The Ink Spots are an interesting case. They’re a vocal group from the 30s. Not only did that group Theseus itself and then dissolve by the 50s, but afterward there were legal disputes. A bunch of the past members claimed rights to the name. Courts ultimately said ‘nobody owns the name, you can all use it’. So anybody with any connection was going around performing as The Ink Spots, and those groups were also changing members. Over the decades there were probably multiple fully Theseus’d versions of the group going at the same time.

Andrew Hickey has a good podcast episode on it that you can listen to/read. https://500songs.com/podcast/the-ink-spots-thats-when-your-heartaches-begin/

Here’s a couple I’ve seen around, tho I haven’t dived too deep:

• OpenGameArt (Usually kind of a mixed bag on quality, but the site has good concept and intentions)
• https://musopen.org/ (public domain, classical stuff, also a bunch of sheet music if you want to do things the hard way)
• https://degitx.com/ (an individual that produces rock/metal/chiptune kinda stuff and puts it out under CC licenses)
• https://gravitysound.studio/ (Had it bookmarked, but it seems the free page is gone or at least moved. Looks pricey, and terms don’t seem clear)

I also sometimes consciously dislike things because of annoying ads.

But it doesn’t matter. The overall result is that now you’re aware of that brand, you have a place for it in memory. After time passes it will be The One I’ve Heard Of unless you’re dedicated to remembering to avoid it. There’s something called the Mere Exposure Effect - it mostly works and they know it. :(

I haven’t tried it. What aspects make it different from what Loops or Pixelfed are already doing?

Sad to me a lot of times means stuff about time passing and getting older or things changing, so most of these are along that line. Some of the ones I think of first:

Time, Fat Old Sun, and High Hopes by Pink Floyd

In My Life by The Beatles (also Ozzy)

Hurt by Johnny Cash (orginally NiN)

Preaching the End of the World by Chris Cornell

There Was a Light Here by Demon Hunter

Thanks!

But yeah, it is rough. No wonder they keep it a secret, lol.

I have occasionally. I’ve got Google Play on my phone and I used to use a small tablet to do some reading.

Ultimately I find much better success rates reading a paper book. Having a single purpose item laying around helps motivate me, and the low-tech approach reduces distraction.

Had no idea they had an app. After peeking at that page, I still don’t. Do you just mean it’s a PWA, or is there a native one?

But yeah, agree that their UI/UX does not make it much fun. Still a great resource.

Any creative work qualifies? Music is pretty approachable. You can learn a few basic theory things to get ideas, or just play around with random notes to see what sounds good. Don’t have to be any good, you can get LMMS or another midi editor/tracker and write it without skill at an instrument.

For writing prose in particular, maybe short stories would be easiest? Just because they aren’t so long. Still takes creativity for ideas tho.

Idk, I think an important perspective is to remember it doesn’t have to be good (assuming you’re doing this for fun or learning, not as a job right away). Just create. Then, you’ll look at what you made and see how it sucks and get ideas for what to do differently next round. You mention not having the skills, but you can just try to do all things and see how it goes.

Fair enough! While I do have problems with Oracle as a company that would prevent me from considering their services, my comment above this is just in jest about the post being in this community.

Not meaning to be seriously dismissive or judgmental of the question. I totally understand using whatever resources are available.

Wrong comm.

… or is it? Using Oracle non-ironically?

Agree with this! It’s one of those things where if you want to learn to do it, just start doing. (Which it sounds like op is, so keep at that.) You find where the gaps are then focus on learning just enough to get past your roadblock.

I just pulled a valuable card and got it graded through PSA. Wound up not being worth it really for me. But that might be because I paid for a single card. At the very least you save some on shipping if you send a bunch for grading at one time, but the submission fee might lower in bulk too, don’t remember.

The fee tho is based on how quick you want it done. I wanted it back within a couple months, so it cost me like 60 bucks. If you’re patient it’s a good bit cheaper (tho they did just send me an email saying they’re raising prices). My card (fresh from the pack) graded at 9, which in my case looks like it’s going about the same as ungraded, a little bit higher. Even if the card seems perfect, 8/9/10 is basically a toss up far as I can tell. My card went up in value a bit in the months the process took, so I pretty much broke even on the grading vs selling immediately. And PSA will handle the actual selling for you if you want, so that can be nice.

Anyway, that’s just my experience, and it’s n=1 so grain of salt.

From a collection perspective, I don’t really see the appeal in owning graded cards. On a base level, I want someone to enjoy them and I think the grading tombs lower the aesthetic appeal. I don’t want to put more graded cards into the world. But in some cases you just want as much money for your cards as possible. So grading might make sense for the valuable ones if they’re in especially good shape. Check pricecharting for the cards you’re considering for grading and see if there’s a nice bump.

If I remember right, I think Severed required it. Might need buttons too tho, idk.

Pretty cool projects. I played around with the Mandarin one a little. What plans do you have for these going forward?

More languages, custom vocab lists seem like they’d be good additions, but mainly I’m interested in how you plan to improve the game aspects?

It’s bad and seemingly getting worse. And while the headline tries to ‘other’ these kids, it’s not just them. It’s Americans in general that are declining:

The news of Gen Z’s waning literacy comes along with a substantial decline in literary acumen among Americans more broadly. Over the last 20 years, for example, the amount of adults reading recreationally in the US has fallen by 40 percent. Meanwhile, a survey of the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) found that 59 million Americans are reading at a level one competency or below — the lowest level on the PIAAC’s five-point scale.

Reminds me of a similar article from a couple years ago on this same topic: https://slate.com/human-interest/2024/02/literacy-crisis-reading-comprehension-college.html

The professor that wrote that goes on to mention how even among himself and his colleagues, attention and focus is far from the norm any more:

Even as a career academic who studies the Quran in Arabic for fun, I have noticed my reading endurance flagging. I once found myself boasting at a faculty meeting that I had read through my entire hourlong train ride without looking at my phone. My colleagues agreed this was a major feat, one they had not achieved recently. Even if I rarely attain that high level of focus, though, I am able to “turn it on” when demanded, for instance to plow through a big novel during a holiday break.

I always think that when I see this fact - what counts as a shuffle? If I sloppily cut the deck once and reassemble, that’s most likely not unique. I wonder how many moves before a shuffle is statistically close to a random order. I’m guessing just a few, but I don’t really know.

I think that’s a pretty typical reaction. I don’t like my real voice either. There’s always this expectation vs reality thing going on, where your brain is just upset that a part of you doesn’t seem right.

You’re right that it isn’t, and doesn’t need to be, the most complicated thing in the world.

But there’s a bit more to it than it sounds like. Deck management, customizing flashcards (html/CSS templates), spaced repetition algorithms (including many user-customizable settings), statistics and visualizations.

Most importantly probably are the things they host online. Right now you can freely sync your data between devices, and they have a community portal where people upload decks to share. I’m imagining these will be among the first targets for paywalls (but could always be replaced by the community).

Just read through.

AnikiHub’s page is a little concerning on its own, with ‘we offer AI features!’ blatantly front and center.

More worrying is that in their post they go out of their way to say “Anki’s core code will remain open source” (emphasis mine).

Otherwise, idk, sounds like at a base level they have the right ideals in mind.