Computing Internet Books

The book reached me in a near perfect condition and in right time.

Thanks guys!

This is a great book for a beginner of SQL Server 2000 and XML. Starts off from scratch and walks you thru every aspect of XML and building a complete XML enabled web pages.

This is a good book for any one that is looking to find over all information that can give glimpse into the features of SQL Server and be able to utilize to build XML-enabled data-pages.

Although this book didn't go quite as in depth as I would have liked it to, it was well layed out and had a lot of practical examples. Everything in it was easy to follow and focused on making the technology work instead of delving into the techie jargon about the theory behind it. This book won't make you an expert, but will give you enough to be able to start plugging this stuff into your projects pretty quickly.

I never expected so much useful information into such a small book. Good books don't sell by weight or page count.
I found this book concise and clear (this man knows how to teach). It sure doesn't explain everything about the subject, but it gives the big picture, with an impressive number of details too.
Ideal to start working in small time.
NOTE about who is this book for:
As title state, this book teaches how to use the XML features of SQL Server 2000, not how to use SQL2000, so if you don't know SQL Server you better read something else first.
From the XML XSL XPath X... side, this book is also for novices as it has a very good appendix that teaches all you need to understand the book.

Most of the reviews here seem to relate to the first edition (which was admittedly kind of short). The book has been updated, and the second edition covers new stuff like XSD Schemas, Diffgrams, SOAP Virtual Names, and all the other SQLXML 3.0 features. I found the book really useful, and easy to read. The examples are great and the concepts are all well explained. Definitely worth buying if you're planning to use SQL Server's XML functionality.

I definitely recommend this book for anyone working with OpenGL's new Shading Language. I would, however, say that probably the most difficult part of working with GLSL is getting it working in the first place. Especially on Linux, this is somewhat confusing - some cards support GL 2.0, some don't, but still support the GLSL if using the ARB function calls. I would also make sure to point out to new users that GLEW is close to essential when working with the GLSL - you can download it from sourceforge. It might be worth mentioning in future versions of the book, along with ARB functions which are the same as the GLSL standard functions shown in the book.

Twenty years ago, I used to program graphics on an Evans and Sutherland PS340. It was then one of the top of the line graphics computers (costing $100k). It could labouriously do shading, but only Phong and Gouraud. Nowadays, many PCs have this ability, and much faster. But a problem still persists, where often the shading methods are restricted to what is implemented on the graphics chips.

In contrast, you have the approach in this definitive book on OpenGL Shading Language. This lets you implement in your code, shading routines of your own devising. To be sure, given the same shading method, one done in this language, and one in the hardware, then the latter will have better performance. But it turns out that today's computers are fast enough, and have enough RAM, that the difference in response might not be appreciable.

The book describes an extensive set of built-in convenience functions that come with the language. And the language's API is explained in detail. The author rightly recommends that you come at it with some experience in the standard OpenGL.

Since the language is still quite new, you are more or less on your own, when looking at development tools. This dearth is expected to be remedied in a few years. But right now, you'll have to rely on your wits. Along with a chapter that gives general principles of how you should develop your own shader. What may be even more use, however, is the second half of the book. Devoted to case studies of many shaders. Understanding these may be more beneficial than any IDE.

Oh, as you might expect from a graphics book, there is a lovely set of colour plates in the middle of the book, showing what custom shaders can do. Treat it as inspiration if you wish.

