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    2. Firefox just installed two addons into my browser without consent... again

      ~tech Text 74 words
      Here is what just happened to me: Firefox installed two addons - fxmonitor@mozilla.org.xpi and telemetry-coverage-bug1487578@mozilla.org into my browser silently, even though I've explicitly...

      Here is what just happened to me:
      Firefox installed two addons - fxmonitor@mozilla.org.xpi and telemetry-coverage-bug1487578@mozilla.org into my browser silently, even though I've explicitly turned all the telemetry off.
      This have happened before, and Mozilla apologized for it, however it seems that they learned nothing and are willing to do so again.
      There goes the last scrap of my trust into Firefox. I suggest you check your browsers too.

      21 votes

    5. What's in a name? Patience Phillips' Catwoman

      ~movies Ask
      For anyone who doesn't recognize Patience Phillips, she was Halle Berry's Catwoman in the most terrible superhero film - Catwoman (2004)...that I really enjoyed it. Probably because it wasn't...

      For anyone who doesn't recognize Patience Phillips, she was Halle Berry's Catwoman in the most terrible superhero film - Catwoman (2004)...that I really enjoyed it. Probably because it wasn't well-received, it's often overlooked when talking about things like "the first female hero on screen" or "the first black hero..." sort of things. And technically, Catwoman's not a superhero.

      Spoilers ahead. I'm also going to keep my points to the story and characters themselves. I honestly had no issues with any of the actors.

      The good

      • The theme and social commentary on make-up, beauty products, self-harm/addiction and image issues woman do face. The added layer of cooperate greed. The idea of what you see in the mirror vs. what others see (and if they're right), alongside what you want to present to the world or to specific people - honestly this movie has probably one of the best takes on "the cost of beauty" that I've seen in a while, and since.
      • The scene where Tom thinks he's saving a jumper, but Patience is actually trying to save a cat. This random scene turns out to be a great storytelling scene when brought up again after Tom arrests Patience for murder and she asks him what he first saw the first time they met.
      • Laurel is probably the most interesting character in this movie. There's a really well-framed shot of her photos being removed from her company lobby in favour of a younger model. I think it's one of the best scenes in the movie. Laurel is capable, powerful, rich and very accomplished, but somehow her relevance still fades as her beauty does. (I can honestly say I generally can't stand the evil step-mother wrestling with her fading beauty and taking out her bitterness on some young snow white-y girl, but this one worked for me.)
      • I loved that Batman wasn't in it (but didn't really like that a love interest still had to be introduced).

      The bad

      • That she's call Patience Phillips...but honestly this is the warning to divorce this from any Catwoman or female superheros (or anti-heros) you know.
      • Patience doesn't earn her "powers" - Selina Kyle (Catwoman in basically all other versions) works obsessively to perfect all her abilities. She's an insanely good cat burglar, not a magic cat.
      • Patience doesn't earn or drive her own growth. There is basically no growth as a character. A magic cat ghost could have simply possessed Patience's body and the story would be the same.
      • Oversexualization of Catwoman...which I didn't even know could be a thing until this movie. Black leather for a sexy Catwoman - awesome. Whatever the belt thing was - grossly missed the point while trying to copy Pfeiffer's patched up catsuit.
      • I'm also not the biggest fan of make-over tropes in general.

      The ugly

      • The basketball scene - just everything about it.
      • The hate that surrounded the movie because Catwoman wasn't blonde (or Michelle Pfeiffer), and that Batman's not in it.
      • The physical punch-them-out fight scene between Laurel and Catwoman in the end - just why? This isn't a movie at all about physical strength, and having a "face like marble" isn't a real power. (To be fair, I don't like this showdown in really any superhero movie, with the exception of The Death of Superman.)

      The cheesy

      • The crazy cat-lady Patience goes too, and her tossing a cat toy at her
      • The sushi eating scene
      • The in case of date emergency kit her friends gave her.
      • Laurel seeing her cracked beauty in the moment of a showdown fight
      • The cat scratches on Tom
      • Her best friend hooking up with her doctor
      • The comparing signatures on the coffee cups
      • Her Marvel-like comic book name

      Final thoughts

      So yeah...I would recommend this movie, and really hope that when they do make another Catwoman film that it might share some themes. Have you seen this movie? Did you hate it? Who's your favourite Catwoman? What would you like to see in a Catwoman movie?

