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Save 50% on all oreilly's ebooks and videos (today only)

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Re: Save 50% on all oreilly's ebooks and videos (today only)

#31
post #23

On a related note I'd say that forget about these deals and go get yoursf a Safari Online subscription. I convinced my boss to do this for around $350 (that's the corporate rate), one of the best tool I've got. I have all their books (and from a lot of other publishers, too) at my fingertips!

I was a Safari subscriber for two years and it was great! However, it felt a bit overwhelming at times to have access to so many books. It brought back memories of spending hours in the computer book section at the bookstore. Now I just buy the books I need and it keeps me a bit more focused -- at least when I'm not reading HN :).

Re: Save 50% on all oreilly's ebooks and videos (today only)

#32
Excellent! Just bought another 4 books. Now I just have to find some time to read them. I should probably start buying books based on the number of pages -- shorter book wins. I seem to stay better focused on tech books with < 300 pages. Probably related to my motivation level.

Re: Save 50% on all oreilly's ebooks and videos (today only)

#33
post #23

On a related note I'd say that forget about these deals and go get yoursf a Safari Online subscription. I convinced my boss to do this for around $350 (that's the corporate rate), one of the best tool I've got. I have all their books (and from a lot of other publishers, too) at my fingertips!

Meh...I canceled my Safari Online subscription. To me it actually helps to focus on a small number of books. Also it's just painful to read on their website, compared to reading PDFs.

Another thing: this particular sale is about freedom from DRM. Safari is a joint venture between O'Reilly and Pearson. Pearson is on that list of SOPA supporters. It also feels encumbered to me, and I don't feel like I'm supporting the authors much if I read them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safari_Books_Online http://www.blogworld.com/2011/12/22/a-huge-list-of-companies...

I think it might be a good complement to buying eBooks but I don't think I'd read more than a couple chapters without getting it in a format that I can read without being logged into their website.

Re: Save 50% on all oreilly's ebooks and videos (today only)

#34

Anyone have experience with either of these books Programming Python http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596158118.do and Learning Python http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596158071.do Not sure where I fall with these books in terms of skill and knowledge. Looking through the table of contents for Learning Python I recognize everything and know what they are, but don't have a great masterful grasp of most of the st…

I can really recommend Learning Python. It's a great book, it goes into all the fundamental concepts of python really well and in a very readable manner. I read it after I had a year of experience with python and while I also recognized all the concepts, I learned a lot from the book and it's a constant reference when I need to figure out why something is the way it is in python.

I also have Programming Python, but I mainly use that for reference on some advanced topics. I hate the hundreds of pages it spend on GUI programming though...

Re: Save 50% on all oreilly's ebooks and videos (today only)

#35

Anyone have experience with either of these books Programming Python http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596158118.do and Learning Python http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596158071.do Not sure where I fall with these books in terms of skill and knowledge. Looking through the table of contents for Learning Python I recognize everything and know what they are, but don't have a great masterful grasp of most of the st…

They're looooooong. I read through "Learning Python" and came out a better Python programmer because of it, but it was an epic journey that may as well have involved hobbits and a wizard.

I also strongly disliked the author's choice of examples. In particular, the examples for metaclasses and decorators were repetitive and un-Pythonic. If you want private member functions, you're probably better off using a language like Java that supports them rather than trying to hack them in using one of the several ways explained in the book.

If you can handle the length and the trailing off of example quality near the end, it's a solid and comprehensive coverage of Python the language. In terms of the 3.x/2.x split, "Learning Python" covered both comprehensively. The differences aren't huge, and it's mostly just a matter of the example code being adapted to work in one or the other.

Re: Save 50% on all oreilly's ebooks and videos (today only)

#38
post #11

What are some 'must have' (and 'must read' ;) ) O'Reilly books for programmers and entrepreneurs?

Depends on what you're into, but from the database angle: Learning SQL is a really excellent intro, and probably covers the majority of what your average developer is going to ever need to know about SQL ( http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596520847.do ) SQL and Relational Theory gives you more background on relational theory - basically gives a more academic background for existing practitioners of SQL. Date is pr…

Since you seem to know your database books, is there anything you can tell me about Date's latest, "Database Design and Relational Theory"[1]?

[1]: http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920025276.do

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