Computers Books

I have a friend that recommended me this book and I have to agree with him that this was a very well written book. Don't let the fact that the title says "Windows NT" discourage you from getting this book. There is a lot of useful information in this book that is still standard practice for scripting in Server 2003. Probably one of the few and only outdated commands in the book is the AT command that was replaced by SCHTASK. Even then, the author goes into detail on how these different commands work and how to use them in your work environment to you benefit. I recommend this book as a learning tool and as a reference for my fellow scripting brethren.

Great book on NT shell commands that Microsoft doesn't even document. Not even "command /?" gives you any help.

Great for reference and to learn.

Although this book was authored in 1998, it is still as relavent today with Windows Server 2003 as it was when Windows NT 4.0 was first released. The fact is that the Command Shell hasn't changed all that much over the years and Timothy Hill's book remains the best guide to using and writing command scripts that I could ever recommend. And with Windows Server 2003's push to be able to do everything from the command line that one can do from the GUI, it's even more important to fully understand how the Windows Command Shell works.

Windows NT Shell Scripting is less about Windows NT than it is about how to write shell scripts. It covers the details of using the Command Shell in interactive mode, its configuration and how the 32-bit Command Shell differs from the 16-bit DOS box. Then it delves into the structure and syntax of the Command Shell language, providing a clear understanding of how the program control features such as IF and FOR work. Finally, it shows you how to create sophisticated shell scripts using the internal commands and external command-line utilities included with Windows and their Resource Kits.

Not everything in this book has survived the test of time. The old task scheduler using the AT command, though still supported in current version of Windows, has been mostly replaced by more powerful Scheduled Tasks of Windows 2000 and later. And you will want to supplement this book with a modern reference of the utility programs available for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 (such as OReilly's "Windows Server 2003 In A Nutshell"). Yet this represents only a small part of the book and majority of material stands up very well. Certainly there is no better and more in-depth tutorial for building command scripts than Timothy Hill's book.

I like this book because unlike many technical books, the first three chapters aren't a pedestrian introduction to the basic fundamentals. This book spends chapter 1 with insight, similar to the way Applied Cryptography immediately gives you knowledge. I'm an experienced NT command shell user, and this book was valuable for me as well.
The DOS shell has become a requirement and skill relegated to the background by the direction of Microsoft curriculum, this book explains it and teaches it.

The authors instructions are easy to follow, without doting like the Teach Yourself "whatever" in 24 hour books, Tim Hill doesn't waste your time, or your money.

If you have a bit of programming experience, this book together with access to the NT Resource Kit tools will provide you with the foundation for doing almost anything you could imagine within Windows NT Shell Scripting.

The book can be used both as a tutorial and a reference for Windows NT scripting and gives good examples of the commands, tools and concepts covered. For Windows NT, this book does the job as your Shell Scripting Bible in less than 400 pages.

Since Windows NT 4.0, a lot has happened in the Windows scripting field though. With the release of Windows 2000 and the subsequent Windows XP and .NET Server, shell scripting has become much more powerful. A second edition of this book covering the new commands and tools would be most welcome. Until one exists, you might also want to look at newer books covering shell scripting for operating systems based on the Windows NT kernel.

You might also want to look at other, often more powerful ways to script your Windows NT-based environment. For that matter I recommend looking at other books covering WSH (Windows Script Host), ADSI and WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation).

From the very first chapter Romina will have you guessing what's around the next corner. Lots of action, lots of technology, what more could you ask for. Oh a plot, its a good one.

This book provided me with hours of enjoyment. Great character development and plot. I enjoyed it through the last page. I'm looking forward to Ms. Wilcox's next book.

I was absorbed by this thriller. Working in a corporate industry, I can relate to the characters, the events, the corporate environment and places. Not only that it will keep you guessing, it is informative, entertaining, and it has a moral value. In the end you're sorry to say goodbye to the characters. Romina Wilcox is as good as today's suspense writers. I hope she is busy writing the next one.

I am by no means a professional writer, I just love to read. I got "Cold Eyes" a while ago and was finally able to read it. I read the book in one sitting because I simply could not put it down. Romina Wilcox has a way of taking you on a journey. It starts off slow and easy then goes all twisty-turney on you. The plot twists were wicked and fun and I enjoyed the novel very much. I found myself saying this person did it then something happened and my mind was changed. That happened a lot in this novel. I would recommend this novel to anyone wanting a good read. Keep up the great work Romina and I'd read anything you would write.

