Internet Books

I have been exposed to the Internet since 1991 when only universities or companies like Microsoft had access to it. So, I was used to surfing the Internet using FTP, Telnet, etc. When the World Wide Web came into existence in the mid-nineties, it grew faster than anything any of us could ever imagine (as we all know by now). I ran across one of the first editions of the Rough Guides about the Internet in 1997. Till then, inspite of being very familiar with the technology behind the Internet, I felt very uncomfortable about my knowledge of what the Web was all about. This Rough Guide was the reference I started using to change my ignorance about the Web. I bought every edition since then and have benefited tremendously.

So, why is this book so great? What does it offer? Well, considering that it is almost impossible for anyone to learn everything about the Internet, most people don't even bother to learn the basics. Not surprising, since you have to spend hundreds of hours reading too many books to even get a glimmer of understanding about this untamed beast called the Internet. This book addresses all the main topics in approximately 500 pages, and provides you the critical information that you need to know about the Internet in Plain English! If you like trivia, there is also quite a bit of it in this book on the history of the Internet. This book acts as a pocket reference, complete reference, listing of popular sites, dictionary and more - all for under [$$]

Being raised on British books, I thoroughly enjoy the systematic treatment of any subject that British authors tackle. This book is no exception - it is very thorough, complete and the facts are extremely accurate. Unfortunately, British books don't do that well in America (probably due to marketing disadvantages). But if you get a chance, check this book out and I am sure that you will be a fan of British books forever.

I have always bought several copies of each edition of this book that came out and gave them out as gifts to close friends and family that were new to the Internet. Every one of them has thoroughly enjoyed the new found knowledge gained through this book. I hope you have fun discovering more about the Internet by reading this book on a train ride or plane trip somewhere. Good luck!

Excellent book! Love it! Highly recommend to all! One of the best internet guide books I ever got! Thanks rough guide :)

I couldn't disagree with that last review ( 2 stars) more. I've been on the Net for three years and still find the Web guide a useful reference. Kennedy has put a great deal of work into collating a pretty damn useful cross section of the Web. I can't commend him high enough. I've bought several copies as gifts for friends - who've all lavished it with praise.

Even someone with a passing knowledge of the Internet, like myself, knows a good deal of what is in this book. The first half starts off useful enough, but like most books on technology diverges into sections that are seemingly "no briainers" and sections that are so specific as to be less than useful. The second half is mostly just addresses of sites and reads like a TV Guide.

Two stars, one for each of the pieces it was in when I finished reading it. Money ill spent.

This book is small, yet filled with more information than 5 of the Dummy books and i feel smart using it not like the dummie books. You will find ways to deal with problems on the Internet as well as a dictionary of site to run too. Great gift for the Computer user.

I got this book to refresh my routing skills and ultimately to take the lab. It was OK and well organized with enough examples to walk you through the steps required to take some further steps! To be honest the only section that I didn't like much was its redistribution chapter but the rest of the book seemed very interesting to me. Although it's not mentioned in the book but you will find it extremely helpful a couple of weeks before your lab date just after doing all labs developed by different vendors it again tastes like a Cisco resource for a Cisco exam.
HTH,

I have been using this book to refresh my concepts. It's truly amazing to learn concepts you've known for so long from a different angle aiding in building on it. I always expect a lot on the background of the technology rather than heaps of implementation details and the authors have provided a balanced mix of both. It is the best reference on IGPs and another point worth mentioning is the highlighting of certain key areas, where most people are likely to make a mistake. Each chapter in this book takes you a step closer to knowing IGPs better.

People call this the IGP Bible. I would agree, and would recommend this book for anyone who is serious about networking. If you're going for certification, this is obviously one of the books you will need for the CCIE. I personally wish I had read this book and Vol. 2 before taking the CCNP BSCI exam... I probably would have aced it in about 20 minutes. Whether you're a CCNA, CCNP, or none of the above,any questions hanging around in your head about EIGRP, OSPF, and even RIP will be clearly explained here. The book even covered IS-IS (from a campus perspective... you would need a bit more if you're doing ISP work).

This is the first book I've read that tamed my fear of IPv6. For each routing protocol (aside from EIGRP, which did not support IPv6 when this edition was released) the book goes through everything about using that routing protocol with IPv4, then goes through the same thing using IPv6. When looked at side-by-side like this, you clearly see how simple and improved IPv6 really is.

With some books, you read an entire section on a particular protocol, and at the end of the section it will say "here is the command to redistribute it." or "FYI... here's a cool command called a route-map," but doesn't explain. This book has entire chapters on the individual topics of redistribution, default-routes and on-demand routing, route filtering, and route maps. This truly cleared up all of the the big network clouds floating around in my head.

