#bypass paywalls VERY VERY GOOD
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ohhhh I think i'm gonna start using fennec on mobile instead of official firefox bc..... custom addon library my beloved 😍
#ao3 enhancements v good v good#bypass paywalls VERY VERY GOOD#and about:config access now we're cooking with gas#fennec
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Just a bunch of Useful websites - Updated for 2023
Removed/checked all links to make sure everything is working (03/03/23). Hope they help!
Sejda - Free online PDF editor.
Supercook - Have ingredients but no idea what to make? Put them in here and it'll give you recipe ideas.
Still Tasty - Trying the above but unsure about whether that sauce in the fridge is still edible? Check here first.
Archive.ph - Paywall bypass. Like 12ft below but appears to work far better and across more sites in my testing. I'd recommend trying this one first as I had more success with it.
12ft – Hate paywalls? Try this site out.
Where Is This - Want to know where a picture was taken, this site can help.
TOS/DR - Terms of service, didn't read. Gives you a summary of terms of service plus gives each site a privacy rating.
OneLook - Reverse dictionary for when you know the description of the word but can't for the life of you remember the actual word.
My Abandonware - Brilliant site for free, legal games. Has games from 1978 up to present day across pc and console. You'll be surprised by some of the games on there, some absolute gems.
Project Gutenberg – Always ends up on these type of lists and for very good reason. All works that are copyright free in one place.
Ninite – New PC? Install all of your programs in one go with no bloat or unnecessary crap.
PatchMyPC - Alternative to ninite with over 300 app options to keep upto date. Free for home users.
Unchecky – Tired of software trying to install additional unwanted programs? This will stop it completely by unchecking the necessary boxes when you install.
Sci-Hub – Research papers galore! Check here before shelling out money. And if it’s not here, try the next link in our list.
LibGen – Lots of free PDFs relate primarily to the sciences.
Zotero – A free and easy to use program to collect, organize, cite and share research.
Car Complaints – Buying a used car? Check out what other owners of the same model have to say about it first.
CamelCamelCamel – Check the historical prices of items on Amazon and set alerts for when prices drop.
Have I Been Pawned – Still the king when it comes to checking if your online accounts have been released in a data breach. Also able to sign up for email alerts if you’ve ever a victim of a breach.
I Have No TV - A collection of documentaries for you to while away the time. Completely free.
Radio Garden – Think Google Earth but wherever you zoom, you get the radio station of that place.
Just The Recipe – Paste in the url and get just the recipe as a result. No life story or adverts.
Tineye – An Amazing reverse image search tool.
My 90s TV – Simulates 90’s TV using YouTube videos. Also has My80sTV, My70sTV, My60sTV and for the younger ones out there, My00sTV. Lose yourself in nostalgia.
Foto Forensics – Free image analysis tools.
Old Games Download – A repository of games from the 90’s and early 2000’s. Get your fix of nostalgia here.
Online OCR – Convert pictures of text into actual text and output it in the format you need.
Remove Background – An amazingly quick and accurate way to remove backgrounds from your pictures.
Twoseven – Allows you to sync videos from providers such as Netflix, Youtube, Disney+ etc and watch them with your friends. Ad free and also has the ability to do real time video and text chat.
Terms of Service, Didn’t Read – Get a quick summary of Terms of service plus a privacy rating.
Coolors – Struggling to get a good combination of colors? This site will generate color palettes for you.
This To That – Need to glue two things together? This’ll help.
Photopea – A free online alternative to Adobe Photoshop. Does everything in your browser.
BitWarden – Free open source password manager.
Just Beam It - Peer to peer file transfer. Drop the file in on one end, click create link and send to whoever. Leave your pc on that page while they download. Because of how it works there are no file limits. It's genuinely amazing. Best file transfer system I have ever used.
Atlas Obscura – Travelling to a new place? Find out the hidden treasures you should go to with Atlas Obscura.
ID Ransomware – Ever get ransomware on your computer? Use this to see if the virus infecting your pc has been cracked yet or not. Potentially saving you money. You can also sign up for email notifications if your particular problem hasn’t been cracked yet.
Way Back Machine – The Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites and loads more.
Rome2Rio – Directions from anywhere to anywhere by bus, train, plane, car and ferry.
Splitter – Seperate different audio tracks audio. Allowing you to split out music from the words for example.
myNoise – Gives you beautiful noises to match your mood. Increase your productivity, calm down and need help sleeping? All here for you.
DeepL – Best language translation tool on the web.
Forvo – Alternatively, if you need to hear a local speaking a word, this is the site for you.
For even more useful sites, there is an expanded list that can be found here.
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I shouldn't have to make this post but Nintendo fans are trying extremely desperately to position the company whose cock they love the taste of in a good light and are generally doing this by spreading misinformation about the legalities of emulation so let's go over a number of the fabrications shall we?
Emulation is illegal to monetize
This has so far been one of the really big ones that's taken traction, usually partnered with the sister lie that yuzu was paywalling access to early access builds. These are both lies, and are untrue. yuzu is far from the only modern emulator to be monetizing itself, plenty of mobile emulators do it, but developing an emulator for money is entirely legal. We have pretty much all of our emulation precedent set thanks to a series of lawsuits in the very early 2000s thanks to Sony suing an emulator called Bleem. There's a lot to say about Bleem, but Bleem was a commercial emulator. You could buy Bleem, in stores. At no point was there ever a court decision that Bleem was wrong to do so (despite Sony's best efforts).
