Software Books

Good Things:
Lots of excellent real life code examples
Good reading for beginners to advanced users; helpful for advanced concepts but also built up to them by explaining the basics ones.
Great code optimization recommendations.
Well written, easy to understand.

Bad Things:
No CD that comes with book containing code examples. I also did not find a website with the code examples.

This book is about Oracle JDBC programming, not generic database neutral JDBC programming but Oracle specific. There are many JDBC books available and many Oracle and Oracle programming books but this concentrates narrowly on JDBC for Oracle, and how to get the best performance out of that combination. It is aimed at an audience that already knows Java and probably already knows a little JDBC. It is written in a dry but very readable style and plenty of code examples. At just over 700 pages it is a fairly fat book, but I felt everything was justified and there was nothing that felt like "padding". The code examples are fairly short and tend to be complete programs with a main method rather than snippets that need to be incorporated into a runnable program. Each code example includes a comment about which version of Oracle it will run with, and mostly this covers at least 10.1 and 9.2.

The main emphasis is on compatibility with Oracle 10.g. There is an emphasis on performance which is clear from the title of Chapter 1 "Performance Toolkit" and graphs are used to illustrate the influence of various parameters on performance. The book makes use of UML style class charts, tables and plenty of performance/time line graphs. I particularly liked the use of a flow chart to illustrate the statement processing algorithm. Flow charts seem to be old fashioned, but they are almost perfect for illustrating this type of information. If you were being overly critical of the diagrams, you might describe them as unsophisticated. Thus in Chapter 15 the "Our example application" illustration looks like it was taken from the clip art of a DOS program from around 1987. But if you want pretty pictures you can buy any glossy "Illustrated Walking and Chewing Gum" book that takes your fancy. This book by contrast, concentrates on explaining essential technical and performance information, in the simplest clearest way possible, and they achieve it.

The coverage tends to keep to how Oracle is used in most common "real world" situations, thus the index does not even contain a reference to Grid computing and there is no coverage of distributed transactions, which are described in the introduction as a "less commonly used JDBC feature".

Although chapter 3 is entitled "Introduction to JDBC" it is a lightening tour with code examples that assume they are accessing an Oracle database. There is an emphasis on performance with chapters on statement caching and connection pooling. It not only covers the Oracle specific classes, but also covers where they do not work exactly as per the specification. For example
in chapter 4 "Transactions" there is a note

"In 10g Release 1 and 9i Release 2, the method setReadOnly() of the Connection interface internally does a set transaction read only. This is a bug, as it isn't the intended behavior of the method setReadOnly().."

There are many examples of notes such as this which could be vital when you are struggling with some unexpected quirk of behavior.

With this book you are not getting a re-writing of the documentation, but a description from someone who has actually used the classes. Although the heart of the book is JDBC it does have some excellent coverage of general Java/Oracle programming and configuration issues.

I was particularly interested in the sections on Connection Pooling/Caching and security related issues. These chapters would be of value for anyone writing JDBC for any target database, as it explains some of the implication of connection pooling in terms of authentication. Chapter 15, "Security-related issues" covers the issue of Mapping an end user to a database user. This covers the performance issues of a one to one mapping and the benefit of proxy authentication to get around this.

Performance Performance

Chapter 2 is called "Oracle Fundamentals", thought it might have been called "Oracle performance fundamentals". It covers issues such as the impact of Oracle record locking and the value of using bind variables for inserting records. This includes a performance graph typical of the book. Without bind variables, the graph curve is like an ascent of Mount Everest. By contrast where bind variables are used the increase in time taken represents a very gentle slope. This is the type of advice that could make the difference between your code being optimal or being unusable. In chapter 2 the author gives his mantra for the book as

"we should not just produce code that works; we should produce code that works well".
I interpret that as code that "runs fast" and code you can prove runs fast.

One of the few parts of the book that is probably not essential is chapter 8 which covers Oracle Objects. This can be summed up unfairly as "Oracle supports objects but you probably don't want to use them". However as most Java programmers tend to have an interest in Object Oriented concepts they will probably get some value out of it, even if they decide not to use JDBC to access Oracle Objects.

