5 comments about Maven: A Developer's Notebook (Developer's Notebooks).

1. This is a great book to get a quick introduction to Maven. At about 185 pages, it gets right to the point. It's written using labs and each new one builds on the previous one.
   
   I have used Ant and know how it works but was in the dark when it came to Maven. This book gave me the knowledge I needed to understand and modify an existing Maven project within the first two chapters.
   
   It's not a reference manual, and it's not one of these 500 page tomes that weighs a ton but is light on substance. There's real content in a very readable format in this book.
   
   If you are new to Maven and are scratching your head tryiing to figure out what the heck this thing is doing, read this book and you will be enlightened!



2. This book does not apply to Maven 2, the current release of Maven. May be useful concept material but because it doesn't apply to the current version of the software it is not a good "Developers Notebook". This book should be pulled from the shelves.



3. While there is nothing technically wrong about this book, Maven 2 is almost a complete re-write of Maven. This book covers all the ins and outs of using Maven (the project model, dependency resolution, directory hierarchy), but the technical details are now completely out of date.



4. The only full Maven book but falls short on being a good book. The book covers the older Maven version. I would rather wait for version 2.0 coverage than buy an out dated book.



5. This book was a complete waste of my money and my time. The code examples dont work and it focuses on outdated maven 1. Maven is now at level 2.08 and the publishers of this book should know better than to continue putting this book out for sale.

1 comments about Visual Basic 2005 Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach (Expert's Voice in .Net).

1. I have been using VB.Net 2005 for the last 9 months working with different applications. I got this book because I have a good understanding of how VB works, so I don't need a tutorial on how to write programs, but I do need help sometimes figuring out the best way to solve a problem. In the 2 weeks that I have owned this book I have already referenced it several times. The code examples are straight forward, easy to read and work so well.
   
   One of the more interesting chapters is the one on the next version of VB. It has really gotten me excited for it to be released and I will be looking forward to the next version of this book covering VB 2008.
   
   It's not mentioned here but you can download each one of the example from Apress' website. I would definitely recommend this book to any intermediate or beginner programmer with VB.Net, it's an excellent resource to have.

5 comments about Multiplayer Game Programming w/CD (Prima Tech's Game Development).

1. For those that are interested in multiplayer game programming, whether beginners or intermediate coders, will enjoy this book. A large section is dedicated to network connections, showing examples in both C and C++. The back half works with DirectX and beyond. This isn't just good reference material but a template to get started.



2. My personal opinion about this book is don't buy it unless you want to read through a badly written language with a lot of smart remarks and very little substance about network game programming. It covers the basic about network gaming with socket and then shows how to set up directplay. It uses a lot of time and pages to show how to draw a couple of lines with direct3d and basic windows programming stuff, which I personally would have bought a book on if that was what I wanted to know something about. There's no discussion about cons and pros for using tcp or udp protocol and it totally lack information about latency problems and how to handle those, because this is a subject that absolutely needs to be handled when we start talking about multiplaying, unless it's a turn based game.
   Thumbs down from me...there got to be better books out there about multiplayer game programming.



3. This is a decent book, although I would not recomend it to the novice programmer. If you cannot read C/C++ code fluently or any code for that matter, this book will only confuse you further. He has good examples with ok descriptions but he kinda jumps from very simple stuff to very difficult things in a hurry. On the other hand this is one of the better books that explains windows programming, you have to weed through the chapter to find it but all in all it helped me to understand Windows programming much better than I already did. But thats just one Nerds opinion



4. Like most books written by want Want-A-Be game programmers with little or no real world experience, this BOOK is crap.
   
   Save your self (and money) from someone college thesis, rewrite of DirectX samples, etc., and buy a real game programmer book like one of the Game Gems Series written by real game programmers. You can Download the DirectX/DirectPlay documentation for free.



5. As someone who likes to dabble in game development, I was completely unimpressed with this book. I was hoping to learn some of the details about some of the complex and difficult issues of game programming: keeping games in synch, making the best use of bandwidth, UDP vs TCP, etc. But this 800 page book only devoted about 2 pages to these topics. Instead, the author chose to spend more time explaning the differences between C and C++.
   
