Computers and Internet Books

Pretty much what I was looking for. Relatively thin book packed with 'to the point' info, with mostly unambigious explanation. Have not found any printing mistakes yet.
Money's worth.

I knew a little about XML before reading this book, but nothing in-depth. I've been a software developer for years however, so I didn't want a basics book, but something that covered the subject quickly and in depth. After reading the other reviews I bought this book and was not disappointed. I was particularly interested in XML Schema and XSLT, and this book does an excellent job with both. I'm not sure you can find a more thorough reference outside the standards documents themselves. Datatypes, restrictions, defining complex types--I use this book for XML Schema like I use K&R for C programming. Note that this book has almost no coverage of subjects outside the W3C standards, such as the different types of validating tools and parsers or other XML schema languages such as RELAXNG from Oasis. You will have to go elsewhere for a fuller understanding of the entire 'XML Universe'. The only real gripe I have with this book is its constant use of Microsoft in the examples, which grates on this long-time Linux user. Of course, its from Microsoft Press, so what can you expect. Fortunately XML itself is non-OS specific, so nothing in this book is really Microsoft-centric. All in all, a great reference.

If you are a knowledgable IT professional and need to either learn XML or increase your knowledge quickly, this book is for you. Complete, fast-paced, no dead wood, and designed with the busy IT professional in mind. It reminds me of the Wrox "Handbook" series.

It's 370 pages but half-size, so equivalent to a normal-size 185-page book. Best book purchase I've made all year. Weird for an MSPress book to be so good :-)

Take the hint, MS Press... make all of your books like this!

I seldom award five stars but this book deserves it. If you can only buy one XML reference book, buy this one; if you have XML books that you're not satisfied with, buy this one: The XML Pocket Consultant is *the* XML "sleeper" title.

In my mind, I've retitled the XML Pocket Consultant "The XML Comprehensive Quick Reference." The book presents every aspect of XML and related technologies in a clear, crisp, understandable style. The book's excellent content is augmented by a professionally crafted visual style (page layout, whitespace, typeface, headings, list construction, examples) that facilitates information access and transfer; I mention this because too many books of this type look like they were designed and produced using consumer-level desktop publishing software.

I'm not normally this enthusiastic about a book, but The XML Pocket Consultant is truly a treasure: It's the single most useful, helpful, 5.5" x 8" x 1.2" compendium of XML information I've so far found.

"XML Pocket Consultant" is the best XML book on the market. It is really worth every penny. This book is packed with useful information. My biggest disappointment is that I had such a hard time find the book. For anyone wanting to learn XML, XSL, XPath this is the book I recommend.

Finally a book out there that is easy to follow about getting online. It is well-written and clearly organized. I was already able to email friends, but "Wired in a Week" taught me how to do even more -- like checking my stocks, instant messaging and so much more. Buy it--it's worth it!

This book is a must have next to your computer. It tells you how to get started online and how to use AOL for checking stocks, sports scores, email and getting pictures online. I refer to it all the time.

This book was the answer to my prayers.....I have felt "left out" on the new internet wave and Regina Lewis's book brought me "in"!!.I had no idea how helpful the internet can be!.....Thank you ...Thank you!.......Now I can "really" join in all the conversations with my adult children. It feels great to be "connected" !!

This book was really helpful. I learned a lot about AOL that I didn't already know. Illustrations were very helpful too.

Finally a book out there that is easy to follow about getting online. It is well-written and clearly organized. I was already able to email friends, but "Wired in a Week" taught me how to do even more -- like checking my stocks, instant messaging and so much more. Buy it--it's worth it!

When I first started looking at Web Parts I couldn't quite grasp how they were different from other web technology. Darren was able to clearly describe how individual parts are created, and how to integrate them into a cohesive whole and helped me enormously in building modern websites.

When I began to work on a web portal using .NET 2.0 in mid-2006, I found out about this book and anxiously awaited it's publishing. I wasn't disappointed. The material covered in this book goes into such great detail and is so full of great ideas that I recommended the re-writing of our portal using Darren's book as a basis of our new design. This was money well spent.

