No comments about The New York Public Library Amazing World Geography: A Book of Answers for Kids.

1 comments about MCITP Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-623): Supporting and Troubleshooting Applications on a Windows Vista® Client for Consumer Support Technicians.

1. This book will give you all the information you need to pass exam 70-623. Actually, it will give you way more than that. I passed the exam easily and was even involved in an automobile accident on my way to the testing center. This shook-up West Virginian still passed the test. That gives a lot of credibility to this book. As a note to Microsoft, though they may never read this review, the exam was way too easy to be at the MCITP level. This should be an MCTS exam at best. All an easy exam like this does is make the other valid MCITP exams (like those for SQL Server, Windows Server 2008 [soon], and Windows Vista in the Enterprise) look bad.
   
   In order to pass this exam, you will need to be able to troubleshoot the basic problems that a home user would experience. If you keep this in mind while you're reading the book and preparing for the exam, you'll do very well on the exam.
   
   After you read through the book, take the practice exam on the CD. As you are going through the exam and thinking how easy it is, keep in mind that the exam is almost that easy too. If you know what's in this book, you will definitely pass the exam.

5 comments about Expert One-on-One Visual Basic 2005 Database Programming (Expert One-On-One).

1. I bought this book even though I am a C# coder. Roger has such great concepts on how to do design and coding that I almost shouted for joy after searching and reading other books (e.g S. Malik which is of little or no value). This book goes beyond my production code needs and is invaluable in doing it right the first time. Thanks Roger for the section on concurrency exceptions which we all have in the real world. Most folks sweep this under the rug because it takes a real pro to fully and accurately address it.



2. This book does a better job of explaining what happens behind the vs2005 data object wizzards then many of the other books that just show you how to use them.



3. Having this book a month ago would have saved me at least $1000. Which is about how much I had to pay someone to write code that this book clearly points out was already written and available by Microsoft.
   
   That's the bottom line. This book is a time and money saver for anyone writing VB 2005 code that uses a database.



4. Excelente libro, le agregaria algun truquito mas, pero esta todo, sirve como para arrancar y profundizar en los temas. Muy buena guia.



5. I snatched this book up as soon as I saw it. I have three other of Roger Jennings' database books and they are great.
   
   This one was a little disappointing. It has good information in it and it is informative. But, percentage-wise at least, it seems to contain a lot more filler, like unneeded code. The style of writing seems so different from his other books that I wonder how much of the actual writing Mr. Jennings did himself.
   
   It's definitely not a bad book. Overall it was worth the money. Maybe the second edition will add more substance. I would actually rate it at 3 1/2 stars, but that's not an available option.

5 comments about 101 Microsoft Visual Basic .NET Applications.

1. Jerry Bucknoff wrote a review where he says skip the book because you can just download the code. I don't get this. I buy a book for more than just the CD stuffed in the back. This book has 500+ pages that taught me how to do in VB.NET, the things I knew how to do in VB6. Maybe if you're a rocket scientist, you can just stare at the code and learn everything, but those 500 pages really got me up to speed on .NET.



2. I bought this book just a few weeks ago, and WOW. Thre is such a range of information here! This book is especially targeted at programmers that aren't particularly familiar with what all VB.NET can offer.
   Granted, this product does not cover any of the topic very extensivly, but that's not what it was written for. 90% of the topics covered in the book are explained in more detail in the MSDN library.
   All in all, this book is one of the best ways to find great ideas to improve functionality in all your VB.NET projects.



3. 101 Microsoft Visual Basic .NET Applications
   It is a good book with a lot examples to learn from.
   But examples require some extra work if you use .NET 2005



4. Good, simple components that can be used as a part of larger applications.
   Good explanations.
   The only negative thing that I can see is that I wish it was available in C#. But then again, it provides a new challenge to translate it without having the C# code right there in front of me.



5. This is a very good book. If you like to learn by example, this book has very good useful examples to get your project "up in the air" very quickly.
   
   This book is an ideal supplement to a reference manual and really accelerates the learning process. I got a very good price on Amazon, but this book is worth full-bang retail price in terms of pure value. I would highly recommend this book, even if someone only found 5 examples out of the 101 examples, but depending on your project, nearly every example could be applied in some way to your project(s).

5 comments about Microsoft XNA Game Studio Creators Guide.

