Web Books

The Semantic Web is said to be the future of the Web. This book suggests how that might come about. It has extensive explanations of RDF and OWL, both overlaid on XML. One big idea is to move towards Web Services and to be able to compose these into more complex entities, in a programmatic manner. Another main hope is to be able to write future documents in RDF/OWL, that can be parsed and "understood" in a way not easily possible with conventional HTML documents.

Note that these future documents need not necessarily be published on the Web. You could have a bunch of them in a database.

Perhaps the most plausible use of the book is in designing these future documents. Sections in the book describe how to semi-automatically derive these from existing, non-RDF or OWL data. Like existing web pages. A hard task, if you want to find some kind of semantic meaning. This book might be considered part of the Artificial Intelligence field. But trying to tackle the general problem via the smaller step of building the Semantic Web.

Although the subjects of each chapter seem quite different, you get a grasp of the current state of the art technology of the semantic web after finishing the book. I can recommend this book to whoever is going to construct hubs in the semantic web.

I agree with the above reviewer. This is a thought provoking well written novel with an incredibly unique plot. This isn't your average storyteller so be prepared to be entertained.

It has been a long time since I have read a novel that made me want to run out and buy everything he has written and sadly I have to wait until Russell finishes the next one! Truly an author to watch.

I mostly read non fiction, but this book & its title just grabbed me. I was very pleasantly surprised to have this book envelop my time from the moment I picked it up. The author must be new, because I do not recognise his name, but I think he on to something big here - taking you back to Dallas in 1963, where the story flows from there & into today's world - I will not give it away, but the plot, character's, settings & especially the ending will simply blow the reader away as it did me. The book has it all, with locales all over the world, but in a different, refreshing way that has me yearning for the sequel (the author mentions the story will continue in subsequent novels). I can't wait! I gave the book to my wife, & she usually shy's away from this kind of book - action, intrigue, political - but she just ate it up! Now we are fighting over who gets to read the next one first! One thing I really liked about the author's style was he put you there, right where the story was at the time in such a way that you felt what the characters were feeling. The main character is, I think a culmination of the real modern citizen & I think a whole bunch of people are going to quickly identify with him & his mission, his morals & motives. Well, that's how I see it - I suspect that Russell Twyce is an author to watch - a great read!

There are so many books on HTML out there. Molly is known to me from other books in the area. Yet she surprised me again. This little book is so much packed with both basic and expert information that puts most other HTML books to shame. Do not miss it!

I really enjoyed the book and found it real useful. It's not necessarily the right book if you don't know any HTML at ALL, but it's great if you know some basics, and need a quick reference or learning tome. For me it was especially helpful for CSS and the more robust features of the HTML 4.0 standard, but it contains more basic stuff as well. It's very comprehensive for its size, slim and easy to carry around, but is extremely concise, well cross-referenced and contains a wealth of information. Also fun to read, with examples that were actually entertaining in content as well as really informative. I love it!

Even the most intuitive applications can benefit from a user manual. And here's the one for Skype - the free computer program that lets you place telephone calls over the internet (as well as do a whole lot more). If you're nervous about getting started with Skype, this book lays out the fundamentals in clear, understandable language. And if you're a seasoned user, you'll find tips and hacks that bring your Skyping to a new high. I particularly enjoyed Chapter 6, "How People Use Skype." As a social-networking tool, Skype affords opportunities I had never imagined. The authors clearly know what's going on and have the ability to explain technical things to folks who aren't technically minded. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if this was the book the "Idiots" and "Dummies" check out before they write their own guidebooks.

Unless you are a real computer beginner, you do not need a book like this one to start using Skype.

Just download the software and depending on your operating system - it is especially simple with Windows XP and Mac OSX - Skype practically installs itself, and then asks for your log-in infomation or if you don't have an account, it asks you to create one. Then you just have to plug in a headset or if your computer is already equipped with a mic and speakers, you can start calling around the World for less than what it would cost to mail a letter.

This book devotes a lot of pages to explaining how to install Skype software and setting up preferences on Windows, Linux and Macs. If you are new to computers and the Internet, this might be helpful. But it starts getting interesting for Skype users with Chapter 5. It explains how to get the most out of Skype. How to use Skype to make video calls and how to set up conference calls.

For the advanced Skyper, Chapter 7 explains error codes and how it evolved from the once popular peer-to-peer program, Kazaa. I have always admired how Skype can be used behind firewalls and with network address translation (NAT). I have used Skype on several corporate networks without any problems. This is unlike some VoIP providers whose equipment and programs cannot work with NAT and only work when certain firewall ports are open.

The book also provides information on Skype security and explains how it encrypts network traffic. Until I read this book, I never fully understood how Skype worked. I am sure that most of the information can be found by searching the web, but this thin book organizes it and makes it possible to know almost everything about Skype in an evening.

