5 comments about Core Security Patterns: Best Practices and Strategies for J2EE(TM), Web Services, and Identity Management (Sun Core Series).

1. This is a great book - by far the best security design book for Java and J2EE (including Java SE 6 and Java EE 5) I have read to date. When I first heard about my coworkers talking about this book, I thought "oh great, another J2EE book!" Much to my surprise, this book is not just a how-to security API or patterns recipe book but much more than that - I see it as a collection of valuable suggestions and examples on how to choose security mechanisms and use them in J2EE applications and web services. Moreover, it tells you what the bestpractices, pitfalls and tradeoffs are for each design pattern option you take. Particularly, You will find this book as an ideal companion for CORE J2EE PATTERNS - Deepak Alur et al, which is my favorite for designing J2EE applications.
   
   This book is as close to size of a pillow and I do understand why the authors gave only code snippets for selected examples instead of full implementation. The case study is just right, it discusses the scenario and how to incorporate the patterns right in to the application design..which is just right for a Java developer who is involved with Java enterprise applications and web services. The best practices and security checklist detailed in this book - helps a lot during development and when you want to deploy a J2EE application/web service in production.
   
   Having said that, I prefer this book as a must-have for any serious Java developer/designer/architect who wants to build Security from understanding basics of WHAT and know WHY you should architect your J2EE system in a particular way using best practices (a long list) and not just HOW. Ultimately you will find this book as an onestop reference for building security in J2EE applications and web services.



2. I prefer to be short.This book met my expectations. It is a good overview on latest the security designs. It doesn't go into the unnecessary details. It gave me some good ideas on my latest security system implementation.I used it a lot when I was writing my solution architecture design document.



3. Our book discussion group selected this book to review. Unfortunately after a couple months we agreed the value of this book was not sufficient to continue reading and discussing it. (We gave up in Chapter 9 - after skipping chapters 5, 6 and 7 because too many of the group were losing patience and wanted to get deeper into the book where we might find something of value.)
   
   Many interesting subjects are touched on, but nothing has enough depth to be of serious value. This is further hampered by poor writing and editing. There is a fair amount of "duplication" in this book where the same "nothing" is sometimes repeated. The code snippets are weak and not of much value.
   
   The bottom line is that while the subject is very interesting, the presentation in this book is so poor that it doesn't justify reading 1000+ dull pages. This book doesn't seem to have a target audience, it's too high level for developers, but gets into too low level details for management. It fails to be a good technical reference and at the same time fails as a concise overview to educate management decision makers. (Hint for authors: if your audience is management, keep it brief and to the point, management doesn't have time to read page after page of trivial commentary. If your audience is developers, the book needs to deliver solid technical information.)



4. This is a very comprehensive, well written and well-organized guide for securing Java and J2EE. Yes, it has everything - all done well - definitely worth a buy. If you are into Java based applications development and planning to work on application security assessment, development, testing ....and planning to live by it every day, you will learn a lot from this book, to re-evaluate the things with patterns and best-practices, and to genuinely improve your results knowing the pitfalls. If you are a Java applications developer, this book *will* help you guide with Java security mechanisms and where and apply them for building secure applications. If you are a security enthusiast, you will genuinely enjoy the time spent with this book, and you will find this brick handy more often than previously imagined.
   
   I strongly recommend this book for budding and experienced Java developers/architects who are involved with Java applications development, J2EE based web applications and web services. This book covers security mechanisms including Java 6 and Java EE5.



5. This is a great book - by far the best security design book for Java and J2EE I have read to date. When I first heard about my coworkers talking about this book, I thought "oh great, another J2EE book!" Much to my surprise, this book is not just a how-to security API or patterns recipe book but much more than that - I see it as a collection of valuable suggestions and examples on how to choose security mechanisms and use them in J2EE applications and web services. Moreover, it tells you what the bestpractices, pitfalls and tradeoffs are for each design pattern option you take. Particularly, You will find this book as an ideal companion for CORE J2EE PATTERNS - Deepak Alur et al, which is my favorite for designing J2EE applications.
   
