[OS X TeX] Re: [MacTeX] Newer textcomp.sty?

[Adrian Heathcote]

Hi Will
>
>>
>> The new LaTeX Companion is an incredibly informative volume: if 
>> anyone is wavering, my suggestion would be get it immediately.
>>
>
> As a fellow Australian, may I ask who you ordered your copy through?
> At the moment, I reckon elx.com.au is the cheapest, but I was just 
> going to sit until it became properly available here.

Yes, I didn't really shop around, I just…wanted it!

I'm sure you can get it cheaper.

I pre-ordered it through Amazon U.S. and with shipping it cost $71.97 
($59.99 without the shipping). Given its weight that shipping cost is 
actually pretty good---Amazon may have even lost money on it. The cost 
in Aust. dollars was a fraction over $100.

BTW there is a little trick that I've learned about Amazon's shipping 
cost. As all overseas customers know the cost is usually pretty 
high---and on average Amazon is collecting a profit on us, and using it 
to subsidise free shipping in the U.S. But the price is actually fixed 
on the number of items, and if you order two items the shipping cost is 
not doubled, but only goes up a little. So two items is usually a good 
deal, whereas one item is way too much. The moral is to save your order 
until you want two things.

I imagine that this would hold in shipping to other places beside 
Australia---but we are fortunate: at the moment our customs does not 
collect duty on these Amazon packages. YMMV.

But the volume is worth every cent of the cost: 1090 pages plus a 
TeXLive CD. And it is *unbelievably* informative.

cheers

Adrian Heathcote
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