Software Books


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Software Books sorted by Average customer review: high to low .

Software
Cisco Router Configuration
Published in Paperback by Cisco Systems (1998-03)
Authors: Allan Leinwand, Bruce Pinsky, and Mark Culpepper
List price: $40.00
New price: $34.98
Used price: $1.99
Collectible price: $88.88

Average review score:

Great Starter book.
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2001-10-22
I read this book and was able to configure two 1720 routers to communicate over a WAN without any problems. I would suggest getting one of the CCNA books for a reference guide. This book does not go into great details about the commands.

Good enough to use as a reference.
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2002-11-21
The author did a great job of presenting the relatively basic information on configuring Cisco routers. You will find quite a few useful IOS commands discussed in the book that will want to keep it as a handy reference. I would also suggest looking into getting "Cisco IOS for IP Routing" by Andrew Colton. That book would take you deeper into mechanics of modern routing protocols (EIGRP, OSPF, IS-IS, BGP), along with a discussion of Cisco IOS commands.

Excellent multi-protocol book
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 1999-02-22
These authors know how to write technical literature that did not confuse me!

Our company uses IPX and Appletalk for various departments although we are moving with haste to an all IP shop. I found this book to help me with building a multiprotocol network and to better understand the details of IP routing. The book covered IP routing in depth and covered enough of IPX and Appletalk to help me optimize my network. I found the example network with the full IOS configuration files quite useful.

Excellent book to follow the CCNA prep library.
Helpful Votes: 6 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 2001-10-05
There is the CCNA certification which takes you down the path to learning about routers, LANs and WANs, but what if you don't want that you only need to know how to configure the router. The Cisco Pres has put together the book that tackles that very subject.

In 350 plus pages you'll begin with a good breakdown of the OSI model followed up with the basics of how to configure the router. The information has screen shots to show you what things should look like.

After that you move in the always challenging world of TCP/IP with routing protocols and access lists. This section has a great deal of information but you may want to check other sources for more detailed information.

You also go into areas like AppleTalk with LAN and WAN configuration, IPX, SAP and basic management of the router including time control. While most of the book is geared towards the beginner all skill levels should be able to find some useful information within the book.

I found that the information seems to be up to date including topics like Network Time Protocol and Simple Network Time Protocol. Overall a very good value for the money.

Excellent
Helpful Votes: 7 out of 8 total.
Review Date: 1999-06-08
Who would have thought that a 350 page book on routing could be so comprehensive? This book is a perfect place to start for MCSE's who want to move onto the 'good stuff' - routing with Cisco routers. Use this and the Sybex CCNA Study guide and you'll get through the test no problems.

Software
The Color Encyclopedia of Ornamental Grasses: Sedges, Rushes, Restios, Cat-Tails and Selected Bamboos
Published in CD-ROM by Timber Press, Incorporated (2000-08)
Author: Rick Darke
List price: $59.95
New price: $29.99
Used price: $13.79

Average review score:

Buy this best book about grasses
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-02-06
I think you must buy this excellent book about grasses with a lot of good photos.

Masterful, Encyclopedic Guide Full of Helpful Photos
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2006-03-10
Rick Darke's book is typical of his work. It is extremely well written, a detailed, very thorough guide to ornamental grasses, full of helpful pictures as well as information on growing and maintaining grasses. This book should be a classic for decades to come.

Excellent information, awesome photographs
Helpful Votes: 129 out of 131 total.
Review Date: 2000-01-28
Excellent and complete information about ornamental grasses. A great book.

Thirty pages on the botany, anatomy, and classification of grasses. Twenty pages on native habitat, thirty pages on designing with grasses, and twenty pages of growing and propagating grasses. 170 page encyclopedia listing 400+ species / varieties of grasses. Each species is described in a paragraph or two of text along side a clear photograph of the plant. In the back of the book, you find a 2 page glossary, 5 page bibliography, 2 page grass nursery listing, USDA and European hardiness maps, and a complete index of all grasses by common name. Very complete book.

As a bonus, the book is also filled with awesome photography.

If you garden with ornamental grasses, this book is a must buy. Excellent information, well worth the money!

Absolutely Fantastic
Helpful Votes: 15 out of 21 total.
Review Date: 2003-03-17
This is such a wonderful informational book... AND ... a gorgeous coffee table book. It is terrific from beginning to end! If you like or are interested in, or even thinking about Ornamental Grasses ... then THIS IS THE BOOK FOR YOU! I can't imagine anyone who has an interest in Ornamental Grasses NOT LOVING THIS BOOK, and would be delighted they purchased it. My only concern is that it is going to look dog-earred from my reading it over and over and over again ... which frankly takes away from its beauty on our coffee table.

