Replies

@kitt Black tie and tails required. :-)

@simonwoods It is a great release! Well done @manton And thanks for bringing in off MB webmentions too. Unfortunately, I don't think it's working for me. Many months ago I added Intensedebate and another JS to that template and it looks like those have blocked it. Fudge.

I'll wait a bit longer. Sometimes it takes awhile for changes to show up.

@bix That was it. I'm the opposite, I like the heavier consistancy. It's good we have some choices!

@bix Funny, I tried almond but it was just sort of okay. Preferred soy. I generally don't eat cold cereal in the winter so I haven't been paying attention for a few months, when I went to the market the soy milks had been swept aside and replaced by oatmilks. Try as I might, I'm just never - fashionable. :-)

@AndySylvester Without being alarmist, I think it wise to quietly prepare. Most of the stuff like food, will eventually get used up if it's not needed.

@odd I read a nonfiction book about a British spy during World War II. He'd spent most of his youth sailing the coast of Norway. H'd made many lifelong friends and could speak the many local dialects fluently, so he could pass himelf off as a native. When the war came British intelligence sent him back and he with the help of his Norwegian contacts were able to report on German troop and naval movements.

I guess back in those days the villages in each fijord had their own dialect?

@numericcitizen Guilty. Every once in awhile I have a clearing out, but the truth is a lot of apps stay on my devices way too long.

@RossA It's a tough choice for governments everywhere: they don't want panic so they tell people to just carry on, yet by carrying on the pandemic might spread.

@eli Cute! I like it that your cat is inductively charging your phone. That's handy. :-)

@petebrown I don't think I've encountered that yet. It would drive me nuts.

@simonwoods Oh that is great news!

@bix My hunch is it will be Kobo. Somehow. B&N as a Big Box bookstore chain was never considered a friend of indie booksellers plus they aren't doing so well in the ebook market. That leaves Kobo, which has held their own and has a broad catalog of both big publishing house books and non-DRM'd books by small publishers.

@bix I just saw that Bookshop intends to partner with an ebook retailer by March 2020. That will be interesting.

@patrickrhone Ebooks are tricky, with the ereader hardware locking the user into one store. That's why I have both a Kindle and Kobo readers because I decided I was becoming too reliant on Amazon.

I did notice Kobo also has an affiliate program.

@bix Also interesting: Bookshop charged me for shipping but did not charge sales tax. Standard shipping was not like $3.50 with arrival in 4 - 7 days. Express shipping was more with ETA of 2 - 3 days.

Not complaining but after being an Amazon Prime member for so long it was a bit of a shock. You get spoiled.

@simonwoods Hive looks like a good find. Nice site.

@bix I ordered a book through Bookshop. I wanted to see the flow of the shopping cart which was fine. Second test, fullfillment speed.

@bix Thanks! The Indiebound site is not exactly transparent. Especially on their affiliate program which is a big red flag to me. Whereas, Bookshop's site was very up front in disclosure.

@bix Really? I didn't pick that up from the Indiebound site.

@patrickrhone I commend you for changing and you have me thinking about doing it too. It stikes me that Indiebound.org works well near urban centers which have participating booksellers. Bookshop.org might be better for people in suburbia and the sticks with no participating bookstores nearby.

So many books are now published direct to ebook only. Do you have any thoughts on the whole Amazon and the ebooks question?

@Cheri Smart move. I think that is just being prudent. Let's just say one has to voluntarily isolate themselves and family during an outbreak for 3 weeks.

• Food, canned goods, coffee, tea. It won't go to waste you will use it up eventually.
• Medicine cabinet: aspirin, cough medicine, to treat flu like symptoms at home. Plus basic first aid stuff. Facial tissues.
• Dog and cat food. Kitty litter.
• Diapers if needed.
• Some new board games and/or a new role playing game or two.
• I suggest buying a small battery operated AM/FM/Shortwave radio plus extra batteries. These are not very expensive and it's worth being able to get information (BBC and CBC shortwave, etc.) independent of the grid.
• Little bottles of hand santizer you can carry in a pocket should you have to go out on a supply run.
• Toilet paper.

None of this is wasted money, the stuff will get used up eventually, so if they are not needed you are really not out anything.

I think we all missed the boat on N95 type face masks for now, most are made in China so who knows when they will again become available.

I know it sounds paranoid, but I went through the 1967 snow storm that hit Chicago. I won't bore you with a long story but it was like two weeks before a huge front end loader came and cleared the drifts from the streets of our subdivision so we were truely stuck.

@Bruce I'm a little shaky at writing cursive anymore too since I type so much. But I still pay my bills with checks so I get a little practice. But I can read cursive just fine.

@martinfeld The thing to remember about the US is that the nation is built on ideology, not ancient tribal boundaries like Europe. We very often don't live up to the ideals of the ideology but it is deeply ingrained which explains the reaction in the room. // @Bruce

@odd They were very popular in the US/Canada. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inte...

@jack

@odd @jack My best guess is it's an IH Farmall.