IT

Scanning your iTunes library for DRM-infested books

Tor, the leading publisher for Science Fiction and Fantasy books, announced they would be doing away with DRM in their eBooks. The product pages for their books on iBooks now mention “At the publisher’s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied”. I figured it would be a good idea to uncripple the many Tor eBooks I have in my collection.

I wrote a quick little Python script to scan my growing iBooks library for books that could be updated. The procedure is to delete the book from both iTunes and iPads, then download it anew (restarting iTunes is also needed after deleting). Apple keeps track of your purchases and will not charge you again.

#!/usr/bin/env python
import sys, os.path, glob, zipfile, platform, xml.etree.ElementTree

# publishers who have forsaken DRM
good = ['Tom Doherty']

if platform.mac_ver()[0] > '10.8':
  bookdir = os.path.expanduser('~/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks')
else:
  bookdir = os.path.expanduser('~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/Books')

os.chdir(bookdir)

ok =  '\033[1;32mDRM-free    \033[0m'
bad = '\033[1;31mDRM-infested\033[0m'

count = 0
salvageable = 0

def extract(meta):
  creator = ''
  status = ''
  pub = ''
  et = xml.etree.ElementTree.fromstring(meta)
  try:
    creator = et.findall('*{http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/}creator')
    creator = creator[0].text
    title = et.findall('*{http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/}title')
    title = title[0].text
  except:
    assert '!DOCTYPE plist' in meta
    next_tag = None
    for e in et[0].iter():
      if e.tag == 'key' and e.text in ('artistName', 'itemName'):
        next_tag = e.text
        continue
      if next_tag == 'artistName':
        creator = e.text
        next_tag = None
        continue
      elif next_tag == 'itemName':
        title = e.text
        next_tag = None
        continue
  pub = [x for x in good if x in meta]
  return creator, title, pub

def find_meta(file_list, opener):
  for m in file_list:
    if m.endswith('.opf') or m == 'iTunesMetadata.plist':
      meta = opener(m).read()
      return extract(meta)
  
for fn in glob.glob('*/*.epub'):
  status = ok
  suffix = ''
  if os.path.isdir(fn):
    suffix = '(directory)'
    if os.path.exists(fn + '/META-INF/encryption.xml'):
      status = bad
      count += 1
    meta = find_meta(os.listdir(fn), lambda x: open(fn + '/' + x))
  else:
    z = zipfile.ZipFile(fn)
    try:
      i = z.getinfo('META-INF/encryption.xml')
      status = bad
    except KeyError:
      pass
    meta = find_meta(z.namelist(), z.open)
    z.close()
  creator, title, pub = meta
  print status, fn, suffix
  print '\t', creator
  print '\t', title
  if status == bad and pub:
    print '\t\033[1;32mThis is published by', pub[0],
    print 'and could be re-downloaded DRM-free\033[0m'
    salvageable += 1

print count, 'books are DRM-infested'
print salvageable, 'could be cured'

Unfortunately, it seems like the DRM-stripping is still work in progress. Out of the Wheel of Time series, for instance, only the first one is now DRM-free on the iBooks store.

