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Beginning Ruby on Rails E-Commerce: From Novice to Professional
Christian Hellsten, Jarkko Laine |
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Apress
Published: 06 November, 2006 | |
Once in a while a book gets written that makes your life as a programmer easier; this book is one of them.
Why you might ask? To start off with, I can use +/- 60% of their demo application, emporium, as a basis for a application I've started writing; and my application has absolutely nothing to do with a book store. Their application addresses common tasks i.e. standard CRUD, security, multiple language support etc. things you will encounter in any web-based application.
I've never fully understood the fuzz about the Test Driven Design and I thought that writing test code before writing the actual code meant you were bananas. I know better know. If you follow their advice and example, boy do they write a lot of test code in their application, releasing your code to production won't be the dreaded "gone is my weekend" event it used to be. Thank you for showing the way guys.
I also like their writing style, it is as if you are part of the discussions with the user, George, as the application evolves from an idea till a pretty sophisticated amazon type clone. Everything is done using extensive user stories and you fully understand their reasons for their solution to the problems.
This book has everything you need to take your level of understanding / knowledge of Rails to higher level and as a bonus it will also make you a better programmer general; I highly recommend this book.
(Johannes de Jong - Bartender,
December 2006)
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Mastering Regular Expressions
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Third edition
Jeffrey E. F. Friedl |
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O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Published: 08 August, 2006 | |
"Mastering Regular Expressions" takes a great book and modernizes it to include the latest programming languages. The book starts out with assuming you know anything about Regular Expressions -- aside from the concept to be interested in picking up the book.
The author introduces regular expressions through examples and quickly introduces the constructs. The second third of the book goes into the details of how regular expressions are processed. This includes correctness and efficiency issues. The final third on the book goes over the syntax in Java, .NET, Perl and PHP. Tools like grep and awk are described in the text as well.
An alternate title for this book would have been "Thinking in Regular Expressions." Even if you think you know regular expressions, this book teaches you how much more there is to learn. It also teaches you some of the finer points of regular expressions in your favorite programming language along with cross references to the earlier part of the book.
The author uses good analogies to make the text understandable. After awhile, the concepts get so complicated that you have to read it many times to understand. A typically O'Reilly book. I've only had this book two weeks and I've already used it to make me a more effective developer!
(Jeanne Boyarsky - Bartender,
September 2006)
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Second edition
Jeffrey E. F. Friedl |
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O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Published: 15 July, 2002 | |
Regular Expressions ("regexes" for short), have been officially integrated into Java with the release of J2SE 1.4. While many Java developers are just discovering them, they have been a fixture in other languages and tools for quite some time. Regular expressions are powerful tools for performing all kinds of text processing, but they require no small amount of knowledge to use effectively and efficiently. This is where "Mastering Regular Expressions" comes to the rescue.
The books nine chapters are categorized into three sections. The book first teaches the basics of regular expressions, crafting simple regexes, and the different features and flavors available in various regex packages. Next, the reader is given invaluable information about how the different types of regular expression engines work, as well as techniques for crafting practical and efficient expressions. The final section covers language specific issues in Perl, Java, and .NET.
The author does an outstanding job leading the reader from regex novice to master. The book is extremely easy to read and chock full of useful and relevant examples. The author offers up questions along the way designed to engage the reader to apply what he has learned. In-line references to other parts of the book containing information pertinent the particular topic being discussed are also very helpful.
Regular expressions are valuable tools that every developer should have in their toolbox. "Mastering Regular Expressions" is the definitive guide to the subject, and an outstanding resource that belongs on every programmer's bookshelf.
(Jason Menard - Bartender,
March 2003)
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From Java to Ruby
Bruce Tate |
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Pragmatic Bookshelf
Published: 21 June, 2006 | |
I've been skeptical yet curious about Ruby. There are so many darn Java frameworks out there and I needed some justification to learn Ruby instead of yet another Java framework. Hey, I kinda have a life and I value my time.
This book doesn't teach Ruby programming but it might convince you to learn it. The cover reads, "Things Every Manager Should Know" yet you don't have to be a manager to appreciate Bruce's insights. Expect no syntax - this is a higher level blueprint for the revolution.
Bruce Tate reviews, without quibble, the dark sides of Java and what can cause the language itself to be the bottleneck of your team's velocity. You then discover what types of projects and work environments best cater to a Ruby pilot project. Bruce fairly weighs the risks and benefits for a variety of scenarios and even delves into how to put together an awesome Ruby team.
From Java to Ruby was so enjoyable a read, I finished it in two days. Pick up a copy but be warned: expect your colleagues to ask, "Hey, can I read that when you're done?"
And no, I won't let you borrow mine.
(Marc Peabody - Bartender,
August 2006)
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Nokia Smartphone Hacks
Michael Junato Yuan |
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O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Published: 25 July, 2005 | |
First let me say that it is difficult to stay objective when reviewing a friend's book. But luckily for me this book deserves 10 horseshoes objectively and 20 horseshoes subjectively.
Nokia Smartphone Hacks by Michael Yuan is the user's manual that should have been given out with each Nokia Series 40 and Series 60 cell phone. How many books are like this out in the market? None. You can go out and spend hundreds of dollars on that cool new cell phone with the great camera and all these bells and whistles, but most of use just use a small percentage of those features. And for those features that aren't even advertised, forget about it. But with this book you will become the power user of all power users. I even went around my office asking who owned Nokia phones and showed off the book to them, and they were jealous.
