5 comments about Pro OGRE 3D Programming (Pro).

1. It was a good start for Ogre and really fill some blanks from the tutorial. I thought it would be covering more intermediate and advanced aspects and features of Ogre.
   Ogre is such a wonderful engine and it needs a "Ogre's Bible" title.



2. While this text represents what amounts to a noble effort on behalf of the author and the Ogre community, I'm afraid that the best I can say for this book is that it's not entirely terrible. Hoping to fast-forward past the traditionally hackish explanations offered by online documentation, I had purchased this book expecting to learn about Ogre in a more carefully structured and comprehensive (not to mention, professional) manner. Unfortunately, this was simply not to be.
   
   The examples in this book... suck. They're terrible. Everything is simply copied (often incorrectly!) from the freely available Ogre samples. What's more, any explanation of this code is purely cursory, often suggesting that the reader "Check the website for more details," which are apparently too involved or lengthy for inclusion in this $35 hardcover text on Ogre. Oops.
   
   Perhaps I've been spoiled by the OpenGL programming guide. For one reason or another, I've come to expect concise examples that illustrate a single idea presented with plenty of discussion on how this idea might be used in practice and some exposition as to what features exist to allow one to best do so. Compared to this expectation, what this book manages to give you is a tiny sampling of a semi-relevant example drawn from the SDK's sample projects, partnered with the name of the classes and member functions involved in said example all laid out in a nice monospace font, and that's about the sum of it (give or take one or two sentences of description-- sometimes). For instance, while one whole page is dedicated to a laundry-list of the Camera's member functions (clearly copied wholesale from the header file with minimal corrections), maybe three or four functions for interacting with the scene graph are *shown* (not presented) in the context of-- you guessed it-- a small subset of some Ogre sample project. This and some sample code showing how to query the scene in one or two ways is basically all you get from the ~30 page chapter dedicated to the subject.
   
   Often times, the author spends pages upon pages singing praise to a particular feature of Ogre (render queues, techniques, LOD, schemes...), proceeding thereupon to omit any sort of actual explanation of how this feature is used later in the text. As you might imagine, this habit becomes quite annoying by the third or fourth time it occurs. Worse, still, is that any discussion that *is* presented by the author often culminates in a lacking, vague, and ambiguous description that ultimately fails to convey any sense of "The Big Picture." For one reason or another, the author seems convinced that a six line code snippet from the SDK is sufficient to explain just about everything there is to know about, say, Materials or SceneManager instances. And in the end, you feel *almost* as inexperienced with this library as you did when you originally set out to learn Ogre. Of course, by the time you've finished this book, you'll also have learned the valuable lesson that the website is really quite good-- but I'd bet that's not exactly the lesson you were planning to take from this book when you plunked down your money for it in the first place.
   
   One final criticism: be warned! When this book first arrived, I was quite surprised to discover just how thin it was. Before you assume that it's because this book is concise and to-the-point also note that the print is TINY. It's a real pain that the publisher decided to cut corners and use a 10 point font to cut down on page count all the while selling this text as a clunky hardcover book! This, coupled with the numerous typos, bugs, and inconsistencies make for a very unprofessional read. If this were a freely available tutorial you could find somewhere on the website, I'd give it 4 stars. But this is a pricey, hardcover book that's supposed to be professionally edited, organized, and polished; hence, it gets 2 stars.
   
   Okay, okay. This book isn't entirely bad. It's always nice when an open source project becomes big enough to warrant a book. And I'm sure that the author had fine intentions when setting out to write this text: some of the chapters do manage a decent description of their subject matter, and the author's enthusiasm for Ogre is quite evident in his writing (which can be amusing, at times). Unfortunately, however, this book is just not there yet: it is a thorough sales pitch, a high-level tutorial, and many suggestions to visit the website; expect nothing more.
   
   My suggestion? Take his advice, and save some money. Visit the website and skip this book.



3. Spending all day reading and implementing obscure APIs, you tend to develop thick skin for badly written documentation. Programmers generally don't have english degrees. You suffer through and glean the information you need to get your job done.
   
   I'll cut to the chase on this review. This book contains NO information. That's right, it tells you nothing about how to use Ogre. The author spends the first quarter of the book on downloading, installing, and calling the init function (which takes up to three arguments).
   
   Halfway through the book I started thinking "He's actually going to put and object in a scene any minute now". Nope, it never happens. After spending a hundred pages talking about how great Ogre is and the four types of objects he skips over actually using any of the objects. The book doesn't even cover the object trees. It flops back and forth between halfway done remedial 3D concepts (What is a camera? I'll tell you in chapter 7) and marketing speek (Ogre has a great plugin archtitecture you should love only I won't tell you how to use it).
   
