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    1. Thinking about opening a web store, looking for advice

      I am mulling over starting a side business that would involve selling physical products. I would like to set up a web store for this, but want to keep the amount of web development I have to do to...

      I am mulling over starting a side business that would involve selling physical products. I would like to set up a web store for this, but want to keep the amount of web development I have to do to a minimum. I would also not like to invade my customers' and potential customers' privacy. Can anyone recommend a way to approach this? I'm a software developer, but don't do much web development and don't really want to do development for this project beyond just getting the site up and running. What options exist for setting up a simple web store?

      I've done a search and see things like Shopify. I've heard of them and get the impression they're reputable, but other items in my search seemed kind of scammy. Are there things I should look out for in this space?

      8 votes
    2. Recommended RSS feeds/readers?

      Inspired by this post, I was wondering what RSS feeds you all subscribe to and how you read them. Here are mine: http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/topNews...

      Inspired by this post, I was wondering what RSS feeds you all subscribe to and how you read them.

      Here are mine:
      http://feeds.reuters.com/reuters/topNews
      https://www.pbs.org/newshour/feeds/rss/headlines
      https://www.pbs.org/newshour/feeds/rss/world
      http://feeds.nature.com/nature/rss/current

      I'm just started using Newsboat, a CLI RSS reader, to read in a few feeds (Reuters was one of them :( ) and it's pretty refreshing to get a text-based newsfeed with no distraction. Though, the feeds I'm subscribed to only give me a brief blurb of the news...

      26 votes
    3. Using the menstrual cup and open menstrual discussion

      I'm a female working in the construction field and was wondering how to dispose of my feminine products discreetly and hygienically in a portable potty with a crew full of males where male...

      I'm a female working in the construction field and was wondering how to dispose of my feminine products discreetly and hygienically in a portable potty with a crew full of males where male toxicity exists... 'twas weird.

      I've been meaning to make the jump to the menstrual cup (due to my sustainability inclinations), but due to laziness/squeamish reasons, I didn't make the jump until I realized how practical it was with my profession!

      I'm able to keep it in for a half day before emptying, so it's awesome for the jobsite! I can urinate with it too! which is also awesome... and! NO SMELL! I feel so much cleaner now. and the internal pressure kinda releases some cramps... not all the cramps, but some! And it's totally comfortable to work out in (for reference: I do outdoor running). Not to mention, there's way less waste and cost! (And for those who find bodily fluids cool, the thick, deep, dark red that you see when you empty makes me feel powerful, like you can conquer anything... in reality, I just sit with my Chimmy plush and wait for my significant other to plop chocolate goodies in my lap.)

      The only downside I could find is that it took some time to get used to (about 1 cycle) and I can't hold my pee (I know I'm not suppose to anyway, but it's a nice privilege... these pipes had some major damage).

      Anyway, any cycle stories/tips/tricks? embarrassing moments? origin story?
      I'll go first, my mom was in a ferocious fight with my older sister for spending the night with some guy or whatever. As my mom was ripping my sister's clothes/throwing her out the house, I got my first period. I had to interrupt the fight to ask what I should do... middle child problems! I guess I found a good way to break up a fight...

      35 votes
    4. Is there a way to disable autocollapse of single line comment?

      I get the value prop of the default setting being to collapse the message, since it saves space and the whole message can be displayed, but my brain is at this point wired to ignore collapsed...

      I get the value prop of the default setting being to collapse the message, since it saves space and the whole message can be displayed, but my brain is at this point wired to ignore collapsed comments, so I find myself missing this one liners on tildes. I didn't see an option to have single single comments be expanded by default, does such a a feature exist?

      5 votes
    5. Is there a service where I can rent a Windows or macOS virtual machine?

      Hi, hope this is the right place for this question. I'd like to learn Autodesk Fusion 360, but all of my devices are running either Ubuntu or ChromeOS. I've tried to get F360 running on my ubuntu...

      Hi, hope this is the right place for this question. I'd like to learn Autodesk Fusion 360, but all of my devices are running either Ubuntu or ChromeOS. I've tried to get F360 running on my ubuntu desktop with both Wine and Lutris but I haven't had success. There is also a web application for F360 but it is feature limited.

      It seems like the only way to get this program running is to use a virtual machine, but I don't have much experience in this area. Do I need to buy a windows license and set up my own VM or is there a service where I can rent time on a preconfigured VM somewhere?

      Thanks for reading, hope to hear your suggestions.

      8 votes
    6. Reddit starts an Ethereum scalability competition in order to launch Community Points (monetization of karma) site-wide

      Here is the admin post in r/ethereum announcing the contest and below is the text of that post. Previous Tildes and r/TheoryOfReddit discussions on this: Tildes: Reddit is moving forward with...

      Here is the admin post in r/ethereum announcing the contest and below is the text of that post.


      Previous Tildes and r/TheoryOfReddit discussions on this:


      tl;dr: Do you believe your Ethereum scaling technology can handle Reddit's scale? It's time to let the Ethereum community hear about it. Send your demo in the comments by July 31, 2020.

      This is your chance to earn some fame but, to be clear, there is no prize if your solution is chosen or modified to meet Reddit’s needs. Our lawyer made us write this.

      https://preview.redd.it/q7hhi6lzlp551.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=cdb26cbbe59e26f4fc73da5740da1308e2a87579

      The Goal

      In conjunction with the Ethereum Foundation, Reddit is inviting Ethereum scaling projects to show the community how your scaling solution can be used to bring Community Points to mainnet. Our goal is to find a solution that will support hundreds of thousands of Community Points users on mainnet today, and can eventually scale to all of Reddit (430 million monthly users).

