My pleasure. I'm also unaware of a software or service since it seems a bit of a too specific usecase.
I'm doing all this (with no cost) using an AWS Lambda function written in Java which is scheduled to be called daily at 7 am. It basically parses some RSS feeds[1] (or parses html[2] when RSS is non-existent), extracts each article content using readability and packages them all in a daily epub[3] (with a TOC) which is stored in a S3 folder. Then a separate endpoint (the one I use in my X4) is taking most recent N S3 objects from that S3 folder and exposes the OPDS. The only downside of this is that the response time takes about 3 extra seconds since it uses a cold start, but response speed is not important to me.
Using 'OPDS as a news library' works incredibly well with my X4, it takes me under 10 seconds to download and open the epub and should work with any e-ink device that can install KOReader (or any other software with OPDS support). And I love that all articles are inside a single epub and I can easily go to another one from the TOC.
It's probably my most useful personal project and I like that by now it follows the 'set it and forget it' principle but in need, since it's written by hand, it's very easy to customize it: filter out AI/war/finance/local-gibberish/whatever articles, add new 'bridges' to websites without RSS, some articles don't respect html guidelines and need some tinkering, etc.
A word of warning, my experience with mikrotik in the WiFi-6 space has been overwhelmingly negative, both in a single AP setup at home and on a corporate WiFi network managed by someone else.
Bugs, random drops, poor performance on some machines. It is not set and forget and I gave up on it.
There is a secondary discussion if developers should be accountable for sticking to estimates, and my opinion is that they shouldn't - developers should be accountable for the quality and maintainability of the produced code, documentation and tests, not timelines - that's the job of the PM. A good PM will be able to observe that on average the unit of estimation takes 20% longer or shorter and adjust the project timelines accordingly. Also, if someone is worried about developer productivity, it can always evaluate it in relative terms, i.e. how many tasks generated with the above method does one developer execute vs another developer in the same unit of time.
I wondered about this too. In the DMCA policy they state that authors can self-publish on their platform but they don't monitor, screen or review uploaded media, which means they don't have any contact with the authors. Too bad. They could start getting infringement notices.
But in most of the eastern Europe movies are not commercial anyway. They are financed by different sponsorships from state and local companies. They don't make a lot of money once they are made, with rare exceptions. For older movies it's hard to find actual copyright owners. I think some of them could be considered abandonware.
These people have a somewhat modern alternative with mechanical keyboard and eink screen. It has wifi and that's it.
From watching the reviews I understood that a major drawback is that no editing is possible on the device itself and it is very expensive (600$)
I personally use occasionally an android based ebook reader with a bluetooth keyboard (Onyx BOOX Poke 2 with logitech k380). Distraction free writing is a thing.
I picked up a bluetooth keyboard that folds to a size that fits easily in my pocket and paired with my phone that turned out to be a really good writing experience. Writing apps on the phone still default to taking over the full screen and using the phone's "Do Not Disturb" mode was enough to get a good distraction free environment. (On the phone at least, one day in November I was writing in an Irish pub. There was a football game on I was half interested in. A bagpipe band showed up to play a set. The power went out for an hour or so and I was writing under candle light. Plenty of interesting, weird distractions outside of my phone were had.)
This feels like the sort of thing people buy to kid themselves that the problem with their writing lies outside their own brains.
Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of a dedicated writing device but, for me as someone who writes pretty much for the entire working day, inconvenience is the biggest bar to writing other than lack of sleep. If I can't edit on the device, or find the text in my usual GSuite/Office 365 spaces, then maybe I'd be better off with a $40 dictaphone and Rev.com.
> This feels like the sort of thing people buy to kid themselves that the problem with their writing lies outside their own brains.
I posted elsewhere in this thread about this, so to summarize: I've been at a cabin using LTE tethering, and am consciously turning my Internet connection off and on.
I fully realize that the problem is in my brain, but putting up just that tiny of a barrier is enough of an effective "hack" to change the way I work in a positive way. Because there's no connection most of the time I'm working, there's no HN, there's no email popping up, there's no Slack notifications, and there's no "falling down a rabbit hole searching for a solution". I'm spending way more time writing down/rubber ducking the problem I'm trying to solve and coming up with the solution myself (which generally results in a much better understanding of the problem)
I have an kindle fire keyboard with bluetooth, writing in Jotterpad. I switched to the AlphaSmart NEO2 and it's far superior both in price, time-to-write, and lack of distractions for initial drafts. I chose it after being stalked by relentless $400 FreeWrite ads for months. My wife googled "freewrite alternatives." I have also used apps like "Concentrate" and all the other distraction-free apps.
I have also considered minimal linux distros but realize that it's not going to be much better than my kindle fire.
For editing, I would still use my kindle fire.
I use a custom gulp-based build process from markdown files that I wrote which spits out manuscript format, and the NEO works fine with that. Of course it can only hold 9 scenes at once.
I'm using an old asus transformer with external powerbank because its battery has crapped out. It's one of the worst devices I've ever possessed but still gets the job done.
Now if I only knew where to get antiglare screen protection that actually works. I renewed it recently and the new one is not anti-glare at all. :/
Do you think there are more people around you in your situation?
If there are, there might be strength in numbers. You could organise to deliver a signifficantly larger project than any of you could get done individually. You do not need to hire anyone - use the principles of a cooperative and get like minded people that share the profits in an equitable way.
Along the same lines there are companies that may be looking to expand to capture the avilable workforce in your geographical area but lack the apropriate contacts to get started. Your written communication skillks seem to be above average which I consider quite important for such an engagement. If this sounds interesting, do leave some contact details.
Project managers with technical skills are worth gold in product companies (possibly in other companies as well).
Run a few product implementations at customer side and there will be no monotony.
If you grow older and start appreciating more the routine in your life you can go into product management using the knowledge accumulated on customer side implementations and finally consulting.
I'm unable to find a software or service that would to this for me, but it's the exact thing I want.