Computing Internet Books

Great book that beginners and experts alike can gain valuable knowledge from. Though you really need to know a little bit about Java or C so that you have a little background on programming so you will have something to compare it to Cocoa programming.

It's the best book i know for programming on Mac OSX !

Thanks from Berlin Germany !

Honestly, I was quite apprehensive because I'm a newbie to programming, with just a passing knowledge of Objective-C (gained from online resources). However, after going through 80% of the book (and looking forward to the next few chapters), I can say that this is definitely a great resource for any beginner who wants to learn how to write Cocoa programs. At the same time, concepts which I first found difficult to comprehend in Apple's online documentation became much easier to understand after they were discussed in the book.

IMHO, anyone interested to become a Mac developer should read this amazing book + Apple's great online documentation. I guess the only way to improve it would be to include sections on iPhone development for the 4th edition. Thanks for a great book Mr. Hillegass, and for making Cocoa fun to learn! =)

The author is probably the only professional Cocoa instructor, and if not the only, at least the one that's been so the longest. As such, his book is absolutely amazing. The instruction takes you through everything you need to know to start writing your own Cocoa applications. The pace in which he introduces topics is just right. It's structured to make you question things, then he immediately answers any question you might have had. And by the end of the book, you're also taught how to teach yourself anything else you may find yourself needing to know about the Cocoa frameworks. The beginning of the book is also a great crash course in Objective-C, that is, if you already know another OO-language. This gets my highest review, a first for an instructional material.

This book is excellent. The explanations are short and very clear. The author makes cocoa really easy to learn, step by step. There are good and instructive exercices he calls challenges.
You can really get to work right after reading this book and completing the so called challenges. And it will certainly be a handy reference book.
A must have.

The primarily reason to buy that book was reviews. There is no CD and no examples. So if you are a developer and want to see some code or examples, do not waste money on it. I think I am the only one who gave this book 1 star. This makes this book absolutely meaningless.

Real-time rendering is a perfect resource to bring always :) with you and read something about this world.

I find it really useful and elegant and complete

This is not a book of algorithms on computer graphics methods. Instead, it is a comprehensive high-level survey of rendering techniques for making the graphics appear to occur in real time. This book has a very academic tone to it, and with the exception of chapter 3 which is on matrix transforms, it has precious few implementation details. Some reviewers have called it a successor to Foley and Van Dam's classic text, but I find this misleading. That book is primarily about computer graphics techniques, and is not that concerned with real-time issues. The bibliography of this book is extensive and impressive, and if you are doing research on the subject it is probably essential, especially if you are interested in the subject of virtual reality where real-time presentation is a must. However, if you are just looking for pseudocode or more "cool effects" to insert into a game or graphics program you are writing/programming you would do best to look elsewhere.

I acually read this book cover to cover theres alot of information in the book and its a great book to refer back to. Its really good as a companion with OpenGL. theres some directx stuff in it too but there seems to be more with OpenGL references.

I was greatly disappointed with the first edition of this book. There is nothing new herein that cannot be culled from the latest presentations/whitepapers posted on NVIDIA/ATI websites, from the standpoint of real time graphics.

That being said, the book in conjunction with the book's online resources site is pretty much a stand alone reference on the state of the art in rendering techniques today.

I am an experienced developer, and used this set to pass the MCPD Web. It should be all anyone really needs.

Everyone is different, by my recommendation is to use the books only for reference. Take the tests on the disk. Then for the questions you get wrong or find yourself guessing - look up the topic. Study for your weaknesses, otherwise anyone with experience working with this stuff is going to be rehashing everything they already know.

I read people complain about how the books don't cover everything, and am at a loss to know what they could be talking about. If you know everything contained in the books or even possess about 85% of that knowledge, then there really is no way you can fail the tests.

I'm currently studying to get my certified professional developer degree. Its a good deal and it comes with everything i need for the web developer certification.

Hey, you may not be going to go take the tests, but at the least find some time (if you can) and read these books.

I am currently trying to find time to get through these books. While I know a fairly good amount of concepts, I want to be polished and complete to make my job much easier and increase my free time at home because of that. That leads to why you would want to read these books.

These books explain things in a very straight forward manor. They at least in my opinion, side-step any jibberish and tell you the basic "why" for a lot of things. I feel that the author did a pretty decent job covering the subject in each book.

