5 comments about Java I/O.

1. [Review of 2nd edition]
   
   Getting data into and out of files in your Java program can be painstaking when you consider all the variations... network resources as files, compressed files, text vs. binary data in the file, etc. Java has significant power in this area, but there's a lot to know and understand. Elliotte Rusty Harold has made the task of learning it all a little easier with the book Java I/O (2nd edition).
   
   Contents:
   Part 1 - Basic I/O: Introducing I/O; Output Streams; Input Streams
   Part 2 - Data Sources: File Streams; Network Streams
   Part 3 - Filter Streams: Filter Streams; Print Streams; Data Streams; Streams in Memory; Compressing Streams; JAR Archives; Cryptographic Streams; Object Serialization
   Part 4 - New I/O: Buffers; Channels; Nonblocking I/O
   Part 5 - The File System: Working with Files; File Dialogs and Choosers
   Part 6 - Text: Character Sets and Unicode; Readers and Writers; Formatted I/O with java.text
   Part 7 - Devices: The Java Communications API; USB; The J2ME Generic Connection Framework; Bluetooth
   Part 8 - Appendix: Appendix; Index
   
   The first edition of this book was written back in 1999, and that's an eternity in computer years. Not only has the java.nio classes come into play since then, but you now have devices that were either bleeding edge or concept-only in 1999, like Bluetooth gadgets. Harold has improved the basic material to bring it up to date with the current state of Java development, and added the additional information for I/O classes through Java 6. I appreciated the large amount of coding samples that he uses to illustrate his points, as it makes it easy to adapt your learning to your own particular situation. The examples are also very focused, so you don't end up trying to filter out extraneous code to find the applicable concept you need.
   
   There's another way to use this book that makes it even more valuable than just a reference manual. If you've been coding for awhile, it's possible that you've developed some ingrained approaches to file I/O that are outdated. By simply scanning the information here, you could easily find new ways to build your applications using newer methods. Or, you might find there are language features you didn't know existed, like the ability to write your files in a compressed format without having to go through a separate utility. Two or three personal revelations like that, and the book has quickly earned its place on the shelf.
   
   While you may not use this book for every Java application you build, you'll definitely want it whenever you're working with I/O logic...



2. Not a fan of O'Reilly books, but this one stands out because of excellent NIO coverage and topical examples. It beats the the "Java NIO" book from O'Reilly hands down. Overall I'd say this book is geared for those who want to implement but covers enough detail that it probably even soothes the more 'academic' out there (those who talk a good show but do not build real-world software).
   
   Some highlights:
   
   - You'll find good coverage of cryptographic I/O aimed at practical implementation.
   
   - Excellent NIO coverage (including basic network servers in sync and async patterns)
   
   - ZIP and JAR information including dynamic class loading
   
   - Serial, USB and Bluetooth chapters (caveat: I don't use these but read them out of curiousity)
   
   - Detailed coverage of readers/writers
   
   - And obviously good coverage of the basic java.io/net packages.
   
   As of Septemebr 2006 I find the book topical and current (even had some examples of future Java 6 code). To give you an idea of the detail offered here, there is a whole chapter (37 pages) of information on File access alone including pitfalls of cross-platform implementation. Not reading/writing files...just the trappings of opening and accessing files and directories using particular patterns, URLs, etc. The actual I/O is covered in similar depth in other chapters.
   
   I'd also like to say that I highly appreciate examples that are concise and independant. There is nothing more frustrating than flipping to the middle of a book (what we all do anyway) and going through an example...only to find out that the author is using opaque references to classes and methods he/she developed on their own in five earlier chapters (bouncycastle APIs in Java Cryto for example). This pretty much makes quick-reference difficult to impossible and this book thankfully avoids it in spades.
   
   I give it five starts because it'll be well used in several projects and because it is readable and accessible to both novice and advanced developers alike.



3. Howell do you know I/O? If you don't know it very well, then this book is for you. Author Elliote Rusty Harold, has done an outstanding job of writing a 2ndedition of a book that shows you the I/O tricks and techniques used by gurus and wizards of the Java world.
   
