If this is driving you crazy, take heart. A Kindle 4 owner named kubbur has graciously begun documenting how he’s managed to hack his device to display new screensaver images. If you’re somewhat technically savvy, you might be able to follow his lead.

First, here’s his tutorial on how to put your Kindle 4 into diagnostic mode:

how to get into developer mode on kindle 4 non-touch version

Once you’ve done that, you can follow his second tutorial to gain root access and modify your Kindle 4 to display custom screensaver images:

How to set custom screensaver on kindle 4 nontouch

If you run into problems or want to discuss this approach, try the Kindle 4 hacking thread over at MobileRead, where kubbur has also been active.

If everything works out as planned, hooray for you. Here are some places to find more screensaver images:

• DeviantART KindlePics collection
• reddit’s kindlescreensavers page

The Reddit page has some links to the default screensaver images as well, if you want to add them back into your custom mix.

Finally, before you begin, here’s a big warning:

A BIG WARNING!

You’re on your own with this. If you break your Kindle 4, you’ll have to find a way to fix it yourself—I can’t help you. If you didn’t read this post and immediately think, “Pshaw, I know more about what’s going on here than this writer,” then you probably shouldn’t attempt this. It requires fancy things like SSH and Putty and a very high amount of Magicka.

(Photos: Army Medicine, kubbur)

Whether such cases are due to idiocy or deliberate copyfraud, they hurt the consumer. It’s prohibitively expensive for the average private citizen to have to engage the Library of Congress as well as hire a copyright attorney (which, no kidding, is what the Copyright Office recommends) just to confirm that he has the right to do what he wants with something published in 1925. Even then, if the work was first published outside the U.S. then it may be nearly impossible to determine its true copyright status.

Which leads me to the problem of locked PDF versions of century-old works. I’m now in the possession of half a dozen PDFs of old short stories that various websites offer for free, and yet those files have been password protected to prevent me from printing, copying, or otherwise gaining direct access to the text. In the most extreme cases, the person who created the PDF file has, for reasons known only to him and the functionally retarded demon who guides him, added his own copyright claim to it. Seriously, people should just be hit with sticks sometimes.

Remove that PDF’s sham DRM with MuPDF!

(That may be the worst subheading ever written.)

Fortunately, Robert Brewer at Excited Curiosity explains that you can use a free open source PDF toolkit called MuPDF to unlock password protected PDF files. There are MuPDF viewers for Windows and Linux at MuPDF.com, but For OS X you have to use the command line (i.e., the Terminal app found under Applications>Utilities). Everything that follows is for OS X users.

First download the OS X binary from mupdf.com, unarchive it, and put the resulting folder wherever you like. Then in Terminal, use the “cd” command to navigate to that folder, and then run the “pdfclean” command on a locked file and in seconds, you’ll have a new unlocked version. Here’s an example of how to run the command if you have the MuPDF folder in your home directory and the locked PDF file on your Desktop:

./pdfclean ../Desktop/lockedfile.pdf ../Desktop/newnameforfile.pdf

If you’re not used to Terminal, here’s a quick introduction that will teach you the basics. Pretty much all you need to know to use MuPDF is how to type the full paths of the MuPDF folder and of the locked PDF file, and the command “cd” to change directories. (The command “ls” to list the contents of your current directory is also helpful.) You can also check out this comment on Brewer’s blog for more help.

Using OS X? Here’s a contextual menu shortcut for MuPDF

I was excited about finding this free solution to the bogus DRM problem, but I wanted an easier way to use it in the future without having to launch Terminal each time. I created a simple workflow service in Automator that I can access via the contextual menu when I click on a file. Now when I download a PDF and find that it’s locked, I simply right-click the document and select “UnlockPDF” from my Services menu, and a clean version appears next to the original.

