Internet Books

I admit I agreed to review this book with at least a tad of trepidation, not only because I'm now barely entering the second half of the 20th Century as far as technology, but also because I've always secretly nurtured a philosophical resistance to any form of human interaction that smacked of science fiction. For me this category included cloning, telepathic sex, and computer dating.

So for two weeks I pretended not to notice this manuscript to which I'd committed myself, lying there among my gardening books on the bedside table. But finally I bit the bullet and opened to the Table of Contents. I became immediately, astoundingly engaged. Those clever chapter titles! "Oedipus Seeks Older Woman," for starters. Wow. This was not your typical book about love on the Internet. I tell you it was a page turner -- a finely researched, entertaining and convincing argument in favor of computer dating.

The authors are themselves persuasive examples of the validity of the much maligned phenomenon of cyberlove, having met through the Internet personals when Kenneth was living in San Francisco and Beverly in Tennessee. As if the glow of their personal relationship is not testimony enough (they could be the happiest couple I've met), their book includes perceptive recollections from other intelligent folks who found their own soulmates in cyberspace.

It includes interviews with owners of reputable online dating services, offers advice on how to choose an appropriate matchmaking service, and provides tips on writing effective personal profiles. The book outlines precautions taken by dating services to protect the privacy of their clients, and guidelines to attracting sincere people.

But it's not as simplistic or one-sided as that. The pitfalls are investigated and unsuccessful attempts examined. Participants describe their first-hand experiences with online dating. The characters are familiar and human, with all the usual flaws and fears we recognize (embracingly or otherwise) as our own. It's a page turner, I tell you. It's drama.

The Appels have written a fascinating book about love and human contact on the Internet personals. This is not about the flirtations of the chat rooms. This is about a serious presentation of self in which a person says this is who I am, this is what I stand for, this is the way I lead my life, this is my passion and spirituality, and this is what I want from another human being. Unlike the usual ways of meeting a person-at church, on the job, through friends--these presentations of self on the Internet reach across time and space like a beacon. The Appels are both serious psychotherapists and their guidance is gentle and accumulative, and, from the first page on, deeply optimistic. They have made contact with over 1000 people who have used the Internet personals, and they recount their stories on virtually every page. This is, in a very real sense, a book of love stories. I was astonished by the wisdom of this book. I love the human speech contained in it. The Appels believe that in time millions of people will use the Internet personals and meet their beloved in this fashion. This notion astonished me.

It Takes Two.Com should certainly be a prerequisite for anyone placing or responding to an ad on an Internet personals site. The many stories shared by people who have used the personals demonstrate how we must know and love ourselves--our games, our illusions, our fears, our desires, our dreams--so that we may more fully experience genuine love with another. These stories validate that there are unseen forces ever present guiding us, and that LOVE is really all there is, even when brought and given to us via the Internet. Sharing the strength and hope from first-hand accounts is a very powerful learning tool for those willing to have an open mind and heart. The authors' descriptions and explanations of what composes the essence of a person, how our persona/archetypes are lived out in our lives, and how these then come to dictate who we meet when it becomes our written ad or email is right on! Even the stories of fantasy, constant courtship, married and flirting, and disappointment can teach us. For the reader who is willing, the catalyst is there to help see how our superficial actions are not conducive to an intimate, trusting, accepting, committed relationship--if that is what we truly desire. Of course, to have faith and be open to accept and recognize our destiny when it meets us face to face is also required.

The authors are both psychotherapists who came together via the Internet. Their online love story is transcendent, inspirational, and, yes, even magical. The Appels' book is most noteworthy for its emphasis on the powerful aura of spirituality which is evident when soulmates connect. There's no way to predict it. If there were a way to manufacture it, I'm sure it would sell better than Viagra. In 1979, psychologist Dorothy Tennov coined a term by calling this attraction limerence. In her book, Love and Limerance: The Experience of Being in Love, she speaks of this soul-to-soul connection and how it can enter one's life. Suddenly a stranger is known. Not only does the Appels' work reflect this wonderful state, but it permeates their romance and that of the couples who were also blessed in discovering their spiritual partners online. It Takes Two.Com is a book about spirituality, persistence, hope, faith, and the uniquely human need to be loved. Thanks to reading their book I am better able to recognize when a person I am corresponding with online is sincere about wanting an enduring relationship; able to identify those who are simply looking for someone to play a role in their fantasies; and how to spot those who prey on the unwary. I was one of a 1000 research volunteers who participated in the Appels' study prior to the release of their book. Although I have yet to meet my soulmate, I believe it will happen. And thanks to Beverly and Kenneth, I'll know and see him before I meet him.

