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    1. Which board games have you been playing? (to 4th September)

      Hi everyone, It's been another week and it's time again time to share what you've managed to table over the past week. Personally I had a two player game of Barrage, the first time I've played the...

      Hi everyone,

      It's been another week and it's time again time to share what you've managed to table over the past week.

      Personally I had a two player game of Barrage, the first time I've played the game in a year or two. I completely forgot just how stressful Barrage is.

      I tried to screw my opponent over by adding a conduit to a basin that was his main energy source and he responded in kind by tapping mine. Thus the game became very centred on turn order and he kept beating my production and securing it each round. Whilst this happened I amssased a huge number of concrete mixers and excavators and thought I'd be able to pull his lead back by outbuilding him, but it never really happened and he ended up winning by a very comfortable margin. Great game, but very stressful to play.

      We followed up with a couple of games of Santorini.


      Also, participation has been a bit lacklustre the past couple of weeks. I'm wondering if this weekly thread is actually enjoyable or just annoying?

      15 votes
    2. [SOLVED] Help needed with a uBlock Origin filter rule

      Hi With this LITE site ---> https://lite.duckduckgo.com/lite/ There isn't the Dark Theme that's available for original duckduckgo site. I found a "My filters" rule on the web. Add these two lines...

      Hi
      With this LITE site ---> https://lite.duckduckgo.com/lite/
      There isn't the Dark Theme that's available for original duckduckgo site.

      I found a "My filters" rule on the web.

      Add these two lines to My filters

      lite.duckduckgo.com##html:style(color: rgb(141, 141, 141) !important; background: none repeat scroll 0 0 rgb(48, 48, 48) !important; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue','Segoe UI', Arial, sans-serif;)

      lite.duckduckgo.com##a:style(color: rgb(201, 201, 201) !important;)

      When the rule is used the search homepage looks reasonable.
      And the search results...
      The black background is not very black, not as black as Tildes black theme.
      I can live with that.

      But the red text under each result is very muddy.
      Can that be improved?
      Make it brighter Crimson or even Orange would look better.

      11 votes
    3. Harvest time: Share your favorite garden bounty recipes!

      My tomato and pepper harvest this year is going to be negligible (thanks, deer!), but I have tomatillos coming out of my ears. My favorite Salsa Verde recipe freezes well. To the extent that...

      My tomato and pepper harvest this year is going to be negligible (thanks, deer!), but I have tomatillos coming out of my ears. My favorite Salsa Verde recipe freezes well.

      To the extent that everyone who grows tomatoes will have lots of green ones, here's a good chutney recipe that works well for water-bath canning:

      Green Tomato Chutney

      Servings: 3 pints

      Ingredients:

      2 1/2 lbs green tomatoes (a few ripe or partially ripe are fine to be included)
      1 1/4 cups light brown sugar, packed
      1 cup chopped red onion
      1 cup golden raisin
      1 cup cider vinegar
      2 tablespoons chopped candied ginger
      1 tablespoon yellow mustard seeds
      1 teaspoon chili pepper flakes
      1 teaspoon coriander seed
      1 teaspoon kosher salt
      1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
      1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
      1 cinnamon stick
      1/16 teaspoon ground nutmeg
      (***For my taste, I'll mince in a couple of whatever fresh hot peppers I have in the garden, and increase other spices to taste, and add a chopped large knob of fresh ginger.)

      Directions:

      Place all of the ingredients in a medium sized (about 4 qt) thick-bottomed pot. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Cover and cook for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove lid and simmer uncovered for an additional 15 minutes to thicken.

      Notes:

      Note: If desired, this recipe can be canned by processing filled (sterilized!) jars in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes. Recipe will fill six 8-oz jars or three 16-oz jars. Otherwise, chutney will keep in the refrigerator for a few months.

      The other garden success story this year, heavy rain, weird weather, bugs, and pestiferous ungulates notwithstanding, is basil. Freaking huge bushes of every variety I planted: Italian Mountain, Genovese, Persian, Thai Kaprow, Thai Holy, and Purple Opal.

      I'll be processing fresh Italian basil with olive oil and freezing it in silicone trays. Internet rumor has it that freezing doesn't treat fresh garlic well, and you're better off making pesto from frozen basil as needed.

      I may do the same thing with neutral oil for the Persian basil, and peanut oil for the Thai, unless someone else has suggestions.

      We'll also have about 50 lbs. of apples from a single tree. They're a little too organic for eating out of hand, unless you're comfortable with inadvertent insect protein ingestion. But drying, pies, and cake are definitely in the picture. This is a simple, reliable apple cake recipe that's easy to share around. I'm still digging for my old bakery Caramel Apple Torte recipe.

      16 votes
    4. Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of September 4

      This thread is posted weekly - please try to post all relevant US political content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Extremely significant events may warrant a separate...

