5 comments about Oracle E-Business Suite Manufacturing & Supply Chain Management.

1. This book is very useful for the beginners as well those who want to brush up their knowledge on oracle applications release 11i.
   
   Mostly it covers all Manufacturing & Distribution modules. Financial modules are not covered in this book. I was planning to buy a book and searching for it and finally ended up in buying a very useful book.
   
   Main drawback is not much of screen captures displayed. So if you want to better understand you have to read it by sitting in front of applications screen and switching the forms as you read.
   
   Overall the book is worth having it.



2. I was part of the Oracle implementation team at our company, and I have found this book to be a useful tool for myself in the year since implementation as we continue to explore new functionalities. It is also a useful tool for the application users to learn how Oracle works. In fact, I not only purchased this book for myself, but I have purchased copies for several other people in the company. I refer to it all the time.



3. The tentative date of receipt is 27th Jan 2006 but to i haven't received the book as of today.
   
   Pls send same asap
   
   Arul



4. This book is for users of Oracle Manufacturing and has the end-user in mind Definately not for the the technical minded, site specific Installs and for those who are used to Technical Reference manuals



5. While Gerald & Co's book may look like a good introduction to Oracle's manufacturing & supply chain management modules, it will make little sense to those who have never used the system or don't have access to it. Because I had three years of hands-on experience with Oracle's E-Business Suite, the book is useful and I'm giving it a 3-star rating.
   
   Things that Gerald & Co. could have done better: more illustrations of what they write about. There are many "bells and whistles" in the software, but the book doesn't have enough "screen shots" to show you where they're located on an Oracle "form." I'm not satisfied with the case study, which they have placed in chapter 22. There are no screen shots there either.
   
   Gerald & Co. are assuming you can navigate and know a lot of the Oracle lingo. If you are new to this, don't expect to learn it from this book. The audiences for the book are intermediate and advanced users.
   
   One could also regard this as a reference book. Use it to answer problems you encounter while using the product or better understand what's going on. In this context, I'd rate it 3 stars, too.

5 comments about HTML 4 for the World Wide Web, Fourth Edition (Visual QuickStart Guide).

1. A few years ago, I decided to learn about the organization and construction of Internet WebPages. As with any computer-related topic, there are many, many books available from a variety of authors. I settled upon Elizabeth Castro's "HTML For the World Wide Web, Visual Quickstart Guide, Fourth Edition". I found it to be a very well organized, well-written and easily understood reference that can also be used as a tutorial for learning HTML. In fact, within a few hours of going through the book, I was creating my own WebPages using a variety of tags using Elizabeth Castro's clear explanations which not only describe the correct syntax for all of the HTML tags, but their purposes also. She also explains the contents of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and touches upon the incorporation of JavaScript (with a few simple JavaScript examples) and the insertion of applets. (Note: the writing of applets themselves, as well as the writing of complex JavaScript, is beyond the scope of this book.)

   One of the best aspects of this book are the distinctions that Elizabeth Castro documents regarding differences in behavior of various HTML tags between the two major Internet browsers: Internet Explorer and Netscape. If you are concerned about the appearance of your WebPages on the two major browsers, it is very important to note these specific tag behavioral differences to ensure that the WebPages will appear correctly on both browsers, or to encourage a user to use one browser or the other for best viewing results.

   Overall, I rate "HTML For the World Wide Web, Visual Quickstart Guide, Fourth Edition" with 5 out of 5 stars. If you are planning to create your own WebPages, this book is a definite must-have, or you can get Elizabeth Castro's newer release, which includes XHTML.




2. I was able to teach myself HTML with this book. The step-by-step instructions and explanations are VERY easy to follow. The book is very well organized and provides many visual examples. It also serves as a very handy reference. It's one of the most useful books I've bought. Needless to say, I will be buying the latest edition when it comes out.



3. Very good book. A little heavy on the deprecated tags good intro material for JavaScript and CSS.



4. It's hard to believe such a thin book could be so valuable. They only say it once and they say it well. The book is richly cross-referenced and well indexed, so wherever you are, you can page to the right spot for more if you need it. For me, this is the perfect design. I never read a software book front to back. I scan through it to find that one nugget that will get me going again. I'm always learning stuff "that I really don't have time to learn."
   
   Ms. Castro has written this book especially for that style of use. The writing is concise and you can find your way to the topic you need. The examples are very very good and the author has put special care into how well they commmunicate. My favorite is Llumi the cat, who's picture becomes a tiger ("what Llumi is thinking") when you mouseover the photo. Very memorable.
   
