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From: jss@sjuvax.UUCP (J. Shapiro)
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: Pournelle Column this month
Message-ID: <801@sjuvax.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 5-Feb-85 02:01:49 EST
Article-I.D.: sjuvax.801
Posted: Tue Feb  5 02:01:49 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 8-Feb-85 00:45:33 EST
Organization: Saint Josephs Univ. Phila., Pa.
Lines: 26

[Aren't you hungry...?]

	The last time this subject came up I remained quiet.  I honestly didn't
agree with much of what was being said, but this month's column has got me
steamed.  Pournelle begins by talking about the flood of cruddy computer
books (admiitting - to give him credit where due - that he has a vested
interest).  He proceeds to advise people to go to the major bookstores and
special order the books they can't find, and also to look at the books on
the shelves and see to it that the store managers learn which publishers
are publishing shlock.

	Now, I agree that the vast majority of technical book sales to laymen
occurs in large bookstores, and what he says makes sense.  Unfortunately,
the rest of the description is a not so subtle plug for his publisher, Baen
Books.  To partially quote:

	"By 'bad books' I mean those that are poorly edited, filled with typos
and misspelled words, crammed with jargon..." (Chaos Manor - Feb 85 Byte)

I'll buy all of that. And Pournelle, as usual, goes on to write a technical 
and jargon filled column. Most of the time I find his writing style
refreshing, but the hypocrisy this month was a little much.

	I plan to write to the editor, and to Jerry, and complain.  I would be
curious to see how others feel about this month's column.