Software Books

this book is culled from sources across the internet, almost all of the information is freely available somewhere. in most cases the author has not even bothered to change the filenames or unique file extensions. the book itself is barely an index of the cd-rom, with the first paragraph of a file serving as a description. there is some (un)original writing done by the author himself, comprising a miniscule amount of the actual text. if you would like to learn what these files are actually about, you would be much better served by going to the sites they were taken from

This book is trash. This is just a printed version of textfiles.com that gives you all of the "lost" files for free. This is just a horrible book that takes advantage of people not using google first to find free information.

I think this book is equivalent to somebody filling up a bottle with tap water and selling it for 20 dollars as pure water found in the most secret places.

The widespread availability of computers and access to telephone and Internet technologies has contributed to the sharp rise in the number of people going online over the years. Unfortunately, many of these people found their way online through less-than-honest means, and once online, they would set out to perform a great deal of mischief and damage to various computers and computer information systems.

Hack Attacks Encyclopedia edited by John Chirillo serves as the ultimate source for collected information on the history of hacking, cracking, and phreaking. The book features nearly 2,000 text and HTML document extracts that includes news articles, online postings, and other snippets of insightful information. Some of the accounts are startling. Readers will quickly pick up just how clever some hackers, crackers, and phreakers really are. The following snippet exemplifies available talent in Northern America:

"Silver Spy has everything going for him - comfortable surroundings, a father who is an engineer. He ranks in the top 3 percent of his high-school class. His SAT scores for college admission totaled 1,400 of a possible 1,600. He wants to attend Stanford or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. But in the eyes of the phone companies he is a thief, and in the eyes of the law he's a criminal. Such is the portrait of this 17-year-old computer "hacker" and "phone phreaker" who lives about 20 miles outside Boston. He spoke with U.S. News & World report on the condition that neither his real name nor home town be revealed."

The Hack Attack Encyclopedia is broken up into major sections by decade - the 70's, the 80's, the 90's, the Millennium, and a special historical synopsis. From beginning to end, readers will be able to follow the history of mischievous behavior. It will be an eye-opening experience for anyone to follow the advancements made in communications technologies and how they can be easily circumvented and otherwise compromised to carryout further activities. Although some of the technologies disclosed in the book are outdated and have been replaced, readers will still gain helpful insight of the mindset of hackers, crackers, and phreakers operating today. They are a force to be taken very seriously.

An extensive 217-page glossary of terms will enlighten readers about the slang talk used in the hacking, cracking, and phreaking communities. As a special bonus, the CD accompanying the book features full-length editions of the article and snippet extracts included in the book, hundreds of computing and Internet exploits, and a sampling of useful utility programs.

Hacking, cracking, phreaking, and virus infection still poses problems for many people today. This book will open the eyes of many people - including business people, IT managers, and law enforcement officials. It will serve as an excellent starting point for taking necessary corrective action to prevent further mischief and harm caused to personal and company computer systems. I can't wait to see an updated edition. Highly recommended reading.

this book is culled from sources across the internet, almost all of the information is freely available somewhere. in most cases the author has not even bothered to change the filenames or unique file extensions. the book itself is barely an index of the cd-rom, with the first paragraph of a file serving as a description. there is some (un)original writing done by the author himself, comprising a miniscule amount of the actual text. if you would like to learn what these files are actually about, you would be much better served by going to the sites they were taken from

The book looks damned impressive from the outside; it's 960 pages! Surely, this must be the most complete discussion of the hacking and phreaking subculture ever published! The cover, a sunset-colored affair with barbed wire and neat lettering, tells you it'll have a more up-to-date sensibility. Everything said this would be my next purchase.

My heart sank as I read through the book.

The vast, vast, VAST (over two-thirds) majority of the book consists of the first paragraph of BBS textfiles, with a line telling you the filename included on the CD that comes with the book. In some cases, Chirillo deigns to visit upon you a single-line description, but many don't even have that. So now, imagine this: page after page of filenames, then descriptions, then the first paragraph, of files located on a CD that's in the back of a book. What a horrible waste! There's a computer "glossary" in the back which looks suspiciously like similar documents available on the web, although I can't be sure. Also, there are a few tiny chapters giving general descriptions of the hacker and phreaking subculture. If you were to remove the filenames and descriptions and paragraphs, I doubt this book could get past 100 pages, if that.

