Computers and Internet Books

Hopkins' Applescripting QuarkXPress - It's really nice book including a lot of good examples. And I think there's no applescript book specially relating to quark. So I can tell this book is really cool choice to make script for quark. But it's not good for beginner. If you have experience in programming, you can refer applescript manual from web site with this book. You can do something like me.

It doesn't get any better than this. I even learned some things about AppleScript that I didn't know before. Between the instructions and examples in the book and the scripts on the CD, you should be able to AppleScript anything that's scriptable in Quark with this book. I also like chicken and tacos, but not chicken tacos.

If you want to script quark then this is THE book to own. I hadn't done any scripting before and the literature from quark is pretty useless for beginners. This book has taken me in wonderfully easy and well explained steps, from a beginner to an extremely proficient user. For quark it is invaluable, and by working through it also helps you understand how applescript structures itself,making it much easier to learn how to script other applications. To put it in a nutshell, this book was for me what the discovery of making fire was to the cavemen.

I found this book to be an excellent source to Applescript in QuarkXPress. It gives tons of examples along with a CD. Without this book I wouldn't have been able to figure out the sentence structures in Script Editor for the goals I wanted to accomplish. Thanks Shirley!

I 'searched inside this book' and after reading the table of contents and the first few pages I decided to buy it. I had my reservations - not because of what I had read in the intro, but by the last few DV books I had purchased on Amazon. I am, I suppose, something in between a novice and an intermediate editor, and I edit on Sony Vegas Pro. This I have found puts me in a rather awkward category. In the past, all of the 'how to' books I've read have been far too basic or software specific.

What I really appreciated was the tone and pitch of the book. Most of the time, I find introductory books condescending - they seem to assume your inexperience equals a lack of intelligence (and corny jokes are unbelievable).

Before I read the Art and Technique of Digital Color Correction, I new more or less nothing about colour correction - my former corrections, dare I say it, were largely made using the contrast/brightness control - but this book made perfect sense to me. Steve Hullfish writes enthusiastically and encouragingly, and the book I believe would suit novices and pro's alike. The clear definitions in the margins are an excellent idea and are perhaps the key to the book's ability to transcend the novice/pro divide. If you understand the terminology move on, if you don't the explanations are right there.

Although the book does not give examples from Vegas. It explains colorist parlance in useful analogies, and offers suggestions about where to look for color correction tools in NLE's other than Avid and Apple Color. By in large, I found Vegas had most of the tools, scopes etc, and although I love Vegas, after seeing what Apple Color can provide, I do have a little 'application' envy.

One last thing... here's a small anicdote: I recently made a short film on HDV and showed a couple of people who liked it and before I new it, I was being mentored by a large post production studio. I asked them for some advice on corrections. I ended up sitting down with their senior colourists, watching the film on the big screen and talking shop with them for a couple of hours. We were talking about masks, vignettes, secondaries, colour casts, gamma and all sorts of things that, to be honest, I new nothing about until I read this book. It seems there's no substitute for experience, but because this book is full of advice from colourists with many years of experience, why not learn from your mistakes before you make them!

Glen Maw
Wellington, New Zealand

I disagree with the reviewer who said that the book claims that it's impossible to color correct with Adobe products. The MAIN readers of the first color correction book by the author were After Effects users, many of whom followed the advice of noted After Effects gurus, Trish and Chris Meyer.

American Cinematographer magazine's reviewer said this about the book: "likely to become the definitive text on the subject. Sensibly organized, lavishly illustrated and varied in perspective, it's a dense but highly readable summary of the current state of the art."

The cool thing about the book is that it is NOT platform or product specific. The author sat in on sessions with more than a dozen colorists around the country as they all graded the same images. The book walks the reader through those corrections from the viewpoint of these master colorists, instead of from the solitary viewpoint of the author. That's the value of the book. You are literally sitting in with people who have graded TV shows like "24" and "Desperate Housewives" and "LA Law" and "48 Hours" and movies like "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Spiderman" or those beautiful NFL Films.

