Context: Last year I struggled for a long, long time to make my new Xbox Elite Series 2 gamepad work properly with Steam. After more than a day of frustration and following various trails of other discussions on the topic, I finally figured out the exact series of actions needed to solve the issue. I posted these steps on Reddit, and they ended up getting me dozens of comments and messages, even as recently as yesterday people still let me know that I saved them from the same frustration. With reddit in its current state of uncertainty, I'd hate for this guide to be lost, so I'm hoping new readers and controller fanatics will find it useful here.

The Problem: You have a Xbox Elite Series 2 Controller, which you are trying to use in Steam on Windows. When using the default (no profile lights) profile mode, the paddles are detected and can be mapped in Steam Controller config. However, they still register no input in-game when pressed. Here is how to fix your problem:

The Solution:

Step 1: You must first revert the firmware of the controller to version 4.8.1908.0. On a PC with your controller plugged in, open the Xbox Accessories app (from the Windows Store), then hit Windows + R to open the Run dialog. Run this command:

xboxaccessories:\firmwareupdate?legacyDowngrade=true

This should give you option to revert. Do it.

Step 2: In Steam Big Picture, go to Gear Icon -> Controller Settings and Enable Xbox Extended Feature Support if it isn't already checked. After enabling it you will have to Reboot. If it's already enabled, there is no need to reboot.

Step 3: Back to the desktop, make sure the Xbox Accessories app is CLOSED. If it is open, you must close it, then disconnect the controller entirely, then power it off, and then finally reconnect it to the computer.

Step 4: Press the central profile button on the controller a few times until it cycles through the profiles. You need to cycle it until the profile light turns off, indicating the controller is in its default layout.

Step 5: Open Steam's controller configuration for your game of choice, and you should now be able to re-map the paddles therein.

Every time I have done the above process, the paddles on the default profile (with no lights on) are now mappable in Steam and usable in-game. I have completed this successfully now with five total controllers, and all worked with Steam flawlessly afterward.

Notes & Clarifications:

• You do not have to uninstall the Xbox Accessories app. However, if ever you use it to modify the controller at all, you must repeat step 3. If you try to use the steam-remapped paddles in the game with the app open, they won't work. You have to turn off the app, disconnect and power cycle the controller, and then reconnect, and very specifically do not re-open the accessories app. I'm assuming this is because the Accessories app inserts some kind of override layer that only goes away after removing the controller and closing the app.
• This process will almost certainly make the Bluetooth connection wonky, if it even works at all. Instead, you'll want to use either a direct cable connection and/or the official wireless adapter. In fact, all of the above steps worked for me with the wireless adapter connection just as well as with the wired connection. As a bonus, you can seamlessly transition between wired and wireless mode this way by simply plugging or unplugging the cable.
• At least as of May 2023, I've received now multiple reports saying that newer purchases of the Elite 2 controller are being shipped with the controller now pre-flashed with a default firmware that is newer than the one that was available in the above post. As a result, this means that rolling back the firmware might not work, as it can't be rolled back to version 4.8.1908.0 anymore. However, I have since purchased two more new controllers of my own since then, and neither had this issue, and in fact both worked with Steam immediately out of the box (after telling Xbox app "no!" to firmware upgrades, that is).

I hope I have posted this correctly (it's my first post here!), and that others continue to find it useful.

People often propose the question of if you were trapped in a video game world which would be best, but which one would be the absolute worst possible one. Really think about it too cause like being in like a zombie apocalypse or under a brutal dictatorship would be bad, but it could definitely get worse.

What was your first programming language, what other languages (if any) do you know now, and what tips do you have for those trying to learn any of those? Whether those tips are for beginners or even advanced, to do with APIs, or if you've got a good library to share.

I have the opportunity to purchase a house in a beach town that would double as both a vacation home for myself and a short term rental property. This would be my first foray into the world of short term rentals so I was hoping to get your general advice, guidance, and experience.

I should mention that I think I've got a pretty good grasp on the financial aspects of it, i.e. the mortgage, rental rates, fees to the town and rental platforms, taxes, insurance, etc.