As a special education teacher, I would like to think that I have a keen eye for books that can hold my student's interests while meeting their diverse needs. The Game Maker Apprentice does that and more. The only negative comment I have heard about this book from a student is that it does not cover modern three dimensional game programming. My response, you have to learn how to crawl and walk before you can run.
Game Maker Apprentice achieves its goals masterfully, and I will continue to use it to teach game programming with my students.

I have started using the Game Maker's Apprentice book and it is well written and has easy to follow directions. I am sure I will enjoy creating games with it.

This book, and the accompanying software, provide a FUN way to create some games. I used this book with four teenagers (ages 12-17) and they had a blast! I would recommend this book for anyone who wants to learn more about how games work, while having fun at the same time.

My ten year old daughter asked for a book that will allow her to create games with Game Maker. I found this book, ordered it, and gave it to her several weeks ago. She's been deeply involved in the book since, and really likes it. She is now asking to take a class that will teach her Object Oriented Programming so she can actually create the objects!
This is a good book, and I recommend it for budding young developers. JAL

I downloaded Game Maker 7.0 and read its manual prior to purchasing this book.

My hope was that it would fill in the "holes" not explained by the program manual.

First, the good.

The book gives an excellent explanation of program logic and keeps things simple and effective for any experience level.

I also liked the fact that you could read the book and see examples without actually completing the tutorials.

I especially liked the way the book would demonstrate a particular game tutorial with an easy-to-read flow chart.

So if you didn't understand the Game Maker's manual this book IS for you.

Here is where my 3.5 star rating comes in.

I paid about $25 for the book to go beyond the program manual.

The book had a couple of the tutorials that were listed on Yo-Yo games web site. I don't like the idea of paying for something that is provided for free. However, it gave a better explanation of Game Maker's interface.

Although you can make a fully functioning game without programming, I was hoping for more guidance on Game Maker Language (GML), which you will need in fine tuning games created with Game Maker.

I was also hoping for more variety in the tutorials. Not everyone may want to make an action oriented game. For example, I wanted to make a little board game, but that isn't discussed in the book. Hopefully, it will be covered in the next edition or another book.

I still recommend the book, but make sure you are getting it for the right reasons. Review the PDF file and sample text carefully looking at the table of contents and index. You might be able to accomplish your goals by reading Game Maker's manual and looking through the forums.

This product was bought as a gift for a bright 16 year old girl. It was purchased to fuel her interest in PhotoShop without her having to first wade through a ton of dry how to. This book allowed her to see what was possible so that she now seeks out the ways that she can do other more mundane applications of the program. It provided what it was purchase for. A match for a creative fire.

I purchased this book over a year ago, and I'm still using it. You give several examples in your chapters on how to do a certain task, in a down to earth writing style which I find very easy to understand. I've become so much more efficient in Photoshop thanks to your book.
Cheers!

This is a very fun book to work thru. It comes with a CD that has photos to work with. You will install the CD and use the different effects over and over. I find myself going back to the book on many different projects. Most of the effects are ones that you can use in editing any type of photo. I loved the book and recomend it highly. Even beginners will find it easy to follow.

Just got into this book and I love it already. It may help for you to have another book along for tool and palette reference. The accompanying cd-rom is a great help, but i just wish that it had more videos. This book is definitely one of the top PAdobe Photoshop CS2 One-on-One (One-On-One)hotoshop books that I own.

This is an excellent hands-on tutorial in getting the most out of Photoshop CS2, Ostensibly about creating realistic-looking photomontages (though most of the examples wouldn't fool someone who's paying attention), this book is actually for anyone who has struggled to learn about layers and masks and levels. It's accessible and fun.

This book is *the* way to begin working with the Korn shell. I needed to get up to speed with a shell scripting language in order to do Oracle DBA tasks. I bought this based on the strength of it's Amazon ratings and was completely delighted.

The author has a great style, easy to understand and very clear. I found the procession of topics to be very logical; a nice gradual build up from the simple to the more complex. There is plenty of 'depth' in each chapter and good highlighting of potential problem areas and difficult concepts. These have additional coverage to help steer clear of the hassles and come to a clear understanding of the more challenging ideas.

The examples are well thought out, they present each topic of interest clearly and in a meaningful way, without clutter. I have coded almost every single one and found only a few errors. Within a chapter the examples are presented with increasing complexity, but are never the page after page monsters that leave you lost. It is amazing how well the author illustrates the content with short (20 - 30 line) samples.

When I was puzzled with something I had read here, I turned to two of my friends who 'live' in shell scripting up to their necks. Both have learned useful techniques from this book through my questions.

My copy is literally starting to come apart from constant use for reference. It is that good.

