5 comments about Foundation 3ds Max 8 Architectural Visualization.

1. I found that this book was written and ordered in such a way that made it very easy to work your way through 3ds max, build on your progress, and slowly but surely learn how to use the program. The book isn't extensive, but I feel that is a high point for an introductory book dealing with a program who's many features could be confusing to a novice. While I used this book as part of a course, I do think that anyone really interested could at least teach themselves many of the basics of 3ds max with just the book alone. I don't believe it will be the best book to reference back to necessarily in the future, but as a way to work your way through the program bit by bit in a logical progression, it certainly works well.



2. It's a very good manual to see the real level CG artists knowledge who wish to have creative sensitivity.



3. This is the best text book I have ever bought. It is so easy to read and understand. It is written as if the autor is casually talking to you.



4. Great book for beginners, and a good book to keep as reference for more advanced users of 3ds Max or Viz.



5. One of the worst series of books ever written, by a complete conman. Totally void of depth, imagination and decency. A glossy manual of aesthetic. Avoid at all costs, and that goes for the complete series. Why waste hours and hours of precious time with a man who sells the periphery of a densely complexed program. Miles short of any relevance to all serious students of architectural modelling. A complete joke Mr. Smith!
   
   0-stars!!!!

5 comments about REALBasic: TDG (Definitive Guides).

1. I've been using Realbasic for many years. If you are expecting to actually use Realbasic to build practical applications, this book will not be of use to you. As others have stated, if you are beginner, this book will not be very helpful to you. I've seen some really helpful books for learning and using Java and VB, but unfortunately Realbasic doesn't have the same quality of books out there (nor will it ever, likely). The omissions in this book are glaring, the writing style unnecessarily obtuse. The Realbasic through Applications book and the Realbasic for Dummies books are better, although still not great.

   You'll do no better than to simply look through Realbasic code samples freely available on the web, and ask questions on the mailing lists instead of needing to purchase any Realbasic book.




2. This is the best reference for REALBasic version 3, as of September 2005. However, you should be aware that REALBasic was at version 5.5.5 as of June, 2005, and REALBasic 2005 was released August of 2005.
   
   Also, REALBasic started out on Macintosh platforms. It has now been ported to Windows -- but that's fairly recent, too. Thus, this book covers mostly Macintosh or generic applications.
   
   O'Reilly seems to have dropped support for this book, too. This means there won't be another revision. However, if you can find it used, and you still want to use REALBasic on Windows, buy it. It's that good, and still useful.



3. Computer books tend to be outdated rather quickly, sometimes before hitting the shelves. Programming books tend to have a longer shelf life.
   
   When REALbasic: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition was released over four years ago in 2001, it was current and truly the definitive book on REALbasic. It still is, though that isn't the praise you might think.
   
   The folks at REALsoftware are constantly improving the language and the Definitive Guide was outdated by 2003. Today it is about as relevant as a definitive guide to home theater telling you to use a 21" TV, Quadraphonic stereo with 8 Track tape and turntable and a Sony Betamax.
   
   Today's REALbasic generates programs that work on Windows, Linux and Mac OS9, OS X and soon OS X/86. The technologies incorporate XML, XST, DOM, SOAP and more. The only reference to ANY of these in this book is that you can save your source code as XML and edit it with a standard text editor.
   
   All this said, Mr. Neuburg's REALbasic: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition is still the best and most recommended book for REALbasic which shows you how much of a market there is for new, good books for this great language.



4. In its day was the best REALbasic book around. Sure, it was a little bit of a hard read, but it was still the best. But not anymore. Let's hope O'reilly decides to publish a 3rd edition.



5. Matt Neuburg is a genius. This is both a blessing and a curse for those who want to learn REALbasic. In his love for REALbasic, and his desire to teach it all and be exhaustive, as well as write a book that he himself would like to read, he takes a certain course: he covers terrain that is both flat, smooth and quick to run over, and terrain that is deep, craggy, convoluted and only for the determined traveler. There is no warning when you might suddenly encounter the unforgiving steep canyon or sheer wall.
   
   At one time I decided to try and learn REALbasic, and it sounded from the introduction to the book and his biography that he could give me the deep grounding in theory that I wanted, and that his style and personality would be a good match for mine (I was a philosophy major; he taught classics). Well, I got bogged down in Chapter Three in both of my attempts to get through the book. Among the thickets of Classes and Instances, I lost interest.
   