This a very thorough and complete guide to ASP 2.0 Web Parts. After reading this book, I gained more knowledge than reading countless internet articles, numerous blogs and a few cumbersome books on subject. This book is a MUST Buy for anyone who needs to understand and/ or implement ASP 2.0 Web Parts. One added new value is the concepts outlined
in his book also work on ASP 3.5.

A must buy book if your working with webparts. Darren (The author) is also extremely helpful if you post web part related questions on his forum. The book is clear, concise and well organised. You will not be disapointed!

Ps. I have bought many many tech reference books from Amazon over the years. This is the first time I have ever posted a review. This book has been an invaluable reference for a large project I am currently working on.

Paul Hale (Domainscanners)

An all in one great introduction to web parts and even to some advanced techniques.

Web parts are a strong web UI element and this book has done a great job of talking about ALL the things that are necessary for proper web parts development.

I was impressed from the beginning with the content of this book. It has been a great help in my recent graduate projects. This is one I will keep on the shelf for reference.

This book is simply the best book on post-production audio out there. I have over a decade of experience mixing live sound and some formal training in post production, but Rose gets to the real nuts and bolts of the day-to-day sweetening of sound that I was able to apply his ideas the same day I read a chapter on EQ. I have read so many books on sound where authors get into all the details, but fail to give hands on practical advice. Rose has two unique things going for him in this book: the included CD that gives A/B comparisons of various audio sweetening and processing techniques and the cookbook format at the end of each chapter. Try any one of these "recipes" and you will instantly get results and be able to solve various problems and massively improve your soundtrack.
He gets technical in spots going into the physics of sound, studio design, and other minutia but the non-geeks you can usually skip these sections and side-bars. For those who just want to fix things they can jump to the end of each chapter and use the cookbook/troubleshooting sections. I can't recommend this book enough. If you are serious about filmmaking, you can't be without this book.

Audio Postproduction for Digital Video
By Jay Rose
Review by Pi Ware

Don't listen to the title. It's bigger than the title. The "Digital Video" part of Audio Postproduction for Digital Video restricts the scope of this classic Jay Rose text. Rose's book goes far beyond DV, in fact, it starts with an explanation of what sound is on the molecular level and then takes you not just through audio postproduction for TV, but to techniques specific to movie production, techniques that are entirely independent of the format you originate on. Audio Postproduction for Digital Video is top-notch. It's an excellent, text-book quality manual, a soup-to-nuts guide on how to deal with sound in postproduction.

Jay Rose never gives you solutions that are applicable only to specific Digital Audio Workstations, he arms you with knowledge you can use in any platform or program. The book is an education in sound and, together with the numerous photos and diagrams (and Rose's good sense of humor), it's a liberation from the dry prose of most manuals on postproduction.

Rose teaches you from the ground up what sound is, what good sound is, and how to make bad sound better. He doesn't just stop at good writing, however, he illustrates important points with an audio CD included in the back of the book. Together with the CD, the text guides you through importing audio into the computer, editing dialogue, Do It Yourself Foley and ADR, working with filters, noise reduction techniques, pitch and time changes, the sound mix, and even, if you're so inclined, designing, constructing and wiring your own postproduction audio facility.

Though postproduction changes with every new advance in technology, Audio Postproduction for Digital Video stays current by focusing on strategy, not software. Rose avoids giving specific keystroke instructions in specific programs, but instead explains common solutions to common problems using common tools. As he says in his introduction, "You should be able to use these pages for a long time."

Anyone considering directing a short or feature, anyone who wants to be even nominally involved in the sound design of their film, and, of course, anyone interested in working in audio postproduction, would do extremely well to pick up a copy of this classic Jay Rose text.

This book in fantastic. The author's voice and style make this not only easy to read but a joy to read as well. There are little tips and tidbits in each chapter that will make a good audio guy great and a great audio guy better. I recommend this book to anyone in the audio post world.

I decided to buy this book because I had used the forum on the DV.com website for information before, and Jay Rose's comments there had proven to be spot-on and well-informed.
This book contains a thorough examination of all the factors which contribute to the quality of post-production audio. The level of information includes the spectrum from basic to advanced, but through Mr. Rose's clear explanations the advanced information should not go over the heads of the reader.