You will learn how to protect your phone from viruses, unlock your phone, create your own mobile portal for an actual enjoyable web experience on a cell phone, control your Powerpoint slide presentation on your laptop, play DVDs on your phone, create your own themes, rss feeds, reading blogs, posting to your blog. And that isn't even scratching the surface. Do you know how many Google searches you would have to do just to get half of this information?
If you own a Nokia Series 40 or Series 60 phone, just buy this book.
(Mark Spritzler - Sheriff,
August 2005)
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Hardening Linux
James Turnbull |
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Apress
Published: 01 February, 2005 | |
I haven't run a Linux box since 2002. Some time ago, realizing that I'd soon have a chance to migrate to using Linux for everyday work, I decided I should start refreshing my *NIX commands and shell scripting. Then, I saw "Hardening Linux". Rather spontaneously, I decided to start with this security-focused title instead of the perhaps more intuitive path of installing the latest distro, setting up a bunch of daemons, installing databases, etc. That proved to be an excellent decision. "Hardening Linux" is not a small book. Yet, I read the 500 pages more or less cover to cover. Even though we're talking
about a book of which purpose is to help you to secure your Linux server, I felt like I learned more about Linux reading this book than I've learned during the last year at work.
Turnbull kick starts the book by explaining user and group management, basics of the Linux file system security, how to verify downloaded packages, which tools and packages you probably should remove from a production server. By page 50, he had also shown how to compile your kernel with security flags and the Openwall project.
After the rather intense first chapter, the rest of the book's chapters each focus on a certain aspect of a system or a specific product, showing how to secure your system from that particular perspective. Most of these chapters are really top-notch compared to most of the online material I've resorted to in the past. For example, Turnbull presents the most intuitive tutorial on configuring the iptables firewall I've seen so far.
Another excellent description is the chapter on file system security. In my experience, the majority of developers dealing with Linux -- myself included -- don't really know much about Linux file system security beyond the basic file permission attributes. Thanks to chapter 4, I know twice as much about what's possible and what to look out for with
regards to file permissions and ownership, and all those mysterious "special" characters that don't have to do with the basic read-write-execute stuff.
The author also covers the topics of syslog (and syslog-ng), secure remote connections (including SSL/TLS and SSH among other things), and gives a broad overview of common security analysis tools such as NMAP, Nessus, Ethereal, and tcpdump. Beyond those I already mentioned, Turnbull has written excellent chapters explaining how to secure your email servers (both sendmail and postfix), putting your FTP server into a chroot jail, and how to set up your DNS server and protect yourself from common attacks such as cache poisoning.
All in all, an excellent book on not just Linux security but also on Linux fundamentals. Highly recommended reading if you're running a Linux box you wouldn't want getting "0wn3d."
(Lasse Koskela - Sheriff,
June 2005)
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PC Hacks
Jim Aspinwall |
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O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Published: 25 October, 2004 | |
What a beautiful little book! It will only take you a day or two to read, and more importantly, give you a dozen projects you'll be dying to try out. Personally I found about ten I intend to use, twenty I'd like to try, and ten more I wish I'd known about years ago.
The tips include hacks for the BIOS, hardware and the operating system. Some of the tips relate to very old hardware or operating systems, but this is fine since there aren't that many of these tips. The OS tips tend to relate mostly to flavours of windows, but there are enough Linux tips to still make it a worth while read.
Each tip is written in a concise format which provides plenty of information without being long winded, making the book easy to browse and use.
If the last chapter, covering configuring a new computer (anti-virus, malware and firewalls) was first, I'd recommend this book to be distributed with any new computer. Regardless, this is a great book that anyone will get value from.
(David O'Meara - Bartender,
May 2005)
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Beginning PHP 5 and MySQL From Novice to Professional
W. Jason Gilmore |
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Apress
Published: 21 June, 2004 | |
I can summarize this review in nine words. If you want to learn PHP, buy this book. But that wouldn't be much of a review now would it. Jason Gilmore starts this book the way most beginner's books start; with some history. But hold on tight because it doesn't take long before your hands start getting dirty.
After the brief history the book jumps right into installing and configuration then blasts right into PHP basic; syntax, tags, data types. Then it's not long before you are writing functions, using arrays, and then one of the most updated features of PHP 5, OOP. The book keeps moving right along into advanced features like error handling, regular expressions, and networking. And just when you think you have learned it all and you couldn't possibly think of anything else you could do with PHP, the book throws MySQL into the mix. By the end of this book you should have no problems writing PHP and MySQL enabled web pages and applications.
This book is a perfect mix of what someone new to PHP needs to know as well as providing advanced material and a reference once you have a grasp of the basics. So to summarize, if you want to learn PHP, buy this book.
(Gregg Bolinger - Sheriff,
September 2004)
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Linux Programming by Example
Arnold Robbins |
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Prentice Hall PTR
Published: 22 April, 2004 | |
I loved this book. It's earned an honored place on my bookshelf, and I'm going to recommend it to people who need information about Linux and UNIX development.
Many computer books are practically obsolete before they ship: within a few months, "Learn Foomatic 4.3 in 21 Days" is in the bargain bin at the Dollar Tree. Some books have longer lives, and a few can remain useful for years. "Linux Programming by Example" (LPE) is in this last category; this book can stand alongside Steven's "Advanced UNIX Programming" as an essential tutorial and reference.
