Software Books

This a very good book. It is written by two people that together have more than 40 years of experience in project management (PM) and provides with real and usefull examples.
I strongly recommend reading to people that already know PM. Its not a basic book in PM.

This is very good book on project management, i am a member of pmi, but in pmi u learn more about project management in general but this book is for IT guys, esply chapter on project management process is good, allso about tackling issues is well documented.

I have applied methods in this book and a related seminar to a number of real projects and have gotten excellent results. I am not an IT person and was placed in charge of systems. The book helped me to plan and execute a huge IT project from scratch.I have 12 staff who were applications programmers of which 2 were analysts. I divided their tasks and attached them to users per the ideas in the book. The approach was applied to enhancements, new systems for tender evaluation and purchasing, and hardware. Per the methods of the book, all arising matters with management, vendors, and users were seen as issues and not as problems. By the team approach we were able to sack one person and reassign his roles. A 4 year project was finished in 2 years. Hardware and WAN were completed in two months. Right now we are planning a project to reach out to the remotest plantations that we own that is another 170 areas. We are using the book here as well. The key idea here is that the methods in this book are different and WORK.

IT projects are very different from standard projects. This books provides an in-depth approach to managing IT projects. It has some very good specific tips regarding risk analysis, the management critical path (as opposed to the critical path), the use of score cards for project evaluation, how to deal with issues, and how to use lessons learned and experience to get continuous improvement in project management. In addition, the book focuses on templates rather than the traditional work breakdown structure-so it is gives greater flexibility. Another novel approach is use of the team members in participating in project management. Overall, very useful and informative.

Our organization has reviewed over 50 books in IT and general project management from the view of usability and useful methods for a multiple project, complex environment. We found books like Schwabe and Menche somewhat useful, but very limited in dealing with the actual problems faced in projects. There was just too much introductory material. This book, on the other hand, is very useful in that it addresses problems such as scope creep, changing requirements, high management expectations, dealing with vendors and users, and other specific issues. It is also being translated into Chinese. This is the book you should get if you want to address problems in real projects and want specific guidelines.

This is the best C++ book i've ever read (and i've read many good authors). It explains the concepts in depth with plenty of sample-code and drawings. The author seems to be aware which concepts could be misunderstood and repeatedly clarifies them in his examples.You cannot become a serious C++ programmer, if you don't understand these concepts correctly. Most of the object-oriented concepts are illustrated with real-world examples, so u learn how the language can be applied practically. I wish i'd gotten this book during my school days.

This text is definitely classroom quality, covering almost all aspects of the language, both theoretically and practically, and the books size reflects this. It doesn't cover the STL at all, but to do so would have made the text too large. The best thing I liked about the book is that it discusses object oriented design concepts (as pertaining to C++) very well.

This is am amazing book that very clearly explains the 'how' and 'why' of each feature in Object Oriented Design.My design skills certainly got a lot better with this book.I loved the chapter on Inheritance.Inheritance is one of the most powerful features of any object oriented language and the most effective form of code reuse.This book does a very good job at giving the reader a good idea of how to exploit this feature effectively.

this is *the* C++ book that got me thru my programming assignments. from concepts to code, from design to implementation, the author detailed everything very clearly and thoroughly, excellent job! this book is evenly-paced and highly readable with golden nuggets everywhere. before getting this book, i used to be lost in lectures and assignments, confused about concepts of pointers etc, but after carefully studying this gem, i could truly understand the essence of C++ and write solid, high quality code. to sum it up, i have three words for you: GO BUY IT!!

I read most of the 1st edition.
A very insightful look into C++ programming with
detailed but simple examples to explain the fundamental
and yet powerful concepts and intricacies with the language!

very detail description to learn correctly who the God of the Bible is.This book is for some body really interested in seeing more of God.

Pink gives an in depth look at who the Bible says God is. It is extremely Biblically based, with every page having numerous scripture references. It is important to know who the God of the Bible is. Most who profess belief in the God of the Bible think they know who that God is. Yet, if the god we have in our thoughts does not match the God as recorded in the Bible we are in error.

I went through this as a study with a group of women and it greatly influenced my knowledge of God and my prayer life as well. Every new & growing Christian should read this. There are way too many people with an inaccurate or low view of God, and this book biblically provides a very well-rounded description of His character and awesome attributes. There was so much I learned and although it is not a long book, there is a lot to chew on! Knowing God well is a crucial foundation for every Christian.

What a power-packed li'l book--concise, biblical, God-glorifying, no Ph.D. required, yet covering the most important topic in the universe: who God is, and what he is like. I've read tomes that don't present as much as Pink does in 5 pages, which is the average length of each chapter.

