1 comments about Digital Dice: Computational Solutions to Practical Probability Problems.

1. This is a delightful book showing how probability can be made to come alive by using Monte Carlo simulation. Wonderful examples are given to demonstrate this. A little experience in Excel or Matlab suffices to solve by simulation interesting probability problems that are otherwise not easily amenable to an analytical solution. The book is an excellent appetizer for more mathematical books combining probability and simulation such as the highly recommended books Understanding Probability: Chance Rules in Everyday Life by Henk Tijms and Intuitive Probability and Random Processes using MATLAB by Steven Kay.

5 comments about Digital Image Processing (3rd Edition).

1. This is the best, most understandable image processing book I ever read. It is the only image processing book I've ever read in which I could immediately turn the concepts into code (IDL). I spent most of a Christmas vacation thinking it was a novel I couldn't put down. That's about as good as it gets for a technical book! Well done, Gentlemen.



2. I am giving this book 4 stars because it's quite descriptive and easy to follow. It covers some of the basic concepts behind digital image analysis and touches on the more general signal processing concepts, but it doesn't go very deep into the actual math. This may be what you want, but for me it was an assigned text for a 4th year undergrad course I took in college, and I found it inadequate. I felt like I could have written this book before I even started the class. At the same time, though, I think it would have been a great text for a more entry-level course.
   
   If you want a text that goes in further detail and provides some math to chew on, I have to recommend the "Fundamentals of Digital Image Processing" by Anil K. Jain. It is also sold on Amazon, and I found it to be more appropriate for a 3rd year, 4th year, or Master's level course.



3. This book feeds the readers all the basic concepts of Image Processing. Very easily understandable and lucid in explanations. I would rate it one among the best EE books published so far.



4. The preface of this book starts with a quote:
   "When something can be read without effort, great effort has gone into its writing".
   And once you start reading the book, you realize how much the book lives upto this. Everything is written clearly and importany points are stressed again and again in each topic until you become fully familiar with them. Topics are written with implementation in mind, as you can get started with writing your own code instantly.
   The book makes the subject as interseting as it gets, and although some existing basic concepts of mathematics and statistics are quite helpful while reading, but you dont even have to be familiar with Digital Signal Processing to fully understand the contents.
   Finally, I'd like to say that out of the few poeple that fully understand a concept, fewer have the gift to deliver their knowledge to others, and the authors of this book have that gift.



5. (This review refers to the second edition of the book)
   
   This book is a simple and very well written introduction to Image Processing. This book starts off with the very basics of the subject. In fact the introduction is a bit too long and may be boring for some. The book contains many examples from different real world applications. In most chapters this book covers only the very basic techniques, so readers who want to study more advanced concepts will have to look elsewhere. For example, this book does not cover Canny edge detection which is probably the benchmark edge detection algorithm. The chapter on wavelets was refreshing; it concentrated more on how wavelets can be used for image processing and less on the math. The chapters on enhancement, restoration and color are elementary. The chapter on compression was quite good. The book ends with a few chapters on segmentation and pattern recognition. Overall, its a very good introductory textbook well suited for senior undergraduate/first year graduate students.

5 comments about Python Programming for the Absolute Beginner, Second Edition (For the Absolute Beginner).

1. Very easy to understand and great for first time programmers. A bit slow for those more experienced. Still, highly recommended



2. Important update 2008-4-23 to review below: I sent the author an email through his website, and within 3 hours he had emailed back to me the modified software I needed. Yes, I still think he should have that software posted on his website, but his quick response certainly helped me out of the trouble I was in!
   
   
   My daughter is using this book to learn to program for her class project, and the CD is at school. Meanwhile, I am trying to set up the same environment for her on our home computer, which is a Mac. So I got my python up-to-date, installed Pygame, no problem, then for her to do the examples in Chapter 11 on graphics, she needs the livewires package. Only then I encounter the "TRAP" on page 330 - the livewires package on the CD that comes with the book is a modified version of the livewires package available on the web. And the example programs do not work with the standard livewires release. And the book does not give source code differences for the modified package, nor is the modified package available on the author's website or anywhere else I can find (although this entire chapter is available on-line as an assignment for a computer science course, making me feel foolish for buying the book). So I am left unable to create the programming environment at home to match what's in this book. This situation is directly against the portability/openness philosophy of Python, and is causing me a lot of trouble. Mr. Dawson should have stuck with stock, publicly-available packages as the platform for his instructional text. Failing that, he should have tried to get his changes incorporated into a livewires release. Failing that, he should distribute the modified livewires himself via the internet (livewires is BSD-licensed itself), since it is easy for book and CD to become separated, and the book is much less valuable without his own private version of livewires. If you lose the CD, you'll never be able to run his example code in the text of chapters 11 and 12. "TRAP" indeed!



