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    1. I'm finally biting the bullet and investing in laser eye surgery, anything I should know?

      I've done a large amount of research and got a consultation a few months ago, my doctor said I could get PRK as SMILE and LASIK weren't good options for my cornea. As I understand it the results...

      I've done a large amount of research and got a consultation a few months ago, my doctor said I could get PRK as SMILE and LASIK weren't good options for my cornea. As I understand it the results should be very similar, just a longer/more painful recovery time. I've got family who is going to come into town for a week to help me with anything, but I wanted to know if any of you have gone through PRK and had advice or an experience to share.

      43 votes
    2. Nested noise collapse test

      To anyone reading this, please label all the comments I post as Noise and don't vote on them so this chain happens: - Comment collapsed by noise - Comment collapsed by noise - Comment collapsed by...

      To anyone reading this, please label all the comments I post as Noise and don't vote on them so this chain happens:

      - Comment collapsed by noise
        - Comment collapsed by noise
          - Comment collapsed by noise
            - Comment collapsed by noise
              - Comment collapsed by noise
      
      3 votes
    3. Writers: Have you been published in a literary magazine?

      I have two goals this year. The second is to submit at least one short story to a literary magazine. The first is to write one good short story (just kidding, the first is to write one story a...

      I have two goals this year. The second is to submit at least one short story to a literary magazine. The first is to write one good short story (just kidding, the first is to write one story a week in the hope that one will be good enough to submit).

      Of course the goal in my secret heart is to have my submission accepted but let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. Walk before you can run, and so on.

      So, writers (particularly of fiction), have you ever submitted a short story to a literary magazine? How did it go? Did you learn anything in the process that you wish you’d known before? Any tips for a rookie?

      10 votes
    4. What is your favorite type of horror movie antagonist?

      Zombies, aliens, kaiju, regular humans (like ghostface), super humans (like Freddie or Jason) demons, vampires, ghosts, or something else I haven't mentioned. What's your favorite type of villian...

      Zombies, aliens, kaiju, regular humans (like ghostface), super humans (like Freddie or Jason) demons, vampires, ghosts, or something else I haven't mentioned. What's your favorite type of villian for horror movies?

      I've always been partial to zombies, as I think they're the perfect mix of horrifying and unstoppable yet benign enough to not make the main characters feel hopelessly unable to do anything. I guess I find the idea that given the right choices I can make it out alive more interesting than the idea of a ghost/demon where you're just entirely at the mercy of magical powers that you can't do anything against.

      But maybe that feeling of complete powerlessness is what some people are looking for in a horror movie.

      23 votes
    5. Managing mania?

      About 3 or 4 times a year I will get pretty powerful manic episodes. Usually for a few days I'll stay at the office until late at night, I'm in an amazing mood, I'm always excited and have trouble...

      About 3 or 4 times a year I will get pretty powerful manic episodes. Usually for a few days I'll stay at the office until late at night, I'm in an amazing mood, I'm always excited and have trouble sleeping. My focus is so powerful, If I could be this version of me all of the time I genuinely believe I could do anything.

      It's like a totally different person from my usual self who is easily fatigued, slow to start, and generally lethargic.

      Knowing this side of me exists is exciting but also kind of depressing given my awareness of its fleeting nature. How have you dealt with this? Any reading you could recomend?

      20 votes
    6. What are some modern first person shooters with a classic, old-school feel?

      I'm looking for more recent games that are reminiscent of the original Doom, Quake, and shooters of that era. Preferably on PC, but also on the Xbox. I am, of course, aware of the most recent Doom...

      I'm looking for more recent games that are reminiscent of the original Doom, Quake, and shooters of that era. Preferably on PC, but also on the Xbox.

      I am, of course, aware of the most recent Doom games, but I gotta be honest, I'm not a big fan. They don't feel old-school to me.

      1990s shooters have a simplicity that I crave.

      I have no intention to play online, so a good campaign is a requirement.

      Thanks!

      23 votes
    7. What are the origins of your favorite comic book in your collection?

      I have been a big X-Men fan since I was very small, and I have been ever-so-slowly collecting the Volume 1 Uncanny X-Men series (1963) since the late 1980's. I was surprised with a graded (6.5)...

