Internet Books

The alternate title of this book should be: THE ~COMPLETE~ AND ONLY GUIDE TO COLLEGE DEGREES BY MAIL AND INTERNET YOU WILL NEED TO READ. Excellent and up-to-date information regarding courses, tuition, residency requirements. I will FINALLY be able to confidently and comfortably select 'THE' Masters Program that is right for me! Tuition is quite varied and ranges from low to very high...Bears' Guide saved me the time and frustration of looking at schools with astronomically high tuition rates. If you are just beginning to look at Distance Learning programs, have been looking for awhile and are not able to make a decision, or you are just thinking about a DLP, this book is essential.

As I have been contemplating receiving my Bacherlor's degree through a University's Distance Learning Program, I was lost as to where to start. That is, until I found this book. BEARS' GUIDE TO COLLEGE DEGREES BY MAIL & INTERNET. John Bear's book contains listings of tons of colleges, that offer correspondence, independent study, and internet degrees. With information about each school, website addresses, e-mail addresses, etc. that make it easy for the interested party to find out everything they need to know. One thing that I recommend to everyone is to find out the accreditation agencies that support the schools listed before you sign up with them, as not all are regionally accredited. Overall, this was a fantastic book, and a must have for anyone who is interested in pursuing a degree through distance learning.

Erika Sorocco

I have read this book, as well as a number of Bear's titles, and I find it very well researched (and quite readable), considering the fluid nature of the topic. John, daughter, et al are to be commended for a fine project!

John Bear is a nationally recognized authority in school accreditation and has appeared as an expert witness in many trial venues. His list of enemies is quite long, as he has been partly responsible for the closing of a large number of diploma mills and con-game colleges, hence the slanderous reviews. He has also been involved in advising (and occasionally running) non-traditional schools (no crime there) that never claim an accreditation they don't have. Some of these schools have done well, others have not. Some are still around, others are not. (Still - no crime there.)
College is nothing if not market-driven. (Welcome to America; that's how it is done here.)

It should go without saying, but anyone foolish enough to believe everything they read in a Google search is certainly in need of an education!

Books by John & Mariah Bear have literally changed people's lives. This is no less true for this book. Although not quite the behemoth that the larger "Bears' Guide to Earning Degrees by Distance Learning (14th ed.), this book instead provides a tight focus on specific programs for those who either need a little more guidance or for whom smaller/less expensive works better. It still provides the same solid advice that readers have come to trust from the Bears.

College Degrees by Mail and Internet provides all of the information necessary to earn a degree (BA, MA, PhD) through distance learning. Now in its eighth edition, this book has stood the test of time.

If you're looking to change your life (more money, better work, etc), you need to check this book out.

If you want to get your education and not go into slavery with your student loans. Then get this book ASAP, it covers just about everything one needs to know on how to get your degree. I really think the future of higher education is going this way. But if you want to spend a lot of time, money, grief and get a real ration of manure. Then don't read this book!

First Edition of this book 1-59059-468-1 was a step by step tutorial of how to build sites. At the end, you get a decent working model of a balloon website. Thus, the title Novice to Professional. This book doesn't do this. The book is more laid out like other books. Chapter by Chapter, it covers a big topic like State Management, Error Handling, and others. This book is just like other books out there. I am bit disappointed that the publisher thought that previous book was not in an optimal format. There is really nothing wrong with the content or the information. This just isn't the Novice to Professional Book. It's as if you were reading the Harry Potter. On first edition, you know how Harry Potter is like. On second edition, he is gone or he doesn't do the magic tricks anymore. Instead, he cooks or sings. This book is like that. I can see Harry Potter Singing and Cooking. But that's not the Harry Potter series. He does magics...

This book is good but it's not in the original format.

I have purchased (what feels like) hundreds of computer related books from Amazon.com (including other ASP.NET books), and this is the first one that I have ever felt the need to comment on.

This is just a great book, in my opinion! I found the book to be very easy to read, and logical to follow - Matthew MacDonald's writing style is very effective in communicating technical information in a way that made it easy for me to understand.

I've been developing Windows client applications (VB/C#) for close to 10 years, and have "played around" with ASP.NET 2.0. I knew how to make some basic web apps work, but didn't really understand what was going on underneath the covers. I had a lot of questions that were answered and now have a lot more confidence going forward with creating ASP.NET apps.

