Saving the planet via e-review
Posted on August 7, 2008
Filed Under All, Technology, Green Tech |
A Pearson publicist pinged me on the possibility of doing a review of the latest edition of Sams Teach Yourself C++ in One Hour a Day, and offered to ship me a copy. Back when I was writing for the late, lamented NewsForge (now folded into linux.com), and writing technical manuals and user guides on the side, I was often pitched on new tech books for review on gulker.com and elsewhere.
These days, I’m mostly writing about less granular topics than C++: still, I was intrigued by the notion of learning C++ in one hour a day - I usually think in terms of years when it comes to proficiency in languages like C++ and Java. My personal C++ bible has been the C++ Primer (4th edition; Lippman, Lajoie and Moo, Addison Wesley, 2005), not that I’m writing much C++ code.
Anyway, summer before last 5 books arrived within a couple days, 4 on Java and one on C++, leaving me little choice but to do a compendium of quick reviews and links. The sheer weight of 5 books in the 400 to 1000 page range (plus recycling them when I couldn’t find homes for them among my programmer friends) was enough to put me off reviewing programming manuals for a while.
While I was intrigued by the ‘one hour a day’ concept, I though the carbon cost of shipping a near-1000-page book that I wouldn’t have time to review in depth should probably dictate a ‘no thanks’ respone. However, when I enquired whether I could get a review copy electronically, I was offered a free 45-day subscription to O’Reilly’s Safari. Since I’m already a subscriber, there was no need for the freebie.
So I have finally reviewed the title, nearly carbon-free (my Mac does, after all, use a few watts of power while I read and write). I started to think maybe the Kindle would be a great place to get tech manuals - apparently publishers think so, too: there are 5 Amazon pages of C++ titles available for the Kindle (though not, as yet, Sams Teach Yourself C++ in One Hour a Day.) I note tech publishers charge full price for Kindle editions, unlike mainstream publishers…
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Anxiously awaiting “How to survive in Silicon Valley Without Programming” by Chris Gulker. Free in paperback. $100 on Kindle.
Actually, I think that title has been written a couple of times now… though I do like the business model: generate buzz among print readers with a freebie, then monetize electronically.