A newly launched WordPress plugin has presented me with an opportunity to mount a soapbox and recommend better work habits.

I was just reading about a plugin that removed distractions while writing in WordPress. Writers are constantly searching for ways to remove distractions while they are writing, and while Iceberg sounds like a really useful plugin, you should not use it with your WordPress site (and not just because it costs $49).

The thing is, you should not be doing original writing in your WordPress site. Instead, you should write and edit elsewhere, and then copy the text to your site so it can be laid out and published.

From WPTavern:

Iceberg features a minimalist editor with four color themes, the ability to create a custom theme, and a set of typography controls. In switching to Iceberg, there is not much missing much from the default block editor that would be necessary for writing. Users can drag and drop media into Iceberg and the backslash command works to trigger the block inserter. It also includes a Table of Contents, word and character counts, reading time, keyboard shortcuts, and support for emoji.

While this plugin sounds interesting, I think anyone who wants a distraction free writing app should look for one that is separate from their WordPress website.

The thing is, if you get in the habit of doing your original writing in WordPress, you will get out of the habit of creating an independent backup of your work. This means that if your website crashes and has to be restored from a backup, you might lose your work.

This happened to me recently, and while I did recover my work, this painful experience has taught me that I should really be writing posts elsewhere, and then copying the text to my blog for publication.

That is the safe (and smart) thing to do.

P.S. Backups are important, but it can also be a nuisance, which is why I put a system in place so that all my working files are automatically backed up to Google Drive.

You just finished reading Why You Shouldn’t be Writing in WordPress which was published on The Digital Reader.

Back in the olden days (circa 2011) we used to be able to buy ereader cases that included their own battery. I actually still have one such case built for the non-touch basic Kindle from 2011, but those days are long past.

Now ereader owners are limited by the battery that coes with their devices, and while screens may be getting larger, batteries generally aren’t. Most ereaders have a 1Ah or 1.5Ah battery, which is actually good enough for a couple months of usage – if you are careful.

Here’s how you can extend the battery life of your ereader.

1. Turn down the frontlight. Frontlights are the best thing to happen to ereaders since Amazon launched the original Kindle with free 3G, but you would be surprised by just how much of an impact they have on battery life. I was recently reading on Kobo’s original 6.8” ereader with the frontlight turned almost off, and that thing actually lasted through 4 ebooks before I had to recharge it.

2. Turn off wifi. And 3G One reason that that Aura HD lasted so long was that the wifi had been turned off. I usually have it disabled by default because while downloading ebooks over wifi is great, it still drains the battery.

3. Change the screen refresh settings. Most ereaders, including both Kindle and Kobo, now have an option in the settings menu where you can limit how often the device refreshes the screen rather than just changing the text. This saves battery life because a full screen refresh entails flipping the entire screen to black before refreshing the screen with the next page.

4. Restart Your Device. Your ereader is actually a small computer, and like any computer sometimes the software goes awry. When that happens to power management software, your batteyr life could be reduced to only a couple hours. If you notice that your device’s battery life is unexpectedly short, and you can’t find a cause, restarting will force the ereader to reload the software. (Turning it off and on again may be a joke on IT but it actually works.)

5 Turn off auto-brightness. Some ereader models have a feature where the device adjusts the brightness of the frontlight so that it matches the ambient light condition. That’s nice and all but it can also impact battery life any time it makes your frontlight brighter.

6. Only add ebooks (or use the wireless networks) while charging. Every time you add an ebook to the Kindle, the OS will index it. And every time you turn on the wifi, the Kindle will sync with Amazon’s servers. These two activities drain battery life, so why not kill two birds with one stone by taking care of them while your device is connected to a power source?

7. Reduce the font size, and line spacing. This may sound silly but if you have more text on the screen, you will be able to go longer between page turn, and each time you turn the page you will get further into the ebook.

8. Turn it off! The last and most important way to expend the battery life of your ereader is to simply shut it down. Yes, putting it to sleep does reduce the drain on the battery, but turning it off does an even better job.

* * *

So tell me, what’s your favorite trick for extending your ereader’s battery life?

