Do you have any recommendations for which resources to start with/how to approach them? Hopefully this is not too much of an ask, I’m just very curious about them and how to navigate them.

thank you for asking!

it really depends on your existing level of familiarity with engineering concepts.

• the NESC academy has a ton of video lectures including a lot of basic stuff about models-based systems engineering (MBSE), which is the framework i mentioned in the original post that i think can be especially helpful in an organizing context.
• knowledge management is huge in an organizing context. maintaining continuity and documenting info securely is really really important for orgs of all kinds (if they want to last lol).
• the systems engineering handbook is a really comprehensive resource, though very jargon-y, and i'd recommend looking up concepts you're unfamiliar with as you go through it. i wish it was written more accessibly. but i use it a lotttt a lot.
• the software engineering and assurance procedural requirements and standards, same deal as above. but it has a ton of good info on how to build & evaluate good software, and a lot of it can be abstracted to non-software projects an organization undertakes. i use a lot of these principles in my day-to-day organizing.

if you start going through any of these and have questions, or need more resources to learn the fundamentals, let me know and i'll try to help you out.

KillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKill

There's a way to remove it~

Go into the power shell

then paste in:

reg add HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsCopilot /v "TurnOffWindowsCopilot" /t REG_DWORD /f /d 1

like this

Then restart.

Also here is how to turn off the awful search suggestions:

incase anyone didnt know there's some great free software to handle disabling windows bloatware without needing to mess with the command line

these are a mandatory part of every windows install for me. been using them for years and it's such a lifesaver

Because this has mostly been talked about with Windows 11, heads-up that this installed itself on every Windows 10 computer in our house with this week's update.

[ID: a zine, with a page or spread per picture. Transcript:

1. Wrapped: How to ditch Spotify & switch to something slightly less evil (illustration of the Spotify logo being tossed in a trashcan).
2. Why quit Spotify?: In case you missed it- They pay artists terribly while their CEO rakes in millions.[1] You don't wanna fund their CEO, Daniel Ek, throwing hundreds of millions of dollars into military tech start-ups.[2] If you really need more reasons than that, read Liz Pelly's book: Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist.
3. Alternatives to Spotify: Tidal, Bandcamp, Deezer, Youtube music, Qobuz, Apple Music. *No alternative is without problems, but Spotfy SUPER sucks. / I switched over to Tidal & that's my recommendation. The user interface, features & music catalog are identical to Spotify. If you're basically looking for a slightly less shitty 1-1 replacement, this is it!
4. Making the switch: I signed up for Tidal & made a tunemymusic.com account to transfer all my playlists & saved music over. If you have under a certain number of songs, you can use tunemymusic for free. I had A LOT of music to move, so I paid a nominal fee (~$25) for a year subscription which I canceled when I was done.
5. Tidal's first few months were free, so the tunemymusic fee wasn't as much of a blow. The transfer process was easy, i just selected everything, pressed a button & waited. Only a few of my songs (out of a shitload) weren't available on there. Once I got everything in order, I gleefully ended my Spotify subscription.
6. Support musicians: Consider: Bandcamp. Spotify streams pay a fraction of a cent out to artists. If that weren't bad enough, in recent years, they demonetized songs with less than 1,000 streams per year.[3] That is to say, don't forget to buy music from your favorite artists! Buying a $7 digital album on Bandcamp is infinitely more meaningfully supportive than streaming alone.
7. Bandcamp is not a 1-to-1 swap for Spotify (or without problems) but! They pay artists the most by an incredible margin. Best for listening to independent artists. Has an app where you can stream & make playlists. No subscription, you buy digital or physical music from the artists you like! Often on a sliding scale pricing model. It goes into your collection where you can stream it ad infinitum.
8. Support musicians! Buy music! Buy merch! Go to a show! Share songs with friends! / SOURCES 1. dittomusic.com/en/blog/how-much-does-spotify-pay-per-stream/ 2. cnbc.com/2025/06/17/spotifys-daniel-ek-leads-investment-in-defense-startup-helsing.html 3. ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_ music_news/all_songs_with_less_than_100 O_annual_streams_officially_demonetised_ by_spotify.html print me! dodiy.org/free "OLY, WA"2025 CRAFTORDIY.ART

End ID.]

Personal note: this zine helped me get out of Spotify's pocket, too! That tunemymusic.com discovery was so worth it. I paid their $5.5USD monthly fee and transferred all my playlists and songs (over 10,000) out of there!

#what is the alternative anyway

If you want a direct alternative there's Revolt, which is a free, open source discord clone.

Oh...

It's even worse than I thought.

Time to go back to IRC.

I recommend Element; it's very similar to Discord and has basically the same features but it's privacy-focused and both servers and DMs can both be encrypted so only the actual users of those rooms can read the messages.

This means unlike most popular chat apps, including and especially Discord, Element doesn't sell your conversations or tracking data to advertisers, because the company literally doesn't have access to that data in the first place.

I've used it for years and I think it's a natural fit for Discord users.

sighs. saves for later

The problem with this is transferring YEARS of Discord usage to these new alternatives. Until a tool is made that allows full back up if not transfer of All That, then transitioning to these alternatives isn't feasible for the baseline everyday user.

Bit of a learning curve to it, but have used this when I had someone spitefully deleting things-

https://github.com/Tyrrrz/DiscordChatExporter

Friend, I have news you're gonna love.

Here's a text tutorial to get rid of that shit on Windows 10.

Here's a text tutorial to get rid of that shit on Windows 11.

Here's a video tutorial to get rid of that shit on Windows 10.

Here's a video tutorial to get rid of that shit on Windows 11.

Go forth. Be free.

Me, spraying bug spray: blocked.

Listen and sometimes? To enjoy running through a beautiful field of grass and flowers (ao3) you have to tolerate the fact that bugs (fics you don’t like) are there and maybe you will even encounter one, but you can use bugspray (filtered tags) to reduce the likelihood of that. Because the alternative is not getting to experience the beautiful field of grass and flowers.

And some of my mutuals happen to be entomologists. Which is also cool.