Tag: calibre

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Daily Pook-Emu Bee links ceased being daily for the last week and change, but perhaps it is back with two straight editions to start the new week.

1 | Calibre 9.15 E-Book Manager Introduces “Create Your Own Adventure” Writing Game (Marcus Nestor for 9 To 5 Linux. Sep. 28, 2026.)
While I disable (or don’t enable) AI functionality in Calibre, I opined last year that some of the integrations were relatively inoffensive and in line with Calibre’s purpose. I’d say I fear Calibre is losing the plot (get it!?) with this one. However, it is not enabled by default and the new release includes some interesting normal features, so as long as the plot is lost on the side…

2 | NYC refuses to remove massive hornets’ nest from Queens tree, tells terrified residents to foot the bill (Rich Calder for the New York Post. Sep. 19, 2026.)
If (heaven forbid) this situation goes sideways after the NYC Parks Department both refused to step in and warned that it would block any efforts by the residents to remedy, NYC (i.e., taxpayers) will most certainly foot the bill.

3 | Ancient bronze bracelets found in Uzbekistan (The History Blog. Sep. 16, 2026.)
You never know what you’ll dig up in your yard in Uzbekistan.

4 | Three Patrons, Three Clients: The Mecca Alliance No One Owns (Ahmed Saber Abbas for War on the Rocks. Sep. 15, 2026.)
If only Saudi Arabia had some alternative proposal in front of it.

5 | Nearly one third of college-age ‘BORG’ drinkers report blacking out: New study (W.B. Kagan for EurekAlert! Sep. 15, 2026.)
This ends with a suggestion for parents to discuss with their college-age students “whether to attend a BORG event, and if one does attend, whether to bring a BORG beverage and how much (if any alcohol to put in the beverage.” That’s great but let’s try cutting this off at “event” and making the answer “no.”

6 | Holdout Lindsay Clancy Juror Breaks Silence, Says “Activists” Wanted “Not Guilty” on Day 1 (Steven Ertelt for Life Site. Sep. 16, 2026.)
He shouldn’t have had to break silence, but now that he has been left with no choice, I tip my hat to Mr. Michael P. Desronvil for having the courage to do the right thing.

7 | Scientists Create a New Form of Ice at More Than 2,000 °C (Michelle Starr for Science Alert. Sep. 9, 2026.)
I don’t know. Our current ice works well enough. The scientists should focus on something more practical.

8 | The Rise, Fall, and Rise of Rawdawg (Lauren Peck for Austin Chronicle. Nov. 27, 2024.)
That this running club was obnoxious enough to be cracked down on in Austin sounds like an accomplishment (and well-deserved as someone who finds our less noisy running clubs here in New York City annoying enough as is).

9 | I saw the movie that Warner tried to delete: ‘Coyote vs. Acme’ (Bryan Preston for Fox Business. Sep. 12, 2026.)
While my 16+ year streak of not being in a movie theater continues, this does sound like a fun movie and one that was well-worth saving.

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We bring August to a close with one Pook-Emu Bee for the road.

A rectangular yellow street sing which says "SLOW" above a silhouette of a running boy, under which we see the text "CHILDREN AT PLAY." Photo taken in the evening against the backdrop of a brick building and window.
I photographed this Children at Play sign on Love Lane in Brooklyn Heights on August 21, 2026.

1 | Understanding And Dealing With Kim Jong-Un’s Resilience (Mario Alexis Portella for American Thinker. August 31, 2026.)
I attribute Kim Jong-un’s resiliance to his looking at everything.

2 | Israel Continues Elimination Campaign Against October 7 Perpetrators and Gaza Terror Commanders (Vijeta Uniyal for Legal Insurrection. August 29, 2026.)
There seems to be a growing correlation between having participated in October 7 and suffering an untimely demise.

3 | Calibre 9.14 Open-Source E-Book Manager Is Out with More AI Features (Marcus Nestor for 9 To 5 Linux. August 27, 2026.)
I’m not one of the people dropping Calibre because of optional AI features (some of which are relatively inoffensive, albeit not useful to me), nor am I in the business of telling people how to run their free and open source projects. With that being granted, I hope we are also working on the non-AI features.

4 | A proposal for new Netflix content rating icons (Eric Bailey. August 25, 2026.) (HT Jim Nielsen.)
I don’t use Netflix, but I see the point about its rating icons. Coincidentally, I was reminded of my article on rating scales.