You just finished reading Eight Tips for Extending the Battery Life on Your Kindle which was published on The Digital Reader.

As you may have heard, a new Hunger Games prequel was released last week. It’s called The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, and Amazon is capitalizing on the launch by releasing a Hunger Games-themed Kindle bundle.

The bundle starts at $159, and is scheduled to ship on 10 June.

The bundle includes 6 months free Kindle Unlimited, a USB power adapter, and a case. You have two choices for the case, either a design inspired by The Hunger Games  or its prequel, The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes.

The bundle is only available with the Kindle Paperwhite, and you can choose between the blue and black models.

If you don’t need another Kindle, you can buy the cases separately for $29.

Bundle

Cases

You just finished reading Amazon Launches 2020-Themed, Er, Hunger Games-Themed Kindle Bundle which was published on The Digital Reader.

Much to the surprise of everyone who watched the RWA’s very public attempt to destroy itself earlier this year, the Romance Writers of America has announced a new book award, one that is named after its (largely overlooked) black founder.

From The Guardian:

 Now the association has announced that the Ritas will be permanently retired and replaced with a new award, the Vivian, in an attempt to move on from the controversy.

Named after the RWA’s founder Vivian Stephens, a black editor who worked to publish romance writers of colour, the prize is intended to recognise excellence in romance writing and to “celebrate the power of the genre with its central message of hope – because happily ever afters are for everyone”.

Stephens recalled an astrophysicist explaining that the elements from which we are made are forged in stars.

“Since we all live in the universe it is well worth remembering that underneath the outer dressing of ethnicity, color and gender, we are all the same,” she said. “Showered with the gift of stars. Members must step up and deliver their best. Romance novels are read by people of every background throughout the world!”

This probably will not be enough to save the organization which has been dying ever since it attempted to silence activist and author Courtney Milan late last year.

The public announcement that Milan was being expelled from the RWA for an “ethics” violation when she criticized a publisher’s books as racist, plus the later revelation that the process used to convict Milan was BS six ways from Sunday.

Not only was the basis for the complaint ridiculous, it was made by a publisher), the investigation was kept secret from the Ethics committee, focused on remarks Milan made on Twitter (social media is specifically exempt from Ethics complaints), and the decision ultimately came down to tone policing (Milan used curse words).

It was readily evident that Milan was railroaded, and I am not the only one who reached that conclusion. That is why hundreds of RWA members left the org, and why several RWA chapters either dissolved or voted to disassociate with the national organization.

While that was not a huge number of members, it was a significant number of the energetic members who ran the chapters, the national conference, and the annual book awards. The RWA as an organization still exists, but the members who made things happen have either left or are disillusioned with the org.

Getting those members back will require the RWA to make real changes, and I just don’t see that happening.

You just finished reading Romance Writers of America Launches New Book Award which was published on The Digital Reader.

I have a problem: A lot of people reading this still think of me as a blogger.

This is understandable given my history, but it is a problem for me because all my income comes from tech work, and if you think of me as a blogger then you’re not thinking of me as someone who builds and fixes websites for authors.

I’m not criticizing or complaining; it’s just that I want to reset your thinking. To that end, I am using the relaunch of my site, NateHoffelder.com, as a chance to ask that when you think of me,  think of that site first. Send people there so they can connect with me, see my portfolio, peruse testimonials, and read the blog posts.

I’ve actually been blogging there since I launched the site 4 years ago as ValiantChicken.com, and it’s where you’ll find my posts on Twitter chats for authors, how to evaluate the return on your guest blog posts, and why SEO is not always the right tool for the job.

I want you to think of me as the guy who fixes stuff and can tell you about the six key elements of a home page (this post is as yet unpublished, but still useful).While I love The Digital Reader to death, I need paid work, and I appreciate any help you can provide in that direction.

You just finished reading I’ve Relaunched My Site – Check it Out! which was published on The Digital Reader.

Here are a few stories to read this Monday morning.

