AudibleManager: The "cure" is worse than the "problem"

I buy and listen to a lot of audio books from Audible. I have accounts with both Audible.com and Audible.co.uk, because some book publishers refuse to sell me their titles because I don't live in the USA. Weird. I have lost track of how many Audible books I have, but it is probably between 300 and 400 in total.
Recently the following message started appearing every time I open the AudibleManager player on my PC. I ignored it the first few times because I was busy, but eventually clicked on "Yes" to "update" whatever components needed to be updated. Previously this process worked fine. That was in 2010. Fast forward 5 years and it doesn't work. You can go through all the steps in the process, allow it to download all the updates, and you return to the error message above. Thanks for nothing.
So, naturally, I tried the first logical step: uninstall, download the software again and reinstall. I started becoming concerned when the "new install" software was precisely the same as the original that I installed when setting up my Windows 7 machine. It downloaded all the stuff it needed and the "new" AudibleManager was exactly the same as the old one, with exactly the same message (see above).
Next, I contacted tech support at Audible. They are generally pretty good. This time they gave me a 12-step procedure that included deleting a whole bunch or registry entries. Thanks, but no thanks. I asked the tech support person to please ask for a new installer that does those 12 steps so that I don't have to. Fiddling with the registry is not for the faint of heart, since it is very easy to break your entire Windows installation.
Today I received a note from the next level of tech support, repeating the 12 steps. For what it's worth, here they are:

Below you'll find the process to perform a clean uninstall of Audible Manager, removing all components.

Please note; These instructions assume you had Audible Manager installed in the default directory. If you have changed the installation directory please adjust the instructions accordingly. Before proceeding I would recommend saving any audio books that you have downloaded to your computer to another location to avoid losing your audio books. You can import these titles back in to Audible Manager later.

1. To start, make sure Audible Manager and/or Audible Download Manager is not running. To check this: Press Ctrl + Alt + Delete on the keyboard to launch the Task Manager or right click on the system tray and select Task Manager. Click on the Processes tab. You can click on the Image Name heading to alphabetize the processes to make it easier to find the process you are looking for. End the processes: Manager.exe and/or AdHelper.exe and/or AudibleDownloadHelper.exe if they are running.

2. Now click on the Windows Start Menu usually on the bottom left hand corner. Choose Programs -> Audible Manager -> Uninstall Audible Manager.
You can also go to Control Panel -> Add or Remove Programs (If running Windows Vista or 7 64-bit, select Programs and Features.). Highlight Audible Manager and click on Change/Remove.

3. A few prompts will be presented at this point. The first will ask if you are sure you want to uninstall Audible Manager. Click Yes.
4. The next prompt will ask if you would like to remove all your Audible audio files. This is very important. Click No. Should you click Yes, the Audible content will be deleted and would need to be re-downloaded.
5. The last prompt will indicate that the uninstall process is complete. Click OK.

6. Next go to the following directory: C:\Program Files and delete the Audible folder. (If running Windows Vista or 7 64-bit, the location may be C:\Program Files(x86))

If, when attempting to delete the Audible folder or any of the files with in the Audible folder, you get an error message that says Access is Denied. This can be caused by one of two things, found on steps 7 and 8. If you are able to delete the Audible folder proceed to step 9.

7. Go to the following directory C:\Program Files\Audible\Bin.

8. Delete the Plug-ins folder and delete all the files within the Bin folder with the exception of the AudibleExt.dll file. You will not be able to manually delete the AudibleExt.dll file.

9. Next go to the Windows Start Menu, choose Run and type Regedit.

10. On the window that comes up, click on the plus sign next to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. Then click on the plus sign next to Software and delete the Audible Folder. Next, click on the plus sign next to HKEY_CURRENT_USER, and then click on the plus sign next to Software and delete the Audible Folder.

