Managing Ebooks on the Kindle

DefectiveByDesign and other Free Speech advocacy groups have been targeting the Kindle for its DRM limited content. This was something I grappled with when I bought my Kindle last year. Of course Amazon wants Kindle users to buy books from their store, but limiting ebook content really limits the usefulness of the Kindle! What if an ebook I want isn’t available through Amazon, but is available in another format through another seller? What about checking out ebooks from the library?

I initially was interested in ebook readers because I use the bus as my main mode of transportation. Also I love to read but I tend to forget to return books to the library and my collection of used books keeps growing. Living in the city, I don’t have a lot of space. If I could have all of my (non-picture) books as ebooks I would be very satisfied.

The great thing about the Kindle is that I’ve been reading A LOT more and it’s a fun device to use.

The not-so-great thing is that Amazon limits the way you can access ebooks DRM’ed by other providers. Fortunately there are ways around these limitations!

Download Free Ebooks in Mobi Format

There are non-DRM books available that the Kindle can read and it’s really easy to do. I use my SD card because I think cables are annoying. Insert the SD card into your computer and create a new folder called “documents”.

There are several free ebook sites on the web, in particular Project Gutenburg and Mobipocket Free Books. Pick a title and download it in “mobi” format. Save it to the “documents” folder you created on your SD card.

Insert the SD card into the Kindle. When you start your Kindle up, you will see the titles you downloaded as “new” items.

Convert Digital Files to Mobi Format

Kindle offers a service that will convert other ebook formats (HTML, PDF, etc) to Mobi format. This service is $.10 USD per book. Alternatively you can convert it yourself. Either use MobiPocket Reader to import the file (it is saved under “My eBooks” in your Documents folder) or download MobiPocket Creator. Note that there may be additional challenges with DRM’ed ebooks. Once converted, copy the files into the “documents” folder either on your Kindle or on your SD card.

Register Your Kindle as a MobiPocket Reader Device

The final workaround involves registering your Kindle as a MobiPocket Reader device. Not only can you read Kindle ebooks on your computer, but you can transfer them to other devices, and even transfer ebooks DRM’ed by other providers to your Kindle. For more detailed instructions on converting the Kindle files to MobiPocket format, see this article.

What you’ll need: A Kindle, an SD Card (or USB Cable to transfer files between your Kindle and your computer), ActivePython 2.x, MobiPocket Reader, Python Scripts (see below for where to get them)

Step 1) Get the Serial Number of your Kindle.

This is under the back cover on the label above the battery. The “Serial No.” is listed under the first barcode.

Step 2) Copy the ebook file from the Kindle to your computer.

Insert the SD card into your Kindle. Open the Content Manager and select a book on your list. Choose the option to save it to the SD card. Alternatively you can download files from your Kindle profile in Amazon to your computer.

Turn off the Kindle and insert the SD card into your computer. Your book is in a folder called “downloads”. I have a folder I created in “Documents” called “Ebooks”.

Step 3) Install Python and download the scripts.

Install Python 2.6 if you haven’t already. Note that the scripts are not compatible with Python 3.x. On Windows, I recommend ActivePython. Next download a small suite of Python scripts from the linked article above, under “Step 4″. Please let me know if the archive is unavailable so I can update this article.

When you extract the archive, you can place the scripts in the Tools\scripts directory of your Python folder and update the system path variable. I placed mine in the same folder I save my ebook files to for convenience. You need to run the scripts from the same location as the files you copied from your Kindle.

Step 4) Create the Mobi file

Open up a command line interface. On Windows type “cmd” either in “Run” (XP) or in the search dialogue of the Windows menu (Vista).

Navigate to the folder containing the files you copied from your Kindle:

cd Documents\Ebooks

Type the following command, replacing yourserialnumber with your serial number:

python kindlepid.py yourserialnumber

The script returns a 10-digit PID as the last item on the printed line. The third to last digit of the PID is an asterisk(*). Make a note of the PID.

