#then I had to figure out how to get my apps to actually open files from their folders

[keeps-ache]

yippee woohoo :3

[thenamesblurrito]

🫠

[madamsnape921]

Phone Help

Pairing: Emily Prentiss x female reader

WC: 2557

Warning: f/f smut; I really went out of my comfort zone for this one but I think it turned out okay; my husband deserves a shout out for his help of writing this one: Thank you, Nick!

Tags: @alwaysachorusgirl @beccabarba @storiesofsvu

You had just started your first month at Quantico, not exactly your dream job but it provided a steady income and federal benefits. It was a relief to be able to afford a two-bedroom apartment in the city after your recent relationship ended. However, the agents were a challenge. They were arrogant, thinking they were the ultimate saviors, and their actions reflected that attitude.

“YN?”

As you snap out of your self-absorbed tirade, you notice one of the top members from the Behavioral Analysis Unit standing in front of you, looking just as perplexed as you feel. Why is she here? You wonder to yourself.

“Yes, Agent…?” you look for a nametag.

“Prentiss. Emily Prentiss. I am with the BAU. So, hey. Our normal tech person is not keen on doing our personal phones. She mentioned I should come to the new girl, which I am assuming is you, to help me?”

You despised phone work. Actually, you loathed it. But you knew that earning some brownie points with a senior agent could be beneficial in the future. So, you forced yourself to answer the call and politely responded, "Of course, Agent Prentiss. What can I assist you with?"

“The phone is acting slow and I can’t seem to find any of my files,” she hands you a card. “YN, here is my work number. Call me when you figure it out?”

“Sure. I’ll look at it here and then I’ll see what I can…,” you started. 

I'd rather not use agency time or equipment for this task. The data on my device is personal and I don't want anyone else to have access to it. One of my close friends happens to be a top-notch hacker, so she probably has something lurking around in there.”

Prentiss gave a nod and then exited your office. She walked away with ease, her sensible pantsuit moving smoothly with each step.

After a grueling day at work, you finally reach your apartment. Your fingers are still warm from typing on the keyboards as you touch the doorknob. You step inside and are greeted by your faithful feline companions. "Sorry guys, Mom has to fix a friend's phone."

A friend's phone? That was unexpected, you thought.

You pour yourself a glass of wine and sit down at your computer, confident that this task will not take too much time. All I need to do is scan the phone for any harmful files and reinstall everything. It should be a piece of cake, you think to yourself. After completing the scan and finding everything to be in order, you give Agent Prentiss a call, relieved by the ease of the process.

“Hey, Agent Prentiss, it’s YN. Your phone is finishing up now. If you want to head down I can text you my address.”

“YN, that would be fantastic! Thank you for being so efficient,” Prentiss exclaimed. “I'll be at your residence in 15 minutes.”

“How do you know that?” you asked.

“I’m with the government. I know everything,” Prentiss joked.

After completing the scan, you realize that there is an issue. The program alerts you to the presence of a malicious app on the phone, Calculator PlusPlus. You launch the app and it prompts for a password. Using your own knowledge, you successfully crack the password and let out a triumphant laugh, "Take that, Penelope."

The next thing you see are numerous pictures of nude women, all with the same hair color and style as you. This must be what's taking up all the storage space on the phone, along with all of the data. You panic when you hear a knock at the door.

“YN, it’s Emily. I’m here about my phone,” Prentiss called from the hall.

DOUBLE SHIT. MINIMIZE MINIMIZE MINIMIZE! SHIT it’s frozen. SHITSHITSHIT.

“YN, I thought it was ready,” Prentiss knocked again. 

After hearing a knock at your door, you call out "Coming!" and get up to answer it. You open the door to see Agent Prentiss standing there.

"Hey there, Agent Prentiss. Please come in," you say with a smile, dressed in your comfortable lounge pants and cat mom tank top.

“Please call me Emily, we’re not at work.” You close the door behind her, her in the same suit from work.

“Please sit. Do you want something to drink?” you offer. 

“I’ll have a beer. It’s been hell with the BAU.” She sits on your couch and begins to pet one of your cats. “Beautiful cats, YN!”

“Thanks, they’re my babies,” you smile.

You grab the beer from the fridge and pop it open, handing it to Prentiss. As you both relax and chat about work and other small talk, an hour and a half quickly passes by. Suddenly, you remember something and say, "Oh, your phone! It's in my room. I'll go get it for you."

Upon entering your room, you find the computer still frozen on a picture of a nude woman. The figure resembles you, but not entirely. It's almost like a lower-quality version of yourself. You are immediately jolted by the realization that these intimate images are displayed prominently on your oversized screen.

“Oh, I see you found the Calculator PlusPlus App…,” Prentiss whispered.

“OH MY GOD! I AM SO SORRY. I was trying to find any malicious apps and I cracked this one’s code and…. I wasn’t snooping. I promise,” you apologised.

“I believe you, but you know what this means, right” Prentiss scowled.

“No…,” you said in response.

Prentiss puts her hand on her gun holster, “I’ll have to kill you to keep my secret safe.”

The room fell silent, and Prentiss let out a chuckle. "Just kidding," she said with a smirk. "Just put them back and don't tell anyone. I have a type...smart, dark-haired girls like yourself."

The phone was too easy to fix. Would she… she wouldn’t.

Prentiss gently brushed your hair and whispered, "We can keep another secret just between us, if you'd like." Your face paled as she tenderly kissed your lips. You had never been with a woman before, let alone one as stunning as her. Feeling unsure of yourself, you tentatively kissed her back, unsure of what to do next.

“Do you want to do this, YN?”

You nod your head.

Prentiss continued to kiss you softly. Mostly on the center of your mouth, but then switching to the left and the right sides, keeping you guessing. You felt yourself become weak in the knees. 

“Let’s sit on the bed, YN.”

“Yes, Agent Prentiss.”

You both sat on the bed and continued to kiss. Prentiss’ hands exploring your body. Your mind and your arms begin to open up.

“Good girl, YN. Take off my jacket.”

You obey the orders given to you, carefully removing her jacket and placing it on the chair next to the bedside table. She sits there, still wearing a sleeveless blouse and her gun holster.

“Now take off your top, YN.”

You cautiously remove your top, wondering how she has such control over you. Your breasts are now exposed to the cool air, and the intense energy in the room causes your nipples to harden. Suddenly, a soft yet firm suction envelops your left nipple, sending waves of pleasure through your body. You've had boyfriends do this before, but never a woman. Prentiss continues to knead and suck on your breast while gently stroking your hair, creating an overwhelming sense of bliss.

Prentiss stopped and moved to the other breast. It was just as amazing. However, you where brought out of bliss with a sharp bite. “Ow,” you moaned.

“Pay attention,” Prentiss stated.

“Yes, Agent Prentiss,” you moaned again.

Prentiss finished with that breast and stood up and removed her shirt, bra, and gun holster. “Now you do me,” she smiled.

You attempted to replicate Prentiss’ actions on her, but your efforts fell short. Prentiss chuckled and giggled as you struggled, until you accidentally bit down too hard. She stopped and got up. You panicked.

“Pants off. Now!” Prentiss ordered.

“Yes, Agent Prentiss,” you jumped to your feet and stripped. She stood there and watched you sit back on the bed.

“Lay back.” You did as you were told. “Now don’t cum until I say or I will have to leave. Understand?”

“Yes, Agent Prentiss,” you sigh. 

Prentiss flashed a sly smile before sinking to her knees. From this new vantage point, she spotted a drawer slightly open and couldn't help but peek inside. She found a small vibrating wand tucked away and placed it beside her feet. Starting at your thighs, she lavished kisses leading up to your glistening womanhood. You let out a soft moan as she got closer to your sensitive areas. With deft fingers, she parted your lips and exposed you fully to the world. "I bet your ex never did this," she said with a hint of smugness. "And I guarantee it won't be this good with anyone else."

Prentiss pressed her tongue against the sensitive spot above your clit, applying a constant and firm pressure. At the same time, she used her thumbs to press into your lips, causing a rush of sensation to flood through your body. It was a new experience for you, and you couldn't help but gasp in response. With a smile, Prentiss continued her oral exploration, slowly moving down from the flat spot towards your hood. She flicked her tongue gently against your hood, alternating between soft and medium pressure while also pulsing on your opening and lips. Your moans of pleasure grew louder with each movement she made.

