Operating Systems Books

Although it has long since passed out of the collective IT memory, intimate knowledge of DOS was once a prized skill. At the height of DOS utilization, there was no better way to learn DOS than through the books of Dan Gookin. I kept a copy of his books within arms reach of my computer and when faced with a difficult task that taxed my knowledge of DOS, I reached for one of them. I was never disappointed and my coworkers often asked to borrow them when they faced the same dilemma. As I recall, they were never disappointed as well.

I think the review dated April 1 1998 is ironic, with the date of
April 1 being significant. Seriously, this is a great book for
computer users who want to explore DOS beyond the level of More
DOS for Dummies by the same author.
Despite the title the book refers mainly to DOS 5 with a little
DOS 6, presumably because DOS 6 was new at that time. The book is
about exploring DOS and PCs in general with the program DEBUG. I
recommend creating a DOS 5 1.4M boot floppy with the following
programs added, which should all be the DOS 5 versions (except
EDIT):
ANSI.SYS
COMP.EXE
DEBUG.EXE
DOSKEY.COM
EDIT.COM (from DOS 7)
EMM386.EXE
FIND.EXE
FORMAT.COM
HIMEM.SYS
KEYB.COM
KEYBOARD.SYS
LABEL.EXE
MEM.EXE
MORE.COM
RAMDRIVE.SYS
A blank floppy is also needed which ideally should be formatted
with DOS 5. By using DOS 5 you will get results which most closely resemble those in the book.
I found I was frequently pencilling annotations to note results of trying the exercises as well as clarifying the text and
correcting typos. Fortunately there is only one typo in the
script files - Figure 5-4, the file size (under RCX)is AC not AB
Also in some of the early batch files the printer (of the book)seemed unable to handle the less-than symbol for redirecting input to DEBUG.
This sort of book helps build an understanding of PC fundamentals which surprisingly helps with apparently unrelated tasks such as formatting a hard drive and installing windows XP.

it helped me with my online expernice. It also helped me with my english. I just want to say this is the greatest book in the world. I will burn my bible in put your book in its place. I also love the author fo writing the book

This is a very good book! It delves into the details right from the start. I recommend this book to anyone in the data communications field. It can be a bit dry and complex, but the material is complete and after two or so perusals is easy to understand. This book was used in my graduate course for data communications. Excellent book!

I have been using Fred Halsall's book in my computer engineering degree and it has been very useful. This is a dense, fat book that will provide lots of information. It covers the basics, from the essential theory about digital transmission, protocol basics and implementation methods, legacy and wireless LANs, HS LANs, transparent and source routing bridges, packet switching and frame relay networks/protocols, internetworking architectures, protocols and routing algorithms, multiservice broadband networks, TCP/IP and OSI application protocols, data encryption and network security, network management structures like SNMP and CMIP and other stuff. I can complain about some of the excessive use of acronyms that leave some areas of the book much harder to read. I'm talking about hundreds of acronyms here.

Also, Fred's writing is sometimes a bit too dry, sometimes forgetting to give the reader a general idea about the subject, instead of just jumping into all the details. This is something that is better done in other books, especially Andrew Tanenbaum's "Computer Networks". Tanenbaum also shares his sense of humour, which, in a dense volume about telecommunications, ends up refreshing the user. Also, Tanenbaum's dares to share his opinion sometimes, something Halsall seldom does, giving us only the facts and nothing more. But if it's the facts you want, he's good at it.

I found most of the book clear; the section about Huffman data compression for instance, was excellent. I remember having some trouble with the Viterbi EC algorithm, which isn't very well explained. The book also lacks information about some more modern technologies like GSM.

In general, this is a very competent title, and a great resource to the student or the computer professional. Be sure to check Andrew S. Tanenbaum's "Computer Networks", since you might prefer it to this title, or, the perfect choice, get both. (I have them both and some subjects are a lot better in one book, and others are a lot better in the other title).

Excellent book. I have read first edition (1992) and now it is one of my best reference at the university where I teach.

I am going to buy this last edition to keep updated.

I am an ASP.NET newbie and found this book very helpful in understanding authentication, authorization, role based security, input validation etc. I am a desktop developer and found the web development model difficult to understand initially but this book cleared up my mind in the security related parts. The book is written in a very clear and concise manner and uses diagrams to explain concepts which which I found very helpful. There are practical advices sprinkled all over the book along with the "why" of it.
In short, this is a very well written book which improved my asp.net knowledge and skills considerably. Highly recommended.

I really wish I could give this book 6 stars, it has been an indespensable resource for learning techniques to develop more secure applications. With so many dangers lurking out there it is increasingly important to not only be able to develop secure applications but to understand the .net security mechanisms as well. This book will leave no questions unanswered, if for no other reason purchase this book for chapter 8 on partial trust, I have not come across any resource that covered this topic so thoroughly. It's treatment of sandboxing and code partitioning alone make the book worth every penny paid. If your looking to continually improve the quality of your code and sites don't leave this book off your list.

