My favorite so far is NordVPN, and their price isn't bad if you go annual. If you're of the *nix persuasion, you'll have to do the usual setup, but they do provide the config to import.
China's a little different but the Great Firewall is easily surpassed by VPNs like NordVPN.
I lived in South Korea and now Thailand where porn's illegal and all I have to do is switch to https:// and I have access.
The ~~wo~~man who runs it is a noise engineer, and the site has a ton of different, adjustable soundscapes that can play for hours without truly looping.
The .net is important, the .com version is a guy stealing all of their work.
Edit: Welp, now I know what 'RIP Inbox' means. And also 'Reddit Hug-O-Death'. Maybe I should email the Dr. and apologize...
Pixabay is the biggest free stock photography website. You can even use them for commercial purposes and they also have free stock footage. Best site to use if you are an online creator.
If you have a large lawn or a property that requires a lot of yard work get some 3M Worktunes. About $50 and they're combination hearing protection and Bluetooth headphones so you can actually hear your music without destroying your eardrums.
They're a good gift too for anyone you know with a lawn or wood shop or something.
At my old house it was a 4-5 hour ordeal to mow and trim the property. I'd likely have went fully insane without those.
Anne Frank talked a lot about masturbation and lust in her original diary:
>“Once when I was spending the night at Jacque’s, I could no longer restrain my curiosity about her body, which she’d always hidden from me and which I’d never seen. I asked her whether, as proof of our friendship, we could touch each other’s breasts. Jacque refused. I also had a terrible desire to kiss her, which I did. Every time I see a female nude, such as the Venus in my art history book, I go into ecstasy. Sometimes I find them so exquisite I have to struggle to hold back my tears. If only I had a girlfriend!” –The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank
When I was high off pain meds after my ACL surgery I was on amazon and saw a typewriter that I really wanted. Order it— and it was a picture of a typewriter on a notebook. I’m still mad about that lol
Update: wow, I did not expect so many people to relate to this lol
Everything just seems like a great idea when you feel like you’re floating— it was Percocet and oxy.
It was $12 so I didn’t really care about returning it and honestly, it’s a funny reminder that I like to have around
My family still brings it up to tease me about it but it is funny so I can’t blame them
Super update: I found the link on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00T2OLV3U/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Just plug a $10 bluetooth adapter into your cars diagnostic port and you can set it up to display gauges for all sorts of your cars sensors, and diagnose fault codes without having to get a mechanic to do it. Lots of other nifty features too. Good to get a cheap tablet and use it as a permanent display in the car.
App Hoarder it shows you which apps are on sale for free everyday, plus it tracks your official google play wishlist.
Yes I am the developer of this app and I'm posting this because I don't have marketing money huhu :(
Calibre, the best ebook manager ever existed.
It's able to auto download metadata from Amazon, Google Books, and some other services; it handles conversion between epub/mobi really well; sending books to e-reader; has its own ebook viewer; multiplatform; etc.
I'm not a fan of the UI, but its not that bad.
FYI, if you want to help bring these old works - specifically books - into the public digital domain, you can volunteer with Project Gutenberg which takes scans of out-of-copyright books as has hordes of volunteers type them up and check them over to turn them into freely available e-books. It's fun, easy, and covered loads of languages and genres.
Edit: I misused the phrase "type up" and it seems to be annoying lots of people. They use OCR on scanned images of the book, then volunteers check that it has not made mistakes, proofread and edit the text for eBook format.
Also if you want to volunteer go here: https://www.pgdp.net/c/
Edit: typo
graphing calculator that I use a lot for tutoring my students in calculus and physics!
EDIT: also, if you click the 3 lil lines at the top left corner, there are many graphing examples as well! you can graph parametric curves, using polar coordinates, conic sections, and more!
How many things have to go right daily to keep me alive. I read an article a long while ago about this concept: that each person relies on hundreds, if not thousands, of strangers to do the responsible thing every day. Did the construction workers for that mall you're visiting use proper materials and follow safety standards or did they take any shortcuts? What about your elevator manufacturers and installers? Plumbers? Electricians? Doctors? Are the pilots in the sky sober? Any itchy fingers on the nuke buttons? Is that guy next to you at the gas station going to try and light up while pumping? How close are we to the next Ebola outbreak? (Hot Zone was a great book, btw.) I guess that's why we over-engineer / build in crazy safety factors.
