Firmware 4.37.21586

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

Yes, there's a difference between supporting a language within a book and supporting a language within the UI.

That's why voice calls and fax are very flexible. The language is irrelevant. Faxes are not entirely dead. Also Radio, TV, streaming content.

[John F]

Originally Posted by Quoth

That's why voice calls and fax are very flexible. The language is irrelevant. Faxes are not entirely dead. Also Radio, TV, streaming content.

Doesn't seem like a very compelling reason for faxes. When the general population doesn't have a fax, scan/picture and upload/email seems like a much better solution.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by John F

Doesn't seem like a very compelling reason for faxes. When the general population doesn't have a fax, scan/picture and upload/email seems like a much better solution.

It varies by country. I'm not at all suggesting people go and buy a fax.

Certainly where faxes are gone the phone camera rules. Which also makes my point. The phone & camera will be in only supported languages and the document sent can be in any language. Even one the Aliens / Fairies / new TV show / book uses.

Also Chinese and Japanese might be easier to write than type. Supposedly they use faxes still.

Have you ever tried using Google Translate with text you type that's in Russian / Arabic / Hebrew / Greek / Korean / Thai / Hindi and you don't know those languages and have a Latin-Roman style keyboard? Never mind non-alphabetic.
I actually can type Greek in a limited fashion due to Linux and the Compose key. A bit of trial and error though. I know a few letters of Cyrillic and Hebrew alphabets but have no idea how to type them.

I got handwriting to text conversion of Irish working in one application, oddly, by changing the GUI language to Spanish, which required memory for menus as I don't know Spanish. The ability sort of remained after switching back to English. I guess something to do with managing handwritten á é í ó ú, though why those completely messed up (even café vs cafe) the conversion is a mystery to me. English does have many accented loan words.

[John F]

Originally Posted by Quoth

It varies by country. I'm not at all suggesting people go and buy a fax.

Certainly where faxes are gone the phone camera rules. Which also makes my point. The phone & camera will be in only supported languages and the document sent can be in any language. Even one the Aliens / Fairies / new TV show / book uses.

For one or two pages, I may consider a phone, but I would rather use a scanner if available.

Also Chinese and Japanese might be easier to write than type. Supposedly they use faxes still.

Have you ever tried using Google Translate with text you type that's in Russian / Arabic / Hebrew / Greek / Korean / Thai / Hindi and you don't know those languages and have a Latin-Roman style keyboard? Never mind non-alphabetic.
I actually can type Greek in a limited fashion due to Linux and the Compose key. A bit of trial and error though. I know a few letters of Cyrillic and Hebrew alphabets but have no idea how to type them.
...

I'm not sure what the above has to do with scanning vs faxing. You already have a paper copy, so why is faxing a plus?

[Quoth]

I use a scanner. I have a 20+ year old SCSI one still working well and also the networked scanner on a not too old full duplex colour laser.

Most people don't have a scanner. Recently we were sent phone camera photos of material in a magazine. Not good enough. So they posted the actual magazine. I was sure they had a scanner, but maybe it's lost or only worked on Windows 98 or something. You and I are not typical computer users

I'm not sure what the above has to do with scanning vs faxing. You already have a paper copy, so why is faxing a plus?

I didn't fully explain. It's a demo of how hard using a keyboard might be compared to writing. It's not about faxing being better, but explaining why fax machines are still used in countries that don't have an alphabetic script.

Edit:
Though there are now "scanners" that are very high resolution cameras, some even with lasers to measure page curl. I used a borrowed slide/negative scanner with SCSI in about 2003, but I recently got a holder, backlight, extension macro tubes and bracket for my Canon EOS70 DSLR and it's rather better and much faster. Using the 18-55mm lens at about 50mm.
Anyone want an old Olympus OM10 kit (3x lenses in one zoom, macro tubes and teleconverter, plus unused expired film)? Or a 1/2 frame Olympus PEN EE-2. I think only for film enthusiasts.

[elhadidimohaned]

Originally Posted by elhadidimohaned

I just sticked with KoReader, Arabic support in titles and Arabic keyboard, it was so easy to install an English Arabic dictionary. Although I have a probelm that sorting with date modified doesn't work, but having the options to crop PDFs is way easier than having to crop them in my laptop.

Seemed there was an update to KoReader that showed sort by last read and now works perfectly, I don't think I will be opening kobo's UI agian.

[John F]

Originally Posted by Quoth

...

I didn't fully explain. It's a demo of how hard using a keyboard might be compared to writing. It's not about faxing being better, but explaining why fax machines are still used in countries that don't have an alphabetic script.

...

So you are saying that it is easier to have a conversation by faxing then by emailing for countries that don't have an alphabetic script?

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by John F

So you are saying that it is easier to have a conversation by faxing then by emailing for countries that don't have an alphabetic script?

I don't know for sure, but handwriting sounds much faster.
See
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_input_method
And Japan uses many Chinese characters:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chines..._for_computers

In Japan, faxes are still used extensively as of September 2020 for cultural and graphemic reasons.[31][32][33][34] They are available for sending to both domestic and international recipients from over 81% of all convenience stores nationwide.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fax#In_the_21st_century

Extensively used in UK NHS rather than email. I don't know why.

