Welcome to the 2025 NFL Season Weekly Discussion Thread! đ Share your thoughts on Week 15 â wins, losses, fantasy fumbles, predictions, or anything else football-related.
Hey there! I'm trying to repurpose a Raspberry Pi that's been collecting dust for a few years, and I'm a bit out of my depth with systems/networking, so I'm hoping for some guidance on what I did wrong (or what I could've done better).
The story is: I upgraded my PC and had an old SSD lying around, and I also had a Raspberry Pi that I never really had time to toy with. I figured I could combine both and make a small family âdriveâ where everyone can upload photos/videos/documents and keep them in one place at home.
Then I realized the Pi sits right behind the TV, next to the router since the Ethernet cable is short. So I thought: if it's already there, maybe it could also be a media player. The idea was: upload videos and store them on the SSD then play them on the TV via Kodi.
Whatâs going wrong is that Nextcloud uploads are painfully slow, even short videos take ages, and movies are basically impossible. On top of that, once files are there, Kodi playback is choppy/laggy.
I'm not sure what the real bottleneck is. Nextcloud was already "kinda slow" before Kodi. I don't know if this is Docker overhead/volume configuration, the Pi just being overloaded, Nextcloud background work (previews/scanning/etc.), or the SSD adapter to USB C limiting speeds.
If you have ideas, I'd really appreciate pointers on where to start diagnosing, and what the "sane" architecture is here (even if the answer is "don't do both on one Pi").
TL;DR: Tried to reuse an old SSD and a Raspberry Pi to make a family Nextcloud drive, then added Kodi because the Pi is behind the TV. Nextcloud uploads are extremely slow and Kodi playback is laggy. Not sure if it's Docker, Nextcloud tuning, USB/SSD adapter, or just too much for a small device. Looking for beginner-friendly troubleshooting steps and/or a better setup plan.
Here we are at the end of another year. This was our first full year of the Tildes Book Club, so congratulations are in order for reaching this milestone. Currently we're taking a well-earned December break, until we return in January for more.
This year saw us reading more variety across both fiction and non-fiction, covering scifi, history, autobiographies, and short stories.
Here are some stats for 2025:
The superlative awards:
The full list of 2025's discussions can be found here:
Much thanks as always to @boxer_dogs_dance for organizing this club for us. We have a great lineup for 2026, including renowned authors like Kafka, Nabokov, and Pratchett.
Feel free to share your favourite Book Club reads from 2025, or what you're looking forward to in 2026.
Post your current bingo cards.
Continue updating us on your games!
If you did not participate in Weeks 1-2 but want to start this week, that's fine!
Reminder: playing bingo is OPTIONAL.
Quick links:
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! đ
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!
Game list:
12 participants played 11 bingo cards and moved 24 games out of their backlogs!
Game list:
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.
This is your place to share any and all thoughts on your reading for 2025.
Books you talk about do NOT have to be limited to this yearâs releases.
Feel free to share:
Let us know how your reading for 2025 went.
I prefer Android and something linkable with a PC but for others obviously iOS options too.
Deep in the Caribbean, the pirate haven of MĂȘlĂ©e Island is home to the deadliest brood of ne'er-do-wells what ever sailed the seven seas: the infamous scurvy seadog Meathook; the buccaneer Sword Master whose name is feared in every corner of the isle; and most horrifically, the spectral ghost pirate LeChuck. Onto these disreputable shores late one night arrives the hapless, clueless, and utterly guileless flooring inspector Guybrush Threepwood, with nothing to his name but the dream of somehow becoming a real pirate himself.
Discover a thrilling world of swordplay, thievery, and, er, treasure huntery in The Secret of Monkey Island. Insult your enemies, fire the cannons, find true love, concoct mysterious voodoo brews, poison guards, evade cannibals, traverse hellish catacombs, raise a pint of grog, and (maybe) discover the Secret for yourself!
Happy December! This month we're playing the legendary 1990 Lucasfilm Games point-and-click adventure from the minds of Ron Gilbert, Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman.
You see, one of my favorite rides in Disneyland is Pirates of the Caribbean. You get on a little boat and it takes you through a pirate adventure⊠Your boat keeps you moving through the adventure, but Iâve always wished I could get off and wander around, learn more about the characters, and find a way onto those pirate ships.
I was sorting through some boxes today and I came across my copy of Tim Power's On Stranger Tides, which I read in the late 80's and was the inspiration for Monkey Island. Some people believe the inspiration for Monkey Island came from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride â probably because I said it several times during interviews â but that was really just for the ambiance. If you read this book you can really see where Guybrush and LeChuck were
plagiarizedderived from, plus the heavy influence of voodoo in the game.
