Software Books

If you are looking for good introduction.
This book is your best choice.
Very consistent, without any "poetry" (like in last Richter's book).
Mr.Tapadiya's two book about COM+ and .NET must have any Windows developer.

This book isn't as code oriented as Ferguson or Troelsen's text on c#, but seems to deal more with concepts and common trouble points with the language and environment. Much like Tapadiya's last book, it is well thought out and demonstrates a good insight in the subject matter. A good read.

This book is a treasure trove of .Net information. It is underrated and not seen often in bookstores. This book complements Richter's book on .Net Framework programming and is a boon for any C#/.NETer.

A concise, no-nonsense book. All topics are cut to the chase. This book is for C++ and Java pros who want to master C# in the shortest time possible. I also have 3 other C# books. Only this one calms me down and gives me the joy of reading while learning. However, for people who is new to programming, I recommend "Learn to Program with C#" by John Smiley. My 3rd book, "C# in a Nutshell" is a good choice for reference. My 4th one, "Introduction to C# Using .Net" is good too, but the topics covered are not as broad as this one.

For donwloading this book's sample code, it points to www.phptr.com/tapadiya/dotnet/, which no longer works. Instead, go http://www.tapadiya.net/pradeep/ComPlusBook.htm#CodeSamples, a link I finally found after 10 minutes of Google search.

I liked this book. It starts with very basic things about .NET (what .NET is and what it's for, tools, basics of C#, etc.) and takes you to advanced topics. My employer wanted to move our development to .NET platform, and with this book alone, I was able to master .NET enough to get to a pretty advanced level quite fast.

When a new topic is covered, the author provides an introduction to the problem. It often helps to get the right perspective on what you study. It's very far from being a dry reference book. I found it to be written in an easy to understand the language, detailed enough and not too wordy, and to explain things in a practical way. I like Tapadiya's style, in general. I liked his other book (about COM programming) too. I enjoyed reading it.

The book is not for those who are looking for a general programming tutorial. I think it requires some experience in software creation, although maybe not a whole lot.

I've been to the French Quarter twice in the last year. I think I left my heart there! It's such a beautiful city with so much history, and so many great and colorful people! This CD does the city justice and then some! The pictures are glorious, and I don't think there's a block in the Quarter they missed. You can take a variety of "guided" tours, or you have the option of clicking on a map of the Quarter. The map let's you click and see just about every square inch of the Quarter. There aren't a lot of interior pictures on this CD if that's what you are looking for. There are also panoramic views which are great, and an area to "meet" a couple of people from the French Quarter and get some info and perspective from them. This is just a really great buy for anyone who wants to travel to New Orleans' French Quarter, or for people like me who absolutely love the city!

I tried this CD after viewing the Armchair Tour of Charleston, SC, and I think this one is even better. Tons of information and great photos. I'd love to be able to visit the French Quarter every few months, but failing that opportunity, this has got to be the next best thing.

Wow! The quality of the pictures and the effect of the panoramic feature was impressive. New Orleans French quarter is one of my wife and I's favorite places to visit. The use of the DVD shows us some of the houses that we have not visited plus things about the ones that we have that we missed- decorative vents in the buildings. I particularly enjoyed the lady with the Cajun accent doing the audio. Love the dialect. This helps us plan our next trip. Good job.

The armchair tour series is a must for folks who travel or appreciate the unique beauty and architecture of our country. Each armchair cd uses multiple media sources to create the look, feel, and sound of a particular city. I used the the cd to prepare for travel and then passed the cd on to my son for a shcool project. The armchair cd is the next best thing to "bein there".

This is the coolest product! I have to admit I didn't know what to expect when I got it but I was floored as to the amount of information and the extent to which they go into detail. The photography is beautiful. It is so much fun to just walk down the street and see a picture of every single house. I had a ball following the clues looking for this guys lost keys and the graphic at the end was hysterical. It's like buying every single book about the French Quarter, having all the really interesting things be highlighted for you and then have pictures of it all added. It just brings the whole city, with all it's incredible buildings and fascinating stories, to life. I don't usually get this excited about things but this is really great!

I am using this textbook for my Nutrition class at the International Culinary School at The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale. It makes class so much easier for me. The instructor speeds through the lessons and luckily for us all she uses the text as her guide. Without it, I would not continue to be a top student.

