CoderSupreme

Have you ever wondered why so many religions share themes of death, resurrection, and renewal? One fascinating connection lies in the Sun and its behavior during the winter solstice.

Around December 21, the Sun reaches its lowest point in the sky (in the Northern Hemisphere) and appears to "stand still" for three days. Then, on December 25, it begins to rise higher again, marking its "rebirth." Ancient cultures noticed this phenomenon and interpreted it as the death and resurrection of the Sun—a powerful symbol of hope and renewal.

This solar cycle influenced many religious traditions. For example:

• Pagan Religions: Sun worship was central to many pre-Christian belief systems. Festivals like Saturnalia celebrated the return of light after the darkest days of winter.
• Mithraism: Followers of Mithras, a god associated with the Sun, celebrated his birth on December 25, symbolizing light's triumph over darkness.
• Christianity: Early Christians adopted similar themes. Jesus' resurrection after three days mirrors this solar pattern. He is even referred to as the "Sun of Righteousness" (Malachi 4:2) and "the light of the world." Coincidence? Maybe not.

The symbolic "three days" is also worth noting. Across cultures, three days often represent transformation or renewal—whether it's Jesus in the tomb or the Sun's pause before its upward journey.

It’s fascinating (and a bit ironic) how much modern religions owe to ancient astronomical observations. The Sun’s predictable cycles became a powerful metaphor for life, death, and rebirth—one that still resonates today, even if its origins are rooted in natural phenomena rather than divine intervention.

What do you think? Are these parallels just coincidence, or do they reveal how human beings have always looked to the cosmos for meaning? Let’s discuss!

Hey, I've been pondering the Dead Internet Theory (DIT) lately and how it might impact society. For those unfamiliar, the DIT suggests that the internet has been mostly abandoned and that the content we see today is generated by AI and curated by large corporations. While this theory might sound far-fetched, I've noticed a significant portion of the content in my feeds appears to be AI-generated, making it difficult to distinguish between human-generated and AI-generated content.

As someone who was initially excited about the prospect of having an AI assistant, I'm now concerned about the potential for AI to be used to brainwash people and extract money from them. I can't help but wonder if most people will even notice or care, as they continue to use social media and other online platforms, oblivious to the fact that they're being gaslighted into believing what the companies that own the AI want them to believe.

With this in mind, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the DIT and how it might affect society. Do you think it's a real possibility, or is it just a conspiracy theory? How do you think it will impact the way we use the internet, and what can we do to protect ourselves from the potential negative effects of AI-generated content?

Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts on this topic!

I remember using an app that blocked spam calls using a collaborative database. The one I use now is Truecaller, but it's always trying to get me to subscribe. I liked the one I used before better. What is the best caller ID app that can block spam that you know about?

The ones I buy contain lemon for preservation, but I don't like the acidic taste of lemon in tomato sauce.

Hey fellow Lemmings,

I've been thinking about how we measure the liveliness of our communities, and I believe we're missing the mark with Monthly Active Users (MAU). Here's why I think Posts + Comments per Month (PCM) would be a superior metric:

Why PCM is Better Than MAU

1. Quality over Quantity: MAU counts lurkers equally with active participants. PCM focuses on actual engagement.

2. Spam Resistance: Creating multiple accounts to inflate MAU is easy. Generating meaningful posts and comments is harder.

3. True Reflection of Activity: A community with 1000 MAU but only 10 posts/comments is less vibrant than one with 100 MAU and 500 posts/comments.

4. Encourages Participation: Displaying PCM could motivate users to contribute more actively.

5. Easier to Track: No need for complex user tracking. Just count posts and comments.

Implementation Ideas

• Show PCM in the community list alongside subscriber count
• Display PCM in each community's sidebar
• Use PCM for sorting "hot" communities

What do you think? Should we petition the Lemmy devs to consider implementing this? Let's discuss!

Yeah because first of all, content had to be spread out across 562826 different communities for no reason other than that reddit had lots of communities, after growing for many many years. It started with just a few.

Then 99% of those were created on Lemmy.world, and every new user was directed to sign up at Lemmy.world.

