Software Books

I really enjoyed this book, and I think it's definitely worth considering if you're interested in how stories can be told in video games. I've bought plenty of books about video game design and storytelling. (I'm a programmer who's been making video games professionally for about 10 years -- I wish more people would include their personalbackground in their book reviews...) Some books on game design are written by people who obviously have more "static media" backgrounds like books or movies, and don't understand the fundamental problem of making a story in a situation where the audience has freedom to do what they want. Another problem that a lot of people don't understand is that people playing a video game don't necessarily WANT a story, in the sense that they are playing a video game because of the interactivity, and not to watch a 10 minute cutscene to learn some back story. If they wanted to watch a movie they'd pop in a DVD.

I think the author really understands these difficulties. You want to make an emmersive worl, but you need to do it very quickly. So he talks about dialog, and how to convey as much information as possible in as few words as possible. He talks about how to get the player to sympathize with a chaacter, from the situation that characetr is in, to the design of the character art, to the words that the character says. All of the information is very practical, not like some books that leave you with a bunch of high-level nonsense that doesn't work in a real game. I really appreciated that he wasn't one of these "video games are mindless because they don't tell a story" type of guys. Or acting as if video games need to learn how to tell a story in order to "grow up" like movies or TV have. In a straight up action game or fighter, you don't need as much of a story as you do in a more adventure game. Playing a video game is a just a different experience, and the story has a different role, it's NOT the holy grail like some people think. Rather than trying to tell you how to convert video games into novels, he describe ways that you can inject story without taking away from the inetraction. I think he makes a good case that in almost any game, you can introduce just a bit of characetr depth and relationships, without stopping for a ten minute cutscene, and it adds value to the game.

This author's background was originally in TV, but he also has considerable experience in video games. I felt like he has a good background to be writing the book, and was speaking from experience.

The only negative comment about the book is that I found several of the chapters to be very similar. Like you'd be reading a chapter, and you'd think, "Hey, didn't I just read this exact same thing a few chapters ago?" Actually, you didn't, this chapter is covering a very slightly different topic. In other words, I think he could have consolidated a few chapters, which would have saved me some time. I suppose this makes it easier to jump around, since you don't rely on information from previous chapters. But I found it a little repetitive.

All in all, a really good book for anybody interested in video game design or storytelling in general.

I've known Lee Sheldon for several years. He is one of the most pleasant and knowledgeable people I've met in the game industry, so I was very much looking forward to this book. Suffice it to say that I wasn't disappointed.

Writing for games has a lot in common with writing for other media (e.g., character and theme) and a lot that is unique to itself. Lee does an excellent job of covering both aspects - so much so that I would recommend this book to writers with absolutely no interest in interactive media. (I've read my share of writing books over the years, and this one stands at the top of the heap.)

Of particular interest to me were chapters 3-6 on character and chapter 14 on modular storytelling, the most elegant way I've seen of organizing a linear experience into a non-linear structure. The book also does an excellent job of discussing storytelling in massively multiplayer games and provides extensive background material, much of which is intended to set up and justify Lee's modular storytelling model - rather more background than necessary, actually, since you should be sold on the need for something like modular storytelling long before he gets around to explaining it.

The book's does have a few faults. For example, a couple of the later chapters feel out of place, and the text is dusted with a handful of puzzling and sometimes repeated typos (Eowen? Kalishnakov?) But these are of little consequence and should not detract from your enjoyment.

Highly recommended.

Cons: The book seemed slightly long for what it was, kept reusing the same semi-obscure examples from the writer's experience, and didn't always go in the directions I wanted it to go (for example more detail on world building, settings, or individual story scenes would have been appreciated).

Pros: It didn't matter that it didn't go where I wanted it because it was still very entertaining and unexpectedly beneficial to follow the writer on his path. The book is solid from start to finish and doesn't have a false air of superiority about it; everything is very practical and friendly. Definitely a good read that rewards the effort.

This book is excellent. Sheldon is witty and insightful and his book is a joy to read. I can't really think of anything negative to say, although I should perhaps mention that this book is pretty focused on RPGs and adventure games, since these are the genres which have traditionally relied most on story. Anyone interested in developing their understanding of storytelling in games should definitely pick this book up.

