4 ms·

Just glue an envelope with a CD to the backcover, this is what people were doing before your fancy internets became a thing. But really, if you a writing a boo

by oytis 3y ago

Just glue an envelope with a CD to the backcover, this is what people were doing before your fancy internets became a thing. But really, if you a writing a book on a modern language, and your code has external dependencies, chances are it will not build 5 years forward, even if there are no URLs directly in the book.

InfiniteRand 3y ago
Is it feasible to attach a usb drive to a book these days?
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- bdw5204 3y ago
  A cheap USB drive sells for under $10 and you can seal a book in plastic so I'd imagine it'd be feasible to just add the $5-$10 to the price of the book. People who buy books, especially programming books, generally aren't very price sensitive anyway.
  - hoherd 3y ago
    A book with a usb port on it to download data contained within the book would be so cyberpunk. If we can have potato chips that play music[1], we can have a book with built in storage. 1. https://web.archive.org/web/20190516225905/https://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/tv-film/7775028/doritos-marvel-partner-for-guardians-of-the-galaxy-vol-2-promotion?utm_source=twitter https://web.archive.org/web/20190516225905/https://www.billb...
    - cyberpunk 3y ago
      It's taking me forever to upgrade all my dead tree books to usb-c, to be fair.
  - Zobat 3y ago
    Can we attach an attack vector to the book cover? Sure. I wouldn't let that USB anywhere near my computer if I'd bought it let alone a library copy of it. I'm with the author on this one. Any code needed to for it be useful should be printed in the book (perhaps complete code in an appendix rather than right there in the chapter). That said I haven't bought a programming book in years.
    - marcosdumay 3y ago
      The universal nature of USB is a huge drawback for its usage for storage. But well, the trend has been to consolidate anyway. Now even power comes through an universal interface, so you can't use power outlets in places that you don't trust.
- schaefer 3y ago
  How about Micro SD?
- ginko 3y ago
  These days you could add the source as a large QR code. (by which I mean the actual verbatim code, not a URL) ..but really IMO code samples requiring a non-trivial amount of "framework" source is an anti-pattern on its own. Code samples should be short enough that they can be copied by hand.
- kragen 3y ago
  yes but it would add two or three dollars to the retail price https://www.usbcompany.co.uk/usb-credit-cards/ https://www.usbcompany.co.uk/usb-credit-cards/ https://www.vistaprint.com/promotional-products/technology/usb-flash-drives/slim-card-usb-flash-drive https://www.vistaprint.com/promotional-products/technology/u... https://www.instructables.com/USB-PCB-Business-Card/ https://www.instructables.com/USB-PCB-Business-Card/ https://hackaday.com/2010/05/25/mass-storage-business-card/ https://hackaday.com/2010/05/25/mass-storage-business-card/ cds are a lot cheaper
andyjohnson0 3y ago
Very few computers have a cd/dvd drive anymore.
pfdietz 3y ago
How long do CDs and DVDs last, anyway?
- Filligree 3y ago
  Good quality CDs, stored properly? We don’t know yet, none have broken so far. Blu-ray apparently is even hardier.
- tokai 3y ago
  https://www.loc.gov/preservation/scientists/projects/cd-r_dvd-r_rw_longevity.html https://www.loc.gov/preservation/scientists/projects/cd-r_dv...
- potta_coffee 3y ago
  I have a guitar instructional book that I've had more than 20 years, just checked out the CD the other day and it's still good. Also I've only mastered half of the exercises in the book so I'm still getting use out of it after all this time.
Aurornis 3y ago
If programming books still came with CDs (or USB drives), we’d be reading blog posts complaining about that. I can see the comments now: “Just put it on GitHub! Why do they put it on something physical that I’m just going to lose!?” Retailers loathe books with extras (CDs, USB, or otherwise) because the rate of issues and problems with returns goes way up. Customers dislike it because they’ll lose the thing. Just put it on GitHub and call it a day. I could understand some of these complaints if a certain publisher has gone out of business and all of their links were dead or something, but I can’t really get worked up about someone having to clone a repo from the internet to work with code. I’d much rather deal with that than I would keeping track of a physical thing that comes with a book, which I have to stick into my computer.
- vcg3rd 3y ago
  Linux Format quit shipping CDs with the magazine, oh, about a year ago, maybe. I think some of it is also "shrinkage" (the term in retail in the U.S. for shoplifting + breakage, etc). I liked the CDs for many reasons, one of which was once you open a browser...off you go. However, there are still people in the world who may want to learn but have rate-limited, firewalled, or dodgy Internet. It's like cashless systems that cut out millions of people. [1] I don't see why it would be a problem with items mailed, except it would add another step for the publisher or distributor. But along those lines it irks me when I subscribe to a print publication that includes digital and after I login the only benefit I get it to read more stuff on the same tracker-loaded, privacy-invading enshitified site. [1] During COVID I protested vigorously at my church about going virtual for many reasons. One of which was elderly or impoverished members who could not (because of either access or ability) easily access whichever platform was being used. There are so many variations of "works on my system" in the world.
cmiller1 3y ago
I still have some books on my shelf that include a floppy disk securely nestled in a pouch in the backcover.
RecycledEle 3y ago
Those CDs never worked.
toyg 3y ago
It's 2024, books must also come as digital-only. I agree that the obsolescence rate has skyrocketed, as a side-effect of always-online development.
- AlchemistCamp 3y ago
  I have many hundreds of tech book PDFs (largely due to Humble Bundle and a Manning subscription) and I’m confident I’ll have no difficulty opening those PDFs far into the future.
Tommah 3y ago
> Just glue an envelope with a CD to the backcover Those CDs have a way of disappearing. My local library used to have a lot of tech books that were missing the accompanying CDs.

by oytis 3y ago

InfiniteRand 3y ago

Is it feasible to attach a usb drive to a book these days?