Here’s the code I used to create the service. Note that I wrote this using Automator 2.2.1; when I shared a similar tip last year for KindleGen, I discovered that some readers couldn’t replicate my instructions because they were using older versions.

on basename(thePath)
	if thePath ends with "/" then
		set nameIndex to -2
	else
		set nameIndex to -1
	end if
	set ASTID to AppleScript's text item delimiters
	set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "/"
	set thePath to text item nameIndex of thePath
	set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ASTID
	return thePath
end basename

on getdir(theFileName)
	set theReversedFileName to (reverse of (characters of theFileName)) as string
	set theOffset to offset of "/" in theReversedFileName
	set thePrefix to (reverse of (characters (theOffset + 1) thru -1 of theReversedFileName)) as string
	set theSuffix to (reverse of (characters 1 thru (theOffset - 1) of theReversedFileName)) as string
	return thePrefix
end getdir

on run {input, parameters}
	set myFile to quoted form of POSIX path of input
	set newFile to basename(POSIX path of input)
	set newPath to getdir(POSIX path of input)
	set finalPath to (newPath & "/u-" & newFile)
	try
		do shell script "../../Applications/mupdf-0.7-darwin-i386/pdfclean" & " " & myFile & " " & finalPath
	end try
	return input
end run

Quick instructions:

1. Launch Automator and create a new Service workflow.
2. At the top of the composition area, change “Service receives selected [dropdown]” to either “files or folders”, “folders”, or “PDF files”. Change the other dropdown to “Finder”.
3. In the Library pane on the left, click the Utilities directory, then find the “Run Applescript” action and drag it into the composition area.
4. Select all the default code in the “Run Applescript” box and delete it.
5. Paste the above code in. Be sure to edit the path to the MuPDF folder so that it’s correct for your situation.
6. Click the hammer icon to compile the code.
7. Save the service under whatever name you like. I chose “UnlockPDF” to make it easy to find months from now when I’ve forgotten all about how I did this.

Because I’m a pretty bad scripter, I’m sure this isn’t the most elegant way to do this. If you can improve on it—particularly if you can fix it so that it can batch process an entire folder of PDF files—please let me know and I’ll update the script.

(Frozen book illustration credits: Ice Block, Risager; Old Book, HoskingIndustries)

Capaneus at Capane.us figured out where to find the text files for Skyrim’s books from his own copy of the game, and then he formatted them into a single ebook file for reading on the go.

So, I took a look at how Skyrim actually stores these nuggets of incidental storytelling. By the 9, it was in plain text! I pasted the book text into separate docs, slapped on headings, created a table of contents and a cover, and just like that, I can read my copy of The Lusty Argonian Maid on-the-go!

According to his later comments, “Just like that” actually means about eight hours of work:

All the books are in plain text in a monolithic string file under //apps/skyrim/Data/Strings…in the DL string file. [Use an app like Notepad++ to open the file.] Start by copying and pasting the text of each book into a seperate .html file. Keep the filenames consistent with the title of the book, and add a number at the end of each book in a series. This will make table of contents building way easier.

I think this ebook approach is a cool way to repurpose some of the game’s content for personal use, but if you don’t want your own ebook version, you can read these books online in the Lore section of The Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages.

Capane.us [Via Sidequesting]

It’s a cool DIY approach to making a mass produced product more useful at the very personal level—although I kept wondering whether something like an iPad might be an easier route if you don’t have soldering or programming skills.

And yes, I realize this constitutes a “short post,” but I didn’t actually put much thought into it. No really, usually there’s some thought in the other ones, I swear!

[Via Teleread via Engadget via MAKE]
(Photo: eewestcoaster)

And I know this isn’t a new concept, but it’s the first time I tried it, so it was new to me.

I’ve uploaded some photos to Flickr as well, in case you’d rather skip the video and just see detailed beauty shots of my terrible sewing skills.

Flickr set:

The website Mac OS X Automation reported it first, so far as I know. From that site:

Mac OS X Lion includes an Automator action, named Text to EPUB File, that is designed to make it very easy to convert selected text or text documents into EPUB books, ideal for transferring to iPads and iPhones. Additionally, the created EPUB books can include images, MPEG audio, or MPEG video files.

