Because the Calibre ebook library software just acquired AI garbage (as of 8.16.2, this week), it has *already* been forked. For AI-free Calibre, seek out clbre:

GitHub

GitHub - grimthorpe/clbre: A fork of Calibre called Clbre, because the AI is stripped out.

A fork of Calibre called Clbre, because the AI is stripped out. - grimthorpe/clbre

I'm getting a LOT of new followers this weekend and today from mastodon.social that claim to be news aggregators. all created in the past 72 hours. Someone's spinning up a MONSTROUS propaganda/fake news campaign out there right now! I'm guessing it's a state level actor. Be cautious and double-check anything that sounds too good to be true or too outrageous to ignore!

So, it looks like Russia finally won the cold war.

#WritersCoffeeClub Dec 7 What future writing goals are you working towards with your present work? Having in recent years (2022-present) concluded two long-running book series (The Merchant Princes and The Laundry Files), I'm now working on a couple of novels in a shared setting—standalones, but exploring aspects of a larger universe/idea. Far future space opera, this time. (The kind with no singing, only screams.)

Sun's got zits, bruh

Urbanists.Social

Urban Dinosaurs (@urbandinosaurs@urbanists.social)

Attached: 1 image In the words of spaceweather.com, this is a sunspot about which "[e]ven Richard Carrington would be impressed." #astrophotograph...

FUCK OFF MUSE, I AM ON VACATION IN GERMANY DRINKING THE BEER I DO NOT NEED YET ANOTHER COMPLETE REWRITE OF GHOST ENGINE, THIS TIME AS A CAPER COMEDY MODELLED ON INDIANA JONES VS. IT'S A MAD MAD MAD WORLD

Per my first editor at Tor, the dominant book sales channel in the USA from about 1950 to 1990 was the mass market paperback, sold primarily through grocery chain wire rack carousels. During the 1970s, inflation drove printing costs up. The chains pushed back by insisting that if produce cost more, it must weigh more. So page counts crept up, driving word count requirements. (After 1990 it was hardcover sales via chain bookstores but the damage was done.) @npub1deg2...6rnm

Mastodon

Stephen Brooke (@StephenBrooke@mastodon.social)

#WritersCoffeeClub Dec. 5: What's a no-longer popular trend in writing you'd like to see make a comeback? The shorter novel. Many classics fall in...

#WritersCoffeeClub Dec 5. What’s a no-longer popular trend in writing you’d like to see make a comeback? Adult fiction that isn't simplified down to fit a 14 year old's grammar and vocabulary because that's all studies show the average American reader is capable of understanding. (Self-fulfilling prophecies, anyone?)

Metaverse today, "AI" (actually just grand theft autocomplete) tomorrow. https://cyberplace.social/@GossiTheDog/115663189943069630

Pausing for lunch in Köln: