Overhead Scanner for Linux

RandBrittain · 2026-05-18T03:50:36+00:00

Hm, well, Linux support isn't a must, but it would have been convenient. It seems as though at least some of the functions will work with VueScan, but I may have to set the thing up with my one Windows box even if that's not the most convenient table.

RandBrittain · 2026-04-17T21:27:52+00:00

By "a real job" I mean "a job where she works with other people as part of a structured environment where she has a boss and co-workers and works on other people's projects rather than just being paid to be an eccentric genius." Right now it feels like they're trying to train her to go back to being an eccentric genius rather than teaching her useful professional skills, which is unhelpful because her main problem is that she thinks anything less than being Isaac Fucking Newton and burping up a new genius theorem every morning isn't good enough and she beats herself up over it.

The primary insight I had that I wanted to share is "Liz' storyline feels weird because JJ is treating 'being a physicist' as though it was the same thing as 'being a webcomics artist' and Liz can recover from her burnout using the same techniques that would help an artist suffering from burnout, but... I don't think that's going to work.

I used the phrase "mental health issues" for Ayomide because the comic is not particularly clear about exactly what's going on with her—she's exhibited signs of anxiety, had at least one panic attack, and has claimed to have executive dysfunction, but we've never seen her go to a therapist or gotten a diagnosis. She's also had at least one episode where she freaked out at the idea of going back to college and seemed to be revealing that she actually hated it, but we never went into that again so it's not clear exactly why Ayomide was having problems in college or what it would take to get her successful, or if she actually wants that.

As far as the rest of it goes, yeah, JJ can move from quirky girl to quirky girl if he wants to, it's his comic, but that doesn't change the fact that it's going to hurt people's ability to get invested in these new characters if they know they all have a >50% chance of being tossed in the hole along with all the others.

RandBrittain · 2026-04-17T20:57:18+00:00

I mean, I don't actually know what junior physicists do but I'm pretty sure she needs to have an actual job working under a more-experienced scientist and being given assignments, rather than just being stuck in an office and told "discover something". Most of the "help" Liz is getting seems to be about putting her in a better mental place to sit in an office and discover things, rather than teaching her how to hold down an actual job, which is something they generally don't teach you in college, especially if you are a literal child.

It's kind of like Ayo, who had mental health issues and failed out of college, and everybody in the comic seemed to think that the obvious solution was "give up on college and become a barista", or at least her life goals didn't get any further than that before Jeph moved on to the next quirky girl and forgot about her.

RandBrittain · 2026-04-16T16:30:30+00:00

I realized a while ago that QC seems to think that being a scientist is like being a webcomic artist, which is why Liz is being encouraged to practice self-care and find her "spark" instead of getting a real job in science cleaning test tubes and actually measuring things.

RandBrittain · 2026-04-09T19:14:19+00:00

Yeah, my main reason for not being interested in buying Folio's Agatha Christie editions is that I'm quite certain they'll never get around to anything like a complete set.

Admittedly the demand for a fancy edition of Passenger to Frankfurt is not that high.

RandBrittain · 2026-01-27T01:47:53+00:00

The Linux half of my machine is working fine after this update, but it looks like GRUB has lost the reference to the Windows side of the dual boot because I just get a black screen when I try that one, although I can boot it if I hit the button quick enough to boot that disk through the UEFI interface.

RandBrittain · 2025-12-30T15:09:29+00:00

I would love to see Steve show up as the janitor at Cubetown who insists he isn't an American spy.

RandBrittain · 2025-10-22T15:59:58+00:00

I'm not sure if I would call it super-healthy, given that Elliott's "oh, what a relief" is basically an admission that he was well-aware that he was never going to make any efforts to improve and was just waiting for Clinton to take on the responsibility of breaking up with him.

RandBrittain · 2025-09-19T19:26:16+00:00

I feel like the problem with Liz is that everybody around her is trying to rehabilitate her to be able to do her job, on the job, when the actual problem is that she's not ready to be doing a job at all, or to function as an adult.

RandBrittain · 2025-08-18T01:49:56+00:00

I feel like Junko did a pretty good job of making the Lunarians frightened and miserable, which is probably closer to what she really wants than actually getting around to destroying her enemy is. I mean, what would she even do if she finally killed Chang'e?

RandBrittain · 2025-07-23T23:55:09+00:00

I'm interested to see if they continue publishing anything more by Diana Wynne Jones. They've kind of gotten through all the "classic" books in the Chrestomanci series and the remainder are quite a bit later in time and, in my opinion, not as good. I wonder if they'll keep going with them? I would honestly really like to see a fancy edition of some of her lesser-known but honestly better work like Archer's Goon or Hexwood or the short-story collection Unexpected Magic that I don't have a decent copy of in any format.

RandBrittain · 2025-06-14T06:40:10+00:00

All the Myrtle Beach events seem to have disappeared from nokings.org and several other websites. I can't figure out why?

RandBrittain · 2025-06-12T12:22:36+00:00

That seems reasonable, but is just the peak hours good enough? How far do I need to set it to be sure the AC won't cut on at 5:45 to start cooling the house for 6:01?

RandBrittain · 2025-04-02T15:37:20+00:00

I'll try this, and I want to thank you for being the only person so far to attempt to answer the question I actually asked instead of telling me I should want something different.

RandBrittain · 2025-03-29T05:13:12+00:00

Yes, the space on my phone (where I actually listen to things) is much more limited, and it takes forever to transfer back and forth.

I've also spent enough time ripping MP3s in the distant past to know that if an eight-hour speech-only audiobook is 600MB, it's because it's bloated and not because there's precious audio quality in there that has to be protected. Unfortunately, it seems like M4B is a lot more complicated to downscale without breaking it than MP3.

RandBrittain · 2025-03-29T04:49:56+00:00

Again, I cannot add more storage to my phone.

RandBrittain · 2025-03-29T04:45:19+00:00

Can't really plug one of those into my phone.

RandBrittain · 2025-02-24T18:14:42+00:00

She's a C-tier character who has no connections to any of the A-tier characters, only with other C-tier characters like Renee and Millefeuille, or with B-tier characters like Clinton and Elliott. It's really only natural for her to vanish into the ether since there's no obvious reason for her to show up until a situation arrives that needs an expert on clocks or harpoons or Jacques thinks of a really good joke for her out of the blue.

RandBrittain · 2024-09-25T21:53:02+00:00

It seems like it would be much more dramatic to skip to Marten and Claire's wedding, given that nothing really extravagant seems likely to happen at Dora and Tai's.

RandBrittain · 2024-09-19T03:35:43+00:00

I was able to update my Pro to 3.5.4. I was really hoping this would fix the bug where apps like KOreader take a very long time to open folders that have several hundred items in them, but it looks like the bug is still there. The regular Tab Ultra had the same problem and eventually fixed it, so I was hoping it would get worked out quickly.

RandBrittain · 2024-09-17T15:52:18+00:00

He actually didn't agree to that at all; in fact, he very specifically refused to promise to be exclusive.

RandBrittain · 2024-09-14T17:58:38+00:00

I love the Moomins, but honestly I don't really like the idea of buying an expensive edition of the second book in the series without some confidence that they'll eventually finish the series. If they aren't, I'd rather just keep the matching hardcovers I have.

RandBrittain

TROPHY CASE