5 comments about Hardware Hacking Projects for Geeks.

1. After making a few these hacks you learn a couple things about the book. Try to stay with the recommended materials list and you will do fine. It also gets you working on the basics of circuitry. However it is as labeled "projects" not really anything too much to learn from, but great if you just want to have some fun.



2. This is a big, floppy paperback full of projects many geeks or would be geeks already know about. After all, the internet leaks this sort of information all over. However despite some of the projects being a little underwhelming for the geek about town, the fifteen projects would probably be the perfect introduction to hardware hacking for a youngster keen to get into electronics and computers.
   
   Now that there are very few electronic hobbyist magazines around, it is hard to know how any except the most talented youngsters will get started on hacking gadgets, except via books like this. Having a talented toy designer write the book is a great ploy, as many of the best gadgets are derived from subverting toys and general consumer appliances.
   
   Some of the introductory projects are a little wimpy. The author doesn't really make it sufficiently clear that an external battery pack for a notebook computer is unlikely to extend your working time much (alkaline batteries are ill suited to most high current drain computers). However there is an undeniable need for a very simple introduction to the tools and materials you need to use. This is one of six tasks teaching tools and materials. The last couple are hacking Furbys, and making a video periscope for a car.
   
   The advanced section includes digital video recorders, building lighting control, a remote GPS object tracker (just like James Bond). There is a very nice one chapter introduction to making wearable computers.
   
   The book would make a perfect gift for the potential hardware geek.



3. The point of this book is to encourage creative engagement with electro/mechanical technology - to go beyond typical uses - to rediscover the inner inventor and toymaker.
   Each project teaches the builder fundamental technologies that can be applied in many situations. Most of the projects can be re-scaled to a range of budgets and available materials.
   Well written, illustrated, and resourced. A fun read!



4. Useful, fun, or just plain strange projects abound in this book. Some of the unusual but useful projects include creating a portable laptop power supply using regular batteries, setting up a surplus Primestar dish antennae to be a 802.11b wireless system capable of almost ten miles, and creating an advanced digital video system. On the other end of the spectrum is making an aquarium inside a MacIntosh, building an 802.11b antenna from a can, hacking a Furby, and creating a car video periscope. And, of course, there are projects between those two extremes. Each project is classified by cost, time and difficulty level making it easy to determine which ones you might want to tackle. An interesting title for the geek who wants to have the unusual that their friends are not likely to have, Hardware Hacking Projects for Geeks is a fun and unusual read.



5. I bought this book for one reason: How to hack a furby (and other talking toys). The book is very thorough and I am very satisfied with the explanation. The rest are probably fun but who wants to build an aquarium inside a Mac :-) This is a very interesting book, though. Other topics of interest are How to Hack 80.11b Antennas, Build a PC water-Cooling system, Build an Internet Toaster, Build a Home arcade machine, build a remote Object tacker, build a wearable computer (hmm), build an internet coffeemaker and much, much more. And don't forget to look at Scott Fullam's photo at the back of the book. One look and I could tell its his kind of book. Smile. Cold Eyes

5 comments about Use Case Modeling (The Addison-Wesley Object Technology Series).

1. Here is the scenario... you're a business analyst that is attempt to show business clients the value of writing use cases. Many books exist with various ways to format the use case. You take all those books and write the same use case in all the different formats. Guess which one the business looked at and understood? You got it. The really fine work of Bittner and Spence. If you use a table driven methodology, your clients won't be happy. The use case structure that is recommended in this book has been used in many projects where I currently work, and they have been very successful in forming a dialog with the clients as to how they need to the use the system and what true value they get out of it. The key part of this book is the concept of maturity of the use case. This is something that you can schedule in a project plan and demonstrate to the customers. Great job guys.



2. The book may seem boring at first and also repetitive, but its worth reading for the IBM 636 & IBM 637 exams on requirements gathering using UML.



3. The Appendix section which contains the Example states that "All completed artifacts are available from www.usecasemodeling.com" however this website does not have any artifact. It just directs us to IBM website. Please correct this in your next revision.
   
   The book is good.



