I’ll start by plugging Harvard’s free courses catalog as well as Udemy
Edit: Gonna add 2 more I remembered-
Blender - I wish I had more time to learn it, but I did start the infamous “Donut Tutorial” once!
Watch Cartoons Online - Lots of good older stuff!
It’s great, customizable, I sent a suggestion to the volunteer development team, and they made it happen.
Worth noting: Android only
Let me be perfectly honest: If you like AntennaPod, just stick with it, OK? You’ll save a lot of frustrations and headaches.
I used to use AntennaPod and listened to lots of podcasts.
Then one podcast host mentioned some other app, I tried it, and liked its Web interface, even when it didn’t have all of the AntennaPod features. I think it didn’t have “stop playing a podcast at the end of the episode, even if it’s queued”. (I like to queue stuff and listen to them at no particular order. I’m a whimsical girl like that.) Then I think this app got discontinued/went pay only, I can’t remember.
Went with Google Podcasts. It was a pretty limited and janky experience (also no ability to stop at the end of the queued episode), but it did its job and I hoped it’d get better over years. It didn’t. It got discontinued. Google sometimes can’t do a good thing.
I manually migrated my subscriptions to some other app. (As one last hurrah Google then implemented OPML takeout.) Wasn’t happy with this app. Couldn’t help but notice my podcast listening habits were drying up due to all these minor snags. ADHD thing I’m sure.
Then I remembered AntennaPod and how perfect it was and how happy I was using it. I wanted to export OPML from this other app. It had OPML import but no export of any kind. Shit.
So I imported my subs manually again. And screw me if I ever have to do that again. But I’m happy again and that’s what matters. I don’t think I’ll need to migrate again, I’m glad AntennaPod has nice backup features. (Which I already used to move the app from my tablet to my phone.)
I second this one. Only one I’ll use.
I tried so many other podcast apps, at least 3 of 4 others. The only thing I dislike is that about AntennaPod is that there is no comprehensive removal button that deletes, marks as played, and removes from queue—but all the other apps failed at even consistently downloading eps or playing them back. AntennaPod crushes all competition by light years.
I’ve been using Podcast Addict for years, and when I tried to switch to AntennaPod, I couldn’t figure out how to configure it in such a way that I can listen to the back catalogue of a podcast in chronological order and have the app automatically download a rolling buffer of a small number of episodes. When I looked around online for solutions, I found a forum thread of someone who had the same issue, and the maintainers of the project responded with confusion and dismissal as to why anyone would need that functionality lol. So I’m still on Podcast Addict.
Huh, incidentally, that’s one I haven’t tried! You may end up swaying me over…
Actually, is it closed-source? That’d be a deal-breaker for me, if so, since I’m not that desperate for such a feature as to lose open-source status.
Pretty useful… when one site fails the other usually work.
what is it
A treasure trove of internet
That is amazing, thanks!
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.
very underrated piece of software! its been a total game changer in how i have my computers set up.
also great for some apps too. things like keepass or newsboat (terminal RSS reader) or anything that stores its data in a single file or folder. its really great not having to rely on a connection to a server
commenting to remind myself about syncthing for when I can look into it later.
I love how chill and helpful everyone is here.
Yeah, I found some cool stuff for audio/music production
Not being a dick is free too.
Porn
People that pay for porn on the Internet are like people that pay for WinRAR
Holding the entire “product” together?
Perfect comparison 👌
Well, yeah, if you’re lucky enough to find an old magazine in the woods, but that doesn’t count, because it’s not usually free otherwise.
If you can’t find something to get off to for free you’re either incompetent or a degenerate
or, you know, isn’t a cis dude and wants some representation that isn’t disgustingly fetishized.
Where!? Are you peeping on folks?
gestures broadly at the internet
I know you’re trolling but the idea of someone not knowing about free internet porn and paying for it while somehow being on lemmy is so funny to me
You gents have convinced me to click around a bit more. I have my research cut out for me this evening.
How goes the research? I’m genuinely mind blown by this haha
That’s not the only thing that’s gonna blow this evening 🤭
How did you know my plans??
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.
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.
the USA is the only country that I know of that requires such ridiculous measures to file your taxes tbh
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
26 tax laws? You mean 26 volumes, right? /S from the US.
Thanks! I was pretty annoyed at having to pay TurboTax over $100 something to have my taxes filed. Opportunistic assholes.
Your local city college may or may not offer free classes (in San Francisco, you just need to show proof that you live in the city with some legal status).
Some public transportation is free for certain groups (youth and folks experiencing homelessness can get free passes here).
“First X of the month” at the zoo/a museum/whatever — lots of venues have free events.
