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    1. Has anyone here cleaned their coffee grinder? What did you use and how did it go?

      I have a Baratza Encore (or whatever the entry level model is called) and it could use some tlc. There are a bunch of bean parts accumulating under the hopper and grounds are getting stuck in...

      I have a Baratza Encore (or whatever the entry level model is called) and it could use some tlc. There are a bunch of bean parts accumulating under the hopper and grounds are getting stuck in places. I can disassemble to get the big stuff, but that's not enough. I'm wary of just splashing water or using a damp rag to wipe parts down. The oily residue needs some sort of detergent but I don't want to ruin anything or end up having my coffee tasting like soap or something.

      Anyone have any experience or suggestions?

      Edit: thanks to everyone for the tips! I've bought some grindz and I already popped the hopper off and gave the grinder a good brushing. There was a lot of buildup and the first grind afterward felt like it sounded quieter and I could swear the grounds were more consistent, but those are both probably illusions. Haven't made enough cups to taste a difference yet but I'll definitely be adding a regular cleaning to my routine.

      28 votes
    2. Remember ffffound? Are there any sites like that still around?

      Back in the day https://ffffound.com/ was one of my biggest inspirations for imagery and creative ephemera. I miss it sometimes and have a vast archive of downloaded inspiration. I discovered a...

      Back in the day https://ffffound.com/ was one of my biggest inspirations for imagery and creative ephemera.

      I miss it sometimes and have a vast archive of downloaded inspiration. I discovered a lot of material under the radar of pop culture.

      Kind of like picking up a circa 2009 vice magazine from a shop. I was seeing and feeling things that felt textural and well curated.

      Is there something around that I haven’t seen?

      21 votes
    3. Please help me pick an eReader!

      I usually just read ebooks on my phone using ReadEra, but I'm going to the beach in a few weeks and I'd like to buy a dedicated eReader so I don't burn through my phone charge (I usually stay on...

      I usually just read ebooks on my phone using ReadEra, but I'm going to the beach in a few weeks and I'd like to buy a dedicated eReader so I don't burn through my phone charge (I usually stay on the beach from as close to sunup as I can manage to sundown). I'd like something that handles multiple file types, especially ePub, or at least doesn't require a proprietary file type or have RDM. I'd also like it to have a long-lasting battery (I frequently read for several hours at a time), and be sturdy/waterproof (because beach). I guess backlighting might be nice, togglable if possible, and if I could get on the internet to download files directly to the Reader that'd be nice too so I don't have to plan ahead. It doesn't need to be huge, in fact smaller is probably better. Price is definitely a factor, but I'm open to refurb if available for a higher-priced model.

      Needs: Inexpensive, waterproof/sturdy, strong battery, ePub/open file types/no DRM

      Wants: Backlighting, internet

      I've done some comparison shopping but I'm waffling so I want other people's opinions. TIA!

      54 votes
    4. Is there another reliable site to ask questions about consumer items?

      Every time I would be in the market for something particular, say, a keyboard, or a camping tent, I would ask google, “What is the best air fryer, Reddit.” I would get the link to the subject,...

      Every time I would be in the market for something particular, say, a keyboard, or a camping tent, I would ask google, “What is the best air fryer, Reddit.”

      I would get the link to the subject, however niche it was, and see discussions from assumedly real folks talking about the subject I was curious about. It was informative, and I could research deeper into brands or products I didn’t know about before.

      Is there another site that even comes close to that? Or are we currently in a dark period until something like that comes along? I don’t typically use advertised websites to tell me “lists of the top ten handheld gaming consoles.”

      Just wondering if there’s an alternative to my previous method of research.

      59 votes
    5. Tildes constitution

      Looking at the current top thread in ~talk, it seems many of us were forged in the fires of Mount Digg, and now suffer again through the great Reddit diaspora. Perhaps it is here our journey ends?...

      Looking at the current top thread in ~talk, it seems many of us were forged in the fires of Mount Digg, and now suffer again through the great Reddit diaspora. Perhaps it is here our journey ends?

      I am not from the US of A, but one thing I have always found fascinating about that country is the concept of the constitution. I believe it was so incredibly well conceived, the three legged stool, with all the thought that went into how it might be attacked and edge cases, that the founding fathers would have made excellent software testers. The fact American democracy has stood this long is some feat.

      Which brings me to my question. Should Tildes create some form of constitution? A set of principles that binds and guides it? I believe something like that would make questions like this easier to answer. A founding set of ideals from which everything else should derive.

      We have something akin to this at my company, where the founding principle is the customer is always our main priority. This has served our business well for decades; is everything we do in service of the customer and their needs. You would honestly be amazed at the loyalty and trust this builds over time.

      Anyway just some food for thought. I think I will be calling this my new home for now - it feels very much like the Reddit of old right now, a feeling I haven't felt for a great age.

      17 votes
    6. What is "that part" for you in any game?

      We all know it. The boss/area/section of any of your favorite games/well liked games that gives you pause whenever you consider replaying it. An area or boss that sucks so much to go through that...

      We all know it. The boss/area/section of any of your favorite games/well liked games that gives you pause whenever you consider replaying it. An area or boss that sucks so much to go through that you may even reconsider entirely. Who/what hurt you?

      For me it'd have to be either Pontiff Sulyvahn from Dark souls 3, or Nyx from Persona 3. Pontiff just straight up sucks to fight. Unless you're a parry god, it's just nonstop aggression with seemingly few windows, and then the second phase kicks in and you're just skewered endlessly. I can't hack it. Did it once, never again. For Nyx, besides being a long and grueling fight, it loves to pull out the ol' Marin Karin making you pull out the ol' Diarahan. Can't do it. There's a reason I emulated it. Thank god for save states.

      52 votes
    7. [Finale] Mashle chapter 162 / series discussion

      That's all folks! Manga MAL Anime MAL Today marks the release of the final chapter of Mashle: Magic and Muscles by Hajime Komoto. After three years, 162 chapters, and an official anime release,...

      That's all folks!

      Today marks the release of the final chapter of Mashle: Magic and Muscles by Hajime Komoto. After three years, 162 chapters, and an official anime release, it's finally time to say farewell to our muscular, magicless, creampuff loving bowl cut.

      Many of us have grown used to weekly updates on the world that seems like a farcical mix of One Punch Man / Harry Potter and will definitely feel its absence on Sundays.

      I wanted to create this thread due to the popularity of the series (more than 5 million units in circulation!) and to spark more manga discussion in the community overall. This is the largest series to end in a long while, so it deserves a bit of a sendoff.

      Topics/discussion points (feel free to address all or none):
      • What did you think of the final chapter/arc?
      • How do you feel about the series as a whole now that it has ended?
      • Was Mashle successful in its storytelling goals?
      • What are the strongest/weakest parts of the story and work as a whole in your opinion?
      6 votes
    8. Guys, anyone interested in movie box office discussion on Tildes?

      I was thinking if we can have a weekly thread on ~movies for discussing Boxoffice performance and projections, if there is enough interest for it. There are a few posts on ~movies, however they...

      I was thinking if we can have a weekly thread on ~movies for discussing Boxoffice performance and projections, if there is enough interest for it. There are a few posts on ~movies, however they are limited to popular movie of month like Indiana Jones and Elemental ones. A dedicated post will also reduce the multiple posts.

      30 votes
    9. What's a sequel you were disappointed by?

      See title. I thought this might make for an interesting topic and I can't see one like this in the search, so... What sorta got me thinking about this - a couple days ago, I noticed that Dying...

      See title. I thought this might make for an interesting topic and I can't see one like this in the search, so...

      What sorta got me thinking about this - a couple days ago, I noticed that Dying Light 2 got a sizeable update, with a pretty heavy emphasis on changes to the game's parkour mechanics. I absolutely loved the first Dying Light, as well as both Mirror's Edge games - parkour and other kinds of momentum-driven gameplay are my jam - so that got me curious enough to check it out again, for the first time in a year.

