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by fnordpiglet 897 days ago
As a parent your perception of value changes. I would much rather have a pile of garbage my daughter spent hours creating than something drop shipped from China at any price point or functionality. I can imagine the authors parents showing all their friends and family the frame their nerd child made for them and explaining that while it’s not as functional as the $30 frame from China their child made it from a used nook and was so excited about how it uses e-something that uses less battery or something.

The $30 frame would go in the corner until the plug unseated and then a few years later into a drawer.
1 comments
ghaff 897 days ago
I think it depends. My dad would absolutely prefer something that just worked. He certainly appreciates things I make and do but, even the books I've written, he appreciates that I've written something and leaves it out in his apartment but I'm quite sure he's only flipped through the semi-technical content.
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fnordpiglet 897 days ago
I bet he leaves it out in his apartment more reliably than if you gave him a book off Amazon. The fact he can’t access the contents of the book isn’t the point. It’s that he takes pride in something he wouldn’t normally read is because it’s yours. That’s why a DIY project for your parents is better than a shrink wrapped piece of future garbage.
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ghaff 897 days ago
Sure. And a book has a cover with the author's name on it.

But he really wouldn't thank me (not that he'd say so) for some DIY project that wasn't as transparent to use as commercial versions--and he'd end up not using it. He appreciates that I've put together the photo collections given that I've scanned and kept a lot of photos he wouldn't other have access to but he'd like actually displaying them to be as easy as possible.

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fnordpiglet 897 days ago
Yes, but that’s your family where you write books. If you’re a nerd that makes eink displays of photos, I bet their family appreciates their children just as much as your father appreciates you. The nice thing about eink for this is once your family member eventually unplugs or somehow disconnects the device from the network; it’ll continue to display the last photo.
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