Hi! So I posted here before if M1 is worth it in 2024. I actually got the M2 instead (which i dont know what to feel since 10k PHP difference and I could alr get M3) It was quite a bit of a spur of the moment buy since at the time, the reviews I read were mostly on the M3 since it’s what I really am supposed to get. The specs and all, I never read M2’s. So I really don’t know much about M2. The day I got it, I already downloaded games which were Minecraft, Roblox, and Terraria. I used it for like hours. The batt is great tbh but like shouldn’t i have done that? It’s not that I am a heavy gamer but I love playing in between studying bc it helps w the burn out. I am a bit afraid of messing up my newly purchased device specially its battery. Any recommendations or suggestions? Or like how different is it from the m3 bc the looks are the same and not much changed too from what I know and was told so I assumed it was ok to play games or dl that much games. Also like I downloaded Rosetta for Steam, is that alright? Wouldn’t that like mess up my warranty and stuff? My friend told me it’s alright but idk LOL.
Edit: ALSO FEW ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS, how do i clean the screen bc it gets so dirty easily????? there are spots which I cant wipe w a tissue? Is that normal or a defect?? Yk its like a stain or fingerprint stain but without those lines since i NEVER touch my screen. Also any tips on how to take care of it? All i know is the 20 - 80 charging thing. Nd im also quite unfamiliar with MacOS or something idk whats latest and the names surely confuse me like sonoma ventura but im on sonoma i think? 14.1? I havent updated it bc idk the rules unlike on the iPhone that I have to plug in and be on strong wifi to update. Its my first ever macbook too bc i only usually get iPhone or iPad.

I haven't done web or app development in many years. My current career has nothing to do with it.
However, I have an idea I would like to implement, but I am a little bit confused about the best way to do it these days.
Server-side, in 2024 (back in the day I would have gone with PHP + MySQL on a random web hosting service), it seems like AWS Lambda + AWS DynamoDB + Node.js is one possible good way to go.
On the UI side, I basically want it to be easy to use this service from a phone. So, I guess a mobile website + Android App + iOS app would be ideal. I don't have a Mac so I can't make an iOS app. I'm not in the USA and have to use a proxy to download Android Studio, and I've already encountered issues with it and it seems like it's going to be a massive headache.
So, I figured I could do one of these 2024 moves which is to make a mobile website that, if I rely on certain libraries, could basically directly be exported into an Android App and iPhone app as well.
However, on the front end side, for making a mobile website + Android App + iPhone app where I don't have a Mac and live in a country where I need a proxy to access many normal Android things and it seems to cause issues, I'm not sure what the normal tech stack for this is. Ionic? React Native? React Native + React Native Expo? There are other toolkits like Onsen? I don't want to waste time writing a bunch of UI components from scratch for a mobile website - and THEN, even worse, having to rewrite them from scratch again for an Android app and iPhone app.
I'm also much more comfortable with web development in general than with Android development, and I have never even done iPhone development.
In the Ionic subreddit, someone mentioned "PWAs." I'm not too familiar with these, but if this basically just means making a mobile website that people can install and use as a regular app, then that potentially seems like a wonderful solution. (Note: this website/app may involve the user's location, camera, photo access, payments, creating an account)
Any advice?

(Note: I posted this on Android but I wasn't sure if I did something incorrect because it was removed by the bot immediately, and I don't know how to get it approved. So... if you see it there too, then it must have gotten approved at some point and that's why. Just trying to find a home for this discussion and I promise I'm not trying to spam!)
After a decade with iPhone, curiosity finally got the better of me and I made the switch to Android. My trusty iPhone 13 Mini is still there just in case, but I really do hope to sell it soon. I wanted to document my journey over the last 72 hours with Android in case it helps someone else sitting on the margin just looking to dive in.
These 10 things are simply my opinions and reflections! I'm sure my feelings will continue to evolve, but here's where I'm at after 3 days. As I started typing, I did not expect this to be so long, but I had so many things floating through my head. Sorry for the long read and I'd love to hear others who have made similar changes.
1. Sloppy first impressions: I started with a Pixel 8. Got it for $390, in like new condition during eBay's memorial day sale, and just couldn't pass up that deal. The look of the phone never really attracted me before, but after a few hours it really grew on me. However, I really started to get annoyed at the experience and polish. For example, I had a lot of screens where the text was cut off or folders where the text was cut off. There were system pop-ups where I was expected to approve something that disappeared within a second before I could even read it - was it approved or was it declined?! But what really was upsetting was that there's no way to sort notifications by time. The phone would beep and then I'd have to spend a few seconds trying to figure out what the heck the notification was amidst the long list. Half the time, the time stamp doesn't even show and I'm left wondering if I missed something. This was exacerbated when I started not receiving notifications I would expect, because my iPhone (which was still on WiFi only mode) was getting notifications for new Gmail messages for example, and the Pixel just stayed quiet. That was unacceptable and I decided to return the phone.
However, my significant other has a Samsung, and she mentioned never having these issues so I stuck it out and tried again. This time, I figured - go big or go home - and I got the Samsung S24 Ultra.
2. Much better second try: I read a lot of bad experiences about the UI of Samsung coming into this, but frankly it's a lot more polished than the Pixel. It's like there's a nice coat of paint over all the underlying workings and as an iPhone user, I appreciate that. Everything looks great and while I've been toying with some of the themes in the Galaxy store, I have gone back to the normal One UI each time.
3. Smart Switch works great. It took about an hour to transfer all my settings and applications over to the Samsung. The only thing that took a little bit of figuring out was how to get 25K+ iCloud backed up photos onto this phone. Fortunately, there's an official Apple method for transferring iCloud files to Google Photos, and I initiated that. It's still not done but assuming this goes to plan, the transfer process wasn't that bad at all. I pretty much plopped my iPhone sim card into the Android, spent an hour waiting, and then all my old applications, wallpapers, and even placement of icons was there. Then, I just spent about half an hour signing into everything that I needed to (1Password is hugely helpful!) and I'm off to the races.
4. Settings galore: I am not used to this many settings! It seems I am approving or declining permissions all day long. I have multiple Gmail accounts setup, and I have to go in and adjust each account's notification setting when I just want all of my Gmail messages to have the same setting. I thought I would like this level of customization but it's been a little frustrating finding everything, or trying to figure out what I'm even approving. I find myself on YouTube looking for videos for how to change things such as the lock screen shortcuts. I am hoping that once I get through this initial difficulty, then I'll be cruising. And the biggest thing - Samsung lets me sort notifications in chronological order! That's huge (for me).
5. Navigation bars on top. Why?: I had a small iPhone Mini so one-handed navigation was never a real challenge but I still appreciated how all the menu bars (Facebook, Safari, etc.) were on the bottom of the phone. It made navigation really easy. With all the customization I mentioned in #3, I just assumed this would be an easy fix on Android and I'd be able to change this for any app. I was wrong! Other than Firefox, I have not figured out how to do this in Chrome or Facebook (as an example). I really do not understand why the iPhone version of Facebook would have this on the bottom but the Android version would have it on the top! For a phone as big as the S24U, that would've been a really nice option.
6. PhoneLink is pretty good: I had gotten rid of my Macbook a long time ago. I basically live on my Phone and also have an iPad for when I need a bigger screen and a Windows desktop for professional work. Integration b/w devices was never a big deal to me but I put I setup Phone Link and it's been pretty good. I don't have any real complaints so far - I can transfer files and get all my notifications and respond directly from my computer.
7. Dex is really cool but also buggy: The dream of having only to carry around my phone and never having to open up a laptop, tablet or desktop would be amazing. This phone is definitely powerful enough for the applications I use for work - Word, PowerPoint, Excel, etc. But Dex has some weird quirks that make it a little unreliable. For example, every time I open up an image in Gallery on Dex, the screen goes black for a few seconds before coming back on. Close the picture? Same thing! The cursor scroll just isn't as smooth as on my Desktop machine where I can customize the DPI settings exactly on the Logitech app. These are small things but build up into a less than perfect experience. But when it works, it works great and it's so close to a dream realized.
8. Face unlock is pretty bad, and the fingerprint reader can be hit or miss: FaceID on iPhone was a pleasure to use, except when it's not - i.e., I'm lying in bed. But for most situations, it works pretty good. For those moments I do wish I had a fingerprint reader so it's really nice to have that on the Samsung. But with that said, the Face unlock is horrendously bad. It works about 3/4 of the time in good light and then never in low light. I think the fingerprint reader is 80% successful on the first try for me but that's still lower than I think it should be. Perhaps I should re-register my finger. (Also, what's up with the super bright fingerprint reader on the Pixel 8? I feel like I was staring at the sun every time went to activate it! That said, it does feel like the Pixel's face unlock is better than Samsung). And on the topic of security, I think one of the biggest things I miss is Apple Pay. Some of my favorite go-to restaurants locally let me order online and pay directly using Apple Pay. Now I have to memorize my credit card number....
9. This thing is super powerful. I think people who choose Android chose it for two primary reasons: customization (which I mention in #2 and #3) and power to be productive. It has been very cool to be able to export files from one app directly into another app, edit it there, and save it as a file and then transfer it to my desktop. On iPhone, it was never a certainty which applications I'd be able to import files directly into but on Samsung it seems everything is available. There's always a workaround or solution or a method to doing something and that's been pretty cool. The Snapdragon processor is quick and the screen is beautiful. It's a great media consumption device and I hope it continues to be as snappy as it is now, because 7 years of updates is a very long time!
10. But the size of this phone is kinda insane. Especially coming from an iPhone mini, this thing is so big! It literally does even fit in my pockets when I am sitting and I've had it slide out a couple times onto the floor already because so much physically hangs out of my pants when seated. If Samsung made a smaller Ultra version of the phone in the same size as the S24, then that would be perfect (kinda like how Apple has the Pro and Pro Max). I think if there's a reason I end up going back to iPhone, it's because of the size of this thing. I want something as powerful as the Ultra but in a smaller package, and I haven't found another company that makes something like that. I don't have a case yet and maybe a more textured case will resolve this.
I'll keep this experiment going as I want to make a real effort to switch. Looking forward to continued learning!