“Don’t cum, YN. Don’t be a bad cadet!”

“Yes, Agent Prentiss, I will be a good cadet.” Cadet, where did that come from?!

Prentiss started licking your clit. This licking was a continued game of alternate pressures and circular licking. You hear a vibrator turn on.

SHIT! SHE FOUND MY STASH!

Prentiss moaned. 

“You naked girl, spread out for me, huh?” She did two licks around your clit. “Mmm, who’s wearing the pants, cadet?”

“You are, Agent Prentiss.”

“And who is the naked slut, cadet?”

“I am the naked slut, Agent Prentiss.”

“Who’s in command of this pussy, cadet?” 

“Agent Prentiss is the commander of this pussy.”

Prentiss then takes the vibrator and places it firmly on your clit. You start to buck. You are so close. You don’t want her to leave. Prentiss then takes two fingers and slides them into you, putting sudden and strong pressure on you G-Spot.”

“What do you want, cadet?”

“To cum, Agent Prentiss.”

“You may cum, as long as you ask nicely.”

“May I cum, Agent Prentiss?”

“Nicer.”

“May I please cum, Agent Prentiss?”

With that she presses hard against your clit with the vibrator and your g-spot with her fingers. You quake as a hard, loud, and wet orgasm rolled through you. You feel shaking and the last thing you see before passing out is a smiling Prentiss.

You came to and found Prentiss taking her phone from your computer. She is now fully dressed.

“How long was I out?”

“Thirty seconds or so. I got you a glass of water. It’s on your table. I’m going to leave, wheels up in the morning.”

“If you need any more phone help, let me know.”

“Oh, next time I need phone help I’ll make sure you do all the work.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You can feel every thrust deep inside you. Each one makes a distinctive thud and shlick sound. Your orgasm is building, getting closer with every movement. You tightly grip onto the strapon as it fills you up. Nothing has ever felt as unyielding and solid as this before. The plug in your backside grinds against the bright red toy, adding to the intense pleasure of being penetrated.

“Come for me, Cadet.” Prentiss demanded.

You feel the grip of orgasm squeeze you tightly and pleasure erupts from within your core. Your body trembles and shivers as a powerful orgasm overcomes you. As it subsides, you take a moment to catch your breath.

"That was incredible," you exclaimed with gratitude.

"Rocking a holster isn't the only thing I'm good at," Prentiss replied with a sly grin on her face.

She gently pulls out your plug and carefully cleans you up with a towel from the bedside table. You thank her with a smile as she helps you stand up and put on a robe. Prentiss starts to get dressed, putting on her panties first before reaching for her pants.

“Why don’t we spend the day together? We can watch a movie?” You suggested.

“YN, we just finished fucking… you don’t need to ask me for a “movie” to watch,” she laughed.

“No really, Emily, stay with me.”

You two have been fucking feverishly and often in a kinky mist of desire and need for a few weeks at this point. Emily was not an odd name to call her, but it was new. You didn’t know if you should call her that or Prentiss.

“Why? We both finished and I’m sure you’re busy today. As am I.” Prentiss declared.

“Actually, it’s Saturday… at 11 am. I’m off today. Aren’t you? Or am I a lunchtime snack?” you smiled.

“You’re definitely satisfying my appetite,” she replied with a coy smile.

I stood up from the bed and handed her a shirt.

“So, we have underwear and shirts covered… I’ll grab some drinks. You can choose the movie.” You suggested.

Prentiss strolled into the living room and switched on Netflix while you headed towards the kitchen. You grabbed her favorite European beer from the fridge, excited for the chance to surprise her. Balancing both beverages in your hands, you made your way back to the couch where Prentiss had already pulled up "Une vie de chat," a French cartoon about a cat.

You sit down and offer her the beer.

“Thank you! This is my favorite beer! It’s only at that one German store downtown. How’d you know?”

“You mentioned it once. I thought it’d be a nice treat,” you smiled.

As the cat's misadventures unfold, you realize that you and Prentiss have gravitated towards each other on the spacious couch. You rest your head on her shoulder as you continue to watch the show together.

As she begins to say, "This is my favorite..." you rest your head on her shoulder. Emily grins and gently kisses the top of your forehead. It's a new experience for both of you, but it feels natural and perfect in that moment. Your stomach flutters with excitement, but it's a pleasant sensation that matches the rhythm of your heart. It's a mix of thrilling and serene feelings all at once.

"Emily, this is really nice," you say with a smile.

"I'm glad you're enjoying it, YN. It's been a while since I've felt this relaxed. I could definitely get used to this," she replies, returning the smile.

"I have a proposition for you. In here, I have my Emily and in there..." you start, but she interrupts with a knowing smile.

"...you have Agent," she finished your sentence. You try to hide in her embrace, but she finds you anyway.

"Yes, YN, you can have your Emily out here and your Agent in there," she confirmed, snuggling into you as you both fall asleep watching TV together.

[brandinotbroke]

Thank you for advocating that the TS2 community switch to Linux as someone who's been advocating for it since 2019. 😭😭

I did a lot of CC creating and playing on Arch though and I will say, unless Photoshop, Sims2PackInstaller, SimPE and Bodyshop have near native performance + integration it's gonna be hard to convince a lot of the community to switch. Half of the community is creators, I hope we can somehow port some of the critical TS2 apps to Linux but it'll be hard ;-;

I'm scratching my head on how TS2 performs way better on Linux than Windows, I swear to god Windows 11 just has an evil spirit probably :b

Hi! I did get BodyShop (both vanilla and modded) and SimPE to work on Fedora and my brother is working on an installation script for SimPE to make it a little easier, so people won't have to manually enter all the EP install paths. He also wants to see if he can include the DDS Utility thing as well. It should basically work "out of the box" once it's installed via command line and there will be a tutorial for everything. He set it up for me on my computer and I can even open .package files directly with "open with", just like on Windows. I'm also not seeing any differences in performance, but I admittedly haven't tested it very extensively yet. Is there anything in particular that you noticed?

I'm not sure about the CleanInstaller or Photoshop because I've never used those (I've only ever used gimp and that actually works better on Linux lol). Ky has tried CleanInstaller on Fedora and had some problems with it, so we'll see. Pretty much everything else (HoodChecker, HoodReplace, Hair Binner, Compressorizer) works just fine on my end if you run it inside the game prefix. I think the biggest hurdle for most people is just trying to understand how Linux works, but once you get that, I don't think it's inferior to Windows in any way.

But yeah, same. All of this started because I wanted to understand why Sims sucks on Windows, and I still haven't figured it out. My brother recently said something about WDDM versions (no clue what that is, he uses many funny tech words) and now he's hellbent on testing that theory, he even got an old graphics card for it lol

[sakarrie-creates]

It’s that time of year! Here’s my 2023 art summary! After two years of having to include non-colored pieces, I finally did enough ‘full’ pieces to fill my art summary template! I did have to get a bit creative with the months since I was able to draw a LOT more during the summer, but I’ll take it! Sorry it's a bit blurry. I'm not sure if that's just for the preview or not, but it was a smaller file than normal and since these reflections are 99% for my own interest, I decided it wasn't worth trying to change.

As usual, I got rambly so reflection questions are answered under the cut. The template I used is available here in case anyone else wants to make their own! My fic summary will be coming in a week or so, so stay tuned for the stats and round-up there. :)

What events did you participate in (with art)? Player Appreciation Week, Fandom Trumps Hate, Dear Fellow Traveler (Animatic), Weird People (Editing), SPN Comfortably Queer Zine (dropped), and lots of zine applications for page artist, merch artist, comic artist, and spot artist roles!

What was your biggest challenge this year? While time, like last year, was still a challenge, I think my biggest challenge was a mix of low motivation and an intense perfectionistic mindset. At the start of the year, I got super into TOH and was super hyped about all the zines with apps opening. I really REALLY wanted to get into them and figured I should apply for art too just cause it would increase my overall chances of getting in. After the finale, I did a screenshot redraw that ended up being absolutely fantastic for where my skill level is. I went deeper into rendering than ever before, and somehow it worked for me. 

