Adventures in discovering the K4PC PID.

[GishFish]

I want to report too that i♥cabbages version 3 works. Thanks a lot!

Now my problem: I have a book for which unswindle.pyw did not work. I bought the book on paper several years ago and now I bought it as a kindle addition. It has .prc extension but I think it might be Topaz. I really need to convert this book to HTML or PDF or other text searchable format.

When I open as text the books for which unswindle.pyw worked, they have BOOKMOBI in the beginning of the file, while this one does not. It has TPZ0 instead.

Can someone more knowledgeable and experienced check the sample file and let me know if this is Topaz or not. This is the sample:
http://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-In-.../dp/B001FSJAWK

I'd really appreciate that. Thanks again!

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by GishFish

Can someone more knowledgeable and experienced check the sample file and let me know if this is Topaz or not. This is the sample:
http://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-In-.../dp/B001FSJAWK

I'd really appreciate that. Thanks again!

Yep, its Topaz.

[volwrath]

Originally Posted by labba

just a littel reminder:
this topic is : Adventures in discovering the K4PC PID.
and not other readers.. so, this challange is far then over..


Thanks.
LaBBa.

Thank you Labba for your work. You and cabbages have done great things!

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by i♥cabbages

As for Topaz, how does one identify which books are Topaz, and/or could you point me at a few? No promises, but since I'm on a roll, I'll take a look.

All TOPAZ ebooks, including samples, appear to be encrypted and we know almost nothing about the underlying format (because the ebooks are always encrypted). We know they can include embedded fonts, which may be why Amazon encrypts the samples. It is possible that removing the encryption will still leave an obscure mess to wade through. The only way we have to test a DRM-free version would be to demonstrate portability between several Kindles, and if Amazon was being really clever their Readers would not display DRM-free TOPAZ at all. There is always the ereader2html approach of stripping and exploding in one app, but that was based on understanding the underlying format. Calibre is the best tool for DRM-free format shifting, but if every single DRM-free TOPAZ in the wild came from an unTOPAZ script could the Calibre developers still work on format shifting them without legal worries?

Anyway, see How to tell between the formats? for a recent discussion of identifying TOPAZ ebooks, which includes the names and ASINs of several TOPAZ ebooks.

The reason many readers want access to TOPAZ is that they are often unique to the Kindle Store, i.e. available in legal ebook form nowhere else. I know some think "legal" and DRM-stripping don't go together well, but TOPAZ is actually one of the best counter examples. If I buy a TOPAZ from Amazon, why can't I read it on whatever device I own? Also, if the formatting is crappy why can't I fix it myself?

[Lilly]

I wonder if .azw1 and .tpz have different encryption. I post a link to a free Topaz book earlier which has a file extension of .azw1 and I would not put it pass Amazon that the 2 file extensions for Topaz might have similar yet different encryption.

[TallMomof2]

What a great find on a snowed in Sunday! Great work, LaBBa and I♥Cabbages! Karma to you both.

[yecam]

I am wondering if I have a defective version of swindle.pyw.
When I first attempted to run it and saw no response I tried running it with a command line prompt as in unswindlexx.py.

The syntax error that I saw was
unswindlexx.py:722: Warning: 'with' will become a reserved
keyword in Python 2.6
File "C:\Documents and Settings\Owner.EMAC\My Documents\My eBooks\mobi_convert\unswindlexx.py", line 722
with tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile(delete=False) as tmpf:

In looking at the source I found
with tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile(delete=False) as tmpf:
tmppath = tmpf.name

This appeared to be a comment missing the leading # so after "fixing"this and moving the tmppath = tmpf.name indenting back I got the following error.

^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

unswindlexx.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
unswindlexx.py", line 60, in <module>
class PROCESS_BASIC_INFORMATION(Structure):
unswindlex.py", line 61, in PROCESS_BASIC_INFORMATI
ON
_fields_ = [('Reserved1', PVOID),
NameError: name 'PVOID' is not defined



Two questions:

Is there a better version of this script located elsewhere?

Am I missing a definitions file in my Python 2.6 installation?

I am running Windows XP Pro SP3 with the latest updates available.

[volwrath]

Redownload and use the extension .pyw

[llasram]

Originally Posted by yecam

The syntax error that I saw was
unswindlexx.py:722: Warning: 'with' will become a reserved
keyword in Python 2.6

If it's warning you about 'with' becoming a reserved word in Python 2.6, then you aren't running Python 2.6.

[=X=]

Great job LaBBa and I♥Cabbages!

[yecam]

Originally Posted by llasram

If it's warning you about 'with' becoming a reserved word in Python 2.6, then you aren't running Python 2.6.

Actually, I am running version 2.6.1

Python 2.6.1 (r261:67517, Dec 4 2008, 16:51:00) [MSC v.1500 32 bit (Intel)] on win32

[i♥cabbages]

Originally Posted by yecam

Actually, I am running version 2.6.1

Python 2.6.1 (r261:67517, Dec 4 2008, 16:51:00) [MSC v.1500 32 bit (Intel)] on win32

Oh, hilarity. Anyway, the line in question is definitely not a comment ('with' is now syntax which was tested in Python 2.5 and made non-optional in 2.6), and I'm also suspicious of the exact error -- are you sure you don't have a version of Python 2.5 kicking around which is taking precedent? Even if not, 2.6.1 is a kind of old version of Python 2.6 -- I'd try upgrading. If *that* doesn't work, try re-downloading via the pastie-page "download" link.

[yecam]

Originally Posted by i♥cabbages

Oh, hilarity. Anyway, the line in question is definitely not a comment ('with' is now syntax which was tested in Python 2.5 and made non-optional in 2.6), and I'm also suspicious of the exact error -- are you sure you don't have a version of Python 2.5 kicking around which is taking precedent? Even if not, 2.6.1 is a kind of old version of Python 2.6 -- I'd try upgrading. If *that* doesn't work, try re-downloading via the pastie-page "download" link.

It works now with the latest version of Python 2.6.4. The 2.6.1 version was just too old I guess. I also had to install the Tcl/Tk option amongst all of the others in order to get all of the various import items listed in the new script. Everything now works as advertised.

Many thanks.

[JSWolf]

i♥cabbages can you put in the comments section of unswindle.pyw that it needs Python 2.6.4?

[Lilly]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

i♥cabbages can you put in the comments section of unswindle.pyw that it needs Python 2.6.4?

I installed K4PC on my desktop (which I rarely use). While my laptop was running 2.6.4, my desktop was running 2.6.1 and the script worked on both. I updated to Python 2.6.4 on my deskstop last night and the script stopped working. I had to uninstall K4PC as an administrator and re-install it as such and everything worked again. But it was running perfectly fine with Python 2.6.1. Both computers are Vista Home Premium, 32 bit.