   Harold, begins with an exploration of I/O in Java. Then, the author discusses the two most common targets of I/O, the filesystem and the network. Next, he discusses filter streams, which are Java's mechanism for processing data as you read or write rather than doing it after the fact. The author also discusses a completely new I/O model based on channels and buffers instead of streams. He continues by discussing operations on files themselves as distinct from the contents of those files. Then, the author explores how text is represented in Java and how it can be manipulated through special text streams called readers and writers. Finally, he shows you how to communicate with different kinds of peripherals and small devices that don't have traditional filesystems or network connections..
   
   This most excellent book assumes you have a basic familiarity with Java. More importantly, this book is not a language tutorial, and the emphasis will always be on the I/O-specific features.



4. It covers a lot of topics but I did find it particularly helpful in any way. The idea of gathering all the information about I/O into one book to use as a single resource is nice, but this book doesn't do a good job. Not that much help in explaining things and no help at all as far as practical examples went. You will learn much more from general Java books and Google searches.



5. Thorough guide to the java.(n)io API. Less useful as a cookbook as the organization of the book follows the API rather than focusing on specific tasks (e.g. how to best copy a file). Could have done without some of the cool chapters such as the one on J2ME (better treated in other books), or the one that describes hooking up a temperature sensor via USB, or a GPS via Bluetooth (publish these projects in a blog). Could also cut the rants about how outdated command line applications are, and I don't think the Swing-based file browser application that's built up throughout the book adds much. On the other hand I'd rather have more on performance considerations and error handling strategies!

5 comments about Visual Studio Hacks: Tips & Tools for Turbocharging the IDE (Hacks).

1. I'm looking a visual studio book which really explain what is going on with Visual Studio from how to use it to what is really happening behind the scenes. This books DOES NOT do this.



2. I've been using Visual Studio .NET for a couple of years now, and while I've always managed to get the things done that I needed, it was not always done in the most efficient way. However, it was not until I read this book that I realized that.
   
   The book is well organized, divided into 13 logical chapters, each focusing on a particular area. My favorite was "Customizing Visual Studio" which shows you many ways to setup VS to work best for you and your particular needs. The book also has tons of screenshots and very clear instructions, which I have found that many computer books lack these days, especially some of the other O'Reilly books. In addition, there are lots of code samples, where applicable.
   
   Another great thing that book included was info about a bunch of VS add-ins. There are literally hundreds of them out there, so it was nice to have someone else spend all the time sorting through them and letting the reader know which ones are worth their time.
   
   Overall, it's a great book for anybody who uses Visual Studio .NET



3. I would say this book is must-have for any die-hard .Net coder. Visual Studio.Net is a powerful IDE, and it is an expensive piece of software. This book helps you to squeeze every dollar out of your investment.
   
   Among 100 hacks in the book, #64 about Reflector is my favorite. It sent me deep below the skin of .Net framework and get me an intimate look at .Net.
   
   I would give this book a solid five stars if all the hacks download work as book said, but some(although very few) of hacks have bugs that need some help. For example, hack #97 Classify add-in, when I downloaded it from the book's site and installed it, I got a cryptic keybinding invalid warning. But it got fixed when I emailed the author about the problem. Thank you, James for your responsiveness.
   Ying



4. If you want to remain a Junior Programmer forever, then don't get this book. But if you want to really excel as a VS 2005 programmer, then you need to get this book. There is no fluff in this book at all. It is densly packed with a ton of useful details on the VS 2005 IDE. Not only do you learn the ins and outs of the IDE but it also guides you through several very useful 3rd party add-ins to VS.
   
   This book is a terrific read and a great reference. I can't say that about too many books.



5. A lot of the tips in this book were either painfully obvious or were more "product reviews" of third-party tools than tips. But the format was easily accessible and enjoyable to read. There were enough real, productivity enhancing tips to make it worth the read.
   
   The book was published with 2005 was in beta and so most of the tips are 2003-centric. I would like to see this book updated to be more of a "power-tips" book for 2005.
   
   Overall--good read. It will help you use the dev environment more productively.

