Hardware Books

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/RSPN8L7VO0A4V

I found this tutorial to be well written and very useful. It is in two formats. In one format you hear the author discussing the subject while you are viewing slides that graphically illustrate each point. In addition, all of the material, including the figures and descriptive text are in a PDF file that you can print and use for reference or review at a later date. A really nice feature is the powerful search capability within Adobe Acrobat which makes it possible to instantly search the entire tutorial for specific topics and keywords and then play the multimedia clips directly from within Acrobat reader. I have previously had just enough exposure to Foundation Fieldbus to be able to recognize that the author is, without question, an expert on the subject. Now, with this tutorial under my belt, I feel prepared to build a Foundation Fieldbus segment and start getting hands-on experience.
Jon Monsen, Ph.D.

I have been looking for a book like this for 2 years now. It is the first book I know of that is actually written about a current development board. The author does a great job of teaching you many of the basic concepts you need to get going. I hope that people at Xilinx stand up and take notice of what the author has done. If you ask me, Xilinx's marketing or technical support department should have written this book. If you want to get involved with fpga development, then buy this book and the development board. I'm recommending this book to several other software engineers as well as some of my students. Well done Prof Chu!

This is one of the best introductory VHDL books out there. Even though it does not focus on the VHDL Language itself it does demonstrate the use of VHDL and the hardware design methodology via practical design examples. All explanantions are clear and easy to follow. The design examples provided in the book are very practical (UART, PS2, VGA controller). The examples themselves are designed using the hardware design methodologies presented (FSM-based and FSMD-based). Finally the Picoblaze section in the textbook is the best treatize of the picoblaze micro that I've seen this far.

For those interested in a more rigourous treatment of the VHDL language, design methodology and synthesis issues (but not practical examples) I also highly recoommend "RTL Hardware Design Using VHDL: Coding for Efficiency, Portability, and Scalability" by the same author.

This is a book that you wish wouldn't end because each chapter is flush with technical and artistic lessons of enormous practical value. Mr. Rockwell teaches you how to use paths and points in remarkably sophisticated ways to simulate reality. He covers the most complex FreeHand operations and manipulations in a style that is thoughtful, instructive, and easy to follow. How often does one encounter a skillful artist, adept technician, and superior communicator all in the same skin?

If you have a serious interest in refining your vector skills, and if you take pleasure in artistic discovery, then get hold of this book and don't let it go until you've read it all. But be forewarned: you may find yourself using FreeHand in ways you never thought imaginable. You may even find yourself preferring paths and points to pixels and paintbrushes!

Finally, a real illustrator who can write too!! This book is packed full of inspiring real world desgins. The author then proceeds to teach us how to produce these top class images using FreeHand.

Instead of teaching how to use FreeHand it is an INTERMEDIATE book which shows you how to do cut-out designs, theres a car, a bird, a realistic jewel case, products with labels added and much more. If you go to a bookstore, browse the 32 page color section and you'll be blown away with the quality of the projects contained in this book.

There is photorealism, drawing with stylized brushes, wonderful perspective projects, 3D for the web, using envelops and TONS more.

This is the book to get if you are already comfortable with FreeHand and want to expand your creative abilities.

The Informaiton Technology Association of Ammerica gave sites this book as meeting Industry Best Practices

The books is truely the encyclopedia of the y2k problem. Not a doom and gloom book. I found practical and real world advice that I have put to use.

Knowing next to nothing about computer recording techniques..._"How to Do Everything with Garageband" walked me through the steps and answered my questions before I asked them. The result was I made a recording that exceeded my hopes and it was a lot simpler than I expected, thanks to the book. Especially useful was the step by step approach...from beginning to the finished recording. A terrific book.

I purchased GarageBand earlier this year played with it for a bit and haven't really used it much. I had used Soundtrack in the past and liked it because I was able to pull my projects into it and view it as I laid down the tracks. I was a bit disappointed that GarageBand didn't have that feature, so I didn't really use it much. I hate buying programs that I don't use so when I saw the book I decided to give GarageBand another chance.

As soon as I started reading this book I was very impressed. The book had an almost conversational feel to it. I hadn't even gotten it home and I was already on chapter four. I became excited about seeing what I could create with GarageBand.

