vibinya

Started going to a small local coffee shop a little over two years ago, and I’ll never go back to the giant chains. The people working are always happy, greet regulars by name, always go out of their way to interact or talk with me- usually remember something we talked about before, comp my orders every now and then, host little events, etc. It’s not just them either - I always have a way better experience going to non-chain coffee places. Oh, and the coffee is always waay better and priced better.

Cotton or anything natural! The idea of my clothes being made of plastic fibers which then enter the water supply or sit in a landfill bothers me. This applies to sheets, towels, etc. My skin also reacts poorly to synthetic fibers.

When I signed up they had a very easy process which allowed migration of playlists. I believe it was a 3rd party utility/website which you could actually use to migrate playlists from and to any of the music streaming services.

I absolutely love Tidal as well. Was a long time Spotify subscriber, but their UI/UX decisions, especially for their desktop client, finally frustrated me enough to switch. Had almost no issues moving my playlists over, have a shuffle which actually shuffles, still have daily recommendation playlists, and my favorite part -patch notes; I know what’s happening and why. They actually listen to user feedback and make updates based on it.

I’ve played so much of it and didn’t realize it only supported two players! I guess I’m glad I only talked one friend into playing with me 🤭.

I would definitely recommend some roguelike shooters like Roboquest, Gunfire Reborn, Crab Champions, etc. These are all 4 players, but you could always have a few different lobbies.

Maybe also consider something like Palworld, Grounded, Raft, and other Survivalcraft games. There should be a good few in that genre that will allow you all to play together!

Sounds like a fun group ready for some great memories! Good luck on your game hunt!

The only thing I can offer is a small warning. I also was a habitual neck cracker- up until one night where my normal twist had an unfamiliar popping sensation which kind of felt like a muscle snapping. I was then greeted with incredible pain anytime I tried to move my head or just move in general. Had to go to the ER/urgent care that night. The doctor was very straightforward with their advice- there’s no reason I should be cracking my neck and I need to stop. I had pulled one of the muscles and it had severely swelled.

I also used to crack my knuckles, elbows, back, etc. I eventually stopped by catching myself in the act, acknowledging that I don’t like feeling like I can’t control myself, and giving my hands something else to focus on.

Good luck!!

I definitely can’t argue about the size of their library! While the continued dragging of their feet on HiFi was frustrating (years of telling us it was coming), the thing which finally drove me away is their constant tweaking of playlist and queue management.

I mainly use their desktop client and controls would disappear with each update- no way to block songs, inability to remove a song from auto generated queues, playlists not syncing between devices, songs being weighted in a shuffle. I made a post on their forums about the missing options for their autoplay queues- their response was that while there was no button or context menu option to remove a song, I could select it and use the delete key. I just gave up on whatever type of user experience they want me to have.

I did recently and will not be going back to Spotify. There are so many small things with Tidal - actual patch notes each update, updates which clearly address user reported concerns/issues, straightforward playlist management and queue controls, an actual shuffle that isn’t some weird interaction based algorithm, and of course the quality. There’s been so many times I’ll be listening to a song, which I’ve listened to many times on Spotify, and notice something in the backing track which I wasn’t aware of or some aspect of a singer’s voice or instrument which really pops and adds texture. They also have great recommendations and a Daily Discovery playlist. And finally - it’s just music; no scrolling through podcasts or non-music this… Just high quality, easy to manage, music.

I don’t think I see knowledge in a digital vs non-digital sense. People often learn things in different fashions - I’m sure you’ve heard people say they are visual learners vs auditory or something like that. There is some truth to that, but overall it’s easier to remember and retain things when we’re exposed to them in a variety of ways. Teaching someone or explaining something you just learned is a great way to retain things- yes, it may come out all over the place at first, but you’ll often find it becomes easier as you revisit the topic or try explaining it again later. There’s also a difference between knowing something and understanding something. You can watch tutorials on something, but until you start applying that knowledge, it might not feel as tangible. Oftentimes, there’s a point with any knowledge where we hit a wall and mentally spin our wheels trying to understand it- super normal, else everyone would be experts on everything. Overcoming that wall usually means taking some steps back and picking up some pieces of knowledge which we might not have been exposed to previously. This is one of the reasons we’re seeing more education efforts focused on Project-Based Learning.

I did! I do think it’s a great alternative, but when moving some of my playlists over, I saw too many missing songs. They were my more niche playlists/genres so I was kind of expecting it. Tidal didn’t have all of them either, but did have more so I decided to go with them.

One place I frequent anytime I’m looking for an upgrade or just general information is https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php

The people there tend to discuss things which can go slightly over my head, but that’s something I appreciate since it gives me things to look into and learn.

My current chain is Tidal + Schiit Asgard DAC/amp + Audeze LCD-X. Moved from Spotify to Tidal last month and will never go back. I definitely prefer headphones over speakers, but have really been enjoying IK Multimedia iLoud Micro Monitors.

Started working for my current company as tech support. No degree, in a homeless shelter, just good with tech and helping people. It bothered me not understanding how things I supported worked, so I started to teach myself to code and offer ideas for potential fixes when submitting tickets. Ended up being approached and hired by the head of development who allowed me to continue learning on my own. I’ve been with them for 12 years now, and in the first few years hobbled together the product/feature which became their flagship. Find people who are eager and excited to learn and they’ll thrive.

That’s been an issue for me as well. DDG is my default search engine, but the majority of the time I have to add the !g as it struggles with context. It’ll find plenty of results matching the words I type in, but not quite understand that how those words are arranged matter.

I believe you can edit .doc(x) files using Google Docs.

It’s odd where people draw the line. It’s pretty much the same as previous generations fawning over radio personalities and all the Oprah’s and such. To me, modern influences are equivalent to radio/TV hosts - personalities which are paid to promote and market products and lifestyles. Just because there’s now more and more specific niches for them, doesn’t make them any less valuable in the people’s lives who enjoy them and their content.

My favorite has been locally hosting Automatic1111’s UI. The setup process was super easy and you can get great checkpoints and models on Civitai. This gives me complete control over the models and the generation process. I think it’s an expectation thing as well. Learning how to write the correct prompt, adjust the right settings for the loaded checkpoint, and running enough iterations to get what you’re looking for can take a bit of patience and time. It may be worth learning how the AI actually ‘draws’ things to adjust how you’re interacting with it and writing prompts. There’s actually A LOT of control you gain by locally hosting - controlNet, LORA, checkpoint merging, etc. Definitely look up guides on prompt writing and learn about weights, order, and how negative prompts actually influence generation.

This is great. Article explains the method and sample size. This could be a great tool, and I hope it can be applied to any age. Many people who are on the spectrum and are high functioning can go most of their lives without a diagnosis while struggling to understand why the world feels so different to them.

Especially considering platform availability. I think it says more about ToTK being 3rd on a single platform vs the other two being available on multiple platforms.