   This book is as close to size of a pillow and I do understand why the authors gave only code snippets for selected examples instead of full implementation. The case study is just right, it discusses the scenario and how to incorporate the patterns right in to the application design..which is just right for an experienced developer but a budding developer may find it uncomfortable.
   
   Having said that, I prefer this book as a must-have for any serious J2EE developer/designer/architect who wants to build Security from understanding basics of WHAT and know WHY you should architect your J2EE system in a particular way and not just HOW. Ultimately you will find this book as an onestop reference for building security in J2EE applications.

5 comments about The Best Software Writing I: Selected and Introduced by Joel Spolsky.

1. I reread this book the other day, and I had forgotten how much I love it. Two words: Eric Sink. Eric is an incredibly good writer, who of course, has at least one of his own books as well. Anyway, this compilation is terrific.



2. loved the easy read style, interesting topics, down to earth, quick discussions on numerous software development topics. found this to be both enjoyable and informative and of course opionated.



3. There are a core set of principles about software development that can either be learned from years of making painful mistakes or by learning of the mistakes of others. If you've read Fred Brooks or followed Joel Spolsky's writings, you know what I mean. The writings Joel collects here are diverse and interesting; a must read for anyone looking for clarity on a variety of subjects. This book was better than I expected; and I expected it to be pretty good.



4. There really are some good essays in this book, though a few of them are a little boring, and a lot of them really don't have anything to do with software development.
   
   Joel's ego-driven introductions and blatantly obvious footnotes make me wonder what the intended audience for the book is.



5. This book is less to do with Joel and his own writing, but more to do with the wonderful writing of others.
   
   A well researched and nicely put together collections of interesting historical articles on software development. If you enjoy getting into the thoughts and minds behind some of the greats, then this book is certainly for you.
   
   Put together with brief introductions by Joel, this book takes you on a wonderful journey through wonderful writing.

5 comments about POJOs in Action: Developing Enterprise Applications with Lightweight Frameworks.

1. Honestly I think this book is a little out of date, since the EJB 3.0 spec has come out. The author did go back and change some of the text to acknowledge that the EJB 3.0 spec is not as heavy weight as the older 2.1 spec, but was still heavier than Spring. I really would have liked to seen a deeper comparison between EJB 3 and Spring, but he seems to really push the Spring model.
   
   That being said I think there are some excellent points the book brings out about the different Persistence layers and how debugging POJO's is so much easier than the alternatives.



2. POJOs in Action describes how POJOs and lightweight frameworks such as Spring, Hibernate, JDO, iBatis make it easier and faster to develop testable and maintainable applications. You will also learn how to apply test-driven development and object design to enterprise Java applications. This book is all about implementing enterprise applications using design patterns and lightweight frameworks.
   
   This book is for developers as well as architects who are experienced in developing enterprise applications in Java using EJB framework and want to know how to use POJOs and lightweight frameworks effectively.
   
   This book consists of four parts. Part 1 which has 2 chapters is an overview of POJOs and lightweight frameworks. Part 2 has 5 chapters in which you will learn about a combination of options to design applications with POJOs and lightweight frameworks. In Part 3 you will learn about other approaches for designing the business and database tiers. Part 4's 3 chapter's looks at some important database-relates issues we normally encounter when developing enterprise Java applications. I should also mention that this book is not a complete reference for any of the frameworks like Spring, Hibernate, iBATIS etc.
   
   Chris Richardson has done an outstanding job; this book deserves 5 out of 5. I wish I could have given more. Once I started reading the book, it was hard for me to put it down. This book teaches you when to use and when not to use each of the frameworks while many other books blindly advocate the use of their favorite frameworks. It is a must have book for every Java developer as well as architect. This is an excellent book, go get it; should be in your library.



3. I won't repeat what other reviewers already said.
   The book is explains very good how to build enterprise apps using the pojo frameworks like spring, hibernate, jdo. It shows very nicely how to integrate these technologies. The code of the book is also awesome. It has a lot of examples.
   