I'm more curious about things such as:

• Do you recommend using an umbrella management company to handle cleaning, maintenance, landscaping, etc. or do you outsource an individual cleaning service, handyman, etc.?
• What type of "filtering" do you recommend to make sure you're renting to people who will respect the property?
• What sort of furniture, linens, etc. do you recommend?
• Are there any gotchas that you didn't expect when getting into this line of work?

1. Read Part 107 from the official government website of the Cod Of Federal Regulations This is a very easy to read list of the do's and don't under Part 107. Any study guide that does not tell you to read this is a bad study guide.

2. Read Remote Pilot -- Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Study Guide - This is an official study guide put out by the FAA. Either save it to your computer/phone or print it off and mark it up as you read. But read this cover to cover and comprehend it. It is 88 pages, but this alone could pretty much get you to pass the Part 107 exam. There isn't a single YouTube video out there that covers all of this.

3. Read the official FAA ruling on "Operations Over People General Overview". This details new requirements for flying over other people. There are 4 categories and this can get a little bit confusing. There is a great dedicated Youtube Video from a small channel run by a gentleman named Tim McKay who explains it all crystal clear.

4. Read the official FAA requirements for Night Operations.  This has changed in the last year.

5. By this point you pretty much know everything you need to. But we want to have a thorough understanding of everything not just basic knowledge so we can "just pass" the test. Fog is a topic that will come up on your test. Make sure you understand the characteristics and causes of each of the 6 major types of fog. A great resource for this is Fly8MA.Com Flight Trainings video.

6. Sectional Charts. You've already read about them in the study guide, but practice these. Try to memorize which lines mean what. But if you forget always remember there is a legend in the front of your supplement book that you will have on test day. Some great tools I used for this were:

   1. Altitude Universities FAA Part 107 Study Guide [How To Read A Sectional Chart]. They teach you almost all of what you need to know, but he also teaches you a great "game" you can use to practice.
   2. Fly8MA.Com Flight Trainings - Video on Advanced Sectional Chart Knowledge. You see a lot of lazy videos out there on "5 Tricky questions about sectional charts on the part 107 test". Well this video will make it so there are no tricky questions!

7. Understand abbreviations for METAR and TAF reports. Weather.GOV has a chart of this. You certainly do not need to memorize every single one of them. But the major ones regarding precipitation, cloud, winds, max, min, began/begin, end, etc. A great way I learned to read these was to install the Avia Weather app on my Android phone and use that for my weather app for a few weeks. It presents weather in METAR format. It forced me to learn to read them. I would see new abbreviations pretty regularly and then look them up and know them. You can also spend some time using the Aviation Weather Center website. It provides METAR reports and you can decode them to verify your answers.

8. Understand air masses, fronts & clouds. This too comes directly from the FAA. It is comically old looking, but the information was incredibly helpful. It is 30 pages with tons of pictures. It helped supplement the knowledge from the official study guide on the 3 phases of every storm cloud. I probably have 4-5 questions on this during my test. If you understand weather you almost don't even need to study much on the effects it has on and aircraft because it all becomes incredibly easy to process.

9. Density Altitude & Pressure Altitude. This is one I see almost never talked about. Sure enough I had a question for this on my part 107 test.

10. Know how to talk on a radio. You will basically never have to do this, but I had two questions on radio procedure come up. One was how to contact ATC for authorization via radio (you never ever do this) the other was how something would be properly announced using phonetic alphabet. This video from Fly With the Guys does a great job of digging deeper into this.

11. Spend the time to understand Aeronautical Decision Making (ADM) The video series I watched was 4 parts. Here is part 1. When I initially read through the study guide this didn't quite click with me, but the videos helped a ton.

12. Understand Weight & Balance basics for aircraft. A guy named Jeffery Bannish has a pretty great video on this. Understand loads during banked flight. I had multiple questions on this on my test as well.

13. Lastly. This one is completely optional. It cost me $15. John Peltier of Peltier Photo Courses has a bank of $300 questions he put together into a test that you can take as many times as you like. It picks 60 random questions so you are not taking the same test over and over. When you buy it you can access the test for 2 months. I probably took his test 10 times over the course of the month I was studying. What I would do is take the test once each day. Then review any questions I got wrong and I would spend time to learn the correct answer. As I would learn the correct answer I would absorb additional information. The next day I would take the test again. Get some new questions and repeat the process. After about 4 days I started routinely getting 94-98% on the practice tests.

