I'm in the middle of writing my thesis and I've been (re)reading some excellent, unconventional style guides (The Sense of Style by Stephen Pinker and Stylish Academic Writing by Helen Sword). I'm also rereading Thank You for Arguing by Jay Heinrichs, which is less about style but is essentially a guide for effective communication.

In reading these books and applying their teachings to my writing, I've been reinvigorated with a passion for writing, namely for the craftsmanship of prose. All three books analyze excerpts from examples of great (and sometimes poor) writing. But, I'm now looking for a more immersive experience in good (i.e. stylish, evocative, concise etc.) writing in the hopes that, with my newly refined perspective and sensitivity, I can improve my own writing even more. Good writers read good writing.

Now, starting new books now won't help my current cause (my thesis) but my academic career will call for much more writing in the future. And I'm hoping that maybe the suggestions I get here will help me prioritize my current queue of books and articles—I know they're all great books but I'd like to read the ones with better writing, first.

So, I would love some recommendations on authors who you would consider as masters of writing. It can be either books or articles. Preferably non-fiction and modern (20 years?), only because fiction and older books have different standards (FWIW I love old-school sci-fi, but that's definitely not the style I'm after). My current shortcut is to read basically any "longread" on WIRED, as most of the time they are high quality and often explain complex topics.

Any other resources are also welcome! Though maybe no more style guides...

I'm interested in finding more great songwriters across different genres and I want to defeat my own bias, so don't tell me the artist or genre (or maybe put it in <details> tags).

Here are a few of mine -

Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds

If you're really as tough as your defenses, you'd let them fall

Tried to deceive me, you only deceived you; what you thought was invisible was only see-through

I said, "If you won't save me, please don't waste my time"

Emotional luggage, nothing of it, I don't check bags; I just carry on, leave that bullshit in the past

Nothing no scary like a gunman voice when people beg a gunman think twice, and him say no

To turn your sick soul inside out - so that the world, so that the world can watch you die

Coincidentally, not all those songs are necessarily at the top of my recommends, but they are the first memorable one-liners that came to mind. I won't mind if your picks aren't the greatest songs of all time either if the line still hits.

I feel like I have gotten as far as I can playing around with my keyboard and LMMS, so I was wondering if anyone here has any recommendations for a synth that I could start out with. As much as I really want to buy a OP-1 or OP-Z I don't think I can justify it just yet. I would like something in the style of the OP-1 or OP-Z, i.e. quite small, with they keys laid out like a piano, and controls for modifying the sound on the synth, although it doesn't need an included sequencer. I'm also pretty open to drum machine ideas, just have never really played around with them at all. My budget is like $200 max.

Is there a good smartwatch/simile that monitors sleep and has excellent battery life (measured in weeks not hours)?

I use the Withings (ex-Nokia) Steel HR, but it … kinda sucks. The bluetooth pairings very often lose sleep data, it's very inaccurate, the reporting sucks for non-24s, and the leather bracelet is of very poor quality, keeps breaking.

I really don't care for the fitness/step tracking which, as someone else here put it, thinks typing on a keyboard or eating is a step.

I also briefly tried an Oura (https://ouraring.com/), but I never got it to work and had to send it back.

I also don't care much for any of those "sleep quality" trackers that try to detect if I snore and what not. I can do sleep studies in my own time, I just want to have accurate stats on whether and when I am asleep.

My husband and I are looking to do more with our Instant Pot in the coming year. The last thread we had on this topic was from 2018, so I figure we could use an update.

• What are your favorite Instant Pot/pressure cooker recipes?

Please link to the full recipe if possible!

In the 2000s I used to use a service called last.fm (originally called Audioscrobbler) that would track the music I listened to and give me recommendations based on that. It was able to give me some really great personalized suggestions, but that came at the expense of me handing over significant amounts of personal data.

