5 comments about Absolute Beginner's Guide to Computer Basics (4th Edition) (Absolute Beginner's Guide).

1. I have been using a computer for many years and still did not understand all the task/programs I could have been using. This book has been extremely helpful working as a primer explaining everything very clearly and is still up to date with the Windows Vista. I would highly recommend this book.



2. This a great book for aquainting yourself with your computer. If you are new to the computer world as I was you will find this book very helpful in taking control of your computer instead of it controlling you. It covers both versions of Windows: XP & Vista. I would recommend it to anyone just starting out. I think it would be safe to say it could save you a lot of time in the longrun and maybe keep you from pulling your hair out!



3. The book lives up to its reputation as being a beginners guide. Good resource for those now getting into computers. And, it also has some good steps for Vista too.



4. Like most people,i avoided the 21st century technology by continuly saying to myself it was not something i needed.I finally took the plunge,a friend set up my Toshiba A2125 and found the"Absolute beginners guide on your web page.It,s format coinsides with my 73 year old mindset.Congradulations Michael Miller



5. Good book for beginner, if you are just learning get this book.There are things in this book that took me years to learn by trial and error unfortunaely for me I only learned a couple of new things, but it did give me some certainty in what I did know. However Im now looking for a intermediate book which is what I really needed.

5 comments about Joel on Software: And on Diverse and Occasionally Related Matters That Will Prove of Interest to Software Developers, Designers, and Managers, and to Those Who, Whether by Good Fortune or Ill Luck, Work with Them in Some Capacity.

1. Though you probably won't agree with everything Joel says about the development and use of software in the technology realm, he presents his viewpoints in a way that will make you think through your argument and come out on the other side with a more thorough understanding on the subject and its role in business.
   
   He presents multiple delicious morsels of knowledge that stem from his professional experience (both good and bad) that make you say "well, duh!! That makes sense." A very easy and enjoyable read.



2. In this book, Mr. Spolsky makes dozens of apt, lucid observations and suggestions about the state of the industry and the practice of software development as it applies to developers, managers and CEOs alike. Don't be discouraged by his occasionally flippant treatment of some issues--whether you agree with him or not, it would be downright foolish to do anything but devour the veritable fountain of knowledge contained within this book. Mr. Spolsky clearly shows an honest and empathetic concern for the health of the software industry and ALL of the people involved in its enrichment.



3. I bought this book for my husband who mostly sits 24-7 coding and even if he sleeps then he dreams in code.
   
   This books is actually archive of Joel's messages (can i call it blog) on his website.
   
   Easy and sometimes funny to read, also technical but at least smth apart.
   
   Will buy other books from Joel also



4. Joel Spolsky's collected essays and blog entries mostly remain fresh enough even after several years (some go back to 2000 and 2001). Many of the good ideas he presents are still valid because they are still true and they remain challenges for many people and organizations today.
   
   The more dated parts relate more to specific technology, such as COM and early browser versions. That's usually ok, as the specific references serve more as hooks for making a point. Plus, agile methodologies have made significant progress since Spolsky published. He gets a few digs in against Extreme Programming. I was unfamiliar with his blog before this book, and one thing nice is that his insight and spunkiness make we want to sample his blog going forward.
   
   I especially agree with Spolsky on most of his "Joel's test", the need for modest specs (disagree on use of humor in specs), daily builds, fine-grained scheduling, the need to understand fundamentals of what's going on in your system, independent testers, scalability and understanding your market. That's a pretty good collection of topics.
   
   Sorry, but at this point the book made for a good read from the library, as opposed to a purchase.



5. Sometimes blunt, yet always pragmatic, Joel's writing is crisp and to the point. It should be required reading for IT managers and developers building software apps. The Joel Test has also become the de facto litmus test used by programmers to rate software organizations.

5 comments about Using Moodle: Teaching with the Popular Open Source Course Management System (Using).

1. An excellent introduction to Moodle -- a course management system I'm teaching myself. Yes, much of the information is available online at the Moodle site, but I'm a person who would rather look through a book as opposed to clicking links online and printing what I require.



2. I started out muddled over Moodle. I knew I wanted to do some of what this LMS could do, but fairly ignorant and hesitant to jump into the Moodle community to ask the most basic of questions. This book seems to do the job.



3. Thank you to the authors of Using Moodle! This comprehensive introduction to Moodle is exactly what we needed in my school district. I recommend it to anyone charged with Moodle-related staff development.
   
   Well-done, Fellow Moodlers.



4. This is an excellent book for a teacher who would like to know a little bit more about Moodle. The teacher does not need to know much about course management software. This book gives a great overview, with examples, while not getting caught up in the technical details.
   
