Let me preface this by mentioning that I typically have a pleasant time flying with Southwest and prefer to do so anytime the option is available. Forgive me if it’s a little choppy, I’m so exhausted lol
Today (05/22) I experienced the worst chain of events coupled by the worst “compensation” for these events. I am typing this from the airport in Nashville because the Hotel vouchers they gave to everyone on our flight out of Houston (Flight #1799) were not accepted by any of the hotels they sent us back and forth from.
Today my girlfriend and I were meant to begin our 4 day vacation to NYC. Flight 1799 departed from Houston —> Nashville, a connecting flight at ~2:00 PM CST. We hit more and more turbulence the closer we got to our destination, Pilot comes on and announces that the airport ultimately has stopped accepting incoming planes — we stay up in the air about half an hour while we try to beat the weather. Still a no-go, pilot announces we’re instead landing in Atlanta to figure out a game plan for everyone’s connecting flights. At this point, the majority of us have missed our flights to NYC.
We arrive in Atlanta and remain on the plane for about an hour, different people enter the plane to announce things (a few people were able to make it to their connecting flights via a new flight from Atlanta, lucky duckies). At about 7:00 PM CST we’re clear to make the flight back to Nashville, but not before the Captain announces some bad news, there is a major issue with some of the plane’s equipment and we will need to move planes entirely. We do so, this takes about another hour. Once everyone is settled, the Captain comes back on with some more news — for everyone who missed their flights, we would all be compensated with a hotel for the night, since all our new flights to New York would be in the early morning. Yay! Captain also mentions we’d receive some vouchers for all the trouble and is sincerely apologetic about the situation, everyone seems to be understanding, I know we were!
We arrive in Nashville at about 10:00 PM, everyone on board is jovial and lighthearted about the situation (more so excited to finally be off an airplane I bet lol). We receive our hotel vouchers from the Southwest Airlines ladies and instructions on where to collect our bags, where to be picked up by the shuttle, etc. Some groups are sent to different Hotels. The hotels they sent us to don’t accept us. None of them. They have none of us in any of their systems. My voucher specifically mentioned a hotel room with “Sonesta Select”. The lady at the front desk of this Sonesta Select is completely lost, they weren’t made aware of any of these reservations and didn’t even have any rooms. They do mention that they see 10 rooms booked at the nicer variant of their hotel — the “Sonesta” — a ray of hope! We all load back into the shuttle and make our way. This hotel is way fancier, but it’s midnight now and we all just want to rest. They tell us there’s no rooms reserved for any of us, and our vouchers all mention “Sonesta Select”, they could lose their jobs for booking us rooms. They suggest we go back to the airport and have Southwest correct this. Customer Service over the phone was not helpful.. they suggested we try at the airport as well, but upon arrival they tell us our only option is to book the hotels and file a claim. We’re all beat, there’s over a dozen of us here all just spending the night at the airport instead.. Everyone from different hotel vouchers experienced the same thing.
our flight is at 10 AM and I feel so defeated.
Any suggestions here, guys? I’ve got nothing but time lol

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
Prepared by: Hunter Date: May 23rd, 2024

Executive Summary

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of developing an AI-powered application designed to enhance community safety by monitoring police scanner broadcasts, generating news articles, and offering custom notifications. It addresses potential legal hurdles, strategies for compliance, and technical implementation details. The report aims to assist in the strategic planning and execution of this project, ensuring both profitability and legal compliance while emphasizing the enhancement of neighborhood safety.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Application Description and Functionality
3. Development Process
4. Legal Considerations and Compliance
5. Technical Implementation
6. Potential Obstacles and Solutions
7. Recommendations and Best Practices
8. Conclusion
9. References and Resources

1. Introduction

The goal of this project is to develop an AI-powered application that listens to police scanner broadcasts, transcribes the audio, and sends alerts based on user-defined criteria. The service will initially be marketed as a free news service focused on community safety, with a premium subscription for custom notifications. This report covers all aspects of the development, legal considerations, and potential obstacles.

2. Application Description and Functionality

Primary Features: - News Generation: AI transcribes police scanner broadcasts and generates news articles based on user preferences, focusing on enhancing community safety and awareness. - Custom Notifications: Premium users receive alerts for specific events or descriptions relevant to their safety interests (e.g., vehicle descriptions, suspect details). - User Interface: Intuitive interface for setting preferences and viewing alerts.
Functionality: - Continuous Monitoring: The AI continuously monitors 1-3 police scanner broadcasts. - Data Processing: Transcribes audio in real-time and matches content against user-defined criteria. - Alert System: Sends notifications via email, SMS, or push notifications.
Feature Breakdown: 1. Real-Time Transcription: - Utilizes advanced speech recognition technology to transcribe police scanner audio into text. - Ensures high accuracy even with background noise typical of police communications.

1. Custom Alert Criteria:
   
   • Users can define specific keywords or phrases (e.g., “red GMC 2007 Yukon,” “white male 6 foot tall”).
   • The system continuously scans transcriptions for these criteria and triggers alerts.
2. Notification Delivery:
   
   • Supports multiple notification methods: email, SMS, push notifications.
   • Users can configure notification preferences through the app’s settings.
3. User Personalization:
   
   • Users can set their interests and preferences to tailor the news articles they receive.
   • Provides options to focus on different types of incidents (e.g., traffic accidents, crimes).

3. Development Process

Phase 1: Prototype Development - Objective: Create a prototype for personal use to validate the concept. - Tasks: - Set up a server (local or cloud-based). - Integrate AI tools for audio transcription (e.g., DeepSpeech, Vosk). - Develop basic functionality for transcribing and generating alerts. - Testing: Ensure reliable operation and accuracy of transcriptions and alerts.
Phase 2: Full-Scale Development - Objective: Develop a full-featured application for public use. - Tasks: - Enhance user interface. - Implement premium features for custom notifications. - Ensure data security and compliance with privacy laws. - Testing: Comprehensive testing to ensure functionality and compliance.

4. Legal Considerations and Compliance

FCC Regulations: - Communications Act of 1934: Review Section 605 on unauthorized interception and use of communications. - Part 90: Private Land Mobile Radio Services regulations. - Part 97: Amateur Radio Service regulations.
Privacy Laws: - GDPR and CCPA: Ensure compliance with data protection laws. - User Consent: Obtain explicit consent for data collection and usage.
Potential Legal Hurdles: - Commercial Use of Broadcasts: Navigate the gray area of using police broadcasts for commercial purposes. - Privacy Concerns: Handle identifiable information carefully to avoid privacy violations.

5. Technical Implementation

Server Setup: - Local Server: For initial development and testing. - Cloud Server: Consider using Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, or AWS for scalability and reliability.
AI Integration: - Speech Recognition: Use DeepSpeech or Vosk for real-time transcription. - Text Matching: Implement text-matching algorithms using libraries like fuzzywuzzy.
Data Security: - Encryption: Secure data at rest and in transit. - Access Controls: Restrict access to sensitive data.

6. Potential Obstacles and Solutions

Legal Compliance: - FCC Permissions: Seek necessary permissions or clarify legal boundaries with the FCC. - Privacy Issues: Implement robust data protection measures and transparent policies.
Technical Challenges: - Transcription Accuracy: Ensure high-quality audio input for accurate transcriptions. - Scalability: Design the system to handle increased load as the user base grows.

7. Recommendations and Best Practices

Alternative Marketing Strategy: - Initial Free Service: Market as a news service to gain user base and demonstrate public benefit. - Premium Features: Introduce custom notifications as a premium feature without emphasizing law enforcement evasion.
Legal Loopholes and Strategies: - Gray Area Utilization: Emphasize automated data processing rather than rebroadcasting. - Server Location: Explore hosting servers in countries with favorable regulations, but ensure compliance with international laws.
Best Practices: - User Privacy: Prioritize user privacy and data protection. - Transparent Policies: Clearly communicate data usage and obtain explicit consent.

