Human-Computer Interaction Books

This book belongs in the genre of what I call Grouch Books: extensive laments about costs and consequences of technology, but with no attempts at syntheses or solutions. At every turn, the author paints a "no exit" vision of the internet: if it's freewheeling and unregulated, it's "chaotic" and "disorganized"; where it's centralized, it is overbearing and freedom-robbing. The author makes it seem as though the people concerned with hardware and software development are thoughtless, greedy, naive, or some combination. Any hint of libertarian ideals in the shakers and movers of digital culture is dismissed by Rochlin as naive and illusory, and every tendency of this culture is, in his vision, toward loss of humanity and the replacement of art with artifice. This book is single-track thinking at its worst. And to anyone who has experienced the benefits of digital culture and design, the complaining tone grows tiresome and monotonous. On those very rare occasions when he begrudges some possible benefits of the internet, Rochelin immediately qualifies them out of existence. The increased information made available by the internet, for example, is seen as all right for those who use it for "social development," but not for "conversation and entertainment" -- as if mere conversation had nothing to do with social development. If readers want to read about the costs and consequences of technology, they would be far better advised to go through a book such as Neil Postman's *Technopoly.* While just as grim in his assessment of the current state of affairs, Postman has a much greater range, and at least has the intellectual stamina to propose a solution.

Although the title causes one to think of certain films involving certain speedy actresses, the subtitle, "The Unanticipated Consequences of Computerization," sets a tone more like that of the book itself.

Working from the perspectives of both the natural and social sciences, Rochlin proposes the interesting idea that our great reliance upon computers and computerized artifacts has significant consequences outside of equipment failure or the deskilling of labor.

Although the organization of the book is somewhat poor, I consider the text a must for anyone interested in the overall relationship between technology and human life

Despite a title and a cover designed to grab the demographic who reads Wired magazine, this book is one of the sanest, most well-reasoned and well-researched books on the sociology of computing that I have ever read. To my mind, the book easily places Rochlin among the ranks of Langdon Winner and Jacques Ellul. While 'gurus' like Esther Dyson and Sherry Turkle continue to churn out fluff books about the way computing is 'revolutionizing' our lives, Rochlin returns to a quaint little practice some people used to call 'research'. As a computer systems engineer, I have been in the industry long enough to see the casual contempt that most technologists have for the user communities they serve, and I appreciate Rochlin's nuanced efforts to give historical context to these attitudes. Ours is an industry full of pampered whiners who inherited an intolerance for accountability and self-scrutiny from the think-tank darlings of the 50s and 60s, as Rochlin shows. This critique will not be a welcome one for many, and Rochlin will be accused of Luddism. But such a claim laid against a man who was a physicist for a decade is ridiculous. Rochlin not only exposes the irresponsibility of attitudes in the developer community, but also provides a welcome tonic to the hyperbole and snake-oil claims made about digital productivity gains and intelligent machines. If you are a responsible technologist and not simply another zealot who prays to the false totems of AI and the 'digital revolution', you will breathe a sigh of relief that finally SOMEONE wrote this book.

I can't tell you how many people I've told to read this book. It's one of the first references I go to on my shelf and I've read it through more than once. Were I to teach a course in interface design (and I have considered it) I would use "User Interface Design and Evaluation" as the text, as it covers the topics from understanding users through testing the usability of the design -- from soup to nuts. The book is full of concrete examples and exercises. I've suggested this book to a number of people new to user experience, as a great place to get started.

I would like to start a graduate course on UI design, and this textbook seemed to be a perfect starting point to build upon. It is based on a well estabilished Open University graduate course and the well organized table of contents included nearly all important topics I wanted to cover. Checking out the sample chapter I found it clearly structured. The style of the illustrations was a bit off regarding my taste, but I did not take it as a cruicial issue.

I ordered the book and started to read it. It was very hard to keep focusing after 5 pages. The material was presented as a set of rules to follow, and not as an introduction to concepts. You will find bulleted lists of words everywhere which look organized but cannot be digested. I really felt like my mind was being seized in a cramp.

I gave the book to my student with the advice: 'this is to be used as a reference book only, difficult to read on its own'. She gave it back next week saying that the book insults the readers by providing exaggerated examples to illustrate simple concepts. We agreed on that it was written in a style we last saw in an elementary school textbook and that we won't use it anymore.

Currently I read the 'Design of Everyday Things' from Donald A. Norman. It is not an UI textbook, but gave me back the hope that there is another way to cover/teach this field.

I appreciate the amount of work put into writing the book, and there might be people out there who find it useful, but it is not my style of book.

There are a number of helpful, introductory books available about web usability. Namely, "Don't Make Me Think," by Steve Krug, and "Designing the Obvious," by Robert Hoekman, are two I would highly recommend. Both offer general principals to keep in mind while designing web sites.

Neither, however, offers as thorough an overview of the entire field of usability as does "User Interface Design and Evaluation." I found that after having been convinced of the importance of usability by Krug and Hoekman, this book provided the depth and breadth of coverage necessary to gain a thorough understanding of usability.

Usability isn't just about making sure that links are clearly identified and navigation schemes are consistent. More fundamentally, it is necessary to identify the critical user tasks that your application must support. The discussion of Task Analysis in chapter 4 is particularly helpful in this regard. The concept of a 'cognitive walkthrough' is introduced as an effective method of task analysis. I have since utilized this concept regularly as a very effective way to gain a better understanding of tasks from the user's perspective.

Other concepts such as personas, conceptual design, and usability evaluation are covered equally as thoroughly. This book has the sensibility, thoroughness, and design of a text book. If you are looking to move beyond a cursory understanding of usability, and acquire an understanding of the entire field, I would recommend you buy this book.

I never new that an engineer would be able to write such a broad base book with so much groovy detail... :-) :-0 wowee

This book tries to be all things to all people interested in virtual reality or multimedia and ends up being nothing to everybody. The author has something to say about everything in the realm of multimedia- audio, imaging, text, video, computer graphics, and finally virtual reality- all in a 300 page slim volume. Needless to say, nobody can learn anything of value in a book of this size devoted to just one of these subjects, much less all of them. Furthermore, I would expect a book written on these subjects in modern times, i.e. after the standardization of desktop hardware, to concentrate on overall algorithms at a high level, possible effects via demonstration images, and even possibly a walk-through of various off-the-shelf software that the reader could use. The author does a little of this, but oddly enough, he devotes much of his book to demonstrating circuits to perform various functions as though this were still 1980 and multimedia hardware had to be assembled from Heathkits and Radio Shack parts. For example, he shows details of a MIDI interface circuit, NTSC color decoder, digital video interface circuitry, and even schematics for a small vision mixer for video post-production that run on for several pages. It just doesn't work well when your text is superficial and at the level of a college freshman/high school senior and your illustrations are detailed circuit diagrams that would be best understood by practicing electronic engineers. If you are a young person who is curious about what can be done with multimedia and want a fast-paced tour through the various aspects of the field, it probably would not be too bad an investment to get this book used or from a library and skim it to get a career-day idea of the various professions and sciences involved. For that reason, and also because the book's detailed circuitry that I have examined does seem to actually work, I do give it two stars. Just don't let all of the transistor circuitry scare you if you are not into electronics.

I have just gone through the 70-291 and 70-298 books, and went through this one ..... and was gravely dissapointed.. I felt like I was reading the same material as I just finished.. So with that said, I believe if you are going for tests, and you already own 70-291 and 70-298 there is no reason to go out and get the MSPress of 70-293 since the material would have already been covered...

I'm still trying to get through the first book 2 years later. But what's the hurry? I can always start my training tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow...

Seriously, though, these books look a lot like the ones I used to study for my first MCSE, on NT4. Full of most of what you need to pass the exam, plus a lot of junk you don't. I think they're an attempt to trick/force you into learning enough to be more than a paper MCSE while soaking up enough info to pass the test.

The "knowledge" contained herein is no substitute for real world experience, but is daunting to tackle even for a seasoned professional. If you really know computers, and just want test info, I'd recommend something like the Transcender exams instead.

I got a copy of the MCSE Self-Paced Training Kit: Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Core Requirements, Exams 70-290, 70-291, 70-293, 70-294.I was very upset when I noticed that one of the books had a huge tear on the back cover. When you pay $200.00 for brand new books, in a sealed state they should be new when you take them out of the box , not dirty and beat up. Get it together Amazon.

All you need to know to sort out the 90% of the Administration issues in the every day administrator's life. Must have.

