Currently reading: Perdido Street Station by China Miéville, ISBN: 9780333781722
Category: Uncategorized
I went cycling in the New Forest last week, and was fascinated to learn that it is managed as a commons. With some pretty gnarly rules for doing so: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Forest#Common_rights
So where possible I would like to get my ebooks directly from an independent publisher. epub format, DRM free. I can do this from Verso for example. They watermark the books, putting my email address at the end of every chapter. While I disagree with that, I can definitely live with it, and kudos to them for eschewing DRM.
Most other books I don’t have that option. Next option, I’d like to buy from hive.co.uk, which, to a lesser or greater degree, supports independent bookstores. I think it’s open for debate how and how much that support actually manifests, but at least the intent is there (fingers crossed that it’s not some cynical ethical-washing).
But Hive uses Adobe Digital Editions, a baleful DRM system from Adobe. It takes a book and licenses it to me only, first demanding I create an account with Adobe, then that I install Adobe’s app on my machine, and finally that I tie my device to this Adobe account. All my books must go through app, most likely sending information of my purchases to Adobe too. This for books that I have dutifully paid for, to load onto a device that I have purchased and own. Somehow into this equation Adobe have insidiously inserted themselves.
Continue reading “Linux, Hive, Adobe Digital Editions and winetricks”
Two highlights of Forte Festival for me were Electric Indigo and Anastasia Kristensen sets. They absolutely knocked it out of the park (/castle).
God damn Adobe Digital Editions.
A very eloquent monologue on utopias and environmentalism by China Mieville. They are necessary but not sufficient, Rorschach images to help us prefigure how we might want things to be. He also warns against the real and potential perils of utopian eco-fascism.
Quick test of desktop calendars for XFCE. Maya from elementary os didn’t sync properly with caldav (and didn’t show recurring tasks). Orage doesn’t seem to have anything other than it’s tiny view. Evolution seems like best to go with for now. Working pretty smoothly with caldav. A bit slow to open windows (e.g. new calendar appointments), and very ‘GNOME’ styled, but it’ll do.
I like that Kobo e-readers are pretty hackable. I’ve added night mode and Wallabag integration to mine, and didn’t have to do anything too extreme in order to do so. No rooting etc – just copying a few files into the right locations.
Having a chat and learned that art students often learn about a particular painting by copying it. The act of trying to recreate makes you focus on the details you wouldn’t do otherwise. Got me thinking that something similar could be useful in code. Trying to recreate a well-known program, to really understand how a technique works.