Operating System Concepts

Operating System Concepts
Average customer rating:

Informative, but very, very dry......

Not a very good one

Good as a Textbook

Excellent!

Try reading 3 pages without falling asleep

Operating System Concepts
Abraham Silberschatz , Peter Baer Galvin , and Greg Gagne
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Operating Systems Theory | APIs & Operating Environments | Programming | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
General | C | Programming | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
C & C++ Windows Programming | Development | Microsoft | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
General | Operating Systems | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
General | Software | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Computers & Internet | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Computer Organization and Design, Revised Printing, Third Edition, Third Edition: The Hardware/Software Interface (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Computer ... Series in Computer Architecture and Design)

Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach (2nd Edition)

Introduction to Algorithms

Concepts of Programming Languages (8th Edition)

Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools (2nd Edition)

Accessories:

Operating System Concepts with Java

Operating Systems Concepts with Java

ASIN: 0471694665

Book Description

Another defining moment in the evolution of operating systems
Small footprint operating systems, such as those driving the handheld devices that the baby dinosaurs are using on the cover, are just one of the cutting-edge applications you'll find in Silberschatz, Galvin, and Gagne's Operating System Concepts, Seventh Edition.
By staying current, remaining relevant, and adapting to emerging course needs, this market-leading text has continued to define the operating systems course. This Seventh Edition not only presents the latest and most relevant systems, it also digs deeper to uncover those fundamental concepts that have remained constant throughout the evolution of today's operation systems. With this strong conceptual foundation in place, students can more easily understand the details related to specific systems.
New Adaptations
* Increased coverage of user perspective in Chapter 1.
* Increased coverage of OS design throughout.
* A new chapter on real-time and embedded systems (Chapter 19).
* A new chapter on multimedia (Chapter 20).
* Additional coverage of security and protection.
* Additional coverage of distributed programming.
* New exercises at the end of each chapter.
* New programming exercises and projects at the end of each chapter.
* New student-focused pedagogy and a new two-color design to enhance the learning process.

Customer Reviews:

Informative, but very, very dry.............2007-09-16

This book is very informative if your interested in learning how operating systems work. Unfortunately, Im not really interested in it, I just have to read it for a required class. The material is very dry so its hard to focus on what your reading.

Not a very good one.......2007-03-11

I had to buy it for the course, but I really prefer Tanenbaum books, you can find more science. Pages reflect light so you should have indirect lighting, I had difficulties reading it.

Good as a Textbook.......2007-01-13

This was a required text for a college class. As a beginner in understanding how operating systems are created the first few chapters were easy to read and understand, but after that I needed the professor to be able to understand the concepts.

Excellent!.......2006-10-21

We had to buy this book as part of our undergraduate Computer Engineering curriculum at The University of Akron. The book is very well written; I taught myself a lot by studying it.

This book was so good that I actually ended up telling one of my friends in Computer Engineering at Case about it, only to find out that 1) they use it there, too, and that 2) he thinks just as highly of the text.

Try reading 3 pages without falling asleep.......2006-03-05

While "Operating Systems" is not exactly the sexiest subject in Computer Science, it ought to be possible to make it interesting, for example by taking a historical or problem solving approach.

Sadly, Silverschatz does none of this; in fact, often his book reads more like a tome on tax-law. Take this sentence, for example:

"If no process is executing in its critical section and some processes wish to enter their critical sections, then only those processes that are not executing in their remainder sections can participate in the decision on which will enter its critical section next, and this selection cannot be postponed indefinitely." (p.194, 7th ed.)

Silberschatz also has a tendency to make sweeping statements without giving examples, like what I am doing here. Admittedly, online chapters for different operating systems are available, but I think more examples within the main text itself would have helped to explain the concepts better.

The book also contains errors. For example it says that, "For instance, suppose that the queue usually has just one outstanding request. Then, all scheduling algorithms behave the same, because they have only one choice for where to move the disk head: They all behave like FCFS scheduling." (p.461, 7th ed.) While this is true for shortest-seek-time-first, LOOK and C-LOOK algorithms, it is wrong for SCAN and C-SCAN. They would continue moving the HD head from cylinder 0 to cylinder max, with worse performance than SSTF.

Since I do not have wide experience with other O/S books, I will not give a categorically "don't buy it!" recommendation. After all, Silberschatz is quite comprehensive and could be okay as a reference book. However, if you require a book to teach you O/S concepts, I would strongly recommend looking elsewhere. Perhaps try a book by Tanenbaum? His prose is more readable.

