5 comments about Microsoft WSH and VBScript Programming for the Absolute Beginner, Second Edition (For the Absolute Beginner).

1. This book is chok full of learning projects that solidify the concepts presented. The cd that comes with the book includes an editor tool that has proved invaluable. I'm getting a second copy as mine has gone missing.



2. I had done some programming 20+ years ago and wanted an introduction to VBScript. The idea of a review of current programming practice seemed like a good idea, too. There were some interesting errors in the code in a few lessons, as I found. They provided practice in debugging, for what that was worth. The lessons are pretty clear and I found some interesting ways of modifying the scripts as given. It worked for me.



3. Have to admit that I decided to learn VBScript - It seemed to be a powerful language and I've come across it many times in my work with networking and desktop computers. Having programmed mainframe computers for 30+ years, used basic on PCs, and published and supported many web sites for the last 10 years, I decided to purchase as many books as possible to teach myself this language and keep some for reference. I was disappointed. I expected a clear, simplified, and example-driven approach to this subject. Instead I found it confusing, un-engaging, and I lost interest in it after a few pages.
   If you are in the same boat as I am and want to learn the language, try VBScript for the world wide web (visual quickstart guide, about 150 pages) by Paul Thurrott. Of the 7 books that I got, it is the absolute best for a beginner and will teach you what you need in order to get you started.
   I did not give 1 star to the book because I have written two books and I know the effort that sacrifice that goes into writing one.



4. The examples are wrong which is making things harder to understand and the web site for the book doesn't have an amendment section but it does have the scripts which seem to be working, so far anyway.
   
   I know just enough about scripting to steal somebody else's working script and get it to work for my needs but I was looking to get a true understanding of VBSripting.
   
   I have not yet completely finished the book but I feel I have wasted my money.
   
   I'll update when I have finished but want to give others a heads up.



5. This item has served its purpose. It provides insight about the newly release VB Script explaining the features and how to effectively use them.

5 comments about Podcast Solutions: The Complete Guide to Podcasting (Solutions).

1. I started out knowing diddly squat about podcasting. I read "Podcast Solutions" by Michael Geoghegan (what's up with that name?) and Dan Klass and now I know everything. But much more important than my over-generous opinion of myself I got my podcast up swiftly, easily and on time thanks to this incredible book.
   
   They answer questions with the insight of someone who really knows all the angles, who really knows what they are talking about, who has actually done it. The book will take you through the entire process and get you up and running. And isn't that what it's really all about?
   
   I especially enjoyed Chapter 10 "Getting Heard" which offers rich detail and many astonishing ideas about how to get people to actually listen to your podcast. And isn't that what it's really all about?
   
   Finally, the price on this book is right. Just right. Enough to make you realize you're getting something valuable (which you are) and low enough that it's well within reach of anyone who's ever splurged on a cup of Starbuck's coffee. And isn't that what it's really all about?
   
   Buy the book. Do it now! Buy a brand new book all for yourself. Don't chintz out and get a used one from Amazon. There's a CD inside that you need and it will probably be missing from any used copy.



2. Yes, it's true. I'm contemplating adding a podcast to my blog. So, I bought "Podcast Solutions" on Amazon and read it, front to back. This is a very useful book, and it comes with a CD of demo software you can use for podcasting.
   
   Anyone who is thinking about podcasting should read this book BEFORE they start purchasing any equipment. One of the most valuable things I found in this book was information about the equipment you will need to get start. A large portion of this book is devoted to getting good quality recordings from your recording sessions so that it doesn't turn potential listeners off with popping, clicking, hissing, etc.
   
   One of the other great things I found in this book is podsafe music. Never heard of it? Podsafe music is music from independent artists that is licensed for you to use it free of charge in your podcasts. Check out these sites: GarageBand and PodShow. The music is really good. I'm digging it.



