O'Reilly Makes 'Prototype to Product' eBook Free to Help COVID-19 Innovators

Alan Cohen is a software and systems engineer/manager, and a lifelong technophile who's been engaged in developing medical devices and other high-reliability products. So right now he's working with the new Massachusetts-based "Mass General Brigham Center for COVID Innovation" to refine an emergency ventilator prototype — and then mass-produce thousands of them.

"Most of what's needed is the expertise to turn prototypes into products," Alan says — and fortunately, he'd already written a book about that for O'Reilly Media. "He's asked that it be freely shared with others to help solve problems in this time of crisis," reads a new announcement at OReilly.com.

Alan is also occamboy (Slashdot reader #583,175), and shares his thoughts with Slashdot readers. He starts by saying that he's "psyched" that O'Reilly's now agreed to offer free downloads of Prototype to Product, "to help teams developing products in response to COVID-19." It's a high-level cross-functional engineering look at how... well, how prototypes are developed into manufacturable products. Covers electronics, software, mechanicals, manufacturing, project management, regulatory, and so forth. Currently at 4.8 stars on Amazon, and only two of the reviews were by friends of mine :).
Alan also offers this special hint for Slashdot's quick-learning readers.

"Figure 1-1 is all you really need to know, the rest is details."

give the people what they want

[bugs2squash]

Figure 1.2 shows a swiss army knife as the "what technologists want" and a steak knife as the "what 'Normal people' want".

What they don't show is the blade holder with proprietary blade refils that the marketing department will allow to be manufactured.

Thanks Alan, O'Reilly

[raymorris]

Thanks for making this book available. Also thanks for pointing out the thesis of the book, shown in figure 1-1.

Sometimes there are books for which it doesn't make sense for me to read 400+ pages, if it doesn't directly apply to me, but being reminded of the thesis is valuable. In this case, I may rrad more of it when it comes to one to support that thesis in my own work.

Re:

[SpankiMonki]

Yes, thanks Alan, and well done!

Re:

[110010001000]

Wow....just wow. I mean, how rude can you be? I think the book is a high level guide that has a mix of practical advice. Very useful! Good job, Alan. Very impressive.

Some information helps guide future consideration.

[Futurepower(R)]

Some information in the book helps guide future consideration. But, in general, there should be a new edition that makes all the issues far more clear.

Product development is an important subject.

Re:

[RandomUsername99]

Yes, they must be engaging in that classic marketing tactic of using a well-publicized giveaway to expose a large number of people to... their lowest quality product?

I'm guessing you're also guessing that you know what you're talking about.

Re: The book is VERY poorly written.

[occamboy]

Perhaps. But itâ(TM)s at 4.8 stars with 14 reviews on Amazon, so apparently there are many connoisseurs of poor writing out there. Or... ?

Re: The book is VERY poorly written.

[BAReFO0t]

Far from agreeing with him, but ... seriously? Who is so gullible to trust stars ratings on Amazon? They are worse than even IMDB!

Every big company has a part of their marketing/PR department that creates professional fake reviews and such for their products. They also do meme-driven and traditional viral ad campaigns. And small companies can hire marketing companies for it.
It isn't even innovative anymore, as it was in the early 2000s when the company I worked for started doing it.

The reason it is so popul

Re: The book is VERY poorly written.

[MakerDusk]

As you were replying to the author of the book, you could have been more direct with the questions. It's rare that a slashdotter publishes an actual book. O'Reilly is a textbook publisher as well, so a minimal bar was cleared as well. Those reviews clearly mean a lot to him, but weren't informative in a ply-the-textbook-author way.

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[junglee_iitk]

Thanks for providing this book for free. I will be reading it this afternoon.

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[SpankiMonki]

That book is VERY poorly written.

Wow! You read a 400+ page book that fast? Amazing!

These comments are merely my opinions.

[Futurepower(R)]

I downloaded the book on April 16, 3 days ago, when the subject was first posted as a submission to Slashdot.

These comments are merely my opinions, of course, as are all comments on Slashdot.

First chapter of the book: "The 11 Deadly Sins of Product Development". It would have been FAR more helpful if the book presented information in a positive manner, not in an extremely negative manner.

Quote from PDF page 24: "... Fundamental Principle: surprises only get more expensive if discovered later. Putti

Re: These comments are merely my opinions.

[fyzikapan]

So itâ(TM)s very poorly written because he doesnâ(TM)t wrap reality up in a layer of sunshine and unicorn farts?

Re:

[edis]

This is poorly written review. Informing of popular pitfalls is anti-negative manner of supplying you with information.
I have browsed trough the book, and found it up to O'Reilly to respect. Thanks, it is inspiring and clarifying reading.

Re: These comments are merely my opinions.

[BAReFO0t]

I suggest you watch this: RSA Animate: Smile or Die (Barbara Ehrenreich) [youtu.be]

Trust me, this obsession with positivism instead of *realism* is a very American one.
I know, because here in Germany, the obsession is with negativism. :)

Awesome. Thank you sir.

[fredrated]

You are a gentleman and a scholar.

google vs OReilly

[museumpeace]

orielly certificate expired in the last day...so says chrome So cannot open page to log into my OReilly account. Probably means my "forever" updates for the library of e-books are also history.

More thanks

[evil_aaronm]

I downloaded it and spent much of the morning reading it. I've enjoyed it so far. Thanks for making it available.

Re:

[GeekBoy]

What's the link to the download?

Re:

[GeekBoy]

Nevermind I'm blind

COVID-19 innovators?

[BAReFO0t]

Glad to see, *somebody* is innovating on the virus creation and human eradication front! ;)

No, honestly, tell me EbolaAIDS-2 is in development right now. Mama Earth needs it! *taps arm*. Stat!

Prior Art: Robert Anton Wilson:

[Hartree]

Anthrax Leprosy Mu.

From a fellow slashdotter

[Provocateur]

Muchas gracias occamboy! ;-)

Is it still Free?

[sziring]

I can't find the free copy on their site any longer. I grabbed a copy for myself the other day but when sharing the link with my coworkers it doesn't seem to appear anymore.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Try This [oreillystatic.com]

Windbourne

I didn't see the download link

[HighOrbit]

Many thanks to the author and to O'Reilly. Can some post the link to the pdf? Or do I have to start the trial at O'Reilly?