I'm here on the invitation of someone else, and not sure what this new website is all about yet/ the space stuff seems pretty scant, so anyone got a question about space they need answering?

For those who don't know me from the certain other website, I am a radio astronomer currently at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian. Known under this user account on a certain other website for comments that begin with "astronomer here!"

My typical approach is one that I believe is pretty common: Reading the response header for current count and waiting if the limit is reached.

However, I am currently working with a couple of APIs which don't implement that and are currently set up with rate limits on an honesty system.

Is it a case of throwing sleep statements into you code, or using some kind of "bucket" and "lock" system?

I'd be interested to see any simple implementation people have used (the simpler the better).

What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

At the moment some people will say that Shepherd's Pie and Cottage Pie are the same thing (mince meat, sometimes vegetables, covered with potato mash and oven baked), and other people will say that Shepherd's Pie must be minced lamb or minced mutton and Cottage Pie must be minced beef. I don't care, call it what you want. But I was interested about what people said in the past, so here are some old recipes I found in the Internet Archive.

One of the problems I'm having is that some books use "shepherd's pie" and some use "shepherd pie" and the OCR of older books is not great so searching for the correct terms doesn't always return the books, because the OCR is saying something like "Shepherd He" instead. I'll be poking around a it more on Sunday and adding a bit more as I find them.

Lots of these recipes are submitted to news papers and magazines by readers.

1850 - 1899

Rural New Yorker 1850 Edit: sorry, it's 1916

https://archive.org/details/ruralnewyorker75/page/986/mode/2up?q=%22shepherd+pie%22

"Shepherd Pie. — The left-over meat should be sliced instead of chopped for this recipe. Butter a baking dish and cover the bottom with hot mashed potatoes. Pour on the gravy and sliced meat, cover with more mashed potatoes. Pile the potatoes on lightly and leave the top uneven. Dot with butter and place in hot oven for 10 minutes."

Nor'west Farmer 1882 EDIT, sorry, this is 1915 (I was looking at the IA date, not the date printed on the page)

https://archive.org/details/norwestfarmer3419unse/page/28/mode/2up?q=shepherd+pie

mentions that scraps of left over meat can be made into shepherd pie

La cuisine anglaise et la pâtisserie : traité de l'alimentation en Angleterre au point de vue pratique, théorique, anecdotique et descriptif 1894

https://archive.org/details/lacuisineanglai00suzagoog/page/n108/mode/2up?q=shepherd+pie

I don't speak French but I'm pretty sure they're asking for beef cuts here.

Cookery by Amy G Richards. 1895

https://archive.org/details/cihm_12438/page/n127/mode/2up?q=shepherd+pie

The recipe says "1 lb cold meat - 1/2 gill gravy - 6 large potatoes boiled and mashed - pepper and salt - 1 tablespoon milk - 1 oz butter. Cut the meat into small pieces, sprinkle it with pepper and salt, put it into a pudding dish, pour the gravy over. Add milk, butter, pepper and salt to potatoes, cover the meat with them, smooth with a knife and mark over with a fork, or the potatoes may be put through a forcing tube. Bake three quarters of an hour. Serve hot."

1900 - 1920

The complete Indian housekeeper & cook : giving the duties of mistress and servants, the general management of the house, and practical recipes for cooking in all its branches (Caution, lots of colonialism) 1909

https://archive.org/details/b21528640/page/278/mode/2up?q=shepherd+pie

The book mentions Shepherd's Pie: "This is a form of potato pie made with mince, or it may be made with raw collops, or raw meat minced fine and seasoned with pepper and salt." (A collop is a slice of meat.)

The recipe for potato pie appears a page or so earlier: The recipe says "Potato Pie is seldom seen in India. Mash a sufficiency of potatoes thoroughly with milk, pepper, and salt. Make a good thin gravy, and use this to cover thin slices of mutton sufficient to half fill a pie-dish. Pile your mashed potatoes over, trim neatly, and score with a fork. Push into the oven, and serve very hot." (interesting to me that the scoring the potato with a fork appears so early)

Magnet cream separator cook book 1910

https://archive.org/details/cihm_78529/page/n17/mode/2up?q=shepherd+pie

The recipe says "Shepherd Pie - put cooked meat through chopper, season with salt, pepper, and onion juice, moisten with gravy, mash potatoes, add a beaten egg, melted butter (size of an egg), place this on meat, dot with pieces of butter and bake until thoroughly hot and nicely brown on top. A good dish for leftovers".