   I recieved this book about 3 years ago, not knowing anything about html, and I still use it today. I started out wanting to add a couple things to a web page another program made, now I'm thinking about a whole app. interface. In fact I just realized, I've finally read the whole thing, one bit at a time. Yes, you can read it chapter by chapter and it flows well. But if you're like me, you'll love the way you can find the relevant part, learn what you need to and move on.
   
   Overall, this book is good for beginners and is a good basic reference. It sticks tightly to it's subject, so it doesn't teach Javascript or CGI, other than to explain where they fit in. It makes great use of your time because of the clear concise writing, excellent examples, experience of the author, and rich cross-referencing throughout the book.
   
   I'm now in a spot where "I don't have time to learn" ... CGI. So I'm visiting Amazon looking for a CGI book by Elizabeth Castro based on my experience with this book.



5. Elizabeth Castro is an excellent technical writer. HTML for the World Wide Web is easy to read and easy to understand. Anyone who is a beginner to HTML should have this book in their library and/or on their desk for quick and concise learning and reference.

5 comments about Professional Visual Studio 2005.

1. Yes this book is riddled with typos and coding errors, but it's still a very well written and informative introduction to VB 2005.
   The chapters are really easy to read (not like normal textbooks), with solid examples and small end-of-chapter exercises to reinforce ideas.
   If it had been properly proofed, it would easily get 5 stars.



2. Try as hard as I can, I cannot find a purpose in this book other than for the authors to make some money. It barely touches on the options in VS2005 without any concrete direction or in-depth description of why to use the features. I have found that the VB2005 book I purchased at the same time as this ("Visual Basic 2005 : The Language") provided much better coverage than this book
   I would NOT reccommend this book to anyone. You would find a much more effective use of your money by buying the above book or a book on the targer language in VS2005 you are using



3. Too much of this book has no depth and is repeating what is written on the screen.



4. I received this book within a few days and the book was in great shape. Nice job.



5. I was expecting a more detailed book on VS 2005, but it wasn't. However some people might find this book useful.

5 comments about Thinking in C++, Volume 2: Practical Programming (Thinking in C++).

1. In this book i found everything about the standard c++ library.
   Recommended if you wanna do something serous with c++



2. Bruce Eckel, Thinking in C++, vol. 2 (Mindview, 2004)
   
   
   I was a big, big fan of Volume I of this two-volume set. I first read it four or five years ago, and it was a big part of the foundation that helped me to understand why some of the newer pieces of the C++ architecture are useful (read "newer" as "when I was your age, boy, we had to walk to school, `cause we didn't have none of them new-fangled templates to ride on!"). It took me a while to get round to reading the second volume. It's more of the same, but different. Volume 2 seems more like a reference book, and far more of it is devoted to bleeding-edge (at the time) concepts than was vol. 1--design patterns, threading, that sort of thing. Of course, these days, they're all relatively common (thanks in no small part to Microsoft having already implemented most of this stuff in .NET), so this one's better thought of as a refresher course, or a book for people like me who are hopelessly backed up trying to keep pace with the Joneses (or the Redmonds). ***



3. This book is a must! It is not that visually appealing but in pair with the Vol. 1 it is a mandatory book that will help you featuring out all the brighter and dustier corners of C++. The text is quite clear and the examples very appropriate. It is written with a nice scientific background and the author doesn't limit himself to just expose all the C++ features.



4. Amazon delivered on its promise. Great pricing with quick shipping. Can't beat that.



5. Have to say "a bit boring" but absolutely a must if you want to learn C++.

5 comments about Excel Scientific and Engineering Cookbook (Cookbooks (O'Reilly)).

1. Bourg's book is an excellent collection of analytical recipes suitable for undergraduates, graduate and postdocs in all scientific disciplines. Engineers will find good treatment of important topics such as optimization and numerical integration. Statistical anlysis is also covered, although no theoritical background is provided, and in this format, none should be expected, as the author indicates. An excellent and useful book.



2. Do you have scientific or engineering calculations to perform? If you do, then this book is for you! Author David M Bourg, has done an outstanding job of writing a book that shows you how to leverage Excel as a capable computing tool to solve a variety of both routine and complex problems.
   