That probably was the start of my unreasonably high expectations, and I got it into my head that maybe if I could make a whole portfolio of artwork at that quality level, I actually stood a chance at getting into a zine as an artist. From then on, I was hardcore crash-coursing perspective, rendering techniques, and generally trying to improve without allowing room for mistakes. While I do think it helped me grow a lot, it burnt me out so I struggled to work on stuff past summary (when all the zine apps were) and even dropped from the SPN Comfortably Queer Zine cause my imposter syndrome was so strong. (Though that was also partially because it was a ‘sign-up and you’re in’ zine, so they never saw my art during the application process and had no way of knowing if I was good enough.

What was something you were surprised by? I’m pretty sure I discovered the perspective tool is CSP this year! CSP has so many tools I’m not aware of (despite watching tons of tutorials and guides), so it wasn’t super surprising but it was nice. I have to say, they’re a serious hassle to work with and require a higher understanding of vanishing points and such than I currently have, but I could see it being very useful for future scene art pieces.

Did you try anything new this year?

Yes! This year I kicked down the door to the merch world and have been collecting and designing throughout the year. Though the designs have mostly just been for zine app portfolio’s, everything has worked out really well for me and I hope to produce charms for my collection as I improve my skills. Where do you think you most improved? Definitely my confidence in rendering! And probably my rendering itself too. I did a ton more pieces with it this year and it’s definitely a favorite part of the art process for me. I think I’ll have a lot more fun with it this year too, since I’m trying to keep it lower pressure, so I can experiment more to find out what brushes and styles I like most. What are you most proud of? I think I’m most proud of how ambitious I was with my zine apps. Though I didn’t get into any for art and it burned me out a fair bit, I did a lot of hard work and made pieces I can be mostly happy with. As for specific pieces, I’m very proud of my animatic clip for the Dear Fellow Traveler MAP (which is what the Belos art from the summary is from). My portion was about 5 seconds with 24 fully colored and shaded frames. A few of those were moving frames too, so the end result is the closest thing to actual animation I’ve done. I also really like the rendering on the Huntlow Epilogue art and generally how the Steve&Matt hug turned out.

How’d this year compare to your 2023 goals? I honestly couldn’t remember what my goals were, but all things considered, I didn’t do too bad! Thankfully past-Sakarrie was wise and made it a bullet list so I can just check things off. Met: -Player Appreciation Week -Add to zine portfolio -Apply to at least one zine as an artist (fine if don’t get accepted) -Keep experimenting with backgrounds and shading -Pull out some old WIPs -Build more consistency of style

The checked off ones I definitely met, so good for me! This was a very zine-focused year, so I way exceeded those goals. The last two I did do, but they’re a bit subjective. Specifically, I think the ‘WIPs’ I was referring to were old sketches, but most of the old WIPs I revisited were already colored and I was either adding rendered or cleaning them up for zine usage. As for style, I’m REALLY bad at telling haha. That said, my characters seem reasonably similar when I draw them, so I’m going to tentatively count it. Kinda: -One fully colored piece per month

I’m gonna give myself a half check on this one. I didn’t have a fully colored piece every month, but I did have over 12 fully rendered pieces in the end, several of which had backgrounds. So while I didn’t meet the letter of the goal, I feel like I met the spirit of it.

Did Not Meet: -Finish Huntlow comic -30 minutes animatic digitalize rough draft -Maybe make some fanart of my favorite fics

These don’t shock me. They’re all personal projects and this was a very external-goal-driven year for me. The Huntlow comic is a big love of mine but it’s definitely ambitious for where my skill is. I’ve got the whole thing messy-sketched and most of it has been clean sketched, but the jump from that to lineart is gonna be hard, and I have no idea what I’d be doing with color since the panels don’t have a background. That said, I do feel like it’s some solid work and I adore the angst vibe of it, so maybe I’ll get it done one day. I could also see myself posting it as a messy lineart comic so that others could enjoy the concept being executed in case it never gets finished.

As for the 30 Minutes animatic, I still 100% intend to complete it eventually. I love the way it fits to the music and I’m so proud of the thumbnails. Even if it never becomes a full animatic, I want to digitize the frames and line it up with music so I can share the concept I see in my mind with others. My brain was somewhat overtaken suddenly by TOH this year, so now that that’s settled and I’m hoping to follow my muse more this year, maybe this will be something I can get excited about again.

The fanart for favorite fics is no surprise since it’s kinda the tack on. With low motivation and projects with deadlines that needed my focus, personal art like this was buried way below other priorities. It’s a nice though for sure though.

Alrighty then, now it’s time for 2024 goals!! Oh goodness, I really don’t know what to expect of myself. I definitely am going to try to allow for more personal projects with lower pressure, but I do still have some goals. Hopefully most can be accomplished without applying big pressure though.

2024 Goals:

-Number One Priority: Create for my and don’t put myself in a place to get crazy burnt out and still have requirements. If I meet this goal, then it’s okay if I don’t meet any of the others. (It would be sad.... But I would still count it as meeting overall goals.) -Participate in Summergen and PAW Week (Art or Fic) -Design Handplates charm as anniversary gift (November) -Design CS Charm -Have a fully usable Zine Portfolio (Currently need more merch samples and rendered pieces with backgrounds) -Apply to new TOH Zines or other loved fandom zines. If I end up getting into any, I can pull back, but since that doesn’t seem likely, I want to get into the habit of always being ready to apply with what I have. -Make an ongoing project list to pin to my tumblr. This applies mostly for fics, but that way people coming to my page can see what fandoms I’m actively creating for and what they can look forward to (as well as have an opening to ask questions if they’re interested). -Post more (at least 10 times throughout the year) and add my best pieces to instagram (8+ pieces by end of year). -Do ONE of the following:     1. 30 minutes digitized so it can be shared with music      2. Open Up Your Eyes fully thumbnail      3. Fanworks for other people’s fics      4. Participate in an extra bang or exchange with art      5. Design and manufacture a pin -Play with different brushes and rendering styles -Draw something from scratch every month, no matter how small -Not exactly art, but I want to have a finalized long-term merch display plan for all my items Overall, how’d the year go? I think I did well! I didn’t meet all my goals and I pushed myself too far, but I learned and improved a LOT this year. All things considered, I made pieces that last year me would be blown away by, so I think that’s an automatic win. I’m pretty uncertain on how this next year will go (even more so than last year, which is surprising since I was changing schools last year), but I’m hoping to enjoy what I do and create art semi-regularly. Here’s to 2024!

[arctic-hands]

What MP3 player? And is it still available! I hare having to muse my phone, and all modern ones require WiFi and that defeats the object of a portable music player!

So about 4 years ago I decided I too was sick of streaming, ads, and algorithms, and was running out of space on my phone for all the songs I wanted to play on the VLC app, so I got a SanDisk/Sansa Clip Jam (the little one on the left)

[Image Description: two MP3 players, next to a hand for scale. On the left is a very small blue one, with a very small and simple white-on-black screen, and a physical button pad underneath the screen. The player on the left is much, much larger, with a larger screen capable of showing color images, and touchscreen buttons underneath. Both players are open to LP albums, but the one on the right actually shows the album art for Churches. End I.D]

Now the little Clip Jam was good for a while and I was glad to have it, but it did have some drawbacks that became clear. Mine was used but I believe these are still being made/marketed. It was twenty bucks used.

Pros (aside from the big one of owning your own media without ads/algorithm

Ultra portability

MicroSD slot for more space

Audiobook-capable, Audible compatible once you register it to Audible

Physical buttons

FM radio

Shuffle capable

NO WIFI, plug in and drag-and-drop uploading

Neutral:

no Bluetooth capability

Has stopwatch

The "clip" in the name refers to the clip on its back, which lets you attach it to clothes and such

Immediately apparent drawbacks:

No external speakers, must have wired headphones to hear anything. They use your standard jack, so I'm assuming you could use compatible external speaker but I never had one to try

Sometimes chapters of audiobooks don't go in order and you have to go in with tag editor software

and sometimes the books upload as one big file, meaning you have to go in with another software to break it up

Thing that made me fully disgusted with the thing after a year or so of frustration:

The HARDware capabilities of the Clip Jam mean that it can only handle two thousand LINES. Not files, lines. Meaning the Artist counts as a line, the Album counts as a line, the songs each count as a line. This is bad enough with just putting music on, but when you add audiobooks to it, the titles of the books and every chapter counts as a line. With an SD card you can add about another two thousand lines. When you use up your line capabilities, the data will be on your device/card but the player won't show it or let you access the files at all.