undr ~>drmbooks.py
DRM-free     Books/0083D0AEC37E08453347DD12B1C6F980.epub 
	Greg Bear
	Blood Music
DRM-free     Books/09178837756A4DFF8347EC377345A37B.epub 
	Heinz Wittenbrink
	RSS and Atom
DRM-free     Books/0AD752E995042C7E12F11917AB58C6B8.epub 
	Wes McKinney
	Python for Data Analysis
DRM-free     Books/14BDC66A99E878EC232FFAFA73B341EF.epub 
	Fritz Leiber
	Swords and Deviltry-Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser-Book1
DRM-free     Books/15A1D7FE9B7D815C6FBE1A9A77D7143E.epub 
	Glen Cook
	A Fortress in Shadow
DRM-free     Books/1793F9DE1319B96FDE7E36EB8A1BC961.epub 
	Scalzi, John
	Old Man's War
DRM-free     Books/1D08BE221E8BC8F2A371EFEDE55029AC.epub 
	Ben Fry
	Visualizing Data
DRM-free     Books/24D6EC36CDEA0C1E8612CC61A89EA098.epub 
	None
	Node Cookbook
DRM-free     Books/29DA285F0051C431BD8BA3D1AEC5EAA6.epub 
	Fritz Leiber
	The Swords of Lankhmar: Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser-Book 5
DRM-free     Books/2E88CD68DFD8408CD0E7C0ACB1E78714.epub 
	Glen Cook
	A Cruel Wind: A Chronicle of the Dread Empire
DRM-free     Books/32996A9995040064818BAE4DFB66E92F.epub 
	Kelly Link
	Magic for Beginners
DRM-free     Books/34D3CD13D47E5FEBC6DCF7EF011113BD.epub 
	David Drake
	Lord of the Isles
DRM-infested Books/357298432.epub 
	Iain M. Banks
	The Player of Games
DRM-infested Books/357311036.epub 
	Iain M. Banks
	Use of Weapons
DRM-infested Books/357377857.epub 
	Iain M. Banks
	Against a Dark Background
DRM-infested Books/357396585.epub 
	Brent Weeks
	Night Angel: The Complete Trilogy
DRM-infested Books/357657026.epub 
	Iain M. Banks
	Transition
DRM-infested Books/357658374.epub 
	Po Bronson
	NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children
DRM-infested Books/357662058.epub 
	Iain M. Banks
	Consider Phlebas
DRM-infested Books/357669769.epub 
	Iain M. Banks
	Matter
DRM-infested Books/357914731.epub 
	Herbert, Frank
	Dune Messiah
DRM-infested Books/357918110.epub 
	Dalrymple, William
	City of Djinns
DRM-infested Books/357923567.epub 
	Patrick Rothfuss
	The Name of the Wind
DRM-infested Books/357929995.epub 
	Herbert, Frank
	Dune (40th Anniversary Edition)
DRM-infested Books/357969577.epub 
	Herbert, Frank
	God Emperor of Dune
DRM-infested Books/357987322.epub 
	Herbert, Frank
	Children of Dune
DRM-infested Books/357994537.epub 
	Herbert, Frank
	Heretics of Dune
DRM-infested Books/357994652.epub 
	William Dalrymple
	White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth-Century India
DRM-infested Books/357996119.epub 
	Stross, Charles
	Wireless
DRM-infested Books/360601506.epub 
	Ursula K. Le Guin
	The Dispossessed
DRM-infested Books/360609519.epub 
	Greg Egan
	Schild's Ladder
DRM-infested Books/360627712.epub 
	Raymond E. Feist
	Rides a Dread Legion
DRM-infested Books/360627930.epub 
	Neal Stephenson
	Anathem
DRM-infested Books/360628773.epub 
	Raymond E. Feist
	At the Gates of Darkness
DRM-infested Books/360641088.epub 
	Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
	Flow
DRM-free     Books/361491495.epub 
	Basil Hall Chamberlain
	Aino Folk-Tales
DRM-free     Books/361494664.epub 
	Poul William Anderson
	Industrial Revolution
DRM-free     Books/361523763.epub 
	Lafcadio Hearn
	The Romance of the Milky Way / And Other Studies & Stories
DRM-free     Books/361527545.epub 
	Saki
	When William Came
DRM-free     Books/361539032.epub 
	Saki
	The Chronicles of Clovis
DRM-free     Books/361557387.epub 
	Saki
	Reginald in Russia and other sketches
DRM-free     Books/361557834.epub 
	Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
	The Adventure of the Dying Detective
DRM-free     Books/361559391.epub 
	Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
	The Valley of Fear
DRM-free     Books/361560694.epub 
	Lafcadio Hearn
	Chita: a Memory of Last Island
DRM-free     Books/361561399.epub 
	Confucius
	The Analects of Confucius (from the Chinese Classics)
DRM-free     Books/361562678.epub 
	Saki
	The Toys of Peace, and other papers
DRM-free     Books/361562764.epub 
	Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
	The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
DRM-free     Books/361564075.epub 
	Poul William Anderson
	The Burning Bridge
DRM-free     Books/361564898.epub 
	Henry David Thoreau
	Walden
DRM-free     Books/361565201.epub 
	Saki
	Beasts and Super-Beasts
DRM-free     Books/361565806.epub 
	Isaac Asimov
	Youth
DRM-free     Books/361572327.epub 
	Lafcadio Hearn
	Kokoro / Japanese Inner Life Hints
DRM-free     Books/361573126.epub 
	Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
	Through the Magic Door
DRM-free     Books/361575882.epub 
	Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
	Tales of Terror and Mystery
DRM-free     Books/361578744.epub 
	Lafcadio Hearn
	In Ghostly Japan
DRM-free     Books/361588265.epub 
	Lafcadio Hearn
	Books and Habits from the Lectures of Lafcadio Hearn
DRM-free     Books/361673695.epub 
	E. C. Babbitt
	More Jataka Tales
DRM-free     Books/361686559.epub 
	Poul William Anderson
	Security
DRM-free     Books/361713863.epub 
	Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
	The Return of Sherlock Holmes
DRM-free     Books/361721797.epub 
	Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
	The Adventure of the Cardboard Box
