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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 17th, 2023

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  • I got started with RSS using a TUI program on unix, whose name I forget. But then Google came out with Reader (and Listen for podcasts). When they lost interest and dropped them, I exported my OPML and switched to apps I could find on f-droid. Now I back up my OPML scrupulously and am currently happy with Feeder and Antennapod; Google taught me I didn’t want to depend on someone else’s server for something like this; it’s too important. If ever I find I want some feature that requires a server, I’ll self-host something (Nextcloud?), but I seem to be well enough served by purely local clients.





  • I’ve got three soft keyboards enabled on my phone, to choose between as needed.

    Unexpected Keyboard is my default; it’s a perfectly cromulent basic keyboard, that makes all the punctuation, ctrl/fn/esc available for comfy shell work.

    When I need to type in non-ascii characters like accented letters, I have AnySoft available. And pwsafe has a soft keyboard in it to let me avoid passing my (exceedingly hard to type, long random) passwords through the clipboard.

    I used to have Hacker’s Keyboard in the mix, but Unexpected Keyboard has made it unnecessary.


  • bet@lemm.eetoAndroid@lemmy.worldText editor with sort functionality
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    1 year ago

    With “Unexpected Keyboard” (from f-droid) it’s ok. I’ve come to expect that there’s a basic choice between easy, with GUI, and powerful (like “sort a region of lines”), which is only GUI if you’ve got a powerful GUI, like plan 9. Otherwise, powerful means keyboard-driven.

    When I’ve got a long, complex edit, I’ve got a nice, pocket-size, battery-powered folding bluetooth keyboard; combined with the kickstands on my phone cases, it is pretty good.





  • bet@lemm.eetoAndroid@lemdro.idDo you run a Custom ROM?
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    1 year ago

    I run LineageOS on my Nexus 6, to get ongoing security updates. I also keep one other sacrificial phone running stock android with bootloader locked, so no more security updates, but I don’t run anything on it but my banking app, since it’s too insecure.



  • since podcasts are I think just RSS feeds of audio files (mp3 for those I’ve checked) the ads aren’t in any way marked in the stream. The only thing I’ve found is adjusting the skip buttons in antennapod so that skip fwd does 10 seconds, and back does 5; that seems to let me avoid listening to most of the ad; tap fwd until it’s back in material, then back once.

    But I listen to a lot less podcasts; if I want hands- and eyes-free material I’m more likely to use TTS in my (text) RSS feed reader of choice, currently Feeder.




  • If what you want is the recorded performance of someone reading a book, then yeah, librivox for legal audiobooks, and other commentors have other amswers that are on-topic. But DRM-free ebooks — text things, like epubs — can be read aloud by good ereader apps. I like Moon+ Reader Pro from Google Play, and Cool Reader from f-droid. For me, the emotionless robotic reading of TTS engines is more like a hands- and eyes-free way to enjoy the author’s words as written; I find listening to someone performing an audio reading of the book a different experience.

    Before ebook reader apps learned about TTS I used to take my txt ebooks, feed them through flite (Festival Lite), then convert the resulting audio to ogg vorbis and load them on an iRiver PMP to play during long drives.


  • after Google shut down Reader, I took my OPML (list of subscriptions), and switched to a FOSS local RSS reader; import my OPML and carry on. I’ve switched software occasionally; right now I’m happy with Feeder (from f-droid).

    Getting my news is something I care about too much to entrust to someone’s server; I’m happy with it purely local.