   That points to the major flaw in this book: The author doesn't seem to pick a clear focus to write to. He jumps back and forth, discussing threads and mutexes, then charging into a diatribe about hungarian notation, or how C++ object-orientation works. He spends the last half of the book showing a rough overview of a multiplayer game he wrote, but only spends a couple pages of that talking about the network elements of the game.
   
   If this book had been titled "Game development for software developers who already know how to write and design software but don't know the specifics of DirectX or windows programming, and who want to learn the absolute basics of networking with DirectPlay", I would give it a better review. Really, it's more of a DirectX tutorial than anything.
   
   My advice? If you fit into that narrow group of people described by the title, then it's worth picking up. Even then, you'd probably be wondering why the author wasted so much time telling you things you already know.
   
   If you don't fall into that group of people, I'd find another book.

5 comments about ASP.NET 2 For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech)).

1. I am a software developer with 24 years experience, and have been doing .Net Windows Form database programming for the past 5+ years.
   
   As I am new to web development and will soon be working on an ASP.Net 2.0 project, I've been checking out the available books on this topic. I happened to look through this one at Borders, although I normally steer clear of "Dummies" books (guess I must be getting desperate..)
   
   This seems to be one of the best books available for getting a gentle introduction to the subject. The Microsoft Step-by-Step book for ASP.Net 1.1 also seemed fairly decect (although roundly trashed in the Amazon reviews) but it's 2.0 replacement is a bit of a gangly mess unfortunately--they should have stayed with the original format, and possibly author as well.
   
   For a Windows programmer, web development in general sometimes resemble a "Bizarro" world: familiar, but different in initially strange and myserious ways. This book does a really good job of familiarizing you with the terrain, and I would highly recommend it as a first step into the ASP.Net realm.
   
   Of course, everybody's taste in books is different, so check it out first at Borders before ordering..



2. Only having truly scanned through and hit the highlights of this book thus far. I already see many familiar concepts broken down into much simpler terms which allow me to quickly grasp the meat of the ASP language and paired with my new understanding of C# feel as though I will be able to use this book as a reference for a long time to come. The CD examples are also very good for visual and hands on learning.



3. I think Dummies books are hit-or-miss. I always start with them, when embarking on something I am a dummy at. About half the time, they put you off to a good first step. That's not a bad record at all.
   
   I'll always be grateful to the Dummies series, which got me started writing code with the help of Wallace Wang's Visual Basic 6 for Dummies.
   
   This Dummies book is the best one I have read yet. But I like it for reasons that may not serve every customer of the book, so be warned. What makes this book such a gem is the author's ease at conveying the basics (and then some) of the V(isual)B(asic).Net language and framework. His ability to present concepts like objects, classes, functions, sub-routines in a simple manner using simple language is like nothing I have ever read. And I have a TON of reference manuals on my shelf. Truly, I have never REALLY understood what a "class" is, how to think about it in a way that my mind honestly gets around the concept, until reading this book. And I have been a fairly serious amateur programmer now for nearly a decade!
   
   This book is without question a better primer on the Visual Basic language than Bill Sempf's Visual Basic 2005 for Dummies. Crazy, but true.
   
   Still, it should be noted: ASP.NET works with lots of different programming languages. If you are a C# person, this book is probably going to seriously irritate you.
   
   I can't imagine someone who isn't a Visual Basic programmer getting much out of this book. And I can't imagine someone who does use the VB language finding a better start at ASP.NET programming. Or a better start at understanding basic Visual Basic language concepts as well.
   
   Hatfield hasn't written anything since this; I hope he hasn't retired, because I want him to teach me the next thing that I am a Dummy at...



4. I just happen to find this book in the library when I was looking for a quick guide/tutorial. I've read 3 books before this and so far this is the book that stands out from the rest. I give Bill 5+ stars for clearly explaining the tech stuff clearly. Nevermind the typos, that's up to the proofreading group. Kudos to this book!



5. Bill Hatfield wrote the "Dummies" books on the original versions of ASP so you would think he would be the perfect person to carry over into the ASP.NET books, right? The problem for me with this book (and his previous ASP.NET Dummies book) is that Microsoft has created this marvelous environment called Visual Studio but Bill seems to think I prefer hand coding my pages using Notepad or FrontPage. While he does give a 'nod' to Visual Web Developer Express in one chapter of the book, he pretty much ignores it and Visual Studio throughout the rest of the book and assumes that I like to mix my presentation code with my business logic code. A better buy is 'ASP.NET 3.5 for Dummies' by Ken Cox if you are ready to take the leap.