DRM-free     Books/361725352.epub 
	Saki
	The Unbearable Bassington
DRM-free     Books/361725959.epub 
	Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
	The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge
DRM-free     Books/361726975.epub 
	Saki
	Reginald
DRM-free     Books/361727237.epub 
	Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
	The Adventure of the Red Circle
DRM-free     Books/361732286.epub 
	Poul William Anderson
	The Valor of Cappen Varra
DRM-free     Books/361736043.epub 
	Lafcadio Hearn
	Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things
DRM-free     Books/361741563.epub 
	Lafcadio Hearn
	Japan: an Attempt at Interpretation
DRM-free     Books/361743007.epub 
	Ambrose Bierce
	The Devil's Dictionary
DRM-free     Books/361743953.epub 
	Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
	The Adventure of the Devil's Foot
DRM-free     Books/361744178.epub 
	Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
	His Last Bow
DRM-free     Books/361745602.epub 
	Poul William Anderson
	The Sensitive Man
DRM-infested Books/362435686.epub 
	Ansary, Tamim
	Destiny Disrupted
DRM-infested Books/366773380.epub 
	Esslemont, Ian C. C.
	Return of the Crimson Guard
	This is published by Tom Doherty and could be re-downloaded DRM-free
DRM-infested Books/373338999.epub 
	Jordan, Robert
	The Path of Daggers
	This is published by Tom Doherty and could be re-downloaded DRM-free
DRM-free     Books/375554215.epub 
	Orson Scott Card
	The Lost Gate
DRM-infested Books/376217648.epub 
	Steven Erikson
	Reaper’s Gale
	This is published by Tom Doherty and could be re-downloaded DRM-free
DRM-infested Books/376227359.epub 
	Jordan, Robert
	Winter's Heart
	This is published by Tom Doherty and could be re-downloaded DRM-free
DRM-infested Books/376227401.epub 
	Jordan, Robert
	Crossroads of Twilight
	This is published by Tom Doherty and could be re-downloaded DRM-free
DRM-infested Books/376227406.epub 
	Jordan, Robert
	Knife of Dreams
	This is published by Tom Doherty and could be re-downloaded DRM-free
DRM-infested Books/376227409.epub 
	Sanderson, Brandon
	The Gathering Storm
	This is published by Tom Doherty and could be re-downloaded DRM-free
DRM-infested Books/376227423.epub 
	Jordan, Robert
	New Spring
	This is published by Tom Doherty and could be re-downloaded DRM-free
DRM-free     Books/376231110.epub 
	Cook, Glen
	Surrender to the Will of the Night
DRM-infested Books/376231528.epub 
	Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson
	Towers of Midnight
	This is published by Tom Doherty and could be re-downloaded DRM-free
DRM-infested Books/378317076.epub 
	Jordan, Robert
	A Crown of Swords
	This is published by Tom Doherty and could be re-downloaded DRM-free
DRM-infested Books/378317808.epub 
	Robert Jordan
	Lord of Chaos
	This is published by Tom Doherty and could be re-downloaded DRM-free
DRM-free     Books/379451459.epub 
	Le Guin, Ursula K.
	Word for World is Forest, The
DRM-free     Books/37EC6E895E6BD70BEB48D9F1553D608E.epub 
	Eben Hewitt
	Cassandra: The Definitive Guide
DRM-free     Books/380490608.epub 
	Jordan, Robert
	The Eye of the World
DRM-free     Books/380494444.epub 
	Asimov, Isaac
	The End of Eternity
DRM-infested Books/381497257.epub 
	Harold McGee
	On Food and Cooking, The Science and Lore of the Kitchen
DRM-infested Books/381622032.epub 
	IAIN M. BANKS
	Look to Windward
DRM-infested Books/381683084.epub 
	Ursula K. Le Guin
	Tehanu
DRM-infested Books/381935940.epub 
	Richard Adams
	Watership Down
DRM-infested Books/382674388.epub 
	Steven Erikson
	Dust of Dreams
	This is published by Tom Doherty and could be re-downloaded DRM-free
DRM-infested Books/383912791.epub 
	Steven Erikson
	Bauchelain and Korbal Broach
	This is published by Tom Doherty and could be re-downloaded DRM-free
DRM-infested Books/385975662.epub 
	Jordan, Robert
	The Dragon Reborn
	This is published by Tom Doherty and could be re-downloaded DRM-free
DRM-infested Books/385981104.epub 
	Steven Erikson
	The Bonehunters
	This is published by Tom Doherty and could be re-downloaded DRM-free
DRM-infested Books/385981116.epub 
	Steven Erikson
	Midnight Tides
DRM-free     Books/385982966.epub 
	Brust, Steven
	To Reign in Hell
DRM-infested Books/385987858.epub 
	Steven Erikson
	Gardens of the Moon
	This is published by Tom Doherty and could be re-downloaded DRM-free
DRM-infested Books/385989170.epub 
	Steven Erikson
	House of Chains
DRM-infested Books/385992628.epub 
	Jordan, Robert
	The Fires of Heaven
	This is published by Tom Doherty and could be re-downloaded DRM-free
DRM-infested Books/385992927.epub 
	Steven Erikson
	Toll the Hounds
	This is published by Tom Doherty and could be re-downloaded DRM-free
DRM-infested Books/385992930.epub 
	Jordan, Robert
	The Great Hunt
	This is published by Tom Doherty and could be re-downloaded DRM-free
DRM-infested Books/385998417.epub 
	Jordan, Robert
	The Shadow Rising
	This is published by Tom Doherty and could be re-downloaded DRM-free
DRM-infested Books/386016540.epub 
	Esslemont, Ian C. C.
	Night of Knives
	This is published by Tom Doherty and could be re-downloaded DRM-free
DRM-infested Books/388403394.epub 
	Steven Erikson
	The Crippled God
DRM-infested Books/389191300.epub 
