Macintosh Books

The Missing Manual series has been around for quite some time, but I have never felt the need to buy one until I started doing some serious work with iPhoto. iPhoto 2: The Missing Manual was a good volume to assist.

One of the things I like about Apple's iApps is that they hide a great deal of complexity behind a simple interface; they do indeed make the complex simple. The drawback to this is that I often find myself ignoring the more powerful aspects of the application and never using it to its full. It was here that the Missing Manual came to my help.

The target audience for this book would probably be a little less technical than myself, however when I find myself in a field I don't understand well I don't mind a little stuff for the absolute newbie. This book has an entire first section that deals with photography and digital photography in particular that may be a total repeat for some, I found it a welcome reminder of how to get a good photograph along with some extremely useful hints about the new technology and choosing a camera. It covers such topics as composition and lighting for a host of different situations such as landscapes, night, portraits, children and sports.

It then goes on to a section of similar size on the basics that covers getting the photos from your camera to the Mac, organising the photos using albums and keywords and then editing your shots.

A third section covers the various ways of publishing and showing your photos such as printing, CD, and web pages, and a final section with some tricks and tips on things like managing your libraries. There are two appendices: one very useful troubleshooting guide, and a menu-by-menu look at iPhoto 2.

I particularly appreciated the thorough treatment of how to get the most out of iPhoto when printing photo books and creating web pages in the third section; it was here that I really discovered how little I knew from just `playing' with the application. The book is peppered with useful information and tips that take you beyond the level that most of us discovered when we ran and used the program. The authors have also provided some marvelous explanations of what is going on, the "why" as well as the "what."

The book is well written with a readable, light, almost witty style that somehow deceives the reader as to the depth of the material being covered. It is only when I reflected back on how much the book taught me that I realised how well it had done the job.

O'Reilly have their usual web page for the book with a sample chapter, Table of Contents and Index. Pogue Press have a neat idea - they have a page that features all the software mentioned in the book. A neat idea that I liked a lot.

In conclusion, I would recommend this book to everyone who is serious about digital photography on their Mac. If you have used iPhoto for a long time you may think the book a waste, but I'd be surprised if even long-time users didn't get their money's worth out of this book. I much preferred the style of this volume to IDG's iPhoto 2 for Dummies, the only other real competitor for this volume was iPhoto 2 for Mac OS X: A Visual Quickstart Guide, and that is a shorter volume with less depth and less advice for photography and nothing on the camera technology, though I think Engst's writing seems a bit clearer at times.

I wouldn't buy a "Missing Manual" for every iApp or the operating system, but if you take the slogan for the series seriously, "The book that should have been in the box" (for the box is entirely devoid of books), I think they are a marvelous help for becoming a true `power user.

Can you imagine a software manual that makes you feel smart, not dumb? David Pogue's iPhoto 2: The Missing Manual does just that. It's written in a way that's easy to understand without being condescending. The straightforward style is well organized, sometimes humorous and always informative.

I'm new to Mac and iPhoto. Some things come easily but the details are often evasive. The Missing Manual fills in the blanks. I was hooked from the first chapter. The discussion of digital cameras and their use has opened my eyes and was a terrific intro to using iPhoto.

The Missing Manual is a reference book that's enjoyable to use.

At first I wondered how an entire book could be written about iPhoto--this one is packed with useful information. I had no idea how much can be done with this application. I own a number of Missing Manuals, and they're all very good.

I've had iPhoto for about a year, but wasn't familiar with any of the features save importing my photos from my camera. After a few hours with this book, however, I've mastered the program and received a lot of kudos on the improved quality of my shots.

The first section is on how to take better pictures. As I've never taken a photography class, this section was particularly useful for me. It breaks down the different types of pictures (portraits, action shots, close-ups, night shots, etc...) and tells you how to get the best shot.

The meat of the book is in the second section though - that part details how to use iPhoto, from importing pictures to touching them up and eliminating red eye. I primarily use my photos for my website. As such, I wanted to crop them, touch them up, and eliminate red eye. All three of those functions are easy to use after reading this book. It takes me a minute or so to turn my original, off-centered, dark, photo into something worthy of going online.

The Missing Manual goes through each function in order, explains what it does, and what the potential drawbacks are. It also goes into file management - I had no idea that iPhoto stored a copy of the original of any image I altered, even if it was just to rotate it. I followed a suggestion in the book, downloaded a piece of freeware, and was able to open up a lot of space on my hard drive by eliminating these unnecessary duplicates.