New Cars:
2016 Koenigsegg Regera Car Type: Hyper
PR Level Max 6-Star = 1020 7-Star = 1062 8-Star = 1094
Top Stats Speed: 11255 Acceleration: 11507 Nitro: 11153
Earnable in: Underworld: Downfall 7-day tiered reward event Starting Window: June 15 00:00 UTC – June 22 00:00 UTC
2010 Jaguar CX-75
Car Type: Hyper
PR Level Max 6-Star = 930 7-Star = 976 8-Star = 1017
Top Stats Speed: 8639 Acceleration: 10220 Nitro: 11316
Earnable in: Proving Grounds 7-day event Starting Window: June 29 00:00 UTC – July 6 00:00 UTC
Special Event Reruns:
Starting July 13 UTC, Returning Special Events in order of eligibility are:
2017 Ford GT 2015 McLaren P1 2013 Porsche 918 2014 BMW M4 F82 Coupe (Razor) 2010 Lamborghini Murcielago SV 2015 Porsche 911 GT3 RS (911) 1995 Lamborghini Diablo SV Hot Wheels Gazella GT Hot Wheels Time Attaxi 2001 Nissan Skyline GTR (BNR34) 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 1932 Ford Model 18 2015 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 1997 Nissan 180SX 2014 Jaguar F-Type 1969 Dodge Charger 2014 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 1973 Ford Falcon XB Coupe Car Classes Page: We’ve created a new page that houses the statistics of all cars currently in NFS No Limits. Want to know the true potential of your ride easily? Now you can! Check it out here
Other Improvements A new Car Series, Thunderstorm, featuring the 2016 Koenigsegg Regera, and 2010 Jaguar CX-75.
Fixed an issue affecting performance during races for some iOS users. Fixed a scaling issue affecting iPhone 8 users. Download Need for Speed No Limits for free* here!
Be sure to follow Need for Speed™ No Limits on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for the latest news and updates.

I haven't done web or app development in many years. My current career has nothing to do with it.
However, I have an idea I would like to implement, but I am a little bit confused about the best way to do it these days.
Server-side, in 2024 (back in the day I would have gone with PHP + MySQL on a random web hosting service), it seems like AWS Lambda + AWS DynamoDB + Node.js is one possible good way to go.
On the UI side, I basically want it to be easy to use this service from a phone. So, I guess a mobile website + Android App + iOS app would be ideal. I don't have a Mac so I can't make an iOS app. I'm not in the USA and have to use a proxy to download Android Studio, and I've already encountered issues with it and it seems like it's going to be a massive headache.
So, I figured I could do one of these 2024 moves which is to make a mobile website that, if I rely on certain libraries, could basically directly be exported into an Android App and iPhone app as well.
However, on the front end side, for making a mobile website + Android App + iPhone app where I don't have a Mac and live in a country where I need a proxy to access many normal Android things and it seems to cause issues, I'm not sure what the normal tech stack for this is. Ionic? React Native? React Native + React Native Expo? There are other toolkits like Onsen? I don't want to waste time writing a bunch of UI components from scratch for a mobile website - and THEN, even worse, having to rewrite them from scratch again for an Android app and iPhone app.
I'm also much more comfortable with web development in general than with Android development, and I have never even done iPhone development.
Any advice?

