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March 2009 - Posts

Kindle, USGovt, Afghanistan

posted Friday, March 20, 2009 11:33 AM by hussain

As I was getting ready for work today, I had the Kindle read to me the top article in today's WSJ, "U.S. Courts Former Warlords in Its Bid for Afghan Stability". I had also been contemplating also writing another "Six Degrees of Bin Laden" with the Haqqanni movement as that's making some news and it's a game I invented but then I heard Kindle robot TTS voice read this quote* and it struck me.

"Every politician in Afghanistan is a thief, but our governor doesn't take all the money for himself. He is building our city," says Shafeeq Azizi, a 37-year-old shop owner in Jalalabad. "Why does it trouble me if he gets rich?"

Mr. Azizi was lounging with friends in one of the Jalalabad parks restored by Mr. Shirzai's administration. Across the street is a park Mr. Shirzai built for women. A few miles away stands Shirzai Stadium. There's a new mall, new stoplights and refurbished mosques in many neighborhoods.

Critics say the governor's strengths and weaknesses are often one and the same. "He wants something and he says, 'Build it.' There is no plan," said Haji Wahid, who owns a construction company. He says he sees no long-term vision behind Mr. Shirzai's rebuilding efforts.

Parts of the US Government are tribal.

And not in any good connotation. Particularly our government's IT divisions. They're not just protected, entitled fiefdoms, an analogy whose European roots softens the devastation and criticism that it should bring, but actual tribal land grabs by people who have no idea what effective IT means but think they do because they can use a Blackberry like Obama or love their iPhone.

Here's how it should run. And by "it" I mean the Afghan situation and not our government IT's situation, since that's well in hand by people who think they know what they're doing, puls Web 2.0 ftw, data transparency and Vivek Kundra's back on the job. (Petty "warlords" watch out.)

When analysing situations like this a review of history's always helpful. Here's one slice of history that looks like it might be applicable: The aftermath of the British Raj and the subsequent upheaval in India and Pakistan eventually leading to an India where large wealthy families (Tata, etc) control multiple industries in a monopoly grip. The latter half of that statement resembles the US with our monopoly-families, too, which should give some indication where I'm going here. Granted, in both Iraq and Afghanistan (and most elsewhere), we - America - are not colonialists like the Brits, French, Germans, Dutch, etc and I'd argue our methods are less damaging, but that's another debate and another post.

The process at hand is this:

Tribal succession -> Tribally appointed, Elections -> Elections where Tribal relationships may still have sway -> "Free and Fair" Elections.

In the western world we may think we're so far advanced that we don't deal with fiefdoms anymore - we're beyond that process and that management style is retrograde or deprecated. It's not, we (westerners) just don't do it any more nor do we do it well. They (middleasternerners) do. There may be a value judgment in saying one style is better than another and I'll leave that up to someone's masters/phd thesis, but one fact is true: "Democracy" and "tribal consensus rule" don't interface well at an economic point. It's much better to have two democracies (or political structures loosely framed around democratic principles) interacting than disparate political systems (china-us, etc.). To this point, if we or for that matter Afghanistan, themselves, want to get to a more "democratic" style of political system, they'll have to go through the above transitional phases and we'll have to honor and recognize that those phases will happen. Whining (from western governments and western NGO "democracy watch dogs") does not and will not help phase transitioning, it'll just be annoying.

Currently tribal succession is in play. We'll have to let it happen. For example, the Jamal Baba Construction Co., part owned by Mr. Shirzai's son, Jaan Agh mentioned in the article will have to undergo economic pressure and engagement to become a company that has influence in the region. That'll allow external democratic organizations (whether external to Kandahar and Nangahar provinces or external to Afghanistan) exert some influence. The influence could be democratic-leaning or possibly Talib-leaning. That pressure, if properly exercised, will lead to another political round wherein the region'll be able to assess the benefits of a more open economic and political model and then continue down the tribal-democratic spectrum. Note India's example - Tata, Mittal, etc are all still in place, mostly unregulated from a monopoly stance - India's still not at "free and fair." One could also argue that Japan's kiretsus haven't reached the fullness of the "democratic" spectrum yet, either, after their rebuilding. Some countries don't want to go all the way and we should recognize and accept that. Will we, though?

* Here's the quote (wav format) using my Say This app.

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Sony & Google Team up for Public Domain books

posted Friday, March 20, 2009 6:53 AM by hussain

There're sources for public domain books out there - Project Gutenberg and Manybooks, the latter of which supplies them in many formats - but no one's as large as Google, period. Now, as many outlets have reported, Sony & Google have teamed up to release public domain e-books in the ePub format from http://books.google.com/ (Google Blog Post).

This is a huge win for all readers, including the Kindle, even though it might not seem so right away. Granted, the ePub format isn't supported directly by the Kindle. That can be corrected by a future software push if Amazon wishes, but until then there are free software alternatives to convert ePub to the Kindle's mobi format. Software like Calibre, a pretty full featured ebook manager/converter will do, although I prefer my own Kindle Converter which sits on top of the mobigen command-line converter.

http://books.google.com/books?q=subject:"+Science+Fiction+"&rview=1&as_brr=1
That as_brr=1 is "Full View Only" in a search and that indicates public domain books.

