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Poor man's external camera monitor

Why spend money on an expensive external HDMI monitor for your camera when an Android device together with the right mix of cables and adapters can do the trick? Of course, if you are doing professional work that requires dedicated tools, then a proper external monitor justifies the expense. For the rest of us mere mortals, though, a slightly less elegant but inexpensive solution would do the job just fine.

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Introducing Gufo

I've decided to get filthy rich by starting my own search engine. I mean, if Google and Microsoft can pull it off, so can I, right? And like any great artist, I started with stealing forking an existing project.

So far, I've been taking the code apart to learn how it works, removing stuff I don't need, and tweaking the overall appearance to my liking. Basically, because I don't know what I'm doing most of the time, I've been pulling an Elon Musk: I'd remove a chunk of code and check if the thing still works. Despite my efforts, the thing does seem to work, so ladies and gentlemen, I give you Gufo.

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KOReader: language learner's trusty companion

Framing language learning as a fun gamified activity apparently works well when you're in the app subscription business, but the jury is still out on whether you can actually reach a reasonable level of language proficiency using an app as your main tool. Me? I'm old school: give me a decent text book, a dictionary, plus something to read, and I'm good to go.

There is, though, something else I added to my language learning toolbox not so long ago: a Kobo Libra 2 with KOReader installed on it. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that this combo has taken language learning to a whole new level.

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Weekend reading: "Why not mars" edition