When AOE 3rd ED to be published?

[jmc]

Win, that wasn't meant as a put down. I was simply stating that you
had many other projects that keep you too busy to devote all your time
to writing. No one can do everything at once.

"Yawn" is a euphemism for "get ya tongue outta my arse!"
jmc

 

[jmc]

jmc wrote...

Ready> In my dreams! Anyway, suggestions are easier to respond to
when the paper is still blank (hopefully our minds are not blank!).

It's good to post the suggestions right here, but my email address
is attached. I'm also the one you will reach if you click from our
book's home page, www.artofelectronics.com

Thanks,
- Win

I think your website should have a hierachically organised suggestions page
to keep track of what has been suggested and what you are keeping and
rejecting. That way, yours and the posters' time should be saved in the long
run. In addition, a ready-made forum in the form of Yahoo Groups or
http://forum.snitz.com/. I can see your publishers not being too happy about
this for your current sales, perhaps;-0)

jmc

 

[jmc]

jmc wrote...

Ready> In my dreams! Anyway, suggestions are easier to respond to
when the paper is still blank (hopefully our minds are not blank!).

It's good to post the suggestions right here, but my email address
is attached. I'm also the one you will reach if you click from our
book's home page, www.artofelectronics.com

Thanks,
- Win

I think your website should have a hierachically organised suggestions page
to keep track of what has been suggested and what you are keeping and
rejecting. That way, yours and the posters' time should be saved in the long
run. In addition, a ready-made forum in the form of Yahoo Groups or
http://forum.snitz.com/. I can see your publishers not being too happy about
this for your current sales, perhaps;-0)

jmc

 

[Winfield Hill]

Joel Kolstad wrote...

A compromise I've seen is a good search engine on a CD ROM that will link
you to the page of the book the material is on -- far more useful than a
simple 'index' (since you can do more complicated queries), yet none of
the actual content is available within the search engine's database.

That's an interesting idea, what book did you seen that in?

Thanks,
- Win

whill_at_picovolt-dot-com

 

[Winfield Hill]

jmc wrote...

I think your website should have a hierachically organised suggestions
page to keep track of what has been suggested and what you are keeping
and rejecting. That way, yours and the posters' time should be saved
in the long run. In addition, a ready-made forum in the form of Yahoo
Groups or http://forum.snitz.com/.
Whew!

I can see your publishers not being too happy about this for your
current sales, perhaps;-0)

Hah! Actually sales are still very strong, but down a bit, about 50%
off the peak. We're just not so proud of the book as we were, and get
a flood of letters asking for a new one.

Thanks,
- Win

whill_at_picovolt-dot-com

 

[Frank Bemelman]

A compromise I've seen is a good search engine on a CD ROM that will link
you to the page of the book the material is on -- far more useful than a
simple 'index' (since you can do more complicated queries), yet none of the
actual content is available within the search engine's database.


Really? It seems that every $35 soft-back computer book has a CD these
days, whereas for a $75 hard cover book I'd think the extra production cost
wouldn't be significant.

I think AOE is printed in a relative low volume, and that the
price is actually ridiculiously low. If Win's incentive is/was
money only, he'd better find a job as a paper boy, delivering
newspapers.

 

[Frank Bemelman]

Furthermore, I haven't decided how to deal with the "Good Circuits"
section in regard to the formulas. Page space is a serious issue, so
expanding these figures may not be an option. Moreover we've had many
complaints saying, what's wrong with this or that "Bad Circuit"?

You could put another heading above it, 'Why is this a bad circuit?'.
It invites the reader to think a bit, and answers will be given in
the 4th edition

 

[Tony Williams]

Joel Kolstad wrote...

A compromise I've seen is a good search engine on a CD ROM

[snip]

That's an interesting idea, what book did you seen that in?

Why not use HyperText Markup Language (HTML)?

All the mechanisms for indexing and linking are already
built in and it is compatible with web sites..... which
gives the opportunity to put supplementary information
(for which there is no room in the book) onto a website
and have links to it. The supplementary information
database can be grown at leisure, as and when you think
of it.

 

[Paul Burridge]

Moreover we've had many
complaints saying, what's wrong with this or that "Bad Circuit"?

That's *my* particular beef with the book as well, actually. You don't
state what you are getting at in singling out a particular bad
circuit.
"Transistor Man" needs a bit of a makeover as well, but that's
trivial. All in all, though, still a great reference after all these
years.

 

[Winfield Hill]

Paul Burridge wrote...

That's *my* particular beef with the book as well, actually.
You don't state what you are getting at in singling out a
particular bad circuit.

They're supposed to be obvious, if perhaps requiring a little
thought. But maybe we assumed too much. Is there one that's
stumped you that you'd like an explanation for?

Thanks,
- Win

whill_at_picovolt-dot-com

 

[John Woodgate]

I read in sci.electronics.design that Winfield Hill

They're supposed to be obvious, if perhaps requiring a little
thought. But maybe we assumed too much.

Indeed: what is obvious to you and your collaborator could well be far
from obvious to the hoi polloi, unless the examples are so trivial as to
be of little value.