	Iain M. Banks
	Surface Detail
DRM-infested Books/390877859.epub 
	Loewen, James W.
	Lies My Teacher Told Me
DRM-infested Books/393310992.epub 
	Erikson, Steven
	Memories of Ice
DRM-infested Books/394745271.epub 
	Steven Erikson
	Deadhouse Gates
	This is published by Tom Doherty and could be re-downloaded DRM-free
DRM-free     Books/394745833.epub 
	Walton, Jo
	Among Others
DRM-free     Books/395536306.epub 
	Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
	The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
DRM-free     Books/395537209.epub 
	Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
	The Sign of the Four
DRM-free     Books/395539542.epub 
	Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
	A Study in Scarlet
DRM-free     Books/395540660.epub 
	Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
	The Hound of the Baskervilles
DRM-free     Books/395686685.epub 
	Dante Alighieri
	Divine Comedy, Longfellow's Translation, Complete
DRM-free     Books/395688318.epub 
	Edgar Rice Burroughs
	A Princess of Mars
DRM-free     Books/395688375.epub 
	Lafcadio Hearn
	Glimpses of an Unfamiliar Japan / First Series
DRM-infested Books/395926792.epub 
	Fukuyama, Francis
	Origins of Political Order
DRM-infested Books/396269736.epub 
	Herbert, Frank
	Chapterhouse: Dune
DRM-infested Books/398283114.epub 
	Rothfuss, Patrick
	The Wise Man's Fear
DRM-free     Books/3A5FBC58E821CFDF15C8C4E85657481E.epub 
	Jon Hicks
	The Icon Handbook
DRM-free     Books/410943153.epub 
	Edwin A. Abbott (A Square)
	Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
DRM-free     Books/413463878.epub 
	Brust, Steven
	Tiassa
DRM-free     Books/418293515.epub 
	Heinlein, Robert A.
	Glory Road
DRM-infested Books/419950945.epub 
	Isaac Asimov
	Foundation
DRM-infested Books/419950970.epub 
	Isaac Asimov
	Foundation and Empire
DRM-infested Books/419950976.epub 
	Isaac Asimov
	Second Foundation
DRM-infested Books/419968238.epub 
	Scott Lynch
	The lies of Locke Lamora
DRM-infested Books/419968784.epub 
	Scott Lynch
	Red Seas Under Red Skies
DRM-infested Books/420037362.epub 
	Kim Stanley Robinson
	The Years of Rice and Salt
DRM-infested Books/420281728.epub 
	Richard Wiseman
	59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a Lot
DRM-infested Books/420445771.epub 
	Isaac Asimov
	Foundation’s Edge
DRM-infested Books/420446058.epub 
	Isaac Asimov
	Foundation and Earth
DRM-infested Books/420725428.epub 
	Mike Resnick
	Kirinyaga: A Fable of Utopia
DRM-infested Books/421025353.epub 
	William Dalrymple
	The Last Mughal
DRM-free     Books/421124117.epub 
	Brust, Steven
	The Desecrator
DRM-infested Books/422530144.epub 
	Max Barry
	Machine Man
DRM-free     Books/422718511.epub 
	Apple Inc.
	Mac Integration Basics
DRM-free     Books/426914658.epub 
	Brust, Steven
	Five Hundred Years After
DRM-free     Books/428235697.epub 
	Vinge, Vernor
	A Fire Upon The Deep
DRM-infested Books/429173089.epub 
	Ursula K. Le Guin
	The Other Wind
DRM-infested Books/429173713.epub 
	Ursula K. Le Guin
	Tales from Earthsea
DRM-infested Books/429699133.epub 
	Rajaniemi, Hannu
	The Quantum Thief
	This is published by Tom Doherty and could be re-downloaded DRM-free
DRM-infested Books/431617578.epub 
	Walter Isaacson
	Steve Jobs
DRM-infested Books/432519291.epub 
	Susan Weinschenk
	100 Things: Every Designer Needs to Know About People
DRM-infested Books/434509014.epub 
	Stross, Charles
	Rule 34
DRM-free     Books/434522188.epub 
	Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle
	The Mote In God's Eye
DRM-free     Books/434811509.epub 
	Asher, Neal
	Cowl
DRM-infested Books/436646026.epub 
	Neal Stephenson
	Reamde
DRM-infested Books/436691174.epub 
	Julia Child
	Mastering the Art of French Cooking
DRM-infested Books/443149884.epub 
	Daniel Kahneman
	Thinking, Fast and Slow
DRM-infested Books/446155927.epub 
	Esslemont, Ian C. C.
	Stonewielder
	This is published by Tom Doherty and could be re-downloaded DRM-free
DRM-free     Books/447591195.epub 
	Asher, Neal
	The Skinner
DRM-infested Books/454252718.epub 
	William B. Norton
	The Internet Peering Playbook: Connecting to the Core of the Internet
DRM-infested Books/455525627.epub 
	Amar Chitra Katha
	Birbal The Genius
DRM-infested Books/458461362.epub 
	Pamela Druckerman
	Bringing Up Bebe
DRM-free     Books/45B90418E467D479DCDDF23B932C648C.epub 
	Douglas Crockford
	JavaScript: The Good Parts
DRM-infested Books/460822066.epub (directory)
	Scott Lynch
	The Republic of Thieves
DRM-free     Books/465679A557523FDB836005CF4BB9380E.epub 
	Scott Berkun
	Mindfire
DRM-infested Books/479594044.epub 
	Saladin Ahmed
	Throne of the Crescent Moon
DRM-infested Books/479717436.epub 
	David Crist
	The Twilight War: The Secret History of America’s Thirty-Year Conflict with Iran
DRM-infested Books/479771801.epub 
	William Dalrymple
	In Xanadu
DRM-infested Books/489957500.epub 
	Bruce Schneier
	Liars and Outliers
DRM-infested Books/491186678.epub 
	James Blish
	Cities in Flight
DRM-infested Books/491668459.epub 
	Neal Asher
	Shadow of the Scorpion
DRM-infested Books/491669284.epub 
	Glen Cook
	A Matter of Time
DRM-infested Books/491669288.epub 
	Glen Cook
	Darkwar
DRM-free     Books/492199230.epub 
	Frederik Pohl
	The Tunnel Under the World
