1 comments about BIOS Disassembly Ninjutsu Uncovered (Uncovered series).

1. I did some work with the PC-AT BIOS and
   BIOS extension roms 25 years ago, so
   when I found out about this book I
   ordered it immediately. Having read 1/2
   of it and having built some of the
   software (chapter 7) on the cdrom, I
   give this book 5 stars, but with a
   caveat. This book and its cdrom are
   heavily Microsoft Windows-centric.
   Doing things with the files on the cdrom
   using linux or *bsd instead of Microsoft
   Windows, while not difficult, will be
   accompanied by a certain amount of pain
   as the doer massages file formatting to
   make the files work with the gcc
   toolchain. It's even worse in my case
   since I am running 64-bit OpenBSD and I
   can't run any 32-bit software (eg Fasm)
   on the 64-bit version of OpenBSD.
   
   The reader of this book not familiar
   with x86 assembly code had better have a
   dos x86 assembly tutorial handy. All the
   BIOS code is written in 16-bit x86
   assembly.
   
   That said, this is a uniquely
   informative book on PC BIOS-related
   hardware and I recommend it highly to
   those who want to learn all about the
   workings of the BIOS, either AWARD or AMI.

5 comments about VBScript in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition.

1. I don't have this book, I've never read it. But the negative reviews for it are out of line. People have reviewed it claiming it isn't for the beginner or for learning VB Script. NO KIDDING!! It is called NUTSHELL for a reason. It is a reference book, NOT a learning book. Don't give bad reviews for a book because you were too stupid to realize you bought the wrong book. That's just as bad as buying a Java book and complaining that it doesn't have any Javascipt examples in it.



2. This is not the book to learn the basics of VBScript, but it's exactly what I needed; a good reference book. I got tired of trying to find syntax of commands and functions online. Now I have it at my fingertips.



3. This is not intended for beginners in scripting or VBScript in particular. But for anyone with even moderate programming or scripting, this may be all you'll need to become familiar with VBScript.
   
   Written in the spare, terse style of all Nutshell books, the book is very dense in terms of information. The major aspects of VBScript's versatility are explored (though there are no references to HTML Applications (HTAs)). The major functions are explained and there is a complete reference.
   
   An essential volume for anyone using VBScript.
   
   Jerry



4. This text is excellent for folks working on VBs projects. It contains good examples, great information about syntax and also warnings for "gotcha's" -- it's great!



5. I've been a big fan of the 1st edition for years and found it very helpful. I use Regular Expressions a lot in Perl and found VBScript's support for RE's a bit lacking (could not extract the submatches). I was pleasantly surprised to find that this capability was added in VBScript 5.5. I bought the 2nd edition of this book because it claimed to cover VBScript 5.6. Imagine my surprise when the SubMatches collection isn't documented at all.
   
   Overall I'm quite disappointed in the 2nd edition.

5 comments about Information Theory, Inference & Learning Algorithms.

1. I am a PhD student in computer science. Over the last year and a half this book has been invaluable (and parts of it a fun diversion).
   
   For a course I help teach, the intoductions to probability theory and information theory save a lot of work. They are accessible to students with a variety of backgrounds (they understand them and can read them online). They also lead directly into interesting problems.
   
   While I am not directly studying data compression or error correcting codes, I found these sections compelling. Incredibly clear exposition; exciting challenges. How can we ever be certain of our data after bouncing it across the world and storing it on error-prone media (things I do every day)? How can we do it without >60 hard-disks sitting in our computer? The mathematics uses very clear notation --- functions are sketched when introduced, theorems are presented alongside pictures and explanations of what's really going on.
   
   I should note that a small number (roughly 4 or 5 out of 50) of the chapters on advanced topics are much more terse than the majority of the book. They might not be of interest to all readers, but if they are, they are probably more friendly than finding a journal paper on the same topic.
   
   Most importantly for me, the book is a valuable reference for Bayesian methods, on which MacKay is an authority. Sections IV and V brought me up to speed with several advanced topics I need for my research.



2. Uniting information theory and inference in an interactive and entertaining way, this book has been a constant source of inspiration, intuition and insight for me. It is packed full of stuff - its contents appear to grow the more I look - but the layering of the material means the abundance of topics does not confuse.
   
   This is _not_ just a book for the experts. However, you will need to think and interact when reading it. That is, after all, how you learn, and the book helps and guides you in this with many puzzles and problems.



