Which is exactly why I used it instead of "sci-fi". I agree that Science fiction is better, but I'll use Heinlein's words to describe his own works. It's only fair.
It's true there are new features all of the time, but with version 2 of the API Google has stabilized the core of the system. Moreover, the authors acknowledge this "moving target" and have set up a dedicated site to act as an ongoing companion. If what I've seen so far is any indication they are dedicated to keeping all their readers up to date.
Having read a copy myself, the content is centered around the most commonly asked questions on the newsgroup. It takes the common pitfalls (misunderstanding AJAX, too much data, poor navigation, need for custom controls etc) and works them into a cohesive path that guides the reader forwards.
Basic maps are indeed simple and are covered in depth in the first 3 chapters, but this book goes on to cover dealing with hundreds of thousands of data points where the plain API chokes before 200.
Sure, much of this material is available online, but it takes time to find all the bits you need and it takes time to filter out all of the uninformed "answers" and tips. For $23 (Amazon's price) having all this research and experience compiled into a single book should be a no brainer. Surely you charge more than $23/hr for web development? I do. I'm sure it's saved me at least a dozen hours in the last two weeks, so I think it's a fine investment!
If $23 is too much, they are having a contest to give away a few copies of the book in the next few weeks. Check the companion site at http://googlemapsbook.com/contest if you want to try and win.
I'm sorry, no matter how much of a white [knight] in shining armor Google is, no sane webmaster should willfully inject foreign JavaScript on his website.
... Unless forced to by his/her client/boss/CEO/Marketing Team.
Many of the other most popular site-tracking systems also require this. Who do you trust more.. Google or statcounter.com or dynamicsitestats.com or somethingelsetotrackyou.com?
I'd pay relative to the IMDB score of the movie. This means that I wont' buy for at least 1 week for recent releases, and might pay less/more at a later date, but that's what a movie is worth to me. $5.50 for a 5.5/10 ro $9+ for something like The Godfather.
Plus it might encourage them to make more "good" movies. This however assumes that there is no way to tamper with a ranking on IMDB (which is not true ATM IRRC).
DRM: I'd also want to be able to copy it to my laptop for car-rides and have it on my PVR so that I can watch it as frequently as I want. Basically, so long as my "play-key" can be installed (and re-installed) on up to 4 computers, burned 2-3 times, and the play key is no longer required 10 years after purchase (it opens itself up), then I'd be happy. Though I doubt any studio would be happy with this "DRM".
(which are about 80% of an American dollar right now!)
I'd pay $1 for a previously unheard (by me) song. Another if I like it and keep it. $2 for a "hit" or a "classic" song $10 for a whole album of 10+ songs. and $ for a movie (maximum of $10).
I got a basic computer (3Ghz) with 512 MB RAM and then added 4 things:
-2 hauppage PVR150's (dual tuners) ($95 CDN each) -A Super-quiet fan ($65 CDN) -A Cooler-Master case ($30 more than a standard beige one) -SageTV ($80CDN)
Then I signed up for the CANADIAN guide from Zap2It and I'm done. Whole thing took about 3 hours after the computer was running. Used an old copy of Win2kPro, an Old Nvidia card for TV out via S-video, and an old copy of PCAnywhere for remote-control from other parts of the house (the PVR150's come with remotes for actually pressing play/pause/etc).
My Wife loves it and can't live without it. WE CAN watch the current channel, an Xvid, a recording etc while surfing the guide.. but we never surf the guide anymore. We set all our shows as favourites and just watch recordings and XVids.
SageTV is awesome. I just threw two Hauppage PVR 150's ($60 at Best Buy on sale) into an existing computer running Win2k and bought SageTV 2.x.
It kicks ass. It "just works". It plays Divx/Xvid and anything else that Media Player can play. The 150's each come with a remote that also "just works".
Sage can even be customized and extended by the user community.. best of all worlds IMHO.
Wife loves it too. No crashes, no quirks. the WAF is up to a solid 9/10 after 3 months!
And this is supposed to be so much better than taping? The time shifting abilities of PRV's are great when watching live shows, but really the only people for whom the PVR experience is "revolutionary" are folks too stupid to program their VCR's to begin with.
