I did a masters in data analytics, and then the niche I fell into in the working world was building dashboards, reports and spreadsheets of financial data for non-technical bureaucrats. Instead of ensuring data quality by technical means, my current company often just has me manually reviewing and checking financial data. This is pretty frustrating to me because I have no education in finance, and the things I miss or get wrong are so second nature to my boss that he doesn't even see them as something I should have been trained on. The only technologies I use are SQL server and excel. Any proactive steps I've made to automate processes has been discouraged as not worth the time.

I'm aware that most people spend years on tedious stuff before ever getting to work with more engaging technology, but honestly I'm starting to wonder if they've forgotten I'm not a finance guy. I want to move up in my career especially to escape my current role, but I'm feeling completely lost as to how. There's no obvious role in my company that could be a 'next rung of the ladder' to advance into, so there's nobody I can emulate to help chart a course. My boss had an unconventional path to his current role, and isn't really into manager stuff like career mentoring, so he's no help in that regard.

To anyone with experience in data science, what is the advancement supposed to look like? What are the key skills I should be developing? Am I being too averse to learning the subject matter of the data I'm working on? Any insight is appreciated!

Hopefully the title says it all, I decided to make this generic because I think all game randomization is cool.

To be specific, this is not about games which have random elements, this is about games which have been modded to introduce some form of randomization.
The Pokemon games are reasonably famous for having fun randomizers.

I posted this because I recently started a Dark Souls 3 randomized run and got given a heap of really nice sorceries and miracles right at the start of the game. Luckily also a catalyst too. It was like it was begging me to be a mage, even though it's apparently hard as hell.

"Song drafts" -- I'm not even sure if that's a thing but let's go with it.

I have an outline for a whole album and some bits and pieces written. Rather than sitting down and starting to record immediately, I'd like to start drafting out everything with MIDI or something to where I can play around with the sounds and also make notes of lyrics, chord shapes, etc. Bonus points if I can use something like Garage Band's drummer features so I don't have to worry so much about the percussion.

What's the best software or website to do something like this? I'm imagining something like Fruity Loops or Guitar Pro, where I can plug in some guitar, bass, etc. tabs and include drums and other instruments. I would prioritize ease of use and speed of composition, since these are just going to be temporary sketches.

Then, when I get the songs in a shape I am comfortable with, I will jump into the DAW and do the actual recordings.

What have you been watching and reading this week? You don't need to give us a whole essay if you don't want to, but please write something! Feel free to talk about something you saw that was cool, something that was bad, ask for recommendations, or anything else you can think of.

If you want to, feel free to find the thing you're talking about and link to its pages on Anilist, MAL, or any other database you use!

Hey all, I've asked in the past but it feels even more pressing and I'm not sure I got all the recs, I'm looking for good news sources - newspaper, magazine, radio, etc - that provide a non-American, but preferably English language but translatable can work, perspective on their national affairs, American affairs and international affairs more broadly.

I assume Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand are among those most accessible, but I don't know which sources are more reliable. Or I can get a "news update" from RadioNZ or RTÉ but I'm not sure what programs to catch for more of international news.

I can certainly check bias on a good bias checking website but if there are particular biases I'd love a heads up on those too. For example the Guardian is generally really good except I notice they're specifically bad about trans topics.

I want to avoid tabloids, and people whose news is 3 hour daily videos. I'd like to avoid extreme bias. Free is great but I'm willing to subscribe to online access for a Canadian newspaper for example.

(I am also interested in independent writers, like Heather Cox Richardson who is a historian that does daily news analysis and writeups with context. But I'm only following a few and they're all American so happy to diversify my sources. )

Just looking to get the perspective on, well, lots of things from others countries and I have a lot of radio time I could be using for it.

This is a recurring post to discuss programming or other technical projects that we've been working on. Tell us about one of your recent projects, either at work or personal projects. What's interesting about it? Are you having trouble with anything?

Find yourself watching tons of great videos on [insert chosen video sharing platform], but also find yourself reluctant to flood the Tildes front page with them? Then this thread is for you.

It could be one quirky video that you feel deserves some eyeballs on it, or perhaps you've got a curated list of videos that you'd love to talk us through...

Share some of the best video content you've watched this past week/fortnight with us!

I want to give some context before I get to the meat and potatoes. I (M28) have IRL friends that I communicate and spend time with regularly. However, I do not engage in conversations with them daily. I'm not a texter, or a phone call person. If one of them has a question, or wants to share a meme, I'll respond, but I don't have digital conversations that stretch for hours. I prefer in person communication, and in person I don't shut the fuck up.

Additionally, I do not have any 'Online' friends. All of my friendships are with people I know in real life. I have talked with others on Discord, but again, I don't engage in casual chatter. I'll respond when prompted, but that's about it.

Now that that's out of the way, both of these things kind of got turned on their head in the beginning of November, when I met Alice (F28) through a Roleplaying Discord server. We had kind of eyed each other for a Roleplay session, and it went well. What I wasn't really prepared for, was her poking me in DMs afterwards just to chat. Not really my thing, buuuut, long story short we have now talked every day since then. We wish each other a good morning and good night. Sometimes we talk all day, sometimes we just get a few messages if we're busy. She's the first new friend I've made since high school, and that is a title I don't use lightly. The fact is, I just have zero interest in interacting freely with most people. Typically they end up annoying me in some way.

I'm not shy at all, not particularly introverted, I just really don't like talking to people.

