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In lugnet.cad, Allister McLaren wrote:
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In lugnet.announce, Tim Courtney wrote:
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Hey everyone!
Writing to let you know that the book Virtual LEGO (by yours truly, Steve
Bliss, and Ahui Herrera) has finally hit the shelves! It is now shipping
from Amazon.com and showing up in your local bookstore soon (if its not
there already).
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I’m just curious - what are the significant differences, if any, between this
book and the Power Tools book? Everyone has differnt requirements and I just
want to know which one best suits my needs. I’m interested in getting one of
these books, but it will only be one of them (amazon’s postage charges to Aus
are, not to put too fine a point on it, extortionate). Has anyone posted a
comprehensive review of each of the books anywhere - the one’s on amazon are
too vague.
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Allister -
I’ve gone through about 1/3 of Powertools, and I’d say the material is organized
a bit differently. Virtual LEGO devotes an entire chapter to parts authoring,
and from what I’ve heard, it goes into greater depth with building instruction
theory/creation (but I could be wrong, I’m using secondhand info here since I
haven’t gotten to Powertools’ coverage of BI’s yet).
I’d love to see a comparison/contrast review of the two books! Can anyone who’s
read both give Allister a quick comparison for his shopping needs?
-Tim
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In lugnet.cad, Tim Courtney wrote:
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In lugnet.cad, Allister McLaren wrote:
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In lugnet.announce, Tim Courtney wrote:
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Hey everyone!
Writing to let you know that the book Virtual LEGO (by yours truly, Steve
Bliss, and Ahui Herrera) has finally hit the shelves! It is now shipping
from Amazon.com and showing up in your local bookstore soon (if its not
there already).
|
I’m just curious - what are the significant differences, if any, between
this book and the Power Tools book? Everyone has differnt requirements and I
just want to know which one best suits my needs. I’m interested in getting
one of these books, but it will only be one of them (amazon’s postage
charges to Aus are, not to put too fine a point on it, extortionate). Has
anyone posted a comprehensive review of each of the books anywhere - the
one’s on amazon are too vague.
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I’d love to see a comparison/contrast review of the two books! Can anyone
who’s read both give Allister a quick comparison for his shopping needs?
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I almost forgot, on the (US) Amazon page for Virtual LEGO, you can buy the two
books together for a discount:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1886411948/qid=1066232517/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-7284602-4697519?v=glance&s=books.
Not sure if this offer is good for Australia.
-Tim
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In lugnet.cad, Tim Courtney wrote:
Actually, this isn’t true, and is a very good example of deceptive advertising
on Amazon’s part. Add up Amazon’s price for the two books individually, and you
get the same price they list there. The “discount” is off the standard list
price, and you get it whether you buy both books or just one. This seems to be
standard practice at Amazon, so please don’t be fooled.
--Travis
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In lugnet.cad, Travis Cobbs wrote:
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Actually, this isn’t true, and is a very good example of deceptive
advertising on Amazon’s part. Add up Amazon’s price for the two books
individually, and you get the same price they list there. The “discount” is
off the standard list price, and you get it whether you buy both books or
just one. This seems to be standard practice at Amazon, so please don’t be
fooled.
--Travis
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Heh, I was fooled. :
Well, at least I saved one shipping & handling fee...
/Tore
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> Heh, I was fooled. :|
> Well, at least I saved one shipping & handling fee...
Not that I want to rub salt in it or anything, but that's not entierly true
either.
Bying just one book has a s&h fee of $8.98 while bying a combo is $13.49 (to
Sweden).
You did save $4.47 though :) Not to mention how much cheaper it got *not* bying
from a Swedish retailer...
It looks like they have changed the combo with the Powertools book now from
Virtual LEGO to a Mindstorms book (sorry, don't remember the title).
/Tobbe
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In lugnet.cad, Tim Courtney wrote:
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Allister -
I’ve gone through about 1/3 of Powertools, and I’d say the material is
organized a bit differently. Virtual LEGO devotes an entire chapter to parts
authoring, and from what I’ve heard, it goes into greater depth with building
instruction theory/creation (but I could be wrong, I’m using secondhand info
here since I haven’t gotten to Powertools’ coverage of BI’s yet).
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Well, based on that, I think Virtual Lego is the one for me.
I checked availability here in Australia at the local book shop today. There is
one copy in the whole of Australia, and it’s SEVENTY NINE DOLLARS!! (about
US$55). I ended up ordering it direct from No Starch Press for considerably less
than that.
It wasn’t clear on the site - do they use surface or air mail?
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I’d love to see a comparison/contrast review of the two books! Can anyone
who’s read both give Allister a quick comparison for his shopping needs?
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Even now I’ve made my decision, this would still be beneficial I think.
Cheers,
Allister
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In lugnet.cad, Allister McLaren wrote:
| |
In lugnet.cad, Tim Courtney wrote:
| |
Allister -
I’ve gone through about 1/3 of Powertools, and I’d say the material is
organized a bit differently. Virtual LEGO devotes an entire chapter to parts
authoring, and from what I’ve heard, it goes into greater depth with
building instruction theory/creation (but I could be wrong, I’m using
secondhand info here since I haven’t gotten to Powertools’ coverage of BI’s
yet).
|
Well, based on that, I think Virtual Lego is the one for me.
I checked availability here in Australia at the local book shop today. There
is one copy in the whole of Australia, and it’s SEVENTY NINE DOLLARS!! (about
US$55). I ended up ordering it direct from No Starch Press for considerably
less than that.
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I need to get off my butt and pass along some info so the Australian clubs can
bulk order them. Though as I recall, I’m waiting for something to be finalized
from the publisher - I’ll check up on that. The Australian distributor ordered
very few copies, I imagine the rest of the copies (minus the one) have already
sold out. If you are from a club in Australia and are interested, email me.
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It wasn’t clear on the site - do they use surface or air mail?
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For order fulfillment, I’m not sure.
-Tim
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In lugnet.cad, Tim Courtney wrote:
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I need to get off my butt and pass along some info so the Australian clubs
can bulk order them. Though as I recall, I’m waiting for something to be
finalized from the publisher - I’ll check up on that.
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Ordering direct from No Starch was fairly painless (so far ;) and it should be
here in a week or so according to the email I recieved late last week. I’ll be
taking it along to the next BUGs meeting if it arrives in time, so there may be
an increase in interest about then. If there’s an advantage in bulk ordering,
I’ll be sure to pass that info along.
Cheers,
Allister
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In lugnet.cad, Allister McLaren wrote:
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In lugnet.cad, Tim Courtney wrote:
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I need to get off my butt and pass along some info so the Australian clubs
can bulk order them. Though as I recall, I’m waiting for something to be
finalized from the publisher - I’ll check up on that.
|
Ordering direct from No Starch was fairly painless (so far ;) and it should
be here in a week or so according to the email I recieved late last week.
I’ll be taking it along to the next BUGs meeting if it arrives in time, so
there may be an increase in interest about then. If there’s an advantage in
bulk ordering, I’ll be sure to pass that info along.
Cheers,
Allister
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I ordered mine from No Starch and it arrived within 7 days and cost around $50
Aus. My opinion of the book? Excellent. I originally downloaded the all in one
installer and could not get some parts of it to work, with the chapter on
software installation in the book it was very straightforward, I look forward to
reading through the rest.
Don
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