I am working on forming a game development studio, and our team is in the middle of producing our flagship title, an RPG entitled "Revolution's Dawn." I am the main writer of the script, and I just recently finished reading this book. Where I thought my duties as a writer were finished, I now see new openings to provide dialogue and sidequests to fill in the backstory, plot gaps, and other means of enrichment that I didn't see before. Because of having read this book, my team and I can now take this game and bring it into the realm of what we intended it to be-a vehicle for telling a story.

While the title of the book is "Character Development and Storytelling for Games," the book really focuses more heavily on the latter. I was expecting the former, but by no means am I complaining! I have been able to break through blocks in my own role as a writer for this project.

If you are looking for the "right" way to write your story, you won't find it here. What this book does instead is to open doors, and then let you decide whether to walk through them or not. And even then, you still have to choose for yourself what to do once you've walked through them. If you are looking for new openings in crafting your game _and_ writing your story(and synthesizing them both together), this is the book for you.

I read this book and was able to configure two 1720 routers to communicate over a WAN without any problems. I would suggest getting one of the CCNA books for a reference guide. This book does not go into great details about the commands.

The author did a great job of presenting the relatively basic information on configuring Cisco routers. You will find quite a few useful IOS commands discussed in the book that will want to keep it as a handy reference. I would also suggest looking into getting "Cisco IOS for IP Routing" by Andrew Colton. That book would take you deeper into mechanics of modern routing protocols (EIGRP, OSPF, IS-IS, BGP), along with a discussion of Cisco IOS commands.

These authors know how to write technical literature that did not confuse me!

Our company uses IPX and Appletalk for various departments although we are moving with haste to an all IP shop. I found this book to help me with building a multiprotocol network and to better understand the details of IP routing. The book covered IP routing in depth and covered enough of IPX and Appletalk to help me optimize my network. I found the example network with the full IOS configuration files quite useful.

There is the CCNA certification which takes you down the path to learning about routers, LANs and WANs, but what if you don't want that you only need to know how to configure the router. The Cisco Pres has put together the book that tackles that very subject.

In 350 plus pages you'll begin with a good breakdown of the OSI model followed up with the basics of how to configure the router. The information has screen shots to show you what things should look like.

After that you move in the always challenging world of TCP/IP with routing protocols and access lists. This section has a great deal of information but you may want to check other sources for more detailed information.

You also go into areas like AppleTalk with LAN and WAN configuration, IPX, SAP and basic management of the router including time control. While most of the book is geared towards the beginner all skill levels should be able to find some useful information within the book.

I found that the information seems to be up to date including topics like Network Time Protocol and Simple Network Time Protocol. Overall a very good value for the money.

Who would have thought that a 350 page book on routing could be so comprehensive? This book is a perfect place to start for MCSE's who want to move onto the 'good stuff' - routing with Cisco routers. Use this and the Sybex CCNA Study guide and you'll get through the test no problems.

I think you must buy this excellent book about grasses with a lot of good photos.

Excellent and complete information about ornamental grasses. A great book.

Thirty pages on the botany, anatomy, and classification of grasses. Twenty pages on native habitat, thirty pages on designing with grasses, and twenty pages of growing and propagating grasses. 170 page encyclopedia listing 400+ species / varieties of grasses. Each species is described in a paragraph or two of text along side a clear photograph of the plant. In the back of the book, you find a 2 page glossary, 5 page bibliography, 2 page grass nursery listing, USDA and European hardiness maps, and a complete index of all grasses by common name. Very complete book.

As a bonus, the book is also filled with awesome photography.

If you garden with ornamental grasses, this book is a must buy. Excellent information, well worth the money!

This is such a wonderful informational book... AND ... a gorgeous coffee table book. It is terrific from beginning to end! If you like or are interested in, or even thinking about Ornamental Grasses ... then THIS IS THE BOOK FOR YOU! I can't imagine anyone who has an interest in Ornamental Grasses NOT LOVING THIS BOOK, and would be delighted they purchased it. My only concern is that it is going to look dog-earred from my reading it over and over and over again ... which frankly takes away from its beauty on our coffee table.

This book is structured, written, photographed and edited with parallel purpose and effect: communication of the author's respect and regard for the book's subject and for its readers. Mr. Darke sets out to inform and does so with enconomy but in full course; when he instructs, he teaches the novice and gives pause to the critic; when he photographs he shows his passion and inspires with the nature and wonder of his subjects. The book is encyclopedic, yet its prose is always to the point with the agreeable dryness of a good, well-bodied wine. Credible, trustworthy, enlightening. This is the best gardening book I have ever read. Negatives? Only one: Mr. Darke's standards are unimpeachable; those of the book's typographer and designer, however, are not.