3. Until someone writes something really comprehensive, this is the best there is in podcasting.



4. Michael Geoghegan and Dan Klass have done a great job in this 240 page book on podcasting. A great book for any podcaster. They do a good job of taking you through all of the steps necessary to learning podcasting. The book runs the gamut of the steps you'll need to preparing your podcast, to recording and subsequently publishing your podcast on the web.The book is easy to follow and has lots of links to websites for additional reference. Overall the best book on the market for podcasting.



5. What is podcasting?
   
   If you don't know by now - what's wrong, have you been living under a rock? ;)
   
   A little over a year ago, I had no clue. I actually thought it was using an iPod to broadcast mp3s over FM waves to a radio (which is actually done quite often, but has nothing to do with podcasting). In fact, podcasting has little to do with iPods at all. If I had had a copy of this book a year ago, I would have know that - and a whole lot more!
   
   "Podcast Solutions: The Complete Guide to Podcasting" is just that - a complete guide. Have no idea what podcasting is? This will tell you. Know what it is, but not how to listen to them? This book will tell you. Would you like to know how podcasting started? Look no further. Ever wondered what the relationship between podcasting and blogging is? You can find out. Want to start your own podcast? Then this is the book for you! It even comes with a CD with all the software you'll need to start podcasting right away, and it doesn't matter if you use Windows, Mac OS X, or even Linux - the CD has software for all three platforms. The book even tells you how to start making money with podcasts!
   
   From recording the audio to publishing the XML to getting your podcast heard - it's all in the book. You should really pick this book up if you have any interest at all in podcasting. Highly recommended!

5 comments about Teach Yourself VISUALLY Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 (Teach Yourself VISUALLY (Tech)).

1. I think this book is missing a chapter at the beginning. It starts out nice and step by step and then jumps right into editing and reviewing a web site that they never explained how to make. Between pages 25 and 26 there should be a chapter about developing something to "preview". They shouldn't have "The fast and easy way to learn" if this book is for Dreamweaver users who just need direction on individual issues.



2. This book is what I wanted as far as instructions on using Dreamweaver 8.



3. Teach Yourself VISUALLY Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 offers a little something for all skill levels. You will benefit greatly from the hands-on approach this book has to offer. Janine (the author) starts off by walking you through the basics of starting Dreamweaver and quickly moves right into how the interface is set up. After you get a primer on the interface she explains how the HTML is constructed which is split up across a few of the chapters. Each chapter focuses on a specific point, such as: Image, Links, Formatting, etc. The fact this book focuses on tables is odd for my development, but that doesn't mean it isn't valuable and it certainly is a good idea to understand the basic concepts of building a site.
   
   The book ends off with 3 very important topics. Publishing, Maintaining and Database usage all of which will assist you in keeping your site up to date and your visitors coming back.
   
   Overall I was very pleased with this books content and would recommend it to anyone looking to get started or for a refresher in all that Dreamweaver has to offer.



4. I learned a lot from this book. I wish I had bought more books instead of waste so much money going to school.



5. The best thing about this book is the friendly pictures and easy to read layout. All the charts and how to instructions are in color and go step by step. This is a great guide for someone just starting out to medium Dreamweaver ability. You can create a pretty decent website with this book. If you want to do more with images or other complex things, I would suggest getting a complex guide.

3 comments about Microsoft Word 2003 (Signature Series).

1. the book is very helpful and has alot of tips in it.



2. Amazon confirmed a correct order, but the publisher sent the wrong book!! Not only did it take longer than it should have, but they refused to refund my shipping expenses to have it sent back. OPOE books is the worst company I think I have ever dealt with... and I run a multi-million dollar restaurant. They are not friendly, not professional, and need to be put to stake if you ask me. The poorest business practices I have ever witnessed. They claimed that they would have sent a return shipping label, but neglected to mention that prior to my return... besides the fact it shouldn't matter. I'm sure they have an accounting department with a checkbook that could easily mail one payable to me for the expense I incurred do to their wrongdoing.



