Internet Books

It's simple, really: If you're programming with Rails you should buy this book. Let's face it, one recipe that shows you how to do something is all that it takes for this book to pay for itself.

Some of the recipes are meant to be looked at on an as-needed basis, e.g. searching using Solr, Sphinx, or Ferret, and sending email via Gmail. But most of the book can be simply read as a way to learn more about Rails, e.g. customizing error messages, testing with RSpec and Shoulda, and caching strategies and tools.

I just got my copy yesterday and am having trouble putting it down! This book reads better than a novel/story if you have even a remote interest in Ruby on Rails. Mike Clark has done an outstanding job of putting together really interesting recipes contributed by Ruby on Rails enthusiasts from all over the world and an equally good job of quality assurance. I really hope that he works on producing a sequel as soon as possible.

This book is a must have resource for anyone developing Rails applications. Mike Clark, the Ruby community and the Pragmatic Programmers have once again delivered a set of recipies you'll find immediately usable. I'm already using four in an application I'm working on, all of which have helped me reduce code, increase readability and reduce maintenance.

The book is thoughtfully organized with each recipie being both well written and concise.

No matter what type of Rails application you are writing, or your level of experience, I think you'll find something in this book to make you say "Thats a great idea" and rush to the keyboard to try it out.

This is not only a phenomenal reference, but it is great for whetting your appetite when embarking into new Rails territory -- the book is full of ideas, that Rails devs of all levels can benefit from. Reading this book gave me an additional perspective on items I practice and those I am learning -- specifically enjoyed the parts on REST, CC payment processing, scalability, testing. Highly recommend.

I've been reading through this book since my copy arrived a week or so ago, and have already "baked" five of the recipes into my Rails applications. I expect that there will be many more solutions found as I progress through the book.

The recipes in the book are clear and concise, and have been easy to implement in my own applications. A broad range of topics are covered, so there will certainly be something for everyone. I've also found that while the recipes are directly applicable, a number of them also teach "patterns" that you can use in a variety of contexts, not just to achieve exactly what's described in the recipe.

Many recipes are related thematically, or build upon each other, making for great teaching. For example, there are four recipes covering how to search for text in fields stored in the database, from extremely simple (a nice way to implement LIKE searches across a couple fields) to three progressively more robust solutions using external full-text search engines (Ferret, Sphinx, and Solr). This sequence really illustrated the trade-offs you can make, in terms of complexity vs. flexibility and power, when implementing search, and was instrumental in my selection of the Sphinx engine and the Ultrasphinx plug-in for doing searches in my projects. Without the clear sequence of recipes, which illustrated implementations of similar searches, I would have had to spend hours on the Internet, searching tutorials and blog posts for details, and the results wouldn't have been as directly comparable. The time savings here alone justifies the cost of the book.

If I was going to write about a limitation of the book, it would have to be the length. At ~450 pages, it's not a slim volume. But with the range of material covered (reflecting the growing complexity of the Rails ecosystem), it's hard to cover any specific topic area in depth. Even with the nicely-covered search topic, I could envision even more recipes. (Advanced search and savable searches come to mind.)

But wanting more is just quibbling. It's not a reason to not buy this book, it's a reason to start asking for Volume 2!

When I first learned about computers, only a few of them existed in the world. Since then, something extraordinary has happened in computing about every ten years, like Aestiva's web-programming language HTML/OS which is the subject of this book. It grabbed my attention and turned my professional life in a new direction. ADVANCED WEB SITES MADE EASY teaches all major concepts of this exciting technology with many well chosen examples. It contains code and building blocks that can readily be used as the core of web-based applications. Included with the book is free access to a web site featuring solutions to the exercises, a user forum, book corrections, all the book's code in downloadable form, and your own copy of HTML/OS free for 30 days.

As you work your way through the book, you'll get a good understanding of this powerful and flexible language. Chapter after chapter teaches you how easy it is to make sophisticated use of it by adding just a few lines of BASIC-like code to your HTML documents. You'll also begin to think in a new way about web computing. HTML/OS frees you from the hassles of systems integration. Whether you just want to add dynamic features to an existing site, design complex web sites, or develop web-based software, you'll never have to worry about compatibility. It runs on all platforms and includes a built-in database engine.