One would think that a Microsoft Press book would be better edited; more technically detailed and have more thogrough explanations. But one would be wrong if they thought so. Microsoft, it seems to this reader, slapped together this study guide to make a couple of extra bucks or to just keep the writers busy. The level of user experience listed in the guides as a prerequisite for taking the MCSE exams is greater than the level that the books are geared for. If one has the prerequisite level of experience recommended in the guides then these books will be well below your experience level. However if you are very new to Active Directory and server environments this study guide will give you a fair introduction.
I will say this about Planning and Maintaining Windows Server 2003 Network Infrastructure by Craig Zacker, Mr. Zacker does not have any MS certifications which does not induce a lot of confidence of the author, and omits lots of really important technical information that is very relevant to planning a network, especially his descriptions of TCP/IP planning and sub netting. I noticed several typos and even some incorrect lab answers in each of the books.
All of the labs and diagnostic procedures are done the Microsoft way, which occasionally is not the way that things are done in the real world.
Trancender tests are ok, but Testking prep tests are way better.

All CIO should change the policy fot the PC.
Many people waste many time to manage the complexed PC.
If there is a simple computer, we can make happy.
It is sad taha there is no simple computer.
ps.
"Being analog" is a title of section 7, and a part of Japanese version title of this book.
If we can do analog, we will be happy.

I'm a fan of Donald Norman's work so when I finally had a
chance to pick up "The Invisible Computer" I had high hopes.
Unfortunately, this work didn't provide the same insight and
focus as his previous books such as "The Design of Everyday
Things".

Throughout the work Norman draws upon "Crossing the Chasm"
and "Inside the Tornado: Marketing Strategies from Silicon
Valley's Cutting Edge" [both by Geoffrey Moore]. Also
heavily emphasized are the ideas put forth by "The

Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms
to Fail." All of these books are interesting--but I wanted
something from Norman himself.

Chapter 7, "Being Analog", was more in line with what I had
come to expect from Norman. He ends this chapter with this:
"Alas, most of today's machines, especially the computer,
force people to use them on their own terms, terms that are
antithetical to the way people work and think. The result is
frustration, an increase in the rate of error (usually
blamed on the user--human error--instead of on faulty
design), and a general turning away from technology. Will
the interaction between people and machines be done
correctly in the future? Might schools of computer science
start teaching the human-centered approach that is necessary
to reverse the trend? I don't see why not." That's what I'm
looking for! If only the rest of the book had followed that
passion.

Instead focusing on human factors and man-machine

interface issues, Norman wanders discussing substitutable
goods vs. nonsubstitutable goods, a rehash of why software
is hard to write (and the mythical man month), and even some
embarrassing admissions now that he'd spent some time outside
academia and worked a bit in industry: "Time, or rather the
lack of it, I was starting to learn, is one of the greatest
barriers to quality". As my young nieces would say to me,
"duh!"

Finally, although written in the late 1990's with the

paperback edition published in 1998, I found the text to
already be a bit dated. You don't realize how quickly the
computer industry moves until you find a book frozen in time
like this one.

My recommendation is to read Norman's other works and the
works he recommends here (Crossing the Chasm, Inside the
Tornado, and Innovator's Dilemma). Finally, I recommend
"Machine Beauty" by David Gelernter. It provides more
passion and keener insights than this work--and is generally
more fun to read!

The content strives to support the design of information appliances due to the complexity of the computer coupled with creeping featurism. Human centered design must be used to overcome the increasing complexity.

Chapters 7 (Being Analog) and 8 (Why is Everything So Difficult to Use) are reminiscent of Things that Make Us Smart and The Design of Everyday Things also by Norman.

Chapters 9 and 10 focus on human centered development by defining it as a process and then describing 'immutable principles' that should apply. Six disciplines of user experience are identified.

As I progressed through the book, I had to continually return to the cover and back pages, rereading the title and description to remind myself of what the book is about. Read the two referenced books first!

This book covers in detail the role technology has pervasively interrupted our lives by intruding into everyday living. His major point is that we should have small, independent devices that do one task and one task well, rather than a general-purpose computer to do many tasks. Personally as a technologist I disagree with his major assumptions and points and found the book and some of it's major themes troubling.

An example is the way children interact with computers compared to senior citizens. When a child grows up with something is becomes natural. Most children who have access to a computer at an early stage find it as natural as using a video/DVD player, television or CD player. If the technology is introduced at an early stage it become part of the natural language of the child. Normal disagrees with this, and I think although he is a well researched observer that this is one failing of the book.

It wasn't until I reached the last quarter of the book that I could start to agree with his ideas and see the point he was trying to make. That is that some devices work as an appliance. The examples of the TiVo (which we don't have here in Australia) seem best to fit the example. They do one thing, and do it well. Network Computers are the other example, where the complexity of the device is hidden from the user (although he still feels uncomfortable with NC's as they are still "computers".)