Step 5) Open the book in Mobipocket Reader.

Install Mobipocket Reader if you haven’t already done so.

To register your Kindle as a device in Mobipocket Reader, select Reading Devices from the navigation on the left. Click the button located at the upper center part of the window to add your Kindle. I named my Kindle “Kindle” and chose “Other” for device type. Enter your PID in the field that asks for a MobiPocket ID. To open Kindle files in Mobi, change the extension of the “.azw” file to “.mobi”. Select Open or Import to view the file in Mobipocket Reader.

Double click the .mobi file you created to open it in Mobipocket Reader. Use Mobipocket Reader to register other supported devices so you can transfer your ebooks to them!

My First Day with the Samsung Reclaim

I’ve been using a Motorola Razr for the past 3 years and I’ve been less than satisfied. My former employer provided me with a Samsung Blackjack running Windows Mobile, so I had no reason to upgrade my personal phone. When I was laid off in June, I had to give up my Blackjack.

Based on my experiences with both the Razr and the Blackjack, I created a list of features I wanted in my new phone (in order of importance):

1. Qwerty keyboard
2. Text messaging and social networking focus
3. GPS / Google maps
4. Web browsing at least as good as the Blackjack running Windows Mobile

Deal-breaking features: Decent battery life and responsive OS (minimal lag/slowness).

I originally considered the Palm Pre because it covered most of those things and a lot more. I hesitated because of the battery life issue. I didn’t feel the price of the Palm was worth it because of the battery life issue and because it’s a 1.0 piece of hardware. Furthermore, I don’t need all the bells an whistles the Pre has to offer. While it’s “cool” it’s not worth the price tag to me when there are mid-tier phones that can fit my needs. Finally, I would have to change my current plan to accommodate the Pre.

I saw an advertisement on Instructables for the Samsung Reclaim. I had never heard of this phone nor seen it before, so I started reading about it. The Samsung Reclaim’s plastic casing is made from corn-based bio-plastic material (40%) and Sprint claims the phone is overall made from 80% recycled materials. I was under the impression that meant the phone also had parts made from recycled plastic, but they may be counting the packaging. I checked on both the Sprint and Samsung websites and I was unable to find a whitepaper outlining exactly what the recycled content of the phone is. Regardless, I liked the look of the phone and I like the direction Sprint is going with it’s eco-conscious image.

I went to the Sprint store to try the phone out and I was pleased. The Samsung Reclaim comes in both a bright green and a bright blue. Both are great colors, however I liked the green better. I wanted to test the QWERTY keyboard for usability and although small, it is very accurate. I have small fingers and am comfortable with small buttons. The phone slides out easily and I can hold it without accidentally pressing any other buttons (unlike the Razr). Because I felt the phone meets my basic requirements, I purchased the Samsung Reclaim.

The OS is Sprint’s own operating system that is similar to the Pre’s WebOS in look and feel. The button navigation and labels are similar to my Razr so I could easily figure out how to move around. Other aspects had the same labels and organization as the Blackjack so things I had figured out there also applied to this phone. I haven’t read the manual yet and already I’ve changed my screen pattern and ringtones, set up twitter and facebook, set up email and instant messaging, updated my contacts using bluetooth from my old phone, set up Google applications, taken photos including a panoramic, made phone calls, and sent text messages. For me, this phone is super easy to use.

While the Reclaim is not a smartphone like the Pre (in fact Gizmodo coined the term “dumbphone”), the Reclaim has enough applications and features to sufficiently meet my requirements. The up front cost was $100 plus tax and the mail-in rebate takes 6-8 weeks to process. I am very pleased with this phone and will write a further update once I’ve used it awhile to discuss how well it does at meeting the requirements I’ve listed above.