Also, if you notice that most programming books typically use a smaller font, or just so much information or so much bold or what not, that your mind is just trying to process the formatting of one page. What I like about this book is Space. There is larger text and space. Makes you really focus in and read carefully page by page.

Anyway, definitely decent books in my opinion here.

Unfortunately, there really isn't much material out there that covers the MCPD certifications. In fact, based on my brief search, this was the only book that covered it. So it was either get this book or just go off the list of material posted on the Microsoft website. The book does provide three 15% off vouchers and a program of test questions. And for that, it gets the +2 stars.

After that, the material is pretty weak. It's written as-is (kinda ben stein-ish) and the code is confusing to read. I often times have to look at the MSDN equivalent material to get a better understanding of what the author was really trying to say and/or code. But again, what are you going to do? The list that microsoft presents on their certifications page is too vague, you need direction.

You're going to definately need more material to look through outside of what's in the book, but it's a good place to build from. So far I have just taken 1 out of the 3 tests, but I passed on my first time. If you were to use the book as a guide, shouldn't be a problem to do the same.

Very helpful for taking Microsoft exam. I have passed successfully due to these books. But experience is still necessary.

Well I originally bought this book to help study for the CVOICE exam. I certainly used it for that and then some. It covered all of the exam topics pretty well and for me was an easy read. I passed the exam easily. What I didnt realize was that I would use it even more after the fact for a reference. Definitely worth the money for this book.

As I did not understand FXS and FXO, I bought this book. But unfortunately it does not explain very clearly all the relevant analogue and digital trunk technologies. The exercises are too simple without any practical use, most figures are copied from Cisco web site, and some sentences are copied word by word. I recommend this book to those light readers only, who just want to understand some basic concepts. In my opinion it is not very useful for network engineers. Hope the new version will change a lot.

Kevin makes very clear and concise explanation of VoIP/IPT applied to Cisco equipment, sample configurations for dial-peers, differences between call processing methods like SIP, H.323 and MGCP, bandwidth usage on different types of media and networks and how to calculate amounts of calls to be provised.

I read this book primarily to pass the CVOICE exam.

First off, this book barely provides adequate coverage of the questions that come up in the exam. I kept seeing questions and thinking, hey, this wasn't in the book!

I don't think I would have passed the exam if I had relied solely on this book. It's got too many niggling errors and some poorly explained sections that look like the author was writing them in the small hours or after a few pints.

You need to check the web site, 3rd party prep guides and course notes to be sure of success.

it's a good manual for people that wants to have a better understanding of VOIP

This book provides a complete overview of all the various subjects that you can come across in a Web(application) Content Management (WCM) project on the SharePoint 2007 platform. It gives you introduction, background explanation as helpful tips and tricks.
I had the misfortune that this book was not yet published when starting my first MOSS 2007 WCM projects. However, even then I still learned and profited from reading.

This is the latest book from Andrew Connell. I have to admit, I got a review copy of this a few weeks back and skimmed through it pretty quickly. Since then, it sat on my desk under a pile of papers (literally, at one point I thought I had lost itcI really need to clean up my desk) waiting for me to get the chance to review it further.

My first impression upon skimming through it was that, as expected, it is pretty impressive. I do very little work with the publishing and WCM sides of MOSS but I couldn't see anything that was missing from the book that you would need in order to complete a WCM project. Over the last few days, I've gone back in for a deeper read on some of the chapters. My opinion hasn't changed, still impressive. So much so that I think even a dolt like me could do some of this stuff - I'm thinking of even taking a stab at building up a publishing site using the material from the book to help just so I can get some hands-on time with that side of the product.

If you are experienced with SharePoint, but just not the WCM/Publishing side, you'll likely only skim the first four chapters. I have some background in WCM in general (Vignette, MCMS, a few now-defunct implementations, etc) so I might have skimmed it more than most. The nice thing about this book is that if you do have a background in SharePoint, you can easily skim through the pieces that you know already. I would advise you to not skip them entirely, though, as there are a few pieces that are unique to WCM buried in the rest of the gSharePoint 101 content.

