>>472500
>I'm unsure what you mean without going complete schizo. I'm the rubbish and my use of the net is unproductive often to an extreme.
Then I misunderstood why you wanted to leave. I thought you had decided the Internet had become too shit to spend all day on. Which it has, to be fair.

>>472501
And here's me thinking it was an invite down some twisted rabit hole, full of mistique and adventure.
I wish they'd just burst into my home, tie me into bag and dump it a river already.

>>472502
I'm afraid it's a meme about passive-aggressive social media posts.

If you want a twisted rabbit hole full of adventure, you could look into major donors for the smaller political parties that are going to replace Labour and the Conservatives. I can't be bothered myself, but they're really accelerating political uncertainty and instability in this country, and nobody cares because we all want at least one of them to actually win. Putin funding Reform makes sense, but is he also funding the Green Party, or the SNP? Are the Chinese or Iranians funding anyone? I want your report on my desk by Monday.

>>472503

The Green Party appears to be funded primarily by Vivienne Westwood, the CEO of Lush and either two notorious murderers from the sepia-tinted photo era or two men who both have unfortunate names.
https://donation.watch/en/unitedkingdom/party/GPEW/donors

Have you noticed people are really brainwashed about piracy nowadays? I mentioned to a mate I had got a Kindle and hacked it, and they were all "durr yu don't supprt du orfurs". And I'm just like, fuck off, you think giving ten quid a month to Bezos supports authors any better?

Boils my piss a bit honestly. These people are the sheep who lap up all the enshittified bollocks nowadays and prevent us having nice things.

I just realised that somebody gave me an opened bottle of alcohol free vermouth for my birthday as their main gift.

Not wanting to look a gift horse in the arse, but how cheap do you have to be. You and your partner decided you wouldn't spend twelve quid between the two of you to get a proper sealed bottle of Martini Rosso from Tesco, or any knock off for a tenner or less, and that my birthday was your chance, as I assume, to regift a bottle that you tasted and didn't like. Fuckssake.

>>472511
My sister was, she says (but we're not that sort of family so I haven't looked too much into it), one of the world's foremost erotic authors for some weird genre about women fucking aliens or something. And despite her runaway success, allegedly, she gave it up because everyone pirates her books and there's no money in it. In total, she made a little over £30,000. So these independent authors are not raking it in. Pirating Help! I'm Late For My Receptionist Job Because I Got Abducted By Penis Dragons From Jupiter (obviously, I made that up) is not really the same as downloading the Avengers films. So I'm afraid I'm with your friend on this one. And if you don't want to give your money to Jeff Bezos, why the everloving fuck did you buy a Kindle?

>>472511
I'm not sure how good of a friend he could to be spoken of in such terms. Nevertheless, my thoughts on pirating are nuanced. If you are poor and you are spending most of your income on surviving, pirate away. Culture and entertainment are as vital as bread, but far easier to take without permission. If something has been made unavailable elsewhere, unreasonably expensive or plain difficult to track down, again, there is no problem with pirating.

I was going to finish this post properly, but I'm too tired so just buy a t-shirt from that band you like or something, you cheap sod.

>>472514
>And despite her runaway success, allegedly, she gave it up because everyone pirates her books and there's no money in it. In total, she made a little over £30,000.
Based on that, I estimate her losses to piracy as approximately [punches calculator] fuck all. The people who didn't pay for her books very likely would not have paid for her books anyway. I haven't included the words "given the opportunity", because they were given the opportunity to buy and didn't. If you're Steven King, Taylor Swift, or Kevin Feige, then yes, sure, there will be a significant chunk of your audience who would have been ready and willing to pay but will take the free option and then not pay. But if your audience isn't on that scale, then realistically that segment is vanishingly small if it exists at all.

>>472516

I've made a grand total of £5.35 so far this month from my books so I'm obviously an expert too, but people self-publishing like otherlad's sister routinely do mass free giveaways of one book hoping to get attention for their other books. It's seen as part of the marketing strategy. You'll see them gleefully announce that thousands of people have taken their book for free. They'll still get upset when they see their works available to pirate but... I reckon if you enjoyed it and can afford to, buy the physical copy. The margin is often much higher on those.