LPE covers everything you'd expect (working with files, processes, signals, users) and some things you might not (internationalization). But it's this book's voice and unique perspective that make it truly a gem. LPE is written in a clear, friendly, authoritative style. As I read, I often felt that I had gained a new understanding of things I've known for years.
The long and twisted history of UNIX has given rise to multiple competing APIs. Perhaps the greatest thing about this book is the way that Robbins cuts through these thickets, explaining your choices, pointing out the best alternatives, and explaining why they're the best. LPE's modern vantage point means it can cover V7, BSD, POSIX, and GNU APIs. The chapter on signals alone is worth the purchase price of the book for the way in which it clearly compares and contrasts the various signal APIs.
(Ernest Friedman-Hill - Sheriff,
July 2004)
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Ivor Horton's Beginning ANSI C++ The Complete Language
Ivor Horton |
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Apress
Published: 05 January, 2004 | |
Three editions and still going strong! Beginning ANSI C++ is a must have for anyone wanting to learn C++ in it's trust form, ANSI style.
This book covers every aspect of ANSI C++ and covers the Standard Template Library. Not only can someone with little to no C++ knowledge learn the language with this book alone, but they can reference this book anytime something seems unclear. Even the seasoned C++ programmer can use this book as a reference.
There are 2 things I liked best about this book.
1. ANSI - The most generic multiplatform compliant C++ possible. Any C++ compiler should be able to compile every example in this book. And that leads me to my next point.
2. Example after example. This book is filled with examples for everything that is explained. So not only do you learn how and why, but then you can see it in action.
I highly recommend this book if you have any desire to learn C++.
(Gregg Bolinger - Sheriff,
March 2004)
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Patterns for Time-Triggered Embedded Systems
by Michael J. Pont |
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Addison-Wesley Professional
Published: 12 July, 2001 | |
Not your typically software patterns book. Real engineering, hardware and software making stuff happen! Yeah!
Probably the best example that I've ever seen of how patterns should be described and discussed, clear, concise, and with sufficient background to make each pattern feel meaningful and complete.
While this book deals specifically with the 8051 family of microcontrollers, almost all of the patterns given are generally applicable to any microcontroller family.
Even if you're just a software engineer, and even if you don't do embedded work, at least half of this book contains information that will pique your interest, and cause you to rethink some of your assumptions.
Pretend that you have to write an embedded program that responds in real time and has a bounded response window. Now you have the choice of a preemptive or cooperative scheduler. (For all you nonhardware folks: A scheduler is a microoperating system that you either buy of build yourself for your microcontroller.) I'd say most folks would choose the preemptive scheduler. Needless to say, the patterns in this book give clear guidelines as to which to choose and when. Furthermore, they illustrate that for the most reliable (most predicable) operation, a cooperative scheduler is probably a better choice. Now think about some business systems architectures, response times, latency, liveness, robustness, the discussions on embedded schedulers have relevancy!
The world needs more books of this caliber and utility. If you're even remotely interested in embedded systems, GET THIS BOOK!
(John Volkar - Greenhorn,
December 2001)
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The C Programming Language
by Mark Williams Company |
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Prentice Hall PTR
Published: 01 April, 1988 | |
I think every professional C programmer will agree that this is the book to read before you write your first line of code. Not only are these guys the creators of the language, but they are damn good writers as well. In fact, I will say that this may very well be the best written computer book ever. It is short and to the point. You can sit and read it all in a few hours without dozing off. When the few hours are over, you have a clear understanding of the trickiest thing in C: pointers. You can program circles around programmers who have five years of C experience but have not read this book. The book is just that good. The last one third of the book is some lame reference stuff, you can skip that. This book is tiny and expensive, so you get a terrible price per pound and may be tempted to get some huge book on sale for ten bucks - fight that temptation now and thank me later.
(Paul Wheaton ,
January 2000)
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Everyday Scripting with Ruby for Teams, Testers, and You
Brian Marick |
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Pragmatic Bookshelf
Published: 23 January, 2007 | |
When I first heard that the Pragmatic Programmers were putting out a book on Ruby oriented towards testers, I thought to myself that I knew a few testers who might be able to benefit. I was a bit surprised when I received the book and the focus changed from that of testing to something a bit more generic. And after flipping through it I was afraid this would be just yet another book teaching Ruby.
Despite my initial misgivings, as I read through the book its value became apparent. This is not a book aimed at teaching people who are interested in developing complex systems in Ruby; this title is aimed squarely at using Ruby for scripting. "Everyday Scripting with Ruby" is a task-oriented tutorial that will help the reader quickly become productive writing useful scripts. The examples throughout the book are truly indicative of the types of problems that scripts are written to solve, and the book doesn't waste much time on fluff or things that are otherwise not likely to be of interest to the scripter.
While "Everyday Scripting with Ruby" isn't much of a reference manual, it does work pretty well as a tutorial. Readers will typically get the most value from the book by reading it cover-to-cover and following along by getting the examples working on their own computers. Many of the chapters finish with problems for the reader to try out on their own, with the solutions to the problems being detailed in the back of the book. Through reading the text, trying the examples, and further exploration of the material through tackling the end-of-chapter problems, the reader will come away confidant that they can use Ruby to successfully write scripts to solve their problems. You can't ask for much more than that.