The Missing Manual also details how to edit photos in other programs (such as Adobe Photoshop) without causing problems in iPhoto. As I occasionally have to resize pictures based on the DPI, this information was quite useful.

The third section describes how to show off your photos. As I usually just upload them to my website, I only perused this section. It looks to contain some useful information though - how to make a slideshow with a soundtrack, turn the slideshow into a QuickTime video, back up your photos on a DVD, upload them as a photo album to a website, print out a photo album, e-mail them, and more.

Apple Computer markets a concept they call "the digital hub" representing its integrated hardware and software combinations, especially the iLife package (iPhoto2, iTunes, iChat, iMovie, and iDVD). Beyond Apple's traditionally elegant and harmonious hardware-software integration, the iLife programs are brilliantly designed to allow users to easily enjoy important non-computer things in their lives - photos, music, home and family and recreational video, etc. - while benefitting from the enormous background power of computer applications.

With iPhoto2, for example, images (scanned or from a digital camera) can be easily imported into the computer, viewed, printed, burned to CD or DVD, emailed, posted to websites, or composed in professional quality albums with only a handful of clicks. Other than acquiring the images themselves, iPhoto2 and the Mac can facilitate an enormous depth and breadth of enjoyment of photo images without great effort or computer knowledge. The iLife idea is to have the computer aspects work seamlessly and near sub-consciously in the background allowing the user to enjoy his or her photos.

In essence, Apple has designed and created a hardware-software combination which, in itself, does virtually everything a non-professional needs to fully enjoy photo imaging. All of the iLife applications are designed with the "hub" concept - put all the tools needed into one easily learned and implemented application; - in other words, think of what people need and give that to them in an integrated and elegantly-designed package.

As easy as the iLife applications are to use, like all computer aspects, ease of use is relative - there is no real "easy" computer or application - it's an issue of something only more or less easy to use than another thing. Consequently, there is still a need for focused documentation and instruction to allow users to better and more fully utilize the features and power of the applications. This is where "iPhoto2: The Missing Manual" becomes useful. "iPhoto2" is part of the acclaimed "Missing Manual" series published by Pogue Press/O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. Like all of the other "Missing Manuals" it is a comprehensive, systematic, well-written paper manual where Apple provides none.

Whether intentionally designed, or not, "iPhoto2" mimics the "hub" concept - bringing together into one elegant unit all the information and tools needed to productively enjoy digital imagery. "iPhoto2" contains five parts - an opening section on how to select and buy a digital camera, and sections on

how to use a digital camera, iPhoto2 basics, how to create and produce photo projects like slideshows, prints, web galleries, photo CDs, etc., and a section on how to take advantage of specialized iPhoto2 features like making screensavers and desktop images and using Applescript. Also included is a separate set of appendices about trouble shooting, a menu-by-menu description of iPhoto2 features and commands, and a small section describing where to find additional digital photo resources.

The trio of authors are David Pogue, noted writer, NY Times computer columnist, and wit; Joseph Schorr, established Macworld writer and author of "Macworld MacSecrets"; and Derrick Story, author of "The Digital Photos Pocket Guide" (which was reviewed here favorably a number of months ago).

This book is structured into two overarching themes - as an iPhoto2 manual and as basic instruction in near-professional quality photography. Overlapping some material from "The Digital Pocket Guide", part one of this book covers basic digital camera concepts: resolution, memory cards, batteries, controls, etc. It then continues with guides on image composition and tips and tricks on how to obtain good quality photos in a large set of situations: portraits, travel, sports, night scenes, and the like. It does no good to have the ability to easily view, print, and e-mail bad photos. Learn how to take a good shot. These sections of the book will help a lot.

The iPhoto2 parts describe how to get your "good" images into the application, how iPhoto2 is structured on the hard drive with its designated Library, for example, and its organizing concepts - "Albums" and "Rolls." Other application features like editing, copying, and archiving images are well- explained and detailed.

The most interesting chapters are 7-12 detailing how to get quality and efficient production from the program.Features like the "One-click Slideshow" and how to make Quicktime movies from a folder of images are highlighted.

All in all, this is another well-done publication from Pogue/O'Reilly.

"MacOSX Panther Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips &Tools" is an updating of the earlier "MacOSX Hacks" to address the newest operating system from Apple, OS 10.3, popularly known as "Panther". The Panther OS update continues to provide opportunity for basic users and power users to customize, tweek, and hack their machines. Unlike all previous Apple operating systems, the OSX iterations incorporating Unix underpinnings, legacy OS9 and Classic components, and a continuing evolving Mac GUI, provide unusually rich and complex textures allowing for all kinds of customizations.

