A 50-something French dude that's old enough to think blogs are still cool, if not cooler than ever. I also like to write and to sketch.
I dare say we shared the same bitterness (and anger) in realizing that absurd situation they created. But it also happens I'm getting old, well into my 50s, and have quite a few severe health issues making it an almost certain fact that I won't last indefinitely . Knowing that, I'd rather not waste whatever time I have left dealing with such nonsense. So pirating is not the best option for me but it's certainly not something I would frown upon or discourage anyone from doing if they wanted to.
If you still have all those ebooks and readers, there are ways around all the muck that can give them to you for real.
I do. But I also realized I would never be able to read those ebooks as comfortably without using a device whose behavior (aka what it tracks and reports back to its maker) I can't, or not easily, control. The only way I now read my ebooks is on my Linux computer using the Foliate epub reader (or Calibre, for all other file formats) because I know Linux and Free/libre software/apps are much more trustworthy than anything else. Alas, reading on a computer is often a lot less comfortable than reading a good old printed book that I can easily carry with me and that I can read whenever I'm not working at my desk.
The plot twist is that many students give up once they realize they can't do anything with these alphabets.
Learning any valuable knowledge/know-how requires times and efforts. Be it to learn to write (the art of properly sketching letters: how many months of daily boring repetitive tracing work?), or to walk (how long did it take to most toddlers to learn to stand on their feet, and with how many bumps on their head and diapered bum... I still have a scar I got when I started walking alone), to learn a foreign language, or how to build the next great app/service.
But I insist, I'm an outsider without any understanding of what would be the alphabet/basic grammar in the computing world. I imagine some computing languages are more fundamentals than others but beside that I'm clueless. Hence my question or remark.
Also, it's ok for some people to give up. It is even to be expected (I changed my major after a few month at university, I even changed university). What worries me a lot more is to notice more and more young people refusing to spend the required time and do the actual work of learning, wanting to immediately get to the end result. The thing is that there is no shortcut to learning any new skill, Shortcuts are a lie. And it is us, the older people (I'm well into my 50s) that decided to allow those youngsters to skip that required effort and to not learn patience. And that can't go well... at least, not for very long. It's a mistake that will also cost those young people a lot the moment they get out of school and start competing against other young people that will have properly learned whatever skills they need to get whatever job they are competing for.
Learning basics without proper guidance is disastrous.
100% correct. But isn't guidance what teaching is supposed to be about (aka leading students from a state of ignorance on some subject to a state where they start to understand/know that subject at least a little better), and isn't it what teachers are supposed to be doing during classes (guiding the student)? I mean, what are you (the students) doing during those classes and what are they (the teachers) doing if not that?
I think I understand the point you make, but your last remark about the lack of guidance worries me even more than I usually am regarding the state of our various educative systems, around the world. Being French, I'm much more directly concerned with education in the Western societies but I know it's anything but limited to those Western societies. Alas.
Obviously, I may be completely wrong here, it's just my personal impression but that impression is really that we have given up on readying our new generations for what their about to face as young adults. Which is... not good.
Is it a problem? I mean, isn't it like learning the alphabet, basic grammar and vocabulary before starting to write complete books?
Sorry if this is is a silly question, if that was not obvious I'm not a dev ;)
Allow me to share a personal experience with digital.
I'm well into my 50s and for many years I have been an avid books collector (much into rare editions). In the early 00s, I started reading... ebooks almost exclusively. Because I wanted to make my life much simpler and less focused on materialism. So, save very few books I truly wanted to keep with me I donated my personal library to a charity. And started reading (and purchasing) ebooks.
FF some twenty years later, approx in 2023. I have been reading ebooks almost exclusively.
I kinda like my various Kindles readers, and my iPads too. I'm not 'happy' to own a digital library (I have always loved the book object) but it's so practical there is no discussing it. My entire library used to fill almost all rooms in our home, it can now fit in the palm of my hand. Great. But then, one day I suddenly realize I don't really own the ebooks I purchase on Amazon (Amazon can and is legally allowed to delete them from our devices). WTF? Another day, I realize my ebooks can be remotely updated. So far, I had no issue with books being edited in order to remove typos and stuff like that but that day I realized a book could also be remotely edited to change its content, say to remove a word that would now be considered offensive... Without me having any legal ability to prevent that. So, in order to protect my property, I learn about removing drm. But then I realize all I'm reading habits are also being monitored and tracked by 'my' devices and send back to Amazon or Apple for marketing and data analysis. WTF?
