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    1. Humble Choice - August 2023

      August's Humble Choice is now available with the following eight Steam games: Steam Page Opencritic Steam Recent/All Operating Systems Steam Deck ProtonDB Disco Elysium – The Final Cut 89 93/93...

      August's Humble Choice is now available with the following eight Steam games:

      Steam Page Opencritic Steam Recent/All Operating Systems Steam Deck ProtonDB
      Disco Elysium – The Final Cut 89 93/93 Win Mac Verified Gold
      Chivalry 2 82 81/82 Win Unsupported* Silver
      Trek to Yomi 72 70/71 Win Playable Platinum
      Road 96 78 92/91 Win Verified Platinum
      Arcade Paradise 76 90/89 Win Verified Platinum
      SuchArt: Genius Artist Simulator N/A 100/98 Win Verified Platinum
      Tin Can TBC 87 Win Playable Platinum
      Hot Brass TBC 82 Win Unsupported* Platinum

      *Both games that are marked as unsupported on Steam Deck on Steam itself are reported as working on Linux on ProtonDB.

      Does anyone have experience with any of the games and, if so, would you recommend them? Is there anything in here that you're particularly excited to play?

      27 votes
    2. Fortnightly Programming Q&A Thread

      General Programming Q&A thread! Ask any questions about programming, answer the questions of other users, or post suggestions for future threads. Don't forget to format your code using the triple...

      General Programming Q&A thread! Ask any questions about programming, answer the questions of other users, or post suggestions for future threads.

      Don't forget to format your code using the triple backticks or tildes:

      Here is my schema:
      
      ```sql
      CREATE TABLE article_to_warehouse (
        article_id   INTEGER
      , warehouse_id INTEGER
      )
      ;
      ```
      
      How do I add a `UNIQUE` constraint?
      
      16 votes
    3. TV Tuesdays Free Talk

      Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here. Please just try to provide fair warning of...

      Have you watched any TV shows recently you want to discuss? Any shows you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.

      Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.

      15 votes
    4. Introducing Backtick API: An open-source, unofficial Tildes API

      Hi everyone! Today I am releasing Backtick API, an unofficial Tildes API. I originally wrote it to power Backtick but quickly realized that it could be useful for other clients and projects that...

      Hi everyone! Today I am releasing Backtick API, an unofficial Tildes API. I originally wrote it to power Backtick but quickly realized that it could be useful for other clients and projects that require Tildes data. The project is open-sourced, both because I would love community contributions and because I want to make the project as transparent as possible.

      Q: Does it require or store any user credentials?

      No. All the endpoints that are implemented scrape publicly available data that do not require any user credentials.

      Q: Will this overload Tildes?

      To prevent Backtick API from being a nuisance to Tildes, the code caches calls to Tildes for a short period of time. Depending on usage, it should reduce the number of calls to Tildes (vs a client querying Tildes directly).

      Q: How can I use it?

      A hosted version of the code is available through RapidAPI here: https://rapidapi.com/asnewman/api/backtick-api

      Q: Are there any limitations?

      To prevent the project from being abused and becoming a financial burden on myself, I'm using RapidAPI to manage usage. There is a generous free tier and a reasonably priced paid tier which will be used to cover server costs. In addition, I will be donating a portion of the paid plan revenue (my goal is 50% but will depend on load and subscription count) directly to Tildes via Github Sponsors. It's really important to me to keep this project and Tildes as sustainable as possible. I really would love to provide everything for free, but unfortunately, there are countless examples where that doesn't work out down the road.

      Of course, if you do not want to use the hosted version, you are welcome to deploy the code yourself!

      Q: Isn't scraping prone to breaking?

      Yes! Users beware! Obviously, I will try my best to fix things if the Tildes code changes in a way that breaks Backtick API, but it's definitely a possibility.

      Q: Why not just work on and contribute to creating an official Tildes API?