      I played for a few hours, got some of the way in, and... felt pretty underwhelmed. It certainly feels better than it did last time I played, and the change to retain momentum during parkour moves does feel pretty nice... but it still feels far too slow and floaty to me. It feels awkward and unresponsive to me. On top of that, the combat updates - while I actually appreciated DL2's changes to the combat over DL1's (a major gripe I've always had with DL1's combat is that sometimes zombies take just one or two hits and sometimes they take twenty, and I have never been able to detect any kind of pattern to it - combat level, game progress, weapon damage, etc., none of them seem to impact it so I have no idea what's up with it), playing it again now... left me feeling pretty disappointed.

      I booted up DL1 for the first time in a while the next day, just intending to compare how it feels - and I've since found myself drawn several hours into it. Even in the first half hour of the game, where your climbing's super slow and everything, it feels so much more snappy and reactive - it feels good. And while my previous gripes with its combat are still present, it feels so much better to me now than DL2's does (for the most part - fighting human enemies still sucks). I can't quite put my finger on what it is, but there's just something really visceral and satisfying about it that DL2 doesn't have.

      As I've been playing DL1, as well, I've been thinking about its story again. As much as it's maligned for its story, I think it's actually a really interesting subversion and deconstruction of expectations in a lot of ways - while that could be a thread (or video essay, I've thought about it) of its own, the way I see it: despite how the intro and story set him up, Crane actually fails pretty hard at being a hero until towards the end. I mean, the very first thing he does is take a crowbar to the back of the head, get bitten, and get someone else killed. It's a pattern that continues throughout most of the game (and even The Following, I'd argue, even though I don't care for it much). I find it pretty memorable beecause of that, even if it falls flat in some places.

      Meanwhile, Dying Light 2... I honestly couldn't tell you much about the story? It didn't leave any kind of impact on me at all. I'm not really the kind of person who plays games for their stories very often (unless it's something like Ace Attorney where that's explicitly the point), and I have to admit that I went into DL2 with low expectations to begin with (I held off getting it at launch because of Denuvo, by the time I did pick it up reviews were already fairly negative; and I tend to view "your choices really matter!" in advertising as a huge red flag so that wasn't a good sign either), but even so. It might be in part because I actually quite liked DL1's ending - I found it pretty refreshing for a post-apocalyptic zombie game - so DL2 throwing that out didn't sit well with me from the get-go (also part of why I'm not too keen on The Following, but that's a different matter).

      Overall, it just sorta left me thinking about how... even though I'd tried to go in with tempered expectations - all I really wanted was a fun zombie-flavoured parkour game, where climbing and jumping and swinging and stuff felt fluid and rewarding - I still found myself left feeling pretty hollow about it, even after an update that allegedly addressed some of my biggest issues with the game. It's especially frustrating, because the Inner Circle (I think that's what it was called, I can't remember - the second city map) is really, really cool and I would absolutely love to just aimlessly run around it... if the movement didn't feel floaty and awkward. Stuff like climbing to the top of the VNC Tower felt exhilarating and awesome - I could catch a glimpse of something excellent there, but it was so outweighed by everything else.

      So... Yeah. I dunno, I thought this'd make for an interesting question. Have theere any been any sequels you've played that left you feeling underwhelmed, in comparison to the previous game? If so, why?

      alright maybe some part of me just wants to ask this so i'd have an excuse to waffle about dying light and its story a bit but still i think it's an interesting topic nonetheless
      EDIT: formatting

      51 votes
    10. Which newspapers/magazines do you read and why?

      I recently obtained a access to a TON of different magazines and papers from Europe, US, UK and a few from Australia and New Zealand but I have no clue about the quality of stuff outside my native...

      I recently obtained a access to a TON of different magazines and papers from Europe, US, UK and a few from Australia and New Zealand but I have no clue about the quality of stuff outside my native country so I would like to hear some suggestions.

      Which ones do you read and would recommend to others and why?

      13 votes
    11. Is it possible to build a sustainable image and video hosting service?

      The history of the web is littered with with many a dead image/video hosting service. Echos of their existence plague older forums in the form of broken links and images. It seems like they all...

      The history of the web is littered with with many a dead image/video hosting service. Echos of their existence plague older forums in the form of broken links and images. It seems like they all follow the same path, starting up as the new "simple" service that just hosts images, no fuss. But then as interest grows, so do costs, and the service owners have to scramble to monetize. Generally this is done by stuffing the place full of ads until everyone leaves. Alternatively the owners are stubborn and stick to their guns, until they inevitably have to shut down due to drowning in costs. When they do shut down, millions of assets are lost and the graveyard of broken images across the web grows some more.

      https://gfycat.com/ is the latest notable victim of this.

      With all the recent social media turmoil, there as been lots of exploration of alternative sites, and all of them have to overcome the problem of hosting media in one way or another.

      Tildes obviously does this by avoiding it entirely which, while a very effective solution, is just handballing the problem elsewhere. Users will still want to post images and videos but they will just have to find alternative hosts. Over time those hosts will die and Tildes posts will be filled with dead links.

      Mastodon has similar problems,the biggest cost of hosting a mastodon instance is the storage and bandwidth required to facilitate media posts. And there's a real danger of an instance incurring high costs if a particular post becomes popular and is hotlinked on a big centralised social media site.

      It seems like a really tricky problem to solve, something peer-to-peer could sort of solve the costs created by traffic peaks but has problems when there is many small files viewed by few individuals each.

      Are there any other solutions out there? Web3, IPFS? Or is it just not that much of a problem, do we accept that media on the web is ephemeral and will be lost after a while?

      80 votes
    12. Songs/albums that remind you of someone you lost

      NOTE: This does have slight self-promotion which I'm aware is against what Tildes is. While it is to drive attention to my band and although originally so, music promotion is NOT the sole reason...

      NOTE: This does have slight self-promotion which I'm aware is against what Tildes is. While it is to drive attention to my band and although originally so, music promotion is NOT the sole reason for this post. It is here for context. It does benefit me, but I make music for this type of discussion. Grief and mourning are important things to me, and art helps me open up and process those feelings. Music is art.

      Want to do more of these posts, as I have found my niche in ~music to be this. Nevertheless, I want to balance these to be fair and to make these special. Please leave feedback about what you think, and whether or not I should continue these posts. DO NOT VOTE if you think it does not fairly contribute to ~music or Tildes as a whole. All I ask is you read this entire post before reacting or commenting.


      I've been going back and forth on this but I decided to do so. I want to keep things as anonymous as possible, so please respect my wishes.

      I am part of a band called LUCY. Over this fortnight, I've been grinding hard trying to promote the discography in order to get as many eyes as possible. I wanted to make this post to highlight "Film" — which I strongly believe is the best released song thus far. But I didn't want to use my account just for promotion. I love Tildes, even with its quirks, and I wanna do quality, meaningful posts. Then I heard from a friend or an acquaintance that a good friend of theirs died.

      Suicide, no less. I was......

      There's no word or phrase or idiom. There's nothing that can describe the feeling and realisation when someone is gone. It reminded me of why I wrote "Film" in the first place — to grieve and remember a friend who killed herself. I don't think a number of grief songs or popular anti-suicide songs really talk about grief. That one Logic song was bleh but cool, but that remix that goes "WHO CAN RELATE" was insulting.

      You may not even have a loved one who killed themselves. You may have one who just died, or disappeared. Or the worst:

      The relationship you once had with a person you loved lots. One of your most prized people in the world. That one day, breaks and bo matter what. It will never happen. They're gone from your life

      Forever.

      And they're not coming back. You have to move on. Even tho you don't want to and sometimes, you yearn for the connection. To be near. Bittersweet nostalgia, to fall back into place. Y
      In the end, it is what it is. Yeah..