You'll be well equipped to build advanced web sites with this clearly written book, its companion web site, the HTML/OS manual, and the Aestiva User Center with its many ready-made examples of commercial applications and utilities, collection of sample code, and extensive knowledge base.

"Advanced Web Sites Made Easy" is a remarkable book. I read lots of third-party technical books, and this one really stands out.

It's well written, the explanations are clear, the examples are not only useable code but paced so as to be make learning progressive, and there's no fluff or patronizing chattiness. What's amazing is how often the chapters answered the questions I was having AS I was having them.

I feel really lucky that this book was available when I came to HTML/OS. It's great software (I almost don't want other web developers to know how good it is) but the official documentation and help just aren't enough.

I especially appreciate the opening and closing sections, which give some historical pespective on this kind of software development, and illuminate some potential business uses that were obscure to me as a web developer.

Kudos on a really fine piece of technical writing.

i was not web programmer before and i found this book in aestiva H2O web site, it was my first advanced web programming and was really easy to achive perfect results

the only thing the author may need to add is a CD-Rom, book some time have long code parts or at least a web location where you can copy and paste the codes

also book did not mention that aestiva has released free and smaller copy of HTML/OS called H2O Gold, and because this release if free, it will encourage newbies to start learning HTML/OS rather than the $800 for HTMLOS PRO, the book is very usefull too if you just want to use H2O only.

last advice, if you totally new to web programming then get this book with a free copy of H2O and you really done, do not bother yourself again with complicated PHP and PERL things

The Aestiva HTML/OS program makes creating interactive websites with databases, search on demand systems, and other usually complicated programming tasks quite easy. I have NO programming experience. Aestiva's near-English commands and simple coding structure mean that I have built and helped to build dozens of sites. The syntax is easy to pick up (learn by doing) and the online lessons that come with each copy make the learning FAST. If you want more control of your website and less dependence on gurus I urge you to read this book.

ADVANCED WEB SITES MADE EASY is simple, clear and easy to understand with lots of examples and exercises. It travels deep in advanced HTML/OS programming for the more advanced programmers.
I have been working with Aestiva HTML/OS for 5 years; I have used PHP, ASP, Cold Fusion and many other similar products. I haven't found anything else that can come close to the performance, flexibility and easiness of use of Aestiva's engine. It's a tool to be use by beginners as well as veteran professionals in the Internet industry, like myself.
This book is a must for all web developers....

This is very good book. I've created so many websites using AJAX techonlogy. This book provided me to check how secure the websites are. I am glad that I fullfilled all the details without having the through knowledge of AJAX security. But this book has collected all the security check point at one place.

A lot of examples shows how absolutely everything could be attacked and corrupted in the chain of components used for building ajax applications, from css (yes even css) to html, from javascript to http, from browser to server ... Sometimes there's too much lines about evident things and sometimes things seems more proof of concept than real possible attacks. But these guys know what they are talking about. This is an excellent book that every serious ajax developer must have read, specially if they plan to make mashups or let their users bring and share things using their applications.

Are you a web developer? Do you believe you can ensure that your client-side code will function as expected? Well, you are wrong. In Ajax Security you will find out why.

Ajax changes the game in that it moves business logic to the client. In doing so it increases the attack surface of the application. The authors get curious with some real world Ajax frameworks such as Prototype, Dojo, and Microsoft Ajax. They demonstrate with these frameworks how developers might be unknowingly building vulnerabilities into their applications. If you're home brewing Ajax, the authors cover important security considerations you'll need to know so that you don't make the same mistakes the industry leaders have made.

I learned a lot about JavaScript from reading this book. I learned even more about how JavaScript can be used maliciously. The authors describe techniques for function clobbering, JSON hijacking, storage attacks, and presentation layer attacks. One of my favorite parts of the book, not to mention one of the scariest, is an explanation of how to hide malicious JavaScript from signature based anti-virus software.