It's a must for anyone who needs to have a deep and clear understanding of the world of the authentication.

I'm a research assistant, having finished my Master of Sciences in Electronic Commerce (2003) in the Department of Computer Science and Operations Research at Université de Montréal (Montreal (QC) Canada) and who has written a master's thesis called "ASEMC-Authentication for a SEcure M-Commerce". The book has brought me great contributions in a very clear language even if it is a technical matter. It makes extensive use of pictures, schemas, and graphs that allow us easily understand the authentication methods. Actually, it makes use of the visual intelligence of each one of us!

Smith does a great job of writing about authentication while being vendor agnostic.

The book provides everything you need to know about PKI and other crucial security topics.

An exciting book on authentication, of all things? Is such a thing even possible? Yes, Richard E. Smith proves it by publishing Authentication - a comprehensive guide to all things that authenticate or are authenticated. The book will educate you on more aspects of authentication than you ever wanted to know, but most likely you will enjoy it. As a security professional, I found the author's writing style to be excellent and even entertaining, a clear sign of writing by a true expert on the subject.

Every obscure form of authentication protocol (have you heard of X9.17 lately?) finds its place in a book. Passwords, tokens, biometrics, various authentication protocols are all described and analyzed in great detail, in plain English and with multiple diagrams. Another valuable feature is that for every authentication protocol, the relevant attacks and defenses are outlined in every chapter summary. The attacks which are not covered by existing defenses ("residual attacks") are emphasized at the end as something to watch for. For example, a 'trojan horse' attack to steal authentication credentials is one of them - apparently there is no 100 percent reliable way to stop it.

A chapter on passwords contains several creative ideas to make this ubiquitous form of authentication more effective, simultaneously more secure and more usable. It also answers some interesting password questions. When does it make no sense to enforce a complex non-dictionary password? How random is a random password from a dictionary? Why is a bank PIN of four digits secure enough for the job? When it is better to write a password down? Read the book and you will discover the answers! The book also explains public key crypto systems and their use for authentication (such as PKI).

People issues of security also receive well-deserved coverage in a separate chapter. Various kinds of secrets used for people as passwords are outlined. An interesting discussion on choosing an initial password when providing system access reveals important aspects of this process that few people think about.

For more technically inclined readers, straightforward analysis of complexities of Windows authentication (LANMAN, NTLM, Kerberos) and attacks against it is provided in a "Challenge Response Passwords" chapter. Computer scientists will find some insights on authentication algorithm design patterns. For less technical readers, understanding authentication based on Ali Baba and a cave of treasures will help to sort through the authentication system requirements and peculiarities. Overall, the book (while being targeted at security professionals) contains something for almost everyone interested in how computers tell that whoever is sitting at the console is who she says she is.

Anton Chuvakin, Ph.D. is a senior security analyst with a major security company.

Authentication is one of the 4 pillars of information security(authorization, confidentiality and integrity being the other three); but very little has directly been written directly on the topic outside of the academic community; until this book.

Authentication: From Passwords to Public Keys is an excellent work that covers all of the direct areas of authentication. Authentication is a huge challenge in that most users would prefer to have their passwords short and easy to remember, which is exactly what a password should not be.

Even if there were a lot of other books available on the subject, Authentication: From Passwords to Public Keys still would be required reading.

I'm in complete agreement with the previous reviewers that this book is easy to read and that it clearly explains complex material.

What I like is the way the author integrates theory, application and the human side of authentication. For example, he makes excellent use of tables to distill and display information, such as summary tables for attacks and defenses that are cross-referenced to each other. This is particularly useful to anyone who is developing security profiles, and the thorough and meticulous way that the author summarizes the information reduces the attack-defense pairings to the essentials.

His clear explanations of authentication methods and their underlying technologies, as well as how they evolved, are among the clearest in print. More importantly, he goes beyond explaining the mathematics behind the protocols by also showing how assumptions can lead to exposures. An example is the 4-digit lock, which has 10,000 possible combinations. At first glance it would seem that you have a 1-in-10000 chance of guessing the combination. However, he goes on to explain that a study showed 50% of people chose a calendar date for the combination, then leads you through the math of showing why you have approximately 1-in-512 chance of breaking the combination on the first try. He uses similar techniques throughout the book, which makes you think in real-world terms. It's his treatment of the people side of the authentication techniques that add to the real-world approach.

