Re: [Fwd: Re: [HACKERS] [ANNOUNCE] Commercial: New Book!! PostgreSQL - Mailing list pgsql-general

Hi Al,

Nicely written email that.

However, please be reasonable and not attempt to make a profit out of
everyone and everything.  Every other PostgreSQL related book's
author/publisher has been more than happy to either send an electronic
copy of the manuscript to us (fast, cheap, and efficient method) or
physically post the book to us.  Quite a number of publishers whom are
confident in their book send it to numerous PostgreSQL experienced
people in order to quickly get truthful reviews put on Amazon.

I won't purchase your book solely for the reason that I believe it to
predominantly be a re-print of your Database HOW-TO and therefore you
are trying to profit from mis-informing others.

So, again I ask you to please make a copy of it available to us at no
cost.  This should not be a problem, as an electronic copy of the
manuscript or eBook has no cost to you.

If your book does turn out to be informative and worthwhile for the
PostgreSQL Community, I will in all good conscience pay for it after
having appraised it.  I will also recommend it to others, and I'll also
put a review of it in the techdocs.postgresql.org Book Review section.

It's a no-loss and all win situation for you, given that your book is
worthwhile.

However, all indications so far are that it's not a worthwhile book, and
I'll not pay to support the efforts of someone who is mis-informing and
damaging the community I devote my spare time to assisting.

Given that your book is as bad as I'm expecting and fearing, I can
understand your reluctance to have someone with PostgreSQL experience
review it and report the findings truthfully.  Also it means you'll
further try to avoid having it reviewed by us.

Sincerely,

Justin Clift


P.S. - I'm CC'ing this book to the "PostgreSQL General" mailing list so
it goes into our mailing list archives and anyone who does a search on
anything related to Al Dev will come across this and be warned.

Taranath : Again I ask you to not sell Al Dev's book until its true
nature is known.  I only believe this to be a reasonable ask because of
Al Dev's prior history.  If you need further information regarding him,
please speak with the people of the Linux Documentation Project about
why they removed his Database HOW-TO earlier last year.  It's against
their policy to do so, but they made an exception specifically for Al
Dev's work because of the mis-information contained within it.


