Reblogging stuff... sometimes

Just a secondary blog to reblog and post stuff without cluttering my main. And show people I'm alive. My main blog is @azura-levidre and Zim's ask blog, for rp, is @ukagaka-zim

[knightesscordelia]

There are four categories of people you will meet: Underlings, superiors, rivals, and love interests. One of my underlings has been attempting to convince me of the existence of a fifth category, "friend", which appears to have no purpose. I suspect it is a ploy to get out of performing her duties.

[anais-sinclair-official]

If you have enough passion in your heart, superiors, rivals, and even some underlings can also be love interests.

[drcuriouslxix]

an underling love interest isn't a person they are a Toy

[estrogeon]

[katelyn-danger]

Quadrants

Quadrants are the four different types of romance recognized by trolls, first explained through exposition here. As humans are socialised to

Those unaware of history are doomed to repeat it.

[exhuastedpigeon]

The first rule of fandom is have fun. The second rule of fandom is find an enabler and become an enabler. Yes you should write that fic. What if it was even hornier? What if it was angstier? What if you wrote it just for me?

[smashcut]

[levidre-lurking]

@fastenwick

[kawuli]

random PSA, I know a lot of people use duckduckgo as a Google alternative search engine, but it always kind of annoyed me when I was using it because it felt like No Name Brand Google

I have switched to using Startpage.com and vastly prefer it. for one thing, instead of displaying an "AI summary" at the top of the search results (unless you turn it off, yes I know), it displays the first paragraph of the Wikipedia article, with link, whenever it finds one that's relevant.

also a waaayyyyy better sense of design than duckduckgo

also private, European based, least annoying search I've used lately (RIP old "don't be evil" Google)

[yomikoreadsbooks]

Keeping a list of Google alternatives just in case…

[saxifraga-x-urbium]

i have one of those, scraped from multiple different rec posts:

Search Engines

Infinity Search is an alternative search engine with a special focus on privacy

DuckDuckGo is a popular search engine for those who value their privacy and are put off by the thought of their every query being tracked and logged. Uses bangs, ![site] for in-page search (sells your data to microsoft and draws from fucking bing)

WolframAlpha is a privately owned search engine that allows you to “compute expert-level answers using Wolfram’s breakthrough algorithms, knowledgebase, and AI technology.” A data search engine.

Boardreader is a search engine for forums and message boards. It allows you to search forums and then filter down results by date and language.

Based in France, Qwant is a privacy-based search engine that won’t record your searches or use your personal details for advertising. Uses “&” as a bang search.

Another privacy-based search engine is Search Encrypt, which uses local encryption to ensure that users’ identifiable information cannot be tracked. Metasearch across multiple engines. 

Offering unbiased results from several sources, SearX is a metasearch engine that aims to present a free, decentralized view of the internet. Can be self-hosted. 

Gibiru’s tagline is “Unfiltered private search” and that’s exactly what it offers. Requires AnonymoX Firefox add-on for privacy. 

Disconnect allows you to conduct anonymous searches through a search engine of your choice.

Swisscows provides fully encrypted searches to protect your privacy and security. Built-in violence/porn filter cannot be overridden. 

MetaGer offers “Privacy Protected Search & Find” through its anonymised search. A plugin will allow it to be made a default.

Gigablast is a private search engine that indexes millions of websites and servers real-time information without tracking your data, keeping you hidden from marketers and spammers. Variety of filtration and refinement options for searching. 

Oscobo is a search engine that protects your privacy while you search the web. By not using any third-party tools or scripts, your data is protected from hacking and misuse. Has a Chrome extension to allow use in toolbar. 

https://search.marginalia.nu/ an independent DIY search engine that focuses on non-commercial content, and attempts to show you sites you perhaps weren't aware of in favor of the sort of sites you probably already knew existed. Use old-school searching rather than query-based for the best results. 

https://www.mojeek.com/ 

https://wiby.me/ - It’s goal is to index as many personalized websites as possible, and NOT commercial sites. 

https://4get.ca/ it works a lot like SearX, but honestly better. It doesn’t have its own index, but pulls from many others. I think it’s the best for research, since it allows you to search for answers from different indexes, is easy to configure, add free, and avoids censorship as much as it can.

https://www.searchenginemap.com/ for more on how search engines relate to each other.

https://yep.com/ is a crawler

https://www.etools.ch/ retrieves from Google, Mojeek, Bing, and Yandex, like Searx

https://www.dogpile.com/ 

https://searxng.org/ (next gen Searx)

https://luxxle.com/ - possibly conservative?

https://presearch.com/ - good for academic?

https://kagi.com/smallweb - free/randomised Kagi.

