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    1. Shoegaze!

      I love shoegaze. Nowadays, I am a bit out of the genre and scene but hearing shoegaze always makes me happy. My first introduction to the genre was through Lowtide. They are an Australian trio...

      I love shoegaze. Nowadays, I am a bit out of the genre and scene but hearing shoegaze always makes me happy.

      My first introduction to the genre was through Lowtide. They are an Australian trio (originally quartet) that were inspired by the classics like Slowdive. "Held" was the first ever shoegaze song I remember hearing a/o loving. Their self-titled album is one of my favourites of all time, and I have it on vinyl!

      Of course, the landmark shoegaze album remember by many is Loveless by my bloody valentine. Great album, noisy asf and has awesome songs like "Only Shallow" ,"To Here Knows When", "Blown a Wish", "Sometimes", "Soon", "I Only Said". There are many other bands out there that deserve recognition, like Show Me Mary with "A Dream" from their self-titled EP.

      So yeah. Post some of your shoegaze picks, if you love shoegaze.

      33 votes
    2. When the adrenaline wears off

      Wow. So my (not so) little cousin has been missing for a few days. He is an EMT that works in the greater Denver area, and often at Red Rocks, where a massive hail storm greatly injured many...

      Wow. So my (not so) little cousin has been missing for a few days. He is an EMT that works in the greater Denver area, and often at Red Rocks, where a massive hail storm greatly injured many people. Between me, my sister, his sister, my mom, and my best friend, we couldn't get in touch with him.

      Thankfully, he is okay and was on a rafting trip so he turned his phone off. I've literally wiped this kid's ass (we're 9 years apart). Knowing he is safe and headed home is the greatest relief. But that adrenaline rush over the past 48 hours to suddenly stop is quite the crash. I feel like I can sleep for a full day now.

      24 votes
    3. Tasker issues with volume sync on new Pixel

      Hi all, first post so hope I do it right. I just read the Tasker post and thought I'd post a question/request here about it. On my old Samsung S21 I wrote a simple Tasker script that detected a...

      Hi all, first post so hope I do it right.

      I just read the Tasker post and thought I'd post a question/request here about it.

      On my old Samsung S21 I wrote a simple Tasker script that detected a change in volume on one of the sliders, eg Media, and then adjusted the others, IE System, Notification and Call, to match with a little check, ie %VOLM neq %VOLR.

      It worked fine in my Samsung but goes all over the place on my new Pixel!

      Has anyone else seen this or can post something that works on Pixels? Or maybe my scripts need some work!

      The trigger is variable set, IE VOLM, and the actions are to set the other 3 volumes to VOLM if they are not already set to that. And I have 4 of those, one for each variable.

      And advice appreciated!

      5 votes
    4. How do Tildes users feel about an OP that takes part in their own thread?

      Bit of an odd question but one I'm becoming a little self conscious of. I posted a thread earlier today on ~LGBT asking people to share their experiences of coming out. Because it's a somewhat...

      Bit of an odd question but one I'm becoming a little self conscious of.

      I posted a thread earlier today on ~LGBT asking people to share their experiences of coming out. Because it's a somewhat sensitive topic and sharing your experiences can be a little vulnerable I've been taking part and interacting with everyone who's shared their experience.

      Im being sure to try and actually contribute, bring my perspective and continue the conversation, and importantly thank people for being open about something that can be difficult.

      My problem is that I worry that this is a habit I'm bringing over from Reddit that's perhaps not suitable for Tildes, but I'm not sure?

      I generally see it as a good thing when an OP takes active part in a discussion they started, but maybe it's more of a hindrance here?

      I'm not sure how I feel, and I'd like to get the opinions of other regular users on what would be appropriate?

      Edit: I should specify and make it clear in my case I'm talking about actively replying to most or all top level comments. Not necessarily replies but still a fair number. I worry about crossing a line into just contributing to noise.

      45 votes
    5. Low/no latency wireless headphones for PC - Recommendations

      I need to replace my Logitech G935s, the plastic on the top broke on me. Ideally I would replace with something with: more battery life better sound stage well built/premium feel It's very hard to...

      I need to replace my Logitech G935s, the plastic on the top broke on me. Ideally I would replace with something with:

      • more battery life
      • better sound stage
      • well built/premium feel

      It's very hard to tell what is good out there - with so many options, and my concern is if I just buy any bluetooth enabled headset it will introduce audio latency which isn't something I can live with in games. But I cannot stand having a cord attached that gets all twisted up.

