Latest Posts by a-mess-of-links - Page 7
I don’t know if I’m late to the party here noticing this, but @staff what the actual hell is this. This is what I get when I click on the link to my own mantis shrimp post, shared on Twitter. I can see the first half, and then I get forced to log-in to keep reading.
I write a free blog on your free platform, and you’re using link sharing on mobile to try to force people to sign up? Not only is this absolutely not okay - this isn’t a paywalled site and my content isn’t subscription only - but it really fucks me over as a science communicator who relies on posts being shared easily to disseminate information.
This is absolutely not okay. I’ve used this site for eight years to do for science outreach and loved it. This choice leaves a really nasty taste in my mouth.
friendly reminder that findtags is the best way to search tumblr’s absolutely destroyed tag system. it actually accurately looks through the tags without omitting results. it’s the only thing i use at this point because it’s the only thing that works
If any of y’all didn’t know, there’s a free online library, aka
https://openlibrary.org/
and I found like, twelve ebooks I’ve been wanting to read on there, and blasted through like three of them during the course of a boring-ass shift.
things i wish i had known when i escaped my family household and couldn't ask my parents for help
invest in a good mattress early on. there are many other ends you can save on - sleep is not one of them. this is key to how much energy you'll have throughout the day
you don't need a bedframe but you do need a slatted bed base (even if it's just pallets)
opening a bank account is easy
there's youtube tutorials for everything. how to install your washing machine, how to use tools, fixing stuff around the place. channels like dad, how do i? are a godsend
change energy provider as soon as your old deal runs out. you'll get better offers elsewhere and avoid price gouging
assemble a basic first aid kid at home: painkillers, probiotics, alcohol wipes, bandages, tweezers, antihistamine tablets - anything you might need in a pinch
and an emergency toolkit: flashlight, extra batteries, a utility knife, an adjustable wrench, multi-tool, duct tape
set your fridge to the lowest temperature it can go. the energy consumption is minimal in difference and it'll give you +4/7 days on most foods
off-brand products are almost always the same in quality and taste, if not better, for half the price
coupons will save you a lot of money in the long run
there's no reason to be shy around employees at the bank/laundromat/store; most people will be happy to help
vegetarian diets are generally cheap if you make food from scratch
breakfast is as important as they say
keep track of your budget in a notebook or excel file - e.g. rent, phone and internet bills, food, leisure so you'll have an overlook on your spending over the months
don't gamble
piracy is okay
stealing from big stores and chains is also ethically okay
keep medical bills and pharmacy receipts for tax returns
also, file your tax returns early
take up a hobby that isn't in front of a screen. pottery, music, going for a run every now and then, stuff that'll keep you busy and sane
and most importantly... you're allowed to get the stuff you want. treat yourself to the occasional mundane thing. a good scented candle. a bath bomb. that body lotion that makes you feel like royalty. the good coffee beans.
you're free and you deserve to be happy.
There's been a lot of lists floating around twitter of 100 books of a particular genre, or of a particular level of 'literary' merit.
Well, this is my list.
If you don't like it, make your own.
In no particular order:
1 Exquisite Corpse, Poppy Z Brite
2 Lost Souls, Poppy Z Brite
3 Call Me By Your Name, Andre Aciman
4 Leash, Jane DeLynn
5 The Phantom of the Opera, Gaston Leroux
6 Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke, Eric Larocca
7 The Last of the Wine, Mary Renault
8 I, Claudius, Robert Graves
9 Sarah, JT LeRoy
10 Dogs of War, Adrian Tchaikovsky
11 Moby Dick, Herman Melville
12 Dead Silence, SA Barnes
13 Ghost Ride, Hope Zane
14 Dark Rise, CS Pacat
15 All Systems Red, Martha Wells
16 Small Changes Over Long Periods of Time, KM Szpara
17 The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
