Internet Books

Walters' comprehensive knowledge of the world of IT and incredible ability to explain complex concepts make this book a fascinating read for any gadget geek interested in how stuff actually works. And he doesn't settle for simple, surface level explanations. Instead of shying away from the details and tech-speak, Walters takes you one step further than you thought you could ever go through insightful examples and meaningful analogies.

In addition, his ability to put technological developments in context allow the reader to see the larger factors and trends that have and continue to drive change. A seemingly chaotic and overwhelmingly fast-changing industry suddenly seems logical and "trackable" after reading Walters' book. In this way, it's easy to forgive the fact that the text is a bit out of date. Everything I've read about today's technology I've easily been able to connect back to the ideas I learned here.

Truly one of a kind.

It is very cool book, I would say valuable book to build up your understanding of IT in general. It converges many technologies into one coherent pattern so you start to understand many things. I combined reading of this book with "UNIX Essentials" DVD and it nice to explore many of the conceptions in action. If you are lacking some evenness with your IT knowledge pick this one it is nicely shape your vision of it.

With 6+ years marketing management experience and an MBA, I feel this book was very helpful in understanding the many facets of technology and its evolution through time. The book is a must read for anyone who needs to build or brush up on a solid but basic understanding of technology. However, many of the newest trends in technology are only briefly covered. This is due, I believe, to the fact that many of the pervasive technologies and collaborative applications now being pushed in the marketplace didn't make the editor's draft of the book even though the published date is 2001.

There is a great breadth of information presented in a very lucid fashion. The material is easy to understand, and the author adds a great sense of humor.
However, with the rapid advancements in technology, the book is a bit dated. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants a gain a great breadth of knowledge in the field of Information technology, in a short period of time.

THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO COMPUTING is simply an extraordinary achievement. It reflects a breadth of knowledge and clarity of presentation that is remarkable. It makes every effort to distill knowledge about computers and computing in an easy, reader-friendly, memorable way. For computer users everywhere -- in organizations, schools, colleges and universities, and individuals -- this volume gives multiple ways of getting to know more about computing in its fast changing environment. First, you get to know the foundations of how computers and computing works in practical, everyday language. Second, you get a reference book that explains key terms, key workings, and key interconnections among the parts.

The most noteworthy aspect of the book is its superb coherence in presenting vast amounts of computing knowledge arranged in for easy understanding. Information and explanations in one chapter are referenced in subsequent ones, never failing to explain connections among them, with a view to present an overall picture of how computers and computing works.

Each chapter highlights technical terms related to computing and information technology, provides an overview of specific aspects as for example "An Overview of How Storage Works" (Chapter 2, p.40), and highlights in grey explanations of widely used terms such as "Disks From a User's Perspective" (p. 56). Each chapter also ends with a summary list of questions that focus on self-evaluating one's grasp of the chapter's contents.

E. Garrison Walters' book will continue to enrich the understanding of all who enjoy working with computers at work or for pleasure. I wish this book had been available to guide me in computing long before I found it, and, that I had written it ! It is a remarkable achievement!

Before I started reading this book I had the impression that It would sum up all of the incidents and all the drama leading up to it. But, I was greatly disappointed. When the book ended I was thinking, did the real ending of the book fall out? Then I turned to page and saw the epilogue, so I thought, "Okay this should sum things up for me." But, It didn't. All it did was to leave me hanging on a string, and wondering if I misread something about a fifth book. I suggest that you don't read it unless you have prepared yourself for dissatisfation. But really, Is a fifth book coming out? Cause if it is, I'll change my review around completely.

I've just read all 4 books of @ Cafee for the second time, the first being 4 years ago! I've been searching for the 5th book ever since, everywhere! 4 years is a long time. the book is worth it but the suspence is killing me!
If anyone knows when and if the 5th book and beyond will be availeble do tell! Hope the auther will browse through the reviews and do something!