      This thread is posted weekly - please try to post all relevant US political content in here, such as news, updates, opinion articles, etc. Extremely significant events may warrant a separate topic, but almost all should be posted in here.

      This is an inherently political thread; please try to avoid antagonistic arguments and bickering matches. Comment threads that devolve into unproductive arguments may be removed so that the overall topic is able to continue.

      10 votes
    5. Help with finding out more about an obsure c++ graphics library

      I recently started classes again a little over a week ago. One of the classes I am taking is Computer science 2. One of the things it includes is openGL based graphics programming. They have us...

      I recently started classes again a little over a week ago. One of the classes I am taking is Computer science 2. One of the things it includes is openGL based graphics programming. They have us using glut, which is not bad in it self. However what they do is provide us a wrapper library for glut. In the form of a header named "graph1.h" and a precompiled library. Which goes by various names, such as "graphLib1.lib", "graphLib2010.lib", "graphLib2022.lib", "graphicLib2015.lib", etc. It's provided in the form of Windows flavored x86, Macos flavored x86_64 and arm. However, no forms for Linux. While I have been using Windows and VS Studio for classes so far, I strongly prefer my current Linux based tool chain. (text editor, build system, debugger). I have tried cross compiling with mingw-w64, but it fails when I try to link it. I would very much like to use it natively. To do this I would need either the library or the sources to compile it myself. That is what I would really like to find.

      Here is more about the library it self. It is based off of BMPLoader, a small library for loading bitmaps as openGL textures. It also inherits its license from BMPLoader too, because it is a derivative of BMPLoader. (GPLv2; and has been distributed). When you unpack the library there are 3 object files, BMPLoader.o, loadPNG.o, and example2.o. (.o/.obj) I have found traces of it online, however they all link back to my University, University of Central Arkansas. I have also found evidence of it being used at GSU too, but it is from one of the professors that is now here at UCA. (They even provided a pdf on using it, I hashed them and they were the same). Here is a copy of the header graph1.h.

      graph1.h
      /*BMPLoader - loads Microsoft .bmp format
          Copyright (C) 2006  Chris Backhouse
      
          This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
          it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
          the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
          (at your option) any later version.
      
          This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
          but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
          MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
          GNU General Public License for more details.
      
          You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
          with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
          51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
      
      
        cjbackhouse@hotmail.com 		www.backhouse.tk
        
        I would appreciate it if anyone using this in something cool would tell me
        so I can see where it ends up.
      
        Takes a filename, returns an array of RGB pixel data
        Loads:
        24bit bitmaps
        256 colour bitmaps
        16 colour bitmaps
        2 colour bitmaps  (Thanks to Charles Rabier)
      
        This code is designed for use in openGL programs, so bitmaps not correctly padded will not
        load properly, I believe this only applies to: 
        256cols if width is not a multiple of 4
        16cols if width is not a multiple of 8
        2cols if width is not a multiple of 32
      
        Sample code:
      
      	BMPClass bmp;
      	BMPLoad(fname,bmp);
      	glTexImage2D(GL_TEXTURE_2D,0,3,bmp.width,bmp.height,0,GL_RGB,GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE,bmp.bytes);
      */
      #include <windows.h>
      #include <gl/glut.h>
      #include <iostream>
      #include <cstring>
      #include <string>
      #define endg "_endg_"
      
      
      #ifndef BMPLOADER_H
      #define BMPLOADER_H
      
      #include <iostream>
      #include <cstring>
      
      using namespace std;
      
      typedef unsigned char BYTE;
      
      class BMPClass
      {
      public:
      	BMPClass();
      	~BMPClass();
      	BYTE& pixel(int x,int y,int c);
      	void allocateMem();
      	int width,height;
      	BYTE* bytes;			//OpenGL formatted pixels
      };
      
      #define BMPError char
      #define BMPNOTABITMAP 'b'	//Possible error flags
      #define BMPNOOPEN 'o'
      #define BMPFILEERROR 'f'
      #define BMPBADINT 'i'
      #define BMPNOERROR '\0'
      #define BMPUNKNOWNFORMAT 'u'
      
      //Loads the bmp in fname, and puts the data in bmp
      BMPError BMPLoad(string fname,BMPClass& bmp);
      
      //Translates my error codes into English	
      std::string TranslateBMPError(BMPError err);	
      
