Computers Books

Very helpful for the antiquing "debutante" in the overwhelming world of antiques, including tips for negotiating with dealers, what to look for on certain items, even ideas of what one might want to collect. Definitely worthwhile purchase.

Antique lover I am HOWEVER, knowledge is minus, MINUS! ANTIQUING FOR DUMMIES was given to me as a gift and MAGIC has been created. My brain is now functioning in the antique mode. How proud and delighted I am. I will be forever indebted to having the opportunity to own such as informative treasure. In fact this book will be on my future "gift purchasing" list for my "hard to please" friends. Again, THANK YOU, from Dallas, Texas.

Antiquing for Dummies is a cheerful primer for those of us who were antiques-challenged. Learn what to search for and what to avoid when confronted with the possible pitfalls of flea markets and antique malls. Find out how to differentiate trash from treasure. The text is very readable, filled with puns and mnemonics. A must-read for budding antiques enthusiasts!

I have collected, sold and even appraised antiques and artwork for 25 years. This book is well written, and has valuable insights and tips for the beginning or the intermediate collector. It has very good illustrations, good anecdotes and hints, and is all in all a delight to have and read! I learned a couple of things myself, and have bought copies for my antique collecting friends and colleagues as gifts. I would highly recommend this to anyone who wants to gather practical and easy to understand tips and facts from authors and experts who obviously have many years of study and work in the field of antiques, collectibles and fine art. For this price, it is worth more than many of my big fancy books on single topics within the field of antiques or antique collecting. This is easy to read, humerous and fun to read, and offers good basic information on many kinds of antiques and fine art which are being collected, inherited and sold. Bravo to the writers and to Dummies!

Whether you are someone who breaks for garage sales or the serious collector of rare antiques, Antiquing for Dummies offers information, tips, insight and inspiration. Zoglin and Shouse help de-mystify the world of antiques and collecting and leave you feeling like you, too, can confidently and successfully find treasures that fit your lifestyle and needs. The tips on negotiating are especially helpful and I have never seen them appear anywhere else. Zoglin has spent three decades in the antique business and knows what he is talking about. Whether you are interested in antiquing or not, this book provides an entertaining read, and you will likely not look at a teacup or Granny's old desk again without a deeper appreciation of its history.

This book was a great introduction to the ASP.NET Ajax Extensions and Control Toolkit! Extremely well written. I especially appreciated the practical, real-world samples that were given throughout the book that actually worked.

If you are after further exploration and like to know how things work underneath the hood a bit more, I recommend Dino Esposito's book as a companion.

I have been reading this book for a while. While at Border's or B&N, I used to grab other ASP.NET AJAX books and used to read them too. But, no other bookes close to this books CLARITY and Detailed and Simple explanation. It starts from the absolute basics and chapter by chapter it brings the developers skill set at par with the pro's. Most ASP.NET developer's client-side scripting needs some work. This book understands it and addresses them in a very simple and elegant verbals.
I had been debating for a while which book to buy. After a lot of work, I decided to go for this book. And I am happy I made the right decision.
It also has the sneak peek of the CTP Futures too.
5+ Stars. Definite YES.

This book lacks objectivity and often suffers from hype. The authors came across as lacking proficient experience with the JavaScript language, or exposure to other AJAX Frameworks / Libraries, or sufficient experience using the ASP.NET AJAX Framework in real world situations.

Comments like: "we recommend that...", "because it makes no sense...", "you must rely on a special method...", "you must understand X,Y,Z to run complex client-side code without writing a single line of JavaScript" were discouraging, and always left me hanging. Good books answer more than the "hows" - comments like "you must rely on a special..." are a cry for more research.

The book skims over the technical details of why or how the ASP.NET AJAX framework is implemented. Instead it presented many examples of "how-to" implement the various ASP.NET AJAX constructs and patterns. It would have been nice to see some real world examples of why the ASP.NET AJAX client-side typing system is useful, or why the AJAX Framework extended JavaScript objects are useful and how these contrast to what JavaScript already provides, or what happens behind the scenes when a class is registered through client-side code, or why the AJAX Framework prefers declarative syntax (XML) over imperative syntax, and to have some real in-depth discussions on performance implications.

