Learn Something New Every...Post

Well, it's going to take me a long time today to catch up with all the comments from yesterday (sorry; I've got the flu), but I have to say that I learn something with almost every single post here. Who knew that there was a little tiny button on the address bar of my very own browser called "Enter Reader View"—

Which turns this—

Into this—

I spend roughly a fifth of my life in my browser, but I didn't know that*. I can't say there's any site I would consign to the purgatory of Reader View permanently (you can do that)—I want to see their special contents—but whenever I start to get irritated by the whirring and whizzing and blasting and zinging on some random page somewhere, that little pebble of knowledge is likely to be a godsend.

Thanks, specific readers, and thanks, vast brilliant TOP-reader Cloud (VBTRC). TOP readers are seriously the smartest people on the Web. Not just in subset photorelated.

(Another question for the VBTRC: What was that site that every year does an elaborate infographic about the state of the photo/camera industry in the year just past? I've been trying to remember and/or find it for days but I can't come up with it. Does anyone recall?)

As a last word on the "ruination" of the Internet, this quote from Maria Popova of Brain Pickings: "The internet—its beauty is that it's a self-perfecting organism, right? But as long as it’s an ad-supported medium, the motive will be to perfect commercial interest, to perfect the art of the listicle, the endless slideshow, the infinitely paginated article, and not to perfect the human spirit of the reader or the writer." (Thanks to Merle for that.)

We'll continue to be part of the semi-pricipled semi-resistance,  :-)   in favor of the human spirit of the reader and the writer. 

Mike

*Every smart person is aware of the dim reaches of his or her own ignorance. In the beautiful alleged words of Isaac Newton, "I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself, I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself now and then in finding a smoother pebble or prettier shell than ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me." (But read this. It's still a beautiful quote.)

Original contents copyright 2018 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Comments

[Fred Haynes]

I'm absolutely scared of the flu this year!
So Mike, take it seriously. See a doctor.

[hugh crawford]

"Coffee" he he

google infographic about the state of the photo/camera industry turns up lots of versions of this

https://photorumors.com/2017/03/02/the-state-of-the-camera-industry-infographic/

http://www.cipa.jp/stats/report_e.html seems to drop this every year at the beginning of March

[PacNW]

The Microsoft Edge browser has a great built-in reader mode. If you want a reader mode for the Chrome browser, just add this extension:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/just-read/dgmanlpmmkibanfdgjocnabmcaclkmod

Reader mode is especially nice on laptops with touchscreens and 360-degree hinges. You can fold the keyboard backward, into stand mode, and read comfortably using the touchscreen while relaxing on the sofa. I can never go back to laptops without both touchscreens and 360-degree hinges -- best laptop innovation in many years.

[Not THAT Ross Cameron]

H Mike, I enjoy reading your site on my iPhone during my daily commute. I see the reader view in the address bar when I go into an article to comment, but not on the Main page. Can the VBTRC advise if reader view is supported on the main page in typepad for mobile browsing?

[Rube]

Who knew? I knew, and use it al the time (in Safari). There is a somewhat similar button in Mail. As someone who practices 'stroll photography,' I try to notice things, but there is so much that escapes me, too.

[Stephen Cowdery]

For a (very) long-read examination of the way the internet is changing our sense of reality, read this excellent essay by Tavi Gevinson:

http://www.rookiemag.com/2018/01/editors-letter-75/

Tavi literally grew up on the internet, her awareness belies her age.

[Richard Chomko]

Yeah, sounds good, but do tell which browser it is that has this feature! Because I don't see it in Chrome or Opera for Mac which are the main two browsers that I use.

[Mine is Firefox. Apparently they are extensions for both Chrome and Opera. Google "Reader View [Opera/Chrome]." See what PacNW said above for more. --Mike]

[Ronny Nilsen]

Is this what you look for?

https://www.diyphotography.net/camera-sales-report-2016-lowest-sales-ever-dslrs-mirrorless/

Latest I found.

[Speed]

Reader View on MS Edge (Windows 10) works well with TOP.

I just tried and it appears that Reader View is not available in Safari or MS Edge on iOS. A quick internet search indicates that Reader View must be enabled by TOP to work in those iOS browsers.

[Steve Ducharme]

Interesting. I read Bran Pickings and It was one of the sites that came to mind as a counter to your position. I have the shortcut on my phone and donate when I can. My point would have been that there is still a LOT of great, non-invasive material out there. You just have to find it through the drek... but you obviously know that! :)

Another site I highly recommend is Raptitude dot com and Seths Blog. Some very creative, smart gentlemen who are interesting, original thinkers.

[Ariel E]

Perhaps that site with the infographics you were looking for might be https://lensvid.com ?

[Stephen Scharf]

The site you're asking about is CIPA:
http://www.cipa.jp/index_e.html

[Warren Jones]

Hey Lookie there, I learned a new trick :-) I never even paid attention(read noticed) to that feature in Firefox. One has to wonder how long it has been there! Thanks Mr J for the tip

[Rob Morris]

Infographic, not sure if this is the one your looking for. Here goes:

https://lensvid.com/gear/lensvid-exclusive-happened-photography-industry-2016/

Rob

[longviewer]

Great minds blog alike ..and fall into similar bogs. I'm shifting from blogger to WordPress, clumsily, and that was today's topic for me also.

[Eolake]

Yes, I use it a lot in Safari on iPad. It goes a ways to fixing that text size still can’t be changed in that app.

It only works for articles, not more complex pages like an Amazon page, sadly. Sometimes the long lines on an Amazon page are bad for reading.

In Safari you can also set text size, color, and such.

Oh, there are also the Pocket app, which takes an article and saves it, formats it for reading, and can be read on all kinds of devices, including in web browsers. (Instapaper is similar.)

[Beerfueled]

https://lensvid.com/gear/lensvid-exclusive-happened-photography-industry-2016/

Might want to use that "Reader View" feature on this one. :)

-larry

[John Seidel]

Reader view, in its' various names in various browsers, will save your sanity. Unfortunately, it does not work with all sites and, on some pages, an ad across the text space will break it and not allow you to finish in reader view–you have to go back to the jumping flashing idiocy. If anyone knows how to jump past an obstruction that stops the article in reader view so you can continue without having to go back to the mess that some websites present, please share it.

I came in late, lensvid and cipa have lots of stuff about the state of camera sales, as has already been mentioned. If it is none of those, I'd love to see what you have in mind when you find it, Mike.

[brian]

“Every smart person is aware of the dim reaches of his or her own ignorance."

Yeah, well, but there's this: "In the field of psychology, the Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias wherein people of low ability suffer from illusory superiority, mistakenly assessing their cognitive ability as greater than it is." For example, someone with no military experience could believe himself more knowledegable than an assemblage of generals regarding military strategy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

[Mani Sitaraman]

The bookmarks toolbar folders for "MIATA" and "Coffee" are totally you, Mike. That couldn't possibly be a snapshot from anyone else's browser!