5 comments about Sun Performance and Tuning: Java and the Internet (2nd Edition).

1. There is no question that if you are involved in performance related issues on the SUN Sparc platform, you have to buy this book. It gives you invaluable information and helps you determine what is actually happening on a given system. Having said that, I wish it was better written and organized. This book is intended, I feel, for the intermediate to advanced systems administrator.



2. The first 5 pages alone helped me to tune my systems, setup cachefs, etc. Definitely worth the money if you are responsible for the care and feeding of Solaris boxes.



3. After reading the other reviews I had high hopes for this book. The book is not geared to people that already have basic sysadmin skills. And in one case the book makes a rather dubious statement. They list a few ndd parameters and state "The other values should never be changed on a production system." Well, they left out tcp_ip_abort_cinterval. And they don't mention tcp_ip_abort_linterval at all which so far seems to be an undocumented Sun Microsystems parameter. A book about tuning should cover all the tunable parameters and explain cause/effect. Simply stating that you never change the other parameters without explaining why isn't why you buy a book on Performance and Tuning.

   If you're just starting out with Sun administration and do not know a lot of the unix commands to administer and monitor a Solaris box this book will help. The book does cover much of the basics and background that someone starting out needs. The book does leave out a number of higher level concepts and doesn't cover all tunable parameters so it doesn't really help much beyond already available text/webpages which you'll still have to research and scour to really learn the whole story on Solaris performance and tuning. But if you already know some of what you're doing you're money is better kept in your pocket.




4. This 2nd edition of Cockroft's classic on Sun Performance Tuning was a step up from the somewhat meager meal served in its 1st edition.

   At the time of its writing this book filled a void, since there was not much "out there" covering performance tuning in general as well as for Sun boxes in particular.

   Mike Loukides' "System Performance Tuning" still hung around in its 1st edition, and thus had established itself somewhat as the grand-daddy of UNIX performance tuning books, but was already pretty outdated. It's 2nd edition was still years away.

   While Adrian Cockroft's "Sun Performance and Tuning" today still provides some interesting insights, and therefore could be a welcome addition to a Sun system administrator's bookshelf, there's another book which should be considered first: "Resource Management" from the Sun BluePrints series, which he wrote in collaboration with Richard Mc Dougall, and various others.




5. Great book but needs to be updated.

1 comments about The Object of Data Abstraction and Structures (using Java).

1. I am not a proffessional JAVA programmer, so keep that in mind when using this review. I find the information hard to read in this book. As a student in the second semester of JAVA, I still need to see good examples of implementation, and this book seems to lack that. There are also mistakes in many places, especially in examples, so it makes it that much harder to learn from this book, and the way the author shows examples of code is hard to follow. I have other books that teach JAVA and find any of them easier to understand and much more useful than this book. I would say that if the intent is to learn the theory of Data Abstraction and Structures, this could be a good book if you can find it easy to read. If you want a reference book, this is the last thing you want to get.

5 comments about KickAss Java Programming: Cutting-Edge Java Techniques with an Attitude.

1. Firstly, as expected this book is not for the beginner programmer. It has excellent, working, examples which really takes you to the "cutting edge". Its focus is more on advanced animation (game-like programming techniques) and doesn't include for example database design and implementation, etc. Overall an excellent book, and for everyone bored with simple java UI's



2. This book is the best way for anyone who want to work with the Real Time Image Proccesing.

   Thanks to the Autor ......




3. I first read a friend's copy of this book, it was already out of print and he had lost the CD, but the tecniques and ideas in this book are clearly written and easy to read. This is an excellent reference even if you are not working in Java (which I wasn't at the time) The Ideas are easily adaptable to C - C++ and the information and theories are fundamental to understanding 3D imaging from Movie Special Effects to Gaming. I spent 2 years trying to track down a copy with a CD and finally found it through Amazon.com, Thanks Amazon!



4. Java games are a hobby of mine, and I must say this the most practical book for the topic that I've found. It contains great practical examples, and doesn't stray from the subject - programming techniques that allow you to produce excellent-looking applets. Ever see those flashy slideshow applets, with various special effects? This book will show you how to construct one by yourself, explaining each step with great detail. It goes through great extent in helping you understand what you're doing, all while sticking close to subject, without beating around the proverbial bush.
   The only downside to this book is its coverage of sounds in Java - if you need help with sounds and sounds alone, don't buy this book. It contains a miniscule amount of information regarding the subject - namely just a brief introduction to sounds, and usage of the Applet class' primitive audio playback functions (Java has great support for generating audio on-the-fly, which this book does not cover).