Rick Darke's book is typical of his work. It is extremely well written, a detailed, very thorough guide to ornamental grasses, full of helpful pictures as well as information on growing and maintaining grasses. This book should be a classic for decades to come.

The book contains a common-sense approach to software process improvement strategies for most organizations to follow. Wiegers takes the mystique out of the Software Engineering Institute's CMM and offers the CMM as one way of many to accomplish process improvement. He balances technology and process-focus against real-world people issues. Must reading for anyone involved in a Software Engineering Process Group or for senior managers trying to figure out what all this stuff is about. Text is well illustrated by case studies and examples from the author's experience at Kodak

This is a great overview of all the elements of a successful software project - from project planning to system design on up to testing and project postmortem. Many of the topics are covered too lightly to allow a practitioner to use all of Wieger's advice right out of the gate. But that's fine - the book is meant to be a handbook of great ideas from which practitioners should choose, study and implement. Pay particular attention to the discussion on determing project drivers and constraints during the project planning phase - an area usually breezed over, with devastating consequences.

This is a good book for software leaders who need ideas on how to improve the engineering culture in their organization. I thought the Culture Builders and Killers in each chapter were particularly useful.

A practical guideline for building strong and successful software development methodologies.

Wiegers' experience in a relatively small group at Kodak and his practical approach embodied in this book provide sound and strong encouragement for anybody to improve their software processes. There may be no silver bullet, but this book comes awfully close.

As book titles go, CyberRegs: A Business Guide to Web Property, Privacy, and Patents sounds uninteresting. Fortunately, what the book lacks in flashy titles, it makes up in interesting content. CyberRegs is an engrossing and sometimes angry look at the perverse nature of patent law.

When many people think of the Internet and e-commerce, they think of a series of open and non-proprietary standards that enable computers to speak networking Esperanto. As the book shows, that does not necessarily jive with reality. Many companies have tried to homestead on pioneering technologies and use them to gain a lock on the market. Author Bill Zoellick cites numerous cases -- many still in litigation -- to illustrate this point.

The book starts with a brief background of the nature of copyright and patent law and doesnýt assume any type of legal background or expertise. Zoellickýs writing style is easy going but to the point, and he accomplishes his goal of examining the disruption and instability that the Web has introduced into the world of intellectual property.

Zoellick looks at the Web from many different perspectives, from business and legal to technological and political. While some may think they don't need a book about Internet law and regulations, the reality is that, for any organization doing business on the Internet, there exists the strong possibility that they may be infringing on someone elseýs intellectual property rights.

One of the most controversial issues that the book looks at is one-click patents issued to Amazon.com. The one-click patents preclude any Internet business that has not licensed the technology from Amazon.com from enabling their customerýs to complete their purchasing experience with a single mouse click. The question of whether one-click is even patentable is a controversial one. Those who say it is, feel that Amazon.com is protecting a vital business asset. Those who donýt support it say that it only serves to stifle productivity. Zoellick gives numerous other examples.

CyberRegs also goes into such issues as digital signature and privacy. Zoellick does not take sides, but provides a fair-minded look at the debate between greater and lesser control of privacy and the Internet. The book also tackles such controversial topics as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Napster and DeCSS.

In part 3, Zoellick provides an excellent overview of digital certificates. He goes into detail on the parameters around the groundbreaking E-SIGN (Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce) act. Many have complained that E-SIGN is extremely light on details and specifics, which it is.However, Zoellick says that with E-SIGN, Congress took the approach that we donýt really understand how to do business on the Internet so issues surrounding authentication of electronic signatures are not necessarily easy problems to solve.With that, Congress restricted government action to the parts of the problem where they are directly involved and required.Congress recognized that for any effective solution, markets need time to develop and patience is required. Although this approach is hard when dealing with Internet time, it is nonetheless necessary.

You donýt have to be a lawyer to appreciate CyberRegs. Anyone who wants to have a business presence on the Net should read this book so as not to get involved in a legal tussle. While John Grisham may own the legal fiction market, CyberRegs is as close to a non-fiction legal thriller as you can get.

I am a senior engineer for network security operations who frequently reviews technical books. I was hesitant to read "CyberRegs," given its "Business Guide" subtitle. Noticing the book mentioned controversial topics like the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA), Napster, and the DeCSS case, I decided I'd give "CyberRegs" a try. That proved to be a wise decision, and I strongly recommend this book to anyone worried about the future of the Internet.