Defcon 17 Schedule Posted (+overview of Defcon 16)

I’m not really a “hacker” in the network security sense, nor am I really into network security.  I went to Defcon last year because a coworker who was planning to attend convinced me I would have fun.  I have other friends who attended in the past and enjoyed it.  I mentioned it to a few friends, they were interested, so we went!

I discovered that Defcon is not just for Internet Security Geeks!  There are different types of “hackers” not all of them computer related.  Defcon hosts a Lockpicking lounge and a Hardware Hacking lounge in addition to a variety of talks covering a variety of subjects, not all internet security related.

Ada Lovelace Day Post

Ada Lovelace is known as one of the first computer scientists. She developed a language and initial functions for the “analytical engine” Charles Babbage envisioned in the 1800’s. Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging to draw attention to women excelling in technology. Several ladies have posted about famous female Computer Scientists that inspired them either to turn to Computer Science or as they were studying it. I guess I could list the usual Grace Hopper, Mary Lou Jepsen, Anita Borg……. but the truth is I didn’t really know much about any of these people until after I’d already graduated and was already on the path so to speak. So instead I’ll talk about how I strive to be a role model for other women

Installing Flex On Ubuntu

Install Eclipse

Do not install Eclipse from the Ubuntu repositories.  Navigate to http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/ and select Europa on the left-hand menu.  Download the Eclipse for Java download. Extract the .tar.gz file and move it to the /usr/lib/ directory. Create a symbolic link in /usr/bin to launch Eclipse.   “sudo ln -s /usr/lib/eclipse eclipse”  Also you can add a menu item under Programming to your applications menu.  Launch Eclipse to make sure the installation went smoothly.

Configure Sun Java

Follow this HOWTO: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=201378
Or follow the instructions to use your JDK of choice here – https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EclipseIDE

Install Flex
Once you’ve configured Eclipse, install the Flex plugin for Linux – http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flex/flexbuilder_linux/
Download the bin file and from the command line, chmod+x to make it executable.  Run it from the command line by cd’ing to the directory where it’s downloaded and run it by prefacing the downloaded bin file with ./ .  Example: sudo ./flexbuilder_linux_install_a4_081408.bin

Be sure to run this install script with root privileges because the installation will need to access folders that will require it.  During the installation you’ll be prompted for 2 different directories, one for the Flex install and another for the Eclipse root folder.  I chose the /opt directory for Flex installation.  On Ubuntu, if you installed Eclipse via apt the Eclipse root folder will be at  /usr/lib/eclipse .  Do not use the defaults the installation script is prompting.

Create a Project

Launch Eclipse and select File > New > Other…

A dialog should pop up with a list of wizards.  Expand the folder for Flex Builder and select your project type.

Note that I was unable to get this working with Eclipse 3.4 .  If you have a version of Eclipse installed from the Ubuntu repositories I highly recommend you completely remove it and use the packages provided by Eclipse.org.

Vmware Workstation on Ubuntu Feisty 7.04

Installing VMWare workstation was somewhat painless on Ubuntu.  I only had access to an RPM package, so I had to download Alien in order to convert it to .deb.

I searched for “alien” in Synaptic and installed it through there.  Once I’d done that, I opened up my terminal, went to the location where I’d saved the RPM, and typed “sudo alien –scripts vmware….rpm” (insert the filename where the ….’s are, the suffix is .rpm).

Once I had my .deb package, I double clicked it to launch the package installer.  Everything installed properly.  Next I opened up a terminal window and typed “vmware” since I didn’t see it in the menu.  I was prompted to run a configuration Perl script.  At this point, depending on what you want to do with VMWare you might want to download the PDF manual: http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/ws_pubs.html

After running through that (I just used the defaults for most things), I found VMWare in the Applications menu under “System Tools”.  VMWare was unable to start because it couldn’t find the EULA.  I dug around and found a link to a .gz file that must not have gotten decompressed properly.  I uncompressed it, and ran VMWare again, this time successfully.

