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    1. I built an arcade cabinet for my 4 year old and need some Switch game recs

      His Christmas present is going to be a custom-built arcade cabinet. The internals are simply a Nintendo Switch, an 8bitdo arcade controller, a computer monitor, and some speakers. Pretty simple...

      His Christmas present is going to be a custom-built arcade cabinet. The internals are simply a Nintendo Switch, an 8bitdo arcade controller, a computer monitor, and some speakers. Pretty simple stuff!

      He has next to zero experience playing video games and I haven't really exposed him to my games either (screen time and all). So, he's probably got about zero coordination when it comes to using controllers or playing platformers, etc. Also, he tends to get very frustrated with himself if he can't do something, causing him to want to give up.

      What are some recommendations for Nintendo Switch (1, not 2) games that will ease him into gaming?

      Thanks!

      6 votes
    2. 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.

      2 votes
    3. Day 1: Secret Entrance

      Today's problem description: https://adventofcode.com/2025/day/1 Please post your solutions in your own top-level comment. Here's a template you can copy-paste into your comment to format it...

      Today's problem description: https://adventofcode.com/2025/day/1

      Please post your solutions in your own top-level comment. Here's a template you can copy-paste into your comment to format it nicely, with the code collapsed by default inside an expandable section with syntax highlighting (you can replace python with any of the "short names" listed in this page of supported languages):

      <details>
      <summary>Part 1</summary>
      
      ```python
      Your code here.
      ```
      
      </details>
      
      14 votes
    4. Advent of Code starts tomorrow/tonight! Are you participating? Do you have any specific plans for this year?

      With Advent of Code upon us, I wanted to check out how everyone is planning on participating. If you hadn't heard, this year has been shortened to 12 days along with the removal of the global...

      With Advent of Code upon us, I wanted to check out how everyone is planning on participating. If you hadn't heard, this year has been shortened to 12 days along with the removal of the global leaderboard.

      • Any changes to how you'll approach this year based on the updated format?
      • Are you using an interesting language/approach?
      • Any goals you're setting for yourself?

      I'm a sucker for puzzles in general, but I also love hearing about everyone else's experiences, so I'm excited to hear what y'all are looking forward to!

      11 votes
    5. Tildes Book Club schedule 2025 - 2026

      Here is the schedule for the upcoming year Last week in August - Cats Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, Last week in September - Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang Last week in October - The...

      Here is the schedule for the upcoming year

      Last week in August - Cats Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut,

      Last week in September - Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang

      Last week in October - The Poisoners Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine by Deborah Blum,

      Last week in November - We are Legion (We are Bob) by Dennis Taylor,

      December break for the holidays.

      Last week in January - Fire on the Mountain by Terry Bissen,

      Last week in February - The Truth by Terry Pratchett

      Last week in March - The Metamorphosis by Kafka,

      Last week in April - The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See,

      Last week in May - Pnin by Nabokov,

      Last week in June - How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying by Wexler,

      Last week in July - A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers,

      Last week in August - Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki

      Last week in September - Dr. No by Ian Fleming

      30 votes
    6. Advice/Suggestions on headphones or earbuds while listening to voices in the same room

      Scenario: I am frequently playing video games with my partner, and we have our PCs side-by-side. I am looking for a comfortable set of headphones or earbuds that will also make it easy to hear...

      Scenario: I am frequently playing video games with my partner, and we have our PCs side-by-side. I am looking for a comfortable set of headphones or earbuds that will also make it easy to hear each other so we can talk while gaming.

      Main priorities:

      • Openness / Ability to hear physical surroundings
      • Comfort for long wear duration (I wear glasses, which rules out most over-the-ear)
      • Budget

      Nice to haves:

      • Audio quality decent enough for gaming (doesn't have to be 3D positional or anything)
      • Audio quality acceptable for listening to music while playing some games (but nowhere near audiophile level, not expecting much bass from something light)
      • Wireless (but not against a wired option - can be USB or 3.5mm since this will be used exclusively with my PC)

      I've really only ruled out one thing: I'm not interested in bone induction headphones. I tried out a pair of JLab JBuds Frames that sit on your glasses, and while they aren't bone induction, the pressure against that area of my head, combined with nothing in my ears, would give me a headache after an hour or two. I suspect I'd have a similar issue with bone induction.

