Internet Books

The best part about this resource is that it assumes nothing. It takes a complete novice and explains that RSS means really simple syndication. Then it goes into the value of having changing content, the need to choose an RSS that is not only compatible with your content, but will add ever-changing, relevant content. I am using the resource to be sure that I have an accurate understanding of what it is, who it helps, how it helps, when to use one, and how to subscribe to an RSS Feed.

Being a sometime web developer, it is important to keep up with the latest web technologies. If you have never heard of RSS or are not that familiar with it, I recommend this book as a great introduction to what RSS is, and how you might use it in a website.
It is not expensive, and is a good foundation in that it explains the basics of news feeders and how they are used, but doesn't go into a lot of technical/code information. In other words, if you want to code your own newsreader, find another book. On the other hand, the author does explain how to syndicate any item you want for RSS.

I just finished reading Ellen's book. For a year or more, I have seen webfeeds on some websites, and those little XML and RSS buttons showing up everywhere. For the life of me (and I'm pretty technosavvy), I just couldn't put it all in context. This book lays it out concisely and makes a compelling case that news and webfeeds are the next communication phenomenon, likely to be as ubiquitous as faxes and email.

I'm not always a "Dummies" fan, but this one rocks! My website will have a feed very soon and I'm already thinking of many ways to use this new technology in creative marketing efforts and to deliver content in a more useful way to our clients.

Colorado divorce and family mediator, Lawrence King, J.D.
Divorce Resolutions, Colorado Center for Divorce Mediation

I love this book, it has broaden my horizons. I didn't know anything abour rss until i read this book, I'm now well on my way. If you are looking for a book that will teach you the basics of rss and that will get you started on your rss project, this is the book. Because of the vast amount of information in this book, you will actually be more confident in any rss project you start, even if you are just looking to buy another book on a related topic. This is the perfect book to start working on syndicating websites and rss, or just to understand why it works.

I should be finished this book in about two days. It has been very helpful and specific and a vast improvement on some others in the Dummies series. Ellen Finkelsrtein has done a good job and crafted a good book. I particularly like the wayu she says: go to this web site and do this this, So I go to the webiste and bookmark ans I find it very valuable.
feedvalidator.org was one such site. I went and it complained soem of my taigs.com blog was not properly validated: litle things like a ">" i na closing tag omitted. So I fixed them. Without this book, they would still be broken. The little things add up in this game.

Another thing: she does not waste time explaining irrelevant basics. She sticks to her topic and does not squander time telling you how to install this, that or the other. She also divides up the programming bit from the take it and go bit. There is an acompanying site which gives you the code to write your own feeds. All in all, I concur with the earlier reviews and give it top marks.

I'm a prime candidate for using voice over Internet (VOIP), so it was with much interest that I dove into this book. The first few chapters are background information describing VOIP, how it works, and how it is different (and the same) as landline phone service. There is even a comparison of what you might pay in each case.

Since there are a myriad of choices in the VOIP universe I was glad to see a clear (and sometimes humorous) explanation as to what each offers. It helped me select which way to go for my own personal situation. Implementing the information from this book is saving me at least $10 a month initially and perhaps a lot more in the future.

Anyone wanting to adopt VOIP should read Talk is Cheap before deciding which (if any) provider to use.

Now that there are alternatives to using Ma Bell, people are switching (or contemplating it) to broadband phone services. Granted, those on dialup are still out of luck, but some of the services offered provide motivation to get a broadband account. With the proliferation of broadband phone companies, it gets confusing when trying to decide which service is the best, or which one offers the options you need most.

This book explains the services that broadband companies like VONAGE offer, as well as the ones that companies like Skype offer. It also explains (in the first chapter) how internet phones work, as well as an explanation how Voice Over IP works. I also liked the analogy about how innovation over the years has forced traditional phone companies however grudgingly to offer better service. It makes one wonder how they eventually will adapt to VOIP.

