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.

Schedule

Discussion Topics

Each month will have two discussion topics:

• "Insert Cartridge" - 1st of the month
• "Remove Cartridge" - 28th of the month (25th for February)

Insert Cartridge topics are primarily for getting the game set up and running. Remove Cartridge topics are primarily for reflecting on the game once you've played it. However, the game itself and anything else related to it can be discussed in either one.

Hosting

Each month, the discussion topics will be posted by a different "host" who will act as the emcee for that month.

Hosting is not required, but it is encouraged that people host months for games that they are either already very familiar with or that they are strongly interested in playing.

People who nominated a game will be given preference for hosting, otherwise it will be given to whomever claims it first.

Check out old months to get a feel for what it's like.

If you would like to host a month, let me know which one and I will add you to the schedule.

Before your month begins, I will send you a "Hosting Package" featuring templates that you can edit to your liking.

If no one claims a month, I will host it as a fallback.

Voting Results

The top 6 games from the voting round were chosen to be played.

Of the remaining games:

• The top 50% will advance to the next round. They will start the next round with a base score of 30% of their vote totals.
• The bottom 50% will be removed from the list.

Removed games will be able to be re-nominated in future rounds if someone chooses to do so.

October 1st has already hit in some parts of the world, so Timasomo has officially begun!

Posting in this topic is your official entry into Timasomo.

Let everyone know what your actual plans are. What are you going to make?

Anyone who was not already on the notification list will be added with a comment in this topic.

Once the date turns over to October 1st wherever you are in the world, feel free to start creating!

FAQs

Tildes is a very serious site, where we discuss very serious matters like cornell, dbrand and the sift. Tags culled from the highest voted topics from the last seven days, if anyone was interested.

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!

Another season of anime has (mostly) ended. Inspired by @Flashfall 's excellent seasonal review in an earlier weekly threads, I thought it'd be interesting to hear about everyone's overall experiences.

So, what's the best anime you've watched over the last 3 months? Doesn't have to be one released this season, as long as you've recently watched them. Seeing how the old and new compare to each other could also be interesting.

You can mention which other ones you've also watched so others know what the comparison was. It's also okay if you've only seen one since the fact you liked it enough to highlight is still noteworthy.

I promised in another thread that I would share more about my first impressions about the Steam Frame soon, so here I am.

There's still not much I can say because, in my case, using glasses inside isn't an option. But whatever questions you have and couldn't find answers anywhere else, let me know and I can check for you (be it settings, small things no one thinks about, etc)

I'll be recycling a bit what I already said in the other comment (with a few corrections), but here goes my first impressions and some thoughts:

• I said in the other comment that the spacer for the glasses was disappointing, but that's actually not true. To be fair, they do their job. The glasses should be as close as possible to your face anyway, and you can't have too much space between your face and the lenses in the VR, so the spacer does give you a bit more space that should be enough for most/all people. I was able to confirm that both my new glasses and my old ones do not touch the lenses. That said, I still wouldn't play a VR game that needs me to move a lot, the risk of them coming loose and scratching the lenses isn't null.

• My problem with the glasses is different. My new glasses are too wide. They barely fit inside and put a lot of pressure on my face, I think it's the sides of the VR that push the glasses against my face.

• So yeah, if you use glasses, I highly recommend getting prescription lenses (this also applies to any VR headset, but still).

• I was able to run on the Frame: Ace Combat 7, Hades 2, Dragon Commander and Dispatch. All of them were playable (Ace Combat 7 was a pleasant surprise!). Dragon Commander technically ran well, but it didn't recognize the controllers.

• There's a tab for Steam Frame verified games, but you can download anything from your library. Cyberpunk 2077? Knock yourself out. Will it run well? Nope, but it does run.

• • Sidenote: the new proton for ARM processors make me hopeful that laptops with ARM processors could become a viable alternative to traditional ones (I mean besides macbooks)

• Speaking of controllers, they're MUCH better than Meta Quest 3's. The layout of a conventional controller means that they can be used as such. Furthermore, at any moment you can activate the "pointer", which turns the respective controller into a mouse (while the other remains a controller). Meaning if you have a game where sometimes you need a mouse, Steam Frame has you covered.