SANDISK NEVER TELLS YOU ABOUT THIS. It was not in any of the listings for it, it was not in the manual. At. All. I only found out by chance by finally coming across a years-old forum post talking about it after months of frustration while I tried to figure out why half my files (mostly audiobooks by this point) weren't showing

So I started looking for a new one.

...for the life of me I don't remember how I came across the Phinistec Z6, prolly saw it mentioned on the r/DigitalAudioPlayer while trying to come up with a new one to buy for cheap. The brand seemingly came out of nowhere, but it had what I needed. I got it thirty dollars used from ebay. They were still being sold new as of a year ago, I just prefer getting li-ion battery things used.

[Image Description: the players again, the Clip Jam is showing the SD card option, the Z6 is showing a list of Music/Folder/E-book/Bluetooth/Recorder. End I.D]

I don't have an SD card in either and the option only shows up on the Z6 if you have one in.

Pros for the Phinistec Z6

No bullshit line limitation

MicroSD slot for added content

Maybe just a pro for me, but this thing is HEFTY. Not heavy, but dense enough I'm worried you'd crack a skull if you threw it at someone. Wonderful tactile weight in my case.

Long battery life. I think I've had to charge it 5 times in the year I've had it.

External speaker

Wired headphone capable, as well as Bluetooth capable

FM radio (only works when wired headphones are plugged in, the dongle acts as an antenna. This is pretty standard, it used to be that way on phones too)

Audiobook capable. This isn't advertised but it can save your story place in the middle of the chapter. I didn't use this feature too much tho, I got an e-ink reader a few months after. I don't think it's Audible compatible, but there are workarounds for converting those to MP3

NO WIFI, plug in and drag-and-drop uploading

Neutral:

Can read written books for some reason. Not sure why anyone would want to on a screen that small, but it exists

So-so voice recording capabilities

A crappy photo camera for some reason?

Touch screen buttons

Cons:

It doesn't ship with current software, and for the latest update you have to email the company for the download link. Kinda sketch, I'm prolly some Chinese corporation's data bitch now, but seeing as I'm American I'm used to being a corporate (and government) data bitch for my own country anyway

Also had the problem of songs not playing or being listed in the right order. The listing was fixed with the update, but even after tag editing the songs were PLAYING in the wrong order when accessed under MUSIC. When accessed under FOLDER songs play in order, but artists are listed in order of upload then, not alphabetically, so it can get tedious when trying to find the artist you want if you've got a lot of artists on there. Not a deal breaker, just annoying.

No shuffle, but because of the above if you want to shuffle on a specific album just access it thru the MUSIC function

While screen brightness can be turned down, the backlight behind the buttons is blinding white no matter what you do which sucks in the dark if you have sensitive eyes

Isn't as portable as the Clip Jam if you've got small pockets (looking at you, women's jeans)

The external speaker is a bit tinny and higher notes can get a bit staticky (especially a problem when you listen to LP)

Virtually no information out there about Phinistec

I vastly prefer the cons of the Z6 over the hardware limitations of the Clip Jam, all things considered.

[m0e-ru]

Hi! I'm sorry to bother you, but I've been reading your meta posts about Izanami and Souzai Daigaku and the like and you mention the game script often, do you have a link to the dump or to a big doc containing it? I only saw your Izanami one and it's fascinating, I'd really like to see more! I try to take screenshots of things like minor NPC dialogue but I miss a lot of stuff.

Also, while I'm here I'd like to ask, do you have a link to the Persona 4 Visualives? I know you uploaded them to your YouTube channel (and I'm very grateful 🥰) but I mean the actual files. I can only find dead torrents of them...

Either way, thank you very much for all the thoughts and reading material! #TeamIzanami

HAII HAIII HAIIII /waves violently and i trip on my feet and eat my spreadsheets/ imso happy youre here

i'd be SO HONORED to share my resources and im SO HAPPY SOMEONE'S SO INTERESTED ENOUGH TO ASK�� !!!

I've gathered and curated my own resources throughout the years, and I'll be sharing the original mirrors of where I got them. Of course, if any of these links are dead, I always have my own copies so you can ask me again WAHAHA

SCRIPT DUMP

ShrineFox

https://shrinefox.com/apps/textsearch 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/113DuAlmIqb8AU4xBYNuU5FDxPP3mVX67/view 

If you're not already familiar, ShrineFox has been a mod dev in the Persona scene for a while, right now though they're working on a lot of other projects too hehe. They had this "text search" app for a while where you could find text from entire script dumps of a game they had on hand, mostly the Persona games. Right now, the app's taken down, but the whole dumps have been uploaded in this Google Drive!

The _msg files are the ones you're looking for for the text n stuff. The _flow files are for the backend behavior coding and all that. These txt files are really big too, so try opening it with a source code editor like Notepad++ or Sublime Text because it might blow up a normal writer app like Word or Writer LMAO (188K LINES??)

Also, these are really the raw text dumps. There’s a learning curve to how interpret IDs and all that but you’ll get used to it, or just hit me up!

Vanilla JP Dump

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/s7c87y07vsv0t/Game_Scripts_and_Anki_Decks 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ukDIWSkh_xvpppPbgs1nUR2kaEwFaWlsJgZUlb9LuTs/edit#gid=0 

https://www.mediafire.com/file/9mkufgtde42em6v/Persona_4.txt/file 

Here’s a transcript of the JP text of the base game, not Golden. It’s formatted plainly, without the raw code or IDs or anything, so it’s easier to read but hard to crosscheck with the ENG text from the first dump.

MOEL Backroom (my stuff)

kai's spreadsheet of spreadsheets (and other docs)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18X2sR-1duXGWtQtJd5mesjrVUorjvUkOiwEjXT25Lmc/edit

Here’s my (supposedly) entire directory of my documents and spreadsheets I made throughout the years! You can take a gander if something catches your eye. I also made a summary of it and more resources on my Neocities :]

https://moel-sekiyu.neocities.org/archive/resources

Steam NPC Dialogue Calendar (P4G Edition)

[disclaimer: big page!!] https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2425834890 

BIG SHOUTOUT TO STEAM GAMER TYSSERR FOR LITERALLY DOING ALL OF THIS MAN YOU ARE SO FUCKING REAL FOR THIS 🫶🫰🫶🫰🫶🫰

This is an entire guide for all the NPCs overworld in Inaba AND Okina, specifically a glossary for each NPC and when they actually show up. I wouldn’t know if this is really complete but it SURE IS comprehensive. If you can navigate the dumps right, you can reference that to figure out what their actual dialogue is and read it in context.

WEATHER CALENDAR

Vanilla Wikidot page

http://persona4.wikidot.com/schedule

P4G Spreadsheet

https://www.reddit.com/r/persona4golden/comments/w8h1fi/persona_4_golden_complete_weather_forecast/

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iQfD_E2WhbW362puKUN_VJybjWBngUQTC2jI9CUmsLE/edit 

These are calendars that have the weather throughout the game, and the wiki one has events and other stuff too just for the base game. The spreadsheet is a weather calendar throughout P4G, you can make your own copy to annotate if you’d like!

SELF DUMP

If you see throughout my resources, I don’t really source some of them from anywhere else because I dumped the scripts myself! Especially the JP scripts and the Arena/Ultimax story modes.

There’s a lot to say about it considering I learned it while trying to crack into the games files myself and debugging mod files on my own LOL. Here’s a few Amicitia pages as a starting point, and you can ask me for anything else

MSG and BMD (and BF)

https://amicitia.miraheze.org/wiki/BMD

https://amicitia.miraheze.org/wiki/BF

These files contain text and dialogue and description etc etc. You can check these pages to see how to extract them with tools available. There are .BMD files in .BF files most of the time.

