Computing Internet Books

Silicon cheaps are cheap to produce. They will appear everywhere in time. Obvious but true concept, but useful if one uses it to consider future designs, investments, strategies, etc.

Ubiquitous computing can mean different things to different people, especially without a concise yet comprehensive description. The book contains a series of statements which I feel helps to define or characterize what ubiquitous computing is about and some of its unique features. I found the book helpful in explaining ideas at a non-technical level without being too abstract. Lastly, "everyware" is a really good word that I think does capture the idea of ubiquitous computing well. Instead of people going to the computer to get things done, the computer has come out to where things are done.

"Everyware" is a magnificent, quixotic foray into the future. At once boldly assertive in attempting to define the evolving trend of ubiquitous computing, it's also disarmingly self-effacing as the author describes his own slowness to adopt, and doubts about, the same technology. As an attempt to thoroughly survey the elusive, ever-evolving world of ubiquitous computing, it is a tour de force.

The text is an impressive series of 81 precise "theses" that describe "the dawning age of ubiquitous computing". Each thesis explores, through historical antecedent and incisive contemporaneous analysis, one aspect of the arriving "ubicomp" paradigm which he terms "everyware."

Author Adam Greenfield seems to have presaged nearly all useful comment on the nature and near future direction of ubiquitous computing. Compared to this work, even such transformative declarations as the Cluetrain Manifesto come across as merely sophomoric, though sincere drumbeats.

Greenfield is a facile conceptualist, comfortable with traditional academic discipline yet easily capable of creating significant buzz with an avant garde writing style molded through constant travel and communication with moblogging ubicomp fanatics from Tokyo to Stockholm. A thought leader, and certainly not a follower, he's always eager to cross swords with iconic figures of the new media establishment, or to ally with them.

Greenfield's style is to trace geodesic descriptive arcs around the ever-evolving space of this subject. In his view, "Everyware" is driven in parts by historical dialectic, cultural evolution, technological invention and entrepreneurial testosterone. In each thesis we are tantalized and left wanting more. Many of Greenfield's theses could easily - and should be - developed into full volumes on their own.

The text frequently and informally refers to events, people, objects and technologies both present and past that support or amplify the author's points, bespeaking extensive research and correspondence. Despite this thoroughness, the book lacks citations and bibliography, perhaps in an effort to make the content seem less weighty and more of a visionary discussion.

Predictive today, this book may become increasingly relevant as its grand vision becomes reality. It may be that an historical perspective will be needed to fully appreciate this contribution. Its meaning and value will be different in "middle age" (say 4 years from now) when Greenfield's many predictions can be evaluated against coetaneous events. The final test will be well down the line when the influence of "Everyware" as manifesto can be seen in historical context.

One of the most endearing aspects of Greenfield's style is his own self-effacing, fundamentally human take on subjects large and small. He writes as the daring internationalist conceptual thinker he is, but never loses sight of his own humanity. He often makes an arching, bitingly tight commentary, which is immediately leavened gently by a genuine and warm personal perspective.

Greefield's personal style infuses the work and subtly develops what may be the most important message of the entire work: the urgent need to preserve humanity and user-centricity in the component development of this overwhelmingly complex and centerless computing system, one that may someday control the electronic infrastructure of the 21st century world.

Despite my enthusiasm for it, there IS a serious problem with "Everyware." The great flaw of this book is lack of a central theme. Despite skillful seques from one thesis ending into the next, the book remains a series of essays whose essential points interconnect, leaving the reader with the task of finding the larger common denominator. It's as if the author were describing each brilliant facet of a diamond, without ever describing the gem itself. It may be possible to describe a whole through the intimate dissection of its parts, but it's hard on a reader. I'd prefer reading the same material structured as a series of proofs supporting a central theme. With such backbone, it would be far easier to learn, test and evaluate the theses.

A less important though still serious shortcoming is the author's exclusive reliance on (sometimes overwhelmingly complex) text. Reading "Everyware" is not for the faint of heart, as its concepts do not enter one's consciousness easily. Despite a clear attempt to write simply, Greenfield's style is inherently complex and he often writes with a fairly high "Fog Index." As a result the reader must pay close attention, but the result in stimulation and knowledge is well worth the effort.