      In a world that seems to prioritize noise cancelling, my search for other options has been inconclusive. There's a lot of negative reviews about comfort in options like the Cleer ARC series and Baseus clip-on styles. I found some of the suggestions in a previous thread on bone induction headphones to be interesting, but nothing seems to meet all of my criteria perfectly.

      10 votes
    7. Day 2: Gift Shop

      Today's problem description: https://adventofcode.com/2025/day/2 Please post your solutions in your own top-level comment. Here's a template you can copy-paste into your comment to format it...

      Today's problem description: https://adventofcode.com/2025/day/2

      Please post your solutions in your own top-level comment. Here's a template you can copy-paste into your comment to format it nicely, with the code collapsed by default inside an expandable section with syntax highlighting (you can replace python with any of the "short names" listed in this page of supported languages):

      <details>
      <summary>Part 1</summary>
      
      ```python
      Your code here.
      ```
      
      </details>
      
      8 votes
    8. Modern Christmas carol renditions that aren't mediocre CCM?

      'Tis the season, and it's nice to sit down and listen to some traditional Christmas carols in a cozy candle-lit room with plenty of biscuits. And sometimes it's nice to hear more modern takes on...

      'Tis the season, and it's nice to sit down and listen to some traditional Christmas carols in a cozy candle-lit room with plenty of biscuits. And sometimes it's nice to hear more modern takes on these ancient (and not so ancient) classics.

      Unfortunately, whenever I look for this sort of thing, what I usually find is really bland CCM — some woman breathily singing "O Come All Ye Faithful" so slowly I can feel my life draining from me with every beat, a completely unnecessary modern bridge replete with painful key change, and so on. I know this stuff can be done right — Annie Lennox's Christmas album is a great example of taking classic carols and setting them to new music in such a way that it can completely change how you hear them. But finding more stuff in that vein is surprisingly hard.

      So does anyone here have any suggestions or ideas for modern takes on classic carols that actually try and do something interesting?

      18 votes
    9. November 2025 Backlog Burner: Conclusion and Recap

      The November 2025 Backlog Burner event is officially over! Over the month of November, 12 participants moved 155 games out of their backlogs. Congratulations to the following Bingo winners:...

      The November 2025 Backlog Burner event is officially over!

      Over the month of November, 12 participants moved 155 games out of their backlogs.

      Congratulations to the following Bingo winners:

      A big thank you to ALL who participated in the event, whether that was by playing games, joining in conversations, or reading people's posts here.

      As always, it has been an absolute blast doing this with everyone. I truly love this event. Thank you all.

      Use this topic to post your final bingo cards, give recaps of your games, and share any thoughts you have on the event itself.

      See you again for the next Backlog Burner in May 2026!


      Statistics

      • We averaged 12.9 games per person and 36.2 games per week.
      • There were 229 comments posted across 4 topics.
      • Across all 155 game titles with thousands of letters between them, there was only one letter Q (in Titan Quest).
      • We have now passed a cumulative 500 games played since the first Bingo-based Backlog Burner back in November 2023.

      Platforms

      Games were played on at least 16 different platforms.

      • iPad
      • Macbook Pro
      • Nintendo 3DS
      • Nintendo DS
      • Nintendo Switch
      • Nintendo Switch 2
      • Nintendo Wii U
      • PC (Linux)
      • PC (Windows)
      • Playdate
      • PlayStation
      • PlayStation 2
      • PlayStation 4 (PS4 Pro)
      • Steam Deck
      • Steam Deck (RetroDECK)
      • Super Nintendo Entertainment System (Super Famicom)

      Highlights

      Nobody sent me any highlights. 😭
      Let's just say this WHOLE event was a highlight! 😁🄰


      Full Game List (alphabetical)

      A

      B

      C

      D

      E

      F

      G

      H

      I

      J

      K

      L

      M

      N

      O

      P

      Q

      R

      S

      T

      U

      V

      W

      X

      Y

      Z

      Full Game List (by week)

      Week 1

      Week 2

      Week 3

      Week 4 + 5ish

      11 votes
    10. Tips for FL Studio

      I have about a week of funemployment left before I start my new job, and one of the things I picked up this month was FL Studio to see if I can make a song. Does any have any tips/tricks or any...