   Bourg, begins by covering a variety of fundamental topics, including navigating Excel's interface, entering data and formulas, and formatting cells. Then, the author covers a variety of fundamental VBA programming topics, including VBA syntax, using the VBA editor, and integrating VBA code with Excel spreadsheets. Next, he shows you how to import data into Excel from a variety of sources, including text files, databases, and the Web. The author then shows you how to visualize data in Excel. He continues by showing you how to perform standard statistical calculations in Excel, such as computing summary statistics, calculating confidence intervals, and performing analysis of variance, among other calculations. Then, the author shows you how to conduct various time series analysis tasks, including forecasting and Fourier transforms in Excel. Next, he introduces you to many of Excel's useful math functions. The author continues the discussion of data analysis, specifically focusing on curve fitting and regression analysis. Then, the author shows you how to leverage Excel to solve linear and nonlinear equations, as well as linear and nonlinear systems. Next, he shows you how to perform various numerical integration calculations, such as computing areas and moments of areas, among others. The author then shows you how to solve initial value and boundary value problems using standard numerical techniques such as the Runge-Kutta and shooting methods. He continues by showing you how to leverage Excel to help solve problems involving partial differential equations. Then, the author shows you how to perform optimization analysis using Excel's built-in optimization tools. Finally, he introduces you to some of Excel's extensive financial analysis capabilities.
   
   This most excellent book aims to present Excel as a cradle to the grave computing environment for scientific and engineering computations. More importantly, this book shows you how to use Excel and VBA in general, how to import data from a variety of sources, analyze data, perform calculations, and finally visualize the results for interpretation and presentation.



3. Be wary of using other programmer's work unless it has passed the
   sort of critical tests as available on the NIST site.
   A number of techniques in EXCEL are not useful for various
   problems in the sciences. There are also problems inherent
   in digital computation, regardless of language or platform,
   which can result in serious errors. If you are doing serious
   work, you should make the investment in the hardware and
   software which can pass rigorous examination.



4. It appears to be a good book but the writers style lacks substance. I could have written this book! I am not an expert on Excel but I have used it since the mid to late 1980's so I know a few things. The section on VBA was weak. I expected more but got less. Most Excel books are concentrated on Business Applications and I was hopeful to find one that actually had something to do with Engineering but it was too weak. No good examples, just pictures of spreadsheets and no formulas. Cut and pasting function names is lame!



5. 1.1 This Book
   
   Problem
   The entire book is written in this silly format.
   
   Solution
   If this sort of thing bothers you, buy something else
   
   Discussion
   This cloying and tiresome gimmick gets repeated throughout the entire book. Every time I pick it up, I feel like I'm listening to Donald Rumsfeld. There seems to be lots of good information about using Excel in scientific and engineering contexts, but the writing style is just too much for some of us. Whatever happened to straightforward narrative?

5 comments about The RenderMan Shading Language Guide.

1. As a professional character TD I don't have lots of time to sit and really dig into other areas of 3D. I've been wanting to learn some basics in shader development as well as render pipeline so that I can be more flexible within the team and able to troubleshoot problems that come up or provide solutions to situations that a project might demand. Renderman has been always something I really wanted to get into but had a hard time reading some of the more complex papers I've found before being that I didn't have the time to gather the fundamentals in order to build off. This book solved that by gathering basic, intermediate, and advanced topics all in one place.
   
   the Renderman Shading Language Guide has really helped me out in understanding how Renderman works, as well as how general rendering works and where shaders, lights, etc fit in. It's written in a very intuitive way, and those that are beginning or even intermediate will really benefit from reading this. The book will not only help you with RSL, it will help you with a greater understanding of professional rendering in general. For the price this book really can't be beat.
   
   After reading this, I feel more confident in tackling those papers I had tried to read before, and really digging into experimenting more with Renderman.



2. I'm quite pleased with the depth of this book. So many of the CGI titles I've bought that claim to be intermediate or advanced aren't. While the RenderMan Shading Language Guide assumes that you have no starting knowledge of RSL, it immediately dives into technical details without overwhelming the novice. For someone wishing to learn RSL (or even just shader theory), this book is wonderfully paced, containing a great depth of information, very well explained.
   
   At the same time, this isn't a book for dabblers. To get much out of the RenderMan Shading Language Guide, you need to be willing to put some effort and practice into it. This is a textbook and needs to be treated as a subject of study, rather than a casual enhancement for playing with CGI. If RenderMan intrigues you, but you don't want to get too deep into the technical (and programing/scripting) aspects, you'd be better off getting Pixar's RenderMan for Maya and a Digital Tutors or similar training DVD. You'll learn more of the simple, day-to-day things and get started making renderings faster.
   
   As another poster mentioned, the text mentions an included disk which isn't. The website doesn't have downloads either. That omission would knock the book down to 4.5 stars, but since I can't rate with half-stars, 5 stars more accurately reflects the value of the book than 4.



