John Gruber:
"Pragmatic keeps up their tradition of great content from smart
developers, presented with atrocious typography."
I'm by no means a typography geek or design nerd but I gotta agree here.
The Pragmatic books have always struck me as looking incredibly cheezy
compared to O'Reilly, Manning, or Addison-Wesley technical books.
Just compare the quality of the Hunt/Thomas
The Pragmatic Programmer (published by Addison-Wesley) to a typical
Pragmatic Press book (published by Hunt and Thomas). The difference is
striking.
After the Wakayama Electric Railroad had to lay off employees at the Kishi
Station in Kinokawa, they
appointed a cat
named Tama to be station master. She greets visitors and even has a
little cap.
Tama has become a huge tourist attraction and helped reverse the fortunes
of the Wakayama Electric Railroad. Tama is paid in catfood.