      I have about a week of funemployment left before I start my new job, and one of the things I picked up this month was FL Studio to see if I can make a song. Does any have any tips/tricks or any recommended video tutorials? If it helps, I have some background in music theory and I play a couple of instruments and have a preamp setup with line in's and stuff.

      13 votes
    11. Non-metal spoons for dining?

      Hoping this fits, because... well, it is about eating. I swear my mouth is more sensitive to physically hot temperatures than other people's. I burn the roof of my mouth with pizza multiple times...

      Hoping this fits, because... well, it is about eating.

      I swear my mouth is more sensitive to physically hot temperatures than other people's. I burn the roof of my mouth with pizza multiple times a year while others with me can eat it just fine, and I have burnt my tongue on metal spoons just as often. Just last week my mom asked if I was going to eat my soup because I'd been sitting at the table for 5-10 minutes, and I was waiting for it to cool down because the spoon had already burnt my tongue. I even use a disposable plastic spoon for eating ramen, but obviously that's not good for the long-term.

      So we tried to look for silicone spoons to use for eating... except apparently they might not exist? I can find silicone cooking ware, baby spoons, and some really hideous spoons that have a weird shape I automatically loathe, but not a single regular-shaped spoon for eating. Cursory research suggests some other non-metal silverware sets exist made of materials besides silicone, but I have no idea where to begin.

      So, can anyone recommend some spoons that aren't metal and made for dining?

      21 votes
    12. Opinions on NPU laptops?

      Looking to buy a new laptop, and of the model I'd like (thinkpad carbon x1), it seems like I can choose one with or without an NPU. My surface-level understanding is they make built in AI...

      Looking to buy a new laptop, and of the model I'd like (thinkpad carbon x1), it seems like I can choose one with or without an NPU.

      My surface-level understanding is they make built in AI processing and a couple other niche uses more efficient. Flip side, they're maybe a marketing gimmick?

      Price aside (price difference doesn't seem too great), I'm wondering: should I buy a model with an NPU to help potentially future proof? Are there potential downsides to an npu model? Upsides?

      I know there are lots of technical people here, I'd love to hear your thoughts or experiences!

      18 votes
    13. Are there any macjams.com refugees on Tildes?

      So there used to be this vibrant community on macjams.com where DIY musicians congregated to share their music, collaborate, offer advice and constructive criticism, etc., but the site shut down...

      So there used to be this vibrant community on macjams.com where DIY musicians congregated to share their music, collaborate, offer advice and constructive criticism, etc., but the site shut down in 2019 with nothing to take its place. Every couple of years, I'll start the search again, but I haven't found anything that scratches the same itch anywhere on the web. There are a few subreddits that attempt to create the same atmosphere and scope, but the overwhelming majority of content I've found is spammed out with self-promotion and endless empty threads.

      Has anyone found a community similar to Macjams that I've missed or overlooked?

      9 votes
    14. Suggestions for uses of old computer hardware?

      I recently ā€œupgradedā€ my wife’s computer, since it was about 7 years old and I think the WiFi chip in the motherboard was starting to go (and the motherboard wasn’t Windows 10 compatible either,...

      I recently ā€œupgradedā€ my wife’s computer, since it was about 7 years old and I think the WiFi chip in the motherboard was starting to go (and the motherboard wasn’t Windows 10 compatible either, and she wanted to upgrade to Windows 11).

      Of course, upgrading the motherboard to the latest WiFi standards meant upgrading the CPU (also swapped from Intel to AMD), which resulted in getting new RAM as well (a rough time for that, given the prices).

      All of that to say, I’m now sitting on a mostly functional old motherboard, cpu, and ram. Basically an entire computer sans case and power supply (I’m sure I have a hard drive laying around somewhere).

      Any thoughts on what I could do with it? I’d thought of trying to build out a NAS (or some other home server of sorts), but I’ve been thinking that for 2 years and haven’t done it yet because I haven’t really found a ā€œneedā€ for one. I basically just use my computer for gaming, and I don’t really have or plan to have media collections with seem to be the main use case of a hobby NAS.

      23 votes
    15. 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.

      11 votes
    16. Save Point: A game deal roundup for the week of November 30

      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. ā€œWhat games from this bundle...

      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. ā€œWhat games from this bundle are most worth my attention?ā€

      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.