The book is exceptionally well-written, with a clear style and a welcome lack of typos (gasp). In a former life I read plenty of boring, repetitive policy books, but I had no trouble digesting "CyberRegs."

The book is arranged around the themes of copyright, patents, electronic signatures, and privacy. "CyberRegs" gives both sides of each argument, but wisely includes the authors own helpful opinion. (I was pleased to see the author share many of the security community's views on the DMCA, Napster, and so on.) Because Zoellick presents balanced arguments, readers will understand the opposition's complaints and can more effectively counter them.

"CyberRegs" was written to help business people engage in the debates and legislation shaping the Internet. Along the way the reader gains a solid historical understanding of how we arrived at the current state of affairs. Would you believe that software or business methods weren't patentable until recently? Would you believe the United States was the world's most egregious intellectual property pirate until 1891? Given this background, readers gain a sense of why policies developed, and how one can help influence the present and future of the Internet.

I found no major weaknesses in this book or its arguments, but I have two technical/security comments. First, "Web bugs" can be used to transfer more information than an IP address; some use "Web bugs" to validate email addresses. Second, giving customers access to data collected by businesses opens bigger doors for malicious hackers to manipulate that data. Readers may share these concerns, which the author doesn't address.

"CyberRegs" seems marketed as a "business guide," and speaks in part to "business people." As a technical person, I gained the knowledge needed to better defend my opinions on copyright, patents, electronic signatures, and privacy. Technical staff looking for the "why" of state of the Internet will probably love this book -- I certainly did!

(Disclaimer: I received a free review copy from the publisher.)

This is a complete primer on intellectual property and its value to the enterprise. Key issues that are addressed include:

Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)- this is probably the most important discussion in the book because it continues to be controversial.

Complete discussions of all aspects of intellectual property law as it pertains to cyberspace. The clarification of the protections afforded to patent holders that are not given to trademark holders is invaluable. In addition, I learned much about the value of patents and how a business model can be developed around patents alone. I particularly liked the discussion of patent ownership (employee inventor vs. company to which the patent was assigned). This alone makes the book worth reading.

Case studies - many of the case studies which are used throughout the book focused on pending court cases when the book was published. Many have now been resolved, the resolution of which open more questions and further cloud issues. I'd like to see an update or second edition that provides closure.

Excellent introduction to technical issues. The author has a knack for reducing the key elements into easy-to-understand chunks of information that teach non-technical readers quite a lot about technology.

If you buy one book on intellectual property law from a cyber-business perspective, this is the one to get.

Laws relating to patents and copyrights are always moving targets, but at this time they are running on jets. The speed with which technology is changing how we use things has left the legal system struggling to understand, much less keep up. However, it is a critical part of our society at large, as well as how we do business now and in the future. Therefore, all citizens need to understand the basics of the law and it is unconscionable that anyone in business would not understand the rules of copyrights and patents to a high degree. Yes, it is possible to hire lawyers, but they are expensive and cannot be with you every moment of the business day.
This backdrop serves to demonstrate how critical this book is to the management of the modern business. Since an Internet presence that allows for interaction is nearly mandatory, this could be the most important book you read this year. It already has a place on my best books of the year list for 2002. What makes the book so impressive is that the author pounds home the point that copyrights and patents are not fundamental rights, but are in fact derived under the basic notion of the common good. They are designed to encourage the creators of new things to make them available for the general society, while reserving certain key aspects for the inventors. The case involving the music swapping company Napster is examined in detail without a step up on a virtual soapbox. Zoelick also recapitulates the famous legal case over the video cassette recorder, which went all the way to the Supreme Court, where the decision turned out to be a sensible one.
The end result of that case should provide all of us with an object lesson concerning new technologies. It is clear that fighting the new technologies is at best a holding action rather than an effective long-term strategy. The best solution is simply to ferret out the best ways in which your business can open new markets and profit from the changes. Yes, changes in copyright law take many years to resolve, but in the end, the market and society will get the greatest good, which is the way it must be.
This is a book that should be required reading of anyone in business who makes decisions concerning intellectual property. In fact, some of the chapters are recommended for any citizen concerned about how our society is changing, as the effective resolution of these issues may have a dramatic affect on our economy.

Although CyberRegs has a much wider audience, my perspective of this book is that of a competitive intelligence specialist. The four topic areas covered, from a CI specialist's point of view are illuminating.