   I'm still in awe that something this free of actual content could be published. After reading the entire book, I still had no idea how to perform basic functions in Ogre like loading a texture.
   
   This book has no audience. It doesn't really cover any basic 3D concepts so it's bad for beginners. It doesn't cover how to use the APIs so it's bad for a bootstrap reference, and it doesn't cover any core logic so it's bad for advanced developers. No one should ever buy this book.



4. This book was a well written , easily and objective. The goal of this book is to describe who to use Ogre 3D framework and you main functionality. I only would recommend this book for advanced developers .



5. The book presents all the crucial information in a very organized manner. I found the presentation to be concise and easy to read.
   
   Warning: The book does not teach you how to make a game, It explains the core api functions of OGRE and some background behind them. This should give you a good start to utilize the 3d rendering capability offered by OGRE. You need another book or a course in game design before you can really start making non-trivial games.

5 comments about Ajax in Practice.

1. The back cover says that "Ajax in Practice" is a "second generation" book. The book covers a mix of problem/solution descriptions for common problems, Ajax tips and advanced JavaScript techniques. The cookbook style is useful if you are trying to implement a specific Ajax effect. The book touches on a number of libraries/toolkits where appropriate. It also covers integrating with existing Ajax libraries.
   
   The book assumes you know basic JavaScript, CSS and HTML. If you are new to Ajax, I recommend reading a "first generation" book like "Ajax in Action" first. This book is a lot easier to follow if you have some exposure to Ajax. In particular, the problem/solution style involves learning by reading a lot of code. This is overwhelming on the first shot. I had to pull out my copy of "Ajax in Action" to follow parts of it. While some of the examples are long, they don't include unnecessary code.
   
   I liked that the book has a common flow to it. Even though there are seven authors/contributors, the style is the same and it makes sense. I learned a lot about specific uses of Ajax along with examples/techniques of good Ajax code. This should definitely be the second Ajax book you read!



2. A lot of programming books, particularly in the Open Source world, are written by people who pinch their noses and jump into the deep end. Some of them can't swim themselves, and others pull unwary victims into the depths where everyone perishes. OK, so maybe my diving analogy has gone too far, but I'll stay with it for just a moment longer. The authors of Ajax in Practice, in contrast, run a dive shop where everyone learns and everyone passes the PADI exam. This is thanks to a style of writing which begins at (where else?) the beginning, gives the reader the big picture, and moves through exercises that are readable, sensible, and progressive. If this is strikingly obvious, it is also strikingly absent from most computer books. Let's face it, if I want to read poorly-written and half-baked documents, I'll curl up with the sorry excuse for "online manuals" that accompany most Open Source software. In contrast, I expect more from books that I BUY. And Crand, Bibeault and Sonneveld don't disappoint. I learned about JSON, how JavaScript and server-side languages exchange XML, got a refresher on JavaScript OOP concepts, and a good tour of some of the main AJAX frameworks out there -- all before page 100. The book doesn't try to be encyclopediac, nor does it offer fluff. Crane knows his stuff. I loved this book.



3. 
   Ajax is Practice is kind-of the follow-up book on Ajax in Action. Ajax in Action provided the basic fundamental things to know about Ajax. Ajax in Practice goes beyond that and gives you very concrete code snippets and explanation on how to "do things". It's concrete, practical and well-written.
   
   The book is split into 2 different parts. The first part introduces the Ajax fundamentals, Javascript, JSON, XML, XSLT and the Prototype library. The prototype library is used throughout the book. It ends with an overview of the current ajax toolkits available. The first part is 150 pages and just gives you a quick intro and gets you ready for... part 2.
   
   The second part is the main content of the book. Every chapter contains a practical topic which you can use within your ajax application. The topics go from handling events, navigation, undo-ing to drag and drop. Chapter 12 introduces available services and then chapter 13 combines earlier things together and build a quite nice travel reporting program (something we always wanted to have...)
   
   I thoroughly enjoyed ajax in practice. It was very concrete and useful. The knowledge in the chapters can immediately be put in practice. If you're involved with Ajax development, or even just starting, then this book is certainly recommended.



4. The code for the very first example in the book (listing 1.1) is wrong, and the forum at the book's website seems to be abandoned (someone pointed out the problem nine months ago, but was never answered). There seem to be other problems with the code as well.



