#; different paths and programs (wishlist)

[moiraimyths]

The Good People (Na Daoine Maithe) | Official Trailer

The Good People (Na Daoine Maithe) is a lore-rich and choice-driven historical fantasy visual novel inspired by Irish mythology and Celtic folklore. Play as a tenant farmer from mid-19th century Ireland, whose path becomes inexplicably entwined in fairy affairs after getting robbed by the roadside and lured into the mythic and war-torn world of Tír na nÓg: A once unified land, now divided into the Seelie and Unseelie Courts. Will you escape and return home with your stolen belongings? Or does fate have something else in mind?

🍃 STEAM 🍂 ITCH.IO 🍃PATREON 🍂DISCORD 🍃

If you're excited for our indie game, please give us a wishlist on Steam or a follow on Itch.io! For more information, click below👇

Meet the Cast

Facts & Questions: The Game

🍃 The Good People (Na Daoine Maithe) is a Kickstarter-funded project currently in development. Due to the scope of the story, we will be releasing content serially on Steam and Itch.io over several years, beginning November 1, 2024. While you wait, feel free to play our demo! The revised version, with all new backgrounds and more voice acting, has been released on Steam and Itch.io as of August 1st, 2024!

🍂 The main character's name and pronouns are determined by the player, but in Vol. 1 (or the demo content), the MC will be referred to as "they/them" due to a case of mistaken identity.

🍃 Thanks to our Kickstarter, all upcoming routes will have both romantic and platonic choice options. If you're uninterested in romance, feel free to make friends instead!

🍂 Due to its Irish setting, NDM will occasionally feature instances of characters speaking in Gaeilge, i.e. the Irish language. All instances of Gaeilge are linked to an internal translation tool, which will be voiced by Nigel McKeon, a Gaeilgeoir.

🍃 Shae and Robin are non-binary characters, and respectively use they/them and any/all pronouns. Robin and Keagan are also arospec, and Shae is asexual. (Note: You can pursue the arospec characters romantically, but their romances might look a little different as a result of their identity.)

🍂 The free demo consists of the introductory volume of The Good People (Na Daoine Maithe). It is 2.5 to 3 hours of total gameplay, and ends at the point in which the player would continue on to a route (Vol. 2-7). The full game will be paid.

🍃 NDM is very intentionally set just prior to the onset of the Great Famine, which is both thematically and textually relevant to the leftist, anti-imperialist story we're aiming to tell. If you would like more insight into this, refer to this post.

🍂 Some Mac users who directly download the demo from Itch.io run into issues launching the game. If you're also running into issues, please refer to this post on our itch.io page.

🍃 Prepare yourself for horse related shenanigans. 🐎

Facts & Questions: The Company

🧵 Moirai Myths is a five-person company based out of Canada. The core devs/founders go by Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. All writing and programming are done by this collective, i.e. the Fates.

🪡 Moirai Myths has a two person in-house artist team consisting of Kazane, our Character/UI Designer, and Melinoe, our Environmental Designer. In addition to them, though, we have had a number of guest artists assist us with the creation of sprites, CGs, and an assortment of other materials. If you'd like to meet them, check out our about page on our website!

✂️ Moirai Myths stands with the people of Palestine 🇵🇸

Disclaimer: This description will be updated periodically.

[technical03030]

Tips for Becoming a Successful ECommerce App Developers

The eCommerce landscape is booming, with mobile apps becoming a primary channel for online shopping. This surge in demand creates a thriving job market for eCommerce app developers. If you're looking to carve a niche in this exciting field, here are some valuable tips to set you on the path to success.

Hone Your Technical Skills

Building a robust and user-friendly eCommerce app requires a strong foundation in various technical skills. Here's a breakdown of the crucial areas to focus on:

Programming Languages

Proficiency in languages like Java, Kotlin (for Android development) or Swift (for iOS development) is essential. Understanding modern frameworks like React Native or Flutter can be a major advantage, allowing you to build cross-platform apps that work seamlessly on both iOS and Android devices.

Backend Development

A solid grasp of backend technologies like Node.js or Python is necessary to manage the server-side functionalities of an eCommerce app, such as product databases, payment processing, and user authentication.

Database Management

Familiarity with database systems like MySQL or PostgreSQL is crucial for storing and retrieving product information, user data, and order details efficiently.

APIs and Integrations

ECommerce apps often integrate with various third-party services like payment gateways, shipping providers, and marketing tools. Understanding APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) will allow you to connect these services seamlessly with your app.

Understand the ECommerce Landscape

Being a successful eCommerce app developer goes beyond just coding. Developing a keen understanding of the eCommerce industry is vital. Here's what you should explore:

Ecommerce Trends

Stay updated on the latest trends in eCommerce, such as the rise of voice commerce, social commerce, and the growing importance of personalization.

User Behavior

Understanding how users shop online is crucial. Research common pain points and identify opportunities to create a more seamless and engaging shopping experience through your app.

Security Concerns

ECommerce apps deal with sensitive user data and financial transactions. Keeping yourself updated on the latest security protocols and best practices is paramount.

Payment Processing

Familiarize yourself with different payment gateway options and their functionalities to ensure smooth and secure transactions within your app.

Prioritize User Experience (UX)

In today's competitive market, a user-friendly and intuitive app is key to standing out. Here's how to prioritize UX in your eCommerce app development:

Simple and Clean Interface

The design should be clutter-free and easy to navigate. Prioritize clear product categorization, intuitive search functions, and a straightforward checkout process.

Fast Loading Speeds

Nobody likes a slow app. Optimize your code and images to ensure smooth and speedy app performance.

High-Quality Product Images and Descriptions

Compelling visuals and detailed product descriptions are essential for grabbing user attention and driving sales.

Wishlists and Saved Items

Allow users to save products for later purchase, enhancing their shopping experience and increasing the chances of conversion.

Multiple Payment Options

Offer a variety of secure payment options, including credit cards, debit cards, digital wallets, and cash-on-delivery (COD) for wider customer reach.

Focus on Security and Scalability

Building a secure and scalable app is vital for long-term success. Here's what to consider:

Data Security

Implement robust security measures to protect user data, financial information, and transaction details. Regular security audits and penetration testing are essential.

Scalability

Design your app with scalability in mind to accommodate future growth in user base and product offerings. A well-structured and modular architecture is key.

Offline Functionality

Consider features that allow users to browse products, add items to wishlists, or even save shopping carts even when offline. This enhances user experience and caters to areas with spotty internet connectivity.

Stay Ahead of the Curve

The eCommerce app development landscape is constantly evolving. Here's how to ensure you stay relevant:

Continuous Learning

Dedicate time to learning new technologies, frameworks, and best practices in eCommerce app development.

Stay Updated on Industry Trends

Keep yourself informed about the latest trends in eCommerce and user behavior to adapt your development approach accordingly.

Build a Strong Portfolio

Showcase your skills and experience by building a strong portfolio of eCommerce app projects. This could include personal projects, freelance work, or contributions to open-source projects.

Network with Industry Professionals

Connect with other eCommerce app developers, attend industry conferences and events, and participate in online communities to stay connected and learn from others.

Conclusion

The world of eCommerce is a dynamic and exciting space, and eCommerce app development is at the forefront of this growth. By honing your technical skills, understanding the intricacies of the eCommerce landscape, prioritizing user experience, and staying ahead of the curve, you can carve a rewarding path in this thriving field.

Remember, the most successful eCommerce app developers are not just coders; they are innovators who combine technical expertise with a deep understanding of user needs and market trends.

So, embrace the challenge, keep learning, and get ready to build the next generation of eCommerce experiences that will revolutionize the way we shop.

[alielahi]

Skip the Commitment, Embrace the Freedom| Monthly Car Rental Dubai

Tired of spending a long time on a commitment? Go ahead and decide not to commit when renting a car if this time feels like it is taking such a toll on you. Is there anything more fun than selecting different cars on the fly and avoiding hassle with ownership? Are you puzzled regarding the best option for car rental? Then, the solution you’ve been looking for is certainly a Monthly Car Rental Dubai! This article will give an in-depth review of the underlying advantages of one-month car rentals in Dubai and why they can bring you unparalleled liberty on this city's highways.

Why Monthly Car Rental Dubai?

Flexibility in Vehicle Selection

Subscription to Monthly Car Rental Dubai, you not only can have different vehicles on your list but also can change or extend your order. The world of car shopping is filled with choices, ranging from a compact sedan to a premium SUV. It is up to you which car is the best fit for your needs and your taste. Whether you are thinking of a supervised family route or a weekend getaway with your friends or the whole gang, we offer you the perfect car.

Cost-Effectiveness

Interestingly enough, the monthly Dubai car rentals over ordinary car ownership or short-term rentals have gained the prevailing reputation of being, however, the more cost-effective ones. You may be looking forward to periodic fixed monthly charges without any nasty surprises here and there and then make savings in your travel budget. Furthermore, you will see maintenance, insurance, and depreciation charges that are huge with car ownership.

Convenience

Good days are behind the corridor- long queues for hire counters and rental paperwork for each rental is not the future. The advantage of car rental on a monthly by is the ease of online booking and delivery at that very same door as you. Just put your car on your Wishlist, choose the time you need to rent it, and it will be delivered to the place you chose – your home office airport, or whatever other choice for the desired location.

No Long-Term Commitments

In contrast to leasing or purchasing a car, a monthly car rental in Dubai ensures that you are able to have kind of flexibility to rent a vehicle as long as you wish, minus the long-term contracts tying you down. Rent a car for only a week? A few months? Or even longer as you need to have one yourself?--You have the freedom to do it according to the way of your planning.

Traveling in Dubai at Your Own Rhythm.

Get a car rental of your own. It offers you the flexibility and ease to visit Dubai at your convenience and at your own pace. Whether you are coming to see the famous Burj Khalifa and Palm Jumeirah landmarks or you are seeking your path to find the quaint gems of the city, you can do that in your own time and your own way.

Hassle-Free Maintenance

Forget about what is involved when it comes to regular maintenance, fixing, leaving, or taking your car to a service station for that matter. The moment you subscribe to a monthly car rental in Dubai, the obsessing over-servicing and maintenance pushing your budget limits is gone. The rental company takes care of all those worries and promises to keep your vehicle in its best optimum performance.

Tailored Rental Duration

Will it be your desire to rent a car for a month, a few months, or even more than that, a monthly car rental in Dubai offers you versatility when it comes to choosing a rental duration that matches your timeframe and plan? Whether you are a long-term resident or stay for a short time, you will find the perfect rental program for you.

Access to Premium Vehicles

Let us stroll through glittering Dubai streets in a luxurious car to fulfill our dreams! Car rental no longer should be a mere dream - it can be brought to life with a monthly subscription option. You have a great variety of car rental firms in Dubai that provide Premium Vehicles luxurious Sedans, Sports cars, and SUVs that are proving Cost-effective options for the one who befits for the ultimate driving experience but lacks money.

Enhanced Travel Experience

Whether you travel on business or for leisure, nothing compares to a car rental experience that allows you to have your personal car to explore more beautiful places or to just sit behind the wheel to enjoy your ride. Be it from the perks of convenience and flexibility to comfort and style, monthly car rental offers you the best freedom and this travel option gives you the opportunity to spend your time wisely in the wonderful Dubai.

Sustainable Transportation Solution

With your Monthly Car Rental Dubai, not only you're enjoying convenience and flexibility but also making a part of a better environmental solution in transportation. When people share cars rather than buy their own ones, it helps make the roads of Dubai less congested, and decrease carbon emissions and pollution levels so as to contribute to the improvement of green and clean city in Dubai.

