+1. I come online to discover new things because there's less friction online than anywhere else. What's more, digging through a mountain of content to find something that resonates with you is a form of work in its own right.

Micropayments are friction, and if you put friction on top of the work of discovery, I will do something else with my time.

I suspect all mammals depend on colonies of gut flora to survive. Humans are no exception.

We would survive

Like all the other commenters here, I also devised my own solution—but AFAICT, it's the only other solution that's automated!

Requirements:

  * macOS
  * Zoom
  * Home Assistant
  * A signal light/sign on a smart switch (like [0])

The Procedure:

First, create a script that checks whether you're currently on a Zoom call, and then turns your signal light on or off accordingly. Remember to chmod +x!

  #!/bin/sh

  if [ $(lsof -i 4UDP | grep zoom 2>/dev/null | wc -l) -gt 1 ]; then
    curl \
      -H "Authorization: Bearer ${HOME_ASSISTANT_ACCESS_TOKEN}" \
      -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
      -d '{"entity_id": "${ENTITY_ID}"}' \
      https://${HOME_ASSISTANT_DOMAIN}/api/services/switch/turn_on
  else
    curl \
      -H "Authorization: Bearer ${HOME_ASSISTANT_ACCESS_TOKEN}" \
      -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
      -d '{"entity_id": "${ENTITY_ID}"}' \
      https://${HOME_ASSISTANT_DOMAIN}/api/services/switch/turn_off
  fi

Then, create a LaunchAgent that monitors your Zoom Application Support directory for filesystem changes at ~/Library/LaunchAgents/local.${USER}.on-air.plist:

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
  <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
  <plist version="1.0">
  <dict>
      <key>Label</key>
      <string>local.${USER}.on-air</string>
      <key>ProgramArguments</key>
      <array>
          <string>${PATH_TO_SCRIPT}</string>
      </array>
      <key>WatchPaths</key>
      <array>
          <string>/Users/${USER}/Library/Application Support/zoom.us/data</string>
      </array>
  </dict>
  </plist>

Finally, load 'er up:

  $ launchctl load ../Library/LaunchAgents/local.${USER}.on-air.plist

[0]: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09NJ8ZCHF

I have something similar that I built a long while ago. It's a large Do Not Disturb sign. There is a raspberry pi mini that controls power going to it. There is a corresponding daemon running on a PC that checks Discord call status. In call? Power to sign. Not in call? No power to sign. The client/server daemons are in Golang and communicate over RPC.

What does the pi do? Feels like something that could get replaced with an ESP32 if it needs to be remote or just an ftdi chip or some other usb to gpio if not

It's what I had in the drawer.

I have also contemplated wearing a keyboard on my pants and using a pair of “XR glasses” (like those by X-Real or Viture) as a display.

I would absolutely never do this in a public place, much less a crowded one.

This guy’s figured it out though.

https://evantravers.com/articles/2023/04/06/magsafe-tenting-...

I use these same tripods with magsafe stickers (to be used next on my newer Glove80 with Pro Reds). It works well. I also use them atop somewhat taller mini tripods for other ergonomic situations, or with clamps attached to my chair. It's very quick to move the keyboard halves around and use during travel where desks will not be at ergonomic heights.

Very curious what other tripods you’ve found suitable for this purpose. At my own workstation, I use a pair of adhesive dashboard mounts, which allows me to achieve some pretty extreme tenting (see https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMechKeyboards/comments/1p1q5xz/), but while out and about, I worry that such light boards would get jostled around on a desk/table if tented as hard as I usually do.

I use two of these: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B077JX7GBL?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_d... it lets me tent at nearly 90 deg which is great. And it is also good for reclining on my LC4, where I use two Perriand berger stools as armrests and a Levo laptop stand.

For something sturdier I use Ulanzi super clamps with extensions.

The Glove80 (which is fantastic, as a 15 year Kinesis Aadvantage user prior) also has a tripod mounting kit which I haven't tried yet.

Very informative, thanks

Sure. The Nebula tripod is also tall enough to be just high enough to use while sitting on typical chairs, if you're ok with somewhat low keyboards / have long arms. It's a great at both lower and mid-range heights which makes it quite versatile as a portable tripod, aside from desktop use (although it would also be useful with "standing desk" laptop risers that go on top of other surfaces). It helps to rotate the tripod legs appropriately for stability when tented.

My dream for an open e-book reader is to have some kind of graphical OPDS browser as a substitute for the commercial storefronts offered by Amazon/Rakuten/etc. If you could host and publish your own ebook library (using BookLore or something similar), then explore and fetch content off of it with the same UI polish as you can get from a corporate vendor (complete with cover art galleries, carousels for recent releases and recommendations and the like), I think that'd make e-readers so much more appealing and usable for diehard FOSS folks.