>>472517
>I've made a grand total of £5.35 so far this month from my books so I'm obviously an expert
£5 isn't bad pocket money, I walk around with less. What sort of thing do you produce? I've heard there's a bit of cash in .pdf colouring books - fairly simple to make too if you've an artisitc flair. There may even be niche markets to corner.

>>472518
They're novels that take a huge amount of time and effort to finish, but my approach is to keep putting out work of high enough quality that it hopefully will keep selling long into the future. Low-content stuff like colouring books or even a lot of genre fiction can make a lot of money much faster but it's dependent on reading trends and incredibly competitive. That becomes more about keyword and SEO understanding than any sort of art or craft.

>>472517

Look at you making that much in a month. I make about that in royalties over a full year for my music catalogue. But granted, I'm just leaving those to sit on the internet and do very little with them. The thing is with books it's the same as every other form of media nowadays. It's the issue of trying to break into a market that was already saturated before the internet, nevermind what it's been like since then.

I don't begrudge people pirating stuff, because it would cost you a fucking fortune to obtain it all legally, and I myself have heard countless incredible albums I wouldn't have heard otherwise that way. Some of which I've gone on to buy, others which didn't quite make it; but regardless, I wouldn't have heard them at all without pirating them first because the world just doesn't expose you to stuff like you can expose yourself heh by just trawling a torrent site.

People have themselves convinced that paying a subscription to Amazon or iTunes or whatever it is absolves them of this moral concern, but from my perspective as somebody who has been on the other side, it near as damnit makes no difference. I'd prefer them to give me a tenner through Bandcamp to buy one of the several hundred CDs I've still got sat in the cupboard, but when the industry has convinced them that they are doing their part just by streaming, and the 0.001p I get for that is fair compensation? Who am I to argue.

>>472520

Actually, no, I feel stronger than that, I'm being shy here. I would prefer somebody pirate my music than stream it, because at least then, they've got a copy on their hard drive. They've at least gone to enough effort to track down an obtain a copy.

I've got a fiver for the both of you if only you'd share a few titles.

>>472520
>I'd prefer them to give me a tenner through Bandcamp to buy one of the several hundred CDs I've still got sat in the cupboard
Donate a large chunk of your unsold discs across a number of charity shops, sell another load to sites like MusicMagpie, while listing select works as collectors items at marked up prices.
Start a conversation about XYZ band on music YT comments and pay critics for favorable reviews. Maybe even promote your own work via local concerts and open mics.

>>472522
Tempting as that kind offer is, selling to you lads wouldn't feel right.

>>472523
All your posts about your band always read exactly like my friend's Facebook posts about his old band. If you were some subgenre of heavy metal in the late '90s and early 2000s, and you played in North Wales, Manchester, and the places in between, then you probably know him.

>>472500
So overcast that even the biggest, brightest moon of the year isn't even illuminating the cloud cover.

>>472525

Weird weather right now. It looks all autumn-y when you look out the window, but then when you suit up in your autumn jacket and go outside, it's 16 or 17 degrees.

The mild, wet weather the last few days could mean rich mushroom foraging pickings in the second half of this week. I'll try to go tomorrow around noon. Haven't had much time for it this season, but I'll probably go tomorrow around noon.

I'm looking to spend up to £200 on a new coat for the winter and I'm currently leaning towards a Patagonia Isthmus. Do you lads have any other recommendations?

https://www.consortium.co.uk/patagonia-isthmus-parka-new-navy-27022-nena.html

>>472527
You should get something cool looking and made of natural fibres.

>>472528
I should have said, sorry, I do already have a wool trench coat but I could do with a parka or something else a bit more casual.

Do you ever just feel like you can't be bothered and that the version of you with lots of motivation and energy will come tomorrow? Tomorrow never comes of course.

>>472500
>Wouldn't it be wonderful to actually harvest by moonlight? Anyone fancy a trip to a remote Scottish isle?

Nice try, Clarkson. Nice Try.

>>472526
I've been very confused lately because by the weather readings it can get quite warm (I think it was 17 degrees today) but I wore a jumper and was still chilly on a walk. I guess I've still got acclimatised for summer but it was unnerving when I initially went to wear a short-sleeve shirt.

>>472527
>up to £200 on a new coat for the winter

It doesn't get that cold that often, surely? I have one bulky coat for the few weeks in a year it's properly cold but usually I can get by with a Legendary Whitetails jacket and layer up with a jumper underneath.