1. I dont know what other people are saying about this guide, but i can tell you, from my personal experience, that this is a GREAT book.
   
   When you first get the book, the opening chapter was confusing to figure out, after 2 hours of monkeying around i got it. After that, everything else went smooth. And i am learning really cool things. The end of the chapter exercises are fun, not to challenging, but enough to make you learn.
   
   How to Hate this Book: Know about XNA when you buy it, and also have a good grasp on particle systems, controls, cameras, vectors, matrices, primitives, adding models, animation, hit detection.
   
   How to Love this book: Dont know anything about XNA, But have some knowledge of what a vertex is. Or what a Color is, Drr?, and most of all.... Dont just expect to know how to be a bomb programmer just by reading this book. Books are just instruments to give you insight into a complex machine. Most of the learning should be done by experimentation.
   
   Example: Page 73: "Spend the time you need to ensure that you understand transformations. It is not an overly complex topic, but it can be challenging for beginner graphics programmers who do not give transformations the learning time the topic deserves."
   
   So if you keep a self learning mentality, you should find this book VERY VERY VERY VERY HELPFUL, I would recommend it to any who does not know a thing about programming 3D, but has a pretty decent knowledge of physics, math(calculus), and 2D programming skills. This is what is going to boost me to the top. ;)
   
   -------------------------------Update-----------------------------------
   
   So its been a while, and i am just finishing up Chapter 17 "Ballistics." This is still an excellent book. I only have one beef with the book, and that is, it has awesome explanations of matrices and such, but when doing the camera tutorial, the auther assumes you have fully mastered matrices, and understand all. With that said, it still deserves the rating it received. This is a beginners book, and should be treated as one.
   
   My advice would be to buy this book if you do not understand anything about 3D programming. This could be the start that helps you become a Game programmer, rather than just a hobbyist. (as in someone who can make a cube move around the screen).



2. Given other people's positive reviews of this book, I'll make the concession that I didn't use this book by reading it chapter by chapter. I used it as a reference and a guide.
   
   And for that, this book is horrible. When I couldn't figure out a concept easily, I'd look to the book for an explanation and some sample code. For explanations, the book was mediocre. Not bad, just not written in any good teaching style.
   
   As sample code, the book fails on every single level. The code is incomprehensible, with odd naming conventions, astounding overuse of variables, and massive over-complication of basic XNA tasks. (If you went to this book first to learn XNA, then please take a look at other resources and see how much simpler your code could be).
   
   Most of all, though, the code is completely un-portable. It takes tremendous amounts of blood, sweat, and tears to port any of their code to a different program, to a more general use, or to a more object-oriented system. It's almost as though they tried to make their code work exclusively for their very specific examples, with absolutely no thought to making the code useful in any other context.
   
   If you're looking for a casual reference to help you along while learning XNA, avoid this book at all costs. It will provide you nothing but pain. If you want to learn the concepts carefully and freshly for the first time, by reading a textbook, then this book will probably suffice. But I must reiterate, the code examples provided in this book are AWFUL. Every single thing you do in XNA is easier than they made it.
   
   
   
   
   Examples of horrible code:
   -In the particle effect sample, the code that made the particles appear at the correct position was in the particles' draw method. They made a constructor able to specify their origin, but instead of being intelligent, they set that to Zero and translated the image in the Draw method.
   -Also, the particles only moved in 2 dimensions, when it was a single line of code to make it 3, a line of code that was already written.
   -The core of most of the examples is a small grass field you can walk around on. The controls must have been made by someone with absolutely zero experience placing PC games. It's difficult to trust any so-called game programmer that isn't aware of the WASD + mouse standard (they used arrow keys and INVERTED mouse look). That issue was relatively easy to fix, however.
   -Also, instead of placing the ground at Y 0, which would have made expanding on that world much easier, your camera is at 0, and the ground is -.8 or something.
   -There is a method in their code that returns its parameter. It does nothing else. Call it with a parameter, and get the exact same reference back, unmodified. Why that method exists, I can't fathom.
   
   But the worst, by far, was the general stuff. The naming conventions, and the layout of their code (or lack thereof) were all inexcusably horrific.



3. I'm an experienced programmer, and a professional game developer, so I'm not exactly the audience that the authors were shooting for. (They claim to be shooting for "beginning to intermediate" programmers in the introduction.)
   
