Software Books

First part of the book while describing Distributed Systems, Middleware and EAI lays strong foundation for Web Services. Second part of the book provides an extensive reporting about Web Services Architecture, related standards, service composition and BPEL. Though at the outset this book looks like serving academic purpose but it also provides the great insight of the subject to the programming community.

This book is must have which draws detailed conceptual and architectural views on Distributed Systems, EAI and Web Services.

This book is a little more expensive than most of the flashy Web Services books these days but it is well worth the money. Set in small font and not wasting pages on chapters like "History of XML and SOAP" this book is dense in content on the architecture of distributed systems, including Web Services. We get to learn about the issues of distributed transactions and the differences between conversations, coordination and orchestration. The text is precise but nevertheless easy to follow. One of the best books I have seen on Web Services architecture.

You can find a sample chapter on the author's site:
http://www.inf.ethz.ch/personal/alonso/Web-book/Chapter-5.pdf

I am using this book for a graduate level class about Web Services. I like the books approach on giving you enough background about middle-ware evolution that makes it easier to understand what Web Services are trying to accomplish. Given that the actual technology (implementation details) change so much in this area the books approach makes a lot of sense. I also found explanations to be concise and clear.

Advice: if you are looking for a hands-on how-to book about XML this is not the book to pick up. Otherwise, if you are looking for a good fundamentals book that will help you paint a big picture of Web Services this book is great!

A very nice introductory book on Web services, much different from all the others on this topic.
Excellent overview of the problematics of service oriented architectures on the Web and of their relationships with their EAI counterparts (corba,rpc,..).

If you want comprehensive high level overview of today's enterprise software landscape, this is a must-read.

One of the best books which answers the question , Why Web Services?? Unique perspective on middlewares in general.

Do not expect any code examples or details of any particular middleware.

I loved this book. It is rare to have a computer book that you can read cover to cover but this is one. It is meticulously researched and written, with good questions and exercises at the end to test what you learned. The only thing I didn't understand was why there were only answers to odd questions, but it didn't really matter. Finally there were excellent online references for future learning. This is a classic.

As a Flash beginner, I found this book to be the perfect starting point: concise, clearly written, and full of practical advice for creating basic Flash animations.

Kay writes in an accessible and engaging style, walking readers through basic Flash concepts like vector graphics, the stage and timeline metaphors, up through more advanced topics like coding interactive behaviors and working with sound. Finally, he introduces readers to the basics of Actionscript, the advanced Flash programming language used to create more complex applications.

I would wholeheartedly recommend this book for beginners like me who are interested in getting started with Flash.

The Web Wizard's Guide explains not only how to use Flash, but how to design with Flash. Tech-manual writers are notorious for leaving out context when describing a software interface, which makes learning most programs difficult. Kay's down-to-earth writing style simplifies the process. He uses practical, realistic examples to explain the concepts behind each menu command. He teaches you to know when to use Flash, and when not to use it. Read this book to learn good Flash design and keep the product manual around simply for reference.

I am a busy Art Director/Designer who, at last, is making the necessary transition from print to the web. The Web Wizard's Guide to Flash by Michael Kay has just become my most recent bible. I just love this book and can't put it down . . . it's like having your own web wizard always at your fingertips.

Michael Kay has done a great job in presenting a lot of intimidating technical information in an accessible way. The instructions are direct and clear and the language of the text is simple and friendly--not loaded with dull or confusing tech speak. The format of the book relies on well honed step-by-step technical objectives which, when applied, give fantastic results.

Best of all, I have been able to use these lessons directly in my day to day layout and design process. After working through this book, my web pages are now alive with animated motion and pizzazz, finally breaking me out of the amateur design crowd!

I highly recommend this text as a must read for any web designer or student or teacher who wants to learn and apply Flash - fast - in a painless, easy-to-read-and-use format. It should also be made more available on book store shelves in general.

as a web design instructor, i've read many books on flash and i am always looking for new reference/learning material to recommend to students. this one covers all the important topics very well. from the basic screen tour up through the nitty-gritty of actionscript, this book does a fantastic job of breaking down a difficult set of topics for a beginning flash animator. i would suggest this book to someone just starting out with the program, or for a person who's self-taught and is looking for the 'correct' way to do something. definitely a good investment.