Buy 2 copies...
Helpful Votes: 34 out of 44 total.
Review Date: 2001-01-23
This book is structured, written, photographed and edited with parallel purpose and effect: communication of the author's respect and regard for the book's subject and for its readers. Mr. Darke sets out to inform and does so with enconomy but in full course; when he instructs, he teaches the novice and gives pause to the critic; when he photographs he shows his passion and inspires with the nature and wonder of his subjects. The book is encyclopedic, yet its prose is always to the point with the agreeable dryness of a good, well-bodied wine. Credible, trustworthy, enlightening. This is the best gardening book I have ever read. Negatives? Only one: Mr. Darke's standards are unimpeachable; those of the book's typographer and designer, however, are not.

Software
Creating a Software Engineering Culture
Published in Hardcover by Dorset House Publishing Company, Incorporated (1996-08)
Author: Karl E. Wiegers
List price: $39.95
New price: $23.90
Used price: $6.32

Average review score:

A common-sense approach to software process improvement.
Helpful Votes: 13 out of 14 total.
Review Date: 1997-02-11
The book contains a common-sense approach to software process improvement strategies for most organizations to follow. Wiegers takes the mystique out of the Software Engineering Institute's CMM and offers the CMM as one way of many to accomplish process improvement. He balances technology and process-focus against real-world people issues. Must reading for anyone involved in a Software Engineering Process Group or for senior managers trying to figure out what all this stuff is about. Text is well illustrated by case studies and examples from the author's experience at Kodak

A needed dose of software development sanity.
Helpful Votes: 19 out of 20 total.
Review Date: 1999-04-26
This is a great overview of all the elements of a successful software project - from project planning to system design on up to testing and project postmortem. Many of the topics are covered too lightly to allow a practitioner to use all of Wieger's advice right out of the gate. But that's fine - the book is meant to be a handbook of great ideas from which practitioners should choose, study and implement. Pay particular attention to the discussion on determing project drivers and constraints during the project planning phase - an area usually breezed over, with devastating consequences.

More a catalog of ideas than a how to guide
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2005-08-05
This is a good book for software leaders who need ideas on how to improve the engineering culture in their organization. I thought the Culture Builders and Killers in each chapter were particularly useful.

A must read for everyone in the software industry!
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 16 total.
Review Date: 1999-01-28
A practical guideline for building strong and successful software development methodologies.

Essential especially for small IS shops
Helpful Votes: 7 out of 12 total.
Review Date: 1998-08-27
Wiegers' experience in a relatively small group at Kodak and his practical approach embodied in this book provide sound and strong encouragement for anybody to improve their software processes. There may be no silver bullet, but this book comes awfully close.

Software
Creating Family Newsletters: 123 Ideas for Sharing Memorable Moments With Family and Friends
Published in Paperback by Betterway Books (1998-08)
Author: Elaine Floyd
List price: $19.99
New price: $3.95
Used price: $0.41

Average review score:

Good Book
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-01-11
This book tells you all the basics of family news letters. It gives you great info on subjects to talk about and naming your news letter.
I have already started my family news letter and so far every one just loves it. This is a good book and it covers EVERYTHING you need to know about starting a family news letter. Buy this book and you don't need to look at any other books on the subject.

Very helpful book, with lots of examples and checklists.
Helpful Votes: 10 out of 10 total.
Review Date: 1998-11-16
I enjoyed the photos of example newsletters, all in different formats. It really got the ideas floating around in my mind. The interview questions and checklists were helpful also. This book really shows how unique a newsletter can be, and I would recommend it to anyone dabbling with the idea of a family publication. I think the original price is a teeny bit high, but the quality of the material is also!

A must for the family historian!
Helpful Votes: 20 out of 20 total.
Review Date: 1999-03-23
I JUST LOVE THIS BOOK! I learned about it after I had already written a few family newsletters and I wish I had heard about it sooner! The book presents a whole lot of ideas that will get you going. Before buying this book, I had only written family newsletters once a year... but now I'm inspired to write more times than that and in different and more creative formats as well! Writing about your family now will be a treasure for your family in the future. This book will help you if you don't know where to start or if you've run out of ideas. Plus, the quality of the book is so nice... you get your money's worth!

Lots of examples and checklists: Very Helpful
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2002-12-04
I enjoyed the photos of example newsletters, all in different formats. It really got the ideas floating around in my mind. The interview questions and checklists were also helpful. A nice touch would be the list of words to use for a newsletter name.
This book shows how unique a newsletter can be, and I would recommend it to anyone dabbling with the idea of a family publication. I think the original price is a teeny bit high, but the quality of the material is also.