   This book does serve to describe some of the concepts in XNA that I was unfamiliar with, but I found the text written poorly and the code written unprofessionally.
   
   Even for a beginning audience, there were factual errors in the text that are at best misleading, and certainly contribute to a misunderstanding of the processes involved. For example, when discussing pixel shaders, the authors claim that the output gets sent to the graphics card one pixel at a time. This is false, as the pixel shader is running on the graphics card already, except in the exceptionally rare (and ill-documented) case of running with a reference rasterizer on the CPU.
   
   The organization is questionable, with topics used before they're explained (chapters 13, 14, and 15 are on vectors, matrices, and cameras, which are important foundations for chapters both before and after). Within chapters, code is presented in a half-tutorial fashion, but without enough guidance to really follow along.
   
   The diagrams are typically not helpful, including screenshots that don't do a good job of illustrating the concepts at hand. A case in point, Figure 20-1 tries to show "before and after directional lighting". Any still image is going to be hard pressed to accomplish this. More useful would be a reference to an interactive demo.
   
   The book has a zip file that can be downloaded from the publisher's website, which is of some use, but it doesn't seem to agree with some of the references in the book, including discussion of how to use the authors' framework, which is a starting point for much of the code in the book.
   
   This was written before the release of Game Studio 2.0, so some of the book is already out of date, including comments that there is no networking support, and a strange admonition that writing networked games "might be potentially unsafe".



4. I think that this book is a perfect introduction to the new Microsoft Platform. To Develop a game is not a simple task but this book cover all the important feature needed to build a modern 3D game in an easy way. This book is ideal for beginner game programmer. The only prerequisites is the knowledge of the C# programming language and basic concept of Microsoft .NET Framework.



5. This is an excellent step-by-step approach with many short chapters that are easy to read. The examples are complete and I can plug the code into my own projects with hardly any effort. I recommend this book for any beginner or for any experienced programmer who doesn't know how to program games. I've been programming for three years but I don't want to work hard when I'm learning...this book delivers.

5 comments about Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Bible.

1. I've used this book for my Web Animation class and while it doesn't tell you every little thing you need to know about Flash. It's a great book to get started, especially if you need to work off of real examples then the cd-rom files included would really help. Although I wished that this book covered certain subjects in more detail and included more tutorials . . . This book would be good for beginners and maybe even intermediate users could use this as a reference. It gives you a nice balance of Flash animation and web design. However, after reading this book, you'll probably end up buying more books on Flash like me. If you're going to be focusing more on Flash web design, you might want to buy the Flash MX 2004 ActionScript Bible as well.



2. Everyone in my office has a copy on their desk (if not multiple copies). I saw Snow Dowd talk at Flash In The Can. She is extremely knowledgeable in all matters flash related. I did not get a chance to attend Mr. Reinhardt's seminars, but I can only imagine the interesting concepts he had to share. The support website (http://www.flashsupport.com/) is also a resource of immeasurable value. All in all, when it comes to Flash and Action Script I would say Snow and Robert are the place to go for up to date cutting edge info (although I'm not sure I agree with Robert's anti-tween stance).



3. I buy every Flash Bible because they are the most comprehensive guides to Flash. This is a great book for people just starting out in flash because it will take your from beginner to intermediate Flash designer. It is also an excellent reference guide for the more experienced users.



4. I am the type of person who likes to have a gigantic book. If I will have a study book, might as well have the biggest one, especially for technical ones. Of course, some gigantic books absolutely make no sense to me and I will fall asleep even before a chapter ends but this book kept me going. I already finished a third of the book and learned along the way. Also, I have no design or Flash experience at all so this is all new to me but this book does not make me struggle too much. With enough time and effort to do the exercises and study the examples that come with the book and CD, you will definitely learn Flash. This is a very helpful book. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to learn Flash and to those who want to know as much of the interface as possible.



5. Just about every time I need a technical manual, especially software based, I head for the 'Bible' series. I've yet to be disappointed. I'm sure every web developer knows that Macromedia is "the" software to use. Though I use Dreamweaver and Fireworks quite proficiently, I'm a fish out of water when it comes to Flash. This book held my hand and led me thorough the tutorials I needed to understand the workings of Flash MX and gave me a great feel for the intricacies of the software. The financial and time investments in this book are well worth it. I've paid for the book and software many times over in the lessons learned. As with the many other Bible series books, they're an arms length away on a shelf for quick reference, with post-it stickers marking the many places I refer to on a regular basis!

