#put it on the cloud put it on a external hard drive

[honeylemonbutte]

2022 Year in Review

I don't plan to do this every year. In fact, this might be the only year I ever do this. BUT

I didn't draw for years and I started drawing again this year. I mean it! I barely even doodled.

I stopped posting on tumblr 2020-2022. It was a weird bad time. I would go home from work... still look at stuff on tumblr and then leave. I didn't even click the heart button to like stuff.

I started reading IFs (interactive fiction) regularly. I started drawing again. And when I started drawing again after a multi-year creative dry spell, it's like I caught fire. (Even though honestly I think I suck more now and was better at art a decade ago.)

I drew so much this year. Compared to the... 5 or 6 pieces per year I did prior 2022.

My most popular art post is the Blood Moon 3 Years Later fanart. I'm pretty proud of it, not gonna lie. (If you've never seen my pinned post, help i'm drawing is the tag for my original art)

My most popular post is a locked tomb post (NTN Griddle tasted like toothpaste post). Gotta love the locked tomb girlies.

Other Life Shit

Do I regret not drawing for years? Yes and No.

YES, I feel like my skills deteriorated for sure in that time

NO, I didn't want to draw so I'm glad I didn't. I don't regret not forcing myself to draw.

My computer broke, I lost all my shit on my C:\ drive. Farewell art on my desktop and farewell my extensive bookmark list of to-read IFs and my 100s of reference image bookmarks

My STORAGE DRIVE BROKE. Farewell everything else I was saving!!! (IT ACTUALLY WAS A LOT OF DIGITAL ART)

Back your shit up. Seriously.

2023

Back to basics I think, real art foundations crap. Anatomy, expressions, perspective.

MAYBE I'll make some real MCs, but I probably won't.

I will someday draw my Project Hadea MC, my Exile Commander, my Mind Blind Button... the list goes on.

Tag stuff better? I suck at tagging fashion and barely started tagging refs and tutorials. My tags are all over the place.

Dig a grave and bury myself until Alecto the Ninth comes out.

#personal #help i'm drawing #i post so much about not being discouraged about art and other hobbies #because I know #I've been there #p.s. back your shit up #put it on the cloud put it on a external hard drive #you'll lose it #and then you'll be mourning FILES #but those files meant something

[usergif]

Hey, I don't know if this is something you answer on your blog, but I was wondering how you gifmakers store/keep all the things you need to make gifs? Do you have a external harddisk where all your gifs, photoshop files, videos, templates and such are on, or do you use mega drive, google drive, dropbox? Or do you just have it on your computer? I'm making gifs myself and I find it hard to figure out the best solution for storeing everything, so I was just wondering what other gifmakers do

hi! i thought this would be a great question for a poll and hopefully it'll give you a better sense of what other gifmakers do! when it comes to making gifs with effects, you especially need to consider storage since the files can get pretty big

feel free to get specific and put your storage recs in the tags!

#ask #anonymous #admin #polls

[foxglovefaun]

i have a loving and desperate reminder for folks working on large/long term projects in digital format:

it's unwise to make the "cloud" your primary location for data storage. making back-ups in them is fine, but the most secure place for your work is on an ext hard disk that you can detach from your machine, and on multiple copies if you can manage/afford it. (and dont forget to unplug your ext drives when not actively using them!!)

if you dont have access to a personal computer, the public library in your area likely has computers available that you can use. even if theyre not powerhouse machines, they can do what's needed in order for you to back up your stuff. using the internet there you can access your phone/tablet cloud storage online and copy your work onto your external drive. it's definitely inconvenient, but it's probably more convenient than losing your entire library of personal work, writing, and photos.

discord stopped hosting images not that long ago which broke a lot of hyperlinks for personal web projects, google is doing sinister google stuff and is probably going to continue to do so, and we're sort of teetering on a major data/archive crisis that definitely won't put people like us first. corporations are not interested in protecting you. you are the only person who can keep your artwork, writing, and photos secure. ❤️ 🙏

i love you ❤️ pls protect your passion projects ;-; dont let corps decide if your work lives or dies pls back up your digital stuff

#barbossa voice #u best be believin in a cyberpunk hellscape #ur in one #i want to be able to read your projects ;-;

[biteghost]

State of Affairs: oh, it's not good. Bad, in fact!

listening music (lol)

Greetings, all! I apologize for not much communication, art or comics this month, but things were a bit out of my control! I'll cut right to the point: I had a big oopsie at the start of May, and the situation overall has not gotten much better since then.