The Food Service is each day an wide open door for nutritionists. This book in particular is very helpfull on understanding the basic and advanced qualities needed for a professional acting in this area.

I was assigned this text in my nutrition class in culinary school. The book was a joy to read because it was fun and easy to read. I really liked the section on vitamins and food sources of each vitamin. However, if you really want to know the type of questions asked in nutrition class in culinary school get the following. "Nutrtion Study Guide for Food Service and Culinary Professionals: Key Review Questions and Answers by Melissa Heilman. The isbn of this book is 1933023058. This book is right on with the type of questions that I accounted on my tests. With the help of these two books getting an "A" was quite easy.

Very knowledgable book on nutrition including information for children and older adults. As a culinary professional I wanted to read up on the latest nutrition especially on soy and to improve my diet. I am also considering taking some courses, one of them is Sanitation. The Study Guide for the National Servsafe Exam by Dr. Leonardi was a book I found also very knowledgable and I am certain that it will help me with my exam once I decide when to take it.

This book was exactly what I needed. It contains all the information I needed. A great learning tool. The part of the book I am most impressed with is the section of infant nutrition. It explains month by month what you can feed your infant. An example is the 4th month of life, you can start your child on iron enriched cereals.

I absolutely recommend this book to anyone who has the patience and endurance to get through it. It is definately NOT easy reading. The material is extremely condensed with little or no redundancy, but it is the most complete and acurate technical book I have ever read. The excercises are great as well; not dumbed down unrealistically easy or multiple choice questions that give you the false impression that you've mastered the subject like many books contain, but very difficult and realistic problems. The authors obviously took their' time writing in.

This book really enables to seamlessly synthesize 2 approaches - relational and object oriented while building systems with complex data structures and persistence requirements.

Great combination of hands-on and conceptual understanding of object oriented software development and database design/programming. If you are new to the object-oriented world and have experience with procedural programming and database applications, this is the book to get. It will take you directly to the object-oriented view and how to use OMT/UML to use a sound and pragmatic process to achieve those goals. It might actually be the only book you need !!

The book is composed of four parts: modeling concepts, analysis/design, implementation and large system issues.

The first part describes the main concepts on object oriented modeling. The topics on object relationships (association, aggregation, generalization) are excellent.

The second part, I consider that contains the best chapters. There are a lot of advices on how to develop database applications following object orientation and on how to choose a data management approach.

The third part, about implemmentation, has good and bad chapters. I don't like the chapters on relational databases. They include valuable information on how to map classes to relational databases but some space is wasted with basic concepts on relational databases and the main example is developed using Microsoft Access.

The last part is the smallest one and contains introductory topics on distributed databases, integration of applications and reverse engineering.

The class diagrams are in OMT notation.

I have read this book cover to cover. Think about that. When was the last time you (or anyone you know) read a technical book cover to cover? It is that good. It *does* get a bit deep and theoretical in many places, but it covers the subject matter with more depth and more meaningful examples than any other book I have ever seen. A MUST READ, if you want to design serious object databases!!

This book contains information about the inside workings of Authorware that will allow you to easily advance to intermediate and advanced programming methods. It even provides the intermediate and advanced developer with inside information about the inner workings of the program; I know of no other guide to Authorware that does this. What is unusual about this book is the clarity with which it is written. It reads unusually smoothly, and sets the standard for which reference manuals should be written. This is a very wise investment for the Authorware developer at any skill level.

Authorware has a steeper learning curve than most authoring programs. Taking this into account, Nick Robert's `The Official Guide to Authorware 4' takes a beginner through projects of intermediate complexity while providing experienced Authorware developers a leg up on Authorware 4. Don't flinch at buying this terrififc manual for Authorware 4 - the one that comes with the program is virtually useless. This book is written to clarify confusing concepts. It emphasizes what is really important and provides "Hot Tip" markers throughout. An accompanying CD-ROM provides examples to illustrate code and functionality. But because the Robert's explanations are already clear in the book, the CD-ROM is not that essential. On the down side, I would like to have a summary of not just new functions for Authorware 4, but also a comprhensive list. If you are new to Authorware and plan on using this book, plan to spend about ten hours reading the first six chapters (200 pages) and browsing around the authoring system, before you actually start building. This will ensure that you pick up the right building blocks for the foundations of your project. The remaining 14 chapters are task specific, and serve as excellent references.

