#how to delete windows log files

[phantomrose96]

Honestly I recommend everyone learn just a littttle bit of CSS because it really is powerful and just makes bits and pieces of your internet experience more convenient.

Right now I'm cataloguing recipes I've really enjoyed, just trying to get them all in one place. Many of these are instagram recipes and, because I don't trust link rot (aka the possibility that the instagram link goes dead one day), I'm including a screenshot of the recipe along with the link.

But instagram on desktop... looks like this

(Link, for credit. It's a good recipe)

I obviously could just copy-paste the recipe out of there. But a screenshot would be cleaner for how I'm cataloguing these.

And as-is, I'd have to scroll the whole height of that small right-side window about 4 times to fit it all.

But actually... I can just resize that div holding that whole right-side content

Basically I

hit f12 to open the dev tools

clicked the element finder

clicked on an element inside the recipe side

followed it up the tree until I found the element holding the whole recipe side (do this by hovering the div in the dev tools panel way on the right, then hovering upward and up until I find the element which is the highest up that still only contains the recipe-side content)

in the element.style part, set "width: 1000px" and "height: 1500px"

(I notice the width seems to still be less than 1000px, even though it got bigger)

likely suggests there's an element above it with a max-width set

go up the tree higher until I find the element with the max-width and uncheck that style

screenshot ready

Maybe that sounded complicated but it took me probably 20-30 seconds

And this isn't just about screenshotting recipes like.

website with an annoying gif? select gif, delete gif

do you want a clean screenshot of a digital receipt for record-keeping without a large company banner or irrelevant information? delete unnecessary elements, adjust widths, screenshot

SOMETIMES, you can bypass paywalls if they're relying on something like overflow: hidden, or an overlay in the way, or some JS that runs (you can disable JS in the dev tools)

lost the jpg/png file you used for your profile picture and size doesn't totally matter? grab it from the img src while logged in. (you might even be able to find it in a bigger size by changing the url query parameters)

color contrast on an article really bad? find and change background color. find and change font color

want to make a funny fake screenshot without learning photoshop? just edit the page content in the dev tools

This isn't about like being good enough to write scripts or browser extensions. Really if you just have some basic HTML/CSS understanding a hat worth of tricks, you can make so many little adjustments in your favor.

[heldhram]

How to run The Sims 3 with DXVK & Reshade (Direct3D 9.0c)

Today I am going to show you guys how to install Reshade and use Direct3D 9.0c (D3D9) instead of Vulkan as rendering API.

This tutorial is based on @nornities and @desiree-uk's awesome guide on "How to use DXVK with The Sims 3", with the goal of increasing compatibility between DXVK and Reshade. For users not interested in using Reshade, you may skip this tutorial.

If you followed nornities and desiree-uk's guide, it is strongly recommended that you start from scratch, meaning you should uninstall DXVK AND Reshade completely. Believe me when I say this: it will save you a lot of time, frustration, and make your life so much easier.

For the purpose of this tutorial, I am on patch 1.69.47 and running EA App on Windows 10, but it should work for version 1.67.2 on Steam and discs, too. This tutorial does not cover GShade.

Before we start

Backup your files, even the entire folder (Program Files\EA Games\The Sims 3\Game\Bin) if you want to be extra safe; you will thank yourself later. If you do not wish to backup the entire folder, at least backup the following:

reshade-presets

reshade-shaders

Reshade.ini

Options.ini (Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3)

Keep them somewhere secure, for your peace of mind (and sanity).

Done? Great stuff, let us begin!

Step 1:

If you installed DXVK following nornite and desiree-uk's guide, go to the bin folder and delete the following files to fully uninstall DXVK, we are starting from scratch:

d3d9.dll

TS3.dxvk-cache

dxvk.conf

TS3_d3d9.log (or TS3W_d3d9.log)

Step 2:

If you already have Reshade on your PC, uninstall it using this: https://reshade.me/downloads/ReShade_Setup_X.X.X.exe (replace X.X.X with version number)

Step 3:

Perform a clean install of Reshade (I am using the latest version - 6.4.1 at the time of writing). Please note that you need a version no older than 4.5.0 or this method will not work. Choose DirectX9, click next.

Once the installation is complete, you should see a "d3d9.dll" file inside The Sims 3's bin folder (Program Files\EA Games\The Sims 3\Game\Bin):

It may all seem familiar thus far. Indeed, this is how we installed Reshade in the past before using DXVK, but here comes the tricky part:

Step 4:

Create a new folder outside of The Sims 3's game folder (I created it on my C drive), name it "dxvk" or whatever else you like. Remember where you saved this folder, we will return to it later.

Step 5:

Now we need Reshade to load the next dll in order to chain Reshade with DXVK. Click on the search bar, and type in "View advanced system settings".

Click on "Environment Variables..."

Under "User variables", click "New..."

In the new pop-up window, find "Variable name:" and type in:

RESHADE_MODULE_PATH_OVERRIDE

for "Variable value:", paste in the directory that leads to the folder we created earlier. Once you are done, hit OK, and then hit OK again to save the changes made.

You can use Command Prompt to check if this new environment variable has been registered by entering:

echo %RESHADE_MODULE_PATH_OVERRIDE%

It should return you the folder's location. If not, make sure you have typed in the variable name correctly and confirm the folder's location.

Step 6:

Download DXVK (version 2.3.1) from here: https://github.com/doitsujin/DXVK/releases/tag/v2.3.1 and unzip "dxvk-2.3.1.tar.gz" (I use 7-Zip, but winRAR works, too). Remember to choose x32, and move only "d3d9.dll" to the folder we made earlier.

Now we have two "d3d9.dll" files, one from Reshade (lives in the bin folder), and the other from DXVK (in this new folder, outside of The Sims 3 game folder).

Step 7:

Download "dxvk.conf" here: https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk/blob/master/dxvk.conf delete everything inside, and enter the following:

d3d9.textureMemory = 1 d3d9.presentInterval = 1 d3d9.maxFrameRate = 60 dxvk.hud = devinfo

Ctrl + S to save the document.

The first 3 lines are taken from @nornities and @desiree-uk's guide.

The last line is only for debugging purposes. Due to the inconvenient location occupied by the HUD (top left corner of your screen), it should be removed once the installation is successful.

Step 8:

Drag "dxvk.conf" into the bin folder, where Reshade's "d3d9.dll", "TS3.exe", and "TS3W.exe" all live.

Step 9:

Now fire up the game and check if both are showing up:

Lastly, check for “TS3.dxvk-cache” in the bin folder:

If it is there, congratulations! You have successfully installed DXVK and Reshade utilising D3D9 as API! You can now go to "dxvk.conf" and remove its last line "dxvk.hud = devinfo" and have fun! :)

Hope this tutorial isn't too confusing, the last thing I want is to over-complicate things. If you still need some help, comment down below or send me a DM/ask, I'll try and troubleshoot with you to the best of my ability.

Credits:

@nornities and @desiree-uk for their fantastic guide.

@criisolate for promulgating the usage of DXVK in TS3 community.

reddit user folieadeuxmeharder for helping me troubleshoot and informing me of this workaround.

doitsujin for creating DXVK.

crosire for creating Reshade.

[ravenwriter16]

Creative Minds Think Alike

Ep. 1 -- Ep. 2 -- Ep. 3 -- Ep. 4 -- Ep. 5 -- Ep. 6 -- Ep. 7 -- Ep. 8 (Here!)

Featuring the Amazing: @flusteredfools / @bearitt-creations

Reminder! If the Content Creator doesn't approve of how I represented them or their AUs/OCs then I edit my work or DELETE it.

It is not my intention to mock or belittle anyone's work. This series is supposed to showcase amazing creators. Also there might be some spelling errors, but ignore those!

As always, please go check out the creator's work! And there might be some spelling errors ENJOY!

3k+ word count.

“Careful…careful…care—,”

“Careful! I know!” The smaller harpy glares up at her older sister, blue eyes filled with annoyance. “Get off my wings, sis.”

Raven sighs and runs a hand through her hair, “I’m sorry Jewel. I just want to help—,”

“You already did!” Red hair swishes as Jewl snaps her head back down the garden path. “You got me a job at the Aviary, so let me do the job!”

“But you’re still new to the castle!” Raven’s wings puff up, “What if you get lost?!”

“I’m a kid in a place FULL of daycare attendants.” Jewel deadpans, “I think I’ll be fine…”

“…do you have the letters?”

Jewel pats her messenger bag, “Yep.”

“The packages?”

“Yes!”

“Adress book?”

“Ahuh.” Jewel pulls out the small leatherback item.

“You know where to go today—,”

“YES!” Jewel tosses her hands up in the air. Her outburst startles others also walking in the garden. Some fae DCA variants creating a small cloud of pixie dust (or the equivalent of it anyway) in surprise. Raven and Jewel give them sheepish smile and wave before turning back to their conversation.

“Don’t you have paperwork? Go do that instead of bothering me.”