3. I think there were some errors in this book. I do know it was rather distressing in a way.
   
   The book is full of lessons, and I always wondered exactly where they were going with them.. what were they going to accomplish? Everything seems so unfinished in the book.
   
   I recall a lot of emphasis on games... I don't care about games.
   
   I have a Macintosh computer, and use Poser. I am distressed because some Poser-related utilities don't come in Macintosh versions. I thought I'd try to learn Python and write some of my own.
   
   I gave up after less than 100 pages. I think these people are so caught up in their own knowledge that they forget to see things through the eyes of rank beginners who are desperate to learn programming.
   
   This book joins a collection of other books that are truly disappointing.



4. This is a pretty good book for learning basic python... and how to use the basic tools of Tkinter... and how to use a modified version of Livewires... The problem here is that you never learn how to access anything beyond the scope of basic self-contained programming and the highly limited capabilities of these pre-made modules. If you want to be able to interact with your hardware, the internet, or anything other than math and games, you're out of luck. Common sense would tell you not to start a beginning programmer with a reliance on one graphics module and one GUI module, neither of which you expect them to even take a peek at the source of, but then, common sense would require students not to expect to have graphics handed to them on a silver platter. The first nine chapters are good work though... The 10th and 11th simply give in to the students' wishes that they could go ahead and have a graphic interface without doing any of the work, and that's not good teaching.



5. Service from Amazon dot com is excellent. The book was received in good order. The content of the book fulfilled my expectations. I had no direction in any programming language. This book is absolute for beginners and I have some kind of direction to plan and expand my programming knowledge with Python.

4 comments about SPSS For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech)).

1. SPSS for dummies did get me started. It did not match up exactly with some actions, but served the purpose.



2. The "For Dummies" series are funny books and are sometimes helpful but, much like Sparknotes or Cliffnotes, they are inherently flawed. This is ESPECIALLY true for anything that has to do with computerization; if you really need to earn something then you really need a book that will teach you a solid way to generate results. In the case of SPSS I really thinks this is true and then some - the program gives you all sorts of ways to test and to generate answers BUT the word dummies doesn't really play here.
   If anything, it seems criminal to tell people they can learn something without hammering away at it.
   
   A few of my students have used this book and the truth of the matter is this: they learn the most basic functions of the program but, when asked to perform something a little more difficult, they freeze and their eyes frost. The book doesn't add in the terminology needed, doesn't cover the ideas behind concepts, and doesn't even cover the stuff an introduction class would.
   If you need help and need it badly, this would set you back and confuse you even more. Instead, you could buy a SPSS Basics book to grasp the immediate, look into an Experimental Design class to learn what SPSS is attempting (you can look online and see what classes require, then mirror the class without taking it if you can't afford the time), or you could consult the program and the book that accompanies it. Either way, this is not progression but the illusion of progression and you can tell that by reading exactly what it promises to teach you.
   Very bad primed.



3. This book is very helpful in becoming acquainted with the rather complex SPSS statistics software program. I recommend the book for others who need assistance in learning how to use this statistical software and need it presented in a practical manner for the lay person.



4. This book is very good for people, who just now have started to work with SPSS and never have done it before: easy to understand how to enter data, make graphs, and other very important things. Almost all is shown by examples of SPSS.

5 comments about CMMI(R): Guidelines for Process Integration and Product Improvement (2nd Edition) (The SEI Series in Software Engineering).

1. Much like the King James Bible and the Anarchist's Cookbook this book is dangerous in the wrong hands. When used properly the Model is a highly effective tool for measuring organizational maturity and for developing an organizational maturity roadmap. In the wrong hands it can actually hurt an organization. Typically this harm is manifested either by process wonks who zealously accept the Model at face value rather than interpreting it for their organization or by senior management and sales reps who don't understand the model and see maturity levels only as a means for business winning. I think this is a great Model, just remember, if you are going to use it, make sure your organizational needs drive your interpretation of model and not the other way around. And for all that is good and Holy, please read the entire book (specifically the section on Process Components)!