And yet, somehow, I find myself trying to talk to Alice all day. I feel myself growing antsy when I go just a few hours without talking to her. Here's where the imbalance part comes from: Alice isn't like me. She has a group of people she talks with regularly, I'm just one of them. Whereas she is the only person I talk to daily. I completely acknowledge that this is 100% a me problem; I don't want this to come across as me being jealous of her friends. She struggles to balance time between her girlfriend, me, and her other friends, and most of the time I just feel kind of bad for her, like I'm a dog begging for table scraps, and she's trying to appease everybody.

On the other hand, I can also pretty confidently look at our older conversations, and note that we don't talk as much as we used to. Our conversations used to be long and while we still sometimes have longer chats, it's really only when I get her on a tangent involving a particular interest of hers. I don't want to dig too deep into why that is, it could be the 'met someone new' energy has worn off and I'm just not as much of a priority anymore, maybe I became annoying at some point and remain blissfully unaware of it, I dunno.

My question is, how do you handle wanting to spend more time with someone who just cannot spend that time with you?

TL;DR: Made a new friend online, and she doesn't have nearly as much time for me as I have for her.

Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films 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.

I've decided to try fantasy bingo this year. The most obviously challenging category for me on the reddit list is the challenge to find a book I will enjoy featuring fiber or fabric crafting or artistry.

Does anyone have suggestions?

I have read and enjoyed Surrender None by Elizabeth Moon which fits but I want to read something new and save rereads for the end of the year if I get stuck. Surrender None fits at least two bingo categories as it is also a story about disrupting systems.

"Challenging" is up to your own interpretation: length, word choice, writing style, subject matter, etc.

Whatever the challenge, you had to put in more effort than normal to read the book, but you came out on the other side feeling like it was worth it.

What's that book?

What makes it challenging?

And why do you feel it's worth it?

I've had a lot of extra time on my hands lately, so I decided to take a crack at some highly acclaimed games I never got around to.

I love a big RPG and some of my favorite gaming experiences were playing Skyrim and FNV on the settings were things like eating, sleeping, and staying warm were an important part of the game. KCD seemed like a good fit, so I bought it on sale and have put in about 30 hours so far.

I want to like it. I want to enjoy fucking around in a medieval setting and appreciate the many details in this game. The story has me sucked in so far, and like I said, I love the prospect of a gigantic RPG. But wtf is this gameplay? I get that it's not supposed to be easy, and I can look past the weird puppet feeling when I try to fight, but I feel trapped. I'm a broke idiot with no charisma and I get my ass kicked everywhere I go. I thought the whole point of video games was to escape real life. I decided to take a break from the main story, so I tried to go hit up the Miller's daughter to see what my options were. Next thing I know, I'm hunting down flower petals and linen with her like she's Big Boss on a total stealth mission.

Does it get better? And by better, I mean manageable. I'm worried I stumbled into something that's out of my league as an older, unskilled, semi-casual video game player. I'm not a masochistic Souls-like player that needs punishment in order to feel something. Should I stick with this game, or am I better off learning how to swordfight and pick locks in real life?

Edit: I'M GOING BACK IN FOR SOME MORE TIME WITH BERNARD! Thank you all for your feedback.

I guess I'll start because I don't have much, but I cherish them:

• I'm proud I got out of poverty "alone". I used to never get anything as a child as my family was very poor. I only had thrift store clothes until I was maybe 12 or 13. I left my father's home at 17 and today, I have a good career, a car (!), stable finances, and I can buy anything I want and save money! I did all that with pretty much zero support, nor help from my parents or friends (no money, no gifts, no car, no services...).

• I'm proud of achieving top 100 NA in WoW PvE multiple times, top 200 world on some bosses, as a guild. With my class as a DPS, I got multiple top 10 parses world on multiple bosses. I rode the high of seeing an orange parse on WoL many times.

• I'm proud to have "beaten" depression and to have a positive outlook in life. Everyone says I'm always happy and the truth is...I am, because I don't care about so many things you're not supposed to care about.

• I'm proud to have a healthy group of friends on my thirties. I still talk with many people and I always have people I can see or talk to. They do the same with me!

I like crying to sappy bingeworthy tv dramas.

I've just finished Parenthood, and before that I binged a lot of hospital ones like The good doctor, New Amsterdam, etc.

The setting isn't really important, except I can't stand law enforcement settings.

Spoken language doesn't matter as long as I can find it with subtitles.

The important thing seems to be stories that are reasonably realistic where people live their lifes and care about each other.

What do you recommend?

Edit: below is a list of recommendations, mostly for me to have an easy spot to find them

• Bunheads
• Friday night lights
• March Comes In Like a Lion
• This is us
• Shitt's creek
• The crown
• Brothers and sisters
• Scrubs
• Midnight Diner
• The good place
• Virgin river
• Gilmore girls
• Dawson's creek

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.

I've not bought a new router since 2010 because I try to physically wire everything in my house so it's pretty much my phone using Wifi.
However, I've found great use for my Steam Deck as a streaming platform on my TV using Moonlight and I'd like to get a new, good router to support it.
I think the Steam Deck can support Wifi 6, but I'd like a Wifi 7 router if possible so I can future proof the possibility of getting a new wireless VR headset too. Though I'm not 100% sold to the idea if there's good argument to just buy Wifi 6 today.

Long story short, I'm finding it really hard to choose what router to buy. There's so much "gamer" junk.
Reviews are all over the place too, site A will give a router a top recommend and site B will list off a huge range of cons.

Does anyone have any advice? I just want a good, reliable, high throughput router and I can't be bothered with the returns process to try and buy if possible.