I haven't done web or app development in many years. My current career has nothing to do with it.
However, I have an idea I would like to implement, but I am a little bit confused about the best way to do it these days.
Server-side, in 2024 (back in the day I would have gone with PHP + MySQL on a random web hosting service), it seems like AWS Lambda + AWS DynamoDB + Node.js is one possible good way to go.
On the UI side, I basically want it to be easy to use this service from a phone. So, I guess a mobile website + Android App + iOS app would be ideal. I don't have a Mac so I can't make an iOS app. I'm not in the USA and have to use a proxy to download Android Studio, and I've already encountered issues with it and it seems like it's going to be a massive headache.
So, I figured I could do one of these 2024 moves which is to make a mobile website that, if I rely on certain libraries, could basically directly be exported into an Android App and iPhone app as well.
However, on the front end side, for making a mobile website + Android App + iPhone app where I don't have a Mac and live in a country where I need a proxy to access many normal Android things and it seems to cause issues, I'm not sure what the normal tech stack for this is. React Native? React Native + React Native Expo? There are other toolkits like Onset and Ionic? I don't want to waste time writing a bunch of UI components from scratch for a mobile website - and THEN, even worse, having to rewrite them from scratch again for an Android app and iPhone app.
I'm also much more comfortable with web development in general than with Android development, and I have never even done iPhone development.
Any advice?

I haven't done web or app development in many years. My current career has nothing to do with it.
However, I have an idea I would like to implement, but I am a little bit confused about the best way to do it these days.
Server-side, in 2024 (back in the day I would have gone with PHP + MySQL on a random web hosting service), it seems like AWS Lambda + AWS DynamoDB + Node.js is one possible good way to go.
On the UI side, I basically want it to be easy to use this service from a phone. So, I guess a mobile website + Android App + iOS app would be ideal. I don't have a Mac so I can't make an iOS app. I'm not in the USA and have to use a proxy to download Android Studio, and I've already encountered issues with it and it seems like it's going to be a massive headache.
So, I figured I could do one of these 2024 moves which is to make a mobile website that, if I rely on certain libraries, could basically directly be exported into an Android App and iPhone app as well.
However, on the front end side, for making a mobile website + Android App + iPhone app where I don't have a Mac and live in a country where I need a proxy to access many normal Android things and it seems to cause issues, I'm not sure what the normal tech stack for this is. React Native? React Native + React Native Expo? There are other toolkits like Onset and Ionic? I don't want to waste time writing a bunch of UI components from scratch for a mobile website - and THEN, even worse, having to rewrite them from scratch again for an Android app and iPhone app.
I'm also much more comfortable with web development in general than with Android development, and I have never even done iPhone development.
Any advice?

I haven't done web or app development in many years. My current career has nothing to do with it.
However, I have an idea I would like to implement, but I am a little bit confused about the best way to do it these days.
Server-side, in 2024 (back in the day I would have gone with PHP + MySQL on a random web hosting service), it seems like AWS Lambda + AWS DynamoDB + Node.js is one possible good way to go.
On the UI side, I basically want it to be easy to use this service from a phone. So, I guess a mobile website + Android App + iOS app would be ideal. I don't have a Mac so I can't make an iOS app. I'm not in the USA and have to use a proxy to download Android Studio, and I've already encountered issues with it and it seems like it's going to be a massive headache.
So, I figured I could do one of these 2024 moves which is to make a mobile website that, if I rely on certain libraries, could basically directly be exported into an Android App and iPhone app as well.
However, on the front end side, for making a mobile website + Android App + iPhone app where I don't have a Mac and live in a country where I need a proxy to access many normal Android things and it seems to cause issues, I'm not sure what the normal tech stack for this is. React Native? React Native + React Native Expo? There are other toolkits like Onset and Ionic? I don't want to waste time writing a bunch of UI components from scratch for a mobile website - and THEN, even worse, having to rewrite them from scratch again for an Android app and iPhone app.
I'm also much more comfortable with web development in general than with Android development, and I have never even done iPhone development.
Any advice?

Numix Minimal Theme For Windows 11
Download Here: https://cleodesktop.com/numix-minimal-theme-for-windows-11/

./o. ./sssso- -------- `:osssssss+- OS: EndeavourOS rolling x86_64 `:+sssssssssso/. Kernel: Linux 6.9.3-arch1-1 `-/ossssssssssssso/. Uptime: 7 mins `-/+sssssssssssssssso+:` Packages: 1545 (pacman), 36 (flatpak) `-:/+sssssssssssssssssso+/. Shell: bash 5.2.26 `.://osssssssssssssssssssso++- Display (L222W): 1680x1050 @ 60Hz [External] .://+ssssssssssssssssssssssso++: Display (SyncMaster): 1024x1280 @ 75Hz .:///ossssssssssssssssssssssssso++: Display (VG248): 1920x1080 @ 144Hz `:////ssssssssssssssssssssssssssso+++. DE: KDE Plasma 6.0.5 `-////+ssssssssssssssssssssssssssso++++- WM: KWin (Wayland) `..-+oosssssssssssssssssssssssso+++++/` WM Theme: Breeze ./++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++/:. `:::::::::::::::::::::::::------`` Icons: breeze-dark [QT], breeze-dark [GTK2/3/4] Font: Noto Sans (10pt) [QT], Noto Sans (10pt) [GTK2/3/4] Cursor: breeze (24px) Terminal: konsole 24.5.0 CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3800X (16) @ 3,90 GHz GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 [Discrete] Memory: 4,93 GiB / 31,25 GiB (16%)
So after i installed it neither Firefox or Brave will play any kind of video YouTube will play the preview videos but audio doesn't work if you click the icon it just starts loading that's the only place I've seen it "work"
another thing is now x11 dosnt work either i have the same issue on that for some reason
i was following this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40QI1-4Nlx4&t=320s
But but the issue may be because of Kwin and explicit sync. I'm not sure it installed, the konsole spits this out:
[$ paru egl wayland 1 extra/wayland 1.23.0-1 [0 B 819.45 KiB] [Installed] A computer display server protocol 2 extra/egl-wayland 2:1.1.13-2 [0 B 89.45 KiB] EGLStream-based Wayland external platform 3 multilib/lib32-wayland 1.22.0-1 [0 B 167.40 KiB] [Installed] A computer display server protocol 4 auegl-wayland-git 1.1.9.r2.gdaab854-1 [+9 ~0.43] EGLStream-based Wayland external platform (git version) 5 aulib32-egl-wayland 1.1.13-1 [+1 ~0.00] EGLStream-based Wayland external platform (32-bits) 6 aufreeglut-wayland-git 3.4.0.r27.g3f4a4dff-1 [+0 ~0.00] Provides functionality for small OpenGL programs - Wayland version 7 aulib32-egl-wayland-git 1.1.9.r2.gdaab854-1 [+0 ~0.00] EGLStream-based Wayland external platform (GIT version)(32-bit) :: Packages to install (eg: 1 2 3, 1-3): :: 4 :: Resolving dependencies... :: Calculating conflicts... :: Calculating inner conflicts...
:: Conflicts found: egl-wayland-git: nvidia-egl-wayland-tkg (egl-wayland) nvidia-egl-wayland-tkg (egl-wayland)
:: Conflicting packages will have to be confirmed manually
Repo (4) Old Version New Version Make Only extra/meson 1.4.1-1 Yes extra/ninja 1.12.1-1 Yes extra/python-tqdm 4.66.4-1 Yes extra/wayland-protocols 1.36-1 Yes
Aur (1) Old Version New Version Make Only auegl-wayland-git 1.1.9.r2.gdaab854-1 No
:: Proceed to review? [Y/n]: y
:: Downloading PKGBUILDs... PKGBUILDs up to date /home/zew/.cache/paru/clone/egl-wayland-git/PKGBUILD