I found this to be an excellent hands-on tutorial in KornShell. Wish there were a book-2 and book-3 with advanced training.

I love the Korn shell. This book is a fine intro to Korn Shell programming. For users who want more than just an intro, you may want to consider "Korn Shell: Essential Programs for Your Survival at Work" by Larry L. Smith. Examples in Randal K. Michael's "Mastering UNIX Shell Scripting" are also helpful.

Before start reading this book, I had little or no exprience. But after reading first few chapters, I just started with good confident.

Thanks to Barry

I generally agree with the reviewer who expressed amazement at the almost universal acclaim for this book. It is a *workable* treatment of KornShell 88 in a field of also-rans. Given that few if any books are better, I give it three stars because with little else available, you *can* use this book to learn and deal with KornShell 88.

Is it a great book, as so many reviewers claim? By no means. It has a fair organization into functional groupings of KornShell features, but lacks fully expository examples, lacks explanation of some key language features, and no doubt lacks some of the details of the language, as the language appears to be fully documented *nowhere* on this planet. If you scour the "tips" websites you will find crucial things that are absent from this book.

Yes, I use it. Yes, it is dog-eared. But it is one of those books that is maddening in its ability to hide factoids one *knows* one has seen somewhere in the book at some time in the past. It is precisely in those cases that the index falls down, yet that is also precisely why an index should be exhaustive and not spotty.

The examples are typically weak in that they don't always fully showcase the language features they purport to illustrate, instead showing simple cases that don't answer the great pressing questions of how the more complex features are used. A book of this type can succeed on examples alone, but this one doesn't.

For some reason that isn't clear to me, both KornShell and AIX are very poorly documented in the private press, as if few people used them. It's another of the many "What's wrong with this picture?" situations that afflict the unix world.

I also found the folksy style to be a bit nauseating.

Excellent condition.
Its as good as new - though i paid second hand prices for it :)

I read the book and was immediately able to get to the root causes of a slow running Oracle database. Very well organized.

The way in which the concepts are explained by the authors is Skillful.
Tired of reading obscure explanations about latches?
If so, read this book to learn it.
The authors were able to explain what Oracle latches are and how they work.
It's the only one book you need to understand how Oracle wait events should be used as a tuning tool.
It's a "definitive guide!"

I loved this book and it has helped me many many times to reduce the contention in database , thus by improving the performance by 100% to 150%...

With this book, I was actually able to implement the concepts, whereas other books I read , were more derived from oracle manuals.



Thanks to Kirtikumar Deshpande, K. Gopalakrishnan for this book,

If you need to tune the database, this is the book for you.

This is one of my favorite books. It gives easy to understand descriptions and examples. It is a must have for tuning. It is nicely organized and highly useful in a "crisis" situation.

Hats off to Kirti & Richmond and to the editors I don't have to remember everything 'cept where I put this book.

Woody's book (and WOW site) offer the very best practical and error-avoiding advice on using MS Outlook 97. Using Outlook is very different from using other Office applications. The file management aspect is thoroughly confusing and inflexible. Woody's book helps deal with this thorny issue.

As a software trainer and consultant, I am always looking for good books. This book is not good -- it's GREAT! The information on pgs.643 to 647 is worth much more than the price of the book! A must have....

Until now I have practically only been reading the Outlook 98 part of the book, as this part was the most urgent from my point of view. I have certainly not been disappointed. But on the other hand I had not expected less as a keen reader of Woody's Office Watch (WOW) and Woody's Window Watch (WWW). I am really looking forward to the rest of the book. It is a pleasure reading and learning from a book where there are a lot of humour included.

I have been using Office 97 for 1 1/2 years and have taken college courses in Word 97 and Excel 97. Having received certificates in both courses I thought that I knew it all. RIGHT! Woody Leonhard has taught me about the easy ways to execute commands. His shortcuts are invaluable to me. I am a quadriplegic and find his advice very helpful and time saving. I am learning Powerpoint 97 in far less time than it would of taken me in school. I believe he has been most helpful in making me a real power user. Thanks to Woody and his gang.

Clear, concise and easy instructions on how to use MS Ofc 97. Points out the good, bad and ugly of Microsoft products. Can turn any novice into more of a professional than he/she ever dreamed of! I recommend this book to anyone who will be working with MS Ofc 97! Don't pass this one up!

It's a great book. As a senior developer with more than 5 year's experieces of Object-Oriented Design, I think this is a valuable pragmatic book about how to do in a practical project.

I bought this for my brother. Got for a good deal on Amazon. Very happy with the fast delivery by Amazon.

