may not seem like it (hence the struggling).

Disclaimers:
Knowing the answer to this question does not imply you will know what to do with the information.

This test does not really "fix" anything, so to speak, but it is intended to help you realize when you are in a sunken cost fallacy situation.

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!

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!