The Secret of Monkey Island is renowned for its zany humor, great (and mostly fair) puzzle design, gorgeous pixel graphics, and memorable soundtrack. Unlike other adventure games of the era, SMI invites you to try anything and everything without worry â you can't die. It's chock full of goofy swashbuckling anachronisms and hilarious good times. Maybe a little frustration too. Hey, you can just look up the answers when you get stuck. We couldn't do that in the '90s. Respect the grind.
The game originally released for DOS, Amiga, Macintosh, Atari ST, FM Towns, and Sega CD. Those versions are no longer available for purchase in the usual places (you might try eBay but save up your pieces o' eight if you go that route). All the original versions are playable in ScummVM if you lack the necessary hardware. If you find yourself needing access to a Dial-A-Pirate wheel, the original has been helpfully digitized here for your convenience.
Different releases of the original game have different audio and graphics. Some people have opinions about which version is best. These are all valid. I prefer the version I grew up with, but no shade on the others. They all have their own charms.
The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition is a 2009 remaster that is the official recommended way to play today. It includes fully recreated high-resolution graphics, music, and voiced dialogue, with a modernized UI. It includes a quick toggle between classic and remastered modes, which is a nice touch. The Windows version is currently on sale for 50% off from GOG (DRM-free), and also available from Steam. It is reportedly playable on Steam Deck.
This interview with Dominic Armato hints at one of my favorite real-world stories related to Monkey Island. This aspiring voice actor was a huge fan of the first two games in the series, which were originally unvoiced. He was in the right place at the right time to land the role of Guybrush in the third installment, which was the first to have voiced characters. It's a good but not great game, and very different from the first two due to being helmed by an entirely different team. All other things aside, Armato NAILED it. He is Guybrush. He returned to voice the fourth game and then... was brought back to reprise his role in the Special Editions of SMI and MI2. It was a dream come true for him, but amazing for fans of the series too; finally the original games have full voiced dialogue and the main character is played by the guy who was born to do it.
The rest of the voice cast is great too. This aspect of the Special Edition really rounds out the game nicely and I consider it an essential part of the experience now. That said, personally I find the SE visuals and music to be really lackluster, and I prefer the original UI as well. You can toggle the classic mode but this removes the VO too... which is why I will instead be playing the Ultimate Talkie Edition, a fan hack of the DOS release (playable in ScummVM) that adds the SE voice tracks and keeps the original everything else. It can be easily found online but I'll refrain from linking it here since SMI's abandonware status is debatable.
From what I can tell the Special Editions of SMI and its first sequel were also sold as a bundle for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and iOS. I can't speak to the current availability of any of those but they're probably all terrible ways to experience it anyway.
Limited Run Games has also issued a few re-releases of the original game in recent years. I don't know much about these, and good luck finding them for sale anywhere.
Genres: Adventure, Point-and-Click
The main purpose of this topic is to get people up and running with the game. As such, it's recommended that you:
Another purpose of this topic is to revisit the game and its time period:
Finally, this topic is the beginning discussion for people starting to play it:
It is recommended that you reply to your own posts if you are making consecutive updates so that they are in the same thread.
IMPORTANT: Any links to the game should be legal distributions of the game only. Please do NOT link to any unauthorized copies.
IMPORTANT: Put any spoilers in a dropdown block. Copy/paste the block below if needed.
<details>
<summary>Spoilers</summary>
Spoiler text goes here.
</details>
Colossal Game Adventure (CGA) is Tildes' retro video game club.
Each month we will play a different retro game/games, discuss our thoughts, and bask in the glorious digital experiences of yesteryear!
Colossal Game Adventure is a reference to Colossal Cave Adventure. It's one of the most influential games of all time, one of the first text-based interactive games, and one of the first games to be shared online.
What do we want to do with this group? Play influential games; interact with each other through text; and share the love for retro games online!
It also abbreviates to CGA (because we love chunky pixel art), and its name communicates the Colossal amount of fun and excitement that we have with retro video Games in our shared Adventure of playing them together.
No. Participation is open to all.
There is a Notification List that will get pinged each time a new topic goes up. If you would like to join that list, please PM u/kfwyre.
Each month will have a focus game or games that will guide our discussions. Beyond that, there are no restrictions. The philosophy of CGA is to play in a way that works for you!