As I mentioned, I had purchased ASP.NET books by different authors (for 1.1 and 2.0). Maybe I never gave those books a chance, but this is by far the best that I have come across.

Usually technical books are very booring to read. I buy many books as I tend to easily get trapped with reviews about book. But this book is one of the best book on C#. Every chapter is in detail and all it needs to get concentrations is to start reading it. The examples and the flow of topics are well planned. This is the book one should have if you are in to C#.
This is my first review on any book although I have purchased many books from many website. I felt a book which is soo good needs to be acknowledged.
Mark my words...this book is worth buying ...!!!!

I don't read many 900 page books cover to cover.. It's an accomplishment for both finishing this tome, and for the author of this great read.

The first sections gets you up to speed on C# quickly.. You should know some programming before diving in. Then each area of ASP.NET is covered at a healthy pace. Useful samples, and explanations and recommendations throughout. He first covers the manual ways of doing things, then goes into the slightly narrower scope of productivity shortcuts that turn days of development into hours. He's given me a new respect for it.

There are so many books on each tech subject, it's hard to know where to go. You find a few authors you like, and read their books. I'll pick up another one of his books soon.

Great read, highly recommended.

ASP.NET 3.5 is the latest version of the .NET Framework from Microsoft. C# is the defacto standard programming language for Microsoft programmers. Although there are more VB.NET programmers out there, C# is considered the more "professional" language and hence forth there are more job opportunities for C# programmers.

This book is huge (800+ pages) and really covers everything you need to know about C# and ASP.NET 3.5. Of course there maybe a few database topics it did not go into detail as much, but for the money it can't be beat. The author (Mathew MacDonald) really explained all the topics very well and assumed no prior knowledge of .NET knowledge. You really can be a `novice' and learn a lot from this book.

The great thing about the .NET framework from Microsoft now, is that there are so many free programs to learn before you invest any money (apart from the book of course).

The author explains the C# language first (great choice and wish more authors did it that way), in the first few chapters before getting into web forms and ASP.NET objects. C# is a professional language and definitely should be learned first before getting into anything else.

Starting at chapter 5, the author starts to explain what a web form is and how ASP.NET works. Covering everything from how sever and web controls work, to the web.config customizations, WAT, web control classes, etc. The following chapter focuses in detail about web controls (what ASP.NET is really all about) and probably is the meatiest of all the chapters. The chapter 7 goes into state management which is a very important and goes hand-in-hand with how web controls work.

Error handling (chaper 8) and deployment (chapter 9) is next on topics covered and then in the next sections of the book the author goes back into web controls with lots of examples of using the validation controls and master pages. Master Pages have grown a lot in this version and it is the core of how you will design you own ASP.NET 3.5 web site. There are 3 chapters dedicated to web site design and development and I have never seen a book with so much detail on the subject. Well done!

The rest of the book goes into database topics such as SQL, ADO.NET, Data Bindings, etc. I can't describe how impressed I am with how many topics are covered in this book and how well they are covered. You really only need this book for 80-90% of you ASP.NET development work.

A great buy!!!

This book is a great resource. While I could give teachers the link to THWT website, passing around a paper copy has led to even more discussion, collaboration and interest. We had a copy out in the faculty lounge, and teachers from grades k-8 all found resources that were useful. Clear, well-organized, and easy to read, this is fantastic for teachers who want to spend 10 min. scanning or those who want a weekend of reading. It is helpful on both specific content links and more general resources. Get a copy for your library or faculty lounge!

It is so helpful to have one resource that lists such a comprehensive
collection of online links for our teachers, in a volume that can be
marked up and passed around. The descriptions are accurate, and the
selection of resources is varied and valuable. Thank you for creating
such a wonderful resource!

Mobile technology does some wonderful things; forcing us to read through Internet pages on small screens while worrying about battery drain is not one of them. Tom Daccord offers history educators, library media specialists, and other interested readers a solution to this very problem with the most mobile, functionally-reliable technology of all: a good old-fashioned book.

