Re: [sage-devel] Re: Statistics on Printouts of open source Sage books
Thanks William and Rob for your feedback! Cheers, Nicolas -- Nicolas M. Thiéry "Isil" http://Nicolas.Thiery.name/ -- To post to this group, send an email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to sage-devel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URL: http://www.sagemath.org
Re: [sage-devel] Re: Statistics on Printouts of open source Sage books
On Tue, 20 Dec 2011 at 01:22PM -0800, Justin C. Walker wrote: > I didn't try this time (it's a pain to hamstring the proxy setup), but > in the past, I've had no joy trying to get to content on SpringerLink > w/o some institution's subscription backing me up (I guess they use > reverse DNS lookup to verify your network address is within a paying > institution's "pale"). I hope no one from Springer is reading this, but if you have a shell account inside a university with a SpringerLink subscription (*cough* sage.math *cough cough*), just do ssh -D -N machine.inside.uni.edu and then in Firefox's preferences, go Advanced -> Network -> Connection and put 127.0.0.1 as your SOCKS host, with port . (Other browsers work similarly, I'm sure.) I find that very simple and easy, and I use it from home when I want to access journals and such. There's even probably a Firefox add-on that will switch those things and run ssh for you. Dan -- --- Dan Drake - http://mathsci.kaist.ac.kr/~drake --- signature.asc Description: Digital signature
[sage-devel] Re: Statistics on Printouts of open source Sage books
Hi Nicolas, > This thread is definitely targeting William and Rob :-) I just checked and now I see the bulls-eye on my back. So my linear algebra textbook sells around 100 physical copies per year right now. I am less than satisfied with my print-on-demand supplier as they have made marketing the book even harder than my own lack of skill in that department would indicate. Before Amazon shut down their "Honor System" payment service, I would regularly receive donations (usually around $5 each) through that avenue. (If anybody knows a good system for international donations/micro-payments by credit card, besides PayPal, I would dearly love to hear about it. So far Dwolla is not working out for me.) I hope to make some changes in the next 6 months that will translate to more purchases, just so I can provide appealing answers to queries like this one. Website for the book gets about 300 visitors a day, closing in hard on one million page-views lifetime. [1] Tom Judson's abstract algebra book [2], which I am very involved with, sells as a very attractive hardcover on Amazon for about $20 (~400 pages). This is arranged easily through the more professional print- on-demand service Lighting Source International [3]. There were some quality control problems this fall, but hopefully those have been resolved. This was all arranged by Lon Mitchell - a nice illustration of the advantages of *not* using a non-commercial clause on a book. I will see if I can get sales figures from Lon, and communicate that to you (on- or off-list). That's most of what I know. Evolving essays on the subject at [4]. Rob [1] http://linear.ups.edu [2] http://abstract.ups.edu [3] http://lightningsource.com/ [4] http://www.beezers.org/blog/bb/ -- To post to this group, send an email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to sage-devel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URL: http://www.sagemath.org
Re: [sage-devel] Re: Statistics on Printouts of open source Sage books
On Dec 20, 2011, at 12:00 , William Stein wrote: > On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 11:40 AM, Justin C. Walker wrote: >> >> On Dec 20, 2011, at 11:25 , William Stein wrote: >> >>> On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 1:02 AM, Nicolas M. Thiery >>> wrote: Thanks everyone for your feedback so far. >> [snip] >>> It seems like Springer maybe also provides the whole book for free to >>> "read online" for anybody here, though I'm not sure: >>> >>> http://www.springerlink.com/content/978-0-387-85525-7#section=132527&page=1 >> >> FWIW, I think that SpringerLink is not open for "anybody". It's >> subscription-based. Presumably, if, e.g., your university library >> subscribes, and you connect from there, you can see/read what's provided. >> If you try it from off-campus, unless you go through a university proxy >> server, you will have to log in to SpringerLink. >> >> At least, that's my experience. > > Speaking of *experience*, did you try the link I posted above? I'm > off campus using a random browser, and that link works fine for me, > showing my whole book evidently for free. If I were to login > through a campus proxy thing, then I get a different URL entirely, but > I also get extra privileges, e.g., the ability to download pdf's of > chapters. I didn't try this time (it's a pain to hamstring the proxy setup), but in the past, I've had no joy trying to get to content on SpringerLink w/o some institution's subscription backing me up (I guess they use reverse DNS lookup to verify your network address is within a paying institution's "pale"). Justin -- Justin C. Walker, Curmudgeon-At-Large Institute for the Absorption of Federal Funds If you're not confused, You're not paying attention -- To post to this group, send an email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to sage-devel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URL: http://www.sagemath.org
Re: [sage-devel] Re: Statistics on Printouts of open source Sage books