What about PL/SQL?

The author is not a Java Zelot and puts convincing arguments for when PL/SQL may be a better choice than Java/JDBC. He makes the expected performance argument, but more interesting is the argument that sometimes using PL/SQL may be more portable, in that you should use the procedural language of your target database, e.g. TSQL in SQL server, PLSQL etc. I think this is stretching the argument, and database portability can be more important for some categories of application.

Summary

This is not a book for students who want to learn JDBC from scratch. It is for people who want to write high performance JDBC for accessing Oracle. It takes the view that to build the best application you need to understand the underlying database as well as JDBC. If you are writing Oracle JDBC you need this book. If you are writing platform neutral JDBC you could still benefit from this book as it would allow you to avoid performance bottlenecks specific to Oracle.

The previous reviewers are absolutely right about this book. This book is definitely the best book if you are looking to exploit JDBC in combination with Oracle. Note that it covers JDBC on its own right but then suppliments it with info on Oracle. It is way better than any other JDBC book in the market (I have read through most others.) What I liked about this book is:
1. The author gives complete examples for you to work with. He also explains these examples step by step.
2. The author always provides proof for any statement of performance claims he makes in terms of code that anyone can run. This is a refreshingly different approach than some authors who simply state the claims (that are more often than not incorrect)
3. Author's approach is practical and can be used in real life projects.
4. The author goes in-depth into all topics he covers and is not afraid to delve into the details of Oracle architecture when required.
5. There is no "fluff" or "padding". There are no reams of pages just giving API information that is readily available on the web. Instead the author suppliments the JDBC API info and the Oracle documentation on JDBC freely available on the web.

In short, this book bridges the gap between J2EE developers and database developers (focusing on Oracle, of course.)

The only thing to note is that as a reader, you could get bogged down by the first two chapters since they give overview of Oracle architecture and performance tools the author uses. But as you would read the remaining chapters, you would appreciate the contents of these first two chapters.

If you are using JDBC on Oracle, then buy this book! You won't regret it!

"Expert Oracle JDBC Programming" is part of a new series called OakTable Press. This series is written by Oracle experts, making the quality very high. In fact, one of the technical reviewers of this book is "Ask Tom."

This strong relationship with Oracle results in trying to convince the reader to use stored procs/Oracle specific code. This isn't a good or a bad thing - just something to know up front. The author clearly shows what is Oracle specific and describes the tradeoffs.

The book has three sections, starting with an introduction to JDBC. While JDBC knowledge is not required, it is helpful to get full benefit from the book as advanced concepts are introduced very quickly. The book relies heavily on code with all examples clearly explained. The second section goes into Oracle specific concepts. The last section explains best practices, issues and specific performance related concepts.

This book is distinguished from others by the emphasis on good quality, high performing code. Benchmarks are provided from the beginning. Chapter 1 even covers how to time your code.

As you can tell from the title, the book is Oracle specific. So you can copy/paste the code and run it on Oracle. All code examples specifically state whether they work on 9i, 10g or both. The focus of Oracle also allows the author to demonstrate exactly what needs to be done to run/test the examples on Oracle. I recommend this book for Java developers on Oracle.

This is an excellent book with a very refreshing hands-on approach to JDBC programming for the Oracle database. The author tackles fundamental database concepts, with a strong emphasis on performance. The approach that the author uses includes the right combination of theoretical fundamentals and hands-on coding and testing. The result is a book that is ideal for both the novice user looking to understand fundamental database concepts and the advanced user looking for in-depth analyses using code examples and benchmark numbers. Best of all, the book is not just about the Oracle database in isolation. It is set within the context of JDBC programming, bringing the world of RDBMS programming to the Java community.
This book is a must have for the enterprise software developer who is even half serious about leveraging the enormous power of the Oracle database in her/his application.

