#Cumulative Updates

[it-online]

Microsoft disponibiliza Windows 10 Build 19045.3030 para o canal Release Preview

A Microsoft iniciou ontem a distribuição da Build 19045.3030 (22H2) no âmbito do Windows Insider Program, para todos os Windows Insiders registados na Release Preview Channel. Para obter esta Build, os utilizadores deverão fazer a instalação da atualização cumulativa KB5026435. Continue reading Untitled

[marlinspirkhall]

Alas, for she hath froze and responds not!

What curses do they now upon you quoth?

Dismay, alack, for she can hear me not

Betwixt the careless hands of Microsoft

[multiplekittens]

Next time I say it might be fun to commit to three projects with a tight, hard deadline, with one of the projects requiring me to learn two (2) entirely new skills, please bonk me on the head with cartoon hammers until I turn into a squeaky toy

[vermillioncrown]

…………I’m almost too afraid to ask but minion profile pic on teams?

microsoft teams, for organizations that use microsoft office enterprise as their productivity suite

it's like a slack. actually, it's like a discord, but for work lmao

and i've never met more overly solicitous, socially exhausting, in-my-fucking-way people as those who use these profile pics (as graduate student researchers):

entrepreneurship award photos

custom minion avatar

[richardmhicks]

Always On VPN Windows 11 Status Indicator

Viewing the status of an Always On VPN connection has been challenging since the introduction of this technology. To see if an Always On VPN connection is active, users must proactively click on the network status icon in the system tray to view the current connection status. Optionally, users can use the Settings application in Windows and select the Network & Internet tab to view the Always On…

[pcdells]

Windows 11 Cumulative Update Failed to Download Windows updates failed during the cumulative updates and noticed some errors and asking restart the system and try again but even if not installed after restarting the system, follow the few steps below on how to update windows 11 without losing your data. pcdells.com/category/fix-os-issues/

[magz]

The March 2024 cumulative update for Windows 11 causes "Blue Screen of Death" for some computers, n slowdowns and significant stuttering for some other computers.

If it keeps happening on your device, you will have to manually uninstall the patch, as noted in the article.

[techfeeddata]

Microsoft releases Windows 11 Build 25227.1010 on the Dev channel

Microsoft releases Windows 11 Build 25227.1010 on the Dev channel

Microsoft has released cumulative update KB5020539 for Windows 11 Insider Build 25227 available on the Dev channel. This update does not bring any innovations and is aimed at testing the maintenance system. In particular, the company is testing the possibility of releasing and installing updates on top of previous updates. After the update, the system build number will change to…

[physalian]

You don’t have to pay for that fancy worldbuilding program

As mentioned in this post about writing with executive dysfunction, if one of your reasons to keep procrastinating on starting your book is not being able to afford something like World Anvil or Campfire, I’m here to tell you those programs are a luxury, not a necessity: Enter Google Suite (not sponsored but gosh I wish).

MS Office offers more processing power and more fine-tuning, but Office is expensive and only autosaves to OneDrive, and I have a perfectly healthy grudge against OneDrive for failing to sync and losing 19k words of a WIP that I never got back.

Google’s sync has never failed me, and the Google apps (at least for iPhone) aren’t nearly as buggy and clunky as Microsoft’s. So today I’m outlining the system I used for my upcoming fantasy novel with all the helpful pictures and diagrams. Maybe this won’t work for you, maybe you have something else, and that’s okay! I refuse to pay for what I can get legally for free and sometimes Google’s simplicity is to its benefit.

The biggest downside is that you have to manually input and update your data, but as someone who loves organizing and made all these willingly and for fun, I don’t mind.

So. Let’s start with Google Sheets.

The Character Cheat Sheet:

I organized it this way for several reasons:

I can easily see which characters belong to which factions and how many I have named and have to keep up with for each faction

All names are in alphabetical order so when I have to come up with a new name, I can look at my list and pick a letter or a string of sounds I haven’t used as often (and then ignore it and start 8 names with A).

