#Bulk Texting Software

[geneeste]

Creating a personal fanfic archive using Calibre, various Calibre plugins, Firefox Reader View, and an e-Reader / BookFusion / Calibre-Web

A few years ago I started getting serious about saving my favorite fic (or just any fic I enjoyed), since the Internet is sadly not actually always forever when it comes to fanfiction. Plus, I wanted a way to access fanfic offline when wifi wasn't available. Enter a personal fanfic archive!

There are lots of ways you can do this, but I thought I'd share my particular workflow in case it helps others get started. Often it's easier to build off someone else's workflow than to create your own!

Please note that this is for building an archive for private use -- always remember that it's bad form to publicly archive someone else's work without their explicit permission.

This is going to be long, so let's add a read more!

How to Build Your Own Personal Fanfic Archive

Step One: Install Calibre

Calibre is an incredibly powerful ebook management software that allows you to do a whole lot of stuff having to do with ebooks, such as convert almost any text-based file into an ebook and (often) vice-versa. It also allows you to easily side-load ebooks onto your personal e-reader of choice and manage the collection of ebooks on the device.

And because it's open source, developers have created a bunch of incredibly useful plugins to use with Calibre (including several we're going to talk about in the next step), which make saving and reading fanfiction super easy and fun.

But before we can do that, you need to download and install it. It's available for Windows, MacOS, Linux, and in a portable version.

Step Two: Download These Plugins

This guide would be about 100 pages long if I went into all of the plugins I love and use with Calibre, so we're just going to focus on the ones I use for saving and reading fanfiction. And since I'm trying to keep this from becoming a novel (lolsob), I'll just link to the documentation for most of these plugins, but if you run into trouble using them, just tag me in the notes or a comment and I'll be happy to write up some steps for using them.

Anyway, now that you've downloaded and installed Calibre, it's time to get some plugins! To do that, go to Preferences > Get plugins to enhance Calibre.

You'll see a pop-up with a table of a huge number of plugins. You can use the Filter by name: field in the upper right to search for the plugins below, one at a time.

Click on each plugin, then click Install. You'll be asked which toolbars to add the plugins to; for these, I keep the suggested locations (in the main toolbar & when a device is connected).

FanFicFare (here's also a great tutorial for using this plugin) EpubMerge (for creating anthologies from fic series) EbubSplit (for if you ever need to break up fic anthologies) Generate Cover (for creating simple artwork for downloaded fic) Manage Series (for managing fic series)

You'll have to restart Calibre for the plugins to run, so I usually wait to restart until I've installed the last plugin I want.

Take some time here to configure these plugins, especially FanFicFare. In the next step, I'll demonstrate a few of its features, but you might be confused if you haven't set it up yet! (Again, highly recommend that linked tutorial!)

Step Three: Get to Know FanFicFare (and to a lesser extent, Generate Cover)

FanFicFare is a free Calibre plugin that allows you to download fic in bulk, including all stories in a series as one work, adding them directly to Calibre so that that you can convert them to other formats or transfer them to your e-reader.

As with Calibre, FanFicFare has a lot of really cool features, but we're just going to focus on a few, since the docs above will show you most of them.

The features I use most often are: Download from URLs, Get Story URLs from Email, and Get Story URLs from Web Page.

Download from URLs let's you add a running list of URLs that you'd like FanFicFare to download and turn into ebooks for you. So, say, you have a bunch of fic from fanfic.net that you want to download. You can do that!

Now, in this case, I've already downloaded these (which FanFicFare detected), so I didn't update my library with the fic.

But I do have some updates to do from email, so let's try getting story URLs from email!

Woohoo, new fic! Calibre will detect when cover art is included in the downloaded file and use that, but at least one of these fic doesn't have cover art (which is the case for most of the fic I download). This is where Generate Cover comes in.

With Generate Cover, I can set the art, font, dimensions, and info content of the covers so that when I'm looking at the fic on my Kindle, I know right away what fic it is, what fandom it's from, and whether or not it's part of a series.

Okay, last thing from FanFicFare -- say I want to download all of the fic on a page, like in an author's profile on fanfic.net or all of the stories in a series. I can do that too with Get Story URLs from Web Page:

The thing I want to call out here is that I can specify whether the fic at this link are individual works or all part of an anthology, meaning if they're all works in the same series, I can download all stories as a single ebook by choosing For Anthology Epub.

Step Four: Using FireFox Reader View to Download Fic Outside of Archives

This is less common now thanks to AO3, but the elders among us may want to save fanfic that exists outside of archives on personal websites that either still exist or that exist only on the Internet Wayback Machine. FanFicFare is awesome and powerful, but it's not able to download fic from these kinds of sources, so we have to get creative.

I've done this in a couple of ways, none of which are entirely perfect, but the easiest way I've found thus far is by using Firefox's Reader View. Also, I don't think I discovered this -- I think I read about this on Tumblr, actually, although I can longer find the source (if you know it, please tell me so I can credit them!).

At any rate, open the fic in Firefox and then toggle on Reader View:

Toggling on Reader View strips all the HTML formatting from the page and presents the fic in the clean way you see in the preview below, which is more ideal for ebook formats.

To save this, go to the hamburger menu in the upper right of the browser and select Print, then switch to Print to PDF. You'll see the URL and some other stuff at the top and bottom of the pages; to remove that, scroll down until you see something like More settings... and uncheck Print headers and footers.

Click Save to download the resulting PDF, which you can then add to Calibre and convert to whichever format works best for your e-reader or archive method.

Step Five: Archiving (Choose Your Own Adventure)

Here's the really fun part: now that you know how to download your fave fanfics in bulk and hopefully have a nice little cache going, it's time to choose how you want to (privately) archive them!

I'm going to go through each option I've used in order of how easy it is to implement (and whether it costs additional money to use). I won't go too in depth about any of them, but I'm happy to do so in a separate post if anyone is interested.

Option 1: On Your Computer

If you're using Calibre to convert fanfic, then you're basically using your computer as your primary archive. This is a great option, because it carries no additional costs outside the original cost of acquiring your computer. It's also the simplest option, as it really doesn't require any advanced technical knowledge, just a willingness to tinker with Calibre and its plugins or to read how-to docs.

Calibre comes with a built-in e-book viewer that you can use to read the saved fic on your computer (just double-click on the fic in Calibre). You can also import it into your ebook app of choice (in most cases; this can get a little complicated just depending on how many fic you're working with and what OS you're on/app you're using).

If you choose this option, you may want to consider backing the fic up to a secondary location like an external hard drive or cloud storage. This may incur additional expense, but is likely still one of the more affordable options, since storage space is cheap and only getting cheaper, and text files tend to not be that big to begin with, even when there are a lot of them.

Option 2: On Your e-Reader

This is another great option, since this is what Calibre was built for! There are some really great, afforable e-readers out there nowadays, and Calibre supports most of them. Of course, this is a more expensive option because you have to acquire an e-reader in addition to a computer to run Calibre on, but if you already have an e-reader and haven't considered using it to read fanfic, boy are you in for a treat!