Maintainer : Daniel Bermond dbermond@archlinux.org

Contributor: Det

pkgname=egl-wayland-git pkgver=1.1.9.r2.gdaab854 pkgrel=1 pkgdesc='EGLStream-based Wayland external platform (git version)' arch=('x86_64') url='https://github.com/NVIDIA/egl-wayland/' license=('MIT') depends=('wayland') makedepends=('git' 'meson' 'eglexternalplatform' 'libglvnd>=1.3.4' 'wayland-protocols') provides=('egl-wayland' 'libnvidia-egl-wayland.so') conflicts=('egl-wayland') source=('git+https://github.com/NVIDIA/egl-wayland.git' '10_nvidia_wayland.json') sha256sums=('SKIP' '5cccf1905a266e8e34d5ad4aad4be85390e60b1a0850a29dd9d64adc641de412')
pkgver() { git -C egl-wayland describe --long --tags sed 's/\([^-]*-g\)/r\1/;s/-/./g;s/^v//' }
build() { arch-meson build egl-wayland ninja -C build }
:
$ paru kwin explicit 1 aukwin-explicit-sync 6.0.5-2 [+8 ~7.07] An easy to use composited Window Manager with explicit sync patches :: Packages to install (eg: 1 2 3, 1-3): :: 1 :: Resolving dependencies... :: Calculating conflicts... :: Calculating inner conflicts...
:: Conflicts found: kwin-explicit-sync: kwin
:: Conflicting packages will have to be confirmed manually
Repo (7) Old Version New Version Make Only extra/cmake 3.29.3-1 Yes extra/cppdap 1.58.0-1 Yes extra/extra-cmake-modules 6.2.0-1 Yes extra/jsoncpp 1.9.5-2 Yes extra/plasma-wayland-protocols 1.13.0-1 Yes extra/rhash 1.4.4-1 Yes extra/wayland-protocols 1.36-1 Yes
Aur (1) Old Version New Version Make Only aukwin-explicit-sync 6.0.5-2 No
:: Proceed to review? [Y/n]: Y
:: Downloading PKGBUILDs... PKGBUILDs up to date /home/zew/.cache/paru/clone/kwin-explicit-sync/PKGBUILD

Maintainer: Jonas Costa contact@jonascosta.ch

Contributor: Felix Yan felixonmars@archlinux.org

Contributor: Antonio Rojas arojas@archlinux.org

Contributor: Andrea Scarpino andrea@archlinux.org

pkgname=kwin-explicit-sync _pkgname=kwin pkgver=6.0.5 _dirver=$(echo $pkgver cut -d. -f1-3) pkgrel=2 pkgdesc='An easy to use composited Window Manager with explicit sync patches' arch=(x86_64) url='https://kde.org/plasma-desktop/' license=(LGPL-2.0-or-later) conflicts=(kwin) provides=(kwin) depends=(breeze gcc-libs glibc plasma-activities kauth kcmutils kcolorscheme kconfig kconfigwidgets kcoreaddons :
and they just stop not sure what i'm doing wrong yay does the same thing.
I was having a lot of graphical issues on the 550 driver in games and applications.
A fix would be greatly appreciated still kind of a Linux Noob.

So to be upfront: •You need valid identification (united states) •naturally you will also need a social security number (YOURS...im saying be a citizen ..not try ya mommas or whomevers you know for whatever reason) • pretty sure you need a cell phone that's not a voip (to associate your account to) [THIS MAY NOT ACTUALLY BE REQUIRED; IDK]
SO...if you've got id, citizenship, and a device, you can participate and once you've installed the app, registered/inputted the referral code & complied with the standard KYC rigamaroll, you will be given $5 instantly that you can spend with the virtual visa it came with, however you would like. It links with cash app and Apple pay, as well as Google wallet.
BEST PART: ANYONE you get to sign up with YOUR referral code will get you and themselves $5 instantly too!!!
Interested?
Hey - I have a treat for you! Join Cogni using my code 2JF8Y4 and we each get $5! Tap the link to download the app and sign up:
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.getcogni.app
Iphone: open yo app store and download cogni
Referral code: 2JF8Y4

I ordered DXP4800 Plus for home nas setup. I wanted to move away from icloud, google drive. I tested out plex server using my old mac mini as a home server to download torrents and was great hence thought would retire it and replace it with ugreen nas. I need suggestions from you all on how to achieve the below requirements.
My setup would be to have 1. Low power consuming server. How should sleep times be set to save power? How to setup ondemand wake? 2. High storage sufficient enough for my usage for next 5 years. I currently use 2TB personal data + 2TB timemachine backups + 500GB for mobile phone backups. How to pick a hdd size? Cost effectiveness going with small brands worth it? 3. How to lower overall cost of nas - operating costs+hdd costs? 4. RAID1 config with just 2 hdd to keep data protection since personal data is important while operating at low power and lowering hdd investment costs 5. Automated offline backups to external WD book via usb 6. Automated photo backup daily from all family devices across globe even while travelling 7. Automated/one-click sdcard data backup from camera from vacations 8. High quality lossless music streaming from personal flac collection on iphone 9. Must support daily full background snapshot backup of iphones, Android phones, Macs, iPad, Android Tablets when connected over wifi 10. Automated torrent data deleting post watch in Plex 11. Must be logging data from EV continuously for every drive 12. AI analysis and tagging of existing personal photo, video library and new backups 13. Google drive, One drive, iCloud continuous backups 14. Save hdd life by puting to power off/sleep since we dont use it most of days for streaming. When required 5-10s of wake time should be okay. 15. Low noise when not using 16. Private/locked folder access from other devices

Welcome to the Daily Question Megathread!
This megathread is dedicated to all your general questions about Wuthering Waves. Whether you’re just starting your odyssey or looking to share your initial experiences, this is the place to ask and answer questions, share tips, and help each other out as fellow rovers.
Please use this thread rather than create a separate post when asking questions, we also encourage rovers to search for answers in this thread using keywords to see if your question have already been answered.
Be clear and detailed when asking questions and sharing answers. Maintain respect and show appreciation to those who help you.
────────

Helpful Links

• Pre-download Instructions
• Wuthering Waves Starter Guide by u/Zapphiren
• Device Requirements
• Version 1.0 Event Overview Infographic

(Feel free to drop some potential posts that help to cover any useful information on the subreddit! We'll be looking to add content here as it comes up)
────────

FAQ

This is a simplified FAQ, for more questions, visit the subreddit FAQ.