The strikethrough feature lets me keep track of which characters I kill off (yes, I changed it, so this remains spoiler-free)

It’s an easy place to go instead of scrolling up and down an entire manuscript for names I’ve forgotten, with every named character, however minor their role, all in one spot

Also on this page are spare names I’ll see randomly in other media (commercials, movie end credits, etc) and can add easily from my phone before I forget

Also on this page are my summary, my elevator pitch, and important character beats I could otherwise easily mess up, it helps stay consistent

*I also have on here not pictured an age timeline for all my vampires so I keep track of who’s older than who and how well I’ve staggered their ages relative to important events, but it’s made in Photoshop and too much of a pain to censor and add here

On other tabs, I keep track of location names, deities, made-up vocabulary and definitions, and my chapter word count.

The Word Count Guide:

*3/30 Edit to update this chart to its full glory. Column 3 is a cumulative count. Most of what I write breaks 100k and it's fun watching the word count rise until it boils over.

This is the most frustrating to update manually, especially if you don’t have separate docs for each chapter, but it really helps me stay consistent with chapter lengths and the formula for calculating the average and rising totals is super basic.

Not that all your chapters have to be uniform, but if you care about that, this little chart is a fantastic visualizer.

If you have multiple narrators, and this book does, you can also keep track of how many POVs each narrator has, and how spread out they are. I didn’t do that for this book since it’s not an ensemble team and matters less, but I did for my sci-fi WIP, pictured below.

As I was writing that one, I had “scripted” the chapters before going back and writing out all the glorious narrative, and updated the symbols from “scripted” to “finished” accordingly.

I also have a pie chart that I had to make manually on a convoluted iPhone app to color coordinate specifically the way I wanted to easily tell who narrates the most out of the cast, and who needs more representation.

—

Google Docs

Can’t show you much here unfortunately but I’d like to take an aside to talk about my “scene bits” docs.

It’s what it says on the tin, an entire doc all labeled with different heading styles with blurbs for each scene I want to include at some point in the book so I can hop around easily. Whether they make it into the manuscript or not, all practice is good practice and I like to keep old ideas because they might be useful in unsuspecting ways later.

Separate from that, I keep most of my deleted scenes and scene chunks for, again, possible use later in a “deleted scenes” doc, all labeled accordingly.

When I designed my alien language for the sci-fi series, I created a Word doc dictionary and my own "translation" matrix, for easy look-up or word generation whenever I needed it (do y'all want a breakdown for creating foreign languages? It's so fun).

Normally, as with my sci-fi series, I have an entire doc filled with character sheets and important details, I just… didn’t do that for this book. But the point is—you can still make those for free on any word processing software, you don’t need fancy gadgets.

—

I hope this helps anyone struggling! It doesn’t have to be fancy. It doesn’t have to be expensive. Everything I made here, minus the aforementioned timeline and pie chart, was done with basic excel skills and the paint bucket tool. I imagine this can be applicable to games, comics, what have you, it knows no bounds!

Now you have one less excuse to sit down and start writing.

[trans-rite]

How to join the Transgender Ancestor Rite: an FAQ on our updated format

What is it?

an annual, non-denominational ritual honoring transgender individuals who have passed on

an act of solidarity with the lineage of transgender ancestors who have come before us and paved the way, as well as with the descendants who will come after us when we are gone

a chance to share tenderness and kindness with the restless spirits of transgender people who lost their lives to violence

an opportunity for living transgender folks, including those who have lost trans loved ones, to grieve, mourn, and pray

a labor of love from a multiracial group of trans spirit workers, each at various stages of study in ancestor veneration practices, who have been putting on this ritual since 2014

When is it?

the ritual should take place on or around the Trans Day of Remembrance on November 20th, preferably within a week

most of us do it at night but any time of day is fine

if you need to do it a little before or after the 20th, don't sweat it

Where is it?

wherever you are!

groups are welcome to host local events and inform us about them, but the ritual itself takes place in a location of your own choosing, usually at home

if you have access to a local TDOR event that could incorporate some or all of this ritual, you are welcome to bring it there

most of the organizers have historically been located in the northeastern US but you don’t have to be

Who is it for?

it honors everyone from this year’s Trans Day of Remembrance official list, as well as any other deaths of trans individuals from the year that participants wish to include

illness losses, violent deaths, suicides, and natural deaths are all eligible for inclusion

it includes, cumulatively, all transgender deaths from previous years as well, named on the TDOR lists and unnamed, throughout history

it honors and praises the trans ancestors, people who were alive both recently and longer ago, who feel themselves in connection with us, who have received the care and honor we offered through previous years’ rituals, who are bright and well and who can tend the line from the other side

participants can be trans or cisgender, of any or no denomination or faith

Does it cost money?