Edit: I saw a few requests for the article link, but I am not sure if I found it online. If I had to guess, I'd say it was something I read when I was in undergrad (over a decade ago), probably as discussion material for one of my social science electives. Who knows, it may have been a student paper. Like many pointed out, my original comment is tied to the "social contract theory." There are also the various types of encounters between people (e.g. social action, social interaction, relation, etc.), the nature and frequency of which are studied by scientists, and the concept of "social consciousness." I'm sorry I don't have an answer. If someone happens to have a link, please post it! And for those of you who mentioned the quote from The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith - thank you! I'm adding it to my reading list.
Also, don't believe everything you read in the Hot Zone ;-)
Someone wrote a book about this. Basically there are a number of case studies. You might find it interesting, look it up. They're called shipwreck societies.
EDIT: Wow this blew up during thanksgiving! The name of the book is Blueprint by Nick Christakis. The link is here
Enjoy all, happy thanksgiving!
That used to be me, until I read up on the effects of light on your circadian rhythm. I started using F.lux on my computer (it dims and warms your screen at sunset), and as a rule turn off all screens (phone, TV, computer) one hour before I want to go to sleep (I have an alarm set to remind me). Basically you want to simulate dusk to your primitive brain. Your computer's light right now is screaming "It's noon!" so it's no wonder it's hard to fall asleep if you go straight from that to bed. I spend my "screens off" time doing stuff under dim, warm-colored lighting. Reading, chores, maybe a bath. I'm usually asleep within 5-10 minutes. You should give it a try. :)
Oh and the lowest wattage light bulbs for your bedroom. It should be slightly difficult to even see in there until your eyes adjust. I use 15W, not the easiest to find but so worth it.
edit: I went to bed (and fell right asleep!) without realizing I made a mistake here, and thanks to those who corrected me. It's not the wattage that matters for dim lighting but the lumens. Mine are at 115, low brightness, and also have a low tungsten rating (meaning they are warmer in color) of 2300K. You may need to experiment if you want to read under dimmer lighting because for some people it can be a strain on the eyes, but I find this added difficulty makes me sleepy which is why I do it. If I'm reading to get reading done I do it under a different lamp that won't put me to sleep.
The pics posted by a hiker/climber about a daytrip out with their buddies. Seems clean enough, yeah?
They found a severely injured, nearly dead woman near the trail on their way out. Turned out she'd been there for a day or two already and her hiking partner passed away trying to find help.
It wasn't until the OP hiker got home that they noticed the girl they rescued was visible in the background of some of their pics.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/227hzo/slug/cgkbg37/ https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hiking-rescue_n_6630510
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. It's my favorite movie ever, and it tells the story of a princess living in a tiny kingdom, sheltered from the postapocalyptic condition of the world.
There's biological warfare, philosophy on ecology, giant insects and incredible animation in this film. If you haven't seen it, you must check it out.
EDIT: In case anybody cares, I started an essay series on the manga long ago; gotta write more now.
Also, come to /r/Ghibli and /r/Nausicaa sometime!
EDIT 2 ELECTRIC BOOGALOO: Double gilded, huh? Well, since so many folks are seeing this, here's a piece of Nausicaa art that's been my cell phone lock screen for a long time.
Privacy is mentioned a lot in the threads, but for me this is really something that bugs me.
As an example, I installed a Pi-hole at home (basically catches all ad traffic and tracking traffic and does not respond to it or allow devices to respond to it). Since installing it I receive reports on the amount of tracking happening on my home network. On average it is between 15% and 20%.
I'm not able to distinguish tracking from advertising in this percentage, but it is still a lot of traffic that technically I did not ask for.
Imagine reading your book and every 5th line of text is an ad. At the start it would be annoying, but gradually you become used to ignoring it until you find a way to not "have to" see it.
I am sad to see that this is the "normal" practice for online advertising.
EDIT: Added the link to Pi-hole
CAVE STORY. Here's a link to the downloads, just pick the language that suits you. It's a great game, a classic indie made by one person in his spare time over the course of five years.
Edit: A lot of people are asking about this, so to clarify: this is the original version of the game. There are various paid versions floating around which are essentially remakes. You can find these on Steam, Wii, 3DS, and DSi. The steam version, Cave Story+, is probably one of the more popular versions. It includes updated graphics, difficulty levels, challenges, Curly Story, and more. None of these things are present in the original game. Oh, it also includes an updated soundtrack, but it's generally regarded as not very good. Luckily you can switch between original and updated in the settings. Anyway, if you like the free version, I'd ask you to please consider purchasing one of the many paid versions. They're usually about $10-15 USD. Support the dev, and all that.
