@bookstodon
I use #Linux as the main OS on my computers, but also use Windows 10 on one.
For the sole reason to download the #ebooks I buy.
I play the occasional Windows-only game as well, but those I can do without.
I can't do without ebooks.
I really, really wish there was an open standard for getting any ebook, with or without #drm, onto any device without having to rely on a single piece of software from one company. #EU, do something! #DailyRant#PetPeeve#ADE#AdobeDigitalEditions
(Of course, if you're not in the US, they've already made the choice for you. Thanks terrible international intellectual property laws!)
Until today, my experience buying #ebooks from Humble Bundle was they were always available unencumbered by #DRM. I have hundreds of #DRMFree#epubs built up over the past decade.
The #PratchettDiscworldHumbleBundle is through #Rakuten#Kobo's ebook shop, and all the books are encumbered by #Adobe and the #AdobeDigitalEdition DRM. There is zero indication that this DRM is included on the bundle page itself. and it explicitly says "Use on Any Device". On the #RakutenKobo page itself, the only indication the file has DRM is some small bottom-text that says "Download Options: EPUB 3 (Adobe DRM)".
Also, DRM Digital Editions will also "helpfully" install Norton for you as well. It's like the dogshit you just stepped in offered to stab you in the kidney, too.
This is shameful and disgusting from Humble Bundle. I know Humble Bundle got acquired years ago by IGN/Ziff Davis, but they'd avoided the levels of #enshittification to make me stop using them.
Jokes aside, it was bad before but now I have completely given up on buying ebooks or go through Kindle Unlimited as a result. Instead, I do it the slow way, via Goodreads or social media recommendations. That's the only way I know to cut through the noise, and I feel bad for the #WritingCommunity because they have to battle through this trash to be found 😔
A few years ago, I got rid of all my paper books and switched exclusively to eBooks. Whenever I tell bibliophiles1 this, they usually shriek in horror. What about the smell of books2?!!? What about showing off your bookcases to impress people3!?!? What about your signed first editions4!??!?! But the other day I had someone…
In her description of the 'arrival' of Alleyn, Ngaio (the g is NOT silent, folks) Marsh unintentionally highlights why I love Allingham's Campion. For him, tempus really did fugit, at more or less real pace. #AmReading#Aotearoa#GoldenAgeMysteries@bookstodon#ebooks
I highly recommend supporting the Standard Ebooks project. 📚
«Standard Ebooks is a volunteer-driven project that produces new editions of public domain e-books that are lovingly formatted, open source, free of copyright restrictions, and free of cost.»
I like the convenience of the Books app, but Apple does that thing where I have to look at content depending on the current app store region. So, I wonder… What else is there?
It seems like the new default price for newly released #ebooks is $16.99 (CAD), although sometimes it's higher, of course. Just a year ago it was usually more like $14.99, which I already found expensive, and I remember noping out on $17.99 offerings.
Publishers do know this just pushes more people to libraries, right? I guess this is why they try so hard to limit library lending.
The chronicle of a death (frequently) foretold... at the risk of reviving a heated debate in my timeline some months ago on the relative advantages of #ebooks vs. printed #books, despite claims e-books would lead to the demise of the printed book, it seems for many people (in the UK) the printed book remains the way they like to read... the death of the printed book remains on the horizon (but somehow never reached)
I am looking for the most privacy friendly way to buy ebooks.
Every shop and platform I've looked at would index and sell my purchase and a lot of other information.
I can get my ebooks in different ways but I explicitly want to pay the author for their work without me and my behavior ending up a resell product for which ever platform I use to complete this purchase.
#Ebooks are available from the Blaft website, from Smashwords, or from the muchtoolarge retailers. Can we interest you in a #Tamil supernatural #thriller in English #translation? #Mythology from the state of #Mizoram on India's border with Myanmar? Bonkers slipstream short fiction from Kuzhali Manickavel? An encyclopedia of #ghosts and #cryptids?
Remember how my previous employer denied my WFH request so that I could flee the state of Ohio to take care of my trans kid while still working for a company I loved?
I just heard they did it to someone else today.
When you insist people come in to an office a few days a week because you want a "hybrid culture" not a "remote culture" and then tell them to just fuck off when all they want to do is get their kid somewhere safe that makes you an absolutely shitty person.
I'm done hiding who it was.
The company is #OverDrive, based in Cleveland. They make ebook lending software for your local library called #Libby. They say they care about their LGBTQIA+ employees and families but that is clearly a lie.
Ohio lawmakers are turning my home state into absolute garbage and companies like this one are playing along.
[Edit, since this is doing numbers: The reason my request was denied a little over a year ago, despite me explaining in detail why, was because they "want a hybrid culture, not a remote culture." (a quote from a senior leader to my face)
In both 2020 and 2021 while the whole company was working remotely I won two annual employee excellence awards for my work on their Security team, while the company had record growth.
Meanwhile, one of my teammates moved out of state to be closer to family and continued to work remotely.]
É suposto até junho haver empréstimo de #ebooks por bibliotecas em Portugal. Não se sabe muito sobre as funcionalidades, mas o serviço existe noutros países da UE. No dia 12 de abril, a KR21 vai dar este webinar sobre a situação europeia. Inscrição gratuita⬇️
I don't talk about this much because I suck at promoting myself, but for those of you who weren't aware, I published some books. Three of them are a fantasy trilogy still available via Carina Press, under the pen name of Angela Highland. The other two are books 1 and 2 of an urban fantasy series, self-published under my actual name, Angela Korra'ti.
And since I continue to be unemployed AF right now, if I could make anything at all off of sales to new readers, that'd sure be super helpful right now.
My old e-reader had some problems and needed to be replaced. I ended up exploring the hell that is DRM (copy protection) on e-books and tried to break the restraints so I can read my own legally acquired books with FOSS software. I wrote a blog post on it that describes my frustrations (another ideological rant) but hopefully also helps others in a similar position with some practical guidance: https://proycon.anaproy.nl/posts/do-not-restrict-me/
Anybody knows how to start up #urxvt or xterm with a different .Xresources file than your main one? Like, for example, with a command-line option indicating another config file to use.
I want to be write a script to launch urxvt with a larger font for reading #ebooks on the terminal with #epr. Hacks appreciated!
TFW you're reading a mystery set in the UK written by a UK resident author and your keen detective abilities make you think "hmmmm, US edition?"🤔 #AmReading#mystery@bookstodon#ebooks#Kobo