3 comments about Using MPI - 2nd Edition: Portable Parallel Programming with the Message Passing Interface (Scientific and Engineering Computation).

1. I liked the reference as an introduction to MPI, but it switched between fortran and C so often that I spent a fair amount of my time just trying to interpret the code samples and synchronize to the syntax of the language they were using. You shouldnt have that problem if you have used Fortran in the last ten years but i havnt touched it since college. You have to be able to work with both languages though because many of the key concepts are only demonstrated in one language. Also the examples were usaully spread out into mini snipets as opposed to a larger block that might show a more complete picture.



2. This book is an excellent introduction to programming with the MPI. It gradually introduces concepts from the simple to the complex. This is done with examples that illustrate the use of different techniques. The examples include the code to implement them. The programming examples alternate between Fortran 90, C, and C++. However, after giving the example in one language, the bindings for the MPI functions in the other two languages are presented. In addition, the programming examples in either language are easily understood. Although my first choice of programming language is Fortran (and I have very basic knowledge or C), I was able to follow the examples in C and C++ and to write their equivalents in Fortran so I could test them on our computers.



3. I bought this book for a course on Parallel Computing for which we did some basic MPI programming. This book was useful to a great extent in describing the syntax of the MPI routines as well as in providing ample examples. To my knowledge, it doesn't contain advanced MPI concepts but it is good in explaining the basics of MPI if you are a beginner.

5 comments about Managing Iterative Software Development Projects (The Addison-Wesley Object Technology Series).

1. Iterative Projects are a challenge to plan. They require additional attention to planning and re-planning that traditional projects 'do' but not in forced regular intervals - iterations. This is a solid reference overview of the processes, templates, roles, etc.
   
   Some day... a reference will exist with more details on what was actually planned in iterations of a real project. Address the reality versus the concept.



2. The book appears to be a well written text about doing RUP iteratively. Unfortunately, I am not doing RUP or UP. The editorial review on Amazon quoted from the back cover that it would be appropriate for agile methodologies and not just RUP. While that may be the case for some chapters, for a significant portion of the book, I do not believe it is so. We are implementing Scrum and this book is not the best source to help me with that. It is too heavy and UP specific. I will be returning the book. Don't be turned off from the book if you are doing RUP since it may be for you.



3. Overall I thought this was a very good book for learning about how Iterative Development projects are supposed to work, what the advantages are and why a company might want to use this sort of methodology. The authors did a nice job of avoiding too much methodology jargon as well. Sometimes it seems these books are written only to be read by other methodology academicians, but that wasn't the case here.
   
   I have since shared this book with several other people in my company, including one not even in IT, and they have also found it helpful. So if you are also facing challenges in educating your broader company about how agile development techniques should work, this might be a good place to start.
   
   On the other hand, it is quite long and wordy. Most people will not have the patience to wade all the way through this book, so before I shared it, I went through it with a hilighter and told my people to just read the yellow parts. :-)
   
   My only other beef with the book was that it seemed entirely targeted at internal projects, or for software where the users were all internal. Nowadays that is almost anachronistic. My teams mostly work on web development either for B2B users or for the general public (B2C), which means that statements like "make sure your requirements are reviewed by the business" are of limited value. Our business is our clients and their consumers. If you are working on public web apps, just keep in mind that whenever these authors say "business," they mean "your web consumers" and you should be fine.



4. As agile software development approaches are more and more adopted in software development organizations, the title of this book from Kurt Bittner and Ian Spence seems to be right on the target. The book contains two major parts. The first gives an overview of iterative project management. It defines the concepts, discuss controlling and gives tips to assess your readiness for iterative project management. The second is a more detailed walk-through to the planning and management of iterations at different levels. It provides also information on how to assess the results of iterations, discuss the relation between iterative project management and project scales. The last chapter is dedicated to the information needed to start your first iterative project. Finally, appendices provide material on use case development (the topic of a former book from the same authors), templates, checklists and an example of 50 pages.
   