When I was searching for a book of information about online dating, I bought four books from Amazon. Three of these were silly and superficial in their approach. IT TAKES TWO.COM was strikingly different. Not only do the authors have the first-hand experience of meeting online themselves, but also in helping people resolve relationship problems. What I really enjoyed about this book were the many specific examples and directions for how to be successful online, and how to learn more about yourself in the process. Through accounts from people who have lost as well as won online, the authors explain ways to protect yourself as well as avoid hurting others on the way to finding a partner. IT TAKES TWO.COM was a very meaningful book to me personally, and I'm sure it will help many people in their online search.

In the last decade, the performance of J2EE applications has become of monumental importance in enterprise industries that use these applications. With the complexity of J2EE applications increasing every year, it is crucial that users of these applications be presented with a level of performance that is acceptable to them, this performance usually codified in the ubiquitous "response time." The authors of this book have given a good introduction of how to deal with performance issues in WebLogic applications and have discussed a freely available tool, called Grinder, which allows load-generating and data collection. The book though can be read with respect to any load-generating tool, such as Mercury LoadRunner, etc. Even though Grinder is free, it may take time for enterprise users to trust it in testing and modeling.

After a brief introduction to what the book is all about, the authors begin in chapter 1 with discussion on a testing methodology for doing performance studies of J2EE applications, which they hope will be generic enough for all readers. Their methodology boils down to first defining the performance metrics for the application, and then setting a target for the metrics. Test scripts that accurately simulate the application usage must then be obtained, and the statistical sampling method and metrics must then be defined. The authors emphasize the need for a realistic `usage profile' for the application, and they recommend strongly a fixed number of users per test run, with subsequent runs changing the number of users. They do not give quantitative reasons for not varying the number of users, but merely say that such an approach is "statistically incorrect."

They also point out the need for including "think times" between the executions of each request in a script, asserting that the think times will have a very dramatic effect on the observed response times and throughput for a given user load. They are correct in this claim, as testing and modeling studies will show, and they give examples of this in chapter 4 of the book. In addition, they remark that the attempt to simulate more users by decreasing the think time, with the assumption that the resulting data can be then extrapolated to obtain the performance at real think times. They point out, correctly, that applications do not scale linearly over different time scales, and that the application and Web servers, the database server, and the operating system do not interact the same way with different user loads. Performance testers and modelers have verified them time and time again, and so it is beneficial for a reader who might be new to the field to see the case studies illustrating this included in the book.

The authors discuss two sampling methods in the book, namely the `cycle' method, and the `snapshot' method. Defining a cycle as a complete execution of a test script by a simulated user, each user will thus execute every request in the script once. Increasing the number of cycles will result in more meaningful statistics, but the time to run a large number of cycles might be too prohibitive. The snapshot method involves capturing the data for a specified period of time.

It is rare to see in books at this level a statement that acknowledges the difficulty in the mathematical or simulation modeling of Internet traffic. The authors though are cognizant of this difficulty, and give some brief suggestions on how to simulate the Internet in a test environment.

The authors also devote a fair amount of time discussing how to assess the accuracy of the test results. The authors report that variability of up to 50% on the performance testing of applications has been observed, and so they propose a measurement of "quality" for the sample data. This is defined as the standard deviation divided by the arithmetic mean, and when close to zero indicates high quality in the sample data. A value above 0.25 for the quality they take as a sign that the tests are not reproducible, and they therefore encourage the running of more cycles of the test in order to pin down the origins of this non-reproducibility. They define a "load factor" to better quantify this, which they define in terms of an "aggregate" average response time. Plotting this quantity versus the number of cycles gives some information on a bad quality indicator.

Frequently, application development using J2EE requires that the impact of design changes or proposals on application performance must be understood. The authors address how performance can be impacted in the context of building servlet applications. The dynamic nature of servlet applications entails that special measures be taken to maximize the performance of the application. The authors discuss how to choose a session mechanism that will preserve the session in user requests, and how to manage the servlet thread pool. Other helpful hints are given on how to increase performance, such as making sure that the auto-reload feature of servlets is disabled in a production environment. In testing the servlet API, the authors choose the snapshot method of data collection, and used zero think times as a baseline, since the real think times are unknown. They use WebLogic Server 6.1 in this discussion however, which makes their presentation somewhat dated, since WebLogic is now in version 8.1. The authors also test the performance when the WebLogic performance pack is activated, for both the average response time and the transactional rate. Also studied is the cost of maintaining HTTP logs, an issue that is very important for those businesses who must keep these logs, either for advertising purposes or other reasons. By running tests, the authors conclude, as expected for those readers who have managed Web servers, that the keeping of log files can have a considerable impact on performance, for a high number of users. The effects of the size of the response generated by the test servlet is also studied, along with the effects of using HTTP 1.0 versus HTTP 1.1.

