Brett D. McLaughlin's dashboard

Hey Damon-

Steve's suggestions are great. I'd also strongly urge you to pick up "Head First Object-Oriented Analysis & Design" (http://www.headfirstlabs.com/books/hf...). The title is as long as the ActionScript book Steve recommended, but it is going to cover OO Theory, UML design, and some design patterns. That taken with Head First Design Patterns (see link above) will give you a very strong OO background.

Then add to that your language specifics, and you're golden. :-)

Thanks
Brett
Head First Series Editor

James-

I've asked Karen Shaner, our editorial assistant, to contact you. She'll help you get set up with what you need.

Thanks
Brett McLaughlin
Series Editor, Head First

Hi Rodrigo-

The PMBOK 4th edition is brand new; in fact, the tests for certification here are still being developed. The test is expected to come out in July, and we'll have a new edition of Head First PMP that comes out that same month. In other words, we want to make sure you've got the timeliest, most effective book available.

Hope that helps
Brett
Series Editor, Head First

Great question. Once we get some substantial progress on Head First Programming, it will absolutely be available on Safari Rough Cuts. I'd look for that in the second quarter of this year (2009).

Thanks
Brett McLaughlin
Series Editor, Head First

Hi John-

Unfortunately, there aren't any plans for a "next" Physics book. Right now, we're keeping an eye on how our existing math and science books are doing (Algebra, Statistics, Physics), and waiting to see if they're well-received. We're also trying to put some effective marketing behind them, as people in the non-technical fields aren't that aware of our Head First books yet.

Certainly, if the market really responds well, we'll be able to push further into math and science, and a second Physics book would then make sense. For now, though, you can literally affect the chances of a second Physics book by letting people know about Head First Physics (and our other math and science titles). It's really true: the more people that buy the existing titles, the more future titles we can confidently publish.

Thanks
Brett McLaughlin
Series Editor, Head First

Hi there-

I wanted to follow up on this. I recently posted a video blog talking specifically about a second edition of Head First EJB. That's online here: http://blogs.oreilly.com/headfirst/20...

Thanks
Brett
Series Editor, Head First

Hi there-

We've produced the Head First magnet kits for a few books largely as an experiment. We're closely looking at how those do; if the kits sell well, then we're very much going to look at producing the kits for other books. If they don't sell well, well, then we'll not continue.

All that to say, stay tuned for a few more months...

Thanks
Brett
Series Editor, Head First

Hi there-

We're working hard on finding this title, but in all honesty, it's not been an easy book to sign. Between the complexity of EJB 3 and the complexity of writing Head First titles, we've not been able to find the perfect (or even close-to-perfect!) author.

Believe me, though, we're still actively looking, and will let folks know when we're making some progress at the Head First Labs site (http://www.headfirstlabs.com).

Thanks!
Brett

Head First Java has always been a book focused squarely on the Java language, and not really on the ancillary types of topics you mention. The more you start to "combine" topics (like Java and MySQL or Java and mobile phones), the more you actually shrink your audience.

(The only notable exception here is PHP and MySQL, as nearly everyone that uses PHP still uses MySQL, so the two together function as a single complete unit.)

So the next edition of Java will still focus on the language, although we'd want to include some of the standard extensions (perhaps the JAX pack or JAX-WS which has become so fundamental to Java), as well as new version features (Java 6, 7, etc.).

Thanks
Brett McLaughlin
Head First Series Editor

Hi everyone-

I'd love to give you even a rough estimate, but until we lock in an author and make some actual progress, I'd just be guessing... and that's not fair to you or anyone else.

We have some new staff coming on board soon, and signing an EJB title - that's _current_ - is a BIG priority for us. Look for news early in 2009.

Thanks
Brett McLaughlin
Head First Series Editor

Hey all-

Good question, and timely. While we don't yet have a Head First Ruby book under contract, we're very close. We've got some great potential authors, and I'd say that I think we might have something officially happening in the next month or so.
These things are never a given in Head First, but we're working pretty hard to have Head First Ruby show up in 2009. More to come...

Thanks!
Brett
Series Editor, Head First

Hi guys-

Boy, I'd love nothing more to tell you we're days - or even months - away from a new release. Unfortunately, we're not. Finding a great technical author for any subject that can learn and "speak" Head First is an enormous task... and EJB is harder to grasp than most topics, so the pool we have to draw from is pretty small in the first place.
We're still actively looking, and I'd love any of you out there swimming in EJB knowledge to drop me a line (auditions@headfirstlabs.com). But for now, we're still looking, and don't have a project in the works.

