I’ll start by plugging Harvard’s free courses catalog as well as Udemy
Edit: Gonna add 2 more I remembered-
Blender - I wish I had more time to learn it, but I did start the infamous “Donut Tutorial” once!
Watch Cartoons Online - Lots of good older stuff!
To add a couple more FOSS programs, OBS Studio and kdenlive are both really robust video production and editing software.
Hah, I used kdenlive in like 2008 to make a 3 minute clip out of a bunch of pre existing material. It was buggy as hell, and crashed every 5-10 operations. But I just saved a lot and got it done. Glad to see it’s still going (and presumably a lot more stable!)
Just used it recently to recut something super simple and it’s pretty good. Worth picking up and learning
CBC Gem, which is our country’s public news corporation’s streaming service which is a catalog of Canadian television. There’s also CBC Music which is the radio app, and you can even listen to the live streams of the Metropolitan Opera on Saturdays.
What3words.com and app
Basically the earth has been segragated into 10 foot x 10 foot squares that are easily identified by 3 words, super accurate, easy to tell emergency services. No more need to know lat/long to tell someone where you’re at.
I learned about this from a can of ///Fear.Movie.Lions beer from Stone Brewing:
What 3 words pinpoint where this indelible beast was born? The location is printed on the can. There’s a 3m x 3m square in our Richmond, VA brewery with these three words painted on it. What three words? Exactly! For the uninitiated, that’s What3Words.
Where on earth is “fuck shit piss”?
unfortunately the people at What3Words excluded words people might find offensive from the word list, so that place does not exist
So I guess “musk impregnates influencers” would be OK? Even though that’s a lot more offensive IMHO …
I just looked it up, and apparently “impregnate” isn’t in the list either. Yes, the word isn’t offensive by itself, but I think they remove quite a lot of words that might cause problems in the what3words address. There is way more than enough words anyway.
This is from their FAQ:
How do you handle offensive words?
A what3words address is made up of 3 random words, and they are not intended to convey any meaning to a location. However, we know that the nature of using words means that unexpected interpretations can crop up.
For each new what3words language, our team consults a broad range of native speakers. We then work together to remove rude and offensive words from our word lists, navigating cultural sensitivities wherever we can.
Some users feel that certain words in our lists are unsuitable or inappropriate, so we always take feedback onboard. However, one of our key features – that our addresses are permanently fixed – means that it is not possible to update the word list. Instead, we can look for opportunities to adapt our approach when developing future languages.
Tip: if you’d rather avoid a certain what3words address because of a particular word or combination of words, we’d suggest you use the next square along.
Ooh like that. Interesting concept. Too bad people can’t spell 😅
earth has been segragated into 10 foot x 10 foot squares
I think you’re inadvertently advertising a cylindrical model of the earth 😁
Not working.
///life.before.death doesn’t exist
///journey.before.destination took me a couple miles east of Pittsburgh.
I was expecting Urithiru :<
Totally unusable
Not free as in freedom, but gratis. Also only works for people who are on Discord - FreeStuff Bot will notify you every time a game on one of the popular PC platforms is available for free.
Syncthing.
Connect any two devices’ folders together wirelessly, from anywhere.
Don’t have a server? You don’t need one. Every device is an individual node.
Backup? If you do have a server, offload some of your content and keep on rolling, or set scripts to move files by age.
very underrated piece of software! its been a total game changer in how i have my computers set up.
also great for some apps too. things like keepass or newsboat (terminal RSS reader) or anything that stores its data in a single file or folder. its really great not having to rely on a connection to a server
commenting to remind myself about syncthing for when I can look into it later.
Your neighbor’s trash. It’s stunning what I find and fix, refurbish, repurpose or sell. Had a friend that used to cruise her hood on trash day, her and her husband would load the truck, sell it back to 'em on a Saturday garage sale. 12-14 hours biweekly work, ~$400 every other weekend.
My wife’s friends dumpster dive at Walmart, though I question how that’s possible. Most big box stores make that impossible. Dunno. In any case, it’s wild what these stores chunk out. If Lowe’s would let me, I’d haul home a pickup full every week.
People think I’m some sort of TV repair wizard but it’s very easy to fix up dumpster TVs if you have a little patience and space. Broken TVs fall into two categories - broken screen or broken board (doesn’t turn on, error screens, flickering). Stick to more popular models and when you find a broken screen, take the board and note the model. When you find a broken board of the same model, just swap it. It usually really is that easy. You can work in the opposite direction too and collect good screens waiting for good boards, but that starts to take up a lot of space quick because you’re storing whole TVs at that point.
You will also inexplicably find a fully working 55" TV sitting at the dumpster 10% of the time.
You will also inexplicably find a fully working 55" TV sitting at the dumpster 10% of the time.
People moving and can’t be bothered / don’t have the time for FB marketplace or similar
Americans: we so poor, every country is ripping us off!
On that note, never bring back mattresses, anything upholstered, or anything else that has a lot of unsealed cracks/gaps. Way too big a risk of introducing bed bugs into your home.
So many people just dump seemingly nice mattresses/sofas etc. out on the curb. They’re obviously not going to label these things as infested with bed bugs for a scavenger’s benefit and alert the whole neighborhood to their shame. Do not take these items. It is not worth the potential nightmare you’re setting yourself up for.
I have a pro tip for mattresses! Thrown it down in your driveway, take a box knife and strip it to the bare metal springs. Boom! You now have a plant trellis. First try only took me 20 minutes.
Saw a posh resale store that took twin mattress springs, sprayed ‘em black, hung vertically and spaced 2’ apart over a standing flower bed. Now sure what the plant was but it sure looked cool.
Trying it for the first time this year on the ferns and blackberries on the side of the house. Already have a solid start!
