Computers Books

I have 20 books about Maya and this one is a must have for Maya users. I started using Maya since version 3 and haven't seen any book with so many useful tips all at once! You are going to find things here that you would never imagine Maya would do it! You won't regret buying it!

There's so much to Maya that the doorstop books are jammed full of how-to-do-everything (which is certainly important!). But when it comes to just handy tips for working, this book is a great find. Now that I know everything I CAN do with Maya, here's some advice about what I SHOULD be doing to make my work experience as efficient as possible.

Engaging and enlightening tips and tricks. Each shorter than a page, always with a corresponding screenshot, or photo. Nice resource to keep around your desk.

This book was a recomended text for an advanced animaiton class. As other reviewers have mentioned, it is not for the novice. However, if you have a few tutorals under your belt, there will be something in here for you, and the more you know, the more you'll get out of it. I found it to be well worth the cost.

...but I absolutely LOVE this one. It is everything it says it is. I'm an intermediate user of Maya 5 and found every page had a meaty, time-saving killer tip. It does not waste time with step-by-step instruction, but rather describes the process to achieve a certain effect or technique. If you don't know the Maya interface, this book is not for you. But if you have exhausted all the obvious functions, this book will turn the leftovers in your fridge into a gourmet meal. "Killer Tips" is intended for version 6, but as a version 5 user, in a few pages it was already worth the purchase. Humor is a little corny at times, but this book earns the right to dress whatever way it wants. Can't wait for more from Hanson...Keep 'em coming!!!

My 15-month old son LOVES this book ever since he was 9 months-old. We read it every night before he goes to bed. Taro Gomi has captured simple creatures in life and have made them animated and good teachers. The illustrations are purely magical. I highly recommend this book to kids, young and old.

Our son loves this book - and we love reading it to him. It's such a great sentiment, that we can learn so much from those around us. We're connected to our friends, and each one has a gift that we can appreciate. And the illustrations are fantastic.

I have been collecting bilingual books to read to my children and to help our whole family learn Spanish. This is one of our favorites and one the kids will listen to without complaining about me reading in Spanish (which is a problem with some other books with more words on each page). I highly recommend this book and have been buying copies to give to friends.

If you have a toddler, you know how much they enjoy hearing the same story over and over again. This book is sure to be one of your little one's favorites. The simple pictures and truncated text make this a great book for toddlers. And because there's no real storyline to follow, you can skip a few pages here and there if you need to... at least, until your little one is old enough to catch onto you.

My Friends by Taro Gomi is a beautifully illustrated book about learning simple skills...with a little help from your friends. And in this story, all creatures (from the tiniest ant to the teachers at school) are your friends. My daughter loves this book, reciting page after page which friend teaches her what task. The overall message of this book is that a child can learn something from everyone and everything.

The artwork is delightful: colorful, simple, and crisp. The language sounds lyrical, even poetic, as you read it aloud. This book will capture the imagination of your child. Whenever we read it, my daughter gives me different examples of who has taught her what. It is a great conversation starter!

I recommend this engaging book for all toddlers, beginning readers, or anyone who enjoys a sweet story.

This is definitively a must have in the bookshelf of all .NET AD Developers. I have been working with ADAM since .NET 1.1 and have always struggle to find answers to simple questions like how to make an LDAP query to run efficiently or how to define complex queries; this book has that and a lot more.

This book is everything I was hoping it would be. I'm working on a project where I need to get computer accounts from AD (TENS of THOUSANDS of them) and move, delete, enable, disable and set account expiration dates. Everything I need to know is in this book. The AD paged search, useraccount properties, etc. Some of the routines I was able to use as-is (the VB versions from their web site download). These guys do a great job of explaining all the stuff I couldn't find anywhere else. Highly reccomended!

This book is great for anyone who does AD programming with .NET it covers everything from the basics to some pretty advanced stuff and even some undocumented stuff.. a must have for AD Programemrs!

If you are or may be in the future, doing directory services programming then this book is a must have. It also suffices a quick reference as it has code sprinkled around so that you can get up to speed quickly.

