2 comments about Operating Systems.

1. This was used as the text for an operating systems class I took at U of Missouri, St. Louis. I found it very good with many tables and diagrams. Many chapters discuss how concepts were implemented in specific OSes such as UNIX, NT, and VMS so you get some familiarity with modern systems. Excercises at the end of each chapter are good but no answer key!



2. I used this book as the textbook for my course at Loyola Univ. (Chicago). It is as bad as other books written by consultants. The professional habit of consultants is to make easy problems hard, while professors' habit is to make hard problem easy. This book uses many unnecessary classifications to inflate pages, shows many incorrect approaches before finally gives the right answer. These can really make students confused. I sold the book as soon as the semester is over.

   Xiaolong Wu

No comments about Global Information Society: Operating Information Systems In A Dynamic Global Business Environment.

4 comments about C++ for Professional Programming With PC and Unix Applications.

1. Too many C++ books are overly verbose, poorly organized, and really don't give you a strong foundation in the language. This book does not suffer from any of these weaknesses.

   Dr. Blaha does a great job explaining how ANSI-C is extended to create ANSI-C++, then describes key object oriented design principles and techniques. Then he spends the remainder (some 80% of the book) giving the best training in the C++ language I have seen anywhere.

   You get a good feel for how your programming techniques in C++ will effect performance and efficiency. The author also discusses how to port C code to compile under C++ compilers, and how to mix legacy C code along with C++. He also has a chapter introducing the Standard Template Library.

   If you really want to understand C++ and learn how to program in it well - then I highly recommend Dr. Blaha's book.




2. Stephen Blaha is an excellent writer and this makes for one of the clearest, most complete, high quality C++ books I have ever come across. It really is a shame this book is out of print. I suggest you hunt for it if clarity of presentation and quality of examples and thoroughness is important to you.



3. I own several C++ texts and (call it an odd hobby) have expended several bookstore days probably, in my quest for the best texts for my library. This book has become the benchmark against which I measure any computer science text. It's meaty, precise, comprehensive and clean. It's a great reference as well as a terrific C++ boostrapper for someone with C experience. It's a mystery to me why this is out of print - but probably has to do with the fact that it does presume C skills. I sometimes peruse this book just to experience the pleasure of his crystal clear expositions and highly recommend it.



4. I bought this book 5 years ago, and it's still the best C++ I use all the time. This book is well written and organized. It illustrates many important and complex issues clearly. I 've read it many times. Especially very helpful when your 're looking for a C++ job, you can find answers to almost all C++ interview questions.

5 comments about Tomes of Delphi: Win32 Core API Windows 2000.

1. Do yourself a favor and don't waste your money on this thing like I did. It's not worth reading. The coverage of the API is incomplete, to put it nicely, and the explanations are convoluted and confusing. Not worth the money at all.



2. When one reads the worthless pros expressed in Mr. Ayres latest manuscript, it causes one to contemplate how this dolt continues to be a published author. It is clear that based on his use of the English language that he is devoid of anything more than a High School diploma. It is sad to say that his command of Delphi appears to be equally as poor as his writing skills. The examples and sample code are so simplistic that they are literally worthless, and hardly expand on any topic in detail. I honestly think that the original "Delphi for Dummies" was a more informative and better-written book

   It is clear that this latest book is yet another ego stroking manuscript of recycled work from his original books. Many of the API calls have not been updated and many of the samples are riddled with errors and are not syntactically correct for Windows 2000/XP.

   It simply staggers my imagination why Wordware continues to use Mr. Ayres as an author. When reviewing all of the Tomes books, it is clear that when Mr. Ayres split company with his co-authors the quality of the book went down considerably. Perhaps Wordward should get them to re-write this book and see which one sells better.

   Until then, go get Charles Petzolds API book. If you don't know C++ try DevGuru to get some help. They will gladly help translate the C++ calls to Delphi Syntax.




3. A must have for all Delphi Programmers



4. You'd think the qualifications for writing a Delphi book would be 1) you must be a Delphi expert 2) you must write well. Well, I can tell you for sure that this guy doesn't meet either qualification. This is, without question, the worst programming book I have ever had the misfortune to buy. Ayres writes like a third grader. And the code is even worse. A person who'd never seen Delphi before could write this code. It is mostly warmed over MSDN example code converted to Pascal. Frankly, I'd be embarrassed to publish something like this. It's that bad.



5. THIS IS A GREAT BOOK ON THE SUBJECT AND IS RARE TO FIND BECAUSE IT IS OUT OF PRINT.

5 comments about Handheld Usability.

1. I am an experienced interface designer who has never designed for a handheld. So, when I faced a new project that would be deployed on a handheld, I looked here to further my education. This is the only book I could find that is specific to handhelds.

   When I was considering this book I read seven glowing reviews, and one total pan. The pan got it right. This book may be more useful for someone who knows very little about interaction design, usability testing, prototyping, and all that, and who isn't interested in gaining more than a superficial understanding of these topics. (If you are new to usability design, you'll find a much better place to start with Mayhew's "The Usability Engineering Lifecycle: A Practitioner's Handbook for User Interface Design.") If, however, you are a usability professional looking for insight on how you need to think differently now that your screen is the size of a Post-it note, wait for the next book to be written. I could have written this book, and the sum of my handheld experience is that I own a Palm and a cell phone.