DRM-free     Books/492199569.epub 
	Frederik Pohl
	The Knights of Arthur
DRM-infested Books/494939678.epub 
	Esslemont, Ian C. C.
	Orb Sceptre Throne
	This is published by Tom Doherty and could be re-downloaded DRM-free
DRM-infested Books/498634992.epub 
	Charles Stross
	The Apocalypse Codex
DRM-infested Books/499392787.epub 
	Daniel Suarez
	Kill Decision
DRM-free     Books/4AE7DDA54BEEFCD65157927546B18063.epub 
	Roberto Ierusalimschy
	Programming in Lua 2ed
DRM-free     Books/4DCFF682728B765A1CE221F3D7C21536.epub 
	Glen Cook
	Starfishers Volume 3: Stars' End
DRM-free     Books/501278407.epub 
	Colette
	Chéri
DRM-free     Books/501758197.epub 
	David Brin
	Existence
DRM-infested Books/501758516.epub 
	Scalzi, John
	Redshirts
	This is published by Tom Doherty and could be re-downloaded DRM-free
DRM-infested Books/503019669.epub 
	J.R.R. Tolkien
	The Lord of the Rings
DRM-infested Books/503153300.epub 
	J.R.R. Tolkien
	Tales from the Perilous Realm
DRM-infested Books/503154129.epub 
	J. R. R. Tolkien and Christopher Tolkien
	The Book of Lost Tales, Part One
DRM-infested Books/503154991.epub 
	J. R. R. Tolkien and Christopher Tolkien
	The Book of Lost Tales, Part Two
DRM-infested Books/503155327.epub 
	J.R.R. Tolkien
	The Children of Húrin
DRM-infested Books/503163148.epub 
	J.R.R. Tolkien
	The Hobbit Deluxe
DRM-infested Books/503164678.epub 
	J.R.R. Tolkien
	The Silmarillion
DRM-infested Books/503167303.epub 
	J.R.R. Tolkien
	Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth
DRM-infested Books/504209078.epub 
	Isaac Asimov
	Prelude to Foundation
DRM-infested Books/504371982.epub 
	Iain M. Banks
	The Hydrogen Sonata
DRM-free     Books/511060740.epub 
	Frederik Pohl
	The Hated
DRM-free     Books/511143617.epub 
	Frederik Pohl
	The Day of the Boomer Dukes
DRM-free     Books/511252896.epub 
	Frederik Pohl
	Pythias
DRM-free     Books/513357605.epub 
	Hannu Rajaniemi
	The Fractal Prince
DRM-free     Books/513868CF0AA46D293EE27F74BC399760.epub 
	Jerry Pournelle
	West of Honor
DRM-infested Books/520233773.epub 
	Nate Silver
	The Signal and the Noise
DRM-free     Books/520897403.epub 
	Hugh Howey
	Wool Omnibus
DRM-free     Books/525170910.epub 
	Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross
	The Rapture of the Nerds
DRM-infested Books/526136048.epub (directory)
	Hetty van de Rijt & Frans Plooij
	The Wonder Weeks
DRM-infested Books/529020127.epub 
	Neal Asher
	The Departure
DRM-infested Books/529424632.epub 
	Guy Gavriel Kay
	The Lions of Al-Rassan
DRM-infested Books/536312376.epub 
	Glen Cook
	Garrett for Hire
DRM-free     Books/537023027.epub 
	Erikson, Steven
	Forge of Darkness
DRM-infested Books/541673159.epub 
	Ursula K. Le Guin
	The Tombs of Atuan
DRM-infested Books/541673162.epub 
	Ursula K. Le Guin
	The Farthest Shore
DRM-infested Books/546126326.epub 
	Jan Morris
	HAV
DRM-infested Books/551241606.epub 
	Ursula K. Le Guin
	A Wizard of Earthsea
DRM-infested Books/551567785.epub 
	Murray R. Spiegel, PhD
	Schaum's Outline Mathematical Handbook of Formulas and Tables, Fourth Edition
DRM-infested Books/551747038.epub 
	Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco
	Days of Destruction Days of Revolt v2b
DRM-infested Books/552144691.epub 
	Tamim Ansary
	Games without Rules
DRM-free     Books/553878102.epub 
	Charles Stross
	A Tall Tail
DRM-infested Books/563408849.epub 
	Iain Banks
	Stonemouth
DRM-infested Books/568731449.epub 
	William Dalrymple
	Return of a King: The Battle for Afghanistan, 1839-42
DRM-infested Books/569232538.epub 
	Neil Gaiman
	The Ocean at the End of the Lane
DRM-free     Books/571678152.epub 
	Glen Cook
	The Return of the Black Company
DRM-free     Books/571678945.epub 
	Glen Cook
	The Many Deaths of the Black Company
DRM-free     Books/573656304.epub 
	Glen Cook
	Chronicles of the Black Company
DRM-free     Books/573656441.epub 
	Glen Cook
	The Books of the South
DRM-free     Books/576233114.epub 
	Jack Vance
	Demon Princes
DRM-infested Books/578851675.epub 
	Zilpha Keatley Snyder
	Below The Root
DRM-infested Books/580642602.epub 
	Max Barry
	Lexicon
DRM-infested Books/588794444.epub 
	Charles Stross
	Neptune's Brood
DRM-free     Books/5CCB889F91585202637A3C5FBFD8409F.epub 
	Glen Cook
	Starfishers-The Starfishers Trilogy Volume II
DRM-infested Books/600938002.epub 
	Gardner Dozois
	The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Thirtieth Annual Collection
DRM-free     Books/606232503.epub 
	Ian C. Esslemont
	Blood and Bone
DRM-free     Books/610920977.epub 
	Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson
	A Memory of Light
DRM-free     Books/6122FF30560866BD75257E6CCC264371.epub 
	Fritz Leiber
	Swords and Ice Magic-Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser-Book 6
DRM-infested Books/619483561.epub 
	Raymond E. Feist
	Magician's End
DRM-free     Books/622837311.epub 
	Le Comte De  Lautréamont
	Les chants de Maldoror
DRM-free     Books/62497334A4189B1D00E9BDFD95724E2E.epub 
	Fritz Leiber
	The Knight and Knave of Swords-Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser-Book 7
DRM-infested Books/645571245.epub 
	Iain Banks
	The Quarry
DRM-free     Books/647688922.epub 
	Steven Brust and Skyler White
	The Incrementalists
DRM-infested Books/651331715.epub 