      Grief is hard. Mourning is hard. Moving on is hard. It's messy and there's no right way to do it. Life is unfair and one day, it will end. Songs and albums help. Music is that language and that lexicon that knows just how you feel. "Film" was what I wanted to do, to bring attention to that process. Nowadays, it's an occasional comfort song that's best played when it's overcast and blue. And you'll know when if you know.

      So my question for y'all is... what songs or albums have you listened to that reminds you of someone you've lost? What are some lyrics that don't stick out like a sore thumb, they hit you like anaesthesia? What are your stories? What are your regrets? What are you afraid of? Hell, if youre a musician, what songs have you done that address this? And no matter what, please don't feel like it's too much. To the extent of the code of conduct and what is appropriate, there is nothing pathetic about grief. Esp if you're hanging on and can unravel at any moment.

      Ask me anything about my list of songs for grief too (won't include my band's songs heh). I have another song in the works that I'd love to just talk about. I'm an open book as far as grief, fear and such. I write songs for catharsis anyway.

      Hope you are all having a wonderful day or night. Forgive me if I can't reply or listen to all the songs, I really do wish I could. I will vote tho.

      17 votes
    13. Does anyone here enjoy poetry? If yes, what are your gateway drug poems and what are your hidden gems?

      So as an American whose love of poetry started in early childhood with A A Milne and Lewis Carroll, I have a theory that the teaching of poetry in typical schools (at least for my generation which...

      So as an American whose love of poetry started in early childhood with A A Milne and Lewis Carroll, I have a theory that the teaching of poetry in typical schools (at least for my generation which may be 30 years out of date re what happens now) that poetry as taught is almost tailor made to destroy any interest in poetry. I like to compare it to introducing music by teaching music theory.

      So, if anyone here reads poetry and is willing to talk about it, what poems would you use if you wanted to come up with a gateway drug. They should be easy to appreciate. And on the flip side, if you met someone who said they were really into poetry, are there sophisticated poems that you think are just cool and insightful and moving and impressive in some way? Please feel free to explain your choices or to talk about your experience with poetry in or outside of education.

      36 votes
    14. Why does Johann (the father/leader of the city) in Metropolis (1927) want a revolution?

      He says he wants the "man-machine" built with the likeness of Maria in order to "sow discord" amongst the workers. Maria is the one who is preaching a message of hope/faith and therefore keeping a...

      He says he wants the "man-machine" built with the likeness of Maria in order to "sow discord" amongst the workers. Maria is the one who is preaching a message of hope/faith and therefore keeping a revolution at bay. For how much longer, who knows. The point is, she is giving the workers hope and preventing violence.

      Why would Johann want a version of Maria that encourages a revolution (death to the machines!)? It is in Johann's best interest if the workers stay succumbed, as his bourgeoisie lifestyle is dependent on their work.

      (First post, sorry if the tags are bad.)

      9 votes
    15. NASCAR - Chicago weather delay

      Under lighting strike delay for 30 minutes, then started to on/off drizzling rain, hopefully we get the race in today!? Upside though, Cole Custer (Ford Mustang) in 1st place, if you're a Ford...

      Under lighting strike delay for 30 minutes, then started to on/off drizzling rain, hopefully we get the race in today!? Upside though, Cole Custer (Ford Mustang) in 1st place, if you're a Ford person like I am ya gotta be loving it!

      UPDATE -

      NASCAR has canceled the rest of the race do to rain and possibly more lighting strikes until 11AM (ET) tomorrow 7/2 on USA Network

      6 votes
    16. I, like many of you came from Reddit. But what brought you to Reddit?

      I've heard much about the great Digg migration but I found Reddit through different means. Any of you hear of mfisn? It was my Reddit before Reddit. A bare bones link sharing community where a...

      I've heard much about the great Digg migration but I found Reddit through different means.

      Any of you hear of mfisn? It was my Reddit before Reddit. A bare bones link sharing community where a number of registered users could share links. Unregistered users could suggest links that I guess a registered user could approve? I remember sharing links to movie trailers there. I found Reddit years later after googling it and finding a Reddit post asking about it. And that's how I fell into Reddit.

      I discovered mfisn through cookiethievery, a yourethemannowdog-esque page that had a rotation of repeating animations set to a short music loop. And I vaguely recall finding that through an AIM buddy's profile...? Either that or albinoblacksheep.

      Any of you have a traceable lineage of Internet communities you've passed through? What were your pre-Reddit internet go-to sites? Are they still around?

      142 votes
    17. Saturday Game Jam Thread (July 01 2023)

      Hey y’all, welcome back to the second weekly game jam thread. Whats a game jam you may ask. Well imagine if you locked a group of game developers in a box for box for some quantity of time ranging...

      Hey y’all, welcome back to the second weekly game jam thread.

      Whats a game jam you may ask. Well imagine if you locked a group of game developers in a box for box for some quantity of time ranging from a few days to a few weeks and told them to compete with each other by building something around a theme and then judging whatever each other came up with, that's a game jam.

      Now you may ask why would anyone play these things besides the other game game jam entrants. I don’t know about everyone else but despite being one of the younger users on this site I can’t help but feel like I have to work very hard to find any sort of magic in my life and I keep telling myself if I just keep playing more games and scraping and scrounging at the fringes of the industry I can find the magic again and be happy for a little bit.

      Its actually a little scary sharing these games with you guys. I know its unreasonable to get emotionally invested in tiny games I did not even make but it does make me happy that people are taking an interest in this thread. Here is what I have for you this week.

      HeartBeat

      Platforms: Windows, HTML5
      Genres: Rhythm

      Do you remember that one part in that one game that you like, during the final boss fight when the heroes theme is reprised and layers are added to the song for each stage of the boss fight and then the vocals kick in and its awesome. Here in game jam land our motto is “All killer no filler”, we like to skip to the good part and this entry from Boss Rush Jam 2023 fits the bill. Its the final boss battle of a rhythm game and features an unusual control scheme that takes a few tries to get the hang of. Let me know if this game jogs any memories of boss fights.

      e-scape

      Platforms: Windows
      Genres: Simulation

      If you talk to a gamer that has been around for awhile they will have a story to tell you about a game that they used to play that has since been shutdown. Its always the same story. They see an article out of the blue that the game they used to play just announced a shutdown date. They log in and like a traveler from an antique land, are greeted by a ghost town filled with statues of champions and kings soon to be buried forever at the command of a datacenter sysadmin.

      That is e-scape, look on its works, ye mighty, and despair!

      This week was both nostalgic and somber for me and that leaked into this weeks selection in a big way. I really do look forward to seeing peoples responses to this thread though and I hope to keep doing these threads for the foreseeable future.

      PREVIOUS WEEK NEXT WEEK

      9 votes
    18. Why are so many 55+ neighborhoods being built?

      Living in northern Virginia, it seems like half of newly-constructed homes are earmarked for "active adult" 55 and up communities. Is there a financial incentive above and beyond normal...

      Living in northern Virginia, it seems like half of newly-constructed homes are earmarked for "active adult" 55 and up communities.

      Is there a financial incentive above and beyond normal residential construction that these are popping up more?

      It seems like a newer trend that's picked up in the last 5 or 10 years.

      Edit 1: Thank you all for the input and sharing your perspective. It's just been a question hanging in the back of my mind as I've been driving around in recent months.

      45 votes
    19. Building my own email system and/or other privacy-first email solutions?

      Back in the day I remember setting up squirrelmail + qmail to host my own email as well as for others. And then I got that coveted gmail invite and never really looked back. I've started to get...

      Back in the day I remember setting up squirrelmail + qmail to host my own email as well as for others. And then I got that coveted gmail invite and never really looked back.

      I've started to get into the mindset of erasing my digital trail, at least for my personal activities, and email seems to be the main one that I need to figure out.

      The idea of setting up my own email solution came up again because I wonder how transparent / private services like protonmail and mailbox.org really are.

      Any suggestions or insight would be appreciated. Squirrelmail seems to be now defunct, and I am pretty sure the world has changed enough that residential ISPs don't allow running of servers at home anymore. I guess I could setup something on AWS if I had to.