   I found myself reading sentences over and over again, trying to grasp what he was saying. Perhaps he is someone that gets a thrill from the extreme cleverness of the design of REALbasic, but it is not always clear what the utility of these mental convolutions is. He reminds me of some of my philosophy professors, getting off on their own brilliance and love of the subject but forgetting what it's like to be someone else listening, and so they lose their audience. It's like a mild form of autism. In the long run I suppose we are lucky to have a teacher like Neuburg, despite his flaws, for it is rare to find such a combination of raw enthusiasm, old-fashioned scholarly depth, and knowledge in a writer of computer books.
   
   Unfortunately he doesn't always explain in common sense terms what something is and why we should be interested in it. Sometimes he does, and sometimes he doesn't. Sometimes the explanation comes later: he is too strict about what is relevant to the current technical topic. I'm not sure this achieves anything except make it harder than it has to be. Is he trying to be "pure" to his subject matter? I don't think there is anything wrong with catering to an audience in a computer book.
   
   In summary, this book has more in common with a reference bible than a beginners tutorial, though it isn't really a reference book per se. I'm only half-joking when I say it's more like a philosophy book for super-nerds. He is telling you not only the basics, but also abruptly dives into the story behind the scenes, the "ultimate truths" as it were, of REALbasic. These explanations can go on for quite some time - whether you want to hear it or not. This is an generalization of course, but it may help you get a feel for the flavor of his approach and style.
   
   I would recommend this book in combination with a faster-paced book that is more of a tutorial.

2 comments about Client-Side Reporting with Visual Studio in C#.

1. I like this book very much. The author explains the client-side reporting with Visual studio in C# in detail, especially step by step. The topics cover windows form, web form, windows service and web service, which are useful for developers to write the report easily.
   
   Although this book says it covers version VS 2005 and VS 2008, I really hope the author can update this book using VS 2008 version and add some new features such as LINQ to generate the client-side reports easily. I will recommend this book to everyone.



2. I received this book today and have already completed four chapters. It is an easy read and generally thought out. The only complaint so far is the author's over use of the word "Please"! Please see Figure n.n Please give an application name... Enough!
   
   Did the publisher review this book before it went to press? How annoying!
   
   Day two:
   
   In addition, the author writes in broken English: "You should also keep in mind that there is more then one way of getting a report done."
   
   If I had a nickel for every grammatical error I could buy the book which is a shame since the book really is helpful.
   
   This book is rated for intermediate - advanced user but over and over there are instructions for creating a project, creating a dataset, etc.

No comments about Mule 2: Developer’s Guide to ESB and Integration Platform (Firstpress).

5 comments about Programming Microsoft .NET (Core Reference).

1. Jeff Prosise has been around the Microsoft world for a long time. If you've been around awhile, you might recognize him as the author of Programming Windows with MFC or from several of his other books. This book, as expected, is very well-written and a technically accurate book. Unfortunately, it only musters a rating of three stars because it tries to cover too much. If you want a broad overview of .NET, then this is an excellent book for you. My problem with the book is that its first three chapters on .NET fundamentals don't cover the basics as deeply as I think developers should know them. The single chapter on Windows Forms that follows next is, frankly, completely useless. The next seven chapters (Part 2 of the book) do a very decent job of covering ASP.NET. If anything, this is a badly named book. It should be called Programming Microsoft ASP.NET. Part 2 is followed by a single chapter on ADO.NET. I recommend Mike Gunderloy's book for ADO.NET. Next are single chapters on XML, multithreading, and remoting. All in all, it's a good overview and a decent ASP.NET book (you'll still need another book or two on the topic).



2. This is much more than an okay book. It's simply the very best "programming" book on .NET. Once you've learned your .NET language of choice, which really should be C#, then you need a book like this one to explore and understand the .NET Framework. Trust me, you will not find a better one. I know, I've tried at least 6 other books of this scope. Yes, it does concentrate much more ASP.NET, so much so that I consider it also the best ASP.NET book out there. It's obviously not an advanced-level book, so you'll need to explore the subject further.

   The main reason I like this book is because the writing is just so crystal clear and well organized. This author knows how to teach. Concepts flow from general to details superfluously. And the examples are so well chosen that it's a pleasure to read.

   After having bought, and read or reviewed a good number of books on .NET, I feel I have a good sense as to which are the very best. The following four books are what I consider to be the creme de la creme of .NET publications:

   1) C# Primer Plus, should be your first read;
   2) This one, should be your second read;
   3) Microsoft .NET for Programmers, read this after you've explored the framework further;
   4) Programming .NET Components, the deepest clearest book on .NET I've seen by far - intermediate-advanced.

   There are other excellent .NET books. I could name at least 8 others that deserve 4 to 5 stars. The above 4 deserve 5 star ratings more any other, or at least I've not found any others that use C#.




