Macintosh Books

Well written and easy to understand (unlike many books on home recording). It's broken down into step by step tutorials which, if followed, will teach you all the basics as you progress through the book. Highly recommended.

Having been given an Apple iMac complete with the GarageBand application, I was intrigued but at the same time a little apprehensive about trying it out. However, GarageBand 3 by Mary Plummer made it all so easy.
I decided to first do all the lessons; the instructions are clear and easy to follow, so it was a pleasure. I did sometimes take longer than the estimated time to do each lesson.
On completion, I had gained a comprehensive knowledge of all that this wonderfully creative program can accomplish, and was even enlightened as to what a podcast is. And if I forget again, the book is always at hand to remind me. I would have liked some comments about the advantages, if any, of other programs such as Logic.
My main interest with GarageBand lies in composing music, and this book introduced me to its many fascinating possibilities. So thank you, Mary Plummer. I must finish this now, to get back to Garageband....

I bought it so I could learn Garage Band 08 and thought initially that a lot of the information would be pertinent to the newest version of Garage Band 08. There are probably a lot of similarities and many aspects of the program that this book could help with, but when all is said and done, it is not the newest version that it teaches and knowing how eager I have been, in trying to learn about this program, I "jumped the gun", sort of speak. That is the thing about newer today, older tomorrow, you have to be careful only to buy the updated version and not the old one. I did not mean any disrespect by giving it 3 Stars for in reality I will never know how good of a book it is. I only wrote the review to point out that the new Garage Band 08 requires the updated book to go along with it. Happy Holidays and God Bless America!

I did not know what GarageBand was until I explored the icons on my new MAC. Needed help here. Logged on to Amazon.com and found Mary Plummer's book GARAGEBAND 3. I am learning the program by doing the lessons in the book, supplemented with CD lesson files. I am truly excited because it has opened a new world--creating music tracks. Each lesson is a building block, and Ms Plummer's instructions are easy to understand and follow.

An excellent training program for Macintosh's Garageband home recording studio for beginners. Easy to follow and use, but quite comprehensive at the same time. I wouldn't expect less from Apple.

Overall this is a decent introduction to SAP Business Warehouse. However, one of the biggest flaws of the book is that trys to overview two different versions. It would be much better if it simply stuck with reviewing against one version of SAP BW (preferably the most recent). It makes some of the concepts and movement through the BW interface very confusing because of the way it switchs back and forth between the two versions.

The content on the accompanying CD is really useless. Nothing of any good informative nature. The best way to read the book is to skim through the first dozen chapters to get a feel for the environment, and then read the last chapters in depth for a good understanding of how to model in SAP BW.

As a BW consultant, I found the content to be untimely (mostly based on version 1.2B) and incomplete. I purchased this book when it first came out hoping for a resource that was more comprehensive and insightful. What I found was what appeared to be a collection of disconnected "whitepapers". In short, the need for a comprehensive 'How-to' guide to BW remains unfulfilled.

I agree with many of the otehr reviewers out there: there's no real cookbook for BW, and this one complicates matters by trying to cover two versions at once. But for me, it's proven to be a great book because it doesn't assume I'm an expert. As a new member of an existing BW Support team, I don't have to ask as many "stupid" questions now that I has this. And I got a great price on a used copy!

There are so few BW books out there so one has to kind of hope for the best on this one. As a Basis team member, this is a great referece book. It needs an update however to accomodate the 2.0b and higher features more thoughly. There is some good performance information but still leaves you wanting much more in the way of BW statistics. Again, its very good for explanations of concepts, overviews, and general reference. The TABW90 class should give this book as a freebie with the course.

The book is outdated and based on BW 1.2B.

Once again, The Dummies series is right on the mark. This All-In-One Guide to Mac OS X has everything you need to start, progress and excel while using the Mac. Whether you're a novice Mac user, or a longtime afficiando, this book has something for you.

Really helped me get into OS X after I changed to a new Mac G5 from a iMac G3 which only had OS 9.

This book is perfect for every Mac owner who wants guidance with the Mac's Jaguar OS. The authors keep things light, even entertaining and there's nothing missing. Check out the index pages and you'll see what I mean.

Make sure you try out the tips, they're the best part of the book!