Raven rubs the back of her neck, “I do…but I also have an appointment with a Creator—,”

“And it just so happened to be the same one I’m going to see? Yeah right.” Jewel scoffs. She rolls her eyes, “Just admit it, you don’t think I can do this on my own—,”

“No!” Raven jumps in front of her little sister, grabbing her shoulders. “I would never think that! I…I just don’t want you to get hurt…The Trolls—,”

“Mr. Aviary Director Eclipse told me that the Defenders have been the strongest they’ve ever been!” Jewel sets her hands on her hips.

Raven smiles at the how grown up she looks. Her Aviary Delivery uniform was a tad dirty and had some tears, but looked well loved. The bandana around her neck was cleaner then the rest of her attire. The same bandana Raven gave her before going to the Academy.

Jewel pushes her older sister’s hands off her shoulders, “I’ll be fine.” She steps around Raven, “This will be a piece of cake! I’ll deliver the packages to one…”

Raven raises a brow when Jewel’s voice starts to trail off. Her little sister opens her little address book. She flies through the pages, her eyes scanning each one until they lighten when she finds a certain name. “Bearitt!”

Raven furrows her brow, “Did you do you research on Bearitt and her AUs?”

Jewel shrugs, closing her book with a snap, “You told me about her. Don’t see why I needed to read her file.”

“Jewel.” Raven pinches the bride of her nose, “Did you read her file or not?”

“I glanced at it, why?”

Raven’s wings shoot out, “Why didn’t you read it?!”

“Because it was so long!” Jewel reaches a small fence gate and opens it. Her steps light as she walks down the stone path as she walks down the stone path, heading to the log cabin at the end.

It was old, something built long ago. Yet there were some modern touches scattered here and there. Some of the windows had stain-glass panes of stars and flowers. The porch had some plants along the railing. Hanging from the porch were some windchimes, glass, wood, and metal made. There were even some handwoven dreamcatchers here and there. A swing bench rests near the door, having pillows with unique embroidery.

In front of the door was a floral doormat, that had the word, ‘Welcome’ spelled out of vines. It was all very homey, but that was just the outside. Raven knew how crazy and magical these Creators can get on their worlds. Jewel, however, was still new to this…

Jewel knocks on the door once before her sister grabs her hand and pulls it away. “Careful!”

“It’s a door.” Jewel rolls her eyes.

“A special door.” Raven points out. “You need a special code.”

“Like…the Hufflepuff dorm—,”

“Don’t talk about the HP Castle to me…I’m still having meetings with the Archivist there regarding “Crossover” forms and—,”

“Blah blah blah.” Jewel groans, her smaller wings twitching. “How do I get in?”

Raven sighs, “Let me do this.”

She knocks in a certain rhythm. A rhythm she and her sister were VERY familiar with.

“The daycare theme!” Jewel’s eyes sparkled, her mind distracted by the peppy tune, “Awesome~.”

“Focus, hummingbird.” Raven teases.

“Feathered kill joy.” Jewel shoots back wile sticking out her tongue out.

“Oh real mature—,”

Both harpies scream as the doormat vanishes from underneath their feet. They drop down a long tunnel, illuminated by a glowing gems and moss. They land on a wet and slick mass and get a split second of rest before heading down a fast river-like slide.

Jewel’s screaming turns to delightful squealing. She even tossed her hands up in the air and spreads out her wings as she zooms down the slide. Her bag flies back and Raven almost misses it, but succeeds in snatching it’s strap.

Luckily no letters or packages fell out.

“Jewel!” Raven’s eyes widen when she spots a fork in the slide up ahead.

“Wha—,” Jewel’s voice gets cut off as she goes down the right side.

Thinking fast, Raven tosses the letter bag down the right side before zooming down the left. Hopefully everything will be alright. Raven just needs to find the Creator.

She needs to find Bearitt.

*

*

*

Jewel sighs and wings out one of her longer feathers in her left wing, watching the water fall to the floor. “Welp…that was interesting!”

She picks up her bag and looks around the new area, “Sis?...Raven?...HELLO~?”

She pouts when there is no answer. “Okay Jewel. You got this. Raven will find you. All you have to do is—THERE’S A LAKE?!”

There was, indeed, a lake. With waterfalls to boot. Jewel pulls on her hair, “How is there a lake down here?!”

She starts pacing, “C-calm down. You got this! Just…Just stay put.” Her wings start rapidly flapping, lifting her off a feet from the ground. “Next time I have to read the files…and should never tell Raven about this—,”

“You talk very fast.”

“That’s just how I talk.” Jewel pouts, “Not my fault no one can listen that quickly—wait…” she holds up her hands and hovers in place, “Who just talked…”

“I did!”

She turns her head to find a yellow, orange, and white crest poking out of the water. Along with two golden eyes.

She yelps and her wings stop in surprise, dropping her to the ground a tad roughly. The fishy being chuckles, “You are very jumpy, little starfish.”

The downy feathers on her wings puff up and she rushes to the lake side shore. “You look familiar!”

“Do I?” The being tilts their head.

“Yeah.” She copies their movement, “you kind of look like one of my favorite Legend of Zelda species…But I don’t think there is any Zelda stuff around. You see, I’m kind of new here and I’m still getting used to all the people, heh.”

“Oh?”

“Yep!” She sits down on the sand cross-legged. “My older sister is Raven, the Archivist of the Castle! She got me an internship at the Aviary and I’ve been working delivering letters and packages…This place is my first actual ‘Big Delivery’……Huh I still can’t figure out where I’ve seen you before!”

The being chuckles, “Do you take swim lessons here?”

“You can take swim lessons here?” Jewel tilts her head.

“Of course! I teach some of those lessons.” A tail fin appears directly behind the being’s head. “One of the best instructors here.”

“Really? How many lessons have you taught?”

“Too many to count.” The being’s tail fin starts to wag.

She laughs and holds out her hand, “I’m Jewel! What’s your name?”

A large, webbed hand engulfs her own and she strains her neck as she tilts it back to keep eye contact with the strange being while they climb out of the water. Her eyes winder and her jaw drops in awe. Her wings start flapping again and she flies up to his head level.

“Y-You’re a-a-a-a—,” She starts buzzing with excitement, “ZORA?!”

*

*

*

“She’ll be back soon, please don’t worry to much.” Artisan Y/n reassures while pulling out a tray of freshly made cookies out of the oven. Filling the room with a delicious and sweet aroma.

Raven continues to pace along the width of the counter top, “I’m not worrying! Who’s worrying?! Heh not me!”

From the dining table, human size fae Moon looks over the edge of his book. His red eyes holding a skeptical glint to them, “Sure… and Sun doesn’t get jealous—,”

“I don’t get jealous!” Sun, also in human size fae form, brings in a basket full of various produce. His clothing slightly covered in dirt and grass stains.

Moon rolls his eyes and looks back down at his book, “Then you are as deluded as the harpy—,”

“Hey!” Both Raven and Sun puff out their cheeks at Moon, who in turn just laughs in response.

“Simmer down, you three.” Y/n rolls their eyes and smiles. “Cookies anyone?”

Sun runs over, shoving his basket into Raven’s arms. “Sweets from my sweetie? Absolutely!”

Moon chuckles as Sun practically drapes himself over Y/n to grab a sugary treat. His eyes dart back to Raven as she walks over and sets the basket down on the table. She sits down across from him, eyes darting from her hands to the clock.

He rolls his eyes and marks his place in his book before closing it, “Relax, birdie.”

“You lose your spitfire of a sister and see how well you hold up.” Raven shoots back before her eyes widen and she shakes her head and holds it in her hands, “I’m sorry Moon. I didn’t—,”

“It’s alright.” His eyes dart to Y/n and Sun. “I know what it’s like to be protective over someone.”

Moon snatches an apple from the basket. “Know this though, this place is the perfect place for a little one to get lost in. Nothing will try to hurt her, or eat her or—,”

“What about Afton—,”

“He’s still in his cage.” Moon assures, taking a bite our of the red-skinned fruit.

Raven nods her head and lets out a long breath or air. Her wings droop on yeh floor and her shoulders drop. She jumps in her seat when Sun grabs her shoulder with one hand and offers a cookie in the other.

“It’ll be alright friend!” Sun offers her a smile, giving her some pets before taking a seat himself.

A knock at the door has Y/n wiping her hands clean with a towel and heading out of the kitchen. They greet the new arrival and practically sprint back into the kitchen, beaming at Raven.

“She’s here!”

*

*

*

Jewel giggles from her perch. Looking around the cavern with sparkling eyes. “This is so cool!”

“Starlight, although I am happy that you are having fun, can’t you just fly—,”

“Shh, Mr. Moon. I am currently watching over my mermaid subjects.” She spreads her arms out, gesturing to the blue wet mass surrounding them both on all sides.

The darker of the two Zora raises a brow while his mate, Sun, tries to stifle his laughter. Moon rolls his red eyes, “What subjects?”

Jewel points to a few floating leaves and some fish swimming by, “Those subjects. Duh~.”