I stumbled on this book and gave it a read. I was surprised that to find it a great intro to HTML. It's balanced between discussion and examples.

The book is a little dated. The HTML tag section references 3.2 Some of the software links no longer work, but that happens with time.

However, the examples are simple and easy to understand.

The chapters are: Introduction, tools of the trade, HTML Standard, the Next plane, Frames and forms, advanced webbing, upload, wrap-up.

The appendixes give you a Tag Compendium, Color names and Hex equivalents and the ever present Glossary.

Some of the stuff can be "glanced" as there is a small discussion about CGI, DHTML, XML, and java.

Probably the only concern is there are a few references to Matt's script archive and I have heard many people say "it's good to find out who not to do things."

Overall, this is a decent introduction for people how haven't done HTML before. The book doesn't patronize and it doesn't bury with detail as with the dummies HTML book.

Mr. Howard outdid himself with this one. I cant say that I've ever read a better text on the subject of HTML. THe approach is subtle yet engaging on the most intellectual levels.

This book is a conversation between two users (one novice, one expert) and this gives us a great perspective. Howard proves that programmers shouldn't be writing books anymore than mechanics should be selling cars. There's only room for one more HTML book and this is it.

Mr. Howard and his sidekick Kate provide an introduction to HTML unlike any I've seen. Through common sense examples and real world techniques that will have the reader coding pages in hours instead of days, they use the Teacher/Student metaphor to guide the reader through the lessons. Mr. Howard never talks down to the reader or assumes too much, and the casual, conversational banter between he and Kate fosters a comfortable environment for learning about HTML. Highly recommended!

...second only to Catcher In The Rye is Todd M. Howard's funny yet poignant book about life and love in the world of HTML. This book moved me in ways I can only attempt to describe, it's protagonist was familiar yet distant, a recluse iconoclast, a stranger in a strange land, always pursued by the wolves in his own mind, whilst wrangling with the predators in his own, very real existence. As the book progressed, and I learned better how to spell URL and FTP, I immersed myself deeper into the mind of this terrifyingly sublime character. Would he ever tear his gaze away from Windows 98 to the windows right behind him, would he ever be free of those shackles of conformity that held him captive? Would the tender succubus of his own youth and naivate consume him whole? Would I ever figure out how to plug in a table to my homepage? Link up to this classic, folks, our boy Howard has talent, charm, charisma... he is a credit to our race. He is a force to be reckoned with in a galaxy of wolves and sheep. He weaves the written word with the skill of a surgeon and implements lines of code like a crazed Kabuki chef on New Year's Eve at BeniHana's. I only pray that, unlike Salinger, Howard lives to put pen to paper once again. They say lightning only strikes once, but baby, I'm praying for rain. Until then, I remain his loyal subject, like a master to an apprentice.

Passed NT Server with score of 899--first certification class I have taken. This book is not only an excellent study guide but a great introduction to NT Server. I have been maintaining Server for over a year and learned things I needed to know 12 months ago! I hope Alan Carter keeps writing technical guides.

Passed easily in conjunction with Transcenders. Excellent reference guide - perfectly explains core issues regarding NT Server 4.0 and the exam.

Studying does not get much easier than this!

Highly Recommeded!

I used this book, combined with Transcenders and my real-world experience with WinNT Server 4.0 and passed with a 900. Even with the new MCSE W2K Track (which I am pursuing) I feel the right way to do is to do the upgrade path especially if you have experience with NT 4.0. Good luck to all.

Best written book of any MCSE study guide series! It is the easiest to read, comes with great software, and does a great job of hitting each objective. I bought this book instead of the NT 4.0 guide that covers WKS, Server, and ENT because I had already taken WKS--and it is enough to get you through ENT too. Alan Carter deserves a raise or something--because he outdid himself with this series.

This book is a must have if you want to become a MCSE. It covers everything you need to pass all three NT exams with a very clear approach.

No review here since the book hasn't come out yet, but I am sure it will be an excellent source of information regarding its stated topic.