2. Don't buy this book.
   I cannot find any usabiltiy testing technique in this book. Just explain what PDA and Palms are and all thing we already knew. Alsom appendix is too long.
   I don't want to know Palm history. Why author explain detail about each funtion of Palm or PDA?
   Save your money!



3. Zipf's law states that common words are very common, and that uncommon words are combinations of uncommon words. For example if you start typing the letters `th' then you are probably trying to write the word `the' rather than `theologian'. Applying this simple insight to mobile phones gave us predictive text entry, where a small dictionary allows the phone to guess the word that the user is most likely trying to enter. For example if you press the keys `82' while entering a text message on a modern phone, the phone will predict `the' as your word. This invention allows QWERTY-snobs like me to approach the speeds of Finnish teenagers in tapping text messages on a mobile phone.

   Such innovation is just amusingly clever on a PC, but on the small screens of handheld devices, it is essential. A good user interface converts a small device from a limiting gadget to a useful tool. European consumers' `wapathetic' response to WAP-enable phones was due to over hyping by the telecommunications industry, but also poor usability of the devices.
   So a textbook on the topic is certainly appropriate.

   Handheld usability defines handheld devices as highly portable machines that can operate with no cables and can be operated within one's hand. In addition, they must either allow the addition of applications or support internet connectivity. So the book's focus includes handheld computers (such as Palm-powered machines and Pocket PCs) and mobile phones (with WAP, i-mode or email connectivity) but excludes devices such as music players.

   Naturally the discussion includes details of devices that are obsolete. Such is usually the case with any discussion of the details in information technology. But the principles are timeless and the practices will remain practical.
   Perhaps the most useful chapter is the one on prototyping. Weiss' advice is that this should be done with a pen and several pieces of paper. For example the designer would draw the first screen on the paper. The user would then say what he or she expects to see on interacting with each element of the "screen". During this feedback, the designer would draw the next screen, and again ask the user what he or she expects. This technique is of course cheap but I was surprised by its effectiveness. No doubt Weiss' clients also found it useful.

   If your team is designing applications for handheld devices, consider hiring Weiss. If you cannot afford that, buy his book. You cannot afford not to.

   Review appeared in British Medical Informatics Today, Issue 41




4. This was the only book specific to handheld/mobile devices that discussed usability testing.

   It is divided into short, concise sections that are easy to read and understand. The sections form a good basis on how to approach designing and testing a system. It has some very good pointers. The only thing was that it was too short!

   The book was very, very helpful but it wasn't long enough and doesn't provide working examples. It just tells you the points that you should be considering when you are building a usable system. It doesn't go too in depth on any of the sections either.




5. I truly cannot recommend this book to anybody who has any knowledge about UI design. Not even if you don't have experience in designing for handheld devices. This book has nothing to offer for you. If you are just starting to study usability, there are far better books out there.
   
   I bought this book when it came out due to fact that there are no books about handheld usability. I had high hopes that it would provide new information about the area. Instead I found out that it was merely a copy paste book, which had nothing to offer. Many of my colleagues read the book also and none had anything good to say about the book.
   
   Scott Weiss probably noticed that there are no books about the subject and decided to make money. With a price as high as 60$ he is probably succeeding.

1 comments about The Complete Guide to Netware 4.11/Intranetware.

1. Thie book is an invaluable tool if you are interested in administering your Novell 4.11 network.

   Do not look to this book to aid in passing your exams, but use it as a tool to improve the performance of your network.

   Great reference and easy to read and understand. One of the better refence materals on my shelf!

No comments about Belly Buttons (Next-Step).

No comments about Fundamentals of UNIX Lab Companion (Cisco Networking Academy Program) (2nd Edition) (Lab Companion).

No comments about Supporting Users And Troubleshooting Desktop Applications on a Microsoft Windows Xp Operating System (70-272).

4 comments about Unix Shell Programming Tools (Unix Tools).

1. The author does a good job of showing how the different BASH commands can be used together to accomplish tasks. The sections about Perl and Tcl were also useful.



2. This book has a lot of reference info on Bash, Perl, and Tcl/Tk commands and options, especially lots of tables. However, I wouldn't recommend it for beginners to programming in these languages, since his explanations of many topics is rather turgid and unclear. In addition, the number of typos and just plain errors is unacceptably high for a book that puports to show beginners how to do shell programming. Overall, a good book for the reference shelf, but only for those who already have some knowledge of this kind of programming.



3. This book is very well done, and has many good code examples. I highly recommend it.



4. The Bourne Again Shell isn't even standard on unix systems and the constant mention of linux as something synonomous is just pathetic. I'm sorry I ever got this book. Get UNIX Power Tools instead. It costs a few bucks more, but this book is pathetic. If you want to learn to use shell scripts on multiple platforms, this isn't the book. It's strongly GNU/Linux orientated, but that won't help you in the real world with unix OS's