This book doesn't contain a lot of jargon. It has pictures of how to do things and explains things in non-technical terms. Great for beginners but also useful as a refresher when you haven't used some aspect for awhile. Well laid out index so easy to find what your looking for. These people have done a good job. Hope they bring out another one more advanced.

I had no idea what the interface looked like or ANY idea about how to use 3DS Max; I just knew I want to learn how to do animations.

Well, I know this book isn't going to have me making 3D animation movies, but it does give a great insight into the program's basics.

Lots of hands-on exercises, just as I like. Lots of pictures too. The authors do an excellent job of spelling out the basics and telling you exactly what you need to do to complete an excerise. And, as you move further along in the book, they "neglect" to tell you how to do something they've already covered - just like a teacher would do in class. It forces you to explore, reread (if you don't understand a subject) and practice with the program - what you need to do if you're ever going to learn to use 3DS Max.

A very well written book about the basics of 3DS Max 7.

I highly recommend this book to the beginning 3ds max student. It was very helpful to me, as it explained more of the basics and gave more detail behind the steps. Also, the tutorials frequently used diffent tools to accomplish the same task. This showed how to use the graphical interface, quad-menus, toolbars, etc.

I found it the best of several books I bought to get my feet wet with 3ds max. It really helped with some of the basic lighting and material concepts. While, this book doesn't even begin to touch all the features of 3ds max, it was a great primer and I'm glad I read it.

This book is perfect for those just getting started in 3ds Max 7. There are a lot of easy to follow screen shots to accompany the text so it is possible to still follow along when you're not in front of your computer. It is written with plenty of step by step explanations of what you are doing and why as well as a great accompanying disk to help with tutorials. It even tackles some of the more difficult aspects of 3d modeling such as composition, the dreaded material editor (it even throws in a side bar about UVW unwrapping) and lighting. It is written with the beginner in mind and does a great job explaining concepts and procedures without insulting your intelligence. It may, however, be a little below intermediate users, it can be a great tool to brush up on fundamentals. I can't recommend this book enough for those looking to get their feet wet in MAX.

The book by Till & O'Connell is great for newcomers simply because it doesn't attempt to give you too much information but only what new users might need to learn the basics of max 7. I had never turned on max 7 and within a week I was amazed as to how much I had learned without having any previous experience with 3d softwares. This should be the first book you buy if you are starting from scratch with max 7.

This book is not for the faint of heart in Access 2000 coding but it is invaluable to the advanced programmer. I refer to this book almost daily in developing our in-house applications. The real strength of this book is in developing code that is more portable or reusable. I have gone from writing sloppy code that is application (or even form) specific to writing completly reusable (and of course fully documented) code. Excellent reference for the power VBA programmer!

Had everything I needed to get going, even the obscure stuff.

Only thing missing was an explanation of what Access does with it's version of Stored procedures, but then again, Microsoft isn't sure on that one itself, so that's no surprise.

Great book, I recommend it.

Love this book. This is the only book I know that does not abandon DAO. I like DAO. All other post Access 97 book abandons DAO.

It is well written and have used many of this examples for my job. I even like it better than the Getz books.

I BOUGHT NOT LESS THAN 15 MS ACCESS BOOKS WHILE LEARNING ACCESS. I FOUND THIS ONE MOST HELPFUL. I HAVE LEARNED MANY THINGS FROM THIS VALUABLE BOOK: CLASS MODULES, CUSTOM COLLECTIONS, CUSTOM PROPERTIES & METHODS, API CALLS ETC ETC... THE AUTHOR HAD PROVIDED MANY USEFUL CODES. I REALLY LIKE HIS BOOKMARK TRACKER.

This was just the book I was looking for. Scott goes into alot of the issues that most of the books on Access just do not. For instance his sections on the winAPI's as well as performance recomendations. I found this book a total reference for beginner through the intermediate programmer of Access. Thanks Scott.

i am somewhat new to linux and i am finding this book useful. It is well organized and has most of the commands I am looking for in RHEL 5. Any other books for starters folks would recommend?