I looked at my digital library and realized it never was mine. Most of those ebooks I had purchased for years on big retail platforms like Amazon and Apple they never were mine. I was merely renting a right to read them (that's not always like that with ebooks purchased on some smaller/independent and DRM-free platforms but the bulk of my purchases were made on Amazon, and then on Apple). Looking at 'my' devices and knowing they were spying on me, I decided this was not the world I wanted to live in. It is something I discuss in more details on my blog, but simply put: upon realizing that I decided to quit reading ebooks almost entirely and move back to print (even for magazines and newspapers). Books I can fully own (no one can remotely delete or edit them from my bookshelves) and that don't spy on me.
And, at last getting back to your point, I did the same with with movies, series and music. I cancelled all my streaming subscriptions, all of them, dusted my old DVDs and CDS, and started purchasing new (or used) discs again to complete it. I'm not a collector anymore, as I strictly limit the size of my personal library, but I have not looked back and do not miss streaming or digital access.
Physical medias are great as they give us full ownership (we can even resell or gave them away), they don't track us, don't spy on us, can't be remotely edited or deleted. They don't require Internet access, nor a monthly subscription.
If you have room to store your tapes somewhere, why not keep them? If you don't, well then it's a question of deciding what is more important to keep in that limited space and tapes can very easily not be that important ;)
edit: clarifications.
It's one of the reasons I decided a while ago to move back from digital to analog (I started using ebooks in the early 00s and have been mostly reading ebooks up 2 or 3 years ago, approx.) for as many things as I was able to, not just reading books.
Physical ownership and 'not-Internet' & 'not-high-tech' dependent medium should be a lot more resilient to any excess of control, surveillance and censorship than anything digital. Plus, baring accidents, all of those analog things will outlive me and my spouse (we're both well into our 50s) and, unlike with digital 'objects', it's very easy for us to make sure those analog objects will end up in the hands of a new owner that will know how to best use them... without anyone having much to say about it.
You mean it is worrisome (sorry, English is not my native language)? If so, it's the intend because I think there is already too many hints pointing out to a (slow?) vanishing of many of those 'options'.
"who would you prefer to spy on you?"
Ebooks can be purchased as well, with a little skill (or reading a tutorial) you can make it undeletable and uneditable as well.
You're quite right (at least it used to be easy, I have not checked for some time how hard it is now to get rid of Apple's and/or Amazon's DRM... the two main DRM-locked ebook sellers), but keep in mind not everybody feels ok to not respect the rules and/or breach the contract they signed. Also there is no need to that at all with printed books.
- public libraries are still there.
- Book (physical) can still be purchased and fully owned, without any risk of them being remotely edited or deleted and without nay tracking of our reading habits.
- Walking is still free, without any subscription required.
- It is still legal to turn off one's phone.
- I love my spouse at least as much as I loved her when we first met almost 30 years ago. And, yep, she seems to kinda like me too ;)
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The spark just tends to fade for me,
What are your thoughts on that?
I see no issue in that but then why marry knowing that you're not much into a lifelong/long term union? If I may ask that as a dude myself, well into my 50s that has happily been sharing my life for almost 30 years and counting with the same person. One again, I see no issue into divorcing, I just wonder why you insist(ed) on getting married more than once?
but she’s hesitant because of my history.
You divorced five times already. If you were in her shoes, wouldn't you imagine you could very easily be the sixth one? I would ;)
However when it comes to reading anything it often takes me twice as long, just a meme with text or anything.
If I don’t concentrate on it I miss words or like an Ai hallucination I put random words into the sentence or muddle them around making things often hilarious for myself until I re read the text to get the actual meaning.
If you don't have any medical issue (like, say, a need for glasses to compensate for your poor eyesight maybe? Or maybe you're being dyslexic?) I would question your reading habits. And be assured that this has nothing to do with how smart you are, or anyone else.
You can easily measure how slow you are compared to other people around you and if it happens you're much slower than they are without any medical explanation I would ask if reading is something you regularly do, or not, and if you have ever been taught how to actually read... properly? It's a serious (and non-judgmental question, bear with my lacking English here).
I mean, one just don't magically learn how to read one day while growing up. It's a 100% learned skill, and a real difficult one at that. It's also a lot of practice and the more one reads the better one becomes at it, the less one reads... it's like learning a foreign language.
I'm well into my 50s and I've been reading since I was a little boy. I read every single day but I'm not a 'gifted' reader, far from it. I just have been taught how to properly do it and enjoy it (reducing the amount of effort required) and, as a child, I was required to read by my teachers at school as well as, a lot more as a matter of fact, by my grandfather and by my dad. I was literally required to read books. And then I was also lucky enough to have the opportunity to read great books and authors, and to see those adults around me always reading books and use them as the incredibly powerful tools and weapons they are. It quickly stop being a requirement for me to read, it became something I wanted to do.
Seeing how little kids nowadays are expected to be reading at school (if at all? Are we now at the point where some teachers will encourage kids to read the summary of a book instead of the book itself?), and seeing how seldom most of those kids will see any adult person around them ever open a book, it's no wonder reading is quickly becoming a lost art. And it's no wonder reading for most of those younger people is much harder than it's supposed to be.