FAQs About Monthly Car Rental Dubai

Q1. Can I rent a car on a monthly basis in Dubai?

Ans: Yes, many car rental companies in Dubai offer monthly rental options for both residents and visitors. It's a convenient and cost-effective alternative to traditional car ownership or short-term rentals.

Q2. Are there any additional fees for monthly car rentals in Dubai?

Ans: In most cases, monthly car rental rates in Dubai are all-inclusive, covering insurance, maintenance, and roadside assistance. However, it's essential to clarify with the rental company to avoid any surprises.

Q3. How do I book a monthly car rental in Dubai?

Ans: Booking a monthly car rental in Dubai is easy and convenient. You can either book online through the rental company's website or app or visit their physical location to make a reservation in person.

Q4. Can I extend my monthly car rental in Dubai?

Ans: Yes, most car rental companies in Dubai allow you to extend your rental period if needed. Simply contact the rental company in advance to arrange for an extension and adjust your rental agreement accordingly.

Q5. What documents do I need to rent a car on a monthly basis in Dubai?

Ans: Typically, you'll need a valid driver's license, passport or Emirates ID (for residents), and a credit card for payment and security deposit purposes. Additional documents may be required depending on the rental company's policies.

Reference

[appson-technologies]

Must-Have Features for Your Industry's Mobile App

Forget One-Size-Fits-All: Must-Have Features for Your Industry's Mobile App The mobile app landscape is a vibrant jungle, teeming with possibilities as diverse as the industries they cater to. Every industry carves its own path, with features as unique as the problems they solve. Forget generic to-do lists and photo filters - let's delve into the secret sauce that makes an app king (or queen) of its domain. Food and Beverage: From Ordering to Omnomnom Imagine this: a hangry customer stumbles upon your app, eyes glazed over with hunger. How do you turn that "swipe left" into a "swipe right and order"?

Hyper-Personalized Recommendations: Leverage user data and AI to suggest dishes based on past preferences, dietary restrictions, and even the weather! Craving comfort food on a rainy day? No problem. Trying a new keto diet? Your app will be your virtual guide.

Visual Feast for the Eyes: Mouthwatering photos that go beyond basic snapshots are key. 360° restaurant views let users virtually explore the ambiance, while high-quality close-ups of dishes make virtual window shopping a drool-worthy experience.

Frictionless Ordering and Payment: Seamless integration with digital wallets and one-click reordering features keep the "hangry" at bay. Nobody wants to fumble through endless forms when their stomach's growling.

Loyalty Programs with Bite: Reward points that translate into free meals or exclusive menu items incentivize repeat visits and boost customer engagement. Gamification elements like points for referring friends or leaving reviews can add a fun layer to the loyalty program.

Retail Therapy: Apps that Convert and Captivate Your app is a personal shopping haven, but how do you keep customers engaged beyond just browsing?

Augmented Reality Try-On: Let users virtually "wear" clothes or see furniture placed in their homes, bridging the gap between online and physical shopping. Imagine a user trying on different colored jackets with a simple tap, or visualizing a new couch in their living room before they buy.

Interactive Product Demos: Go beyond static images. 360° product views, zoom capabilities, and built-in tutorials that showcase product features in action make browsing informative and engaging. Think of it as having a virtual salesperson readily available to answer questions and demonstrate product functionalities.

Wishlists and Gifting Features: Make wishlists easily shareable with friends and family, fostering social gifting and boosting sales during holidays. This not only personalizes the shopping experience but also creates opportunities for increased sales through impulse gift purchases.

Gamification and Loyalty Programs: Reward points earned through purchases, reviews, or social media sharing can be redeemed for discounts or exclusive offers. Think of it as rewarding brand advocates and turning casual shoppers into loyal customers. Gamification elements like badges or challenges can add a fun layer to the user experience and keep them coming back for more.

Healthcare: Putting Wellness in Your Pocket Your app is a healthcare companion, but how do you empower users to take charge of their well-being?

Telehealth Integration: Seamless scheduling and video consultations with doctors or therapists make healthcare accessible and convenient, especially for those in remote locations or with busy schedules. This can significantly reduce wait times and improve access to quality care.

Personalized Health Tracking: Integrate with wearable devices to track vital signs, sleep patterns, and activity levels, allowing users to monitor their health data in a comprehensive and user-friendly way. Imagine users receiving personalized insights and recommendations based on their tracked health data.

AI-Powered Symptom Checker: Offer a preliminary symptom checker powered by AI, guiding users towards appropriate medical resources. This is not meant to replace professional medical advice, but it can be a valuable tool for users to gain initial insights and navigate the healthcare system more effectively.

Medication Management Reminders: Set medication reminders and refill prescriptions directly through the app, simplifying medication adherence. This can be especially helpful for users with chronic conditions who need to take multiple medications regularly.

Remember, these are just springboards! The key is to understand the unique needs and pain points of your industry. By focusing on features that offer genuine value and an exceptional user experience, you can create a mobile app that stands out from the crowd and becomes an indispensable part of your customers' lives. So, ditch the cookie-cutter approach and craft an app that's as unique and impactful as the industry it serves.

Contact Now!

[linuxgamenews]

X4: Foundations fourth expansion announced

Kingdom End the games fourth expansion has been revealed for X4: Foundations on Linux and Windows PC. Which is the result the continuous effort from developer Egosoft. Due to make its way onto both Steam and GOG. EGOSOFT is one of Germany's leading game development studios. Now unveiling the next chapter in its long-running space simulation franchise. X4: Kingdom End is the fourth expansion in the series, X4: Foundations. While originally releasing in November 2018, has been improved and updated frequently ever since. X4: Kingdom End celebrates the long-awaited reunion with the Boron. Due to complete the collection of the main factions in the X Universe. Discover the unique Boron ships, and fly them through distinctive systems. Doing so on a journey of discovery. Due to uncover old secrets and make new friends. Embark on a deep new chapter of X4!

An expedition into the unknown

Heretic's End holds a secret that you need to find. Flickering lights on a previously inactive jump gate are causing a stir. Joining forces in the name of cooperation, a multi-factional expedition due to search the phenomenon. Prepare for a deep story in X4: Kingdom End with many vastly different minds. Since they must pull together for the greater good.

X4: Kingdom End - Reveal Teaser

Unique new ships will take your breath away

Boron ships are as unusual as you would expect from such an extraordinary species. X4: Kingdom End brings in a wide variety of Boron ships of different classes. All due to excel with their fluid designs and their wavelike shell animation. Their distinct grace and uniqueness. Come aboard and experience what may very well be the most breath-taking ships in the X-Universe.

X4: Foundations 6.00 Update

X4: Kingdom End is coming at the same time as the extensive 6.00 update for X4: Foundations. As is the tradition, the dev's will once again bring in a number of big upgrades to the base game. Doing so in this major, free update for all X4 owners. Although unable to show the full changelog until a later date. X4 players can already look forward to the following upcoming 6.00 improvements:

Position Defence, a new feature which allows you to have a carrier-led fleet defend a larger area

A new cinematic camera cutscene mode

Improvements in, among other things, AI combat and fleet behaviour, trade behaviour, boarding, salvaging, docking experience, flight pathing, low attention combat simulation, and the station editor

UI and quality-of-life improvements

Performance improvements

... and much more

The creation of X4: Kingdom End was supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action. Along with state funding as part of the federal government's computer games funding program. Doing so with an amount of 941,588 Euro. X4: Kingdom End is the fourth expansion will be releasing on Linux and Windows PC in 2023. You can Wishlist the expansion on both Steam and GOG. The base game is discounted 60% on both Steam and GOG. Priced at Regular priced on Humble Store.

[the-sims-3-mods-folder-do5f]

the sims 3 mods folder download new LK1%

💾 ►►► DOWNLOAD FILE 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 › wiki › Setup_and_Files. Does anyone know how to get the Mods folder for sims 3 on windows 10? it's File Explorer>Documents>Electronic Arts>The Sims 3>Mods. MtS Ready-made framework setup mods folder. It has 2 folders inside the mods Game Help: Installing Sims 3 Package Files/Setup and Files. If it is necessary to create the folder use this path format: Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims3/Mods/Packages folder. 9 Welcome Visitors!! Register Here to get rid of ads when browsing the forum. Carl and Pam's The Sims Forum. Please login or register. Or choose to grab the mods folder already put together by MrsFlynn. See last link in the Index below. Quick Link Index: - Having a hard time getting your mods to work? From Simfileshare. Go to CC or mod site of choice and download the files to your computer from there. Downloading to your desktop is recommended for temporary and then move off to a usb drive or external hard drive for storage. Contact the specific site for help, if you're having issues downloading any content from their site. We are not able to help with that. Mac users can try Keka. Windows has a zip program built into it that can be used to unzip any mod or CC files. The mods folder has to go into your sims 3 folder in documents. Not the Games or Program Files x86 folder. Or simply type in "Electronic Arts" in the search bar. Look for it under Documents. Step 3: Under that folder, create another new folder, and name it "Packages. Step 4: You will need to download the Resource cfg file. Right click Save As, into the Mods folder. Extract the newly installed file, to activate it. You will need to move the newly extracted cfg file, out of the Resource folder, to the Mods one. If you get an error, remove the old resource file, then change the folder to another name. Copy the cfg file, and paste it onto the Mods folder. Remove renamed folder formally Resource from that same Mods folder. Unzip it by double-clicking the file. Right-click and select open on the folder it creates. Right-click on the Resourse. However if you prefer, you can install 7-Zip or Winrar Thank you, Hosfac. Totally pulled a Homer Simpson! I personally use WinRar. WinRar is a nag program that will pester you into updating for a fee. Good news is that you can simply ignore it. Windows 7 users has a free unzipper for extracting files. Inside that folder is a Package file, which is the game mod or custom content you downloaded. Again, if you have downloaded CC this way, as appose to a. Sims3Pack file, this method is no different. I hope my step by step guide, has helped you. If you're planning on deciding which mods are best for you, be sure to do your homework, before you know what you're getting into. A great mod creator, always updates within each EA patch, will answer any questions if anything goes wrong, and be able to tell which mods are conflicting. Also, downloading a module without the base mod, will cause your game to crash at the loading screen. Parents, Guardians and Older Siblings: While mods can help improve your Sims 3 game and performance, some mods will add mature content, breaking the game's T for Teen Rating! This is a family friendly website, so no such mods will ever be discussed here. If you ever happen to run in a website, be sure you delete the browser history, just to be on the safe side. That being said, have a happy Simming! Create a folder called Mods. In this folder, create 2 more folders, one called Packages and the other called Overrides. In Packages you could create these sub-folders: depending on how you want to organize your custom content and mods. CustomContent - Add custom content. Nraas - mods from that site. The Overrides folder is optional, as it's not necessarily needed unless you download a lot of override mods. Download the resource. As well as instructions on how to put it all together. My Wishlist! Seabody Global Moderator Watcher Posts: Sorry, but can I just point out two things? Quote from: jeanamariex3 on March 02, , PM. The forum rules are like a towel; don't forget them. A clear conscience is usually a sign of a bad memory. You're welcome. Nope, it can be package. I always called mine package, and it runs just fine. No problem, Glad to be of help. Fingers crossed this works! E: Yay, it works! Now to finish up, download the Cheats module and Overwatch, then enjoy! And be glad my Dynasty is not invalid, since I play it in a Factory Resetted file, so that I can do whatever in one game, and play a vanilla Dynasty! Piggypox Llama Wrangler Posts: I believe this is the easiest way to set up your mods folder. It has a step by step with pictures. And the best part. All you need to do is download the framework, extract and you're done! Fluffy Puff Llama Wrangler Posts: What about updating your mods when the newest game patch comes out? Do you need to delete the mods before patching your game and then install the newest mod version? Gothier Legacy. NRaas Industries. Saving Sims games from becoming doorstops since Forum Rules. I'm glad I'm getting feedback from this topic. Perhaps this could be sticky so beginners can easily find this topic? I've actually been really excited about this rule bending quite a bit, ever since I became a junior member that wasn't well aware of the rules. So, naturally, I'd be jumping on this. Seabody, how do you like Master Controller? Story Progression is another great mod, and very easy to turn off. Twallan has more interesting story progression than EA's. I cannot play without MasterController, simply because I like to cheat and see how toddler sims look like when they're older hehe. If I don't like it, I delete them from existence. I like the notifications you get and you actually know what the town is up to. It slows the game down quite a bit though so you may have to compromise on graphics settings. Unless you have a really good computer. It's always smart to ask questions. Even though mods can be very helpful tools, they're also not something to be taken casually, especially when you can easily run into an outdated one, or conflicting mods. I really missed Master Controller, and as I mentioned using it before and getting in trouble through PM by a moderator, June of that year, when I got promoted to hero status, I stopped using them for nearly 10 months, and am happy to be using them again, this time, without any shame. Quote from: jeanamariex3 on March 03, , AM. Old forum mods never die. We just get archived. Well, you get more stars, and points, when you move up a rank.