      22 votes
    20. Anyone else here love knives?

      I have several from Benchmade, a few from Microtech, Buck and various other brands. Including kitchen / cooking knives like the Wusthofs I own, and japanese knives I plan on getting relatively soon.

      38 votes
    21. AlbumLove recommendations thread: July 2023

      Choose one album that you love that you think deserves more love Tell us what it is, and why. Previous posts in series Additional Details What is this? It's a new post series I'm trying out! Each...

      Choose one album
      that you love
      that you think deserves more love

      Tell us what it is, and why.


      Previous posts in series


      Additional Details

      What is this?

      It's a new post series I'm trying out! Each month people can use the AlbumLove thread to post an album they love and explore those posted by others.

      I'm planning to put up a new AlbumLove thread on the first of each month for a few months to see how these go as a trial run. If people like it we can keep it going — if they don’t it’ll fizzle out and I’ll stop.

      Why AlbumLove?

      In this day and age, algorithmic recommendations for music are easy to come by, and it's trivial to seek out new music that interests you by searching online. AlbumLove offers an opportunity to sift through music loved by others, including those who might have divergent tastes from you. Think of this as an opportunity to listen outside of your comfort zone, with music that you know someone else adores, from a small pool of thoughtful hand-selected options.

      What do I post?

      Any album that you love and that you feel deserves more appreciation. There are no restrictions on genre, year, or anything else, and nothing is “too popular” or “too niche”. If you think it needs more love — for whatever reason — then it’s welcome in AlbumLove.

      Name the artist and the album, and then, most importantly, share what you love about the album. It could be the music itself, but it could also be your associations with it -- maybe the album reminds you of someone you love, or you saw the band live and got a new appreciation for the studio songs.

      Also, commenting on others' recommendations is encouraged! If you love something that someone else shared, let them know!

      Do I have to listen to what everyone else posts?

      Nope. You don't have to listen to anything if you don't want to. This is about creating a menu of options that people can explore as they wish.

      Can I post more than one album in a month?

      Nope. Limit one! This helps us be more selective about what we choose, as well as preventing the threads from getting flooded with too many contributions to keep track of.

      Why albums and not songs/artists?

      I like albums. :)

      Seriously though, I feel like it's a very different thing to like an album as a whole versus a few songs or just an artist's general vibe. I like the idea of quantizing music for appreciation in the same way we might do with books or movies.

      What about EPs?

      Fair game!

      20 votes
    22. Dual-boot with a shared partition?

      Hey, I use Windows 10 and Arch in a dual boot configuration. I use both of them for software development and want a shared partition to store all the projects. Unfortunately, it's not as easy as I...

      Hey,

      I use Windows 10 and Arch in a dual boot configuration.

      I use both of them for software development and want a shared partition to store all the projects.
      Unfortunately, it's not as easy as I had thought.

      Initially, I tried NTFS as the Linux support seemed fine. I tried both, ntfs-3g and the kernel implementation.
      Besides the issue that hibernate could lock the drive - which you can disable - it periodically caused problems during compilation and other stages.

      Especially Rust based projects have thrown weird errors during builds, but I also had this on certain Go projects as well.
      It sometimes felt like, that the NTFS driver returned the wrong files when the compiler asked for them. Unmet dependencies, missing files, etc. Usually, when the project is huge.

      In certain scenarios symbolic links didn't work and permissions were not set correctly - which you can fix by adding some args to the fstab mount - never got it really stable though.

      I then tried to format to Ext4, and all issues were instantly gone on the Linux side.

      Fortunately, there are tools such as Linux FileSystem from Paragon which promise to make it work (I even bought a proper license) - and it did for a while, until it didn't.

      I once copied a bigger folder that included a bigger node_modules folder and during copy, files were missing, corrupted, the copy process hung - then crashed.

      I was so desperate that I even tried out FAT32, but I quickly found out that it doesn't support symbolic links at all, and therefore breaks Git and other tools depending on it.

      Is it still so hard in 2023 to have a shared partition between two OS? Has anyone made better experiences?
      I really don't want to split the partitions as I sometimes work on the same project on different OSes.

      Thanks in advance!

      7 votes
    23. What do you look for in cooking related YouTube content?

      (I'm not looking for simple lists of YouTube channels that you like.) even though I'm about to dump a list of channels that I like There's a lot of YouTube cooking content. I was wondering what...

      (I'm not looking for simple lists of YouTube channels that you like.) even though I'm about to dump a list of channels that I like

      There's a lot of YouTube cooking content. I was wondering what you look for in that content, and what you want to avoid?

      I don't have a particularly coherent answer - I like a mix of content.

      I do like plain and simple information, or informative content that gives details about technique or science or why a thing is done the way it is. Examples of this would be America's Test Kitchen, or J. Kenji López-Alt or Helen Rennie, or French Cooking Academy.

      I also like recipes that I can actually make. I prefer recipes that don't have a massive array of ingredients that I don't have. Examples are Brian Lagerstrom (I like the way he tends to use a limited amount of equipment and he gives alternatives for ingredients if he thinks some thing is going to be hard to get) Not another cooking show has some nice recipes (his grilled cheese and tomato soup is fantastic).

      Some channels I watch have Michelin Starred chefs discussing a recipe. I like watching this because I can't replicate most of it, but I can get ideas for improving taste or texture. Italia Squisita has a lot of content, and some of their videos are comparing a traditional Italian recipe (and these are excellent) with an elevated restaurant version. The staff canteen is a bit frustrating - it's almost exactly what I want, but it ends up missing the mark a bit. But they talk to chefs, mostly in the UK, about being a chef or about a dish. La pâte de Dom is self-taught, but they have a high level of skill in pastry.

      And here's a list of videos that I can't categorise, and why I like them.

      The Biryani Expert (sadly, channel appears not to be making content any more) taught me that biryani covers a quite wide range of different dishes.

      Sheldo's Kitchen He seems like a nice bloke, and his food looks really nice and achievable to make. Again, sadly, he doesn't seem to have made any videos for a while, and he was saying that he has a lot on. But he has a calm style and I liked his content.

      Cool Daddy, YummyBoy and Street Foods TV expose me to a lot of food that I'm not used to. I can't recreate a lot of it (I don't have a camel I can cut up and cook but it gives me ideas for new ways to combine ingredients or new flavour profiles to try.

      So, what do you look for in content?

      (In this thread I avoided dunking on creators, because there's a few that I really don't enjoy but I don't think me yelling about them is good discussion. But I'd totally join in if someone created another thread.

      18 votes
    24. Tell me about your experience with martial arts

      This is a good time to repeat the prompt made by @0d_billie back in 2020, and I will also reuse the questions in their post. So are any tilderen martial artists? If so, tell me about it! What do...

      This is a good time to repeat the prompt made by @0d_billie back in 2020, and I will also reuse the questions in their post.

      So are any tilderen martial artists? If so, tell me about it!

      • What do you practice?
      • How long have you done it?
      • How does it benefit you?
      • Do you attend classes or practice solo?
      • Would you recommend your martial art to a beginner?

      I'm curious to know what martial ars everyone likes the most, and why!

      24 votes
    25. The longest game of Diplomacy ever

      This is an article I wrote on boardgames subreddit seven years ago, about a tournament game of Diplomacy which had lasted more than 3 years and was still ongoing at the time. It eventually ended...

      This is an article I wrote on boardgames subreddit seven years ago, about a tournament game of Diplomacy which had lasted more than 3 years and was still ongoing at the time. It eventually ended in a draw with Italy leading, in Feb 2016, after 3 years and 7 months of play. I'm reposting it here because I'm quite proud of the article (and I want to move it away from Reddit) and because imo it still holds up as one of the greatest events in the history of Diplomacy and a very interesting event in niche internet history.

      tl;dr - Seven players (less now that some have been eliminated) have been playing a game that simulates the First World War in a Tournament. They've been playing it so long that the First World War is now continuing on into the 21st Century. The game has been out for 57 years and this has never happened in a recorded game before.

