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Never Missing the Train Again

lilymara.xyz

11–20 of 147 posts

Re: Never Missing the Train Again

#12

You don't have to jailbreak your Kindle, or render images. You can just point its web browser at any webpage you design, and disable the Kindle's "screensaver" (its ads or sleep screen) with debug commands [1, 2]. You'll be stuck with a browser bar along some edge of the Kindle (you can rotate the device orientation to put it at the bottom or right edge), but it's a small price to pay for being able to write your wea…

It would be even cooler if Amazon also encouraged and built a "Kiosk mode" browser view of the kindle for this sort of display hacking.

(author here) I've also been thinking about this - I've since built out a Rust library (https://github.com/lily-mara/kindling) for scaffolding the server piece of this and I've been considering creating a Kindle client app that integrates with it. This is possible but would require using the Kindle Java SDK, which does not fill me with excitement.

Re: Never Missing the Train Again

#13

You don't have to jailbreak your Kindle, or render images. You can just point its web browser at any webpage you design, and disable the Kindle's "screensaver" (its ads or sleep screen) with debug commands [1, 2]. You'll be stuck with a browser bar along some edge of the Kindle (you can rotate the device orientation to put it at the bottom or right edge), but it's a small price to pay for being able to write your wea…

I looked into this with my 4th generation Kindle; it seems like it won't be able to use any HTTPS website due to invalid certificate. However, setting it up to talk to a server on my local network would be the way to go. Thanks for the idea!

Re: Never Missing the Train Again

#14

A. "Busses" should be "buses", I think? Or am I stepping into a holy war... Maybe it's a British vs American English thing, but a quick look says that Merriam-Webster agrees. Maybe it's a choice by the author, in which case, fair enough. If I was the author, I'd prefer knowing, anyway. B. Super cool article! I've an old Nook somewhere being neglected which I am now moving up my list of devices to do some messing with…

Yeah, IMO the plural noun is "buses", while "busses" is a conjugated verb, ex:

"When the regular buses aren't running, he busses people around in the minivan."

Re: Never Missing the Train Again

#15

A. "Busses" should be "buses", I think? Or am I stepping into a holy war... Maybe it's a British vs American English thing, but a quick look says that Merriam-Webster agrees. Maybe it's a choice by the author, in which case, fair enough. If I was the author, I'd prefer knowing, anyway. B. Super cool article! I've an old Nook somewhere being neglected which I am now moving up my list of devices to do some messing with…

[deleted]

Re: Never Missing the Train Again

#16
post #8

You don't have to jailbreak your Kindle, or render images. You can just point its web browser at any webpage you design, and disable the Kindle's "screensaver" (its ads or sleep screen) with debug commands [1, 2]. You'll be stuck with a browser bar along some edge of the Kindle (you can rotate the device orientation to put it at the bottom or right edge), but it's a small price to pay for being able to write your wea…

I am almost certain disable screensaver was removed for later Kindles.

I didn't seem to be last I checked -- the older Kindles require the sequence:

  ;debugOn
  ~disableScreensaver
  ;debugOff
while newer ones only require:

  ~ds
I know that for some ad-supported Kindles it doesn't work unless you pay to remove the ads (for obvious reasons), but if you pay then it will.

But last I checked was a couple of years ago. I'd be very curious if anyone can report it not working. (Also note the command doesn't survive reboot, you have to re-disable after rebooting.)

Re: Never Missing the Train Again

#17
Not to diminish OP’s project, but the stated goal of “know when each transit line has an upcoming train/tram/bus” is probably already achieved by https://transitapp.com/ - the default view when you open the app is a list of nearby transit lines, sorted by distance and showing the next departure for each.

Re: Never Missing the Train Again

#18
post #14

A. "Busses" should be "buses", I think? Or am I stepping into a holy war... Maybe it's a British vs American English thing, but a quick look says that Merriam-Webster agrees. Maybe it's a choice by the author, in which case, fair enough. If I was the author, I'd prefer knowing, anyway. B. Super cool article! I've an old Nook somewhere being neglected which I am now moving up my list of devices to do some messing with…

Yeah, IMO the plural noun is "buses", while "busses" is a conjugated verb, ex: "When the regular buses aren't running, he busses people around in the minivan."

The OED says that "busses" is an acceptable plural in American English (I haven't read the article though, so I don't know what dialect the author speaks/writes).

Re: Never Missing the Train Again

#19
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, IMO the plural noun is "buses", while "busses" is a conjugated verb, ex: "When the regular buses aren't running, he busses people around in the minivan."

The OED says that "busses" is an acceptable plural in American English (I haven't read the article though, so I don't know what dialect the author speaks/writes).

> You might see the plural busses, but that form is so rare that it seems like an error to many people. [...] When the word bus was new, the two plurals were in competition, but buses overtook busses in frequency in the 1930s, and today is the overwhelming choice of writers and editors.

-- https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/plural-of-bus

Went ahead and used Google Ngram viewer to show the popularity difference, with some context-words to ensure it's comparing cases where a plural noun is being used:

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=the+busses%2C+...

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=multiple+busse...

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=took+buses%2C+...

Re: Never Missing the Train Again

#20
If you want a transportation app built for locals I highly recommend Transit. When you open the app it shows you the transit options closest to you, where they’re heading, and when the next one arrives. Never have to put in a destination.
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