On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 12:07 PM, Jason Grout wrote: > On 12/20/11 2:00 PM, William Stein wrote: >> >> On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 11:40 AM, Justin C. Walker wrote: >>> >>> >>> On Dec 20, 2011, at 11:25 , William Stein wrote: >>> On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 1:02 AM, Nicolas M. Thiery wrote: > > Thanks everyone for your feedback so far. >>> >>> [snip] It seems like Springer maybe also provides the whole book for free to "read online" for anybody here, though I'm not sure: http://www.springerlink.com/content/978-0-387-85525-7#section=132527&page=1 >>> >>> >>> FWIW, I think that SpringerLink is not open for "anybody". It's >>> subscription-based. Presumably, if, e.g., your university library >>> subscribes, and you connect from there, you can see/read what's provided. >>> If you try it from off-campus, unless you go through a university proxy >>> server, you will have to log in to SpringerLink. >>> >>> At least, that's my experience. >> >> >> Speaking of *experience*, did you try the link I posted above? I'm >> off campus using a random browser, and that link works fine for me, >> showing my whole book evidently for free. If I were to login >> through a campus proxy thing, then I get a different URL entirely, but >> I also get extra privileges, e.g., the ability to download pdf's of >> chapters. > > > I can see the first few pages of each chapter, but they made it impossible > to read any more than that. If I click "Download PDF", I get a message: > Access to this content is restricted to subscribers. Options for obtaining > access are below. > Ahh, so that is what they do. I wish they would list my website as an option to obtain access. Or just give away the pdf of my book to anybody. I'll talk with Springer about this at the AMS meeting. Maybe they can feature my book as free-er than the rest. -- William > Jason > > > > > -- > To post to this group, send an email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com > To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to > sage-devel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel > URL: http://www.sagemath.org -- William Stein Professor of Mathematics University of Washington http://wstein.org -- To post to this group, send an email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to sage-devel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URL: http://www.sagemath.org
[sage-devel] Re: Statistics on Printouts of open source Sage books
On 12/20/11 2:00 PM, William Stein wrote: On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 11:40 AM, Justin C. Walker wrote: On Dec 20, 2011, at 11:25 , William Stein wrote: On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 1:02 AM, Nicolas M. Thiery wrote: Thanks everyone for your feedback so far. [snip] It seems like Springer maybe also provides the whole book for free to "read online" for anybody here, though I'm not sure: http://www.springerlink.com/content/978-0-387-85525-7#section=132527&page=1 FWIW, I think that SpringerLink is not open for "anybody". It's subscription-based. Presumably, if, e.g., your university library subscribes, and you connect from there, you can see/read what's provided. If you try it from off-campus, unless you go through a university proxy server, you will have to log in to SpringerLink. At least, that's my experience. Speaking of *experience*, did you try the link I posted above? I'm off campus using a random browser, and that link works fine for me, showing my whole book evidently for free. If I were to login through a campus proxy thing, then I get a different URL entirely, but I also get extra privileges, e.g., the ability to download pdf's of chapters. I can see the first few pages of each chapter, but they made it impossible to read any more than that. If I click "Download PDF", I get a message: Access to this content is restricted to subscribers. Options for obtaining access are below. Jason -- To post to this group, send an email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to sage-devel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URL: http://www.sagemath.org
Re: [sage-devel] Re: Statistics on Printouts of open source Sage books
On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 11:40 AM, Justin C. Walker wrote: > > On Dec 20, 2011, at 11:25 , William Stein wrote: > >> On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 1:02 AM, Nicolas M. Thiery >> wrote: >>> Thanks everyone for your feedback so far. > [snip] >> It seems like Springer maybe also provides the whole book for free to >> "read online" for anybody here, though I'm not sure: >> >> http://www.springerlink.com/content/978-0-387-85525-7#section=132527&page=1 > > FWIW, I think that SpringerLink is not open for "anybody". It's > subscription-based. Presumably, if, e.g., your university library > subscribes, and you connect from there, you can see/read what's provided. If > you try it from off-campus, unless you go through a university proxy server, > you will have to log in to SpringerLink. > > At least, that's my experience. Speaking of *experience*, did you try the link I posted above? I'm off campus using a random browser, and that link works fine for me, showing my whole book evidently for free. If I were to login through a campus proxy thing, then I get a different URL entirely, but I also get extra privileges, e.g., the ability to download pdf's of chapters. William -- To post to this group, send an email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to sage-devel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URL: http://www.sagemath.org
Re: [sage-devel] Re: Statistics on Printouts of open source Sage books