3 comments about IBM Rational(R) ClearCase(R), Ant, and CruiseControl: The Java(TM) Developer's Guide to Accelerating and Automating the Build Process.

1. "IBM Rational ClearCase, Ant and CruiseControl" walks the reader through setting up automated builds. It is useful if you are doing exactly what the book discusses. In particular, you should be using all three of these technologies and want to do standard builds.
   
   The concepts were excellent. There was a strong emphasis on understanding the terminology. For examples, configuration management and build terms were clearly discussed. The roles involved were also described.
   
   The author introduces code as constructs/idioms rather than as syntax. He calls these "best practices." I don't think of them as best practices, but the idioms are very useful in getting started quickly. Due to this approach, the book doesn't offer much instruction on customization.
   
   The coverage of ClearCase was very thorough. The book includes both the Base ClearCase and ClearCase UCM. Ant and CruiseControl were covered enough to automate a standard J2EE build with ClearCase.
   
   This book will save you a lot of time in getting an automated build working if you haven't used the technologies before. It supplements the materials available on the web nicely.



2. If you're a Java developer, you likely have (or should have) some sort of automated build process. IBM Rational ClearCase, Ant, and CruiseControl: The Java Developer's Guide to Accelerating and Automating the Build Process by Kevin A. Lee shows how this is done using these particular tools.
   
   Contents:
   Part 1 - Overview: Introduction to Software Build and Release Management
   Part 2 - Environment: Tools of the Trade; Configuring Your SCM Environment
   Part 3 - Definition: Defining Your Build and Release Scripts; Apache Ant Best Practices
   Part 4 - Execution: Running Your Build Scripts; CruiseControl Best Practices
   Part 5 - Reporting: Baseline and Change Request Reports; Build Reporting and Auditing
   Part 6 - Release: The Art of Releasing; Release Packaging and Deployment
   Part 7 - Conclusion: Putting It All Together
   Glossary; Bibliography; Index
   
   There are a multitude of tools out there that you can use to build your configuration management processes. This title uses the IBM Rational ClearCase tool as the source code repository, and Ant/CruiseControl to control the build process. It's not a definitive guide to any one of the software packages, but it's a very good blending of all three into a process that works well for making sure your software compiles and builds properly (and automatically). The concepts behind why build management is important are covered well, followed by detailed instructions on how to actually use the software. You could probably learn from this book if you had never dealt with Ant or anything else, but I get the feeling that some background in these areas would make the book a lot easier to understand. I could see this being a great book for someone who is switching from one repository tool (like Subversion) to ClearCase, and wants to know what they need to do to keep (or begin) their build management scripts.
   
   Probably one of the better books out there on the overall process of automating your build process. If you haven't taken those steps to automate your builds, you really need to do something about that... :)



3. This is a straight-forward, to-the point reading. Version controlling approach and build processes are reflecting real-life situations. Code and processes are well documented.

5 comments about Oracle Insights: Tales of the Oak Table.

1. Declaration of Interest: I was lucky to have worked alongside one of the authors. So that's why I bought it.
   
   Glad I did. Read it on the beach over Easter weekend. Dipped in and out. Learned and laughed. Certain to re-read some chapters, and to refer back to it. The very different styles of the contributors make it all the more readable - you just don't know whats coming next.
   
   Its worth the price for pretty much any 3 of the 11 chapters, even if you chose them at random. And you can hit your SAN manager over the head with it, he probably won't feel a thing anyway.
   
   Thank you OakTable.
   
   But its not in your shopping cart yet is it, because I've marked it down a star. Look, there are some minor bugbears. Don't be put off, just setting expectations:
   
   1) There's some heavy name-dropping, perhaps in keeping with the project. Perhaps I'm jealous my brain isn't the size of a planet; these chaps' are.
   
   2) You can see from (1)that HHTTG was funny once, about 20 years ago. My dad has been citing it as the answer to everything ever since; its worn a bit thin. I'm sure he would love this book for exactly that reason.
   
   3) I'm the sure the sequel will be even better.
   
   You can put me down for 2 copies of "Seeing Double: Tales from Under the Oak Table" while I'm here.