There's also a chapter devoted to features that you now pay for that you can get for free using an Internet phone (several of them are the various fees your phone company adds on to your bill), such as call waiting and forwarding. I find it interesting how the phone company manages to slip in various fees as a "cost of doing business."

911 service is also touched upon. Broadband phones will likely have complete 911 service within the next two years, whereas their computer-centric counterparts may not for a few years. It seems to be one drawback to using this type of technology, but one that will likely be ironed out the more popular this technology becomes.

This is a great "consumer guide" to Internet telephony, one that you should buy if you're considering the move to Internet phones.

This book happened to arrive on my doorstep while I was doing my own researching on switching my traditional phone service over to Broadband. I had a lot of questions, and this book does a good job of providing answers to many common questions and technical details behind making the switch.

The author goes into great detail on both telephone-type broadband service (Vonage, one of the author's favorites) and computer-based Softphone systems (Skype, for example). He explains various packages, benefits and technical details behind each. For example, I want to keep my traditional telephones since for some reason my 15-year old, as computer-savy as he is, seems to have this need to "grasp" onto a traditional telephone receiver. Thanks to this book, I now know how to hook-up those phones (directly to the router provided by the broadband provider) and how to make sure that I maintain my current coverage throughout the house (get a base station phone setup with remote stations). I also found out a lot about how the services that are available as they compare to my traditional phone company today, and some of the pitfalls as well -- Fax machines don't work with broadband service without an extra fee from most providers, and my ADT alarm system is going to need to be retrofitted.

If you are curious as to how broaband phones work (and also want a short, but good overview of how traditional phones work) the author starts the book off with going behind the scenes to explain the details. How does my call from my broadband phone reach my mother, who still believes that computers are those strange machines in the basements of banks and other big companies that manage to overcharge her, who still uses a service provided by Ma Bell? How can I live in Missouri, but have a number in Las Vegas? How can I go on a month-long vacation and still receive all my phone calls? How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie-Roll pop? Ok, so maybe the author doesn't cover that last one.

About the only gripe I had with this book was the author does a lot of moaning about the traditional phone companies. I am no big fan either, but I still realize they are necessary and will be so for many, many years to come. I also would have liked to seen a little less emphasis given to just Vonage and Skype, though to be fair they are the major market players at this stage in the game.

A good read for those considering making the switch. It's written well and is it times humorous which makes for a very easy read.

With Internet Telephony gathering acceptance and converts daily many people are trying to figure out what service will work best for them and the differences between the various offerings. With a straight-forward analysis of Internet telephony as compared to traditional phone lines and the various options available, this book is well done and very informative. I happen to use one of the services mentioned in the book and found the author's review of it right on the mark. He provided an excellent discussion of the differences between a broadband phone-centric service and a computer-centric service as well as the offerings of specific vendors. If you are thinking about making the move to Internet telephony this book will provide you with sufficient background information to determine if it would be useful for your needs as well as how to shop intelligently for the appropriate product. Although the information also applies to small businesses this book is aimed squarely at the home market. Written in a very non-technical style Talk is Cheap is easy to read and understand and suggested for anyone interested in learning about the subject.

Want to say good-bye to your plain old telephone service with the high cost of taxes, add-on fees, and long-distance? Check out James E. Gaskin's book Talk Is Cheap - Switching To Internet Telephones (O'Reilly). I certainly learned quite a bit from this book...

Contents: How Internet Telephone Calls Work; Your Internet Phone; Free Internet Phone Features That You're Paying For Now; Choosing Your Internet Phone Equipment; Vonage And Other Broadband Phone Carriers; Skype And Other Computer-centric Services; 911, Alarms, And Other Outgoing Calls; Tips, Tricks, And Techniques For Advanced Users; Go Wireless; Index

As more and more people switch to broadband internet access, there's an emerging option for telephony services in the home. Using your internet connection (DSL or cable), you can switch to internet telephony, also known as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and go all digital. Gaskin does an excellent job in explaining exactly what this is, how it works, and the pros and cons of switching to a service like this. He's a pretty strong advocate of VoIP, so you can pretty much figure out where his bias is going to lie.