alavoor wrote:
>
> Justin Clift:
>
> I got your email even before and since you wanted to
> review, I sent you the Billpoint invoice. (But you
> know how Billpoint works - I had to send separately
> the email). I do not need to take the shipping address
> from you as BillPoint will verify your credit card and
> shippping address information from you and send it to
> me automatically. But I also sent reply to your email
> saying that Billpoint invoice is coming. And billpoint
> invoices are not mandatory, only after you pay you
> will get the book.
>
> If you are interested in reviewing the book, you need
> to buy. Or there are many who bought the book and they
> can send the review to you later.
>
> Another point is - people from all over the world are
> buying my book. PostgreSQL is used in USA as well as
> many other countries.
>
> The cost of book is cheaper than a lunch! By buying
> you are helping the project :)) ... indirectly.
>
> Regarding the LInux salient points most of them of
> correct and I had used Solaris  and other flavors of
> Unix.
> And I know how difficult, expensive and hard to use
> the solaris and other unix'es are.. IBM is putting
> lots of efforts on Linux and it is their mainstay OS
> today.
>
> PostgreSQL development is quite open and I very much
> like people questioning and submitting critics saying
> something is not good. It helps and it is positive
> notes.
>
> Also GTCDROM is not the only outlet which will be
> selling the book. I am also talking to many other
> dealers in other cities.
>
> --- Justin Clift <justin@postgresql.org> wrote:
> > Hi Taranath,
> >
> > Please see the forwarded email, at the email of this
> > email.  Received
> > this yesterday.
> >
> > It's quite typical of the damage which Al Dev does
> > and is still doing to
> > our community, and how Al Dev operates.
> >
> > Also, please take a look at his website
> > (http://www.aldev.8m.com).  The
> > first third of his website is overblown marketing,
> > but it's after that
> > when he starts making claims like this :
> >
> > "Linux is the most RELIABLE OS. Windows95, Windows
> > NT fail the
> > CRASH_OS_TEST programs and only Linux passes. Also
> > commercial UNIX'es
> > like IRIX, Solaris, HPUX, AIX, SCO all fail the
> > crash test and Linux is
> > the ONLY OS which passes the crashme test. (See
> > crashme*.rpm on cdrom).
> > Very often Windows95 users will get GPF errors and
> > the system freezes.
> > Linux is very robust because it is built by millions
> > of people on
> > internet and there are no errors in the kernel.
> > Linux  runs for one full
> > year without any re-boots or any problems non-stop,
> > guaranteed! Linux is
> > the BEST designed OS."
> >
> > Obvious nonsense.  Linux is a good and solid OS (I
> > do Solaris and Linux
> > Systems Administration professionally, so I have
> > some experience here)
> > but to claim it's the most reliably OS because of
> > the results of some
> > test you can download and run is badly incorrect.
> >
> > "Linux is very MATURE and is one of the OLDEST
> > operating system in the
> > world. Basic ideas of Linux are very old. Originally
> > based on minix(UNIX
> > like os) has concepts/commands which are more than
> > 27 years old. Linux
> > corrected serious flaws and deficiencies of UNIX
> > operating system to
> > make it a much more robust system and today Linux is
> > called as a "modern
> > 21st century UNIX OS". It took 27 years to create
> > vast amount of
> > Linux(UNIX) information. For example programs like
> > 'grep' had NOT
> > changed for the past 27 years and they are still
> > used in Linux!
> > Functionality and command line options of grep had
> > not changed for the
> > past 27 years! Today Linux is the OCEAN wherein all
> > other UNIX'es like
> > Solaris, FreeBSD, AT&T UNIX, HPUX, AIX merge into.
> > And in near future
> > all other unices (UNIX) will be replaced by LINUX as
> > they are not needed
> > anymore!! Linux is 100% GPL as compared to Solaris,
> > BSD, HPUX.."
> >
> > There is a problem here.  He's plainly incorrect,
> > not helping anyone,
> > and alienating people who use the other operating
> > systems (or grep).
> >
> > The style which Al Dev does things here is the same
> > style which was used
> > in his Linux Database HOW-TO (the one which has been
> > removed from the
> > Linuxdoc Documentation Project site) and his other
> > HOW-TO's.
> >
> > Another trusted member of the PostgreSQL community
> > informed me a few
> > days ago that Al Dev has published this book before.
> >  It's his Linux
> > Database HOW-TO in printed form.
> >
> > When I requested from Al Dev a copy for review,
> > instead of answering me
> > he just had Billpoint send me an invoice for the
> > amount.  No prior
> > communications, just an invoice.  He doesn't even
> > know where it needs to
> > be sent.  Later on he decides to email me to let me
> > know he sent an
> > invoice.  The legal consequences alone are
> > considerable.
> >
> > The unfortunate PostgreSQL user in the attached
> > email had a worse
> > experience.
> >
> > The chance Al Dev's book is legitimate is very, very
> > small (I'd say
> > around 2-3%).  However small though, I'm willing to
> > take the time to
> > find out.  If he has changed his ways and decided to
> > act appropriately,
> > then I'm all for it.  His website still indicates
> > otherwise however.  :(
> >
> > So, please do not sell Al Dev's book until it has
> > been reviewed and
> > accepted.  You'll save us a lot of time and hassles,
> > stop a lot of
> > mis-information from being further spread around,
> > and you'll be
> > protecting the Open Source software community from a
> > charlatan who
> > unfortunately spends his time in trying to take
> > advantage of people not
> > familiar with the material.
> >
> > Al Dev : You have an eBook version of your book on
> > your site.  Can you
> > please makes available to us a copy of it (at no
> > cost to us) so
> > reviewing of your book starts sooner rather than
> > later?  That way if
> > your book is honestly worthwhile there will be
> > minimal or no delays in
> > sales.
> >
> > Regards and best wishes,
> >
> > Justin Clift
> >
> > ******* The received email from the unfortunate
> > PostgreSQL user follows
> > *******
> >
> > -------- Original Message --------
> > Subject: Re: [HACKERS] [ANNOUNCE] Commercial: New
> > Book!! PostgreSQL book
> > is
> > Date: Wed, 16 Jan 2002 13:57:04 -0700
> > From: Doug Royer <Doug@royer.com>
> > Organization: INET-Consulting
> > <http://INET-Consulting.com>
> > CC: pgsql-general@postgresql.org,pgsql-announce
> >
> <pgsql-announce@postgresql.org>,pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org
> > References:
> > <200201142030.g0EKUuF26802@saturn.janwieck.net>
> >
> > Jan Wieck wrote:
> > >
> > > Dear PostgreSQL community,
> > >
> > >     Most  of  the  longer  standing  members  of
> > the  PostgreSQL
> > >     developers or users communities know very
> > well  what  to  do
> > >     with  information provided by Al Dev (aka
> > Alavoor Vasudevan).
> > > ....
> >
> >
> > Is all I did was visit his web site, and got a bill
> > from
> > "billpoint@billpoint.com" for $25.98. I DID NOT
> > order his book:
> >
> > >  Subject: Billpoint Invoice for Item # , 1 , for
> > $25.98
> > >     Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2002 17:02:14 -0800 (PST)
> > >     From: Billpoint System Notification
> > <billpoint@billpoint.com>
> > >       To: Doug@royer.com
> > >
> > >  ...
> > >
> > >  This is a Billpoint Invoice from
> > alavoor@yahoo.com requesting
> > >  payment of $25.98 for "1" . To pay for this item,
> > click on the
> > >  link below, or copy and paste it into your
> > browser. (If the
> > >  link appears on multiple lines, you may need to
> > copy each line
> > >  separately.)
> > >
> > >  ...
> > >
> > >    Invoice Details
> > >    ---------------
> > >  ...
> > >    Seller:              alavoor@yahoo.com
> > >    Seller email:        alavoor@yahoo.com
> > >    Seller Message:      A Complete Guide to
> > PostgreSQL.
> > >  ...
> >
>
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