• I got the ergonomic kit because of the controller straps, but as for the headset itself, I'll be the contrarian against the rest of the internet and say that those extra pieces actually aren't necessary. Or at least, not as ABSOLUTELY necessary as people make it look like. The space between the headset and my nose is not sealed, true, but unless I get conscious about that "hole", I won't notice it. I also felt that the top strap isn't necessary, the headset feels firmly held against my head.

• • That said, let me admit a few things: I didn't play a VR game yet, so maybe "firmly held" could be a different story in that scenario. And for a 1k euro device, there's an argument to be made that these ergonomic accessories should've been included by default, which I wholeheartedly agree. The nose thing, might have to do with my head shape, might not, I don't know; I just felt that whenever I was looking at the "screen" inside, I didn't notice the "hole" down below.

• The battery is... Underwhelming. Be prepared to get a good powerbank if you plan to have mid-long sessions.

• I tried using the wireless adapter on my gaming desktop (running Fedora 44), and it looks like it worked! Pleasant surprise, as I was under the impression it didn't work on Linux yet.

• Streamed Red Dead Redemption 2 for a bit. Rockstar launcher popped up so I could validate my account.... Except this window didn't appear on the SF, only on my PC's monitor. On the SF, I wasn't able to change windows, I only got a black screen. Once I entered the game, I could hear the sounds of the intro playing but the screen was still black. After fiddling a bit inside the VR, I managed to make it show the game itself, then I was able to play it normally.

• • This is to say, "window management" inside a game is finicky. So games with their own launchers? Expect them be as annoying here as they are in general...
• • • Caveat: only tried one game in this condition (opening launchers/windows alongside the game), so it's possible it was just bad luck and not representative.

• (copy pasted from the other comment) the update process (that you're forced to do) was really slow - the download would top at 10mb/s, but on average it was on the kb/s.

• (copy pasted from the other comment) The environment is really polished - more than the Steam Deck it looks like. I like how from inside Steam "app" itself, I can open the desktop mode as if it was an application. I don't have bluetooth keyboards but I think it should be possible to use this as a normal PC, which is really cool.

• (copy pasted from the other comment) Just like the Steam Deck, you have control over almost everything. Hardware usage, screen framerates, etc.

Some basic comparisons against the Meta Quest 3:

• Unlike MQ 3, the SF works just fine in any kind of environment, even if it's pitch black. Side note: it's a bit mesmerizing checking out the LIDAR's and Face ID's lights from my iphone. This thing is unironically a really good device to spot hidden cameras.

• YMMV, but for me the lack of colors in the passthrough isn't a big deal. I spend most of the time "inside" the virtual world and barely used it on MQ3, only for when someone was calling for me - or my cats. But even then, 95% of the time I would just take the headset off if whatever was demanding my attention wasn't quick. Talking to people with it on your head is weird af (especially for the other person). What I'm trying to say is that there were never situations where I needed to see the world around me and it needed to be in colours; I would just take the headset off in those cases.

• • Caveat: 1k euros device, I get it. It's dumb that you still need to fork over another 100 euros just to get colours. And I guess it's not a good thing for AR games.

• The SF is a bit smaller, lighter, and it's more comfortable imo. The idea to move the battery to the back of the head was smart, I think long sessions with SF should be more comfortable.

• MQ 3 has hand gesture recognition while SF doesn't. But personally, I don't really care. On MQ 3 this feature is finicky, frustrating to use, it's annoying when I'm watching movies/videos, and more importantly, it makes me want to throw the headset against the wall (exaggeration for comedic effect). So for me it's not a huge loss.

• If you feel that after these impressions I'm biased against the MQ3, well.... You're not wrong, but I just realized that it feels like I'm defending SF too much and criticizing MQ3 too easily while writing this. I'm biased against it mainly for privacy reasons, but on a hardware level, MQ3 is a great headset in its own right. It's equivalent to SF and costs a lot less. If you don't care about privacy, you probably should go for it instead of the SF.

