2 comments about Managing The Windows 2000 Registry.

1. Really I would give it 4.5 stars if I could.

   It's a good book, but it should be titled 'NT and 2000 registry'. It discusses both. This might be a bonus to some (who would like info on both) and a disadvantage to others (who already own stuff about NT registry). There are a few errors and some things I would change, and I wouldn't say it's as good as some other Oreilly books I've read.

   There are sections just about policy settings which is good and a nice set of appendicies.




2. Regardless of your experience with the registry, this book can be of value to you. Despite the title, there are references in almost every section of the book on the Windows NT 4 registry, which can be helpful if you are working in a mixed environment or are coming from the NT 4 side of things.

   The author starts the book by assuming you have no previous experience with the registry, and takes you on a 5 chapter tour, covering topics such as the history of the registry, how to navigate, what each part does, how to back it up and restore it, the different editors you can use, etc. From there, the book progresses for a couple of chapters on configuring policies - using the Policy Editor and GPO/OU policies within Windows 2000.

   The author does include a surprising chapter in the middle entitled "Programming with the Registry" (Chapter 8) in which he covers many of the API calls for the registry and the Shell Utility, and then gives demos in C/C++, Perl and Visual Basic. My personal opinion is that that chapter is a little advanced for the book as a whole, but if you're not into it, it can be skipped without much loss to you.

   The book also spends 2 chapters covering administration and tweaks (plus a great index section on the Group Policy Objects), and the final chapter documents what each hive in the registry does.

   All in all, it's worth a read.

No comments about UIQ 3: The Complete Guide (Symbian Press).

4 comments about Creating Location Services for the Wireless Web.

1. This guy really took on a big area - and you get the impression it is still very much an area being worked on. There seems to be a lot of hot air and very proprietary solutions in the field, but not in the book. He concentrates on standards, since he like me realizes that the proprietary standards will not go anywhere. None of them can become big enough.

   He talks about positioning systems, APIs, how to add geocodes using the Geographic Markup Language - really useful. The only things I missed were some more examples from real services. But he does say that since many use text messages phones, and almost all interfaces are proprietary, it is hard to talk about without being extremely specific. There could be more about how to use GPS on PDAs, though, but I guess there are not actually that many services out there.

   The book really digs down into the subject (there is even a chapter on privacy), and I found it extremely useful. Lots of stuff there I did not know before. There could be more software on the CD, although there are pointers to lots of it. So I got it anyway. Good buy.




2. This is the first book I have found that ties together positioning, geocoding, and the user interface. The author has done a tremendous job of being comprehensive, covering everything I could think about. The field varies from the arcane to the mundane, and there are a lot of threads to be tied together - and he manages to do so very well. He does say it is not a programmers cookbook, and I did not expect one. But he has done a guidebook to an industry that seems very fragmented - with this book, you get a good grip about what is fragmented and what is already standardized. The author really penetrates deep into the concepts, drilling down into position-service APIs, geocoding languages, and privacy aspects. Sometimes, he even manages to make the stuff funny, and it is readable all the time. There are a lot of tricky things here, and as a developer, you had better have a clue about which traps there are to avoid. So far, cost seems to be the biggest problem for deployment - GPS is too [costly], mobile phone networks do not offer this as a service (which they could, and this is very well covered in the book).
   It is a five-star in my view.



3. I really enjoyed reading this book. I provides an excellent overview of location sensitive technologies and services. I particularly liked Chapter 10 ("Pulling it all together"), which provides practical advice on how to build new applications. The chapter on privacy was also extremely useful. I highly recommend this book.



4. Everything is fine with its content. I just don't like its style. RFCs are more enjoyable to read than this book. The writer says that this chapter will give you something but you have to find it, no bullets, no balds, no italics, just a plain text. To sum up, I don't find it readable.
   
   Again I don't say anything about its content. This book gives you idea (nothing more) about Location Services for Wireless Web, but you should be ready to read 400 page plain text. Some may like this kind of books. If you want to enjoy while reading please think twice before buying.

2 comments about Mobile Phone Programming: and its Application to Wireless Networking.

1. I have more than 6 years experience in this industry and can tell that this is the first book of this kind I saw. It will allow you to get your own hands-on experience with many different platforms, from Series 60 to Qtopia. Due to real programming examples, it is very praxis oriented, but also with several scientific aspect rising open questions. And all this without any "hypes" or "bubbles", as you maybe know from other books about "mobile". If you are an expert, it will also allow you to get a piratical impression of other platforms in a short time. So, in the nutshell, this books is worth each $$ use spent on it! Great book!