In prioritizing privacy, I feel like I've stepped away from a lot of the big recommendation engines because they're tied to data-hungry companies I am in the process of disengaging with (e.g. Goodreads is owned by Amazon). I can still find stuff I like, but it's often the result of manual searching that turns up popular recommendations that work for me, rather than less well-known or acutely relevant things. last.fm was good at giving me less "obvious" recommendations and would find music I was unlikely to find on my own. I want that, but for all of my media: books, movies, etc.

There's a second concern in that I also feel like I can't trust platforms like Netflix, who seem to prioritize their content over that of other studios. Their recommendations feel weighted in their favor, not mine.

What I want is an impartial recommendation engine that gives me high quality personalized suggestions without a huge privacy cost.¹ Is this a pipe dream, or are there examples of this kind of thing out there?

1. I don't mind handing over some of my specific interest data in order to get good recommendations for myself and help a site's algorithms cater to others, as I get that's how these things work. I just don't like the idea of my interests being even more data for a company that already has thousands of intimate data points on me.

I get heavily into Universal Paperclips about a year ago, it really just scratched a particular itch in my mind. It was particularly nice to be able to play it at work and not need to worry about it being open 100% of the time!

What are your recommendations for similar idle/incremental games?

For Christmas, I got the household a toaster oven with air fryer. We have so far done french fries and brussels sprouts, both of which turned out great. I'm curious what else I can air fry? Any favorite recipes?

It also has a dehydrate feature and we've done apple slices and strawberry slices. They also turned out pretty good. (I think I needed to leave them in for maybe an extra hour or two because they weren't quite crisp.)

I'm thinking about getting a new printer. My needs are basically to print out textual documents 2-3 times per month from macOS. I don't need to print photos. I will not buy an inkjet because of the outrageous price of the ink. I would like to have fax support (my spouse sees a lot of doctors and they still use fax machines a lot, and we're not comfortable sending personal medical info via a fax service on the web), and it would be nice if we could also scan documents. So I'm thinking a multi-function device.

We currently have a Brother 7840W MFC with print, fax, copy, and scan. It's over 10 years old (maybe 15?) and I dislike it. It's been slowly losing functionality over the past 5+ years. The WiFi went out, but I was able to connect it via wired ethernet to a computer and share it from there. The drivers insist that there's a paper jam, but there isn't and it prints just fine (but sounds like some of the internal mechanical components are going to die any day now.) The UI of the printer is awful. I recall having to use the phone pad to enter my WiFi password, and it was like texting on a Motorola StarTAC. (Like if you want the letter "C" press the number "2" three times, etc.) The drivers and related software don't work like normal macOS software. (Disclosure: I also once wrote a scanner driver for Brother and it was horrible, but they shipped it, so I'm not real comfortable putting their software on my computer. But that was 25 years ago, so maybe they're better now?)

I've heard horrible things about the drivers and software of most other major printer makers - HP, Epson, Lexmark, etc. I'm guessing what I'm looking for doesn't exist, but I just want a multi-function device in as small a package as is reasonable, and with a UI on the device and software that doesn't suck and that won't die on me in < 5 years. Does such a thing exist?

I do some astrophotography for fun in my spare time. I'd like to get into doing deep sky photography. In order to do that, I need a moving mount that can keep the camera aligned with the stars for minutes to hours at a time. I'll be using (at least initially) a Canon 7D (original version) with Canon lenses rather than a telescope. I currently have a 200mm lens with 2x extender, which makes it 600mm equivalent on that body.

I'd like to know if others here have ever done this and what type of hardware they've used for the motor and mount? Prices seem to be all over the place and options vary greatly on different devices. For example, I see the following:

Sky-watcher EQM-35 - $623.00US - Seems pretty full-featured for the price, as it includes tripod, motorized mount, alignment scope, and database of astronomical objects.
Celestron Advanced VX Computerized Mount - $899.00US - Seems very similar to the above, but does not include a scope, but is ~$250 more
Orion AstroView EQ Mount & EQ-3M Motor Drive Kit - $269.99US - Like the first one, but without the scope and holds less weight, and no database of objects to look at

I get the difference in price between the first and last, but not the middle one.