Here's the scoop as plain as I can explain it: I dropped my external hard drive, and it no longer connected to my computer. My computer has a very tiny amount of memory (the OS capacity is less than 120GB), so I have used an external hard drive as the brain of my computer for years now. I have no back-ups either on another hard drive, older computer, or cloud service.

This external hard drive housed everything I have created and brought with me between computers since 2013. It stored all my art. All of it. My comic pages, my working files, my works-in-progress, my commission pieces, as well as gifts from friends and other artists. It had all the sessions of my at-home tabletop game 'Blueshift', which is a pretty big hit for me as I had only just finished the game. I didn't even have time to be happy the game was finished until I had to mourn a loss of it I had not anticipated.

I sent the hard drive to a data recovery company with good reviews. It had nearly 2TB of data on it, and I tried very hard not to get my hopes up that they'd be able to retrieve most of my data. Despite this, I still was disappointed by what they sent back.

To be blunt: they did not retrieve most of my data. In fact, I'd say in total they only recovered about 40%, if I am being generous. They were unable to recover any of my in-development projects (A Cure for Athanasia, Super Manifest: Steward Cycle, The Tenth, The Sword of Hours, etc), and unfortunately BACKLASH didn't make it out unscathed either. Old art files that I one day wanted to make Prints off have been lost, as well as small doodles and secret sketches which never made it online.

While reviewing the files that they managed to recover, I also noticed that whole chunks of BACKLASH's working page files have been lost or corrupted. This isn't a huge setback for the comic itself since all of BACKLASH is online to read. But it is hard and heartbreaking for me, because despite everything I did one day want to make a printed edition of BACKLASH. I wanted to hold my comic in my hands.

That dream is not impossible, but it is now much further away. I can recreate my old pages with what I currently have, but it will be a lot of extra work, and there is no getting around that.

Losing this much of my history, artistic journey, relationships and formative time as an artist has been really hard on me, emotionally and mentally. I'm very sad. It's hard to draw right now for myself. Commission work comes easily, since I am given a prompt to draw for someone else, but creative ideas are not flowing for me at the moment. My hands are frozen and dejected.

I am now waiting to get back the files that the data recovery people managed to retrieve for me (probably by tomorrow, they said), and I am looking into other places in order to get a second opinion of sorts. At this point there really is no harm in trying, and maybe a different operation might have better luck. Who knows? It may be grasping at straws, but at this point things can't get any worse than this.

When I get my data back I'll be able to finish up BACKLASH chapter 7. I want to finish it off - there are not very many pages left, and miraculously the few remaining pages are among the ones that were recovered! So that's good. I will be finishing up the chapter, and afterward BACKLASH will be taking a bit of a break. I don't know how long the hiatus will last, and I won't be making any kind of estimate. It'll take as long as I need until I feel I can put one foot in front of the other again. Maybe I'll work on something else for a while, maybe I won't draw anything. Who knows! I don't, haha.

Eventually I'll be okay, and I'll get back on the horse. Even in the midst of all this turmoil I really just want to be making comics ;_;

Until then, I just need some time. It's the only cure for this kind of problem, I think. So, I thank you for your patience, and I thank you for the love you've shown me, my work, and my characters. I couldn't be where I am and I couldn't have made all the work I have without your support and love. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

I'll see you when I get back! Much love and many kisses, xoxo 💖💖💖

(cross-posted from patreon)

#state of affairs #not art #long post #UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGH #RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGHHH #BRR:URUUURHHHGHGUURHHGNNGH #HRNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGG #UGH. #i didn't really proofread this so if it's bad or rambly sorry but also ughghhghhsklgajdl;kgLKSgjlsdgjdlkj

[copperbadge]

Hi! I read your post about report cards and I hope I'm not being insensitive, but can you talk a bit about your "digital archive"? Do you have all your documents in a cloud? Or on an extrenal drive? Its very intriguing. Thanks!

Oh sure. Hope it's ok that I posted this publicly! It's not insensitive at all, I often take away details like that from posts about other stuff :D

I used to keep paper copies of various important documents -- bills, etc -- and I still do keep copies of vital stuff like my birth certificate and home deed. But I reached a point where I just didn't want to deal with paper anymore; it's hard to store, hard to find once you've stored it, heavy, messy, tends to fall apart eventually. So these days if something paper comes across my radar I either scan it or decide it's not worth scanning and throw it out. And some stuff never shows up in paper at all but still needs to be stored somewhere, so I'll save a PDF copy and then file it in my digital archive.