A jog, bike ride, hike — lots of great stuff outside!
I live in the Philly area. Senior citizens can use SEPTA (buses and commuter trains) for $1 a ride.
I second the biking … but that shit ain’t free. Even used bikes cost some money to buy and maintain, and brand new bicycles are solidly in the “insane” category these days.
Good point — it is “incrementally free,” although I guess if you count tire wear and tear that’s not even true.
What3words.com and app
Basically the earth has been segragated into 10 foot x 10 foot squares that are easily identified by 3 words, super accurate, easy to tell emergency services. No more need to know lat/long to tell someone where you’re at.
Where on earth is “fuck shit piss”?
unfortunately the people at What3Words excluded words people might find offensive from the word list, so that place does not exist
So I guess “musk impregnates influencers” would be OK? Even though that’s a lot more offensive IMHO …
I just looked it up, and apparently “impregnate” isn’t in the list either. Yes, the word isn’t offensive by itself, but I think they remove quite a lot of words that might cause problems in the what3words address. There is way more than enough words anyway.
This is from their FAQ:
How do you handle offensive words?
A what3words address is made up of 3 random words, and they are not intended to convey any meaning to a location. However, we know that the nature of using words means that unexpected interpretations can crop up.
For each new what3words language, our team consults a broad range of native speakers. We then work together to remove rude and offensive words from our word lists, navigating cultural sensitivities wherever we can.
Some users feel that certain words in our lists are unsuitable or inappropriate, so we always take feedback onboard. However, one of our key features – that our addresses are permanently fixed – means that it is not possible to update the word list. Instead, we can look for opportunities to adapt our approach when developing future languages.
Tip: if you’d rather avoid a certain what3words address because of a particular word or combination of words, we’d suggest you use the next square along.
Ooh like that. Interesting concept. Too bad people can’t spell 😅
earth has been segragated into 10 foot x 10 foot squares
I think you’re inadvertently advertising a cylindrical model of the earth 😁
I learned about this from a can of ///Fear.Movie.Lions beer from Stone Brewing:
What 3 words pinpoint where this indelible beast was born? The location is printed on the can. There’s a 3m x 3m square in our Richmond, VA brewery with these three words painted on it. What three words? Exactly! For the uninitiated, that’s What3Words.
Not working.
///life.before.death doesn’t exist
///journey.before.destination took me a couple miles east of Pittsburgh.
I was expecting Urithiru :<
Totally unusable
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.
Learn a little docker and start self hosting stuff! Pihole is a great one to start with, but there are lots of other awesome projects out there:
How do I “learn a little docker”? Where do I start?
YouTube. Duckduckgo.
Personally I’m running 13 containers for various things. Worth it.
But I googled docker, and only found apps that can be installed. Does it both require something to run the docker apps in?
Docker is a program that runs on an OS, usually Linux, and the docker apps or images are run by docker on the OS docker is installed on.
I’m a rookie, but I run TrueNAS which runs docker images. Previously I ran plain Debian with docker installed to run docker images.
Before you start can I ask what experience you have with computers, command line, and have you ever done any programming.
Programming isn’t necessary but it helps me see if you’ve been exposed to the kind of syntax you will see in docker.
Happy to help you learn this though.
I’m on a course to become full stack developer, and I know the command line (basics), have an old laptop running Linux Mint that I want to test to use as a docker, but I have no idea where to start.
You could follow a guide to install portainer, it’s got a web gui to manage docker. It can handle installing most types of docker containers.
When you find a cool project to install, they almost always have a docker compose template you can use to install their container.
The docker compose tells docker which containers to install and how they might rely on each other as well as which ports to run on and where all their config and/or data files should be stored.
Using a docker compose makes things super simple to update by using portainer to repull the images to the latest versions and run those. The new containers running the new versions will have all the same config and see the same data/config directories that you specify in the docker compose.
I run a bunch of containers, some good examples are the ARR stack to download tv shows and movies. Radarr, Sonarr, Prowlarr, Transmission are all defined in one docker compose. Another couple of great containers I run are Actual Budget for budgeting software and Tandoor for saving and managing recipes and grocery lists. Actual Budget and Tandoor have their own docker compose configs.
That’s great you’re starting from a place that should make this easy.
Let me jump on my PC and get some information to help you get started.
I am going to be pasting a set of commands to get docker and docker compose set up, but please be wary of people giving commands to run in the terminal. You could use the information I’ve provided to help you find guides to confirm that no weird commands, but I copied this from my guide I use whenever I set up a new VM to use docker.
So the commands below add any dependencies for docker, adds the GPG key to verify and then installs docker and docker compose. I also set up a docker user add them to the docker group so I don’t need to use sudo to run.