The book focuses on two major types of internet telephony: phone-centric and computer-centric. In the phone-centric area (using your phone much like before, but only through an internet service) he uses Vonage as the primary example of what to expect. On the computer-centric side (no telephone, just headphones and speakers attached to your computer), he uses the Skype package as the leader in that area. In this growing technology area, it's impossible to write a book covering every option such that it won't be out of date before it's printed. To Gaskin's credit, he does a good job in covering the current playing field, as well as giving enough detail to figure in new options as they emerge.

Even though you can come away from a book like this thinking all is rosy, that's not quite the case. There are very well documented customer service issues with Vonage, and no player in the field is mature enough to get it right as often as Ma Bell does. Still, if you're an early adopter of technology, this is definitely an area you need to check out. And if you have no exposure to residential VoIP up until now, I'd recommend a copy of this book to get you up to speed quickly.

As a manager for the advanced technology practice of one of the world's leading executive search firms, I found Dr. Canton's book comprehensive, illuminating, and deeply insightful. It is a beautiful work of art, a majestic tour de force of what is to be, detailing how technology will impact our lives beyond our wildest expectations. The material is comprehensive, yet easily understood. I came to appreciate life in this era of aggressive change and discovery. Dr. Canton's book is a must-read for any inquisitive mind, young or old, and is actually difficult to put down. I have purchased additional copies as gifts for clients.

Technofutures is an eye-opening experience into the world we live in today and the world we will live in soon. If you have any desire to know how life will be on earth and in the heavens, this is the book to read.

Dr. Canton is Heinleinesque in the way he weaves a coherent, congruent, knowledgeable and thoroughly entertaining story about the future of technology and its influence on our lives. I believe his predictions serve as a blueprint for where to position your career, investments and personal interests over the next half century. I was blown away by his insight into the future of medicine, specifically and quite selfishly, his prediction that I may clone my favorite dog right down to its personality. Dr. Canton forced me to my learning and dreaming edge, right where you want to be if your goal is to endeavor into the technological fray, but aren't sure exactly how and where.

TechnoFutures is written by Dr. James Canton. Dr. Canton is one of the leading technology futurists, and he is editor-in-chief of the Canton Technology Report. This book is about how technology will continue to bring impacts and changes, both economically and socially, to our lives. With the evolution of technological development, the interaction between human and technology will become inseparable.

According to the author, in terms of economic changes, e-business will eventually dominate the traditional business practice. The industries that will be transformed by e-business included stock brokerage, insurance, travel, auto, chemicals, media and entertainment, computer and electronics, telecommunications, real estate, medicine and health care, etc. As Dr. Canton suggested, if we want to survive through the 21st century, we must learn how to adopt e-business technology.

In terms of social impacts, technology will bring impacts at both the personal and collective levels. In the future, our personal lives will involve computers, robots and virtual reality. Robots and computers will play a role as a companion such as a housekeeper, a secretary, or even a friend to human. And as for human, we will engage more activities via virtual reality such as playing golf. For the latter one, educational changes will be a good example. Educational institutions will change their formats of teaching. Instead of the traditional classroom learning, students and teachers will meet via virtual schools.

By means of frequent sidebars, the author has provided readers an insight of our evolving technological world with vivid scenes and dialogues amongst the robots, cyber companions and human. However, the design and placement of these sidebars, often of similar fonts right in between the texts proper, could sometimes be confusing. Also, the author could have arranged the hierarchy, if any, of the sub- and sub-sub-titles of his chapters better, so that the readers can better digest the often far-fetched subject matters. Indeed, the subject matters discussed sometimes verged on science fiction rather than scientific prediction. This is most evident in the author¡¦s discussion of cyborgs and androids, all, perhaps coincidentally, also prominently featured in Star Trek: The Next Generation. I do appreciate, however, the author¡¦s efforts in making technical matters easier to understand for lay persons. There is, as far as I can see, no one single formula in the book. The author is also good in presenting moral issues for deeper thoughts, such as that concerning eugenics.