This is the best book yet about J2EE performance tuning. I hope 'Expert Press' (which looks like a Wrox imprint) continues as they have started.

The authors lay out a practical method for performance tuning of Web Applications and EJB's on BEA Weblogic, but there is no reason why the approach (and the 'Grinder' tool) cannot be used to evaluate different approaches on any other Web and Application server.

Note that this is a specialized book. It will not teach you how to do Java or EJBs. What it will do is help you evaluate how to deploy them in the real world to get the performance you need, and also to help you evaluate different approaches.

I was looking for a book to help me understand how regular performance testing is performed so that I could construct a plan to do Denial of Service security testing. I knew nothing about performance testing at all. The books really well laid out, structured, has great examples and is really methodical. It was perfect !

It was a great book! Had lots of information about Performance Testing. When coupled with the power of Panorama(TM) by Altaworks.com, it is incredible.

Thanks for making such a good book avaliable. I think the chapter on testing EJB design patterns is very well written. I would recommend this book as it is one of the best I've gotten my hands on.

The 'JUNOS Cookbook' by Avivia Garrett is a great resource for learning about JUNOS software. Filled with 650+ pages of material, this book will enable you to learn about setup, configuration, and all the ins and outs of this technology so you can better administrate and get more done in less time!!!

For anyone that works with JUNOS on a daily basis, this is a great reference book to have by your side, written in typical fantastic O'Reilly fashion.

***** RECOMMENDED

I would give this book six stars, if it were possible. This book presents a hands-on guide to JunOS. From installation and upgrade to routing protocols and MPLS -- this books spills the beans. The author provides "recipes" to acheive common routing tasks on JunOS quickly and without fluff. There are no filler chapters on theory, design, and protocols. Just plenty and plenty of practical, extremely useful recipes.

For anyone with a Cisco background, this book will get you up and running quickly with JunOS. Using this book, I was able to:

1) install JunOS;
2) upgrade JunOS;
3) configure NTP;
4) configure network interfaces;
5) configure BGP and ISIS;
6) enable a packet sniffer for troubleshooting purposes;
7) configure RADIUS authentication;
8) backup and restore JunOS configurations over the network;
9) and enable ssh access to a router running JunOS.

That's just scratching the surface of what this book covers. The more I read it, the more I learn -- and the more JunOS impressed me.

The absolutely best technology book I've purchased this year. Highly, highly recommend it to anyone using JunOS or moving to JunOS.

Realy helpfull, all the basic configuration otes that you need for a simple network

Aviva's flair for concise explanation makes this book a real joy. It's rare that I read just one recipe. If you want a concentrated dose of JUNOS that's sweet and easy to swallow, then get this book.

Even though you've been configuring or operating Juniper routers for long time and you think you are familiar enough with JUNOS, you'll still learn something you don't know from this book; the "Problem/Solution/Discussion/See Also" structure helps to quickly find and read the exact information you need and nothing more, if you don't need to, just like you would use a standard dictionary.

If you operate a Juniper router from time to time, or even on a daily basis, this book should be always on your desk, handy to grab, so you can use it whenever you need to answer a configuration or operational question, when you exhausted reading the standard configuration guides and the online help, and just before calling for help from a friend or from Juniper's Technical Assistance Center (JTAC).

This book by Wilson Smith is a little gem. He has written bravely and honestly about events in his life that will make the reader laugh and cry and just wonder how on earth he ever lived to tell the tales in Just Dirt.

It is amazingly touching and and not without humour. I think every teen who is thinking of running away should read this book. In fact every teenager should read this book and if I had a say I would put it on all reading lists in High Schools.

Just Dirt is not just for kids. Mr. Smith has recalled events that touched his life, his family and those around him. Every person reading this book will be moved in some way.

Mr. Smith has written the book in a really casual style, if I may say that. While reading Just Dirt, the reader feels as if he/she is sitting with a good friend while he is recalling episodes from his eventful past.

Wilson Smith, Just Dirt (Lulu, 2007)

I'll start off by saying there's no way I can write an unbiased review of this book. I've been reading Wilson Smith's writing for nigh on a decade now-- as hard as it is for me to believe that stockboy recruited me old pal Mike Burns and me for xnet membership almost ten years ago, such is the case-- and, like most of the list folk, I am well aware that Smith can spin a mighty fine tale when he takes the mike. And I have heard a number of these tales before, either just as they are here or in somewhat rougher form. Besides, I'm actually thanked in the credits. Me? Unbiased? Are you [censored] kidding?