This means:
If you have already played a game and want a different experience:
There is no wrong way to participate in CGA, and every different way someone participates will make for more interesting discussions.
Each month the Insert Cartidge topic will be posted on the 1st, while the Remove Cartridge topic will be posted on the 20th.
Nomination and voting topics will happen in March and September (every 6 months).
Schedules are also posted then.
All CGA topics are available using the colossal game adventure tag.
Inserting and removing cartridges are our retro metaphor for starting and stopping a given game or games.
The Insert Cartridge topic happens at the beginning of the month and is primarily about getting the game up and running.
The Remove Cartridge topic happens toward the end of the month and is primarily about people reflecting on the game now that they've played it.
There are no hard restrictions on what has to go in either topic, and each can be used to discuss the game, post updates, ask questions, etc.
How appropriate, you fight like a cow.
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.
What have you been playing lately? Discussion about video games and board games are both welcome. Please don't just make a list of titles, give some thoughts about the game(s) as well.
I picked up Fairy Tale because I like fantasy. I'm really enjoying it. Also in the time I have spent on the book suggestions and book discussions subreddits, I have noticed that he is still a much loved author.
So if I want to explore his work, where should I start?
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?
What are you reading currently? Fiction or non-fiction or poetry, any genre, any language! Tell us what you're reading, and talk about it a bit.
Looking at movies and books like a sleuth, looking for correlations, is not my thing. That is a very cerebral way to look at stories. I prefer letting them take over me with all they got, symbolism included but mixed with everything else. When it comes to fiction and magic, I wanna watch the trick, not figure it out. Much like magic tricks, I firmly believe that, when dissected, fiction tends to die.
By that I mean that it becomes less appealing.
I'm a little annoyed by the view that, if you don't look for "hidden meanings", your engagement with art is of a lesser quality. As if there was only one acceptable and elevated way to read things.
Much to my delight, people have built interesting symbolism from my writing that I never intended to create. I don't write symbolism, but I tend to use elements that are universal, well-known, and easy to interpret as symbols.
I'm not sure why I wrote this. I just wanted to organize my thoughts about this subject in a place where people are nice.
I guess that is it.
What do you think of symbolism?
Hey there, going to keep this short: I used to love camping and hiking, but now can't quite bring myself to do it, this is partially due to the fact that I am single, and none of my (very few) local friends would ever be interested in joining.
So, does anyone around here have any tips or ideas on how to get into hiking or camping again?
I'm not sure where exactly to post this, but most folks in the US and Canada can check out where their power is coming from. I work in the power generation industry, and I feel there are many aspects that people just do not understand when it comes to generation and what we need to go fully renewable and/or carbon free.
"Independent system operators" (better known as ISOs) can provide you with your local power information. A nice overview can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_transmission_organization_(North_America)#Independent_system_operators_(ISOs)
I live in New England, so my local info can be seen here: https://www.iso-ne.com/isoexpress/
I can see the projected MW load, how much was scheduled to cover it, the cost per MW, where the power is coming from (at the moment, 5% is oil, 6% is hydro, 12% is "renewables"... as burning trash is considered renewable as much as solar and wind lulz, 19% is nuclear, and 52% is natural gas [NG]), and I can also see the CO2 outputs (which before you make a judgement call to state that yes, NG is the highest producer of CO2, if you look at the MW produced per ton of CO2, it's WAY better than the others!).
If you're in Texas and were there in early '21 during the Uri storm, I'm sure you've heard of ERCOT (https://www.ercot.com/gridmktinfo/dashboards). That region has a much higher demand for power in general, and I do find it amusing (yet not at all surprising) that no CO2 info is offered.
In the California area (which is where I hail from), it's displayed here: https://www.caiso.com/supply. I have, at times, found that their imported MW actually were the main supplier, which let's just be honest: they buy power from NV and AZ and that power isn't "clean", but they tote that they're so good to the environment! (Please also note, CA is a huge supplier of CO2 courtesy of all the forest fires.) Also, note that my company literally owns two "peakers" (that's a term for an engine you can turn on and get power out of quickly, without all the slow startup times or shutdown issues that typical power plants have - think of it as a jet engine you just turn on for quick power with really high emissions compared to most plants) that put out more emissions than were typically allowed on permits when they were commissioned, but glorious Newsome realized that balancing the ability to charge your Tesla and having rolling blackouts was a bit precarious. Also alsĂž: if you look at the CaISO page, the geothermal output is all my company. That range of plants takes the grey water from SF and reincorporates it into the geysers to keep up the 100% clean output.