4 comments about Beginning MapServer: Open Source GIS Development (Expert's Voice in Open Source).

1. The book is written in a very clear way and goes to the point explaining mapserver thru examples, it should be a reference book for those, that are starting with mapserver, but it lacks a proper cover of raster layers and WCS. Interresting is that the prefered database used, is not PosGIS but MySQL (normally MySQL is pushed aside by PostGIS in spatial databases projects) this was a pleasent surprise, since I normally use MySQL. Conclusion: get the book



2. Beginning MapServer should not be your only source of information on using MapServer. The book has a lot of usefull examples in it, but I am missing something. My main interest is on how to use MapServer through PHP /MapScript. In particlar I would like to know more on the bindings from PHP/MapScript to the object model in MapServer.
   
   Do not expect the book to cover it all. It tries, but doesen't quite make it.
   
   Still - buy it! You need it for your library, I am sure you do ;-)



3. I purchased this book to help with developing a simple map-enabled web page running on a Windows computer. The book proved very difficult to use in that context. If you are planning on working on a windows computer, you should be aware of some potential shortcomings.
   
   In the spirit of full disclosure, I have considerable GIS experience, but little experience with web development.
   
   The book assumes that you are operating not only on a UNIX-based platform, but also that you will operate in a particular "development environment". The author does provide full instructions for building that development environment on a Unix machine, so if you are starting from scratch, everything will work as described.
   
   However....
   
   You can not readily build the same "development environment" on a Windows computer. I installed a version of MS4W ("Mapserver 4 Windows" on my computer. MS4W is a labor saving package that rapidly sets up a web server and installs most of the other open source software one would like to have available for using Mapsource effectively. Unfortunately, the installation differs from the "development environment" assumed by the book.
   
   As a result, there are MANY small but significant differences that crop up in developing the example applications given in the book. Many of these are simply differences in the way files are named or in the structure of the directory tree, but they are annoying and difficult to track down. it took me several DAYS of work and repeated searches for help on on-line MAPSERVER forums to figure things out and get the first several example applications running. I still have not managed to get about half of the examples up and running.
   
   That said, the book offers a nice introduction to many of the central concepts used in Mapserver. It has a good reference section that allows you to look up Mapserver commands, etc.
   
   Ultimately, I was able to develop the simple web-based applications I was after. This book contributed to that, but only after considerable frustration. Several Mapserver tutorials are available on-line. Some are specifically geared to Windows-based systems. They certainly offer a less tortuous, if sometimes less complete, path to getting Mapserver working on a Windows-based system.



4. Best guide I've seen on mapserver. Does a fine job of getting a new user going. Could use more trouble shooting.

3 comments about The Seasoned Schemer.

1. Dialogue style makes this book fun to read. Leitmotif of food examples keeps the tone light and the reader hungry. Have the number for pizza handy before you sit down for this book.

   Focuses on the use of functions in scheme, in an easy reading, enjoyable style. My only minor criticism is that the typographic conventions make the code hard to read. I realize that they serve a purpose, but it made the typesetting ugly.

   An admirable work, suitable for reading even if you already "know it all", just because of its approach to teaching.




2. This book is the second half of "The Little Schemer". It expects you to have mastered the previous volume, so it starts fast and picks up speed from there.

   It covers a lot of ground in a slim volume (just as in "The Little Schemer"). This book introduces the concepts of closures and call-with-current-continuation (among other things).

   As with "The Little Schemer", this book's strength is in its socratic instruction method. Lessons are written and illustrated as conversations between the reader and the instructor (in question/answer format). While this sounds strange, it is actually surprisingly effective as a means of learning the material. It might seem somewhat like rote instruction, but it can often frame foreign concepts in a rememberable fashion.

   Neither of these books require much in the way of background or familiarity with the material. They were created as a means of teaching non-programmers to program in Scheme. However, I think they hold value for trained programmers as well.




