How many use Calibre and / or Apprentice Alf [POLL ENDED]

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

Technically, if you use Alf, you use Calibre. I mean, Alf's tools don't work without Calibre.

Sure they do.

[ProfCrash]

I had no idea about that. I guess I am used to the way it is discussed here which seems to be Alf tools and Calibre. You learn something new every day.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

I had no idea about that. I guess I am used to the way it is discussed here which seems to be Alf tools and Calibre. You learn something new every day.

Different tools, but in the same Alf package.

[nynaevelan]

Although I have the Calibre version of the tools installed, I use the stand alone version because I like to keep a non-edited/freed version as my backups. This way I have three copies of my files.

1. the originals
2. the freed versions
3. the edited versions

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

Technically, if you use Alf, you use Calibre. I mean, Alf's tools don't work without Calibre. I have mucked with the meta data a bit, mainly renaming books and assigning series, but didn't see the Buy Amazon, Use Calibre and Alf until after I voted. (shrugs)

I would consider the Use Alf and use Calibre as one and the same.

That's not true at all. I've used a lot Apprentice Alf (darkreverse before) without calibre.

[afv011]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

That's not true at all. I've used a lot Apprentice Alf (darkreverse before) without calibre.

That's correct, it's just a python script that you can launch from the command line.

[ProfCrash]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

That's not true at all. I've used a lot Apprentice Alf (darkreverse before) without calibre.

Originally Posted by afv011

That's correct, it's just a python script that you can launch from the command line.

Please see my post from 2:58.

[Atunah]

I pretty much buy most of my books from Amazon. I did so for a long time before hearing about calibre. Then I got calibre for out of copyright stuff and started using it as a backup. But then I realized that backups don't do me no good if I don't have that specific kindle anymore down the line.

So I learned about Alf here. Lets just say I didn't know what I was doing and still don't. My tools are probably outdated but it works so I don't want to mess with it since I can't figure out how to put the new ones in.

I am just doing it for me and as a proper back up for the books I buy. They are my books, I want to keep them. If something happened to my amazon account like someone hacking into it, or some stupid computer error then I might lose access to all my books. I have 2000 of them. I know its not very likely something happening, but it might and I just feel better having them in any case.

I actually just found 2 books that are gone from my amazon account that I bought and I still have a back up now due to calibre. I have no clue why they are gone from my account and I don't feel like bugging amazon about it at the moment. I only found out by accident. So now as soon as I buy something, I load it into calibre and I guess Mr Alf does some kind of magic. Again, I am pretty clueless to that stuff but I still want to protect my books.

Now I have a great system in calibre and sorting my books there. I am a bit list person and spreadsheet person so I love having all the virtual libraries too. . I also love the randomizer when I just can't figure out what to read next from my books.

[Basekid]

I download ebooks (for free) and use calibre to manage my library

[FacebookVirus]

I used calibre and Alf's tools with my Sonys but not much since I've changed to the PW2.

I simply no longer buy DRMed publications.

[Geralt]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I buy ebooks from everywhere, use Alf to strip the DRM (if it had any) and store/manage them all with calibre. I don't care very much about metadata.

Did I win?

Me too. Did I win too?

[DiapDealer]

We're both winners in my book!

[cybmole]

Originally Posted by sirmaru

I just don't get it why metadata needs to be customized for songs or eBooks.

well here's one reason:

because amazan will fleece you on the price of a Kindle book , compared to the paper version, then not be arsed to provide a decent cover image, All you get for your money is some crappy generic thumbnail

i like my ebooks to look pretty when they are stacked on the e-shelves

and sometimes song metadata is wrong or has typos, you can live with that or you can fix it ( I prefer the latter)

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by cybmole

because amazan will fleece you on the price of a Kindle book , compared to the paper version, then not be arsed to provide a decent cover image, All you get for your money is some crappy generic thumbnail

It's nothing to do with "amazan" (sic). It's the publisher who provides the cover image.

[cybmole]

Originally Posted by HarryT

It's nothing to do with "amazan" (sic). It's the publisher who provides the cover image.

and they , the publisher, will always provide a very nice cover image for amazon to display on the amazon web site, to encourage a purchase ( which is where calibre will download it from ) .

So claiming that they don't have the "right" to push that same image to K reader / Kindle for... whatever... app , with the kindle book is a pathetically weak excuse

It's almost deliberate deception. trade descriptions, what you see is NOT what you get, but I am sure the publishers' smarmy lawyers have said they can get away with it. and its not like it saves them any money. it seems like deliberate mean-ness. They would not dare ship a hardback book with a generic " this is your dustcover" cover , would they ?

PS Amazon are not the only culprit. it happens sometimes with Overdrive epub library loans also: - nice picture on library web page - generic cover on the download.

maybe if we collectively all used Amazon's generous 7 day returns policy to send back every book that lacked a proper cover image, they'd get the message.

anyway, that's one very good reason to de-DRM.

Another is that it is a rare book indeed that does not contain at least one typo or formatting error, ( same is true of my posts )and I like to compulsively fix those so that if I re-read the book then I don't get annoyed all over again.