
Edw519 wrote a book compiling his best HN Comments - zyfo
http://edweissman.com/i-turned-my-hacker-news-comments-into-an-eboo
======
edw519
Original author here.

This was a little side project to have some fun and maybe spread a little
value.

I frantically threw this together over the weekend to be ready for the traffic
Marc Cenedella (CEO of TheLadders.com) promised me today. His posts:

<http://twitter.com/cenedella/status/57759591789887489#>

and

[http://www.cenedella.com/job-search/leonardo-da-vincis-
resum...](http://www.cenedella.com/job-search/leonardo-da-vincis-resume-2/)

Thank you, Marc.

As many of you know, I spend most of my time writing software and generally
resist spending time writing other stuff (even though I always find time to
say something here). So in typical hacker fashion, I "launched" what I had
with the intention of accepting feedback and iterating. You guys have always
been really good at that.

I originally planned on a Kindle ebook, but Scribd was just so much easier for
me. I didn't realize that others had problems viewing or purchasing. If you're
outside the U.S. or have any other problems reading the sample, just email me
and I'll send you a free pdf.

All of your feedback is greatly appreciated. I'll keep updating the content as
I go and will gladly accept help with typesetting or distributing. I plan to
follow up with some of you during one of my breaks today.

If you buy the book and don't like it, I will buy you a cup of coffee the next
time we are together. If you buy it and do like it, make that a beer.

~~~
imajes
@edw519: send me an original editable format of the book and i'll typeset it
for you.

james@imaj.es

~~~
crocowhile
edw, do this and give this guy some cut. The scribd version is awful (at least
on my screen: <http://i.min.us/iksKDk.png>

------
pero
Hate to be the bearer of bad news--perhaps somewhat mitigated by the lack of
hardcopies--but it's 'foreword' and not 'forward'.

That is, unless this is either some technolingo or inside joke that I'm not
privy to.

------
cosgroveb
"I never publish my code. Ever. Users get to give me feedback, but I don't
care what other programmers think. Sure, I learn from them, but never in the
context of reviewing the code I wrote. I learn from the code of others and
apply those lessons to my own work."

You can, of course, do whatever you want but this seems awfully selfish...
Essentially saying that you will take whatever others (foolishly?) give in
open source, blog posts, etc., etc., but never give back. Am I reading this
correctly?

~~~
edw519
_Am I reading this correctly?_

No.

1\. Almost everything I ever wrote is proprietary. I couldn't legally share it
if I wanted to.

2\. I have never taken anyone else's code. In fact, I have rarely even ever
read anyone else's code. To me, someone else's source code might as well be
object code. "learning from them" means getting feedback without getting code.
Others make suggestions. I write my code.

3\. I prefer these analogies: You can eat in my dining room without going into
my kitchen. You can enjoy my wardrobe without watching me get dressed. You can
watch the movie or read the book without watching either being made. And you
can provide feedback about any of them that can be accepted and used.

My source code is private. My customer list is private. My address book is
private. My current location is private. My personal schedule is private. You
can, of course, share whatever private information you want, but calling my
choices "awfully selfish" is myopic and misinformed.

~~~
crocowhile
>I have never taken anyone else's code.

This is REALLY hard to believe. Also, god bless the person who thought me to
use other people's code.

------
rb2k_
I think I'd really enjoy the read.

It would have been a bit nicer if the great comments were accompanied by some
good design/typesetting (generate latex?) and an alternative format (epub).

There are a few solutions based on princeXML that can take easily generatable
HTML+CSS and convert it to pdf (example:
<http://www.alistapart.com/articles/boom> ).

While the Prince license might not be the cheapest, there also is a webservice
that does the conversion (<http://docraptor.com/tour>)

~~~
lubos
docraptor.com looks like a paid version of wkhtmltopdf which is free

~~~
rb2k_
docraptor.com uses princexml which theoretically could not only do HTML, but
any XML based format. Prince does however include a default style sheet for
XHTML and HTML seems to be the only input that docraptor accepts. Not sure
what happens if you throw non XML conform HTML on Prince.

------
wallflower
Ed is one of the most prolific and valuable members of the HN community. That
being said, I'd love for andrewwarner to do a Mixergy interview. Ed is not the
typical Mixergy success though but we could all learn from his b2b success.

~~~
edw519
Thank you, wallflower.

A few years ago, I did a Mixergy interview along with rms about Hacker News:

<http://blog.mixergy.com/why-communities/>

Andrew, if you're reading this, I would love to do another, not about my past
projects, but about my next one. Stay tuned...

 _we could all learn from his b2b success_

Hmmm, sounds like an idea for another ebook....