	Susan Crawford
	Captive Audience
DRM-infested Books/654456347.epub 
	Iain Banks
	The Wasp Factory
DRM-infested Books/662310218.epub (directory)
	Various Authors
	Star Wars: Empire Volume 3 – The Imperial Perspective
DRM-infested Books/662310219.epub 
	Paul Gulacy
	Star Wars: Crimson Empire
DRM-infested Books/664297397.epub (directory)
	Various Authors
	Star Wars: Empire, Vol. 4: The Heart of the Rebellion
DRM-infested Books/664343525.epub (directory)
	Paul Chadwick, Doug Wheatley & Tomás Giorello
	Star Wars: Empire, Vol. 2: Darklighter
DRM-infested Books/664894567.epub 
	John Ostrander
	Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi Volume 1—Force Storm
DRM-infested Books/664910993.epub (directory)
	Scott Allie, Ryan Benjamin & Brian Horton
	Star Wars: Empire Vol. 1
DRM-free     Books/666772E4C21E2017E71C10F1990840BC.epub 
	Pieter Hintjens
	ZeroMQ - Connecting your Code
DRM-infested Books/674224604.epub (directory)
	Various Authors
	Star Wars: Empire, Vol. 5: Allies and Adversaries
DRM-infested Books/674226603.epub (directory)
	Thomas Andrews, Scott Allie & Various Authors
	Star Wars: Empire, Vol. 6: In the Shadows of Their Fathers
DRM-free     Books/697938901.epub 
	Charles Stross
	Equoid: A Laundry Novella
DRM-free     Books/6BBD61A64A46FFFF4AE7C5FCEB9CFCEE.epub 
	David Drake
	Balefires
DRM-free     Books/71C79A253586282ABE73C2975237EB08.epub 
	Glen Cook
	Sung in Blood
DRM-free     Books/73BC5DD0E51611BDC359CBAB48CC203F.epub (directory)
	Crane, Stephen
	The Red Badge of Courage
DRM-free     Books/7A0D1AEE343638A8A3769DABB90CD4CB.epub 
	Clay A. Johnson
	The Information Diet
DRM-free     Books/7B46914B55481714DED3D711288978FA.epub 
	Glen Cook
	Shadowline-The Starfishers Trilogy I
DRM-free     Books/809DCC75FE60E749458CB27636EE6777.epub 
	Mercedes Lackey
	The Secret World Chronicle
DRM-free     Books/8350F5DFECCD6AA88714400FDF4F6831.epub 
	François de La Rochefoucauld
	Réflexions ou Sentences et Maximes Morales
DRM-free     Books/853BD1C65277D276BA09E04EBFEB73EF.epub 
	None
	PostgreSQL 9 Administration Cookbook
DRM-free     Books/85907063B2351E91C6E7F5052C090BFD.epub 
	None
	PostgreSQL 9.0 High Performance
DRM-free     Books/8663E7BF735C06318FF450532A67F1C2.epub 
	Glen Cook
	Passage at Arms
DRM-free     Books/8690D69995483C5D2DF6AD38BE53C1D7.epub 
	Paolo Bacigalupi
	The Windup Girl - Second Electronic Edition
DRM-free     Books/8993920EF1C0E8FE8CB47A20BD955F53.epub 
	Fritz Leiber
	Swords Against Death-Fafhrd and Gray Mouser-Book 2
DRM-free     Books/8DC6ED0A99161EBB516E370A60ED1121.epub 
	Jonathan Zdziarski
	Hacking and Securing iOS Applications
DRM-free     Books/8DD0D22CD05B0B8D52DF9DB93FC8616B.epub 
	Fritz Leiber
	Swords in the Mist-Fafhrd And the Gray Mouser-Book 3
DRM-free     Books/912CB8B110736684549EAC4FC36665AB.epub 
	Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean
	Signal to Noise
DRM-free     Books/93061FDFD6EEC01FD8CE4295A049C97C.epub 
	Cory Doctorow
	Homeland
DRM-free     Books/9592D5001632B94D1FEFC98B3A40E049.epub 
	Kelly Link
	Stranger Things Happen
DRM-free     Books/990CA5799084407151488A7C563DF269.epub 
	Tom Hughes-Croucher
	Node: Up and Running
DRM-free     Books/9CCCA9E217602948B84BE9A7A21C2753.epub 
	Mike Resnick
	Birthright: The Book of Man
DRM-free     Books/9DA2C8D7E941C37FA83192E5849AA850.epub 
	Q. Ethan McCallum
	Parallel R
DRM-free     Books/A7DB557515983DB67F74E2BE351FC319.epub 
	Glen Cook
	Reap the East Wind
DRM-free     Books/B18AB85267B815E540C7E370F8D97726.epub 
	Lars George
	HBase: The Definitive Guide
DRM-free     Books/B1A586D24AE5F2450010F8664F8E059D.epub 
	Cory Doctorow
	Pirate Cinema
DRM-free     Books/B562B5D74F8677C946B0A6F81EB34F1B.epub 
	Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
	Nathan the Wise; a dramatic poem in five acts
DRM-free     Books/BE42D426242836AA171539B7415732E6.epub 
	Glen Cook
	The Swordbearer
DRM-free     Books/BE80AD93781746E45CF95607A7BEE687.epub 
	Charlie Stross
	Bit Rot
DRM-free     Books/C39FBC59673713A57D404D62BE85C4DC.epub 
	Lauren Beukes
	Zoo City
DRM-free     Books/C81CBBD470EFDBC62359BDAD12FDF551.epub 
	Thomas Hobbes
	Leviathan
DRM-free     Books/D17DC1A83BD90AFB24055A01831BFAB4.epub 
	Glen Cook
	The Dragon Never Sleeps
DRM-free     Books/DA8FBAB386EC503A0EF21E481D214521.epub 
	David Flanagan
	JavaScript: The Definitive Guide
DRM-free     Books/DBAD0DE7A4305B90F6AC33C673FE68E8.epub 
	Glen Cook
	A Path to Coldness of Heart
DRM-free     Books/DBCCB54B140D1158250B24B7E3E81B63.epub 
	Scott Chacon
	Pro Git
DRM-free     Books/DF6C56F9A8719294B13BA91BED5E1667.epub 
	Mike Resnick
	Ivory
DRM-free     Books/E8D76FDD351E68D92AE4A3F3AEA7EC6A.epub 
	Paolo Bacigalupi
	Pump Six and Other Stories
DRM-free     Books/EEE65A68378C2510E18DF24CD767AC9A.epub 
	Fritz Leiber
	Swords Against Wizardry-Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser-Book 4
DRM-free     Books/F3BC14466A16C96CCD8FFE00DCCF8147.epub 
	Glen Cook
	An Empire Unacquainted With Defeat
DRM-free     Books/F534835595041374B814D151A633E69D.epub 
	Peter Watts
	Blindsight
DRM-free     Books/F8BF760284ADC800B290DCA6D8EA7EF2.epub 
	Ben Klemens
	21st Century C
DRM-free     Books/FE8C57863E40B98CB732FEE4BFDB60BB.epub 
	Glen Cook
	An Ill Fate Marshalling
8 books are DRM-infested
26 could be cured