*I* Use my home-built PVR like a giant VHS tape for the most part. I don't have to remember to switch tapes or fast forward to the end if I watch something in the middle. It can store dozens of hours of content instead of 4-8 hours.
*My Wife* likes the fact that she can search for a show she likes, set it as a favourite, and have it find (across all stations and times) all of the reruns and old episodes for her without ever recording the same episode twice. Plus it tracks which ones have been viewed and indexes what was recorded and when.
If your VHS tapes do all that then sure.. I must be a VCR idiot. Otherwise you're missing the revolution.
My best advice is to get yourself a small budget using the TOC arguments that keep flying past here on Slashdot.
What to buy:
1. Two or three used machines (P3s or so). One for a file/print server and two dummy workstations to connect to it.
2. Copies of two or three different distros that are specifically designed for this kind of thing.
I've chosen Xandros Business for my office here (I'm the CTO) since it still lets us run some small windows apps and is very "windows-ish" in feel. Read: Easy to switch. But you should compare at least two side by side. Maybe also Redhat or Suse. Make sure there is official support or else you'll tear out all of your hair while learning the ropes. Community supported distros are only good if you are already familiar with Linux on the desktop and know where to begin looking for help.
Basically, it shouldn't be more than $1-2k for a test. Then you can run internal focus groups, try opening critical office documents in OO etc.
Lastly, some companies will give away one or two copies if you ask them nicely. Xandros gave me 3 copies of Business Ed 2.0 at a trade show because I asked. They were giving Community Ed to everyone else. It convinced my team to switch and we bought the rest of the copies after we were sure.
If I borrow something from the library it's unlikely I'm going to want to borrow it again anyway (otherwise I would have bought it), the library isn't going to get anything more from me for that item, so why is expiring the audiobook necessary? Don't they trust me not to duplicate it and give it to others?
How is the library supposed to know that you won't use it twice or more? Many people would ask themselves: "If I can get this from the library for free and it won't ever expire, what incentive do I have to buy my own copy from another source?" and then proceed to borrow the item instead of buy it.
It's not that they don't trust you, it's that they can't trust everyone.
Lastly, why does everything DRM have to be about duplicating an item for friends and strangers? In this case I think it's an attempt to protect the sale of those copies that wouldn't be purchased at a store (as a result of enabling someone to "purchase" them at the library for free).
I think this is a legitimate use of DRM. DRM should be for renting things, not for "owning" them. iTunes are rented songs. They may not have a return date, but you can't sell them in a garage sale either.
Slashdot Mirror
Which is exactly why I used it instead of "sci-fi". I agree that Science fiction is better, but I'll use Heinlein's words to describe his own works. It's only fair.
It's true there are new features all of the time, but with version 2 of the API Google has stabilized the core of the system. Moreover, the authors acknowledge this "moving target" and have set up a dedicated site to act as an ongoing companion. If what I've seen so far is any indication they are dedicated to keeping all their readers up to date.
http://googlemapsbook.com/ if you're interested.
Having read a copy myself, the content is centered around the most commonly asked questions on the newsgroup. It takes the common pitfalls (misunderstanding AJAX, too much data, poor navigation, need for custom controls etc) and works them into a cohesive path that guides the reader forwards.
Basic maps are indeed simple and are covered in depth in the first 3 chapters, but this book goes on to cover dealing with hundreds of thousands of data points where the plain API chokes before 200.
Sure, much of this material is available online, but it takes time to find all the bits you need and it takes time to filter out all of the uninformed "answers" and tips. For $23 (Amazon's price) having all this research and experience compiled into a single book should be a no brainer. Surely you charge more than $23/hr for web development? I do. I'm sure it's saved me at least a dozen hours in the last two weeks, so I think it's a fine investment!
If $23 is too much, they are having a contest to give away a few copies of the book in the next few weeks. Check the companion site at http://googlemapsbook.com/contest if you want to try and win.
Many of the other most popular site-tracking systems also require this. Who do you trust more.. Google or statcounter.com or dynamicsitestats.com or somethingelsetotrackyou.com?
I'd pay relative to the IMDB score of the movie. This means that I wont' buy for at least 1 week for recent releases, and might pay less/more at a later date, but that's what a movie is worth to me. $5.50 for a 5.5/10 ro $9+ for something like The Godfather.