      I'm not tied to it having an attached mic, as I can buy one separately but its a plus.

      Anyone out there have any good recommendations? What does everyone else use?

      19 votes
    6. Is there interest in games created for game jams?

      Hello everyone. I am an avid gamer but I allocate my playtime very differently from most other players. I prefer to spend my time playing very short(typcially under 30 mins) games created for game...

      Hello everyone. I am an avid gamer but I allocate my playtime very differently from most other players. I prefer to spend my time playing very short(typcially under 30 mins) games created for game jams(limited time themed game development events) on itch.io.

      Here is example of what a set of game jam entries looks like.

      Many of these games are only about 15 minutes long so it is possible to play and review many of them per week. My question to you guys is that given the short nature of most of these experiences, is there at least mild interest in posts about these games and if so would it be better to post a weekly thread where I focus on a specific gamejam and review some of the games and encourage other users to join in and review some more of the games or should I focus on posting direct links to the best games I find when I sifting through these collections.

      I’m am excited to share this area of gaming that people don’t talk about much and I would love to hear peoples thoughts on the subject.

      Edit: The first thread is up

      22 votes
    7. Photographers, what are your opinions and thoughts on watermarking your work?

      Personally I find it annoying when someone watermarks their photos, but I have a hard time justifying that annoyance when, not only are they entitled to attempt preventing people from stealing...

      Personally I find it annoying when someone watermarks their photos, but I have a hard time justifying that annoyance when, not only are they entitled to attempt preventing people from stealing their work, they are entitled to do whatever the hell they want, categorically.

      I’d love to hear your thoughts and experience with the topic, especially if it helps me understand and be more accepting of photographers who watermark or digitally sign their work.

      8 votes
    8. Scifi / action (audiobooks)... who would I like next?

      I'm in need of "the next" great Sci-Fi / action series to binge on. I've currently gone through read most / all of: Craig Alanson Andy Weir Jeremy Robinson John Scalzi Jonathan Maberry Timothy...

      I'm in need of "the next" great Sci-Fi / action series to binge on. I've currently gone through read most / all of:

      • Craig Alanson
      • Andy Weir
      • Jeremy Robinson
      • John Scalzi
      • Jonathan Maberry
      • Timothy Zahn (all his Star Wars works)
      • Max Brooks (WWZ)
      • Earnest Cline (RP1/2)

      I like Star Trekky plots and plucky nerd protagonists.

      Also, I'm finding that I'm getting a bit tired of R.C. Bray (I think he narrates the majority of the above. At some point every snarky AI sounds like Skippy). Marc Thompson of the Star Wars series is an amazing narrator.

      Side comment: I'm inclined to listen to a good audiobook just for the narrator's performance alone.

      42 votes
    9. Pay-per-use VPS recommendations

      I'm currently stuck in a hospital waiting room for probably the rest of the day, so brought my tablet along in the hopes of still being able to get a bit of work done. Plan was to use Termux to...

      I'm currently stuck in a hospital waiting room for probably the rest of the day, so brought my tablet along in the hopes of still being able to get a bit of work done. Plan was to use Termux to ssh into my home computer, but realized too late that this tablet's ssh key hasn't been authorized yet (it's pretty new), so that's a no-go.

      Does anyone have recommendations for a good VPS host that charges only for the time you're using it? The day could still be salvaged if I could get into a fresh linux box that can run docker. The only pay-as-you-go VPS I've ever used is Amazon EC2, which is fine, but I'm hoping there are better options that are a little less cumbersome to spin up and tear down.

      5 votes
    10. Anyone daily driving a jailbroken iPhone?

      I know the scene is in a rut right now with iOS 16 having pretty much no hope (and with iOS 17 right around the corner), but I wanted to see if anyone else is using a jailbroken iPhone (or any...

      I know the scene is in a rut right now with iOS 16 having pretty much no hope (and with iOS 17 right around the corner), but I wanted to see if anyone else is using a jailbroken iPhone (or any other device) on a day to day.
      If you are, drop your device, version and tweak list, I wanna add some new tweaks to my collection! My favs at the moment are Jellyfish (LS clock replacer), Saw (removes space at the bottom of the screen) and Ampere (iOS 16 style battery)

      18 votes
    11. What have you been listening to this week?

      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...

      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.

      24 votes
    12. Why doesn’t the US have paid parental leave and do you think we ever will?

      Something that has been bothering me for a long time is that the majority of voters in the US are parents. It seems paid parental leave is something that most people can empathize with needing,...