I thought this book was the best book i have read in a long time . It relates to me as i'm about the same age. If you are a teenager and are thinking of buying this book i would advise you to. The plot gets especially good at the end and i am reading the next one at the moment .

Elizabeth Craft certainly knows how to leave her readers on edge...I read this book when it first came out and I'm seriously disappointed that there isn't a #5 to satisfy my curiousity on WHAT HAPPENED! If you read this, Ms. (or is it Mrs.? ) Craft, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE write a #5...I bet Sam will end up with Hallie, Blue with Jason, Nat with Dylan, etc...but I need YOUR words to make it really happen. I want to know who Blue calls. In short, I want ANSWERS...please write another book soon...

OMG! Mz. Craft, where iz the fifth book? I can't find it on Amazon dot com, and I'm DYING to know what happenz! I have to know who Blue decided to call! Pleez, finish this series, or else get this website in order, and tell them to make the next book available to us readers! We're dying here, it's a TOTAL cliff hanger. To those of you that haven't read this book, MAKE SURE YOU CAN FIND THE FIFTH BOOK BEFORE YOU START READING ANY OF THEM!

The book is very practical and timely; it contains the complex of useful rules either dispersed in many different sources or not published at all. For example my colleague who is a DB Oracle administrator in Sony Computer Entertainment distinguished the following recommendations:
· Hardening Oracle environment
· Avoiding the use of mod_plsql
· Not making a database a web server and not store HTML pages in the database

From my perspective the rules concerning Web services and cross-site scripting are the most valuable. Working on these applications I see how vulnerable is a database server due to some security holes; therefore avoiding the holes is important.

This is a very good book. It is very readable and very informative. It has a lot of useful stuff. I recommend it highly.

I'm rarely moved to write a review on a technical book, perhaps because I read so many of them. However, this text is truly outstanding, due to it's breadth of coverage, i.e., Oracle, SQL Server, DB2, UBD and Sybase AND well written descriptions of problems and solutions.

If you are seeking to secure your databases AND/OR audit them, this book contains both suggestions for scripting, triggers etc as well as where to look for vulnerabilities.

Bravo to the author, and THANKS, I'm using regularly, the best compliment of all.

Really good book. Easy to read and good content. I recommend it to anyone doing db work.

The book is helpful and practical. It has the right mix of "what to do" with "how to do" and "why to do" - and it covers all the databases my company owns.

I have to hand it to Mr. Comer and Stevens, they have done an excellent job writing a book that explains everything clearly with very well defined (and actually working) examples.
If you are interested in learning TCP/IP programming on Unix platform this is the only book you need.
It does assume that you have knowledge of some C programming, but it does not assume that you are an expert.
Excellent Book.

I have been using Internetworking with TCP/IP Volume III for almost ten years now to teach a graduate course on client server programming. I think it is perhaps the most perfect textbook ever written. Comer's code is exquisite and can be used to teach clear and efficient coding in C. His explanations are perfect. He says everything that needs to be said, and no more. His presentation about the foundation of all distributed computing is clear concise and on target. Students require some reminders about the fact that this book can't be read like a novel, or like any less competent textbook. They need to read and carefully consider each line. Comer includes everything that is needed in the book and its appendices. In every case, you see very careful and concise statements of how things really work. I just reread his chapter on NFS this morning and was reminded about how he can take the complex and invisible and make it completely understandable.

Professor Comer's books are wonderful, but his contributions don't stop there. If you pride yourself on writing and are new to the academic realm you might find it useful to go to his website and read his advice on writing a dissertation. If you are a PhD student, or a master's student writing a thesis, this should be a mandatory stop. If you are simply a person who takes pride in writing clearly, you will learn important things.

This is a great book and I see why some teachers chose it for grad students. I didn't do well in networks last semester because I had to learn BSD TCP/IP sockets from sources like book snippets my teacher gave me, man pages, and various Internet sources. The textbook I had to buy for class has almost no C code or any explanations about BSD sockets. So, I invested into this and the Richard Stevens (UNIX Network Programming) book. Both are excellent assests.

