Inside the Little Plastic Castle

1. MyGuy picked up some books at my local branch, where a librarian's T-shirt proclaimed “bookmarks are for quitters“
2. Found a light-hearted, short podcast called "What the Hell is my Job?!". Each episode is two people anonymously describing their job (with lovely sound design, although I could do without the constant music bed). The host is Irish and queer and so far the contributors are all from the UK. There are transcripts on their site under each episode. So far I’ve learned about band managing, freelance percussionists, a Task Rabbit rabbit, and a union dogsbody. They’re soliciting more unusual job-havers: https://whatthehellismyjob.com
3. Learned about What3Words, a global wayfinding app that’s divided the world into 3 metre squares and gave each square a unique combination of three words. It’s the easiest way to find and share exact locations. I appreciate that 3m is close enough to see or hear someone — it’s human scale navigation. I'm delighted they decided to signal a location with three leading back forward slashes, a design that nicely rhymes with three syllables as well as the RL file location. Sadly doesn't (yet) work with Google or Apple Maps, but it is supported by a bunch of navigation apps aimed at blind travelers as well as free Apple and Android apps.
4. Strolling in the dog park yesterday, I encountered ocean waves in Wisconsin at ///riders.loft.scout. The grass is left long by Wingra Creek: in the past three months it’s been hammered by wet snow, internally mauled by -40° temps, and then flattened by breezes. The remnants of last month’s snow are reverse whitecaps on the tattered brown creek side. ( click for pic )

Any joy in your days?

ETA: 19 Feb corrected w3w's indicator.

Given my earlier link to the Open Library’s announcement they were lifting limits on how many people can borrow from their extensive scanned book collection "for the duration", I was surprised and enlightened to read about opposition from authors.

( 500 words of links & summaries )

ETA 31 Mar 2020

Ah! I found meaningful discussion and links about this on Metafilter:
https://www.metafilter.com/186248/The-Internet-Archives-National-Emergency-Library

Two informative Twitter threads for those who dare to enter the doomscroll

From rahaeli (aka denise)

This is a specific test case being put to the public in order to challenge the doctrine of first sale as applied to ebooks, and it's in direct response to the exorbitant prices and significant restrictions publishers place on libraries.

thread start https://mobile.twitter.com/rahaeli/status/1244257620548038656?s=20

From AlexandraErin

...okay, and I'm getting that a lot of people don't like the idea of copyrights period. Information Wants To Be Free and all that. But your revolution needs an order of operations. If you kill the copyright first, while we're all still toiling under capitalism, you hurt workers.

Thread start https://mobile.twitter.com/AlexandraErin/status/1244309400690491393?s=20

I enjoy reading audiobooks while I do my stretches and beadwork. I always check my library first¹, but if they don’t have it, I’m happy to use Libro.FM.

They deliver on their straightforward slogan: Listen to Audiobooks and Support Local Bookstores

You might think that Audible.com is the only place you can get audiobooks for your phone. Amazon promotes Audible on its site, and it advertises on countless podcasts and radio networks. I firmly believe Libro.FM is superior.

( Four Pluses Two Minuses and Three Footnotes  )

Highly Local Nature Movie: The red-tailed hawk who glided around 8 feet above the street in front of my house, perched on a bare maple tree, but failed to catch any squirrels.

Friends to spend time with.

Bella has finally understood that she's to sit and wait for my sign before going through a door. I've tried to be a consistent trainer, but this took eight months.

Euphoria by Lily King is an exhilarating fiction inspired by elements of Margaret Mead's life. Whee!

Libraries that offer me lots of Margaret Mead to explore.

All these things above, which I can think about while the political situation (still?) reduces me to paranoid, wailing tears.

When a web page address (“URL”) appears as-is in the text, it’s a “bare link.”

For example, this URL:
http://jesse-the-k.dreamwidth.org/profile
takes you to my profile page.
( two ways to make links )
In Dreamwidth and most other online writing spaces, a bare link automatically becomes clickable. I prefer bare links because

• They’re easier to type, test, and proofread.


• They simplify working around link rot.[2]

( more details details details )

The Teleread Blog aggregates all sorts of useful news on ereaders, epublishing, e this and e that.

From the source:
Eleven free stories by Philip K Dick

To librarians:
Self-service iPad checkout for libraries

To the consumer:
eReader Interactive Database Comes on Line
This last is an awesome tool with 128 devices and selectors for screen kind, size, OS, price etc.

To assistive technology (YAY)
Switch-based Access to Three Kindle Models

Here's the RSS feed I made and added to my reading list (long form).

http://teleread-feed.dreamwidth.org/

To add Teleread to your daily inhale, visit that link and then choose subscribe from the navigation bar on top.