Q1: Is there Controller Support?

A: PS4/PS5 controllers, XBOX controllers, and other mainstream controller models are supported. Controller support is currently only present on the Windows PC version.

Q2: Which server is the best for me?

A: It is reccomended to choose the server located the nearest to you. Asia server is recommended for Japan and South Korea. SEA server is recommended for South East Asia and Oceania.

Q3: What are the Device Requirements?

A: These are the minimum Device Requirements:
Android: Android version 7.0 and above; Snapdragon 835, Dimensity G71/72 or processor of equivalent performance.
iOS: iOS 14 and above operating system; iPhone 11 and above models; iPad with A13 SoC or processor of equivalent performance.
[PC] Device references: Windows 10 64-bit Intel I5 (9th Gen)/Ryzen 2700 Geforce 1060/RX570/Intel ARC A380 16GB and above

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Hello everyone, I recently downloaded Retroarch on my iPhone SE 3 and have been using it to play GT2 A-Spec. Everything has been working just fine except for the fact that I can’t seem to get analog controls working for the analog sticks and triggers. I’m using a Dualshock 4 via Bluetooth and all the face buttons work just fine, as well as the analog sticks when I’m navigating the menu for the emulator itself. However, when I go to the options menu in-game, it’s not detecting that I’m using a Dualshock controller, and therefore it’s not letting me utilize the analog sticks. In the emulator menu, I have my DS4 set to “dualshock” in the input menu, and have used the button combo (L1+R1+Select) to enable and disable analog controls, but that doesn’t seem to work. I’ve also tried setting it to “analog” instead of “dualshock” in the input menu, but that doesn’t seem to be working either. I even tried to remap the controls manually, but that hasn’t seemed to have made a difference. I would’ve tried booting the game through Beetle instead of PCSX Rearmed, but it doesn’t appear that Beetle can run ROMhacks. Anyone happen to know what I’m doing wrong here? Any help would be appreciated.

Context:

• Smart Home Platform: Home Assistant
• Mobile Device: iPhone 13 Mini (iOS 17.5.1)
• Home Assistant Matter Server: v6.0.0 (Matter v1.3)

I have a full Zigbee mesh around my home, and I will continue to rely on Zigbee until Matter Bindings are implemented on a Matter Hub that I use. Reliability is the most important feature of all, and this means that I will not be moving any Matter lights/switches into my home's "production" areas until I can achieve bindings between switch to bulb directly.
I did want to go to the store and finally purchase my first Matter device today to have one for testing. I was hoping to find a Nanoleaf Thread bulb, but my local stores throughout the city are entirely sold out, so I had to settle for a Matter over Wifi bulb. I settled on the GE Cync bulb for a whopping $17 CAD. Comparing this to my Philips Hue bulbs at the usual $60 CAD, this is an astounding price savings. Again, these are not Thread-based, so I will not be deploying these over my house as I do not intend to introduce dozens of WiFi-based IoT devices, but this was a great device to test on.
My primary smart home platform is Home Assistant which still considers its Matter Server and Integration as a Beta, so I wasn't sure how well this was going to work. I connected my iPhone to my IoT wireless network, and began the commissioning process within the Home Assistant application. My phone automatically detected the nearby bulb so I assume this means it comes with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) as well. I clicked on the bulb on the mobile interface, and after about 15-20 seconds, the bulb was simply added to Home Assistant as a new Light entity. That's it! Seriously, that was super simple.
Overall:

• The bulb is Matter over WiFi, which isn't my favourite. Low-bandwidth IoT devices are precisely what Thread (and the other protocols within the IEEE 802.15 specification) exist for. Unnecessary congestion on a WiFi-based network.
• The response time is quick thanks to MAtter being a fully-local protocol!
• The colour reproduction is a lot better than I expected for a $17 CAD bulb. The Philips Hue bulbs are slightly more rich, but to the untrained eye without another competitors bulb directly beside it, you wouldn't be able to tell.
• I have designed my IoT network around the recommendations from the maintainers of the Matter Server for Home Assistant. I say this to mention that my network is setup in a way that should be successful, so while I'm thrilled that this commissioning worked, I half-expected it to:
  • IPv6 Enabled (Unique Local Addresses and Link Local Addresses)
  • Flat: Home Assistant's primary network interface exists in this network, as well as all of my IoT-devices. In the future, this is the same network that my Matter Controllers, Thread Border Routers, and Matter over WiFi/Ethernet devices will live.

That's pretty much it. The commissioning process was incredibly simple and quick, and the bulb operates fully local. I didn't once have to download the GE Cync application, log into any account to initially provision the device, etc. This was such a fulfilling experience when directly compared to the WiFi/Ethernet-connected IoT devices of the past.
I'm really looking forward to the day where vendor hubs are a requirement of the past. They're still definitely nice in certain circumstances, but the ability to just buy a smart home device and not worry about its compatibilities whatsoever was super exciting. No vendor lock-in, no proprietary cloud-service, no hub requirement, none of that. This feels like competition in the positive direction. It will allow manufacturers to simply manufacture good quality products without having to concern themselves with the software integration. Expose the endpoints via the Matter specification and let it do the talking.
TL;DR: The GE Cync Matter over WiFi bulb is surprisingly good for the $17 CAD I paid for it. Thread-based devices for things like light bulbs are preferred, but it's all I was able to get my hands on. The commissioning process was super simple, and overall this shows the capabilities of what Matter can develop into with further investment in the framework and continued development of Matter devices from various manufacturers.
Honestly, if Eve Home's products weren't so bloody expensive... I'm sure they're quality, but the goal here is to not feel locked into paying Philips Hue prices...

I have an iPhone 3G I had retired almost entirely because the battery is already just about dead & I can’t turn off the screen after a while. Which is unfortunate because I can still hook up a Bluetooth headphone to it and have a short playlist in it. If I played music on it with the screen on, I wouldn’t mind using it as a little mp3 player.
I also have an iPhone 5s that I don’t use much other then occasionally use it for the same reasons.
Lastly I’m currently using an iPhone 11 and when I retire this one I’m hoping the recent loosening Apple had on emulators would still be a thing because I had downloaded the PPSSPP before the they took this off the App Store. Now I’m using this as a PSP emulator.