      I have been a big X-Men fan since I was very small, and I have been ever-so-slowly collecting the Volume 1 Uncanny X-Men series (1963) since the late 1980's. I was surprised with a graded (6.5) copy of Uncanny X-Men #94 by my wife for my birthday a few years ago. I've always wanted a copy, but it's a fairly expensive book and one I never thought I would own.

      In the issue, the original X-Men quit the team except Cyclops, and are replaced by Colossus, Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, and Banshee while Sunfire returns to Japan. It's their first appearance in the Uncanny series and their second appearance outside of Giant Size X-Men #1.

      I'm looking forward to an opportunity to get it signed, if Christ Clairmont does another CGC signing.

      Fun fact about the issue from Wikipedia: There are no issues of Uncanny X-Men #94 that rate higher than a 9.8 on the Comic Guaranty LLC grading scale, so if you have an ungraded copy in pristine condition, you might have an extremely rare piece of comic book history.

      So, How did you come across your favorite comic book in your collection? Was it a lucky find at a local comic book store or a treasured gift from a friend? Did you stumble upon it while exploring the crazy world of online auctions or conventions? I'm eager to hear the tales of how you obtained your cherished piece of comic book history.

      11 votes
    8. Overuse of commas

      First I thought to myself, "I seem to use too many commas." Now I'm no writer, but I've noticed that professional writers (and editors) clearly use less commas than I do. For example, here's a...

      First I thought to myself, "I seem to use too many commas." Now I'm no writer, but I've noticed that professional writers (and editors) clearly use less commas than I do.

      For example, here's a sentence in a book that I'm reading: “As the victim was usually unconscious it was obvious they were totally reliant upon third parties and whatever action they took would determine their fate.”

      I thought it was interesting, because I would've put a comma after "unconscious" and a comma before "and."

      So, I found this helpful resource on grammar rules: https://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/commas.asp. 4a and 5b in particular were situations where I learned I could get rid of commas.

      Still however, in the example sentence above, you'd think to put a comma before the "and" to separate the two clauses. I haven't found an explanation for omitting it, other than some writers are grammatically correct in a stricter sense, and others use commas more stylistically.

      Is the use of commas more of an art, if you will, than I thought? How do you use commas personally?

      Interested to read others' opinions!

      74 votes
    9. Cosmetic bug: a.link-group:visited in groups list has same colour whether subscribed or unsubscribed

      See this image. Which groups are unsubscribed? All of the ~sports.X groups are unsubscribed, but american_football, basketball, football, and motorsports have been visited. The link-visited colour...

      See this image.

      Which groups are unsubscribed? All of the ~sports.X groups are unsubscribed, but american_football, basketball, football, and motorsports have been visited.

      The link-visited colour set by a.link-group:visited is taking precedence over the default colour otherwise set by .group-list-item-not-subscribed a.link-group, hiding the colour change associated with -not-subscribed. This is particularly troublesome when unsubscribing from a group, since one must go to the group's page – visiting the link – in order to unsubscribe.

      6 votes
    10. Unsubscribing from a parent group doesn't automatically unsubscribe me from its subgroups

      Hello! Tildes newbie here. I wasn't sure if this is a bug or if it's working as intended, so I wanted to ask. I unsubscribed from https://tildes.net/~sports but noticed that I still saw a post...

      Hello! Tildes newbie here. I wasn't sure if this is a bug or if it's working as intended, so I wanted to ask.

      I unsubscribed from https://tildes.net/~sports but noticed that I still saw a post from ~sports.hockey in my home feed. It took me a while to figure out that I also had to go to each of the ~sports subgroups and unsubscribe from all of them too. Am I doing this correctly or did I miss a button somewhere that would let me unsubscribe from a parent group + all its subgroups in one go?

      Thank you!

      --- EDIT ---
      Thanks to everyone for the replies! Confirmed that it's working as intended. And there is now a new post by cfabbro on Gitlab suggesting that "unsubscribe from all subgroups" be added as a new function.
      https://gitlab.com/tildes/tildes/-/issues/802

      29 votes
    11. Permanent archival formats. Do they exist?

      Recently, I've been thinking pretty hard about how to archive data. Optical media is out, due to my (possibly irrational?) fear of disc rot. HDDs just break with extended use, SSDs have been known...

