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+[[!meta title="Productivity Dashboards with Emacs and Kindle"]]
+[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2021 Mehmet Tekman"]]
+[[!inline pages="internal(2021/info/dashboard-nav)" raw="yes"]]
+
+<!-- You can manually edit this file to update the abstract, add links, etc. --->
+
+
+# Productivity Dashboards with Emacs and Kindle
+Mehmet Tekman
+
+Since 2008, Amazon have released a new Kindle device every year,
+supplanting each generation with a newer model that boasts highly
+promoted incremental features which greatly devalues the price of
+their older models. These forgotten models are sold on Ebay and
+other secondhand websites at highly discount prices by owners who
+do not see the true potential of these devices: Kindles are
+excellent high contrast low-refresh display rate E-Ink devices,
+with Wifi capability, that run embedded Linux in the
+background. Depending on the model, an idle Kindle can last weeks
+before needing a recharge. This makes them ideal as passive image
+devices that can be configured easily using a few shell
+scripts. Indeed, efforts have been made in dedicated hacker forums
+to expose the Linux filesystem and to enable features such as
+custom screensavers, SSH networking, and more. By exploiting these
+features, and by carefully disabling the software/bloatware that
+comes with the device, these Kindles have found new life as online
+dashboard devices which can fetch and display information from the
+internet at timely intervals.
+
+Here we describe a tool to control multiple Kindle devices with a
+single org-mode/shell-based tool, built initially to periodically
+serve updated Emacs Org-Agenda views, but later expanded to produce
+online local weather reports and work calendar, Emacs calendars
+(calfw, org-gcal), daily dietary information (org-calories),
+Org-Mode sparse TODO trees, miscellaneous image and text content
+(via imagemagick), small messages, and much more.
+
+In this talk, we show how to configure multiple Kindles with any
+desired custom content, following any daily/weekly schedule, all
+easily managed from Emacs within a single Org-Mode file.
+
+
+
+# Outline
+
+- 5-10 minutes:
+
+ 1-3 mins
+ Talk about repurposing Kindles:
+
+ - Cheap second-hand wifi device, hackable
+ - Low-powered, long battery life, low refresh rate &#x2013; perfect
+ for a dashboard
+ - Timely updated Org-Mode Agendas anyone?
+ - Reference to inspired projects (kindle-dashboard)
+
+ 2-3 mins
+ Generate content
+
+ - A static text+picture image easily generated with imagemagick
+ wrapper
+ - An image of a sparse tree of org-mode TODO file
+ - An image of another emacs view (e.g. Calfw, or org-calories)
+ - Show post-processing for optimizing image for Kindles
+
+ 1-2 mins
+ Configuration in a single org-mode file
+
+ - Defining Machines
+ - Defining Commands to generate content
+ - Defining Schedules to run Commands on multiple Machines at
+ specific points in the day
+
+ 1-2 mins
+ Export and Run:
+
+ - Show exported shell configs and generated cronjobs
+ - Witness multiple Kindles producing desired content with wakeup
+ timers
+
+<!--
+- 20 minutes:
+
+ 4 mins
+ Repurposing Kindles
+
+ - Cheap second-hand wifi device, hackable
+ - Low-powered, long battery life, low refresh rate &#x2013; perfect
+ for a dashboard!
+ - Reference to inspired projects (kindle-dashboard)
+ - Discuss Use Cases:
+ - Dynamic content: Org-Mode Agendas, Weather Reports, Web
+ Calendars
+ - Static content: Gallery, Motivational Messages
+ - Untapped potential
+
+ 3 mins
+ Generate content
+
+ - A static text+picture image easily generated with imagemagick
+ wrapper
+ - An image of a sparse tree of org-mode TODO file
+ - An image of another emacs view (e.g. Calfw, or org-calories)
+ - Show post-processing for optimizing image for Kindles
+
+ 4 mins
+ Configuration in a single org-mode file
+
+ - Defining Machines
+ - Defining Commands to generate content
+ - Types of commands
+ - Extending the commands with custom
+ - Defining Schedules to run Commands on multiple Machines at
+ specific points in the day
+
+ 6 mins
+ Export and Run:
+
+ - Show exported shell configs and generated cronjobs
+ - Scripts and Design Considerations:
+ - Killing services (to keep amazon out)
+ - Iptables blocking (to keep amazon out)
+ - What SSH keys are shared and where (to keep amazon out)
+ - How the Sleep and Wakeup timers work
+ - Optimizing for longer battery life
+ - Eips and X
+ - Minimizing service checks
+ - Graph of number of screen updates per drop in battery life
+ - View many Kindles simultaneously in action
+
+ 3 mins
+ Final Thoughts
+
+ - Limitations:
+ - Cannot interrupt a device's sleep, it wakes up only when you
+ last told it to
+ - Hard to see at night, invest in some LEDs maybe?
+ - Take back your devices!
+ - Name suggestions? "kindle-sync", "kindle-cluster",
+ - Something that won't be forced to change at a later date if
+ it becomes too notorious.
+ - Planned features
+ - Acknowledgments and Resources
+
+- 40 minutes: N/A
+-->
+
+
+[[!inline pages="internal(2021/info/dashboard-schedule)" raw="yes"]]
+
+[[!inline pages="internal(2021/info/dashboard-nav)" raw="yes"]]