GarageBand lets you make music three different ways. You can make a song using the provided Apple Loops, record tracks that trigger Software Instruments or record original audio through your computers audio inputs.

The book is organized into four basic parts. Part I "Get to Know GarageBand" shows you a quick overview of GarageBand's basic features and concepts, and helps you install and configure your computer. Part II "Make Music with GarageBand" is where you start to make music. So if you already have GarageBand on your system you can go straight to this section and get start mixing it up. Part III "Create a Finished Master" takes you a bit deeper into the program. Here you learn how to edit, mix, add effects, and export your songs to iTunes. There is both a creative and technical side to this part of the book. Part IV "Take GarageBand Beyond Its Horizons" gives you ways to expand on your studio by adding peripheral hardware and additional software. It also outlines how to share your songs with the world and how to eliminate some problems before they start.

On the left side of the pages there are gray buttons that contain Tips, Notes and Cautions. The "Tips" alert you to timesaving features or give you ways to go beyond the basics. "Notes" let you know what to look for in the book and offer some essential background information about a feature or action. While "Cautions"lets you know to be wary about what you are doing. It doesn't necessarily mean danger, just a note to pay special attention. There is also info for version 1.1 of GarageBand that are identified with a New In 1.1 icon next to it.

There are also a variety of sidebars throughout the book. There are Did You Know? sections, which give you insight into GarageBand and computer music in general. How to sidebars that teach you specific procedures, often with step-by-step instructions. Also Voices from the Community where you can here stuff from, recording artists, producers, composers and critics.

Chapter One: You learn about GarageBand's user interface and key terms that are used throughout the book. It shows a diagram and acquaints you with what the buttons do and what they mean. You also get a mini-music history lesson which I thought was kind of neat.

Chapter Two: Gets into the requirements for your system to successfully run GarageBand. You find out that GarageBand is a bit of a power hog even though it is an entry level program.

Chapter Three: You set preferences both general and for your new song. You choose your tempo, time signature and key for your song.

Chapter Four: You start laying your tracks. You can lay the tracks from top to bottom or in between, lay them down the way you like to work. You can create a "Soft"ware instrument track and a "Real"ware instrument track. A "Software" track is actually a synthesized or sampled sound that you can play, while making audio settings that will help enhance the sound of the sampler. While a "Real" instrument track does not include synthesizers or samplers, it does give you a bunch of tools so that you can adjust the track's sound for a specific application. You can also choose "Loops". These are little snips of notes that you can use to either create a full song or add to your songs.

Chapter Five: Let's you look a bit closer at the loop browser, showing you how to audition the different loops. Gives you info on how to flesh out the loops to make it fit your needs.

Chapter Six: You learn how to setup a Midi Controller. So if you have a keyboard with a USB controller you can connect directly to your computer and away you go.

Chapter Seven: Recording audio tracks. You learn about the different types of connectors that enable you to get your music into your computer. Since you are no longer constrained by linear recording you can move different pieces of your track around. So if the guitar lick really sounded like it should move to the beginning just drag that piece of audio and move it where you want it.

Chapter Eight: You learn how to edit what you just created. You "Split" and "Join" regions within your timeline. You fix timing, transpose or change pitch and rename.

Chapter Nine: Mixing your song. There is no "right" way to mix a song. A good mix should be clear, it should convey a mood and it should be interesting. In this chapter you get a good basis for mixing it up the right way.

Chapter Ten: You start breaking down already played songs to find all the parts that make a good song. It's not just about slapping together some tracks, but making something that people will be interested in and want to listen to.

Chapter Eleven: Distributing your music. Send it to iTunes and let the world here your music. There are many formats that you can have your song played and listened to.

Chapter Twelve: Adding instruments with Midi controllers to GarageBand. It goes over compatibility issues and other issues that you may not have thought about.

Chapter Thirteen: Adding additional software to GarageBand like Apple's Jam Pack. Additional loops are a great way to add a different flavor of music to what's there already.

Chapter Fourteen: Goes into some tips and troubleshooting techniques.

I really enjoyed this book. Each chapter was laid out very well almost answering your questions before you asked them. The author had a very easy going not preachy style, with lots of humor. The world might not be ready for my zany tracks but I had fun making them.