There seem to be three types of books in circulation about Authorware. There is of course the User's Guide that comes with the product -- a good reference. Then there are tutorials, like "Authorware 5 Authorized" by Kellogg -- a good beginner's step by step how-to. But the best type of book (for me anyway) has been the "show & tell & try approach" type of book, like Nick Roberts' excellent "The Official Guide to Authorware 4." It is very well written in an interesting and casual style -- and you will find the author's enthusiasm for Authorware contageous as you delve deeper into the text. Excellent illustrations compliment the "visual" approach to constructing a piece via icons along a flow line. And you are told the logic of the "what & why" of the step-by-step examples before you do them -- a great aid in understanding (and actually learning) how to utilize Authorware's features. Too many times I've followed the tutorials of other books and end up with a nice looking functional result -- without really understanding along the way "why" I used the steps and procedures I was told to do.

And most important, this book came through for me in an area that I have not found in the other books -- variables, functions and expressions. Roberts eases the reader into this area, which is by far the core of Authorware's strength and flexibility. Then the reader gets into two or three chapters that deal with this area in depth. The material was so good I couldn't help but want more, but alas, I think an entire book could be written on just variables and functions.

Even though I use Authorware 5.1, I found this version 4 book 100% useful -- all it lacks is info on how to use 5.1's Knowledge Objects -- which surprisingly is also absent in the newer Authorware 5 books that I have seen. But from what I've heard from other folks, the lack of K.O. information is no great loss. I just hope that Nick Roberts comes out with another AW book one of these days -- maybe on AW 6 when it hits the market.

This is an excellent resource. New Authorware users as well as experienced professionals will find a wealth of information presented here. The material is well organized and explains simple tasks early, then takes the user into more complex functions. I would like to see a 'volume 2' with more attention to complex tasks as well as some additional models. If you are trying to understand Authorware, this is a great place to begin!

This is a super book for both new users and advanced users alike. Mr. Roberts takes you through all the facets of authorware and gives you super tips for developing your piece for either mac or pc. I had never used a authoring program before, including authorware and after reading this book for couple of nights, I was developing my own stand alone windows based projects. I really wish to thank Mr. Nick Roberts for writing a easy to understand book. Keep up the good work. Cheers Rick

This was an excellent book; well researched, well written, and well organized. This book provided a remarkable contrast to "The Cathedral and the Baazar", which, while interesting, was generally poor in its organization and far too biased to take seriously. Although the author is obviously biased towards open sourse, this is the most objective book I've read coming from the open source community. Rosenberg often objectively points out the challenges the open source debate will face legally and philisophically in the near future. This is a great reference book for anyone interested in the open source debate.

Open Source: The Unathorized White Papers is a real contrast to the other more well known book I've read on the subject, The Cathedral and the Bazaar. While Cathedral and Bazaar reads like a series of unorganized USENET posts and random musings, Open Source is very well organized, and professionally written and edited. It contains up to date and accurate information about a range of topics relating to open source, including history, examples of businesses, and licensing.

The book's coverage of licensing is easily the most complete source for understanding a very complex subject. There are so many misconceptions of what licensing means in terms of software that the book is a must read if you either run a software company or are considering investing in one.

The only issue I have with the book is its description of the Java programming language as not having "a community". Being on the board of directors for the local Java User's Group I naturally take issue with that characterization, but for the sake of brevity, as well as sticking to the topic at hand, I will refrain from bringing out the voluminous amount of evidence to the contrary. :-)

For disclosure, I must admit to having met Mr. Rosenberg in the Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina. This isn't hard to do, considering he attends meetings of nearly every technical group I can think of, and is an expert on "people" networking.

This book presents an excellant overview of the open source development arena: who is playing, why they are playing, where are they headed, etc. It also provides an excellant grounding in the forces that shaped the movement, as well as the individuals who found themselves leading a movement (when they really thought they were just good programmers).

The book is well written and organized, with interesting side stories that provide a drill-down view of key areas. There is also good discussion of the strategy that is behind the key players in the game today, as well as insights into emerging opportunities.

For anyone who wants a good overview of this revolutionary method of software development, this is it.