Mr. Daccord's Best of History Web Sites is the perfect guidebook to help you plan and succeed on your journey through the varied and often challenging landscape of historical resources on the Web. Anytime, anywhere, the book's pages are yours to flip through, mark up, highlight, dog-ear, and re-read as you peruse the robust compilation of well annotated Web resources. Furthermore, the introductory chapters offer simple, concrete, and productive steps that you can take immediately to begin making your journey through history on the Web an easier, more efficient, and more engaging one.

Whether you consider yourself an adept online researcher, a novice Googler, or a bona fide Luddite, you can learn from this book and bring your skills with identifying and utilizing history Web sites in education to the next level. If only there were a book and accompanying Web portal like this for every subject!

Tom Daccord has done a strange, but incredibly useful thing; he has delivered his tremendous online resource, www.besthistorysites.net, in book form. It is seemingly odd because you have to ask yourself why you would purchase a paper version of a website that you get for free online. The first couple of chapters, Locating & Evaluating History Web Sites and Integrating History Web Sites in the Classroom, cover very important ideas that are in tune with his other web site, Teaching History with Technology (www.thwt.org). This part of the book offers great overviews on how to seek out, vet, and use online resources for any teacher regardless of the subject. Mr. Daccord also discusses how to teach this in class. The meat of the book is valuable because it really lends itself to how teachers work.

I work as a Technology Coach for an elementary school district in a suburb of Chicago. As part of my job I am always trying to build connections with classroom teachers. One of the best ways for me to do that is provide them with easy-to- use resources that they didn't previously know about. When I got Tom's book I emailed all of our middle-school social studies teachers. I told them about Tom's book & suggested that if they had any upcoming units for which they wanted more online resources than they already had I would be happy to look them up in The Best of History Websites & pass them along. Within a few hours I got replies from almost every teacher with request for various topics like ancient civilizations in Egypt, Rome, & Greece, WWII & The Holocaust, The Cold War, The Middle East China and its culture, religion, economy, geography, history, government, and present status, various topics focusing on Europe, Vietnam, Civil Rights, Watergate to "New World Order" , The Post 9/11 World, and the second industrial revolution/ growth of cities late 1800s/early 1900s.

The next day I had teachers stopping in to borrow the book - and that's where I think the real value is in The Best of History Websites. Teachers do a lot of planning & note taking in places where they don't have access to the web, but this book makes thousands of web-based resources for teachers available for lesson planning at any time. As mobile as computing technology is, it's still lags, at least a bit, behind a book. And yes, I found one link that needed to be updated, but out of the 75 or so that I checked, that's a darned good ratio!

For teachers looking for new ways to integrate technology in the classroom Mr. Daccord has hundreds of helpful links, ideas, & suggestions too. There are specific lesson plans, online maps, teaching guides, and activities that extend outside the classroom. This book is a real goldmine.

I'm sure that anyone considering purchasing this tome has already become familiar with the remarkable "Best of History Website." The question that immediately comes to mind is why the oxymoron of a book about websites? There are three reasons: One is the comfort of reading through a book rather than scanning webpages. Anyone who flips through the 400+ pages will immediately be drawn in by the breadth and depth of the sites reviewed. The PBS, the BBC, the Library of Congress and The New York Times websites are well represented, but there are also many obscure, yet fascinating, sites included. The extensive index is a shortcut to discovering hidden gems. The second value of this book is as a step in the conversion of the technophobic social studies teacher. I brought the book to my faculty meeting and passed it around. It was wonderful to hear the little gasps of excitement from some of the, shall we say, mature teachers who didn't know that there were so many wonderful sites on Mesoamerica or The Great Depression. One colleague tried to abscond with it! The third value of this book is the excellent chapter "Integrating History Web Sites in the Classroom." This section summarizes the best-practice use of the internet in the classroom and gave me a number of ideas of ways to make better use of computers in my class.

This easy-to-carry book is very practical. It allows you quick, and convenient reference to the best search web engines making the A's to Z's of life a little easier. This is definitely a "must have" for anyone who enjoys not wasting time.

This is exactly what I would expect of a book with this title. It's about time. Normally I would search in magazines,trade publications and newspapers for recommended web sites. This tended to be hit and miss. The BoTB Sites guide is concise, to the point and handy. I look up what I want the first time, rather than having to wade through countless search engine results (of which the majority are not pertinent to my search). I'd recommend it to anyone who doesn't have all day to play on the web.