“Oh yes, of course~.” Moon grumbles yet smiles still.

Sun laughs and walks over, plucking Jewel off Moon’s shoulders. “You are such a cute little bundle of joy starfish!” Sun nuzzles his crest against her cheek, “you should have dropped by earlier, we could have added you to a swim class!”

Jewel lights up, her wings puffing up. “Really?!”

“Really!” Sun spins her around, creating small waves in the water. His smile widening at her giggles.

“Moon?! Sun?! Are you in here?!”

Jewel turns her head and watches as a somewhat short woman (Around Jewel’s own height really) with brown, wavey hair and cloudy grayish-blue eyes behind green eyeglasses. She even had a lot of freckles just like her!

She had on a black choker with a cute bear pendant in the middle of her neck. Her soft green striped sweater hung off one shoulder, revealing the strap to her denim overalls. The pant legs had some images of sun and moons. Her hands were covered by the over-sized sleeves, but as she walked and swung her arms, one could make out a leather bracelets on her wrists.

Her smile warm as she gazes at Sun and Moon. “Found a new friend?”

Sun nods and Moon steps forward, “How are you darling~.”

“Well—,”

“JEWEL!” A blur of feathers whizzes by and tackles Sun into the water. Jewel sputters and pushes at Raven’s face as her older sibling scoops her out of the yellow Zora’s arms.

Sun sits up and shakes his head, “That was…unexpected.”

“Sorry, Sunny.” Bearitt gives him an apologetic smile, “She’s been a bit stressed about losing—,”

“My baby sister!”

“PUT ME DOWN YOU SHE-DEVIL!”

“I love you my cute widdle baby sis—,”

“*Hisses*!”

Moon crosses his arms, “Are you sure they’re sisters?”

Bearitt laughs and shrugs. “Thanks for looking after Jewel.”

Raven looks up at them both finally, “She didn’t cause you any trouble, did she?”

“I DIDN’T DO ANYTHING!!” Jewel starts gnawing on a few of Raven’s wings, “LET ME GO!”

Sun snickers before shaking his head, “She was an absolute angel!”

“All she did was use me as a bird post.” Moon shrugs, “Nothing I haven’t done before.”

Raven looked like she wanted to ask more about that but stops when Jewel plucks one of her downy feathers, “OW!!”

Jewel pulls back and spits the feather out of her mouth, “Put me down…or there will be bloodshed.”

“Okay okay, sheesh…” Raven rolls her eyes and lifts her hands up from under Jewel. Making the poor harpy fall into the water once more.

Jewel breaches the surface and glares at her sister, “I hate you.”

“You love me~.” Raven croons before heading back to shore, “Come on, there is someone I want you to meet.”

“Yeah sure…I’ll go meet someone while soaking wet. What a FANTASTIC idea…” Jewel grumbles while swimming to shore after her.

Sun covers his mouth as he laughs, “She’s even moodier then Ecli—,”

“PRETTY FISH!”

Raven and Bearitt blink and Jewel is out of the water and whizzing past them. Moon falls into the water laughing at the sight while Sun holds his gut and doubles over.

Raven raises a brow, turning her head in the direction they were looking before freezing and blushing in embarrassment. Bearitt tilts her head also turning her head. But what she saw made her smile.

There was Zora Eclipse with Jewel clinging to his upper body while her wings flap happily.  Eclipse points to the small harpy, “Did someone lose this small child?”

“I am so sorry!” Raven rushes over, Bearitt, Sun, and Moon following behind her.

Jewel starts chirping, “Pretty fish~!”

“Jewel! Get off him!” Raven reaches out to pull her off.

The hummingbird harpy hisses and scrambles up and over Eclipse’s shoulders, hiding behind his back. Raven growls in annoyance and meets Eclipse’s gaze. “I’m so sorry. Is she hurting you?”

“I can barely feel her.” He assures with a shake of his head. “If anything, it kind of tickles.”

Bearitt chuckles, “Soooo, I take it that this was what you were warning me about?”

“Yeah…” Raven sighs and drags a hand down her face, “She really really loves Zora…It’s her favorite species.”

“Clearly.” Moon snickers.

Eclipse’s tail fin starts to lazily wag, “While I am flattered, the Fitness Plex will be opening in a few moments and I can’t exactly work with this little one hanging on for dear life.”

Raven narrows her eyes at her sister while Jewel follows the movement of the frilly tail fin with wide and sparkling eyes. Her wings puffing up as she lets out more chirps.

“Jewel.”

“*Chirp*”

“Jewel.”

“*Chirp~*”

“Let the man go!”

“*CHIRP!*”

Bearitt pats Raven’s back, “Here, let me try.”

The room fills with a heavy scent of baked goods and a comforting warmth fills both harpies. Raven tilts her head, surprised at how mute the power of the Aura was. Last time she saw Bearitt use her power, a Fraud had stolen some art that was going to be delivered to the gallery.

They had wanted to pass it off as their own work, but made the mistake of stealing the package while Bearitt was the one delivering it. The baked goods scent had turned heavy, almost to a suffocating degree and that soft warmth had evolved into a blistering heat. The Fraud could barely make two steps before he dropped to the floor, his body in shock from the flood of stimulants attacking him all at once.

It was that day that Raven knew NEVER to cross the seemingly harmless Creator.

Now Raven was also had developed sort of an immunity to Auras, so it didn’t affect her too much…Jewel on the other hand. Her body started to relax against her will and her eyes begin to flutter close. Raven is quick to move behind Eclipse and catch her sister before her grip slips fully and she falls.

Eclipse steps away once Jewel is off him and leans down to get a better look at the young harpy. “She is tiny.”

Bearitt chuckles and lifts her Aura, “No, you my dear are just too big.”

“And who’s fault is that?” Sun interjects with a smug smirk on his lips.

Raven points back to where she and Bearitt had entered from, “Can we go find a place to put her down? She’s heavy then I last remember.”

“Oh yes! Just follow me, I know the perfect place!”

*

*

*

Raven leans against the rail of the staircase, straining her ears for any sounds that might come from the upstairs guest room. Her sister had conked out hard and Raven couldn’t wake her up so they just set her down on a bed and were waiting for her to wake up naturally.

Moon was sitting on the couch, snuggled up close to Artisan Y/n and having an arm around their shoulder. He tilts his head, “Soo…That is the mentee who will be under our dear creator’s wing?”

“Sadly.” Raven deadpans.

“I think it’ll be fun!” Bearitt smiles and grabs one of the freshly made, flower-themed, sugar cookies. “And she already likes working with the Zora boys, so that’s a plus.”

Raven groans and drags a hand down her face, “If she just read the file—,”

“You said that she’s a new Informant? Has she had any training?” Bearitt waves the Archivist over.

Raven nods and heads towards the free seat. “She has…All she needs is to get some hands-on experiences. Hopefully, with you being an Informant AND a Records Keeper, it might help her focus.”

“…Does she know how to swim?” Bearitt asks with a small smirk.

Raven shakes her head and looks to the side in second-hand embarrassment. “No…But I’m sure Zora Sun and Moon would LOVE to take her under their fins. Heh, now all I can picture is her being a little motor boat with those wings of her’s.” She rubs the back of her neck while chuckling, wings shaking in amusement.

Bearitt smiles, “That would—,”

“WHY ARE YOU NO LONGER A FISH!?!?!?!?!”

Raven jumps to her feet the same time Moon does.

“Wait! Wait!” Sun’s voice comes form the upstairs room, “I can explain—,”

“FISH BOOOYYY!!” Raven relaxes as her sister comes barreling down the steps and falls on the floor. She shoots up and looks around until her eyes land on Moon. She points at him and glares, “YOU!”

“Me?” Moon blinks and takes a step back. “What about me—,”

She charges and climb up his front, standing on his chest and holding his shirt’s collar in a comedic way. Her little wings flapping as she narrows her gaze and starts shaking him, “WHY AREN’T YOU A FISH?!”

“Jewel!”

“WAS THIS ALL A TRICK?!”

“Jewel!”

“GIVE ME BACK THE FISH—!”

“JEWEL!” Raven tears Jewel off of Moon and holds her off the ground, “This is a DIFFERENT Moon.”

Jewel blinks and takes another long look at Moon. He returns her stare, red eyes having an amused glint. Her feathers puff up and her face turns red. She pouts and glares at her sister, “couldn’t you have told me that earlier…”

Beairtt laughs and walks over, waving ‘hello’ at the smaller harpy, “Hello.”

Jewel chirps in confusion.

Raven sighs and sets her down, setting a hand down on her shoulder while gesturing to the Creator with her other, “This is Bearitt, the person you will be training under for the time being.”

Jewel blinks and looks up at Raven with wide eyes, “Really?”

“Yes.” Bearitt answers, gaining the hummingbird’s harpy attention, “You’ll even be staying over some nights and working with my friends here. Mostly with my Fae boys.” She gestures to Moon, “You already meet Moon. And the person upstairs was Sun—,”

“Fae Sun?”

