rien

mottoo: i don’t wait for moods. you’ll accomplish nothing if you do that. your mind must know it has to get down to work. ~ pearl s. buck | rien | 20 | nb | french | spanish | german | patwa | [sideblog]

[estro-boi]

we gotta get back to torrent distribution, i just watched someone eat eight grand in bandwidth charges because they ran a direct-download piracy site with local file hosting through cloudflare. torrents were invented literally for this exact reason

[estro-boi]

torrents work like this

i have a file or folder on my pc that i want to share with other people. let's call it gayshit.mp3

unfortunately gayshit.mp3 is 750mb and im not paying for discord nitro so i need another way to send it

i put it into qbittorrent and it makes a torrent file. this is essentially a very small file that points to gayshit.mp3 so other computers can find it. kinda like a treasure map

i send this tiny file to my friend, who loads it into qbittorrent. their computer takes a moment to find mine over the vast expanse of cyberspace and then (as long as my pc is running and the file is still where it should be), it gets copied from my hard drive to theirs

this is the cool part: if somebody else loads that tiny file, they can download it from both of us. if i'm offline but my friend is on, the third person can still get it. this also means that if two people have separate halves of the file, they can download the other half from each other. as long as some combination of people have the pieces between them, they can all have the whole thing.

crucially this does not require a server!!! you can just upload the file to a few people and as long as they keep it, it's still accessible. as long as somebody, somewhere is still connected, it's available forever. the only way it goes away is if everybody disconnects from it.

please learn to torrent

[macleod]

How to Use Torrents (with Pictures) - wikiHow

An expert guide to get started using torrentsTorrents are one of the most popular forms of file sharing on the internet, accounting for over

always use qbittorrent, do not use bittorrent or utorrent.

[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

[blksouthernfemme]

The Black ABCs

The 1970s Chicago-developed educational flashcards created by June Sark Heinrich and Bernadette H. Triplett to provide Black-centered learning materials for the youth.

[taboopantera]

My favorite ones

[mossdftba]

You can get a color reproduction set!

Young, Vintage & Black Flashcard -- Full Set of 26

Description: Full deck of 26 Young, Vintage & Black Flashcards - contemporary reproductions of the original Black ABC's, issued in the 1

Further information on the original set:

[violetsandshrikes]

to all my researchers, students and people in general who love learning: if you don't know this already, i'm about to give you a game changer

connectedpapers

the basic rundown is: you use the search bar to enter a topic, scientific paper name or DOI. the website then offers you a list of papers on the topic, and you choose the one you're looking for/most relevant one. from here, it makes a tree diagram of related papers that are clustered based on topic relatability and colour-coded by time they were produced!

for example: here i search "human B12"

i go ahead and choose the first paper, meaning my graph will be based around it and start from the topics of "b12 levels" and "fraility syndrome"

here is the graph output! you can scroll through all the papers included on the left, and clicking on each one shows you it's position on the chart + will pull up details on the paper on the right hand column (title, authors, citations, abstract/summary and links where the paper can be found)

you get a few free graphs a month before you have to sign up, and i think the free version gives you up to 5 a month. there are paid versions but it really depends how often you need to use this kinda thing.

[thefifthtetrahedron]

researchrabbit works similarly. you do need to create an account to use it, but it is completely free (as far as I know), meaning no limits to your collections/graphs.

[spell-bloom]

Hey here's some free Sims games. Don't pay for digital media in this economy.

Sims 1

Sims 2

Sims 3 or this link

Sims 4

Sims Medieval

You'll have to scroll down to each game :] Hopefully the archive stays up.

Here is also all non-PC sims games. As well as links to a variety of emulators:

PS2

PS3

XBOX

XBOX 360

PSP

DS

Wii

GameCube

Game Boy Advance/Other emulator

EDIT (2/11/25) I completely forgot that Vimm's Lair got a lot of games nuked recently, here is a link to the 🏴‍☠️ games megathread.

EDIT (10/28/25) Sorry for not updating the links for a while.

EDIT (3/4/26) Replaced Anadius's link to fitgirl's repack.

Reminder that these kind of links tend to get taken down every so often, so please make sure to click back to the original post when reblogging ! Two of the most popular reblogs contain dead links !!

