ChiselD

~ Germany ~ studyblr ~ compsci ~ programming ~ sideblog

[chiseld]

Oh ho ho I'm chortling like a little demon with glee because I successfully 'hacked' Tidal (not really but let me have this tiny win)!

So here's the story: The dark mode is SO FUCKING BLACK on that app that it literally gives me a headache if I try to look at it for too long. And there's no light mode. It's hellish. It pains me.

So of course the first thing I did was install the wonderful third-party app TidaLuna, which allows you to adjust various things about Tidal (such as offering a light-mode option, hallelujah).

However! After the last Tidal update, they added a sneaky new update that uninstalls TidaLuna every time you restart the Tidal app. For what fucking reason I cannot imagine. The only reason this third-party app exists in the first place is because your own damn app is a piece of shit. Sorry, Tidal, but this is entirely your own fault.

Tragically, the automatic TidaLuna installer isn't working for me anymore, so I had to install it manually with the command line. This isn't too much of a hassle if you only have to do it once, but reinstalling it from scratch every single time I want to open Tidal and listen to some music was REALLY getting old, believe you me.

So! I decided to automate the TidaLuna installation by creating a shell script to run all the steps for me. I do still have to run my own script manually every time before starting the app, but it's simple as opening up the command line and typing "install-tidaluna"...

...and voilà! My light mode and all the other lovely add-ons that increase the functionality of this disastrous app are back <3

I've got to say, though, dear Tidal: at this rate you are never going to be able to compete with Spotify. Spotify just... works. With Tidal I'm having to turn into a half-baked hacker just to make the app work in a semi-decent manner. That's not exactly impressive. You should probably get on top of your shit.

Oh well, at least I learned a new skill as a result of this mess :D

[moose-mousse]

Good job!

Taking back your own computer!

A suggestion to improve your hack even further!

If you can open the Tidal app with a shell command you could make a shell script that you can double click on that first does your install and then opens Tidal :3

[chiseld]

I did indeed end up doing that, thank you! (see reblogs for me squeeing about it :D)

[chiseld]

Oh ho ho I'm chortling like a little demon with glee because I successfully 'hacked' Tidal (not really but let me have this tiny win)!

So here's the story: The dark mode is SO FUCKING BLACK on that app that it literally gives me a headache if I try to look at it for too long. And there's no light mode. It's hellish. It pains me.

So of course the first thing I did was install the wonderful third-party app TidaLuna, which allows you to adjust various things about Tidal (such as offering a light-mode option, hallelujah).

However! After the last Tidal update, they added a sneaky new update that uninstalls TidaLuna every time you restart the Tidal app. For what fucking reason I cannot imagine. The only reason this third-party app exists in the first place is because your own damn app is a piece of shit. Sorry, Tidal, but this is entirely your own fault.

Tragically, the automatic TidaLuna installer isn't working for me anymore, so I had to install it manually with the command line. This isn't too much of a hassle if you only have to do it once, but reinstalling it from scratch every single time I want to open Tidal and listen to some music was REALLY getting old, believe you me.

So! I decided to automate the TidaLuna installation by creating a shell script to run all the steps for me. I do still have to run my own script manually every time before starting the app, but it's simple as opening up the command line and typing "install-tidaluna"...

...and voilà! My light mode and all the other lovely add-ons that increase the functionality of this disastrous app are back <3

I've got to say, though, dear Tidal: at this rate you are never going to be able to compete with Spotify. Spotify just... works. With Tidal I'm having to turn into a half-baked hacker just to make the app work in a semi-decent manner. That's not exactly impressive. You should probably get on top of your shit.

Oh well, at least I learned a new skill as a result of this mess :D

[chiseld]

THE GLORIOUS FOLLOW-UP:

Thanks to a hot tip from @mcb3k, I have now polished this thingamajig up a little bit, and I have a brand spanking new launch icon in my dock with which to run Tidal now:

(yes I called it TidalX, there's no need for creativity here haha)

When I click this beautiful (well, ugly, but in my soul it's beautiful because of what it represents) icon, this is what happens: first, it runs my own script to install TidaLuna, and then after that, it starts up the new and improved Tidal – with light mode and everything else.

I FEEL SO SUCCESSFUL

[chiseld]

Oh ho ho I'm chortling like a little demon with glee because I successfully 'hacked' Tidal (not really but let me have this tiny win)!

So here's the story: The dark mode is SO FUCKING BLACK on that app that it literally gives me a headache if I try to look at it for too long. And there's no light mode. It's hellish. It pains me.