(Jason Menard - Sheriff,
April 2007)
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Pragmatic Bookshelf
Published: 23 January, 2007 | |
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I can't say it any better than this: You really need to learn Ruby if you haven't already. I also can't say it any better than this: If you're new to Ruby, Everyday Scripting with Ruby is the best bang for your Ruby buck.
I highly recommended this to our beginners at the Columbus Ruby Brigade and I highly recommend it now for Ruby beginners everywhere. Mr. Marick makes the journey into Ruby indisputably pragmatic. I was pleasantly surprised how much I learned from so few pages (a little under 300 in all). Other books and tutorials made me familiar with Ruby; this gem made me comfortable with it.
The book was originally intended for non-programmers, but my honest opinion is that at least some previous exposure to programming might be necessary to completely understand what's going on. So don't run out and buy a copy as a Mother's Day present unless your mother happens to do a lot of tedious, repetitive tasks on the computer and is looking for a way to automate everything (hey, it could happen). But let's face it: it's likely that your mom will prefer flowers and you'll prefer a copy of Everyday Scripting with Ruby.
(Marc Peabody - Bartender,
April 2007)
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In Search of Stupidity: Over 20 Years of High-Tech Marketing Disasters
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Second edition
Merrill Chapman |
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Apress
Published: 28 September, 2006 | |
This highly readable book provides an overview of major blunders hardware and software companies have made since the evolution of small computers in the mid 70s. Not all examples are marketing failures - management, development and sales also often contributed. The book provides examples of various kinds of business mistakes, be it product positioning, burning one's own brand, mistreating the customer base, being caught in a bubble, underestimating the competition and others. Amongst the companies studied are IBM, Digital Research, Apple, Microsoft, MicroPro, Ashton-Tate, Siebel, Borland, Intel, Motorola, Google, Novell and Netscape. Taken together, the case studies also provide a kind of abridged history of microcomputing. Two concluding chapters try to distill the essence of the mistakes made, and how they may have been avoided. Even though hindsight is 20/20, there are a number of valuable lessons, not always new ones, sometimes just forgotten ones.
At 350 pages the book is nicely shorter than the usual crop of high-tech books, but it still contains a lot of material that is covered in-depth. The authors manages not to get lost in technical arcana, and makes his points clearly, and in a light style that is accessible even to those without a programming background.
(Ulf Dittmer - Bartender,
December 2006)
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First edition
Merrill Chapman |
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Apress
Published: 09 July, 2003 | |
I would qualify this book as a great marketing antipattern repository. All the true stories reported by Rick Chapman illustrate the worst practices in high-tech marketing he experienced over the past twenty years. With an entertaining narrative style, he immerses you in the corporate life of the big companies he worked at and delivers a fair dose of crispy details about some scary war stories that you wouldn't believe they actually happened. You would think that companies like IBM, Microsoft, Novell and Borland to cite a few, have never made stupid mistakes. Well, you're wrong! As the saying goes, ?nobody?s perfect?. This statement gets all its sense when applied to people working for big corporations that have the money and the brain cells, but despite this, still manage to shoot themselves in the feet. Money doesn?t buy you anything, but it is isually a good magnet for stupid managers, so watch out!
To understand the content of this book, there is no need to be a marketing guru whose resume reaches the moon. In fact, this book is suitable to pretty much anyone, whether you want to discover which practices to avoid at all costs, or whether you want to laugh out loud and despise those wannabe "deus ex machina" working for big corporations. Grab your copy, sit down comfortably and start turning the pages. You won't regret it, unless of course you were actively involved in one of those shameful and pathetic undertakings :)
(Valentin Crettaz - Sheriff,
October 2004)
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Apress
Published: 09 July, 2003 | |
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Why is Microsoft such a huge company today? It isn't because their products were better or because they cheated other companies out of their rightful place in the market. It's because they weren't as stupid as their competition. Merrill Chapman takes us through the comedy of errors that companies like Digital Research, WordStar, Lotus, and AshtonTate went through as they tossed their market leads aside in fits of stupidity. You can't help but laugh (or cry) at the mistakes these companies made. Example: WordStar was once one of the finest word processing programs in the world. But through stupidity the company ended up owning two competing mediocre products.
You won't find very much analysis of why a particular company made such obviously fatal errors. Why did Borland pay an outrageous sum to buy AshtonTate at a time when it had virtually nothing that Borland needed? You won't find the answer here. What you will find is an amusing, well-written examination of the collapse of good companies under the weight of their serious errors of judgment.
There is a moral to be learned from this book. It isn't necessary to be excellent. In fact, excellence can be expensive and drive up your costs so much that they make your products uncompetitive. The secret is not to be excellent, in fact you don't even have to be very smart. All you need to be is less stupid that your competitors. Just ask Microsoft.
(Thomas Paul - Sheriff,
September 2003)
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Apress
Published: 09 July, 2003 | |
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It's hard to build a company that is both big and smart; most large companies survive by minimizing their mistakes, or making fewer costly mistakes than the competition, or at least by knowing how to recover from their own. In making light of the 80's blockbuster In Search of Excellence -- which the author admitted 20 years later was written on bogus data -- In Search of Stupidity examines several companies that did nothing to prevent or recover from its mistakes, and willfully so. Each story exemplifies pride in wrongheadedness, a triumph of personality over common sense, or best of all, a belief that markets can be told what they want and who to get it from.
It's great reading. Chapman is merciless, entertaining and yeah, really merciless. Aside from kicking several high-tech losers after the fact, which is fun, he shows how high-tech's own foibles create (when it could prevent) its own sufferings.