   Lack of detailed sound documentation doesn't take away the value of this book, however, and I recommend it to anyone who would like to produce "kickass java" applets.




5. Don't let the age of this book fool you. It is basically all about the algorithms necessary for producing visual effects in both 2D and 3D that just happens to use Java as an implementation language.
   The first chapter is titled "Easy Animation." The chapter's main focus is creating quickly loaded images, and reducing flicker.
   Chapter two covers sound and is eight pages long. Two pages are sample code. Remember this book was written when Java had very primitive sound support.
   Chapter three goes deep into image processing. The end result is that this chapter shows you how to code many of the special effects found in PhotoShop. Wave, ripple, and explode filters and 3D button effects among others are included here. To me this chapter is the one that stands the test of time the best due to all of the algorithms shown.
   Chapter four covers two-dimensional rendering. The main topic of this chapter is creating small animations based on single pictures. The author introduces his framework class "ImageProcessor" first in this chapter.
   Chapter five is entitled "Entering the Third Dimension". A really interesting star field program is included that was written, of course, before Java3D. Other programs include a bouncing ball and some take-offs of the star field. Then a 3D spiral program is introduced. The chapter dives back into the ImageProcessor class next. A program to break apart a picture and put it back together ends the chapter.
   Chapter six discusses the now obsolete VRML. 3D transformations, movement in 3D, and wire and shaded objects are all covered, quickly and with no sympathy for the novice. A full page and half is dedicated to a discussion of VRML. This is a lot for this book. Most topics get explained once, very quickly and then it's off to the next topic. Several pages are dedicated to explaining a turning cube script. The Matrix3D class is covered next. Navigation is covered briefly, and wireframes are introduced. Shading is covered very lightly then a truly monster program for a so-called "basic" Model3D class is given. This is twelve pages of code. A second program follows that allows you to view Model3D. The chapter ends with a discussion on precalculating movement and passing HTML to the VRML animator, which is also included. There are interesting ideas here, but VRML is old hat and the code will require adapting to more modern needs.
   Chapter seven is titled "Adding Realism." The main targets of this chapter are shading, illuminating, and textures--all, of course, very important to making that virtual world look real. The chapter walks through the creation of a cube in wire form then shows how to fill in the surfaces and begin shading. Shadows and perspective are discussed, then another little jewel is given. Listing 7.7 "Creating a 3D object from an image" and the accompanying viewer in 7.8 show how to take a title, make it 3D and shadow it. Texture is covered in great depth with lots of good code and more interesting tricks with pictures. The rest of the chapter is one long update to the Model3D class introduced earlier.
   Chapter eight gets into tricks with text. This chapter is crammed with interesting scroll tricks. Late in the chapter some great 3D text scroll scripts, like a 3D spiral, are given.
   Chapter nine is titled "Navigation." The keys to this chapter are frames, tracking the mouse and 3D animated menus. This stuff gets more directly into HTML.
   Chapter ten is about making imaging effects look better and load fast. Some of this material is dated because the author is writing from the viewpoint of Java 1.0.2.
   The appendix is a great summary of classes and commands used in the book. It serves as a very good reference source and is very helpful when trying to read through the programs in the book. The CD-ROM contains some shareware and freeware and a Java version of the old game "Asteroids". Most importantly it contains all the programs in the book. The shareware is pretty ancient and source code for the shareware is not included.
   Even though this book was obviously written at a time when Java's main purpose was to jazz up web pages, it is still interesting for people who already know Java and basic computer graphics and are looking for some interesting graphic effects and their explanations. The two main bad points about this book are:
   1. Everything is in the form of an applet. This is certainly due to the fact that the contents were written in 1996.
   2. For a book that is supposed to be about graphic effects, the illustrations are very shoddy and they are all in black and white.
   In spite of these drawbacks, it is a good source of information on how to perform effects at the pixel level, and in that respect the book will never be obsolete.

1 comments about Java Application Strategies for iSeries and AS/400--Second Edition.

1. I've purchased many Java books and several Java books geared towards AS/400 professionals. This is the first book that actually made sense from cover to cover. I HIGHLY recommend this book for AS/400 professionals wanting to learn Java, JSP, Servlets and the latest features of the AS/400 toolbox for Java.

   I had a bit of knowledge about Java before reading this book and was able to get to the next level using this book.

   Although the examples were very informative and efficiently conveyed the lessons, I found some errors in the example code (First example has one). My only wish would be that the examples had more cleanup and error handling in them but I guess they didn't want the code to be too complicated and stay focused on the lesson at hand.