5. This book by Dave Crane, Bear Bibeault and Jord Sonneveld aims to be of a second-generation Ajax book. It should go beyond just explaining the technology and explore in details the different client-side Ajax technologies and show what you can do with them. The target audience is a developer that has already a background of developing web applications and a basic knowledge of JavaScript. I can say that the book achieves its goals and provides practical concepts and code excerpts that can be readily used. For every topic that is discussed in the book, there is a detailed code example that shows how to use it in practice. I like also the fact that the specific goal of important lines are put in evidence in the code examples.
   
   The book is divided in two parts. The first part contains four chapters that present the basic concepts of Ajax. After an introduction, it discusses the various communications techniques like Json or XML. A chapter is then dedicated to object-oriented JavaScript, that the authors present as a must to build scalable Ajax code. Finally, the book takes a closer look at the different JavaScript libraries (Prototype, Dojo and JQuery) used for Ajax applications.
   
   The second part presents the various practices that could be used in client-side programming and are related to Ajax, either directly or indirectly: events, data entry and validation, navigation, drag-and-drop, usability, state management. Each topic is clearly explained in a dedicated chapter. A chapter is also dedicated to integrating outside API like Yahoo! or Google maps. Finally, a last chapter is dedicated to a sample mash-up application.

5 comments about Game Programming With Python (Game Development Series).

1. When I buy a book with source code I first run the examples and then I start reading, so I followed all the installation steps and every single example worked nicely so. The book is clear, concise, fun tu read and I do recommend it fully. If you are serious about writing your own online game and learning Python, get this one. It 's worth the money.



2. I know Python pretty well and I find that it is often an excellent way to quickly explore new programming concepts. Python is so powerful that you can quickly get a feel for the subject by coding a bit. At work, you may have to use a different language, but at least you will know the subject. That's how I got to understand XML and unit testing for example. A good book always helps the process though.
   
   As a newbie to games, I found this book to be an excellent introduction to game coding. It basically walks you through the material you need to create simple 2D real time games on OpenGL, including how to code simple multiplayer games (using Twisted for the networking). It does an excellent job of demystifying basic game concepts and makes me think that I could write a simple game myself, given sufficient time.
   
   The code samples, which I mostly did not run though, are well-crafted and minimalist - just enough to get the job done and no more. This is very clean and expressive code where every line serves a purpose.
   
   I am more interested by turn-by-turn web-based 2D games, so I am currently not using the book all that much. However, once I have figured out my user interface, I will surely return to it to learn how to manage game objects, persistence, game states, and the like.
   
   One caveat, and not a big one. As another reviewer stated, the book excels at showing how to develop modular code by gradually building libraries of reusable code that you can use for a number of games. The author pulls off the trick of doing that in a Python-sensible manner, without adding the overhead that Java/C++ would require, but that Python doesn't.
   
   However, the resulting code, while extremely well thought out, easy to describe, and modular, is distributed though multiple classes in numerous files . This makes it somewhat hard to just start hacking his code. I quickly got lost while trying to modify the network protocol he used for the sample tic-tac-toe application.
   
   In other words, while his code structure is very appropriate to a serious production system, I feel that it is a bit too complex for me to use as a starting point. Monolithic code has many drawbacks but can provide an easier _initial_ learning curve.



3. I recently picked this book from my shelf as a my new bathroom material and was surprised what I was thinking two years ago.
   
   The book is outstanding not only in demonstrating python's real power but supprisingly also in game programming. You need a bit of (may a lot of) object-oriented background to really appreciate this book. The skeleton of game concept is very precise and clear once the "high-level" language applied (or outlined).
   
   I give it 5 star, the only problem with this book is sometimes the variable name is misleading (ex. category part), but probably that's just me.



4. Game Programming With Python is not for beginners. I will say that up front. There are many advanced topic that seasoned pros and up and coming programmers will enjoy -- procecedural content, a* path-finding, asynchronous game servers. These are not for the faint-of-heart, but they are exceptional topics for game programming. Having done an a*star path finding implementation back in my brief time as a game programmer, I can appreciate his work.
   
   A lot of the examples and example code are written in Python and written to a Python graphics library, so they may not be pertinent to your development environment. However, some of the topics presented are very applicable to game design, especially some of the advanced topics.
   
   Personally, I liked the book. When I browse books at my neighbor book store, I usually flip to the back to find the interesting things. I skip the Chapter 1 "What is XML" stuff, and head to the juicy stuff in the back. Not so with this book. All of it is juicy geeky techy stuff.



5. First, a warning about my review style: I tend to focus heavily on negative things. That's probably because negative things are easier and more fun to write about. So while this review may have a mostly negative tone, do note that I don't hate this book... I just think it has a lot of room for improvement.
   