This book covers the most common, and usefull design patterns. Each patter is presented in plain egnlish, with full examples.

In addition to patterns this book covers the principles surounding patterns that make them truely usefull.

After reading this text, I feel it deserves the attention of other great texts such as Design patterns and Refactoring, even though much of it's content expounds upon the ideas of these two classics. It's my opinion that this text has two strong points: it explains the ideas and details of agile development very clearly, and it does an excellent job of explaining the most popular patterns originated by GOF, plus a few more. The authors style was very good, with most of the examples in Java. Being a C++ programmer, I would have liked to see more examples in that language, but this is not any fault of the author.

In my role as an architect and a J2EE evangelist, I have to teach a lot about OOAD principles, the Java language and Agile techniques. There are lots of books in my armour that capture the gist of many of these practices and techniques. But none in my opinion better than this book.

Robert Martin is a master at explaining OOAD concepts and applying them to the Agile methodology. For instance, the Agile practices mandate certain practices that need to be implemented in the upfront design and conception of the project. This is in contrast to the methodologies that were hitherto used that emphaisized methodology over design.

This book provides that point of fusion. A great achievement indeed! Concepts such as dependency injection and the Single Responsibility Principle were explained before they became mainstream design tenets.

I am still working on the front page book. I knew nothing when I started. I am now nearly finished covering chapter 4. there are a few places I strugled to understand what the author was talking about but overall the book is serving my purpose. I never expect to be a front page expert but one of these days I do expect to have a running website. I recomend the book although I have not looked at other book on the subject.

Wonderful book. Easy to read. Simple instructions. I followed and built my website just like I had taken a class to learn how. I would recommend this book to anyone that needs a quick way to learn FrontPage 2003.

I've been designing web sites for quite some time now. By no means am I a professional but I can make web sites using basic coding and that's what I had to do until I found FrontPage 2003. FrontPage 2003 greatly reduced the amount of time it took me to create a web site. Although I had been using the program for a while, after I decided to start a business designing web sites I bought several books on FrontPage 2003. I wanted to have the most knowledge about the program as possible and be able to produce the most professional looking web sites for customers. Out of the several books that I purchased all on this one program, I found this book to be the most helpful and overall best book on the topic. It covers everything you need to know from start to finish. It starts out by explaining basic web site design features of the program and then progressively describes more detailed processes as the book continues. All instructions are easy to read and understand. Out of all the books I've purchased, this book has helped me fully understand the program the best. If I had to recommend one book on FrontPage 2003 to a friend, this book would be the one.

Step by step instructions and screen prints. Perfect for beginner. Also purchased FrontPage 2003 the missing manual. An excellent complement.

Instructional manuals lack the one-to-one human connection that make learning more interactive. As complete as this manual strives to be--and it's very good--it can't take the place of individual instruction from a knowledgeable, experienced professional. Case in point are the directions for creating a navigation menu: follow them to a "T" and encounter a surprise when the outcome doesn't match what's listed in the manual.

It takes some savvy to blend one's own personal knowledge and intelligence with that of a great instructional manual. If you're really a beginner, opt for a class first, then use this manual as your constant companion.

If you need help, this is where you'll find it.
The CD that comes with it is a lot of help too.
Worth the price.

This is another in the WOW series and even though it's for the last interation of photoshop (CS2) there is a wealth if info here. It's all in color, clearly explained. It gives you an overview of how much you can do in this amazing program and helps you develop the chops to put it to use. Nicewly structured so you can pick and choose what you need at the time if you don't want to read it cover to cover. You won't need every technique here but it gives you the tool to apply in other ways for whatever you want to do. One of the easily accessible and useful books on the subject.

This book is to me the bible of Photoshop. It's so thorough and thick, and it's large number of illustrations, screen shots, and photos make it work whether I am carefully following a book example on my computer, or sitting and reading without the computer.

Let me begin by saying that this book is BIG, slightly bigger than a hard backed dictionary or textbook. If you plan on carrying this around in a backpack or ferrying it between school/work and home, don't.

This book has a humongous, colorful wealth of information. I guarantee that this book will show you how to do ANYTHING you could possibly want to do in Photoshop. Whether you plan on reading it straight through or using it as a reference book (I recommend the latter), you will appreciate the collection of tips and tricks this book has to offer.

Covering everything from picture touchups to full fledged graphic design, this book is artfully written and painstakingly thorough in its design. With pictures demonstrating everything, along with the helpful and easy to follow text, this book is great for those wanting to really get into Photoshop. If you're a graphic artist or have a job that requires the use of Photoshop, this book will expand your knowledge and understanding of Photoshop. Whether you're new to photoshop or a professional, this book is definitely a wise investment to help further your Photoshop skills.