5 comments about Effective Software Testing: 50 Specific Ways to Improve Your Testing.

1. This book contains a cornucopia of excellent experience based testing practices. This book is very informative for neophyte testers, mid-level testers, qa managers, and organizations struggling with preliminary testing tasks, specifically the most important areas of initial testing to focus on such as test planning, creating test cases, unit testing, etc. The author excels in providing techniques to the readers that will help the readers "build an application with quality as opposed to testing for quality". The author addresses all important techniques and topics related to the testing effort that parallels all conventional phases of software development.I particularly enjoyed the author's pellucid writing style, organization of materials and experience based insights into the world of testing. I found that even as an experienced tester with several years of experience leading software testing efforts at several fortune 500 companies I was able to learn a great deal from this book. Happy readings!



2. I wasn't sure what to expect from this author's third book covering the topic of testing, but yet again the author has produced a very useful addition.
   In my opinion, this book serves as a complementary guide to the author's other books, which are already part of my testing library.
   This book is a highly informative summary of important factors to consider during the testing planning and execution phases.
   Reviewing and considering each of the 50 steps described in the book is a must and allows the test manager or lead to design a blueprint for the testing effort. All suggestions described in the book should be considered, when conducting test planning and test execution, to make sure nothing has been missed.



3. My review of this book is based on my having recently read several others about software testing. In particular, "Test-Driven Development: By Example" by Kent Beck, where the basic premise is that the tests are written either before or simultaneously with the code. I have long believed that this approach is the best way to create quality code and I am skeptical about any other testing approach. The plans in this book can be considered as a broad overview of the testing strategy rather than down into the specifics of how to write tests for specific blocks of code.
   Many of the examples are in the realm of the obvious, but not always clearly implemented. For example, number 17 is "Verify that the system supports testability" and number 31is "Know the different types of testing-support tools." In the case of 17, the word system is being used to describe large projects and the topic deals with verifying that it is possible to test the integrated system by tracking the source of errors and how the components interact with each other. Tracking down errors that arise when systems are integrated is very hard, and in general it is necessary to make the plans on how to track down such errors when the architecture for the system is being designed. Therefore, the point, which seems obvious, is in fact a very critical one.
   Determining what software testing tools are available is another very critical step in the effective, efficient testing of software. The enormous number of different pathways through modern software makes it impossible to use even the largest army of testers to check them all. Therefore, the only way to provide reasonable coverage of the options is to let other software examine it. Tools such as memory and other system resource checkers, source code scanners that look for "obvious" bugs, programs that generate test data sets either randomly or clustered about most likely values, and test generators can sometimes provide valuable assistance in cleaning code. When working in C/C++, I found a code scanner to be extremely helpful, and wrote a simple one some time ago. It searched for instances of a single "=" in Boolean expressions, semicolons immediately after if, while and for loops, and places where the delete command was used on pointers that might point to an array. It was simple, but it did find some bugs that quite likely would have taken me hours to find.
   The testing principles are organized into ten categories:

   * Requirements phase.
   * Test planning.
   * The testing team.
   * The system architecture.
   * Test design and documentation.
   * Unit testing.
   * Automated testing tools.
   * Automated testing: Selected best practices.
   * Nonfunctional testing.
   * Managing test execution.

   As you can see, the concept of testing is included from the very first stages of the project. This is essential, as it is very possible to incorporate something into the design that will make effective testing difficult or even impossible. Experienced software testers should be included in the planning from the first day of construction.
   I consider this book to be a companion volume to those that emphasis testing as part of coding. With this book and one of the others, you can raise the level of your software quality quotient, which makes the life of everyone much easier.




4. I proof-read this book and it was so good I felt compelled to read it a second time! I have read several of Elfriede's books and I always find them well organized and consistently readable.

   Elfriede is a well known authority in this field and in Effective Software Testing she has produced a state of the art handbook for a comprehensive testing effort.