I found the internet a hassle to search. It could take hours to find anything pertinent and useful. On-line searches can give you alot of irrelevant results. So I invested in this book and I'm glad I did.

The best part about it was no surprises. The book is organized, well-written and up to date. The editorials let me know what to expect from each site so I can go to the ones I really want. Its a great internet tool that puts an end to the useless searches. It covers a huge range of topics and the spiral binding is a great idea. No more flipping the book to keep your page when you want to explore more than one site. Put simply --its my best search engine. I would recommend it to anyone who hates wasting time.

The main reason I purchased this book initially was because I was getting very frustrated using search engines on the web to find sites relating to topics I was interested in. Not only would the actual search take forever, I would then often browse through dozens of sites before I found what I was looking for. Well, no more!

This guide does what it promises to do...provide "the best of the best" sites on numerous subjects including activism, finance, health, law, and so much more! Not only has it cut down my surfing/searching time, but it's so handy to use. The coil binding allows it to lay flat for easy reference, the attractive layout makes it easy to find information, and the reviews are so informative, you know exactly what to expect from the site. I've even found some resources I didn't know were available; not just a shopping guide, but content-rich sites. For example, the sites on activism and philanthropy not only keep you informed on what's going on in the world, but how you can make a difference!

I also found the information on the travel and finance sites very helpful - there are so many of these sites out there and they've managed to narrow it down to the best I've seen yet. They've even included 10 wedding planning sites that I wish I knew about when I was planning my wedding!

I would highly recommend this guide to anyone who uses the internet - students of all ages, professionals, homemakers - anyone who wants to find "the best" websites without wasting a lot of time.

I can't recommend this book enough. It really has cut down on my search time. These guys have really taken the frustration out of finding the better sites in every category. The reviews really help guide you in the right direction. Definitely a good buy.

This is the type of writing you only get from experienced business writers. This is not magazine type writing..this is highly thought provoking and very well written. Every Congressman in America should read this book....if they did they would realize big business is not where its at. Good read!

To anyone who wonders why things aren't stable any more (and I mean everything from businesses to social relationships), this book is the Rosetta Stone. Blankenhorn takes Moore's Law from an obscure, techno-driven curiosity and maps out exactly how it continues to pulverize our social and commercial expectations. If you've ever scratched your head over why the American dream never seems to materialize in the marketplace, this book makes sense of it all. An enjoyable read, too, from the irascible journalist who's never been afraid to tell it like it is.

Dana has produced an excellenbt book on Moore's Law, perhaps the most determinative "Law" of the end of the 20th Century. Technology isn't easy, but this book is an easy read about the how and what and why of computer technology. Good for teenaged kids too.

Want to know how to predict the future? Want to understand your kids' world?

Then you need this book. In just a few hours you'll get to know the forces that control our working lives, and the heroes behind it. People like Gordon Moore, Jack Kilby, and Hedy Lamarr. (Yes, THAT Hedy Lamarr.)

This isn't a technogeek kind of book. It's a simple, down to Earth, and readable book. It's filled with stories and anecdotes you'll nod your head with, and some stories "ripped from the headlines" you will see with new eyes.

Best of all, this book does not leave you hanging. You will know the secret to accelerating change, and to decelerating it. You'll also be introduced to new technologies that will drive future progress.

All in a book you can read in a single evening. Not a bad deal.

In this day and age of hypemeisters and hacks, Blankenhorn's observations stand out like a beacon of truth. His lateral obsevrations not only make sense, but thoughfully demonstrate how Moore's Law impacts everything you do on a daily basis. Thanks to this book, what was once relegated to microchips and silicon can now be seen in a much larger sense, explaining why so many are so bewildered at the lack of stability in their lives. Want to know the deeper reasons why we're all stressing out? Read it. A great piece for thinking people interested in making sense of our strange new world.

Great book about great ideas and great people... Book is a very easy to read as it gets more and more interesting the more you read it.. Great analysis of starting a dot com business in Europe, and comparison between EU and States.. Also this book is a must read on what not to spend the money on when starting own dot com company. :)

p.s. too bad Boo.Com did not work out, as i would be their #1 customer....