2. I have 14 years of Oracle Experience with some of the busiest and largest transaction systems in the world. This book really hit home for me and brought back a lot of memories of painful times as well as gave me new insights. I have re-read this book twice since getting it amonth ago. It is that good.
   
   The Tales of the Oaktable is a skeptic's work of technological history that is funny and hard to put down, but which also provides experienced database professionals roadmaps to solve their pressing problems ( or even see that they have a problem.)
   
   The authors take an empirical, rational approach to diagnosing and discovering the most serious problems while providing amusing revelations about the people and organizations they have worked with. Along the way they lift Oracle's skirts and take us out back to show us the dirty laundry and other junk in Oracle's back yard. They provide methods to diagnose and reapir problems in oracle performance as well as enumerate the known pitfalls in project management and database design. Seasoned IT types will groan and laugh during these chapters.
   
   They also look at larger architectural, economic, psychological, and philosophical issues which have a direct impact on databases and large information systems. Norgaard's history of computing is quite depressing. And I agree that many of the "new" blood wants to focus on .NET and J2EE - when the real heart and soul is still the data.
   
   Oracle Insights DOES require both deep thought and deep, hard-won knowledge of Oracle in order to fully enjoy it. So, if at first you don't like it, then you don't know what you don't know.
   
   
   
   



3. I really don't know where I should begin writing this review to give the book a proper credit that it deserves. Hmm...FUN - I think that this word best describes this collection of essays (eleven prominent authors instead of more usual one or two, certainly helped a lot).
   Can't remember when was the last time that I read technical book that kept me reading and reading, and reading - simply because all essays were *fun* to read. To be clear, yes I'm an Oracle geek, but I don't think you have to be an expert to understand 'the point' in the majority of the book, on contrary, if you're by any chance an Oracle newbie you have an opportunity to learn from the true experts (from their work done on the "projects from hell") and pick up some good habits and techniques to start your Oracle career (this book is not really about internals as much as it's about proper design and importance of understanding technology before using it - and using it to the full extent - you'll probably never again write DB agnostic applications, if this was your sin in the past :-).
   So, being an expert or not, I'm sure you'll get the true 'message' from this book that will stick with you for the rest of your life (of course experts will enjoy reading it slightly more, they'll finally learn, what AFIEDT.BUF is really all about ;-).
   Finally, thank you guys for writing this book, and Mr. Mogens Noorgard (you lucky *****), thank you for "networking" Oak Table members together.
   Thank you for reading this review.



4. As an Oracle and SQL Server DBA for the last seven years I found this book an excellent and very refreshing change from technical manuals and books on Oracle database design and administration. The first few chapters are priceless from Oracle history to the useful read on Oracle tuning using Wait events. I really enjoyed learning how the product evolved from inception to the new version of 10g. All in all money well spent and nice to know that even such gurus as the Oak Table guys are human and have shared tough DBA experiences. Someday I want to meet and work with these guys!



5. The book starts off with "A Brief History of Oracle" that lasts 68 of the 395 pages of this book...
   
   Then it proceeds with various chapters by noted Oracle gurus which have serious flaws of being too superficial and random in their coverage of Oracle technologies. No aspect of Oracle is covered in depth.
   
   Worse yet, some of the authors have devoted far too little of their time on their chapters. Some of the chapters are nothing more than a bunch of philosophical rantings about Oracle and database management.
   
   If you are interested in Oracle performance tuning, I recommend books specifically devoted to the subject by a highly regarded author (Cary Milsap and Jonathan Lewis comes to mind). If you are interested in reading half motivated essays by Oracle gurus, then this book fits the bill.
   
   If you are unfamiliar with Oracle performance tuning and architecture, this book will offer a lot of interesting insights. But finding good technical nuggets of Oracle architecture and performance tuning will require some lengthy, and often unneccessary, reading.

5 comments about Pro VS 2005 Reporting using SQL Server and Crystal Reports (Pro).

1. I greatly anticipated the release of any new book with Visual Studio 2005 and Crystal Reports. I had to do much of my Crystal Reports development by looking on the internet and a lot of it is for VS 2003.
   