   The format is very pragmatic. The book is split into different areas in a useful sequence and each area has an overview with seperate following chapters providing more detail. The chapters are concise and the subject area's contents are concentrated and free of jargon.

   We have implemented many of these precepts in our organization to very good effect. Highly reommended!




5. Think of this book as a 300 page checklist that uncovers gaps in the testing process, some glaring and some more subtle. From that perspective you are not getting yet another book on how to test software, but insights into the author's extensive experience and knowledge. Therein lies the value of this book, and why it is applicable to not only software QA professionals at all experience levels, but to project managements, application support professionals, and developers.

   The book is divided into chapters that address a specific phase in the testing process, starting with requirements through to text execution. I won't dwell on the content that will be of particular interest to QA practitioners because the entire book applies. Instead, I'll cite the information that other stakeholders in application delivery will find useful because I believe this book has a much wider audience than just QA:

   - Chapter I (Requirements) should be read by project managers and the requirements team. It underscores the importance of integrating the QA team at the earliest stage of a project.

   - Chapter IV (System Architecture) shows the importance of communications between the architects and design team and the QA team. Specifically, if QA isn't working closely with architecture, designs may not be testable, which will impose significant costs downstream in the applications delivery process.

   - Chapter VI (Unit Testing) gives advice on how to effectively engage the development team in the overall quality strategy.

   - Chapter X (Managing Test Execution) has excellent advice on managing defects, which has a plethora of stakeholders and roles, from support, business and development domains. In addition, the guidance on bounding the test execution cycle is not of primary interest to project managers, but also to business stakeholders. It's a sad commentary on the way some organizations manage the test environment when advice for separating the test and development environments need to be included, but this commingling happens too often and I was happy to see it included in this chapter.

   This is not a 'how to test' book, it is a compilation of pitfalls and how to avoid them. It is a welcome addition to the growing software quality body of knowledge and one that I recommend highly.

4 comments about Digital Principles and Design with CD-ROM.

1. I've just completed an introductory course in Digital System Design, which requires this book. I really didn't care for this book in the least. Before I begin my explanation as to why, first let me state that I received an "A" in the course. I only mention this so that it's clear this isn't just a bitter rant due to a poor grade.

   I think the main problem with this book is that it is FAR too formal. The author uses terminology from Discrete Mathematics so much that the book is really incomprehensible. The language that the author uses to describe new concepts is the sort of thing you'd expect to see in a formal proof. Doing a formal proof using Discrete Math terminology is fine, but you'd expect there to be supporting text which breaks down the concepts into more digestible language. This book doesn't do that at all. It reads like one huge, 700 page mathematical proof. I found myself reading each section over and over again trying to decipher the explanations. The sort of explanations in this book might be appropriate for a doctorate dissertation in which your audience are already experts in the field. However, this book assumes no prior knowledge from its readers and it intends to be an introduction to Digital System Design. A book like this should endeavor to convey information and introduce concepts to the reader in an easily digested manner. "Digital Principles and Design" utterly fails in this regard.

   Also required for this class was a book called "Logic and Computer Design Fundamentals" by M. Morris Mano. This is a far superior book in my opinion. It is much easier to read and has clear, lucid explanations, as well as many excellent illustrations and examples. I would skip "Digital Principles and Design" and go for "Logic and Computer Design Fundamentals" instead.




2. I read the comments of the previous reviewer, and I have to agree, s/he made a very good point: this book is not an easy read. However, I'd also like to offer a bit different point of view.
   
   I have been teaching Digital Electronics from this book for the third semester now, and so far things have been going fine. I may be a bit biased; I hand-picked this book after going through a whole host of desk copies, and compared them based on more dimensions than eharmony dot com can ever dream about... Our primary goal was to find a book, which is equally suitable both for Digital Electronics [combinational networks] and Advanced Digital Electronics [sequential networks].
   
   In light of my experiences from the past three semesters I partly agree with the previous reviewer, and am becoming convinced that it may be more appropriate to teach these two courses from two different books, and pick an easier material for the introductory digital course. (My choice for such a book would be Katz-Borriello: Contemporaty Logic Design, 2nd edition; it also covers synchronous sequential networks well.) However, I still believe that Givone's book is an excellent reference material, particularly because of its theoretically sound, exhaustive discussion of the topics. I also believe that it's the primary responsibility of the educator to serve as an interface between students and the textbook. The textbook's responsibility is to back the instructor with all relevant material the instructor decides to use, and this book is doing an outstanding job at it.