Option 3: In BookFusion

This is a really cool option that I discovered while tinkering with Calibre and used for about a year before I moved to a self-hosted option (see Option 4).

BookFusion is a web platform and an app (available on iOS and Android) that allows you to build your own ebook library and access it from anywhere, even when you're offline (it's the offline bit that really sold me). It has a Calibre plugin through which you can manage your ebook library very easily, including sorting your fanfic into easy-to-access bookshelves. You may or may not be able to share ebooks depending on your subscription, but only with family members.

Here's what the iOS app looks like:

The downside to BookFusion is that you'll need a subscription if you want to upload more than 10 ebooks. It's affordable(ish), ranging from $1.99 per month for a decent 5GB storage all the way to $9.99 for 100GB for power users. Yearly subs range from $18.99 to $95.99. (They say this is temporary, early bird pricing, but subscribing now locks you into this pricing forever.)

I would recommend this option if you have some cash to spare and you're really comfortable using Calibre or you're a nerd for making apps like BookFusion work. It works really well and is incredibly convenient once you get it set up (especially when you want to read on your phone or tablet offline), but even I, someone who works in tech support for a living, had some trouble with the initial sync and ended up duplicating every ebook in my BookFusion library, making for a very tedious cleanup session.

Option 4: On a Self-Hosted Server Using Calibre-Web

Do you enjoy unending confusion and frustration? Are you okay with throwing fistfuls of money down a well? Do you like putting in an incredible amount of work for something only you and maybe a few other people will ever actually use? If so, self-hosting Calibre-Web on your own personal server might be a good fit for you!

To be fair, this is likely an experience unique to me, because I am just technical enough to be a danger to myself. I can give a brief summary of how I did this, but I don't know nearly enough to explain to you how to do it.

Calibre-Web is a web app that works on top of Calibre, offering "a clean and intuitive interface for browsing, reading, and downloading eBooks."

I have a network-attached storage (NAS) server on which I run an instance of Calibre and Calibre-Web (through the miracle that is Docker). After the initial work of downloading all the fic I wanted to save and transferring it to the server, I'm now able to download all new fic pretty much via email thanks to FanFicFare, so updating my fic archive is mostly automated at this point.

If you're curious, this is what it looks like:

Pros: The interface is clean and intuitive, the ebook reader is fantastic. The Discover feature, in which you are given random books / fic to read, has turned out to be one feature worth all the irritation of setting up Calibre-Web. I can access, read, and download ebooks on any device, and I can even convert ebooks into another format using this interface. As I mentioned above, updating it with fic (and keeping the Docker container itself up to date) is relatively automated and easy now.

Cons: The server, in whichever form you choose, costs money. It is not cheap. If you're not extremely careful (and sometimes even if you are, like me) and a hard drive goes bad, you could lose data (and then you have to spend more money to replace said hard drive and time replacing said data). It is not easy to set up. You may, at various points in this journey, wish you could launch the server into the sun, Calibre-Web into the sun, or yourself into the sun.

Step Six: Profit!

That's it! I hope this was enough to get you moving towards archiving your favorite fanfic. Again, if there's anything here you'd like me to expand on, let me know! Obviously I'm a huge nerd about this stuff, and love talking about it.

[nanowrimo]

12 Tips for Drafting Forward During NaNoWriMo (And Beyond!)

To accomplish your big writing goals, you have to focus on drafting forward. The team over at Freewrite knows how to do that better than most! Freewrite, a 2023 NaNoWriMo sponsor, is a dedicated distraction-free drafting device designed just for writers to separate the drafting from the editing process and get words on the page. Today, the Freewrite team is here to share their top 12 tips for doing just that:

Here at Freewrite, we love when NaNoWriMo comes around, because we’re all about helping writers set their stories free. We’re big proponents of the “write now, edit later” method of writing to help writers reach writing flow and increase productivity. The goal of drafting forward (and NaNoWriMo!) is to get a first draft recorded and translate your thoughts into writing on the page.

We’re going to share the top tips we recommend to writers who want to try this method but don’t know where to start. Try these out during your next writing session to see how they help you ditch the distractions and make serious progress!

1. Save research for later. (Or start with it!)

Yes, research is important. But it can also quickly turn into a form of procrastination. Complete the bulk of your research before you start writing, or, if it’s a topic you know well, commit to doing any research after. When you’re drafting and come to a place where you need to fact-check or gather information, simply leave a note to yourself right there in the text and continue drafting. 

2. Plan well.

With a timed challenge like NaNoWriMo, it helps to plan out your daily benchmarks in order to finish on time. Consider setting a daily word count goal or making a schedule for the month so you know exactly where you stand each day. Make an outline if you’re a plotter, or if you’re a pantser, spend some time getting into the world of your story.

3. Decide you’re going to write a messy first draft.

We recommend stating it outright to yourself, or maybe writing it down on a Post-It where you can see it each day: My goal is to write a messy first draft. Embrace that imperfection so that you can write more freely!

4. Silence your inner critic.

As you write, revisit your messy first draft goal and resist the urge to critique or edit your work as you go along. Instead, concentrate on getting your thoughts down without judgment. This means not overanalyzing each sentence. Did that last sentence sound ridiculous? Who cares?! Anything goes in a messy first draft. You’ll refine and revise later!

5. Turn off your inner spell-check.

Freewrite devices have no spell-check or grammar checker for a reason. Every squiggly line is a distraction, a moment that your writing flow is broken and you have to resist going back to fix typos. Even if your eyes recognize a typo, train your brain to fix it later! Remember: we’re focusing on getting out thoughts and ideas in the first draft, not grammar.

6. Eliminate external distractions.

We’ve done the hard work for you by creating Freewrite. 😉 Now, put your phone in the other room, turn off the TV, and start writing.

7. Write quickly.

This is just another way to trick your brain into writing from that deep, creative place that can’t be reached when you’re overthinking. Strive for a flow state where you’re typing at the speed that your thoughts come to you.

8. Use placeholders.

If you can’t think of the right word or need to look up a source, just insert a placeholder and keep writing. Our favorite placeholder is “xx” because that can easily be searched in editing software later. Other people like the more straightforward “[INSERT SOMETHING FUNNY]” or “[CHECK SOURCE]”. You can fill in those gaps during the editing phase.

9. Keep moving forward.

If you encounter writer’s block or a difficult section, resist the temptation to stop and dwell on it. Skip to another part in your story and return to the challenging section later. We like to add a note to ourselves right there in the draft to remind us to come back to that spot when editing.

10. No back-tracking.

Often while drafting, a brilliant sentence will come to us. But it’s describing something we just described. What to do? Do not go back, delete the first sentence, and replace it. Simply keep writing the new sentence! These redundancies are easy to correct later.

11. Experiment.

Try different styles and approaches without judgement. You can compare and contrast and pick the best one later, during the editing stage.

12. Write!

Relish in the creative flow and the freedom of having one job to do: writing. Don’t worry about grammar or story structure. Focus on the joy of creating.

With a few tweaks in how you draft, we hope you’ll be surprised by how much you write, the creative ideas your imagination comes up with, and how much fun you have while writing.