3. I have read many technical manuals relating to the 3D Animation and Visual Effects industries, and I can honestly say that this is easily one of the best available.
   
   Given the limited library of Renderman books, I'd call this an absolute must have for any Lighting/Rendering/Shader TD, or any artist or technical director involved in the look development and shot finaling pipelines.
   
   Even if you haven't yet worked within a Renderman pipeline, this is the perfect publication to introduce you to, and bring you up to speed in, the Renderman Shading Language (RSL).
   
   I've found that the majority of technical manuals suffer from a number of common flaws:
   
   1. The information is presented chaotically, and with minimal use of examples or descriptions, resulting in a publication that would readable only by those that already know everything it has to teach.
   
   2. The information is presented so laboriously that what should take a paragraph instead takes up three chapters.
   
   The Renderman Shading Language Guide is perfectly paced for beginners and intermediate users alike, and indeed when I showed the book to a couple of highly experienced Renderman TDs, they were surprised by the sheer volume of information and ordered copies for themselves.
   
   Everything is presented in short blocks with an easily readable description, examples, shortcuts and conclusions. There is no unecessarily complicated geek speek, and neither is the reader treated like a 4 year old.
   
   Even though I barely remember my high school math, and in the most flattering estimation I'd be considered a competent beginner when it comes to the math involved in RSL, I found the examples relatively easy to follow for the most part. And in those parts where the math went well over my head, I found the simple descriptions and concise, well explained instructions to be all I needed to quickly understand the topic.
   
   From cover to cover this book is crammed full of useful information. There is no wastage of space in these pages. It seems that every conceivable question is answered - every possible topic covered from introduction to an advanced level of understanding and a practical and immmediately useful conclusion.
   
   And at the price? This book is a steal.
   
   One very minor complaint I would make is in regards to the occasional typographical error. An equation or two is printed with "?" in place of "*" or another symbol, and there are a few spelling and grammatical errors. But as I said, it is a minor complaint.
   
   Also, I would have liked to have seen more complete shader examples demonstrated in a step-by-step process, as while this book is overflowing with informative mini-tutorials, it all seems a little incongruous. It would have been good to see a few more examples where the information was brought together in real-world ways to create some amazing completed shaders. Perhaps in a sequel? ;)
   
   All in all, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, from an industry Lead Lighting TD.
   
   9.5/10



4. I caught wind that this book was coming out well before it actually came out and could hardly contain my excitement. I had it ordered before it was even off the press.
   
   Let's face it, trying to learn Renderman online is like trying to ride a bike with a flat tire. You can go, but not very fast or very far. I own several other renderman books but found them to be a bit out of date and lacking in areas. Since leaving school and entering into the industry I had actually been considering writing a Renderman book myself. I am glad to say that now I don't have to!
   
   I have been enjoying my copy of the book since december of last year. I admit that I was thrown off by all the refrences to the accompanying cd, as well as a few typos throughout. I was overjoyed however to find the website today! This is the book that I have needed for a long time. It is well worth what you pay for it.



5. The RenderMan Shading Language Guide is an excellent resource. It contains numerous examples of shader code, to help get you started with writing your own shaders. I was happy to see the robust section on illumination models, with some sl code provided for most of them. I found the section that had common functions (like gamma() and remap()) very helpful, and appreciated the disscussion on more sophisticated components of the shading language (like subsurface scattering and global illumination). In addition, for the user who is new to the process of writing and compiling shaders, a number of pages are devoted to explaining how to achieve these goals. All in all, I would highly recommend this book to any user who wants to learn how to write his/her own RenderMan shaders.

5 comments about JavaScript Bible, Fifth Edition.

1. This is really a bible-level handbook of javascript. The contents are very comprehensive and look professional. The best thing is that the examples in each chapter really help understand the boring syntax and functions.



2. An overwhelming amount of information without a simple beginning. The author jumps from beginning level information to way too sophisticated so fast that it will lose any non-technical person.



3. Definitively it's the javascript bible.
   
   If you want to fine tune your AJAX apps you'd better buy this book.
   
   It's extensive object and fuction reference does not leave anything in the shadows.
   
   This book is worth every cent.



4. This "Bible" covers everything that is needed for JavaScript programming. Everything is very well written and very easy to understand with clear code examples and real world applications. The beginning tutorial is a great way to get beginners started then the more advanced topics are covered in the Book or on the CD with all of the examples listed on the CD as well.
   
