Re: Interest in 9i New Features for Administrators Exam book?

In article <ah0iuu$l8i$1_at_terabinaries.xmission.com>, Jeremy says...
>
>Pete Sharman <peter.sharman_at_oracle.com> wrote:
>
>> My question for you is: before I go to the effort of writing the book,
>is there > sufficient demand out there to make it worthwhile? It takes a
>lot of time away > from family life to do this, since it's all done after
>hours, and I don't want > to waste my time if it's not going to generate
>enough interest (and of course, > enough revenue for me!).
>
>Pete,
>
>Three comments:
>1. I'm not sure how much the interest in that particular title would be
>for me, but I would in general be interested in an update of the books to
>a 9i format.
>
>2. I've only bought two test-prep books in my life (I had to get a
>certification fast to teach a class) but they would be the one type of
>book I'd be interested in purchasing an "e-version" of, _especially_ if
>the practice tests could better duplicate (using javascript or the like)
>the actual test format.
>
>3. That said, even though I spend $2000 dollars a year on technical
>books, my personal thresholds for paying for online exam-prep books are
>probably be: (would definitely buy/max price I'd consider)
>
>1 title unlimited ($5/$15)
>1 title time constrained ($5/$10)
>Multiple titles unlimited ($50/$100)
>Multiple titles time constrained ($30/$50)
>
>By multiple titles, I'd mean along the lines of ALL Oracle 8i or 9i
>prep books--so I could purchase six month or a year's worth of access
>for the price of two print books, and get some interactive practice tests
>along with it. I'd also expect that these titles would be printable--at
>least good html or preferably .pdf or the like. There are a lot of
>people who can't read online--and several, including myself, who
>prefer to read hardcopies when available.
>
>Jer Smith
>

Jer

Maybe Mike can comment on how this is being planned with ROBO-Books better than I can (he is, after all, the CEO). From what I understand though, and Mike please correct me if I'm wrong in any of what I'm saying here, the books are going to be downloadable from http://www.robonerd.com as PDF files. You can download individual sections, chapters, or the whole damn book if you want. I think the reasoning here is that it's more difficult for you to repurpose the books if they're PDF format than if they were HTML. I agree it's much easier to read large pieces in hard copy. I certainly prefer it that way myself.

I don't know if there's been any thought given to making the tests interactive (much more work involved I suspect) though it's certainly a good idea. My final comment is that because the files are downloads, there is no limit to how long you can use them. Once you've paid for them, they're yours.

HTH. Additions and corrections welcome.

Pete

SELECT standard_disclaimer, witty_remark FROM company_requirements; Received on Tue Jul 16 2002 - 11:59:26 CDT