   The process behind the book is widely based on the RUP approach; thus practitioners of a "pure" agile approach could be disoriented by the content. However, this book contains very valuable and pragmatic material about managing iterative projects that could be used in any iterative context. It will also provide good transition information towards an iterative process for project managers that operate in a more traditional organization. With 600 pages, it is a not an easy book that is quickly digested. It will nevertheless helps you to improve you grasp on iterative project management, whether you read the book sequentially or you pick sections according to your current project management questions.



5. I am moving from iterative development to iterative project management. This book is really wonderful and explains in detail the processes, the risks, deliverables. It will help anybody who wants to think "iterative" development.
   
   BTW, it will also help you talk to dinosaurs and explain your approach to project management. A big help.

4 comments about New Perspectives on HTML, XHTML, and Dynamic HTML, Comprehensive, Third Edition.

1. When I through the first few chapters, I liked the book already. First it emphasize that the book only covers coding on Notepad or other text editors. I think that is the best way to learn the language. It doesn't need any HTML editors to do the job. It describes the history of internet and its technologies in some of the chapters. It covers the javascript concepts clearly and shows how things are done, step by step. At the end of each chapter, there are some assignments to enhance understanding. There are hints on how these assignments should be done, step by step also. Sometimes even with the hints, they are not easy to perform, especially for DHTML/Javascript, in many cases, I have to go back to the chapter and re-examine the reasons for writing certain functions, when to call the functions and so forth. This book is suitable for beginners with no HTML knowledge and don't want to code with HTML editors. Thankfully, there are some appendices to the tags used for XHTML, and examined the browser compatibilities also. I print out these appendices to allow me to summarise the book and to carry along. As with most books, this book also contain some errors especially with the answers provided, but it is of little problem if you went through the book thoroughly, you can spot them quite easily. There is another book, "New perspectives on Javascript" by the same author which covers mostly Javascript is not so good value, as a lot of Javascript stuff in that book is already covered here. For more seasoned HTML coders, this book is not so suitable, but if you want to learn new ways of coding to comply with new XHTML standards, you should give this book a look.



2. This book is confusing and the explanations just go on and on. You can follow this book for pages and not be sure how you ended up with what you did. There are other, easier to read books on XHTML and HTML avaialable.



3. I needed this book for a class, otherwise I wouldn't even have touched a web design book. (You could learn more from Google, for free.)
   
   However, I did like the level of depth this book went into. It goes beyond the call of duty by even going through javascript- great touch!
   
   The only thing I can brag about is that this book is popular- so the examples and case problems are all online. This makes it easy to get "help" if you didn't have time to do your work.
   
   Without the class, I would still never buy this book. It's too wordy at times, and beats you over the head with what you already know.
   
   I'd say buy it if you need it for a class, otherwise you can skip it.



4. If you have to buy this book for a class, then buy it. If not, stick with Google. I found more useful and relevant information by using Google and looking through the search results than this book provided.

4 comments about Parallel Scientific Computing in C++ and MPI: A Seamless Approach to Parallel Algorithms and their Implementation.

1. This book is great in describing some of the most important concepts and algorithms needed for the beginning numerical analyst. The book claims that it can be picked up by a complete novice and teach C++, MPI, and scientfic computing. I would say that the math goes very quickly and not quite as rigorous as necessary for the typical novice. The C++ is pretty basic but still the book leaves the reader a sense of confusion. This is largely because the book treats a large amount of the library functions as black boxes. The MPI starts very basic and gradually introduces the major concepts.
   
   My recommendation for anyone reading the book is to supplement it with a good linear algebra book (such as Demmel) and book on C++ (The C++ programming language). For further study on MPI, Using MPI would be a good supplement. That way whenever you have a concept that isn't fully described, you have a source to get it from.
   
   The book gets a high rating for going over the right content and doing so in a applied manner that gives the reader the skills to become a numerical analyst.