Head First Object-Oriented Analysis and Design (Head First)

Average customer rating:

A good book is made of good stories - and that is the case
Could be only 30 pages; has good topics
Great Book, very easy to learn
for the beginner's beginner
Good Book, Bad Title

Head First Object-Oriented Analysis and Design (Head First)
Brett D. McLaughlin , Gary Pollice , and Dave West
Manufacturer: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Programming | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Software | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Programming | O'Reilly | By Publisher | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Computers & Internet | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Head First Design Patterns (Head First)
Head First Java, 2nd Edition
Head First Design Patterns Poster (Head First)
Head Rush Ajax (Head First)
Head First Servlets and JSP: Passing the Sun Certified Web Component Developer Exam (SCWCD)

ASIN: 0596008678

Book Description

"Head First Object Oriented Analysis and Design is a refreshing look at subject of OOAD. What sets this book apart is its focus on learning. The authors have made the content of OOAD accessible, usable for the practitioner."

Ivar Jacobson, Ivar Jacobson Consulting

"I just finished reading HF OOA&D and I loved it! The thing I liked most about this book was its focus on why we do OOA&D-to write great software!"

Kyle Brown, Distinguished Engineer, IBM

"Hidden behind the funny pictures and crazy fonts is a serious, intelligent, extremely well-crafted presentation of OO Analysis and Design. As I read the book, I felt like I was looking over the shoulder of an expert designer who was explaining to me what issues were important at each step, and why."

Edward Sciore, Associate Professor, Computer Science Department, Boston College

Tired of reading Object Oriented Analysis and Design books that only makes sense after you're an expert? You've heard OOA&D can help you write great software every time-software that makes your boss happy, your customers satisfied and gives you more time to do what makes you happy.

But how?

Head First Object-Oriented Analysis & Design shows you how to analyze, design, and write serious object-oriented software: software that's easy to reuse, maintain, and extend; software that doesn't hurt your head; software that lets you add new features without breaking the old ones. Inside you will learn how to:

Use OO principles like encapsulation and delegation to build applications that are flexible
Apply the Open-Closed Principle (OCP) and the Single Responsibility Principle (SRP) to promote reuse of your code
Leverage the power of design patterns to solve your problems more efficiently
Use UML, use cases, and diagrams to ensure that all stakeholders are communicating clearly to help you deliver the right software that meets everyone's needs.

By exploiting how your brain works, Head First Object-Oriented Analysis & Design compresses the time it takes to learn and retain complex information. Expect to have fun, expect to learn, expect to be writing great software consistently by the time you're finished reading this!

Customer Reviews:

A good book is made of good stories - and that is the case.......2007-09-23

I have already read quite a lot of Head First Series books. I have to admit that I have already been a little bit tired by almost the same pictures in all the Head First books. So after long pause I have decided to open the book. I was positively surprised I have found very good stories explaining main aspects of OOAD in real world. You can read the book even on sundays afternoon instead of some novels. It teaches you OOAD basics (and even a lot more) by nonintrusive method. Before reading the book I recommmend to think about Head First Design Patterns too.

Could be only 30 pages; has good topics.......2007-08-30

I have read this book after Head First Design Patterns and I expected a similar level, but I am disappointed a little. This book has good topics and it is good for start, but I think that the useful information in it could be told in 30 pages instead of almost six hundred.

Great Book, very easy to learn.......2007-08-25

I already know the family Head First and this one specially is very important in every Object Oriented developer. Very easy to study and learn with this book.

for the beginner's beginner.......2007-07-15

I was quite disappointed with this one. Way, way too much fluff. I kind of liked the "fluff" on the Head First Design Patterns - because design patterns is a hard topic and it helped. But for this one? Gosh, that doggy door use-case example got _really_ boring after 50 pages, I was withering in pain. This book is for the absolute beginner. Professionals and CS grads might want to stay away from this.

Good Book, Bad Title.......2007-06-29

Fine enough book, but in case you were hoping for a book on Business Systems Analysis and Design using Object Oriented Techniques... this is not it. Should be Re-named to "Head First Object-Oriented SOFTWARE Analysis and Design in Java". Did this book really need to be so programming language dependant??

