Computers and Internet Books

I am only about half way through this book and already have learned numerous things about the design of Java as a language and about proper usage of said language. This book is going to be a staple in my programming library and a book recommended to anyone I know working with Java. I am also looking forward to the second edition which is slated to be released in May sometime.

An indispensable, insightful, and well written Java book to add to your reference library. The second addition is due out May 25, 2008.

I ask all of the developers I manage to read this book, after having been introduced to it by a coworker. Great tips, and helpful in clarifying some of those "gut feel" things that come up during pair-programming.

It is incredible to read Joshua's insights. Forget about being a Java Guru or something like that. This book is pure joy to read if you are detail oriented, perfectionist or a student of art of programming in general.

I have started this effort of creating a distilled version of this book coupled with my own reflections at: [...]. To any curious reader though, any such effort is not a replacement for the book itself. It is a masterpiece.

- Kedar Mhaswade

I've been using Java since 1995 and have owned this book since 2001 and it's the only Java text I still turn to. I recommend every Java developer, no matter what level you're at, read this book and read it again every year for the remainder of your career. I doesn't matter who you are or how experienced you think you are -- you will learn from this book. I give "Effective Java" my highest recommendation. I cannot wait for the Second Edition.

I own many editions of books written by Scott Kelby. They are easy to follow, and I've learned a lot.

From time to time you need a guide to edit your photograph, regardless how experience you are. This book allows you to achieve a professional result for an old black-and white photography, as well for color photography - just follow the instructions that are easy as 1,2,3.

Photoshop Elements 5 by Scott Kelby has some great features. First let me say I have only gotten to the third chapter before Amazon asked for a review.The "Good" is that this book is very easy to follow. Mr. Kelby has laid out the instructions so a first timer can easy follow them. Not only that, but he has created a web site where you can download the examples he uses in the book. This is fantastic and much appreciated touch!You do the corrections just as he does and learn by doing. The "Bad" is that it took me an hour to figure out how to download into "Elements" (my fault?...maybe I am 66 and may be slow on details).
The ugly is that some moves are either not explained in enough detail or Adobe has released several versions of Elements 5 w/ very small changes which don't correspond to the book.
What you really want to know, would I recommend this book? YES WHOLEHEARTEDLY!!!

This book is an excellent tool for an amateur digital photographer who is new to PhotoShop but willing to make the best use of it. It is a course that takes the reader step by step via all of the program's features and links them together in order to make them useful.
This book is worth it's price!

This book is so great. It's straightforward. It doesn't go into general Photoshop ideas - it's about specific things you want to do to your photos. It says "Sharpening" and has several things to do to sharpen your photos. Each method has clear and to the point directions. The author adds his two cents saying which method usually works better and other such things. The best part is that it's straightforward and easy to flip to any page if you want something done specifically - you don't have to go looking through paragraphs and paragraphs to find what you want. This method is great because you may flip through the book and find something new you may not have searched for or thought about before. It's great :)

This book was delivered to me before time and also paid a decent price for it.

The book is really perfect and is exactly I hoped.
However, the main and only bad critic I want to highlight is the shipping.
The package was very light and the book cover arrived damaged: the corner were maltreated.
No really, only a box including 2 plastic bubbles is not serious and totally insufficient to correctly protect such kind of nice books.

An excellent book. The only comment that I have that has not been covered is that you should know c++ templates to use this book... theres a problem with that, most if not all template books require you to know STL. You will have to read both in conjunction if you do not all ready know templates.
Once you get past that little pit fall though, this book is invaluable to any c++ programmer.

This is far and away one of the best written programming and reference books I have purchased in 20+ yrs of programming.

It gives a perspective on state-of-the-art C++ style, language constructs, and technique that only a choice few people in the industry can offer. The book has all of the meticulous attention to detail and design formalities that one could expect of the finest academic.

Bravo, Mr. Josuttis, and THANK YOU!

Tutorial? Hardly. Reference? I can find better, more complete, and more accessible reference material in 10 seconds with google. Whenever I open this book to find information about some aspect of the STL, I end up googling for the same information a few minutes later.

The examples are near useless. They are all minimal examples of basic functionality and offer no help in using the library for real-life tasks. They do show you which header files to include, which is a plus.

Hash maps are completely left out of the book. While not officially part of the stl, they are still a significant part of it, and one that requires more explaining than the rest.

