5 comments about Constructing Accessible Web Sites.

1. I don't usually come it the "lyrical type", but to find such a worthwhile book on such a worthwhile topic is a breath of fresh air!

   Above all else, it offers practical advice on how to actually do the right thing. Unlike certain titles with animals on their covers, there's more here than just reams and reams of tables containing cut-and-pastes from the man pages on the subject.

   It's also of a nice size. (I know that would be no recommendation, if the book didn't actually teach you anything, but it does - and you don't feel intimidated, like you can when you pick up some dirty great Red tome from a Certain OtherPublisher.) You feel as if the subject is managable. Knowable. It may be just me, but if a book is smaller than my own head, I generally feel that there's an outside chance I may be able to fit the contents inside my own skull!

   I'll have to keep an eye open for these blue things... they're quite good.




2. Of the books and resources that I've read on accessible web sites, this is by far the best - especially from a UK perspective.

   The main UK legislation that specifically mentions web sites and accessibility comes into force in October 2004 which, at the time of writing this, is still over two years away. This means that there isn't a great deal of information and certainly no legal cases that we can draw on from our country, so we have to look elsewhere to see what is happening.

   This book benefits in that, although it does cover Section 508 and other already in place legislation, it also gives a great all round understanding of the topic, and is very easy to read. Having chapters written by different authors means that you get a far greater depth of experience and information, which can only benefit the reader.

   If you're going to buy one book on accessible web sites, this should be at the top of your shopping list.




3. Two new words have joined the vocabulary of web designers in recent years - usability and accessibility. You will often come across them used in tandem.

   Usability really became an issue when Jacob Nielsen infamously denounced Flash as 99% bad. Accessibility became a priority for web developers working on government projects after Section 508 was brought into law in the United States.

   Accessibility became an issue in Australia during Maguire vs SOCOG in 1999, when a blind man filed a complaint with the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) that neither Olympic Games tickets purchasing information nor the souvenir programme were available in Braille. Most importantly he alleged that the SOCOG website was not accessible, and to make it so would have been well within budget. SOCOG was found to have discriminated against the complainant and damages were awarded against the organization.

   Accessibility is now a civil rights issue. It is also not that difficult to implement on a website, once you learn how it can be done. This excellent book, Constructing Accessible Web Sites, teaches you all that and more. It is the first on its subject, and will not be the last, but it is damned a good beginning.

   All eight co-authors have been pioneers in the field of accessibility, and Glasshaus deserves praise for having assembled such a team. They cover more than website accessibility - their expertise extends to the accessibility of web design tools themselves. An apt reminder that the web is as much about reading as writing, for writers as much as readers, a real medium of two-way communication.

   All websites can now be made accessible to varying degrees, even Flash websites since Flash MX, as Macromedia Senior Product Manager for Accessibility Bob Regan demonstrates in Chapter 10. So there are no excuses for failing to add increased accessibility, and usability for that matter, to that new project you are just about to commence.

   Ensure you have a copy of Constructing Accessible Web Sites at hand when you begin. And also take a look at another equally essential reference on the subject due out any day now, Joe Clark's Building Accessible Websites. Accessibility is the newest and most necessary website building skill. There are no excuses now.




4. The GlassHaus "Constructing Accessible Web Sites" book has been a great find. I began working to build sites and applications for use in Web browsers that had to be used by individuals with disabilities in 1997. Over these years I picked up a lot of hard won knowledge and experience, but have never run across a resource that fully backed what I had gathered. The GlasHaus Accessibility book not only echoes what I have learned, but has provided new insights to improve upon what I already have. The best part of this book is that I can point others to it and I am assured they will be able to build an accessible site or Web applications that can meet high standards.

   Many folks think accessibility is a great inconvenience, but it takes a little thinking and planning to do it right from the beginning. Having a great resource at hand makes the process a cake walk. Not only are the processes and guides helpful for creating sites that are accessible for those that are disabled these steps outlined also make the information in the site future ready. Sites that are accessible are much easier to use with a handheld PDA device or from even a cell phone browser. Accessibility for everybody in more situations improves with structuring the information properly, which is all making Web enabled information really requires to get it ready to be consumed. Is your information ready to be consumed by everybody?




5. The GlassHaus "Constructing Accessible Web Sites" book has been a great find. I began working to build sites and applications for use in Web browsers that had to be used by individuals with disabilities in 1997. Over these years I picked up a lot of hard won knowledge and experience, but have never run across a resource that fully backed what I had gathered. The GlasHaus Accessibility book not only echoes what I have learned, but has provided new insights to improve upon what I already have. The best part of this book is that I can point others to it and I am assured they will be able to build an accessible site or Web applications that can meet high standards.