• William Faulkner’s spouse and daughters were terrible pranksters.
• Audible is continuing their investment in podcasts.
• Did you know that Kindlepreneur has a book description generator for Amazon and Kobo?
• KM Weland has 13 tricks for writers who want to avoid distraction in the age of the internet,
• Speaking of which, if you want to spend less time on Twitter and FB, I have a couple ideas on how you can block yourself from the sites.
• Print book sales fell last week in the US.
• The state of used ebook sales in Europe (aka the Tom Kabinet case) is not nearly as settled as the book publishing industry wants you to think.
• David Kudler points out how enhanced ebooks have continued to fail to find a market.

You just finished reading Morning Coffee – 25 May 2020 which was published on The Digital Reader.

It was a dark and stormy night …

The first sentence of a novel is often the only chance an author has to make the first impression, and the very best books will keep the reader hooked from the first line to the very last line.

In the following infographic you’ll find the first line from 34 novels, including Fahrenheit 451, To Serve Man, The Great Gatsby, and The Catcher in the Rye.

eBookFriendly

You just finished reading Infographic: 34 Compelling First Lines of Famous Novels which was published on The Digital Reader.

If you have a free moment Sunday afternoon, and you need to get a question answered about your website, why not join me on Twitter?

For about a month and a half now I have been holding informal tech clinics on Twitter on Sunday afternoons (also, for a few weeks, on Facebook). I saw it as a way to help people with their website issues, and the last few have gone so well that I have decided to announce the clinics here on the blog so more people could participate.

There’s no formal set of rules for #SundayTechClinic yet. If you want to participate all you have to do is show up, see if I am on Twitter, and ask your question (remember to use the hashtag). If I know the answer, I will explain it. And if I don’t, I will help you find it.

You just finished reading Join Me on Twitter on Sundays for #SundayTechClinic which was published on The Digital Reader.

It may be hard to remember this in 2020, when the Paperwhite has become the archetypal ebook reader, but there was a time when ereaders all used to have page turn buttons.

The first Kobo ereader, the first Nook, the first four Kindles, and all the Sony Readers all had page turn buttons (even Google’s ereader had page turn buttons), but then touchscreens started taking over about five years ago. Manufacturers started phasing out page buttons in favor of minimalist designs, and now physical page buttons are so uncommon that they are a rarity on new ebook readers.

Sure, some device makers like Onyx, Pocketbook, and Boyue keep releasing ereaders with page turn buttons, but for a lot of people the first new ereader they’ve seen with real page turn buttons (and this doesn’t include the faux buttons on the Kindle Voyage) is the Kindle Oasis.

Some readers, including this blogger, prefer the convenience and feel of real page turn buttons. In fact, we like buttons so much that we seek out reading apps for smartphones that let you re-purpose volume buttons as page turn buttons.

We find it easier to maintain a one-handed grip, and turn the page simply by pressing down rather than tapping or swiping  the screen, which sometimes requires adjusting one’s hold on the ereader.

Buttons are also more consistent in how they respond to your touch; one often has to be careful with a touchscreen to make sure that the taps are recognized as page turns, and not as a long press (this could trigger the note-taking or dictionary look-up function).

And then there’s the the fact that bezels are getting smaller all the time. Even when you’re holding your ereader with your thumb or finger off the screen, it’s easy for your finger to slip onto the screen and cause inadvertent page turns.

And now Amazon has recognized that fact, and brought page turns buttons back into vogue with the Kindle Oasis.

This $290 ereader hearkens back to an early ereader, the Rocket eBook.

The Rocket eBook holds the distinction of being the very first ereader. It was never commercially successful, but as you can see it does share certain design elements with the  Kindle Oaxis.

The Rocket eBook was just the first of many ereaders with page turn buttons. They could be found on ereaders of all shapes and sizes, including the Pocketbook 360, with its 5″ screen, the Pocketbook Inkpad (8″ screen), and even on large screen ereaders like the Kindle DX or the Onyx Boox Max.

When it comes to ereaders, there are many were/are may different ways that page turn buttons could be configured. Some, like the models mentioned above, only had buttons  on one side of the screen, while others like the Nook Touch, the early Sony Readers, and the first several Kindles all had page turn buttons on both sides of the screen or below the screen.