11. Next, click on the plus sign next to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT. The lists of subfolders that appear are alphabetized. Scroll past the folders that begin with the "." dot symbol, and locate the folders that begin with the word "Audible". You should see the following Audible folders grouped together. You may not see all of the following folders, delete only the folders with the word Audible in the name:

Audible.ActivateDevice
Audible.CFIO
Audible.DeviceTransfer.1
Audible.DeviceTransfer.1.1
Audible.PgmSchedMgr
Audible.Player
Audible.PlayerControlCtrl.1
AudibleManager

12. Once all of the Audible files and folders are removed, please reboot your computer before re-installing Audible Manager from www.audible.com/sw

This is all well and good up to point 5. After that I'm sorry but they are going to have to try a little harder. For now I am content to just click "No".
Such are the joys of trying to enforce DRM when it is unenforceable and the only people who don't understand this is the publishers who sell DRM-free audio CDs without realizing the irony of also selling it as a DRM download.

The Politics of the Movie Industry

This movie exposes the lies and corruption that took place in the Swedish trial of the Pirate Bay founders. You can watch the full movie here, or purchase a copy at watch.tpbafk.tv. I bought a copy, because it takes money to make good documentaries. The greed and malice of the Hollywood Copyright lobby seems to know no bounds, and certainly has no morals or scruples. Just look at the propaganda they put out in the name of "entertainment".

Windows 7: An Inconvenient Truth

Amid all the hoopla of Windows 7 there are a few things that were left unsaid because they could put you off. It may be the "best version of Windows ever" but that doesn't make it perfect. There is the DRM cost, the hardware cost, and the download cost.
You would think that an Acer laptop with Windows Home Basic 7 64-bit and Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 pre-installed would be ready to run without much updating. Wrong. So far the download bill is 560MB in updates and service packs.
So what's wrong with half a GB of downloads? Nothing much (R150) if you have a DSL connection, but a lot more if you have a 3G card plugged in. That could have wiped out your entire month's bandwidth, or cost you R190, R250 or R1120, depending on your contract and how much you have already used. Bandwidth costs in South Africa are non-trivial.
The downloads included Microsoft Security Essentials, their new antivirus package, and some of Windows Live Essentials because Office Home and Student 2007 doesn't include Outlook.
Then there is the additional hardware bill. This is because there are plenty of printers and other devices that don't have 64-bit drivers. In addition to the new laptop, Penny's aunt has to buy a new printer, a printer cable and a mouse. So a R5000 bargain became a R6000 bargain. There are more drivers available than at the launch of Windows Vista, but don't hold your breath.
If you are going to upgrade with a clean install, or if you plan to retire your old PC, what happens to all the WMA files with DRM protection? I have 5 audio books from Simply Audiobooks that are not available in MP3 format, as well as 2 from Clear Audiobooks. Fortunately I haven't bought any music this way. The total replacement cost is around $150, because the DRM doesn't transfer from one machine to another, or back to the same machine if you do a clean install. I'm glad I used Total Recorder to convert these files to MP3. It costs $17.95 which is a bargain considering how much more the DRM replacement cost is.
Isn't it wonderful how one Microsoft technology is used to destroy another? The sooner we get rid of WMA DRM the better.
Update: It seems that my audio books from Audible.com and Borders are unaffected, because their DRM is different. But I have 4 Borders books in WMA format so who knows? Time will tell.
Update 22 December: I just purchased AllMusicConverter Platinum for $20, to convert the .WMA audiobooks that I have bought. It is pretty nifty, and quite quick, given the length of the books to be converted. It claims to work on .aa files, but doesn't. And my emails to their support address have bounced. The WMA conversion works perfectly, although it insists on converting mono files to stereo.