I then use docker to create a portainer instance. Portainer allows you to use a webUi to see what you have running and stop start any of your services from there.
After this I have provided a docker compose file which would be named docker-compose.yml. Yaml sucks as it constantly moans about spacing, but essentially you want to use spaces and not tabs and each new line would be indented two spaces unless it’s a sub part of the section above then it would be two more spaces etc.
This docker compose might or might not be what you need, this one first sets up gluetun, which is a VPN layer which I can route other services through as you don’t want to torrent from your IP.
So gluetun is set up using ProtonVPN and you pass the username and password. Username has +pmp for port forwarding.
Then each service under here can choose to use the services/gluetun or bridge network. The former is for the VPN the latter is routed through regular network. Notice how anything routed through the VPN has the ports defined in the VPN service.
The others things you would need to be conscious of is the paths I have used for /mnt/vault/* as these are network attached storage from TrueNAS. Depending on how you want to store things you’ll need to just add the paths to these. The paths look weird but the part before the colon is where it is on your machine and the part after is what it is called inside that container.
You’ll notice that Plex requires a claim key but you can google how to find that.
This isn’t going to get you up and running and you will likely run in to permission errors and other errors along the way. I would suggest coming back here with your errors or giving them to ChatGPT, just don’t blindly copy commands if you don’t know what they do.
Once your docker compose incomplete your can run docker compose up -d to spin it up. Then in portainer you can see all the containers and then login to each and do the setup. Docker compose down to stop them all.
When I set this up I did the gluetun and then Radarr. Get that working and then add your next thing and then the next and so on until you have what you want.
As I said this isn’t a complete solution and you will run into roadblocks, but that’s the fun for me and I am happy to help when you get stuck along the way.
### Docker
Install dependencies
`sudo apt install apt-transport-https ca-certificates curl software-properties-common -y`
Add the Docker GPG key to the server’s keyring
`sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/%E2%80%8Blinux/ubuntu/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc`
Add the latest Docker repository to the APT sources
`echo “deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] https://download.docker.com/%E2%80%8Blinux/ubuntu $(. /etc/os-release && echo “$VERSION_CODENAME”) stable” | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null`
Update the server package index.
`sudo apt update`
Install Docker
`sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin`
Verify
`sudo docker --version`
Enable the Docker system service to start automatically at boot time.
`sudo systemctl enable docker`
View the Docker service status and verify that it’s running
`sudo systemctl status docker`
#### Install docker compose
`sudo apt install docker-compose-plugin -y`
Verifiy the installation
`docker compose version`
#### Portainer
Create a Volume for Portainer Data
`docker volume create portainer_data`
Deploy Portainer as a Container
```
docker run -d \
–name=portainer \
–restart=always \
-p 8000:8000 \
-p 9443:9443 \
-v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
-v portainer_data:/data \
portainer/portainer-ce:latest
```
Acess Portainer
`https://your-server-ip:9443`
#### Running Docker without Sudo
Add your user to the docker group:
`sudo usermod -aG docker $USER`
Log out and log back in, or restart your system.
Verify by running:
`docker ps`
Below is the docker-compose.yml file.
services:
gluetun:
image: qmcgaw/gluetun
container_name: protonvpn
cap_add:
- NET_ADMIN
devices:
- /dev/net/tun:/dev/net/tun
ports: # These are the qBittorrent ports, I like to use random ports and not the default ports 49152
- 49893:49893 # This is for the qBittorrent WebUI Port
- 6881:6881 # Listening port for TCP
- 6881:6881/udp # Listening port for UDP
- 7878:7878 # Listening port for Radarr
- 8989:8989 # Listening port for Sonarr
- 9696:9696 # Listening port for Proxlarr
environment:
- VPN_SERVICE_PROVIDER=protonvpn
- OPENVPN_USER=USERNAME+pmp # REPLACE with your OpenVPN username (+pmp for port forwarding)
- OPENVPN_PASSWORD=PASSWORD # REPLACE with your OpenVPN password
- VPN_PORT_FORWARDING=on
- SERVER_COUNTRIES=France # These countries must support P2P
volumes:
- ./gluetun:/gluetun
restart: unless-stopped
qbittorrent:
image: lscr.io/linuxserver/qbittorrent:latest
container_name: qbittorrent
environment:
- PUID=1001 # to find your current ID just type “id” in the terminal
- PGID=1001 # to find your current group ID just type “id” in the terminal
- TZ=Europe/London
- WEBUI_PORT=49893 # Must match the port used on gluetun for the WebUI