   Before reading this book I knew only hibernate. I saw the hard way that hibernate was not enough for building a complex project. So this made me to read this book. Reading this book I was forced to learn Spring too. When I tried to run the examples I saw that the examples project are built with Maven. I liked how simple and elegant the project was structured using Maven, so I learned Maven too(the book's code is an excellent example of Maven usage too).
   I also saw that handling the concurrency in an (web) app is not an easy thing to do. The book has a good explanation of this topic in the last chapters. Chris is implementing some of the Fowler's patterns and that made me to get some more details about that so this is how I bought and read Fowler's book:Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture which is by the way a excellent book too.
   
   I highly recommend this book!
   Good job Chris!
   
   PS: too bad that I didn't have this book 2 years ago.



4. Got the book alle the way up to ice-cold Norway in no time. The packing was a bit ripped up; probably due to ice-bear attack.



5. With simple descriptives words and plain-text explanations this book shows many simple but practical ways of designing and implementing j2ee solutions using POJOs with those great design frameworks like spring and hibernate. This book can be considered as an detailed overview of how to build an enterprise lightweight J2EE projects including some introduction on some useful and practical patterns such as domain model pattern, POJO facade, persistence patterns, optimistics locking patterns etc. Together with spring and hibernate this book completes most of the great design prototypes of lightweight J2EE enterprise solutions. Highly recommended.

5 comments about Software Testing (2nd Edition).

1. I would NOT recommend this book to anyone who really want to know about testing/ want to get into testing. There is not one iota of information about how to test. It's like a "cookbook" without a single recipe. It maybe good for managers to learn what testing is, but it's not practical at all.
   
   And Mr. Author, take these hints and improve your next book instead of getting defensive about every comment.



2. This book is excellent for beginners who are looking to learn more about software testing. It details the concepts of manual testing and what to look for and what not to do while testing software.
   
   It is also good for programmers who want to transition into testing or Q/A or just want to gain an insight into the world of testers!



3. This is an example of a book that I was forced into purchasing and using as a text book. I was shocked that this is considered required reading for a Master's level course. While it is a good overview of quality, especially as it applies to the web, I found it mostly trite and a little boring. I gave it a three because I think it has its place in the world. If you are a beginner and need a general overview it's a good place to start. It is not however a "textbook" that will find its way to my keeper shelf, I will be selling it back.



4. If you are already in software testing business this book is not for you. If you are looking for something to guide you for your safety critical V&V activities again this is not your book. But if you are new in testing and if you want to make a good start this book will help you. So only for newbies...



5. I thought the book was quite good. I read it before I attended my first introductory software testing course and it allowed me to get a lot more out of the course and ask questions that were more relevant. In fact, my instructor borrowed the book and thought it was quite good as well. If you have experience in this field, then this book is not for you. (Why anyone would buy it if they did have "expertise" in the field is beyond me.) I have read a couple of the reviews for this book and to be honest, these people probably whine about anything and everything, yet they are incapable of publishing their own book. I have noticed that is quite the "American thing". Criticizing without the ability to create and waxing poetic about anything and everything without the benefit of expertise. This is an odd "habit" and one that apparently is addictive and hypnotic to some. Can you imagine the amount of time some people spend on those inane blogs? Who has that bloody amount of time to be that self-indulgent? I digress...
   
   Overall, a very good text and I would recommend it highly based on its readability; I index books for a living so I CAN wax poetic about this type of thing, and its conversational style. I encourage the author to continue his work in this area.

5 comments about Metrics and Models in Software Quality Engineering (2nd Edition).

1. Solid information which not covers the basic development lifecycle and it's components but also the bigger picture e.g. predictive analyses, reflective metrics, customer satisfaction measurement, etc. A good read, informative and it won't scare a novice. Recommended.



2. This is one of the most highly regarded books on software quality. If you have never read the first edition it was one of the few books that covered software quality in depth, going well beyond metrics and models into strategies for achieving quality, and understanding the underlying principles and mechanics. That edition had a lot of life left in it, but this second edition is one of the most complete rewrites of any technical book I've read in recent memory, and if you own the first edition you may want to consider retiring it and investing in this edition.

