..maybe it is an explorer. I wish octopuses were able to communicate more knowledge intergenerationally. It feels like they don't currently get the most out of their intellects.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I love this. I wonder what it was doing…

Most likely - I'll just rest here on this rock, woooah, oh shit oh shit oh shit what's happening 😱

…maybe it is an explorer. I wish octopuses were able to communicate more knowledge intergenerationally. It feels like they don’t currently get the most out of their intellects.

Maybe they do! Maybe this octopus is shark riding just like it's grandparents taught it, in order to get to the more fertile feeding grounds for the winter, using the routes passed down from generation to generation.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Well unfortunately no, this is the tragedy of the octopuses - they don't know their parents and grandparents. Their mothers die when they are born and their fathers are absent, and they are solitary.

Their only chance at learning is social or observational learning from peers but because of the territory arrangements even that doesn't happen a lot as far as we know, though scientists have observed some younger octopuses learning from watching older ones from a distance.

Octopuses are incredibly smart. They can infer from context, make generalizations, spatially imagine objects, and even show altruism. If only they could do what you said and pass on knowledge the world would be their oyster!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Aw man that's sad. They were this close 👉 👈 to being the dominant species on the planet.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

There's still time!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

As long as they survive climate change...

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

There was a species discovered awhile ago that formed colonies and was observed pair bonding, intimate mating and spawning multiple times over their lifetime. Completely unlike other octopuses. The Larger Pacific striped octopus.

Sadly, their lifespan is only about two years, which probably is why they aren't the dominant species.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Thank you so much; I hadn't heard about that (out of the octopus loop). I can't find it now but I wonder if the instances I mentioned of wild octopuses learning were somehow related to those - if memory serves it was somewhere off the coast of California so some habitat overlap.

Wow, the LPSO have a lot of evolutionary potential. If their environmental conditions are right who knows what will happen. I don't mean to sound disloyal to my species but if humans do succeed in dragging themselves back into the stone age it might be time for the octopusses to shine. An Octipodean Era!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

I can't remember exactly where I learnt about the LPSO. Might have been a documentary. Hopefully climate change doesn't wipe them out.

There is a book by Adrian Tchaikovsky about a planet taken over by genetically modified octopuses that started their own civilisation. They even had their own space ships. Children of Ruin is the title if anyone's interested.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Hopefully some of them survive. They sound so amazing.

Thanks for the book rec - good timing! I only just read Children of Time a few weeks ago - didn't realise the sequel was going to be about octopuses, thought it was just going to be spiders in space! @[email protected] has Children of Time on reading list too.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Nice! I think the third one is about corvids. I haven't got around to it yet as I got sidetracked with other books.

Out of interest what are you guys using to track books? I'm still using good reads. I know it's crap, but haven't looked into anything else.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Awesome. Corvids seem like a solid choice.

I am still using... a very old bio-method to track my reading; it has worked up til now but as time goes by data loss is an increasing possibility so I should probably switch to tech. I think there might be a fediverse Goodreads alternative for books? Bookwyrm. Also NeoDB but I'm not sure what that does.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Haha do you mean.. remembering?

Thanks, I'll look into bookwyrm. I like to see how many books I read every year, which is mainly what I use Goodreads for.

Maybe we need a Lemmy Nz ebook repository

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Ha yes remembering is what I've been using. I tried Goodreads but it always makes me feel like I need to write reviews and I don't want to.

Hate to think how many I read! I'm still traumatized by the time in middle school when they made us write books we had read on a wall chart.

I would totally peruse your bookwyrm/gr though, based on your rec so far!

I think we'd have to be careful about what we reposited (reposed?). Shadow libraries seem to be in the crosshairs at the moment including in NZ.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I tried Goodreads but it always makes me feel like I need to write reviews and I don’t want to.

Understandable! I don't think I've ever reviewed anything on there. I only ever do the star rating. But I think 5 stars isn't really enough granularity, so everything ends up almost the same for me. Unless I really don't like it haha.

Mine is mainly all speculative/science fiction as it's probably my favourite genre. I'm guessing there's no NZ instance for Bookwyrm.. I have to join the official one I suppose?

I think we’d have to be careful about what we reposited (reposed?). Shadow libraries seem to be in the crosshairs at the moment including in NZ.