Pro (This book): I like how it explained what each important function did (like read/write)

Con: The example code could be a little better.

This book is well-written and will be a good reference once I'm through with my class. I bought all 3 volumes since I could get them at a great price. What especially helped: sometimes books would take up to 50 pages explaining a topic. The "Internetworking with TCP/IP" series are excellent at giving the bottom line and at times makes it easier to understand the details within the longer-winded pages of other books. In a way, to me, it's like a set of cliff notes to my textbook.

If you're baffled about network programming, these books might be worth a try.

Get all three volumes. There is no better way to learn TCP/IP. The read is excellent. The examples are very excellent. Definiirly, a classic for years to come.

I used this book from cover to cover in a Unix Socket Programming class. A few good points about this book: 1) The sample do compiled on Linux with no problems. That's a plus. 2) The author emphasized good client-server design principles. 3) The introduction is gentle and very readble. 4) The code sample is directly,simple and not riddled with unnecessary details to "show off" like some authors do.

You don't need much Unix to do exercise in this book.About the only System calls you need to know are fork(),Select(),sigalarm() and execve(). The book could have been expanded to cover HTTP,SOAP and some other protocols to give it a 5stars.

Exactly as described, fast delivery. I will always try to choose amazon from now on.

This book is THE best LP book I have come across. The topics are very clear and presented in the best possible manner. Introduces you to several basic and advanced LP topics, theorems and algorithms. The exercises at the end of each chapter test the students' understanding in an appropriate manner. A good number of examples are given to explain the theory in a better way. I would definitely recommend this book to a student interested in learning about optimization procedures and/or algorithm development.

Surely helps if you have taken a linear algebra course before. Some students who haven't had a linear algebra course find the math nomenclature formidable in the beginning.

This book is impressive for theory, every thing you ever wanted to know or how to avoid some other is here. I teach to industrial engineering students, so i have to use other books for the application, but for the theory, everything is covered here, even more, in the book are several simple rules to avoid tipical problems of the simplex method or transportation problems, or integer forms. You can't call yourself a pro if you haven't read this book.

Most part can be expressed in a more terse way and with math language. However, the book revolve around using very lengthy sentence to explain, which is not so helpful and clear as expressed with math. It can be condensed to half thickness.

The best part of this book is the first half, where the foundations of linear programming are presented in a clear yet relatively rigorous fashion, accompanied by numerous intuitive geometrical explanations of the abstract general concepts. This approach, supplementing mathematics with graphical insights, works extremely well for this topic.

The quality goes down somewhat, perhaps neccessarily, in the latter half of the book as topics are presented less carefully, and in a somewhat rushed manner in order to cover all of the material the authors decided to include. Given that the fundamentals are covered so well, perhaps this is a fair trade.

The only real negative I can think of is that it's a small crime for professors to create their own publishing companies (Athena only publishes works by a small group of MIT professors) and then still charge outrageous amounts for the books. This would be completely unacceptable were it not for the fact that, unlike most self-published work, this book's production quality is on par with that of the large publishers.

I happen to know C++ and this book is quite useful for learning Java, or at least understanding any given Java program. For each Java construct, the book tells what the equivalent C++ construct is or whether it exists at all. In some cases, it also goes the other way -- for each C++ construct, the Java equivalent.

It also covers some Java libraries and briefly outlays applets. There does not seem to be any coverage of servlets or server-side programming.

As good a reference as it is, it seems to be missing some things, most notably initializations. There are pieces of Java code I've seen something like:

subr1(new Foobar {blah(){foo;} blah1(){bar;}});

i.e., a class (Foobar) is being initialized dynamically before calling a function subr1(). The exact circumstances of initialization of variables and dynamic classes are not covered at all in this book.

Other than that, this book is great.