I enjoyed this book so much. It's a cyber suspense and one would think its a book for men readers. Nope! Actually, I supposed its the fact that it's written by a female author made this story so great. In the middle of all the cyber and high-tech stuff, there is a beautiful woman that I can follow. Joanne is a woman of our generation. I can totally relate to her. The characters in Cold Eyes seem so real. The places are real. I was virtually swept into the world of techies. The plot is also complicated but found myself enjoying every page. Read it to see for yourself.

This book is pretty good for beginners. I have recently started teaching myself html and I was able to handle most of the things I was reading about without too much trouble. There were a couple of times I really needed to pause and go back and read it again. Then maybe I could put it together. Only one or two times did I just give up with total frustration. All in all it's a great handbook and I am sure I will get it all someday!

The text was easy to read and gave a great number of examples but lacked any questions or problems at the end of each chapter.

A very good book if you would like to understand how HTML works

I've been doing HTML work on and off for the last 5-6 years. This book is full of great examples for beginners or more advanced users who just forgot how to do something. You won't regret owning this book.

Although the author gives some superfials explanations on JavaScript, CGI & DHTML, this book offers and comprehensive and fairly complete explanation on HTML.
Higly recommended for those willing to learn and master HTML.

I graduated from the University of Redlands (California) with a Bachelor of Science in Information Systems degree a few years ago. Many of the textbooks I used were not very enlightening - I suffered through using them and immediately took them back to the bookstore for resale. This wasn't so with the CREATING COOL HTML 4 book. I use this as a reference book now.

One of the classes I took included a web design portion. How fun to create web pages that were exciting and not boring. It was easily accomplished using this book as a guide but someone who knows nothing about HTML design could easily use this and create.

The chapters are broken down from the basics to intermediate items. The author, Dave Taylor, explains exactly what entails a web page, what a URL is, basic html, graphics, tables, links, pointers, image maps, and other advanced designs.

Now many technical books are dry to read and often times leave the non-die-hard techies wondering what was just said. Not true with Taylor. He gets everyone to understand html - those creating their first web page to those who want to do more, those that want pizzazz on their pages.
If you're not a beginner, you may want to skip the chapters in which Taylor explains to new users about Web pages, how browsers work, what URLs are, and other basic concepts. (But it can be a good refresher for those who haven't designed web pages in a while). Next he expands into basic HTML, fonts, text styles, and gets the reader to understand the making of lists, special characters, pointers, and links. Next comes the explanation of graphics and the creation of tables and frames. But my favorite part is next - chapters on advanced items like background, marquees, image maps, JavaScript, forms, plug-ins, Dynamic HTML, style sheets, and much more.
Examples shown in the book are easy to follow and let the reader completely understand what the code does and how it will look on a web page. Nothing in CREATING COOL HTML PAGES is overwhelming and will let everyone create a web page of which they can be proud. I'm a computer programmer, and still use this as a reference. In fact, it's one of the most borrowed books in our office! This book is highly recommended for any level of html programmer.

Most books on using presentation software seem to start with the assumption that the software makes sense and that organizing content is the secret to a good presentation. Here, Garr Reynolds strips away those assumptions and asks you to think of presentations as they truly are--visual stories. They're more like movies than books and Garr opens up the possibilities through a radically different approach to designing slides.

The book offers many beautiful examples and an engaging and reflective style that inspires you to create truly impactful presentations. These principles are particularly important for government communicators.

This book will change the way you use PowerPoint. It is a must for developing a great presentation. Excellent examples, great writing, and easy to employ ideas. It has opened my eyes and I will forever be changed in my use of PowerPoint slides. My presentations will be just plain better for the audience.

This book will revolutionize the way you present. It includes invaluable tips on how to plan your presentation, simplify your ideas, tell interesting stories, and put together a presentation that will hook your audience. A must read!

I can't add a great deal to the praise already stated for this great little book. It is a quick, easy read, but you have to read it -carefully-. This is about changing how you think about a presentation, not a checklist or a template for giving presentations.

At work, I cringe through many, many "Death b Powerpoint" presentations, and I get compliments from colleagues on mine. They grasp that there is something different about how I present, but they don't understand the philosophy enough to duplicate it. Get this book and all will be clear.