   A few years ago I happened to be writing a game in Python when I came across this book at the bookstore. I was already familiar with both Python and game development, but I was uncertain of a few details at the time, and I liked what I saw on a cursory flip-through, so I decided to take it home. A few years later, I am again attempting to write a (different) game in Python, and this book came to mind, so here I am writing this review.
   
   Sadly, some of the information in the book was already out of date when it was published. Python 2.3 was released in July 2003 (this book was released sometime in 2004), and yet this book seems to be written for Python 2.1, which was released in 2001. The language changed a lot within that time, though not so much as to make the code completely obsolete. The book does not take advantage of "new-style" classes introduced in Python 2.2. If the author didn't want to complicate the issue by distinguishing between old-style and new-style classes, he should have used only new-style classes, not old-style. All you have to do to make a class new-style is derive it from the "object" class; the author needed to devote only a few words to the subject. There's no discussion about the semantics of division, which was already in flux: if you put "from __future__ import division" at the top of your module, the expression 1/2 returns a float (0.5); otherwise it returns an integer (0). The new semantics should be taught because that is what future versions of Python are going to use by default.
   
   The most blatant example of the author's ignorance is his recommendation that you download PyUnit. There's no need to because PyUnit has been included with Python since version 2.1! (Again, version 2.1 was released several years before the book was.) The only thing you get by downloading it is an old and obsolete version. To be fair, though, PyUnit's website needs to make it clear right up front that it's bundled with Python 2.1 and you only need to download it if you're using an old version of Python.
   
   The worst thing has been noted by several other reviewers: the heavy dependence upon PyUI, a library created by the author that was never even finished. Although it has been put on sourceforge, nobody has been maintaining it. It would probably be best not to even bother with learning how to use it, because you'll have trouble getting it to work and nobody else uses it. Its only value is that it'll help you follow the book's examples. If you need a GUI for your game, there are others you can find at the pygame website, such as pgu or OcempGUI, both of which are currently maintained.
   
   However, this is not all as bad as it sounds. A lot of the advice is still good, and if you keep learning about Python, you'll figure out how to work around this book's deficiencies. Unfortunately, this book is geared towards Python newbies, who shouldn't be expected to know how to do that. The code seems to be reasonably-written, it's just out of date. The sad thing is, if this book had been released a few years prior, and it didn't depend on a library that nobody uses or maintains, it'd probably be perfect. As it is, it was out of date even when published, and is only more so now.
   
   Most of the good things in the book, such as the chapter on procedural content generation, don't seem to have much to do with Python itself, but rather are good concepts that happen to use Python for the examples. I think the book does have things to teach. But if you're a Python newbie, you'd do well to get another book about Python if you want to use the language as it is now, and not as it was six or seven years ago. Or, if you're an experienced programmer, you could do what I did and "pick it up" using the official tutorials and documentation, which are freely browsable and downloadable online.
   
   On the positive side, the book especially deserves kudos for the idea in the first place. Although I had the idea of writing a game in Python before knowing about this book, the idea may not strike others so readily, especially if they haven't heard of Python. Too many books either start you with writing in C or C++, or else writing in some toy language such as some variant of BASIC that nobody uses. Python is as easy to use as the BASIC dialects, but as powerful as C++. It's just not as fast as C++ -- an obstacle that can still be tackled when you're ready for it. It's a language with a great variety of uses and an established user base, so it'll have use for many things beyond game development, while still being reasonably suited for that task. What more could you ask for?
   
   In summary: the book was great idea, but the execution leaves some to be desired.

5 comments about Excel 2003 VBA Programmer's Reference (Programmer to Programmer).

1. This huge (1176 page) book is intended for Excel users and programmers from beginning to advanced, this book presumes you have a reasonable working knowledge of excel and a full installation of the software. It does not presume that you have a working knowledge of VBA, after all, that's it's subject.
   
   In fact, chapter 1 is titled Primer in Excel VBA. Excel VBA is, of course, a specialized version of Microsoft's standard VBA, where those specific points that cater to spread sheet manipulation are differrent from the VBA's associated with other parts of the Microsoft Office package.
   
   This book gives a general introduction to VBA, but it is entirely within the context of Excel. This is indeed a Primer. It starts with how you open the Visual Basic Editor and goes on from there. Generally the book grows step by step. But not always. ==On page 83 it says: "OnTime - You can use the OnTime method to schedule a macro to run sometime in the future." OK, I understand this. But only 7 pages later it says: "VBA does support interface polymorphism. Interface polymorphism is orthogonal to class polymorphism." Huh? Does this help me schedule something to run in the future? Is this supposed to mean anything at all to me? Since I have no idea what it's talking about am I supposed to go look up all these new words somewhere? Is this really going to help me? Anyway, you skip a few chapters and you're back into getting some useful information about things like creating user forms.
   