   Many folks think accessibility is a great inconvenience, but it takes a little thinking and planning to do it right from the beginning. Having a great resource at hand makes the process a cake walk. Not only are the processes and guides helpful for creating sites that are accessible for those that are disabled these steps outlined also make the information in the site future ready. Sites that are accessible are much easier to use with a handheld PDA device or from even a cell phone browser. Accessibility for everybody in more situations improves with structuring the information properly, which is all making Web enabled information really requires to get it ready to be consumed. Is your information ready to be consumed by everybody?

1 comments about The Animation Pimp: An Official AWN Press Publication.

1. Based upon Robinson's AWN section, this book basically reprints his tired view on the animation industry. Childish humor, shock-value musings and an awful use of the word "fug" in place of the word f*** (cowardly if you ask me). I'd write more, but my original in-depth review was censored by either Amazon or Robinson. Welcome to free speech, folks.

5 comments about .NET Game Programming with DirectX 9.0.

1. eI am not sure if I am the only one who researched before I bought, but I found this book to be precisely what I expected, to a degree, but more on that in a moment. Some of the other comments are unfair to say the least. A sprite can inherit from a monkey if I want it to. This does not make it any more or less OO and those who say it does I feel lack the abstract vision...no point in bashing, the book does what it is designed to do and code-nazis will never be happy with anything that doesn't fit their narrow perception of 'the right way.'
   
   I would say this book is really good for those who have written a lot of code, are at least somewhat comfortable with .net and know how to debug. That is because you will do a lot of debugging. I have no idea what went on, but the editing is horrendous, to be very kind. They will suddenly rename objects a page after they declared them, they will completely forget to inform you that you have to include a method and you only realize it when it is referenced later, they (and this is completeley unexcusable) have syntax errors that don't even make it past the copiler. The actual code in the text as a sample is completley useless unless you view it as psuedocode.
   
   That being said, I found this book to be fairly uselful when I accepted the psuedocode notion above. If you know how to get around the text issues, this book does a pretty good job at intorducing many concepts of game programming. The DirectX info is good and let's be honest, how many other books are out there covering game coding in VB? I can churn out three complete, working apps (even taking into account all the textual errors) in the time it takes to muck through a C++ direct3D lib. It has been a fantastic 'jump start' on my game programming and you get to experiment and tweak where in other cases you spend the entire week just chunking out the code. It is just to bad the text is riddled with issues, because there are so many talented programmers who learned completely through working with VB, it is sad this title will not enable those same self-visionary-types to do the same with games.



2. I was lucky enough NOT to buy this book. I sat down in Barnes & Noble this weekend and read the first 60 pages and skimmed briefly through the rest. I would hate to try and recommend this book to anyone. A beginner may learn a few things, but it's riddled with errors and some terrible programming techniques, that I would hate to see a beginner pick those techniques up as "the way to do it."
   
   I think authors should take more care in the editing procedure. Even a casual re-reading by the author would have, I should think, exposed many problems, which could have been fixed before going to press.
   
   A couple errors:
   
   - Saying you'll take errors if you try and use a certain technique with indexed pixel formats, like JPEG. Excuse me? JPEG is not, never has been, and never will be an indexed pixel format image. Sorry!
   
   - Saying "In .NET all the arrays must be defined without boundaries, which are later assigned in the code.
   So we must always use Redim before assigning values to an array." What?! Are you nuts??
   
   The biggest chuckle I got was when, in the first chapter, he is careful to code his own "Rectangle" storage so that he can save an addition (+) operation. But, if you look at the code for drawing the blocks, he is as inefficient as you can get: creating and destroying entire device contexts for EACH BLOCK. Yeah, for each (X,Y) block, he calls "ArrGameField(X, Y).Show(WinHandle)", which in turn does "Graphics.FromHwnd(WinHandle)". Crazy!!



3. This book teaches some useful concepts and techniques when it comes to game programming. It is getting me started on Direct3D okay, which is why I bought the book. There are some serious problems, however.
   
   The book (thank god) comes with a CD with working source code. This code will often not agree with the book. The book contains syntax errors. The author forgets to inform you of many variables and functions that need to be defined. He flips back and forth between VB6-style and VB.Net program flow mechanisms and commands, using Err.Raise, On Error Goto, MsgBox, and FunctionName = ReturnValue in one function, then Structured exception handling, MessageBox.Show, and Return ReturnValue in the next function. In the function I am looking at right now, a for/next loop is needed, but the for and next lines are simply omitted from the source in the book! The code doesn't appear even make sense until you open the source from the CD to see what is missing. He uses incorrect DirectX function, class and enumeration names (on the page open in front of me, he declares a texture object as a "Direct3DTexture8" rather than the correct "Texture"... I am beginning to wonder if all this code is not ported from VB6 and DirectX 8).
   
