Software Books

I still have no idea what Stronghold is, but I spent many meaningful hours reading this volume on the crapper. Makes a fine gift!

I just want to say that my wife demanded that I send some money to one of those save-our-children sponsorships for a village in Vietnam, and that instead I bought this book. Boy was it worth it! Screw that Vietnamese village. This book is worth FIVE Vietnamese villages!

...I'm going to read it again, and again...

Actually, I'm going to get copies for all my friends, and family members, too. I think this one is much better than "Bible for Dummies!" and *certainly* much better than "Sex for Dummies!" (A book that should never have been published, IMO. If you need a manual for that, you shouldn't be breeding...)

You should get this book! We should all get this book! Blows the hell out of the competition!

When I picked up this book I thought it was just another server reference for my shelf, but boy was I wrong! The Official Stronghold Guide not only reveals the innards of Stronghold's unique flexible server architecture with such loving and engrossing detail that a master of fiction would be shamed, but Parekh also manages to simulteneously unravel many delicate issues of humanity and human nature along the way. As I read I found myself uncovering hidden truths about myself and resolving personal issues that have been plauging me for years. Unique and humourous, insightful beyond it's scope. A true masterpiece. I have the courage to smile again, and I owe it all to Parekh. And my server is in top shape too!

This work is a gripping testament to the power of the free flow of information, and its ability to shape the world. It is stunning in its intensity.

One of the best Ruby book for beginners who come from Java or just beginner.

I really enjoy Peter Cooper's approach to both programming and the Ruby language. The concept are well defined, and the sample code lessons really put it all together in the end. I loved this book so much, I bought it in Paper and for my Kindle.

I am not in the habit of reviewing books that I have not finished reading, but like the clinical trial that is stopped because it is obvious that patients taking placebos are at risk, this book can be reviewed even though I have only read about half of it.

If you are a beginning programmer, you want to write in Ruby (a superb programming language for the beginner), and you don't have this book, then you are missing out. Peter Cooper writes well, takes every topic from the beginning, and explains very clearly, with examples.

The range of topics is breath-taking. The usual beginners stuff, such as numbers, expressions, strings, text processing, arrays, hashes, flow control, dates, times, ranges, classes, instances, and large numbers, is all there. But the good news is, Peter Cooper doesn't stop there. He takes you on to using libraries, debugging techniques, testing, benchmarking, profiling, connecting to and programming databases, bindings, security, threaded execution, in-line inclusions, Unicode and UTF-8 support, networking, sockets, daemons, network operations, HTML sessions, XML processing, and much more. These are topics that beginners normally do not even touch. Even though this book is not dumbed down, it is absolutely clear and easy to follow. No prior background is necessary. If you go work through this book, you will be ready to work directly with advanced Ruby references. You will not be held up by lack of Ruby knowledge.

If you want to learn Ruby, my advice is buy this book and work through it. I don't think you will need anything else until you are ready for the advanced Ruby references, at which point you should be able to write quite sophisticated programs. This book literally takes the beginner to the professional level. A great buy.

Every serious Ruby programmer has a copy of the venerable 'Pickaxe' (the definitive Ruby reference manual) at their disposal, but if you're just getting you're feet wet with Ruby and serious about learning it from the ground up, then Beginning Ruby is just what you need.

The tagline 'From Novice to Professional' well describes the content. But if you're looking to delve into advanced GUI programming, then this isn't for you. This book takes you into the Ruby you need to know as the foundation for helping you become a great programmer. Peter Cooper introduces you to many critical concepts that you will need to master, but does so in a logical and easy to read manner. The text is neither dry nor whimsical, but a perfect blend between reference material and hands-on tutorial.

While I had tinkered with Ruby from 2002 onward, I never gave it any real attention until I stumbled upon Ruby on Rails in 2006. When I came to the realization my programming style looked like less of a 'style' than it did a Rube Goldberg machine, it was time to get back to basics ... and thankfully this book was published.

If you're serious about looking into Ruby, now is the time to pick this book up ... then you can go get the latest edition of 'The Pickaxe'. I almost want to buy a second copy out of sheer appreciation for Peter Cooper providing a great guide to a great programming language!