For programmers, developers, and other technical types, this book is an eye-opener to the differences between how software gets built and how it gets sold. In particular, Chapman's analysis of Microsoft's market dominance today (and why), along with his excerpted interview with Joel Spolsky are invaluable reading.
(Michael Ernest - Sheriff,
August 2003)
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AJAX and PHP: Building Responsive Web Applications
Cristian Darie, Bogdan Brinzarea, Filip Cherecheş Toşa , Mihai Bucica |
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Packt Publishing
Published: 01 March, 2006 | |
I'm a big fan of PHP (though a Java developer by trade) and although I don't buy into all the hype surrounding AJAX I do appreciate what it can do for a web application when used appropriately. So I was really excited to review "AJAX and PHP: Building Responsive Web Applications".
What I liked most about this book was that there was no fluff. AJAX is what it is and I felt the authors realize this and wasted no time getting right into it. There is the typical regurgitated information that all tech books can't seem to ignore in chapter one but luckily not much. In fact, chapter one has you writing your very first AJAX enabled app.
The remaining chapters handle one application after another showing you several different ways you can utilize AJAX in your PHP web applications. Chapter seven, which shows how to implement a real time charting application using SVG, is debatably the most useless chapter in my opinion; however, it is something different that you don't see similar books covering. And it's a decent way to avoid using something like an Applet or Flash for similar functionality.
Probably my biggest complaint about the book in general is the authors' use of XSL for a couple of the examples. This is easily excusable given the rest of the book though. The book does assume a basic understanding of PHP and Javascript but that shouldn't scare off any newcomers to any of these technologies since you can simply copy and paste and run the code to see the outcome. The appendix has all the instructions for setting up the various technologies used in this book to get the reader going.
All in all I think this is a great introduction to AJAX and since AJAX is server agnostic all the techniques in the book can be applied to the server technology of choice whether its PHP, Java, or even .NET.
(Gregg Bolinger - Sheriff,
August 2006)
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Enterprise Integration With Ruby
Maik Schmidt |
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Pragmatic Bookshelf
Published: 25 April, 2006 | |
I think this is a great book for someone who already knows a little bit about Ruby to learn how to use it within their heterogeneous environment.
Like most books that develop a continually growing sample application, this book is best read end-to-end. However each section can be read on it's own, allowing the reader to skip to the section most relevant at a given time. Each section has a very clearly defined purpose, and where possible Maik describes multiple ways of achieving a given goal, plus he explains potential pitfalls (all with a gentle humor and easy going style that makes this book a pleasure to read).
This is not a beginner's book -- as identified on the back cover, and in the introductory text -- you are expected to know some Ruby before attempting this book. However writing for a more skilled audience may be the reason for my only complaint: the assumption that the reader will be familiar with how to set up the environment(s) necessary to work through the examples. For example, there is no explanation of how to set up the Oracle tables or data -- even a single sentence stating that SQL scripts could be found on the website would have made this a little more helpful. This is a very minor issue though, and unlikely to cause major problems for most readers.
This is a very good book, and one that I am likely to continually refer to for considerable time.
(Andrew Monkhouse - Sheriff,
July 2006)
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The Definitive Guide to Apache mod_rewrite
Rich Bowen |
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Apress
Published: 08 February, 2006 | |
"mod_rewrite, frequently called the "Swiss Army Knife" of URL manipulation, is one of the most popular -- and least understood -- modules in the Apache Web Server's bag of tricks." This opening sentence of the book makes it clear why there is a need for it: the module can be used for so many purposes, that it's very easy to misuse it.
The book starts by explaining how to install and configure mod_rewrite, and then gives a brief introduction into regular expressions, which are crucial to its functionality. The main part of the book is taken up by explaining the directives and options which mod_rewrite offers, and plenty of examples showing how common tasks faced by web administrators and application developers can be accomplished.
The author -- a member of the Apache Software Foundation -- is very knowledgeable, and writes in a very light prose that's readily accessible even to readers not up to speed on web arcana. A huge plus is the fact that at every turn he shows how the same or a similar effect can be achieved without mod_rewrite, and weighs the benefits and drawbacks; often he recommends using a different tool when using mod_rewrite would not be the best choice. Thus the reader learns a good deal about the Apache Web Server and several other modules along the way. At the end, this reviewer had a very good idea of what the module can do, and how it should be used.
(Ulf Dittmer - Bartender,
July 2006)
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Ruby for Rails
David A. Black |
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Manning Publications
Published: 11 May, 2006 | |
Ruby is a dynamic programming language with a growing following. Rails is a Web application framework for Ruby. This book starts from the premise that many smart developers are adopting Rails with minimal prior knowledge of Ruby, and that those developers need to learn Ruby, fast!
It turns out that this is a great premise for a book. In 17 focused chapters, the reader learns everything she'll need to know to get the most out of Rails. Topics that won't be used (for example, GUI toolkits) aren't covered here. Instead the author concentrates on Ruby language features, programming idioms, and libraries that are common to all Rails applications.
The first chapter is a gem. It explains in detail where to get Ruby, how to install it, run it, debug it, and extend it, how to maintain an installation, how it's documented, and introduces the language syntax, all in two dozen pages. Much of this is treated as advanced material by other Ruby books, but every Ruby developer worth their salt needs to know it all.