   While the first edition packed a lot of information in 344 pages, the 560 pages that comprise this edition reflect new chapters and expanded content in the chapters that remain. Here is a list of the new chapters:

   - Chapter 10, In-Process Metrics for Software Testing
   - Chapter 12, Metrics and Lessons Learned for Object-Oriented Projects (in lieu of the old Chapter 12 titled AS/400 Quality Management)
   - Chapter 13, Availability Metrics
   - Chapter 15, Conducting In-Process Quality Assessments
   - Chapter 16, Conducting Software Project Assessments (the project assessment questionnaire example in the appendix is a valuable companion to this chapter)
   - Chapter 17, Dos and Don'ts of Software Process Improvement (contributed by Patrick O'Toole)
   - Chapter 18, Using Function Point Metrics to Measure Software Process Improvement (Contributed by Capers Jones)

   Among the new chapters I most like are Availability Metrics (Chapter 13), because of the direct tie to production, and Dos and Don'ts of Software Process Improvement (Chapter 17) because of the practical and objective advice. This book will remain, in my opinion, one of the definitive texts on software quality and is one I highly recommend.




3. As the System Test Team Leader for the Quality Technology area, I had to certify many of the tools and procedures used by Stephen Kan. Prior to that, as a System Administrator, I had to run software metrics on those tools, like those shown in table 6.3. As a design review moderator, I was charged with leading a number of IR, IE and I0 reviews.
   
   THIS STUFF WORKS!
   
   I can attest personally to the great effort and many find minds that worked together to develop and implement fine tools such as DCR, PTR, PTF and APAR, as well as the brilliantly simple, effective ways of implementing Continuous Quality Improvement techniques such as DPP. What Kan has written is real-world honest and true, not some academic exercise.
   
   Kan is dead-right on the money. If you want to track, predict and manage things in the real world, this is how you do it. At PSQT '97, Tom Gilb told me that SEI should create a new CMM "Level Six" designation for the way Kan and the others at IBM Rochester have dealt with software quality. That's how good the stuff in this book is.
   
   I am particularly impressed by how Kan has woven in not only his work and IBM Rochester as a whole, but also the work of others throughout the industry in such a simple, clear, easy to understand manner.
   
   Yet, given that the book is an easy read, that many of the techniques are easy to do, and that I see this book on the shelves of many IT managers, it baffles me why so few people and so few companies actually implement this stuff. I suspect that politics and corporate culture is what's holding back so many companies from enjoying the success, efficiency, and frankly the FUN of working in a continually measuring, continually refining work environment such as Kan describes.
   
   For example, Defect Removal Effectiveness is a very simple metric to gather. In a typical medium sized software company, or in the I.T. department of a large company, the head of testing and the head of phone support could easily enough get together and compare the number of bugs found in testing the last release with the number of bugs found in the field after that release was deployed. Both areas already have their problem logs, and if they can't directly pull counts and totals, it's typically only a few minutes work for the right programmer. So what's the hold up? It's not that the metric is hard to understand, or an academic exercise, or that the numbers are hard to get. It's that people have a hard time admitting that "their baby is ugly". The good of the company, stopping bugs from getting to the field, conflicts with the good of the testing manager, who doesn't want to risk admitting that problems got past them.
   
   Therefore, I think it would be a fine addition to this book if Kan could write another chapter which deals with the human side of the equation. The book thus far presumes an interest in software metrics and appropriate management support from the top levels down. What would move this book from worker's bookshelves to their desks, and keep this book open and used on a daily basis, would be some ideas on how to garner and build support for implementing software metrics and TQM practices across an organization. People want to do this; that's why this book gets sold. Unfortunately, people aren't empowered to do so, which is why many times this excellent book sits on a shelf.
   
   Paul Walchak



4. This book is a must have for all the managers and profesionals that need a complete and detailed reference for software metrics. It provides clear explanations and examples. It is very easy to read and very practical.



