• @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    23 months ago

    In Canada, crown land camping and Christmas trees. You can camp on crown land and cut up to 10 cubic metres of wood a year.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      23 months ago

      Huh… Can I come? Always hated how free camping isn’t legal in England. Stealth camping sorta is, if you don’t get caught no problem but if you get caught you kinda have to move or you are committing a criminal offence.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    183 months ago

    lichess.org is a fantastic online chess platform for players of all skill levels. it’s free and—what’s more–it’s ad-free (unlike the parasitic organisation that’s squatting on the chess.com domain).

    it has one-on-one on-demand match-ups, tournaments, puzzles, user-published training courses, multiple chess variants, and so much more.

    it’s one of only two online resources to which i deem donating regularly worthwhile (the other being wikipedia).

    do check it out. chess is one really healthy mental habit to inculcate.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      53 months ago

      I find the dynamics of lichess.org vs chess.com very interesting.

      They are similar in terms of features. Both have decent interfaces, puzzles, matchmaking, live viewing boards and broadcasts for tournaments, training programs, etc. But chess.com has ads, and features locked behind subscription paywalls where lichess.org does not. (Everything is free on lichess, except for the little logo next to a user’s name to say they have supported the site with donations.)

      But on the other hand, chess.com seems to have a higher number pro players; and probably a larger number of players overall.

      I think its very interesting to think about why that is the case. Why would more people choose the version that is more expensive, but does not have more features?

      I’ve thought of a few reasons, but I think probably the biggest effect is that chess.com has more money to splash around (because it sells ads, and asks for user subscriptions), and it uses big chunk of this money to advertise itself. eg. by sponsoring players and streamers, offering larger prizes for its own tournaments; etc.

      And although I definitely think lichess is better, since it is generously supplying a high-quality product without trying to self-enrich, I do sometimes think maybe what chess.com is doing is ok too: in the sense that it is not only self-enriching, but also supporting the sport itself a bit by paying money to players, events, and commentators. Lichess does this too - but less of it, because they have less money.

      (Note that chess.com also does some really crappy stuff, such as censoring any mention of lichess in the chat of their twitch broadcasts. That definitely does not help support the sport.)

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        23 months ago

        There’s also an ego thing. Lichess starts you off at 1500 elo whereas I think chesscum starts at 1000. So if you’re rated 1000 on Lichess you’re a lot worse. There’s a mentality that the better players are on Chesscum.

        this of course isnt true, there’s plenty of competition and actually around the 2000-2200 elo level Lichess actually overtakes chesscum. there’s also fewer cheaters!

        I definitely highly, highly recommend Lichess.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          13 months ago

          There’s a mentality that the better players are on Chesscum.

          I’ve got a game coming up with my biggest rival next week. Are you saying this “Chesscum” can make me a better player? I don’t care what it is. I’ll do anything for an edge! 🥵

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        63 months ago

        Why would more people choose the version that is more expensive, but does not have more features?

        It’s chess.com. We are the tech-savvy Lemmy weirdos who dig around for alternatives. I’d put my money on people just literally not knowing or thinking to check for an alt.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          13 months ago

          I didn’t know lichess existed until I found an extension that opens my chess.com match review into lichess, since the review is free there.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      33 months ago

      It’s great! Also for anyone that happens to be in the overlap of people that enjoy chess and go, and want to play go online as well, there’s online-go.com.

      I don’t know that it has all the features that Lichess does, but it does have puzzles, tournaments, custom games, and so on.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      2
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      does lemmy have a chess community? I’m so tired of chess reddit. reddit is all Hans Nieman fan boys, because of course they are. I’m so tired of looking for chess conversations and hearing about how white males are oppressed

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    22 months ago

    CBC Gem, which is our country’s public news corporation’s streaming service which is a catalog of Canadian television. There’s also CBC Music which is the radio app, and you can even listen to the live streams of the Metropolitan Opera on Saturdays.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    233 months ago

    Syncthing.

    Connect any two devices’ folders together wirelessly, from anywhere.

    Don’t have a server? You don’t need one. Every device is an individual node.

    Backup? If you do have a server, offload some of your content and keep on rolling, or set scripts to move files by age.

    • Libra00
      link
      fedilink
      English
      13 months ago

      Good call on that one, calibre is one of my favorite pieces of software. I, uh, acquire ebooks through creative means and use calibre as both an ebook catalog and format converter to then load them onto my kindle.

      • mesa
        link
        fedilink
        English
        13 months ago

        I try to support publishers that give you the full ebooks like baen library.