The archive lives on my personal laptop, on the hard drive. It's split into a lot of categories; I have "taxes" which is then broken out by year, I have a small file for each home I've lived in, I have one that has all the cats' medical information in it, one that has all MY medical information in it, some other files for various records. A lot of ephemera, like event tickets or receipts from really special meals, I scan that in and rather than save it, I'll put it into a "yearbook" I make each year and have printed by Shutterfly.

My actual photos are kept separately from the digital archive but are usually sorted in a similar way -- by year, then by event within the year. I clean the photos off my phone pretty much monthly, which makes this easier. (This month I pulled all the photos off my phone, then created a "Europe trip" gallery and re-uploaded a bunch there for the purposes of showing off :D I also have a gallery dedicated to my niece, with backups on my hard drive).

By policy I don't keep important documents in the cloud, although I probably could, it's secure enough these days. As I said, the archive lives on my laptop, but because it is so important and really because EVERYTHING that lives on my laptop (photos, movies, music, etc) is important, I'm extremely rigorous about backing it up -- I have an external drive that's slightly larger than my laptop hard drive, and I back up my entire laptop every week on Sunday afternoon.

#digital archival #records preservation #andiamo-a-totani

[babycatlix]

i heard something today at my job and i couldn't believe it 😂 for context, i work at a copy center on a college campus and it genuinely stuns me how some of these students even MAKE it to college. so here are some of my favorite things/interactions i've heard students say.

let's start with the one i heard today. i overheard this at my desk and couldn't contain my laughter, i had to get up and run away to my work bestie's office before i let out the loudest cackle:

student A: should we turn duplex off if we want it double-sided? student B: i don't know, but it needs to be double-sided. student A: so... we should turn duplex off?

i... what? if it's SUPPOSED to be double-sided, turn the duplex on OR just ask for help??? there was literally someone sitting at the front desk, ready to help??? just ask??? and YES, in the instruction book (there's one a EVERY computer), it is written "Duplex (double-sided)" in case they don't know what "duplex" means.

here's a very common one, this one happens at least 8 times a week, i swear:

me: what kind of paper did you want to print on? text weight or cardstock? them: what's the difference? me: (to myself) 🫠 well one is TEXT weight and one is CARDSTOCK.

this is one we get for posters that aren't actually posters:

them: i'm printing a poster and i was wondering what paper i should use. me: how big is your poster? them: 11" x 8.5" (they always say the larger measurement first and it always throws me off) me: that's not a poster, that's a standard letter-size paper. do you want lighter paper or heavier paper? them: what's the difference? me: (to myself) so "text" and "card" didn't work... but neither did me telling them the LITERAL difference... hmm.....

a/n: poster is usually used to refer to a print that is larger than 12" x 18" if a print isn't larger than 12" x 18" we don't consider it a poster.

this one happened to our front desk worker:

them: how do i print my file? her: you can print it from one of our computers. either email it to yourself or use one of our flash drives and put your file on there, then print from the computer. them: what's a flash drive? her: (picking up a flash drive) this is a flash drive. you'll plug it into the back of the computer when you have your file on it. them: oh wow, it's so retro. i've never used one. her: (to herself) i'm only 23 and i know what a flash drive is... don't make me feel older than i am.

but also... flash drives are NOT retro??? flash drives are still VERY commonly used. i know that adobe creative cloud allows you to store files, but flash drives/external hard drives are much more reliable imo.

i'm sure there's more and i'll add any i remember in the future. but there you have it, what it's like to work with the younger generation in a copy center on a college campus.

