I'm looking for stories that make me believe humanity isn't completely hopeless.
I'm looking for stories that make me believe humanity isn't completely hopeless.
So you want stories that'll help you lie to yourself?
I'm guessing you want feel-good stories. Hmm. Reset Manifesto by Lazlo Zalezac. Most anything by Don Lockwood.
Lazlo is always good if you want to feel better at the end.
https://storiesonline.net/s/43891/thunder-and-lightening
https://storiesonline.net/s/15604/the-reset-manifesto
https://storiesonline.net/s/54088/the-millionaire-next-door
https://storiesonline.net/s/18499/emend-by-eclipse
https://storiesonline.net/s/65690/fighting-for-family
https://storiesonline.net/s/66478/hardtimes
Daghda Jim's obituary by his daughter was great.
https://storiesonline.net/s/60808/the-greatest-man-who-ever-lived
He mainly wrote cheating wife stories, but this one was about defending family no matter the cost and making true connections with people that matter:
https://storiesonline.net/s/55910/an-unlikely-protector
Dag123's A Blossom Fell is both very sad and very sweet. Maybe save it for when you are felling better?
https://storiesonline.net/s/52031/a-blossom-fell
The universe its set in is well worth reading:
https://storiesonline.net/series/391/driftwood-on-memorys-river
Happy Hugo's This Old House. Its about finding roots and old relatives. https://storiesonline.net/s/59704/this-old-house
Doors by E.Z. Riter is like A Blossom Fell. It'll make you sad, in a good way. Save for later.
https://storiesonline.net/s/39881/doors
You Gave Me a Mountain by OldSarge69. Castaways find love.
The Reclamation Project, also by OldSarge69. A man channels his grief by helping others.
Impersonating Brianne by HLD. Similar theme to the movie Pretty Woman, but the execution is different and if anything better.
8 Mile by StangStar06. A homeless woman gets a second chance at life due to the kindness of a stranger.
Eight Whores for Denver by D.T. Iverson. A western in which two unlikely people find love.
Intersecting Circles by Jay Cantrell. Not one of his long ones. This is a cheating wives story, but with a happy ending. I maintain that a good cheating wife story is actually a story of hope, and this is a great example.
Dig It by Harddaysknight. This isn't deep or necessarily thought-provoking, but it IS a fun, well written short story where everything works out in the end.
POW (Prisoner of the Widows) by Joe J. A downed pilot in Afghanistan is hidden from fighters by several widows and he slowly gains their trust.
Somebody created a user list with the recommendations from this thread:
https://storiesonline.net/ul/96/forum-thread-stories-restore
Blizzard: A guy has girls wished into his lap and immediately strives to become a better man worthy of his windfall, and then the powers that be figure he was overcompensated and he has to face off against the wish-granting taxwoman to keep the girls he now loves. -- Love, self-improvement, happy ending, tax evasion, Blizzard hits all of the warm and fuzzies.
They'd have to be stories i.e. fictional. Real life experience, especially reading online posts, indicates that there is no hope for humanity.
Real life experience, especially reading online posts, indicates that there is no hope for humanity.
Johnny Cash is dead.
Steve Jobs is dead.
Bob Hope is dead.
We have no cash, no jobs and no hope.
Everyone please pray for the continued good health of Kevin Bacon.
Everyone please pray for the continued good health of Kevin Bacon.
Kevin Bacon's ex partner was a practising Wican, since their breakup you can now enjoy...
...a Bacon sans witch.
Here's an interesting tidbit:
About an hour ago, I made two posts to SOL. One was about glass bottles, the other about wood-gas vehicles.
10 minutes later, I get two emails from Amazon:
one offers to sell me radio-controlled vehicles, the other offers a glass coffee maker.
Coincidence? I think not!
Bacon, bacon, bacon... waiting to see what happens.
About an hour ago, I made two posts to SOL. One was about glass bottles, the other about wood-gas vehicles.