Visual learners will find the book difficult going. Despite numerous footnotes, there is not a single illustration or diagram in the work, nor are there more than a few URL references. For an author and design critic who celebrates beauty in his core (see Greenfield's v-2.org), this is a curious, and galling omission. The theses are replete with references to objects and sites we never see, thus forcing the reader to conjure understanding through the exercise of imagination. I found this highly distracting and made it more difficult to read the work.

Such heavy reliance on text works to exclude visually oriented people, many of whom may be involved in the design of ubicomp hardware and software, and who need to get the message. It also seems odd that Greenfield, until recently a practicing information architect, did not at publication prepare a companion "Everyware" website through which readers could see and experience the scores of supportive examples he provides in support of his theses.

To be fair, it may be that Greenfield (and/or his publisher) did not want to commit resources to the visual description of a subject likely to change within months, preferring to aim at more universal points that might survive the roiling rate of evolution in the field. Time and expense may have been an issue for this first time effort (obtaining reproduction rights and creating original artwork can take much time and money).

Having said that, it seems curiously unforgivable that a book that rides the edge of thought about a potentially significant evolution in human thought and technology should be so lacking in employment of that same technology. It seems incomprehensible that the content was not produced and marketed with equally avant-garde methods such as viral marketing, print on demand production that allows frequent updates, e-book or PDF format (with live links) and website support.

Perhaps time was a factor. The book does seem rushed and breathless, as if it were composed in tense moments of brilliance at a Starbucks, or while infused with ideas after a conference. This tone, taken with the exclusion of graphical elements, makes it seem like the author wanted to be the first on the block to announce "everyware'" and to be credited with coinage of the term. Whether this perception is true or not, it does lead to the conclusion that "Everyware" is a well-crafted effort, but one in dire need of a more thoughtfully considered, better-budgeted, and website-supported second edition.

On the other hand, conceptual density and complex sentence structure seem necessary for Greenfield. His mind works so fast and at such a complex level that he literally needs an explosive, quick way to get the ideas out. I hope that in a subsequent edition, the assistance of more patient and less driven editors would enhance and expand the audience for this importantly predictive and analytical work. A richly graphic approach to the next version would further expand the audience for these important ideas.

In deference to both the reader and the essence of ubicomp, perhaps a future edition can be packaged with (or be)a flash device with a web server embedded in it, containing the text and a full library of reference visuals, diagrams and videos that expand and amplify the concept in the book. By using such a device the reader can be plugged into the meaning of "Everyware" not only informationally but experientially.

"Everyware" rates a B PLUS. B for brilliant because Greenfield truly is, and PLUS for being a superb beginning but not (yet) a home run.

As a final note, I feel sure that "Everyware" is not the last word coming from Adam Greenfield on the subject of ubiquitous computing. An emerging movement couldn't have a more passionate, persuasive and skillful evangelist, nor one whose own humanity and affinity for others helps soften the fear of the unknown, and can help convert resistance to change into open-eyed anticipation.

It's just a series of repetitive dissertations that reinforce the point that ubiquitous computing will exist in the future. If you know that already, this is nothing new or interesting.

The term everyware is defined as the ability to access significant computing power from any location, and does not necessarily mean that computer chips are embedded in everything. Hence the contraction from "everywhere software." While chips may not be embedded in everything, that scenario is certainly possible in the near future, as only two preconditions are necessary.

*) Each tag must be uniquely identifiable. This is currently being enacted, Internet Protocol Version 6 has an address space that would allow every grain of sand on Earth to have multiple, unique addresses.
*) The cost of the embedded chips must drop, the figure most commonly cited is less than five cents.