I have iphone 12 ios 17.4.1 and i need to download an app that is only available on the play store (for android). Is there a way i download it

Leviathan, the Eikon of Water concept art
Leviathan, the lost Eikon of Water, has finally been found! After months of waiting, the Rising Tide downloadable content (DLC) has been released and with it, I am once again rambling about the mythological, religious, and cultural inspirations behind the Eikons of Final Fantasy XVI. If you would like to check out any of my previous posts on the subject of Eikons, you can find them here:

1.) Phoenix

2.) Ifrit

3.) Shiva

4.) Ramuh

5.) Garuda

6.) Titan

7.) Bahamut

8.) Odin

As I’ve said in the past, if you feel that I may have said something wrong, or if you would like to add to what information I have provided; by all means please do so. I absolutely welcome the discussion.
The sea serpent Leviathan, like most of the Eikons, has been a staple of the Final Fantasy series since its introduction as one of the original summons#Summon_Magic) from 1990’s Final Fantasy III. While modern usage of the terms “leviathan” and “behemoth” are often used to denote something large and imposing, these words actually originate as the names of two creatures from the Tanakh (or Hebrew Bible). According to the verses 40:15-41:34 in the Book of Job, Leviathan and Behemoth are two gigantic and nigh indestructible animals born around the same time as the creation of the first two humans Adam and Eve, with Behemoth residing over the wilderness east of the Garden of Eden called Duidain and Leviathan bound to the watery Abyss) as stated in verses 60:7-10 in the apocryphal Book of Enoch. While the term abyss may bring to mind the idea of a bottomless hole or even an underworld such as the Greek Hades, Hebrew Sheol, or Christian Hell; the Septuagint, the earliest Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, often uses the term abyss to instead refer to deep bodies of water. In fact, Abyss is the translated noun for the Hebrew Tehom, or the “deep” primordial waters from which the god Yahweh formed the world after the creation of light as stated by the verses 1:2-10 in the Book of Genesis; which is but one example of the cosmic ocean motif, whereby existence is conceptualized as originating from a watery void. I find it very interesting then that the Abyss is referenced several times in the Rising Tide DLC, such as in the name of Leviathan’s Eikonic ability Abyssal Tear; the Motes of Water adage “Know that even should you walk Abyss, our hands will guide you home” from the Minwu Arm Ring description; or the description of the Radiant Tidestrike weapon that says “Surge did the tide, the water rising as if it were some mighty whale stranding itself upon the shore. Behold, the Devourer of Worlds. The beast within whose foul belly our hopes are carried unto the Abyss. - Eikonomachy - Book of Currents 15:40-41”.
From the aforementioned verses of the diegetic Book of Currents, as well as one of the Active Time Lore Entries for Leviathan that states “Old writings clearly speak of Dominants past summoning great whale-like creatures capable of swallowing entire cities…”; we can possibly see a reference to Leviathan) swallowing the protagonist Firion and his allies on their way to the Mysidian Tower in Final Fantasy II. However, I would suggest that these quotes go further than mere references to past games and are actually an allusion to the parable of Jonah surviving in the belly of a whale from the eponymous Book of Jonah. For those unfamiliar with the story, the Hebrew prophet Jonah was tasked by God to preach on His behalf to the citizenry of Nineveh in the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Jonah instead refuses the call, and attempts to sail across the sea to Tarshish. On the journey, Jonah and the sailors he is accompanied by are caught in a huge storm, and believing that Jonah’s dismissal of God is the cause, the sailors thus throw him overboard. God then sends a whale to swallow Jonah, with the intention of preventing the Israelite from drowning. Miraculously surviving in the whale’s stomach for 3 days, Jonah vows to do God’s bidding and is thus safely returned to shore, whereby he travels to Nineveh and beseeches the citizens to renounce their wicked ways, lest they be visited by calamity. This story is meant to illustrate that Yahweh is a merciful god who allows for second chances, giving not only Jonah, but also the Ninevites the opportunity to learn from their mistakes and redirect their course of actions.
With this parable in mind, I would like to mention that in 1949, literary professor Joseph Campbell published “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”; a work of comparative mythology in which he proposed his idea of the Monomyth (later called the Hero’s Journey). Campbell’s theory of the Monomyth posits that while most narratives involving a heroic protagonist may have differing contents, these stories also typically follow a similar pattern; that being a three-act structure comprised of 17 subset stages. One such stage in Campbell’s model is the Belly of the Whale (sometimes also referred to as the Abyss), one of the literally or figuratively lowest points in the story for the protagonist in which the hero must engage in introspection and commence a process of self-transformation if they are to be equipped to finish their journey. This stage acts as a symbolic death and rebirth for the protagonist, with some Christians even interpreting Jonah’s story as actually being an allegory for Jesus Christ’s sacrificial death and resurrection.
A prime example of this stage can be seen in Carlo Collodi’s 1883 novel “The Adventures of Pinocchio”, whereby the eponymous puppet Pinocchio and his creator Geppetto are swallowed by the Terrible Dogfish; with the typically irresponsible and selfish Pinocchio instead performing a self-sacrificial act in order to save his “father”, which he is thus rewarded for by being brought back to life as a human by the Fairy with Turquoise Hair. Viewing the Pinnochio narrative as an example of a more modern mythical epic, Thomas J. Morrissey and Richard Wunderlich state in “Death and Rebirth in Pinocchio”; “Gods can die and be reborn, or rise from the dead. Such mythological events probably imitate the annual cycle of vegetative birth, death, and renascence, and they often serve as paradigms for the frequent symbolic deaths and rebirths encountered in literature. Two such symbolic renderings are most prominent: re-emergence from a journey to hell and rebirth through metamorphosis. Journeys to the underworld [Katabasis] are a common feature of Eurasian literary epics: Gilgamesh, Odysseus, Aeneas, and Dante all benefit from the knowledge and power they put on after such descents. Rebirth through metamorphosis, on the other hand, is a motif generally consigned to fantasy or speculative literature… These two figurative manifestations of the death-rebirth trope are rarely combined; however, Carlo Collodi’s great fantasy-epic, The Adventures of Pinocchio, is a work in which a hero experiences symbolic death and rebirth through both infernal descent and metamorphosis”. We as the player also experience this Belly of the Whale stage in Final Fantasy XVI, when our heroes Clive Rosfield and Jill Warwick confront the Dominant of Darkness Barnabas Tharmr on the seafloor of the sundered Naldia Narrow, appropriately labeled as the Abyss, whereby Clive is soundly defeated by Barnabas for a second time. Fleeing their assailant, Clive and Jill consummate their love for one another on the shore of Ash, with Clive acquiring a portion of the Eikon Shiva’s powers from Jill so that he may finally triumph over Barnabas in a battle of physical prowess and ideals; proving to the false prophet and his God that compassion and the desire for freedom will always overcome any adversity.