   But I'm a Visual Basic Developer - so I guess either I learn C# or wait for a book that teaches both.
   
   Nothing on the cover says that it is a C# ONLY book. And there was no option to look inside the book - I went on sheer faith...
   
   The book does have a lot of good reading about report technology and a design model to follow when creating reports.
   
   NOW you can read this review if you are a VB developer like myself. And a word of advise - Just Learn C# too. :)



2. Programmers debate endlessly certain topics object oriented design, service oriented architecture, Java vs. .NET, C# vs. VB .NET, IE 7, etc...But a topic that never comes up that should is reporting. As Kevin points out there is more to writing a report than just the time in the designer. So this book fills a very important niche to help make programmers developers and not just code monkeys.
   
   The book starts with some nice pointers to gather the requirements for a report and then it transitions into a pleasant introduction into T-SQL for gathering the data for the reports. Then a large portion of the book goes into some of the infrastructure options going into generating reports, typed data sets vs. un-typed data sets, web services, and remoting. The chapters on Crystal reports are very thorough and leave the reader with a very solid foundation. There is even a chapter that goes into SQL Reporting Services. The book ends with chapters on how to integrate the reporting tool into an application and how to deploy it to clients. There is even a framework with some very nice productivity classes for .NET and Crystal Reports that can be downloaded as part of the code for the book.
   
   If you develop reports or are just getting into developing reports (lots of programmers have to at some point) this is an excellent book to pick up.
   



3. A great help because I originally bought the book for Crystal Report help. Now, my office is switching to Reporting Services and it's been a great guide.



4. I am a VB developer who doesn't do very large-scale applications, but I have found the real-world solutions that are in this book to be a great help. It has a rare blend of coding, architecture, SQL, and reporting examples that is hard to find in books these days. I have applied many techniques discussed in this book in my day to day activities. Kevin has also made himself very available on different internet forums to help discuss topics discussed in the book.
   
   Kevin is an author that I trust to provide great, helpful information and I look forward to future publications.



5. Perhaps some more advanced users will find it helpful. It was not helpful to me because it contains one big example. There are several drawbacks to this approach. Among them are that the explanations all relate to the example and are therefore incomplete. Another drawback is you are stuck reading the book from beginning to end pretty much.
   
   I keep trying to use the book, but it is inadequate for my needs, even after reading it cover-to-cover. I recently tried to find information on Section Expert. This important element of VS Crystal Reports does not occur in the contents or index of the book. The one contents listing for sections explains how to use Section Expert for the example case. This left out a description of more than half of the options available.
   
   The book is obtuse in that it is a cascade of information without an overarching vision. It's not until page 169 that it presents a diagram that shows a system overview. The rest is a lot of details: point here, click there, without a clear explanation of the mission.
   
   WHY am I creating Strongly Type Datasets, what are the alternatives and where in the whole process does this fit in? There is no explanation of the .Designer.cs file that Visual Studio generates. It seems that is essential for populating the report, as it is the report object.
   
   You can't jump in anywhere, as it presents an entire system from the ground up. And it starts at the bottom in the stored procedures in the database and slogs through to the reporting, when it would have benefited greatly from some simpler complete examples, or even the same one, slimmed down to one chapter and then expanded throughout the book.
   
   It also inexplicably devotes chapters to other report engines, when the title contains "Crystal Reports". And it discusses advanced techniques before it has covered all of the basics.
   
   It also, like many, many other computer texts, makes no allowance for maintenance projects. It assumes you are starting out from scratch. Great if you've got that kind of job, but they are extremely rare. More typical is coming into a project or system that has already been build and being asked to maintain or enhance it. This book is worthless for that since it lacks:
   1) A roadmap or overview of the possible technologies
   2) Reference material or a way to skip around to what you need.
   
   If you are looking for a purely academic book, that you can read in the course of a semester and learn things just one way, this is it.

4 comments about Designing Concurrent, Distributed, and Real-Time Applications with UML (Addison-Wesley Object Technology Series).