2. The book contains advanced numerical mathematics algorithms and
   fundamental elements of parallel computation.
   It will be useful for those academic instructors who believe that students should be shown the entire solution process
   from mathematical problem definition to computer implementation. It has been used as a textbook at several leading American and European universities.
   The authors professors Karniadakis and Kilby are innovators who demonstrate that combining education of applied mathematics with computer science is possible and extremely useful for students and their future employers.



3. The authors attempted to combine introductory material in C++, numerical methods and parallel computing. That is quite a brave endevaour. They certainly break the new ground writing an introductory material for a "simulation scientist", but I believe they have achieved mixed success.
   
   On the one hand, the material they present on all subjects is really top quality, packed with 100% usefull information. Bibliography is also very good and usefull. But the organisation of the book is quite confusing. They introduce all the topics toogether - throughtout the book. Hence each chapter introduces some numerical algorithms, few new concepts in C++ and eventually MPI. I beleive a novice would experience serious difficulties following it. For example, authors introduce objects before introducing curly braces "{}" as scope delimiters and before semicolon ";" as statement delimiters.
   
   Further, very soon after introducung the very basic concepts in C++, the authors move on to BLAS. BLAS is usefull, of course, but a novice in C++ may wonder why does he needs libraries written in Fortran, if C++ is a language of the choice for numerical computations. (At least it is claimed so by the authors).
   
   Another confusing example is the one of memory memory access. In section 2.2.6 Memory Management, (pg. 41) the authors introduce basic concepts of memory management and how can loop constructs influence the efficiency of the code. Very usefull indeed, no question about it. But very soon bellow, in section 2.2.8 Exploiting the Structure of the Sparse Matrices, they come up with the claim (pg. 58): "... optimization-savy individuals, as the old saying goes, often miss the forest for the threes" :-( Hence, a novice reader might think: "Well, why do I need to worry about the memory management explained just 17 pages above?".
   
   My most serious critic of this book by far (and I hope the authors will read this) are the contents pages. The contents list only chapters and first level sub-chapters. Secind level chapters are not present!!! That makes the book very hard to use as a reference material. That is really a pitty, since there is some good material in it which is hard to find and might stay hidden. (For example, the chapter I mentioned above: 2.2.6 Memory management is NOT in the contents, so I had to browse slowly throught the book to find it and refer it here). I suggest the authors introduce: "Contents at a glance" (the present one) and a "Detailed Contents", where one could find references to all the chapters in the book. The contents is THE reason why I gave this book 3 stars instead of 4. One it lost on the confusing organisation of the book.
   
   I think the authors should have organised the book in four parts: 1 - Numerical algorithms, 2 - C++ and 3 - Parallel computing with MPI, 4 - Advanced topics. Part 1 could introduce numerical algorithms and have pointers to their implementations in Part 2 and corresponding parallel implementations in Part 3. Part 2 and 3 could have started with introductions, which a reader already familiar with those subjects, could skip. Part 4, could bring advanced topics, such as optimisation, BLAS, etc.
   
   Bottom line, it is:
   
   - brave and usefull endevaour,
   - full of excellent material,
   - organized confusingly,
   - and has a very poor contents.
   
   Buy it if you are simulation scientist or teacher, but prepare to struggle with its organisation and contents.



4. Scientific parallel computing is what this book is all about, and it does a very good job kneading MPI into the mathematical dough. The book assumes knowledge of mathematics (through Calculus, in some sections, and quite a bit of linear algebra) and little programming experience. This is not a book on C++ programming (not even close, and it does not pretend to be), nor is it a book on MPI programming, parallel computer design, or even the setting up of a suitable software development environment. In fact, it assumes all of the above, which leaves the way uncluttered for the exploration of the application of parallel algorithms upon familiar mathematical concepts.
   