Wifi analyser. Many wifi routers are using a factory default channel, meaning you can end up in situation where most wifi in an apartment building are basically jamming each others.
Also gives you cool graphs so even your grandma can understand the issue.
A Soft Murmur is good if you want to vary your white noise intake. It has multiple sliders that lets you choose just what you want to listen to, which is especially useful if you want to fall asleep to the soft sounds of, say, a coffee shop that's on fire.
Sleep Cycle. (Android link) It tracks your sleep quality and the alarm clock wakes you up in a period you set when it determines it will be easy for you to wake up. Works like a charm, makes mornings easy.
EDIT: link
FAQ:
It uses microphones, so you can leave your phone on your nightstand.
~~No, it won’t work when you aren’t sleeping alone.~~ Apparently it might, TIL
Desmos is great for math class. Plus it's free, so you don't have to pay out the ass for a TI-10000000000 XS Chrome edition just for calculus class.
Edit: What the fuck, my first silver for a graphing calculator website? Thanks, I guess.
It's the absolute best tool for taking any song off YouTube and turning it into chords. It uses an algorithm, so it's not 100% accurate, but it will help you figure the song out if you can't find the chords for it on Ultimate Guitar.
"True, he had seen pictures in his books of men with great masses of hair upon lip and cheek and chin, but, nevertheless, Tarzan was afraid. Almost daily he whetted his keen knife and scraped and whittled at his young beard to eradicate this degrading emblem of apehood.
And so he learned to shave—rudely and painfully, it is true—but, nevertheless, effectively." - From the original book.
tl;dr: ~~He had picture books with pictures of Alpha Englishmen like himself and they had no beard unlike the hairy savages he grew up with.~~ He was trying to not look like an ape. Source.
EDIT: Misremembered about his picture books. Thanks /u/drazilraW & /u/Jokersmannequin
Hired a new developer. His first day on the job, he arrives early, but drunk. Like, stumbling drunk. We're a small company (less than 70), so he's sent home to sleep it off, take a mulligan, try again tomorrow. No telling what demons he's been dealing with during his unemployed stint, and frankly, doesn't matter.
Day 2, arrives, shits in the dumpster because no one had arrived to open the office for the day, is again, drunk. Sorry, pal - we didn't drug test, we have lots of leeway to cater to your lifestyle, and we have a need for your niche skillset (obscure programming language that was perfect for our project.)
...but we're gonna look for someone else to fill this position since you're just awful at adulting.
http://justdelete.me/ If you ever want to delete your account on basically any site (like facebook, twitter, etc.), this place will tell you exactly how to do it. the site will also tell you the difficulty of deletion, ranging from easy to impossible. It also has an extensive fake identity generator.
I did a FBA (functional behavior assessment) on a second grader with emotional impairment. When I asked him the question "Who at school likes me" he couldn't answer and wouldn't stop staring at the floor. When I told him that I liked him, he started crying.
EDIT: Holy cow this blew up. If you are interested in emotional impairment in schools, I would recommend the book Lost at School. Its very interesting.
Edit: Getting lots of questions about iPhones -- unfortunately I'm not aware of an equivalent for the App Store. If somebody knows of one, I'll gladly add it to my comment.
The Art of War.
Never corner your enemy. Always leave him an escape route to make fleeing an option.
Never give your own forces other options than to advance*.
I'm paraphrasing but I always thought it was interesting.
EDIT: For those interested, there are audiobooks on youtube, such as this one, which reads the entire book for you in 2hrs. It's worth listening to.
This gives you a disposable email address to "confirm email" when creating accounts. The email address disappears in 10 minutes, and you never get any spam as a result.
CAVE STORY. Here's a link to the downloads, just pick the language that suits you. It's a great game, a classic indie made by one person in his spare time over the course of five years.
For anyone with the aptitude: pi-hole.
You essentially set up a tiny PC and route all internet requests through it, then give it a block list. Nothing connected to your network can complete requests to domains on the blocklist. Phone, PC, Smart TV/Washer/Fridge/Etc, nothing.
I honestly cant remember the last time I saw an ad, and it can block anything trying to phone home in the background as well.
https://haveibeenpwned.com/ checks if your email (and passwords) have been on any public data leaks.