      We’ve evaluated some of the most promising scaling solutions, and have learned a few things:

      1. There are plenty of awesome projects that we don't know about yet. We seem to learn about a promising new scaling solution every day.
      2. Most existing scaling solutions focus on the exchange use case, which favors optimizing for transfers. Many of these designs don't take into consideration the costs of obtaining tokens or entering the scaling system, which can be significant. Community Points distributions have cost an order of magnitude more gas than all other operations combined, primarily due to on-chain storage costs associated with onboarding new users.
      3. It's unclear how to determine the best solution. There is a lot of code, a lot of documentation, and a lot of hype out there. But there are very few objective real-world reviews or comparisons of various products/implementations.
      4. We need the Ethereum community's help to figure this out.

      Do you have a scaling project that meets the criteria below? If so, share your demo in the comments of this post by July 31, 2020. Please note that all demos need to simulate Community Points usage for 100,000 users.

      We also invite all scaling experts in the Ethereum community to comment on any demos submitted to enable a better understanding of the trade-offs and compromises between different solutions.

      We will review the demos and plan to share any updates by September. While we don’t expect any novel scaling projects, we hope that you, the Ethereum scaling expert, can show us how to scale Community Points.

      Demos should include:

      1. A live proof of concept showing hundreds of thousands of transactions
      2. Source code (for on & off-chain components as well tooling used for the PoC). The source code does not have to be shared publicly, but if Reddit decides to use a particular solution it will need to be shared with Reddit at some point
      3. Documentation
        1. How it works & scales
        2. Cost estimates (on-chain and off-chain)
        3. How to run it
        4. Architecture
        5. APIs (on chain & off)
        6. Known issues or tradeoffs
      4. Summary of cost & resource information for both on-chain & off-chain components used in the PoC, as well as cost & resource estimates for further scaling. If your PoC is not on mainnet, make note of any mainnet caveats (such as congestion issues).

      Requirements

      Scaling. This PoC should scale to the numbers below with minimal costs (both on & off-chain). There should also be a clear path to supporting hundreds of millions of users.

      • Over a 5 day period, your scaling PoC should be able to handle:
        • 100,000 point claims (minting & distributing points)
        • 25,000 subscriptions
        • 75,000 one-off points burning
        • 100,000 transfers

      Decentralization. Solutions should not depend on any single third-party provider.

      • We prefer solutions that do not depend on specific entities such as Reddit or another provider, and solutions with no single point of control or failure in off-chain components, but recognize there are numerous trade-offs to consider

      Usability. Scaling solutions should have a simple end user experience.

      • Users shouldn't have to maintain any extra state/proofs, regularly monitor activity, keep track of extra keys, or sign anything other than their normal transactions
      • Transactions complete in a reasonable amount of time (seconds or minutes, not hours or days)
      • Free to use for end users (no gas fees, or fixed/minimal fees that Reddit can pay on their behalf)
      • Bonus points:
        • Users should be able to view their balances & transactions via a blockchain explorer-style interface
        • Exiting is fast & simple

      Interoperability. Compatibility with third party apps (wallets/contracts/etc) is necessary.

      • Scaling solutions should be extensible and allow third parties to build on top of it
      • APIs should be well documented and stable
      • Documentation should be clear and complete
      • Third-party permissionless integrations should be possible & straightforward
      • Simple is better. Learning an uncommon or proprietary language should not be necessary. Advanced knowledge of mathematics, cryptography, or L2 scaling should not be required. Compatibility with common utilities & toolchains is expected.
      • Bonus Points: Show us how it works. Do you have an idea for a cool new use case for Community Points? Build it!

      Security. Users have full ownership & control of their points.

      • Balances and transactions cannot be forged, manipulated, or blocked by Reddit or anyone else
      • Users should own their points and be able to get on-chain ERC20 tokens without permission from anyone else
      • Points should be recoverable to on-chain ERC20 tokens even if all third-parties involved go offline
      • A public, third-party review attesting to the soundness of the design should be available
      • Bonus points:
        • Public, third-party implementation review available or in progress
        • Compatibility with HSMs & hardware wallets

      Other Considerations

      • Minting/distributing tokens is not performed by Reddit directly [1]
      • One off point burning, as well as recurring, non-interactive point burning (for subreddit memberships [2]) should be possible and scalable
      • Fully open-source solutions are strongly preferred

      [1] In the current implementation, Reddit provides signed data for claims, but does not submit the actual claim transaction for the user (the user does that themselves). Note that smart contracts are considered independent of Reddit provided there is a path to decentralizing control over them.

      [2] Subreddit memberships are currently implemented as a contract acting as an ERC777-style operator that can burn points on a monthly basis, but we are open to changing that implementation.

      Community Points Overview

      To help you get started, this is an overview of how Community Points work today and some stats on how it's used. We are open to changing most implementation details, provided the basic requirements (above) are met.