If anything, it is sort of lacking on other LDAP directories. It does have the history of LDAP and does show where the differences are between AD and the others.

If your primary focus is other directories, this may not be the end all book for you, but should still suffice as a reference.

If AD is your main focus, buy this now, you won't be disappointed.

This is a very good book for[...] developers who wants to program against Active Directory. There are some good examples in this book that can be very handy. Other than examples in pieces, there is not a project or Web Site codes that a beginner could use.

Back in 98 I took a datanetworking course and the author, Dave Prowse, was my instructor. This course concentrated on hands on skills. Wiring, network design and building, server installations, troubleshooting, the knowledge needed to do the job. This book brings Daves hands on approach home and is a good companion for anyone considering a home network lab.

I've just passed my CompTIA Network+ certification using this book and other sources.

David Prowse's Network+ Lab Manual provides some great exercises, providing real experience required for understanding the topics covered by the Network+ exam.

The book also gives clear and concise summaries of all the important areas of the exam, including the OSI model; Commonly used TCP/IP ports and network cabling types.

Great Book! I'd definitely recommend it to anyone taking the Network+ certification.

Just passed the Net+ exam. I found this book through a link on the website www.technicalblog.com. While going through the labs in the book, I did have a few questions about some of the step by step instructions. They were answered quickly by the author on the above website. I also got some valuable information from other moderators on the sites bulletin board.
I didn't really understand VPNs until going through the labs in this book. The questions (while I wish there was more) were very helpful as well.
Amazing book for the money, I recommend!

I actually took the Net + Class with David Prowse this past year, the class was very amazing and then when I was studying for the test, his new book came out and it was like putting the finishing touches for me. It answered all my questions and got me ready for the test. I passed the test easily, thanks to Dave's teachings and his book.

If you want to pass the test, you must study first and then practice everything on a real network, this book can be a great help when you try to actually do what you learn in class.

Great book

This book is by far the best cert book I have ever read. It's extremely informative and presents the information in a manner that is easy to understand and learn. Mr Prowse goes so far as to offer up his techblog for assistance with any issues you may come across while reading the text and and doing the labs. Also, he is extremely helpful and responsive when you do need a questions answered.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking to prepare for the Network+ exam.

I've worked in the telecom industry for years, and this dictionary accurately defines more telecom terms than any other. However, it is not very well-written. The style is really colloquial and inconsistent. One definition may read like it's straight out of IEEE-100, while others sound like a hallway conversation between engineers. Even within a definition, the same term may be capitalized in one instance but not in others. So, I'd put it in the library for sure, but get The Authoritative Dictionary of IEEE Standards Terms (IEEE 100), Seventh Edition and McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms, too!!

This book is perfect for computer enthusiasts, business owners who utilize computers and telecommunications, scientists, a wide
constituency of educators, computer programmers, web designers and just about anyone who may need to understand computerese in simple English. Important definitions are listed; such as, ADCU, back lobe, card cage, isochronous distortion, etc. There are strategies to minimize calling charges by utilizing prepaid cards for national and international calls. Important computer user groups may be accessed at:
o atmforum.com
o ectaportal.com
o ecma.ch
o gigabiethernet.org
o 10gea.org
o 3GPP.org
o aitp.org
o ansi.org
o apcointl.org

The book is a solid investment for any computer professional, teacher, computer user group or business person.

I use this book all the time. This is the perfect reference book for every engineer working in the Telecomm field

Less than nine months ago I started working for a software company that makes OSS/BSS solutions for Telecommunication operators.
As an economist I had a lot of problems understanding the sector and the acronyms that telecommunication people love to use. Having this dictionary at hand did definitively help me a lot. I do recommend it to every person wanting to get a general understanding of the sector. Only a pity that Harry did not include more graphics to help with the explanations.

As a telecommunications student, I was leery of all the abbreviations and unfamiliar terms. This book was very helpful in explaining new words and phrases, especially since the telecommunications industry is full of strange acronyms. Very worthwhile!

