Are used book stores an option? Libraries are great, but most of my discoveries of new authors and genres has been by hanging out for hours in an old second-hand book store, preferably the kind with a cluttered shelves, narrow aisles, and a cat or two sleeping here and there. I hope you can experience that kind of book-exploration.

I just started using this one today: https://docs.searxng.org/ and it did a great job for what i needed. I never heard of it before, but found the link on an old Lemmy post.

I don't know how it would work for other people with other needs, but i needed to find graphic designers to help me with a project. DuckDuckGo kept giving me hundreds of results from a handful of big companies, but i wanted small companies and individuals. Found exactly what i needed on the first search using this engine.

Just by coincidence i'm watching a gameranx video about the 10 worst AAA games, and Falcon says the same thing about games as a service (subscriptions, micro-transactions, etc.): "it seems like they're playing a game of chicken with the consumer to see what they can get away with".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8jDgkikylY

(start at 19:45)

Yeah i think we're in a golden age of indie games. When i want to find a new game, i search youtube for "best indie games of 2018" or 2017, 2021 or whatever. So much great stuff to play made in the last 5-10 years. And so much more affordable. And it feels great to give my money to these devs.

I got them on Firefox with Ublock Origin but only with my VPN on US or Canadian servers. Then a few days later, even on those servers they disappeared. Haven't seen one since those first few.

Any of thousands of people can say this but i don't see it in the comments below so: I've been using a Linux Mint / Windows dual boot system for over 10 years and love it. I think a lot of people see Linux as highly technical, but versions like Mint and Ubuntu are more carefree than Windows nowadays.

I thought i pasted the archived version but the link goes to the original. weird. anyway, here's the archived version

https://archive.fo/wk3fE

And archive: https://archive.fo/

Is it about helping out workers any more? Or is about companies - often big, profitable companies - not paying their employees a livable wage and pressuring customers to come to the rescue? At the very least, the situation is so confusing now that it's impossible to tell whether a tip is a legitimate thing to do, or whether it's giving in to corporate greed and cynicism.

Just to clarify, I worked in food service as a tipped employee from age 15 into my late 20s. I totally get it, and I always tip waiters, taxi drivers, and other traditionally-tipped employees. But I don't know what to do when everybody expects a tip. And when corporate money-lords add their voices to pressure me, it just sounds too cynical.

That's the peat, Pete. If it's too heavy for you, you're drinking the wrong scotch. Try a light Balblair or a Speyside or something similar.

As in South Pacific (my favorite musical) for example. (I'm not gay, i just like musicals ... and i'm not in drag right now neither ...)

I can't reach it on my Windows 11 computer when the vpn is turned on, but can reach it using Windows when the vpn is turned off (i tried servers in Europe, Americas, Asia).

But on my linux computer i can reach it with the vpn on or off (same vpn company, login, servers). So ... weird.

For some reason i don't know ipleak.net won't load for me. These work too though: https://ipleak.org/, https://browserleaks.com/ip.