What I was really looking for was the hands-on pieces which begin in chapter 5. Here is where the fun begins. Moving quickly from base topics such as Site Definitions, Content Types, Lists and Master Pages, we move onto some more WCM-focused topics:

Customizing Navigation - comes into play sometimes in non-WCM implementations, but almost ALWAYS in WCM projects

Accessibility - Another big piece of any public facing WCM site. The chapter is short, largely, I think because there isn't much of a story here for SharePoint, unfortunately. It covers the Accessibility Kit for SharePoint, but only through installation and implementation. I wish it went a little further, but perhaps that is something I need to discover for myself...

Field Types and Field Controls - Probably my favorite chapter. This is one of the best extensibility points for SharePoint.

Web Parts - Interesting, I don't typically think of web parts in a WCM site, but I can see that I was wrong. Great coverage of the Content Query Web Part.

Workflow - My favorite topic, a good overview and provides the basics, thanks for the plug for my book, AC.

Search - I need to re-read this chapter and commit to memory. For some reason, I can't get my hands around SharePoint Search. It just doesn't stay in my brain. This is the first time I've seen a concise coverage of search that still seems to cover everything you need. For me, this will likely be the most useful chapter, if I can manage to remember it all

Authoring Experience - Love the coverage of customizing the Page Editing Toolbar.

Authentication and Authorization - Not specific to WCM sites. A must-read for anyone doing SharePoint.

Multiple-Languages and Devices - Variations, likely the hardest part of getting WCM right. Another must-read.

Content Deployment - critical to doing WCM right. Currently, Content Deployment in MOSS is a bit fragile - this chapter provides great coverage of how to get it working.

Offline Authoring - I have one client who massively overused this feature (implemented before I started there) and is having all kinds of problems. This chapter could have saved them a lot of hassle.

Tips, Tricks & Traps - This chapter alone is worth the cost of the book. Caching, page payloads, performance management, proper disposing, etc. All great stuff.

ASP.Net 2.0 Applications - At first glance, I thought this chapter was an afterthought, an add-on. It didn't really seem to fit. However, when I looked at it more closely, it definitely fits. These days it is rare to find a company that doesn't already have a significant investment in their website. If they are now implementing MOSS, it is likely that you will need to have MOSS and an ASP.Net website/application coexist for some period of time - perhaps quite lengthy. In addition, your WCM site may require additional application-type functionality outside of what SharePoint offers. This chapter touches upon all of the things you will need to be concerned about. After reading it, I wish this chapter were longer. It is definitely not an "add-on".

So, all-in-all, a worthy addition to your bookshelf for anyone who does SharePoint. If you deal specifically with WCM, what are you waiting for? Go buy this book.

Dave

PS: In the interest of full disclosure, yes, I got a free copy, and yes, AC is a friend of mine. However, I would have paid for it if I didn't get a copy for free, and the fact that it was written by a friend is irrelevant. If the book sucked eggs, I would say so. It doesn't. :-)

I received a copy of Andrew Connell's new Professional SharePoint 2007 Web Content Management Development: Building Publishing Sites with Office SharePoint Server 2007 book this week. As expected, Andrew's new book is excellent - well written with a ton of substantial content.

What I like about this book:

Chapter 5 dissects SharePoint's out-of-the-box MOSS 2007 Publishing Portal site definition. This chapter then covers how to create a Minimal Publishing Portal site definition which does not include the extraneous artifacts included in the somewhat bloated out-of-the-box version.

I particularly like Chapter 10 on Field Types and Field Controls. Unfortunately, there is little documentation and online resources available about creating custom field types. Andrew's book offers a complete chapter on the subject, with clear explanations and good examples.

Chapter 15 on Authentication and Authorization provides the reader with instructions to configure forms-based authentication for an extranet/internet-facing SharePoint site. Users often have trouble setting up FBA, but this book gives the needed instruction and guidance.

Professional SharePoint 2007 Web Content Management Development: Building Publishing Sites with Office SharePoint Server 2007 is a must have for any serious SharePoint developer. I have been developing on the SharePoint platform for almost a decade, and this book will stay within arm's reach of my keyboard. Seriously, buy this book today.

-Tony Bierman [MVP WSS]

WCM (Web Content Management) is becoming a "hot" item in many MOSS deployments. I should also clarify that this book is focused on WCM as opposed to ECM (Enterprise Content Management), as this seems to be a confusing topic for some. So it is mainly for those looking for working with the publishing infrastructure within MOSS (replacing MCMS - Microsoft Content Management Server), not with the Document Management features (Archiving, Records, etc...). This book is a great reference for those of us who develop against MOSS but who haven't had a chance to work with the WCM features.