I suppose you're right about that. However I've been using Anna's archive/Z-library/Libgen for a long time and they always come back after awhile if they get taken down. Or they're always available on Tor.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

There seem to be way more options for Bookwyrm than last time I looked! but no NZ one.

Sci fi is among the genres I like and I have discoverability issues so would definitely be up for reading your list even if it is all 5 stars ha ha.

Libgen etc is like that one Chumbawama song but you definitely wouldn't want to do it in NZ jurisdiction. Things seem to be heating up with the society of authors getting all up in arms, and a disproportionate number of those guys are lawyers. Not sure what it is about being a lawyer that makes people write novels.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

Ok I created a Bookwyrm account and did an import, I need to fix some of the dates and matches but seems mostly right. I'm not sure how to share it, but my profile is: [email protected]

If you decide to create an account, let me know and I'll follow you!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Only an 8 week wait until I can get started!

I've just put a hold on Children of Ruin too. A 4 week wait 😆

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

😄Hmm does that say something about the books I wonder or is it more a reflection of how many people only read the first part of trilogies?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

I think it's pretty normal for the wait time to be longest for the first book. Some number of people read the first one, then a smaller number are interested in the second, and an even smaller number are interested in the third. Almost no one reads the second book before the first so it's always front loaded like that.

Luckily I can strip the DRM and read it in my own time 🙂.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

That makes sense. Good, I am looking forward to this octopus book!

Do you use Calibre as your ebook manager too? 🙂

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Oh boy, you asked so here it comes. A summary:

Borrow book on Libby
Download adobe DRM formated book
Use libgourou to remove DRM and create epub
Import into Calibre then immediately export - just do this step for the consistent naming structure
Copy to server
Run Kavita on server for managing and reading the books

It seems there's a de-DRM plugin for Calibre but I wasn't aware of this. So I could simplify this process a bit but it works so I will probably just keep doing it 🤷

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I did not know about libgourou, that sounds like a good tool.

Not up to speed with the new format but as far as I know, the Calibre situation is very simple, it strips DRM automatically while a book is being imported.

I side load everything onto an old kindle (from 2012, back before they nagged you about the Amazon store) so Calibre is perfect for me.

I'm always intrigued by all your server stuff though.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Now I think about it, I think the issue is that I cannot even obtain the DRMed eBook because I use Linux and so can't install whatever adobe software is needed. Not sure if calibre needs you to get the proper book file or not.

The server stuff is fun when it works 😅. Docker makes it low risk to just spin up a new service that looks cool, try it out, and delete it if it wasn't what you were looking for. I started on a raspberry pi, then moved to using an old laptop, and now use an old gaming PC for my personal self-hosting (mostly for the photo services, which can be resource heavy).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Oh. Yeah if you're using library books, some of the e-platforms (but not all) insist that Adobe Digital Editions has to be present on your machine to let you download it in the first place. That's probably the hiccup.

That does sound like fun with Docker.

when it works

There's the rub! My problem (apart from resources) is no IT background so I lack a fundamental understanding. A blue screen of death takes me all afternoon to make a linux thumbdrive and boot in and fix everything very laboriously through trial and error and reading forums when it would probably take you 15 minutes tops. Between that and all the old tech it's like I'm in a cargo cult!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Yeah if you’re using library books, some of the e-platforms (but not all) insist that Adobe Digital Editions has to be present on your machine to let you download it in the first place.

When I download from Libby, I end up with a weird ACSM file that I presume is nicely handled on Windows but on Linux it's like getting a text file with XML inside that just has a link to some adobe website. Luckily I can feed it into the tool and it will fetch it for me.

A blue screen of death takes me all afternoon to make a linux thumbdrive and boot in and fix everything very laboriously through trial and error and reading forums when it would probably take you 15 minutes tops

I also have a "fix everything very laboriously through trial and error" approach to problem solving. It does work, though 😅

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I think I ran into the same problem with Libby until I installed Adobe digital and now I have to get Adobe to fetch the file then close it and import it. Bit of a rigmarole but worth it. Calibre lets you edit books as well which I like.

I get the impression that your starting point with the trial and error is light years ahead of mine though!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

Haha I have definitely come a long way from where I was even a couple of years ago. And back then, it was a lot of progress from a couple of years earlier than that. I don't notice it until someone new comes along asking really basic questions and suddenly you're the one answering instead of asking!