There is an important election in the United States this fall, and we've all heard a lot of concern expressed about efforts to suppress the vote. Under the shadow of all the other issues we're currently facing as a society, I know a lot of people who are asking "what concrete actions can I take to make a difference?" It seems like helping to get out the vote is one very important action.

So here's a question to the Tildes community: what suggestions do you have about how we (as individuals) can help get out the vote this fall? Big or small, donating money or doing physical work -- what can we do?

Hi. AVG's been bugging me with reminders to renew my subscription recently, but I don't have the money for that. I've been using AVG Free for years, but each time I trial the full edition it seems to install as a separate program, and then I have to manually revert back to the free version once the trial's up. The only other anti-malware I use is MalwareBytes (free again).

I'm not too worried about using a VPN, and have been advised to avoid the free ones anyway. I'd really just like a decent alternative to AVG Free that won't mess with my Steam games or pester me to upgrade several times a day. I have almost no experience with other anti-malware programs, so I'd rather ask people in the know for advice than just install something straight away and find out that it does one of the aforementioned annoying things.

...Should I use a free VPN? I'm trying to save as much of my scant moolah as I can, and I do occasionally torrent things, but the free ones are allegedly a little shady.

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?

Being cooped up inside has made me realize how much time I spend in front of screens, for work and for play. I think it would be healthy for me to try to find something that's not screen related to do but remain socially distant, and I think learning to play an instrument would be a good candidate.

The problem is, I don't know which one to learn. When I was in middle/early high school I played the drum set, but having moved out on my own I certainly don't have the space for that anymore. I also thought about the recorder, since people play cool medieval music on it, but I'd rather not subject my neighbors to the shrill monstrosity that is someone learning to play recorder. I like the type of music that can be played on a guitar, but ideally I'd like something physically smaller, and perhaps a little more interesting. Also, for social distancing's sake, it would be ideal if it was an instrument where it is possible to teach oneself how to play.

Am I overcomplicating things and should just learn guitar? Are there any instruments that hit inexpensive, self teachable, small, and can be used in music in ways similar to a guitar?

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?

In the research article, "Searching for Mr. Hyde: A five-factor approach to characterizing
'types of drunks'", scientists identified four types of clusters:

• Cluster 1 - "Hemingway"

the largest and included those who reported only slightly changing when intoxicated. Specifically, members of this group reported decreasing less in Conscientiousness (e.g. being prepared, organized, prompt) and Intellect (e.g. understanding abstract ideas, being imaginative) than the rest of the sample. Notably, two previous studies have found that, on average, these two factors reportedly decrease the most with intoxication (Winograd et al., 2012, 2014), so the moderate decreases demonstrated by this group make its members stand out as being ‘‘less affected’’ than drinkers in some of the other groups, much like the author Ernest Hemingway, who claimed that he could "drink hells any amount of whiskey without getting drunk".

• Cluster 2 - "Mary Poppins"

composed of a small number of drinkers (approximately 14% of the sample) who are particularly Agreeable when sober (i.e. embodying traits of friendliness), and decrease less than average in Conscientiousness, Intellect, and Agreeableness when intoxicated. Accordingly, members of this cluster reported experiencing fewer overall alcohol consequences than those in the Mr. Hyde cluster (described next). The Mary Poppins group of drinkers essentially captures the sweet, responsible drinkers who experience fewer alcohol-related problems compared to those most affected.

• Cluster 3 - "Mr. Hyde"

defined by larger than average intoxication-related decreases in Conscientiousness, Intellect and Agreeableness. In other words, members of this group, much like the dark-sided Mr.Hyde, reported a tendency of being particularly less responsible, less intellectual, and more hostile when under the influence of alcohol than they are when they are sober, as well as relative to members of the other groups. In the significant model associating overall negative consequences with cluster membership, the Mr. Hyde cluster drove the association. This was the only cluster that was statistically more likely to experience alcohol consequences, suggesting that individuals in this group not only embody less savoury personality characteristics when drunk, but also incur acute harm from their drinking (e.g. experiencing a memory blackout; beenarrested because of drunken behaviour; see Hurlurt & Sher,1992, for a full list of YAAPST items)

• Cluster 4 - "The Nutty Professor"

tended to be particularly introverted when sober but demonstrated a large increase in Extraversion and decrease in Conscientiousness when drunk, relative to their sober levels
of these traits. They also tended to report having the most overall discrepancy between their reported sober and drunk FFM traits, as indicated by the lowest ICC of the four clusters (0.05). Surprisingly, membership in this cluster was not associated with experiencing more alcohol-related consequences within the past year. So, although the personality change displayed by ‘‘The Nutty Professors’’ may be the most dramatic, this does not appear to be associated with elevated harm – at least in terms of the alcohol-related consequences assessed in this study.

Although I don't drink, when I used to I would be the most extroverted person in the room (or gaming lobby). I distinctly remember making friends with everyone that I encountered online and in-person. Cue the next morning when I have to cull all the new contacts I received because I knew I would never talk to those people again unless I was drinking. So I guess I am a nutty professor since I am always the most introverted person in the room sober. This was an interesting study, and I think it is interesting to note the individual differences of people when inebriated, and what causes those individual differences.

I read the AskReddit thread on "What costs less than $100 that changed your life?" (link unavailable since I'm at work) but someone responded "SQL" - jobs just open up that make a ton of money.

I did a cursory search on Indeed and holy moly they were right -- SQL jobs get easily 2x what I make now. I'm pretty good at Excel and that sort of thinking, so I was thinking I'd try taking a class.

Do yall have any recommendations as to a good course to take in SQL, preferably online, preferably free or cheap? I'm willing to pay a bit if it'll mean I can make a lot more, but I'm currently not making a ton, haha.

Any responses welcome, including ideas as to how to break into like, tech-oriented fields as well.

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.

This can be anything: a product, a social convention, a mindset, etc. Share why it's harmful and, if possible, what better alternatives exist.

I'll also open the question to things that people know are harmful but whose harm is mostly hidden, downplayed, or not understood.

As with any question like this, it might open up some difficult or challenging answers, so please listen with empathy and apply the principle of charity in your responses.

Hi,

I’m usually just overthinking my note-taking setup with plaintext markdown notes, but recently I had to create and share (as PDF) some rich text documents as well. What I’m looking for:

• Collaborative editing to some extent (ideally real-time like Google Docs..)

• Rich text formatting

• Export as PDF (or even Word if possible)

• Web & mobile app (iOS)

I’m aware of Microsoft 365 with Word online and Google Docs. I really can’t stand Word online, it feels so super slow one can barely use it. I also feel the same about the application for macOS. It’s just this gigantic thing I don’t need. I want some headings, basic formatting, lists etc.

And then there’s Google Docs. It just feels wrong. It’s a weird editor, especially on mobile, it’s in this format I can’t grab, it feels like the files are not under my control.

I’m also aware of some self-hosted solutions like ONLYOFFICE and probably some NextCloud addon/solution. But these are things I don’t want either since it’s usually a hassle to install them, keep them up to date and take care of the data.

I’m just hoping that I’m missing out on something else available except the Microsoft and Google solutions.

At some point I just thought I might stick to Markdown files and export them as PDFs or even Word documents, but I don’t know about any reliable online collaboration solution for markdown docs either.

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 weekend. Did you make any plans? Take a trip? Do nothing at all? Tell us about it!