The big difference between Project Gutenberg and Google (apart from Google's ~500k scans vs. PG's ~100k) is that Project Gutenbergs's have been proofread. Google's docs have typos!

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I don't know Linux - Kindle update 2.0.2 (309510017)

posted Tuesday, March 17, 2009 9:20 PM by hussain
Although I'm still waiting to get pushed the 2.0.2 update, I thought I'd take a look at the linux sources.

Looking at the published gnu linux kernel sources provided by Amazon, only 4 files are different:

arch/arm/mach-mx3/dvfs_v2.c
arch/arm/plat-mxc/isp1504xc.c
arch/arm/plat-mxc/wdog.c
sound/arm/mxc-alsa-pmic.c

These are the kernel (2.6.22) mods from the last Kindle version, 2.0.1 (303870012).

Until Amazon posts release notes, we won't really know what was different in the functioning of the Kindle software, but the kernel changes look like adding in a counter to reboot (6 times) and setting the minimal soundchannels to 2.

Most of my software life I've tried to avoid linux or, rather, learning too much about it.  So, when I say I don't know Linux, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

This is the contents of the Kindle src 2.0.2 309510017 release.

alsa - Advanced Linux Sound Architecture
 alsa lib 1.0.13
 alsa lib 1.0.13 patch
 alsa utils 1.0.13
 alsa utils 1.0.13 patch
 base files 3.0.14.ipk
 base passwd 3.5.9
 binutils 2.17.50.0.5
bonnie++ - benchmark uitility, storage
 bonnie++ 1.03c
bootchart - a tool for performance analysis and visualization of the GNU/Linux boot process
 bootchart 0.9
busybox - size optimized common unix utilities
 busybox 1.7.2
 dosfstools 2.11 - Utilities to create and check MS-DOS FAT filesystems
e2fsprogs - filesystem utilities for use with the ext2 filesystem. It also supports the ext3 filesystem with journaling support
 e2fsprogs 1.38
 e2fsprogs 1.38 patch
 fuse 2.7.1
 fuse 2.7.1 link.tar
 gcc 4.1.2
 glib 2.12.9
 glibc 2.5
 gst plugins base 0.10.17
 gst plugins base 0.10.6
 gstreamer 0.10.17
 hotplug 2004 09 20
 ifupdown 0.6.8
 iptables 1.3.3
 klibc 1.5
 libol 0.3.18
 linux 2.6.22 lab126
lrzsz - a unix communication package providing the XMODEM, YMODEM ZMODEM file transfer protocols
 lrzsz 0.12.20
 lzo 1.08
 module init tools 3.2.2
 module init tools 3.2.2 patch
 monit 4.9
 mtd utils 1.0.0
picocom - a minimal dumb-terminal emulation program
 picocom 1.4
powertop - a Linux tool that helps you find those programs that are misbehaving while your computer is idle
 powertop 1.10
 procps 3.2.7
 procps 3.2.7 patch
 readline 4.3
 syslog ng 1.6.11
 sysvinit 2.86
 taglib 1.5
 uboot 1.3.0 rc3
 udev 112
 util linux 2.12r

"Fiona" is still around, albeit in legacy code.  In include\linux\platform_lab126.h there's a comment stating that this rev is code named Mario (2.6.22), whereas Fiona was (2.6.10).
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Amazon, DMCA, DRM and Mobileread

posted Monday, March 16, 2009 12:22 PM by hussain

Mobileread, a user-driven site that assists e-book enthusiasts access to public-domain knowledge around existing ebooks and ebook reader community support, has a series of wiki pages that describe how to use all sorts of devices and user-supplied support programs.

There are many sources for e-books and many formats. One of the most popular, and the one relevant to this article, is the Mobipocket format. Mobipocket is a format of e-book produced by the Mobipocket company, now owned by Amazon. E-book providers, other than Amazon, use the Mobipocket format, notably OverDrive, a large technology supplier for public libraries around the country. Some public libraries that use the Mobipocket OverDrive DRM (OD) allow their users to "check out" e-books and read them, typically with Mobipocket desktop software.

One of the support utilities described on the Mobileread site was called kindlepid.py, a Python-language script that displayed an e-book reader's device Personal ID (PID) created by Igor Skochinsky in 2007 when the Kindle version 1 was released. This PID is used to encode DRM-secured e-books from other vendors, whether it's OverDrive-enabled libraries or other public sellers. Amazon Kindle users who want to view DRM-protected e-books from these vendors can use their Kindle's PID to "fix" e-books so that they're able to be read on the Kindle (or, for that matter, their iPhone/iPod Touch with the Amazon Kindle app).

Mobileread, the user-driven site, had step-by-step instructions on how to download, install and use kindlepid.py to obtain a device PID. This script does not break, hack, crack, or remove the DRM from an e-book in any way but obtains the PID that's on the device. It enables legally purchased e-books to be read these e-books on legally purchased e-book readers.