1. this book show u how to build real time app, but foor example



2. I am using it as a textbook for a course on object-oriented development of real-time and distributed applications. I found that the author did an excellent job at merging the OO techniques and UML on one hand with the concurrency/distribution issues on the other hand. The book presents clear helpful guidelines for the developers of real-time and distributed systems. One of the features I liked the most is the fact that a number of well chosen examples, from an elevator control system to an e-commerce system, are completely worked out in the book. How better to learn than by following relevant, clearly explained examples!



3. This book is an excellent source of information for software engineers designing concurrent and real-time systems using the object-oriented paradigm. Hassan's COMET method tackles the hard issues of concurrency, real-time constraints, and distributed systems with a comprehensive, straight-forward approach that is easy to understand and conforms to the UML standard. The text is also enhanced with an excellent selection of examples from different application domains. The book is structured in such a way as to be useful to both the novice (as a guidebook) and to the expert (as a reference). This book spends more time on my desk than on my bookshelf.



4. This book provides a practical method to apply the Unified Modeling Language (UML) to design concurrent and distributed software for large systems. While many books have been published to explain the details of the UML notation, this book provides a method, COMET, to approach software design through application of a practical subset of the UML notation. The book contains numerous, extensive case studies and provides pragmatic, useful guidelines to identify distributed subsystems and concurrent tasks from a UML analysis model. The approach described represents a unique and valualbe contribution by the author of this text. Finally, because this book is intended mainly as a text for software design courses, I consulted with a few students who have used this book in a graduate-level software engineering course. All of the students were favorably impressed with the content, clarity, practicality, and detail contained in the book.

   Prior to the publication of this text, a software design course based on UML could only be taught using a UML text together with a separate software design text. In this text book, Dr. Gomaa has integrated material from UML and software design in such a form that a software design course can now be taught with this text alone.

5 comments about Microsoft .NET Compact Framework (Core Reference).

1. I have some .NET C# experience, and this book is great. If you were new to C# it would probably be difficult, but for those with some .NET experience this book is perfect.

   I expected the book would come with a CD containing code samples, but you have to download them from Microsoft.
   http://www.microsoft.com/mspress/books/companion/5960.asp <-, then click on Companion Content.

   -Matt
   Listening to: 'God Fearing Man' from 'Fight For Your Mind' by 'Ben Harper' on Media Center 9.1




2. This is definatley the most comprhencive and infomative book about pocket pc out there.

   Buy this book first, you will not regret it.




3. Chapter 17, UsingSQLCESample. First, the buttonAdd_Click() event wasn't added to the button, so you click away and nothing happens, until you figure it out yourself & fix it. Then, the section in the book dealing with parameters is missing from the sample code, and the DataGrid never does fill with data. This job is difficult enough without having to spend time debugging some "expert's" sample code!



4. I have learned a lot about the .NET compact framework. It has been a great first-book to begin my understanding of this topic. The examples in the book really help to advance my understanding. I highly recommend it for anyone looking to begin a project on the .NET compact framework.



5. As the first Compact Framework book on the market, it helped light the way for all that followed. As a mobile developer, this book has helped me tremendously and I refer to it all the time. This book belongs in the collection of anyone who has to tackle the nuances of embedded development on the Windows Mobile platform.

5 comments about High-Performance Communication Networks (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Networking).

1. This book was used as the text of our graduate level course "telecommunication networks", but our instructor rarely used it in lectures, although he mentioned that most of the content would be covered in the exams. And we finally found that he cheated us, because this text was useless to prepare for the exams. :)

   I find that this book almost covers everything, such as ISO/OSI, TCP/IP, telephone networks, xDSL, ATM, SONET, wireless, etc. When you want to know something, you can always find the terms in the index, but when you access the content and you will find it is so hard to read. You spend a lot of time on it, but at last you still do not understand more.

   I recommend Tanenbaum's Computer Networks is a good book to understand many terms in communication networks, although there is some mistakes, such as CRC was interpreted as Cyclic Redundancy Code. If you want to know queuing theory, you can refer to Saadawi, et al.'s Fundamentals of Telecommunication Networks. If you want to know routing and switching, you can have a look at Perlman's Interconnections, Second Edition. These books are good to understand the basic theory of networking.