Terrific how-to volume
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2002-07-23
Shortly after beginning to do serious genealogy, most family researchers want to begin to communicate their findings to others in their family. But an extended family, especially when it's spread out geographically, can mean a lot of individualized correspondence. Often, the solution (at least partially) is a family newsletter. It can be simply a lengthy typed letter, photocopied and mailed in bulk -- but wouldn't you like to turn it into a real "publication," complete with pictures? And these days, if you own a computer and printer of recent vintage, you can find yourself in the newsletter business before you know it. Floyd, who has published half a dozen books on newsletters and desktop publishing generally, turns her attention here to a variety of ways in which family newsletters can be produced with a minimum of layout, font, and graphics skills. What to write about, keeping it interesting, involving *all* your family, "clustering" your news stories, tailoring your writing style, and avoiding possible trouble spots -- it's all here. And so are tips specifically for the genealogist. There's also an enthusiastic chapter about producing e-mail newsletters, designing family Web sites, and the value of "cross-publishing." This very visual volume will appeal to many family historians.

Software
CyberRegs: A Business Guide to Web Property, Privacy, and Patents (Addison-Wesley Information Technology Series)
Published in Paperback by Addison-Wesley Professional (2001-09-14)
Author: Bill Zoellick
List price: $39.99
New price: $8.00
Used price: $3.59

Average review score:

Complete IP primer for e-commerce
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2002-05-13
This is a complete primer on intellectual property and its value to the enterprise. Key issues that are addressed include:

Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)- this is probably the most important discussion in the book because it continues to be controversial.

Complete discussions of all aspects of intellectual property law as it pertains to cyberspace. The clarification of the protections afforded to patent holders that are not given to trademark holders is invaluable. In addition, I learned much about the value of patents and how a business model can be developed around patents alone. I particularly liked the discussion of patent ownership (employee inventor vs. company to which the patent was assigned). This alone makes the book worth reading.

Case studies - many of the case studies which are used throughout the book focused on pending court cases when the book was published. Many have now been resolved, the resolution of which open more questions and further cloud issues. I'd like to see an update or second edition that provides closure.

Excellent introduction to technical issues. The author has a knack for reducing the key elements into easy-to-understand chunks of information that teach non-technical readers quite a lot about technology.

If you buy one book on intellectual property law from a cyber-business perspective, this is the one to get.

A surprising must-read, even for technical people
Helpful Votes: 12 out of 12 total.
Review Date: 2001-09-30
I am a senior engineer for network security operations who frequently reviews technical books. I was hesitant to read "CyberRegs," given its "Business Guide" subtitle. Noticing the book mentioned controversial topics like the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA), Napster, and the DeCSS case, I decided I'd give "CyberRegs" a try. That proved to be a wise decision, and I strongly recommend this book to anyone worried about the future of the Internet.

The book is exceptionally well-written, with a clear style and a welcome lack of typos (gasp). In a former life I read plenty of boring, repetitive policy books, but I had no trouble digesting "CyberRegs."

The book is arranged around the themes of copyright, patents, electronic signatures, and privacy. "CyberRegs" gives both sides of each argument, but wisely includes the authors own helpful opinion. (I was pleased to see the author share many of the security community's views on the DMCA, Napster, and so on.) Because Zoellick presents balanced arguments, readers will understand the opposition's complaints and can more effectively counter them.

"CyberRegs" was written to help business people engage in the debates and legislation shaping the Internet. Along the way the reader gains a solid historical understanding of how we arrived at the current state of affairs. Would you believe that software or business methods weren't patentable until recently? Would you believe the United States was the world's most egregious intellectual property pirate until 1891? Given this background, readers gain a sense of why policies developed, and how one can help influence the present and future of the Internet.

I found no major weaknesses in this book or its arguments, but I have two technical/security comments. First, "Web bugs" can be used to transfer more information than an IP address; some use "Web bugs" to validate email addresses. Second, giving customers access to data collected by businesses opens bigger doors for malicious hackers to manipulate that data. Readers may share these concerns, which the author doesn't address.

"CyberRegs" seems marketed as a "business guide," and speaks in part to "business people." As a technical person, I gained the knowledge needed to better defend my opinions on copyright, patents, electronic signatures, and privacy. Technical staff looking for the "why" of state of the Internet will probably love this book -- I certainly did!

(Disclaimer: I received a free review copy from the publisher.)

