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Subject: Re: Scaleable Search - very dissapointing

Author: Uri Blass

Date: 03:57:32 12/15/02

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On December 15, 2002 at 06:33:24, Alessandro Damiani wrote:

>On December 15, 2002 at 04:40:55, Bruce Moreland wrote:
>
>>On December 14, 2002 at 09:20:13, Alessandro Damiani wrote:
>>
>>>On December 13, 2002 at 21:44:33, Arshad F. Syed wrote:
>>>
>>>>On December 13, 2002 at 21:27:18, Alessandro Damiani wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>On December 13, 2002 at 20:55:59, Arshad F. Syed wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>I just purchased the book 'Scaleable Search in Computer Chess'. It starts off
>>>>>>well giving a good overview of the main topics and advances in modern CC, but it
>>>>>>falters badly towards the end. There are no less than 50 pages dedicated to game
>>>>>>results and scores. I am getting a migraine just trying to figure out who the
>>>>>>target audience could possibly be for these drab game scorecards?? It seems like
>>>>>>the author was trying to market his thesis! With all those test results bundled
>>>>>>in, at first glance that is what it looks like - an excellent thesis.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>As if that was not enough, the price is at a premium - $55 for approx. 300
>>>>>>pages. Darn, even those C++ bibles with 1200+ pages cost less and come with a CD
>>>>>>too.
>>>>>
>>>>>You were not forced to buy the thesis. I am not forced to answer your post.
>>>>>
>>>>>Alessandro
>>>>
>>>>I didn't force anyone to read my post. Like it or ignore it!
>>>
>>>That's exactly what I wrote. But you didn't get the message between the lines:
>>>you were not forced to buy the book like I was not forced to answer your post.
>>>Clear now?
>>>
>>>Alessandro
>>
>>You are being difficult.
>>
>>He bought the book sight unseen, expecting a treat, and he didn't like it.  I
>>can understand this reaction.  There is not a lot of computer chess literature
>>that is dense with really useful stuff.  You end up spending three of four times
>>what a mass-market hard-back would cost, and when you get it, it has one article
>>that you think is really good.
>>
>
>The content of his complain is that Ernst is doing usury:
>1. many pages with test results just to "market his thesis"
>2. the price is far too high for those 300 pages
>
>Of course the book was produced to make money. That is how life works. Oh man!
>
>The price is determined by the market. The market is quite small in this case
>since the book is a doctoral thesis on computer chess. It is not the product
>itself determining the price.
>
>Bruce, life is not so simplistic as expected, sometimes. But complaining after
>paying doesn't help much here: the book was already _paid_and_consumed_.

Complaining after paying for something may convince other people to change their
opinion about buying.

Uri



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