3. I have ordered (3) books by this author, Word 2003 Expert and Specialist and Excel 2003 same edition. I also have the Professional Edition. The author is absolutely fantastic and easy to read and follow. You could teach yourself the programs.
   
   However, be specific when it comes time to ordering the book and more importantly pay for expedited shipping. It was difficult in all three situations to get the person selling the book to ship it ON TIME!! 1-2 days should be max for a person to ship it to you regardless what shipping you choose! Took along time to get the books when i paid for expedited shipping and that causes problems if they are for classes.

5 comments about Effective awk Programming (3rd Edition).

1. This book is being picked up by the O'Reilly people. I have many of the O'Reilly books on my book shelf. There will be a third edition due out in July with Robbins as the author. I read though this book and thought it as good or better than the "Sed & awk" book that O'Reilly presently has out. Robbins is also an author on this book. I thought the book to be better than the "AWK programming language" by Aho, Kerninghan and Weinberger, the original authors of the AWK language. I recommend the book to beginers as I am.



2. Awk is one of those handy Unix tools with which you can easily impress people. Using a simple

   /pattern/ { action }

   syntax, you can construct powerful one-liners. Do you want to how much time in total you spent surfing the Internet? Here it is:

   awk '/Connect time/ { s += $8 } END { print s }' /var/log/messages

   It doesn't get much shorter in any other programming language, does it? Need to strip text of HTML tags? Need a frequency count of words in a text? Awk is the perfect tool for tasks like this. With its pattern-action structure, powerful regular expression mechanism, associative arrays and basic program flow control, it provides a powerful tool for manipulating flat text files. Even though other scripting languages may be richer in features, there exists a niche where Awk is just the right tool to do the job.

   Arnold Robbins, the author of this book as well as of several other books on Awk, serves also as the maintainer of GNU Awk (gawk for short), the most influential version of Awk available today. With the version 3.10, released in 2001, GNU Awk became richer for a handful of new extensions over traditional Awk, most important among them are the TCP/IP networking and the support for internationalization. All new extensions are described in the book. How successful these new extensions will be is doubtful, however. Networking scripting niche is already well covered with Perl and Python, and internationalization doesn't really matter much in short throw-away scripts Awk is usually used for.

   With all due respect to the creators of Awk and their book (Alfred V. Aho, Peter J. Weinberger, Brian W. Kernighan, The Awk Programming Language, Addison-Wesley, 1988), I have to say that "Effective Awk Programming" is probably the best Awk tutorial on the market today. If you are serious about learning Awk, you shouldn't be without it. If you are still hesitating whether it wouldn't be wiser investing those 28 USD elsewhere, here is chance to read it before you buy it: install GNU Awk 3.10, and the Texinfo source of the book comes with it. But sooner or later you will find O'Reilly RepKover binding too tempting...




3. Awk is a powerful tool to perform search, and pattern matching on the strings/files.
   
   This book is an essential for people writing unix scripts and doing system administration.
   
   It gives you insight on how things work, and has very nice examples and tricks to perform the tasks.
   
   Mostly the majority of the tasks are covered in the beginning, and the deep rooted tasks, are covered in the later chapters.



4. This book explains both the awk language and how to run the awk utility. You should already be familiar with basic system commands, such as cat and ls, as well as basic shell facilities, such as input/output redirection and pipes. This book describes the awk language in general and also the particular implementation of awk called gawk. gawk runs on a broad range of Unix systems and has also been ported to Mac OS X, MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows, and VMS.
   
   Many people are familiar with O'Reilly's book on sed and awk, but not this book. If you want to zero in on awk and its capabilities, this is really the better of the two books. It makes an excellent tutorial and reference for system administrators and anyone else that wants to use awk to extract and format text. The following is a description of the book from the context of the table of contents:
   
   Chapter 1. The awk language and gawk - talks about the basics including how to run awk, when you should use awk, and starts you off with a few simple examples.
   