   All in all I rate the book quite high. Everything you always wanted to know is there. And it is supposed to be a reference manual, not a tutorial. My only complaint is that I think it could have organized a bit better.



2. sorry to say that i'm very dissapointed to own this book. For those who are new to VBA, it is not a good start from here. I also find that the example and the function covered is not practical enough to use to develop your own program. I would recomend a book written by John Walkenbach which the examples and function cover more practical



3. I have not read this book, but it is obviously based on a book by the same authors, Excel 2002 VBA Programmer's Reference.

   That book has numerous errors: incorrect code that will not run, code that has incorrect variables, code that has nothing to do with the text above or below it, screen shots that have nothing to do with the text.

   It also has an eclectic index that on occasion leads you to what you want.

   The authors have been let down by the Wrox editors, but on occasion one can find gems of useful information in their book. I would be quite tempted to review the present version of the text, but my past experience with Wrox-edited books makes me hesitant to spend more money on such texts.

   I hope someone who has actually read the book can supply us with a better review than this one.
   --j.r.a.




4. This book is very poorly written and badly organized. Essential introductory topics are sprinkled throughout the book seemingly randomly. Much of the writing is horribly ambiguous or just plain unreadable. I am a beginning programmer, though I am highly proficient with Excel. I was lucky to be familiar with some other programming languages because the explanations of object-oriented programming concepts in this book (as well as other topics covered) would have been completely incomprehensible without a moderate level of background experience. The examples in the book are neither practical, nor particularly well designed to illustrate the VBA concepts that the authors are trying to teach. Instead, the authors seem to be preoccupied with designing examples to convey stylistic programming conventions that they personally favor.



5. Just want to echo the negative reviews below. I've owned and read a lot of programming books in my life and this is one of the worst. Avoid it.

5 comments about Introducing Microsoft® LINQ.

1. I learned a few things from the book, but overall it left me wanting more. The price matches a much bigger book, so I would've expected it to be full of good stuff, but in fact it was almost cursory on most topics. I realize it's an "Introducing" book, but for the price I would've wanted a somewhat deeper introduction.



2. Considering that this book is based on a beta product, I was expecting it to have a section on installing LINQ. Sure I can go to the LINQ's website and find out but the author should have added that section and discuss the tricks, tips, caveats and particularly his experiences when he installed the beta version of LINQ. Without the LINQ installed in my machine, I was not able to try the code examples in the book.
   
   There is a relatively long section about C# 2.0 features. That is a nice-to-have section but that is the one he should have omitted.
   
   For a 240-page paper bound book, this is a bit pricey.
   
   I returned the book and promised myself to wait for the final release of LINQ before I buy any book about it.



3. this is a great into - not something you are going to start using right away, but good to keep in mind for up and coming projects. If you are using VS2005 you can start playing with this - its not a VISTA only tool.



4. I feel a little bad rating this a 4 since it's a Beta book. It's really hard writing on betas b/c material changes so frequently.
   
   I liked the book a lot and thought it covered the topics of LINQ and EF pretty well. I think though, it was a bit too heavy into language features of C# 3.0 and VB 9.0. Yes, it's necessary to cover many of these in the context of LINQ but I think proportion wise, it was a bit too much there and a little light in other areas (for instance, unless I totally missed it, i didn't see anything about parallell LINQ). The coverage of EF was good, but I would love to have seen about 50 more pages.
   
   Although it's small the content is right to the point however. They do a good job of discussing LINQ and EF and even showing some more advanced areas and I will say that if you read this book and understand it, you can get just about anywhere you want to be with LINQ. You can read it quickly and be up and running very quickly and that's the strength.
   
   In all honesty, I should probably have given it a 5. My personal opinion is that it's not quite a 5 but definitely higher than a 4. If it were 10.00 cheaper, I probably would have went for the 5 - but it's not a cheap book for the size of it.
   
   The authors did a great job in many areas and considering it's a beta release, they did a superb job.



5. I give this book two stars because it is not what I (a beginner) wanted to use. I cannot say how good a book it is for the audience it is written for.
   This book is designed for experienced programmers who know C# code. It surveys the use of advanced programming techniques using LINQ.
   The authors explain on page 51 "the ability to read C# code is also important for reading the rest of this book (because LINQ examples are written in C#) and for understanding differences between C# 3.0 and Visual Basic 9.0.
   This is not a how to book with introductory examples. It is not for beginners.

3 comments about Pro Oracle Spatial for Oracle Database 11g (Expert's Voice in Oracle).

