Obviously I don't want anyone to dox themselves here, but if you're comfortable sharing, what are some interesting oddities or landmarks in your state, county, country, etc.?

Think like "World's Largest Teapot" or "Carhenge". Or even smaller oddities or things that are unique to your area.

While I ate breakfast, I watched a YouTube video speaking to how death becomes an inconvenience in D&D 5e as early as 5th level, despite the amount of weight that people generally put behind it in the moment. Here's a relevant transcript.

Well, the obvious answer to this is to ban the spells that take away the permanence of death; that way there's stakes staying all the way through 20th level. The problem with this answer is that D&D isn't balanced around those spells not existing at later levels.

I love Risk of Rain 2 but my biggest problem with that game is being 30 minutes into a run and getting one-shot, dying, and having to start all over. I couldn't imagine having that same feeling after playing FOUR YEARS in a campaign.

I don't necessarily disagree with the first paragraph, but the second one is wild to me for two reasons.

• First, Risk of Rain is a roguelike whose entire game loop is "do stuff, die, unlock/purchase meta progression, do more stuff, die, etc. etc.".
• Second, the idea that you've been playing four years in a 5e game that's presumably weekly and somehow haven't hit 20th level. For context, 5e wants you hitting 20th level after 36-52 typical 4-hour sessions.

This kind of sentiment really does highlight how distant the way I ran the game those eight years I spent with 5e and how the game wants to be run is to the way people appear to be running the game, and I'm not sure I'll ever be able to square that circle. Not to imply any kind of superiority to it, it just continues to be extremely weird/interesting to me how the culture surrounding D&D is so different from the expectations laid out by the very rules text people don't read.

For a while now I have used VSCodium- which is just Microsoft's VSCode, but with as much of the telemetry stripped out (or rather, not built-in in the first place) as possible- but I've found myself with a desire to move away from Electron-based apps for a number of reasons.

Primarily, I'm ideologically opposed to the trend in which everything is an Electron-based web app packaged as a "desktop application", but on a slightly more functional note, Electron seems to behave poorly in Wayland contexts, especially on Arm64 devices.

In terms of feature set, I'm not too interested in complexity. Something open-source, relatively clean / light-weight, capable of providing a project overview and a number of tabbed or vsplit / hsplit buffers. Something with comprehensive syntax highlighting and some form of language server interface. Something theme-able, and good to look at, with relatively intuitive or well-established keyboard shortcuts. I don't much care for integrated terminals, extensive debugging tooling, or any form of built-in AI assistant.

I have been trying out Micro, with a set of plugins which allow for a project overview, a language server, and a number of other QOL improvements, but it has a list of breaking issues that will likely not be solved for years given the speed at which pull-requests are addressed, if at all. Even so- it hits most of the marks that I find most important to me.

But I'm also interested in what other people use; what other programmers find matter to them. So what text editors, or IDEs do you swear by (and please don't suggest VIM- it's overwhelming ;])?

I have decent internet at home.

I have great internet at work.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

it. is. so. snappy.

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

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

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

This site has got zero input lag.

And that feels great.

For those who are unfamiliar, Subway Takes is a popular short form internet talk show "in which the interviewees present and defend a unique or controversial opinion, called a 'take'" Takes are usually halfbaked and/or tongue-in-cheek. Some popular examples include:

There are too many states in America

Everybody in New York has rich parents or is selling drugs

Spirit Airlines does not deserve the hate

Italians became white after 9/11

So what's your take?

United States Grand Prix
Circuit of the Americas
October 17-19, 2025

Next race:

Mexico City Grand Prix
Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez
October 24-26, 2025

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.

For reference, here is the ODbL. There is a nice human readable summary. You can also read more in the Wikipedia entry.

The most famous database available under the ODbL is OpenStreetMaps.

I recently found out about OpenCorporates, which is a global database of companies, published under the ODbL. I thought this was great, so I applied for access to use the database for a project. I was denied because I'm not a journalist or a nonprofit and instead was invited to pay for access instead. And it's not cheap, likely because company databases are often used in the B2B space.

I replied that this seemed to be in conflict with their mission, especially given that my project was focused on using the data to create a benefit to the public, and their response was that they wanted to protect against their database being copied.

