My buddy Bill recently has been requesting ideas for his upcoming Speech Server book. He discussed tone of the material and I thought I'd elaborate a little on the difference between a conversational and a technical reference tone.
I remember certain things about my CS (Computer Science) 101 class not because of Pascal (the greatest language EVAR (only because it was the first that turned the development light on)) but because the teacher had a way of relating the material to us in a way we could easily remember it. I even remember his mannerisms and the way he spoke perfectly clear to this day and it's been almost 10 years since I've been in the class.
I think the main problem is there is no category for conversational vs. "Linux man page dry technical" tone. If you haven't had the "luxury" of trying to decipher a man page just to get a working example, consider yourself fortunate. Personally I can't stand that type of material in a couple pages of man much less an entire book of it. Conversations are much easier for me to remember especially if the topic is done correctly. I may have been told 1000 times about Debug.Assert but if done right I usually remember the one anecdotal reference.
The main reason I read blogs is because I can't remember MSDN documentation to save my life. I can however remember what person X said about technology Y and use MSDN as a fall-back mechanism. The beauty and beast of this is it is "pushed" to me but that also means I have to wait for it in most cases. I usually never know I need technology Y until someone explains it in words I can understand. I don't have all day to decipher man pages so in general I skip any technology that can't be explained in terms I understand. If I need certification to begin touching your technology guess what? I'm not interested.
Then again there is that part of me that likes what I call the "transformer effect". I never read instruction manuals even as a kid. When I got a new transformer I would always tinker with it until I figured out exactly how I could turn it from A to B. The only time I ever picked up the manual was when I had a six changer and that's because I found 5/6 and the last one was evading me. That's how I approach technology in general for the most part. I can figure out 5/6 but the last sixth usually requires a manual of some sort. Keep it dry and all I'll do is search for a topic and put it away. Make it a conversation and I'll read it from start to finish like a book. For the record, I've never read a manual from start to finish. The only time I come close is video game manuals and that's because I need reading material when I'm taking a dump and it's just the right amount of material needed to finish the deed.