[spell-bloom]

Updated the Sims 4 link since Anadius left the scene :]

[awakefor48hours]

I need you folks who are going back to school to understand this, sleep deprivation is not something to be proud of. You are being fed capitalist propaganda to make you believe that working yourself to the bone is a good and smart business model from a young age. If all you do is “get 3 hours of sleep” because you’re studying, you’re just gonna burn out quicker, forget the information you’re trying to cram, and cause your brain to cannibalize itself.

Do not compete by making unhealthy habits. This will only fuck you up in the long run.

[owenbroadcast]

Hey Tumblr. I made a book (I'm just a guy, not a company). It's called: 'Kingdom of Verse: A Children's Introduction to English Language Poetry and Rhyme'.

My wife is more literate than me, so she wrote the description:

"This charming introduction to the world of rhyming verse takes children on a journey through the wild and wondrous landscape of the English language, guided by such greats as Lewis Carroll, Emily Dickinson, John Milton, Rudyard Kipling, and Shakespeare, spanning from nursery rhymes to the 1600s to the early 20th century. The lively, distinctive illustrations open the imaginative treasure trove of our collective poetic heritage for children of the 21st century and beyond."

This book was inspired by reading with my son - he also helped me make it. This below poem by A. A. Milne, author of Winnie the Pooh, is basically what the book is about:

I was impressed by how much each book we read became a part of his world, and opened up new aspects of our world to him.

The book, an illustrated poetry anthology, spans from folk rhymes and nursery rhymes all the way up the early 1900s.

A short list of heavy hitting authors included: Lewis Carroll, Shakespeare, Rudyard Kipling, Poe, Wordsworth, Milton, William Blake, Beatrix Potter, Emily Dickinson, Lord Byron, Edward Lear, and way more.

I believe I went through over 2000 pages of older books to select these. I was very pleased to get certain authors in, like Rudyard Kipling, who you can see below. (I also snuck a ben franklin in there).

We read some older poetry anthologies here. I made this because I felt like there wasn't one that "went hard" in the way I would - really making a package where the message is: you, as an English speaking kid, have this huge treasure chest of linguistic artistry waiting for you.

It's an honor to be a part of a child's world. At the risk of sounding grandiose, I wanted to make a civilizational transmission: a thread running through the Anglospheric mind for a kid to tug at.

I run a little art studio here with my son, wife, baby, and cats. This is our holiday release. Thanks for considering it.

📦 Linked: it's on Amazon.

[bjornedyr]

Langblr Challenge!

Hi, I am writing out my main plan for what I write about on this blog- though, please feel encouraged to join in as a language challenge! I'll call it uh.. Bjørnedyr'sLangblrChallenge, rolls right off the tongue

For now, I will be doing this primarily in German and Norwegian, but once I feel proficient enough I will switch to Chinese (Mandarin) and Icelandic! After that I will just see where I go!

-

General Things

First, for every day, try to immerse yourself in the language as much as you can!

I usually try to completely do most entertainment things in my target language for a while, it is a pain at first, but you will learn a lot! (I tend to really enjoy doing this with music, films, video games, and cooking/baking- but there are a lot of possibilities!)

And second, don't wait for an even day or a start to a new week or month, just do what you can and give it your best! This plan is best case scenario, we will just see how it goes together :)

And finally, I will try to document things here, especially if they can be a lesson post, and I encourage you to do the same if you want to!

-

The Challenge

Monday-Thursday - 25 Words a Day Vocabulary Lists, quick study/memorization!

Friday - Full vocabulary Review - Really focus on long term memory today! fully review everything from the past week! imagine you have a quiz tomorrow and need to know the words/spelling/articles/conjugations/etc! Feel free to review from other weeks as well to make sure you dont lose it!

-

Saturday - Grammar Lessons! Pretty self explanatory, learn to use all the grammar you have been learning

Sunday -

Options! Chose 1 or do as many as you feel like! just try to ensure a healthy balance of input and output

20 Minutes of Speaking Practice - (conversation, tell a story, choose a topic, ramble, etc.), as a beginner write out the speech as correctly as possible and recite it until you can do it confidently, for intermediate+ try to do this without a guide, just talk

Diary Entry - Write about the events of the past week to the best of your ability, start short and small and slowly grow your vocabulary/grammar based on what you need to write!