The first two topics, copyrights and patents, are the foundation of intellectual property and by extension, corporate and shareholder value. The author's discussion of both copyrights and patents expose loopholes that can work for or against you, depending on which side you are on. One theme the author repeatedly addresses is the fact that copyright and patent law is lagging behind the technology. He cites numerous case studies, all of which you will either applaud or condemn depending on which side of the issue you happen to be. As a CI specialist who engages in "white ops" (collection of competitive intelligence using legal methods), I was somewhat dismayed by aspects of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) because it draws legal boundaries that didn't previously exist. The CI community needs to be aware of this particular law because what was heretofore "white ops" may fall under black ops (illegal intelligence gathering) under the provisions of the DMCA.

The more technical topics, electronic signatures and privacy, are presented in the same balanced and thought-provoking way as copyrights and patents. Having recently read Bruce Schneier's SECRETS & LIES I had some insights into the technical aspects, but the nuances that Mr. Zoellick brings to these topics makes for compelling reading. He manages to raise thorny issues and provide answers from both sides of the issue.

Overall this is an invaluable book that should be read by anyone who seeks to understand the current state of intellectual property laws, the challenges imposed by the connected world, or how the laws and challenges combine to change the playing field. As stated above, the DMCA alone will have wide implications in my profession, and is certain to affect business operations and corporate policy in far ranging ways.

Mr. Gunning has done it again!
Having studied under Phil Gunning and knowing the dept of his expertise this book brought to life real world experiences in a classroom like setting. As a DBA I found the Chapter#8 on "Tuning Buffer Pools" and Chapter #9 "The Optimizer" to be of great help to me personally. This book is a great reference material for any DBA faced with the challenge of daily performance. I was excited to read Mr. Gunning's explanation of the `Utilities" incorporated in DB2 V9. I would recommend this book for any DBA or DBM who needs an in-depth understanding of developing and monitoring DB2 V9.
DeWayne Stansell DBA

This is a great book for developers because covers pureXML and other features and great to for DBAs the chapter on monitoring is a must have when you are in trouble with your database

Just keep in mind that this book is focues on the LUW(Linux, Unix and Windows) version of DB2, I say this because a friend of mine bought for using with z/OS by mistake.

Mr. Gunning's expertise provided the information I needed about the newest version of DB2. Service Oriented Architecture, in Chapter 6, and XML, in Chapter 9, were clearly written and understandable.

I bought this book because I needed to get up to speed real fast on using the new XML data type and Developer Workbench, and Chapter 2, 3, 4, and 5 contained everything I needed to get started. I also liked the Chapter on the Optimizer and Monitoring and Performance. A good reference.

This book is a must have for anyone who develops application code or administers DB2 databases on the windows/unix/linux platform.

The chapter on understand the DB2 optimizer is required reading because it provides deep insight into how DB2 will go about getting the data out of your relational database. Understanding this is fundamental for performance in your application.

The chapters on monitoring and peformance tuning are also very insightful and relay the authors years of experience in a very straight forward manner. Using the methods described in this book makes it easy to put procedures in place to track the performance of your database over time, and to spot problems before they start.

This book is a "must have".

This book is amazing! . As a DBA , I keep on referring this book again & again . It has very useful information & can be used by anyone who wants a really good understanding of DB2

Cheers to the author for writing such a wonderful book!

This book excels in clarity , depth and the number of topics covered . The questions at the end of the chapters are helpful too .
Also , anyone preparing for the DB2 Certification ( for OS/390 ) would benefit from this .

DB2 for Z/OS and Os/390 Development for Performance (Volume 1&2
by Gabrielle Wiorkowski

This book is extremely helpful for all levels of DBAs, system programmers and DB2 developers. It is most comprehensive and includes all features of v.6 and v.7.
At our shop, we have always used Gabriell's book for all releases
of DB2. This particular edition is very helpful, in the sense it is a text book for all levels and all parts of DB2 world.
Anytime in question, we look it up in this book for answer.

I will recommend this book as a must for DB2 tech team.

I've believed for some time that Gabrielle Wiorkowski knows as much as, or more than, anyone outside of IBM's DB2 development team about DB2's use of indexes, optimization, and other aspects of performance. This book is based on what she has learned, her direct experiences, and the experiences of other DB2 professionals with whom she comes in contact. ... It is you, the administrator, database designer, or application developer who applies its capabilities wisely or unwisely. This book provides practical information of use to you today in your job environment. Marilyn Bohl, Vice President, Work Process Systems, San Jose, CA.