   Chapter 2. Regular expressions - introduces regular expressions in general, and in particular the flavors supported by POSIX awk and gawk.
   
   Chapter 3 Reading Input Files - describes how awk reads your data. It introduces the concepts of records and fields, as well as the getline command. I/O redirection is first described here.
   
   Chapter 4. Printing Output - Besides basic and formatted printing, this chapter also covers I/O redirections to files and pipes, introduces the special filenames that gawk processes internally, and discusses the close built-in function.
   
   Chapter 5. Expressions - describes expressions, which are the basic building blocks of awk patterns and actions.
   
   Chapter 6. Patterns, Actions, and Variables - Each awk statement consists of a pattern with an associated action. This chapter describes how you build patterns and actions, what kinds of things you can do within actions, and awk's built-in variables.
   
   Chapter 7. Arrays in awk - describes how arrays work in awk, how to use array elements, how to scan through every element in an array, and how to remove array elements. It also describes how awk simulates multidimensional arrays, as well as some of the less obvious points about array usage. The chapter finishes with a discussion of gawk's facility for sorting an array based on its indices.
   
   Chapter 8. Functions - describes awk's built-in functions, which fall into three categories: numeric, string, and I/O. gawk provides additional groups of functions to work with values that represent time, do bit manipulation, and internationalize and localize programs.
   
   Chapter 9. Internationalization with gawk - describes the underlying library gawk uses for internationalization, as well as how gawk makes internationalization features available at the awk program level. Having internationalization available at the awk level gives software developers additional flexibility - they are no longer required to write in C when internationalization is a requirement.
   
   Chapter 10. Advanced Features of gawk - a "grab bag" of items that are otherwise unrelated to each other. First, a command-line option allows gawk to recognize nondecimal numbers in input data, not just in awk programs. Next, two-way I/O, discussed briefly in earlier parts of this book, is described in full detail, along with the basics of TCP/IP networking and BSD portal files. Finally, gawk can profile an awk program, making it possible to tune it for performance.
   
   Chapter 11. Running awk and gawk - covers how to run awk, both POSIX-standard and gawk-specific command-line options, and what awk and gawk do with non-option arguments. It then proceeds to cover how gawk searches for source files, obsolete options and/or features, and known bugs in gawk. This chapter rounds out the discussion of awk as a program and as a language. While a number of the options and features described here were discussed in passing earlier in the book, this chapter provides the full details.
   
   Chapter 12. A Library of awk Functions - One valuable way to learn a new programming language is to read programs in that language. To that end, this chapter and Chapter 13 provide a good-sized body of code for you to read, and hopefully, to learn from.
   
   Chapter 13. Practical awk Programs - presents a potpourri of awk programs for your reading enjoyment. The first part describes how to run the programs presented in this chapter. The second presents awk versions of several common POSIX utilities. These are programs that you are hopefully already familiar with, and therefore, whose problems are understood. By reimplementing these programs in awk, you can focus on the awk-related aspects of solving the programming problem.
   
   Chapter 14. Internetworking with gawk - describes gawk's networking features in depth, including a number of interesting examples and the reusable core of a gawk-based web server. The chapter is adapted from "TCP/IP Internetworking with gawk", by Jürgen Kahrs and Arnold Robbins, which is a separate document distributed with gawk.
   
   Thus chapters 1-11 form a tutorial and reference on awk itself, and the last three chapters are additional material for reference or your own personal toolchest of programs. The last chapter is more of a curiosity than anything, since I don't know anyone who does internetworking with gawk, but it is still interesting material. I highly recommend this book if you plan to use awk extensively.



5. Every once in a while I am told to panic and get something done in an unreasonable amount of time. When the "something" involves text processing I sometimes return to AWK, and last night it saved my bacon once again. This book has never quite given me the sort of reader experience I'd hoped for, but it does get the job done and can help you do the same.

2 comments about SQL for Microsoft Access, 2nd Edition (Wordware Applications Library).