Routing TCP/IP, Vol 1 - 2nd Edition

I have used the first edition of Jeff Doyle's Routing TCP/IP volumes 1 and 2 for some time now. I consider them essential to studying for the CCIE lab exam. They also act as an ongoing reference for any networking professional. I was anxious to review the second edition and have not been disappointed.

I was impressed that this second edition appears to be a well thought out re-presentation of the material. By that I mean it is not just the first edition with some bolt-on additions but rather a fresh covering of the material with the updates that inundate our industry woven in as opposed to added on to the existing text.

I find rare cases to employ RIP in my current work but as an old dog, I tend to monitor its evolution. The book does one of the best jobs of conveying RIPng and its exclusive use with IPv6 that I have seen. An important note that other writers seem to overlook is the reliance of RIPng on IPv6 authentication mechanisms. Coverage of EIGRP's approach to IPv6 was lacking but I am told this was due to press dates vs. standards publishing or some such. Separate research for this technology would be required for those that need it.

In typical Doyle fashion, information is presented in a very matter of fact way, diagrams are clear and correctly annotated. Command output is easy to follow and well trimmed of content that does not apply directly to the point being illustrated. I have chastised other Cisco Press books for failure to hit this level of clarity and correctness. It is a peeve of mine to have to flip back and forth several pages (or even chapters) to reference a diagram or a table that is being discussed in the current chapter.

Overall: As expected I was quite pleased with the book and will recommend it to anyone pursuing their CCIE certification. I will also recommend this book (as I have the first edition) to anyone involved in higher level network design and administration. I heartily give the book five stars as I believe most reviewers will.

Jeff Doyle's 2nd edition of his best-selling book - "Routing TCI/IP Volume 1" is a welcome revision to the cannon required for any CCIE Routing & Switching candidate. Jeff Doyle, along with Jennifer Carroll, has done an excellent job at updating what is considered by many to be THE book on routing. In particular, the new edition does a terrific job at describing the white-elephant in the room - IPv6, IPv6's packet format and how to configure some routing protocols to advertise IPv6 prefixes.

The primary focus of this book discusses the most popular routing protocols - RIPv1 & RIPv2, EIGRP, OSPFv2 and, particular to IPv6, RIPng and OSPFv3. Dedicating over 450 pages to these topics alone makes the book worth itself. A further 130 pages are used to discuss route control (redistribution, filtering and route-maps).

In particular, I was impressed by:
* The book is fully-updated, and is not just a copy-and-paste of subject matter from the first book. For instance, on page 439 is discussed the use of a much misunderstood newer command `area nssa translate type7 suppress-fa'. This is just an example of complex and new commands that are documented.
* Of all the books I have looked at, this book does the best job at introducing oneself to RIPng.
* The book wastes little time discussing site-local addresses for IPv6. As the difficulties of using of IPv6's site-local addresses has rendered ths address as too complex to implement (and was, in fact, deprecated in RFC 3879), this books notes this and moves on. This goes against other recent books that that wastes pages and time discussing IPv6 site-local addresses. As any CCIE candidate will attest, studying time comes at a premium.

There are few cons worth mentioning:
* The book repeatedly incorrectly documents IPv6's link-local addresses as FF80::/10. Link-local addresses start as FE80::/10.
*IS-IS is discussed (which is no longer on the CCIE R&S lab). The book went to press too late to discuss EIGRP for IPv6 and is sorely missed.
*The book does bypass some interesting subtleties that you know Doyle is aware of but are, for the most part, undocumented. For instance, the differences between EIGRP and RIP when using the neighbor command.

The path to the CCIE R&S can be a long (and costly) road. While this book is focused towards candidates for CCIE Routing & Switching Lab, I believe this book would be a welcome addition to any Networkers' bookshelf.

I give this book 5 pings out of 5:
!!!!!

I'm just getting into this book, but so far it looks like it's very well written and more straightforward than other Seam documentation I've read.

One important point that would have made the decision to buy this easier for me is that the eBook version of "Seam in Action" is free if you buy the paperback version. The eBook is obtained by registering the book at [...] using data in an insert inside the paperback book. The eBook version appears to be well indexed such that the PDF internal links all work well (often eBooks leave these out). A great value!

