You can tell Google Play not to update the app by unchecking auto-update. Tap the three vertical dots in the top-right corner to bring up the option. Then download the old Skype Android app from AndroidDrawer.com ("Because Newer is Not Always Better") or any similar site.

This works until they (Skype/MS) decide to block access from older app versions. I was forced to upgrade Skype eventually on Linux, because I could not log in on the older version.

Also, on one of my ereaders that has an older firmware, apparently EOL, I lost access to Dropbox at some point. Dropbox has been releasing updates furiously lately and seems to have blocked access from older versions of its app.

On Android, there is no functional reason to have Skype at all. FB Messenger does all the same things and more. The only reason to have Skype is that some friends or family are still stuck with it and are not on FB.

I've been vaguely considering changing the title I picked back in '05 but I'm not quite sure what to.

This works until they (Skype/MS) decide to block access from older app versions. I was forced to upgrade Skype eventually on Linux, because I could not log in on the older version.

Yes, on 2017-11-20 to be precise. As mentioned in the link.

On Android, there is no functional reason to have Skype at all. FB Messenger does all the same things and more. The only reason to have Skype is that some friends or family are still stuck with it and are not on FB.

Neither Android nor Facebook are things I want to subject my mother to. Admittedly Skype is increasingly becoming a "subjection" itself, as opposed to the much higher quality, much less nonsense voice chat it was compared to its competitors back in '04.

@ersi Incidentally, what do you think of the front page design I'm playing around with as we speak? My general idea is:

• Highlight a few posts at the top (probably 5 or 9 rather than the current number)
• Display recent posts
• Highlight a few posts from various categories

I've mostly got the looks down, but I don't want to bother with the specifics atm.

The front page design with the tiles and such? The tiles (probably meant as a "featured" or "main categories" section) look cool in graphical browsers. They animate with mouseover and are totally adorable.

But I have a little bit of a problem with the layout. In graphical desktop browsers in maximised view, I'd expect to see a column (perhaps with "recent posts") either left or right to those tiles. "Recent posts" under the tiles are too far away.

The layout issue on the frontpage is evident with textmode browsers. I get a list of headings/titles and I tend to think they are most recent items on the website. But then I scroll down and I see "recent posts", so the question arises - all those things before the recent posts, what are they? But this question only arises in textmode browsers.

Off the bat, I see two easy ways to fix this, if you consider it an issue that needs fixing.

First way, lift "recent posts" ahead the tiles section in the code, and in layout make both sections appear as parallel columns in maximised view (desktop browsers). I guess that in narrow view (e.g. handheld browsers), it's still possible to make the tiles fold prior to "recent posts", if that's so important. For myself, I think it would make sense to see the tiles section as some sort of categories menu after "recent posts" in textmode browsers.

Second way, ditch the "recent posts" section on the front page altogether and optionally rename the Blog button to Recent posts. Because your tiles section actually consists of a selection of recent posts anyway.

Second way, ditch the "recent posts" section on the front page altogether and optionally rename the Blog button to Recent posts. Because your tiles section actually consists of a selection of recent posts anyway.

Yes, the point is to have featured posts, though I don't think I want to get rid of recent posts. The basic principle is that I consider a post like this more worthwhile than a post like this (or the one that you quoted), and I want to do more of the latter kind with less inhibition. I basically write those posts anyway as private notes, but I feel they might take focus away from better posts. (This was not an issue I had in, say, '06.) But I still dislike the past decade switch from real blogs to microblogs on closed platforms.

My blog is from '04/'05, and I need to make some minor but difficult to pinpoint changes to bring it in line with my own expectations from it as a supposed adult as well as a few more involved but easily identifiable changes to bring it into post-2010. I already sort of did^[1] but I consciously neglected aspects like featured images at the time, and I did so again a couple of years later. I still think a lot of the OpenGraph stuff is fundamentally ridiculous duplication of stuff that already exists, but my source doesn't need to look as clean as Anne van Kesteren's minimalist blog, which was a strong inspiration back then. I want a clean source, but aside of some weirdos like me preciously few people will notice at all.

¹ What an odd random reference to Islam in that post. Perhaps I'd just read Ayaan Hirsi Ali's Infidel.↵

Those who read two-column papers might like the new two-column navigation (@FranMarelli This does not work in conjunction with scroll mode.

I've been waiting for this all my life! Actually, I've been waiting for this ever since I discovered it's not there in Koreader while it is there and works naturally in Pocketbook's reader app. The current implementation in Koreader is much inferior to the implementation in the Pocketbook reader app.

For one, why only two columns? There are all sorts of weird pdfs out there, five columns and seven columns.

In Koreader, I'd like to see another setting for at least three columns or, better, an arbitrary number of columns.

Also, I'd like to see an option for more directionality. As far as I can gather, right now you can only begin at top-left, proceed downwards to the bottom-left when it jumps to the top-right and proceeds downward from there. All this should be configurable: Start at any corner and move vertically or horizontally from there. Not sure how to do it, but please do it. It will make Koreader unbeatable.

