Computing Internet Books

I finally found a book that presents the basics of programming in a logical, easy to understand, let's skip all the nonsense approach. Harold Davis' book hits a home run. I couldn't put it down and strongly recommend it. Kudos Mr. Davis!

I always glance at Programming books when in the computer section. When I saw Harold Davis' book what struck me was the title's ending "...using any Web Browser". Any book on programming must decide on SOME computer language. As a budding web-page designer/maintainer, this seemed like a good way to combine learning how (or better)to program AND to see how Javascript interfaces with HTML coding. I couldn't be more pleased. This book is easily readable and combines only needed information for tasks at hand.I have not yet completed the book, but already I can see that Mr. Davis has used solid programming techniques. This is the perfect book to learn programming techniques and to apply them to web page design.

If you have no programming experience then this book gets your started right away using simple tools right on your computer. Easy-to-follow examples, quick and easy to read. I'd highly recommend to anyone, especially those who are new to programming. Not condescending like the for dummies books. Each lesson builds on itself and author introduces new topics gradually and gracefully. All code available on publishers website so you don't have to type if you don't want to. EXCELLENT!

Davis has chosen a novel approach to teaching programming to a novice. This book merely assumes that you have access to a browser on your computer. It doesn't even need Internet access, though that doesn't hurt. Davis shows how by editing simple text files, you can cobble together HTML pages and JavaScript code within those pages. You are taught JavaScript. It has many of the features of any langugage. Conditional expressions, loops, etc.

He has produced a nice, minimalist approach. An experienced programmer might quibble about the limitations of JavaScript. But what the heck. If you are new at programming, you'll easily learn all the key ideas here. Plus, you'll pick up some useful knowledge of HTML along the way. Given the ubiquity of the Web, knowing both HTML and JavaScript can be quite useful, jobwise.

Also, you can compare the differences in coding HTML and JavaScript. The former is declarative, the latter procedural. Davis doesn't seem to go into this, but his approach lets you learn both styles.

Harold Davis has started with a marvelous idea, teaching programming using a language available on all platforms, JavaScript, and an interface familiar to everyone, the web browser. Learn How to Program Using Any Web Browser is written for absolute beginners to learn the basic principles of programming -- or at least that's what the cover would have you believe.

The language is suitably light and simple, the book well-structured and broken down into easily digested chunks. The order in which concepts are introduced is fairly traditional for a language tutorial: first we get types, variables and statements, before moving on to conditionals, loops, and functions, followed by arrays and objects before finishing with event-driven programming. Davis' decision to leave string handling till last seems a little perverse and personally I would have introduced functions earlier.

My real complaints about this book centre on the abstract nature of the discussion. There are very few real world examples that could be useful to anyone. The best you get is a version of "Rock, Paper, Scissors" in Chapter 3, and an 'auction' application. The book would have been improved dramatically if the end result of your study was a few things you could actually point to.

I also have a complaint about the target audience for this book. The web page for the book at the publishers states that "The target reader is likely a twelve- or thirteen-year-old, who is just starting to get curious about what makes a computer work -- or an office worker who has been using computer applications for years, and would like to spend some time delving deeper into what makes them tick." Most adults and even teenagers don't want to 'learn how to program' as much as they want to learn how to use a tool to perform a task. If your tool is JavaScript, then it's almost certain your task is related to building web pages, but this gets little real attention from Davis. For even younger students, this book totally lacks anything to hold their attention -- the lack of real-world examples hurts here.

I also take issue with the title: this book doesn't really teach 'programming' much at all. It certainly teaches you to write JavaScript, but where are the sections about the real lessons of programming, such as top-down vs. bottom-up design, or breaking a task up into chunks? Even debugging has little coverage -- a single thirty-page chapter, half of which is specific to JavaScript or the throwing and handling of exceptions. Since the work of Papert and others at MIT twenty-five years ago, we've learned a great deal about how to teach programming concepts in a simple manner, but Davis appears to have ignored all this and given us a language tutorial. The publisher's web page for the book says "very emphatically, this is not a book about programming JavaScript." If that's so then I'd argue that it isn't a book about learning the principles of programming either.

It is obvious from this book that Davis is an excellent writer; if he had tried to write a book to teach JavaScript and had focused on the tasks for which it is often used this, volume may have been superb. As it is, he has shot for a higher goal and fallen far too short.

If you would like to check it out for yourself, you can go to the web page for the book where there is sample chapter, the Table of Contents (though they call it a "Detailed TOC" as distinct from the 'Table of Contents,' which is just a list of 11 chapter titles) and index, all in PDF format.

I went looking for a book that I could give to my 11-year-old daughter now that she has become interested in "what Daddy does." I'm still looking, I'm certain that this one isn't it.

