5 comments about Head First Design Patterns Poster (Head First).

1. It is a great poster, very clear and very big... still looking for space to put it on the wall :) it deserves to make space for it...



2. Excellent book. Every book I've ready so far in the Head First series are Great.



3. I bought this poster in the idea that the book was really interesting.
   The problem is that is badly designed. I'm not sure what others expect from it but for me I bought it to remind me all the constructions from the book.
   A very fast guide in case you want to design.
   I saw it as a post help for those that read the book. You can't put all the details on the poster but what you can do is put the guide lines.
   Most of the UML drawings for different patterns are missing. There is just a simple definition in the box.
   The text is very small and unless you are really in front of the poster is quite hard to read it.
   If I were to design this poster I would put with in big letters the principles stated in the book and the UML drawings for each pattern and maybe a few sketched examples. Something that would be focused on helping the programmer remember the principles.
   When looking at the poster you should not waste time to try to read from it. That is not the point. In my view if you want to check more details you grab the book and read it.
   this is my view... I hope it helps.



4. If you have Head First Design Patterns (Head First) this poster is great overview that you can stick on wall and stare at it from your computer table.



5. To reiterate the subject for those who care about such things, this useful poster is shipped folded instead of rolled.

2 comments about Professional Windows PowerShell (Programmer to Programmer).

1. This book is extremely well written and easy to understand coming from a non or limited programming background. If you are completely new to programming, I'd suggest reading Microsoft Windows PowerShell Programming for the Absolute Beginner by Jerry Lee Ford Jr. first and then read this book. Also, so far the code has been exceptionally accurate, which makes the experience that much better.



2. This is a really good book. I have purchased a bunch of other books on Powershell but most of them were written with developers in mind and not system administrators. Well good news, this book is written specifically for Windows System Admins. It walks you through how the scripting language works (.NET), and it provides very clear examples of how to use and create power shell scripts. With this book in hand and the free information that is available on the Microsoft Technet site, you are on you way to becoming a proficient Power Shell Scripter! Well done Mr. Andrew Watt.

5 comments about Service-Oriented Modeling (SOA): Service Analysis, Design, and Architecture.

1. The service-orientation modeling book is a non nonsense book that gives you straight answers to your service analysis and design questions. You'll not find any time wasting pages such as XML or WS* that mean noting to hands on professionals. I purchased this book because I expected to learn more about SOA modeling but most of the book discusses ways to categorized services, abstract services, analyze services, design services and architect services. The recommended hands on design method in the book focus on pure modeling and do not get off track. This is a straight forward guide that provided me with immediate answers for our projects (not only SOA). Amongst the most interesting topics that are in the book have answers to how to design services, how to connect services, how to crate a environment that supports multiple contracts.



2. When I purchased this book there were 8 glowing recommendations listed on Amazon. This was my second book related to SOA technology. The first one was a light, but good introduction. When I purchase this book I was expecting a practical book with some real-life examples. What I have purchased was desert sand, a very dry text which is so boring that I had several attempts to read this book to the end. If there is knowledge buried someplace in this book, then it is hidden too deep for me. The back of the book contains several praises (8 to be exact) from CEO's, CIOs, Executive Chairman, etc. I wonder how many of them really read this book and tried to use this newly acquired knowledge to design SOA system. Anyway, if you want to learn something about SOA architecture and design, this book might disappoint you. Try something that is closer to the ground and more practical. One day, after getting deeper into SOA architecture I will come back to this book to see whether I will change my opinion.



3. My organization, a retail company, adopted this book as the leading methodology for SOA development. The main reason for choosing this material was the strong service lifecycle, a methodological way for discovering services by following the conceptualization approach, service design and architecture and integration guidance.
   
   It looks like the author "grew up" in dynamic environments where he studied the major SOA problems. We have about 250 services that needed integration and most important our employees needed more education on "how to" issues. Among the burning problems that we identified and are properly explained in this book are for example ESB usage: why, when, and how much; SOA integration products such as gateways, data massaging and processing, data collection, and other programming issues with integration of services.
   