Onion juice, or thinly sliced onion, become more common in the early 2th century.

The Cook County cook book 1912

https://archive.org/details/cookcountycookbo00asso/page/372/mode/2up?q=shepherd+pie

"SHEPHERD PIE.— Spread over a small platter, thoroughly buttered, warm mashed potatoes, mixed with enough milk to make it a little soft, and set in the oven to brown. When stiffened enough, and as brown as pie crust, pour over it minced cold mutton, warmed in a little thickened gravy. Is a nice breakfast dish. —-Mrs. J. R. Bogen, 2722 S. Dearborn St., Chicago, 111."

I find it interesting that people's names and addresses are published. This recipe specifies mutton (probably cold leftover mutton). I find it interesting that she suggests it's a nice breakfast dish, and deconstructs the formula by putting the browned mash under the meat.

And here's a picture of South Dearborn Street in 1905. https://www.bridgemanimages.com/en/barnes-crosby-fl-1900/south-dearborn-street-chicago-illinois-usa-c-1905-b-w-photo/black-and-white-photograph/asset/6354687

The same book has a recipe for Cottage Pie on the same page. Here's a cut 'n' paste. "COTTAGE PIE. — Chop cold roast 'beef or veal fine. To each 2 cups of meat add 1 teaspoon onion juice, 1 teaspoon fine-cut parsley or 1 tablespoon chopped celery, 1 tablespoon chopped green peppers, if liked, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 cup gravy stock or boiling water. Mix all together, pack in a buttered dish, cover with a layer of hot, very soft mashed potatoes, about 1 inch thick. Brush the top with milk or wthite of t^^. Bake in a hot oven until the potato is well browned. — Mrs. M. Evans, 2019 S. Clark St., Chicago, 111."

To me this reinforces the point that shepherd's pie and cottage pie were both ways to use up meat leftovers, and while some people were making a distinction between lamb and other meats lots of people weren't.

Recipes: Proved and Approved 1913

https://archive.org/details/recipesprovedapp00unse/page/30/mode/2up?q=shepherd+pie

"Mince fine, cold meat of any kind and two small onions, season with pepper and salt. Place in an ordinary pudding dish, pour over all some gravy. Boil six large potatoes, mash, and add one beaten egg, a little salt and a tablespoon of butter, beat well, then spread over top of meat and place in hot oven to brown."

This adds an egg to the mash, and uses more onion than we've seen so far.

Low cost recipes by Harbison, Edith Gwendolyn, comp 1914

https://archive.org/details/cu31924003573932/page/n49/mode/2up?q=shep

"Chop some cold cooked mutton quite fine. Measure and for each pint add salt and pepper to taste, 1/2 teaspoonful of onion juice, a dash of curry powder and 1/2 pint of brown sauce. Mix and spread in a greased dish. Cover with a thick layer of hot mashed potato, dabbling the top with a little beaten egg yolk. Brown in a quick oven."

The meat is quite specific: cold, cooked, mutton. I'm not quite sure what 1/2 teaspoon of onion juice is going to achieve here, it doesn't sound like enough to do anything.

* Cook book 365, no. 2* by Pechin, Mary Shelley 1915

https://archive.org/details/cookbook365no200pech/page/62/mode/2up?q=shepherd+pie

"Cover the bottom of a well greased baking dish, with mashed potatoes, if the potatoes seem too stiff, add a little milk, then fill in the dish with beef cut into small pieces, add a little onion juice and the gravy left from roast, or some hot water seasoned with salt and pepper, and a little melted butter, cover the dish with a layer of mashed potato sprinkled over with bits of butter, place in hot oven and just reheat the meat and potatoes. Serve hot with some pickles."

More onion juice, and also this covers the bottom and top of the dish with mash.

