Every so often, I find a web service that actually returns something semi-valuable in exchange for my dollar. This may sound outlandish -- a valuable subscription based web-service -- but I insist they do exist. And Safari is definately one of them.

Recently, I stumbled on to O'Reilly's Safari. Safari is a subscription based service which offers thousands of books, from programming references to business guides. I think I'm paying 20 something dollars a month for access to every programming reference I could possibly need. 20 dollars may sound like a lot -- but, given that the books I'm reading average somewhere's between 35.00 to 70.00 a pop, I'm alright with a monthly fee.

Currently, using my trial membership, I'm reading:

1. Ambient Findability
2. Bulletproof Web Design: Improving flexibility and protecting against worst-case scenarios with XHTML and CSS
3. Designing Interfaces
4. Head Rush Ajax
5. JavaScript: The Definitive Guide, 4th Edition
6. Programming PHP, 2nd Edition
7. Don't Make Me Think!: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, Second Edition
8. MySQL Cookbook

Together, these seven books would probably cost just above $300.00. And I wouldn't have the ability to merely copy and paste the examples in them. Not to mention, carrying around 5000 physical pages of programming references is not very practical for people like myself.

So -- do give this service a try. Especially if you make a living off of programming.

Disclaimer:

O'Reilly has no clue as to who I am (as far as I know), so no -- I wasn't paid to say this.