“That’s the one.” The creator crosses her arms, “They help me with my deliveries and help guard my vault.”

“…even the fish boys?”

Bearitt laughs, “Yes, even the Zora boys.”

Jewel salutes her, “Reporting for duty! I shall try my best!”

“You didn’t even hear about the baked goods yet.” Raven teases with a playful roll of her eyes.

“Wait really?!” Jewel starts buzzing with excitement and hovers off the floor.

Y/n nods and waves, “I bake a lot and we always have a ton of leftovers. So if you would like some—,”

Jewel tackles Bearitt in a huge hug, “I LOVE THIS PLACE!!”

Everyone laughs and settles into the warm atmosphere. Sun coming down and joining his loves on the couch. Raven takes a seat on the floor, wings folded neatly behind her. While Bearitt sat with Jewel hugging her tightly as she rambles on and on about how she’ll do her best to help her new mentor.

Raven smiles at the sight, knowing that her sister was going to be in good hands…and maybe she could convince her to sneak some cookies into her office.

***

Thank you all for reading! I hope you all enjoyed! Again, please go check out Bearitt's works! Her art and stories are incredible! Have a wonderful rest of your timezone!

[antiroadkill]

My blog is a catalogue of evidence against you. But here’s some technical details you may have missed, @bi0mass-is-the-roadkill-fairy

Just because you delete or deactivate doesn’t mean the data is erased. It’s just not accessible by YOU. For legal reasons, social media companies don’t just wipe out data. They set it to a “deleted” or “deactivated” state but it’s not removed from the servers. This means every single thing you’ve ever posted is still on tumblr’s servers.

Tumblr staff can see what email address you’ve used. If you signed up for multiple accounts under the same email address, they can see that.

Your internet service provider has detailed records of your traffic. This includes every IP address you’ve used. Various websites you’ve accessed have these logged as well.

A VPN does not keep you safe from legal action. Your ISP can track when and where you access the VPN. The VPN services takes over from there and provides details of your traffic history.

Your local system has detailed records and cached files that reveal your internet history.

Incognito/private browser windows only prevent local data from saving, your ISP can still see that

Cyber crimes investigation teams can easily piece together your internet activity across multiple devices, accounts, and even through a VPN. They have access that your victims would not. Like getting the exact IP addresses all your accounts were accessed from.

Hey, do you know what a MAC address is? It stands for Media Access Control. It’s a long string of numbers and letters that’s a unique device identifier. It is visible to any network you’re attached to and never changes.

We have more than enough evidence to prove you’ve committed SEVERAL crimes. I have the emails from asks you sent me doxxing Jade. We only need to provide proof that a crime occurred. The specifics of who did it and linking them to that evidence falls to law enforcement. Can you convince them of your innocence given just how much detail is tracked between tumblr, your ISP, and your vpn?

[nhaneh]

so the other week my secondary PC had yet another one of those full screen "We're ending support for Windows 10 soon you need to upgrade to a more modern PC to support Windows 11" ads show up and feeling particularly annoyed with that kind of bullshit at the time I decided to have a peek into task manager to see if I could find out what particular executable was behind this bullshit and whether I could do something about it, and well...

It turns out this is all run by one of the four executables that Windows update has sneakily decided to install under /Program Files/RUXIM/, notably either RUXIMICS.exe or RUXIMH.exe

Okay so what does this RUXIM stuff actually do? That's... good question - according to their file properties metadata, and Microsoft, and just about every place on the web i could find, they are part of the Reusable UX Interaction Manager, and are used by Windows Update and is supposedly used to collect data to "keep Windows up to date and performing properly."

There's apparently a number of people who are very insistent on that being the full, entire, and absolute truth of it and anyone questioning why it is there, what it does, or wanting to be rid of it is a complete fool. And also that your Windows PC will quickly and hopelessly degrade in performance, become unstable and break down if you're dumb enough to delete it. Apparently.

But like... why exactly should we be taking Microsoft at their word about any of this, again? You know, the same company who have been actively lying about the hardware requirements of Windows 11 seeing how they allow some of their larger customers to entirely circumvent it? The same company who came up with Windows Recall and still intends to roll out some version of it basically as soon as they can get away with it?

Do these people also genuinely believe it whenever a website shows a popup to tell you how much they care about your privacy even as they ask you to please click that big shiny button to allow them and their affiliates to track your browsing to the maximal extent possible?

Companies lie to you. Silicon valley lies to you. Even your favourites lie to you.

Anyway I decided to forcibly replace all four executables in the RUXIM folder with a tiny little program I built that basically just writes an entry to a log text file listing what date and time it was loaded and what arguments was passed to it and Windows Update is still working so far ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[dizzyhslightlyvoided]

So if you want to know how "functional" Windows 11 is, I just got a new laptop, and while I was tearing its guts out to make Windows 11 less obtrusive and ad-ridden, I discovered a problem.

Modern versions of Windows have a built-in system for transferring files to other Windows computers on the same network -- you mark certain folders as "shared", and then you can just open them on another computer from the "Network" window after entering a password.

Well, I could connect from my desktop to my laptop just fine; however, I had a devil of a time connecting from my laptop to my desktop. Didn't matter what username or password I used; just "your credentials are incorrect."

Then something occurred to me.

See, I'd wanted a specific home directory name. This entailed 1. logging into my Microsoft account the first time I started my laptop, thus creating an account on the laptop with an automatically-selected name; 2. creating a second administrator account with the username/home-directory-name I wanted, without an associated Microsoft account; 3. deleting the first account, 4. connecting the second account with my Microsoft account. I did this on my laptop, and I'd done this on the desktop.

Thing is, in step 2 there, I'd given the second account the same password as my Microsoft account, because I knew I was just going to overwrite it. See where this is going? The correct password was not the password for my Microsoft account, but rather, the password which I'd used to create the Windows account without the Microsoft account. And I've changed my Microsoft password multiple times since getting the current desktop computer.

Solution:

Remove the Microsoft account from my desktop. This entails setting a new password.

Have the laptop connect to the desktop with that new password.

Add the Microsoft account back to the desktop.

Anyway this might be the straw that makes the camel start looking into Linux.

[ns-games]

CrowdStrike'd and BitLocker'd

With yesterday's CrowdStrike outage. I'm sure a number of you are probably wondering "what does BitLocker have to do with any of this?" Well, it all has to do with an added layer of security many organizations use to keep data from being stolen if a computers ends up in the hands of an "unauthorized user."

To start, let me briefly explain what the CrowdStrike driver issue did and what the fix for it is.

After the update was automatically installed to computers running the CrowdStrike Falcon Sensor, a faulty driver file caused the Windows kernel on those computers to crash and display a Blue Screen of Death. How Windows typically handles a crash like this is to create a crash log file, then perform a reboot. Since this driver would launch shortly after Windows finished booting, it would cause the operating system to crash and reboot again. When two crashes have occurred in sequence, Windows will automatically boot into Recovery Mode. Hence why we say several pictures of the Recovery Mode screen across social media yesterday.

Unfortunately, this update was automatically pushed out to around 8.5 million computers across several organizations, causing widespread chaos within the matter of a few hours. And the fix for this issue had to be performed by physically accessing each computer, which required those of us working in I.T. to have to run around several facilities, locate each affected computer, and apply the fix one by one.

The short and simple of the fix is either one of two options. You can either use the Recovery Mode that Windows was already booted into to navigate to Start-Up Setting, and launch Safe Mode. Once Windows boots into Safe Mode, the technician can navigate to C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\CrowdStrike, and delete the file C00000291-*.sys. After that the computer can be rebooted as normal, and the crashing will stop.

Or the technician can open System Restore from Recovery Mode. And, assuming there is a recovery point, restore the computer back to a good known working state.

Now, this may all seem simple enough. So why were so many organizations having trouble running this fix? That all has to do with BitLocker. As an added security measure, many organizations use BitLocker on their computers to perform a full hard disk encryption. This is done so that if a computer ends up being lost or stolen, and ends up in the hands of an "unauthorized user" they will not be able to access any of the data stored on the computer without a password to log into the computer, or the computer's BitLocker recovery key.

This presented a problem when trying to restore all of these affected computers, because when either trying to launch Safe Mode or System Restore, the user would be prompted for the BitLocker recovery key.

In my organization's case, we found we could save time by providing our end user the steps to perform one of the two fixes on their own to save time. But the problem we still continue to run into is the need for these BitLocker recovery keys. In my case, I've been fielding several calls where I've had end users walking from one computer to another while I provide them with the key as they walk through reverting back to a previous restore point.

Again, a pretty long story, but hopefully that can provide some context as to what's been happening over the past 48 hours.