I should also start off by saying that memoirs generally drive me up the wall. And that, interestingly, perhaps what I value most about this book is that Smith nailed why, on the head, in a brief digression in one of these stories. And then went on to write the first truly readable memoir (as opposed to those memoirs-passed-off-as-novels that are far easier to bear, witness Bukowski or Exley or even Jay McInerney's Ransom, his best and most underrated novel) I've come across in... longer than I care to remember. I consider this just payment for having forced myself though 100 Strokes of the Brush Before Bed.

Part of what makes it so readable is that this isn't a memoir in the way you might think of memoirs. It reads more like a collection of short stories. (As a side note, the book's main weakness also comes into play here; there are some times when pieces of a story are repeated. Remember in the Encyclopedia Brown books, where Donald Sobel's first few paragraphs were startlingly similar in every story? You get that here, but only once or twice.) The end result has a sort of concept-album kind of impressionism, a feeling that you're not getting the whole story, just the pieces that matter. Would that a number of other memoirists had thought to do such a thing.

But what really nails it for me is something I found completely surprising. In this scene, Smith finds a number of old stories (from a long-abandoned first draft of the title piece) in his attic, and is re-reading them:

"The stories, though, were non-stop "Show, don't tell" (the first rule of writing, eh?), to a degree of which I'm now mostly incapable. It makes me feel like a hamster on a wheel to try to write that way now."

Now, I'm a big fan of "show, don't tell." A huge fan. It's by far the best way to approach fiction. It's the only way to approach poetry if you want a poem that your public won't laugh at. But when I read that bit, I looked back on all those memoirs I've hated over the past few years, since they got so huge, and I realized that they were all trying way too hard to show (and to show every excruciating minor detail), whereas Smith is just sitting there like the guy next to you at the (juice) bar talking about all the stupid [censored] we did as kids. Well, some of us did as kids. (If you can't find anything in here to identify with, I envy you.) And, wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, it works. I'm not sure it would work in a longer manuscript-- Smith's book weighs in at a light, easy-to-digest-in-one-sitting 132 pages-- but it works here like a charm. (Which begs the question: how well do charms work? And what do they do? My mom's just dangled from her bracelet.)

This may sound like, well, it's just some guy sitting there telling you a story. Anyone who made the mistake of signing up for a first-year psychology class in college knows just how boring that can be (especially if you had my professor). Smith's self-deprecating wit coupled with the basic insanity of the times keep it from ever being boring. (Note: Smith does assume something of a knowledge of those times. If you're not familiar with, for example, the sixties hippie counterculture, you might find yourself confused. Be warned.)

Also, something else of note. As I mentioned; this is a one hundred thirty-two page manuscript. I grant you, I wasn't reading with a proofreaders' eye, but I noticed a total of two typos in the entire book. I can't think of the last book I came across from a major press with two typos. It's unheard of in the realm of print-on-demand books. That alone is reason enough to pick up a copy of this, even if the book itself had sucked. And this one doesn't, not by a stone's throw followed by a world-record chaw spit.

End result: even if you loathe the entire memoir genre, check this one out. It may just change your mind (though, I rush to add, just about itself. The rest of those memoirs? Yeah. Still garbage). *** ½

"Harrowing" is an over-used word in pop culture criticism, but I can think of few places where it is better and more aptly deployed than in a review of Wilson Smith's "Just Dirt." This loosely chronological memoir is crafted as an integrated series of short, near-still life vignettes (painting brutally honest and specific pictures of moments and places in time) and longer tales of transition (where thing/place/person A becomes thing/place/person B, and where the process, the crucible, is key).

In less deft hands, such a tale could have been ponderous, self-indulgent and dire, but Smith's story-telling skills are sharp, and his language and characterization are rich and evocative, drawing a reader into the emotional peaks and valleys that frame his psychological landscapes. He paints his self-portrait with brutal candor, and does a tremendous job at building tension in some of his longer works. You just know that something awful is going to come of all this, but you can't stop reading until Smith shines the spotlight on the shortcoming or mistake that wishes to expose or expunge, at which point you generally find a hidden element of beauty and grace, where you least expected it.

And ultimately that's what makes this book so lively and lovely: these are dark and troubling tales, but grace and transcendence and growth (and the desire to find them all) permeates the narrative, palpably. There's no treacly ending, no easy answers, no pat wrap-up, just an uplifting sense in the end that, hey, even though we're often our own worst enemies, and even though we may not always like ourselves, we're still something finer and grander than the sum of our molecular matter, and we're not just dirt, not by a longshot.

