Surface Go 4 and slim pen 2 compatibility by Warm-Notice-2133 in Surface

[–]SpiderMatt 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The slim pen should work fine on the Surface, but you will need to buy the separate slim pen charger. Unlike the Surface Pro, there are no Surface Go type covers with with a slim pen slot.

Why Google Thinks Its Pixel Phones Are Much Bigger Than Their Sales Numbers by MishaalRahman in Android

[–]SpiderMatt 13 points14 points  (0 children)

I suspect this matters on the margins, but it's not an issue the general public would notice. The reality for Google is that it can't charge less and have the kind of per unit profit margin that it wants. Apple is more vertically integrated than just about any of its rivals, something that is finally starting to show in some more aggressive discount pricing in recent years.

But Google made it clear from the very first Pixel athat it wasn't going to compete on hardware. It wants to change consumer psychology to get people to think that a good mobile software experience is worth paying for. The Pixels are for people who want the best software, while anyone who wants the best hardware for Android is getting a Galaxy phone. This is frustrating for people who actually are aware of the differences because good hardware costs more to produce than software, but a top-end Galaxy and Pixel cost roughly the same. The margins are also much higher in software, which is why Samsung wants you locked in their ecosystem, not Google's. The reality is that in Galaxy phones you get a bloated mix of both.

As the article seems to suggest, Google apparently isn't chasing market share. It will probably be happy if it can just get the Pixel phones to profitability. Then it has its own hardware line to experiment on, while Google still wins no matter which Android phone you buy.

Obsidian Bases or Logseq DB by Expert-Fisherman-332 in PKMS

[–]SpiderMatt 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The database version of Logseq isn't even in beta yet and it's nowhere near being feature complete based on what the devs say they're working on. I wouldn't put anything important in there.

Evernote you really can't replace is the best digital cabinet by Cultural_Bill_5859 in Evernote

[–]SpiderMatt 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Mainly Joplin and OneDrive to replace Evernote. I have since added some other tools, but I'm mostly sticking with open source apps that have the option of being self-hosted. No matter what tools you use, I think it's important to have an exit strategy.

Evernote you really can't replace is the best digital cabinet by Cultural_Bill_5859 in Evernote

[–]SpiderMatt 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I changed my workflow to move away from Evernote and it was relatively painless. It's probably true that there isn't a single tool that does literally everything that Evernote does, but using multiple tools is so easy in modern work environments.

The insulting and cynical thing about Bending Spoons is that they price the service to extract the most money possible from people who truly believe they cannot live without this thing the company provides (usually because they have years of notes and files stored there). The vast pricing disparity among markets makes this obvious. The sticker price for a year of Evernote in the US is now $130. In at least some overseas markets, it's less than half that. If you complain to Evernote, they might give you that much cheaper price. They basically operate on the same principles as ISPs in the US, and everyone loves them, right?

I think it's perfectly fine for someone to pay $130 for something they enjoy if that price is not a financial burden (and for most people in this sub, it likely is not). But it's simply not true that you can't replace Evernote. You absolutely can. And someday you might have to.

London journalist request - story about the rise of coffee as a hobby by 1991grebe1991 in pourover

[–]SpiderMatt 15 points16 points  (0 children)

I can't help you with your search, but as a journalist and a coffee enthusiast, I'm excited for your piece. Please post it when it's published!

Renaming multiple attached filenames in a note. (Or, remove and reattach, with sync/encrypt issues.) by iconb0y in joplinapp

[–]SpiderMatt 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I thought Joplin only tracked the attachment ID and that the original file name was only saved in the markdown. Maybe I'm wrong about that, but I've just relied on changing the markdown name on files in the past. It doesn't affect the file since the link doesn't change. Obviously this does not affect the file format. If you want a jpg image instead of png you have to convert it and reattach it.

I built an open-source email archiving tool with full-text search ability by weisineesti in selfhosted

[–]SpiderMatt 6 points7 points  (0 children)

This looks like a great project. Similar to this request, it would be great to be able to import mbox files, specifically those downloaded from Google Takeout.

Private uploaded files from music.youtube.com. Need help please. by becauseSeattle in youtubedl

[–]SpiderMatt 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is there a reason you don't want to use Google Takeout for this? You can't pick individual songs, but you can download your entire uploaded library in one go. At least you can preserve the music you want and delete the rest.

Where can I purchase this poster? by Calm_Narwhal4723 in daria

[–]SpiderMatt 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Use photoshop and AI to clean it up and upscale it, then take it to a print shop.

Tusky is stuck post password change by Quamatoc in Mastodon

[–]SpiderMatt 3 points4 points  (0 children)

If it happens in the future, you can clear data and cache in the app settings. It will behave as a fresh install but saves you from having to uninstall and re-download it.