      Usage stats over the past month

      Number of Community Points holders: ~17,500

      Number of transfers: ~20,000

      (reference: reddit.dappradar.com)

      Number of subreddit memberships: ~800

      Contracts

      Community Points is built around 3 contracts:

      1. SubredditPoints: the ERC20 token
      2. Distributions: manages token supply & token claims
      3. Subscriptions: enables membership subscriptions in the form of recurring token burn

      Deployed Contracts & Source Code

      r/FortniteBR

      SubredditPoints: https://rinkeby.etherscan.io/address/0xe0d8d7b8273de14e628d2f2a4a10f719f898450a

      Subscriptions: https://rinkeby.etherscan.io/address/0x396b89db5e9317ff25360c86bd4e2aae3bbc62ea

      Distributions: https://rinkeby.etherscan.io/address/0xc0c08af3f2a3f8d6730118e0d2de4367053ebddf

      r/CryptoCurrency

      SubredditPoints: https://rinkeby.etherscan.io/address/0xdf82c9014f127243ce1305dfe54151647d74b27a

      Subscriptions: https://rinkeby.etherscan.io/address/0x77cb2dbeadb7313242d7f3070ce8fc98e96080e4

      Distributions: https://rinkeby.etherscan.io/address/0x1c5122bfeba106eea33cf5bdf2004ab22213ca20

      Points Distribution & Claims

      Token supply is controlled by distribution rounds managed in the Distributions contract and triggered by Reddit. For each round (occurring ~monthly), Reddit submits a proposal for points distribution to a subreddit for approval. Once approved, Reddit issues signed claims for individual users according to the agreed upon points distribution. These claims can be redeemed on-chain. Claims are obtained from Reddit, and submitted to the Distributions contract, which validates the claim and calls the Subreddit Points contract to mint points.

      https://preview.redd.it/lunpaj18mp551.png?width=1120&format=png&auto=webp&s=da31db1db07cfe4f327692a7398772019b8eb7bd

      Memberships

      Subreddit memberships are obtained by burning points via the Subscriptions contract. Redditors can optionally configure their membership to be renewable on a monthly basis without additional interaction. The Subscriptions contract is granted permission to burn points by being configured as an ERC777-style default operator in the Subreddit Points contract.

      https://preview.redd.it/bqnvt50amp551.png?width=1120&format=png&auto=webp&s=812f46a0308aea370908eb73ca93abac810e58ba

      ***

      We'll be watching this thread and answering questions. Looking forward to what comes out of this!

      30 votes
    7. How do you plan or outline a program?

      I’m currently studying Python Object Oriented programming and got to a point where logic and syntax are the least of my problems. I always get to a stage where I’m completely lost between modules,...

      I’m currently studying Python Object Oriented programming and got to a point where logic and syntax are the least of my problems. I always get to a stage where I’m completely lost between modules, classes, objects and a sea of “selfs”.

      I’m not doing anything too complicated, just small projects for practice, but I think I would benefit from planning. My mental processes are highly disorganized (ADHD) and I need all the help I can get with that.

      I don’t need an automated tool (even though it might come in handy) -- sketching things out on paper is probably enough.

      I only know about UML, which seems fine. Can anyone recommend a tutorial about this and other tools?

      Edit to link my last attempt at following a tutorial:

      This is the last tutorial I tried to follow, a Pygame project from the book Python Crash Course 2ed. Following tutorials is frequently mostly typing, so what I achieved there is not a real representation of my abilities -- I would not be able to do something like that on my own. In fact, I failed to answer the latest exercises, which were basically smaller versions of this project.

      My problem is not with syntax and the basics of how OOP works, but rather with memory and organization of information.

      10 votes
    8. Food Escapades & Curry Fridays ! Classic Indian Green Curry / Chicken Handi

      Hello hello, sorry for being a bit late recently with these, been real tired hahah. Alas, I am still keeping the tradition and making these once a week, every Friday ! It's my little escape time,...

      Hello hello, sorry for being a bit late recently with these, been real tired hahah. Alas, I am still keeping the tradition and making these once a week, every Friday ! It's my little escape time, anyways :P Since I missed the writeup for last week, I'll be putting both on the same post for extra goodies for the fellow readers of this !

      June 5th:

      this week for my curry dish I have prepared a green indian curry ! Which, frankly, I didn't know existed in this form before.... If you know me, you know there are two foods that I really hate the most when raw, those being cilantro and yoghurt. So, when my dad sent me a green curry based on cilantro and yoghurt, I was a bit skeptical at first. I mean, surely combining both of my least hated ingredients together would make for a sensory disaster ! But, to my surprise, eating this was not as much of a pain as I thought it was going to be. No no, instead of being an awful pile of green mush, it ended up being quite nice chicken with a rich and tasty green sauce on top. Honestly, one of the most confusing and fun times of my life ! Cooking it was a bit of a hassle tho, since it did smell awful for me. But it was well worth it ! :P

      Picture of the dish: https://imgur.com/a/LNV3nAl
      Recipe: https://www.scrambledchefs.com/classic-indian-green-curry/

      June 12th:

      Hello hello, sorry for being a bit late recently with these, been real tired hahah. Alas, I am still keeping the tradition and making these once a week, every Friday ! It's my little escape time, anyways :P

      This week, I have prepared a dish I found on the channel Get Curried: Chicken Handi! It's a dish traditionally made in a special pan called a Handi, which I do not own! So I just used my trusty dutch oven pot. The recipe was a pretty simple curry, consisting of a mostly cream/yoghurt based sauce with a little tomato, varied spices, onion, and of course, chicken ! I think by it's own it was a pretty good recipe, but for me, what made it stand out was the fact that I used ghee for the first time in one of these. Took me 6 months to finally do it, but I bought a tub of ghee for this just to try it out. And...
      Oh My God.

