1 comments about Labsim For A+ Operating Systems Technologies.

1. This software gives you the hands on experience to identify and fix problems. Great learning tool.

1 comments about Operating Systems Principles.

1. hard to read. difficult to understand. not recommended. waste your money if you buy it.

5 comments about Palm OS Programming Bible, Second Edition.

1. Along with "Palm OS Programming: The Developers' Guide", this is a must have addition to your bookshelf if you wish to be proficient in devloping Palm applications. It is more up to date than the other book; but is complemtary to it. With the two books together, all aspects of Palm programming for the serious developer are handled. But beware, this is not a trivial beginners book.



2. I've been a programmer for 10 years but was new to the Palm OS development environment when I bought this book. It shaved weeks off of my development time. While there is a huge amount of free Palm OS development information online, the online information is geared towards those that are already experienced in the field. There is a paucity of comprehensive, introductory information. This book serves that function excellently. Each topic is introduced in a very understandable manner, while also being discussed in great depth. When embarking on a new area of Palm Programming, this is a great place to start.
   
   Regarding the review beating up this book for lacking more examples and reference information, this type of information is amply supplied by PalmSource.com, user groups, and other sources, all for free and all in digital format. PalmSource.com alone released several reference volumes in searchable PDF format that are a great compliment. It would be a waste of paper to put it in this book.



3. This is a "must read" for people programming or interested in programming apps for the palm.
   
   BUT:
   
   a.- Does not cover Palm Developer Suite (Eclipse).
   b.- It covers the Codewarrior and AFAIK this is not available anymore (at least for now) from Metrowerks.
   c.- Even if it says "covers palm os 5" you will also need to read all the newest info from Palm to get a real feeling of "what's new" with OS 5.
   
   Again, I insist, is a MUST READ, but it will not be your only reference.
   
   1 star goes down because of what I mentioned before.
   4 stars go up because of I did NOT mention. This is a really great reference for Palm OS Programming.



4. Well organized, understandable, and has a good index. Associated web site also useful.



5. Perhaps this was my bad planning but I purchased this book after having already purchased the "Professional Palm OS programming" book by the same author. Don't get me wrong, I assume any book by the same author will contain some of the same information but this book duplicated more than HALF of the same material from the other book. I was hoping to read something new to cover what the other book didn't but instead I found myself reading the same thing.
   
   Let this be a lesson to those who pay closer attention to what they purchase. This book is helpful but not any more helpful than the other book "Professional Palm OS programming". I guess I'll just have to use the Palm example programs to learn the remainder of what I need to know.
   
   Maybe I'll write my own book some day. Yeah.. I guess that might not happen any time soon (or until I take a class in school or something).

5 comments about Operating Systems: A Systematic View (6th Edition).

1. If you are looking for a text that only covers Microsoft operating systems then this is not your book. BUT, if you want a book to teach the fundamentals of an operating system as a platform for today's bread and butter applications(AR, AP, BILLING, SA, INVENTORY, ETC) then this is super. The current world of new computer-ist they only know/learn the Microsoft systems. The bulk of processing done today is still in the backrooms with mainframe & midrange range systems using MVS, VM, VME, UNIX(and similars), and OS/400s, which Microsoft Win/95/98/NTs don't touch. This is for the student that must interface with the total computer industry not just word processing and INTERNET. It should be complimented with a good Win/98/NT bible type book.

   I do wish it was updated a little.




2. Operating Systems a Systematic View is written in clear, easily understandable language and is copiously illustrated. Unfortunately it virtues end there. I used this book as the text in the "Introduction to Operating Systems" at University of Phoenix. Both the course and the text were wanting.

   The text starts with a high level description of basic operating system functions that are common to all operating systems. This is the best section of the book. It benefits from the clear writing used throughout the book.Since it is a high level over view it is not hindered by its' superficiality, as the
   rest of the book is.

   The book then includes a description of UNIX, MVS, Windows 2000 and surprisingly, MS DOS. These are suitable to a very naive user who has never seen the operating system. They only provide a brief overview of each system. We are then treated to an extremely brief summary of each systems scripting or Job Control Language. If fact they are so brief as to be useless. These sections should have been left out.

   The text then leaps into a detailed description of each systems virtual memory management system. These sections are too superficial to benefit anyone who will actually be attempting system programing. They are to detailed to be worth while to someone who will not be doing system programing.

   The reader would have been better served by less introductory material on each OS, and by complete elimination of the discussion of virtual memory management. Instead that space should have been replaced by a more in depth study of the scripting and job control languages and by a look at performance tuning. The time spent of describing the data structures of the Windows virtual memory could better have been spent learning what parameters of the operating
   system can be tuned, and how to measure them.




