Books or Cd's?

By swsweld (****)

Date 09-26-2008 15:56

30 minutes.

By 3.2 Inspector (***)

Date 09-26-2008 20:13

Did you make it through the index pages? :)

3.2

By swsweld (****)

Date 09-29-2008 18:55

No, I'm still trying to memorize the committee personnel :)

By 3.2 Inspector (***)

Date 09-29-2008 19:03

Then you are in for a long tough ride :)

By hogan

Date 09-26-2008 16:56

I have found that cd's are beneficial when working on the road or job site to job site. If you work to several codes it is much simpler to carry a cd vs several books. Also, the ability to search is a big plus.

By HgTX

Date 09-26-2008 17:17

AWS has gone from CDs to downloadable PDFs. It's great that they're searchable, but once you download it onto a computer, that's the only computer you can open it on; you can't put it on a CD and carry it around with you to open it on any computer. And some specs sold on CD are the same way--the CD looks portable, but you can only read it from the first computer you install it on. If you have one laptop you always travel with, that can work. (I've complained to them up and down. Imagine if once you put a music CD into your car stereo, that's the only stereo you could ever listen to that album on! It's not like the music industry has any less interest in preservation of intellectual property than AWS does. But I digress.)

I have both formats because each has its advantages--sometimes it's more efficient to flip through the pages of a book than to page through an electronic file, and it's handy to be able to scribble notes in the book. Then again I don't pay for them out of my own pocket. But on the other hand I think if you buy the electronic copy it will let you print one paper copy from it, so if you buy the electronic copy it's kind of like getting the book too. Don't take my word for it, though.

Hg

By swsweld (****)

Date 09-26-2008 17:56

I understand their copyright and piracy concerns. It is very restrictive. That is the problem that I saw with PDF's and CD's. If I lost all my info on the computer I would lose the PDF also? I'm curious if you are printing your one and only copy and you had a glitch or jam of ran out of ink? Is there recourse?I don't like working on a laptop if I can use a desktop. I like books as well. You can leave a book in the office and others can use it but if you take your computer with you nobody else can access the code. It is easier for me to navigate with books but I haven't used the PDF search feature.
I hate bidding work from CD's I have to turn them into prints.

Thanks for the replies.

By HgTX

Date 09-26-2008 18:06

If you have a technical problem, to their credit, they will work with you. If you have to replace your computer, or the printer jams, or something like that, they'll accomodate. Contact Jeff Kennedy at WEX. You can probably get him via awspubs.com.

But no, you can't put the file on both your desktop and your laptop (even though a lot of commercial software will allow exactly that kind of duplicate installation). And if you want a "library" copy for everyone to use, you can do that with a book but with the electronic version you'll have to pay $$$$ for a site license. AWS has told me "it's just like the book, you only get one copy" and I laugh. It's just like the book--if I stapled the back cover to my desk. The electronic copy is *less* usable than the paper copy and that flies in the face of what the electronic age is supposed to provide.

I understand copyright and piracy concerns too, but they're going way the hell overboard. There's no reason for AWS to have significantly stricter restrictions than the software, music, and home-viewing movie industries, which make a much higher portion of their income from media sales.

Apparently they're selling plenty of 'em, though. I guess most people find the searchability and immediate download worth all the other troubles, or else they just sit at one desk and it never occurs to them to try to use their code anywhere else.

Hg

By 3.2 Inspector (***)

Date 09-26-2008 18:19

I keep mine as pdf files on my pc.
In my office I has all of them printed, imo its more easy to look through pages rather than on the pc.

3.2

Quote: collecting code books. :)

By swsweld (****)

Date 09-26-2008 18:52

That sounds like the way to go. Buy the PDF or CD, make the sacred copy, keep the printed copy in the office and the efile on the laptop. Still would like a copy on home computer. Oh well you can't have it all.

If you show up for a code test with the printed copy would that be acceptable?
I may be wrong but the API requires several large codes for there seminar but I don't know if they are required for the test.

By 3.2 Inspector (***)

Date 09-26-2008 20:12

I can only speak for api 570, 510 and 653.
They all require the original codes for the test(I think it was in the area of 1200 usd)

Why cant you just copy the files to your own computer?

Once the company I work for buy the codes online, they can distribute it to all employes, we actually has a online database with them all - free to print.
Dont know how much they pay for that.

3.2