I’ll start by plugging Harvard’s free courses catalog as well as Udemy
Edit: Gonna add 2 more I remembered-
Blender - I wish I had more time to learn it, but I did start the infamous “Donut Tutorial” once!
Watch Cartoons Online - Lots of good older stuff!
KDE Connect. its an app that lets you share lots of different things between your devices, and it does this over your home network without needing any “cloud”
- send files from one device to another
- share the clipboard. handy for copying text or a link to your phone
- get notifications from your phone on your laptop
- have music playing on your laptop and pause or change the track from your phone
- control your laptop from your phone, move the cursor around, left/right click etc
Syncthing.
Connect any two devices’ folders together wirelessly, from anywhere.
Don’t have a server? You don’t need one. Every device is an individual node.
Backup? If you do have a server, offload some of your content and keep on rolling, or set scripts to move files by age.
commenting to remind myself about syncthing for when I can look into it later.
Free Office Suite which is excellent for personal use. If you are on mobile Collabora Office if you want an Android/iOS version
I’ve been using it for over a decade. Prior to that I used open office but it quickly became clear Openoffice couldn’t match the development of LibreOffice. There is no concrete reason to buy microsoft’s bloated ever changing garbage.
OnlyOffice is even better in several ways.
wow thanks! I haven’t been able to use LibreOffice as it is hands down one of the ugliest pieces of software I’ve looked at, and despite retrying for years, I genuinely could not tolerate it. OnlyOffice looks so great!
I hear you. It’a almost as bad as Gimp vs Krita.
It’s also worse in that they hide the fact it’s made in Russia.
It’s Russian software so yeah… 🤢
In California (and Connecticut), you don’t have to pay to use the air pumps at gas stations. You can just go inside and ask them to turn on the air pump, and they legally have to.
you have to pay for that? I thought it was free worldwide
This is a great thread!
Not foss, but PortSwigger Burp Community
I know its a major security tool widely used but it bugs me it’s not open sourced
Bugs me, too. I only use it when I absolutely have to. But it is free.
Your local city college may or may not offer free classes (in San Francisco, you just need to show proof that you live in the city with some legal status).
Some public transportation is free for certain groups (youth and folks experiencing homelessness can get free passes here).
“First X of the month” at the zoo/a museum/whatever — lots of venues have free events.
A jog, bike ride, hike — lots of great stuff outside!
I live in the Philly area. Senior citizens can use SEPTA (buses and commuter trains) for $1 a ride.
I second the biking … but that shit ain’t free. Even used bikes cost some money to buy and maintain, and brand new bicycles are solidly in the “insane” category these days.
Cleaning after yourself before you leave the property as a tenant.
Landlords have guaranteed that tenants won’t bother to clean the place up by establishing the precedent over many years that they won’t refund your deposit no matter how spotless you leave the property. Everyone knows it and after getting screwed enough times, tenants are incentivized to leave a mess as an act of defiance.
Sounds like fake news to me. I don’t do that for example. I don’t know many People of Land beside myself but I rather treat it as a beneficial service to the community that I happen to be able to support myself from.
You are a leech on society, i hope you realize that one day.
You think so yet I provide accommodation for dozens of people. If I stop they are homeless because no one will rent them for my price. If there is a mold outbreak they get cancer. If someone comes with bugs I need to handle the bugs. If something breaks I need to repair it.
If someone is drunk and on drugs I need to kick them out so the rest of people are okay
It’s not some kind of passive income lol
There are various activities slightly less profitable for less work but I enjoy providing this service. Also I like renovation and interior design. It’s a real art to make interiors the most appealing with least amount of money.
Are you tired? You sound tired, don’t you think you need a lie down?
Honestly maybe I need a little vacation, thank you for a reminder ☺️
This isn’t free. Landlord fees.
I don’t like to charge fees for something that should be common decency
Like not exploiting a basic necessity for profit?
Would you prefer if I kept my land barren?
If you do not need it, how about selling it off to someone who actually needs it…?
Why would I sell the land of my ancestors to someone? This soil has been in my family for ages, I am not looking for a buyer
Oh so you did absolutely nothing to earn it. Cool. Go fuck yourself.
Must be nice to inherit land.
The land was there before you, it’ll be there after you die. You provide nothing of value. You’re a drain on society. Every single one of your tenants would be better off if you and everyone like you didn’t exist.
On the contrary. I provide value of upkeep and managing the estate I rent. Without me people wouldn’t have place to live because they cannot afford to purchase the land.
Thanks to me countless people are able to have a roof under their heads.
MIT has; https://ocw.mit.edu/
I love how chill and helpful everyone is here.
Yeah, I found some cool stuff for audio/music production
Not being a dick is free too.
What3words.com and app
Basically the earth has been segragated into 10 foot x 10 foot squares that are easily identified by 3 words, super accurate, easy to tell emergency services. No more need to know lat/long to tell someone where you’re at.