Other Searchers

www.refseek.com - Academic Resource Search. More than a billion sources: encyclopedia, monographies, magazines.

www.worldcat.org - a search for the contents of 20 thousand worldwide libraries. Find out where lies the nearest rare book you need.

https://link.springer.com - access to more than 10 million scientific documents: books, articles, research protocols.

www.bioline.org.br is a library of scientific bioscience journals published in developing countries.

http://repec.org - volunteers from 102 countries have collected almost 4 million publications on economics and related science.

www.science.gov is an American state search engine on 2200+ scientific sites. More than 200 million articles are indexed.

www.base-search.net is one of the most powerful researches on academic studies texts. More than 100 million scientific documents, 70% of them are free.https://cosine.club/ is an electronic music similarity search engine

[catchymemes]

[link-the-feral-anon]

When you remember the anti-vax movement

[burger-prince]

[tatsutahimet]

I first reblogged this in January, and here my ass is in March 2020 self-quarantined at home.

[reaperrmancer]

Ur right and u should say it

[ap-kinda-lit]

Reading this in 2021

[ssv-raven]

Reading in 2026

[dovewithscales]

Y'all, we as a community have got to get better at dodgeball if we’re gonna keep tempting fate like that.

[theelectricdreamsofddx]

Hey, wanna make music? Yeah? Got a buncha money? No? Well that's perfectly fine, check this free stuff out:

Vital - A powerful wavetable synth, my personal favorite VST synth, very easy to figure out creating new synth sounds, with the help of the plenty of tutorials that are out there for the plug-in. (There are paid versions but they are completely unnecessary to get 99% of the features of the plug-in.)

Synth1 - A classic piece of synthesizer software.

Pendulate - An interesting, chaotic synth that you can make weird little sounds with.

Native Instruments' free plug-ins - Various cool VSTs, including the Komplete Start pack.

The Free Orchestra - A set of orchestral instruments for Kontakt Player (see previous link).

BBC Symphony Orchestra Discover - More orchestral stuff! This one has its own player so you don't have to download a separate VST to use it if you don't want to.

Magical 8bit Plug - A chiptune plug-in, intended for producing sounds like that of 8-bit systems like the NES and Master System.

Genny - A synth VST made to emulate the soundchip of the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive.

MT Power Drum Kit - A nice rock n' roll style drum kit plug-in.

This guy's weird VST collection - 6.4 gigabytes of weird VSTs, including some you might know, like Delay Lama and MeowSynth!

sforzando - A free player for soundfont files.

Musical Artifacts - A resource I mainly use to find soundfonts, on which you can find other various things as well.

Kilohearts Essentials - 30 effect VSTs including reverb, delay, compression, pitch shifting, transient shaping, ring modulation, phase distortion, and more.

Xfer's freeware VSTs - Exactly what it says on the tin, including the one and only OTT compressor.

Illformed - The good ol' dblue Glitch 1.3, Crusher, Stretch, and TapeStop.

Hysteresis and Fracture - Two interesting glitch effects, one being a delay and the other being a buffer.

Codec - A cool digital audio degradation effect.

Le Phonk - A slick distortion plug-in.

MAIM - An effect that mimics the sound of MP3 compression.

Soundly Shape it and Place it - One is simply an equalizer VST, the other is an effect that emulates a speaker (ex: a radio) and a space (ex: a cave).

Fresh Air - An effect that adds high end information to your sounds, to provide brightness.

ValhallaSupermassive - A combo reverb and delay plug-in that sounds quite big.

UnplugRed - A collection of various interesting VSTs, most of which have free versions.

Chowdhury DSP - I can't personally speak for all of these but their tape model effect is great for some lo-fi style effects.

TAL-Chorus-LX - A thick sounding chorus, good for "retro" sounds too.

Polyverse Wider - A great effect for widening sounds up, really simple too with only two controls.

Freesound - A good audio file resource, mainly for foley recordings.