~~~
AndrewWarner
Yup. I'm reading this. Let's talk privately about how we could set it up.
<http://mixergy.com/contact>

------
maxklein
He should do Amazon Kindle self-publishing and write about the sales numbers
later.

------
epo
I'm not a US citizen and all I see is obfuscated content reminiscent of
rot-13. Am I being slow this morning?

~~~
Schmidt
Try disabling noscript / enable javascript. I had the same problem

------
arthurk
I tried to read this but the Scribd reader hung up on me after a few pages and
all I got to see were blank pages (I'm using FF4). Would it be possible to
compile some of the comments in a "Sample.pdf" file and directly link to that
instead?

------
nopassrecover
I just saw this in his profile yesterday, intend to buy.

EDIT: Apparently I need to be a US citizen. I'll find some other way to send
him a donation.

------
joshuacc
I just purchased the book and it was totally worth the $2.56. Which, BTW, is a
nice price. :-)

Comment #49 is a piece of advice that will pay for the book many times over,
no matter what you do for a living.

------
DanielBMarkham
Congrats Ed! Good luck publishing!

I have a similar project, so I'd like to know how you decided which comments
to pick, how you put them together, etc.

I'm working with the epub format right now. Not sure if I made the right
choice or not, but it seemed like the best technical option to hit the most
platforms. Never occurred to me to use Scribd.

~~~
edw519
Thanks, Daniel.

My app gives 5 sort options

\- by descending number of words, because short comments don't make good book
entries

\- by descending points, to take advantage of the feedback you guys already
gave me

\- by descending date, to grab the more applicable comments

\- by descending weight, my own changeable formula, attempting to put the best
stuff up front

\- in output sequence, to get a feel for how the final product will flow

I say a little more about this in the foreword.

I also hope to clean up the app and make it available if anyone else wants to
give it a try.

------
Tycho
I probably would have bought it for that price but it says United States only.
Perhaps Gumroad or Hawtcakes would work? Or the Kindle store? (I heard you can
instantly convert files to Kindle format by mailing them to
youramazonaccount@kindle.com)

Another site that I used to visit regularly, for about 7 or 8 years, had a
poster who kept his own text-file of all the great posts he'd read over the
years. Occassionally he would tease us by posting extracts (of course,
everybody wanted to know how many of _their_ comments made the cut)
occassionally. But I always thought the file itself was probably worth actual
money. And I keep forgetting to make a similar effort for other online
communities (HN for instance. But you'd be here all day catching all the great
coments on HN).

------
openczun
Jason Gilmore (@wjgilmore) has an interesting article on publishing a book
using DocBook, and git for version control.
[http://www.wjgilmore.com/blog/entry/why_i_published_easy_php...](http://www.wjgilmore.com/blog/entry/why_i_published_easy_php_websites_with_the_zend_framework_using_docboo)

\--

Also, I just bought Ed's book ... Really great commentary in there. Somewhat
sad I've only been a member of the HN community for such a short time.

------
revorad
Thanks Ed! How did you make the ebook? I've been looking for a good app to
convert blog feeds to books, but haven't found anything that just works.

If you send me an email I will be happy to put it up for sale on my new store
(for free of course).

You might also want to try Sahil's <http://gumroad.com>.

~~~
pero
How the book was made is discussed in the 'forward'--which is viewable in the
preview.

~~~
revorad
Thanks, that's an interesting read too!

------
WiseWeasel
This will sit nicely next to my Encyclopedia Weaselicus, available now for the
low, low price of $3.59.

------
amitagrawal
Stuff like this should be made a compulsive reading for hackers.

This solves a very basic problem with hacker-related knowledge - you don't
know what to search until you know what to search!

And books like Ed's solve this by compiling it all in one place. Someone here
did one for pg's essays and other articles and the result was a 12+MB file
good to last you a few days if you're at it.

------
MikeCampo
Great idea and I would love to buy it, but I'm not a US citizen :(

------
vkdelta
bought. read. Worth every penny 256 times.

------
m0th87
About time :)

------
zyfo
Link to the actual book: <http://www.scribd.com/doc/52729281/The-Best-Of-
edw519>

I really like this idea and will buy the book. However, it would be nice if
the comments were time-stamped, as not all advice is timeless.

Anyone know of any other forum-comments-turned-book examples?

EDIT: I would buy it if I didn't have to be a US citizen to buy a digital book
in scribd. Why is this a problem for a book like this?

~~~
tyng
Good find. I believe Amazon allows you to sell ebooks internationally, I could
be wrong though.

~~~
electromagnetic
It does.