I have read many of the for Dummies books and for the most part I have found them to be well organized with relevant information at your fingertips. Alas, this book is not one of those. The author attempts to keep things cute and lively with all sorts of little catch phrases and other humorless items (can you say bob saggett) but it really just confuses and annoys. Several times I have turned to this book searching for a quick explanation on how to do something and found it nearly impossible to find. The index and appendix are not particularly helpful and many of the descriptions give you just enough information to get into trouble. While most of the "for Dummies" series are extremely helpful, this one is not one of them.

My wife's Win 98 PC finally pissed her off so much she wanted something new and we decided on an eMac. She had never used an Apple computer and I hadn't since about 1990 so it wasn't something we approached lightly. I did the reseach and made sure that both an Apple and the eMac were the right choice for her. This book was part of the research. It was a solid resource for beginners but not the best book ever written. Some things were not covered as well as I would have hoped (I fit into the power user category), but it was fine enough for my wife. All in all I'd say it's a nice starter but not your only option. Regardless, definately get a Mac and if you're switching from a PC definately consider getting a good reference to hold your hand for the first few days (you'll likely never touch it after a week of use, Macs really are as good as they say). Only word of warning against this book is that it was written for Mac OS 10.2 which has been replaced by 10.3. Most of the data and how to's are the same but it isn't always as accurate as you would like when you are needing it.

I learned from this book, probably because I am curious, not because I will use most of the information presented in any of my computer tasks.

 Most people get in their new car and never read the manual to find out the things they could do with lights, door locks etc.  They also do not understand how pistons, spark plugs and fuel injectors work.  They do just fine.  They get where they are going and enjoy the ride. 

 Using this book is a little like using your car manual?  You can learn all the tricks and bells and whistles of the Aqua interface.  The other part of the book takes you under the hood to the CLI (Command Line Interface) and the deeper OS layers.

 The authors warn that this is  "a book aimed at folks with a more technical bent than the average user-the Power User."  So I asked my son-in-law to check it out. I wanted to find out if it would be useful at a high level of expertise.  

*****Another view of this Book....

The book "Mac OS X In A Nutshell" is a very good reference guide. The book is full of detailed descriptions OS X commands, detailed documentation of system preferences, and network services, helpful tips, and overviews of the EMAC's and visual editor. The text is directed toward the computer savvy user.


This text assumes the reader is familiar with the MAC OS 9 and has a good understanding of computer applications and application requirements. I think the book has lots of useful information, tips, advice, and information for the experienced user but leaves the novice and intermediate user rather confused. The book is easy to follow to those that have the background but difficult to follow for the typical or novice Macintosh user.  For example, the in chapter on Networking, a novice Mac user have no idea why someone would use FTP file transfer protocol and feel that they need to know more about this transfer protocol. On the other hand, Chapter 8 Printer Configuration and Printing is well written for both the experienced and novice user.

In summary, I think the text is very useful for the experienced user but probably would be overwhelming to the novice and possibly intermediate Macintosh user.

Barbera Jackson & Daniel K. Angell, PhD - Michigan Apple User Group

It must be difficult when writing a book for 'power users' to decide what exactly needs to be put in and what can be safely left out. This volume does the job quite well, covering the simple stuff quickly and early while devoting a great deal of its 750 pages to topics of more interest to serious users of Apple's new(ish) operating system. It also declares its audience early, the preface devotes a page to explaining the target audience and states it is 'aimed at folks with a more technical bent than the average user--the power user.

The Gist

Mac OS X In A Nutshell is quite well structured, and organized into into 5 parts. The first is a quick overview of the Macintosh GUI. The second part, "System Configuration," is mainly devoted to getting the system running well (covering preferences, networking, the file system and Java). The third section, "System and Network Administration," is a good guide to several lower-level tasks, including an excellent chapter on directory services and NetInfo. The fourth is about development, including Apple's IDE "Project Builder" and CVS. The final part covers the Unix underpinnings of OS X and X Windows. This includes a Unix command reference of over 200 pages.

The Good

The book is also well written, with light, easily understood prose and some good screen dumps, tables and diagrams to make some of the more complex points easily understood. I appreciate the detailed contents section, good quality index and black chapter tabs at the side of each page for finding the information I need.

Everything seems to be covered, though you may sometimes find yourself needing to go elsewhere for more depth, but this is really only to expected in a book that is trying more for breadth across an entire operating system than depth in one particular area.

Despite having used and developed on a Mac for over 15 years and OS X since the late beta stage I still found myself discovering something new and useful every few pages in the book.

