O'Reilly Rough Cuts...Safari
O'Reilly Rough Cuts - read the book as it's being written. These solve the problem of having to write about a technology before it's fully formed. Of course, there are a fair number of books that have never been finished. My own "Windows Millenium Edition: The OS for the next Millenium" was abandoned nearly as quickly as the laptop running ME that crashed everytime I tried to write another chapter was.
Rough Cuts is a bit of an imitation of the Pragmatic Progammers' Beta Books, which I enjoy. The thing that really crushes me about the whole Rought Cuts thing is that they cost $16 extra to read on Safari, and the subscription expires 45 days after publication. I am a little confused by the pricing overall, because, if your getting a PDF, why do you need to use Safari? Why doesn't the subscription model work for pre-release material? It would be cool if there was one slot on the bookshelf for pre-releases, at the least.
Apress is even more of a pale imitation of the Pragmatic guys- they used the same name. They have alpha and beta books, but the list of books isn't working too well as I am getting Warning: mysql_connect() [function.mysql-connect]: Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/tmp/mysql.sock' (2) in /usr/local/apache2/htdocs/betabooks/bbconf.php on line 3.
Oooops. I'll have to avoid their latest title "Beginning PHP and MySQL 5; from Novice to Professional"- which is being advertised literally on the same line as the error message. On the other hand, maybe their developers haven't made it to the end of the book yet, since it is so new. :-) I am sure it's a temporary condition, but it is a little funny to see that error message on the same line as the ad for the book on how to fix it.
3 comments:
O'Reilly is using Safari as a platform to deliver you the Rough Cuts Service. After purchasing an online version of a Rough Cuts title, you can choose to download the PDF and never look at the online version in Safari. Or you can get the PDF and use the online viewing option in Safari. It’s your choice.
The 45-day PDF downloading clock starts after we post the final version--the one that goes to the printer. (You get 45 days to download the final PDF.) So the PDF is yours for as long as you want. And the final version will be available to any Safari bookshelf subscriber.
BTW, we’re also working on improving the PDF’s appearance.
We appreciate your feedback and welcome your questions.
Laurie Petrycki
O'Reilly Media
I guess my point is not that you can't view it Safari, but that it costs an extra $14 to do so.
This codefetch blog post looks at how Safari doesn't seem to carry much (any?) of the bestselling computer books.
Post a Comment