This book is a fantastic way to take your tinkering to the realm of true Linux mastery. Christopher Negus has written some of the best comprehensive Linux guides on the market, but here he has slimmed down the advice into tried and true command line tips that -- once you've learned a few of them -- will have your boss singing your praises, and friends calling you for advice. [...]

Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of this slim, portable, and power-packed book. You won't regret it!

This book is practically "perfect" (sorry if sounds exaggerated) for the following reasons:

1 In less than 260 pages (340 considering appendixes) quickly covers a wide and useful selection of topics
2 The text is updated to the latest improvements in EVERY subject
3 Very easy to read and follow with or without a computer at hand
4 Command line oriented

Let me explain:

1 From the Table of Contents you may see the book covers practically everything most users will need when using a Linux as Server or Desktop; that selection of subjects was really well calculated and provides with a mix that is rarelly found. Also, the "depth" for the provided information was carefully calibrated in order to show the most useful situations (by the way avoiding being boring with nerdy configurations)

The authors provide with a minimal and informal introducion to every subject, and next use a good selection of samples for illustration.

2 Surprisingly, all chapters were written taking into account a lot of "modern" improvements in distro/commands/kernel. Every old-Linux user may appreciate here the giant advances made by Linux to the point that practically every subject is now simple to manage (or at least not esoteric.)

3 As I have several years using Linux, most of the material presented was familiar (with a lot of "modern" surprises), but the organization and style did let me follow all the text without needing to test the examples or configurations in order to understand anything. At least for me, it is a big bonus.

4 99% of the recipes and examples apply to the command line (with some mentions to the graphical front-ends). This may be sad for new users, but very important for administrators or users that look for "maximum flexibility", or "task automation" or work in "server environments" where the GUI is not allowed or discouraged.

Hey folks... I've been an RHCE since 2000, training RHCEs since 2003, and "doing Linux" since 1996.

What I like:
The three big things that I like about Linux Toolbox are:
1) It concisely shows you how to use the Linux command line to solve many of the most common personal and administrative tasks.
2) It uses the proven "learn by doing" method to show the reader how to just "get stuff done" from the Linux command line.
3) What really sets this book apart from other "next level" type books is its well thought layout and how they organized the content in a quickly accessible way. Negus & Caen split the content out by Shell stuff, Working w/Files, Text Manipulation, Multimedia, Administration, Backups, Networking, etc.. . Well thought out and quickly useful as an on-hand reference.

So who should buy this book?
I see it being a "best fit" for two groups of people:
1) Technical users and admins who want to become more competent on the command line and be able to do ten times more work thought automation (scripting).
2) Windows power users who want to become more savvy on the Linux side (Linux power user wannabes). Especially those who need to get Linux CLI/shell proficient quickly (such as Windows sys-admins who have had Linux forced on them)

Old Timers Too:
The cool thing is that even if you've been using Linux for years (as I have), there are still useful "Oooo.. cool!" moments peppered throughout the book. Do you know how to properly (and quickly) get the most out of classic power tools like find, sed, awk, case, and tr? Are you armed with experience in all the newer über tools such as screen, dmidecode, growisofs? Do you know how to do software RAID from the command line (mdadm) or know how to build & control LVM via its command line tools? If you answered "no" to any of these.. you should check check out Linux Toolbox.

Negus and Caen have a winner here. Good job guys.

Tweeks

This book is a very good desk side companion. This is not your typical "power users" book that is just a raw dump of a ton of esoteric commands that go in one eye and out the other. It is actually useful commands put into an understandable context, organized by classes of activity. I've been using Linux for many many years yet I'm learning, and using, new things from this book. I would highly recommend it.

If you're looking for a gift for your beloved Fedora/Red Hat geek, this is it. You'll be thanked when the gift is opened, and you'll be thanked each time as the book is used over and over.

--
Jesse Keating
Fedora Release Engineer

One for the IT Depts shelf and multiple copies please as it will be sure to vanish. Excellent disection of Firewalls in general with many good working examples. Needs updating to take account of new products but many found in here are still the mainstay of companies day in and out today. Recommended 5 Stars.