A couple of years ago I read a review of boo hoo that said: 'great book; but don't give them any more money - borrow a copy from your local library'. I never got round to going to the Library and its taken me two years to buy the book - I waited too long - its very good. It's shocking how naive they were - probably too many vodka and grapefruit juices.

An awesome book, this book reveals the highs and lows of a dot com startup from the "ideas" to the "inverstors". Not really a book about computers and the internet but more about Ideas and people, a great book to read, couldn't put it down, passed it onto a few other people (including my mum) who liked it too. Deffinately worth buying if not only to catch a glimps of a dot com startup caught up in the internet bubble madnes! Hey Ernst how come you haven't reviewed your own book yet?

An awesome book, this book reveals the highs and lows of a dot com startup from the "ideas" to the "inverstors". Not really a book about computers and the internet but more about Ideas and people, a great book to read, couldn't put it down, passed it onto a few other people (including my mum) who liked it too. Deffinately worth buying if not only to catch a glimps of a dot com startup caught up in the internet bubble madnes! Hey Ernst how come you haven't reviewed your own book yet?

It's been over two years since I've read this book and still thought it was fun to review it. Why? Because this book is the embodyment of the Internet age / bubble. Being an IT business owner I can remember the days when money seemed everywhere and profit was nowhere... sigh, good old times.

This book will take you on a ride in the fast lane and tells about innovation, transpiration and... no common sense. Looking back it all seemed the economy would change, business would never be the same and teens were ready to become millionaires.

This story is the 'Easy Rider' of the internet age. Cult status!

In this important book, the authors tackle an old issue in a modern context. We might recall that Victor Hugo, in the Hunchback of Notre Dame, discussed the moral and cultural implications of the printing press. Burniske and Monke bring this discussion to the 1990s by studying the implications of Internet technology on education. The fundamental question centers on what it means to be educated in the first place. Burniske, for example, makes a distinction between being trained, the language of technology, and being educated, the language of the humanities. This book walks us through specific efforts by the authors to integrate Internet technology into their classroom teaching, but what clearly galls both of them is that deeper questions about how to properly educate students are getting lost in the hype over equipment, technical wizardry and on-line chatter. There are plenty of kids out there who can create web sites, hack into complex systems, and master the language of technology, but do these same kids know right from wrong? Can they critically read a text, or relate to the deep emotions revealed in a play or novel, or even treat fellow classmates or online correspondents with respect? These issues are the real test of education, and if they get lost in the hype, we are building a Brave New World every bit as pernicious as the one described by Huxley. Burniske is an innovator who is trying to find ways to correctly use technology in the classroom, that is, without surrendering human issues or context. Monke is more skeptical, perhaps, but a willing participant in the dialogue -- how can teachers be empowered and liberated to properly educate their students.

Students, by the way, are the real concern of these two teachers. They do not see them as products or consumers, but as a community of people who need to be nurtured, cared about and finally led to a deeper and wiser understanding of their place in the world. Burniske and Monke are teachers in the best tradition of that word. They are about shedding light on the human experience, not simply walking the beaten (and often failed) paths of traditional educational discourse. Whether you agree or disagree with their arguments, you will find the discussion worth the effort. The final chapter is riveting, but the rest of the book provides a rich context for an important, humane and caring dialogue about some very important issues confronting humanity.

I heard one of the authors, Dr. Burniske, speak at the Odyssey Bookstore in Massachusetts in July. He gave such an impressive and thoughtful talk that I decided to buy a copy of this book. I'm not an educator, but I am a parent and I found this an extremely thoughtful and thought-provoking book. I don't think you have to be a teacher to understand the stories that Burniske and Monke tell or the ideas that they develop. It helps, however, to understand some of the problems that teachers face with respect to their own professional development. If you've not been in a school recently this book will certainly help you understand why so many teachers struggle with new technology -- and why we all should be asking more questions about its place in the curriculum. As some of the other reviewers have suggested, I think this should be required reading for every parent and teacher who wishes to take part in the discussion of technology in education.