If you present highly technical information, you will have to modify some of the ideas in the book, because it is essential to make some of the slide more substantial, for instance with graphs prepared from a good graphing program (Something like Igor, NOT Excel). However, this is a minor modification, and the backbone of your presentation can follow the philosophy so clearly expressed in this book.

Very highly recommended.

This book is a must. If you are a Power Point serious user, and recognize that you (and the people in the auditorium) are tired with the "standard" way you do your presentations, you must buy and read this beautiful book. You will read it in hours - it is marvelous. I strongly recommend this one.

Her book was the only book I got for creating a Website with Dreamweaver and Fireworks. Following her tutorials I built a fabulous Website with cascading style sheets, rollovers, the works. I was never bored or confused, and I understood the "why" and well as the "how."

I've just downloaded a trial version of Dreamweaver MX and came here specifically to get HER book on Dreamweaver MX. Sadly, she doesn't seem to have published one.

Lynda Weinman knows what she is talking about. I have learned quite a bit following her lead.

I highly recommend this book. It was an excellent learning tool for me as a beginner. The tutorials were fabulous!

I enjoyed the exercises and layout of the book. For someone who never did any web development this book is great.

I must say that Lynda is, hands down, the best instructor I've ever come across on the printed page. I've been using Dreamweaver for over two years and I learned so much from this book. The chapters and exercises were so concise, so ordered and really a lot of fun. I recommend this book whole-heartedly!

I'm fairly new to Perl (but not to programming) and this book is great. I really like the format of the code examples, and there's a lot of wisdom here on writing good, idiomatic Perl.

This book shows you some efficient and interesting ways of using Perl. It is very informative and I often use it when I want to see if there is a better way of doing something.

This is a good book for getting a handle on intermediate level Perl and its idiomatic uses, arranged as a series of 60 'items' -- the debt to Effective C++ is obvious. This is not a tutorial on Perl, you should at least be at the level of The Llama and ideally be somewhat acquainted with the material covered in The Alpaca, too. Although similar ground is covered in this book to the latter, I would treat this book as a way to shore up your previous knowledge, rather than learning it for the first time.

The content holds up surprisingly well for 1997. The opening chapters cover a lot of the oddities and gotchas of life with Perl, such as slicing, the various connotations of undef, a persuasive defence of $_ and where + is necessary to disambiguate. The final 'miscellany' chapter also contains useful information in a similar vein. And this also appears to be one of the first books to detail the now famous Schwartzian transform and the Orcish manoeuvre for sorting, so it has a certain historical appeal.

Equally, the chapters on debugging, references, regular expressions and object oriented programming are also pretty good. It's just that there are now several other books that cover these topics. If you only want one book in this style, Perl Best Practices bestrides the field like a colossus, being more comprehensive, and better written. Not that there's anything wrong with the writing here, it's never boring as such, but it does feel flat.

Nonetheless, Effective Perl Programming does the job it sets out to do fairly well, and I find you can never have too much help in explaining the nooks and crannies of idiomatic Perl, so this is still worth getting hold of, particularly because you can find it at an extremely reasonable price.

Well, even though I rate this book only 3 stars, I do think it belongs to the shelf of any serious Perl programmer. (Of course, don't just let it sit there; read it!) I think the emphasis here is it's useful only for the *serious* Perl person, as it contains lots of in-depth discussion on the nitty-gritty details of Perl's idiosyncratic personalities.

The reason I don't like the book as much as I thought I would is things are not explained clearly much of the time. Take the chapter on references for example. While the authors include lots of examples, the explanation of how nested references work is just confusing. Granted, this is a nasty concept to grasp, but I expected something clearer. Instead they just say "oh this looks ugly", which is not helpful. BTW, if you are pulling your hair out over references like I am, the Dumper pragma (not the dump function) is extremely helpful. (Unfortunately, it's not mentioned in this book, nor in the camel book).

As a previous reviewer said, this isn't a book for advanced perl programmers. For intermediate users, however, it is excellent. No time wasted covering the perl basics, just lots of useful tips and hacks

This is a really great book on BGP and Internet Architecture. The explanation of BGP at the protocol level is great. More importantly though is its explanation and examples of using eBGP / iBGP with an IGP.