The Bad

The section of the book I appreciated least was the Unix Command Reference. 200 pages, most of which are adequately covered by the online man pages or a quick 'command --help'. Not that it isn't useful having this information on paper, and not that this section isn't more complete than the man pages and less error-ridden. It's just that my favourite operating system has a large number of commands that are hard to find by

name alone. Online, I tend to rely on apropos to find what I need. Back when you paid a large amount of money for a Unix license they came with hard copy manuals that included a permuted word index of the same top slug that apropos searches, which made them infinitely more useful. O'Reilly could improve the heck out of this book by giving us the same thing for what I felt was otherwise an almost totally wasted 200 pages (though I admit that the combination of the chapter on NetInfo and the command references for nicl and niutil etc. actually have me now understanding and using NetInfo well.)

Once again O'Reilly have provided a web page for the book that is mostly marketing material -- though in this case the Errata page is useful. At the bottom of the page they have a number of links to "Related O'Reilly Articles" but have only listed three by the authors of the book, leaving out, for example, X11 and Open Office on Mac OS X by Wei-Meng Lee and Configuring sendmail On Jaguar by James Duncan Davidson to name two MacDevCenter articles I've found incredibly helpful.

Conclusion

This book is not quite in the "must buy" category. If you do want a book to help you with the more technical aspects of OS X or to help you move to OS X from Unix or Windows hacking then this one is worth a serious look. It certainly better covers the technical aspects than OS X Bible and others of that style (such as the 'Missing Manual' or Robin Williams' 'Little Mac OS X Book'.) The only other volume that really compares is 'OS X Unleashed' and it has way too much coverage of the simple stuff and the various applications, is not as well structured and has a wordier, less terse and technical style. It's also more expensive and twice the size and weight.

Other reviewers have claimed that this is a great book for all levels of Mac users. Not. If you don't have an informed opinion about the relative merits of vi vs. emacs or don't even know what that means, there are far more appropriate OS X books for you. Pogue's "OS X Missing Manual" or Williams' "Little OS X Book" come to mind.

Consider this; while the Unix command chapter takes up nearly a quarter of the volume there's not a single mention of iTunes. This is not a general purpose Mac book. It is clearly aimed at advanced to expert user who wants to dig into the Unix underpinnings of OS X. At that it is great. The writing is clear, the explanations straightforward. It is well indexed. And it doesn't weigh 10 kg. It is an excellent addition to O'Reilly's Nutshell series, mostly aimed at programmers or system administrators.

The first ten things, I look up I found the answers I needed. This book gives the answer in a paragraph or two without getting too complicated. You are able to go back the computer and solve the problem. I think the hardest thing with is forgetting what we know before Unix. I try to explain why it works and the book has made that a lot easier. As Mac users, we got spoiled, because we could turn it on and it was self explanatory, but with OS X, you have to get started in the right direction. Apple has changed how things get done ever so slightly. There are dos and don'ts about the system as well as running OS9 with OS10. Installing applications and definitions of the strange new words Apple invents. There is printer instructions as well as pictures on those things you haven't a clue.

Trying to nail a moving target like OS X is an ambitious undertaking and Mac OS X in a Nutshell falls short. Using many different styles and varying degrees of depth from one topic to the next, the book appears to have been rushed to print. However, even allowing the trade-offs between quality and currency doesn't explain why the book documents a snapshot of OS X 10.2 as it was in August 2002, although comments in the text say the time of writing was as recent as January 2003. Either it was completed in the few days just before MacWorld San Francisco or it was simply too late to include any references to the many significant developments presented by then. In any event, the book's timing is unfortunate as it appears dated and less relevant then if it were published four months earlier or a few weeks later. Having completed the book, I found myself with the same unanswered questions I had when I started it, and some new ones.

The book purports to target power users but I think they would find it too slow and shallow for the most part and, as a reference, too disorganized. A better audience would be newcomers to Mac OS X, particularly those who want to develop for the platform and need an overview of its capabilities. For that group the book serves as a reasonable starting point, however, readers should take care not to quote facts from the book without double-checking them; some outdated material, minor inaccuracies and vague wording will most likely land them on the losing sides of arguments.

