Dealing with Kindle ebooks in calibre

[A Lurker]

Originally Posted by lkmiller

And yet, you are having no issue using Satsuoni's tools on their own, right?

Satsuoni's directions are easy to find and follow. Satsuoni's README files are txt, not md, so they open on my PC. Satsuoni's directions match the download file names. So yes, a non-techie could have less problems with Satsuoni's than with Jadehawk's.

EDIT: I just asked AI and learned that .md files are essentially text files. I can change the extension or use Notepad to open it.

[Bastet]

Originally Posted by lkmiller

And yet, you are having no issue using Satsuoni's tools on their own, right? I appreciate Jadehawk's work on this, but I think Jadehawk is a little too techie to write non-techie.

I cannot stress enough how very much I appreciate the hard work both Satsuoni and Jadehawk put in to keep us functional on this issue--total heroes, both of them. However, as someone whose job it is to translate technical & process instructions into practical guidance for end users, I am going going to agree gently with this point. That is in no way meant as a criticism, simply an acknowledgement that we are all human and have different strengths and abilities.

Jadehawk, if you happen to see this and would like some input on smoothing the flow and layout of your marvelous work here, I'd be more than happy to offer a hand.

[JSWolf]

There's two things I'd like to KKF to allow me to do. I have Kindle and Legacy Kindle installed. I'd like to select which Kindle I'd like to remove DRM from. Also, I'd like to be given a list of the books to choose which I want to remove the DRM.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by A Lurker

It won't open for me because my PC doesn't recognize the extension. What is .md? I thought README files were supposed to be .txt?

A .md file is a markdown documentation file. Very common on Unix/Linux systems. It is a plain text file so open it with Notepad++ or Notepad and disregard the markdown commands.

Readme files come in many flavours including with no extension. If the filename is readme unless the extension is for an executable (exe, com, dll, whatever), audio or video, I will open it with a text editor.

Originally Posted by A Lurker

This is another example of his product not being suitable for non-techies. In and of itself that would be fine. He's not obligated to produce anything for non-techies. But he's advertising it as being for non-techies, which is going to lead to confusion and frustration.

I'm referring to the tutorial Jadehawk created himself and posted on his blog. It's not a third-party tutorial. That's why I had the expectation that its directions would match the downloadable files.

Time and versions move on and documentation tends to lag. I admit that having been involved in computers since the late 60s, I got used to reading documentation. To me, Jadehawk's documentation is pretty clear but again, experience leading me to reading documentation is a factor. RTFM is famous for good reasons. And yes, I was using computers before the Xerox Star GUI environment was a gleam in the developers' eyes.

For me, when I looked at the downloaded package, it was a choice between launching the .ps1 (powershell file) and launching the .cmd file. I opened the .cmd file in a text editor and realized that it sets up the environment and then launches the Bootstrap-Portable.ps1 so went with that choice.

One other thing from my experience is that the people who create programs are probably the last people you want to have document them. To much of a tendency to think "it is therefore obvious" and skip steps. A person who can write good technical documentation is a treasure worth keeping.

I had terrible memories of that phrase from when I had a university professor whose favourite phrase was "it is therefore obvious". Present multiple pages of equations and then IITO, and the final equation. It may have been obvious to him and to whatever deity you believe in but not to anyone else in Hebb Theatre.

[Ma'am-I-Am]

Re: Kindle Key Finder

Once you have books in K4W, double-click Launch Kindle Key Finder.cmd

Yes, a simple text file saying "do this" would have been helpful.

[Solitaire1]

DNSB wrote the following as part of a post:

Originally Posted by DNSB

A .md file is a markdown documentation file. Very common on Unix/Linux systems. It is a plain text file so open it with Notepad++ or Notepad and disregard the markdown commands.

I recently discovered Markdown and it looked interesting since instead of having to go through menus I could just enter symbols in the plain text to indicate formatting like headings, bold, and italics.

Markdown files are basically plain text files but with tags (in the form of special characters) to indicate formatting. As an example, surrounding the text with "*" symbols will mark it as italic, while surrounding the text with "**" symbols will make it bold, and putting a "#" at the beginning of a line followed by a space will mark the following text as a Level One Heading. My understanding is that most of what can be done with basic HTML can be done with Markdown.

Markdown files are designed to be readable in a text editor as is, while the they can be converted into HTML if needed. The version of Notepad included with Windows 11 has the ability to view Markdown text files with the formatting displayed and you can also edit the file without having to enter the tags themselves (you mark text as bold and it will insert the tags in the text file).

[lkmiller]

As a person in my 50s, I have belated come to realize that what I thought was very basic computer knowledge is now arcane technical expertise to many people who are more used to doing things on phones than computers.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by lkmiller

As a person in my 50s, I have belated come to realize that what I thought was very basic computer knowledge is now arcane technical expertise to many people who are more used to doing things on phones than computers.

A couple more generations, and reading will be an arcane technical skill.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by lkmiller

As a person in my 50s, I have belated come to realize that what I thought was very basic computer knowledge is now arcane technical expertise to many people who are more used to doing things on phones than computers.

I am a bit older and I always feel stupid the few times I resorted to 'asking' my phone for 'X'.
IMHO Phones are for phone calls (and yes, I still have my 'landline' phone (although it is fed via fibre equipment and I have the router on a UPS, (and Frontier did a great job keeping the network up during a recent unplanned power cut).

[Dal Bhat]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

A couple more generations, and reading will be an arcane technical skill.

Might not be that long, as critical thinking seems already to be in shrinking supply, and there is a congruence between the two.

[JSWolf]

Critical thinking is now left to AI to handle.

[BetterRed]

"Critical thinking" is often just another way of saying "Orthodox progressivism".

And, given the dearth of humans who can think -- at all, maybe it is best to leave the critical stuff to AI

[Ma'am-I-Am]

Murderbot agrees.

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

A couple more generations, and reading will be an arcane technical skill.

I don't think that reading will fade away because it is too useful. There will always be readers. I wrote a story set in the future where most people have transitioned to ereader devices and threw away their old books. Due to that, those people still interested in physical books can amass a large library of books at virtually no cost.

This was something that seemed off about Star Wars: They had established that there haven't been books in centuries. Apparently when it comes to reading everything is done via ereaders and other computer displays. Then in Episode VIII they reveal that there are some old books containing Jedi knowledge. IIRC we've never seen books before in the series.

In the most recent The Legion of Super-Heroes comic book, everything is done via electronic displays. It's set in the 31st Century and what is strange is that some of the displayed text is in English Characters and some of the text is in Interlac Characters*. However, R. J. Brande used a notebook to store his notes and wrote them in English. Brainiac 1-of-5 notes that although it is primitive, it is a way to ensure no one can hack your files.

*In DC Comics, Interlac is the usual written language used in space and on other planets, and features a one-to-one replacement of the characters in the English Alphabet with one additional character, a vertical bar which indicates the next character is the equivalent of upper case.

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by lkmiller

As a person in my 50s, I have belated come to realize that what I thought was very basic computer knowledge is now arcane technical expertise to many people who are more used to doing things on phones than computers.

I know the feeling. I miss the days of MS-DOS when I used to figure out how to do things on my computer myself. Need a menu system? Create one using batch files. Need to find out how to do something? Open up a manual, look it up, and use it. The same for word processing (just learn to use the commands and get to it) and you had over a dozen options when it came to word processing.

Nowadays it is all point and click. There's no need to get into the nitty gritty of a computer. Most word processors are similar to Microsoft Word.