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Obsidian

    I used this plugin to add a homepage to Obsidian, and I can never go back

    I've been toying with multiple note-taking apps and personal knowledge management systems for the past few weeks. While I prefer Notion's UI and feature set, I keep coming back to Obsidian -- especially after I was able to self-host it to access via a browser. One aspect of Obisdian that I don't like, though, is that every time I quit and reopen the app, I'm greeted with the page where I left off during my last session. That may not always be the desirable behavior, especially if you're a power user, and you quickly want to access your repository of important links and information. While there's no default setting to change the way the app works, I found a plugin that does exactly this.

    Access Obsidian from anywhere using a browser by self-hosting it

    Ever since I started exploring alternate options to take notes, I've been constantly going back and forth between Notion and Obsidian. They're both excellent apps that offer a host of functionality apart from just taking notes. You can use them to create to-do lists, wiki pages, planners, etc. You can even map content from different notes and link them together. The possibilities are plenty. However, by default, Obsidian can only be accessed via the app. While that is fine for most people using their own devices, what if someone wants to access their Obsidian notes using a device that's not theirs? It could be a friend's phone, a public computer in a hotel, or their office laptop.

    Canada's Indigenous Communities Operated Vast Obsidian Trade Network

    Obsidian tools ALBERTA, CANADA—According to a CBC report, an extensive new project has highlighted just how vast the trade network in obsidian was for Indigenous communities living during the precontact period in current-day Alberta. Obsidian, a type of volcanic glass, was indispensable for many ancient cultures around the world because it can be easily shaped into arrowheads and cutting tools. No volcanoes have ever erupted in Alberta, however, so every sherd of obsidian was transported there from elsewhere. Researchers from the Alberta Obsidian Project analyzed 383 obsidian fragments from 96 sites across the area dating to between 13,000 and 300 years ago. They determined that the artifacts traveled from sources as far away as 750 miles, with the majority coming from Bear Gulch, Idaho, and Obsidian Cliff, Wyoming. The researchers suggest that in southern Alberta the presence of communal bison jumps facilitated trade networks among various communities that lived and harvested together near the American Southwest. “The sheer scale of obsidian trade tells us that likely millions of people were in contact with one another," said archaeologist Timothy Allan. “The scope of the trade network was way more massive than we thought.” Read the original scholarly article about this research in Archaeological Survey of Alberta. To read about a 1,600-year-old roasting pit uncovered at a buffalo jump site in Alberta, go to "A Removable Feast." The post Canada's Indigenous Communities Operated Vast Obsidian Trade Network appeared first on Archaeology Magazine.

    Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat, all but demanding replays

    I played a lot of Obsidian's Avowed after it came out. I appreciate that the game offers both a whole lot of world-building lore if you want it, but also the ability to skip it all if you want to get back to grimoires, guns, and scarfing food while dodging attacks. But all those gods and races and islands must have sunk in. As I neared the end of Avowed's journey, I find myself wondering about the earlier games in Obsidian's world of Eora in its Pillars of Eternity series, which passed me by entirely. The same thing happened with Baldur's Gate 3, which pulled me in deep and left me wondering if I'd dig the earlier titles. But after an hour or two in the first entry, I was done, for much the same reason as with the first Pillars: I just can't hack it (pun intended) in real-time-with-pause combat. "Real-time-with-pause" has never been a perfect descriptor; technically, Avowed plays out in real time, as do most games, which also offer pausing. But look at a couple videos and you'll get the gist: Your party hacks, slashes, and casts largely on its own, but you can interject to redirect, re-equip, or force a potion on one of your crew. If you have control issues, or don't have the clicking speed you had as a younger gamer, real-time-with-pause can be a humbling experience. Read full article Comments