Update (2013-11-06):

OS X 10.9 Mavericks and the new iBooks app changed the location of the iBooks directory, I changed my script accordingly (and made it adjust depending on which OS version you have). Also, the file names have changed and no longer embed author and title, so I am extracting them from the XML metadata files.

The Gresham’s law of Amazon Web Services

In the bad (good?) old days when currency’s worth was established by the amount of gold or silver in coinage, kings would cut corners by debasing currency with lead, which is almost as dense as gold or silver. In the New World, counterfeiters debased gold coins with platinum, which was first smelted by pre-columbian civilizations. Needless to say, the fakes are now worth more than the originals.

The public was not fooled, however, and found ways to test coins for purity, including folkloric ones like biting a coin to see if it is made of malleable gold, rather than harder metals. People would then hoard pure gold coins, and try to rid themselves of debased coins at the earliest opportunity. This led to Gresham’s Law: bad money drives out good money in circulation.

After a year of using Amazon Web Services’ EC2 service at scale for my company (we moved to our own servers at the end of 2011), I conjecture there is a Gresham’s Law of Amazon EC2 instances – bad instances drive out good ones. Let me elaborate:

Amazon EC2 is a good way to launch a service for a startup, without incurring heavy capital expenditures when getting started and prior to securing funding. Unfortunately, EC2 is not a quality service. Instances are unreliable (we used over 80 instances at Amazon, and there was at least one instance failure a week, and sometimes up to 4). Amazon instances have poor disk I/O performance that makes them particularly unsuitable to hosting non-trivial databases (EBS is even worse, and notoriously unreliable).

Performance is also inconsistent—I routinely observed “runt” m1.large instances that performed half as well as the others. We experienced all sorts of failure modes, including disk corruptions, disks that would block forever without timing out, sporadic losses of network connectivity, and many more. Even more puzzling, I would get 50% to 70% failure rate on new instances that would not come up cleanly after being launched.

Some of this is probably due to the fact we use an uncommon OS, OpenSolaris, that is barely supported on EC2, but I suspect a big part of this is that Amazon uses low-end commodity parts, and does not proactively retire failed or flaky hardware from service. Instances that have the bad luck of being assigned to flaky hardware are more likely to fail or perform poorly, and thus more likely to be be destroyed, released and a new one reassigned in the same slot. The inevitable consequence of this is that new instances have a higher likelihood of being runts or otherwise defective than long-running ones.

One work-around is to spin up a large number of instances, test them, and destroy the poor-performing ones. AWS runts are usually correlated with slower CPU clock speeds, as older machines would be running older versions of the Xen hypervisor Amazon uses under the hood, have less cache, slower drives and so on. Iterating through virtual machines as if you are picking melons at a supermarket is a slow and painful job, however, and even their newer machines have their share of runts. We were trying to keep only machines with 2.6 or 2.66GHz processors, but more than 70% of the instances we were getting assigned were 2.2GHz runts, and it would usually take creating 5 or 6 instances on average to get a non-runt.

In the end, we migrated to our own facility in colo, because Amazon’s costs, reliability and performance were just not acceptable, and we had long passed the threshold beyond which it is cheaper to own than rent (I estimate it at $5,000 to $10,000 per month Amazon spend, depending on your workload). It is not as if other cloud providers are any better—before Amazon we had started on Joyent, which supports OpenSolaris natively, and their MTBF was in the order of 2 weeks, apparently because they replaced their original Sun hardware with substandard Dell servers and had issues with power management C-states in the Dell server BIOS.

The dirty secret of cloud services is that there is no reliable source of information on actual performance and reliability of cloud services. This brings out another economic concept, George Akerlof’s famous paper on the market for lemons. In a market where information asymmetry exists, the market will eventually collapse in the absence of guarantees. Until Amazon and others offer SLAs with teeth, you should remain skeptical about their ability to deliver on their promises.

Withings smart baby monitor review

One of the joys challenges of being a first-time parent is being exposed to a bewildering array of gadgets and equipment required to care for the baby, from baby car seats, strollers and diaper pails to 2-axis rocking robots (thanks Rohit!). There is an entire cottage industry of books like Baby Bargains that help you navigate through the confusing and sometimes questionable or outright unnecessary choices.

I have a Withings body weight scale that I really like and I was excited to learn they were going to release a networked video baby monitor. It took a while to get to market in the US, however, so in the interim I purchased a Philips Advent DECT digital baby monitor, which ended up unusable in practice, because its microphone sensitivity is so poor that you can barely hear anything. When the Withings baby monitor finally became available in the US, I immediately ordered it.

Withings is clearly taking design cues from Apple, from the lavishly designed packaging to the glossy white plastic RoundedRect aesthetic and the use of a magnetic clip to attach the baby monitor to the crib. The clip is serviceable, but the magnets are not quite strong enough to hold the unit firmly onto the crib. I would not trust it to keep the monitor from toppling when the baby grows and kicks at the crib. Fortunately they also include a flip-out tab on the base of the unit that can be inserted into a slit on the clip to prevent sliding, although it is not obvious and it took me a while before I discovered this key feature.

The wall wart is a generic black model with swappable AC prongs for international markets, and detracts from the overall package, but since the monitor has a micro-USB input, you can always use another standard AC to USB type A adapter like the iPhone’s, with a USB type A to micro-USB cable. A rechargeable battery is included, with 2 hours’ claimed life, I did not verify that spec.

The initial out of the box experience is good: you connect to the device from your iPhone or iPad using Bluetooth (no messing around with a USB cable as with the Withings scale), enter the WiFi settings in the Withbaby app, and then use WiFi to access the device afterwards. It is as streamlined an experience as you can expect without a keyboard on the unit. There is also an Ethernet jack (it is unclear whether it supports power over Ethernet), but my house was built in 1928 and is not wired upstairs where the baby lives.

Once you enter your credentials into the app, it connects to the monitor and shows you the video and sound. If you put it in the background, you have the option of monitoring audio. Withings will also send you alerts via push notifications if the temperature or humidity is excessive, or if it detects noise or motion. The default settings are way too twitchy, however, and you will find yourself disabling audio notifications as the deluge of alerts is just too much.