   This is a book that I will continue to use.



5. Pro: really good reference work for most people
   Cons: 1) Not for someone who doesn't know either javascript basics or another scripting language. 2) Organization is good, but it isn't an encyclopedia and it isn't a start-to-finish tutorial. 3) Poor typeface decisions.
   
   This book is the greatest for several different types of people. First, anyone who knows the basics of javascript, from advanced beginner to advanced js user. Second, anyone who wants to learn javascript and already knows some programming; you can use it as a tutorial, but only if you don't need much explanation about scripts and object-oriented programming.
   
   It really is just excellent for someone who has previously learned something about one of the chapters but needs a refresher and/or more detailed/comprehensive walkthrough.
   
   Four stars instead of five for a completely unnecessary mistake. Unfortunately, the W3c ignores people who do not have eagle-sharp vision and will fill a page full of semicolons and colons, or parens and curly brackets. If you don't have a font that clearly distinguishes these, it is a major source of semantic errors and eyestrain. The font chosen to print the code in this book could not be worse. Colons and semicolons are almost impossible to distinguish (not to mention periods and commas),and curly brackets look like thin lines with no curls.
   
   C'mon guys. There are fonts of every type where periods and commas are easier to distinguish, and curly brackets have a distinct shape. USE THEM FOR PUBLISHING CODE!!

5 comments about ASP.NET 2.0 Web Parts in Action: Building Dynamic Web Portals (In Action).

1. This book introduces and explains a lot of concepts with Web Parts. This book SHOULD BE your starting point if you want to do any kind of web part development.
   
   Key concepts:
   - Web Part Connections
   - Zones and how web parts behave inside them
   - Tips & Tricks to get web parts to behave like they look in SharePoint
   - Page Life cycle with web parts
   - AJAX and web parts (little light on that topic)
   
   I have done some basic web part development and read other articles on the web. This book by far brought a lot of concepts together and allows you to build a portal based on web parts.



2. An all in one great introduction to web parts and even to some advanced techniques.
   
   Web parts are a strong web UI element and this book has done a great job of talking about ALL the things that are necessary for proper web parts development.



3. A must buy book if your working with webparts. Darren (The author) is also extremely helpful if you post web part related questions on his forum. The book is clear, concise and well organised. You will not be disapointed!
   
   Ps. I have bought many many tech reference books from Amazon over the years. This is the first time I have ever posted a review. This book has been an invaluable reference for a large project I am currently working on.
   
   Paul Hale (Domainscanners)



4. This a very thorough and complete guide to ASP 2.0 Web Parts. After reading this book, I gained more knowledge than reading countless internet articles, numerous blogs and a few cumbersome books on subject. This book is a MUST Buy for anyone who needs to understand and/ or implement ASP 2.0 Web Parts. One added new value is the concepts outlined
   in his book also work on ASP 3.5.



5. When I first started looking at Web Parts I couldn't quite grasp how they were different from other web technology. Darren was able to clearly describe how individual parts are created, and how to integrate them into a cohesive whole and helped me enormously in building modern websites.

5 comments about Practical Apache Struts 2 Web 2.0 Projects (Practical Projects).

1. Its not for beginners
   
   This book is not good for beginners. Its very hard to follow this book with so many assumptions.



2. Like others said its not for beginners. However, that doesn't make it a bad book. If you are looking for guide for going to struts 1 to 2, this book is not it. With that said, if you are a webwork developer or already have a handle on the Struts 2 basics this book does provide some nice samples. It provides a nice sampling of how to integrate with some of the plugins that have been added over the last year. (zero config, wild cards in configuration, gwt, hibernate, spring, security). You may already be an accomplished struts 2 development however, their may be some things to take away from this to add to one's cookbook.



3. I was extremely disappointed in the authors other struts 2 book; and was planning to avoid this one, but all the other stuts 2 books kept slipping their date, so I picked this one up on a whim.
   
   I'm rather surprised by the negative reviews people are giving it, as I found it a very useful book. Yes the title is a little hokey and the content only pays lip-service to Web 2.0 aspects. I have been working on my own personal projects in Struts 2 for a few months so I wasn't a complete novice coming into the book, and I lurk on both the users and developer mailing lists. I felt the material was well laid out and followed a natural progression. The book doesn't really cover MVC theory nor how it applies to any of the "Action" frameworks, so its not really a book for people with no prior experience in those areas.
   
   The other limitation I found was the book just ends. There was no real wrap up or conclusion. Basically he finishes developing the last use case of this sample application and on the facing page is the index. To me this was the only place that felt rushed.
   
