Paging Tripwire: Call your publisher!

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Dude,

I was looking for a study guide for CompTIA's DTHI+ cert. There doesn't appear to be such a beast. This could be a nice "between jobs" project for you, not to mention a nice break from Sharepoint (barf!).

;-)

 

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There are a couple of factors involved here...one has to do with how much of a demand there is for such a book. If a publisher doesn't see a demand, it isn't worth the expense of having a book written on the subject. The other issue has to do with my level of knowledge of and interest in the subject. While you might not agree, I really don't have a particular drive to write a book on the DHTI+ cert. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

 

There's gotta be a demand for it. Last week I did two PAL => NTSC DVD conversions in my shop for customers and installed an HDTV capable video card for another. I'm already carrying a fair number of video accessories (e.g. Starchoice satellite equipment) and I'm thinking of getting into home theatre installations as there's a lot of interest on the part of my customers.

I do think this will be a good cert for CompTIA, more so than the Project+.

And, hey, if you write the book, you can probably buy some new AV equipment for "research" purposes and write it off on your taxes. ;-)

 

Trip's right, demand fuels the process. If there's not enough demand, Sybex won't create a book on it. I've been in the certification industry for most of the last 8 years, and I haven't heard of much demand for the DHTI+ cert, unfortunately. It sounds interesting, but until enough people start getting it or wanting to get it, few major publishers will spend any effort creating materials for it.

 

Yep. Publishers have taken a huge reduction in the number of sales over the past few years. Some of them aren't even producing books for the second-tier (in popularity, not in difficulty or quality) exams anymore, much less the exams like DHTI+ that few people are pursuing.

It's probably a good exam... and probably covers good content... but there's absolutely zero buzz about it.

 

The "Boson Boys" are far more experienced in the area of certifications and certification related publications, so I'd take their advice to heart. Sorry, but it doesn't look like this one will fly until there's more of a demand.

 

[banging head on wall]

Y'know, there are thousands upon thousands of newbs running around getting certed up on Exchange, Pix firewalls, etc., and they're never going to lay their hands on that kit. In the meantime, I'm getting paid every week to do stuff covered by this cert...

• Integrate computers into home entertainment systems
• Help people use FM transmitters to output computer audio to their stereo
• Install video capture cards and make them work with satellite television
• Connect Xboxes and other gaming systems to home WiFi
• Advise on HDTV purchases (pixels, plasma vs. LCD, etc.)
• Advise on projector purchases (DLP, lumens, etc.)
• Record video from a camera onto a computer
• Edit captured video on a computer
• Copying DVDs
• Creating DVDs of your own home videos
• Etc.

...and no one considers it important enough to warrant a book. I can guarantee you that every other small computer biz is seeing the same thing.

Maybe I'LL end up writing the damn book, you bunch of feckless hosers!

[mumblemumblebitchcomplain]

 

Sorry to disappoint, but having actually written and published books, we have a certain amount of insight into how the process works. Nevertheless, you may be a pioneer here and certainly, that sort of spirit shouldn't be discouraged. Here's what you have to do to propose a book idea to Sybex:

http://www.sybex.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-290559.html

Good luck.

-Trip

 

I understand that... but for every one of you techs running a small computer shop, there's dozens (hundreds?) of techs who never touch that stuff. I've not been asked to do (nor have I done personally) any of the things on your list except copy DVDs.

Well... I've done "Etc." too. But that's a story for another day.

Thus... there's not much demand for DHTI+ certified techs. To be honest, I don't know anyone who's even considered taking the exam but you. Again, that doesn't mean it's not a good cert... it likely is. But it's not a popular cert... and that's what sells books. Even if an author writes it for them for free, they'd likely lose money just by publishing it. That's unfortunate, but true.

 

And I have none whatsoever.

 

Hold up here mate,
no one is saying there is not a demand for the book, they are saying there is not a big enough demand to warrant taking people off of stuff that IS in much higher demand
I don't disagree that what your seeing is a growing trend, hell IP is the future of home entertainment, and we will begin to see more and more of this

but compared to the big money in enterprise IT, its a small drop in the ocean.. AT THE MOMENT!
as someone who already has some publishing experience i encourage you to do as James suggests and submit your stuff to Sybex/Wiley whatever for consideration, they might see it as an untapped market

 

neutralhills,

Instead of grumbling in here about it, go to the link trip provided and put a proposal to sybex. Then you will know for certain if there would be enough interest in it.

 

Like hell. The last writing project nearly ended both myself and my marriage. This is why I prefer to nag others into doing the work for me. Besides, Trip's a better writer than I am.

I will be self-publishing a couple of books by this summer, but they'll be on fine-art photography.

 

Yesssss.... Gotta crank out all those CCNA study guides for the people who will never EVER touch a Cisco router during their entire I.T. careers!

Sorry, I derive some mirth from the whole "marketing vs. reality" aspect of the certification industry.

 

Unfortunatly if 1000 people buy the book and never even sit the exam let alone pass, get a job, do it for real, the book company still made 1000 x book sales

if only 100 DHTI+ candidates bought a book, passed the exam, and did installs for the next 10 years, its still a 90% decrease in revenue for the company

forget what the cert marketing crack is like, we have all been there / done that
its basic economics at the end of the day

niches are easy to excel in, but there risky investments for big names, so they don't bother

 

Oh duh! Sean! I didn't "recognize" you under your new "handle". Long time, no see. Welcome.

 

Yeah... but we sell a LOT of those products. Should we stop doing that in order to focus on a niche certification, no matter how "worthy" it might be?

Back in 2002, I believe it was, Transcender created products for three CIW exams. They were the "next big thing", and nobody else had CIW training products. But the products never sold - they were an absolute failure. I'm quite certain they never made back the development costs.

I've administered Cisco routers... but I've never done an HTI setup. Sure, it's great for people who work in small computer shops that focus on home users... but it's not very useful to a tech working for a healthcare company... or a bank/insurance company/law firm... or a government agency... or a manufacturing company... or an ISP... or a company that provides IT consulting services to businesses. And those are companies in which a large majority of techs work. They don't do HTI stuff. Industrywide, the demand is low. For you... it's absolutely perfect. For you, it's relevant. It's great for techs in those companies that provide service to home users. But for the majority of techs, HTI is just not something they'll ever be asked to do.

 

Yes, damn it. Don't you realize how important I am?

What, you folks didn't create products for the SCO ACE certs? I thought everyone was running Unixware 7!

*smirk*

There are people who want to work for large companies. This is all well and fine until your job is outsourced to some country where the locals work for $2/day. Believe me, people are better off dealing with the end user. I can't be outsourced because people can't ship their machine to India.

Life is better when you're dealing with home users.

 

It's all perspective…
Yes, for you it might be better dealing with the end-user. You control your business, your hours, your costs, taxes, etc… However, take the people that can’t manage buying shoes and paying their bills on time. Can they really run their own small business and actually be successful?

The point is working for the end-user or running your own business is more than just a choice. You have to have the skills to do it.

 

You would be amazed at what lies around the corner with some of the stuff I work with, the tables are infact reversing on outsourcing, countries that we historically used are now becoming too expensive, so corporates are bringing things back in house, whilst home users are getting ever more inventive with ways to be 'connected' as thats all most users want and need, they dont want virii and malware, or repair bills and service packs, they want to send email and share photos with there friends, that can be done with a clever little wall jack and a net connection to a VDI broker, there data is stored offsite where its backed up.. twice, there machine remains virii free whatever they manage to do, patching everything is no longer in there hands.. and they are lapping it up