Emulating current generation software or hardware is illegal.
This is also wrong, and kind of fundamentally misunderstands a lot when it comes to emulation. Once again, Bleem was at the time emulating current generation software. It was a generation in its twilight, but Bleem first released in March of 1999: the Playstation 2 was not out yet. The reason why current generation software does not tend to be emulated is because we do not really have the tech or processing power to do it yet. The Switch's lower specs are entirely the reason it has had an emulator developed well ahead of the PS4 or the Xbone.
Yuzu's early access build allowed people to play Tears of the Kingdom ahead of release date
This one is a couple of different statements packed together, and while I'm given to believe there's a chance other games may have been playable ahead of release, this specific statement is a lie, and maybe the funniest one on the list because it's a lie that's not even backed up by the lawsuit.
The lawsuit is extremely clear in its language that it was modded instances of Yuzu that could play Tears of the Kingdom ahead of release date, not publicly accessible builds of Yuzu. Nintendo's argument here lies in Yuzu being open source: part of the lawsuit alleges that Yuzu is responsible for any and all acts of piracy done by its users, whether or not they used official or modded builds of Yuzu.
This is, of course, a fundamentally fucking insane position to argue from. It is not a particularly uncharitable reading of this as an attack on open source software to begin with, as this precedent would make any developer liable for ANY illegal action taken by someone who modified their code. Supporting this, in my opinion, makes you an asshole and liable to be clocked in the fucking mouth.
4. Literally anything involving this screenshot.
I've seen this screenshot maybe three or four times with different takes on what exactly Illegal is happening here and I'm pretty content to just call it vibes at this point. Whether this is an intelligent screenshot is a different matter, but no one has been able to point to anything actually illegal being done here. There is already precedent in allowing one to make their own back-ups of software they own, even if decryption or bypassing copy protection to do so, which is a large majority of software. Switch games are not the only games that are either encrypted or have copy protection, and this is both not the earliest generation to do it AND its not the only industry that does it.
The only point of interest here is the date, which I've seen literally no one bring up, but this correlates into another point: personal piracy is still not something Yuzu is liable for. It's a dumb thing to broadcast, but it doesn't change anything material about the software.
5. Yuzu folded because Nintendo had a smoking gun
I, I just, I'm sorry this one isn't just a lie its a really naive and incompetent view of the faults of our legal system. If anything, the settlement seems to indicate the opposite. If Nintendo was sure they had Yuzu dead the rights, they wouldn't have fucking settled. Both parties need to agree to settle! Nintendo is actively interested in trying to set legal precedent that emulation is illegal, because Nintendo is great at saying obviously wrong things with a straight face.
This could be a reason, but remember, this was a civil lawsuit, not a criminal one. Civil lawsuits have a difference in how evidence is handled, and it's pretty likely that Nintendo just has more evidence than user does on account of being able to afford a larger legal team and having planned for this lawsuit in advance, regardless of how strong that evidence actually is. It's why most of the arguments in the lawsuit read kind of insane. Civil lawsuits are not handled "beyond a reasonable doubt".
There's also the fact that legal cases can be extremely expensive, even when you know you are absolutely in the fucking right. I want to link this video by James Stephanie Sterling as evidence of this. They were completely in the fucking right, and the lawsuit still took an incredible amount of time and monetary expense to argue, and that's against an opponent who you could reasonably confuse with a scarecrow. This is ultimately how Sony eventually "won" against Bleem. Bleem never lost any of its lawsuits against Sony, in fact Sony ballsed it up twice against Bleem, but Sony continued to file lawsuits against Bleem and its company over and over, until Bleem literally could not afford it and went bankrupt.
There's also the matter of precedent. If Yuzu had taken this court, and lost, it would be really bad. There's a lot in this court case that you don't want precedent leaning towards, and due to, uh, America's current political climate and judicial regime, there's a fair chance the judge would have just sided with Nintendo anyways. Settling the lawsuit, while to be entirely clear, sucks complete ass for Yuzu as they were basically eliminated, protects the sphere of emulation as a whole.
So what was the salient parts of Nintendo's case?
The parts of Nintendo's case that hold the most weight have to do specifically with the encryption keys used to de-encrypt Switch games, and how those keys interact with the DMCA. There's no legal precedence to back this up, this is thoroughly untested grounds. This is actually where the buck stops with the Bleem cases: this one never went to a judgment for Bleem and hence never established precedent.
There's a pretty reasonable chance that Nintendo had a chance to win the lawsuit off of the back of this point. This doesn't make it a guarantee, but it's the part of the lawsuit that's actually important.
What happened with the settlement?
Well Nintendo got to legally extort the Yuzu devs and their parent company for $2.4 million. This is, strictly speaking, chump change to Nintendo but I in particular hate this part of lawsuits with a passion. In addition, as per the conditions of the agreement, all copies of Yuzu that were released and in development under the purvey of the company must be destroyed, the company and its devs can no longer work on Yuzu in any way possible, and they cannot work on any other emulation software. This is why Citra also closed down by the way: it was an unfortunate emulator in the cross fire. This in and of itself, is a tragedy, since this is basically court mandated brain drain. Undoubtedly Yuzu will be forked and someone will continue development on "Zuyu", but the loss is still felt.
Why should I care? Piracy is illegal.