      Ghee was an absolute game changer !!! The nutty, creamy flavour really propelled this dish into fantastic territories I didn't even know were possible ! I haven't been this ecstatic for a single ingredient in a while, but god damn. I truly believe ghee to be irreplaceable after this experience, I'll have to see if it impacts other dishes I've made a lot or not. But safe to say, this was such a great addition to my cooking ingredients. Will have to use again.

      On another note, here's a little anecdote about the whole cooking process from that day. Dad and I went to buy some yoghurt to make naan (which turned out quite amazing in the end), and he saw a tub of yoghurt that was on sale. Quite cheap, too. So without hesitation, he bought it. Once we got back home, he realized it was skim yoghurt, which wouldn't make for the best naan, but it's alright anyways. Once he started kneading the dough, he soon quickly realized that he had gotten... Vanilla yoghurt. So now, we had a whole batch of sugary naan dough which would definitely not work well with our curry and no yoghurt left for anything. In retrospect that was quite funny, lol.
      He did end up going for some yoghurt, though. We ended up making some pretty great naan, as I said before :P

      Anyhoo, great recipe that I'd REALLY recommend doing, especially if you're using ghee! But maybe don't use too much, we made the mistake of adding a bit much, which made a really big grease pool on top, which could be unappetising. But hey, you ain't hearing me complain about it :P

      Picture of the dish: https://imgur.com/a/uEi00Q9
      Recipe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IO0issT0Rmc
      Question of the day: what foods have had a "click" in your lifetime? Perhaps something you have once hated, but then suddenly just finally understood. It's happened to me a few times, curious to see if anyone else has gotten that feeling hahahah.

      Have a great day and STAY SAFE ! <3
      Tomi, your friendly neighbourhood marshmallow~

      7 votes
    9. What 'classic' bands or artists do you think are overrated? And can you suggest any alternatives?

      You know how sometimes there's that hit song (or artist) that's super popular but you just don't like it? Sometimes it's because it's ubiquitous to the point you begin to resent it, but sometimes...

      You know how sometimes there's that hit song (or artist) that's super popular but you just don't like it? Sometimes it's because it's ubiquitous to the point you begin to resent it, but sometimes it's actually because the song isn't really that good. Those songs will be considered classics in a couple decades though, and there probably won't be too much push back on that from people who were around when it first came out. Some of my uncles used to be DJs, and they've put me onto old bands I'd never heard of before, but by all accounts the music they think was the best was popular back then too.

      I'm sure we can all name examples of current music hits/acts that probably will perhaps undeservedly achieve that classic status in the future, but what about past music? Personally, I'm all about the deep cuts, and sometimes I wonder if I would have liked some of the bigger acts if I came up during those eras. For example, no matter how I try I can't really get into the Beatles, but I'm not sure how much of that is taste and how much is just being from a subsequent era that had already absorbed all the changes they made to pop music.

      Of course, radio was a lot more important in the old days, and people having a lot less access to their own choice of music back then as compared to now would have shaped their tastes, but let's try to leave that aside.

      Edit: I'm not just talking about rock music, btw. If you think Chopin is overrated, by all means, make your case.

      13 votes
    10. The case against ~news

      The longer I use Tildes, the more I question the effectiveness of ~news. /r/news made sense on reddit, where they didn't have a robust cross-group tagging and filtering system. I think Tildes be...

      The longer I use Tildes, the more I question the effectiveness of ~news.

      /r/news made sense on reddit, where they didn't have a robust cross-group tagging and filtering system. I think Tildes be better served by eliminating ~news entirely and replacing it with a news tag with a date property, which would allow for nice chronological filtering for catching up on news stories, especially if the article date could be scraped somehow. Miss a week of news? Search the tag with a date range, get all news stories for last week, perhaps with a minimum comment threshold to see what sparked discussion.

      I think ~gov (or politics) would be needed as a replacement, as it's a major driver of most news stories, but there's so much more to politics than just news, and those discussions don't exactly fit anywhere nicely at the moment, esp if it's a random blog post relating to recent events in the news. Almost every other group serves as a nice catch-all for most other common news categories.

      The only issue I would see would be when ~gov would overlap with the other categories, which would likely happen a lot..but that happens with the current ~news too. I think that could be further mitigated by having a sort of x-post system blurring the lines of tags and groups even more, where ~gov would take precedence but posts would then also appear in the tagged groups for users not following governance otherwise.

      That's actually a foundation of my more insane idea of completely eliminating traditional groups by letting people build their own groups in the form of prioritized tags, but that's another post for another time.

      17 votes
    11. How to keep my cake from getting crumbly

      The month of May brings my birthday and wedding anniversary, so we usually end up making a cake or two. We don't usually do anything fancy. Usually a store-made cake. But this year with the...

      The month of May brings my birthday and wedding anniversary, so we usually end up making a cake or two. We don't usually do anything fancy. Usually a store-made cake. But this year with the pandemic, we ended up just getting some boxed cakes - Betty Crocker, Duncan Hines. Those sorts of things.

      The problem is that they call for eggs and I'm allergic to egg yolks. (Not egg whites, oddly enough - just egg yolks.) So I've found some egg substitute. It works pretty well considering there's no egg in it. But I've found that when I use it in cakes, sometimes they turn out just fine, and other times they end up falling apart.

      I know that eggs can be used for flavor, as a rising agent, as a binder, etc. but it's not clear to me how to tell which thing it's being used for in a given recipe. So my question is, in the case of a cake, are there other things I could substitute for egg yolks? The stuff I'm using has potato starch, baking powder, and psyllium husks. I guess the baking powder handles the rising aspect and the psyllium husks are probably like a binder? Are there other things I could be using?