SWEATY B!

I've been searching for a book like this for quite a while. I was primarily looking for a book that explained how to use Windows Media Player. Other books would skim the surface but this one goes into detail for people who enjoy organizing and listening to their music in various ways. When the author finishes teaching you the in's and out's of Media Player, he's just warming up. The author then goes on to explain how to set up your computer for music to get the most out of it, how to record from analog sources into your computer, how to use portable digital players (such as I-Pod), ripping CD's and burning them, downloading and purchasing music, listening to the radio via your computer, and finally setting up your own computer-based, home recording studio and using it. whew!! I'm a professional musician and even I learned things from this book. Besides explaining the main topics of the book, Mr. Williams goes into detail well enough so that you don't feel like you are left hanging. Before this book came out you would have had to buy maybe three or four different books to cover the same information. It's well worth the price in my opinion. For someone who is wanting to get involved with any or all aspects of Digital Music and looking for a starting point, I highly recommend this book. Well done Mr. Williams.

What a charming book. I picked it up in a bricks-n-mortar retailer who shall remain unnamed... then slammed it down before I let my fingerprints mar the surface and be forced to take out a loan to pay for it. I would recommend purchasing the book, chock full of informative, helpful, and timely advice-lets here and saving a pretty penny, though. It's not like I wanted to buy the store... just this excellent tome of digital wit that will help the user navigate the recesses of Al Gore's Internet (does he have that phrase copyrighted yet?) and remain out of prison and without "severe monetary penalties" (or, more succinctly, consequences and repercussions).

This is a pretty good reference book for anyone who is just getting into digital music.

It is particularly focused on the Windows Media player. There is also useful information regarding ripping and burning CDs, creating a computer jukebox, portable music players such as IPods, etc. The author also discusses the different formats for storing/playing digital music and the online services that offer downloadable songs for each.

Overall, I would say it is pretty good as far as being a beginning resource for one's digital music needs.

This book saved my life. Covered every aspect I needed it to.

I stumbled on this book over fifteen years ago while substitue teaching, and have been quoting from it, and looking for a copy, ever since. Like all good 'children's' books, WINNERS AND LOSERS is written as much for the parent as for the child. A wonderful introduction to ethical decision making, WINNERS AND LOSERS would be my choice as the primer for a course in the works of Confucius and Philip Paul Hallie.

The first time I encountered this book was in high school (1983) and a friend's father loaned it to me. A MILLION THANKS TO YOU MR. MESTON! I was so moved by this book that I have committed many of its words to memory, and have recommended it to probably hundreds of other people. Many times since then I have asked myself in certain situations, "Am I a winner, or a loser?" So, are YOU a "Winner" or a "Loser"? Read the book and find out.

I obtained my copy of Winner's and Losers when I went off to college. Years later, and after several moves and job changes, I have held on to my copy. This well-worn book is chock full of useful and quotable messages that apply in many personal and business settings.

This is one of the valuable little books that you or a friend will treasure.

I planned to purchase a couple of copies of Winners and Losers today. Please reprint as soon as possible.

The book illustrates with clear phrases and illustrations the differences between winners and losers. Some of my favorite quotations come from this book and I morn the fact that my last copy was lent and never returned. Some illustrations of favorite quotes: "Winners focus, losers spray" "A winner speaks until he makes his point, a loser keeps talking until he blunts his point." (caviat: quoted from a possibly defective memory) -bz- P.S. PLEASE reprint!

This book effectively identifies the attitudes attributable to winners and losers in very, very simple and straightforward phrases. It makes you self-introspect to improving your outlook in life all the more. I got mine many years ago and never got it back when lent to a friend. Am eagerly awaiting reprint of the book and will order quite a number as fitting gifts to friends and loved ones.

This book is excellent for the beginner, who will get many good advices, and there are also tips for the intermediate-level user. However, for higher-level things, this book would not answer your questions.

My biggest deception was that it doesn't cover (at all!) Word macros. For every topic you would like to know deeper (like macros), the author ask you to read another book: Special Edition Using MO 2000. I care if I should have bought that one instead.