The other side of CI
Helpful Votes: 13 out of 13 total.
Review Date: 2001-11-09
Although CyberRegs has a much wider audience, my perspective of this book is that of a competitive intelligence specialist. The four topic areas covered, from a CI specialist's point of view are illuminating.

The first two topics, copyrights and patents, are the foundation of intellectual property and by extension, corporate and shareholder value. The author's discussion of both copyrights and patents expose loopholes that can work for or against you, depending on which side you are on. One theme the author repeatedly addresses is the fact that copyright and patent law is lagging behind the technology. He cites numerous case studies, all of which you will either applaud or condemn depending on which side of the issue you happen to be. As a CI specialist who engages in "white ops" (collection of competitive intelligence using legal methods), I was somewhat dismayed by aspects of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) because it draws legal boundaries that didn't previously exist. The CI community needs to be aware of this particular law because what was heretofore "white ops" may fall under black ops (illegal intelligence gathering) under the provisions of the DMCA.

The more technical topics, electronic signatures and privacy, are presented in the same balanced and thought-provoking way as copyrights and patents. Having recently read Bruce Schneier's SECRETS & LIES I had some insights into the technical aspects, but the nuances that Mr. Zoellick brings to these topics makes for compelling reading. He manages to raise thorny issues and provide answers from both sides of the issue.

Overall this is an invaluable book that should be read by anyone who seeks to understand the current state of intellectual property laws, the challenges imposed by the connected world, or how the laws and challenges combine to change the playing field. As stated above, the DMCA alone will have wide implications in my profession, and is certain to affect business operations and corporate policy in far ranging ways.

A must read for all business people who use the Internet
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2001-10-10
Laws relating to patents and copyrights are always moving targets, but at this time they are running on jets. The speed with which technology is changing how we use things has left the legal system struggling to understand, much less keep up. However, it is a critical part of our society at large, as well as how we do business now and in the future. Therefore, all citizens need to understand the basics of the law and it is unconscionable that anyone in business would not understand the rules of copyrights and patents to a high degree. Yes, it is possible to hire lawyers, but they are expensive and cannot be with you every moment of the business day.
This backdrop serves to demonstrate how critical this book is to the management of the modern business. Since an Internet presence that allows for interaction is nearly mandatory, this could be the most important book you read this year. It already has a place on my best books of the year list for 2002. What makes the book so impressive is that the author pounds home the point that copyrights and patents are not fundamental rights, but are in fact derived under the basic notion of the common good. They are designed to encourage the creators of new things to make them available for the general society, while reserving certain key aspects for the inventors. The case involving the music swapping company Napster is examined in detail without a step up on a virtual soapbox. Zoelick also recapitulates the famous legal case over the video cassette recorder, which went all the way to the Supreme Court, where the decision turned out to be a sensible one.
The end result of that case should provide all of us with an object lesson concerning new technologies. It is clear that fighting the new technologies is at best a holding action rather than an effective long-term strategy. The best solution is simply to ferret out the best ways in which your business can open new markets and profit from the changes. Yes, changes in copyright law take many years to resolve, but in the end, the market and society will get the greatest good, which is the way it must be.
This is a book that should be required reading of anyone in business who makes decisions concerning intellectual property. In fact, some of the chapters are recommended for any citizen concerned about how our society is changing, as the effective resolution of these issues may have a dramatic affect on our economy.

You don�t have to be a lawyer to appreciate CyberRegs
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2001-11-27
As book titles go, CyberRegs: A Business Guide to Web Property, Privacy, and Patents sounds uninteresting. Fortunately, what the book lacks in flashy titles, it makes up in interesting content. CyberRegs is an engrossing and sometimes angry look at the perverse nature of patent law.

When many people think of the Internet and e-commerce, they think of a series of open and non-proprietary standards that enable computers to speak networking Esperanto. As the book shows, that does not necessarily jive with reality. Many companies have tried to homestead on pioneering technologies and use them to gain a lock on the market. Author Bill Zoellick cites numerous cases -- many still in litigation -- to illustrate this point.

The book starts with a brief background of the nature of copyright and patent law and doesn�t assume any type of legal background or expertise. Zoellick�s writing style is easy going but to the point, and he accomplishes his goal of examining the disruption and instability that the Web has introduced into the world of intellectual property.

Zoellick looks at the Web from many different perspectives, from business and legal to technological and political. While some may think they don't need a book about Internet law and regulations, the reality is that, for any organization doing business on the Internet, there exists the strong possibility that they may be infringing on someone else�s intellectual property rights.

