Software Books

I have been fascinated by the simplicity and usefulness of the
Object-Process Methodology paradigm and approach expressed in the book. As a
researcher in Science Education I have been grappling with how to represent
complex, technology-enhanced educational systems that involve humans,
processes and educational artifacts. OPM and the OPCAT software enclosed
were very instrumental in enabling me to model and represent the "big
picture" of educational systems I developed. With OPM I was then able to
gradually refine portions of the system to any desired level of detail.
The applicability of OPM to IT-intensive educational systems is a testimony
to the generic nature of the methodology and to the fact that it is useful
in so many domains. The combination of a single simple graphical model that
generates natural language on the fly is really unique and valuable. I
wholeheartedly recommend the book to anyone interested in modeling complex
systems, be they of technological, economical, or social nature. The method
is straightforward, easy to learn even for non IT-professionals, and most
rewarding in terms of the quality and clarity of the resulting graphical and
textual model.

This book describes how Object-Process Methodology (OPM) CASE can be used as a tool for generating complete system intent specifications by graphical object diagrams, precise semantic and syntactic language, and intuitive symbols, definitions and structures. As systems have become more complex, a prevalent problem in systems development has been the number of accruing errors. These errors can cause catastrophic failure in the worst-case in addition to intolerable schedule delays and cost overruns. Introducing errors as well as difficulty finding and successfully correcting them occurs because of the lack of proper analysis and design tools for complex system specifications. OPM has the attributes to mitigate against the possibility of system failure, providing comprehensive visibility for better schedule and cost control in product development. It enhances reuse of system modules, processes and software routines in different contexts, while reducing the chance of errors. OPM automatically generates intent specifications that are readily understood by both customers and product team members and are translatable to machine control subsystems. OPM is a holistic systems paradigm that extends the Object-Oriented (OO) paradigm and overcomes its major shortcomings by integrating system structure and behavior in a single integrated graphic and natural language model. OPM successfully tackles the task of development and lifecycle management of systems, products and projects. OPM is a significant extension of and a major departure from the OO approach. It incorporates the system static-structural and dynamic-procedural aspects into a single, unified model. Presented as a concise visual formalism by a set of Object-Process Diagrams (OPD set), it is automatically translated into a set of Object-Process Language (OPL) script, a subset of natural English. At the basis of the OPM philosophy is the observation that to faithfully and naturally analyze and design systems in any domain, processes, like objects, should be considered as stand-alone "things" (entities) that are not necessarily encapsulated within objects. This detachment and de-coupling of processes from objects emphasizes the duality and complementarity of objects and processes, and opens the door for structure-behavior unification. At any point in time, objects exist with some structure and state. This is the static aspect of the system. Processes affect objects by changing their states. This is the dynamic aspect of the system. System complexity is managed through a number of graphical scaling options: zooming into and out of processes, unfolding and folding objects, and expressing or suppressing object states. These mechanisms provide for selectively detailing a subset of things while still maintaining the high-level context of the details.

OPM provides a new framework for specifying design intents and capturing the complexity of hardware and software interaction. Through OPL, it is possible to translate the process into a machine executable code. In addition, OPM can capture the dynamic behavior of the hardware attributes and software states in a single integrated graphical and textual language that is understandable by domain experts who have no programming experience. These traits of OPM ease the development effort for evaluating the system reliability during the design stages. Simulation and testing protocols can be automatically generated though future extensions of OPM to reduce lengthy system verification efforts.
The main benefit of OPM is its ability to identify system objects, processes, and the relationships among them in a structured way. The resulting OPD set becomes an excellent framework for identifying how to implement structural and procedural improvements. The resulting OPL script provides a well-defined set of existing and future specifications for the system. The ability to freely switch from text to graphics and back is of great value to understanding the system as a whole with a single graphic and textual model, without the need to consult various models and carry out mental transformation among these various models.
Based on my personal experience, the following points highlight the benefits OPM can bring to the particular projects described in this paper.
1. OPM is an excellent way to represent daily activities, products, processes and other complex things
2. OPM has allowed representing the complete system with its various aspects in a single model. The model specifies the systems function, structure and behavior aspects without sacrificing clarity.
3. OPM can be used as a common language to exchange design among members of a team.
4. Since OPM design is visual and textual at the same time, it is easy to explain the design.
5. OPL is very easy to generate from OPD
6. OPM will be a good tool for documenting the existing processes and as ISO documentation.

I have used many methodologies over my career. Most of them are based around the object-oriented and structured design paradigms. I found out about OPM quite by accident about a year ago. I've been using it ever since. I have used it to model both hardware and software systems, as well as for business process modeling. It is an excellent methodology and I recommend it for anyone developing any kind of system.

One of the nice things about OPM is that it is easy: I was able to get a team "up-and-running" with the methodology in less than an hour of teaching them some basic concepts (try doing that with UML). Another feature is that you can use this for any type of project; you are not locked into a structured or object-oriented mindset like structured analysis or UML. OPM can handle both types of concepts with ease.

Finally, this methodology is fast. It is just easier and more intuitive to model in an OPM fashion. I've also found that others can comprehend the OPM models better than other methodologies too.

I used to be a UML advocate until I found OPM. I have found concepts that are difficult to model in UML are quite easy to model in OPM. It is just more flexible.

The book is really good by the way. It is very complete and gives plenty of good exammples. I congratulate Dov Dori and his team for providing something that all engineering disciplines can use to design their systems.

OPM is a methodology for modeling systems, technical as well as any other system. In the techical world it compares with UML. OPM is designed with consistant and simple notations, uses simple rules that when combined can be used to model any system (real or informational) to any level of complexity that is desired by the system architect. Also, it integrates object modeling and process modeling in one diagram (although you can still keep them separate if you wanted).

UML uses complex rules to model complex systems, something that is very difficult to make happen, therefore it is very difficult to learn and use. OPM uses simple rules and consistant notations to model complex systems. After simple introductions to the methology, we have been able to start using it in our organization. More powerful and far simpler then UML. The way UML should have been done long time ago.

There is an eternal debate between system designers
and architects of software, products and large systems:
Is it ever possible to show structure (the arrangement
of objects) and system behavior (over time) in the same
representation? Dov Dori's book shows convincingly that it can
be done. Particularly powerful is the duality between
graphical system representation and natural language.
Also, the CD-ROM with OPCAT software allows one to follow
the examples in the book and apply OPM directly to a project.
The book is clearly written and will appeal to engineers,
computer scientists and software developers. A refreshing
contrast to the traditional way of looking a object-centered
systems architecting. This begs for more ... in terms of
connecting OPM to other tools such as Design Structure Matrices,
but also for representing highly complex systems over >2 levels
of decomposition.

One of the many neat features of studying at Cornell University is that, even if you're not enrolled in its famous School of Hotel Administration, you can attend one of the cooking and wine tasting classes organized especially for non-Hotel School students, and get at least a flavor of the five star culinary instruction provided by the chefs teaching at that school. (That is, you can do so if you're willing to get up an extra hour or two early on the morning of non-Hotel School student enrollment, and if you're lucky enough to beat the crowds or at least slip in as a substitute participant.) In addition to numerous recipes and pieces of valuable advice, information and memories -- particularly of the last night, on which we had to put together a four-course meal, fine dining style, complete with menu, garnishments and perfectly laid table -- Cornell's "cooking class" has enriched my kitchen by two items I have since found it very hard to do without: A professional grade chef's knife, and Sarah Labensky's and Alan Hause's "On Cooking," which we used as our textbook.

Much more than that, however, "On Cooking" is in fact a near-complete reference on everything related to the culinary arts, from the history of cooking to new foods developed in the 20th century, from sanitation and safety to nutritional values, from recipe writing to menu composition, from knifes and other pieces of equipment to edible kitchen staples, from the principles of cooking to various techniques and food presentation -- and of course, on every conceivable kind of food, from coffee, tea, spices and condiments to dairy products, stocks, sauces, soups, red and white meats, charcuterie, fish and shellfish, eggs, vegetables, potatoes, grains, pasta, salads, fruits, sandwiches, hors d'oeuvres, canapes, breads, pies, pastries, cookies, cakes, custards, creams and frozen desserts. Along the way, numerous tables, diagrams and pictures illustrate and exemplify the given information, making it easy to digest and memorize. The book concludes with an extensive bibliography and recommendations for further reading, and a detailed glossary of essential culinary terms.

Recipes are chosen to match individual chapters, and provide both a practical application and a more profound understanding of the respective chapters' subject matter. They include everything from American and international classics (assorted muffins, scrambled eggs and eggs benedict, focaccia, club, Reuben and other sandwiches, minestrone, French onion soup, gazpacho, New England clam chowder, Cesar, Roquefort, Thousand Islands and other dressings, various mayonnaises, coleslaw, cobb salad, Asian chicken salad, salade Nicoise, potato salad, Thai noodle salad, spanakopitta, grilled portabella mushrooms, carpaccio, lemon curd, hummus, various salsas, guacamole, pesto, hollandaise, bolognese, barbecue, bordelaise, bearnaise, Madeira, mornay, tartar, bechamel and other sauces, various stocks, broths and consommes, polenta, various kebabs, pilafs and risottos, paella, falafel, quiche lorraine, pizza, cannoli alla siciliana, macaroni and cheese, fettuccine Alfredo, clams casino, gravlax, oysters Rockefeller, fillet of sole bonne femme, matzo balls, duck confit, chorizo, chicken cacciatore, coq au vin, chicken curry, pico de gallo, chicken and veal fricassees, osso buco, chili con carne, Swedish meatballs, assorted burgers, meatloaf, T-bone, pepper and other steaks, cassoulet, chateaubriand, tournedos Rossini, beef Stroganoff, entrecote bordelaise, boeuf bourguignon, Hungarian goulash, ratatouille, baked beans, spaetzle, gnocchi, hush puppies, roesti potatoes, gratin dauphinois, baked potatoes, crepes, applesauce, New York cheesecake, sabayon, frangipane, assorted pies, tarts and tortes, various meringues and sorbets, creme brulee, chocolate mousse, chocolate angel food cake, sponge cake, brownies, ladyfingers, Madeleines, toll house cookies, gingerbread cookies, buche de noel, and spiced cider) to more unusual dishes such as:

Chilled cherry soup
Perfumed shrimp consomme
Beet vinaigrette
Shallot curry oil
Walnut pesto
Nopal cactus salsa
Pink peppercorn beurre blanc
Crayfish butter
Zucchini bread
Potato cheddar cheese bread
Salmon and sea bass terrine with spinach and basil
Salmon croquettes
Grilled red snapper burger with mango ketchup
Tex-Mex turkey sausage
Sauted pork medallions with red pepper and citrus
Marinated loin of venison roasted with mustard
Roast pheasant with cognac and apples
Stuffed wontons with apricot sauce
Wild rice and cranberry stuffing
Goat cheese ravioli in herbed cream sauce
Spicy sweet potato and chestnut gratin
Grits and cheddar souffle
Potato-ginger puree
Cilantro puree
Grilled seckel pear with sherry bacon vinaigrette
Balsamic raspberries
Figs with berries and honey mousse
Kirsch mousse
Pistachio citrus cheesecake
Chocolate flourless cake
English muffin loaves
Oatmeal stout ice cream
Quince jam

At 1100+ pages a veritable brick, despite its size "On Cooking" has become as much a key part of my kitchen as my chef's knife, my tea infusers, and various other pieces of equipment. I don't harbor any intentions of becoming a professional chef (nor any aspirations to even remotely that level of culinary skills), but I love to cook, and this is one of the cookbooks I'd be least likely to part with -- ever.

"Cookery is become an art, a noble science; cooks are gentlemen." -- Robert Burton, British author (1621).

Also recommended:
Around the World Cookbook
Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home: Fast and Easy Recipes for Any Day
Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant: Ethnic and Regional Recipes from the Cooks at the Legendary Restaurant (Cookery)
Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian: More Than 650 Meatless Recipes from Around the World
Joy of Cooking: 75th Anniversary Edition - 2006

This was my first textbook at culinary school and it is by far the most comprehensive collection of culinary information I have ever come across.

It references everything from Nutrition to proper knife care, from meat cuts to the proper way for handling an array of ingredients. If you are serious about cooking, you will find the answers to all of your questions within this book, not to mention a great collection of recipes from restaurants around the US.

This is the Basic Skills text book at the Culinary Institute of Las Vegas, and it is GREAT! It breaks down the basics of cooking by food item (poultry, starches, breakfast, etc.), but then each chapter is subdivided into cooking methods (braising, roasting, etc). There are handy tables for cooking times, properties and suggested cooking methods as well. The recipes are tried and true, but they also work extremely well as the foundation for anything you want to create! The beginning of the book gives good information on the history of chefs that have molded modern cuisine as well as kitchen equipment, knives, basic knife skills and seasonings.

Highly reccomended by this die-hard culinry student!I often refer back to this book when looking for alternate recipes in my current classes as this is, by far, the most outstanding book I've purchased for school.

While this is essentially a textbook for culinary students, On Cooking is still very accessible. I would reccommend this book to any amateur wanting to learn more about the concepts behind cooking, rather than just reading and following a recipe.

No doubt, any food lover will continue to reference this book time and time again. Worth its weight in gold!

This book is a huge help for anyone seeking more knowledge in the culinary arts area. It provides you with many tips on how to cook in high quanity. It also has many wonderful recipes!

If you buy just one Oracle Java book, this is the one to buy!Just the tuning chapter is well worth the price.

Also covers Java stored procedures, EJB programming, servlets and JSP. I liked the conciseness of the book.

Rarely one comes across a book so complete as this one. What I liked the most in the book was COMPLETENESS in its discussion. Must say that the author is very precise and consistent in his approach for all topics throughout the book. Just like Mr. Tom Kyte, (Does he need any introduction?), the author too does not hesitate in sharing his personal preferences on dos and don'ts and also shares his personal preferences on the books for advance readings. Advance Java Programmers might be little disappointed if they evaluate book from Java Programming perspective alone but the book is mainly related to JDBC programming for the Oracle Environment and he has covered much more than that for that matter.I must say that for quite sometime I was looking for a book of exactly this kind, and sure this has found a permanent place in my bookshelf now.A brilliant work by Jason Price, will look for more such books from him in future!

I wish more books were written like this. Price did a nice job of balancing depth with usability as well as explaining JDBC standard features with Oracle JDBC specific extensions (and their performance characteristics). It was a very quick read yet I didn't feel slighted in any way. I can see referencing this text frequently as I occasionally require to tap into more Oracle specific features from within Java (JDBC) applications.

I've been programming with Java and Oracle for about 3 years now, and this book shines the light on things like best practices when using Java and Oracle together. This book is a must have if you are using Java and Oracle: kind of like the Thomas Kyte book "Expert-one-on-one" is now.

This book teaches you not only how to do things, but _why_ you want to do things a certain way. Because of that, this book is streets ahead of anything else available on Java and Oracle - even the other Oracle Press Java books.

This book even teaches you how to use JDeveloper to create Java programs.

If you're a newby or an expert, this book will be useful when using Java and Oracle together.

I spent quite some time reading through the various books on Java programming and Oracle, and this book really stood out as being the best. It covers everything you need: SQL, PL/SQL, Java, JDBC, and J2EE components (EJB, servlets, and JSP). It even covers how to use JDeveloper. I highly recommend this book.

Easy step-by-step examples with plenty of illustrations as samples!! Easy to use...excellent!!

I loved this book. It contains tons of hints, tips and lots of different techniques. It also has a lot of color reference pictures and artwork. Instructions are clear and easy to follow, but some experience with painter will help a lot.

For a smaller book, it covers a lot of ground. It contains several different traditional art techniques with information on to make each brush look as realistic as possible by using different settings.

It also has instructions on how to apply scanned paper textures, color a scratch board, & make hot beveled metal. It covers create a tide pool, melt text in water, make a cloned mosaic, use light to add dimension & make draping weave as well.

This book is the best book on Painter 5! Examples are easy to follow. I do find new tricks in this book. Good for beginners and intermediate readers. I got a book called Painter 5 f/x which is very bad. I am looking forward to buy the Painter 6 Wow Book.

Don't waste your time with the other inferior books on Painter 5, this is the book you'll grow to love. Even if you're a beginner or not especially artistic, this book will have you doing things you never thought you could do. The fact that the author and publisher have added a special update to their website for the new feaures in version 5.5 makes me all the more happy that I bought this book. You won't be disappointed either. This book does the near impossible by taking a complicated, multi-layered program and making it seem easy and within your ability to master. And it also makes it fun!

I love this book. It contains tons of hints, tips and lots of different techniques. It also has a lot of color reference pictures and artwork. Instructions are clear and easy to follow, but some experience with painter will help a lot. For a smaller book, it covers a lot of ground. It contains several different traditional art techniques with information on to make each brush look as realistic as possible by using different settings. It also has instructions on how to apply scanned paper textures, color a scratch board, & make hot beveled metal. It covers create a tide pool, melt text in water, make a cloned mosaic, use light to add dimension & make draping weave as well.

The book was exactly what I was looking for. Help with the how to on the technical side,but was helpful on setting up shots. Looking around my house and seeing how the book would "shoot it" then applying it with my DSLR. Composition and Lighting was extremly helpful to me. This book was well worth my investment.

I've read this book from cover to cover. I love it. As a beginning photographer, this book was very helpful. Not a lot of technical info. Just enough guidance to get me going on my own.

In addition to Ginny's inspirational photography I found this wonderful book to be informative beyond taking portraits of children. I am new to photography and found lots of ideas and tips for taking better photos of any subject. An additional bonus is the assignments at the end of each chapter to put the techniques into practice. This is a book that I will refer to often. I highly recommend this and look forward to more books by this photographer.

Put this wonderful book in your shopping cart and hit "buy now" as soon as you can. I wish that I had had this wonderful tool twenty years ago when I was starting my children's portrait business. Each chapter really guides you through the tools that you will need to succeed in taking impressive images of children. If you take it seriously, and do the assignments, you just might start seeing things in a different light, so to speak. Whether you just want to capture whimsical images of your own child as he passes through the phases of childhood, or if you truly intend to make photography more than a passion, but a business, then this book will take you to your desired level.Every page will delight you with amazing images of children. The various contributing photographers offer individual treatments to their subjects showing you a variety of what is plesaing. Read it, work it, absorb it and find your place in this fascinating field. I can't get enough of the timeless beach portraits found in Chapter 7.

Having three daughters, documenting their childhood with photographs is a real priority for me. But I really lacked knowledge on how to take good photographs - I always relied on the auto settings on my camera and the pictures seemed so ordinary. In the attempt to learn more about photography, I purchased this book along with a couple of others. This book, by far, was the most helpful for me. I had been having a hard time wrapping my mind around the concepts of aperture and ISO, but this book really helped me understand! Each picture listed the shutter speed, aperture, and ISO, which helped me see what those things were doing to affect how the picture looked. Also, the pictures were so inspiring and gave me tons of ideas on composition. The assignments at the end of each chapter were helpful in developing my skills. The book was very pleasent to read and it's definitely a book for parents aspiring to become better photographers! My only wish was that the pictures also listed what type of lens was used (so that I could buy it and have the lenses that the professionals used!).

I have purchased several markets development books and this one beats them all. It has a fantastic overview of the markets, the language is awesome & the detailed instructions on how you can build your system ground up is fabulous. I'd recommend it to everyone from Beginner to a Pro - "A must buy !!"

For me, just beginning in this field, this book is a gem.
It has great explanations of the lingo/structure of the financial markets as well as useful code examples.

'Practical .NET for Financial Markets' by Samir Jayaswal is a very specialized book for all financial developers. Laid out over 9 chapters with 500+ pages of detail this is a wonderfully written reference for this niche market.

If you are a .NET developer in the financial industry you owe it to yourself to pick up this great resource!

***** RECOMMENDED

This text is excellent in what it sets out to do and five other reviewers have said so with 5 star ratings. I agree very much with the reviews of Ted Hrudz and Gulli Ellee, in particular - they are well said and spot on. I think I must make a few comments of my own, however. I have managed financial software projects in the last seven years and have experience in developing and implementing capital and money market securities software, and prior experience in implementing equity software, so I have some background and interest in this area.

First the positives: This books succeeds enormously at providing a very good introduction to equity markets and front and back office software development from a .NET development lead, architect or developer perspective. In less than 500 pages the authors manage to provide a very good and reasonably comprehensive/broad tutorial in several aspects of financials as well as .NET and the book makes reasonably easy reading for such technical subjects. Most of the relevant and interesting topics are covered or touched on. The reviewers I mention above itemize most of the .NET and financials topics covered so I will spare you the repetition.

The authors are obviously very knowledgeable in both the securities domain and the .NET architecture and development technologies and issues and convey their knowledge expertly. This book makes an excellent introduction (but ironically advanced/intermediate in several respects) to the domain concepts and requisite architectural/developmental .NET features. Having said that let me add that you will need more than this book if you seriously plan to undertake financial software development with .NET. You may need to supplement your knowledge in both areas with some of these books, depending what you already know or have been involved in:

Securities/Electronic Payments Domain: 1. Securities Operations: A Guide to Trade and Position Management by Michael Simmons; 2. Corporate Actions by Michael Simmons; 3. After the trade is made by David M. Weiss, Revised 2006 Edition; 4. How the US Securities Market Works by Hal McIntyre (2nd Edition); 5. Gobal Securities Operations by Jeremiah O'Connor; 6. Trading and Exchanges: Market Microstructure for Practitioners by Larry Harris; 7. An Introduction to Financial Technology by Roy S. Freedman. 8. You may also need to understand Secure Electronic Payment Systems (see texts by Weidong Kou, Mostafa Hashem Sherif)

Technology (.NET Framework, Visual Studio & SQL mainly) : Books by some of the best authors such as 1. Juval Lowy and Alex Ferrara (.NET 3.5, SOA/WCF, Web Services, Remoting, Messaging, Application Logging, Threading, Component-based/Distributed Architectures, Application Security Design, etc.); 2. Chris Sells (Windows Forms in VS 2005); 3. David Sceppa, Brian Noyes, Fabrice Marguerie or David Ratz(ADO.NET 2.0/3.5/Data Binding or LINQ); 4. Stephen Walther, Alessandro Gallo, Cristian Darie, Marco Bellinaso (ASP.NET 2.0/3.5 and AJAX); 4. Nick Rozanski (Software Systems Architecture); 6. Itzik Ben Gan (MS SQL 2005-8); 7. Secure Coding against hacker attacks using books by Gary McGraw/Billy Hoffman/Michael Howard such as 'The 19 Deadly Sins Of Software Security'; to explore such topics in greater detail.

I think the author could have added the equivalent VB.NET code for VB developers and architects. That is the main beef I have (and the book is a bit too expensive, buy it online for a rebate. It should have been paper back to reduce the price for readers) but I still thinks it deserves a 5-star ranking . Bravo to Samir Jayaswal and Yogesh Shetty, the authors!

The authors' experience building a .NET application for a trading house shows. As a result I learned a little about the domain & saw several well written "how to" .NET examples based on it.

Two negatives might be worth considering before spending a fair amount of money. First, not much (anything?) about building high performance applications. Lots of talk about needing performance in the securities market, little in the way of delivery. Second, the book is based on .NET 1.X "best practices". The chapter on 2.0 reads like a last minute techno-tour.

Since I have taken Final Cut Pro, I have found Premiere Pro to be more than a little intuitive. Every few months Premiere seems to update itself and I wanted to be able to keep up correctly and this book has done it. Unfortunately, I have not had the chance to look at the included DVD. If the included DVD is anything like the easy to read, great pictures and the researchability of this book's contents, we all will be Premiere Pro 1.5 experts very soon.
I have enjoyed reading the book and implementing the procedures. If you want to learn Premiere Pro 1.5 from scratch on a professional level, this is your book to use to get you up to speed.

This is the best basic training book I have ever used. Schell and his editors have done an excellent job of providing the reader/user with precise hands on training. If you have Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 and install the included lesson examples, you are in for a immersive fascinating and at times funny learning experience.

I knew absolutely nothing about Premiere Pro, and within hours I was on my way to creating video. The lessons are very easy to follow in step-by-step format with illustrations. The book also contains sidebars that go into greater depth on the information presented. I totally recommend this book as a first course in editing with Premiere Pro 1.5.

I needed a way to cut together my commercial demo reel, but I didn't have the cash to drop at an editorial shop. So, I picked up Premiere Pro and this book. Within two weeks I'm well equipped to cut together my own reels for years to come.

The book is extremely well written and has a nice conversational tone throughout. The exercises were easy to understand, but are good building blocks for more complex projects.

I generally hate "teach yourself" books, but this one was a rare exception. I can't recommend it enough!

This is my second Hands on Training Book. The first one was very good but this is the best and is the one I was waiting for (This is my first experience with Premiere Pro). It is the ideal self teaching program for learning Premiere Pro 1.5 especially if you have not given the first steps in using the program. After reading the first four clear and easy chapters I could make my first video program. The readings are light and clear and when I start reading a new chapter, it's really difficult to stop reading, especially because you are fascinated with the exercises you are completing with excellent results.

Before ordering this book I ordered "Adobe Premiere Pro 1.5 Studio Techniques" which is an excellent Reference Book, but not the most indicated book for a newbie self paced training program. If you have both books I think you will have the best of both worlds.

This book can easily be used as a college textbook on Oracle RAC. I am studying for the Oracle Certified Master exam and this is possibly the most high level book on Oracle I have read.

It has 3 major strengths which I found to be superior to any Oracle RAC books I have read (including the manual from Oracle).

1)Technical Depth
2)Comprehensive Overview and instructions
3)Quality of writing


1)Technical Depth
The authors write about Linux and Oracle and are high level experts in the subjects. For example, the authors have a very detailed description of how Oracle Cache Fusion handles locking across all the nodes in a RAC environment (probably the crown jewel of RAC technology). They also discuss, in detail, different types of CPU, memory, and storage and contains detailed description of each architecture. Lastly, it contains vast number of "how to" install, configure, change, analyze, backup/restore, and utilize Oracle RAC and Linux.

2)Comprehensive Coverage and Instructions
No small amount of detail has been skipped. The book contains every utility (there are many) provided by Oracle to implement RAC. It provides a good step-by-step coverage of Linux and Oracle RAC installation as well what each step is adding to the RAC environment. To top it off, it adds how to performance tune, administer, troubleshoot, backup/restore, and use Dataguard in a RAC environment. I can't think of a subject on RAC which the authors did not cover.

3)Quality of Writing
I was pleasantly surprised how well written this book is. Although far from a Pulitzer Prize material, it certainly belongs in that category amongst the Oracle books. Every praragraph has been well organized and written. The proofreader of this book deserves major praise for their work.

Many books around Oracle's advanced topics simply parrot the manuals. Julian avoids that. Instead, he describes Real Application Cluster technology from the ground concepts up to full implementation, with practical notes and tips. He gets into topics that the manuals never touch, and much of what he writes can be useful in any RAC environment, not just Linux.

I whole-heartedly recommend this book and own both the paper and eBook version which I often reference.

This book delivers what it promises. It contains a great balance of technical detail,examples and theory. It encompasses all aspects of implementing/maintaing 10g RAC on Linux.

Very well written. No mater you are a Pro or a newbie, it will be helpful. A very well written book.


Highly recommended.

This is a very hands on command line oriented book. Good understanding of RAC concepts. I found it extremly useful in my day-to-day work.

Highly recommended.

Thanks!

Lotus Domino support for EJB programming mode

Bob Balaban is a Louts Notes and Domino guru. After working for Lotus for many years, Bob certainly new the nuts and bolts of Lotus Notes better than just about anyone.

This book was way ahead of it's time. I heard Bob speaking about Domino and Java at The View's advanced technical seminar in 1999. At that time many Lotus Notes developers were just coming to grips with LotusScript (although it was introduced in Lotus Notes 4) and all of the new web features associated with Domino; HTML, CSS, JavaScript etc.

While this book is now dated, it is still one of the best on programming Lotus Notes and Domino with Java, and the only one that focuses solely on that topic. Many other books have glossed over this topic altogether. Although a couple of others have provided good treatment. If you are new to Notes and Java then it could still be well worth your while to pick up a copy.

Programming Domino 4.6 With Jav

Programming Domino 4.6 With Jav

This is by far the best and most useful book I have purchased in a long time! Bob has great insights on the future of Web interfaces to data and how you, as a programmer, can effectively work in the new paradigm. He does an excellent (and concise) job of helping you sort out the architectural options for the web: cgi/perl/asp/activex/etc. The book then has a detailed explanation of everything you need to know to program Domino in Java. I found Bob's speculation on the CORBA/IIOP and Domino v5.0 technologies especially useful in planning our IT infrastructure. Please buy this book if you are curious about Domino and Java! If you are new to Java you should also find a beginners guide. This is not a 'learn Java and Domino' text for beginners. Intermidiate and Advanced users, however, definitely need this book before they write another Agent in Domino or another CGI script in Perl. This book will wake you up to the future of the Web, Domino, and Java programming!

I have read a few programming books and I can honestly say that no single one has had more positive impact on my level of programming skill and knowledge than this one. Let me preface this by saying that this is not a beginner book. That is, if you have never programmed with C# before, this is not the book for you. However if you have just finished a "beginner" book and are looking for the next step, then I highly recommend this book for you. Whether you are planning on getting into ASP.Net development, WinForms, SOA, or even XNA, this book will provide you with a firm grasp of the language fundamentals that will make jumping into any or all of the above much easier. The book is broken down into several chapters, each one covering different key topics of the C# language such as basic data types (what is boxing? How does the compiler handle value types vs reference types and why should you care?), Generics, Serialization, Reflection, and COM Interop, just to name a few. Mr Balena also maintains an online blog at the Code Architects site and has even been kind enough to personally answer a few of my questions that I had about the topics covered in the book. I can't recommend this book more, it really did make the difference for me between being a C# enthusiast and a professional C# developer.

Francesco Bakena is a well-known author, the book is good.
The themes and the examples are clean. The same line as Visual Basic. I recommend.
Manoel de Assis - Brazil - [...]

Programming Microsoft Visual C# 2005: The Base Class Library (Pro-Developer)

I sought and purchased this book for the purpose of moving to C# 2005 from 2003. I have an extensive library of language and class references, guides and detailed texts for .NET 1.1. Much of that information will, of course, serve me well with the newer language, so what I sought was a good, basic introduction to C# 2005 that covered the important differences in the base classes. This book seems to have been written exactly for me!

Balena has an easy style of writing, also, that just seems to allow the information to jump right into your brain. There are other authors whose technical expertise is obvious to me, and whose books I regularly look to buy, but whose writing have quirks that can distract me at times. Balena is not such an author. Clearly, he knows how to make proper use of the IBrain.InputInformation(T info) method, rather than using the older, weakly-typed IBrain.InputInformation(object info) method. OK. Bad joke. But I hope you got my point!

If you have C# skills of no less then an advanced beginner, and want to find yourself securely in the intermediate range, then you have found the right book. Read it once and you will find your skill set drastically improved. Read it twice and study it thoroughly, and you will find yourself getting turned to for help from your more senior developers. Quite the ego booster.

It's well written, has appropriate examples for the target audience, and doesn't get bogged down in beginning C# material. It has plenty of advanced material, if that is what you are looking for.

Having sweated through thousands of pages of other C# books, I found Francesco Balena's eloquence as refreshing as a perfectly chilled Corona. It immediately tightened my loose grip on particulars such as string formatting, delegates, generics, regular expressions and interoperability. And it is the best discussion of the base classe I've ever seen. Be aware that this book does NOT intend to teach programming. However, if you're someone who can code in some OOP language, knows C# syntax, and seeks professional proficiency in this language, then in my opinion, there is no better book you could own.