Cultural/History Lessons - Find something to learn about the country(ies) your target language is from- You can do this in your native language or the target language, depending on your level! (Wikipedia is your friend!)

Read! - Try to read an article, a chapter of a book, a children's book, etc. in your target language! I really enjoy this one because I tend to surprise myself on how much I really know

Low Difficulty Immersion Activities - Not feeling it today? Put on a film or documentary in your target language or put on some music for a while

if you have a better activity in mind that works for you, do that alongside these/instead!

[lzrdprsn]

if you have a sec, check out my project page @xxxophelia and like the posts and stuff it's supposed to be a public facing project so I need the public to face it!!!!

[balletinthestars]

Windows 10 support and updates ends today. If you don't want to switch to windows 11 but Linux looks too hard, I have made the most basic guide I possibly could. It explains everything fully and has the meanings of words in easy to understand terms. This is the guide that I wanted when I went through this so I hope it can help others too.

Proton Drive

Securely store, share, and access your important files and photos. Anytime, anywhere.

[switch-to-linux]

A very detailed guide for switching to Linux, well done!

Note that balenaEtcher has been reported to be a possible privacy risk, Rufus is a safer alternative.

[balletinthestars]

Hi, so I realised I can't edit the documents in the folder above without breaking the links. BUT, I've made a new one (with information on Rufus and a few other new things). I will continue to change add to these documents as new things come up. So please use the one below.

Proton Drive

Securely store, share, and access your important files and photos. Anytime, anywhere.

[dreamsy990]

i saw someone say nobody needs to know what a .txt file is anymore. what the fuck is the world coming to

[dreamsy990]

unironically i think we need to bring back computer labs because APPARENTLY some people WERENT taught basic computer literacy and internet safety in school

[dreamsy990]

things about computers/the internet i think kids should be formally taught in schools because theyre important to know and the amount of soon to be grown adults i know who know NOTHING about any of these is quite frankly almost all of them (and resources to learn if you dont know these things, because its never to late to get better with computers)

how to troubleshoot by yourself when you have a technical problem

what common file types are

some very basics on how to use ""developer tools"" on your computer (because i cant think of a better way to refer to them) like task manager and command prompt (and their mac equivalents, terminal and activity monitor ofc)

how to read and understand a privacy policy and what your personal data is, as well as what it being collected actually means and steps you can take to keep it private

how to understand terms of service (hey. if you have trouble with reading legalese and worry about being able to understand these policies anyways, here's a site that gives basic summaries of privacy policies and ToS)

what a cookie actually is

internet privacy and your digital footprint!! seriously i dont know why we stopped teaching people that they shouldnt be putting their entire real identity online in a world where your online actions can ruin you irl

basic safety measures like antivirus software (and why you should use it or if the built in one on windows or mac is enough for you) and backing up your computer (also a mac guide)

common keyboard shortcuts (and on mac)

as an additional note: things i think everyone should know on computers and the internet but schools may bit hesitant to teach about for whatever moral/legal standards schools pretend to operate on

vpns and adblockers! (btw for most of these where you can pay for things im purposefully not recommending any specific software but seriously just use ublock origin for an adblocker)

how to not get a virus while pirating something

what a temporary email is and when to use one

red flags that you shouldn't trust a website (and how to quickly check the security of a site)

what javascript on a website does and how to disable it to get around paywalls

[dreamsy990]

ok one last addition! if you want to take it one level higher, i think learning the very basics of at least one programming language is good for people. it makes computers less scary and it makes you feel very cool, and a lot of people get discouraged about it because it seems overly complicated and hard to learn outside a formal classroom setting, so heres some resources for learning the very basics of python (because i consider it the easiest language to learn and knowing one language will make it easier to learn others)

an online compiler so you dont need to download anything or worry about running code directly on your computer if that makes you nervous

a basic video guide to introduce you to python and walk you through beginner steps

a guide to some syntax and commands you should know (this was literally my lifeline in my first CS class)

some performance tasks to give you things to code to practice and assess yourself

[andmaybegayer]

If you are interested in picking up Linux not as a "I want to be a technical user" thing but rather as a "I want a computer that will handle the average person's daily tasks and not spy on me" I think you should really look at an Atomic desktop system.