       

       

      If you are not familiar with Diplomacy, it's a war game based around negotiation where 7 players each play one Great Power in the First World War, attempting to gain control of Europe by taking key provinces known as Supply Centers. It's very similar to A Game of Thrones - The Board Game except that you can (usually) talk in private with other players and all players must submit orders for a phase before any are revealed, meaning that you don't know if your 'ally' will backstab you that phase or not until you've already set your orders. Other players can support your units into provinces, so negotiation is key to victory.

       

      Everyone who knows about Diplomacy knows that it takes a ridiculously long time to play. In a face-to-face (FTF) tournament strict deadlines of 15 minutes per phase are set, and games are played from 1901 to 1908, meaning 4 hours for a game. In casual settings, where the timers aren't observed so harshly, a game of the same number of phases can take 8 hours.

       

      Because of how difficult Diplomacy can be to start in real life, there are a lot of active communities for playing it online. In online play, phases are usually set to process every 2 days, and you only need to dedicate an hour or so a day to it. Because of this, the set end date (1908) used in most FTF games isn't needed, and the game can be played to the win condition stated in the rulebook - one great power controlling 18 Supply Centers - which isn't used much in FTF because it takes far too long to achieve. This in turn means that games can last months.

       

      There's also the possibility of an 'eternal game' since there is no set end date. Usually, this is due to stalemates - there can be positions where no player can push any further forward, and no player can back off because another player can win as a result. These games are declared drawn, since no victory is possible.

       

      However, there's a small possibility of a game that would go on forever while going back and forth, back and forth - one power gaining centers then being pushed back by the others, and then another, and so on, without the game being stalemated. In practice, this sort of thing rarely happens - going by statistics from webDiplomacy last year, out of ~43000 games completed, only 17 had legitimately passed 1930, and none of those had reached the year 1940.

       

      The longest recorded completed game comes from another site and reached 1964 -note, I originally had a link to this game but it appears to now be dead. However, one non-completed game on webDiplomacy completely blows it out of the water.

       

      The 2012 webDiplomacy World Cup Final has one game still ongoing, long after all the others have been completed. This game has just reached the year 2000! That is absolutely insane - if this had been a FTF game at a tournament, the participants would have been playing for just over two days straight. Since it's online, they have been playing for three and a half years.

       

      I have checked with several important members of the Diplomacy community and it is indeed the first game ever to have legitimately done so (not just because some players decided to mess around until it reached that date).

       

      Link to the game

       

      What was/is the 2012 webDiplomacy World Cup?

       

      The World Cup was an event held on webDiplomacy which mimicked the FTF Diplomacy Tournament that goes by the same name. Different countries (or regions, if there were not enough players in a country) would gather a group of players and play in a group of games with teams from 6 other regions, each having one player in each game, and gaining points based on how well they did in each game. The best countries/regions advanced from groups in a knockout style until the Final, which has not yet finished.

       

      Why has it gone on so long?

       

      That's a difficult question to give a straight answer to. It's a combination of several factors:

       

      • These players are insanely good. The teams in question reached the final, and they picked their best participants at the Public Press Variant (which I'll come to next) for this game.

      • This game is Public Press Only. That means that any messages anyone sends are received by everyone, which slows the game down a fair amount because players have to position themselves to make completely uncounterable moves if they want to coordinate them with allies, or they have to risk their allies misunderstanding what they are doing and not supporting them correctly.

      • Nobody wants to lose or draw. Sounds trivial, right? Everyone wants to win any game they're playing. This one is different, though - every other game in the world cup has finished, so everyone in the game knows how many points all teams have. Every team in this game can still win the overall tournament, but for most of them it is only if they achieve a solo victory. One specific team will win if all players draw, so nobody except that team want this game to end in a draw, and certainly nobody wants anyone else to get a solo.

       

      That said, fatigue is starting to set in and they may draw the game soon just to be done of it. That's only after over 3 years of trying to achieve a solo though.

       

      Do you have a handy graph of how the SC counts of each player have changed throughout the game?

       

      What a coincidence! I just happen to have one right here!

       

      That game is really long. I want to just see the interesting bits.

       

      Again, you're in luck! I happen to have an imgur album here which shows the high points and low points of each great power and explains a little what happened to them. The important provinces (Supply Centers) are marked by white circles with a black dot in them. The provinces and units belonging to each country have an assigned colour as follows:

       

      • Pink, England
      • Blue, France
      • Brown, Germany
      • Green, Italy
      • Red, Austria
      • Purple, Russia
      • Yellow, Turkey

       

      If you do want to look through the game for yourself, you can find the full record here. On webDiplomacy, red arrows represent move orders, yellow arrows represent support move orders, green lines represent support hold orders, and blue lines represent convoys.

       

      Has any Supply Center never changed hands?

       

      No. Every Supply Center on the board has changed hands at least once. Ankara has been taken the least, it's been held by Russia for the 76 years since he took it from its original owner, Turkey, in 1925. Rumania has been taken the most, it's been conquered an astonishing 26 times. Most SCs have been taken around 11 times, but in particularly contested places (like the Balkans and Scandinavia) the average is much higher.

       

      If it's Public Press Only, can I read the messages the players have sent?

       

      Yes! You can find all messages sent in the game here. Use the blue arrows above the messagebox to navigate pages. The chat from each country follows the same colour coding as their provinces and units.

       

      Bear in mind, though, that there are so many messages to look through that they actually crashed the game at one point. The site administrators had to assign more memory to the chat of this particular game to fix it. There's also some profanity in some of the messages, although not many.

       

      Diplomacy sounds interesting. Can I try it?

       

      First off, playing the game in person is a very different experience to playing it online, and one that I find to be much more tense and exciting (although online is good too!). I'd very much recommend you play it in person first. You'll need a copy of the board game (it's available on Amazon) and 6 friends with 4 hours spare.

       

      Obviously that can be a bit difficult to arrange, so you could also look for Diplomacy Face to Face groups in your area - there are quite a few of them around the world. If you want information about them feel free to PM me and I'll try to find out if there are any in your area and get back to you. Also, if you're part of a board gaming group, it's possible that someone there will have a copy so you might be able to play it with them.

       

      If you are interested in the online version, there are many online sites that offer it. I'd recommend webDiplomacy but there are plenty of others if you don't like the interface there.

       

      Is there anything I should know before I play?

       

      Yes, specifically if you're playing in person. I'll let some board game celebrities say it for me:

       

      "This game makes people mad, and I mean really mad." ... "The tagline is 'Diplomacy - Destroying friendships since 1965'." - Tom Vasel

       

      "Diplomacy wounds run deep, and take forever to heal." - Wil Wheaton

       

      It's not quite as bad as they make out, but it's worth making sure that you don't play it with someone you know will take lies and backstabbing badly. Also - don't play it over several sessions, the paranoia you get when you see other players talking to one another in the breaks can be unbearable.

       

      Congratulations if you've read this far, and I hope others found this Diplomacy game to be as incredible as I did!

      23 votes
    26. Continue to use your favorite third-party app for Reddit after July 1st with ReVanced!

      Hey Reddit enthusiasts! Revanced has recently extended its support to some of the most popular Reddit apps out there. The list of supported apps now includes Boost, Infinity, rif is fun, Relay,...

      Hey Reddit enthusiasts! Revanced has recently extended its support to some of the most popular Reddit apps out there. The list of supported apps now includes Boost, Infinity, rif is fun, Relay, and Sync.

      For those who are new to Revanced, this means you can patch these existing apps with your own oauth-client-id, allowing you to continue enjoying them seamlessly.