The book is a compilation of 100 ideas, hacks, tips, and tweeks contributed by a large handful of developers and power users covering mostly productivity-enhancing items, but also security and maintenance items, and some fun and geeky items. It is designed for the adventurous spirits who may need some guidance in customizing their machine and applications.

There are nine chapters of such hacks. Chapter 1 covers the user interface including how to customize the Apple-provided animations like the "genie-effect". Available third-party applications for customizing the user interface, like Konfabulator, are noted and evaluated (Hacks #2).Others include launchers, desktop applications, keyboard shortcuts and the like. (Hacks 3-9).

Other sections include an introduction to Applescript, Safari tips and tricks, multi-media tricks, file and device synchronization, and Unix tips and tricks, including how to use the Terminal application. Hack #27 is a guide to the hidden debug menu, which provides access to otherwise unknown Safari and browser features. Hack #30 informs how to use RSS with the Mac. You can learn to build your own MPS server from Hack #41 and build an emergency boot volume with iPod in Hack #52.

Many of the hacks are quick and easy. Some require geek-level knowledge. The most interesting and perhaps most valuable sections deal with Panther maintenance and security. Hack #93 is a 19-page security primer useful for both basic and power users.

OS X UNIX is amazingly friendly and accessible. Some people who had never used it before type commands and work with the operating system directly as a "cool guys" in movies! This book is very helpful and well written and it is serves as a very nice reference.
Try Linux and UNIX for a beginner complete training suite, 4DVDs + 2CDs ed.2008
It is complete UNIX course recorded and this book and a video they contribute one another greatly.

....do that??!!

Once cracking this book open, it didn't take me long to have a "eureka!" experience. "I didn't know I could do that!" I heard myself say to myself. I learned something new that I bet no one else knows....or do they?

My favorite hack so far is using the services menu under the application menu. It's an amazing thing and has been used more often than anything else I read in the book. The next thing I'm going to do is use more scripting and attach those scripts to my file folders. Fortunately, the authors provide lots of great examples. Whew...I don't "do" Apple scripting.....yet. I will after reading this book.

The authors don't exclude the use of other applications in "hacking" the OS but they sure do provide a lot of helpful ways to use them. My very favorite hack in that way was their suggestion to "Clutter Your Desktop with Music." In that hack, #42, they suggest using a little iTunes add on called Clutter. Ohh...I don't want to give all of it away. I want everyone to have a copy of this book. You just have to use this little app. It's a great helper if you love your iTunes.

Some of these chapters will require return visits for me as I managed to find out that I knew very little about some aspects of "hacking" Panther. The book now resides on my desktop and will for the foreseeable future.

No one will lose by getting Mac OS X Panther Hacks and will surely be surprised at what they don't know when they get through this wonderful volume. Be sure to check one out for yourself very soon. You won't regret it.

This book has a little bit of everything for everyone. O'Reilly publishes a lot of OS X titles, but this one is the most unique of those that I have read (and I have read most of them). The reason is the insane breadth of the book. It covers everything from how to use Quicksilver (the best application for OS X, bar none) to how to share desktops, to script iPhoto with perl. If you want to see in just how many ways you can hack your Mac you have to check this book out. It's one of a kind, and for those with the need to really see how they can tweak their Mac, this is a must have.

The hacks in this book seem to end up in one of three categories. Useful to me, useful to somebody else, and just plain weird (but good for a laugh). The last is represented by Hack #60 - iOscillate. Think iChat, iSight, some adhesive, and a stripped down oscillating fan. Mac people have all the fun...

I found the hacks involving bluetooth, cellphones and your Mac worth the price of the book. Prior to this I "wanted" a bluetooth phone. Now I "need" a bluetooth phone. =) I was also happy to find the info on getting the Postfix Mail Server running.

The great thing about the hacks, IMHO, is that despite there only being 10 hacks or so that you might find useful enough to start using right away, you're bound to come up with another few on your own. For example, by combining what I learned from a few of the hacks, I was able to set up Virex to scan my Mail inbox for viruses every 15 minutes. So far, I've only found W32 viruses, but you can never be too cautious. =)

If you want to feed your inner geek, this book is for you.

