5 comments about Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 Classroom in a Book.

1. Having been a Go Live user for a while I needed something to help me make the change to Dreamweaver. Usually, the Classroom in a Book series are brilliant, this one not so. As a self-confessed dummy when it comes to technical things like using Dreamweaver, I found there were at least three chapters where I couldn't complete the exercises as shown. Generally very good. I would recommend it but only if you bought a companion book like Dreamweaver CS3 for Windows and Macintosh (Visual QuickStart Guide)to fill in the gaps. It was good, worthwhile, not great.



2. I think its a good book for those how don't have a clue about dreamweaver, It don't go into the deapth of dreamweaver, but is well explaind and will be a quick way to get into html/xtml design. well whorth the money.



3. I had been using Dreamweaver but never had a book or class, so decided to try this book.
   
   On the plus side, I learned many shortcuts from this book, and the CD with all of the examples was a nice addition. The screenshots are good, and the chapter on CSS was detailed enough.
   
   On the downside, there are a lot of misakes in this book. Since many people who use this kind of book will have had no experience at all with the software Adobe (and other computer book publishers) should use extra care while proofreading. Also, the chapter on Spry was kind of light and didn't touch on a lot of the widgets and what could be done with them.



4. Right now I'm giving this book a "C." I've read through at least three other html editor-type manuals, including an Adobe Go Live manual, MX 2004 Hands-on Training, and (going back a ways) Adobe PageMill. The assumptions made in this brief CS3 CIB text are okay with my skill level, but what about the rank beginner? The book also needs a glossary, to help the user understand all the CSS terminology. I'm not through the text yet but I'm disappointed. I remember really liking a Photoshop CIB I had a few years ago but this Dreamweaver tutorial seems thrown together to me.



5. The latest if the popular series of Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 Classroom "Classroom in a Book" was for me, still a good purchase. However not a great one.
   
   I have used Dreamweaver in the past, but I am feeling a little rusty after too many years of FrontPage use and i was hoping this would help make the much a easy thing for me. The first editions of the CS3 did have some errors in the which were pointed out and corrected rather fast. One of the nice benefit of working with Adobe Press, they do tend to respond fast and very professionally. That is very appreciated.
   
   I use it as a light weigh training guide, with a good number of hints and good examples. I might be a little tough on the book only giving it a thee star rating, but coming from the awesome job that Abode did on the
   Adobe Photoshop CS3 Classroom, the Dreamweaver version has some very tough standards to live up to as far as books ago.
   
   If I was going this again as a first book on Dreamweaver ? That might be a toss-up, but gut feeling is I might aim for the "Missing Manual Series" of Dreamwear CS3 by David McFarland also.

5 comments about CSS: The Definitive Guide.

1. Most of the stuff that you learn in CSS can be found already ONLINE and before I bought this book, I had a very good fundamental understanding CSS and thought I buy this book for more knowledge and learn anything that I could have missed. Well I did, but I could have found this information online, however I've spent months learning CSS and it's very difficult to found all the things in this CSS book in one place.
   
   I recommend this book if you have the stimulation to learn from a book and the money because of course the internet is FREE.



2. As others have pointed out this is not a CSS "cookbook" full of design templates. If that is what you are looking for, you will be disappointed. If however, you want to understand CSS, how it works, best practices and so on, this is a great book. Although you can find all of the info in various places on the web, Mr. Meyer is a good author explaining in detail how things work and bringing up valuable points to be aware of along the way. A good addition to any web developers library.



3. Nicely written, very informative. My deduction of a star is for the reference having neither examples nor page numbers where a more detailed explanation would be found. This is a common omission, so I would still recommend this book. I would not recommend this as a first introduction to web authoring, as it is strictly CSS, which of course does nothing without structural mark-up. For those who have been building sites for a while, and need some guidance and insite into CSS, this is a great choice. However, for those who have very little or no experience I would instead recommend 'Build your website the right way...' by Ian Lloyd.



4. This is a book about CSS, and CSS, is about the presentation aspect of web pages. How the text appears, the size, the layout, etc.
   