The recent trend in graphics hardware has been to replace fixed functionality with programmability in areas that have grown exceedingly complex (e.g., vertex processing and fragment processing). The OpenGL Shading Language has been designed to allow application programmers to express the processing that occurs at those programmable points of the OpenGL pipeline. Independently compilable units that are written in this language are called shaders. A program is a set of shaders that are compiled and linked together. The OpenGL Shading Language is based on ANSI C and many of the features have been retained except when they conflict with performance or ease of implementation. This shading language is without a doubt the most important addition to OpenGL since its inception, and this book provides an excellent guide to programming with it. The author was one of the primary contributors to the development of the language, and he provides a well-written and insightful explanation of the language and its use.
The book begins with a review of OpenGL basics, followed by an introduction to shaders and how they fit into the pipeline. It then covers the language itself, including data types, operators, interaction with the OpenGL state machine and fixed function pipeline, built-in functions, and more. It also introduces and explains the OpenGL APIs needed to use shaders.
The last half of the book focuses on shader development, including general process and workflow, and coverage of many specific techniques, such as procedural textures and GPU-based animation. It even includes a section on implementing the fixed function pipeline using shaders. The book ends with a handy comparison of OpenGL Shading Language with other shading languages, such as Cg, HLSL, and Renderman and a couple of appendices providing a language grammar and API reference.
I particularly liked chapters 6 through 8, which take you from a simple shading example -"brick"- through the specific steps of shader development that you would need to master regardless of the API you are using. Also the chapters on procedural textures and noise and the accompanying code examples helped clear up some matters that were murky when I read "Texturing & Modeling: A Procedural Approach" by Ebert et al. In summary, I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in implementing software shading, both from the standpoint of OpenGL and from the standpoint of the design process itself. I notice that Amazon does not show the table of contents for the second edition, so I do that here:
Chapter 1. REVIEW OF OPENGL BASICS
OpenGL History; OpenGL Evolution; Execution Mode; The Frame Buffer; State; Processing Pipeline; Drawing Geometry; Drawing Images; Coordinate Transforms; Texturing;

Chapter 2. BASICS
Introduction to the OpenGL Shading Language; Why Write Shaders?; OpenGL Programmable Processors; Language Overview; System Overview; Key Benefits;

Chapter 3. LANGUAGE DEFINITION
Example Shader Pair; Data Types; Initializers and Constructors; Type Conversions; Qualifiers and Interface to a Shader; Flow Control; Operations; Preprocessor; Preprocessor Expressions; Error Handling;

Chapter 4. THE OPENGL PROGRAMMABLE PIPELINE
The Vertex Processor; The Fragment Processor; Built-in Uniform Variables; Built-in Constants; Interaction with OpenGL Fixed Functionality;

Chapter 5. BUILT-IN FUNCTIONS
Angle and Trigonometry Functions; Exponential Functions; Common Functions; Geometric Functions; Matrix Functions; Vector Relational Functions; Texture Access Functions; Fragment Processing Functions; Noise Functions;

Chapter 6. SIMPLE SHADING EXAMPLE
Brick Shader Overview; Vertex Shader; Fragment Shader; Observations;

Chapter 7 OPENGL SHADING LANGUAGE API
Obtaining Version Information; Creating Shader Objects; Compiling Shader Objects; Linking and Using Shaders; Cleaning Up; Query Functions; Specifying Vertex Attributes; Specifying Uniform Variables; Samplers; Multiple Render Targets; Development Aids; Implementation-Dependent API Values; Application Code for Brick Shaders;

Chapter 8. SHADER DEVELOPMENT
General Principles; Performance Considerations; Shader Debugging; Shader Development Tools; Scene Graphs;

Chapter 9. EMULATING OPENGL FIXED FUNCTIONALITY
Transformation; Light Sources; Material Properties and Lighting; Two-Sided Lighting; No Lighting; Fog; Texture Coordinate Generation; User Clipping; Texture Application;

Chapter 10. STORED TEXTURE SHADERS
Access to Texture Maps from a Shader; Simple Texturing Example; Multitexturing Example; Cube Mapping Example; Another Environment Mapping Example; Glyph Bombing;

Chapter 11. PROCEDURAL TEXTURE SHADERS
Regular Patterns; Toy Ball; Lattice; Bump Mapping;

Chapter 12. LIGHTING
Hemisphere Lighting; Image-Based Lighting; Lighting with Spherical Harmonics; The *erLight Shader;

Chapter 13. SHADOWS
Ambient Occlusion; Shadow Maps; Deferred Shading for Volume Shadows;

Chapter 14. SURFACE CHARACTERISTICS
Refraction; Diffraction; BRDF Models; Polynomial Texture Mapping with BRDF Data;