Chapter 2 does something similar for Rails, helping you to understand how the pieces fit together. Later chapters concentrate on the Ruby language, and then on Rails again, always with an eye for optimal ways to use these technologies together.
Whether you're new to Ruby and Rails or just need to learn how to get the most out of this powerful combination, this book is a winner.
(Ernest Friedman-Hill - Sheriff,
June 2006)
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Best of Ruby Quiz
James Gray II |
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Pragmatic Bookshelf
Published: 13 March, 2006 | |
Picking up the basics of a new programming language such as Ruby can be enjoyable, but if you can't apply what you've learned quickly that knowledge may be fleeting. "The Best of Ruby Quiz" can help out. "The Best of Ruby Quiz" contains twenty-five fun programming challenges ("quizzes") that are excellent for exercising your new Ruby chops. The quizzes vary in difficulty and each includes in-depth discussions covering multiple solutions. More importantly, the quizzes really are fun!
The quizzes in "The Best of Ruby Quiz" are excerpted from the author's web site "Ruby Quiz" so while you could certainly save yourself a few bucks and just visit the site, the book is a much more polished product. Also, I believe that the immediacy of the book with its superior layout really enhances the learning experience when compared to the web site.
This book makes a great companion to the Pickaxe and the two books form an effective one-two punch for learning Ruby. So go ahead and sit down with a copy of this book, fire up the code editor of your choice, pick a quiz and start coding. Not only will you learn a thing or two about Ruby, you'll have a good time doing it.
(Jason Menard - Sheriff,
May 2006)
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Beginning Perl Web Development
Steve Suehring |
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Apress
Published: 03 November, 2005 | |
I do love this book. The narration is excellent -- simple, precise explanation for the beginner yet if you are an experienced Perl developer and just don't remember the syntax its explained so precisely.
Its been a long time that I read a book that is so simple yet so much on the mark. The author takes great care in explaining the Perl and the CGI modules and then introduces powerful concepts like Database connectivity (try reading a JDBC book and comparing the concepts) and then into SOAP/XML. The book also explains various web modules (request, response, cookies etc etc), on which I did not spend a lot of time.
Other topics (again I did not spend a lot of time in these topics either) covered in this book relate to Email, TCP/DNS modules, the Apache mod_perl tools and dynamic web page creation using the Mason module and use of Templates.
(Madhav Lakkapragada - Bartender,
February 2006)
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Blackberry Hacks
Dave Mabe |
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O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Published: 13 October, 2005 | |
I've read a few books from the "Hacks" series and I'm a big fan. This addition is no different, it's a lot of fun.
As usual it has a collection of well covered items aimed at the beginner, moderate and expert users, but regardless of your experience level there is enough information available to give any of the tips a try. Expert users may even find some gems in the beginners entries!
I was particularly impressed that the book didn't limit itself to just operation on the Blackberry hand-held devices, it also gives tips on integrating it with you desktop and other ways to extend the functionality and get full use out of the device. Possibly of less use is the section covering development for the Blackberry and some of the specifics about the BES and MDS servers, but some of the tips mentioned are of great use to developers and I would recommend the book to them too. Other readers may also appreciate this look under the covers.
"Blackberry Hacks" doesn't stray from the standard "Hacks" formula, so it can be skimmed easily in an afternoon or so, but the projects will keep you busy for a long while, and you'll also have problems holding onto this book due to the people who will be trying to borrow it. This one is a great resource for jump starting your Blackberry usage and getting all you can from the gadget.
(David O'Meara - Bartender,
January 2006)
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TCP/IP Guide: A Comprehensive, Illustrated Internet Protocols Reference
Charles M. Kozierok |
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No Starch Press
Published: 01 March, 2005 | |
This guide is a mind-boggling contribution to understanding and applying TCP/IP protocols to network administration. I can only imagine an author going on writing binges for weeks at a time, writing down key points and insights.
This is truly impressive work. It is comprehensive and readable. I taught a network administration course two weeks ago for the first time in a while, and found this book and excellent review for topics I don't routinely cover. Several of the explanations were so useful I simply incorporated them into my teaching plan.
There's enough tabling and reference diagrams to keep the text from getting gray and dull, but still a seemingly tireless amount of factual, well-annotated information.
It's also a massive book, so no, I did not read it front to back. I did however pick on spot topics where many guides are often weak. In this case, I looked very closely at the sections on the Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP), Troubleshooting (the key tool on both Windows and Unix is addressed!), and Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). In all three cases I found my time well-spent.
It's also a mother of a doorstop, at 1500+ pages. You won't be moving it around much. But you might find yourself happy to go to wherever you keep this book.
(Michael Ernest - Sheriff,
January 2006)
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SSL VPN - Understanding, evaluating and planning secure, web-based remote access
J. Steinberg, T. Speed |
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Packt Publishing
Published: 10 December, 2004 | |
"SSL VPN - Understanding, evaluating and planning secure, web-based remote access" - the only thing wordy about this book is its title. The rest of the book delivers information clearly and concisely through text, diagrams and examples. "Hacker Bob" animates key passages to keep things from getting dry.
As expected, the audience for this book is techies. Basic network concepts are explained, so anyone with a technical background will understand. Any network fundamentals quickly lead to SSL VPN applications.
The authors are good about explaining "why" and providing the pros/cons of a decision. Key criteria are also provided for both technical and business decisions. I found one of the most valuable parts to be about bad architectures. The authors illustrate several common architectures and point out weaknesses. The focus on diagrams and flow was quite useful.