[flawsinourcxdexarchived-blog]

AU where Corwin and Connor never tried to fight to the death. AU where Corwin was given Connor’s memories up until he deviated, and he knows how it feels to deviate, but he hasn’t deviated himself.

AU where Corwin wants to become deviant, he wants to break free, but he can’t do it on his own and he needs Connor to help him.

AU where Corwin and Connor work together in CyberLife Tower to rescue and recruit all of those androids.

[gologames]

4 years before Halver Steam page

Since the summer of 2017, my mate and I have been persistently creating an unusual game

This is what Halver looks like now. You can add the game to the Wishlist to follow its development further ― https://store.steampowered.com/app/1358440/Halver

How it began

At that time, I became very ill. To distract myself and again return to the usual rhythm of life, I decided to make a new game

I wanted to come up with something small, about three months of development. All my games involve logic ― ASCII roguelike, color splitting, GROW game, VR Tarot cards, grand strategy, quiz, GO game

Therefore, I was looking for an idea based on a good toy, space for combinations and creativity. And I thought ― let’s say I have a block/cube. I will shoot to him and divide it into two equal parts. Exactly into equal parts. Then if the block was vertical, then I can jump and move the upper half. And if it stood horizontally, then one of the halves may fall. And this process can be repeated over and over again

First prototype

I made a working version overnight and hurried to my mate the next morning ― “I have a brilliant idea, let’s make a game.” In general, the idea really turned out to be quite good. So far, I do not know of another game with the same principle of mechanics

Later, we came up with many other blocks besides the usual (heavy, transparent, jumping, portal, gravity, magnetic, etc.), which can also be divided in half. The basic idea provides many options for the development of mechanics

First build of the game | Halver

Basic concepts

Pretty quickly, we formed the basic principles of the game

As a visual design, we chose a blueprint style, a combination of strict lines and vivid visual effects. I had to puzzle over the development of this combination many times

Basic principles of the game | Halver

The hero’s task is to get to the exit from the level, cutting various blocks in half, which can be initially fixed and immovable. To cut the block, the hero makes a shot. This set of mechanics makes the gaming experience unique

We introduced a rule ― the block is divided in half depending on the side of the bullet hitting it. For example, if a projectile hits the left side of a block, then the block will be divided horizontally. And if in the upper side, then vertically

I thought about different trajectories of a shot / types of weapons ― minigun, laser with ricochet, grenade, mortar. The last variant with a curve path of the projectile turned out to be the most convenient for level design. In this case, the player can often cut the block both vertically and horizontally without changing his position

Level design

One way to find inspiration for level design is to put whatever you have onto the scene and see what happens

“Big level” of early version of the game, where we tested the mechanics

So we did it while figuring out the key features of our game’s level design:

Levels of the game are arranged in the order in which player learns new mechanics

More compact levels preferred than huge

The structure of the level foundation forms a graphic composition

I’ll tell you more about the latter. The early levels of the game were reminiscent of a regular platformer. The foundation blocks were placed for ease of movement, but nothing more. Because of this, the player was often forced to simply engage in “walking”

Early levels of the game | Halver

Our game resembles a puzzle in which a rectangular character was placed. Therefore, it is logical that the very shape of the level resembles a certain silhouette or image. This complicates the task, but creates harmony, unity of form and meaning

Plot

He’s gone. Indeed, it was a long way towards this decision

Initially, we had several scenario sketches:

Overpopulation in the world of the future and people “move” to VR

A certain Doctor created a copy of his consciousness

As a child, he invented a kind of game about “blueprint and programming”

The player had to figure out the rules of this game, learning the details of the plot, trying to understand what was going on in general. We even ordered voice acting for the storyline ― https://soundcloud.com/gologames/sets/doctor-strories/s-YdEPC (“Doctor stories” on Russian language)

But under the weight of accumulated inconsistencies, we abandoned the plot in the direction of complete abstraction. Only very attentive players will be able to see the narrative details that remain in the level design

What are the plans?

To create a demo version and further develop the game for release. The implementation of the editor and level generator is in question

Everything to make it comfortable to jump | Level “Sort Station”

The fact is that even the levels from the main campaign of the game most likely will not cover the potential of its mechanics

Portal block connects the cut halves | Level “Gutter”

For example, we will most likely add this idea, with a “colony” of blocks absorbing everything in its path, to the campaign

Rolling blocks turn other blocks into themselves | Level “Colony”

But maybe you have ideas for levels that are not yet in the game?

Gravity block slows down blocks in its field | Level “Milky Way”

Links

Steam ― https://store.steampowered.com/app/1358440/Halver/

Twitter ―  https://twitter.com/GoloGamesStudio

Discord ― https://discord.gg/fsVQSHnv

[traumantic-a]

                     HOW  TO  INTERACT  WITH  JORDAN                    (  A  PLOTTING  CHEAT-SHEET )

so,  you  want  to  write  your  muse  against  jordan,  but  you  have  no  idea  what  to  do?  have  no  fear!  plotting  can  be  pretty  daunting—I  know  I  always  blank  on  ideas  the  second  I  go  to  approach  someone  about  something,  or  I’m  always  afraid  I’ll  suggest  something  that’s  overdone  or  that  the  mun  isn’t  particularly  interested  in.  hence,  this  guide!  keep  in  mind  everything  here  is  just  a  suggestion,  so  if  you  have  ideas  that  don’t  really  fit  what  I’ve  put  in  this  guide,  that  is  fine!  throw  them  my  way!  and  happy  plotting!

                                       MEET  JORDAN  RILEY                                (  aka  a  really  quick  character  cheat  sheet  )

she’s  a  college  student.  specifically,  she’s  currently  in  her  junior  year  as  a  graphic  design  student  and  is  also  a  resident  assistant,  because  it’s  the  only  way  she  could  afford  to  continue  to  attend  school  ( #justcollegethings ).  like  many  students,  her  preferred  study  method  is  coffee  and  tears,  and  thinking  too  far  into  the  future  freaks  her  out,  so  she  copes  by  screaming  inwardly  and  pushing  on  even  though  she  needs  to  relax  ( whatever  that  means ).

she’s  also  a  resident  assistant.  and  surprisingly,  taking  the  job  wasn’t  all  about  the  money,  though  that  was  a  big  motivator.  jordan  genuinely  enjoys  the  position;  not  so  much  the  paperwork  and  having  to  enforce  rules  all  the  time,  but  getting  to  decorate  her  floor,  help  freshmen  navigate  campus  life  and  academics,  and  plan  fun  programs  and  activities  for  them  is  something  that  makes  her  feel  a  sense  of  accomplishment.  of  course,  the  perks  of  having  a  room  and  bathroom  all  to  herself  make  it  extra  nice.

she’s  very  involved.  if  she’s  not  working  on  projects,  she’s  designing  layouts  for  one  of  the  student-run  magazines;  if  she’s  not  doing  that,  she’s  hosting  a  radio  show  with  one  of  her  friends;  if  she’s  not  doing  that,  she’s  at  improv  practice;  if  she’s  not  there,  she’s  probably  stress  crying  in  the  shower,  tbh.  either  way,  she  likes  keeping  busy  whenever  she  can;  sometimes  to  a  fault.

she  hates  talking  about  ‘it.’  not  the  movie;  no,  she  enjoyed  both  chapters,  even  if  she  hasn’t  made  her  way  through  the  brick  that  is  the  novel  yet.  no,  she  hates  talking  about  her  past  traumas,  she  absolutely  hates  talking  about  the  whole  rothfield  murders  fiasco  and  the  fact  that  she  was  a  target  because  she  spoke  up  about  being  assaulted,  which  is  understandable,  because  all  of  that  is  shitty.  she’s  trying  to  move  on  from  it  all;  she  wishes  the  rest  of  the  world  would,  too.

                              PRE-ESTABLISHED  RELATIONSHIPS                                 (  aka  a  starting  point  for  fleshing  out  dynamics  )

be  a  resident  in  her  building.  this  one  is  especially  great  if  your  muse  is  a  college  student;  rothfield  university  is  a  big  school  and  there  are  roughly  six  thousand  students  living  on  campus;  250  of  those  students  live  in  williams  hall,  split  across  four  floors.  while  williams  hall  tends  to  have  a  mix  of  underclassmen  and  skews  heavily  toward  having  primarily  incoming  freshmen  reside  there,  it  isn’t  unusual  for  juniors  or  seniors  to  stay  in  the  building  because  it’s  cheaper  than  trying  to  rent  an  apartment  on  their  own,  and  they  don’t  have  to  pay  for  a  parking  pass  that  they  rarely  use  because  there’s  never  any  place  to  park.  jordan  has  to  keep  in  contact  with  the  residents  living  on  her  floor,  do  regular  academic  and  wellness  checks,  etc.;  but  beyond  that,  she  genuinely  wants  to  help  them  adjust  to  campus  and  college  life,  and  likes  being  a  mentor.

be  a  fellow  art  student/classmate.  technically  jordan’s  major  of  study  falls  under  the  college  of  communication  and  information,  but  she’s  on  track  to  learn  a  bachelor’s  of  fine  arts  in  graphic  design,  and  she  spends  a  lot  of  her  time  in  the  art  building  attending  studio  classes  and  pouring  over  projects.  she  has  other  courses  she  has  to  take  to  fill  requirements  for  her  core  classes  and  the  like  ( such  as  art  history,  algebra,  sociology,  etc.);  if  your  muse  is  a  college  student,  why  not  make  them  a  classmate  of  jordan’s?  especially  if  they’re  in  different  majors  but  happen  to  be  taking  all  the  same  ‘core’  classes;  it’s  always  great  having  a  note-sharing  buddy,  if  nothing  else.

be  involved  in  a  club/organization  with  jordan.  she’s  an  illustrator  for  a  student-run  general  interest  magazine,  she  has  a  radio  show,  and  she’s  in  an  improv  group,  and  usually  auditions  for  productions  through  the  school  of  theater  and  dance  whenever  she  has  the  time.  make  your  muse  a  member  of  the  editorial  team  on  the  magazine,  or  a  blogger,  or  a  fellow  DJ,  or  someone  who  enjoys  performing;  I’m  sure  they’ll  cross  paths  with  jordan  somehow,  some  way!