18 Everyone On the Moon is Essential Personnel, Julian K Jarboe
19 The Willows, Algernon Blackwood
20 To Be Taught If Fortunate, Becky Chambers
21 Entangled Life, Merlin Sheldrake
22 Deerskin, Robin McKinley
23 A Dowry of Blood, ST Gibson
24 The Putrescent Vein, Dorian Bridges
25 The Wingspan of Severed Hands, Joe Koch
26 The Faerie Hounds of York, Arden Powell
27 The Monster of Elendhaven, Jennifer Giesbrecht
28 The Apple Tree Throne, Premee Mohumad
29 An Unkindness of Ghosts, Rivers Solomon
30 The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco
31 Slippery Creatures, KJ Charles
32 The First Man In Rome, Colleen McCullough
33 A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine
34 Mexican Gothic, Sylvia Moreno-Garcia
35 Psycho, Robert Bloch
36 Under the Pendulum Sun, Jeanette Ng
37 The Crows, CM Rosens
38 Ritual, David Pinner
39 Dear Laura, Gemma Amor
40 Here, the World Entire, Anwen Kya Hayward
41 The Orange Eats Creeps, Grace Krilanovich
42 Death in Venice, Thomas Mann
43 Philip and Alexander, Adrian Goldsworthy
44 The Historian, Elizabeth Kostova
45 Babel, RF Kuang
46 As Simple as Hunger, D Des Anges
47 Heavy, D Des Anges
48 The Enchantments of Flesh and Spirit, Storm Constantine
49 God's War, Kameron Hurley
50 Ninefox Gambit, Yoon Ha Lee
51 Perdido Street Station, China Miéville
52 Midnight Sun, Stephanie Meyer
53 Damascus, Christos Tsiolkas
54 Penhallow, Georgette Heyer
55 Ghost Wall, Sarah Moss
56 Valiant, Holly Black
57 Interview With the Vampire, Anne Rice
58 The Secret History, Donna Tartt
59 Flowers in the Attic, Virginia Andrews
60 Generals Die in Bed, Charles Yale Harrison
61 Picnic at Hanging Rock, Joan Lindsay
62 Dune, Frank Herbert
63 Red Dragon, Thomas Harris
64 The Fifth Season, NK Jemisin
65 A Kiss Before Dying, Ira Levin
66 Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
67 Orlando, Virginia Woolf
68 The Tommyknockers, Stephen King
69 Midnight in Chernobyl, Adam Higgenbothem
70 Strain, Amelia C Gormley
71 Sons of Devils, Alex Beecroft
72 Carnivore, Jonathan Lyon
73 Passchendaele, Paul Ham
74 Let the Dead Bury their Dead, Randall Keenan
75 Angel Mage, Garth Nix
76 The Long Walk, Stephen King
77 The Black Jewels Trilogy, Anne Bishop
78 Huge Rat Comforts Himself With Lies, Mikko Harvey
79 The Two-Headed Calf, Laura Gilpin
80 Sisters of the Vast Black, Lina Rather
81 Your Mind is a Terrible Thing, Hailey Piper
82 Vagabonds!, Eloghosa Osunde
83 The Boy in the Dress, Jonathan Butler
84 Salome, Oscar Wilde
85 Macbeth, Shakespeare
86 Killing for Company, Brian Masters
87 The Stranger Beside Me, Anne Rule
88 The Dawn of Everything, David Graeber & David Wengrow
89 Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel
90 The Trauma Cleaner, Sara Krasnostein
91 Iron Widow, Ciran Jay Zhao
92 Kursk, Robert Moore
93 The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben
94 Spectred Isle, KJ Charles
95 The Virgin Suicides, Jeffrey Eugenides
96 Catch-22, Joseph Heller
97 Dead Europe, Christos Tsiolkas
98 All I See is Mud, Andrew Dunkley
99 To Hell and Back, Sydney Loch
100 The Wicked Boy, Kate Summerscale
How's that for a list of 100 books that fuck!
orig
>First, we’ve discovered that about a quarter of all the internet connection in or out of the house were ad related. In a few hours, that’s about 10,000 out of 40,000 processed.
>We also discovered that every link on Twitter was blocked. This was solved by whitelisting the https://t.co domain.
>Once out browsing the Web, everything is loading pretty much instantly. It turns out most of that Page Loading malarkey we’ve been accustomed to is related to sites running auctions to sell Ad space to show you before the page loads. All gone now.
>We then found that the Samsung TV (which I really like) is very fond of yapping all about itself to Samsung HQ. All stopped now. No sign of any breakages in its function, so I’m happy enough with that.
>The primary source of distress came from the habitual Lemmings player in the house, who found they could no longer watch ads to build up their in-app gold. A workaround is being considered for this.
>The next ambition is to advance the Ad blocking so that it seamlessly removed YouTube Ads. This is the subject of ongoing research, and tinkering continues. All in all, a very successful experiment.