NOTE: If the source documents for the action are in Rich Text Format (RTF), any formatting they possess will be preserved, and display correctly in the EPUB document. Also, the action includes full Unicode support, so Asian and Arabic characters are preserved as well.

By default, there’s no way to access this Automator action from any apps because there aren’t any default Services written to take advantage of it. But the website above provides four Service scripts that you can use to give your copy of Lion super EPUB creation powers over groups of files, text selections, or content copied to the Clipboard.

The site also offers some tutorials on how to install the Services and how to use them, if you’re curious but not sure how to get started.

“Text to EPUB File” [Max OS X Automation]

If you use a Kindle, you can either authorize ReadBeam to send content directly to your device’s email address, or you can leave it blank and you’ll receive the Kindle-friendly .mobi files directly, which you can then copy over. They don’t always work (the International Herald Tribune was unreadable for me, for example), but hey, it’s not like it has to cost you anything to try it out.

The service is free for now, but on the ReadBeam blog there’s a post from last April that suggests the developer has considered offering some sort of freemium service to let you subscribe to feeds outside the default set. Or you can do it yourself on Calibre, of course.

[found via The Digital Reader

To use it, get the most current version of Calibre, then go into Preferences, scroll down to the green puzzle piece icon, and enable the Collection Manager plugin. The plugin you want is called “Kindle Collections”.

The plugin’s main purpose is, you guessed it, to help you manage your collections on your Kindle (which are a real pain to edit directly on the device). But there’s an extra settings pane where you can do your font replacement magic.

The developer has detailed instructions on this MobileRead Forums thread, but here’s the quick overview.

First, you have to find a compatible font set. Here are the requirements:

1. It must be Truetype or OpenType format
2. It must have four files, one for each of these variants:
   • regular
   • bold
   • italic
   • bold italic
3. It must be renamed using this naming convention, where [name] is the font name and “ttf” is the extension (even if it’s an OpenType font):
   • [name]-Regular.ttf
   • [name]-Bold.ttf
   • [name]-Italic.ttf
   • [name]-BoldItalic.ttf

The plugin’s dev says Droid Serif is a good example of a compatible font set, if you’re not sure where to start. You can also check out the main Google Web Fonts page, and look for fonts that have a gold “4 variants” label.

Next, do all these things, preferably in the order given:

1. Press the Home button on your Kindle, then connect it to your PC.
2. Using your computer’s file browser, navigate to the Kindle volume and create a folder on the top level (next to “Documents” for example). Name it “fonts”.
3. Copy your four renamed font files into this folder.
4. Start Calibre and wait for your Kindle to show up, then select the “Kindle Collections” menu option.
5. In the submenu, select “Modify Kindle Settings…”
   
   
6. In the “Modify Settings” pane, check the “Allow using user font” checkbox and use the drop-down selector to the left of it to choose the font you just added.
   
   
7. Hit the “Save” button, then eject your Kindle from Calibre. On my computer, I then have to quit Calibre before I can unmount it from OS X, but that may just be a quirk on my end.
8. After a few seconds, your Kindle will reboot.
9. Open a book, then press the “aA” button to go into font settings. Select the new “alt” option to activate your new font.

Two things to be aware of:

If you can’t open the book, the font you’re trying to use isn’t compatible. Repeat the process above but either select a different new font or select one of the default fonts, then eject and let the Kindle reboot.

If you tire of your new font and go back to your original system font on the Kindle, your new “alt” font will get sad and go away. To get it back you’ll have to repeat the procedure above.

That’s it! Sadly–and most likely because I’m doing it wrong, but I got distracted by the font issue and never went back to try again–my first attempt at actually editing my collections failed. I could see them in Calibre, and I was able to add new titles to one, but after I ejected the Kindle and it restarted, everything remained the same. It could have easily been my fault, though, so I still recommend it.

If you need better and more detailed instructions, or you want to ask the developer for help or give feedback, check out his MobileRead Forums thread. It’s the most official source of info on this plugin, and it looks like he’s still active on it.