#🐱 rambles

[aspiffygoat]

I love your art. sorry if you've been asked this before but do you have any advice for someone who's just getting into art. I know there isn't some magic ritual to draw good but some advice on where to start would be appreciated

Here is my personal advice as someone who has done furry commission work for about 4 years. I consider the following to be highly essential information that I think about to this day: 1: Don't forget to have fun and be yourself! 2: Keep your room clean and try to sleep well. It goes a long way! 3: Get a password manager. You're gonna need it for all the accounts you will be making. Bitwarden and KeepassXC are good. 4: Backup all your stuff on either an external hard drive, cloud, usb storage, etc. Backup your password manager info too. 5: Name your files thoughtfully and keep everything sorted. 6: Try to draw every day. A 5 second doodle counts! 7: Do not compare your skill level, popularity, and age with other artists. All that does is inflict damage to yourself. 8: Don't worry about originality or "cringe." None of that matters. Don't be ashamed of your fetish, either. 9: Engaging with drama, callout culture, and policing people is bad for you. It doesn't really do much besides make enemies. 10: Put your art on different websites! You never know when a platform decides to fall apart. 11: Don't draw for clout. Draw what you want. You'll be way happier in the long run. 12: Sometimes you'll get a weird dm or a rude comment. Such is life. I highly recommend finding a healthy way to handle it. 13: RESEARCH!!!!!!! Look for references! Study anatomy, color, composition, plants, animals, poses, anything. If you see anything and think "woah that looks cool!" STUDY IT!!!! Knowledge will always help you!!! 14: Don't think too much about your art style. It develops eventually and even then it's something that constantly changes.

#art advice #ask

[alttxt]

when cloud storage and streaming first started to go mainstream, i was immediately skeptical. like, you're telling me my files would be on someone else's hard drive? you're telling me i would need an account to access them? i don't think so.

fast-forward to now - streaming services are rampant, everything is locked down, nobody stores things on their own hardware anymore. and guess what? the companies that own the computers where things are stored? yeah they're cutting people off from the media and software that they supposedly own now, often with no recourse.

i am begging you. ditch spotify. learn to pirate. seed torrents. find a way to save everything you've ever loved to YOUR hard drive. get an external SSD and put your media on it. you never know when some ceo will pull the plug on the things you love.

[magz]

Optional Advice:

Am recommend have folder just for have notes "documentation" just for own self. Have folder as something frequent use / know is there.

This have personally help with make slightly less bad consequence of bad memory.

This mean that ...

If there same information frequently are search online:

make a note file with that information. can be just basics. -

2. If there something are doing, and know will forget details of why did it like that:

make a note explain what, why, how what did. This can be info of why decide those choice, what links / info was use for that info, and why did not choose other thing if there were multiple option.

Example ...

For tech stuff, am have frequent command can copy-paste, and names of scripts am use. or even have what did to customize Firefox Browser. Because otherwise will forget n search each time what something is, not know why something not work at time (updates can happen), or do same mistake when think "ok want to change this".

Non-tech stuff, for creative projects have put people have inspire own creativity, if something was fail and why, and what point of progress am at. So if take long break, am know where left off or if am change perspective on a project since last time.

Image of a simple tech "Self-documentation":

Image: Basic command, how to use, and the 2 frequent use commands to copy-paste from Whisper app.

This can look different depend on what are use

These are usually separate text file. And can be backed up and save in the cloud or usb or external hard drive or in a messaging app, if is important info.

Hope this help someone.

#text post #o post #yes... was edit example file lil bit for make more sense for viewer #tips #magz upload

[psycheterminal]

HOW TO SWITCH TO LINUX

So, we're going to go through this step by step.

Before we begin, let's keep a few things clear:

Linux is not Windows, it is its own system, with its own culture, history and way of doing things.

There are many "distributions", "distros" or "flavors" of Linux. What works for you may be different from what people recommend.

You'll want to read up on how to use the terminal; the basics an absolute beginner needs is short, but important. It's not hard to learn, just takes a bit of time and effort.

ADOBE DOES NOT WORK ON LINUX.

WINE is not a Windows Emulator, it should not be treated as such.

Proton is a compatibility tool built on WINE by Valve, which has its own compatibility database, called ProtonDB. It still isn't an emulator and can have quirks.

Not everything will work on Linux. Dead by Daylight actively blocks Linux players from joining a game, as an example. The Windows Edition of Minecraft is another. (But the Java Edition does!)

There are many FOSS alternatives to popular programs, but they may lack maturity and features compared to their commercial counterparts.

You might want to invest in an external drive. It'll keep your files safe and you'll be able to move all your files to a

Step 1: why do you want to switch? Are you concerned about privacy? Are you wanting to boycott Windows? Is 11 not an option for your hardware? Want to try something new? Be honest with yourself on what you want to do. Write down your hardware specs. You'll want to know what kind of processor, RAM, video card and memory you're working on.