So, after the fact, I'll state that I'm a little biased: I grew up in CA, and I'm very conscious about emissions and climate change (and yes, I believe that has been playing into effect for a while). But I also am a realist living near California's little red-headed stepsibling Massachusetts that is trying to shoot their foot for carbon emissions and the like.
But, I wanted to put this out there because I hope that folks (who aren't in the industry) might appreciate the insight, and also learn how to figure out what is going on when you plug your <insert power demand item here>. :)
Mods - I didn't know where to put this or what to title and tag the post with.
This is mostly just venting and confessing.
There's a lot of back-story to this but I'll start at the trigger and work from there.
My boss is remote-only, so calls and WhatsApp messages are how we communicate. Wednesday he called me and started the conversation off by how tired he was today and why. To cut to the chase, he revealed to me, in detail, that he is a white supremacist, a holocaust denier, and potentially an actual Nazi. These aren't conclusions I am making based on piecing information together -- he outline each aspect at length while I silently listened.
He started the conversation telling me that he was tired because he was up all night with his wife "healing" his son's friend who was in the hospital suddenly for liver (or kidney, I don't remember) complications. He and his wife are "energy healers" and he gave me examples of how he and his wife, all by themselves, stopped natural disasters with their powers. The example he gave in this instance was the wild fires in 2020 in the PNW of the US. He said he that his wife "had enough" and went outside and raised her hands and said (I don't remember the words, I'm not going to make it up here) and the fires went out instantly. No one needs me to spell out the reality of these claims, so I won't. But if you want factual information about these wildfires, you can read more about them here.
He then started telling me that his adult son (who has ASD or on the spectrum -- apologies, I don't know the right way to refer to this) has a hard time making friends but he and this guy were fast friends. His friend is from Ukraine and escaped the country right as Russia invaded (2022). This part is important because this is what launched the white supremacy garbage. After he said his son's friend escaped before the war, he went into a confusing ramble about how Russia was invading to kill "real white people" and that most of Putin's regime "are Jews" and that it's part of a global movement to "exterminate white people". This then went into how there are different kinds of white people and different kind of Jews. I don't know what "good/neutral" Jews are in his fucked up mind, but he said Zionists are the "bad" Jews. He says the Zionists have "mixed" with every government on earth and thus are in control of x-y-z.
He said that I "looked like a real white person" and asked if I had German heritage (I don't). I tried to change the subject.
That stream of thought led to literally saying Hitler was misunderstood, was misguided by his Jewish ancestry, and the Holocaust wasn't what we are being told. Photos are doctored, gas chambers were just showers, they had restaurants (?) in the camps, any deaths that occurred were from disease, not murders, and "how could 3 million Jews have been killed if there weren't 3 million Jews in existence?" Also that "Jews have a declaration to exterminate non-Jews"
He then went into something about "mixing races" and how that's a terrible sin. "I'm not racist, I just think white people should only marry white people and black people with black people, and so on". The assumption here is less about marriage and more about procreation...
I'm sure there's more shit I'm not remembering right now but those are the ones that I can't forget.
Throughout the one-sided conversation, I tried to change the subject back to work (you know, since I am at work) numerous times and didn't respond to anything he was saying, but after the last part, I just hung up on him.
There is no excuse for me letting him spew this hateful bullshit and I am ashamed of myself. I normally have no problem with conflict and ostracizing myself by calling out hateful bullshit people say but I chose to be silent this time because $$$.
I've been going back and forth between being angry, ashamed, disappointed, and just sad since then. I knew my boss was a conspiracy nut because he's told me some of his wild beliefs before but none of them seemed hateful and I told him I wasn't into that sort of stuff. I don't know why he suddenly decided to unload all of this on me.
I know there is a reality where I don't let this ruin my job, but I don't think I am able to do this.
I need this job because I need the money. I moved across the country to work this job and now that I know who I am making money for, I have to quit. I have to find another job immediately. I can't afford to quit without having another job lined up. I had been looking for a better job for 2 full years before I moved here for this one and had no luck. I've done nothing but work since moving here for this job. I haven't made the time to try and make friends and instead just worked more and more.
I feel like there were signs (details not mentioned here) I ignored out of desperation. I feel defeated.
The only thing I know I must do is find a therapist and find a new job.
Definitely a well deserved GOTY. I haven't gotten around to it yet, but my friends have been raving about it!
Lots of indie games nominated this year. Really feels like we're in a golden age of indies.