   For example the Lesson module section starts off with non-Moodle classroom story told by Jason. Then the chapter gives a short overview and talks about the different features of Lesson. There are a couple of inserts on tips and examples of how a feature could be used. Plus a few screen shots.
   
   If you are looking for examples of GIFT or XML formats, then this is not the book for you. On the other hand, after reading the Lesson and Quiz chapters, the potential teacher will know that these are a few of the question formats that can be imported into Moodle.
   
   Moodle documentation and on-line forums are great resources but are not designed for the non-user or really new user. This book will help a teacher ask or find more information about what they want to do in their course. It is "Moodle 101 : An Introduction to teaching with Moodle."



5. Very pleased with the book, its content, and usefulness. Also, pleased with delivery and timing.

No comments about Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Unleashed.

5 comments about MySQL Crash Course (Sams Teach Yourself in 10 Minutes).

1. Great book to get you start into mysql. Very good examples and explanations. rather basic in some things, but overall it is worth the money. I got this book and O'Reilly's "MySQL cookbook". A good combination, that got me started with MySQL in no time. Mind you, I knew all the relational database stuff and sql queries already, but didn't know the specifics of MySQL. I was working with MS Access, but Access cannot handle large amounts of data I needed to upload for data mining projects. MySQL is just great -and free. These two books are excellent. I highly recommend them.



2. I am a PHP guy not a database guy. I know what I want to do most of the time but I don't know the exact syntax. This book is great, quick reference for just that. I use it probably 3-5 times a day. Great book for a reference!



3. You do not have to know anything about MYSQL or relational databases in order to start this book; a true novice can begin here. This book is desgined to get you up and running quickly. Although this book can also be used as a reference, it is intended as a series of hands on lessons. Forta's Teach Yourself SQL is also good, but if you are using MYSQL, this is the one to get.



4. If MySQL will suite your needs then this book is for you. I read the book cover-to-cover in my downtime at work over a few days and walked away with a solid understanding of MySQL.
   Unfortunately MySQL isn't the most mature database solution, but if it's good enough for your project, then this is a great resource.



5. As others have said, this is a great book for beginners, whether in MySQL or in databases in general. Because I have a lot of database experience, I went throught it very quickly.
   
   When I started to apply some of the techniques I learned to existing applications, I found out VERY quickly that this is insufficient as a reference. Each topic has enough hands-on examples to give you a start, but not nearly enough depth to use for looking things up.
   
   I thought that Appendix B on creating the sample tables might have been a little abbreviated for the novice user. It refers to Chapter 2 to create a new datasource, but I think it was a little confusing jumping back and forth between the appendix and the chapter. This might be better as an exercise right in the chapter.
   
   Overall, I would recommend this book as a starting point.

No comments about The iPhone Developer's Cookbook: Building Mobile Applications with the iPhone SDK (Developer's Library).

5 comments about Beginning Joomla!: From Novice to Professional (Beginning from Novice to Professional).

1. I was initially very pleased with this book, and with help from this book, I was able to get a basic Joomla website running in a day or so. However as other reviewers have noted it seems to be missing several chapters that should provide details and examples of how to use menus, modules and articles together to create a good Joomla website.
   
   The author raves about the Leo outline editor but never shows how to actually implement the outline using the Joomla menus etc. The author touches on some advanced issues such as creating your own template or an extension, but does not explain how to use the templates or extensions that come with Joomla. For example he states that "The parameters for Mod_mainmenu can change everything from the menu style to the menu hierarchy" but provides no examples and then proceeds to list the more advanced options! At a minimum he should explain how modules position content as left, main, right etc. Also as an example of poor organization this topic is in "Extensions - Default Site Modules - Main Menu" rather than "Adding Menus to Point to Content".
   
   Figuring out how to modify a template and use modules so that content is placed where you want it, is perhaps the hardest aspect of Joomla. I'm still struggling to understand what all the CSS styles are used for. The author provides a brief intro to CSS but it would be nice to have a list of the key Joomla CSS styles and where they are used, plus some real world examples of (say) changing a color scheme or widening a column.
   
   I'm puzzled by the many glowing reviews for this book! It gets off to a good start but then wanders off to discuss editors, extensions, analytics etc. rather than providing a good foundation for building a solid Joomla website.



2. This is the best basic book I have found on Joomla! It's well written, with lots of tips for building a well thought out site with Joomla! I also learned much about how to think through site layout, and what keeps end users interested. We have built a really nice Intranet site with the knowledge gained from this book. Good info on nice Joomla plugins and other useful packages such as FreeMind.



3. Great book, very informative. Was able to begin working on an existing Joomla site in short order. Also has info on how to use Google Analytics for web stats!