I believe this book will greatly help educators to find practical and very effective uses of this emerging technology. With the guidance of this book, educators should lose their confusion and the trepidations that I believe many of us have in the use of this potentially excellent tool. With a bit of help from their teachers, students can learn to focus their efforts and perhaps for the first time, realize they can take part in making positive and profound changes in their lives and in the lives of others that they will touch. The deep insights revealed by this book, and the practical ideas presented by Burniske and Monke will reduce or eliminate much stess by educators that do not wish to repeat the mistakes of those who have gone before us.

I am a high school (Gymnasium) teacher from Germany and I picked up a copy of this book at an education conference. We have been using computers in our school for two years now but have received little training in how to use them to aid our teaching (we have received only technical training). By looking at the case studies in this book I finally have a good, practical guide for me that I can use to help teach my students using e-mail and the Internet. This really opens up a whole new world of learning for me and my students. It is nice to finally read *by teachers* about how teachers are actually using the technology, and not just a bunch of theories on how you *could* use it. Highly recommended.

As a secondary school English and social studies teacher, I found "Breaking Down the Digital Walls" to be inspiring, thoughtful and helpful. I would like to embark upon a telecollaborative project with my students, and use the Internet for something more than research, but until now, I hadn't felt prepared to do so. This book provided me with ideas and support, and it was interesting to read - thank you!

The continuously expanding need to economically move large volumes of data at faster speeds presents formidable challenges to both engineering and business professionals. Understanding Broadband technology and deciphering its complex technical principles is an arduous task in a dynamic and evolving environment. Mr. Louis has once again put together a technical guide that provides an excellent roadmap to better understanding of the Broadband arena. Since the superhighway of projected Broadband ventures is lettered with failure, this most recent "Crash Course" is an important tool for the arsenal of any remaining entrepreneur attempting to succeed in Broadband deployment. ....and once again, all in easy to read/understand presentation.

This book provides valuable insight into the Broadband arena. P.J. Louis has clearly articulated his vision of the future of fiber and wireless. Whether or not one agrees, he earns respect for taking a strong position and defending it with plentiful detail. Louis is clearly a teacher whose aim is to inform and educate with this book. Business leaders would do well to read this before leaping into investments in this area. The book provides a significant level of knowledge to assist in making informed business decisions.

This book is an excellent and unbiased technology assessment for the broadband market, without all of the technical hype and marketing rhetoric. Moreover, the timely interjection of business considerations throughout, reminds the reader that technology and business are not mutually exclusive - only a technically sound and financially prudent solution will be successful. Mr. Louis breaks down the attributes and capabilities for each of the available and emerging broadband technologies in such a way, as to provide the non-technical reader with sufficient understanding to make sound business and investment decisions about the plethora of broadband technology options.

This book will prove invaluable in bridging the communications gap between the "technologists" and the "financier" - a communications gap that, in today's telecom world, has left many bankrupt entities wonder why?

Once again Mr. Louis is right on target both with the emerging Broadband technology subject & the manner in which he describes it. As a telecom industry principal consultant with CommFlow Resources Inc.,this book is a welcome addition to my library. The book is an extremely easy read & speaks with the language & insight of the people working within the industry. This book will be referenced often as a foundation on Broadband knowledge as well as a marketplace development guide. I eagerly await a next publication from Mr. Louis who has his finger on the pulse of technology.

The book provides the business professional with an understanding of the entire spectrum of Broadband technology. This is not an engineering textbook, but a book designed to provide the business reader with a foundation for understanding a very complex technology. Mr. Louis de-mystifies the subject and is able to describe both the technological and business aspects of a very complex topic.

I found the book refreshing in its easy to read and conversational tones. It makes great reading on a cross-country flight. I recommend it to anyone needing an overview of the Broadband arena.

Books that improve my technical communication skills are few and far between; either the advice is too general or it is simply repeating something Gerald Weinberg once said. Still, being able to explain something to a colleague without sounding authoritative is difficult. My belief is that conversations with a colleague should be collegial, and one thing that can set us on equal footing is checklists.

Bug Patterns in Java provides you with a checklist for code reviews and software defect disputes. The best thing about these checklists is that they are non-authoritative. A checklist is just a general static analysis tool. It cannot prove there is a defect or corner case awaiting to be discovered by the end-user. It can, however, non-authoritatively point out patterns in code that appear to be programmer mistakes. What's more, since a checklist is really just a general static analysis tool, you can implement these checklists using automated tools like FindBugs. These tools help provide you with The 2 Minute Answer about the health of your code base.