2. Very good introduction and high-level overview of the different mobile "primary" application platforms (Symbian/C++, JavaME, and WinMob). The book even dedicates chapters to Maemo Linux and Qtopia Greenphone -- although, as a critique, I doubt too many mobile developers would currently be focusing on either one of those OS platforms. Given today's environment, it would have been nice to see some mention of Apple's CodeX or Google Android; but, the book was published in 2007 when those platforms were just starting to bubble up. Giving the book an additional star due to its coverage of Device Discovery, P2P, Power Consumption considerations during design, and Cross-Layer Communication. If you are new to -- or just interested in -- mobile application design, this is a great resource to start with to see how vast the playing field is....and what the future may hold.

5 comments about The Official Microsoft Html Help Authoring Kit: Understanding, Creating, and Migrating to Microsoft Html Help for the Microsoft Windows 95 and Windows Nt 4.0 Operating Systems.

1. This book is written in a point-and-click, monkey-see monkey-do format. If you follow the steps EXACTLY you will end up with (usually) a working help file with no explanation for what you have been doing. The author even tells you that some of his code "won't run in this version but will in the next" - and most don't. Half of the things I want to know (TOCs, FullText indexes, WhatsThisHelp for VB, etc.) do not have adequate (if any) coverage. It is too bad that the minimum rating is 1 star because I don't even want to give it that. If you are looking for a ... guide to ineffectual help systems - this is the book for you! Everyone else - save your money for a DECENT tech reference that is worth reading...



2. This book is written in a point-and-click, monkey-see monkey-do format. If you follow the steps EXACTLY you will end up with (usually) a working help file with no explanation for what you have been doing. The author even tells you that some of his code "won't run in this version but will in the next" - and most don't. Half of the things I want to know (TOCs, FullText indexes, WhatsThisHelp for VB, etc.) do not have adequate (if any) coverage. It is too bad that the minimum rating is 1 star because I don't even want to give it that. If you are looking for a moron's guide to ineffectual help systems - this is the book for you! Everyone else - save your money for a DECENT tech reference that is worth reading...



3. One star because this appears to be the only book available on the subject. The examples are POOR and incomplete, if they exist at all. There has to be more than this to HTML help.



4. Help for VB applications is a sick joke to begin. Mr. Wexler took me no closer to writing professional Help Text than I was before spending the money, and time, on this effort.



5. This book suffers from shortcomings, but to be fair, so does Microsoft's HTML Help SDK. The SDK suffers from a sloppy user interface, modal windows that should be modeless, some unbelievable bugs, etc., and you can see that it has made the book less useful than it could be.

   Specifically, the book is missing information that users of a reasonably well-debugged application should not need, such as a list of bugs, features never implemented, features that don't work correctly, etc.

   The other reviews for this book are on the money as to this book's problems. To learn to use HTML Help, I found this book useful, but you must supplement it with information that you can get from web sites that devote themselves to HTML Help issues. These sites point out the bugs and other issues that HTML Help authors absolutely need to know about.

5 comments about The Windows 2000 Device Driver Book: A Guide for Programmers (2nd Edition) (Microsoft Technologies Series).

1. There is absolutely no information about printer drivers in this book. The explanation about the printing process is so skimpy that you can't tell that it is wrong.



2. This book is a more concise, better organized version of the DDK documentation, minus the reference material. It does a good job of painting a picture of driver architecture and gets you familier with the terminology involved. However, it does not provide much insight or real-world tips, and in fact the regurgitation of Microsoft definitions and propoganda gets a little tiresome. This book does not go into much detail and is not a reference book. After you've read most of this book you can easily rely on the DDK documentation and never flip through these pages again.
   
   A couple specific gripes: 1) If the reader has never written a driver before, they've probably never worked in kernel mode before, so more general information on kernel-mode programming issues would have been appreciated. 2) Though this book does not go into much detail, the forward did promise a chapter on USB and IEEE 1394 available on the book's website. I was not able to find any such chapter on the website, and haven't received a response to my email requesting the information (to be fair I've only given him a couple days).



3. Don't waste your money on it like I did.
   The author just bores you with terminology and never gets to where you want to go. AVOID.... YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!!