Chapter 15. NOISE
Noise Defined; Noise Textures; Trade-offs; A Simple Noise Shader; Turbulence; Granite; Wood;

Chapter 16. ANIMATION
On/Off; Threshold; Translation; Morphing; Other Blending Effects; Vertex Noise; Particle Systems; Wobble;

Chapter 17. ANTIALIASING PROCEDURAL TEXTURES
Sources of Aliasing; Avoiding Aliasing; Increasing Resolution; Antialiased Stripe Example; Frequency Clamping;

Chapter 18. NON-PHOTOREALISTIC SHADERS
Hatching Example; Technical Illustration Example; Mandelbrot Example;

Chapter 19. SHADERS FOR IMAGING
Geometric Image Transforms; Mathematical Mappings; Lookup Table Operations; Color Space Conversions; Image Interpolation and Extrapolation; Blend Modes;

Chapter 20. REALWORLDZ
Features; RealWorldz Internals; Implementation; Atmospheric Effects; Ocean; Clouds;

Chapter 21. LANGUAGE COMPARISON
Chronology of Shading Languages; RenderMan; OpenGL Shader (ISL); HLSL; Cg;
Appendix A. Language Grammar
Appendix B. API Function Reference

I'm not a fan of the 'group of papers' style of book. But this book pulls it off nicely. The text is consistenly good throughout. And the illustrations and formulas are high quality and presented nicely.

I would have liked full color throughout, but I accept that it would have been cost prohibitive on a book of this heft. Speaking of heft, yeah, this is a doorstop of a book. I think some of the text could have been edited down and the formatting tightened up to reduce bulk.

The OpenGL Shading Language is without doubt the most important addition to OpenGL since its inception, and this book provides an excellent guide to programming with it. As one of the primary contributors to the development of the language, Rost provides a clear and well-written explanation of the language and how to use it.

The book begins with a review of OpenGL basics, followed by an introduction to shaders and how they fit into the pipeline. It then covers the language itself, including data types, operators, interaction with the OpenGL state machine and fixed function pipeline, built-in functions, and more. It also introduces and explains the OpenGL APIs needed to use shaders.

The last half of the book focuses on shader development, including general process and workflow, and coverage of many specific techniques, such as procedural textures and GPU-based animation. It even includes a section on implementing the fixed function pipeline using shaders.

The book ends with a handy comparison of GLSL with other shading languages, such as Cg and HLSL, and a couple of appendices providing a language grammar and API reference.

If you're doing shader development with OpenGL, you'll definitely want this book on your desk. My only complaint about it is that it was written before GLSL was officially promoted to the core. When that happened, a number of important things were changed that aren't reflected in the book. However, determining the differences isn't difficult, so don't let that deter you from picking this up.

This book is a good read for people who are technical, but not information security experts. I see from Amazon that there are other books in the series; I will definitely be reading them soon.

It is a fictionalized account of people (on both sides of the enforcement/criminal side) who are dealing with identity theft and forgery. I would recommend that anyone who has questions about identity theft gives this book a look - it's definitely opened my eyes.

The technical sections are useful illustrations for those who understand them, but the main thrust of the book is in the concepts applied. Anyone who does not understand the details of the technical approaches would still be able to understand the plot movement and basic areas where they may want to bolster their own identity security.

I give it 5 stars because not only is it a great hacker thriller but the use of character names from the 80s movie Real Genius cracks me up. Its like the movie's sequel.

This book is hard to put down! It was like looking into a window of the underground world that most people, even those in the Information Security Industry, are unaware exists. The technical aspects in thoe book gave the storyline a credibility that other books lack. The characters were colorful and well developed. The book opened my eyes to the very real threat of identity theft and how identities are "harevsted" and used as currency on the blackmarket by organized crime and malicious entities such as terrorist organizationa. Great read that will not diassapoint you.

I reviewed the first Stealing book in May 2003, and the second in September 2004. I liked the two earlier books, and the third book -- Stealing the Network: How to 0wn an Identity (STNHT0AI) -- is also a fun read. The book is most impressive when it outlines plausible scenarios for identity theft, penetrating wireless networks, and compromising Hushmail. Although some of the writing is rough, I still recommend reading this book.