Cymbatics Dubstep Starter Pack - A little sample pack with some good drum and synth samples.

fishmonger drum kit - A pack of samples from the album 'fishmonger' by Underscores!

WangleLine's sample packs - Free samples put out by my awesome mutual WangleLine!

aaand I might as well include this set of drums I made a while back :P

As for DAWs, it's been a long while since I've used anything other than FL Studio (not counting Audacity, which I still occasionally use for specific purposes), which, while being the only one I can directly recommend, is paid. However, I've heard good things about Reaper which has a "free trial" that you can technically use forever, akin to WinRAR. Additionally, I've also heard some good things about Waveform Free.

[daitheflu-mx]

[tumblingoverstars]

[madkiska]

[marlynnofmany]

[captainsnoop-deactivated2020041]

i hate it when game devs put “fixed several issues” in patch notes 

no. tell me what you fixed. i wanna know what the glitch was.

you know those patch notes that are like “fixed an issue where if the player sat in a bush for too long, they’d become the size of a skyscraper” 

i wanna read those. tell me those. 

[necroesque666]

[sindri42]

[sindri42]

[ahdok]

Adjusted value of Bees. Now that was a special one… because every item in the game had a minimum value, and a beehive was a container for bees, which each had a minimum value… which meant the moment one of your dwarves picked up a beehive, your entire fortress’ net worth skyrocketed… a value used in determining how powerful the foes that visit and try to murder you are.

[prokopetz]

Reblogging for the explanation of what “adjusted value of bees” actually means, because I know several folks following this blog have been wondering.

[probabilitydirigible]

Okay but you’ve all forgotten the best Dwarf Fortress bug of all “Flying creatures give birth in midair, leading to tragedy” 

[probabilitydirigible]

Actually I lied it’s the one where after a major update werewolves and vampires started climbing the nearest tree and refusing to come down. It turned out that he’d given evil creatures the ability to sense each other, but forgotten to set a maximum range on it, so werewolves were aware Hell was underground and trying to flee by climbing 

[thepageofhopes]

This has to be my favorite patch note ever

[modmad]

want to help? you can!

Thank you to everyone who has been sending such kind messages, I promise I really do read them all, even if I can't reply, but while these messages are wonderful (and really. I mean it. just the nicest and most heartfelt things I've ever seen) the sad fact is they don't change my situation. But you can change it. You can help me.

If you know my situation, if you want to help me, please write to Glitch Productions. They are the only people who can, and I believe, might, be able and willing to save me. SMG4 has ignored me, even through a legal letter. I have no hope that they will do otherwise, but Glitch are a different case and I think they just genuinely don't know I exist. I have sent them a message, to no reply, but more messages means more of a chance they will notice. IF you are on twitter please message that way, I closed my account there years ago, and please be polite: I am not asking for hate, even if I've received it.

Even a short message will help. I need numbers, I need voices. My own voice is being drowned out, but you can speak for me as well.

[timmyreads]

For some points on the plagiarism under the read more (what I collected/organized while building up an email to send):

1) TIMELINE RGB was created long before, over a decade before Mr. Puzzles first debuted. (*RGB's first appearance may have been 2011, was a little iffy on that)

2) UNDENIABLY UNCANNY RESEMBLANCE The number of traits, some uniquely specific to and representative of RGB's design, that are copied in Mr. Puzzles design are too many to be chalked up to 'just a coincidence'

Especially when you look at the designs of all of the other TV head characters out there - I collected as many as I could find (though I'm sure there's more) and none of them come even close to sharing the number of similarities that these two do.

3) TV MODEL AND DESIGN CHOICES While looking up references for older TVs, I found that for the exact TV they're based on (small retro box TV with knobs in the upper right of the TV and an antenna) most of the references didn't have a vent on the side of them like RGB and Mr. Puzzles do.

I looked up 4 different reference terms, and still had to scroll a while before I found one that matched exactly (above collection just a general sample/example of types of TVs I found). Unless my browsers are wigging out, either the pictures that would come up for these kinds of TVs were different in 2023, or this exact combination of features are just not very common for this style of TV. If that's the case, it may be a bit strange to design a character with those features together.