This is a book by a MS Developer Security MVP for any and all developers writing ASP.NET 2.0 applications. Not only does it cover all the usual suspects and provides practical prescriptive guidance on how to deal with them with examples; it also deals with the tough "hot topics" like partial trust. The book is both complete in breadth and depth and really does provide a single good reference book on ASP.NET security.

I can not recomend it with more guster.

Confession I helped write the tools chapter which is why I know (and yes I am a fellow MS Developer Security MVP)!

I am using this book for my academic needs, and it tells all relevant subjects in a straightforward way, without messing up with any unnecessary mathematical extravaganza. I advise to everybody who wants a good headstart in this field.

"Digital Audio" is the book to have for anyone interested in using digital audio for ANY purpose. It is real world, practical information that will enable you to get the most out of your digital audio requirements and help you keep it leading edge. It is also simply a fun, interesting, techno read. Two Thumbs Up !!

This book, "Digital Audio" is absolutely wonderful. This has to be the best money I�ve EVER spent!

I am a Musician and a Teacher. The topics covered so well are the very things I have struggled to learn - on my own- since 1985. This book covers it ALL!! Thorough,comprehensive, easy-to-understand and well presented with humor and REAL knowledge of the various elements of digital music today (AND yesterday). Everything one needs to know to create first rate recording projects is right here!

I recommend this book to anyone who needs to know how to create music for digital distribution - be it on CD, the Internet, in a Multimedia presentation - wherever. It is an awesome distillation of the knowledge and experience of a Master.

I only wish I'd had it ten years ago!

This book should be on every project managers reading list. It is logically orgainzed. The explanations of the how's and why's to create dynamic project plans in Microsoft Project are complete. Beyond that Mr. Uyttewaal explains sound project management principles in clear and real-world terms. Whatsmore these principles are practical in their application and they work. The chapter summaries provide exercises that drive the concepts home. What makes this book so valuable is that even after reading it I can and do keep it within reach to use as a primary reference source. If you're serious about Project Management you will appreciate this book.

The author has put together a great book. It can take a project manager from the training and practice field to the playing field to create effective and realistic project schedules.

The author has mastered the concept of the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and more importantly, how to present and use it in a Microsoft Project plan format.
A project is comprised of phases, deliverables and activities. This book is fully aligned with the Project Management Institute's Project Management Body of Knowlegde (PMBOK). PMPs and non-PMPs alike will appreciate the insight it offers in planning and designing succint, comprehensible and manageable project plans to present to project team members and sponsors alike.

Though I've been working with Windows for almost 10 years, I still learned new tricks with this book. Of course I skipped over some basic parts, but I can see how others might find the background information useful. As an added bonus, the book has a nice glossary and index to facilitate searching for specific topics.

Effective Executive's Guide To Windows 2000: The Seven Core Skills Required To Turn Windows 2000 Professional Into A Business Power Tool was designed and written specifically for corporate executives, managers, and professional needing a fast-paced, filtered, executive summary of the core Windows 2000 Professional software, enabling them to understanding the desktop layout, manage files and folders, print out data, participate on a network, customize Windows 200, use the Internet for web browsing and email, as well as general troubleshooting. Pat Coleman has a flair for writing "user friendly" text which is enhanced with two appendices reviewing the Windows 2000 Professional Accessories and explaining how to use Windows 2000 Professional on a portable computer. Effective Executive's Guide To Windows 2000 is an invaluable instructional and reference text for anyone utilizing Windows 2000 Professional to carry out their corporate responsibilities.

This book is an effective step-by-step guide to using Windows 2000. Although it is not intended for the system administrator, it is a thorough discussion of all of Window 2000's functionality. Effective Executive Guide to Windows 2000 is as useful as a reference for the experienced user as it is as a tutorial for the Newbie.

I was pleasantly surprise to read the wide variety of computing devices covered in this book. Not only did the author bring me up to date on the latest PC technology, he also covered PDAs, digital cameras, MP3 devices, wireless devices, scanners, practically anything I wanted to know about. Best of all Keogh explained how these technology work in a way anyone could understand it. Another advantage I found over other books is that Keogh provided an insight into the entire technology industry - company by company. I give this two thumbs up. Good job!

This book hit the nail on the head for me. A good, easy to understand guide to all kinds of computer hardware. I particularly found the author's treatment of PDAs, digital cameras, and mobile computing devices very useful. Most other books on computer hardware only cover PCs. This book covers PCs and nearly every kind of computing device on the market. I give the author two thumbs for covering more than PCs.

Computer technology is a challenge to understand. It keeps changing quickly and its difficult to gain a basic understanding of it. However, I think Keogh's laid-back easy to read writing style brings technology down to a level that the average Joe on the street like me can understand. He starts with the very basic concepts then gradually brings you into the latest technology without skipping a beat. I found myself say, "that's how its down. It's so simple why do they make it sound so complicated."
And best of all he covers digital video, digital audio, and other technologies that you don't think of as being computer hardware. I can't wait for his next book on technology.