>>472530
I'm not really a fan of shackets. At the minute I have a lightweight jacket that's seen better days and my woollen trench coat, so I could with a thicker jacket.

>>472531
InshThe Great White Whale, £75 for a highstreet brand shacket in autumn colours (shirt-jacket, for anyone else wondering. It's just a heavy shirt). You'd do as well layering cheap cotton fabrics.

Went mushroom foraging this afternoon. Really not the best year for it. I encountered some other foragers while I was in the forest, and they told me the same.

Anyway, I found some bay boletes, a cep and some shaggy manes. It's a bit pitiful for two and a half hours spent in the woods, but it'll be enough for a mushroom vegetable stew tonight.

I have locked a spare key to my house in my garden shed, in case I ever get locked out. My friend has one as well, but she lives several miles away and would gladly let me die rather than bother to help me if I needed it at a time that was not convenient for her. So I thought I should have one closer by. Is this a good idea, or is it disastrously unsafe? The shed has a lock on it with a combination, and the shed also has a window but you can’t see the key through the window.

>>472534

It's fine. As long as it's some number of steps removed from just leaving the door open and unlocked, it's about equal with any other combination of where and how the key is located.

As we've discussed before, if somebody wants in, they'll get in, key or no key. You're never keeping somebody out. Anybody who thinks "security" is preventing somebody from gaining access is an idiot- Security is making sure nobody sees a reason to try.

>>472534
A good shed seems like a tempting target for petty criminals. Why not keep it in the greenhouse? Nobody is going to be poking around there looking for tomatoes.

Anyway what seems to have worked for me is I have one of those huge novelty fabric key chains I picked up at an industry convention so I never lose my keys in the first place. I don't know why this works but since getting one I've never left my keys anywhere or locked myself out - probably because it's large enough that I'm consciously aware of it (or not) like when we used to use wallets.

>>472536
How ironic.

>>472534

For similar considerations, I' ve put a house key under a rock in my back garden that's part of an ornamental row of rocks around a tree. You wouldn't really suspect a key to be hidden there, at least in my opinion. To prevent corrosion, I dipped the key in sewing machine oil and wrapped it in two plastic bags one over the other. And I have also told absolutely nobody about it.

Maybe that's an idea for you as well. Just put your key in some inconspicuous location around your garden.

>>472538
>And I have also told absolutely nobody about it.
Apart from the entire internet. Well, three blokes on a shed enthusiast website. With geoblocking.

OK, yes, that might as well still be nobody.

Tried listening to the lastest Last Podcast on the Left episode. It's about Himmler and they highlighted his anti-French attitude as a teenager, but he was a German born in 1900, so would that be unusual? I wouldn't have thought so. Anyway, I had to stop listening because 1) the First World War seems like a significant piece of historical context to miss out on, and 2) by doing so they forced my hand into, in essence, making a defence of Himmler.

Americans just shouldn't be permitted to talk about European history.

>>472539
Not sure "there's a key in a shed somewhere" is really enough to go on. Even if we narrow it down to Wakefield or Manchester, that's a lot of sheds.

>>472540
If you want a less depressing, less conflicting, and generally less deadly thing that ended on 11 November, this year will be the 50th anniversary of the Whitlam dismissal, which is often talked about as being unprecedented political chicanery but was, in fact, entirely precedented but still mostly political chicanery. I've been following this series of videos from an Australian constitutional scholar on the subject (annoyingly the newest videos are first, so you'll want to play them in reverse order):

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxRcmeoiSsJvJo4vTXuJsCAPsA0JzXasJ

>>472538

I had all the keys left over from the house move, maybe a dozen that did nothing at all so I left them in all the obvious spots around the garden.

>>472539

>Apart from the entire internet.

And based on that, you're going to be able to tell not only which one of the 30 million homes in the UK (according to Google) is mine, but also the exact location of the key.

>>472543
>>/shed/16211
Well we can narrow it down to 3.5 million homes in 'London', further so with data on how many have gardens and perhaps Google might like to show us which of them have sheds..
If I knew how to use the internet it could, presumably, be accurate.
Sorry if I'm being rude, I'm having a bit of a moment. I don't think we here are interested in robbing one another of physical goods.

>>472544

> which of them have sheds

Except, again, my key isn't in a shed.

And I don't really have a shed, at least not a free standing one; it's more like an annex behind my garage.