4. I recently had to do the use case modeling for a new system and found this book. I also looked at a book by Alistar (I believe that's the name of the author) but it looked to overwhelming compared to this book. This book is easy to read and you can start creating your model right away and add more complexity as you read.
   It includes partial examples of use cases for a system in the appendix but have full ones in their website.
   One thing I wished they had gone deeper into is the use case 'extensions'. They do mention them but in a very limited way.
   The appendix has a partial example of a use case model and states that the full example is online at www.usecasemodeling.com but it does not seem to be there, however.



5. This is the gold standard, period. Yes, there are dozens of good books about use cases, but if you had to pick one, just one, then I would strongly recommend this over any other book.
   
   I bought this book in 2004 and have continuously used it as a reference. I have used this book to mentor new Business Analysts and those that new to use cases.
   
   If must choose a second book, then I'd recommend Writing Effective Use Cases, by Alistair Cockburn.
   
   Most other books

5 comments about Wicked Cool Java: Code Bits, Open-Source Libraries, and Project Ideas.

1. While this book is not a typical tutorial or reference, it does give the reader a brief glimpse into a wide variety of Java topics. Some of them are code tips like how to use "for" to iterate over a collection or how to use "enum" from Java 5. Other topics introduce the reader to open source libraries for use in managing Xml documents, using RSS feeds, creating graphics, working with sound, and more. The focus is on learning something new and having fun with it.
   
   The topics are grouped into chapters around a similar theme. The first chapter focuses on the language tips and the core API. The succeeding chapters cover string processing, xml (and html), RSS, math applications, graphics, multimedia, and project ideas. The organization of the book is quite good. It has an good table of contents, glossary and an index. Within each topic, any additional library that is required is listed along with the minimum version of Java to be used. The topics themselves are well-written and easy to follow.
   
   The website for the book conveniently provides links to the open source projects that are needed for the topics. However the download page for the example code does not have running examples for all of the topics. Furthermore, I did not see a file for downloading an archive of the examples.
   
   Each topic is only a few pages long, just enough to become acquainted, but not enough for industrial-strength use. For me, I found this format worked well for most topics, and somewhat less effectively for some. But on the whole, this book is definitely a keeper.



2. OK, I admit it .. I've become jaded like most Java programmers. Ruby, Python, Groovy .. wow, all those "agile" languages making Java so, I don't know, .. so 90's right?
   
   Wrong! Bring me your sad Java hackers, .. give them this book .. and wham! .. they'll be back on line, humming like happy campers.
   
   Read this book.



3. Are you a Java developer who is looking for interesting and useful APIs or for project ideas? If you are, you're in luck! Author Brian Eubanks, has done an outstanding job of writing a book that will help you enhance your code.
   
   Eubanks, begins by discussing some of the core API features--some that are older, but less well known and some that are new to Java 5. Then, he discusses String processing techniques. The author continues by showing you how to process XML and HTML documents and other types of structured text. Next, he explores the Semantic Web, a next-generation web where the links are between concepts rather than documents containing text. Then, the author explores scientific and mathematical applications in Java. He continues with a discussion on how APIs make it easier to develop graphical applications or to add new features. Next, he deals with sound and music APIs; as well as, advanced thread synchronization. Finally, he looks at miscellaneous open-source projects and discusses ideas for creating your own projects and integrating code.
   
   Not intended as a basic tutorial by the author, this excellent book will help developers and system architects capitalize on their preexisting knowledge and take advantage of everything the programming language has to offer. Filled with example code, this book will definitely be a welcome find for anyone who enjoys experimenting with Java code--and, who wants to make their code wicked cool.



4. Lot of cool info is provided in the book. I still haven't spend as much time as I would like to with the book as I was busy with other stuff.
   But so far so good.
   Look at this book as a pointers to cool stuff you can do with Java rather than a resource on how to do each of those cool stuff. Pick up the one of your interest and start off on it.
   I was already working with many of the techniques mentioned but some like the sound API was pretty cool to try out.



5. This book is great! Eubanks ranks with my other favorites: Marinacci, Bloch, and Zukowski.
   
   Part of the book covers nuts-and-bolts skills like new Java 5 API's, Cyclic Barrier, regular expressions, and Robot. My favorite part of the nuts-and-bolts skills was his examples of sophisticated regular expressions.
   
