1 comments about The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology.

1. Curious minds that have delighted in games will love this book! I adored the compilation of shared thoughts from "Who's Who" in game design. Aesthetically, the book is so cute! My copy sits on my coffee table. The book had me at the cover...

5 comments about Deploying .NET Applications: Learning MSBuild and ClickOnce (Expert's Voice in .Net).

1. This book explains how to use ClickOnce in Real-World Scenarios. It does not only explain what you need to do to get ClickOnce running with your app, but also how things work behind the scenes, and why MS built ClickOnce the way they did. First we were a bit shy to use ClickOnce, because we thought it might be just another bloated MS Technology. Thanks to Sayeds Book, however, we spared the work to write our own solution, and we are confident to have the right solution for our needs. Thanks, Sayed!



2. This is just an overview summary of MSBuild. Lots of properties are mentioned but no indication of how to use them and what the parameters are. However, it seems to be the only book on the market. Read this book first then you must go to MSDN to get the details. MSBuild in general is not very well documented. These authors do not give any practical examples unfortunately.



3. I like the way this book is laid out and I like the examples. It is particularly useful to be able to download the examples and look at the code firsthand. This author actually reads his email and was willing to explain an item in more detail for me. I'm sure this book would be helpful to anyone needing to learn more about deployment using these methods.



4. The author is apparently quite knowledgeable in MSBuild & ClickOnce, and shared some of the insights in this book, such as how to customize your build. The main negative is that, he sometimes just jumps into a topic or use a term without properly explaining the the fundamentals. For example, incremental build is a big topic that's not properly explained.
   
   It's would have been much better to give a clear "problem statement" about the fundamental problem that incremental build is supposed to solve, then describe how this can be done logically, then show how the specific technology (ie msbuild) does this; but he tends to belabor the technologies used instead.
   
   Another problem is that the author didnt do his homework well and incorrectly described several terms: e.g he said SCM stands for "Source Control Management", which we all know should be Software Configuration Management. He said BITS is Binary Intelligent Transfer Service (when it should be Background ...). This sort of things tend to undermine his credibility.



5. If you are new to using MSBuild or TeamBuild, don't waste your time trying to read instructions on Micosoft's site. Buy this book first and then go back to MS site later to get more information. Hashimi did a good job presenting an intro to MSBuild.
   
   I only read the first 5 chapters because the other chapters don't apply to me yet, and I thought they were straight forward and easy to understand.
   
   If you are familiar with MSBuild, unless you are trying to get info on Click once, using Microsoft's website will be the way to go to get more in depth info on MSBuild.

No comments about Second Person: Role-Playing and Story in Games and Playable Media.

5 comments about The Art of Software Security Assessment: Identifying and Preventing Software Vulnerabilities.

1. The authors of this book are some of the most respected in vulnerability research and theory, and have found many bugs that were years ahead of their time. As expected, they deliver on their prior reputation in this great and incredibly expansive book of knowledge and insight.
   
   If you're tired of reading high-level theoretical books about "building security in" written by people who have no clue what a bug is or how to prevent them, this book is the ideal alternative.
   
   For a hobbyist, it will guide you through practical methodologies about how bug hunting is done and teach you to think like a great vulnerability researcher.
   
   For a developer, it will open your eyes to security oversights in most of the pieces of code you have ever written. Read hard, these bug classes affect the products you are shipping today.
   
   For the security professional, this likely goes not only broader but deeper on lots of issues than you have ever looked, and far beyond any book I've seen. It can be used as page to page read, or a great reference. I personally use it all the time, and have definitely learnt from it. Great job guys!
   
   P.S. Try and spot the 0day.



2. This book is The Bible for anyone in the security vulnerability research or security software engineering field. I haven't bought a book and studied it so much before ever. This is one book that will never be off my desk.



3. This is a very comprehensive, and well-organized security assessment book for Software engineers. Yes, it has everything - all done well. If you are into security assessment and testing and live by it every day, you are still bound to learn a lot, to re-evaluate the things you know, and to genuinely improve your results. If you are a software engineer, it *will* help you build superior applications. If you are just an security enthusiast, you will genuinely enjoy the time spent with this book, and you will find this brick handy more often than previously imagined.



4. A must have. Being a security researcher for almost ten years now, and already a CISSP holder, there are times you believe you have seen most of the things, and you know the best of them. This book opens a new way of thinking, it's detailed and accurate and goes in depth on every subject.
   
   A real must have.
   
   Nicolas Krassas, CISSP



5. This book is absolutely amazing. The amount of detail they go into for so many subjects -- it's incredible. I particularly enjoyed the section on network protocols. I recommend this to any software engineer -- not just those in security specific positions.
   
   Great job, and I hope to enjoy more material from these wonderful authors!

