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Panther edition of Mac OS X Hints book released... Site News
Mac OS X Power Hound Panther Edition: Teach Yourself New TricksYes, it's true -- most authors have very little say in the titles of their books. As evidence, I introduce the image at left :). Let's just say that O'Reilly and I had a disagreement over the new branding strategy for the book, and that in the end, we agreed to disagree (insert "Don't judge a book by its cover" joke here). As such, the official title of the new book, as seen at left, is "Mac OS X Power Hound Panther Edition." According to O'Reilly, it should be available in various bookstores today, and it's also listed at Amazon, though they don't show it as currently shipping. And yes, it's now part of a "family," as you'll also see a "Windows XP Power Hound." For the record, I had absolutely nothing to do with that book...

For those who haven't been around here very long, this book is basically a "best of Mac OS X Hints." The first book, Mac OS X Hints Jaguar Edition (what a nice simple name!) came out in 2003, with about 550 hints in it. The new book had to drop some non-Panther-applicable hints (label hints? who needs 'em!), but we also added probably 175 new hints, so there are now something like 680 hints in the new edition -- all for the same list price as the first edition. The book is not simply a republication of the hints from the site (but every hint in the book does appear on the site, somewhere). Every hint is written from scratch, with added detail and screenshots (over 400 of them), and then tested and proofed by multiple people -- which means, of course, that there are still errors in the text :).

Read on for more about the book and its production ... as well as an explanatory note for the (probably inevitable) "Hey, that's not fair -- you're getting rich on the work of others!" comments that may appear here...

I'll start by saying that if you read the site every day, then you really don't "need" the book. As stated above, there are no new hints in the book that you can't find here. The book is much better organized than is the site, making it easier to find the relevant hints. But this book is really targeted at those who don't visit every day, and want to get the most out of their OS X machines. However, if you feel like supporting my efforts and the site by purchasing a copy, I certainly won't stop you :) (if you use this Amazon link, I'll make a bit for the referral, too)



About "Getting rich on the work of others!" comments:
If you're going to post a comment along these lines, please read this section first. The first observation is that nobody gets rich (with maybe one or two notable exceptions) writing Mac books. To give you some sense of the market, both of the figures in the following quote greatly exceed what a typical "junior" author such as myself might make on a single Mac book over the course of a year: "According to the 2000 census, for example, the median income of an American man with a college degree was about $52,200, 60 percent higher than the $31,600 for those with a high school degree." (source: NY Times, August 10, 2004). Making a decent living as a Mac author requires more than one book a year, and certainly more than a book every 1.5 years, which is my current rate :).

Second, it's important to note that anyone can do what I just did. Really. The macosxhints.com database is fully searchable. And though the specific language and code snippets within the system are copyright of the original poster (with a granted license to use by macosxhints.com), the knowledge contained in those hints cannot be copyrighted: there is no copyright on the knowledge that dragging a file onto the Mail icon on the dock will open a new message with an attachment. Even though I have a granted right to use the actual language published here, you'll find that there is basically none of it used in the book. I wrote everything from scratch, as the target audience and delivery media are entirely different. Anyone else could do exactly the same if they took the time and made the effort; they just can't use writing verbatim that they do not have the rights to use.



OK, with that out of the way ... I thought, going in, that publishing an update to the book would be much easier than was writing the whole book the first time. In some ways, it was easier (chapter layouts were done, and I obviously had the full text of the first booK). However, in many ways it was harder -- Panther changed just enough stuff that nearly every hint had to be tweaked in some way. In addition, I had to re-shoot every single screenshot, as Apple changed the appearance of the interface, and on the Unix front, tcsh was replaced by bash. So it was a complicated process, and I spent roughly the same amount of time on it as I did on the first book, just on different tasks.

While the writing in this book is mine, the book itself wouldn't exist without the efforts of David Pogue, Adam Goldstein, and Kirk McElhearn, who singlehandedly tackled the rewrite of both Unix chapters -- and though he's an experienced bash user, I'm sure he was tired of Apple's tcsh-to-bash migration by the time he was done editing and writing! In addition, there's a huge production team behind the scenes who turn a simple Word document and 400 screenshots into the final production that is a published book. They are the true magicians in this process; my hat is off to the production team for another first-class effort!

So thanks to everyone that helped turn the concept into the reality of a second book, and a big thank you to those who bought the first book. Clearly, without your support, there would not have been a second book.