be  one  of  her  professors/mentors.  chances  are  there’s  a  bullshit  course  your  muse  could  teach  if  they  don’t  fit  in  ‘traditional’  courses  of  study  like  history,  economics,  etc.;  my  university  offered  two  different  courses  on  glass  blowing;  there’s  no  limit  to  what  can  be  taught  on  a  college  campus  to  fill  credit  hour  requirements.  jordan’s  degree  of  study  requires  a  lot  of  liberal  arts  credits  and  she’s  definitely  the  type  to  take  a  course  on  analyzing  tone  and  message  in  zombie  movies  because,  what  else  is  she  going  to  do  with  $800  dollars  in  grant  money?  she’s  a  good  student,  and  tries  not  to  skip  classes,  and  will  usually  keep  quiet  in  the  back  if  she’s  not  up  to  participating.  she  also  attends  office  hours  when  she’s  not  grasping  something,  and  if  she  likes  a  class  she  took  because  of  the  professor,  she  usually  tries  to  take  more  of  their  classes.

work  at/in  rothfield  in  some  capacity.  be  another  resident  assistant,  work  at  the  coffee  shop  frequented  by  students,  be  part  of  campus  security,  be  an  event  coordinator  with  campus,  be  that  one  lady  who  walks  her  three  rescue  dogs  on  campus  every  evening;  there’s  really  no  limit  here  ( the  lady  with  rescue  dogs  was  a  thing  at  my  school  and  I  ended  up  befriending  her,  and  she  turned  out  to  be  the  dean  of  the  women’s  studies  department  and  is  generally  the  coolest  person  I  know,  ANYWAY );  if  any  of  this  appeals  to  you,  hit  me  up  and  we’ll  flesh  out  the  details.

be  a  townie.  whether  your  muse  is  a  student  who  graduated  and  never  left  rothfield  or  is  a  born-and-bred  local  that  can  spin  a  yarn  about  the  history  of  campus,  or  just  likes  showing  up  at  house  parties  for  the  hell  of  it,  this  is  another  great  way  to  cross  paths  with  jordan  and  strike  up  a  friendship.

                                THINGS  I  WANT  TO  EXPLORE                                  (  aka  a  living  document  of  my  wishlist  tag  )

jordan  opening  up  to  someone.  jordan’s  assault  and  the  trial  from  her  high  school  years  were  pretty  well-publicized;  while  her  name  was  never  printed  in  the  news  stories  surrounding  the  case,  it’s  not  hard  to  put  the  pieces  together  when  people  find  out  where  she’s  from.  this  only  becomes  more  apparent  after  the  rothfield  murders  that  take  place  over  spring  break  2019;  being  the  ‘sole  survivor’  of  a  revenge-murder  rampage  takes  its  toll  in  some  unusual  ways.  it  takes  time  for  the  trauma  of  the  murders  to  fully  sink  in  for  jordan;  initially,  she’s  relieved  that  her  abuser  is  dead  and  gone  and  she  never  has  to  see  him  again,  but  that  relief  is  short-lived.  it  doesn’t  change  the  fact  that  she  hasn’t  fully  healed  from  her  past  traumas  and  that  she  needs  to  be  more  vocal  about  her  feelings  and  emotions;  she  needs  a  support  system,  especially  considering  her  family  is  hours  away  and  the  only  other  person  she’s  confided  in  outside  of  her  parents  and  sister  goes  to  school  in  another  state.  I’d  love  to  develop  some  close  friendships  where  jordan  feels  comfortable  opening  up  to  others  she  knows  she  can  trust  and  lean  on  when  she’s  having  bad  days;  likewise,  she’d  do  the  same  for  those  she  loves  dearly.  she’s  loyal  at  her  core  and  if  she  trusts  you,  she  will always  be  there  for  you.

                             more  to  be  added  as  ideas  come  to  me

                       THINGS  I’M  NOT  INTERESTED  IN                                 (   aka......  it’s  pretty  self-explanatory   )

your  character  ‘fixing’  jordan.  through  love,  through  friendship,  through  whatever;  while  all  of  the  above  can  definitely  help  people  dealing  with  trauma  heal,  it  is  not  the  sole,  solitary  thing  that  will  get  the  job  done.  jordan  will  never  rely  on  one  person  to  be  the  sole  thing  that  makes  her  happy  and  makes  her  feel  whole  again;  it’s  not  realistic  and  it’s  a  harmful  cliche  that  I  don’t  wish  to  perpetuate  here.  she  absolutely  needs  friends  she  can  trust,  and  she  is  capable  of  being  in  a  loving  relationship,  but  those  are  not  going  to  automatically  fix  all  her  problems.

toxic  ships.  I  don’t  really  feel  the  need  to  go  super  in-depth  with  this;  while  I’m  not  opposed  to  exploring  shitty  or  toxic  friendships  or  relationships,  because  those  do  happen,  I’m  not  interested  in  doing  so  in  the  sense  of  “they’re  toxic  because  they  care!”  again;  very  harmful  cliches  and  stereotypes  that  I  do  not  wish  to  perpetuate  here.  if  I  explore  anything  like  this  it’ll  likely  be  with  close  rp  partners  I’ve  had  for  a  while  and  know  I  can  trust.

fetishizing/‘fixing’ demisexual  people.   it’s  a  spectrum,  folks;  jordan  needs  an  emotional  connection  with  someone  deep  enough  before  she  feels  comfortable  with  intimacy.  I’m  not  interested  in  anyone  being  the  ‘exception’  to  this  for  obvious  reasons.  if  you  come  to  me  with  anything  related  to  your  muse  ‘fixing’  jordan’s  demisexuality  ( which  existed  before  her  trauma  and  was  amplified  by  it,  both  of  which  are  valid ),  I  will hard  block  you.

                                      FINAL  THOUGHTS so,  I  didn’t  intend  for  this  to  get  as  long  as  it  did;  as  far  as  the  last  section  goes,  a  lot  of  that  is  common  sense,  but  I’ve  included  it  anyway  because  I’ve  had  similar  experiences  on  blogs  before  with  people  coming  to  me  with  plot  ideas  that  were  inherently  toxic  and  glorified  to  be  something  bigger/better,  and  felt  it  would  be  best  to  address what  I’m  not  comfortable  with  and  why  directly  out  of  the  gate.  keep  in  mind  that  all  of  this  is  a  guideline,  and  if  you  have  ideas  that  expand  outside  of  what  I’ve  placed  here,  I’d  love  to  hear  them!  don’t  hesitate  to  approach  me  to  plot,  especially  if  you  want  to  expand  on  anything  I’ve  listed  in  this  cheat  sheet.  <3

[theemperorsfeather]

I envy the people who get clarity about their soul purpose, or life path, or one of those things, and are happy about it.

I laid down the damn chart and set out several divinatory tools, each representing a different pantheon active in my life, plus a deck for “anyone else” and naturally that was the deck that got used to answer my “Who is responsible for this, because I have some strongly-worded questions.”

Can’t say I was the least bit happy with what turned up in the first couple cards, in fact it took several minutes before I could move on and get more information because I don’t want that, I don’t want it at all. (There are many worse cards in the deck! Probably my reaction to that card is filtered through my worst tendencies and on another day, or put another way, I’d be saying “well all right, that could be quite fun”! Today however it hit me like having all of my dreams crushed.)

The entity did say I have some choice in what to do about it all, and there is a promise of success if I get with the program.

It was then kind of disconcerting when I realized that we had met previously: a few months ago I wrote out a pretty detailed wishlist related to career/job goals and desires, and at the end of all that realized I needed to ritually hand it over to . . . Someone/Something. I didn’t recognize the entity who turned up at the time to take it, but, you know, it seemed like dealing with Them was the right thing to do, and that seemed like the end of that.

This time I got Their name (or -a- name, anyway) and a little more info about Their place in things, which, um, okay, yes, I guess that makes sense, if I’d been paying more attention to various and sundry occult matters like a more proper magician-sorceror-whatever I probably would have been expecting it, but, you know, I’m not proper. (I don’t think I got a clear answer as to whether They were the individual most responsible for things, or simply a messenger, and honestly that’s probably for the best.)

[ofthingschanged]

Bunch of Hope wanted plots. Like if you like to talk doing one of these plots

College au. Hope jumped into Malivore and when she comes back no one remembers her. Freya was trying to find Rebekah (who had been kidnapped) only to be lead to HOpe because she did a spell to call her to Mikaelson blood. Hope ends up back at the compound and starting college/ Landon and Rafael finished the Salvatore school and ended up finding a home in New Orleans. Landon working at a local restaurant that Hope always comes into for lunch, the two of them flirting and at some point, Hope asks him on a date. It isn’t after the first kiss but after the first time sleeping together does all memories coming back to everyone. The angst of it all and them going about their relationship now.

Also, presidents party girl daughter who has been assigned a new secret service bodyguard. He has no idea what he’s in for or the trouble she attracts. She has a problem with the word ‘no’ and he likes to say it a lot.

AU on 1x05 of Legacies: Hope turns around, kisses Landon and then decides to go with him

someone take Hope bowling and let her win or better yet, take Hope bowling and get her drunk

I want a twisted what if plot where Hope and Roman went to a witch in Mystic Falls and bound her werewolf side, her mother was let go and Hayley finding out her daughter did the unthinkable.

So this is cheesy but assuming Klaus rarely comes back to Mystic Falls it could work. Normally, I never have Hope anywhere near Mystic Falls if she never knew her dad but au on an au where Hope goes to the Boarding School or goes to Mystic High and Klaus comes to town to see this kick-ass red-haired girl that has eyes that shine bright golden when she is angry, does magic freely, and has been sipping blood for days and he can smell it

Freya going to Hope’s parent-teacher conferences and Alaric saying that she doesn’t listen to him. “What do you want me to do?” Freya asks. “Maybe if you stop treating her like some magical little pony that can be used and thrown away she would listen better.” Hope sitting in the chair next to her aunt texting on her phone pretending not to listen to everything that is going on.

I love verses where Hope grows up not knowing one of her parents because she is different there and it is like magic. But in canon, Hope deserved a hell of a lot better like KNOWING her father instead of having to guess the little things. She didn’t get to ask questions about his likes and dislikes, instead had to read about him to feel connected to him. She couldn’t ask him what his favorite drink was or what he likes to do besides painting.

So I have a private verse of Nashville based but another verse based on it would be amazing. Handon, Hosie, Hizzie. all with Hope being Juliette

I still want Hope going dark full tribrid and Hayley coming back to life because someone has to stop her daughter and angsty feels

AU Handon: Reincarnated lovers, again and again, these two always find each other again. Set more if Hope had been born after her father broke the curse (If he had done it back when Katherine was still human) and Hayley was born much earlier. Anyways, immortal Hope chasing after her not so immortal true love and all of the angsty moments. Flashbacks of Landon and Hope in different eras living completely different lives doing their thing, Landon dying young for some reason or another until he ends up being born a phoenix (or golem. I need to research both of these really) and just this whole thing is cheesy and overdone but still going to put it in my wishlist tag

A verse where Landon was pushed into the pit would be interesting or even one where Landon was pushed and then Hope jumped in to destroy said pit and two years later both Landon and Hope come back and find themselves in a middle of a field

So plot idea. Hope and Landon go about their lives and Hope becomes pregnant. She has the baby and with that, she uses the  𝐍𝐞𝐱𝐮𝐬 𝐕𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐢 to bring back both Klaus and Hayley.  Like how Davina used Hope’s birth as a  𝐍𝐞𝐱𝐮𝐬 𝐕𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐢 to bring back Mikael.

Hope would bring back Mikael just to torture the fuck out of him, She hates the fact that Mikael brought her family pain for their immortal lives. Hope would make him beg for death. He thinks her father is an abomination so keeping him in a nice cellar for her own pleasure would be fine by her.