From my reading, this seems to be in direct conflict with the ODbL. Egregiously so, which has me thinking I'm missing something.

Does anyone have any insight? It seems to me that the whole point of the ODbL license is to make data freely available. This is backed up by interpretations I came across while searching and by the ethos of other orgs using the license, such as OSM. What am I missing?

I think we all know how things are at large, but I wanted to check in with people individually.

How are you doing right now?

This topic is a safe space to share fears, anxieties, and frustrations. If you need to vent, or rage against something, or wallow, or let it all out, you can do so here. It’s okay to feel what you’re feeling. I’m certain you’re not alone in that.

This is also a safe space to share successes, hopes, and progress. Just as it’s okay to dwell on the bad stuff, it’s also okay to highlight any positives. It’s little bright spots like those that help us see more than just darkness, after all. I’m sure other people could use some good news.

A wizard has cursed you with billions of dollars! Why is that a curse? Because unless you spend it immediately* on something ridiculous** you'll become like the worst, asshole-iest billionaire you can think of. (Fill in your own blank).

Saving the world is out, philanthropy is out (unless it's utterly ridiculous), clever tricks to make the world better by finding a loophole and trying to outwit the wizard's curse are out.

If you try something that could be started with an "um actually" 🤓☝️you end up naming all your children and companies with the same letter before the end of the day, got it? Spirit of the rules!
I'm watching you. ತ⁠_⁠ʖ⁠ತ

*A project might take time but you're going all in on it, cash up front
** The point is that it's pointless. It might be accidentally useful but it's pointless.

ETA: I have been unjustly rate limited and will be replying when I can. Please take this opportunity to reconsider your charitable works and other attempts at public good and get back to airships and Animorphs movies. Ty

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

Inspired by this post

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

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

Rules:

• No grey market sales
• No affiliate links

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

All previous Save Point topics

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

I recently got my first vinyl (Breach by Twenty One Pilots) for my birthday. I've had it on streaming nonstop but want to play it properly and start a small collection.

I've seen a lot of recommendations for the Audio-Technica AT-LP60 as a beginner option (affordable and apparently decent quality) but also read that spending a little more can get something more "serious", though I need speakers too.

The thing is that it needs to be new gear only or easy to buy: My partner plans to gift the setup for Christmas and marketplace/used gear is hard to source locally where we live, so that's probably out. We have a budget of around €150 for the turntable and other €150 for the speakers, or €300 total. Open to a modest stretch if it avoids an early upgrade. Manual or semi-auto is fine but preferable plug-and-play.

Prefer compact powered speakers with good near field clarity, not necessarily loud since they'll sit behind my PC monitor on my desk.

Questions:

• If I'm considering the AT-LP60, what's the smartest "slightly more €" upgrade path for a first set-up?

• For small desks, which powered speakers pair well with entry-level turntables (good clarity but not boomy)?

• Anything to avoid or other advice you may have for a beginner?

Appreciate any guidance. I’m looking forward to spinning Breach and building out a few more records.

Ps: Already ordered anti-static inner sleeves, outer sleeves, and a carbon-fiber record brush to keep things clean!

I recently had a bad monitor failure after six or so years of normal use. Specifically, my LG 34GK950F-B had an electrical failure that, in a limited sense, caught a ribbon cable inside on fire. It is exactly the same failure as shown here, and I add a few images of documentation of my case here.

Anyhow, I am now in the market for a new ultrawide, and I need one as soon as yesterday since my desktop currently has no display - I have been tunneling into it to do anything. General recommendations would be nice - but a few things specifically:

• what is the burn in situation like on modern OLED monitors?
• I would prefer not to spend a massive amount, is that doable while still supporting the following use cases?
  • lots of coding, needs to render text nicely as the top job
  • photo editing, needs to have good color accuracy or be trivial to calibrate such that it does
  • occasional gaming, I don’t game on my desktop much these days, but I don’t want the monitor to feel clunky when I do

This post is a bit stream-of-conscience, so if any other questions or requirements come to mind I will edit it.

Edit: I guess as much as I don’t want to spend a ton, I will also end up using this display for at least another five years - I don’t mind spending a little more to account for that.

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.