>Certainly this exceeds my equivalent childhood project of disassembling and assembling our rotary dial telephone. A project whose only utility was finding out how to make the phone ring when nobody was calling.
>Update: All4 on the telly appears not to have any ads any more. Goodbye Arnold Clarke!
>Lemmings problem now solved.
>Can confirm, after small tests, that RTÉ Player ads are now gone and the player on the phone is now just delivering swift, ad free streams at first click.
>Some queries along the lines of “Are you not stealing the internet?” Firstly, this is my network, so I may set it up as I please (or, you know, my son can do it and I can give him a stupid thumbs up in response). But there is a wider question, based on the ads=internet model.
>I’m afraid I passed the You Wouldn’t Download A Car point back when I first installed ad-blocking plug-ins on a browser. But consider my chatty TV. Individual consumer choice is not the method of addressing pervasive commercial surveillance.
>Should I feel morally obliged not to mute the TV when the ads come on? No, this is a standing tension- a clash of interests. But I think my interest in my family not being under intrusive or covert surveillance at home is superior to the ad company’s wish to profile them.
>Aside: 24 hours of Pi Hole stats suggests that Samsung TVs are very chatty. 14,170 chats a day.
>YouTube blocking seems difficult, as the ads usually come from the same domain as the videos. Haven’t tried it, but all of the content can also be delivered from a no-cookies version of the YouTube domain, which doesn’t have the ads. I have asked my son to poke at that idea.
Everyone may *think* they hate country music, but when Jolene, Before He Cheats, Take Me Home Country Roads, or Life is a Highway comes on, everyone is suddenly a liar.
I wish kinky sex ed wasn't so stigmatized even among left-leaning "sex positive" circles. Everyone's all "uwu I'm a sub I'll do anything you ask" okay mommy wants you to read The New Bottoming Book so you learn how to sub without hurting yourself since your sex ed up to this point is porn and your ex boyfriend Jared who liked to choke you incorrectly
Stardew Valley Character Creator
So for the past while, I've been working on this project with Poltergeister (whose art you've definitely seen if you play with Expanded and/or Seasonal Cuter Characters), and I'm really excited to finally be sharing it with you guys!
A new way to navigate Tumblr
If you use Tumblr on a web browser, you might have noticed us testing a brand new navigation on your dashboard in the last month. Now, after some extensive tweaks, we’ve begun rolling out this new dashboard navigation to everyone using a web browser. Welcome to the new world. It’s very like the old world, just in a different layout.
Why are we doing this? We want it to be as easy as possible for everyone to understand and explore what’s happening on Tumblr—newbies and seasoned travelers alike.
Labels over icons: When adding something new to Tumblr in the past, we’d simply add a new icon to our navigation with little further explanation. Turns out no one likes to press a button when they don’t know what it does. So now, where there’s space, the navigation includes text labels. Since adding these, we’ve noticed more of you venturing to previously unexplored corners of Tumblr. Intrepid!
What’s already been fixed? Thanks to feedback from folks during the testing phase, we’ve been able to make some improvements right out of the gate. Those include returning settings subpages (Account, Dashboard, etc.) to the right of the settings page instead of having them in an expandable item in the navigation on the left; fixing some issues with messaging windows on smaller screens; and streamlining the Account section to make it easier to get to your blogs.
What’s next? We’re looking into making a collapsible version of this navigation and improving the use of screen space for those of you with enormous screens. We’re also working on improving access to your account and sideblogs.
That’s all for now, folks. For questions and suggestions, contact Support using the “Feedback” category. Please select the “Report a bug or crash” category on the support form for technical issues. And keep an eye out for more updates here on @changes.
Want to learn something new in 2022??
Absolute beginner adult ballet series (fabulous beginning teacher)
40 piano lessons for beginners (some of the best explanations for piano I’ve ever seen)
Excellent basic crochet video series
Basic knitting (probably the best how to knit video out there)
Pre-Free Figure Skate Levels A-D guides and practice activities (each video builds up with exercises to the actual moves!)
How to draw character faces video (very funny, surprisingly instructive?)
Another drawing character faces video
Literally my favorite art pose hack
Tutorial of how to make a whole ass Stardew Valley esque farming game in Gamemaker Studios 2??
