Packetfury.net

During my studies, I used to do temp work here and there to pay bills and to buy geeky stuff. Most people ended up, at one point or another, following builders and helping them on site. It taught me a lot, but it especially taught me one thing in particular, if you want to do a good job, you have to have good tools. You cannot do better than the tools you work with. Take care of them, because sooner or later, it will pay back. At first I thought that on building sites tools were just lying around, but it is not the case, far from it. Builders take extreme care of their tools, and pride themselves on their quality.

A few years later, and a long, long way from building sites, I still follow what they taught me. As far as tools go, I naturally use computers in various forms; keyboards, mice, screens, CPUs, etc, all need to be high quality. But that isn't all. Picasso once said that computers were useless, as they only give answers, and true knowledge was contained in books. I've tried a few editors, and there are a lot of good books out there, but as far as complete series go, nothing in my opinion beats O'Reilly. Physically, their books are of the highest quality, and my oldest book is probably close to ten years old, but you can't distinguish it from the others. They have been tortured, being taken on trains, planes, boats and other forms of transport. They have been moved from flat to flat over the last five years. As far as content goes, I haven't found better. All of their books have the same layout, despite an amazing number of authors. Each author is an expert in his domain, and is passionate about the way he transmits his knowledge. They are backed up by solid examples, be it in programming, real-world physical examples or use cases. Another thing that I really love about O'Reilly is their eBook philosophy. I have a collection of about 10 eBooks now from them, they are DRM-free, meaning I can put them directly on any device. They are available at any time on their website, in several formats; PDF, ePub, Kindle, etc. I am warned when an update is available, and their web interface is as easy to use as it gets. But O'Reilly doesn't stop there, their website is full of information, training, web seminars and videos.

So, when O'Reilly gave me the chance to review some of their books, I jumped on the occasion. I didn't even think about it, I just clicked on "Yes". My first book should be available soon, and I can't wait to get my hands on it. More to follow soon!