10 minutes later, I get two emails from Amazon:
one offers to sell me radio-controlled vehicles, the other offers a glass coffee maker.
Coincidence? I think not!
Sounds like you have some kind of 'tracker' embedded in your browser
Sounds like you have some kind of 'tracker' embedded in your browser
... and doesn't that just boost your faith in humanity.
Zuck is pleased that you consider him human. Please have some sympathy and some taste, refrain from watching when he sheds his skin.ignore the tongue flicker, its just a compression artifact. Hissssss!!
Assume everything you type on your computer is recorded and tracked. Example: a few days ago I posted on an anonymous forum in a discussion on two different subjects which I had not researched previously. Two minutes later I opened a youtube window without being logged in. I was offered videos on both subjects.
I don't think you can. There are steps you can take, but in the end you are on a device that is uniquely identifiable.
True, but there are Operating Systems which are less prone to broadcast identifiers than others.
If you want to protect any privacy the Operating System is where you start.
I use Firefox with the following add-ons
Privacy Badger
uBlock Origin
Multi-account containers
ClearURLs
Disable WebRTC
Cookie Autodelete
Duck Duck Go search engine
SOL runs in its own container where it is allowed to keep cookies to keep things running smoothly.
I still get some tracking but it only lasts during the session within a particular container.
My top recommendation is to visit the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)'s many tutorials on safer online communication.
How do we combat this?
The best you can do is add as much confusion as you can via software that blocks trackers, block 3rd party cookies, set the systems to give no location, and using a VPN to make it look like you're from another country.
I tried that and started getting ads in Swedish....
At least they use good looking women in the adds and they're a bit more risqué than US or Aussie ads. For example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWhRC9Je52Q
Joe J's Honkey Tonk Hero fits the bill. A very good story that I have read multiple times and most definitely will read again.
My thanks to all of you for your responses.
I use-
Bleachbit
CCleaner
all the blocking tools in Firefox.
I have been lucky so far.
Truthfully, I should have made the jump to Linux back in the windows 98 days.
Truthfully, I should have made the jump to Linux back in the windows 98 days.
Nothing stopping you now, and truthfully, its MUCH better now.
Personal opinion:
If you grew accustomed to the way Windows worked back in the day, then Mint Linux is an almost seamless way to make the transition. Everything operates as expected.
Some other Linux distros, Ubuntu, for example, try to implement the look and feel of Windows 10, which for old folks like me is just needless bling that gets in the way.
YMMV
try to implement the look and feel of Windows 10
I do not really care about look or feel, I have used so many different OS and NOS over the decades that another one means nothing to me.
What I do care about though is my software. And to me, this goes all the way back to when I migrated from a VIC-20 to a C-64. I had hundreds of dollars invested in software, even more than in the hardware.
Adobe Premiere, Adobe Audition, Civilization, 98% of my software is PC only. And when I had my computer store, all my "working systems" ran MINT. Word processor, POS software, things like that in Linux were not a problem to find. Even some good diagnostic tools for my workbench system.
But my main system, will always be a PC. Simply because most of the software I use is written for that. And to be honest, in my experience unless the program is network related, the Linux equivalent is normally nowhere near as refined as a PC version.
OpenOffice and WPS Office are good, used them both. But they are just not as good as MS Office.
OpenOffice and WPS Office are good, used them both. But they are just not as good as MS Office.
I always wonder why people think MS word is better than LibreOffice, OpenOffice, etc. apart from familiarity and 'feel'. Technically MS word is no better or worse.
The two things I have found are a lack of macros like excel has, and the purposeful incompatibility of file formats from MS Office (which they regularly change to keep them incompatible).
... but thinking about that will not help restore any faith in humanity.
The two things I have found are a lack of macros like excel has
Both OO and LO have macros.
and the purposeful incompatibility of file formats from MS Office (which they regularly change to keep them incompatible)
Which is entirely MS's fault and reason to get away from them, not reason to stick with them.