Edit: since this is getting some love, I'd like to recommend any password manager, such as passpack.com or lastpass.com to help generate strong passwords you don't need to remember and can be changed quickly. Also, yes, I've been pwned a number of times. Fucking adobe. 😕 If you have a smartphone and the site allows it, turn on two factor authentication too.
Penny: Sheldon, what ya doing ?
> Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha haaaa.
Leonard: squirms and blushes ..He's.. creating ..a new Dungeons and Dragons quest.
> Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha haaaa.
Penny: Silly Sheldon, Dragons are extinct!
> Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha haaaa.
> Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha haaaa.
You download the app WiFi analyzer on your phone, check out which channels are super full, then you go to your routers wireless settings, change the channel to manual and choose a channel which no other WiFi networks. Done.
Edit: WiFi Analyzer by Farproc https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.farproc.wifi.analyzer
Edit2: Its because the WiFis interfere with each other and get slower exponentially the further you are away from the router, because the relatively stronger signals from the other router interfere your signal. Doesnt matter when you have a small 55 m² apartment like i do, but if you have connection problems over a longer distance you can probably solve the problem by doing what i mentioned above.
If you still have a bad connection dont use WiFi-Extending-Shitunits and better use an Accespoint and lay a long cable properly once instead of the hazzle of always resetting and repositioning the extenders. These guys mostly cause more trouble and extend the bad signal they get. If you still want to use one of those atleast use them in the MIDDLE between your Router and the Computer using it. Not right next to the Computer, otherwise it will tune up the shit signal and your computer will show you 10/10 WiFi but internet is still not good.
Edit3: I forgot DLan - Internet over your power line, but it depends hardly on the wiring on your house but maybe its worth a look. I dont know many people that had a really good connection with that. E.g. you turn on the microwave and your character in CS:GO is porting through CT spawn because of that lol
Obligatory sorry 4 bad engrish am not mothertonk and drunken litel bit
Gough Whitlam, Former Prime Minister of Australia
When Sir Winton Turnbull [who represented a large rural seat], a slow and sometimes stumbling speaker, was raving and ranting on the adjournment and shouted: "I am a Country member". I interjected "I remember". Sir Winton could not understand why, for the first time in all the years he had been speaking in the House, there was instant and loud applause from both sides.
There's a branch of therapy called mindfulness that's about staying in the moment. Runaway thoughts and anxiety are almost all about regrets and shame of the past and worry about the future.
Take stock of the present. Be hyper aware. What's around you? How do you feel at this moment. Focus on one object intently, in detail.
Edit: this is a branch of therapy, not a convenient trick; there's a lot to it. People work for months and years, and there are tons of nuanced techniques. Read a book or two about it before summarily rejecting it; I recommend Full Catastrophe Living.
Edit: book title
Pushbullet
It allows you to send messages between your phone and your computer and it shows you messages you receive on your phone as a desktop notification.
Edit: Thanks for the gold kind stranger, now off to find out what gold actually does :)
Edit2: A lot of people are suggesting MightyText, which seems to be a good alternative. And apparently OS X already has this feature built-in in combination with an iPhone.
If you build computers or work with fresh operating system installs a lot, ninite creates a single executable that installs any number of open source programs you choose from browsers, to chat, developer tools and media players. Beyond handy.
I don't really enjoy being in the rain. However, I love being indoors during the rain - just listening to the rain on the windows is so goddamn relaxing. I'm pretty sure there's an evolutionary component to it
Edit: Quick shout-out to Rainy Mood - this site is great for falling to sleep to. replace the 'youtube' in any youtube URL with 'rainymood' and you can have it played over a song (I recommend Blue in Green by Miles Davis, or just mellow night jazz in general)
If you're like me and you like to use your computer at all hours of the night, f.lux is awesome. It automatically adjusts the display at sunset, making it easier on the eyes.
There was a quote that I read on reddit some time ago, I can't remember who said it, but they had said "The world isn't getting worse, we just have better access to the information"
EDIT: Thanks to u/barista2000 for linking the article on it. http://www.geekwire.com/2016/ray-kurzweil-world-isnt-getting-worse-information-getting-better/
I like this comment because it reflects my thoughts that "the one", out of several billion people, is a) absurd and b) Next to impossible to meet.
Then again, it's probably a joke comment.
EDIT - for pedants. http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/
EDIT the Second - RIP inbox.
Falling asleep, getting a good night's rest, then being awake without using caffeine/energy drinks.