      10 votes

    8. Voting on the main page discourages discussion

      ~tildes Text 75 words
      I realize preventing people without first reading the link or text is impossible, but the least we can do is to not encourage it. By that, I mean the vote counts on the right hand side here...

      I realize preventing people without first reading the link or text is impossible, but the least we can do is to not encourage it. By that, I mean the vote counts on the right hand side here shouldn't be clickable if discussions are the priority for Tildes.

      What do you think?

      EDIT: Just to be clear - I'm not against showing the votes on the front page (though @AllMight below has a fair argument for that).

      21 votes

    15. Death Note - Anime... Good or Bad?

      ~anime Ask
      Alright, so I'd like to get some opinions going here and see what others think. Full disclosure, I have not finished the Death Note series... I have tried and failed on 3 separate occasions...

      Alright, so I'd like to get some opinions going here and see what others think.

      Full disclosure, I have not finished the Death Note series... I have tried and failed on 3 separate occasions because I can't stand the writing. I love the premise, but L's character is just too frustrating for me. He knows way more than he should at any given point with no explanation except he's a genius (at least, up until the point that I stopped watching. Episode 7 I think). It feels lazy to me. And everybody I talk to in person has felt the same.

      BUT! I know that there are a lot of avid Death Note fans out there and there seem to be a few here on tildes, so I'd like you guys to weigh in. As a fan of the show, did you also feel this way about the writing? If so, what other redeeming qualities were there for you in this show? What about it do you love? What about it do you not like so much? It's a long series, should I push through until a certain episode? Have I just not gotten there yet?

      6 votes

    29. Black Mirror S3E04 "San Junipero" discussion thread

      ~tv Text 144 words
      Previous episode | Index thread | Next episode Black Mirror Season 3 Episode 4 - San Junipero In a seaside town in 1987, a shy young woman and an outgoing party girl strike up a powerful bond that...

      Previous episode | Index thread | Next episode

      Black Mirror Season 3 Episode 4 - San Junipero

      In a seaside town in 1987, a shy young woman and an outgoing party girl strike up a powerful bond that seems to defy the laws of space and time.

      Black Mirror Netflix link

      Warning: this thread contains spoilers about this episode! If you haven't seen it yet, please watch it and come back to this thread later.

      You can talk about past episodes, but please don't discuss future episodes in this thread!

      If you don't know what to say, here are some questions to get the discussion started:

      • How does the title relate to the episode itself?
      • Are there any similarities between real life events and the episode?
      • Are there any references or easter eggs in the episode, such as references to past episodes?

      Please rate the episode here!

      25 votes

    35. Topic tags - tagging the domain?

      ~tildes Ask
      I've noticed that some people are adding topic tags to identify the domain of an article. For example, if it's from the New York Times, they'll add a "nyt" tag, or if it's from The Guardian,...

      I've noticed that some people are adding topic tags to identify the domain of an article. For example, if it's from the New York Times, they'll add a "nyt" tag, or if it's from The Guardian, they'll add a "the guardian" tag.

      Why? What's the purpose of these tags? Do people really filter in or out topics based on what website they come from? "Show me all articles from the New York Times." "Show me all articles except if they're from The Guardian."

      Is this really a thing that people do?

      6 votes

    37. Syntax highlighting for the coders, invites for everyone

      ~tildes.official Text 234 words
      Another open-source contribution has now been implemented - @Soptik wrote the code to add support for syntax highlighting, which should be great for topics like the programming challenges in...

      Another open-source contribution has now been implemented - @Soptik wrote the code to add support for syntax highlighting, which should be great for topics like the programming challenges in ~comp.

