My problem with many of the book-share O Reilly Books are that they
are somewhat dated circuit 2005 and older. Is this still true? Can
anyone recommend a good Python book? How good is the unpack utility
for the mac when using voice over?
On Oct 24, 2008, at 1:03 PM, Esther wrote:
Hi Dan,
I haven't been keeping up with the new O'Reilly Bookshare offerings,
and the listed entries were only based on doing a search of their
catalog, so please feel free to chime in with any particular
suggestions. Likewise, for the "Take Control" books. I've heard
(on another list) the recently issued "Take Control of Making Music
with GarageBand" come highly recommended, but I haven't checked this
out yet. There are sample download sections for each "Take Control"
book that you can check before deciding to order.
For other users, the quality of books that are available at
Bookshare can be variable, depending on the source (many of these
scanned in). Since O'Reilly has been a participating Bookshare
member for over 5 years and the source material comes directly from
the publisher, this isn't an issue here. Also, distribution of
Bookshare material internationally depends on the publisher, but
again here O'Reilly has given permission for world-wide
distribution, so this is a good reference source for users outside
the U.S. I don't always find the "sort by publication date"
options on Bookshare to be reliable, so please be aware that there
may be books with similar title an different publication dates --
most notably there are entries for "Mac OS X for Unix Geeks" dated
2008 and 2003.
Cheers,
Esther
On Oct 24, 2008, at 7:38 AM, Dan wrote:
Hello Esther,
As always, you provide a wealth of knowledge and I really
appreciate it. I am a member of Book Share and I love the O'Reilly
books. And thanks for the other pages and archived message.
Dan
On Oct 24, 2008, at 10:28 AM, Esther wrote:
Hi Kaare and others,
For new Mac users coming in with a background in linux or unix,
there's an old but good web page called "Top Ten Mac OS X Tips for
Unix Geeks":
http://www.macdevcenter.com/lpt/a/2792
There were some quick introductory sites to unix (for general)
users mentioned in an older post to this list:
http://www.mail-archive.com/discuss%40macvisionaries.com/msg30161.html
That post also notes that you can find a number of O'Reilly Books
(including "Mac OS X for Unix Geeks" -- an up-to-date 2008 version
of the older book that was the source for the Mac OS X tips for
unix geeks page) at bookshare:
http://www.bookshare.org
The O'Reilly books are available to bookshare users world-wide,
and are a particularly good general source of information on
computer topics -- including many specialized areas (Perl, Java, C
++ programming, Apache, etc.) as well as general-purpose guides.
The advanced search page at Bookshare.org has a separate pop-up
button where you can choose "O'Reilly books, available
worldwide". There are close to a thousand O'Reilly titles
available in accessible format at Bookshare.org, and information
about format (Daisy) is available on the result pages for each book.
Possibly interesting O'Reilly titles for new Mac users:
Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Leopard edition by David
Pogue
Mac OS X Leopard Pocket Guide by Chuck Toporek
Another good source of information are the "Take Control" Ebooks:
http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/catalog.html
These are modestly priced (generally around $10) ebooks that are
available in downloadable PDF format. They're pitched more at the
general user, and are generally shorter and more topical than the
O'Reilly books. A nice feature is that if there are updates to
the version you purchased, you can download updated versions free
from the Take Control web site.
HTH
Cheers,
Esther