Designing Interfaces: Patterns for Effective Interaction Design

Average customer rating:

Good but not user-friendly
A good reference and prefab pattern library.
Designing Interfaces
Jump-started my problem-solving process
Usefull, Concise - Great

Designing Interfaces: Patterns for Effective Interaction Design
Jenifer Tidwell
Manufacturer: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Programming | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Website Architecture & Usability | Web Development | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Programming | O'Reilly | By Publisher | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Computers & Internet | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Ambient Findability: What We Find Changes Who We Become
Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition
Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Web Sites
Information Dashboard Design: The Effective Visual Communication of Data
Designing for Interaction: Creating Smart Applications and Clever Devices (VOICES)

ASIN: 0596008031

Book Description

Designing a good interface isn't easy. Users demand software that is well-behaved, good-looking, and easy to use. Your clients or managers demand originality and a short time to market. Your UI technology -- web applications, desktop software, even mobile devices -- may give you the tools you need, but little guidance on how to use them well.

UI designers over the years have refined the art of interface design, evolving many best practices and reusable ideas. If you learn these, and understand why the best user interfaces work so well, you too can design engaging and usable interfaces with less guesswork and more confidence.

Designing Interfaces captures those best practices as design patterns -- solutions to common design problems, tailored to the situation at hand. Each pattern contains practical advice that you can put to use immediately, plus a variety of examples illustrated in full color. You'll get recommendations, design alternatives, and warnings on when not to use them.

Each chapter's introduction describes key design concepts that are often misunderstood, such as affordances, visual hierarchy, navigational distance, and the use of color. These give you a deeper understanding of why the patterns work, and how to apply them with more insight.

A book can't design an interface for you -- no foolproof design process is given here -- but Designing Interfaces does give you concrete ideas that you can mix and recombine as you see fit. Experienced designers can use it as a sourcebook of ideas. Novice designers will find a roadmap to the world of interface and interaction design, with enough guidance to start using these patterns immediately.

Customer Reviews:

Good but not user-friendly.......2007-06-16

This book does to UI design what the well-known "Design Patterns" did for software design. Many readers, specially those experienced in graphical and UI design will find much of the content familiar, when not trivial, but the purpose of a "pattern language" book is not to break new ground but to formalize and explain a well known language.

The book is beautifully laid out and illustrated. The amount of theory preceding each group of patterns seems right on the mark.

¿Why the low star rating?

The book's binding broke before I finished reading it, something that's completely not user-friendly. If you're not in a hurry I'd wait for a second edition that fixes the problem.

A good reference and prefab pattern library........2007-04-30

I found this a bit shallow as a read-through textbook or handbook, but it should make a very useful reference and may serve well as a prefab pattern library. I think it will serve best for those working on web sites and web apps, though it also covers desktop apps.

Designing Interfaces.......2007-04-24

Designing Interfaces is a great book to get you started on the subject, wether you are a designer or a developer, this books will show you how important is to *design* you application.

Concepts are presented as design patterns and they are intended to help you resovle real world problems, some knowledge of UI design is recommended but every patten is described and explained very well, the use of the "Use When", "Why" and "How To" sections will give you al the information you need to know to make a decision on the use of any specific solution.

From web forms to destop application, this books will show you the right way to make the user's interaction experience as simple and intuitive as possible.

Jump-started my problem-solving process.......2007-03-21

Having already read through the first few chapters, today I sat down with an explicit need: to solve a problem that involved searching and filtering a large set of data. This book came through for me. Yes, some of it appears obvious when you first read through, but once you have a specific problem to address, its true utility emerges. I opened to the Showing Complex Data chapter, and as I read through, ideas began to form. Some came directly from the book, others were inspired by or related to what I was reading. I took notes, and those notes helped me develop the questions about the data and the users I need to answer in order to continue.

When you're faced with a design challenge, and you're a bit stymied as to how to proceed, this book will help move the solution forward. Even if you think you have a solution, this book can help you make it fresh and creative.

Usefull, Concise - Great.......2007-02-24

This is a really usefull book. It's also simply interesting to read.

Computer Organization and Design: The Hardware/Software Interface, Third Edition (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Computer Architecture and Design) (The ... Series in Computer Architecture and Design)

Average customer rating:

Not a very good textbook
I don't like
Disorganized and "uncut"
very good but hated the topic
Nice book

Computer Organization and Design: The Hardware/Software Interface, Third Edition (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Computer Architecture and Design) (The ... Series in Computer Architecture and Design)
David A. Patterson
Manufacturer: Morgan Kaufmann
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Design & Architecture | Hardware | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Databases | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Operating Systems | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Computers & Internet | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Operating System Concepts
Computer Architecture, Fourth Edition: A Quantitative Approach
Introduction to Algorithms
The C Programming Language (2nd Edition)
Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach, Third Edition (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Computer Architecture and Design)

ASIN: 1558606041

Book Description

A revised printing for this book will be available in June 2007!