5. A very thorough treatment of Software Engineering metrics. Good graphics. Good explanations. Much better than other books in this area.

5 comments about User Interface Design for Programmers.

1. This book has a number of problems.
   
   First, the writing is amateurish - hardly what I'd expect from someone trying to impart knowledge on a professional audience. It reads as a high school book report, not a reference for software engineers. I expect elegance in material I read, if for nothing else but to gain confidence in the author's intelligence and experience.
   
   Second, much of the information is clearly lifted from books such as 'Tog on Interface' (which I highly recommend). Take for example chapter 10 from User Interface Design for Programmers - 'People Can't Control the Mouse'. Spolsky's ideas on the problem of small mouse targets, as well as his solutions, are almost a direct copy of Bruce Tognazzini's (which I might add were presented much earlier). As another reviewer mentioned, not only are the ideas un-original, but they are presented haphazardly and with little supporting information.
   
   Overall, this book is not worth a penny. It is simply the ineloquent regurgitation of other's ideas.



2. This thin book is a good introduction to the idea of that you should make good software interfaces, but doesn't tell you how to do that. For that, Spolsky provides an excellent bibliography at the end.
   
   If you already have even a little bit of experience with good interface design, this book isn't for you. It's there to enlighten the programming masses that so far don't care or haven't been told that users matter.
   
   You can get this book for free online starting at Joel on Software (I think Amazon deleted the URL I put in there, but google for the book title and you'll find it).



3. I rarely give out 5 stars, but this book deserves it.
   
   Well written, on the light side, but serious about providing best practices for UI design with good examples to back it up.



4. First off, I'm not a (professional) programmer, and I'm not particularly interested in user interface design. I decided to read this book because I've read quite a bit of Joel's other work and I find his thought process illuminating, regardless of the subject. Also, most of the other stuff I've read by Joel is generalist in nature, and I wanted to see if his style would work in a deep dive into a subject. This book isn't a silver bullet in UI design, but it gives a few hints as to how to adjust your thinking to sympathize a bit more with the user. And despite the title "...for Programmers", there isn't much in the book that is programmer-centric, so it's useful for testers, product managers, and others in software development communities who aren't UI designers.
   
   It's interesting reviewing this book in 2008, seven years after it was originally published. Visual design is such a time-sensitive thing, and this book being pre-Web 2.0 looks dated. It's nostalgic in some ways (screen shot of Napster!) but that doesn't diminish from the overall value of the book. While some of the examples Joel uses are no longer novel, most of the principles that Joel writes about still hold true. The messages that are constantly reinforced basically come down to using real life metaphors and respecting the user.
   
   But therein lies my only real criticism of this book. Joel is prone to calling out statements like "users can't read" and "people can't control a mouse" as chapter titles, section headings, and even on the cover of the book. These statements run counter to his overall message of respecting the range of users of an application. What he really means is that "users don't have time to read all your documentation" and "people aren't always using a good pointing device". Reading the full text makes the positive messages obvious, but they are a bit overshadowed by the bolder, more negative statements.
   
   And a point on Joel's writing: Joel is at his best when he's taking examples from his life experience and applying them to whatever he happens to be writing about. There's plenty of that in this book, starting with his experience working in an Israeli bread factory and extending to studies of well designed non-software products. Joel is a master at putting his inspiration into words, and he doesn't disappoint here.
   
   Whether you're a programmer or not, if you're looking for a primer on UI design, this is a solid choice. It's a light, easy, entertaining read and packs plenty of value into it's 140 pages.



5. This book is aimed at programmers who don't have the time or inclination to do research on user interface design, and it has some good suggestions, but you shouldn't take anything he says on faith because he is flat out wrong a good 25% of the time. Spolsky is very intelligent and the book can be fun to read at times, but he also comes off as really really arrogant and narrow minded. He is particularly and undeservedly venomous towards the Linux / OSS community, and this is really inexcusable.
   
   Here is the executive summary: users can't read dialog boxes, they can't use the mouse, the don't read instructions, they have an idea of how the program is supposed to work, and most of the time they can't be bothered to learn how the program "does things differently," so be consistent and imitate programs your users are already likely to be familiar with.
   