PM1 vs PM2 & PM3

https://amicitia.miraheze.org/wiki/PM1

PM1 has text, dialogue etc

PM2 & PM3 only found in main folder (JP assets, not the ENG nor KR nor CN asset folder) deals with environment, models, etc etc

VISUALIVE / the Evolution Direct Download Link

The moment everyone’s been waiting for !! Here’s a link to both Visualives and the bonus content, which I’ve already posted on my YouTube like you said. I will kill this link in a week or so for security purposes and my actual cloud storage. If you want it past this time though, you can always hit me up and ask me personally! I’m planning to properly host it one day, I’m just being thrown against the waves right now.

update: i've killed the link now. if anyone else needs it, you can always come to me personally!

aand that’s it! I’ve actually been writing this throughout the whole week whenever I have the time. Here’s as comprehensive as I’ll get, and thank you SOSOSO MUCH sticking around!!

[cornerdreams-txt]

cryptpad review !

in depth review of cryptpad as someone who is using it as a replacement for google docs because i don't trust google and i dipped the moment i heard "fully integrated ai" 🤭

we're scoring cryptpad on a scale of 1-10 based on its interface, features, accessibility, ease of access, and storage.

scoring criteria:

usability 10/10 : has a lot of formatting options, while also being easy on the eyes. offers features that allow the software to be easily customizable to each user's needs and preferences, or features that make writing easier, without being overwhelming.

accessibility 10/10 : includes accessibility options for eye strain/dyslexia/etc like a proper dark mode and dyslexia friendly fonts, while also having an easy-to-navigate layout, and a mobile app that is equally easy to use without losing its features. doesn't take a long time to load, and is easy to adapt to as a new user.

storage 10/10 : provides a free account with very high or unlimited storage. the documents and files you create don't take up a ton of space, and you have options for upgrading storage if applicable.

what is cryptpad?

similar to how docs operates on desktop, cryptpad is a website-based file drive and software. it's free to create an account, and offers a selection of different kinds of files you can make. here's a list of features i think are notable, first:

there's 10 different of kinds of files you can create, including even code documents! cryptpad also allows you to create as many folders as you like, upload pre-existing files or folders, and even allows you to add links to your drive if you have links you want to save.

cryptpad always will open a new document or a pre-existing one in a new tab! when making a new document it automatically gives you the options to name it, password-lock it, set a destruction date.

there's diversity in your sharing options: you can toggle and change the rules for the kinds of access people get to your shared documents!

somewhat on the same topic, there's access settings and details you can review and tweak at any time.

also you can change your account's display name in your settings LMAO

there's a chat option on documents for when you're working on something with other people in the upper right corner of your screen!

the actual scoring:

usability: 7/10

formatting your documents isn't terribly versatile on cryptpad, but it offers to you that you can make as many folders and nest as many of them as you want, while also making its layout and navigation simple. there isn't a ton of super fancy features in the rich text documents, but i enjoy that, to be honest! keeps it simple.

accessibility: 7.5/10

tragically, you cannot change the background of cryptpad files, and there's no mobile app :( if i could i would. they do, at least, offer a light or dark mode? i have dark mode selected of course, but it um... yeah the background is always just that white 😬 unfortunately. they do have basic font options, but personally, my love for cryptpad's accessibility lies in the fact you can make as many folders and nested folders as you damn well please, and the drive screen is SO easy to navigate.

storage: 10/10

1GB for free, to start with? sir, i have 52 files in this drive (all rich text) and i have used 0.03 of that !! which, if i did my math correctly (debatable), that means i'll need over 5 thousand files to fill up that 1GB. AND it's upgradable, without the upgrade price being my soul? you can even donate just for funsies!

overall rating: 8/10

personally, i love cryptpad! i do wish you could change the document background color, and i wish that i had more formatting option like line spacing, but it's a good iteration of what i want in a writing program! i'd definitely recommend if you like supporting freelance guys doin their own thing while also not struggling to figure out how the fuck a writing software works.

[itlivesproject]

hiii! your project is AMAZING and you're all so talented 😭😭 but i have a question if you feel comfortable with sharing. which apps/programs you guys used to recreate the game? I'm interested in developing my own games but have no idea where to start. can you give me some tips? 🙂 tysm anyway!

If you want to make a standalone visual novel, then the program we use, Ren'Py, is perfect! It's free and designed specifically to make visual novels easy to make for everyone, including beginners. I had literally zero understanding of programming when I started working on ILW and just figured it out through tutorials, asking questions on forums, and trial and error.

This is the Ren'Py link.

Because this is long, under the cut I'm sharing some things you'll need to think about if you want to make a visual novel:

Your team:

You don't have to have a team of people helping you with this. You can do it alone. However, I will say that ILW would not be what it is if I had just tried to go it alone. It is so much better than anything I could've dreamed of when I first got the idea. More people on a team = more ideas, more constructive criticism and feedback, and more heads going in together to make a better product. But if you want a team, you need to make sure you maintain an attitude and environment that is open to suggestions and contributions from others. Be ready and willing to throw out ideas you like if it no longer works or someone thinks of something better. Nothing kills the creative spirit faster than defensiveness and competitiveness, so to have a well-working team, open-minded members and sharing your ideas and criticism in a positive way is extremely important.

Art:

This is one of the first things you should really nail down, because if you start working on your game but never figure out the art, everything else will go to waste. For most VN creators, they usually hire out for art. For us, since this is a free fan project, our artists worked for free. We were also lucky to already have a bunch of backgrounds and assets from Choices that our artists could edit, so we didn't have to make dozens and dozens of entirely new backgrounds. If you're going to have to hire out, I'd try to really compress the amount of art you'll need - plan ahead and cut down unnecessary characters who'd need sprites, maybe use a silhouette for unnamed characters, and limit the amount of backgrounds you'll need, because backgrounds take up a lot of space, they take up a lot of time to make, and they're expensive.

Programming:

Obviously, programming is a big thing. If you have enough motivation, you should be able to figure out a lot of this on your own. If you use Ren'Py, be sure to read the documentation, watch a lot of basic tutorials, and just get into the engine and start getting your hands dirty! It seems like a lot at first, but once you get the feel of it, it's actually not too complicated. When it comes to programming, I recommend simplifying everything as much as possible. When I first started ILW, I didn't simplify things much (because I was figuring things out) so what I used to do in three lines of code I now do in one. Limiting the amount of code you ultimately end up writing GREATLY diminishes possibility of errors and bugs. Also, try to get as organized as possible. Make as many folders, subfolders, and text files as you need. Don't try to put the whole script in one file, don't put all the images in the same folder. Good organization goes a long way to making everything a lot easier to keep track of.

Game structure:

Piecing together a branching game is honestly quite a puzzle. Before going into working on your game, you should sit down and figure out game mechanics. What points do you want to include? Personality? Relationship? Romance? Skills? Some kind of narrative scale akin to blood vs shadow? Figure out what points systems you want to include and then figure out how that's going to impact the story and where. When creating love interests, don't just create a character and assume they'll fit themselves into the narrative. Focus on the character as a character first, meaning determine how they fit into the story's narrative, and then think about them as a love interest second. If you do this, it will make them a better character and a more satisfying love interest. Finally, start the game knowing how much variation you want. Do you want something with immense, diverging endings? How much variation do you want within one scene? Because interactive fiction is so determinant on player choices and there can be so many routes, it's not a good idea to just go with the flow and see what happens, because otherwise you won't be able to reconcile all the different routes you likely created. So figure out the overall structure for your story in terms of mechanics before you really start on planning.

Planning and writing:

Once you have the previous stuff figured out, then you can start actually planning the story and eventually, writing it. Again, I'd recommend you figure out the previous stuff first because if you start planning and writing immediately, but then it turns out you can't solve the programming, or can't get art, then all this work will have been for naught. My advice on planning: do NOT skimp out! Additionally, to make the love interests feel more important to the story as a whole, I would recommend the technique of arc outlining, which is essentially when you take each love interest separate from each other and plan out scenes that tie into the story to further their individual character arcs. Doing this makes it easy to figure out where tender relationship and intimate moments can go, and those moments will be more interesting because they're connected to an actual plot point instead of just being like "it's sexy time!" Once you have your plans, you can start writing. Depending on how long your story is, writing can be really difficult. It takes a lot of time and thought, and burnout is real.

Music:

You'll want to figure out how you'll get music for your game. Again, creators usually hire out for this. On the Ren'Py forums, there's actually a specific topic for music that helps you network with composers who are looking for jobs. For us, again, since we're a fan project that's not making money, we could use 1) Choices music 2) tracks from a music library I have a deal with and 3) as a composer myself, I wrote some original tracks. Also, if you're looking for free sound effects, freesound.org is actually perfect for that. It's where I got the siren, forest, and ghost voice SFX!