Imo, it's also no wonder there are so much resources spend to distract those kids to ever become fluent readers... but that's a whole other discussion.
If you're in that situation (obviously, I have no idea), the good new is that you can easily change that. You just need to start reading more, and more regularly. And you need to be patient before you start seeing a meaningful change.
Are there specific topics or genres you're interested in reading? If so, you can go to your local library and ask the librarians there if they would be able to suggest some books in that genre. Even better, if you have no idea yet on what you may be interested in reading, you can as easily go to your local library and explain your librarian you would like to start reading more and have no idea where to start. They should be more than happy to welcome and help a new reader find their bearings :)
- To not feel the need to stay connected to social media.
- To not have an opinion on everything and on everyone.
For years I had been using a private blog with friends. It was easy to comment on anyone's post, and easy for anyone of us to create a new post ;)
Most stuff at our home are analog and/or physical (be it documents, the few photos we care to keep, books, even movies and music are on DVDs and CDs). For digital files (including copies of whatever analog stuff we wish to make a backup of it):
- Good old plain files. As much as possible, I will use standard file formats (aka no proprietary ones, as I want to be sure I'll be free to quickly and easily move from any app and/or OS to another, like I did after almost 40 years using Apple moving to GNU/Linux)
- No zip or compression. Plain copies on encrypted external drives (note the plural) and also a remote backup on an encrypted cloud storage that I use for archive purpose only, I use another cloud services for the storage of 'active' files. Both those clouds are EU-based and independent from the GAFAM (I'd rather spend my money with local businesses). They're the German Filen.io (for encrypted archival), and the Swiss Infomaniak Kdrive for active files.
- Local backups are done using rsync, while remote ones using their own dedicated apps because it does the job and I never bothered testing something else ;)
- Backups directory structure is an exact copy of my working directory structure. In case I need to restore something I can then easily find it, and when I need to restore the entire backups, it's just a matter of rsync-ing it back, which is real quick.
- I don't use different services for different type of files.
- Legal papers, contracts,... We keep them as long as it's necessary (ore required by law) then we toss them without any any worries. the print version and the digital one. Same with receipt. Since all my files are names based on the date of creation it's easy to remove whatever becomes obsolete.
- abandoned projects are trashed _the moment I decide they have no obvious use and won't have in the future. But since any projetc I work on can last for many years, I seldom 'trash' anything after I started working on it instead I will mercilessly prune out most 'good ideas' and 'maybe' only keeping what's truly worth my time.
Edit: typos + missing link.
I could not tell the greatest (as far as I'm concerned, I would say it would be loosing my spouse but that's also completely subjective and personal: she is at least as amazing as a human being today as when we first met almost 30 years ago). But I can easily tell you what I think is the most dramatic tragedy, or the one having the most dramatic consequences for oneself as well as for the entire society around them.
It is to not read books. To never feed one's brains with new and/or opposing thoughts. To waste one's live trapped in a tiny bubble of certainties.
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(50+ years old married dude speaking from France, just so you know)
I don't know if this can help you feel better about that test but if I was your boyfriend's father I can assure it would not be about you specifically. Not at all. I mean, as much I can observe what's going on with young (and with not so young) people around us and even more so on social media, there is a lot of... let's just say there is a lot of lying everywhere (and no, I'm not blaming girls specifically as it takes two people to make love). So, just to be 100% sure, I would suggest my boy to have that test done it would not matter how much I may already appreciate you as a person and as his girlfriend, there is just too much at stake. I would suggest him to have that test done but I would also respect his decision to ask for it or to not to ask for it.
Wishing you the best, if doesn't sound too bizarre coming from a complete stranger ;)
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- Read (books require no Internet, not a e-reader if you load books before leaving)
- Write, sketch, paint. Play music.
- Long walks, sightseeing, visiting stuff
- Play board-games
- Make sure they have a backup of all data and files that matter to them. Shit can happen and you don't want that.
- Make sure they realize Linux is not a free version of Windows or macOS. It's something new and like with anything new it will require some time getting used to it.
Opensource is not much about ethics, it's mostly about being practical/pragmatist. For ethics (aka, ideology) you may want to consider reading more about GNU philosophy which, as a non-dev myself, is the main reason why I switched from Mac to GNU/Linux a few years ago. Also, Richard Stallman, the founder of GNU, has published a few books whose PDF are available for free (printed version are not free).
You can't do without whatever it is you need, you can do without whatever it is you want.
I want to read that specific book but I need to be able to read.
At the most fundamentals, we need very little: food, shelter and then to be able to reproduce. But there are other 'needs', those would just be the true basic ones.