4. I am pasting this review that i had originally posted in 2001 at other websites.
   
   This is one of the best books i have read. I have several years of experience in C/C++ and some experience in windows programming however I am a 'absolute beginner' with Windows device drivers and kernel mode programming and i was able to grasp almost everything the book spoke about with relative ease and with NO confusions. I would recommend this book to anyone who has absolutely no background in device driver programming but wants to make a career doing just that. I must admit that the books assumes that you are versed with C/C++ and some understanding of programming paradigm for windows, but it is pretty obvious since this is NOT a book to teach a programming language nor it is aimed at teaching regular windows programming. It is a complete 'NO NONSENSE' book that deals with topics right upto the point. The contents of the book flow gracefully explaining each and every step with precise detail. The author seems to have made the best possible effort to explain the basics before jumping directly into details. And that does help an absolute beginner. This book does NOT cover details about device specific drivers but it does help you reach a point where you are confident that 'you will understand' whatever you research on your own. A very good book... have seen very few of these types lately.



5. This book is easy to follow and very informative. A must have for the amateur driver developer.

3 comments about eDirectory Field Guide.

1. This is one of those books that is so packed with technical details you are not likely to find anywhere else that listing them would turn this review a booklet in itself. I have always liked Novell's Directory and found it the best to work with from its inception to the latest incarnation. That being said there were still a lot of tips in the second and third parts of this book that resolve issues that took a long time for me to resolve on my own. Whether you are installing eDirectory on a Novell system or Linux you will find everything you need to resolve installation issues and keep it in top working order in this book. The author chooses not to repeat the installation and administration information provided in Novell's documentation but instead has produced the best supplemental book available today. If you have an eDirectory issue you will find this is the book you turn to again and again to resolve it. Everyone working with eDirectory should have the eDirectory Field Guide in the server room for quick and easy access.



2. If you do Edirectory it is a good reference



3. This book is a must have for anyone put in the position of creating or supporting an eDirectory implementation. It is written in a way thats easy for anyone to dig into, and referencable so you can get directly to the information you need.
   
   The author has provided charts or relevant information, screenshots to help you find what you looking for and specifc steps for things like troubleshooting NICI problems, using specific utilities, and each of the feature of eDirectory.
   
   If your phone rings when there is an eDirectory problem, you need this book.

No comments about Introduction to Operating System Design and Implementation: The OSP 2 Approach (Undergraduate Topics in Computer Science).

5 comments about Palm OS Programming for Dummies.

1. The book is well written and is easy to read. I was able to follow along, compile, and emulate the examples in very little time.

   I ran into a problem compiling the first project. But after some investigation, it turned out to be a Windows issue...

   The site contains fixes for some of the examples. All in all, the book is worth the money.




2. Overall, I was a bit disappointed in this book. The major problem I hit was I had to download POSE from the Palm website in order to run the examples. I think this should have been on the CD.

   The next problem was there was some inconsistancies between the text and the actual Codewarrior tool. I think that careful editing would have caught these inconsistancies.

   Don't get me wrong, there is some good material in this book; But, you have to read carefully to find it. The examples are OK but the material is not orgranized well to get started quickly (i.e. I had to read much of the book before I could start trying to write my own programs).




3. This book is fine if you are relatively new to the PalmOS programming world. Albiet, the author's examples are not put together very well. His coding examples are somewhat hard to follow and I was constantly having to look at his source code on CD to determine the mysterious functions he developed and not written in his book. I would much prefer he stayed to the style of the Palm Developement Standards. A bit more should have been written in the Database and Conduit areas.

   Issues notwithstanding, it is a good book to get started.




4. The CD does not match the examples and the code does not perform as indicated. Obviously the editors never actually tried to use this book for it's intended purpose or it would have never gotten to press.
   The quality of the Dummies series has always been uneven, but this is inexcusable.



5. I'm going through the book right now and I'm pretty disappointed considering it's a "For Dummies" book. The first program does not work, there's several errors with the SimpleCalc code I cut & paste straight from the CD. Only way I could get it to compile is to cut n' paste the entire directory from the CD and make (compile) those. Not a good beginning.

   I also noticed that .rsrc files were not assigned to be opened by Constructor in Windows XP after installing CodeWarrior. Now this might be a problem with XP itself, but I was a little confused when it said "double-click the starter.rsrc file... opening the .rsrc file causes Constructor's project window to appear" but nothing happened when I double-clicked. A warning or something should have been included of what to do in that case.