   This is the first book that explains in simple words what is needed to simulate a service environment and how to integrate SOA and services for small applications or even larger SOA environments that contain a few applications.



4. If you buy this book it will change the way you think about software design and architecture. I am sure that it will give you a different perspective about architecting an application and it will enhance your knowledge about analyzing a service and involving legacy applications in the design phase. This book is strong on explaining what type of software components you will need to embed in your architecture. The most contributing part of this book is the recommended diagrams & modeling patterns that you as a developer, an architect, a business analyst, or project manager will need for articulating service design.
   
   My company is currently adopting this book as our service development guide which includes the recommended diagrams and service modeling patterns and deliverables.



5. I do not know the authors, I have never met them or spoken to them, but I must say this.
   
   This book is:
   
   "Awesome" because there is nothing like this that explains services!
   "Contemporary" because of its innovative approach to design and architecture integration
   "Creative" because it tells you how to design and architect SOA and services in different ways, yet it makes a lot of sense!
   "Mad" because when you read it you realize how surprising it is!
   
   I strongly recommend this book to the business development and technical development people. The author came up with an overarching approach to design that can be easily embraced and agreed upon. This is an unbelievable modeling material that should be a must for every student, employers and employees.
   
   Also, if you are a software modeler a developer a manager an architect a business analyst a business planner a program manager a database modeler a student - or plan to be one, you must have this book. I have it already!
   
   Ashley Molloy
   Golden, CO, USA

No comments about Office and SharePoint 2007 User's Guide: Integrating SharePoint with Excel, Outlook, Access and Word (Expert's Voice).

5 comments about Mastering Unix Shell Scripting: Bash, Bourne, and Korn Shell Scripting for Programmers, System Administrators, and UNIX Gurus.

1. I thought the book was excellent. Each example program is thoroughly explained. The example programs are very useful and well written. The examples will work for the most common Unix variants. A library of functions are provided that can be used to build more complex programs.
   
   I am a seasoned system administrator with a lot of programming experience but I have a limited amount of experience with Unix and AIX. This book helped me get up-to-speed with common system administration tasks such as resource monitoring and notification.



2. This book is great! I Recently landed a job as a Systems Administrator (Solaris), and I needed to know how to script. With little scripting experience (and me not wanting to loose the job of my dreams); I picked this book up. All I can say is WOW. What a GREAT book. It describes step by step what to do, how it's done and why it's done. Although it's exclusively KSH, it does have the same script written in different formats so that it works with Linux, Solaris, HP-UX, and other Unicies.
   
   This book assumes that you know SOME basic scripting skills. Beginners would have to learn some basic scripting and (more importantly) understand the concept besides the actual command(s). I recommend this book for, nonetheless, to everyone who wants/needs to script. Happy scripting!



3. Mastering UNIX Shell Scripting is a good book on writing Korn shell scripts. If you need BASH or CSH or something else, get another book.
   
   All of the examples in the book are directed towards Systems Administrators. That is not a bad thing. Too many books give you examples that have no use outside the one bit they are trying to teach you. Each example in this book has a real world function. The scripts cover Linux, HP-UX, Solaris and AIX. The examples are straight forward and have lots of useful comments and techniques.
   
   My only complaint about the book is it lacks any real reference value. It would be nice to have a summary of language features. Even with that drawback I would recommend this book over the O'Reiely book.



4. This is an excellent book for unix shell scripting. Pretty much covers everything from A-Z.



5. [A review of the 2ND EDITION, where the latter was published in June 2008.]
   
   Perhaps you are a programmer or sysadmin of a heterogeneous network of unix and linux machines. Where the unixes hail from different vendors. Think Solaris, HP-UX, AIX and the Macintosh. (Yes, the Mac runs a descendent of Mach, which is a dialect of unix.) And maybe the linux boxes have different distros. This book spans the gamut of most unixes (I include linux in this). Helping you easily write shell scripts, without taking sides over which unix or linux version is better.
   