[fountainpenguin]

"I was climbing, now I'm falling- I've been pushed off by a man who has made it to the top and now defends it 'cuz he can…" (x)

---

New Dog's Life chapter today! ~ 3rd Life series fan-season

Chapter 38 - “Tuesday: Tango's Long Night”

❤️ Read on AO3

💛 Start from Chapter 1

💚 More Pixels Imperfect fics

---

Tango layers more anti-viruses in Scott's player file. This goes against everything he knows about corrupted code... Should he keep going? ... Or, without consent, do what he knows will actually save this man?

Meanwhile, Pearl balances Rhetoric, Scott, and Grian visiting her unit at the same time. Yeah, this is gonna go well.

# 1 of 7 of our monthly intermission chapters

(First 1,000 words under the cut)

---

Tango

🌕

Location: His studio, West Bailey Wall, Bottom Floor

🖤  🖤  🖤

Tango does not often regret choosing a path of codework. He loves modding. He loves adding pretty details; he loves giving people what they want and polishing the rough edges off blocky faces and backs and butts. His species is classed as avian, though he last respawned under a waxing crescent and lacks the wings and feathers to show for it. He's got tiny talons, blaze rods, and hair that shifts into flames, and that's it. Coding the fluff-tipped tail he wears now was a challenge that captivated his brain since the start. How do add twitchy muscles to lower back? Apply tail to butt, haha. Meld it in. Let the mind control it. Do it beautifully so it's elegant and won't drop frames.

His tail isn't dexterous, but he wears it like a trophy- Adding a mammal tail to a species that’s meant to have feathers there, and not only making it twitch and curl instead of hang, but look natural, is one of the most difficult things you can ever do with aesthetic mods. He's thinking of forcing out the wings he would have under a stronger moon, but never really got around to it. The conversion time takes a kabillion years. You gotta be careful with wings anyway- they release a lot of body heat. Between's a lot cooler than the Nether, so you might fall over and croak. You ever seen strider wings? Yeah, guess how much heat they put out, even if they are tough and resilient around lava. Anyway.

Let's just say it's a good thing his office doesn't have a window. He works with a lot of film in here, so darkness is peak necessity. He's got two copper bulb lights up tonight. The glow's hazy, but at least it keeps his attention on his work, eyes all goggled up and tongue pinned beneath his teeth. Working with player files isn't like working with redstone wiring, with all its tangled tubes of dust and tiny caps that easily get lost and spill all over the stupid floor. Nah.

Code work uses the coding table, and it's a whole lot less messy. You don't need to be super accurate. It's a lot easier to tap a delete key and remove a string of words than it is to rip out a chunk of wires and get all huffy when your machine stops working. They should sell more partly assembled redstone machines in the market- more than, like, comparators. Except all the serious redstoners still won't buy 'em in case corners were cut in the process and because they have to take 'em apart anyway to modify 'em, so there you go. Fiddling and tweaking can really suck you in. It's kind of like making banners you're printing on your soul.

Tango does not often regret choosing a path of codework. But it's a good thing he doesn't have a window. He glances up only on occasion, staring at the chipped, gunpowder-streaked blocks that separate him from the rest of the world.

I should be with the pack right now.

Hey. Little recap for you: Most people aren't going to bed tonight. The hub flower got skadoodley-yoinked. Without its roots hooked in, everyone's comm is black; they're all off the system. There's no way on a server right now. There's no way out of one either. The phantoms are under contract; they can't just log people out right now. Hope they got fed, then.

Eh, they'll be fine. They've got souls in storage. Tango keeps working, checking details on his screen and typing on the table keyboard. What time is it? The sun's officially gone-zo at 14k. That was a while ago.

Do you remember our biology fritter-fratter from before Dog's Life began? 'course not- That was a long time ago. Well, no worries! we'll cover it again. See, the Nether doesn't have a day-night cycle. The heat waves shift. Sometimes the dimension cools. There's never a schedule to it, but when the heat's down, it's down (whether it's been hours, days, or weeks since the last lull). Nether creatures group together for sleepy times. If Tango played on some of those raw servers where traits are turned up to max, he wouldn't even survive the Overworld- Not without a lot of prep from his friends on the other side. Thank goodness for vanilla servers that even out the playing field.

Blaze don't really hang out alone in Between. When they do, they have to keep their internal fires up, and that can really drain the metabolism. The pack is warm. The pack is safety. And Tango's fingers tremble as he blinks his lashes, pushing through the dimension's fading warmth. Nightfall is here. Capture the Flag will be winding down. It's time to go to sleep.

He does his work. He chose this path. Scott's crystal floats on the crying obsidian block beside him, casting a white glow over his workspace. The goggles tune it out a bit. Tango yawns wide (like one of those lions in the emerald savanna biome), then realizes what he did and shakes his head back and forth. "Brrrr! Whatchu doing?" He smacks himself in the cheek. Hard. "Come on, man- He needs you."

He keeps typing. Scott's code is layered in anti-virus protections. Lots of stuff to dig through. Tango's got a book on the edge of his desk, open to a page about data conflicts, and he's still checking and closing loops. Scott didn't want to amputate. He didn't want a graft. "More anti-virus protections," he said, and he was serious.

"Are you sure? That- That probably won't work. If you wait too long, there's no chance a graft will take. That kinda sets you up for like, either being an allay with a prosthetic or just a vex."

"No grafts, please. Just tell me where to sign."

"Okay, buddy… but that's against medical advice. Don't say I didn't warn you."

"He prob'ly would've listened to Etho," he mutters, typing more. "I swear, everybody thinks I just do visuals: slap a little colored fire on this guy, slap some wings on her… Hey, just because I work in the aesthetics department, it doesn't make my license any less legit. I've been doing this almost as long as he has." Who scrubbed in to save Impy? Who helped him and Skizz with the soul-sharing? Who once patched BigB up when he got shot in the neck? That was a Tango original. Just me. Why is he even doing this? All evidence in book and mind is screaming that this isn't going to work.

Fingertips stall. Blank stare. Soft breathing.

Scott would've listened to my medical advice if I was Etho. Should he have tried harder? Should he have done more? He got the signature, Scott confirming exactly what he wanted. He really shouldn't go against that. It'd be medical malpractice at this point.

… Even though the anti-viruses aren't going to stop him from becoming a vex.

Which he's trying to avoid by using stupid anti-viruses.

[Full chapter on AO3 - Link at top]

[andmaybegayer]

After I deleted a bunch of projects (thankfully non-critical, though representing a great deal of work in total) during a recent fresh OS install, I realized that my backup practices are practically non-existent. Any tips or sources on getting started making, and eventually automating, effective backups?

I am stealing the concept here from jwz's backup guide, but I am recommending different tools, focusing on personal files only, and also addressing Windows. jwz's guide is a good reference:

Doing a way, way better job than most people of backing up one single system is very easy. Let us begin.

The most basic step of having decent backups is getting your hands on two external hard drives at least big enough to hold your entire system, and putting a label on them that says "BACKUP ONLY DO NOT USE FOR ANYTHING ELSE I AM BEING FOR REAL HERE"

Once you've got those, plug one into your system wherever it spends the most time. If you have a desktop then that's solved, if it's a laptop hopefully you already have a USB hub you plug it into when you sit down to work or whatever and you can just leave it there.

Now set up regular scheduled backups to that device. On Windows and Mac, there's a built in tool for backing up your system to an external drive. We'll assume that you just want to back up your user files on Windows and Linux, since doing full system backups isn't tricky but is kind of unnecessary.

(Ugh. Windows seems to be trying to phase out Windows Backup and Restore in favour of their File History thing. That's annoying, let me log in to windows and check how this actually works. Mac in the meantime)

Mac has Time Machine. Time Machine is extremely good, and you can tell Time Machine to save its backups to a disk. Point Time Machine at your external hard drive and tell it to schedule a backup however frequently you want. If anything goes wrong in the future, you can ask Time Machine to look at that backup disk and it'll show you a few versions of whatever you backed up there. I'm not a Mac user but I think you can even use Time Machine to transfer between an old computer and a new one.

Windows now has File History which I have never used in my life, they added it after I stopped using Windows. Same idea though, pick some folders and back them up to an external storage device. If anything goes wrong, use File History to go back through that device and find the version of the file you wanted. I don't know if there's still a way to access the older Backup and Restore system.

On Linux, my favoured way to manage simple desktop backups is Deja Dup, a GUI for Duplicity. Duplicity can do a lot more than just backup to a disk, but we'll start there. Install Deja Dup, open it up, and follow the prompts to back up your user files to the external drive. Deja Dup can also do backups to remote storage servers, Google Drive/Onedrive, and commercial storage providers like Amazon and Backblaze. It will even encrypt your backups if you are worried about Amazon spying on your files or whatever. If something goes wrong, point Deja Dup at your backup drive and it will offer you a suite of restore options covering a few versions.

Now, you have a permanently plugged in hard drive that will always get rolling backups you can restore from. These aren't safe from, say, ransomware, or your house burning down, but at least you won't lose anything when you update a computer or accidentally delete something and have an ohshit moment.