More troubling than anything else about the book are the omissions. For example, there's no discussion of virtual memory nor the annoying havoc wrought when running out of disk space corrupts "Preference files" (and how these topics are related). In the "Dotfiles" section there is no mention of the most ubiquitous dotfile of them all -- .DS_Store. Things are brought up but not described. For instance, the Ruby language is listed numerous times along with Perl, Python and others but it's missing from the chapter that describes these programming languages and it's not even in the index. This is not to say the book must discuss Ruby but if it's going to refer to it multiple times then it needs to be addressed. These point out the problem areas -- information that's simply not covered, sections that cover a topic but miss key elements, and terms and concepts the text refers to but fails to discuss.

Even with the issues described above the book still contains a lot of useful information. I've picked up a couple new things and referred back to it on occasion. But the pay-off doesn't justify the reading effort. The book needs some serious editing work to smooth out the presentation consistency, better fact checking and an eye toward precision of wording. If this were turned into a true reference book O'Reilly could publish additional volumes such as Changes for OS X 10.3, Panther and bi-monthly mini-volumes that could refer back to the base volumes. That would be a useful collection.

The 'Mac OS X Leopard Pocket Guide' is a good enough resource for those looking for a quick guide to useful Mac OS X abilities and ways to do things, but honestly I feel that this book is a bit light. I think a heavy base of users would be Windows switchers who have come to the Mac and want to learn more about how to do things in this environment versus where they came from. While this 200 page book does as advertised, it is very light on content and no color. With such a vibrant operating system and one that is very dense, I feel that this book is useful but readers will quickly hit a brick wall and be yearning for something more. If all you want is a quick reference this is good to have in your back pocket, but to get more from Mac OS X, make sure to add the 'Missing Manual' book to your collection as well.

****

the best "in hand" tool for the switcher, simple yet direct to the point in assisting you in dealing with MAC BOOK. Highly recommend this for the beginner and the long-term user.

This book is a waste of time. I bought it on the basis of O'Reilly's reputation. Won't do that again. Essentially, its someone going through all the menu and telling you what they are. You can figure that out without a manual. It doesn't cover things not apparent in the menus e.g. how program installation works on osx. I'm trying a David Pogue book next, based on the good Palm manuals he did a few years back. Lets hope that's better. Geez O'Reilly, what were you thinking?

This book is really good for anyone with a Mac. You can learn the basics if you are a new Mac user, and you can learn the important functions of the new Leopard operating system without all of the unnecessary technical details.

Great little book for reference when you are on the road...It packs snugly with your laptop...

I think the book is a good source for the first things you need to know when turning to the Unix features of Mac OS X. It's kind of a collection of everything you would use valuable time to look for elsewere.

This book is a disjointed collection of largely irrelevant information. Here are some examples that reflect the general spirit of the book:

A quote from chapter 1, "Inside the terminal":
> iTerm's contextual menu consists of the following items: New Tab (which
> allows you to choose a session from the bookmarks), Browser (which opens
> the selected URL in your default web browser), Mail (which opens a
> compose mail window with the selected email address as the recipient),
> Copy, Paste, Save, Print, Print Selection, Select All, Clear Buffer, Close, and
> Configure.

You'd hope O'Reilly fired the editor.

Chapter 1 also teaches us how to use the backslash to escape spaces within filenames, and how to use escape sequences to set the title of the terminal window.

Chapter 2, "Startup", explains the OS X boot process. The impression I got from this chapter was that the authors don't understand said boot process and instead regurgitated a list of steps the computer goes through while booting. This chapter also teaches us how to use cron to schedule tasks.

Chapter 3, "Directory Services", gives us (of all things) example C code for retrieving a user's encrypted password, alongside information on managing users and their home directories.

It doesn't really get any better in the following chapters. If I was forced to say something positive about this book, I'd say that it touches many topics briefly to give you an idea of the things you can tinker with in OS X. [...] Or skip the part where you look at the table of contents -- I mean, you already know you can run X11 on OS X, right? So google for "os x x11", and you'll get much more comprehensive and concise information.

I like easy to read book and I also had assumed that learning UNIX is not necessarily has to a struggle. This book stood up to my expectations almost perfectly. It does not overwhelm with technical details and does not press too much. I also followed someone's review advice and purchased Linux and UNIX for a beginner training suite, 4DVDs + 2CDs includes 4 Unix Academy Certifications ed.2008. These two nicely complement one another. You watch it and you read it. If you didn't catch it from the first try you watch it again and read it again. In two months I found myself confident to that extend that gave advises to our system administrator and he accepted them because there were subjects that he wasn't completely sure. I can't overstate how much I have learned from them. Don't be naive, though. You will have to learn and memorize many things. The fact of owning neither book nor DVD will not make you knowledgeable, but if you will work it trough, trust me, you will surprise many people around!