      6 votes
    12. Poetry analysis/appreciation request - Morning, by Frank O'Hara

      I'm an undoubted pleb when it comes to just about everything artistic (with the exception of music, in which I have impeccable taste). A while back, I suggested I'd be interested in seeing some...

      I'm an undoubted pleb when it comes to just about everything artistic (with the exception of music, in which I have impeccable taste). A while back, I suggested I'd be interested in seeing some critique or general discussion of already-known or published poetry, if only so I could get others' opinions on things that usually go over my head. This is an effort to get the ball rolling, with a poem that is one of my favorites.

      Also, I'm not sure if this belongs here or in ~arts, please classify as appropriate.


      Morning - Frank O'Hara

      I've got to tell you
      how I love you always
      I think of it on grey
      mornings with death

      in my mouth the tea
      is never hot enough
      then and the cigarette
      dry the maroon robe

      chills me I need you
      and look out the window
      at the noiseless snow

      At night on the dock
      the buses glow like
      clouds and I am lonely
      thinking of flutes

      I miss you always
      when I go to the beach
      the sand is wet with
      tears that seem mine

      although I never weep
      and hold you in my
      heart with a very real
      humor you'd be proud of

      the parking lot is
      crowded and I stand
      rattling my keys the car
      is empty as a bicycle

      what are you doing now
      where did you eat your
      lunch and were there
      lots of anchovies it

      is difficult to think
      of you without me in
      the sentence you depress
      me when you are alone

      Last night the stars
      were numerous and today
      snow is their calling
      card I'll not be cordial

      there is nothing that
      distracts me music is
      only a crossword puzzle
      do you know how it is

      when you are the only
      passenger if there is a
      place further from me
      I beg you do not go

      7 votes
    13. How many hours per day are you working?

      If you are tracking your time, how many hours of focused work are you doing per day on average? What I mean with focused work is only the time that you are working. Not counting the time you take...

      If you are tracking your time, how many hours of focused work are you doing per day on average?

      What I mean with focused work is only the time that you are working. Not counting the time you take a break, not counting the time you go to the bathroom, not counting the time you get up to drink water, etc. If you don't stop your time-tracker during non-work activities, please mention it.

      14 votes
    14. What's your "hype song"?

      Short of drugs, I find music to be one of the most effective ways of inducing an emotional state on demand. If you want to hype yourself up, get that adrenaline flowing, what's your go-to song?...

      Short of drugs, I find music to be one of the most effective ways of inducing an emotional state on demand. If you want to hype yourself up, get that adrenaline flowing, what's your go-to song?

      For me, it's definitely DJ Mehdi - Signatune (Thomas Bangalter edit). Hard-hitting French House. It's repetitive and brutal, and not at all what I would choose for a cozy, relaxed listening experience. But god damn if it doesn't get the adrenaline flowing.

      What's yours?

      17 votes
    15. Any recommendations for reading classic non-fiction in modern times?

      I've been on a long and steady roll reading classic literature, both fiction and non-fiction. I think it's important to get a perspective from earlier times that influenced our current culture and...

      I've been on a long and steady roll reading classic literature, both fiction and non-fiction. I think it's important to get a perspective from earlier times that influenced our current culture and also because many of these works have withstood the test of time.

      However, I'm having real trouble reading some of the non-fiction e.g. Plato's Republic and Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals. With both fiction and non-fiction I accompany my readings with Sparknotes to make sure I'm not missing anything important. In the case of non-fiction I often can barely get a cohesive thought out of the original text. In some cases the text is too old to be understood on it's own and in others the author has great ideas but poor writing (e.g. Nietzsche, famously). But Sparknote's is much too brief—I'd like a more involved experience.

      My request is this: I'm looking for books (or resources to find such books) about classic non-fiction that

      1. distill the concepts without watering them down
      2. provide context with either modern culture and/or other works that are related
      3. are written for an intelligent layman; prose meant to communicate to a non-expert audience but with scholarly rigor

      Basically, I read at a high level but I am not a professional scholar of literature, philosophy or history, yet I would like to have a bridge to such an understanding.

      EDIT: I found this site to be exactly what I was looking for: https://plato.stanford.edu/index.html

      10 votes
    16. How do you get a promotion when you work in a remote office?

      Some years ago, I wrote a book about telecommuting, including a section about the reasons people don't want to be remote workers. High on the list was, "It's too hard to move up in the company"...

      Some years ago, I wrote a book about telecommuting, including a section about the reasons people don't want to be remote workers. High on the list was, "It's too hard to move up in the company" because if you're out of sight, you're out of mind.

      Well, now suddenly nearly everybody is a telecommuter, whether or not they like the idea. So that particular skill is particularly relevant. And I've been assigned an article on "How to 'manage up' when you work from home." I'd like your input.

      My article is meant to compile practical how-to tips for people working from home on “how to stay on your boss's radar.” What advice do you have to share?

      Ideally: Give me a bullet point (“Do XYZ”), why (“It accomplishes this”), and perhaps an anecdote sharing how it made a difference.

      Please don’t expend energy telling me why it’s important, or what the barriers are. Take that as a given. I’m looking for solid “Do this” suggestions.

      17 votes
    17. Food Escapades & Curry Fridays ! Bon Appetit's Chana Masala

      hello hello dear friends ! I am here once again a little late on my curry posting this week... the whole world is just so in shambles right now! It's a bit of a heavy subject so I'll refrain from...

      hello hello dear friends !