Unlike many other microprocessor books which mainly focus on programming, this book provides practical and detail knowledge on hardware interfacing. These including design of address decoder and mechanical characteristic of microprocessor buses.

For student or fresh engineer who want to get the real thing works, this is the book.

This is especially handy as the 3rd edition has a cd-rom with a cross-compiler!

This book is suitable for a semester course in microprocessor systems. It has good coverage of hardware and software topics. I use it in a senior/master's course which studies the 68000 and SPARC as comparative CISC/RISC architectures. The book comes with a CDROM including a PC-based 68000 simulator for readers who do not have access to real 68000 hardware.

This book makes all things clear about designing systems controlled by microprocessors and uses the Motorola 68000 family of microprocessors as an example. It is full of clear examples and many exercises for the student, and shows details of both the hardware and programming aspects of microprocessor system design, making it ideal for engineers who are interested in the subject. The book starts with an overview of the microcomputer in general, and shows how the microprocessor and its accessories control the larger microcomputing device. Next, the author introduces the reader specifically to the Motorola 68000 family of microprocessors and their respective architectures and features.

Next the author tackles an art that is usually passed down by word of mouth from master to apprentice - how to program a microprocessor and its peripheral devices using the C programming language as well as assembly language. This is followed by chapters on memories, exception handling versus interrupts, and coprocessors and caches.

The next few chapters are on the external devices that are usually a necessity for a microprocessor controlled system - parallel and serial ports, external timer devices, special devices to control IEEE-488 buses, and special buses such as the VMEbus and Nubus. Actual existing peripheral devices are used in the examples. There are plenty of circuit diagrams and code snippets in both assembly language and C to show how the various pieces of a microcomputer are assembled to make a working system.

Although today RISC designs based on "microprocessor cores" power the vast majority of mass-produced computing devices, the approach to creating the components of these core-based microcomputers is basically the same as it was in the days when we used to wire-wrap a 10MHz 68000 system together. Thus, learning the art of microprocessor system design is something any engineer interested in digital design should know. This book is an excellent source for learning that art. The following is the table of contents:

1. THE MICROCOMPUTER
Microprocessor Systems
Examples of Microprocessor Systems

2. PROGRAMMING THE 68000 FAMILY
Assembly Language Programming and the 68000
Programmer''s Model of the 68000
Addressing Modes of the 68000
An Introduction to the 68000 Family Instruction Set
Program Control and the 68000
Miscellaneous Instructions
Subroutines and the 68000
Introduction to the 68020's Architecture
Speed and Performance of Microprocessors
Structured Programming and Pseudocode (PDL)

3. ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE AND C
Parameter Passing
The Stack and Local Variables
C and the 68000
Summary of C''s Syntax

4. THE 68000 CPU HARDWARE MODEL
68000 Interface
Timing Diagram
Dealing with Timing Problems
Minimal Configuration Using the 68000
The 68020 & 68030 Memory Interface
Worked Examples

5. MEMORIES IN MICROCOMPUTER SYSTEMS
Address Decoding Strategies
Designing Address Decoders
Designing Static Memory Systems
Designing Dynamic Memory Systems
Worked Examples

6. EXCEPTION HANDLING AND THE 68000
Interrupts
Privileged States and the 68000
Exception Processing
Exceptions Implemented by the 68000
Interrupts and Real-Time Processing
The Reset and the Bus Error
Exception Processing and the 68010 and 68020

7. THE 68000 FAMILY IN LARGER SYSTEMS
Error Detection and Correction in Memories
Memory Management and Microprocessors
Cache Memories
Coprocessor
Introduction to the 68040 Microprocessor
The 68060

8. THE MICROPROCESSOR INTERFACE
Introduction to Microprocessor Interfaces
Direct Memory Access
The 68230 Parallel Interface/Timer
The IEEE 488 Bus

9. THE SERIAL INPUT/OUTPUT INTERFACE
Asynchronous Serial Data Transmission
Asynchronous Communications Interface Adapter (ACIA)
The 68681 DUART
Synchronous Serial Data Transmission
Serial Interface Standards

10. MICROCOMPUTER BUSES
Mechanical Layer
Electrical Characteristics of Buses
VMEbus
NuBus

11. DESIGNING A MICROCOMPUTER SYSTEM
Designing for Reliability and Testability
Design Examples Using the 68000
Design Example Using the 68030 Monitors
APPENDIX
SUMMARY OF THE 68000 INSTRUCTOR SET
ABOUT THE CD-ROM

This book presents an excellent intro to the design of microprocessor systems using the very powerful and easy-to-learn Motorola 68000 family. It concentrates on hardware design/interfacing, programming,timing issues, memory mapping and address decoding, serial I/O and peripherals. Covers all the important issues. The information is of high quality and very well written. The reader should have a knowledge of binary/hex number systems and basic digital design as prerequisites. Comes with cd-rom containing software tools. I recommend this book highly.