After 2 days of intense reading of Corba for Dummies, I am still a dummy when it comes to Corba. However, after reading first few chapters, I know I won't be a dummy for long. Will SAMS publish more updated edition (for Visibroker 4.x and Java 1.2)?

This book helped me get off the ground when I was trying to convert some Java/TCP code to Java/Visibroker. Very similar to Programming w/ Visibroker.

I have not yet read this book but, the reviews about these books tells me that this is an excellent book.

This book is the difference between going home at 6 p.m. and 6 a.m.

I've been working with Visibroker for Java for about 3 years now. The documentation that comes with the product itself is so bad that the only way I learned anything about the product was from experimenting with it.

About six months ago, I bought this book. I learned more from reading this book than I did from years of working with the product itself. (Usually it's the opposite.)

If you working on a project using Visibroker for Java, or any ORB for that matter, you must get this book. It will save you hours of frustration and you'll have time to spare to play Unreal Tournamnent.

This is a very good book if you are using and JDK 1.1.x and Visibroker for java 3.x.

If you are using Visibroker 4.0 and jdk 1.2 , you may need to read the Visibroker 4.0 documentation on compatability issues before using this book.

There are also some minor typing errors.

Overall This is a great book.

I already read many Oracle books from Oracle Press & other publications. They are very good. This book takes different approch of How-to Style content which is very much practical & solves day to day administrative needs. Topics are covered in detail. Most importantly examples given are from grounds up. Excellent! This book is also helpfull for all who know a little bit of Oracle Database & want to know more in depth

We all know, especially here in Brazil, the money that one pays to have a good Oracle trainning. If you already have a little knowledge of Oracle and its jargon and are self estimulated, this book will take you to high level of expertise without a pain . Want to know Oracle ? Start with it.

Among all the Oracle reference books, I found this one to be the most useful and practical book. This book is very well written and has an easy to read format. The detailed step-by-step instructions in Q&A section helped me solve problems quickly. This saved me much time and effort than going through piles of other reference books and trying to pull pieces of information here and there together to get a complete picture. I highly recommend this book to Oracle DBA's in all levels.

As an Oracle Instructor and DBA I've had the opportunity to review numerous Oracle texts for DBA's and have to say I've been quite disappointed with most of them. Mr. Yuhanna's book however is an exception. Out of the many DBA texts I have on my shelf this is the one I goto most frequently. Unlike other texts which spend excessive amounts of time covering uncommonly used features and little to no time covering commonly used features this books covers almost all the basics in a hands on approach. The book is setup in a step by step how-to format. Although it doesn't discuss concepts much that is not its purpose and the best concepts book is the Oracle Documentation anyway. I've have yet to see a good how-to DBA book until I came across this one. As a consultant/instructor I recommend it quite frequently.

The book is very useful for both new and experienced DBAs because it has a lot of practical examples. I especially like its Q&A format with scripts which makes reading very interesting.

I've read quite a few of Jim's works over the years, and he has never failed to impress me. This book should be required reading for any project manager!

My initial pre-read perception of this book was that it was going to be just another perspective of agile methods. I was wrong. Coplien and Harrison have dissected development teams to identify the key criteria leading to successful efforts and high-performing teams. Beyond process, this book identifies the organizational structures required to make the processes work.

From an organizational perspective, roles and responsibilities within your development teams are a primary success criteria for your agile (or any other process) adoption. This book presents how and why key roles within your teams work and why teams without these key roles don't work. The way they have presented the material provides for a quick cross-reference when you are looking for solutions to help your teams.

Beyond the organization patterns themselves, I believe some of the richest material in this book is presented in the last few chapters as they present the history and importance of organizational structures, roles and responsibilities in applying process - "Process emerges from structure, and structure emerges from values". There is great value in this book beyond most software development process books.

As project managers, most of us who've been in the field working for a while come to realize that successful project teams are more the result of "good" ongoing social engineering of one sort or another rather than just dumping an almost randomly selected group of people together, coming up with an MS Project Plan and saying "do this" (the Death Star approach, all to common in large traditional process-driven IT shops). After this has happened to you, painfully, you begin to come to the realization that perhaps there's more to project management than the mechanistic "people are interchangeable resources" PMBOK-style approach.