"Seam in Action" starts with an introduction on Seam, then shows the reader what Seam can provide out of the box via its source generator. Along with Appendix A, this makes it a great tutorial to start using Seam. You'll be touching a lot of different tools and technologies and having basic knowledge on JSF is recommended, but the author never lets you down by always introducing what is necessary to know. Reading the online tutorial on JSF introduced in the book is still highly recommended for anybody who has never touched JSF before.

Part Two on Seam fundamentals, almost 200 pages, may be overwhelming at first, especially Chapter Three. Fortunately, diagrams and code snippets are very helpful to digest this volume of information. Part Three introduces Seam's conversation context, java persistence and Seam's enhancement on java persistence. There is again a lot of information in this part, but Chapter 10 is a great hands-on chapter that allows you to put into practice what was explained in the previous chapters. The book finishes with chapters on business requirements like dealing with security, Ajax, file uploading and much more.

Seam is such a huge framework, it must have been challenging for the author to pack so much information into his book. Some parts are high paced, but still well explained. This book is a gem, highly recommended for any Seam enthusiast. And don't miss the two bonus chapters at the publisher's homepage.

Excellent book! I've been using Seam since 1.2 and this book is by far the best and provides the most detailed coverage on a very advanced and deep topic like Seam integration framework. It's the best Seam book I've read thus far (I have read three previous Seam books on Seam 1.2). I especially appreciate the copious pics and tables (summarizes a lot of info quickly/easily); those should be added to the Seam ref docs. Very nice job on the editing, looks very clean so far! I use the pdf version for reference a lot now as well as the Seam ref docs. Index is very good as well.

You'll learn interesting concepts and technical details like:

* JSF lifecycle and how Seam's phase listeners work
* Seam lifecycle
* Seam interceptors
* bijection = dynamic injection + outjection + disinjection
* how Seam's contextual container works and details on the added conversation and business process contexts
* new features in 2.1 like Identity Management
* heavy detailed coverage on conversations and transactions (e.g. SMPC and Hibernate manual flushMode)
* seam-gen
* Spring integration and jBPM integration with business process contexts
* Drools and security management for authorization and permissions
* Seam Application Framework (framework in a framework for CRUD app support)
* Seam internals like how the components.xml works, Event/Observer, @Factory, @Unwrap annotations and patterns
* Page navigation in pages.xml
* Unified EL and JBoss EL
* I18N support
* Seam email support
* how Seam fixes the dread LazyInitializtionException seen in many Spring/Hibernate apps
* facelets as a view layer technology for JSF
* Seam remoting (calling session bean from javascript function)
* iText PDF support
* ajax4jsf vs. Icefaces (with coverage on Concurrent Ajax requests contending for ownership of the conversation)

You will learn a lot of stuff in this book that you will not find elsewhere all in one place and so well written. Also, the open18 golf course project and code examples are very helpful. There are many tips and warnings in this book that are very valuable and can't found be elsewhere. For example, the author discusses the dreaded PermGen out of memory error that happens a lot with Sun JVM and how to prevent that with options when you start the VM (i.e. JVM tuning).

Also, the author is a Seam core committer, so rest assured that you're getting the info from the horse's mouth, so to speak. Enjoy.

I am completely new to Seam and I found this book to be really helpful.

Just browsing the seamgen section convinced me and the rest of the chapters are also top quality.
The level of technical detail is appropriate and the examples help you understand the concepts discussed.
Highly recommended!

I found this a really well written interesting read on an interesting topic. I am now going to try out the examples in the book more and give a more thorough review on my blog

This book is an inspiration! When I started reading it..I couldn't put it down! Its amazing and is a must for teenagers who might be going through this and need help. This book is like a light to us 'bugs' or 'insects' and leads or guides us in the right direction. And it searches for lost or confused bugs and tries to help them.

This book is perfect and many parents should sit down with their teenagers and discuss about the temptations out there in the world and how they can avoid them and walk away. I am sixteen and I loved this book! I can't wait for more of the series come out!

This book is a must get!!

Wow, what an amazing tool to use to further communicate such a growing problem in our society today. This is an area most parents don't want to think about and the book provides parents with a platform to discuss this openly and honestly with their kids. Thank you for providing us with a chance to help protect our kids in a healthy honest way.

I was shocked to read that "90 percent of children ages 8-16 have viewed porn online - usually while doing homework." (OC Register article about this book on 12/3/07.) The odds are not good. Will your child be able to resist, when even the most innocent web search can pull up unintended results? If you have kids of any age, you can and must discuss this relevant topic with them. This book fosters that discussion perfectly. I applaud the creative and brave people behind this important and necessary parenting tool -- for handling such a tough topic in an accessible way.

