5 comments about Eric Sink on the Business of Software (Expert's Voice).

1. Really I'd prefer to give this about 2.5 stars. The information and advice in this book *seems* good but my main complaint is that Eric Sink has never started a micro-ISV, and worse, for the sake of the book he did attempt to start a micro-ISV and it failed miserably. He did this near the beginning of the book. I always thought he was going to go back to this later on in the book and apply some of his own advice to his failed first attempt and turn it around but he never did.



2. The pace of the book is pretty fast and light. Unlike many business books, Eric generally gets down to the point in just one or two paragraphs. No long antidotes about how someone felt in there situation. Simply, the facts as he sees them.
   
   Eric Sink's message is a bit ironic. He states that geeks are not the end all and be all in the world. But at the same time, we know that geeks can code adavanced architectures using design patterns and refactoring, so how hard can writing a business plan be?
   
   One of the things the books does do is inspire techies to grow out of their shell and tackle the business world with the same gusto as their code. In the end, Eric demonstrates though his own example that this strategy can and does work.



3. This book is great in the sense that here's this guy who decided to do exactly what I want to do: start a software business from scratch. Except he blogged most of the major steps including mistakes and thought patterns for others to be able to use. That's the plus side.
   
   The book gets a bit redundant as it's still in blog format, which means on different days similar thoughts may be included in different articles. So don't expect a minimalist approach to writing. That's not such a big deal to me.
   
   The one star I didn't give to this book was because even though it started great, from the mid-point on it started becoming a "vision" book just like most books out there. My disappointment is that though it started out telling me how exactly to put something together step by step assuming I don't even have the idea, from the middle, suddenly it became a tactics book and left a big gap. It's as if the author suddenly discovered success, got distracted for a while and then lost touch with the average person who hasn't directly seen the "aha" moment.
   
   Overall, if you're contemplating on starting a business and you have a technical background, I would recommend this book as a part of your reading. It does get you thinking about the right stuff.



4. I enjoyed this book. It was an easy and quick read that offers practical advice like you'd get over a beer from someone you respected and trusted. Use it as a framework for DIY. Thanks for sharing, Eric.



5. This book is full of valuable advice for an Entrepreneur in the Software Business. Having read 75% of this book so far, I keep re-reading certain passages. Finally this book confirms that an Entrepreneur requires to absorb information which are out of his immediate knowledge area, while keeping his eye on the core Products and Business activities. To be continued...

5 comments about Creating a Web Page with HTML: Visual QuickProject Guide.

1. Excellent book for anyone who is creating their first web page or who wants step by step help to make a web page.



2. I have other books by Liz Castro, and she continues to make life easier for all of us who want to know more about coding and controlling our own web sites. Great introductory book on XHMTL and CSS.



3. I have been messing around for a year(!) trying various WYSIWYG software to create the simple website that I wanted. The software was much harder to master than was HTML as Elizabeth Castro explains it. I first did the projects in this book, then with the help of her HTML, XHTML & CSS book, I have finally been able to make the site I've had in my head for so long. If you are using a PC, I have one suggestion--use Notepad instead of Word to create your web pages, because it's harder to mess up on Notepad. Three cheers for Elizabeth!



4. This is a wonderful book that allows you to execute and learn good habits instead of walking you down a tutorial path. Its a quick read and excellent reference for basic tasks.
   
   If you do want to buy this book, consider getting the series.
   
   Web Page Visual QuickProject Guide Colletion (Paperback)
   by Elizabeth Castro (Author)
   
   The series was rewritten in 2006 and has the corrections to the errors in the 2004 books of the same name.
   
   The series has the HTML quickproject, Flash quickproject, and Dreamweaver quickproject. Flash and Dreamweaver are MX 2004 based but happen to have the same commands and keyboard shortcuts as the CS3 and 8 versions.
   
   Dont make the same mistake I almost made and buy this individually. I paid $1 and got it all! Its was cheaper and I obtained two other books.



5. Bought this book for a person who wanted to learn how to make simple web pages and it was a bad choice. New users benefit most from straight forward instructions and limited toolsets. This book imagines the user to be familar with (and own) photoshop as well as other tools. It would be much simpiler if the author stuck with simple, freely available tools.

5 comments about Fit for Developing Software: Framework for Integrated Tests (Robert C. Martin Series).

1. The first 175 pages of the book seem devoted to convincing management that the tool is worth using. The next 75 or so pages give details on writing tests. There are about 45 pages of the programmer's perspective. The rest of the book mainly deals with extending the system in ways that most people won't bother with. Finally there is a very brief word on non-Java tests that simply says to refer to the web sites.
   
   The book is easy to read. It is a good book for a programmer to show their boss, or to circulate to the non-programmer staff. Developers should thumb through the book to become familiar with the topics, but use the online wikis to develop a serious understanding.