The authors explain why the Same-Origin Policy is broken and how it can be subverted. Also covered are security considerations for offline applications. An in-depth analysis of Ajax worms is covered. If you are curious about how Ajax is changing web security you should read this book. If your are a web developer or a security professional you should read this book, even if you aren't using Ajax. If you don't believe cross-site scripting is a "big deal", I dare you to read this book and maintain the same opinion.

Anyone involved in developing/testing AJAX should read "AJAX Security." It covers preventing a hacker from attaching your application. The audience includes developers, QA and penetration testers. While there are code snippets, they are explained well. While managers aren't in the target audience, I think they could benefit from understanding the concepts presented in the book.

The book begins with a brief review of AJAX architecture with an emphasis on security. The writing style is quite engaging including a chapter walking you through an attack from a hacker's point of view. All the major known categories of attacks are included including resource enumeration, parameter manipulation (with SQL and XPATH injection), session hijacking, JSON hijacking, XSS, CSRF, phishing, denial of service, etc.

I particularly liked the analogies to things that happen in the physical world such as resource injection into a roommate's "to do" list and hijacking another customer's paid order in the deli. These made it easy to visualize the problem even for people who don't code often.

The authors were realistic and included the limitations and drawbacks of each tool/framework mentioned. I liked the chapter analyzing two major JavaScript worms including the source code. This really hit home on the importance of certain practices!

All information was up to date as of printing including comments on all four major browsers (IE, Firefox, Opera and Safari.) They even mentioned the HTML 5 specification. The book is not server side language specific, which was nice.

Ajax Security was the last book I read and reviewed in 2007. However, it was the best book I read all year. The book is absolutely compelling and every security professional and Web developer should read it. It's really as simple as that.

I am not a Web developer. I was not very familiar with Ajax (beyond its buzzword status and a vague notion of functionality) when I started reading Ajax Security. I attended the authors' Black Hat 2007 talk and was thoroughly impressed and disturbed by the security implications they presented. I expected Ajax Security to be a good book, but one can never be sure if talented hackers and presenters can transfer their skills to the written word. Ajax Security gets the job done.

Despite being a traditional network security guy who prefers inspecting traffic to analyzing JavaScript, I had no problem understanding Ajax Security. The authors do a superb job leading the reader through the issues surrounding modern Web applications. They start by introducing a technology, which is critical for someone like me who doesn't deal with Web development issues. Next they describe how it is broken. They continue with defensive recommendations and summarize their findings in the conclusion. This is a perfect technical writing style that is too often lost on other authors.

Ajax Security makes very good use of case studies (both large stories like ch 2 and small ones throughout the text). The book also integrates code, diagrams, and screen shots. The text itself is very clear and the authors keep the reader's attention throughout. Histories for various technologies provide a welcome background, showing readers how we've ended up in our current Web 2.0 predicament.

If you'd like a positive critique of the technical components of the book by someone who is a Web expert, I recommend reading Dre's review of Ajax Security in the TSSCI-Security blog. Otherwise, I give my highest recommendation to Ajax Security, as my Best Book Bejtlich Read in 2007 award.

Despite the naysayers, Bennett has been proven right by the recent behaviour of the Anglosphere in two major events. First in the Iraq war most of the Anglosphere banded together to get rid of a vicious genocidal tyrant, while more recent events showed how the Anglosphere could band together to help a region in dire need of aide. Much like Clash of Civilisations, Bennett has written a book that will be refered in positive terms for many years to come.

For more than two decades, Jim Bennett has been one of the country's most acute thinkers on the frontiers of technology and cultural/political trends. The Anglosphere Challenge shows the strengths of civil society responses to growing state incapacities and failures. Emerging "networked commonwealths", he foresees, will advance universal values of freedom while accelerating innovation across new realms of human endeavor. This book is a storehouse of wisdom and hope for not only for those in the Anglosphere, but for people of all heritages and backgrounds seeking to live in an open world.