   In addition to learning Java, I was able to quickly configure a Tomcat Web Server on our AS/400 using this book. The book also covered JDBC 2.0 which is a must, especially for database oriented AS/400 professionals.

   Don Denoncourt has a very clear way of explaining and illustrating the concepts of Java.

2 comments about Marty Hall's Servlets and JavaServer Pages Training Course.

1. I think this package is great. I would like to see more multimedia presentations such as this one. I would prefer everything to be electronic (presentations, tests, video, everything), and it would be nice if you could mark your place in the course electronically. There's a little too much video of Marty Hall waving his hands around (I'd rather be staring at code, hopefully with the parts he's talking about highlighted). However, overall I think this is an excellent introductory course because it not only familiarizes the reader with servlets and jsp, but also is chocked full of helpful hints, warnings of pitfalls, and guidance on good design practices.

   By the way, the video won't work properly in either internet explorer or netscape. But if you open both browsers simultaneously, and play a few seconds of the video in one browser, and then stop the video in that browser, and then watch the full length of the video in the other browser, then the picture will look just fine.




2. I owe Marty a lot for my livelihood.
   I have used many JSP materials and I am sure I will be using a lot more in the future.
   As an independent trainer and consultant, I teach experienced developers and consult on corporate projects. The consulting work come as a result of the training I give and through word-of-mouth refferals.
   As we all know, the reputations of people like me does not last much longer than the previous course - which means that I have to keep improving my material and presentation else I am out of a job.
   Marty's course is comprehensive and presented in a lively, easy to follow manner. He does not only show you how things are done, but more importantly why - it is like being there, with the added advantage that you can always replay the lecture. I have listened to the audio a few times and I sure am going to listen to it again.
   Another thing: Marty is one of those few authors who have taken the time to answer my queries.
   Well done Marty - it is a pity there are not many teachers like you out there!

5 comments about Eclipse: Step by Step (Step-by-Step series).

1. As part of my preparation for an Eclipse presentation later this month, I reviewed Eclipse Step-By-Step by Joe Pluta (MC Press). For someone with absolutely no exposure to the package, this will help you get started.
   
   Chapter list: Welcome to Eclipse!; Installing Eclipse; Introducing the Workbench; The Resource Perspective; The Java Perspective; The Debug Perspective; A Simple Program; Running and Debugging; The User Interface; Adding the Database; Install a Java Runtime; Install Winzip; Download Eclipse; On Things GUI; Start Your SQL Engines; Index
   
   I think to understand this book's style, you have to know the target audience of the author. He wants to show working code and examples that are well commented, and he wants to walk you through the steps involved in a task. He also wanted to show how Eclipse works from a Java perspective, even if the reader doesn't know Java. That's why you can type in the code he provides, or you can import it from the CD. The steps are very detailed with tons of screen shots to show you what each step should look like. Things are taken in bite-size chunks, so that really *anyone* could understand and use Eclipse by the time you get done with this book. If you have any experience with Eclipse already, you probably won't get much out of this book that you don't already know. But the beginner will be able to work through this material with no problem.
   
   The argument could be made that there is too much handholding and screen shots of things that people have seen millions of times already. In addition, the screen shots are large. They take up a lot of space and make the book larger than it probably deserves to be. For a $60 book, I think I would have tried for smaller images and more content to make up the 362 pages. Experienced IT professionals might think it's too much step-by-step detail, but then again the hard-core IT person probably isn't the target audience. Finally, once you work through this material, you'll want to get a more detailed book on Eclipse to learn how to use the tool with all the whistles and bells. But at least you'll have the basics down before you get there.
   
   So do I recommend it? If you want a no-threat introduction to Eclipse that assumes very little, yes. If you're looking for a single reference volume that will give you all the finely detailed minutiae of the platform, no. It all depends on where you're at and what you want.



2. Good job at hand-holding, but not enough for your $60.
   
   As an experienced programmer who has never used Java or Eclipse, this was a nice introduction into the technology. It took about four hours to get through the 350 pages, and while I now feel comfortable with the basic mechanics of Eclipse I find myself looking for a book with more meat to it.
   
   Definitely not worth $60. The content was more reminicent of a $19.95 Dummies book.



3. If you just want to try out Eclipse but don't know where to start and what to do, this is a perfect book for you. Don't expect to see much information on the Eclipse platform, plug-in concept, and architecture overview as the typical topics found in other Eclipse reference books. Instead, it leads you through a truly crispy clear "Step-By-Step" approach to experience Eclipse. All hands-on materials make you to try out Eclispe, taste it and feel it. From installation, workbrench elements, creating projects, to debugging a simple SWT (Standard Widget Toolkit) program, you will enjoy the easy-to-follow instructions. Although the book avoids the Eclipse architecture and plug-in concepts, it's indeed a very good introduction for any users including business and technical readers.