1. As promised. Easy transaction. This Book is not easily found in bookstores. I saved the price of the book in gas alone!



2. This book is an excellent primer for the SQL novice. It is well organized and offers an excellent exposition of Microsoft's version of the SQL language. There is just on big problem; it is just about impossible to download the book's companion file offered on the Wordware site. This problem is a serious flaw in an otherwise outstanding book.

5 comments about QuarkXPress to InDesign: Face to Face.

1. If you've never used Quark before, this is the perfect book for you! The book also has side by side instructions from Quark to InDesign. These two programs are really great for page layouts and I never knew how awesome the program was until I received this book and used everything almost to its potential. If you have Photoshop experience and want to learn more about Indesign, this may be a good book, though the interface is pretty much intuitive. The book is great, but I wished it showed more shortcuts...I rely on that more than the tools now!



2. This book was a great help in making the jump from QuarkXPress to InDesign. When I chose it, I didn't notice that it was aimed at QuarkXPress version 6.5 to InDesign CS2, but it was still sufficient in answering the questions I had in working with InDesign CS3. I particularly like the charts generously appearing throughout the book. The format of having the information for the two applications side-by-side on facing pages is very helpful. The information you are looking for is very easy to find, and the explanations are clear and concise.



3. I found this book to be a great reference quide for the handling of two different programs in the desktop publishing field. Would recommend for anyone starting new employment where this situation would be involved handling these programs.



4. If you know Quarkxpress then learning Indesign is simple with this book.
   Easy to read, the text cuts right to the chase, with a page by page comparison of each task.
   
   Also works in reverse, if you know Indesign this book will help you learn QuarkXpress in no time.



5. This book is not really for Quark users as really each entry is going to show you the Quark way then tell you the InDesign way and even if the Quark way is superior and easier you will be told that InDesign does it way better! It is just page after page of shameless ad hype for InDesign, which if you're buying this book you've already got InDesign so they really don't need to sell it to you. Except that with each page you are going to ask yourself why anyone would ever give up QuarkXpress for this miserable throwback to Pagemaker-- so I guess that's one reason why with every other page they have to try to sell you the idea.
   Save your money and get the Adobe Classroom.

5 comments about The Definitive Guide to Grails (Definitive Guide).

1. Really great book!
   
   It shows not only how fast and easy Web Application development can be on the Java Platform what you may expect as this is the book description but it also shows that Grails perfectly combines quality and productivity. High quality applications need to be easily automated testable. Authors presenting new technologies often forget this point but not Graeme who shows through the whole book how to take care to the quality of your application and even dedicates a special chapter to testing.



2. I'm new to groovy/grails and hoped that the book would help me progress beyond the basic examples. Unfortunately this was not the case, as from about page 160 or so I was unable to keep my version of the bookmark application working (using grails 0.5.6). I even downloaded the source for the book and that would not run either. As a suggestion the book source code should be organized via chapter. In that way it is easier to follow the changes as the application is developed.
   
   Having given this book a low rating, it's clearly going to be a great work once the second edition is published (hopefully shortly after the grails 1.0 release). Generally the text was well written, and very informative, and I'll be buying the second edition when it does come out! As a previous poster noted, how Graeme finds the time to do all that he does is amazing.
   
   As to grails, I think it's got real potential, coupled with AJAX and grails should be a killer app - sorry framework.



3. Today's enterprise Java development is complex, tedious and challenging. In spite of numerous frameworks including Spring framework and HIBERNATE trying to address this complexity and make development simple, the truth is it is not simple. The Java developer community deserves a true framework built on very similar agile development principles that Ruby on Rails was built upon; DRY, Convention over Configuration and Boilerplate Code Generation.
   
   Grails combines the power of Java, Groovy, Spring, HIBERNATE and more under the covers and brings out a true framework that increases your productivity to great levels.
   