In any event, curious if anyone has used any of the above or any others and what their thoughts are on the quality of different brands, and anything I should be looking for or avoiding.

The end of the year has me in a movie-watching mood and I want to add the best of the best into my queue for the next few weeks. Similar to games of the decades, what are your movies of the decades and why?

I played VA-11 HALL-A quite a while ago and recently played ROM 2064. Both have similar aesthetics, sound, themes although they have different mechanics. I really liked how ROM had voice acting too which is a shame to say is not the case of VA-11 HALL-A but I still quite enjoyed both. 2064 perhaps more since it felt more engaged but perhaps that's just memory tricking me.

I know there's N1RV Ann-A and ROM Neurodriver coming in 2020 but well, after that, I'll still have nothing so, what games have you played which are similar?

PS : Have a happy new year and hope I've not posted in the wrong place, I'm not sure if it would've fit in the recurring topic.

Hey everyone, I'm currently looking for some web 1.0-esque websites, but with the twist of being designed for some ancient smartphones. An example of what I mean would be i.reddit.com , reddit's original (and still fully functional) mobile implementation, or Twitter's site when you access it without a modern version of Javascript (which reverts to a clone of itself from around ~2012). I understand this is a super niche category and there's hardly any of them left, but if you happen to know of any or stumble upon one, please let me know! Thank you! :)

So far I know of Economics explained for economics and CaspianReport for geopolitics but neither has really convinced me of their credibility and these 2 subjects seem to be the dark sheep of educational content, due to being primarily speculative and subjective in nature and being quite niche for being such general topics.

With the year and decade coming to an end, I wanted to do a self interview/reflection. I'm basically looking for questions that address the past, present and future. Questions that help reflect or set goals are nice, but anything goes really. This was inspired by Vanity Fair's yearly interview with Billie Eilish, but I also love reflecting on the past and need for structure by setting goals for the future. Plus what better time to do this with the new year and decade coming up?

What I'd like to do is ask myself these questions on a yearly basis, but this one might be longer as I'd put questions that will address things 5 & 10 years from now.

I realize this is a little early and that I've been doing a lot on Tildes lately, but I'm really into this idea and I know a lot of people will soon be busy with holiday plans (if they aren't already). As such, I figured it was better to go ahead and propose this now rather than wait:

What are challenge lists?

In reading circles, it's common for sites to put out yearly "challenge checklists". They are lists of different criteria with stuff like "Read a book published in the year you were born" or "Read a book with the name of a country in the title", and the idea is that you try to complete the list over the course of the year. Here are some examples from 2019:

• Book Riot
• Popsugar
• Omaha Public Library

The Idea

I think it would be neat if Tildes came up with a gaming version of one of these challenge lists for 2020. Why?

• It's fun
• It's great for diving into your backlog (if you have one)
• It gives you incentive to play games you might otherwise overlook
• It's fulfilling to work towards a goal
• I haven't seen a gaming version of this idea before, so we could (maybe) be trailblazers!
• But mostly it's fun

The Process

I was originally considering coming up with my own individual list for myself, but I think it would be neat if we did a community version instead. As such,

• If you are interested in participating in a 2020 gaming challenge list, let me know in this thread.
• If you have ideas for criteria for the challenge list, also let me know in this thread.
• If you have any other thoughts on this setup, let me know.

This is a brainstorming thread, so feel free to submit any and all ideas you have. Throw everything at the wall. We'll see what sticks afterwards.

To be clear, the challenges are more about playing certain games than they are about completing specific tasks within games. So "play a game in which you can pet a dog" works, while "pet the dog in Zork II" does not.

After we finish brainstorming, I will compile all submitted criteria into a poll and we can vote on the ones we most like. Then, after voting, the top [number TBD] entries from the poll will become our challenge list for 2020.

Partly because of the nature of the subject, most true-crime documentaries tend to emphasize dread. Some of them employ formal devices similar to horror movies, such as ominous soundtracks, dark lightning, and moody camera movements. My interest in the problem of evil is philosophical, and the constant attempts to induce fear are distracting.