If it hasn't already, it begins to dawn on you that the "soft" side of project management (client relationship building, communication within the team and between teams, team dynamics and team morale, motivation, empowerment, commitment, a human-style of project management) are as important or even more important than the technical work and the technical skills required. Most of us have run across teams with prima-donna's who think they're the cat's whiskers, be they project managers or technical personnel, who have the personal graces of a warthog and who are incredibly destructive to team morale and team performance. They continue to exist, sadly, and because they often deliver, albeit at the expense of everyone who works for them or with them, they continue to survive in "Death Star" style IT shops where delivery is all important and the style of successful delivery means nothing or is short-sightedly disregarded. OK, so that's my rant.

Now for the book. We've all seen successful projects and successful teams (or at least, I hope we all have). Some teams gell and perform way above the norm. What this book does is distil over 100 successfully applied organizational patterns of one sort or another from real projects in real software development groups. These patterns are broken down into logical groups (Project Management Patterns, Piecemeal Growth Patterns, Organizational Style Patterns & People and Code Patterns) which are dissected and explained, with examples provided. What the authors have done is to identify and describe key organizational patterns which are used by successful teams - not processes, but organizational structures of various types that are needed to make processes work successfully. A large amount of practical experience has gone into the content - over ten years of research experience from the authors alone.

I've read a lot of books on Agile, but this is the first I've come across that sets out organizational patterns - and does it so effectively that you'll wonder why all the stuff in here never occurred to you before. As you read through the book, you'll see patterns that will make sense, the kind of "ah-ha, that's what the problem is and this is how I can dom something about it" sense. You'll find this book useful in that the contents can be taken and applied right away. It's easy to pick what is most useful for your team, what can be applied immediately and what would be nice later on, once some of the basics are in place. The content is practical in that you can easily identify what your problems are and what pattern would help fix it, why the pattern is intended to fix it, and there's good advice on how to introduce new patterns.

With over 100 patterns, there are a lot, but they're set out concisely, a page or two to each pattern. There's no fluff, it's well-written, there's no appreciable bias, there's a lot of material, including some good coverage of the importance of effective organizational structures in applying process. As we all know, all the process in the world will not a great project team make. The book's structure is coherent and well-organized, the patterns described can be used individually or as groups and the authors give you some pretty good ideas as to what's immediately useful.

And the pictures all the way through the book are great! A nice humorous touch that helps make the point each time. Overall, I'd recommend this book very highly as a resource to anyone managing a project / team, whether Agile or not. There's a wealth of practical advice in here that any project manager could take and use, although the orientation is towards Agile Projects. An added bonus - unlike many technical books, this one won't date quickly - organizational patterns that work don't change much over the years, unlike programming languages. From a practical point of view, I've applied some of these patterns to teams I work with and the results have been positive - I've also shared the book with co-workers and they've all found it both illuminating and useful.

This book has to be The Grand Unifying Theory of Software with respect to managing the people and processes involved in software production.

To anyone who has worked in the software industry, this book is clearly the product of an enormous amount of practical experience in both management of people and projects as well as the development of software.

Coplien and Harrison have written a book which both the project manager and software engineer will understand and will immediately be able to apply to their respective work environments: This is because the book cunningly captures essential organisational concepts using a framework that is familiar to software engineers. Thus, the concepts will be by recognised by staff trained in business as well as those trained in software and systems.

I strongly feel that the material covered in this book can achieve a common communication basis between managers and engineers, and can help business developers understand the nature of their people and organisation.

If I could insist that all people in software read this book I would; but without the policing power, I can only highly recommend this book to those involved in all facets of software.

OK, I have to admit, this is the first book review I've ever written on Amazon and having read a lot of good books I should probably get off my a** and write more :-)

As a former developer and now a software development manager, I have come to realise that the "soft side" or sociology of software projects (communication with clients, communication with teammates, project management, team dynamics, cultural issues, morale, division of work, remote collaboration, etc) is considerably more complicated than the programming work itself.