Step 2: Make three lists: Programs you need for work, programs you use at home (that aren't games) and games you like to play. Check each of these for if they already have a Linux port. For games, you can check if it's Steamdeck compatible! For those where you can't find one or it's not clear, you can check for the program on WINE HQ and ProtonDB (for games.) Not all of them might be compatible!

There might be Linux-based alternatives for several things, but keep in mind that Adobe does NOT support Linux and does NOT work on WINE! Sea of Thieves and LibreOffice works, Dead by Daylight and Scrivener do not.

Step 3: Get a GOOD QUALITY USB drive stick! I recommend one that's at least 30 GB. That sounds like a lot, but operating systems these days are huge-but there's some fun stuff you can get. It's really important that you get a good quality one, not just a random stick off a reseller like Wish.

Step 4: Remember when I asked you why you were switching? Time to pick a Linux version. There is no "one, true Linux" version-the operating system is open, groups make their own versions and put it out into the world. If you're confused, check out Distrowatch. Read a list here. Download an option-if you have a few sticks around, try multiple ones.

Step 5: Plug in your USB and use either UNetbootin or Rufus to create your boot device. Rufus might be easier if you're not super computer savvy. When looking over the options, make sure there's some storage, set it to most of what's left. Take out your boot stick for now.

Step 6: Find out how to boot to your BIOS. Every computer has a BIOS. Check out your model of laptop/motherboard to figure out what it is. Arrange boot order so that your USB gets checked first.

Step 7: If you have an external drive, move all your personal stuff, game saves, etc to it or purchase cloud drive storage for it. Always back up your files, and with multiple methods.

Step 8: You aren't going to be installing Linux quite yet; instead, boot it up from USB. Note, it'll be a bit slow on USB 2.0, though a USB-3 device and slot should make matters easier. Test each version you're considering for a week. It is super important that you test! Sometimes problems crop up or you turn out to not like it!

Step 9: Once you find a distro you like and have tested, consider if you want to dual boot or completely wipe Windows. Some programs for work might require Windows or you might have a few games that ONLY work on Windows and that's perfectly fine! Just keep in mind, as of Windows 11, this option is not recommended. If you want to use dualboot, you want to keep Windows 10 and NOT update. There's great tutorials on how to make it happen, search engines should be able to point you to one.

Step 10: Fully install Linux and immediately update. Even the latest installers will not have the current security patches. Just let it update and install whatever programs you want to use.

Step 11: Enable compatibility tools in Steam if you're a gamer. File, options, compatibility. Also, check the Software Store in your OS for open source re-implementations for your favorite older games!

You're now a Penguin!

#linux #i love linux #linux for beginners

[shadowredfeline]

Here's what I got for this year for Christmas.

I got a Big Pikachu Plushie which I think I can use to sleep okay at night. and some carrying bags that look game related and can carry anything I do when traveling to different places, along with my Cinnamoroll bag as well. And I got a Pikachu Hoodie since I do have a Jacket I use anytime I go for a walk or go anywhere that's too cold. I got a Heating pad that can work if I have a hard time with my back since it has been hurting a lot. I got a Micro SD Card with 1 TB and I bet I can use enough memory for my Switch to reinstall some games and my save data is saved in my cloud storage. I also got a Solid State Drive that I can use for my PlayStation 5 in order for me to get some more memory for my PlayStation 5. and I can still put some PlayStation 4 games into my External Hard Drive. I got some PlayStation themed playing card sets so anytime I want to play some Solitaire in real life. I got some Socks too since I can use some more socks. and I got a Mario Patch that I can use to put on my hoodie or my vest. And finally, I got 3 Switch games, I got Splatoon 3, Super Mario Bros. Wonder and Detective Pikachu Returns. and I got another bookmark too so in case I have other books I can read while my other one is in reading progress.

So those are all the stuff I got for Christmas this year. I hope everyone has a Happy Christmas you guys.

People I tagged @bryan360 and @murumokirby360

[adickaboutspoons]

❄️🪐🦷 for the ask game!

what's your dream theme/plot for a fic, and who would write it best?