   An introductory C++ section is provided to get things rolling, though the level of C++ in the book amounts to simple classes and cin / cout in lieu of C's `printf' nonsense. This is good news, because it maintains the book's focus on the parallelization of mathematical procedures rather than on the irrelevant details of how cute it would all look wrapped up in a needlessly complex object hierarchy. Basic applied C++ and MPI, as and when needed to get the job done.
   
   I personally use this text at home on my home-grown parallel Linux computer to investigate the partitioning of algorithms, such as going from a complex function to a Taylor series that may then be distributed to compute nodes.
   
   Further MPI, C/C++, and extremely high-level parallel concepts are introduced through the book in a natural progression, as the problems at hand require their introduction. This keeps the book from being bogged down and off-topic. Kudos to the authors for remaining on course through a sea of such tempting distractions.
   The book is the `how'. BYOW:)
   ps: my CD was damaged so couldn't evaluate it.
   4-stars

5 comments about Programming Visual Basic 2005.

1. What's with the negative reviews on amazon for this book?!? Plain and simple, Jesse Liberty is one of the top technical writers out there in the field today and I have YET to read a book by him that I haven't liked. Who cares if there are a few typos in a book, the main things that I am concerned about are if the writing is good, the layout is easy to follow with images and graphics put in at the right places, and the flow is tight and concise. The author achieves all of these goals in this book -- quite simply, if you use Visual Basic 2005 and you want to become a better programmer and desire to learn from a true expert in the field, pick up 'Programming Visual Basic 2005' today... you won't regret it.
   
   ***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED



2. Are you a Visual Basic programmer? If you are, then this book is for you! Author Jesse Liberty, has done an outstanding job of writing a book that makes you productive immediately to create Windows and Web applications using Visual Basic and its associated tools.
   
   Liberty, begins by describing how to respond to events to build interactive applications. Then, the author shows you how to use drag-and-drop controls to create that connectivity, how to query with parameters, and how to build master/detail pages. He continues with a review of built-in browser controls. Next, the author discusses custom controls. Then he shows you how to use GDI+ and other techniques to draw dynamic applications. He also shows you how to detect mouse events and respond to them. Then, he shows you how to integrate legacy Com controls in a managed situation. The author continues by showing you how to create complex and sophisticated Windows applications. Next, he shows you the library of controls created for you to greatly simplify these tasks. Then, the author walks you through the controls that makes mastering pages and navigation a very easy task. He continues by showing you how to update the database and manage multiuser applications. Next, the author discusses personalization. Then, he shows you how to create web services and also how to create applications that use web services. He also takes you into some of the nooks and crannies of this tool. Next, the author provides a review of the visual basic language in detail. Then, he shows you how to use the new generic collections to create type-safe stacks, queues, and dictionaries. Finally, the author provides a slightly more formal overview of the visual basic language.
   
   The goal of this most excellent book is to make you immediately productive, creating Windows and Web applications using Visual Basic and its associated tools. Thus, by creating applications, you will learn Visual Basic as it has evolved for .NET!



3. I absolutely love Jesse's books and articles. However, this book does not have a page dedicated to ADO.Net nor does Jesse talk about the debugging methods of VS 2005.
   
   I understand writing a book is not easy, but I feel these are two critical components of .Net development



4. After spending many hours trying to figure why the sample code didn't work, I found the answer buried on Jesse Liberty's message board. A fellow reader points out an error on Jan 21 and as of June 26 Jesse has yet to update his errata. Most tech books have a decent size errata and that is to be expected, but for an author to fail in his responsibility at the cost of many collective hours by his readers is extremely inconsiderate. This book is in my trash can at the moment.



5. I have been through many VB books including expensive college texts. I immediately found this to be the best one. I picked it up at a Borders (oops...) because I was sick of ordering books online and not liking them when I finally got them in the mail. After I read the first chapter in the book store, I didn't want to wait to get started so I paid the $40.
   
   I found that something simple like naming conventions or form design can ruin a potentially great book. Jesse Liberty uses the standard naming convention (txtName, btnSelect, etc.) and is not nearly as strict with form design as most books I have been through.
   
