Java The Complete Reference, Seventh Edition (Osborne Complete Reference Series) Review

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(More customer reviews)This was the text for a class I just finished. It's clearly written and does cover the new elements of the Java 6 platform. The author seems obsessed with AWT and applets in spite of neither having been used much this century. The book gives short shrift to swing. The book has nothing about java.sql and database connectivity. It touches briefly on servlets and ignores jsps.
If you're interested in an introduction to the nuts and bolts of the language the book is OK, if not inspired. Don't expect it to serve as a reference; it's short on detail. I would have liked to have seen a stronger emphasis on OO design. Most of the code examples are written in a procedural style that wouldn't have been out of place in 1985. A positive for the code examples is that every one I've tried compiles and seems to run properly.


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C#: A Beginners Guide Review

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(More customer reviews)If you know OOPs concepts already and you want a quick book to get started in C# then this is the right book. This book should help to get through the syntax of the C#.
As the book title suggests, this book is meant only for beginners ONLY beginners

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Learn the basics of working with Microsoft's newest programming language using this hands-on introductory resource. You'll get step-by-step instructions for creating, compiling, and running simple programs followed by in-depth explanations on data types, operators, functions, arrays, classes, inheritance, and much more. You'll also be introduced to some of the advanced features of C#. Through a combination of hands-on coding projects, detailed explanations, and practical advice this is the essential introduction for every new C# programmer.

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Introduction To Fortran 90/95 (B.E.S.T. Series) Review

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(More customer reviews)Fortran is still widely used in science and engineering, though if you look at new computer books, you can scarcely tell this. Since those usually discuss languages like C, C++ and Java. But when it comes to raw number crunching, and where a GUI might be nice, but is strictly secondary, there is a ton of legacy code in Fortran.
So there is still a need for a book like this, which discusses how to use the latest version, Fortran 95. What the author strives for is to cover something lacking in many older Fortran texts. Those tend to explain the syntax and how to write small programs, of a few thousand lines or less.
But there is often little discussion on how to manage the complexity of libraries stretching to 10^5 lines or 10^6 lines of code. How can you maintain and understand and add to these bodies? Issues like unit testing, which quite often discussed in java or C++, are well described here. Design discipline is also emphasised.
So if you are still writing in Fortran, and are wondering about coping with growing code, consider this book.

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B.E.S.T. (Basic Engineering Series and Tools) consists of modularized textbooks offering virtually every topic and specialty likely to be covered in an introductory engineering course.All the texts boast distinguished authors and the most current content. These inexpensive B.E.S.T modules are easily combined with each other to construct the ideal Intro to Engineering course. The goal of this series is to provide the educational community with material that is timely, affordable, of high quality, and flexible in how it is used.

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Introduction to Matlab 7 for Engineers (McGraw-Hill's Best: Basic Engineering Series and Tools) Review

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(More customer reviews)Although this book has a lot of pertinent information to engineers, I bought it with the intent of learning the fundamentals of coding in MATLAB. I have a class in which our teacher assigns problems in MATLAB, but none of the students have experience in MATLAB. I bought the book to help me figure out how to write codes and it doesn't do that too well, but I could see how it might work well for someone familiar with MATLAB who needs to use it for an engineering problems.

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This is a simple, concise book designed to be useful for beginners and to be kept as a reference. MATLAB is presently a globally available standard computational tool for engineers and scientists. The terminology, syntax, and the use of the programming language are well defined and the organization of the material makes it easy to locate information and navigate through the textbook.The text covers all the major capabilities of MATLAB that are useful for beginning students.An instructor's manual and other web resources are available.