4. These technical books are expensive (I paid full price for this in a bookstore) but worth every penny when they provide the answers to those inevitable snags you hit on a project. This book, however, almost never had the answers I needed. Mainly it points out the features in the Joomla admin interface, but that I could figure out on my own. I wanted to know things like how to download a template and customize it for my site. Instead the book tells you where the CSS code is and that you "can edit it" -- duh! In not anticipating and helping me through typical development tangles, I found the book an expensive, boring, barely helpful description of the Joomla admin tools. Save some money -- there are much better helps available free by searching Google.



5. As a web graphic designer, I want to expand my skills into CMS systems. I thought this book would be a good start, but after reading it, I learned little more than how to install Joomla and basic interactions. The book is states it's for "Novice to Professional," but a more accurate description would be "a getting started guide".

5 comments about Microsoft Office Access 2003 Inside Out (Microsoft Office Access Inside Out).

1. Viescas certainly deserves his status as a Microsoft Access database expert. He packs a lot of information into this book and, at over 1200 pages, there's a lot of room for packing!
   
   The book is very well organized and walks you through the many aspects of developing an effective database and using Access' many features. It's also well indexed so you can find what you're looking for when you need detail.
   
   Given these positive aspects about the book, it's truly a shame the writing's so bad. If something can be described in 10 words, Viescas uses 100. Here I put the blame on the editors. Writers are frequently over-verbose and it's the editor's responsibility to ensure writing is concise and clear. Perhaps the editors were intimidated by Viescas' database knowledge and were afraid to cut anything out; perhaps he's given such high status by the publisher that the editors had no clout. Whatever the case, the writing's a detriment in that it makes it very hard to read.
   
   One example where Viescas gives his IT background precedence over his writing background is his naming of the database elements. He gives all elements (such as tables) long, drawn out descriptive names. This results in sentences like 'you might be tempted to start a new query on tblContacts and add the tblCompanies, tblContactProducts, and tblProducts tables.'
   
   While anyone doing major database development knows naming conventions are VERY important, applying the most detailed of these conventions in a manual aimed at explaining concepts is nothing but confusing. Viescas should have used very simple element names in the text, then added a chapter about use of proper naming conventions in your development.
   
   Additionally, the naming concepts he applies are his own - not any 'standard' that readers might be familiar with. In fact, he waits until page 372 to include a sidebar explaining what the little prefixes he uses indicate. Until that point, they're nothing but annoyances to the reader. After that, they're explainable annoyances.
   
   Again, with all the valuable, well organized information in this book, it's really a shame the writing is so poor. The difficulty in this type of book should be gaining understanding of the concepts - not trying to make it through the poor writing.



2. This book is incredibly helpful to the relatively experienced user. There were quite a few things I was having a great amount of difficulty understanding, but this book explained things in such a way that I now understand and have since completed my databases I was creating for work. Not recommended for the beginner user.



3. I have been tasked with developing a new database for tracking and reporting city inspection data, permits, citations, etc. I had limited previous experience in using Access. I did take a one-day class in access programing, which gave me a leg up on getting into some programming. The Beginner type Access books that I previously used did not provide enough depth to help me develope the database. So, I was looking for a more advanced reference book. The great reviews for Access 2003 Inside Out encouraged me to give it a try. But, after daily using the book for the past several months, I found that it was not very helpful. The Microsoft website help function provided much more understandable help to me than is book. Perhaps if I had time to read the book from cover to cover to get a comprehensive view of how everything works, this book would be useful. Perhaps it is a good comprehensive reference book for people who have more experience with Access. But, for me, who had limited prior experience, it was not very useful.



4. PROS:
   - Thorough read on the essentials of Access 2003 and building databases in Access.
   
   CONS:
   - The author is dry.
   - Other parts of the book dealing with VBA and SQL Server (.adp files) frequently assume more information than the reader is introduced to making it necessary to have multiple reference sources to understand what the author is talking about.
   
   OVERALL:
   - A really good book for someone with prior Access knowledge who would like to have a through understanding or fill in missing gaps to complete their understanding of working with MS Access 2003. However, it is not a good book for a beginners understanding or gap filling knowledge of SQL Server, ADP files or VBA, which is ½ of the book
   
   - A questionable book for someone with no Access experience because the volume of information is overwhelming.
   
   - This IS NOT a reference book!
   
   SUMMARY:
   The book is over 1,000 pages long. Not that it should matter but it is kind of bothersome that the author's picture is in the book at least 30 times; what's up with that?
   
   The biggest drawback to the book is that the author jumps into deep material without providing enough clarification and background information about what he is discussing prior to starting a discussion.
   
   The section on VBA can only be read if you have other reference material in front of you that defines words and terms that are being used to tell you about VBA. In this regard, the author fails the reader and may as well have not written the last half of the book because there is too much information to introduce to do a good job discussing the primary points without having to assume the reader is familiar with all the extended topics that are involved with learning VBA as written by the author.
   