I am to understand the +5 reviews were because there are no better books on this subject, similarily my +2 review is because there are not enough negative reviews of this book.

Anyone remotely interested in animation should pick up this book. It is amazing. It is truly the perfect reference book for anyone who wants to animate, and do it well.

This is one of the best books on frame-by-frame 2D non-vector animation. The only problem is, Richard Williams overdoes it by a large margin. He is a man possessed with talent, and he demands perfection of himself. That is a hard way to do things, no? In every other respect, this book is excellent. By the way, the culmination of Richard Williams' style of work is the movie The Cobbler and the Thief, available online on [...]. The exact title to search for is this: The Thief and the Cobbler (2007 Recobbled Cut) [v2.0]

This is one of those books that has helped me out alot. If you are a beginning animator in need of learning the principles of animation or if you have had difficulty figuring out how to create walk cycles and facial character animation, then this book is for you.

I give this book 5 stars simply because it was written in a style that's easy to read and understand and uses common terminology. The best part about it is the readability and resourcefulness of the content. Everything a student needs to learn the subject matter in a motivating format!

If you like normal animation and if you like 3d animation or if you like stop motion animation...you'll find all information needed and much more inside this unique book!

Either if you're a pro or a student, this book is a MUST-HAVE. "Buy it NOW, don't waste more time" is the best advice I could give to you.

This book has very well detailed TCP/IP information, unfortunately some of the information is outdated. The book is easy to follow, and would make an even better learning tool if updated. I bought the book since it was required reading for a class, but I would opt out for a younger publishing on this topic if I had a choice.

This is a good book that covers all the fundamentals of TCP/IP networking. Good illustrations. Seperate chapters for each common application protocols.

Well written and illustrated. Very comprehensive. After reading several books on the subject, I find this one to have easily remembered formulas for everything TCP/IP. A must for the networking professional and the up and coming professional as well.

This book is an excellent reference or source to really learn some of the innards of TCP/IP. Very good diagrams and everthing is explained in an easy to understand way. I would recommend some basic to intermediate knowledge of network before picking this up.

The Definitive Guide to Actionscript by Colin Moock is a must have for anyone serious about Actionscript. Moock explains object oriented programming with ease. There are many samples and examples making this book easily accessible to a wide range of programmatic abilities. This book is a great learning resource and also serves as a reference for developers.

i dont need to say more, I even pre orderd the second edition allready

It's all good... lot's of info, examples, details, etc etc...
I do have to comment though that everything you find in this book is EASILY found and sometimes in a way more deep and detailed manner in the Macromedia Flash Help section and in www.macromedia.com Flash support section... I would not consider this an essential book even though one feels secure to have it close...

Nice book, found it pretty pleasant at first, but it was too easy to digest (six, seven hours and you can toss it over your shoulder). The real answers I need (mostly dealing with movie clip behaviours) are only vaguely explained or absent and I found the book more of a frustration than otherwise from about 1 week onwards.

Having said this, there doesn't appear to be any other title for Flash that caters to those whose programming knowledge exceeds their experience as a graphical design user.

Finally, an actionscript guide that is superb in its production! My hat is off to Colin and Gary for this detail-oriented volume that has cleared the smoke out of my head and has made a programmer out of an artist.

Bravo!!!

I recently purchased this book based on the rave reviews even with an updated second edition off the press. I can honestly say that this book is Awesome in detail and explanation and is still extremely relevant to understanding the how too's and processes involved in routing tcp/ip. The most amazing feature about this book is how well explained and the book makes topics that would normally seem dificult or confusing easily understood, in other words grandma could learn how routing tcp/ip works from reading this book!

Brandon, Rome, GA

Great book for understanding IGP in details.

If any book was ever considered as the MUST HAVE BIBLE for Interior Routing Protocols - then Jeff Doyle's first effort on IGPs is THE book (how many cliché's do you want in one sentence)!! The book goes through at a very even pace - dissecting and describing the majority of both open-standard IGPs (OSPF, RIP and a little on ISIS) and Cisco-proprietary IGPs (IGRP and it's beefier brother - EIGRP). The book also includes some invaluable appendixes - including tutorials on working with Binary and hex.