2. i bought this product and it was exactly as mentioned in the product description before buying this product. the shipping was fast too and care was taken to ship the product carefully.
   
   all in all a good and a trustworthy deal.



3. I disagree with some of the other reviewers. Not only am I leading a project to set-up a CMMI Quality Program, but I am teaching a "newbee" to the quality world. The spec that SEI publishes is great and the notes included in this book are very informative to the new folks. I have the V1.1 and V1.2 texts and use them both on a regular basis when training and when working. Yeah to Mary Beth, Mike and Sandy!!!



4. Having read many reviews of the book, I was concerned as to whether it would meet my needs. It was just what I needed. Our organization is doing a gap analysis for an assessment in the near future. Although the book re-iterates the SEI web page texts, it also has very useful tips in the margins and throughout the book. I was able to quickly go through our gap analysis using the book as my guide (hey! maybe that's why "Guidelines" is in the title).



5. Had to buy this book for CS course at the university. Zero usefulness. All the info is available online.
   By the way, if you are not in the business of CMM or apraisals, curb your curiosity - it is nowhere near Computer Science or software engineering, it's about basic management. Tedious and annoying stuff.

5 comments about Beyond Bullet Points: Using Microsoft PowerPoint to Create Presentations That Inform, Motivate, and Inspire (Bpg-Other).

1. I was disappointed having bought this book based on good reviews, so here's my review:
   
   1. The author provides just one tool for one particular type of presentation: "pitch an idea to your bosses". The tool is a 3-act presentation using few words and more graphics and presenter narration.
   Although a good tool for some presenters and some presentations, I can only see myself using this in 10-20% of my presentations.
   
   2. Because the author refuses to explore other methods, the book becomes very repetitive and too detailed going on about the same points all the time.
   
   3. Because of this, this is certainly not a book to keep for reference.
   
   4. ...unless you are a total PowerPoint novice and computer-illiterate and want to read a step-by-step instructions about how to resize and crop images in PowerPoint, etc.
   
   5. This is the first book by Microsoft Press I read and I was shocked at the obvious attempts throughout the book to advertise other marginally-related Microsoft products.
   
   The book description says: "Targeted for intermediate to advanced level users". I would never recommend this book to anyone but absolute beginners and even then there must be better books.
   The intermediate user should really just browse the first couple of chapters to get the basic idea (1. set the scene 2. show the conflict 3. resolve the conflict) in a bookstore and then decide for himself if he really wants to waste money on something which can easily be summarized on one page.



2. I borrowed it from the library and I am going to purchase it for my personal business library. I think that this is a great resource book. I decided to try this method since I do a presentation about once a month to pharmacists. This book helped me to organize my thoughts and present the material in a logical manner. I am in the health care industry and the people I present to are used to seeing bullet points BUT they are bored with it. For those that think the information here won't work, I say give it a try before dismissing it. You may find that your audience doesn't want as many bullet points and facts as you think and that you are a breath of fresh air in doing something new and innovative with your presentations. And remember you can put all of that information from your bullet points in the notes pages and print that out for them.



3. Microsoft PowerPoint changed the world of presentations by simplifying the process of creating a computerized slide show. Alas, over time people started squeezing too much information into every slide and using the preinstalled generic titles. PowerPoint's simplicity let people forget the purpose of presentations: to persuade or to inform without being boring. Cliff Atkinson shows you a creative way to build a good presentation without falling into the PowerPoint template trap - tell a story instead. At present, he provides a free template, storyboard formatter and story guide at sociablemedia.com that adds value to the book, which refers to these resources repeatedly. We recommend this to anyone who gives presentations.



4. I bought the book, enjoyed it and then realized that I hasd purchased the 2005 edfition and not the new 2007 edition. be careful as the new one is much better. Amazon should have made this clear!!!!!!!!!!!!



5. I thought there would be much more content. I was already aware of the concept of forming a presentation using a story arc, so there wasn't much new that I can use.

3 comments about Programming Microsoft® LINQ (PRO-Developer).

1. In the interest of full disclosure, I did assist in some of the technical editing of this book. However my opinion of it here is as objective as I can be.
   