But then you have trouble with those who will not give MS Office up (and so their nefarious plan plays out).
The two things I have found are a lack of macros like excel has, and the purposeful incompatibility of file formats from MS Office (which they regularly change to keep them incompatible).
... but thinking about that will not help restore any faith in humanity.
LibreOffice supports macros just as well as Excel. The purposeful incompatibility of MS word with it's own formats is solvable...by using LibreOffice to open a document and save it in a newer or different format that in turn can be opened by MS word. Funny how that works, not? MSWord is often not even compatible between Windows and MacOS, a real pity if you use both systems.
And to restore your faith in humanity you can compare the two here: https://xlinexcel.com/libreoffice-microsoft-office-feature-comparison/. Pick which features are important to you and choose the one that has the most or the most important ones.
ETA: Did I mention LibreOffice works on Linux too and is free? Well, it is :)
No monthly rip-off subscriptions or suddenly in read-only mode if you forget to extend a subscription.
I always wonder why people think MS word is better than LibreOffice, OpenOffice, etc. apart from familiarity and 'feel'. Technically MS word is no better or worse.
except only MS Word gives you the horrendous file bloat and incompatibility with past MS Word formats.
except only MS Word gives you the horrendous file bloat and incompatibility with past MS Word formats.
I didn't want to mention it to not influence honest opinions but that is true. Personally the only benefit I can imagine is the integration with other MS products if you are locked into that realm.
The Open/Libre database software isn't as good, supposedly.
Writer is FAR superior to Word. Leaving aside the horrid shift in the interface from a decade ago, I don't recall Word ever having the easily programmable keyboard shortcuts of Writer. And let's be honest, unless you type one-handed, removing a hand from the keyboard to operate a mouse will slow anyone down.
The Open/Libre database software isn't as good, supposedly.
The database that comes with Open/Libre office is just as good as Access. And, Access doesn't even come with the cheaper personal versions of Office any more.
You either have to go up to the Professional version for $490 or Office 365 on a subscription basis at $69/year to get Access at all.
The Open/Libre database software isn't as good, supposedly.
Wow, it's way superior. The only advantage Access has is a better UI builder. The DB software of LibreOffice allows you to connect to virtually any database. That said, both of these office suites should never have had DB functionality in the first place. It only leads to one-man created software and data that is often only stored locally. Not something you want if you have to share between more people or you have to pass on the software to the next person.
That said, both of these office suites should never have had DB functionality in the first place. It only leads to one-man created software and data that is often only stored locally. Not something you want if you have to share between more people or you have to pass on the software to the next person.
Sure, in a business/enterprise situation you would be right. but Access used to be in the home/personal versions of Office (it isn't anymore) and a one man database for home use is not a problem
Sure, in a business/enterprise situation you would be right. but Access used to be in the home/personal versions of Office (it isn't anymore) and a one man database for home use is not a problem
True, but I doubt access was much used in home situations. It was/is mostly (ab)used in businesses just like Excel.
True, but I doubt access was much used in home situations.
Access was at one time (again it isn't any more) available even in the very low cost student versions of MS Office. I had built several access databases for myself in those days. I have and OO/LO base database that I use now for tracking stuff related to my stories.
Access is also useful for small business. I've been using it in my office since it was released.
Access is also useful for small business. I've been using it in my office since it was released.
And with that you are locked into the MS realm and depend on it that they keep supporting it. That's one of the main things I like about open source. Not that it's free, I support a number of projects, but that it's usually available for all platforms and anyone can pick it up to continue if the current developers stop working on it.
You might consider to slowly start looking for an alternative. You can read up on the status of access here: https://www.comparitech.com/net-admin/microsoft-access/.
I suggest you read the comments on that article. They almost universally pan the article and praise Access.
The reasons the Office apps have succeeded is simple. They work and are easy to use. I've explored the open source alternatives over the years and generally they're clumsily and lack the features we need to easily make them work for us.
