5 comments about Just the Computer Essentials: A Plain-English, No-Nonsense Guide to Buying and Maintaining a PC Running the Windows Vista Operating System for Your Home or Home Office.

1. I've been using Windows XP for years now and just got a new computer with Windows Vista Home Premium on it. There's definitely a big difference between those two versions of Windows! I've become very good at using XP, but wanted to make sure that I got Windows setup right and wasn't missing anything. I looked at a couple Vista books and I'm happy that this was the book I chose. It's very straight-forward and to the point and leaves out a lot of the over-technical garbage that most home users wouldn't even care about. The author does, however, hit on everything I needed to get my computer running right. He discusses the specifics of the security software to run (like comparing different vendors) and he talks about some of the options for configuring backups (including some of the newer online backup services... this was excellent!).
   
   I will also say that I already needed one of the chapters when my computer wouldn't boot up. I had a similar problem a couple years ago on my XP computer and HP had me reload the whole computer. I'm glad I thought to check this book first because I came to find out that there are some MUCH easier options in Windows Vista and was able to get back up and running in about ten minutes! So, that in itself made this a great purchase in my opinion - I probably saved a couple days worth of time in that alone!
   
   Great book and definitely worth it!



2. I found out about this book after a friend referred me to it. I'm not the most technical, but was able to understand everything he discussed. He took the time to explain everything in a way that made complete sense. My computer is getting pretty old, and I'm just about ready to get a new one. I'm sure I'll have this book right at my side when I get it and to help me move everything to the new computer!
   
   I would definitely say that this book is worth it if you're looking for a little help on your computer



3. This is a great book for anyone who needs help understanding the ins and outs of computers. I'm not a computer expert and was worried that this would be just another book full of mumbo-jumbo. But, to the contrary, this is a well-written, easy-to-read, resource guide that will help you navigate your computer and the new Vista software. You won't be disappointed!



4. I bought this book because I had just upgraded my computer to one with Windows Vista and wanted to learn the ins and outs quickly. It's been such a great tool in learning all of the new things I can now do!
   
   Also, I teach introductory class online for first time college freshman, most of whom are older, non-traditional students, that covers study skills and basic computer skills (such as surfing the internet and attaching files to emails). Because they're just starting their college careers, many of them are looking at buying new computers and I've recommended that they all purchase this book to help them pick out and use their new computers.



5. "Just the Computer Essentials" is an excellent choice for the computer "savy" or the "not so savy" PC user like me. I found it easy to follow, even through complicated topics. Just recently purchased a Notebook with
   Vista and have saved a lot of time and frustration referencing this book. Thank you, Jim White...When can we expect the next one?

No comments about MCDST 70-272: Supporting Users and Troubleshooting Desktop Applications on a Microsoft Windows XP Operating System.

2 comments about Developing Software for Symbian OS: An Introduction to Creating Smartphone Applications in C++ (Symbian Press).

1. If you are a proficient C++ programmer, this book is perfect for you as a introduction to writing C++ on Symbian OS. It describes how Symbian OS works and show what differences exist between normal C++ and the one used while writing applications for Symbian OS.
   
   However this is a mostly OS and C++ book. So it won't teach you how you can do specific things except the information it gives about socket usage to communicate via TCP/IP & GUI Design & Programming. It will teach you the OS and language specification so you'll understand when you see a code excerpt somewhere. Later you can read additional books or SDK documentation to learn about special classes os provides to do specific things. Also it point out the differences between different platforms (S60, S80, UIQ) where applicable by giving individual explanations & examples for each platform.
   
   I strongly recommend reading this book before trying to write anything for Symbian OS. It'll help you greatly in the beginning.



2. I'm an absolute beginner into Symbian OS programming and I find this book very perfect in order to let you start writing applications for Symbian Devices (there are many examples that make concepts intelligible).
   It explains how Symbian OS architecture works and give many tips you can found only by search on newsgroups.

5 comments about Win32 Programming (Addison-Wesley Advanced Windows Series) 2 Volume Set (No CD).

