2 comments about Symbian OS Communications Programming.

1. This book may be of value if you are trying to get two Symbian devices to communicate. But if you need to communidate with another OS, it is sorely lacking.

   The book leaves out very critical info on using RNetDatabase in order to be discovered. It also glosses over actual data exchange not realizing that RecvOneOrMore() is not supported on some devices.

   As bad as the Symbian SDK documentation is, this book does nothing to add to it.

   Don't waste your money.




2. Considering how features of a phone can vary from model to model or production run to production this book really doesn't address how manufacturers implement comms on a phone. Maybe Bluetooth basics is decent, but the rest? You're better off at forum.nokia.com or www.newlc.com forums to get things working. I really never found anything in this book that helped me. For instance, IrDA programming. The whole section is IrDA basics, I don't want the basics! I want to know the silly stuff Symbian does.......

No comments about Unix System V: Understanding Elf Object Files and Debugging Tools (Programmer Collection).

1 comments about Tomes of Delphi : Win32 Multimedia API.

1. Although the title of the book indicates that it is about multimedia, it is almost entirely about sound. Animations receive hardly any mention. I was disappointed by the book for that reason.

2 comments about Novell's Four Principles of Nds Design (Novell Press).

1. This book is for real world NDS applications. This book wont help for taking the Novell D&I test as this book is how it should be done. Novell's test is not interested in the right way.



2. This book is the standard. If you are installing NDS this is the book you MUST read before you begin. Critics of NDS are typically those who do not understand what a directory is and what it can do for you. This book will set them straight. Complaints about NDS installations arise due to poor installations. This book can prevent that. This book breaks down the information and is very easy to digest. This is an amazing book, and if you can find a copy of it, buy it. It's all about doing it right the first time, something far too few IT professionals understand. If you work with Netware and NDS, this is book should be in your library.

5 comments about Learning DCOM.

1. I'm a beginner in DCOM and all I needed to know about DCOM is clearly explained in the book, no function, no parameter,... unexplained. There are few books as good as this one. This is my fist O'Reilly and Thai book, but I'm sure that not the last.



2. This is a good book for C++ programmers wanting to learn com. This simplistic one language approach has made the book popular, since com is complicated enough without trying to briefly throw 3 programming languages at it. However, it will never be your only book on Com. Eventually you'll need to use your com objects from ASP or somewhere else (this is the purpose of com, binary reuse). This topic will also require a lot of study, and if your going to write com objects expect to spend a lot of time with this book open. I'm a programmer with 11 years experience. Com is one of the more complicated things I've encountered in my programming career. This book did have a few typo's (3 or 4 jumped out at me), however, they did not detract from the content. My first impression was that Don Box had the best book on Com I'd ever seen (I browsed it in Borders), but this book seemed equally as nice (and a few bucks cheaper).

   I would have liked to see another another practical example (never enough).

   Overall, an excellent book.




3. Would you trust the technical expertise of a programmer who writes this:

   if (g_hExitEvent == NULL) assert(false);

   This book is replete with this and other nuggets of technical prowess.

   The surrounding text is no better. Thai's English syntax is downright odd. His analogies are frequently tortured or nonsensical. All of this distracts the reader from the technical content.

   There is high praise for that content from my predecessor reviewers, but I thought his presentation was haphazard and unenlightening.

   I have found previous O'Reilly books quite good, but they did a very disappointing job on this one.




4. This book is a great source of information if you are interested in learning a complex topic such as DCOM. Be aware that this book requires you to have strong knowledge of C++, if you want to understand the examples. Although this is a great book, I'm still looking for other alternatives that will clarify the concepts of COM/DCOM in depth.



5. Micro$oft is famous for its ability to push out new development technologies. The reason behind this planned obsolesence is obvious, every time they come out with something new people will have to open their wallets to "keep up."

   DCOM is just another disposable technology. As such, it was a complete failure; one that the marketing folks at M$ have tried to bury as quickly as possible under an avalanche of .NET hype.

   DCOM was hard to port because, like COM, it is based on a binary standard (i.e. a standard that changes when you leave x86 and go to 64-bit RISC). Not only that, but DCOM doesn't support distributed transactions. Worst of all, DCOM is a very, very complicated technology to use. Three strikes... YOU'RE OUT!

   The half-wit MBAs at Micro$oft realized their mistake and have abandoned DCOM, leaving it forever in the backwaters where the only record of its sorry existence are stupid books like this.

   I have no idea why someone would want to buy this book. Folks, this is a dead technology. It is no more. It is an ex-techology. If you buy this book, you are lying to yourself. This book will sit an gather dust, unless you can find more productive uses for it...like burning it to stay warm.