I thought this was a wonderful book about blogging. It is not a thin and light book. But, instead, is packed with lots of information and well worth its cover price. It is well written and well organized. And to see specifically what is covered I recommend you examine the Search Inside material provided by Amazon for this book. There you can find a basic Table of Contents and a very detailed one, too.

There were four topics I especially liked the coverage of in this book: (1) blogging tools, (2) blog styles, (3) blog theory, & (4) how to start a blog.

The blogging tools covered were Blogger, Wordpress, Typepad, and Expression Engine. I have created blogs at both Blogger and Wordpress. And I think the discussion of both in this book was very fair and representative. I have heard Typepad is a really great service, and it is very reasonably priced. But I have opted to do my blogging on the freebie side so far. I have no experience with Expression Engine. But this book has me thinking of doing some investigation into that service.

The blogging styles mentioned were:
>> Personal diary
>> Views & reviews
>> From the desk of...
>> Organizational outreach
>> Internal organizational
>> Community

I was surprised the style I use for my current blogs was not mentioned: Question & answer. But there really are an unlimited number of blogging styles. That's the beauty of blogs - you can make them what you want them to be and to do.

Throughout the book the author covers blog theory. And he gives us his take on how to actually start a blog. He includes notes, tips and sidebars to help the reader better grasp the material in the book. If you follow the pointers in this book you will probably create a real winner of a blog. You might even include images, video, audio, forums, tags, wikis, and some moneymaking features. But you don't have to. Hopefully you'll get more hits, more fans, more friends, and even more customers. 5 stars!

Do yourself a favor: don't judge this book by its (awful) cover. I've had this book by my side every step of the way while setting up my very first blog, and I have to say it has been a huge help. Stauffer's style is direct and engaging, not cutesy. He tells you what you need to know to get started, without a lot of fluff.

I wanted to write a review here because I think this books deserves a big audience, and because the Amazon listing tells you little about what's covered. So here's what's inside:

"Web 2.0 Blog" covers four different blogging platforms: Blogger, TypePad, WordPress, and Expression Engine. So if you're interested in one of these four, you'll find the book very helpful. If you are trying to decide which of the four to go with, the book is even more helpful, as you can compare them feature by feature. For instance, you'll see that while Expression Engine seems quite powerful and flexible, it's obviously more complicated than the other three. Stauffer does a good job of helping you weigh the pros and cons of each.

The book covers quite a lot in a 450 pages, and it does it very well. There's even a basic introduction to XHTML and CSS, giving you a peak at how each blogging platform works under the hood. Other topics covered in depth are:
- RSS feeds
- Photoblogs, podcasting, audioblogging, and adding video
- Working with social bookmarking sites such as Digg and Technorati
- using wikis to collaborate with readers
- adding a forum to open the discussion beyond comments
- community and group blogs
- sending e-newsletters to your subscribers
- getting traffic and monetizing your blog

Highly recommended.

I have purchased this book from amazon and used the information for uploading video images on You Tube. For someone who is technically challenged, I found this book very useful.

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

Author: Chad Fahr
Publisher:McGraw Hill Osborne www.osborne.com
Released: 2008
Pages: 192
$30 USA
$39 Canada
15 UK
# ISBN-10: 0071498656
# ISBN-13: 978-0071498654

Strengths: This book has screenshots which are easily readable but are a little lackluster in terms of visuals. This book has a nice objective oriented listing in the inside cover of the front cover page as well as a nice website resources listing on the inside of the back cover. The index is nicely done and a helpful glossary is included. The Chapters are well thorough out and and have easy to read numbered tutorials. A few tips and notes are sprinkled within the chapters. ) Good solid information for both Macintosh and PC/Windows users was well done.The index is well written.

Weaknesses: The book has only black/white text which makes the chapters a little drab. There a few screenshots and they don't have screen pointers or anything else within these to explain how to use hardware or software.

Novice/Intermediate/Advanced

Rating: 5/5

Introduction


Who would have thought YouTube would have been such a success. But it has "blossomed" and grew. Even now it is changing how we think and display all videos. Also our elections process have integrated with YouTube for video conferencing . While I have started working with Youtube, I still have a lot to learn. But I think I found a real good book to improve my work with YouTube that could also help you. It is called How to Do Everything with YouTube. While it might not explain all you need to work with Youtube, it sure is a great one to start out with or improve your "Youtubing " skills.