3. I have used this to get a good background in the topics covered, especially inference theory, and in general I found it to be great book which fills a market gap. The only sins I see are sins of omission. I personally would have enjoyed seeing a more task driven organization. I seem to need these methods periodically but I never seem to need the same method twice. Also, many of the techniques are heavily iterative, i.e., monte carlo, neural networks, etc. This is fine but much of what I do is in the context of simulations where 100,000 step iterative methods don't work so well because of resource constraints. Historically, that has been the problem with many of these methods. They are useful for relatively small domains but don't necessarily work that well for "real" problems. That is probably why more task oriented books are not available. Of course the author is following the outline of the current research into the subject manner which in turn is largely determined by "interesting" and "doable" problems. The real progess in this field will come when the problems are formulated more by what is needed in the nontraditional domains of application. A good example of a useful compression (and identification in some cases) technique that is not covered is Principal Component Analysis. Technically, it is in none of the technique domains covered in this book, but it would have been nice to see some of the methods in the book compared with PCA. The author does make the statement at one point that image recognition is an interesting problem for which the method being discussed at the time is used. Nevertheless, this is a great overview of the subject manner and is very entertaining. That in the long run probably explains the problem: it is a textbook.



4. This is fantastic book. Really takes an intuitive approach to the material. The explanation of occam's razor is worth the price of the whole book. Highly recommended.



5. I find it interesting that most of the people reviewing this book seem to be reviewing it as they would any other information theory textbook. Such a review, whether positive or critical, could not hope to give a complete picture of what this text actually is. There are many books on information theory, but what makes this book unique (and in my opinion what makes it so outstanding) is the way it integrates information theory with statistical inference. The book covers topics including coding theory, Bayesian inference, and neural networks, but it treats them all as different pieces of a unified puzzle, focusing more on the connections between these areas, and the philosophical implications of these connections, and less on delving into depth in one area or another.
   
   This is a learning text, clearly meant to be read and understood. The presentation of topics is greatly expanded and includes much discussion, and although the book is dense, it is rarely concise. The exercises are absolutely essential to understanding the text. Although the author has made some effort to make certain chapters or topics independent, I think that this is one book for which it is best to more or less work straight through. For this reason and others, this book does not make a very good reference: occasionally nonstandard notation or terminology is used.
   
   The biggest strength of this text, in my opinion, is on a philosophical level. It is my opinion, and in my opinion it is a great shame, that the vast majority of statistical theory and practice is highly arbitrary. This book will provide some tools to (at least in some cases) anchor your thinking to something less arbitrary. It's ironic that much of this is done within the Bayesian paradigm, something often viewed (and criticized) as being more arbitrary, not less so. But MacKay's way of thinking is highly compelling. This is a book that will not just teach you subjects and techniques, but will shape the way you think. It is one of the rare books that is able to teach how, why, and when certain techniques are applicable. It prepares one to "think outside the box".
   
   I would recommend this book to anyone studying any of the topics covered by this book, including information theory, coding theory, statistical inference, or neural networks. This book is especially indispensable to a statistician, as there is no other book that I have found that covers information theory with an eye towards its application in statistical inference so well. This book is outstanding for self-study; it would also make a good textbook for a course, provided the course followed the development of the textbook very closely.

1 comments about Access 2007 VBA Programming For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech)).

1. Some years ago Microsoft created a specialized programming language to allow extensions to be made to the normal modes of operation allowed in their Office suite. The language was fairly well thought out to be applicable to applications as different as word processing, spreadsheets or data bases. They called it Visual Basic for Applications shortened to VBA. It has worked remarkable well. Down theough the years there have been relatively few changes to VBA.
   
   This book is on VBA as specifically oriented to the Microsoft Access database program. But if you learn Access VBA, you are not far from knowing how to use VBA on any of the other Office components.
   
   While this is an Access book, it is specifically on VBA, it assumes that you already know about how to build a table, and about rows and columns. It also assumes that you have some familiarty with other Access features such as building queries.
   
   Access goes to a great deal of effort to avoid having to use the underlying SQL language. There are a couple of chapters on SQL for the total beginner. In the long run, you will probably want to know more.
   
   You can't design one book to do everything in about 400 pages. This "dummies" book concentrates on VBA. That's enough for one book. It does a good job on VBA. You may want to fill out your bookshelf with Access for Dummies and SQL for Dummies.