5 | “I just chose words carefully.” (Marcin Wichary at Unsung. August 30, 2026.)
I never tried typesetting in monospace, but I do use monospace for most of my drafting in my markdown editor.

6 | California lawmakers unanimously pass Linux exemption from age-verification law — software distributed under the GPL, MIT, BSD, and Apache licenses are exempt (Luke James for Tom’s Hardware. August 29, 2026.)
Gavin Newsom dreamed of being President of the United States. He will settle for being accidental Stallman (with hair gel).

7 | Brooklyn city councilmembers look to silence Navy Yard’s noisy raves (Joe Hong for Gothamist. August 29, 2026.)
The correct number of raves in Brooklyn Navy Yard would be 0.

8 | Read This Before You Buy That TV Streaming Stick (Brian Krebs at Krebs on Security. July 30, 2026.)
Alternatively, consider reading “this” and the not buying “that” TV streaming stick.

9 | Bronx Mother Found Not Responsible for Killing Her Two Boys Because of ‘Postpartum Psychosis’ (Lowell Cauffiel for Breitbart. August 29, 2026.)
Someone needs to check in on the Bronx. Not me, mind you. I haven’t been to the Bronx in seven years and that was maybe for a combined 15-20 minutes. I’m good.

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Liked 5 apps new Linux users should install on day one by Dibakar Ghosh (How-To Geek)
Most Linux distros are intentionally minimal to avoid bloat, offering a fresh and clean environment. While this is a major perk, knowing what to install first can be tricky for newcomers. So, to help kickstart your journey, here are five essential apps that belong on every new Linux PC.

I read a How to Geek blog post titled 5 apps new Linux users should install on day one (HT Tux Machines). The author, Dibakar Ghosh, recommended the following apps:

  1. GNOME Tweaks and GNOME Extensions (if using GNOME)
  2. KDE Connect or GSConnect
  3. A Chromium-based browser
  4. OnlyOffice
  5. Flatpak

All five recommendations are sensible. My only amendments to those five apps specifically would be that I opt for Brave Origin as my Chromium-based browser and I prefer LibreOffice to OnlyOffice.

Of course, there are many more recommendable apps out there. I offer five additional recommendations:

  • Ghostwriter: KDE’s Ghostwriter is a simple markdown editor with built-in Pandoc (which should also be installed on every Linux workstation) export through its GUI. I have been using it to draft almost all of my long-form documents for more than five years. It is a “must-install” on all of my machines.  (See my Ghostwriter review.)
  • mpv Media Player: A simple, minimalist app for watching videos (it also handles music). Combine with yt-dlp to stream videos in MPV. VLC is also a common choice with a full GUI, but I prefer mpv.
  • Okular: KDE’s Okular is my go-to PDF viewer. It is a strong default option even on non-KDE desktops (I prefer it to Evince).
  • Syncthing: I use Syncthing to continuously sync files between my computers and phones. It is a part of my own essential apps collection.
  • Thunderbird: Mozilla’s Thunderbird is my go-to email client. There are other options, but I would rate Thunderbird as a good default choice for people starting out on Linux.

For some honorable, more specialized mentions: Calibre (great ebook manager and converter; “ok” ebook reader); Lutris (very nice game manager and WINE front-end (consider WINE a good “essential” pick); Qalculate (my favorite “normal” desktop calculator); Steam (if you use Steam); Recoll (powerful full-text desktop file search); RetroArch (for playing retro games); and Zotero (great reference manager and reader, combine with Syncthing for local storage across devices).

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We have a second consecutive warm day in New York City. We also have a third consecutive day of Pook-Emu Bee links.

1. Seven Myths About the Iran War (Michael Doran for Tablet Magazine. April 13, 2026.)

Good start. Hard to choose just seven.

2. Someone Bought 30 WordPress Plugins and Planted a Backdoor in All of Them. (Austin Ginder for Anchor. April 9, 2026.)

WordPress should send notifications to webmasters whenever an installed plugin from the standard WordPress repository changes hands.

3. Sam Altman’s house targeted in second attack; two suspects arrested (John Owen Lamb for The San Francisco Standard. April 12, 2026.)

Scary stuff and good thing both attacks failed (these sorts of types are often not too competent). Let us hope the perpetrators are dealt with appropriately and quickly to minimize the number of other deranged individuals who may take inspiration.