I highly recommend Fedora Kinoite, it's a very user friendly but still customisable desktop setup that can do just about anything you want without you ever having to dig into the command line.

The KDE Plasma desktop, in an atomic fashion

I run a variant of this on the computer I keep hooked up to my TV and I have not once been required to go into the command line from the second I installed it.

Atomic desktops like this are high reliability: if an update breaks the system, it'll automatically roll back to the last good version. You can install a huge number of useful programs from the app catalogue and it includes most things you could want: browsers, document editors, ebook managers, art tools, even Steam and Heroic for playing games. Basically, anything on Flathub:

Flathub - Apps for Linux

Find and install hundreds of apps and games for Linux. Enjoy Firefox, Telegram, RetroArch, GIMP and many more!

If you're a programmer or otherwise need access to command line tools, the way to do that is Distrobox, which runs almost any other distribution containerized with high intergration and minimal restrictions. Almost indistinguishable from a native system, very low overhead, if you install a GUI application in a Distrobox and launch it it'll appear seamlessly in your workspace with full access to your directory tree. I currently use this to develop my embedded stuff because a lot of that targets Ubuntu and gets mad when your python and compiler versions start deviating (ESP-IDF, ROS2, etc.)

Use any linux distribution inside your terminal.

This is a sort of necessarily locked down system, but it's distinct from, say, an iPad. The locks are not firm, if you really want to you can switch to root and modify the system and tear into the root tree and make any changes you want, BUT you will give up the specific benefits you chose an atomic system for. You can't really use general purpose Linux help for these systems because they'll suggest editing root config files or tweaking your packages but in general I've found in haven't needed to do those things unless I'm doing power user shit.

Using an app library interface can feel bad because it reminds you of smartphones but it's really quite different.

If you do go this route I recommend not trying to fuck with the root stuff, unless you are specifically trying to learn about immutable systems. This is a great choice for computers you want to just work, and the suite of stuff you can get in FlatPak is more than enough for most people, especially if all you do is web browsing, digital art, or gaming.

If you're really into gaming on Linux specifically, another good shout here is Bazzite, which is what I run on my handheld. It's a gaming focused build based on Fedora that has good hardware compatibility, even if you've heard horror stories about Nvidia on Linux from people like me.

Bazzite - The next generation of Linux gaming

Bazzite makes gaming and everyday use smoother and simpler across desktop PCs, handhelds, tablets, and home theater PCs.

[loki-zen]

Hey op suppose I get a new laptop and want to get that fedora thing on it (bc if I buy a new laptop it will almost certainly have windows 11).

What is the process for setting it up and how long is it likely to take? Assume a like non-zero but definitely hella low for people you interact with if you have opinions on different kinds of Linux level of technical skill. Like I've worked frontline IT support but I've never used Linux; I can manually install computer game mods by following instructions but I would rather get a mod manager.

[thetetra]

Also what about needing to run a box with windows in it? How hard is that to set up?

[lubulububu-deactivated20260124]

does anyone have access to jstor i need a fucking article or an entire book and i can't access it from anywhere else

this is the book

[lubulububu-deactivated20260124]

this is the article btw

[jan-aki]

I've been playing this song on repeat and want to share it

[theconstitutionisgayculture]

IMPORTANT NEWS FOR WINDOWS 10 USERS

So, official support for Windows 10 ends on October 14th 2025. But Microsoft apparently lost a court case and now they have to offer an extra year of security updates--which was an option previously only available to their Business customers--to everyone. But you have to manually enroll. If you want to know how to do it, go to the link below

How to Enroll in Windows 10 Extended Security Updates (ESU) Before Support Ends

As the end of official support for Windows 10 approaches on October 14, 2025, many users are seeking ways to maintain their system's securit

You've got to do it before October 14th if you want the extra year. Otherwise support will end for you and you'll probably have to "upgrade" to Windows 11.