1. If you are an experienced Win32 programmer looking for a good reference, or you learned MFC but want to know what's going on under the hood, this is the book for you. If you are a beginner looking for a book to teach you how to program Windows, do not get this book. Lots of tables, just the right amount of code examples, lots of real-world advice, and a 200-page index. This book does not cover MFC.



2. Very good on the level of detail, and incredible on the pitfalls and specific problems they found when actually writing the code for the examples. Be careful, though - a number of the tables (and even some of the printed code samples) contain typos and other minor errors (like missing headings, making one table pretty useless!). You can figure out what's wrong, but if you just use this as a reference and happen to hit a section with an error you might not catch it without reading the accompanying text. I read it through, rather than as a reference, and it was clear which parts of the text had only been lightly checked for the latest edition.

   Again, 95+% of this book is really great! And the anecdotes and clear detail on where MS documentation is "flawed" are of terrific value - I definitely am glad to have purchased it, but I also want to point out that if something in it doesn't make sense - you're probably not crazy. It's quite likely to be a typo...

   Oh - one more thing. The "Explorer" samples they include were a fabulous idea, and have really helped me figure out what the heck some of the various style (and other) flags really meant. Extra credit for the CD! :-)




3. I have owned this book for at least seven years and have made a couple of good attempts to read/study it with some success as it may not be the best first book for programming the Win32 API although it certainly treats the subject in excruciating detail and with insights garnered by the two authors who are two of the most consummately professional programmers in the world - Brent Rector and Joseph Newcomer. For example Herb Schildt's Programming Windows 98 from the Ground Up teaches WIN32 programming and I find myself more productive in less time studying that book, even though WIN32 programming teaches with a philosophy that one is (ultimately) going to be writing large multifile programs, and this philosophy isn't apparent in Schildt's book. Additionally, an added bonus of Win32 Programming are the insights one gets into writing more robust and professional code - the C code (and there is a lot of it - 140,000 lines included on the CD ROM) has been written by the very best programmers. Additionally, the treatment of each topic is probably more in depth in this book - one example being the discussion of the GDI. More advanced topics included are chapters on writing a DLL, writing an MDI application, and writing multithreading applications. Finally, at 1500 pages the book is reference-like and also like a textbook thus I would assume that it may well take the better part of a year to study each chapter and the associated applications, making it one of the finest and most comprehensive books ever written on WIN32 API programming. I paid $50 for it at UCLA and the book has stood the test of time and proves to be an invaluable work well worth the cost. Finally, this book would seemingly rank among the most professional and scientific computer science/programming titles ever written - certainly it would be one of the most massive - the index is around 200 pages long in itself!



4. This is a GREAT book! Unfortunately, it NO LONGER comes with a CD-ROM!!!
   
   So if YOU have the time to MANUALLY key in over 140,000 lines of code, then you SHOULD buy this book....assuming that you could make NO ERRORS!!!!???
   
   As a minor point, it also comes as two(2) paperback volumes.
   
   This is not a problem for me...I like paperback, BUT it is one more point where this product is being MISREPRESENTED.



5. Lotsa of projects to help in understanding Win32.
   I compiled projects with VS 2005 and plan to try
   others. Some tutorials like Forger's win32 would
   definitly help before you approach this book.

5 comments about PCI System Architecture (4th Edition) (PC System Architecture Series).

1. When I opened this book, I had maintained a few PCI drivers, and done off and on hacking at PCI support code, but I didn't fully understand the semantics of PCI. Within a few dozen pages, I had attained infinitely more clue on PCI, and having not even _finished_ the book yet, I can confidently say it's a great great text on PCI, and makes sense of what usually looks like a house of cards with spaghetti strewn over it in code form.



2. I agree with other reviewers that said the book is not very helpful if you are writing a PCI device driver. It's full of register definitions and timing diagrams but I never got a feel for how to put it all together. This book may be useful for hardware designers but it is largely worthless for software engineers. If you're writing a driver and you want more info, don't waste your money here.