The Kitchen Encyclopaedia 1916

https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.148252/page/n345/mode/2up?q=shepherd

"This is made in the same way as Mutton and Potato Pie (p. 333), but with less onions — about 1 tablespoon chopped onion. The surface is either roughened with a fork or smoothed down with the blade of a knife, brushed over with yolk of egg and the whole baked in a moderate oven till browned"

Here's the recipe for Mutton and Potato Pie

"Line a pie-dish with alternate layers of sliced parboiled potatoes, sliced blanched onions, and small thin slices of cooked mutton. Season with salt and pepper, moisten with stock, cover with a greased paper and bake for 1 hour in a moderate oven. Remove the paper 15 minutes before serving, to brown the potatoes."

Make a little meat, go a long way: Use savoury stews and meat pies (with Italian translation (US Department of Agriculture) 1917

https://archive.org/details/CAT31328029005/page/n3/mode/2up?q=shepherd+pie

"This is the name of a meat pie with a mashed potato crust browned in the oven".

Here's the recipe for Meat Pie.

"MEAT PIES Another good way to use a little meat. Have you ever used rice, cornmeal mush, or hominy for a crust? This is less work than a pastry crust and saves wheat.

4 cups cooked corn meal, rice or hominy
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 onion
1 teaspoon of fat
2 cups tomato
1 pound raw meat or left-over meat cut up small
1/2 teaspoon of salt

Melt the fat, add the sliced onion, and, if raw meat is used, add it and stir until the red color disappears. Add the tomato and seasoning. If cooked meat is used, add it with the tomato and seasoning, after the onion is browned, and heat through. Grease a baking dish, put in a layer of cereal, add the meat and gravy, and cover with the cereal dotted with fat. Bake half an hour."

And then just because, here's a recipe that I'm not going to comment on just to show how far some recipes deviate from the lamb / mutton mince plus mash formula:

Northfield Press 1930

Mackeral Shepherd Pie

https://archive.org/details/1930-05-30_Northfield-Press/page/n5/mode/2up?q=shepherd+pie

"Shepherd Pie with its fluffy topping of mashed potatoes is well-known everywhere, and when fish takes the place of meat in the pie its popularity grows apace. To make Mackerel Shepherd Pie drain an 8 ounce can of diced carrots and add to half a cup of canned peas. Stir gently into two cups of thick white sauce. Flake the fish from a one-pound can of mackerel and fork very carefully into the sauce so that it remains in fairly large pieces. Pour into a buttered baking dish and pile fluffy, well-seasoned mashed potatoes on top. Brush with melted butter and bake in moderate oven until very hot and the potatoes are a golden brown."

As part of a weekly series, these topics are a place for users to casually discuss the things they did — or didn't do — during their week. Did you accomplish any goals? Suffer a failure? Do nothing at all? Tell us about it!

Welcome to the AEW Rampage discussion thread for June 16, 2023! We're coming to you this week from Washington D.C., following an action-packed Dynamite episode. Check out the chaotic and star-studded last 5 minutes here if you're considering giving AEW a shot!

MATCH CARD

Trios Match: United Empire (Will Ospreay, Jeff Cobb & Kyle Fletcher) vs. Best Friends/CHAOS (Trent Beretta, Chuck Taylor & Rocky Romero)

The NJPW United Empire faction, led by Will Ospreay, is set to face off against Best Friends/CHAOS this week. Will Rocky, Trent?, and Chuckie T be able to withstand the powerful combination of Ospreay, Jeff Cobb, and Kyle Fletcher? Or will Ospreay's momentum going into Forbidden Door, coupled with the powerhouse Cobb, be enough to secure a victory?

Mixed Tag Team Match: Jeff Jarrett, Jay Lethal & Karen Jarrett vs. Mark Briscoe, Papa Briscoe & Aubrey Edwards

A unique mixed tag team match is on the cards, with the trio of Jeff Jarrett, Jay Lethal, and Karen Jarrett squaring off against Mark Briscoe, Papa Briscoe, and AEW Referee Aubrey Edwards, who is making her in-ring debut. Can the Briscoes and Edwards pull off a win against their more seasoned opponents, or will Sonjay Dutt's gang of miscreants interfere to gain the upper hand?

Singles Match: Konosuke Takeshita vs. Bandido

'El Hijo del Don Callis' and Bandido are set for an explosive singles match. Each wrestler brings a unique style to the ring, and it will be a spectacle to see these two top-tier talents clash head-on.

