Article:		Reclaiming Hacks
Subject:		My problem with O'Reilly hacks
Date:		2004-12-04 10:27:52
From:		perd
I've bought and own probably 50 O'Reilly books, actually from a quick count, more than that. My problem with O'reilly's use of the word "hacks" in its book titles is that often the "hacks" contained within aren't really "hacks". They're just your run of the mill tips. If you take a look at a book such as Wireless Hacks or Google Hacks, those books contain hacks (albeit with the occasional tip thrown in, assumingly to fill up leftover space). If you take a look at some of the other Hacks series, the OS X one comes to mind...they're really just basic tips a user could learn by reading the help file or poking around for a minute. Real hacks are taking something or somethings and making them do something they weren't intended to do. See also, the CueCat mods, Tivo mods, Google Hacks book, Wireless Hacks book, etc etc. iPod Hacks? Are there really enough iPod hacks to devote a book to it? No. It's to the point where it seems like 10 Hacks books are coming out a month and they're all laughable un-hackerish. I cringe everytime I hear about a new one. It appears "Gardening Hacks" or "Pet Hacks" is just right around the corner. I long for the days when you saw an O'reilly book on the shelf and you could trust it was a quality publication and you bought it on the spot. It's not like that anymore.

Showing messages 1 through 2 of 2.

• My problem with O'Reilly hacks
  2004-12-07 18:30:32  tonywilliams [Reply | View]
  
  
  perd,
  
  

  You said:
  
  

  
  My problem with O'reilly's use of the word "hacks" in its book titles is that often the "hacks" contained within aren't really "hacks". They're just your run of the mill tips.
  
  
  

  Well, I own, at last count, around 160 titles either published or distributed by O'Reilly and I beg to differ. The problem you are having seeing the majority of the 100 hacks in an O'Reilly hack book may be that you do own a lot of O'Reilly titles and have been around a while and know a fair mount. One man's 'tip' is my 12 year old daughter's 'hack'. Indeed, I often run books past her when writing reviews for just that reason. She often finds a particular tip a 'miraculous hack' that I thought was patently obvious.
  
  

  One of the things I have to remind myself, particularly when looking at a book on the iPod, is that a vast majority of the people who buy and use these things spend almost all their computing time word proccessing, dealing with email and browsing the web - all without ever reading a manual or being interested in the computer underneath at all.
  
  

  In a shrinking technical book market O'Reilly's just making sure that they have book buyers - people who could care less about Perl but would love to know some fun stuff to do with their iPod.
  
  

  Tony
  

• My problem with O'Reilly hacks
  2004-12-04 12:24:08  b_isikoff [Reply | View]
  
  
  I dunno. I think you're being a bit rough on the Hacks series. I've got at least/about the same number of O'Reilly books and find them to generally be high quality. The OS X Hacks series (I've got both) has a number of general/power user tips, granted. They've got their fair share of hackerer.
  
  Granted, not all that series are up to the levels as, say, Spidering Hacks. On the other hand, I've flipped through content before buying and never felt misled about the series or particular title.