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    1. Best open source EPUB reader app?

      I was wondering what the best open source EPUB reader was, for both Android and Windows 10/11. It's ok if it's a different app for each platform. I don't need to be able to convert EPUB to...

      I was wondering what the best open source EPUB reader was, for both Android and Windows 10/11. It's ok if it's a different app for each platform.

      I don't need to be able to convert EPUB to proprietary formats, I just need to be able to read some DRM-free EPUBs I have, preferably on an app that's open source so just does its job without collecting a bunch of data.

      11 votes
    2. Help me find an e reader

      I am looking for an e reader with specific features, honestly I don't know if what I want even exists, but I figured this might be a good place to ask. Here's my wants: Charge via USB-C Open,...

      I am looking for an e reader with specific features, honestly I don't know if what I want even exists, but I figured this might be a good place to ask. Here's my wants:

      • Charge via USB-C
      • Open, allows .epub files (I understand some brands don't)
      • interfaces with Calibre
      • Does not have any wireless radios ie bluetooth, wifi (I know lots of people would say just turn those features off, but I would just prefer the device doesn't have them to begin with)

      Have you guys seen any devices that meet this criteria?

      12 votes
    3. Air travel is profoundly bad for the environment but one of the hardest industries to decarbonize. Can green technologies make a difference before it’s too late?

      https://www.noemamag.com/the-seductive-vision-of-green-aviation/ Picture yourself in an airship pushing into the northern latitudes. From the vantage of a barstool in the center of a luxurious...

      https://www.noemamag.com/the-seductive-vision-of-green-aviation/

      Picture yourself in an airship pushing into the northern latitudes. From the vantage of a barstool in the center of a luxurious lounge, you look through panoramic windows to see an Arctic vista scroll past. The ride is as smooth as a cruise liner cutting through a mirror sea. Above you is a white canopy, the base of the great bladder of gas keeping you airborne. Down below, a huge oval shadow glides across the pack ice.

      I disembarked from this flight of fancy and came back to reality in an industrial estate on the outskirts of the town of Bedford, a couple hours north of London. For now, the airship of my imagination sat disassembled in front of me — an engine, the top section of a tail fin, a salubrious sample cabin.

      Hybrid Air Vehicles calls it the Airlander: a colossal, state-of-the-art dirigible that was originally conceived as a military surveillance platform for the U.S. Air Force. That idea was scrapped as America de-escalated its operations in Afghanistan, but by then a new application for airships was emerging. Aviation is the most energy-intensive form of transport, and in recent years the industry has come under intense scrutiny for its environmental footprint. Unlike a passenger airplane, a passenger airship — buoyant and slow — doesn’t have to burn much fuel to stay in the air.

      “We’ve completely normalized flying in an aluminum tube at 500 miles an hour, but I think we’ve got some big changes coming,” said Tom Grundy, an aerospace engineer and HAV’s CEO, who was showing me around the research facility.

      Many of the scientific principles behind Grundy’s airship are a throwback to a bygone age, when Goodyears and Zeppelins carried affluent clientele around America and Europe and occasionally between the two. Other aspects are cutting-edge. The cambered twin hulls will be inflated with 1.2 million cubic feet of inert helium, not flammable hydrogen like most of the Airlander’s interwar forebears. The skin, a composite of tenacious, space-age materials, is barely a tenth of an inch thick but so strong that there is no need for any internal skeleton. Grundy handed me a handkerchief-sized off-cut. “You could probably hang an SUV off that,” he said. When it goes into production later this year, it will be the world’s largest commercial airliner: around 300 feet long, nearly the length of a soccer field.

      But arguably its key selling point — the reason HAV resuscitated a mode of aerial transport once thought to have gone down in flames with the Hindenburg — is that it’s green. Even powered by today’s kerosene-based jet fuel, the total emissions per kilometer from its four vectored engines will be 75% less than a conventional narrow-bodied jet covering the same distance. The Airlander of course is much slower. A maximum velocity of under 100mph means that it’s never going to compete directly with jet airliners. “We tend to think of it as sitting between the air and ground markets — a railway carriage for the skies,” Grundy told me.

      “When it enters service, perhaps as soon as 2026, the Airlander will offer premium, multi-day cruises to hard-to-reach places like the Arctic Circle.”

      A 100-seat cabin designed for regional travel has already attracted orders from carriers in Spain and Scotland. The prototype we were sitting in, with a futuristic carbon-fiber profile and wine glasses dangling above a wraparound bar, is the central section of another configuration called the “expedition payload module.” When it enters service, perhaps as soon as 2026, it will offer premium, multi-day cruises to hard-to-reach places like the Arctic Circle. Behind the communal lounge, a central corridor will lead to eight double ensuite bedrooms. “You’ll even be able to open the windows,” Grundy said.

      35 votes
    4. Calorie counting app of choice?

      Platform: Android What is your calorie counting/meal planning application of choice? Looking for something simple and hyper-focused on calorie counting, and I'm ok with a bit of macro tracking,...

      Platform: Android

      What is your calorie counting/meal planning application of choice? Looking for something simple and hyper-focused on calorie counting, and I'm ok with a bit of macro tracking, however that's all I want it to do - no feature creep into other wellness/fitness goals and coaching, etc.

      I'm fine with paying (as long as it's reasonable) for a simple application without a ton of ads that does this one thing really well.

      Suggestions?

      16 votes
    5. Looking for help in purchasing an eReader

      I want to start reading more, and I'd also like to start avoiding screens before I sleep, so I'd like to get an e-ink device that I can use for reading. I've never owned or looked into ereaders...

      I want to start reading more, and I'd also like to start avoiding screens before I sleep, so I'd like to get an e-ink device that I can use for reading.

      I've never owned or looked into ereaders before so I'm not entirely sure what the general capabilities are in this space, but heres a list of things that I consider important:

      • Absolutely essential:
        • I need to be able to put my own files (epubs, pdfs, etc) on the device to read without being forced to go through some marketplace installed on the device (if anything I'd prefer there to not be a marketplace on the device at all, or a removable one, as I would never use it). Files don't need to be added remotely, as long as I can connect it to my (Linux) computer with a USB and mount the storage or pop out the SD/microSD to do that then that's sufficient.
        • I need to actually own the device, none of the techno-feudalist bullshit like what plagues the smartphone landscape. I want to be able to remove non-essential components (e.g. marketplace) and it'd be nice if I could also tinker and install third party software freely. If possible I'd prefer a device that's mostly or completely open and FOSS by design, but I'm aware that might be asking too much. As an alternative I would also be willing to hack the device to get it in an open, FOSS state if the process isn't too complicated and it's well documented, it'd be preferable if it was that way by design but as long as I can get there one way or another I'll be content.
      • Would very much like to have:
        • In addition to regular books, it'd be nice if I could also read manga. These tend to be zip/rar files containing a series of images, so I'd assume support for reading things formatted in that way is probably less widespread if it exists at all on dedicated ereader devices.
        • Some kind of lighting so the device is usable in the dark. I don't know how this would compare to the blue light from screens (if anyone knows, please share) but I'll certainly want to use it for more than just before I sleep.
        • Some kind of system to add notes as I read might be nice, I was never good at studying and note taking in school so I don't know how much mileage I'd get out of it but in theory it'd definitely be a boon to organize information as I read or add notes to myself to look into things later or whatever.
      • Would be nice to have, can live without:
        • The ability to load music onto the device and plug in headphones to listen to music while I read. Bluetooth for audio devices isn't really something I care about, but might be desireable in case I get bluetooth headphones in the future (unlikely). Unimportant if it has built in speakers or not, as long as I can plug in headphones.
      24 votes