This book is awsome. I use at work and in Internet Security Cert Class (160 Hrs). I has enough info to cover all aspects of Firewall Admin & Implementation. I highly recommend this book!

In this day and age, no book can really be a "complete reference", however, it does go into great detail in describing various firewalls and firewall technology, therefore, its a great tool in assessing your own installation to determine how you can improve it. It's a little disappointing it doesn't come with a companion CD-ROM.

This reference manual provides a clear and easy to use comprehensive guide to the various products on the market, and the advantages of each with respect to the platforms on which we operate our systems. Since heading up my company's IT department I have been looking for a resource like this to answer all of my questions regarding the installation and structure of firewalls.

This is the most complete collection of all the major firewalls that I have ever seen. The book is a must have on any system administrators desk. It covers Checkpoint, Symantec Raptor, Pix, IP Chain, NetScreen, and many more. Along with useful scenarios in an easy to follow format. As well as a great section on hacking and how to prevent it.

Best [money]I have spent in a long time.

This book makes it easy to fix Access. Simply look in the table of contents for the annoyance that is plaguing your database and go to the page that fixes it. Most of the fixes are simple ones that are either hidden from the user or just not documented well in the Access help. Just one of the fixes was worth the price of the book. The rest were bonuses. My database now works the way I had envisioned it would.

0-596-00852-X
Reviewed: 1st Edition

If you work with Access (or are thinking about it) you really need this book. Access is a very capable and powerful app and can certainly handle the majority of small business needs (and even enterprise class as well, say if you're using Access as a front end to a backend SQL database). The catch of course, is that Access is full of inconsistencies, irksome quirks, weird "features" that don't work as expected, and of course (like all complex software) bugs. (Although to be fair there are many things that MS probably can't change to ensure compatibility with already written applications).

This book notes the weird stuff that can crop up in using Access and more importantly how to work around same.
In my case I had never done any development with Access before but wanted to develop a custom application using it. Before starting however I bought this book - and am REALLY glad I did. There were many pitfalls that I would have fallen into unless otherwise warned (of course at the start it was kind of discouraging seeing all the "issues" one can have with Access, but better to be advised than sorry after!)

The format of the book is primarily a question and answer format, like "I'm trying to do XXX but it doesn't work" with an explanation of what's going on and *why* it's not working and solutions for accomplishing the task at hand (which may include VBA code or diagrams to help illustrate the point). The Q&As are organised into chapters dealing with a specific topic (i.e. Forms, Queries, Reports, Code Modules etc). In the course of my app development I have reached for this book more often than some of the thicker and heavier (not to mention more expensive) Access books, but you will undoubtedly need other books for reference as well (this book isn't a tutorial nor for absolute newbies to database or Access development, even though there are explanations describing normalisation, relationships, etc).

Aside from the Q&As there are very useful tips regarding recommended options to enable/disable ("Access's Bad Defaults"), Optimization ("How can I speed up a slow combo box?") and avoiding database corruption. This kind of "real world" information is exactly what you NEED to know when you do development and is precisely the kind of thing you'll NEVER find in the help files.

There's also other information such as a list of common Visual Basic functions (and what they do) which is useful when you need to do some task but don't know the name of the function. Likewise there's a similar list for Access Events which is helpful in figuring out which event you need to attach code to in order to have something happen. Lastly there's a Glossary of terms ("What's the difference between a bound & unbound control?").

Unlike other books this one doesn't come with a CD. But that's OK, because typically to solve problems you don't need a lot of code once you understand what's going on (in any case code will have to be customised for your app).

If you're developing an application in Access using custom forms, reports, VBA etc you'll get the most benefit from this book. Overall, I think this book's value exceeds the purchase price.

Wow what a great idea for a book series!!

I thought I had seen it all, but then when I picked up my first "Annoyances" book I learned there was a whole new niche out there that had yet to be exploited.