I really enjoyed this book, it's a treasure trove of information throughout. Generally speaking Mac's goal is to keep things simple and the majority Mac user's are perfectly content with that. I would even say that most Mac users I've met don't care to learn UNIX. That's a shame, they don't know what they are missing! The only reason that I became interested in Mac is that it now has the power of a stable, mature and secure operating system, UNIX! Apple has the best of both worlds, the power of the UNIX OS and the beauty of the Mac interface.

With Mac's simple approach, sometimes it can be difficult to get techinical details. For a technical person, this book is welcome. But I wouldn't consider this book to be overly "geeky." Anyone with some experience with UNIX could find useful information in these pages. For example, did you know that you can use GIMP (a very powerful free image editor program) as your default image editor for iPhoto? You can use a lot of cool, free, open source software with Mac OS X. That's another good reason to learn alittle UNIX! This book goes into a lot of detail on how to install GNU free software and other packages.

The book is divided into 4 Parts: Part I. Getting Around, Part II. Building Applications Part III. Working with Packages Part IV. Serving and System Management. Then there's a lengthy Appendix on the file system, command line tools and missing manpages. In a nutshell the book starts with general information, then covers Networking and Programming topics. A good place to start is to find the Terminal Application in the Utilites folder and drag it to the Dock for quick access. I'm more of a network guy than a programmer, so naturally I gravitated to the networking chapters. But to tap into the full power of UNIX one must be able to edit and write some scripts too. This book has some practical scripting examples. It also touches on using your Mac OS X client as a server. I'm sure that I'll be refering back to this book, it's a good one to have in the library.

Having recently bought a Powerbook 17" I wanted to indeed bridge the UNIX and Windows world. How better to do that than going Apple? I've got MS programs, pretty GUI and, the best, based on UNIX. So... Going from FreeBSD to a Mac I needed a manual and this book does it best IMHO. It's has a plethora of links to open source and some shareware, howto's, links to more info and is fairly broad. It does presuppose a working knowledge of UNIX and is targeted to an audience who is switching from a Linux/BSD OS to a Mac. While the transition is somewhat seamless, the Apple folks did some things a bit differently and that's where this book can, and does, help. Anywho, enough rambling. It's a great little book/help and should be on a UNIX person's desktop if converting from, say, Linux/FreeBSD to a Mac.

If you are not really familiar with the subject these all-in-one books can help you get a handle on the subject. Just be aware that the coverage is spread pretty thin. You may need to get another book to get into much detail. Do this too often and the all-in-one becomes redundant.

This is a great book to have on hand.....one that you can constantly be referring to.

While this book has a lot of great information, it's very hard for me to sit down and read. Here's an example of a writing style: Under "Quitting Programs" the author writes "If I had a twisted and warped sense of humor, I'd simly tell you to quit applications by pulliiing your Mac's power cord from the wall socket. (Luckily, I don't.) There are, however, more sane ways to exit a program..." If you're like me, and this style drives you up the wall, try another book, because this book has examples like this on every page. It just gets tiring reading past the cute to get to the meat.

I am a new Mac user, and this book has been invaluable. It reads easy, & Mark has a simple way of putting things for those who are semi computer illiterate. :) The only thing I'd say is a 'black mark' against this book, is some of the 'humor' in the book wasn't necessary or funny. (i.e. joking about ex-boy/girl friends.) Other than that, i have been pleased with the information that has helped me to navigate the wonders of the Apple system.

I have been using macs for about 5 years, and my knowledge doubled after i read this book. It is great for quick tips to be more productive. It also has a good amount of technical information including UNIX, which Mac OS X is based off of. I highly recommend for any mac user, new or not.

This reference is missing many of the commands I actually use on Mac OS X to develop software such as lipo and otool. Sure the man pages are on my computer but then why do I need this book?

Suggestion for the Leopard edition: cut back on Vi, Emacs, and Bash stuff and add even more man pages.