One of the most controversial issues that the book looks at is one-click patents issued to Amazon.com. The one-click patents preclude any Internet business that has not licensed the technology from Amazon.com from enabling their customer�s to complete their purchasing experience with a single mouse click. The question of whether one-click is even patentable is a controversial one. Those who say it is, feel that Amazon.com is protecting a vital business asset. Those who don�t support it say that it only serves to stifle productivity. Zoellick gives numerous other examples.

CyberRegs also goes into such issues as digital signature and privacy. Zoellick does not take sides, but provides a fair-minded look at the debate between greater and lesser control of privacy and the Internet. The book also tackles such controversial topics as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Napster and DeCSS.

In part 3, Zoellick provides an excellent overview of digital certificates. He goes into detail on the parameters around the groundbreaking E-SIGN (Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce) act. Many have complained that E-SIGN is extremely light on details and specifics, which it is.However, Zoellick says that with E-SIGN, Congress took the approach that we don�t really understand how to do business on the Internet so issues surrounding authentication of electronic signatures are not necessarily easy problems to solve.With that, Congress restricted government action to the parts of the problem where they are directly involved and required.Congress recognized that for any effective solution, markets need time to develop and patience is required. Although this approach is hard when dealing with Internet time, it is nonetheless necessary.

You don�t have to be a lawyer to appreciate CyberRegs. Anyone who wants to have a business presence on the Net should read this book so as not to get involved in a legal tussle. While John Grisham may own the legal fiction market, CyberRegs is as close to a non-fiction legal thriller as you can get.

Software
DB2 for Z/OS and Os/390 Development for Performance (Volume 1)
Published in Hardcover by Gabrielle & Associates (2002-02)
Author: Gabrielle Wiorkowski
List price: $42.50
New price: $44.70
Used price: $181.87

Average review score:

Excellent book
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2002-12-27
This book is amazing! . As a DBA , I keep on referring this book again & again . It has very useful information & can be used by anyone who wants a really good understanding of DB2

Cheers to the author for writing such a wonderful book!

One of the best books on DB2
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2002-06-07
This book excels in clarity , depth and the number of topics covered . The questions at the end of the chapters are helpful too .
Also , anyone preparing for the DB2 Certification ( for OS/390 ) would benefit from this .

DB2 for Z/OS and Os/390 Development for Performance by Gabri
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2003-01-15
DB2 for Z/OS and Os/390 Development for Performance (Volume 1&2
by Gabrielle Wiorkowski

This book is extremely helpful for all levels of DBAs, system programmers and DB2 developers. It is most comprehensive and includes all features of v.6 and v.7.
At our shop, we have always used Gabriell's book for all releases
of DB2. This particular edition is very helpful, in the sense it is a text book for all levels and all parts of DB2 world.
Anytime in question, we look it up in this book for answer.

I will recommend this book as a must for DB2 tech team.

This book provides practical information of use to you today
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2002-06-21
I've believed for some time that Gabrielle Wiorkowski knows as much as, or more than, anyone outside of IBM's DB2 development team about DB2's use of indexes, optimization, and other aspects of performance. This book is based on what she has learned, her direct experiences, and the experiences of other DB2 professionals with whom she comes in contact. ... It is you, the administrator, database designer, or application developer who applies its capabilities wisely or unwisely. This book provides practical information of use to you today in your job environment. Marilyn Bohl, Vice President, Work Process Systems, San Jose, CA.

The best !
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2002-10-05
Working with DB2 from 1985 forces one to read many books.
Gabrielle's book is the best ever I've read (and use) for DB2 on OS/390 (Z/OS) platform.
Very good explanations, clarity of write and easy to find structure.
I have many other books, but this is my leading (by far) favorite.
If you ever wish to know DB2 - this is the book you must have.

Software
Designing Solutions with COM+ Technologies (Pro - Developer)
Published in Paperback by Microsoft Press (2001-01-19)
Authors: Ray Brown, Wade Baron, and William D. Chadwick
List price: $69.99
New price: $14.68
Used price: $1.22

Average review score:

For C++ developers
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2004-03-10
Very good book, explains real-worlds issues one faces when developing COM components.
A few first chapters are extremely useful (something I had to learn hard-way. Have I had this book, I would have saved myself many hours restructuring my projects). Basic ATL types are also explained and recommendations given are very good.
Concise but very useful is explanation of BSTR, OLESTR, CComBSTR, _bstr_t types.

Required reading for COM+ developers
Helpful Votes: 12 out of 12 total.
Review Date: 2001-03-16
This is an excellent book; a little pricey, but worth the money if you are serious about COM+. And I mean serious! This is not a beginners book, for that I would recommend "Inside COM+ Base Services" by the same publisher. This book is a little too biased towards MS development environments. For example they compare VC++, VB, and VJ++ and casually mention there are "other capable environments". Hmm. Then again, this is a Microsoft press book, and COM+ is a Microsoft technology, so its to be expected.