8. Conclusion

Developing an AI-powered police scanner application involves navigating complex legal and technical challenges. By leveraging strategic marketing, robust legal compliance, and effective technical implementation, the project can achieve both profitability and regulatory adherence.

9. References and Resources

Legal Resources: - FCC Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau - Communications Act of 1934 - Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) - GDPR Compliance Information - CCPA Compliance Guide
Technical Resources: - DeepSpeech - Vosk - Google Cloud - Microsoft Azure - Amazon Web Services (AWS)
By following this detailed plan, the project can successfully navigate legal complexities and technical challenges, resulting in a viable and profitable AI-powered police scanner application focused on community safety and awareness.

Code Examples and Command Line Prompts

Setting Up the Development Environment

1. Initial Setup:
```bash

Update and install necessary packages

sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install -y python3 python3-pip git

Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/your-repo/ai-police-scanner.git cd ai-police-scanner

Set up a virtual environment

python3 -m venv venv source venv/bin/activate

Install required Python packages

pip install -r requirements.txt ```
2. Backend Development:
```python

app.py

from flask import Flask, request, jsonify from transcription_service import transcribe_audio from alert_service import check_alert_criteria
app = Flask(name)
@app.route('/transcribe', methods=['POST']) def transcribe(): audio_file = request.files['file'] transcription = transcribe_audio(audio_file) alerts = check_alert_criteria(transcription) return jsonify({'transcription': transcription, 'alerts': alerts})
if name == 'main': app.run(debug=True) ```
3. Frontend Development:
html index.html

AI Police Scanner

Upload

4. Integration and Testing:
```bash

Run unit tests

pytest tests/

Start the server

python app.py ```
5. Deploying to Cloud:
```bash

AWS CLI commands to deploy the application

aws configure aws s3 mb s3://your-bucket-name aws s3 sync . s3://your-bucket-name --exclude ".git/" --exclude "venv/"

Deploy using AWS Elastic Beanstalk

eb init -p python-3.7 ai-police-scanner eb create ai-police-scanner-env ```

The table i play at has ruled that it is possible to use Unseen Servant as a scout despite being a mindless force, but only under a very specific situation; using boolean logic. For example, commanding of it:
"Head into that hole, IF you see a dragon, pick up a rock and then drop it."
Which, while everyone enjoys it, sort of irked me because of how the spell is written. Not that I'm going to petition it to be changed at that table or anything, i just wanted to know myself if that's an actual use of the servant. The spell says:
This spell creates an invisible, mindless, shapeless, Medium force that performs simple tasks at your command until the spell ends...
Once on each of your turns as a bonus action, you can mentally command the servant to move up to 15 feet and interact with an object. The servant can perform simple tasks that a human servant could do, such as fetching things, cleaning, mending, folding clothes, lighting fires, serving food, and pouring wine. Once you give the command, the servant performs the task to the best of its ability until it completes the task, then waits for your next command.
If you command the servant to perform a task that would move it more than 60 feet away from you, the spell ends.
Does "simple task" imply "code an if statement via mental command"? I'm not sure, because asking it to fetch something is kind of an if statement already; In that its implying that one should fetch a thing IF it is there, but the command makes the assumption that it is. Can the unseen servant assess the situation to adequately fulfill this command, being a mindless force? Are you commanding it the fetch the thing from an exact position, or does it have the cognitive ability to know which thing you mean for it to collect? If i command it to:
"grab my robe."
Does it know which robe, where and whether or not it exists when i make the command without the necessary context by understanding my thoughts? This questions lends itself to two different outcomes;
Option 1: If not, then unless you are a lawyer yourself with each command, the servant is effectively useless. In fact, if it cannot understand things existing in relation to one another, it is impossible to have it fetch anything.
"Fetch me my robe." The unseen servant does not move.
"Fetch me the robe within my room." The unseen servant does not understand what a room is. or how you own one. or where it is. or where the robe is.
So it must understand things, and is not truly mindless. Its like a little computer?
Option 2: So then, we could extrapolate that it does have the cognitive ability to recognize things the commander recognizes, which means that they could make a when statement instead:
"Go down into the hole. Pick up a stone. When you see the dragon, drop the stone."
The command now has no if statements, but does have a when statement, so it satisfies the conditions of:

• The commander assuming the dragon to exist.
• The Unseen servant having to make no mindful decisions of its own.

The unseen servant simply needs to recognize what a dragon looks like, therefore the commander needs to know what a dragon looks like, but aside from these limitations, this appears to be a reasonable usage of the spell? Maybe? A when statement is the simplest of commands (and certainly possible by a human servant), being a regular command with an exterior trigger, so i think the servant should be able to perform this.
So, the long answer is, i believe that boolean logic kind of applies to unseen servant? When statements should anyway, but If statements are harder to extrapolate. Therefore you could in fact make a computer out of unseen servants, albeit for an hour at a time if you had enough wizards to cast them all.
I'll log off my magic mouth powered computer now.

Hi, my family is flying from Manila to Honolulu via Guam for vacation on United Airlines.
Since Guam is a US territory, what's the transfer process like now? Will their check-in luggage go straight to Honolulu from Manila? or do they have to collect it in Guam and check-in again?
I did this route years ago. I remember having to go through immigration by CBP but Guam had their own customs officers. Not sure if the process has changed.
Thank you!