Are you a Unix- user or programmer or a system administrator? If you are, then this book is for you! Authors Andy Lester, Chris Stone, Chuck Toporek and Jason McIntosh, have done an outstanding job of writing a book that cuts through the chaff and gives you practical details you can use every day.

Lester, Stone, Toporek and McIntosh, begin by providing you with a quick introduction to the Unix side of Mac OS X. Then, the authors list descriptions and usage terms for over 300 of the Unix commands found in Mac OS X. They continue by introducing you to the Terminal application and show you how to issue commands and tweak its settings. Next, the authors provide a quick overview of the differences between bash, Mac OS X Panther's default shell, and tcsh, the default shell for earlier versions of Mac OS X. Then, they provide a quick overview of the bash shell, along with a listing of its built-in commands for shell scripting. They also cover pattern matching. Next, the authors cover some of vi's most commonly used options and features. Then, they focus on Emacs editing capabilities. The authors continue by touring the various folders found on a typical Mac OS X volume, including the Unix-centric directories that the Finder usually keeps out of sight. They then detail the way Mac OS X stores and accesses its administrative information, ranging from the NetInfo system of network-linked databases to the "old-school" file-based system familiar to Unix administrators. The authors also detail the major categories of services Unix supplies, including web servers, file sharing, and mail servers. Next, they highlight some of the key features of Apple's X11 distribution and explain how to install Apple's X11 and the X11 SDK. Finally, the authors describe how to gain access to and hack these settings via the Terminal application and the defaults command.

Everything you need to know about the Unix side of Mac OS X has been systematically documented in this most excellent book. This book is the most comprehensive quick reference on the market and is a must for any serious Mac user.

Andy Lester, Chris Stone, Chuck Toporek and Jason McIntosh's MAC OS X Tiger In A Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference is also a winner: it provides an overview of OS X Tiger Version 10.4 and focuses on the Unix layer, covering over 300 of Tiger's Unix commands, reviewing basic system and network features and functions, and providing a reference chick has been tested and checked against Tiger for optimum, flawless performance.

"Mac OS X Tiger in a Nutshell" isn't your typical tome on "everything you need to know to use Mac OS X." If you're looking for an easy to read, richly illustrated book to curl up with on a rainy day with a cup of coffee, this isn't it. But if you're interested in the Unix underpinnings of Mac OS X, then grab a six pack of Jolt and your favorite junk food, because there's a heck of a lot of information packed into this book.

The authors clearly identify their target audience early on - "Unix users and Unix programmers", or generally people who are already familiar with the Unix system. Obviously, that's not your stereotypical Macintosh user from pre-OS X days (i.e., System 7 or Mac OS 9). But if you've ever spent time using other operating systems (dare I say DOS?) or are feeling adventurous and want to "peek under the hood", then you'll also benefit from the wealth of information presented in this book.

"Tiger in a Nutshell" is organized into three major parts. Part I, "Commands and Shells", introduces the basic concepts of networking and system administration. After providing a four page quick reference to Unix commands by topic (terrific for beginners), fully one half of the remainder of the book is a comprehensive alphabetical Unix command reference, which the authors claim is the most complete and thorough reference available anywhere (even on the system itself). They've borrowed heavily from other O'Reilly Nutshell books to compile this list, and this compilation alone is worth the price of the book. They also cover the Terminal, which is the gateway between the Aqua graphical user interface (GUI) and what they call the "no-nonsense command-line interface" of Darwin. After briefly providing an overview of different flavors of shells, the authors then describe bash, the default user shell for Mac OS X Tiger.

Part II, "Text and Text Processing", describes the tools used to work with text files, including text editing programs like vi and Emacs, and pattern matching commands like grep and the metacharacters used in search and replacement patterns. There are separate chapters that go into the details for both the vi and Emacs editors. By the way, just a little obscure history about the vi editor... although "vi" (pronounced "vee-eye") is derived from the shortest unambiguous abbreviation of "visual", I remember learning it back in the 90's as an acronym for a less flattering term: "virtually impossible". That gives you an idea how spoiled we've become with text editors that don't require memorizing arcane commands - remember, that's why you'd buy this book, right?

Finally, Part III, "Managing Mac OS X", offers chapters on managing Mac OS X Tiger with full knowledge (gained from reading the preceding 400 pages) about the Unix underpinnings of the operating system. Here's where you'll be able to finally understand the file system, directory services, how to run network services, using X Windows (also known as X11) as an alternate GUI to Apple's Aqua interface, and learn about the defaults database, used to store preferences for individual applications.