   Overall it is a good book but certainly did not meet my expectations given the reviews written on this board.



5. Microsoft Access is a well written book, it has greatly help me understand how the program work.

5 comments about Reversing: Secrets of Reverse Engineering.

1. This is one the few books that goes into details of reverse engineering. A lot of the steps described I went thru myself, not using Ollydbg but with IDA Pro which is the perfect tool for this.



2. This book takes a tutorialistic approach to reverse engineering. It assumes you have a working knowledge of assembly language and C/C++. The author briefly introduces you to some of the programming languages in use, Windows Internals, gives an overview of some of the tools available, and then proceeds to walk you through some example reverse-engineering. The author spent alot of time covering Windows internals. The overview of Assembly language could have been a little more thorough before going into reverse-engineering, instead most of the appendix is devoted to this. More time introducing the debugging tools and the use of it's features instead of the brief overview would have been helpful too. Despite these shortcomings the book is very educational. If you are not up to speed on C/C++ and assembly would recommend reading Assembly Language Step-by-step: Programming with DOS and Linux (with CD-ROM) and The C Programming Language (2nd Edition) before reading this book.



3. This book is a dense collection of information about various aspects of reversing.
   
   There are a few factual errors, and so, while this book can be used for bed-time reading, I wouldn't count on it as a reference.
   
   Before people pounce on me for mentioning 'factual errors' and not substantiating them, let me draw their attention to the description of calling conventions in this book. This book mentions that cdecl and stdcall pass arguments in different orders (i.e left to right for cdecl and right to left for stdcall). This is just plain wrong. I wonder how this important detail could not be caught during editing, and technical review.



4. The book is put together very well and provides adequate explanations on the majority of everything it touches on, but if you've already been reversing for a while and want more in depth knowledge and/or advanced methods for reversing check elsewhere. For the audience it was written for, its great, if your a newbie to reversing it would be a good addition to your library.



5. This book includes a great deal of effective and practical techniques related to the subject. While reading this book it soon becomes very clear that the author is a highly experienced professional in the field. He does a wonderful job presenting the many relevant topics presented in the book. If developers want to discover vulnerabilities in their own applications, this book will give some excellent pointers. Security professionals will very likely draw some great benefits from it as well. This book is loaded with information which is generally easy to read, (more so if you are familiar with some high and low level programming languages), and remains right on topic. This book is definitely a "must read!"

5 comments about PHP and MySQL Web Development (3rd Edition) (Developer's Library).

1. I order this book and been waiting and waiting. The date came for the book to arrvie and no book. So, a few days went on and still no book. I call the 1 800 number to see whats the problem and they change the date. So now i have to wait another 2-3 weeks for this book. We will see what happens when 2-3 week comes...



2. This book is great for teaching you how to use PHP and MySQL. The one thing I don't like are the examples; they contain formatting that really belongs in a CSS file. The effect is to make the examples hard to read because they are full of extraneous code, particularly in the case of table elements because inline styles don't cascade to their cells...
   
   Given the excellence of this book, I feel this is a huge oversight. The examples should contain only code related to content, not formatting. In the next edition, please remove the inline styles, move them to a stylesheet, and show us how to use php to dynamically create stylesheets!



3. Everything about this book is wonderful, it also includes an electronic version of the whole book in PDF format so you don't have to carry it with you if you don't want to. This book is definitely a very understandable book and it uses real-life examples of how to do certain projects. Excellent buy!



4. I cracked open this book knowing only basic HTML. About halfway through it, I was a website developer. By the end of the book, I was a website professional with highly sought after skills.
   
   This book is not only written well, but is written in a manner that kept my short-spanned attention all the way through with plenty of momentum. Possibly the only computer book I have ever read all the way through.



5. I find this book very easy to understand and follow. The code is well explained except in some cases. For example the Page Class in Listing 6.1 uses the function htmlentities() but this function was not defined anywhere so it is left up to the reader to guess its implementation. I find this very frustrating. Also in the section on regular expressions on page 126 it is said "Note that when a dot is used at the beginning or en of a character class, it loses its special wildcard meaning and becomes just a literal dot". But just below this sentence we find that the dot is escaped with a backslash when validating the email so a very frustrating contradiction. Also in the listing 19.1 when it gets the stock quote using a regular expression. This stock quote is retrieved from the second element of the array $quote as $quote[1]. Why not the first element of this array as $quote[0]? I'm confused here!. I haven't finished the book yet but I found these errors very frustrating. That's why I give this book 4 stars and not 5. I'll keep reading and hopefully I won't find more inconsistencies and contradictions.