While the first condition is already being implemented, everyone following the history of computing knows that the second is only a matter of time. Most industry watchers believe that this basic threshold will be reached no later than 2008.
Therefore, there are no significant technological barriers to the implementation of everyware. The question then becomes, "Do we as a society want it?" Certainly, we want the convenience that everyware provides. By monitoring the state of health of our bodies, houses and vehicles, our comfort and safety levels will rise. However, there is an enormous downside to this as well. With the advent of everyware, personal privacy will be even more a thing of the past. It will be possible to know the location of a person at all times, both physically and in cyberspace, the people they are with, what they are doing and what they have purchased. It is also clear that divorce lawyers will try to obtain records of the locations of people in order to try to prove that the opposing spouse is guilty of some form of malfeasance. It will no longer be necessary for spies to hide in vehicles and behind bushes.
This book examines both the positive and negative sides of these issues and summarizes the consequences of what will clearly be a revolution. The laws regarding the use of personal data will have to be substantially rewritten to handle these issues, as the gains of everyware will be too strong to prevent the implementation. I cite as evidence the widespread use of cell phones and other mobile devices. Marketing people would find it easy to identify a customer at a purchase point such as a gas station by the number of their credit card. Once you are identified, the screen on the pump would then display items you are known to favor. The same thing can be done in stores, if you are identified when you walk by or in the store, a sales pitch targeted specifically to you would appear.
The recent disclosure that the American Government is monitoring phone calls points out the potential for good and bad uses for data. Guilt by association is not guilt by fact, yet it easy to see how zealous law enforcement could arrive at the former. Everyware would make that conclusion very easy.
I will be teaching a course in the fundamentals of computing in the fall of 2006. After reading this book, I added it to my required list and will be using it as a secondary text this fall.

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.

Surprisingly, this book is not only an authoritative summary of the invention of the Atanasoff-Berry Computer and the ENIAC, but is extremely engaging at the same time. Despite the title's assumed warning of a dry legal story, Mrs. Burks' work is a very detailed and indeed very human summary of early computer history and the legal battle that resulted. This book should be required reading for anyone serious about learning the history of digital computers.

This book renders a wonderful service by telling the story of an inspired mathematical physicist and technologist, John Atanasoff, who made splendid contributions to technological advances in computing. With the advent of World War II, Atanasoff was called away from teaching duties at Iowa State University in order to serve the military research needs of his nation, thus his pioneering binary electronic computer did not become contemporaneously well-known.

Fortunately for the subsequent advance of the computer age, it was studied by John Mauchly, who later incorporated some of Atanasoff's clever ideas into a computer, the ENIAC, built during 1944/45 at the University of Pennsylvania, owing to funding from the Army's Ballistics Research Laboratory (BRL). The ENIAC became highly publicized in early 1946 and thereby served to inspire many subsequent advances in the evolution of computing technologies. In popular understanding, those best known to be associated with the ENIAC, Mauchly and Preston Eckert, became celebrated, the genius of Atanasoff unknown.

This book is based on a careful review of abundant evidence that was assembled for two patent law disputes. The author is profoundly versed in the technical issues. Her unswerving honesty and dedication to sifting facts from fables yields a definitive account of Atanasoff's legacies.

Kay has signed an affadavit swearing to the truth of her statement about Burkss' night-time visit. How about you Arthur?

You wrote a whole book disparaging Kay, so I assume you'll continue.

Putting stuff in writing doesn't make it so.

Jean J. Bartik
Oaklyn, Nj

Amazon should remove "reviews" based on personal animosity rather than on the merits of the book under review. As for me, I found this book to be well-written and enlightening, adding to the search for truth about the early history of the electronic computer. We all owe a debt of gratitude to John Atanasoff for his vision in helping to bring about the digital age.

(a) Author could not understand the difference between a computer and components. A computer is an integrated entity of componets arranged properly by the architect. A component, regardless of its importance, is just a part. A component by itself can not be a computer.
(b) Atanasoff's ABC was NOT a computer in any sense. It's just like a PCS (Puch Card System). If you say ABC is a computer, you have to say the IBM's old PCS is also a computer.
(c)If this book discusses the "Who invent a computer", Author should not ignore the detailes of Neumann's "1st Draft" which you will find nothing about the stroed program concept except very strange one sentence. This shows that Neumann's level of understanding of "stored program", then, was very poor. If he understands the importance as we talk now, he will assign more space to explane the meaning of stored program.
(d)Author also should not ignore "the Moore School summer seminar" held in July-August,1946 where EDVAC's circuit diagrams,then, were shown. The diagrams shows the readyness of the stored program computer at Moore School. It's much more important than "the preliminary discussion" by Burks, Goldstine and Neumann. Also Author have to discuss Babbage if invention of computer is concerned.
(e)Therefore author's approach of one sided narrow and heavy use of the testimonies does not lead us to a productive, fair and historical engineering judgement. Auther just looking at components that never reaches to the system. It is clear that the title of the book is not appropriate under the long range historiacl perspective.
John Mauchly and Pres Eckert are the great inventors of the computer as an integrated system entity. We, human being, can proud of them regardless of some confusions in a patent testimony. Also perhaps we recognize John Atanasoff as the great inventor of the regenerative component.