   The rest of the book explains broader topics like the Semantic Web, charting, genetic algorithms, and programming directed graphs. My favorite part of the broader topics was his example of propagating signals through a directed graph.
   
   We all need to keep up with the nuts-and-bolts of Java. On the other hand, we need a Big Picture of what's going on in our world. This book gives both. (And even his puns are neat!)

1 comments about Practical JBoss® Seam Projects (Practical).

1. I purchased this book after previewing several other books and online resources in order to get up to speed on both the overall architecture of Seam and get a good concrete hands-on ramp up of the technology for a development project I'm currently working on to transition from a proprietary J2EE MVC application to a Seam-based system.
   
   Farley's approach to establishing a base application using standard JavaEE technologies and API's (JSF, EJB3, POJO gluecode/configs) and then walking the reader through the migration and enhancement of said application with Seam is very well delivered and serves to illustrate both the benefits of Seam as well as provide an understanding of why various aspects of Seam exist (e.g. annotation-and/or-configuration for component binding, enhancement to the JSF response lifecycle, the conversation context and application flow/BPM, etc.). By taking this "Practical" approach, I was able to rapidly get up to speed on the core principles of Seam and move past the usual configuration/familiarization thrash that one encounters when learning a new framework.
   
   The book's presentation is a comfortable conversational style but still well structured and the author takes the time to review and reference core concepts without the burden of diving too deep into the foundational technologies (which can be better researched in their own volumes/sites/forums).
   
   The only criticism I have is lightness on describing how to implement Facelets in Seam, but given that the JSF foundation is largely identical to a stock JSF implementation, it's a smooth configuration tweak to start using said technology with Seam (read: Google it).
   
   Highly recommended to anyone who already has a working knowledge of JEE5 and the core technologies as well as a great primer for what will be baked into JEE6 in the near future.

5 comments about Digital Image Processing: An Algorithmic Introduction using Java.

1. I have been waiting for this book a long time! A German colleague had the German edition and was always pulling out solutions from it. Now, I no longer need to rely on him. This book provides many great explanations and methods that really work, including code (which is also downloadable from the website that accompanies this book). As a medical doctor, scientist, and engineer, I appreciate the practicality of such a technical book that does not get lost in the mathematics. I deal with a variety of medical images all the time and have been looking for a book like this for myself and other colleagues in the field who want to get started in solving their own image processing problems. It has great examples of all the basic methods as well as some pretty advanced ones I am starting to get into. For instance, the color chapter has 70 pages and lots of details. It's also a very good value for a full color 500+ page, 3+ pound book and gives you alot of bang for your buck! I have purchased alot of image processing books in the past, but I am definitely keeping this one...



2. This book is very well organized, and the content is exactly what I have been looking for. It met my needs as far as helping me with my own image processing, as well as for training microscopists in a core facility in image processing. Really really fantastic - thorough content, clear and easy to follow, from basic processing concepts on to specific applications in Java (in particular ImageJ). GREAT!!! I really appreciate the authors translating this - and it is very well translated!



3. This book is just what I expected. It is a great reference to image processing especially with ImageJ



4. This is a pretty good book, the ImageJ code is very helpful. Most of the material is straight forward and easy to understand. It does go into the mathematics of many things more than is probably necessary to understand the material.



5. This book focuses on introducing digital image processing using this programming language ImageJ. This distinguishes the book from basically all other text books in imaging I am aware of.
   On the web site [...] additional information (source code, images) can be found.
   The colour printing and the quality of the paper are excellent. This makes browsing the book a pleasant experience. It is a worthy addition to the textbooks I have, as it explains the basics of digital image processing without avoiding the essential mathematical background. It is an extremely useful textbook for (undergraduate) digital imaging courses based on Java / ImageJ. For people familiar with Java and interested in imaging, it is double worth the money as a reference book.

2 comments about Embedded Linux System Design and Development.

1. I take this opportunity to congratulate authors on the job WELL DONE. This book emphasizes on "programming" aspect of embedded Linux which is missing from earlier books like one from karim yaghmour. The topics such as MTD, real time, embedded graphics, uclinux are presented very clearly and in detailed manner. Overall, it's GOOD.