Working with DB2 from 1985 forces one to read many books.
Gabrielle's book is the best ever I've read (and use) for DB2 on OS/390 (Z/OS) platform.
Very good explanations, clarity of write and easy to find structure.
I have many other books, but this is my leading (by far) favorite.
If you ever wish to know DB2 - this is the book you must have.

This is a great tool for any student of the Bible. It's helpful for personal study, preparing presentations or teaching lectures. Having the CD along with the hard copy is most helpful for adapting the content to fit one's needs. Another great thing are the overlays with present day boundaries. This helps one put the Bible stories into our context.

The contents of the book and the CD has been published in detail by another reviewer so no need to repeat it here. But the one thing I wondered about is the selection of maps. While there are 40 or so maps, there are some maps that I wish there were at least twice as many. I was expecting more thorough coverage, perhaps not as detailed as in Aharoni's Carta Bible Atlas, but more of the basic stuff. For example I would like to see more on David's travels, Elijah and Elisha, Jeremiah, siege of Jerusalem, minor prophets, etc.

However, it is a good tool and I would recommend it. The fact that it includes multiple media is worth the money.

This is good to see the than and now of the middle east area of the bible.

This book has been an excellent help in my Bible study, as it helps me locate the area I am reading about in the Bible and shows on the map overlay what that country is called now.
Highly recommended.

The historical facts presented, with overlays of present-day situations are extremely useful for Bible study and teaching. The JPGs of the maps save so much of time in preparing notes and presentations.

This is definitely a great source for finding Biblical locations and referencing them to present day geography however it is so much more than that. Biblical history is summarized in charts and diagrams. The Time Lines of the Old Testament and New Testament reference the books of the Bible to Biblical history, World history, and politcal rulers (Old Testament) of the time. Activities of Jesus' life are indexed by date on the NT Time Line. Much attention is given to Paul's travels in text as well as with maps. The fold-out maps(seperate item) are a great help to quickly locate areas however this source provides even more details to the maps and offers much more than can be summarized on the fold-outs.

Very good book, explains real-worlds issues one faces when developing COM components.
A few first chapters are extremely useful (something I had to learn hard-way. Have I had this book, I would have saved myself many hours restructuring my projects). Basic ATL types are also explained and recommendations given are very good.
Concise but very useful is explanation of BSTR, OLESTR, CComBSTR, _bstr_t types.

This is an excellent book; a little pricey, but worth the money if you are serious about COM+. And I mean serious! This is not a beginners book, for that I would recommend "Inside COM+ Base Services" by the same publisher. This book is a little too biased towards MS development environments. For example they compare VC++, VB, and VJ++ and casually mention there are "other capable environments". Hmm. Then again, this is a Microsoft press book, and COM+ is a Microsoft technology, so its to be expected.

This book picks up where introductory COM books left off. The first chapter is about error handling in your COM+ objects - not a good place to start learning COM :)

Particularly useful to me was the last third of the book, the design patterns. Here, the authors give us a meaty example of a "real world" COM+ enterprise solution. What other book gives you this? Answer: none. Get this book!

This book, is without a dought, the best COM book ever done. In my seven years as a working COM engineer and some say expert, I have read and bought every single book on COM. And when you come right down to it, even Don Box's book, they are all the same: explaining IUnknown over and over again, rehashes of available documentation and books with esoteric and useless ICat and IDog interfaces. None of them deal with the real COM world and the problems we really face every day. This book does. This book assumes you are a working COM developer and focuses on the hard problems: Smart Pointers, Strings, Enumeration Interfaces, Streaming and trying to deal with the world of STL. It offers real solutions and real code that can be used today to bridge to the STL world and to deal with things like enumerations. It offers code to deal with COM enumerations and collections, a topic scarcely covered. This book has become my number one resource.

An excellent book. The early chapters reveal solid solutions to oft-encountered COM problems - error handling, string manipulation, smart pointers, multiple-reader single-writer locks, streaming and marshal-by-value etc. The later chapters concentrate mainly on design techniques for building scalable applications. In my (humble) opinion, chapter 13: The MTS Revolution is worth the price of the book alone. This chapter describes the evolution of technologies for building scalable systems, introduces the single-concurrent-client model and explains how to write scalable systems keeping code maintainable and in the general case, lock-free. All would-be COM+/MTS developers should read this chapter! I've read both this and Tim Ewald's Transactional COM+ - both excellent books and compliment each other very well. In my opinion, Brown's chapter 13 is far superior to Ewald's chapter 1. Both attempt to acheive the same thing, coaxing the regular developer into the COM+ mindset, but Brown's offers logical facts and reasoning as opposed to Ewald's non-real-world convoluted IPerson examples.

