"Howard C. Berkowitz" wrote:
>
> Amen. One of the realities of publishing is that even if it were
> possible to have enough reviews to catch every error, the book would
> be far more expensive and would come out too late to be useful. Even
> if the book were "precise," how does the author deal with situations
> where the Cisco material from which it is drawn is obsolete or wrong?
> For that matter, errors do find their way into RFCs, and are
> corrected in future editions.
>
> >Wouldn't it be better to
> >write - "Dear Author... I don't know if you know this
> >but I think page 43 has a mistake. Could you comment
> >on this?" I wrote all 13 chapters of CID, and yet I
> >would never claim that it was entirely my product.
>
I can't resist passing along Terry Slattery's response on the topic of
errors in books, submitted to the comp.dcom.sys.cisco newsgroup back on
7/5/99:
--------------------
It is interesting that you quote Knuth's book. It was the model that Bill
Burton and I used for our Quality Challenge in _Advanced IP Routing in Cisco
Networks_. We pay $1 per error and send a certificate which lists all the
bugs you find (some folks have found several).
It's really hard to make a 500 page book perfect. We're up to 160 bugs on our
web site: http://www.ccci.com/books and I still have about a dozen more to
process. We're a bit behind in sending out the certificates and award, but
they will all be sent. [I'm spending a *lot* of time doing software for the
MentorLabs vLab(sm) Cisco remote lab system.] Fortunately, most of our bugs
were typographical.
It is gratifying that people will send bug reports. We used a web page that
lists them so we don't get repeated submissions of the same bug. The only
problem is when the we didn't clearly understand the bug and provide the
correct fix the first time. Thanks to the really smart readers, we quickly
identified the real fix.
We've fixed all 160 bugs in the latest submission to McGrawHill and I think
they will all be fixed in the 4th printing.
-tcs
ps. Knuth's reward was $2.56 (hint: it isn't a coincidental figure). I know
someone who received a check from Knuth and framed it. He probably sent out a
number of checks that were never cashed. So even Knuth didn't make it with
no bugs.
> I disagree with you (2.- No book is ever 100% correct.......)
> "Fundamental Algorithms, The Art of Computing Programming, Vol 1. Donald
> E. Knuth, on the preface at the botton "I will gladly pay $2.00 reward to
> the first finder of each remaining error, whether it is technical,
> typographical, or historical."
>
> i don't mind receive $2.00 per error, from Gilles' books :-)
>
> On Mon, 5 Apr 1999, Michael Salvagno wrote:
>
> > Date: Mon, 05 Apr 1999 06:42:04 PDT
> > From: Michael Salvagno <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED],
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > Subject: Re: Cisco CCIE Study Guide
> >
> > Jack,
> >
> > After reading your eloquent request, I have to disagree that a free
> > book should be send to you by McGraw-Hill.
> >
> > Why?
> >
> > 1. Everyone that purchased the first book did so under the assumption
> > that they would learn and get a jump on Cisco knowledge. (I know that I
> > did) The fact that you are aware of numerous errors, points to the
> > assumption that some learning did take place. In fact if you do see the
> > errors you are well on your way to mastering the material.
> >
> > 2. No book is ever 100% correct. I would think that it is assumed by the
> > those that write that "out to press quicker" is what the public wants
> > rather than getting all the details perfect (which will never happen).
> > If the book publisher did not care about technical details, an errata
> > would never have been published.
> >
> >
> > I do think that possibly a scenario much like software upgrades would be
> > better. When you purchase a technical book, you receive a code that will
> > allow you to upgrade to a later revision at a reduced price.
> > But getting a free book or demanding one puts undue financial contraints
> > on the book publisher and author.
> >
> > This is just my opinion, and stated as such I do not in any way
> > represent McGraw Hill.
> >
> > Best Regards,
> > Mike Salvagno
> >
> > =========
> >
> >
> > Dear Gentlemen,
> >
> > "...Some time ago I purchased Giles' book mentioned in the subject line
> > above. I must say, I am very disappointed in the number of errors I
> > found. I appreciate the fact that your publishing company recently
> > posted Updates and Errata on your website. However, there are so many
> > errors, it is a painstaking process making the changes--it is no wonder
> > a second publication is being made..."
--
Terry Slattery CCIE# 1026
Chesapeake Computer Consultants, Inc.
410-280-8840, ext 3021; Fax 410-280-8859
[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.ccci.com
------------------
- Marty
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