I’m surprised no one has mentioned it yet:
With just a cheap computer you can have your own Netflix and Spotify.
Is Jellyfin good with remote access?
How is it different than Plex?
Does it find the movies for me, or do I still need to figure out the Usenet or BitTorrent?
Aside from the FOSS that people love.
I will add something real world. I have Plex and Jellyfin running. Now Plex works fine for the most part but certain codecs when I am watching on iOS just has issues and freezes a lot so I have to use Jellyfin, but the UI in Jellyfin is pretty sparse and not as polished.
Jellyfin Is completely open source, fully self-hosted, and free. With Plex the software still has to phone home to a central server for authentication and some features are locked behind a paywall.
No streaming software is going to find movies for you (without paying for content they’ve licensed) because that would be a sure fire way to get the project taken down for copyright violation.
Plex makes it way easier to stream outside your network.
While I don’t have much experience with Plex, I can say that it’s really not hard to set up Jellyfin for streaming across the internet.
I’m running a docker container using the linuxserver.io image and all I had to do was forward the HTTP/S ports. I will grant that when a third party has to make an easy-to-use container for a service, there’s a problem to address… but if I remember correctly, Jellyfin is easier to set up on bare metal where it can use uPnP.
It’s Plex but free and without a central login server handled by a third party
It’s also got a few fewer/not as functional features and no live TV (whoopty do?)
The Arr Suite are what you’re looking for to find content, works with either Plex or Jelly in (or others)
Since no one really answered you, there are generally two routes.
If you use newsgroups you can run sabnzbd, which is a service that downloads from newsgroups. I’ve been out of the loop for a while but there used to be something like CouchPotato for movies or SickBeard for TV (which migrated to SickChill, though you shouldn’t use that anymore as it installed a crypto miner last I heard). Lastly you sign up with a news indexer (look up Nzb.su or nzbgeek.info). CouchPotato could be linked to your imdb watch list.
Plug all of those together with API keys, and now movies on your imdb watch list just show up in your plex library as they become available.
Now if you use Torrents instead of newsgroups, there are similar things that all exist, I’m just less familiar with them.
Ah, interesting. I’m actually only (barely) familiar with torrents, insofar as I have downloaded qBitTorrent and enabled its embedded search. I search for thing, sort by most seeds, and choose first relevant one. Usually it all goes well. Plex on my Mac watches the downloads folder, and the TV has Plex installed.
It works, but at least from my limited view of its search results, the seas seem to be drying up. I feel like there are better, non-default searches I could be adding. There was some kind of Jacket plugin that refused to load so it’s just disabled.
Am a very inept pirate 🏴☠️
It’s a FOSS plex alternative… yes you will need to stock your own library Then install SonArr, RadArr, some other Arr 🏴☠️just learn Linux nub. Jk but not really
Can you ELI5 for me what this does? I don’t quite get it.
So when you use Spotify and Netflix, what your doing is streaming from their computers, which costs money hence why they charge you monthly.
They also add profit and licensing costs and all that to it so it adds up.
But what if, you used your own computer?
Very easy to do using just your wifi, some more complexity if you want to steam over the internet.
What does that mean “use my own computer”? Do I need to have all the media files on my computer then? Where would I get those from?
Yes, this is all assuming you have a way to get all the media files you need.
Some of us have been collecting it for years.
Yucata - online boardgames, take your turn when you can, no pressure.
Yucata is fine for asynchronous play but if you’re looking for live online action
Is the way to go. Just can’t start certain premium games yourself but you’re fine to join any game that other people start
Well that 2 hours flew by without me realizing it. Thanks! 😆
Removed by mod
Best I can do is lonely MILFs in your area :>
Oh nice! Finally I can play Backgammon with people (no one IRL ever wants to play)!
There are also Ludo and Parcheesi, which are effectively heavily modified variants of Backgammon for up to 4 players.
Does it hold your hand through only-legal-moves the way Board Game Arena does?
Yes, shows highlights of where legal moves are allowed.
Sweet!
RIP kimcartoon, I spent half my life there. WCO has been a good replacement, but the lack of comments makes it feel too sterile.
Very location locked, but all Smithsonian museums in DC are free. Even special exhibits that require timed ticketing.
Better get while the gettin’s good on that one though. Even if the price stays the same, the value of that free admission appears to be set to diminish rapidly.
100% agree. I am leaving this this area in October for greener pastures in Europe.
Deeply, slowly, and calmly breathing in, and breathing out, while focusing on the sensations in your body and how much more relaxed you’re feeling right now
i.e. meditation
thanks now i feel more relaxed on my toilet
" Come on in, take a breath, the oxygen is free! "
Nah. Intrusive thoughts are a bitch.
Let them come, then let them go
Hugs
Great resource for really well taught contents on an extensive variety of fields
Maybe this is sorta dumb, but meditation is a free way to feel good and spend time, and also a free method of stress relief and to reduce suffering.
It’s not free in terms of your time & energy, and it might cost some money to learn, but the best meditation manual I know of is free online, or at least it used to be - it looks like it was locked down on archive.org, but you can still find it on Anna’s Archive, and you can probably find it at your local library. Either way, you can learn to meditate for free, that’s how I did it.
Running is likewise relatively free (you do generally have to pay for running shoes, and athletic clothing can be expensive, but it’s relatively cheap over the lifetime of those items, and it’s cheaper than most other activities). A great and accessible way to feel good and stay healthy.
Plug for Medito, which is a free non-profit for guided meditations. Not sure if the apps are open-source but still, they’re a good organization in stark contrast to the many other meditation companies that are very much for-profit.
Kanopy - a website where you can stream movies and TV shows, which is free if you have a library card.
And Hoopla Digital! They each have some things that the other one doesn’t.
