Manga guide to databases
I have no idea if The Manga Guide to Databases will be any good (the publisher sez, "In The Manga Guide to Databases, Tico the fairy teaches the Princess how to simplify her data management. We follow along as they design a relational database, understand the entity-relationship model, perform basic database operations, and delve into more advanced topics. Once the Princess is familiar with transactions and basic SQL statements, she can keep her data timely and accurate for the entire kingdom. Finally, Tico explains ways to make the database more efficient and secure, and they discuss methods for concurrency and replication.") but I sure hope it's the start of a trend. I want a manga guide to supersymmetry, the surplus labor theory of value, tensor calculus and many other elusive concepts.
I'm aware that this sort of subject is often covered in Japanese manga books, but to understand them, I'd need a Manga Guide to Japanese first. The Manga Guide to Databases (via Global Nerdy)
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That´s so cute that my girlfriend want to learn SQL... LOL
Great ! I see a whole generation of 10 year-old DB savvy girls coming. Next: hacking servers with ponies.
"surplus theory"
So, we're looking for (wait for it)
mangagement books?
Ah, the hentai tentacles of SQL.
This takes wonderful to new and utterly bizarre levels.
#2: Sparkly server hacking manga ponies FTW!
See also: Unix for the Beginning Mage.
http://dl.cyberciti.biz/unix_for_the_beginning_mage/uftbm.pdf
"Moe guidebooks" with cute, googly-eyed manga girls have become kind of a fad in Japan. I've seen English phrasebooks, guides to ancient and modern weapons, mythology, etc.
Looking on Amazon.co.jp just now I also saw moe books on politics, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, blogging, Arthurian mythos, and learning the Thai language.
True story: I was in the hospital in Japan. A nurse came round, armed with a manga guide to inserting an IV. Is there anything that inspires less confidence?
"Is there anything that inspires less confidence?" . Maybe a tentacle hentai guide to inserting an enema...
When I learned FORTRAN, it was using A FORTRAN Coloring Book. It was an engaging way to teach the concepts of programming and FORTRAN. For years, I would dig it out and have people read the first couple chapters if they were interested in programming. You can still find copies on the web from used book stores.
Looks like there is going to be a series:
Statistics
http://www.amazon.com/Manga-Guide-Statistics-Shin-Takahashi/dp/1593271891/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1223562062&sr=1-5
Awesome.
What, no cameo appearances from Yuki Nagato?
Having formerly published comic books, I have pondered putting out a comic book for my open source project as an companion tutorial (not as the entire tutorial). I both applaud and cringe at this effort as I doubt it goes over in detail alot of the concepts that people need to really consider and understand in detail to do database administration... but it may be good at giving peope an introduction to give them a push in the right direction.
Naturally, the Manga Guide to Japanese actually exists.
Actually, the publisher's whole website is worth checking out - http://nostarch.com/
They have books on everything from super weird geeky Lego stuff, esoteric programming issues, and geek chic to, yes, an entertaining looking book on Passover Haggadah.
Pretty freaking awesome.
I like the idea of instructional manga and comics, but why do they have to have fairies and cutesy bullshit like that?
I saw a pre-production copy of the Manga Statistics guide, and was very impressed. I think I'll have to get the whole series.
(Testmonkey7 - you win!!)
This series seems like a Japanese version of Larry Gonick's (mostly) excellent work.
Reminds me of 'A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer'
Lets see a Manga guide to turing machines
I'm glad someone mentioned the Gonick books - while manga's been used as a teaching aid for years ("Japan, Inc." comes immediately to mind), Gonick's been going for at least thirty years now and deserves a shoutout. ("Cartoon Guide to Non-Communication" FTW!)
They've been doing this a fair amount in Japan. The Moetan books for teaching english to otaku became famous enough the signature character got her own TV series...
#11: Denshi Yousei Ruri would be better. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruri_Hoshino
there's lots of educational/informational manga out there, and western comics, too. Don't forget about the "For Beginners" series published by Pantheon (not exactly comics). There's also "Action Philosophers", which is more recent.
Curses, Edgore @ #10 beat me to the statistics book in the same series, but I can also suggest the totally unrelated but also awesome "Who Is Fourier?" http://www.lexlrf.org/pub/fourier.html
The interesting thing about this is that it is put together by a learning club that specializes in promoting 'foreign' languages, which tends to cover quite an age range. The goal for the book was to approach the subject of Fourier analysis from the perspective of learning a new language, and also to construct it in a manner that the youngest, oldest, and least experienced members could understand it.
Here is a sample page, with links at the top to a table of contents and a second sample page:
http://www.lexlrf.org/pub/fourier-page5.html
I kind of wish they had chosen one of the pages about integration to exhibit, but that's their choice.
I really liked this book, in case that isn't clear.
Goodbye Complete Idiot's guides.
Helooooo Manga Guides.
Sounds like a good reference to have in the office when explaining to a customer why we use a database. At least it would make the customer go away. For a while.