Considering author's previous book titled "The first electronic computer", it sound like broken audio record which keeps looping and making meanigless noise which makes people confusions.

I'm working my way through this and it's doing a good job of giving me a good overall background. So far, I like it.

if you have very little knowledge or totally clueless about tcp/ip and would like to start learning about it -- this is where you should start. it really covers the basics. the author was able to explain every subject in an easy-to-understand-and-digest manner. (i admit there were trivial "real-life" examples, but what the hey?! it's still a 5-star book to me.) thank GOD we bought it!

For anyone needing basic information on TCP/IP, addressing and subnetting this book is it. The author places the information in clear language and uses simple, daily examples to explain. Grab it!

When it came to explaining things, I liked the book. I though it did a very good job of making complicated concepts very basic and easy to understand.

Unfortunate, what I gained in clarity in the author's analogies was lost when he started to give actual examples with numbers in them.

For example, page 161 where he is giving an example on sub net masks. The example starts by stating "10001001101 is the binary representation of 1,102 = 11 bits are needed in the subnet mask." That is not correct 1,102 = 10001001110. So does that mean since the last bit is zero that only 10 bits are needed? - or do we still need 11 bits? - examples should help clarify the point, not add to the confusion.

Another example is on page 97. It gives a formula to figure out the number of available networks in a network class - and using this formula it would mean a Class A network would have 2^7 networks (8 bits minus 1 because the first bit is zero to designate it a Class A) which equals 128. But his summary chart on that same page says 126 - and just a few pages before (page 93) he walks you through an detailed example of how many networks are in a class A, but he gives you an answer of 127. So what is right? 126, 127 or 128?

Are you confused, because by the time I was done reading just two chapters I was. Unfortunately, the book is riddled with these inconsistencies. If you are new to TCP IP, have a need to understand network addressing and are only going to get one book, this is not the one.

Clearly there is a market for a book like this--it's just too bad this one is so bad. The writing is good, but the things Mr. Blank writes are so frequently incorrect or oversimplified to the point of meaninglessness.

Here are some major issues:

- Oversimplification. I suppose that's OK, particularly if this text is aimed at elementary or middle school students, who can't deal as well with the details. In the Introduction, we're told that, among others, "decision-makers", network administrators, small business owners, and TCP/IP instructors, are the intended audience.

- Major misconceptions. For example, UDP and TCP are the two most important transport layer protocols but not the only ones (SCTP, as well as, arguably, TLS and others). Classful IP addresses have been deprecated for years. And so on.

- More specific errors of fact. Things like saying that a host is "any device... on a network..." with an IP address--that's wrong. Ditto for claiming the the sender/builder of a packet has to know the destination's hardware address (highlighted as a "Tip") or that TCP data is chunked into "packets" or that the Internet layer "contains" ARP. And on and on and on.

- Condescending layout. Yes, the layout is condescending, with the special symbols placed above every page number to indicate whether or not the current "topic" continues on the next page; the "NOTE"'s spread throughout, letting the reader know what's coming up in the next paragraph; simple-minded end of chapter review questions; and so on.

- Minimal content. Two full pages at the start of every chapter for the number, title, and list of chapter topics. Lots and lots of white space within the text, plus huge header fonts, plus two full pages (at least) for review questions at the end of every chapter, plus way too many screenshots of Windows dialog boxes.

If you must buy this book, realize that you won't know as much about TCP/IP as you think you do, and be prepared to be corrected if you go on with your networking education.

This is my favorite Java book. Although I have a background programming in C++, I find many of the other Java books to be cryptic or assume you wish to develop for the web. This book is straightforward and easy to read. I especially found the comparisons between Java & C++ interspersed throughout the text to be helpful.

I have an older version of this book but it covers many of the core features of the language. This is a good book if you are looking to start
programming in Java.