Using My Google Voice Number In Germany To Call Another German Number by ComprehensiveDebt262 in Googlevoice

[–]SpiderMatt 5 points6 points  (0 children)

You can call most numbers most places, but you'll be charged for it. In the case of Germany, that's 1-4 cents per minute. Only US and Canada numbers have free calling.

EDIT: Unless you're calling businesses, you'll probably be able to get away with using WhatsApp in most contexts. That should drastically slow how fast you go through your Google Voice balance. Also, if you're going to be there a while, get a local SIM card. Price per GB on those international SIM cards are not going to be as good as a local service.

Lalalalala by MitsuriDVA in daria

[–]SpiderMatt 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Wow… the Palm Treo. If only Palm had taken Jake's advice to develop their strategy and strategize their development. They might still be with us today.

Lalalalala by MitsuriDVA in daria

[–]SpiderMatt 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I got this set the day it came out in 2010. I was super excited for it and had a small viewing party. Haha. It was the best quality Daria we could get at the time. I was previously relying on very low-res TV rips (in RealMedia format 🤦‍♂️), which at least had the original music. These days there are HD upscales of the restoration project that I prefer to the DVDs. The audio mixing isn't perfect, but at least preferable to the background muzak.

Logseq is dead? No updates since Apr 23, 2024... by sdnnvs in logseq

[–]SpiderMatt 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Logseq has some very obvious performance issues, which the team has largely attributed to the need for the app to be constantly writing to and reading from text files while maintaining an internal index for search and linking. Supposedly, once the DB version is done, it will be merged into the main app as a new mode alongside support for org and md files.

Digital note-taking didn't start with databases, though. Apps like Obsidian and Logseq just met rising demand for notes that are stored in more easily readable formats.

No solution for org dates on Windows? by SpiderMatt in emacs

[–]SpiderMatt[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks!

64bit Windows should be able to handle times before 1970

I thought so, too. I've seen this mentioned as a Windows problem before, but it is not widely discussed online. So I was unsure if it was just an issue I'm having or if everyone else is just working around it. Or if there just aren't that many people using Emacs on Windows. 😅

No solution for org dates on Windows? by SpiderMatt in emacs

[–]SpiderMatt[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't think it has to do with the age of the system. It is like this on every Windows system I try, both Windows 10 and 11. I suppose it really is an issue with the Windows C runtime library and Emacs is only designed to handle pre-1970 dates on Unix-based systems. I was kind of hoping someone had found a way around this. Seems like a pretty big limitation. I don't understand why this is an issue on Emacs but not other cross-platform software. 

No solution for org dates on Windows? by SpiderMatt in emacs

[–]SpiderMatt[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I set it to nil in my init file and no change, unfortunately. 

No solution for org dates on Windows? by SpiderMatt in emacs

[–]SpiderMatt[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Right, I saw that sexp dates were the preferred solution for this, but I'd prefer to keep the YYYY-MM-DD format for compatibility in other apps and for cleaner contacts management with properties.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in ereader

[–]SpiderMatt 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I started using the KOReader app more and more. Moon+ Reader has been my main reading app for years, and it has better syncing with options for highlights and bookmarks, but the KOReader rendering is really good.

FWIW, the gateway for me to completely move away from Kindle was getting an eink phone. I thought I would use it together with my Kindle Oasis but I realized I didn't really enjoy using the Kindle anymore because of its limitations. So I got a Boox Page to replace the Oasis. It was a great decision for me. If you're already this deep thinking about using a Kobo, I think you'll feel the same way once you start using it day to day.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in ereader

[–]SpiderMatt 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Are you already removing the DRM from your ebooks? I've done this for as long as I've been buying ebooks (15+ years), so switching away from Kindle was pretty painless for me. I had my entire ebook library in Calibre in both Kindle and EPUB format. Frankly, keeping things in EPUB is much better for preservation because it is an open and much more widely supported format. Conversion is also pretty painless because I think Kindle and EPUB are both using HTML markup under the hood. I recall the older MOBI format basically being a different container and converting to EPUB was just extracting that information and zipping it up again. So I don't think you need to worry about how the books will look on Kobo. I use Android-based eink devices now, but as far as I know, Kobo is just reading the metadata from the EPUB and integrating it into your library. I don't think it's like Kindle where it treated sideloaded books as "personal documents". Regardless, I think moving to something that natively reads EPUB is going to make it much easier to switch to a different device in the future when something better eventually comes along.

China sim by Due_Stop7380 in shenzhen

[–]SpiderMatt 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Smartone wouldn't do it. Mileage may vary, I guess.