      Something that has been bothering me for a long time is that the majority of voters in the US are parents. It seems paid parental leave is something that most people can empathize with needing, and that would benefit most people’s lives. So I have such a hard time understanding why it isn’t proposed more often or prioritized as a voting issue. When I was pregnant with my daughter, I was shocked to hear that my own mother had to decide between going back to her job 3 weeks post partum or losing her job. I can’t believe that things have not really improved (in terms of protections for all parents, not just by industry/state/company)

      I read an interesting NPR article about how the AARP solidified the aging population into a powerful voting block that has skewed lawmakers to addressing their needs. Because this organization has clear priorities and influences many voters, lawmakers have incentive to pass laws the AARP supports. This article suggested that if parents could join together and create a similar political group, it would be the biggest and most powerful voting block.

      So I’m interested in what your opinions are. Do you see parental leave as important? If so, why don’t we have a national leave policy? How do we get there?

      39 votes
    13. What did you do this week (and weekend)?

      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...

      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!

      16 votes
    14. Dealing with databases, inserts, updates, etc. in Python

      Current Library: built in sqlite Current db: sqlite (but will have access to Snowflake soon for option 1 below) Wondering if anyone here has some advise or a good place to learn about dealing with...

      Current Library: built in sqlite
      Current db: sqlite (but will have access to Snowflake soon for option 1 below)

      Wondering if anyone here has some advise or a good place to learn about dealing with databases with Python. I know SQL fairly well for pulling data and simple updates, but running into potential performance issues the way I've been doing it. Here are 2 examples.

      1. Dealing with Pandas dataframes. I'm doing some reconciliation between a couple of different datasources. I do not have a primary key to work with. I have some very specific matching criteria to determine a match (5 columns specifically - customer, date, contract, product, quantity). The matching process is all built within Python. Is there a good way to do the database commits with updates/inserts en masse vs. line by line? I've looked into upsert (or inserts with clause to update with existing data), but pretty much all examples I've seen rely on primary keys (which I don't have since the data has 5 columns I'm matching on).

      2. Dealing with JSON files which have multiple layers of related data. My database is built in such a way that I have a table for header information, line level detail, then third level with specific references assigned to the line level detail. As with a lot of transactional type databases there can be multiple references per line, multiple lines per header. I'm currently looping through the JSON file starting with the header information to create the primary key, then going to the line level detail to create a primary key for the line, but also include the foreign key for the header and also with the reference data. Before inserting I'm doing a lookup to see if the data already exists and then updating if it does or inserting a new record if it doesn't. This works fine, but is slow taking several seconds for maybe 100 inserts in total. While not a big deal since it's for a low volume of sales. I'd rather learn best practice and do this properly with commits/transactions vs inserting an updating each record individually within the ability to rollback should an error occur.

      11 votes
    15. Prevalence of AI generated text in Tildes

      I've recently noticed that some particular users, who post/comment quite often, frequently contribute with high quality content across an impressive spectrum of themes. These posts/comments...

      I've recently noticed that some particular users, who post/comment quite often, frequently contribute with high quality content across an impressive spectrum of themes. These posts/comments usually go into great detail, an approach suitable of a "semi-expert", that honestly baffles me.

      This lead me to think that Tildes users might be using AI language models to aid in the writing of their posts/comments. This possibility is quite disheartening since I found Tildes to be an extraordinarily engaging community, with a distinct human element that I haven't seen in other bigger forums. The possibility of a significant portion of Tildes content being generated by AI makes this sentiment a mere illusion.

      So here are my questions:

      1. Is there any reasonable way of determining which posts were written with the aid of AI?
      2. Is the Tildes community okay with the content being generated partly, or entirely, by AI?

      Please forgive me if I'm being a cynic, I've spent too much time in forums with significantly lower quality content than Tildes.


      Edit 1: Just wanted to cite this paper to somehow justify my uneasiness when it comes to writing texts with AI in command. As I've commented below, LLMs might get in the way of learning the person's true idea/opinion.


      Edit 2: As I've said in the comments below, I had no intention of accusing any particular user with this post. Clearly, I've failed to convey my intent so I'll try to clarify my original idea a bit more:

      Because I'm new to Tildes and haven't got any other forum experience besides Reddit, I was amazed with how much and how fast some users post extremely high quality content, since this was certainly not the norm in Reddit. As with many other online platforms, spammers armed with AI can be a difficult problem to deal with, so I've made this post with the intent of starting a discussion about this matter and to understand the Tildes community stance. My relatively negative view of the use of AI is due in part to my experience with such spammers in the past. Forgive me if I've assumed the worst...

