TBH I don’t know that much. If it is a wider ribbon (40-50 pins), it is parallel RGB (5 or 6 bits per color, clock, power, etc). But for 10 pin cable, it probably uses some protocol to communicate.

Since it’s from a vape, it has to be widely available. I would find the model number (even look for similar LCDs on ali or ebay), then find the specs/datasheet/documentation - it should specify which pin is which and what voltages and signals they expect.

Gotta love feature creep. Music was not enough, let’s add podcasts, then add audiobooks, then add videos, now physical books.

Just to add:

Various cheap LCD panels can be repurposed using a $10-20 driver from Ali or eBay.

Red LED 8-segment displays from old alarm clocks - fun to use for any other purpose using a microcontroller.

I think it was an old toaster I got a nice slide variable resistor from.

Precise (but weak) stepper assembly from old CD/DVD drives.

Standard cords from any appliance. Nice high-current switches.

Some old keyboards (especially programmable ones) have a DIP chip, if you are into building keyboards.

Station Eleven takes place over a decade after a catastrophe, and has an unusual accepting-optimistic tone to it. Since it has been so long, people mellowed out, communities are slowly rebuilding (and rediscovering technology), and although there are some weirdos, it’s not the stereotypical Mad Max post-apocalypse.

IIRC Twitter introduced using # to make words searchable across all of the tweets, hence the name.

Steve Jobs invented the smartphone, Bill Gates invented the internet, and Google has been there from the beginning.

/s

Free People’s Village by Sim Kern is on my shelf, haven’t read it yet. The premise is that history went differently in 1990s and US is now a solarpunk utopia… For the rich.

Makes perfect sense. This comment just made me realize English does not have a distinction between order and request. While, for example, in Russian, orders are said in indefinite tense (?). So when you order a dog to sit, you would say “to sit!” (сидеть!), or to order someone to stop, “to stand!” (стоять!). Another less formal way to order (usually a group) is to use “we” as the subject, for example, “[we are] not sitting, [we are] working” (не сидим, работаем)

Free, sure. There is only one app that does it, with huge dependency on Google and/or carrier (whoever runs the servers), which could just… stop working one day, like it did for me.

Just to add to the fun confusing acronyms, in 3D printing circles, IPA is isopropyl alcohol, not beer (india pale ale)

What specifically do you mean? If you are asking about you = u, to = 2, OK = k, and such, it’s text speak - faster to type and can fit more in 140 characters (SMS character limit IIRC)

But I agree that there is no reason to use those, especially on non-mobile devices.

I have been following https://linmob.net/ for news and developments. They do a good job aggregating from conferences, boards, HN, and reddit.

Absolutely loved Annihilation. I expected Roadside Picnic, but got Lovecraftian incomprehensible horrors, government conspiracies, and main character coming to terms with themselves and events in their life.

Authority is a bit different, but the feeling of dread and being lost is still present throughout the book.

Artemis is set in a colony on the Moon. Cool science and economy about running the colony, but writing was meh (if I have to read “head full of steam” for the third time…) and MC swears a lot in a juvenile and cringe way.

Large companies can do / have done that (dumping) to drive out smaller competition.

Small companies usually cannot afford this.

Unless you can pitch this as a disruptive idea to gullible investors (looking at all tech startups that burn trillions without making profits)