   I recommend this as a second book because, though chapter 15 and 16 are superb in describing the basics, the complete beginner may be better off with a "For Dummies" book or something like that.
   
   Some SQL knowledge also makes the book go down easier.

5 comments about Animation Writing and Development, : From Script Development to Pitch (Focal Press Visual Effects and Animation).

1. Jean Ann Wright's "Animation Writing and Development : From Script Development to Pitch", is a comprehensive and well written book, on the subject.
   
   I would highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in writing for animation.



2. This book is abit of a bore and turnoff with all it tips and trixs to create scripts that will please the "buyer". It is colored with a tone of a moral panic that is typical for experts that clame to know what people want and don't want. I think it is safe to say that if the creators of "South Park" or "The Simpson" would have read this book and followed it, thoose series would have never been made - maybe not even Bambi with its horrid shooting of bambis mother?
   
   It also deals with animation at its simplest blocks, it tries to show the steps to a finished product - poorly. It does contain a good hint here and there but as a hole it is a complete waist of time, and a poor candidate for a book to understand the teqnical aspects of animation. If you have some basic knowleadge of character, animation and storyboarding and want to learn how to write for animation, buy books about writing instead.
   >RS



3. The book covers tons and tons of topics, which is good for a person with no background in animation writing. But the topics written about, from dialogue to outlining, come with no context, no examples to back up what the author is talking about. Wright writes "Keep your characters consistent. They must be true to their core traits and to what has made them who they are." An example from a current or classic cartoon is direly needed. This happens throughout the book. Under the subheading Conflict Can Reveal Information in the dialogue chapter, she writes "conflict in dialogue...is a good way to get information out and keep it interesting." How? Once again this book screams for examples.
   The book trys to explain every thing and any thing about animation. A daunting task. But in the process, every thing seems trite. The chapter on writing features, aka movies, is skimmed, and after reading it, will not make your more apt at writing animation films. Scriptwriting for film is different, in many aspects, from tv animation, and in this book it's made to sound that it's the same.
   Overall the book is informative, but for someone who grew up with Scooby Doo, He-Man, Thundercats and saw every Disney film and could write endless thesis on Scooby Doo's tremendous appetite, this book lacks substance.



4. An excellent book that covers all aspects of writing for animation, and I do mean ALL aspects. Nothing is left out. Jean Ann Wright really knows her stuff. And buying the book from Amazon was easy and painless. That's why I use them and why I will continue to use them.



5. I teach an animation writing class and have used Wright's book for the past two or three years. It not only contains useful insights into animation writing but also provides perspective through such topics as the history of animation and understanding the tastes of various audiences according to age group. I've also used her chapter on pitching a script for an oral communications course. However, I often find that her paragraphs aren't all that coherent in that she jumps from idea to idea. It sometimes seems as though a lot of this is first-draft material. Perhaps the next edition will be more readable. Overall, this is a useful supplement to other materials. I haven't found a perfect animation writing book yet, so this one will do for now.

2 comments about Beginning ASP.NET 2.0 and Databases (Wrox Beginning Guides).

1. ASP.NET 2.0 is Microsoft's latest version of the software to connect between the web and a database. The previous version of ASP.NET has been greatly simplified to produce the same results with much less code required.
   
   This book presumes some experience with ASP and some experience with databases. Several different databases are covered in the book including Microsoft Access, SQL Server and SQL Server Express. The author recommends that you not use Access (and I agree). He points out that Access was not designed to scale to large applications. I'll point out that the SQL used in Access is quite different than that used in either version SQL Server. Switching from Access to SQL Server at a later time is a pain. (It took me several days to find out about all the differences and then a couple of weeks to change over a web site of about a hundred pages.)
   
   This book is as complete an introduction to ASP.NET 2.0 as you're going to get. It's well written and complete. But don't get to thinking that you're going to have a full fledged dynamic web site up and running tomorrow. This is a programming language like any other. You'll have to learn how it works.