Norman's style of writing made me think I had skipped back a few pages every now and then as he often will repeat himself in greater detail over points he thinks are important.

If you're a technologist you should read it. But don't take it as gospel. Although Normal is correct in some of his point, you need to use your own experience and environment to understand the points he is trying to make, rather than accepting them carte blanch.

Short and sweet: Don't waste your money on even a used version of this book. If you want to buy a book see some of the recommendations made by other reviewers. Get something for your money.

A rather interesting autobiography of a MOO player's life and experiences within LambdaMoo. Tends to drag in a few places, but interesting nonetheless when you consider the dilemmas still facing MMO players today: is it just a game? Is your avatar just a piece of geometry/text on a screen? Or is it more? When your avatar is assaulted, do you feel as though you yourself have been assaulted?

Pretentious, meandering, and bereft of anything that could be mistaken for value. I question its use even as a cautionary tale of a man who has lost all ability to distinguish between the real world and a world of pretend.

I was the character that Dibbell called "Laurel" in his book. I was "there" though the entire story he describes, reading what he read in real time, although I never "spoke" with him (on-line or off). His book is remarkably accurate, although he does not have all the facts straight of the people behind the LambdaMOO characters. He deserves a lot of credit -- he got it closer than anyone else possibly could have.

The author presents a tour of cyberspace. During this journey, we learn how the author feels, and what their priorities are. Cyber communites are the logical extension of chat sites, and web/ mail exchanges. In the real world, where restrictions can be placed on our daily lives, virtual reality provides an escape. Exploring this venue, we can learn more about ourselves as we interact with others, and the new environment. I'm glad the author documented their experiences!

I found this book compulsively readable. I was a regular on LambdaMOO at around the same time that Dibbell was, and I found his descriptions of the experience of MOO-ing (what it's like to be there and participate in various ways) quite accurate. As for his version of MOO history, I wouldn't take it too seriously, but then, he makes it pretty clear that the motivations behind and significance of the events that he recounts are disputed. What impresses me about this book is the way it captures the feeling of being in the MOO, and the analysis of the issues that got raised in various conflicts.

I did not like the ending but I hope this is not the last in the series it would be a big disapointment but over all it was a good read but not my favorite in the series.

Those who lean more towards the science part of the SF/F genre will love the complex explinations of this book. In contrast, I am a devote fan of fantasy, and I may have startled those around me when I started yelling, many times, about hard sci-fi while reading the book. The obvious plot seems to be replaced with more of the emotional tension that Ringo is good at and scientific explinations. If you've gotten this far in the series, go ahead and read it.

I liked this book and, I'm sad that I let the negative reviews on this site prevent me from reading it for so long. It's not as complex plot-wise as the other books, but I definitly look forward to the next one.

As with many of John Ringo's books, some readers will love this and others will hate it. Straddling the divide between military SF and fantasy, this book has a lot of action, some thought provoking ideas, a brave, handsome and intelligent hero who is wrestling with inner demons, a beautiful and intelligent heroine who is wrestling with hers, some good use of humour, and a thrilling climax. If that sounds interesting to you, or if you read and liked the previous books in this series, you will probably enjoy it.

You are more likely to be one of those who don't like this book if you are at all politically correct or prudish. In particular, most of the male characters and some of the female ones have a very adolescent attitude to sex. Of course, so do plenty of real people ...

It is the fourth in the Council Wars series. These books are best read in the chronological sequence, which is

There will be Dragons
Emerald Sea
Against the Tide
East of the Sun, West of the Moon

There will probably be at least one more after this.

Arthur C Clarke once wrote that any suffficiently advanced tecnhology is indistinguishable from magic. This story is set several thousand years from now in a world where that is literally true. Just about every creature or artifact ever imaged in human myths or legends, from Avatars to Wyverns, Elves to Orcs, and mermaids to winged humans has been created by technology. (I choose the word "creature" very precisely - the story does not include Gods but by definition Gods are not creatures.)

Unfortunately in an earthly paradise of almost perfect luxury most people could not be bothered with the hard work of raising children and so the human race was dying out. Arguments between members of the ruling council over what to do about this eventually resulted in the outbreak of war in the first book of the series, "There will be Dragons." Within moments millions of people were doomed and for most of the rest of humanity their safe and luxurious life was replaced by a cruel, exhausting struggle for existence straight out of the middle ages.

At the start of this book, the war continues between the neo-fascist "New Destiny" faction based in "Ropasa" (Europe and Asia) and the the Freedom Coalition, whose main stronghold in the United Free States (America) and has appeared to be a stalemate.

