Re: New books and new authors - and experience?
- From: Rachel Carmichael <wisernet100@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2004 18:13:52 -0800 (PST)
As an author who refused to be pressured to do the 10g update on our
book before 10g was even really in beta (which led to no update ever
being done), I feel that I can at least chime in.
A few points:
1) even when the production release is out, you can still get burned by
changes. Witness the difference between 9iR1 and 9iR2 when it comes to
how Standby Database works. If you have an early enough printing of my
book, the book is wrong. We wrote to 9iR1. Production. Then they
changed it on us. Oops.
2) Certain things about database work are and will always be standards.
how you THINK as opposed to how you DO. Methodologies (at least good
ones) don't age out into obsolescence the way database releases do.
Cary's book is a classic and will be for a long time. Jonathan's - with
his "update" of the blue patch to cover the letters "8i" - is as well.
3) anyone who writes a book, technical or fiction (and some of the
latest technical books read like fiction), doesn't really do so to make
lots and lots of money. The publishers definitely make money, or they
won't publish the book. The authors? You have to be as prolific as
Kevin Loney, John Grisham or Nora Roberts to make any kind of real
money as an author.
Authors, good ones at least, write because they feel that they *have*
to. They have something to share with other people, that can help these
people.
I buy new books rarely these days. Ones my friends write (gotta support
your friends) and the few that are recommended by people I trust. It's
too expensive to just throw my money away on books. I can buy a heck of
a lot of good Scotch for the cost of some of these books.
Rachel
--- Mogens_Nørgaard <mln@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>
> Friends,
>
> I recently wrote this message, but then sent it just to myself in
> order
> not to offend anyone or perhaps be misunderstood.
>
> But after 14 days with this message in my inbox, I have decided to go
>
> ahead and send it to the list:
> =================================================================
>
> It's becoming a habit to churn out books about topics that cannot
> possibly have been explored yet. And certainly not in any scientific
> manner.
>
> How on Earth can we have books out with the word "10g" on the cover
> when
> 10g just came out, and we all know, that getting something as basic
> as
> OEM (and certainly AWR/ADDM/ASH/Advisor services) to work during the
> Beta phase has been damned near impossible? If that is the case, how
> can
> the books talk in detail about how fantastic these features are?
> Sandra's last name is...
>
> I don't really care whether the books were "betatized" or not, or
> however various authors try to impress on people that their books are
> better than the other's. These are all books written by people
> without
> real experience in 10g (because it's bloody well impossible to HAVE
> real
> experience yet!) talking about people writing books about something
> they
> don't know enough about yet...
>
> I fully understand Oracle's wishes here. I fully understand the
> publisher's wishes here. I might even understand the author's wishes
> here (or maybe not). But it's too much now. iAS.
>
> I think it's time for all of us to stop buying sensationalist or
> un-finished or whatever books and wait until books by people who've
> actually done real work, in the real world, with 10g appear.
>
> Hands down: Shouldn't we all be reading James Morle's book (titled
> *8i*)
> or Jonathan's (titled *8i*) and LEARNING real stuff instead of just
> running around in real and virtual book stores, looking for new sound
>
> bites or cut/paste's from Oracle's own documentation?
>
> Read Oracle's documentation first, try out 10g, then see if anybody
> with
> REAL experience has written a book.
>
> Of course they haven't. They don't exist, since the Oracle version
> hasn't been out yet.
>
> Oh, I know how this happens. Been there. You're approached by a
> publisher who wants to publish fast and make lots of money for them
> and
> you. If you don't say NO, then you're caught between delivering
> SOMETHING and being blasted by the publisher. So you choose - perhaps
> -
> to generate text and examples and stuff that make it appear as if you
> actually WORKED with this new version of Oracle.
>
> Of course you didn't. Ask the authors what customers or partners they
> worked with using 10g. Ask them if this was real production or just
> the
> usual "let's try this, let's try that" stuff. Ask. Then think. Of
> course
> they havne't been able to do anything realistic yet.
>
> Man, when I looked at the books offered from various publishers at
> the
> RMOUG, there were a few good Oracle-related books (Dave Ensor's
> Design,
> Cary's, Lawson's, Connor's, etc.) and about 90% of the displayed
> books
> being ... well... not worth the money.
>
> Mogens
>
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