moralanimal.net

At some point, without my knowledge or consent, the venerable “handshake” was replaced by the “fist bump” (or “terrorist fist jab” to all of you Fox News fans) as the accepted form of greeting. Is this peculiar to the culture of Memphis, or is it more pervasive? I don’t know. No one asked my consent, I didn’t even get a memo; the earth turned, the landscape changed, and, suddenly, the world was a different place.

I have nothing against this development per se; I’m not one of those scared white people who thinks anything different than what’s gone before, especially anything different that non-white people are doing, harbingers the end of civilization as we know it (see Fox News, above). I just find it confusing. When I meet a new person, do I offer the hand, or go immediately for the fist? Invariably I choose the wrong one and end up looking like a jackass. While there are worse outcomes for a first meeting (“assault”, “immolation”, and “cannibalism”, for example), “looking like a jackass” ranks pretty high on the undesirable list. Perhaps some sort of early warning system is in order to signal intent: “hand” or “fist”? After all, it is probably not in anyone’s best interest to make a new acquaintance look like a jackass. Unless, of course, he is a jackass. You may make of that statement what you will.

Recently, while contemplating the overflowing bookshelves, the scattered piles, and the stacked boxes of books throughout my home, I made the decision that it might be time to transition to ebooks.

Unfortunately, the choice of ereader is also your choice of bookstore.  If you buy a Kindle, you’re shopping with Amazon; if you buy a Nook, your store is Barnes & Noble.  You can either buy a more expensive multiformat option, like an iPad, or you can suck it up and make a difficult choice.

I chose the Nook, because it supports the defacto standard ebook format, epub, and I’m just a standards kind of guy.  Practically every other ereader and ebookstore also uses the epub format (with Amazon being the notable exception).  Unfortunately, the epub format allows distributors to use any form of DRM they like.  Fortunately, it’s not hard to crack.  The go-to site for ebook decryption is i♥cabbages.

Borders/Kobobooks/Adobe Digital Editions
Borders‘ ebooks are provided by Kobobooks.  Most titles are offered in multiple formats including web-based, pdf, and epub.  The epub titles (and the pdfs) are encrypted using Adobe’s Adept algorithm.

Enter ineptkey and ineptepub.  The former will retrieve your validation key (generated by Adobe Digital Editions), and the second will use that key to decrypt your ebook.  Just enter your input file, your output file and press “Decrypt”.  You’re done!

Barnes & Noble
B&N uses a variation on Adobe’s DRM format, so the process is similar.  Use ignoblekeygen to generate your decryption key by entering your B&N.com login name and the credit card number you used to purchase your ebook (this number is used ONLY to generate your decryption key; it is not stored or transmitted).  Then use ineptepub to decrypt your book.

Amazon
Amazon opted to use the proprietary azw format for their ebooks, which is itself a variation of the mobi format.  These titles can be decrypted by unswindle.  This script will launch the Kindle Reader, where you will choose the title to decrypt.  Once the title opens, close the reader.  The script will read the key from memory and open a file dialog where you may specify where to save your decrypted file.  Kindle books can also be decrypted using the command-line tool skindle.

You may also occasionally see Amazon files with the tpz (Topaz) extension.  These files can also be decrypted with skindle, though conversion is more involved.  A Google search is helpful here.

iBooks
iBooks titles also use the epub format, but they can not yet be decrypted.  The titles use the same “FairPlay” encryption scheme used by iTunes’ music and video downloads, however, so it’s surely just a matter of time (audio and video can currently be decrypted with “Requiem”; search your favorite torrent site).

Once decrypted, your ebooks can be converted as necessary by a program like calibre.

Several months ago, my wife asked me if there was a web service that would notify her when her favorite authors released new books. There wasn’t, so I wrote a simple PHP script called Watchlist. This is the next generation.

The original Watchlist was a simple web scraper; it took as input a text list of authors, and performed an Amazon search on each one. The script “read” each result page and generated an html page and an rss page of the results. The new version queries Amazon’s database directly, using Amazon Web Services, making it much faster and more efficient. Additionally, Watchlist has transitioned to a database-driven format, which should make it easier to use and opens some new possibilities.

The script is in a very rudimentary but functional state. Try it out at http://moralanimal.net/watchlist.   A downloadable package is forthcoming.

What’s Coming:

• code cleanup and cosmetic enhancements
• Add to Wishlist, Ignore Title, and Add to Google Calendar functionality
• re-implement (optional) RSS functionality

Future Possibilities:

• additional media types (DVDs, music, etc.)
• Joomla and/or WordPress plugins
• mobile theme

Feedback and comments are welcome, especially if you are a CSS or web design guru who can help me get this think looking presentable…

“Georgia Grad Student Sues University Over Gay Sensitivity Training“, the headline read. “They told me to change my beliefs or be kicked out,” she said. This is, of course, a story about persecution. We hear about it all the time; in the story about the Christian bus driver who is fired for refusing to drive a woman to an abortion clinic, or the pharmacist who loses her job for refusing to fill a valid prescription for birth control.