"Just Dirt" regales the reader with wonderfully disturbing stories, stories painfully familiar to many of us -- except we didn't have the balls to make them public. Smith has a refreshingly honest style of writing, sort of "in your face," witty, intellectual, anti-intellectual and hip all at once. Part journal, part personal journey, part freak show, it's a lurid, sensational look into the very deepest, darkest corners of not just Smith's world, but certainly mine and probably yours.

"Just Dirt" is a gloriously readable collection of events that may make you draw comparisons to your own experiences or may make you aware of your own relatively uneventful life. The style Smith employs is highly personal, and while he doesn't glorify the dysfunction, he embraces it in a way that helps explain how he has become the man he is today.

His ability to step away from himself and look back with remarkable clarity is impressive.

As a reader, I felt some guilt because I wanted MORE, even though reading his memoirs resulted in a level of discomfort. To say I "enjoyed" the book seems inappropriate, but I couldn't stop reading it, and it's been a long time since I can recall being so captivated.

This book is the best way for anyone who want to work with the Real Time Image Proccesing.

Thanks to the Autor ......

I first read a friend's copy of this book, it was already out of print and he had lost the CD, but the tecniques and ideas in this book are clearly written and easy to read. This is an excellent reference even if you are not working in Java (which I wasn't at the time) The Ideas are easily adaptable to C - C++ and the information and theories are fundamental to understanding 3D imaging from Movie Special Effects to Gaming. I spent 2 years trying to track down a copy with a CD and finally found it through Amazon.com, Thanks Amazon!

Don't let the age of this book fool you. It is basically all about the algorithms necessary for producing visual effects in both 2D and 3D that just happens to use Java as an implementation language.
The first chapter is titled "Easy Animation." The chapter's main focus is creating quickly loaded images, and reducing flicker.
Chapter two covers sound and is eight pages long. Two pages are sample code. Remember this book was written when Java had very primitive sound support.
Chapter three goes deep into image processing. The end result is that this chapter shows you how to code many of the special effects found in PhotoShop. Wave, ripple, and explode filters and 3D button effects among others are included here. To me this chapter is the one that stands the test of time the best due to all of the algorithms shown.
Chapter four covers two-dimensional rendering. The main topic of this chapter is creating small animations based on single pictures. The author introduces his framework class "ImageProcessor" first in this chapter.
Chapter five is entitled "Entering the Third Dimension". A really interesting star field program is included that was written, of course, before Java3D. Other programs include a bouncing ball and some take-offs of the star field. Then a 3D spiral program is introduced. The chapter dives back into the ImageProcessor class next. A program to break apart a picture and put it back together ends the chapter.
Chapter six discusses the now obsolete VRML. 3D transformations, movement in 3D, and wire and shaded objects are all covered, quickly and with no sympathy for the novice. A full page and half is dedicated to a discussion of VRML. This is a lot for this book. Most topics get explained once, very quickly and then it's off to the next topic. Several pages are dedicated to explaining a turning cube script. The Matrix3D class is covered next. Navigation is covered briefly, and wireframes are introduced. Shading is covered very lightly then a truly monster program for a so-called "basic" Model3D class is given. This is twelve pages of code. A second program follows that allows you to view Model3D. The chapter ends with a discussion on precalculating movement and passing HTML to the VRML animator, which is also included. There are interesting ideas here, but VRML is old hat and the code will require adapting to more modern needs.
Chapter seven is titled "Adding Realism." The main targets of this chapter are shading, illuminating, and textures--all, of course, very important to making that virtual world look real. The chapter walks through the creation of a cube in wire form then shows how to fill in the surfaces and begin shading. Shadows and perspective are discussed, then another little jewel is given. Listing 7.7 "Creating a 3D object from an image" and the accompanying viewer in 7.8 show how to take a title, make it 3D and shadow it. Texture is covered in great depth with lots of good code and more interesting tricks with pictures. The rest of the chapter is one long update to the Model3D class introduced earlier.
Chapter eight gets into tricks with text. This chapter is crammed with interesting scroll tricks. Late in the chapter some great 3D text scroll scripts, like a 3D spiral, are given.
Chapter nine is titled "Navigation." The keys to this chapter are frames, tracking the mouse and 3D animated menus. This stuff gets more directly into HTML.
Chapter ten is about making imaging effects look better and load fast. Some of this material is dated because the author is writing from the viewpoint of Java 1.0.2.
The appendix is a great summary of classes and commands used in the book. It serves as a very good reference source and is very helpful when trying to read through the programs in the book. The CD-ROM contains some shareware and freeware and a Java version of the old game "Asteroids". Most importantly it contains all the programs in the book. The shareware is pretty ancient and source code for the shareware is not included.
Even though this book was obviously written at a time when Java's main purpose was to jazz up web pages, it is still interesting for people who already know Java and basic computer graphics and are looking for some interesting graphic effects and their explanations. The two main bad points about this book are:
1. Everything is in the form of an applet. This is certainly due to the fact that the contents were written in 1996.
2. For a book that is supposed to be about graphic effects, the illustrations are very shoddy and they are all in black and white.
In spite of these drawbacks, it is a good source of information on how to perform effects at the pixel level, and in that respect the book will never be obsolete.