For many of us out there, we pick up technical books for a few typical reasons: to learn a new skill or a reference for an existing skill. What about if you already use an application and there is a whole known set of pitfalls and problem areas that you either need to find a workaround for, or you just want to learn about so if the need arises, you know how to deal with these?

Well, enter the "Annoyances" line of books.

'Access Annoyances' by Phil Mitchell is a great companion book for anyone that has a lot of Access books on the shelf or uses Access on a daily basis and needs to read up more on the problems that will be seen at some point. With a layout that takes each problem one at a time, the flow is very good, and the writing style is clear and concise. Unless you are the MOST experienced of Access users/developers, you will be able to pick up something from this book, and it's more likely that you'll pick up a LOT of things.

Some of the O'Reilly prices on books blow me away because they are so low. It's like you are paying x amount and getting xxxxxx in return. If you use Access on a daily basis, you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy of 'Access Annoyances' right away.

***** HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION

I wish I had this book when I began programming Access, it would have saved me a lot of frustration. The writing is easy to follow and it contains a wealth of information I had to either learn through trial and error or lots of searching google groups.

That said, there isn't much of value here for someone with a couple of years Access experience--you've already learned this stuff through trial and error or searching google groups!

I only found one piece of incorrect information--it is possible to create page headers on a subreport by creating a dummy grouping level (=1) and putting your headers there. The book says the only way to do it is by putting the headers on the parent report.

I consider myself fortunate that I converted my last regularly used database off of Access awhile back. While the software served me well in learning about database systems when I first made the move to PCs, I always found myself fighting with things that should have been easier than they were. Now I find out that it wasn't just me. Phil Mitchell and Evan Callahan have put together a great book titled Fixing Access Annoyances. If you spend any time in Access, this ought to be on your bookshelf.

Contents: Access Basics; General Annoyances; Performance, Versions, Security, and Deployment; Data, Tables, and Database Design; Queries; Forms; Reports, Mailing Labels, and Charts; Expressions, Macros, Code Modules, and Custom Controls; Appendix; Glossary; Index

The Annoyances series is set up in such a way that each chapter covers a series of "questions" posed as to why a particular software package behaves in a certain way. The questions range from minor "why does Access always do x" to "my #$@%@ database is corrupted!", and the conversational tone between the questioner and the authors is fun to read. After reading some of these things, you wonder why *anyone* would use Access! Mitchell and Callahan, although experts in Access, maintain a healthy cynicism towards the product's features and foibles, and all it would take is for you to find three to five annoyances that bug you to no end in order for you to think this is the best money you've spent in a long time. They also try and cover a range of things, from beginner to advanced level gripes, so that you should see value wherever you are in the continuum of Access experience.

If I had this book available to me a year ago, I might still be running my reading log database in Access instead of in Notes. I certainly would have experienced far less frustration than I did. After making sure you have a solid Access reference guide on your shelf, this should be your second purchase on the subject...

Found my first copy in the university book store in Ames, Iowa, and have been looking at it constantly, until I lost it in one of my numerous moves. Bassett has the right idea. Software should be **engineered**, not hand crafted, and Netron seems to have found at least one way to do it.

Another thing. To my knowledge, no one else in the field has advocated the notion of **balance** between source level changes and the re-use of executeable objects. This is probably the most important idea expressed here.

The philosophy behind frames and framing techniques astonishes me. It is revolutionary and practical. I like it very much.

Chancellor C.
http://www.extremephonecards.com

I have pretty much experience with object oriented and procedural programming in several languages, now getting into AOP and byte code engineering. The first 30 minutes with this book were dissapointing - i couldn't figure out what the heck this guy is talking about. So i started at the front, not back cover. And this is my hint - read it from the beginning, page by page. I knew, there is something wrong with software development in general, now i know what it is exactly, and why. I knew it! More - i know how i can break this vicious circle and burn the tires. We've been going the wrong way folks! This definitely is the most valuable book in my monster library (some 100 titles). This is the top secret knowledge, worth thousands and thousands of bucks. I really am not related to the author or publisher. Great stuff!