The device includes a night light with selectable color, a lullaby player, and the ability to speak to your baby, all controlled through the app. At the front you also have touch controls to turn some of these features on. This is actually a bad idea, as on two occasions I started the lullaby by accident as I was fumbling with it in a dark room, and woke up my baby as a result. Another design flaw is the pulsing blue night light when the unit is rebooting, the Airport Express like amber/green status LED in the back is quite sufficient. Frankly the only one of these features that is useful is the speaker, and the ability to stream from your music collection, such as Dr. Harvey Karp’s white noise selections would be preferable to the canned lullabies.

The video camera is advertised as having a 3 megapixel sensor. It has a wide-angle lens and you can “pan” using the usual iPhone or iPad gestures. The lens is a fixed-focus plastic one, and optical clarity is so-so at best, optimal focus seems to be at 50cm or so. One great feature is the monitor has a normal and night vision mode, similar to the one on some Sony HAD camcorders, with an IR illuminator that provides light for the night vision mode. This means you can watch your baby toss and turn in an otherwise pitch-black room.

You can use the baby monitor from outside your network, and it works fine, even over a 3G connection. Withings allows you up to 15 minutes per day, anything beyond that requires paying them $6 for each 100 minutes. Coming on top of an already expensive device, this seems like a naked money grab from anxious parents. (Updated 2012-09-29: remote monitoring is now free and unlimited).

When the unit works, it is absolutely great: good sound sensitivity and the video feature mostly works as advertised. Unfortunately it frequently does not function, and I find myself performing a hard reboot by removing the battery far more often than I would like. Among the pathologies:

  • Once it falsely reported the unit was closed and thus video inaccessible
  • Once the camera was in a frozen state, it took a power cycling to get the video moving again.
  • Yesterday I could not connect at all, no matter how many times I rebooted my Airport Extreme, the monitor and my wife’s or my iPads. Some detective work using a packet sniffer showed the app was trying to connect to babyws.withings.net using HTTP, which is aliased to s11.withings.net, and that server was down. Some of the documentation suggests you can use the Bluetooth connection to access the monitor, but I was not able to figure out how to do this.

This brings me to a crucial point. The baby monitor is a safety device, and it is utterly unacceptable for its functioning to be dependent on a cloud service, which can and will be a single point of failure. It should use Bonjour or similar discovery methods to work on the LAN, and rely on Withings’ servers only when accessing it from outside the home LAN’s perimeter. I wonder if Withings’ eagerness to nickel-and-dime users by charging for outside monitoring led to this critical design flaw.

The bottom line is the Withings smart baby monitor is a very frustrating device, with its obvious potential marred by failures of execution. If it worked consistently, it would be a top-notch product worthy of its Apple inspiration and lofty price tag, but the general lack of reliability means I cannot recommend it until the bugs are ironed out. Consider it an alpha release at best.

Update (2012-09-17):

Here’s how to make the Withings not-so-smart baby monitor more usable:

  • Remove the battery from the unit and hook up the micro-USB power adapter to a Belkin WeMo remote-controlled power switch. This allows you to power-cycle the baby monitor remotely from the same iPhone or iPad you are using the monitor software on.
  • Hide the blue led with gaffer’s tape. This prevents the blue light on reboot from waking the baby. Unlike duct tape, gaffer’s tape can be removed without leaving glue residue, although the aesthetics of dark gray gaffer’s tape on the gleaming white unit are questionable at best.
  • I haven’t tried covering up the touch controls with gaffer’s tape, which would eliminate the risk of triggering a jingle and waking the baby. The WeMo eliminates the need to enter the room and tinker with the baby monitor.

It’s quite sad to have to pay an extra $50 to work around buggy hardware and software, but it makes a big difference.

Update (2013-05-20):

The micro-USB connector failed and the baby monitor is now essentially a doorstop. Not surprising given how flimsy micro-USB is, compared to mini-USB, for insignificant space savings. Micro-USB was a Nokia design rammed through the USB-IF. In theory it has better insert-remove cycle life than mini-USB, but in practice I’ve never had mini-USB fail, whereas it is a frequent occurrence with micro-USB.

Update (2015-08-17):

USB-C is an improvement over micro-USB, hopefully some future version of the baby monitor will use it. Still nowhere near as robust as Lightning or tip-ring-sleeve, though.

The HP-15C was reissued at long last!

It is strange no one seems to have picked up the news yet, but HP has reissued the legendary HP-15C in a special “30th anniversary limited edition”, and it became available for purchase last week.

HP-15C Limited Edition

The new HP-15C is not strictly speaking a reissue but a replica, as it does not use the original’s Saturn processor, but instead an emulation thereof running on an ARM CPU. Even emulated, it should be much faster than the original 640 kilohertz processor. I ordered two, and received them today.

As expected, the quality is in line with the current HP-12C, i.e. not as good as the 1980s models in terms of key feel, but still leagues ahead of any competing product. The originals used a special 47-point bonding process to ensure the utmost in rigidity and reliability, I doubt the current model had as much attention paid to detail. It is made in China, obviously, the Corvallis facility is long gone. The slipcover fits very poorly (too tight, and the seams are not trimmed properly) and feels thinner and outright cheap compared to the original. The labels on the keys are accurately positioned, at least, unlike the train wreck that was the HP-12C Platinum. The cheat sheet in the back is a garish black on silver as on the 35S, instead of the original’s silver on black. It also uses two 3V CR2032 batteries instead of the 3 button cells in  the original.

Speed-wise, the Limited Edition integrates the normal distribution nearly instantly, when that test that took 34 seconds on the original.

In short: not as good as the original, but still an excellent calculator for those who prize ergonomics.

A waiter for a server

I had to monitor a long-running process on a Solaris server tonight, but didn’t want to stay glued at a computer monitor. A neat trick:

ssh myserver.example.com "pwait 17601"; say "batch done"

You would replace 17601 with the process ID of the job you are waiting for, of course. That way, my Mac connects to the server, waits for the job to complete, then gives me an spoken alert when it is done. I can watch a movie, do chores or whatever during that time. I am sure there are equivalent commands to pwait for Linux.