Instapaper offers a great download to ePub feature. It’s very handy when you want to read articles on your ereader. If you have a Mac, get Ephemera. This awesome tool syncs your ereader with your unread Instapaper articles. Just connect your device via USB and Ephemera does the trick!
What I want now is a print to ePub function on my Mac like the save to PDF one. I hope someone has heard my wish!
Two weeks ago I have bought an ebook on a web store. I have used Adobe Digital Editions to transfer it on my Cybook Opus, the only solution for all DRM ePub and PDF ebooks. But what was my surprise when I started reading the book on my ereader and noticed two ugly oversized left and right margins around the text! On a 5″ E-Ink screen you want the text to occupy as much space as possible for a better reading experience and I was used to a full page of text when reading ebooks. The layout I was offered there was a centered column of justified text! Eventually I got used to it and read the first six chapters.
Until yesterday I didn’t have time to fix the ebook and remove those big margins. The only solution was to remove DRM protection from the ePub file and mess with the CSS or whatever file is involved in the text layout. Until then I had never thought of breaking DRM on an any file. I’m not going to detail the operation but I was able to identify the cause of the problem. It was not the CSS but the page template file which basically defines a set of possible layouts known as page masters. Then a section of this file specifies how those masters will be used to create a sequence of pages. On the original template file four masters are defined:
They are all referenced in the sequence section except for the full page one. The minimum page widths are respectively 50em and 80em for the two and three columns layouts. Two columns may be displayable on bigger screens but are not an option on my device. So the last alternative is selected: the single column master. By looking at other ePub template files I have chosen acceptable margin parameters and replaced the ones from the single column master. Then I have put back the fixed file on my device and I am now reading a good looking ebook.
I can not stop thinking that most ebooks are edited and formatted too quickly and I am sure some are not even tested on any device before they are distributed.
Talking about the seventies, there is this great new band from Norway. They’re called D’Accord and their sound comes right up from that period. Their self-titled album was released last year and makes you rediscover old progressive rock. It has it all from flutes to great vocals. Stig A. Sund, the band guitarist is also responsible for that superb album artwork.
Douge Fieger, lead guitarist and singer of The Knack passed away on the 14th of Feberuary. I’m sure you have at least listened to their 1979 hit My Sharona. This happens to be one of my favorite rock songs ever and the guitar solo is just amazing.
Thanks for the music!
Great and useful initiative by An American Editor. Since I have started reading my current book I can’t count the number of times I have noticed missing punctuation marks. The most common problem is no period at the end of a sentence. Sometimes the problem even repeats itself over several successive sentences. But so far the worst editing example I have encountered is whole content missing from an ebook! Ebook with ISBN 9780553897463 refers to an edition containing both Assassin’s Apprentice and Royal Assassin books. The joke is that the latter one is totally absent from the ePub file! Hopefully the distributor has been contacted and is currently in the process of obtaining a new file.
Bookeen has released the new firmware on Christmas eve. The thing I am the most pleased with, is the bug fix for random freezes. They were rare but really annoying as you had to press the reset button near the battery. The power plus previous page combination was not working at all. Since the update I have been using my Opus for several weeks non stop and the problem has disappeared.
All would be perfect if only the new firmware hadn’t introduced a new bug. There is a problem in the metadata handling with newly transferred ePub ebooks: titles and authors are not displayed anymore when browsing. The only information available then is the filename. Bookeen is aware of the problem and they say it will be fixed in the next update. I just hope we won’t have to wait for ages. At least their replies to my emails were quick and the bug is not interfering with my reading experience.
Amazing and beautiful! More info at The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain.
Ennio Morricone forever!
SixthSense is the mind blowing technology invented by Pranav Mistry, a PhD student working at MIT.
ePub is the standard for digital books. That said, why are publishers not following?
How many times have you faced this issue? You start reading a trilogy and buy the first book which is available in ePub format. Then you notice the second book is not available in ePub. How will you be able to read the sequel? Well, get it in another format! Wait, ePub is your only choice because other formats like Adobe Digital Editions PDF are poorly supported (zoom) on your device, get the paperback edition or be patient…
Try Robin Hobb’s Farseer Trilogy on BooksOnBoard (a web store, not a publisher):
Annoying, isn’t it? Don’t be too disappointed ’cause you still get to read the third book! But you’ll stop here as the two other trilogies, Liveship Traders Trilogy and The Tawny Man Trilogy can not be purchased in you favorite format.
As Amazon says “We know that even the best book reader is useless without the books you want to read”, that’s totally what I feel like with my Cybook Opus.
Should I get a Kindle and buy ebooks from Amazon?
Vinland Saga, Ikigami or Iliad (Dossier A in French). If you are not familiar with those names, maybe you’re not yet into manga.
Vinland Saga is a Japanese historical manga about Vikings. Both drawing and writing are handled by his gifted author, Makoto Yukimura. The drawing is extremely well done, very accurate and full of details. This is even more impressive as this is in back & white. The story is not at rest with an intelligent and fascinating plot alongside interesting and colorful characters. When you start reading Vinland Saga, you can’t stop and the five volumes released in France did not last long for me! The series can appeal to any reader of bandes dessinées or comics. Highly recommended especially if you are new to the manga genre as I am.
Ikigami is drawn and written by Motoro Mase. The story happens in a fictive country where a law dictates that one child out of a thousand will receive the Ikigami. Between his 18th and 24th year the young citizen will learn that he has only 24 hours left to live. The said purpose of this law is to make young people learn the value of life. Kengo Fujimoto’s job is to deliver the Ikigami to the condemned ones. The focus is made on the end of their lives: how they face the adversity, how they react and what they choose to do of their last day. A very well drawn manga and an excellent scenario. I’m waiting for the fifth volume which will be released in a few days!
Iliad is the work of Garaku Toshusai and Osamu Uoto. The plot evolves around the mysterious island of Atlantis. I cannot really say much about it as I have just read a few pages of the first volume. The story is appealing and original. The illustrations are also pretty good. Moreover I have heard only good things about it, so I thought it was also worth recommending.
Three original series that differentiate from the actual manga production and set the level very high.