This book has been so educational and eye opening for me and my family . This wonderful author has made a somewhat uncomfortable topic more comfortable for all of us. In addition, I loved the story. I am grateful that such a topic is being addressed. This is a pertinent topic. This awareness is so healthy and I love the solutions offered to this epademic. What a breath of fresh air. I feel that this kind book will be very healing for many.

What a great tool to educate and explain the temptations of our
complex world. The computer/internet have introduced such vast unknowns
and intrigue. I applaud Danielle for touching upon such a
sensitive subject that is so relative to today... she is fulfilling a need to reach out to today's generation now instead of later.

This book is simply great.was easy to read and well structured.has a lot of interesting details.

The Ultimate Guide to Search Engine Marketing by Bruce C. Brown is a must read for anyone who owns and operates a business in today's technologically advanced world. It is a great resource and a handy reference guide to the mysteries of internet marketing. It explains, in detail, what Search Engine Optimization is and how to make your website visible in search engines via the use of keywords. It contains comprehensive information about marketing your business and products online. While some of the chapters can be quite complex, the author includes screen prints as he walks the reader through the necessary steps to get a website on to the more popular search engines. There is a chapter devoted entirely to fraud, and how to stop your competition from clicking on your ads and burning through your advertising budget - something I didn't even know existed until I read this book. The case studies are helpful in demonstrating the effectiveness of directed pay per click marketing and search engine optimization. After reading this book, you will not only have a clear understanding of how internet advertising and marketing works; you will be able to apply your knowledge and immediately start marketing your business on the internet.

One hundred fifty years ago, businessmen believed that the China market was unlimited. They illustrated its size by claiming that, if they could sell even a single wooden match to every citizen of China, they would make a fortune. Nowadays, the Internet has replaced China as the source of unlimited market opportunity. Bruce C. Brown's The Ultimate Guide to Search Engine Marketing: Pay Per Click Advertising Secrets Revealed tells the reader how to tap into this opportunity and start building a fortune.

Brown cites studies that predict 231 million online users in 2009 spending as much as $3.7 billion. Brown shows readers how to reach those users through various online marketing techniques, in particular through PPC (pay per click) advertising. He details for owners methods for generating traffic, developing marketing strategies, budgeting, building sales, and protecting themselves from fraud. In addition to this information, useful to most business owners interested in generating Internet traffic, the book also operates on another level.

Brown goes into considerable detail on optimizing a web page for search engines and working in detail with Google and Yahoo marketing programs. No doubt, there are individuals who are equally comfortable with web page design and business operations, but it is more likely that a business owner will best use the web page design information to guide their interaction with a programmer. The book closes with case studies and more expert advice from individuals who have been there and done that. Brown has created a thorough guide loaded with a great deal of useful information.

The Ultimate Guide to Search Engine Marketing: Pay Per Click Advertising Secrets Revealed was recently selection as a USA Best Books Awards 2007 Business: Marketing & Advertising Winner: The Ultimate Guide to Search Engine Marketing: Pay Per Click Advertising Secrets Revealed by Bruce C. Brown.

Winner:
The Ultimate Guide to Search Engine Marketing: Pay Per Click Advertising Secrets Revealed by Bruce C. Brown
Atlantic Publishing Company
ISBN: 978-0-910627-99-3

Finalist:
How to Use the Internet to Advertise, Promote, and Market Your Business or Web Site--With Little or No Money by Bruce C. Brown
Atlantic Publishing Company
ISBN: 978-0-910627-57-3

The Ultimate Guide to Search Engine Marketing: Pay Per Click Advertising Secrets Revealed by Bruce C. Brown is a great book for small business owners and those with small marketing budgets. This comprehensive guide is a wonderful addition to anyone who wants to promote their business online.

The online pay-per-click system may seem complicated with its many ins and outs but with Brown's book, you can implement his ideas with little to no money and do so easily. Each section offers a wealth of information for web marketing and pay-per-click newbies. There are even three separate sections each on how to use Google, Yahoo and Microsoft alone! The concepts are simple and the history of online marketing gives one a helpful background in getting started. Brown teaches you how to create a budget, devise a marketing strategy of your own and work from there. This book is a good resource with its handy checklists, helpful glossary of terms and sections on writing your own press releases and even detecting fraud in the online marketing world.