4. Reflecting on Microsoft Windows Vista in 2026 (Maya Posch for Hackaday. April 9, 2026.)

Say what one will but my Vista experience was fine. I’d take it over whatever is going on with Windows 11 these days.

5. Failing the Fix (2026) (U.S. PIRG Education Fund. April 7, 2026.)

I won’t spoil everything but I will note that having recently operated on a 2006-07 Macbook, I can confirm that Apple’s failing grade is nothing new.

6. You Should Be Using Reddit on Your RSS Reader (David Nield for Lifehacker. April 10, 2026.)

That is an interesting suggestion but I counter with “use an RSS reader and don’t use Reddit at all.”

7. Amazon is ending support for Kindle devices from 2012 and earlier (Brad Linder for Liliputing. April 7, 2026.)

But not all is lost for people with ancient Kindles: “You can still ‘transfer personal documents’ to an unsupported Kindle using a USB cable, although you may need to use a third-party tool like Calibre to convert some eBooks into a format that your Kindle recognizes.” Calibre does handle conversions to MOBI.

8. MLB pitcher Merrill Kelly says California tax rate swayed decision to reject Padres’ free agency offer (Chantz Martin for Fox News. February 28, 2026.)

Today reminds him why he made that call in free agency.

9. A medical journal says the case reports it has published for 25 years are, in fact, fiction (Retraction Watch. March 3, 2026.)

But other than that, the reports were accurate.

(HT to Pixy Misa for links 2 and 3.)

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They say that March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. That is true in terms of whether (looks nice out), but not in terms of your regularly-scheduled Pook-Emu Bee links.

1. OneTaste ‘orgasm cult’ boss got surprising letters of support – including from CNN personality (Ben Kochman for the New York Post. March 31, 2026.)

Letter of support rom Richard Schiff, who is described as having been an actor on West Wing:

I do not know Nicole personally beyond brief interactions, but I have observed the deep respect and affection my wife holds for her

This raises all kinds of questions. I will not ask all those questions here. Instead I will ask: Then why didn’t your wife write the letter? But that too spawns questions. This is just a link post. Not a Q&A.

2. Life with AI causing human brain ‘fry’ (AFP. March 30, 2026.)

The rise of AI agents that tend to computer tasks on demand has put users in the position of managing smart, fast digital workers rather than having to grind through jobs themselves.

Add this to the ever-growing genre of articles ostensibly expressing concerns about AI while bragging about how amazing AI is.

3. Brooklyn Parents And Teachers Take Aim at AI in Schools (Megan McGlibney for BK Reader. March 27, 2026.)

I agree with the compaints but with the idea that the teachers, as represented by the teacher’s unions, are a broad impediment to the encroachment of AI or similar fads in public school classrooms (credit to the teachers quoted in this article, however).

4. How to turn off Calibre AI features (Joel Chrono. March 27, 2026.)

I covered the same topic a few months ago, but this advice may be more up-to-date.

5. Natsu Banzuke Musings (lksumo at Tachiai. March 22, 2026.)

Yesterday we looked back at The March Tournament in sumo. Now we look ahead to May.

6. Ex-NBA All-Star went from $30M career to Craigslist scam (Julian Eschenbach for Basketball Network. March 28, 2026.)

  1. Not to spoil, but Chris Gatling is a great answer to any “random one-time NBA All Star” trivia question.
  2. I’m amazed that Mr. Gatling played for the “Brooklyn” Nets back in the late 90s? I followed the NBA starting in Mr. Gatlin’s lone All Star season (1996-97) and had no idea my native Brooklyn had a team! (They were the New Jersey Nets back then.)

This day in NLJ history

7. EGM’s 2001 Sega Neptune April Fools Joke (Nicholas A. Ferrell at The New Leaf Journal. March 31, 2022.)

Many lists of olden video game April Fools jokes are likely written by people who did not read them first-hand (or by chatbots). Not this one, my friends. I was inspired to write about Electronic Gaming Monthly’s “Sega Neptune” in warehouse April Fools joke because I read it in Electronic Gaming Monthly at the time. Take that!