1. I am currently working on system, the involves Oracle Spatial technology. This book was going to be me first step (almost) towards getting familliar with Spatial. I was little anxious about the level expected from the book's reader: "Intermediate-Advanced"; I haven't exactly felt like "advanced" in Oracle technology. It wasn't so bad; the book is really well written and I had no problems with understanding anything.
   
   The book consists of six parts (including appendices). All the parts cover following subjects:
   - Introduction to the technology. Technologies, to be exact; architectures of both, Spatial and Locator options are described -
   differences between them.
   - Basic concepts - basic know-how. The part, I needed the most met my expectations in 100%. It helped me to start coding really fast.
   - Network analysis - more advanced subjects covered, the mostly ARE NOT available in Locator option (one I have access to); network analysis and routing engine, geometry engine. Also indexes and operators are described in one chapter of the book.
   - Map Visualisation and creation - a lot of knowlege about MapBuilder, MapViewer and it's API - really helpful for anybody, who needs to visualize maps stored in Spatial.
   - Sample applications and case studies - I always look for such chapter in every IT book I read. This is the place, where programmer might find a lot of answers to one's questions. There is also a chapter in this part, the belongs to the category "MUST read" - "Tips, common mistakes and common errors".
   
   There is also sample code available for the readers - to be downloaded from the publisher's web page. It is really helpful to have it while reading the book. There is only one "but" - was, to be exact. About two weeks after the book had been published, the code wasn't available on the page. At least, I couldn't find it. Now it is possible to download it from here.
   
   The book is really good - "must have" of every Oracle Spatial user. It might be helpful for the beginner and advanced developers as well. I would recommend it to everyone, who needs to get to know Oracle Spatial well. All the 756 pages (excluding index) are filled with reliable knowledge, especially that one of the authors - Ravi Kothuri is a member of Oralce spatial development team, where he works as software architect and team leader.



2. this book has all you need to know about Spatial, chapters are easy to read....and the advanced subjects are very well explained....certainly a must have one....



3. 'Pro Oracle Spatial for Oracle Database 11g' is one of those books that take a niche topic and then focus on it. For this book by Apress the topic is the spatial package that comes for Oracle 11. With nearly 800 pages of content spread over 17 chapters you will learn all the ins and outs of this important technology. Used extensively for geographical analysis but also for anything else that reads in spatial data this is a necessary purchase for anyone working with said types of data.
   
   Great work by Apress as per usual and a must buy for any Oracle admins and/or developers that need this package.
   
   ***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

5 comments about Beginning Ruby on Rails (Wrox Beginning Guides).

1. I am not a fan of Wrox books. It has nothing to do with their content, but the layout of their books is irritating to me, so I find their books hard to read. Having said that, I think this is one of the best books written for the beginning Rails user.
   
   Most books (and online tutorials) try to teach Rails by going through a big monolithic project one step at a time. Those books have good information too, and are great if the books project happens to be what you want to create; however, this one actually tells you how Rails works, which I find infinitely easier to grasp and use.
   
   I was not a beginner with Ruby or Rails prior to reading this book. I had already read several others and used Rails on a couple of small projects. Nonetheless, I found that this book filled in some of the holes in my mind regarding Rails, so I would recommend it to both the beginner and intermediate user.
   
   The only thing I found lacking in this book is a thorough explanation of migrations and how to use them. Migrations are easier to understand for beginners, I think, than manually creating your data tables; as is done in this book. The Apress book on creating E-Commerce sites with Rails contains a good explanation of migrations, I think.



2. The only reason I'm giving this book 3 stars is the good introduction to Ruby at the beginning. Its coverage of Rails is simplistic. The author asks you to re-run the command to create a new rails project for each example he takes you through. After awhile, this becomes very annoying. How often is a web developer creating new projects? It is better to go through one or two extended examples.
   
   If you do some programming for a living, this book is not for you. Get the real thing:
   Agile Web Development with Rails



3. Of the many RoR books I've read, this is probably the easiest to follow. If you don't have a lot of time and want to satisfy your RoR curiosity, this is your book. The author doesn't go into great details which can be a great thing if you're a new programmer and just want to get your feet wet. For experienced programmers, I'd go with "Agile Dev. with Rails" for a more thorough reading.



4. 'Beginning Ruby on Rails' by extreme (lots of publications) author Steven Holzner is an absolute must-buy for anyone looking to start learning Ruby on Rails!!
   