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.

Very useful for someone who wants to learn to use Unix on the Mac and has prior knowledge of command line languages.

Mark G. Sobell and Peter Seebach's A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO UNIX FOR MAC OX S USERS is a reference the UNIX/Mac user simply must have at hand: nearly a thousand pages of reference material on everything from basic and advanced shell programming to Mac's OS X filesystem and utilities modules make this the best reference on the market for users who seek either a step-by-step tutorial or a basic browser's reference for problem-solving. Exercises to test knowledge boxed highlights of information make it easy to either refer to for at-a-glance troubleshooting or sit down and study for step-by-step methodology.

This is the book I've been looking for. Not just 'OS X for Unix Geeks' or 'OS X in a Nutshell', I wanted more. As much as possible, in one resource. 1000+ pages signaled a big yes.

I have yet to read it all the way through, but so far this is a very good guide for those who want not only to learn the general 'Unix way' of computing, but dive under the surface of OS X and examine its specificities in the command line interface, aka the Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal)

No, this isn't a 'hacks' book, and there's no mention of rsync, for example, but you'll find ample documentation of the underside of OS X--there's a lot more to it than just a GUI, folks.

Educational, yes. Hence 'Practical Guide'; you'll learn a good deal, in almost textbook fashion. Recommended to enhance the power and fun of your OS X experience!

I have several of Mark Sobell's Unix based books and this one is as good as the others which are all excellent. You don't nessecarily need all of them but they are truly tailored to the platform and are a quick way to get to what's important when a new platform presents itself.

If you want to know the underlying MAC, this is for you.

I got this book as someone who had used UNIX before, but this was many years ago, and I had forgotten a lot. This book is great for picking up the functionalities of various UNIX tools - the explanations are clear and concise. It also works very well as a quick reference. The bulk of the book is devoted to bringing you up from a potentially zero-experience user to someone who can work with ease with editors, shells, and more. Simple examples are included throughout. The back of the book has a 250-page command reference section for quickly looking up how to use a particular command. You could read the whole book and progressively work with UNIX as a self-taught course, or just reference the sections you need.

I bought this book knowing VB but was new to R/3. Within days I had a working interface to SAP. If you want to use COM objects to connect to R/3 and make remote function calls this is the book. Great examples on using late binding too if you want to put the functionality into a dll without having a control bound to a vb form. Of the many computer books I've read, this is one of the best.

Details with examples. Good for all SAP R/3 tools and application developers. Explains BAPIs, RFCs, bussiness object repository (BOR), SAP DCOM Connector component etc.

"Professional VB SAP R/3 Programming" - demonstrates how to combine existing Visual Basic tools with the new extensibility tools, so that you can develop robust enterprise applications based on SAP R/3 from a non-SAP programming environment. It also explains the fundamentals of SAP, including the new SAP tools and technologies. SAP R/3 business objects and BAPIs are implemented and a guide to the SAP Business Framework is illustrated. The SAP R/3 Automation tools are used to replicate SAP functionality from VB and the DCOM Component Connector is used to generate business object proxies, aswell as programming the core components of the DCOM Component Connector. Browsing the SAP R/3 Business Object Repository is demonstrated and working code samples of both inbound and outbound SAP R/3 operations are included...

An excellent guide for understanding BAPIs and RFCs, complemented with good explained VB programs which are useful for learnig how to develop interfaces whith SAP using VB.

I'm not a VB programmer. I obtained this book to better understand how BAPI's worked and could interface with external applications based on a project team demand to develop better masterdata loaders. The first three chapters alone are goldmines of information that are neatly tied together and explain the concepts and framework used. After reading them I understood why SAP went this route and better understood some of the potential areas where BAPI's could assist our development team. The latter chapters get into more VB oriented issues but are useful regardless of VB experience (or lack thereof). Our VB developers all own this book.

The psychiatry 2002, is an excellent quick review of psych. In the clinics it will give you easy to read summaries of all topics in psych and treatments. An ideal book for any med student or resident.