Introduction to flying small aircrafts
French/Dutch/Fishtail braiding
Playing the guitar for beginners (well paced and excellent instructor)
Playing the violin for beginners (really good practical tips mixed in)
Color theory in digital art (not of the children’s hospital variety)
Retake classes you hated but now there’s zero stakes:
Calculus 1 (full semester class)
Learn basic statistics (free textbook)
Introduction to college physics (free textbook)
Introduction to accounting (free textbook)
Learn a language:
Ancient Greek
Latin
Spanish
German
Japanese (grammar guide) (for dummies)
French
Russian (pretty good cyrillic guide!)
does anyone know if i can like block sites from appearing in my google images searches??? i keep getting those awful ai generated things with a hand coming out of a man's neck and just straight up not what i was looking for, because this was in a search for "curly hair in medieval paintings". it happens every time i search for anything vaguely art-reference-like and it's so fucking annoying and it clutters my search results so much. i don't wanna add specific commands to the query every time too, what i need is like a browser extension or something
Streaming companies are the landlords of media. You will rent in perpetuity, and never actually own anything.
figured out a way you can search for posts that are tagged TWO things on a blog!!! feeling clever
for anyone else who didn’t know, this is the format!:
https://[blogURL].tumblr.com/search/%23[tag1]%2C%20%23[tag2]
remove the [brackets] when using it!
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.
In recent years, Google users have developed one very specific complaint about the ubiquitous search engine: They can’t find any answers. A simple search for “best pc for gaming” leads to a page dominated by sponsored links rather than helpful advice on which computer to buy. Meanwhile, the actual results are chock-full of low-quality, search-engine-optimized affiliate content designed to generate money for the publisher rather than provide high-quality answers. As a result, users have resorted to work-arounds and hacks to try and find useful information among the ads and low-quality chum. In short, Google’s flagship service now sucks.
And Google isn’t the only tech giant with a slowly deteriorating core product. Facebook, a website ostensibly for finding and connecting with your friends, constantly floods users’ feeds with sponsored (or “recommended”) content, and seems to bury the things people want to see under what Facebook decides is relevant. And as journalist John Herrman wrote earlier this year, the “junkification of Amazon” has made it nearly impossible for users to find a high-quality product they want — instead diverting people to ad-riddled result pages filled with low-quality products from sellers who know how to game the system.
All of these miserable online experiences are symptoms of an insidious underlying disease: In Silicon Valley, the user’s experience has become subordinate to the company’s stock price. Google, Amazon, Meta, and other tech companies have monetized confusion, constantly testing how much they can interfere with and manipulate users. And instead of trying to meaningfully innovate and improve the useful services they provide, these companies have instead chased short-term fads or attempted to totally overhaul their businesses in a desperate attempt to win the favor of Wall Street investors. As a result, our collective online experience is getting worse — it’s harder to buy the things you want to buy, more convoluted to search for info
Glaze is out!
Tired of having your artwork used for AI training but find watermarks dismaying and ineffective?
Well check this out! Software that makes your Art look messed up to training AIs and unusable in a data set but nearly unchanged to human eyes.
I just learned about this. It's in Beta. Please read all the information before using.
IF YOU’RE READING THIS I NEED YOU to go to neocities.org and make an account.
It’s an emergency. Look. People are really getting into it now. Do you want to be the last kid on your block still depending on corporate social media for your self-actualization?
I cannot put into words how much I Fucking Loathe the fact that when you search something on youtube now it will randomly intersperse blocks of "people also watched" and "for you" into the results. That's not what I searched for, youtube. I typed in a search query because I wanted to see search results, not random unrelated garbage you have placed in my way apparently to either inconvenience me or force me to scroll further for actual results. I despise your wretched little games and every time I see it I can only instantly close the tab as I am overcome with the urge to burn something down.
refseek.com
www.worldcat.org/
link.springer.com
http://bioline.org.br/
repec.org
science.gov
pdfdrive.com
ok i made this post before but i deleted it because it turned out to not be true, but NOW it is. tumblr has officially forced its shitty shitty dogshit new dashboard onto me. but i already had the dashboard unfucker installed for a different account so it's cool. mostly. anyways if you wanna remove the nasty dashboard you should first install (and enable) the tampermonkey addon which i'm pretty sure is available on most browsers, and then go to the dashboard unfucker github page, scroll down and click on "unfucker.user.js" and then click the "raw" button and it should install the script for you, and then you just gotta refresh any tumblr tabs you have open (may take a bit to load the changes!) <3 bye bye twitter-like dashboard!!! no one liked you anyway