This is a great book for beginners that is highly visual, easy to understand, offers step by step excercises that guide you through the process, all while teaching you to do more complex things with Access such as subforms, complex queries, switchboards (menus), with an introduction to using VBA to deal with modules and procedures, data entry, error trapping, and data validation. Most of your learning will result from "doing", which is the great part because the actual excercises (with tons of visuals) are fun and easy to understand. The website also gives you the data files you need to do ALL the excercises on your own. This book will teach you things that will make for an impressive presentation of your database when it's time to design your own. Overall, it's a great book for beginners that teaches you to do a lot of cool and useful things with Access 2000, and I highly recommend it!

This is a great book for beginners that is highly visual, easy to understand, offers step by step excercises that guide you through the process, all while teaching you to do more complex things with Access such as subforms, complex queries, switchboards (menus), with an introduction to using VBA to deal with modules and procedures, data entry, error trapping, and data validation. Most of your learning will result from "doing", which is the great part because the actual excercises (with tons of visuals) are fun and easy to understand. The website also gives you the data files you need to do ALL the excercises on your own. This book will teach you things that will make for an impressive presentation of your database when it's time to design your own. Overall, it's a great book for beginners that teaches you to do a lot of cool and useful things with Access 2000, and I highly recommend it!

This is a great book for beginners that is highly visual, easy to understand, offers step by step excercises that guide you through the process, all while teaching you to do more complex things with Access such as subforms, complex queries, switchboards (menus), with an introduction to using VBA to deal with modules and procedures, data entry, error trapping, and data validation. Most of your learning will result from "doing", which is the great part because the actual excercises (with tons of visuals) are fun and easy to understand. The website also gives you the data files you need to do ALL the excercises on your own. This book will teach you things that will make for an impressive presentation of your database when it's time to design your own. Overall, it's a great book for beginners that teaches you to do a lot of cool and useful things with Access 2000, and I highly recommend it!

This was a very informative book on systems development. It covered the entire system development life cycle. You can't go wrong by following this. An excellent reference book!

An excellent read, complimented with expert advice and design strategy that really works, time and time again. If you are looking for the definative book on successful Systems Development, this is the one! *****

If you are involved at all with building and or developing systems, this book will ensure that you have the right foundation to succeed. I thoroughly enjoyed working through this book and would recommend it to anyone involved with system development.

Yes! This book explains the cutting edge techniques. I took this course (it is a graduate level book) at Colorado State from the author, and I think that this book is unique is many aspects.

It organizes a very broad array of topics under the unifying theme of "dimensionality reduction", or the finding of patterns in data. This is why the book is unique- there are many books out there on linear algebra, many books on neural networks, wavelets, Fourier analysis, computational geometry (Kohonen's Map, LBG clustering, etc.). What is NOT out there is a book that that shows the interconnections between all of these topics. This book does that. Look over the table of contents and you'll see what I mean.

Furthermore, the book is unique in its perspective- explaining the topics by the mathematical underpinnings- not from a statistical perspective (like Chris Bishop's neural nets book), or from a signals processing point of view (like Simon Haykin's filtering book).

Finally, the projects and problems that are discussed are really nice- For example, "The Rogues Gallery" is a face recognition problem (aka "Eigenfaces"); the techniques described are the ones in actual practice. And can a computer read lips? That's described here as well. Can you obtain equations of motion from data? Described here, too.

The book is not only theoretical, there are many, many algorithms listed that are explained clearly and are ready-for-implementation.

If you are a mathematician, engineer, computer scientist, statistician, or just interested in pattern detection, this book is a must-have.

As an artificial intelligence researcher, I cannot begin to describe the numerous gems in this text. Not only is this an extremely useful "how-to" manual complete with algorithms and examples, but the theoretical treatment is precise, thorough and yet concise.

One of the text's biggest draws is its atypical approach to so many commonly used techniques such neural nets, basic and cutting edge linear algebra, wavelets, etc. The unique perspective has illuminated my intuitive understanding of the operation of these and other techniques. This graduate level text is a bargain addition to the shelf of any mathematician or computer scientists.

As a former student of Professor Kirby, I can attest to his dedication to the lucid communication of mathematical concepts while lecturing, and this dedication is also very apparent in his writing.

When I took Dr. Kirby's course "Pattern Analysis for Mathematical Scientists" in 1994, we were using an early version of the notes upon which this book is based, and the subsequent continuous refinement (he teaches this course every year) has produced a text that is concise, yet thorough and very readable.

This book offers a good blend of the rigorous presentation of the underlying mathematical concepts and the straightforward development of the data analysis/reduction methods. A key feature is the application of the methods to interesting "real world" problems, complimented nicely by pertinent and stimulating problem sets and computational projects.

I can without hesitation recommend this book to anyone teaching a course on the mathematical analysis of large data sets, as well as for self-study. This is applied mathematics at its finest!