`The Ultimate Guide' gives detailed plans and goes far beyond the basics of PPC marketing. With Brown's guide, you will learn the difference between the internet marketing practices and be armed and ready to get your business out there. What I loved the most was that names, internet addresses and links are all right here in this book! Brown includes so much information and guidance that there is even a section about how much time you can expect to spend depending on the success outcome level you are looking for. There are a variety of links and resources all at your fingertips in this book. It is detailed, well laid out and incredibly helpful to anyone who is looking for a new way to advertise their business and get beyond the first round of search engine success.

Straightforward, and easy to understand, not tedious. This book is extremely good. My instructor isn't the best, so I end up reading through the book a lot, and have come to really appreciate it.

Important concepts are hit upon from several different angles to really drive points home (but not tediously and repetitive), code examples are very good, lots of tips, and warnings of frequent mistakes. I can go through a chapter in a couple of hours, this semester I've gone through a thousand pages in this book, but it doesn't feel like I spent more effort on this course than others, I have learned so much from it.

Also, if you want to skip ahead, he will tell you what sections you need to know before beginning a chapter, so you can hit some relevant topic without reading every chapter prior to it.

Effective use of formatting and white space, clear headings that really help to find and organize the information, chapters are nice and manageable. Important parts of the code examples are highlighted so that you don't have to read the entire piece of code to get the relevant information, but if you want to see how the piece fits into a working program, the entire code is there to be referenced. It helps you to be able to just look the code quickly if thats all you need, or really sit down and give it a thorough run through to see how it works in the program.

I wish all my textbooks were like this, I advocate it to everyone interested in Java.

It is BY FAR the best book on programming that I have read. I tried Java for Dummies, learning online, also the Java tutorials from Sun and they were a waste of time or money or both.

There are several reasons that make me love this book and the way this author teaches:

1. I read most of this book in seven weeks. After that, I took a second course on programming and I did great on my class.

2. The exercises are well designed to learn. Some are challenging but all go right to the core of what you learned on each chapter.

3. It covers the basics and even some advanced topics that I have encountered in following programming courses.

4. The explanations are crystal clear. It is hard to be left with doubts.

5. The organization is perfect. It builds a core and then it adds more to the core. After five chapters you can move on many different directions depending on your needs and the book will still make sense.

6. The code is transparent and clarifications on the margins do help.

7. It is up to date with the latest Java release.

In all honesty this book does not have a weak spot. BUY IT!!!

hernanM

I have read both books by Savitch and Deitel, and Savitch is by far clearer, although Savitch could still buff the textbook out a bit more with explaining "Compositon" topic better and clarifying paramater type .

Also Savitch summarizes every subsection and I am not 100% sure this is necessary in all subsections.

Savitch should urge his publisher not to begin a new subsection at the bottom of a page!

Savitch should make available more solutions in a separate manaul for those wishing it.

Overall I would say Savitch saved my day with my 2 JAVA courses. Deitel starts out with graphics, assuming the student will graps Java better but Deitel introduces some rather major concepts when doing this and I don't think the students would appreciate the complex ideas without using Savitch step by step methodologies. Deitel assumes a student undestands the concept of "extends", "implements" etc and this is exactly what graphics class uses and Deitel assumes students will understand these concepts just because they are graphical in nature. Savithc covers these concepts later when other major concepts are covered so that a student will appreciate the "extends" concepts much better.

So Savitch and Deitel cover the same material, but in different sequences. And I believe that Savitch's approach works better and helps the student understand the more difficult concepts later in the textbook.

gerard sagliocca,
gerard_sagliocca@yahoo.com

I learned JAVA language a couple of years ago. As I have to reuse it recently, I borrow the 2nd Edtion from a computer science guy in the school, because many people told me this is the best one. After I read through it, I decided to purchase the newest edtion. It's INDEED the best one of the JAVA guides I've ever read.

I've tried three other Java intro books, and they either aren't well-organized or they take such a dim view of the reader's abilities that it's like reading Programming for Pre-schoolers. Absolute Java is well-structured with both breadth & depth: it doesn't ignore programming basics, but covers a much larger scope of material than other books I've tried, while still including detail about intricacies of more sophisticated aspects of the language. Uses lots of good, robust examples. Love it.

Mark Fitzgerald's "Lightroom & Photoshop Workflow Bible" is a very thorough and complete resource for any photographer wanting to learn how to manage and take control of digital post production workflow. I wish I would have had this book years ago when I was transitioning into digital photography and attempting to establish a post production workflow that would allow me to spend more time behind the camera and less time in front of a computer. The book is structured in a very systematic and organized manner which makes it a great reference resource when attempting to learn something new. This book has helped me resolve some ineffective workflow habits and learn many new post production techniques to increase the efficiency of our studio's digital workflow. This book is written in an easy to understand style and is highly recommended.