5 comments about The Rational Unified Process Made Easy: A Practitioner's Guide to the RUP (The Addison-Wesley Object Technology Series).

1. This book does a great job of showing steps of practical application of the RUP. The book may seem repetitive on a few points, but I feel the points bear repeating. This book has been invaluable in helping cut through the misinformation thrown around by some who have gotten the executive summary of RUP and know just enough to be dangerous. I recently completed a seven-part online course on the RUP that was based on this book. The book did a far better job of making the RUP understandable.



2. There is plenty of theory written about RUP, but how it should be applied to your role or your project is often misunderstood.
   This book not only provides the overview, but the contextual guidance to make RUP work for you.
   As a long-term RUP mentor and user, I highly recommend it.



3. Excellent guide to get up to speed with RUP. Having never worked with RUP this guide proved extremely beneficial to get the project started and will be used through all iterations.



4. I'm a solo developer, and without this book i would be refactoring my code every few days still.
   
   Thank you RUP for putting my head on straight to understand iterations of the SDLC and apply them to even small projects with few assets.
   
   RUP gives you the tools to understand your system before you write it by iteratively working with the people who will be using the system! Your customers/Users!



5. I read 'Rational Unified Process - An Introduction' some years ago and found it excellent. I got 'Rational Unified Process Made Easy' in the hope that it would provide some more substance to the ideas from the introductory book. However it didn't seem to really add that much value.
   
   The sections covering each of the major disciplines are useful, as is the guidance on implementing RUP in projects or organisations. In contrast 'Rational Unified Process Made Easy' misses a good summary of the key artefacts.
   
   All up I felt the book was hampered by the desire not to undermine the RUP product that IBM sells.

5 comments about Macromedia Dreamweaver 8: Training from the Source.

1. This book is a great intro the basics of Dreamweaver, It will get you up and running quickly.



2. As a newbie in web publishing (I've been in print for 16 years) I have yet to find a book or forum that is 100% beneficial. The forums are mediated by experienced web designers who speak their language and not the language of the beginner. Somewhere, someone (and I'd be glad to do it with proper backing) needs to write a book that says, 'Want to do (one simple function)? Use these commands. NEXT...' That would have saved me months of grief.
   
   So I bought books and slogged through tutorials until I gleaned enough of what I wanted in order to design my pages. Tutorials NEVER cover exactly what YOU want to learn, so they can drag on forever.
   
   As for this book, I thumbed through it at my local Borders and saw that it had a few interesting tips that I might employ in future pages. I buy books such as this even if there is only ONE tip I need, and it's worth it, even at the price some of these titles command (this also justifies Amazon Prime, by the way).
   
   The book is from Macromedia which is a plus because you are learning the program from the company that created it. The bottom line is this: When learning this stuff, you need a reference library to depend on, and this book is a key player. Forums are great as long as the mediators are online late on a Sunday night when you're struggling to learn a new technique. Buy this book, buy lots of books and EXPERIMENT as you go...that's the best way to learn.



3. This is a really excellent book for learning dreaweaver software the main software for web design



4. I'll keep this short and sweet:
   This book taught me all I needed to know about Dreamweaver in order to create a couple nice websites. If you're a beginner with no previous Dreamweaver (or any other website builder software) like I was then you'll have no problem reading this well written book. After a few chapters and following along with the tutorial you really will be able to create simple websites. Keep reading and you'll master all the aspects of modern day website building. Hands down this is one of the best learning books I've read in a long time and the tutorial is great.



5. The lesson files really did come very helpful except for the instructions on the book - I find it somewhat confusing.

5 comments about Using R for Introductory Statistics.

1. This is my textbook for an introductory biostats course. The reason why the teacher picked this book is because the software, R, is free. I find that if I use this as an instruction manual to use R, it's okay. However, as a statistics book, I find it difficult to follow and the explanations are not as clear as some of the other books on the market (e.g. the Dawson book called "Basic and Clinical Biostatistics" which is much more palatable)



2. This is a great stater book for basic statistics.And for being used for 28 bucks you can not go wrong.



3. This book is an excellent introduction to basic statistics, not assuming a knowledge of calculus, using an intuitive "hands-on approach" using the free computer program R. Statistics should be learned with the fingers on a computer, not merely by memorizing formulas, so you do well to learn statistics with a book in one hand, sitting in front of a computer. John Verzani gives a gentle introduction to statistics using R.
   