      6 votes
    17. Letter to a Liberal member of Parliament

      Dear Mr. Sawatzky, Both atmospheric carbon dioxide (COā‚‚) and temperature are increasing at an exponential rate, in lock-step. Atmospheric COā‚‚ levels during the Eocene have been estimated up to 840...

      Dear Mr. Sawatzky,

      Both atmospheric carbon dioxide (COā‚‚) and temperature are increasing at an exponential rate, in lock-step. Atmospheric COā‚‚ levels during the Eocene have been estimated up to 840 parts per million (ppm); sea levels were close to 60 metres higher than today. COā‚‚ concentrations are over 425 ppm and still climbing. Pause a moment to consider what this will mean for all coastal cities.

      What part of ā€œkeep the oil in the groundā€ that scientists have been shouting for decades do politicians not understand? What part of physics are politicians trying to deny?

      I am opposed to allowing more oil tankers near our beautiful, fragile coast. I am vehemently opposed to marring our landscape with pipelines for transporting oil. Yes, $14 trillion dollars is a lot of money, but it will pale in comparison to the economic damage that exacerbating climate change will cause. Carbon capture and storage cannot offset our burn rate with any significance.

      Earth has had a remarkably stable climate for tens of thousands of years; burning fossil fuels is destabilizing it.

      I ask you to acknowledge that physics cannot be bargained with, show some foresight, protect our children's future, and care deeply about our planet's health. I ask that you tell our Prime Minister in no uncertain terms that selling fossil fuels is the wrong choice for the world and the wrong economic direction for Canada.

      11 votes
    18. November 2025 Backlog Burner: Week 4 Discussion

      Week 4 has begun! Post your current bingo cards. Continue updating us on your games! Quick links: Backlog Bingo Site Week 1 Discussion and Event Guidelines Week 2 Discussion Week 3 Discussion Week...

      Week 4 has begun!

      Post your current bingo cards.
      Continue updating us on your games!

      Quick links:


      Week 3 Recap

      11 participants played 11 bingo cards and moved 40 games out of their backlogs!

      There were 3 bingo wins. Congrats to u/dannydotcafe, u/kfwyre, and u/Wes! šŸŽ‰

      • Nearly 70% of the games played this week had a one or two word title (one = 38%, two = 28%)
      • The kitchen was a feature this week, with "knife", "eggs", "coffee", "garbage", and "Pepsi" being mentioned in game titles.
      • If you play magnetic poetry with the titles, you can uncover some sage wisdom:

      The darkest coffee must fandango.
      Literature is irritating; torment.
      Die, prodigal robot beasts of the midtown.
      Katamari Caravan: stick, room, Tokyo, Sun

      Game List:

      Week 2 Recap

      11 participants played 11 bingo cards and moved 43 games out of their backlogs!

      There were 2 bingo wins. Congrats to u/Wes and u/J-Chiptunator! šŸŽ‰

      Also, in my rush last week to get the recap up, I forgot to celebrate u/Wes's win from Week 1. So, additional congratulations!

      • Only 1 game this time had an ALL CAPS TITLE, but 9 games had PARTIAL CAps titles.
      • The shortest title was 5 characters: Venba
      • The longest title was 12 words: Tales from Toyotoki: Arrival of the Witch (The witch of the Ihanashi)
      • We had the numbers 0, 1, 2, 3, and 7 represented. Half of the digits!
        (Note that this only works if I read "I Expect You to Die" as "One: Expect You to Die", which I do)

      Game list:

      Week 1 Recap

      12 participants played 11 bingo cards and moved 24 games out of their backlogs!

      • 25% of the games played started with the letters P and R
      • 13% of the games played have ALL CAPS TITLES
      • 21% of the games played have a number in their titles

      Game list:

      14 votes
    19. Things to do when you've lost your job

      ** Edit: I updated my situation below in a comment but I'm gonna keep this post up to help others! ** About a month and a half ago I was put on PIP to step up at work. Feedback has been good over...

      ** Edit: I updated my situation below in a comment but I'm gonna keep this post up to help others! **


      About a month and a half ago I was put on PIP to step up at work. Feedback has been good over the last few weeks but not enough I guess. I was told I was terminated today.

      The job market out there is rough right now and I'm not sure what to do. I know a lot of people here have faced similar situations and everything, so I'm wondering if there's any tips/tricks/thoughts anyone has.

      I'm an Android developer and was working in fin-tech adjacent work if that's relevant.

      51 votes