      An official Tildes API will always be better than something like this and I look forward to when/if it gets implemented. That being said, I'm choosing the route that would be the quickest to continue the development of the Backtick mobile app. In addition, it's also the choice that is most fun for me. To work on a Tildes API, if the powers that be even want to have one, would require lots of coordination and codebase learning, something that will take a lot of time. I highly commend anyone who chooses to take on that task, but I do too much of that kind of work for my real job 😂


      Please report any issues or feature requests through Github, this post, or the Backtick Discord server. Finally, I just want to thank everyone in the community for all the great conversations I've had, for providing helpful feedback for Backtick, and for creating a place on the internet that I very much enjoy being a part of 😊

      59 votes
    5. Rip and replace Macbook Air?

      I have two Macbook Airs that don't work. One is a A1932 (bad motherboard) and the other is a A2337 (I think a bad screen - it's cracked). Is it possible to take the motherboard from the 2337 and...

      I have two Macbook Airs that don't work. One is a A1932 (bad motherboard) and the other is a A2337 (I think a bad screen - it's cracked). Is it possible to take the motherboard from the 2337 and use it in the case of the 1932 (connected to that screen)? I understand the 1932 is an Intel Chipset and the 2337 is an M1 chipset, but would that really matter for what I'd like to do?

      3 votes
    6. How do you hang stuff—from the walls or ceilings—around your house when you're decorating?

      It took me a while to find a good, non-destructive way to put up posters in my living room. I think I started with blu-tack, which dried in a few months and the posters came down. Then I tried...

      It took me a while to find a good, non-destructive way to put up posters in my living room. I think I started with blu-tack, which dried in a few months and the posters came down. Then I tried 3M's hanging strips, which stayed on the wall for longer, but was pretty expensive for what it was. A year ago I had the idea of using velcro that has adhesive tape on the other side. So far this has worked near perfectly for me.

      I know I'm not breaking new ground here, but I was happy to finally find a decent solution. Well, at least for light objects on walls (and elsewhere).

      23 votes
    7. Superconductor megathread

      Hey everyone, As a few of you may know, there was a paper released a few days ago claiming that an Room-Temperature Ambient-Pressure Superconductor (RTAPS) was created. You can see the original...

      Hey everyone,

      As a few of you may know, there was a paper released a few days ago claiming that an Room-Temperature Ambient-Pressure Superconductor (RTAPS) was created. You can see the original paper here: https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.12008

      To bring things into perspective if this holds true we would likely dispense with energy and transportation concerns. It would be akin to the discovery of fire, penicillin or the transistor. A groundbreaking change. See here for a more detailed, bullish list of things it can help with: https://nitter.net/Andercot/status/1685088625187495936

      There are many communities that are discussing this. The best summary I was able to find is here: https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/claims-of-room-temperature-and-ambient-pressure-superconductor.1106083/page-17

      There is still a very much active debate there (and elsewhere online) of people on the viability of the original people. Many are pessimistic that the evidence is scant and that the original publication does not hold its water. An interesting summary of the sentiment of a part of the community can be found through the (faux) betting market of Manifold here: https://manifold.markets/QuantumObserver/will-the-lk99-room-temp-ambient-pre

      On the link above they are also diligently tracking any replication attempts. Currently we are at the stage were theoretical simulations have validated the possibility of the purported materials to be superconductors (https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.16892).

      Finally, a nice replication attempt that tried to make the creation process better and demonstrated some of the effects required to prove superconductivity (scroll up): https://twitter.com/iris_IGB/status/1685804254718459904

      This is very exciting, because even if some properties are valid, it gives a mjor boost to the whole field.

      143 votes
    8. Futurama Season 8 Episode 2 discussion

      This thread may contain spoilers. I thought it was pretty good! Better than the last episode, we were pleasantly surprised here at house Godzilla. We actually watched the older episode where Kif...

      This thread may contain spoilers.

      I thought it was pretty good! Better than the last episode, we were pleasantly surprised here at house Godzilla. We actually watched the older episode where Kif gets pregnant the night before, so we were very curious to see how Amy would handle everything. Feels were had.

      What were your thoughts? Let your voice be heard!

      24 votes
    9. Do you look up words while reading a novel?

      What's your general philosophy around this? In theory, we learn all our fundamental vocabulary from context. But at the same time, it may be important to know the precise meaning. When do you look...