Whats New in the Third Edition, Revised Printing

The same great book gets better! The revised printing features all of the original content along with these additional features:

Appendix A (Assemblers, Linkers, and the SPIM Simulator) has been moved from the CD-ROM into the printed book

Corrections and bug fixes

Click here to request a desk copy of the revised printing!

About the Third Edition

In addition to thoroughly updating every aspect of the text to reflect the most current computing technology, the third edition

*Uses standard 32-bit MIPS 32 as the primary teaching ISA.
*Presents the assembler-to-HLL translations in both C and Java.
*Highlights the latest developments in architecture in Real Stuff sections:

+ Intel IA-32
+ Power PC 604
+ Googles PC cluster
+ Pentium P4
+ SPEC CPU2000 benchmark suite for processors
+ SPEC Web99 benchmark for web servers
+ EEMBC benchmark for embedded systems
+ AMD Opteron memory hierarchy
+ AMD vs. 1A-64

New support for distinct course goals

Many of the adopters who have used our book throughout its two editions are refining their courses with a greater hardware or software focus. We have provided new material to support these course goals:

New material to support a Hardware Focus

+Using logic design conventions
+Designing with hardware description languages
+Advanced pipelining
+Designing with FPGAs
+HDL simulators and tutorials
+Xilinx CAD tools

New material to support a Software Focus

+How compilers Work
+How to optimize compilers
+How to implement object oriented languages
+MIPS simulator and tutorial
+History sections on programming languages, compilers, operating systems and databases

Whats New in the Third Edition

New pedagogical features

Understanding Program Performance
-Analyzes key performance issues from the programmers perspective

Check Yourself Questions
-Helps students assess their understanding of key points of a section

Computers In the Real World
-Illustrates the diversity of applications of computing technology beyond traditional desktop and servers

For More Practice
-Provides students with additional problems they can tackle

In More Depth
-Presents new information and challenging exercises for the advanced student

New reference features

Highlighted glossary terms and definitions appear on the book page, as bold-faced entries in the index, and as a separate and searchable reference on the CD.

A complete index of the material in the book and on the CD appears in the printed index and the CD includes a fully searchable version of the same index.

Historical Perspectives and Further Readings have been updated and expanded to include the history of software R&D.

CD-Library provides materials collected from the web which directly support the text.

On the CD

CD-Bars: Full length sections that are introduced in the book and presented on the CD

CD-Appendixes: The entire set of appendixes

CD-Library: Materials collected from the web which directly support the text

CD-Exercises: For More Practice provides exercises and solutions for self-study
In More Depth presents new information and challenging exercises for the advanced or curious student

Glossary: Terms that are defined in the text are collected in this searchable reference

Further Reading: References are organized by the chapter they support

Software: HDL simulators, MIPS simulators, and FPGA design tools

Tutorials: SPIM, Verilog, and VHDL

Additional Support: Processor Models, Labs, Homeworks, Index covering the book and CD contents

Instructor Support

+ Instructor Support is provided in a password-protected site to adopters who request the password from our sales representative
+ Solutions to all the exercises
+ Figures from the book in a number of formats
+ Lecture slides prepared by the authors and other instructors
+ Lecture notes

System Requirements
Operating System
Most of the content on this CD can be used under any operating system that includes an HTML browser and a PDF viewer. This includes Windows 98 or later, Mac OS 9 and OS X, and most Linux and Unix systems. Some contributed software on this CD is operating system specific. See the installation instructions on the Software page for details.

HTML Browser
The navigation framework and some of the content on this CD is delivered in HTML and JavaScript. It is recommended that you install the latest version of your favorite HTML browser to view this CD. The content has been verified under Windows 2000 with the following browsers:
Internet Explorer 6.0, Mozilla 1.6, Netscape 7.1, Opera 7.23. Under Mac OS X with the following browsers: Internet Explorer 5.2.3, Mozilla 1.6 , Netscape 7.1, Safari 1.2. And under Mandrake Linux with the following browser:
Galeon 1.3.8.