      Why does this work?
      • Reddit is now charging for certain API usage, causing many third-party clients to either shut down or start charging.
      • If you don't exceed 100 API calls per minute, API use remains free (to the best of my knowledge). However, this doesn't help third-party clients because they use a single client ID for all users, resulting in millions of requests per minute.
      • The solution is to obtain a private client ID from Reddit, which allows for free API use.
      • The client ID patch enables you to replace the default client ID used by apps like Sync, Boost, and Infinity with your own private client ID from Reddit.

      Quick tutorial:

      1. Go to https://www.reddit.com/prefs/apps in your web browser.
      2. Create a new app by giving it a name of your choice.
      3. Tick the "Installed App" option and fill in the redirect URI field. The specific URI depends on the app you're using. For example, for rif, the URI would be redditisfun://auth. You can find the required redirect URI in the app's corresponding section on GitHub.
      4. Copy the client ID string that appears for the app you just created.
      5. Create a text document named "reddit_client_id_revanced.txt" and place it in the root directory of your phone's storage (e.g., /storage/emulated/0/<file here>). Paste the client ID into this document.
      6. Install the latest version of ReVanced Manager on your device.
      7. Open the Patcher tab in ReVanced Manager and select your app.
      8. In the Patches section, enable the "Change OAuth Client ID" patch.
      9. Apply the patch and install the modified app (Note: If you already have the app installed, you may need to delete it first and then click Install once ReVanced finishes creating the new APK.)

      Following these steps will help you navigate through the process of obtaining a private client ID and applying the necessary patches to enjoy Reddit using ReVanced.

      Guides with screenshots:

      1. https://gist.github.com/decipher3114/4423a2671dc3ce4401025b737d5c89f4

      2. https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1wHvqQwCYdJrQg4BKlGIVDLksPN0KpOnJWniT6PbZSrI (Thanks to @kobew50 on Discord)

      If you encounter any difficulties during the process,head over to ReVanced Discord server to seek assistance.


      Reddit applications that have available patches or modified versions.

      ➡️ Platform: Android 🤖

      Application Patch status Note
      BaconReader Available ✅ ReVanced
      Boost Available ✅ ReVanced
      Infinity Available ✅ ReVanced, Fork by KhoalaS (works without patching), Fork by KhoalaS (need to be patched)
      Joey Not available ❌ -
      Nara Not available ❌ Exempt from the new API changes (will introduce a paid tier eventually)
      Now Not available ❌ Exempt from the new API changes (will introduce a paid tier eventually)
      Reddit (official app) Available ✅ ReVanced, Redited
      RedReader Not available ❌ Exempt from the new API changes
      Relay Available ✅ Exempt from the new API changes (will introduce a paid tier eventually), ReVanced
      rif Available ✅ ReVanced
      Sync Available ✅ ReVanced

      ➡️ Platform: iOS 🍎

      Application Patch status Note
      Apollo* Available ✅ Tweak by EthanArbuckle
      Dystopia Not available ❌ Exempt from the new API changes
      narhwal Not available ❌ Exempt from the new API changes (will introduce a paid tier eventually)

      *Shout-out to WefWef - a Lemmy client not only inspired by Apollo, but which is aiming for feature parity. (GitHub)

      89 votes
    27. Film soundtrack discussion

      Im a soundtrack collector, I have a ton of vinyl and tapes of various quality and I regularly listen to a mixtape or something of film music while doing my work. I lean towards more ambient styles...

      Im a soundtrack collector, I have a ton of vinyl and tapes of various quality and I regularly listen to a mixtape or something of film music while doing my work. I lean towards more ambient styles like Prisoners and Arrival by Johann Johannson (rip) as well as Bladerunner the best soundtrack of all time. Also, im not entirely against pop soundtracks where the studio has just got a load of songs and not written their own but often the album release misses out songs due to rights reasons, so its incomplete.

      today’s top 5: Vangelis’ Bladerunner, JJ’s Arrival, Prisoners, Jerry Goldsmith’s Chinatown and Tangerine Dream’s Sorcerer.

      What are people into? Nothing better than decent headphones and a coffee with a soundtrack.

      23 votes
    28. This feels dumb to ask, but how do you get your news?

      I’m embarrassed to admit that after the whole Reddit shutdown, I’m at a loss on how to get news. The past 10+ years my internet routine has been browse Something Awful for discussions, and use...

      I’m embarrassed to admit that after the whole Reddit shutdown, I’m at a loss on how to get news. The past 10+ years my internet routine has been browse Something Awful for discussions, and use Reddit as a glorified RSS. I would open up Reddit, browse World News, Politics, Technology, Games, Apple, and Electric Vehicles for any interesting articles for the day. Then go to SA for more granular discussions, which I’m now using Tildes to supplement since I love the community here.

      I have tried downloading Inoreader and adding some of their default feeds but it feels super cluttered, not like the quick concise headlines I’m used to casually browsing. I’ll admit I’m guilty of just glancing at headlines and not actually reading news, but it was nice to just have an inkling of what’s going on in the world

      So the question I ask is how (mostly on the internet) do you get your news? RSS? Dedicated news app? Read a site?

      215 votes
    29. What kind of gaming details do you guys like to see?

      For me, I love seeing parts of missions occur before and after we (the playable character) are involved. Like how after a cut scene a character will contribute out that action. It really helps...

      For me, I love seeing parts of missions occur before and after we (the playable character) are involved. Like how after a cut scene a character will contribute out that action.

      It really helps with the immersion and continuity.

      Share what you like to see!

      34 votes
    30. Any good math textbook/book recommendations

      I would like to get slightly more educated in mathematics again - I took some basic calculus and linear algebra classes while doing my degree, but most likely forgot what I learned for the most...

      I would like to get slightly more educated in mathematics again - I took some basic calculus and linear algebra classes while doing my degree, but most likely forgot what I learned for the most part. Are there any good books that you guys would recommend for someone who wants to learn math again?

      13 votes
    31. Do you spend more time creating a Tildes reply than on other platforms?

      So like many others, I'm a refugee from the Rexxit, and the collaborative, positive enthusiasm here is infectious. I've had an odd observation about my brief time here - when I think I can...

      So like many others, I'm a refugee from the Rexxit, and the collaborative, positive enthusiasm here is infectious.

      I've had an odd observation about my brief time here - when I think I can contribute to a thread, I find myself trying to step up my posting game - doing a bit of extra research, making sure I add links, and double checking my grammar (as best as I can!). I want my thoughts to have value or be meaningful here, moreso than anywhere I've contributed to in the past.

      Do others feel the same way?

      95 votes
    32. In the market for new bluetooth headphones, suggestions?

      Does anyone know of a good pair? or where I might find more info on the matter, like a comparison website with in-depth reviews? My previous ones (Nokia BH 905i) are still fine although they are...

      Does anyone know of a good pair? or where I might find more info on the matter, like a comparison website with in-depth reviews?

      My previous ones (Nokia BH 905i) are still fine although they are showing heavy signs of wear and don't support the latest features, like LE etc.

      I might want to look into something potentially smaller, like in-ears with a flat surface on the outside so I might be able to use them in my motorcycle helmet. ANC is prefered and so is good sound quality. Price is about 250-300eu max.

      14 votes
    33. Let's talk electric razors

      Some years ago, I bought the Philips OneBlade around the time it was announced. My beard grows very fast and covers a large portion of my face, so daily shaving with a razor blade is often a chore...

      Some years ago, I bought the Philips OneBlade around the time it was announced. My beard grows very fast and covers a large portion of my face, so daily shaving with a razor blade is often a chore and can leave some pretty nasty rashes on my face sometimes.

      The Philips OneBlade was perfect for my situation as it was a quick and painless solution to shaving. I even changed my style to something like a permanent stubble using the guards included in the package. However, after some time, I decided that I preferred my beard longer and ended up abandoning my electric razor.