      What's your general philosophy around this? In theory, we learn all our fundamental vocabulary from context. But at the same time, it may be important to know the precise meaning. When do you look it up? When do you make an educated guess and keep going?

      56 votes
    10. Final Fantasy XVI is driving me nuts (no spoilers)

      I'm a little over halfway through and I really have to force myself to keep playing it. Some of it is really cool and a lot of it drives me crazy. Sorry to rant a bit but a lot of the discourse...

      I'm a little over halfway through and I really have to force myself to keep playing it. Some of it is really cool and a lot of it drives me crazy. Sorry to rant a bit but a lot of the discourse online is extremely positive and I just wanted to let this out.

      • So many cutscenes. They're pretty good cutscenes. The acting is largely very good, most characters are really enjoyable (although maybe one day FF will realize that antagonists can be multifaceted and not just generic evil badman). But so, so many hours of cutscene -- run over there -- cutscene -- go to the one map location that's unlocked -- cutscene.
      • So much time wasting slow running around. Sometimes the maps are designed like a (linear) maze for apparent reason except to make it take longer to get somewhere. I see a quest marker and I just immediately "ugh" at how long it's going to take me to plod over there.
      • And as a corollary to the above, exploration sucks. I learned very early on that there's no reason not to beeline to the next goal, so it makes the slow running that much worse. Dungeons are basically right out of FF XIV, which means one straight line and a very clear pattern of trash mob, trash mob, boss, rinse, repeat.
      • The gear and stats are a non-entity. You go through the story, it more or less hands you periodic levels and gear. It feels like they thought including these things was obligatory, but for what they put in the game, they could have just not bothered.
      • Combat is pretty fun! A little repetitive. A little samey. I wish there were more options for using all the skills you get. I have all these things I could unlock, but the very limited set of slots you get make they basically a non-option once you've picked the ones you like. The system just feels kind of half baked.
      • And in that same vein, the big quick-time-event boss battles are neat too. I don't love them, because it feels a lot like I'm not playing a game anymore, but they do look pretty fantastic. Some of the latter ones go on for way too long. Just like, I was done with punching this fantastic looking beast 10 minutes ago.
      • Maybe I haven't heard enough of it or listened long enough, but the music is disappointing. Which is sad because I love the tracks in XIV from the same composer. So much here is just ambient or otherwise underwhelming. A bunch of critical moments are just remixes on the classic theme, which is nice, but not really selling me on the new score overall.

      I'm probably going to stick through to the end (slowly, with many breaks for Dave the Diver), at the very least because it was so expensive. I just wish it were better.

      31 votes
    11. Which computational notebooks do you like?

      Here's a nice website for comparing between a lot of different computational notebooks, such as Jupyter, Google Colab, and Observable. (And popularized by Mathematica, though spreadsheets sort of...

      Here's a nice website for comparing between a lot of different computational notebooks, such as Jupyter, Google Colab, and Observable. (And popularized by Mathematica, though spreadsheets sort of count.)

      I'm wondering what computational notebook software other people have used and how you like it? I will make top-level posts for some that I used.

      20 votes
    12. Twitter link post

      @Mark Gurman: NEW: Apple readies the iPhone 15 Pro as a major step towards its dream phone, with 1.5mm ultra-thin bezels, USB-C, titanium band, major camera upgrades, softer corners, new chips, a customizable side button and more. https://t.co/mFZbdRLWr5

      1 vote
    13. Night-shifters of Tildes, what tips do you have?

      In a few weeks I'm starting a new position at work that will be 7p-7a, 2 days in a row (each week, so work for 2 days, off for 5). It'll be a sort of "on call" type position that will have busier...

      In a few weeks I'm starting a new position at work that will be 7p-7a, 2 days in a row (each week, so work for 2 days, off for 5). It'll be a sort of "on call" type position that will have busier spats at the beginning and end of the shift, but the middle tends to be slow, occasionally no work at all. My employer doesn't have any major restrictions as far as work downtime, I have a lot of freedom there.

      What tips do y'all have for managing sleep surrounding overnight shifts, and also maintaining alertness/awakeness during the overnight shifts?

      30 votes