marvindanig

I'm happy with my iPad. I can read books, watch videos or take notes all in one, plus I get to surf the open web on a super fast browser on top hardware that doesn't try to mimic the dead-tree. Not sure what the use-case for a sluggish 'paper-like' interface would ever be?

I know some folks will jump to suggest less eyestrain but neither paper books nor e-ink help with that. Since eyestrain stems from overworked eyes and a tired brain [1], it doesn't help to claim that the nature of surface revealing the text has anything to do with it.

[1] https://bubblin.io/blog/daylight-energy-fatigue

Ah, reaction is often telling. Thank you downvoters. ;-)

Ahem, ahem. Would it be surprising if such a "crazy cool technology" is embedded into the AirPods of late and being used by your political opponents?

> …Something I am still annoyed by is the way editions work with traditional publishers and with Amazon.

I created a pair of tools [1][2] to address exactly this issue, but I kinda left developing it midway.

One way to solve this issue is by publishing your manuscript like a website. I know that while it solves the issue of releasing the most updated edition/version of your book, it probably does not exactly solve the perception held by the readers of 'what is a book' vs. a website–and therefore, only a few would be willing to pay you for it.

The other solution, imo, is to bring a book-like experience on the web, but that is a whole another beast altogether.

[1] https://github.com/bookiza/bookiza.cli

[2] https://bubblin.io

FYI the mobile opera browser uses the webview and is superfast, but the Kindle app is all native code.

I used it initially for sometime but then slowly fell back to the iPad. I mean the comparison between an iPad and Kindle/Remarkable isn’t fair, but if a tablet is the go-to form-factor for books and note-taking, I’d stick to the iPad.

Dan Luu has some insight into it:

https://danluu.com/input-lag/

Apparently, Kindles are the worst in the terms of input latency and performance, but then this is also expected given their specification and the price point.

Or tiktok clones.

'cuz Facebook spent a bazillion dollars to push the developer community towards React? They are really good at––how should I say this––controlling the 'community direction and sentiments'. Even countries for that matter.

While this issue might appear small, even a "mistake", and would probably be resolved to OP's satisfaction (wishing them all the best!), it truly is time for entrepreneurs to flock together and start building alternatives to Github.

Learnawesome has become my goto resource to find useful links.

Thanks for building this!

How do you plan to scale this collection while also ensuring quality and up-to-date content/minus the link-rot?

A future with KDP is worse than with traditional publishers because there is at least some competition with the traditional model.

> …it will have become the modern equivalent of the book.

Strongly disagree with at least that statement.

If we combine all three parts of Peter Jackson's Lord of The Rings, it still can't match the depth and length of Tolkein's work. Also, given that less than 3% of the book market actually reads digital file sold as a book, I'd say tech community in general is way off the course here.

Ground reality is a lot more complicated than 'video is the new book' or 'blog is the new book'.

I tried using Kindle this way earlier… but it only worsened for me. :-(

I think the issue is with scrolling itself. Scrolling erodes the attention span because it kinda goes against the grain of saccadic perception. As opposed to that a page turn on a physical book transitions to the next page and stays there in a state of rest until we have comfortably absorbed all of the content on page and are ready to move on to next.

Hm. There's room for a new good browser to pick up the beans and run with it now…

I make it a point to check if an upstart is from bay area or not. If they are, my first assumption is that behind all that fancy "awesome" talk there is a sugar-coated sociopath that has been vetted and backed by a popular venture firm.

Bail. Find an alternative from Europe or Canada instead. Or simply let it go.

An --inch polyfill library to help browsers understand real physical units like inch, centimeters, millimeters, thou, feet etc.

https://github.com/bookiza/--inch

But people don’t have to buy additional phones for the purpose of reading books. Also, dead tree industry can never achieve a global distribution at the scale of the Internet. Look at it the way cassettes couldn’t ever have achieved what Youtube has been able to do for new artists/music.

Also, contrary to what many people are told, pulp farming in the US is super harmful to the environment. The damage isn’t local to each manufacturer either. You might want to look-up into wikipedia for credible info on this.

A gentle reminder that these are the same publishers who also advocate that harvested tree pulp industry does not impact the environment. As evil as they come. ;-)

not overtly, yes, but it is, you just don’t know it yet.

Agreed!

The intent of React is to drive new developers away from the building blocks of the web. And it has definitely succeeded at that. The way its ecosystem has grown all over the place, I find very passionate developers that swear by it.

But you never know, every technology at some point of time becomes a luddite’s take and then it’d become hard to even consider React. Someday may be near as well, given that it’s already more than 10 years old now… but then that would also be a good day for open web standards and simplicity. ;-)

> How does anyone think this is a good idea?

Isn't Malte Ubl one of the developer/architect behind it? I could be wrong about this but I remember reading his notes/thoughts on AMP last year.

Beautiful all right, but why do this?:

* {

    box-sizing: border-box;

    -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;

    -webkit-user-select: none;

    -moz-user-select: none;

    -ms-user-select: none;

    user-select: none;

}

No text on the site is selectable but this is a terrible thing to do. Not cool at all.

> What an utter disaster this society is if having a conscience makes you "radioactive" to employers...

Exactly what this whole conversation made me feel.

That was from before the service raised external money. Something must give, and you Steve of all developers understand this equation well.

How will the investors recoup their investment? What are Vercel users going to give up to please your new overlords?

Not much of a simulation [1] anymore. Lockdowns have to go strict imo, but with this inept administration in place I have little hope. :-(

[1] https://mobile.twitter.com/marvindanig/status/12520293225898...

> through a light guide to come from behind the text.

What does that even mean? The nature and the underlying physics of the light hitting the cornea of your eye doesn't change or depend on how or where the rays of light originated. I know a lot of e-reader folks try and upsell 'behind the text' but that's not how it works.

Light always has to reflect or radiate off of a surface from the front.

…but does not manufacture public opinion?

E-readers are definitely more like dead tree pulp whereas an IPS panel screen on a device like iPad would be closer analogy. :-)

Going by the strict definition of a book [1] a file, a webpage or a website isn’t a book either.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book