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  2. Finally got koreader and plato set up on my Kobo, and calibre set up for managing and converting ebooks. The default {author}/{title} file structure for moving ebooks to the reader doesn’t work at all for me, but fortunately(?) calibre supports no less than three different template languages allowing for very flexible ebook organisation schemes. These can be configured by opening the “Configure this Device” menu and editing the “Save Template” field.

    I ended up using this little script to organise books in a way which makes navigation easy for my collection:

    program:
# If the book is in a series, make a folder for that series, and ensure books are in order
# by prepending their series index to their file name.
if (field('series')) then
  strcat(field('series'), '/', field('series_index'),  ' - ', field('title'))
# Otherwise, if a book has tags, make a folder for the first tag and put it there.
elif (list_count(field('tags'), ',') > 0) then
  strcat(sublist(field('tags'), 0, 1, ','), '/', field('title'))
# Otherwise, simply place the book at the top level for easy access and future sorting.
else
  field('title')
fi

    A couple of books ended up in the wrong folders, presumably due to some error with tag ordering or metadata syncing, but it was quick to clear up manually in the filesystem.

  3. For anyone who wants to play current patch Hollow Knight enemy randomiser but is confused about where to find it and doesn’t want to wade through/sign up for discord: here is the google docs list of HK mods linked from discord. Enemy Randomizer [1.5 port] is the one you’re looking for

    If playing with item rando, I’d recommend NOT randomising boss geo or the coloseums, as both seem buggy and unreliable.

  5. The “every single tweet has a pop culture gif” era of science communication is a curse and my fervent desire for it to end is balanced only by horrified anticipation of what might replace it

  7. Not the most notable, but possibly my favourite 2022 sighting: a dancing caterpillar!

    Sadly, this isn’t an extremely rare musical species which will revolutionise animal rhythmic entrainment research! It’s a defensive behaviour triggered in this case by the fly which I was actually trying to photograph.

  8. 2022 Day 4 Highlights — was pretty tired at this point so just went for a short walk through the Laaer Wald. Not much of note, but I did finally get to see a bristly millipede

    Also found a buzzing spider and a weevil with an amusingly long nose

    That’s a total of 260 observations over the four days, of which 106 have already been IDed to species. I’ll wait a few days before posting my usual unique and notable species analysis, and will update it a few times as more observations get IDs.

  12. Astonishing UI design at the OBI self-checkout today. For non-german-speakers, the text reads “Please think about the heyOBI App!” and the “answer options” require no translation

    (the two answer options read “1. ok” and “2. ok”. You can also choose to cancel, which is apparenly something different?

  13. Small PSA for anyone else late to the game: don’t bother buying Elden Ring on the bandai namco store, it’s just a slow, inconvenient way of getting a steam code via email.

  17. In reply to a post on twitter.com

    @seaotta the best way is to start writing them!

    But IMO a big part is normalising the idea that anything which people would currently write as a tweet thread would be better off as a blog post. Normalising the idea the blog posts don’t need to be polished, or to have stock photos, or even a title.

    And then build on that: tweet what would have been the first tweet of the thread, with a link to the full post. Use something like brid.gy to gather responses from twitter as a comment thread.

    Might be worth replying to threads we enjoy with “hey, I love your writing, do you have a blog?” to remind people that they exist and would be read

  18. ↪ Aaron Parecki: I sold a washer/dryer on Facebook Marketplace, and now it's showing me new listings for washer/dryers. Glad to see the algorithm hard at work here.

    Apparently FB learned nothing from the classic “I bought a toilet seat on amazon and now amazon’s trying as hard as it can to fuel the toilet-seat-collecting hobby I’m apparently hooked on” problem

  19. A little-appreciated benefit of (British) English speakers learning a european language: you can look up recipes in that language and be guaranteed that they’ll use metric units

  20. This amazing comic from @Gingerhazing proves yet again that the best thing to come out of Star Wars is the lovingly crafted fan works which go places and tell stories the originals never would have dared.

    Parts 1-2 https://twitter.com/Gingerhazing/status/1489747577541070850
    Parts 3-8 https://twitter.com/Gingerhazing/status/1491149997676822530
    Epilogue https://twitter.com/Gingerhazing/status/1494087642081742849

    (Really hoping that they compile these into a nice readable format somewhere, it is just too good to be lost in the depths of twitter)

    Edit: there’s a full version up on substack!