   This book clearly explains the concepts. Though some of the material and examples are little old compared to the latest Grails release, it is worth reading this book to understand the concepts. It will change the way you think and build Java applications.
   
   A must read by every Java professional.



4. I picked up Graeme's Grails book while in a Barnes & Noble store recently, while waiting out the evening rush hour in Silicon Valley. I've already been fiddling with Ruby on Rails and like it, and although I'd heard of Grails I instinctively thought it couldn't measure up to RoR as a framework. Wow, was I wrong. Graeme does a very good job in explaining and demonstrating how Grails makes it drop dead simple to whip up simple web apps, while also providing a nice compact intro to Groovy the language. The reason I give the book 5 stars is that Graeme clearly understands the real world of app development, and at a higher level, Graeme and his Grails framework takes us a huge leap closer to the Promised Land of computing: when you want it simple, it's simple with sensible defaults, but when you need or want to dive deeper, Grails lets you do that. I could have used Grails and its seamless on demand integration with Java and custom Java libraries many, many times in the past. The thing I kept wishing, when looking at Zope, Ruby on Rails and friends is for some clean way to tap into all the business logic that organizations have spent a decade investing in, via Java and J2EE development. Grails does that! The book is well paced, and I'm very glad I bought it.



5. Reading the theory and having no intentions to do a real project is fine but when you run the book's single example and it fails at every step and on top of that Grails suggest the >grails update which makes worse as this is the only reference. It could have been a good book but there is a huge jump from basic grails create-app to full scale app. If anybody has the working example, I will appreciate using it.

5 comments about WordPress 2 (Visual QuickStart Guide).

1. Like all the Quickstart books, this one cuts to the chase and makes it easy to get your blog running.



2. I agree with many of the other reviews that I have seen here. I usually don't right a review and I usually give most tech books the benefit of the doubt. I gave up on this book in Chapter 6. The first 5 chapters are nothing more than going through every page of Worpress admin and reading the input field. With no real explanation of what items do. I have been looking for a worpress book for a while and this was the first one I came across I was very disappointed. With that being said I will keep looking for a good wordpress book but in the mean time I will probably be better off just getting a good MySQL + PHP book.



3. Has useful stuff but misses important stuff, for instance: it says that someone can have a profile of subscriber [easily discerned from wordpress documentation] who can only read, but doesn't tell how to make that real. Everyone can read unless something is done to restrict site, so what did he tell us? Worthwhile book only because so little else exists.



4. This book provides an adequate overview of Wordpress, with plenty of screenshots to illustrate steps to take. It's a book though for people already equipped with familiarity with the basics of blogging and web coding, not for beginners with no exposure to HTML or PHP. Lacks clear explanations of terms that Wordpress users should be familiar with and omits step-by-step instructions of the two most important tasks anyone who uses Wordpress to publish and maintain a blog should be prepared to complete: 1) backing up your Wordpress files and database, and 2) install the latest version of Wordpress. Help with performing those two tasks was why I purchased this book. I was so disappointed that it contained no instructions to help me with these essential tasks. This book works as a supplementary text.



5. I found the book clear and very easy to follow. The pictures might be a bit bigger. But compared to WordPress for dummies, which focuses less on WordPress on your own server, I found WordPress 2 great. I can follow what is going on and what to do. That is what I sought. It makes everything (or almost everything) quite understandable.

2 comments about Digital Character Animation 3 ([digital]).

1. George Maestri's Digital Character Animation 3 provides new artwork to pair with animator and writer George Maestri's insights on the theory and basic techniques of rigging, walk-cycles, lip-synch and more: all the elements which bring an animation to life. You don't have to have a prior background in digital animation to appreciate this guide, either: chapters offer both the basics of modeling and animation and progress to more advanced levels of applications and characterization, so all levels of users gain insights.



2. I enjoyed reading the book which gave me several options.
   
   I purchased the book before obtaining the software. Software is needed because it doesn't have a CD-Rom.
   
   I would highly recommend it!!
   
   Linda