I'm interested in documentaries that are more like case studies, with a clinical, speculative or even scientifical approach to the problem of evil embodied in criminal acts.

Any suggestions?

I will be releasing a beta version of Intergrid in the near future, before New Year.

The first thing I need is someone to buy a domain name from.

I'm looking for a reasonable yearly price for the common generic TLDs ($10~$20), combined with reliability of support.

The only previous experience I had was with GoDaddy, and I had no issues with them. I have, however, heard stories of terrible support service (which I never used, for lack of need), and I'd rather not support a company of that level of service. (Nevermind that I bear strong dislike for post-service spam.)

The second thing I need is someone to host it.

Ideally, I would host it on a personal server, which would probably be a Pi-like platform, because I like the idea of owning the host as far as personal projects are concerned. I have little idea of how viable it is, or whether it's a better option for me than renting server space at the moment.

Lacking that, I'd like to have a EU-based hosting provider with reasonably-cheap ($10~$15) basic-level plans. Since the beta of Intergrid is local-storage-only, having a database hosted or supplied is not an issue at the moment. Low time-to-connect is important.

This topic is part of a weekly series where we can talk about board games. Feel free to talk about any aspect of board gaming you'd like. Here are some potential talking points to get you started:

• Are you looking for a recommendation? Tell us a game you'd like, and we'll see if we can think of one that may suit you.
• Have you tried something new and want to chat about it? Tell us about why you like a particular board game!
• Did you have a particularly interesting tabletop gaming experience? Tell us about your 9-point swing in Catan, or the time you managed to finish off the entire village in Ultimate Werewolf!

Apologies if this belongs in ~tech, that group is more on topic than ~talk but I think it’s for news and links more than open questions. (Edit: Looks like it's been moved to ~comp, I guess that works too.)

I’m looking for an HDMI switch. It needs to support at least 4K resolution and have at least 10 input ports. It also needs to have Toslink audio out. Remote control support is a “nice to have” but physical buttons are fine too.

I’m having trouble locating a product like this online. Not sure if I’m just using the wrong terms or if it doesn’t actually exist. Can any Tildes gearheads give me a pointer here?

In a few days, I’ll be crashing on my friend’s couch for a week.

If it matters, I can only buy from retail stores within Hong Kong and hand carry on the subway. Every time I see them, they’re too quick on the bill, so taking them to eat is out of the question.

Obvious choices are alcohol or fruit basket. I’m terrible at picking gifts for people, as I’m always worried they’ll be as picky as I am on my purchases.

What are your go-tos for gifts in this situation?

Are there tildies that like latin music? I'm just getting back into it after a long excursion into electronic genres.

Do you know and want to share with us some favourite tracks?

Some of my favourite stuff, from wildly different genres:

Devine - La Chica Colombiana
Calypso Rose - Calypso Blues
Chica Libre - sonido amazonico
Pericos - Los Pericos
Tigrillios - Cameleon
Dinastya Angelito Y Su Sabor Costeño - Con La Botella En La Cabeza
Mister Cobra - Baila

I'm looking especially for traditional styles and good cumbia

My online habits are too limited by these three websites. What other aggregators, blogs or websites you suggest for me to open my horizons?

Some of my interests:

• Long-form film criticism (not movie news)
• History of American cinema
• Urban exploration (sewers, abandoned places, spooky stories)
• Python
• Learning techniques
• Transportation (subways and trains, mostly)
• True crime
• Science fiction literature (both new and old)
• Stand up comedy
• War history

I'm particularly uninterested by American or World News.

I currently am not listening to podcasts because my headphones break every week and I don’t have enough money to buy headphones that will last more than that.

As an outsider some gaming communities can appear incredibly toxic. I'm sure some of that is a deserved reputation, but I'm also aware that maybe there's a bit of generalisation going on, and that some communities are lovely but unrecognised.

So I thought I'd ask Tildes: which gaming communities do you like? And why?