Now, if you can just run a program to find these mistakes, should you still read Bug Patterns in Java? Absolutely. Just as Martin Fowler's Refactoring is still read by many who love their push-button refactoring features in IDEs, Allen's book should still be read by programmers who use static analysis tools to locate and correct mistakes. The correction half is where Allen shines. He explains exactly what program transformation to do. Moreover, in talking you through the correction, he makes you realize how valuable code reviews are in catching mistakes before they become part of a forward-facing, published API. Allen provides a fantastic vocabulary for describing common bugs in Java, and my belief is that this vocabulary can be cross-pollinated and benefit users of other languages. In particular, Liar View, Dangling Composite, Run-on Initialization and Sabateur Data are phrases I regularly use outside of Java.

Last but not least, most of the chapters are based on an IBM developerWorks series written by Allen. You could read the developerWorks articles by typing in the names of each bug pattern in a search engine. However, if you are not strapped for cash, then it really is worth it to get the book. In my opinion, the format is easier to read, the ideas flow well from one chapter to the next, and Allen definitely spent some extra time sequencing the chapters in the most pedagogical order possible. You are paying for a finished product and world class presentation quality.

Two side notes:

(1) Others have since built upon Allen's work. Sai Zhang published a paper titled "On Identifying Bug Patterns in Aspect-Oriented Programs". It is a really good paper that explains some pitfalls to watch out for, whether you are a programmer or language designer. Templight, a Template Metaprogramming Debugger for C++, was the first effort to provide a way to identify defects in C++ code that takes full advantage of the Turing Complete template system. Problems like infinite recursion and so forth were shown to be identifiable using an automated checklist of sorts. There are many more examples, but these were just the first two I encountered after reading this book. Do your own exploration!

(2) Eric Allen claims he invented the term "bug pattern". Although I don't have any reason to believe he plagiarized the term, Google Book Search suggests that W. Lewis Johnson's book, Intention-Based Diagnosis of Novice Programming Errors (Research Notes in Artificial Intelligence), was the first appearance of the term in the programming field. Thus, credit appears to be owed to Johnson. I just hope that this "bug pattern" term isn't one of those notions that gets lost and re-invented every decade.

The author presents a different way to look on bugs and the debugging process. I could recognize most of the bug patterns as regular acquaintances from my daily work. What I liked most was the way he made clear how Java's type system can be used to eliminate certain kinds of bugs but that there's a trade off between static typing and duplication in code. In other words, to remove some sorts of duplication you sometimes have to forgo static typing in Java.

Time is a very valuable resource on every project, and this book can help conserve that resource. The first six chapters of the book present defect management within the larger concept of Agile development methods. Chapters 7-20 detail various bug patterns with symptoms, causes, cures, and preventions. The remainder of the book provides some nice resources like a diagnostic checklist, a glossary, a reference list, and an index.

I recognized some of the patterns from the author's column on developerWorks, but the book does a solid of pulling them together to present debugging as a rather orderly and scientific process. The author relies on his real project experience with the DrJava project to illustrate his examples. Various tables are available to link concepts with potential bug patterns or problems to a bug pattern that could be related.

The patterns are explained and depicted with code with each chapter having a summary of the concepts at the end. Tips and variations on the patterns are sprinkled in the text. I found the glossary of particularly helpful. The text is easy to read and the examples are clearly explained. This book and "Bitter Java" may have a good "ROI" as required reading for Java developers.

A great Java resource for programmers of widely varying experience levels. Author found the perfect balance between theory and practical application. There is a wealth of useful information in the chapters devoted to detailed descriptions of the symptoms and cures for the most common and/or most troublesome Java bugs. The book is organized in a very friendly way, making it an excellent reference. I plan on keeping this book very handy.