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
bdw5204 3y ago
A cheap USB drive sells for under $10 and you can seal a book in plastic so I'd imagine it'd be feasible to just add the $5-$10 to the price of the book. People who buy books, especially programming books, generally aren't very price sensitive anyway.
- hoherd 3y ago
  A book with a usb port on it to download data contained within the book would be so cyberpunk. If we can have potato chips that play music[1], we can have a book with built in storage. 1. https://web.archive.org/web/20190516225905/https://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/tv-film/7775028/doritos-marvel-partner-for-guardians-of-the-galaxy-vol-2-promotion?utm_source=twitter https://web.archive.org/web/20190516225905/https://www.billb...
  - cyberpunk 3y ago
    It's taking me forever to upgrade all my dead tree books to usb-c, to be fair.
- Zobat 3y ago
  Can we attach an attack vector to the book cover? Sure. I wouldn't let that USB anywhere near my computer if I'd bought it let alone a library copy of it. I'm with the author on this one. Any code needed to for it be useful should be printed in the book (perhaps complete code in an appendix rather than right there in the chapter). That said I haven't bought a programming book in years.
  - marcosdumay 3y ago
    The universal nature of USB is a huge drawback for its usage for storage. But well, the trend has been to consolidate anyway. Now even power comes through an universal interface, so you can't use power outlets in places that you don't trust.
schaefer 3y ago
How about Micro SD?
ginko 3y ago
These days you could add the source as a large QR code. (by which I mean the actual verbatim code, not a URL) ..but really IMO code samples requiring a non-trivial amount of "framework" source is an anti-pattern on its own. Code samples should be short enough that they can be copied by hand.
kragen 3y ago
yes but it would add two or three dollars to the retail price https://www.usbcompany.co.uk/usb-credit-cards/ https://www.usbcompany.co.uk/usb-credit-cards/ https://www.vistaprint.com/promotional-products/technology/usb-flash-drives/slim-card-usb-flash-drive https://www.vistaprint.com/promotional-products/technology/u... https://www.instructables.com/USB-PCB-Business-Card/ https://www.instructables.com/USB-PCB-Business-Card/ https://hackaday.com/2010/05/25/mass-storage-business-card/ https://hackaday.com/2010/05/25/mass-storage-business-card/ cds are a lot cheaper

andyjohnson0 3y ago

Very few computers have a cd/dvd drive anymore.

pfdietz 3y ago

How long do CDs and DVDs last, anyway?

Filligree 3y ago
Good quality CDs, stored properly? We don’t know yet, none have broken so far. Blu-ray apparently is even hardier.
tokai 3y ago
https://www.loc.gov/preservation/scientists/projects/cd-r_dvd-r_rw_longevity.html https://www.loc.gov/preservation/scientists/projects/cd-r_dv...
potta_coffee 3y ago
I have a guitar instructional book that I've had more than 20 years, just checked out the CD the other day and it's still good. Also I've only mastered half of the exercises in the book so I'm still getting use out of it after all this time.

Aurornis 3y ago

If programming books still came with CDs (or USB drives), we’d be reading blog posts complaining about that. I can see the comments now: “Just put it on GitHub! Why do they put it on something physical that I’m just going to lose!?” Retailers loathe books with extras (CDs, USB, or otherwise) because the rate of issues and problems with returns goes way up. Customers dislike it because they’ll lose the thing. Just put it on GitHub and call it a day. I could understand some of these complaints if a certain publisher has gone out of business and all of their links were dead or something, but I can’t really get worked up about someone having to clone a repo from the internet to work with code. I’d much rather deal with that than I would keeping track of a physical thing that comes with a book, which I have to stick into my computer.

vcg3rd 3y ago
Linux Format quit shipping CDs with the magazine, oh, about a year ago, maybe. I think some of it is also "shrinkage" (the term in retail in the U.S. for shoplifting + breakage, etc). I liked the CDs for many reasons, one of which was once you open a browser...off you go. However, there are still people in the world who may want to learn but have rate-limited, firewalled, or dodgy Internet. It's like cashless systems that cut out millions of people. [1] I don't see why it would be a problem with items mailed, except it would add another step for the publisher or distributor. But along those lines it irks me when I subscribe to a print publication that includes digital and after I login the only benefit I get it to read more stuff on the same tracker-loaded, privacy-invading enshitified site. [1] During COVID I protested vigorously at my church about going virtual for many reasons. One of which was elderly or impoverished members who could not (because of either access or ability) easily access whichever platform was being used. There are so many variations of "works on my system" in the world.

cmiller1 3y ago

I still have some books on my shelf that include a floppy disk securely nestled in a pouch in the backcover.

RecycledEle 3y ago

Those CDs never worked.

toyg 3y ago

It's 2024, books must also come as digital-only. I agree that the obsolescence rate has skyrocketed, as a side-effect of always-online development.

AlchemistCamp 3y ago
I have many hundreds of tech book PDFs (largely due to Humble Bundle and a Manning subscription) and I’m confident I’ll have no difficulty opening those PDFs far into the future.

Tommah 3y ago

> Just glue an envelope with a CD to the backcover Those CDs have a way of disappearing. My local library used to have a lot of tech books that were missing the accompanying CDs.