In addition to these disappointments, the ASP.NET AJAX Framework itself has some serious technical flaws, it's far too heavy weighted (bloated) for practical use. I fear it's a short lived framework, since many of the other AJAX Libraries already offer superior performance and better user experience. I was disappointed with the server-centric approach the ASP.NET AJAX Framework and this book take, and was disappointed to have JavaScript continually swept under the carpet as magic.

Take this book and the ASP.NET AJAX Framework with two grains of salt, if you're serious about AJAX then learn JavaScript and look into the alternative AJAX Libraries like: jQuery, Scriptaculous, Dojo, Mootools, and YUI.

Very well written. Great examples. In depth as well as plain spoken author. Much to learn and easy to learn. Recommended.

I haven't even finished reading the book, I am only on chapter 5 and will give this book 5 stars. Before starting this books I only knew how to use the ASP.NET AJAX controls and thought I knew something about AJAX. Come to find I knew very little. This book does an outstanding job cover the client centric development of AJAX rather than concentrating stricly on server centric AJAX development. I say if you are thinking about buying another AJAX book consider this one at the top of your list.

I won't do a lengthy review... just read the other 5-star reviews and you'll get the drift. This book is so easy to understand you can learn without a PC in front of you (if you're a VB6 developer looking to understand .Net). The explanation of what ADO.NET is all about is worth purchase price alone. No chapter is super comprehensive, but it's a great text to get you rolling in VB.Net right quick. As an MCSD and MCDBA certified developer, I wouldn't write such a great review on just any book. Buy it.

There is so much that is lacking in this book. First, it is not user friendly. It is difficult to follow. Second, it simply does not cover enough information that one needs in order to truly be able to use .Net technology.

Cover to cover this book sails through the hype dispensing nuggets not to be forgotten!!! .Net and C#-aholics had breathed so much hot air, I was having trouble find a place to start. Once received I put everything else aside. I used to use arrays, types, RDS, and ADO to get the plumbing done but now its OOP, and serialization from now on!!! I got so many good pearls from this book its ridiculous.

This book has a very good intention and concept - to introduce VB6 developers to VB .Net. In general it is a very good book. Not very deep, but good enough to start working with VB .Net and bee reasonably productive. So, if not for sloppy writing, I would probably give that book all 5 stars.
What do I mean by sloppy? For once, author uses terms object and class interchangeably throughout the book. Sometimes it is contextually understandable what he means, but often it might be very confusing, especially for people relatively new to OO. Then there are errors and typos in code examples. Some of them are also very confusing. For example: on page 80 author introduces the new VB concept - delegates. For VB6 folks this is something fundamentally new and strange.
In code example author defines delegate type and calls it ProcessFunction. Then he defines variable of this type and calls it ProcessDelegate. After that on the same page he shows how to use delegates and assigns value to ProcessFunction and retrieves value from ProcessFunction.
From the context one should understand that in the last two cases the variable ProcessDelegate should be used instead, and that this is just a typo. Yet, given that VB .Net now supports shared properties and methods, when Class (Type) name can be used where one expects to see Object (Variable), this types of mistakes are very confusing and annoying.
I would not go here into more examples of books imperfections. There are some more. Not terribly many, but enough to frustrate.
Would I recommend this book? Yes, if you have patience and some other VB .Net book to resolve inevitable confusions.
This could become a great book in its next edition if author takes time to make it a bit more accurate and precise.

I have been programming in VB since 1992 and decided to move to VB.NET when it was released but found the learning curve was immense - until I bought the book of VB.NET. This book is my Bible, it sits besides my computer all the time. Without delving into the VB language, it simplifies the transition to VB.NET for the experienced VB Programmer. It's not for VB learners nor does Matthew propose that it is. If you know VB this is the book to ease the quantam leap from VB to VB.NET - explained in logical steps with excellent examples. I have had to EMail Matthew with a few queries and the response is always prompt and helpful.

There are certainly other books you need in your arsenal - such as Francesco Balena's Microsoft Reference - but this one is a must.

I'm a professional developer but I have no experience using C#. My current project required learning C# at a highly accelerated pace and this book did it for me.

If you are an experienced developer needing to learn C# quickly and thoroughly without resorting to the "for Dummies" types of books this is an effective tool, use it.

References to this book kept coming up at the top of internet search results while I was trying to figure out how to implement a QBE UI using LINQ.