This book has "tied up many loose ends" that I've had in my workflow between Lightroom and Photoshop. Since I consider myself an "experienced" Photoshop user and "beginner" Lightroom user, I felt I learned more about Lightroom by reading this, but also picked up some Photoshop nuggets along the way.

Mark's book presents basic details such as resolution, file structure, and basic Photoshop tools while also providing more advanced editing techniques and some insights into why certain workflows are valuable ... not "just do this, it works". Since most software instruction these days is either skipped or found via Google searches, we often miss the understanding of how things work best together. His "tips" and "notes" were frequent eye-openers ... I love shortcuts and understandings!

I enjoyed reading someone else's insight on how to utilize these two awesome programs together ... Mark's expertise in these programs shows in this book.

I would definitely recommend this to those beginning to work with Lightroom and Photoshop. Those who may be more experienced, but feeling somewhat clumsy merging the two programs will also likely find what they need to improve their workflows.

When it comes to computer technology, I have never considered myself a quick learner. I can see the potential and WANT to use it, but am fearful I'll do something wrong. With that said, I have limped my way through Lightroom's basics for a couple years (and love the program and recommend it to anyone!) However, as my skills improved, I felt like I needed to take a leap to the next level and really understand it rather than just feeling lucky each day.

Fitzgerald's book was the perfect solution. I used it as a personal tutor. There was a conversational feel about it that kept my tech fears at bay. However, at the same time, I never felt as though I was sacrificing knowledge. The information was all there in an understandable format.

Although I read front to back, I used the index many more times along the way as a good reference point and take me back to the topics as needed.

Mark Fitzgerald's extraordinary expertice in Photoshop and Lightroom is rivaled only by his exceptional ability to teach us how to use these powerful tools. Even for those of us who shiver at the brain-busting thought of learning new technologies, Mark's Lightroom & Photoshop Workflow Bible is a user-friendly must-read for pros and advanced amateurs alike. As a professional photographer, I always look for ways to streamline my operations to give myself more free time and to beef up the bottom line. To that end, Mark's book is an invaluable guide filled with solid advice, tips and tricks. Lightroom & Photoshop Workflow Bible will remain on my desk as a ready reference.

I have been using Lightroom since it first came out. I've used it effectively but always knew there was more I could get out of the software. This book just brought it to life! I'm a professional photographer and I love taking pictures, not reading text books; so I've always left it up to my wife to read them and then explain to me how to do what I need done. This book, however, is easy to find subjects of interest, and then follow the clearly written instructions. I found the book's design of using Notes, Tips and Cross References particularly helpful. It's the only Photoshop/Lightroom book I use.

I had originally bought this book for son who was going to spend the summer working for my development team writing unit test for our database POJOs. I was so impressed way in which concepts were incrementally introduced I read the book cover to cover. It is now the only book I recommend to beginners and I introduce it as a 'must' read for all my new hires.

This is my new favorite-book-to-give-to-anyone-who-is-learning-or-using-Java.

The title is misleading in that this book is about much more than just the Agile Programming stuff. While it does a great job talking about Agile techniques and always starts by creating a unit test, the book really is about all aspects of Java (specifically Java 5) programming. Anyone who takes the time to work through the examples will become a much better Java programmer.

OO patterns, collections, type safety and more are covered and explained in the context of a rich, in-depth example. And because the author has you construct a high-quality test suite around the example, you are free to experiment with different ways to implement each new feature - thus proving to yourself the benefits of Agile design.

Just like it says in one of the quotes on the cover, this book is now required reading for the Java programmers at our company.

I'm not a beginning programmer, or even an absolute Java novice, so maybe this book isn't really aimed at me. My biggest gripe is that the code snippets continue on and on making the book very poor for anything other than cover-to-cover reading.

I've gotten about 6 chapters into this book and I love it. I've been developing Java for almost 7 years and am currently teaching myself Agile principles and this book comes as a great help.

This book is primarily for new programmers who want to learn Java as their first programming language. The book can also be helpful for programmers familiar with test driven development (TDD) but new to Java, or vice versa. I am an experienced Java developer, and I found that going through Agile Java presented me with a new and better way of approaching Java code development. This book covers Java 2 Standard Edition (J2SE) version 5.0, but covers only a few of the additional APIs at an introductory level. Technologies that are used pervasively in the majority of enterprise applications, such as logging, JDBC, and Swing, are presented in Agile Java. Some of the information, such as that on logging, will teach you all you need to know for most purposes. Other lessons, such as those on Swing and JDBC, will give you a basic understanding of the technology and will tell you where to go when seeking further information.