2. I bought the book because the table of contents showed that the book covered the topics comprehensively. However, there is a serious lack of depth. I think the book is good for students who are just learning about linux and embedded systems, but not as useful for the more serious and experienced developer.

2 comments about FXRuby: Create Lean and Mean GUIs with Ruby (Pragmatic Programmers).

1. GUI programming tends to get ignored when people talk about Ruby. That's a shame, because there are some excellent GUI libraries available for the language. FXRuby has been around for several years and it is probably the most mature. Lyle Johnson, the author of this book, is also the primary maintainer for FXRuby. He is always very helpful in the support mailing lists, and his approachable friendly manner shines through in this book. It's a great introduction, building progressively more complicated applications as you establish a more solid foundation of experience using the library. You'll definitely be ready to use FXRuby in your own apps by the time you're finished with the book, and you'll be hungry to learn more if you're anything like me.
   
   I would have liked to see more about using OpenGL from FXRuby, but it might have made the book unnecessarily cumbersome. It would be nice to see a dedicated library reference someday. Then again, the online RDocs will probably always be the best reference.



2. 'FXRuby: Create Lean and Mean GUIs with Ruby' is a nice introduction to creating GUIs with Ruby. The content is straight and to the point filled with no frills information. Data is spread over 14 chapters and the writing is concise. My only complaints are that I feel this book is too short at just over 200 pages and I wish there was color within. Having said that, I feel this is a good resource for Ruby developers who need to learn how to work with and create GUIs in one of the hottest new technologies to come about in some time (Ruby).
   
   **** RECOMMENDED

No comments about Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007: Introductory Concepts and Techniques (Shelly Cashman).

4 comments about XML All-in-One Desk Reference for Dummies.

1. Before reading the book, I was knowing nothing about XML, but after reading a few chapters, I got familiar with the technology.
   The book is good for XML first timers, also if you know a little bit about it, but it's not enough if you need to be professional.



2. The author's have done an outstanding job in writing the book. I found that even the mundane details were covered in the right place and with a little humor. The coverage starts out very simple, so many people won't use the beginning chapters extensively. However, as the book progresses, the coverage becomes more technical and I think that most people will find the authors have covered most of the XML details that any developer will need. The authors also discuss some of the details that other books leave out, such as the default namespaces. Little bits of information like this make the difference between a book that merely teaches and one that really helps. This book has something for everyone. Novices will get the most out of the book, but even advanced readers will receive some benefit. The thing I like the best is that the book is arranged as a quick reference--something that makes it especially useful when you're trying to complete a project and need to know some detail you've forgotten.



3. Though the book covers material quickly and lucidly, the editing is very sloppy and key details are omitted. For example, in discussing using the ID datatype for attributes in DTDs, it omits a key detail: a number isn't an XML name, and to get around this, prepend an _. The example given even shows a useage that won't work! The O'Reilly book of a classmate included this. Elsewhere the text discusses examples that aren't in the book and seem left over from a previous edition, and reading the text is distracting for the grammatical errors.

   In general it appears that the book was thrown together in a big hurry, which is a shame, as it's a very likeable book and would be great if the information was correct.




4. I found this book to be an excellent introduction to XML and the XTeam, as the book calls it, but in reading it I realized that the book is only just an introduction to a much broader world. I think that it is perfect for beginners, and does a good job of steering you in all the directions you can go with future studies.
   
   Some things to consider...although the author does not assume you have any previous knowledge in Web development, I don't think it would be possible to comfortably pick up on XML without knowing HTML and XHTML and the CSS knowledge that you should have when learning XSLT. As far as covering XSLT, you should definitely buy another book for that because XSLT mastery is beyond the scope of the book.
   
   It is well-written and flows good. The way the book is written is so that you don't have to flip when using it as a reference. So, if you read it cover-to-cover, information repeats itself. If you do have experience with Web languages you might feel like you are getting too much information, but it is worth reading through to find those lesser known bits and pieces of info. The author is thorough with the material he decides to cover, enough so that you can intuitively plan your own code rather than simply emulate examples. Overall, I would say the book has definitely given me a great appreciation for XML, and I want to take it to new levels.

No comments about Foundations of Software Testing: Istgb Certification Edition Updated for Istqb Foundation.