   With over 350+ pages of content spread over 11 chapters, subject matter is broken up logically:
   
   01. Ruby Overview
   02. Conditionals, Loops, Methods, Blocks
   03. Classes and Objects
   04. Rails Overview
   05. Building Simple Rails Applications
   06. Connecting to Databases
   07. Working with Databases
   08. Validating and Testing
   09. Action Controller
   10. Views
   11. Ajax and Rails
   
   This books is well written, sticks to the basics of teaching you how to become juuust a tad dangerous with Rails and and not going much further.
   
   Some reviewers have noted that this book is light but I 100% disagree. For the subject matter of learning this technology and getting up to speed this does exactly what is advertised. Wrox puts out lots of good books and this one easily gets my stamp of approval!
   
   ***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED



5. I am tired of books that present a giant, extended tutorial, revealing bits and pieces while continually dragging you deeper into a dense forest of detail, leaving you, machete in hand, to try and find your way to enlightenment.
   
   Unlike those, this book actually teaches -- it provides small examples that clearly illustrate isolated concepts, and builds from there. I gather that Dr. Holzner has written > 100 programming books, and this work clearly shows why he is in such demand.

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!

4 comments about Beginning Visual Web Programming in C#.

1. This is an end-to-end introduction to the world of .NET development. The coverage, which starts with the architecture and ends with deployment, is never comprehensive, but is always thorough enough to get you started.
   
   Graphics are used extensively, which is not appropriate for a reference, but which works here because of the introductory nature of the text. The book doesn't pander though.
   
   I recommend this to anyone who is starting with ASP.NET, and who wants an introductory text in the step by step style. If you are experienced in other web application development technologies then you would be better served by one of the O'Reilly ASP.NET reference books.



2. The book shows how to write a C# web application on a server running .NET. Perhaps the most succinct description of the book is its cohesiveness. It describes using two crucial packages, ASP.NET and ADO.NET. ASP.NET essentially handles the client-server interaction, by making dynamic HTML pages and handling the user's input. While ADO.NET controls the interaction between the application server and the database.
   
   As you go through the book, if you keep this simple demarcation in mind, then it helps your understanding of the many lower level details in each chapter.
   
   It is clear from the book that Microsoft is pushing hard to have the entire web development process done on their .NET machines, by offering a tight and consistent tool integration. Gives the open source movement a serious challenge.



3. I found this book to be a very good source of overall C# information. It was not an exhaustive resource, nor did it delve in minute detail to all the points, but I have not found a better book to get a complete picture of the web programming world.
   
   The code samples are very easy to follow, and the reader can download the code from the publisher's web site. I chose to input the code samples manually and only had a couple of minor issues along the way.
   
   One example late in the book (Chapter 11 or 12) left the code in a state where it would not execute.
   
   I also had problems with the web service examples but that can most likely be attributed to the proxy/network configuration at my place of employment.
   
   The only other issue I encountered was with the stress testing tools like ACT. I was unable to access the site and still have not been able to determine why. Of course, that's not a failing of the book or the author, just a configuration issue, I'm sure.
   
   If you are looking at starting ASP.NET development, this book is a good, solid read.



4. I had a great deal of C# Windows forms programming experience. What I needed was a book to help me leverage that into Web programming. This book fit the bill.
   
   You will not learn C# in this book (it assumes you already know the language); but it will get you quickly into building Web applications.
   
   The examples are clear, well organized, and most importantly run properly when typed in correctly! The examples also have one important feature I prefer, which is a lack of over embellishment. They show only the code needed to complete the given task, not additional bells and whistles that can confuse the point of the example.
   
   After completing the book, I found it easy to adapt the examples for use in building my own web site.

4 comments about Ethics and Technology: Ethical Issues in an Age of Information and Communication Technology.

1. This book was on the prescribed text list for the masters I am doing (Master of Informaiton Technology) and I must say I was pleasantly surprised to read it. Being a technical (engineer) person, it's a generalized opinion that this group (enclave?) we like mathematics, science and engineering books, but not so called 'arty farty' stuff like philosophy. Speaking for me personally, isn't far from the truth...So I thought...groan, not another one of these idealistic, pointless, ultimately altruistic and futile failures to read. Indeed not! I actually enjoyed reading it! (shock-horror). Tavani uses the ploy of relating his ideas to real-life situations (stalking, cracking, etc). This lends the book a serious air of legitimacy. The ivory tower is nowehere in sight. He doesn't lecture at you like you're a poor, misguided computer geek who could never possibly understand human morals and ethics in a digital world (the point is to help you do that...which Tavani does).
   
