Subject:
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RE: O'Reilly Mindstorms Book
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Fri, 19 Feb 1999 10:45:49 GMT
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Viewed:
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1021 times
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In lugnet.robotics, Ken <kengu@credo.ie> writes:
> I'd personally prefer if the software et al were on the CD. Yes they will
> go out of date but some people don't have net access at home and may not
> like having to copy files to floppy in a cyber cafe - and find that some
> files are too large to fit!
That's an interesting point. I wonder what percentage of the 80,000+ LMS
owners out there are net-enabled. Certainly, of the ones geeky enough to buy
the book, almost all of those must be net-enabled...?
What are the issues related to including a software CD-ROM with a book?
- Copyright/ownership/licensing issues relating to the software included
- Increase in production cost and complexity
- Increase in retail price (maybe)
- Increase in revenue/profit (maybe)
- Increase in technical support costs (maybe; if not in actual support,
certainly in politely fending off silly questions)
- Pressure to release 2nd edition sooner
- Harder for stores to sell aging copies?
My $.02 on the issue is that I dislike programming books which come bundled
with CD-ROMs... I haven't yet purchased one which wasn't weeks or months of
out-of-date by the time it showed up in stores. But maybe this has just been
bad luck.
Jonathan, who is the target audience for this book? Is it going to be mainly a
programming-oriented book for übergeeks or targeted more at the average user?
Will there be sections or chapters on getting the most out of LMS without doing
any actual coding? (Maybe sample programs or a gentle walk through of one of
the high-level VB client tools?) Is there any use in providing a set of canned
demos? (Those don't go obsolete like tools do.)
Does O'Reilly ever release two versions of a book, one with a CD-ROM and one
without? (That would be a happy medium. ;)
--Todd
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Message has 3 Replies:
 | | Re: O'Reilly Mindstorms Book
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| Wow. I can't believe Todd and I actually agree on something! Is thiis the sign of a new trend for me? :) Seriously, though, I don't care for books bundled with CDROM's either for similar reasons that Todd mentioned. The existence of an out-of-date (...) (26 years ago, 19-Feb-99, to lugnet.robotics)
| | | RE: O'Reilly Mindstorms Book
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| (...) These three are kind of intertwined. The cost of mass-producing a CD is so small as to be almost negligible, so it wouldn't affect the cost of the book significantly, or the publisher's bottom line were the price to stay the same, and at the (...) (26 years ago, 20-Feb-99, to lugnet.robotics)
| | | Re: O'Reilly Mindstorms Book
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| Todd Lehman wrote in message ... (...) In the UK there is a very good reason why books with CD's are undesirable: Books are zero Value-Added-Tax rated, but books with CD's are not, so cost the consumer 17.5% more on top of whatever price premium (...) (26 years ago, 22-Feb-99, to lugnet.robotics)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | RE: O'Reilly Mindstorms Book
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| I'd personally prefer if the software et al were on the CD. Yes they will go out of date but some people don't have net access at home and may not like having to copy files to floppy in a cyber cafe - and find that some files are too large to fit! (...) (26 years ago, 19-Feb-99, to lugnet.robotics)
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