3. I was somewhat disappointed with this book. I felt it could have been a bit more in-depth and maybe more focused by removing the section on windows forms and concentrating purely on ASP.Net (and renaming it ASP.Net). One feature that really annoys me and is commonplace in ASP.Net books is how the author states the obvious that codebehind is a great feature and should be utilised, and nesting code in aspx pages avoided if at all possible. Then all the examples are shown as aspx pages containing nested code blocks. Arrgghh!
   On the good side Jeff Prosise has a good clear writing style, his description of 'background info' is good, and the book is really well presented in choice of fonts, layout etc. Also it's good that the examples are in C# only.



4. And this is one of them. There are classic books in every area. This book is the one for .NET. If you are an experienced developer and want to jump start with .NET, this is definitely the book for you. I love it! Thank you Jeff Prosise for your great work.



5. This book is THE book from which I learnt .Net . I worship this book for all its contents, well laid out and concepts explained in developer-to-developer terms. This is the best book I have read so far in .Net . A definite yes on this book. You dont have to think twice to buy this book.It's worth every dollar. A very good book overall.

No comments about Head First Rails: A learner's companion to Ruby on Rails.

No comments about LabVIEW based Advanced Instrumentation Systems.

5 comments about Essential ASP.NET 2.0.

1. I really like Fritz and Keith's writing style, and found this book an excellent ASP.NET 2.0 read.
   
   Unlike other books, this doesn't attempt to be a huge reference. Instead it offers a relatively quick and concise read that details how to use some of the most important new features in ASP.NET 2.0. The result is a very approachable book that provides a great way to learn ASP.NET 2.0 and how to immediately take advantage of it.



2. This is a good book for somebody who is already quite familiar with ASP.NET and just wants to learn what is new with ASP.NET 2.0. I thought the material was sometimes too technical. For example, there is a lot of information on changing the provider database. You would probably find this book most useful if you needed to dig into the guts of ASP.NET 2.0.
   
   However, "Essential ASP.NET 2.0" isn't a very good introduction to ASP.NET 2.0 because it does not provide simple explanations on how to use the new features in real world situations. I've read "ASP.NET 2.0 For Dummies" but found it went over too much familiar material on ASP.NET and left out many aspects of ASP.NET 2.0. Ideally you need a book that focuses just on the new features of ASP.NET 2.0 with an emphasis on practical usage.
   
   I would most recommend this book if you needed in depth information on how to go beyond the typical use of the new features when you find yourself frustrated by some special considerations. If you need to use a MySQL database then the information on changing the provider database will be very useful.



3. This one is not as solid & thorough as the previous edition on asp.net 1.1, some deficiencies include:
   - page life cycle is rather poorly explained, MSDN documentation does a better job
   - only covers the website model, not the 1.1 style web project model, which is a shame, as many professional sites don't use the web site model (which btw really sucks)
   - page compilation is poorly covered, this actually changed a lot between 1.1 & 2.0, but as the author chose to write this book as an addon to the earlier edition, the explanation of this topic is rather sketchy.
   - web parts: didnt get to bottom of how proxywebpartmanager is different from the normal webpartmanager. again, MSDN online arctles provide a clearer explanation.
   
   all in all, i get the impression this book is somehow rushed to market.



4. This book inherits from the Essential ASP book. If you don't have that book, it's like trying to create an inherited class without any documentation or source for the base class. This book requires the reader to have the Essential ASP book and to do a mental merge (vtable?), where some chapters come from ASP.NET and others come from ASP.NET 2.0. I would have preferred a 2nd edition that merged all of the current content into a single book.



5. This book well complements its predecessor. It is a well written book, which provides you with all the necessary internal details and does not try to be a reference book, as most of the books do. It is always possible to get references on msdn.com, however, the content in this book is far more valuable than that.

5 comments about Proc SQL: Beyond the Basics Using SAS.

1. An experienced SAS programmer, I used the many helpful examples in this book to learn a lot about PROC SQL in just a few days. (I skipped the text.) I trust the few typos and obscure passages will be cleared up in a subsequent edition. I thought the sections on normalization and integrity constraints were skimpy. The book has also been favorably reviewed in The American Statistician 2005, vol. 59, no. 4, pp. 350



2. If you are new to PROC SQL, this is the right book. It covers all the basic queries, complex queries in simple content, some troubleshooting, and a little bit of efficiency. The layout throughout the book is very easy to read and follow. All examples contain PROC SQL codes, results, appropriate explanation, as well as part of SAS LOG and comparison in some examples. This book might be a little basic to power PROC SQL users. But compared to SAS SQL procedure user's guide, it is way better to have.



