Electronics Books

This is a very nice reference work for image processing professionals. It is a collection of articles by various experts in aspects of image processing, reporting on the state-of-the-art in their particular domains. The coverage is broad and deep. However, it is not for everyone. The writing style is that of a refereed journal. If you are not comfortable with that style of exposition, or if you are simply trying to find a snippet of code to implement a particular algorithm, this is not the book for you. At the other extreme, do not expect to find new and startling insights into the field that you did your dissertation on. However, if you want to understand the current state of the art of a colleague's field, or if you need to expand your expertise into a new area of image processing, this is a very good place to start.

This is an encyclopedia of image processing topics. It contains some introductory material to help people understand what images are and how to process them. The majority of the text, however, is for experienced people wanting to look up topics.

This book is big. It is about 8"x11" by 900 pages. It contains material from 100 different professionals on 50 different topics.

The style is academic. The editor is the editor of the IEEE Transactions on Image Processing. The page style is similar to what you would see in an IEEE Transaction.

There is plenty of math. The text explains the mathematics, but not to the depth I would like to see.

The authors illustrate the techniques with many images. If there are no "before and after" images in an image processing book, reject it. Well, this book has plenty of images. That is a strong point.

A week point is there is no source code illustrating the techniques and algorithms. I find this a major weakness, but one that is not unique to this book.

The authors leave much to the reader. This is not a read from cover to cover book. The reader must go slow, take notes, study, and read again to understand the material.

All in all, this is a good source of knowledge on image processing. If you work with images and write software to process images, you should have this book on your desk.

This is the book to have on the subject! It covers almost any aspect that you can think of in image/video processing. This is a MATH intensive book and it will not tell you how to directly implement any of its concepts in code. The author assumes that the reader will be able to do this on there own. Topics are very well explained, but sometimes I needed to reread a topic 3 or 4 times and go over the math a couple times to fully understand. Great book to have as an encyclopedia like resource on the shelf.

This book is just GREAT.
It covers almost every single ascpect of image and video processing. Everything is in deep and very good explained. A lot of before-and-after example pictures (important ones in color) are provided too. But beware. You need a fairly good understanding of math to read the book. It is not intended to explain how to use Photoshop, but rather how to write your own ;-)
This book is not a read-along book. Sometimes you have to read a section 2 or 3 times to understand it.
I think sometimes a good Snippet of C-Code would help to understand, but this is acceptable.
Again: A outstanding book, which fully covers all my needs.
The price of 100 us$ is ok, because it's a lot of a book...

There is a 2nd edition of this book that was published in July 2005, so all reviews earlier than that are referring to the first edition. Regardless, the second edition of this book is just as good as the first. There are many texts that do a good job of covering image processing, but few do such a good job of covering all of the aspects of video processing - motion detection and estimation, video enhancement and restoration, and video segmentation. There is an entire section on video compression which discusses the H.261 standard, wavelets and video compression, object-based video coding, and the various MPEG standards. There are also articles on video indexing and retrieval and a unified framework for video browsing and retrieval.
In the area of image processing, there is much good information here, but the basics are better explained in "Digital Image Processing" by Gonzales and Woods. Once you master that book, this makes a good secondary reference on image processing. Although this book does go over some image processing basics, it is better at explaining more advanced concepts such as multiframe image restoration, wavelet denoising, 3D shape reconstruction from multiple views, and statistical methods for image segmentation. There are many bad books out there that are collections of articles, but don't let that scare you off. This really is a collection of very good articles published together in a coherent fashion.
There are plenty of equations, example images, and instructive figures in the articles to help explain each concept. Highly recommended.

A great guide to taking apart old electronic noisemakers and turning them into something new. Also includes simple DIY electronic circuits with all the steps. The projects are compelling and workable. Give this to a young person and change their whole outlook on DIY.

This is a really fun book, with lots of projects for budding electronic musicians. But it goes beyond that: It's a solid intro to electronics and CMOS components. I went into this book thinking it might be too basic, yet I walked away with a lot of ideas, and some interesting new techniquess.

I wish that more electronics writers would cover the material with this author's style and accuracy. Also, kudos for providing parts sources and for using easy to find and inexpensive components. (I've seen many people, myself included, become frustrated by hard-to-find parts lists or the use of discontinued items. These projects suffer from neither of those problems.)

In the end, you'll be left wanting to know more about the components and techniques you've picked up. (You'll probably want to add Don Lancaster's classic CMOS Cookbook to your shopping cart. It will give you the details about many of these components.) Highly recommended. I'm looking forward to other books by this author.

Ah ! this book is one of the best i bought.
I just love it !!

Ever since products such as GarageBand took over the low-level tasks of producing electronic music and turned us all into application users, much has been forgotten about making music with low-level electronic components. In the case of younger electronic musicians, this may be an art form they never even knew in the first place. Although there is an advantage is computer musicians speaking a common language through a common application, something fascinating in the realm of experimentation has been largely lost. This book returns to the days of yesteryear with some projects in making your own electronic music with basic devices.

The book starts with some brief information on the tools you'll need plus the author's seven rules for experimentation. Part two is dedicated to listening. He shows you how to use radios and coils to find hidden electronic music, how to use the speaker as a microphone and vice versa, and how to use piezo disks to pick up tiny sounds, among other topics. Part three, on touching, shows you how to transform a portable radio into a synthesizer, change the clock circuit in toys to produce new sounds, and use photocells and pressure pads to "play" the modified toy. Part four, Building, shows the reader how to breadboard up some oscillators along with some controlling circuitry and produce gating, ducking, tremolo and panning effects. Part five, Looking, concerns translating video to audio using commonly found devices. The final section goes into depth on mixing circuits, how to build a good but cheap amplifier, connecting sensors to computers via game controllers, and a section on power supplies.

The book is written such that you should proceed from beginning to end, since the devices in earlier sections are used to assemble the devices in later chapters. By the time you finish you should have entire experimental musical instruments that you have assembled yourself.

This is a great book if you are a electroacoustic composer, you can make cheap sensors and rare instruments... ready - if you want - to plug to Max/MSP or Ethersense...or Teabox... Thanks to Gregory Taylor from Cyclin'74.

While the book is great and Amazon itself did a great job of shipping and giving me a good quality undamaged book. It took me almost a month dealing with Amazon's partners who offered the book much cheaper and claiming to have it in stock before I was able to cancel and order with Amazon directly. Days and weeks after submitting the orders both sellers all of a sudden claimed that the item is out of stock but they would be getting it in. Why are they allowed to offer it as available when it is not? This to me is false advertising and a bait and switch scheme that Amazon needs to look into. After dealing with these partners I ordered from Amazon directly and they were quick and efficient.

- Kevin Johnson

I've read a number of books about webcomics and this is by far the most complete. I recommend to anyone who wants to publish their comic online.

Scott, Brad, Kris and Dave draw upon everyday household items you might have laying around to create a time machine or a flying car. For good measure they also pass on the secret to eternal youth and the location of the lost Ark.

Well, they might as well have.

Starting from the idea that the reader can already draw enough to make a comic (there is no "How to draw a..." section), they mold the reader into a writer, agent, techie and business person. They pass on all of their secrets in a full confession sharefest that reads like a conversation between the authors (similar to the discussions on their "Webcomics Weekly" Podcast).

The book is full of humor and brilliant ideas. The art comes from each contributor's comics and really adds to the points of the book.

You should buy two books as one will likely fall apart from constant use and you will need the second to give to your children someday. I bought four extra copies and hidden them at the corners of the world, and in my will I have clues to find each copy in an elaborate race to determine who I will leave my entire fortune to.

As someone who's been creating a webcomic for many years (Pewfell), I found this book to be very well put together, helpful and inspirational. I would definitely cite it as being essential reading for anyone hoping to monetize their own webcomic. Though much of it was stuff I already knew, I still found very many useful insights from these four guys who've actually walked the walk. All the information is put together in a fun, lighthearted, easy-to-read and well-thought-out way with lots of practical examples, great illustrations and comic strips. Great work & thanks for sharing, guys!

Not many books manage to give a decent introduction to combining being an artist and a businessman. Guigar, Kellett, Kurtz and Straub do this excellently. I bought this book because I'm writing a Master's thesis on webcomics -- and "How to make webcomics" will definitely be quoted heavily in it -- but reading this book also gave me a renewed interest in making my *own* webcomic.

The best authors for books on how to make webcomics are definitely webcomics creators who love what they do. Guigar, Kellett, Kurtz and Straub show an enthusiasm in this book that rubs off, and in a wonderful mix of creative chapters (writing, creating your characters), practical chapters (scanning your comic, making a website) and business-related chapters (making an income out of your webcomic), it becomes very clear that the authors love what they do, and that anyone who loves webcomics may one day compete with them on the webcomics arena. You learn that you have to love webcomics to make one, as they won't give you much income the first couple of years, but you also learn to not feel guilty for monetizing on your work. This is the perfect combination of a "how-to-be-creative"-book and "how-to-sell-your-art"-book.

If there is one thing I hope will change in the second edition, I wish for a more global perspective. The book is great, but many of the points stated in it aren't really that useful for non-Americans. For instance, when I make a webcomic in Norwegian, I will probably never get ten thousand readers. I could write it in English, but that would create problems with a store, since I'm still physically based in Norway and won't be able to send books and T-shirts to USA or UK without charging a lot for sending them -- probably more than my readers want to pay. And if I need to use print-on-demand, there aren't really anyone over here that can offer that, ... and so on, and so on. I hope that a future "How to make webcomics" will be able to have a chapter answering some of the additional questions that rise when creating a webcomic outside the US.

But that is nitpicking, really. This is the epitome of a five-star book.

Image processing is used to improve the visual appearance and transmission of images to a the human eye. It also concerns the preparation of images with respect to measuring an image's features and structures. Now in a newly updated and significantly expanded fifth edition, "The Image Processing Handbook" by academician John C. Russ (Materials Science and Engineering Department, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina) "The Image Processing Handbook" features an informative chapter explaining which visual cues elicit a response from the viewer; descriptions of the latest hardware and software for image acquisition and printing including digital cameras; multichannel images and an analysis of their principle components; the issues of deconvolution, extended dynamic range images, and image enlargement and interpolation, and so much more. Enhanced with more than 2000 illustrations, and with the availability of a companion CD-ROM, "The Image Processing Handbook" is a seminal and essential addition to professional and academic library Computer Science and Electrical Engineering reference collections.

This, the fifth edition of this industry standard reference book on image processing has been significantly expanded. There are some 600 new and revised images. A major feature of the new edition is to describe the new advances that have come about in hardware for image capture and printing. This includes both new versions of traditional equipment and new emerging technologies. The text has been expanded in areas like deconvolution, extended-dynamic-range images and multichannel imaging including principal-components analysis.

In general this book does not cover the background mathematics that enables image processing. Those are left to specialty books on the subject. Instead this book is intended to be used in conjunction with hands-on equipment where the reader is encouraged to experiment with different methods to determine what is needed for the particular job.

While suitable for use as a text, this book is really a handbook for technical users. The book is more oriented to what the various tools availavle to help actually do.

I am a biologist with a little background in math. Using this book and matlab I could quickly implement basic feature recognition tools to analyze microscope images. The book focuses on concepts and explains them in intuitive language rather than in mathematical terms. Overall, it worked perfectly for me, but could be over-simplying for people with technical background.

John Russ' book on image processing was never intended to be a textbook on how to understand and write your own image processing algorithms, as you might believe by looking through the table of contents. It does cover just about everything you would see in such a textbook, but from a user's standpoint of these operations, not as an author of image processing code who needs to understand the algorithms behind these operations. Instead, Russ explains all of the operations, their value in various applications, and provides many illustrations showing before and after pictures of what each operation does. There are no algorithms, pseudocode, or mathematics in this book.

The jewel in the crown of this book is the companion CD. It contains over 200 Photoshop plug-ins for performing the operations mentioned in this book. These plug-ins work on 8-bit grayscale and 24 bit RGB images and are divided into the categories of image adjustment, color manipulation, image math, boolean operations, Fourier processing, morphological operations, neighborhood processing, distance-map operations, thresholding, feature measurement, calibration, stereology, and surface rendering. The bad news is that you have to obtain the CD separately. If you need to understand the detailed mathematics behind such operations, you might consult Digital Image Processing by Gonzalez and Woods, and then come back to this book for the tools to accomplish the operations explained in that book. The updates to this fifth edition include an additional chapter on human vision and how it ties into image processing. Also, the author has updated his sections on image acquisition hardware and software to describe the latest tools available. Finally, the topic of tomographic imaging has been expanded and given its own chapter and the chapter on 3-D image acquisition has been deleted.

This is an excellent book on image processing from a systems engineering and user standpoint. You will be disappointed if you expect to learn the algorithms behind the techniques demonstrated in this book.

As others have stated, this book comes as close as you'll ever get to a single-source reference on image processing. But if I were ever going to shoot anything down in it, I'd say that a little more mathematical background on some topics (and maybe pseudocoded examples) would help. For example, in the satellite geometric correction section, only a very high level view is given yet this is a challenging topic that could use more depth. Geometric transformations in general could use more depth, e.g. camera calibrations or image warping/morphing/mapping to other projections for example. Another example would be the need for a little more depth on how to make slow algorithms fast ...like convolution multiplications for example. Sure, you could write out the multiplies and spot commonalities, then re-use results that appear in more than one subsequent equation and what not, but some exploration of matrix math and how to make it efficient would be nice. But again ...I'm picking at small things here, and if John's book covered everything that I'd like it to, then it would become 2 books, not one ...hey! Now THERE's an idea! A 2+ book set by John Russ that covers a broader range of topics and does so in greater depth! That's something that I'd pay for (and much better to read than Ballard & Brown)

After several trips to car shows with my husband, I had lots of beautiful photos sitting in iPhoto ready to print. I thought a DVD would be more useful and enjoyable for him, and tried to make a DVD project - NOT! Having already used The Missing Manual books, I promptly went out and bought this one. Great choice, as it filled in the blanks and gave me lots of ideas also. I am a photographer, not a tech person, and am pretty clueless when it comes to creating projects on the computer.

This series suits me perfectly and the book is highly recommended - with the aid of the book I sat down and promptly made a beautiful DVD, with lots of lovely effects, great music, and best of all it was easy. My husband was very happy with his DVD and watches it often.

The manual is clear, concise, easy to read and enjoyable. Unlike so many texts, it is not dry or overly technical. Anyone can make a great DVD easily with this reference. Next project - a video. Ready.....

This is the book you really want if you use iMovie at all!

I had recently started using a Mac at work, and suddenly I was put in a position to work with video on the Mac. Mr. Pogue's other books had been very helpful to me as I began to learn my way around the Mac, so I thought I would pick up this one to help me with my video work. I was very glad that I did. You see, iMovie HD has tools that help your movie look professional, but the iMovie HD help files are very tedious to go through. There is a great deal of referencing, cross-referencing, and nothing is smoothly laid out. This book is another story, as it is very well laid out with clear instructions and illustrations. It is very long, but since these applications are powerful, it would be expected that any clear explanation of them is going to require some space.
What is particularly good about this book is that the author doesn't assume you are a professional video author, and he spends part one of the book helping you learn how to shoot videos and shares tricks that will make you good at it. Part 2 is dedicated to iMovie, and shares not just how to use the application, but the little extras that will make your video special - transitions, effects, titles, captions, and even how to work with sound in your movie. Part 3, on finding your audience, was another unexpected treat. There the author shows you how to move between iMovie and Quicktime, and how to post your movie to your phone and to the web. Part 4 of the book is on iDVD. I particularly liked the chapter on iDVD secrets, where the author shows how you can use AppleScript to customize iDVD itself.
It's hard to believe that a year ago I didn't even know how to use a Mac, and now I am quite the fan, especially when it comes to multimedia applications. I notice Amazon does not show the table of contents, so I do that here:
Part 1: CAPTURING DV FOOTAGE
1. The DV Camcorder
2. Turning Home Video into Pro Video
3. Special Event Filming
Part 2: EDITING IN IMOVIE
4. Camcorder Meets Mac
5. Building the Movie
6. Transitions and Effects
7. Titles, Captions, and Credits
8. Narration, Music, and Sound
9. Still Pictures and QuickTime Movies
10. Professional Editing Techniques
Part 3: FINDING YOUR AUDIENCE
11. Back to the Camcorder
12. From iMovie to QuickTime
13. Movies on the Web - And on the Phone
14. QuickTime Player
Part 4: iDVD5
15. From iMovie to iDVD
16. iDVD Projects by Hand
17. Designing iDVD Themes
18. iDVD Secrets
Part 5: Appendixes
A. iMovie HD: Menu by Menu
B. Troubleshooting
C. Master Keyboard Shortcut List

Very informative AND entertaining! If you feel you are even the least bit interested in breaking into digital film making this book is fantastic. I have been using iMovie for several years now and have a camcorder. However, I thought this book might help me kick things up a notch. It certainly will. I have only gotten through the first fifty pages, but I've already learned enough justify this purchase.

When I first received this rather intimidating 450+ page book I thought I would use it mainly for reference. Well, that was before I started reading it. Now I find it hard put down. It is very well written and arranged by areas of interest.

This book is great for everyone, from beginner to expert. It will undoubtedly prove to be a very valuable reference book in the future, but for now it's a great read.

If you're a heavy user of iMovieHD and iDVD, this book is a must. Most questions that users have about both software can be found in this manual (though he doesn't read like a boring manual). Pogue not only provides all the how-tos for learning the software, he also helps you troubleshoot problems that will crop in movie and DVD productions. There's hardly no aspect of either software that I didn't find covered in this book.

I have taught a course in computation theory for computer science majors for almost two decades. Before the first time, I had never had any of the material in a course so I was required to learn the material on my own. This was the book that I used. For about a month, I set aside a block of time each day and went through the material section by section. When I had completed each section, I would work a few of the problems and would not move on until I understood what the answers should be.
The coverage is:

*) Deterministic and nondeterministic finite automata
*) Regular expressions
*) Context-free grammars and languages
*) Chomsky normal form
*) Pushdown automata
*) Turing machines
*) Post machines
*) The relationship between machines and computers

When it came time to teach the class for the first time, it all went very smoothly. This remains the most readable book for the self-study of computation theory that I have ever seen. Cohen has written a later, more concise edition and that is what I have been using as the text in my course.

I read it during my undergraduate, it was the course book for the thoery of automata course. More recently when I tried the popular "Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages, and Computation" by Hopcroft et al. for the purpose of revising the concepts, I realized how great this book is. It is definitely a better book than Hopcroft et al's, with in-depth explanations of all topics, lots of examples and exercises and in a writing style very friendly for the novice readers. Very good work!

I must say this is one of the best books I have ever read. The auther is humorous and insightful. He manages to take very abstract concepts and explain them in clear concrete terms and metaphors.

This an excellent book. Basically, the whole point of it is to mathematically define what a computer is and prove that it works. The author does this by defining and manipulating mathematical alphabets and languages without resorting to any kind of advanced math. Starting from nothing, the whole thing leads up to Turing Machines. More specifically, according to the Preface, the goals of the book are:

"(1) to introduce a student of Computer Science to the need for and the working of mathematical proof; (2) to develop facility with the concepts, notations, and techniques of the theories of Automata, Formal Languages, and Turing machines; and (3) to provide historical perspective on the creation of the computer with a profound understanding of some of its capabilities and limitations."

The author did a wonderful job of it. Plus, unlike almost all other computer/math books I've read, this book is almost enjoyable to read. Again, as stated in the Preface:

"This book is written for students with no presumed background of any kind. Every mathematical concept used is introduced from scratch. Extensive examples and illustrations spell out everything in detail to avoid any possibility of confusion."

Astonishingly, those are all true statements. At a guess, I'd say that almost anyone interested in computers could get through this book without undue stress. To make it more meaningful, I'd suggest (only suggest) prerequisites of having programmed a computer and knowing some discrete math. From that point of view, it's odd that as of last year, this book was used in Florida State University's (FSU's) COT 4420: "Theory of Computation" course, which, obviously, is a 4000 level course requiring various prerequisites that put it out of the reach of all but senior (or graduate) level students.

Now, with all that glowing out of the way, there are a couple of small problems with the book. The first is simply that the exercises don't have any solutions. For the self-studyer, that's a bad thing. In a school teaching environment, it's probably acceptable, though. The second problem is that after getting through the book, I simply have to ask: "So what? WHY should I learn this?" Again, in the Preface, the author states:

"Leaving aside the obvious worth of knowledge for its own sake, the terminology, notations, and techniques of Computer Theory are necessary in the teaching of courses on computer design, Artificial Intelligence, the analysis of algorithms, and so forth. Of all the programming skills undergraduate students learn, two of the most important are the abilities to recognize and manipulate context-free grammars and to understand the power of the recursive interaction of parts of a procedure. Very little can be accomplished if each advanced course has to begin at the level of defining rules of production and derivations."

But, in my experience, I have to say that except for one reference in one other book I've read, I've never seen any of this stuff used. Even more, I've never known anyone who even knew of anyone who used (or even knew of) any of it. EVERYTHING has been done at a much higher level of abstraction than alphabets, languages, and various levels of algorithms and machines up to Turing Machines. I'm not saying that the material in this book isn't used SOMEWHERE. But, I'd honestly have liked to have seen actual, specific, concrete cases: they'd be fascinating.

So, factoring those two nits in, I rate this book at 4 stars out of 5. If those two things don't bother you, then you could easily consider this a 5 star book.

The book has one important attribute: it's clear, undoubtedly. Having a minimum of prerequisites, I think there's no way to not understand what Prof. Cohen says through its pages. It makes the job of learning this part of theory easier than any other text.
But ... but I can't totally agree with Cohen's crusade against formalism. I agree that the first target of a book should be to clearly transmit the intended knowledge, and Cohen perfectly succeeds in this. But formalism too has its importance, thereafter. A compact and clear formalism helps to communicate efficiently, and moreover unambiguously. Like in mathematics, the first, important thing is to understand. Yet, there's no way for you to efficiently work with math without using any kind of formalism, should it be more or less "standard".
That's it: a very powerful book for a "profound" understanding of the subject; a bit more of natural formalism would make it a "complete" understanding also, and the book a five stars one.

I have used this book to train new college grads and engineers who are new to the ATE industry for years. It is the only text book I Know of that completely covers this topic

This book is very practical and easy to understand. I just graduated college and am working as an entry-level IC Test Engineer. There are some chapters that are a little more involved but with enough experience, one will be able to understand it.

This is probably one of the best books in the market today for test engineers and product engineers. Most of the discussions are oriented towards catching some of the common mistakes made during the development of a test methodology for a circuit. It teaches test/product engineers what to look for when they encounter test problems(which keep popping up very regularly!). I would have appreciated a more detailed chapter on the statistical analysis of test data and analysis of datalogs to determine test issues but I guess that would take up much more space. I would also have preferred reading about some case studies where test issues were investigated and the solution found, but that too would have taken up some space. In all, this is THE book for test/product engineers who deal with a myriad of testers in the market today. A Quick solution of test related issues is key to huge savings in production costs and reading this book end-to-end will definitely aid in the debug of test related issues.

Hi..

When I was interning at Maxim, my supervisor introuced me to this book. I liked it it so much, that I immediately bought one for myself.
This is an awesome book. My supervisor said, that no other book has been written on this subject with so much detail. It almost covers every aspect of test engineering.
It is extremely easy to understand too. So, it is not a problem whether you are an expert or just a beginner.
I recomment this book to everyone who believe in KNOWING IT ALL!

I've been a Test Engineer for 13 years and take it from me, this book is so close to real life situation. It obviously written by people who practice the art of Test Engineering. I wish that I had this book in my very 1st year. This is the bible for every TE.

The book got to me in a timely manner. I'm very pleased and hope to do well on the exam.

I used this book together with the corresponding Training Guide, by the same authors (this was redundant because the two books essentially repeat each other - I could have just used the Training Guide.) I think these authors are amazing - they have ability to present everything in such an easy understandable way, that I didn't just memorize the stuff for the exam but actually understood it. Now my next one is 70-229 - SQL server exam, I wish Kalani had a book for that one as well...

This book is pretty good at explaining the needed topics. I only used this book to pass the exam and found it compact and accurate.

Two bad notes are since coriolis was bought out it is tough to get errata for this book and there are a few problems. The securit section is a bit weak so read some online stuff to fill it in.

Good luck ZoOnI

I skipped reviewing the Microsoft study guide and used this book as my primary reference in passing the exam. Each component on this exam (web services, windows services, enterprise services) has its own architecture and interface. This book did a great job of distilling that information in a way that was easy to understand. I especially liked how the chapters were organized to introduce a concept, and then show you the code for implementing it. I simply wrote my own example for each chapter and did well on the exam. I didn't get much use out of the study guide or CD, but the practice tests in the book are very useful.

This certification study-resource from Author Amit Kalani, served as a rather indispensable part of the revision portfolio for Exam 70-320 (XML Web Services and Server Components with C# .NET ).

Simply put, it is a very useful & sound comprehensive reference for Exam 70-320. It served me greatly in gaining both an overview of all the elements that would appear on the 320 exam, but also served well in my overall review and revision endeavours for the 70-320 Exam.

using this resource got me to the place where i felt i had covered the core objectives for the exam and was ready to move on to the next phase ie: having a go at tackling past question scenarios.

i was glad i bought it.

what i liked about this book :
- it is a comprehensive read at 344 pages -(ie: the 2 Testing chapters non factored)
- there are exam questions after every chapter, relating to that chapter and the exam objectives the chapter tackles
- Answers with explanations are provided with every question featured in the book.
- there is a CD with questions set in an application that simulates the exam room scenario
- The CD also comes with a .pdf, e-version of the book.

I purchased the book in question as a pair with the companion Exam Training guide -(equally written by the same authors: Amit Kalani + Priti Kalani) from Que press ISBN: 0789728249; and i basically have'nt looked back one second since taking that decison.

the two books complement each other very well and provide a very fine balance between the need to train & equip the reader with the strong hands-on .NET XML Web-services development skills he/she will require in order to thrive as a C#.NET web developper; whilst at the same time fully framing these necessary hands-on expertise , in the context & framework of the exam the reader probably seeks to take at the end of working/ploughing his/her way through the book.

Amit Kalani is a very good author. he is well known in the C#.NET world. and he has a way of making a typically difficult material to teach, clearly explained, and he reinforces this with ample examples and practise, so it sinks in and becomes proper knowledge. So for those starting out on C#.NET or others looking for a place to start the preparation for the MCAD.NET with C# or 70-320 exam, these Books could easily serve as the spot to take it from.

However, i would add but the small proviso that depending on where you are along the previous "C#" programming-experience scale, i'd say you'd do well to buy yourself a good companion C# programming language text to accompany you on your journey.

There are lots of books on Amazon that would serve you well in this function/capacity . the text i used to give me a helping hand is called the: "C# Bible" by author: jeff ferguson (et al); it has for ISBN:0764548344.i found this easy to read and got through the first 20 chapters of concise, easy to follow, C# language basics, with relative ease.

After working through the 70-320 ExamCram resource in question and using the Training guide counterpart to acquire deeper hands-on practise to cement the interface between :( knowledge of the .Net Framework1.0 XML Web-services development concepts as treated in the books), with that of proper programming competence;(ie:knowing your stuff); I was ready for the next phase ie: going on to tackle past exam questions

using Transcender and the Testking more than sufficed to ensure & assure success at the exam;

Take & Ace the exam with ease: 150minutes & 43 questions.

Success at the exam-level is assured by appropriate preparation; ie: tackling past questions regarding .NET programming & C# XML Web-services development related problem scenarios in order to sharpen your wits about choosing the right solution in any given problem scenario. this is the crunch of it. do that ,and u pass.

End of.

The passing mark is 700 ie: 70%. i sat the exam on Tuesday (31st October 2006); scored 98% ie: 984.

MCAD.NET requirements accomplished!

Good luck.

cheers :-)

This book has saved me a lot of time that I would have otherwise spent combing through huge Exchage reference books. As an Exchange Administrator, I have already found this book to be an invaluable asset in my reference library. Answers to many common administrative questions and "How To's" are easily found in this handy little volume. You gotta love its size.

Out of all the Exchange 2000 Server books I purchased, this one is the only one I used regularly. I have since purchased Stanek's Exchange Server 2003 book and it is equally as good if not better. For admins, it provides the essential details with clear, precise steps for implementing common features. For devs, it provides the cut to the chase info you need to get in there and get out quickly. I would recommend this very highly.

I bought this book for our Exchange admin when we were moving to Exchange 2000 from 5.5. Two months later I was going to be the one implementing Exchange and this book came to the rescue in a big way. As a total Exchange newbie I learned everything I needed (and now know) about Exchange from this book. Sure there are bigger books but not better books. If you are a Exchange guru, this book will be a little on the basic side for you. However, if you are anything less than a guru or if you are a new I would highly recommend this book.

I had a need to quickly resolve a problem with Exchange 2000 Server, having never worked with it before. This book was an excellent resource for that purpose. Not because it gave me the exact answer I needed (which I doubt many books would do) but because it clearly and concisely explained what you can do with Exchange 2000 Server and how to do it. It showed how to do things properly and from that it was fairly easy to deduce what was wrong.

Because the book is well structured (no excess verbage, no "chattiness") it's easy to read, clear and to the point. It gets to the point and stays on target.

All in all an excellent reference you'll use over and over and, I think, an excellent place to start learning Exchange 2000 Server. I find that this book tells what Exchange 2000 Server can do and how to do it. With that knowledge I think you'll be better grounded if and when you go for more in depth understanding of architecture and the like. After this book, if you want more in depth information you can move on to other (bigger) books but I think you'll get the biggest bang for the buck from this one..

This is excellent when used for quick reference and only for the experienced and knowledgeable. This is inappropriate for beginners since Exchange is intertwined with Active Directory. Without knowing all the implications of performing the various tasks outlined in the book, it can be detrimental to a company.

This book is by far more than just a comprehensive collection of facts and figures. The author, having a no fear approach to technology, never looses sight of the business aspects. His understanding of mobility manifests itself not only in the awareness of tools, but rather in his holistic approach to make mobile technology work for you and your enterprise without having to reengineer your business processes.
Hence, anyone who feels the urge to implement mobile solutions in their business should first consult this book... or just spend a few thousand on consultancy. Your choice.

If you want to increase the effectiveness of your workforce, this is a must read book. The concepts are clearly laid out and it is written in an easy to understand language, explaining all the mobility buzzwords in laymans terms.

After reading this book I feel confident about talking to the vendors and consultants with all the latest solutions. A worthwhile investment for any manager with responsibility for field based sales people or service engineers.

Though the author uses mobilizing an enterprise in his title, he really means applying wireless technology to an already mobile enterprise. Many of the issues presented applies to standardizing mobile accessibility across the enterprise. The book starts off with an excellent analogy for untested technology - Magic, unknown, uncertain, untested, and unproven. This leverages his book for a thematic value throughout to make for an interesting development of current day technology.

To be fair, I did not read the entire book, only sections that I found interesting. However, the portions I did read, chpts 1-4, 10-12 were fascinating and on target in many respects.

The author lays out the framework for an elegant model categorizing technology providers and the corporate structure. As corporations begin aligning themselves into the categories mentioned, I was wondering where hybrid companies that have created versatile new concepts, especially outside of the US, would fit in his model.

Companies such as Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) that aren't quite NOs, but have some of the skills and capabilities of WAGs or SIs since their main competency is in enabling the mobilization and reselling it and just renting space from NOs would fit.

Chapter 11 was extremely informative, but I am still perplexed by "wireless technology skills" and the author's definition of this, specifically in his SWOT analyses. Saying that an enterprise application vendor doesn't have these skills is unclear, especially as many of these enterprise app vendors are WAG vendors or Platform vendors. Companies such as Oracle or IBM are perfect examples where they do not suffer the same weaknesses. Does this present a major competitive advantage in the market?

A second point with respect to this very notion is that, in general, "wireless technology skills" can be easily emulated, learned, and implemented as many small companies are crowding the space and popping up regularly. This suggests that the real commoditization will be in the value of wireless technology skills rather than other segments rather than network operations (although there is always the possibility of both being commoditized)

The author suggests that there may be a convergence of enterprise app vendors and WAG vendors, the former gobbling up the latter. I think this is already in progress and will no doubt become a reality unless the smaller WAG vendors either become enterprise app vendors or can find specific niches where enterprise app vendors are unwilling to enter.

The book as a whole provided a business perspective to what seems to be a technical issue. It was clear in many respects, and filled with useful information to better understand what it means to manage a mobile system. Although there was some bias in selecting companies for case discussion, these are considered the norm in any competitive industry. The terse, crispness of the book with a solid, social element provides for good reading and highly informative review of the wireless industry today and tommorrow.

Pat Brans has done a masterful job of taking a complex subject such as mobility and wireless and boiling it down to its most important components. Besides his ability to explain wireless technology in simplistic terms, Brans delivers a compelling guide for business executives grappling with difficult decisions regarding why/when/how should I deploy mobility and what can our company expect to gain from a revenue generation/cost savings/customer satisfaction perpspective? Finally, the best part of this book is the abundant use of practical, real-world examples (such as the business process diagrams in Chapter 10 involving pharmaceutical sales reps) to help the reader clearly understand the benefits of mobility and wireless technology as applied to a business challenge.

Mr. Brans does a superb job of presenting much of what is going on in the wireless world today.

To be fair, I did not read the entire book, only sections that I found interesting. However, the portions I did read, chpts 1-4, 10-12 were fascinating and on target in many respects.

As corporations begin aligning themselves into the categories mentioned, I was wondering where hybrid companies that have created versatile new concepts, especially outside of the US, would fit in the model. Where would companies such as Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) that aren't quite NOs but have some of the capabilities of (Wireless Application Gateway providers) WAGs or (System Integrators) SIs in enabling mobilization and reselling it -just renting space from NOs- fit in the author's model? There seemed to be a few missing gaps, but covered the US market fairly thoroughly.

Chapter 11 was extremely informative, but I am still perplexed by "wireless technology skills" and the author's definition of this, specifically in his SWOT analyses. Saying that an enterprise application vendor doesn't have wireless skills is unclear, especially as many of these enterprise app vendors are also WAG vendors or Platform vendors. Companies such as Oracle or IBM are perfect examples where they do not suffer the same weaknesses. Does this present a major competitive advantage in the market?

A second point with respect to this very notion is that, in general, "wireless technology skills" can be easily emulated, learned, and implemented as many small companies are crowding the space and popping up regularly. This suggests that the real commoditization will be in the value of wireless technology skills rather than other segments as the author suggests.

The book was exceptional in most other respects, containing detailed facts on the wireless markets, their evolution, and even an excellent resource base to acquire further knowledge. Even with the biased focus on a few select companies, the book covers the market's underlying agenda.

The author presented information with a terse crispness but added a social element in terms of context and example to make it readable. A great primer if you are an executive, a CIO, or someone making a decision to commit resources in mobile technology. Comparable to Wireless Crash Course by Bedell in quality, with more of a business perspective.