   However, the presentation style inside the book is kind of sloppy. For example, on page 186 and 187, when it talks about inline elements, Figure 7.33 "Strongly emphasized" is printed not as tall as Figure 7.34 and 7.35 when the CSS style is the same. And the word being used is "which is" and is changed to "that is" in Figure 7.34 and 7.35, when it is changing the vertical-align only. The reader would be better helped if they can see the contrast of the CSS style, without the change of wording for no reason at all. Also, in Figure 7.34, the bigger words should not overlap with the smaller words above, as tested in CSS compliant browsers, but it is printed so on the book.
   
   Then again, in Figure 7.36, for no reason at all, the picture is shrunk down to 1/4 size of the previous examples, when they are all talking about the same case except for some vertical-align difference. It may be done just because the page is running out of space. That is pretty sloppy.
   
   On page 181 to 182, it talks about various terms of the inline box model, and there is no figure at all to exemplify the terms at all. Then after the reader goes through a tough time to read through those text of hard definitions, 3 pages later, the figures start to appear. Please, can the book be designed so that the readers are considered? CSS is partly for making the content easy for the audience, and how about this CSS book is made easier for its audience too?



5. Before purchasing this book, I had purchased about a half dozen books on css, one from the same author. I was really surprised to find new ways to use css that I hadn't learned in the other books. Each topic is discussed completely and in detail. For a reference on css, this book is the best I've found.

5 comments about The Principles of Beautiful Web Design.

1. As a graphic designer with years of design training I have to say that I didn't receive too much new information on this book, however for a programmer this book is a gem. This book will go to the programming dept where it will be used very frequently. If you have years of design training than this book is probably not where you want to start.
   
   If you have not been to sitepoint yet go to their website and look through a plethora of web design inspiration and see the books available for what fits you better. Then come back to amazon and purchase the book here. (You'll save a bundle). Hope this helps.



2. This is one of the best web design books I've ever read. It's well written and gives you a lot of practical advices that go beyond just web design and cover topics such as meeting with clients, gathering information and essentially being a freelance web designer.



3. I knew nothing about Web design before the book, after the book, I know about the color wheel. Most of the other things that he glossed over I found to be like a collection of amateur blogs strung together in a book. To me, it felt like he was afraid to teach us anything useful, as it would correlate to more competition for him.
   
   Perhaps I expected too much of the book, but it seemed to be verbose for the sake of it. Also, I was hoping there would be some tie in to the actual programming of the site. To me, it seemed like he just gave a very brief description of how to make photo's look better by using Photoshop.
   
   I am willing to admit, perhaps though, I think "Web Design" should encompass some functionality to it as well, as opposed to just pretty pictures. I may very well be completely ignorant to it, but it wasn't the book that I was looking for. I would give it 1 star, but I felt there is a good chance that I'm the one who made a mistake and bought the wrong type of book for what I was looking for. So I gave it 3.



4. I was concerned that this might be a coffee table picture book of pretty website, but it could not be further than that! The wide range of topics covered include how colors work together and what they symbolize, how to determine pleasing proportions, image file formats, typography, back ground textures... just a huge range subjects you won't find much of in books that teach or reference the code aspects of web development. Now, those who have a formal education in design may not find this book any more than a refresher, but for the rest of us... it could be a real eye opener!



5. I'm a regular visitor to sitepoint. I do enjoy Jason Beard's writings. However, after finishing this book I find myself not one whit smarter and actually feel dumber for having spent the $ on it. Seriously, anything this elementary should be billed as so. I learned nothing.

5 comments about Programming in Objective-C (Developer's Library).

1. This is a great book if you want to learn objective-c 1.0 and are looking for a quick read. It assumes that you have no programming experience which makes it really easy and provides a good refresher on C based programming in case it has been a while for you.
   
   If you are looking for a book on the foundation framework with the intention of doing some programming on the Mac then look else where. This book does not cover the entire framework and its material is a little dated.
   
   !Take Note! This book covers objective-c 1.0 so it does not cover "properties" and "fast enumeration" which were the major features added to objective-c 2.0 which is the current version of objective-c.