2. Facilitating communication among businesspeople and software developers in the preparation of acceptance tests is the mail goal of Fit, which also helps automate those tests. A tabular representation of tests provides the common language whose clarity and precision are key to improving communication between technical and non-technical people. As Dave Thomas says, Fit helps closing the "gap between the software that [is] written and the software the user [wants]".
   
   Clearly written in an informal style and easy to follow, this is a good book for learning the use of an interesting tool: Fit. It actually contains two separate books written for different audiences. The first half of the book is written for non-programmers and teaches how to define the functionality of a system using Fit tables. The second half is written for the programmers who will prepare the fixtures that mediate between the Fit tables and the system under test, so that testing can be automated.
   
   Hype warning: Although the authors do a great job motivating the reasons for using Fit, they tend to mix the benefits of using their tool with those coming from the application of good development practices (extreme programming practices, in particular).



3. Ward Cunningham invented CRC cards (which helped get us through the first decade of object-oriented design), many of the principles of Extreme Programming, and wikis (Wikipedia is a natural extension of his "Portland Patterns Repository").
   
   Now he's pioneered a way to tie together the front end and tail end of software development efforts (requirements and testing), and to help technical and non-technical people work together to describe what software should do. Incidentally, he's provided a way to measure *real* progress, by tallying up what customer value has been successfully implemented.
   
   FIT and Fitnesse haven't yet taken the software development profession by storm. Compare that to test-driven development and JUnit/xUnit, back in 1998: they took a while to catch on, but now they're an important part of the software development profession.
   
   Want to get a heads start on the next "next thing"? Read this book.



4. A good first book/overview. Good explanation of how FIT can fit into a testing environment. A more in depth discussion of more advanced features such as using variables within tests and to set up tests would have been helpful.



5. This book does a terrific job of making the value case for exploring and implementing FIT/Fitnesse in your software development projects. I've been really intrigued by the tools for some time now and was very happy to get a copy of this book.
   
   The layout of this book is as unique as FIT/Fitnesse are themselves. The book's first half is targeted to business analysts and customers who team together to write up the stories for the system. The second half targets developers who will write the fixtures to tie the tables to the system. The stories and use cases are all well-done and, unlike too many other books, are on real-world situations.
   
   There are detailed descriptions of the various fixtures supported by FIT with good examples of when you'd want to use them. The different parts of the book tie together perfectly in that the story is covered in the beginning and the developer-related sections later in the book amplify on the foundation laid earlier. I also like the Q&A portions scattered throughout the book.
   
   The book's tone and style compliment the approach of the book, keeping it light and easy to read while laying out the immense value of FIT.

No comments about Real World Haskell.

4 comments about Microsoft® Windows PowerShell(TM) Step By Step (Step By Step (Microsoft)).

1. This book, a svelte 296 pages, plus CD-ROM, should be viewed in the same vein as the O'Reilly "... In A Nutshell" series: It's full of good information, but it doesn't quite take the one extra step to answer the question that's at the back of your mind: "But how do I use it to do XYZ?".
   
   Case in point: it will tell you how to get information back from the system, but not necessarily how to pull out the one specific piece of data you're after, so that it can be processed in a script. (A couple of minutes of trial-and-error resolved that quandary.) Disclaimer: I skimmed through a few pages, concentrating on an area that's of immediate interest, so a note advising how to extra the single point of data might or might not have been buried in some text elsewhere.
   
   This is the type of book where you look up the basics of the information you want, then go to another book to get the rest of the information (background, caveats, usage, etc) that will be required to implement the command successfully.
   
   One major problem with this book, though, is that it is riddled with typos ("CDROMg", "Alapha computer") which may be off-putting to some users. (For the most part, scripts appeared not to have many typos, but the accompanying text is full of them.)
   
   I gave it the benefit of the doubt, in awarding it 4 stars. 3.5 would have been more appropriate. I'm shopping for another PowerShell book now...



2. The book is less than 300 pages. You can't learn Powershell in under 300 pages so expect to buy another book. The author covers a number of examples but doesn't go into real depth which is why I titled this review what I did. There are chapters on ADO, WMI, Exchange, and Active Directory. It's nice to know I can use Powershell to script against those technologies but am I really going to learn Powershell by spending so little time on each? I think this author and all other Powershell authors would be better off writing an entire book on each of those rather than a chapter. Until I get familiar with the syntax of Powershell I think the best approach is to find a book on Powershell for managing servers or Powershell for managing Exchange. I think concentrating on a single technology will greatly simplify the learning curve. Once I learn Powershell for Exchange (for example) I can then spread my wings to learn Powershell for Active Directory, ADO, etc...