Over time, you start to see patterns emerge such as "start a large project with a small experienced group and gradually phase people into a project as time goes on". This book does by far the best job of cataloguing and explaining dozens of these patterns related to (1) software project management (2) structuring, building and nurturing software project teams and (3) organization and division of development tasks to maximize the effectiveness of the team as a whole.

Highly recommended to anyone involved with software development at both the management level and in the trenches. Have fun!

I absolutely love this book!! It is easy to follow and shows some terrific tips. If you're looking for a book to make some Photoshop CS2 editing easy go for this book. I rate it 5 out of 5 stars for what information I'm looking for.

I gave this book only four stars as it was a little to basic for me. This was the only reason!

There is lots of valuable information and it is very easy to follow the instructions to get the desired results/effects. Some things I had already learned either on my own, from another book, or from a two day Photoshop CS2 class I took.

Would recommend to beginners or maybe beginner/intermediate looking to expand with fast tips.

I bought "Hacking Photoshop CS2" use off of Ebay, Amazon has them new, but this book really paid for itself just in the first chapter of tweaking the Photoshop preferences, etc. Starts up noticiably faster on my laptop now! Would recommend that book highly for intermediates and up.

This book is very clear and easy to follow. If you need step by step this book is for you. I have found it had increased my knowledge of the software greatly.

I would say that this is written for an advanced beginner in that you should be comfortable with the tools and getting around the menus. I have only been working with digital photography for a year and a half and installed photoshop cs2 about 8 months ago..This book will help you so much if you just complete the excercises (examples) starting at the beginnning..It's loaded with tips for the beginner.. I highly recommend it...

I am not one to leave a review but this book was so easy to read and follow that I have to let everyone know. Great tips, easy to follow with color pages and images....I just love it!

Till I saw this book and Bert Monroys website my imagination and creativity for minimally very finite. Its amazing how he shows what can be done using image editors like photoshop. Its just blows you away. My wife thought the pictures in his books are photographs and when I told her bert monroy created them in photoshop, there was no sound from her. She was quite amazed. This book is well recommended. Authors like Bert Monroy truly amazes with their talent and give us additional thoughts and inspiration on how to improve our work.

I found this book very useful, very well illustrated, as Bert Monroy describes his technics. He teaches methods that opened my mind to the power that Photoshop CS has. While he covers many aspects of the program he dos not indulge in the usual rehash of every photoshop feature, focusing on specific projects. His reputation for a graphics artist and teacher are well deserved. Wonderful examples, just enough detail to convey the point without beating you over the head. Included color photos are well laid out, his teaching method couldn't be better. The tone will particular instruct the novice or intermeadiate user, but everyone will find something of use here. If you are looking for blow by blow 'how to' for every feature, look at Photoshop CS Sudio Techniques, or the Adobe Class Room in a Book. I only wish this book had more samples, examples. If you can't buy it, hope your local libray has or will. Do this for its artistic voice.

This book will get your imagination going. Some great tips.

The only reason I don't give it 5 stars is that there could have been more content.

Bert Monroy is probably one of the most talented Photoshop users there is. If you've ever seen him on TechTV, you've seen how effortlessly he uses PS.

This book is full of amazing artwork Bert has done with Photoshop, along with a lot of tips and techniques from the master himself. You'll have a hard time believe that this book isn't just a collection of photos. Bert style is so photo-realistic it's jaw-dropping.

Definitely a must-have book for any PS enthusiast. Even if you don't plan to use PS for Photoreal artwork, there are techniques here that are applicable to other uses for PS but the book itself is worth the price just for the awe factor of Monroy's work.

Bert is a great artist and teacher. I took a class from him, and learned so much, but couldn't absorb it all at once. This book allows you to learn his techniques at your own pace, and will give you the confidence to start creating images from scratch in Photoshop, or add painting techniques to your image manipulation. Highly recommended for intermediate to advanced Photoshop users and all artists.