I love this short volume. So much has been packed in this 108 pages volume, yet it trumpets volumes. This work by Pink points directly to the Most High God and no other.

I highly recommend this power-pack volume. Five stars and counting!

Having bought TrueSpace2 with no prior knowledge of CGI, and being the world's worst artist, I was skeptical reading previous reviews. However I needn't have been.

The author gently takes the reader through from first principles to advanced modelling in a clear and concise manner, and in such a way that it gives you confidence to try something new.

I can't recommend this book highly enough.

Great book, it also taught TrueSpace in a matter of weeks instread of learning by exprimentation.

I started using TrueSpace back when version 2 was the newest release. I figured I could play around and build some small videos for myself. This book walked me through many of the functions and allowed me to apply what I have learned. Practically from the first page, the author walks your step by step in creating your own object. Now with version 6 available, I wish this author would write an update to keep us all in the know. Even now I still refer back to this book for missing tips and function that I don't use offen enough to remember. If you like to use TrueSpace and really want to develop something not only recognizable, but high-end I suggest you start with this book.

What are Amazon playing at! nowhere is the price displayed of this ite

Even though Caligari has recently released trueSpace 4, this book covering version 2 is a must have. The easy to follow and understand print will have you creating breathtaking graphics in no time at all. Caligari's trueSpace is truly outstanding only if you learn to use it properly. This book will do that for you.

Citrix MetaFrame XP: Advanced Technical Design Guide, Second Edition was a decent general read. In depth technical detail seemed to be lacking and was replaced by repetitive best practice lectures. However, I enjoyed the authors side comments and general personality that was interwoven into the reading. Overall the book is informative and well written.

We had 2 other books on Citrix Metaframe but the books didn't give us much detail so we started looking for a better resource. I found this book and recommended it to my Network Adminsitrator. I thought I won't get much from it because I don't work with Citrix everyday but when time permits, I read the book and 70% of the time I got the answers from this book.

Not a book for beginners. This is written for engineers and people who already have a good grasp of the basics of Terminal Servers and Citrix. No "how to" install in this book, but rather how to design, implement, identify and resolve your own problems, with a lot of real-life examples.

The style of the book (way it is written) makes a pleasant change from the usual technical books, as it addresses you like you know what you're talking about. You will come out with a clear understading of the issues you're facing and how to resolve them.

This book is self-published, which makes it all the more remarkable.

The book covers up to Windows 2000 and Mataframe XP FR2. I'm keen to see when the next edition comes out, and hpoefully it will concentrate on Windows 2003 + Metaframe 3.0

I had a real tough time searching the Internet and all other places to get some real stuff on Citrix and my search ended with "this" book by "Brain" Madden.

Citrix will notice a sizeable improvement in their sales if they include this book with their product. Everything is explained clearly with visuals and no filler material.

One of the best Tech Books to hit the market in recent times.

In my opinion, this book is the ONLY interesting published book about Citrix until now. I have read most of the available books about Citrix and Terminal Services and this is the only one I would buy again.

If you are a Citrix Certified Administrator, you will find this book very helpful. Personally speaking, I prefer it to most of the Citrix official documentation.

Take into account that it is a book for people who already has a deep knowledge about Citrix. It is not a guide for begginers. It gives you hints to improve your own Citrix project methodology.

Amazon guys, let me suggest this, please: If you are looking for a step-by-step begginers guide, have a look at Methodology in a Box (freely available at http://www.dabcc.com)

The good thing about this book is that it gets just to the point. Unlike other books, which tells every detail of this and that drawing tool, this book instructs you how to make nice and stunning graphics in a short time. With only a beginners knowledge of CorelDraw I started up following Shane Hunts carefully written instructions and succeded in making some spectacular images for my Website - graphics that I could never have done myself, without the help from a professional designer: Metallic looking 3D objects and so on... I found it relatively easy to learn tricks from examples and then adjusting it for my own purpose.

There is only one thing I would ask for in a new edition: A little more on Web-graphics. I can recommend a couple of other books with almost the same approach as this one: "The CorelDraw Wow Book", by Linnea Dayton, Shane Hunt and Sharon Steuer and "Corel Studio Techniques", by David Huss & Gary Priester. They are also great.

Prior to reading Shane's book I had pretty much given up on being able to learn the program...I was stunned to see how easy he made it to create stunning images in coreldraw...I learned techniques I truely did not feel capable of learning prior to reading his book and enjoyed the process...His enclosed cd alone was worth the price of the book ...He does not guard his techniques ...he shares them openly and wants you do know all he knows...very well organized and writen and simply turned my graphics life around!