The feature I liked the most is the introduction of Office's bugs or "weak points" (to give it a name), that is, for example, settings that are just supposed to be but you need to do indeed.

Just starting with Office? You'd love this book. Looking for solutions to big troubles (being not a beginner)? Continue searching, please.

This book is probably the best, most comprehensive teaching aid to a software program that I have ever read. This book has made transferring from WordPerfect suite to Office 2000 as easy as it can get.

Microsoft Office is clearly a passion for Woody Leonhard. He loves the suite for what it can do, but minces no words when it comes to taking Microsoft to task for what he considers [poor or useless] design decisions. He writes in a first person style that is refreshing, and dosn't talk down to the reader.

Most importantly, he starts with the premise that readers (and users of the program) are smart. He has little patience for design or settings that he sees as "dumbing down" the program for the masses. He makes specific and for the most part intelligent suggestions for changing the program interface and defaults to make it useful. In particular he recommends toolbar changes that mirror what actual users need as opposed to "gee wiz features"

Leonhard is highly opinionated in his choices, but he is not autocratic. He explains the reasoning behind a suggestion so a reader can say, "That's good" or "I think that won't work for me".

This book is probably *not* for the user who routinely buy "______ for dummies"

I think the strongest feature of the book for me is the unevenness of his topic coverage compared to the many other books on the market. It is not easy to categorize it as a beginner's book or an advanced book because the depth of coverage on any particular topic varies tremendously. If Woody Leonhard thinks a feature is extremely useful, or something that will be used repeatedly, his treatment may be exhaustive-going beyond even the typical coverage in an advanced book. He may thus skim features he considers of marginal utility. He is also excellent in explaining important features that are made unnecessarily difficult by poor design decisions by Microsoft.

Woody has little patience with cute feature names chosen by Microsoft--like "my computer" or my documents"--and he is free with his displeasure. Having worked with many of Mr. Leonhard's books, I recognize that his choices about what to lambaste are not always correct. While he is pretty good about seeing the diamond in the lump of coal, sometimes his annoyance can make him slow to see a useful paradigm shift buried in seemingly unuseful changes. Paradoxically, he sometimes he jumps on something new and is overtaken by his gee-wiz enthusiasm and don't see real problems with the concept or implementation.

If you have no patience to ready any book or manual, and you just want a encyclopedia stlyle reference this may not be the best book for you.

This book is perfect if you are already familiar with your computer and you need to quickly come up to speed on Microsoft Office 2000. I was already pretty expert with Word but used Excel like it was Lotus 1-2-3 with a different interface. I went through the Excel portion of Woody Leonhard Teaches Microsoft Office 2000 and it turned me into an Excel enthusiast and an almost expert user.

Specifically, he introduced the auditing toolbar right off the bat as a beginner's feature. Other books treat this as a very advanced feature. But Mr. Leonhard was absolutely correct. I now can trust my spreadsheets and especially know very quickly what I have done wrong when they don't work. This one insight that no one else provided was, for me, worth the price of the book.

If you are going to only buy one book on Office 2000, you may want to spend some time in the book store reading through a few topics to get a feel for Leonhard's style--nd decide whether it is compatible with yours. I imagine that some could consider his lack of bland objectivity to be an impediment. Others may find his idiosyncratic writing style tiresome and sophomoric. It's also true that unless you are a total computer novice, "you can't go wrong" with Woody Leonhard's book. It gets the teaching job done.

I don't always buy one of Woody Leonhard's books as my first book on a subject, but if I have two on that subject, inevitably one will be his.

I wasted two nights trying to get E-Mail to operate under Office 2000 Outlook program - all to no avail. I was in E-Mail contact with MSN support and got no help; they actually gave me incorrect instructions. I was then ping-ponged around between two Microsoft support numbers. Finally, this book arrived via UPS from Amazon. With the book's clear directions, and a little patience, I was able to get E-mail going. I had other texts but they were useless in solving a "simple problem" like E-mail installation under Microsoft Office's Outlook 2000 program. My hat's off to this guy. It's an exceptional book.