This book picks up where introductory COM books left off. The first chapter is about error handling in your COM+ objects - not a good place to start learning COM :)

Particularly useful to me was the last third of the book, the design patterns. Here, the authors give us a meaty example of a "real world" COM+ enterprise solution. What other book gives you this? Answer: none. Get this book!

Best ever COM book
Helpful Votes: 15 out of 16 total.
Review Date: 2001-02-27
This book, is without a dought, the best COM book ever done. In my seven years as a working COM engineer and some say expert, I have read and bought every single book on COM. And when you come right down to it, even Don Box's book, they are all the same: explaining IUnknown over and over again, rehashes of available documentation and books with esoteric and useless ICat and IDog interfaces. None of them deal with the real COM world and the problems we really face every day. This book does. This book assumes you are a working COM developer and focuses on the hard problems: Smart Pointers, Strings, Enumeration Interfaces, Streaming and trying to deal with the world of STL. It offers real solutions and real code that can be used today to bridge to the STL world and to deal with things like enumerations. It offers code to deal with COM enumerations and collections, a topic scarcely covered. This book has become my number one resource.

Real-world COM+ solutions laid bare
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2001-08-28
An excellent book. The early chapters reveal solid solutions to oft-encountered COM problems - error handling, string manipulation, smart pointers, multiple-reader single-writer locks, streaming and marshal-by-value etc. The later chapters concentrate mainly on design techniques for building scalable applications. In my (humble) opinion, chapter 13: The MTS Revolution is worth the price of the book alone. This chapter describes the evolution of technologies for building scalable systems, introduces the single-concurrent-client model and explains how to write scalable systems keeping code maintainable and in the general case, lock-free. All would-be COM+/MTS developers should read this chapter! I've read both this and Tim Ewald's Transactional COM+ - both excellent books and compliment each other very well. In my opinion, Brown's chapter 13 is far superior to Ewald's chapter 1. Both attempt to acheive the same thing, coaxing the regular developer into the COM+ mindset, but Brown's offers logical facts and reasoning as opposed to Ewald's non-real-world convoluted IPerson examples.

A excellent book for designing COM+ based system
Helpful Votes: 7 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 2001-02-12
This book covers the software design aspect of COM+ with very good detail explanation of the why and what are your options in COM+ system design. The book also covers in depth discussion in using STL, architecture pattern, MBV and concurrency which are very valuable to software designer. If you are going to work on a software development that uses COM+, this book definitely will save you a lot of research and experiment time and resources.

Software
Digital Memories: Scrapbooking with Your Computer
Published in Paperback by Que (2004-04-09)
Author: Carla Rose
List price: $18.95
New price: $8.53
Used price: $3.50

Average review score:

Trying to learn......
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-10-30
I have read the first few chapters and already have learned some things that I didn't know even though I've been working with graphic packages for years. We can all learn more.......I feel the book is going to be useful. Hopefully it will get me up and really doing digital scrapbooking.....it looks easier than it is. The book is well layed out and very organized. I would recommend this book to a new digital scrapbooker like myself.....have fun with it and get up and doing it......

Great reference--easy to use--and Mac friendly
Helpful Votes: 17 out of 18 total.
Review Date: 2005-03-14
I hesitated to buy this book without seeing it 'in hand' first. I took the chance and I am *so* very glad that I did. This is an excellent reference book. It's an easy read, is extremely helpful, and it provided me with more information than I realized I needed. The author is experienced, opinionated, and direct; all of which lead to a book that is emininently useful.

One of my fears in buying this book was that it would be so biased toward PC users that it would be useless for me as a Mac user. I was extremely pleased to find out that was far from the case. In fact, the author has written several books on working with the Macintosh computer. That said, this book is meaningful to ANY computer scrapbooker, regardless of their computer platform or operating system.

Finally, the book includes reviews and recommendations on software, printers, etc, which I found very helpful.

Now I have the best pictures to work with!
Helpful Votes: 36 out of 37 total.
Review Date: 2004-05-24
I received this book as a mother's day present this year (after griping that I didn't know what to do with my digital pictures in my scrapbooks). The book is amazing and very easy to read and follow. Though I'm still exploring the huge amount of information, I've already used some of the techniques like turning photos into watercolors (you'd swear I spent hundreds of dollars having an artist do an original watercolor of my daughter when actually it only took me about 20 minutes to do it with Photoshop Elements). I am also going to get a lot of use out of the sections on using clip art instead of stickers or stamps and computer fonts instead of rub off letters. I'd recommend this book to anyone who needs new scrapbooking ideas!