Great reference for the psych clerkship. Written by same 3 authors at UCI who write the psycho-pharmacology book for CCS.

This was great to review quickly right before the shelf exam, and it was a big help. I read through it and then it isn't worth reading again, so it seems overpriced.

This is like the washington manual for Psychiatry. It's about a centimeter thick and small so it;s easy easy to carry around. But don;t be fooled by its size. It has all the info you need to do well in psychiatry rotation.

A good light handbook for quick reference on the run. Point-form and well laid out. Ideal for helping with differential diagnosis. I like the practicality & succintness of the information in it, as I can go to bigger texts if I want details. Bonus is that, if you own the handbook, you can download free a PC version, as well as a Palm, or EPOC (Psion Revo/Mako) versions. Mine is on a Revo and goes around with me when I'm on call.

While at first I thought O'Reilly's new "developer's notebook" series seemed a bit hokey, this book is extremely useful. It's concise and to the point, but full of good examples and information. A plus of the small size is that it's more to-the-point and cheaper than a typical O'Reilly book (which very often seem to ramble on and on about marginally useful information, seemingly in order to justify their $45+ price tags).

This book is the one that should have been written for Java Media Framework, if only that API had ever lived up to its expectations. If you want to add media to your application, and you are using Java, Quicktime is your best bet. However, note that if the Quicktime for Java API doesn't seem very Java-like or object-oriented at first glance, then that's probably because it's not. That is because with Quicktime for Java you are not working with pure Java. Instead, you're invoking a flat C API to create and manipulate C or Pascal data structures using a thin Java wrapper. If you can live with that and you still want to use Quicktime for Java, this book is the essential guide and tutorial you need to get up and running. The book does not waste your time with API printouts or a Java programming language tutorial. Instead, like all books in the Developer's Notebook series, it gets down to business quickly by demonstrating working Java code for a number of useful tasks when working with media.

First, it tutors you on how to set up Quicktime for Java on a Windows machine. This task is more complex than you would think, and this book hits the mark on the subject. Next, it shows you how to play movies and audio files from your Java program. Next, the book tackles the editing of movies from a Java application. This includes topics such as cutting, pasting, going to specific frames of a movie, and "flattening" a movie. In Chapter four, the programmer is introduced to working with Java components and importing and exporting graphics. In chapter five, the user is introduced to working with QuickDraw, the Apple-originated drawing API. This is essential, since QuickDraw is what is used to work with captured images. Thus in this chapter the reader is taught how to transfer data between images and a movie. Next, the art of capturing both video and audio is explored, including capturing audio and video to the same file. The chapter is rounded out with the code for a motion detector. Chapter seven is devoted entirely to audio media. There are particularly timely topics here, such as how to read information from MP3 and from iTunes AAC files, how to provide basic audio controls, and how to build an audio track from raw samples. Similar information is provided in a separate chapter for information specific to video media.The final chapter discusses the effects available in Quicktime for Java, as well as how to add text captions and timecodes to your media.

All in all, I think the Developer Notebook format works well for this subject. At the beginning of each chapter there is an outline of the topics to be covered. For each topic there is a "How Do I Do That?" section that includes a short piece of Java code that performs the specified task. There is also a sample of the output you would expect to see on the screen that should result from executing the code. Next there is a paragraph entitled "What Just Happened?" that explains the code just shown, and finally each topic usually ends with a "What about.." section that answers common questions you may have about extending the code just shown. All code in the book can be downloaded from the book's website at O'Reilly and Associates.

