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Home -> Community -> Mailing Lists -> Oracle-L -> Re: New books and new authors - and experience?
Mogens,
I wholeheartedly agree -- I saw a pink 10g book at Borders months before its actual release. And, yes, it mostly looked like garbage.
But, since when has this /not/ been a problem? It's not limited to Oracle, database technology, or any particular technology. (Though, it may be /confined/ to technology! I wonder how many books on the efficacy of the latest psychopharmacological options come out prior to confirming peer reviewed studies. Excepting the pharmaceutical companies, not many I'd posit.)
Adam
Mogens Nørgaard 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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-- Archives are at http://www.freelists.org/archives/oracle-l/ FAQ is at http://www.freelists.org/help/fom-serve/cache/1.html -----------------------------------------------------------------Received on Tue Mar 16 2004 - 17:53:06 CST
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