This is an unfortunately common response among minorities and majorities-who-pretend-to-be-minorities, like Christians and white people. You don’t like your black co-worker? You must be racist. Well, I have news for you; it might be because he’s a dick.

But religious people often take it further, finding systemic abuses in events that ultimately have nothing to do with religion. This tendency is not exclusive to Christians; for example, the French parliament recently moved to ban the burqa in public places. The response was immediate and predictable; “France is persecuting Muslims!” But are they? What the French are really saying is,”For security reasons, we need to be able to see your face, and your religion does not exempt you from this requirement.” To be honest, they’re saying other things as well, but the point is the same: when Christians say they’re being persecuted, what they usually mean is they’re not receiving special treatment.

The grad student in question, Jennifer Keeton, is applying for a degree in counseling. If she was becoming an accountant, it wouldn’t matter; however, she has chosen a career where a certain degree of sensitivity and objectivity is required. Miss Keeton has indicated that she is unable or unwilling to put her client’s needs first and prevent her personal beliefs from interfering with her professional obligations. The university is not only within their rights, but they have an obligation to withhold their endorsement if they feel she will be unable to perform her job duties effectively or will be unable to adhere to her profession’s code of ethics. She is not being asked to “change her beliefs”; she is being asked to behave professionally.

A person’s choice of religion does not exempt him or her from the law or from professional ethics and responsibilities. And expecting him or her to abide by the same rules and adhere to the same standards as everyone else is not persecution. For that matter, neither is calling “bullshit” in a blog post. Do what you want in your private life, but, in your public life, you don’t get to play with your own rulebook.

And to all my Christian friends who feel picked on and unliked, please keep in mind that the neverending persecution complex may be a large reason why. Or maybe you’re just a dick.

I’m a big fan of digital media. It’s convenient; you can enjoy new books, movies, or music immediately, provided your internet connection is up to it. It’s portable; you can carry an entire library in your pocket. And it takes up far less space in your home than those books, cds, and dvds. Sounds great, right? Leave it to the publishers, the recording industry, and hollywood to screw up a good thing.

The culprit, of course, is Digital Rights Management. DRM is a way of tying digital content to the original purchaser. Usually, this also means tying it to a specific hardware and/or software device. Content producers say this is necessary to prevent piracy. They’re wrong.

While DRM may be adequate for stopping casual sharing (such as when I “give” my friend the new Snoop Dogg album I just got off iTunes), it does nothing to deter the dedicated pirate, who simply gets his media from illicit, DRM-free channels (such as torrents, newsgroups, and direct-download, like Rapidshare and Hotfile. Or so I’ve heard). The loser, of course, is the consumer, because these technologies, like their analogue in the hardware world (I’m looking at you, Apple!), prevent consumers from using their legally purchased products in the way they want. Want to listen to that iTunes album on your Android phone? Sorry, Apple only. Want to read that Amazon ebook on your Barnes and Noble Nook? Nope. How about that iTunes video on your Linux box? Sucks to be you.

The irony is, you are perfectly within your Fair Use rights to change formats or otherwise use your legally purchased content in any way you see fit for your personal use; however, circumventing DRM in order to exercise those rights is a violation of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. Which is paramount? Ask your lawyer. Then ask another one. You’ll likely get two different answers.

Unless, that is, you live in the Fifth Circuit. There, Judge Emilio Garza recently made the commonsense ruling that merely circumventing DRM is not illegal, provided the underlying reason for doing so is non-infringing (I’m parapharasing). In other words, if it falls within your Fair Use rights, you can break DRM to do it.

This is great news…if you happen to live in Louisiana, Mississippi, or Texas. For the rest of us, it technically has no legal bearing; however, it does establish precedent that may influence similar cases in other jurisdictions. Ultimately, this issue will have to be decided by the Supreme Court, or Congress, or even by the Library of Congress (which has the power to grant DMCA exceptions).

No, I’m not talking about Whitesnake (if you immediately thought of Tawny Kitaen writhing on the hood of a Jaguar, shame on you.  Also, you’re old.)  I’m referring, of course, to this blog.

Like practically everyone on the web, I once had a blog (several, in fact).  And, like practically everyone on the web, I eventually lost interest.  The posts gradually became less and less frequent, until they eventually stopped altogether, until the interwebs were once again safe from my pointless ramblings and musings, at least until I caught the bug again.  Well, the bug is back, and it’s biting my ass!

The big difference this time, besides my newfound unwavering commitment to diligently maintaining this blog, is that I have moved from my CMS of choice, Joomla, to WordPress.  My reasons are twofold.  First, I want this to be a simple blog, so I really don’t need all the bells and whistles of a full-featured CMS.  And second, it’s an excuse to familiarize myself with a new software platform.  Yes, I’m playing with a new toy.

That is all.