5 comments about The Haskell School of Expression: Learning Functional Programming through Multimedia.

1. C, Java, Pascal, Ada, and so on, are all imperative languages. They are "imperative" in the sense that they consist of a sequence of commands, which are executed strictly one after the other. Haskell is a functional language. A functional program is a single expression, which is executed by evaluating the expression. Anyone who has used a spreadsheet has experience of functional programming. In a spreadsheet, one specifies the value of each cell in terms of the values of other cells. The focus is on what is to be computed, not how it should be computed.
   This book is a unique attempt to teach the reader the Haskell programming language by demonstrating how to write programs that perform interesting tasks such as animation, graphics, robot control, and functional music composition. The book succeeds at introducing the reader to the Haskell language and the idea of functional programming, and the book is a fascinating read with unique projects performed in the Haskell language. This is particularly true if you are interested in multimedia programming. However, intermediate features of the language are brushed over. If you are already familiar with Haskell, this book will teach you interesting ways to look at functional programming and give you some ideas for some interesting projects. If you are new to Haskell, you are going to find yourself somewhat confused when you get to the more advanced material. I therefore recommend that you read this book along with "Haskell:The Craft of Functional Programming" by Thompson. That book is not nearly as interesting as this book, but it fills in all of the intermediate details that are missing in a very detailed manner.



2. in general, and if you don't know Haskell, OCaML, ML, or F#, then you really should buy this book and work through it.
   
   A generation ago, Abelson and Sussman wrote "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs," which brought world-shaping clarity to programming in the form of a generic, functional approach. In the time since then, "types" and "lazy evaluation" have fundamentally improved that overall approach, and Haskell is the rightful successor to Scheme as the best-of-breed of functional programming languages. That said, types and lazy evaluation are somewhat tricky to learn, and this book offers a fun and easy way to do it.
   
   The software needed to run the samples in the book is free and works on Windows platforms (and possibly some others).
   
   Buy it, work through every word of it, you won't regret it :)



3. This is a good book... However, I wish I hadn't bought it. It seems to focus too much on geometry and multimedia, which is not that interesting to me. (Yes, I knew that when I bought the book).
   
   Anyway, my problem with it is that it seems more suited to someone who'll learn in a "linear" way, going through all chapters (maybe because functions defined in previous chapters are used in the others). I'd rather get a book with self-contained chapters (for example, I've learned Lisp with Peter Seibel's "Practical Common Lisp", and I jumped around, reading chapters as I felt like, or as I needed them). But it's great if you don't mind having to go through all of it.
   Maybe it's me, I don't know. I just didn't really like it.



4. Granted I am new to Haskell and to some degree functional programming. I thought this book would be really cool, pretty much an ideal book on a subject matter that I am very interested in. The text is definitely easy to follow for the most part, but WHY, WHY use a 'Times new roman' type font for the code samples? The code samples are basically in the same font as the text only in italics, making it hard to figure out what is supposed to be whitespace, which I find a pretty strange decision for a textbook on a language where layout matters...



5. I admit, I did not read the book very much. I looked through it and the format of everything was really weird. The code snippets used characters one cannot type in what seemed to me to be a variable width font. It bothered me for some reason.

5 comments about JUnit Recipes: Practical Methods for Programmer Testing.

1. This review also appears on StickyMinds at http://www.stickyminds.com/s.asp?F=S767_BOOK_4
   
   JUnit Recipes is a comprehensive tome of practical methods and techniques for the opensource JUnit tool to develop automated unit-tests for Java/J2EE applications. The book is split into four parts: Building Blocks, Testing J2EE, Additional JUnit Techniques, and Appendices. The Building Blocks cover the basics of using JUnit to create basic tests, organize and manage test suites and test data, running JUnit tests and reporting the results. It even includes a section on troubleshooting. Testing J2EE covers XML, JDBC, EJB, web components (including JSPs), and J2EE applications. Additional techniques include testing some well known design patterns, using JUnit add-ons and JUnit libraries (like GSBase). The Appendices include complete solutions (including code of course), some short and sweet essays on testing, and a modest recommended reading list.
   
   The organization of the book flows very logically and the writing style is very clear and easy to follow. Along the way many insights into important design principles and testing techniques are revealed: the reader will learn about the "Hollywood principle", the Open-Closed principle, design patterns, POJOs, Mock Objects, Private and Parameterized Test-Cases, Abstract Test-Cases, Self-Shunts, and Spys. The book's coverage is very comprehensive and touches on many other popular Java/Enterprise projects and frameworks such as Struts, JBOSS, Prevayler, XDoclet, Tomcat, XPath, XMLUnit, HTTPUnit, Ant, Jakarta, and others.
   