Nightmare buying DRM audio books from ClearAudioBooks.com

I really don't mind paying for audio books when I can find them, but this experience has to be the worst so far. I was looking for a J.D. Robb/Nora Roberts book for my wife, but Audible didn't have it, while Borders wouldn't sell it to me. So I found it at ClearAudioBooks.com, an outfit I haven't tried before.
Step 1: The first hurdle was paying for the book. I have resisted using the Verified by Visa system since it was introduced in 2006 because it relied on popups. After going round in circles I was eventually forced to call my bank with an "Error 11" and they enrolled me in the plan, like it or not. So we were off to a good start.
Step 2: Next came the problem of downloading the book. You have to set your download manager to collect only 1 piece at a time, because if you do several pieces then the server gets confused and wastes your time. At 451MB for the 64k version of the book, that's a lot of wasted bandwidth, adding another $5 to the $24.99 purchase price, but I digress.
Step 3: When I tried to play the audio file, I was confronted with yet another hurdle: the Windows Media license nightmare. I'm running Windows Vista and Windows Media Player 11, with all service packs and updates galore. Do it should be a simple case of click on the file to play. Wrong. You have to log in and give a password. It didn't work. See error message at the top of this article. I tried 3 or 4 times.
Step 4: Contact customer support. This is easy because there is a "click here" link hidden away in the bottom right hand corner of the Windows Media login screen. Never mind that the link is for a lost password. Now you have to register on a different system in order to log a support call. Yet another user name and password later, I managed to tell them about the problem. They'll get back to me: Ticket ID: SZQ-150802. No, wait, I have to visit their site to find out the status of the ticket.
Step 5: Keep clicking in desperation. Eventually the verification works on the free The Very Best of BBC Comedy that I also downloaded. I guess they knew I would lose my sense of humour, so they tried to give it back. Eventually it worked, so I tried the purchased book. Another error message:
Step 6: After this message, the book started playing. This is the point that I convert it to MP3 format before the computer changes its mind. Don't you just love how simple DRM technology is? Much easier than buying an MP3 from Simply Audiobooks and downloading it and then clicking "play", don't you think? Now if only they would sell me the book I was looking for ...
Update: When I click on the link to see the status of the ticket, I get an error message: "ERROR: You do not have enough permissions to access this page. Please log in by entering your Email Address and Password." This continues in an endless loop, even though I have logged in with the correct user name and password, supplied by email along with the link. I think I'll have to listen to that BBC comedy again, just to deal with the stress. I think I'll have to send this post as a glowing testimonial for their web site.
Update: I reported the error message to the people who make the "help" desk software, and got the following UNHELPFUL reply:

Yes, you are right, they are using our software but the issue which you have reported could be at their end. There might be a possibility that our client has made some changes in the software settings because of which you are getting this error. Our client will need to report this to us, so that we can take action on it accordingly.
Please note that our software provides both the options i.e. a customer may submit a ticket directly or he/she will need to login to submit a ticket. So, it entirely depends on how a particular client of ours has configured the system.

It's all the client's fault and responsibility to fix the third party software, and there isn't the remotest possibility that the supplier could offer to help, or even express any interest. That's just the kind of service you can expect from the sales team at Kayako Infotech Ltd.

Why there is no iTunes for movies

I listened to Why there is no iTunes for movies by Farhad Manjoo on the Slate Magazine podcast with a wry smile: there is no iTunes for music or audio books in South Africa either, let alone movies.
As it turns out, the reason why there is such a dismal collection of downloadable movies online has nothing to do with the technology required, and everything to do with the lawyers. Not the ones suing the Pirate Bay (what a bunch of grandstanding fools) but the ones who draw up the distribution contracts for movies.

"When I called people in the industry this week, I found that many in the movie business understand that online distribution is the future of media. But everything in Hollywood is governed by a byzantine set of contractual relationships between many different kinds of companies—studios, distributors, cable channels, telecom companies, and others. The best way to understand it is to trace what you might call the life cycle of a Hollywood movie, as Starz network spokesman Eric Becker put it to me. We all understand the first couple of steps in this life cycle—first a movie hits theaters and then, a few months later, it comes out on DVD. Around the same time, it also comes out on pay-per-view, available on demand on cable systems, hotel rooms, airplanes, and other devices. Apple's rental store operates under these pay-per-view rules, most of which put a 24-hour limit on movies. The restriction might have made sense back in the days when most people were getting on-demand movies in hotel rooms and the studios didn't want the next night's guest piggybacking on rentals. It doesn't make much sense when you're getting the movie on your MacBook. But many of the contracts were written years ago, and they don't reflect the current technology.
"A movie will stay in the pay-per-view market for just a few months; after that, it goes to the premium channels, which get a 15- to 18-month exclusive window in which to show the film. That's why you can't get older titles through Apple's rental plan—once a movie goes to HBO, Apple loses the right to rent it. (Apple has a much wider range of titles available for sale at $15 each; for-sale movies fall under completely different contracts with studios.) Between them, Starz and HBO have contracts to broadcast about 80 percent of major-studio movies made in America today. Their rights extend for seven years or more. After a movie is broadcast on Starz, it makes a tour of ad-supported networks (like USA, TNT, or one of the big-three broadcast networks) and then goes back to Starz for a second run. Only after that—about a decade after the movie came out in theaters—does it enter its "library" phase, the period when companies like Netflix are allowed to license it for streaming. For most Hollywood releases, then, Netflix essentially gets last dibs on a movie, which explains why many of its films are so stale.
"Couldn't the studios just sign new deals that would give them the right to build an online service? Well, maybe—but their current deals are worth billions, and a new plan would mean sacrificing certain profits for an uncertain future. Understandably, many are unwilling to take that leap."