The content is designed to be viewed in a browser window that is at least 720 pixels wide. You may find the content does not display well if your display is not set to at least 1024x768 pixel resolution.

PDF Viewer
The CD material includes PDF documents that you can read with a PDF viewer such as Adobe® Acrobat® or Adobe Reader®. Recent versions of Adobe Reader for supported platforms are included on the CD. Visit the Adobe Reader home page for more information.

Browser Plugins
Some of the material on this CD makes use of Flash® animations. To view this material, you will need to have Macromedia® Flash Player installed. You can install the Shockwave® Player (which includes Flash) on Windows and Macintosh from this CD. Visit the Macromedia homepage for more information. Note that recent versions of some browsers, including Internet Explorer, Netscape, and AOL, already incorporate Flash Player.

Some of the material on this CD contains photographic panoramas that can only be viewed with the iseemedia Zoom Viewer browser plugin on Windows and Mac OS 9 platforms. Visit iseemedia's website for download instructions.

For instructor resources click on the grey "companion site" button found on the right side of this page.
This new edition represents a major revision.
New to this edition:

* Entire Text has been updated to reflect new technology
* 70% new exercises.
* Includes a CD loaded with software, projects and exercises to support courses using a number of tools
* A new interior design presents defined terms in the margin for quick reference
* A new feature, "Understanding Program Performance" focuses on performance from the programmer's perspective
* Two sets of exercises and solutions, "For More Practice" and "In More Depth," are included on the CD
* "Check Yourself" questions help students check their understanding of major concepts
* "Computers In the Real World" feature illustrates the diversity of uses for information technology
*More detail below...

Customer Reviews:

Not a very good textbook.......2007-09-17

The examples are cheesy and the author assumes the reader knows more than what the user has to know in a college course at this level. But if you're already knowedgable of this stuff, this can make, probably a descent reference book.

I don't like.......2007-06-27

It's good, but have a lot of errors... so i just don't like.
But it's not a bad book

Disorganized and "uncut".......2007-02-19

I had to purchase this book for a graduate school course. There is a lot of good information here. Unfortunately lengthy examples and tangents muddy it up pretty badly. Also, I think the author(s) could have safely assumed that readers are familiar with programming; maybe that perspective could have grounded and guided the chapter flow a little better.
Looking at any 1 section, the writing is good and the explanations are clear for the most part. The catch is that the book as a whole is a collection of enormous disorganized chapters; chapter 2 is almost 100 pages. This work is dire need of editing and some understanding of its intended audience.

very good but hated the topic.......2007-01-12

goes beyond simple digital logic and into more boring technical details like the true calculation of CPU cycle run time - hated the class and my professor almost failed me - make sure you take the right professor with the college course - very time consuming and not fun at all

Nice book.......2007-01-03

This book is one of the better books that I have used for my courses. Even though the subject taught at hand is not trivial this book makes it a lot simpler. Trust me this book is a lot better than some other books I have seen. 500% better than Digital Design by Mano.

Average customer rating:

Good reference
Excellent as a Second Volume and Definitive Reference
Definitive? Yeah, I'd agree with that.
slightly better than ok
excellent tutorial, not so much a definitive guide

CSS: The Definitive Guide
Eric Meyer
Manufacturer: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Website Architecture & Usability | Web Development | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Programming | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Graphic Design | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Software | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Web Programming | Programming | O'Reilly | By Publisher | Books

General | Programming | O'Reilly | By Publisher | Books

Web Authoring & Design | Web Development | O'Reilly | By Publisher | Books
Similar Items:

JavaScript: The Definitive Guide
HTML: The Definitive Guide
Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference (Dynamic Html)
CSS Cookbook, 2nd Edition
Transcending CSS: The Fine Art of Web Design (Voices That Matter)

ASIN: 0596527330

Book Description

Simply put, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a way to separate a document's structure from its presentation. The benefits of this can be quite profound: CSS allows a much richer document appearance than HTML and also saves time -- you can create or change the appearance of an entire document in just one place; and its compact file size makes web pages load quickly.

CSS: The Definitive Guide, 3rd Edition, provides you with a comprehensive guide to CSS implementation, along with a thorough review of all aspects of CSS 2.1. Updated to cover Internet Explorer 7, Microsoft's vastly improved browser, this new edition includes content on positioning, lists and generated content, table layout, user interface, paged media, and more. Author Eric Meyer tackles the subject with passion, exploring in detail each individual CSS property and how it interacts with other properties. You'll not only learn how to avoid common mistakes in interpretation, you also will benefit from the depth and breadth of his experience and his clear and honest style. This is the complete sourcebook on CSS.