I last used Fax about 8 or 10 years ago to the Irish Tax office, except I didn't. My microwave linked VOIP shared with Internet is 64K codec on an 8Mbps down/1 Mbps up duplex link, so a modem works on it. Most VOIP won't support a modem. So I dug out some old XP fax software and used an old laptop with a modem and managed to send them a fax. They seem to understand email now.

Oh, and China has a main standard written language, but it's not phonetic at all. There are hundreds of spoken languages in China that use this. So you will see people in railway ticket offices using those dumb erasable LCD pads or paper and writing to each other as if deaf and dumb. They can't talk to people from different regions at all, but writing works.
Japan doesn't have that problem.

We don't really read the letters. They are handy to type or write. But once you are proficient at reading you recognise entire words, it makes proof reading need practice because many errors will be invisible if the start and end of a word is recognised. Yu cn vn mnge wtht mst f th vwls. Hence Hebrew and Arabic are not so hard, though the alphabets are not absolutely vowel free.

So learning to read Chinese books fluently for a Chinese kid isn't really any different to learning to read fluently in the West. I don't know how reading out loud works.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Written_Chinese

[enuddleyarbl]

Originally Posted by enuddleyarbl

It looks like I repaired the database issue with SQLite Expert Personal. The help pages say there's supposed to be a Repair option under Database. But, I didn't see one. I used the Vacuum option and it appears to have fixed it.

With this firmware, I'm pretty sure this is the 2nd such time I've had database issues. The first time, I just deleted my books and re-sideloaded them from Calibre. Repairing the database with that SQLite utility is much easier than re-sideloading.

Well, I didn't pay attention and connected my Kobo Sage to Calibre without first rebooting the Forma. I was on the Home page, though. Immediate dirty bit/database error. Unfortunately, when I try using SQLite Expert Personal to fix things, it no longer works. There's still no Repair option under Database (which the Help file says should be there). And, the Vacuum option just pops up the error:

"database disk image is malformed SQL Statement: VACUUM."

The Check database function gives:

"database disk image is malformed SQL Statement: pragma integrity_check."

Any suggestions on how to get SQLite Expert Personal to repair the database?

It looks like the newest firmware (which may or may not be withdrawn) doesn't fix this (according to that thread). This has gotten very old, very fast.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by enuddleyarbl

Well, I didn't pay attention and connected my Kobo Forma to Calibre without first rebooting the Forma. I was on the Home page, though. Immediate dirty bit/database error. Unfortunately, when I try using SQLite Expert Personal to fix things, it no longer works. There's still no Repair option under Database (which the Help file says should be there). And, the Vacuum option just pops up the error:

"database disk image is malformed SQL Statement: VACUUM."

The Check database function gives:

"database disk image is malformed SQL Statement: pragma integrity_check."

Any suggestions on how to get SQLite Expert Personal to repair the database?

It looks like the newest firmware (which may or may not be withdrawn) doesn't fix this (according to that thread). This has gotten very old, very fast.

The recover option is available in the Professional not the Personal version. You could try downloading the sqlite dll and tools from the SQLite Download Page. Also see Recovering (Some) Data From A Corrupt SQLite Database for the procedure.

OTOH, this is unlikely to work. A few years back, I tried recovery and then the Stellar Repair for SQLite tool. While both did recover most of the database data, when copied back to my Aura One, a factory reset was triggered. Most wasn't good enough.

And yes, my suggestion about using a NickelMenu entry to reboot before connecting to the computer is the only consistent solution I've found to connect without seeing .sqlite-wal and .sqlite-shm files indicating a database that was not closed before the connection.

Using the Kobo Utilities database backup is the best way to recover from a corrupted database.

[Aleron Ives]

Which firmware introduced the constant filesystem dirty bit problem?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

Which firmware introduced the constant filesystem dirty bit problem?

I've never had that as an issue.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

Which firmware introduced the constant filesystem dirty bit problem?

I've not seen it. Many Kobos, 4 models. 3 x computers / laptops with Linux Mint, Mate Desktop and Calibre.

I've wondered if it's Windows Indexing or Anti-Virus or something?

There was an issue with the Sage and database errors for a short while, but that went away with only connecting after selecting Home or My Books.
Also I never have WiFi or BT on.
Now all the Kobos (5 x Sage, 2x Libra, 1 x H2O original, 1 x Libra 2, 1 x Elipsa original and 1 x Nia) in the wider family are set to
SideloadedMode=true
So My Books replaces Home.
Makes more sense to download to PC from Amazon, Kobo, Standard Books, Global Grey, Smashwords, Gutenberg, Games Workshop etc.

[enuddleyarbl]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

Which firmware introduced the constant filesystem dirty bit problem?

In my case, this firmware (Firmware 4.37.21586) caused it to happen all the time. As others have said, rebooting the Kobo just before connecting to Calibre prevents the corruption from happening. I just forgot to do that this time.

In the past, I occasionally got the filesystem dirty problem. But, it only rarely corrupted the actual database. That cleared up entirely (about a year ago?) until this firmware.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by enuddleyarbl

In my case, this firmware (Firmware 4.37.21586) caused it to happen all the time. As others have said, rebooting the Kobo just before connecting to Calibre prevents the corruption from happening. I just forgot to do that this time.

In the past, I occasionally got the filesystem dirty problem. But, it only rarely corrupted the actual database. That cleared up entirely (about a year ago?) until this firmware.

I don't reboot. I make sure I go to the home screen before connecting to the USB port.