3. Hi,
   Bought this book under the assumption that the coverage would be better than the PCI Specification from PCI-SIG, but the book is pretty much an exact copy of the specification document. If you can get your hands on the original PCI spec., you will be better off. The only saving grace for this book was that it covered all the stuff from the spec., so if you don't have access to the spec., the book does an ok job covering the whole PCI area.



4. Basically, this book is very similar to the PCI SIG specification in many respects (without the hefty PCI SIG membership fee).

   I was surprised to find that Hot-Plug PCI is given some treatment, but as with most of the material it was generalized and skewed towards the hardware design audience.

   This book does do a good job of laying out the registers and explaining them. After I finished reading this book, I was able to do what I need to do, but didn't have a great idea of how the whole system worked.

   There are plenty of timing diagrams and lots of good information, but most of it useless for a software developer. For example, the entire chapter of Hot-Plug PCI was well written, but it described what needed to be done to the various control lines-- something that would be implemented by the Hotplug PCI chipset controller. As a result, it is nice to know, but ultimately, useless.

   Simply stated, if you are looking for a book to help write a device driver for a PCI-based device, this isn't it. On the other hand, if you are software developer looking for a primer on PCI, I would still look elsewhere.




5. I have recently had to undertake a PCI project that required detailed information on PCI configuration of devices, including P2P bridges. I have a couple of other resources, however, this book bridges the gap between software and hardware. Especially the chapters on configuration (Chaps 17, 18 and 19). I highly recommend it!!!!

5 comments about COM and .NET Interoperability.

1. most of the books about Interoperability bettwen COM and .NET for the programmer who worked with COM for a long time,but what will happen if you are learning .NET now and you don't know anything about COM (because you are new to programming world),so this book (the only one in the market) for the new developers and for expert developers too,it's easy to understand as all Mr.Andrew books,for me if they sell the book for 200 $ i will buy it,because of the way of explainning the subjects,if you want something about COM and .NET and how they work together FOR YOU without pain then go to the nearest bookshop and get this book now.



2. FIRST,LET'S SAY THAT MR.ANDREW DO A GREAT JOB IN HIS BOOKS,DO YOU IMAGINE HOW MUCH MONEY HE SAVE IT FOR YOU WHEN YOU READ HIS BOOKS ?
   THE BOOK BEGIN WITH OVERVIEW ABOUT COM AND .NET TOO AND IT'S EASY TO UNDERSTAND TOO,THE BSET THING IN HIS BOOKS THE CHRYSTAL EXAMPLES TO EXPLAIN WHAT HE WANT TO SAY,
   MR.ANDREW IS THE BEST AUTHOR IN THE WORLD AND A LOT OF MY FRIENDS SAY THAT TOO BECAUSE HE KNOW WELL WHAT HE'S DOING,



3. The very first book of his I bought about three years ago was COM and ATL3.0. The thing I liked about that book was the way the author explained the difficult concepts of ATL and COM in plain english.

   He does it again with this book. The book covers all the aspects of Interop services with examples, and explanations are clear and to the point. I was looking for a book that will help me get started on Interop services quickly and this book helped me tremendously.

   Great Job Andrew...




4. This book is definitely a good starting point. It covers most of the topics, a newcomer would like to see and enables both, the .NET programmer and the COM programmer (which is most likely a VB programmer) to find a way into the material.
   What is missing from my point of view is a section which describes the problems that a typical user/writer of legacy code (which COM definitely is from Microsoft's perspective) will have to overcome before he can reuse COM components in the .NET framework and write COM-usable components within .NET.
   Here it relies a bit to much on Microsoft's perspective, which is that "the Framework" will do everything for you.
   This is however only partly true and many programmers have gone through hard times.
   When you start with COM interop, it all seems to easy... but be assured, Microsoft has a lot of work to do for programmers to make it work seamlessly.