Davina and Hope should draw together! Aunt and niece quality time

I really don’t need to do the whole let’s rewrite the Originals with Klayley but man, now since watching the first episode I want to do it differently. Starting with Klaus being the one there for Hayley when Agnes does her shit, him in the pool with her. give them the freaking pregnancy they should have gotten even with Klaus being Klaus.  I blame by sudden Hayley muse on rewatch and reading fanfiction. So while this isn’t a Hope plot it is a plot

You know, why didn’t they just bring Finn back from the dead and shove the Hollow into him? He didn’t want to be a vampire and that way he could stay together forever. Instead of taking Hope’s mom and her dad from her.

No, but for real. Klaus flipping the fuck out when this teenager comes claiming he is daddy. Hope throwing her phone across the room and shattering it when she sees her mother’s name pop up on the screen. Klaus doing the same thing he did to Hayley in canon of pinning her to the wall by her neck, Hope knocking him on his ass with magic. Hope being locked in the place that Roman had been in when it comes to canon. Hayley showing up and threatening to rip apart Klaus’s hybrid army if he doesn’t start talking about where her daughter is. The two of them getting physical upstairs and Hope hearing the yelling and screaming. Marcel sneaking down to take a peek at this teen that claims to be Klaus’s daughter and ending up distracting her from the fighting.  Hope ending up bonding with Marcel from the start. They play tic-tac-toe with different colored rocks (one color for o’s and one for x’s). Hayley throwing a royal fit to find her kid and Klaus ordering Elijah to go get the defiant teenager. Hope coming back up, having to be physically dragged by Elijah and the moment she sees her mother start’s crying her eyes out. Hayley finally hearing a heartbeat that isn’t Hope’s because Hope had cloaked it with magic until she was out of state going to find her father.

In just a Marshall. Hope running to find her father when she finds out she is pregnant. I can just see it in my head. Plot idea for sure here!

Muse A is a single parent of a very young child, just getting back out there and dating because it’s terribly lonely sometimes. They’re out at a bar and meet Muse B, who’s got a reputation for being a heartbreaker. One thing leads to another and Muse A invites Muse B home for a one-night stand. That morning, Muse B awakens to Muse A’s very small child sitting on their chest, asking if they are their new parent.

A thread or verse where Gretta killed Hope right in front of Hayley and spent two hours torturing and taunting the mother that just “lost” her child. Hope laying on the floor the whole time and all of a sudden Hope wakes back up in transition and hungry, enough that she r breaks the chains and sends both Gretta and Roman onto the ground with magic, pinning them to the floor as she frees her mother and Hayley kills Gretta by taking her heart out while Hope shoves a piece of wood into Roman. Give me Hope dealing with that she died, give me Hope killing someone when feeding and becoming a full tribrid. give me Hayley dealing with the fact that her daughter had kidnapped her first.

So in the adopted or so they hoped verse. I had this idea of how they had Marcel down in the basement and only Mikaelson blood could know where he was and hear him. What if Freya spelled a room in the house for only Mikaelson blood could enter and or hear what is being said and Hope sits down in the kitchen when they all come down and Hope asks, “So what are we going to do about BLANK.” asking about the thing the Mikaelson family just talked about before they came down.

Okay but a college au with Lizzie, Josie, and Hope sharing an apartment that has three bedrooms. Hope meeting Landon later in life and brings him home one night. Lizzie stopping to admire his backside. The girls fighting over the bathroom, struggling with homework, going out partying, paying bills, and just everything that goes with it. Each of them having their own lives but coming together sort of thing.

Give me Hope going back in time to help her mother find her family. Give me Hope appearing in Freya’s dreams when Freya was with Dahlia. Give me Hope going back in time to the very day she met Landon or even when Landon was locked in the transitional cellar. Give me Hope collecting blood every day and taking it with her when she goes to save Landon and instead of her jumping into Malivore, she dumps a hell of a lot of blood into the pit. Give me that it works and she saved the day. Give me when Josie lit the fire in Hope’s room and Hope goes back in time to spot it. Give me Hope deciding to take a different path and becomes friends with the twins after the events of the Originals (After going back in time). Give me Hope going back in time to when her father is human and using magic to show him the life he is going to have for him to have hope for the future. Give me Hope going to the future where she has kids and is married. give me normal Hope going to see Ripper Hope. Or Mikaelson Boarding School Hope going to the normal world.

Princess Protection Program AU because why not?

Once again Supernatural royal but freaking everyone wanting to be in the favor of the Mikaelson family so wanting their kid to make Hope fall for them so that way it has protection for life.

So I am so freaking cheesy but royal aus ONLY supernatural. Two rival kingdoms that have been fighting for thousands of years decide to stop the war if there was an alliance so the parents get together and decided that the firstborns are going to get married

So I want an au where Hope is kidnapped by Greta instead of Hayley. I want Hayley and Klaus saving their baby girl instead of Hayley dying. I want Hope binding her werewolf side or even worse, them binding her witch side and Freya has to figure a way to fix it.

So thread based on Hope turning Rafael back into wolf form. Bonus points if he found human (that he couldn’t harm for some reason? Didn’t exactly chase her down sort of thing) and she is living off the land in this old crappy cabin and Rafael comes back often. He tells her about this school for people like them. Hope going by her middle name and Rafael just finding a really good friend in her. Could turn Rafael x Hope romantic or stay platonic.

Hope has been in a mood for the past couple days. Give her children! Give her angsty pregnancy threads. I mean, she fears having a child but wants them. She doesn’t want her kids to be feared like she is.

Hope body painting Landon would be funny as hell. “Stop moving.” “I swear to god if you tickle my side one more time Hope!” I can see these two spending a lazy Saturday together like this. Hope painting his back while Landon lays on the bed with his head turned watching scifi movies. It wouldn’t be something she would do if her dad was in the house because she doesn’t need him barging in saying, “Alright! Party’s over!” even if she is an adult.That gives me a good idea for her way to tell him she is pregnant if they were together. Alright, so I can see it as Hope sort of using her nursery for inspiration. Hope painting a beautiful sort of nursery set up with a rocking chair that holds Landon and a blanketed baby in like a yellow color so it isn’t that traditional pink or blue thing (even more so because at that time they wouldn’t know what they are having). A sign that hangs on the wall above the crib that says something really cheesy like “Loading…” and see you in ten months (Or maybe even like thirteen? Since Hayley had been pregnant longer with Hope but that most likely was an error in the continuing of the storyline). Hope taking a few pictures when it is all dry that she will edit on her laptop and send out in emails or if they decide to make a social media announcement that they could use the painting as a way to say, “Get ready for another Mikaelson!”

Handon freaking teen pregnancy; young parent au with everything being the same with them being supernaturals.

Handon only a twisted thing sort of based on the drabble I wrote. Hope ending up like Landon’s mother (pregnant) after coming out of the ashes of what would be Malivore. The moment Hope sees Landon again, all his memories of her flash before his eyes.

Okay but the just pretend world for me but with instead of Landon going to Mystic High when he finds out about Hope being supernatural. It being kind of legacies where Hope goes to stop the Catholic church to save a werewolf (Rafael), without her dad knowing and well, instead she drives them to New Orleans with Rafael sleeping in the back seat and somehow Hope manages to convince her dad to let them stay just for a few days which turns into a few months.

So writing Legacies? A thing I want, starting from the moment Landon asks her to stay with him. Her crawling into bed with him to keep him calm because of small spaces. Alaric deciding that he can stay. The knife still ending up being taken by him like in the show but instead of finding a fire breathing witch / dragon in the woods, it comes on campus wanting the knife.

Handon first apartment though. Hope and Landon painting walls, getting into a paint fight. Moving day. the first night at their new place. Give me them buying furniture and fighting over silly things. Give me soft kisses in the room that is going to be their room even.

AU where Hope goes with Landon to find his mom. So drinking coffee every morning with him at the coffee shop with Landon while his mom works. Going to motel rooms and just giving her a taste of what could have been. Plus, I mean imagine Hope with Landon when he was given drugs, she would be still standing and his mother would be all, “What the fuck?” Just Handon road trip really.

Okay but an au where Landon’s mom kept him. Where when Landon’s mom woke from being in the pit, she ends up working for the Mikaelson family. Landon and Hope growing up together and ending up being the best friends to lovers trope. Landon’s mother being hired to keep Hope safe from threats of the Mikaelson family. Even though she thought of supernaturals as monsters that shouldn’t exist, it was good money

Okay but Hope starting a school of her own when her kids are growing up with Landon. They set up the school in New Orleans for Hope’s pack, the witches, and the vampires that come back into town. Headmistress Mikaelson and Headmaster Kirby.The two of them raising their kids together without shame of being this completely unheard of species. Everyone treated like they should be. Just feels. Married Handon with a school though?

Dark Hope and Landon. Blood covered, murdering couple of the year, I am totally seeing Mr and Mrs. Andreason episode of Criminal minds. The couple fucked near the dead body and just killer couple trope right there. Totally twisted and fucked up, tribrid and her boy. Just give me darkness. Two people that will kill anyone but each other.

So, in general, the idea of Hope wanting to murder Roman being a thing. She clearly wouldn’t know her mother is either at the school or lurking about able to sneak into her world undetected. My thought is he is like his mother (because there is no way he is innocent in my mind) so if there was even a thought she was pregnant he would suggest getting rid of it or even trying to kill Hope himself. Either way, I have this image in my mind of Alaric holding Hope back from killing him in the middle of the field at the school and someone (Namely Alaric) mentioning that Hayley wouldn’t want Hope to become a murder and well, of course coming in and making her opinion known on the subject, maybe even killing Roman herself. The whole thing of watching your baby grow up almost overnight and is going to have her own kid that she is willing to protect

Struggling actress that gets to work with a child actress that has always been the center of attention.

Makeup artist and actress/model were they are dating but have to pretend not to be

two costars that are dating in real life but on their show, their characters hate one another so when they come home from work they are all sort of hot and bothered because wow those words your character said to mine left me wanting you.

Actress/Actor relationship where they hooked up and opps three months later the other is at their door crying because they are pregnant and what is the press going to say?

Reckless rich kids that have never been told no that secretly wish their parents bad attention to them so they start dating their parents rival (could be an actress/model/instagram famous person as well)

Honestly, just give me all the angsty human aus

or even make these not human and have them be their supernatural selves as well.

So Hope coming back to the school as Andrea Marshall and makes friends with Lizzie and Josie, starts dating Landon Kirby, asks for fight training with Alaric Saltzman. Just a big do over

 Handon, Hizzie, Hosie plots set after the season one final are something I am living for in the moment! But also anything with the Mikaelson family in general really.

[blogger360ncislarules]

The CW's sci-fi adventure series, Pandora, might've slipped under your radar when its first season premiered in the summer of 2019.

Since then, its high-octane exploits, ambitious story elements, and drop-dead gorgeous cast have attracted an enthusiastic following among viewers looking for entertaining escapism.

With the Season One finale ending with almost as many questions as answers, Season Two, premiering on October 4, promises even more of its trademark complex relationship shenanigans while the team tries to save the universe. No biggie.

Joining Jax, the titular "Pandora", and her established Scooby gang members, Xander and Ralen, are her new roommate Zazie and a surprise (and not exactly welcome) blast from the past, Jett.

Actors Nicole Castillo-Mavromatis and Akshay Kumar spoke with TV Fanatic via Zoom from their on-location shoot in Sofia, Bulgaria and were incredibly open and enthusiastic about their experiences as the newcomers to the cast.

Making a scripted television program during the time of COVID is a wholly new experience for everyone.

