Hardware Books

As a recent College Graduate with little real-world experience managing a AS/400, this book has been very valuable. With the exception of printing problems, most of my daily questions have been answered by picking up this book. While it doesn't go into detail about some of the commands/issues raised, it does tell what redbooks to go to for more information.

I literally owe my career to this book. If there were only one AS/400 sys admin book you could own, this would be the one! Two years ago I was thrown into the fires of AS/400 System administration. This book was the water I needed to put out those fires and become a proactive system administrator. It sits on the corner of my desk and I still reference it all the time. The "Primer" explains the situation in simple enough terms that a beginner will become excited about setting up and working with the AS/400. Then it will take you to the next level so that you can become a proactive administrator rather than a reactive one. I have recommend the "Primer" to friends that are seasoned administrators and they reference it all the time too. I just can't say enough about this book.

The Handbook provides working examples of solutions to real situations you will encounter as a programmer in an AS/400 environment. There are useful explanations and examples of CL & OPNQRYF & CMD that will make you more productive. The application development section covers both RPG/400 and RPG/ILE, including all three types of subfiles. Being able to compare source code for the same application in both RPG/400 and RPG/ILE is a major bonus. A definate plus for everyone still converting to ILE or supporting legacy code. The most useful information from quite a few IBM manuals is in here and indexed for quick desk reference. I coded a complex SFLSIZ=SFLPAG program just using this book.

This book is rather opinionated yet factual. A must for AS/400.

This is the best study guide out their for iSeries Command Operations certification. I have got this guide and in a couple of days I sat for the iSeries certification exam, I passed with a score of 88%. You should note that this guide was my only resource on the iSeries but I also had a little background of the iSeries system from my work experience. My colleague also used it and he has passed the test with a score of 83%.

I do recommend this Study Guide if you are interested in sitting for the iSeries Command Operations certification exam and if you are already have a background of the iSeries system. If you are only interested in general understanding of the iSeries system then maybe you will find better guides out there to help you in understanding the iSeries as this book is geared into preparing you for the iSeries certification exam.

"Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers" is a great book to learn the basics of 80x86 assembly language. I bought the fourth edition to learn 32-bit architecture of the Intel CPU while back.

This book is actually a college text book and was designed for that purpose. But, I successfully used it as a self teaching guide and went through every chapter and assignment including the reading on the CD-Rom. Since there were no answers to in the book test my self, I contacted the author Kip Irvine in Florida to see if he had the answers available. He was very friendly and sent me a copy of the asnwers via e-mail.

Also, the book came with MASM 6.15 and a lot of working tools to write and to test programs. The book is full of challenging program assignments. So, you can get good experience and confidence and really know you're learning the material.

This edition had a rather skimpy material on the CD about the FPU (Floating Point Unit). But, I've seen the later edition of this book and it has far more information on floating point assembly language. If you want to really learn assembly language for Intel 80x86 processors, you can't go wrong with this book or later editions.

I have a great deal of respect for, computer programmer, Bill Wilkinson. I consider him one of my mentors; he has answered so many of my questions. By doing so, he has empowered me with the ability to tell computers what to do. - Lonnie Best

I happpen to work for this company and I know a lot of the Aubuchons and the Morans. They are a good company to work for and the owners are very easy to talk to and are very personable. This is a family run company and they truly treat their employees like family. The third generation is running the company (CEO) and the fourth generation is in charge of the internet while the 5th generation was just born. The book is very well done and the pictures reflect what they had to endure and how they lasted 100 years. That is quite an accomplishment in todays big box store environment. A fascinating look at what the stores were like for the past 100 years and how they have changed to keep up with modern retailing and how they have adapted to the 21st century.

This book is written by an author who has written a number of useful tools employing auditory user interfaces. Thus the author is able to articulate the issues associated with audio interfaces. I particularly enjoyed reading about his solution techniques.

I bought this book which is written by experts of data converter design. It introduces some latest architectures I've not saw in other books. I can easily understood the basic idea to design delta-sigma ADCs. It is one of the greatest books.