1 comments about Learning and Applying SolidWorks 2007-2008.

1. As a Technology Instructor and a relatively new user, I'm always investigating new text books and support materials which I can use for my students and myself. By far this SolidWorks book is the most basic book that I have encountered and provides the least amount of informative information about the 3D features, control area, featuremanager, commands, toolbars, etc. in SolidWorks.
   
   The book moves very slowly and does not provide detail information in any form on any subject that would support the 500 pages. The book states that it is a 2007-2008 book, but only supports the 2007 SolidWorks User Interface. The illustrations are large, some a full page. The author states, "Unlike other books of its kind, it begins at a very basic level and ends at a fairly advanced level." I do agree with the very basic level!

1 comments about Fresh Flash.

1. I just received this mornin' the fresh flash book, i already own the Flash Math Creativity book, and i have to admit that this fresh flash book is a great source of inspiration for designer, or good programmers, as the Flash Math Creativity, the authors still does not explain very well what they "paste" in the book, full pages of code with // explanation if you begin do not get this book, if you have solid knowledge of actionscript so this book is for you !!! you will scratch your head while reading the book, and that is the GAME !! Even if it is, a little bit more explanation in the book would have been a pleasure that is the reason why i would give 4 stars, because some parts of the code are very hard to understand...

   Finally, this book is divided into 9 parts, one for each author, each one got his own way of coding and that is funny to see how they solve different problems, they got their touch !!

   So, designers, coders get this book !!!!!!!

5 comments about Flash MX Most Wanted: Effects & Movies.

1. This book has got eight chapters in it, and I've been through four of them so far and am really enjoying it. I bought it because WideGroup wrote one of the chapters and I saw the Sofake site on FlashKit featured site. It's great to see how their Flash files are built and yuou can get all the files for the book on the web site. I made the MP3 player which is great as I've been looking around for tutorials that show you how to do this in Flash MX for ages.



2. i fenk tihs bok is so kool 4 sk00l i giv fiev starz cos it iz good.

   i aelso fink flash iz fuhn + awsum x 9

   <3 (osupsons)

   - mucks




3. Adam Phillip's chapter stands out in this valuable book. Finally, advice from a real professional(Disney) animator. Well respected as a character, special effects and Flash animator, Adam's advice is invaluable to anyone seeking to animate in Flash.



4. This book is full of uninspiring projects and poor editing. Tons of typos, and writing that just doesn't make sense in the least. I'm very surprised someone edited this at all.

   It was up for sale again not long after I got it.




5. This guy is the best flash artist ever! I didnt read the book but I saw his work! go to biteycastle.com to see his work!

No comments about The Viking Explorers (World Explorers).

No comments about Algorithm Animation (ACM Distinguished Dissertation).

5 comments about Dreamweaver MX: The Complete Reference.

1. This book is written the way computer books should be written -- easy to follow, tutorial style that also acts as a reference. Also, one of the main problems with books of this type is the adherence to the manual that is supplied with the software. That is not the case with this book. There is almost no overlap with the manual. There are quite a few Dreamweaver books out there, but most of the books I've seen are mere rehashings of the manual. Thanks to the authors Ray West and Tom Muck for delivering a quality work.



2. I guess the book is good for someone who doesn't have any idea about anything regarding script languages and database
   I believe all the talking about the different script languages and SQl should have been in an appendix not as regular chapters
   I really didn't buy the book to bother myself with ASP, HTML....
   which I already know. I bought the book to learn about DWMX.
   Some contents overlap with one another,too.
   No examples whatsoever.
   Wrox just published Beg DWMX this month.
   I guess I am gonna go buy it



3. With Dreamweaver MX: The Complete Reference by Ray West and Thomas Muck developers will learn how to customize powerful Web applications, learn the most effective ways to design, plan, and build a Web site and then use it to collect, distribute, and leverage information for customers and employees. Additionally, this comprehensive resource covers all of the new features of Dreamweaver MX in detail, including a discussion of the .NET Platform and ASP.NET integration.



4. I gave it 2 stars because the content - all 1,000+ pages of it - doesn't match the title. It should be called "Web Programming - The Complete Overview."
   
   If you want to learn to use Dreamweaver specifically, look elsewhere. Of a thousand pages, exactly FOUR are dedicated to creating a form within Dreamweaver, two to creating a site map. There are whole chapters on ASP, Coldfusion, JSP, PHP, SQL, server authentication - notice that none of those topics are Dreamweaver-specific and all of them could easily be found in books specific to those topics.
   
   I hate it when programmers try to write for end-users. The content usually wanders woefully off-topic as they pursue what interests themselves rather than their readers. If you want a book for using Dreamweaver, this isn't it. If you want an overview and concepts about various types of web programming, you might like this.



5. I could not believe how useless this book was quite contrary to the title which mislead my buying its unhelpful, poorly written chapters covering things which were mostly intuitive or too simple for the complexities of server side site management. Every single question I had about Dreamweaver was left unanswered after its 1041 pages.
   Stay away from this book.

1 comments about Costa Rica in Pictures (Visual Geography. Second Series).

1. As a parent, I was concerned when I read this book with my chidren. Not only did I skip several of the jokes because they were over the heads of my 6 and 7 year olds, but most of them were just not funny even to a child.
   