Although Dr. Canton¡¦s future world may seem too advanced for most of us, we are in fact living in an information society. This book has provided me a chance to be aware of our technological developments and dare me to envision our future world from a non-traditional perspective. Overall, I enjoy reading the book.

This is one futurist in a million that has it right! From the future of electronic commerce, robots, bioscience, computers and more--it is a comprehensive tour of the next century written by a noted futurist who makes sense. I heartily recommend it to anyone interested in preparing for the future and in understanding the tech chaos all around us. Easy to read, accessible and imaginative for the CEO or college student.

This is a good book. The design is very approachable, and the writing is quite readable - especially in an age when people would *like* to explore telework, but don't quite know where to begin. From Telework 101 to senior-exec-level concepts, it explains much of what today's teleworker - and even the at-home entrepreneur - needs to launch a fully-functional home office, without losing touch or professional stature with the corporate community.

This book is a "must-read" for all potential, as well as current, teleworkers. It is packed full of tips and techniques for both the telecommuter and his/her employer. From setting up your home office to communicating with others, this book covers it all. I will keep this as a ready-reference. I recommend that all "driven knowledge workers" do the same.

Michael Dziak's book is very thorough, and is a comprehensive guide on telecommuting. The check lists, forms, and practical tips are very usefull. This book offers so much for anyone operating a home office, it is a good investment even if they don't telecommute. I agree with other reviewers this is the desk companion or bible for telecommuters. I highly recommend it.

Telecommuting Success is a great tool for the telecommuter. It is very easy to read and understand and gives tips that will help ensure that if you become a telecommuter you will be allowed to stay one. It shows you how to be successful and get the recognition for your work that you deserve, even if you are out of the office a good portion of the time. This is key to a successful teleworking relationship.

I highly recommend this book for any business that has or is implementing a telework program and would make it required reading for all teleworkers in that program.

I recently reviewed a number of books on telecommuting and distance collaboration for a research center (...) and Dziak's book was the best I found on telecommuting.

While some other books dwell too much on details of home office setup (which this book does cover thoroughly in ch 4) Dziak is by far the most insightful about the real challenges of telecommuting, which are social issues of staying in touch. The book gives prescriptive advice in easily-digestable forms. Dziak is quite fond of top-10 lists, but manages to pack a lot of good content into this somewhat gimmicky format. My most-reference part of the book was his '10 Ways to stay on the corporate radar screen' (p. 181).

And a few groans thrown in.

Our minds travel to crazy places throughout each day, but most of those trips are lost as errant little side trips creep in. Our minds work in freeform, hopping and skipping from one bit of craziness to another. Somehow Dennis Fenichel manages to get it down. And to organize it into chapters. He takes us on his own little trip through his mind filled with totally silly and highly recognizable characters. He loves the world of words, and uses them to point out the ridiculous and the sensible. And he makes us laugh. There are a few tears, as his title predicts, and what would this world be without them? But what could be more healthy than finding the humor throughout life's journey? This book is human, and is just a fun read. Take it on your next flight.

There should be an additional warning on this book. Something such as, "Do not exceed recommended dose." I am afraid for some, that this may be the case.
To be honest, when I began reading this book I thought the humor was just plain silly, goofy, nonsensicle madness (Sorry Mr. Fenichel)
As I got drawn further into the stories however, I realized that this madness does have meaning. I found that the stories were really observations or lessons about life. Lessons about us, as humans.
Does this understanding make us mad as well? I don't believe so. I think it makes us realize that we are all a little goofy at times and that humor can be (is) the only way to therapize one's self.
Dare I say that I recognized myself in this book?
In the end I learned more about how we (humans) interact with each other and how we doubt ourselves in those interactions.
After all these years, I thought it was just me.. (Thanks, Mr. Fenichel)
I highly recommend this book to anyone suffering from "Life"
If you really want to laugh in the mirror; read this book!

