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Comment · 11 months ago
Comment · 11 months ago
Comment · 1 year ago
Comment · 1 year ago
Agree with your points about load distribution assuming the weight isn't trivial. Instead of waist, the common term in English would be hips/hipbelt.
Comment · 1 year ago
It can help with other solutions like Sunshine/Moonlight because a EDID plug advertises all the possible resolutions and refresh rate combinations under the sun so that it can be configured by the stream server to match the remote client display. Your attached monitor(s) may not support the same resolution/refresh rate as whatever client you are trying to stream to. Needing hardware for this is likely because of the graphics stack and virtualization restrictions of your graphics card if it isn't an enterprise one. Otherwise they could just use a virtual display buffer that isn't output on any screen.

All that said, I don't think steam link does this automatically, but there are probably tools that have been made for switching your main display to the dongle and setting the correct resolution for it when you initiate a streaming connection. At least I know there are helper ones for Sunshine so I am assuming it is true for Steam Link as well.

Not that this would fix an encoding issue if that is your problem.

Comment · 2 years ago
> Well actually some _do_ run Android, but good to see also some of them (like the Era) do not...

I was unaware of this. Looks like they have a couple devices that are "e-note" devices, are larger, and support stylus input that are Android devices. Maybe also a couple readers from a long time ago, saw an article mentioning one running KitKat 4.4.

Thanks for letting me know!

Comment · 2 years ago
If I understand your first point correctly, then I have great news. I guess my wording could have been more clear, but PocketBook devices do NOT run Android.

As for the second, if that is a requirement then at least the Era doesn't have an ambient light sensor. I don't have any issue without it because I just have the front light off entirely by default since it is e-ink. Obviously if I need to use it in the dark I turn it on, but that is easy without having to navigate a screen I can't see since you can configure a hardware shortcut to toggle the front light (it is set to long press on the home button by default). While it does support automatic screen brightness and temperature (individually toggled), these are driven by a schedule based on the set timezones.

Comment · 2 years ago
In response to your edit.

I can't speak to how their distribution is resulting in selling devices that don't have advertised features enabled. It is weird they would allow this while keeping their branding and same device name (maybe they are working around some trade restrictions?) So that is not good, but I don't know how widespread that issue is. And as I pointed out in my response before the edit, this seems straightforward to resolve if you buy from somewhere that has this issue.

Not to belabor the point, but in my original post I mentioned how PocketBook devices are specifically not Android as an advantage in terms of battery life.

I suspect that what you are experiencing with regards to it being "slow" to resume an in progress book and allow navigation may be due to your settings. The PocketBook has a sleep mode that allows quick resume for reading. How long after it goes to sleep before it powers all the way down is fully configurable from disabling it to waiting your choice of many options between 10 minutes and 48 hours. IMO the cold boot time is acceptable and I did not notice a difference from my 1st Gen Oasis. The power loss if you fully disable its auto power off is still great, although I haven't used it that way much beyond when I first got mine so I don't have a comparison to my Oasis.

That being said, I don't have the same model as you so maybe there is a significant difference between them in performance, but it would be easy enough to check independent reviews if I was trying to decide between them.

Comment · 2 years ago
Comment · 2 years ago
Maybe I'm missing something, but those all sound like things that are display layer and shouldn't be dependent on KFX to be able to accomplish. I do know that that you can run preprocessing on epubs to adjust some of the layouting to your preference. The rest should just be determined by the reader application you are using and any shortfall in customization of those aspects would be addressed by improvements to that application.

Regardless, my point was that: A - most of the books already in the library were likely enjoyed/acquired without knowledge of hypothetical improvements from Amazon rolling out a new ebook format and DRM scheme. And B - even if there is some magic that Amazon had to include in KFX to support the improvements you listed and can't be reproduced without them; I personally would not consider those or most any improvements to be worth losing ownership of books that I purchase. The most valuable part of an ebook is the text and ownership of a copy of that is what I'm paying for. It is fairly easy for me to be principaled on only buying ebooks that I know I can own a copy of due to the diverse distribution that exists for most titles. Even when I had an Oasis, I didn't purchase anything through Amazon and loaded all my books over USB.

Comment · 2 years ago
Comment · 2 years ago
For exporting a library of books you already own/read there aren't going to be many titles that have any improvements in KFX that you would care about. It certainly doesn't hurt to just try it and see what if any of the titles in the library have issues with being deDRMd.

I second buying from Google Play. Outside of a period of time last year where they had a bug that prevented exporting many titles in their catalog (some error in their backend service), I have never had an issue with purchases from there. I will happily continue getting my books from sources that allow true ownership after purchase regardless of any touted benefits Amazon adds to future DRM schemes, just need the words on the page.

Comment · 2 years ago
Comment · 2 years ago
The last time I looked into it, you had to have a valid target device or client registered to your account, typically a kindle reader. Then an option to download for transfer with usb would show kn the menu for entries in your library. It will download a kindle format ebook (there are multiple generations and even a new format) that is compatible with that device that and is also DRMd using that devices serial as a key.

So no, I wouldn't say you missed anything obvious, which is a feature not a bug as far as Amazon is concerned.

Comment · 2 years ago
And I'm not refuting that. I was just pointing out a solution to a problem the GP proposed as intractable when trying to analyze player input data streams for cheating. The points you made are valid as far as the evolution of this cat and mouse game is progressing (probably still closer to the end end of can then do for now).

That being said, the vast majority of cheats are not that sophisticated. "Simple" analysis of player input should still be used to make low effort cheats less or ineffective. Especially if used to compare consistency of mechanical play by a player. I doubt most cheaters want to just turn on a full bot that plays by itself for the whole game. You can build a model of play customized for an individual player to look for changes in mechanical skill during critical plays. Then even if that was incorporated into the cheat client so that its 'actions' can't be definitevly detected against the players baseline, it would at least be limited to cheating as that player always playing like it's their best day. Either that or the cheater would have to go fully hands off for that account which I imagine is not as appealing for most cheaters.

Input analysis, even much simpleler approaches, can still be a valuable tool to make cheating more difficult and less opportunistic. The goal would be to raise the barrier of entry to cheating without immediately getting banned beyond downloading and running a client. If people who consider cheating in a game have to: order, wait for, and setup additional hardware then aquire models trained for the latest version of the game that are also trained on pro play in a way that lets the cheating be humanly plausible to remain undetected; it will reduce the total number of people who cheat in that title. Will needing to aquire additional hardware stop all cheating? No, I had a friend as a kid that owned a GameShark that I used and ended up corrupting the save on one of my Pokemon games. But if all of that is what is required to be able to successfully and consistently cheat, it will raise both the cost of development of cheats as well as their price to cheaters.

For top level professional play, in person tournaments on managed setups will remain the gold standard for the forseeable future (and besides they are attractive as events for their own sake). And for the rest of us, we will continue to be trapped in the labyrinth with both the cat and the mice.

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