11 Aug 2019

These Are Outstanding Days for Readers

There has never been a better time for readers. Electronic books make it possible for us to read anytime that we have a few minutes to spare and wherever we are. In the old days, I typically had a tall stack of books by the bed and an equally tall stack near the desk. Now the physical stack is gone, but there's a virtual stack on all of the computers I use, a smart phone, and a tablet.

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Maybe I should explain a bit about my reading compulsion. Usually I read two books concurrently, one fiction and one non-fiction. There may also be an instructional book in the mix but at least two. I read when I'm on a stationary bicycle Monday through Friday using Google Books on an IPad. That's my hardware choice for reading at home, too, but the tablet computer, a desktop computer, and even a phone have access to the same books. That's one of the primary advantages to ebooks: Besides not being limited to a physical book, I'm also not limited to any specific electronic device.

Several formats exist for ebooks, but I'll stick with the epub format because it is the most common format. Nearly every reader supports epub, but the Amazon Kindle doesn't. If you have an epub book that you want to read on a Kindle device, you can convert the file to mobi using an application such as Calibre. Amazon's primary formats for Kindle devices are azw and the more advanced azw3. Some ebooks are distributed as pdf files and there are half a dozen other formats that are used in specialized markets. But epub is ubiquitous, so I'll stick with that format even though ebooks are usually available for purchase or loan in multiple formats.

Both print editions and ebooks can be borrowed from libraries or purchased. I'm fortunate to live in an area where libraries are valued and used. I needed to stop at the library on a weekday morning in early July. The library opens at 9 and I arrived about 4 minutes early. I was the tenth person in line waiting for the library to open! My town has about 13,000 residents in the Columbus metro area that has an overall population around two million. Columbus and many of the suburban cities have excellent libraries and nearly all of them are now part of a consortium that shares physical and on-line resources.

Physical books have advantages, not the least of which are the smell of a new book, the tactile sensation of leafing through it, and the ability to jump instantly from one page to another. That third advantage is why I prefer physical books for instructional and reference materials. Moving around in ebooks is still clunky even with bookmarks. For fiction and non-fiction books, though, ebooks are my preferred format and, when possible, I prefer to borrow books from the library.

Not every library licenses every book and sometimes you might encounter a long wait at your local library. Many libraries, particularly those in larger cities, issue cards to any resident of the state. Anyone in Ohio can have a card from the Columbus Metropolitan Library or the Cleveland Library. I have cards from both because sometimes a book that's in high demand in Columbus might be available immediately in Cleveland. The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County offers some ebook options that aren't available in Columbus or Cleveland, so I recently obtained an electronic-only card from there.

When a book that I'm looking for is wait-listed in Columbus, I check the Cleveland library and the Cincinnati library. If it's available there, I can check it out and download it immediately. Check with the libraries in your state to see what options are available to you.

My wife and daughters and I visited the Children's Museum in Indianapolis many years ago and we were impressed, among other things, by the ability to take a book home from the museum and then return it to any library in Indiana. Perhaps you've noticed that I'm a big fan of libraries.

Reading Ebooks

There's no shortage of readers for epub books. Reading a library book that includes digital rights management (DRM) requires either the library's reader application, which will probably be Libby, or Adobe Digital Editions. Adobe Digital Editions downloads the book and that's usually where I start even though it doesn't always provide the best reading experience.

For Craig Johnson's The Cold Dish, I was unable to modify the size of the text on screen.

When I opened the book in Libby, I was able to select the typeface I preferred, set the typeface size, and change the background color. Most of these features are available in better readers.

Libby's shortcoming is that it doesn't download the file to the computer or reader. Generally I start with Adobe Digital Editions, download the epub file, and then move it to Calibre.

Calibre removes digital rights management and you may wonder about the legality of doing that. As long as the intent is simply to make the book available in a better reader, it seems to me that the process is ethical. Ebooks from libraries expire and are returned automatically. If you're using Calibre to delay the return so that you can read a book in sequence, that intent also seems to be honest and ethical.

Consider, for example, a series of three books that you want to read. Books one and two are checked out, but book three is available. If you wait several weeks for book one and read it, you might find that book two is still on a wait list. Checking out book three to hold until you've been able to read the first two books seems to be like using a video recorder to delay a network show until you have time to view it. So long as you have no intent to sell or share the book, your motives seem to be pure.

Calibre isn't a particularly good reader and it's not available on mobile devices. That's why the Google Play Reader is what I use for most of the ebooks that I read.

The Play reader allows me to choose the background, typeface, line spacing, and other features that make the book easier to read and it allows me to read it on whatever device is handy while also keeping a record of what page I'm on.

Most of those adjustments are available on most of the ebook readers, but some implementations are better than others. For example, some readers allow the user to select from any typeface that's installed on the device while others limit the selection to just a few typefaces. Most also allow the user to specify the background color and offer black (with white type) or black type on a medium shade or white. At least one I've encountered allows the user to specify the exact shade for both the background and the text.

What Happens in the Background

When you borrow a book from the library, you'll receive an acsm file that controls the download and describes the contents of the book you'll download. These are tiny files.

When you open the acsm file in Adobe Digital Editions, the computer will download a file with an epub extension. Despite the file name extension, it's really a zip file.

If you'd like to see what's in the file, change the extension from "epub" to "zip" and then open it with an application that can extract a zip file's contents. Some applications that read archive files will open an epub file even if you don't change the extension.

Inside the zip file, you'll file a lot of other files, including one for each chapter of the book. The content files are all in xhtml format which is similar to html but xhtml is stricter than html.