   What had me concerned was that many of the jokes were sarcastic and questionable. For example: 1) Mother: How many times have I told you not to come home late for dinner? Child: I didn't know I was supposed to keep score. 2)Mother: Mickey, I can't hear you saying your prayers. Mickey: That's because I'm not talking to you. 3)Mother: Henry! How did the baby get all these bumps on his head? Henry: Well, you said he was a bouncing baby boy. But I couldn't get him to bounce.
   
   About half of the "jokes" are how to back talk parents or adults. Some of the jokes are silly, but not funny. I found that too many were in bad taste. I give this book two stars for providing only two genuinely funny jokes. If you just have to take a look at this book, I'd check it out at the library. Don't waste your money.

4 comments about AutoCAD 2004 VBA: A Programmer's Reference.

1. This is a book for everybody. The Beginner and the Pro. I come to this book after two years of working experience with AutoCAD VBA and every time when I have the opportunity to read its pages I never cease to find new good details.
   The presentation is good and the macros I tried were working without problems.
   The Appendix D, "AutoCAD 2000, 2002, and 2004 Object Model Cross Reference", is a good piece for the user with different releases.

   Thank you, Joe for so marvelous book.




2. Sutphin assumes you are already proficient in the manual use of AutoCAD. He does not waste your time teaching this. Instead, he gives an advanced usage mode. Where perhaps you would like to make designs in a programmatic fashion.
   
   There are several ways this could have been done. But Autodesk decided to enable (in a manner of speaking) an "API" that is Visual Basic for Applications. To be sure, there are programmers versed in C++, Java, C# or other languages that may well look down on this choice. But VBA is a decent programming language. Being descended from Basic, it may not have some of the notational elegance of C++, say. Still, you can express a lot of computing logic in VBA.
   
   Most importantly, VBA enables object oriented coding. The book points out that you have two types of objects. Those you can define within VBA, as in any other OO language. Plus the very natural objects that arise in your AutoCAD design. If you study the book carefully, you can see how these two types can often be finessed seamlessly together.
   
   Suppose your background is engineering, and not computing. So that explains your AutoCAD experience. Perhaps you've never had OO programming before. The logical mapping described here is an excellent way to learn the more abstract OO concepts, for you can relate these directly to your expertise.



3. Our developer says this book has been a great help to him.



4. This book is too broad and shallow. Can hardly find a complete and useful program. Seem like it tries to cover everything but nothing covered in detail. Connecting to Excel and words is also just connection only. After connecting, then what to do?? The author said go and read other books if you want to know in depth. If you want to see a lot of API or commands, this book is for you. No good for learning something useful and practical.

4 comments about Macromedia Flash MX Components Most Wanted.

1. What a great book! Im pretty new to Flash and have spent most of my life programming in C, but this book helped me produce some fantastic results in a really short space of time. Its concise, well written and seemed to have an answer for every problem that I got myself into. No complaints so far - nice one lads!



2. Im coming from a unix/c background with over 10 years experience and I found this book to be really good introduction to Flash MX. Its written very clearly and concsicely and full of useful examples and great ideas. I got my project up and running very quickly with some very pleasing results. Keep up the good work boys!



3. I still can't believe i only paid so little for this book, it's just awesome! I've been using Flash for a couple of years now, but only recently started getting into MX components - any designer (or even developer?) looking for efficient solutions should really look into using them. I'm at the point now where i'm having to reuse as much code/design elements as i can now because
   work is just soooo busy, and with this book you get a cd containing 21 components (actually, there's even more than that if you count some of the neat experimental ones!). I'm not even gonna try and work out how much development time this cd will save me, but I can't advise it enough - i really hope these guys bring more of them out. To be honest i've only looked through about half of these components so far, but i'm still blown away -
   check out tool tip, the dynamic text 'stringthing', and the XML/actionscript converter especially - i didn't even realize i needed these things until now! The chapter on the movie loader is just a killer too. And there are also more 'crazy-stoopid' ones, like pattern generators and image modulators. What can i say, buy it and hope these authors bring out a sequel! Tons of fully-documented components, tons of examples, i'm a happy
   designer!



4. "Flash MX Components Most Wanteed" is targeted towards designers and those that shy away from ActionScript. The book focuses on explanations of how to use each of the components -- not how they were created or the design choices made while building these sometimes extraordinarily complex components. Many of the components contained on the CD are quite useful, but I personally could have done without the "nifty graphics" and image manipulation components. It's nice to have detailed explanations of each of the available component parameters (kind of like a product manual), but the book left me wanting more about the hows and whys of creating solid, useful Flash MX components.

1 comments about Microsoft Windows XP Color Management.

1. Color used to be so simple, you left it to someone else to handle. To be sure you could select the film you wanted to use to highlight blues or reds or whatever, and when printing the image you had some control over the printing process. With the advent of desktop publishing this has changed. Color management is in your hands.
   
   This is a book that concentrates on color. It uses Adobe Photoshop Creative Suite 2 as the standard software package for illustrating what can be done. And there is one chapter on using Quark Express.
   
   The book starts with the simple question -- why doesn't the image coming from your printer match what you see on the screen. By the end of the book you'll not only know why, but you'll know how to fix it.
   
   As you can guess from the title, this book concentrates its discussion on Windows XP platforms. It's a welcome addition to the literature of handling color