On Dec 20, 2011, at 11:25 , William Stein wrote: > On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 1:02 AM, Nicolas M. Thiery > wrote: >> Thanks everyone for your feedback so far. [snip] > It seems like Springer maybe also provides the whole book for free to > "read online" for anybody here, though I'm not sure: > > http://www.springerlink.com/content/978-0-387-85525-7#section=132527&page=1 FWIW, I think that SpringerLink is not open for "anybody". It's subscription-based. Presumably, if, e.g., your university library subscribes, and you connect from there, you can see/read what's provided. If you try it from off-campus, unless you go through a university proxy server, you will have to log in to SpringerLink. At least, that's my experience. Justin -- Justin C. Walker, Curmudgeon-At-Large Institute for the Enhancement of the Director's Income When LuteFisk is outlawed, Only outlaws will have LuteFisk -- To post to this group, send an email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to sage-devel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URL: http://www.sagemath.org
Re: [sage-devel] Re: Statistics on Printouts of open source Sage books
On Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 1:02 AM, Nicolas M. Thiery wrote: > Thanks everyone for your feedback so far. > > On Mon, Dec 19, 2011 at 06:21:29PM -0800, kcrisman wrote: >> Could you find information for her more generally about such books? >> There are a lot of programming and other tutorial books which are >> released thus, if I recall correctly, but which people still want >> print copies of. > > Yup, though how well this works certainly depends a lot on the kind of > readers. Hence her specific interest for Sage books (she already has > edited a CC book about R. Stallman). > >> One could even ask William about whether Springer is still getting >> people to buy copies of his book, or ask Rob Beezer about how many >> "hard copies" of his book are sold yearly... > > This thread is definitely targeting William and Rob :-) My book http://wstein.org/ent/ has lots of Sage code in it, has been freely available for a few years in PDF, and is also published by Springer-Verlag. The book has sold at least "several hundred" copies a year. I don't have the figures handy at all though. The *new* hardcover price for my book on Amazon has varied between $22 and $26, ever since it came out, and the hard cover version looks really nice. So this may be one factor in why it sells. It seems like Springer maybe also provides the whole book for free to "read online" for anybody here, though I'm not sure: http://www.springerlink.com/content/978-0-387-85525-7#section=132527&page=1 NOTE: This book is not published under an open license. Instead, Springer gave me the right to freely distribute the pdf of the book one year after the publication date. That's all. I've tried to get them to do this again with another book I'm writing, and sadly so far I have failed. -- William > > Cheers, > Nicolas > -- > Nicolas M. Thiéry "Isil" > http://Nicolas.Thiery.name/ > > -- > To post to this group, send an email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com > To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to > sage-devel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel > URL: http://www.sagemath.org -- William Stein Professor of Mathematics University of Washington http://wstein.org -- To post to this group, send an email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to sage-devel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URL: http://www.sagemath.org
Re: [sage-devel] Re: Statistics on Printouts of open source Sage books
Thanks everyone for your feedback so far. On Mon, Dec 19, 2011 at 06:21:29PM -0800, kcrisman wrote: > Could you find information for her more generally about such books? > There are a lot of programming and other tutorial books which are > released thus, if I recall correctly, but which people still want > print copies of. Yup, though how well this works certainly depends a lot on the kind of readers. Hence her specific interest for Sage books (she already has edited a CC book about R. Stallman). > One could even ask William about whether Springer is still getting > people to buy copies of his book, or ask Rob Beezer about how many > "hard copies" of his book are sold yearly... This thread is definitely targeting William and Rob :-) Cheers, Nicolas -- Nicolas M. Thiéry "Isil" http://Nicolas.Thiery.name/ -- To post to this group, send an email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to sage-devel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URL: http://www.sagemath.org
[sage-devel] Re: Statistics on Printouts of open source Sage books
On Dec 19, 9:18 pm, David Joyner wrote: > On Mon, Dec 19, 2011 at 6:42 PM, Nicolas M. Thiery > > wrote: > > Dear Sage book writers, > > > I am negotiating with an editor for a printed version of the French > > sage book [1]. She is quite supportive of the project, and it's on a > > good track! Yet, she is taking a risk with the printing of a book > > whose online version is under an open CC license. In order to assess > > more precisely that risk, she would be interested in some statistics > > on the printed versions of other open source books about Sage. For Could you find information for her more generally about such books? There are a lot of programming and other tutorial books which are released thus, if I recall correctly, but which people still want print copies of. One could even ask William about whether Springer is still getting people to buy copies of his book, or ask Rob Beezer about how many "hard copies" of his book are sold yearly... - kcrisman -- To post to this group, send an email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to sage-devel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URL: http://www.sagemath.org