Edit: Just got home to 100 orangereds. Thanks...? Also, I never use alarm clocks >:)
As far as tips, no caffeine, no TV/snacks before bed, plenty of hydration. I've heard that exercise helps too, though I'm lazy as all hell so I don't know. Keeping a diary has helped me a little IMO.
http://sleepyti.me/ and https://justgetflux.com/ might aid y'all too.
It's an app for android that adjusts your phone screen according to sunrise and -set. The app turns the screen darker and gives it a red-ish tint in the evenings, making it easier to read without hurting your eyes, aswell as makes it easier to fall asleep after. I haven't found it using any extra battery either, definitely recommend it!
Edit: For those of you with computers or apple devices, f.lux is the way to go.
In Thai, the number 5 is pronounced "ha" - so instead of saying "LOL" or "haha", people just write "55555". So if you see that anywhere on the interwebs, it's not some crazy number cult, just Thai people laughing!
Edit: I feel like it's my duty to inform you all that Mashable/The Atlantic have used our comments as inspiration for an article (and they've even called this thread "amazing"!): http://mashable.com/2012/12/12/laugh-online-languages/
There's a story of a jeweler who accidentally doubled the price of her turquoise jewelry instead of halving it. Based on traditional economics, she should have sold less of the turquoise jewelry, but she actually sold out of it! It turned out that increasing the price of the jewelry increased its perceived value: https://blog.kissmetrics.com/5-psychological-studies/
I first heard about this study when I was a student at a US university whose increasing tuition rates seem to be capitalizing on a similar pricing pattern, as pioneered by George Washington University: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/08/education/edlife/how-to-raise-a-universitys-profile-pricing-and-packaging.html
And it was developed by Match Group, which owned Match.com. It was an entrepreneurial offshoot of the company, hence the 'tinder.'
​
It really is a very clever name.
Ghengis Khan was born in 1162. The human population at that time is estimated between 320 and 360 million. Let's call it 350M. He's credited for killing 40M. That's around 11.4%...or about 1 in 9 people on the planet.
Note the population listed after Ghengis (he died in 1227) is literally the only one on the list with an estimated human population decline from the previous entry. Effectively human population was set back 200 years...though to be fair the black plague happening after Ghengis was a pretty solid one-two punch to humanity.
If you tap the android version in your phone settings a few times, you get a coloured circle. Tap it and it expands into a lollipop (with the word "lollipop" on it). It changes colour every time you tap it, but if you tap it a few times and then tap and hold for a while, when you let go you get flappy android.
It's hard as shit. My top score is 4.
Edit: I should have specified this only works for Android Lollipop (5.0 and 5.1). For everybody with an older version, sorry!
Edit: damn, this kinda blew up overnight! Did my expect you guys to like it that much :)
EDIT FOR THOSE WITH KITKAT: there is apparently a version of the game compatible with KitKat
Credit to /u/jrummy16
For me, Cerberus. It's a security app that costs €5 a year, which has awesome features. Here's what I've got enabled:
Does not allow you to put the phone into airplane mode or shut it down from the lock screen (so that it can still be tracked if stolen). (It will perform a dummy shut-down from the lock screen, but remain active).
Will take a photo with the front-facing camera and email it to me if the wrong passcode is entered 3 times.
Accepts texted or in-app commands (with my password) to: lock with additional passcode, track location, take a photo, play a loud alert (and take a photo when the alert is dismissed), or wipe the SIM.
Weighted blanket. I've never slept so well. It adds enough weight to be comforting, but it vents heat well so you don't overheat.
Edit 4: As u/MentallyPsycho pointed out, if you have sleep apnea, weighted blankets ~~will~~ may make it harder for you to breathe.
Edit 3: Here is one of my favorite comics about weighted blankets, by u/Shitty_Watercolour
Edit 2: I AM NOT AN EXPERT. I'm not a salesman. I cannot match you or your loved one to your perfect model. I can only recommend checking out Amazon or Google and browse around at different brands, sizes, and materials to find what works best for you. I posted a link to the one I use below, but as always, Your Mileage May Vary.
Edit: For those looking for brand, weight, and material suggestions, this is the one I purchased. I am not an expert, but mine has worked well for me for the last two years.
Recommended weight is generally 10% your body weight, plus maybe 1-2 pounds.
I have not tried other materials or brands, and cannot say which will be most comfortable for you.
I bought a cotton cover for it for regular washing. This saves my appliances from heavy-duty loads.