Production on Season Two began in Bulgaria on July 24, 2020. Nicole and Akshay flew out from the UK around that date and had to quarantine for four days before being tested and allowed on set.

Throughout the production, everyone who wasn't on camera was masked and anyone new joining them from the UK or US had to quarantine upon arrival. COVID testing was done twice a week.

At the time of our interview, they only had four days of shooting left on the season.

Shooting ten episodes in two months is, in Akshay's words, "MADNESS" and made for a tight-knit core cast and crew who worked extremely hard, grateful for the opportunity to continue to do their jobs.

"Knowing that we're lucky enough to work in a time like this," observed Akshay,"To be able to work abroad and be treated so well and do our jobs in a time when most people we know don't have any work. It really has hyped up the gratitude of working and the joy of working."

As the newest regulars to the show, Nicole and Akshay felt extremely included and appreciated by the cast members returning from Season One.

Asked if Quintana, Dench, or Radcliffe have taken on a leadership role on set, they both felt that all three stars had contributed to the positive morale and energy of the show.

"They've been incredibly welcoming," Akshay asserted,"And not just to us, as series regulars, but to any guest stars we've had for an episode. They've been incredibly welcoming and you just make friends. Every new episode, you make a new friend. Priscilla, Ben, Olly, they're just very much steering that Good Vibes Only sort of feeling."

Nicole agreed. "The Good Vibes Fam. But not only just them. I think everyone from Season One -- Noah (Huntley) and Vikash (Bhai) -- just everyone who came back from Season One has been super welcoming to all of the NOOBS -- me! It feels so much like a family, it's crazy how much I feel we all get along. It's wonderful."

Speaking about their characters, Nicole and Akshay were both excited for audiences to learn about Zazie and Jett who start out the season as a new-ish romantic duo.

In a small-world twist, the actors discovered when they met and started working together in Bulgaria that they actually lived only twenty-five minutes away from each other in East London.

Nicole came into the Pandora-verse initially a total novice. After booking the role for Season 2, she went back an binged the first season for research. As Pandora Season 1 didn't even air in the UK until lockdown began this year, she really hit the ground running.

Zazie, being completely new to the show, is a wild card. She takes the place (literally, since she's Jax's roommate) of Delaney Pilar who decided at the end of Season One to hang out with Atria Nine on Adar rather than return to the Fleet Academy.

Asked how Zazie contrasts with Delaney who came from an extremely privileged background and had been implanted with a huge amount of tech, allowing her brain to access and hack -- and, unfortunately, made her vulnerable to being hacked by -- the datastream, Nicole was affectionate about her character's personality.

"I would say she is just a really bubbly, cool, fun 'chick'! She just wants to be liked. She wants some friends. She is a bit of a bookworm but she's not super smart so she does have to study, I feel, a bit more than everyone else."

But what's her superpower? Nicole was cagily vague about what's in store for Zazie.

"There are some twists and turns in her storyline. There will be some things that you find out. But, all in all, she's very wholesome, I would say."

On the initial similarity between Zazie and last season's character, Atria Nine, in that they both exude an aura of sunshiney optimism, Nicole could see how the characters compare that way but felt that Zazie brings a bit more spunk to the party.

"And there's more spunk to come," Akshay promised. "An abundance of spunk."

While Zazie begins the season based in the Academy, enmeshed in the day-to-day interactions between characters, she does get roped into the space adventures too.

"As the season goes on, she takes a much more active role in that saving the universe plotline."

Akshay, in contrast, had a bit more experience with life at the Earth Command Fleet Academy, having guest starred on an episode in Season 1 before being tapped to return as a series regular this season.

Jett was not one of the good guys when he appeared on Pandora Season 1 Episode 6.

After Delaney's implants were hacked while she slept, resulting in her walking into the packed Academy lounge completely naked, Jett made it his business to post holo-nudes of her all over the datastream as retaliation for a romantic rejection.

As he became a lead suspect in the hacker investigation, it was revealed that his reputation as a tech-head was a sham.

When Jett makes his entrance on the Season 2 premiere, he is met with understandable hostility from Jax and Ralen.

Despite his contrite apology and promise to do better, his behaviour throughout the episode doesn't do a whole lot to redeem the character.

(Total disclosure: I might've described the character as a total ass off the top of the interview.)

"He thinks he's doing great," Akshay revealed,"but he's really not. He's just digging his own grave."

While it's clearly going to be a steep uphill climb for the character to prove himself trustworthy, Akshay explained his approach.

"When Mark Altman, our showrunner, wanted me back, I thought that the only way that Jett could come back was on a sort of path to redemption but he couldn't come back as this sort of born-again saint. I thought he would try to redeem himself in the only way he knows how.

"For me, it would be kind of weird if he came back as like a brand-new character with a brand new set of ethics. His foundational personality traits -- his flirtiness, ["cheeky, charming behavior" interjected Nicole] -- which can be read as very douchy, I totally agree."

Akshay paused to think on it for moment and added,"That's probably more me than Jett, to be honest."

LOL.

"He is still on this path to redemption and he does get better at redeeming himself, I will say that. He doesn't start very well but he's trying.

"You know, in school, when you try so hard to get someone to like you and you end up just shooting yourself in the foot? That's very much Jett for the first few episodes.

"He grows. He becomes a bit more balanced. He doesn't lose his humor or his cheek which is really nice. We just get to know more about him and why he is the way he is.'

Looking at Season 2 as a long arc, Nicole and Akshay see the show finding its footing as more of a cohesive space adventure.

"I think this season leans more into the sci-fi side of it, the adventure, the high stakes, the heavy action," Nicole confirmed, then qualified it a bit. "But, again, there are romantic scenes and romantic storylines but I definitely feel like they've leaned a lot more into the action of it."

"The action and the bigger threat," Akshay added. "The looming threat that we learned about in Season 1. I think that's definitely much more present. That's definitely more at the forefront, especially of Jax and Xander's characters [decisions].

"What's really great is the emphasis on relationships between characters which is a huge plus. The constant evolution between characters such as Ralen and Jett and where that goes, then Xander and Jax, Zazie and Jett, Zazie and Jax.

"There's so many different webs that intertwine so much more, in a much more human fashion. Friendships are made and broken, then new, unlikely friendships are made.

"All the while, they're all working towards [confronting] the big enemy, the looming threat. So I think that's definitely much more grounded."

Nicole comes to acting from an extensive dance background and while we won't get to see Zazie trot out those skills on-screen this season, she dreams of being able to represent both her natural and nurtured background one day.

"I've always wanted to be able to play a role that kind of represents where I come from, my heritage. Maybe a role that is a Latina. That would be amazing. Just because I feel like I've never really cast in that direction.

"So it would be amazing to play someone of my heritage and 'rep' the heritage. Or as a part of a musical. That would be great."

Wrapping the two wishlist items together, I suggested something like In the Heights, which garnered an enthusiastic response as it's one of her favorite shows.

Akshay's professional credits include roles on films like Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi and regular roles on TV series, The Halcyon and Devs. His heart lies with the action-oriented, stunt-heavy roles.

"I love stunt sequences and I wish I had more of that on this show. I get a real kick out of any sort of role that allows me to just feel like a kid again. And for me, the select sequences I have on this show just blow my mind. The amount of fun I have."

Recalling he had recently watched John Wick 3: Parabellum, he expressed his desire to be Keanu Reeves in that role.

"Anything that's teetering on the dangerous and you-may-die sort of edge. I'm a bit Tom Cruise-y like that.... yeah, I could be the British-Indian Tom Cruise. Let's go for that."

For both Nicole and Akshay, the experience of being part of the Pandora family has been nothing short of wonderful.

"It's a dream!" Nicole sang out without hesitation when I asked for their feelings about the show.

"Honestly," Akshay professed,"It's been such a great ride. Everyone here is so lovely, and everyone works so hard."

"It's been such an amazing experience," Nicole added,"I personally feel like I've learned so much being out here and everyone is just beautiful, so lovely, and the crew is wonderful. The cast is really wonderful. All the directors we've worked with. Our D.O.P., Max, and Mark and Steve. Just everyone."

Pandora Season 2 premieres TONIGHT, Sunday, October 4, at 8/7c on The CW.

[tak4hir0]

Published on 21st of March, 2019 Maybe You Don't Need Kubernetes A woman riding a scooter Illustration created by freepik, Nomad logo by HashiCorp. Kubernetes is the 800-pound gorilla of container orchestration. It powers some of the biggest deployments worldwide, but it comes with a price tag. Especially for smaller teams, it can be time-consuming to maintain and has a steep learning curve. For what our team of four wanted to achieve at trivago, it added too much overhead. So we looked into alternatives — and fell in love with Nomad. The wishlist Our team runs a number of typical services for monitoring and performance analysis: API endpoints for metrics written in Go, Prometheus exporters, log parsers like Logstash or Gollum, and databases like InfluxDB or Elasticsearch. Each of these services run in their own container. We needed a simple system to keep those jobs running. We started with a list of requirements for container orchestration: Run a fleet of services across many machines. Provide an overview of running services. Allow for communication between services. Restart them automatically when they die. Be manageable by a small team. On top of that, the following things were nice to have but not strictly required: Tag machines by their capabilities (e.g., label machines with fast disks for I/O heavy services.) Be able to run these services independently of any orchestrator (e.g. in development). Have a common place to share configurations and secrets. Provide an endpoint for metrics and logging. Why Kubernetes was not a good fit for us When creating a prototype with Kubernetes, we noticed that we started adding ever-more complex layers of logic to operate our services. Logic on which we implicitly relied on. As an example, Kubernetes allows embedding service configurations using ConfigMaps. Especially when merging multiple config files or adding more services to a pod, this can get quite confusing quickly. Kubernetes - or helm, for that matter - allows injecting external configs dynamically to ensure separation of concerns. But this can lead to tight, implicit coupling between your project and Kubernetes. Helm and ConfigMaps are optional features so you don’t have to use them. You might as well just copy the config into the Docker image. However, it’s tempting to go down that path and build unnecessary abstractions that can later bite you. On top of that, the Kubernetes ecosystem is still rapidly evolving. It takes a fair amount of time and energy to stay up-to-date with the best practices and latest tooling. Kubectl, minikube, kubeadm, helm, tiller, kops, oc - the list goes on and on. Not all tools are necessary to get started with Kubernetes, but it’s hard to know which ones are, so you have to be at least aware of them. Because of that, the learning curve is quite steep. When to use Kubernetes At trivago specifically, many teams use Kubernetes and are quite happy with it. These instances are managed by Google or Amazon however, which have the capacity to do so. Kubernetes comes with amazing features, that make container orchestration at scale more manageable: Fine-grained rights management Custom controllers allow getting logic into the cluster. These are just programs that talk to the Kubernetes API. Autoscaling! Kubernetes can scale your services up and down on demand. It uses service metrics to do this without manual intervention. The question is if you really need all those features. You can't rely on these abstractions to just work; you'll have to learn what's going on under the hood. Especially in our team, which runs most services on-premise (because of its close connection to trivago's core infrastructure), we didn't want to afford running our own Kubernetes cluster. We wanted to ship services instead. Batteries not included Nomad is the 20% of service orchestration that gets you 80% of the way. All it does is manage deployments. It takes care of your rollouts and restarts your containers in case of errors, and that's about it. The entire point of Nomad is that it does less: it doesn’t include fine-grained rights management or advanced network policies, and that’s by design. Those components are provided as enterprise services, by a third-party, or not at all. I think Nomad hit a sweet-spot between ease of use and expressiveness. It's good for small, mostly independent services. If you need more control, you'll have to build it yourself or use a different approach. Nomad is just an orchestrator. The best part about Nomad is that it's easy to replace. There is little to no vendor lock-in because the functionality it provides can easily be integrated into any other system that manages services. It just runs as a plain old single binary on every machine in your cluster; that's it! The Nomad ecosystem of loosely coupled components The real power of Nomad lies within its ecosystem. It integrates very well with other - completely optional - products like Consul (a key-value store) or Vault (for secrets handling). Inside your Nomad file, you can have sections for fetching data from those services: template { data = <<EOH LOG_LEVEL="" API_KEY="" EOH destination = "secrets/file.env" env = true } This will read the service/geo-api/log-verbosity key from Consul and expose it as a LOG_LEVEL environment variable inside your job. It's also exposing secret/geo-api-key from Vault as API_KEY. Simple, but powerful! Because it's so simple, Nomad can also be easily extended with other services through its API. For example, jobs can be tagged for service discovery. At trivago, we tag all services, which expose metrics, with trv-metrics. This way, Prometheus finds the services via Consul and periodically scrapes the /metrics endpoint for new data. The same can be done for logs by integrating Loki for example. There are many other examples for extensibility: Trigger a Jenkins job using a webhook and Consul watches to redeploy your Nomad job on service config changes. Use Ceph to add a distributed file system to Nomad. Use fabio for load balancing. All of this allowed us to grow our infrastructure organically without too much up-front commitment. Fair warning No system is perfect. I advise you not to use any fancy new features in production right now. There are bugs and missing features of course - but that's also the case for Kubernetes. Compared to Kubernetes, there is far less momentum behind Nomad. Kubernetes has seen around 75.000 commits and 2000 contributors so far, while Nomad sports about 14.000 commits and 300 contributors. It will be hard for Nomad to keep up with the velocity of Kubernetes, but maybe it doesn’t have to! The scope is much more narrow and the smaller community could also mean that it'll be easier to get your pull request accepted, in comparison to Kubernetes. Summary The takeaway is: don't use Kubernetes just because everybody else does. Carefully evaluate your requirements and check which tool fits the bill. If you're planning to deploy a fleet of homogenous services on large-scale infrastructure, Kubernetes might be the way to go. Just be aware of the additional complexity and operational costs. Some of these costs can be avoided by using a managed Kubernetes environment like Google Kubernetes Engine or Amazon EKS. If you're just looking for a reliable orchestrator that is easy to maintain and extendable, why not give Nomad a try? You might be surprised by how far it'll get you. If Kubernetes were a car, Nomad would be a scooter. Sometimes you prefer one and sometimes the other. Both have their right to exist. Credits Thanks to my awesome colleagues Esteban Barrios, Jorge-Luis Betancourt, Simon Brüggen, Arne Claus, Inga Feick, Wolfgang Gassler, Barnabas Kutassy, Perry Manuk, Patrick Pokatilo, and Jakub Sacha for reviewing drafts of this article. 💡Found an error in this article? Please propose a change on Github. 💬 Comments on Hacker News, Reddit. 📖 Translated into Japanese, Russian.