But let's focus on the book's main reason for being - explaining IGPs. Take for instance OSPF - one of the most popular and widely implemented routing protocols in use today. On page 416-417, the book correctly discusses virtual links as a type of network type. The OSPF chapter typically employs 5-8 routers (and shows the required configs). Such a daunting exercise may at first seem like overkill, but Doyle is able to show how (and why) the all these router configs are necessary (to show, for instance, how they interact with or whether a DR or BDR). The book does have it's typos though, as the table on page 484 incorrectly documents stub networks as allowing type 5 and 7 LSAs (not so - thus a stub!)

I cannot imagine there are many CCIEs out there that do not have this book on their bookshelf.

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

I am reviewing Routing TCP/IP Volume 1 (ISBN 1578700418), part of the CCIE Professional Development Series from Cisco Press. This book is widely regarded as part of the "Holy Trinity" of CCIE preparatory books. In addition to CCIE prep, it is also highly valued as an essential desk reference for anyone pursuing a career as a senior-level routing engineer. The author, Jeff Doyle, having written the two most recognized tomes on IP Routing, is a respected authority on the topic. His writing style is very clear and not at all difficult to read, which sets him apart from a lot of the authors in the "high-end routing book" category.

The book is part of a set of two books. TCP/IP Volume 1 contains coverage of the major interior routing protocols (RIP, IGRP, EIGRP, OSPF & ISIS) and follows it with coverage of route redistribution, filtering and mapping. TCP/IP Volume 2 covers the BGP exterior gateway protocol and follows it with coverage of advanced IP routing issues. As someone who's come up through the CCNA-to-CCNP-to-CCIE-candidate path, I recognized all of the topics from the BSCI curriculum. All this book really does is takes them to another level of depth. I highly recommend this path of coming at the CCIE, because unless you've done it all and seen it all, there's way too much information to take in during a single reading. Reading the BSCI book first gets you familiar with all of the topics, so that you're not overwhelmed when reading the Doyle books.

While many pan this book as being outdated since it was written in 1998, my contention is that all of the covered topics are still fair game for the CCIE qualifying written exam and the book still retains all of its original value. There are a lot of topics which are on the test which are not in Doyle's books, but if you look at the CCIE blueprint, the topics covered in the books map exactly to the topics in the IP Routing & IP Multicast sections of the blueprint. You can't treat any book as being a one stop shop for CCIE preparation. That's impossible. The book would be the size of my desk. I would actually contend that, on the next rewrite, they should break the 2 volume set into 3 volumes, one for the interior protocols, one for BGP by itself, and one for all of the advanced routing issues and multicast. This would make the volumes a bit less daunting and also somewhat easier to carry.

But, carry-ability issues aside, this is a very good book. It takes all of the topics to the degree of depth which you would expect for a CCIE-level book and explains things in a way that doesn't lose the reader. I had to work to keep the examples straight in my head, but no one said becoming a CCIE was easy. On the downside, the book contains no disc. This is unfortunate, because I always like to have the book on PDF. Also, it would be nice to have the review questions and answers put into a question bank. The book is also missing the "Do I Know This Already" section for each chapter, which is present in all of Cisco Press' certification guides. I realize that this is probably due to the fact that this is more of a desk reference / learning book than an official certification guide. However, as someone who's studying for an exam, I always like as many free practice questions as I can get.

I give Routing TCP/IP Volume 1 a 5 on my 5 ping rating scale and look forward to reading Volume 2.
!!!!!

Routing TCP/IP Volume 1 by Jeff Doyle (ISBN 1578700418) is an advanced level book on the theory and practice of routing and its implementation in Cisco routers. The 1026-page book (with a 50+ page index - always an important part of any technical book) is packed with useful information, example network architectures, and sample commands and their corresponding outputs to help the reader get a thorough grasp of real-life application of the theory.

The book is meant for working professionals in the network and routing field. Part I presents some basic routing theory along with the routing types - static and dynamic. This section, as in other books, is meant as a review for those seasoned engineers who have been working in the field for some time. It also helps to bring up to speed the other readers who may lack the necessary background. Part II contains the real substance of the book. It covers the interior routing protocols in detail including RIP 1 & 2, IGRP, EIGRP, OSPF, and IS-IS. The material presented in these chapters is definitely solid enough to give a detailed understanding of the subject matter and provide the necessary knowledge to allow one to troubleshoot the problems that creep up in maintaining networks running these routing protocols. Part III presents the issue relating to the optimization of networks running these routing protocols such as filtering and redistribution. Part IV consists of the appendices.