-rob.
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Panther edition of Mac OS X Hints book released...
Authored by: Anidel on Sep 25, '04 04:00:53AM

You are really a nice person.


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Anidel



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Panther edition of Mac OS X Hints book released...
Authored by: terryboy on Sep 25, '04 03:28:23PM

Dogs are not allowed to ride motorcycles in my state.

Rob does a fantastic job with this site. I hope the book is a success.

---
patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings



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Panther edition of Mac OS X Hints book released...
Authored by: kirkmc on Sep 25, '04 03:35:46PM

Where I live they can ride motorcycles, as long as they wear helmets...

---
Read my blog: Kirkville -- http://www.mcelhearn.com
Musings, Opinion and Miscellanea, on Macs, iPods and more



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Panther edition of Mac OS X Hints book released...
Authored by: gourls on Sep 25, '04 06:17:50PM
Yo- I love this site, but I agree, a book is easier to understand. Thanks Rob. You are a nice person.

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School is a hard life.........you had better believe it.

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Panther edition of Mac OS X Hints book released...
Authored by: nmerriam on Sep 25, '04 04:18:40AM

Power Hound? Eck! :)



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Congratulations! and best wishes.
Authored by: macmath on Sep 25, '04 04:59:39AM

Congratulations and best wishes on the success of this volume (and that it overcomes its name). I see this volume not so much as vehicle for you or your pocketbook, but as a vehicle for the platform and the site.
A) It puts the name "Mac OS X" out on the bookshelves and helps offset the boatload of "Windows" books.
B) It brings these hints and the power of the platform to people who would not otherwise have access to them. [As difficult as it is for us to believe, not everyone opens the MacOSXHints page first thing each morning and for each coffeebreak.] The more people who can be brought to this level of usage of Mac OS X [I'm at a loss for a term here....oh yeah, the PowerHound level :-) ] the better it is for the platform. Besides giving them more reason to stay with the Macintosh, they can better respond to the crowd who derides the Macintosh as a plaything platform.
C) It will likely bring others to the site to contribute their hints.

Those who will post that you are making money off of the work of others fall into (at least) two categories, the begrudgers and those who truly love the free-sharing aspect of the computer community. The latter people really should not be too upset since that aspect still exists here and is not changed by the book*. They'd probably also admit that the hints are now being brought to a greater audience than before...in a sense still being shared for free with the price of the book paying for paper and publishing costs and the value you added with the rewriting. Afterall, those buying the book would not get the hints otherwise (unless either they're buying the book to support you and therefore the site or they need the value-added book form of the hint). As for the begrudgers, these people's lives are burdened already by their disposition and maybe having another outlet to begrudge someone something is therapeutic for them. [I'm kind of thinking of those sea gulls in <i>Finding Nemo</i>.]

*While it might scare off hints from the few who won't share a hint if they think it might be used in a book, it may very well attract hints from those who have become aware of the site by reading the book.



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Panther edition of Mac OS X Hints book released...
Authored by: Anonymous on Sep 25, '04 05:08:51AM
Moof!

Says the Mac OS X power hound/cow clarus

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Panther edition of Mac OS X Hints book released...
Authored by: wgscott on Sep 25, '04 07:05:24AM

I've found the site to be an invaluable source of knowledge, right along with books I paid > $50 for (like OS X unleashed). That alone warrants buying the book. If you took the hints off line and then sold them, I might cry foul, but the information is on line for free, and people pay for the convenience of having a book on the shelf to reach for. I have no problem with that whatsoever. In the unlikely event one of my hints made it in, I would be honored, not annoyed. I think you have nothing to apologize for, and am sorry if you have been getting snippy comments. There are far more of us who quietly appreciate this resource but aren't of the personality type that generally writes our laundry detergent company to tell them how much they like the product.

If this book helps you to keep the site going or to buy your kid a few toys, so much the better.



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Panther edition of Mac OS X Hints book released...
Authored by: faochris on Sep 25, '04 08:49:50AM

That is great. I am happy to see a Panther addition. Thanks so much.

---
iMac-G4-PowerBook-4GiPod



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Panther edition of Mac OS X Hints book released...
Authored by: kirkmc on Sep 25, '04 09:02:46AM

Another comment on the "getting rich" meme. Rob says that it takes more than one book a year to make a living; well, take it from me: you need at least 4 a year, plus additional writing work, to make a living. Unless you get a real best-seller, of course, but in the computer book business, this is rare.

Sigh...