Distribution

Distribution can be tricky! For ILW, we originally wanted it to be playable online, but we eventually removed that option because 1) saving online was complicated 2) the quality wasn't as good and it couldn't run smoothly and 3) we didn't want people who could download it, play online and have a bad experience instead of downloading it. If you offer an online option, most people will take it. For indie games, I think using something like Steam or itch.io is the way to go. Unfortunately, that will make it so it's not available on Apple products, but to get it on Apple you have to package it specifically for Apple which is difficult, and you have to pay $100/year to be allowed to have it up on the app store in the first place.

Hopefully this helps! This is really just scratching the surface, but here are some things to think about if you're interested in making your own visual novel.

[throne-anguis]

Woe, another Persona inbox on ye. This time featuring Crick and the ramifications of not telling him anything.

----------------------------

Crick slams a file on the coffee table. “What does my Division have to do with the Mental Shutdowns?”

Kazan looks down at the papers and then at Crick. “Did you steal those?”

“T- That’s not important!” stammered Crick. “What I need to know now is if my Division is involved in the Mental Shutdowns somehow and if this goes up to the top or if it’s contained.”

“I think you're overestimating how many people I know that are in the Moonshade Order,” says Kazan. “All of us keep our identities a secret for one reason or another and the people I do know are people I wouldn’t trust. I only trust one person in there and that’s because I knew them prior.”

“But the police are involved. Otherwise you wouldn’t have had blackmail over Harvey regarding how he got Elena.” Crick crosses his arms and stands a bit straighter. “You said it yourself, you could tell them to reveal the actual legal documents and then the legitimacy on how exactly Harvey got Elena would have been brought to question and you would have been able to have Harvey occupied for a long time.”

Kazan blinks, stares at the files for a moment, and then takes a long sip of his cup of tea.

“So you remember that part. That’s good to know in the future.”

“You wouldn’t have told me if I didn’t remember!?”

“No offense Crick but all of us were going a bit crazy during that time, I kind of hoped you didn’t remember because I would just get exhausted if I had to explain it to you.” He takes another sip of his tea. “For several days I gaslighted myself into thinking the coffee was still wrong and right now I’m still not sure if Temenos’ bird figure was a mallard duck or a marbled duck.”

“It was a mallard duck. He switched it to a marbled duck last week,” says Crick. “Temenos just likes changing it every time it’s half a year.”

“Oh. That’s actually good to know.” Pause. “Did it cost another $150?”

“No." Kazan narrowed his eyes on him. "It cost $200," Crick says quietly.

“200- Ugh, gods Crick you could do so much better than some guy who spends $200 on ducks.”

Crick opens his mouth to answer before shaking his head. “Wait no! No, we aren't going to change the subject! And I’m not dating Temenos!” The officer points at the file again. “What do you know about the police and the Mental Shutdowns!?”

“Wait, you aren’t dating Temenos?” says Kazan, completely missing the question.

“No!” exclaims Crick. “I need to know what the police have to do with the Mental Shutdowns!”

“Crick, as I said before, you are severely overestimating how much I actually know about the Moonshade Order and the people involved.”

The man breathes in and out. “Okay,” he says.

“Okay!” he says again. “So you know nothing or at the very least you only know that the police are willing to turn a blind eye and help with their plans. So I’m on my own. Great.”

Crick started pacing. “There are several people who were willing to hide documents regarding who Elena’s true guardian is so that means they aren’t just rank and file officers but the higher ups.” Turn. “We know that you can access the Metaverse so to think that the New Delsta Police can’t is foolish. They may not be able to have the app but it wouldn’t be impossible to have gained it from someone else.” Turn. “Then, according to these files they’ve been writing off the Mental Shutdowns as heart attacks and nothing more.”

He stops and turns to face Kazan. “You were part of that investigation from the prosecution side, meaning you can also write them off as heart attacks, thus making the Mental Shutdowns have less plausibility.”

“Crick, do you actually need me to tell you an answer or are you figuring this out on your own?”

Silence.

With that, Crick went behind into the broom closet, reached his arm into the back, and took out Kazan’s phone.

“Wait, that's where my phone has been the entire time!? In the broom closet!?”

“Your password is 0718 right?”

“Why would I tell-”

“I asked around in the place you worked at and they said you took days off consistently on July 18th. Most people use birthday and anniversary dates as phone passwords so…”

The moment Crick entered the password the phone unlocked.

“The Metaverse app is the one with the Red Eyeball right?” asked Crick.

“Well yes but what does that have to-”

“Great,” he says, already clicking on the app.

“Crick what are you-”

He grabs his jacket. “Going out. Don’t burn the food and don’t answer the door if our landlord comes knocking.”

“Okay Crick but what does that-”

Keys? Check. Swiss-Army Knife Temenos bought for him? Check. ID? Check. “I’ll be back by the time Temenos arrives. You said it yourself, I have to figure this out on my own.”

“Crick are you going to the Metaverse because that’s a very bad idea considering you don’t have a Perso-”

He goes out, closes the door behind him, locks it, and makes his way towards the entrance of the building, already about to make his way to the New Delsta Plaza.

OH SHIT!!! This is going to be something for Temenos to come back to!! A disaster. Temenos is going to have the biggest panic realizing Crick is gone. He might even get mad (irritated, more so, Temenos keeps himself from getting mad) at Kazan until he explains the situation.

Keeping Crick out of the situation backfiring and doing the exact opposite of keeping Temenos's partner safe we love the angst. I could imagine Temenos rushing in alone even though his Persona has more of a healing specialty. The one person who can evoke emotions from him is Crick and that leads to him doing dumb things.

Meanwhile I love the antics with them; "Did it cost another $150?” / “No." Kazan narrowed his eyes on him. "It cost $200," Crick says quietly." and “200- Ugh, gods Crick you could do so much better than some guy who spends $200 on ducks.” Oboro, let the guy have his ducks-

Clever way of getting Kazan's (lacking) password for Crick. They may treat him like Temenos's himbo boyfriend but he is definitely giving it all for the team to get hidden information from the sacred guard oh no we know where this is going. Temenos prays Crick can awaken his persona.

[roboticchibitan]

I wrote a script (with my gf’s help) to open the clock app and three libreoffice files on startup of my computer because I wanted it to open automatically so I didn’t have the temptation to open discord and fuck around when I should be writing, and it was working fine but opening command windows when it ran, and I didn’t want it to open command windows, so I fucked around with it and some @echo off. Didn’t work. So I was like ok I’ll just put it back the way it was. Command windows aren’t hurting anything...... Put the code back the way it was. Letter for letter. Doesn’t open the clock app when I run it anymore. Except it DOES open it on startup still. But if I have already started the computer and I run the script.... no clock app. WHY. It’s THE SAME SCRIPT.

Learned to save my fucking around as a separate file tho. For fucks sake. I’ve had two different friends, one of whom is a full time programmer, try to help me and nothing. Tho I did figure out how to make myself the owner of every file on my computer. Because there were folders I didn’t have permission to access, so I fucked around and figured out how to change that. Windows 11 is the worst, btw.

I don’t even know enough about coding to explain the code to anyone DX I just fucked around after my gf showed me how to get the libreoffice files to run on startup. I just added another line for the clock app. I was very excited when it worked, and it still technically works because I restarted my computer and it opened the clock app just fine. It just doesn’t open it the rest of the time.... But I am extremely annoyed because I do not know enough about computers to fix it. This is motivating me to learn programming, though, because fucking around has actually been really fun. I feel powerful lmao

[woosh-floosh]

do you have any raw .drw files? how does its file size compare to a vector image / raster image of the same size / similar content? like ik vector files can be very small compared to a jpeg... storing timing info sounds simple to implement, but i wonder if it bloats up .drw file sizes?

Oooh, good question, and my answer uhh... got a little out of hand..

Here's the files in the folder for one of my drawings on the windows beta:

So we have the .drw file, the .sim file, a .csv file (this stores text data for my added title and description), and a .png and .sim for the thumbnail.

The .sim file is new to me, but looking at other files I believe the .sim files holds the individual layer data. Maybe the .sim stores the actual image data for display during drawing?