So many computer related books written in the last several year look like they've been thrown together. They're full of typos or the content is just incorrrect or incomplete. It's apparent that a lot of time and effort went into this book. The book is full of great examples, the insruction are complete and it's interesting to read. I was a relative novice with CorelDraw and this book allowed me to create some great designs quickly. It showed me tricks that I probably would have never figured out on my own.

Highly recomended!

I've even had a Corel novice use the book with no problems. She liked it MUCH better than another one in the standard style. It's an easy to use book written in a fun and useful style. Look at the many positive reviews..

Somewhere in this long list of raves you will find my first review of this book. I gave it four stars. That was very high praise from me...back then when I had just finished the book and thought 5 stars was fawning. Now I know I was wrong. I finally put another book in the space CorelDRAW f/x was supposed to occupy on my shelf. It sits by my computer while I work, and frequently comes with me when I need lunchtime or waitingroom reading. I use this book constantly. I can't let my first review stand any longer. If you have any doubts about this book forget them IT IS WELL WORTH MANY TIMES THE PRICE! I intend to add the new version to my computer desk and book bag when I upgrade to CorelDRAW 9. And probably 10 and 11 and...

This book is the perfect starting point for a beginner. I started with a limited amount of programming experience. By the time I finished, I felt extremely comfortable with all of the concepts presented.

It's important to set realistic goals. You're not going to finish this book and start writing real world applications. Instead, this book builds the foundation needed to tackle more advanced concepts and programs found in other books.

This is an excellent book. I have completely read this book. I recommend this book for every student learning C#.

This is a great book for C# beginners like me. The book is very well written as it simulates the real class environment and answers every possible question that the beginner might have. I went to a 5-day C# training and I learned less there than I learned after reading this book. The author is a talented instructor, and I wish all computer science professors were like him. I am looking forward to an intermidiate C# book by John Smiley! Thank you, John.

Have you ever thought you wanted to learn how to program, and bought a book on programming that didn't teach you anything? Or maybe you took a class that had a required textbook that was worthless? Did you get discouraged, and think programming just wasn't "for you"? That maybe you just didn't "get it" like those other people that seemed to have no problems learning to program? If so, then this book is for you. If more computer programming books were written like this, I KNOW there'd be a lot more programmers in the world. It's not about intelligence, it's about LEARNING STYLES. This book is more narrative than just lines of code to interpret. John Smiley talks TO the reader, not AT him. He puts you in a classroom setting where people ask questions, even DUMB questions that you yourself may have wanted to ask. And guess what? He ANSWERS the questions. If you've been stymied in one way or another from reaching a point of confidence with programming then this book is for you. I give it 5 stars because that's the most that Amazon's system will let me give it. If you don't believe me, hit the library. Then buy the book to put food on this man's table, and have this awesome book in your personal library.

I am taking a series of classes from "someplace" with the intention of making a carreer change. "Someplace" offered to get me from being a non-programmer to an MCSD in 8 months using Microsoft official curriculum (MOC). An ambitious undertaking to be sure.

I have found the MOC to be of very limited help. Wow, that's an understatement.

Anyway, I have been using other resources to supplement the training and this book has been the best.

The book starts with understanding the requirements of a program. From there the author walks us through the process of building a program and incorporates a lot of very practical and useful concepts. In general, the book has followed the progression of the MOC "Programming with C#". Whether by design or not, this has been very helpful.

The book is written in narrative or as a story unfolding. The reader is included in a small class learning to program. The other students in the class ask questions to the instructor (John Smiley) and in general greatly facilitate the learning process. This narrative makes it a lot easier to follow and the simple program turns out to be full of lots of very useful training opportunities.

At first, I was underwhelmed that the author had chosen to use Notepad and the SDK to create the programs. However, having finished the book and being halfway through the MOC course (which uses Visual Studio) I am glad that he does. Visual Studio tends to be expensive to get your hands on, and while it does have some VERY helpful functionality in terms of writing code, for the beginner, a lot of the stuff it does seems like it is overwhelming for the "newbie" (at least it was to me.)

Many times, I would complete similar exercises using the notpad/SDK method in 1/3rd or 1/4 the time it would take me to do it in Visual Studio. For the most part, this was because of all of the "helpful" stuff that Visual Studio was doing. Don't get me wrong, it is a great IDE, but for a newbie like me, I think Smiley's approach was better.

I have bought many other C# books and I will be doing reviews on them as I read them to supplement the material. I've also been taking video lessons from LearnVisualStudio.net.

I hope John Smiley will create a book on Visual Studio and Intermediate and Advanced C#. I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it HIGHLY to anyone just getting started.