   The book doesn't cover a fair bit of the annotation based configuration opposed to XML and a few of the more established plugins however that are a few places where it might not be "future-proof" given the works that's going on now merging/combining several of the convention-over-configuration plugins into a single unified one for struts 2.1



4. "Practical Apache Struts2 Web 2.0 Projects" walks you through developing an app in Struts2. It includes use cases, iterations, a build process and some unit tests.
   
   A number of other reviews correctly point out this book is not for beginners. You should be familiar with MVC before starting out. This was ok as I wasn't expecting an "intro to struts 2" book based on the title. The author includes a section on Hibernate bare essentials to get readers with different experience on the same page.
   
   I found there to be a good balance between how Struts 2.0 works and implementing common things you might actually want to do in practice. While the book does cover Web 2.0 a bit, this is more of an extra buzzword in the title. The last two chapters are really the Web 2.0 part - RSS and AJAX.
   
   The end left me a little off balance. There was a whole chapter of introduction. The end was the AJAX chapter and the immediately dumped you in the index. A bit of conclusion, or at least a blank page, would have been nice.
   
   Overall, the book was fine. It is good for a "recipes of common tasks" type book once you have read a bit about Struts 2.0.



5. The samples in the book learn you very useful information about the Struts 2. You can download the sample codes. Futhermore you are immediately able to use them in your applications. Then you feel as you are at very good point to go forward into the details of the Struts 2.

2 comments about Pro Web 2.0 Mashups: Remixing Data and Web Services (Expert's Voice in Web Development).

1. This is the type of book that you can either skim and get ideas from or sit down at a computer and work through all of the examples. The material is presented clearly and thoroughly illustrates different types of mashups. The book discusses how to use Yahoo Pipes and Google Mashup Editor, their respective map API's along with manipulating Flickr properties and API's. Integrating feeds and blogs into mashups are also described. Though not required, a reader would understand more of the book with some background in languages like javascript, php, and of course xml/html.



2. Kudos to the author and publisher for this release.
   This book is a tour de force of the subject of Mashups.
   
   I was looking for a good book on this subject so that I could introduce it to students as part of an extra-curricular technology program in NYC and this book is perfect.
   
   In a sentence, Mashups are created by taking data from one or more sources and making something new and useful from them.
   
   In my opinion, the subject is very important because there is a vast amount of data that is available now. Today the challenge is not just finding data but putting to use. This book shows you how to do that.
   
   The author's writing style is excellent, mixing theory and applications. The book is filled with hands on examples as well as references for research in each of the areas.
   
   I believe that this book can be read by anyone interested in the subject, regardless of their technical background. For those that want to create Mashups without programming, this book shows you how. For those that want to delve into programming, everything that you need is covered including AJAX, PHP, various data formats and how to parse them, various Javascript libraries and more.
   
   The book is laid out in four parts:
   
   1. Remixing Information Without Programming
   As the title suggests, the chapters in this section require no previous programming experience. The author walks through some specific examples, introduces terminology and analyzes how sites like Flickr and del.icio.us work so that you can get the most out of them. Tools such as Yahoo! Pipes (a browser-based visual application for Mashups and Remixing) are explored. Following along with the discussion the reader can put together a Mashup or Remix by simply understanding the concepts and using tools, but not having to delve into coding.
   
   2. Remixing a Single Web Application Using Its API
   For the person who wants to code, this part of the book jumps right in discussing the Flickr API, PHP usage, XML processing and more. From there the discussion moves to other APIs and using AJAX/Javascript widgets.
   
   3. Making Mashups
   This section starts by delving into the ProgrammableWeb website. Showing how to find what resources are available, studying existing Mashups via which APIs they use and how to go about creating new ones. From there XMLHttpRequest and Javascript libraries such as YUI are covered and a step-by-step example is given using the previously discussed techniques. Lastly, the author addresses issues around implementing Mashups on your site including standards, accessibility and your own API. I was glad to see these topics covered as sometimes in the haste of getting something online, they can be overlooked.
   
   4. Exploring Other Mashup Topics
   This final section of the book covers a large range of interesting topics such as Map-based Mashups, Social Bookmarking, Calendars, Online Storage, Desktop and Office Suites, Embeddable Data Formats and Searches.
   
   As you can see, there's a lot of information covered in this book. In my opinion, everything that one could want on the subject and written in such a way that you want to keep reading, exploring and creating your own Mashups.
   
   I highly recommend this book - so far, it has been my favorite read of 2008!