James Bennett popularized the term "Anglosphere", which refers to those communities which speak English and share in the cultural practices and institutions inherited from England, e.g. common law, parliamentary democracy, highly developed civil society, private rather than communal notions of property, entrepreneurial rather than state-led economic development, relative openness to innovation and to immigration. These characteristics have been developing in the English-speaking world for at least a millennium, and represent a distinct sub-civilization within the larger West. Bennett draws on the work of Alan MacFarlane and David Hackett Fischer to demonstrate the uniqueness of the civilization which developed in England and which it in turn passed on to its daughter polities, most importantly the United States. This Anglosphere civilization has been the path-breaker for modernity, initiating modern democratic institutions and the industrial and subsequent economic revolutions. Note that Bennett does not offer this analysis in any spirit of triumphalism. This is not the old "Whig theory" of history, since Bennett correctly sees that these developments were the result of fortunate historical contingency. Bluntly, those of us who live in the Anglosphere are not better than anybody else, just lucky to be here. Bennett predicts that the Anglosphere will continue to be the cutting edge civilization in terms of economic and political developments into the future. In particular, the existence of the Web and cheap air and sea transport has already created a unitary Anglophone economic and cultural space, which will develop further as the highest value-added products become increasingly information-intensive, placing a premium on linguistic and cultural commonalities. Bennett offers predictions concerning the institutional form that this new economic reality will call forth, which he labels a "network commonwealth". Bennett believes that this future political form, and a dense and robust underlying civil society, present the best hope for coping with the hazards presented by emerging technology, and obtaining the maximum benefits of that technology. Moreover, Bennett offers numerous, concrete policy proposals to further the development of this emerging Anglosphere network commonwealth, in the areas of trade, immigration, defense procurement and military cooperation. Bennett's book is the result of years of reflection on these historical and contemporary issues. This short paragraph does not even scratch the surface of a book that has many novel insights and profound ideas, and which opens up numerous lines for further inquiry. Five stars is really not a sufficient rating. This is one of the three or four most important books I have read in recent years to understand the world we are living in, why it is the way it is, where we are going, and how we can create a future worth living in.

Any serious discussion of the central role of English traditions in Canada is fraught with twin perils: mindless claims of racism/imperialism and founding-nation chauvinism. The Anglosphere Challenge is something very different. It's an exciting exploration of a new way to look a modern global culture and its Canadian flavour, keeping both perils at bay. Leading off with a chapter on the dynamic and converging nature of modern technology (cf. Vernor Vinge's The Singularity), the author makes the case that cultural dynamism and flexibility will be at a premium in the 21st century. His claim for the future pre-eminence of the common law countries (irrespective of their citizens' personal origins) is based on the Anglosphere's history of adapting successfully (and first) to technological and political change.

Bennett shows how respect for the individual, and the effective separation of religious, political and economic powers have a very deep roots in the English-speaking world. Before the creation of Canada and the United States. Before the English Civil War. Before the Protestant Reformation. Perhaps even before the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. In the roots of the English common law, we can find the fundamental principle of equal treatment before the law: male or female, lord or commoner. A virtuous circle ensued, freeing individuals from the constraints and predation of the powerful ... in ways impossible in continental Europe let alone other parts of the globe.The history (as opposed to the myths) of this era are eye-opening. And the great strength of the Anglosphere Challenge is the firm grounding in modern scholarship. The book's annotated bibliography is a gem.

Using the metaphor of concentric rings, Bennett sees the Anglosphere as an inner ring (the industrialized common law countries), an outer ring of countries strongly influenced by English language and law, and finally, a periphery of countries exposed to the language and law indirectly, through the international institutions (in trade and politics). A second major contribution is Bennett's outline of the "cultural nations" of the Anglosphere. These "cultural nations," often identified in the turmoil of 17th and 18th century England, cross modern national borders. They provide a more effective tool for understanding the politics and behaviour of modern Anglosphere countries. Finally, Bennett offers the term "network commonwealth" to describe the economic, social, and intellectual connections between Anglosphere nations that will largely overtake (but not replace) the current sovereign nations. Anglosphere nations like Canada, especially in the Internet era, will find themselves quickly and easily co-operating to handle the innovations and challenges of the 21st century.

