The Male Hysteric

So as I spend more time on Dreamwidth and in indie web spaces I'm finding people are actually posting more actual content, as in essays, stories, art, etc on their small websites rather than just making them into nostalgia retro pages and that's really cool! However one thing to remember about small sites is that, well, they tended to disappear almost as quickly as they showed up. The WayBack Machine may have pieces of a website but not everything, so if you find a cool site, you might want to be able to save it locally. Or maybe you're somewhere with unreliable internet and just want a copy of your friend's fanfiction archive locally so you can read it when you want to and not when the internet is cooperating. I get it!

One of the more convenient ways to do this I've found is with Kiwix. Kiwix is an organization that makes an app that was primarily designed to be able to download and browse various Wikipedia projects in areas where internet access is difficult, impossible, or dangerous. This works by compiling websites onto .zim files, which you can find pre-compiled through kiwix, but you can also find .zim files elsewhere or even make your own, and a very simple way to do that is through the Zimit tool. Zimit has a lot of limitations, but it usually works fantastically well on most small static sites like the kinds you find on the indie web. The resulting .zim file from the tool can be used with any Kiwix application, either on a computer or a mobile device, and you can browse through the webpage to your heart's content without an internet connection. Enjoy!

I just got the Innioasis Y1. Why? Well, frankly the other DAP had frustrating limitations that I am hoping this one does not have, primarily with respect to audiobooks and podcasts. It kind of seems like the easiest way to get an inexpensive device that can handle audiobooks well (as in, keeping bookmarks) is by having an android base, but having an android base also causes other issues. So it's a tradeoff. I got the Y1 for $50 so right now if it doesn't work out I'm not going to beat myself up too much about it, and also if I hate the original android OS I can choose to install rockbox (though I don't know how good rockbox is for audiobooks... have not done research.

I'm not going to do a full review because I haven't used it much, and have barely uploaded all my music onto it. The Innioasis Y1 is designed to look like an iPod but feels way cheaper than an iPod, because, of course, you are only paying $50 for it. I got the blue (which is a teal color) even though my first choice would have been the teal (which is a blue color), but it still looks nice. Honestly in terms of first impression of builds, I think the Snowsky Echo Mini is probably nicer. I am definitely contemplating getting a screen protector for this thing.

The sound quality is ok -- on first impression I am not sure if it is slightly worse than the echo mini or I just haven't found the right volume (I think the Echo Mini can get way louder). One thing it does have is the ability to create themes. The Y1 is advertised as being "for kids," I guess because it doesn't have any web functionality so you can control what your child is listening to, so most of the default themes are kinda goofy looking. So the first thing I did was download a bunch of themes and am currently using a Windows 95 theme I found on Reddit.

I'm going to give it at least a week to see how it compares to the echo mini, or if I want to try running rockbox on it.