3. This book misses on many points. It is a good introduction, but that could have been covered in one chapter. It does not cover something as basic as creating functions (and the issue of variable scope). It also does not go into using the framework within powershell, one of the greatest powers of powershell, or extending powershell with your own addins. After a while some of the excises get repetative. There are chapters on Active Directory & Exchange, which requires special programs to go through, and most people will not even have access to them, or know the first thing about installing them so then can go through the book. Certainly a chapter on ADO would be great, but it is all depends on Active Directory; should have used northwind. There is some good information on Errors, but it is buried in Active Directory, which most people will never even look at since it is something that they would not have any reason to investigate. Definately go with another book such as "Windows Powershell Cookbook."



4. I have found "Windows PowerShell" by Ed Wilson / Microsoft Press to be a
   great intro into PowerShell. Yes you could go through all the help files that come with PS, but this book makes it very easy and provides a smooth intro into working with Powershell. If you want an absolute noob book get it - period. The author is well versed in WSH and you can use the accompanying CD filled with scripts to practice the examples in the chapters, as well as make your own for testing & production. It's very light on .Net because that is not his expertise, which is fine if you want to go from WSH to Powershell or learn how to use both within a script. It also incluse a handy appendex that shows the WSH command, and the PS command and how to utilize it. Yes there's some typo's and it's rare these days to find any book that doesn't have incorrect code examples at least somewhere. -2 stars for that and I would have like to seen more depth in some areas. Get Bruce Payette's book for Level 2.

No comments about C Programming for the Absolute Beginner, Second Edition (For the Absolute Beginner).

5 comments about Computers and Intractability: A Guide to the Theory of NP-Completeness (Series of Books in the Mathematical Sciences).

1. This is among the most eloquently written books that I have ever read in my life. Highly recommended.



2. The book arrived in time, in good condition, and adequate packing.



3. This is a rare example of a textbook where the authors actually go to the trouble of considering the fact that the intended reader is a non-expert. Published in 1979 and still the best.



4. The book is excellent in explaining NP-completeness problem. Take it as a reference if you would like to do research in this field.



5. I have to say that this is a true classic. It gives a very nice treatment of what is NP-completeness in a fashion that really defends the topic well. It gives nice illustrations to show different situations and how to deal with it. But after the first couple of chapters it does get a little out there with the proofs it does. It is still approachable, but it assumes that the reader is already familiar with the basics of combinatorial complexity, especially in reductions. I would only recommend this book to readers who has gone through such books as Introduction to Algorithms by Cormen et al. or Combinatorial Complexity by Papadimitriou and Steiglitz. Those two books are more for beginners and this book should be one to help anyone interested in NP-complete problems to get more practice and depth understanding. Overall a great book for anyone interested in the topic. The grand challenge is to reduce everything to at least something within the 150 problems listed on your own.

5 comments about Statistics: An Introduction using R.

1. The title of this book is a misnomer. It is not an introduction to statistics at all, although it does do a very clear review of courses in descriptive statistics, regression, ANOVA, ANCOVA and GLM. If you don't know statistics, and want to learn, this is not the book for you.
   
   This is, however, a truly excellent book that gets you up to speed very quickly on a wide variety of statistical applications using R as the tool for solution. If you have a reasonable background in statistics and want to use R as a substitute for SAS, SPSS, BMD or other package, this book will teach you how within a week. (Make sure you download the examples from the referenced website.



2. This book is the best I have found for an introduction to the R statistical programming environment. It is also a very good textbook for introductory statistics. The supplemental material at his web site is excellent as well.



3. This book purports to be an introduction to statistics using R. R has exploded in popularity and today is probably the most powerful system available for doing statistics, having surpassed the older Splus and SAS. Thus you do well to learn R early on as you begin statistics; it well suits the novice and the expert. To make things even better, R is both open source and free with an excellent, supportive online community of many people. The online mailing lists are a treasure trove of valuable resources. There are now several introductory books to R, including one by Verzani, one by Dalgaard, and one by Crawley.
   
   Crawley's book is a _very_ rapid tour through a lot of statistics. There is no real way that a beginner could properly digest the material. Moreover, he often assumes far too much and then assumes far too little. For example in one early chapter he covers the basics of General Linear Models (GLMs), an intermediate to advanced concept. At the beginning of the next chapter, he is explaining basics about the slope of a line! There are a lot of similar examples that left me scratching my head.
   
   There are good pearls in the book that are quite nice, however this book should really be for those with some exposure to statistics.
   
   A better introductory book is "Using R for Introductory Statistics" by John Verzani. That book was more clear and better organized.