Canadians will find their past, present and future discussed in the chapters of this book. Our lives have been profoundly affected by the two titans of the English-speaking world, the UK and US. Bennett provides a cultural context for this influence that readers from this country will find fascinating. A book that will make you think. A companion website offers sneak peek at the book plus updates on concepts and sources: anglospherechallenge.com.

James C. Bennett explores some reasons for why English speaking names with an English heritage have done so well over the last couple centuries, and why they will continue to do well. The author points out that history is a pretty good indicator of the future. If we can understand why certain cultures have been successful, we may be able to understand which cultures will do well in the future.

This book is full of interesting ideas and observations. One of them is there are two types of problems, bounded and unbounded. Bounded problems have clear answers. A simple bounded problem is what is "2 + 2" with a clear answer of four. There are more complex bounded problems, like how much fuel with a 747 use carrying 187 people from Chicago to Atlanta. The problem is well defined, and the issues are all pretty much all known. Unbounded problems do not have clear definitions, let alone clear answers, at least in the beginning. Which video format is going to dominate, VHS or Beta? Who is going to win the next presidential election? What recent technological developments will become important in the future? This reminded me of "The Wisdom of Crowds" by James Surowiecki. James Surowiecki says that under certain situations a large group of people can make better decisions than a few experts. James Bennett points out that often the private sector does a much better job of dealing with unbounded problems, and that the culture of the Anglosphere tends to promote private sector solutions.

Another interesting idea builds on the economic principle that specialization with trade allows greater economic development. If an individual had to depend on everything he produced he would have to be a subsistence farmer and/or hunter. But as families, communities, cities, and nations develop, along with the ability to trade with others, people can increase their productiveness by focusing on specific areas of interest or expertise. Adam Smith used showed the value of this when talking about a group of manufactures who each focused on a single step in the production of sewing needles. James Bennett says that by increasing the level of trade and trust to include other nations, there can be greater economic growth. Those nations in the Anglosphere have an easier time trading with each other, which allows even more specialization. It is hard to trade with those who you don't trust, or those who have different cultural expectations. So the Anglosphere has a great advantage in having a large network to work with.

The book explores the idea of separating physical space, from transportation space, and from communication space. We measure the physical space in miles. But transportation space is largely influenced by how easy it is to move from one place to another. Historically moving by ships over rivers and the ocean was much cheaper than traveling by land. Communication space really started to become its own space with the development of the telegraph, and exploded with the development of the internet. Now it is almost as easy to communicate with someone anywhere in the world, as it is to talk with your neighbor.

James Bennett says that in general those with an English Heritage, or who are largely influenced by Anglo ideas, are more flexible and will be able to react quicker than European Nations, Japan, China, India, and so on. They have a greater ability to trust each other, and take initiative on a personal level. His sees the development of organizations which support each other that transcend national boundaries. There are a number of libertarian ideas here.

If you are into books which explore the big picture and deal with new and fascinating ideas, this is a good book to read. I don't think everything James Bennett talks about here will happen, but he does provide some interesting insights into what may happen over the next fifty years. This is not a quick read. This book is meant to be read slowly and thoughtfully, and pondered over time. This book is well worth reading

Author Brian Kaufman has woven a tight mystery around a sympathetic protagonist. Daniel Bain, a down-on-his-luck skip tracer, gets a bizarre job offer from a wealthy old geezer. "Find Jesus Christ," states Mordecai Ryan, "and I'll pay you a hundred thousand dollars." Daniel struggles with the case while recovering from personal problems that haunt him. His demons include a humorous battle with weight loss, a tender friendship with a seductive internet porn star, and bouts with his slightly dysfunctional family. Add dry wit, a dash of murder, and a touch of the biblical--you've got a well-written, page-turning thriller as well as a great read.

One of the joys of doing this column is discovering books published by small outfits that rarely get wide distribution. Such is the case with this novel by Colorado resident, Brian Kaufman. It is also one of those books difficult to slap a genre label on. It is part mystery, part thriller with a good dose of philosophical debate thrown in for good measure.