Other ereaders had navigation wheels (or d-pads which doubled as page turn buttons), and one even had the page turn buttons mounted on the edge of its frame. That ereader was the Pyrus Mini from Trekstor, and it was the smallest ereader I’ve ever seen.

And now the Kindle Oasis has page turn buttons to one side of the screen, and an accelerometer so it can tell which way is up and flip the screen orientation to suit both lefties and righties.

Alas, the Oasis costs more than most of us can afford, but it’s still a good inspiration for the following question:

Do want page buttons on your next ereader? If so, what kind of button layout would you want?

lead image via Mashable

You just finished reading Do You Want Page Turn Buttons on Your eReader? which was published on The Digital Reader.

In what is a hopeful sign that we will have a US source for Pocketbook’s upcoming color ereader, the online US retailer NewEgg is now carrying Pocketbook’s ereaders.

NewEgg currently carries three models, the Inkpad 3, Inkpad X, and the Pocketbook Touch HD 3. They are listed as being sold by Pocketbook and shipped by NewEgg.

This is good news for anyone who wants to buy a Pocketbook in the US. This Ukrainian ereader maker used to have a couple US distributors, and even a US division, but that was years and years ago.  The only option, from about 2014 on, was to order from Europe and endure long shipping delays (and frankly, at least one of Pocketbook’s European offices was notoriously unreliable).

There’s no word yet on whether you will be able to buy the Pokcetbook Color through NewEgg, but one can hope.

NewEgg via MobileRead

You just finished reading PocketBook eReaders Now Sold by Newegg in the US which was published on The Digital Reader.

Earlier this week a less than reliable blog reported that Audible was “moving to an enhanced ebook format”. Unlike that blog’s “exclusive hardware leaks”, there was actually some truth to the Audible story.

I checked with Audible, and they informed me that they sent out an email to customers this week. Actually, they sent out two, one to Windows users and another to macOS users. (The only difference was that the email to Windows users mentioned the long-abandoned Audible Manager app.)

The short version is that Audible is retiring an audiobook format. Anyone who wants to use that older format will need to download your audiobooks before the end of June. This includes anyone who owns an older device running older versions of the Audible app.

Interestingly, I read over at MobileRead that the enhanced format is actually easier to strip the DRM, and not harder as you would expect.

Here’s what Audible had to say macOS users:

Our records show that in the past, you may have downloaded your Audible titles on your Mac in an older audio format we call “format 4.” In the upcoming weeks, we will be moving all downloads to an enhanced, high-quality audio format and will no longer support format 4 downloading.

We’re excited about providing you with this higher-quality listening experience. Your Audible titles are yours to keep and will be available for you to re-download in the new, higher-quality audio format. If you prefer to listen to your Audible titles in format 4 audio, you will want to download them all to your device before we make the switch on 6/30/2020.  

If you would like to learn more about other ways to listen to Audible, like via our smartphone app for iOS and Android devices, streaming from your desktop or laptop computer, or from an Alexa-integrated device, we’re happy to talk to you more about these options.

If you run into any issues, just let us know – we’ll figure it out. We’re here for you 24/7.

image  by Johan Larsson via Flickr

You just finished reading Audible is Retiring One of Its Older Audiobook File Formats which was published on The Digital Reader.

Amazon lists 23 Amazon Books locations on its site, including a bookstore outside of Phoenix, AZ. Soon they will add a 24th address to the list.

I’ve just learned that Amazon has taken out construction permits for a storefront at 450 Nichols Rd in Kansas City, MO. This space was previously occupied by a Tesla store:

Amazon has not confirmed the news, but I have found construction permits that Amazon filed for that location. The permits mention Amazon Books by name.

Most Amazon Books locations are noted as being temporarily shut down, but when they were open they stocked a selection of books, games, and electronics, including the Kindle, Alexa, and Kindle Fire. A number of stores were remodeled late last year to include more gadgets, electronic shelf labels, and a greater concentration of books (they were no longer being shelved face out).