VMWare requires you to have a copy of whatever OS it is you want to install, in my case I was installing the OEM version of Windows XP that came with my machine.  I selected to create a new Virtual Machine, Windows XP Professional, 8 gig.  I inserted my installation CD and clicked to “run” my Virtual Machine.  At this point I was prompted to enter my VMWare serial number.  I did, and the Virtual Machine started reading the CD.

The UI is very helpful and intuitive.  I didn’t have to consult the manual for anything.

Gutsy Gibbon.. to upgrade or not?

I upgraded my home computer but I did not upgrade my work machine.

My home machine is a bare bones Asus system with a P4 processor and an Nvidia 6800 GPU.  Major changes were Compiz Fusion (I had been running Beryl and had to re-set everything up) and VMWare workstation.  VMWare workstation needed to be reconfigured and wouldn’t run properly.  The issue is addressed here.

Using the linked utility I was able to get things up and running on the home system, but without official VMWare support for 7.10 I’m not going to be upgrading my work computer just yet.

Reconfiguring Compiz Fusion was a hassle.  I don’t have my cool splashy water effects anymore   However, now I can add more sides to my cube, and I did finally figure out how to make my firey windows multi-colored again.

The upgrade process itself was SUPER EASY.  Just click the upgrade button on the software updates screen.  You’ll want to hang around for about the first 10-15 minutes to take care of any dialogues.  Also be sure to update everything in 7.04 before running the upgrade.

FileMaker ODBC Fetch Forward Error

After scouring the internet for this mysterious “Fetch Forward” error I sometimes get when migrating FileMaker records to other database formats via ODBC and Perl DBI, I discovered what causes it.

The error is seemingly random and goes like this:
[FileMaker][ODBC FileMaker Pro driver][FileMaker Pro]Unknown error (SQL-HY000)
[FileMaker][ODBC FileMaker Pro driver]An attempt to fetch forward has failed for table: TABLENAME (SQL-HY000)(DBD: st_fetc/SQLFetch err=-1) at myperlscript.pl line 123.

This occurs when FileMaker drops the ODBC connection or is unable to respond in a timely manner.

Solutions are as follows:
1) Set up your access script in a while loop so that when it aborts due to an error it will resume after x amount of time.
2) Minimize the number of indexes (if you had to recover a corrupted database check for indexes in your field definitions, FileMaker likes to create them for you).
3) Minimize the number of calculated fields and summary fields.  Only use what is absolutely necessary.

As if the “blowjob” ad wasn’t enough

QSOL published an extremely misogynistic ad in Linux Journal that has been dubbed the “blowjob” ad.  It showed a sultry woman with red lipstick and the line “Don’t worry, our servers won’t go down on you either”.  I was curious to find out more about QSOL and I found another inappropriate ad that lists commands in a context of inuendo:

The “commands” Ad

Frankly, when I saw this I felt sick to my stomach.

If this was fan art or a joke, I wouldn’t care quite as much and might think it was funny in a Beavis and Butthead way.  This is a professional organization that advertises in professional publications!!!  Ignoring the female demographic and resorting to using “sex” to sell servers must mean that their servers SUCK.  If they were any good they wouldn’t have to resort to this nonsense.  It’s disgusting.

Upgrading Ubuntu Server via CLI

I needed to upgrade my 6.10 Edgy Ubuntu server to 7.04 Feisty.  It was pretty easy to do, the trick is knowing the right commands.

First, update the sources.list file and change each occurrence of “edgy” to “feisty” (without the quotes):

<code>sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list</code>

Then, for example, change
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ edgy main restricted
to
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ feisty main restricted

Now update package list:

<code>sudo apt-get update</code>

Install the update manager:

<code>sudo apt-get install update-manager-core</code>

Start the upgrade tool:

<code>sudo do-release-upgrade</code>

The update can take several hours as it has to download a lot of stuff.  I did mine unattended for the most part, just peeking in to make sure there weren’t any dialogues holding things up.