u/Sexweed42069

Woke up at 1am to find two people pulling up and taking 40ish books out of our library. Was able to confront them after they'd taken everything and got them on camera. Police were notified.

We knew this would happen eventually, but it sucks.

Our books were all stamped (except recent donations) and we plan to call around in the morning with photos of the books themselves and our stamp in case they're being resold at stores, but...is this really just an exercise in futility?

I'm not quite sure what/how to ask, but:

I've had and loved this phone for a while now and, due to what amounts to "lifestyle changes" I'm content with the idea that I shouldn't need anything after this.

I've reverted to a dumbphone (crazr) before and liked it, but the lack of GPS and "some apps" (email, signal...) killed it in the long run, basically.

I don't play app games, I \*do\* use my browser for searches and stuff, and most of the rest is...work, for which work provides a work phone.

One notable thing that I do on my phone is pixel art, for which the stylus helps a lot (I use Pixel Studio and it plays pretty nicely with Aseprite on my PC). So I'd love to be able to still use...some apps, while discouraging/disabling others entirely. 2FA apps are a must, too, I guess. And email (I have a lot of addresses, so I use Thunderbird).

Is there a good android OS that I could install that could help extend the life of my phone and focuses as much as is reasonable on privacy?

I'm not quite sure what/how to ask, but:

I've had and loved this phone for a while now and, due to what amounts to "lifestyle changes" I'm content with the idea that I shouldn't need anything after this.

I've reverted to a dumbphone (crazr) before and liked it, but the lack of GPS and "some apps" (email, signal...) killed it in the long run, basically.

I don't play app games, I *do* use my browser for searches and stuff, and most of the rest is...work, for which work provides a work phone.

One notable thing that I do on my phone is pixel art, for which the stylus helps a lot (I use Pixel Studio and it plays pretty nicely with Aseprite on my PC). So I'd love to be able to still use...some apps, while discouraging/disabling others entirely. 2FA apps are a must, too, I guess. And email (I have a lot of addresses, so I use Thunderbird).

Is there a good android OS that I could install that could help extend the life of my phone and focuses as much as is reasonable on privacy?

Feels like an oxymoron, but anyway:

I had an old Garmin nuvi(?) back in like 2010ish and while over the years (I think I tried it in 2017 or something...) it became unbearably slow, I appreciated that I could load map data onto an SD card and it'd just (eventually) work. No signing-in or anything.

I would love a device like that now if anyone could recommend one. Something I don't need an account for that provides accurate directions and maybe even the ability to create routes on my PC or something.

2600, NES, SNES, N64, GameCube, Wii, PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4, and I hope to get more, but...

Organizing them can be a challenge. I have a couple IKEA Kallax units that fit most of them, except for the 2600, and the PS3 and PS4 would cook inside those cubes, so outside they sit. It doesn't look great.

I'm looking for recommendations on storage. I'd love to maximize more vertical space, for example. I do really like the symmetrical cubes of the Kallax shelving I use now, but as I've mentioned, it doesn't fit all the consoles for one reason or another (though i did like the suggestion from a while back that i could "Frankenstein" them to be more accommodating...).

And then there are all of the cords. I have switches enough for all I'll ever need, but I'd be happy for recommendations for something amazing with tons of inputs. The cords are the worst part. Very few things in this world grind my gears more than managing cords, and I am *not good at it.*

Speaking of cords, there's also the issue of power. I do not know of a power strip that isn't tremendously long and/or extremely expensive.

Help me out, please!

There appear to be a number of choices out there for managing PS1/PS2 memory card saves. I have a PS3 memory card adapter I want to use to make the most of my memory cards by preserving my saves and swapping-out for others.

Is there one where I can basically throw all of my saves into a "bank" that I can just drag a variety of stuff onto the memory card?

It doesn't seem like it, but I'm pretty dumb.

Would I need to buy it again from somewhere like itch.io, or can I use the Steam version I bought somehow to make it portable and run it 100% off a USB drive on any Windows computer?

I use a USB drive on multiple Windows computers (2 right now, with a newly-acquired third that I want to use for my "writing laptop") and would like to see whether it's possible to install Scivener directly to it to see if I can just run it from off of there, instead.