   The second ecumenical aspect is that it also avoids favouring any of the 3 major unix shells - Borne, Korn and bash. In some newsgroups, there has been a tedious and interminable debate about the relative virtues of these shells. While one shell might indeed be better than others for a given task, in general they have equivalent functionality. The book's evenhanded approach is one worth emulating.
   
   Thoughtfully, the book suggests topics that might be typically useful to sysadmins, and others more suited to programmers. It is not a strict divide. But for sysadmins, you can see discussions about how to monitor disk partitions, or system load and swap space usage. These are often issues germane to your duties.
   
   The bulk of the book is more on programmer-related topics. Much. Note that the book is largely random access, unlike a science textbook for example, which is serial access from the front. In other words, with just a minimal acquaintance with basic scripting, you can dive straight into any chapter, without reading its predecessor.

5 comments about Applying Domain-Driven Design and Patterns: With Examples in C# and .NET.

1. This is really an exellent book on DDD, I read soon after the Evans book and I must admit that is really worth money I spent on it. Sure the book is not for beginners, and it is not an introduction to DDD, I think that a background on the subject is needed to fully appreciate this book.
   
   Alk.



2. This book covers many topics and has loads of references for patterns and domain driven design. It reads a bit choppy - almost as if a conversation were taking place. Overall it is a good compliment to Eric Evan's book and would be a good guide for newcomers to patterns and agile development.



3. Read fowler's and Evan's, the book is very good but it is an extension of books of the two authors. So, to understand it completely it is better to read those before.
   
   I have not read the books that this is based but I have enjoyed it a lot.



4. The book provides a massive detailed walk through the construction of the domain-driven framework creation. It is in Jimmy Nilsson's conversational tone and that makes the book very interesting.
   
   I do wish there were a few diagrams to tie each chapter together, but that is for the reader to do.



5. I like the author's modesty (very ofter his sentences start with "I think"), his rational thinking and his quoting the relevant big guys. He uses a very nice and simple language throughout the book which makes it an easy read. But sometimes, he is dragging on a subject for too long, for that I have to give it 4.5 stars.

5 comments about Pro .NET 2.0 Windows Forms and Custom Controls in C#.

1. Since the moment when I took this book in my hands and was able to make practice with the examples on this book, I was able to feel recognized the simplicity in the complexity of the controls.
   
   The examples are clear and very well done, impeccables and flawless a good thing for the newbie and the old programmer.
   
   I am enjoying the controls that allow me to click on them and assign my own properties.



2. I've read quite a few books on Windows Forms applications which include creating custom controls. There are some that are average and there are some that are very good. Usually the average books tend to touch on the simpler aspects of windows forms and forms controls and not go into much detail, which is OK for the novice programmer dabbling in .NET for the first time. However, the more experienced programmers among us want much more. In this respect the very good books tend to be a little over the top for the average user.
   
   This book falls somewhere in the middle for novice and experienced programmers alike, whilst still being rather good. It offers a good discussion on what makes up the underlying architecture of Windows Forms applications which many books lack. The .NET IDE attempts to hide a lot of the nuts and bolts behind the outer layers and generally you shouldn't touch what's under the covers. But occasionally you need to, especially when using visual inheritance because that's when the IDE starts the go a little haywire. By understanding a little about what's happening underneath goes a long way in helping you get out of the mess when the IDE does screw up.
   
   The book covers most of the interesting forms controls .NET 2.0 has to offer and describes them in better detail than what can be found in the relatively useless MSDN on-line help. The code examples given are excellent, concentrating on real-world scenarios. A good portion of the book illustrates how to extend these controls further using custom controls and GDI+ owner drawing to modify the look and feel of these controls.
   
   The book also concentrates on developing 3-tier applications isolating the presentation layer from the business logic and data layers, which is a highly recommended practice for developing scalable applications.
   
   The book doesn't include a CD but all the code examples can be downloaded from the publisher's web site.
   
   Overall I give it 4 out of 5.