Customer Reviews:

Good reference.......2007-10-04

This book could be organized a little more intuitively, but all-in-all it has the stipulations and definitions you need from the CSS standards in a printed form. I would recommend the pocket guide as well.

Excellent as a Second Volume and Definitive Reference.......2007-09-03

I've managed development efforts for several years and, although I'm an advanced developer in ASP.Net and numerous server-side technologies, felt I was too much at the mercy of "the web guys" on my project teams when it came to making decisions on content design. So, a couple years ago I purchased Richard York's "Beginning CSS" (Wrox Press) and found it to be an excellent primer on CSS. Having designed my own style-sheets for the couple years since, I realized I still had some questions as to the finer points of CSS design techniques.

I purchased Eric Meyer's "CSS: The Definitive Guide" and consider it an excellent second volume on the subject. If you are brand new to the topic of CSS, I'd recommend one of this author's other more introductory titles before attempting to read this title. Both Meyer's and York's more introductory texts focus more on building block examples and levels of support offered by the various browsers. "CSS: The Definitive Guide" assumes this foundation is in place and, instead, focuses on the more advanced and, as the title says, definitive discussions of topics Meyer has found to represent points of confusion among content developers.

I have had great luck with numerous volumes in O'Reilly's line of "Topic: The Definitive Guide", and this book continues this string of good luck. While it is not the ideal introductory text on CSS, for reasons cited above, it represents a great second volume - or even first volume for the content developer who already understands the basic principles and does not need building block examples. Numerous sections, especially the very succinct discussions of the CSS Box Model, are by themselves worth the price of the book.

--Doug Hettinger

Definitive? Yeah, I'd agree with that........2007-08-08

In a way I'm glad this book contains everything you need to know about CSS.
But in a way I'm sad that everything you need to know about CSS seems to be growing at a phenomenal rate - along with just about everything else tech-related.
Sigh. Job security, I guess.
Anyway, this book, coupled with O'Reilly's "CSS Cookbook", should enable you to do anything you want to your website.
Color would've been nice (ditto for the "CSS Cookbook") but probably would have jacked the price up too high.

slightly better than ok.......2007-07-03

I purchased this book with the expectation of being able to implement CSS for a website. The book felt very much textbook-ish, focusing too much on the theory and not enough on practical implementation. I had hoped for more best practices and more on layouts. This book is a great CSS reference but if you're looking for one-stop-shopping for building a CSS web site, you might be better off with something else.

excellent tutorial, not so much a definitive guide.......2007-06-27

This is an excellent tutorial, and the discussion of the box model in Chapter 7 is alone worth the price of the book. If you think you understand CSS, but you don't understand the box model fully, then you don't really understand CSS. And Eric Meyer does a very good job of walking you slowly through that model. The chapters after chapter 7 fill in that model more completely with additional details that are also indispensable.

However, I think this book should have been called "CSS: A Complete Tutorial," rather than "CSS: The Definitive Guide." This is not laid out in a way that would make it ideal as a reference book.

Overall, this is a sort of book where you won't get an answer to your question without rereading a couple of pages first. Second, the index is quite poor. Basic concepts covered throughout the book don't make their way into the index. Third, while the appendix of CSS properties is useful, a glaring omission is the lack of a browser compatibility chart. Certainly creating such a chart would be difficult, but still necessary (I think) for calling something "The Definitive Guide." Browser compatibility is certainly subject to improve over time, but a baseline list of compatibility at the time of publication would be highly useful, considering that such resources on the web are virtually not to be found. After all, O'Reilly's "Javascript: The Definitive Guide" at least manages to list the standard that defines each portion of the language, whereas the appendix in this book doesn't even do that.

That said, this book has revolutionized my own understanding of CSS, since I read it like a tutorial, and it seems I was badly in need of a tutorial. Consequently, for those who don't understand the true mechanics of CSS, I highly recommend buying and reading this book cover to cover. For those who are well-versed in the underlying mechanics and simply want a reference to the nitty-gritty details, however, this is probably not your answer.

Average customer rating:

Very informational, but not pragmatic
OS Textbook
Totally Sucked
Amazing
Very, very cool! One of the kind!