Easily the best book on Linux that I have ever read or bought. Also one of the best computer books overall that I have ever used. That is saying a lot given that I have many computer books on the full range of computer topics and given that I am very picky in what I buy. The other reviews - all but one 5-star - give details on the book. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to set up a Linux system or who has an interest in learning about Linux.

In regard to Linux in general, it provides a superior platform to the Microsoft platforms. Also the add-on programs that are available - all of the most useful are included in any of the best-known distributions, such as Ubuntu or Red Hat/Fedora - are as good as (in the sense of user-friendly) as the comparable Windows programs and in many cases better.

What is interesting to me is that much of the Linux development occurs outside the USA. It is a great tribute to the huge Linux-oriented developer universe that those developers have developed such outstanding tools that are free of the exorbitant, monopoly-determined prices of Microsoft products. So I hereby thank you all for your fantastic contributions to computer technology. Without your programs we would all be prey to the monopoly pricing and less-than-optimal programs produced by Microsoft. Not to say that there is anything wrong with most Microsoft products, but thank god there are better products available and better yet that most are free of licensing cost and most are changeable because the source code is available.

It's been two years since I've purchased this book, and I still reference it from time to time.

This book covers many common open-source applications used in conjunction with linux (bind,samba,sendmail,etc).

The examples are well-written. It's a great book for someone who is wanting to educate themselves to use linux.

I will note that the book seems to be red-hat/fedora biased. I use fedora, so that was a plus.

Much of what I have done piecing together information from Google is concisely done in this guide. This book got my mail server setup in no time whereas in the past I gave up in frustration (and lack of knowledge).

The mail chapter alone was worth the price but this book is full of solving common system administration tasks for people with some linux experience but not the expertise of being a sysadmin.

I really enjoy the content of the Book. Since my early days using Linux consult the linuxhomenetworking website for tips & howtos.

This is surely a must have book. It's been a while since I see some book with so much content !!!.

This certainly isn't a hand holding introduction to Linux by any means (jump in at the deep end, it works!). However if you're looking for a down to earth, practical guide to a variety of everyday tasks involved in running Linux in a server environment you'll find this book very useful. The subject matter covered is useful, and the explanations are sufficient with plenty of useful examples. Certainly a good introduction although obviously for the finer points of configuration more specialised sources will need to be consulted.

Reading this book I was reminded that the humor of Scott Kelby leaves me a little cold. I guess being published by SK means the book must provide a sampling of his type of humor. The humor is funny at first reading but the third or fourth time it grows very dim.

That rant over I must say that the book is really good. It provides insight into Adobe Bridge, actions, and other speed tactics that will definitely enhance your work flow. Photographers who shoot a lot of pix will benefit most but there is much for everyone (except, maybe, those just beginning Photoshop who may be a bit bewildered).

Recommended reading. I just wish the print on the screen shots was big enough that I didn't need a loupe to read it.

rps

This is a really good productivity booster and time saver. If you use Photoshop a lot you will find a lot of uses for this book.

As I move around often, many Peachpit Press books I buy on the road usually, once throughly perused, end up in the hotel trashcan. Kloskowski's excellent PDF tutorial on Smart Object in PS, merely underscores my desire for publishers to make available PDF (or similar) versions of their texts so that we itinerants can view them and keep them while on-the-road. (I see that the NY Times has come out with a Reader version of its paper which is terrific). I'm a podcast convert; now make me a Peachpit Press Reader convert.

For those of you who watch Photoshop TV, you'll get the little joke in the title. This book is fantastic, I've been using Photoshop for years, so I'm fairly knowledgeable when it comes to using the program. But this book is great whether you are an intermediate user, or a professional user. Matt does a great job teaching you ways to speed up your daily production in Adobe Photoshop CS2, in addition to some great tips and tricks.

He also touches on working with Adobe Bridge - Adobe's file browser / management / etc., software. Honestly, I'm normally not a "book" person, I usually prefer the video versions of everything. But the Photoshop CS2 Speed Clinic is written in a way that makes reading it easy and fun - I had a hard time putting it down! For the price ... It's a "must buy" for all Photoshop CS2 users!!!

The Photoshop CS2 Speed Clinic is a must-have book for seasoned Photoshop users. The author presents a series of powerful tips and techniques that will work wonders when integrated into your production workflow. The book delves into harnessing the power of Adobe's Bridge software, writing repeatable Actions to automate your workflow, and fine-tuning Photoshop's settings to work well with your hardware setup (Mac or PC). The tips and techniques are easy to follow, with plenty of images to support the text. This is a book that you can easily read through in one sitting, but I guarantee you'll keep coming back to it for reference.