   (Reviewed by Otto Yuen, 15-Dec-2004)




4. I have been a Java developer, teacher, and mentor for over 5 years now. I not at all impressed with this book. I review books for clients and for internal use. If you want a good book on Java please say away from this. I have a strong suspicion that this guy came from RPG or COBOL. He demonstrates a lack of understanding of OO technologies (maybe this was done on purpose to get more procedural programmers to buy). There are many other books on the market that are better suited for learning Eclipse and Java.



5. I liked the simple approach that is easy to follow and understand. Sometimes it even goes down to elemtary school level and you will run through the pages. However, I was really disappointed because it didn't cover any web application elements. The sample used in the book just displays the results in the IDE window.

5 comments about Java 2 Primer Plus.

1. The authors have done a wonderful job. I am a senior-level programmer/DBA with decades of experience in dozens of languages EXCEPT Java. Their book has great, accelerated coverage of AWT, Swing, Threads and other topics.

   I particularly like the way they discuss AWT separate from Swing -- other Java texts that I have purchased have the two technologies very intermingled. It is very helpful sometimes to just program in old AWT since it is very compatible and supported for web programming.




2. I am a CS student and UNLV taking some Java courses. Because of transfer credits I got into a Java class that was way over my head. My instructor recommended this book to me to help me catch up and it did far more than that for me. I read the first several chapters in a weekend and it all made sense - the authors started from the ground up and clearly explained how programming languages work and specifically how Java implements everything. Most books tell you how to do something, how to accomplish some kind of task, but don't explain the reasoning behind it - this book is different! Not only can I write Java programs but I understand what they are doing under the hood!

   I finished the book within a month, following all of the examples and not only did I get an 'A' in my course last semester, but I have built an MVC Servlet-based application and deployed it on Tomcat.

   I highly recommend this book to anyone that is learning Java, it is an indispensable resource. It will help you understand why Java does stuff, not just how to use it!




3. I have tried couple of other Java books earlier, but this one is the best of them all. The clear and concise writing style along with appropriate examples makes this book one of the best in the class. This book is useful to a wide variety of readers, starting from front-end developers to backend and web developers.

   It would be great to see some discussion on PACKAGE and CLASSPATH in future edition.




4. I give this book 1 star because although the product details states that digital form of the book is printable, it is not.
   
   This sort of false advertising makings me sick.
   
   If it were possible to give this book and Amazon a negative number of starts, I would.
   
   DON'T BUY THIS BOOK IN DIGITAL FORM!!!!!!!!



5. The book is thick, but wastes space with needlessly long examples, where shorter ones would suffice. It spends no more than 200 pages on the core language before it touches on xml, java server pages. jdbc,swing, and java beans. Thankfully there are better books to learn java.

5 comments about Java 1.4 Game Programming (Wordware Game and Graphics Library).

1. I must agree with other reviewers that this is one of the worst Java game programming books I have ever read. I love programming, game programming, and Java (and have done all three for a living). I struggled to read this book from cover to cover:
   
   - There was no editing to speak of.
   - The authors make almost no use of Java 1.4 features; for example they mention javax.imageio but then spend five or six pages avoiding using it. Then they repeat their entire MediaTracker example using ImageIO.
   - Chapters on Introduction to Databases, MySQL, and JDBC seem pasted in from some other text (so look out for anything from these authors and keep your money in your wallet as it might well be a rehash of this)
   - They spend the chapter on GUI systems developing their own set of widgets. This may well be an interesting learning experience (implementing a button using a square and some mouse-event listeners is a cool exercise) but the authors fail to use this as a teaching vehicle, instead burdening the reader with their partially implemented system ("While it's fresh in your mind, now would be a good time to start trying to add extra components to the custom GUI system. In no time, you will have your own powerful GUI library, which will serve you far better for games programming than Swing."
   
   Move on. This is NOT the book you were looking for.



2. While Java is now at version 1.5, the coverage in this book of Java 1.4 is still germane. Replete with guidelines on how to design your game and the facilities offered in Java.
   
   Of these, multithreading is one of the most important. Any practical game is likely to need it, and not just for graphics. While the Java Media Framework lets you integrate audio and video easily into your program. Though it is primitive compared to programs dedicated to this task.
   
   The book's weakness is in avoiding discussing why you should use Java at all. Unless it is as a learning experience. In which case, the free nature of Java and its rich set of classes are nice. But for reflex games, Java tends to be too slow.