Modern Operating Systems (2nd Edition)
Andrew Tanenbaum
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Operating Systems | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Software | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Operating Systems | Computer Science & Information Systems | New & Used Textbooks | Stores | Books

Programming Languages | Computer Science & Information Systems | New & Used Textbooks | Stores | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Computers & Internet | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Operating Systems Design and Implementation (3rd Edition) (Prentice Hall Software Series)
Introduction to Algorithms
Computer Networks, Fourth Edition
Structured Computer Organization (5th Edition)
Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach (2nd Edition)

ASIN: 0130313580

Amazon.com

For software development professionals and computer science students, Modern Operating Systems gives a solid conceptual overview of operating system design, including detailed case studies of Unix/Linux and Windows 2000.

What makes an operating system modern? According to author Andrew Tanenbaum, it is the awareness of high-demand computer applications--primarily in the areas of multimedia, parallel and distributed computing, and security. The development of faster and more advanced hardware has driven progress in software, including enhancements to the operating system. It is one thing to run an old operating system on current hardware, and another to effectively leverage current hardware to best serve modern software applications. If you don't believe it, install Windows 3.0 on a modern PC and try surfing the Internet or burning a CD.

Readers familiar with Tanenbaum's previous text, Operating Systems, know the author is a great proponent of simple design and hands-on experimentation. His earlier book came bundled with the source code for an operating system called Minux, a simple variant of Unix and the platform used by Linus Torvalds to develop Linux. Although this book does not come with any source code, he illustrates many of his points with code fragments (C, usually with Unix system calls).

The first half of Modern Operating Systems focuses on traditional operating systems concepts: processes, deadlocks, memory management, I/O, and file systems. There is nothing groundbreaking in these early chapters, but all topics are well covered, each including sections on current research and a set of student problems. It is enlightening to read Tanenbaum's explanations of the design decisions made by past operating systems gurus, including his view that additional research on the problem of deadlocks is impractical except for "keeping otherwise unemployed graph theorists off the streets."

It is the second half of the book that differentiates itself from older operating systems texts. Here, each chapter describes an element of what constitutes a modern operating system--awareness of multimedia applications, multiple processors, computer networks, and a high level of security. The chapter on multimedia functionality focuses on such features as handling massive files and providing video-on-demand. Included in the discussion on multiprocessor platforms are clustered computers and distributed computing. Finally, the importance of security is discussed--a lively enumeration of the scores of ways operating systems can be vulnerable to attack, from password security to computer viruses and Internet worms.

Included at the end of the book are case studies of two popular operating systems: Unix/Linux and Windows 2000. There is a bias toward the Unix/Linux approach, not surprising given the author's experience and academic bent, but this bias does not detract from Tanenbaum's analysis. Both operating systems are dissected, describing how each implements processes, file systems, memory management, and other operating system fundamentals.

Tanenbaum's mantra is simple, accessible operating system design. Given that modern operating systems have extensive features, he is forced to reconcile physical size with simplicity. Toward this end, he makes frequent references to the Frederick Brooks classic The Mythical Man-Month for wisdom on managing large, complex software development projects. He finds both Windows 2000 and Unix/Linux guilty of being too complicated--with a particular skewering of Windows 2000 and its "mammoth Win32 API." A primary culprit is the attempt to make operating systems more "user-friendly," which Tanenbaum views as an excuse for bloated code. The solution is to have smart people, the smallest possible team, and well-defined interactions between various operating systems components. Future operating system design will benefit if the advice in this book is taken to heart. --Pete Ostenson

Customer Reviews:

Very informational, but not pragmatic.......2007-03-04

It's a very useful, informative book but I found it more esoteric than it needed to be - I speak from my experience as a computer science student who then went on to write software for a living. Unfortunately, I feel the problems described below plague most popular OS books today, including "Operating System Concepts by Silberschatz, Galvin, Gagne".

I'd like to break up the review rating into two parts:

Content and relevance to subject: 4/5
The book covers almost all aspects of what an operating system needs to to do and so is highly informational, from threads to memory management to I/O - the three most essential (and yet elusive) concepts in today's operating systems. The author does a good job of explaining, at each stage, the various design choices that an OS designer must make e.g. virtual memory - use free lists or bitmaps to do book-keeping of used and free physical memory. Most concepts are explained clearly and as such I found this book to be a good reference on OS design principles.