When widower Daniel Bain is hired by reclusive millionaire, Mordecai Ryan, to find Jesus, he at first thinks the dying old man is orchestrating some sick-twisted hoax at his expense. Bain is a skip-tracer who locates missing people, primarily through the use of computers and the internet. He's as far from being a private investigator as a counter clerk is being the head of a bank. Still, the obscene amount of money Ryan dangles under his nose is too much to resist and he reluctantly takes the job.

From that point on Bain's life is systematically turned upside as he experiences one bizarre event after another like a cosmic chain of good and bad luck interwoven together to confuse the hell out of him. Years earlier Bain's wife had run off to be with another man. She took their baby daughter with her and then both of them died when their car hit a patch of winter ice and flipped off the road. Bain's grief became so mixed up with his anger at her betrayal, he's become an emotional zombie and cynic.

Now his search for Mordecai Ryan's Jesus leads him to a nineteen year girl who sells pornographic tapes and pictures of herself over the internet. Like Bain, she too is a wounded soul and they instantly find a kinship together. Neither is aware of just how strong that bond is a stalker threatens the girl's life and Bain finds himself cast in the role of her protector. All the while he finds himself getting closer and closer to find Ryan's
lost Messiah.

Kaufman writes with courage in tackling spiritual themes. He clearly recognizes the human condition for its broken state, yet through Bain he refuses to accept the tired old platitudes that come from thousand year old gospel. Yet the book's gruesome climax hints at a begrudging acceptance of the greatest mystery of them all, love. This is a well written book with weighty themes. If you aren't afraid to think about the big questions, then this is a book you should seek out and read. Whether in the end, you agree or disagree with Daniel Bain, you won't easily forget him.

While Mr. Kaufman's newest novel has Christian aspects to the story, I did not find it to be a novel about Christianity. I am not a Christian, even if I do find some of their purported values to mine as well. If this had been a novel of Christianity, I probably would not have read it. No, for me, this was a novel of self exploration, of psychological and philosophical juggling, dealing with the darker side of man's nature. That nature can be destructive, as is portrayed by the antagonist, it can be self doubt as portrayed by our protagonist or it can be a loss of faith, exemplified elsewhere in the story as an on going theme. This is a story of a hero going on with his life, not appearing as a hero to anyone, not even himself. These heros exist in our daily lives, such as fathers going to jobs they hate, so that they can provide for their families.

Mr. Kaufman's writing is layered with meaning, most of which is lost on me, if not pointed out. The structure of this story is precise, with every scene and chapter having a specific purpose and meaning, and having an evil twin elsewhere in the book.

The ending is, in my opinion, what makes this story worth reading. If you are tired of being spoon fed a plot with a conclusion you can see from the second chapter, then read this book. It'll leave you wanting more from Kaufman, even if he does jump genre, keeping us all guessing what is next from him.
Aaron Spriggs

The Apocalypse Parable: A Conspiracy Of Weeds by Brian Kaufman is an original, engaging and complex suspense novel depicting the life of a wealthy man, Mordecai Ryan and his pursuit of Jesus Christ the services of Daniel Bain, a small-time private investigator for missing persons. Readers will be enthralled as Bain's pursuit of Christ leads him through a twisting and evermore intricate plot involving Hitler, discovering rewrites of the Gospel, and many more modern and estranging studies. The Apocalypse Parable is very strongly recommended to all readers of fantasy-fiction, particularly those inclined to the Christian faith.

Where would Jesus go if he were to return today? Which broadcast station would he choose to spread his word? What would the censors say? Haven't people been interpreting the words of Jesus since the moment he spoke them? Chances are, if he did come back, he might have some editing to do to the Bible; chances are, people would ignore him and assume he was just a nutcase. It is what people assume about others that really touches home in Brian Kaufman's book, "The Apocalypse Parable."

Daniel Bain is a skip-tracer. He finds people who are in debt, have run away from life and responsibilities, or are hiding for other various reasons. When Mordecai Ryan, an eccentric wealthy invalid, hires him to find Jesus, Bain assumes at first that he is being taken for a fool, or else his client is one. He turns the research onto Mordecai himself, trying to find out just a bit more information. What turns up is very interesting. The research uncovers a connection to Hitler, a lot of importing business, and a church that stands empty. Getting deeper into it, Bain uncovers a connection that has to be more than coincidence; in fact, if he believed in such things, he might think it were divine intervention.