Instead, they are throwing away millions by giving money to the MPAA and the RIAA to chase after "profits" that they are too stupid to make for themselves. The same applies to Audiobook publishers who refuse to sell me their books because I have the "wrong" address. I guess if I made my address c/o thepiratebay.org they still wouldn't sell me their books. They need to read or listen to "Content" by Cory Doctorow to change their minds before they lose their jobs. Frankly, I couldn't give a damn if they lose their jobs. Perhaps then the authors would get a better deal.

Goodbye iPod Shuffle, hello Nokia 3120 Classic phone

Today my iPod Shuffle 1GB model finally died with a "write error", meaning that the crappy flash memory has failed at a critical location, so the iPod software won't work. I doubt very much whether it can be fixed, but it may be worth a try.
I bought the 1GB model as a backup for the 512kb model that I use with my OtterBox, a waterproof device that cost twice as much as the iPod itself, but which allows me to listen to music when I'm swimming. It cuts down on the boredom of swimming training and makes it fun to swim lengths, particularly to dance music classics.
I have stopped using the iPod for listening to podcasts or audio books, because my cell phone can do that. It's a basic model Nokia 3120 Classic, but with the extra USB cable attached and a 2GB MicroSD memory card, it works better than the iPod Shuffle, and pauses the audio book when I receive a call.
Now I don't have to have two sets of earphones, nor do I have to pay Apple any more money for their overpriced products. They have never allowed South African customers to buy music from the iTunes store, which has always annoyed me. I would rather pay Nokia for some accessories that make my phone more usable.
The phone is better in other ways too: it doesn't lose its place when pausing audio books (Apple refused to fix that bug), it has a speaker so I don't have to use earphones, it includes a radio and camera, and it is included with my basic phone contract, so I can keep my phone costs down. Less clutter in my pockets and round my neck too.

Corrupt Borders - audiobooks with download errors

Last September I was delighted to find that I could buy Christopher Paolini's "Brisingr" novel from audiobooks.borders.com, since it was not available from audible.com, my usual audiobook supplier. Delight changed to anger when I discovered that the book I had bought was corrupt, and that the Overdrive Media Console software was unable to warn me of the corrupt files. Listen to a snippet of the corrupt file (813kb MP3).
Many of the books use protected WMA files, and you only get to download the book once. You can't backup the license either, so the book only works on a single machine until it breaks. By comparison, the Audible books can be downloaded as required, provided the machine is correctly activated. I can still listen to the very first book I bought from Audible, even though I have gone through several computers since then.
I complained to the Borders store, and got a completely clueless response, so I wrote to OverDrive's support centre, and they promised to get the book fixed. In the meantime I listened to the damaged book, and had to borrow a printed copy to figure out what had happened during the corrupted pieces. Not ideal.
Eventually after 6 weeks of hearing nothing from them, I enquired and was told that I could now download the "fixed" version. It wasn't fixed. What do you make of this (210k) or this (221k)? After demanding a refund of my US$30, I was told that an even newer version had been uploaded on 23rd December 2008. Nice of them to contact me and let me know. Now they want me to download the book for a third time. It's a mere 425074 KB download, which means that by the time I download it again I will have spent as much on bandwidth as on the book itself. Now they tell me that parts 1, 4, 5, 6, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 21, 22 need to be downloaded for a third time. That's 12 out of 23, notwithstanding that part 23 (amongst others) was corrupt the first time. What a ripoff!
[Update 12 Feb 2009: both books have been refunded.]