I finally took the hint and bought the book.

Now that I have the book, after having sifted through it, I can attest that it explains C# clearly and thoroughly and is delightfully insightful. On par with the best O'Reilly nutshell references.

I believe it is currently the best C# 3.0 reference on the market.

A Quick Way To look up anything that deals with C#
Terms, Keywords, implementation etc...
great for both a beginners referanece and a seasoned professional

This book is a hands down winner among the C# books currently in market. Written in a clear and precise manner, it is both a tutorial and a reference. You can get a taste of the book from the authors' website where they have posted tutorials (check out the tutorial on Threading in C#).
I came to know about this book from a link on Chris Sells' blog where he is all praise for the book.
Highly recommended.

Bought this to learn LINQ. Found that it has an excellent treatment of all topics and lots of sample code. Very clear and concise explanations. This is a good technical book I have read in a long time.

This is a great book, if you know about cisco. Is perfect to estudy for the certification

CCNA Portable Command Guide (2nd Edition) (Self-Study Guide)
I am new to Cisco devices and have a a fair amount of them in my new job. This book is great since it balances small size with great information. If you want to do something you just look at the table of contents and pick router, switch, etc. Then you go to that section and it tells you how to perform commands on the device and what ones you need to use. Perfect for the new person or the experienced one that needs help remembering all the commands and there are a lot. I would recommend this book.

Excelente producto, conciso, de forma rápida es posible ubicar los temas de interes para resolver algún topico especifico, facil de llevar a las áreas de trabajo, material resistente. Lo recomiendo.

I'm currently preparing for my CCNA and this book is really good to review everything from simple configuration to complex ones.
The "Tips" in each chapter are really well done.

Ofcourse this cannot be your only source for preparing for the CCNA but its worth every penny and makes a great addition to your Cisco book collection.

I owned the first edition of this book, so when the second edition came out I bought it right away. I continue to use this book as a reference when I cant remember a certain command. They need one for the CCVP!!

I bought this book for reference rather than than study use, but it has served its purpose well. First, this book provides decent coverage of Cisco Pixes. Brief overviews are provided of key technical concepts - enough that you can understand what exactly you're configuring. Secondly, the book provides excellent example configurations, even going so far as to step you through basic software setup. (i.e. A step-by-step guide to setting up the integrated PPTP Windows 2000 VPN client, including screenshots). Finally, it provides some of the best coverage of Cisco Pixes that I've found outside of Cisco's website.

There is only one thing I would have liked to see included in this book: A basic configuration example for those who want to use the Cisco Pix as a termination point for Cisco VPN Client connections. For THAT, I had to go hunting for information on Cisco's website. Thus far, this is my only complaint about the book.

I can whole-heartedly recommend this book for anybody who needs a good reference on setting up, configuring, and managing Pix firewalls.

Excellent book, everything you want to know about the Pix. Very thorough, topics are explaned well, in great detail and with good examples. This is the best Pix book on the market that I know of.

I got this book to configure a Cisco Secure ACS with VPN clients, and i reached my goal. And you can get many other topics in a cookbook style. You can read the technical information or only take ideas from examples. Excellent PIX firewall book.

This book well and truly paid for itself after the first couple of chapters. We found a number of areas where our setup was wrong and this book provided a very indepth look at the PIX product and enabled us to fix this easily and quickly. Good book for all users.

If you use PIX, get this book, it has a LOT of great info.

If you are coming from mainframe DB2, this is the book for you. Phil Gunning does a great job of explaining the many parameters and settings that make up DB2 UDB. Explanations are clear and straight to the point. It helped me to understand the DB2 UDB architecture and to get up to speed quick.

This book has helped my get started on monitoring and tuning my databases. Coming from Sybase, I had no idea where to start. I picked up this book and it guided me through all the monitoring setups and provided a monitoring and tuning methodology -- along with recommendations. This stays on my desk and is very handy.

This book is really well organized. The section on logical and physical design was a good review for me. It reminded me how important a good design is to a successful database implementation. The SQL Tuning, Buffer pool tuning, and DB and DBM CFG tuning chapters have helped me take care of my problem databases and suboptimal SQL.

I found this book to be very useful in tuning SQL and bufferpools. I liked the chapter on Problem determination and the utilities section. All v8 utility enhancements are provided.