Java games are a hobby of mine, and I must say this the most practical book for the topic that I've found. It contains great practical examples, and doesn't stray from the subject - programming techniques that allow you to produce excellent-looking applets. Ever see those flashy slideshow applets, with various special effects? This book will show you how to construct one by yourself, explaining each step with great detail. It goes through great extent in helping you understand what you're doing, all while sticking close to subject, without beating around the proverbial bush.
The only downside to this book is its coverage of sounds in Java - if you need help with sounds and sounds alone, don't buy this book. It contains a miniscule amount of information regarding the subject - namely just a brief introduction to sounds, and usage of the Applet class' primitive audio playback functions (Java has great support for generating audio on-the-fly, which this book does not cover).

Lack of detailed sound documentation doesn't take away the value of this book, however, and I recommend it to anyone who would like to produce "kickass java" applets.

Firstly, as expected this book is not for the beginner programmer. It has excellent, working, examples which really takes you to the "cutting edge". Its focus is more on advanced animation (game-like programming techniques) and doesn't include for example database design and implementation, etc. Overall an excellent book, and for everyone bored with simple java UI's

I loved this book. The software the author talks about is on the cd rom with documentation! There are
a lot of nice extras on the cd-rom. Great sense of humor and kind of hard to put down. Twice already
I've used it as a reference. I will look to buy other books from this author. I can't believe he covers both
command line and gui apps that either do or almost do the same thing! Now I can get work done no matter
what with my small home network.

~~~~~
I picked this book up out of pure curiosity - a chimpanze on the cover of a Linux book? As I looked inside, I thought, "Gee, I really DIDN'T know you could do that in Linux!" My curiosity soon turned to amazement "Hey, you can't even do that in Windoze!" Next, I realized, "Hey, I have to DO this!" and bought the book.

The author has a refreshing sense of humor that makes you grin as you learn. He provides dozens and dozens of hard-to-find applications and tells you exactly what to type to implement the program. The CD includes helpful utilities, entertaining games, and even a full office suite. (Try to get THAT in your Windows O.S.!) Most of the programs on the CD include complete source code as well as a binary executable file. Many of the tools can run right off the CD.

This book is hard to beat if you want to get that "extra edge" in Linux. Your friends will be amazed and exclaim, "Gee, I didn't know you could do THAT with Linux!!!"

Lloyd W. Cary
~~~~~

I just bought this book. It contains 50 tips and tricks on using Linux. It also includes a CD-Rom with RPM's (for Red Hat 6.x) and lots of .tgz files. It has usefull info like how to undelete files and info on what applications are available to make Linux a real desktop OS ("real" replacement for Windows 98). It's a book for everyone and most software mentioned in the book is on the CD-Rom included. This book is definitly worth the price. Buy it!

I loved this book. The software the author talks about is on the cd rom with documentation! There are
a lot of nice extras on the cd-rom. Great sense of humor and kind of hard to put down. Twice already
I've used it as a reference. I will look to buy other books from this author. I can't believe he covers both
command line and gui apps that either do or almost do the same thing! Now I can get work done no matter
what with my small home network.

I have been using Linux for the last 5 years, and I have read quite a few books. I read this book just to refresh what I have learned throughout the years, and I can honestly say, this book is the only one I have actualy been able to sit down and read. This is a must-read for anyone getting into linux, or just want a refresh. It covers many useful topics, and is very easy to follow.

Last 2 months I read 20 books about e-marketing issues and this book is the most structured and easy to read book i have ever read. They give visual examples and this makes the understanding more easy... If you want to please your customers please yourself with this book...

I am a final student who major in Marketing in City University of Hong Kong. I have got a lot of learning insight from this book. This book give me an overview of different types of loyalty and how it can uses in the e-commerce. This book is divide into three parts. The introduction of eCRM, the eCRM customer loyalty business process and the eCRM customer loyalty infrastructure. Actually, I agree very much that loyalty is very important especially for e-business to encourage customer to repeat purchase. This book also give many technical support to those who want to build an e-business to their business. This book gives me a lot and I hope you also can find something insides it such as me!

"Loyalty Marketing for the Internet Age offers managers a variety of ways to secure loyal customers and customer retention strategies. I found the end of the success stories, checklists and case examples extremely helpful.