[elfkid4]

So that link, imo, sucks and is written by chatgpt. Here is the official Microsoft link with information (explained far more clearly and succinctly): https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/extended-security-updates

Here are some key elements taken straight from that page

[screenshots are directly from the above link, and since im on mobile i won't be transcribing the text for screen Readers - please refer to the above link for screen Reader usage]

Edit: I want to highlight that op is wrong- you do not have to enroll by October 14, 2025! As seen in the first screenshot I posted, you can enroll ANYTIME before the program ends (it ends October 14, 2026) meaning you can enroll until October 13, 2026!!!

[semi-sketchy]

So this is a bit misleading.

The 3 methods listed above were there before the lawsuit, but none of them are "free".

You can pay $30 per year (up to 3 years)/1,000 Microsoft rewards points, or sync to OneDrive, which is not free. OneDrive is a cloud storage subscription service that only gives you 5GB for free.

While technically "free", being tied to a subscription service is the gotcha. It is virtually impossible for anyone to stay below 5GB, meaning you will need to purchase more storage.

Additionally, along with trusting Microsoft to rummage through your files, this requires you to have a Microsoft account linked (to better track and serve you ads), meaning you cannot have a local account.

The only way for non-business-class users to get updates for free is if they live in Europe, which is where the lawsuit applies. In that region, you simply have to sign into your Microsoft account at least once every 60 days to get one year of free security updates. Outside of that area, you still have to pay (in one way or another) for extended security updates.

The first news segment of this video breaks it down:

Personally, if your PC meets the requirements, I think you should update to 11 and install WinaeroTweaker (it's essentially a registry editor with a user-friendly interface) to disable things like telemetry and ads.

There are ways to jank around the install and get Windows 11 on a PC that doesn't meet the requirements (like secure boot and TPM 2.0), though I have no experience with that.

Otherwise, I suggest moving to Linux. Mint is heralded as a very user friendly distro, many programs have Linux versions now and the community has gotten loads of Windows-exclusive programs to run under Wine (it's not just for games).

[strike-another-match]

my reading addon is waiting approval for firefox and chrome im so nervous. please approve my addon i think it could help at least one other person as much as it's helped me...

[strike-another-match]

day 2 of no addon approval. come on all it does is style <p> elements... the humble styler...

[strike-another-match]

ITS APPROVED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

it's an accessibility tool i made for myself because i needed it, which basically lets you focus on one sentence at a time as you read large blocks of texts (books, articles, etc.). it offers different highlight styles, some of which use gradients to help guide your eyes from the start of the sentence until the end. you can move forward and back pressing the buttons or using ALT + left and right arrow keys if you use it and you find it helpful please tell me about it so i can have the motivation to keep improving it. i love knowing people use my tools

https://addons.mozilla.org/es-ES/firefox/addon/sentence-stepper/

https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/sentence-stepper/cfiappnihemjkaaepefjfofagcobikek

[wistoreal]

[ID. Two gifs of the accessibility tool in action. They highlight one sentence at a time for ease of readability.

The first gif shows the tool cycling down the paragraphs, from sentence to sentence, in a thick yellow highlight.

The second gif shows the different highlight styles such as; a thick yellow, a thinner yellow, no highlight at all, a gradient highlight, blocky tri-color highlight by line, and colored text by line. End ID.]

[toopunktofuck]

I’m a college student struggling with brain fog due to medical issues, I’m definitely going to try this out next time I’m working on one of my reading heavy courses :) a lot of my books are accessible via some website cloud thing on a browser because owning things isn’t real anymore. this looks like something that will really really help me.

[dragonsblowingoutbirthdaycandles]

your life is not an optimization problem

[dragonsblowingoutbirthdaycandles]

as in you'll never achieve the perfect daily routine, sleep schedule, coping mechanisms, mannerisms, fashion sense etc. even after years and years of healing and improvement and self-discovery. you will never be so good at life that you manage to utilize every waking moment. its great to be productive and all but sometimes you'll suck ass. sometimes you'll take eight hours to be done with a twenty minute job. you'll prioritize the wrong thing. you'll sleep for 12 hrs just to avoid being awake. you'll relapse. and you'll relapse again. you'll forget to turn in the assignment. you'll order too little food. life is far too large and complex for you to even experience it completely, much less try to make sense of and control it. you can't. please give up on that and be at peace with the hours you lose. they are not separate from your life.