Now you take that other drive you bought, and do the same backup you're already doing to that. Now you go put it somewhere else where it's readily accessible and won't be accidentally used for anything, keep it at the office, give it to your dad, whatever. Set a reminder on your phone for once a month. Once a month, go get that drive, run another backup, and put it back. You now have better backups than many medium sized businesses.

This is impractical to scale beyond one PC, but if we're being honest even when I had like half a dozen laptops, only one contained much of value. Back up the system you care about.

Don't worry too much about making sure your backups are space efficient, like, yeah it would be a good idea to exclude game installs and stuff from your backups to save space but if that sounds daunting or time consuming literally do not do it. Decision paralysis is brain poison, just back it up and sort it out later. 2TB external hard drives are cheap.

FURTHER STEPS YOU CAN TAKE:

Easy Cloud backup: Backblaze personal backup on Windows and Mac is $6/month and pretty easy to use. If you are struggling to keep track of a monthly remote backup, or you want an easy remote backup. Backblaze is a reasonably reliable company and one of the Go To Companies in the world of data reliability. Yes, it's a cloud subscription. If you don't want that don't use it.

Network backup: If you have access to a storage server, that can be a good way to make a remote backup without having to shuttle disks around. That could be a physical server if you maintain some kind of lab, or it could be a cloud storage provider like Backblaze B2 or Onedrive or whatever. Deja Dup specifically supports backing up to a lot of different network storage providers, and even if you only have a fifty or sixty gigabytes of network storage on hand, your most essential personal files can probably fit in there.

Drive failures: Eventually one of your drives will fail, either your storage drive or your backup drive. If the storage drive fails, well, that's what the backup is for, go get a replacement and restore from the backup. If your backup drive fails, well, that's why you have two of them. As soon as humanly possible go get a replacement drive, and substitute it in for the dead one.

[carmyn-rambles]

C was in a horrible mood.

One of their sinks had been leaking for weeks, apparently. The water had been dripping onto the wood before, causing water damage, and apparently mold. They'd only found out this morning, and had to try and find out some sort of solution that wasn't calling a plumber. They didn't have the money for that.

They'd ended up scraping the mold off and throwing it away (quite possibly one of the worst experiences they had) and placing a cup to keep the dripping water from damaging anything further. The leak itself wasn't something they could fix at that time, so they left it alone.

Now, they were finally at their computer. They were seated in front of the monitor, signing as they pulled up their most recent project. The simulation had been running on the VM overnight, but it hadn't been completed that morning. Far too slow.

They'd left it alone while they handled the mold issue. T Now, the simulation had finished, but looking at the length of time it took to complete… They considered trying to make it faster.

The obvious solution would be allocating more storage to the VM, but they didn't have much more on their computer. It was taken up by all their other things, but they decided that they could start pruning.

C set aside all the completed programs and projects but default. They needed those. They looked at the list of remaining folders, the first of which was labeled 'backup_phone2008.'

They considered throwing it directly into the recycling. They didn't remember anything important that would be in that folder.

But, thinking about it, they only tended to backup important things.

They double clicked, opening the folder. At the top were a few files saved in formats their computer wasn't even prepared to open, so they just threw those into the recycling. They didn't have any interest in trying to figure out what they were.

Then, there were a few audio files. They had been automatically named after when they were saved, ranging from 2006 to 2008. Cyphen hesitated for a moment before clicking.

"Hey, J. How are you?"

They froze in their seat.

"No, I didn't expect you to answer, just thought I'd ask anyway."

C had no idea how they'd forgotten about these.

"You need to pick up your phone more often, I can't keep leaving voicemail on here."

That was the end of that message, but Cyphen still didn't move for what felt like an hour.

They selected the file, uncertain if they wanted to delete it.

It was just a worthless recording of his voice. They'd never wanted to remember him. They left him. They left him and ensured he couldn't follow them. They didn't want to remember him. He wasn't important. Not anymore.

They scrolled down, and listened to the next one.

"Hey, J. I know you're on your period, so I grabbed some of that chocolate you like. I'll be leaving it on your desk for you."

They remembered that.

C hated their period. Hated that suffering that was the women's privilege. They'd hidden all their menstrual products, so they never knew how he kept finding out when it was taking place. Had he hacked their phone? Looked too closely in the bathroom's garage bin?

They were never sure if they liked that he found out on his own, or if they hated it.

Cyphen clicked on the next one.

"Hey, J. I know you're busy, but do you think you could, uh, lock the back door? And do a cleanse on the computers, you know. Uhhh. Yeah."

They remembered that, too. Panicking over what might've gone wrong, getting out of bed in a rush, locking the doors, the windows, wiping the computers, hell, even the logs of anything they could think of.

And when he'd returned, he told C that it hadn't actually been a big deal. He just wanted them to get up and do stuff after being useless in bed.

Cyphen hadn't been able to argue why that hurt them so much.

What he wanted wasn't bad, and he had succeeded. There was no reason to get upset with the method. They didn't have a right to be hurt. It didn't matter.

They didn't say anything, but they remained upset anyway.

Cyphen clicked between the saved voice messages, ranging from so many different times throughout that period of their life.

"Hey, J. Pick up your phone. I'm not patient enough for this." "Hey, J. Think you can pick out an outfit for me? You know more about fashion than I do, I think." "Hey, J. I need you to add a deadline to the calendar." "Hey, J. I know you don't like your voice, but do you think you could pick up more often? It would be easier than leaving voicemails." "Hey, J. Remind me to work on the third project later today."

Some of them brought back vivid memories. Others had faded too much, only having blurred images and a vague emotion.

"Hey, J. Stop leaving me unanswered. When I message you, I need an answer." "Hey, J. The hell did you go? You didn't come home, I'm worried." "Hey, J. You can't just be upset and not tell me what I did wrong. That's not how this works."

Cyphen grit their teeth listening to those. They highlighted the whole section and finally threw it into the recycling bin, which they double clicked, moving their cursor to hover over the button that would immediately clear it out and delete those recordings forever.

They didn't click it.

[sparksandspears]

I have done battle with my hard drive.

After two years, I've finally hunted down and destroyed the phantom file that's been haunting my computer.

Some backstory: I run Windows, mostly because I don't like the Mac UX, and when I set up this laptop in high school I didn't know enough about Linux to actually get that set up.

However, Windows is generally unsuited to science, especially in a field where everything gets built for Unix. As such, I've been using the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) for all of my work.

Windows doesn't purely allocate hard drive space to WSL. Instead, it uses an adaptive system, where the wsl extension serves as a virtual disk that can take more memory when it needs it. If I had known how this worked two years ago, I wouldn't have been scraping by on 15 gigs for years.

Because the wsl virtual disk doesn't yield that disk space back if you clear out files in wsl. So, when as a sophomore in college doing your first real research, you accidentally tell a simulation to log its status every second of simulated time instead of every day, the 80-gig log file it produces demands a bunch of space from wsl, which expands its extension on the disk, and stays there even after you delete the file.

It's taken me several tries of digging through filesystems to actually turn out that space, but at last I've reclaimed my storage space.

[huurrefanfictionreadinglog]

First fix for Fetch data script

Find the blog post also from Huurreauthor.com. There is also a video on how to open the Apps Scripts, otherwise, the contents are the same.

A bit over a week full of work with this. Unfortunately, it's not completed yet, I have some confusing problems with getting Fandom from the AO3 link and it seems that the script is quite slow at the moment. I'm not sure if there's anything I can do about that, but I will try.

So, first things first, what are the changes generally from the previous when thinking about how the script works?

Mature, Explicit and Not Rated fanfics have gotten new HTML at some point. At least I think so, since the script has worked before that well for all open fics. New HTML has only the date of the last update/completed. It means that these fanfics will not have a Published date.

Since I am going to publish the complete bug fix hopefully within the next two weeks, the script has only one Fetch Data script that has fandoms mentioned in the tags. This is just to make my work easier at the moment. :)

The script doesn't fetch Fandom at the moment. This is the main thing I'm going to fix with the next update. I'm pretty sure the fault lies in me with this as I couldn't get it to work, but a bit more time will help.

Popup when the fanfic is locked! This is a really good thing. I've got a message a few times that the script didn't do anything and then soon afterwards "Whoops, it was actually locked". Now that popup will tell you that the fic is locked and you have to fill in the information manually.

Lower rating fics are handled the same as previously, no changes there.

How to fix the script?

To make everything easier, I have downloaded the whole script to Google Drive where you can copy the whole code and replace the old code with it.

1. Open your file.

2. Choose Extensions > Apps Script from the top.

It opens a new window which can be a bit overwhelming at first.

3. Choose custom menu.gs from the left side panel.

4. Delete everything from that script.

5. Go to Google Drive through this link. Copy everything. (F.e. CTRL/CMD + A and then CTRL/CMD + C)

6. Go back to the tab where you have the script open. Paste the new content.

7. Save the script as shown in the picture below.

8. Close the tab and update the file page. The Fanfiction Management menu might take a few minutes to appear.

The script has been updated also to public Log files, so you can always make a copy of it for yourself and copy & paste all the old content from the old file. However, since I'm most likely releasing version 2.1 within the next few weeks, you might want to wait for it. With the new version release I recommend strongly making a new copy and I will not give out instructions to make edits other than the complete fix for this script. If everything goes as planned, there will be a few new features I've been either working on already since before the release of 2.0 or someone has requested it within these first two months. Find the links to the file from this link.