I was especially pleased on the sections covering custom fields, field controls and control templates for truly customizing the authoring experience for your content authors. It is hard to find good information on extending the authoring environment and this book gave me enough info to really customize the publishing features of MOSS for my end users and content authors.

While not covering every single possible scenario, this reference provides more than adequate instruction and guidance on using the built in API's to accomplish most tasks. I do not expect a book to spoon feed me everything I need to know about a topic especially if it is to be useful as a general reference. The book does a great job of covering enough of each subject to give you a jump off point to build from on your own projects. As the title states it is in the professional line of WROX books so it expects that you have a good deal of familiarity with MOSS and .Net development. It did a great job of giving instruction without the heavy handed hand holding that some entry level or beginning books tend to lean toward. For those who are not as familiar with SharePoint or .Net I would definitely recommend looking into some introductory training or books first before jumping in. While I would welcome more coverage on some of the topics, they can always go into additional books or in AC's already extensive list of topics covered in his Blog or workshops.

I give this book 5 stars for giving me more tools as a developer to work with the WCM aspects of MOSS. All of the examples in the book so far that I have used have been fully functional despite the fact that this book was probably written prior to the release of some of the fixes that have been released for MOSS like SP1, etc...

I definitely recommend this to anyone who is a SharePoint developer looking to get into the WCM aspects of the product.

NOTE: This is an updated version of a previous review I had made. Most details have been kept as is. I have bumped the review from 2 starts to 3 (couldn't edit starts and hence had to re-post).

I have been a regular visitor of AC's blogs which contains a number of tidbits about SharePoint (most of which are not in the MOSS documentation, which is sad). I was eagerly expecting his book on WCM as I am currently working on a WCM project.

However, the book itself is very disappointing in its content. True that it contains a good introduction to WCM component of SharePoint, but I was expecting more beyond what I can find by simple Google blog searches.

Here's my rationale for the 3 stars.

1 star for compiling relevant info on WCM. ASAIK, this is the only book on the WCM aspect of SharePoint to date.
2 stars for covering all the basics of SharePoint, including references to 3rd party tools like Telerik and AKS.
3 stars for covering the field controls, master pages, and layouts with good detail.

That said, here's why I removed the other 2 stars.

1 star for not covering enough on Content Deployment. One of the most important aspects of WCM is content deployment (more so than other aspects of SharePoint). First, there is only one chapter on this. Second, the first 10 pages are about how to get the OOTB job up and running (with screenshots). The remaining 2 pages talk about the API. I was definitely expecting a lot more in this area such as gotchas, tips and tricks, planning, etc. in this section, given that this is a WCM book. Moreover, given the numerous issues that MOSS has with Content Deployment (of which a number of hot fixes have been posted by MS), there is not a single mention on what to watch out for.

1 star for not pointing out the limitations of SharePoint. This a Wrox book not a MS Press book. I expected AC to be a little more even-minded than just be a mouthpiece for MS. There isn't a single mention of where MOSS is limited and what to do about the same. Good examples are in the "Authoring Extensibility" section and in "Accessibility" section.

The default HTML Editor has a strong limitation that it does not allow you to embed flash, multimedia, JavaScript, etc. (due to the overly cautious nature of MS - you can't even disable this behavior). Telerik has a limitation of not allowing you to place "reusable content" - one of the biggest components of reuse in SharePoint - and not a single mention in the book - just a quick 2 paragraph introduction...

I wish the book had covered more details in these areas, along with providing details on how to setup a farm for WCM purposes (the concepts of Authoring, Staging, Public, etc.). This would have helped those who want to setup SharePoint explicitly for WCM. The need is there as most other SharePoint books talk about setting up the farm for an Intranet scenario than a WCM scenario.

Overall, it's a good attempt by the author to describe WCM in SharePoint, but it would have been better if it were unbiased and more informative.

Disclaimer: I also appreciate the author for quickly responding to my earlier post explaining his stand. While I don't agree with some of the statements, I can understand his rationale (hence the bump-up by 1 star). Hope the author comes up with a bigger-better book on WCM in future!