   I copied one of the games (River Pla.Net) to my hard drive, and compiled and played it. It (intentially) runs at about 6 FPS, with the entire playing field scrolling one row of tiles per frame. It works, but it looks... bad. In five minutes I looked around, modified 15 lines of code, tops, and I had the game running with smooth scrolling and waaaay smoother controls. Why would the author not take the extra five minutes to make his game look 100% better?
   
   I have to admit, though, that I am now capable of creating a Direct3D, tile-based game, which was my goal, which is why I would give the book 3 stars rather than one. A less experienced programmer, however, might not be able to fix the errors found in the code in the book. If you find any other book that suits your needs, I recommend swaying away from this one.



4. There is no reason to buy this book. There are much better books for managed DirectX and game programming. As a programmer, I was embarrassed by the poor coding in this book. Trying to learn from this book is pretty hopeless.



5. Alexandre Santos Lobao and Ellen Hatton, .NET Game Programming with DirectX 9.0 (Apress, 2003)
   
   The best thing about this book is the theory; Lobao and Hatton lay out the basics of working with DirectX, etc., in simple, easy-to-understand language for those of us whose programming experience is limited to, say, database access, and have never had a use for graphics.
   
   The code, on the other hand, is deeply flawed, not to mention not all here (the authors refer us repeatedly to the book's CD, which is all right-- unless you're borrowing yours from the library and the CD is smashed into seven or eight pieces). I've tried copying some of it straight from the book into VB.NET, with, shall we say, questionable success. I've been able to debug a good deal of it myself because I do code for a living, but I can't imagine a beginner, who's never coded anything before, doing anything but being thoroughly puzzled by the errors.
   
   The rating is given mostly for Chapter 3, which is valuable. ***

5 comments about 3D Studio MAX 3(r) Media Animation.

1. Finally a book that merges great tutorial writing and impressive content. Going through this book, I was intrigued with every sentence. Not only did I want to read what Chismar had to say but I would learn things at random times. New techniques and tricks sprawl throughout this book, were at times I even felt a little guilty getting all this info for just a few bucks. Don't keep us waiting too long for the next one, John.



2. I have read several books about 3D Max but I consider this book one of the best books ! and I have learnt a lot from it ...If you want to make professional media animations logos you have to own one !



3. I have read several books about 3D Max but I consider this book one of the best books ! and I have learnt a lot from it ...If you want to make professional media animations logos you have to own one !



4. not even worth giving it up to my dog to chew on.



5. This book literally launched my CG animation career. I later took a class in CG animation and modeling and the tutorials in this book were in that class. Its was an excellent class, since it helped you learn the book's content is covered in 3 weeks instead of 2-3 months of night time after work animation. But this book is $30 not $2k.
   What a great book. It does assume you know the basics, so learn the basics first and then dive in head first.

No comments about Natural Systems and Human Responses (Nelson A-level geography).

No comments about Multimedia Systems (X.media.publishing).

5 comments about Game Design: Theory and Practice (With CD-ROM).

1. Being an avid gamer, and dreaming of working in the video game industry, I pretty much knew everyhing there was in this book. However, if you're not like me, then I think you will find this book useful.
   The book goes from the beginning stages of video game design up to the completion of a video game. It gives really good information about what makes a game good and not tired and done before.
   The interviews of the game designers are kinda helpful; it really depends on if you already know the designers work and are familiar with it.
   This is a non-technical book though, so it won't tell you how to code a game or make models. It basically tells you all of the intangibles you can't learn in a class or really anywhere.
   
   It's worth the read.



2. I got this book to help in a class since it was a course requirement. It has alot of good info and intangibles about game design that is very helpful to anybody that would want to know.



3. I am currently using this as my Game Design textbook. As a student, it provides not only mere theory, but valuable interviews with upstanding designers. It is clear, and a joy to read.



4. The editorial review is kinda deceiving, so I'll just write what's missing on it: The book tries to balance between theory, practical examples and interviews.
   
   Which may be great to some, but not that great to others.
   
   The book is basicaly structured in this way:
   30-50 pages of Theory
   5-15 pages of a practical example (something about the theory on an actual game)
   15-40 pages of Interview (with some famous game designer... which might be good if the reader knows their games, and might be bad if the reader doesn't, since not much of it is exactly "game designer" content).
   
   That structure is repeated through over and over the book's 677 pages.
   But don't get me wrong, the content is still very good. Cover lots of stuff from developing the game concept, to more technical stuff like AI, Multi-playing, Level design and playtesting.
   
   So, a good book that covers lots of stuff on game design without going too deep in specific stuff.



