Too good to be true

[Worldwalker]

Something else just struck me: our "poor" poster has a smartphone that requires, from a quick check of a popular provider, a minimum $60 a month phone plan (and that's their dirt cheap plan). That's not even going into the cost of the phone. If he used a less expensive phone (or went back to the stone age, aka 10 years ago, and just had a landline) he could afford a cheap desktop -- one well able to run calibre -- off Craiglist in a couple of months. Whatever the equivalent is for his locality, he could get something.

It's all about choices. He chose to have an expensive mobile phone. I chose to have a cheap desktop computer. The difference is, I'm not flaming anyone else for my choices.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

We all have to live with our decisions. The computer I use cost 153 dollars on Ebay, nothing flashy but it runs the programs I use. You have a more expensive netbook that doesn't run the programs you want to run. Either live with your decision or change things.

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

It's all about choices. He chose to have an expensive mobile phone. I chose to have a cheap desktop computer. The difference is, I'm not flaming anyone else for my choices.

It looks like we both gave the same speech... Ok yours was miles longer.

Hopefully the OP is still maturing and can learn something. I'm relatively certain even my 14 year old son understands that you have to live with the choices you make. Although it is possible he might whine for a short time before finally figuring it out. But then again he is still 14.

[Solicitous]

Originally Posted by sidd.artha

If there is the code for checking for upgrades, and the author has thrown in here everything but the kitchen sink (reader, converter, database) and there is a book reader which supports some HTML, yet for checking out the patched issues you get to fire the web browser. Which, as I said above, means a lot for a 1G machine. I'm sure that there are geeks out there with 1TB of RAM or even more, yet there are still out there laptops with 256MB or 512MB of RAM. They are quite good for having as book readers, as with my netbook, yet they could not possibly run an unoptimised mammoth like Calibre.

Patience young Jedi. I have an install of Calibre on my old laptop as a backup (I like to keep a second machine in the event of my primary laptop failing due to study requirements) and it is a Celeron 650mhz with 384mb ram and it runs Calibre. My ebook size isn't 2500, it is 300 and whilst it does run slower than my main laptop, it is still very usable (granted it does run Linux and not Windows but that shouldn't matter).

Secondly I'd check out your memory usage before you run Calibre and check how much you actually have free. I know some netbooks (my wife's included) eats ram like there is no tomorrow just booting up (Win 7 with Anti-virus). As soon as she visits a website with flash it starts to swap (and this has 1GB ram). So the problem might not be Calibre per se, could be more with the Windows install.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I'm wondering what the heck kind of netbook the OP is using since mine can run calibre without problems (other than being a bit slower; big deal, everything runs a bit slower) and doesn't even hiccough on Adobe Acrobat Standard 9.0, another "resource hog." Also, my netbook has only 1GB of RAM yet manages just fine just as long as I don't expect it to handle too many apps at once. I got it for light use when I travel mostly so I can stay in touch with people via the internet (mayhap that's why it is called a netbook?) and do some light document and sheet music editing. I've had a lot of people drool over how portable it is but I advise them if it is to be their only computer, they would be better off with a full sized laptop because of the cramped keyboard, slow processor, limited hard HDD space (160GB), and limited RAM.

I don't have a lot of expensive toys. I'm a pensioner and simply can't afford many. I have a desktop computer, a printer, a couple of scanners, a netbook, an ebook reader (far more practical for reading e-books when away from the house than the netbook because it's smaller, lighter, and has better battery life), a barebones cell phone (the old Oystr) that is on a cheap prepaid plan (I use it mostly for emergencies), and a couple of cameras, one small enough to carry in my purse. I worked hard and long to pay for my "toys."

[Manichean]

Originally Posted by sidd.artha

I've talked with a friend in the mean time and he really got mad. This overnight scripted hack called a complex software? A buggy stream processor being hailed as good? Hmm... his example was Garmin Map Source loaded with the detailed maps of North America and Europe. On a netbook like mine it does not get over 80MB in RAM. This two bit converter goes up to 200MB for 2 500 books from which about half are detected as novels of the famous Unknown french writer of the past century. Even OpenOffice.org is smaller, and guess what? it can do conversion too. And a lot more. Do you have any idea of the size of Firefox? 8M the installer. And it does have real plugins. When I think of the time wasted on this piece of junk!

PS: for you stupid spoiled brats who feel that my netbook is offensive to your world the offer is still there to take the dated 2GB toys off your hands.

PPS: for those who feel I am ungrateful to some people making something as wonderful as Internet Explorer 6 in the days of Google Chrome 9 I wonder how it would be for you in real life to be treated the way you treat people online.

Bloody well bugger off, will you? This is the prime example for why you are a troll poster versus someone who asks for help normally, neither of which (asking for help and communicating normally) is something I have seen you done.

[EowynCarter]

I'm looking forward to the calibre replacement program EowynCarter will write to prove that he knows better than everyone else. (who knows he might) But till then I'm very very happy with calibre

Honestly, I'm going to do something to get the job done, nice and easy. All I need is something to index book, edit meta-data, and synchronize. And a few other things. I'll see how far I actually go, if it gets "release worthy" at some point. And if the additional work is worth the trouble.

[Graham]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

Honestly, I'm going to do something to get the job done, nice and easy. All I need is something to index book, edit meta-data, and synchronize. And a few other things. I'll see how far I actually go, if it gets "release worthy" at some point. And if the additional work is worth the trouble.