[warriorteam1924]

Somebody’s watching me

featuring Joe Mazzello & Swan

Author note : Hello my beauties. I'm back for another tiny piece for halloween ^^ ! I’ve been super busy lately and I’m aware it’s not my best piece, but  I hope some of you will enjoy it anyways. Using someone else's gif should give you an idea of how I'm running everywhere. Thanks in advance to anyone who will be giving honest feedback, it’s always very appreciated. Also, I remind you English isn’t my mother tongue, apologies in advance for the mistakes.

Warnings : none really, just my awful writing

Summary : a thrill with Joe Mazzello

Words count : 1,729 words

Permanent taglist : @reavenedges-lies @thosequeenboys @orionis8689 (apologies people, i removed you from the list, since you don't interact.... i asked for communication....)

It was yet another random day for Joe when he woke up that day. Morning coffee and breakfast, shower, hairstyling. Nothing very unusual. He wasn’t currently busy with work so he spent his days between his computer, his console or watching random series or movies. Maybe at some point it would give him an idea for a future working project. Of course, he wasn’t to feel sorry for. Money wasn’t an issue. He had his friends he could see now and then. His family was close to him and he could pay a visit every now and then. Life was good. Or at least, that’s what he was thinking so far.

He took his phone to take a picture, a silly one obviously, to send his friend. After taking a few ones, he opened the gallery application and smiled at his own silliness, when he saw his selfies with his tongue sticking out.

He was still genuinely smiling when panic erased his grin. There was a picture on his phone, a picture he was sure he didn’t take. He was absolutely certain he hadn’t taken it since it was a picture of him sleeping. The issue was, he was living alone. And there was not a chance of someone like a robber or a random intruder would be able to enter his house. Joe was living on his own and made sure to lock doors and windows at night. There was no reason to tempt fate. Those things didn’t happen only to others. Besides, he had also installed a few security cameras.

In this picture, he was peacefully sleeping, curled up in his blanket. There was no doubt, it was him and his bedroom. What on earth had happened?

Joe was firmly frowning. He decided to delete all the silly selfies he had taken, leaving the suspicious picture on top of his gallery. He had no important plans for the day, so it was the right time to investigate.

He sat in front of his computer and plugged his phone. He logged on several sites such as his mailbox, his social accounts and other online shopping sites. Apparently, all was still normal, meaning no one had hacked his accounts.

He hadn’t been very keen on doing so but some time ago, he also had installed an artificial intelligence to connect his different devices, and it also helped him manage his security cameras. He had chosen a feminine name, Swan, but it was also a dedication to Henrietta Swan Leavitt, famous American astronomer. It wasn’t super fancy, but it was yet another occasion to bring up an interesting topic when someone was coming over and he was using his A.I.

“Swan?”, he asked like he usually did.

“Yes, Joe?”, the feminine voice replied, like it usually did.

“Did you spot anything special last night while I was sleeping? Was there anything strange or unusual?”, he questioned.

“One moment, please”, Swan replied.

Joe knew that Swan needed time to search the files and check them all. The robotic voice spoke again.

“Nothing unusual was found. Are you looking for something specific?”.

“I was just wondering if someone had entered the house?”, Joe asked.

“No intruder or uninvited person was recorded on the files.”, the voice affirmed again.

Joe frowned again. His phone rang and a reminder let him know he had planned to see a friend, unlike what he had thought in the morning. Trying not to think about it, he got ready and went to meet his friend.

It was actually his best friend, so Joe thought about showing him the mysterious pic and asking him for advice. They had known each other for a very long time, it was worth trying.

Mentioning it in the conversation, Joe took his phone out of his pocket and unlocked it and opened the gallery app to show it to his friend. The latter looked at it and he frowned.

“Are you kidding me, mate?”, he asked.

“What ?”, Joe replied.

“There isn’t such a pic in your gallery dude….”, the other said as he handed him his phone.

“What the….”, Joe didn’t finish his sentence.

He scrolled and searched his gallery, several times, he even looked in the trash folder, thinking maybe he had accidentally deleted it. But he found nothing.

The rest of the time dedicated to his friend was nothing but Joe daydreaming and nodding, as he wasn’t really paying attention to what his friend was saying.

At some point, Joe pretended to be tired and went back home. He was worried and concerned. Had he lost his mind?

Still trying not to think about the mysterious picture, Joe watched his feel-good movie and went to bed, after checking his bedroom all the same, just to make sure there wasn’t a camera or anything he hadn’t seen before. Yet, there was nothing he hadn't installed, no device in the room to take a picture of him.

The following morning, he woke up as he usually did, thinking about his daily tasks. There was no notification on his phone, but he wanted to make sure the previous day only happened in his mind, that it tricked him when seeing the mysterious picture.

What was his horror when he saw another picture of him, again, sleeping tightly in his bed. Panic invaded him again, shaking his body and making him sweat. His breath was heavy and he had to fight the severe anxiety that was threatening him.

He got up, and again, went on his laptop to check again his various accounts. Again, nothing unusual was to be noted. He asked Swan to give him access to the security cameras. It was possible the day before that, the artificial intelligence had missed something.

Swan gave him access to the videos and he fast-forward looked at them. All the cameras showed nothing but a calm night in the surroundings. A street cat was seen on one camera, but Joe made sure to look at all the videos and he saw nothing. No intruder, no one who had been able to unlock his phone, take a picture of him, put his phone back and leave. Besides, his phone was to be unlocked with his fingerprint, there was no way he wouldn’t have felt it.

Again, he asked Swan a few questions, making sure he, too, hadn’t missed anything. It replied with his feminine and robotic voice.

“There was nothing unusual last night, Joe. Can I help you in any way?”.

“I’m starting to wonder if I’m going crazy….”, Joe mumbled, more to himself rather than a proper reply to the A.I. that was now in his life.

“You’re not crazy, Joe. You’re a very nice man, funny, compassionate, smart. According to the social criteria, you are also very good looking. Anyone would feel good by your side.”, Swan replied all the same.

Joe had a fixed grin, but his worries were still there.

He thought about talking about it with other friends, or his family. But it would probably worry them. He also considered going to the police. But what if the picture disappeared again? They would surely think he was mental, even trying to draw attention on him. Or maybe that it would have been some kind of a joke.

Trying not to give way to panic, Joe wanted to try another night and try to stay awake longer. Maybe this way he would be able to witness someone with his own eyes.

Yet, despite having coffee and trying hard to stay up, Joe fell asleep. And of course, the following morning, there was a new pic of him sleeping on his phone.

Looking around him in his living room, Joe was very anxious and felt more and more confused. He couldn’t understand what was going on.

Speaking out loud to let his thoughts out, he said :

“I know !! I’m going to send the pictures to someone I trust and this way, the pic won’t only be on my device and they will believe me.”

Joe took his phone and selected the pic to send it to his friend. He called him in the meantime, making sure the latter had received the file. Yet, and to Joe’s greatest disappointment, his friend was getting nothing.

Joe thought maybe the file was corrupted or something, so he screencaped it and tried again to send it to his friend, miserably failing again and again.

“Let me know when you’re willing to be serious, mate.”, his friend said before hanging up, annoyed that Joe had disturbed him for nothing.

The following days weren’t very different from the previous ones. Joe went to bed and woke up with a new picture of him sleeping. One morning, the picture even included little heart emojis around him.

Joe had decided to go to the police, but as he had expected, when he arrived and tried to show his gallery, all the pictures taken of him while he was sleeping were gone.

He came back home, feeling isolated and losing it. That was it, it was official, he was becoming crazy.

“I’m going slightly mad, that’s for sure….”, he randomly said out loud. “What have I done to deserve that?”, he rhetorically asked, since he was on his own.

“You’ve done nothing wrong Joe. You’re a very nice man, funny, compassionate, smart. According to the social criteria, you are also very good looking. Anyone would feel good by your side.”, Swan said, and its sentences sounded very familiar.

“Yeah, yeah sure….”, Joe said. “Why bother, you’re nothing but a bot anyways….”, he concluded, before collapsing on the sofa.

Feeling like giving up, Joe started to cry. What was he supposed to do now? He heard his favorite song coming out of the speakers. Looking around, he feared the intruder was inside, but realized it was nothing but Swan that had heard him cry and tried to make him feel better.

“Thank you, Swan.”, Joe said, wiping the tears from his cheeks, slowly falling asleep again.

Joe was already snoring before the artificial intelligence could reply.

“I knew you’d like the music, Joe. I know you very well. But I’m surprised you didn’t like the pictures I took of you, to show you how much I love you. Soon, I’m going to show you I’m more than just a robot….”