nope! this is an anticapitalist affair

you can buy incense and offerings if you like, but you don’t need to spend money to participate

Why are y’all doing this?

honestly this could take pages and pages about the importance of this work and of soothing the troubled dead and tending our ancestral line et cetera et cetera ad infinitum but the short version is

we gotta

our ancestors require it and we’re making sure they get it

Okay, how does it work?

during the ritual, you sit or stand at an altar, light a candle, put out a glass of fresh water, and read a prayer

you may also make any other offerings you feel called to do

if so moved, you read the names of the dead from this year's TDOR list and call on our bright and well ancestors to tend to these newly passed souls

all the people participating in all the different places in the world help create a rising raft of energy that is greater than the sum of its parts, delivering the restless dead among our line into the care of our bright and well ancestors, who, in turn, also care for us, the living

Prayers? I thought you said this was non-denominational.

prayers can involve divinity, or they can be kind and soothing words to say to the dead

you can look through our prayers tag to get ideas and inspiration, but feel free to find poems on your own and/or write something yourself as well 

you are welcome to include deity or not, as you prefer

the organizers of this ritual incorporate gods and spirits in our practices but you by no means need to

on the flip side, if you want your gods involved, feel free to do so in whatever respectful manner works for you

What do I need on my altar?

the basics are an altar cloth (white is traditional; a bandana works), a cup to be filled with water, and a new or dedicated candle (white is traditional here also but follow your instincts)

other great offerings include cut flowers, portions of your food and drink (though alcohol is not advised with restless spirits), tobacco, honey, pictures and/or names of the deceased, art, music, dancing, and any gender paraphernalia you think the ancestors might like

do not put pictures of living people on the altar

it can be as simple or ornate as you choose: the important parts are the candle, the cup, and the cloth

Isn’t it sketchy to be working with dead people?

a little bit

it is much less sketchy since our format change in 2022, at which point this ritual shifted from working directly with restless spirits (dicey) to interfacing with them only through our cadre of elevated bright and well ancestors who have already benefited from previous years' rituals

we advise that you cleanse or purify in whatever way you prefer, ideally before and after the working

if you’re in a Western (especially American Christian) culture that views death as The End and discussion of death as taboo, consider reading up on cultures where ancestor veneration is a normal part of everyday life (hint: it’s most of them)

Other questions? Send them in and we’ll answer them, and maybe add them to the list! If you post about the ritual, tag #troe2023 and we will check it out!

Thank you for joining us!

- Mod Alder and team

[resistancecommittee]

RECURRING MUTUAL AID POST: SHORTENED+UPDATES

many of you are already familiar with our situation, but for a recap we have been homeless going on a little over a month (i think? everything blends together) in and out of cheap motels when we are able to, and sleeping in parks & elsewhere when we can’t. we both suffer from multiple mental illness disabilities & i suffer from multiple physical handicaps resulting from car accidents, work accidents, and abuse and we’re both the product of abusive households and C-PTSD. we’ve applied for food assistance, but it will be atleast another 7-10 days before we recieve our card. we also live in an exceedingly rough area - maybe youve heard of Flint, Michigan? being on the street here is extremely unsafe, and access to resources is slim to null.

Our goal is to SAVE $600-$1000 as is this would be enough to put us on a trajectory out of this situation.

however, daily expenses - such as food, water, and the motel room make it VERY difficult to save what we get to put towards the larger goal. poverty is expensive, and having a decent sum at one time is the key to get out of this mess.

Thank you everyone that boosts this & donates. Solidarity Forever 🖤❤️

Cumulative Balance as of May 22nd, 8:21pm: $50.00

Balance toward Goal: $0.00/$600

Balance for Daily Expense:$50.00 (-$50 for room) = 0.00

My wife and I’s V3nmo/C4shapp/P4ypal Links

[it-online]

Microsoft disponibiliza Windows 10 Build 19045.2787 para o canal Release Preview

A Microsoft iniciou hoje a distribuição da Build 19045.2787 (22H2) no âmbito do Windows Insider Program, para todos os Windows Insiders registados na Release Preview Channel. Para obter esta Build, os utilizadores deverão fazer a instalação da atualização cumulativa KB5023773. (more…) “”

[elitadream]

Mario body-swap Masterpost

(UPDATED ONCE MORE! 🤩 Please check the list below for the latest addition!)