This is a book for anyone using any software product. It is a book that is more about "why" to do the things you need to do than about "how" to do them with a specific piece of software.

Before you read this review you should know that I have not actually read the book in question. I'm writing the review specifically for people who are looking online for a book on color correction and don't have access to a copy in person to get a closer look.

I read the TOC for this book here on Amazon and then went to the local book store, where they happened to have a copy, because I needed to look closer before buying, so I'm passing what I learned on to you.

First, this looks like a really cool tutorial for anyone interested in a career in color correction and prepared to get the professional tools to follow that path. I also think in a few years I will be coming back to this book to learn more theory, because it looks strong there, too.

It also looks somewhat (if less) useful for those learning to color correct using either Avid or Final Cut Pro (which is, I know, the majority of practitioners).

However, if you are looking for a tool to learn how to color correct your own digital videos and you use the Adobe suite (Premiere Pro and After Effects), this author does not seem to feel that you have a fighting chance doing color correction at all, so you are out of his loop. I'm pretty sure that there are ways to color correct using these tools, though, especially with Photoshop CS3, so I, for one, am not going to go out and buy more software just yet. When I find the right book for us Adobe people I will post a review of that, too.

Meanwhile, I'm pretty sure this book will be wonderful for the rest of you (especially if you own a Mac).

I originally wrote this review for my blog and decided to post it here since I think it'll help potential buyers decide if this book is for them. Enjoy...

First question: Is The Art and Technique of Digital Color Correction worth reading?

Answer: Yes! Absolutely.

Second question: Is it targeted at newbies or advanced users?

Yes. To both.

The first two thirds of the book "Primary Color Correction" and "Secondary Color Correction" deals with the fundamentals of our toolsets: monitoring, understanding waveform monitors and vectorscopes, balancing shots, vignettes, HSL isolations, and more. While this part of the book can be safely skipped over by more advanced users to whom all that info is second nature, Steve Hullfish does a nice job of surveying how different software apps approach the same concepts. And when a particular software package has a unique tool for achieving a particular task, he breaks it down for the reader.

The upshot: Even if you're experienced colorist on a Symphony you'll walk away with a strong understanding how other software apps work and what you might be missing (or what advantages you may have that you didn't realize). My advice, advanced users should at least skim through these parts paying particular attention when Steve takes a moment to pull a quote from the working professionals he features in the last third of the book. There are some great tips in these sections - especially on how different colorists set up multi-display scopes to help them nail black balance or tweak color values. I ended up changing some of my displays and found a few new setups that I really like.

Overall, the first two parts are not a dumbed down discussion. While Steve starts by laying down the ground-work emphasizing monitoring and external scopes (the latter being a deep discussion that permeates the entire book - which I very much appreciate), he seems to anticipate some of his readers finding material redundant and thankfully breaks out basic terminology to sidebars. Appropriately, those early chapters work through the subject matter in the same order a colorist will typically approach their problem-solving.

The final third of the book "Pro Colorists" is likely where the advanced users will want to begin. Why? That answer leads us to our third question...

Third Question: What makes this book different than other color correction books (or DVDs)?

The soul of this book is contained in the last few chapters and on its supplemental DVD. Steve sits with over a dozen accomplished, professional colorists and puts them in front of a common software color grading platform, Apple's Color (at the time called Final Touch HD), with a Tangent control surface. He gives them all the same set of footage (also provided on a DVD), presses 'record' on a DV camera and grills the colorists about the approach they are each taking to color correcting those images. The result is the author presenting up to three colorists approaching the same shot using different techniques. Or the same technique being used on different shots. Usually in the words of those colorists. It's a great education.

Even better are the transcripts Steve provides on the DVD that didn't make it into the book but he thought were informative. I've just started to read those and already I've gotten some new ideas about different approaches to common challenges.

Another thing that differentiates this book is its largely software-agnostic approach. Color, Avid Symphony, After Effects, Color Finesse, even Photoshop are all featured in the first 2 Chapters alone. Where interfaces are similar, Steve picks a software package and follows it through - pointing out where users of other apps might find things different. I suspect that if iMovie had a color correction module Steve would have a found a place to feature it.