But now an event is about to occur which will give each side the opportunity to gain a decisive advantage. The power plants which previously gave mankind an idyllic existence, and now power the war machines of both sides, rely on Light Helium which is brought from the outer solar system every few years by an ancient, automatated space ship.

The spaceship is about to make its first fuelling pass since the war started five years ago. It will send shuttles to each reactor in the power net - both those controlled by the Freedom Coalition and those controlled by New Destiny - and the shuttles will then return to rendezvous with the mother ship "East of the Sun, West of the Moon."

Both sides are planning to send a team of people up in the shuttles which refuel their own power stations: if either side can get control of the ship and deny fuel to the other they will almost certainly win the war.

Of course, both sides realise that they cannot afford to let the other side get control of the refuelling ship and both sides have their plans to deal with it. What happens when the two competing forces meet up "East of the Sun, West of the Moon" is not what either side expects ...

This book also continues the story of Herzer Herrick and Megan Travante, who find that the course of true love never did run smooth.

I have not liked everything which John Ringo has written recently, but I very much enjoyed all four books in the "Council Wars" series. Not all readers will appreciate them but IMHO those who enjoy military SF should give them a try.

I really enjoyed John Ringo's Council War Series. It was a very creative and interesting universe in which to set a story line. That made this book a bit of a disappointment. It was nowhere near as enjoyable and the previous 3 books.

The council ruling earth is still divided into warring factions. Both sides critically need energy and think it might be obtained by capturing an automated spaceship bring back fuel from the outer solar system. Both sides plan a mission. One side fights dirty. Both have bits of high tech to leven out a basically feudal society.

This book could have been much more. I hope that future installments will live up to the potential. This one did not.

The book seemed a bit short to me, sort of like WTDD from the Posleen series, with the majority of the book being spent in preparation for the mission and a few chapters covering the action, which may be realistic for military ops but somehow isn't as satisfying as previous books in this series. Also like WTDD, it's apparent that the real action is just getting started when the book ends, although there's closure on the Icarus mission. I purchased the e-book version on Baen's web site and considered it worth the six bucks, but mostly I'm eager to read the next book and see how things turn out.

I could compare this book to /Yendi/ by Steven Brust--a good book in an excellent series which doesn't pull together as many angles as we're accustomed to. Temporary blip.

-Max Wilson

I believed that this book was about robotics. Although not in-depth enough for this techie, this is one of the only general introductions to Software Bots or Agents that I have seen. If you want a fair introduction to the genesis of Bots this book will serve you, however you will not find pseudo code; math; or even modern coverage of bot technology. Overall the book leaves me ambivalent.

How to become a journalist? A cynic's answer could be: Collect some anecdotes about a theme, ask some questions to people who might know something about it, and wrap the information in an overdose of words. Leonard has taken the cynics' answers seriously. The theme chosen by Leonard is Bots, and the resulting piece of journalism is called "Bots, the origins of new species". It is easy to read (if the layout would allow it), not wholly uninformative, and with no technicalities or complex arguments at all. If you can stand the verbiage, you won't even get annoyed. In short, Leonard's work would fully deserve it's three stars for the average book, if only the title were correct.

The subtitle of the book clearly suggests that Leonard tries to deal with Bots in a way that resembles the way Darwin treated living species. This is either a lie, or a sign of irreversible stupidity. At the very best Leonard stands to Darwin as gossip stands to science. Besides an extremely elementary, and implicit, classification of Bots he does nothing that even remotely resembles the work of a zoologist, let alone Darwin. Leonards' work is anecdotal, not scientific.

The title shows a clear disregard for the buyer/reader. Hence, two stars.

a bit padded - if only there were no word 'journalism', and no such style - but an easily readable introduction to the phenomenon of bots in MUDs and Usenet & such, suitable (only) for the uninitiated. it would have to be more complex to be of serious intellectual interest, and much has happened since that is not in this 1997 book. still, there are many uninitiated out there, and it serves a purpose for those who think the computer age is defined by the replacement of the typewriter by the word processor, and calculation, calculation.

It's well-written and treats the subject with respect, even if at times it is a bit lacking in technical details. A good overview of "computer programs which can travel".

So, the latest round in the ongoing battle between retentive techies who prize books for their superior incomprehensibility and pared-down utilitarianism.