    Obsidian: Getting Started With the Markdown Note-Taking App

    Ever since the original Microsoft OneNote was discontinued I’ve been on the lookout for my ideal note-taking app. Having settled on Markdown as the perfect file format I’ve tried numerous apps and occasionally blogged about the experience. In my quest to find the app that combines a great UX with elegant esthetics, speed and full keyboard control I’ve recently settled on a combination of Typora and Obsidian – none of which are perfect, but both are satisfying tools to use and they even complement each other. This article explains how to get started with Obsidian. Why Obsidian? Pros Speed: The app is fast and responsive. Extensibility: Many community plugins and themes. Backup: Nearly all settings are stored along with the notes and can thus be backed up or synchronized easily. Exception: Custom spelling dictionary. Keyboard navigation: Good (but not perfect). Cons The Live Preview mode is OK, but it’s not quite WYSIWYG. The concept of separate editing and reading modes should be abandoned. Doesn’t open files outside of vaults and, therefore, cannot replace a generic Markdown editor (see below). No option to open files in a new tab by default (see below). My Settings Press Ctrl + , to open the settings dialog. Editor Spellcheck languages: select all languages you’re writing in. Files and Links Deleted files: move to Obsidian .trash folder (part of the vault). Appearance Accent color: select a color you like. Themes: I went for the Minimal theme for its extensibility with the help community plugins (see below). Show inline title: disable (if you have the habit of starting all your notes with a H1 title). Hotkeys: Useful Keyboard Shortcuts to Remember Navigation Navigate back (as in a browser): Ctrl + Alt + ← Navigate forward (as in a browser): Ctrl + Alt + → Additional Keyboard Shortcuts I Configured Headings Heading level 1…n: Ctrl + 1 through Ctrl + 9 By default, these hotkeys switch to tab 1…n (as in a browser). Since I don’t switch tabs in Obsidian as often as I do in a browser, I prefer to reassign them to selecting the heading level (H1, H2, …). Code Toggle code section: Ctrl + Shift + / On a German keyboard: Ctrl + Shift + ö Code block: Ctrl + Shift + k Community Plugins I’ve installed the following two community plugins for the control they give me over the theme’s appearance and styling: Minimal Theme Settings This allows me to control typography settings, but I don’t use this much at the moment. Style Settings The Style Settings plugin lets you control many aspects of the rendered page in a similar way to what CSS allows you to do for HTML. I’m using it to match the appearance of the headings to what you’re seeing on this website. The Style Settings plugin is not tied to any particular theme, but themes need to make settings extensible for Style Settings to be able to modify them. The Minimal theme exposes a large number of its settings to plugins like Style Settings. That is the main reason I selected the Mimal theme. Missing Features Always Open in New Tab Opening a new note replaces the note in the currently active tab. This is neither intuitive nor user-friendly. Unfortunately, there is no setting to change this behavior. Workaround for File Explorer: Plugin I’m aware of this plugin, but apart from being a “hack” (quoting its GitHub page!) it doesn’t apply to the quick switcher (Ctrl + o). Workaround for Quick Switcher: Control + Enter In Obsidian’s quick switcher (Ctrl + o), you can press Ctrl + Enter to open a note in a new tab. The knack is that you’ve got to remember to do it. Otherwise the note is opened in the current tab, replacing its contents. Export to Clean HTML As far as I know there is no way to export a note to clean HTML without (CSS) styles. I’m aware of the Webpage HTML Export plugin, but it seems to be focused on maintaining the visual style of the page as shown in Obsidian. If you want clean HTML you need to resort to external tools. Markdown Files Outside a Vault Cannot Be Opened Obsidian is not a generic Markdown editor like Typora. It cannot open individual Markdown files that might be strewn across various folders on your disk. Obsidian expects files to be organized in “vaults”, folders that contain (mostly) notes. The post Obsidian: Getting Started With the Markdown Note-Taking App appeared first on Helge Klein.

    Avowed – What’s My Motivation?