Sometimes a home run is little more than a hit causing an increment tick to a stat, but once in a while it's a powerful work of art that changes the game--Donald Rosenberg's book is the latter. It is, by far, the best book on Open Source written to date.

As someone involved with open source strategies at a large corporation in the computer industry, I found Donald's book to be objective, insightful, and current which reflects an intimate knowledge of someone on the inside.

The level-headedness of this book makes it an essential read for anyone trying to understand the counter-intuitive nature of open source or protect themselves from the FUD, emotions, and convoluted conversations that plague Open Source.

This book is a compilation of essays on open source from the author. He covers the origins and history, as well as a responsible coverage of the licensing models. While there is an over emphasis of Linux, it does talk about various business models that can be used in the open source context. It also includes the text of some of the major open source licenses.

This is a essential book for beginners and advanced users. DBAs can have good references to implement ASM without problems. There are many information not found in conventional forums.

Other than Oracle documentation, this is the only ASM source of information that I know of. This book is a relatively fast read and comes in at under 300 pages.

The first chapter is very helpful and I learned some information about disk storage that I did not know. I am more comfortable talking with SAN and system administrators now. They also get the feel that I know what I am talking about. After the first chapter, the book dives right into ASM architecture and management. Each chapter is well written and easy to understand. This book also covers the new features in Oracle 11 and you can see that Oracle is dedicated to maturing ASM. ASM is here to stay and it will gain in popularity.

One of the areas that I thought could have been better is the discussion and explanation of RAC, ASM and how the cluster registry is affected. It would have been nice to have a chapter on OCFS just as a supplement. Some shops will utilize both OCFS and ASM. OCFS will host the OCR and voting file as ASM can not be used.

If you are new to ASM or you are an expert, this book is a good read. If you are new to ASM will get more out of it (obviously) since it covers everything you need to know to install and maintain ASM. Fortunately since this is the only ASM book (as of today) and it is great source of information you will not be wasting your time. This book comes highly recommended.

George Loewenthal
Denver, Colorado

Oracle Automatic Storage Management Under-the-Hood & Practical Deployment Guide.This is a must have book for those who are working on ASM or who are planning to implement ASM.Chapters like "ASM Space Allocation and Rebalance","ASMLIB Concepts and Overview","Managing Database in ASM" and "ASM and Storage Array Configuration" gives you in detail information.

After reading the book I can say that now I know what actually is ASM/How it works/How to Implement ASM and I don't need any more training on ASM.


-MOHAMMED MOINUDDIN UMAIR
Senior Tuning Consultant,LEHMAN BROTHERS,NEW JERSEY

One of the authors of this book is the director of development for ASM. Who would know more about it than the developers? The other 2 implement it in many different environments. Lastly, the technical reviewer Charles Kim wrote the 11g new features book for Apress. There could not be a better group of people to write a book about ASM and review it than these individuals.

I would highly recommend this book for any DBA that will be working with ASM and / or RAC. The high performance, ease of use, and low cost make it a very attractive solution. This book will teach you everything you need to know about ASM (that's why it's called an "Under-the-Hood" guide). It also makes an excellent reference.

Someone recenlty mentioned that Oracle Automatic Storage Management (ASM) is probably the best thing ever happened to Oracle next to SQL*Plus. I would second that. However there was no definitive text available in the market and Nitin & co perfectly filled the gap with this classic one.

This book starts with the basics of the storage technology and moves towards the center of the ASM with deep discussions on ASM data structures, ASM in operation and ASM troubleshooting. Nitin probably probably knows more about ASM than anyone I know and excels in explaining the complex technologies in easy to understand manner. You will immensely benefit from his wisdom and real life experience.

A must read for Oracle Storage Administrators and DBAs working with RAC/ASM.

I use this encyclopedia to prepare for my catechism class and gives me a clear and understandable explanation of terms.

When I ordered the Encyclopedia, I resigned myself to slugging through mountains of information and end up "What did that say again?"

Well, I am pleased to say that there was the mountain of information and more often than not I knew what it was saying. The definitions in were to the point, crisp and relevant to the times. Rev. P. Stravinskas had the insight to include information an ordinary Catholic needed at 7PM Sunday in a mad rush to complete an assignment.