Let's see...who better than a psychologist to have some fun at the expense of the human condition? These stories are irreverent and satirical, yet insightful. If you enjoy reading all the things you wanted to say but didn't have the intestinal fortitude to, you'll love this. If you enjoy plays on words and mincing words, Dr. Spincter is your man. Need a dentist? Advice on love? Got two left feet? Titters, Giggles, and Tears delivers (the author, almost literally!).

The author demonstrates what years of training and work in psychology does to the mind! If your IQ is below 100, you'll laugh at the raunchy parts and miss all the good stuff (like a kid watching the Simpsons). If your IQ is above 100 but below 130, you'll laugh at a lot of the plays on words even though you don't know what the words mean (like most of the crowd listening to Dennis Miller). For those who are cognitively well-endowed, I'd suggest wearing a diaper or sitting on the toilet to compensate for the incontinence that accompanies heavy laughter while you read.

Life, real or unreal can be funny if you know how to play with the words and circumstances of it all.
The writer playfully throws so called normalcy out the window and runs away with your funny bone, only to throw in a sober zinger a couple of times.
A must read! everyone needs to laugh out loud at life, and its related activities, or pretty much every thing.

Do you like stories that take you into a different world? Fenichel's stories are nonsensical, witty, satirical, absurd, and touching. Reading them is moving and living in the world of Monty Python and Alice in Wonderland for Adults while being totally sober. You meet characters such as the logically illogical proctologist Stanley Spincter who takes your word (but hands it back to you), learn the subtle perversities of the dentist's mind, the narcissist's pleasures of dating. Be touched by a playful, sad and tender Internet Romance, or the fate of the salesman's illustrious career. All these characters inhabit Fenichel's books, and are un-really alive. This is one of the funniest, most hilarious, comically strange books I have read in a long time. It takes you on a journey of laughs from beginning to end. I am already looking forward to his next book, and to meeting more of his originals and oddballs.

This book has a great html and cascading style sheet reference. This alone is worth the $$ the book costs.

This book covers it all, from Perl to ASP to XML and more! Has several very informative and often entertaining examples. I already used one example at work, with a little customization. If you're new to webdev or have been doing it for years, this book is packed with coding gems. A must have for any real web coder!

Bookviews by Alan Caruba, February 2002

Thinking about starting a web site business? Well, the single most complete and authoritative reference available is The Ultimate Web Developer's Sourcebook by Jessica Keyes ... and it runs over 780 pages, is two and a half inches thick, and worth every penny! The author is a noted authority on the science and business of technology and the book has contributions from more than thirty web development experts. It is a one-stop guide and reference that will enhance any existing site and help insure the success of a new one.

I'm pretty new at this business of creating web sites. I think I must have bought 100 books but none of then got me more than a few steps into the process. The Ultimate Web Developer's Sourcebook put me on the right path. I now have a good first site. I'm going to use the advanced portion of the book to provide me with the info I need to add a shopping cart and some animation to the site.

I think that this is a great book.

I looked through the Dummies and Idiots book on this subject but they didn't offer much. What I wanted was a book that could start me out as a novice and then grow with me when I started getting good at it. This is the only book I found that could do all of that.

A WONDERFULLY fun book -- to read, to refer to, to give as a gift to alll your girlfriends! Endless information, up-to-date resources, very knowledgeable and savvy and the only book you need about vintage on the net. I hope it gets a new edition every other year or -- knowing the net -- EVERY year; I'll keep every edition, because none will ever be obsolete. These authors know their audience, know their subject, know their territory. A book you'll read again and again and never, ever, finish. :->

Virtual Vintage stands out from most other books on the vintage-resale-thrifting topic -- even though it is geared to the online market. First, the writing is both excellent and entertaining; I found the book hard to put down.

Additionally, the authors also offer some good tips -- laced throughout the text -- on HOW TO WEAR some of this old stuff. As much as I love vintage fashion, and have collected it for several years, I am often at a loss as to how to WEAR some of the pieces, or how to incorporate my vintage "finds" into my real-life wardrobe. So far, few books actually address this issue, and tend to focus instead on buying, selling or simply "collecting" vintage fashion.