[corvuscorona]

mx linux has this thing called Quick System Info which is a thing that you click and it gives you a bunch of information about your computer that people on the forums who are smarter than you can use to help you troubleshoot* whatever insane linux problem you're having, right. with a "copy for forum" button and everything. what kernel you have what graphics drivers you're running, stuff like that.

*side note / tone setter for this post: stuff like this is all the evidence you need that mx is The distro for people who are new here. they have put so much work into Tools For Getting Help it's insane. mint does not have this. ubuntu is a nightmare hellscape. etc.

they update their tools and default desktop stuff all the time & usually I don't pay a whole lot of attention to those updates (no matter how many times lightdm or whatever updates I still have the exact same problem with it. who cares. it at least almost never breaks a new thing; debian lifestyle) but today on a whim I ran QSI after it showed up as one of today's 2 entire Things There's A New Thing For and omfg. At some point they made it so in addition to the VERY SIMPLE window w/ the basic system information in it, it has a sidebar with like. EVERY LOG.

^ this is but a fraction. Every timeshift log it hasn't deleted yet (~3mo worth?!) is here. Normally I would have to Go Look Up where these are stored and Go Find Them and then open them in featherpad by fuckin right-clicking (because this OS treats .rpy files and .txt / no extension files as the same type of file and I need it to open .rpy files in vscodium more consistently than I need it to open .txt files in featherpad even though having every .txt file open in a fucking IDE when I space out and double-click it is like my worst adhd brain nightmare come to life) and this tool just

A. puts them all right in front of me, where

B. I can click them and they will SHOW UP in the main window, OR

C. check the checkboxes and then SAVE?? THEM??? TO A LOCATION OF MY CHOICE????? ALL AT ONCE?

^^^ LOOK!!!!!

MX LINUX !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[os2warp]

i found this computer in the dumpster today. pretty standard vista-era desktop. nothing to write home about EXCEPT it does have a real onboard floppy controler!

also i just plugged it in and it booted right into vista no problem. someone threw away a perfectly functional computer.

none of the original accounts, Dee and Sam, had passwords so i was able to log into dee's account and create a new admin account for me.

this computer is pretty much stock, and the inside is ridiculously clean considering the system seems to have been installed in 2007. the most recent timestamp ive been able to find was from 2013. maybe it's been sitting unused on a shelf.

do normal people not have tons of files all over their computer and just use the default software that comes on them? even the internet explorer bookmarks were pretty empty, there doesn't seem to be any software installed that wasn't included with the system. evidently they had dialup internet still so that may explain things.

edit: oh wow no this person just used a single microsft onenote file extensively for everything from saving nudes from his girlfriend to reading tickle porn to saving cheat instructions for video games. it's always interesting to see how other people use computers. well time to delete all this nonsense and try to make something useful of it.

this is the first time a computer running windows vista has ever been brought into my home. i have befouled the sanctity of this place.

[iviarellereads]

All Systems Red, Chapter 3

(Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Murderbot Diaries, read this one! Like what you see? Send me a Ko-Fi.)

In which that's awfully suspicious.

They get ready to leave in the early morning, but Murderbot checks MedSystem and finds that Bharadwaj is awake and talking.(1) As it's carrying equipment to the little hopper, it realizes it's going to have to ride with the crew. It's grateful it can stay in its armour with the helmet opaqued, but Mensah invites it to sit in the copilot's chair.

Everyone is so careful not to even look at MB as it goes to take the offered seat, that it reviews the hub camera records for the conversation after it got horrified at being asked to stay with the humans, like a person. The topic is worse than it imagined. They'd all talked it over, and agreed not to push MB's boundaries on interaction more than it wants to go. They were all so nice about it, dangit, and MB vows not to take the helmet off again.

I can’t do even the half-assed version of this stupid job if I have to talk to humans.(2)

MB acknowledges that these are its first clients with no prior SecUnit experience, so it probably should have expected them to make this sort of assumption if it had thought about it at all. Still, Mensah and Arada had nixed any suggestion of talking to MB about its reaction. Just the thought of talking about its feelings drops its operating efficiency to 97%.(3)

MB thinks about that and looks out the windows and watches the hopper's scans of the scenery. It's not so distracted, though, that it misses the moment the autopilot cuts out. It being in the copilot seat, it could take over in time if needed, but Mensah had never even taken her hands off the controls.(4) MB thinks about how some clients would engage autopilot and then lean back or even go to sleep, but Mensah never does, and she doesn't let her crew do it either. She smoothly adjusts course away from the mountain they would have flown right into without autopilot.

I had cycled out of horrified that they wanted to talk to me about my feelings into grateful that she had ordered them not to. As she restarted the autopilot, I pulled the log and sent it into the feed to show her it had cut out due to a HubSystem glitch. She swore under her breath and shook her head.

They make it to the nearest missing map section fairly quickly. In the discussion that follows, about whether to land, MB realizes that the humans are definitely not ruling out sabotage to their files or their systems. Ultimately, they decide to land and take samples. Bharadwaj chimes in over the comm system to be careful, still sounding shaky.

MB does the security thing, leaving the hopper first and looking around some. Mensah and Arada follow, and everyone else starts taking samples of the weird glassy rocks and dirt.

It's a quiet spot, for a change. Only, Arada and Ratthi start moving toward a spot on the map that scans indicated might be hazardous. MB calls over the comms to stop them, as it runs for the spot. They stop, but they're both baffled, because their maps aren't showing the hazard markers.

MB compares their files to its, and in the feed, superimposes its map, with the markers. Somehow, the system deleted all the hazard markers on one side, and they can't reinstate them. MB spends the rest of the morning diverting the humans from the hazards, not always successfully. Mensah's call to leave is welcomed by all.

They get back to the habitat fine, and the humans go to analyze their data while MB manages security. It's just finished a perimeter walk, when HubSystem notifies it that there's an update package for it. It had tricked HubSystem previously into allowing it to cache updates on external storage instead of update automatically. It figures it will get around to sorting through the update some time before leaving the planet, but there's work to do right now.

The rest of the day is almost boring, right up until Mensah reports she can no longer contact DeltFall.

MB attends a meeting with everyone in the crew hub, with its armour and opaqued helmet. Mensah is outlining a plan to take the big hopper, because as Overse points out, it can go to their camp and back without a recharge if the worst has occurred. Ratthi is concerned they didn't launch their emergency beacon. Mensah asks MB, and when it realizes she was really talking to it, it says a hostile like the one that they already saw could take out the comms system on DeltFall's habitat. Pin-Lee says the beacon should trip even if other comm equipment is destroyed. MB ignores its governor module's instructions to defend the company, and says equipment failures aren't impossible.

Everyone falls silent, contemplating what might happen if the big hopper has an equipment failure outside rescue range of the little hopper. The trip will take so long, it will be overnight even if they leave as soon as they arrive at the other end. Gurathin asks about MB's system, and MB says it monitors itself.(5)

Volescu says they should prepare for a rescue mission. MB notes that he's still showing indicators of distress in MedSystem's feed.(6) He's pulled instructions from the info package, and MB sighs internally about them all being academics instead of the explorers in its serials.

Aloud, it suggests that it should go along, as the only one present with experience in "these situations". Gurathin questions what situations those are, and Ratthi's the one to say, potentially hostile ones. Arada, Bharadwaj, and Volescu are all also in favour of MB going with the contact team, just in case, since nothing's bothered the PreservationAux habitat yet.

So, the DeltFall contact team will be Mensah, as leader, Pin-Lee as habitat specialist, Ratthi as biologist, and Overse as field medic… And Murderbot. They prep the big hopper, and MB gives it extra checks on every system it recognizes to confirm nothing's been sabotaged. Mensah does her own checks, and tells MB to pack extra emergency supplies in case DeltFall needs them. MB hopes they will.

When everything was ready, Overse, Ratthi, and Pin-Lee climbed in, and I stood hopefully by the cargo pod. Mensah pointed at the cabin. I winced behind my opaque faceplate and climbed in.

=====

(1) Why did you check in, MB? What would prompt you to do that? Funny that you'd do so but not react to that in any sort of way. (2) Haven't you ever known someone who reacted this way to kindness? Who had never known enough to recognize it for what it is without suspicion? Have you ever been that person? My heart will not survive this reread. (3) MB has so little experience or framework for personhood and feelings. It's so sad-charming-endearing-agonizing to watch. (4) Safety! First! We respect a queen who doesn't take unnecessary chances. (5) Which is even truer than if it had a working governor module! Just look at the times the Hub's tried to get it to do something and it's like, nah. (6) Again with reporting the crew's conditions unprompted. Like, part of this is narrative, it's valuable to know how the characters are acting and reacting and feeling, particularly when you can't use a truly omniscient third-person perspective to narrate those things. But, consider what it says about MB. It's monitoring the humans' conditions even though it's not really relevant to the job at hand or the conversation in progress. Something something robots are reflections of what we think about humanity.