This is where I'm going to wax philosophical for a moment, but Frankie my dear, I do not give a damn. Nintendo could have had full legal rights to do this, and I would still be of the opinion that Nintendo's legal team are ghouls and shouldn't feel safe showing their faces. This is how I felt when Nintendo shut down Emuparadise. Whether something is illegal does not impact whether it is right. Laws exist in a state of being able to be both just, unjust, or both.
Emulation is extremely important in the preservation of gaming as an artform, something that the game industry is extremely against in all forms. There's money to be made after all, and attempts at making sure that games are available to play are often attacked and criticized. This is part of the reason I'm so against the existence of copyright law. It doesn't matter what the intent of a system is, but it does matter what the system does, and it's transferred an overwhelming amount of power into the hands of large corporations while largely screwing small creators over.
I do not believe art has a price tag to it. I do not believe that art can and should only be enjoyed by the people a company has decided to sell it too. I do not believe that companies like Nintendo should be able to throw their legal weight around and ruin people's lives. You should be able to play Mother 3 and Shin Megami Tensei without having to wait for their parent companies to decide they actually want to sell it to you.
Piracy does not inflict meaningful damages to Nintendo. Despite Nintendo's whinging, Tears of the Kingdom sold over 20 million copies in half a years time, something that we can estimate to have made Nintendo about $1.4 billion in revenue. We live in a game industry which does not care about its game devs: it's perfectly willing to underpay them, to overwork them, and to eventually let them go. Nintendo is not innocent here. They have a history of mistreating their contract workers, and I personally know that these are not the only allegations that hold water.
In short, fuck Nintendo. Pirate all Switch games until the end of time.
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I posted the fic about the Bazaar as a modern publishing company. Now I need to write about modern AU calendar council. Specifically thinking about cyberpunk dystopia (not necessarily the neon future!)
January maintains a free online library full of texts and articles, fighting against the paywall culture of academia and censorship. Also a skilled hacker targeting energy systems to draw attention to infrastructure vulnerabilities caused by the failings of neoliberalism.
February leaks information to the worldwide media at the most opportune times to incite unrest. On the side, she's quite good at online gaming tournaments and has an intense rivalry with user knifeandcandle.
March is an online persona maintained by several individuals to reduce the risk of compromise in the great game which has been taken to the next level by technology. Behind the development of several "leaky" apps, spyware, and wiretaps.
April has no online presence, off the grid for her safety after her role in a costly attack to physically destroy servers at powerful companies. In a world of increased surveillance, she lurks somewhere outside the city with no cameras. You can, however, contact her on clear nights over radio waves, with encoded transmissions.
May is rumored to be one of the very first shareholders for Bazaar Publishing. This aside, has a telehealth webpage that's the height of the spiral with redirecting links, popups, eyestrain colors, and recommendations that seem too personal. Ads pop up during your regular browsing, similar to seeing the merry gentleman about. It's nearly impossible to get an actual appointment unless they email you first, confirming a stay you never reserved. The hotel has bowling alley carpeting and neon lights. I feel like it should have an arcade.
June is the founder of a secretive engineering and technology startup, rumored to be taking funding from shady sources in the private sector. Little is known about her wherabouts or activities, except her last known IP address was at a testing site on a remote island.
July is a whistleblower, leaking confidential documents and warning the public about transactions and political schemes that can lead to their destruction. Fighting a constant war against misinformation, in which she works closely with September.
August is active on twitter and reddit. I don't need to say more. He also promotes accessibility in technology and the web.
September has a podcast and is constantly finding new ways to bypass censors and promote truthful news sources. He runs a blog dedicated to history and culture, where he also shares his poetry. This man is so anti-advertisements.
October is a merciless hacker. Rumors persist she's so skilled and uncatchable because she found a way to project her consciousness into the computer. Several of the most costly ransomware and DDOS attacks bear her signature.
November operates on the black market, overseeing illegal commerce. She works not only in arms dealing and contraband, but in getting restricted supplies to places that need help.
December is an enigmatic figure of the dark web that no one has ever seen or heard, someone you can't contact but rather contacts you through heavily encrypted txt files, identifiable only through a borzoi icon. Some say they're just a myth or a virus. Some say they're an alien, tapping into satellites.
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Very good, very long and thoughtful read about "What Happened To San Francisco".
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Hi bestie I'm making a presentation on Mitch to my friends (please don't ask I have immeasurable brainrot and need to get it out somehow) but I don't really know what to include to really encapsulate all of his... everything so what are your personal favourite moments/ important Mitch lore. Also if you could drop some pics of him sitting on men's laps and engaging in otherwise questionable activity that would also be appreciated lol
oh my GOD. that is SO CUTE and i am so so honored to be called upon to help you with this incredible project.
i feel like (although its in need of an update. not me doing quarterly updates of this mitch marner primer like it's my actual job) my mitch marner primer will have a lot of the content you're looking for (if you haven't already seen it flkjdlsss. apologies in advance for the insanity of this even existing)
*also my matt martin tag, justin holl tag, and patrick marleau tag has a lot of adorable gifs and photos!)