(Jeanne Boyarsky - Bartender,
August 2005)
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Spring into PHP 5
Steven Holzner |
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Addison-Wesley Professional
Published: 22 April, 2005 | |
"Spring into PHP 5" is a good book for those new to programming. Readers need a very basic knowledge of HTML. Anything intermediate, like forms, is explained. Programmers (especially those who know Perl) can still learn PHP from this book since each section is clearly marked. They should just be prepared to skim a lot.
Books in this series consist of one to two page "chunks" grouped into chapters. Each chunk builds on previous ones, which provides for a nice flow. The chunks make it easy to understand what readers should get out of each section. Each chunk contains examples to apply these concepts. Many chunks also include screenshots of the input/output.
I found the book to be very clear. The appendices provide an excellent language reference. My only real complaint is that the book could use some best practices. Especially on when not to use a language features. All in all, the book is WYSIWYG. It lets you "spring into PHP" and get started very quickly.
(Jeanne Boyarsky - Bartender,
August 2005)
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Mac OS X Tiger Unleashed
John Ray, William C. Ray |
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Sams
Published: 09 July, 2005 | |
An "ultimate reference" type of bible for an operating system must be one of the most difficult books to get "right" simply because the volume of potential topics and details to cover is enormous and yet the skill level and knowledge of the reader varies significantly. From the perspective of a long time Windows and Linux user who's about to make the switch for personal (geek) use, I was delighted to realize that the Ray brothers have done a pretty good job at hitting my sweet spot.
This 1400-page tome is split to seven parts and nearly 30 chapters. The first chapters introduce the desktop and some of the basic applications and utilities like the Safari web browser, Mail, iChat, the Spotlight search utility, and so forth. Very basic stuff, explained quite nicely with a couple of screenshots here and there. For me, these introductory chapters had a pretty good match for my preferred verbosity level, although I did tend to start skipping pages with a superficial glance on parts I would probably not be using all that much. The first part ends with a chapter dedicated to the new Automator utility for scripting OS X applications with the AppleScript language. I did feel like I would need some kind of a command reference in addition to the chapter, but it does a good job in getting past the steepest part of the learning curve.
The second part talks about hardware. Starting from how to calibrate your display, the authors describe how to configure your accessories like keyboards, mice, Bluetooth devices, digital cameras, and such--as well as some less ubiquitous devices such as redundant disk arrays. It's mostly screenshots after screenshots and very understandable. I'm tempted to believe my mother could manage with these instructions. The chapter on printer setup is a lot less graphical (which isn't a surprise, really) as it talks about the various print settings and the CUPS printing system in detail, using the web interface for configuring printers. Networking, a topic near and dear to any geek, is also covered in the second part. Again, the authors have provided plenty of screenshots as everything is configured through wizards. I would've preferred more focus on networking, such as on the low-level tools available for determining what's wrong when "the Internet is broken", as well as a bit more instructions on how to configure the built-in firewall. The part finishes with a brief chapter on user management and basic security features like the FileVault.
Speaking of low-level tools, part IV is completely dedicated to all the UNIX (BSD) stuff. File permissions, moving in the file system, inspecting running processes, and so forth. These chapters are written for someone not familiar with the UNIX shell and file system but there are some utilities that I at least wasn't aware of, such as the pushd and popd commands, for example. For a UNIX-newbie, these chapters are probably an excellent introduction. An especially useful piece is the introduction to text editors vi, emacs, and nano--I could imagine a reader unfamiliar with UNIX being a bit lost trying to figure out how to edit a file from the terminal. This part also talks about dealing with printers using command-line tools such as lpr and lpadmin. All in all, the whole of part IV is excellent material if you're new to the UNIX command-line or feel like getting some brushup before getting down to business. One specific aspect that surprised me (positively) was that the authors included material on installing software from the command-line all the way from downloading packages with lynx to building from source using configure and make, not to mention installing and using fink--an apt-get/yum/up2date look-a-like package manager for OS X. I also feel I should mention that the authors have really provided more help than just "first type ./configure, then make, and then make install"--they actually tackle common issues like installation locations. Having said that, I did find it odd that the authors would describe the use of GDB (debugger) in this context...
Part 5 continues the UNIX theme by diving deeper into shell scripting, starting and stopping services manually and upon startup, locating configuration files, and so on. This is all good stuff and well explained (although I'm sure my mother wouldn't quite grok xinetd services without some more help). To finish part V, the X Window System (including the use of remote X11 sessions) is mentioned in passing as well as the Perl and Python scripting languages. A bit odd choices, perhaps. I would've probably left these out in favor of less weight.
Part 6, taking up a hefty 350 pages, is dedicated to configuring a MySQL database server, an Apache web server, an FTP server, a mail server, setting up remote access, and interoperating with Windows file shares using Samba as well as mounting and sharing NFS shares on Tiger itself. The remote access part shows not only how to use familiar tools like ssh, scp, and telnet, but also how to manage public and private keys for certificate based authentication. These topics are covered very nicely as basic tutorials with everything included that's necessary to get started although a lot of space is used for superficially mentioning, for example, how to compile some exotic Apache module. Again, something I would've personally preferred left out completely--just like the whole chapter on programming web applications with Perl and PHP. On the positive side, the chapter showing how to set up the open source Darwin Streaming Server is definitely of assistance when you're in need of streaming QuickTime movies from your OS X powered web server. Similarly, I was delighted to see instructions for configuring SpamAssassin along with the mail server.