As easily distracted as I am by new madcap AUs and jotting down little snippets from which they might grow, I'm pretty terrible at thinking in-depth about plots other than the one that's currently right in front of me, so I don't know that I have a good answer to this question. I've written a lot of meta about how Stede has been actively discouraged from being emotionally vulnerable by pretty much everyone in his life, unfortunately including Ed, but that he has put a lot of work into trying to carve out a space for himself where he CAN trust others with his feelings even if they're less than palatable. And I've seen a lot of people talk about Ed's life after piracy and his journey to feeling safe and cared for and able to be soft and loved unconditionally, but I haven't really seen any of the same sort of consideration extended for Stede. What I'd really love to see is a thoughtful exploration of what it would take for Stede to learn that he doesn't have to reign everything in and shove down his sadness - that he can have his own sloppy bathtub moment and still be loved. Total cop-out, but I also don't know who I'd like to see tackle it. share some personal wisdom or a life hack you swear on Gosh, this presupposes that I have my shit even remotely together. Umm... So there's a lot of people raising alarm about the disappearance of physical media. That goes for your personal media, too - word documents, photos on the cloud, etc. Don't trust that the companies that are supporting them will be there forever. Save that shit somewhere you'll be able to access it if they were to go down tomorrow - a thumb drive, and external hard drive, whatever. As cool as it is to look at old photos of from the past, no one is going to be able to do that for you if they don't have access to your accounts. name three good things going on in your life right now I'm close enough to the path of the total eclipse that I should be able to see 99% of it today! My wife got COVID last week, but she seems to be on the mend, and neither my son nor I have gotten ill. I have tickets to go see Heart perform live in May!

#ask game

[fleshadept]

(idk if you will know this, you seemed like a good person to ask, or maybe your followers will know... sorry to bother if not! <3)

Google wants me to pay for more photo storage, I do not want to do that, and I want to keep all my photos safe on something physical rather than on a digital account

What's the best way to do this? I was thinking of buying usb sticks and transferring all my photos onto them, but I'm not sure if this is the best way

Ah barely in my twenties, I don't remember what we did with our camera photos when they ran out with storage...

external drives are a good idea! usb sticks are good for portability, it just depends on how much storage you want. you can get usb sticks with up to 1TB of storage, which might be more than enough if you're just storing photos. if you want to store stuff like videos or movies, larger external hard drives like this one can go up to 5TB. and if you really wanna go crazy, there are ones out there up to 22TB and probably more. it's wild how huge storage has gotten.

if you want secure cloud storage, i recommend sync.com. it's pretty affordable as cloud storage goes and is fully end-to-end encrypted so sync cannot see what you put on there unless they're required to decrypt it for law enforcement (as all companies are). dropbox is also pretty nice. i had to move away from it because they have link access limits--too many people were clicking my share links so they shut it down, it just depends on how you plan to use it.

i honestly recommend doing both. redundancies are a life saver with digitally storing stuff. i have a lot of my files on sync.com, but everything i put on there i make sure to put on an external drive first (i have a 4TB one with a shit ton of movies and all of wwdits fx in 4k and still am not close to running out) in case something goes wrong in the cloud or on the drive, i always have backups. i think the common recommendation is at least 3 redundancies; my computer breaks a lot so i have 2 external hard drives and my sync storage.

#also if you're not super experienced with it i do recommend highly organizing your file structures #so you can find things #i love doing that it's like cleaning my room it makes me feel so peaceful #but if you're storing stuff that's important to you in several places it's good to have a system #cricket answers #tech

[armoricaroyalty]

A couple ways to improve Sims 4 performance (in order of ascending complexity/cost)

When you run your game, close all other applications. The more you're asking your computer to do at once, the slower it'll run. When you're playing the Sims, close your discord, your web browser, music players, and any other applications you're running.

Delete unused files and empty your computer's trash. If your computer's hard drive is full or nearly full, your computer will run more slowly. You should regularly empty the trash on your computer and delete old and unused files. If you need to store a lot of files (especially big files like pictures and video), move them off your computer's hard drive and onto a small, portable drive or cloud storage before deleting them off your computer.

Clean out your computer's fans. Computers generate heat as they run, which is why your computer has built-in fans. They're intended to cool your computer as it runs, but dust accumulates inside over time, decreasing the fan's effectiveness. For around $10, you can buy canned air to blow the dust out of your fans, increasing their cooling capacity.

Invest in a laptop cooling pad. To help keep your laptop from overheating, you can get an external fan system. Laptop cooling pads cost between $15 and $40, and plug into your laptop via a USB port. Extra external fans support your laptop's built-in cooling systems and help keep your laptop from overheating. If I forget to turn on my fans before opening the game, I have a ton of lag even without running Gshade/reshade. When I turn the fans on, my game is running more smoothly within minutes, with significant reductions in lag and fewer dropped frames.