random things that immediately come to mind are what justin holl and alex kerfoot and Zach hyman said about mitch that just STAY WITH ME because i feel like they convey what mitch means and is for the people around him:
justin holl: “you can’t really put into words how much Mitchy means to this team”
alex kerfoot [when asked about where the leafs miss mitch the most - when mitch was out with injury i think]: "we miss him everywhere"
zach hyman listing the things he'd want on a desert island: mitch
Other lore stuff (this is going to be very stream of consciousness and messy...apologies in advance)
The way Mitch draws SMILEY FACES and stuff on his gloves to remind him that hockey is supposed to be fun (and sometimes he writes Z on it - presumably for Zeus. Other times he's written H on it for Hayden, a child cancer patient/friend that Mitch befriended during his London Knights Days, which you can read more about here)
THE ENTIRE ATHLETIC ARTICLE about what mitch was like during his London Knights days
https://theathletic.com/2469915/2021/03/25/mitch-marner-ohl-season/. THIS IS SUCH A GOOD ARTICLE but does have a paywall…if you don’t have a subscription, copy+pasting the athletic link into here should allow you to bypass
This video of Zach asking reporters if they caught Mitch singing loudly in the lockerroom lmao. I just LOVE how every single Leaf immediately points out Mitch as the one who's most likely to always be busting out into song and dance. I just know he was a Gleek when he was younger i just KNOW IT
What Jon Cooper says about Mitch. i just know jon cooper is smackin his lips somewhere out there wanting to sign mitch to play for him. Coops i know what you are
The way it's literally IMPOSSIBLE for mitch to go ANYWHERE or do anything without acquiring at least 3-5 doting father figures who want to kidnap him and squeeze him like a stress ball (same)
EVERY. SINGLE. THING about the 2015 NHL draft class and the friendship between connor dylan and mitch. every single thing
The way Mitch takes ANY and EVERY opportunity he can to gas auston and his teammates up! and his general inability to chirp anyone without immediately backtracking (most noticeable in the leaf to leaf with matt martin) and being a big loser about it.
I know he always says he LOVES getting under his friends' skin and being annoying but i feel like this is like the time he asserted "he was thick for his size"? aka patently false but we love the DELUSION for you, babygirl!
no but fr - it is generally impossible for mitch to get through any media appearance without complimenting or referring to auston at LEAST once. that boy is a simp to the core for auston matthews. this i think is even sweeter because - idk about now - but it's pretty clear that mitch's dad saw auston as a massive rival to mitch and a threat to mitch's potential success with the leafs? so mitch's friendship with auston and general "HEART EYES HUMINA HUMINA AWOOOGA HES SO GOOD HES MY BIG BOY HES MY MASSIVE MAN" demeanor about auston is all...in spite of his dad
The way he's never met a goalie he hasn't fallen in love with
The way he loves all dogs and kids (and the way kids seem to gravitate toward him). he's a CARICATURE of a man.
The way he complains and whines SO much whenever his teammate posts a photo without tagging him, even if he's not even in the photo. the constant need for attention. the babygirl behavior!
The way he sTILL HATES VEGETABLES and distrusts soup because of the texture and YET will make "ice cream soup" by mixing it with a spoon until it's all melted before he eats it. like what the fuck? what the fuck.
his utterly guileless warmth and happiness and enthusiasm for LIFE, hockey, and his PALS. he's a little stupid sometimes but he's so sweet and so CUTE and just a little k-pop group maknae-coded man
The way he melts himself into older players' families so thoroughly their kids believe that mitch is actually one of them
Moments of Mitch sitting on other players' laps or generally needing to be the most tactile physical-affection craving baby:
mitch and matt napping and spooning
this just makes me laugh bc mitch...wat are u doin
anyway, i will end this with what my friend said about mitch: i think once you're friends with mitch you just accept that he will be cuddling and spooning and draping himself over you. look. all these men clearly have the tired expressions of 'look, mitch just happened to me i didnt have a choice.'
#i hope this helps!!!!!!!!!!#im prob forgetting a lot...my brain at this point is just..it holds onto so much useless mitch marner information it scares me
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African American English is a variety with its own syntax, word structure and pronunciation features, said Weldon, who is the dean of the graduate school at the University of South Carolina and also a member of the dictionary’s advisory board. But it has long been dismissed as inferior, stigmatized or ignored.
“It is almost never the case that African American English is recognized as even legitimate, much less ‘good’ or something to be lauded,” she said. “And yet it is the lexicon, it is the vocabulary that is the most imitated and celebrated — but not with the African American speech community being given credit for it.”
This dictionary will offer many insights, Gates said, but one overarching lesson jumps out.
“The bottom line of the African American people, when you read this dictionary,” Gates said, “is that you’ll say these are people who love language.”
This is behind a paywall and I agreed to pay these people $4/mth for a year just to read it (haven't figured out how to bypass it for major pubs). I'm very excited about this project! Long overdue.
Worth noting that not ten minutes after I opened the email about this article, I saw Jessica Chastain tweet the word 'drip', in regard to fashion. Yes, we need documentation -a historical record 🙌🏾.
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heres my pinned full of cool informative shit and good ass causes broken up with some fun things i enjoy to break up the mood a little
here's a very short guide on anti-semitic dogwhistles
here's the trevor project's educational resources for young queer people and intersectionality in queer spaces
and here's their donation page ^
here's a good morning self care resource
here is my go-to website for TV and movies!
the best pokemon database to ever exist. has literally saved my ass so many times and will teach you so much shit you didn't need to know and more
another tumblr post for the best replacement adobe softwares
the stonewall foundation website
a website by the autistic bitches for the autistic bitches !!!!
the sarcoma foundation | BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD
a playlist of some documentary style youtube videos i like!
how to bypass paywalls on news sites
if you have any more educational websites that you think belong in this list (specifically ones about blm or physical disabilities since i'm really lacking there), add them on. and also if you have just some fun websites with fun shit to do. throw em in. have a good ass time.
