Trial Balloon...

Mark Eatherton

Wallies,



I have over 11 years worth of articles that I have written on just about every topic in the hydronic world, and a few that are outside of the hydronic purview. I am considering assembling these articles in a CD format for sale. I would offer them by the year, or a complete "Box Set". I am thinking that the cost will be in the range of $1.50 per month, with a 12 month minimum order, plus S&H.



The articles would include better highly detailed drawings of concepts, as well as high resolution digital photographs of completed installations, where applicable.



These would be offered for sale through our gracious hosts facilities, as well as other sources.



What do you al think? Would you be interested in purchasing them? There would be a discount for the "Box Set" of all 11 years.



Comments?



Thanks for your input. And thanks to Dan and TLLM for this web site.



ME

MikeyB

Articles

Excellent idea Mark, sign me up, I own Ziggy's Hydronic Know How CD, will it be similar to Ziggy's format?

Paul Rohrs_14

Just in time for Christmas!

I would love to have the set.

I glean 10 minutes of knowledge in a 5 minute conversation with you so I think this is a great idea.

Best,

Paul

EddieG

Sounds Great

Count me in for an order. I would love to have that.

Ex Maine Doug

So for 11 years

you are estimating the cost to be $198.00 for the boxed set? Would it fit on one DVD?

Extra for a signed label? :-}

Steamhead

Of course!

when will they be available? 

Mark Eatherton

Not familiar with Siggys CD....

But we never copy each other anyway. He's got his styles, I have mine :-)



This will just be a collection of articles and related drawings and photographs of applicable installations.



Thanks!



ME

Mark Eatherton

Thanks Paul,

Your support means a lot.



ME

Mark Eatherton

Not sure Doug,

If all the articles were the same length, I could probably calculate it, and once I am done with the graphics I will know, but it will probably require a few CD's. No biggy. It will be in a PDF format.



ME

Mark Eatherton

Its a lot of work...

I've been working on it for the last week, and probably have at lest 2 more weeks left until I go to burn my first full CD, then I to make and apply a nice graphics label. Plus, I have to proof each article for spelling, and stuff. It's a lot more work than I thought it was going to be, but man, is there a LOT of useful information there... At a minimum, I delivered 800 words per month, so 800 X 12 X 11 = 10,560 words. At 1.50 per month, that is just under $0.02 per word. Cheap at TWICE the price :-)



Should be ready to ship in a month Frank. Thanks for your interest.



ME

Rich Davis_2

Index?

Mark,

  Will there be an index, as to subject?

Mark Eatherton

Absolutely...

By the month.



ME

rlaggren

Anything to help finding specific info

Will make your work more widely read and popular. If Acrobat has some kind of index-producer, even it'd only get  C+ from a book publisher - way mo' better than not. IMHO, access is _the_ major issue in any compilation. If you can make the whole pile searchable with a google type utility, definitely do that. This is a non-trivial problem and very important (read valuable to the end-user) - why they now have degrees in "library science".



Other suggest: Put it on DVD, not CD. They're almost as cheap, you just "print" what you want on them, don't have to fill them and you don't worry about running out of space.



Other suggest 2: Put _everything_ on one DVD and use a DRM system to unlock which ever parts a user registers for. That way you just "print" one single version containing everything. Your search tool will display _all_ hits, not just what the user has registered for and this will encourage registering for more material. Getting high tech here.



One last suggest: Put it online also. Downloading a few articles to read

before the meeting tomorrow is possible - waiting for a disk in the

mail, less so.



Great to hear you're figuring on propagating your know-how. A good quality product!



Rufus

hot_rod

great

what about a memory stick for loading them onto?

gerry gill

I'd buy them..

so when can we get them? 

Ron Jr._3

I'd definitely be interested

You might have to dumb down some articles for me . I still think Manual J was a 70s basketball star .........

Tim McElwain

Great idea Mark they

would be very helpful in an education environment. I am actaully looking at putting some of my manuals on CD's also just have not had time to sit down and get it going.

Ex Maine Doug

I think this has

all the markings of a car trip with the kids.  "Are we there yet?".  "When do we get there?".  "How much longer?" "I'm hungry."  "I have to go potty." "Are we there yet?"

David Sutton_6

Mark sounds good !

