Camera, code, coffee

A while ago, I bought a ThinkPad X380 Yoga. I saw it on eBay, it was cheap, and I've never really tried a convertible laptop before. So I thought, Why the heck not? When the machine arrived, I promptly installed Linux Mint on it.

Everything worked out of the box, including display rotation and touch screen. I tried the pen, and it worked too. And while I thought it was rather neat, I wasn't immediately sold on the whole poke-your-screen-with-a-pointy-plastic-thing idea. But the more I use the machine, the more I appreciate the concept.

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.