And if you try the above rules of forward drafting, we’d love to hear your experience!

Reminder: NaNoWriMo 2023 participants are eligible for a special Freewrite offer. Find all the details here. 

[doom-gender]

Amy looked at the website with confused apprehension. "ApeFist.net" it was called, the design looking straight out of the early 2000s; a simple gif of a starry night sky repeated ad nauseum forms the whole of the background page. "I thought Geocities died?" she thought.

At the fore of the webpage there was a small box for text input with the words "Make your Wish" sitting above it.

At first Amy laughed at it. The link had been spammed by some raider on her favorite trans support discord; it was stupid to even click on it, but she was compelled to check what it was in hopes that it was some kind of NFT scam - she loved making fun of NFT bros and so did most of the server.

She didn't really believe in wishes either, certainly not those given out by a webpage less modern than Craigslist. However that does not mean she had nothing to wish for. Amy's transition was a lifesaver, but her personal results are much less than she was hoping for. She started at age 19 and now at age 24 she's worried that the bulk of her transition is over. Her tiny mosquito bite tits can barely fit an A cup and her hips are practically non-existant - this combined with a general lack of confidence keeps her from being very confidant in her personal style.

After a couple minutes of consideration, she shrugs her shoulders and types into the box.

> I wish I had the body of a thick goth girl with big boobs.

She hit enter and immediately felt silly, she basically just fell for an equivalent of chain mail.

That was before the burning started.

A fire erupted in Amy's chest as she keeled over into the fetal position. Her chest began inflating outwards, settling at two jiggly mounds that were about the size of basketballs. Her stomach grew outwards with a healthy layer of fat as her hips and ass ballooned, giving her that super thick hourglass figure. Her skin prickled as it slowly lightened to a near pale white, her hair itched as it turned into a stylish black bob, and her clothes melted into a simple all black outfit.

When the pain subsided, she took stock of her body; grabbing at her curves and pawing at her crotch to realize her little e-dick had even turned into a pussy. She looked back to the computer to see not the wishing website but... a webcam software? Why was that...

She immediately became drowsy, the late golden hours of the sun shining through the window as it fades ever closer to nightfall. She passes out onto the couch.

---

Amy awoke to the sound of... Moaning? She was sitting up now in what felt like a desk chair. When she opened her eyes she could see through the groggy glaze a computer screen with... herself on it. Her new, goth self at least.

She was squeezing her tits and moaning provacatively into the camera - Amy could see the name at the bottom of the stream: "bigtiddygothgf".

As she came more and more to her senses she expected to feel what her body was doing on the stream, but as she became more intune with her body she became aware of a different stimulation. A hand wrapped around her cock.

She looked down, the messy contents of the desk flashing by her view before it settles on her body. A hairy man's body with a much bigger cock than she'd ever had before. She wanted to freak out, to scream, but all she could let out was a loud grunt as her hand continued to mercilessly jack off her huge, hard, manly cock.

She saw the username next to the chat input textbox: "FatBalls88". 88? Was she a 35 year old man now? The thought died as the stroke of her hand passed the head of her cock once more, matched by the perfect bouncing of the goth girl's tits on the screen.

"Fuck... So hot..."

She didn't say that! Or... did he? She was slowly losing context for why she was here, memories of her life as Amy, her job, the struggles of her transition, the events just preceding these, all began to be replaced with "Adam". Adam is a 35 year old self proclaimed "deadbeat"; in truth he's not doing that bad, he's got a fine apartment, a good job, and he keeps in reasonable shape. What he does not have is a girlfriend, explaining his semi-excessive spending on cam girls.

Amy fought back against these thoughs. "I could use a beer, that would help." She thought before realizing that was more of Adam consuming her. Amy was being deleted from all sides and shlacked over with Adam as s-s-- he came ever closer to cumming.

*click*

"Oh! Thanks for another donation FB! You're my favorite viewer." the girl smooched out at the camera while jiggling her massive tits with her hands.

Adam exploded, his eyes rolled back into his head as white hot cum splattered the bottom of his desk. His chair creaks with strain as his limp body leans further and further backwards. The absolute destruction of whatever remained of Amy and the sudden influx of everything that was Adam left the man dazed for quite awhile only to gain awareness of a ticking sound from the stream.

A spinning wheel full of the names of everyone who donated this stream stuck in front of the visage of "bigtiddygothgf". Adam grunted primally, angry that he could no longer ogle the tits, until...

"Omg FB congrats! Y'know you're my best supporter I think you deserve it the most. DM me and we'll see where we can meet up!"

Adam shook off his lusthaze and remembered: the promise of this stream was that each $1 donated gave you a chance to meet up with the goth cam girl and fuck her live on her next show.

Knocking trash and old beer bottles to the floor he rushed to attention at his keyboard and slid into her dms to set a date.

"Finally," he thought "I'll have that body all for myself..."

[finnlongman]

I'm having a citation crisis and could use some advice.

I have the choice to use my department's stylesheet (designed for medieval studies but primarily for historians; requires manual citations and is also a huge pain), MHRA (not designed for medieval studies; can use Zotero), or MLA (I think this is in-text citations and thus not suitable for my needs; can use Zotero).

Whatever I choose, I will be doing the bulk of my footnotes manually, because I have a lot of abbreviated textual references that look like this

and this is, frankly, not something that referencing software can handle, and writing all of these out in full would double my wordcount and be completely unreadable.

Nevertheless, I would ideally like to use Zotero for my initial footnotes, if only because it'll make creating a bibliography a lot easier, and encourage me to ensure everything's been added to my library for later reference so I don't have to spend hours tracking things down later on. True, I have a large number of non-digital materials that have to be manually inputted, so this is not wildly convenient, but doing that now will make it easier than trying to find the publication info for a library book that's out on loan to somebody else at the last minute.

However. While this is fine for secondary material/articles etc, I have no idea how to go about setting up all my primary texts in Zotero. I need to distinguish between those which are only edited, and those which are edited and translated, in order to make it clear which translations are my own. But while it's easy enough to say (ed.) or (ed. and trans.) when manually citing, I ... don't know how to do that using Zotero?

Because the only way I can figure out how to list both roles is to list the person twice:

But obviously this is unsatisfactory since your footnote ends up reading ed. O'Rahilly, C., trans. O'Rahilly, C., and then you have to manually adjust them all anyway.

There seems to be no way to create a single role of 'editor and translator', and if I don't include that information, it's going to be a pain later. It essentially doesn't distinguish between a modern edited book and an edited medieval text, but those are in fact very different things.

UGH. I don't know what to do. The only stylesheet I have access to that actually provides information on how to handle medieval sources is the department one, but it's a) the worst, and b) genuinely just such a bad experience to interact with, like, it's essentially an essay about references with examples rather than a proper stylesheet.

Go away, this is not the time, I don't care, just tell me how to format this!