---
Read my blog: Kirkville -- http://www.mcelhearn.com
Musings, Opinion and Miscellanea, on Macs, iPods and more



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Details! I need details!
Authored by: jhf on Sep 25, '04 02:44:38PM

I've entertained the notion of writing a computer book and trying to get it pubished before. Out of curiosity, where do you live, and what do you consider "a living"? The ability to rent a flat in New York and afford a new G5? :-)



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Details! I need details!
Authored by: kirkmc on Sep 25, '04 03:22:28PM

Heh... You're asking the atypical person. I live in a village in the French Alps.

The living I make would not pay for an apartment in NYC, but it allows me to live comfortably here - by comfortable, I don't mean extravagant.

See where I live by checking out my blog (see my sig below).

Kirk

---
Read my blog: Kirkville -- http://www.mcelhearn.com
Musings, Opinion and Miscellanea, on Macs, iPods and more



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Details! I need details!
Authored by: gourls on Sep 25, '04 06:19:50PM
Kirk- How do you get Internet in the French Alps?

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School is a hard life.........you had better believe it.

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title
Authored by: daybrother on Sep 26, '04 01:25:37AM
"Power"? Why is every market person obsessed with the word "Power"? How about "Smart" or "Time Saving"? Hey, good luck with the book. Anyone who wants to do the work has a chance; (and I mean work). I hope you sell a million!

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Details! I need details!
Authored by: david-bo on Sep 26, '04 05:29:10AM

I also live in the french alpes (La Grave), at least during the winter, and I use GPRS to connect to internet. Works very well!

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http://www.google.com/search?as_q=%22Authored+by%3A+david-bo%22&num=10&hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&btnG=



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Details! I need details!
Authored by: kirkmc on Sep 26, '04 08:09:34AM

Hey, David, we're almost neighbors - I'm in Guillestre, about a half-hour south of Briancon...

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Read my blog: Kirkville -- http://www.mcelhearn.com
Musings, Opinion and Miscellanea, on Macs, iPods and more



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Details! I need details!
Authored by: kirkmc on Sep 26, '04 08:08:17AM

Not only Internet, but 2 mbps ADSL. :-)

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Read my blog: Kirkville -- http://www.mcelhearn.com
Musings, Opinion and Miscellanea, on Macs, iPods and more



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Panther edition of Mac OS X Hints book released...
Authored by: dirtymouse on Sep 26, '04 08:06:24AM

good luck to you rob if you do get rich. your site has saved me many hours searching for elusive information.

i suspect you'll be asked to write more books and your time will become even more precious.

keep it at one book every 1.5 years and enjoy what you do.


- dirtymouse

---
Author of "fix a troubled Mac'
(A Macintosh Troubleshooting PDF book)



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But you haven't answered the most important question!
Authored by: porkchop_d_clown on Sep 25, '04 10:36:00AM

Which is

"Am I still in it?"

;-)

Congrats on getting the new edition out - and don't sweat the cover, I'm sure they'll change it againn for the Tiger edition.

:-D

---
Everyone loves a clown, but no one will lend him money!



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Panther edition of Mac OS X Hints book released...
Authored by: donfarrar on Sep 25, '04 02:36:38PM

Power Hound? Does this mean that you can lick your own balls?



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Panther edition of Mac OS X Hints book released...
Authored by: robg on Sep 27, '04 03:17:54PM

What happens in the doghouse, stays in the doghouse :)

-rob.



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Panther edition of Mac OS X Hints book released...
Authored by: pete on Sep 26, '04 07:02:08AM
Hey Rob...

   Congrats on the new book! Great timing too, as I am finally going to kill off the Jaguar and move on up to Panther soon. I've always found interesting hints in here, and having it all in one book will be convenient!


Pete

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One minor quibble...
Authored by: CarlRJ on Sep 26, '04 02:32:21PM

... which likely no-one will ever read.

Uh, okay, it's a rant, I'll just call it what it is...

<rant>

Apple DID NOT REPLACE tcsh with bash.

Mac OS X is Unix (okay, "Unix-like", we'll sidestep licensing issues). Unix has always had the notion that users may choose their preferred command shell. It's one of the bits of information about users that's been recorded in /etc/passwd since the dawn of time().

Apple did NOT install bash, remove tcsh, rewrite all the scripts in their system, and decree that tcsh never existed and that bash has always been the One True Shell. But you might get this impression from the way that some users talk of the Great Change.

