Rest In Peace, Steve Jobs

Thinking about doing this post, it occurred to me how to sum up what Steve Jobs had been to the entire personal computing industry: Steve Jobs was the smart kid whose homework was copied by all the other kids.

Adobe’s ePub DRM Has A Problem

After reporting that the new Sony Reader WiFi has been reported to download from the Kobo Books store too, Jane Litte of Dear Author picked one up and did some tests along with Hadrien Gardeur of Feedbooks.

Jane is able to download DRMed ePub from Kobo fine. Hadrien cannot.

Jane cannot download DRMed ePubs from the Feedbooks Store or Google eBookstore. (Note those are the DRMed for-pay eBooks at Feedbooks. not the DRM-free free ones! The free ones download fine. So do the free ones from Google Books.)

Jane cannot even sign into Books on Board because the website seems to use a popup for logging in.

Jane also cannot download anything at all from Barnes & Noble because their cloggy website crashes the browser (no surprise, really). Sideloaded Nookbooks will not open — meaning Sony again didn’t choose to license the mutation of Adobe DRM only Barnes & Noble uses.

But what’s going on here?

If Kobo’s Adobe DRMed ePubs work, why won’t those from Feedbooks and Google eBookstore?

This is supposed to be a “standard” DRM!

Meanwhile, over at Mobileread, Sony Reader WiFi owners are also reporting problems with Adobe Digital Editions (this is also no surprise, really).

Melville House: A Publisher’s Epic Failure

Yesterday was really a significant day in a certain genre of book publishing.

It was, in fact, historic in a small way.

Finally, four books from the writer Derek Raymond were made available as eBooks.

Fans have been waiting years for this. Derek Raymond’s work has not been treated well here in America, bouncing from publisher to publisher. So when the latest publisher got the rights and was offering him in e, you would think that publisher would do everything to promote it, right?

October 4th was Derek Raymond Day for Melville House.

Instead of mentioning that, take a look at their Tweetstream:

Mosquitoes Make History

“If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.” ― Dalai Lama XIV

He Was More Than a Book Clerk

Shig Murao: The Enigmatic Soul of City Lights and the San Francisco Beat Scene