The core of Agile Java is fifteen lessons of about 30 pages each. It starts with baby steps in Java, TDD, and OO. The book finishes with a strong foundation for professional Java development. The core lessons should be read sequentially since each lesson builds upon the previous ones. Once you have completed the core lessons, you should have a solid understanding of how to build robust Java code. If you haven't completed the fifteen core lessons, you should not assume you know how to write good Java code. Each of the fifteen core lessons in Agile Java has you build bits and pieces of a student information system for a university. This single common theme helps demonstrate how you can incrementally build upon and extend existing code. Each lesson also finishes with a series of exercises. Instead of the student information system, the bulk of the exercises have you build bits and pieces of a chess application. Some of the exercises are involved and quite challenging, but they are where learning the methodology really begins.

There are three additional lessons to cover a few more Java topics. Two of the lessons present an introduction to Swing. These two lessons will provide you with enough information to begin building robust user interface applications in Java. But the bigger intent is to give you some ideas for how to build them using TDD. The third additional lesson presents an overview for a number of Java topics that most Java developers will want to know such as JARs, regular expressions, cloning, JDBC, and internationalization.

I really liked how the author integrated the three concepts of Java programming, TDD, and object-oriented design without confusing matters. The book is very clear with good illustrations. I highly recommend it. The following is the table of contents:

Lesson 1. Getting Started
Lesson 2. Java Basics
Lesson 3. Strings and Packages
Lesson 4. Class Methods and Fields
Lesson 5. Interfaces and Polymorphism
Lesson 6. Inheritance
Lesson 7. Legacy Elements
Lesson 8. Exceptions and Logging
Lesson 9. Maps and Equality
Lesson 10. Mathematics
Lesson 11. IO
Lesson 12. Reflection and Other Advanced Topics
Lesson 13. Multithreading
Lesson 14. Generics
Lesson 15. Assertions and Annotations
Additional Lesson - Swing, Part 1
Additional Lesson II. Swing, Part 2
Additional Lesson III. Java Miscellany
Appendix A: An Agile Java Glossary
Appendix B: Java Operator Precedence Rules
Appendix C: Getting Started with IDEA
Agile Java References

Thanks a lot, we are very happy to have this book in our library!

I found this book while browsing the programming section of Borders (the programming section of my local Borders is amazing!), and I've found it to be a real gem.

The book covers so much more than just Apache security. It covers installation and configuration, and explains a little of how Apache works along the way. There are also chapters or sections on:

- Understanding and securing PHP
- An explanation of SSL
- DOS attacks
- Traffic shaping in Apache
- Logging is covered extensively
- There's a chapter on web security in general, where all the common attacks are explained
- Using Apache as a proxy or a reverse proxy

I especially enjoyed the Web Security Assessment chapter where the author explained how to systematically analyze and probe web applications/servers, with many real world examples.

There is a large section discussing mod_security, which is an amazing Apache module. Mod_security is an intrusion detection and prevention engine for web applications (a web application firewall). The book is written by the author of mod_security (Ivan Ristic), so he really knows what he's talking about in this area. Also covered is mod_dosevasive, which, obviously helps prevent against denial of service attacks.

I would not hesitate to recommend this book to any Apache administrator, user, or web programmer. Its one of my favorite books on my bookshelf.

This book is worth every single dollar. The examples are very clear and also provide invaluable information about security.

A must have for everybody using Apacge.

Excellent book. The chapters on PHP and logging are especially useful.

I recently received copies of Apache Security (AS) by Ivan Ristic and Preventing Web Attacks with Apache (PWAWA) by Ryan Barnett. I read AS first, then PWAWA. Both are excellent books, but I expect potential readers want to know which is best for them. The following is a radical simplification, and I could honestly recommend readers buy either (or both) books. If you are more concerned with a methodical, comprehensive approach to securing Apache, choose AS. If you want more information on offensive aspects of Web security, choose PWAWA.

Before I go further, I must mention that Ivan Ristic cites me and my books twice, on pages 2 and 229. While humbling, I tried not to let this fact influence my review.

AS is an extremely well-thought-out book. My favorite aspect of AS is the decision to start with a blank httpd.conf file, rather than accepting the file packaged with Apache and making edits as needed. By building up httpd.conf from scratch, the author shows exactly what components are needed in a very clear manner. This was not the approach used by PWAWA. I would like to see other technical books adopt this teaching method.