[nahbees]

Basic JDownloader 2 Tutorial

With the world realizing that media on the internet can be lost with a snap, I thought it would be a good idea to show you how to download media, either music, videos, pictures, and text in bulk. (LONG POST WARNING)

I. Downloading the Program

Behold, the download page, is this safe? There is a pretty high chance that the software is safe, as it is open-source, meaning anyone can look at the programs code and/or modify it. However if you still don't feel safe installing the file, that's okay! I don't have any alternatives however TmT.

I will be downloading the windows version since that's the OS I run, however I'm sure the other downloads work just as fine.

You should get either the top one or the bottom one, if one doesn't work then try the other, the other versions on the website I believe are for older computers.

Double click on the file it downloaded and wait for the installer to load.

Go though the installation and wait for it to install. Once it's done downloading click finish and JDownloader 2 should open automatically (or if you disabled that int he installation, you can just open it there.)

II. What the Heck am I Doing?

What do you do? The program is a bit confusing at first, however it's rather simple to understand. See that button circled in red? That's how to add items to download, click it. However, if you look at the top of the image and locate the clipboard circled in blue, that makes is so anything you copy, links, images, etc, will automatically be added to the program, if you think this will be annoying then disable it.

Once you click the "Add New Links" button, this window should appear. Everything here looks pretty scary, however you only need the two that are circled, the rest is for more advanced searching. Simply copy and paste a link that has any content supported by JDownloader 2. (NOTE: Youtube is fully supported by JDownload 2).

(Just if your looking for the continuation!)

[river-taxbird]

Help me, writing/design Tumblr!

Microsoft Word sucks, there has to be a better way.

Edit: Word has this feature. It's called Linked Text Boxes. It's still word with Word's jank though, Microsoft Publisher has it, but it seems like Adobe Indesign has it with a better user interface.

I have been doing a lot of document layout work for my degree lately, and Microsoft Word continues to be just horrible. As a famous post once said, nothing about it works. So my question is, there has to be a better way, right? If anyone knows about writing software, is there anything that does the thing I want? (I do the bulk of my writing in Google Docs but the layout tools aren't good enough for the kind of design I need to do.)

My dream word processor (This may be hard to describe):

I want to be able to define specific boxes where body text is allowed to be. When one fills up, it overflows into the next.

Instead of word where you have the body text in the background, and it moves out of the way from the images, I would like text boxes that contain the body text. Like you lay out your images and static text boxes on a page, then you can fill the rest out with dynamic text boxes that contain the body text. I am sure you could do something like this with text boxes in ms word, but you couldn't do the layout as you write the body.

In my dream word processor, you could define blocks as Body Text 1, Body Text 2, and so on. If you added more text into Body Text 1, anything that is pushed out automatically goes into body text 2. If you delete text, excess text comes back into body text 1. Just like how text moving to the next page works in MS Word and Google Drive. Body text can only go into defined boxes, but it is dynamic. I feel like this could prevent the problem in word where moving one image destroys the formatting for your entire document because the body text tries to move out of the way.

Am I making sense? I am not even sure what to google to find something like this, but it has to exist, right? Magazines exist with very clean and nice layouts, they must be using something like this, but Microsoft Word doesn't do it that I know of. If it can, please tell me!

[kassandras-one-braincell]

hi!! i was wondering if you have any general advice for someone who wants to start posting their work on ao3? or i guess if you would advice me to do that at all lol! i saw your recent post about it in relation to the ai stuff and found it so useful since i don't usually see people talk about that, thank you for sharing <33

Hi love! Please don't let the current AI situation on AO3 dissuade you from joining the platform. In all honesty, I think the scrape was a cheap attempt at obtaining credentials for identity theft using the illegitimate DMCA forms, rather than something done for software training purposes. I'm pretty sure Cloudflare, its hosting platform, has taken action against it.

My humble advice is contained below the cut, because it's quite long, but there's a bit of a learning curve with the posting page and a couple of unspoken customs:

The bulk of everything you need to know about posting on AO3 is contained in the ToS, which hopefully will help you navigate the "post" menu. If you're unsure whether a warning applies, select "Creator Chose Not to Use Archive Warnings" just in case.

There's no algorithm, so all that readers have to go by is the (excellent) tagging system and the summary you provide.

If you struggle with summaries - most of us do - then a snippet of the work is perfectly sufficient. Ultimately, the summary is a preview of your writing, and if you opt for the excerpt approach, your style, which is your only chance to attract readers.

Tagging is a little bit intimidating the first few times as a writer, but you'll get the hang of it soon enough! Asides from central characters and pairings, this is the place to disclose the genre of the work, any key/polarising themes and/or triggers. You're not obligated by ToS to disclose these, but it's a gesture of goodwill if you know it might upset someone. If there is a disturbing theme present, include the tag "Dead Dove Do Not Eat" - this is the colloquial indicator for the reader to very carefully reread the tags, because they're to be taken literally.

When you begin to type a tag, you'll be given suggestions of the most widely used tags that match what you've typed. If the shoe fits, use these. It makes the site easier to navigate for readers. If you're spawning a tag into existence though, it will begin to appear in that little drop down after there are three works on the archive containing the tag. I know this because I was the first (and second, third and fourth lmao send help) person to upload "Soma (Assassin's Creed)/Reader" to AO3 :)

You have the option of uploading your work in the designated editor as Rich Text or HTML. The only significant difference between them is how page and paragraph breaks are formatted. If you're copy-pasting from a word processor, slap it in Rich Text, and then if you want to do anything fancy after that outside of the scope of the Rich Text editor, you'll be able to make adjustments in HTML.

While you can save a draft, the text editor is not designed to be a substitute for word processing software. There is no editing history or backup feature, so it's ill-advised to develop your work directly on the platform.

Finally, with all the technical stuff put to one side, try not to fret over metrics like hits and kudos. It's lovely to receive kudos and comments, but smaller numbers aren't indicative of your work in any way, shape or form. There are so many factors at play there, and sometimes just the time of publication can have a huge impact on reader engagement, precisely because there's no algorithm to bolster or suppress.

Take pride in your work, and keep the dopamine as isolated as possible from the thought of big numbers. I promise you, it will keep the passion alive for longer :)

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[hydralisk98]

Pseudo-historical project about 1912 unit record equipment computation aka the "Symbolic Analyst Processor" full stack!

(above pictures emulate the looks of what this tech stack documentation and actual use may look like, still very early in the process though)

It is still coming together by my head as I write infodump notes and research various aspects of the whole time, (including the WIMP & MERN/MEAN stack) but yk, things are coming together nicely to give some milestone project mid-way between my current phase in life and the next where I go develop a fully alternative INTJ lively stack of tools. Explanations, history dives, lively reaction studies and a couple more content suggestions related to it are on the way.