The most useful part of the book in my opinion is the examples and sample outputs. These really help the reader to understand the details on implementing the concepts presented in the book. Jeff presents a sample network architecture and uses that architecture to explain various aspects of the topic being discussed. For example, to illustrate various aspects of EIGRP routing and load balancing, a 5-router mesh architecture is presented followed by a detailed discussion of concepts such as succession, load sharing, route transitions and updates, etc. This approach really helps in understanding all aspects of a particular topic with concrete examples to relate to.

I took hold of this book not to help in preparing for the CCIE but to assist in the understanding of routing protocols that I use in my work life. As such, I can not comment on the applicability of this book to preparing for the CCIE exam but as for its application to real world scenarios, this book far exceeds any other on the topic of routing in the Cisco environment.

I am really impressed with the material presented in this book. The book is thorough and detailed in its coverage of interior routing protocols. Jeff Doyle is an expert in his field and this book proves it. On a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the highest, I give an enthusiastic 5 to Routing TCP/IP Volume 1 by Jeff Doyle. I can't wait to get my hands on Volume II.

If you find yourself stumped with how to improve your website, or don't know where to begin with looking at web statistics, this book has everything. It begins with going through the foundation of what web analysis really is and definitions and explanations of different metrics and how they can be useful. He then goes into detail with different metrics such as bounce rate, segmentation, and some things you probably never considered. It steps you through knowing what analytics tool to use and how to implement it. It has wonderful examples and sample reports that you can tailor to your own company.

This book is very actionable. I can only speak from a beginner's perspective, but this book is easy to follow and has golden nuggets that even experienced web statisticians can take another look at. The highest recommendation possible from me. I will be waiting for another of Avinash's books.

Thank you, Avinash! Avinash has done the impossible: he's made analytics fun, easy-to-understand, and clearly communicated how analytics is even more important than many of us have treated it. Avinash's "Trinity" approach of creating actionable insights & metrics from focusing on the right clickstream data, doing the right kind of customer research, all of which leads to knowing how to produce the right kind of dashboard. If you buy only one book on analytics, this has to be it.

In depth, easy to read, detailed from a web analytics pro. My only complaint is that he should identify himself as the Evangelist for Google Analytics. He recommends GA because it's free, but he should make it clear that companies that use GA are providing confidential company data to Google that could be used against them in the pricing of keywords.

I have read several web analytics books and Avinash's book is definitely the one I would recommend first.

What you can learn from the book:
- how to think about and how to approach web analytics -- this is where this book excels
- how to deliver actionable results - the mantra of Avinash
- how to start with the basic metrics

What not to expect from this book:
- you will not learn how to use any analytics software
- you will not learn details about the technical aspects, frequent problems with data and measurement, what to avoid etc.

Check out Avinash's blog to get a picture of what you can get from the book.

Before I begin I must apologize for the length of this review, I suffer from acute conciseness deficiency.

Avinash's greatest strength is his humility, and it comes through in this book and his blog in spades. All too often the broader analytic community (which I include myself in), is so caught up in its metrics, graphs, charts, esoteric calculations and acronyms that we forget that our fundamental purpose is to inform and assist in change. Even if we do not lose sight of that goal, we get so caught up in our analysis that we begin to think we know better than anyone else, including the people buying our products/consuming our content.

With the risk of sounding terse, Avinash cuts through all of that crap to right the ship as it were, and his resulting material can be summarized in 5 points.


1. Customers know best - should be self evident but really isn't (get over yourself and start trying to figure out what the customers want because you really don't know).


2. Capture data that can assist said customers - in other words, if the data and other pretty charts you are constructing cannot lead to an insight or action that will assist your customers; you're wasting your time. Yes, even that amazingly color coded spreadsheet with pivot tables and charts bursting out of every cell.


3. Quantitative data is limited in what it can tell you - another pitfall of the analytic community is that we're so caught up in numbers that we rarely stop to consider the source or validity of our observations, a particularly fatal flaw in an emerging industry with less than ideal methods of capture.