This book has a lot of good info in it, but the editing was spotty at best, and all too often downright terrible.

Also, the first page of the book says that when you register it, you can "access our solutions@syngress.com Web pages. There you may find an assortmnet of valueadded features such as free e-books related to the topic of this book."

Maybe what they mean by, "...you may find..." is that you MIGHT find those things. In this case, I found no such thing.

While I wouldn't say the book was a waste of money or time, some of the editing was so bad I feel compelled to provide specific examples:

1) p. 260:
It says "Psychical Memory" where it should say "Physical Memory"

-OK, the laugh I got thereby made this mistake more enjoyable than irritating.

2) p. 377:
"It will read image files created with ICS, SafeBack, and forensic software "forensic software" as meant? and uncompressed images created with Ghost..."

-Looks like somebody's interim notes were left in the document, or...?

3) P. 378:
Exercise 4.3 is mentioned, but I could not find an Exercise 4.3 in that chapter.

4) p. 509:
"The boot directory contains a static foals knitted by the boot loader."

-What in the world are "foals knitted"? Baby horses created by a needleworker? Did they mean "files needed"? Was somebody typing this from a recording made by an author with a strong southern accent, or what?

5) p. 509:
"The etc directory contains consideration files which are local to the machine. Certain larger packages such as X11 have their own subdirectories with consideration files under /etc."

-I've never heard of "consideration" files, and they are mentioned TWICE! Presumably they mean "configuration" files, or...?

In view of the foregoing, I would have to say the book does not live up to its chest-thumping title. It's only mediocre, and so has no just cause to crow like that, claiming superiority over all of the other CF books.

As the world continues to march to information on the Internet, the issue of accessibility for Web sites has continued to grow in importance. Especially as glitz and flashy programming grow ever more popular in Web design, the chance of leaving those with special needs behind increases. What accessibility means also can be a murky area, though as lawsuits against Target and other stores over Web accessibility shows, this is still important. Sydik helps cut through the often vague standards to show the reader step-by-step things that are important for accessibility, but often are not major changes. He explains what accessibility entails, and looks at different solutions, and the pitfalls that some can produce making things worse for accessibility when it is trying to improve it. His chapters are grouped into thematic sections, but each chapter focuses on one item, keeping the information short and relevant to the topic. At the conclusion he walks through the current and proposed accessibility standards and gives practical advice and translation of what the sections mean, and what you can do about it (citing chapters that addressed the topic). This book is very readable, practical and sits on my desk for quick reference and advice. It is an excellent starting point for acquainting yourself with the issue of accessibility for Web sites and what you can do to help design them properly.

Jeremy's Design Accessible Web Sites provides practical advice alongside with the theoretical underpinnigs in upbeat style. This books covers actionable steps to take in fixing many common accessibility problems but it also does something more important. It gives the reader a theoretical framework for considering and solving accessibility issues for tricky scenarios.

Some other books are better on regulatory issues and others on multimedia items like Flash since the focus here is web site design. That said, it's a great read for web site design and web standards work. For that it's first rate, with modern techniques and consideration of the future of accessibility issues (AJAX, WCAG 2), and with a breadth and richness of subject matter.

DESIGN ACCESSIBLE WEB SITES is an excellent guide to making your web site(s) usable by anyone, regardless of their access needs. It is also not the dry and unfriendly tome that others have put out in regards to this subject...that is to say, it is very readable, even fun in some places! There are plenty of code examples as well as lists of specific tools and references that can be used to make your site accessible to everyone.
It concentrates mainly on the U.S. accessibility requirements, but it also covers what you need around the world.
Most importantly, Jeremy stresses that making your web sites accessible makes them easier for EVERYONE to navigate, not just those individuals with special access needs, and that is a bonus for everyone!

Libraries seeking computer reference books promising lasting value would do well to look at this one-stop guide to creating a dynamic web site using Adobe's Creative Suite program. Damon Dean is an experienced web producer and developer who works with other equally talented to pack in over 800 pages of details, from formatting text and importing images to laying out pages and using PDF files. It's packed with plenty of detail, yet very accessible to relative newcomers, making it an excellent collection choice.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

The tutorials that come with the creative suite are not only sufficient but also easy to understand and follow, use them first and if you still have questions consider wasting your money on the book for dummies.

This book shows you how to secure your applications steps by steps. I took the advises and lock down my IIS, and reset my .net configuration file in my asp.net configuration file.

At the same, I am setting up my web servers to track and trace people in and out the servers within the oranganization -- since my applications are running inside intranet.

Great book to have if security is you main concern!