3. I checked this book out online and only read chapter 20(multithreading). In this chapter the author does an excelent job progressively building your knowledge about .net Threading. I would highly recommend reading this book to anyone wanting to learn about Threading.
   
   The only downfall about this chapter is that it does not talk about some of the more advanced Threading classes such as Monitor and ReaderWriterLock. I would love for this author to do a standalone book just about threading.



4. I needed this book for a training course on Windows development in .Net. It helped a great deal to have a good reference that was not the same as the book used in the course. Sometimes I found the examples a little hard to follow because of the distraction of the scenarios shown, but when I boiled them down to what they were meant to present, they were very helpful.



5. This book has already paid for itself in just a couple of weeks -- due to the time saved in trying to find the information I need. Every time I have a question regarding an issue in Windows Forms or with Custom & User Controls, I can find it here. Additionally, the content is written in a manner that can be understood by mere mortals, with some good tips and tricks thrown in too.
   
   Highly recommended.
   
   On the merits of this text, I've already purchased Matthew MacDonald's WPF book (the 3.0 one, since I haven't *quite* moved to VS 2008 yet...).

No comments about Professional Visual Studio 2008.

No comments about Beginning C# 2008 Databases: From Novice to Professional (Beginning from Novice to Professional).

2 comments about The Software Project Manager's Bridge to Agility (The Agile Software Development Series).

1. Finally a book in the agile series that acknowledges agile and PMI are compatible. As a PMP and CSM, one of my long time frustrations has been too many agile authors create a stereotype of an overly bureaucrat waterfall process being managed by a dictator project manager. That may be a great way to sell their books, but their rejection of sound project management principles has been a disservice to the industry--the classic mistake of throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
   
   As the title states, Sliger and Broderick sets out to bridge this divide and does a super job showing how agile management practices fit into the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK). They reinforce this message with extensive quotes from the PMBOK that explicitly address incremental and iterative development. I especially like their chapter summaries which compare and contrast project manager approaches to specific practices under a plan-driven and an agile project. One of their key messages is that project managers should allow the team to focus on the current iteration, allowing the project managers to focus on removing impediments to future work. This is sound advice no matter what development framework you are using.
   
   Sliger and Broderick discussion on how agile is being extended to product and release planning and how it's adapting to interfacing with PMOs and non-agile teams is also very relevant. While agile purest reject such notions, these are issues that my clients are facing today. Sliger and Broderick succinctly summarize the current thinking on agile product and release planning and provide sound advice on adapting agile to meet these real-world needs.
   
   One shortcoming in the book is that the authors imply that agile is the silver-bullet that should always be used. I wished they would have acknowledge that while agile methods are appropriate in many situations; plan-driven methods are the appropriate choice for other situations. (See Balancing Agility and Discipline: A Guide for the Perplexed by Barry Boehm and Richard Turner)
   
   I highly recommend this book and will be adding to our seminars reference lists. It is especially useful to experienced project managers. As the product description (see above) states they often struggle while transitioning to agile. However, I don't think they are doubtful about the approach, but instead are confused by the hype they encounter. It will also be useful to agilest who starting to see through the hype in other books. Sliger and Broderick have cut through the hype and reinforce the point that effective project management principles still apply.



2. This excellent book is targeted directly at Project Management Professionals (PMPs) but will be extremely beneficial to any project manager who is interested in agile development. After three short chapters that introduce the general principles and activities of an agile software development project, the authors attack the meat of their subject. Each of the nine chapters of part two corresponds directly to one of the PMI's project management knowledge areas.
   
   Sliger and Broderick, each an experienced PMP, cover the changed responsibilities of the project manager transitioning to agile. A highlight of each chapter is the small table with columns for 'I used to do this' and 'Now I do this' that succinctly summarizes the often profound differences between traditional and agile project management.
   
   This book is necessary reading for any project manager making the change to agile as well as for any ScrumMaster or agile coach working on a large projects. The book takes a giant stride toward dispelling the myth that the only role for project managers is to buy pizza and soda and get out of the way.