My e-book reader (Tolino).

As I got older and had problems with my eyes, this was a game changer. I had basically stopped reading books and now I do it daily. I can choose the font and letter size, background color, and backlighting based on what works best for my eyes that day and the light where I am.

Being able to hold a very light device with a big screen when I would have to balance a heavy weight as a paper book is also great, and I take the reader with me everywhere, whereas a big book would stay at home most of the time.

The reader has a bigger screen than my phone and the battery lasts longer.

The reader works flawlessly with my library, so I don’t have to buy books, which keeps costs down, and I don’t have to leave the house to get a new book.

Calibre helps us share books in our family, which is one reason we’ve stayed away from Amazon’s Kindle, so we’ve all gone to “.epub”.

Nah, the value didn’t drop becaue it has even less value. The bubble let some air out in a stinking fart, because people start to realize that’s what coming out of Musks mouth: “Warm air and nothing of substance.”

I am now 58 years old and something happened and I wake up at 6 in the morning every day for 6 months, if I have to get up or not. I was never a morning person, but now I am and I have no explanation for it. I like it, but I try to not bother others with it.

Years ago I had fun with “what if the US never actually went to the moon”. I did not believe it, it was just a nice plot idea, we even made a pen & paper oneshot about it. Nowadays I have no whatsoever fun in thought experiments like this, because the real threat of someone believing it to be true. I want to enjoy “birds aren’t real” or “giraffes do not exist” or … the worst is flat earth. It started out as a joke and now idiots try to proof the earth is flat, proof by accident it isn’t and then question rather their methods than their belief system. We just can’t have nice things.

German, only having been there once some years ago, so no idea if it still is that way:

Not knowing what I will have to pay in the grocery store until the cashier tells me what to pay. Here the price on the shelf is THE price. I might have a voucher that reduces the price in the end, but nothing is ever added only subtracted, all prices on the shelf are easily comparable, because no matter the weight of one package there is also given the price of 1kg or 100 g for everything.

No kids on playing grounds without parents standing around. No kids just playing on the side walk (often there is no side walk anyway), no kids walking to school. It made me aware of how much freedom kids have in Germany, how independent even 6 y.o. are in Germany compared to kids in the US. They walk to to school alone or use public transport alone, they buy groceries alone, they visit friends by foot or public transport, three y.o. already having a bike and cycling besides their parents to kindergarden…

On the other hand seeing so many very young people having a job, like a really hard job for many hours besides school. It broke my heart, they should be free to be young and having all the time, working comes fast enough and goes on forever. Also I saw very old people doing jobs that should be able to retire because you could see them being in pain and barely able to function, definitely not a “choice” for them.

The amount of medication, especially pain medication, people take in the US compared to Germany and how much of it is freely available while it is needing a subscription from a doctor here. Every time I was feeling unwell I was offered pills that I found to be numbingly strong and switching my brain off? Hard to explain. I found them scary, but was told that they take them on a daily basis and they are harmless … nope.

An ex-Sony exec said laid-off employees should ‘go to the beach for a year’ or ‘drive an Uber’ Lian Kit Wee Sep 11, 2024, 7:15 AM MESZ

Chris Deering Sony Former Sony Entertainment president, Chris Deering, told recently laid-off employees to take a break for a year and wait for opportunities to return. Reuters

Ex-Sony Entertainment president Chris Deering said laid-off employees should take time off. Deering said that he doesn’t believe the recent Sony layoffs result from corporate greed. In February, Sony said it would lay off 900 employees from its PlayStation division.

Former Sony Computer Entertainment Europe president Chris Deering has a blunt message for recently laid-off game developers: They should “go to the beach for a year” or “drive an Uber” until the job market improves.

Deering, who led Sony’s European PlayStation division during the launch of the iconic game console and its successor, PlayStation 2, acknowledged the pain of Sony’s recent cuts.

The company said in February it would lay off about 900 people globally and close PlayStation Studios’ London studio, amid a slowing gaming market. Deering dismissed the notion that the layoffs were purely driven by corporate motives.

“I don’t think it’s fair to say that the resulting layoffs have been greed,” Deering said on journalist Simon Parkin’s “My Perfect Console” podcast. "I always tried to minimize the speed in which we added staff because I always knew there would be a cycle.

Fluctuations in consumer spending and recent games’ diminishing sales impact the company’s ability to “justify spending the money for the next game,” making some staffing cuts inevitable, said Deering.

Deering offered some unconventional advice for game developers affected by the layoffs. He suggested workers take time off or find temporary work, like driving for Uber, while the industry stabilizes.

“It’s like the pandemic,” Deering told Parkin. “You’re going to have to figure out how to get through it, drive an Uber, or whatever. Find a cheap place to live and go to the beach for a year.”

His remarks come at a time when layoffs have hit the gaming industry hard.

Other game developers, including Microsoft and Unity, have similarly downsized their studios this year, cutting over 3,000 jobs at the start of the year, BI reported in February.

This series of layoffs in the game industry stemmed from slumping game sales and a shrinking gaming demographic, BI previously reported. Revenue from video game sales in the US in 2023 fell by 2.3% from the previous year, and the average time spent gaming fell from 16.5 hours to 13 hours from 2021 to 2022. Related stories

However, Deering seemed optimistic about the prospects for game developers. He told Parkin that laid-off workers should take advantage of the time off to recharge but keep an eye out for any opportunities to return to the industry.

Game development skill is not going to “be a lifetime of poverty or limitation. It’s still where the action is,” said Deering.

Deering is currently an advisor for Cudo Ventures, a company specializing in monetization applications.

Sony Interactive Entertainment and Deering did not respond to a request for comment from BI sent outside business hours.

Why this expression? This guy just needs to spent a year homeless on the beach or so, if being fired: https://www.businessinsider.com/chris-deering-playstation-sony-laid-off-staff-beach-uber-2024-9 It definitely isn’t greed on side of the CEO who earnes millions for nothing while so many get fired, right? RIGHT?

Not if you have kids or cats or you will be always out of toilet paper.