I guess a lot of people here are younger than me and didn’t experience forums, but we had like 30 forum channels. That was enough to talk about anything at all. And I believe it’s the same here, it would have been enough. And then all channels would have easy to find content.

source

Hey everyone! I'm curious about the number of communities on Lemmy and the activity levels within them. Specifically, is there a reliable source where I can check the total number of communities and the average number of posts per month? It seems like the number of communities might be quite high, but I wonder how low the post activity is across most of them. Any insights or links to resources would be greatly appreciated!

I often find myself browsing videos on different invidious instances or posts on various lemmy instances, and I would love to be able to create a "watch later" list or a "favorite" list that works across all of them. I don't want to have to manually import and export these lists between different instances, either, like I have to do on lemmy, invidious, etc.

I'm currently using a single bookmarks folder to keep track of everything, but I don't like this because it's a mess. I'd like to be able to create two or three different lists for different groups of websites, so that I can easily find what I'm looking for. For example, a favorite list for reddit, tumblr, etc, another favorite list and a watch for later list for invidious instances, and other lists for other sites.

Is there any way to achieve this? I'm open to using browser extensions, third-party apps, or any other solutions that might be out there. I would prefer a free solution, but I'm willing to consider paid options as well.

A bookmark can only exist in one folder at a time, whereas I want to be able to add a single item to multiple lists (e.g., both "favorites" and "watch later").

I believe the closest to what I'm looking for are Raindrop.io, Pocket, Wallabag, Hoarder, etc.

https://github.com/hoarder-app/hoarder?tab=readme-ov-file#alternatives

I use Manjaro Linux and Firefox.

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I want to create a collage of 20 screenshots from a video, arranged in a 5x4 grid, regardless of the video’s length. How can I do this efficiently on a Linux system?

Specifically, I’d like a way to automatically generate this collage of 20 thumbnails from the video, without having to manually select and arrange the screenshots. The number of thumbnails should always be 20, even if the video is longer or shorter.

Can you suggest a command-line tool or script that can handle this task efficiently on Linux? I’m looking for a solution that is automated and doesn’t require a lot of manual work.

Here's what I've tried but I only get 20 black boxes:

#!/bin/bash

# Check if input video exists
if [ ! -f "$1" ]; then
    echo "Error: Input video file not found."
    exit 1
fi

# Get video duration
duration=$(ffprobe -v error -show_entries format=duration -of default=noprint_wrappers=1:nokey=1 "$1")

# Calculate interval between frames
interval=$((duration / 20))

# Extract 20 frames from the video
for i in {1..20}; do
    ffmpeg -ss $((interval * ($i - 1))) -i "$1" -vf scale=200:-1 -q:v 2 "${1%.*}_frame$i.jpg"
done

# Create collage
montage -mode concatenate -tile 5x4 -geometry +2+2 "${1%.*}_frame*.jpg" output_collage.jpg

# Clean up temporary files
rm "${1%.*}_frame*.jpg"

echo "Collage created: output_collage.jpg"

I am seeking advice regarding my ebook collection on a Linux system, which is stored on an external drive and sorted into categories. However, there are still many unsorted ebooks. I have tried using Calibre for organization, but it creates duplicate files during import on my main drive where I don't want to keep any media. I would like to:

• Use Calibre's automatic organization (tags, etc.) without duplicating files
• Maintain my existing folder structure while using Calibre
• Automatically sort the remaining ebooks into my existing categories/folder structure

I am considering the use of symlinks to maintain the existing folder structure if there is a simple way to automate the process due to my very large collection.

Regarding automatic sorting by category, I am looking for a solution that doesn't require manual organization or a significant time investment. I'm wondering if there's a way to extract metadata based on file hashes or any other method that doesn't involve manual work. Most of the files should have title and author metadata, but some won't.

Has anyone encountered a similar problem and found a solution? I would appreciate any suggestions for tools, scripts, or workflows that might help. Thank you in advance for any advice!

Hey Linux community,

I'm struggling with a file management issue and hoping you can help. I have a large media collection spread across multiple external hard drives. Often, when I'm looking for a specific file, I can't remember which drive it's on.

I'm looking for a file indexing and search tool that meets the following requirements:

• Ability to scan multiple locations
• Option to exclude specific folders or subfolders from both scan and search
• File indexing for quicker searches
• Capability to search indexed files even when the original drive is disconnected
• Real-time updates as files change

Any recommendations for tools that meet most or all of these criteria? It would be a huge help in organizing and finding my media files.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!