Please-please an arbitrary number of columns. In Pocketbook's reader app, you can select two or three, and three is sufficient for almost everything. Pocketbook does not attempt to detect the columns, it auto-divides the whole page to two or three and when the user thinks/sees it does not fit properly a column, you can drag on the touchscreen (this works splendidly in Pocketbook, not awkwardly or glitchily).

In Koreader, instead of dragging, maybe let the user adjust the visible area at any point vertically/horizontally a preset number of mm or px by a gesture. In fact, I have this suggestion and warm wish: In multi-column mode, let the user navigate in any direction (unless already at the edge of page of course) a half-screen worth, not full-screen worth. I.e. instead of navigating the page (only) in a pre-set manner,^[1] let there be, in column mode, swipes or other definable gestures that allow proceeding in any direction.

EbookDroid attempts to detect the columns in the pdf and then it literally breaks the columns into visually separate pages for display, as if you were reading a pdf with single-column pages. This, however, only works if the pdf is indeed formatted well enough with columns neatly separated throughout the file. When the pdf is scanned as image, the detection fails. When the pdf is formatted with the wide header/title/abstract preceding the two-column main text, the detection fails again, and EbookDroid displays the whole-page view.

So, my opinion is that attempting to not detect the columns is a good thing. And mechanically dividing the page into an arbitrary number of columns/rows is also a good thing. It works splendidly like this (three columns) in Pocketbook's reader app and the Neo app in Onyx Boox.

Second, not only does Koreader's two-column mode not work in conjunction with scroll mode, it also does not seem to work in conjunction with auto-crop (it goes to a view that looks like page-width or content-width). By the way, once you have selected auto-crop, how do you un-crop it? Go back to "zoom to fit page"?

¹ Neo reader in Onyx Boox has two pre-set manners for navigating the multi-column mode: "Article mode" (assumes vertical columns) and "Comic mode" (assumes horizontal rows - both left and right depending on another option). And when the page edge hits so that it cannot proceed whole-screen worth, it displays a modest dashed line to show where the previous viewport edge was. I consider the dashed line a nice touch, because its design happens to be good.↵

Heh, looks like I messed something up with the links in copying that over to my blog. It's all surprisingly simple in the end but everything starts small.

https://github.com/koreader/koreader/pull/3674

So what's the big plan with the two-column navigation? Will it become multi-column and multi-direction? Or is it already such in some hidden way?

And another big wish I have: dual-page view. Perhaps best implemented as a part of thumbnails view with minimal waste of space, i.e. no spacing between the thumbnails. It would be absolutely fantastic if you could arbitrarily select any number of thumbnails for best fit and layout on the screen.

I created a FR. https://github.com/koreader/koreader/issues/3685

I think that the blog of Frans has not enough nude women.
That's my commentation.

The closest you're going to get is https://fransdejonge.com/2007/02/microsoft-likes-asians/

Microsoft likes so-called diversity in its commercials general. This one is a classic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D720o9aaNWM

I had a blog on painting, a very good one.  What I enjoyed was to see from where I had visitors and it was very surprising.
Had always regular visitors from "forbidden" countries, Iran and the sort.

Do you have visitors from non expectable places?

Not really. There are some 60,000 "commercial," whatever that means,^[1] a bunch of European countries, 4,500 unknown, finished by Russia and Turkey.

I'm not sure if the search engines (listed separately) are included. There are a few I hadn't heard of there, including one from Czech Republic (this one).

DnD is perhaps slightly more interesting. There's quite a high number of Russian "visitors," though I could tell you that from the couple of Russian spammers we have to quell almost every day. Incidentally, people apparently land here with search terms like

the vatican bank control

should ordinary people man be given the license to keep a revolver and gun

¹ .com I presume, and for whatever reason the top of that is Amazon AWS.↵

Incidentally, people apparently land here with search terms like

the vatican bank control

should ordinary people man be given the license to keep a revolver and gun

The gun rights thread is perhaps the longest-running thread here and contains both the best and the worst that can be found on the internet on this topic. Nothing is missing in that thread. The rest of the internet has nothing that could not also be found in our mightiest thread.

Are we an authority in Vatican bank control?? 
Well if Google thinks so who am I to deny it...

I'm personally unable to land here using that search term (whether loose or in quotes) unless it's past page 3, so I'm not sure what happened there. Even though I generally don't use Google I'd imagine my search bubble to be predisposed to show more DnD results than usual.

Our Gun Control topic meanwhile rates higher than an equivalent topic on debate.org (here). That might be my search bubble at work, or just the fact that @SmileyFaze used the phrase "Should Ordinary Citizens be allowed to own, carry, & use Firearms to defend their own lives, & the lives of their family & friends? " so it'll pop up when people search for "should [ordinary] citizens/people be allowed to own guns" or something along those lines.

Congrats and thanks for the wonderfully implemented column mode. Looks like everything is there one could desire. I am particularly happy for the crawl-direction and overlap settings. I think these eliminate all the usability difficulties that could possibly arise.

The only instant issue for me is that the zoom panel (the panel that opens up under the bottom toolbar's zoom button) employs a different design of icons on Pocketbook than on Kobo. I think the icon set on Kobo is more understandable for general use. But this is a very margnal issue, does not really bother me.

Merry Christmas!

 ersi happy koreader user