Here's where that distinction is important: Mr. Puzzles as a character doesn't have much of a reason to go with this design over other styles of similar TVs. But RGB does. The vents on the sides of RGB's head aren't just an aesthetic choice - they're included as a legitimately integral part of the story-line (Negative RGB). The same can be said for a number of other choices Modmad has made, down to individual items of clothing, that show just how much thought and intention and consideration went into every aspect of RGB's design.

Which makes it that much more frustrating to see him get plagiarized in such a careless manner by people who don't even seem to put much care into their own character (common criticism I've read that SMG4 fans have had about Mr. Puzzles and his 'arc').

4) OTHER PEOPLE, EVEN THOSE WHO HADN'T HEARD ABOUT THE SITUATION FROM MOD, NOTICED This has been noted by fans of both series since Mr. Puzzles first came out.

Some people may have found more points than this, but these are what I stumbled upon. Hopefully helps bring a little more context to the situation.

[modmad]

reblogging this version because. yeah.

yeah.

[modmad]

just to update that nobody from any of the relevant parties has got back to me or made any statement. please reblog this version, as @timmyreads has compiled an extremely comprehensive explanation and evidence of the theft; at first I just wanted to be left alone, but it's really not enough. every time I see Mr Puzzle or even read his name I feel physically sick, it's hard for me to type it even now. I feel violated in every way, and I need help. I can't save myself, I have tried every single avenue available. At this point I need to be saved.

For those saying please/just keep making TPoH anyway, it's not that simple: I can't. My mind and heart are broken. The story itself has stopped communicating with me. I cannot make it any more, not if this situation doesn't change, and that loss of the story scares me more than anything else in the world.

[a-mel0n]

reblog if you’ve had an online friendship that’s lasted more than 2 years

[levidre-lurking]

I'm satisfied with that score. I just wanted to have more than 200.

[emberphoenixisgoingtolivee]

phrases of international online friends

"what do YOU guys call it"

"isn't it [insert time here] over there????"

"GO THE FUCK TO BED"

"good morning" (it's 6pm in your timezone)

"do you have/say [thing] over there"

"how's the weather over there?" (probably better than yours)

[gaymaramada]

TADC ep 8 spoilers with no context

[cryiling]

it's the weekend!!

[sherlocking-out-loud]

for anyone in the UK, needing to access discord and unable or unwilling to provide an ID:

[pokemonheartgold]

cannot vouch for this personally but copyable vers for anyone who needs it:

Object.values(webpackChunkdiscord_app.push([[Symbol()],{},r=>r.c])).find(x => x?.exports?.default?._proto_?.getCurrentUser).exports.default.getCurrentUser().ageVerificationStatus = 3;

[i-add-sources]

Tested this with a VPN set to the uk and turning a channel in my personal test-discord nsfw. Before code:

CTRL+SHIFT+i does not initially work, you need to turn on developer tools:

How to Open the Discord Console

In this guide, you'll learn how to open the Discord console (also known as the developer console), use it, and why is it not opening.

^the article does use the wrong quotes, use this: "DANGEROUS_ENABLE_DEVTOOLS_ONLY_ENABLE_IF_YOU_KNOW_WHAT_YOURE_DOING": true

Paste this above "ChromiumSwitches":

Then go to console, type "allow pasting", press enter, and paste the below text (@pokemonheartgold used one _ too litle on either side):

Object.values(webpackChunkdiscord_app.push([[Symbol()],{},r=>r.c])).find(x=>x?.exports?.default?.__proto__?.getCurrentUser).exports.default.getCurrentUser().ageVerificationStatus = 3;

Click away from the channel, back into it, press continue, voila:

^as you can see it took a few tries to get the code right

Close devtools, possibly remove the line of code from settings.json again, done!

This is correct.

[phoenixdown-and-fairydust]

So apparently discord wants to make age verification global now, which sucks ass since a convention i want to panel at now uses discord for organizing that

[fwizard]

omfg

[amvs]

​hold on i have to look something up

[amvs]

yeah he’s autistic

[pukicho]

I love indie games. Thank you for not costing 70 dollars. I love you.

[virtualgirladvance]

thank you for not being 100GB. i love you

[bsharp417]

Thank you for having free DLC alongside an already fleshed out story, I love you

[sonofshu]

Thank you for not forcing me to give you personal information for something I paid for

[wishuponastarion]

Thank you for letting me play offline even if your servers shut down