Fourth Question: Any final thoughts?

This is clearly a book about concepts, not tools. As much as it necessarily covers the How To of working with color correction software, it's the Why Do that is emphasized.

In fact, Why Do is the whole point of the book.

Read it. Live it. Learn it.

It goes into the basics of bandwidth calculation, leading up to the technologies used to support the different kind of services.

If one were to look for a good read, this book is a good start for a newbie.

This book could be used as a pre-cursor to an indepth research into new technologies.

ADSL, ATM, ISDN is mentioned in the book.

Lastly, this book is not drab and has some humour in it.

Before I started reading this book I had some idea about ATM. Author explains from scratch giving good background about basic communication systems and then starts with why ATM? ,ATM protocol ,reference model and AALx. Finally covering the current trend in home computing . In generally this book is good start for the people who knows IP and whats to know about ATM and this is a good self study book.

I am an Telco engineer implementing adsl and cable modem networks for broadband access service in China. The book came just in time for me because my company is in the stage of building an ATM network providing service like Internet surfing and experimental vod etc via adsl and cable modem. And this book has given us quite clear an infrastructure for the practice.

I am a teacher and consultant to the telecom industry. I bought the book to sharpen my skill set and increase literacy. I was most impressed with Mr. Kwok's ability to take a highly technical subject and break it down understandably. The end result is that both the "techno-literati" and the "average Joe" are well-served. Mr. Kwok apparently is one of us "techies" who also paid attention in writing class. Kudos for an excellent reference work.

Don Gilbert M.S. DG Consulting

To let a multibillion dollar creation escape from you is something hard to get over. "Authoritas: One Student's Harvard Admissions and the Founding of the Face Book Era" is Aaron Greenspan's amazing story of having developed the enormously popular Face Book software, only to let it escape from his grasp to the benefit of others. Greenspan candidly lays out the inherently fascinating story of his life - the memoir of an idealistic young man with huge dreams and an innovative idea -- only to be betrayed and have his creation stolen from him, then exploited for millions. "Authoritas" is a highly recommended look behind the famous Face Book website, and a recommended addition to academic and community library Biography collections.

This book is odd. It's well written and the narrative is compelling; enough for me to read it all in one go.

The stories of inadequate ego-driven teachers and students early on in the book are relayed well. The book's exposure of incompetence, back-scratching and favoritism from supposedly upstanding academic leaders is excellent. This is a good reason to read this book, and for excellently depicting an often overlooked part of academic life, this book deserves 4 stars.

The problem is, that's not why I bought the book. I was expecting a book about the "founding of the Facebook era" as the sub-title suggests. This, however, is certainly not a focus. From 335 pages in all, the name "Mark Zuckerberg" first appears on page 287, and any facts relating to Facebook's rise are within only the last 40 pages, mixed with of indignation.

Initially the author developed a system called CriticalMass that allowed students to rate their satisfaction of different academics at Harvard. Textbook Central, a textbook trading site, followed. Another system called FAStWebmail allowed Harvard students to access their official Harvard e-mail accounts over the Web. These were eventually rolled into a system called houseSYSTEM that included some other features like course preselection and calendars.

For a few chapters after explaining how these systems were developed, the focus is on how the administration and some other students considered houseSYSTEM to be insecure and flawed, due to its pseudo-requirement to have users' official Harvard passwords (in order for the webmail function to work) and a lack of proper SSL (HTTPS) security.

In dealing with these concerns the author showed a lack of technical knowledge. He protested that only an MD-5 hash of users' passwords were stored, but if this were the case, how did his system then access the users' official e-mail accounts? The author doesn't provide a proper level of detail to make a judgment as an independent reader, and the way he portrays it may just be very poor.

The author also says "Brian Wong is telling people that MD-5 generates 16-byte hashes, when it doesn't! There are 32 characters in all of them! Each ASCII character is one byte!" MD-5 generates a 16 byte hash (128 bits). That a textual hexadecimal representation of that 16 byte hash takes 32 characters does not make it a "32 byte hash."