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THE SIMS 4 CUSTOM CONTENT YOU NEED FOR YOUR SIMS
1. Body Presets
Body presets are one thing you need to make your Sims gameplay more realistic!
Here’s an entire catalogue: https://www.fandomspot.com/sims4-custom-body-presets/
*Note: some of this stuff are behind AdF*y or paywalls, I recommend downloading UBlock Origin and/or Universal Bypass and for paywalls, look it up on these sites:
https://ts4rebels.cc/
http://paysites.mustbedestroyed.org/
https://kemono.party/artists
*For the last link, I recommend using UBlock Origin %100 to avoid inappropriate ads and use the search, not all of it is Patreon*
2. Height Slider
A very popular mod also comes with presets, neck height slider, and a hip slider!
Download Here: https://luumiasims.com/post/174867678324/height-slider-a-slider-that-changes-the-height-of
3. Facial Presets
Modders can even create not just body presets but facial presets TOO?
Here are some beautiful eye presets: https://snootysims.com/wiki/sims-4/sims-4-eye-presets-you-will-love/
Here’s some pretty cute facial presets: https://www.patreon.com/melunn/posts?filters[tag]=preset
4. Facial Sliders
Miiko has some of the best facial sliders!
https://www.patreon.com/miikocc/posts?filters[tag]=sliders%20%26%20presets
(And also some pretty awesome facial presets)
5. DIY Eye Kit
A mod I definitely 100% recommend getting!!!
Download the kit here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/di-eye-diy-eye-34678649
Addons: https://www.patreon.com/posts/40671712
The eyes come in non-default or facepaint, the details are found in the tattoo category.
6. Facekits
The facekit shown above is by Miiko one of my favourite creators when it comes to this type of stuff. Download link below
https://www.patreon.com/posts/face-kit-no-2-72457009
https://pyxiidis.tumblr.com/post/171902140901/about-face-skin-details-by-pyxis-a-set-of-subtle (Another good one)
7. CAS Lighting
Some pretty good mods, I used lighting by JenJGolem
City CAS Lighting: https://simplyanjuta.tumblr.com/post/664688629684273152/cas-lighting-city-light-neutral-light
More gorgeous lighting here: https://mosaica.tumblr.com/tagged/cas%20lighting
Here’s JenJGolem’s CAS Lighting: https://jenjgolem.weebly.com/cas-lighting.html
8. CAS Backgrounds
Do you think I just Photoshop my Sim in front of the Buckingham Palace?
No, I used CAS backgrounds!! You can put your Sim in pretty much any scene you would like!
Here’s a full catalogue: https://ultimatesimsguides.com/sims-4-cas-backgrounds/
Here’s my CAS Backgrounds: https://laurensimscosplaycc.tumblr.com/search/Background
…And yes that includes the Buckingham Palace one too!
9. Skin overlays
Again with Miiko https://www.patreon.com/miikocc/posts?filters[tag]=skins%20%26%20other%20genetics
Another full catalogue: https://maxismatchccworld.tumblr.com/tagged/s4-Skin
10. 3D Eyelashes
Another really popular mod
Download here: https://kijiko-catfood.com/3d-lashes-version2-for-skin-detail-experimental/
(And the best part is that those lashes work for both MM and Alpha Sims)
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Read this article by the Washington Post (use NoScript extension to bypass the paywall) regarding why News Media is broken and how to fix it. It's enlightening because it explains why a lot of them tend to just drive me away or start not wanting to deal with them.
The gist of the three main points that cause news media to not be engaged with are:
1) Lack of Hope: People need to have a sense of possibility, a sense that things can get better. A lot of articles and projects kept on posting about how doomed we are, how much damage is being caused while offering no sense that we can do anything about it.
A climate change project showed how much damage was being done to 193 countries, with a lot of wording that leaned heavily towards the damage and such. Well intended, but not great.
The contrast was one article where 25,000 homeless people were able to get homed, with the point made about how it doesn't solve homelessness, but that progress could be made.
2) Lack of Agency: The feeling that you can do something about the problem.
"Of all the climate stories aired on nightly news and Sunday morning shows in 2021, only a third discussed possible solutions, according to a study by Media Matters for America. What would agency look like? It might look like The Post’s April article detailing six ways to halt climate change."
3) Lack of Dignity: The quote explains it better:
“To me, it’s the feeling I have that I matter, that my life has some worth.” In journalism, treating people like they matter means, most importantly, listening to them — maybe the way WBEZ’s “Curious City” listens to its audience to decide what to investigate, for example. It can mean inviting viewers to talk to each other, with civility, like Atlanta NBC station 11Alive did, enlisting local parents skeptical of critical race theory to interview school officials and historians on camera. And it means writing about people as more than the sum of their circumstances, as journalist Katherine Boo did so famously in the pages of this newspaper.
There is a way to communicate news — including very bad news — that leaves us better off as a result. A way to spark anger and action. Empathy alongside dignity. Hope alongside fear.
There's also quite a bit more about how journalism in the past was about bringing the darkest evils to light with the belief of accountability soon following, but that not really applying anymore, and journalists in response trying to be louder and more shrill about it which results in people becoming turned off. And how Journalists are sinking so deep into the darkness that it's negatively affecting how they convey the news to us.
Basically, the news isn't being made for human beings, and it's making us less willing to read it.
Quick disclaimer: I don't have NoScript so I'm going off your notes, but while I agree with the article mostly I don't like the way it's being presented.
