• BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.world
    2·
    5 days 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.

  • ElectroVagrant@lemmy.world
    1861·
    9 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
      28·
      9 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
      251·
      9 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
      20·
      9 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
      16·
      9 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
        9·
        9 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).

  • Endymion_Mallorn@kbin.melroy.org
    1311·
    9 days ago

    Making sure to keep it legal, right?

    Let’s stick with Project Gutenberg - Public domain ebooks and other media, spanning centuries. They’re incredibly important for keeping our literary past alive.

    I might have more later.

  • masterspace@lemmy.caEnglish
    955·
    8 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

    • some_designer_dude@lemmy.worldEnglish
      132·
      9 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
        34·
        9 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·
            5 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.

      • swampdownloader@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        23·
        9 days ago

        It’s a FOSS plex alternative… yes you will need to stock your own library Then install SonArr, RadArr, some other Arr 🏴‍☠️just learn Linux nub. Jk but not really

      • Psychadelligoat@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        111·
        9 days ago

        It’s Plex but free and without a central login server handled by a third party

        It’s also got a few fewer/not as functional features and no live TV (whoopty do?)

        The Arr Suite are what you’re looking for to find content, works with either Plex or Jelly in (or others)

      • BlackAura@lemmy.world
        8·
        8 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·
          8 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 🏴‍☠️

      • dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de
        51·
        9 days ago

        Aside from the FOSS that people love.

        I will add something real world. I have Plex and Jellyfin running. Now Plex works fine for the most part but certain codecs when I am watching on iOS just has issues and freezes a lot so I have to use Jellyfin, but the UI in Jellyfin is pretty sparse and not as polished.

      • Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works
        1·
        8 days ago

        You can do that with VPN. I’m using Tailscale, just had to make an account and install it on the computer I mentioned and on my phone.

      • Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works
        2·
        7 days ago

        So when you use Spotify and Netflix, what your doing is streaming from their computers, which costs money hence why they charge you monthly.

        They also add profit and licensing costs and all that to it so it adds up.

        But what if, you used your own computer?

        Very easy to do using just your wifi, some more complexity if you want to steam over the internet.

    • Steven McTowelie@lemm.eeEnglish
      33·
      8 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·
        8 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·
          7 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
      18·
      8 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
      8·
      7 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·
      7 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
      2·
      7 days ago

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

    • Mavytan@feddit.nl
      1·
      9 days ago

      Does a pi hole combine with a VPN? I assume the pi hole can’t see what’s in the VPN traffic and therefore can’t block anything?

      • Flagstaff@programming.devEnglish
        6·
        9 days ago

        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.

        • Prinz Kasper@feddit.org
          3·
          8 days ago

          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.

          • Flagstaff@programming.devEnglish
            1·
            8 days ago

            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.

            • Prinz Kasper@feddit.org
              1·
              8 days ago

              Yeah, Podcast Addict is proprietary and ad driven, unless you pay. I grabbed a lifetime ad-free upgrade years ago when it was like two bucks.

              On some level I agree with you, I generally love open source, and if AntennaPod had the feature I was looking for I would have switched, but I also don’t mind paying for software if it’s good and reasonably priced.

    • Rose@slrpnk.net
      101·
      8 days ago

      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.)

    • Libra00@lemmy.worldEnglish
      11·
      9 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.

      • mesa@lemmy.worldEnglish
        11·
        9 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.

        • The Octonaut@mander.xyz
          3·
          9 days 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)

  • ohwhatfollyisman@lemmy.world
    52·
    9 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.

    • fubo@lemmy.world
      11·
      9 days ago

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

    • blind3rdeye@lemm.ee
      111·
      9 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
        14·
        9 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
          3·
          9 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·
        7 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·
          7 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! 🥵

    • ElectroVagrant@lemmy.world
      9·
      9 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.

    • TimewornTraveler@lemm.ee
      2·
      7 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
    50·
    9 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
      27·
      9 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
      1·
      9 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…