2. If you are absolute beginner then this is the book for you. Everything is primarily done with the wizards. If you are just beyond the beginner stage then I would suggest getting one of the WROX's ASP.NET 1.1 database books and this one. I found that most of the material in this book I could have easily found on the web. I wished they had combined the ASP.NET 1.1 books with this book which would have made it an all in one solution book.

5 comments about Java Message Service (O'Reilly Java Series).

1. If you're looking to learn JMS, then this is a decently good book to get you started. One of the best things about it is that it's not very thick and it gets to the point pretty quickly.



2. The basics were covered, but I felt this book was a little outdated. There werent alot of books to choose from so I chose this book because it seemed like it had the most coverage.



3. This is a reasonable good book, as you can expect from O'Reilly. There is a good introduction in the topic (e.g. where is Messaging used for, what kind of messaging does exist, what is JMS), and it offers chapters with some practical code how you send and receive messages, and so on. It contains real Java code with excellent explanation.
   
   If you're familar with Java, don't know anything of Middleware and JMS, this is a pretty good start. If you read this book, and you play with an free open source JMS implementation (e.g. ActiveMQ), you will soon get things working.
   
   *HOWEVER* This book is now arround 5 years old and *ONLY* covers JMS 1.02, where JMS 1.1 is now common.
   
   *BUT* the majority of all other JMS books are also 3-5 years old, and some also covers only JMS 1.02.
   
   If you keep this in mind, I think this is a pretty good purchase.



4. As a beginner to JMS, I found this book to be very useful. Most chapters have examples and the book also gives you the link where you can download code for the examples. The examples are simple and clear for the most part (except in couple of places) to illustrate the concepts related to JMS. I tested the code on BEA Weblogic Server and it runs fine without any problem. There are some minor errors in one or two examples but they can be spotted readily once you read the book and you should be able to fix them with relative ease. Overall I found this book to be a nice introduction to JMS. However, as another reviewer mentioned, keep in mind that this book is now more than 5 years old and JMS has been updated since then. Still it is a good buy if you are new to this topic.



5. If you are looking into JMS for use at work or you are just curious, this straight-to-the-point and easy read will start you on your way. While not going into absurd depth about the topic, the author provides a wonderful overview and core knowledge transfer for the reader.
   
   Quick and easy to read, this no-fluff title will give you everything you need to get started with JMS.
   
   If you are a beginner, this will get you started off with an extremely solid foundation. If you are a pro, it will give you a great "step-back view" of the methodology that you are utilizing.
   
   Good for all, but recommended as EVERYONE'S introduction to JMS.

3 comments about Mastering Digital Wedding Photography.

1. I generally like books from the Thomson's digital photography series. Their books are typically lucid, well illustrated, and informative. Karney's book fits well into the Thomson series. He brings his expert, professional knowledge to the craft of wedding photography, focusing primarily on the technical aspects of the profession.
   
   But keep in mind Karney's book is a general guide about wedding photography. If you already have such a book, you probably won't learn too much different in this one. He introduces the basics of choosing camera and software related equipment, setting up and carrying out a wedding shoot, and processing the photos after you've shot the wedding.
   
   Specific chapters include: Equipment Matters, Computers and Software (main focus on PC and Windows users. No Mac examples present), Setting Up a Website, Getting Ready for the Big Day, Making Creative and Fun (this section could be expanded), and Proofing, Selling, and Printing.
   
   He primarily shares and explains the tools he uses, such as iView Media Pro iView MediaPro 3 (Win/Mac) and Photodex ProShow. He doesn't delve into the latest popular software like Adobe Lightroom Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 1.0 Win/Mac or Apple's Aperture Apple Aperture 1.5. But the workflow process he introduces could apply to almost any digital management system.
   