As an Internet consultant specializing in the field of eCRM, I've had to stay ahead of my clients by reading the latest, greatest books on the subject. This one stands out. It includes financial models to help you monetize the benefits of customer loyalty, extremely helpful "action plans" after each section and up to date case studies. This is a must read for anyone trying to sell, plan and execute an eCRM initiative.

Formulating a Loyalty Marketing strategy can be a challenge-further implementing your strategy can be a much greater challenge. Kathleen, has established a clear approach to blending strategy with implementation which is practical and useful. Executives who are struggling to identify which book is a blueprint toward 'Attracting,Serving, and Retaining Customers' have in my view one of the key books which is not fluffy and gets right to the heart of it.

Specifically- she has enlightened me to identify that not all loyalty is the same, and as a marketer-you must understand that different customers are loyal for different reasons and under different conditions.

One only needs to see my personal copy of this book to know that it has been poured over...covered in notes, highlights, stickynotes and folds- a true sign of a great book. (In my view)

This is just a excellent overrview of Machinima - way above the norm for Dummies books. The depth and breath is very impressive.

I'm pretty much a beginner to this topic, and I've found this is precisely the book you need to get if you want to learn how to make movies on your PC... I've found answers to every question I've ever had without all the jargon (and understandable definitions of jargon I've heard). It even gives advice on getting organized and how to go about creating a story... and with the included DVD (which has a little machinima program called "Moviestorm"), you can get started right away, and for free. Time for creative fun!

Highly recommended!

This book is the perfect guide for anyone interested in making films. Not only does it reveal the world of machinima, but the authors have provided a very informative and useful guide to the world of filmmaking. This could very easily be the classroom for students who want to explore film production as well as open up the new possibilities of film to the seasoned pro.

Machinima for Dummies is simple to understand, entertaining and if you only want to get one book on Machinima - this is the one.

Somebody gave this book two stars because he thought it lacked coverage of Second Life. Oops, he was wrong. Even if he was right it's a stupid thing to attack the book about. So here's another uninformed opinion to balance out his.

Finally! A book discussing the many aspects of Machinima for a "dummy" like me! ;) I've been looking all over the corners of the web for advice and tips for filming, editing, and creating Machinima, but now I can just look at this book for easy reference. The book kept me pretty interested throughout, and I felt that the writers really worked hard. (I read their blog..) :)

The book details the aspects of Machinima in a variety of games; some I never even heard of before! There are enough tips, hints, and advice in this book to allow any person, beginner or novice, to feel confident enough to enter the world of Machinima. Oh, and the attached DVD was an incredible bonus! I never even heard of "Moviestorm", but it came free (yes, FREE) with the book. This is one book that any "Machinimaker" needs, no matter your skill level! :)

After purchasing & reviewing this book I was a little surprised by the high star rating it received. I was more than disappointed. As a "newbie" with basic computer skills, I was lost by page 7.

The information I obtained from the book has been very helpful in seeing a more clear way of what the affiliate business is all about. The author of the book is very knowledgeable in the affiliate business, specially in the start up face of the business.

I follow up to everything I can find written by Rosalind Gardner including her website and I can say that her material is quite solid and no pitch. This book kept my interest from first page to the last one. These days you can meet lots of gurus in affiliate marketing but from my own experience I learned that from some of them you should stay far away if you don't want to let them use your bank account as their own.

Example: you pay for initial product, never receive this product, your requests for getting money back never reach anybody and on top of that in a month you suddenly find out that this "guru" is now charging you for phantom membership. Your emails stay never responded, your calls never get any effect, so you have to ask your bank to close access to your account for this thief. Your brains get dried off with this fight against the wind and you are not even close to success in online business.

With Rosalind you are safe, she is open in many ways, and all you need is just to work hard for her instructions to bring you that fortune. I enjoyed her book and will definitely recommend it to everyone who wants to learn about marketing online.

A good little book about how to promote YOUR BUSINESS using your Web site, Internet search engines, and other marketing techniques. I'm a SCORE volunteer who counsels small business owners on how to improve their Web presence and make the Internet work for them in bringing in clients. Much of the material covered in this wonderful little book is exactly what I explain to my clients.

As a SCORE counselor I discuss market research, competition research, Web site research, keyword research, profit research, how to design a winning Web site, how to build a winning Web site, and how to market the winning Web site. This book covers all of these things. If you are looking for advice on how to do these things, then look no further. You have found it when you get a copy of this book.

About three years ago I did a bit of research on affiliate programs on the Net and how to build my own affiliate program and upload it onto the Net. There really wasn't a lot out there to read about the subject at the time. Still isn't. But I was able to figure out back then that affiliate programs were not worth the effort to get involved in or to put together. I learned that if you can do a great job selling through an affiliate program, then you can do just as good selling your own product and make all the profit on the sale instead of a silly commission. This book helps explain how to do a great job selling. So get it for that angle and not the affiliate program angle.

