Software Endorsements

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Palmer Bangs said:
+1 Sennheiser. MassDrop has them for a good sale price usually: https://drop.com/buy/massdrop-sennheiser-hd6xx

These "6xx"s are basically Sennheiser 650's for a fraction of the price.

"Hifiman" headphones sound nice and full the one time I tried them. I'm not a huge fan of Audio Technica because they fit my head weird.
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Another bonus for Sennheiser, their customer support is awesome, or at least was a few years ago. I had a pair of Sennheisers for years and when they stopped working properly I sent them back for (free) repairs. They came back working but failed completely soon after so Sennheiser gave me a massive discount (several hundred dollars) on a new pair of headphones. I still kind of can't believe that happened.
 
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Dabbling into VR made me discover quite a few cool FOSS software/hardware project that everyone should take notice. Be warned, they're good stuff made by the hands of THE T.R.A.N.N.I.E.S.

These covers nice things such as full-body, eye and mouth tracking. Since theyre both involves open-source software, I feel I can post them here without worries.

SlimeVR - Cheap body tracking for the masses​

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This is the equivalent of strapping wiimotes on your body. Quite small, cheap to manufacture (as well as DIYing) and their software integrates very well into SteamVR. Their dev teams are very SJW though, but it's like if Hitler made the best damn tool for the job, you'll just use it in spite of that. See it as "appropriating" gaynigger hardware.
https://slimevr.dev/

EyetrackVR (and Babble) - Cheap (and janky) DIY eye/mouth tracking​

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Basically a set of software, hardware and firmware for ESP32 microcontrollers. You can link a few IR lights with a few cameras and a 3d printed case, connect the microcontrollers to your PC and integrate eyetracking into your games.

Bigscreen Beyond manufacturer's youtube channel showcased the project with their very own VR headset:

Babble is the sister project/fork from EyetrackVR, either came from a disagreement of the leadership or goals. This is meant for tracking mouth movement and is heavily based on EyetrackVR's work.

Either way check them out, they're both very cool piecse of FOSS tech:
https://docs.eyetrackvr.dev/
https://docs.babble.diy/
 
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I'm looking for a simple (preferably offline) e-book reader for Windows. It can be free or paid, but nothing subscription based. I'm very fussy when it comes to particular things:
  • It must look visually appealing. I don't want a dated UI or something retro-feeling. I want something clean, with a simple, inoffensive colour scheme. Something easy on the eyes.
  • It has to function as well as it gets for e-book readers.
  • No advertisements. No popups.
What I currently use:

Icecream e-book reader (pro) https://icecreamapps.com/Ebook-Reader/
This one's as excellent as I could ask for from an aesthetics approach. It comes with a few themes (light/dark/sepia). Books are organised into simple categories and it's very easy to import and remove them. Fonts have a few clean options and are resizable.

The dark mode is unusable. It doesn't change font colour. The settings don't allow changing the font colour either.

Minor Nitpicks:
The categories are a tad simple and don't allow for sub-folders or even a panel to view all the categories easily. Every shelf is a simple folder listed on the left panel of the application.

Small window can sometimes cut-off large images like the cover art and append it to the next page.

It's really limited on what it can do for an e-reader.
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Google Play Books (what I use on Mobile)
Better than Icecream because it actually changes to a font colour that contrasts the theme. Has what I want from a settings perspective.

Has advertisements. Not natively available on desktop.
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Others I've looked into:

Calibre e-book reader
Ugly.

Sumatra PDF reader
Ugly.

EpubReader (custom) https://github.com/mignaway/EpubReader
Highly WIP. Limited functionality and customisability. Dark mode doesn't change font colour. 1-man passion project that ended up worse than existing free options. Not expecting anything in the way of major development anytime soon.

Freda e-book reader
Windows 10/Xbox UI and theme. Ugly.

Kobo desktop app https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/p/desktop
Tablet-oriented. Not for me. Advertisement hell.

Bookviser
Windows 10 UI. Ugly.