5. There may be times when you need to access legacy COM DLL's written in non-managed C++ or Visual Basic. This may be as a stop-gap measure until your older legacy code can be updated to .NET. In cases where performance is critical, you may have no desire to ever upgrade your C++ DLL, but would like to use C# for GUI design, rather than Microsoft Foundation Classes. If any of these situations apply, this is the book for you.
   
   This book begins with a few chapters that will bring the reader up to date on both sides of the GAP. First you are shown the fundamentals of COM objects. Second you are shown the newer .NET architecture. Only by understanding both sides will you be able to make the two effectively communicate. For experienced users, who are already familiar with COM and .NET this section can easily be skipped. The book then continues with an overview of what datatypes are available on each side, and how they cross over.
   
   The real meat of the book comes in the next two sections. Three chapters (the basics, intermediate and advanced topics) are given first for COM to .NET. Then the exact same pattern is repeated from .NET to COM. I spent most of my time with the .NET to COM part of the book, as I was using a C++ DLL with C#. The book answered all of my questions and I was able to successfully implement the application.
   
   The book provides a great deal of good information, but it is sometimes hard to find exactly what you are looking for. Each direction is covered in chapters named the basics, intermediate and advanced topics. What exactly is meant by this is not clear until you begin the chapter. I often found myself skimming all three sections trying to find an example close to what I was doing.

5 comments about Programming Windows Presentation Foundation (Programming).

1. As a software developer I've written tons of production-level code for many companies including Rockwell Automation, Compuware, MS.
   And I found this book to be too shallow for a technical person like me.
   
   [One can save money by simply downloading WPF SDK samples and learning them]
   
   Can one design and implement a better than WPF framework after reading this book? Obviously not!
   
   No wonder, the authors never developed significant portions of any known product/framework!
   
   Also, my e-mail exchange with C. Sells indicates that he himself doesn't really understand WPF in depth.
   (BTW, as a MS employee he has luxury of having access to WPF source code and symbols - he obviously didn't bother to do so)
   
   Just a few examples:
   -- Managed/Unmanaged transition, e.g. the MIL stuff
   -- Lack of understanding the WPF control model
   -- Lack of understanding the WPF text model
   -- Just like in any other *shallow WPF book* [are there deep WPF books out there?] authors make no effort to scrutinize the existing framework (WPF). [Which is definitely far from being clean and nice]
   -- WPF "GDI-free" claims are nonsense since WPF uses User32 and User32 and Gdi32 libs are tightly coupled.



2. The biggest strength of this book is that it focus on using WPF programatically, not just laying out XAML. This is extremely useful if you are writing an application for 3D data visualization or a database driven application. You get to learn to create event handlers, generate meshes... all programmatically. I also believe that this book is great, not just as a learning tool, but as a reference guide. It is the most comprehensive book on the subject and a must for the aspiring WPF developer.
   
   If you just want to focus on XAML, however, I will have to recommend "Windows Presentation Foundation Unleashed" by Adam Nathan.



3. I say to ignore those reviews because they do not refer to this book. This is the second edition published August 28, 2007 with 863 pages. Those reviews are based off of the first edition published nearly two years before (September 12, 2005) and with only 447 pages.
   
   Using Amazon's 'Search inside this book' takes you to the 2005 edition also. That shows only 10 chapters while this edition has 17. Most of the negative comments from the 2 and 3 star reviewers seem to have been resolved.



4. This book is the most in depth resource into WPF i have seen. And not just that, it gets to the good stuff that you'll actually use in your code and not just filler or lists of properties that you can get from intelisense. The examples are extremely useful.
   
   The other benefit of this book is that it doesn't just tell you how to do things, but why. This is incredibly helpful in finding the best solution to your specific problem.
   
   Thanks guys! great book!
   Ralph



5. I bought the first edition of this book called Programming Windows Presentation Foundation (AKA Avalon) at the PDC in 2005 and read it completely on the plane home.
   
   When I heard the second edition was released I didn't think much would have changed, but this is even better than the first edition. It's twice as big and covers all major (and not so major) topics in WPF (inc. an introduction to 3D and Silverlight).
   
