ashrk

I think mine's Braun? Its only extra feature is that it buzzes a bit when you should switch quadrants, then several times when you've done enough (just a simple timer). I'm usually lazy/rushed and only do half a "cycle" and my teeth feel like I've just had a dentist's cleaning, just about all the time. They make Bluetooth enabled ones and all kinds of other BS, but I don't care about any of that. Wasn't expensive, I think $40-50 and I've had it a couple years. Little wireless charging base you place it on, batteries last enough for a few days though if you're taking a short trip and don't want to take the base, and the failure mode if they die is that you still have a normal toothbrush. You do have to replace the brush part every so often, Costco carries big packs of them and I think there are third party ones available cheaper.

Oh boy. I'm the kind of person who very well might push a "permanently un-invent the Internet" button if you put one in front of me, but electric toothbrushes are so ZOMGWTF better than the manual kind. Seeing one on the "can't use" pile made me twitch. I'd pay $500 for one if that's what a base model cost (it isn't, fortunately). Even if they broke after a couple years (they don't, mostly). Solidly in the list of stuff I can't believe I haven't been using my whole life, and that is so good I can't believe they're not nigh-universal, at least in places with reliable electricity.

Good point, and the thing that might finally convert me (and just keep me from reading whole categories of books at all, as a consequence) in (hopefully very) old age.

[EDIT] to be clear, I'd love for e-readers to actually achieve enough of the important features of physical books that I could mostly switch over. I'd probably hold on to a few real books but I'd happily ditch 90+% of them if they weren't a better interface for their particular content, in ways that really do matter, than ebooks. Color, higher resolution, and probably at least two screens per device (or one foldable screen I guess) would be required to even take a realistic stab at that, though.

Then again there's no way I'd pay new-ebook (only kind) prices for all the books I have. I could slowly start converting, though, if they were good enough. It's a features thing, not (entirely) a nostalgia thing.

> - You can arrange your books chronologically, by author, and other ways on e-book readers, at least the Kindle you can.

I'm aware of "sort by" but it does not achieve the same effect at all. My "screen" is the size of all my shelves and all the books are on that display at the same time. I can realistically take in the layout of maybe two hundred books at a time in one "view" (without physically moving) and I can engage spatial memory for recall. Not limited to six covers or a list of a dozen titles at a time whatever a given digital interface shows, with no fixed physical layout in space for any of it. The word "effectively" in my original post was intended to qualify out a simple "sort by" and limited digital view of a list or tiled covers, which is barely related to what I'm talking about as far as what it accomplishes.

> - Switching the book on your reader doesn't remove your reading history of the previous book. You can always switch back to a different book and it will be at the same location you left it.

Did I write that this wasn't the case? Though I do dislike using the OK-by-ereader-standards menus on my Nook enough that I try not to touch them more than necessary.

> - You have it the wrong way around for price. E-books are majority of the time cheaper than regular books. Also, almost all classic books are available for free through e-books.

Has not been my experience. Cheaper than new, yes. Cheaper than used? Rarely. Used popular fiction paperbacks or pop-business books (again, only ones that aren't badly crippled on an e-ink interface) are really, really cheap.

Free public domain classics are great and I've read a few, but books old enough to be free usually benefit strongly from additional, newer material—introductions, footnotes, and so on, often still covered by copyright. If in translation, the best translation(s) are often not yet out of copyright, and besides, the presence of additional, recent scholarship is even more useful for works in translation. If I'm gonna bother to read War and Peace I'm going to read the version (in English) that strikes me as best, even if I have to pay $6-7 for a used copy or something, because I'm going to be putting a lot of hours into it and may well never read a different version, ever. Project Gutenberg doesn't always (often does not) cut it, as much as I appreciate them.

- While reading the book on a Kindle, you can click the menu button and it says the Title and Author of the book.

I know I can look it up. This is about starting to talk about what I'm reading then realizing I can't remember who wrote it because I'm not seeing their name in large print every time I pick it up, every time I look at the table it's sitting on even if I'm not reading it just then, and maybe also at the top of every other page. It's automatic—almost unavoidable—with a paper book.

Down sides to e-books:

- Reading them sucks except on e-ink screens, for a variety of reasons, including that screens shut off while you're using them, the glow and eye strain, battery life of such devices, distractions, and more.

- E-ink devices aren't great at: footnotes, keeping a finger in an index/end-notes page (generally, bouncing between multiple reference pages), and so on. They're fine for contemporary fiction and that's about it. [edit] big example: only one page visible at a time. Two-page layouts can be practically necessary for many (mostly non-fiction) books, but even in fiction having more text available to look back at can be really nice.

- Physical books are a memory aid—I often forget the title and author of e-books I'm reading because I don't see the cover or spine or top-of-page notations, and spatial memory kicks in for certain things as far as depth-into-book and location-on-page. An edge case, but sometimes I have to locate a book by size and spine color.

- Personal effort that's probably not common, but most of my books are arranged chronologically by (often approximate) date of author's first major work, making the shelves themselves a learning tool. I've not seen a digital equivalent to a book shelf that does anything like this effectively, and certainly it wouldn't be there all the time in the room for passive absorption when you're not actively engaged in browsing.

- They're also often cheaper than ebooks if you're not just pirating those. Used books are pretty cheap, and you can recover (usually only a little, admittedly) money from them if you get rid of them. Used fiction paperbacks can be so cheap they're effectively disposable.

In ebooks favor, they're incredibly space and weight saving and they're searchable, and those are definitely big points in their favor. But if I'm going to go to the trouble of reading anything other than contemporary fiction or very skimmable/low-value non fiction (think: popular business books) I'm going to want a real book, so I can take advantage of the features of real books, not for smell or feel or whatever.

[another edit] oh and you can leave several currently-reading books around the house without having to buy several $100-200 devices (wait why isn't my book on this one anymore? Oh one of the kids picked it up and changed it to Wind in the Willows, hold on, gotta go to the menu...) or go grab your e-reader from the other room or whatever. Ebooks may win for overall convenience, but they don't take it without giving up a couple goals to physical books.

> Garmin devices use Monkey, which is their own Java like language.

"Monkey C" (name apparently chosen only for the pun) didn't strike me as especially Java-like when I used it, and given the memory constraints placing such a low limit on the practical max size of Garmin watch applications, that it was OO at all seemed more a hindrance than an aid. I kept wishing it was just C, and I'm not even that good at C.

See also: Dead Homer Society, if you prefer reading.

https://deadhomersociety.com/zombiesimpsons/

Pretty compelling argument for the end of the golden age being season 9, maybe 11 or 12 if you're being very generous, including analysis of writer and other personnel changes, and an attempt at explaining what exactly is different about the earlier seasons compared with the later ones.

Seems like the video's making similar points.

The first of the "increasingly frequent financial crises", I should think, is what's intended. Not the first one period. Not to defend that point—my background is little help here—but I think yours is a misreading.