[olug] [OT?] ORA Safari book service

[thehaas at binary.net]

I'm not Christopher, but I am an Safari subscriber, so I'll add my $0.02.
:)

There are different levels of membership in Safari, from five slots a
month, to unlimited.  I have 10 slots per month and I pay $15/month.  You
search for a book, or a subject, and several books come up, you can
browse the TOC, and read the beginning excerpts from each chapter.  If
you decide to add it to your "bookshelf", it occupies a given number of
slots.  Most books are one slot/book, but I've had a book that occupied 2
slots, and other that is only half a slot.  You must keep that book in
your bookshelf for 30 days, after that you can remove it, and replace
another book in that slot.  Or you can keep it longer, but you don't have
to keep it another 30 days -- you can remove it any time.

I've only been a subscriber for a couple of months, but I like it and
highly recommend it.  In my work place, I tend to researchi the stuff
no one else wants to touch, some things which Google just doesn't handle
too well (like, writing some JavaScripts to access a LDAP server).
O'Reilly's Safari has a very wide range of books, and not all of them are
published by O'Reilly (Addison-Wesley, MS Press, and New Riders are some
others that pop to mind). The fact that you can search via code example
is especially wonderful.

My biggest gripe is the 30 days it must be in your bookshelf.  What I'm
working on one week will probably change the next, so I may have a cuople
books just waiting for me to take them off.  I also think their CS area
is very much lacking.

$15/month seems steep, but when you consider most techical books are $40
a piece, it's the same as buying 4.5 books a year.  But you have access
to many, many more books than that.  IMHO, if you work in a plethora of
subjects, Safari is wonderful.

I hope this helps.

-- mikeh

On Sat, Jun 21, 2003 at 01:15:10PM -0500, OBrien, Timothy  (Omaha Linux
Users Group - OLUG) wrote:
> Christopher ? At work we have had ORA's sales people call us a few times
> on the Safari on-line book service. Since you have mentioned it a few
> times, would you mind explaining to the uninformed what it is; costs
> involved, and your likes/dislikes?
> 
> [scarcasm]
> Since you <I>have</i> mentioned it a few times, have you purchased stock
> in ORA? ;)
> [/scarcasm]
> 
> 
> -- 
> Timothy "Irish" O'Brien
> Publicity & Social activities chairperson
> Omaha Linux User's Group (OLUG)
> ----------------------------------------------
> A: No.
> Q: Should I include e-mail quotations after my reply?
> =====================================================
> An often repeated quote on news.admin.net-abuse.email:
> <I>
> "Spam is not about content, it is about consent".
> </i>
> 
> 
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> 

-- 
Mike Hostetler          
thehaas at binary.net 
http://www.binary.net/thehaas 

With searching comes loss
and the presence of absence:
"My Novel" not found.