Well intended but poorly executed, because the "solution" is no solution at all. Do not mention any problems that are systemic or not easily solved. Mentio what's being done to fix them, run feel-good stories about how people are getting rehomed, but don't mention the underlying cause. Heartwarming story about how 200 orphans are rescued from the orphan crushing machine.
The lack of discussing possible solutions is also a bad thing. That's a genuine, valid point.
Lack of dignity: No actual solutions are offered.
Finally, all of the solutions except 1 redirect to The Washington Post as the example of "good" news media. Don't trust other news media, trust us instead. We won't be "loud" or "shrill" about the bad things happening.
There are a lot of good points being made in this article, but it's overshadowed by the fact that it's an opinion that's acting like an ad. I'd trust it a lot more if it completely redirected to other sources rather than constantly referencing itself. People need to see hope, they need to feel like they make a difference and that they matter and the constant doom and gloom is bad. But it's hard to listen to that over the whine of self-advertisement.
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Scooter is a highly manipulative person who is also an enabler of sorts when it suits him. I think to characterize him as only someone who wronged Taylor Swift by buying her masters doesn’t fully take into account what he’s done with many of his clients even the ones he still has a relationship with such as Justin Bieber. There is a great article encapsulating some of his good and bad points in the Business Insider but it’s behind a paywall. Here is a recap in case people want to know what is said. https://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/122854380.html
I think this might set people off... OKAY here goes...
Firstly, I'm going to add something to part of your ask because I've read that Business Insider article, and unlike it I prefer a more balanced approach...
"According to some, Scooter is a highly manipulative person who is also an enabler of sorts when it suits him."
The whole Swift/Braun situation is very nuanced, which VOX covered quite impartially back in 2019...
As a side note, they have a fab quote from one of Taylor's then friends (not sure if they still are but considering recent controversy, I find the quote very humourous) ...
I think today, many people are thinking the same of Todrick.
One could argue that all Braun did was make a savvy business deal that benefited him. A deal that Taylor didn't like and started a PR campaign (with the support of friends) against him despite many people backing Braun. Now what she claimed about him might have been true, but I don't think what he did (when buying her old record company) was a terrible thing. She (in her own words) had the opportunity to purchase said masters, but obviously she wanted to keep going on about Braun, so the deal didn't happen and he sold them off to someone else.
My guess, Braun is merely a ruthless but talented businessman, who was quicker to the punch than Taylor.
OH and here's the original Business Insider Article (my uMatrix extension helps be bypass the paywall):
The article tries to be balanced, but clearly is an article intended to paint Scooter in a poor light, which is even more interesting when you consider the writer of the piece has written several articles about Swift, mostly in a positive light and terms... and why might you ask may that be the case, well it seems she's a big ole Swiftie...
"SILMAN: ...As for my hopes, well, I guess I'd just say that Salon has had so many entertainment writers who I admire hugely come through its doors over the years, so I just hope to be able to uphold that legacy of quality, and to contribute my own voice as well (and of course, by “my own voice” I mean lots of coverage of Taylor Swift and her cats)." - Source
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I wish I had a version without a paywall, but I don't, and it's a long article with far too many important parts to excerpt all of the quotes I'd like to share, so here's a summary:
Giselle (G) was 11 weeks pregnant with twins in 2020, when she was 17. She lived in Texas, so she needed to prove to a judge she was "mature enough" for an abortion (although forced birthers apparently assume a 17 year old is mature enough to be a parent.
Without judicial bypass, she would have needed to reach out to her sexually abusive father or emotionally abusive mother for their consent to her abortion.
She had broken up with Cecil, the father, and neither made enough money to care for children.
She had considered adoption and decided she wanted an abortion. She thoroughly researched abortion and decided that was what she wanted.
The judge, David Hodges, told her to try visiting a Christian prolife centers and said he would consider this as if he was making a decision for his daughter. She did as he asked...but he said she wasn't mature enough to get an abortion.
"How the courts interpret maturity has since proved to be arbitrary. Judge Hodges told me that “of course it’s subjective.” He also said that part of his thinking in denying G’s petition was that he disagreed with her statement that she wouldn’t make a suitable parent. “My thought process was, You sound very mature to me, for a 17-year-old, living on your own, paying your own rent, making these decisions,” he said. “Sounded to me like she actually, probably would make a good parent.” His view was paradoxical: He believed that G was mature enough to raise two children, but he had ruled that she was not mature enough to decide if she was ready to be a mother."
G fell into such a deep depression that it eas hard to get our of bed.
She got back together with Cecil, not because she wanted to, not because she thought he was reliable, but because they felt obligaed to do so.
Her job that paid 8/hr didn't make ends meet, so she had to sell naked pics of herself. Her employer didn't provide paid leave, so when her doctor ordered her to bed rest, that was lost income.
She had problems bonding with her children, alternating between loving them and thinking about smothering them. She was aware enough to get help for postpartum depression.
"Although G had applied for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the safety-net program for low-income parents, she was denied because their household income exceeded the $231 monthly threshold. Cecil covered the rent, fast food, utilities and their car payments, but G wanted an income of her own. Rachel and Michael Borego, the parents of a friend, offered to watch the babies at their home on the weekends, allowing G to get a job as a waitress. G kept asking Cecil to help clean, at least wash his own dishes. He complained about his exhaustion and her nagging; he felt that he had lost his dream to build a streetwear brand and that he couldn’t meet the impossible expectations of fatherhood. “I feel like a single mother already,” G wrote to Cecil in a letter. “I love you for just being there, holding me and giving me a slice of peace that I didn’t think existed, but I’m not happy.”"