Ruby is my first programming language (I'm coming from a designer/html/css world); and this is the first book I've come across that is talking to me. I've made leaps and bounds with it.

A good book that has a lot of Domino Information.
I find myself referencing it from time to time.
A nice tool to have at your disposal.

Although this book is a bit dated covering Domino R5, I would still say it has been a very valuable aide in learing Domino/Lotus administration on R6.5.3. I wish there had been some flow charts on the routing process at the end of chapter 8, and some packet header diagrams of the Notes RPC protocol.

I would recommend this book to anyone new to the Domino/Lotus notes world.

Great Reference. Go here first then look elswhere! I just HOPE Mr. Kirkland and NewRiders come to some agreement and get an updated version for R6/6.5 soon to be 7 out.

Invaluable!!!!! If I had to do in the trenches domino administration and could only bring one book with me this would be it.

When I was a Jr. Notes Administrator this book gave me the level of knowledge and understanding of Domino and Lotus Notes that I needed to move into a more senior position in a very short amount of time. My now-dogeared copy is still by my side every day at work as I continue to learn from this all-inclusive, easy-to-read manual. From setting up your first server to understanding Domino system architecture, "Domino System Administration" covers it all. This book is truly a "must have". I am desperately hoping that Mr. Kirkland writes an updated version for Domino/Notes 6!

If you buy any book for administering Lotus Notes/Domino, buy this one.

Very good book. I am at intermediate level and this book showed me exactly how to build php enabled web sites. Highly recommend it for users who have used Dreamweaver before and has a developer background.

This book is a must for anyone looking to get stuck into PHP, AJAX and Dreamweaver (as in the title). The steps are clearly written and easy to follow with troubleshooting sections at the end of each chapter. The steps for setting up a local server (Apache or IIS) or again well written with good advice that you are able to choose or ignore. I highly recommend this book!!

Mr Powers....write us another book soon pleeeaaasssee!!!

I dont normally review books, but I thought this one was worth reviewing. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who works with dreamweaver and wants to create modern, standards compliant websites and web applications.

The book is well written and thoroughly covers the subjects it claims to cover.

Each chapter is also written in such a way that it could be read independently of the other chapters. This is highly useful if you only want to cover one or two of the three primary subjects covered (css, php and ajax with Dreamweaver cs3).

By the end of this book you will be able to create basic (though useful) web apps, validate user input in forms, use dreamweaver's built in ajax functions (spry) to make content much more interesting and create standards compliant websites that will be viewable in all browsers.

I have a lot of books. I teach this stuff and try to read everything I can. This book is great. Easy to follow and the tasks are a useful way to learn how to use CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). This goes from easy to more advanced in each section so anyone that needs to learn how to use CSS will get value. I highly recommend this book.

I've been through this book hard enough...everytime I think the author got some missed point, no...it was my own mistake. I go back and read over again the part where I encounter the problem and thats it..The author has never left anything incorrect. I encounter a lot of frustrating part (cursing the author!) but when I turn back, again; it was my mistake. I left some paragraph unread. (Sorry.) David had done an excellent job concerning about his readers. He definitely try to delivers as best as could and he succeed. Everything works just fine if you care enough to read thoroughly. I've been through with the Vhost, Vista installation, the relative root link, the PhpMyAdmin and yes, it works just fine. My side of advice, honestly; This book is more suitable if you at least have some basic experience working with Dreamweaver. Otherwise, I can't guarantee you know what you're doing (and not enjoy in doing so). Take a basic Dreamweaver book first (such as Adobe in a Classroom. Although it's there are some negative review about it, just ignore it. If you're really a beginner, you will be comfortable with it). And then take on this book. You are on a path of correct way to learn drive fast and efficiently. The combination to success in Dreamweaver is; The Classroom in a book, This book (Essential Guide) and the Mastering CSS with Dreamweaver by stepahanie and greg. Finishing this three, further on with the PHP. That's all. And for me, again; David Powers has done an excellent job.

Wow, could this be the best computer book ever written? Well, if you are using Oracle and you want to understand how Oracle works, it just might be. It's packed with performance information, and even if you are not using Oracle this will be helpful for any (esp for Postgres users)

This is hands down the best book I've read on Oracle. It should be mandatory reading for anyone working with an Oracle database. Period.