Singles Match: Taya Valkyrie vs. Trish Adora

In a high-stakes singles match, D.C.'s own Trish Adora will face off against Taya Valkyrie. After failing to capture the title from Jade Cargill, Valkyrie seems to have set her sights on the new TBS Champion, Kris Statlander. As she looks to make a statement, this could be an excellent opportunity for Trish to show what she's capable of.

Additional Information

• Venue: Washington D.C.
• Airing On: TNT at 10pm Eastern

If you were to set up someone with a brand new kitchen, what are the components that you would suggest to them for getting that 80% of functionality for 20% of the investment (Pareto Principle)? These are especially things that I would consider to be worth a healthy investment as a buy-once-have-it-forever situation. Some things that come to mind:

A cast-iron pan: high skillcap and can cook almost any type of food
Stainless Steel Stock Pot: cooks most things stovetop that the pan can't handle
Chef's Knife: A good quality, sharp knife makes all the difference in the kitchen
Mason Jars: Preserve food, bring them to bulk stores, drink water out of them... top-tier utility

Things that are on the fence in my mind:
desktop blender/immersion blender/food processor: I love all of these appliances, but how important are they? A food processor is maybe the highest utility & makes meal prep way easier. Also unlocks recipes like hummus and salsa.
a large cutting board: small cutting boards suck, but how high of a priority is upgrading it?

Let's have a discussion where you state your case for an individual appliance/tool (or argue one of these suggestions) and see what other people have to say!

Seeing that this is taking off a bit, I'm going to try compiling some of the response data here:

Level 0 - Starter Kit

• Stainless Steel Pan (+3)

• Aluminum Stock Pot (+3)

• Vegetable Peeler (+3)

• Plastic Cutting Board (+3)

• Spoons / Spatulas / Ladles (+3)

• Chef's Knife (+2)

• Paring Knife (+2)

• Serrated Knife (+1)

Level 1 - Booster Pack

• Weighing Scale (+4)
• Baking Trays (+2)

Level 1a - Cooking I

• Immersion Blender (+2)
• Box Grater (+2)
• Dutch Oven (+1)

Level 1b - Baking I

• 2L jug (+1)
• Measuring Cup (+2)
• Pain De Mie Tin (+2)
• Wire Rack (+1)

Level 2 - Intermediate

• Instant Read Thermometer (+1)

Level 2a - Cooking II

• Food Processor (+1)

Level 2b - Baking II

• Immersion Whisk (+2)

Level 3 - Advanced

• Cast Iron Pan
• Mason Jars
• Air Fryer

New to Tildes, so I wanted to kick things off by asking—do you have any sci-fi horror recs you reckon I might be interested in? Here's some of what I've read:

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

• Solid read, but definitely more about the weird vibes than anything else. Sequels didn't hook me as much.

Blindsight by Peter Watts

• I generally try not to DNF my reads. But this was one of them. I'm sorry, I just can't buy vampires in a sci-fi world that's trying to take itself seriously, without proper grounding. It's also incredibly dry.

Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes

• A pretty solid read, I like how the narrative is told via flashbacks and then suddenly terminates in a way that makes you want to know more, in the most tantalizing of ways. Unfortunately I thought the reveal of the lurking horror was incredibly meh, and it went mostly downhill from there.

Diamond Dogs by Alistair Reynolds

• Fantastic novella with a mysterious locale functioning as the backdrop of the setting, and the horror elements being both external (as in the setting) and internal (how far our characters are willing to go to crack the mystery).

Paradise-1 by David Wellington

• A really solid space horror novel, with a pretty interesting protagonist trio (including a self-aware robot with plastic bodies) and it has some genuinely uncomfortable moments of horror that I can absolutely get behind. My main issue though, is that it ends in a cliffhanger and I'm still mad about it.

Salvaged by Madeleine Roux

• Decent read, but the horror reveal came super early and in reality, it's less space horror than it is human drama involving horror elements which is basically the Protomolecule from the Expanse. Fun read though, if you're okay with that.

