• ElectroVagrant@lemmy.world
    1391·
    14 days ago

    In terms of fully free, obligatory mention:
    Your library may offer more than books alone, depending on how well supported they are. Borrow music, movies, sometimes even video games. For music and movies they may also offer these to borrow digitally as well via online services they coordinate with.

    • Bonifratz@lemm.ee
      19·
      14 days ago

      My library offers art! Like, original art pieces (paintings and sculptures) by local artists which you can borrow for up to three months.

    • Mist101@lemmy.world
      18·
      14 days ago

      The library of things is also something many public libraries have now. Not just media, but tools, power tools, cooking pans and equipment, pod casting equipment. Definitely worth a look.

    • Jtee@lemmy.world
      14·
      14 days ago

      Our library does audio books, 3d printer, sound recording (like a small studio), and passes to provincial parks. Some can offer a lot!

    • grasshopper_mouse@lemmy.worldOP
      11·
      14 days ago

      I moved to a new town in 2022 and I STILL haven’t been to the local library. I need to get on that. I went to libraries so much as a child and in my teens.

      • KittenBiscuits@lemm.eeEnglish
        6·
        14 days ago

        You might be able to apply for an account online and not have to go in, unless you just want to meander through their not-book- things available to check out.

        My library has a lovely assortment of things. Anything from camping gear to ghost hunting “equipment” like a spirit box or emf meter. My city doesn’t have a fully outfitted maker lab tho, but I am eligible for an account at the neighboring city that does have a kickass maker lab (3d printers, laser engravers, sewing and embroidery machines, Cricuts, and even a professional recording studio).

  • masterspace@lemmy.caEnglish
    633·
    13 days ago

    Closing your eyes, slowly taking a deep breath, and calmly, breathing in, and breathing out, while focusing on the sensations in your body, and how much more relaxed you’re feeling right now

    i.e. meditation

    • Steven McTowelie@lemm.eeEnglish
      26·
      13 days ago

      On a whim I googled my city’s library and “tools” and I found a non-profit society that specializes in lending of hand and power tools! This is incredible and I wouldn’t have known about it without this prompt: thank you!

      • BackgrndNoize@lemmy.world
        4·
        13 days ago

        Can you share the name of this non profit society, is it a part of your local public library or it’s own independent thing?.

        I need a spanner for like single hex nut and I don’t want to buy one for it to collect dust in my drawer lol

        • Steven McTowelie@lemm.eeEnglish
          2·
          12 days ago

          Yeah mine was called the [City Name] Tool Library, and it was a non-profit that was independent of our local library. I imagine that they receive donated tools from contractors and companies around the city.

          As an example, I googled a random city name (Calgary) and found one for them as well: https://calgarytoollibrary.org/

          There are likely tons of similar organizations throughout Canada (and probably your country as well!)

    • duckworthy36@lemm.eeEnglish
      14·
      13 days ago

      Our library loans out state parks passes for a month so you can go to parks for free. It also loans out hiking gear, provides immigration resources, and oddly, a ukulele.

    • the_q@lemm.eeEnglish
      7·
      12 days ago

      Technically not free, but because so many people think it is it’s a great poster child for proper use of tax dollars and socialist programs. Libraries rock.

    • loopedcandle@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
      4·
      12 days ago

      Adding the library-libby nexus. Most libraries have an eBook collection connected through Libby. I’ve got a Kindle and zero books bought from Amazon. It’s great.

      Protip, if you went to any form of formal education (college) then you probably have alumni library account access. My Libby has three library cards logged in. I never wait for a book.

    • starlinguk@lemmy.world
      1·
      12 days ago

      Nope. 15 Euro a year (Freiburg, Germany), which doesn’t automatically renew and it’s a bloody pain.

    • some_designer_dude@lemmy.worldEnglish
      91·
      14 days ago

      How is it different than Plex?

      Does it find the movies for me, or do I still need to figure out the Usenet or BitTorrent?

      • kassiopaea@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        24·
        14 days ago

        Jellyfin Is completely open source, fully self-hosted, and free. With Plex the software still has to phone home to a central server for authentication and some features are locked behind a paywall.