Count me in !!



David.

DrPepper

Brad White

Count me in, Mark!

Maybe put out a Kindle version?

Ama-ton.com?

For sale on E (Etherton)-Bay?



I can actually see you doing 3 AM TV slots between Ron Popeil: "If you order now, you will get a bonus free gift! Mark E. and Glee, Greatest Hits! Operators are standing by....



Seriously, this could be very good for my junior engineers. The concepts are Universal, the medium, Divine.



My only suggestion might be to wait for the full set or fewer, larger releases rather than monthly releases, but that is just my opinion, founded in nothing but good-natured curmudgeonly attitude

Whatever you offer, I am in.

Mark Eatherton

Thank you ALL for your support....

I'm working as fast as my fat stubby mechanics fingers will let me :-)



Should be available by no later than April 1st through this web site. WIll take me a little longer to get my own web site set up, but I'd much rather run it through Dans site due to it being well established, and besides, if it weren't for his insistence, I might not have ever taken up writing :-)



Mr Popeil might have to wait a couple of years... But we shall see. ;-)



Again, than you everyone for your support. I will bring back a sample article for your consumption later today, after I get done moving 20" of snow out of my mountain homes drive way: TIme to go fire up Frosty, the Snow Blower :-)



ME

Mark Eatherton

As promised....

I hope they make it through with photo's etc...



Enjoy! and Thank you for your support.



ME

MikeyB

Articles

Hows this project coming along Mark? any word on when it will be ready? thanks

Mark Eatherton

Interrupted by a four letter word...

Starts with W and ends with K. I guess I should feel fortunate to have the work load I have. The articles are all done, but am still working on drawings, index etc.



Bear with me. Spring blooms eternal :-)



ME

MikeyB

Balloon

Thanks for the uddate Mark, looking forward to seeing your work.

Big Will

couldnt hurt

I know I have learned more about the wet side of the trade here than anywhere else. You Mark have been a large part of that. I they were categorized by subject that would make it a even better. Frankly I should be sending you a check for past advice and articles. 

MikeyB

Project

Hows it going Mark?

Mark Eatherton

Crashed the main PC...

Thanks for asking Mikey. Unfortunately, I got one almost built and tested when my main PC's hard drive decided it had worked enough... and decided to take an extended vacation.



I have a friend working trying to recover all of the data I had stored on it, and it is not looking too good.



And of course, I hadn't backed it up in forever ;-( I'm seriously bummed, and down, but not out. I hope to fire things up again in the near future.



Thanks for your patience.



ME

Jean-David Beyer

I have been running computers since the early 1960s.

As a result, I have had all my files backed up on a daily basis, usually by the computation centers of my employers. I never got around to getting my own computer until about 1996, but when I did, I equipped it with a tape drive on which I did daily full backups (i.e., everything on the hard drive(s)). Now a good tape drive costs between $500 and $1000, and up if you like. It is probably difficult for an individual who buys a computer for less than the price of a tape drive to decide that he needs such a thing. If I were going to get a new machine now, I am not sure I would use tape as the backup medium because good tape drives are getting more difficult to obtain. Instead, I guess I would get a hot-swappable hard drive system and a bunch of hot swappable hard drives.



I leave my machines on 24/7 except in the summer when my old machine gets too hot and flakey (no AC). So I have them do an automatic backup every night at about 2 AM. That way, it does not bother me, and know everything is less than 24 hours old. All I have to do is remember to put the right backup tape in the drive every night before I go to bed. I seldom forget that.



Most of my friends think I am nuts, but it would take me months to recover from a failed hard drive otherwise. When my friends lose a hard drive, they are screwed. They mostly get computers that cannot even do backups if they wanted to. It is difficult to get people to do backups, since the reliability of hard drives is very very good. Like selling insurance. How often can you hope to collect on a life insurance policy? Yet most people need one.



So running without backups is like self-insuring. Each person must make his own decision, of course. Mine is to do backups. They are useful even if you do have a hard drive crash. A couple of months ago, I fumble-fingered a command to my machine and as a result, it deleted ALL of my personal files. 5.98 Gigabytes. I stuck in the backup tape, started a restore, and went to lunch. It was all restored when I came back. Without backups, it would have been gone forever.