Final Theory: Anyone Read It Yet?

[MickeyC]

Anybody read this one by Mark Alpert? I just noticed it on the Sony and Amazon sites and it looks interesting or at last has an interesting premise; Einstein actually did discover a unified theory that explained all of nature's forces and a University professor comes across it while visiting his elderly mentor in hospital. And now the FBI and lots of baddies are after him to get the secret.

It's $12.59 on Sony and $9.99 on the Kindle (nice going Sony!).

[Ervserver]

Sounds interesting, I may have to get it

[MickeyC]

Yeah, it seems like a combination of two of my favorite genres; science and sleazy detective novels (SDN's). May have to give it a try.

[HarryT]

Only $8.56 at Fictionwise if you're a club member. Easy enough to get the Microsoft Reader version and convert to Sony format.

[MickeyC]

Harry, how do you do that? Do you just convert it using Calibre or is it DRMed?

[HarryT]

Use "ConvertLIT" to remove the DRM (if this is legal to do where you live, of course!) and then any tool you wish to convert the DRM-free LIT to LRF.

[MickeyC]

Harry, I've tried downloading Convert.LIT but, when I do, I get a Zip file that contains several files but no instructions of what to do from there. Have tried fooling with it but get nowhere. Are there instructions hidden somewhere that I just haven't found?

[HarryT]

There should be a file called "Readme.txt" in the ZIP file with instructions.

[MickeyC]

I tried that. It instructs you to open and run ReaderKeyRecoveryTool.exe. But, when I do that, I get an error message stating 'Hook.dll cant be found'. there is a Hook.dll file in the Zip folder but, when I double click on that it eventually opens a Notepad page with a bunck of code in it. Not sure what to do at this point.

Would appreciate any advice

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by cassidym

I tried that. It instructs you to open and run ReaderKeyRecoveryTool.exe. But, when I do that, I get an error message stating 'Hook.dll cant be found'. there is a Hook.dll file in the Zip folder but, when I double click on that it eventually opens a Notepad page with a bunck of code in it. Not sure what to do at this point.

Would appreciate any advice

Cassidy... you have to install and register MS Reader. Then you have to get a DRMed lit book. One you do that, running that tool will open MS Reader... once there open a DRMed LIT book... MS Reader will close and you will see the LIT key. OF course, this is all in the readme.txt.

BOb

[MickeyC]

Bob, I have Microsoft Reader installed and can open .LIT books with it. But, when I double click on ReaderKeyRecoveryTool.exe, I get the same message I mentioned above about hook.dll

Maybe I'm not handling the files in the ZIP window correctly. There are five files listed in teh Win ZIp window. I'm double clicking on them to open them. Should I be doing something else to install them? I'm not familiar with Zip files and may be making a dumb rookie error.

Thanks

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by cassidym

Bob, I have Microsoft Reader installed and can open .LIT books with it. But, when I double click on ReaderKeyRecoveryTool.exe, I get the same message I mentioned above about hook.dll

Maybe I'm not handling the files in the ZIP window correctly. There are five files listed in teh Win ZIp window. I'm double clicking on them to open them. Should I be doing something else to install them? I'm not familiar with Zip files and may be making a dumb rookie error.

Thanks

YOu need to unzip all the files into a directory (I called mine c:\convertlit). You won't be able to run the .exe from within the zip file since it needs the dll.

BOb

[MickeyC]

Cripes, Bob. i post the question at 3:27 and you post an answer at 3:32. Could you be a little quicker? Thanks

Anyway, when you say 'create a directory' is that the same as creating a folder on the C drive?

Also, of all the actions available listed in the Zip window, none of them are labeled 'Unzip'. Is this what Open means?

Sorry to be so dimwitted. Am new to Zip

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by cassidym

Bob, I have Microsoft Reader installed and can open .LIT books with it. But, when I double click on ReaderKeyRecoveryTool.exe, I get the same message I mentioned above about hook.dll

Maybe I'm not handling the files in the ZIP window correctly. There are five files listed in the Win ZIp window. I'm double clicking on them to open them. Should I be doing something else to install them? I'm not familiar with Zip files and may be making a dumb rookie error.

Thanks

The issue isn't Zip files per se. A Zip file is simply a container containing compressed files. The assumption is that you will extract and uncompress the files and place them where they need to be.

A DLL file is not executable directly. It's a Windows version of a "shared library", containing code that may be used by more than one program. It's loaded and accessed by the program(s) that use it when they need something in the library. You're getting the ConvertLIT error because Windows doesn't know where to find hook.dll.

Windows works the same way MS-DOS used to. When it needs to find a program or library, it looks first in whatever it thinks the current directory is, and then looks in directories defined in the PATH, a list maintained by the OS of places to look for programs if the program isn't in the current directory. You can see and modify the PATH listing by right-clicking on My computer, selecting Properties, selecting Advanced, and clicking on Environment variables. Most programs installed in windows are run through shortcuts. The shortcut explicitly changes the current directory to the one it is installed in when it starts the program, so Windows finds any pieces like DLLs the program needs. Other programs add their own entries the the PATH setting.

The simplest solution for your problem is to put a copy of hook.dll into \Windows\System32. This is one of the standard Windows directories, and included in the PATH.
______
Dennis

[MickeyC]

Thanks Dennis. I successfully placed hook.dll into System 32 and it did extract a key.

Next step? Do I double click LitConverter.exe?