So this, this takes a lot of contextual details into account, so strap in.
I (27F) have a brother, (33M). The age gap between us is relevant. Growing up, I just wanted to be friends with my brother, he was one of my favorite people in the world even if he did bully me sometimes.
I'm going to provide some examples of his treatment.
When I was about three, he came into my room after I had been put to bed, wearing a mask and holding a butter knife above me. Still afraid of masks to this day.
He would always drink every pitcher of something I made and never make any after finishing it. Sometimes I wouldn't even get a glass. My mom was busy fostering other kids and didn't have time for 'petty squabbles'. Once, I spit in the top of the pitcher and left the lid off so he could see it. He yanked away the bowl of cereal I was eating and spit in it, shoving it back so hard some spilled on me. I had just hit preteen age and was really sick of just taking his crap, so I splashed it back at him. He threw me to the ground and started hitting me. My mom heard the fighting and told us we were both at fault, so he never got punished.
One time, my parents busted him with drugs. There was a screaming match and he was only home from college for the holidays. Once he left, I felt safe to come out of my room again and was at the dining room table drawing or doing winter break worksheets or something. I think I was around 14. My brother came back in and got something from the kitchen before going back down to his room in the basement, but he said some snarky comment to me before going down. I hadn't even said anything or made a noise to warrant it. What I said in turn was 'At least I don't do drugs.' The next second, I was pulled up by my neck and my brother slammed me into the wall. Things are kind of foggy, but my next memory is waking up on the floor and crying for our parents. I'm not really sure what the punishment for that was. I think he just left and went back to college early to avoid it.
After the fight this post is actually about, I learned from my mom that he actively denied that this ever happened. I was really traumatized about it. The drug he claimed to be on became an almost catastrophic trigger. I would feel hands on my throat and the darkness closing in again at the mere mention of it, it could send me into a panic attack. I've gotten better about my reaction to it, but I still refuse to have it anywhere around me or in my life. It's a socially accepted drug, so it's cost me more than a few relationships. When I heard he denied it, I looked at my mom and said, how many times have I lied versus him? And why would I make up something like that? She's seen the reactions. I broke up with a guy I really liked because he refused to keep it away from me. If I saw a scene in a TV show when it was more recent, I would curl up into a ball and couldn't talk, my throat felt so tight, I just cried. I'd like to know how or why I would have faked reactions like that. She never really believed him since he was known to lie, but it was still appalling he tried to lie about something so severe.
And that's not all! Once, my mom kicked him out when she snapped at him for his dog hurting our dogs and he called her a bitch, living rent free with our parents at 27 after failing through college due to partying. My mom had enough and told him to get out. He texted me and asked if he could stay with me for the night, despite me being away at college 2 hours from our town. I didn't think my mom did anything wrong, but I couldn't bring myself to leave him alone like that. I still loved him, even after all that up there.
So I said yes. I lived in an apartment near campus with a roommate, and we each had our own bedroom and ensuite bathroom, plus the kitchenette and a living room we shared. I had a 'friend' at the time- I asked him if he could possibly bring some booze over for my brother, giving a quick run down of the situation, and he agreed that yeah, the man probably needed a drink (I wasn't old enough to purchase alcohol, so I asked him). All three of us hung out on the porch to make sure we didn't disturb my roommate until around 3 AM, where my brother's drunk comments are making me really uncomfortable so my 'friend' suggests we head to bed, since we have class in the morning, too. Friend regularly sleeps with me in my bed, so its not an issue. And I cleared the couch in the shared living room with my roommate before I told my brother it was okay. So I go in first, change into pajamas, and then let my brother in to do all the bathroom stuff he needed before bed. I'm laying down and half asleep when I'm yanked out of bed by my arm and forcibly pushed through my own door, my brother demanding my bed. 'Friend' gently stood up for me and reminded him that I was already being generous by letting him stay at all, he could at least respect me. My brother did not like that. He started slurring angry stuff at both of us and collecting his dog's toys, saying that he'll just drive all the way home if I'm going to be like this. This is after he consumed like, half a bottle of fireball. So that was NOT happening. I'm standing in the way of the front door and blocking it once my brother finally finds his keys and he starts pulling me away and hurting me. 'Friend' tackled him and pinned him to the ground in an old highschool wrestling hold. I snatch the keys and run into the kitchenette, remove the sink filter, and hold the keys close in case I have to throw them down the drain in desperation. My brother is screaming and hurling insults left and right and I'm deeply traumatized already because of his violence towards me and from the vitriol just makes me cry really hard. My roommate knows I'm quiet and the noise wakes her up and she asks what the hell is going on. I try to explain but I'm basically in hysterics and 'friend' explains for me, while calmly still pinning my brother. Roomie was in nursing school and turned on the Nurse Voice immediately to address my brother. She tells him she just lost a friend to a drunk driver, and it is not responsible to drive in this state. She'll perform sobriety tests periodically and when he passes, he can go. And if he continues and tries to leave, she will call the cops on him for drunk driving, and my 'friend' and I could probably tell the cops about the violence, too. Around 5 AM he was finally sober enough to pass and his last words to me were 'I hope you fucking like mom and dad, because we aren't family anymore'. It shattered me.
He didn't talk to me for 2 years.
I got presents when I came home on my birthday and christmas from him during that time, and my parents said he was busy working and left the presents early with them, he was still annoyed but we were family. I believed it. I later realized that my parents were lying and covering up for him because they knew it would have broken my heart.
At some point after that, he started turning himself around. He never really apologized for any of the things he did to me. But I let him back into my life anyway, because I loved him, and I had always wanted my brother to be my friend. Our family is really small. I was just happy to jump at the chance to hang out with him again. He ended up with a girlfriend and he bought a house where they both stayed, so I finally had a place to actually visit him since he had been more or less couch surfing until then. I was so excited. My brother was older and more mature, and he had his own house now! We could finally be close!
Obviously... That wasn't how things turned out.
Why exactly none of us like his girlfriend is a different, long story. But suffice it to say, we all pretty much hated her and hated that he was with her. She basically forbade us from being over at his house very much. I tried to overlook the crappy things she had done to us, because she and I shared a lot of traits and interests. I would have a cool sister! Now? It disgusts me that we share anything in common. Point is, I would still keep trying to be friendly with both of them. There came a day when I sat my brother down and had a real conversation with him. When he was truly sad, he seemed to come to me. He told me he wasn't happy with her. He just was terrified of being alone. He was really afraid of her being a mother, due to her mental and medical state, and the fact that she was so lazy around the house (working from home, too). And that was the last time I was over at his house, because we heard the girlfriend's comforter rustling and he panicked and shoo'ed me out of the house before she realized I was there. That was about 3 years ago.
I kept being really excited when he was over for holidays. But he was over for less and less, because they went with her family more, or she wanted to go home. He wouldn't show up on birthdays the day of, or even the weekend. It'd be like two weeks later, and it was almost always gift cards for my parents. Like jesus christ, the least you could do is hand your parent the card on their birthday. Anyway, I would always ask him to hang out later on and he'd say yeah, then back out at the last minute. It stung every time. I started asking less and less. It got to the point where he would even back out of playing animal crossing with me online, from the comfort of his own home. That's when I gave up. He used to text me once in a while with memes, at least. But that stopped long ago. I realized that I was the only one putting effort into our relationship, and it crushed me.
I'm not going to lie, I became really bitter about his girlfriend. When he announced they were engaged, none of our family was happy. But I managed to save the relationship between all of us by apologizing over text and pointing out that all our faces dropped with pain and confusion because he was referring to his fiancee by a nickname, that was also the name of our dog that had passed only a month ago. Which, that's partially true, that's definitely why my face looked shattered. I wasn't happy, but I wasn't going to bring it up.
As my brother got older and started making healthier decisions, I kept up hope that one day he'd come to his senses. Either ditch the fiance or put more effort into family relationships. But I started losing hope really quickly. I dreaded the day when they would tell us a wedding date or that a baby was on the way.
Mother's day came, and my brother backed out of brunch with my mom, stating he was tired from having breakfast with fiance's mom (yeah. yeah, that was a pretty common theme and just one more reason we didn't like them together). So he'd take her out the next weekend. Last year he backed out after being twenty minutes late because he took his fiancee to urgent care for one of her usual and frequent migraines. He kept telling us he wouldn't be long. Get her a refill on the injections she would use and come to us. An hour and a half later, he said to go home and that he was sorry, we'd reschedule.
He never rescheduled.
So, up comes the make up brunch for my mom this year. I had already given her my present, so she had at least some mother's day celebration. I woke up with a pretty bad headache and immediately downed allergy pills and advil so I could make it through brunch at least, for my mom's sake and to see if my brother had changed any. At this point in the relationship with my brother, I'm pretty bitter. I went back and checked my texts while we were waiting for him in the restaurant. The last text between my brother and I was January of this year. And it was me asking if hypothetically could I stay with him if my mom threw me out (I've asked it before many times, and he would say yes-- It's not really likely that my mom would throw me out, but I have kind of bad anxiety and it makes me feel better to have back up plans). He said 'uh maybe very short term it would be hell with my dogs and schedule lol' and I just stared at the text. He asked if I had considered getting my own place-- Well, yes, I have, but I really can't bring myself to do it because it would mean separating my family's two dogs (technically one is mine, ones is my parents', but they're so attached to each other) and I couldn't just leave my dog behind either. I told him not to worry, because mom had calmed down.