2. As its title suggests, this is an introductory level book on Objective-C. The current interest on Objective-C application is mounting presumably due to the imminent release by Apple Inc. of the software developer's kit for the iphone and the ipod Touch. As a novice in computer science (I actually had taken a 101 on BASIC in early college years), I found this book to be extremely appropriate for anyone who is looking for an introduction course in Objective C. The book is very well organized. It stages itself well in the early chapters with simple examples of computer coding. Progressively, the author guides the readers to the relevance of some of these examples to the idea of object oriented programming (OOP). Throughout the book, it delivers coherently the concept of OOP and its potential advantages over typical non-object oriented programming. The pacing of the book is such that readers at the introductory level feel invited, rather than intimidated, to continue the learning process. I enjoy reading this book tremendously.



3. This book is useful for any Mac OS X developers who just started to make programs for this platform.
   It not only teaches Objective-C, but also the programming basics, and the use of the base collections of the Foundation Framework.



4. This book is best for those new to Object-Oriented programming who want to learn Objective C. It is less useful to those who want a solid understanding of programming technique and OO design, as it tends to skim over both. It is also less useful to experienced programmers who want to switch to Objective C, as it spends many pages interweaving basic concepts with those specific to Objective C.
   
   For programmers of several years, I recommend looking for a terser book. For new programmers, I recommend considering picking up an intro to programming book instead of or in addition to this one.
   
   Also, this book tries to teach Objective C for all platforms, and as such spends its first hundred pages teaching memory management that appears to be at odds with Apple's preferred methods. Its second half teaches Apple's pre-Objective C 2.0 method (retaining and releasing), which as of 2007 has been somewhat displaced by garbage collection.



5. If you are beginning, and you have a little background of C, well this might be your book. Everything is very kindly explained just for beginners. But if you already know C and want to start from Objects and everything related with the Foundation framework, well you will see that half of the book is not for you. Because 300 pages are of C programming and not specifically of Objective-C programming.
   But the examples are very good, and if you forgot something you can find it very easy because is very well organized.
   As the super tiny title "Is an introduction."

5 comments about Access 2007: The Missing Manual.

1. This book was simply amazing...Matthew MacDonald...what can I say about him? Well, for starters, he is amazing, he is actually the single greatest book writer of his generation...I have come to learn so much from him and his method of teaching. It isn't dry or boring, it's a book I could read before going to bed and actually enjoy...You know what, I'm going to tell you what...you buy this book and it does not meet, nay, exceed every one of your wildest expectations, well then you can hold me, Michael GARY Scott, personally and financially responsible. You rock Matt, keep these books coming!
   
   =]



2. This is the summary review of four Access 2007 books:
   "Special Edition: Using Access 2007" (Special)
   "Access 2007 Bible" (Bible)
   "The missing Manual of Access 2007" (Manual)
   "Access 2007 for dummies" (Dummies)
   
   In sum, the special edition is the best. Buy the special edition. Even you are a fresh beginner on Access.
   
   (My story? Well, I read the dummies first. Then looked at Manual, doesn't like it. So I got the bible. Still unsatisfied. Finally, I got the special edition.)I know some basics on Access 2003 and only use Access when Excel is not enough to handle my data. I started with "Access 2007 for dummies" and finished it in a couple of hours. Then I turned to "Access 2007 Bible" and "The missing Manual", the manual is the worst one and the bible just provides basics, well, maybe a bit more than, that the dummies book already covers.
   
   The special edition provides more examples and detailed explanation on: Query, Forms, Reports, Pivot table.Not sure about the VBA part.
   
   I also like very much the reader-friendly layout and enjoy its "what is in real world" sections at the end of several chapters.
   
   This book also provides a good summary of basic database concepts like normalized, the importance of index, joints. The summary is very helpful especially you are a beginner.
   
   The cover of the special edition claims that the special edition is the only Access book you need. Well, maybe not the only one, but if you have the special edition, you definitely don't need the Access 2007 Bible, The missing manual and the dummies book.



3. This book really is as useful as the title suggests. For a newbie, learning Access is a lot more than just learning what buttons to push - you really need to pick up ideas and strategies about relational database design. I found this book very practical, illuminating some things I was really stuck on. There's a lot of information in it, and I found it really clear and helpful.



