[davidfor]

Originally Posted by smallhagrid

Thanks for replying Davidfor.
Your POV in this matter seems to avoid the possibilities that my friend and I know one another very well, get along splendidly, and have quite bluntly discussed these things openly and with equal distaste for the same aspects.

Which in fact - we have.

In that case, great, you know what he wants. But, it is a pity you didn't say that in the first post. That reads as if it was a casual "I like that, what else is like it?" rather than a deeply considered "That is EXACTLY what I need".

In the rest of your posts, when you describe what is wanted, it reads as what YOU want, not what your friend wants. Maybe that is just bad phrasing on your part, or misinterpretation on mine, but that is at least part of what I was responding to. Your comment about the lack of an external SD card slot is what I was responding to. That definitely reads as "I know better and will not tell my friend about the alternatives". The same goes with the comment about higher resolution screens. And you actually prefixed these comments with "My opinion - which is my own (Ahem)". Those are the comments I was responding to.

As to the comment about calibre and that you prefer something called "TE Book Converter". I had a look. Simple interface but absolutely no options. And what it has is weird; If I choose "Kobo" I can only convert for the "Wireless eReader" and then only epub or PDB. So, only the second oldest device, and Why on earth PDB? And the Sony options miss all the newer devices. Hasn't been updated for a year, so using an older version of calibre. But, of course the bigger problem is that it didn't work. I added several books, pressed the convert, it sat there for a while and told me there was an error for each one. I did have a look around, and I found the temp directory that it's instance of calibre was using and saw files being added and removed. But no converted book produced and nothing to tell me why.

I suppose I really should have been asking how calibre "makes more messes than it helps with"? Pretty much any time I see someone with a mess related to calibre, it is because they are not actually willing to let calibre do it's job.

I had other issues with your posts that I didn't comment on. An example was the statement that Kobo's stink for formats that you found important. Of course, you didn't bother to tell us what those formats were. Or how the Kobo's stunk with them. So, how were we to know what your needs really were? Sorry, your friends needs were.

I will conclude my participation in this thread, thusly:
Perhaps the reader simply adores vanilla icecream, just as it is - and perhaps I totally adore extra dark double chocolate walnut crunch icecream with sprinkles on it.

Do I have any 'right' or place - telling you, dear reader - that you are somehow WRONG for your preferences ??
Is it your place or 'right' telling me that I am somehow 'wrong' for mine ??

I think not (Nor will it matter either way).

I had no intention of telling you that your preferences were wrong. I might have been suggesting your preferences were short-sighted in reference to your friends needs. But, as you are now telling us that your friends preferences/needs are exactly the same as yours, then my comments were obviously pointless.