Plus it might encourage them to make more "good" movies. This however assumes that there is no way to tamper with a ranking on IMDB (which is not true ATM IRRC).
DRM: I'd also want to be able to copy it to my laptop for car-rides and have it on my PVR so that I can watch it as frequently as I want. Basically, so long as my "play-key" can be installed (and re-installed) on up to 4 computers, burned 2-3 times, and the play key is no longer required 10 years after purchase (it opens itself up), then I'd be happy. Though I doubt any studio would be happy with this "DRM".
(which are about 80% of an American dollar right now!)
I'd pay $1 for a previously unheard (by me) song. Another if I like it and keep it.
$2 for a "hit" or a "classic" song
$10 for a whole album of 10+ songs.
and $ for a movie (maximum of $10).
Me.
I got a basic computer (3Ghz) with 512 MB RAM and then added 4 things:
-2 hauppage PVR150's (dual tuners) ($95 CDN each)
-A Super-quiet fan ($65 CDN)
-A Cooler-Master case ($30 more than a standard beige one)
-SageTV ($80CDN)
Then I signed up for the CANADIAN guide from Zap2It and I'm done. Whole thing took about 3 hours after the computer was running. Used an old copy of Win2kPro, an Old Nvidia card for TV out via S-video, and an old copy of PCAnywhere for remote-control from other parts of the house (the PVR150's come with remotes for actually pressing play/pause/etc).
My Wife loves it and can't live without it. WE CAN watch the current channel, an Xvid, a recording etc while surfing the guide.. but we never surf the guide anymore. We set all our shows as favourites and just watch recordings and XVids.
It kicks ass.
I COMPLETELY AGREE!
SageTV is awesome. I just threw two Hauppage PVR 150's ($60 at Best Buy on sale) into an existing computer running Win2k and bought SageTV 2.x.
It kicks ass. It "just works". It plays Divx/Xvid and anything else that Media Player can play. The 150's each come with a remote that also "just works".
Sage can even be customized and extended by the user community.. best of all worlds IMHO.
Wife loves it too. No crashes, no quirks. the WAF is up to a solid 9/10 after 3 months!
*My Wife* likes the fact that she can search for a show she likes, set it as a favourite, and have it find (across all stations and times) all of the reruns and old episodes for her without ever recording the same episode twice. Plus it tracks which ones have been viewed and indexes what was recorded and when.
If your VHS tapes do all that then sure.. I must be a VCR idiot. Otherwise you're missing the revolution.
My best advice is to get yourself a small budget using the TOC arguments that keep flying past here on Slashdot.
What to buy:
1. Two or three used machines (P3s or so). One for a file/print server and two dummy workstations to connect to it.
2. Copies of two or three different distros that are specifically designed for this kind of thing.
I've chosen Xandros Business for my office here (I'm the CTO) since it still lets us run some small windows apps and is very "windows-ish" in feel. Read: Easy to switch. But you should compare at least two side by side. Maybe also Redhat or Suse. Make sure there is official support or else you'll tear out all of your hair while learning the ropes. Community supported distros are only good if you are already familiar with Linux on the desktop and know where to begin looking for help.
Basically, it shouldn't be more than $1-2k for a test. Then you can run internal focus groups, try opening critical office documents in OO etc.
Lastly, some companies will give away one or two copies if you ask them nicely. Xandros gave me 3 copies of Business Ed 2.0 at a trade show because I asked. They were giving Community Ed to everyone else. It convinced my team to switch and we bought the rest of the copies after we were sure.
How is the library supposed to know that you won't use it twice or more? Many people would ask themselves: "If I can get this from the library for free and it won't ever expire, what incentive do I have to buy my own copy from another source?" and then proceed to borrow the item instead of buy it.
It's not that they don't trust you, it's that they can't trust everyone.
Lastly, why does everything DRM have to be about duplicating an item for friends and strangers? In this case I think it's an attempt to protect the sale of those copies that wouldn't be purchased at a store (as a result of enabling someone to "purchase" them at the library for free).
I think this is a legitimate use of DRM. DRM should be for renting things, not for "owning" them. iTunes are rented songs. They may not have a return date, but you can't sell them in a garage sale either.