Palacegalleryratio [he/him]

That is very cool, it would make a fun project.

There definitely should be a good open source e-reader, but for what it’s worth I use a Kobo Clara 2e (newer models are available in both black and white and colour eink) and it works fine for me.

I download books from various resources; like Project Gutenberg and use Calibre for managing them. Works pretty seamlessly, especially with the Calibre Kobo plugin for automatic conversion to the kepub format too. However this obviously requires the use of a computer, which may be a dealbreaker. Also Kobo works well with Overdrive for borrowing library ebooks, which is neat.

Conversely I’ll just roast all CoD players, for continuing to play and spend money on a franchise with all the genuine creative vision of a photocopier and all the predatory financial behaviour of an online gambling website.

Hey, I don’t have a powerful desktop any more, however I opted for the steam deck over a new desktop just for lifestyle reasons. I don’t have very much free time, and what free time I have isn’t spent entirely on gaming. For me the steam decks secret weapon is that it goes from ‘off’ to ‘gaming’ in seconds, then if I’m needed, off again in seconds even mid cutscene, then when I am free again I press the button and I’m resumed. I can get some gameplay in a precious spare moment which I could never get in if I had to boot my pc, launch steam, install updates etc. it’s too slow. Also I can play anywhere in the house, which means I’m not glued like a recluse to the pc upstairs. With a pair of open backed headphones I can still interact and talk to people in the room with me, whilst not disturbing someone watching the tv (I recommend the Koss KSC75s, super cheap, sound good and they fit in the weird hollow in the back of the deck case when you’re not using them). I do have a usb c dock with connected screens and mouse and keyboard which I could plug the deck into for a desktop style pc experience, it works well but I don’t often plug it in. It’s just better to play on the sofa. For me it’s the only way I’d find any time at all to game. 10 years ago: different story, but now, if I had a desktop pc it would just gather dust.

In this industry the “means of production” = “hosting and distribution platform and servers”. If you’ve got no way of hosting your content and putting it in front of people, your content may as well not exist. In much the same way an actor needs a theatre.

So as per any capitalist industry, those that own the means of production (I.e. google with YouTube) exploit its workers (content creators) to generate profit in the same way a steel mill owner gets to keep the profits from his steel mill despite the fact that the owner never creates any steel ingots themselves.

Truly the UK is the worst nation.

• A Brit