For example, heres the files for my haunter painting:

And here are the layers for the drawing in game (software?):

The sizes match up pretty well with the actual data on each layer!

(I should mention here that looking at file types and figuring out how they work is completely new to me so I could be getting some things wrong. I'm debating if I should reach out to the dev directly to check my work before starting this essay proper... but it's also been fun for me and my brain to try and figure this stuff out on my own)

Actually.. the sim files made me curious... if the main data is in the .drw file, what would happen if I delete the .sim files? Would the file still work?

First off, the thumbnail does not load, but the file still opens fine and the replay function still works.

And we still got all the layers no problem.

Hmm, if I save changes to the images, will it create .sim files?

It did! Huh!

Then uhh.. I don't really know what the .sim files do. If has something to do with display in game which is why the thumbnail didn't display. But I don't know where the layer files would be displaying if it's all based on the .drw. Maybe it's for file conversion? For uploading to the gallery? I don't know...

Anyways... back to the topic at hand, files sizes! The windows beta lets you export files as layered .psd files, .png files, and partial replay in uncompressed and compressed .avi!

So a quick reminder, here are the file sizes of the original image set up for Colors Live:

The .drw is pretty small!!

And here are my exports!:

The .drw is MINUSCULE compared to the .psd. And the .sim size falls between the two sizes of .png. Hmm, still don't know what's going on with that. Also for fun we can look at the size of an uncompressed two minute long .avi looks like. 4 million kilobytes, yay ^_^

Vector wise.. I'm actually not super familiar with vector programs (should probably brush up on them for this essay, huh?) so I'm not sure what exactly is comparable... I've had to use Illustrator this semester but I feel like Colors and Illustrator are approaching vector graphics in a very different way. Illustrator is saving data for vector objects, but Colors is saving data for brush strokes!

Well.. anyway we can open up one of my projects:

And we can stretch that layers panel all the way out so you can see all my layers and paths and objects:

And let's check the file size...

Yep! Pretty small!

For fun we can also convert that .psd I made into a .ai..

Yep! It's smaller!

Regarding file bloat... I think the devs did a fantastic job creating such a small file size and it's perfect for drawing on game consoles that usually have very limited space! However, my experience with Colors! 3D as a kid did have issues with file sizes.. Colors! was the biggest app on my 3DS and I constantly had to juggle uninstalling games and uploading and deleting paintings so I would have more room for new paintings. I did have quite a number of painting files... in various states of progress (as is typical) but storage space was a real issue for me. Now, were my SD cards only 2 or 4 gb big? Yes. Did I understand at the time that those were quite small for SD cards, even at the time? No. Does my experience mean anything then? I don't know.

Colors! 3D also had an issue were particularly lengthy paintings (were talking hitting the ~4 hour mark) would stop saving replay data. The replay would only play up until a certain point. I'm not sure why that is, based on what we know about .drw files I don't think it can be a limitation with the file type? That's kinda all it does? Maybe it's a limitation with the size of the 3DS memory that couldn't play the replays that long? Hitting that ~4 hour mark would also limit the amount of undos you were able to do so it could easily have to do with memory.

(Bit off tangent but undos take soooo long in Colors. And the more undos you do the longer they take! Colors didn't official start limiting the players undos until that ~4 hour mark but they were already limited by your patience)

Anyways, I will leave you with this, a link to the documentation of the .drw file format. It's only two and half pages long which I think is pretty short? Maybe you can find more info in there that what I can parse...

[lunarsilkscreen]

Web Stagnation

Why does TikTok do that the thing where the previous video is still playing and the one your on doesn't start?

Why does every Online Service suffer from DDOS attacks all the time?

At my previous Job, we created a TikTok-like for watching video snippets for work video tutorials.

And even though we had reduced the amount of videos to be watched to a limited amount and/or limited to videos on the device itself; I was tasked with trying to figure out why it has the same Issue TilTok does.

Which; theoretically because we reduced the overall capacity of the app from "essentially unlimited" to ten; should've alleviated the problem.

This problem also occured on Local hosting the entire app.

I don't even think YouTube found a fix for this.

Now there are two ways to stream a video; either you download the whole thing, or you use a data-buffer.

A data-buffer allows you download a partial sequence of a file, while *still* opening it as normal; which means you can start using the file or watching the video *despite* it still being downloading.

Which is how many services both video and audio avoid these kinds of problems.

Well; the issue *actually* lays in the HTTP protocol itself. And all fixes for this issue have to be built around the limitations of HTTP itself, AND around browser Video operation limitations.

Multi media content like audio and video tend to be packaged as it's own "pseudo-app" in the web page. And this is the same no matter how you're using a web page, through a browser or an app.

Reusable modular design and all.

And all of the current APIs, whether you're using your own, or you're using a ready made solution, have this problem.

Just so you can know our solution; we downloaded ALL the videos and created a MediaPlayer that had limitations on how fast you could switch between videos. Which had to stop video playback, unload the current media, load the new media, and then start playing.

Load/Unload means the media container we were using to play content.

It isn't the best solution, but it's the way we needed to make it work.

But what does that have to do with DDOS attacks you might be saying.

Well; the HTTP protocol is the same no matter how you use it; Offline, online, virtual, whatever...

And hundreds if not thousands of not hundreds of thousands of users have to connect to a single webserver to use a service.

These Valid Users can look like a "DDOS Attack" because of the information lost for each failed connection.

You know when you're loading a webpage with a crappy connection and the loading bar keeps getting stuck half way and you've got no response for the server?

Failed connection.

This doesn't mean that certain hackers aren't DDOSing cuz they're boarded and can't afford the game; it's just that it's mostly the limits of Physics.

Both of these issues combined give us a view of the internet that is a bit dated. We haven't really updated the protocols we use in a bit.

Social Media could use the same Protocol we use for E-Mail (SMTP) for everything it does; but it doesnt.

Either because they don't want the ability to connect outside of the app itself, or because they just didn't think about it.

So they use AJAX and HTTPS connections for these things.

But even if they did try; I think even our Email services are avoiding SMTP for a lot of operations.

All of this adds up to the same reasoning. Our aging Internet Infrastructures aren't really prepared for this kind of communication. Especially when we start using VPNs for Security and Internet Traffic Reduction.

Just think about it this way; we're using the same internet protocols we had when Nintendo Sattellevision was a thing that did make it to America.

And this affects the *whole* internet.

Even the web addresses we have designed are too heavy; leading Elon Musk to finally get his server address x.com instead of Twitter.

Yes, that simple reduction in the web address increased Twitter speeds ten-fold.

These are simply the limitations we're facing, and simply increasing internet speeds won't fix them.

[hydrus]

Version 560

windows

zip

exe

macOS

app

linux

tar.zst

I was suddenly without internet for a while, so there was no release last week, but everything is back to normal now, and I had a great couple weeks' work. The 'edit times' dialog can now handle multiple files.

full changelog

editing times for multiple files at once

If you launch 'edit times' on a single file, everything is the same. If you open it on a larger selection, it will now show, in a summarised way, the range of each particular time type, and how many files in the selection have or do not have a time set there. The controls all work as before, but in general, when you set a time, all files are now locked to that new time. Give it a play and you'll see how it all works.

SInce we don't always want to set exactly the same time to a set of files, but rather ideally a similar, staggered time, there is also a new 'cascade step' system in the multiple file version of the dialog. Every time-edit you open up has the ability to enter a little step, say 100ms, which will cause the dialog to set each successive file in the selection to be that much later (or earlier, negative values are allowed!) than the last. This way, if you have a bunch of files of something contiguous, like a comic chapter, that all have different, merged, or otherwise awkward import times, you can now manually sort them in the UI using tags or hackery and apply a new import time based on the first file plus a few milliseconds each time. Thereafter, any time you sort those files by import time, they'll also be nicely in page order time, just as if you had imported them all together from one directory.

I am quite happy with the new dialog, and I plan to copy some of the new techniques I figured out to other dialogs for similar better multi-file handling. I'd also really like, as we have discussed before, to tackle a 'cascading' tagger in 'manage tags', so we can quickly set 'page:n' tags to many files at once.

misc

In v559, it turns out I did make a '54 years ago' mistake, on moving files from one local file domain to another. This is fixed, and on database update, any borked timestamps that were saved should be corrected too. Let me know if you encounter any more issues.