Ninite is the perfect website for installing many common programs on a new or freshly wiped computer. It's always up-to-date, and automatically denies every "want-our-toolbar"-like option.
Well, not as interesting as a sex hack, I suppose, but...
My fiance gets really upset with me if I work late and forget to text her. I often forget, and she won't make the first move to text me. It was getting to be a huge deal.
Then I discovered Llama for my Android phone. I setup a script that fires if the time is after 6:40 (I usually leave work by 6:15), if I am still connected to the cell tower at work, and if I can still see the wifi network. This script sends a text that says, 'I'm going to be working late tonight', and dings to let me know it sent. It's been working fantastic.
I just recently added a new one that fires if the time is after 5:00pm, and I have just left the work cell tower area, that sends a 'I am on my way home' message. She has been super pleased at how consistent I have been about letting her know what is going on, and the best part is that I don't even have to remember to do anything. Thanks technology!
Just an edit to add, I also added a variable to make sure the actions can only fire once per day, with an action that happens around 3am to reset that variable, so if I leave work and go back it won't go off twice.
Thanks for all the comments, I'm glad you guys enjoyed it.
As an extension of Overdrive, I like Libby. If you have a library card, you can borrow ebooks and audiobooks for free through the app the same way you would hard copies from a brick-and-mortar library.
If you're paying for an Audible subscription (and you live in a decently-sized library district), you might save yourself some money.
If you'd like to pretend it's raining outside so you have an excuse to stay inside and on reddit.
EDIT: Thanks for the gold. And people are saying to play http://endlessvideo.com/watch?v=HMnrl0tmd3k in another tab. Or use mynoises.net or another site that gives you more options.
Zombies, Run! Best workout app ever.
It is the only thing I've ever used that actually motivates me to get out and run.
It's basically an audio storybook that tracks your running pace. You join a post-apocalyptic township and go on missions to gather intel and supplies. The app sees how fast you're running and during certain times, zombies chase you and you need to run a certain speed to escape. Also uses your playlists to interject music between story broadcasts. Love this thing!
http://www.kingdomofloathing.com/
Kingdom of Loathing. Fantastically written, witty humor, great community, you need to take a grammar test before you can chat. What more could you want? It is a fantastic game that is constantly being updated. Join us at /r/kol !
Edit: Thanks for the gold!
WinDirStat, it's a graphical representation of the contents on your harddrive, highly recommended if you're looking to free up some space
Also Everything, it's a program that instantly finds files on your computer, it's much quicker than the built in windows one since it indexes shit. It's very quick and light weight
Pixel Dungeon. Great little roguelike.
Edit since this got more attention than I expected:
/r/pixeldungeon
Google Opinion Rewards - Free play store credit for the odd notification asking you survey questions. Not as intrusive as it sounds. I have about £7 of credit at the mo!
Dwarf Fortress a deep management simulation/roguelike with text based graphics. To grossly oversimplify - think Dungeon Keeper done in the style of NetHack. The learning curve is considered somewhat steep but there is an active and usually helpful/friendly following.
ThisIsWhyImBroke + $25 price filter
So many cool things on this site within the price range.
EDIT: ~~TWO~~ THREE golds? My dreams have come true!
Unified remote. For when the cordless mouse has run out of battery and all you want to do is play a movie without getting out pf bed. The free version is pretty minimal, with enough functionality to emulate a good track pad. The full version has all kinds of special purpose remotes like for slideshow presentation, specific media player controls , etc.
~~Habits!~~ "Loop - Habit Tracker"! I use it to control I do my Spanish lessons on Duolingo each day, that I workout every other day, that I take my pills, that I remember to see everything as an opportunity. It's a great simple app, and the dark mode is beautiful.
And it's free with no ads!!
There's an app which allows you to display a picture, but if they swipe it takes a selfie of them and displays that as the next pic.
Edit: It's called Ninja Snap. It's only available for android though.
IFTTT - If This Then That. It's a free platform that lets you connect just about any event or action to any other event, action, or app. So for example, if I want every new Tweet by my friend Bob to be saved to my Evernote, IFTTT can do that. If I want to get an email or text alert at 7am each morning if it's going to rain that day, IFTTT can do that.
I use it to get email alerts on all kinds of things, to save all kinds of things, and to connect tons of apps on my phone and desktop to other apps. It's really, really useful.
A turn based tactics game. Completely free, open source, but excellent quality. Lovely music, and really surprisingly great campaigns. There's also online multiplayer.