AS includes better coverage of several topics which I believe are core to securing Apache. I liked AS' discussion of chroot environments and jails, although the author should distinguish between chroot on Linux or BSD and jail on BSD alone. AS features a whole chapter on proper PHP deployment (Ch 3), and a whole chapter on SSL/TLS (Ch 4). AS devotes another chapter to explaining how to host multiple Web sites on one host (Ch 6), which is critical to many Apache environments. AS' chapter on Web infrastructure (CH 9) also covers topics not found in PWAWA.

AS is also less explicitly Linux-centric than PWAWA. As a primary FreeBSD user, I found AS' approach more applicable to my environment. PWAWA seemed to assume everyone was running Red Hat Linux. It's fine to use a single OS for all examples, but I had to personally identify tools and techniques that would probably only work on Red Hat.

I had very little trouble with any of the text in AS. My main concerns involve Ch 1, where the author spends time on certain security concepts. I would consider the following with regards to threat modeling on p. 5: (asset) what might be compromised; (motivation) why compromise; (vulnerabilities) where compromised; (attack) how compromised; (threat) who compromised you; (risk) threat X vulnerability X asset value. On pp 9-10 the author should also have used the risk equation just mentioned.

Overall, I really liked AS. The book really is about Apache security, so if you are more interested in attacking Apache you might prefer PWAWA. If you want to learn about Web application hacking in general, your best bets are probably Hacking Exposed: Web Applications, 2nd Ed, and Professional Pen Testing for Web Applications. I will read and review those two books shortly.

This is by far the best book on real applications using XML. The author is an expert in the field, and the book is clear and concise, yet it deals with fairly complex applications also.
I highly reccomend this

This book covers the most popular XML application architecture patterns. Great source both for ideas and ready-to-go source code. I was pleasantly surprized to find the whole chapter (Chapter 6: Import from Any Format) devoted to the problem I am facing in my current project... Another excellent book from Marchal that really helps me to do my work.

There are already lots of 5 stars here and it seems unnecessary to vote another 5 stars. Anyway, I would like to give some personal feedback.

1)This book is short in length but rich in content.

Chapter 1 convers XML in a standalone java application, SAX parser is used in this chapter; chapter 2 shows a survex project using SAX parser and servlet; chapter 3 demonstrated how to use DTD, CSS within XML editor XMetal; chapter 4 covers XML publishing, same content can be published with different style sheets for HTML, WML and RSS; chapter 5 and chapter 6 describe the conversion between XML and EDI using xsl; chapter 7 is devoted to an e-Business project, using xsl and servlet; chapter 8 can be read after chapter 4, it is also devoted to publishing, with dynamically generated xml content; chapter 9 is devoted to a stock tracking project, which uses SOAP as the communication protocol, it can be read after chapter 7.

In a whole, this book covers:

a) XML parsers in chapter 1, 2, also java, servlet, design patterns Builder, Visitor.

b) XML editor in chapter 3, also CSS, DTD,

c) Publishing (XSLT) in chapter 4 and 8, also servlet.

d) XML and EDI in chapter 5 and 6, also XSLT.

e) e-Business: chapter 7 and 9, also servlet, SOAP.

2)This books is written for java developer, good understanding of java and servlet is required.

3)There is no chapter on JSP and XML, although there are application of XML with servlet and you can transfer some servlet into JSP; there is no chapter on JMS and XML neither, you may hope to find this kind of example in a JMS book.

4)This book is surpringly easy to use. I read it several times, from the beginning to the end. I tried EVERY EXAMPLE in the book, and every example works.

To be more honest, I only find one problem in the example (I just want to prove that I really tried every example): on page 81, third paragraph, first line, the author talks about how to chnage display style in XMetal:

Choose Tools, Editor Display Style

I found "Editor Display Style" in the menu "Format" instead of menu "Tools", so maybe we shuld replace "Tools" by "Format".

5)This book uses a JDBC database HypersonicSQL, and it is on the CD. So no preinstalled database is required.

6)The servlet container used in the book is jetty, the author provided batch file to use it without any difficulty. However, if you use Tomcat or Weblogic or jrun or another servlet engine, you need to configure it.

This book has many projects, which gives insight into various parts of XML. Basic knowledge of XML is required though. Implementation of these projects is a good way of learning XML. Nothing like hand's on experience.

The author's writing style is also good, he gives reasons choosing any particular implementation.

If you really need to know XML, buy this book.

The author presents very practical example projects in each chapter. The project in Chapter 9 is especially clear on demonstating the SOAP concept. Buy this book to jump-start your XML/Java knowledge and experience. You'll never regret buying this book.