(As always, feel free to interpret this question how you like. And, again, I suck at tagging so I'm grateful for any tagging edits. I do read those to try to learn.)

Hello everyone,

As I've previously mentionned in a previous comment, I'm getting back into PC gaming after 3 years with a simple laptop. I would be grateful if you could share some recommendations! Here are a few details that I think can help you:

• Looking back, the genres I like the most are
  • City-building games (Cities Skylines, SimCity 4, ...Rimworld?)
  • Tactical shooters (Arma 3, Insurgency)
  • First-person role-playing shooters (STALKER, Fallout 4)
  • Atmospheric indie titles (INSIDE, Kentucky Route Zero, Night in the Woods, Oxenfree, What Remains of Edith Finch)
• I don't tend to like competitive multiplayer games, I get easily frustrated about my lack of skill.
• I'm mainly aiming to catch up with what I could have missed these last couple of years. But if you think there's an ""older"" title I'd like, tell me anyway.
• I've already got my eyes on Control, Cyberpunk 2077, Outer Wilds and The Outer Worlds

Phew! I hope I haven't reduced the list of candidates too much

I currently use MX-Linux, which is a great distribution but does require me to reinstall it from time to time. It also comes with all the good/bad Debian legacy, and sometimes things can get really fucked up (okay, I admit it: MX IS NOT PERFECT. But nothing is, okay? Settle down.)

My new Linux Distribution doesn't need to have all the new bells and whistles, but it needs to be able to stay reasonably current with new packages and innovations. I don't mind some manual work, but I also don't wanna spend my days maintaining the system.

This distro is supposed to be a tool to work with, not a hobby to be pimped, riced or whatever. I will occasionally play and edit videos on it (don't worry, it's all AMD, thank you advice for the Tildes ;)

I use the i3wm window manager (not the gaps fork), so native support is a must and current versions are preferable (MX's version is from 2016. 2016!). If there's not a current version of Emacs, I'll compile my own. The same is true for Neovim, dmenu, rofi and the suckless terminal.

Configurations on text files do not scare me, but I don't wanna spend all my time scripting stuff. I don't mind compiling stuff either so Gentoo and other source-based distributions are valid options (as long as they allow me to work on stuff instead of working on the distribution...). That said, I have no preference whatsoever between binary and source-based.

Unstable distributions like Arch and even Manjaro are a no-no. I need my computer to work 99.99% of the time, like a fucking refrigerator. That said, I would like some newer packages and tools such as Gimp, Inkscape and a video editor like Kdenlive. Maybe flatpak is an option? I was never able to get it to work properly.

I'm also open to crazy things like Nix, but only if it'll make my life easier: I have no philosophies on the mater.

Any suggestions?

This is a recurring thread in ~games.tabletop where we can talk about board games in a fun way. Feel free to discuss boardgames in any way you want! Each week I add a guiding topic / question, just to help things along:

What's the last game you played?

This is a recurring thread in ~games.tabletop where we can talk about board games in a fun way. Feel free to discuss boardgames in any way you want, but I like to add a bit of a hook each week to spice things up. Here's my hook for this thread:

What's one of your favourite board game and why?

Edit: I made the question a bit less hard to answer - instead of your absolute favourite, pick a favourite, and talk about it.

So, I've been going through Project Euler and solving problems as a way to brush up on my programming abilities, but it's mostly a math-focused set of problems. Which is cool..they're nice little puzzles that get the gears turning...

BUT I'm wondering if anyone here has suggestions for a website/course that teaches software design in a piece-wise way. Like... each problem is a nugget of software design that builds off previous problems and eventually you're creating an entire application utilizing different algorithms/design patterns/data structures/etc.

I'd appreciate any resources similar to that idea. Thanks!

I found my grandfathers old PC on the attic and want to revive it for him. He really loved that pc. Sadly that potato barely runs Windows xp so I thought about putting a Linux onto it. My Linux experience is limited to Mimt and Debian, both way to heavy for this old laptop. I need recommendations for a very light weight Linux Distro!