4. The book does what it promises: explains to you in a fun and engaging way how to use access and explaining you the most important features while at the same time giving you the tools to learn about the least important features by yourself. An excellent book to start working with access and making very decent databases.



5. I bought this book to go straight to the information I need when I need it. It is well organized and clear. Would recommend.

1 comments about Google Apps Hacks.

1. §
   Sometimes I wonder how Microsoft can presume to compete with Google in the Web world. So much depends on search nowadays -- the Internet is one big store of valuable information. Yet I have to use an unsupported freeware utility to search my little Windows XP hard drive because the search feature that comes with the operating system is so slow and inflexible.
   
   **Google Apps Hacks** introduced me to a Google universe that was even bigger than I had expected. I expected --and got-- lots of material on plugging into Google maps (lots of people are taking advantage of the possibilities here) and lots of tips on using GMail, gadgets, calendars and news feeds.
   
   The biggest surprises for me were contained in the chapters on Google Docs. Part of the material was basic "how-to" and "did you know that..." information to help get acquainted with the features of Google word processing, spreadsheet and presentation software. In fact, it appears that this book itself was collaboratively composed by Philipp Lenssen along with O'Reilly staff with Google Docs.
   
   I was most impressed by how easy and flexible the spreadsheet application is to use. The author provides a pile of tricks and tips useful for both the ordinary user and the programmer.
   
   This book should attract programmers (and other Web citizens) who want to investigate and test drive the latest cool things that many people are having fun with -- and a bunch more are making money from.
   §

5 comments about High Performance Web Sites: Essential Knowledge for Front-End Engineers.

1. I am a software performance tester and a teacher of performance testers. This is the best single reference I have found to assist software testers in learning what to look for in terms of what will have significant negative impact on the user perceived response time of a web site. In fact, I've incorporated the lessons from this book into my training course for performance testers and provide copies of this book to my students along with my own book about performance testing.
   
   As far as I am concerned, this book should be required reading for anyone who develops or tests the performance of web sites.



2. While the information in the book is good information to know, it is (as others have said) information that pretty much gave a "yeah, I knew that" type of impression. And at only 137 pages of text, it's a very light read. If you are a new web developer, this is a nice collection of tips. As an experienced developer, there's nothing new here. And at $29 for its minimal 137 pages, it's really just an expensive checklist of 14 simple items. Too pricey for what you get in my opinion.



3. When optimizing a website, a lot of focus is usually placed on the back-end (databases, server-side code, etc.). That's because most programmers are comfortable with such matters. Once the HTML is emitted, it's easy to think "not my problem".
   
   This book, however, is written by someone (a Yahoo engineer) who knows the front end (how the emitted HTML performs for the user) *is* often the biggest problem.
   
   Instead of vague generalities, you'll find precise prescriptions (14, in fact) that when applied will make your site faster. The prescriptions are well-supported with both the *reasons* as well as examples of live URLs with and without the rules applied.
   
   This book should be required reading for your whole engineering team. If you ran a series of brown-bag lunches and applied 1 rule per week, at the end of a calendar quarter you'd have a much snappier web site.



4. The author Steve Souders (who at the time of publication was Chief Performance engineer at Yahoo, but is now at Google]) demonstrates fourteen methods that could be employed to increase web page download response times through clear and concise chapters.
   
   The information presented within this book is kept simple and to the point, complete with small code samples and explanations as to why they work. Occasional comparison graphs are scattered throughout the book to illustrate the differences in response times when dealing with some of the methods discussed.
   
   While some of the methods require server side configurations, most others can be dealt with directly by the web programmers themselves. The server side methods enables web developers who wish to make their own sites download faster make better informed decisions with regards to selecting a web hosting service provider by asking in advance what server configurations the hosting providers use.
   
   Also scattered throughout the book are links to handy browser add-ons and other informative links in helping developers keep tabs on performance issues when developing their sites.
   
   All in all, the author definitely knows what he is talking about. Highly recommended to anyone who wants to take their front end development skills higher by designing faster and more lightweight websites which result in better response times for visitors (not to mention save on monthly bandwidth).