   You can lump all of this under the general heading "reduce user effort" which is a pretty good design philosophy. It really only breaks down when your users include other software developers. Developer software has its own set of user interface rules that are completely different (use man pages, don't produce output if everything is OK unless you are testing or the program is doing version control) but Spolsky doesn't appear to understand or appreciate this, so you'll just have to learn it on your own (you can start by googling unix philosophy).
   
   This book gets 4 stars because the average computer book is AWFUL, so this book easily gets into the 80th percentile.

5 comments about Business Objects XI - CBT: Designer XI (2nd Edition).

1. While there are pieces of this book that are very useful for Universe newbies, like myself, there are far too many things that have been left out. It's obvious that this book is based on Mr Schmidt's training class since things that you would see in person (like intermediate steps taken to get from A to D) are not in the book itself. You have to rely too heavily on the video segments that are on the CD to fill in the gaps - video should augment the text, not replace it.



2. We found this book as an excellent tool for selftraining and teaching others, too. The advantage is the amount of useful examples.



3. This is the third book I have bought by Robert Schmidt. I learned to design reports from his book "Creating documents with Business Objects". It is an excellent resource book. I learned to design advance level reports using his book and I always keep it as a reference. In Business Objects, the Help menu does not offer much help when you look for answers. His book is a better resource then the BO Documentation. He has explained everything in a very clear and concise manner.
   In his book and CBT on "Business Objects XI: Creating Universes with Designer XI", again he has done a marvelous job in explaining basic but important aspects of creating universes. I would highly recommend both the book (for reference) and CBT( to learn faster and have a better understanding of concepts). He has given good examples on report context and universe context. The presentations are very clear. The real world examples make is so much easier to understand the concepts.
   I am very much impressed by the author . Whenever I had a problem, he immediately answered my questions with the explanations. He will go an extra mile and will even call you to help you out. So, rest assure your investment will not be wasted.



4. This edition is an updated version of the previous edition. It has been rewritten and updated to clarify some of the topics. We have also removed the videos from the presentation and replaced them with a fully developed CBT. The CBT has more videos, better examples and quality audio. The presentation is still included for those that want to use the text to train Business Objects Designer. When you order this title you get a full, improved version of the text, the presentation, and a great CBT.



5. We've have been buying the Creating Documents with Business Objects books for years. Whenever we hire a new employee, we order the Web Intelligence book, and if they are to make universes, they also get the Designer book. This combination has worked very well for our employees. Recently, we ordered the CBT versions of these books and were surprised to see that we still got the same book. We quickly put the CD in to check the CBT and were happy to see that the CBT is actually quite good. We were also surprised that we got both at the same price as the previous versions of the books. The Designer book comes with a presentation that allows us to teach a class on Universes. The Web Intelligence book did not come with the presentation. We contacted Schmidt Ink, and were informed the non-CBT version of the book has the presentation. The person we spoke with also said that the presentation will be on the next print of the CBT. By the way, Schmidt Ink sent us a free copy of the previous edition, since we bought so many CBT's. We are very happy that these CBT's are available. They are high quality, easy to use, and inexpensive. One other note, so far the author has been very helpful. We have contacted him several times and he has discussed several matters with us, which is one of the reasons for this review. I just want to thank the author for great books and for helping us so many times.
   
   Business Objects XI - CBT: Web Intelligence XI

5 comments about Practical Perforce.

1. Well, I'm disappointed. I'm new to Perforce and found Perforce's documentation a bit unwieldy so I thought this book would help. I was wrong. What I was *hoping* this book would do was to provide a tutorial on getting set up and started, then serve as a reference on how to do at least some of the common things that you'd frequently need to do. Unfortunately, the book doesn't help with any of that.
   
   The book isn't organized so as to be useful as a reference, and it doesn't really offer much (if any) help on how to get started. Instead the book spends most of its space on discussions on advanced topics (branching, merging, automated builds, and so forth). It also focuses mainly on the command-line interface rather than the GUI.
   
