[gNewSense-users] Re: [Gnewsense-dev] Lemote Yeelong display as an electronic book reader.

[Ted Smith]

Sending this to gNS-users, because it's far more appropriate than
gNS-dev.

On Thu, 2010-08-12 at 02:16 -0600, Travis King wrote:
> The major issue is eye-fatigue and comfort. I'm not sure if the video
> driver(when working) or ACPI will let it dim the display(or if that
> will have any bearing on this). I saw some xorg.conf files that show
> options for running it at address@hidden, IIRC. All TFT LCDs I've come
> across tell me they're going at 60hz.
> 
You can dim the display. I don't know if this would make reading easier,
since while there wouldn't be as much light in your eyes, you'd have to
work harder to read. A better solution would be installing something
like Redshift[1] or getting some specialized computer glasses[2].

> There are two things that lead me to ask this:
> 
> 1) It would be ideal to only have to deal with mostly one screen in life
> - no cellphone, no television, etc, just the computer.
> 
> 2) Books can be tracked and seen by others. Library checkouts, or
> buying from a store without using just cash anonymously will link the
> materials to you. Even if you do manage to put on a disguise to avoid
> identification and pay in real money, you're not always guaranteed
> to get the text you needed. Then of course you have physical evidence of
> possessing the book -- this can be avoided with disk encryption on a
> computer where you can safely and securely obtain the text.

Right now, it isn't possible to do full-disk encryption at install-time
on the Yeeloong with the gNS installer. This is something that's being
worked on (if you want to help, shoot me an email).

It's also hard to obtain electronic texts in a fully anonymous way, in
my experience, but you are fully correct in that even downloading
something from BitTorrent with no transport encryption and no anonymity
software is probably more anonymous than buying the equivalent text from
a merchant who is legally obligated to log your purchase and report to
the state when asked.

[1] <https://launchpad.net/~jonls/+archive/redshift-ppa> - Redshift is a
GPLv3 program that adjusts the screen temperature based on the time of
day - I haven't found it to be that great for decreasing eye strain, but
some people use it for that, and it's free. It also has a GNOME panel
applet (the binary is named gtk-redshift).

[2] <http://www.gunnars.com/> - this company sells glasses that are
optimized for long periods of computer use. They are amazing. I love
them. They're also expensive, as far as glasses go, but IMHO, it's worth
it. Reviews are mostly good; one site said they were snake oil, but they
do have some obviously beneficial traits, like slightly magnifying the
screen so your eyes don't have to work as hard. If you're willing to
drop $80 or so, this is what you should get.

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