I think what you’re describing at the end there is basically what Brave (browser) tried to do.
Excellent book. It’s very far from hands-on, and doesn’t even address UI in particular most of the time. Won’t tell you how to lay out anything, but puts you on the right empathetic mindset for design in general.
Based on OP’s description, might be just the ticket, but may also be too general for some tastes.
Ebooks have their convenience, and once in a while I’ll take a free one if offered, or pick them up cheap in a bundle.
But physical books capture my interest way better. More satisfying to hold and look at. Having a physical object around is a reminder to read. And paper books are better for tuning out distractions. If I try to read ebooks on a phone, tablet, or PC I can easily lose focus (though nice dumb-device readers are surely out there, I don’t have one).
And I meant to say, most helpful resource for me was the website rtings. Most review and best of lists I can find by searching are so spammy, it’s hard to get any signal. But at least that one let’s me filter a table of printers by features. I just don’t know how many they’re missing.
Had to get a new one recently too. I’ve had good experiences w/ Brother in the past too, but couldn’t find one that quite fit the bill. Needed color and for it to be able to handle cardstock.
Ended up getting an Epson, one that’s in the eco tank line. Has been great so far. Works just fine out of the box on Linux (LTS Ubuntu, anyway)
Have you checked your local library? Can be hit or miss, but many have a variety of digital and CD resources available.
You didn’t rule it out, so my first thought is: play video games! It’s certainly on the line between consuming something and learning to do something. Some individual games can be a whole skill to study and hone for years (eg, learning a fighting game or a speedrun, etc etc)
Spirit of the question though, that would probably be considered content.
Other ideas, most already covered by other comments: art, photography, music, writing, programming, cooking, woodworking, or learning a new language.
SNES was my favorite growing up, but over time my nostalgia for the GameCube has really kicked in! I think it might have to be my answer now.
Generally I read HackerNews and Lemmy communities like this one. Once in a while interesting projects will get highlighted.
But for the most part, once I identify a need, I’ll look through alternativeto.net and see what the popular open source options are.
First step definitely would be to identify specifically what you’d like to improve. To say ‘tech skills’ is to cast a wide net. If you want to learn all sorts of things that’s fine, but to get started with that and identify resources you have to be at least temporarily specific.
Are you thinking along the lines of system administration? Networking? Programming? Hardware setup/troubleshooting?
Well said. Within the existing framework of copyright law, the emergency open library thing that got them sued seems obviously illegal, despite it being a good thing. What’s good and what’s legal don’t always line up.
The Internet Archive’s work is too important. The library portion (that does controlled digital lending of published books) is nice, but I wouldn’t be too hurt if it goes down. Regular public libraries can fill a lot of that role. But the archive itself is incredible, and losing that would be a huge shame.
Legally, I don’t know that admitting fault and saying sorry does much good, but it certainly isn’t surprising that they got into hot water here.