I have close to 15 years of experience with Oracle, and have designed and developed large scale (>1TB) transactional systems. I've worn the hats of DBA, architect, developer, consultant, etc. The information in this book is invaluable.

If you work with Oracle this is a manual you need on your desk. Not just for DBA's but also for developers who will derive a good insight into how they should be developing their code.
Very technical but not to the point that brain freeze occurs.
Would highly recommend it.

This book is accurate and undoubtfully an excellent source to learn more about the Oracle Database.
Tom is an author full of humor with a versatile approach to performance. In his book he shows his approach to performance and put light on common practice like database independence and read-write consistency or like constraints enforced by triggers and autonomous transaction.
No doubt I learned a lot in this book!

I actually helps you understand, rather than just throwing information at you (as many books do)

Thank You Fergal, for a "steady pen" in writing "Microsoft .NET for Programmers". The use of a FUN case study (Poker client-server) to synergize understanding of .NET principles in a "real-life" application is a boon to communicating such a vast subject.

Though this book seems geared to other than beginners (in both C# and .NET), starting at page 1, reading and doing the examples, and maintaining a steady course until the last page, is sure to "enlighten" the .NET inquiring mind. A more global perspective and understanding of this large subject is pretty much guaranteed.

One foot in front of the other, put yourself through the paces: Buy the book, download the files, read the prolific and responsive author participation list on Manning, read and practice from cover to cover. Your programming skills in .NET will be enhanced enjoyably for all future .NET ventures. As a bonus, you'll go to sleep at night without that large and uneasy .NET question mark look on your face.

Cover all the what and how-to about .NET in a simple and clear way. Can't believe the author does that so nicely in 300 pages. Great for experience programmer get started with .NET

This is one of the best technical books I have read. It takes a very large subject and distills it down to a concise and manageable text.
Each chapter takes you further into .Net in a fast paced yet very well-explained way. The poker game developed in the book is also fun to play with and enhance.
This is a must-read text. However, read an introductory book first.

I've been through many of the C# books, some from Microsoft Press, and some from O'Reilly, and on and on.
For beginners there is no clear winner. However, for experienced programmers looking to expand their knowledge into many of the more advanced areas of C#, I recommended Grimes book, Microsoft .NET for Programmers.

It's for intermediate to advanced, and it's quite a bit of fun working through the example that builds and builds upon an engine, adding many interfaces, where each interface exploits a particular area of .Net. Plus he throws in his years of programming expertise to add in lots of programming tricks that also highlight .Net's flexibility and ease of programming.

Do svidanija - moi tovarischi!

Ok, this book means business. 2 chapters intro about .NET then right into the code. The problem is that IF you don't have a background in C, C++ or C# you are hosed. I had my geeky .NET Microsoft head brother help me with it. Otherwise, excellent book. For 4GL, COBOL and VB programmers like me not familiar with any of the C flavors, I recommend Microsoft Visual C# .Net step-by-step from Microsoft Press written John Sharp and Jon Jagger.

I am an experienced developer but fairly new to VB.NET. This book is not for beginners but it is great for someone like myself who knows what they want to do and just wants some good examples and tips. It's a great reference book and a good alterative to Google. The English is clear and to the point. The book is a sturdy hardback and the pages are well laid out. It's easy to read afters hous of staring at a screen. To sum up, I'm glad that I brought it. It has saved me time and money and you can't ask for much more than that :-)

There is a lot of information in this book, covering a broad range of subjects. It is well laid out and easy to reference. The CD comes with the current version of the book as well as the author's previous book on VB6. Not really a beginner's book as there are more intermediate and advanced topics. I had not used .NET and hadn't touched VB6 in a couple of years. I needed a resource to help jump from rusty VB6 skills to .NET - this book did it perfectly. It is also filled with advanced topics that I am not currently using but now know where to go when the need arrives.

Fast service, great quality... What more can you ask for. I recommend this seller.

I bought this book few years. It is an excelent source of information and writers style is very clear. I just came back to see if Balena has book for C# 2005. Looks like I found something. I am going get that one. However, present book is quite good, check if there is a newer release you may want to get that one.

