Computers and Internet Books

What can podcasting do for a business? That's the wrong question to ask, say Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson. Like any communication tool, podcasting should be applied as a solution, not as a goal in and of itself. "Podcasting ought to come up in larger discussions about ways to reach audiences, to convey particular messages, or to address specific situations and problems," they advise.
Hobson and Holtz are internationally known business communicators, bloggers, and consultants.
Besides detailing all the technical aspects of podcasting, Hobson and Holtz preach the gospel of strategic planning. Thinking about producing a podcast? First, address the question: What outcomes are you trying to achieve? Would it serve as a marketing vehicle, or to supplement public relations and financial communications, or to enhance customer relations, or to enhance customer support? And how will you measure the success of your efforts?
They offer many examples of podcasting done well. Purina's Animal Advice podcast, for example, provides information pet owners can use; it does not `sell product.' Stanford University podcasts offer faculty lectures, interviews, music, and sports content. Target groups include students and alums. IBM's The Future Of .... Podcast reaches investors and features interviews with engineers, product managers, and others in the trenches--not with PR or marketing staff.

Shel and Neville's book should be required reading for anyone who does a podcast, everyone who's thinking about doing a podcast, even for anyone who listens to podcasts.

They cover all the "nuts and bolts" in an easy-to-read, conversational style. They cover all the tech stuff, like hardware and software, making it understandable for even the non-techies among us. They explain the actual recording and editing process as well as how to get your efforts heard.

More important, at least for me, they go into great detail about the reasons WHY to podcast. They discuss podcasting as a business tool and how it fits into the overall communication plan.

If you wonder about Shel and Neville's credentials, check out their "For Immediate Release" podcast. It's produced twice each week (Monday and Thursday) with Shel normally being in California and Neville in England. But, both men travel for their respective businesses, so they're likely to both be in hotel rooms, halfway around the globe from each other. Yet their podcasts come off without a hitch (usually).

I can't imagine anyone getting into podcasting without reading this book.

This is an excellent, valuable, thorough, well-written resource. No relection on the authors or the book, but I made the mistake of paying for an "Amazon Upgrade" for this title (supposedly enabling online reading and use of the book in addition to the physical book). The text looks like somebody hosed it down (blurry, and the more you zoom, the blurrier it gets). Ditto for the images (text within the images is totally illegible.

This book was all I needed to get set up for my first podcast. I am one of those types who can't just settle for the basics, which can be an expensive problem. But this book will get anyone who is budget-conscious up and running with less than $100 out of pocket, assuming you at least have a computer.

If you are looking for some expertise about equipment or how to set up your rig in the studio, this is not the book for you. You might want to look for a book about home recording or even professional broadcasting. I have to give these authors big kudos though, this really is everything you need to know about *the basics* of podcasting. If that's what you need to know, you won't go wrong with this book. Oh yeah, it is very well-written and easy to read also.

Disclaimer: As a contributor to the authors' podcast, For Immediate Release, I might be expected to have a biased opinion. I do, but I also held the book to the standards of their podcast and their blogs. If it hadn't been good, I would have been seriously disappointed.

But not to worry, it's good.

Naming a book "How to Do Everything with Podcasting" is ambitious, but that was the publisher's choice. They have a whole series of "How to Do Everything" books. And while there might be things you can do with podcasting that aren't covered in the book, it's impressively comprehensive.

I particularly appreciated the details about sound editing in Chapter 9 when I had to assemble the interviews from the iMeme conference. (It helped, but with background noise as bad as that, there's not a lot you can do if you don't use a directional mic in the first place.) The only omission I'm aware of in that section is a reference to the Levelator, an amazing tool every podcaster should have. (It's free, too. Gigavox invented it in self-defense.)

I imagine many people will head straight to Part IV, "Make Money with Your Podcast," but I really appreciated Part V, "Use a Podcast as a Business Communication Tool." These 65 pages are pure gold for any podcast evangelist operating in either the corporate or small-business world. Shel and Neville start by pointing out that creating a podcast is not a business goal. Rather, podcasting is a tool that can serve a purpose in the business' overall strategy. If your company starts podcasting "because everyone else is doing it," the podcast is not likely to be a success.

There's also an appendix about legal considerations for podcasters, one listing podcasting resources, and a podcasting glossary to help you sort out the jargon. And to keep up to date (because things on the Web change so quickly), there's a website for the book at EverythingwithPodcasting.com. You can find Shel's mix-minus instructional video (for recording Skype calls without echoes) and a whole lot of other good stuff--including a long list of links to podcasts.

Three cheers and five stars, guys.

SRG

This book has definitely provided me a solid background in H323.
In addition, it is a very useful reference, for example, I was
able to follow the call setup and media setup packet flow of an IP phone captured via a protocol analyzer(ethereal), thanks to the very clear illustrations. This is definitely a must for network administrators/managers considering a multimedia network implementation.

This book stands head and shoulders above other h323 and voip books. I know, I have 3 others that are gathering dust on the bookshelf. But this one, I have dogeared, marked, highlighted significant number of pages. It has the most detailed examples, explanations and illustrations that offer real-world implementation of h.323, h.245, h.225 and rtp, codecs, and other associated topics involved in voip. This is a must have, the other books are, well, junk.