I'm a Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer with reasonable experience of .NET web development, but little or no understanding of how to secure the applications that I write. But not any more. This book is excellent! It covers securing .NET web applications under the 1.0 and especially the 1.1 .NET framework. It does NOT teach the basic .NET technologies, ie: how to create a web program, but it explains in good detail (without going overboard) how the security mechanisms of .NET work, and how best to secure a .NET web application. It's a big book, with chapters covering topics like code access security and how to configure a web app for medium trust, how to secure web services and Remoting servers, and how to harden IIS, Windows 2000 and SQL Server, and loads more!

Before you consider buying any other .NET security book, get this one. It's worth every penny. It also has a companion volume, entitled "Building Secure ASP.NET Applications. Authentication, Authorization, and Secure Communication". Unfortunately, this book is not half as good as "Improving Web Application Security". Shame really. The books are supposed to complement each other, but "Improving Web Application Security" really stands out head and shoulders above the other. It's a must buy if you want to understand .NET web application security and the security architecture that underpins it.

A great counter measure to deter potential hackers, is to eliminate identifying server response data that is necessary to complete the request. You can do this by removing HTTP response data, modifying cookie values, and adjusting other response information. Any easy way to do this is with www.ServerMask.com for IIS 4, 5, & 6.

If you are designing, building and deploying Web based applications using Microsoft's .NET Framework run and get this book. Currently, there is no other book that can match the breath and depth of the topic covered in this book.

Contrary to what the title may imply, in addition to ASP.NET this book also covers how security should be addressed in the building of Serviced components, Web Services and Remoting. The chapters on Code Access Security are among the clearest that can be found anywhere.

This book takes a holistic approach to Security in that it addresses threats to the network, host and application layers. The old adage of a chain is only as strong as its weakest link is taken to heart in the book so guidance is provided on how security should be addressed across tiers and at multiple layers. Secure app development across the entire software development and deployment lifecycle is considered within the scope of this book.

In addition to Secure Coding guidelines, Extensive guidelines are provided that show how the Network, Web Server, Application Server and Database Server should be secured.

One of the things that I like about this book is that the guidance that is provided is task and role based. So even though the book is 800+ pages, it can be very easily used as a ready reference.

Multiple checklists that deal with Design, Build, Securing and Assessment are given and can be used out of the box.

In short, don't wait. Go get it now!

From the book's introduction:

Part I, "Introduction to Threats and Countermeasures," identifies and illustrates the various threats facing the network, host, and application layers. The process of threat modeling helps you to identify those threats that can harm your application. By understanding these threats, you can identify and prioritize effective countermeasures.

Part II, "Designing Secure Web Applications," gives you the guidance you require to design secure Web applications. Even if you have deployed your application, we recommend that you examine and evaluate the concepts, principles, and techniques outlined in this part.

Part III, "Building Secure Web Applications," allows you to apply the secure design practices introduced in Part II to create secure implementations. You will learn defensive coding techniques that make your code and application resilient to attack.

Part IV, "Securing Your Network, Host, and Application," describes how you will apply security configuration settings to secure these three interrelated levels. Instead of applying security randomly, you will learn the rationale behind the security recommendations.

Part V, "Assessing Your Security," provides the tools you require to evaluate the success of your security efforts. Starting with the application, you'll take an inside-out approach to evaluating your code and design. You'll follow this with an outside-in view of the security risks that challenge your network, host and application.

I am in the business of writing secure e-biz apps and I found the security and countermeasure strategies in this book to be very thorough.
Now, why the 4 stars? Two reasons - 1. The author(s) are very repetitive. I read the section on countermeasures to SQL injection attacks 3 times in the book.
2. The countermeasures are demonstrated adequately but the attacks are not. For instance, what to do to thwart SQL injection attacks is explained with some examples. But what really is a SQL injection attack; plain description is not enough? Some non-trivial examples of those make sense because then you know the reason for deploying the countermeasures; what are you saving yourself against? Sort of, identifying the enemy.
Nevertheless, a great, comprehensive and practical tutorial.

My review of the book Wikis for Dummies; I found this book to be just what I need to enhance my understanding of the Wiki movement. My current work involves creating a company wiki and this book was very helpful. My thanks to the authors, they made the subject matter easy to read and understand. They also provided helpful hints on how to inspire others to join in the creation of our wiki project.

This provides a solid overview of the history, general functions, and common uses of Wikis, and for that I am glad that I read it. One thing that I didn't consider until after I bought it -- and was using a few wikis already -- was that a great deal of the information was engine-specific. PBWiki was a common example throughout the book, but I don't use PBWiki, and I don't like the interface (I guess I got used to Wikispaces, which works perfectly for me). So although there was a great deal of good information about what I can do with a wiki, so much of the how wasn't useful to me, since I'll have to go learn the particulars of my engine of choice, rather than the ones in the book.

I bought the 2004 edition of this book and it has paid for itself with the valuable information and numerous tips it gives. If you want to know how to sell on ebay, this is the book for you!