I don't have thr device with me, but a friend gave me their older iPad (said it was from 2019) and I'd like to use it to play games on. Less iPad games, though, and more streaming games from my PC using Moonlight.

I'd love for it to feel like a portable all-in-one device, though, instead of just pairing a separate controller and setting the iPad somewhere as a screen (think Switch, Steam Deck, etc).

I see a ton of clamp-on controller items on Amazon, though, so I was hoping somebody here might help point me in the right direction.

Just wanted to ask and see if anyone'd be willing to share what they think one of the cooler, less-popular or less-conventional ways to use a PSP is

I've had GOG for ages and amassed a collection of games I don't often play from my Amazon Prime subscription. I've played some of them, but since I've had Steam since day 1 I just kinda...default to getting games on Steam. For the most part, this is fine, but ever since I got a Steam Deck that I travel with (I travel for work pretty frequently), often abroad, I'm...less-enthusiastic about it?

Steam Deck's Offline Mode is persnickety at best. I have to turn Offline Mode on while I'm still connected to the internet somewhere ahead of time, and if the Steam Deck dies or is completely shut off anytime before I can connect to the internet again, it's a brick. Can't play anything til I log in again, then turn Offline Mode on again. That sucks. Shouldn't be a huge deal, and I try to prepare with a full charge and pre-offlining, but it doesn't always work. Sometimes even then, it'll still ask me to log in if I turn it on in the middle of a flight - and it definitely does not play nice with airline wifi, as I've yet to successfully log in while on any flight over the past year or so when this happens. Oh, well.

My understanding is that GOG doesn't "add" any DRM/copy protection to games that don't already have it. Most stuff I play is (obviously) offline, anyway, but I imagine some games, especially with launchers (as I understand) will still have it built-in to the game, anyway.

I also understand that many people have been able to get GOG (and Epic, and whatever) games to work on their Steam Decks through Desktop Mode, which I have yet to mess with much at all so far. I'm interested in doing this and will happily explore it on my own (though I welcome any links anybody might provide here if there are numerous ways to go about it and there's a particular way you recommend, or something), if that means playing my games ("my" games, as it were) more easily/readily without an internet connection or anything.

Lastly, I wanted to briefly address the idea of "switching to GOG". Yeah, I know, I can have both (and I *will* have both forever, especially given my hilariously and unnecessarily huge Steam collection as-is), but while Steam seems to have better availability of games all-around, more sales involving those games, and often better prices in general, I want some justification for buying newer games (or, "more games moving forward") on GOG instead of Steam. Will I more easily be able to (for example) launch and play Baldur's Gate III without an internet connection if I get it on GOG? Does Dino Crisis 2 just not launch on Steam if I'm not either connected to the internet in the first place or pre-set in offline mode?

Are there people/sites that actively track the differences, if any, between PC releases like these across different platforms? If so, could somebody share information?

Is there a good way to unify my game libraries across these platforms/devices (ex: Steam+GOG+Epic+EA+Ubi+wtfever *and* PC+Steam Deck) so it matters less? (I have Playnite, but that seems to just be on PC, for example)?

My pixel art journey has been long, albeit narrow, and as a result rather fruitless. I've given up on sprites almost altogether at this point.

I can draw *okay* and, for a small project i'm working on, that might suffice. I won't really be drawing people beyond their silhouettes. It's mostly-settings, in a late-80s/early-90s EGA PC adventure game style (think early King's Quest, Space Quest, Quest for Glory, The Colonel's Be...quest...).

Can anybody point me in the right direction of some tools to aid with this?

For those of you who game, think of stuff like Clayfighter and Primal Rage, but where objects are captured "in 3D" (photogrammetry) to be able to view captured objects from all angles.

I'm green enough to have only the faintest idea of what I'm talking about and welcome any sources - reading, watching, learning, whatever.

We want to be able to capture stills of objects in real life to manipulate digital 3D models (photogrammetry, yes?). We want to be able, however, to capture key frames of animation and only "fill in" what's in between - basically motion-capture with more steps digitally. This would let us have, for example, a captured frame of a character standing still, and then capture just a *few* other frames of that character exaggeratedly swinging a sword - and being able to fill in, digitally, the frames that come between.