This book provides a highly-technical in-depth look at H.323. Aside from reading a few whitepapers on the Internet, this book was my first real introduction to H.323. The subject itself is rather complicated to a new-comer, but this book provided a high level of detail without losing the reader. While it is no "for dummies" book, it is clearly written so the person with the right background (i.e. with a firm grasp on networking and TCP/IP) can pick it up and follow along. So why 4 stars and not 5? It realy has to do with the architectural graphics. In some of the information on the Internet ... , there are some really good architectural graphics that depict H.323. I think the book could be even better if the authors included such an approach.

This is a treasure of H.323, VOIP information! Excellent protocol information. This is no paper weight, gathering dust! I use the book and I'm glad to have it on my shelf.

This is by far the most comprehensive book on the market. I agree with the previous review, IP Telephony with H.323 is for advanced uses and a great reference guide as well. I highly recommend it if you want a thorough understand H.323 and IP Telephony, however, if you wish to learn about a particular subject, for example QoS or MPLS, this book will not provide enough detailed information (check out Cisco Press).

Must buy!

This is a very good text for a beginning JSP/Servelet developer. Very clearly laid out, with copious examples, well orgranized, slanted to a novice Servlet developer. You cant go wrong with this text. Additional benefit is a chapter on how to use the NetBeans IDE.

This book takes you through a well structured learning journey of JSP, Servlets and related technologies such as Netbeans, Tomcat and MySQL for developing complete web apps. The book has provided me with the skill and confidence to start building my own web-app. The book finishes with a completed e-commerce example that builds on the earlier work, and gives the reader a basis for their own future development.

The book provides comprehensive details on how to set up the environment for developing and deploying web-apps, with the installation of Netbeans, MySQL, libraries etc covered in the appendices. The set up is generally a difficult part of learning a new computer concept and this book explains this very well.

The material, the downloaded code, and exercises are well integrated and provide for a comprehensive learning experience. I was able to successfully complete the vast majority of exercises readily.

I have ordered the Murach Java book as I found the JSP and Servlets book very useful.

COMPARED TO HEAD FIRST
***********************
I am a big fan of the Head First series, a series which has taught me everything I know about Java, XHTML, CSS, Design Patterns Ajax, OO Design etc. I love it. But as a novice, I found Head First Servlets and JSP: Passing the Sun Certified Web Component Developer Exam (SCWCD) difficult to get into. Mainly because the HF book is directed towards accreditation, and contains some curved balls to prepare for the exam that distracted me from learning.

Instead, I did the Murach book from cover to cover, and skim read the HF book (partially because I am in love with that bossy HF girl!). The HF series is more fun and engaging, but for JSP and Servlets I found the Murach approach worked best for me. While the Murach book is as as well written and presented as can be expected of a more traditional text book, it is not as interactive as the HF series. I therefore found completing the exercises in the Murach book important for engaging with the content.

Murach does a better job than HF on the MySQL and IDE side of things. HF probably covers the nuances of the Servlets more comprehensively.

I recommend both, depending on what you need.

Hi guys, if you are looking for a book that guides you step by step thru servlets and jsp's this is the book you should buy, the method that is used in this book is learn and practice, for me this kind of studying is very proactive and it is better than just reading a bunch of pages with just a final example.
So do not hesitate to buy this book, this is the only one you need.

"Working hands are better than praying lips"

The previous version of "Murach's Servlets and JSPs" was a good book, and this one is too.

The book is described for use as "Training and reference", and while books tend to be good for one purpose or the other I found this one did manage to accomplish both objectives. The information is presented in small, distinct and incremental sections, and each block of code is clear and concise. It also contains all of the important information required to get a good start developing Servlets. I also found the same layout worked well when accessing the information as a reference.

It was very amusing that the book managed to get through four whole chapters before addressing Servlets or JSPs in detail, but given that many people leap into Servlets while their other technical skills are still growing, this prelude will be valuable to many beginners. These chapters are spent introducing web programming with Java, setting up Tomcat and the Netbeans IDE, and a one chapter crash course in HTML.

All of the required topics are covered elegantly, and enough room is left over to provide the same level of coverage for the next level of knowledge such as SSL, JavaMail, connecting to databases, container managed security and even some raw HTTP.

While I would not usually consider 10 horseshoes for a programming resource, this one is less likely to be read and forgotten, and should be of use for the first few years of Servlet programming for the novice. Therefore it is easy to recommend adding this one to your bookshelf.

Murach's Java Servlets and JSP 2nd Edition is a very good book for someone that would like to learn JSP & Servlet quickly and efficiently.

The book content emphasizes on the important and commonly used features of JSP & Servlet and various aspects Java web-based applications.

The writing style is a closer to Oreilly's cook book style than a conventional technical book. For me I really like it because I can just learn I need to know in order to get my job done.

In addition to covering topics about JSP & Servlet, it also covers many important aspects of developing Java web-based applications like MySQL, Tomcat, and NetBean. This is absolutely critical for setting up a development environment quickly so you can try out the numerous examples provided in the book.

Over all, I like this book and would have no problem recommending it.