      Recently, I've been thinking pretty hard about how to archive data. Optical media is out, due to my (possibly irrational?) fear of disc rot. HDDs just break with extended use, SSDs have been known to die with either overuse or just existing for an extended period of time. What's left?

      I have heard of tape (of some kind) being used for backup in some bigger operations, but with my experieces with VHS, and to a lesser extent, cassettes, they seem to be very susceptible to mould.

      Any suggestions?

      30 votes
    12. How do you parent boys?

      I would be interested in tips, thoughts, and experiences folks have had with raising sons. I work in healthcare (in finance) and am acutely aware that most of my colleagues are women, as were most...

      I would be interested in tips, thoughts, and experiences folks have had with raising sons. I work in healthcare (in finance) and am acutely aware that most of my colleagues are women, as were most of my teachers, and class mates in college. With this in mind, it seems that the feminine side of raising sons is well represented. I've been reading and soul searching about good practices for the father of a son but would welcome all perspectives. Another interesting aspect is that I've found many parenting books to be focused on mothers rather than fathers. The few I've found that are focused tend to be religious/ Christian. Nothing wrong with that but would like to hear the collected wisdom here. To be clear I am hoping to get specific thoughts and actions rather than a broad topic with concepts and ideals.

      58 votes
    13. I want to experiment with writing for video games, can you help me find a starting place?

      Hi there, I enjoy writing! I find all formats fun to play with from short stories to screenplays. One thing I've never really written for is video games. I love the idea though. All the world...

      Hi there,

      I enjoy writing! I find all formats fun to play with from short stories to screenplays. One thing I've never really written for is video games. I love the idea though. All the world building, lore notes, dialogue, weapon descriptions, codecs, bestiaries and on and on. There's all sorts of ways to tell a story through a video game and I want to try my hand at it!

      Problem being though, I'm not particularly interested in game design. I'm not NOT interested, but it's not where my passion is. I am willing to learn what I need to, so don't shy away from suggestions that would require me to learn some on the design side.

      Really the only ideas I've come up with are using the mod creator in Neverwinter Nights 1/2 or something like RPG Maker? Are these overwhelmingly difficult to get started in? Could I write in all the things I mentioned from dialogue to weapon descriptions?

      Or perhaps trying to find someone NOT interested in the storytelling side? Someone who wants to focus on design but would love some storytelling in their project and would welcome the addition?

      Or even starting with TTRPG modules maybe. Video Games and TTRPG modules seem to have some similar storytelling elements.

      Does anyone in the profession have thoughts? Does anyone not in the profession have thoughts?

      anyways, bye love you

      17 votes
    14. Interview with computer science professor Shaolei Ren about the environmental impact of artificial intelligence

      https://themarkup.org/hello-world/2023/07/08/ai-environmental-equity-its-not-easy-being-green A few months ago, I spoke with Shaolei Ren, as associate professor of computer science at University...

      https://themarkup.org/hello-world/2023/07/08/ai-environmental-equity-its-not-easy-being-green

      A few months ago, I spoke with Shaolei Ren, as associate professor of computer science at University of California, Riverside, and his team about their research into the secret water footprint of AI. Recently, Ren and his team studied how AI’s environmental costs are often disproportionately higher in some regions than others, so I spoke with him again to dig into those findings.

      His team, which includes UC Riverside Ph.D. candidates Pengfei Li and Jianyi Yang, and Adam Wierman, a professor in the Department of Computing and Mathematical Sciences (CMS) at the California Institute of Technology, looked into a path toward more equitable AI through what they call “geographical load balancing.” Specifically, this approach attempts to “explicitly address AI’s environmental impacts on the most disadvantaged regions.”

      Ren and I talked about why it’s not easy being green and what tangible steps cloud service providers and app developers could take to reduce their environmental footprint.

      4 votes
    15. How has the Reddit drama affected the quality of conversations on here?

      I think we all know how redditors can be negative nancies looking for the next user to argue with, so I'm curious to know from the peeps that were here before the redditors: has the quality of...

      I think we all know how redditors can be negative nancies looking for the next user to argue with, so I'm curious to know from the peeps that were here before the redditors: has the quality of conversation and sense of community changed (either positively or negatively) since us redditors showed up?

      80 votes