This book obviously isn't for the casual or newbie Mac user, but provides an excellent reference for the Unix geek learning to use the Mac, and the Mac geek wanting to learn more about the incredible power of Unix that is just waiting to be unleashed. As long as you're in the target audience, I have no qualms recommending this book for you!

Yes, this is a command-line centric book - because that's where all the POWER is (the graphical user interface is well designed and hardly needs a reference). This book provides a great OS X-specific reference - so you won't have to test all the commands in your "UNIX in a Nutshell" book to see which ones work. Aside from the command line, this book provides important information on Managing Mac OS X (See PART THREE, below) and an excellent index for finding your information. The sections (and approximate page count) in this book are:

PART ONE - Commands and Shells
Introduction - 3 pages
Unix Command Reference - 251 pages
Using the Terminal - 13 pages
Shell Overview - 3 pages
bash: The Bourne-Again Shell - 10 pages

PART TWO - Text Editing and Processing
Pattern Matching - 3 pages
The Vi Editor - 34 pages
The Emacs Editor - 12 pages

PART THREE - Managing Mac OS X
Filesystem Overview - 15 pages
Directory Services - 15 pages
Running Network Services - 10 pages
The X Window System - 11 pages
The Defaults System - 3 pages

INDEX

This book has definitely not disappointed. I switched to the mac world from a pc world and found myself struggling just to do basic things on my new mac book pro. This book is a great resource and really gets you up to speed very quickly. If you have always had a mac and know the basics this book maybe a little too basic for you.

Two years in the rapidly changing landscape of computers makes a lot of difference. "Macbook For Dummies" is helpful to a novice Mac owner like myself, but there is a lot of already outdated material in this manual. The book invests a lot of its pages defining the "Tiger" operating system. While there are many similarities to the new Leopard OS, I stumble through a lot of the exceptions presented that were distinctive to Tiger.
I've learned a lot of basics through this book, but I spend almost as much time filtering through outdated material. I wish now that I had waited for the update revision I hope is coming.
In my opinion, in terms of usefulness to owners of new Macbooks, this manual should be price discounted considerably.

MacBook for Dummies


reviewed by Dr. Eric Flescher, Olathe, KS: (dreric1kansas@aol.com)

Author: Mark L. Chamber

Publisher: Wiley
Released: 2006
Pages: 366
$ USA 22
Canada 26
UK 15
ISBN: 0-470-04859-X
Strengths: The book includes a very introduction. Good screenshots and illustrations including the pointers to specific areas within the illustrations. Five icons help pinpoint helpful information along the way. Chapter 23 " Top Ten Things to Avoid like the Plague " is quite good as well as Chapter 22 " Top Ten Laptop Rules to Follow (which is insightful and well written). Good price, well written and readable.

Weaknesses: Chapters like the ones with iDVD and Imovie have minimal amounts of information. Really these and some of the sections just have the basics. To know and learn more, books that detail more information regarding specific applications should be found besides these basics. the iLife applications, you might want to turn elsewhere. Users who read about "movies," "projects." "video clips," may find the information in this book not well defined, especially concerning when and how the media can be imported, exported and utilized