The "fixing" part is enabled by another, separate, software script that was also described on the Mobileread site which utilizes the PID, kindlefix.py. This shifts the location of the PID in the DRM'd e-book file so that the Kindle (or iPhone Kindle app) can find it.

Amazon seems to have an issue with the kindlepid.py script and sent the owners of Mobileread.com a Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) "take-down" notice: asking Mobileread.com to remove references to kindlepid.py from their site, but not specifically with the kindlefix.py script.

Individuals posting on the Mobileread forms about this topic suggest that, since the kindlepid.py script has been around since 2007, Amazon is noticing this script now due to their release of the Apple iPhone/iPod Touch version of their Kindle reader. Additionaly, Amazon has removed "My Serial Number" which displayed a user's Kindle serial number from the "Manage My Kindle" page on their site around the same time that the iPhone/iPod Touch app was released. Posters also suggest that it's evidence that Amazon wants to control the origin of purchase and that this restriction of control may constitute a monopoly by preventing competition in the distribution channel. It was pointed out that Amazon's actions aren't restricting the publishing (that's already been covered by Amazon's assumed agreements with the publishers to DRM publisher's works and distribute them), but only where you obtain e-books from - only Amazon, not libraries or other vendors, such as BooksOnBoard and others.

Other posters take the angle that Amazon is attempting to preserve their relationship with publishers now that a Kindle app for the iPhone exists - preventing iPod owners who aren't entitled to buy from the Amazon store from using the app to read OverDrive or other vendor's DRM books. (#156, #158, #159) In light of the Author's Guild's issues with TTS and other e-book advocates' calls for support of formats other than Mobipocket, such as ePub, this line of thinking also seems logical.

And additional point that has been made by Kindle/Amazon watchers is that Amazon has been following an Apple-like trajectory for their product: from the exclusivity of distribution channel (iTunes store) to the DRM issue. Now that Apple's making a DRM-free iTunes store, some are wondering when Amazon's going to catch up. Catch up, at least with e-books, since Amazon already offers DRM-free mp3's for sale. Similar to the cycle of iTunes updates that "broke" hacked ("jailbroken") iPhones and iPod Touches, will Amazon look at the contents of a user's Kindle and remove any shifted DRM e-books? Amazon's Terms of Use for the Kindle states that Amazon can look into any Kindle and with their Whispernet connectivity possibly even update the firmware on the device to use a different DRM scheme and replace the DRM on DRM-protected e-books.

Is Amazon wielding the DMCA in "bad faith" in this situation? Is it even a proper use of the DMCA? Since neither the site or the scripts don't actually violate the DMCA, what's Amazon doing throwing it around?

Many long time Kindle advocates that frequent the forums are getting very discouraged at the "take down" notice that Amazon presented to Mobileread and are beginning to lose their enthusiasm for the product that made Kindle owners some of the most fervent supporters and source of free marketing. Some have even gone so far as to say they're no longer supporting Amazon, itself, which speaks to the wider issue of loss of customer loyalty. On the forums, disappointment ranges from expressing the feeling of loss of rights (feeling criminalized by reading library books), Sony e-reader owners breathing a sigh of relief feeling like they've chosen the correct device, to people considering dumping/returning their Kindles and purchasing an iLiad or waiting for another e-reader device such as the Wizpac Txtr.

From my personal experience as a Kindle 1 and Kindle 2 owner, I've loved them both, not just because I had portable reading device and not just because the screen is clear, but because I could put my own personal documents and personally converted documents onto the Kindle and the access to the Amazon Kindle store. The combination of personal freedom and access to a large existing market is what makes this device special to me and special enough to show off to anyone who's asked.

There are now several articles on this issue as well as a blog started by a Mobileread user, Dear Jeff Bezos.

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App-a-Weekend: Kindle PID

posted Saturday, March 07, 2009 11:28 AM by hussain

In order to buy DRM'd ebooks from ebook retailers other than Amazon and load them onto your Kindle, the first thing you need to do is obtain your Kindle's Personal ID (PID).

Mobileread.com has a great wiki about all things Kindle including a walk-through of how to use Python and Igor Skochinsky's python scripts to obtain your Kindle PID, if you know you Kindle's serial number (obtained by looking at the side of the box). Here's their walkthrough wikipage (xp, vista).

This weekend, I made a quick Windows UI that executes Igor's python scripts:


The Kindle PID app, PID tab


The Kindle PID app, Fix tab


File > Preferences


Aboot dialog, showing that Python and scripts are available.



App example (dummy serial used)

Installation is as follows:
  1. Install Python 2.61 msi
  2. Download Igor's scripts, place them somewhere you can remember (I placed them in C:\Software\dev\igorsk)
  3. Download and run Kindle PID

The app is very simple (a zipped exe), no installer. Feedback is welcome! hussain at chinoy dot com

Edit:
1.0.2.1 03/09/2009
- Updated for v0.2 of igorsk's py scripts
1.0.2.0 03/09/2009
- Added PID generation for iPhone/iPod Touch
1.0.1.0 03/08/2008
- Added Kindle Fix utility

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