Feel free to ask me anything about the Steam Frame and if I can check it out for you, I will.

"Think of the most successful person you know personally in your field. If you had to attribute their position to one primary edge over their peers, which of these was it?"
​A) Exceptional raw talent or intellectual capability
​B) Unusually high stamina and willingness to work long hours
​C) Great interpersonal instinct and emotional intelligence
​D) Being in the right place at the right time with the right background

Choosing just one is a recommendation
Within cells interlinked

Introduction

It was a dark and stormy night...

Rain hammered the car roof with the ferocity of hail. The windshield wipers did little to help as sheets of water cascaded down the glass between every beat. The road itself was dark with no lights besides your headlights, the beams casting eerie shadows on the gnarled trees as you drove past.

Or they would, if the car was moving.

Because of course the car broke down, leaving you stranded on a remote country road far from the nearest town. You sat in the driver's seat looking at the MapQuest printout, determining it to be useless given the lack of signage on remote country roads.

You did, however, receive a surprisingly detailed novelty map of local landmarks from when you stopped at a diner an hour ago. Squinting out the window, the headlights just illuminated a large rock with a pointed tip near the base of a tree. A good match for the "Wytch Hat Stone" on the map.

According to the novelty map, there were three mansions nearby: the Edison Mansion, the Derceto Manor, and the DeFoe Manor. Perhaps one of them would have a phone you could use. Or at least be a quieter place to spend the night, the incessant hammering of the raindrops was really loud. The flashes of lightning every time you mumbled the names of any mansion would help illuminate your way.

And surely the "Beware And Avoid" heading on the map was just a marketing gimmick, right?

Welcome to the Spooky Mansion Arcade Special!

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I shall be your hostess this delightfully dreary evening.

Now as your hostess, I must be upfront with you: I have no personal experience with any of these titles. I originally nominated Maniac Mansion since I have wanted to play it for some time, but then realized there are many old games set in spooky mansions. And I also had the thought: what better time to explore some creepy mansions than October, the month most associated with all things spooky and creepy?

So for this month's adventure, I have selected three potential mansions for us to tour: the classic LucasArts game Maniac Mansion, the classic survival horror game Alone in the Dark, and the freeware adventure game 5 Days A Stranger. All three provide glimpses into different periods and niches of gaming history.

Maniac Mansion (1987) helped redefine the adventure game genre, and established LucasArts as a powerhouse in gaming. It removed many frustrations of the genre such as guessing and typing text commands in favor of one of the first point-and-click interfaces, or super-linear puzzles with specific solutions. It placed more emphasis on cinematic storytelling, and added humor to a generally serious genre.

Alone in the Dark (1992) meanwhile is one of the games that defined the survival horror genre alongside Sweet Home. It was the first 3D survival horror game, with many of its mechanics such as limited inventory and a focus on survival over combat appearing to this day. Even the first Resident Evil game was influenced by it, nixing the original plan of first-person gameplay for similar fixed camera angles.

5 Days a Stranger (2003) is comparatively lesser known and influential than the other two. However, it's also CGA's first foray into the early indie dev scene! This is a freeware game about a cat burglar who becomes trapped in a house with four others, and is the first part of a series called the Chzo Mythos. Its developer is likely to be familiar: Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw, famous for the Zero Punctuation review series for The Escapist.

Also: it's free. Of all the games we've played to date, this may be the most accessible because it's always been free, so no legal barriers.

Moving on.

You have your choice of up to three beautiful mansions to explore. I have hopefully given you enough information to decide which to visit first. They can't be worse than spending the night in a tiny, cramped, broken car. Feel free to chant the names of whichever mansion you most prefer as you begin the mad dash through the rain. The dramatic lightning flashes are so convenient, aren't they?

I hope you all have a terrific time.

GAME INFORMATION

Game Setup

The main purpose of this topic is to get people up and running with the games. As such, it's recommended that you:

• Share which version of the games you're playing
• Share what hardware you're playing it on
• Share if there are any tools/mods that you recommend
• Share anything you think is important for people to know before they start the game
• Ask questions if you need help

Another purpose of this topic is to revisit the games and their time periods:

• Do you have any memories or associations with this game itself?
• What about its system or era?
• What aspects of retro gaming were common at the time?
• What other games from the same time period are you familiar with?
• What are you expecting from this game in particular?