Blend Digital and Traditional Scrapbooking
Helpful Votes: 38 out of 38 total.
Review Date: 2004-10-22
Digital scrapbooking has become very popular and in this book the author, Carla Rose, shows you how to blend digital and traditional scrapbooking to expand your creativity.

Your first step to creating a scrapbook is deciding on a theme or story to tell. Based on that, you choose a style that reflects your project and yourself. Now you are ready to gather your tools and get started creating. Rose discusses the tools for traditional scrapbooking and what is needed to go digital. She covers the advantages and limitations of several software programs.

Moving on to page design, Rose discusses aspects of page composition such as the use of white space and leading to enhance the readability of your pages. Next she explains the rule of thirds and how to use grids to help you design your pages around a center of interest which is usually, but not always, a photo or photos.

She discusses each page design element individually starting with background color and texture. She suggests creating background papers from scanned objects such as candy canes, leaves and fabric.

Rose then talks about photos. She discusses various corrections that you may need to make to old photos. She shows you step-by-step how to fix a badly damaged photo and how to turn a regular photo into a vignette (oval) shaped image. Next she covers correcting and enhancing your digital photos. She shows you how to blur the background area to enhance the subject of a photo. You may also need to make corrections to perspective, color, contrast or red eye.

She explores having fun with your photos by applying special effects and filters. Using plug-in filters and your software program, you can turn your photos into watercolor paintings or line art. You can also create a composite or collage from several photos.

Rose discusses the basics of typography and how to choose a font that will reflect the theme and style of your scrapbook. She discusses the special digital effects that you can add to your text such as drop shadows and embossing.

Publishing your scrapbook on the Internet has become very popular and Rose discusses the basics of webpage design and HTML. She has included the HTML code for a sample webpage to get you started.

Carla Rose is a professional photographer and Photoshop expert. She has written several computer books.

Meilleur livre de référence
Helpful Votes: 6 out of 35 total.
Review Date: 2004-07-23
J'ai adoré ce livre car l'auteur parle autant de scrapbooking sur papier que sur ordinateur. Après avoir lu une partie du chapitre 7, j'ai pu effectué des corrections sur de vieilles photos de famille avec un résultat époustoufflant et cela en quelques minutes. Très bon livre de référence pour les gens qui veulent apprendre à faire du scrapbook autant manuellement que sur l'ordinateur.

Software
Digital SLR Photography with Photoshop CS2 All-In-One For Dummies Reference For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech))
Published in Paperback by For Dummies (2006-01-04)
Author: Kevin Ames
List price: $34.99
New price: $10.40
Used price: $8.00

Average review score:

The best book I have ever read!!!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-07-26
What a wonderful book! Turns out the book goes above and beyond the great description that I read. I'm very happy with my purchase and will purchase 30 more for my photography students! It really breaks down a complicated hobby into easy and understandable information.

A very worthwhile book for both experienced and new digital photographers.
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-01-02
Although not new to digital photography I have found this book reveals many aspects of the subject which in many other books are frequently not explained fully enough to totally grasp the concepts or are explained in such detail that one has to fathom what it's all about.

Explanations are clearly detailed on how to optimize such subjects as exposure, balancing white point, controlling color, archiving images and numerous others aspects of digital photography.

Kevin gives readers the opportunity of trying a number of exercises relating to the contents of the book and even offers images which can be down loaded from his web site.

This book is well illustrated with explicit explanations and the setting out of topics makes for easy understanding. A book well worth reading for both the enthusiast and experienced photographer.

Digital photography newbie
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2006-03-30
After much thought and reluctance I finally have made the transition from film to digital and purchased a DSLR. I needed a book to help me make the transition and decided on Kevin Ames' book. A very fortuitous choice on my part indeed. He writes in a fashion that is interesting, informative, to the point and most importantly easy to understand. As a result of using the book as a guide I have enjoyed the digital transition thoroughly and have come to realize I have made the right decision.
What impressed me the most was when I had a problem registering for downloads from his website and I emailed him. I was expecting an email in return. Got not an email but a personal phone call from Kevin to help me with the problem!! Kevin was extremely helpful. He not only took the time to solve the original problem but gave some very good advice on other issues as well. His enthusiasm for photography and willingness to share with others his knowledge and expertise is evident in the book and was borne out by a personal phone call from him. I am very impressed. Buy the book, you will not be disappointed.