3. This is not a college-level text. It includes shallow coverage of topics one would expect in an OS course, but not at a level appropriate of such a course, and then spends a tremendous amount of space on computer literacy issues, like how to use MS-DOS and Unix command lines, etc. I think the authors couldn't decide whether they wanted to write an OS text for non-majors, or a computer literacy text.

   In their preface, the authors seem confused about the meanings of the words "applied" and "theoretical," saying this is an applied text, and suggesting that texts for actual OS courses are theoretical. While I will grant them that pretty much any other OS text out there has more theoretical content, this one also has less applicable content than most.

   Had the cover and preface made it clear this text was predominantly a computer literacy text, I'd have had no problem with it, nor would it have made its way to my bookshelf. But the title, the text on the back cover, and the preface are all misleading.




4. This book gives excellent explanation of how an operating system works and will suit a new computer user or someone on a more advanced level. The only downfall of this book was its limited text on Linux. Otherwise its a great book and worth having!



5. Unlike other OS books I've seen, A Systematic View is a clearly written, concise introduction to the foundations of operating systems -- or at least the first few chapters are. As noted by other reviewers, the book doesn't know where to go after the first section -- it meanders into too-brief-to-be-useful hands-on tutorial sections for the middle portion, then moves on to touch open a few particulars with a few popular systems in a way remniscent of excerpts from a heavier text before concluding with a section on distributed computing (the bulk of which concerns remote file access via CIFS/SMB). Scattered amongst the latter half of the book are some decent portions on virtual memory and x86 architectural features.
   
   The book would benefit greatly from having the tutorials moved to online appendices, the OS-specific analysis moved to standard appendices, and the core principles delved into more deeply. Davis and Rajkumar could also do with a few more technical proofreaders; while grammatical, spelling, and typographical errors are kept to a minimum, terminology is used oddly at best throughout the work with many of the "real-world" examples being flat-out wrong.
   
   Reservations aside, I have not found a more approachable introductory/survey text. It's just a pity that there are so many problems with it even in the 6th edition. With a bit of work this could be a respectable upper-division text, but at the moment I can only recommend it for two-year technical/community colleges.

5 comments about UNIX Shell Programming, Revised Edition.

1. The best beginning with Unix Book on the market period!



2. I have purchased this book several times. That is because I keep giving it away to friends. It is the best basic bourne shell programming book I've come accross in 10+ years of Unix admin.
   Most other books tend to focus on Ksh or Csh or some facsimile. This one I always keep at my desk for quick sh reference and fine examples.



3. This book will, if you've never written code or scripts, help
   you write them will proper flow.
   I highly recommen this book, for newbies to UNIX.



4. This and the Bruce Blinn book are the best books available on shell programming. Very thorough, well written, and well indexed. There are many usefull examples and no stupid fluff that is so pervasive in recent technical books.



5. I bought this book looking at the reviews, but hell no, the reviews are overly exageraating, all you get here are something you can get in simple man pages, examples are very simple and outdated, and does not cover any latest developments in this area. I am a Project manager with 12 years industry experience, so I did not really need a book on this, but just tried, and it was a big disappointment...

5 comments about Operating System Concepts (Windows Xp Update).

1. Good book for learning OS principles for undergrad and lower grad students. I recommend this for hose wanting an introduction to OS Internals.
   
   I prefer this to Modern OS by Tanenbaum.



2. This book does a great job of presenting all details of operating system design and operation. When appropriate, the authors point out how Linux, Solaris or Windows implements a given topic. This is valuable for software developers who work on these platform and need to understand how the scheduler is going to react if you spawn new threads/processes.
   
   The one bad thing I can say is that some examples are too general and do not convey the proper detail. This is just a minor distraction and does not take away from the book's overall effectiveness.



3. This book does a good job in keeping up with the Title, "OS Concepts". I won't go in detail justifying that, as it's already been done by several before me.
   
   However, one point worth mentioning is that it's still a concepts book. To be a real programmer / computer science person, one needs to implement the concepts. In that regard, I'd recommed the book " Operating Systems: Design & Implementation by Andrew S. Tanenbaum, Albert S. Woodhull". That way you'll know what the code looks like.
   
   This book is great to start with and learn how an OS works. "NO CODE INSIDE THOUGH"



4. Not a very good book. Had to buy it for a class.



5. Many years ago, I was contacted by a desperate department head in need of someone to teach operating systems. With only two weeks to go before the class started, he was beginning to suffer from a case of the jitters. I agreed to teach the class and this was the book that had already been selected for the course.
   Through the course of the class, I never had any reason to complain about the selection. I found the material well presented and while I had to do the usual explanation and clarifications in class, there was nothing that I considered beyond the norm. The coverage was thorough and when I needed to select exercises for the students, I took them directly from the book and only occasionally modified them to emphasize a particular point.
   After examining other operating systems texts, I still consider this one among the best, at least for its' time.