I've heard it criticized as being dated and too Cisco specific. Though it is Cisco specific, it's still very relevant. I would start with this book and read past NANOG presentations on introductory BGP if I wanted to learn how the Internet works.

Internet Routing Architectures is considered the BGP4 handbook and rightfully so. I found the overall composition easy to read. Even though the book is aimed at varying levels of expertise, it does not assume any level of knowledge in TCP/IP or routing. It explains all the concepts, from the simplest one right up to the most demanding, in a fluent way. The book works hard not to withhold protocol details and design-oriented information, while at the same time realizing that building general understanding comes first. An in depth look at BGP is supplied here from the theory aspect, if you need actual configurations and commands I suggest also:

Cisco BGP-4 Command and Configuration Handbook : CCIE Professional Development

This is a good book, let there be no doubt about it. But in my opinion it goes beyond the scope of the 682-661 exam for which purpose I bought it. However, every ISP backbone routing engineer should have this book with him and use it as a dictionary in case of.

This is the best BGP-4 book out there in preparation for the CCIE. Do not waste your money on others this is the one that you need. It takes you from the beginnings of the Internet to the current uses of the protocol. This book is a must have.

I have always felt that I am part of the small minority that just does not see the beauty of this book if studying for the CCIE. I have, for years, read other's comments on the how Halabi's "Internet Routing Arch" is a `must have', yet I still have not found a similar reason why. While I do feel that the book does (probably) the best job at explaining BGP and how to implement BGP in a Cisco-centric world, I have not discovered the value for the CCIE. I would much rather spend my time with CiscoPress's "Routing TCP/IP" Volume 2, by Jeff Doyle and Jennifer DeHaven Carroll than this book.

One item of concern, there is a noticable amount of trivial errors in this book that can lead to disaster if implemented incorrectly. For example:

Page 106 - "...any traffic that has an origin OR destination that does not belong to the local AS." This clearly should be an AND, not OR.

Page 315 - "You can also specify a PREFIX list..." - I believe this should be a filter list, not a prefix list.

And then there are places where the book is too opinionated - for example - page 206 "Many operators choose to filter dynamically learned defaults to avoid situations in which traffic ends up where it is not supposed to be." I do not feel this is true, and can think of multiple times when not filtering the advertised default route may just end up being the worst option. In fact, I do not feel either configuration is the right configuration to admit or condone, as the wrong configuration can have disastrous effects.

I still have to give this book 4 stars - simply because of it's utilitarian value and overwhelming sense of loyalty given to this book by others. But I don't reach for this book too often.

I give this book 4 pings out of 5:
!!!.!

Easily the most readible treatise on DB weblishing that I've seen, Greenspun's book covers all the bases without descending too far into geek speak.

Your VP will understand it, and your MIS manager will be able to use it for something.

My copy is dog-eared. You can get the book online; I still prefer dead trees in hand.

You can read the table of contents and get a feel for the book. But what is best is Greenspun's attitude.

I think his best comment is that the hard part is the design and the easy part is to "Write a couple of programs that parse the HTML forms and turn them into actual database transactions". (pg 172) And then he provides examples of doing just this.

But as I said, Greenspun has an attitude that is very refreshing.

Some of the specific technology described in this book is a little outdated now, but the core techniques live on.

Greenspun's writing is a delight to read, and the information he shares here will provide you with the foundational knowledge on which to build a wide variety of web applications.

Buy this book (or read the online version at philip.greenspun.com), follow the examples, and start building yourself (and others) great, content-filled, easy-to-use web sites.

Philip Greenspun is a rare find: a techie who knows how to communicate. He doesn't even limit himself to one media! While other books may take a schlolarly approach to building websites, Greenspun's story is told by someone who's rolled up his sleeves. As the reader, you get to view web-database design through Greenspun's eye for detail. All tech books should be this good.

This book focuses on the goals of Web site design rather than the nuts and bolts. Although the book contains specific code fragments, it is not a coding book. Rather it is a chronicle of Greenspun's experiences in setting up more than 50 Web sites over the years. This chronicle contains many hard-won lessons that will help prevent the reader from making similar mistakes.

Greenspun has an easy-to-read writing style and a wry sense of humor. (The book has no CD ROM attached to the inside back cover but a picture of a CD ROM with the international "No" symbol overprinted. All code an more is available from Greenspun's Web sites, as you would expect from a book about Web sites.) He also emphasizes esthetic choices and subscribes to a minimalist visual style, in the book and for Web sites, that enhance reading and make downloads as fast as possible.