Specs:
256 mb DDR1 Ram
Intel Celeron M 320 @ 1.4GhZ
40gb Hard Drive

It's a small, simple gift and nothing where I want to put money into. Also it won't be my granddads daily driver so please don't recommend me a new one (a lot of people did that on other websites so I am rather careful). Thanks in Advance!

Recently, Mobile Chrome on Android gave the ability to set your own Homepage. I hate the default new tab page on Chrome and used Currently for my new tab please until that went under, and now I use Simple. Is there anything like either of those for mobile, or some other portal that you would prefer so I'm not mindlessly encouraged to go to commonly visited websites?

I'm starting school this coming Monday with the intent on getting a degree in horticulture. My classes include botany and plant identification. Something I struggle with is knowing how to pronounce words with Latin roots. Not knowing how to pronounce words makes it harder to commit words to memory, which of course makes it more difficult to recall. For example the words Leguminosae / Fabaceae - I know they are legumes, but have no idea how to pronounce it. It makes reading difficult because I find myself skimming. Does anyone have any resources that can help me pronounce the words I am reading.

Used to love reading the IMDB boards after checking out a flick. Up until, of course, Amazon's takeover and purging. Now I feel dirty using the site to check out info about films, and am trying to break the habit of using it as my 'go-to' site.

Letterboxd and TheMovieDatabase seem to be the 2 most credible alternatives. Any other suggestions on the Web3.0 (or 2.5) solution to a great community to kick back, contribute and learn with others about film?

I'm building my first desktop computer, and Linux is my operating system of choice.

I know video cards sometimes can be a pain and wish to avoid any issues.

Dollar-priced items are very expensive down here, and I don't require playing the latest games on the highest configurations. Just something to “put me on the map”, so to speak, so I can have a somewhat current machine that doesn't give me much trouble. Any suggestions?

@Deimos clued me in to this site which lets you filter your Steam library using tags. I had no idea this was even a thing, and it made me want to know what else I'm missing. What are some great sites/tools out there that improve your Steam experience?

It should go without saying that they need to be safe to use. I know scam Steam sites are a dime a dozen, so make sure you're posting something that's properly vetted.

Here's a running list of submissions:

I'd love to see a recurring thread here in ~games.tabletop where we can talk about board games in a fun way. Here's my hook for this thread:

List one boardgame that you like, and we will suggest a boardgame that you may also like based on your one selection. Ideally, there will be an explanation for "why" as well.

Edit: I also encourage other people to post suggestions!

I'd love to see a recurring thread here in ~games.tabletop where we can talk about board games in a fun way. Since this is the second in series, my dream has become a reality! Here's my hook for this thread:

If someone were wanting to start creating a collection of board games, what one game would you suggest that they put in their collection, and why? To standardize the question a bit, let's assume that the person is relatively into board gaming already, so it's not "introduce someone to the basics of board games".

you know the alternatives to http://archillect.com/ ?

Who is Archillect?
Archillect [archive + intellect] is a synthetic intelligence (or artificial intelligence, depending on the point of view) made to find and share inspiring visuals over social media channels. She is a living inspiration archive. She is a digital muse. She currently has an active Twitter profile, a Facebook page, and a Pinterest board where she converts unhappy human beings to inspired artists.

Because I'm in Brazil, highly specific brands that do not ship to my country are out of the question, and even the ones that ship usually cost more than I can pay due to currency exchange rate and shipping costs themselves. What are some universal brands and models that I can probably find on my location, that won't give me much trouble running Linux?

I don't require playing games or top performance (4GB 8GB RAM, a nice/vibrant screeen and an i5 processor would be the minimum requirement. SSD would be nice, but for my budget it's a plus. Just something that is durable (with a good guarantee) and works reliably under Linux, especially when it comes to HDMI output, video graphics adapter support, booting from USB, hibernating, sleeping, power management etc.

Thanks!

This post is related and in some part a repetition of my other topic on how to buy a laptop for Linux.