5. That's really great book for every game designer or someone who wants to be one, but also a good one for all other people working on game, so that they can understand design work. Just don't expect programming or animation or other topics from it, it's about "game design" not "game software design" or "game graphics design" or others. It's also very important that author actually IS game designer of commercial games, and included example of design document of one of his released games (The Suffering) - some really good material there, that one is really worth it!

5 comments about Inside Adobe(R) Photoshop(R) 6, Limited Edition (2nd Edition) (Inside).

1. This is the best computer book I have bought.
   It really teach me on how to use Photoshop.
   It's helpfull for the novice to the beginner. I was beginner.
   What I really like about the book it's that it comes with step by step instructions and a cdrom with files you need.
   It's worth every buck and also is good reference.



2. This book is HUGE. It is packed with useful and helpful information to guide anyone through Photoshop. The tutorials were very helpful to me in getting started with the techniques used in Photoshop. All users of Photoshop 6.0 should keep this book close by-- it is an excellent reference.



3. I am a programmer, not a DTP professional - therefore this review might not be good for people who do the living on DTP or photography editing.

   This book seems to cover techniques how to do something, but in a strange manner. The book is too slow, which makes me very inpatient and angry, and examples (tasks) often are guided like: press ctrl T, now D, then select pen tool and draw a line (which you can't from some reason), then press this and that, and we have a new path here, now hide a layer by ctrl whatever, and so on.

   The book is not organized well. It misses the global definitions at the beginning, e.g. what the path is. What is a layer? When we use it? Then there should be a simple example how and when to use it. When to link or not to link a selection with layer? When to use RGB layers, add a selection layer. And finally the same for some frequently used basic tools and effects (shadows, distortions, and whatever is important).

   I have seen many people who really know Photoshop (guys who work for newspapers), and that stuff can't be learned from this book. They use different techniques, more efficient, while this book wastes your time by showing you how to do a shadow, or use a path for such a simple thing that you would never use path for. Also, the author is paying too much attention for tools like lasso, or some other selection tools, while I was interested into details of displacement maps and other effects, mixing photos and etc.

   However, I have seen that marks of this book are really great - and therefore I must be very wrong because I am going to mark this book with only two stars, so forgive me on that. But I would really recommend future readers to try to borrow this book before buying it or compare with some other book, since this book is not organized well and is not leading you properly as the good book should.




4. I purchased 4 books for getting on with photoshop and thsi one stands out along with The Photoshop 6 bible. Garry runs you through al of Photoshop's powerful tools and by the end of the book you really are in a position to do things in photoshop yourself.unlike many books out there this book teaches you how to use a tool,what its advantages are and which situations to use rather than describe the tool only for achieving a particular aim in a particular tutorial.Add to this the friendly rant of the authors,the light haerted tips and remarks and professional level works,YOU GET A WINNER!
   But one point to note is that this is NOT A BOOK FOR THE BEGGINER.You need to have a reasonable amount of experieance with photoshop to get the maximum out of this book.
   Thanks Garry for coming out with such a great book!



5. This book is a complete steal for whatever price it's now selling for. I bought it (not the limited edition, but the original) several years ago used for $8 (including shipping!) and have ever since referred to it as the best Photoshop foundation book around. (Regardless of what version of Photoshop you're currently working in.)
   
   Make no mistake about it, this is not a casual read. It's over 1000 pages of serious information. It's black and white (except for a color gallery section in the middle), it's not printed on fancy coated paper, the cover is less than gorgeous, the book itself is large and cumbersome, each page is drowning with large amounts of type, and many of the images for the exercises are outdated and downright cheesy. But...
   
   It is an AWESOME book. You WILL learn Photoshop if you read this. If you really, truly, actually do read it and work through all the examples (included on the CD).
   
   I like this book because it has meat. It's not filled with fluff and marketed to turn a quick buck (I mean, seriously, look at the cover!) The content is 100% solid. (The author also provides some subtle humor and is actually pretty entertaining.)
   
   Overall... this is the best book I've seen to take someone from being completely new to Photoshop, to being an advanced user. It lives on in my Photoshop library as a valuable reference tool.

2 comments about Video Compression Techniques.

1. This book is just an introductory text to image compression. The algorithms are not illustrated in a detailed fashion, but they provide the reader with a good overview. The MPEG section is well developed and the few pages dealing with wavelets give you an idea of the way the subject should be approached.



2. This book provides only a basic overview of video compression techniques--I wish its title said something to that effect. However, this book does a pretty good job at covering the basics. It is a very easy read. I would suggest reading this to get a general overview of the topics, and then read a text that covers video compression more in-depth.

No comments about The New Wider World.