But back to breakfast. I'm usually a little more lively around my brother and usually try to talk to him a lot, about anything, or something I'm excited about. Between my bitterness and the headache, I didn't say more than 40 words through the whole meal, I think. The two times my brother spoke to me at all were to mansplain to me about my favorite Fallout character (its Hancock, he uses drugs, but you can get him off them if you do his friendship arc). He asked me if I'd seen the show yet. I told him no, because I asked a friend to watch through it and see if Hancock's drug use was too frequent or severe before I started it. And then he asked me who Hancock was. And I was like??? The guy with the lasagna face? Turns out Hancock is actually the main character of the show. He pretty much talked down to me 'you know they're not real drugs, right, they just exist in the universe. he takes his inhaler everyday'. Internally I'm like 'No you fucking moron, they're real drugs, with different names. If you paid attention to crafting or lore, you would realize that. You need fertilizer to make the drug you're talking about (jet)-- you know, like people who will shit in a bag and huff it. Buffout is basically steroids. And Hancock decreases his drug use if you become close with him, but sure, tell me about my favorite character you know shit about, not even his fucking name.' But I say none of this. I just return to being quiet and slowly eating my food. The other time he talked to me was when I asked the waitress if my mom could have a redo on her eggs because they weren't the cook she asked for (which, also, this is big for me! I have severe anxiety and ordering food is so hard, much less speaking up about an inconsistency) and my mom was so grateful. She didn't want to make a fuss, but I would, for her. When the lady took the eggs back he's all shitty like 'you know that if they fuck it up the first time, then they probably can't make it right, don't you' and I just looked at him and didn't bother responding. Like, okay. You assume its just one person back there making eggs? If one was screwed, either they would just refire it with extra care or one of the other line cooks would do it. I watch a ton of Kitchen Nightmares and Hells Kitchen, so I think I'm a little more familiar with the back of house or how the line works than my brother. And that people don't actually usually mess with your food for simple or reasonable requests. But he doesn't know that (actually, I roped my mom into Hell's Kitchen, and we then further roped my dad in, so Hell's Kitchen is now a Family Event), because of course he doesn't, he never asks about me or my interests. By the end of brunch, I'm just kind of pissed off, and my head is aching. We're walking out and my brother hands my mom a card. She opens it up and it says something something something grandma and opens on a sonogram. And I'm just so done with everything. I mutter to myself 'are you fucking kidding me'. My mom is putting up a good effort in being nice to soon to be wife and while personally, this disgusts me and crushed my spirit, I was not focused on the baby talk. I did manage to pick up his fiance saying 'oh yeah well i'm not on speaking terms with my family at the moment, so i have to talk to SOMEONE'S family haha' (like wow, okay, tell us you don't consider us family until we're a back up plan a little louder). We were out in the sun, it was hot, and my head was pounding. After a few minutes I asked 'can we go now' and my brother got shitty with me, because the world revolves around him (god forbid he had sympathy for a migraine given his own fiancee, but he didn't even notice to care that I said less than 50 words) and snapped at me that 'You don't have to be here, no one invited you'. And I was just done. I walked away closer to the car and I didn't catch it but my mom glared daggers at him and said that she had invited me. Then my brother said the thing that was the last straw.
'That's some fucking family for you.'
I was engulfed in rage. He put us on the back burner, barely spoke to us, minimized visits for his girlfriend's comfort, and yet somehow, he decided I was shitty family? I did his homework for him when I was a child and he was in high school. I always was there for him when he got depressed or existential crisis now and then. I advocated for my parents to make up with him after the fight where my mom kicked him out. When he tried to finish his degree since he only had one semester left when he really fucked it up, he asked ME for help, because he would need the help in the last core class he needed- Calculus. I was STILL IN HIGHSCHOOL. And I agreed! (He never ended up going, but that's not the point). I was the one who reminded my parents of what desserts he liked for family gatherings. I was the one who would dogsit for him when he would just leave without telling anyone, because he knew if I heard the dog cry in its crate I would feel bad and release it, and that I wouldn't put it away in a crate if I was home because I felt bad. I was the one that tried to convince my parents to give his fiance a second chance. I made 300 fake facebook accounts years ago before verification was a thing to vote for his band to headline a medium large concert for a decently known band.
He used to steal my things to pawn them for drug money. He would threaten to say goodbye to my chao when I reminded him it was my turn to play. He would call me a dependent loser for not having 'x' life skill already when he didn't have it at my age either, and long after that! He used physical force against me several times. He would purposely taunt me with things I was afraid of. He repeatedly cut me off and didn't talk to me for a while over some petty thing he got angry about, but 2 years was the longest ever by at least a year. He would use me as a kid to ask our parents about something he wanted, and me being a kid, would go along with it because I loved him and wanted to make him happy. He decided to spend one summer with his girlfriend in California or whatever during highschool and I was crushed and asked him if we would be able to hang out any before the next school year started because he would go away for college and he laughed in my face. He always used me as the soundboard to vent about my parents (again, I am much younger than him)! He would constantly make fun of me that I had no friends and that I would be alone all my life, and that continued through adulthood, too. He would talk down to me about my chosen second family/people I met online long distance. He would make fun of things I liked all the time knowing that I found his opinion important.
I had done nothing but love him my entire life, and he barely acknowledged me in his.
So I fucking lost it. I started screaming back at him (in public, in a parking lot, loud-- all things that are important because I have severe anxiety and hate making a spectacle, this was how far things had gotten) about how he was an ungrateful piece of shit and he had personally told me he wasn't happy with her and that she would be a terrible mother and all I wanted was for him to be happy but I'm shitty family? He resorted to his standard argument when he has no argument- Puff out his chest and say 'lay a hand on me, lay a hand on me'. My parents were so shocked by the fact that I had an outburst like that, they couldn't react for a moment. Neither of them told me off, at any point. My dad started to redirect me towards the car to end the argument and my brother has one last clapback 'remember when you asked to move in with me? yeah, this is wh--' I cut him off by screaming about when he asked ME to stay with me in my apartment and threw me out of my own room, and his only comeback was 'it wasn't YOUR apartment, it was THEIR apartment' pointing to my parents, because like for him, they paid for my accommodations in college. I had enough. I told him to never fucking contact me again, because he is NOT my fucking family, he chose his family and he is dead to me. And I got in the car. Didn't listen to another word.
My parents stayed out there with my brother and his fiance for a while. I hadn't known anything that had gone on until later when talking to my mom.
Again, neither one of them scolded me a single bit when they got in the car. They just gave me this really apologetic look because they knew how sad and hurt I had to be to finally cut him out of my life for good. I was really wound up and stressed out and I sort of asked my mom to choose between us-- Poor wording on my part, but I needed to be supported. My brother always got away with treating me like shit without any consequences-- And me not being in his life wasn't a consequence either, because his life would not change without me in it. She kinda got cross with me by saying she would never abandon either of us and I took it as 'you're enabling this by keeping contact, and saying that it's okay for him to treat me like this' and I went to my room. I shut my door and started sobbing my eyes out. My mom had heard me through two door and down the hall and she came to hug me. And I asked her straight up like 'what's going to happen at the wedding? are you going to go if he doesn't invite me?' Because like I said, he never had consequences for treating me like garbage my entire life. I wanted there to be SOME form of consequence. She did reassure me that if he pulled that move, neither one of my parents would go. We had a long talk about how it really hurt my feelings the way she said she wouldn't abandon either of us because, you know, at the time, it really felt like she wasn't supporting me with that choice. But I had also worded my question really poorly, being so upset and all. I told her how I felt about him not ever having any repercussions so I needed my parents to at least back me up on that. They don't plan on contacting him much, but won't outright abandon him if he needs something. But if it comes down to it, like if the wedding invite doesn't come, they would support me over my brother. And she had made it clear to him that family is like a totem pole, and on that totem pole, I definitely was higher than him.
A few days later, I was telling her how it still really hurt. I don't regret what I did and I will never take it back, but it pained me to know how little I really meant to him. I think I was hoping that the shock of me finally giving up on him would ring some alarm bells in his head. We were talking about it and she ended up conversationally giving me more details about what had happened after I got in the car and the aftermath. Apparently after my outburst, the fiance started walking away crying that 'first she didn't have her family, and now she doesn't have his family either'.
Remember how she said she wasn't on speaking terms with her family? Her older brother and his wife have a child that their mom babysits sometimes. They're considering another child, via IVF. The fiance is mad that her baby won't be her mom's priority if they have another child and that her brother was hogging their mom to babysit.
Yeah. Gee, wonder why they won't talk to you anymore either.
And she told my mom about the moving in comment, that it was just because she didn't want their large dogs to shred my small dog, or anything worse, because she would feel horrible (I don't believe this for a second, it was another convenient excuse). My mom looked at her and asked if she was serious, because I never would have brought my dog over there. Again, because of how happy she is with her sister. The fiance actually looked shocked at this information, indicating that my brother was up to his old lying was again.
Speaking of my brother, apparently he told my parents that he would never come over here again as long as I live here. And honestly? That's fine with me. I don't want him in this house. I am agoraphobic and my home is like a sanctuary. My mom and I were talking about how ridiculous this all is and how entitled they are, and I mention that it occurred to me that they were suddenly invested in being a family now that she's pregnant and definitely getting married (and after she won't speak to her family) and I wouldn't be surprised if they only told us and played the 'family' card because they had expected me to be my normal gentle and loving self. That it seemed convenient, and I couldn't help but think they had only allowed us in on the news expecting a baby shower gift or wedding gift. Or for me to arrange the baby shower-- Fiance doesn't have a sister, isn't talking to her mom, and doesn't have that many female friends (shocker). My mom sighed and said it wouldn't surprise her either if they had expected me to be their baby sitter for the same reason, just like I took care of his dog because I couldn't refuse it with my soft heart. And honestly, I had thought that too, but I dismissed the thought because it seemed too much like they would consider me for that. But my mom had the same idea, so it couldn't be that far off.
She told me she had reached out to my brother one last time, after the initial fight, after she had comforted me from the violent sobbing and saw just how much it hurt. The gist was just 'you should really apologize to your sister, all she ever really wanted from you was for you to acknowledge her as part of your life. our family is small, and it hurts to see you two like this. All it takes is an invite to hang out now and again, that's all she wants. I hope you can figure this out. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, I love you'.
My brother's response was 'I am not handling this situation right now'.
And it really hit me. He wasn't willing to do the bare minimum of an apology and spending any time with me at all. I laughed bitterly and told my mom he probably thinks that by the time his birthday rolls around I'll feel bad and come back to him-- He'll have a nasty surprise coming.
I'm pretty sure I'm not the asshole here. But between my anxiety, my hurt, and just the long history of me forgiving my brother because I love him, I keep wondering if maybe I shouldn't have. I go back and forth between thinking that I was wrong and that I was just showing off my shiny new backbone.
So, AITA for cutting contact with my brother and his pregnant fiance?