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RHCE Red Hat Certified Engineer Linux Study Guide (Exam RH302) (Certification Press) Review

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(More customer reviews)The Red Hat Certified Engineer is one of the most respected of the Linux certifications. Part of the reason is because of the difficulty of the exam. "Red Hat Certified Engineer Linux Study Guide, 4th Edition" covers all the points of the exam very well and includes the information you need to work with Red Hat in the real world. In addition to all the information you need to pass the exam, the book contains over 50 lab exercises and two complete RHCE exams and the entire book on CD. If you plan on taking the exam do the labs, don't just read over them.
Michael Jang has consistently produced high quality books and this is one of his best. The book is strongly slanted toward passing the exam, which is okay since that is exactly what it purports to be. Throughout the book there are short comments marked off from the rest of the test which points to tips for real world items (called "on the job") and tips for the exam (called "exam watch"). Each chapter ends with a short summary, a "two-minute drill", self-test questions, and lab questions. The "two-minute drill" is great for exam preparation the day of the exam since it is pretty much the type of thing that you would put on note cards for a quick review anyway.
This is real-life advice and is full or tips and troubleshooting problems. In the installation section it covers disk partitioning, swap space, bios limits, multiple controllers, and RAID. Some good solid advice and information about things like problems with a computer with both a SCSI drive controller and IDE drive controller in the same system. The installation troubleshooting section includes boot loaders, RAID, logical volumes, kickstart automated installation and pretty much everything you might run across. It even includes how to boot up into single user mode, a very important ability for some administrative tasks and gaining root level access (full access to everything) to the system. For some reason, although this is used in real-life for a lot of reasons, it seems to be left out of most books. They will tell you to switch to single user mode to fix a problem or gain root access, but don't tell you how to do it. This book tells you everything you need to know. It includes not only the graphical and utility methods to do things but also includes the information for how it changes the configuration. The information is so detailed that you can hand add the lines and/or configuration files and do it all by hand if you would prefer. This way you understand exactly what each item does and it is much easier to troubleshoot problems.
The authors have included everything you need to know to install, troubleshoot, and administer a real-world server - shell configuration, kernel information, automation, X Windows installation and configuration, GNOME and KDE desktops, Apache server including security and virtual hosts, Squid proxy server configuration, secure FTP server, mail services including SMTP, sendmail, postfix, POP, and IMAP, Samba installation and configuration, printing services, DNS, BIND, DHCP, LDAP client configuration, firewall policies, network address translation, and the Linux rescue environment are examples of the breadth of coverage.
It even includes how to work with the automounter, another item that is left out of most other books. The only error I found was on page 11, Table 1-2, where it has "First IDE drive = /dev/had" when it should be "/dev/hda". For that to be the only problem I found in a book of this size shows the care with which it was edited.
This is simply the best book I have seen if you want to become a general Linux "guru". Not only does it have everything you need to pass the exam, it has everything you need to install and administer a Linux network. There are better books available on specific areas of Linux, for example a single chapter on Apache obviously cannot compete with a 600 page book on Apache server. Then again, this the best book around if you want an understanding of Linux that is general enough to provide a complete overview of how Linux works in the real world and is also detailed enough to provide everything you need to get everything you want up and running. "Red Hat Certified Engineer Linux Study Guide, 4th Edition" gets the highest recommendation I can give.

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Programming in C++: Lessons and Applications Review

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(More customer reviews)Dr. D'Orazio's C++ Programming textbook is very easy to follow and has many useful examples to learn from. It is very well written and helpful in mastering the C++ language. I would recommend this book for students learning C++ for the first time.

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D'Orazio's Programming in C++: Lessons and Applications provides an accessible introduction to programming in C++.It teaches the C++ language and object-oriented design to students with no previous programming experience.The focus is on developing programs for solving a variety of problems.Each chapter of the book is divided into two parts--Lessons and Applications.The Lessons teach C++ language elements and simple programming techniques, and the Applications teach program design. A step-by-step methodology for program development is presented early in the text and reinforced throughout with the help of the application examples and over thirty case studies.

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Swing: A Beginner's Guide (Beginner's Guide (Osborne Mcgraw Hill)) Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is well organized and thought out. It is written clearly. It does not waste time with Java primers and it avoids excessive verbiage. Concepts are built logically, step by step and each has a clear complete example to illustrate. I own several books on Swing, and this one is by far the best introduction to the API.