Which should narrow it down to about a few tens of thousands of possible homes in Greater London. IF that's where my house is. I'm sure you'll work it out.

My key is very much in a shed, and it's exactly where a burglar would look if they broke into my shed and were looking for things. So perhaps I should move it after all.

>>472544
So is /castle/ a real board then? I tried going there and it didn't work, but then I am just a general user. I eventually figured out that there actually are more than three of us here, but I will be very upset if there's a secret board for everyone but me.

>>472546
There are hidden boards, like /bint/.

>>472546

>My key is very much in a shed, and it's exactly where a burglar would look if they broke into my shed and were looking for things.

Let me guess, it's in an old jam or pasta sauce jar, on the second shelf from the top. Right behind where you keep some smallish paint tins and chemical cleaning agents.

I just tore the heel off my £10 Tesco wellies while attempting to take them off. Can't say I didn't get my money's worth. They lasted 10 years. But now I need new ones. Hopfeully I'll get another pair for ten quid. But with inflation and the whole what-have-you, it'll probably be £15 now.

>>472548
The shed is pretty much empty. There are some gardening tools leaning against the wall, and an upturned washing bin by the entrance which I use as a table to hold the padlock while the door is open. That bin also has a pruning saw on it as of yesterday, and underneath that pruning saw is the key.

>>472546
It's not actually named castle in the URL, that's just what was suggested when bookmarked. It's essentially a list of recent user locations, as afar as I can tell. I'd not have posted a lot of bullshit if I realised it was there.
Turns out many of us are posting from around London, a few from wales and a couple of other areas dotted around the country. Timeframe is not obvious but it's reletively easy to narrow down which posts are coming from which area, providing there're only a few users from each location.
I do believe the mods once said we're not to try figuring out individual users while providing a tool to do something like that.. mixed messaging, I wondered if I'd recieve a ban for mentioning it outright.

I'm wondering what level of anonymity is acceptable. 1 in 30,000,000 is quite low, 1 in 3,500,000 less. 1 in 50,000? People buy lottery tickets for worse odds.

Self sabotage, I suppose. I've got up to 5 years to do something life changing, so let's go.

>>472551
I know about that one in that case. I've been on it, although I always call it /sentinel/, which is wrong too, so it always takes a few attempts to find.

>>472551
Why are you pretending that /sentry/ is a big secret? It's from your IP and therefore it will point to where your IP hub is located which may be wildly incorrect. It's only really effective at identification at the national level but even then a lot of users will be flagged incorrectly which is why rangebans come with collateral damage.

You might be able to work out posting times with locations but that's putting a lot of faith in Brian over just picking up on the posting style and images or remembering it's an anonymous forum full of strange hairy men

>>472553
>Why are you pretending that /sentry/ is a big secret?
I don't really know. I'm feeling quite vulnerable at the moment and didn't want to invite more scrutiny than necessary while still asking for.. advice? Someone to assuage my concern? Fuck knows. Speaks in tongues is tiresome for all, I acknowledge that.

I almost met someone off of rudgwicksteamshow.co.uk via throw away accounts, recently. II'm a bit confused at the moment. Excuse me.

>>472554

The order in which locations/posts are shown on there is also mildly scrambled, or it's supposed to be. I haven't checked.

>>472554
>I almost met someone off of rudgwicksteamshow.co.uk via throw away accounts, recently. II'm a bit confused at the moment. Excuse me.

I'm sure one of us will have a go if you dress a bit girly.

Fucking Windows. I just tried to get my laptop out of sleep, and then Chrome was unresponsive and dragging down the whole laptop with it, and it refused to close even after I went into the task manager. So I did a hard reset and on reboot got a splash screen telling me that I needed to enter my Bitlocker key. Fuckssake. By some blind luck I managed to find my Windows account credentials that I had written down somewhere and was able to log into my Microsoft account on my desktop computer, where it gave me the Bitlocker key. I was able to unlock my system partition with it, but then while trying to sign in after another reboot, Windows told me that my login pin was no longer working and needed to be reset. I clicked on "create pin" or something on the welcome screen, and it got stuck in a loop where it kept telling me that there was a problem with my login key, everytime I clicked on "create pin". Finally after another reboot, clicking on "create pin" brought up a login screen for my Microsoft account, where I was able to reassign a pin for my login.

Sort yourselves out, Microsoft.