I'll rather buy it from Audible. At least their software warns me if there is a problem with the download, and I have never had to listen to a corrupted book from Audible.

To add insult to injury, my recent US$22.50 purchase of John Grisham's "The Associate" is also corrupt (372kb and 225kb) so once again I have to go through a dozen hoops. It's most frustrating, and it's completely random whether I get a good copy or not: Stephenie Meyer's "Twilight" was fine, albeit a bit scratchy. I bought the remaining books in the series from Audible, and the quality was much better. I haven't listened to my purchase of "The Day of the Jackal" yet. Watch this space.
[Update 12 Feb 2009: So far The Day of the Jackal files are all fine, with the occasional hiccup that could well be part of the original recording]

My biggest frustration with Audible is that a lot of the new titles are not available outside the USA (including my country), but at least I know that when I buy the book it will actually work.
I have also bought books from Simply Audiobooks, but their selection is much more limited: "Brisingr" and "The Associate" are available for rent, but not for download. At least Simply Audiobooks have a corruption detection system as well, and the quality of their books is good, even though many of them are the dreaded WMA format.
My hassles with DRM (copy protection) have taught me a simple lesson: convert all your audio books to MP3 format. Apart from the fact that my wife and I can then listen to the book on our Nokia cell phones, it means I can actually make backup copies of the books I have purchased. For this purpose I use Total Recorder Standard Edition, and it has worked fine on both Windows XP and Windows Vista. It's been well worth US$17.95.

Suicidal Windows Vista Content Protection

"Windows Vista includes an extensive reworking of core OS elements in order to provide content protection for so-called "premium content", typically HD data from Blu-Ray and HD-DVD sources. Providing this protection incurs considerable costs in terms of system performance, system stability, technical support overhead, and hardware and software cost. These issues affect not only users of Vista but the entire PC industry, since the effects of the protection measures extend to cover all hardware and software that will ever come into contact with Vista, even if it's not used directly with Vista (for example hardware in a Macintosh computer or on a Linux server). This document analyses the cost involved in Vista's content protection, and the collateral damage that this incurs throughout the computer industry."
"The Vista Content Protection specification could very well constitute the longest suicide note in history."
Update: This paper is discussed and partially explained in the Security Now podcast #73 and #74. The letter includes an interview with the author, Peter Gutmann.

Read Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection | Digg reference to Security Now podcast

Down with DRM!

Increasingly, music lovers are becoming fed up with competing rights management schemes for digital players like iPod and Zune.

Fred Benenson spent a recent drizzly Saturday afternoon with friends in Manhattan wearing yellow hazmat suits. They were in front of the new Apple store on Fifth Avenue, distributing flyers and explaining to passersby why iTunes, Apple’s online music store, “sucks.” The target of their ire: a technology the recording and film industries call “Digital Rights Management.” DRM, as it’s known, is encoded onto downloadable digital content so that copyright owners can prevent piracy. But it also prevents people from transferring downloaded content as they might like. Since different companies use different DRM technologies, an iTunes-bought song can’t be moved to a Zune, Microsoft’s new answer to the iPod, or even e-mailed to a friend. Since the vast majority of online music is sold on iTunes, “Apple has a stranglehold,” says Benenson, 23, a graduate student at New York University’s interactive telecommunications program. “There are some musicians who I like who will only offer music on the iTunes store.”

Music: Fans Mad at Anti-Piracy DRM - Newsweek Entertainment - MSNBC.com

There's a Bug in my Apple

I'm so glad that Windows is written by Microsoft and not Apple, because I don't think I could cope with any more bugs, not to mention the sheer arrogance that is Apple Computer Inc.
They're happy to sell iPods in South Africa, but sorry, no music. The iTunes Store is closed to South Africa and New Zealand. Why? Who knows, and of course they're too snooty to say. Talk about American cultural imperialism!
Then there's the iTunes software. It just doesn't work properly. iTunes 7.0 was a disaster, and iTunes 7.0.1 is still a joke. Now I'm told that iTunes 7.0.2 is available, but the "Apple Software Update" application disagrees, and says everything is fine. Are these guys for real? Why should I put up with all this rubbish? I'm almost tempted to uninstall it and go back to the version of iTunes that shipped with my iPod. At least it worked. Some of the time. Oh, and did I mention the jokes on the iTunes 7.0.2 page?