Edit: For people messaging me about who I am. I'm not Duke, I have my own Youtube channel. Someone was kind enough to link it below.
I listened to his book on tape, it was hilarious. His safe cracking shenanigans are priceless. As well as his nude drawings.
EDIT: No you silly geese. He talks about painting women nude in his book. Its called "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!"
Cookie Clicker is a great way to ruin your life.
Edit: I have ruined many lives this day. Now I am become Death, clicker of cookies, destroyer of free time.
If you want to go fully legal, you can also try the add-on (for Firefox, I suppose there are also add-ons for other browsers) Unpaywall. Whenever you open a page for a scientific article, the Unpaywall button will let you know if there is a free, legal alternative to the paywalled paper (for example, university repositories or websites like ArXive).
Sugar hyperactivity. From what I've read, it does nothing to make someone "hyper" but parents tell their kids it will make then hyper so when the kids do eat sugar they act hyperactive. A majority of studies show no link between sugar intake and hyperactivity. Link: https://www.webmd.com/parenting/features/busting-sugar-hyperactivity-myth
mathr.
it's a freestyle keyboard based scientific calculator THAT I MADE.
only 5 active users, I thought it deserved more given the effort I put into it
Edit: link
Persian leader Cambyses II used cats to defeat an Egyptian army. He had his soldiers paint cats on their shields and brought hundreds of cats and other animals that the Egyptians held sacred to the front lines. The Egyptians refused to fight the "cat army" and were easily defeated because of it.
It's one of the only apps still around that lets you play YouTube videos while doing other things AND the best part is that it lets you play them with the screen off, which is nice when you want to just listen to an album, podcast, etc on YouTube and don't want to drain the battery or have the screen on because you are trying to sleep.
I’d like to specially call out the Penguin Classics edition with a fresh translation by Robin Buss. It’s a much easier and better read than the old Victorian English translation. Either way, one of my all time favorites.
Edit: From what I know, the old Victorian English version (besides being much harder to read) also cut out bits involving sex and drugs because it went against the Victorian sensibilities of the time. When I originally read the book, I had read that version and while I really enjoyed it, I was checking a cliffs notes kind of thing after every chapter to make sure I understood what I had read. When I learned about the Robin Buss translation (which I’ve heard is more faithful to the original), I enjoyed it even more and without the need for a reading aid.
A link on Amazon: The Count of Monte Cristo (Penguin Classics)
I'm not sure how well known it is, but https://ninite.com/ is amazing when setting up a fresh install of windows. You just pick a bunch of common programs (chrome, skype, steam, notepad++, etc.), download one executable, run it, and it downloads and installs all of the programs you selected.
If I remember right, Google bought this and it's now the backbone of Google Flights
edit
I was correct.
>On July 1, 2010 ITA agreed to be acquired by Google. On April 8, 2011, the US Department of Justice approved the buyout. As part of the agreement, Google must license ITA software to other websites for five years.
That also explains why every other site seems to use it. That 5 years is almost up, so it'll be interesting to see what happens in 2016.
What I love is the companion to this site. https://haveibeenpwned.com/Passwords which finds out if your password has been leaked by asking you to give it your password. It is as secure as any other website asking for your website however. I just find the concept really strange.
You can book flights on Google instead of dealing with Expedia or Kayak. It's probably cheaper too
Booked a flight to LA 3 weeks in advance for $200, when I checked Expedia, flights are at least $25 more.
In what I've witnessed, don't download anything if you don't know how to uncheck the "download this bullshit toolbar" box.
Edit: /u/John2143658709 pointed out a great program called Unchecky. I highly recommend it for those relatives that have a few new toolbars every time you visit.
Edit 2: As a lot of you have pointed out, Ninite is also a helpful program.
My way overpowered gaming computer / workstation hybrid. I started working full time shorty after and don't have time to play games anymore. Maybe 4 hours every two weeks.
At least it's crunching for BOINC in the winter months and heating my office, so yay.
Edit: Added link.
I wouldn't participate. Think of how often people make fun of people that play the lottery with things like "you're just wasting your money! The odds are terrible!".
Now consider these facts:
So yeah, if you get laughed at for taking a trip to a gas station and spending a few bucks for a 1 in 292 million chance at winning millions of dollars, how stupid do you have to be to give up your entire life for a 1 in 7.6 billion chance at winning millions?
The guy who paid $16 dollars for a $330 000 house using a loop hole that said something along the lines of if a house was abandoned and no one contested it and you moved in and lived in the house for 3 years you had ownership.
