Ebooks and Hamster Wheels
Dec. 24th, 2011 10:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
odaProof that I have a tiny hamster brain that is obsessed with tiny wireless devices: +Jenna Moran shared with me a link to the lovely library management software Calibre, I found out the trials and tribulations about how Calibre Portable isn't very, I found a more portable version on the ever-useful Portable Apps, and now I am trying to figure out how to build catalogs I can browse from my phone. (The software at Calibre2OPDS looks perfect but I haven't successfully got it to actually build anything yet, possibly because I'm running Calibre portable, or because it's a beta portable package, or because I was configuring it when I should have been sleeping.)
This would be about exactly why I never get anything done. It's rabbit trails and side quests all the way down! (This started from: "I would like to read an ePub book on my computer.) Oh yeah and I could have just used Bookworm ....
On the SAD side, Amazon let Stanza die a sudden death when IOS 5 came back out. I hear they've patched it, but the patch didn't say IOS 5 only like other 5-only apps do, so my iTouch 2 (stuck on IOS 4) got its Stanza build vaporized by the shenanigans. BOO. I don't know how to reconstruct it even though I theoretically have backups and everything, since I loaded the stuff in directly to the Touch and didn't have any library management running anywhere else, and the iTunes backup format is... opaque to say the least. Not the end of the world as I had a bunch of random Gutenberg books there and didn't read on it very often, but still boo -- I can't even get it running enough to find out what I lost. It's probably not worth doing a full restoral over, though; I also just tidied up a bunch of other apps on the iTouch, getting it ready to be more of a backup media device for both of us than a full time iPod for me. (Now using the phone for that.)
I already refused to buy Kindle books over the DRM; now I'm sad at them for buying Stanza just so they could kill it. I'm glad to see the Lexcycle programmers make good on their hard work, but I think it's awfully shoddy of Amazon to buy a very nice piece of software just to destroy it, and to vaporize my library even if it wasn't a bought library -- it still represented time choosing books. Another lesson in why it is so important to mirror everything, even if it was free and easily found -- time is a resource too! Calibre looks like it will do an excellent job at that. Open source is a good protection against those sorts of shenanigans, because loyal fans can simply fork the dead-ended project and continue support if it's popular enough, and usually it's possible to at least run unsupported legacy stuff as long as you have an OS that will support it. (NOT open source, but I'm also grooving on Good Old Games for giving us legacy software at a good price.)
This would be about exactly why I never get anything done. It's rabbit trails and side quests all the way down! (This started from: "I would like to read an ePub book on my computer.) Oh yeah and I could have just used Bookworm ....
On the SAD side, Amazon let Stanza die a sudden death when IOS 5 came back out. I hear they've patched it, but the patch didn't say IOS 5 only like other 5-only apps do, so my iTouch 2 (stuck on IOS 4) got its Stanza build vaporized by the shenanigans. BOO. I don't know how to reconstruct it even though I theoretically have backups and everything, since I loaded the stuff in directly to the Touch and didn't have any library management running anywhere else, and the iTunes backup format is... opaque to say the least. Not the end of the world as I had a bunch of random Gutenberg books there and didn't read on it very often, but still boo -- I can't even get it running enough to find out what I lost. It's probably not worth doing a full restoral over, though; I also just tidied up a bunch of other apps on the iTouch, getting it ready to be more of a backup media device for both of us than a full time iPod for me. (Now using the phone for that.)
I already refused to buy Kindle books over the DRM; now I'm sad at them for buying Stanza just so they could kill it. I'm glad to see the Lexcycle programmers make good on their hard work, but I think it's awfully shoddy of Amazon to buy a very nice piece of software just to destroy it, and to vaporize my library even if it wasn't a bought library -- it still represented time choosing books. Another lesson in why it is so important to mirror everything, even if it was free and easily found -- time is a resource too! Calibre looks like it will do an excellent job at that. Open source is a good protection against those sorts of shenanigans, because loyal fans can simply fork the dead-ended project and continue support if it's popular enough, and usually it's possible to at least run unsupported legacy stuff as long as you have an OS that will support it. (NOT open source, but I'm also grooving on Good Old Games for giving us legacy software at a good price.)
no subject
Date: 2012-02-04 12:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-04-28 01:48 am (UTC)"Apprentice Alf" is the magic google term.
Amazon wants to be an ebook monopoly; they and B&N have both bought smaller ebook businesses (of various sorts) in order to squelch them. Amazon wants you reading on the Kindle app and nothing else. B&N acquired an ebook store that had 10+ years of history, and shut it down. They also acquired an ebook format, grabbed the DRM system from it, and eventually shut the whole thing down.
Ten years ago, there were several non-DRM ebook stores that weren't single-publisher storefronts. Now I don't think there are any, except that a handful of publishers and self-pub authors have books at Amazon, Kobo, and B&N that aren't DRM'd, but the stores usually try to hide that. (There are a few self-pub outlets like Smashwords, full of the worst sludge that never even made it to an editor's slushpile. There's some gems, but you have to be really dedicated to find them.)
I have no guilt whatsoever about stripping the DRM off ebooks.
The people at Mobileread forums have a good chance of helping you figure out how to get your books out of a dead Stanza. At the least, they should be able to tell you whether it's possible.
no subject
Date: 2019-04-28 01:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-04-30 10:02 pm (UTC)I've definitely noticed the rather grim state of things, but have (mostly) stuck to my NO DRM ON EBOOKS DARNIT policy except that when the Le Guin anthology came out I had to get it. Darnit. But it had Le Guin stories I hadn't read yet! Other than that I've mostly been reading paper books, free ebooks, "free" ebooks (we have Amazon Prime so get some books as part of the sub), and some ebooks I've bought direct from the authors.
My local library has a pretty poor ebook selection so the next time I'm in a nearby city with a better library I'll probably sign up -- it's open to anyone who is from my state.