Upgrade your computer's RAM. If you're comfortable taking your laptop apart (it sounds intimidating, but for most PCs it's actually pretty quick and easy! they're designed to be taken apart and put back together), you can easily swap out your computer's default RAM stick for one with a greater capacity. My computer comes with 4 GB of built-in RAM plus 8 GB of removable RAM for a total of 12 GB. For $35 plus 20 minutes of work, I was able to swap out the 8 GB RAM stick for a 16 GB RAM stick, bringing my total to 20 GB. My game runs a lot more smoothly now! To check if this is possible for your device, go into your device settings and check to see if your computer is at its maximum RAM capacity. If not, google "[your exact device model] compatible RAM" and order a compatible RAM stick. If you've never taken a laptop apart before (and hell, even if you have) I'd recommend finding and watching a video tutorial to show you exactly how to take your computer apart and what to look for (google "[your exact device model] RAM upgrade tutorial."

#armorica tips

[sarasa-cat]

Huhhhm.

Definitely noticed a huge drop in image quality when I:

1. Use steamdeck screencap buttons to take shot

2. Use steam tools to upload shot to steam platform (cloud)

3. Use web browser to find that photo, download it to my photos on iPad

Severe loss in image quality.

Haven’t bothered looking at actual file size differences but, okay. Well. More exploration needed. That said, the in game CP77 photo mode tools work. They are just sllllow. And once I have those shots I can do as I wish them — need to figure out how to easily transfer files to and from steam deck to iPad. could use an external hard drive or thumb drive with a dock. Hm. Time to dig around. … or put that on my tomorrow list.

Feeling exceedingly beat right now.

Might just take the steam deck to bed and tool around for a little while before setting up a big BG3 download for while I zzzzzzz.

[redshift-13]

hot tip of the day - avoid Apple iCloud as if your life depended on it

Or, if you harbor the old fashioned belief that pointless troubleshooting and workarounds should self-evidently not be a built-in feature of using a company’s products. 

If you’re using Apple products and you haven’t yet used iCloud, don’t.  You have no idea what hell awaits you.

-Deletions of all the contents of Apple mail if you decline iCloud during a major OS update install.  (This happened to me several years ago and I’ve never trusted Apple with email again.) -Forcible erasure of all documents on your desktop. (Are these then put in iCloud? -Who knows.  When the popup window warned that this was about to happen (and you had no choice in the matter), I quickly shuttled my desktop contents to an external drive so Apple couldn’t erase them.  This insanity occurred during a recent Apple tech support call while trying to do what should have been the most elementary user interface task imaginable - dragging and dropping books from a desktop to an iPad. It was suggested that I turn on iCloud to see if that would solve my technical issue.  It instead created a cascade of new problems.)

-Unannounced and involuntary Apple upload of music to your iPhone. (This also resulted from a troubleshooting phone call that involved the suggestion of, you guessed it, turning on fucking iCloud.  It turns out that in my first obnoxious experience with iCloud years ago that a bunch of my song files were uploaded to the hell-Cloud.  (Another problem with iCloud - you have no idea of what info of yours is stored in Apple’s cloud servers unless you risk havoc by turning iCloud on.)  These then magically reappeared on my phone recently during said tech support call.)

I could go on.

So, what’s the problem with iCloud?  

Across corporations there’s push to hook you into subscriptions and rental systems, to upsell you on add-ons, functions, and services you don’t need.  Apple is no different.  The white shoe finance bros have won.

With iCloud Apple wants to accustom you to doing without external hard drives.  After all, your data is monetizable, even if it’s just your family photo albums or work spreadsheets or song files.  Apple’s trick is to limit your control over what goes into the cloud.  You can’t upload just your top 5 songs to iCloud, you have to give Apple permission to nab all your music files, or photos, or documents, or... The reasoning is straightforward: “you” more quickly use up your “free” iCloud storage.  And then, voila - your data can’t be backed up anymore.  You have to upgrade to a paid version of iCloud.  Apple sprains your finger and then sells you a splint.

In theory, free storage space in the cloud sounds like a good deal - simple and uncomplicated and free.  But this is not what iCloud is.  iCloud is first and foremost one of many ways Apple and other companies try to upsell you on a needless service.  What’s worse, Apple uses strong-arm tactics, threatening and performing deletions and erasures of files for no other reason than to push you into using their craptastic iCloud service.

#apple #icloud #hot tips