The author is an author, filmaker, has worked extensively with video editing , hardware and software and has created his own films and videos. While my experiences include these on a much more rudimentary level as , I have much to learn. I wanted to see what else I could learn from his much more extensive experiences especially how to use Youtube in many ways. And his experience and knowledge are evidence in many ways throughout the book.

There are only 7 chapters but they are packed with useful information. These include starting off with YouTube; Shooting professional-quality videos; learning how to edit your videos with Windows Movie Maker, iMovie, and Remixer; sharing and uploading your videos; joining the YouTube community and sharing ; customizing your YouTube Channel and the utilizing of special tools and finally publicizing and promoting your YouTube experiences. While I have dabbled with YouTube, the book let me know more of my potential.

What I particularly liked is his information about adding audio tracks with AudioSwap, helpful hints on using lighting and adding sound and special effects. Learning how to create a short film, vlog, or video mashup was very insightful. Optimizing and uploading, creating playlists, subscribing and customizing channels, and participating in groups and ways to promote the audience had some really helpful and sensible ideas.


Conclusion

The black on white text and the lack of color within the chapter makes things a little dull. But while the dull visuals do not "stand out" the insightful chapters do. What I enjoyed about this book is not only the breadth and depth in which the author explains how to use the hardware and software information but even more importantly, specific helpful techniques concerning what kinds of videos to create with YouTube directing your messages, ideas, creativity and more. The screenshots will not explain visually how to use YouTube especially if you run into a little trouble. But what I have found YouTube is not that difficult to use and this book can help start and master using the Video editing and sharing capabilities. If you need more information another book may suffice.

As a confirmed Macintosh user, I like that the author included information about iMovie 6 and the new one iMovie 8, as well as PC/Windows related information. The author includes a section about the compositional use of video involving "the rule of thirds". I thought this was really nice as I found this idea this technique only used for photography. It is "little" specific gems, like this, that are integrated throughout the chapters and really make this book a very good one for learning about YouTube.

In short, this book is "crammed" with good solid information that will not only have you " up and running " in no time but also help you in your improvement of your YouTube movies, ideas and creativity. Mostly for novice or intermediate users, even Advanced users may learn a trick or two as I did.

I have used this book as text for a Basic Computer class that I have taught three times for adult students. I have used it both as a preparatory refresher text for myself and also have recommended it for my students. They were very satisfied with it also. The best part of this book is that it gets down to the basic level and covers computers and everything concerned with computers on a level that everyone can understand. The illustrations are also first rate. I heartily recommend this book as a basic text for anyone that does not have any knowledge of computers. It is also an excellent review for anyone who thinks that they know it all. It is well written, well-organized, and has a wealth of easy-to-understand illustrations for all to follow. It covers all aspects of computers from the basics to the internet. The only complaint I have is that the binding leaves a little to be desired, however for its cost it is a good buy.

This book is perfect for the beginner--full of basics & easily read & followed. The later edition in 1998 was equally as informative, and also full of really helpful how-to tips. Nowhere in the books do you get bogged down with information you really don't need as a novice---TERRIFIC!!!!

Security is becoming more and more important in IT environment. This book discusses security issues and their solutions related to HP-UX system and network administration. Knowledge of these issues is critical to securely maintain HP-UX systems. The book is a good reference and will help and improve readers skills related to security.

This book provides excellent information on HP-UX security - not only for 11i, but also on previous versions. Included are a number of man pages, that are not always available with OS. The book is worth it as it contains so much useful information in one book. System Adminstrators of all skills levels will get something from this.

Human Development is an excellent textbook, and one of the best textbooks I have ever used in my studies in Psychology. The author has laid out the chapters in chronological order from infancy to old age. Theories of development are clearly explained and charted. Many true-life examples of research and studies are scattered throughout the text, making theoretical material easy to comprehend. I would highly recommend this textbook to any instructor who is in search of high quality up-to-date material.

I used the eighth edition of this book for my graduate level course in human development. It is an excellent resource for anyone involved in child-related fields.