Travel
Due to heavy rain flooding the railway between Glasgow Central and Carlisle disruption is expected until 20:00 23/05.
Train services between Glasgow Central and Carlisle via Dumfries will be delayed by up to 29 minutes or terminated at and started back from Dumfries. Some stations between Dumfries and Carlisle will not be served.
Option 1 - Check if a rail journey is currently possible..

• Use the National Rail Enquiries real-time journey planner to check if you can continue your journey by rail.

Option 2 - Alternative Routes & Local Public Transport..

• If you have had to drive to another station your ticket will be valid to collect your car on your return journey. Speak to a member of staff to validate your ticket.
  
• Currently, we have not arranged for your rail tickets to be accepted on local bus routes as yet. We will monitor this situation as the incident develops.
  

Option 3 - Rail Replacement Transport..

• We have replacement buses that will run a shuttle between Dumfries and Carlisle.

Option 4 - Consider travelling later..

• You might wish to consider postponing your journey until our service's return to normal.
  
• We are having to run trains at a reduced speed between Glasgow Central and Dumfries due to heavy rain forecast today.
  
• The local train services that run between Dumfries and Carlisle have been cancelled due to flooding between Dumfries and Carlisle. We have replacement buses that will run a shuttle between Dumfries and Carlisle.
  

Let us help you:Please let us try and help you if you are being disrupted. At the station or on-train:* Speak to a member of staff or use the Help-point (station only).* Listen for announcements.* Information will be displayed on Customer Information Screens.Keep up to date or get in touch on your phone:Twitter: Live updates @ScotRail.WhatsApp: Contact us on WhatsApp.App: Live updates on our app. Phone: Contact Customer Relations.
Today in Scottish History
23 May 1701:Captain William Kidd is hung at Wapping for murder and piracy.
/GlasgowMarket Digest
Sub Club this Thursday - Free before 11:30pm
Stained glass art for sale
Selling 2x green day tickets 25/06/24
magimix 5200xl and accessories (£150, RRP £370)
Converted Campervan - Beautiful Wood Interior
2 tickets for Liam Gallagher at the OVO Hydro
Tune of the day
Great Movie Themes 2: Salo or 120 Days Of Sodom by Ennio Morricone (suggested by ScreamingFannyBaws)
Picked from 2 eligible links submitted today. Suggest tomorrow's tune.

FALLOUT: HAWAII

There are two types of content I love most online. One is development history and the other is Speculative Worldbuilding. Especially for my favorite franchises. I needed to kill an evening and so I made this!
This is a concept I'd love to see for a fallout 5. Maybe it will be a mod someday. Give me your thoughts!
I know AI images are banned here but I generated some that I will post as a separate shared google drive folder link at the ened, so you can see them off the post if you want.

OPENING:

The player character (Called The Island Hopper?) wakes up on a beach. They got hit on the head with a coconut and were knocked unconscious. They have a 10mm pistol to fight giant crabs, a pip boy, vault suit, and a stim pack. The only backstory they have.

PLAYER CHOICES:

• Become “Big Kahuna” of the TideRipper Collective
• Unleash an army of the Siren Song Horde from Molokai, destroying all factions
• Help the Harmonious Stratocracy defeat the Liberty Insurgency
• Guide the Harmonious Stratocracy in a communist direction if you want
• Help the Enclave Remnants coup the Liberty Marines and establish the pacific outpost
• Help the Liberty Marines expel the Enclave Contingent and use their hidden cache of power armor to anihalate the Stratocracy via a beached carrier reactor overload. Establishing anarchy in Hawaii (With a right wing ultranationalist flair.)
• Steal a ship from the Stratocracy and help the NCR-Shi expedition return to the mainland.
• Befriend Slowpoke, the giant ancient ghoulified snapping turtle.
• Uncover the secrets of vault 23.
• Help hunt the white whale. (FEV whale)
• Introduce a new currency (a very profitable scam) to replace Stratocracy coins with seashells

FACTIONS:

Héxié Stratocracy:
In the immediate hours following the Great War, the Americans and Chinese engaged in an apocalyptic naval battle in the waters around Hawaii. Entire carrier groups were sunk on both sides. Gunships and fighters raged overhead.
Both sides were given an order to retreat. A rogue sub defied that order, launching its nuclear payload in an area where both fleets were still actively fighting. We don’t know if it was a Chinese or American sub. The Proletarian Offshoot and Liberty Marines claim the other one did it.
The survivors of the crash were forced to regroup on the same island harbor. A lot of the Chinese fleet retreated to go home. Some made landfall and a guerilla war between sailors of the American and Chinese surviving fleets ensued.
Captain Jack Masterson, inspired by broadcasts from Mariposa/Roger Maxson. Seceded from the United States and made piece with the Chinese commander, who had been taken prisoner prior. They became friends, and their descendants (and a few ghouls who served with them) became the “Harmonious Stratocracy”
The Stratocracy is a fusion of Sino-American culture. It is a citizen republic, inspired by starship troopers but more democratic (at first).
Today, the stratocracy seeks to enforce harmony at all costs. It derives itself from the values of duty, collectivism, and the end of war (they see the Great War as a colossal mistake)
Tideripper Collective:
A surfer collective centered in the vault tec vault 20 resort.
Surfer bro poser gang who exists alongside nature. They have a new age faith that emerged as an offshoot of hubology.
They have been trying to warn the other factions about the siren song horde.
“Rip tides brah”
The Liberty Marine Brigades:
The formation of the Stratocracy alienated both Chinese and American military members alike. The Americans formed the Liberty Marine Brigades. The Chinese formed the Proletarian Revenge Forces. Ironically, these two had a cease fire since both fought the stratocracy. Though they still hated each other.
The ceasefire came too late and the proletarian revenge forces were utterly wiped out. The survivors were absorbed into the Stratocracy.
The Liberty Brigades, desperate to survive, re-establish America, and return to the mainland, made contact with the enclave using a giant satellite radar dish.
The enclave attacked and almost annihilated the Stratocracy, with the help of the Liberty Marines (who would have been purged later) however when the enclave oil rig fell the enclave left.
The Stratocracy became authoritarian in order to survive. Existing rationing and top down command from the earliest days of the faction became more severe. The insurgency against the Marines was also a factor in this.
Today, the Liberty Brigade Raider army fight alongside enclave remnants to dethrone the current admiral of the Stratocracy. They claim to be libertarian and are anarchistic, but have a hidden enclave contingent that wishes to turn them into the “Pacific Outpost” .
Siren Song Horde:
Strange creatures have begun emerging from the wreckage of naval battles on the island of Molokai. They drag surfers to the sea floor, never to be seen again. Intelligent lovecraftian humanoids presumed to be the result of radiation. And yet, the Hawaiian islands are minimally radiated?
Their true origins are a group of crashed Zetans who have been conducting genetic experiments on the local wildlife/wastelanders that grew out of their control.
Shi Imperial Expedition:
An expedition of the Shi emperor to make contact with the proletarian brigades. They don’t exist anymore and now the shi are trapped here. They want to steal a ship and transport their population back to San Francisco. They also have a large contingent of NCR explorers in their ranks who were invited to come along.

IMAGES:

Here's what I could get AI to generate for this imaginary game idea. I think it is pretty decent for a basic concept.
Tropical Marine Guerilla,
Tideripper Surfer Bro,
Siren Horde Monster,
Slowpoke the Turtle
Shi-NCR Expedition,
Stratocracy Flag,
Map of Hawaii,
Founding of the Stratocracy,

I hold an HDFC Infinia card and the rewards for flight and hotel booking are great on Smart buy. I'm planning for my first international trip and during my research I've read that booking via OTAs (MakeMyTrip, GoIbibo, etc.) is risky and the recommendation is to book directly via the airlines and hotel website.
Now, this isn't great for me because I wouldn't get the reward multiplier if I book outside of smart buy.
I know that smart buy just lists from OTAs and it's not necessarily a problem with smart buy. The reason for asking this question here is to get opinions from seasoned travellers who use HDFC Infinia and whether they optimise for rewards when booking international flights & hotels?
As a follow up to this, are there cards that would give me better rewards but without locking me into their portals like smart buy?

In the ever-evolving world of software development, choosing the right architecture pattern is crucial for building robust, scalable, and maintainable applications. As we move into 2024, several architecture patterns continue to stand out for their versatility and effectiveness. At SayOne Technologies, we understand the importance of leveraging the right architecture to meet the unique needs of your business. In this blog, we explore five essential software architecture patterns that every developer and architect should be familiar with in 2024.

1. Microservices Architecture

Usage:

Microservices architecture breaks down an application into a collection of loosely coupled, independently deployable services. Each service focuses on a specific business capability and communicates with others via APIs.

Benefits:

• Scalability: Services can be scaled independently, optimizing resource use and improving performance.
• Flexibility: Teams can use different technologies and languages for different services.
• Resilience: Failures in one service do not necessarily bring down the entire system.

When to Use:

Ideal for complex, large-scale applications that require high scalability and frequent updates.

2. Serverless Architecture

Usage:

Serverless architecture allows developers to build and deploy applications without managing the underlying infrastructure. Functions are hosted on cloud platforms and executed in response to events.

Benefits:

• Cost-Efficiency: Pay only for the execution time of your functions, reducing overhead costs.
• Simplicity: Focus on writing code without worrying about server management.
• Scalability: Automatically scales with the number of incoming requests.

When to Use:

Best suited for applications with unpredictable or highly variable workloads, such as real-time data processing or event-driven applications.

3. Event-Driven Architecture

Usage:

Event-driven architecture revolves around producing, detecting, consuming, and reacting to events. Components communicate by emitting and responding to events.

Benefits:

• Decoupling: Enhances system flexibility and scalability by decoupling components.
• Real-Time Processing: Enables real-time processing of events, making it ideal for applications requiring immediate feedback.
• Scalability: Efficiently handles high volumes of events and traffic.

When to Use:

Perfect for applications requiring real-time data processing, such as financial services, e-commerce, and IoT systems.

4. Microkernel Architecture

Usage:

Microkernel (or plug-in) architecture provides a core system with minimal functionality, which can be extended by adding plug-ins. This pattern is often used in product-based applications.

Benefits:

• Modularity: Simplifies the addition of new features or services without modifying the core system.
• Flexibility: Customizable with various plug-ins to meet specific business needs.
• Maintainability: Easier to maintain and update due to the modular nature.

When to Use:

Ideal for applications that require a flexible and extensible architecture, such as CMS, ERP, and product-based platforms.

5. Layered (N-Tier) Architecture

Usage:

Layered architecture divides an application into distinct layers, each with a specific responsibility, such as presentation, business logic, and data access.

Benefits:

• Separation of Concerns: Enhances code maintainability by separating different aspects of the application.
• Reusability: Promotes code reuse across different parts of the application.
• Testability: Facilitates unit testing by isolating components.

When to Use:

Suitable for applications that require a clear separation of concerns and are developed by large teams, such as enterprise applications.

6. Monolithic Architecture (Honorable Mention)

Usage:

Monolithic architecture builds the entire application as a single, unified unit. All components are interconnected and interdependent.

Benefits:

• Simplicity: Easier to develop and deploy due to the single codebase.
• Performance: Reduces overhead associated with inter-process communication.
• Testing: Simplifies testing as everything is contained within a single application.

When to Use:

Best for small to medium-sized applications with straightforward requirements and limited scaling needs.

Conclusion

Choosing the right software architecture pattern is pivotal in defining the success of your application. As we progress into 2024, understanding the strengths and use cases of these patterns can help you make informed decisions that align with your business goals. At SayOne Technologies, we specialize in helping businesses implement the most suitable architecture to drive innovation and efficiency. Whether you're embarking on a new project or looking to modernize your existing systems, our expertise can guide you through every step of your digital transformation journey.
Ready to explore the best architecture for your next project? Contact SayOne Technologies today, and let's build the future together.

I am looking for a decent speaker set but don't know which one to get. I was hoping for anything under 500$, but I am willing to save up more for higher. I have a collection of VGM-OSTs, Some Chill Hip Hop, Jazz, and House music. I prefer some kick in the bass and was considering options from Sony. Would it be better also to consider a sub-woofer? I would need to upgrade my turntable, too.
It would also be nice to have the ability to connect to it via Bluetooth when guests want to play stuff.