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I recently wrote about installing Calibre on Linux the official way. Calibre made news recently for rolling out new AI “features” in the comprehensive open source ebook management program (ironically it was an article about the new AI features which prompted me to open Calibre for the first time in a few weeks to check if they were non-obtrusive, which in turn led to my investigation of different installation methods). From Sourav Rudra for Its FOSS:

Beyond that, this release introduces two additional AI-powered features. The first one is a book discussion feature where Calibre can answer questions about any book in your library through a simple right-click menu, and the second is a reading recommendation system that suggests similar books based on your selection.

My writings here and on NLJ betray my largely negative view of the current AI trends. Regarding Calibre, AI functionality is not enabled by default insofar as one would have to affirmatively choose (or “opt-in” in alternative parlance) to selecting a language model (Calibre comes pre-configured with four external options and the option to use a local model). If one wants to go the extra mile, it is possible to disable the five AI/LLM plugins entirely, although that is not necessary as far as ensuring that Calibre is not talking to external LLMs.

Calibre menu plugins listing default AI providers (GitHubAI, GoogleAI, LMStudio, OllamaAI, OpenRouter).
Default AI provider plugins in Calibre. While they are “enabled,” they do not do anything unless one is actually configured as the AI provider (insofar as I understand).
Calibre menu plugins listing default AI providers (GitHubAI, GoogleAI, LMStudio, OllamaAI, OpenRouter). They have been disabled.
The AI provider plugins cannot be “removed” but they can be disabled, although disabling them does not at this time make a practical difference.

The only evidence of AI without enabling the features is that there is an “Ask AI” option on the right click context menu for individual books, which does not do anything without a model configured but should (in my opinion) be able to be disabled (if for no other reason than removing clutter). While I am not interested in the AI “features,” I will submit that so long as they are not enabled by default, I see no reason to flee Calibre, which I use for managing my ebook library and metadata, sending books to my PocketBook ereaders, and converting between different ebook formats (I do not use Calibre as a reader). Here, my take is similar to Firefox, which I still use as my primary browser while ensuring that AI and other unwanted features are disabled. As far as Calibre’s features themselves go, the ebook recommendation idea is not terrible and I could see it being somewhat useful with a well-configured local model (not that I am an expert in this area, mind you), although it is not something that interests me. Asking AI about individual books is questionable (to put it mildly), especially when there are many full-text search options for finding text in a Calibre library (not to mention built-in highlighting features for people who use Calibre as a reader).

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From a December 10, 2025 report in TechCrunch:

Amazon says it will allow authors to offer their DRM-free e-books in the EPUB and PDF formats through its self-publishing platform, Kindle Direct Publishing. Starting on January 20, 2026, authors who set their titles as DRM-free will see their books made available in these more open formats.

I found this story in Pixy Misa’s Daily News Stuff post for December 11, 2025 and I agree that this move by Amazon is “for the better” (not the first time I have agreed with Amazon in recent weeks). While the Kindle store will never be a DRM-free friendly establishment on the whole, I approve of Amazon offering non-proprietary publishing format options for authors who publish to Amazon without DRM protections. With that being said, the change makes little practical difference to me since my PocketBook ereaders support Amazon’s formats and converting from Amazon’s formats to epub (or alternative formats) using Calibre is trivial. If I were to dare to make one additional recommendation for Amazon’s consideration, it would be good if Amazon made it easier for people to search only for DRM-free books (see my article on DRM-free games on Steam for the general idea). It would be even better if Amazon had a screen for AI spam books.

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I have been running the Arch Linux-based EndeavourOS on my desktop workstation since the summer of 2022. I use Calibre to manage my ebook library. I had previously installed Calibre from the main Arch packages repository. While it always worked as expected, I would often (if not usually, or almost always) see a nag upon opening Calibre that a new version was available. Seldom was a new version available in the Arch repos. I finally decided to check the Calibre project website to see if there is an “official” installation method. Indeed there is on Calibre’s Download for Linux page:

Please do not use your distribution provided calibre package, as those are often buggy/outdated. Instead use the Binary install described below.

Calibre provides several helpful commands for installing the official binary release (instead of re-printing them, I will encourage anyone who is interested in trying the official binary to visit the Calibre website for the most up-to-date instructions). By default, Calibre is installed into /opt, but the documentation includes a command for installing it in a different directory. Calibre also installs calibre-uninstall which can be run to uninstall the program from the command line. I was able to uninstall the Arch package version and install the official binary without losing any data (by default, Calibre’s database and library is stored at ~/Calibre).