You just finished reading Amazon is Opening a Bookstore in Kansas City which was published on The Digital Reader.

Here’s something fun for your Friday.

I just found (via Reddit) a site where an AI invents words and their definitions every time you refresh the page. For example:

This is not exactly new – I follow someone on Twitter who does this all the time with machine learning, and I also follow another account the generates words and definitions, and tweets them.

One way this site differs from similar projects is that the words and definitions  come very close to sounding real – if you found one in a legitimate dictionary, you would not question it.

Enjoy!

This Word Does Not Exist

P.S. Find any particularly cromulent words?

You just finished reading This Word Does Not Exist which was published on The Digital Reader.

I am looking for new authors to fall in love with, so I thought I would throw open the comment section and ask: What are you reading?

My current read is a collection of cyberpunk detective stores by Barry B Longyear. I happen to pick it up  as a trade paperback at a con a while back, only to discover later that it was signed by the author. This is too precious to me to use, so I will be shortly replacing it with the Kindle edition.

So tell me, who or what are you reading?

You just finished reading You Tell Me: Who or What are you reading right now? which was published on The Digital Reader.

Like book covers, choosing the right font for your website or your social media graphic can send a message and elicit an emotional response (this makes it more likely to be noticed, and re-shared!).  Also, if you are careful when choosing the font for the site title or author name, you can give visitors subtle clues about the genre.

At the same time, you probably want the font to be free to use under a Creative Commons license. I am fine with paying for font licenses, but I also use Canva to make most of my web graphics, and they charge you for premium fonts or to upload your own fonts. Also, one downside of using a paid font on your site is that most people won’t have a license and can’t see the cool fontwork.

This is why the 300+ cool fonts identified by Derek Murphy aren’t really that useful to me. Yes, they are cool, but I can’t use most of them for web design work or in blog and social media graphics, so they don’t do me much good.

Luckily I have another source.  I am in the middle of designing a horror author website at the moment, and this morning I was pulling together a list of font choices to offer my client when I decided to take a couple minutes and tip you to my source and the fonts I am thinking about using.

Have you heard about Google Fonts? This is a project Google started many years ago with the laudable goal of making the web more beautiful by giving web designers more font options. The Google Fonts catalog currently consists of 991 fonts, all of which are free to use, and in fact many website building tools such as Divi and Elementor already have the fonts built in (you just have to know where to look).

I am still looking for fonts to use on the website for a horror author, but I did find a few worth sharing.

Aladin, Aclonica, Lobster Two, or Almendra would make great fonts for the title of a fantasy author’s website, or for fantasy themed social media graphic. UnifrakturCook, Stoke, Piedra, Indie Flower, or Butcherman are fonts that just scream horror. And then there are fonts like Trade Wind that could work for either horror or fantasy.

And if you want an SF-themed font, Orbitron, Press Start 2P, Quantico, Unica One, Audiowide, or Julius Sans One are worth a look. (These fonts could also work for thriller.) And if you want romance, there are any number of script or handwriting fonts to choose from.

With 991 fonts to choose from, there are so many options that I bet I missed at least half of them. I plan to go back and build lists of genre-appropriate fonts, but for now I just wanted to bring this to your attention (also, I am hoping you might point out the fonts I missed).

One small caveat: I can’t guarantee that the tool you like to use will support these fonts. Canva, to name one example, only supports some Google Fonts, but not others. One possible way around this would be to find another free graphic design tool that lets you import fonts, and keep that other tool as a backup (MSPaint, for example).

When you do look for a font to use, and you find one you like, be sure to also check out the fonts that Google recommends as pairs for your chosen font. Some of the pair choices are generic, but others really work as complimentary font pairs.

Speaking of which, have you found a font you like?

You just finished reading 991 Web-Safe Fonts You Can Use for Free on Your Author Website, in Social Media Graphics, and Elsewhere which was published on The Digital Reader.

The rules for getting a website visitor’s consent before you use tracking cookies are about to change again, and no one is ready.