      I am here once again a little late on my curry posting this week... the whole world is just so in shambles right now! It's a bit of a heavy subject so I'll refrain from talking too much about it, but it's certainly affected me personally if I am honest. Might be a factor in why I decided for something so simple this week hahaha.

      Anyways, we've got another Chana Masala this week ! Yes yes, the third week I do this recipe, and it's still quite a kicker ! This time, I used a recipe from the trusty ol' Bon Appetit, which was honestly probably the easiest one of all the ones I have made. Just put some tomatoes on some onions and add curry powder and chickpeas and BLAMO ! a delicious, hearty meal ! It's still crazy to me that such things like this exist... It took me like, what, a few minutes to dice and brown an onion ? then wait 20 minutes ? and then I get to have such a nice and happy time with my parents eating at the table together and cherishing moments together... all from something as simple as this! it really is a marvel, I tell ya.

      Picture of the dish: https://imgur.com/a/MORtjiv
      Recipe: https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/chana-masala
      Question of the day: What is a food that you absolutely adore that is also quite healthy ?

      Have a great day and STAY SAFE ! <3
      Tomi, your friendly neighbourhood marshmallow~

      6 votes
    18. DuckTales (2017)

      You know, I can't get over how good DuckTales is. It's clever, funny, beautiful and well-animated. The voice actors are fantastic (Tennant is Scrooge! Lin-Manuel Miranda is Gizmoduck!). You know,...

      You know, I can't get over how good DuckTales is. It's clever, funny, beautiful and well-animated. The voice actors are fantastic (Tennant is Scrooge! Lin-Manuel Miranda is Gizmoduck!).

      You know, I tried watching the old one, just to have something to compare to, and it's shocking how bad it is compared to the new one (I needed several days to get through the first episode). Some examples:

      • Donald Duck still has the "duck voice", but he's the only one with it, and I won't spoil it but it's more of a gag nobody acknowledges. The old ducktales has everyone with voice quirks and it is just irritating to listen to.
      • In the remake, the triplets have three proper very distinct personalities. They dress differently, have different voices, behave differently.
      • Scrooge really is a miser in the old series, in a "how did this guy ever become a billionaire" way (I'll walk for four hours instead of spending $10 on a taxi my time is worth zero yaaay). The new one has him be a penny-pincher, but he actually has some business sense. Hell, there's quite a few jokes at the expense of silicon valley… which I will not spoil.
      • The 2017 Gyro Gearloose is kind of a dick, and it's great! The "mad scientist with dubious intent" angle is a pretty cool addition to the cast.

      I've thoroughly enjoyed my first watch-through, and I'm really enjoying leaving it running in the background to rewatch it. Highly recommended as an "adult" kids show. It is 100% on the same level as Gravity Falls.

      13 votes
    19. "Man, I didn't want to grow up to this."

      So we have all these people, and they all seem to be pissed. So many people and they all seem to have... something amiss. Many of these people, their concerns are just... entirely dismissed: By...

      So we have all these people, and they all seem to be pissed.

      So many people and they all seem to have... something amiss.

      Many of these people, their concerns are just... entirely dismissed:

      By other people with the same problems who somehow look at these perfectly normal people and react: "I have been nixed!"

      These problems are pervasive in our memories and experiences and on a metaphorical wall they are fixed;

      And yet the root causes are consistently misinterpreted, and ultimately missed.

      And the result is we are betting everything for the sake of getting our cathartic and revengeful fix?

      That is being delivered to us by people that if they were to meet us, would utterly reject us and loudly hiss?

      And if that gamble fails I will be the one to pick up the scraps, and mop up the piss?

      Man, I didn't want to grow up to this.

      9 votes
    20. Phone automation - Share your workflows!

      I recently switched operating systems on my phone and lost some of the automated workflows I had during the transition. While I've rebuilt some of it, but it sometimes feels like I'm missing...

      I recently switched operating systems on my phone and lost some of the automated workflows I had during the transition. While I've rebuilt some of it, but it sometimes feels like I'm missing something or that I could do more, I just don't know what exactly. I'd like to hear from others here and see if they can inspire me to implement what works for them. I'm using an android phone with automate and here's the workflows that I got:

      • When plugging in the phone, set it to do not disturb and enable Bluetooth. This is for when I go to sleep so that I don't get woken up by notifications and I can listen to podcasts on my headband.
      • If at work (Based on cell towers, not GPS) set phone to vibrate, when leaving it set it to ring. I actually lost this one but haven't rebuilt it since I've not been to the office in a while.
      • Learn location. For a set time, grabs the cell towers around and stores them in a JSON file.

      What kind of automation have you implemented on your phone?

      18 votes
    21. For those in marriages or long-term relationships, what do you do with mementos of previous relationships?

      I recently went through some old boxes and found my collection of mementos - birthday cards, love letters, ticket stubs, etc. - from years gone by. I'm not convinced marriage will ever be for me,...

      I recently went through some old boxes and found my collection of mementos - birthday cards, love letters, ticket stubs, etc. - from years gone by. I'm not convinced marriage will ever be for me, but I've always imagined if I were to get to that point, I'd want to show such a collection to my SO as a way for them to fully understand my story, so to speak. On the one hand, I think of it as a pretty powerful expression of trust in your partner... but I realize the potential for that to massively backfire by introducing jealousy and insecurities. At the same time, I'm very strongly of the belief that what is shared within a relationship is not to be shared with others outside it without mutual consent. I hate gossip, and have had my share of conflict throughout the years over desiring more privacy and discretion in my various SO's conversations with their friends and family about us. That means I would probably choose to leave aside certain things out of respect for my exes, but then I'm not sure if that devalues the gesture.