The author has a habit of "quoting" his mental monologue, nearly all of which is negative in nature, and assuming whoever he's talking to is either an idiot or out to get him. The author's paranoia (warranted or not) permeates the last half of this book enough to make for uneasy reading. He also jumps to exaggerated conclusions. Shortly after the initial security concerns, the university decides that Greenspan needs to delete the password hashes he had collected so far and "forward the list of all those whose information you have collected" in order that those students could have their passwords reset. Instead of complying with this reasonable request, the author rants about how the users table has other information like phone numbers in it and asks "What, do they want those, too?" The e-mail he quotes requested a list of people who signed up for his site, not other details. This doesn't stop the author from eventually sending the whole user table anyway!

On the SSL issue, the text implies that a self-signed certificate was used, but the author appears not to understand the identification issues with this (though those who e-mail him appear to). It's a common theme that the author quotes well-thought-out e-mails and refutes them poorly. He argues that a wildcard certificate would be necessary - costing some $1000, though InstantSSL had them for under $500 at the time - not realizing he could use a regular SSL certificate (under $50) for the password transfer (the parts where security really counted), and a wildcard cookie for cross sub-domain authentication beyond that.

On Facebook, he seems to feel that Zuckerberg's developments, though independent, were a rip off of his own even though Zuckerberg is constantly quoted as remaining separate. houseSYSTEM did have a "face book" feature where pictures of students were located along with their names, but this had no social networking aspect. Zuckerberg's did. Nothing the author relays gives me the impression he "founded" the "Facebook" era.

On page 302, I feel that Greenspan attempts to blackmail Facebook. Despite considering Zuckerburg "inarticulate and naive," he suggested that he join Facebook. When told they needed an engineer with 15 years' experience, Greenspan highlighted Facebook's problems with ConnectU (who were suing Facebook for allegedly copying their idea and stealing code) and suggested that he had "grounds to sue both of you" before suggesting that if Facebook would hire him, he'd be on their side and help the lawsuit go away.

The last 20 pages are dire. The author claims that having a full Facebook profile "would have meant I endorsed intellectual property theft" without realizing that information willingly shared is not "thieved."

Lastly, the author appears to rub most people in the book up the wrong way. Other than his closest associates and his family, almost every social interaction seems to result in the author antagonizing someone or being ignored. In most cases, he relies on his father to write e-mails and letters on his behalf (mostly unsuccessfully), rather than fight his own battles. "If Mark can get $2 billion for my ideas, I should at least be able to get a couple million!" sums up what I see as a jealous, paranoid individual who, as it happens, has written a gripping and interesting book.

As good as this book is, I sense Greenspan isn't the sort of person to get over his envy and indignation, and it saddens me that his personality appears to restrict him from achieving all that he could be.

"That's some catch, that Catch-22," Yossarian observed.
"It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed.

That is the famous line from Joseph Heller's 1961 novel, Catch 22.

Authoritas is the autobiography of Aaron Greenspan's adventures growing up in Shaker Heights, then attending Harvard, and then finding himself in Harvard's 21st-century version of Heller's Catch 22.

Authoritas is an interesting, fast paced and a times humorous read.

While at Harvard, Greenspan develops by all accounts the very first version of what is now the international website "Facebook."

Aaron Greenspan writes very well and really knows computing. With that combination I think we will be hearing a lot from Mr. Greenspan in the future.

Heller's John Yossarian would have loved reading Authoritas.

At some levels, the book is just an absolutely engaging story. At other levels, it shines a harsh light on uncaring, uncreative, and unimaginative people involved at administrative levels of education. At times, you'll be astounded at the depths educational administrators go to squash creativity, deny entrepreneurship, and cover themselves at the expense of providing service to education.

Aaron Greenspan graduated from Harvard. And although he is a successful CEO of his own company (Think Computer), his success came despite his Harvard education. In Authoritas you'll find Aaron struggle to avoid the crushing of the human spirit and the crushing of the innate desire to learn and his determination to provide compassionate assistance to his autistic brother.