I picked up this book on a whim, thinking it wouldn't be as good as Java in a Nutshell or Core Java, both of which are excellent books in and of themselves. Surprisingly, this contains a condensed version of most of the information of the above mentioned books. It lacks the extended examples of Core Java, but to a good student and intelligent reader, missing out on a few examples won't break your education.

And like JIAN, there is a good amount of reference material in this book, not with the extended detail of JIAN, but enough to get by most of the stumbling stones one encounters while programming.

As a student, I can only carry so many books in my backpack; when I'm programming in the university labs, I want concise and useful as my qualities. At home, I have my Java reference library (CJ, JIAN, etc.), which I consult when I'm at a quandary; for portability and my lab work, this book is the Swiss Army knife of references, one that I carry regularly, and one that can solve about 75-80% of Java problems I encounter.

I picked up this book on a whim, thinking it wouldn't be as good as Java in a Nutshell or Core Java, both of which are excellent books in and of themselves. Surprisingly, this contains a condensed version of most of the information of the above mentioned books. It lacks the extended examples of Core Java, but to a good student and intelligent reader, missing out on a few examples won't break your education.

And like JIAN, there is a good amount of reference material in this book, not with the extended detail of JIAN, but enough to get by most of the stumbling stones one encounters while programming.

As a student, I can only carry so many books in my backpack; when I'm programming in the university labs, I want concise and useful as my qualities. At home, I have my Java reference library (CJ, JIAN, etc.), which I consult when I'm at a quandary; for portability and my lab work, this book is the Swiss Army knife of references, one that I carry regularly, and one that can solve about 75-80% of Java problems I encounter.

I picked up this book on a whim, thinking it wouldn't be as good as Java in a Nutshell or Core Java, both of which are excellent books in and of themselves. Surprisingly, this contains a condensed version of most of the information of the above mentioned books. It lacks the extended examples of Core Java, but to a good student and intelligent reader, missing out on a few examples won't break your education.

And like JIAN, there is a good amount of reference material in this book, not with the extended detail of JIAN, but enough to get by most of the stumbling stones one encounters while programming.

As a student, I can only carry so many books in my backpack; when I'm programming in the university labs, I want concise and useful as my qualities. At home, I have my Java reference library (CJ, JIAN, etc.), which I consult when I'm at a quandary; for portability and my lab work, this book is the Swiss Army knife of references, one that I carry regularly, and one that can solve about 75-80% of Java problems I encounter.

I picked up this book on a whim, thinking it wouldn't be as good as Java in a Nutshell or Core Java, both of which are excellent books in and of themselves. Surprisingly, this contains a condensed version of most of the information of the above mentioned books. It lacks the extended examples of Core Java, but to a good student and intelligent reader, missing out on a few examples won't break your education.

And like JIAN, there is a good amount of reference material in this book, not with the extended detail of JIAN, but enough to get by most of the stumbling stones one encounters while programming.

As a student, I can only carry so many books in my backpack; when I'm programming in the university labs, I want concise and useful as my qualities. At home, I have my Java reference library (CJ, JIAN, etc.), which I consult when I'm at a quandary; for portability and my lab work, this book is the Swiss Army knife of references, one that I carry regularly, and one that can solve about 75-80% of Java problems I encounter.

This guide is now available, free, as a PDF from Juniper's site.

Some people hate reading PDFs and like using a book. If you're one of these people, by all means get this book!

The PDF availablility for the JNCIA, JNCIS, JNCIP and JNCIE are shown in this link. I'm not sure how Amazon handles links, so I'll obscure it.

[...]

Replace hxxp with http.

Buy Harry's book! I took Juniper factory training from Harry around 2001. He was an absolutely wonderful teacher, and a genuine expert in both JUNOS and IP networking in general. You could tell he had real-world experience to support his system knowledge as a Juniper staffer. If he writes even half as well as he teaches, this is sure to be a great resource.