   Even though JUnit is often associated with "Agile" development and much of the wisdom apparent in the book applies to agile Java development, the book is useful to any Java developer on any Java project (agile or otherwise). The book also goes into considerable detail, with working code examples, to spell out exactly how to perform and apply the techniques it describes.
   
   The book's primary audience is Java developers. Java Tester's will still find some good nuggets of information but it's quite clear that Java programmers and developers are the target audience. This isn't some high-level theoretical book mostly of concepts and ideas. This is an imminently pragmatic guide that not only conveys a great deal of highly practical wisdom but also clearly and comprehensively walks you through the explanations and the code to accomplish and apply the techniques it describes. The book is also not a "How To" for coming up-to-speed on setting up and running JUnit.
   
   Another book from the same publisher, "JUnit in Action" is a great overview on learning more about the basics of running and using JUnit and on using JUnit to tackle a number of basic challenges with unit-testing Java and J2EE code. JUnit Recipes has some overlapping material but pretty much "picks up" where "JUnit in Action" leaves off, and JUnit Recipes goes into much more breadth and depth of coverage of JUnit methods, practices and techniques and use with other Java projects and frameworks.
   
   I would say JUnit Recipes should probably be required reading for anyone attempting to use Java, J2EE and JUnit in the real-world.



2. This isn't necessarily the best introduction for absolute beginners (I would recommend /Pragmatic Unit Testing/ for that), but it is required reading for server-side Java, as most other reviewers have pointed out. But it's more than that--it's one of those rare computer books that transcends its subject matter. Why? Because it can make you a better programmer. While some of the credit can rightly be given to unit testing and Test-Driven Development in general, Rainsberger's book makes you /see/ better ways to write and refactor your code. The breadth and depth of examples is astonishing--he convincingly shatters "but it's too hard to test that" arguments with well-researched, non-trivial examples. In fact, I'd say that this is almost a better J2EE tutorial than most books about J2EE proper.
   
   I'm withholding a star for one reason: the book doesn't cover GUI testing tools like Jemmy, JFCUnit, or Abbot/Costello. These JUnit extensions are ripe for a book with this depth; it's just too bad that this couldn't be that book. Other than that, I find that I turn to Rainsberger's book far more often than any other testing book or online reference.



3. Rainsberger does a very good job of detailing the techniques to unit test difficult code; including xml, ejb, servlets, jsps etc.



4. This is a great book. It is directed at users of JUnit, the Java unit testing framework. But in my mind the book gives sound advice for solving your programming problems in general, not just for Java or JUnit testing. It stresses the importance of unit testing, programming to interfaces instead of implementations and just simple common sense. The author is clearly passionate about his field and extremely experiences. The combination of enthusiasm and experience comes through on every page.



5. This is a readable, practical, and deep book. It's one of those books which teaches or refreshes Java and OO theory and practice as you read. I am also reading it for pleasure!

2 comments about Visio 2007 For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech)).

1. As usual the Dummies series is pretty good and gives you a general intro and easy to build on concepts and how the product works and how to work it as you need it.



2. I recommend against buying this book. I read only about a third of it and found two errors on fundamental points. On p. 67, there is a glaring misstatement about the use of Wizards that suggests that the authors never even tried the feature they are "explaining." And on page 98 there is a section on "Nudging" shapes where in half a page of text the authors do not reveal the one thing that one must do in order to "nudge" a shape -- namely, hold down the Shift key while using the up and down arrow keys. It appears that nobody bothered to proofread this book after it was written.

1 comments about Introduction to Modern Cryptography (Chapman & Hall/Crc Cryptography and Network Security Series).

1. I used this book for a course on modern cryptography held by Prof. Persiano of the University of Salerno, Italy.
   I read, consulted, and studied other books about cryptography, but 'INTRODUCTION TO MODERN CRYPTOGRAPHY' by Katz and Lindell is in my humble opinion THE BEST.
   The book has a theoretical flavor, it is mathematically rigorous, but it is very readable and fluent, and presents the motivating discussions beneath each topic.
   The book is fully self-contained, and gives the necessary background for each topic (for example there is a lot of basic computational number theory necessary for introducing the topic of 'public key').
   The beauty of the book is in that the authors don't present a collection of protocols, with no links each other, but the flow is sequential and motivated (in contrast to books which present topics only for filling the pages).
   All the theorems are proved and the treatment is rigorous, but the theory is developed from scratch, and the book is oriented to beginner students, though it presents also advanced stuff and is one of the most advanced book for beginners.
   The main contents of the book are:
   