Eowyn, if you did manage to do this you'd make a lot of people very happy - not just those who'd prefer something that worked with the file structure directly, but also those who like Calibre the way it is - because when we get threads like these we could simply point people at your software.

However, I hear what you're saying about the additional effort involved between something that works for you and something that can be released. I remember writing some shareware a while back that took me 3 months to get it to do what I needed. Then another 6 months of beta testing with about a dozen people to get a version that was polished enough to release.

Graham

[EowynCarter]

Eowyn, if you did manage to do this you'd make a lot of people very happy - not just those who'd prefer something that worked with the file structure directly, but also those who like Calibre the way it is - because when we get threads like these we could simply point people at your software.

I guess there might be people who would appreciate something that don't have as many function as calibre does, but just does the basics.

However, I hear what you're saying about the additional effort involved between something that works for you and something that can be released. I remember writing some shareware a while back that took me 3 months to get it to do what I needed. Then another 6 months of beta testing with about a dozen people to get a version that was polished enough to release.

Yeap.
And making the install process user friendly enough

[chaley]

I am really mad as well! Today my cat stepped on my keyboard and deleted a book. Calibre should never have permitted it. OK, it was a terrible book and I am probably better off without it, but there is a principle involved. Both my cats are French, and everyone knows that French cats cannot speak English. So why did calibre let my cat delete a book she can't even read, hmmmm? Talk about cruddy error checking and a total lack of support! You bigots have something against French cats? Or perhaps I should say, Freedom cats?

I just can't believe that the community tolerates such a travesty. Calibre should at minimum have a paw-on-keyboard detector. Goodness, my HP-35 calculator could handle cats stepping on them, so why can't calibre? Shoddy. Simply shoddy. Calibre developers must have the IQ of a dead flashlight battery.

I must stop using calibre until this problem is fixed. Do the work, and post here when you are finished. Don't bother unless it has been fully tested. I will let you know if it meets my requirements.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by chaley

I am really mad as well! Today my cat stepped on my keyboard and deleted a book. Calibre should never have permitted it. OK, it was a terrible book and I am probably better off without it, but there is a principle involved. Both my cats are French, and everyone knows that French cats cannot speak English. So why did calibre let my cat delete a book she can't even read, hmmmm? Talk about cruddy error checking and a total lack of support! You bigots have something against French cats? Or perhaps I should say, Freedom cats?

I just can't believe that the community tolerates such a travesty. Calibre should at minimum have a paw-on-keyboard detector. Goodness, my HP-35 calculator could handle cats stepping on them, so why can't calibre? Shoddy. Simply shoddy. Calibre developers must have the IQ of a dead flashlight battery.

I must stop using calibre until this problem is fixed. Do the work, and post here when you are finished. Don't bother unless it has been fully tested. I will let you know if it meets my requirements.

Actually... You do touch a point there that I do have a gripe with...


I have deleted books by accident several times, because I wanted to remove them from my device...

[Manichean]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Actually... You do touch a point there that I do have a gripe with...


I have deleted books by accident several times, because I wanted to remove them from my device...

Well, Calibre does ask nicely if you really are sure before doing any deletions. So one might argue that it's either your fault for disabling the dialog or not reading it carefully enough in the first place. Although one might also argue that Windows trains users just to click "OK" on most dialogs that pop up...

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Actually... You do touch a point there that I do have a gripe with...


I have deleted books by accident several times, because I wanted to remove them from my device...

Assuming a serious point is being raised , I assume that you have turned off both the library_delete and the device_delete confirmation dialogs? The delete dialogs are ones that I never disable for exactly this reason. (Oh dear, I just contradicted my last post. What will people think?)

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by sidd.artha

Do you have any idea of the size of Firefox? 8M the installer.

Yes, but how much does it actually use in memory? In my Task Manager, the major peak memory user is Outlook, followed by (drum rolls) Firefox! Standard memory usage: Nr Uno, by a great margin: Again Firefox (followed by my virus scanner and only then Calibre...)

Originally Posted by chaley

Assuming a serious point is being raised , I assume that you have turned off both the library_delete and the device_delete confirmation dialogs? The delete dialogs are ones that I never disable for exactly this reason. (Oh dear, I just contradicted my last post. What will people think?)

There's a different confirmation dialog? I only know I turned off the device one and yet it still deleted it from my HD! (but I always keep an off-calibre backup as I don't trust Calibre with my precious originals )

But the point is...

I need to use my mouse, right click the books, find the correct option in the context menu and only then will the books be removed from my device! That's way too difficult, there should be a much easier way!

[chaley]

We are off-topic, but given what the topic was, that is OK with me.

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

There's a different confirmation dialog?

Yes. Deleting from device and deleting from library use different dialogs and, more importantly, different 'don't show me' options. This happened sometime in the summer.

I need to use my mouse, right click the books, find the correct option in the context menu and only then will the books be removed from my device! That's way too difficult, there should be a much easier way!

I didn't realize that you were talking about deleting from the library view.

As the 'delete matching from device' is my code, I can almost certainly improve it. My original assumption was that it was a rare event, but that might not be true. My problem is that I don't know what to do. Suggestions are welcome.

Note that delete matching is also available on the delete toolbar dropdown. That might be easier to find as it eliminates one level of indirection. And it uses a left-click instead of a right-click...

[Manichean]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

I need to use my mouse, right click the books, find the correct option in the context menu and only then will the books be removed from my device! That's way too difficult, there should be a much easier way!

I can't tell if you're being ironic or not, but did you try pressing the delete key on your keyboard?