    I haven’t written much because I’m trying to work my way through Avowed. And it really is work at this point, because Avowed is not a good game. But I feel it is not good in a similar way that Bioshock Infinite was not good: the most frustratingly nuanced ways imaginable. Does it still count if I no longer care about autonomy or choice? One example is with the combat system. I’ve talked about it all before, in that Ranger was strong but boring, Warrior was active but weak, and Wizard was both active and strong. About halfway through the 3rd zone though, none of it really mattered – even the Wizard became a chore. There are a lot of little reasons that quickly add up in the background until it hits you all at once. Very few enemy species (mostly beetles, spiders, bears, lizardmen) Very few enemy types (shield guy, magic guy, healer guy, ranged guy, summon guy) Zero percent chance any dropped loot is useful in any way 99% chance all the encounters feature 6+ enemies 100% chance all the encounters play out the same exact way, regardless Leveling and upgrading largely become perfunctory starting in 3rd zone Regarding the last point, Avowed has a really shitty talent/skill tree. It’s not something I’ve seen many other people talk about, but it’s one of the most uniquely uninspired one I’ve ever seen in a game. Seriously, look at this shit. Warrior has 6 buttons to press, Ranger gets 5, and Wizard… 21, technically. But look at the level 15 and level 20 bands, which is where one might assume you’re getting the biggest power boosts. Outside the active button, Fighter gets shit like… perfect (!!) blocks rebound arrows, and you deal 70% of the damage you received. Ranger gets increased crit chance (already 100% when you hit weak spots), and bonus damage on unaware enemies. Wizards get… increased elemental accumulation, but you have to spec into each element individually. Oh, and on the ultimate level 20+ band? Fighters can… heal companions by 10% when you kill enemies! Rangers can… deal more stun accumulation with power attacks with ranged weapons! Wizards can… get fucking nothing, unless you want to learn Meteor Shower without a spellbook, which you never would because spellbooks give you like an 80% Essence discount on that otherwise meter-eating spell. Yes, Arcane Seal is something a Wizard can take at 20+ and effectively have infinite Essence regen. But at that point in the game, you effectively have infinite regen already from the hundreds of random vegetables you’ve collected throughout the game. Ah, yes, that +4 damage reduction was so exciting and worth it The other half of character progression is also shit. Getting Uniques out in the world has long ceased to be exciting. First time you replace a generic weapon with Unique? Fantastic. The second time? Frustrating, because you likely sunk a bunch of upgrade mats into the first one. Then you start to realize that none of the special abilities of Uniques matter all that much compared to the overall “tier” due to the asinine enemy “level” balance. If your stuff is blue and they are purple, you deal 35% less damage and take 35% more damage. Meanwhile, each time you upgrade a weapon or armor, you get silly shit like +9 damage or -4 damage received. Upgrading a Unique never boosts the special effects… why? Finally, I want to talk about the story in general terms. I’ll throw a Yellow spoiler warning just in case, but the short version is: the game never answers the question of “what’s my motivation?” The general premise of the game is that you are a godlike of an unknown god, working in the court of an Aedyran emperor. You are then tasked with solving the Dreamscourge plague problem in the Living Lands, an isle that the emperor is interested in taking over. You are sent over as an Envoy of the emperor himself, granting you leeway in resolving the Dreamscourge crisis in any manner you deem fit. In retrospect, maybe I should have helped with the war crimes. The problem is that all the Aedyran empire stuff just up and evaporates as soon as you step on the docks, unless you commit to being cartoonishly evil for the rest of the game. And if you do, all of your companions are from the Livings Lands, so they’ll be mad at you for everything you do. Having evil options in RPGs is a good thing even if players do not typically engage with it, but the problem is setting up your game to support it. None of your Avowed companions will leave you no matter what choices you make. There are no Aedyran or Steel Garrote companions, which would make such an evil playthrough more reasonable. And while I have not yet finished the game at the time of this writing, I haven’t really seen any good motivation to even care about the Aedyran side of things. Nobody is reminding you of your duty to the emperor, or even really questioning your loyalty. This is not the first place Avowed leaned so far into “roleplay” that it fell directly into RPG mad libs. There are frequent dream sequences throughout the game where you are asked to choose how events in the past played out. Some of these choices lead to you getting one godlike ability versus another, but the majority of it is just… there. I understand that there are (presumably) people who like this sort of thing, but Avowed just sort of drops it on your porch and leaves. There’s no context, no sense of purpose. Again, what’s my motivation? Am I training somebody to be more forgiving or spiteful, depending on my dream answers? Or am I literally playing one-person mad libs? Does any of this matter? Part of me hopes so, the other part realizes it wouldn’t matter anyway. I get that this may not sound all that different from all the normal RPG choices you encounter in the genre. In Baldur’s Gate 3, you can choose to free a gnome strapped to a windmill or send him flying by cranking up the speed. That choice doesn’t matter too much in the scheme of things, either way. Except, of course, to the gnome, and possibly some party members. But that at least has some immediate context and consequences and feels like a real choice. There are some quests vaguely similar to that in Avowed, but they all ring hollow. Perhaps in the abstract the quests are identical, and I’m just not invested in the world of Avowed in the same way as BG3 or Mass Effect or anything else. Or perhaps the devs simply were painting-by-numbers and forgot to include a soul in their creation. And that brings me back to the Bioshock Infinite comparison from the top. There are some games in which I can understand people enjoying, even when I do not. League of Legends? That’s definitely of no interest to me, but I get it. Overwatch 2? Sure, I enjoyed the original for a time as well. Call of Duty? I prefer the Battlefield series, but a more arcade feel can be fun. Gee, I wonder where that mysterious Garden is supposed to be hiding… If someone says Bioshock Infinite is one of their favorite games though, my eyebrows go all the way up. Maybe the DLCs fixed the plot later, but Bioshock Infinite’s story was otherwise objectively terrible, like Mass Effect 3 original ending terrible. I feel the same way when I see people online say Avowed is a 9.5/10 or they are eager for another playthrough. I don’t even want to finish this first playthrough, let alone running around opening chest after chest of the same random crafting materials again. Some aspects of Avowed are fantastic genre improvements, like the feel of melee and the feel of exploration via jumping/traversal. Unfortunately, tragically, there is just no follow-through, no stuck landing. The only way I can see Avowed being someone’s favorite RPG or deserving of a high score is if they simply haven’t played better games before. Which, given that many of my own favorite games came out 10-20 years ago, might be increasingly understandable. What a bummer. I suppose there is still time in the 4th Act and resultant endings for Avowed to pull a miraculous redemption. Well, aside from the combat and itemization and character progression and world interactivity – those ships have already sailed. We’ll see if the plot payoff was worth the pain.

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