Salvation Day by Kali Wallace

• I thought this was somewhat bland, the concept and initial plot were interesting, but it trails off and overall, overstays its welcome with some scenes that pacing-wise, feel like they belong in the middle part of the book. Some solid moments of horror though.

Ship of Fools by Richard Paul Russo

• Probably the quintessential space horror book for me. A fantastic setting, an intriguing protagonist narrative interspersed with religious themes and a genuinely solid pacing, horror-wise.

Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty

• This would have been an interesting murder mystery in space... if it actually had good and compelling characters. It does not. Everyone feels like a cardboard cutout with One Defining Trait and that's it.

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling

• This was... a disappointment. I still rank it amongst the worst books I've read, simply because the protagonist is unbelievable. I can buy a protagonist doing things under duress or from being manipulated, but I cannot buy a protagonist who constantly flip flops 5 minutes after making a decision and then
  hooks up with the person who was manipulating her, because yay fucked up sexytimes! Look, I want queer representation in my books too, but this came off too much as just doing it for the vibes. Queer rep deserves better than stupid protagonists.

Walking to Aldebaraan by Adrian Tchaikovsky

• A great novella; it's a retelling of a really well-known story but reframed in sci-fi terms, and I love that approach.

We Have Always Been Here by Lena Nguyen

• A really haphazard book I think; I like some things about it, but others just don't make sense, or contradict it. E.g. the protagonist is a psychologist, but is absolutely horrible at reading human emotion and speech, and a loner who prefers robots. Throw in some Michio Kaku-esque pseudoscience and while it's not a horrible read, it feels like a book that could have been better with a rewrite. The setting and suspense are pretty neat though.

So, as you can see, I have met the good, the bad and the ugly of sci-fi horror. I'd love to find more! For non-book horror or horror adjacent works I've enjoyed, those include Alien, The Thing, Event Horizon, Sunshine, Underwater and Dead Space. Please don't recommend tie-in novels though; I can find those myself and generally I've found that they're not really up to par.

What I'm talking about are Pokemon that are given away in official events, which usually come in a Cherish Ball (after gen 4), have a ribbon, and were met in a 'fateful encounter'. I'm particularly interested in the H-Zoroark event distribution at the moment, because I love that Pokemon and the red color of the Cherish Ball matches it nicely.

Mostly just looking around for fellow traders to chat about cool shit we have, but I'm up for a trade or two if there's anyone interested!

I've recently been getting into Diplomacy (both face to face and online) and it's surprisingly fun, although requires some dedication. I'm wondering if anyone here has experience with the game or some tips for learning more in-depth strategy? It feels like online resources aren't that great or plentiful yet I'm having a hard time surviving against experienced players.

I am looking for a wi-fi tablet for singing from pdf sheet music on a shared Google Drive. The phone is too small of a screen.

In the past, tablets at this price are often junk, already end-of-life, and run so badly they are unusable (balky when simply scrolling). So, I am still using paper for now, afraid to buy yet another disappointing piece of junk despite not needing anything high end.

Any suggestions?

While maybe only hitting zero four or five times in the last ten years, I've subscribed to the "inbox zero" / getting things done (GTD) philosophy and have used my email as a to-do list. The people that I lead know to send me emails if they or I are meant to perform work born from the conversation that we've shared. Its been great in not missing anything -- its been horrible from a prioritization standpoint. A third to half of my email are bodiless emails to myself where the subject line would look like a to-do list entry to most others.

I'm curious how you approach your day and keep yourself organized if you're getting and giving work. Do you have a master to-do list that you work off of? Are you living in email all day? How do you keep track of prioritization and ensure that nothing slips between the cracks.

For the first time in my life, I'll be living somewhere other than my hometown— going half the world away to London!

Having never moved further than like an hour away from where I grew up, I'd love to hear about experiences, tips, things to keep in mind when moving to a totally new place. Anything centred on London/the UK is of course very welcome, but I'm also really into hearing from people more generally :)

eBooks and eBook readers feel a little stagnant at the moment. No significant increases in tech, the storefronts are stagnant and locked down with DRM, and it just isn't really an exciting field.

That said, I love my Kindle Paperwhite because it lets me get English books for cheaper (I live in Japan) and it lets me carry them around.

Do you use an eBook reader? Do you read eBooks on a standard tablet or phone? Or are you married to paper?