Behold, the infodumps

"Top-bottom and back up workflow" 1910 / 1912 Unit Record Equipment Tabulator Computation "Bundle" Project (Pflaumen & Utalics' SymbolicAnalystProcessor)

Information Processing Language / LISP 1.5 / Bel, A-BASIC / DIBOL, Spreadsheets, Cellular Automaton, COS-310, magnetic tape storage too, TECO / VIM, Assembly, Wirebox, Tabulator, Alphanumeric Interpreter, Printer, RTTY device, Data Recording, Bulk Data Processing Indexed Cards, 60-64 entries Deque, 4K Direct-use RAM, 12K * 24 storage devices, Phonebook, Timeclock, DateTime Calendar, Programmable, Statistics, Demographics, Voting, Ledger, Journal, Logging, Rolodex, 12 Generic-use Registers & 4 Special Registers, Catalog, ~16 Keys Pad, Customized Hexadecimal Numeric Representation for "MachineCode" Hexdumps, 4*12 bits per page of data, Macros, Paracosm, may be useful for Military & Civilian Uses, Electrical Energy (and possibly incorporates some mechanical energy too), Nouns & Verbs, "Vector" XY plotter, Lambda Calculus / Panini Grammar / Universal Turing Machine Thesis, Rotors, Ural TriodeVaccumTube "Mainframe", Interactive-Use, Hypertext Interactive Video Terminal, Memex, Modem, Electric + Radio Telegraphy, Document-processing, Word-processing, Orange Plasma Touchscreen Terminal, Time-sharing, Cash Register, Bank, Automatic Teller Machine, Vending Machine, Oracle, Typewriter / Selectric, IBM 701, IBM 1440, IBM 403, IBM System/360, OpenPOWER, F#, IBM Tellum, MUD, TextWorld, solo text-adventures, Email, AIX, z/OS, Linux for IBM mainframes, Symbolic Processing System, Autocoder, modular, IBM Lotus Suite, interface with KDE or CDE, paper handling equipment, Addventure, 12-bit basic data unit as designated word, Distributed Interactive System, VeneraFS (cladogram Parade+DolDoc), GNU Hurd / MINIX3-style Microkernel, either permissive FLOSS license or public domain waiver, extensive documentation, printed illustrated booklets, music-playback, emulator / compiler / bytecode / interpreter, analog media-friendly, mostly for didactic tinkering educational uses, multilingual reconfigurable programming, HTML+CSS, Markdown, Argdown, DMA, hardware-friendly, software development environment for direct-access programmers and aesthetic designers, sub-version control system like Git, various hardware & software implementations, museum / observatory Toymaker story, constructed languages / imaginative paracosm influences around the immersive in-world lore of the "16^12" pseudo-historical setting…

Back to the point

The list is far from exhaustive or finished, as life is so much more than meets the eye. But this should be a good start to remind myself what I am working towards, a full revamp of the last ~120 years of history with much attention and care put into making it as satisfying to me as possible, despite the very probable scenario where people take the ideas and incorporate only some of such "modules" in their own workflows. Which is fine but not taking the whole package (and only specific modules) is eventually gonna be a major learning experience for me considering the reason I revamp it all beyond control freak stuff is literally to provide less exclusive / less invasive tools that anyone can learn and customize despite being very... idiosyncratic yk.

Still welcoming suggestions and constructive criticism for such big time, I hope those textual infodumps I do every so often don't bother you too much... Cya soon!

[ejointech]

What is GSM modem and how it works?

A GSM modem is a device that allows electronic devices to communicate with each other over the GSM network. GSM stands for Global System for Mobile Communications, and it is the most widely used cellular network standard in the world.

GSM modem work by connecting to the GSM network using a SIM card. A SIM card is a small, removable card that contains your mobile phone number and other subscriber information. Once the SIM card is inserted, the GSM modem can start sending and receiving SMS messages and data.

GSM modem use a variety of protocols to communicate with the GSM network, including:

SMS (Short Message Service): SMS is used to send and receive text messages.

GPRS (General Packet Radio Service): GPRS is used to send and receive data packets.

EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution): EDGE is a faster version of GPRS that can be used to send and receive data at speeds of up to 384 kbps.

GSM modem can be used in a variety of applications, including:

Home automation: GSM modems can be used to control home automation devices, such as thermostats, lights, and security systems, using SMS messages.

Machine-to-machine (M2M) communication: GSM modems can be used to send and receive SMS messages between machines. For example, an SMS modem could be used to send an SMS message from a vending machine to its owner to alert them that it is running low on stock.

Business messaging: GSM modems can be used to send and receive bulk SMS messages to customers. For example, a business could use an SMS modem to send SMS messages to customers about sales and promotions.

Emergency alerts: GSM modems can be used to send emergency alerts to people in a specific area. For example, a government agency could use an SMS modem to send SMS messages to people in a hurricane evacuation zone to warn them about the storm.

GSM modem are a versatile and affordable way to communicate. They are used in a variety of applications, from home automation to business messaging to emergency alerts.

Here is a simplified explanation of how a GSM modem works:

The GSM modem connects to the GSM network using a SIM card.

The GSM modem sends and receives data and SMS messages using a variety of protocols, including SMS, GPRS, and EDGE.

The GSM modem communicates with other electronic devices using a variety of interfaces, such as USB and serial.

To use a GSM modem, you will need to:

Insert a SIM card from a mobile phone carrier.

Connect the GSM modem to your computer or other electronic device.

Install and configure the necessary software.

Once the GSM modem is set up, you can start sending and receiving SMS messages and data.

[magnetictapedatastorage]

hi, i was just browsing your magnetic tape tag and found that you were trying to store txt files on tape. in your last update i saw on that, you said that it Came Back Wrong, have you found any way to improve it? im also wondering how much text could be stored this way. love your magnetic tape posting btw, might play around with it once i get my hands on a tape recorder (soon probably!)

Unfortunately I've made no progress, other than becoming more certain that the bulk of the work shouldn't be done by a software emulation. I'm going to need to get some custom hardware to handle it instead, namely a very, very old microcomputer (either a commodore, or something low end from 1980s Europe)

thank you for your interest :D

[epruettearts245-01]

Week One

This week I started my first project in ARTS-245. My initial assignment was to xerox a picture of a celebrity and then print it out as a 4” x 4” image. I immediately knew that I wanted to find a picture of Katherine Hepburn, so I searched the Thomas Cooper library for any biographies of her. When I found a good picture of Hepburn, I had to ask a library employee to help me work the photocopier.

Once the image was scanned, I put it into Adobe InDesign, used the inch measurements to scale my image to size, then printed it. It took a lot of tries to get the measurements exact due to the printer adding its own margins to the paper, but I eventually figured it out and was able to print what I needed.

One thing I noticed in InDesign was the use of picas and points as units of measurement, both of which are discussed in the assigned reading for the week. Of course it makes sense for a print-oriented software to use units made specifically for text, but I still find it interesting that those fundamentals created for physical block printing then are still relevant and used today. I also was interested in the book’s explanation of the relative size of points and picas— like how one point equals 1/72 of an inch, and 12 points equals one pica. It’s just interesting taking units I’ve only ever seen on a computer screen and trying to envision their real-life size.

— my InDesign document —

After finding my image, I went to class the next day and started on drawing my guidelines for the project. The incorrect/inconsistent measurements of the cardstock we were using definitely set us back, but I was still able to measure out just about everything I needed. All I have to do now is use a straight edge to sketch out a few more lines.