   I'm sure this book is useful for some, but it sure wasn't what I was looking for.



2. As the title suggests, this is a how-to guide for doing Software Configuration Management with Perforce, but there's more. In addition to describing how the various commands work, this book helps you understand how to structure your version control system to help your team be more effective. For example, this book describes not only how to create branches, but why, and what policy to have on the branch. The Channeling the Flow of Change chapter is a great introduction to change management concepts in general, and the "Tofu Scale" is a great metaphor for structuring codelines. In addition, the clear writing style makes somewhat tricky concepts very accessible.
   
   Buy this book if you are using Perforce as your SCM solution, or even if you are evaluating multiple solutions, and Perforce is a candidate, as this book will help you understand how to structure your environment for effective development, regardless of your tool. This is an excellent companion to Software Configuration Management Patterns: Effective Teamwork, Practical Integration for Perforce users.



3. This book was better than I expected, because it not only explains how to use Perforce, but it covers handling branches in general using the "Tofu model" of softer to firmer codelines. This makes the book worthwhile even if you're not using a different CMS system, just as a way to think about using code branches to manage product releases, new feature development, and bug fixes all at the same time.
   
   One area that was a bit weak is that the majority of the book is geared towards development of shrinkwrap-style software with discrete release points, and only a final short chapter is dedicated to the continuous release style used by web-based products, seeming like an afterthought.
   
   But overall I would highly recommend this book to anyone using Perforce in software development of any kind.



4. I found this book a better resource for learning Perforce over the online documentation. It offers a good variety of source management situations and how to use Perforce in them.



5. Or anyone else who has any input into their company's software control decisions. (Or pretty much anyone using Perforce, or thinking about using Perforce, etc.)
   
   Unlike some I've found the standard documentation (and online knowledge base) easy to work with and understand, but like most I've longed for more examples and theory. This book provides those and more. If you're an admin, buy an extra copy because your serious users will want to borrow it (my copy is "out there" somewhere even as I type).

5 comments about Professional Search Engine Optimization with PHP: A Developer's Guide to SEO.

1. This book was a great refresher and provided insight into some complex SEO concepts. Job well done.



2. I am an experienced programmer but new to the world of SEO. This book gave me a very solid understanding of the range of factors that influence a page's ranking in search engines. Its organized and systematic presentation got me oriented quickly, which was invaluable for my new job at an SEO company.
   
   The book also presented very clear examples of how to code useful SEO scripts. These served to point me in the right direction for my own SEO-oriented coding.
   
   Many in the SEO space are all hype and no substance, but this book was very substantial, objective, and scientific. I would highly recommend this book for programmers looking to understand SEO. Even non-programmers will find it accessible as well.



3. I've read through this book from first to last page in a hope of finding any valuable information and must say, that most of what the book suggests is of no value to any professional in field. It's begins with some general giberrish about SEO, which is of no real value and can be collected over the web within hour. Then follow some worn out URI rewriting recipes, which I would be ashamed of offering as an solution to any of my clients and call them "SEO". Then ending chapters again are some general giberish, not a dime better that what can be found on web for free.
   
   If the title read "Beginning SEO with PHP", that would be somehow acceptable and the content would be OK, but there is nothing "Professional" in this book.
   
   Firstly, going with PHP4 for your examples in 2007 is a little bit um... "anachronous".
   
   Secondly, eg. the "Custom markup language" the authors introduce in chapter 6 is something, I'd expect from schoolkids but not from somebody who does not hesitate to call his product professional. It's not only terribly half baked and a promissing maintenance nightmare, but it also takes up so much space in the book, that authors could be able to introduce some basic techniques of XML parsing in PHP and explain it's advantages over the ugliness they have provided the reades with. That section among other things gives me clear picture of the "professionality" of the book.
   
   Chapter 7 + 8 - again using PHP4 object model - c'mon, we are in 2007...
   