Aaron's story is personal, engaging, and important.

I bought this book knowing a good bit about regular ASP and how to communicate with databases, hoping to learn how to do the same thing with ASP.NET. I was not disappointed. The book walks you through step-by-step in creating database connections, command objects, stored procedures, etc... It doesn't dwell too long on topics that it shouldn't be covering (like database design, and web site design). The instructions within the book identify software that is free, so there are no unpleasant surprises. This book will be a great reference and has really helped me make the jump from ASP to ASP.NET.

This book does a good job explaining how to work with databases. The one thing I didn't realize is the only language used for examples is C#. It would be nice if VB examples were also included.

I really liked this book because it shows step-by-step how to do things and then has a "How does it work?" section. Great book! Well written and seems quite comprehensive.

Almost every book with ASP.NET 2.0 in the title will tell you something about the Grid View, Detail View, Form View, SQLDatasource and the SQL 'Select' statement; this one will too. While the other books provide a rudimentary overview of these topics then move on, "Begining ASP.NET 2.0 Databases: From Novice to Professional" takes you way beyond the SQLDatasource and the 'Select' statement, delving deep into ADO.NET.

Just as bread & butter go together ASP.NET and databases go together; and there is a lot more to the database side of the equation than is brought out in most ASP.NET books, which tend to limit themselves to the use of the controls, getting into databases only enough to have something to show in the controls. with this book it is the other way around; the reason for the controls is to display and maninpulate data in a database, and there are several ways to access and manipulate databases with ADO.NET besides the SQLDatasource. Along the way you will learn to use the controls with all the different data access formats and how to use the controls and their events to manipulate the data, which is what it's really all about.

If DataReader, Command Object, DataSet, OLEDBDatasource and ODBCDatasource are not familiar terms to you, and you want to develop ASP.NET web sites you need this book. If you don't know when not to use the SQLDatasource (there are some definite situations when it won't work), or don't know how to create a server side data cache and why you would want to, you need this book.

The book is easy to read and has numerous small exercises titled "Try It Out", after each exercise is a "How It Works" section where the code in the previous exercise is explained, line by line in most cases. Not only does Damien take you through DataReader, Datasets and Commands he also covers stored procedures, which you will want to use rather than queries in code shown in most of the other books.

While the book primarily uses SQL Server 2005, MYSQL 5.0 is also covered at the same time, everything from installing and configuring to using with stored procedures, parameters and transactions.

If you want to build ASP.NET web sites you will work with databases, if you are not intimately familiar with ADO.NET this book should be on your bookshelf readily available.

As a beginner to Web Applications, i found this book extremely easy to understand. The book covers all the topics necessary to get going to develop a complete basic web application. I'd recommend this book to anyone who wants information regarding State Management, Data Binding, ADO, UI/Web Controls, Basic Security etc. Also, this book would be very useful to anyone who has little or no experience with ASP.NET before and who want to get their basics right before plunging on to a project. Great book!!

Before reading this book I had developed a few simple web applications, but I was ready for a more in depth approach utilizing all of the excellent features provided by .NET. This book covers a lot of the basic topics that will allow you to write code efficiently and quickly. Of course since there are a wide range of topics, one finds that some of them fail to go into great detail, but this is not even an issue as the author gives you enough information and examples to be able to figure it out for yourself, or at least to give you a solid foundation for solving the problem. The only downside is that, as far as I know, the code examples do not exist on Wrox's website. Perhaps I couldn't find them? It's not really a big issue because most of the code is easy to follow. I'd recommend this book to anyone who wants beginning/intermediate information regarding State Management, Data Binding, ADO, UI/Web Controls, Basic Security and more.

Being new to .Net and redirecting my career into software development, I've found Daniel's book to be one of most well written and insightful books on C# and Visual Studio.net. He moves quickly into the nuts and bolts of the .Net classes and provides innovative code that go beyond the obvious. You are given multiple methods of handling logic in the same code-behind. The authors cleared much confusion I had about server controls, data binding and ADO.Net. Readers will appreciate the applications development approach in the book which goes beyond theory and shows you how to apply your skills in solving real-world problems. I recommend you write the code yourself line by line and read the book cover to cover. He leads you step by step. You will discover the finer points of VS.net, not to mention the many properties of the .Net classes with Intellisense. I also like the SQL data interaction because this is so important with our customers. I highly recommend it!