This week the German Federal Court of Justice ruled that websites now have to comply with the letter of EU privacy regulations, and not just the lax interpretation that many regulators had been enforcing.

I am going to skip over the specifics of who sued whom, and instead focus on the result.

Basically this ruling said that the “Yes button” cookie consent notices that you see on websites everywhere do not comply with EU privacy regulations. In fact, those notices never complied with the letter of the law because the EU’s rules required explicit consent, while the existing cookie consent notices are set up so that the websites use cookies whether the visitor likes it or not.

What explicit consent means in this situation is that websites cannot run cookies until after the visitor has clicked yes. To give you a couple examples, you can’t run a Google Analytics tracking script on your site, or for that matter the FB Pixel, until after the visitor clicks yes.

That has been the letter of the EU privacy regulations since they were codified, and yet surprisingly the industry standard doesn’t even come close. In the WordPress sphere, for example, many website owners are using the cookie consent banner found in the Jetpack plugin from Automattic. As a result, none of those websites are in compliance with EU regulations. (Even in countries such as the UK which have passed national regulations that comply with the EU’s rules, few comply with the regulations, and in fact hardly anyone in the UK is even aware of the rules they are breaking.)

Luckily for you I helped a client put his websites in compliance with UK privacy regulations last fall, so I have a better than passing understanding of what has to be done.

The following advice applies to self-hosted WordPress sites, and in fact might not be in compliance with Germany’s rules when the dust settles. It will, however, bring your website much closer to being in compliance than you are right now.

The short version is that we’ll need to install a plugin that will control whether the cookies are activated/run. Cookie Notice and CookieBot are two WP plugins that fits the bill. (Both plugins are being maintained and updated, and I’d expect that their functionality will be updated to comply with the changing regulations.)

I was going to lay out the steps required to set up these plugins, but the plugins are so very different that I got confused when reading my own instructions. So let me just add that you need to set up and configure one of these plugins so that it controls the cookies on your site. (Or, you could have me do it.)

Of the two, CookieBot comes closer to what the privacy regulations appear to require; you can use it to give visitors the option of accepting only necessary cookies, or also accepting various categories of cookies (marketing, statistics, preference), or accepting all cookies.

I also found CookieBot really easy to set up, but I’m not sure it’s actually blocking the cookies from running (I am still testing it, and will update). I hope it really does what it claims, because CookieBot is capable of working with just about any website platform, and not just WordPress. (I would love to have a universal solution to recommend to authors on services such as Squarespace and Blogger.)

Any questions? (Can someone pass the aspirin?)

You just finished reading How to Comply With Germany’s New Cookie Consent Rules which was published on The Digital Reader.

Here are a few stories to read this Monday morning.

• JK Rowling is publishing a serialized novel online. 
• Bill Rosenblatt has a good overview of the Copyright Office’s Section 512 report. 
• Victoria Strauss has updated her post on how to evaluate a book publishing contract. 
• Here are the six key elements you need on the home page of your author website if you want to convert visitors into fans 
• Kobo Writing Life has added pay-per-lend pricing for library ebook distribution. 
• The first movie adaptation of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” had a particularly fascinating legal history. 
• What Dean said. 

You just finished reading Morning Coffee – 1 June 2020 which was published on The Digital Reader.

I can’t beleive it – book publishers have given Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle exactly what he wanted.

Today the AAP announced that four US publishers – HarperCollins, Wiley, Hachette, and Penguin Random House – have filed suit against San Francisco-based Internet Archive.

Today, member companies of the Association of American Publishers (AAP) filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Internet Archive (“IA”) in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The suit asks the Court to enjoin IA’s mass scanning, public display, and distribution of entire literary works, which it offers to the public at large through global-facing businesses coined “Open Library” and “National Emergency Library,” accessible at both openlibrary.org and archive.org. IA has brazenly reproduced some 1.3 million bootleg scans of print books, including recent works, commercial fiction and non-fiction, thrillers, and children’s books.