Cecil and G broke up, but she couldn't afford her own place so she slept in the closet of her children's room.
Now, she lives in a camper with no water or restroom. The roof leaks.
She gave her twins to some friends to care for.
You forced this on her, forced birthers. May it all happen to you. According to you, this is a happy ending, right?
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hey so do actually know why why the restaurants had people lining up to protest it? Goldie's donated literal hundreds of thousands of dollars to the IDF and it fired employees for wearing Palestinian flag pins
https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia/goldie-employees-fired-palestine-flag-pins-20231206.html
you can bypass the paywall with https://12ft.io/
for Landwer Cafe, the CEO of the parent company is ex-IDF special forces and the parent company got in trouble for building a restaurant over the oldest and largest Muslim restaurant in Israel
https://www.landwer.ca/our-team/
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/8/5/cafe-built-over-jerusalem-islamic-graves-sparks-anger
please don't be the dope Zionists think you are
ok so!! i read the first article and from what it seems to me:
- goldie's donated money a to a red-cross style organisation. this organisation, as well as helping the IDF, also helps other people. Generally, it just supplies the IDF with ambulances and stuff like that, most likely to prevent people from dying. thing to keep in mind: not everyone who is serving the IDF wants to. it is compulsory and very difficult to avoid. i know at least a few people who have served in the IDF and really wish they had not, and do not support it at all.
- in relation to being fired for the palestine pins. i'm pretty sure it said that they also would not have allowed israeli pins if anyone had attempted to wear them, meaning that the restaurant wanted to try take a neutral stance on the matter. i understand why banning pins and stuff may be problematic, especially firing someone because of it, but i do not believe that their intention was to just get rid of everyone supporting palestine.
- i very much doubt that everyone attending the rally was aware of all of these facts, whether they are true or not. chances are, at least some of the people were antisemites attending for that purpose.
next source!
- it seems the co founder/CEO was in fact in the special forces at some point. i obviously do not know this person personally and therefore don't know their opinions on the matter, but do keep in mind the "IDF is compulsory" thing. i am aware being in such an advanced section of the IDF is not necessarily compulsory, but i do know that there are probably people out there that would think something along the lines of "i would prefer not to be part of the IDF, but if i have to and am going to, i may as well have a more advanced and respectable role, to help with finding work later on, etc". I am not 100% sure but i am pretty sure finding work in israel can sometimes be more difficult if you did not serve in the IDF, though it may be good to fact check this.
- about the building over the cemetery. i did some research on the source and found some sources (which i also researched, it seems they are credible) saying that the source you used has mixed results in terms of credibility. i am not saying that the source is incorrect, i am merely saying it is a possibility. if it is in fact incorrect, it is very sad. i cannot really argue with that. the source is from 2015, which i'm not sure if that really affects much, but it was not during the current war. this does not affect whether building over graves is the right thing to do or not (it is not the right thing to do in any situation) but i think this could be important? not sure.
hope this all makes sense!
also i have no clue why you are targeting a MINOR who lives nowhere near israel and palestine, as i do not really have an impact on the situation at all. but oh well. whatever floats your boat i guess?
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i don't know who needs to hear this but you can bypass most newspaper (and some other) paywalls using this browser extension. it has versions for chrome, edge and firefox.
you can block most ads online (doesn't work for youtube or in-feed social media ads) on iOS with this app. there's a paid version but you don't need it. if a website starts to act funky, you can toggle the VPN on and off. for android, all you have to do is change one setting (read how in the first section here and toggle this on and off if something isn't working right as well).
for your desktop browser, try ublock origin. it has versions for chrome, firefox, edge and opera. (on any website you can click the red shield icon and turn it off and then refresh the page if it's acting up as well). bonus: having a good adblocker like this makes 🏴☠️ movies and TV by streaming from sites like watchseries much safer.
your local library probably subscribes to a service called overdrive, which operates an app called libby. and yes, i don't just mean in the U.S. it is VERY popular in many countries. before you go straight to amazon or audible for a book or audiobook, get a library card/figure out your library account login and download the libby app. the interface is great and has a lot of good features. in some countries, you can send the ebook versions to your kindle/kindle account. the libby app can be accessed on your phone, browser, or tablet app to read or listen from, too. if you download the main overdrive app, you can see what movies and TV your library has available. your library might also use a service called hoopla (hoopla often has more comics, too). it depends on the library system which one (or both) they use. if your library doesn't have the book you want, the main overdrive app has a button to "recommend", and your library probably has a request form.
there's an alternative to goodreads called storygraph. it has twice the amount of features, is updating with more all the time, and is not owned by amazon. you can easily import your goodreads library, too. it has mobile apps, too.
stop listening to podcasts with apple podcasts, google podcasts or spotify. the interface is terrible and the companies are even worse. try pocket casts, which has both a mobile and desktop version. it's compatible with chromecast so you can use it with google home devices, too.
if you live in or near a city in the U.S., you may have noticed uber/lyft/rideshare prices have risen a lot lately. the "it's a startup we're disrupting the business" bubble has popped and now it costs just as much as the established system, just like most other gig apps. you'll be surprised to learn that the taxi apps now cost about the same (or lower, depending on the time of day). the curb app is available in a ton of cities (in new york for example it works in all the boroughs) and you can order a taxi with a fixed fare just like an uber now.
can you never remember when your TV shows are on or coming back? can you not keep track of all the shows and movies you watch or want to watch? the TV Time app is a literal lifesaver.