We discussed briefly the reason why we'd want to do this is that many of these captured objects would interact very closely, and with whatever limited physical resources we have, we don't think we'd be able to reliably, closely-replicate both the frames of, say, character X doing actions A and B alone, and then ALSO doing those exact same actions *with* object Y, additionally.

I hope this makes sense.

I'm not super-interested in AI-does-it-for-me software, since one of my key motivations for this pursuit is to learn to do a thing, myself (I like to use AI as minimally as I can, though I'll admit it's been super helpful as programming reference/debugging, I'm still less-than-comfortable with my own reliance on it at times to "move forward" instead of "learning to move forward"), even though that seems to be where a ton of (even otherwise-capable) software is headed. We'd be happy with something free, though paying once for life is a close second - we're less-than-thrilled about SaaS subscriptions, especially if we have to stay signed-in and online (since many places we'd be working in would be...off-grid, let's say).

I hope my post and question makes some sense. Could anybody point us in the right direction regarding where we could learn more about how to do this/what we'd need? Books to read, sites to visit, videos to watch, software tools...anything!

Typical Windows user electing a lightweight OS for my old chonker laptop that barely runs Windows 7.

I'm having issues installing Steam and Discord, whether from the builtin installer or downloading directly from either site.

I've only ever really used Ubuntu or, aaaaages ago, Redhat, and both seemed a lot more plug and play than this. I don't plan to make a ton of use of this laptop, but having Steam and Discord are kind of a must.

I have been setting up a vintage computer gaming/workstation (for no really good reason) and have numerous serial devices (mouse, trackball, gamepad, joystick...) that I'd like to plug into it simultaneously. a) is this really practical with serial devices, and will they all still work at the same time?, and b) what device recommendations might you all have? browing Amazon, the options don't seem great, and several are downright expensive.

Some Specs:

• Panasonic Toughbook (x86)
• CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo CPU L9300@1.60 GHz
• RAM: 4.0GB

It came with Windows 7 installed and it runs Windows 7 just okay. If I'm doing much on it, that turns into just barely. This is not a super-capable PC, but I don't use it for much besides writing and a few other things. Those things include:

• Writing in a DOS environment (I use Wordperfect right now, but any similarly-styled, distraction-free, full-screen DOS-like writing program would be fine)
• Loading music onto my old iPods and iPad
• Sound editing in Audacity
• Torrenting
• Network file-sharing with Mac and Windows PCs
• MOD tracking
• Discord
• Some old Windows games (The Realm Online, specifically)

...what Linux distro would be best for me, on this specific chonky "laptop", to still be able to do these things? I'm a Linux novice at best (I used Redhat a lot at school/work more than 20 years ago, and have dabbled with Ubuntu from time to time), but a fast learner.

I wouldn't mind having to learn different softwares (something instead of Audacity, for example, and most MOD tracking programs function pretty similarly so that's whatever), so that's no big deal.

Thanks in advance!

I live with my partner but we organize a ton of things with family and friends, which generally means we have a ton of different calendars being shared/viewed/edited at any given time. Moreover, it's across many different systems: Microsoft Outlook, iOS/OSX, and Android. I'm actually looking into a self-hosted option some time later this year, so whatever device we get will need to support that, too.

I think right now we have like 6 calendars used on the regular.

I'm experienced with DAKboard, but I don't like that it's a subscription. I'd pay $100 for something I'd never need to think about paying for again.

What device and/or service would anyone here recommend?

Wit's end with this honky bull crap.

Capcut was recommended online as a relatively inexpensive and capable tool for editing videos that included chroma key and AI background removal with touch-up features.

Paid for a month and nothing has worked as advertised. I appear to be eating through credits for it to cut people out to remove backgrounds and clean up sound, but after several minutes, even if I sat and watched it remove greenscreen and white wall backgrounds, those changes will revert to nothing when it reaches something like 97% and I get a network or connection error.

My network and connection is fine. Everything else I want to do works. I can stream system-intensive games on this connection while watching Netflix and downloading music. I have attempted this on multiple networks now, too, and nothing sticks.

What is a better tool I could use to get what I'm looking for at low (or no) cost? I just need to remove backgrounds and equalize/normalize audio in what will wind up being ~3-4 minutes videos I've spliced together from my own footage.