      //Load and select in OpenGL
      BMPError BMPLoadGL(string fname);
      
      struct Precision
      {
        int precision;
        bool precisionFlag;
      };
      
      struct GraphColor
      {
        int r;
        int g;
        int b;
      };
      
      class Gout
      {
        private:
          int x;
          int y;
          int r;
          int g;
          int b;
          int precision;
          bool precisionFlag;
      
      
        public:
          Gout() { r= 0; g=255; b= 0; precisionFlag = false; };
          void setX(int x) { this->x = x;}
          void setY(int y) { this->y = y;}
          int getX() { return x;}
          int getY() { return y;}
          void setR(int r) {this->r = r;}
          void setG(int g) {this->g = g;}
          void setB(int b) {this->b = b;}
          int getR() {return r;}
          int getG() { return g;}
          int getB() {return b;}
          void setPrecisionFlag(bool flag) { precisionFlag = flag;}
          bool getPrecisionFlag() {return precisionFlag;}
          void setPrecision(int precision) {this->precision = precision;}
          int  getPrecision() {return precision;}
          friend Gout& operator<<(Gout& g, int int_val);
          friend Gout& operator<<(Gout& g, double int_val);
          friend Gout& operator<<(Gout& g, char* char_val);
          friend Gout& operator<<(Gout& g, string string_val);
         
      };
      
      extern Gout gout;
      
      struct Point
      {
        int x;
        int y;
      };
      
      
      
      struct GraphObject
      {
        char* str;
        int id;
        int no_points;
        Point* points;
        double* colors;
        int radius;
        int no_objects;
        BMPClass* bmp;
        int remove;
        int width;
        int height;
        int del;
        BYTE* bytes; //PNG BYTES
      };
      
      void reshape(int w, int h);
      void display(void);
      void init(char* title);
      int drawPoint(int x, int y);
      int drawCircle(int radius, int x, int y);
      void drawMyCircle( int Radius, int numPoints, int x, int y );
      int drawLine(int x1, int y1, int x2, int y2, int width);
      int drawRect(int x1, int y1, int width, int height);
      void displayGraphics();
      int displayBMP(char* fn,int x, int y);
      int displayBMP(string fn, int x, int y);
      int displayPNG(string fn, int x, int y);
      int displayPNG(char* fn, int x, int y);
      int displayText(char* str, int x, int y, int r, int g, int b);
      void clearGraphics();
      void setColor(int obj_no, int r, int g, int b);
      GraphColor setColor(int r, int g, int b);
      void timerColor(int value);
      void moveObject(int obj_no, int x, int y);
      void processSpecialKeys(int key, int x, int y);
      DWORD WINAPI display1(LPVOID lpParam);
      void processMouse(int button, int state, int x, int y);
      void removeObject(int id);
      void clearText();
      void GRAPH_SS();
      bool up();
      bool down();
      bool left();
      bool right();
      bool leftMouse(int&x, int&y);
      bool rightMouse(int&x, int&y);
      bool middleMouse(int&x, int&y);
      Gout& operator<<(Gout& g, int int_val);
      Gout& operator<<(Gout& g, double int_val);
      Gout& operator<<(Gout& g, char* char_val);
      Gout& operator<<(Gout& g, char char_val);
      Gout& operator<<(Gout& g, Gout&(*pt2Func)(int x, int y));
      Gout& operator<<(Gout& g, Gout&(*pt2Func)(int r, int g, int b));
      Gout& operator<<(Gout& g, Point a);
      Gout& operator<<(Gout& g, GraphColor gc);
      Gout& operator<<(Gout& g, Precision p);
      Gout& operator<<(Gout& g, Gout&(*pt2Func)(int precision));
      Precision setPrecision(int precision);
      Point setPos(int x, int y);
      void getPos(int obj_no, Point points[], int& no_points);
      bool mouseDragged(int& x, int& y);
      void processMouseDragged(int x, int y);
      void replaceObject(int orig_obj, int new_obj);
      void closeGraphics();
      
      #endif
      

      Right now I am of the opinion that it is a in-house "hackjob". That is how it feels with the GPLed BMPLoader glued together with other graphics functions. In an attempt to not have to use new literature or new style libraries with the new ".net 2008" style ide, as they were likely transitioning out of a codewarrior environment, and before that a borland environment.

      So far, I have asked our computer science club about it. The main thing I was told was that the professor just wants us to use windows. That I can understand, but I still want to see how far I can go. I have also tried sending an email about it to the professor, but all I got sent was a link to the glut downloads. I did reply back asking about the graphlib sources too, but I haven't heard anything back yet. I don't want to push too hard, I still have a whole semester ahead of me. So now I am asking here on tildes. I understand if nothing can be found, but at least information and experiences can be collected.

      11 votes
    6. What are your favorite soundtracks for films and video games?

      Basically the title. I have seen soundtracks referenced in my searches for ambient music and homework music, but (possibly due to search skills) I didn't find a full discussion focused on this....

      Basically the title. I have seen soundtracks referenced in my searches for ambient music and homework music, but (possibly due to search skills) I didn't find a full discussion focused on this. Thank you.

      35 votes
    7. Starfield - what are your thoughts?

      For those of us who caved and got the Early Access, what are your thoughts on the game so far? Please remember to tag spoilers! And for anyone looking forward to it coming out on Wednesday, got...

      For those of us who caved and got the Early Access, what are your thoughts on the game so far? Please remember to tag spoilers!

      And for anyone looking forward to it coming out on Wednesday, got any plans for a build or character?

      61 votes