5. Great book, really! Easily read, an essential resource for anyone involved in web development, on any level!
   
   However you can honestly find everything almost word for word online. In face if you just download the ySLow and firebug extentions for firefox you can go to any site and see how it uses these runs, and it will link to detailed info on each and everyone, all for free.
   
   So if you hate reading online, then buy this, it is great, but seriosuly its free information.

5 comments about Java Concurrency in Practice.

1. I've been doing Java development for close to thirteen years now, and I learned an enormous amount from this fantastic book. For example, I knew what the textbook definition of a volatile variable was, but I never knew why I would actually want to use one. Now I know when to use them and when they won't solve the problem.
   
   Of course, JCP talks about the Java 5 concurrency library at great length. But this is no paraphrasing of the javadoc. (It was Doug Lea's original concurrency utility library that eventually got incorporated into Java, and we're all better off for it.) The authors start with illustrations of real issues in concurrent programming. Before they introduce the concurrency utilities, they explain a problem and illustrate potential solutions. (Usually involving at least one naive "solution" that has serious flaws.) Once they show us some avenues to explore, they introduce some neatly-packaged, well-tested utility class that either solves the problem or makes a solution possible. This removes the utility classes from the realm of "inscrutable magic" and presents them as "something difficult that you don't have to write."
   
   The best part about JCP, though, is the combination of thoroughness and clarity with which it presents a very difficult subject. For example, I always understood about the need to avoid concurrent modification of mutable state. But, thanks to this book, I also see why you have to synchronize getters, not just setters. (Even though assignment to an integer is guaranteed to happen atomically, that isn't enough to guarantee that the change is visible to other threads. The only way to guarantee ordering is by crossing a synchronization barrier on the same lock.)
   
   I've seen hundreds of web site crashes. Every single one of them eventually boils down to blocked threads somewhere. Java Concurrency in Practice has the theory, practice, and tools that you can apply to avoid deadlocks, live locks, corrupted state, and a host of other problems that lurk in the most innocuous-looking code.



2. For me, the most helpful feature of this book are the advices about what not to do -- Best practices on Java concurrency. The authors addressed all the problems I've had with Java concurrency. For those are not using Java 5 yet, it is interesting to remind that the examples are implemented in Java 5.



3. In terms of the concurrency pragramming, this book is explaining more comprehensive concept and programming model of the thread programming. Also, it is good for upgrading to Java JDK 1.5 programming skills.
   
   To sum, the author introduces the deeper and well understandable thread theory for Intermediate and advanced java programmers.



4. Another "A-List" Java book that needs to be in every Java reference library. "Java Concurrency in Practice" provides clear and concise coverage of a nontrivial subject.



5. It's a great book that everyone should read. You'll definitely wind up stopping yourself from some common mistakes that result in the ever-so-common "WTF?!?!!?" reaction when debugging for a couple hours and seeing things working just fine, but not working on and off in production. Yeah... then it dawns on you that there's a synchronization issue.
   
   This book helps keep those kind of issues in mind much, much better.
   
   The only downside to the book is that it's a complete bear to read. It's just an exceedingly difficult book to work yourself through. I actually finished two other books while reading it. It's just really heavy without any real breaks in there to keep it entertaining.
   
   Again... great book, but in a next revision I hope the authors take some time to just make it a bit of a lighter read.

5 comments about Learning Web Design: A Beginner's Guide to (X)HTML, StyleSheets, and Web Graphics.

1. Ms. Robbins has done a fantastic job of translating a technical language into easy to understand terms. If you're in the beginning stages and early intermediate stages of web design, this is an essential book to read from cover to cover. Her style is serious, yet offered with a dry wit that has caused me to chuckle out-loud more than once.
   The few weaknesses that I found were the sections on integrating CSS style sheets with the XHTML markup and VERY minimal examples of layout. The first 3/4 of the manual were so thorough that I'm still taken aback at how thinly she scratched the surface of how to bring it all together in a functioning 1-4 column design.
   All-in-all a solid and necessary book!



2. This is a very easy intro to xhtml and css. It's got nice full-color pictures, the text is very easy to read and understand, it's well worth the 30 bucks. I'm really glad I read it. The one thing I can't understand is why she doesn't mention css editors, in the software part of the book. She mentions only wysiwyg editors like dreamweaver; since reading the book I've found a css editor that has really helped me both understand and work with css. Something to add in ed. 4?