4. Context is king - When it comes to data, context is everything and a second piece of data, incorporated with the first, can have powerful effects. As a quick example, page hits, combined with bounce rate (a metric that measures how many people left your page within a predetermined interval), can indicate how many people are truly coming to your website to engage in its content). In other words, if you achieve a 100% increase in hits but 90% of them "bounce", you're not doing as well as if the same site achieved an 80% increase in hits with a 40% bounce rate. A very different conclusion would have been drawn if hits alone were observed in this case.


5. Qualitative data is a key piece of the puzzle - as a corollary of #3, a truly effective analysis of a website will utilize qualitative and quantitative data to help inform ones decisions.



Avinish then does an excellent job of showing how one can go about creating, analyzing and acting out ones web analytics strategy within the framework laid out above. If one has even a cursory understanding of how a website is built and therefore how to input a simple tag into the relevant pages, one can utilize this book to get started analyzing their web traffic in a meaningful way, for free, this instant. In addition, and more importantly, you will have formulated the solid framework and understanding necessary to adapt as the industry changes, something it does at an exciting/terrifying pace. An excellent read.

Hey, a programming book in full colour!! WPF Unleashed really does introduce the concepts and details of WPF programming in a clear and easy manner, and Adam Nathan is to be commended for his efforts. Anyone wanting to learn (more) about WPF will benefit from this book.

This is a well written, well structured book.

Full color with good examples and covers a good range of details.

As WPF is such a change from Windows Forms programming, you really do need a reference book to get you started (and for reference too, when you want to do something more advanced). Googling just doesn't help too much yet... and in any case what you really want to do is to understand a little of the underlying technology, not just copy someone else's code snippet and ignore how it works.

I started with this book, then got impatient to get writing some code - so I bought Chris Sells' "Programing WPF", which got me to a flying start. But then I wanted to go back and understand more of what I was doing, and so I picked up WPF Unleashed again - and a lot of what I had been coding became clear.

So now I'm almost certain to shuttle between the two books... and I recommend you do the same!

What can I say.. I was looking for a book about WPF. I saw many, and many until I found that one. Then I stopped looking for more :)

This book stands out as one of the easiest to read technical books. The book is in color, is divided into many chapters and sub-chapters, and written in a casual style, which makes it very enjoyable to read. The coverage of the content is top-notch, save for the chapter on data binding which I think lacked better examples. I think this book falls into the category of a cover-to-cover read; meaning it is easy to get through the book in a couple weeks. There are other books that I would recommend as a reference book that contain more detailed technical information. If you are new to WPF and are the type to read complete chapters and books, then definitely start with this one.

I bought the first edition of this book called Programming Windows Presentation Foundation (AKA Avalon) at the PDC in 2005 and read it completely on the plane home.

When I heard the second edition was released I didn't think much would have changed, but this is even better than the first edition. It's twice as big and covers all major (and not so major) topics in WPF (inc. an introduction to 3D and Silverlight).

I think this book will proof to be for WPF what Programming Windows, Fifth Edition is for WIN32 programming.

There isn't much yet on the internet about WPF, so if you want to get started using it, you really need a guide.

Not only is the book a well crafted introduction to WPF, I've just discovered that the downloadable source code makes an excellent companion to the book.

Questions that were not answered in another top-rated WPF book I found answered here... so whatever else you buy, get this book!

This book is the most in depth resource into WPF i have seen. And not just that, it gets to the good stuff that you'll actually use in your code and not just filler or lists of properties that you can get from intelisense. The examples are extremely useful.

The other benefit of this book is that it doesn't just tell you how to do things, but why. This is incredibly helpful in finding the best solution to your specific problem.

Thanks guys! great book!
Ralph

I say to ignore those reviews because they do not refer to this book. This is the second edition published August 28, 2007 with 863 pages. Those reviews are based off of the first edition published nearly two years before (September 12, 2005) and with only 447 pages.

Using Amazon's 'Search inside this book' takes you to the 2005 edition also. That shows only 10 chapters while this edition has 17. Most of the negative comments from the 2 and 3 star reviewers seem to have been resolved.

The biggest strength of this book is that it focus on using WPF programatically, not just laying out XAML. This is extremely useful if you are writing an application for 3D data visualization or a database driven application. You get to learn to create event handlers, generate meshes... all programmatically. I also believe that this book is great, not just as a learning tool, but as a reference guide. It is the most comprehensive book on the subject and a must for the aspiring WPF developer.

If you just want to focus on XAML, however, I will have to recommend "Windows Presentation Foundation Unleashed" by Adam Nathan.