Not working.
///life.before.death doesn’t exist
///journey.before.destination took me a couple miles east of Pittsburgh.
I was expecting Urithiru :<
Where on earth is “fuck shit piss”?
unfortunately the people at What3Words excluded words people might find offensive from the word list, so that place does not exist
So I guess “musk impregnates influencers” would be OK? Even though that’s a lot more offensive IMHO …
I just looked it up, and apparently “impregnate” isn’t in the list either. Yes, the word isn’t offensive by itself, but I think they remove quite a lot of words that might cause problems in the what3words address. There is way more than enough words anyway.
This is from their FAQ:
How do you handle offensive words?
A what3words address is made up of 3 random words, and they are not intended to convey any meaning to a location. However, we know that the nature of using words means that unexpected interpretations can crop up.
For each new what3words language, our team consults a broad range of native speakers. We then work together to remove rude and offensive words from our word lists, navigating cultural sensitivities wherever we can.
Some users feel that certain words in our lists are unsuitable or inappropriate, so we always take feedback onboard. However, one of our key features – that our addresses are permanently fixed – means that it is not possible to update the word list. Instead, we can look for opportunities to adapt our approach when developing future languages.
Tip: if you’d rather avoid a certain what3words address because of a particular word or combination of words, we’d suggest you use the next square along.
In most eu countries the law requires businesses that give out food to also allow you to order free tap water. If youre in a city and dont want to spend money on a bottle of water, walk into mcdonalds and ask for free tap water. A lot of european countries also have strict laws about tap water so for example in france unless otherwise indicated with a warning, tap water is always potable.
Here in the US, this seems so normal that it didnt even occur to me that this may not be true everywhere else. And not need to be enforced by law.
A lot of places in the US will charge you for the cup or say they only offer bottled water for sale.
Ive definitely never, ever run into that. But I’m sure it happens.
Edit: I guess ive seen places that charged some nominal fee for the cup but it’s so rare
I went to Philadelphia and there were hardly any places to get water at all. There were always stores selling water bottles literally $8 in one instance around nearly everywhere you looked
A little late but OpenTaxSolver - free desktop tax software that gives you a printout of tax forms that you can mail in. And it includes a few states too. Way easier than the annoying corporate sites that constantly log you out and charge a fee for every little thing.
Edit: To my non-American friends, you don’t need to worry about this
Since you mention states and the site mentions federal taxes and the IRS, I assume this is for the tax system of the USA, it’s funny that it isn’t stated anywhere though.
the USA is the only country that I know of that requires such ridiculous measures to file your taxes tbh
Here in Switzerland, tax law is different per canton. So for our ~9 million people we have 26 tax laws! We pay taxes on three levels, communal, cantonal and federal taxes. And who collects which part depends on your canton. In mine the commune collects the communal and the cantonal part, and the canton collects the federal part. Yeah… it makes no sense to me either.
Though regarding the filing that part is not so bad;you only make one tax declaration from which the taxes on all three levels are calculated. And as far as I’m aware each canton offers a free software application for filing. The filings are a little complicated compared to some European neighbours from what I hear. For instance we aren’t source taxed directly out of our pay-checks, so we have to list our earnings and possessions manually and list various deductions.
Still, from what I gather we have it a little better than the US Americans
Your neighbor’s trash. It’s stunning what I find and fix, refurbish, repurpose or sell. Had a friend that used to cruise her hood on trash day, her and her husband would load the truck, sell it back to 'em on a Saturday garage sale. 12-14 hours biweekly work, ~$400 every other weekend.
My wife’s friends dumpster dive at Walmart, though I question how that’s possible. Most big box stores make that impossible. Dunno. In any case, it’s wild what these stores chunk out. If Lowe’s would let me, I’d haul home a pickup full every week.
On that note, never bring back mattresses, anything upholstered, or anything else that has a lot of unsealed cracks/gaps. Way too big a risk of introducing bed bugs into your home.
So many people just dump seemingly nice mattresses/sofas etc. out on the curb. They’re obviously not going to label these things as infested with bed bugs for a scavenger’s benefit and alert the whole neighborhood to their shame. Do not take these items. It is not worth the potential nightmare you’re setting yourself up for.
I have a pro tip for mattresses! Thrown it down in your driveway, take a box knife and strip it to the bare metal springs. Boom! You now have a plant trellis. First try only took me 20 minutes.
Saw a posh resale store that took twin mattress springs, sprayed ‘em black, hung vertically and spaced 2’ apart over a standing flower bed. Now sure what the plant was but it sure looked cool.
Trying it for the first time this year on the ferns and blackberries on the side of the house. Already have a solid start!
Free as in FMHY
?
It’s great, customizable, I sent a suggestion to the volunteer development team, and they made it happen.
I second this one. Only one I’ll use.