I got this book hoping for some insights into selling on e-bay, it delivered. Jim Heid and Toby Malina have put together a great book that covers every question I could think of and identified several gotcha's that I hadn't considered. It is fully informative and extraordinarily complete and a must buy book for anyone looking to sell, or buy, on eBay. It is well written, stunningly informative, and a fun read.

I highly recommend this book as a review for the associates exam. I hadn't touched a Juniper in two years this study guide got me through recertification.

The book does a good job at preparation for the JNCIA exam. It goes over each topic well, and gives some good real world examples that make sense. Be prepared though, this is not a CCNA type exam that asks you theory and questions that do not apply to real life (ie. classful routing). This book (and exam) do concentrate on operational aspects, so the book does a good job at introducing CLI commands and the JunOS CLI architecture. It is recommended that you get ahold of a Juniper box to play around in to get the hang of things.

I have to disagree with the authors writing about the BGP architecture on the Internet, though. To state that only Tier 1 ISP's connect at exchange points (atleast how it was depicted in a drawing) is completely wrong. And usage of the Tier1/Tier2/Tier3 names should not be used in todays internet. Today plenty of people are paying for peering from some of the larger networks out there to give themselves the image of "Tier 1". It seems perhaps the authors should be more aware of real ISP operations in respects to how peering is actually done on the Internet today (ie. read the peering playbook by Bill Norton).

The text is joy to read; it is both lucid and succinct. However, with a 2003 copyright, it is beginning to show its age. There is no mention of Juniper's new routers, such as the M320 or the T-series, though these might not be covered on the JNCIA exam. And the preferred placement of some configuration statements within the JUNOS hierarchy has changed in more recent JUNOS releases.

Many of the questions included with the test engine include 15-20 line snippets of JUNOS configuration. Unfortunately, the test engine only allows a few lines of a question to be displayed at any time, so scrolling is needed to read such questions. Moreover, the test engine provides no facility for remembering from session to session which questions you answered right and wrong so that you can limit the questions presented in a later session to only those previously missed. The assessment test and end of chapter questions are printed in the book, so pencil and paper methods may work better for these.

This book is published in PDF form on Juniper's website. Do a google search for jncia study guide pdf and save yourself $180

This is a great book! It will not give you the test questions and answers for the test. What it will provide is a great source of information relating to routing and an introduction to Juniper's routers. The depth of information in Juniper Networks Certified Internet Associate Study Guide is sufficient to pass the test. The questions in the book and on the CD require the same level of understanding as the actual JNCIA exam. In fact I scored the same on the bonus exams (located on the CD) as I did on the actual test. I have been working with Cisco equipment for over eight year and with Juniper routers for a little over a year. I have my CCNP and CCDP. With my background, this book and three weeks, now I have my JNCIA certification. Don't take the JNCIA certification test lightly. I would rate it at the same level as the CCNP and CCDP. With this book and some time you should be able to pass the exam.

Jason & Stacy have done a great job digging into the details of site definitions. You rarely find this level of depth in available resources, including in the WSS/SPS SDK or MSDN. Wish I had this a long time ago!

While there are other books that have been published in the past year on the topic of SharePoint and customizations and what not, I would have to say that this book brings all the pieces together, gives the explanations to UI developers, administrators and developers that they need.

I enjoyed reading this book and easily flew through it over a few sessions during a week. It was easy to follow, has in-depth examples, excellent documentation and inside tips about the sharepoint application configuration. Best of all the Authors were able to not only walk the reader through the examples, but also they were careful to point out the places that a person could easily expand on their work while covering the pro's and con's of the approach. It was a good read.

Even though it is not a big book in pages, it is an excellent book in content! The core of the book focuses on creating site definitions; with many excellent examples and useful tips. Other topics covered include template construction, definitions for Lists and customization of themes and alerts.

There is other information on SharePoint which address these issues, but this is the only book wherein the information is centralized and readily accessible to the reader. None compare in clarity and ease of reading, I highly recommend it.

I agree with the previous reviewer that the title of the book might be missleading but content, ease of use for this books is what the rating should be based off of and it is excellent!

I think the title "Advanced Concepts" could be clarified with for "Advance Users/Administrators", etc... as it probably the only book you need to quickly learn how to customize SharePoint. If it's used by Advance Users/Administrators... then it can be implied that it's Advanced Concepts. Any case, i'm not a editor.

The book takes you through the most relevant and practical examples of the information you need and not baby you with hundreds of pages of basic stuff that most people that's familiar with MS technology already knows.

You can read this book from cover to cover in about 3 hours and you'll feel empowered and knolwedge enough to get advance customization done with sharepoint. I highly recommend this book for experienced administers/MS programmers to get a concise view to the topics of Site customization and doesn't want to read extra fluff like in other books.