This is the only and comprehensive JNCIP lab preparation book available today.The book is well written and covers complete coverage of JNCIP lab.If you understand this book you are good for the actual Lab.

I passed my JNCIP lab using this book and have scheduled my JNCIE for August 2004. I highly recommend this book to anyone that supports Juniper routers or plans to take the exam.

If you are appearing for JNCIP or read how the routing protocols operate in a multi protocol environment with Juniper routers, your best bet is JNCIP book. The book covers lot of scenarios and case studies in great detail. The author/editors need to be commended for such scintillating efforts on publishing a very good book on Juniper routers. This book not only can be used for preparing for the JNCIP exam but also you can put it in your library for reference. But one thing is for sure, this is a great book and better to have a copy f it. I have benefitted by going through this book.

The book arrived in a timely manner and its condition was better than described. Great price too! Thanks

"Keeping Found Things Found", is a must buy, an essential tool, as we all struggle to keep on top of, rather than be buried by, information. The book's premise is excellent, explaining as it does how to organize web information into our lives in ways that help rather than just adding to the clutter.

In today's frenetic pace, when we are swamped with information, this book gave me highly valuable suggestions. But, as importantly, it also gave me some very useful questions to ask. It seems as though every day I run across new Web initiatives or gadgets or software tools. Which are worth my time and trouble (and money)? The book gives a checklist of questions to consider.

"Keeping Found Things Found" is thorough and extremely readable.

This book is a great introduction and a consummate summary of the field of personal information management. Its comprehensive nature makes it useful for people familiar with the field, while at the same time it's a great primer for someone new to this area.

When the author of this book invited me, based on some of my web illustrations, to create some illustrations for this book I was interested in the project because it spoke directly to my own experience. I teach design for instructional media in a university setting and struggle every day, not only with my own deluge of personal information and how to manage it -- but with helping my students recognize that the end result of their own design efforts will be contributing to the personal information overload faced by their clients and their students. This book maps out the dimensions of our current personal information problems, and should be a required read for everyone who is engaged in adding to those problems, trying to solve them, or studying them in any detail. In particular, students of Information Technology, Information Design, Informatics, Instructional Systems, Human Performance and any other discipline with ties to personal information management -- and Jones makes clear how many of us that really is! -- needs to view the complexity of users' lives in this kind of comprehensive detail. Too many of us only think about what we are asking people to use or to do or to remember. This view of their lives may be daunting, but it is critical!

I'm a college dropout(Information Studies), now working in IT as a Systems Admin at a fair sized hotel. When I left college to pursue other at that time more interesting things. I couldn't really see the big picture in why we had to learn what they wanted us to.
Now I do, thanks to this book.

I keep feeling inspired about the management of my information. Both as PIM in my own department, but mostly also for my users. I can suddenly see some meaning in the way they manage their PIM. I as the IT department have to facilitate their professional PIM. I have to give them the tools to make sure they don't lose stuff, but also so they don't drown in information. Suddenly I have a much more nuanced view of my job. Being the geek who loves his tech stuff, can do everything to keep servers and computer running, is not really enough. I have to know my place in the business of managing information and information flow in the company.

This book could teach many programmers, much on how they can make their products more usable to the users. Make them understand some of how people look at the information being processed, stored, shared, pushed by the programs they write. We have to facilitate more styles of PIM than just our own, not everyone works like we do.

I have to stop myself, I just love this book and the ideas it keeps inspiring to pop up in my head.
There is so much for so many people in this book..

Although the typos are numerous, this book is an excellent guide for SharePoint administrators. SharePoint users probably won't want to wade through all the technical details included in this book so it shouldn't be difficult to keep it on the administrator's desk. If you get just one book, get this one!

I should have read all the reviews on this. I thought it was a developer book. But having said that, I thought this book is quite informative to developers as well. There are some very minor typo errors but, as another reviewer said, I like the style of the author in the way he presented and discussed the subjects. I also like the timing of the small (and what I call) a "diversion" section where he mentions other things that may be somewhat related to the topic he was currently discussing.