This book is essential reading for anybody who needs to understand how to code with Quicktime for Java, and it is far better than any other publication on the subject that I have encountered. Amazon does not show the table of contents for this book, so I do so for the purpose of completeness:
Chapter 1. GETTING UP AND RUNNING WITH QUICKTIME FOR JAVA
Setting Up QTJ on Windows
Embedding QuickTime in HTML
Preflighting a QTJ Installation
Compiling QTJ Code
Opening and Closing the QuickTime Session
Playing an Audio File from the Command Line
Chapter 2. PLAYING MOVIES
Building a Simple Movie Player
Adding a Controller
Getting a Movie-Playing JComponent
Controlling a Movie Programmatically
Showing a Movie's Current Time
Listening for Movie State-Changes
Moving Frame by Frame
Playing Movies from URLs
Preventing "Tasking" Problems
Chapter 3. EDITING MOVIES
Copying and Pasting
Performing "Low-Level" Edits
Undoing an Edit
Undoing and Redoing Multiple Edits
Saving a Movie to a File
Flattening a Movie
Saving a Movie with Dependencies
Editing Tracks
Chapter 4. WORKING WITH COMPONENTS
Specifying a Component's Type
Exporting Movies
Exporting Movies to Any Installed Format
Importing and Exporting Graphics
Discovering All Installed Components
Chapter 5. WORKING WITH QUICKDRAW
Getting and Saving Picts
Getting a Pict from a Movie
Converting a Movie Image to a Java Image
A Better Movie-to-Java Image Converter
Drawing with Graphics Primitives
Getting a Screen Capture
Matrix-Based Drawing
Compositing Graphics
Chapter 6. CAPTURE
Capturing and Previewing Audio
Selecting Audio Inputs
Capturing Audio to Disk
Capturing Video to Disk
Capturing Audio and Video to the Same File
Making a Motion Detector
Chapter 7. AUDIO MEDIA
Reading Information from MP3 Files
Reading Information from iTunes AAC Files
Providing Basic Audio Controls
Providing a Level Meter
Building an Audio Track from Raw Samples
Chapter 8. VIDEO MEDIA
Combining Video Tracks
Overlaying Video Tracks
Building a Video Track from Raw Samples
Chapter 9. MISCELLANEOUS MEDIA
Creating Captions with Text Media
Creating Links with HREF Tracks
Adding Timecodes
Creating Zero-Source Effects
Creating One-Source Effects (Filters)
Creating Two-Source Effects (Transitions)

This book is great!

This notebook makes all the QuickTime supported formats available to a Java developer. Like all the books in the notebook series, plenty of code, plenty of information to get up and running.

I really liked the information on reading the tag info from MP3s and AAC files, very useful.

Multimedia and Java made simple.

With this type of walkthrough book I usually expect to see just the basic features of the technology explored. This book goes surprisingly in-depth, covering topics like adding effects to playback, transforming movies during playback, overlays, and a wide variety of topics.

All that is crammed into a trim 200 page frame. This is achieved by concentrating mainly on the code, and effectively using a minimum of images. That's a trick given the graphics intensive nature of the topic.

This is not a book for beginners, it's a fast-paced walkthrough for experience developers who want something less referential than the JavaDocs.

With Apple changing QuickTime for Java so anything you made when
use QTJava under MacOSX Java1.3 no longer worked under Java1.4 these required changes to most of your older QTJava code- if you wanted to have your code now run under Java1.4. Apple also moved classes to a new packages so to make the developers nightmare complete. BUT DONT WORRY! This book will show you workarounds for them missing classes (sequence grabbing is back! what a gem). Also covers all your needs as a new developer to the powers of QTJava. Time to make your very own QuickTime player in a few hours! You won't believe the stuff QuickTime can do under the hood. This books covers just more and more stuff as you go though it.

For me this QuickTime for Java book will be sitting next to the older most excellent book from Bill Stewart. I hope all books become as clear and well written as this one from Chris Adamson- top work. Sample code all over the shop; step by step stuff. Cuts to the tasks you will have to tackle without lengthy messing around. Brilliant buy if you want to do cool hardcore design media in java. Or just play a nice sound track in the background of your killer application - maybe u want to make the next video editing studio app, or your own media player, or a streaming server, or a image editor, or or or; you want ta take a ride?

Then again don't buy it! I wont have a job to go to in the morning! :).

I stumbled upon this book at a CompUSA and have found it to be one of the the best basic but thorough overviews of OS X 10.2.x. I needed a book to give my users new to OS X. I wanted something to help them get used to the new inteface and features but I didn't want them overwhelmed by too much detail. This book fit perfectly. It uses text and illustrations very well and describes things clearly. Everyone who has used this book has gotten up to speed quickly and with little help from me. That's success!

I bought my 'new', used ibook on ebay and so have no manual. The guy was nice enough to send it with Jaguar installed though, so I popped over to amazon, and bought this little guide. I am up and running, with an updated ISP, browser (safari, free at apple), and cooking along with icons making sense and configurations configured, ALL because of this little book! Now I know I have to get one of those big heavy books for the Big Stuff, but I am good to go in the meantime.