I also thought that the chapter on picking PINs and passwords was exceptional. I've written password management policies and procedures for a number of clients in recent years and thought I was an expert. After reading this 37-page chapter I discovered what I didn't know - and it was a lot!

Each chapter is filled with facts that you may have or have not considered, and each is filled with common sense, backed up with the math or technical underpinnings. Moreover, the book complete covers authentication and will get anyone quickly up-to-speed on the basics and many of the finer points. This book is especially important as a resource to anyone who is involved in health care because the material is directly applicable to requirements set forth in HIPAA. It is also essential reading for anyone who develops or manages security in a web- or e-commerce environment because of the dependencies upon the technologies and methods that are discussed in this book. IT security specialists will also find this book to be an invaluable resource, especially the parts that cover password management, social engineering and practical applications of authentication.

I am new to programming.

This book starts at the beginning: building a graphical web page in Web Matrix. Following a entertaining blend of practical, funny and insightful steps, in a short period I was using Visual Basic.Net and databases to add dynamic features, controls and web services.

I was amazed at how easy it is to do. This book provides an enjoyable was to grasp a firm foundation in ASP.NET programming.

I am a college student having some programming knowledge but totally new in dynamic/ data-driven web creation. I found this book really helpful to get started from static to exciting data-driven stuff with ASP and MSDE. Although WebMatrix has a limitation(which was developed by a team of people from Microsoft at their spare time), it's a real great tool for beginner to get to know how to install database engine, create a data table, link to your web form with drag-n-drop and some hands-on coding (provided in the book). If you need to go on to industrial level, this book or WebMartix won't help.
Chap 1 starts with step by step instructions on how to install .NET framwork, MSDE (you need this if you don't have SQL running), then WebMartix (which has its own web server, you don't need IIS to run samples from the book). One of the great styles of this book is easy-to-follow-and-understand examples which has "Try It Out" & "How it Works" section which explains the code line by line in detail. I found Chap16 and 17 really helpful for general knowledge on "Web Services" and "Beyond WebMatrix," but make sure you finish this book first, then go on to more exciting Visual Studio .NET (which is a "bigbrother" of WebMatrix)
Oh..2 case studies at the back of the book, which explains step by step how to make a guestbook, reconizing customer and "log-on" stuff..and the CD includes some software WebMatrix, MSDE, etc..
Thanks to David Sussman and Wrox P2P

Great combination and perfect fit of beginning book and tool: ASP.Net Web Matrix. Excellent examples and basic ASP.Net concepts explanation.

You will be amazed when you read it. It is a step by step guide. I highly recommend this book for ASP .NET so far.

This book is a not bad introduction to ASP.NET. The reason I purchased it is I really needed to master Web Matrix ASAP and Mr. Sussman's book was quite helpful in accomplishing that goal. Of course, it is better to begin with Visual Studio since Web Matrix is somewhat limited resemblance of Visual Studuo but Web Matrix has something nobody could resist - it is free.
Make sure you learn as profoundly as possible chapters about datagrids and reusable content; these two are absolutely irreplaceble components of practically any online database application. Also pay attention to inclusion of namespaces at the very top of your code, it is forgetable. The only thing which was not working for me is Web Services. Other code samples work fine.
I would recommend to start with this book to anybody who needs to master ASP.NET.

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is an old technology by Internet standards, but still a very viable means of interpersonal communication; i.e., chat. Sure there are lots of nutcases out there, but you can also find people who can provide help on a wide variety of subjects (i.e., programming in specific languages), discussions on almost any subject (which is not to say they'll be intelligent or reasoned).

There's not much flash or glamour to be found in IRC or the tools to use with it. This book, however, is a great guide to IRC for those who need to know the nuts and bolts of whatever technology they deal with.

Though old, little in the technology or tools has changed since it was published in 2000.

It's an inexpensive and worthwhile addition to any techie's library or for anyone who is interested in enlarging their online social millieu.