        Calibre helped me back up my entire amazon library in a way my kobo can now read instead of just kindle. Both are excellent devices, but I wanted a backlight after 7+ years with the same ebook reader. And I’m not about to purchase all those books aain for the privilege of using the kobo bookstore. Plus Calibre makes it so no matter what you get (pdf/ebook/proprietary format) you can get a good old fashion ebook format for future preservation.

        • The Octonaut
          link
          fedilink
          13 months ago

          You should probably note, the functionality you’re describing now requires modding/plug-ins and not the “search and enable” kind, the download from third party sites and run random install scripts kind. It also since February requires you use your Kindle to download and copy every book you own (a chore if your family buys a lot of pulpy urban fantasy novels)

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    21
    edit-2
    3 months ago

    A little late but OpenTaxSolver - free desktop tax software that gives you a printout of tax forms that you can mail in. And it includes a few states too. Way easier than the annoying corporate sites that constantly log you out and charge a fee for every little thing.

    Edit: To my non-American friends, you don’t need to worry about this

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      13 months ago

      Thanks! I was pretty annoyed at having to pay TurboTax over $100 something to have my taxes filed. Opportunistic assholes.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      33 months ago

      Since you mention states and the site mentions federal taxes and the IRS, I assume this is for the tax system of the USA, it’s funny that it isn’t stated anywhere though.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        53 months ago

        the USA is the only country that I know of that requires such ridiculous measures to file your taxes tbh

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          63 months ago

          Here in Switzerland, tax law is different per canton. So for our ~9 million people we have 26 tax laws! We pay taxes on three levels, communal, cantonal and federal taxes. And who collects which part depends on your canton. In mine the commune collects the communal and the cantonal part, and the canton collects the federal part. Yeah… it makes no sense to me either.

          Though regarding the filing that part is not so bad;you only make one tax declaration from which the taxes on all three levels are calculated. And as far as I’m aware each canton offers a free software application for filing. The filings are a little complicated compared to some European neighbours from what I hear. For instance we aren’t source taxed directly out of our pay-checks, so we have to list our earnings and possessions manually and list various deductions.

          Still, from what I gather we have it a little better than the US Americans

  • AnimalsDream
    link
    fedilink
    English
    63 months ago

    Not free as in freedom, but gratis. Also only works for people who are on Discord - FreeStuff Bot will notify you every time a game on one of the popular PC platforms is available for free.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    93 months ago

    LMMS - free and open source garage band. It’s a little weird on how you do a song, but it’s pretty great.

    Tips: Look at Beats and Baselines Editor and Piano Roll Editor first to probably get you where you want to be.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        03 months ago

        Wow, this thread came to me with perfect timing. I love LMMS and I’ll try out this plugins on Monday, thanks.

        I’m currently going through this thread and found 3 other sites that are amazing and solved some project issues I was having.

        • anon6789
          link
          fedilink
          03 months ago

          Oh, glad to help! Any other music tools you’re looking for? I’m not good with any of them, but I like testing them out. I’m still just learning and experimenting.

          I get a little sad when I don’t see anything new for me on threads like this, but then I’m a bit grateful since that means I’ve already spent a long time enjoying all these things!

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            03 months ago

            I’ve been playing with it since my last comment. I just installed 8 plugins. There are 3 that are so freaking good.

            My only wish is there was a way to make a song like in Garage band, where you can overlap the instruments and loops more easily. I think it’s there, but I’m just not good enough at it yet. When I play with the piano, I get a really good sounding melody, but then it’s gone.

            • anon6789
              link
              fedilink
              03 months ago

              Like in this video?

              I haven’t used LMMS in a long time, but he’s manually editing the piano roll (where the notes are stored) but I see a record button here where it should record what you play on the keyboard.

              • @[email protected]
                link
                fedilink
                03 months ago

                Sort of, I found that portion. Here is my workflow in Garage Band.

                • Pick loop and sound speed (has a ticker before it starts), and place on timeline
                • Add instruments and play with melodies from a keyboard plugged in and record them.
                • Use the melody.
                • Record some vocals
                • Add more layers of sounds or loops
                • Create file

                This takes about 4 hours to make an opening song that I usually love.

                In LMMS

                • I can find some loops, but they seem to really point towards making your own, or maybe there are some loop vaults somewhere I could use?
                • I found some amazing instruments on the plugins4free site, but recording them with a keyboard seems hard somehow.
                • I have the studio (paid) version of Davinci Resolve, I guess I could just switch over there once I’ve made my loops?