   When you buy a book, your book should explain the relative terms thoroughly but maybe not cover everything, and with least errors and typos. Otherwise, you will feel annoyed to have it on your bookshelf.




2. The book is pretty bad ... high level junk. Also, Rajarshi Gupta, the only one with the 5 star rating, I belive, has some connections to Berkeley and perhaps the authors even ... hence the review must be taken in that context.



3. I hate this book. It covers a lot of interesting information, but when you want to learn about the specifics, you're better off going online. The problems in the book cannot be found in the text, good online sources is the only answer. Besides not having the information to do the problems, it also have bad wording and many different interpretations of the question is possible. My only positive perspective of this book is that it forces you to go do research, be it online or in the library. But in terms of learning the material, this book is a no-no.

   This book is not worth the 80-100 dollars that it cost...you can use it to know that there are certain topics in the field, but if you want to learn about the topic, you'll have to look elsewhere. Thus this can only be useful as a doorstop, or a blunt weapon to hit yourself due to the high level of stress you will receive from it.




4. At the moment, I'm using this text in one my graduate classes. It's a very general text that does not go into much detail and uses far too many acronyms to follow what is being said. At times the text contradicts itself making the whole reading experience confusing! Trying to answer the questions at the end of the text pushes you to search other resources.



5. This has little to do with the book, but with the ethics of Prof. Nick Bambos, who gives it rave reviews: his thesis advisor was Jean Walrand, as a google search shows easily. So a disclosure ("the guy signed my dissertation, I owe him a big one") would be the least to expect.
   The book is probably good, but this endorsement is baloney.

5 comments about Electromagnetics Explained: A Handbook for Wireless/ RF, EMC, and High-Speed Electronics, Part of the EDN Series for Design Engineers.

1. If you are not an expert in Electromagnetics and would like to get a broad perspective of the field without going into complex mathematics, this book is the right choice for you. All the explanation is clear and convincing. You will not feel like you are reading a book, but in stead listening to an expert in RF engineer speaking to you. In addition, you will find the references given in separate sub-topics very handy. They leads you directly to the right books when further knowledge in a specific area is required.
   
   (Why 4 stars? Some topics can be given and discussed in more detail.)



2. I am dubious that this will be useful to a practising engineer, even though the book is part of the EDN series, ostensibly for design engineers. The level of treatment of electromagnetism is very elementary. Maxwell's equations are mentioned in the text, but are not actually given as formulae. Special relativity is covered, and some equations from it appear. Probably because these do not need the vector notation and the vector calculus that Maxwell's equations are often given in. Quantum mechanics gets a brief mention. And even quantum electrodynamics! All very qualitative. The descriptions are correct, as far as they go. But for a book on electromagnetics, at its level of sophistication, there really was no need to even mention QED. The multiple pages devoted to a high level walkthrough of QED are a dead end, as far as actually tying into the rest of the text. Non sequitar.
   
   For example, one section talks about designing a transmission line. Fine. That is something an electrical engineer would do. But the skills needed for this do not require any quantum mechanics.
   
   The book corresponds to a freshman level engineering text. A practising engineer should be well past this entry level offering. In fact, this book seems better suited for a technician, like an electrician.



3. I'd characterize this book as qualitative rather than quantitative. It provides good verbal descriptions for a wide variety of concepts related to electromagnetics. For me, it tied together a lot of lose ends. This book works pretty well for someone who has a moderate grasp of the electromagnetic fundamentals and wants to go to the next level of understanding without becoming mired in equations -- maybe a sort of heavy duty tutorial for students, recent graduates, and just-plain-curious technically oriented people. This is one of those must-read books, but I would not recommend it to someone without knowldge of college-level physics and differential calculus.



4. The author has succeeded in writing an easy to read book. I read through it in two days. But is it useful and worthy keeping? The author covers a lot of ground, even included a cursory introduction to special relativity and quantum electrodynamics which have no relevance to the rest of the book. It gives a relatively painless introduction to various concepts in electromagnetism. But the superficiality makes it a book for the popular audience rather than electrical engineers. The author does have the good sense to include a set of good references. So read the book once, and study the reference books. The book is not worthy keeping. I've sold mine.