With all this talk of whales, I should mention that from the descriptions as given in the Book of Job, Behemoth sounds to resemble that of a large ox or hippopotamus, while Leviathan is suggested as being similar to that of the tanninim) or “great whales” mentioned several times in the Hebrew Bible. In fact, Islamic folklore has its own variant of this terrestrial and aquatic duo, that being the large bull Kujata and the even larger whale Bahamut; as outlined by the medieval cosmographer Zakariya al-Qazwini in his seminal work “The Wonders of Creation”. Even though I am going to hazard a guess that the name of the Kuza Beast), a variant of the Behemoth enemy in several Final Fantasy games, is named after Kujata; it is quite obvious on the other hand that the draconic Eikon Bahamut borrows its name from the Islamic whale of the same name as well as the dragon god Bahamut) from the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game. While the Book of Job describes Leviathan as being a whale or even a crocodile as suggested by a footnote in the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, verse 27:1 in the Book of Isaiah instead equates Leviathan to a sea serpent or dragon, with the Book of Job description also making it a point to mention Leviathan’s fearsome fiery breath. Given its status as a tutelary god for the Japanese-inspired nation of Wutai in Final Fantasy VII, it could be argued that Leviathan in the Final Fantasy series also shares similarities with Eastern dragons, such as the Chinese Lóng or Japanese Ryū; beneficent, serpentine deities of water and rain.
It is presumed that the figure and name of Leviathan actually originates from the older Canaanite sea monster Lôtān, whose name in the Ugaritic language meant “coiled” and was given the epithets “the fugitive serpent” or “the wriggling serpent”. In the first two tablets of the fragmentary Ugaritic Baal Cycle text, the storm god Baal (Lord) Hadad engages in a feud with the deification of the sea Yammu) to succeed their father El) as the ruler of the gods. At some point in this first chapter of the Baal Cycle, Hadad strikes down the seven-headed serpent Lôtān, who given the missing pieces of the text, could either be a servant of or another name for Yammu, with it also being believed that the monster was a zoomorphic representation of the Lebanese Litani River. Why I bring this up is to illustrate that Hadad’s defeat of Lôtān is but one example of the Chaoskampf mytheme, a pattern found in numerous Indo-European mythologies whereby a younger storm god or culture hero representing order and human civilization slays an ancient serpent or dragon associated with water that represents primordial chaos); perhaps a sentiment held by early agricultural riverine civilizations wishing to triumph over the constant and often devastating threat of floods.
One of the oldest examples of this mytheme is that of the Mesopotamian god Marduk’s dismemberment of Tiamat. According to the Babylonian Enūma Eliš, in the beginning there existed only Tiamat, the female personification of salt water; and Abzu, the male personification of fresh water. From the union of the two primeval waters sprang forth the first generation of gods called the Anunnaki. One such god, Enki (or Ea) would capture and kill Abzu after he plotted to kill his children due to the commotion they were causing. Enraged by Enki’s actions, Tiamat gave birth to eleven monstrous children to wage war against the gods along with her new consort Kingu, who possessed the Tablet of Destinies); the mark of divine rule. Marduk, the son of Enki, challenged Tiamat and her monsters, eventually slaying his opponents with lightning and storm winds. Defeated, Tiamat’s body was sliced in twain, with the two halves becoming the sky and earth. From an earlier promise made with the Anunnaki and the Igigi (lesser gods) as well as the acquisition of the Tablet of Destinies from the beaten Kingu, Marduk was made king of the gods; later mixing the blood of Kingu with clay to also become the creator of mankind.
Through the lens of the Chaoskampf mytheme, we can start to see connections between Tiamat’s dismemberment, the defeat of the multi-headed Lôtān, and Leviathan form. The non-canonical Book of Enoch actually specifies that the land-dwelling Behemoth is male, while the aquatic Leviathan is female; possibly creating an inadvertent association between Leviathan and the sea goddess and mother of monsters Tiamat. This may also be why Leviathan’s Chronolith Trial is named the Hand of Tethys. While still following the moons of Saturn naming convention, it is very fitting that the trial is also named after the Greek Tethys); wife of the world-encompassing river Oceanus and mother to the male river gods and female water nymphs called the Potamoi and Oceanids, respectively. Furthering the connections to Tiamat and Lôtān, several accounts in the Hebrew Bible describe Yawheh triumphing over the forces of the sea, such as in Isaiah 51:9-10 “Awake, awake, arm of the Lord, clothe yourself with strength! Awake, as in days gone by, as in generations of old. Was it not you who cut Rahab) to pieces, who pierced that monster through? Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made a road in the depths of the sea so that the redeemed may cross over?” and Job 26:12-13 “By his power he churned up the sea; by his wisdom he cut Rahab to pieces. By his breath the skies became fair; his hand pierced the gliding serpent”. It is believed that Rahab, while occasionally used as a flowery term for Egypt or arrogance, was also a sea serpent either comparable to or synonymous with Leviathan. While Leviathan’s death at the hands of Yahweh in Isaiah 27:1 is viewed as a metaphor for the enemies of Israel who will submit to the Hebrew God, the Chaoskampf and the connection with the Canaanite Lôtān is further shown in verse 74:14 from the Book of Psalms, which says “Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness”; which is where the name of the trophy for beating Leviathan on Final Fantasy mode, Thou Brakest the Head, comes from.
Along with the account of Leviathan’s death in Psalms 74:12, several other Jewish sources, such as the Second Book of Esdras 6:47-52, the Apocalypse of Baruch 29:4, and the Bava Batra tractate in the Talmud state that Yahweh will slay Leviathan and Behemoth so that their flesh shall be given as food and shelter to the righteous during the End of Days and the Messianic Age. This may explain why the Behemoth King in FFXVI has several attacks referencing Christian eschatology from the Book of Revelation, such as the Four Horsemen; personifications of War, Conquest, Famine, and Death that herald the Last Judgment; and the Apocalypse, another term for a revelation which has since become synonymous with a cataclysmic end-time event, like the battle at Armageddon for instance. Leviathan and Behemoth’s statuses as eventual sacrifices is very similar to the role that Leviathan and its Dominant unfortunately play in Final Fantasy XVI.
Both DLCs, the Echoes of the Fallen and the Rising Tide, deal with themes of rectifying the sins of the past; whereby the Fallen and the Motes of Water engaged in questionable behavior in an attempt to create their own Mothercrystals to disastrous effect. The Motes of Water, a central focus of the Rising Tide, are a tribe originating from the southern coast of the continent of Ash and hosts to the Dominants of the Eikon Leviathan. After the loss of their Mothercrystal Drake’s Horn, the tribe migrated across the twin continent of Storm; where they were mercilessly persecuted by several groups, particularly the Greagorian faithful of the burgeoning Holy Empire of Sanbreque, causing the tribe and their Eikon to become “lost” to history. Due to their nomadic nature as well as Sanbreque’s similarities with the Roman and Holy Roman Empires, one could say that the Motes of Water mirror the Jewish Diaspora (exile) and transformation of the faith after the Roman Empire’s siege on Jerusalem) and the destruction of the Second Temple during the First Jewish-Roman War; or perhaps one could say the tribe is treated in a similar fashion to the oft demonized itinerant Romani people of eastern Europe. Either way, the Motes of Water are meant to represent the “Other”; ostracized outsiders to the customs of Storm who hid themselves away from the rest of the world to avoid further religious persecution.