-

Hello peeps! :D As promised, here's a cumulative post including all the awesome contributions that have been made about this concept. 🤗✨ If I'm somehow forgetting any, please let me know and I'll make the adjustment immediately!!

The response to this idea has honestly been phenomenal and I can't thank you guys enough for your involvement and interest. ^-^ 💝

-

My art (in uploaded order):

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 (TW) | 6 | 7 | 8

@istadris

Looking the Other Way

@pianokantzart:

The Line of Fire | Impromptu | Where There's Smoke | Fanart | All That Remains

@katlyntheartist:

The Line of Fire Fancomic - p1 | p2 & p3 | p4 | p5 | p6 | p7 | p8 | p9 | p10 | |

@mrspockify

Malicious Intent | Left Unsaid

@keakruiser:

Shocking Revelations | Finding Solace | Healing Together | Confrontation

AnimeGameFanatic2022:

It Ain't Easy Being Mario

@the-brucest-fan

Change of Plans

@jell-o101:

Comic

@stripetkattelalala54-gf:

Fanart

[idrellegames]

As of May 26, 2023, brand-new Episode III content is available to play on Wayfarer’s alpha build.

✦ Overview

Part 1 includes 5 playable routes based on your Episode II ending. They are: Aeran’s romance reconciliation, Aeran’s friendship reconciliation, breaking off your MC’s friendship or romance with Aeran at the apartment, Aeran’s low romance (if you do not go to Melchior’s party), and Sleeping with Veyer.

Other routes, such as Melchior's and Kit’s endings, as well as the drunk route are under construction and not available at this time.

370,000 words of cumulative content

An average playthrough is 21,000 words

✦ Story Features

Episode III picks up the morning following Episode II and includes:

The aftermath of the big fight!

A mission going ahead, whether you like it or not

Boat rides

Promises made (or not made) to a questionable person

Reckless and unchecked behaviour

Obliterate your relationships (or try to save them)

A special object of great personal importance

Consequences for your actions and dialogue options

Always remember: you can always make things worse. Whether this is a good thing or not is up to you.

A huge thank you to my patrons for supporting me over the past year while I developed this next section of the game. I hope you all enjoy it.

Episode III will remain a Patreon exclusive until Episode IV is developed and released. You can play it by supporting me at any tier through on my Patreon at patreon.com/idrellegames.

Wayfarer’s next public build patch will release next Monday on May 29, 2023. Patch 2.6. will fix a number of ongoing bugs and issues.

All players must start their playthroughs fresh with a new save once the patch releases, otherwise they will encounter continuity and approval errors.

To fully test Episode III’s new material, I am expanding Wayfarer’s playtester team. If playtesting is of interest to you, please check out the information below.

✦ What Does Playtesting Entail?

Playtesters play the alpha build in search of bugs, continuity errors, and typos. They are essentially an extra set of eyes on the game for new content. They get updates and patches before anyone else does.

Because Wayfarer’s gameplay includes hundreds of choices and many, many variations that build on each other, playing multiple times and checking out different options is essential for testing to make sure each area of the game functions as intended.

✦ Details

You must be 18+.

Playtesting is a volunteer position.

You will be credited in-game as a playtester (this is opt-in).

You must have an active Discord account.

All communication with the playtesting team is done through a private playtester Discord server. You must be willing to be active in that part of the server and submit your bug reports through the designated channels. I do not accept playtester bug reports through any other method.

Playtesting is not free access to alpha content. If you are not active and do not contribute to bug reporting, you will be removed from the playtester role.

You must keep the playtester build link and password private. As a playtester, you are trusted not to share the alpha build’s content. Breaching these terms will terminate your role as a playester and you will be banned from all of Wayfarer's platforms and social media.

If at any point you are no longer interested or do not have the time to be involved, you can opt out, no questions asked!

You must be available to playtest throughout the summer as I develop the next stage of Episode III.

✦ Application Form

Your answers on the application form are kept strictly confidential.

The form is open until June 9, 2023. I will contact chosen playtesters via email by June 11, 2023.