      Recently, though, I've decided to go back to the old stubble look and have been searching for a decent electric razor. I was pretty disappointed to see that the best product for me would still be the Philips OneBlade. It just seems that there is no other competitor in this type of electric razor (or maybe I just haven't looked enough), which I think is a bit strange considering it has been more than 5 years since the OneBlade was released. Even the OneBlade models from Philips still seem to be the same ones made back in 2016. Is the market for electric razors really so stagnant? Or is that Philips hold such a heavy monopoly on this kind of razor? I'm thinking of maybe buying the pro version this time, but even that seems to be only a fancy clipper attached to the same old product that I had.

      I would like to hear your thoughts on this and know if you have any recommendations for electric razors that would be just as small and practical.

      4 votes
    34. What do you like to cook when you go camping?

      I'm going camping for the first time with just my partner (as opposed to a bigger group) and it's been a while since I've camped in general so I'm looking for some food ideas! Do you have any go...

      I'm going camping for the first time with just my partner (as opposed to a bigger group) and it's been a while since I've camped in general so I'm looking for some food ideas! Do you have any go to things you always make? Any special meals that are best enjoyed outdoors? Or simply dishes that are convenient and tasty for camping? I'll be car camping with a stove and cooler, but all suggestions are welcome!

      41 votes
    35. How to search and switch between Tildes groups in Firefox using bookmarks

      I just wanted to share a handy feature in Firefox that can be used to create shorthanded keywords. For instance, you could make it so that typing "t ~books" brings you to...

      I just wanted to share a handy feature in Firefox that can be used to create shorthanded keywords. For instance, you could make it so that typing "t ~books" brings you to "https://tildes.net/~books". Or "ts banana" that brings you to Tildes search engine, searching for "banana".
      I've been using a similar trick on another browser I use for years (Qutebrowser), but lately I've been using Firefox more and a post on the Ferdiverse reminded me that I could do this in Firefox as well.

      Instructions

      • In FIrefox, open the Bookmark Manager. (Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+O , alt: Burger-menu in the upper right > Bookmarks > Manage Bookmarks)
      • Select a folder where you want to save your bookmark
      • Go to "Organise > Add Bookmark"
      • Enter whatever name you like.
      • In the URL textbox, enter the static part of the url you want to use. Replace the part that can change (like the page name or the search term with this: "%s"
      • Optionally, add tags seperated by a comma in the tags textbox.
      • At last, choose a keyword. This is the word that replaces the static part of the URL when you use the bookmark. For example, I use "t" for the community-switching and "ts" for searching.
      • Save you bookmark and try it out. When you now type just the letter "t" in your URL-bar and press enter, it should bring you to the home page. When you type "t ~books" , it should bring you to the books community page.

      You can use this feature with any website, so I encourage you to play around with it :)

      14 votes
    36. Tildes Game Giveaway Thread: July 2023

      Important: This will be a noisy thread. If you do not wish to see it in your feed, please use the Ignore feature to hide it! Tip: If the large number of comments are cluttering up the topic and...

      Important: This will be a noisy thread. If you do not wish to see it in your feed, please use the Ignore feature to hide it!


      Tip: If the large number of comments are cluttering up the topic and you just want to see the main giveaway posts, click Collapse Replies at the top of the comments.


      Introduction

      Hi all! For everyone new to Tildes (welcome!), we usually run a community game giveaway thread during the major Steam sales. Feel free to make giveaways of your own (using whatever rules you want), or participate in others' giveaways. If you'd like to see some previous examples, check out our most recent Holiday 2022 one or use the tildes game giveaway tag to look through previous posts.

      Before you participate, please make sure you read the rules below.


      Rules

      Gifters

      Post your available games, the platform and method of delivery, rules for your giveaways (e.g. first-come first-serve, random draw, etc.), and any additional info or requirements. Feel free to get creative!

      Giftees

      Request giveaways. Please make sure you follow the gifter's posted guidelines.

      Guidelines

      Anyone can choose to be a gifter, giftee, or both! Giveaway rules are set by individual gifters, but there are handful of guidelines everyone should follow:

      1. No grey market keys! Only give away games from reputable sources. If you're not sure what this means, please ask.
      2. Requests for games should be done in this topic, but if the gift is a key, those should be delivered by PMs only. Please don't post keys publicly in this topic, even obfuscated ones.
      108 votes
    37. Spotify music shows

      Hello Tildes! Short term lurker, first time poster here. Please let me know if I did anything incorrect. Also, not sure if this is the best place to post this question but.... Recently, I stumbled...

      Hello Tildes!

      Short term lurker, first time poster here. Please let me know if I did anything incorrect. Also, not sure if this is the best place to post this question but....

      Recently, I stumbled across a really slick Spotify music show called DnB All-Stars Radio (https://open.spotify.com/show/4WiHEU7mnT5n6uYRyTnWtv?si=5qFaxyvvRuSsO_tq3KPZFw) that I really enjoy. It's basically a DJ mix for Drum and Bass music. This type of show is easy to find on SoundCloud and other various websites but I really love the format Spotify has created. It's a nice mashup of audiobook, podcast, and music playlist.

      Does anyone know how to find more content like this on Spotify? Given DnB is generally a nieche genre of bass music, I'm feeling like there should be more shows like this. I've looked under podcasts, audiobooks and artists, but I can't seem to find anything similar.

      9 votes
    38. What have you been listening to this week?

      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...

      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.

      28 votes
    39. Looking for a replacement of Shira Ovides OnTech newsletter

      I subscribed to NY Times for years mostly because of the OnTech email newsletter. I liked it for the critical analysis of the tech world with lots of references and perspectives. Shira has since...

      I subscribed to NY Times for years mostly because of the OnTech email newsletter. I liked it for the critical analysis of the tech world with lots of references and perspectives. Shira has since moved to Washington Post and her work there is more on the side of consumer advice and less critical journalism. And NY Times so far haven't found a replacement.

      Can anyone recommend another source worth following instead? Another newspaper, a substack, blog or whatever. The podcast Tech Won't Save Us is in the ballpark, though I find it sometimes overly critical and I prefer something to read. I do like the tech coverage done by The Atlantic but is not a consistent source.

      5 votes
    40. Other caregivers, how do you cope?

      Hey all, my partner is newly paraplegic post spine surgery and while he's been disabled through our ten years together this is new. He's using a power wheelchair and has to transfer by Hoyer lift....

      Hey all, my partner is newly paraplegic post spine surgery and while he's been disabled through our ten years together this is new. He's using a power wheelchair and has to transfer by Hoyer lift. And in the six days since he was discharged from the rehab (PT and OT) hospital he's been to the ER twice. We have home health set up. But all of a sudden my life is a lot more... Stressful is understating it. He's going through his own emotional journey and getting support so I was hoping to find some connections, suggestions and the like here.

      Right now I'm feeling a ton of pressure not to let any of the various balls I'm juggling drop. Something that feels unsustainable, particularly with my ADHD. I feel like I'm only getting this far due to stress compensating for my lack of medication (it's packed from our recent move, I'll find it or get a new script I just haven't yet). My partner's in a rush to get a wheelchair van and I don't know if we're making a good purchase and it feels like everything has to be handled right now but also for the rest of our lives.

      Are there devices that are must haves? Things I need to know about wheelchair vans? Empathy from fellow caretakers?

      17 votes
    41. Fresh Album Fridays: Lil Uzi Vert, The Japanese House, Angelo De Augustine and more

      Good morning. This is a thread to discuss new album releases arriving at our doorsteps today (and until next week!). Feel free to comment albums that have caught your eye and interest. Looks like...

      Good morning. This is a thread to discuss new album releases arriving at our doorsteps today (and until next week!). Feel free to comment albums that have caught your eye and interest.

      Looks like Lil Uzi spotted a slower week to release what is likely the biggest album in terms of sheer numbers (the best thing about it might be the interview from Nardwuar). I think folks here will get the most from the new Japanese House - sleepy, melodic, nostalgic indie pop. I'm looking forward to hearing this new Angelo De Augustine after his fantastic collab with Sufjan Stevens in 2021.