3. The Seasoned Schemer continues where the Little Schemer left off introducing local variables via let and it's variations including letrec. Set!, the syntax for changing a variables value is introduced. Continuations, as used for escaping from an computation and for going back to previous position in code are also introduced. There are less references to the accomplishments of famous computer scientists in this book than in the Little Schemer which I found to be disappointing. However, I greatly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone wanting to increase their understanding of the Scheme programming language. Although scheme's vector data type is not introduced, I think you will have enough of an understanding of Scheme after reading this book to make substantial programs.

5 comments about Murach's Beginning Visual Basic .NET.

1. This book is very well written, and the facing page style of instruction is a great method.
   
   I found no errors; there was no evidence of "author fatigue" towards the mid-end of the book; and Ms. Prince is able to anticipate and address the logical questions that come next in the student's mind.
   
   Beginning with the basics, this book then progresses (very logically) to more difficult concepts such as multi-dimensional arrays, structures and collections, and parsing and reading/writing data to/from files; including xml. The final six chapters deal with databases and web projects.
   
   I highly recommend this book... but be ready to work because the chapter exercises, though sometimes difficult, really drive home the concepts.



2. If you're an absolute beginner, you might find this book helpful. Otherwise find another book. If you've worked with VB6, almost everything covered in this book (with the exception of the very brief coverage of ADO Net) is almost intuitive.
   
   What irritates me most is the poor grammar. Practically every paragraph has a sentence starting like "Then, ...". The "Then" phrase is not needed and the comma is erroneous.
   
   I do use it, however, for a quick reference regarding file IO.
   
   If you want to know how to write a (useful) class, generate and handle events, and other slightly more advanced concepts, this book won't help you.



3. What this book is, and I think it does a very good job of it, is a book for the absolute beginner. The person how has never coded in a windows environment and needs a place to start. The author introduces a project that grows and as new topics are added or expanded upon the project grows likewise - so you see the code and your thought process develop.
   
   What this book is not, is a reference to help experienced VB6 developers make the leap to .NET If you are an experienced windows developer, trust me this is not for you. I purchased the book several months ago to tackle my fist .NET application. Granted the application I choose to undertake was far too sophisticated for a fist .NET experience, but all the same, even if it was much simpler, I still seriously doubt that the book would have been of any relevant value.
   
   As we all know authors use the word introduction / beginning for more marketing value than to reflect content. In this case the author calls it for what it is - If you are an absolute beginner, this is the right, can't go wrong choice.
   
   Hope this helps,
   HabWorks



4. All the negative things that have been pointed out in other reviews are true. The writing is bad, the format leaves something to be desired, the explanation of difficult concepts is just not there, etc.
   
   However, this book is much better than other books I have seen on the subject - this includes the SAMS books, the For Dummies Books, and WROX books.
   
   Whereas, the instruction doesn't pour off the page, you can actually learn VB.Net from this book. You may have to reread a page 3 or 4 times -due to the poor explanations, but once you do you can learn from this book.
   
   If anyone knows of a better book on the subject, please let others know.
   
   To summarize, this book is not great, but it is the best book I found on the subject.



5. The format of the book is unique, left page for explanation and right page for coding. This might be great for programmers who prefer coding than reading, since the explanation is brief and direct to the point. This is very different from the Deitels book that explains things over and over again in many pages - the reason for the bulkiness.
   
   I've read 4 chapters now and excited to write this feedback, since i've learned a lot from the book, unlike any other. The book is not trying to spoon feed the reader but just enough hand holding is done so as not to make the beginning programmer rely solely on the book and not use his own logic. There are quite a number of good vb.net books out there but this one will be sitting right beside my computer for quick learning and easy reference. I plan of supplementing my learning with another good book as suggested by colleagues, the mastering book by petroutsos and the step by step book my halvorson.

2 comments about Design Collection Revealed: Adobe InDesign CS3, Photoshop CS3 & Illustrator CS3 (Revealed (Thomson)).

1. The "Design Collection Revealed" offers the basics and nothing more. Projects are too simplistic and the end results are visually horrifying. Honestly, this book is perfect for anyone between the ages of 3-5 years.



2. I took a community college class online that used this for the textbook. I read the negative reviews (this and other editions), but for what it was supposed to do, it did it perfectly. I had a positive experience and I learned the three programs. What's to complain about? Yes, there were a few mistakes, minor ones, like in one example the book forgot to tell us to add the fourth line, and then told us to manipulate it. Well, that's not the end of the world. Between the text and the examples, it explained everything adequately. It's not that bad.