      From the little time I've spent in Tildes, I'm quite sure the community grew to know each other and I'm hopeful that my post will not cause undue witch hunts. And I've also learned that because people got to know each user's stylistic voice, it's fairly easy to spot a possible AI spammer.

      Thank you for the insightful discussion so far !

      62 votes
    16. Who has watched Jury Duty?

      Anyone watched Jury Duty? We just binged all eight episodes on a short vacation. We thought it was hilarious. No spoilers but I thought it was a great, quick watch.

      27 votes
    17. How did you handle coming out?

      Coming out is a different experience for everyone, for some it's a fraught and stressful experience, for others it's an easy and smooth process. People react differently to the news, geography and...

      Coming out is a different experience for everyone, for some it's a fraught and stressful experience, for others it's an easy and smooth process.

      People react differently to the news, geography and demographics can play into the likelihood of a negative reaction, so many factors that can be difficult to handle or worry about.

      So how did you go about it and how did it go?
      How have things been since and is there anything you'd do differently?


      For me personally (a trans woman) it's a long and ongoing process. I first came out to my best friend in 2018, she's trans just like me so it was easy and she and I were always very close and trusting. We've since started a relationship and are now engaged. I literally just spoke to her and talked about my feelings and she accepted me immediately.

      Next was my mum, my family are friendly and loving but none of us are overly close or open about our feelings with each other, I have a long history of anxiety which created a barrier for me coming out, I don't think I came out to my mum until either late 2019 or early 2020. She was in the living room on her own and I asked to speak, we sat down and had a heart to heart and she was understanding and supportive, though she didn't know much about trans people. Things seemed fine initially but a few days later when she picked me up form work she broke down in the car crying, saying how it's a big change and how she felt like she was losing her son. It was a lot, more than I could handle and this may be selfish of me, but it was the opposite of what I needed at a time when I was feeling very fragile. We talked more and she came around and has since been very supportive and helped me a lot.

      Other family members I never really formally came out to, but folks have slowly cottoned on to what's happening and it hasn't been an issue.

      Work however is a different situation. That aforementioned anxiety has prevented me from coming out to this day. In work I hide my feminine features and pretend I'm a guy. It's getting harder by the day to hide it but not knowing how folks will react is worrying. Legally I'll be protected from harm, but socially this could ostracise me from my colleagues. I live in the UK and anti-trans rhetoric has been on the rise in recent years, and if the folks I work with directly don't take it well, while they couldn't openly discriminate, they could make my work life unpleasant and difficult. It'll have to happen eventually (possibly soon) but I'm putting it off until the last possible moment. The fear is paralysing.

      On the topic of work, at my last employer I did come out to my two closest colleagues privately, they're still my friends to this day and have had no issues. It was difficult, my heart was pounding and we were saying farewell to another colleague who had been a strong LGBT+ ally in the workplace, it felt like the right time and things worked out well, there were hugs all around which was honestly a far better reaction than I could've hoped for.

      So for me, to this day I'm still coming out, slowly, one step at a time. I'd probably do it differently if I could go back, just rip off the whole thing with everyone at once, but that would rely on me being braver than I actually am. The approach I have taken however has been safe and cautious, and has mostly worked out for me.

      Apologies for the long story! I'd love to hear all of yours.

      31 votes
    18. People looking to be first time homeowners soon, what's your plan?

      I'm a young single adult with a fairly well paying remote job. I've been in my career for almost 4 years now and have saved up a decent chunk of money through investing and saving. My game plan...

      I'm a young single adult with a fairly well paying remote job. I've been in my career for almost 4 years now and have saved up a decent chunk of money through investing and saving.

      My game plan was to use the "market crash" that everyone was predicting in 2023 to try and make a stab at purchasing a home. When the interest rates spiked I thought it was a great sign for me because I thought for sure that housing prices would fall accordingly, jokes on me though because several months later homes in my area have barely gone down in price at all and even closer to town in nicer areas prices continue to climb.

      Not only that but the only real thing the rate hikes have done for me personally is make what was looking like a modest mortgage payment suddenly become far less affordable, even with my very low personal spending.

      Is anyone else in a similar situation? Are we doomed to rent forever? Should I move out to the boonies where it seems like that's the only place left with non-insane housing prices?

      I look at Zillow and houses in my area that sold for 200k~ less than 5 years ago are now on the market for 400k-500k. It feels like anyone who didn't get in back then is just completely screwed

      /rant

      34 votes