The final part starts off by introducing a couple of essential networking diagnostics tools such as traceroute, ping, and lookup. From there, the discussion moves to network security, firewalls, intrusion detection, and some routines with which to avoid the worst case scenario of someone taking over your machine. One essential routine is, of course, regular backups and the authors show a couple of different ways of taking backups of your data.
I haven't yet mentioned one of the most important things SAMS has done right with this book--the binding. You can actually lay the book down next to your keyboard without losing the page every 15 seconds (with the rather obvious exception of the 25 or so first and last openings of the book). Well done indeed. I am definitely happy with this book as my guide to the world of OS X. There's the necessary visual quickstart stuff for getting going with the OS X user interface, and there's the nitty gritty low-level stuff for the inner geek. The only reason why I'm not giving it a full rating is because I felt there was too much "extra" that doesn't really belong into a book about an operating system.
(Lasse Koskela - Sheriff,
August 2005)
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Data Crunching: Solving Everyday Problems Using Java, Python, and More
Greg Wilson |
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Pragmatic Bookshelf
Published: 20 April, 2005 | |
There exists a set of tasks common to every software developer independent of the type of application developed and the language used. Concisely presenting these tasks to the new developer has always been a problem without burying the hapless soul under a pile of thick texts. The Pragmatic Bookshelf attempts to remedy this situation by giving the developer the knowledge they need to get the job done in a concise and, well, pragmatic format. One of the latest offerings in this outstanding series is "Data Crunching: Solving
Everyday Problems Using Java, Python, and More" by Greg Wilson.
The core of programming comes down to data manipulation. This may be parsing XML, reformatting text data, searching a database, or any other number of a host of tasks. Typically, figuring out how to do each of these would require digesting several books in order to just get to the nuts and bolts of simple operations. "Data Crunching" fills this hole by concisely presenting the minimum amount of information required to get the job done. Just the information you need to know to get rolling, without all the fluff.
There are chapters on manipulating text files, XML documents, binary data, and relational databases. Included is a nice chapter on regular expressions, as well as a chapter on various "glue" topics relevant to solving data manipulation problems. Each chapter examines the tools and methods used to successfully manipulate the format of data being discussed. The examples used, and the book is chock full of them, are practical and relevant to the problems most often faced by developers. The examples are clearly illustrated and easy to follow.
Wilson does a fine job of presenting things in the "pragmatic" style that readers familiar with other books in the series have come to know. Each chapter stands well on its own, so the book may be used as a reference, although it's concise and a pleasant enough read that it's also worth reading through once. Great for the new developer who hasn't yet gotten his feet wet with data manipulation, yet also a nice reference for those who have been around the block a bit more, "Data Crunching" makes a fine addition to the Pragmatic series and is definitely worth having on the bookshelf.
(Jason Menard - Bartender,
July 2005)
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Seeing What's Next
Clayton M. Christensen, et al |
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Harvard Business School Press
Published: May, 2004 | |
Having innovative ideas is one thing. Developing, positioning and selling those innovations are completely different matters, which necessitate a sound and well-researched knowledge of the market. How many times have you told yourself "Wow, this is a great thing, I'm pretty sure people need that"? How many times have you realized that the idea you had was not the next big thing anymore because the market changed in unexpected ways and you were incapable of correctly interpreting those stimuli and adapting yourself?
In "Seeing what's next", the authors adopt a highly pragmatic approach and teach you how to use the theories of innovation for listening to the market and its actors in order to correctly interpret and capitalize on the signals it is sending. Using real-world case studies from five large industrial sectors, such as telecommunications and health care, they show you how to decorticate macro and micro facts that happened in the past in order to help you predict how your industry is expected to change in the future, how to come up with highly inventive business models and how you can make your pioneering company become tomorrow's market leader.
Small print for mystic readers: This book is based on sound scientific theories. It is not a crystal ball and it does not provide any stock buy/sell recommendations. This book will help you tune all your senses to the correct frequency for listening to market signals in a productive and static-less way.
(Valentin Crettaz - Sheriff,
June 2005)
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Secrets of Consulting
Gerald M. Weinberg |
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Dorset House Publishing Company, Incorporated
Published: January, 1986 | |
The job of consulting companies or individuals is not something that can be taught easily or that one can assimilate in a couple of weeks by reading books or articles. Excelling at it is even harder as consulting missions often require a broad expertise, a rigorous discipline and a great deal of various personal qualities, such as honesty and flexibility. However, finding inspirations by reading the passionate narrations of a very knowledgeable person having a wide-ranging experience of over half a century in the consulting business can help you position yourself and find your way through that somewhat singular environment.
Even though Gerald M. Weinberg wrote this masterpiece twenty years ago, you will be amazed to discover how accurate and up-to-date the content is according to today's agreed upon practices. This book is organized around a long list of easy to grasp rules, laws, theorems and sayings that have been devised by the author himself while on mission over the last fifty years. It is also worth noting that the author harmonizes his wisdom with crispy war stories coming right from the trenches and introducing the how's and why's of a given rule or saying.
If you are just starting in the consulting business or in need of a second or third breath, or if you simply would like to find out whether there is a logic behind the way those alien consultants think and act, you have found yourself a perfect companion.
(Valentin Crettaz - Sheriff,
May 2005)
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More Secrets of Consulting
Gerald M. Weinberg |
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