      Discussion Points

      What are you looking forward to listen to?
      Have you listened to any of these releases?
      What are your thoughts?
      What have you enjoyed from these artists in the past?

      Why Friday?

      Most (but not all) new LPs release on a Friday, as labels want to give the the release a full week of sales before entering the charts.

      ~~ Any feedback on the format welcome!

      6 votes
    42. What's a mechanic that you used to dislike when introduced, but now that it's common you prefer having it

      As the games industry continues to grow there are many new things introduced which sometimes players don't like, but then overtime we either get used to them, while still disliking them (only a...

      As the games industry continues to grow there are many new things introduced which sometimes players don't like, but then overtime we either get used to them, while still disliking them (only a bit less maybe) or we realize "hmm, yes it's good to have this actually". Of course any such mechanic can be implemented very well or quite poorly. I'm not asking about specific implementations, but the mechanic itself as a whole.

      Personally I can think of some quality of life changes that at first I thought are not needed or would make a game needlessly easier. When playing I would always try to go for full immersion, but overtime as I've had less and less time to be able to play in long uninterrupted stretches I've come to appreciate things like fast travel and quest markers and other features which would help resuce "wasted" time when playing.

      28 votes
    43. 'Silo' season finale: book reader discussion

      I would like to have a discussion of the season finale and season as a whole of Silo with other book readers who know the overarching plot. Non book readers are welcome obviously, but spoilers...

      I would like to have a discussion of the season finale and season as a whole of Silo with other book readers who know the overarching plot. Non book readers are welcome obviously, but spoilers will be here.

      Click for spoilers

      Overall I think it was decent and I like a lot of the additions they made. Some of the episodes in the middle were very filler-y and kinda boring. But I wasn't a huge fan of the reveal in the show vs the books, for the screen and especially for the tape. The heat tape is like the determining factor here and they really glossed over it. I'm not sure if I would have gotten it if I didn't read the book.

      However there are still mysteries, I was wondering where they were going to go with Lukas since he got busted in the last episode. Now he's going to the mines??? Who is she going to talk to over the radio now? Also where do the mines go to avoid other silos lol? Although I'm not really mad about the change if Lukas doesn't end up being Bernard's shadow. In the book it was very "hey you random dude, be my shadow now suddenly"

      And what about that mystery door? Are they connected to the other silos somehow? Bernard seemed kind of surprised when Jules mentioned it and said there were many mysteries... I wonder if he actually knows anything about them or not. I was surprised Sims didn't know about the fake helmet screen, but I guess he wouldn't know that if wasn't actually Bernard's shadow yet. I really question if he will actually end up being Bernard's shadow though...

      Overall, would watch season 2. I wanna know what ends up happening.

      21 votes
    44. Does anyone read a weekly printed news publication? If so, which and why?

      I was nervous to post this in ~news, because it's more of a question than a story, but here goes. I'm looking to turn down the temperature, pace, and volume of my news consumption habits, as well...

      I was nervous to post this in ~news, because it's more of a question than a story, but here goes.

      I'm looking to turn down the temperature, pace, and volume of my news consumption habits, as well as limit how much time I stare at a screen (I do that enough professionally). I've recently experimented with subscribing to fewer, higher-quality news sources and getting them delivered via RSS*. This works pretty well, but I'm still left looking for something even slower. Something like a weekly news publication, which is delivered once a week in a print format that I can read away from a screen.

      I've subscribed to Sunday papers in the past, but it's too much and there's a lot in it - I think I'm looking for a little .. less. A slimmer publication, fewer pages. Almost as if someone selected the top five to seven stories covered on the Wikipedia current events page in the week, then wrote a few thousand words apiece on each. Something I can make it through with my coffee on Sunday mornings in a few hours.

      Does anyone do this or have recommendations? If so, what do you read and how would you assess that publication? I think I've tried a fair number in the past, but I will take anyone's suggestions. Thank you so much in advance.

      --
      *I use Reeder for macOS / iOS - which is great btw, and it's shocking how much of the modern web still supports RSS. Highly recommend folks reconsider RSS in general.

      38 votes
    45. Help me prep food provisions for a sailing trip

      In a few weeks I'm participating in a three(ish) day nonstop sailing regatta. My friend and I have been put in charge of making and bringing food and drinks for the entire crew. We also have no...

      In a few weeks I'm participating in a three(ish) day nonstop sailing regatta. My friend and I have been put in charge of making and bringing food and drinks for the entire crew. We also have no idea what we are doing, so any advice would be appreciated!

      My first thought is sandwiches/wraps but for morale I think it would be nice to have a variety of things.

      We won't have a kitchen/stove/way to heat the food. No fridge, but a cooler full of ice. (It will probably not remain very cold the entire time.)

      The primary goal is to sail fast so no stopping to assemble anything complicated- someone might even be on shift sailing and eating at the same time. Probably nothing involving sharp knives as the boat will likely be heeled over and that seems needlessly risky.

      What kind of sammies? Brownies or cookies? What are we going to do about caffeine? Are two day old room temp breakfast tacos gross or okay?

      18 votes
    46. Let's add (and rearrange?) some groups + a few notes about other short-term plans

      Some really great feedback and ideas came out of the discussion we had about the group structure recently, and while I do want to work on implementing some things from that eventually, it won't...

      Some really great feedback and ideas came out of the discussion we had about the group structure recently, and while I do want to work on implementing some things from that eventually, it won't happen immediately. I'm also not sure if the influx of new users is going to calm down somewhat (which might make some of those changes feel less necessary), but I guess we'll see what happens in the next couple of days as the third-party Reddit clients start actually shutting down.

      Anyway, something that we can do immediately is create some new groups, and/or adjust some of the existing ones. This could encourage some more activity on certain subjects, and also make it easier for people to control what they see on Tildes through their group subscriptions. So I'm looking for input on where you feel there are currently gaps in the groups, or some new ones we could add that feel like we might have enough activity to get started.

      I also just want to quickly mention a few other things I'm trying to work on in the near future (now that I'm finally almost caught up on all the email invite requests). They're things that stagnated over the last few years but are more important to update if the site's activity is going to increase again:

      • Updating the open-source code and development environment, and ensuring people can get a local version running easily to be able to contribute fixes/changes.
      • Reviewing and organizing the issues and existing merge requests in the GitLab repo, so it's more clear what changes are wanted/needed.
      • Doing a pass through places like the Docs site and the group wikis to clean up and update some of the outdated information.

      Let's try to keep the discussion in this topic more centered around suggestions for changes to the groups though, I just wanted to let you know some of the other things I'm hoping to do in the near future.

      Thanks! And I've also given 5 invites to every current user, so feel free to use those if you know anyone else that would like to join: https://tildes.net/invite

      366 votes
    47. Need ideas on embedding info in old home movies

      I recently digitized some old home movies from my grandparents and looking through the film I realize I recognize almost no one. This got me thinking, I should go through this with my mother to...

      I recently digitized some old home movies from my grandparents and looking through the film I realize I recognize almost no one. This got me thinking, I should go through this with my mother to help me identify family members as she's probably the last person who knows who anyone is.

      Obviously I can just make a document with notes ex: 2:53 screen right, great uncle john"
      But I'm hoping there's a more elegant solution in which I can keep info with the file and not some auxiliary document that dosent live in the same place.

      I could just dump all that info into Metadata but that's maybe the lowest quality solution.
      The xray function of Amazon prime video is the example of the best solution in a perfect world. (if you don't know, when you pause or bring up the context menu on prime video, there's a bar that identifies everyone one scene with a matching headshot)

      I actually looked into it and there's an API that amazon uses for this called "RecognizeCelebrities" and uses images to train the program to recognize faces and populate it's menu. I'm not sure if it's open source but even if it was, it's over my level to use it practically I think.

      The last option I can think of is using a video markup platform like frame.io but that's not really a long term solution.

      Any ideas?

      16 votes