The publishers are suing because the Internet Archive is “lending” unlicensed copies of scanned books. It had been distributing the pirated works without limit since late March 2020 via the National Emergency Library, and they had been distributing in a more limited form since 2013 via The Open Library.

As I have previously explained, the IA has no legal defense for the National Emergency Library, and only an untested legal argument to defend the practices of The Open Library. (That untested legal argument is called CDL, and I wouldn’t put too much weight into it given that university libraries aren’t convinced it’s legal.)

The full complaint can be seen here.

I am a little surprised at this lawsuit. I have been waiting for almost two and a half years for publishers to sue over The Open Library (since it first really started getting attention), only to reach the tentative conclusion that publishers weren’t going to sue because they weren’t sure they could win in a legal fight where losing meant that copyright law would be rewritten.

While there is zero chance that the Internet Archive could win on the point of the National Emergency Library’s uncontrolled lending, the IA might still win a partial victory where CDL is found to be legal.

If you want to argue that CDL can’t possibly be legal, I would remind you that Google Books wasn’t legal – until, suddenly, it was. (I would also remind you that the ReDigi lost its case and still got a ruling that legalized the resale of music and other digital content.)

I had thought that publishers were avoiding testing CDL in court, but I guess National Emergency Library was too much for them, so four publishers have sued.

And that is exactly what Brewster Kahle wanted.

image by Mario A. P. via Flickr

You just finished reading Four Publishers File Suit Over Internet Archive’s Pirate Site which was published on The Digital Reader.

Remember 3 months back when I told you about Waveshare selling a line of E-ink screens powered by NFC?

Well, after two months of saving up, and a month of waiting for the mail, my units arrived last night. I ordered both a 4.2″ screen, and a 7.5″ screen. I also got one base station (my phone doesn’t have NFC).

It took me about hour, but I got them both working (it wasn’t that hard, even though several important details were left out of the instructions). I would rate this as being somewhat harder than piloting a cheap drone, but much easier than using a Raspberry Pi for the first time.

The stumbling point was that the images have to be formatted as monochrome BMP in landscape orientation, in the exact same size as the screen resolution for whichever screen you’re using (the larger is 800×480, and the smaller is 400×300).

It took me about an hour to figure that out, but once I did I found that MSPaint was the easiest way to format images.

I am not sure it’s worth the bother, however.

I got these because I thought they would have great geek value at SF cons, but now that I have them I realize that if I wore one as a con badge, I would look like I had a dead ereader on my shirt. I really should have gone for a Raspberry Pi, and attached a screen to that – at least that way the refreshing screen would be interesting to look at (even better, I could have attached a 3-color Spectra screen).

Furthermore, I really don’t see any value in the idea of a battery-less E-ink screen powered by NFC. Wireless communications is damned useful, but losing the battery and CPU gains you almost nothing in terms weight and cost. It reduces the BOM by what, 50 cents, and reduces the weight by an ounce. That battery and CPU would have added significant capability, and the screen just isn’t that useful without them.

I cannot come up with a use case for this screen that would not be better filled by an E-ink screen plugged into a Raspberry Pi, or by an ereader running an aftermarket hack.

If you can think of a possible use for this screen, let me know.

Also, if there’s anything you would like to know about the screens, just ask.

You just finished reading Hands On With Waveshare’s NFC-Powered E-ink Screens which was published on The Digital Reader.

Today’s post was inspired by a paper letter I received early last year from a company that was trying to convince me that I owed them $180 for the cost of hosting my website.

I host my website and many others, so naturally I did not fall for their scam, but I found the letter so alarming that I thought it was worth spreading the word and warning others about the scam. I initially sent this out as a newsletter last spring, and, spurred by the knowledge that the letter scam is still operating, I decided to republish this post today.

Here are five different scams that have crossed my desk.

The “YourWebsite.com is about to expire” Scam

One type of scam email that I frequently find in my spam folder is from scammers who are trying to convince me that I owe them money for the renewal of some type of service. The scammers usually pretend to be the company I registered the domain with, and the email will usually be framed as a helpful reminder.