   I'm also disappointed in the number of pictures the book includes. Sometimes several steps need to be done but there's no figure of what the window should look like.

   From just what I've seen so far I can not recommend this book. I also read the C For Dummies book and was impressed with how easy it was to follow and understand, but this is not a good example of a "For Dummies" book and should not be used as the first introduction to Palm OS programming.

5 comments about Enough Rope to Shoot Yourself in the Foot: Rules for C and C++ Programming (Unix/C).

1. I'm a 11-year mostly C programmer and I AGREE WITH EVERYTHING IN THIS BOOK. I've been a consultant for 5 years - and fixed a lot of code. Beginner programmers should read this and follow it. Computer Science and MIS degrees focus on algorithm design and efficiency and theoretical programming. THIS IS NOT THEORETICAL - this is PRACTICAL. Please, people, write code that's easy to read for the idiot that will come after you; over 50% of the cost of a progam is MAINTENANCE and if you write a simple routine that takes twice as long to execute, OH Well, unless it's a visible delay, no one cares about efficiency.

   Use this book as a CORPORATE STYLE GUIDE FOR C & C++ PROGRAMMING. If you follow it and write easy-to-read programs, your employer will SAVE MONEY IN MAINTENANCE. I literally agreed with everything in this book - with one exception. He poo-poos working over 8 hours/day. I disagree. True, programming is creative work and you can burn out, but I find 10 or 12 hour days highly productive because people don't interrupt me, and I try to task switch enough to give myself breaks (or stare out the window blankly to do some subconcious-problem-solving).

   In Short - Buy This Book, or borrow it - and save your employers money by creating simpler programs. You'll look like a star by creating something even a junior programmer can modify easily. If you're an expert C or C++ programmer, it's very worth it, too - you get another perspective on ease-of-use. I changed my mind and now will consider using const (I had only used #defines to simplify things - he made a good argument that the compiler is better than the preprocessor at catching brainfarts).

   Also, If you can, give it to your manager. They need to know this stuff, too.




2. Imagine someone took the Ten Commandments and tossed in some of his own commandments, and published it; of course, it would have some GREAT parts, but it would lend authority to the author's additions which they don't deserve.

   Yes, he includes the venerable rules of programming style, as laid out by the classic authors, then tosses in some of his own that are self-indulgent and provincial. Good luck to a beginner trying to sort them out.

   Pulling rules out of thin air makes you an autocrat, not an authority. Get The Practice of Programming, Code Complete.




3. Allen Holub's book should be on every C/C++ programmer's shelf.
   He is a master of his craft and one of the few writers in the
   field that is not afraid of being critical of the latest and
   greatest fad. His experience comes from years of work in the
   trenches and it shows. Ignore his guidelines at your own risk.
   You may not agree with everything he writes (I didn't) but it's
   all food for thought.



4. I read this book before I read "C Programming FAQs". While "Enough Rope to Shoot Yourself in the Foot" does a good job of pointing out trobule areas in C, the FAQ book does a much better job of point out more general problems because its content is taken from a newsgroup where real people as real questions.
   
   The advantage to this book is that C++ issues are also discussed, which make it a good resource.



5. I almost passed on this book because of some of the negative reviews.
   
   Okay, it is no Code Complete, but this book is an absolute gem. I have been programming C++ for about 6 years now (VB users be darned, it is my favorite programming language, period) and I was amazed how much I agreed with this author's advice.
   
   Yeah, I learned a lot from Scott Meyers' canonical "Effective" books. But what I like about this book is that it is a no-nonsense, in-your-face, tell-it-like-it-is book that I think is essential for those wet-behind-the-ears C++ programmers (or those whiners who claim that C++ is too hard).
   
   It will probably piss off a lot of Windows programmers as well as he is somewhat anti-Microsoft. However, I am primarily a MFC programmer and
   what he says about MFC (earlier editions) and Windows programming in general is absolutely correct.
   
   This book is a must for every novice C/C++ programmer. The experienced C/C++ programmers will probably tell you that they know all about this, so most of them will give it a pass. However, as a experienced C++ programmer, I think that they are making a mistake. They need to get this book on the shelf as well.
   
   At the very least they can loan it to the beginners.