Many networking books I read (or other books on similarly technical subjects) have a tendency to get bogged down in technical minutia that distracts from the big picture. Not so here. Cormer does an excellent job of getting all the important information out there and explains the common networking protocols, what goes into them, and what they do, without losing the reader. Do not think that this is a superficial view though - I've been in the field for several years now and still use it as a reference on occasion.

I purchased the book titled: Internetworking with TCP/IP Vol.1: Principles, Protocols, and Architecture (4th Edition)for a class. The book arrived ahead of schedule, marking the service amazon provided as second to none. Keep up the great work.

Look for the 5th edition of this same book.
4th edition is much older than the newer 5th edition.

I knew nothing about TCP/IP. As a result, I bought a book "learn TCP/IP in 24 hours" and trashed it after I bought this book, no more 24 hour books. I had no idea what routing is and were to start looking for documents on the internet. This book is scientific and puts it all together. Each chapter lists the RFC that he relied on so you know were the stuff came from. The book is not boring; the author is excellent in explaining ideas. He covers ICMP, GGP, OSPF, EGP, DHCP, DNS, BOOTP, ARP and more. I feel I have accomplished something big by reeading this book. If you are not a beginner in routing, then look at the RFCs they are the source.

Want to really, really, really know TCP-IP???

Read this book and you will know it cold.

Another "A-List" Java book that needs to be in every Java reference library. "Java Concurrency in Practice" provides clear and concise coverage of a nontrivial subject.

In terms of the concurrency pragramming, this book is explaining more comprehensive concept and programming model of the thread programming. Also, it is good for upgrading to Java JDK 1.5 programming skills.

To sum, the author introduces the deeper and well understandable thread theory for Intermediate and advanced java programmers.

For me, the most helpful feature of this book are the advices about what not to do -- Best practices on Java concurrency. The authors addressed all the problems I've had with Java concurrency. For those are not using Java 5 yet, it is interesting to remind that the examples are implemented in Java 5.

It's a great book that everyone should read. You'll definitely wind up stopping yourself from some common mistakes that result in the ever-so-common "WTF?!?!!?" reaction when debugging for a couple hours and seeing things working just fine, but not working on and off in production. Yeah... then it dawns on you that there's a synchronization issue.

This book helps keep those kind of issues in mind much, much better.

The only downside to the book is that it's a complete bear to read. It's just an exceedingly difficult book to work yourself through. I actually finished two other books while reading it. It's just really heavy without any real breaks in there to keep it entertaining.

Again... great book, but in a next revision I hope the authors take some time to just make it a bit of a lighter read.

I've been doing Java development for close to thirteen years now, and I learned an enormous amount from this fantastic book. For example, I knew what the textbook definition of a volatile variable was, but I never knew why I would actually want to use one. Now I know when to use them and when they won't solve the problem.

Of course, JCP talks about the Java 5 concurrency library at great length. But this is no paraphrasing of the javadoc. (It was Doug Lea's original concurrency utility library that eventually got incorporated into Java, and we're all better off for it.) The authors start with illustrations of real issues in concurrent programming. Before they introduce the concurrency utilities, they explain a problem and illustrate potential solutions. (Usually involving at least one naive "solution" that has serious flaws.) Once they show us some avenues to explore, they introduce some neatly-packaged, well-tested utility class that either solves the problem or makes a solution possible. This removes the utility classes from the realm of "inscrutable magic" and presents them as "something difficult that you don't have to write."

The best part about JCP, though, is the combination of thoroughness and clarity with which it presents a very difficult subject. For example, I always understood about the need to avoid concurrent modification of mutable state. But, thanks to this book, I also see why you have to synchronize getters, not just setters. (Even though assignment to an integer is guaranteed to happen atomically, that isn't enough to guarantee that the change is visible to other threads. The only way to guarantee ordering is by crossing a synchronization barrier on the same lock.)

I've seen hundreds of web site crashes. Every single one of them eventually boils down to blocked threads somewhere. Java Concurrency in Practice has the theory, practice, and tools that you can apply to avoid deadlocks, live locks, corrupted state, and a host of other problems that lurk in the most innocuous-looking code.