   1) Perfect security and Shannon's theorem (information theoretic security)
   2) Computational security, indistinguishability, CPA
   3) Pseudorandomness
   4) One-way functions, hard-core predicate, Levin's theorem
   5) Message Authentication Codes
   6) Costructions of Pseudorandom objects, AES, Substitution-Permutation networks
   7) Relation between Private-Key, one-way functions and pseudrandomness.
   8) Number theory for the cryptography
   9) Computational number theory, factorization, square roots,discrete log,diffie-hellman problems
   10) Public key, goldwasser-micali, el gamal, pallier, hybrid encryption, encryption schemes based on trapdoor permutations
   11)Digital Signature Schemes
   I wrote only some topics of the book following my taste, but the books contains much more.
   The exercises left to the end of each chapters are good, and vary from easy to hard.
   The book i read was in draft form, 320 pages long, but the final edition is about 500 pages long, cause addictional sections have been added.
   Indeed in the introduction of my book the authors write that their planned to add to the final edition the following:
   
   Elliptic curves
   Sub-exponential factoring algorithms
   The random oracle model and efficient cryptographic constructions
   Protocols
   
   Given that the final edition is 200 pages longer that my draft i think that these sections have been added.
   
   I advice this book to everyone who wants start the study of modern cryptography from a theoretic and rigorous point of view.
   After you read Katz and Lindell i suggest you to read "Foundations of Cryptography" by Goldreich, but it is too advanced and its reading requires you already read Katz and Lindell.

5 comments about Java Software Solutions: Foundations of Program Design (5th Edition).

1. There is an updated printing of this book that uses ISBN 0-321-32202-7. The updated printing (which corrects small but important changes from the final version of Java 5) also is called the 4th edition. The publisher added words "Java 5.0 Version" to the title listed in online stores, and added a leaf with the words "Covers Java 5.0" to the bottom right of the cover. Be sure to verify that you get this ISBN, and do not to buy an old printing that you can't return.
   
   This URL to purchase the most up-to-date printing from Amazon is: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0321322037/qid=1126549578/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i2_xgl14/102-3991796-1688157?v=glance&s=books&n=507846



2. Lewis & Loftus give the reader an excellent introduction to object oriented programming in Java. The very clear explanations as well as simple examples do an excellent job demonstrating many concepts to the reader. I recommend this book to anyone wishing to learn Java for the first time.



3. Another great hit by Codemate. Best programming book for new programmers/students. Really goes step by step and gives adaquete information for newbies.



4. For the price I wouldn't buy this book unless it was a textbook for a class or if you can find one used. That said, it is a great book for someone with a few Java basics under their belt. You could use it as your first Java book if you are a quick computer learner and can remain focused as the chapters are rather long and meaty. Each ends with a GUI section which could almost be a chapter on its own. The code runs well and is available for download. There are very few mistakes and/or jumping assumptions in Java learning although the complexity makes having an instructor to ask questions helpful. Basically it is a textbook for just after intro object programming college class and it does that very well.



5. In case you're doubting how much of a beginner's book this is, consider that the first chapter of this book is all about telling you what a computer is. If you have any experience writing any sort of script or program you will not want this book. If, like for me, it's required for a course, keep an eye on the bookstore's textbook buyback schedule.
   
   Even once you have learned what's taught in this book, you will probably find it frustrating if you try to use it as a reference for Java syntax. Information about the language is dribbled out in bits and pieces with no clear way to find what you're looking for. Well, yes, there's a table of contents and an index, but you'll do better selling this book back and picking up Java In A Nutshell, 5th Edition once you have some familiarity with Java.

2 comments about C# 2008 For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech)).

1. I've read the 2005 version and this 2008 version and all I can say is these guys know their stuff. I've read many books on C# and this is the best book I've read. By programmers for programmers. Outstanding examples and explanations.
   
   If you authors are reading this, please write more books. I'd like to request a dedicated book on OOP concepts and class design using C#.
   
   Keep up the Great work!!!



2. I bought this book hoping to learn from scratch - as one would assume you can normally do from a "For Dummies" book. I own 12 "For Dummies" books on various subjects, but this has by far been the most scattered in flow and difficult to process.
   While the book exhausts you with lengthy dissertations on all of the possible variable types before you even get to write anything useful, it then completely leaves out the really useful information and techniques like how to write a program that can save text output into a separate file. There is no CD included, leaving you to have to go to the author's website and download all of the support files you'll need to cover your topics of interest. While I did find a "bonus" chapter on the author's website that covered creating programs that read from and write to text files, the code he published with it had errors and would not compile.
   Finally, I say there is no "mid ground" because it seems he can only take you along at either 5mph or 200mph - there isn't much in-between. There is a lot of "we'll cover that later" (my quotes) but it doesn't get covered in time to help you understand what he's discussing just a few pages later.
   BIG disappointment. I'm now looking for another tutorial source on C#.