This book is thorough and carefully put together -- like a great outfit. I hope the authors write more on this topic, and maybe put together a how-to guide to vintage fashion.

Kudos!

Usually I don't "read" antique guide books, but a couple of pages into this one and I was hooked. In Virtual Vintage you'll find common sense tips on buying and selling vintage on-line, the A to Z of navigating eBay (I learned several new tricks) and lots of design and fashion tips. The book presents useful info including international size conversion charts, how to remove stains from clothing and must-see Hollywood films for clothes lovers. It was so well done I wanted to learn more about Virtual Vintage's two women authors and how they came to write this surprisingly literary guide book.

Virtual Vintage has a section that rates many of the dot com vintage sites for content, ease of use and return policies. Virtual Vintage is considerably more user friendly than most other antique/collectible guide books that I've seen... I am also fond of the book because it gave my vintage site a great review! I will certainly recommend this book to my web customers.

Usually I don't "read" antique guide books, but a couple of pages into this one and I was hooked. In Virtual Vintage you'll find common sense tips on buying and selling vintage on-line, the A to Z of navigating eBay (I learned several new tricks) and lots of design and fashion tips. The book presents useful info including international size conversion charts, how to remove stains from clothing and must-see Hollywood films for clothes lovers. It was so well done I wanted to learn more about Virtual Vintage's two women authors and how they came to write this surprisingly literary guide book.

Virtual Vintage has a section that rates many of the dot com vintage sites for content, ease of use and return policies. Virtual Vintage is considerably more user friendly than most other antique/collectible guide books that I've seen... I am also fond of the book because it gave my vintage site a great review! I will certainly recommend this book to my web customers.

Virtual Vintage covers the world of online vintage fashion. If you are new to buying and selling vintage fashion online, its a great place to start. If you are not new, it still had plenty of tips that I didn't think about before.

The book is much more than online vintage fashions. It also goes into detail about what to look for from different designers, periods, etc. It has chapters on how to repair and care for your vintage fashions. The back of the book includes a directory (with summary) of online retailers to check out.

I found this book easy and enjoyable to read cover to cover rather than just as a reference. The authors write in an informative yet enertaining way.

The only negative thing I would have to say is; when will there be an updated version??? Some of the online sites and eBay information is dated, as is to be expected in a virtual world.

Once in a while an author appears who stands head and shoulders above most other technical authors. Kevin Wallace is definitely one of that rare breed of authors who has the unique ability to impart substantial technical information in a really accessible manner. I found this book incredibly easy to read, having attempted reading some other books on VOIP and not getting past the 2nd Chapter with most of them.
Even though the book focuses mainly on Cisco's VOIP implementation, the information is put across in such a way that you get a good understanding of VOIP principles in general. The chapter in this book on QOS alone is worth getting the book for, as it explains Cisco QOS in a most lucid and user-friendly way. His anologies are excellent and his occastional injection of humour also makes reading the book a most pleasurable and useful learning experience. If you are a newbie to VOIP, then I can't think of a better book to get your hands on. Highly recommended!

Very Good! Easy reading for anyone. If you have no experience with VoIP this is the book for you. I found it also helped with my CCNA study. Anybody who wants to learn VoIP should begin by reading this book first.

For those who are intending to go for Cisco Certified Voice Professional but don't have much knowledge about Voice, this book would be an excellent introduction to general Cisco Voice Networking.

It introduces you to many expects of voice from ground up without giving too many technical details to the point you can get bored. For voice newbies, this book would be a great companion.

Kevin Wallace's VOICE OVER IP FIRST-STEP joins others in the 'first step' series in providing a basic introduction to IP telephony services. You don't need to be a programmer or even a computer whiz to understand the basics as presented here: whether you're a home user interested in lowering a monthly phone bill or a business person using data networks, chapters provide real-world applications using case studies throughout, no prior IP telephony experience is required to learn the basics here. And networking instructor Kevin Wallace knows how to cover them easily.