During the investigation, we are given a personal glimpse at the character who is Daniel Bain. Readers see his personal life and along with it, a parallel plot that is full of suspense and interest. Being a skip tracer he is able to track down a pretty young thing whom he has met at a questionable site on the internet, and arrives near her home just in time to save her from another, more sinister, stalker. The two have an instant connection and will end up learning a good deal from each other. Also in the story are Daniel's sister and her not-so-nice life partner, his terrible cook of a mother, and his best friend who also happens to be the priest at his seldom-visited church. Through it all, people make assumptions and learn from the repercussions of doing so.

The book is very well written, and is impossible to put down. Just when you think you've got things figured out, think again. With interesting and original twists, author Brian Kaufman will capture your attention and leave you with a satisfied understanding of his presented points. Something to think about, and a great tale!
Review by Heather Froeschl

If you've already gotten your feet wet with multi-threaded programming, but you haven't been able to maximize concurrency yet, this is the book you need. It includes thorough explanations of all the latest approaches and algorithms. And with multi-core processors becoming ubiquitous, this book will remain of lasting value.

This book gives programmers the practical and theoretical tools they need to adapt to the proliferation of multi-core machines. It opens with six chapters on theoretical subjects. These chapters are fascinating in their own right as well as directly applicable to my daily work. I thought the most important subjects were wait-free synchronization (every method completes in a finite number of steps), lock-free synchronization (some method completes in a finite number of steps), and some computability proofs. The authors use computability to demonstrate the equivalence of several types of synchronization primitives. They also present some impossibility proofs that show you how to avoid trying to solve unsolvable problems. The computability results and synchronization guarantees combine to give you the tools to determine whether one concurrent algorithm is "better" than another.

The remainder of the book is devoted to practical subjects. These chapters cover locks, a variety of data structures, work scheduling, and some miscellaneous topics. Java's java.util.concurrent package provides production-quality implementations of most of these data structures. The authors know this, and they use the data structures chapters to demonstrate generally applicable techniques while avoiding unnecessary implementation details. The work scheduling chapter is a sobering reminder of the difficulty inherent in fully exploiting highly parallel architectures. The authors show how to use recurrences to analyze the relative speedup an algorithm gains by running on P processors instead of a single processor. Combining this with the discussion of Ahmdal's Law earlier in the book we see that the essential math behind parallelism severely penalizes you for seemingly small sequential portions of your code. I also found the counting networks chapter fascinating, as I had never encountered that material before.

The book also provides appendices aimed at bringing inexperienced readers up to speed. That said, I wouldn't recommend this book for inexperienced programmers. The material is challenging. If you are looking for a gentler introduction to this subject, consider Java Concurrency in Practice. Each chapter ends with a note describing the history of the material and providing pointers to the bibliography. These demonstrate that the authors have been significant contributors to this field. I do agree with the review from Vyacheslav Imameyev - some of the code samples are wrong. I think they missed "volatile" keywords in several places. I don't see this as a cookbook, so I'm still giving the book five stars.

Highly parallel machines are here to stay. Programmers need to adapt to this or suffer competitive disadvantage. This is the book to read in order to meet that challenge.