5 comments about Understanding Active X and Ole (Strategic Technology Series).

1. This is an all around good book. However you will not be able to produce any code after reading it. It will give you an introduction to COM, OLE, and ActiveX technologies. You will especially not be able to use the OLE interfaces after reading this book, you will just have an idea of what they are. Buy it, I recommend it, just know what you will gain from it.



2. This is one of my favorite books. This book gave me an excellent understanding of COM architecture. It's concise and has just the right amount of info. If you are looking for a ready made set of code sample to cut & paste in your project or if you are more interested about 'how' than 'why' of COM then this book is not for you. I have recommended this book and also lent my copy to many. I couldn't keep the book down. An excellent read. David Chappell has done a great job!



3. If you are interested in COM this is a must read. Clear, easy to follow, accurate explanation of the concepts. If you are interested in code look at Don Box "Essential COM" book, but read this one first.



4. This book is a deep survey of COM within 300 clearly written pages, and many many pictures and schemes. If you are looking for code examples etc. it is NOT FOR YOU. But if you want to understand what is COM, what are COM related technologies; if you are looking for best introduction, it has no rival.



5. Usually, when I read a book on a programming technology, I expect to see some source code somewhere. This book is surprising in that regard because it only contains plain english from the first page to the last. There was a hint on the cover page by indicating that managers are included in the targeted audience. This feature has some merits but is also a pain at some other places.
   
   When presenting software to programmers, the most straight to the point way to present the material, it is with source code and I feel that at some occasions, a function definition would have replaced pages of explanations. On the other hand, it is easy to get lost in pages of source code filled with error condition handling code where a simple paragraph of plain english would have been enough to communicate the general idea behind a software module.
   
   With these remarks in mind, this is why, as a programmer, I did not like the first few chapters describing COM basics and really appreciated the last chapters covering OLE compound documents, ActiveX and the usage of COM by MS Internet Explorer.

5 comments about UNIX for Programmers and Users (3rd Edition).

1. This book covers all useful topics about the UNIX, which is what I like. However, this book has many programs and command which are out-of-date. The author need to update new programming styles in the UNIX. The author does not give detailed explanation of the regular expresstion which is very powerful in vi, grap, ed and awk utility.



2. I have the first edition of this book, and used it in college. This book does a good job explaining the basics and some intermediate topics. I particularly enjoyed chapters on system programming and unix internals. Also, the book serves as a good reference.

   Overall, I recommend this book to anyone who wants to start out with UNIX.




3. I had to port some Windows C/C++ code to Solaris and went to the bookstore hoping to find something that would bring me up to speed with the basic utilities and UNIX concepts from the perspective of a programmer. Bookstore shelves are usually crowded with books that deal with the admin part of Unix but good programming books are a tad harder to find.

   The first few chapters about the commonly used utilities quickly taught me to navigate the system but a full 4 chapters are devoted to the shell - a general introduction, bsh, ksh and csh - which was too much for me. I skipped the ksh and csh chapters. Also the systems programming chapters goes into a lot of detail about files most of which I already knew. If you, like me are a Windows programmer making a transition to Unix, be prepared to wade through and often skip stuff you already know. The good thing however is that the writing style is lucid and clear and this book is an easy read. Introduction to file permissions(chown etc) is very well written. Examples are clear and well placed. The brief introductions to perl and awk are also useful.

   Though the price is on the higher side, I think this book is a good buy. Its kept me interested and reading for over a week now and I must say I know so much more Unix for that. If it had been priced say 10-12 dollars lower, I might have given this baby a 4 on 5.




4. I received the book quickly, and the quality of the book is very good. Just surprised at the location of sender, it is in Taiwan, not California as displayed on the web site. And the shipping label was not clear, the manager of the apartment and I were very, very difficult to read the receiver's name, and almost cannot see the address. Anyway, I think this is good seller based on the time of shipping process and the quality of the book.



5. I got the first edition of this book in the 1990s and I loved it. It was great. Recently (2007), I needed UNIX skills in my job again and I thought, "Why not pick up the latest edition - the 3rd?" Well folks - It is bad.
   
   (1) It is poorly printed. Much of the text "fades out" in the low-quality printing they did. Even the binding and physical paper feel cheap when handled.
   
   (2) Pages of text are unchanged from the early 1990s - which also seems cheap - except now it's worse, because they've added in typos and even technical errors.
   
   (3) The index is so full of errors, it's unusable. Which means, if I want to look something up - forget it.
   
   Save your money, folks. This edition is not worth the high price tag.

1 comments about Novell GroupWise 7 User's Handbook (Novell Press).

1. This book covers the basics and then some intermediate material to permit you to user Novell GroupWise email. This is a very well written and concise book covering many of the features. Would like to see a full-text/image PDF version be included with the book.

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.