Finally, when has MS just abandoned a product? I can't remember it ever doing that.
Access isn't bad, it's just used where it should no longer be used. The problem is the same as with Excel. Non-technical users start using it an build a huge legacy of data and 'handy' little functions. When it becomes too big and it's time to migrate to something more stable and appropriate they don't have the skills and knowledge to do it and they refuse to give it out of their hands.
There has been talk on and off about abandoning Access by MS. They haven't done it because of the business users. If it were only private users they would have dropped it long ago.
Finally, when has MS just abandoned a product? I can't remember it ever doing that.
Internet Explorer? Windows Defender?
AJ
Finally, when has MS just abandoned a product? I can't remember it ever doing that.
Internet Explorer? Windows Defender?
In itself abandoning a product doesn't have to be bad. Sometimes you just can't keep maintaining an old design and stay up to par with the requirements of new operating systems. What it does need is a good alternative or follow up product that can replace it. There you do have a problem because MS usually locks you into their environment too. There's not always a replacement or migrating is made very difficult by MS. Abandoning happens in open source software too but there you have the possibility to keep it up yourself or there are already multiple alternatives and migrating is usually very easy.
Finally, when has MS just abandoned a product? I can't remember it ever doing that.
I can and I still hold a grudge.
Back then in the last years of MS-DOS I used MS Basic 7.1 PDS for stand alone applications used on the factory floor level. It came with database routines to build a local single-user database, quite handy for storing data only used locally. Then MS came with Visual Basic for DOS, with nicer and easier to build visual interfaces. VB-DOS came without the database modules but you could still use them and compile them into your VB-DOS program.
Visual Basic(for Windows) released about the same time was not suited for professional work. Finally MS let VB use Access databases. IIRC, that came with VB3. I wanted to recreate some of my old DOS programs in VB3 using an Access mdb. There was no way to get the data from the old DOS-based db. No conversion routine or transfer program either for VB or Access, no help at all from M$. I tried to get some info about the internal structure of the old db format to write my own transfer routines, again no luck, M$ didn't even answer.
BTW, I used Access to store all data related to product batches. We started with NT3.51 as OS and three PCs, finally there were about 18 WinNT 4.0 workstations for data entry, creating data files to transfer to the knitting machines, to update status info while the batch went through the different production stages and finally printing labels for packaging.
I created 3 databases for distributed storage on three NT workstations to avoid the buy client licenses for accessing a NT server. (Back then NT workstations were restricted to 10 concurrent inbound connections.)
We never had any problems with concurrently accessing the Access databases from the programs running on the workstations. I used Access only to design and create the databases and to run some stored procedures to create some listings.
HM.
Finally, when has MS just abandoned a product? I can't remember it ever doing that.
Zune
Windows Mobile
not that I do not support their decision…
MS Bob? Again, something they should have abandoned. In a just universe it never would have existed in the first place.
Two examples (one is perhaps a 'feature' rather than a product):
Clippy (AKA Office Assistant)
Windows For Itanium
Clippy (AKA Office Assistant)
I think clippy might have started has a way to try and salvage something from the debacle that was Microsoft Bob.
I agree. It appears that mostly what they salvaged was 'the debacle', though.
I think you might be right.
Wow, it's way superior.
1. Did you note the 'supposedly' in my comment?
2. Not my opinion, it was why numerous respondents claimed unwillingness to convert to OpenOffice when it should've naturally happened (the introduction of that idiotic 'ribbon' to the UI).
OpenOffice and WPS Office are good, used them both. But they are just not as good as MS Office.
Please identify one good thing that MS Office provides that LibreOffice doesn't or is better than LibreOffice that isn't just a matter of personal opinion or preference.
There is an old adage from the '90s: If you want a MS product that does not suck, wait for them to produce vacuum cleaners.
I'm still waiting.
Bill Gates is now the world's most trusted expert on preventing virii. According to his world spanning marketing department.