This is your Photoshop Bible that you should keep with you at all times! I just hate that I paid $65 for it at Borders, when I could have gotten it here for MUCH less!

I bought this book hoping it would supplement the PeopleSoft SQR class and in general was not disappointed, given my expectations. I knew it wouldn't include anything on PeopleSoft 8; thus the illustrations in the "SQR and PeopleSoft" section are dated. However, the examples in the section on working with effective-dated tables were very useful and apply to all releases. I haven't read the "Advanced Features" section of the book yet, because I was discouraged a bit when I had trouble grasping a few of the concepts in the SQR Basics section. I was pleased that their sample database, on which the reports are based, is modeled on the HRMS JOB, EMPLOYMENT, and PERSDATA tables; however, including sample output with each of their exercise/illustrations would have been helpful.

In summary, if you are a pretty experienced functional person (I am a consultant), are motivated enough to invest the time to learn SQR, and have access to the tool, this may be a good choice. Certainly more information (understandably) than you can get from a five-day SQR class.

You need this book if you are going to write SQR(s). However, you won't use it much with PS 8. You'll use App Engine.

I was working on a problem a couple of years ago and took the suggestion of a co-worker to buy this book. For the last two years I have been using it as a reference. I spent a few months off and came back and embaressed myself puting a report in process scheduler. So I sat down and read the book front to back. I wish I had done this a couple of years ago.

I have been working with SQR for five years. I have used examples and the SQR manuals to accomplish what I wanted. This work provided me with a lot of knowledge that I had never taken the time to pick up. Now even if I take the time off and need a refresher the sections are highlighted.

I have found this book very useful as both a reference and a knoweldge builder. Also, the writing style was good enough that rereading the portions that I was alread aware of was not too irksome. Interestingly, I could swear some of the interview questions I have been asked came right out of this book.

Aside from the fact that there is no other book that teaches SQR, this book is unique and valuable for following reasons:

- It teaches good programming practices. Anyone who has developed in any procedural language (including scripting and query languages) can quickly learn SQR. Therein lies a problem that this book overcomes: the excellent advice given about program development and structure can offset bad habits picked up in other languages.

- It's a definitive resource for SQR developers. Although SQR is relatively easy to learn, it's also rich with features missing from most other languages, such as complete control over printed and screen output, built-in constructs for graphs and charts, and multiple output file formats. Using many of these features not easy for beginners or programmers more used to other languages, but this book shows by example how to exploit every feature SQR has to offer.

- It dispels the common notion that SQR is a PeopleSoft-only tool. In fact, PeopleSoft doesn't own the language, and SQR will work in any database environment. More important, the book shows how to develop application and database independent programs that will work in any environment. This is an awakening for those who are going down proprietary paths, such as standardizing on Oracle's PL/SQL. While PL/SQL itself a powerful language, but is limited to Oracle - migrating from Oracle to, say, DB2 requires that all PL/SQL programs be scrapped. Had the applications and reports been developed in SQR the only changes would be to tables referenced.

In addition to the above, this book also provides good practices for forming SQL queries and understanding how a poorly formed join can make the difference between a resource hog and an unintrusive application. Since SQL, like SQR, is easy to learn many developers take the path of least resistance and develop queries with no thought on their effect on production systems. This book gives sound advice for avoiding that mistake.

The section on PeopleSoft, while out of date with respect to version 8, still contains valuable information for the majority of SQR developers whose exposure to SQR is via PeopleSoft.

There is something for everyone in this book - beginners can learn SQR the right way, and seasoned developers will have a ready reference that covers almost every facet of SQR in practical terms. If your job is primarily SQR development I also recommend that you also get a copy of "SQR Programmer Reference" by Don Mellen (ISBN 0967773008) as a quick reference to the features and nuances of SQR.

Expert systems designer and programmer Vlad Landres and PeopleSoft specialist Galina Landres have completely revised and updated this second edition of SQR In PeopleSoft And Other Applications. Covering the fundamentals of the SQR version 6, and how to integrate SQR programs with PeopleSoft version 8, SQR In PeopleSoft And Other Applications is packed from cover to cover with reusable code examples, warnings of pitfalls, efficient methods, effective-dated tables, complete SQR syntax reference, and so much more. There is no shortage of solid advice and demonstrations in this straightforward and strongly recommended "hands-on" guide.