Tech media company, O’Reilly, has started selling and site-licensing books in PDFs by chapter — or in their entirety. O’Reilly today rolled out this new feature on 714 books. All these titles are also part of a program called the “Copyright Clearance Center RightsLink” project, that will give customers “the option to purchase reuse rights of book content for their Intranets, newsletters, course packs, and websites,” says O’Reilly.

According to the press release, using Scott Raymond’s “Ajax on Rails” as an example, the new plan offers the following options (see the links along the right hand of the page):

Purchase the printed book for $39.99

Purchase the entire book in a PDF format for $27.99

Purchase a chapter for $3.99 each

Purchase reprint rights for portions of the book

Purchase a site license for the entire book or a portion of it

Also, you can read it online through Safari, an electronic reference library for programmers and IT professionals. (No relation to the Apple browser by the same name.)

Observation: This is not exactly from the “content wants to be free” school-of-thought. However, as I recently purchased an entire O’Reilly book for something that was contained in one chapter, I can see how I would have chosen another flavor if this vending machine approach had been available. Also, I like it when authors can sell more stuff. If this helps them do it, great.

I don’t really care who Fake Steve Jobs is. Does it matter? His writing is gut-splitting funny. But more than that, it is dead-on, insightful commentary. For example, on Saturday, Fake Steve prepares the troops for some negative press by breaking down how hype-backlash works. Today, he uses that Saturday article to say, “I told you so,” when he blasts this ‘hatchet job’. While Apple doesn’t allow employees to officially blog, if they ever change that policy, they should put Fake Steve on the payroll. It is, by far, the best CEO blog ever.

I had not planned to continue with my thread of Saturday in which I invited people to send me data showing that people who are “young” get NO information from TV or magazines. However, serveral people have sent me links to data backing up my premise, like this, however, from the authoritative source on the subject — Maxim — that says 71% of men ages 18-34 spend more time online now than a year ago (as I said Saturday, don’t we all) but a resounding 74% still felt that putting an ad on TV would be the “most effective” way to get it seen by guys.

(Thanks, Wayne Smith)

Anyone whose last name (like mine) is Hammock may find alarming the following headline: “Hit the hammock, beat the stress”.

(Thanks, Hudge)

The Tennessean and every sports wireservice in America is reporting that Police in Atlanta are investigating suspended Tennessee Titan Pacman Jones in connection with an early morning shooting outside a Dekalb County strip club.

On April 10th, I blogged this: “I think Adam Jones is “salvagable” (as the term has been used) and I hope he plays for the Titans again one day. However, I think there’s little chance that Jones can be away from football for a year and not be around the trouble that seems always to occur whenever he is around.”

A condition of his current NFL suspension is clearly stated: “He must have no more run-in with law enforcement.” Also, when he was suspended, NFL Commissioner Goodell accompanied it with this emphatic quote: “I must emphasize to you that this is your last opportunity to salvage your NFL career…I urge you to take full advantage of the resources available to support you in that effort.”

His days in the NFL are over. His days being blogged about here are over too. Sad. I liked him. I felt for him. But this train wreck was inevitable.