Where the encyclopedia lost me were in some definitions that were necessarily lengthy. Obviously, some white space could have saved me time in re-reading the whole passage. But, with the value of the information included, I believe the Encyclopedia is an excellent resource for those of us who are not scholars in the catechism of the Catholic Church.

Those who know Fr. Stravinskas know that he likes to keep things short and to the point, so that the average person can understand what he's teaching without getting lost in detail. On another note, Our Sunday Visitor has a reputation for printing only the best quality of Catholic books. This collaboration brings out the best traits of both.

It is faithful to the Church's basic teaching since the Second Vatican Council, it fits into one large volume using a print size that will not strain your eyes, it is wonderfully organized to cover a wide variety of topics relevant to the Catholic faith, and its entries are informative while being written at a level the average Catholic can understand.

For these reasons, this is simply one of the best modern Catholic Encyclopedias on the market. Every Catholic family and college student who is interested in their faith should own one.

Easy to read. Comprehensive, concise, orthodox. Great reference to have in order to look up any subject about the Catholic Church in one Book.

If you want to know what the Catholic Church teaches this is a great reference book. Father Stravinskas teaches what the Church teaches, and not just his own personal opinion. I'd recommend anything he wrote. It's wonderful to know you won't be misled. Nice book for dipping into, too!

Since there doesn't seem to be any plan to update this book for XP, 2003 or 2007, this is still the definitive tome on programming with Outlook VBA. An excellent desktop reference, although it reads more like a dictionary than a true book, but for a straight up list of Outlook constants, it cannot be beat. If you program in Office VBA you must own this book.

This is the best book I've seen on the subject. Very well organized and clear. If you're programming Outlook you need this book.

Here's a tip. Use VBA whenever possible, rather than the VB Script available on the Outlook forms. The book shows you how to program for events such as the addition of a new item or changing an item. You can avoid VB Script programming on the forms this way.

Very Informative. I highly recommend this book. I was able to get the information I needed very easily.

This book was awesome! I used it to help me write VBA code to connect our SQL 7 database to the Outlook Calendar. As staff members update the SQL database, the information will show in individual calendars as soon as Outlook is started up!!! I also plan to use it generate Task Lists from the database. There aren't many books written on Outlook VBA so if you are looking for some answers start here first!!!

Before this book was available, I used the Outlook Help files as a reference for objects, methods, properties and events. Anyone who has used the Outlook Help files knows how prone they are to errors, so this book was a welcome edition to my collection. I use it so regularly, that the spine on my copy has already has a crease.

If you are serious about learning/improving your Spanish, buy it! This is a Spanish/English English/Spanish Dictionary. It is wonderful because not only does it have tons of entris but it seems to have examples for all if not most of its entreis. Example, say you want to learn the word "flat" in spanish. It will give you English sentences or phrases for the various connotations of the word "flat" and it will have the spanish translation for each of the English connotations! This is great becaus you'll know that your getting the right Spanish word for the concept you want to convey.

If you are serious about learning/improving your Spanish, buy it! This is a Spanish/English English/Spanish Dictionary. It is wonderful because not only does it have tons of entris but it seems to have examples for all if not most of its entreis. Example, say you want to learn the word "flat" in spanish. It will give you English sentences or phrases for the various connotations of the word "flat" and it will have the spanish translation for each of the English connotations! This is great becaus you'll know that your getting the right Spanish word for the concept you want to convey.

This is the best dictionary I have ever used. Not only is it fast and easy to look up words, but it also has a wealth of definitions/meanings for each one. It is one of the few dictionaries I have found that also includes regional slang. It's a little pricy, but its ease of use makes it worth every peseta, er, penny.

I've been working with this dictionary and it's a real good tool both for profesionals and students. It makes it sooo easy to look for phrasal verbs, or idioms in the twinkle of an eye. Very recommendable!!

Before purchasing I did a lot of reading and felt this was the best out there for a Spanish-English CD, and I am not disappointed.

With the other reviews I agree that the thoroughness of this dictionary is outstanding. Most words are put in a variety of contexts to show different usages including common idiomatic expressions and regional expressions according to country. I use it daily as an essential tool in studying Spanish.

However, as a sofware product at $50 it is pretty lousy. The design is clumsy. The search is awkward and very limited, that is, you can't look up combinations of words in quotes. Still, all things considered, this does not hold it back from being worth the price. For the basics it's very easy to use and I recommend it.