I have bought previous books by this author, but this one is just his greatest piece of work. Every one should own this book . It simple OUTSTANDING

state of the art book for all anesthesiology residents for every day life and board exams, one of the best books i have read, concise, pertinent, easy to read and to the date.
not a book to start with in anesthesiology, but it contains answers to the questions you can't find the answer, and a very good last read before clinical exams.

Finally the book that I have been waiting for. Two years after graduation for CRNA school I have been looking for a book to sort of "light my fire" again and Yao and Artusio's did it. Not only is this book filled with a great amount of knowledge, but also it is an inspiration to those of us who want to excel in anesthesia beyond the banality of induction and wake-ups. In the workforce, we as anesthesia providers, can become repetitive doers based on what work for us on a daily basis, but this book provides the key reasoning about why doing this versus doing that. The reading flows very well and after each chapter you are filled with a knowledge wandering how come no one explained it to you like that before. This book is a most for the serious anesthesia provider who wants to excel.

I do agree that this textbook is a very well-done, well written book with a lot of value for anesthesiologists. However, as a tool for oral board study it is actually a bit too comprehensive and inclusive. Take my word for it, during your oral board exam you are not going to be asked about histologic changes in the bronchial mucosa of the asthmatic or the synthetic pathway of catecholamines. The person studying for the oral anesthesiology board doesn't have time to waste learning material that he or she doesn't need to know. I recommend instead Clinical Cases in Anesthesia by Reed. Same format, much more focused on the material that the anesthesiologist must know for the oral exam.

You've passed the written boards - Congratulations! Now that you're sober again it's time to start thinking about the orals and this puppy is a big part of the solution. It's set up in an oral board question and answer style. Simply read the question -without looking at their answer- and then answer it out loud like you would if the examiner were sitting there in front of you. I know it's weird but it really does help to also practice in front of a mirror to eliminate all of the bizarre facial tics you never knew you had. Now look at the answer. Were you right or even close? Good! Keep going, you'll hone your style to a razor's edge. This technique, along with some good mock oral practice with those attendings who know how to give them, will have you spraying champagne over your friends and family like you've won the Grand Prix of Monaco the night after!

WRITTEN IN A FORMAT OF QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS THAT MAKES YOUR PREPERATION FOR THE BOARD MUUCH MORE YIELDED.A VERY GOOD SUPPLEMENT FOR ANESTHESIA PREPERATION

I agree ... this book covers all aspects of SQL. Code examples work and are meaningful.

A must have book for database programmers and administrators. Covers all aspects in detail. A very good reference.

I wasn't expecting two people from UPS to have carry this book into my office--the book is huge.

I have been using MYSQL for a year and I am moving to MS SQL Server. The book's tips (over 600) have been invaluable.

I used the code the book provides to convert many of applications to support transactions. Got to eliminate tons of code.

Very well done! Recommend.

This book has a lot of tips about SQL Server, although it doesn't say that on the cover. This was actually good for me since I was going on a job interview and I needed something like a comprehensive tips reference book on SQL (and SQL Server). I could have easily chosen a worse book. It's a bit wordy for me, and I'm not used to seeing so many typos, but considering that I have seen some terrible SQL books out there (including my college text), this book is actually well thought out.

As opposed to general reengineering principles, this book tells you how to carry out and implement reengineering successfully. We have already used it in one project with very good results and it was much cheaper than hiring expensive consultants. We now plan on using it for two more projects.

We have tried to use radical reengineering and continuous improvement. Both failed. This book presents a method for major discrete process improvement--in between the two extremes. This successful method is composed of 14 discrete steps that people can use without training out of the book. Each step is thoroughly addressed with guidelines,lessons learned and examples. The book also handles how to overcome resistance and problems that you might encounter.

Books about the relation & the effect of quality in process planning & the reverse

Most reengineering books give you general directions for doing part of the reengineering. They do not deal with implementation. Nor do they address the many problems that you are likely to encounter during the work. This book is an exception. It is probably the most useful and usable book on process improvement/reengineering. It is based on actual experience and follows a step-by-step approach through implementation. In fact, almost half of the book deals with implementation. There are a number of real world examples that are carried and discussed through the book. The book is well written and complete. The files on the CD-ROM are very useful.