Jerry

Very well written and illustrated guide that starts with the very basics and takes you all of the way through to advanced use. The IRC protocol and client side commands are explored in depth. Numerous clients for Window, OS X, and Unix are covered. This basic coverage, which is about two-thirds of the book ends with an excellent chapter on managing channels.

The advanced chapters cover installing an IRC server, using DCC, and some advanced security issues.

This book sets a comprehensive foundation of knowledge for IRC which is then supplemented by O'Reilly's IRC Hacks book. Beginners looking to get seriously into IRC will want to buy this book. More advanced users will want to look at the coverage of their areas of interest to make sure it's worth the investment.

An truly outstanding book. I have used IRC for many years now, and although I do not consider myself to be an expert-user I definitely know my way around. This book is really the only comprehensize "A - Z" source on IRC, and it is wonderfully-written as both an introductory text for IRC newbies as well as an in-depth compendium for power users. Even after using IRC for so long I could not believe how much I learned, particularly the last chapter which deals with server-side configurations.

Alex Charalabidis uses his expert knowledge of IRC to explain the network's subcultural quirks and expectations in all its many instances, and provides information about IRC on the whole in an amusing, almost rhythmical deliverance. In my opinion, a must read for all IRC users. Even Nick Burns, the company computer guy, suggests it! YOUR WELCOME!!!

I am an IRC junkie, so when I saw this book I just had to pick it up.

This book was written in 1999, and it shows. There are outdated server lists and statistics. The attacks described are mostly outdated (who "nukes" "jupes" and "floods" these days? This is only interesting from a historical perspective). The IRC clients described are now of outdated versions, and some of the now popular clients (xchat, irssi) aren't mentioned. The book claims to have a companion website with updates, which I was excited to see, but the site's domain (bookofirc.com) seems to have expired and been snatched up by an unrelated website.

All that aside, IRC is a pretty basic protocol, and most things about it haven't changed a whole lot, so this book is quite useful. It can walk someone new to IRC through the basics, describing what everything in the IRC world is, as well as providing experts with some interesting tidbits. The whole chapters on DCC and CTCP were especially informative to me. Appendix B "Terminology" was great for providing some of the "language" one might encounter in channels with tech/irc-saavy occupants.

The book even touches upon "IRC Netiquette" when it comes to what is acceptable or not behavior-wise in IRC (I think a whole chapter should have been devoted to this, this seems to be a major stumbling block to new IRCers). The fun way in which the author presents this book makes it very amusing to read, not at all like normal techical books (this is something I enjoy about all No Starch Press books).

In summary, this is a very informative book, even for someone like me who has been using IRC for over 6 years, and now run my own server. But it needs a second edition and/or the companion website revived.

This book is written by an experienced IRC user and operator and I can't think of anyone better qualified to write this book. Additionally, his sense of humor makes this book enjoyable to read as you find out about all the features of IRC. This book is useful for anyone who spends time on IRC, from the "newbies" to veteran IRC "addicts" like me. I wish there had been a book like this around six years ago, when I logged on to my first IRC channel.

Among the subjects the authors covers include a brief summary of IRC and its history, IRC clients for UNIX, Windows, and Macintosh machines, how to connect to an IRC server, finding various channels and people on IRC, and also a good description about the dreaded "net splits" and lag you will eventually run into on IRC. I just wish the author had gone into more detail about ways to deal with server splits and lag. Maybe the next edition will cover that.

More and more users are logging on to IRC all the time (which probably explains why it seems there's always those "splits" I mentioned) and this book is an excellent guide to what you can do on IRC and what to watch out for.

I read and review dozens of technology books for my TrainingCity.com classes every year, and I only recommend a small percentage of them. Broadband Telecommunications Handbook is among the best. It's the perfect resource for individuals who need a clear and concise explanation of the technologies encountered in the field every day.

The book gets to the heart of modern WAN technologies and explains concepts such as T1 AMI vs. HDSL in an extraordinarily clear and easy to understand manner. Very few authors have this ability to explain technologies in a way that can be understood by both engineers and non-engineers alike.

In conclusion, Broadband Technologies Handbook deserves a place in your resource library today.