Mr Bones and the File History Chart are now under the database menu.

There's a new checkbox under 'files and trash', 'Remove files from view when they are moved to another local file domain'. This actually re-introduces the unintended behaviour we had a couple weeks ago, which was happening under 'remove when trashed', but targeted to the correct logical trigger.

The gallery downloader cog button now has a 'don't add new dupes' option, which discards the query_text/source pairs you add if they are already in the download list. If you need to paste a hundred queries from a big mishmash list, I think this will help.

As a very brief test, I've added 'sort files by pixel hash'. If you have some pixel hashes in your current query, this will make them stand out, but the rest of the sort data is meaningless. I had wanted to try out some similar hacky new tech with 'sort by perceptual hash', but thumbnails don't have quick access to that data yet, so it'll have to wait.

I wasn't sure when my internet was going to come back up, so I dumped a bunch of time into some longer cleanup jobs. There's a ton of updated code behind the scenes, particularly around the way files get informed about new metadata, but nothing you need to care about. I have some new plans here and can see the path to getting all sorts of new metadata commands integrated into the shortcut and undo systems. I changed a couple thousand lines, so there may be a typo bug somewhere--let me know if you try to set any unusual content changes and it throws an error!

next week

Now we have tech that relies on file order, I think it is time we get the ability to conveniently reorder thumbnails. This will also help when I figure out cascading tagging in 'manage tags'. I'd love to have reordering by simple drag and drop, but that may be too complicated to slip into one week. I'll see what I can do.

I have quite a few messages to catch up on, which I will try to tackle Saturday.

[theromanticscrooge]

Rambles About What Happened and What I’m Doing

I left YouTube back in late 2017. Then I slowly quit and pulled away from being “The Romance Scrooge” over 2018, too.

What originally happened was that my laptop died. I didn’t have backups of my videos, my Photoshop and Illustrator files, or any of the assets/footage I was actively using to make videos at the time. It was the topping of a shit cake. I was 2 years out of college with a fine arts degree, but I wasn’t selling art or working in an art studio like I’d hoped. There were no art studios close enough. I had no confidence in myself or my art. I was juggling 5 different part time merchandiser jobs in addition to picking up whatever gigs I could find on freelancer apps. I wanted to be in charge of my schedule, my life, my time, and every detail.

Instead, I was drowning. I had burned out from trying to do too much at once and refusing to acknowledge that I had anxiety and depression among other personal issues that I’m not getting into. Everything was slowly shoved onto the backburner because I was floundering so bad, getting more stressed out, and had no idea how to fix things let alone get help or start rebuilding my life. Then 2020 happened and honestly, it was a downhill slide until the past 6-8 months. I’ve made more progress figuring out who I am, what my limits are, what I want from life, and otherwise this year than in the past 4-5 years. There’s still a lot I want and need to do, but I decided that resurrecting Scrooge and giving things another go is part of that.

I’ve been working on weird, surreal art under the pen name Cosmimarshmello, too. I’m currently workshopping what to do with that, too, but I consider that a separate project from anything I’m doing with Scrooge.

Where to go From Here...

I’ve been fighting with pretty bad writer’s block for the last few years. Cobbling together a coherent thought or something worth posting happened once in a blue moon. It could be once a month or once every 5 months. There’s a few thoughts on here I’m considering about taking another crack at, like my post on April and Donnie between the 2003 TMNT to Rise of the TMNT. I’m leaning towards writing and making something new for now, though. I feel like the proverbial floodgates opened back up and I can work up to what I used to be able to do and eventually better.

For now, I’m not entirely sure what I’m going to do now or what my next video will be. I want to ease into things so it’ll be rambly blog posts and shorter thoughts/takes on various topics for awhile while I find my voice again. There’s gonna be more waffling like this since, honestly, stream of thought is a fantastic base for getting thoughts out period. It’s how I used to brainstorm, too. The process would be: dump several paragraphs on a specific idea here, then comb through and sew together what’s relevant, discard what isn’t, put irrelevant ideas in a different draft for later. Some sessions led to a few more video ideas than just the big one I originally had in mind. 

Part of it is that I feel like I don’t have anything interesting or meaningful enough to talk about. There’s so many more people in the niche I used to be part of. Every bigger topic has already been covered by three different people and there’s already established reviewers or creators that viewers immediately go to for particular topics or things. That’s before even tackling how beastly YouTube’s algorithm has become, among other potential spaces. The algorithm is exactly why I’m leaning towards starting back up here and branching out to spaces like Mastodon first. At least for the text-based stuff.

They aren’t dominated by an algorithm. People will actually see my posts; even if it’s weeks, months, or years later. That factor helps a lot with how disposable social media can make someone feel.

I still feel like someone with not a lot to say. But I’ve kept tabs on a few different YouTubers that started small or are consistent and getting better every day. Honestly, a big part of starting again now is to remind myself that some projects and journeys are worthwhile; not only will my writing and potential videos get better with time, but hopefully it helps with personal growth, too.

I’ve been especially inspired by someone going through a hard time and showing parts of how she’s working on herself and her life through YouTube. I’m wondering if I can do similar for someone else by chronicling the “behind the scenes” stuff like this.

[sungtaro]

hello! i want to start making gifs, but i don't really know where to start. what are some programs you use and any tips?

hello hello ! ah amazing we can always use more content creators <3 i'll try to point you in the right direction to get started ! under the cut bc it's long:

⏤ my first app recommendation is 4k video downloader which will let you download videos in their highest quality from youtube. i recommend starting with content like music videos as they are usually available in 1080p (the minimum high quality you want - anything less and it can be really tough to get your gifs looking smooth) and up to 4k (pretty much the best quality you'll get), and it's easy to pick out shots you like to start messing around.

⏤ when i was first learning to gif, the only other app i used was photoshop. i started with a free trial to see if i would get the hang of it and now i pay for a monthly adobe subscription, but there are definitely cracked versions out there for download - you just have to find them (check the links at the bottom of this post) 👀 i honestly don't remember what tutorial specifically i followed to get the steps down, but here is one and here is another i found with a quick search that i think are good for a beginner. if those don't work for you, you can google "how to make gifs in photoshop" and you'll be able to find a ton and choose one that suits your learning style (i prefer written step-by-step, but if videos are easier for you, there are a lot of choices out there).

⏤ as far as coloring goes, it'll take time to figure out using adjustment layers and your own style. i really like this tutorial on how selective color works and remember using it when i was first starting. that same blog has a lot of other giffing resources you can look through, too: all ps tutorials

⏤ once i had the hang of just using ps, i learned how to use vapoursynth which is a python script program that will help you resize your gifs and keep them looping smoothly. it also can denoise and sharpen your gifs if you want. the reason i don't recommend starting with it is because i think it looks overwhelming at first, but once you get the hang of it, it's simple to use and makes a big difference especially when it comes to cropping. ultimately it's totally up to you if you want to try and learn it all up front or not. this guide has all the information you'll need to install it depending on operating system, and also has guides for how to use it. it is MUCH harder to set up on a mac than windows, especially new macs, just fyi. if you are planning to gif ts files (for stage performance sets) you will need vapoursynth imo, but otherwise it's not at all a necessity, just a recommendation. i also used this tutorial to help me learn to use it.

general tumblr tips i wish i knew starting out:

⏤ the appropriate sizing for gifs on tumblr is as follows: your width should be 540px for one gif in a row, 268-268px for 2 gifs in a row, and 177-178-177px for a row of 3 (middle has to be 178 or it'll be blurry. i have no idea why. this site is insane). your length can be whatever you want but certain things just look better & if you aren't resizing in VS, then you're at the mercy of your videos dimensions when it comes to cropping them down.

⏤ the mb limit for gifs is 10 but if you're using beta post editor it's actually 9.5, and tumblr will compress the heck out of your gifs that are larger than 5mb, so just keep that in mind, i recommend only make bigger gifs with SUPER high quality videos.

other helpful resources:

⏤ this awesome post compiled by another wonderful cc friend here has links to programs and specific resources for hq kpop files

⏤ a helpful open network tag list to use for getting your gifs seen

i think that about covers it ... sorry this is a LOT of info but i hope it makes it easier to narrow down where to start. if there's anything else i can help you with, just let me know and i'll do my best !