
Humble Book Bundle: Hacking Presented by No Starch Press - p4bl0
https://www.humblebundle.com/books/no-starch-hacking-books
======
blfr
This is great. I was going to pick up _Automate the Boring Stuff with Python_
after reading [http://www.alexkras.com/review-automate-the-boring-stuff-
wit...](http://www.alexkras.com/review-automate-the-boring-stuff-with-python-
by-al-sweigart/)

Any reviews of the other ones from HN crowd?

~~~
moyix
_Silence on the Wire_ is a fantastic book that looks at unconventional and
underdiscussed aspects of security: interesting timing attacks, subtle
information leakage, fingerprinting, etc. It's by Michal Zalewski, who is
perhaps better known to HN folks as the author of the American Fuzzy Lop (AFL)
fuzzer.

I think that book probably did more to get me into security than any other –
it's just filled with really wonderful, clever stuff.

~~~
ageofwant
Michal Zalewsk is a all-round polygot that also wrote "The Tangled Web", I
wish I could recommend it but I don't understand 1/2 of it.

Interestingly I only became aware of him after stumbling on his "Guerrilla
guide to CNC machining, mold making, and resin casting"
[http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/gcnc/](http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/gcnc/), an
astounding complete piece of work.

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iamcreasy
"The Linux Command Line" is also free to download from here :
[http://linuxcommand.org/tlcl.php](http://linuxcommand.org/tlcl.php)

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kenrick95
"Hacking the Xbox: An Introduction to Reverse Engineering" is now free.
[https://www.nostarch.com/xboxfree](https://www.nostarch.com/xboxfree)

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p4bl0
I particularly appreciate the fact that the books come DRM-free :).

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jensen123
I wonder if they track you? Some other companies who sell digital downloadable
products insert your name, address etc. into the files somewhere.

Selling downloadable digital products strikes me as a bad business model. Bad
for either the companies or the consumers. DRM is bad since it won't last
forever. When the company goes out of business, "your" products will no longer
work. Personally, I don't like tracking either. What if my computer gets
hacked, stolen or that I simply forget to securely wipe a disk before throwing
it away - will the company who sold me stuff blame me for pirating, if the
files end up on some pirate site? On the other hand, if a company does neither
DRM nor tracking, then they're very vulnerable to piracy.

Seems to me that rentals/streaming is a better business model. Would it be
better if publishers like No Starch Press sold time-limited access (like say 5
or 10 years) to a website where you could read the books? Of course, dedicated
pirates would be able to pirate that, but it would be inconvenient for
ordinary people.

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sohkamyung
It's possible Humble Bundle may have put watermarks to trace the files in case
they end up on piracy sites.

In my opinion, I find HB's business model reasonable. It trusts users to be
willing to pay a bit of money to get the books. It is also upfront about where
the money from the sale goes (to itself and various organisations) and even
allows you to adjust the amount each one gets.

By trusting users in this way, it hopes that users do not abuse the trust by
giving away the books to piracy sites. Instead, I believe it hopes to
encourage more people to come to the site and pay for the books (and support
organisations), rather than free-load the books via piracy.

This is, of course, just my opinion. But I have bought a few Humble Bundles
and intend to continue supporting it.

~~~
rebekah-aimee
I have a big soft spot for HB. I saw this bundle and immediately thought of
two people I know who are very likely to want it, so I sent them an email and
attached one of the books from my bundle according to what I thought they'd
like best.

I told them the publisher was reputable and if they had $15 to drop on the
whole thing, as I had, then they should go for it--but if they just didn't
have the money, I offered to send them anything else they wanted from my own
download provided they tell anyone else they thought might be interested about
the deal.

This straight-up doesn't hurt anyone. If my friends don't have the cash
anyway, there's no opportunity cost--but now they know about Humble Bundle and
they're probably going to tell other people because it's such a good deal.
(And they get at least one new book.) A common and effective marketing tactic
is to put the product (or a sample) in people's hands and then ask if they
want to buy it, and everyone likes freebies.

I think being DRM-free helps to spread the word more than it hurts, and it
also acts as a giant "We're Not Evil" flag. I'd hazard that No Starch does
this kind of thing more in order to increase its brand awareness (and its
affiliation with good-karma organizations like HB) than it does to actually
make money.

I found out about the deal from No Starch's web site, because I have a print
copy of Clojure for the Brave and True and had gone looking for the associated
files. I'd barely heard of the publisher before, but now I respect them almost
as much as O'Reilly. CftBaT is actually available free in HTML form, by the
way, and earned itself a big link on my blog.

Basically, this kind of thing is actually really common when you think about
it! It kind of reminds me of open source, but without the ability to modify.
Then again, you can always write your own book.

Anyway, if someone goes looking for something for free by questionable means
and they can't find a pirated version of it, how often do you think they
actually go out and buy it instead? I would say almost never, unless whatever
it is is in high demand or well known--that tends to not be the case among
Humble Bundle items, which are from indie developers and publishers.

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StavrosK
A bit offtopic, but does anyone know why Humble Bundle have the "Bitcoin"
button look disabled? I don't understand why they would want to discourage
Bitcoin payment, since it's not subject to chargebacks.

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jayrhynas
When you go to purchase with Bitcoin, it says "Unfortuantely Bitcoin orders
are not refundable", so that might be why they're discouraging it for the
average buyer.

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corv
Fortunately it works fine regardless, quick and painless.

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virmundi
Make sure you disable an ad blocker. I temporarily allowed the site, but the
checkout system didn't work. After I globally allowed all sites, the modal
popped up.

Edit: I'm using Script Block.

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cosarara97
It works here, with ublock origin enabled.