My teacher recommended this book and it's now my bible. I just started building a WSS 3.0 environment and the book explains each feature in detail. Also, the author includes what that feature couldn't do in Sharepoint 2003 and the extras added in MOSS. So you learn the past, present and future of each feature. Great job explaining the whole picture.

With this much information packed into one book, it's crucial that information can be easily found when looking up something. This book is never presenting the information where you'd expect, and the index is horrible - I haven't found anything I was looking for yet by using the index.
It's not about presenting everything - it's about presenting everything so that you can find it when you need it.
Maybe adding a Google feature would do the trick...

Could use more programming examples. More for a power users then dev user. But its very good if you are looking for just a power user book.

Was a little hesistant to get another in the "unleashed" series since I have been burned before with a lot of content that is dry and not pertinent to my environment. On the contrary, this is one of the best books I have seen on the new MOSS 2007 enviroment. It is clearly written and organized so that I don't have to search to hard for what I need and I can ignore what I don't.

So far I have read 5 books about SharePoint 2007. This is my fifth book in this subject. This book is different. This book is for IT system administrators and not for developers. However, as a consultant for SharePoint 2007 development, I find that this book reveals the administration considerations I usually ignore. Therefore, my review is based on the uniqueness of this book.

Pros:
1. This book is an excellent resource for system administrators. It covers most of SharePoint administration I can think of. In addition, the authors provide guide lines for SharePoint migration, the integration of SharePoint 2007 / Exchange 2007 / ISA 2006 / Forefront, and farm planning. These are the gems of this book. You can not afford to skip the chapters about application of Exchange/ISA/Forefront in Internet SharePoint 2007 environment.

Cons:
1. Tables and Figures are printed in small fonts. I would prefer a bigger font size.
2. This book is around 800 pages, and is written for system administrators. If you are a developer, you might be disappointed because there are only a few lines of code.
3. The authors discuss the SharePoint infra-structure including Exchange/ISA/Forefront. However, the lab environment is not designed that way. So the readers who want to do exercise might be disappointed.

My personal recommendation: If you are MOSS and WSS administrator, you must have this book. If you are a versatile consultant, this book should be a good reference on your book shelf. If you are a pure hand-on developer and new to SharePoint, you might opt to choose code-intensive books such as Inside SharePoint Service 3.0 by Ted Pattison.

I rate the book four stars.

Type "Microsoft Help and Support" in your favourite search engine and then click on the link which leads to the page. In the upper right hand corner type in "70-640" (note: do not type in the ISBN number as it will not return any results - contrary to what Microsoft says) and you will then see a link for the errata page for the book in question. You can use this for any of the Microsoft Press Training Kits (each of which has a pretty staggering amount of typos)e.g. "70-236" (which by the way has so many errata listings that they had to break it down into two separate links!). Trying to use any of these Training Kits without access to the errata pages is aggravating beyond belief - especially when attempting to to the labs - but the written information tends to both informative and well-written. Hope this helps...

As a first time user of this service I was pleased with the ease of how to sign up and order. I am always wary of online ordering but gave it a go, saved me $160 min. I was kept fully informed all the way. My items were ordered July 24, shipped quickly and arrived in Australia, on my desk smack on the estimated arrival time of July 31st. I am very impressed !! I will absolutely be using Amazon's service again. The packaging was sufficient and the contents were not damaged in any way. Again, great service guy's. As for the books, time to get stuck into some study.

It's simple, really: If you're programming with Rails you should buy this book. Let's face it, one recipe that shows you how to do something is all that it takes for this book to pay for itself.

Some of the recipes are meant to be looked at on an as-needed basis, e.g. searching using Solr, Sphinx, or Ferret, and sending email via Gmail. But most of the book can be simply read as a way to learn more about Rails, e.g. customizing error messages, testing with RSpec and Shoulda, and caching strategies and tools.

I just got my copy yesterday and am having trouble putting it down! This book reads better than a novel/story if you have even a remote interest in Ruby on Rails. Mike Clark has done an outstanding job of putting together really interesting recipes contributed by Ruby on Rails enthusiasts from all over the world and an equally good job of quality assurance. I really hope that he works on producing a sequel as soon as possible.