4. This book does a good job of what its designed to do. I would have to agree with another reviewer that finds the topics covered in this book a little too much for a intro statistics book. My intro class certainly didn't cover variable transformation and other more complex topics. I would have to say that I don't feel 100% comfortable navigating through R now, but I have exponentially increased my understanding. I wasn't too impressed with the last few chapters. It seemed as if the coverage of material decreased as the complexity of the statistical tests became more complex. The secion on survival analysis, for example, spans only a few pages. That being said, you do get the R code right in front of you to expose you to how the code needs to be set up. This book also comes with matching chapter lessons that can be downloaded from the authors website. Unfortunately, many of the exercises are nothing more than repeats of the same material in the book. This hurts. I like learning through structured examples...And I prefer more rather than less. So if you are really motivated to learn R by working through some elementary inferential statistics (standard deviation, t-tests, and anovas) then this book can produce results. If your looking for more advanced content (information on examples installing and using packages affiliated with R) than this book doesn't won't meet all of your goals. I would recomend it to someone with little or no knowledge of R and the patience to work through the basics on your own.



5. If you have already had some experience with statistical methods and are looking for a refresher or a way to quickly pickup the basics of R, this is the place to go. It has a wonderfully conversational tone that is missing from far too many scientifically oriented books, and he brings quite a few insights into the practice of statistics that are more difficult to pickup from the heavily theoretical books.
   
   I would agree with a previous reviewer that there is a bit more space than necessary dedicated to relatively simple concepts, but such minor transgressions are easily overlooked given the overall effectiveness of the book.
   
   I would recommend this book as a refresher/introduction to R, or as a companion book to a college course on statistical methods. The author doesn't cover theory at all (on purpose), so keep in mind this is purely a practical book.
   
   I would have given the book 5 stars if it weren't for a few typos that might confuse beginners or people who have a tendency to read when you're a bit to tired to do so (for example, on the bottom of p59 he says lower bound when he meant upper, nothing you wouldn't catch with a careful re-reading).

5 comments about Beginning Visual C# 2005 (Wrox Beginning Guides).

1. good book with nice presentation.. for beginner to understand the next advance topics..



2. This book provided the support I was looking for. Topic very well presented.



3. Even though this is the beginning book it's better than the Pro C# 2005 book written by some of the same authors. I read this book first and the Pro version second. I found that it explains many of the concepts in a more effective way with less words.



4. Well presented. The code compiles and runs flawlessly. You can figure out the details on your own if you know a little bit about about basic programming--VB, etc. A HUGE time saver.



5. The book is great for those who have a base knowledge of c# programming but also want to improove their skills. Although it says beginning C# 2005, this book is not for those who want to write their first program.
   In covers all basic needs of a junior programmer in order to allow him to experiment and create new programs.

5 comments about Pro Spring.

1. I'm finding it hard to get into "Pro Spring". In all fairness, I've only read three chapters. However, after those three chapters, it is still unclear just what "Spring" is and what value it adds -- except in vague generalities. I'm no neophyte software developer, having been involved in a wide variety of state-of-the-art software development professionally for 40 years. I've heard enough good things about Spring that I want to learn more, but so far, this doesn't seem to be the way to go.



2. At my old position, I constantly referenced this book, but fortunately the company owned the book. When I left that job, I purchased my own copy. It's well written and provides enough examples to get you started. This book is a MUST HAVE for my library.



3. 1. Excellent Organization
   2. Easy to Read - explanations are concise and easy to follow, even for Spring beginner like me.
   3. Excellent Samples - the evolution of sample code is very clean, concise and easy to read. Even if the listing is 1 or 2 page long, you just need to take a glimpse to understand what's going on. Good presentation!
   4. Detailed Coverage - can function as a reference book.
   
   The authors should write more books!



4. Lots of good information on the Spring framework, at least for 2005. While I can find a lot of it online already, especially in the excellent documentation provided with the framework itself, I can live with that. What does irritate me is that the book needs more why than how; and more intersection with the real world, more tales from the trenches where things don't always work, and where we cannot simply trim requirements to fit a technology demonstration.
   
   I've been programming long enough to know the difference between a cowboy programmer who gets the job done, but has the good sense to leave before anyone has to deal with the mess he's created; and the professional whose work brings both joy and awe to maintain. I think a book with "Pro" in the title should inspire and encourage that professionalism, not just teach enough of the concepts, syntax and idioms to get by.
   
   Don't get me wrong. If you want to learn Spring, I heartily recommend this book. Just don't be surprised to not find that secret sauce that makes one a professional.



5. Takes forever to get nowhere: Authors use about 800 pages in order to explain Spring (trivially a framework, i.e. a conceptually trivial subject, not comparable in complexity with e.g. compiler theory).
   
   Wordy, uncreative and just as boring as watching paint drying.
   Lacks illustrations of concepts.