I only wish the authors would have understood that it's better to write variables and declarations first and then use them later in the code. All the code examples are funnily written with the use of the variables first only to wonder from where they come from and later to realize that they're are at the end!!!!

Also author has tried to pack too much of details which can be halved.
Herbert schildt is a better option.

But still the books is readable for beginners.

I have an earlier version of this book and would love to get a Kindle version for reference. But... You save $3 by getting the digital version despite the fact that there is no shipping, storage, or printing costs?

WTF?

At $10 a piece I'd love to fill a Kindle with dozens of coding reference books that are filling up my library, but at $30+ a piece it's just not worth it.

Whenever I buy a book that teaches programming I always compare to the classic C Programming Language (2nd Edition) (Prentice Hall Software) which is my standard for how a good programming book should be written. Inevitably most books suffer by that comparison.
Apart from lack of conciseness the main problem here is the quality of the examples. The examples in this book are very basic illustrations of the concepts so working through them is a waste of time because you won't learn much from them. The book could benefit from some examples with real usefulness and a learning curve for e.g examples with more complex/less simplistic object classes than 'Manager' and 'Employee' to reinforce OOP concepts.
Another shortcoming is its lack of conciseness. I hate to slog
through a dozen pages only to find that what I've really learnt could be summarized in a paragrah or so. One reason for this is that the authors keep repeating code fragments from previous examples, and that makes the examples overly long without adding anything to their learning content. That said, the silver lining is that it makes many chapters are self- contained and this is great for a modular approach to reading the book. Also the book is thorough and written in clear easy to follow text. The target audience is mainly experienced programmers who want a fast-paced introduction to the java language. If like me you're not quite the overly experienced and you prefer to learn by doing, with solid examples that you could actually use, with concise pithy explanations and maybe some good exercises to really rub it in, you might prefer some other book.

'Painting the Web' by many-time author Ms. Powers is a look at graphical design and layout of said data on the web. Focus is on how things should/can/will look on the internet, specific graphics tools and approaches and a detailed look at the SVG file format. SVG is a standard image format for displaying vector-based images instead of point based output like JPEGs and GIFs. SVG is an XML-type format that can be read in and edited in any text editor. The book is full color which I always appreciate and it written by a seasoned pro.

This is a nice companion book for any and all that do graphics programming on the web and is easy to recommend. Jam packed with 600+ pages of content this is a massive text that probably could have been reduced in size but what is there is a positive effort for sure.

**** RECOMMENDED

In spite of the huge number of graphics on the Web, the practice is surprisingly underserved in terms of the literature. Of course, there are design books, books on software, but these focus on best use of a product. The nuances and requirements for the Web are harder to find.

This book is a practitioner's book. And, it's a quite personal work. Written in a conversational style, it's easy to read. The author covers a wide range of tools which she uses on a regular basis. That includes a variety of less-familiar open source tools.

There is a great deal of HTML, CSS and JS code related specifically to graphic representation. It's really convenient to have this foundation in one place.

At first glance, one might be surprised at the detail given to techniques of Photoshop and other tools. But again, as a practitioner's book, it reflects the techniques useful for specifically Web design. It's handy to have these in one place for reference.

Because it is a rather personal work, there will be emphases that one might change. There is a significant amount of space spent on SVG -- which, although a standard, I think is problematic because of the lack of inherent support in IE and Adobe's discontinuation of the plug-in. In any case, weighing in at 638 pages, there's a lot of good information, regardless of one's personal opinion.

The focus is on traditional and standards-based HTML programming. The author does broach the canvas object -- a part of the HTML 5 standard which provides another route to animation on the desktop. However, IE8, at the time of the book's writing, didn't support this object. There is no coverage of Flash, and Silverlight is mentioned simply to identify another non-standard MS approach. Indeed, both Adobe and MS focus their energies on Flex/Flash/AIR and Silverlight technologies respectively to provide a richer Internet experience.

As fits a book on graphics, illustrations are in color. This adds a lot to the vitality of the read, and helps portray information in a useful way.

As the author notes, no one book can address the many issues related to web graphics. This book is of a different character than Weinman's Designing Web Graphics.4. Though in need of an update, that volume presents a more structured and a complementary perspective to the present.

In any case, it's a good addition to the Web designer's bookshelf.