3. I purchased this book one year ago under the influence of the high ratings here, but I didn't get chance to finish it until last week. After comparing this book with the SAS SQL manual (free online PDF file available at SAS website), I came to one question, why bother to buy this book? The book is not a copy of the SAS manual, but it is written in a strikingly similar pattern yet it provides LESS information than the SAS manual; on the contrary, the SAS manual gives you more materials, more examples, better narratives, clearer explanations than this full-of-typo book.



4. I have read most of the chapters of this book. I certainly advise anyone who would like to learn SAS SQL or improve her/his SAS SQL skills.



5. This book is okay, probably wouldn't buy if I would have flipped through it first, but ordered online. Too many examples, not enough explanation on the actual examples. Alot of examples were redundant.

5 comments about Developer to Designer: GUI Design for the Busy Developer.

1. Just finished reading the book and I must say that this book is lacking good technical content. It focused more on trivial things and explained them too in-depthly. Plus, it seems that windows based design was the focus and web based design was brought in as an afterthought. It doesn't nearly have as much content or good design recommendations. Also, don't even get me started on the introduction of "Avalon" into the book. This chapter was completely out of place in this book. The lackluster chapter described something thats a year or more off, not to mention stuff that is going to change. Not anywhere in this chapter did it explain good design patterns for Avalon, as currently there are none. This chapter seemed more of an "intro to avalon" chapter - which is why I thought it was out of place.



2. The fact is, most developers are not great User Interface (UI) designers. I look at user interfaces designed by most developers and I cringe. Even my own user interfaces are, frankly, not that great, and I have been at this for a long time (most often doing server-side development - in part because of my lacking design skills). After reading this book, I think I have at least some hope of doing a better job, because it made me think about things that I do not often think about. The reality is that even the best developer will generally not be working on a team that has a separate user interface design team, and so anything that can get a developer at least thinking about issues involving user interfaces is a good thing.



3. Mike Gunderloy has put together a nice book to follow up his Coder to Developer, this time covering the basics of UI design and concepts. A good book, but not perfect. What's good: he systematically describes in detail all the major components making up the modern Windows user interface. Don't do Windows? That's okay, a lot (if not all) of the components have their equivalents in other operating systems/UI shells. If you've never done UI design, either by choice or you've never had to, this is a good place to start. I've not found a book yet that covers the UI basics, without being wrapped up in a particular language or technology. The author's premise is a sound one; rare is the project that has the luxury of a dedicated UI specialist. Most business applications are done by developers that are typically not trained in User Experience or the like. So if you think that a good UI is easy and you just drag some of them white boxes on to the form, with a bunch of buttons too, this is a good book for you. I also appreciate his coverage of the web browser based application. There has been a lot of work in standard UI styles that got tossed out the window when the web based app hit. Mike does a good job dealing with that too. What's not so good: I thought that the chapter spent on Avalon, Microsoft's future UI was wasted, as it is inconsistent with the premise of the book. We'll need the new version of the book in a couple of years, once Avalon/Longhorn have shipped. I would have preferred the space used for more details on the current UI styles. My other issue is that this is a book for beginners. If you follow what Tog or Jef Raskin are doing in UI design, this isn't the book for you. If you feel challenged by Alan Cooper's ideas, then keep looking, this is a beginner's book and you are not going to find what you're looking for here. And this is not a criticism, merely an admission that this book is for a particular skill level, just like other development books. I'm glad to see Sybex and Mike Gunderloy giving the User Interface it's due and hopefully making developers realize that there is a little more to UI design.



4. Resources on how to use each of the UI controls and dialog styles in which circumstance are scattered throughout the MSDN library and articles. This book does a great job of bringing all of that information together into one place and, as such, is a reasonable first reference manual on how to put together a UI application.
   
   However, this book didn't cover what I expected to see: how do you design a good UI? Given a set of three activities to do, how do you map that into a flow across the application? How do you do simple usability studies using a friend or family? I was sorely disappointed, as those techniques are what turn a UI from a set of controls that a developer slapped together into an application that feels like it was designed to be used for a purpose.
   
   Also, don't think that this goes into all of the details. Given the depth he went into on control use, I was expecting to see some of the Windows Logo guidelines in there, perhaps as an appendix - buttons will be such and such dialog units from the corner, etc. Instead, there are intro chapters on *forming* Avalon and HTML. This seemed out of place given that there was no intro chapter on using the Visual Studio .NET design surfaces and they read more like there was a page target for the book than that the content was part of an overall plan for the reader.



5. I think Lars and M. Hawley's reviews are right on. I was pretty disappointed with this book. Most of it seemed to be pretty much common sense. Don't get me wrong I did learn some from this book. The first few chapters had some decent content but as the chapters went on I was hoping it would focus more on design and technical aspects. If you're looking for the basics then this book is good but if you're an experienced (even moderately) developer then I think you will be disappointed.