   For those unaware, R is a complete, very powerful statistics program that was developed in the 1990s based on an early language called S/Splus, created by John Chambers in the 1970s. S/Splus is an extremely powerful language for doing statistics / numerical research, and was developed explicitly for that purpose. It is far stronger than Matlab for statistical data analysis. R has a vibrant online community with hundreds of free add-on packages (available from the CRAN website). R has grown to be much more powerful than SPSS or SAS in recent years, and is becoming the tool of choice by the experts in the field. It's suitable for beginners too, but doesn't have the point and click style of simpler programs.
   
   There are three main books that are introductions to R. One by Verzani (reviewed here), one by Dalgaard, and one by Crawley. Of the three, I find this one to be the best. It is the most clearly organized and has the best logical presentation of the three. It goes into the right amount of depth without getting bogged down. You can work through all the exercises in the book because the datasets are freely downloadable from the web.
   
   Be sure to do as many of the exercises in the book as you can -- that will really help you to learn statistics well!



4. In an introductory book, it is really important to present concepts in order. This book fails on this count. On more than one occasion, a concept (e.g., "trimmed mean") or a function (e.g., "range(x)") is mentioned without being defined, only to be presented as new later on. This is very frustrating and prevents a new student from working through the book fast. As some other reviewers remarked, the index is a complete disaster, which only makes this worse. It is nice that the book comes with a package of problems. The package lacks answers to most of these problems, though, so one can't check progress easily.
   
   Look elsewhere.



5. This is the perfect book if you are looking for a self-contained, practical introduction to statistics using GNU R.
   
   It contains a lot of examples and exercises for reinforcing the contents. Very clear and organized presentation of topics. It assumes no previous background on statistics at all, and could be used as a complementary text for lab sessions.
   
   It both explains GNU R commands and data types and provides a basic introduction to statistics theory, from a practical point of view. The last one, of course, may also be enhanced by your favorite book for introductory statistics, though it is not absolutely necessary to use this book.

5 comments about C++ Common Knowledge: Essential Intermediate Programming.

1. I was already a very productive C++ programmer when I first saw this book, so I didn't think it would be of much help. I was pleasantly surprised, however, by the wealth of information that this little book contains. Any casual or professional C++ programmer should have this book as a reference. It is not encyclopedic, but that is its main strength: it tells you exactly what you need to know and no more. After reading it I found myself structuring my code better and reusing more code (especially by utilizing templates more appropriately). Additionally, the book is very clear about the terminology of the C++ language so my communication with other developers improved. A must-have.



2. Yep, this is perilously close to supplanting Scott Meyers and Herb Sutter as the definitive book for propelling a neophyte C++ programmer towards competence.
   
   On the face of it, this is yet another book on 'intermediate' C++, of which there have been many since the early 1990s. The book consists of a few dozen short pieces on how wrestle some complexity of C++ into behaving itself, such as the use of const, how to implement copy constructors and the assignment operator. Do we really need yet another one of these?
   
   But this manages to stand out from the crowd. It covers more basic material such as references and the new cast operators. There's a very nice section on pointers to members. It's also very handy for people coming from other languages, such as Java, particularly as it highlights areas where C++ differs from Java, e.g. name lookup and hiding rules. However, some material assumes knowledge of the handle/pimpl idiom which is normally covered in other intermediate books.
   
   There's also an emphasis on higher level abstractions, general object oriented design principles, like the Hollywood principle, and separate items on design patterns (command, template, prototype).
   
   And nearly half the book is on templates. And it's a very thorough and systematic coverage, including traits, policies and some metaprogramming (e.g. SFINAE). I was very impressed with this part of the book, it is very effective at demystifying a part of the language that even the better introductory books can fail to enlighten fully.
   
   The only negative of this book is that, subjectwise, there is a fair amount of overlap with the author's previous book, C++ Gotchas. If you've already got that, you may find yourself skimming the first half of this one (and it's not a huge book). However, the excellent template section is all new. Nonetheless, you might want to knock a star and a half off my rating.
   
   In short, this is an excellent, well-organised book with clear coverage of beginners topics all the way up to OO principles like those found in Robert C. Martin's Agile Software Development.