Thanks, and hopefully there'll be a different answer to this soon.
Brett McLaughlin
Series Editor, Head First

Sasha-

We're aware of those reviews, although obviously nobody likes to see a poor review. We made a conscious decision late in the Head First C# production cycle to publish the book on time, even knowing there would be some errata, rather than pushing the book back a month to fix every typo.
Since then, we've fixed all those typos (and some people never caught) in reprintings, and are hearing lots of positive things. But the original decision is still having an effect.
Honestly, it's become a somewhat controversial decision, too. As you've seen, lots of people have been disappointed that the book didn't receive as strenuous a proofread, copyedit, etc., as our titles typically receive.
On the other hand, we've had to balance that with the substantial backlash from customers -- both individuals and businesses -- that would have arisen had we slipped the book back an entire month. Invariably, we'd hear things like, "You delayed this book to fix some typos? Are you kidding?"
It's a real catch-22, for better or worse.

That's an awfully long way of saying that we made a judgment call, and six or eight months down the line, it's easy to second guess. What is important is that we've fixed all those errata in subsequent printings, and from what we've been hearing, people seem to be really happy with the book.
I certainly appreciate the frustration from finding mistakes in a technical book, and I also can promise that we've become more stringent than ever in hunting those things down. I can't say we'll ever manage a completely error-free book, but we're certainly trying!

Thanks
Brett McLaughlin
Head First Series Editor

Jason (and all)-

We don't currently have anything coming on SQL Server. Have you checked out Head First SQL? While that's obviously not SQL Server specific, it does have a ton of stuff that would apply.
Or are you looking more for details about installation, configuration, etc.?

Thanks
Brett McLaughlin
Series Editor, Head First

Fahad-

Thanks for your interest. We are looking at Head First Java, 3rd edition, but the authors are planning on targeting Java 7, rather than the new Java 6. Java 6 is so similar to Java 5 - which is covered in the 2nd edition - that we think it's best to wait a bit and really provide a 3rd edition with lots of new content and value.
Off the cuff, I'd estimate you're looking at early 2010 before a 3rd edition of Head First Java is realistic.

Thanks
Brett McLaughlin
Series Editor, Head First

Thanks for the feedback, den. Book sales are a great indicator of what's hot, but we also love to hear from folks like yourself directly (at least as directly as the medium of email or Get Satisfaction provide!).

-Brett

Where did you purchase the PDF? I'm assuming on oreilly.com. Given that, I'm already trying to figure out what the problem is; I'll make sure we solve the problems technically, and see if we can get you a corrected copy.

If you didn't use oreilly.com, let us know, so we can respond to that as well.

Thanks, and stay tuned for more information.

Thanks
Brett McLaughlin
Series Editor, Head First

Hi pcresta-

Unfortunately, there's not a new release of Head First EJB planned. It's something we want - which is why Chris saw it in our internal databases - but not something we've been able to find authors for.
Because EJB 3.0 changed so drastically from EJB 2.0, it's not as much a revision as, in many respects, an entirely new book. And Bert Bates and Kathy Sierra have become too busy with several other projects (including the recently-released Head First Servlets, 2nd edition) to invest the time into a new edition of EJB.
All that said, we are actively looking for EJB authors, and it's a book that we'd like very much to sign. I know that's not a terribly exciting or encouraging answer, but I wanted to be up-front.
And anyone out there dying to get into the Head First family, EJB would be a great title to propose and audition for! Check out the Write For Us link at http://www.headfirstlabs.com.

Thanks
Brett McLaughlin
Series Editor, Head First

Hi pwilson-

We are working on a Head First Programming book, and that book uses the Python as the implementation language for all the examples. However, it's not what I'd call Head First Python because it focuses more on core programming concepts, and not specifically the Python language.
What's interesting, though - and what you may find some comfort in - is that we're getting more and more requests and comments regarding a straight Head First Python. So it's something we're looking at.
The best thing you can do? Get people to post in our forums at Head First Labs (http://www.headfirstlabs.com), or here, or let us know that they're interested in a Head First Python book. We'd love to do it, and are very open, if it seems like the audience is there.

Thanks
Brett

Hi beaglebuddy-

Just wanted to apologize that you ran into a problem with the second edition. My site used to host the examples, and when they were moved on to O'Reilly's site, all the links didn't get updated.
Please let us know if you're still having any trouble, okay?

Thanks
Brett McLaughlin