As a technical reviewer of this book I found it to have a good mix of technical content and explaination which is ideal for helping developers to get started with ASP.NET.

The book explores various areas of key functionality within ASP.NET and supports it with a sample application. I'd recommend this book to anyone who hasn't had any experience with ASP.NET before and who want to get some understanding before undertaking a project.

As a teacher, nothing frustrates me more than knowing tools exist, even what the tools are, but not knowing how use them to increase students' learning. Daccord and Reich, both top-notch teachers, have done a superb job of solving this problem through clear but imaginative explanations and suggestions for recruiting the extraordinary possibilities presented by recent developments in technology, especially via the Internet.

Rather than being daunted by all these possibilities, picking just one or two great ideas from this book and folding them into one's teaching practice can have salutary effects on student learning and teacher enthusiasm for new ideas and approaches, and once those become habitual, one can return to dip again into this cornucopia of great ideas, exercises, and activities.

If you are a teacher or educator looking to develop ideas to utilize technology into your classroom this is a must have book. There are 10 chapters ranging from Enhancing Teaching and Learning with Multimedia to Class Management. Each chapter features one or two tools with specific directions (simply written) on how to use the tool as well as hundred's of web site's that are relevant to education. If you are someone who is looking to take technology into the classroom or want to learn more this is a well written, well researched book. I highly recommend it, you won't be disappointed!

The title of this book says it all. This book provides great background information and simple strategies for teaching WITH technology. As a professional development provider, I often see teachers struggle with how to use technology in their classrooms. Best Ideas for Teaching with Technology not only gives the background knowledge that teachers need, but it also shows teachers how to use technology as a tool to engage students in the classroom. Even better, the book is well-organized and an easy read - a great time saver for all busy teachers!

Good teaching has always been hard work; teaching writing, even harder. In Best Ideas for Teaching with Technology, Thomas Daccord and Justin Reich bring new tools to the job. Their classroom-tested ideas are presented with illustrations -- lots of illustrations -- and humor. They offer, for example, practical suggestions for getting more from your word processor. They also explore concept mapping applications and wikis as strategies for empowering young writers. This is a book for those who are new to teaching with technology as well as for veterans. Technology integration just got a little easier.

without a doubt - - - the most useful book i've ever seen. If you haven't bought it yet---order your copy now!

without a doubt - - - the most useful book i've ever seen. If you haven't bought it yet---order your copy now!

This is the book we have been waiting for. At long last, an easy to use, comprehensive guide that is as unbiased as it is informative. From internet newbies to experinced surfers, this book is terrific. I bought it as a gift, but ended up using it so much myself, that I bought a second copy. Be forewarned, one copy is not enough.

This is the best tool anyone could want this Christmas! It gives you the best online store locations to shop at! I don't even have to leave my house this year to buy a single gift.

The guide gives a great alphabetical listing of the good vendors listed on bizrate.com, along with their BizRating--so you know who you're buying from, and what type of reputation they have with other BizRate customers. Some entries even have comments straight from users' mouths. A great deal at a low price--something every avid online buyer should have.

This book is a valuable resource for anyone interested in cultural resouces! As a social worker, I have found this book to be exteremely helpful for families and children. I highly recommend it!

This book is amazing! It has so much information. I have not been able to find so much information in one spot until I picked up this book. I particularly like the sites with Afrocentric children's games, online activities and books. But there is so much more than that. Parents: buy this book now! It is a worthwhile investment.

After reading this book, I was thrilled! There is so much useful information in it. No matter if you use the Internet sporadically or if you peruse the Net everyday, all day like I do, then there is something for you.
This book is simply a condensed and Black parenting specific search engine compiled into book form. No longer do parents have to be bothered with tooling around search engines, when most likely the results will be scant. Stacey Montgomery has done all of the work for you and keeps an updated list of Black parenting web resources on her website. A must buy for Black parents looking for Black parenting websites!