— my cardstock grid —

I am excited to continue working on this project and to get to the bulk of the assignment (actually designing the various squares.)

[babycatlix]

all right friends! 😁

my keyboard is complete! words cannot express how much i love this keyboard. i spent so much time thinking about what kind of pcb (body) i wanted, what switches i wanted, and what keycaps i wanted. i even asked for your help! i knew i wanted the body of my keyboard to be aluminum... and it is heavy... and i keep forgetting just HOW heavy it is. i now understand why changbin was lifting felix's keyboard now lol.

anyway, below i will have some pictures and some explanations about the keyboard and how i built it. it's okay if you don't care about any of the details and just look at the pictures lol

onto the build! i'll link everything i used in case you're interested!

for my pcb i have the Keychron Q1 Pro, in black. you can also get this pcb in white or silver. i spent a lot of time looking for a keyboard that would be mac friendly. the GMMK Pro that i was originally looking at, some of the reviews said that the mac settings didn't work that well, even with the proper software. so i went with Keychron, bc i know their keyboards are formatted to play nice with macs. i should also mention that my keyboard is hot-swappable. which means that the switches are not soldered into my pcb. if you want to get a mechanical keyboard and make changes to it, make sure it says, "hot-swappable." also my keyboard has a knob! bc why not, knobs are fun and my knob controls the volume! there is a program that you can use with Keychron to program the knob to do whatever you want it to do. but i like that it controls the volume, there's a satisfying "click" for each turn.

the keycaps are also Keychron. it took me a while to even get to the keycaps. there are too many options for keycaps out there, so be careful! you could end up with too many options like i did 😅 so, i know that in my poll, the dark keys with cmyk text won, but they are out of stock and i wasn't able to find them in the Keychron amazon storefront. i was going to go with the winner between the Akko keycaps... but they tied. so i asked GBF to pick and he chose the cyan and black. but when i was looking at the Keychron amazon storefront, i found an option that was slightly cheaper than the Akkos. but i also chose the Keychron ones bc like i said, Keychron plays nice with macs and had the "command" and "option" keys i would need.

next, switches! in a mechanical keyboard, switches are what make the keys work. in a regular keyboard (or a membrane keyboard), there's a membrane (sometimes it's silicone) that sits between the keys and the board and sends a signal when you press a key. same thing in a mechanical keyboard, except each switch operates on its own. so if a key stops working, you can simply pull the switch out and replace it with a new one! anyway, my switches happen to be mint. did i buy them bc they were mint? no. am i kind of happy that they're mint? yes. i bought them bc they're quite tactile switches. tactile means there's a little bump when the key is fully pressed to let you know that you've hit the key. i've had trouble with linear switches being too sensitive in the past. i ended up getting Durock shrimps! what a cute name lol and i might buy more to put them into my work keyboard...

onto placing keycaps! originally i was going to put o-rings on my keycaps to prevent any more noise, but my switches are already so quiet that it wasn't really necessary. but i also did a typing test and the o-rings actually added too much bulk and didn't allow the switch to fully descend when the key was pressed. so i took them out.

but here is my keyboard fully assembled! the rgb is so pretty too. even though i can't see it through my keycaps, it's still lovely. and the beauty of my keyboard is that i can change the keycaps whenever i want. so if i ever get bored of this lovely, black, mint, and gray combo or those dark keycaps with cmyk text come back in stock, i can always change them!

okay, i know that was a lot and again, it's totally okay if you didn't read any of it and just looked at the pictures 😂 also, my monitor stand came as well, i mentioned that earlier. but it looks so good! my desk looks so organized now! and the only thing missing from my setup is my imac now!

i hope you're doing well, stay safe out there, and stay hydrated my friends! 💖

[ausetkmt]

are you sure @louisegluckpdf ?

okay here's said book to download and decide - Click the link and Download for FREE

The Voynich Manuscript The History of the Mysterious Renaissance Codex That Has Never Been Deciphered

"Yet it may be roundly asserted that human ingenuity cannot concoct a cipher which human ingenuity cannot resolve." (Edgar Allan Poe, "A Few Words on Secret Writing", 1841)

For as long as language and communication have existed, humans have invented ways to mask their messages from prying eyes. Military and diplomatic officials often devise secret codes to transmit sensitive data and confidential information to approved parties. This practice has become so commonplace in recent years that entire sciences, hobbies, and a full-fledged profession, called cryptography, have been established to decipher these cryptic texts.

Needless to say, once revolutionary methods of cryptography, though historic, are now considered archaic. Their simplistic secrets have been disclosed to the general public and even incorporated into children's toys. With the bulk of modern civilization so dependent on the virtual world, secret codes have evolved to a whole new level, most notably through data encryption. Data encryption, which aims to conceal classified electronic information through the use of complex ciphers and algorithms, was initially used for governmental and military purposes, but it now acts as the primary medium of security that most online platforms (as of January 2017) provide for their users. As intricate and inextricable as data encryption might seem to people today, a growing number of brilliant, but devious, minds continue to successfully find ways to bypass supposedly state of the art encryption software.

With such incisive minds constantly at work, one could be forgiven for assuming there are no ciphers left unsolved. On the contrary, a diverse array of both ancient and modern cryptographic challenges, which have stumped even the most seasoned code crackers of today, exist, and may exist for generations to come. Among the most famous of these memorandums is a 600-year-old document that continues to mystify: the Voynich Manuscript.

We'll be looking forward to hearing back from you when you find that word you want us to see. Just for your efforts, Here's a few others you might find interesting. yes just click and download free

Puzzles of the Voynich Manuscript: An Illustrated Guide to the Perplexing Puzzles of MS Beinecke

and of course this one which you probably want most of all

Solution of the Voynich Manuscript

Described as the most studied and most mysterious manuscript in the world, hundreds of scholars have attacked the Voynich manuscript. Dr. Levitov tells how he broke the text, including his discovery of the word ISIS, a pattern-word. A transliteration of the script symbols is provided.

none of those words are in the voynich manuscript

[crownsoft]

A Detailed Guide to Facebook Group Messaging Marketing!？

In today’s digital marketing landscape, Facebook, as one of the largest social media platforms globally, has become an indispensable marketing avenue for many brands and businesses. To achieve effective marketing on Facebook, mastering and utilizing its operational tools is crucial.

Today, we will dive into one of the most commonly used and efficient marketing tools in Facebook's marketing suite — the CrownSoft Facebook Mass Mailing Software, and explore how it helps marketers effectively find target users, increase engagement, and boost conversion rates.

1. What is Facebook Mass Mailing?

Facebook Mass Mailing refers to the feature on the Facebook platform that allows users to send bulk messages to others. The CrownSoft Facebook Mass Mailing Software enables marketers to send a variety of messages to their followers or friends, including text, images, links, and more.

2. Advantages and Applications of Facebook Mass Mailing

· Personalized Customization: Marketers can tailor different messages based on the needs and interests of various user groups, enhancing message relevance and attractiveness.