Bibliovore
I can't find a download link for it. Seems to have been discontinued years ago and pulled from everywhere. Very different style compared to everything else so I wanted to try it out for myself...

Based on the few cached images I could find it'd probably be unsuited.
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Thorium (version 3.0)
Pleasant UI. Clean, free and ad-free. Lots of useful customisations, and the dark themes actually change the font colour to contrast well. Font types can be anything installed. Has useful mathematic tools and stuff to help make poorly formatted formulas readable.

The reader settings are applied to each book independently. Every new book needs re-adjusting. There's no easy way to organise books into categories. Tags are a thing but applying tags is done one at a time and has to be typed out in full every-single-time. It's a chore. To use an installed font you have to type it out in full for every book. The software doesn't save previous or existing fonts outside of the handful of default ones bundled with it. There's no easy way to view sub-categories. It has a filter for tags. That's it.
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Aquile Reader
Windows 10 UI. Ugly.

Neat Reader
UI looks clean. Probably the most pleasant reading experience out of the box.

Seems to have all the features I want, however; just about everything but the barebones is locked behind an account login or paywall. I haven't tried the premium version. Longest second in the world to close the book.
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After exploring all of those I've concluded Thorium's the best alternative to Icecream, yet even that's got some annoyances.
If I've missed something or if you've got a better recommendation, please tag me.
 
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Magicat said:
e-book reader for Windows
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Unfortunately ebook readers for Windows just tend to be quite lacking in one way or another. I read anything longer than several pages on my iPad.

⠠⠠⠅⠑⠋⠋⠁⠇⠎ ⠠⠠⠊⠎ ⠠⠠⠁ ⠠⠠⠋⠁⠛ said:
Calibre
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I used this for quite some time and while it usually renders ePubs quite well, the UI leaves something to be desired, and it's bloated and slow. Sure, you can fullscreen it when actually reading, but interacting with it in any other capacity is annoying. It's unfortunate, since it's loaded with features and settings, and would be the best option if the developers could get the UI right and reduce the bloat.
 
⠠⠠⠅⠑⠋⠋⠁⠇⠎ ⠠⠠⠊⠎ ⠠⠠⠁ ⠠⠠⠋⠁⠛ said:
Just use Calibre nigga. Surely you're doing this in full-screen anyway, no?

Have you tried Calibre-web? It seems to have all that gay web shit if you're some kind of web app pervert.
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Windowed half the time.

Calibre looks like BitTorrent and WinRAR's autistic abortion from the 2000s. I'm not using that shit for reading e-books. When will FOSS niggers watch some episodes of Art Attack for some inspiration instead of recycling the same shitty UI over and over.

I specifically mentioned that one knowing it'd be the first recommendation like it is on Reddit.
 
postfeetpls said:
What's the opinion on Arc browser around here?
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I saw this today and thought you might be interested: https://zen-browser.app/
browsers.iOx7zS8P_Z2uWYk9.webp
Similar idea to Arc but based on Firefox (hopefully a build that doesn't shit bricks on your PC), available on every OS worth a damn, doesn't require you to use an account, and still actively developed unlike Arc whose company is now trying to pivot to some AI bullshit leaving Arc to languish.
 
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Flaming Dumpster said:
I saw this today and thought you might be interested: https://zen-browser.app/
View attachment 6834025
Similar idea to Arc but based on Firefox (hopefully a build that doesn't shit bricks on your PC), available on every OS worth a damn, doesn't require you to use an account, and still actively developed unlike Arc whose company is now trying to pivot to some AI bullshit leaving Arc to languish.
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This looks great, thank you! Will give it a try right away, love new browsers.
Turns out the company behind Arc is a real shitshow. They released the Windows version and pretty much left it at that. No more big updates, 80% of the functionality on Mac release is missing from Windows, no plans for mobile or Linux last I checked. As you mentioned, the AI bullshit they're focusing on now, because of course they are. Stock price grows relative to how many times "AI" is mentioned in docs, talks and streams.

edit: Damn that's a nice browser.
 
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