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PICAXE Microcontroller Projects for the Evil Genius Review

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(More customer reviews)I'll be honest here. I was purchasing a completely unrelated book, and I needed to spend a few more bucks to get free shipping at Amazon. Having just ordered a PICAXE development board and a few PICAXE chips to play with, I did a quick search and found this book. I have already bought and studied "Programming and Customizing the PICAXE Microcontroller" book by David Lincoln (also highly recommend) so I didn't think I needed another PICAXE book. But I bought it anyway.
And I'm glad I did.
Mr. Hackett did a fine job on this book. It is well written, very illustrative (although the publisher could have lightened a number of the illustrations, many were very dark and you had to squint), and follows a very nice outline.
What impresses me the most, besides the thoroughness of the programming information, is the design suggestions that he made. I have, since I was 10 years old (I still have that first breadboard 25 years later), been a breadboarder. I have built and modified many circuits on breadboards. It is a valuable skill, one that can only come from experience... but it can also get tedious. That's why I really like the development boards that are available. I have been using a PICAXE development board (google AXE091) for a few days and really enjoy it, and highly recommend it. It's also why I REALLY like the Arduino with the associated shields for it. But what impresses me with this book is Mr. Hackett's stripboard techniques. First you breadboard a peripheral (LED display, switch, etc) and then, since it is something you will likely use again and again, you can save time in the future by making a stripboard version that plugs into your breadboard. Very nice. But even that can get tedious after a while... so guess what? When you have developed that particular skill, and want to save time, you can actually purchase professionally etched PC boards from his website to make some of these peripherals.
I also really liked his logic probe in a test tube project. I intend to make one myself. It reminds me of our high school electronics class when we all made voltage testers, put them in a glass test tube, filled it with clear epoxy, and then broke the glass off... although Mr. Hackett's design simply encloses the probe in a plastic test tube... nice design.
I recently wrote a poor review of "PIC Programming for Beginners" by Mark Spencer and published by the American Radio Relay League. I stated that the book was not for beginners and I suggested that the ARRL publish a three volume set, the first being a book about digital electronics (TTL/CMOS logic, etc, which I find an essential prerequisite to micros... then Volume 2 would be a book about the PICAXE, and Volume 3 would be the book introducing the PIC and assembly code. "PICAXE Microcontroller Projects for the Evil Genius" would be my Volume 2 of this set.
Nice work Mr. Hackett!

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WHIP UP SOME FIENDISHLY FUN PICAXE MICROCONTROLLER DEVICES
"Ron has worked hard to explain how the PICAXE system operates through simple examples, and I'm sure his easy-to-read style will help many people progress with their PICAXE projects."
This wickedly inventive guide shows you how to program, build, and debug a variety of PICAXE microcontroller projects. PICAXE Microcontroller Projects for the Evil Genius gets you started with programming and I/O interfacing right away, and then shows you how to develop a master processor circuit.
From "Hello, World!" to "Hail, Octavius!"All the projects in Part I can be accomplished using either an M or M2 class PICAXE processor, and Part II adds 20X2-based master processor projects to the mix. Part III culminates in the creation of Octavius--a sophisticated robotics experimentation platform featuring a 40X2 master processor and eight breadboard stations which allow you to develop intelligent peripherals to augment Octavius' functioning. The only limit is your imagination!
PICAXE Microcontroller Projects for the Evil Genius:
Features step-by-step instructions and helpful photos and illustrations
Allows you to customize each project for your purposes
Offers all the programs in the book free for download
Removes the frustration factor--all required parts are listed, along with sources

Build these and other devious devices:
Simple mini-stereo jack adapter
USBS-PA3 PICAXE programming adapter
Power supply
Three-state digital logic probe
20X2 master processor circuit
TV-R input module
8-bit parallel 16X2 LCD board
Serialized 16X2 LCD
Serialized 4X4 matrix keypad
SPI 4-digit LED display
Countdown timer
Programmable, multi-function peripheral device and operating system
Octavius--advanced robotics experimentation platform
L298 dual DC motor controller board

Visit www.JRHackett.net to learn more.

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