Finally, this topic is the beginning discussion for people starting to play it:

• Post updates sharing your thoughts as you play.
• Ask for help if you get stuck.
• Offer help to others.

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>

FAQ

Enter if you dare...

> PRESS START

(Credit to @Boojum for the splash screen!)

I'm in a position to make decisions about our B2B product and the accompaning marketing site. This is a startup, so now's the time to set precedents before there's momentum and any sort of vendor lock-in. The only context I think is relevant is that my product is for medium sized manufacturing companies. Anyone visiting our site is doing it because they would be interested in it for their business.

I bring this up here because I know many people are privacy conscious and I want to nudge my company that direction. So I have two related but slightly different topics:.

1. for our marketing site where people come to learn about the product and try to get in touch with us - What kind of "tracking" is appropriate to you? Hubspot is one of the industry defaults that was recommended we use. However I noticed that Firefox and privacy badger block it by default. If I were to try to build it myself, it wouldn't be third party, so I don't think anything would block it (I'm aware of people that block all JS, but I'm not gonna worry about that group for my purposes.) How do you all feel about first party usage tracking for B2B?
2. Similar question here but for when people log into our product. We're looking at using posthog for this.

Any thoughts are appreciated, thanks.

I've been working on a playlist for a while of rock / pop songs with sax solos. The rules are:

• Must be from this millennium
• sax can't be a primary instrument
• pop or rock genres preferred

Here's what I've got so far: https://link.deezer.com/s/323YPvabsQgEuS8BOTCXj

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?

Most everyone will spend a significant portion of their life working in some way shape or form. Our jobs can cause us to learn new skills or see the world in a different light after gaining new experiences.

I was thinking about my own career and how it has caused changes in my own life, and it got me thinking how other Tilders might view their work and their life through that lens.

Have you noticed your career has changed you, and if there are any changes you can think of, do any of them surprise you?
Do you look at things differently after working a particular job?
How has your job impacted you?

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!

Hi Tilderinos,

I've got to ship some wrought iron to a blacksmith in another country to be reforged and properly heat treated. I've worked with them before and they're far better than anything that is available in my country.

They've asked me to ship the pieces in a wooden box, that is not real wood (I don't know the English term for it). It must be processed wood, the names in our hardware stores are multiplex and plywood underlayment etc. This is to avoid customs issues with untreated wood.

I have been advised to make the sides of the box multiplex, with underlayment for the top and the bottom. I have my dimensions, but I have never done a woodworking project before and I am nervous the men in the hardware store will laugh at me for my inexperience.

I have some basic questions like:

• Is it okay to go to the hardware place and ask them to cut my pieces to size?

• The box must hold together fine, but it doesn't need to be beautiful or lasting. I am thinking of putting the top and bottom on like the back of an IKEA wardrobe, with tacks, but my wife says hiring a staple gun might save a lot of time. Would a staple gun be too aggressive and potentially wreck the rather soft treated wood?

• Lastly... Could someone just reassure me this will be fine? I associate woodworking as a very masculine 'father' skill and I did not have one of those. I have very poor spatial awareness and my wife is the furniture assembler in the house, so she will be helping me, but this is my first time trying this craft that I find very intimidating.

Thank you for any input anyone is able to provide!

The Reboot!

I used to run a series of "Screenless Day" monthly posts that were aimed at nudging people to put a short pause on the toxic aspects of tech in their life. They never got much traction, but it was also hard to tell if people were participating because they wouldn't necessarily be here commenting on it and would instead be, you know, off doing other things.

There has been some renewed interest in the idea recently, so I decided to reboot the series and see how it goes now (especially because the wider tech landscape is arguably worse than it was back when I first started them).