This is a colorful and attractive book that tells you everything you may ever need to know about creating multimedia presentations using SMIL 2.0, the second release of the World-Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language Recommendation. SMIL is an XML language for creating multimedia presentations, integrating media, temporal control and interactivity. A SMIL presentation can contain a combination of any types of media. SMIL itself is media "agnostic", and includes most media types by referencing their URL's rather than embedding them in the SMIL file itself.

The authors, Bulterman and Rutlege, are respected multimedia researchers and were key contributors to both the SMIL 1.0 and SMIL 2.0 Recommendations. They were personally involved in drafting and testing a significant portion of the standard, and the company that Bulterman used to lead, Oratrix, developed one of the first full implementations of the SMIL 2.0 language, Grins. So these guys know what they are talking about.

While the W3C SMIL 2.0 Recommendation (http://www.w3.org/TR/2005/REC-SMIL2-20050107/) is primarily written for SMIL implementors and XML language designers incorporating SMIL features into their XML-based language, the book is written for multimedia content authors. The book begins with an overview of SMIL 2.0, with six example presentations that show how SMIL can be used, some history, and a guide to the organization of the SMIL 2.0 standard. The next chapter gives a brief but useful introduction to SMIL 2.0 code including the major components of the language: structure, media, layout, timing, linking, and control.

Further chapters go into each of these areas in much greater depth, explaining all of the options and features in each component (terms module in SMIL 2.0) of the language. And there are many! To support fully featured, interactive, and attractive multimedia features that allow infinite flexibility in the look and feel of a multimedia presentation, SMIL 2.0 has a ton of features and options. In addition to the components already listed, there is animation (my favorite), transition effects, media clipping, advanced layout, extended control, and metadata. Bulterman and Rutlege do a good job of presenting a lot of material in an organized and attractive manner, with lots of examples.

By and large, the features in SMIL 2.0 are straightforward and intuitive to use, However, as is true in any standard developed to meet the needs of many separate groups (SMIL 2.0, for example), SMIL 2.0 is a large language with some potential pitfalls, and there are some also "doozers" and "gotchas". By necessity, the SMIL timing model is complex. While usually intuitive, in some particular cases the timing elements and attributes can interact in initially surprising ways. For another example, there are two kinds of SMIL XML for representing transitions, and all transitions may not be available in all platforms. The authors calmly guide the reader through all this. Backward compatability between versions of SMIL, including the oddly named 'skip-content' attribute is another complex subject clearly presented.

This book is both more comprehensive and much more attractively presented than any other book on SMIL that I have seen. The "insiders" view of SMIL that authors have is used to round out the explanations and rationale for things to good effect. Overall this is a great book for any multimedia content developer who is using or considering using SMIL 2.0. It will also be useful to SMIL implementation developers as another source of information when reading and implementing the recommendation documents. Lastly it should be of interest to students studying multimedia as an in-depth guide to a specific comprehensive multimedia presentation architecture.

Aaron M. Cohen
Chairman of the W3C Synchronized Multimedia Working Group (produced the SMIL 2.0 Recommendation)

This is a remarkable book, and by far the most authoritative guide available for the SMIL languages. It serves a broad audience, and combines a readable style with complete expertise in the subject matter.

For authors, the book provides an easy-to-understand explanation of the language principles and syntax. Many useful examples illustrate the features, and provide useful authoring templates. Bulterman and Rutledge's experience with multimedia authors and authoring comes through in the many tips and hints for addressing real-world issues and avoiding potential pitfalls. All examples are provided online as well, along with demos and other resources.

For the serious student or implementer, the book provides detailed explanations of the underlying models for layout, timing and animation. These sections benefit from the combined experience of the book's authors as leading members of the W3C standards group that developed the SMIL languages. Their understanding of the details is clearly beyond that of most other authors on this subject.

The book design itself is interesting and fun. Graphics in the margins mark the chapters, with key chapters featuring flipbook-like graphic "animations". It has a comfortable layout and organization and an excellent index. If I have a complaint, it is that I do not find the graphics summarizing syntax features to be very intuitive. Fortunately, the text and examples provide sufficient syntax reference.

Authors of web multimedia as well as academics and professionals integrating or implementing SMIL language features will find this an invaluable addition to their reference bookshelf - I strongly recommend it.

In my opinion, the best "how to" book on JavaScript for someone like myself - a novice in both JavaScript and programming. I spent a fair amount of time reading online reviews and followed that by examining the books at the local bookstore. This book concluded my search for an introduction to JavaScript. If you are someone who is looking to learn this scripting language, I have no reservations in recommending this book.

Importantly, it is very well written. I have come across tech books where the author might have a tremendous amount of knowledge on the subject... but simply isn't a fluid writer, making it dry and difficult to follow. This book is well organized, the explanations are clear and easy to follow, and the writing style is not dry. The writing style also refrains from cheesy humor - a style that some might enjoy, but I find that it can get annoying.