This book covers the software design aspect of COM+ with very good detail explanation of the why and what are your options in COM+ system design. The book also covers in depth discussion in using STL, architecture pattern, MBV and concurrency which are very valuable to software designer. If you are going to work on a software development that uses COM+, this book definitely will save you a lot of research and experiment time and resources.

I hesitated to buy this book without seeing it 'in hand' first. I took the chance and I am *so* very glad that I did. This is an excellent reference book. It's an easy read, is extremely helpful, and it provided me with more information than I realized I needed. The author is experienced, opinionated, and direct; all of which lead to a book that is emininently useful.

One of my fears in buying this book was that it would be so biased toward PC users that it would be useless for me as a Mac user. I was extremely pleased to find out that was far from the case. In fact, the author has written several books on working with the Macintosh computer. That said, this book is meaningful to ANY computer scrapbooker, regardless of their computer platform or operating system.

Finally, the book includes reviews and recommendations on software, printers, etc, which I found very helpful.

I have read the first few chapters and already have learned some things that I didn't know even though I've been working with graphic packages for years. We can all learn more.......I feel the book is going to be useful. Hopefully it will get me up and really doing digital scrapbooking.....it looks easier than it is. The book is well layed out and very organized. I would recommend this book to a new digital scrapbooker like myself.....have fun with it and get up and doing it......

I received this book as a mother's day present this year (after griping that I didn't know what to do with my digital pictures in my scrapbooks). The book is amazing and very easy to read and follow. Though I'm still exploring the huge amount of information, I've already used some of the techniques like turning photos into watercolors (you'd swear I spent hundreds of dollars having an artist do an original watercolor of my daughter when actually it only took me about 20 minutes to do it with Photoshop Elements). I am also going to get a lot of use out of the sections on using clip art instead of stickers or stamps and computer fonts instead of rub off letters. I'd recommend this book to anyone who needs new scrapbooking ideas!

Digital scrapbooking has become very popular and in this book the author, Carla Rose, shows you how to blend digital and traditional scrapbooking to expand your creativity.

Your first step to creating a scrapbook is deciding on a theme or story to tell. Based on that, you choose a style that reflects your project and yourself. Now you are ready to gather your tools and get started creating. Rose discusses the tools for traditional scrapbooking and what is needed to go digital. She covers the advantages and limitations of several software programs.

Moving on to page design, Rose discusses aspects of page composition such as the use of white space and leading to enhance the readability of your pages. Next she explains the rule of thirds and how to use grids to help you design your pages around a center of interest which is usually, but not always, a photo or photos.

She discusses each page design element individually starting with background color and texture. She suggests creating background papers from scanned objects such as candy canes, leaves and fabric.

Rose then talks about photos. She discusses various corrections that you may need to make to old photos. She shows you step-by-step how to fix a badly damaged photo and how to turn a regular photo into a vignette (oval) shaped image. Next she covers correcting and enhancing your digital photos. She shows you how to blur the background area to enhance the subject of a photo. You may also need to make corrections to perspective, color, contrast or red eye.

She explores having fun with your photos by applying special effects and filters. Using plug-in filters and your software program, you can turn your photos into watercolor paintings or line art. You can also create a composite or collage from several photos.

Rose discusses the basics of typography and how to choose a font that will reflect the theme and style of your scrapbook. She discusses the special digital effects that you can add to your text such as drop shadows and embossing.

Publishing your scrapbook on the Internet has become very popular and Rose discusses the basics of webpage design and HTML. She has included the HTML code for a sample webpage to get you started.

Carla Rose is a professional photographer and Photoshop expert. She has written several computer books.

J'ai adoré ce livre car l'auteur parle autant de scrapbooking sur papier que sur ordinateur. Après avoir lu une partie du chapitre 7, j'ai pu effectué des corrections sur de vieilles photos de famille avec un résultat époustoufflant et cela en quelques minutes. Très bon livre de référence pour les gens qui veulent apprendre à faire du scrapbook autant manuellement que sur l'ordinateur.