I am a recent convert from the 'PC' world to the MAC world. I was looking for a book to get me into the MAC quickly and easily. I am very computer literate on the 'PC' but needed the translation into the Apple world. A friend of mine has praised Greg Simsic's books on Photoshop, so I knew this would probably be a good book to consider. I have been very happy with it. It is concise and clear and seems to point out all the things I need to know to become comfortable with the MAC. It is slim enough I can keep it in the bag with my G4 laptop-always ready for quick reference. There is a very thorough index and table of contents to get you to what you need to know. And the information is clear and to the point. It seems to cover all of the basic information for me to get around the OSX system and its applications. I cannot believe the reasonable price on this book. I don't think I have ever bought a computer book [this price]. What a bargain this book is ...

I've been using Mac computers for more than a decade, but I have to confess my first bootup of OSX was a jarring experience. Where'd my control panels go? What's the dock? Where are my files? For the first time ever, I decided to go out and buy a guidebook to a Macintosh product.

Which brought me to this guide to OS X Jaguar conducted by friendly natives Greg Simsic and Katy Bodenmiller. The entire Simsic/Bodenmiller series is a tonic for anyone who resents the condescension of that "For Dummies" series and its ilk; rather than treating its reader like a slow third-grader, Simsic and Bodenmiller get down to business without all the superciliousness that keeps all self-respecting Mac users far away from those little black and yellow Cliff-Note's-like books. At last, a software guide I don't have to be embarrassed to read in public.

With its learned, front-porch and down-home idiom, Start! takes the reader from startup to moviemaking with savvy tips for everything in between. The layout of the book is as clean, logical, and as easy to navigate as OSX itself. Perhaps the greatest achievement of this book is that Simsic and Bodenmiller are able to address two very different audiences-the die-hard Mac devotee just making the switch from OS9, as well as the newly PC-cured-without wasting the time of either. If Jaguar makes you pine for nine, get this book. You'll never look back.

Greg Simsic and Katy Bodenmiller have written the PERFECT beginner's guide to Mac OSX. I teach OSX classes to new Macintosh users (univ. faculty) and I've gone thru lots of OSX books and materials. This is by far the best I've seen. Simple, straightforward, immediately to-the-point. It's written with a clarity and understanding of new users that is hard to find in many of the intro-level books. Greg's books have always been among my favorites, and this ranks with the best.

This is really a rare book. Not stupid-funny, and so knowledgeable and pedagogic. I had bought my new iMac, the first since my Mac+ nearly 20 years ago. It looked like a modern Mac, and worked as such. Then I got Joe Kissel's book! And discovered all the stuff underneath. The holy grail of UNIX. And how smart the engineers at Apple still are! I was amazed by how many intelligent goodies they have put into the box. And really enjoyed the profound know-how of Joe Kissell, and his many step-by-step guided tours into the heart of the iMac. I learnt to install a firewall- and that I already had a firewall in my box. I was taught GIMP, and file sharing, and all about the iApp's. Backing up, booting and so on. Apache-in-the-box too. Thank you VERY much, Joe!

I've been using a spare iBook as a webserver for about 8 months now and decided to turn it into an email server as well. In just a few pages, this book explained exactly how to do it with Sendmail.

Unfortunately however, Panther ships with Postfix preinstalled (and from what I've read Postfix is a better alternative to Sendmail) so obviously the steps for configuring Postfix weren't included in the book. I emailed the author (who thoughtfully provides his email address in the book for help related questions) asking for instructions to configure Postfix, and within hours he emailed me concise details of how to configure Postfix with a shareware program called Postfix Enabler.

Just a short while later my iBook was not only an HTTP web server, but a POP/IMAP email server too. I had no idea it would be so easy, and there's 49 other wonderful techniques that are simple to follow: everything from using the command line with Terminal to installing PHP and MySQL and so much more.

The front of the book does say, "Covers Jaguar!", but I've been using it with Panther and the only trouble I had was with the Postfix issue. It's one of the most helpful OS X books I've ever read.

This is a wonderful book for all us souls who use OSX. The techniques are almost always a way to either solve a particular problem or learn a particular tool. I have only gone through about 30 of them, but each one has made my life either a little easier or a lot. A couple of examples are that I know understand how to best utilize the Finder and am no longer intimidated by Terminal. The style is breezy and very easy to understand without being condescending or dumbed-down. Strongly recommended

Joe Kissell writes for both the techie and we "normal" folk. His teaching of UNIX basics leaves you with knowledge, not boredom, and is worth the price of the book by itself. Most of the improvements he describes for both OS X and MAC are useful, and in some cases just plain fun, to any MAC user, and his ability to explain his techniques to the reader is an absolute pleasure. Can't wait for his OS 10.3 version.