This book covers all the basics in Broadband circuits. As a field operations engineer, I deal with all types of circuits. DS0, DS1(T1/EC1), DS3(T3), STS,ISDN, all DSL type circuits, OC3-OC48, and DWDM. My job travels me around the U.S. alone testing and turning up circuits and this book insures me of knowing what is what when dealing with these types of circuits. Clear understanding of terms and procedures for the greenest(new person)technician in the business. I've purchased over $600.00 in books on telephony and telecom over the past 4 years and this is one of few that thats worth holding on to. A must have for broadband junkies like me.

oNe

Well maybe not everything. The technology is broad and ever changing. However this book is packed with juicy tidbits about all kinds of broad band communications. I already know a lot of the information. However there are two distinct advantages in this book. One is to tell you what you know from a different point of view; this help round out the concepts in ones head. The second advantage is the book starts from ground zero allowing non technical people the ability to communicate and make educated decisions about communications.

After this overview book you can go into more depth with the manuals from the product. However you will find yourself coming back to this book to affirm the concepts. You can use the book like a dictionary of terms or an encyclopedia.

Some of the high lights:
Introduction to Telecommunications
Telecommunications Systems
Virtual Privet Networks
Data Virtual Private Networks
Advanced Intelligent Networks
Local number Portability
Computer Telephony Integration
Signaling System 7
CTI Technologies and Applications
Integrated Service and Digital Network
Frame Relay
Asynchronous Transfer Mode
ATM and Frame Relay Internetworking
Cable TV Systems
Cable Modem Systems and Technology
xDSL
MMDS and LMDS
Specialized Mobile Radio
Cellular Communications
Global Service Mobile Communications
Personal Communications Services
Wireless Data Communications
General Packet Radio Service
Third-Generation (3G) Wireless System
Satellite Communications Networking
Low-Earth-Orbit Satellites
The T Carrier Systems (T-1, T-2, and T3)
Synchronous Optical Network
Synchronous Digital Hierarchy
Wave Division Multiplexing
The Internet
Network Management SNMP

An added plus is instead of a monster Bibliography You can contact the Author (Geris J. Gates Jr.) personally by phone or the internet.

This is a great book. As the title reflects, it is a "Handbook" not and in-deep technical manual to the telecommunications technologies. The examples and illustrations are very easy to understand and the topics are treated in a clear and concise manner. From switching to routing, firewalls & proxies, dsl to cable, it is all here. Many things are explained deep and others enough to understand the role they play. If you need to go deeper, them you should get your manufacturer techmanual and white papers out.

Most of my customers are in the telecom/datacom field. I was very happy that I chanced upon this book. It goes through the end user's perspective, the IS/IT staff's perspective and what's the typical decision process to make sure the design is appropriate and excellent description of each technology. It helps in sounding more intelligent in front of my customers as well as better service.

This will not be the last thing you want to read about Ajax, but it should be the first. Great introduction: clearly written, easy to follow sample code, and thankfully concise.

The author has put up a supporting web site. There's a forum and the author responds to questions. He has also provided all the sample code on the site. You can also copy and paste the SQL statements to create the database, tables, and insert the sample data.

very concise yet descriptive illustrations for creating a project with AJAX. Of course it is not a Bible for this technology, but a very very handy book which gived the basic idea.

The book jacket lists it as a beginner level book. It says: "Familiarity with HTML, JavaScript, PHP and CSS would be helpful but is not required." It's true that the project doesn't involve anything terribly complicated in any of these areas. Still, if ALL of these are unfamiliar to you, I'd guess it would be quite difficult to follow what is going on simply because there are so many components interacting. (Actually there are a few more involved as well: MySQL, SQL and XML).

Every step of the project is explained at a level that assumes you might not have seen that type of code before. But the exact syntax of each line of code isn't always explained so you may have to follow up with more reading and research if you want to adapt what you've learned to your own project later.

Several things I thought were particularly good about this book. One: given that browsers do a good part of the processing with AJAX through JavaScript, and given that you can't count on consistent behavior across browsers--or even on JavaScript being enabled, I was pleased to find that the project was designed to create a non-AJAX version first and then to add the AJAX layer on top of that.