· Increased Interaction: Mass mailing encourages interaction between users and brands, as users can directly reply to messages, expressing their needs and opinions, which helps businesses understand customer demands better.

· Efficient Reach: Compared to traditional post publishing, mass mailing ensures that messages reach target users more precisely, minimizing the chances of being filtered out or ignored.

· Conversion Boost: Through mass mailing, businesses can send promotional offers, limited-time deals, and other incentives that drive users to make purchases, increasing conversion rates.

3. How to Implement Facebook Mass Mailing?

With the CrownSoft Facebook Mass Mailing Software, the entire mass mailing process can be completed quickly and efficiently. The software allows you to set various message formats such as text, business cards, and images, enriching your promotional content. It also supports automatic random sending of related content to avoid detection of repeated messages.

Facebook Mass Mailing Software supports logging into multiple Facebook accounts simultaneously, collecting group addresses based on keywords, sending bulk messages to groups, adding recommended friends in bulk, sending messages to recommenders, gathering individual Facebook user data, sending private messages to users, and posting bulk comments on pages. Through its customer service management feature, it allows interaction with fans, quick reply templates, and automatic translation of chat messages.

[andymakesgames]

Setting Up A Windows 11 Computer as a Permanent Installation

This guide covers setting up a brand new Windows 11 computer to serve as an arcade machine, but it is relevant for any project that where a single program should run in a gallery environment.

I'm a member of the arcade non-profit, Arcade Commons. As you might guess, we frequently make arcade machines that need to work as easily and reliably as possible. They are often on loan to venues, so the more automatic the machine is, the more likely it is to actually be running. This is equally true for setting up interactive projects in galleries.

The goal is for the computer to turn on as soon as it gets power, launch the game on startup, and not be interrupted by myriad updates and other popups that plague the modern Windows operating system. I also added an AutoHotkey script to handle restarting the game if it crashes.

This is an update to my previous post on how to do this for Windows 10.

That post was itself based on this excellent guide by Eva Schindlin on setting up Windows 7 for permanent installation.

I'm writing this post because I just got a new computer to serve as a dedicated device for Salmon Roll: The Upstream Team, a game I developed with Jane Friedhoff and Diego Garcia. I took notes as I setup the machine, following along with my old post and adding some new things along the way.

I am working with a GMKtec NucBox G5 running Windows 11 Pro.

Required software

Before we get started, get installers for Notepad++ and AutoHotkey on a thumb drive.

I say to put these on a thumbdrive, because I do not want to connect my new computer to the internet if I can avoid it.

AutoHotkey is used for automation. If you don't plan on using it, you can skip this. Note: the AutoHotkey scripts I provide in this post are for v1.1, NOT v2.0. Make sure you grab the right installer.

Notepad++ is an excellent free text editor for Windows. Maybe you can get by doing things with TextEdit, but taking the 30 seconds to give yourself a good text editor will pay dividends.

Finally, I add the game I want to run.

Initial setup

The first time you plug the computer in, you'll get the usual Windows setup flow. If you are not connected to the internet, you should be able to skip linking the device to a Microsoft account.

If you do need to be online, it is possible to circumvent the seemingly required Microsoft account login. Here are a few posts on the subject.

Set the username as something simple with no spaces. I went with "salmon".

Leave the password field blank. This prevents needing the password to login.

On the privacy screen I unchecked every option. No tailored experiences etc.

After that I hit confirm, and the computer thinks for a bit.

Prepping the computer

This is the bulk of the process! We're going to change a lot of settings to keep things running smoothly and without interruption.

1. Run those installers

Install Notepad++ and AutoHotkey.

2. Test the game

Now is a great time to make sure your game actually runs well on this computer.

3. Prevent sleeping

We do not want the computer to go to sleep ever. * Control Panel * Hardware and Sound * Power Options * Change when the computer sleeps * Set it all to “never”

4. Disable Windows Fast Startup

If you set a wake time in BIOS (more on that in a bit) but it doesn't work, that may be because Windows Fast Startup is turned on. This makes the computer startup faster, but does it by hibernating instead of actually shutting down.

While in Power Options: * Select Change What Power Buttons Do * Click “Change settings that are currently unavailable” * Uncheck “Turn on fast startup” * Save changes

On this computer, "Turn on fast startup" was unchecked by default, but that is not always the case.

5. Turn off screen saver

Go to settings and turn the screen saver off. * Right click on the desktop and select "personalize" * Then search for "screensaver" in the search bar of the personalize window

This computer already had screensaver set to "none" but it's worth checking.

6. Change the desktop background

The desktop will be visible during startup and might be seen if the game crashes. It really breaks the illusion of an arcade or art installation to see the default Windows desktop.

While in personalize, you can: * Search for "desktop" * Select "Choose your desktop background"

If you have a logo for your project you can set that image. Otherwise, from the dropdown, select "solid color" and pick one. I go with black.

For the DreamBoxXx we set the desktop to be an image that looked like a loading screen, which worked amazingly well!

7. Set the computer time

Make sure the system clock has the correct time. This is important to automate startup/shutdown. * Right click the time in the bottom right corner of the taskbar * Select “Adjust date/time”

8. Disabling updates

Updates have a good chance at messing up the setup, so it is worth avoiding them. As much as possible, you want this install to be frozen in amber.

I'm trying to avoid this by simply never connecting to the internet, but that will often not be viable.

Poking around online and the consensus seems to be that there is really no way to stop them short of staying offline.

Some possible solutions that I have not tested:

Reddit post

Microsoft Forum

9. Disabling startup processes

Press the Windows key and search for “startup”

Select "Startup Apps"

Disable all of them

If your project requires QuickTime or some other Apple product, set Apple Software Update to never check for updates.

10. Hide the taskbar & widgets

Right click the taskbar and select “Taskbar settings”

Turn Widgets off

Scroll down and expand "Taskbar behaviors"

Check "Automatically hide the taskbar"

11. Add shortcuts/aliases to the startup folder

We'll want to have items that run on startup. This means dropping them in the startup folder (which is different from the panel where you disabled the startup processes).

You can open this folder by pressing Win-R for the run prompt and entering shell:startup

If you don't mind doing this every time, it's fine to just memorize that command, but I like to make a shortcut to the startup folder.

With the startup folder open:

Go up one level by selecting the enclosing folder, Programs

Right click the Startup folder

Select "Show more options"

Select Send to->Desktop (create shortcut)

A shortcut is an alias, a link to another file or folder on the computer. It is not a copy.

You can move this shortcut anywhere. It does not need to stay on the desktop.

Double clicking it will open the startup folder, same as entering "shell:startup" on the run prompt.

I'll dive into some AutoHotkey stuff further down, but if you just want your game to launch on startup, you can make a shortcut for the game and drop that shortcut into the startup folder.

Go to the exe for your game

Right click and select "Show more options"

Select Send to -> Desktop (create shortcut)

Find the shortcut/alias on the desktop

Drag it into the startup folder

This should be enough to launch your game on startup.

12. Bypass the login screen

If you kept the password blank and did not connect to the internet, the computer should skip the login screen. No muss no fuss.