3. This book is a complete wastage of resources. The author tells you everything as if lecturing. He will talk all things that you can see and will not talk behind the scenes. After you finish one topic you need to take a break of one day, because the brain hurts. PUBLISHERS, PLEASE TAKE THIS BOOK AWAY AND PLEASE DO NOT PRINT ANOTHER BOOK BY THIS AUTHOR. Every person on the face of this earth is not supposed to be a good writer.



4. I was a prepublication reviewer of this book and loved it. Now I have taught from it many times. My department adopted it because it covers the fundamentals well. When I was a student, the classic text was by Fletcher -- nearly everyone taught from it because of its high-quality, rigorous coverage of the fundamentals. But Fletcher is out of print and out of date now. This is the new "classic" treatment. Like Fletcher, this book sometimes gets long-winded, and some explanations break things apart more formally than necessary. So a beginner might find it difficult to go it alone with this text. However, this book is easier than others to teach from because it covers the right topics in the right order. I'd like to see a bit more coverage of CMOS in a future edition, but otherwise it isn't missing anything. Students will need faculty guidance to sort through and prioritize this material. But with such guidance, they will be in good shape. So students -- read this book and ALSO attend class! Then you'll be fine... :-)

No comments about Using Drupal.

5 comments about Foundation ASP.NET for Flash (Foundation).

1. I've been a Flash developer for awhile now, have used it with PHP/ASP and other server technologies - but have avoided the learning curve of .Net. FOE books are great at giving you the basics so that you can get up and running quickly, and the tutorials in the book are usually spot-on for applying those basics. Read the book and did the exercises in one week, and now am writing basic Web Services, .dll files, and using remoting with Flash on a basic level - just as I thought I would after finishing the book. There are some typos and ommissions, which seems par for the course these days for technical books (does anybody proof read or edit these things?) - but if you have a genuine knowledge of Flash, you can overcome them pretty easily. Recommended.



2. My attitude toward this book has NOTHING to do with ASP.net 2.0, nor even Flash. It has to do with this book. While the opening C# Primer is good (a very clean, simplistic quick run down on the basics with strings and arrays), as well I can tell the examples are solid enough you lost me right when we're told to down load Eclipse's little web server control. "Free for development, but ten bucks for unlimited usage...bla bla" Didn't we just spend our money buying your book so we could LEARN not buy more stuff? Ok, it's only ten bucks, but it's the principle of the matter.
   
   Secondly, I think it's rather silly to have to use the code with some fancy web server control in the first place. That's rather cheap, if you ask me. For those who aren't too familiar with ASP.net yet: ASP.net isn't a language, it's the rendering mechanics for web applications in the .net framework. It's a bunch of fancy server controls (which are basically HTML like elements on steroids) that can either be hard coded, like HTML (but that sort of defeats the purpose), or programmatic activated through a .net programming language. This language is then a separate entity (which can be VB.net, or in the case of this book, C#...A very fine, fine language) from the ASP.net server controls, but it works together.
   
   In a nut shell, you don't actually need much of ASP.net's presentation layer (AKA, the page where you put the server controls). If any one is familiar with classic ASP, Response.Write("hello") (which is the equivalent of echo "hello"; in PHP) is all that you'd really need in a .net environment using Flash interfaces.
   
   On a more sophisticated level, you could learn some ADO.net, learn how to mess around with some SQL/XML out putting, and go that route to your Flash movie as well.
   
   So, the final verdict: I'll do the example, just for practice. But I can easily just make a User Control for my flash movies, put to practice what I said there, and VIOLA...no need to pay you ten bucks.
   
   However, for those that are in a bind, and need to Implement a Flash interface into a .net project (for what ever reason), here's a work around:
   
   I'd recommend getting Foundation PHP 5 for Flash by David Powers. Most web hosting solutions that are on Windows will have both .net and PHP installed. Learn how to work with Flash Movies via PHP, then you can embed your Flash movie in your ASP.net files (via a User Control...), and have your PHP files sitting with your ASP.net files in the same app (Trust me, nothing will go wrong nor explode)...This may sound gratuitous, but it really isn't.
   