   If you read their last book, you'll certainly be able to appreciate the attention to detail the authors give to the material as well as their in-depth knowledge of the subject matter. There last book was 5 stars across the board, but b/c of how early it came out, it was concise and to the point. This one takes a slightly different approach, characterized best as 'no stone unturned'. With respect to LINQ, the competition among books is pretty intense. Pretty much every book ocvers LINQ fundamentals and does it in a unique enough way that you get a good bit from it.
   
   The best way I would characterize this book is that it's like their last one if it went to the gym and did powerlifting for 2 years. Including indices and tables etc, it's just under 660 pages. Each chapter is 30+ pages and they cover LINQ in the same sequence as they did before just with more examples.
   
   Where I was most impressed was in Chapter 11 on Expression trees. They provide a really exhaustive discussion on the subject matter and even though Expression Trees aren't the most exciting things in the world, you get a ton of detailed content that never gets boring. And what you get here is something you get throughout the book - enough examples to cover just about every scenario you'll likely encounter at work. To that end, it reminds me much of the exhaustive coverage David Sceppa gave Core ADO.NET - where he had an example for every question scenario you'd ever ask about.
   
   In chapter 12 they cover Extending Linq - which, isn't something you'll probably need to do today but is definitely something that's going to become prevalent as time progresses.
   
   Then they move into Parallel LINQ in Chapter 13 and cover n-tier linq in chapter 15. The performance implications of LINQ is not something that's been covered much until this point and I think they did a superb job on it.
   
   Then they move into LINQ and ASP.NET , LINQ and WCF and finish things up with a discussion on the Entity Framework. If I paid the entire book price and got only a single chapter of any of the ones after 11 - I'd still feel I got my money's worth. And that's not to say the < Chapter 11 ones aren't good - on the contrary they are quite good - it's just that starting in 11 they really touch upon areas that haven't gotten a whole lot of attention until now.
   
   If you're new to linq - this book will be your ADO.NET Core reference equivalent. If you've been working with LINQ for a while - you'll feel the same way. It's well written, interesting, covers scenario after scenario and gives you both the basics and the really core internals information that will no doubt make this "The" LINQ book.



2. I got this book after reading the reviews on Amazon where it was rated fairly well. As a VB.Net programmer, I have tried to use the book several times and been totally frustrated. Not only because all the code samples are C#, but because I could rarely find anything that related to what I was trying to do (e.g. populate a datagrid, create a crystal report, etc. If you are a VB person, find another book.



3. As an owner of the previous book "Introducing Linq" -written by the same authors- that really helped me to enter in the Linq world, I was pretty curious about this new book and now that I read I can absolutely recommend.
   
   After an exhaustive introduction about what is Linq and about its fundamentals, the book covers in detail the several Linq flavours (and not only the more common ones, but also the union between Linq and Asp.net, Wcf, Wpf/Silverlight, etc.). One of the best point in my opinion is that it tries to explain that Linq is not only "Linq to Database" and especially Linq2Sql but, above all, a new manner of writing code to manipulate data (from objects collections, to relational data, to xml nodes, etc...)
   
   The Part IV of the book is maybe one of the more interesting. You don't find on the net many examples on how to write a custom Linq Provider: the ch. 12 with a pratical scenario (a Flight search service) shows you how to make and, in my case, if it is too complicated or worthwhile for you :-)
   
   I loved the ch.13 about Parallel Linq (the GHZ rush is ended and asap we dev should seriously think to take advantage of multicore processors); but my favorite chapter is the 15th (Linq in a Multitier Solution) because since the first beta my doubts were where to "put" Linq (as a Dal replacement ? called from Biz Layer ? returning IQueryable or IEnuberable ?). This chapter doesn't suggest a DEFINITIVE solution (because it doesn't exists.. it depends from a lot of situations) but really helps you to make your idea more clear.
   
   As I told I can only recommend this book either for the "Linq Beginners", or for more skilled ones.

5 comments about C# in Depth: What you need to master C# 2 and 3.

1. I enjoyed reading this book, however c# 2.0 should have been excluded. Changes coming with 3.x is quite revolutionary and should have been covered little bit more than current size, even 2.0 can be taken out. Except this, I think it is right book to delve into details or review your knowledge base as an expert.



2. This guy just likes to blah blah blah and embeds points he likes to make in his blah blah blah. Not a good read. Not very much in depth either.
   Not a good book. At least not to the point.



3. When thinking about what an "in depth" discussion of C# might include, one might have voted for "challenging" topics like asynchronous programming or remoting in C#. But "in depth" in this book means going back in time to discuss in detail how the expressiveness of C# has improved with each new version by making the compiler take on more and more of the "heavy lifting". This approach to teaching about select new features in C# is quite interesting and illuminating, I must say.