   Back to the point: the book builds form the point of view that you have never been exposed to ethics. You get a grounding in ethical theories and then move on to learning how to evaluate ethical issues (kind like logic in mathematics without the symbols). He talks about codes of practice and your moral responsibility as a somebody who works, creates or manages a little corner of cyberspace. It is at this point that the book leaps forward into relevant (if somewhat shallow treatment) of the major issues ike privacy, piracy, crime, security,freedom of speech and equity. These are also posited through scenarios and then the ethics involved are developed through direct discussion of these scenarios. And as I alluded to previously, these give the book an excellent 'hook'. They make the theory real and relevant and rather interesting (and sometimes tragic: you'll see what I mean when you read the first scenario involving a teenage girl stalked thorugh the net and ultimately murdered in realty).
   
   This is a provocative book, but in a subdued, subtle way. The author doesn't speed feed you heaped spoonsfuls of moral outrage with lashings of indignant pontification, just ideas (and these are ever so valuable) in a considered manner. I think the author has really succeeded here. If he can make a totally 'technical' person like me actually enthusiastic about reading it, then that's truly indicative of the book's quality.
   
   The price may be a little high for what is a pretty thin book in a physical sense. Ideaswise it is quite rich, so that's the price you pay (it this ethical? ideas are only available to those who can affort it!) That aside, I got a lot from this little book and so consider it money well spent.
   
   All in all a good 'starting' book for cyberethics! Thumbs up! However consider you may find yourself supplementing it with other braoder, deeper works as you progress because it is a rich field to learn in. Tavani will open this vista up for you if you approch this book with a willingness to put aside your prejudices and listen to what he has to say.



2. It seems that every time you turn around, there's some news story in the industry press about the ethics or legality of some aspect of technology. To help myself understand some of the underlying issues a bit better, I decided to read and review Ethics & Technology: Ethical Issues in an Age of Information and Communication Technology (2nd Edition) by Herman T. Tavani. While not the easiest or most riveting read, I did come away with a better appreciation for the field of ethics.
   
   Contents: Introduction To Cyberethics - Concepts, Perspectives, and Methodological Frameworks; Ethical Concepts and Ethical Theories - Establishing and Justifying a Moral System; Critical Thinking Skills and Logical Arguments - Tools for Evaluating Cyberethics Issues; Professional Ethics, Codes of Conducts, and Moral Responsibility; Privacy and Cyberspace; Security in Cyberspace; Cybercrime and Cyberrelated Crimes; Intellectual Property Disputes in Cyberspace; Regulating Commerce and Speech in Cyberspace; Social Inclusion, The Digital Divide, and the Transformation of Work - The Impact for Class, Race, and Gender; Community and Identity in Cyberspace - Ethical Aspects of Virtual-Reality and Artificial-Intelligence Technologies; Pervasive Computing and Converging Technologies - Ethical Aspects of Ambient Intelligence, Bioinformatics, and Nanocomputing; Glossary; Index
   
   Having never taken a class on ethics or critical thinking, I found the first three chapters interesting. Tavani builds the foundation of how to define and describe cyberethics, as well as how to determine and argue the case of what is "moral". These chapters are a concise course on how to build an argument and support it properly. After those three chapters are done, the concepts that were built are used to examine many different facets of computers and life, and how ethics come into play and shape how we think. There are the subjects you'd expect, like digital rights and security. But he also covers issues that I don't normally think of when dwelling on computers and ethics... gender, socioeconomic classes, race. First you have to determine if indeed those things are ethical issues, and if so, what responsibility do you have in those areas.
   
   On one hand, the book is thorough and detailed. It's meant to be a textbook on the subject, and as such it delivers. These are the types of academic discussions and debates that you'd expect in a formal setting. I was somewhat disappointed, however, when it came to conclusions. Both sides of each issue were debated (even when I didn't even think there *was* another side), but resolution was elusive. I suppose I'm supposed to take this information and draw my own conclusions, but instead I came away with "so everything's right *and* wrong". Since I tend to want to get down to practical issues rather than deal with abstracts, I found it hard to come to any resolution at the end of each chapter.
   
   Definitely good material, and worth reading. But it will make you work and think.



3. While this book would not normally be one that I would purchase to read on its own, it was the textbook for a course on computer ethics that I took and I was pleasantly surprised to find the textbook written in a very approachable matter.
   
   The text starts off with an overview in general ethical theory before starting in to the focus of the text - various issues and how they apply to the growing use of computer technology in the modern world. Some of the topics covered include surveillance, privacy, and file sharing among others. Included with the various issues are up to date examples for recent cases and point/counterpoint perspectives on the topics.
   
   The text does lose some points due to the fact that the last few chapters run a bit thin and could stand to be expanded a bit, but as a whole the text is quite detailed and provides plenty of citations to allow the reader to find attentional information.



4. The book was received very quickly, and it was in excellent condition. This is a great way to save on textbooks for school!