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since i cannot find the masterpost i initially used to obtain all these extensions initially, here’s a list of privacy extensions i use in conjunction with firefox! i’ve included a link to each of them which is very easy if you use firefox. pls use firefox. brave is also good for privacy. there are others out there so do your research, and again, please for the love of god, switch from chrome if you can xx
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Bypass Paywalls Clean - bypasses paywalls. v helpful. this one isn’t verified by firefox however
Decentraleyes - this helps to prevent websites from tracking you and blocks requests
Don’t track me google - stops google from lengthening urls theycan track you with. godsend
DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials - blocks tracking, enables https where possible, overall a good and helpful extension
Facebook Container - isolates facebook in its own container so its much harder for them to track you. always a bonus
HTTPS Everywhere - does what it says!
Privacy Badger - blocks trackers, similar to some of the others listed. can never have too many
Shinigami eyes - if you dont have this enabled wyd? marks trans friendly accounts as green and transphobic ones as red, or other colours based on your preference. makes blocking very quick and easy! not verified by firefox, but just as essential as the rest
uBlock Origin - basically an ad blocker, the best of the bunch; also prevents a lot of tracking and coin miners too
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if you have any privacy extensions you use or find useful, feel free to reblog with your own suggestions!
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*cracks knuckles*
Welp, I've got a lot of rage and aggression today that I need to direct into something, and the fact that I ran out of characters halfway through describing my problems with the Ultimate Guitar Tab app makes it as good a candidate as any.
So, for the uninitiated, Ultimate Guitar is a site that compiles community-made tabs and chord charts. It's a decent resource that I've made extensive use of. How I usually use it is, I Google "<song I want to learn> chords/tabs", click on the top result, and it's generally UG. I then read through it, use the transpose function to get it where my voice wants to be, and use the autoscroll function to practice it. Then I close it and move on. I am pretty happy with this arrangement.
Well, now they've gatekept the actual chord charts (as in, "How do you Finger Gdim7") behind the app. This is already a red flag. If your primary way to get me to download an app is to gatekeep features that used to be freely available, the app is not actually making my life better. I am not downloading it because I want the app, but because the website no longer works. Why am I downloading it then? Let's find out.
Why go through the trouble? Well, the first thing I noticed about the app is that it forces you to log in to view... Anything. You need an account. So okay, let's give them more of my data. I don't want another account I'll never use but whatever. Oh, and after that, I have to give it a bunch of info on how good I am, how often I play, and some songs I like - from a short list, of which I know none. Lovely. It's going to use those to algorithmically suggest garbage I have no interest in later.
Then, once you've made an account, you get a lovely pop-up offering two weeks free! Connected to your Google payment info. Oh, and you can't just bypass it - it took me a few minutes to figure out how not to immediately sign up for a paid subscription service. I work in IT and study dark patterns, so I feel very comfortable in saying that this is intentionally made to make it hard to proceed without giving them your money.
Once you get past that, you can open the app, and finally get started. The first screen is... Uh... UG, what the fuck is this random assortment of grainy videos of people playing guitar? Why are you going out of your way to encourage me to upload more garbage here? I just want to learn how to play Dodie.
After some wrangling I got to the tabs section, where the search function is just straight-up worse than on Web. I found the tab (after accidentally clicking on the "official" tab, which then sends me to the "give us your money forever" subscription screen again), click on it, and... uh... Oh. That's a full-screen pop-up ad. For some reason. If I had to deal with garbage like that using the UG web page, I would not use the UG web page.
The actual tab itself is also cluttered with garbage and ads. I can maybe fit one verse on my phone screen, in part because every other block of text has a video or ad after it. Not the end of the world, I'll turn on Autoscroll (without which actually playing through the song becomes essentially impossible without stopping every 30 seconds)... And... there's the subscription paywall. For this basic, essential feature that works fine on web and without which the tab is basically unreadable. Same with transposing - if I want to change the key, I'm gonna have to pay.
This app wasn't designed to help users. It wasn't designed to be a good product. It wasn't designed with the site's core functionality in mind. It exists to make as much money as possible, and the devs are willing to make the product worse for people who won't pay in order to drive customers towards this piece of ad-ridden, paywall-infested garbage.
This app is, in many ways, a perfect example of the incessant need for anything and everything to turn a profit destroying what we love. It is "remember when we used to have nice things?" in app form. It isn't built to make anyone's life easier; it's built to make as much money as possible, with psychological hooks replacing anything of actual value. Manufactured Discontent, as Dan Olson would put it. I cannot be the only person who's completely goddamn sick of this shit, right?
And that's the red flag we spotted earlier. This isn't rare, this isn't new. Every time they tell you "get our app" and don't take no for an answer, it's because the app doesn't exist for your benefit, but for theirs. They want you as a product.
And I am so goddamn fucking tired of it. Just so goddamn fucking tired.
P. S. There is NO GODDAMN REASON MY GUITAR TAB APP SHOULD BE SENDING ME GODDAMN NOTIFICATIONS. STOP IT. GET SOME HELP.
#Paywall#Dark patterns#Apps#Ultimate guitar#Design#I could probably keep going but frankly I don't want to spend another second on this garbage fucking app
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