If you're the kind of reader who enjoys a good read and wants to learn about a technical subject in language which is not technical and doesn't assume prior knowledge, then you're going to enjoy Andrew Leonard's Bots a great deal. It's well-written, flows beautifully, and for this relatively inexpert reader, put a lot of technical details in perspective.

If you're looking for highly technical, jargon-choked how-to manual on bot programming, then this isn't the book for you. But you should know that already, unless your reading skills are hopelessly deficient. Which, come to think of it, is probably the case for many technogeeks.

This book annoyed the crap out of me. The author is completely entranced by herself, her career, and her self-image as a member of the digerati. THE INTERACTIVE BOOK is long, boring, and appears to have been released without benefit of editing.

A detailed expedition through the history of interactive design theory and practice, with many examples, both high-tech and otherwise (good and bad), and the kinds of thinking behind it. Just the names of the people whose work is described comprise an excellent set of bookmarks for further study.

Celia Pearce's, The Interactive Book, is certainly an interesting and unusual book. The author tries to demonstrate interactivity by having the book written in a non-linear fashion. This book is not for those who are particulary interested in learning about the various topics that are addressed in this book. The contents of the book are certainly not what makes this book for most of the random articles are written in her opinion and personal experiences, nothing too beneficial to the reader. But what does come through to the audience is her idea of allowing every reader to "choose" their own unique experience with the book. The format of the book is quite interesting and Pearce does accomplish her task somewhat successfully, but the mere fact that the book offers a different method of reading is not enough to keep the reader "interactive" with the book.

Fascinating. The book contextualizes what the interactive revolution is about. How much did I like it? I teach New Media at UCLA Extension and "The Interactive Book" is the required text for my new course, "Fundamentals of New Media for the Entertainment Professional".

The Interactive Book is fascinating and lluminating. Celia Pearce has a long experiential history in virtual reality and cyberworlds. She was also SIGGRAPH 98's panels chair, an artist, architect, designer and producer. The Interactive Book covers a range of design and technical issues while blending Celia's own history and experiences with the key contributors of this industry . The book is insightful, mind-expanding and takes one to that next level of knowledge.

As an instructor of 3D Media on the Web at UCLA, UC Irvine and UC Berkeley Extension, "The Interactive Book" is my highest recommended book to my students

If you simply want to learn to use precreated forms - you may get some small value out of this book. If you want to be able to create templates using other objects such as spreadsheets - forget it. This book was a waste of money - especially since I still need to go out and get something that really does give instruction on creating an Outlook application :(

I have 4 books on this subject and this is by FAR the most thorough on customizing forms for Outlook 98! If you are new to creating forms this is a MUST BUY.

I think this is a good book for all who want to begin to understand how to build applications with Outlook and Exchange. For beginers it's a good starting point. For intermediate level is a good resource of refference. Creo que es un buen libro para todos aquellos que quieren comenzar a entender como comenzar a construir aplicaciones con el Outllok y el Exchange Server. Para principiantes es un buen punto de partida y para intermedios un buen libro de referencia

Not a reference work at all. Unless you follow the exercises page-by-page, you will get nothing from this book. I can't wait for the "For Dummies" people to write a GOOD book on this topic.

I am a Visual Basic developer who is new to Outlook development. Yes, the book is basic in it's discussion of controls and development concepts. However, I found it a decent 'first-step' in 'breaking the ice' of the Outlook development architecture.

Yes, the previous reviews are correct in saying that this book is NOT for the experienced Outlook developer. (I am always leery of books that list NO AUTHORS, noting only an 'editor, et al' ... does no one wish to take credit [blame] for the book?)

But for those who have NO development/programming experience, this is for you. It speaks in basic, easy to absorb, step-by-step language, assuming nothing. As of this writing, I am half-way through the book and there has been no discussion of Exchange Server, serious Visual Basic coding, CDO concepts, nor have the topics wandered from the built-in, 'pre-selected' development interfaces in Outlook.

However, the organization is largely built around several pre-created applications (found in the accompanying CD). As the reader, in step-by-step fashion, reconstructs these applications, the purpose of the applications, as well as the Outlook environment, becomes evident. This allows the BEGINNER to learn by DOING. At times the repeating of concepts become tedious, but the upside is that the beginner is forced to 'rehash' (i.e., LEARN) the concepts in the 'creation' (or re-construction) of multiple applications.

For serious Outlook development, you will need to immediately proceed to a more in-depth book. This book serves ONLY as a 'whistle-wetter.'

However, if have NO applications development experience whatsoever and need to 'dive-in' to Outlook 98 applications creation, this book is the perfect first-step.