I'm giving this book 4 stars because in my opinion the title is a little misleading. I don't know anyone who is or has made a fortune in affiliate programs. But if the title were changed to something like make a fortune selling your own stuff online and the content was reworked a little, then the star rating would go up. 4 stars!

The author takes you through a quick and easy guide to internet marketing. Step by step you can learn how to do it without wasting time on reading unnecessary things. Very good.

As Ajit's student I got a very through conceptual understanding of e-markets by reading his book 'MAKING MARKETS'. He has presented one of his best works through this book that can add new dimensions to innovate businesses. I recommend this book to all the intellectual food seekers in technology and business innovation space.

Kambil and Heck have written an insightful and thought-provoking book on electronic markets. It is a must read for anyone who wants to understand online markets. They develop a framework to understand as well as to gauge the success of such markets based on in-depth study of several electronic markets. I particularly liked their characterization of B2B markets and its relationship to supply chain management. Their chapter on using markets creatively has ideas for both researchers as well as practitioners. The book has many examples, is written in a narrative style, and easy to read to three or four sittings.

As an entrepreneur and venture investor, I've found Making Markets invaluable because it's an excellent analytical framework for thinking about and creating markets. What is especially valuable is their Process/Stakeholder Benefit Framework which is elegantly simple yet so useful. I personally use that framework in examining various business models.

I highly recommend this book!

Ajit Kambil and Eric van Heck have written an authoritative and highly readable book illuminating the much-misunderstood world of online auctions. In clear, simple prose, the authors explain that the initial excitement over online markets was not all dot.com reverie and new economy hubris. Given that offline markets such as the Dutch flower auctions have thrived for centuries, it stands to reason that online markets will succeed to the extent that they improve on existing markets. “As you will read in subsequent pages, human beings have always made markets, and they will continue to do so in the future- even if business is conducted through cyberspace.” Kambil and van Heck cut through the technical jargon all to common in “eBusiness” books, and elucidate very effectively why people participate in markets. They write: “…electronic markets are not technological interactions supported by humans. They are human interactions supported by technology.” This quote exemplifies why this book is not just another poorly cobbled together ebiz how-to; it is a book about understanding how we will buy and sell in the future and how managers can avoid the outrageously expensive mistakes of the past few years.

Success stories such as eBay and lesser-known eMarkets such as PartMiner are dissected to reveal what they did right, while spectacular flameouts such as Chemdex are shown to have lacked important ingredients for a good e-market recipe. There is a very good section dealing with how e-markets should be categorized which helps make sense of the galaxy of initiatives underway. There is a very insightful section on Knowledge Markets and how auctions for intangibles could become an important wave of future online commerce. All and all a great read and highly recommended.

David Brett, CEO and Founder, Knexa.com

Yes, Virginia, there are still frontiers to be explored and conquered. The internet is a very active place, but still full of exciting opportunities. Feeling entrepreneurial or adventurous? You can create your own market on the net. The authors suggest that the future of exchange of products, services, and payment will accelerate in cyberspace. While the opportunities abound, there is a lot to learn . . . and there are risks. But, that's why you read a book like "Making Markets."

First, some perspective. The authors emphasize that "electronic markets are not technological interactions. They are human interactions supported by technology." Ignore this principle and failure awaits you in the way it doomed the electronic markets in the 1990s. "Cyberspace markets cannot be thin replicas of the traditional market. Rather they must be as rich, complex, and compete as the traditional markets themselves." The basic trade processes of search, pricing, logistics, payment and settlement, and authentication must still be in place. Value must be created for all participants, and the electronic marketing venture must fit with the firm's other marketing vehicles. Creativity will have a significant influence on success.

The authors begin with an explanation of the opportunities, the value of marketing in cyberspace. The first chapter includes an explanation of the design of their presentation in the remaining seven chapters. Chapter titles give us an insight into the content: From Place to Space, Making Markets Work, and Auctions: The Devil is in the Details. Readers will learn about Using B2B markets in the Supply Chain, Using Markets Creatively, and Market Tactics. Dynamic Market Strategies are address in the final chapter, followed by a call to action encouraging you to stick your toes in the water and try this approach.

Each chapter is filled with education, insight, and mini-case studies to show us what has worked and what hasn't worked. You'll learn the jargon and the steps in the process. A good notes section, including website addresses, is complemented by a helpful index. And, expectedly, the authors offer a website for the book where more information and support is available. If you're ready to open your mind to some fascinating possibilities, curl up with "Making Markets."