So if I understand correctly, you open the app or web on your phone, and it controls what’s playing on the TV via the server?

Symfonium is really great, but the TV version doesn’t quite work —or didn’t as of my testing probably a year ago.

I have also stopped using GMS, which makes using paid apps more difficult.

One thing that I really enjoyed was the Android Auto mode, which was flawless.

I’d be interested in hearing about your lyrion setup. I haven’t really tried it but it looks like that could open a whole software ecosystem. Do you use a phone app to select/skip/cue tracks?

It doesn’t necessarily have to be controlled by the TV remote, but it does need to be controlled away from the server.

It is possible but way beyond my ability. I suspect it would be a pretty complex task because it requires keys to be obtained from Amazon, and the process is often a little different for each of the many many versions of the Kindle. Most people would need a tech-capable helper to do it for them.

Honestly, there should be a law requiring software unlocking for any manufacturer-abandoned hardware.

I recently got a Boox Go Color and really enjoy it. The nice thing is that it runs Android so can benefit from the app ecosystem.

Older kindles can and should be jailbroken.

Removing DRM is likely completely legal.

IP laundering

Each one is countably infinite

From an evolutionary standpoint, we have the most advanced pattern recognition in the world. It is, in some sense, what makes us human. It is also the root of our capacity for language, reasoning, music, etc.

Looking for exceptions to complex patterns is key to our survival over great lengths of time.

I don’t get it. What is your fixation on wealthy people?

Huh, I knew a lady like that once

Are you telling me Johnny Cash didn’t really kill a man in Reno just to watch him die?

April 1 - “lol check out this silly thing that Google maps is doing!”

April 2 - ( ˶°ㅁ°)

I had to do the unlimited plan tbh.

It offers AI search, but you have to click it or ask a question - I think it’s similar to DDG in terms of including it.

It really works as a complete search solution with maps, images, video, translation (actually the best translation site out there).

I find that I get good results, without much AI slop, SEO garbage, etc. When I use Google, DDG, or Quant on devices that are not logged in, I definitely notice it takes more effort to get to get to the results I want.

For me, it’s worth it.

Great song

Jewish people bless their children to be “like Ephraim and Menashe.” They are two of the sons of Joseph and pretty minor characters in the story, but they are the first brothers who are treated without favoritism and actually get along.

That’s awesome. I’ll check it out.

(Still should be the default lol)

Calibre Web Automated is a completely different project. I am liking it so far.

Some people have also suggested Kavita.

Nope. It’s always safe to ignore any articles about “kids these days”

It’s a Russian project, which some people are suspicious of because Russia has leveraged open source projects for less-than-honest purposes in the past.

It’s managed by a for-profit company to sell their server software, which is generally approached with a big grain of salt in the FOSS community.

They preference OOXML files rather than ODF files by default, which some users (notably the document foundation) consider the more poorly-defined open standard, which benefits Microsoft (who mostly developed the OOXML format). This is some complicated inside baseball and the fork does not seem to be swayed by it—they’ll continue to preference OOXML.

OnlyOffice has contribution practices which are sometimes hostile to the FOSS ethos. The maintainers are not as transparent as most projects, they generally prefer to fix issues in-house rather than collaborate with a broader community on pull requests.

I still use it. Here’s why: I don’t think it’s very good ethics to be suspicious of an entire nationality; the code is open, so what are you afraid of? I guess it’s possible to sneak something malicious into a binary blob, but that borders on paranoia. I’ve personally found the team to be very responsive on issues that I’ve brought up in terms of function and design. When I have brought up issues with the function or design, they have been good partners and been clear in their actions. YMMV

FOSS only thrives because of public-private partnerships; I believe we should reward companies that offer open source code, even when they may not comply with some grand FOSS philosophy. I don’t like purity tests.

OOXML has, for better or worse, become the global document standard. Instead of lamenting it, we should be working to make it the best we can.

Basically, OnlyOffice works for me in a number of ways that LibreOffice doesn’t. I’m not interested in server-based document sharing, but I am interested in good design and mobile support. This fork is only focused on the server software, so I won’t be switching at this time.