   I think this book will proof to be for WPF what Programming Windows, Fifth Edition is for WIN32 programming.

1 comments about Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment: Paperback Edition (2nd Edition) (Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series).

1. Three years ago, this second edition was released in hardcover. A worthy and needed updating of the first edition. Now this paperback edition is made available. The cheaper cost will benefit some readers. Its reputation as one of the standard unix texts means that many unix and linux programmers need it in their workplace. But possibly the cost of the hardcover version was a deterrent.
   
   Meanwhile, I reproduce my review of the second edition, hardcover, from 2005, below. My remarks in it still stand.
   
   ===========================
   
   Many of you who learnt unix in the 90s would have cut your teeth on the first edition of this book. This second edition should be well received. It encapsulates the changes in the unix world since 92. Most importantly, it shows the rise of linux. A rise that is still unabated.
   
   Broadly, the structure of this edition matches the first edition. Rago was brought in as co-author after Stevens died in 99, and he has deliberately kept this consistency. I was glad to see that Rago kept the exercises at the end of each chapter. Many computer books seem to dispense with this, which can be a pity for anyone who needs hands on tasks to learn from.
   
   The threading chapters are a significant change from the first edition. Not simple reading, but they do reflect powerful ways to possibly optimise your code. The biggest cost for you may be the effort you need to invest in understanding the coding issues in these chapters. Rago's code examples are deliberately short, and necessarily somewhat artificial. But they do demonstrate well the various threading issues.
   
   Of course, other chapters have had minimal alterations. How much have terminal I/O or pseudoterminals changed in 10 years? Those chapters may be old friends to you.

5 comments about Operating Systems: Internals and Design Principles (5th Edition) (GOAL Series).

1. I've just finished using this book for a course and I wanted to write a review while the information was still fresh in my mind. However because mine looks to be the only positive review I will probably fall into the trap of rebutting some of the other reviews.
   
   First of all, I usually rate Stallings' books at 5 stars - they've taught me a lot. While this one isn't his best, it's nothing to sneeze at, and better than most texts on similar subjects. The writing is drier than his other texts, but it's fairly concise and very clear, difficult to achieve with such a technical subjct matter!
   
   One reviewer complained that it was difficult to read through in one go - well what do you expect from a book about low-level operating system architecture, it's not Agatha Christie! I found it easy to follow, learn and summarise the concepts, the questions and problems were mostly relevant (and there were a lot, so choosing a subset wasn't hard) and mostly it was pretty interesting (if you happen to like this sort of stuff).
   
   It's one fault is it fails to cover specific coding techniques and examples on an implementation level. However since this would have to be platform- or environment-specific, that's probably on purpose. I would guess most courses would have seperate course material covering implementation, depending on what environment they were interested in or was available.
   
   All in all it's a good book and it'll help you learn stuff. That's the point right?



2. My Operating Systems course used this book and we were assigned chapters that did not coincide. Lack of editing, and no source code for process and child process creation, nor thread or how a thread can spawn another thread. This book is incredibly disappointing. This book does not read well at all.
   
   I would recommend Operating System Concepts by Abraham Silberschatz (updated for Windows XP)good for a college course.



3. This book serves as a good reference, as it contains just about every topic related to operating systems. Like an encyclopedia, however, this is not a book that you want to read cover to cover. While all the material is there, it is not necessarily in any logical order and the material is presented in an extremely dry but straight-forward manner. I found other operating system texts, such as Tanenbaum, to be better for tutorial-style learning. But as a reference text, this book can't be beat.



4. I am a nerd. As a student at the end of my Junior year, CS Grads wonder how I know more about topics they studied in 400 level courses than they do. The answer is simple; I enjoy learning. I read texts for fun.
   
   With that in mind, I think this book may be the worst book on OSs that I have seen. It is incomplete and not enjoyable, even to the most enthusiastic student. I much prefer Tanenbaum's book to this.
   
   BYU is dropping this book after using it for one semester of use. I am happy about that, but I only wish I could get a refund. This book is not a keeper.