 

[Fred Bloggs]

Indeed: what is obvious to you and your collaborator could well be far
from obvious to the hoi polloi, unless the examples are so trivial as to
be of little value.

The Good Idea section is okay but the Bad Idea section is a source of
aggravation and taken to be an insult. He should add subtlety or drop it
all together. Another insult is to elevate PB to the status of hoi polloi.

 

[Fred Bloggs]

The Good Idea section is okay but the Bad Idea section is a source of
aggravation and taken to be an insult. He should add subtlety or drop it
all together. Another insult is to elevate PB to the status of hoi polloi.

Speaking of insults, this story about a grammar school student
*discovering* a new way to do mixed number arithmetic made the
mainstream press in the US:

Please view in a fixed-width font such as
Courier.

1 2 -1 3 -1 2
8- - 5- = 3-- = 2+ - + - =2-
3 3 3 3 3 3
The coincidence of correct answer was considered nothing short of amazing

 

[Winfield Hill]

Fred Bloggs wrote...

Speaking of insults, this story about a grammar school student
*discovering* a new way to do mixed number arithmetic made the
mainstream press in the US:

Please view in a fixed-width font such as Courier.

1 2 -1 3 -1 2
8- - 5- = 3-- = 2+ - + - =2-
3 3 3 3 3 3

The coincidence of correct answer was considered nothing short
of amazing

That's both funny and really weird. Can you give us an example
news reference?

Thanks,
- Win

whill_at_picovolt-dot-com

 

[John Woodgate]

I read in sci.electronics.design that Fred Bloggs <[email protected]>

The Good Idea section is okay but the Bad Idea section is a source of
aggravation and taken to be an insult.

Not to a placid, easy-going chap like you, surely?

He should add subtlety or drop it
all together.

Some of them are a bit subtle for me, but probably not for you.

Another insult is to elevate PB to the status of hoi
polloi.

In British English, it's not exactly complementary. Chambers glosses it
as 'the rabble', 'the vulgar'. How about 'helotry', then, if you feel
that a stronger term of endearment is justified.

 

[John Woodgate]

I read in sci.electronics.design that Fred Bloggs <[email protected]>

1 2 -1 3 -1 2
8- - 5- = 3-- = 2+ - + - =2-
3 3 3 3 3 3
The coincidence of correct answer was considered nothing short of
amazing

-1
Well, it is. The first step should read 3 + -. (;-)
3

You can find the cube root of 5.19615 by dividing it by 3, but
unfortunately it's not very accurate for smaller or larger numbers.

 

[Fred Bloggs]

Fred Bloggs wrote...



That's both funny and really weird. Can you give us an example
news reference?

No- it will just be used for more criticism of the US- we can laugh at
ourselves, but it's not funny when foreigners do it.

 

[Joel Kolstad]

I think AOE is printed in a relative low volume, and that the
price is actually ridiculiously low.

'Ridiculously' would be an overstatement, I think, but I would agree it's on
the relatively 'cheap' side of, e.g., textbooks which often average
something pushing $100 now. A price hike from $75 from $100 wouldn't
dissuade me from purchasing a copy.

If Win's incentive is/was
money only, he'd better find a job as a paper boy, delivering
newspapers.

My understanding is that the recording and publishing industries are similar
in that, of the purchase price of the product, a shockingly small percentage
actually makes its way back to the authors. I'd be surprised if Win gets
$7.50 per book sold. (I think Don Lancaster had the right idea with
self-publishing, but of course that takes time too!)

I do wonder whether or not authors' royalties are based on the country of
the sale -- most U.S. textbooks are available overseas and -- particularly
in lower income countries such as India and China -- sold for next to
nothing compared to the U.S. edition. Granted, they're paperbacks rather
than hardbacks and the paper is much lower quality, but we're talking a
factor of often 4-8x reduction in retail price here too.

---Joel Kolstad

 

[John Popelish]

Speaking of insults, this story about a grammar school student
*discovering* a new way to do mixed number arithmetic made the
mainstream press in the US:

Please view in a fixed-width font such as
Courier.

1 2 -1 3 -1 2
8- - 5- = 3-- = 2+ - + - =2-
3 3 3 3 3 3
The coincidence of correct answer was considered nothing short of amazing

-1
I think you changed a sign between step 2 and 3. --
-1 3
changed to + -
3

Or was that the point?

 

[Keith R. Williams]

My understanding is that the recording and publishing industries are similar
in that, of the purchase price of the product, a shockingly small percentage
actually makes its way back to the authors. I'd be surprised if Win gets
$7.50 per book sold. (I think Don Lancaster had the right idea with
self-publishing, but of course that takes time too!)

I noticed a while back that MindShare sells their e-books online for
about half of what the p-books cost.

I do wonder whether or not authors' royalties are based on the country of
the sale -- most U.S. textbooks are available overseas and -- particularly
in lower income countries such as India and China -- sold for next to
nothing compared to the U.S. edition. Granted, they're paperbacks rather
than hardbacks and the paper is much lower quality, but we're talking a
factor of often 4-8x reduction in retail price here too.

Same with drugs. If they charged the same as the US, there would be
*no* profits. Small profits > none.