Because I'm in Brazil, many brands and stores that do not ship to my country are out of the question, and even the ones that ship usually cost more than I can pay due to currency exchange rate and shipping costs themselves. What are some universal stores, brands and models that I can probably find on my location, that won't give me much trouble running Linux?

I don't require playing games or top performance (8GB RAM and i5 processor would be the minimum requirements). And SSD would be nice, but, for my budget, it's a plus.

I just need something that is durable and works reliably under Linux, especially when it comes to audio and HDMI output, video graphics adapter support, booting from USB, hibernating, sleeping and power management.

Thanks!

I'm in the market for a fitness tracker.

My usual fitness activities (stationary elliptical trainer, hiking, biking) are temporarily restricted, so I've been swimming a great deal. Using a phone isn't giving me adequate exertion tracking data for walking (stride counts and heart rate not available/accurate), and it's especially not useful for aquatics.

I'd be grateful if anyone can recommend something they have experience with.

My constraints are as follows:

I'd rather not contribute to e-waste with yet another gadget du jour - service life should be at least the recharge cycle life of the battery.

No Apple or Samsung devices. I'm not in those ecosystems, and don't plan to be because reasons.

Should be at least IPX5, preferably IPX7 waterproof.

Helps if it's not butt-ugly, but I'll take what I can get - replaceable bands are a plus.

Able to fit women - I don't have issues with a larger face so much as a band that's too large to fit comfortably or provide secure contact for accurate heart rate monitoring.

GPS and sleep tracking would be nice, but not mandatory if the device ecosystem isn't reasonably private.

Non-proprietary rechargers preferred.

A couple of Fitbit models seem be well-reviewed, but actual user ratings are equivocal, and quality is erratic.

Looking forward to any contributions!

I've never really been into gaming on my phone, but in the last couple of weeks I've found it's particularly good for entertainment while getting the baby off to sleep. He tends to need holding for 5-20 minutes, during which time no interaction is needed and something to stave off the boredom is good.

I've been playing Tiny Bubbles which is good because the levels are relatively short and discrete, it's challenging without being too hard (at 4am I don't want that much of a challenge), it's mostly not timing-based, I can play one-handed and drop it at a moment's notice without particularly being penalised.

Any suggestions for other suitable games would be appreciated.

Services like Facebook, Instagram, Google Photos, iCloud Photo Sharing, Flickr, SmugMug, 500px, and more are available for hosting and sharing photos online. I'm curious what service, or set of services, you you use and how you decided. Do you cross post between them, and if so what strategy do you use?

I'm currently spread a bit and without much cross-posting between Facebook, Instagram, and Flickr. Not a strong conscious decision, though I've been wanting to do a bit more photography and would like to figure out a better strategy.

I think some key points to consider are cost (free vs pro, ease of upgrade/downgrade), storage space and restrictions (total space, max individual size, filetypes, enforced resizing/compression), ease and control of sharing publicly or privately, network audience and reach, and creative rights (who owns what rights on the content)

This Terms of Service; Didn't Read site can be helpful for at least determining what the general rights on these services are with some broad judgement.

I just moved, and my new apartment is set up a little weird - gotta love old construction. As a result, the router has to be in the other end of the home from my PS4 which is my primary internet consumption device. The way I see it I have four options:

• Hot spot from my cell phone - not ideal because I pay per gig of data and it's not fast enough for gaming

• Run a really long Ethernet cord - possible but would be a little bit of a project. I looked into it a little and I'm curious if there is any appreciable difference between Cat 5, 6, 7, or 8 from a home user perspective. Also, what's a good resource for buying one, since Amazon is not really trustworthy anymore?

• Use a WiFi booster - I don't really have any experience with these. Would it be as fast as using the router, and if I used an Ethernet cable to connect my PS4 to it would it still be limited to wifi speeds?

• Get a stronger router - considering I technically rent my router from Verizon this is probably the most cost effective way to go in the long term, any suggestions for brands?