Usability is a valued function in print, not just on the web. Phil and Alex's way cool in-joke laden guide could be edited down by 30% without any loss in content, printed on non-gloss paper to save 30-=50% more in unneeded weight. Greenspun abuses print the way the web novices he critiques use the web--utterly superfluous production values that add no value to the user but only heap on costs and hence price; utterly gratuitous graphics which prove that force me, the book buyer, to subsidize Greenspun's embarrassingly mediocre talent as a photographer, and utter inability to generate creative or useful graphic illustrations to help communicate the rich and bountiful insights that pour forth from his fertile mind. Do not attempt to use this book if you suffer from any form of RSI... it's as though the author has intentionally created a 25 pound laptop and every programmer in the world is forced to fall over in adulation. Aparently, Mr. Greenspun did not have the opportunity to go through the 2-3 year stage of amateur dabbling in desktop graphics most of us went through with Photoshop 2.0 . What is ludicrous is that even our most eminent thinker about "information design" dares not to mention that this book is an insult to the art and craft of information design in print. Excess weight causes severe spine breakage, the absurdly wasteful use of high gloss paper means that the pages resist being underlined or marked for those who want to create notation, and the photos are as distracting and counterproductive as 100 one megabyte jpegs of baboons would be pushed into every page of my online edition of the New York Times. The varnished paper is, of course, non-recyclable. Philip, the design of your book violates every single rule you hammer away at for 570 pages. Keep the dog, hire an editor, drop the ego, practice in print what you preach on the web. Read Ed Tufte's books and make the next edition actually use graphic presentation to communicate. Respect print, it's older than you are.