The chapters on Type-2 indexes and MDC really helped me better understand how type-2 indexes improve performance now I understand what a dimension is and how to identify good candidate dimensions. The chapter on buffer pool tuning and Sort along with the DBM and DB CFG tuning tips have helped get my boss off my back!This is a great book by a DB2 Consultant.

I don`t speak a lot english and i was so scare to buy it because this guy is brithis but i saw some reviews and took the risk. when i got the book we can resume in one ward i was just surprised, it is completly amazing, i dont know for one else but for me this guy that`s really knows how to explain the difficult world of 3D, Thanks Peter Draper I've already found the key to my goal "this Book"

Most books out there are rehashes of the help documentation or popular tutorials already out there. For this book, however, almost every single tutorial covered tricks and techniques that I've never been exposed to before in my years of working with 3D Studio. Definitely an eye-opener for anyone who wants to learn how to create any sort of realistic environmental effect.

This is one book that is a must-have.

Most 3D books are unimpressive to me-- the sorts of things that could be readily learned by reading the manual or help files (particularly in the case of 3D Studio, which has excellent help and tutorials.)

Pete Draper's book is one of the happy exceptions-- it extends one's knowledge and capabilities, and moreover, his work is excellent; these are images and animations that would get you a job, if you could make them.

Would that there were more books of this calibre!

I have had this book for about 2 months now and all I can say is wow. This book has really been helpful...extremley helpful I must say. Easy to follow, the tutorials ALL work....Pete draper expresses all aspects of each tutorial and explains the WHY factor in each step in his tutorials. I cannot praise this book high enough. It has solved a lot of underlying problems that most would use plugins to work around. I give this book a 100% feedback....and I really hope he launches another...I will definatley buy the next one.

There is a reason why the used books are priced the same as the new for this item. This is an essential buy. Beginners should try get their hands on something a little easier first, but everyone with even a little bit of experience needs to get this book. Whereas many books leave you with a feeling of being "rushed" or of not being properly thought out, this one leaves you with an impression of having every single tiny detail meticulously planned. The DVD even includes video tutorials that didn't fit in the pages of the book! And the author has a website for the book and users that have problems with the tutorials. And guess what? He actually visits the website and offers help! wow! what a concept!

The tutorials themselves are brilliantly planned. First, we get reference footage, that is analyzed in order to get the best effect. Then, Draper goes through each step, and EXPLAINS EXACTLY WHAT WAS DONE AND WHY IN EACH STEP. This is vital and is sadly overlooked in many tutorials from other sources.

What will he teach you? Exactly what the book promises: extremely realistic water, earth, air, and fire. This is done mostly through the powerful new particle flow system and multi-layer materials (I mean MULTI-MULTI-MULTI-layer materials here). After only a few tutorials, I my skills with procedural materials and particle flow increased exponentially.

An essential buy.

I thought this was a well written book on the fundamentals of demonstrating and or presenting software. I am a big believer in "Discovery" it makes for a much better and targeted demo. I also particularly like the metaphor he uses of "crossing the bridge" and how applying the principles in this book can help our prospects bridge the gap. He has some great nuggets for sales people who are involved in enterprise or consultative sales. Don't let the title fool you,(not just for SE's) I would recommend this book for all sales people who are interested in mastering their craft!

Excellent Book!!!



Since 1988, I have conducted many system software demonstrations!!

Demonstrating to Win touches all of my experiences from small client engagements to some one pulling out the plug of a mini AS/400!

By reading this book, I felt like you were a spider on the wall recording my many demo successes and failures.

Good Job.





Kevin M. Lee

Industry Director:

High Tech & Electronics

SSA Global

8913 Metheny Circle

Tampa Florida 33615



C 813-495-0332

O 813-249-0961


Kevin.Lee@ssaglobal.com

This is an excellent how-to book for improving your discovery and demo skills for enterprise software sales.

Chapter 4 (Demo Crime Files) and Chapter 5 (Discovery Process) more that justify the price of the book.

I sincerely wish that all presales engineers would read this book before presenting to customers.