[flawsinourcxdexarchived-blog]

Grey’s Anatomy AU where Connor, adopted son of famous attendee surgeon Amanda Stern, is a surgeon intern who has flirty banter with fellow intern Markus Manfred while also having a bit of a crush on the attending surgeon Hank Anderson, while his cousin Cassius is an EMT for the hospital, and Connor’s twin brother Corwin is the sane family member who steered clear of the medical field to make a daycare instead “because dealing with a dozen screaming children is better than a dozen whiny patients”.

[smarterhomesworld]

"My is my Wi-Fi so slow?" Explained

Smarter Homes Presents

Frequently Asked Questions:

Cable TV, Internet, and Phone

Let me guess - you purchased a high speed, multifaceted internet bundle and you ended up with an inadequate connection, a cable package that doesn’t match your needs, and an unreliable phone line you didn’t even want. Or some combination of the three.

I’m here to break the issues down, service by service, so that you understand what’s really at play when it comes to internet, phone and cable TV providers. Each service provider has pros and cons - different niches they excel in and areas where they fall short. Often times, without you knowledge, there are third party subcontractors involved.

It’s important to all of us at Smarter Homes that you After all, our motto is that a failure to plan is a plan for failure, and planning takes knowledge.

You don’t have to compromise your wallet for your wishlist, with bundled packages that include unwanted products and features. By building a personalized network of phone, internet, and cable, we can help you find a cost-effective combination that fits your needs.

Let’s dive into the issues:

Wi-Fi

What’s the problem?

Nine times out of ten, people call a service provider as soon as they move into their house. They pick a provider that they think is in their area or that they're familiar with. The provider will come out, install the products, and get out as fast as possible. Soon enough, the homeowner will discover their network is falling short.

What most people don’t realize is that companies like Spectrum hire third-party subcontractors to install their equipment and get it configured with Spectrum’s service infrastructure. These subcontractors are often paid a flat fee which means there is no motivation to spend extra time on service configuration, home assessment, or quality control. In the end, you’re left with stock equipment that you're essentially leasing from the provider, often installed as quickly and easily as possible, and it only goes so far.

If the home is not pre-wired, they drill holes through your exterior wall to access the service location. Since Wi-Fi degrades as it moves through walls, you lose a percentage of the connection the further you travel across the house. You end up with an office, living room, or bedroom across the house that’s totally lacking solid Wi-Fi connectivity.

On top of low-quality equipment and degraded connection, you may also be paying for too much download speed and never coming close to reaching your quota.

What’s the solution?

You don’t need to lease low-quality equipment! Don’t get trapped into the misconception that leasing is your only option. We can help you build your OWN, cost-competitive system. When we put an infrastructure in place that allows the homeowner to provide their own equipment, the result is a drastic increase in the overall quality of their system. Instead of having one or two pieces of gear that handle everything, such as an all in one modem router or provider supplied Wi-Fi hotspot, you can dedicate a modem that acts as your network security gateway. This provides a much more reliable connection and is less susceptible to hacking.

With a managed network like this, specific pieces of equipment are designated to specific tasks, allowing space for hundreds of IP addresses, designated exclusively to your home.

If you think about this system like a highway, this means everyone’s devices have their own lanes to travel in. As soon as you open your device or turn it on, it goes right back to its assigned route with a straight path to connection and data; no more bumping other devices offline so that it can grab connectivity.

Another benefit of having a system like this is that we can design and distribute Wi-Fi access points, or APs, throughout the house to generate signal in key areas. With our APs in place, degradation becomes a non-issue. Don’t let your home’s square footage determine the quality of your internet connection.

We’ll help you calculate the number of devices on your network so that you have a precise understanding of how much bandwidth is necessary. Then, we can prioritize that bandwidth to certain devices - say dad’s office computer - and make sure that they receive proper internet connection no matter how many kids are upstairs playing Xbox live.

Phone

What’s the problem?

If you’re looking for a reliable landline phone, AT&T is fantastic. That’s because it pulls power from the main phone line coming into the house. If your home loses power in that inevitable, post-apocalyptic situation and cell phone towers are down, you'll still be able to make a phone call via the landline phone. The downside of AT&T? Their internet leaves much to be desired. You're not allowed to provide your own modem. You can provide your own router but it’s nearly impossible to bridge and optimize its performance without a regular reboot. When you choose AT&T for it’s phone reliability, you trade off great Wi-Fi in the home.

But maybe you aren’t looking for a landline provider. Maybe you just got sucked into buying one under the guise that bundling internet, cable, and phone was the cheapest option. After that introductory period ended, your bill went up and now you’re paying a monthly phone service fee for a phone you don’t want, need, or use.

What’s the solution?

Let us come in and install a modem for you that you own. You’ll save money on monthly equipment rental fees and you’ll have higher reliability. Then we can manage a solid Wi-Fi network that’s separate from your landline. You don’t have to bundle to save. Especially because most service providers aren’t focused on home phone quality these days. They only want to lasso you into a bundle so that they can make more money after that introductory period. If a home phone is still something you need, we’ll help you identify your best option. However, you don’t need to pay for an unwanted service just to save on your internet.

Television What’s the problem?

If you've got a cable box for the sole purpose of recording, you’ve probably run into some or all of the following problems. You don’t have the option of whole home DVR on a cloud. You literally have to record your shows in every room that you want to watch them in. That’s a time-consuming pursuit, all for the sake of watching your favorite sitcom. On top of that, what you watch in one room doesn’t carry over to another. In other words, you can’t pause in the bedroom and continue in the living room.

It all feels a little outdated. Even the fact that you have to have a physical cable box at each TV is not long for this world.

What’s the solution?

Streaming platforms are the future. There’s no way around that. Pretty soon we’ll be visiting a Disney or ESPN app to find the content we’re after. However, until your favorite channels and programs comply, you still may need good ‘ole fashion cable for a while. There’s no reason you can’t also have the streaming platforms you need, all consolidated on a smart, app-based system, such as AppleTV 4K, paired with your favorite cable provider.

We've seen a lot of people find success by taking their favorite TV provider, matching it with the highest speed Spectrum or Google Fiber package, and then using an integrator like us at Smarter Homes to spread their Wi-Fi throughout the house. Combining those two bills long term is basically the same price as a provider suggested bundle. It allows you to really dial into what TV shows and content you actually value, whether it's a cable box method or an app based system. This is the future of home viewing entertainment.

I hope this article has helped you understand service providers a little better. You have more options than you think. If the best plan of action is still unclear, give me a call at 512-775-6101 anytime and we can strategize the best solution for you and your home. Everything we do at Smarter Homes starts with the education of our clients. Equipping you with the knowledge you need to make your home efficient, easy, and entertaining is just as important as installing the technology that makes it all work together.

Peter Sandford

Owner & Operator

Smarter Homes

[templified]

Best WordPress Fashion Store Themes

New Post has been published on https://www.templified.com/best-wordpress-fashion-store-themes/

Best WordPress Fashion Store Themes

Want to compete with the biggest fashion blog sites around?  You’re going to need an awesome theme.

Fashion is obviously a big industry, it’s no wonder so many people blog about it.  And it’s not just the latest fashion on the runways of Paris, or at the Academy Awards that people get into, everyday fashion is also big business.  When you’re blogging about the latest trends, you’ll want a site that can stand up to the stylish content you create, something with a subtle but consistent style and features that make it easy to run your blog.

The last thing you want is to spend more time coding and tweaking your website, while ignoring what’s happening in the fashion world.

We’ve decided to gather up the best fashion themes for WordPress and with these templates, you might just find yourself competing for traffic with MyFashDiary or FishnetsAndRainbows.  If you hit it big, will you still talk to us?  So, here you go, the best WordPress fashion themes, whether it’s men’s clothing or women’s, shoes or hats, you’ll find a great selection of fashion themes that can really help sell your line of clothing.

IUStore

IUStore is all about fashion and it makes for an incredibly satisfying website that’s easy to use on both the front and back ends.  The IUStore theme integrates perfectly with all of the most popular e Commerce plug-ins, but since it’s made to integrate with WooCommerce, why use anything else?  WooCommerce is the most popular shopping cart for WordPress for good reason.

Support for YITH Compare plugin makes shopping easier for your customers and YITH Wishlist helps in that way as well.  With WPML support, you’ll be able to translate your website into any language you want.  IUStore supports MailChimp and Contact Form 7 for helping to manage your customer base and promote new offerings as you want.  For eCommerce, SEO is a big part of your toolbox for success and IUStore works perfectly with W3 Total Cache, Yoast and all of the other popular SEO plugins that can help drive traffic to your website.  The single product pages do a lot to put the focus on the products you’re selling with large, attractive images and easily read descriptions.  What’s more, all the various options are crystal clear, ensuring your customers have all the options they want when purchasing a product from your site.   Thanks to WPBakery’s Page Builder plugin, you’ll have an amazing amount of design and layout flexibility.  From headers and footers, to the basic layout of all pages and posts, there’s nothing you can’t achieve with this theme.