   To be honest, I'm a little let down that a Unix-ish publishing company like O'Reilly would put out a book like this. They must really be hurting for cash. I heard that the bank has not been very nice to them during the recent market downturn...

1 comments about The Underground Guide to Microsoft Office, Ole, and Vba: Slightly Askew Advice from Two Integration Wizards (Underground Guide Series).

1. If you've picked up countless computer books during the course of your working life, found a topic in the index, and then promptly tossed them aside in disgust when you read "First drag the pointer (white arrow) across the screen to the...", then this is the book series is for you!

   Pivot Tables, data integration all the Trick features that will forever replace your weekly lists and highlighters are explained (including the SNAFUs to expect and how to avoid them)

   Especially if you office runs on a Win3.1 platform and you are TRUELY PC literate (ie can recite basic menu commands to your parents w/o looking at the screen), this info will amaze you peers, impress your bosses and simplify your weekly routine.

No comments about Itron 3.0: An Open and Portable Real-Time Operating System for Embedded Systems : Concept and Specification.

No comments about New Perspectives on Desktop Operating Systems.

No comments about Writing a Unix Device Driver.

5 comments about Distributed Operating Systems & Algorithms.

1. Albeit the author, Randy Chow, may have meant well in writing this Book, good intentions alone do not produce good books. The author claims that there is a need for a Book that balances theory with implementation. It is questionable whether Chow's Book accomplishes this synthesis but, unquestionably, terribly fails to provide us with reading of any intellectual usefulness. The Book is written in a style that could best be described as choppy, redundant, and overly simplistic. Further, the author seems to inundate us with his own interpretative viewpoints many of which are incorrect. The author should have spent more time in intensive communicative therapy expanding his vernacular of the English language before attempting writing a Book on this difficult subject. My recommendation is steer clear of this book and rely on the preexisting library of texts on this subject matter. That way you will at least not expose yourself to Randy Chow's further pollution of the English language, something that can very easily become contagious in a teaching environment. One must believe, that the University of Fl., where Mr. Chow teaches, is causing students to become mental midgets because of such poorly written textbooks which now seem to plague the Computer Science discipline. There is clearly a need to discourage mediocre faculty from authoring and inundating academia with such poorly written texts. Chow's preface gives all the reason and adequate forwarning not to purchase this Book. The preface clearly exhibits Mr. Chow's atrocious writing style which plagues the entire Book. Randy Chow's intellectual dwarfism is not that he attempted to write a Book, but that he failed to recognize he has not sufficently acquired the writing and intellectual skills needed to write a book that could be of any usefulness. I encourage Mr. Chow to attempt to write the same Book in his native tongue of Chinese though I doubt that even in fluent Chinese this would be a useful Book.



2. I bought this book expecting that I can learn some fundamentals on distributed systems and algos. The author touched many areas - but even stuff that I know pretty well ( security ) wasn't explained in an easy-to-understand manner, sometimes too much prose to no avail. Even worse, sometimes I was a bit confused. I can only guess that the rest follows this way. If you are looking for GOOD book, better look for something else.



3. This is a not so good book, but our school uses it. I suggest the author to update some of the contents of the book.



4. This book is probably useful only at the University of Florida, since it follows the course lectures exactly - and that, because the first author is the instructor.

   The book reads like a series of lecture notes, nothing more, nothing less. Several ideas that a student of operating systems may need to take note of, when making the transition from single-machine systems to multi-machine, are listed here. You can think of this book as a listing of a few basic ideas, with small expansions of each - as in a slideshow presentation. The merit of the book ends there.

   The topics covered - in other words, the expansions of the listed ideas - are treated in a confused, sketchy manner. The material is insubstantial and hardly thought provoking. Motivation is absent, and pedagogical methods seem a distant concept. There is a near-total isolation of concepts and practice, and reading the book gives the feeling of being isolated in a dreamy sphere that belongs only to the author.

   One could go on about such demerits, but to summarize, you don't need to buy this book unless it's required for your class. It's a slideshow in hardcover format.




5. The best way to explain this book is, its a "good rough draft". Now go work on it some more. As is, the book is extremely hard to read. Crucial concepts are stated matter of factly, succinctly, and with little detail as possible, ie, just enough to get the point across (and that might be a stretch). The authors could make this a very good book, but they need to take much more time with every subject, and give more than one example. Furthermore the diagrams are sub-par. These diagrams could be greatly enhanced by professional technical artists. Also, the 2nd half of the book might be better interspersed with the 1st half. A *much* better read, with better diagrams, and a gentler approach on the exact same subject is "Distributed Operating Systems" by Andrew Tannenbaum.