4. This book has a very specific agenda: the features of the C# language introduced in versions 2 and 3 with minimal discussion of the .NET framework. As such, it concentrates on generics, delegates, nullable types, lambda expressions, extension methods and LINQ.
   
   It has minimal discussion of syntax and features already available in version 1 and as such, this is not a book for learning C#: those who don't already know C# version 1 are better off with the numerous other books aimed at this reader.
   
   But for those familiar with version 1 interested in the new features, it's excellent; the narrow focus allows as much depth as we're likely to want without going to the standard itself.
   
   The author has a conversation style with numerous asides and anecdotes which I sometimes found distracting but it's not excessive as for example in the Head First series.
   
   He often compares C# syntax and capability to Java and C++ which I found immensely useful.
   
   All sections are explained clearly with economical but sufficient use of examples. Overall, it's well above average for a computer text.



5. 
   Ah! This is the C# book I was looking for. Very well done. At the risk of sounding nasty I will say this: I have read both books, and "C# in Depth" is far better than ""Effective C#" by Wagner.

5 comments about Java In A Nutshell, 5th Edition.

1. The book is by far the most comprehensive, plain english manual for java that exists. Great book, but anyone who see's it laughs at the title. I think it must be an intentional joke. With 1225 pages and weighing in at a hefty 1.5kg (3.3lb) it's by no means a nutshell. It's more like a bombshell. If it were ever to be divided into 3 books, I would buy it again, just so that using it wouldn't be so cumbersome.



2. This is a great book for those Java programmers who want a rapid reference. The only drawback of this book is its weigth: the large part of the book is made of a Java reference (very similar to the official JavaDoc) that in my opinion is not so helpful, as if I need the documentation for a specific class I can browse the official documentation online.
   Anyway, the first part of the book is well written and gives many examples that can help both new and experienced programmers to understand the main features of Java 5.



3. I very much like this as a reference, but at this point I feel like most of the back 2/3 of the book is unnecessary bulk. The front portion, however, is excellent.



4. I used to like this Nutshell book, but it seems to have grown a little too big for its bridges. Maybe it's not O'Reily's fault. Maybe it has more to do with Java growing so much. But earlier versions were quick and to the point. This is now overly verbose.
   
   This is no longer a sleek Nutshell. Its a back-breaking bomb shelter with 10ft thick walls.



5. I am a programmer, and in a programming language book, I expect to find syntactical diagrams of the language. Anyone can read those, we should not have to glean the diagram from the wordy explanation. It's fine to have all the verbiage, but head each section with the syntax diagram.
   Also, this book goes into lengthy explanations of what object oriented programming is NOT, as on page 104. This is a very bad practice in teaching. Only teach what is correct, not what some novice might ignorantly think. I have gotten better fundamentals in Java free on the w3c site.

5 comments about Enterprise JavaBeans 3.0 (5th Edition).

1. I have been building J2EE based applications for about five years now and this book has given me exactly what I needed to move to the new version of the specification. I'm using it as a study guide for the Sun Certified Business Component Developer certification exam.
   
   Fun to read with great working examples included with the Jboss Workbook at the end.



2. I found this book very helpful getting me up to date with the latest version of EJB. I had used EJB 2.1 before, but this book is good even for complete beginners. The first couple hundred pages are about the new Java Persistence Architecture. The last couple hundred pages are on using EJB 3.0 in JBoss AS. The middle of the book covers the rest of EJB 3.0. I still reference this book from time to time when working with JPA and complex relationships. I highly recommend this book.



3. I recommend this book. The book cover almost topics in EJB 3.0 and you can depend it for preparing the SCBCD 5. The author explain and describe the topics in easy way.
   
   The problem of this book have more error in code I escalation it for author. cause the book have his name not auditor name.
   
   I will give this book three stars for losing the quality.



4. To be brief, this is a great book, but you will almost certainly want the newest edition of it.



5. This is a great introduction to EJBs in general, and now EJB3. (the JSR 220 standard) Just like EJBs are now easier to develop with version 3, so is it easy to read and study this book. I hold O'Reilly in a high regard, (doesn't mean I'm a fan boy though, they do have their share of bad apples) and their high standards show in the quality of writing in this book. You will be happy with your purchase.