Each of the xhtml files includes references to css3 formatting files and looks a lot like a file that could be opened by a web browser. In fact, some browsers can be used to read epub books.

Using the xhtml format is what allows the book to be reformatted by the reader application. The primary disadvantage to the way many publishers arrange their books is that images are not handled well. A book that has a lot of illustrations is often better as a pdf document.

If you haven't yet tried reading electronic versions of books, give one a try on a tablet if you have one. Using a desktop computer or even a notebook that doesn't have a tablet mode provides a much less enjoyable experience, so don't judge an ebook by its device. The best tablets for reading seem to be those that are about the size of what's called a "trade paperback", which is approximately 5½ × 8½ inches. Phones are almost always too small for comfort and computers with tablet modes are usually too large to be held for long periods.

Short Circuits

A Threat on the Horizon for Ebooks

The main section this week is about the advantages of ebooks, but libraries have begun to warn patrons about access problems that are coming soon.

Four major publishers — Blackstone Audio, Hachette, Simon & Schuster, and Macmillan — have recently changed their ebook and eaudiobook purchasing policies for public libraries.  Messages from libraries note that they will either be limited in the number of digital copies they can purchase, charged much higher prices than consumers, or be made to wait to purchase the copies until retail outlets have been able to sell them for an extended period of time. 

Extended period of time is not defined and the libraries say that the policy changes "will greatly impact our ability to deliver the digital content you want."

Specifically, there will be fewer copies of many titles, so wait times will be longer and higher costs will limit libraries' ability to provide the level of service patrons expect.  The libraries warn that the changes in purchasing policies will make it impossible for them to provide equal access, because customers who can’t afford to pay for electronic copies of books and audiobooks will have to wait much longer than customers who can pay for them. 

Library leaders and professional associations for librarians across the country are speaking out in the hopes of reversing or modifying the policy changes and some have suggested that library patrons contact the publishers.

A Utility That's As Important As A Slide Rule

Do you need a utility that examines your mobile phone and tells you if there's a problem with it? TestM claims to do that and I ran across a glowing review of the application, so I decided to take a look.

The reviewer noted that the free version displayed a lot of ads. That was a bit of an understatement. TestM can examine a wide variety of components on the phone, from the touch screen and audio to Wi_fi and the microphone; from connectivity and motion detection to the camera and GPS. The utility displayed an ad before running each test. Some of the ads could be closed immediately but others insisted on playing a video before it could be closed. Closing the various ads varied, too. What might close one ad could take you to the ads website on another.

So maybe you want to eliminate the ads. Well, there is an option to license the application for nearly $20 per month! Yes, per month! I'll leave calculating the annual cost of this utility to you. Needless to say, it's no longer on my phone.

It seems to me that I'll notice if the camera isn't working because I won't be able to take pictures. That I'll notice if the Wi-Fi isn't working because I won't be able to connect to my router. And I'll notice if the headphone jack isn't working because I won't hear anything. Also I'll notice if the touch screen isn't working because the phone won't respond to touches. So why would I need this utility, even for free?

But wait; there's more! TestM can help me find a repair shop if there's something wrong with my phone. A quick Google search will turn up any number of companies that fix phones. Most electronics stores repair phones. There a franchise operation called YouBreakIFix with locations in 40 states and the District of Columbia. If all else fails, there's the mobile phone provider that sold the phone. So really I don't need help finding a repair shop.

If you're selling a phone, you might consider putting up with advertising avalanche to run the phone through the tests. The advantage is that you can then point a potential buyer to the TestM website where they can enter the phone's International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number to see the phone's test results. If you're buying a used phone, you could insist that the seller perform the tests and provide the IMEI number so that you can review the TestM results on-line. You'd also want to visit IMEI.info where you can check to see if the phone you're buying has been reported lost or stolen.

But do you need to have TestM on your phone? I think not.

Microsoft Rewards Are Amusing But Not Very Rewarding

It's been ten years since Microsoft launched the Bing search engine to compete with Google. Worldwide, Google has about 93% of the search engine market share according to StatCounter. In North America, Google has only about 88% of the market, Bing has about 6%, and the others have the remaining 6%. Microsoft launched a rewards program soon after Bing went live, but it hasn't made a big difference.

I've been visiting the Microsoft Rewards page most days recently to play games for a few minutes and collect points. Using Bing for searches earns points. There's a daily set of tasks. One generates a Bing search, one asks you to answer quiz questions, and the third is a daily poll. Each of these earns 10 points. There are also lots of other puzzles and quizes that earn 5 to 30 points regardless of how many answers you get right.

A recent quiz on a topic I have no interest in asked five questions. I guessed and got one of the five right. I still earned all of the points. The problem is that each point is worth about one tenth of a cent. Completing all three parts of the daily set earns a whopping 30 tenths of a cent. So completing all three components every day for a month will generate a balance of about 1000 points. It may be slightly more because there are occasional bonuses and you may have performed some other Bing searches or completed some of the other activities. So 1000 points. That's about 100 tenths of a cent. That's right 10 cents. So keep the day job.

But if you're just looking for a few minutes of entertainment that costs nothing and generates some income (however small), you might enjoy it. You can play with any browser but I'm sure Microsoft would be happier if you used Edge — either the current implementation or the upcoming Chromium based version that's still in beta. You'll need a Microsoft account but if you use Windows 10 you should already have one of those. Create one if you don't.

Just don't expect to get rich on Microsoft Rewards points.