Apple changed the default for the prompt about which shell to assign to newly created users. The way that people infer some Significant Change from this ("therefore we must all change..."), is right up there with the practice of reading tea leaves to intuit what the Gods want us mortals to do.

</rant>

Thank you for letting me get that out of my system.

Oh, and robg should register macosxpowerhound.com asap, and point it at macosxhints.com.



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One minor quibble...
Authored by: kirkmc on Sep 26, '04 02:57:24PM

You could say that Apple "replaced" the default shell assignment; which is exactly what they did. The problem occurs for users who do a clean install, and open Terminal only to find a $ instead of a %, and who then do things that don't work.

You're right, but the details aren't important.

Re the domain name... Have you gone to powerhounds.com? :-)

Kirk

---
Read my blog: Kirkville -- http://www.mcelhearn.com
Musings, Opinion and Miscellanea, on Macs, iPods and more



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One minor quibble...
Authored by: robg on Sep 26, '04 04:42:40PM

Kirk has the description right of what I was trying to convey :). I completely agree that Apple made no such fundamental switch in OS X. But they did flip a simple switch which basically made affected many of the Unix hints on the site (and in the book).

As you point out, what made it even more interesting is that existing users shells were left alone. While this is as it should be, it certainly led to some interesting tech support discussions, at least for me (as I was still using tcsh).

And good idea on macosxpowerhound; it's now registered and should point here shortly :).

regards;
-rob.



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My special offer
Authored by: pianojoe on Sep 26, '04 06:21:23PM

Talking about earnings from creative work... This is one great book! I'll give you $16 for just the PDF!



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Panther edition of Mac OS X Hints book released...
Authored by: jimhill on Sep 26, '04 10:47:08PM

A couple of points:

First, congratulations on getting the second edition out the door.

Second, thanks for letting us know that you haven't gone completely bonky with a self-selected new title.

Third, you should auction autographed copies for the hospital like you did with the first edition.

Fourth, every single person who read your comments and is reading this needs to deliver a Bessemer-process-quality message to the editors at the New York Times. High schools do not confer degrees, dammit, and any editor worth his weight in armpits would know that the document one receives after high school is a diploma.

Fifth, go back and re-read the fourth point. It merits being made twice.

Sixth, I like enumerated lists.

Seventh, I am done.

Eighth, thank you for reading.

---
Mac OS X: Because making UNIX simple is easier than debugging Windows.



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Panther edition of Mac OS X Hints book released...
Authored by: force_quit on Sep 27, '04 10:53:37AM
I think the cover is sweet. Of course I have two dogs, hounds even. Okay I might be a little biased...

It is a little silly and not what I typically expect from O'Reilly. But it is a hound!

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So, when are you going to have a book signing in PDX?
Authored by: Fanglord on Sep 27, '04 01:53:53PM

Us local folk want to know!



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Panther edition of Mac OS X Hints book released...
Authored by: imageworx on Sep 27, '04 02:39:40PM

Wonderful!

As for exploiting our contributions...well...its an argument without merit because:

-you provide the forum
-web servers are not cheap and so far, our contributions are free..for all.
-I doubt you'll get filthy rich...the laws of averages will keep that in check
-you are not charging for access and do edit and participate.

I don't contribute (feedback and questions mostly) as much as I'd like. Not for fear that Rob will incorporate it into a resource book, but that many are wiser or contribute first. ;)
But I will say that I was a top 50 contributor at another Mac "bomb" site (obvious hint) and was very upset at the attitude of the site, its admins and the quick merger with Versiontracker (oops...I mentioned someone). I have since forgone providing help and tips (that did use my time to solve) to that site as they began charging for subscriptions. And I disagree that the "subscription" model will work for a forum based on users contributions.

I still contribute and actively read MacInTouch, MacUpdate, MacOSXHints, xlr8yourmac, and MacSurfers News. Information should remain a free resource. How its packaged, well, that is an option.

The best to you Rob and don't fret on the cover...it is the content that does it justice! :)

---
To BeOS or Not to BeOS



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Panther edition of Mac OS X Hints book released...
Authored by: thevil on Sep 27, '04 05:56:34PM

Rob, congrats on the new book being published. Thanks for one of the best mac-sites on the web.

I know I'll enjoy reading the new book even though I visit the site almost daily.

Again, thanks for all the work and the effort and for keeping Mac OS X Hints one of the best sites in the mac-universe.



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Congratulations
Authored by: jonahlee on Sep 30, '04 03:55:05PM

Congratulations! I ordered the new edition from Amazon.

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- Jonah Lee



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