I read Demo2Win and fell in love with the concept. After years of demonstrating software, I always felt like I could have done better if I had more tools. Robert's book gave me those tools. The tools I remember from the book were simple. Just be a little different than the other person or company. The Discovery Phase in the long run will save you and your customer time. You will find out if you can supply what the customer needs or leave it to someone else to fulfill their needs. Why waste time. The Demo Crimes made me cringe because I know I've committed a few of them over and over. Now I won't commit those crimes because it's been brought to my attention by Robert.
After I read the book I asked my boss to read it. He read it and ordered about 30 copies for all of our salesforce to read. Each and every person that read it then praised it. It was kind of like the lights went on in everybody's head.
I'd recommend this book to any salesperson. I've already read it more than three times. I take it on each flight I make and read at least a few pages each time.
Thanks, Robert.

Demonstrating To Win is an exhaustive book on the topic of demonstrating software by experienced hand Robert Riefstahl. The author delves into the subject at hand with precision and detail through chapters like Demonstrating Is Not An Art!, Important Demonstration Concepts, The Demo Crime Files! and Your Demonstration Setting. There can hardly be a better resource than Demonstrating To Win for professionals in the industry. The book covers the obvious, mundane and elementary to the detailed nuances and tricks of the trade and aims to articulate the author's main thrust that in order to win the day the presenter has to build a bridge that the prospect wants to cross in order to reach you (and your software product).
Each chapter is augmented by a brief summary which offers a synopsis of the topic covered and the author practices what he preaches by offering his experience in plain language. There certainly are a couple of instances where the reader will notice the book's age and its year 2000 publication date, most notably during the technical discussions, but Riefstahl's guide is comprehensive and advantageous all the way through and still relevant to those demonstrating software to potential customers.

This is a very user friendly book. The ony thing that would make it better is if it were geared for Captivate 2. After going through this book, I feel that I don't need any organized teaching sessions for the skills.

"Essentials of Macromedia (now Adobe) Captivate" is the
title of the book. The promise is maintained when you buy it,
read it and follow its step by step exercises.
If I'm right, "essentials" are the things that come first and
foremost. When you are new to a jungle, a subject or an
application you want to get the essentials as fast as you can.
If the application you want to learn is Captivate, then Kevin's
book is the buddy on your side, the one with more
experience, the one that helps you with clear instructions and
useful tips.
The exercises on the CD are well written and work. They take
you step by step through the major features of Captivate.
The language is simple. Even for those, like me, that have
English as a second language.
In a matter of days you are up and running, creating your own
multimedia instructional materials.
Then you'll probably need other books, because Kevin's
Essentials has brought you, fast and safe, to the point you
can take another leap forward, to reach Station "Advanced".
Last but not least, Kevin Siegel is a "real person" that stands
behind his product. Like other reviewers before me, I wrote
him an Email and he answered promptly.

I really think this is the best software tutorial I have ever used, and I have used quite a few in my trillion-year career as a technical writer. It has just the right level of detail. So many tutorial writers leave major concepts and steps out because they assume that you know what they know. And you don't, that's why you bought their stupid book. But this one guides you gently through all you need to know to get firmly established in using Captivate. It was a great help to me when I suddently found a Captivate project on my desk and didn't know exactly where to start. Essentials of Macromedia Captivate helped me start at the appropriate beginning point. It also provided lots of handy tips that I'm sure helped save me a ton of time that I would have spent if I had tried to figure out the software by myself. I would reiterate, as others have here, that you need to follow all the steps in the book to get the most out of it. But doing so is well worth your while.

This book is the cheapest class you may ever have, and it is a good class. As you may have noticed there are not many books written on Captivate. It's a shame because Adobe's Captivate really is great program.

I am a freelance web designer and Flash animator in the Seattle market. Last year I wanted to learn Captivate and realized there are no classes in the Puget Sound area and only 3 books on the market.

I purchased this one and it taught me the program just working on the exercises at night. The book has not typos, a nice flow and they cover most of the program. It is a productive book and you see results quickly. Since then I have added E-learning to my list of skills I offer thanks to this book and the Adobe's Captivate.

I do admit I also purchase the Visual Quick Start book. But when I need to reference something I go to Essentials first. I will look at the example in the exercise I did and it will click right away, "Oh that's how I did it".

We purchased Kevin's workbook for our team to help us through the learning curve for a new tool in our group. Wow! Kevin's book really delivered and we were creating near finished product movies and company branded templates in a fews days. Kevin has also been very responsive and incredibly helpful via e-mail inquiries.