   Let's say that CH3..CH5 are "OK", the rest is something, that in my opinion does only fills space in the book and readers would be better off searching the approprite information on the internet, where the book points you anyway in the end.
   
   After reading "Professional SEO in PHP", I've for good understood what Joel Spolsky ment when he claimed that you can never learn a technology from a book in red cover with mughshots, however professional it claim to be, because there's no overall intelligence behind it, chapters repeat things and left things out, and in rush to get the book to the market, editing appears to be non-existent.



4. When I first started making web sites, I thought that a good title, a few META tags, and some relevant content would achieve a high ranking on a search engine. That era is long gone and has been replaced with buzzwords like PageRank and other arcane algorithms.
   
   This book has been extremely helpful at demystifying what a modern webmaster needs to do to obtain the best possible rankings. For me especially, the focus that this be used by an already-competent PHP developer was a strong selling point. It was also laden with many real-world examples that could be immediately used.
   
   The early chapters in the book really go into depth about the common problems in SEO and some simple things to do alongside many of the tools already available to the developer such as Google analytics and mod_rewrite. The latter part of the book delves into the more esoteric techniques that many only apply to a smaller portion of sites, but it is useful nonetheless.
   
   Even for someone with basic familiarity with SEO will find the explanations useful. The chapters on duplicate content and SEO-friendly JavaScript are great examples of helping people unfamiliar with SEO to avoid the most common pitfalls of site design.
   
   Overall, this is an excellent book for anyone who wants the Swiss army knife of SEO techniques.



5. This book was perfect. I came from no knowlage of seo to fully understanding it. I bought this and Search Engine Optimization an hour a day together, and as good as the other book was, this one blew it away. I had read this one first, and it seemed like everything was just an echo reading the other book, but this one has even more because it shows you the programming aspect.

5 comments about An Embedded Software Primer.

1. I am in embedded world for 8 good years and brought this book to know something which I dont know. This book is purely for fresh graduates out college.(that too only when they havnt worked hard in their courses) also if you have been in industry but didnt get chance to work on actual system then this can be of little help for you.
   
   Dont buy it if you have already spent a couple of years on actual systems. You wont benefit much.



2. I've done quite some application software design. But I'm totally new to embedded software design. I found this book is very useful for me. The whole book is very clear and illustrative. It provides many useful points in designing embedded software that my be overlooked by application software engineer like me.



3. I think microC/OS is a good example of small operating systems such as TOPPERS/ssp(smallest set profile). This book describe Hardware fundamentals for the software engineer (chapter 1) for examples VCC(Voltage Connected to Collector), And gates and Or gates and D Flip Flops.
   Advanced Hardware Fundamentals(chapter 2) describe Busses, DMA(Direct Memory Access), and Interrupts(also in chapter 4).
   Survey of software architecutres(chapter 5) is important articles.
   Introduction to real-time operating systems(chapter 6) include semaphores that is traditional technology.
   All of the contents are good for primer. In the CD-ROM there are answer of the problems(exercise or practice) and additional programs.
   ps.
   microC/OS is made by Jean J. Labrosse.
   He make a new book, microC/OS-II.



4. This book hits most of the major points in embedded software programming, clearly and concisely. It it almost 10 years old, though, and some of the discussion shows it (especially hardware). It would be great if they would do a second edition, as the book is a great read otherwise.



5. Many people would argue that the material in this text is far too basic. I think this is precisely the strength of this book. I enjoyed reading this book despite being an experienced embedded developer.
   
   There is no one-stop-shop in embedded software development. If you adopt it as a career, there are many things you will need to learn over time: architectures of multiple processors, a variety development tools, RTOSes and a lot more. For the most part the book stays clear of the specifics of all of these. However, it does teach you the fundamentals of all of them. The information about hardware interfacing, processors, interrupts, shared data problems, RTOS based design, and common mistakes is sufficient to get a new-comer started quickly. In my early days, I spent hours, sometimes days, chasing bugs similar to those this book teaches you to avoid.
   
   In short, the book is just what says it is: "What you need to know to get started with embedded systems development". I would highly recommend it to any newcomer to this field.