      Any thoughts?

      24 votes
    22. Who are some of your local musicians that are really cool, but are relatively unknown to the world?

      So recently YouTube recommended to me this young man. His dance moves captivated me and some of the songs got stuck in my head even though I don't speak a word of Icelandic. Later I found out that...

      So recently YouTube recommended to me this young man. His dance moves captivated me and some of the songs got stuck in my head even though I don't speak a word of Icelandic. Later I found out that Daði Freyr was in the contest for Eurovision, so I guess that's why YouTube recommended him.

      My question is this: if you're from a non-English speaking country, what are some of the cool musicians would you like to share with the world?

      I'll start by mentioning Theodor Bastard. You might have heard them if you played Pathologic 2, personally I adore steppe version of Darkness from the OST
      I'd like to also mention Nautilus Pompilius. They have been disbanded for a long time now, their lead lyrics writer had died and their front man does not deserve much respect now, but Летучий Фрегат (Flying Frigate) from the first album still gets me every time, even though it's not very good technically. I'll throw in Крылья (Wings) too

      11 votes
    23. How do you design a Proof of Concept project for a new dev/test tool?

      Input wanted for an article. Let's say that your company is considering the purchase of an expensive new application to help in the company's software development. The demo looks great, and the...

      Input wanted for an article.

      Let's say that your company is considering the purchase of an expensive new application to help in the company's software development. The demo looks great, and the feature list makes it sound perfect for your needs. So your Management arranges for a proof of concept license to find out if the software is worth the hefty investment. The boss comes to you to ask you to be in charge of the PoC project.

      I'm aiming to write an article to help developers, devops, and testers determine if a given vendor's application meets the company's needs. The only assumption I'm making is that the software is expensive; if it's cheap, the easy answer is, "Buy a copy for a small team and see what they think." And I'm thinking in terms of development software rather than enterprise tools (e.g. cloud-based backup) though I suspect many of the practices are similar.

      Aside: Note that this project is beyond "Decide if we need such a thing." In this scenario, everyone agrees that purchasing a tool is a good idea, and they agree on the baseline requirements. The issue is whether this is the right software for the job.

      So, how do you go about it? I'm sure that it's more than "Get a copy and poke at it randomly." How did (or would) you go about designing a PoC project? If you've been involved in such a project in the past (particularly if the purchase wasn't ideal), what advice could someone have given you to help you make a better choice? I want to create a useful guide that applies to any "enterprise-class" purchase.

      For example: Do you recommend that the PoC period be based on time (N months) or workload (N transactions)? How do you decide who should be on the PoC team? What's involved in putting together a comprehensive list of requirements (e.g. integrates with OurFavoredDatabase, meets performance goals of X), creating a test suite that exercises what the software dev product does, and evaluating the results? ...and what am I not thinking of, that I should?

      7 votes
    24. Questions about graphics card failures

      TL;DR: How long should a graphics card last? What can I do to make them last longer? This is perhaps an odd question to ask, but I've been a console gamer for most of my life and have only been...

      TL;DR: How long should a graphics card last? What can I do to make them last longer?

      This is perhaps an odd question to ask, but I've been a console gamer for most of my life and have only been all-in on PC gaming for maybe 1-2 years and I think I may be missing something.

      So there has been about three times when I have spent money on a half-decent graphics card, and each time they have failed me. The first one was a genuine hardware failure, probably a memory failure judging from the artifacting. The second one failed for reasons I have been unable to figure out. It didn't appear to be overheating, but I was getting driver errors that suggested it were; reinstalling from scratch did nothing to fix it.

      The last, most current one is the one that bugs me the most. I'm getting the same problems; driver crashes just like overheating, except this one has better temperature monitoring and I can see that isn't happening.

      I previously thought that the reason why my graphics cards would always crap out on me was because those were cheaper cards from less reputable manufacturers, but this last one is really bugging me because it's relatively high end and from a reputable manufacturer - it's a Gigabyte Radeon RX 5700, complete with the giant AMD reference cooler. I'm getting it RMAed, but since I didn't keep the receipt I am still going to have to pay to fix it even though it should theoretically be under warranty.

      I've done a ton of searching to find out how I can possibly solve this myself, but I am frankly astounded by how little information the drivers give out on Windows. I'm seeing that the device is being reported as unavailable but nothing whatsoever as to why.

      To make matters worse, it seems like this isn't actually common for other people. Most people seem to be replacing their graphics card because they are obsolete, not because they physically fail.

      So basically what I am asking is, how long is a graphics card actually supposed to last for? Do I just have astonishingly bad luck?

      10 votes
    25. Thinking of getting an HD antenna

      I wasn't sure if this should go in ~tech or ~tv. Feel free to move if it's more appropriate over there. I am planning to cut the cord soon and get rid of cable TV. I have an older TiVo Premiere...

      I wasn't sure if this should go in ~tech or ~tv. Feel free to move if it's more appropriate over there.

      I am planning to cut the cord soon and get rid of cable TV. I have an older TiVo Premiere that's rarely over 5% full. I'd like to get an indoor HDTV antenna to connect it to for those rare occasions when we want to watch something live, or record something off broadcast TV. I know next to nothing about HDTV antennas, though. I see that BestBuy carries them for prices from ~$20 to ~$120. I'd like one that works well and can be kept out of sight. (I've read some can even be painted over!) Does anyone have any recommendations or any things I should be aware of in getting one?