   However, I'm going to translate David's code into C#, come up with my own projects and then embark on developing my own book on the subject.



3. I would like to make this short and sweet. Mr. Moore is at the forefront of the .net community. Without this book, I would have spent the next couple of years trying to learn all of what this book gives me, all for the price of taking my girlfriend to a movie! My offerings to my customers has expanded exponentially, and that, is what this is all about!
   
   5 Stars!!!!



4. A great primer on C# and installation of a local development environment using the free tools that Microsoft offered. All instructions and descriptions are step-by-step. Also includes important information on third-party Visual Studio components that allow you to send data between flash and .NET for pages that not completely inside the Flash interface. This book solidly provides multiple methods to interface with your flash applications using ASP.NET 2.0 with Flash remoting, Web services, and FlashVars... Highly Recommended.. Everything here as advertised!



5. I thought this book will discuss all issues and will have a rich
   ASP.NET solution for flash but it goes less than what I need
   sure its cool as it names on but it doesn't cover what am looking
   for from this title.

4 comments about Curves and Surfaces for CAGD: A Practical Guide (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Computer Graphics).

1. This book should be considered as a bible for people (including students, researchers, engineers and programmers) working in the CAGD area. The author placed a good balance between the discussion of theoretical (mathematical) and practical (implementation) issues of curves and surfaces design.



2. I found this book to be extremely helpful in grasping the fundamentals of CAGD. The author's style is very informal and engaging (yes, despite the very 'techie' nature of the subject). The very liberally distributed illustrations give a good idea about 'whats-actually-going-on'? In all, a very highly recommended book, even if you are remotely interested in CAGD.



3. The fourth edition of this book was excellent. I'm sorry to say this one is not quite as good, as hard as that may be to believe. There are two problems: 1) a large number of errors, (worst of all) many of which are concetentrated in the chapter on b-splines. 2) in many places the book over-abstracts, and i feel that blossom form is overused here.

   The first problem is quite bad: anyone who has learned the material before knows that superscript and subscript "comprehension" is required for this subject. Having a text that is full of errors in these (even if you have the errata, without which the text is near useless) erodes the ability to get the geometric intuition necessary to absorb the material.

   The second problem is just that the abstractions used are sometimes more complex, and less intuitive, than the orginal form/construct/method being described. I use the blossom notation as an example: it is very useful in showing the relation between bezier and b-spline curves, but it is hardly touched on for that, despite being used constantly throughout the book. Another example: the decription of knot vectors is abstracted nearly beyond utility.

   The fourth edition had almost *no* errors in it. It was very, very good. I hope there is a 6th edition that goes where this one should have!




4. Item is in good condition and I recommend buying from this seller.

5 comments about Advanced CORBA(R) Programming with C++ (Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series).

1. Don't wish to wade through book after book? This book would be the one to buy! The concepts are clearly defined and the code examples are fairly easy to follow. (The thermostat example grows too complicated at the end of the book to even comprehend all pieces - authors could use other smaller constructs to show the concepts.)

   The authors are well-versed in the topic and it shows in every chapter. There is no hand-waving on topics, as I have seen in other treatments of this subject.

   I've been a Corba programmer for the last 3 years and this has been my bible...

   Can't wait to see a second edition of this book from the authors!




2. Good book. Worth the money. There is a a lot of material here and it is pretty well organized. Some of the examples assume to much - they would be better if they showed complete code segements. If you needed to get one book on C++ and CORBA, this would be the one.



3. As the title states this is a book for advanced programmers. Not the kind of book I would recommend to someone looking to pick up a book and the learn from it. Might serve as an excellent reference source.



4. For my money, this book is worth every cent and more. The authors are knowledgable and articulate. If you know of a
   better book on CORBA, please let me know.....



5. This has to be one of the best CORBA books that I have read. It has helped me debug code and fix some really knotty problems. I found the exposition clear and easy to follow, and the index a useful tool. I don't think the authors intended it to be read cover-to-cover.
   
   If I am working on a CORBA project I alway like to have this book to hand.