Edit: Found the article
I have MS. You might want to get that checked out. My neurologist checks for this at every appointment. I have never experienced it, but it is common in MS patients.
https://www.webmd.com/multiple-sclerosis/lhermittes-sign-what-is-how-treat
I highly recommend Clozemaster.com if you really want to get into learning other languages. It gives you a sentence in your target language with a word missing and the translation of the entire sentence written below, and then you have to select the correct word from four choices to fill in the blank. Once you know more of the language, you can turn of the multiple choices and type in the correct answer directly and score double points.
Here are the available languages to learn: https://www.clozemaster.com/languages
...and there's also a subreddit: /r/clozemaster
There is an app called Google Opinion Rewards. Every week or so you get a chance to do a survey for a chance at money added to your google wallet. The best part is as soon as you set it up, the first survey comes immediately and gives you a dollar. I used that to pay for the ad-free version of Textra.
Now I only have like $2 in my wallet, but it's free money and I just use it for apps I want.
Edit: RIP my inbox yikes
Here's the link https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.paidtasks&hl=en
If you can't find it in the store it's probably not supported on your device.
THIS IS ANDROID ONLY
Also only US and a few other countries
There's a reddit alternatives sub. My choice is Hubski been lurking there for a couple years now. It's a small but cool community. Great for discussions.
I do research on sexual assault jurisprudence in the US and the other day I was doing a cross-comparison to sexual assault cases under India's laws.
Although it is not technically legal to do the "finger test" anymore in India for examining sexual assault victim statements, doctors still do it because it's still deemed a "legitimate" indication of a woman's habituation to sexual intercourse (and therefore a testament to the credibility of the victim's claims) under Indian medical authority. They use the finger test to examine the elasticity of the vagina because they believe that tight (only able to put 1 finger in) = virgin (bonus points if woman feels pain) and that loose (able to be 2-3 or more fingers in) = promiscuity (but not necessarily rape!).
To highlight the absurdity of the finger test, here is an excerpt from the article I was reading:
>"The routine nature of the test is apparent in Raju @ Rajendra Prasad vs. State of Uttarakhand. In this case, the [rape] victim was 32 weeks pregnant at the time of medical examination. Nevertheless, the doctor conducted the finger test and noted that the vagina could only admit one finger easily and that the girl was not habituated to intercourse, despite her pregnancy."
ThatOnePrivacySite and Privacy Tools strongly recommend that you don't use any services, especially email or VPN, based in the US, UK, or the Five Eyes countries. A great resource for anyone interested.
Edit: check out the Privacy Tools page for recommendations on browsers and texting apps, those are very important too.
He knows he's playing to his strengths. His autobiography is pretty good, he's goes in depth and knows he's an asshole. I couldn't stand him but after the book I look at him very differently now.
She has mental problems. She pretends that it never happened. She also denies getting wasted and forgetting to pick me up at Karate when I was 12. I walked three miles in the snow at night , in sandals and my karate gi, in January in Colorado. She showed up at home three hours later, puked in the hallway and passed out.
She is different now, but refuses to acknowledge what a shitty parent she was.
Edit: Spelled gi correctly. Also looked up the exact distance. It was actually 3.5 miles
Computer Engineer here.
Their products aren't meant to be high-performers. Apple stuff is geared towards the Average Joe who needs an electronic device. The real quality you get from Apple is in usability and ergonomics. They have the top designers in the industry when it comes to those two categories. Of course Android/Windows/Linux is more powerful - it sacrifices the user environment for sheer performance.
Read some books on design or HCI and you will be amazed at what geniuses Apple really are. I recommend "The Design of Everyday Things" and "Emotional Design". They show how designers manipulate peoples' emotions with their designs in order for people to get "happy feelings" from using their products.
Cocaine Cowboys. How cocaine was brought into the states and eventually turned Miami into warzone...told by the people who smuggled it in
My folks told me about when they were flying to the Bahamas in 1980 for their honeymoon and had a layover in Miami airport and were shocked to see armed military
The Persian leader Cambyses II used cats to defeat an Egyptian army. He had his soldiers paint cats on their shields and brought hundreds of cats and other animals that the Egyptians held sacred to the front lines. The Egyptians refused to fight the "cat army" and were easily defeated because of it.
It automates installation of selected software. If run again it will update the same software.
It's a fantastic time saver for anybody who has to deal with freshly installed windows machines.
/u/spez: this = the