Overall, I'd recommend this book as a companion book if you are a developer. Very good admin reference! It is probably the best one at the moment.

If you are looking for a book that will actually explain how to install a single server or farm, this is it. The author goes into great detail, including how to set the SQL server permissions. Every SharePoint administrator should have this book. It is more useful than even the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Administrator's Companion.

The best book on SharePoint Services 3.0 and I have read just about every book about SharePoint Services. Bookmark her blog at [...]. Also get Inside Microsoft Windows Services 3.0 by Ted Pattison and Daniel Larson and Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 Step by Step by Penelope Coventry.

I come to this as a database developer with 25 years experience and with absolutely no knowledge of SharePoint. I rarely write a review. But on this book, I had to do so.

When I first started to administer and develop in SharePoint, I knew nothing about it. So I got 5 books. I still use one other book (the development book) for the heavy lifting but most of the time I use Mastering Windows SharePoint Services by Callahan.

I have several friends in other organizations that administer SharePoint. The ones who have training and knowledge love it. Those that do not, hate it. This is one way to get that information.

First, Callahan shows in detail how to install and secure SharePoint as he lists the underlying functions such as email, searching, and accounts.

Then, one command at a time he takes us through the process of all the services - lists, libraries, web parts, work spaces, and others.

Next, he demonstrates how granular the rights and privileges can be given. Specific users can see, access, use, or modify exactly what the site director decides while he monitors the activity.

Each step of every example is demonstrated throughout. Then the background information is discussed in depth.

Whether you are new to SharePoint or you are an administrator on it, this book will answer most of your questions.

I am an ancient programmer switching from C to .NET. I have read a lotta books in my time and this is the best presentation and layout of a book I have ever seen. Its easy to read. Content is great. I wish I had found it first in my conversion to .NET. I am so impressed that I am checking out the other Murach titles for something to buy.

I needed to learn ADO.NET for my job and this book was the best on the topic I read the entire book in about 3 weeks. Everything is explained wonderfully. I love how the examples are laid out on the right with explanations on the left. I also really found the program files extremely helpful. I opened each chapters program and followed right along with the book. All the examples are already created so that you can see how they work and even modify them.

I liked this book so much that I also bought the ASP.NET, SQL, and Visual Basic 2005...all topics I need to brush up on. As far as I can tell these other books follow the same great format.

From someone who thousands of dollars worth of technical and programming books...these are great even for beginners. However if you are not familiar with vb2005 get murach's visual basic 2005 to read first.

As with the other Murach Press books I have reviewed, this book is extremely readable. It shows step-by-step how to develop database applications with VB. NET 2005 and ADO.NET. This book is best suited to someone new to database development with Visual Studio 2005 but that has a passing familiarity with VB syntax. If you are unfamiliar with flow control statements and VB syntax, you might want to look at Murach's "Visual Basic 2005" book first. I highly recommend this book for entry to mid level developers.

ADO.NET is a huge and sometimes daunting topic to attempt to cover, but in traditional Murach fashion, this book has the capacity to make its reader an expert if read cover to cover. All of the important topics are coverered, including use of the base objects, data binding, typed vs. untyped data sets, and most importantly (in my opinion): use of object data sources.

The best part of Murach books (including this one), aside from the paired page layout, is that they make no assumption about the reader's skill level, and cover enough background on each topic to ensure that you will come away with a thorough understanding of not just what and how, but also why.

Both beginner and expert programmers alike will find this book extremely useful, and it's a great addition to the Murach family of programming reference and tutorial books.

I am a C# developer but when I started browsing this book I couldn't help it but to continue reading it. It is not only about the VB language itself, but instead, how to use it so solve software problems. It teaches how to better write software, best practices and approaches.
This book doesn't cover all the theory in the world about a topic. Also, not all topics. But it tells you how to use them and what to watch for.
I am glad to have read it.