Bugs. All code has them to one degree or another and they always seem to take twice as long to fix as the original code took to write. This book boils thirteen of the most common bugs down to their root causes and formulates them as 'bug patterns'. Each bug pattern describes how to identify the bug by the symptoms it exhibits, why the bug is occurring, and gives one or more suggestions to fix it and prevent it from occurring again.
If the bug you are searching for isn't among one of the thirteen bug patterns covered, the author also covers a methodical approach to tracking down bugs effieciently and quickly. Suggestions on how to prevent bugs from occurring in various stages of the development cycle are also presented, which are helpful even if you aren't currently searching for a bug in your code. Most of the suggestions are based on the XP development model, but the practices that are important are pointed out so they can be incorporated into any other style of development.
Even though debugging doesn't sound like a fun topic, the author has a very readable style and is able to get you excited about preventing and fixing bugs. The chapters have been very well thought out and the book is broken into topics very well. You can read a chapter in about ten minutes or less and feel like you have a good grasp of the topic covered.
This is a great book to partner with a 'best coding practices' type of book, like 'Practical Java' or 'Effective Java'. Those books are really good at describing how Java should be coded. This book gives examples of why those practices should be followed, and how to quickly get back on track when they aren't and something goes wrong.

I bought this book for an overall understanding of BI without wanting a deep dive into the technicality of the technology. This book hit the spot nicely. Explained clearly the evolution of BI, the uses and some real-life solutions. In the final section it then went into the technology at a perfectly pitched depth. If you are looking for a BI reference guide, this is the wrong book for you. However, if you just want a clearly written book on the concepts behind BI and it's real life applications, this is the book for you.

I chose this book, because I needed to get some background on BI fairly quickly. It satisfied that need very well. It is quite well-written and some parts read more like a story, which is quite the opposite of the "just the facts, ma'am" approach of Kimball and his associates. (That is not a stab at Kimball. I am a big fan and I believe they have so much to say that they don't really have the space to make it story-like. Kimball has a completely different goal with his books -- but this is not a Kimball-review.)

At the start, the book introduces us to the Director of Imports at a gift and novelty wholesale company. Her initiative of selling a certain item didn't work so well, and we get to know the steps she has taken to analyze the data to find out what happened. Along the way, we are introduced to many Data Warehousing / Business Intelligence (DW/BI) concepts.

After the story, some basic DW/BI terms are explained in more detail. The authors explain quite well where they fit in the process of getting from mounds of static data, to a useable set of data for analytical purposes, which they call the BI Roadmap.

The book contains five case studies of a few pages each, which help fix the process of implementation.

If you know nothing about DW/BI and you quickly need a framework on which to hang whatever knowledge you gain elsewhere, I'd say this is a great start. Also, if you've implemented a DW/BI system and failed, this may help get you back to your roots. However, if you've read a lot of in-depth material and maybe have an implementation or two (successful) under your belt, this will only serve as a relaxing read; you won't gain much new knowledge from it.

I give it 5 stars, because it does what I think it attempts to do. It gives you background knowledge and a framework; it does not attempt to be an encyclopaedic work and desk reference, like Kimball's books are. Therefore it reads in a fraction of the time it would take to read Kimball. If background is what you're looking for, enjoy.

The book was a very easy read. Finised it in one afternoon. Definitely recommended for a novice. However, if you have an understanding of BI, then this book is not for you.

I like the cover. Its orange !!!

First of all, I will have to admit that I am a Microsoft advocate. I like their solutions and I think very highly of what they have to offer with SQL Server and Analysis Services.

This book lays down a good foundation for anyone to follow. It explains the concept of BI, the uses of BI, and the payback of BI. What more do you want.

I have been in charge of an SAP/BW group for a large consumer electronics company for the past 4 years. SAP's architecture for BI is very expensive, inflexible, and limited. Using Microsoft's concepts of BI would be cheaper, very flexible, with much more capabilities.

So, grab this book, read it, then read it again. Install SQL Server 2k. Install Analysis Services (comes with SQL Server 2k) and install SQL Servers Service Packs 1-3).

Then experiement with what they are telling you in this book and you will be amazed at what you can do....and cheaply!!!

Good Luck!

Techies will enjoy learning from real world examples of business intelligence technologies. Business leaders will appreciate how complex technical and business topics are tackled from various perspectives - what is BI, how BI will help your organization, and the most helpful chapter, how to actually identify, start and implement a BI solution.

Only wish the authors had spent a little more time identifying pitfalls, but that is why you hire experts to help you out.