3. This book like effective C++ gives very important pointers.I found that some topics are worth reading like function objects because this kind of information is something you gain only with good experience.
   
   Lot of optics are covered. There are couple of design issues like factory method discussed.The topics are well explained but I felt some topics are too short like for example, the items on smart pointers and auto_ptr.More explanation could have been given for better conceptual understanding (I don't think he explained why auto_ptrs can't be used in containers properly).No item on reference counting unfortunately.
   
   But in general this is a very good book, good for interviews(should be complemented with other books like that of Meyers) and to improve one's understanding of certain topics like, funtion objects, function pointers, how to prevent heap allocation, how to make concrete classes act like ABCs etc.



4. I was looking for a good C++ book to dive back in when I found this book and it was by miles the best book out there. The book covers a wide breath of C++ idioms and best practices in a succinct manner and with very skillful use of example code. The layout of the book makes it useful for programmers of all skill levels. It is approachable enough for a beginner to come away with solid practices that will serve them for a long time and yet it packs enough advanced material that it is a great reference for experienced developers. I felt that it covered the advanced topics in a way that even novice programmers could get a lot out of them, whereas most books on advanced C++ topics are practically arcane tomes for anyone without solid experience, "Modern C++ Design" (otherwise an excellent book) being the worst in that category.
   
   After finishing "C++ Common Knowledge" going back to the old standards such as "Exception C++, "Effective C++" etc... was pretty painful and made me wonder why it took so long for such an elegant and intuitive book on C++ to be written.



5. I really recommend this vook insstead of exceptional/effective book series. After reading some book about the C++ syntax (where Storstroup is an excellent election), you can take a look to this one in order to avoid common mistakes in C++.
   
   It is easy to read and all the information is useful in the day to day programming.

5 comments about C Traps and Pitfalls.

1. This is a very interesting book. It's titled "c traps and pitfalls", yet talks all about the beauty of c. You will need some fundamental knowledge of computer systems and programming; however, you don't need to be a serious programmer to adventure this book, because while you are enjoying reading it, you are becoming one yourself.



2. I ordered this book recently. It turned out to be a complete disappointment because of the following reasons:
   
   (1) the book is thin and does not justify the high price
   (2) It does not cover many of the traps and pitfalls of C language
   
   Based on the expensive price tag, I would not recommend this book. Instead, I would highly recommend the other book called "Expert C Programming".



3. If you have to write in C, then yes, it is still worth reading a good, short book about C even if it was written in 1989. It can get a bit boring to read the details of selected problems and solutions in C cover-to-cover, but it's only 100 pages. An experienced C programmer will probably know many of these answers, and can skim over what's not new. But if you hit even one pitfall which is new to you, or which you have not made the effort to avoid, then the book was worth it. The bonus is the last chapter, "Advice". It's only a few pages, and is followed by answers to exercises. But I think it has more meaning if you do leave it until the end of your reading.
   
   (One caveat: Since Koenig was writing before long variable names were common, his examples do not serve as best practice for modern variable-naming in an IDE with auto-complete.)



4. I recommend this for programmers having 1 to 4 years experience of writing program in C. Doesn't matter even if it was academic years :-). For 4+ years experience I don't see value addition from this book.



5. To preface my review, I learned how to program in C four years ago as an undergraduate engineer, but didn't really get into it until I started my graduate studies about a year and a half ago. I would describe myself as a very competent C programmer, but by no means an expert.
   
   There are many doorstops that call themselves C programming reference books, including the one that I used as an undergrad. This book should be on any C programmer's shelf as the first go-to guide during debuggings. I found this book very helpful, despite the fact that it is almost 20 years old (pre-ANSI C). It highlights many issues that I have pulled my hair out trying to find and fix in the programs I have written over the years, and also some new bugs that have yet to bite me. Perhaps my original C text wasn't the best to begin with, but the proper usage of many aspects of C have been explained to me with this text, such as safely writing macros and using the static keyword (especially with multiple-file programs), just to name a few. He also explains (in an appendix) using the library variable-argument functions, which I have been trying to get working without any success...until now.
   
   This is a small book, and I read a chapter or two every night for a few days. Programming isn't exactly page-turning literature, but the author makes his point clearly and concisely. I highly recommend this book for students and practicing programmers alike.

No comments about AI Game Programming Wisdom 4 (AI Game Programming Wisdom (W/CD)).