3. This book is completely mislabeled. Out of 18 chapters, only three have anything to say that I believe would be remotely interesting to Java programmers who want to write games - chapters 9, 10, and 12. Chapter nine, entitled Graphics, is actually about Swing-based animation. Chapter 10, "Using the Mouse and Keyboard" is mainly about building a custom event queue to handle any lack of synchronization that might occur between the mouse and keyboard and the main animation thread. Chapter 12, "Game Programming Techniques", shows a few simple interactive animation examples which are built upon the author's animation engine. None of these examples is complete or complex enough that it could really be considered a game. If you removed chapters 9, 10, and 12 and tried to guess the title I imagine you would come up with something like "A Shallow Introduction to Java...Done Poorly". The book skims over enough details so that it could never be helpful to a novice trying to learn Java, and a programmer that already knows Java will learn nothing new. Plus their covering of topics is puzzling. The book has an all too brief overview of absolute Java basics, then skips to the three chapters on games, and the rest of the book has to do with enterprise Java topics.
   
   If you already know Java and wish to apply that knowledge to the writing of game programs, might I suggest both "Developing Games in Java" by David Brackeen and "Killer Game Programming in Java" by Andrew Davison. Both books are packed with good information Java game programmers need to know. I notice that Amazon does not show a table of contents. I therefore show that here for the purpose of completeness:
   
   Chapter 1 Introduction to Java 1.4
   Chapter 2 Basics of Java Programming
   Chapter 3 Arrays and Strings
   Chapter 4 Multiple Classes
   Chapter 5 Packages, Utilities, and Error Handling
   Chapter 6 Stream I/O
   Chapter 7 Threads
   Chapter 8 Applications and Applets
   Chapter 9 Graphics
   Chapter 10 Using the Mouse and Keyboard
   Chapter 11 Using Sound and Music
   Chapter 12 Game Programming Techniques
   Chapter 13 Introduction to GUI
   Chapter 14 Introduction to Databases
   Chapter 15 Using SQL with MySQL
   Chapter 16 Using the JDBC
   Chapter 17 Introduction to Networking
   Chapter 18 Introduction to NIO Networking



4. I own every Java game book printed. This one was worthless.
   
   What little material that the authors devoted to genuine game development seems to start with the assumption that none of Java's native facilities are sufficient and therefore, in the book, they attempt to re-invent the facilities. As you try and follow the coding pitfalls that the authors get themselves into, the emerging code appears to be based upon a programming model that was lifted from classroom-provided C++ code and techniques.



5. This book is a very good introduction to Java and game programming with Java. The authors were students in the Computer Games Technology program at the University of Abertay in Scotland when they wrote the book, and their enthusiastic expostulation of game programming principles make this book an easy read. In addition to a good coverage of Java (about half the book) with a slant toward concepts that are crucial to game programming, they cover everything you need to know to write a Java-based game which can be run in a window, full-screen, or as an applet delivered over the web. This book is a useful addition to any game-programmer's reference library.

2 comments about Graphics Programming With Java Second Edition/Book and Cd-Rom (Graphics Series).

1. I Really happy with this book because of its graphical explanations about java classes



2. Mr. Stevens does indeed have a deep knowledge of graphics, but less so of Java and, shall we say, the Java 'way.'

   I have already seen most of the solutions and algorithms put forth here in Mr. Stevens' previous books (C-oriented). They have been somewhat updated to take advantage of Java's graphics capability.

   If you are looking for a first book to help you begin to understand graphics, fine. This is for you, and Java is probably a good language for that.

   However, if you are looking to become a better _Java_ graphics programmer, use other sources. Many of the programming idioms here seem like holdovers from procedural programming days.

   Cheers,

   --SG

2 comments about Understanding Java Telephony.

1. This book does nothing more than copy the entire set of JTAPI documents (which are freely available) from the Sun web site. Worse, they are presented in a sloppy and unformatted manner. You are better off to simply go to the Sun site & download the docs or look to other sources than to buy this book. If however you do not have access to the web, then a hard copy of the docs may prove useful.



2. I was one of the lucky ones that Sun Microsystems gave away this book to at a Computer Telephony trade show about 5 years ago. They gave away hundreds as part of a promotion/launch of JTAPI. In fact, according to Sun, they commissioned the writing of this book with the publisher as a companion to the JTAPI spec which is on their web site. Of course, the JTAPI spec is free, but the book has been a nice reference. It also has a few chapters in it on Sun partners and what they do, and this is NOT on the web site. There's also a useful glossary.