        No streaming software is going to find movies for you (without paying for content they’ve licensed) because that would be a sure fire way to get the project taken down for copyright violation.

          • kassiopaea@lemmy.blahaj.zone
            2·
            10 days ago

            While I don’t have much experience with Plex, I can say that it’s really not hard to set up Jellyfin for streaming across the internet.

            I’m running a docker container using the linuxserver.io image and all I had to do was forward the HTTP/S ports. I will grant that when a third party has to make an easy-to-use container for a service, there’s a problem to address… but if I remember correctly, Jellyfin is easier to set up on bare metal where it can use uPnP.

      • BlackAura@lemmy.world
        8·
        13 days ago

        Since no one really answered you, there are generally two routes.

        If you use newsgroups you can run sabnzbd, which is a service that downloads from newsgroups. I’ve been out of the loop for a while but there used to be something like CouchPotato for movies or SickBeard for TV (which migrated to SickChill, though you shouldn’t use that anymore as it installed a crypto miner last I heard). Lastly you sign up with a news indexer (look up Nzb.su or nzbgeek.info). CouchPotato could be linked to your imdb watch list.

        Plug all of those together with API keys, and now movies on your imdb watch list just show up in your plex library as they become available.

        Now if you use Torrents instead of newsgroups, there are similar things that all exist, I’m just less familiar with them.

        • some_designer_dude@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          13 days ago

          Ah, interesting. I’m actually only (barely) familiar with torrents, insofar as I have downloaded qBitTorrent and enabled its embedded search. I search for thing, sort by most seeds, and choose first relevant one. Usually it all goes well. Plex on my Mac watches the downloads folder, and the TV has Plex installed.

          It works, but at least from my limited view of its search results, the seas seem to be drying up. I feel like there are better, non-default searches I could be adding. There was some kind of Jacket plugin that refused to load so it’s just disabled.

          Am a very inept pirate 🏴‍☠️

    • Libra00@lemmy.worldEnglish
      7·
      14 days 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.

      • mesamunefire@lemmy.worldEnglish
        6·
        14 days 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.

  • AItoothbrush@lemmy.zipEnglish
    31·
    13 days ago

    In most eu countries the law requires businesses that give out food to also allow you to order free tap water. If youre in a city and dont want to spend money on a bottle of water, walk into mcdonalds and ask for free tap water. A lot of european countries also have strict laws about tap water so for example in france unless otherwise indicated with a warning, tap water is always potable.

    • taxiiiii@lemmy.world
      11·
      13 days ago

      Not true everywhere, actually never heard of it here (Germany and Austria).

      But if you walk into a place and ask for a paper cup of tap water, a lot of workers are willing to give it to you, regardless of the laws.

      Vienna has tap water straight from the mountains btw and it tastes amazing. Recommended.

    • ripcord@lemmy.world
      101·
      13 days ago

      Here in the US, this seems so normal that it didnt even occur to me that this may not be true everywhere else. And not need to be enforced by law.

        • ripcord@lemmy.world
          3·
          13 days ago

          Ive definitely never, ever run into that. But I’m sure it happens.

          Edit: I guess ive seen places that charged some nominal fee for the cup but it’s so rare

          • TriflingToad@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            3·
            13 days ago

            I went to Philadelphia and there were hardly any places to get water at all. There were always stores selling water bottles literally $8 in one instance around nearly everywhere you looked

      • d0ntpan1c@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        2·
        12 days ago

        Arizona has several long-standing laws on the books requiring both public government properties and businesses to provide drinking water without cost or other barrier to access. Businesses can’t even charge for the cup.

        Common courtesy unfortunately doesn’t go far enough, especially when it matters most, so law is required.

  • ohwhatfollyisman@lemmy.world
    31·
    14 days 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.

    • ElectroVagrant@lemmy.world
      5·
      14 days 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.

    • blind3rdeye@lemm.ee
      51·
      14 days 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.)

      • Flagstaff@programming.devEnglish
        6·
        14 days 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.

        • Bongles@lemm.ee
          1·
          13 days 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.

