| Re: New IDL Book Chapters Available [message #73437 is a reply to message #73388] |
Mon, 08 November 2010 07:01  |
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Paul Van Delst[1]
Messages: 1157
Registered: April 2002
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Senior Member |
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Hi David,
I tried replying to the email associated with your post (news at dfanning dot com) but it was returned as undeliverable.
Anyway, when I tried to purchase your drafts (I think the line plot one), I couldn't get a secure connection. Upon
reloading it "became" secure for about a second until the page completed reloading and then became only partially secure.
Any ideas if this a problem on my end (I'm using firefox on linux) or yours (or the paypal thingo)?
cheers,
paulv
David Fanning wrote:
> Folks,
>
> I've decided to try a little experiment in e-commerce.
>
> I have made up my mind to spend the next year or so
> producing a series of "Coyote Guides", based on the
> trail guides I used on my hike this summer. I envision
> 4-5 smallish books on various topics of interest to
> IDL programmers.
>
> They are meant to be informal discussions of various
> topics, with lots and lots of example code. They are
> very personal and include my own biases, preferences,
> blind spots, and dumb jokes. I'm sure not everyone is
> going to fall in love with them. But if I manage to
> pull it off, it will be like taking an intensive IDL
> course from me.
>
> The first book in the series and what I am working on
> now is a Coyote Guide to Traditional IDL Graphics.
> I wanted to start by working on something I was certain
> was going to be a great commercial success. :-)
>
> I have several chapters in the book "finished" in the
> sense that I am sick to death of reading them and could
> use some feedback from real users. I still consider these
> in draft form, and there are certainly errors in every
> one of these chapters. Probably not so much in the code,
> as I test that extensively and use it to produce the
> figures in the book (and there are a LOT of them!), but
> there are errors in the text for sure. I just can't see
> them anymore.
>
> Nevertheless, I think there is a great deal of terrific
> information in these chapters. Just to give you an example,
> the line plot chapter in my last book was roughly about
> 10 pages. The line plot chapter in this book is 60 pages,
> and it is probably not finished yet. Other graphics topics
> have grown in similar proportion. I expect this book alone
> might top out at 350-400 pages! I'm putting ALL my secrets
> in there, as I plan to retire when this project is over and
> drink pina colatas on the beach in Costa Rica.
>
> So, on to my experiment. I don't have a job. I need some
> cash. Tom Sawyer and his fence came to mind. :-)
>
> Here is what I am doing. I am selling these draft chapters
> on my store in PDF form for $5 each. If you mark up the
> chapter and send it back to me with your comments and/or
> you contact me with feedback about the chapter (and I really
> prefer hard-hitting, constructive comments about the things
> I've done wrong or the boneheaded mistakes I've made, rather
> than about the stupendous improvement I've made to your
> IDL productivity), then you will receive either a free
> PDF version of the book when it is finished, or a 25% discount
> on a hardcopy version of the book, plus full credit for all
> the chapters you already paid for.
>
> The comments have to be reasonably substantial. "I liked it,"
> is probably not going to get you a free anything. :-)
>
> In addition to the "costly" chapters, I've put a couple of
> chapters on the store that you can download for free. For
> example, the very important chapter on how to work with
> color in IDL is there for free.
>
> I am working on other chapters now, and I'll add them to
> the store when I am finished with them and if this little
> experiment seems to be going in a positive direction.
>
> If you are interested, you can find the new chapters here:
>
> http://www.dfanning.com/store/
>
> As I am sure you know, this IDL newsgroup has always been an
> essential part of my IDL education. Pretty much everything
> I know about IDL I learned here, either by forcing myself
> to answer questions or by paying attention to what the real
> experts had to say. Your feedback and participation have
> always have always been an enormous inspiration to me. My
> sincerest thanks to all of you, as always.
>
> Cheers,
>
> David
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