I'd like to point out a few aspects of the book that hooked my attention. First, Ch 3 explains how to assume a college student's identity. 1. Steal pre-approved credit card applications from neighborhood mailboxes. 2. Identify a likely target, and find that person's date of birth and parent's names using online family tree databases. 3. Buy NetDetective and obtain the target's SSN. 4. Get a real driver's license from a thief who stole DMV equipment. 5. Intercept at mail box the credit card applied for in step 1. 6. Apply for a real birth certificate using the credit card obtained in the previous step. 7. Intercept at mail box the real birth certificate mailed to the target's home. Aside from the SSN acquisition, that scenario is plausible and incredibly scary!

The second scenario that left a lasting impression appears in Ch 8. Jay Beale explains how to compromise and read mail exchanged through Hushmail. The crux of the matter is obtaining control of Hushmail's DNS servers. At the end of his chapter, Jay notes that Hushmail's DNS servers were compromised in April 2005. I thought his chapter contained the best mix of story and clear technical explanations found in STNHT0AI.

It is very helpful to have read at least the previous Stealing book prior to STNHT0AI. At times it felt like I was watching the second Back to the Future movie, where Marty sees different aspects of events that took place in the first movie. I was also completely shocked by the hints left at the end of the book, and the abrupt ending left me waiting to resolve the cliffhanger. I look forward to reading Stealing the Network: How to Own a Shadow later this year.

Good story, followed through pretty well from STN:Continent, which I haven't read in quite some time, so I didn't really do much cross-referencing, so take that comment for what it's worth. My two major issues with the book were:
1) Apparent lack of proofing whatsoever. In some cases it appeared that the author had stopped typing mid-sentence and picked up some time later, forgetting what exactly they had said because they had previously stopped typing mid-sentence. (re-read for example) At one point a whole paragraph was in there twice in a row. This sort of thing frazzled me a bit as I was reading it, and took away from the immersion to an extent. Each chapter was written by a different author so this is not a consitant trend through the entire book. There is some good writing in there as well.
2) More story, less technical stuff. This seemed a bit more 'novel-y' than the previous books, I kind of didn't like that aspect of it. That was just me though. Some of it was pretty good though, and a fun read, like the chapter about Knoll Jr. as well as the Blacktower chapter. All-in-all, I'd have to say that I liked the first STN [:box] the best, but that's just me. The cohesiveness of the story between chapters seemed to be better in this one [Identity] than STN:Continent, though.

Overall I give it three stars because I am a grammar nazi but you might enjoy it more. I recommend it if you've read the previous ones.

I am very happy to have this book. It is a great resource for getting a jump start on YouTube, and it is also very good to motivate one to make the most of YouTube, perhaps a must read for business owners wanting to make use of the latest and greatest on the internet.

YouTube is my favorite web site so I didn't really need to read this book. I only bought this book because it is about YouTube. The authors deserve a lot of "hater comments" because they merely describe how to use the web site. YouTube has already updated their web site, ensuring that this book will quickly become obsolete. I would have preferred a book that explored the social networking aspects of the YouTube community. They could have devoted more chapters to video production as well. There is also no mention of Stickam which is a web site you need to know about to become a YouTube insider. Also, I think potential vloggers should be strongly warned about the extremely malicious harassment that is being allowed to flourish on YouTube.

The following is an excerpt of the first chapter, cited as, Zavala-Ruiz, J. (2008) Organizational Analysis of Small Software Organizations: Framework and Case Study, in H. Oktaba y M. Piattini, Software Process Improvement for Small and Medium Enterprises: Techniques and Case Studies, USA: IGI Global, pp. 1-41.

Introduction

In modern society, service-related activities are growing in importance. Software is playing a preponderant role. More and more, organizations depend on data-processing processes and on the abilities of highly skilled and scarce personnel. They have been named knowledge workers and this kind of organization is named knowledge intensive firms (Alvesson, 2004, p.5ss) or post- modern organizations. Software organizations are a paradigmatic case of intensive-knowledge organizations for many reasons, but principally because its main work is symbolic or non-material in nature and because it is non-standard work for its labour conditions.