This book is more for intermediate to advanced Photoshop users - focusing on maximizing your productivity with the tool. It's NOT a book for learning how to use Photoshop.

I think most of the information is pretty straightforward for those who have modeled objects and component packages. Anyone familiar with test driven design and other extreme programming practices probably have come to most of the same conclusions that this book shows examples of.

While it is very thorough, it is not very concise.

In the end i gave it 5 stars because it's the ONLY book that i've ever seen that gives this type of information in ANY format. I applaud the author for taking such a hard topic and putting it in writing. Sometimes I have to have examples like this to show to other developers when they 'cry' about not being able to unit test.

If your job is working with Legacy Code, then you need to pick up this book. If you follow his line of reasoning, you can pick up solid habits to systematically revitalize legacy code. The main emphasis of the book is applying unit testing to legacy code for in the authors opinion, legacy code is simply "code without unit tests." You may or may not agree with this statement, but the techniques he presents to find "seams" as he calls them in the code to allow you to break dependencies are vital to working with legacy code even if you choose not to apply unit testing to your projects. Some developers may attack the simplicity of the examples presented, saying they don't represent real-world examples, but if you "read" the text accompanying them you learn the techniques to tackle legacy code issues. Although I noted many publishing glitches - places where sentences to entire paragraphs are repeated from one page to another, the content is solid.

[...]

This is a must-read for software developers, I think. It's up there with Code Complete as a must-have, and I think does a better job than Refactoring by Fowler of explaining Refactoring. I started using some of the techniques in this book immediately and found that coding was higher quality and more enjoyable. It also helps to understand that the author's definition of "legacy code" is "code without tests".

I am an entry level software developer who has only been in the industry for a little over a year. While I was in college, I was always provided with very clean code bases to work with or analyze. I was in for a huge surprise when I entered the real world. The code I deal with every day at work is an extremely ugly mess. We have no automated tests. We are basically operating at CMMI level 0. There are no clear coding conventions of any kind. People just kind of band-aid things on top of other band-aids just to make the new changes work. We are basically in emergency mode every day because of all of the ugly side effects of global variables and functions. I was presented this book one day by my company news website. So I grabbed a copy and gave it a chance.

I was very satisfied with this book. I was expecting to start reading this and it would be like one of those GoF (Gang of Four) or Martin Fowler books that already assume that your code is already written fairly well in the first place. The reality is, like others have said here, is that most companies you will work for will just not have the prettiest code base in the world. The book's content is fabulous and I can see this being one of the key books on my desk every day. I absolutely love how pragmatic Michael Feathers is. I like how he continuously explains the concept that sometimes the code might look uglier or awkward in order to get it under test. I always thought the design pattern books were just a bit over the top. Michael is not like that. He provides examples you probably run into everyday and provides succinct steps for getting it under test.

The only gripe that I have with this book is the overwhelming amount of publishing errors throughout the book. Sometimes, a word is skipped in a sentence or the wrong word is obviously used. There was one point in the book I recall where it seemed like it was missing the ending of a sentence or something. I think if Michael ever wants another edition of this book then he ought to hire someone new that will catch all of these little glitches and correct them. They were a bit annoying at times. Also, like someone else said, it would've been nice to see some examples of really old code in COBOL or FORTRAN even.

Otherwise, it is easy to read this book and you'll get through it fairly quickly. There have been some technical books I have read where I just couldn't read it all the way through because of how utterly boring it was. Michael keeps you entertained with some rather interesting concepts and stories. I also like the way he formatted the book in general. I like how many of the chapters in the book are titled by some problem like "These API Calls Are Killing Me!" However, the last chapter called "Refactoring" was a bit vague and odd to me especially since all it discussed was his infamous "Extract Method" refactoring.

I really wish all of the developers on this team would read this book. They really need to. We need to stop this game of changing and guessing whether it worked. You just cannot do that with software unless it is very small. Any software engineer should have this book on their desk.

This book is decent but it doesn't break much new ground. The author has the Fowler-esque affectation of naming very simple things to create a shared and clear vocabulary (ie making a change and seeing what it breaks when you compile is now the LeaningOnTheCompiler pattern) which feels a little overdone in places.

There was some good material here, but generally the best parts were where he would tie an example into a well known design principal which would be explained in a sidebar (SRP, etc). Of course, that kind of stuff could be found elsewhere in a more concise format.

The book is nice in that it makes you think through the samples, I just wish there were more moments after doing that where I went "oh hey, cool" (there were a couple, don't get me wrong) instead of "yeah, thats pretty much how we do it now".