   The book is well illustrated and even contains a few useful camera tutorials that every photography should either know about or learn. In fact, it would be great to see Karney write an entire book of these types of tutorials.
   
   Cons: The book is lacking in a few areas. I felt he should have spent more time on photo technique and style. You will certainly need to check out other books on this subject. And many of the photos included in the book, while very nice, don't always illustrate the points he's making on a particular page. For example, all the tutorials could have used photos to illustrate what he is instructing readers to do. I also think he could have included more about how Photoshop actions useful to wedding photographers. PS actions are huge time savers for anyone in the business. And finally, the business aspects wedding photography are not well introduced in this book, but again you can find more information in other books about this topic. Check out Best Business Practices for Photographers
   
   Overall, though, the book is one of many that a serious beginning photographer should read. I've read better ones than this, but I do appreciate the information and experience Karney shares in his book. I highly suggest getting this or a similar book if you're just starting out in the profession and you're looking for ideas and suggestions from a pro.



2. There is a lot of good information for the beginning photographer getting into the wedding business. I like the way that the wedding day is broken into segments and details what the photographer and crew need to do to stay on top of the event. I would like to see more alternative programs or methods to accomplish the finishing touches. The book compares iview and lightroom and gave good coverage to both. There was limited coverage to the use of the internet to share photos. The mention of fotofusion as an alternative to using photoshop for collage layouts is good advice.
   There are some typos in the book but they do not take away from the overall message in the book. I am now just getting back into wedding photography after an absence of several years. The book has been great in detailing how the art of the wedding photographer has changed.
   I recommend this book for anyone who wants to get an in depth overview of wedding photography as an occupational choice.



3. I still haven't finished it but i find this book awesome!!!
   
   I referred to it after seing Mark Ridout's website. It contains lots of pratical tips about both wedding photography business and wedding photography itself.
   
   Go for it!

5 comments about Cryptography Decrypted.

1. This book is phenomenal! I skimmed through countless books on cryptography before I settled on this one. The authors Mel and Baker have the unique ability to make a complex subject like cryptography completely accessible even to the mathematically challenged. This book is a MUST READ! If you work in the IT Security or Network Design field, this book gives you all the background you need to be more effective in your job without having the turgid style of most crypto books. It really does a fantastic job of explaining all the basic building blocks of cryptography as well as suites like SSL and IPSEC in plain everyday language. You will not be disappointed with this book!



2. Cryptography Decrypted is an easy to read and fun book that explains how cryptography has evolved from Caesar's time to now. The author goes over how encryption is used in all areas of communication, and what sequential systems have deveoped to stop hacker attacks along the way. It is detailed but fun to read, and explains how all the enigmatic parts, like Private Keys, Public Keys, Secret Keys, Digital Signatures, SMIME, PGP, RSA, SHA-1 ect. all fit together.
   This is an excellent 300 page softback that takes the mystery out of encryption and cryptanalysis. I highly recommend it.
   Would love to see H.X. Mel and Doris Baker update it from 2001 to include all that has changed and been added to the present time.



3. Being a technical book about a heavy topic I was pleasantly surprised that this book was pretty much "unputdownable". Concepts related to digital certificates, private key/public key cryptography, SSL protocol etc. are lucidly explained and very well presented without for a moment losing track of the overall context. All the chapters are short and sweet and cover everything essential for moving forward with confidence to the next chapter. I would highly recommend reading this book from cover to cover to anyone who is not satisfied with the half-baked knowledge available out there on this subject.



4. This book is just what I needed - a quick tutorial on PKI. It is easy to read and the examples are straight forward. The book is an excellent place to start if you need to get up to speed on cryptography.



5. It's been very difficult for me to understand having a key that encrypts something but can't decrypt it. The math and concepts behind RSA are far from easy. I've been looking for a book that explains it to the layman. This books makes an heroic effort, in its appendix, and has gotten me farther than any other book. This book bridges general concepts to real world techniques. The book uses many creative ideas to explain these concepts.