- TORRENTING_PORT=6881
volumes:
- ./qbittorent/config:/config # this will create the config folder in the same folder as the yml file
- /mnt/vault/Downloads:/downloads # adjust to your desired download directory
network_mode: “service:gluetun” # must match the container name of gluetun
restart: unless-stopped
prowlarr:
image: lscr.io/linuxserver/prowlarr:latest
container_name: prowlarr
depends_on:
- gluetun
environment:
- PUID=1001
- PGID=1001
- TZ=Europe/London
user: “1001:1001”
volumes:
- ./prowlarr/config:/config
network_mode: “service:gluetun”
restart: unless-stopped
radarr:
image: lscr.io/linuxserver/radarr
container_name: radarr
depends_on:
- gluetun
environment:
- PUID=1001
- PGID=1001
- TZ=Europe/London
user: “1001:1001”
volumes:
- ./radarr/config:/config
- /mnt/vault/Downloads:/downloads
- /mnt/vault/Movies:/movies
network_mode: “service:gluetun”
restart: unless-stopped
sonarr:
image: lscr.io/linuxserver/sonarr
container_name: sonarr
depends_on:
- gluetun
environment:
- PUID=1001
- PGID=1001
- TZ=Europe/London
user: “1001:1001”
volumes:
- ./sonarr/config:/config
- /mnt/vault/Downloads:/downloads
- /mnt/vault/TV:/tv
network_mode: “service:gluetun”
restart: unless-stopped
jellyfin:
image: jellyfin/jellyfin
container_name: jellyfin
environment:
- PUID=1001
- PGID=1001
- TZ=Europe/London
volumes:
- ./jellyfin/config:/config
- /mnt/vault/Movies:/movies
- /mnt/vault/TV:/tv
restart: unless-stopped
ports:
- 8096:8096
network_mode: “bridge”
plex:
image: lscr.io/linuxserver/plex:latest
container_name: plex
network_mode: host
environment:
- PUID=1001
- PGID=1001
- TZ=Europe/London
- VERSION=docker
- PLEX_CLAIM=CLAIMKEY
- NVIDIA_VISIBLE_DEVICES=all
volumes:
- ./plex:/config
- /mnt/vault/Movies:/movies
- /mnt/vault/TV:/tv
deploy:
resources:
reservations:
devices:
- driver: nvidia
count: all
capabilities: [gpu]
runtime: nvidia
restart: unless-stopped…casually just post an entire setup.
I miss my nas.
This isn’t likely to work without some whack a mole with errors though but it should be enough for someone curious enough to be able to get a working solution.
My NAS currently has a sole 10TB HDD and funds are too low to justify an additional one so I am very nervous.
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.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.
You can borrow fishing rods at ours.
Mine has trekking poles! (Colorado)
Our library does audio books, 3d printer, sound recording (like a small studio), and passes to provincial parks. Some can offer a lot!
In the U.S. they may even offer things like State Park passes.
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.
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).
My library offers art! Like, original art pieces (paintings and sculptures) by local artists which you can borrow for up to three months.
That’s such a great idea!
VLC Media Player
Even better, MPV Media Player. Vlc has bad color reproduction
I use mpv, but VLC has GUI config stuff that is a lot more approachable.
Interesting. Does it take you back to resume if you closed it halfway through a video?
It’s not enabled by default, but you can configure it to: https://mpv.io/manual/stable/#resuming-playback
No
Darn. That’s why I’m with SMPlayer; that time continuity is extremely helpful to the point of being a requirement for me. VLC also has it but it actually makes the jump-to-time prompt vanish if you take too long to click it (which is… a bizarre “feature”).
<3 VLC, been using it for decades at this point.
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
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.
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…
This is a great thread!
Not foss, but PortSwigger Burp Community
I know its a major security tool widely used but it bugs me it’s not open sourced
Bugs me, too. I only use it when I absolutely have to. But it is free.
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.
Ten cubic meters of free wood a year. Huh. That’s an oak or two.
I think they use to call it two trees a year and then went to cubic meters. Probably someone taking out the giants of the forest that inspired the change.
I could run a fairly decent woodworking racket given 10 cubic meters a year. Does that include branches and such?
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.
For sure. I’ve got a lovely spot on a lake with no one around that’s my favourite. Bring your fishing pole.
Not had much luck fishing, though I tried a hand line rather than a pole and it was from a kayak. Started feeling seasick which surprised me as I have kayaked loads on the sea before just fine.
Have had a bit more luck with crabs from a pier or quay. Probably could do that from a kayak too if it’s nets that you just drop and leave for a little while. I think the seasickness was due to looking down a lot at my equipmemt while not moving in the waves. Shorter periods might not be so bad as you can move on to the next net again pretty quickly rather than sitting still the whole time.