      8 votes
    26. password, the typing game, is about to receive mobile support

      I've been working on the mobile version of password for a while now, mostly lending to the fact that much of the infrastructure of the game required expansion to accomodate for that. Plus, this...

      I've been working on the mobile version of password for a while now, mostly lending to the fact that much of the infrastructure of the game required expansion to accomodate for that. Plus, this sort of gameplay on mobile is a new territory for me, which makes it both worrisome and exciting.

      Long story short, you can preview the mobile gameplay of password with the same link:

      Play the game.

      The gameplay is different from the desktop version. Here, you have to tap the keys in the order of their number: 1, then 2, then 3, and so on until the last key. Tapping keys out of order (4, then 6) results in a foul, which takes away a bit of time. Tapping all keys in the correct order means you win the round and get awarded the score. Other instructions are on screen.

      It is NOT the final version. It's playable but contains some visual bugs. I'm gonna work on fixing those in the coming weeks. Right now, I'm looking for feedback:

      • How does the mobile gameplay feel?
      • How does the sizing of the score looks?
      • Are there any problems with swiping or tapping?
      • How does the timer bar look on smaller screens? (Think smaller than iPhone X.)
      • How does the timer look on devices that have a notch?
      • Does it load the correct version at all? (If you're on a mobile device – smartphones and tablets – you should not see keyboard references. If you do, it didn't load the correct version of gameplay.)

      Desktop gameplay has only received visual updates. You can still play it with the same link.

      Let me know if you encounter issues. You can post here, or you can open an issue in the GitHub repo. If you do, make sure to provide what information you can on the issue, like what sort of a device you're using (maker, model, OS version, browser etc.): this helps figure out the problem easier and quicker.

      I know of these issues so far, and am working on resolving them:

      • after pressing the last key of the order (8 right now), the red border flashes, as if you've received a foul (you don't)
      • score has to fully animate towards the final value before it resizes to fit the screen
      • swiping distance may or may not be too short, so it may feel as though it doesn't register
      16 votes
    27. Are there any datahoarders in here?

      Datahoarders are people who will keep an absurdly large amount of data on a number of large capacity hard drives. That data can be anything from 4K movies, family photos and recordings, archives,...

      Datahoarders are people who will keep an absurdly large amount of data on a number of large capacity hard drives. That data can be anything from 4K movies, family photos and recordings, archives, YouTube channels... anything really. I find this practice to be intriguing. Do you feel like this description may apply to yourself?

      If so, do tell us more about your endeavor: do you collect anything you can get your hands on or do you have a more specific aim? Do you share any of it? Do you have a particular setup? That could be hardware, software or some cloud subscription.

      28 votes
    28. A series of articles on the state of American democracy from early 2015 by Vox

      American democracy is doomed ('constitutional hardball' is a great way to describe the 'modus operandi' of the Trump-McConnell GOP.) This is how the American system of government will die I found...

      American democracy is doomed ('constitutional hardball' is a great way to describe the 'modus operandi' of the Trump-McConnell GOP.)

      This is how the American system of government will die

      I found their predictions to be kinda interesting (and clearly minimal)

      The best-case scenario is that we wind up with an elective dictator but retain peaceful transitions of power. This is where I'd place my bet. Pure parliamentary systems, especially unicameral ones, give high levels of power to the prime minister and his cabinet, and manage to have peaceful transitions nonetheless. The same is true in Brazil, where the presidency is considerably more powerful than it is in the US.

      But parliamentary systems also feature parties that are stronger than their leaders, which serve to prevent single individuals from garnering too much power. America's parties are getting more polarized, but they still aren't as strong as those of most other developed nations.

      The worst-case scenario is if the presidency attains these powers and someone elected to the office decides to use them to punish political enemies, interfere with elections, suppress dissent, and so forth. Retaining an independent enough judiciary is a guard against this, but only if norms around obeying its rulings are strong. And, unusually, America allows for true independents, undisciplined by their parties, to become heads of government.

      The US political system is not gonna collapse. It's gonna muddle though (A pretty interesting take. There are problems but people won't try to fix them but instead become disengaged and kinda forget about it.)

      I think one of the things the authors missed while writing these this is how news became partidarized in the same manner, thus allowing outlets like Fox News to just consume the Republican electorate. They also missed how voting has been targeted too, and underestimated how willing the public was to act and how would the public react to this, which was by electing someone who didn't care about said broken Congress (or any sort of constitutionality), which is what became of Trump.

      3 votes
    29. How can Tildes combat corruption?

      Disclaimer I was going to post this on ~tildes but thought we could have a more casual conversation about it here. So how can tildes stop corruption from happening on its platform, it’s no secret...

      Disclaimer I was going to post this on ~tildes but thought we could have a more casual conversation about it here.

      So how can tildes stop corruption from happening on its platform, it’s no secret that other similar websites have become corrupted the best example of this is Reddit they do what advertisers want them to do or who ever is giving them money, only a couple of days ago I saw this video about a guy who was running a cult on there recruiting vulnerable people and they did nothing because he was buying thousands of awards a day.

      Tildes doesn’t have advertising and is a non profit with no investors so those are 2 big places it can’t get corrupted from. One place I could see problems is donations I would be interested in if all donations are Anonymous I should probably have looked into them before writing this but maybe someone else knows the answer, if they aren’t what is stopping big donators getting special treatment?

      My main reason for this topic is the video mentioned above but I also thought it would make an interesting discussion on here.

      13 votes