I recently wrapped up A Cold Fire Within (ACFW) with my group, and, seeing that there don't appear to be many reviews/Keeper's guides around that I could find, I thought I'd post my thoughts on it.
Heavy spoilers ahead.
Summary:
ACFW is a Pulp cthulhu campaign, taking place in 1935, featuring psychics, an Inner Earth, and weird time-bending shenanigans. The adventure is divided into 6 chapters, with a PC development phase at the end of each chapter.
The plot starts out in NYC, where an NPC reaches out to the PCs to investigate her missing husband (Brendan Stirling), who emptied out their bank account before disappearing. Following his trail, PCs find that he and 5 others frequently visited a hypnotist (Argus/Tethnoris) before disappearing on this expedition into the Catskills, along with an escort of 15ish nationalists and one white supremacist occultist (Fontanelle). While this information is not immediately available to PCs, the DM is told that each of these 6 (+the hypnotist himself) have been mindswapped with members of a long-extinct civilization, who have mentally escaped to the future (leaving the minds of their victims in their bodies, in the past), so they can siphon energy off the Great Old Ones living in the center of the earth, and use it to save their civilisation, somehow. Chapter 1 ends when the PCs leave NYC to follow the expedition to the nearby town of Saugherties.
In Saugherties (chapter 2), PCs can interrogate some locals about where their quarry went, and then most of the rest of the chapter is taken up with hiking the Devil's Pass to follow them.
There is also an interesting, but entirely optional, sub-plot involving a psychic institute who has also had people go missing (though these two sets of disappearances are not related). This sub-plot occurs in another nearby town, called Woodstock. Following this thread, if the PCs are smart or lucky, allows them to basically entirely skip the Devil's Pass section, and sets them up for some useful context for a major encounter in Chapter 4.
Regardless of which approach PCs will have taken, at the end of Chapter 2 they will encounter a village of hypnotised mountain folk, and their king. The king generally doesn't want outsiders trespassing on his land, and will redirect any PCs coming through, as long as they are not hostile. PCs can either talk or fight their way through this encounter. The king will either show PCs how to follow the NPCs, or PCs can find their tracks themselves. The trail will lead down a cave passage, which is where chapter 3 cuts off.
After 3 days of walking in the dark, PCs reach the underground land of K'n-yan. This chapter is very sandboxy and includes a large number of options for PC investigation. By the conclusion of this chapter, PCs need to have found a way to delve even deeper, to the center of the earth, either through magic or using local technology. It is recommended PCs also encounter Fontanelle (the occultist) and his minions at some point in this chapter.
Chapter 5 opens as PCs reach Yian-Ho, the center of the earth, lit by a dark sun and swarming with monsters. At last, our missing NPC can be tracked down, in the middle of a failing ritual to siphon energy off the dark sun. The ritual has destabilised the Great Old Ones Nug and Yeb, which is bad, but not so bad that it will kill everyone if not resolved (though this is not made clear to the PCs). At this stage, PCs will most likely need to engage the possessed victims (+ a couple of their goons), knock them unconscious, and then switch their minds back, before ferrying everyone back out to the surface.
Chapter 6 lays out how, exactly PCs can reach the missing people trapped in the past- a few options are presented, such as literal time travel (with a time machine), but most revolve around using the Dreamlands to then travel into the past. Several natural points are given for this to occur through the campaign- in Chapter 1, PCs can find a Heart of Dreams, which allows anyone holding it to instantly Dream, in Chapter 2, there is a contraption in the psychic institute that allows PCs to send their minds to wherever they want, and in Chapter 4 there is another ancient contraption that also sends them straight to Dreaming. The book more or less assumes PCs will not have access to a time machine, and so will not be present physically, but merely in spirit. They first arrive in Dream Lomar, where they can receive some exposition, then are led to the “Spaces Between”, from which they can navigate to actual Lomar in the past, where the NPCs are. To better interact with their surrounds, the book has the PCs possess their own ancestors within the city, and works in a few encounters as they attempt to reach the victims. A certain amount of time pressure is applied, as the city is in the process of being breached at the time at which PCs arrive.
Then, on their way back from the past, PCs are eaten by a passing dhole, where they meet an alien that offers them a ritual for calming Nug and Yeb, before teleporting their souls home.
My game:
We played with 4 PCs, 2 of which took psychic talents (clairvoyance and divination). The diviner also chose to have a personal connection to the Institute. I asked players to build PCs who had a personal connection to our missing NPC (or his wife) that would account for them putting their lives on hold for an indeterminate period of time. Generally, this took the form of Brendan's wife having offered significant help to the PCs during the Depression or following WWI. Despite this, one player was still significantly resistant to the call to adventure.
What Worked Well?
The use of psychic abilities was a lot of fun for my PCs.
There is an excellent chase sequence in Chapter 1, which really makes the CoC chase mechanics shine.
The final combat was interesting and impactful, though perhaps having a detailed map of the location of the encounter would have been helpful.
What Needed Work?
It is difficult to motivate PCs to investigate a missing person's case with no financial incentive, especially considering how quickly the investigation strays into the supernatural. While I made a point at session 0 of telling players to build PCs with a strong emotional connection to the core NPC, and forming personal connections to the other victims, I still had one player basically go "well, I can't afford to fuck off from my job for an indeterminate amount of time and 0 reward". Additionally, it seems very easy for PCs to reach the chapter 4 sandbox and very quickly lose track of their goal.
I struggled to keep track of when and how PCs would be receiving information, and it was, at times, difficult for me to understand why certain locations in Chapter 4 were important or of interest to the PCs. I'm not sure if this was an issue with layout, or just a matter of the information density of that chapter. To give an example, the book offers a point of interest in K'n-yan as being an abandoned train station. It then describes in depth how PCs can get the train working again. At the very end of the section, it mentions that the train takes them to Gru-Lug. The section detailing Gru-Lug is about 4 pages after this titbit, and spends 2 pages describing the city, before eventually mentioning that from here players can get to Zyth-Erb. The section on Zyth-Erb finally tells us that it is a chasm leading to Yian-Ho, which is where the missing NPCs are. The book did not offer any information as to who in K'n-Yan would be able to tell the PCs either where the train would take them, or why they would want to go there.
I feel like this campaign would work better if I'd also had access to a supplement on the Dreamlands and on K'n-Yan itself. Fortunately, my players chose not to investigate the Dreamlands significantly, so that wasn't too much of an issue, but as a Keeper I was often uncertain on how things should work there. The K'n-Yanians were also difficult to generally portray. I was relatively confused by the occasional references to the “space demons” that caused them to cut themselves off from the surface world, as this bit of lore is mentioned a few times, but never expanded upon.
Similarly, a few characters are mentioned to be theosophists, but what that means or how that informs the character isn't really expanded upon. I did some looking into theosophy and I'm still not sure how or if that was relevant to the character. Maybe that's just a me issue, admittedly.
For a game that relies on a reasonably tight timeline, a lot of information as to the NPC's movements is omitted. When do they reach their destination? On what day do they send the occultist back to collect more info? What are their movements? Do they travel by vehicle or do they teleport? Not touched on at any point. On a reread, there is a mention at the end of Chapter 5 saying that the NPCs can travel back using magic with the PCs because they travelled there with magic. However, this information would have been much more useful earlier on, and is very easy to miss.
The BBEG's plot is a bit convoluted, and a bit hard to parse. Also, the BBEG, Tethnoris, gets very little actual screentime compared to his right-hand man, Fontanelle. A PC noted to me that Tethnoris keeping a journal for PCs to find would make him more important to the narrative in their eyes, and I think this is a good call. If I had to re-do this campaign, I would probably make it so that PCs find his diaries instead of Fontanelle's ones.
My PCs who were noy psychic struggled to engage with the psychic institute, as its mystery was not clearly linked to the overarching issue. I think making Argus, the man who became possessed by Tethnoris, a former patient, would help make PCs more interested in the Institute.
Because the NPCs were used in the final ritual, basically all but 2 of them failed their sanity check when seeing Nug and Yeb, and became permanently insane. I allowed some of them to have their sanity stabilised via a successful psychoanalysis (which every PCs only had at the base 1%) or hypnotism, because it felt unsatisfying to go to all this trouble only to bring home irreparably insane NPCs. This could be mitigated by having the NPCs have more than 30 starting sanity, so that they had a better chance of passing their save.
Argus (the guy possessed by the BBEG) is basically guaranteed to die, which seemed a bit unfair when he is as much of a victim as the rest of the NPCs.
The perceived urgency of the scenario disincentivises PCs from investigating anything that doesn't appear directly related to the missing persons case, meaning that they will likely skip over a lot of the huge sandbox that is Chapter 4.
What Did Not Work?
The actual intended mechanics for swapping NPCs back into their bodies still seems very unclear to me, and could have been explained better. I made an additional handout for PCs describing the exact method of swapping consciousness, because the book didn't really explain it beyond "you need to use a McGuffin".
I really disliked the time-travel sequence, to the point that I cut most of it from my game. At the very least, possessing an innocent person as they try to survive a violent assault on their city should come with a relatively hefty cost in sanity points. I instead allowed PCs to make contact with the missing NPCs through dreams, and would have allowed them to switch consciousnesses that way.
Making the psychic institute optional was a poor decision, imo. Chapter 2 has very little actually going on once you remove the psychics. I rewrote that chapter by having everything happen in Woodstock (where the institute was) instead of Saugherties. This also had the added benefit of allowing me to skip the Devil's Pass section, as there was very little concrete information or encounters that really furthered the narrative in that section, I was very happy to avoid that bit entirely.
I'd recommend significantly shortening the distance between the surface world and K'n-Yan- I think most groups in this situation would turn back after >12 hours of walking in the dark, let alone 3 days. I'd probably make it a 6 hour walk, or at least pepper the trail with some stuff to look at during the descent.
The timeline for the scenario doesn't allow for meaningful healing from prior encounters, and specifically the encounter with Fontanelle is ridiculously deadly. Fontanelle attacks with 5 guys, who are armed, at Keeper's discretion, with either shotguns, Tommy guns, revolvers or unarmed. Each of them heal 1 HP per turn (1d6 for Fontanelle), and have 2 attacks/round. We almost had a TPK before any of the PCs had a turn when encountering these guys. In hindsight, giving half the mooks revolvers and having the other half unarmed would have made for a less one-sided combat. It also seemed like the book assumed my PCs would win, as there isn't really an elaboration on what these guys do if they win.
Changes I made to the campaign:

• Gave each PC a personal stake to one of the missing people, outside of Brendan Stirling. Where possible, I made them friends or relatives, but for some it was more a case of kinship (such as making the drunk hobo an atheist veteran fallen on hard times, to parallel my atheist veteran PC)
• Building on this, I had whichever PC was holding a Crystal of Naphkon do a POW roll at rest, and, on a success, they would dream of the missing person they had the strongest tie to. I also asked the PC with the Heart of Dreams what they were thinking of when going to sleep, and then had them visit this in the Dreamlands (up to and including the NPCs). I allowed PCs to retrieve the souls in these dreams, however none of them really thought to attempt it until the very end of the campaign
• I had the NPCs travel to Woodstock instead of Saugherties, to encourage PCs to check out the institute.
• Wrote a handout explaining how the Crystals of Naphkon work, and set specific rules for it. Unfortunately, these rules included a penalty for anchoring >1 soul to your own. At the time, this seemed like a reasonable limitation to implement, but had the knock-on effect of making my PCs hold off on rescuing the NPCs as there were 7 NPCs and only 4 PCs.
• Got rid of most of the time travel segment, as I really disliked it. Instead, I allowed PCs to travel to Lomar in dreams throughout the adventure (in part to help maintain a sense of urgency/connection with the NPCs) and also to travel there using the Dreamlands, but they would interact with it in spirit only.
• Moved the encounter with the tribal K'n-yanians to Gru-Lug (since PCs would not be passing through their area). Mainly, I did this so the K'n-yanians could help heal them faster in the lead-up to their big fight. I allowed them to heal up by 7 HP, but in hindsight I think I should have helped them to full, or at least by half their maximum HP.
• I also allowed them to convince the tribal K'n-Yanians to send some tribal warriors with them, so they could split the cost of the appeasement ritual amongst more people.
• Had the encounter with the dhole in the Dreamlands occur when they first leave, instead of after leaving Lomar, so they could learn a ritual to appease Nug and Yeb earlier.
• I softened up a lot of the penalties from casting the appeasement ritual- namely, I removed the physical damage the casters were meant to take, and made the roll succeed on a POW, rather than a Mythos roll.
• Yian-Ho is described as being full of Spawn of Nug and Yeb, but I felt like if PCs were seriously attacked, they would be TPK’d by these throwaway enemies before they even had a chance to fight the BBEG. I peppered a couple of encountered with them on their way back, but probably underutilised them
• I allowed the PCs to leave the souls of the Lomerians in the Dreamlands rather than send them back to doomed Lomar

Changes I would make if I had to do it again:

• I would keep most of the changes I made this time around, but maybe would have been more generous with healing and changed the soul carrying capacity to 2 souls without penalty. I also would give the missing NPCs more base sanity, so that it is less likely that all of them fall to 0 SAN after rescuing them.
• I would have made Ferdinand Argus, and possibly another one of the missing NPCs to be a former patient at the psychic Institute, to further engage the players in that section of the game.
• Replace Fontanelle's journals in chapter 1 with Tethnoris’ diaries, to give PCs a better idea of who he is. I would also consider adding a handout at his location linking back to the psychic Institute.
• One of my players initially theorised that the souls of the kidnapped people may be trapped in the Crystals of Naphkon carried by Tethnorris (a la “palimpsests” from Fantasy High: Freshman Year), and, at the time, I did wonder if maybe this was a better explanation that would reduce the inherent weirdness of the time-travel situation. As I’d already set up the timetravel stuff, I didn’t really explore this further, however I could see this explanation being set up in a way that humanises the bad guys a bit and makes the resolution a bit more straightforward.

TL;DR: my players had fun, and some of the concepts are fun and interesting, but the DM should make changes to make PC investment more pronounced and sustained. Additionally, some of the concepts, mechanics and lore should be fleshed out further.

So I've had premium for 2 years I think and I've never had this issue. Majority of my games are working to download without issue, but for some reason specifically the older assassin's Creed games specifically refuse to let me download and I cannot comprehend why.
When I go into the PlayStation store or my library I can see the games fine (AC3 Remaster, Unity, Syndicate) but when I go to click the game to download it's immidietly weird. It displays the ability to stream it and nothing else. I saw that and though "ok I'll just press the white dots to view the product version" and sure enough the download button is now visible. Now lies the issue, I go to press download on the AC3 remaster and I get an error ( error WS-116483-3 ).
I think the console must be bugging or my internet isn't the greatest at the moment so I reset the console a couple times, let it sit for a day, troubleshoot by googling videos on the error (restoring liscenses via settings, removing payment information, signing in and out of my account), waiting another day or so then trying a couple restarts but nothing. That's about where I'm at now, nothing I search is working and I'm getting tired of trying tbh.
From what I gathered the error has something to do with not being able to reach the server or something along those lines but that's making little to no sense to me as I can download any other game just fine (every other Ubisoft title even, this glitch seemingly only effects assassin's creed 3, unity, rogue, and syndicate. I can't speak on black flag or the Ezio collection as I own those 2 but origins, odyssey and Valhalla all let me download them just fine) I just wanted to play my childhood assassin's Creed games lol. If anyone's got a solution or a possible fix I'd love to hear it, cheers
Also I'll add here a list of things I tried that didn't work:
•Restarting the console ×18
•Restoring liscenses via settings ×3
•Signing in and out of my PlayStation account ×4
•restarting my router ×2
•Removing all payment methods (For some reason this helped a lot of people somehow? Idk didn't work for me tho)
Edit: now the newer AC games won't work either (wouldn't download them anyways, just wanted to test), weirdly enough far cry and watchdogs have no issues tho

Basically while I was on a trip someone hit my car and someone else saw and took pictures and left me a note to contact them and then they sent me pictures of the company vehicle that hit my car. I would just go through insurance but my car is insured in a different state with a different residence. Countless friends tell me to contact insurance and say I’m visiting the current state and then collect(?) I’ve got an estimate to repair my car. I’m talking to the company about it via email. I guess ideally I’d be looking at trying to get the company pay for my bumper without my insurance making a claim. Maybe I’m overthinking everything.