Right on Target
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2006-03-27
I have enjoyed this book which provides a good blend of 'understanding your camera' with 'how to work magic with it' in CS2. I have recommended the book to others; especially those confused with all the camera and CS2 technologies. I refuse to lend it as I'm afraid I won't get it back.

If you are buying only one Digital SLR photo book, get this one!
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2006-03-15
For those not fortunate enough to attend one of Kevin Ames' workshops, as I recently did, this "Dummies" book is the next best thing. Whether you are a beginner to digital photography or a practicing professional, Digital SLR Photography with Photoshop by Kevin Ames is a valuable addition to your "toolbox."

Ames is that rare combination of artist and teacher, and this book is one of the most comprehensive, clearest and easiest to follow "how to" books that I have come across.

I've been a photography hobbyist for more than fifty years and the early chapters on fundamentals were still a worthwhile refresher. As a serious amateur my pictures are important to me, so I found Ames' unique approach to non-destructive image processing, disciplined file organization and foolproof archiving to be extremely valuable and essential information.

Software
Digital Travel Photography Digital Field Guide
Published in Paperback by Wiley (2006-06-06)
Author: David D. Busch
List price: $19.99
New price: $3.92
Used price: $3.92

Average review score:

great photo guide
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2008-04-12
Very informative, detailed, user friendly, you don't need to be photo pro to read this. I have learned a most from this one compare to another books. Read it, make notes and hit the field for some great pics.

The Ultimate Travel Photography Book
Helpful Votes: 35 out of 36 total.
Review Date: 2006-07-03
It's amazing how much essential information is contained within the covers of this compact guidebook. It's filled with shrewd advice on working with digital cameras of all types, from simple point and shoot models through advanced digital SLR cameras. Even if you already know how to operate your camera, you'll find lots of tips on coping with special problems you'll encounter in travel photography situations.

This is a full color book with beautiful photos on every page, all of them of a type that the reader can aspire to after reading the advice in the guide. I especially appreciated the format of this book, which was small enough to tuck in a camera bag and take with you. Take it with you on every trip you take. I know I will.

Another great field guide
Helpful Votes: 36 out of 37 total.
Review Date: 2006-07-10
I used this author's D50 field guide to learn to use my Nikon camera. Now, just when I am ready to set out on a dream vacation with my family, he comes out with this guide aimed especially at those taking vacation or travel photographs.

I must admit that I like this one even better than the D50 book, mostly because 1/3 of it is NOT taken up with explanations of how to use camera controls. This book is chock full of great travel tips, how to prepare for your trip, how to equip your camera, and valuable information on maximizing storage, etc. Like the other book, most of its content deals with techniques for taking great pictures, but these are all travel oriented. The author works through several dozen different kinds of photo opportunities and offers recommendations for settings and how to approach the shot. Well worth studying before the trip, and including in your backpack, purse, or camera bag while you travel.

A well thought-out travel guide for today's photographer.
Helpful Votes: 46 out of 46 total.
Review Date: 2006-07-30
This is my fifth photography book in the past year, and I'm getting to be a bit of an expert on them! (joke). This is the first book that I have seen that is intended for the digital photographer who is planning a trip.

David assumes some photographic knowledge, but covers some of the basics anyway. I won't go into that. Where this book excels is in teaching how to prepare for a photo-safari trip, or just how to maximize on a regular vacation. How to take photos that don't look like the typical tourist shots. What to pack. What not to. And how to learn to take good travel photos by using your home area in a series of homework assignments. "Digital Travel Photography" covers technique for landscape photography, nature, portraits (that don't look posed), and even planning a photo-vacaton to cover local annual events.

Although David recommends packing this book as a filed guide, I don't equate it to the bird and nature guides that are pocketable. High marks for content and abundant color illustration.

VERY USEFUL BOOK
Helpful Votes: 8 out of 8 total.
Review Date: 2007-09-10
i am an ameteur photographer that is trying very hard to understand a manual digital camera. i want to learn to take better pictures and use the manual features on my camera instead of the auto all the time. i have read many many photography books (probably 25 to 30 in the last 3 years). many go on way too long about how to select a camera - i don't think a book should cover that - cameras change too much from month to month and a good camera store should be able to steer you in the right direction. and, the books spend the last half covering how to change your photos on adobe. well, not everyone uses adobe. no matter what program you use, get a book on that. so, i loved this book, didn't delve into these two subjects too much. i can finally start to get a grasp of f stops and lighting and all that. my pictures have finally started to improve and i can understand what the book is saying. most other books i've read are either WAY to basic, too many or not enough pictures, too detailed for me to understand, etc. this book is perfect! i am learning a lot but it's not so far out there that i need to take a college course to understand the language used!


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