So of course the first thing I did was install the wonderful third-party app TidaLuna, which allows you to adjust various things about Tidal (such as offering a light-mode option, hallelujah).

However! After the last Tidal update, they added a sneaky new update that uninstalls TidaLuna every time you restart the Tidal app. For what fucking reason I cannot imagine. The only reason this third-party app exists in the first place is because your own damn app is a piece of shit. Sorry, Tidal, but this is entirely your own fault.

Tragically, the automatic TidaLuna installer isn't working for me anymore, so I had to install it manually with the command line. This isn't too much of a hassle if you only have to do it once, but reinstalling it from scratch every single time I want to open Tidal and listen to some music was REALLY getting old, believe you me.

So! I decided to automate the TidaLuna installation by creating a shell script to run all the steps for me. I do still have to run my own script manually every time before starting the app, but it's simple as opening up the command line and typing "install-tidaluna"...

...and voilà! My light mode and all the other lovely add-ons that increase the functionality of this disastrous app are back <3

I've got to say, though, dear Tidal: at this rate you are never going to be able to compete with Spotify. Spotify just... works. With Tidal I'm having to turn into a half-baked hacker just to make the app work in a semi-decent manner. That's not exactly impressive. You should probably get on top of your shit.

Oh well, at least I learned a new skill as a result of this mess :D

[chiseld]

Aw heck yeah, I coded my first functional browser script :D

It's just the teensiest little thing, but it brings me such peace of mind. Background: I joined the website "RateYourMusic" the other day, and I was immediately INTENSELY annoyed by an aspect of the UX: there's this little video player ad-thingy that follows you around the page, bulging and rippling slightly at you (I HATE subtle motion seen out of the corner of my eye on websites, it makes it almost impossible for me to use the site due to how distracting it is) and even jumping down the page to follow you when you scroll.

I couldn't stand it. I had to get rid of it. I'd coded basic scripts to adjust the behavior of other people's websites before (e.g. a script to get rid of those annoying video overlays that pop up towards the end of some YouTube videos), but previously I'd always had to open the console each time, manually paste in the code, and then close it. For every video I wanted to watch. Very annoying.

But then!!! Today, I knew I had to get rid of this infuriating video chasing me around RYM, so I did some searching and discovered TamperMonkey, a Firefox extension that I already know is going to become my new favorite. Basically it allows you to automatically run your own scripts on any page you wish. So I dashed off the script...

And boom, with 10 lines of code I had fixed the problem and RYM is now a usable site for me once more :') This is so deeply satisfying.

[chiseld]

Well, fuck. They banned my IP address (presumably for this). I appealed the ban and explained it's an accessibility issue, and told them I'd be glad to show them my script. Really hope this works 🤞

[chiseld]

From the transcript of today's lesson in Colt Steele's web dev course. He's having a little moral-existential crisis while teaching us how to use MongoDB. (The example database we were building was an animal shelter full of various animals.)

[chiseld]

Colt: “Now, you might have something called ‘method’, maybe, in your query string. Suppose we’re making a… murder-for-hire application, where you can hire a hit man – I don’t recommend doing that – but maybe there’s a parameter called ‘method’ where you can filter by… the different ways of… having somebody killed. You know, strangulation vs. pushing them in front of a train. So. Getting a bit dark. But my point is that you may have a parameter in the query string called ‘method’, but if we have one called ‘_method’, there’s not going to be any conflict there.”

[cosmogyros]

Anyone who knows me, knows I hate web design. I'm mystified by CSS and try to avoid it whenever I can. However, in order to practice stuff like building servers with Express and Node, I do unfortunately need to have something to look at. So I resentfully made this fake instrument shop tonight. And, as usual, I ended up getting drawn into the CSS and spending much more time on it than I'd intended to.

And... anyone who knows me well also knows the significance of the tag "musical instruments" on my blog...

[chiseld]

Sharing from my main... this is what I spent tonight working on.

[chiseld]

I continue to be so obsessed with Colt Steele and his awkward stream-of-consciousness rambling 😂❤️

[chiseld]

Aw heck yeah, I coded my first functional browser script :D

It's just the teensiest little thing, but it brings me such peace of mind. Background: I joined the website "RateYourMusic" the other day, and I was immediately INTENSELY annoyed by an aspect of the UX: there's this little video player ad-thingy that follows you around the page, bulging and rippling slightly at you (I HATE subtle motion seen out of the corner of my eye on websites, it makes it almost impossible for me to use the site due to how distracting it is) and even jumping down the page to follow you when you scroll.