5. The book seems to contain a lot of fluff, spending more time then necessary on trivial concepts, while spending too little time on important concepts, or presenting the important concepts unclearly.
   
   The book is not horrible, and most concepts are covered adequately.

5 comments about Understanding UNIX/LINUX Programming: A Guide to Theory and Practice.

1. I bought this book for a college course on Linux -- and I can tell you this... unlike other books on Linux, this one is a great read and very informative. I bought mine using a coupon from UnderTag.com, so it was almost free for me.



2. This book is beautifully written. I just got it today and read the first chapter. I bought it for a class I am taking in Unix Systems Programming. I was relieved when Molay's book arrived in the mail today. I was relieved that the book exceeded my expectations. If you can't afford Harvard, don't worry--the course is all here.



3. It goes right to the point and it's easy too understand. One of the very few books out there that really shows what system programming is all about. Great samples too.



4. Unix has had the luxury of being one of the most documented operating systems in history. Many books have been dedicated to documenting the internals of Unix and Unix-like systems and some have risen to the ranks of classic texts regarded by all as necessary to understanding the inner workings of Unix. Understanding Unix®/Linux Programming would be in excellent company with these books. The book contains a copious amount of code and clear, diagramed explanations describing the processes transpiring in the machine.
   
   Understanding Unix®/Linux Programming is designed to be used in an operating systems course with programmers fluent in C. Fortunately, though, the book can be used outside of the classroom if the reader does not mind an occasional open-ended questions with no included answers. The book may seem light on pages (530 including index), but the author should get an award for jamming so much useful explanation and helpful (and complete) code. The format of each chapter is familiar to most textbooks, with an introduction to the task at hand, explanations and examples, a summary, a list of explorations to further understand the topics presented, and a set of programming exercises. The exercises are creative and directly relate to the presented code. They're also (dare I say it?) fun. I'm not saying they'll replace crossword puzzles, but they do present creative or obvious challenges to the reader. (Like handling when a user types 'exit' from a shell, or blinking the text in an ncurses application).
   
   The book includes topics on file I/O, device I/O, timers, process management, stream and datagram sockets, POSIX threads, file systems, the terminal driver, signals pipes, network programming and semaphores. A typical chapter will introduce an operating system concept (file systems and directories, for instance) and will briefly describe the current Unix command for working with that concept (pwd for determining the present working directory, or ls for listing the contents of a directory, and so forth). The author then proceeds to give a detailed description of what the operating system does to run the command. In the chapter on processes and programs, the author describes what processes are and how to use the ps command. Next the author describes how to fork child processes, and wait for them. This leads to the 'prompting shell', which is a simple, yet functional shell environment. Now some books would leave this exercise after creating a semi-functional shell, but the author presses on and in the next chapter creates 'small-shell' which is an interactive shell with a minimal scripting langauge and variable support. All of this in the span of 71 pages, with plenty of examples, full code listings, diagrams, and problem sets.
   
   Understanding Unix®/Linux Programming takes advantage of the inquisitive nature of coders by presenting commands and command squences we all take for granted, and turning them into "how do they work" learning experiences. Anyone who has ever stopped to think why certain things work the way they do in Unix (or work at all) will find this book immensely helpful in sating that curiousity. Students who are assigned this textbook for a class should thank their teacher for choosing a genuinely useful text from which to read. I can't help but be jealous of students who will use this book for their classes. That jealousy is short-lived though, as anyone who wants an excellent resource for learning Unix programming will benefit from picking up this book. Kudos to the author for crafting not only an exceptionally easy to read and thourough book, but for taking the complex machinations of Unix and making them simple and accessible for all coders.



5. I have read more than half of the book. I like the material the book covers and the way of teaching by exemples.
   Most other books focus on the features of the Unix system.
   
   However I have minor questions:
   1. There are typographical errors in exemple code.
   2. I do not like function tty_mode(int how) in chapter 6.
   it seems trivial and unnecessry and the static variable inside
   the function seems questionable style.
   I wonder why these obvious things happened in such a good book.