Novice/Intermediate

Rating: 4.5/5

There are several books on the market dealing with MacBook. Several include not only information about MacBook but MacBook Pro. This is one includes both. I wanted to see what the author had to offer in this MacDummies series related to these laptops. I found the author of this book has previously published the Mac OSX All-In-One desk Reference for Dummies and completed thirty computer books. My wife related bought a MacBook so I decided to research this book to see what it could tell me.
The book covers 366 pages and spans 23 chapters with seven part/ sections. The first part of the book includes a very nice introduction that gives the reader a nice prelude to learning about the laptops but more . As the author says, " he started with no assumption " regarding knowledge of the laptop. The book starts "from the ground up" and launches into some interesting ideas that relate to more then the "hardware." It is nice that in this beginning section, the author pinpoints information about "switchers," those computer users who are moving into the Macintosh realm from the PC/windows usage (particularly targeting Windows XP users). He also nicely mentions that if you are new to Macintosh and the Apple world, most of the software is in the computer and does not have to be purchased. This is a great tip that probably many PC people still don't know about even though many Apple users already are mindful about.
While many of the Dummies books vary in their versatility , breadth and depth of the instructional content, this one is solid. While the illustrations are only black and white, the screen shots are readable. Several include pointers to various sections within the illustrations that zone in on the information talked about. This takes away the annoying quess work that I have found in some books that I have read in which "hunting" within the illustrations was a regular and recurring point. There are also five icons that are placed throughout the pages. These (Tip; mark's Maxim; Technical stuff; Warning!; Remember) serve to include precise additional information that assists along the way regarding the instructions.
The Part 1 includes information pertaining to Mac laptops, turning on and starting with the system and computer. Part focus in on the OSX and operating system while Part 3 launches into the world of connecting and communicating. Part 4 focuses on the iLife applications ( introductory instruction and while the text takes you through each application starting up and using, if you want more in-depth information other books will be needed). Part 5 is sharing access and information while Part 6 deals with important troubleshooting, upgrading information and maintaining your laptop.
Part 7 is called the Parts of Tens. This includes Chapter 22 " Top Ten Laptop Rules to Follow (insightful and well written) and Chapter 23 " Top Ten Things to Avoid like the Plague " (useful for many reasons in your encounter with the internet, applications, hardware and more).
All in all I liked the book and what it had "to say." Novice and intermediate laptop users might like it not only for its good price but also the information it provides. Readable and you gain insights throughout the book. But especially if you already have a Macbook or Pro and have worked with it and want more information (concerning the iLife applications), you might want to turn elsewhere. Users who read about "movies," "projects." "video clips," may find the information not well defined, especially concerning when and how the media can be imported, exported and utilized.

I think the book is a good summary of the technical aspects of use of the MacBook. It would have been more helpful to me if more specific discussions of the Intel duo core aspects of the MacBook Pro had been included. Apparently the work had been written before the MacBook Pro version was issued. On the whole I am satisfied with the book and its mode of presentation, in any case.

Great book, It would be nice to have bought a more up to date version, barley covers anyhing on I chat, other than that it really helps out if your a beginner. Not as huge as most help you mac books out there. Easy refrence guide to get you the info you need.

Maya is (I'm told) an immensely powerful tool. This book leaves out the crucial first step of any file; basic file creation. Although the back of this book indicates that it is for begininng and intermediate Maya users, chapter one jumps immediately from a description of the toolbar layout, to manipulating an already finished drawing of a shark. Ummmm. how the hell did that shark come into existence, Danny? Although every other Visual Quickstart book I've used is terrific they get very low marks for this one. Hey publisher! Do NOT put "revised and expanded" on the cover again if you continue to omit a basic drawing chapter.

this book was very useful for beginner. this book tells us the interface and how to use most commom tool in maya to do modeling, rendering, etc.. , but not all of it. the explanation is very clear with a lot of pictures to support for us to understand each chapter. i cannot say that after reading this book, people can creat a nice animation or human figure. however, it's gonna be the step of understanding the intermediate books, not for beginner. if you don't know how to use maya at all, you must get this book first.

This book is okay for some quick notes on shortcut keys and such, however, I have yet to find it helpful in learning Maya from the beginning. It's images and short descriptions assume you already know how to use Maya and are just flipping thru reference books such as this for little reminders and idea-triggers. The only page I've found to be very useful is the first page of shortcuts. The rest I could have lived without paying for...but then, I had to learn this for myself as this was a required textbook for my class.

This book is easy to read and follow, and will give you a good basic knowledge of Maya.

There are pictures on every page, illustrating what the steps are telling you to do. The steps are short, and not mystic. A good training book will tell you how to do something, and if it requires knowing how to do something else first, it will teach you how to do that and then continue. This book does that. It doesn't get you lost looking for a command you have never heard of before.

This book can't be beat price wise. And the page count is not as scary as most books on this topic (1000+). I guess as such is a good reference for a beginner in Maya. Above that level, I wonder if the more experienced reader will not quickly find it not comprehensive enough. It also depend on your learning style. I prefer to learn via tutorials that take me through the paces. This is one has very little of that, but is mostly like, this button does this and that menu is for that, and then you figure out yourself how to use it all in a project. But I suppose that will do if you are experienced in another 3D application, and you want to switch to Maya. Complete beginners are better advised to look for books like New Riders' Maya 4 Fundamentals (to be honest I don't own that book, but their 3DS Max 4 Fundamentals), that will make a point of explaining everything in this new 3D world.