      • TimewornTraveler@lemm.ee
        4·
        12 days 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.

        • mysticpickle@lemmy.ca
          1·
          12 days 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! 🥵

    • fubo@lemmy.world
      4·
      14 days ago

      Lichess may be the best board game software for any board game ever. It’s that good.

    • TimewornTraveler@lemm.ee
      2·
      12 days 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

  • traches@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    30·
    14 days ago

    I know lemmy is social media for people with a favorite Linux distro so I’m preaching to the choir here, but so much software is free as in speech it is truly wonderful. It’s like the only thing I love about being a millennial

    • ElectroVagrant@lemmy.world
      17·
      14 days ago

      Gonna take this as a jumping off point to mention some software.

      Wanna get into video editing? Shotcut’s pretty solid in my experience.
      Into mind-mapping stuff? You might give Freeplane a look.
      Have a drawing tablet & want to use it to take handwritten digital notes? Check out Xournal++.
      Cross-platform Notepad++ alternative? Might give CudaText a try.

      Could list off more but will leave it at a few for now.

      • Flagstaff@programming.devEnglish
        2·
        14 days ago

        Dang, I wish I knew about Freeplane years ago. Thanks!! I’m also entrenched in Kdenlive but I wonder if Shotcut has a better UI…

    • Flagstaff@programming.devEnglish
      1·
      14 days ago

      I don’t have a fave distro because I must back up my PC’s stuff first. I plan to try Bazzite, due to issues I’ve heard that my laptop has with Mint…

  • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
    29·
    14 days ago

    Your neighbor’s trash. It’s stunning what I find and fix, refurbish, repurpose or sell. Had a friend that used to cruise her hood on trash day, her and her husband would load the truck, sell it back to 'em on a Saturday garage sale. 12-14 hours biweekly work, ~$400 every other weekend.

    My wife’s friends dumpster dive at Walmart, though I question how that’s possible. Most big box stores make that impossible. Dunno. In any case, it’s wild what these stores chunk out. If Lowe’s would let me, I’d haul home a pickup full every week.

    • Glitterbomb@lemmy.world
      10·
      14 days ago

      People think I’m some sort of TV repair wizard but it’s very easy to fix up dumpster TVs if you have a little patience and space. Broken TVs fall into two categories - broken screen or broken board (doesn’t turn on, error screens, flickering). Stick to more popular models and when you find a broken screen, take the board and note the model. When you find a broken board of the same model, just swap it. It usually really is that easy. You can work in the opposite direction too and collect good screens waiting for good boards, but that starts to take up a lot of space quick because you’re storing whole TVs at that point.

      You will also inexplicably find a fully working 55" TV sitting at the dumpster 10% of the time.

      • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        12 days ago

        My 55" was thrown out by a neighbor, power issues. $8 in eBay capacitors fixed it, but I did something wrong and shorted it while hanging, lost the magic smoke.

        Fine. For $60 I got a new board off eBay. Still have a unit in my bedroom waiting to fix.

    • mysticpickle@lemmy.ca
      4·
      12 days ago

      On that note, never bring back mattresses, anything upholstered, or anything else that has a lot of unsealed cracks/gaps. Way too big a risk of introducing bed bugs into your home.

      So many people just dump seemingly nice mattresses/sofas etc. out on the curb. They’re obviously not going to label these things as infested with bed bugs for a scavenger’s benefit and alert the whole neighborhood to their shame. Do not take these items. It is not worth the potential nightmare you’re setting yourself up for.

      • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        12 days ago

        I have a pro tip for mattresses! Thrown it down in your driveway, take a box knife and strip it to the bare metal springs. Boom! You now have a plant trellis. First try only took me 20 minutes.

        Saw a posh resale store that took twin mattress springs, sprayed ‘em black, hung vertically and spaced 2’ apart over a standing flower bed. Now sure what the plant was but it sure looked cool.

        Trying it for the first time this year on the ferns and blackberries on the side of the house. Already have a solid start!

  • rational_lib@lemmy.world
    29·
    13 days 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

    • Hyphlosion@lemm.eeEnglish
      2·
      13 days ago

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