What’s New in this Version
iTunes 7.0.2 adds support for the Second Generation iPod shuffle and addresses a variety of stability and performance issues found in iTunes 7 and 7.0.1.

Note how much detail is provided on the stability and performace issues. Then there is the blatant lie about the size of the download: 25MB according to the page, but actually it's 35.1MB.


Update: They say they fixed the performance issues? I don't think so. The software still fails to download some postcast files, even when they appear on the iTunes store listing. And don't expect your PC to perform well while you're listening to a podcast being played by the iTunes software. You're still better off using a decent audio player like WinAmp, or even the RealOne player. iTunes has become buggy bloatware. And talking about stability: the software has randomly shut down twice since installing the "fixed" version, something it has never done on my PC before. And it seems to crash quite regularly now.

See also: Audio Apartheid

DVDs and the Law of Unintended Consequences

Consumers don't like to be ripped off. When is the movie industry going to realise this? Their greedy little minds are forever trying to come up with schemes to rip off the public and make more money, but in the end the consumer always finds a way to get even.
This weekend is a case in point. We rented a DVD from a respectable video store in the area. They are busy selling off all their old VHS videos because most people rent DVDs instead. We bought a few. We also hired a Shakespeare play, "Twelfth Night". It wouldn't play. Something about regional settings. Trust a Sony DVD player to come up with that nonsense. It's a good job I didn't buy the DVD player. I wouldn't buy a Sony one if you paid me to do so.
So when a friend popped round later in the day I asked him about this, and he mentioned a program called "DVD Shrink" that would allow me to copy the original movie onto a DVD-R, which would then work in the DVD player. I downloaded it and discovered that the movie in question was set for region 4 (Australia) instead of region 2 (Europe and South Africa). I clicked OK to accept the region setting, and then ripped the DVD.
Everything worked fine until I tried "Much Ado About Nothing", whereupon I was told that I needed to change my regional setting back to 2, and that I only had 3 changes left. What!? A quick look at the properties of my DVD hardware confirmed the bad news. Every time you change a region the hardware gets messed with.
It's a good job that Microsoft had the good manners to let me know. I guess their programmers have been stung by this before. Anyway, I was now fed up that simply because someone sent the wrong zone DVD to our shop, I was damned if my hardware would get damaged in the process. A quick search of my hardware model led me to this site, which explains why DVD drives are defective by design.
I also tracked down "DVD Region Killer", a program that bypasses the problem, and "DiscInfo", a program that tells you the state of your DVD hardware.
So in order to protect my own hardware I am forced to bypass the manuafacturer's greedy DRM system. In the process I have been introduced to a cheap and effective way of copying rented DVDs. We tried recording a scene from "Chariots of Fire" from DVD to VHS tape for Penny's teaching prac, with disasterous results. Now we'll just copy the entire movie instead.
That's the Law of Unintended Consequences: They tried to stop me from renting pirate DVDs, and all they succeeded in doing was force me to find out how to copy legitimate ones instead. Here's another unintended consequence: by preventing people from taping DVDs onto VHS, they supposedly encouraged consumers to buy DVD players and buy DVD copies of movies they already own. The people who spent the most money in this way were, of course, the video rental shops. Now they are having to sell off their old VHS tapes because consumers want to rent the DVD instead. The movie companies are screwing their own distribution chain. Once consumers find how simple and easy it is to keep a copy of the rented DVD, they may stop buying fake DVDs from the people who sell them at the traffic lights. Was that the intended consequence? I doubt it.
If you are a movie industry lawyer reading this, consider the following before you sue me: I have already paid royalties to your company by purchasing the DVD drive in my laptop. It was nice of you to pass on 0% of this royalty to your artists. Secondly, I have paid another royalty when I bought the blank DVR-R disc, even though most of the discs are used for data backups. Again, 0% goes to the artists. Thirdly, I will have paid a third royalty when I rent the DVD from the video shop. Thank you for passing on a 1% royalty to the artists. You are most generous.