This book is a must have resource for anyone developing Rails applications. Mike Clark, the Ruby community and the Pragmatic Programmers have once again delivered a set of recipies you'll find immediately usable. I'm already using four in an application I'm working on, all of which have helped me reduce code, increase readability and reduce maintenance.

The book is thoughtfully organized with each recipie being both well written and concise.

No matter what type of Rails application you are writing, or your level of experience, I think you'll find something in this book to make you say "Thats a great idea" and rush to the keyboard to try it out.

This is not only a phenomenal reference, but it is great for whetting your appetite when embarking into new Rails territory -- the book is full of ideas, that Rails devs of all levels can benefit from. Reading this book gave me an additional perspective on items I practice and those I am learning -- specifically enjoyed the parts on REST, CC payment processing, scalability, testing. Highly recommend.

I went through this book cover-to-cover every few pages saying, 'Wow, I could have used/need that now!' If you're a RoR developer, you really should have this book on your shelf. I marked maybe 75% of the recipes as something I could use--worth it's weight in gold!

This book covers the complex process of planning, designing and implementing service-oriented architectures that meet organizational goals. It is an essential companion to any software developer, architect, or project manager implementing-or thinking about implementing-a service-oriented architecture.

Thomas Erl in this book provides an excellent reference and an independent/agnostic view of SOA that is not cluttered with Vendor speak. What I thought was valuable is the definition of business benefits, case studies and the beginning of SOA Principals and terminology that provides an organization a mechanism to organize their efforts and improve focus. Having worked with Web Services since 2001 and implemented them at many customers, the application and discussion of WS in conjunction with SOA is very helpful.

I found reading this book boring after the first 6 chapters. What would have been more interesting is the author giving possible solutions (i.e. specific products) that could meet the specifications he laid out in each chapter. This book does not give specific real-world solutions that fit the descriptions and specifications that are described as constituting a Service-Oriented Architecture. After reading this book, I understand the architecture, but could not recommend any specific products that would fit the architecture.

It's hard to understand how the same author wrote this and SOA Principles of Service Design (The Prentice Hall Service-Oriented Computing Series from Thomas Erl) and Service-Oriented Architecture: A Field Guide to Integrating XML and Web Services (The Prentice Hall Service-Oriented Computing Series from Thomas Erl), both of which had more useful information in a much more compact package.

The only real use I can think of for this book is perhaps to quote in a sales context regarding the benefits of SOA to someone who hasn't heard of it. That said, although I believe in SOA as a powerful mechanism, I believe the claims in the book are less well supported then the heft of the book might imply. Other technical details like the importance of UDDI are largely out of date.

I disagree with some of the other reviewers who call the book overly theoretical: I would not give it that much credit. Theory would call on or reference solid research; this book provides anecdotal evidence at best.

Aside from some potential use to sales folks (perhaps why Sun, IBM and MS endorse the book), I think most will want to pass on this one.

If you want a book that covers most of the SOA standards in one place, this might be helpful. I think you could get that from Wikipedia. Lots regurgitation of SOA platitudes, not much value add. If you're looking to make the light go on about key SOA concepts, this isn't the book. It would make a good management summary of the technology, if it was about 1/3 as long.

I am only about half way through this book and already have learned numerous things about the design of Java as a language and about proper usage of said language. This book is going to be a staple in my programming library and a book recommended to anyone I know working with Java. I am also looking forward to the second edition which is slated to be released in May sometime.

An indispensable, insightful, and well written Java book to add to your reference library. The second addition is due out May 25, 2008.

I ask all of the developers I manage to read this book, after having been introduced to it by a coworker. Great tips, and helpful in clarifying some of those "gut feel" things that come up during pair-programming.

It is incredible to read Joshua's insights. Forget about being a Java Guru or something like that. This book is pure joy to read if you are detail oriented, perfectionist or a student of art of programming in general.

I have started this effort of creating a distilled version of this book coupled with my own reflections at: [...]. To any curious reader though, any such effort is not a replacement for the book itself. It is a masterpiece.

- Kedar Mhaswade

I've been using Java since 1995 and have owned this book since 2001 and it's the only Java text I still turn to. I recommend every Java developer, no matter what level you're at, read this book and read it again every year for the remainder of your career. I doesn't matter who you are or how experienced you think you are -- you will learn from this book. I give "Effective Java" my highest recommendation. I cannot wait for the Second Edition.