The title of this review pretty much summarizes my thoughts about the book. This is an excellent, quick-to-read book that provides all the basic info about VoIP, focusing on Cisco's offerings.

Although I read the book over a couple of days, I believe I put in less than 3 hours to read the entire book cover to cover (over all those days).

The book is very simple to read. The book is ideal for network administrators as well as system/equipment design engineers to quickly introduce themselves to VoIP. The book is also good to understand all the varied VoIP offerings from Cisco and how stuff plugs together to provide an integrated service.

The last chapter of the book goes beyond vanilla-VoIP, by discussing (in brief) Cisco's IPCC and other interesting offerings.

Great book! Read it to quickly and easily understand the fundamentals of VoIP as well Cisco's VoIP equipment.

Received book in record time. It was in new condition as promised. Great Seller and would order from him again.

This is the third in a series of books the author has written. While some of the concepts in e-commmerce are outdated due to the dotcom crash, the architectures, data management and functional aspects are still useful for e-business and e-commerce. The author discusses many of the challenges in managing databases on the web and shows the need for this technology for web data management.

This is an excellent book on e-commerce and databases. However it is somewhat outdated as the book was presumably written during the dotcom boom. Nevertheless many of the ideas are still very useful. I would suggest that the author updates this book to reflect the recent developments.

The book covers a great deal and provdes a broad overview of web data management and e-commerce. It starts with a lot of background material on database systems, the web, data mining, etc. and then focuses on web data management technologies in Part II. Finally it describes how the technologies may be used for e-commerce. I like the writing style of the author, rather casual and takes a building block approach. He sort of tells a story about supporting technologies, web technologies and e-commerce. My one concern is that the book was written during the dotcom boom years. While the technologies are all still valid and useful, although they have advanced quite a lot today, the idea that the web and e-commerce will take over is long gone. At one time we may have thought that we will be doing all of our shopping even buying groceries on the web. But this has still not happened in large scale. Therefore, it may be time to take another look at the ideas and perhaps get another edition out reflecting what is real today. But then one never knows what the future will be. Maybe once the technologies mature and our approach to the web evolves, the dotcom ideas may take off again.

I found this book extremely useful. The author starts with some excellent background material on web data management and then goes into more details on architectures and models for web databases. Finally, she discusses their applications to e-commerce. At times I thought the book was too detailed (e.g., in data management) and at other times I felt that the book ought to have given more details (e.g. in e-commerce). Nevertheless the book emphasizes on web data management and all aspects of this topic. It was very easy to read and as a newcomer to the field I found it very thought provoking. I thought the author explained the security aspects extremely well, partly because she is an expert in database secruity. At times she dwelt more than it was necessary on security as the focus of the book was not on security. I would have liked to have seen more discussions on how specific organizations carry out e-commerce. Since the field is evolving so rapidly I would love to see a follow-on book giving details and examples on e-commerce and the applications of web data management to e-commerce. On the whole an excellent, easy to read book.

I bought this book in 1996, and referenced it again and again. I still find it so useful on web server technology, especially on web security. A worth-while reading.

This book is excellent, if you want to understand the general properties of a Web server. The book explains the basic jobs a Web server can do in simple way so that many people can understand it. The description of the tasks, which will be performed on a Web server, is not too detailed. Excellent is the explanation of the different types, advantages and disadvantages of process concepts which can be used for Web servers. The securtity issues and the chapter about searching on the Internet are also highlights. I recommend this book for everyone who wants an detailed overview on Web servers and related topics.

I thought this was an excellent book. For a newbie interested in learning the details of web infrastructure components, including SSL, this book is a solid choice. I read it a year ago and I still find it a useful reference.

Tired of those IT books that look like help files or manuals dumps? Tired of books based on programs rather than concepts? If your answer is yes, than this book is for you. It is simply the best book about Internet/Web technology ever written, of great importance for anyone thinking of working with the Web. A must read: concepts, explanations, examples, everything as clear as it should be.

A great book for understanding what's happening on the web--essentially a must-read for anyone publishing there to any significant extent.