Paradoxically, most software organizations are not characterized as applying to themselves what they promote for others. A closer, detailed look inside them frequently reveals a totally different situation: while in the business, most productive, administrative and management processes are candidates for automation, in software organizations, these processes still continue to develop in a craft-like and chaotic manner. The same thing happens in the systems department of any organization. Software production and the most of the work relating to information technology have succumbed to the culture of urgency and competition typical of management. Business cycles decrease and everything is in constant change, with the rising pressure of changing information systems.

Management in software organizations, in a process of imitation, has attempted to adopt the same management recipes applied in business. In this way, it has succumbed to management fads. One of these clearly is total quality management (TQM), adopting the name of the normative standards of that moment. Many TQM initiatives have failed miserably in practice in small businesses as well as in large ones. However, in implementing these organizational models, organizational limits exist for their full application, most importantly in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Resource constraints in SMEs at all levels (monetary, human, time, opportunity, etc.) make it impossible to adhere completely to such prescriptions. Additionally, those organizational characteristics, such as size, diversity, structure and formalization, impose specific restrictions since causes can be manipulated, but not effects. Possibly, the consideration of formal-informal structure duality is the most important, because it provokes both structures to distance themselves from each other, making a close attachment of the informal one to the formal one practically impossible and expensive. But this structural duality is present in all aspects of the organization and software projects become chaotic because of that, among others. To analyze this organizational complexity, which is magnified in small organizations, a framework has been developed based on organization studies and with a social constructionism approach.

This chapter is organized into three parts. In the first part, I provide an overview of the organizational paradigms that allow estimating the complexity of the organization conceived as a social construct beyond its classical mechanics and simple vision. This way, the organization appears as complex, multi-dimensional and multi-paradigmatic. Additionally, I provide an overview the three disciplines that support software production: management, project management and software engineering. I end with a recounting of facts pointing to software engineering as a discipline in crisis, and the causes of that crisis identified.

In the second part, I propose that, if software engineering is in crisis, a paradigmatic change as a discipline is required and I propose three alternatives for that change. In addition, based on Kenneth Gergen's arguments, I assume that all paradigmatic change can only be possible by means of abandoning the current paradigm, adopting a critical attitude with a new discourse and arguments, and then promoting a new paradigm. This part ends with positing the conceptual tools that constitute a framework for doing organizational analysis in software organizations. It is exemplified by a study case of a small outsourcing software company in Mexico City. In addition, I reflect briefly on the scope and utility of this framework. The application of this framework demonstrates that the use of a distinct paradigm other than software engineering for studying software organizations is possible.

Finally, in the third part, I explore some of the main trends I consider promising for research in the short term.

You can access to the full text as an excerpt at IGI Global in the following link:

[...]

This is the best book for troubleshooting that I have seen. There are nice flow charts that really help you to decide where to look. The text is well written and the drawings are clear. You don't even have to read between the lines to understand that an experienced mechanic has written this one. It doesn't just say "remove the flywheel", it tells you how to remove the flywheel. Recommended.

This is an excellent book all the way through. Great diagrams and explanations on how to repair most small engines. Well written and very useful to the DIY repairman.

However,

If you're looking for a book that shows you how to change a spark plug, this is not the book for you. There are much better books out there for beginners and light tinkerers.

This book assumes that not only are you mechanically proficient and have the tools to repair it yourself but also posess a basic understanding of how small engine mechanisms work already or can figure it out without too much effort.

Not to say the average homeowner won't find it useful, but the author doesn't go in-depth or hold your hand through what should be moderately simple procedures for someone with basic experience in mechanical repair.

That's what makes this either a good book or a bad book. If you know or can stumble your way around engines, this is a great book that gives you the information you need to properly repair many different models and makes.

If you're someone whose lawnmower broke down last weekend and you thought it might be fun to fix it yourself but you don't have a lot of tools or experience on repairing engines then there are probably some better books out there.

I like this book simply because the author doesn't waste any time (or paper) explaining things that you should already know. Think of it like Small Engine Repair 201 instead of Small Engine Repair 101.