      I'll update the formatting documentation to include info about it shortly, but it's straightforward to use. You have to use a "fenced code block", which usually means that you put 3 backticks above and below the code, and include the name of the language after the 3 backticks above it. So for example, markdown like this:

      ```python
def word_count(string: str) -> int:
    """Count the number of words in the string."""
    return len(WORD_REGEX.findall(string))
```

      will render as:

      def word_count(string: str) -> int:
    """Count the number of words in the string."""
    return len(WORD_REGEX.findall(string))

      This is being done by the "Pygments" library, which supports a lot of languages: http://pygments.org/docs/lexers/

      And completely unrelated to that, it's been a while since I gave everyone some invite codes, so I've topped everyone back up to 5 (and as always, feel free to let me know if you need more). You can access them on this page: https://tildes.net/invite

      That's all for now, thanks everyone (and @Soptik in particular). There should also be more changes coming before too long, I've been working on some major updates to the comment-tagging system and hopefully should be able to implement those soon.

      78 votes

    39. What to do about reddit and trolls?

      ~talk Text 154 words
      So I was following this discussion on Reddit today about someone finding evidence of Russia trolls finding a safe haven on reddit and the admins not addressing it. And then also this one on Tildes...

      So I was following this discussion on Reddit today about someone finding evidence of Russia trolls finding a safe haven on reddit and the admins not addressing it.

      And then also this one on Tildes that clears up why the OP deleted his account and the Reddit admin's overall poor response.

      So I was wondering...is there any way to fix reddit? I've all but left it, but I really wish it wasn't so horrible a place to be.

      In one of the reddit threads, a user posted an idea of having many many redditors all refuse to log in to reddit for a single day as a protest against how the site is being ran. Would this be advisable or effective? What other things could be done to "wake up" the site owners to what has been going on for so long?

      EDIT: Here was the reddit admin team's response to the incident.

      22 votes

    47. What artists do you wish would go back to their roots/an older sound of theirs?

      ~music Ask (survey)
      What band that you like/used to like makes you wish they would go back to what they used to do? Personally, I wish Maroon 5 would put out more stuff like Songs About Jane. They had a really chill,...

      What band that you like/used to like makes you wish they would go back to what they used to do? Personally, I wish Maroon 5 would put out more stuff like Songs About Jane. They had a really chill, jazz-y, very Jamiroquai-esque sound that I dig the hell out of but now Levine's dedicated to pop music full time.

      Hardmode: No Weezer

      24 votes

    49. Has anyone used FreeCAD, Kicad and other foss software?

      ~tech Ask (survey)
      The recent post on foss software got me thinking about viable foss alternatives, particularly non programming related. I just came across FreeCAD and am wondering if anyone has experience using...

      The recent post on foss software got me thinking about viable foss alternatives, particularly non programming related.

      I just came across FreeCAD and am wondering if anyone has experience using it, how it compares to Solidworks, Autodesk, Rhino or Catia?

      I was shown Kicad at uni by a ladtech and was very impressed, way easier and more flexible then whatever microchip software they where teaching.

      On a broader level what other professional ffos alternatives do you guys know about?

      Is anyone using this stuff on a professional level or is it more hobby at the moment?

      15 votes

    50. Favorite recent fighting game that is not well known?

      ~games Ask (recommendations)
      I really like the "idea" of fighting games, as I like playing against others and outplaying them, guessing their moves and the mind games etc. But the only fighting game ive legitimately enjoyed...

      I really like the "idea" of fighting games, as I like playing against others and outplaying them, guessing their moves and the mind games etc. But the only fighting game ive legitimately enjoyed was Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, and id like to play something more recent.

      It had alot of personality, each character felt different enough despite the size of the roster, and it was easy enough for a casual like me to get into while still not feeling too easy. Out of the new fighting games ive tried Fighterz, but it doesnt have enough character variety (not a dbz fan), the new MvC has a bad roster, Street fighter was too technical and idk boring? MK is very clunky, ive tried tekken but it didnt really grab me, and skullgirls hasn't either.
      I want a game I can stick with and get good at, but the mainstream titles don't really appeal to me, does anyone have a suggestion?

      10 votes