At 896 pages it is quite comprehensive, and (to my untrained eye) appears similar to the O'Reilly Definitive Guide in this respect. (The O'Reilly is 776 ppg. and printed in a larger font) . However, "Using JavaScript" is a tutorial guide whereas the O'Reillly is not. The explanations are geared towards the novice and include simple examples of the code that can be typed in to see how it functions in the browser. The O'Reilly guide relies more on verbal explanations - which, for the beginner like myself, aren't that helpful as I can't relate the explanation to its actual working function.

The earlier chapters of this book carefully explain everything and provide easy to follow examples. The scripts become more complex as the book progresses. The included scripts cover, I assume, most of the stuff you'd need to know to add basic functionality to a web page... in this respect it acts like a cookbook such as the JavaScript Quick Start Guide. Unlike the Quick Start Guide, however, this book goes far deeper into explaining the mechanics of JavaScript and is much more useful in this regard.

This book should get anyone who understands the C programming language and HTML up and running in a few days. Do things like use Javascript to check for certain conditions, the web browser information, password protection, shopping cart and such. The book is an introduction so you don't see server side scripting, however, most pro webpages use a whole lot more technologies like DHTML,XML and there is a need for other supplementary material. Yes there is a need for a JavaScript language reference like Pure JavaScript. Anyway, I think I like it because it is well written.

Most professional Web designers and developers occupy a large portion of their work in a visual design environments such as Dreamweaver, and use the tools within Dreamweaver to hand-code at least portions of their own markup. The positioning and scope of Special Edition Using Macromedia Dreamweaver MX is primarily to assist these web masters in gaining a professional level of competency through a working knowledge of Dreamweaver and the issues in design and markup that are affecting the changing way in which they work. Special Edition Using Macromedia Dreamweaver MX cogently addresses issues in Web design and development from an extremely contemporary standpoint. Suitable for beginners, the primary emphasis in Special Edition Using Macromedia Dreamweaver MX is to assist the intermediate designer interested in learning how to work with Dreamweaver to achieve best practices within the design and development industry. User Level: Intermediate, 720 pages

The title of this book is not the only thing that is covered (i.e. Dreamweaver MX). The authors also discuss HTML, standards, best practices, Mac vs. Windows browsers, etc, while introducing the features of Dreamweaver. This is important as many books just provide a point-and-click cookbook w/little relevant dicsussion as to "why" something is done a certain way.

There are also useful references to resources on the internet and good tips. The writing style is easy to follow and there are many good illustrations. This is not only a fantastic book for Dreamweaver MX, but a great web development book as well.

I buy a ton of tech books every year and don't give top reviews easily. This book definitely earns its 5 *'s.

I am not a huge fan of spiders but you cannot help but look at the beautiful illustrations of this book and be amazed at their beauty. Beautiful, Lyrical, Rhyming text. We love Yvonne Winer's books and all the illustrators she chooses are nothing short of amazing. My children LOVE these books. They are a feast for the eyes and mind.

My 4 year old daughter received this book as a gift. The verse and pictures are beautiful. It encourages the appreciation of spiders from both an aesthetic and educational point of view. She loves to hear about the interesting behaviors of the various spiders described in the back of the book. I read it to her preschool class and they enjoyed it. Her teacher loved it. I am ordering another book as a gift to her class. (I am not normally a big fan of spiders, but this is really a beautiful book.)

It is hard to think of a topic that has generated so much shallow commentary and narrow vision as the whole information technology revolution in general and the Internet in particular. Everyone with something to sell or a reputation to make has climbed on this wagon, and as a result the noise to signal ratio in relation to this immensely important subject is extremely high. But now and then someone comes along to take another look at things and really puts some meaning back into the discussion. Enter Wade Rowland. Rowland is a Canadian science writer, but what impresed me most about his book is, firstly, he effectively places the whole history of technological development in a wider social context, including some interesting commentary on on the role of philosophy, and second, he is not afraid to remind us of the much ignored human dimension. In particular Rowland's treatment of the Internet is interesting and insightful, and while rightly citical of much of what has ocurred (especially the debasement of popular culture under pressure from commercial interest) he is optimistic about the genuine liberatory qualities of the net (as opposed, for instance, to broadcast TV). In my view this is an extraordinarily successful book, and hopefully raises the bar in an area where both profound thought and good writing have been rare. If you do not read any other book about the information age and the net, read this one.

This book remains one of the most relevant accounts of the development of the Web. I teach a Mass Communication course, and assign this as the text to place the Internet into a broader liberal arts context. The students find it an engaging way to understand some of the historical precedents of the Web.

For more recent perspective, magazines like Wired and Business 2.0 complete the picture.

A must have book, not a coffee table book..but a computer table book! This book will help you find what you need faster!
Good job!
C

I love the great resources and information given in this book. I would recomend this book to anyone who has to research on the internet. I give this book five stars!