I have pretty much experience with object oriented and procedural programming in several languages, now getting into AOP and byte code engineering. The first 30 minutes with this book were dissapointing - i couldn't figure out what the heck this guy is talking about. So i started at the front, not back cover. And this is my hint - read it from the beginning, page by page. I knew, there is something wrong with software development in general, now i know what it is exactly, and why. I knew it! More - i know how i can break this vicious circle and burn the tires. We've been going the wrong way folks! This definitely is the most valuable book in my monster library (some 100 titles). This is the top secret knowledge, worth thousands and thousands of bucks. I really am not related to the author or publisher. Great stuff!

I thought I was becoming comfortable with OO until I ran into a group of Smalltalkers. What a mind bender! I learned things about OO that I didn't know. I also became concerned as, ostensibly for reuse purposes, the design stage decoupled logically unrelated functionality and fragmented real-world objects far beyond their natural granularity, to the point that I found myself mired in bitty components and methods with so little responsibility that I could no longer see the big picture. Worse, those myriad components now had complex interrelationships, most of which I could no longer see. I fully agreed that reuse was a worthy goal - but at the expense of readability and maintainability? Paul G. Bassett not only identifies and describes all of these issues (and much more), he has concrete solutions to these problems, with bottom line statistics to back up some pretty wild claims. His book is small - initially a concern for me. Don't worry. Paul G. Bassett is clear, concise, correct, complete. This, I strongly believe, is where we're headed.

I put this book on my "must have, don't loan it out," shelf right away.

I really like the approach and the presentation. The teaching style is casual and encouraging with a welcome absence of jargon. Don't get me wrong, if you follow the chapters you will get a FP site up and running, you just won't have to suffer a barrage of technical details to do it. Why utilize FrontPage in the first place if you are excited about the all the nuts and bolts of how web site programing works?

The included CD helps tremendously ... the combination of reading it and seeing the author go through the steps just further demystifies the process. Between the two presentations, you're bound to "get it." I watched some of the how to's, that I didn't even want to do yet. It got me interested and curious and gives you a sense of all the things you can do with FP2002.

I already had the FP Bible 2002 by this author. Did I "needed" the Virtual Classroom? ... Yes! The Bible is great for digging deep into the FP world, but the Virtual Classroom is clearly the right way to get yourself up to speed and in the running as a web site designer, painlessly. My advice, if you asked me, would be to get yourself a copy.

I found everything I needed in this book and the cd that comes with it. Having known nothing about FrontPage before owning this book now in just a couple of days I know a lot of things to create my perfect web site. Thanks David Karlins. You are one of a kind. I am looking forward to your other books to be published with the same format.

If you want to have an instant website without wasting a lot of time, this is the book for you. The CD takes you step by step to creat a fairly sophisticated website with input forms, scrolling/fly in text, differing themes, inserting pictures and video. etc. Using the CD, I really did not need the book all that much. Well worth it!!!

Text and multimedia combine in David Karlins' 384 page instructional reference guide, Frontpage 2002 Virtual Classroom to create an effective and "user friendly" learning experience. Readers will learn how to create large or small Web sites that are sophisticated and attractive, and effectively manage the organization, content, and style of their site. Readers can follow along on the CD-ROM as the on-screen guru explains and demonstrates the techniques discussed in the text. Frontpage 2002 Virtual Classroom is a confidently recommended "how to" introduction for all Frontpage 2002 users.

I am so glad I bought this book! It is truly a lifesaver! I learn better visually, so the CD Rom Virtual Classroom that's included helped me tremendously. Thanks to David Karlins' for sharing his knowledge of FrontPage. I hope to have my website up & running very soon!

I am an instructor for a 3D Game Content course and Game Art is one of our books. The industry art pipeline and procedures are very well laid-out in this book. Would love a second edition covering the next gen techniques that will be surfacing.