Sometimes they will have a message like:

Your Domain SEO-listing shown below are set for renewal and need to be processed in the next 48 hours. No worry, please click on this link and follow the instructions.

If you get an email like this, delete the email. Then go visit the site where you registered your website’s domain, and make sure that all your fees are up to date. It’s better to be safe than sorry, but whatever you do, don’t click on a link in the suspect email.

The “Main Street Web Pros” Scam

There are companies who will send you fake bills in an attempt to convince you that you owe them money for a service they are not providing.

For example, on 19 February 2019, I got a paper letter from a Florida-based web design firm called “Main Street Web Pros”. The letter closely resembled a bill, and was designed to make me think MSWP hosted my website, and that I owed them $180 for this service.

I have never done business with this firm before nor have I heard their name, but after looking online I found that MSWP does have a rather sparsely filled out website. Their online presence provides a veneer of legitimacy, but it is really just a cover for the scam letters they send in the mail.

This company has tried to convince at least two other people I know of that we ow MSWP money for their services.

I got one of these today to my now closed design firm. It's a total disgrace that any company thinks it's okay to do this. I've seen similar scams from domain registrars, but this is the first hosting one I've seen.

— George T. Probst ? (@GeorgeProbst) February 18, 2019

If you get a letter like this, the best thing to do is contact the USPS by visiting the U.S. Postal Service Inspection website, or by calling 1-800-275-8777. You will need to give the investigator information from the letter so that the scammer can be prosecuted.

You might also report this scam to your state’s consumer fraud protection service.

The “Domain Notification for YourWebsite.com” Scam

Another type of scam email that I get all the time is from scammers who try to sell me a worthless “domain listing” service. This time the scammer doesn’t try to convince me they are a company I already do business with, but they are selling me a worthless service.

The emails frequently read something like:

Attn: Nathaniel Hoffelder As a courtesy to domain name holders, we are sending you this notification for your business Domain name search engine registration. This letter is to inform you that it’s time to send in your registration.

Failure to complete your Domain name search engine registration by the expiration date may result in cancellation of this offer making it difficult for your customers to locate you on the web.

If you get one of these emails, just go ahead and delete it. The service they are selling you is worthless, and you have better ways to spend your money.

The “We Can fix Your Website SEO” Scam

I always get a giggle when I get one of these scam emails.

If you own a website domain long enough you are bound to get an email from random companies that claim they can skyrocket your site to first place in Google. (Others will claim they already did, and demand payment.)

The thing about this scam is that if the company really could do what they say then they would be charging tens of thousands of dollars for their service, not $149 or whatever they asked from you. SEO is a huge industry, and there are some legitimate companies who really do know how to put a company at the top of Google’s search results.The thing is, those companies don’t send blind emails to random website owners; they have customers beating down their door – customers will pay a lot more for SEO services than you can afford.

The only SEO companies who send blind emails are cheats who will take your money and run, and the crooks who will use blackhat SEO tricks.

You are better off avoiding both.

The “We recorded you watching Porn” Scam

This scam is my favorite.

Every so often I get an email that claims I was tricked into installing malware on my computer the last time I visited a porn site. The email claims that the malware captured a recording from my webcam that showed, well, you get the idea.

The email is usually written in semi-literate technical gibberish and ends with a blackmail threat along thelines of if I send the scammer $500 in Bitcoin, they won’t release the video of me doing you know what.

If you get this email, just delete it – I always do.

The thing about these emails is that it comes in two flavors, neither of which are convincing. One type is sent to randomly generated email addresses – I have in fact gotten the emails via email addresses that don’t exist (they show up in the “undeliverable” folder on my email server).The other slightly more clever type is sent by a scammer who found your email and password in one of the security breach tracking sites – the scammer included those details in the hopes you would be folled into falling for the scam.

The scammer doesn’t actually have an incriminating video; instead, the scammer is counting on a few gullible victims falling for the lies in the email.

If you are really concerned, ask for proof. The scammer won’t have any, and they may not even bother to respond. In fact, there won’t actually be a way to contact the scammer!

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Have you gotten a scam email not mentioned above? Let me know in the comments!

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