I'll probably hang onto this book for as long as I have small gas engines I may need to repair since it makes such a great reference book.

--James

This book is very in-depth. From beginning to end it describes types of engines, troubleshooting,and individual engine components or systems. The book is certainly not a book for someone that does not already have a working knowledge of engines. The tech information and drawings are very confusing. There is little doubt that Mr. Dempsey knows all about engine repair. It is not a book for the average person that wants to learn to repair a lawn mower. If the author's intention was to provide a teaching text--in my opinion, he missed the mark.

this book was very easy to understand for me since i am new to CUMC and unity. well written and examples are great!

Book is ok maybe a little better could have a lot more pictured info of step by step examples ie it takes you thru numerous steps than shows a pictured example of what the last step should look like it would be much better if @ each step they would show what you would see on the screen

Configuring CallManager and Unity: A Step-by-Step Guide by David Bateman published by Cisco Press (ISBN: 1-58705-196-6) covers configuration tasks (in a step by step process) associated with Cisco's CallManager and Unity products. The twelve chapters of the book are broken down into three parts. The first six chapters focus on the configuration tasks involved with the CallManager, while the next five chapters focus on the configuration tasks involved with Unity. The book concludes with a chapter on advanced features within CallManager and Unity.

I found this book to be very informative. The author's explanation on the meaning behind the various configuration settings is very succinct. The author does a great job in providing and explaining step by step configuration tasks necessary to implement various features in both CallManager and Unity. I agree with the author that even though the book was written based on CallManager version 4.1 and Unity version 4.04, the book has great value no matter what version of CallManager and Unity you may be running. Having real equipment that one can follow along with during this read is extremely beneficial to the reader and will increase the reader's comprehension of CallManager and Unity. It is my opinion that this book is a great reference for when one says "What needs to be done to make this happen and how do I configure it?" The author provides many real life experiences to inform the reader. This is typically depicted via the notes and warnings that are clearly stated and appropriately placed throughout the content of the book. The author also provides many references at the end of the book and provides relevant search criteria for searching Cisco's web site for the referenced material.

All in all, I found the book very informative. The book can not be read like a book based on just theory, although theory is provided when appropriate. The book needs to be read more like a study book than a theory book. This book is a must read for anyone responsible for the operations, administration and maintenance of Cisco's CallManager and Unity. Anyone who just wants to understand how to configure various features in CallManager and Unity will find this book to be very informative.

I purchased this book recently and found it very easy to understand, the author did a very good job in explaining all the concepts that I needed to know.

Wish I had found this book sooner - so many Cisco books are for the CCIE or CCIE wanna be ( I confess - I am a wanna be). But in this case I needed a guide to tell me how to administrate the system. This is a very good book for administering Call Manager.

All the information you need in one place to quickly and efficently secure your networks and computers . Easy to read and understand but yet very technical in nature. Highly recommended for all levels of users from students to professionals.

This is a very comprehensive Internet security book that details the nuts and bolts of the problems and solutions in elbow-deep detail. It also addresses specific causes of the issues we face; from government interventions and plans to terrorism and crime motivations. Great book, I highly recommend it.

Internet security is critical to most modern organizations--which have systems links across enterprisewide networks and VPNs, as well as exposure to customers, competitors, browsers, and hackers. This practical guide to Internet security provides the means for such organizations to effectively protect their sites from internal and external threats. It provides real-life scenarios and examples, as well as hands-on instruction for securing Internet communications.

So many Internet security books focus on theory and concepts but miss the practical aspects of security. This book gives it all to you, theory, concepts and practical steps you can take to deal with Internet security. I highly recommend it.

John Vacca has done it again. He has not only made a complex technology easy to understand, he also identifies the pitfalls and solutions that one has to be aware of in order to survive in this ever increasing world of network hacking, terrorism and identify theft. The book is extremely well organized and very consistent in the way it describes the various Internet and Intranet technologies, and the security issues and solutions associated with them. This book is a must for operating system and network managers, as well as information technology specialists that must develop and maintain distributed data management applications that operate in secure environments.