Two: there was a good amount of error-checking built in to the application even though it is a fairly simple one. That's something as a not-so-proficient programmer I often find myself overlooking.

And three: tips on debugging in PHP and in JavaScript are included. Although they are pretty basic tips, if you are a beginner, they will be helpful.

I'd say this book can give you as much for your investment of time as many a day-long workshop would and at much lower cost.

I already have a book from Larry Ullman (on PHP5 and SQL). So I know the man is both a great programmer and an excellent teacher. I already know the basics of Ajax (XMLHTTPRequest object, asynchronous requests etc). But I'm always interested in studying case studies. The book was unexpensive and short so I went for it. And I'm really happy I did. The project developed in this book clearly shows how to deal with server side problems and even to deal with a client on which javascript is disabbled (or blocked by a security app).
Two thumbs up for this book.

The author succeeds in leading the reader through an example application utilizing techniques that have been lumped under the name "Ajax". I suspect that many readers learn as I do by testing and experimenting with code examples. To get the most out of the book, these readers should have access to a desktop or ISP web server with Php capability.

Throught out the book, the author refers the reader to other resources that cover topics referred to briefly or noted as simply not in the scope of the book. Examples are installing Apache/PHP, verifying data input, security considerations etc.

The book is a excellent read for those who have already delved into one of the pre-Ajax volumes that covered MySql/PHP in depth and want an Ajax upgrade. Others with basic application implementation needs will benefit from the overview, example code and resource tips provided.

Here are the contents of the book:

Part I: An Introduction to eBay for Buyers and Sellers
Chapter 1 - Getting Started
Chapter 2 - Research: Don't Buy or Sell Without It
Part II: Buying Antiques and Collectibles on eBay
Chapter 3 - Finding Antiques and Collectibles on eBay
Chapter 4 - Buyer Be Aware: What to Know Before You Bid
Chapter 5 - Bidding Strategies
Chapter 6 - I Won an Auction! Now What?
Chapter 7 - Working Through the Bad Buy
Part III: Selling Antiques and Collectibles on eBay
Chapter 8 - Setting Up Shop on eBay: Getting Started Selling
Chpater 9 - Titles, Descriptions, Photos and More
Chapter 10 - Setting Your Starting Price, Understanding eBay's Fees, and Creating a Basic Listing
Chapter 11 - Managing and Completing the Sale
Chapter 12 - Standing Out in a Comptetitive Market
Appendix - More Helpful Resources

More and more, I meet people who are selling things on eBay. Here's a book that spells out how-to and reduces it to a manageable level.
Here are the contents of the book:
Part I: An Introduction to eBay for Buyers and Sellers
Chapter 1 - Getting Started
Chapter 2 - Research: Don't Buy or Sell Without It
Part II: Buying Antiques and Collectibles on eBay
Chapter 3 - Finding Antiques and Collectibles on eBay
Chapter 4 - Buyer Be Aware: What to Know Before You Bid
Chapter 5 - Bidding Strategies
Chapter 6 - I Won an Auction! Now What?
Chapter 7 - Working Through the Bad Buy
Part III: Selling Antiques and Collectibles on eBay
Chapter 8 - Setting Up Shop on eBay: Getting Started Selling
Chpater 9 - Titles, Descriptions, Photos and More
Chapter 10 - Setting Your Starting Price, Understanding eBay's Fees, and Creating a Basic Listing
Chapter 11 - Managing and Completing the Sale
Chapter 12 - Standing Out in a Comptetitive Market
Appendix - More Helpful Resources

The book came so fast that I thought it was teliported!
Great price for very useful, informative information.
Thank you!

Just when you think you know Ebay out comes a great book that teaches you even more. A great learning book for the beginner and for the advanced auction seller. Don't miss this book. Great writer that writes so everyone can understand.

Good book if you just start to use ebay, but it is not offer much to e-bay users that are already familiar with standard features in e-bay. For example if you like to know, how to use web site to add pictures to your listing or like to know, how to write HTML to make your listing more organized, this book would not help. however, I will keep this book in my liberary as a referance for a few tips that I found usefull.