                The rest seems easy and I like the set up.

                • @[email protected]
                  link
                  fedilink
                  03 months ago

                  If you want to do any loop and sample work FOSS style, then I’d highly highly recommend Bespoke Synth, easily the best FOSS modular DAW out there

                  It has a bit of a learning curve, but once you’re over it then it’s a pleasure to use and easily the best open source DAW I’ve used so far (and I’ve tried alot)

                  Biggest thing it has over LMMS: VST3 support, so you can actually use modern synth plugins like Surge XT, or dynamic EQ plugins like ZL Equalizer, or lo-fi plugins like CHOW Tape and MAIM

                  Although, there is a FOSS workout to get VST3 working in LMMS using KV Element, which you can load as a VST2 that itself can run VST3’s.

                  I use to use that before Bespoke but it was very much a workaround, and I had this infuriating annoyance where KV Element would just send pitch-wheel signals to everything and detune my synths without me knowing, and I could not find any reason or fix, so I just stopped using LMMS in favor of Bespoke

                  Hope this helped!!!

                • anon6789
                  link
                  fedilink
                  03 months ago

                  Gotcha, now I have a better idea of what you’re trying to do.

                  Watching this video about looping in LMMS shows it can sorta be done, sometimes with some help from Audacity.

                  If you’re adding in more stuff like VST plugins and vocals, you may want to try out Waveform Free, which I checked is for iOS also, so you get a full modern DAW. It’s the same product as their paid full version, just like 2 updates behind.

                  For more premade loops, check out Looperman if you haven’t already.

                  It’s not free, but I think I under $20 for the program and all the upgrades, if looping and sampling is something you want to focus on, check out Koala Sampler. I downloaded it the other week and have been sampling vinyl recordings from YouTube, it has an AI stem extractor to separate the instrument tracks, and then chopping and looping that.

                  It has a built in simple synth now as well, and you can use a midi controller with it. Lots of videos are out there if you want to see how that works. You might be able to incorporate that into your setup.

      • fxomt
        link
        fedilink
        03 months ago

        Wow, I was wanting to get into composing for fun and i saw this great comment :D never knew Mr. Superbowl would help me with this :-)

        • anon6789
          link
          fedilink
          03 months ago

          I do have some other hobbies! 😁

          If you’re looking for instruments, effects, etc, the YouTube channel elektronickmusick demos a few each day and many are free or free trials and they run the same midday track through all of them to give you an indeed what they sound like.

          I don’t think they’re the best demos because it’s a generic track through all of them, not necessarily something that fits perfect with each unique instrument’s strengths, but it gives you some ideas of the sound before you search for it, download it, and find out it’s not for you.

          If you want some nifty and weird sounds with fun back stories, David Hilowitz searches out obscure old instruments, fixes them, and samples them in his Decent Sampler plugin and rotates giving away different ones for free.

          I’m still really bad at making my own music, but I like experimenting while I’m learning to do better.

          • fxomt
            link
            fedilink
            03 months ago

            I do have some other hobbies! 😁

            I don’t believe you… I fully believe you spend most of your day looking at owl pictures!

            Thanks for the recommendations :D I’m not dedicated to it at all, but i think it would be fun to try. Bookmarking your comments for later :)

            • anon6789
              link
              fedilink
              13 months ago

              As hard as it may be to imagine, I feel I’ve been getting a bit behind from where I’d like to be with owl stuff. With so many owl babies right now, it’s been hard to get some of the variety I’d like, and between being sick and depressed, it’s hard for me to focus on owls or music the way I’d like.

              But between all those links I’ve shared, you should have years worth of experimentation ahead of you. I hope you find lots of good stuff.

              • fxomt
                link
                fedilink
                23 months ago

                :C I’m sorry to hear about your irl affairs. Unfortunately going through some stuff too, but i hope you’re doing okay. I’d rather you be healthy than have superbowl :) anyways, thank you for the links <3

                • anon6789
                  link
                  fedilink
                  23 months ago

                  I’m sure a good deal of it is just that like being lazy and complaining. 😁

                  I got some good posts added to the queue today and planted some more stuff in my container garden and made some bread, so now to clean dishes and laundry and try to focus on some piano.

                  I think I’ve been lost since the gf has gone to a very fluctuating schedule, as it really throws off my routines. It’s like if the sun came out at a different time every day. There’s still the same amount of time and opportunity to do stuff, but you’d feel off after a while doing stuff at what feels like the wrong time of day. I dunno. I’m weird. 😝