5. Say what you will, but even the EMC/EMI "guru type" person gets confused once in awhile on the complexities of electromagnetics. So that leaves us "little people" in need of a handy, precise and basic-to-advanced "explainer" to get us back on track. I'm fairly seasoned on EMC but I really like this book and carry it with me quite often on trips for handy reference. It certainly provides for the "big picture" while still adding significant depth. Especially for the beginner to intermediate this book is highly recommended. I have this suspicion the advanced persons don't have it far away either! Congratulations to the author. Perhaps he will follow up with an advanced version on select topics.

5 comments about MCAD/MCSD Training Guide (70-320): Developing XML Web Services and Server Components with Visual C#(TM) .NET and the .NET Framework (Training Guide).

1. This is the 3rd Amit Kalani book that I have purchased and used to prepare for Microsoft certification exams. Very easy to understand and follow. Good exercises.



2. This book is designed for the intermediate level developer who wants to learn how to develop web services using Microsoft's C# in the .NET framework, and for those who want to pass the 70-320 examination. This is not a 'cram for the test' type book but instead gives you the information you need to do the job, and incidentally pass the test. It is not a complete book on C# or .NET or even the Visual Studio IDE software. It is on how to use these to build real life systems.
   
   Tied in with this, of course is information on passing the test. There is information about the test itself, and practice examinations (one printed in the book, one on the CD included).
   
   If you are just interested in passing the test, there is a shorter book in the Exam Cram2 series. It's written by the same author but is significantly smaller as it is test only oriented.



3. I used just this book to pass the test with a score of 900. My only disppointment with the book is the exam that comes on the CD. The quality of the questions are not very good; although, I think it is only there to entice you to buy the full set of test that they market on the publisher's website. Other than, though, the book does a great job of covering all the relevant topics on the exam and I found the large amount of exercises extremely useful at driving home the material.



4. I'm sure Amit Kalani knows his stuff but there are several issues that I have with this book which make me wish I had bought another one.
   
   Firstly, and this is the most annoying fact, it is hopelessly out of date. I am using Visual Studio 2005 and it is painfully obvious to me that the book was written for an earlier version, which means that following the instructions given is sometimes impossible. This means I miss out on valuable experience that I could have gained through those step by step code examples where the procedures in the book clash with the current reality.
   
   Secondly, there are a number of small niggling typos present throughout which undermine my confidence in the authority of the book as a whole.
   
   Added to this is my suspicion (though I am not sure, given I'm not the expert) that some code examples given contain small mistakes or inconcistencies. Again, this is just a suspicion, as of this moment I have not actually tried to implement those examples where I have noticed such possible errors. Overall though, given the previously outlined gripe I have, my suspicion is very strong.
   
   So you can see, I am not very happy about this book. The fact it is out of date is the major contributing factor to this. I wish I'd checked the publication date before spending my money.



5. This series is for sure the most popular training guide for Microsoft's MCAD/MCSD certification exams. Even after the release of a new generation of certification exams there are still folks (like me) who are still taking the 2003 exam for their own reasons. Let's see the most important pros and cons for this book:
   
   Pros:
   * Text: the text is well written and easy to understand. Very simple and clear vocabulary. It is not a boring reading.
   * Guided Practices, Review Questionsand Exam Questions: there're plenty of exercises on every chapter, including 15 exam-like questions and some other review questions. I like books with exercises. It's a good way for the reader to measure what they've learned.
   * PrepLogic software: gives a good idea of the kind of software you'll have to deal with on the real exam.
   Cons:
   * Code examples: as in most programming books code example tend to leverage for the beginner, sometimes lacking in code design.
   
   All in all, this book is a sure shot if you're going to take the 70-315 exam as well as a good reading for ASP.NET newbies so don't hesitate to buy it.
   
   Exam tips:
   * be confident
   * know your strengths and weaknesses
   * don't rush the exam! there's plenty of time! in my exam there were 43 questions and 150 minutes for me to answer them!
   
   Good luck in your exam!