This was the first .NET book I purchased, and in many ways if I hadn't bought any others it would have been sufficient. It has thorough coverage of the .NET environment, with lucid code examples in VB.NET. I found the chapters on ADO.NET and the framework internals to be most useful to my job as an ASP.NET developer, but the coverage is deep enough that a person with very little programming experience could read this book and come away as a well-rounded .NET programmer. Even if you're writing in C#, as I am, the book is worth the money. I would also recommend Dino Esposito's Programming Microsoft ASP.NET for more depth if you're a web developer.

Scott Kelby writes easy-to-apply instructions for all things Lightroom in this book. Makes my job MUCH easier!

I am still working my way through this book, but so far have found it a fount of knowledge. Easy to read, - and you can go online to Scott Kelby's site, D/L the same images, and work at your pace with the same photos.The book consists of 14 chapters - each with a load of lessons, and each lesson has a step-by-step instruction (with pictures to back up that step.) In addition, the book is loaded with tips to make the learning even easier. (Also, a page of "QuickTips" at the end of the chapters. At the end of the book is the author's workflow process - (For Portaits and Travel.)
I strongly recommend this for anyone using Lightroom 2.

Really good book, follows workflow and takes you through all the steps from set up to advanced features. So far any questions have been answered by this book.

I highly recommend this book.

I really like this guide, there are so many little details that are unfolded in this book. I like Scott's goofy humor it's right up my alley.

The layout is nice if you follow his instructions to start at the beginning and read it through, if you skip around you may lose some details.
Yes, you can use it as a reference but Scott has a direction he wants you to use.

I would highly recommend this if your new to Lightroom 2, it will save you time and help you gain some great understanding.

Scott made e-mailing from Lr so easy with my Mac, the masking/sharpening technique was an excellent, I use it frequently with portrait work. Theses are just a couple of great things in this guide.

You can't go wrong with this guide, I highly recommend it to new, intermediate and experienced users.

Scott Kelby has done it again.
In The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers, Scott Kelby uses photos from some of his professional photoshoots as examples to take the reader step by step through organizing, developing, and printing your digital photographs. Along the way he points out all of the hidden secrets and nuances that make Lightroom 2 such a powerful package. Things most of us could never discover on our own were we to purchase and use Lightroom 2 without Scott's help.
Because, among other things, Lightroom 2 is a workflow program Scott recommends readers do not "jump around" in the book, but rather, start at the beginning and work right through chapter by chapter. Since it is a 419 page tutorial this seems a little daunting, but believe me, it is well worth the effort.
If you are a digital photographer, whether professional or amateur, and want to use Lightroom 2; do yourself a favor and purchase Scott Kelby's excellent book.
You won't be disappointed.

I found this book to be extremely helpful in constructing an eCommerce site. It's a great book for an experienced VB developer to use to jump into developing an e-commerce site, even if you only go through the PayPal integration. It's also a great source of material on the construction of a shopping cart, and even if your "shopping cart" is only going to be used on a companie's intranet for product/supply request/issue, it's a great starting point. As a developer I can modify the business tier code to conform to my companies requirements and concentrate on the presentation layer.

This little book is chock-full of detailed explanations and examples of an e-commerce site built with ASP.net and an SQL database. It's simply the best and definitely most-used technical book on ASP.net I've picked up in the past 2 years! In addition to the detailed explanations, I especially like the lucid examples of creating and calling the SQL Stored Procedures. Learning by example seems to be the most effective way for this novice programmer to complete an e-commerce site, and this book has greatly reduced the amount of time it normally takes to scan through multiple sources of technical information when creating a complex application. Thanks to the authors, Christian Darie & Karli Watson, for providing a comprehensive resource!

I've used this book to construct my first e-commerce website, and I don't think I could have managed without it. The 3 tier design of the sample site is very well organised and easy to adapt to your own requirements. It also makes it simpler for a novice like me to understand how everything works. I found the second part of the book (dealing with the order pipeline and credit card transactions) harder to follow. However, when I contacted the authors about a problem I was having, I received a prompt and friendly reply that soon got me back on track. Thanks, Cristian and Karli!