But if you are getting a login screen, here's what I did on Windows 10. It may still work.

By default, you need to enter your password on startup, but this can be turned off. Here are the steps in this guide to bypass this.

Search for “netplwiz” in the start bar

Uncheck the box labeled “Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer.”

Hit OK

If you do not see this checkbox in the netplwiz screen, you may need to disable "Require Windows Hello sign-in for Microsoft Accounts." You can follow these steps from Tenforums user Faslane to do it pretty easily:

Just open the sign in options at settings/accounts/sign in options and turn the "Require Windows Hello sign-in for Microsoft Accounts" to off, then re-open Netplwiz. Voila! it's back ;-)

Modern Windows 10 PCs are set up with a PIN and not a password. Presumably this is true in Windows 11 as well. You will need to disable the PIN first, otherwise the option to bypass the password won’t show up in netplwiz.

Furthermore, if you don’t have a password OR pin, then the message “Require Windows Hello Sign-In” will be checked ON but greyed out so you can’t change it! So you need to then ADD a pin, uncheck the box, then you will see the checkbox in netplwiz.

Although I have not tested these steps for Windows 11, in favor of never connecting to the internet, they seem to match up with this Windows 11 answer from Tobias Schneider on the Microsoft forums.

13. Preventing the “Let’s Finish Setting Up Your Device” blue screen

Fellow Arcade Commons member Mark Kleeb recommended I add this as it has come up in a bunch of our machines. This screen can be really annoying because it often waits a few days or months before popping up and ruining your installation.

This post on the Microsoft forums has a solution for Windows 10.

The exact options are a little different on Windows 11:

Open Settings

Select System

Select Notifications

Scroll down to Additional Settings and select it

Uncheck everything

While I was in the Notifications page, I went ahead and unchecked everything because why not.

14. Hide desktop icons

This is optional, but I like to put the various files I need on the desktop. I also don't want it to look cluttered if people see the desktop during startup:

Right click anywhere on the desktop

Select View

Uncheck "Show desktop icons"

You can still view the desktop files by opening a file explorer window.

15. Setting the computer to shut down automatically

For some installations, this will not matter, but we often have the arcade machines living at venues. We can't count on the staff there turning them on and off, so it's good to automate this so the computer is not running 24/7.

Shutting the computer down can be done via the Windows task scheduler. Turning it back on is done via BIOS (we'll get to that in a second).

You can ignore this if you're in an environment when you will be around to turn the computer on and off.

Eva Schindling’s guide has this process with pictures and it is relatively unchanged in Windows 11, but here are the steps:

Control Panel

System and Security

Windows Tools (in Windows 7 and Windows 10 this was "Administrative Tools")

Task Scheduler

Action Menu

Create Basic Task

Add title and description

Task Trigger: select Daily

Set your shut-down time and recurrence

Action: select Start a program

Program/script: C:\Windows\System32\shutdown.exe

Add arguments: /s

Click Finish

Make sure you remembered to set the computer time!

BIOS settings

BIOS is short for Basic Input/Output System and it is the firmware that lives on your computer at a lower level than your operating system.

There's a good chance you've never needed to look at it, but this is where we can do things like ensuring that the computer turns on as soon as it receives power, or having it turn itself on at a given time (as long as it is plugged in).

Every computer has a different BIOS and there are different ways to open up BIOS, but it generally involves holding a function key during startup. Restart the computer, and start holding the key as soon as it shuts down. You generally need to be holding it the moment it starts to enter BIOS.

The specific instructions here are for a GMKtec NucBox because that's what I'm setting up, but the general principle can be applied to any computer.

You may need a wired keyboard to do this. Wireless keyboards may not be connected yet during the startup process. Often it's fine (it was on this computer), but if you're not getting a response, try a wired keyboard.

For this computer I had to hold the delete key during restart. Other computers I've worked on have used F12 or F2. Search for "enter BIOS [brand of computer]" for this info. Some computers will print the key you need to press for BIOS during the startup process, but many don't.

BIOS may be a keyboard-only DOS-looking screen, or it may have a simple GUI (although one that you can probably navigate with just keyboard). Likewise, the exact settings will be a little different, but I'll tell you what to look for.

Make sure to save and exit when you're done. The computer should startup normally after that.

BIOS to turn the computer on at a set time

You are looking for a setting along the lines of “Resume by Alarm” or “Wake Settings.”

For example, on the computer we used for the DreamBoxXx, it was under advanced->S5 RTC Wake Settings.

On my GMKtec NucBox it was under Power->S5 RTC Wake Settings.

Then I set it to "Enabled" and selected "Fixed Time".

Note: Make sure you disabled Windows Fast Startup earlier or this may not work.

BIOS to turn the computer on when plugged in

It's very handy to not need to press the power button to start the computer. By setting the device to turn on as soon as it receives power, your whole installation can be turned on by flipping on a power strip.

In the BIOS settings, there will also often be an option to have the computer turn on when it is connected to power. The setting is often primarily for what to do after a power outage, but we can use it for our purposes. The name of the setting changes from machine to machine, but it is typically something along the lines of “AC Back On” or “Action When Lost Power” or "Wake on Power".

For my GMKtec NucBox, it was under Chipset:

Chipset -> PCH-IO -> Wake on Power -> S0 State

You really have to dig to find this option sometimes. Searching the web for "[Computer band] Wake on Power" can help.

AutoHotkey

This part is optional, but using an AutoHotkey script to automate things, like relaunching the game if it crashes, can be useful.

In the case of Salmon Roll, simply putting an alias to the game in the startup folder is not enough because when it launches, there's the little Unity popup where you have to click "Play".

So instead I made an AutoHotkey script that launches the game, waits a few seconds and then presses ENTER.

It also checks every 10 seconds to see if there is no window matching the window title of the game (which is what will happen if the game crashes or somebody closes it), and it will relaunch the game if that happens.

You can see my script here. Feel free to modify it for your own purposes: https://gist.github.com/andymasteroffish/41a02deb5d2924dadb4e3c005e564b8f

If you do not need it to press ENTER after launching the program, just remove these lines:

Sleep 5000 ; Wait 5 seconds Send {Enter} ; Press Enter

Full disclosure: I am script-kiddie-level with AutoHotkey and this is mostly clobbered together from old scripts and random things from the internet.

I HIGHLY recommend putting the hotkey to kill the script in writing on the computer. It can be super confusing to try to work on a machine where an AutoHotkey script is running in the background opening apps or taking control of the mouse etc. I always use Win-Z to kill my scripts, but it's up to you. Do not write an AutoHotkey script that has no way to exit.

It is easy to forget to do this and you will regret it.

Once you have your AutoHotkey script, you can put it directly in the startup folder. If you are using AutoHotkey, make sure that you do not also have an alias to the game in the startup folder or it may launch twice.

That's it!

Hopefully that gets your arcade game or art installation running from now until the end of time.

Remember: do not connect to the internet if you don't have to!

And if you are more technically inclined, consider Linux for tasks like this.

If you use this guide, hit me up on Mastodon or Tumblr and show me what you made!

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