I got beat to the punch in being the one to tell you, but I can add a link: https://github-wiki-see.page/m/koreader/koreader/wiki/OPDS-s...

You can do that with koreader. It can even sync progress now with kavita. Stimulating what Amazon called whisper sync.

I use koreader, including its OPDS server support! While I'm always grateful for all FOSS (and especially for well-written FOSS), koreader's OPDS UI still has a long way to go to approximate what I'm imagining. It's basically a file browser in List view, whereas a good digital book storefront would include gallery views with cover art, synopses and other metadata when clicking into any individual publication, search functionality, recommendation carousels, and more.

Let's be honest, if we are talking about UX for the average user the koreader UI has a long way to go in general.

Yeah they could take some lessons from Plato. However, koreader works on everything. Android, Kindle, Kobo, PocketBook etc. Not just on Kobo like Plato does.

It took me some getting used to but it's not bad IMO. It's more that its conventions are a bit different from the commercial readers but that's not a bad thing.

Koreader is pretty intimidating at first but once you dig into its features and know what's going on, it's pretty easy to navigate into the menus. It require some time to invest at first, but after that it's really "set and forget" with some lovely features and power to customise absolutely everything. I love the statistics wallpaper that shows you how much you read previous 7 days, per day, and the fact that you can set every book parameter as default, making every epubs looking the same, something I've never been able to achieve with stock Kobo, where I absolutely hated beginning a new book and discover huge fonts, weird margins, and tiny line-spacing, that I had to set again.

I just installed it on my Kindle Oasis. No way to just replicate the Kindle view of all my books in a list regardless of directory, and the real killer was that it doesn't invert page turn buttons when the display is rotated. PRs welcome, I'm sure, but I had to give up on it.

There is a brand new plugin for KOReader that offers a richer experience and uses Kavita's API. I don't have a link handy, but it was shared in the Kavita discord (and will be on the wiki once I write a new page for it).

Koreader's OPDS implementation is VERY rough around the edges. It doesn't support much of the metadata and doesn't follow the spec very well. I had to write hacks in Kavita to give users better support for it. (My understanding is Koreader isn't too hot on OPDS in general).

Is there a standard format to replace OPDS in the works?

True, that could be spiced up a lot. But I didn't think you intended it for mainstream users in your comment. For the HN crowd it should be enough. A mainstream user will not be messing around with OPDS servers anyway.

And recommendation caroussels are a bit too much like advertising to me. Something I wouldn't want on self-hosted stuff.

I had the same issue, and I'm working on an ebook reader that does exactly what you're asking for. It's not available yet, but there are screenshots here:

https://leafl.it/

That sounds neat! I have an old kobo clara HD. I run koreader through nickelmenu, and I have to let it load its native software before selecting and switching into koreader. I'm also under the impression that if I connect it to the internet I'm at risk of losing my setup via wireless update. I think I had to delete a config file by mounting the device to linux to be able to even use it without a walmart / ratuken / whatever idp account in the first place.

Everyone here is lauding kobo for being so 'open' and 'hackable', but when I set mine up in 2022 it kind of just felt like they just weren't as good at fucking me over and subverting my intentions as Amazon. Kind of like being an intruder in your own home. Have things changed? Should I update my setup?

The better example for this design principle is the big green button on copy machines. The copier has many functions, but 99% of users don't bother with 99% of them.

For a little history on this design, see https://athinkingperson.com/2010/06/02/where-the-big-green-c...

That's a good button on a copier or a microwave. Not on a CNC mill, CAD software, text editor, chemical plant, tractor, knife... basically any object in the world that doesn't have one obvious function.

Can you elaborate on or cite a source as to why this practice is incorrect? The Nitecore D4 battery charger supports recharging of this and other sizes of Li-ion batteries (in addition to NiMH), so I am skeptical that it is inherently dangerous.

I guess an exposed battery is more susceptible to short circuit. Imagine you have this in your pocket while in a heavy rain. Battery could short circuit due to water creating conductive connection between battery terminals. It would heat up quickly an maybe even start burning. Still, I prefer 18650 to these flat, lasagna-type cells which swell and can be pierced by any sharp object. Even though the latter has built-in protection and the former doesn't.

Yes, this naming is really unfortunate. It appears to be inspired by a fictional river from the LOTR-iverse:

https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Anduin

It appears to be the lead developer's name: https://github.com/Anduin2017