After finding sanctuary in the northern territory of Mysidia, the Motes of Water tried to create for themselves a new Mothercrystal to replace the Northern Territories’ own shattered Mothercrystal called Drake’s Eye. The story of the Motes of Water is one of loss and a constant fight to carve out a place in the world to call their own, so it is no surprise then that they wished to regain something taken away from them so many years ago. However, the tribe would engage in a terrible act, enraging their Eikon Leviathan that laid dormant within the infant Dominant Waljas, and freeze both the baby and the Eikon in time to essentially act as an aether battery. Unsuccessful in turning Waljas into the heart of a Mothercrystal, all the tribe achieved was robbing the poor baby of its life and autonomy, imprisoning the Dominant and the tidal wave it summoned in that moment where the tribe’s greatest sin occurred for 80 years.
This frozen tsunami, dubbed the Surge, is not only a monument to the tribe’s greatest shame, but is also a constant looming threat over the tribe’s village of Haven; a reminder to never again engage in such a transgression, lest they be met with watery doom. This mirrors not only Jonah preaching to the Ninevites to change their ways, but also God’s warnings against individuals sacrificing children to Moloch in the Book of Leviticus 20:2-5. In fact, as ProfNoctis suggests in his video “Final Fantasy XVI Lecture Stream: The Mythos of Leviathan Part 2”; Leviathan and the Surge are symbols of human and divine regret, with Ultima, the creator of mankind and the Mothercrystals, referring to Leviathan as its “most profaned fragment”; due to the Eikon being rested from its creator’s control and the act of creating a man-made Mothercrystal being a repeat of the Fallen’s blasphemous attempts at attaining godhood during the War of the Magi and the Sins of Dzemekys, flagrant displays of mankind’s development of free will which is anathema to Ultima’s collective identity.
As a symbol of divine regret, the Surge could be seen as a parallel to the Flood from the Book of Genesis. Deluge or flood myths are motifs that can often be found amongst cultures residing near the Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea, and Persian Gulf such as Egypt, Greece, and Israel; with these stories usually recounting a tale in which a deity or deities summon a world-wide flood as a form of divine retribution. One of the earliest examples is the Mesopotamian Epic of Atra-Hasis, in which mankind was created by the gods to act as servants and laborers. However, due to overpopulation, the storm god Enlil seeks to reduce their numbers by bringing forth a great flood. Enki, seen as a benefactor of mankind, warns the human Atra-Hasis about the flood, telling him to build a boat to protect himself, his family, and his livestock from the deluge. After seven days, the waters recede and Enki and Enlil agree on other means of maintaining the human population. This story is also thought to have been later adapted in Tablet XI of the Epic of Gilgamesh, where the survivor of the flood is renamed Utnapishtim; though both the Atra-Hasis and Gilgamesh flood accounts seem to originate from an even older source called the Eridu Genesis. Similarly, the Greeks also had a deluge myth, as outlined in the Roman poet Ovid’s Metamorphoses, where Deucalion, the human son of the divine Prometheus, is warned by his father to build a chest for himself and his wife Pyrrha to escape a gigantic flood that the storm god Zeus plans to bring forth as a response to the insufficient offering given to him by Lycaon), the king of Arcadia); with the pair washing up on Mount Parnassus nine days after the storm.
There are several theories, such as the Black Sea Deluge Hypothesis, that propose that the ancient Middle East did indeed experience a large flood at some point in the very distant past. Given that flood myths are thus believed to have originated from Mesopotamia, it should come as no surprise that the Hebrew flood narrative bears similarities to the previously discussed deluge myths as well. According to chapters 6-9 in the Book of Genesis, God grows increasingly distraught over the wicked nature of the humans descended from Adam and Eve and their inadvertent creation of sin, and so decides to reset creation to a state of watery chaos. God warns one of the few moral men, the Antediluvian patriarch named Noah, about His plan to flood the world and instructs him to build an ark to house himself, his family, and two of each animal to be the first creatures to inhabit the new world. After the firmament breaks forth and floods the world for 40 days, Noah’s Ark washes up on Mount Ararat. Noah then builds an altar, with God forming a covenant with Noah whereby He declares to never again summon a flood to devastate the world. As Genesis 9:9-17 states, this promise between Noah and God is commemorated by the rainbow, a symbol of peace; which as ProfNoctis points out, also appears once Clive saves Waljas.
Through a certain perspective, the Flood could be seen as a sort of baptism, a spiritual cleansing of the world through physical water. Baptism is considered one of the 7 sacraments of the Christian Catholic denomination; a rite of initiation whereby the individual joining the faith is either submerged in or sprinkled with water three times, representing the purification of sin and the grace given by the Holy Trinity. This is not unlike the Rite of Immersion that the infant Waljas is granted at the conclusion of the Rising Tide DLC; a ceremony for all babies born into the Motes of Water in which the initiate is sprinkled with mountainous rain water from Maiden’s March, river water from Riversmeet, and sea water from Tailwind Bay. The water used in this rite is used as a metaphor for life’s journey, likened by the tribe to that of a river, with this revealing that the Motes of Water hold a very cyclical view of life in a similar fashion to the Buddhist beliefs in reincarnation or the Lifestream from Final Fantasy VII. As the descriptions for the 3 kinds of water used in the ceremony state; “The rain that falls upon the mountains of Mysidia emerges in the springs of Maiden’s March. Thus the water collected from said springs represents birth-the fountainhead from which the river of life begins”, “In the Riversmeet valley, several tributaries merge into a single stream, where clear currents and roiling eddies swim side by side. Its water represents life-a course complete with myriad meanderings, yet one that runs inexorably from source to sea”, and “The Mysidian river empties into the ocean amid the shallows of Tailwind Bay, and thus its water represents death-the stillness that lies beyond the end of the river of life, and from whence the raindrops are born anew”. In fact, the symbol for the village of Haven is meant to be the combination of Leviathan’s scales and the river called the Ceaseless Rill, “...the circle of life that has neither beginning nor end”, not unlike the serpentine symbol of the Ouroboros. I would thus argue that not only does Leviathan represent regret and retribution, but also the chaotic journey of life.
If it’s not already apparent, I find Leviathan to be very interesting. I want to thank you all for sticking around and reading the whole thing, as I know this was a lot. If you would like to check out some more information about Leviathan, I would recommend checking out the videos “Leviathan of Final Fantasy VS the Leviathan of the Bible - FF16 The Rising Tide” by Country Kratos and “A Brief History of Final Fantasy Summons Final Fantasy Lore” by Alleyway Jack.
With the conclusion of both DLCs, Clive and by extension the player, is granted one additional Eikonic power. As such, I am actually going to do one more essay, which I will post next week. I hope you look forward to it and thank you again for reading this. Have a fantastic day!
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