I have read this book and find it extremely informative. The book is written with the readers perspective in mind. It gives beautiful insight into the industry and the dynamics of it. It also has great walk-throughs with media on a CD that you can use as part of the "practical" experience.

Good Job!

Great book that covers modeling techniques for game companies, uv layout's , future Tech Compontents such as Normal Maps, etc. A well good purchase for anyone who wants to know how it's done or to improve there knowledge.

I was an art director in the video game industry for a number of years and one of the most frustrating aspects was interviewing artists that wanted to be part of the industry but did not know how to prepare themselves. This book addresses that problem in a thoughtful and comprehensive way.

For any aspiring artist that wants to be in the video game industry, this is the book. The examples and explanations are clear and easy to follow. Using this book, you would be able to prepare a very capable portfolio.

Buy it, read it, and put the knowledge to use.

People don't think alike. The person who can handle the programming complexity of doing a graphics engine is often not the person who is capable of designing the characters, scenery, and equipment needed for the rest of the game. In this area, the digital artist comes into his/her own. Note this says digital artist. This requires two separate skills, one is the ability to create vizualize what art is needed, the other is to use a computer rather than some other media to generate the desired image.

The game design business represents an opportunity for the digital artist to obtain jobs with real companies that are relatively well paying. This book gives an artist's perspective into the game industry. It talks about the industry, the work, and gives insight on how to get a job. But mostly it talks about what kind of art is needed for gaming. It shows the detail that is necessary to produce a visually pleasing game.

The CD included with the book includes numerous illustrations and files from Maya and ds max. It also includes a trial version of Rt/Shader software. The book presumes that you have a workingknowledge of at least one major 3D program (3ds max or Maya) and Photoshop.

This is a splendid book that is positioned to take an aspiring digital artist and carry him to the next level -- employment doing a job well beyond flipping burgers.

I like this book so much, I've purchased it 3 times! (My first copy was "borrowed" by one of my designer/producers, my second copy was left at Ubisoft SF, and this is my 3rd copy for myself.)

Great mixture of theories, old-school practices, and new-school techniques.

Although I personally disagree with some parts of what this book teaches, it this game design book is one of the most comprehensive I've seen. Well-recommended.

This might be a good book for teachers looking for material in their classes gamedesign or gamedevelopment. It may also be a good book for selfstudy, if you have the discipline to do the exercises. You need to have played a lot of the classic videogames though, otherwise you might not be able to do the exercises, which are mostly about thinking about gamedesigns and making little designs or design alterations on existing games.

Few people realize just how big a business digital gaming has become. Think of it this way: It's bigger than the domestic box office of the film industry. The amount of time spent playing games by young people now exceeds everything but television in time spent on entertainment. The main factor driving the development of the new extremely powerful computers is gaming, slower machines are capable of handling almost all office tasks.

The authors of this book have a great deal of experience in both designing games and teaching how to design games. This has given them an understanding of how beginning designers grasp the structured elements of games, common traps they fall into, and certain developmental exercises that help the student learn to make better games.

Note that this is not a programming manual, nor is it a graphics design manual. It is on game design. What are the characteristics that make a game, how can you prototype and play test the game without a horrendous programming expense, and finally some input on the game industry and how to decide on how you might like to be employeed in that industry.

I consider this an excellent book on game design. As an amatuer board game and basic computer game designer, I found a lot of the material extremely useful in the *process* of coming up with a game from start to finish.

The chapter on prototyping did a great job in showing how to go ahead and create a prototype from a game idea, while keeping it simple and concentrating on the "core gameplay mechanism."

The chapter on "Playtesting" and "Functionality, Completeness, and Balance" builds on the prototype chapter by emphasizing the iterative nature of design where one go aheads and evaluates, tries new things, identify problems and keep evolving.

The next chapter following is maybe the most important chapter that discusses whether you game is fun, goes in to some theory of what makes a game fun, and relates various techniques of improving player's choices so as to make the game fun.

This is a great book that gives you the necessary tools to go ahead and be able to at the very least create a viable prototype of a game that is possibly fun and playable.