Stacey Montgomery has done a phenomenal job compiling about 375 web sites -- designed for the Black family -- into one resource. Her book is truly a "one-stop" shopping of information that is divided into 20 categories. There's something for everyone in this book.

For the regular Internet user such as myself -- who stays on the lookout for unique educational products for my family -- Montgomery's book is hard to put down. However, for those persons who surf the Internet very little or not at all, "Black Families Online" is still a powerful resource to have nearby because of its good-to-know information.

Thanks to this book, I have already begun compiling a list of my own of places to shop on the web for Christmas items and such. In "Black Families Online" I've come across web sites that I never knew existed that offer products that I never knew existed........a Multiplication Hip Hop CD and puzzles and interesting games that teach Black history, just to name a few.

In addition to providing an annotated list of web sites, Montgomery has added some nice additional touches, too. Quotes throughout the book from web site owners and parents answering the question, "Why go online?" or stating "Why my business is online" are also fun to read.

This book is a masterpiece. Montgomery should be proud of what obviously took a lot of time and effort.

Many thanks to her for a resource that has truly enriched my life. When not in my hands, this book is sure to stay close to my computer. I know I'll be using it often!!!

This book really goes a long way and covers every aspect of the matter.

I bought two books when I got this one: The other was Rebecca Blood's "the Weblog Handbook." It's a two-star, at best, while this one is four and 3/4. I only withhold the 1/4 because some terminology wasn't clear. I had read the MacWorld reviews of all the systems Todd covered, and I knew I wanted to use only one of them, because it offered the features I need. The terminology, though, was contained in the chapters on the other systems, so I had to go into the index and look them up. (The term I'm thinking of is "bookmarklet," but there were others.) A separate chapter on terminology would have been helpful. Still, it's the best book out there on getting it up (your Blog, that is). Immediately following finishing the book, I emailed Rick Ellis, the Technical Consultant (and creator of pMachine), got immediate answers, and have signed up to start my blog on Rick's service. The website blogonbook.com is good, too, though it doesn't show correctly in Netscape 4.7. I read the book in two days. Entertaining, informative. (Bill ...)

This is a well-structured, practical and fairly comprehensive look at blogging. It covers everything from the basic question of whether you need a weblog, through how to set up and use some of the popular software offerings, to writing, tweaking, and publicizing your blog. There's also a small section on using blogs in business. The author comes over as someone who knows his stuff; I like the clear line drawn between using a hosted service, and running your blog on your own machine, for example.

As with any book which gives such precise installation and operation details, this one is likely to date quickly when the available software changes. It also has only thin coverage of more lasting social and community aspects, so if you find a copy that's several years old, make sure the bulk of the book still makes sense before buying. It's not a secret, but the book has a strong affiliation with the pMachine blogging software, and in places this seems to crowd out alternative approaches a bit.

In general, a solid and worthwhile book for a beginner to blogging. This book gives you all the tools and knowledge to get started, but once you decide that blogging is for you and want to take it further, make sure to check out a wider range of software and deeper, more theoretical, books such as Powazek's "Design for Community" and Blood's "The Weblog Handbook".

This is a truly remarkable book. It is both a detailed primer for weblog novice and serves well as a reference for the experienced blogger or one desiring to attain that level.
Stauffer's organization of his material is unusually well structured. He begins at the very beginning: what is a blog, why you might want one and so one. Then there's a walk-through of four different blogging platforms, which is surprisingly detailed, yet easy to comprehend. This section not only cleared up a lot of mysteries for me, but also introduced me to the remarkable pMachine.
He then moves on to writing, designing and tweaking your blog - with information I didn't find in the other three books I first read. Finally, he concludes with sections on publicizing yourt blog and how to use it in business environments.
Overall, a remarkable tour de fource and in my estimation, the best book on blogging currently available. As noted I've read three of them and looked at all the others. This is the only one I would unreservedly endorse -- and I am not easy to please.

Jerry