I couldn't stand it. I had to get rid of it. I'd coded basic scripts to adjust the behavior of other people's websites before (e.g. a script to get rid of those annoying video overlays that pop up towards the end of some YouTube videos), but previously I'd always had to open the console each time, manually paste in the code, and then close it. For every video I wanted to watch. Very annoying.

But then!!! Today, I knew I had to get rid of this infuriating video chasing me around RYM, so I did some searching and discovered TamperMonkey, a Firefox extension that I already know is going to become my new favorite. Basically it allows you to automatically run your own scripts on any page you wish. So I dashed off the script...

And boom, with 10 lines of code I had fixed the problem and RYM is now a usable site for me once more :') This is so deeply satisfying.

[chiseld]

I love Colt Steele so much hahahaha <3 Best sense of humor of any CS teacher online, I swear 😂

[aspirationallyagog]

hiii I need stemblr mutuals ._.

im a uni student studying cogsci+comp sci but interested in everything! i do a lot of ethics work specifically ethics of emerging tech (neurotech & AI)!

[my-life-is-a-sidequest]

this is a completely normal tumblr post that you can reblog don't worry about it

[cosmogyros]

I was suspicious so I inspected the DOM just to make sure. Didn't see anything sketchy about the post itself but eXCUSE ME, WTF ARE THESE CSS CLASS NAMES???

[chiseld]

I found out that Colt Steele did a complete overhaul of his famous Udemy Web Dev Bootcamp, and since I'd already paid for it and completed most of it years ago, I thought it couldn't hurt to speedrun through the early stages of the course to give myself a refresher in the basics and check out the parts he'd added about new JS syntax.

I don't have patience to watch most of the videos, so I switch them to 1.25 speed and jump ahead with the help of the transcript (see excerpt above), but sometimes I've got to stop and enjoy his fantastic sense of humor :D I love this guy.

[chiseld]

FINALLY finished my next fCC certification! This one is in relational databases and shell scripting :D

This one was a bit of a struggle because, due to technical issues, I was unable to work on any project for multiple days – I had to complete each section of the tutorial, and then each of the five certification projects, in a SINGLE study session each time. That was a little rough, ngl. But it feels great to be done with it. Next up: back end development and APIs!

[chiseld]

Ugh I've spent literally all day grinding away to learn PostgreSQL. It's so annoying, but also oddly satisfying.

I finally completed my next certification project for the fCC Relational Databases Certification, and I noticed that at one point my database said "moon moon" :P

[rumwik]

I'm off to a compassionate start!

[thewinastudyblog]

some advice i have for future computer science students

as soon as you learn data structures & complexity, run, don’t just walk, RUN to leetcode while the knowledge is still fresh in your mind. your entire career and whether you’ll get a well-paying job vs an average paying job depends on how good you are at leetcode.

build as many projects as you can, and i’m not talking tutorial projects that take a few hours, i’m talking big projects. working on a project for a month or two will get you really far.

if you don’t have an internship, do not waste your summers, learn new technologies, languages, concepts and build projects you can put in your cv.

try to participate in hackathons and coding competitions. it’s okay if you fail, but you’ll learn a lot.

learn how to read documentation. most tutorials don’t even cover a quarter of what a language, framework or software has to offer. the sooner you make reading documentation a habit, the better it is. and yes i know, documentation is long and hard to read. my advice is only read the sections that are relevant to you in the moment. something i also personally do is look at the code examples at the same time as i am reading the paragraphs, it really helps easily absorb the information.

try not to use chatgpt. and if you do, then at least use it for stuff you know you can do yourself and will be able to correct if the bot gets it wrong. using chatgpt is a very slippery slope and the more you use it the less you learn.

the math is important. math teaches you how to reason and how to develop better logical thinking. just because you don’t see yourself using the xyz theorem you’ve learnt anytime in the future doesn’t mean the math is useless.

be prepared to get comfortable with erros, issues, bugs and just problems in general. you’ll be coding 30% of the time and debugging 70% of the time (i’m exaggerating but sometimes it feels like this is the case lol), and that’s okay, it’s how we learn and the sooner you embrace it the better. if you’re someone who easily gets frustrated, then this is a heads up.

learn as you go. there is no such thing as waiting until you know everything before you start on a project. the only way and the best way to learn in this field is practice, so build, build, and build.

these are all the ones i could think of for now. feel free to comment your thoughts and questions <3