New MJD Fiction

[Avenger Enterprises]

Terra/Sol games have just published my novel Behind the Throne.

Here's a link:

http://www.amazon.com/Behind-the-Th...8933&sr=1-3&keywords=behind+the+throne+martin

 

[saundby]

Hmm, Kindle format won't work on my e-reader but now you've given me a reason to seriously consider putting Kindle Reader on my computer...

 

[FreeTrav]

Hmm, Kindle format won't work on my e-reader but now you've given me a reason to seriously consider putting Kindle Reader on my computer...

Or download Calibre and convert it from Kindle format to whatever your e-reader uses (probably ePUB).

 

[aramis]

Or download Calibre and convert it from Kindle format to whatever your e-reader uses (probably ePUB).

Caveat Emptor - Calibre isn't noted for converting certain forms of DRM eBook... not everything in Kindle-land is DRM-free. (Same is true of ePub and the proprietary formats for Nook and Sony)

 

[saundby]

That and Calibre wants to automatically organize all my readable files for me in a space-consuming database of its own, I installed it several months ago to translate some old books in a defunct reader format into ePub. Two hours into the first conversion it was still grinding away. I finally had to drag it out back and shoot it 18 hours later with a 'kill -9', then cleaned up the file system by hand. It had converted one novel in that time, and was only on the second. Probably because its database-building (with full copies of each book in the database) was hammering the filesystem.

I ended up using an online tool for that conversion, file by file, about 3 minutes per file. Tedious to feed it by hand, but I got my books converted.

 

[Rover]

That and Calibre wants to automatically organize all my readable files for me in a space-consuming database of its own, I installed it several months ago to translate some old books in a defunct reader format into ePub. Two hours into the first conversion it was still grinding away. I finally had to drag it out back and shoot it 18 hours later with a 'kill -9', then cleaned up the file system by hand. It had converted one novel in that time, and was only on the second. Probably because its database-building (with full copies of each book in the database) was hammering the filesystem.

I ended up using an online tool for that conversion, file by file, about 3 minutes per file. Tedious to feed it by hand, but I got my books converted.

I use Caliber all the time and i never have those issues when converting files. I've done some big ones too and they only take a couple of minutes, but I was doing them 1 at a time.

 

[saundby]

I use Caliber all the time and i never have those issues when converting files. I've done some big ones too and they only take a couple of minutes, but I was doing them 1 at a time.

It was only actually converting one at a time, it had them queued as far as I can tell. What was overwhelming the system was that it decided to build a "database" of every ebook in every format on my system, the database consisting of second copies of each book in a new directory tree created by Calibre.

It's possible I didn't understand the implications of some initialization question I answered or something, I don't recall the details. I may have clicked "Fine, whatever" when the dialog asking "Would you like us to bury your system in useless I/O while creating unnecessary duplicates of all human readable data on your system?" I was pretty unhappy with the results, however, and with the resources I was left with to deal with the situation. (There was no "Wait! Stop! What are you doing?" button or menu item.)

I like the ideals behind the software, but the implementation wasn't a winner for me.

 

[ravells]

I may have clicked "Fine, whatever"
There was no "Wait! Stop! What are you doing?" button or menu item

You should write computer manuals! I would actually read them and understand them!

 

[saundby]

I may have clicked "Fine, whatever"
There was no "Wait! Stop! What are you doing?" button or menu item

You should write computer manuals! I would actually read them and understand them!

I wrote manuals until I was stopped because my time was "too valuable". So I spend hours in meetings with people that are not literate in the subject area of the software or aware of the software's intended use or purpose, rather than writing--when I type faster than I can speak.

As to the "What are you doing?" button, I used AI systems in the early 80s on computers that wouldn't even run a feature phone today. They were able to explain their line of reasoning for tasks including repairs recommended to high voltage power systems. Today, every OS should have a facility that allows me to see why every process is running on my system and give me a clean method for killing or deferring it if I choose.

But hey, this thread is about MJD's writing...

Another Sony Reader user tells me they have a way to get Kindle content on their Reader, DRM or not. I'm going to check it out and MJD's book may be a good test case to buy and try once I learn the routine.

 

[FreeTrav]

The truth is in you, although Apprentice Alf has done some Calibre plugins that seem to handle unDRMing the most common DRM formats, if you have a license for the book.