The content is perfect and deserves 5 stars and I agree with the 5 stars comments, but the code deserves the only 3 stars as there are a lot of flaws in it - the code even contradicts its description( both in the book and in the code downloaded from a site ). For example, at chapter 8.3.1 the Readers-Writers ( i.e. multiple-readers-multiple-writers as the name suggests ) implementation is actually a multiple-readers-single-writer as the WriteLock.lock() method doesn't protect from multiple writers( there is a mention about a single writer in the text but the paragraph name suggests multiple writers ). The code at 8.3.2 is just misleading and doesn't match the description - again the WriteLock.lock() is flawed - it frees the lock if readAcquires != readReleases thus allowing the ReadLock.lock() method to acquire the lock and increment the readAcquires counter which results in the writer starvation and lost of fairness( should be FIFO ) and again there is no protection from multiple writers but the "Readers-Writers lock" name suggests that it should be. And as the last blow the code in 8.3.2 suffers from the lost-wakeup problem described two pages before - the WriterLock.unlock() method doesn't wake up the readers waiting in condition.await(). But there is a rehabilitation for the authors - the description for the code doesn't contain the flaws mentioned above - it is absolutely correct! The Chapter 8 drove me mad by its discrepancy between the text and the code!
So, I got suspicious about the code in the book but not about the description.
I rated the book 4 stars as the content and description( including pictures )is brilliant but the code is sometimes wrong and misleading ( I think it was copy-pasted from the old authors's works ), if the code had not contained such bizarre flaws I would have rated 5 stars as the content is really perfect and shows the authors expertise in the field.

Took the class from Herlihy that goes with this book. He's an extremely intelligent and knowledgeable man, and the book is invaluable. I will be using it many times in my future computer science career. Lots of valuable reference information, algorithms, proofs of correctness (critical for parallel systems!), and key core concepts that help you think about multiprocessor problems in new ways.

This is a great, lucid - and PRACTICAL book on concurrent programming in general. It's equally applicable if you're programming for a multi-core CPU ... or if you're simply programming threads ... or even if you're programming a cluster.

Half the book is about "theory" (written in a thoroughly engaging, easy-to-follow style), the remaining half about "practice": various tips and tricks obviously learned from hard-earned experience.

There's also a great discussion of "transactional memory", which I'm sure is going to become increasingly important - and increasingly mainstream.

This book is a welcome addition to any practitioner's bookshelf!

I teach computer classes in Maryland and bought "Ask Mr. Modem" for my classes. I love the book! I love Mr. Modem's lighthearted approach, because I too feel that computers are not mysterious, inhabited beings, but tools or appliances.

The question-and-answer format makes it very easy to read, and you can pick up the book anywhere and just read some questions about email or browsers or any other topic. You don't have to read the book from cover-to-cover, though you probably will.

The questions Mr. Modem answers are questions from real people and it's true what he says, "There is no such thing as a dumb question."

Thanks for a great book, Mr. Modem. I hope you're working on Volume 2.

Mr. Modem has done it again with this new book helping all of us who have questions about our computers and the internet. With a thorough and extensive index and an easy-to-read question and answer format, you'll easily be able to find clear and concise answers to your questions.

How refreshing and what a joy to read a computer book that will make you smile and laugh along the way! Richard Sherman has a gift for demystifying the computer and making it fun. Forget the laborious manuals- just turn to "Ask Mr. Modem".

Five stars and three hearty cheers for Mr. Modem - keep those books coming, as you're the only one we know who can give us clear, easy-to-understand "geekspeak-free" answers. Bless you!

This book is fabulous! I use computers and the web a lot and there are PLENTY of things in this book I find useful. And the price is right: perfect to bring instead of a stupid bottle of wine when you're invited to someone's home for dinner! The recipients of Ask Mr. Modem have been tickled at this gift! Also a perfect holiday gift for someone who I know not that well but wanted to give something. I'm here ordering my fifth copy of the book!

I received a copy of "Ask Mr. Modem!" this past Christmas and it's the best computer book I've ever received (or purchased). I have a shelf of computer books, most of which I can't understand. This book, which is in question and answer format, is very easy to read. Just thumbing through it and seeing all the questions Mr. Modem answers, these are the same questions I've had. It's been a huge help to me and I've already given several copies of it to friends.

Mr. Modem has done it again with this new book as he helps all of us who have questions about our computers and the internet. With a thorough and extensive index and an easy-to-read question and answer format, you'll easily be able to find clear and concise answers to your questions.

How refreshing and what a joy to read a computer book that will make you smile and laugh along the way! Richard Sherman has a gift for demystifying the computer and making it fun. Forget the laborious manuals - just turn to "Ask Mr. Modem".

Five stars and three hearty cheers for Mr. Modem - keep those books coming, as you're the only one we know who can give us clear, easy-to-understand "geekspeak-free" answers! Bless you!