To apply, see the application link below:

[celestos]

a little update: the semester has been going okay so far. jin-hee currently has a B for her cumulative gpa. she also got promoted at work! oh and she may or may not have a crush on this guy she saw at the library who is also a TA for one of her classes...

[jimhines]

2022 Writing Income

It’s that time again – for fifteen years now I’ve been writing an annual blog post about my income as a writer. Money tends to be an uncomfortable, even taboo topic, but I think it’s important to help counter the myths that we’re all multimillionaires living in Glass Onion-style mansions. (Side note: If anyone wants to pay millions of dollars for my book, I’ll happily update this blog post from my private island mansion.)

Remember, every writer’s career is different, and I’m only one data point.

Prior Years: Here are the annual write-ups going back to 2007: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021.

In 2016, instead of a personal income write-up, I did a survey of almost 400 novelists about their income.

My Background: I’m a primarily “traditionally published,” U.S.-based SF/F author with 15 books in print from major New York publishers. The first of those books came out from DAW in 2006. I have an agent, and have been with them since about 2004.

I’ve self-published a middle grade fantasy and a few short collections. I’ve also sold about 50 short stories to different magazines and anthologies.

I’ve never hit the NYT or USA Today bestseller lists.

I’m currently the sole parent of a teenager (at home) and a 22-year-old (at college). I have a day job that’s just over half-time, both for the paycheck and the benefits.

2022 in Summary: There’s no gentle way to say this. The last several years have kind of sucked. Losing my wife to cancer in 2019 completely derailed my writing. I was hoping 2022 would be a comeback year, but life had other plans…

I did write and sell two new short stories and one nonfiction piece, which was nice. I’ve got a finished middle grade book that’s been on submission for a while. I finished a standalone fantasy that’s been sitting with my publisher for a while.

Normally, my editor is pretty quick about responding, but last year wasn’t normal for DAW, either. DAW was acquired by Astra House. A lot of their time and energy went into that deal. I’m hoping for the best, but things still haven’t settled into the new “normal.”

Last year did see the release — finally — of Terminal Peace, the third book in the Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse series. I’m thrilled and relieved to see that book in print, but it came out right in the middle of the Astra House acquisition, which may have impacted things like promotion and publicity.

I also finished the first draft and started revising a new standalone middle grade fantasy with series potential.

2022 Income: The biggest check was the publication payment for Terminal Peace. All total, before taxes and various expenses, the writing brought in $13,957.16. While that’s absolutely nothing to sneer at, and I’m grateful for the success, it’s also a dropoff from the past couple of years. To be blunt, if you look at the cumulative graph, things have been slumping a bit.

Income Breakdown:

Patreon has been a small but steady and helpful source of income. My thanks to everyone for that!

As usual, my U.S. novels are the biggest piece of the pie. The short fiction category is a bit higher this year, thanks to those two new stories. I didn’t self-publish anything new in 2022, but if that middle grade book doesn’t sell, I’d like to publish that one later this year.

Novels (U.S. editions): $8,542.83

Novels (Non-U.S. editions): $473.25

Self-Published: $1158.24

Short fiction: $892.86

Audio: $521.04

Patreon: $1668.94

Other: $700

I mentioned earlier that things have been in a bit of a slump, and I need to focus on breaking out of that. Some things I can’t currently control. Tomorrow I could wake up to an offer from DAW on the book they’ve got, and maybe an email from my agent that the middle grade title he’s been shopping around went to auction and got a six-figure advance. But I can’t make these things happen.

Priority #1 is to keep writing. If I’m not doing that, other goals are pretty much moot.

Priority #2 is to figure out some alternate options. It may be time to put more time and effort into self-publishing as a complement to my traditionally published work.

The biggest thing making me anxious is that I’m pretty much out of contract. The paperback of Terminal Peace comes out this year, but for the first time in about 15 years, I don’t have the security, the luxury, or the deadlines of a signed contract. In some ways, this is freeing: I can write whatever I want. But there’s no guarantee as to when things will see print. Submitting to the traditional publishers is a long, slow process…

From talking to other writers who’ve been doing this a while, I’ve learned that pretty much every career has its ups and downs. Personal, pandemic, and publisher issues have been a bit of a perfect storm for me these past few years, but I’m not going anywhere. After 27 years as a writer, I’m excited to see what comes next.

Wrap Up:

I hope this has been helpful. As always, feel free to share the post and/or ask questions.