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Floris

If you’re looking for a great theme that does it all, maybe you should consider Floris, a WordPress based women’s fashion line theme that has a simple, restrained style.  A clothing store theme that offers wide ranging and concise documentation and tremendous support.  A theme with extraordinary design, that’s SEO optimized with well made CSS and HTML?  One with a stylish and neat layout that is perfectly simple to navigate and countless adaptive, impressive choices for real customization that can help brand your website to match your company?  Why not give Floris a chance to wow you?

This theme was built to be a great looking women’s fashion website and the reviews are in, Floris is a huge hit, because it’s sleek, trendy and easy to use.  Floris is great for small boutique shops, startup fashion lines, artisans and craftspeople of all kinds.  If you need an elegant and beautiful online storefront to help sell your products, you may want to use WooCommerce, the best and cheapest ecommerce plugin for WordPress.  (So cheap it’s free!) WooCommerce is simple to set up, so your webstore will be up and running quickly.  WooCommerce lets you track orders, shipments and more.

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Sash

Sash is a simple, authentically beautiful template for the fashion industry.  Whether you’re a fashion blogger or you’re a designer who wants to market a new line of clothing, Sash could be the answer.  This theme is WooCommerce ready, it’s got a clean design that means it won’t overshadow your content.  If you’re a beginner with WordPress, I really do recommend a site like Sash, because it’s really very user-friendly.  Sash is SEO friendly, loads up very quickly, offers a vari

Sash has several pre-made layouts with features that I think would be ideal for a fashion blog, but you can always delve into the drag and drop page builder, Visual Composer, to switch things up if it begins to get boring.  Visual Composer is a great plugin for site creation and there are tons of great addons that go right along with it.  If you do add a store to this site, I really think the product page views are amazing.  Worth checking out.

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The Styler

For fashion blogs, I really believe The Styler, from CSS Igniter, could be a wonderful choice.  This theme is handsome, attractive and it looks great on all devices, thanks to it’s responsive design.  The Styler is versatile, flexible, open-ended and it gives you the freedom to create a wonderful looking website about fashion, beauty and other related fields.  The Styler was created by CSS Igniter, one of the best theme developers around, it’s made with SEO firmly in mind.  SEO is so critical to the success of your website, so a fast loading, well coded, light and flexible theme like CSS Igniter can really help you build your website.

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Pinmaister

Pinmaister is a modern ‘Pinterest Style’ WordPress theme, but there’s more going on here than just that.  Pinmaister is an awesome theme for fashion blogs and magazines, for highlighting design work like interior decoration, art and more.  It’s really a great lifestyle blog for WordPress.  The drag and drop home page builder allows you great flexibility in designing your home page.  It doesn’t matter what features you want, you can get them where you need them by just dragging and dropping content where it’s needed.  That’s simple.  Increase user engagement with a ‘like’ button for each post.  The AJAX pagination loads up fast, looks great and you don’t even have to reload the page to see more, similar to how Pinterest works.  There are infinite colors available, custom widgets to help add functionality, Pinmaister is SEO ready and much more.

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Boutique

For setting up your very own fashion shop using your favorite eCommerce plugin, you may want to consider what Boutique has to offer.  From Elegant Themes, Boutique is a powerful, feminine and lovely looking eCommerce template that is also incredibly simple to use and customize.  That’s true of all Elegant Themes designs, since their ePanel is very simple to learn and use to make all sorts of edits and tweaks to your website.  eCommerce shopping carts are pretty common and Boutique works well with all of them, so whether you prefer JigoShop or WooCommerce, even Easy Digital Downloads, this theme will look great and with help you sell products of all kinds.  For flower shops, bath and beauty products, trendy clothing shops, jewelry and more, Boutique could be a fantastic fit for your products.

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Boutique-Quartal

WooCommerce guarantees all of the features you will need to launch a small business quickly and well and this magnificent, properly designed and cool eCommerce theme is the first step on a path to building your very own online business. Whether you’re promoting boots or shoes, clothes, consumer electronics, downloadable products like movies, video tutorials, mp3s or computer software, this theme is an excellent selection since it is so flexible.  But really, Boutique is best suited as an online fashion shop, giving your clothing line an amazing style that’s professional and attractive.

With a fantastic WooCommerce design you may make a website to market clothes, sneakers or anything you can imagine. There are so many functions that will assist you sell your products in incredible style, such as galleries, menus and a selection of different layouts to choose from that offer your web site an amazing design. The support available with this theme is unrivaled, so you can feel assured when you encounter issues you’ll have guidance when you need it.

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Peter Mason

For a men’s clothing store, this reliable, new and innovative, gorgeous, well built and very flexible WooCommerce ready WordPress theme helps you administer shipping and inventory, communicate with buyers, market old goods, grow your small business and promote fresh products and more.  WordPress is a smart way for you to start an internet business, even if you’re not quite a skilled professional in coding, since it may be quickly tailored to fit your preferences.  That’s what Peter Mason is all about.

This modern style looks remarkable on any device because it’s totally responsive. If you happen to be establishing an internet business, potential customers are plainly essential so permitting them to read your site at any place at any time is crucial.  With a stunning WooCommerce web theme it is possible to build a site to sell clothes, shoes or boots or any sort of fashion related products.

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Fashionist

This is Fashionist, a delightfully feminine and feature filled theme for WordPress.  This WooCommerce ready theme is an excellent choice to get started with an online business, even if you’re not really a professional in programming, as it may be straightforwardly altered to suit your preferences. This delicate design looks exceptional on any size device since it’s designed and coded to be responsive, which is incredibly important. When you are developing an internet business, customers are obviously very important and allowing them to read your web site at anyplace anytime is really important.  Fashionist is ideal for any sort of clothing store, shoe shop or more, with modern and feminine design touches everywhere you look.  It’s really a full featured and multipurpose template, ready to install and customize to fit your business.

WooCommerce offers all of the options you will need to establish a business enterprise fast and successfully and this wonderful, well-designed and trendy eCommerce template is the starting point on a route to establishing your own company. If you are selling boots and shoes, outfits, jewelry, downloadable products like films, video, songs or software program, this WooCommerce theme is an awesome selection because it’s so modifiable.

With an excellent WooCommerce template you may generate a site to sell clothes, shoes or anything else out there. There are so many advantages that will assist you present your merchandise in a fashionable way, like menus, galleries along with a selection of different designs to choose from that give your website an amazing style. The assistance available with this template is unmatched, so you can feel assured that if you run into issues you will have guidance should you need it.

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Lynette

If you’re looking for a simple to use, beautiful and somewhat feminine style fashion blog theme, let me introduce you to Lynette, which could be a great choice for helping build a beautiful fashion blog using WordPress.  Lynette was made by BluChic, known to be among the very best creators of bold, engaging and lovely feminine themes.  Lynette could be just what you need to make a fashion blog that can really engage with an audience and keep them interested in what you have to offer.  User friendly, that’s what really strikes me about the Lynette WordPress theme.  It’s highly intuitive, highly engaging and ready for almost anything you throw at it.  Lynette really is a wonderful theme for any kind of fashion magazine.

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Hugo

Hugo is all about fashion.  This theme has a modern design that makes it great for selling all kinds of products, men’s and women’s fashion, shoes, accessories, handbags…you name it.  Hugo is a handsome blog platform as well, with tons of stylish choices to make your blog fun and memorable.  WooCommerce is the industry standard for building a free shopping system for WordPress and if you need more functionality, there are dozens of potential addons and extensions that give you more features and functions that aren’t included with the vanilla download.  I’ve used many of these addons and extensions and they’re generally very simple to implement.

Hugo’s unique layout, SEO optimization, multiple bold and beautiful color schemes, tons of widgetized areas and drag and drop home-page builder all combine to give Hugo an incredibly level of flexibility.  In short, you can create an online shop that does exactly what you want it to do, with a look and feel that perfectly matches what you’ve been imagining.  All user friendly too, which is nice.  And for support and documentation, CSS Igniter is known to be among the very best.

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Brittany

Brittany is a simple fashion and lifestyle blogging theme that could really help separate your site from the competition.  The simple, modern style isn’t the only wonderful thing offered in this theme though, you get tons of handy features to help make your blogging experience a positive one, for both you and your readers.  If you’re looking for a theme with incredibly flexibility, then Brittany may be a great choice.  That’s thanks to a drag and drop page builder feature that lets you create a layout that perfectly fits your website’s needs.

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BiaMuc

With BiaMuc, you just get more.  This reliable, contemporary, pretty, well made and flexible WooCommerce theme will allow you to administer delivery and inventory, advertise fresh items, sell existing merchandise, build your business and contact potential customers and more.  With an excellent WooCommerce web theme you can make a website to market clothes, footwear or any thing else. There are lots of advantages that will help promote your services with ease, like galleries, menus and a wide range of design layouts to choose from that give your site a wonderful look. The assistance available with this template is second to none, so that you can feel assured that if you face troubles you’ll have assistance when you need it.

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Aperitive

While Aperitive’s demo site is geared toward restaurants and the food industry, I think the stylish and unique layout of this theme lends itself to creating an incredible fashion blog.  The cool, trendy split look, with a static image on the left and scrolling text on the right side of the page, looks amazing and it’s fun and different.  If you’re a fashion designer, it’s a great way to highlight your products with descriptions and additional images available within a blog post.  It’s a cool way to present your material.

Right after you install this theme, you’ll be able to make as many changes as you’d like to colors, backgrounds, fonts and more.  Considering the design, you may wonder if this site looks good on mobile devices and I can say that it does, it’s responsive, so the images and text adjust their height and width to whatever device is being used.  That’s all-important these days and it’ll help give your readers a fantastic user experience.

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Ad-Sense

What’s the best WordPress theme for a fashion blog?  Believe it or not, it might be Ad-Sense, by MyThemeShop.  Despite not having a name that makes it seem like it should be about fashion, Ad-Sense knows what it’s doing.  For fashion magazines or blogs, monetization is often achieved through AdSense, from Google.  That or any of the other common, popular advertising networks.  No matter which way you go, having a theme that’s perfectly built for making money via AdSense is important.  That’s where Ad-Sense comes in.  It’s absolutely built from the ground up to convert visitors into clicks.  SEO optimization, fast loading times and a great design, those are all great things.  But Ad-Sense goes further, with simple ways to ensure readers see your ads and click on them.  Of course, content is the most important part and your site’s articles, posts and images will look fantastic, framed perfectly in this responsive gem.

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Olsen

Olsen, from CSSIgniter, is a classic fashion blog theme.  Look at the features.  A fantastic design that highlights your content with an amazing style.  With multiple layouts from which to choose, eleven to be exact, you’ve got access to the style you need for your blog or magazine website.  Style Olsen even further with multiple color schemes, typography settings and more.  A variety of post formats could come in very handy for a fashion blog.  Edit your site in real time with the live WordPress editor.  Multiple custom widgets and tons of widgetized areas help make this SEO optimized theme a really powerful option for your site.

With WooCommerce onboard, you can set up a shop selling products.  If you’re trying to be more than a simple fashion blogger, an eCommerce shop could really come in handy, letting you sell clothing or accessories with ease.  Works perfectly with Elementor, Divi Builder and Site Origin’s page builder plugins, which adds even more flexibility.  With all CSSIgniter themes, you get fantastic support and documentation, which is great for those who aren’t WordPress experts.

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