3. This book is not for beginners. I am a technology professional and am having trouble learning about web design using this book. One improvement would be to eliminate any definitions that contain a term that has not been defined and is completely unknown to the reader. Another would be to have a glossary. At least, one could then look up the unknown term. Found minor error in explaining how to do things on the PC; don't know about Apple. Structure of book was also too complicated.



4. I found the first few chapters to be interesting, learning some of the different branches that a person can go into in web design, and some of the "working terminology" for the different work roles and so forth.
   
   But after a few chapters, as I'm reading I feel like I'm sitting in a big university classroom being told the "only real right way" to be a web designer. The tone of the book and much of the terminology used to describe things leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
   
   I'm an open-minded guy looking to get into freelance web design, and any time someone tries to present "the mould which must be fit", when speaking about any topic, it turns me off and I pretty much am not willing to learn from them.
   
   I'm not looking to go out and work for some big corporate company and conform to the "official web design methods" as they seem to be being lain out in this book.
   
   That said, there is a lot to learn in here, and it's a dense book. But I'd agree with a previous reviewer who said that the presentation of the ideas is a bit chaotic and disjointed.
   
   If you're of a mind to be lectured to, this book could be worth taking bits and pieces from here and there, but if you're a free-thinking individual you too might notice that this book seems to be telling you the "only right way", instead of simply laying out the fundamentals of web design.
   
   The author is a big time professor in some big universities, so if you're turned off by the sort of "teaching" that is oftentimes done in such places, you probably don't want to waste your time with this one.
   
   I will check out the table of contents and pick out the best info, but this one isn't a keeper as far as I would say.



5. The book is in excellent condition. The shipment was quick.
   Thank you very much for it

5 comments about C Programming Language (2nd Edition) (Prentice Hall Software).

1. The Best book to start with. This was my first C Book. I still treasure it. One of the classics still floating around.



2. Everyone goes on about K&R ... God's of C etc. etc. Yes, they may have invented the language but you would think otherwise from reading this book.
   
   I programmed C for an embedded system for years and often sought answers about the very lowest level, nitty-gritty details of C. For a while I turned to this book, but soon learnt from experience that I could ALWAYS find the answer, or a better answer, in "C: A Reference Manual".
   
   This book was published in 1988 and is showing its age. It has not been updated with the latest ANSI/ISO standardizations. It is also very dated in it's layout, typography, approach etc.
   
   Summary: If you want the definitive C reference book, buy "C: A Reference Manual". It's not 1988 anymore - move on people!! Skip this book.



3. The "K & R", as it is widely known has a reputation of both being the pure encapsulation of and a terse discourse in the C Language. Both characterizations have equal merit. That being said, this shockingly succinct (at only 272 pages) publication is both tutorial and reference. In short, more of the "madness behind the method" is covered in this tome than the unwieldy but for some reason mandated college texts from the likes of Deitel or from the more cursory "Dummies" efforts. From the onset, the authors waste no time jumping into each concept with solid code examples. At first these may seem a little complex and in actuality they are--many of the standard library functions are stepped through to drive across such concepts. The authors preface with "C is not a big language", and that is true, however when one considers how the "B-52" of programming languages has been the linguistic basis for the more popular Java, C# and C++ (not to mention what for Ruby, Perl and Python are implemented in) the essence of this work by the authors of the language cannot be overstated. This is written with the student of the programming art in mind, whether at the collegiate or professional level. This should be a required introduction for Comp Sci or Engineering majors to that art, and every serious programming student or practitioner should own it. Given that it still holds its original value, chances are most do. Don't let the price fool you--The C Programming Language is worth its weight in gold!



4. This is THE definitive C language reference.
   
   I wouldn't want to try to learn to program in C from it unless I were already an experience programmer, and it isn't that useful for Windows programming, but this is the book that every experienced Unix C programmer has open on their desk.



5. This is the book to have on the C language. A great reference and a great read. This book has been very influential in the field of technical books, often imitated. I recommend it to beginners to advanced programmers.