This is an exeptionally well written book for the beginning webstore developer with

It walks you through a complete design of the side with the end result that you have a basic webstore that you could actually take operational. The only weakness in the credit processing section. It's written for a European credit card gateway. It would be nice if one of the more popular US gateways (e.g. authorize.net) was also included.

I also sent a couple of questions to the author and he was responded very quickly ... obviously he's interested in making sure everyone reading the book is successful. 5 stars for that alone.

This is primarily a book about constructing an ASP.NET web site using stored procedures, and less a book about e-commerce. There are a few sections, mostly at the end, which are specific to e-commerce. These include the order processing pipeline chapter and the credit card transactions chapter.

This is not to say the book is bad. It's very well written and the code is described step-by-step in detail. There could have been more emphasis on architecture, and a little more on e-commerce. I would also like to see some emphasis on the sticky legal issues like customer data management, password security, transaction security, and how and when to migrate the data off of the machines on the open Internet and back into safe storage on the Intranet.

If you have programmed with C++ in the past and it's been years since you done any C++, this is a great book to get a refresher on C++. I was introduced to this book by a colleague and friend during the 2002 Telecom downturn (internet bubble burst) when I was searching for work and many companies were looking for experienced OO C++ programmers. This book helped me refresh my C++ so I could step up to the plate quickly. I highly recommend this book if you want to get a quick refresher of OO concepts such as abstraction, encapsulation, inheritance, overloading, polymorphism, and other concepts used in C++ programming.

This C++ core language book is so often used that I thought it may deserve a review.

I own 3 books about C++ and this one became the reference. Only 200 pages (compared to the 1000 pages of another one :) but every useful feature is well explained. Authors payed careful attention in order to prevent the reader to fall in common traps. Lots of examples, always accompanied with relevant comments.

C++ in a core language really answers the questions the beginners have in mind. Concise, pragmatic, the authors are not showing off, they simply remember they were beginners one day and their explanations are exactly what one can expect. Well, I'm so happy about this book (this morning again, I was looking for a reminder about "virtual" functions or a detail about the copy constructor and all my worries were answered with no ambiguity at all) I went straight to to Amazon for a review :)

This book is relatively short, but many people might see this as a good thing, since it is really intended to transition C programmers to the basics ("core") of C++. I believe it does a decent job of this, although there are some topics (such as const) that I think it should cover but, surprisingly, does not. I liked the comparisons between polymorphism in C and C++, and the explanation of virtual functions. The examples are pretty good. There is some great humor in the book, and some parts actually made me laugh out loud. Overall, I would suggest the book to any C programmer who wants to transition to C++. Get this as your first such transitional book, then once you understand the basics, move on to a more comprehensive intermediate level book.

C++: The Core Language is a well written book and a pleasure to read. It appears that that authors made an extra effort to remove unneeded verbiage. I appreciate this because I have so much to read.

The bread and butter OOD concepts of abstraction and polymorphism are well covered. The chapter on templates covers this difficult subject well, however, I would have liked to have seen a little more on template functions.

I came from a Kernighan and Ritche C background (the "C' bible), and this seemed to pick up right where they left off. You could call this book K&R part II, and it is also about the same size. If you want a complete C++ bookshelf, I would also recommend buying (in this order) Effective C++ by Scott Meyers, The C++ Standard Library by Nicolai Josuttis, and C++ in a Nutshell by Ray Lischer.

- www.NicholasDiToro.com

This is an excellent book for C programmers coming to C++ for the first time. I found the writing style and organisation of topics to be very good. The authors describe key object-based and object-oriented concepts first using familiar C constructions and then extend those ideas into the C++ domain. The ease of transitioning from C structs to C++ classes was very good, as was the discussion of subtle points like the copy constructor. Almost all major C++ concepts are described, including inheritence, virtual functions, and even templates.

My only negative criticism is that the authors leave out some important C++ functionality from their view of the C++ "core." They only mention in passing the use of const, considered by many to be vital to good C++ design. Also, since this book was published in 1995, it does not discuss the C++ standard library, which was finalised in 1997. It is therefore missing a discussion of the very useful 'string' class, among many others. Readers should defininitely follow up on these topics.

Regardless of this missing information, this book will give C programmers a solid foundation for using C++.