The spirit of Screenless Day remains the same as it always has been:

a simple event aimed at encouraging people to take a temporary step away from toxic or consuming aspects of technology and spend their time and energies elsewhere

Anyone can choose to take a Screenless Day at any time, but the idea is to nudge people towards doing it over the first weekend of the month. Each new discussion topic will go live on the first Friday of the month, and it will remain open for the duration of the month.

It is strongly encouraged that you talk about your Screenless Day here, as part of the fun of the event is that, even though you might be doing something independently, your actions fit into a larger community picture of other people here sharing the same values.

Also, to promote both reflection and discussion on the goals of Screenless Day, each month I will be including a new discussion question to provide people the opportunity to reflect on their relationship with technology and keep the topic more “alive” and visible.

This Month

In addition to the once again regularly scheduled Screenless Day, there are a couple of housekeeping things for our first month back:

1. Building a notification list.

I will be building a notification list to be pinged each time a monthly Screenless Day topic goes up. Anyone commenting in this topic will be included by default. If you do NOT want to be included in the list, please let me know in your comment.

2. Changing the name?

"Screenless Day" can be a bit misleading (see the FAQ below), so I'm open to other name ideas. Everything I can come up with tends to sound negative however (e.g. "Pause Toxic Tech" day or something), and I want the name to be a simple but positive one.

Monthly Discussion

Use this topic to:

1. Talk about your plans for an upcoming Screenless Day.
2. Tell everyone what you chose to do for your Screenless Day, and how it went.
3. Reflect on your relationship with technology.

This month's discussion question:

• Of all the tech you use in your life, what platform/app/device/etc do you feel has the most overall negative impact on you? Why do you think that is?

FAQ

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.

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.

Moving right along myself.

Links with more information for anyone undecided: LibraryThing:StoryGraph

Content Warnings based on user submissions from StoryGraph.

Plot summary of the previous work in the series (From Russia, with Love) from Wikipedia.

Working on my graduate degree and desperately need to get better at writing. I want to write and publish a lot but my grammar and general style is quite bad. The allure of AI is forever present but I resist it to maintain my own skill.

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.

So I've heard that (at least some of) you have, trounced every park's leaderboard, cleared all goals (including the cash ones), and racked up 3 gold medals from the occasional competition stages.

If that's true, then congratulations! You're basically legend-level; Tony Hawk himself would be impressed.
But what if I told you there's more to do after a full Career Mode clean sweep? Shocker, I know. Here are two hints:

• Land a successful trick in every gap on every Career Mode park (ideally in Free Skate)
• Spend an absurd amount of time 100%-ing every skater's Career Mode

Sounds simple, right? But it's also... an absolutely herculean task. I won't blame you if you reach for the cheat codes hidden there to skip the grind. And for anyone on the N64 or GBC versions of Pro Skater 2: tough luck, as no such things are available there to my knowledge.

Now the real question: where are you going to rest after all that? Blow your remaining hard-earned cash on some old, shady place you found on your dinky desktop out of pure desperation? Don't worry, u/CannibalisticApple will walk you through those sketchy mansions and manors on the next CGA month.

Until then, drop your feats and thoughts about your journey to becoming one of skateboarding's champions.

Later, gators!

Schedule

I don’t think I’m very creative when it comes to making semi artistic/practical real world things. The summum of my creative abilities is devising CAD models for 3D printing practical simple parts I need to improve/fix things. Not nothing, but not super artsy either.

I currently live in an apartment I don’t like and can’t move out of (life is complicated).

A big part of my dislike of this appartment is that it’s under the roof so it has slanted ceilings and these gigantic wooden pillars right in the middle of most rooms. This make the space cramped and very hard to use.

I’d like to find a way to pimp these columns up so they don’t annoy me as much. But… how would I get ideas?

All I could think of is making it into some kind of tribal totem, but I have no vision for what it’d look like nor how would I do it in practice. And preferably with upcycled or thrifted materials because I’m not investing in this place I’m renting. Also has to be fully removable for the same reason. A few holes are ok but I can’t glue things that will peel the paint or leave marks.

My general question is this: people who find cool ways of hijacking things or decorating, where do you find inspiration? How do you get ideas? Is there some sort of method for someone like me who doesn’t get it “naturally”?

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?