Applicability to real world issues: 2/5
Unfortunately a good reference is not always the best way to understand how things work in practice. The book discusses design choices at each step, but I feel what most computer science students need to learn first is how today's operating systems work - how does the threading scheduler in UNIX work? how does UNIX manage memory, so I as a software engineer can best make use of it? It's great to know all these design pricniples an OS has, but my experience was that when you're at your first job wondering why you're running out of physical memory or why your multi-threaded program keeps crashing, it helps immensely to know well exactly how your OS works, than the myriad choices that it can make. And let's face it - there aren't many OS's in the wold today - the UNIX family and Windows, which is modeled largely on UNIX (albeit not welll and with a few differences). I should point out that the book has a chapter each on UNIX and Winwos at the end, but by the time you reach the end of a 900-page book you're usually out of patience.

I have studied from the book by Silberschatz et al. as well, and I have the same complaint with each book - as a student I felt there was a huge disconnect between what the books talk about and knowing the guts of your UNIX or Windows system. Put it simply, I found the books were too "bookish". Unfortunately, I am not aware of any other mainstream OS book that does any better. I would love to see a book that discusses this critical subject in a different (and more enlightening) way - that discusses in detail how, say threads work in UNIX, and then elaborates on how else it could be done. So that at the end of it, you atleast know to make best use of the OS you work with (even if you don't fully understand how to design the next one).

OS Textbook.......2006-10-10

I found the book complicated but I am not a programmer. The book covers alot of concepts which I found hard to grasp. Overall the book is not bad but if you are looking for something that will teach you programming I would not recommend this book.

Totally Sucked.......2006-08-02

I'm taking a college course and this book really bites. Reading it just leaves me in a daze. He goes on and on about how this method won't work and that method won't work which completely covers up what we need to learn. I'm getting 98.18% in the class on term 8 of 10, but it's not due to this book. Unfortuneatley I'm stuck with the book because it's what the school uses. Find another one.

Amazing.......2006-02-26

I have been able to, using just this book, read and learn about operating systems in a very thorough and painless way. The writing is straightforward and really demystifies OSs. I am a college CS student taking an OS course and this has been an invaluable asset.

Very, very cool! One of the kind!.......2005-07-22

This book is a very nice overview of contemporary conceptions of what is operating system would be and it discusses many facets of the issue. It does not overwhelm with technical details and does not press too much. I also followed an advise in someone's review and purchased "UNIX Essentials" DVD that is complete UNIX course recorded. These two nicely complement one another. You watch it and you read it. If you didn't catch it from the first try you watch it again and read it again. In two months I found myself confident to that extend that gave advises to our system administrator and he accepted them because there were subjects that he wasn't completely sure. What I can say, in three month I passed my first interview and got a job! Sure it is a way to start there much of more advanced reading that will take over you with a time however these two provide you with the BASIS!
I can't overstate how much I have learned from them. Don't be naive, though. You will have to learn and memorize many things. The fact of owning neither book nor DVD will not make you knowledgeable, but if you will work it trough, trust me, you will surprise many people around!

Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Resource Kit

Average customer rating:

Excellent Resource for Exchange 2003
Best exchange book I ever bought. Possibly best computer book. I can't say enough.
The Only MS Exchange 2003 Book you need

Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Resource Kit
Kay Unkroth , Elizabeth Malony , Fergus Strachan , Pav Cherny , Brian Reid , and Bill English
Manufacturer: Microsoft Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Databases | Software | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Software | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Networking | Microsoft | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Operating Systems | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Computers & Internet | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Administrator's Pocket Consultant
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Advanced Administration
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 - Resource Kit - documentation kit
MCSA/MCSE Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-284): Implementing and Managing Microsoft Exchange Server 2003
Active Directory, 3rd Edition

ASIN: 0735620725

Product Description

EXCHANGE SVR 2003 RESOURCE KIT

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Resource for Exchange 2003.......2006-02-24

I like this book because it is easy to read and it is clear. Of course, you will enjoy better this book with prior exchange experience or training. Microsoft has done a great job on their Exchange 2003 class. Combine the two and you will get a good start on Exchange installation, maintenance, and architecture.

Best exchange book I ever bought. Possibly best computer book. I can't say enough........2005-08-03

This book basically has every answer to every question you've had about exchange. It also has tons of scripts with detailed explanations on the cd, as well as .vsd templates for troubleshooting, upgrade senario docs, and tons of other useful material. I've been consulting for 5+ years, mcsex2, etc. As far as windows, or exchange books from ANY publisher, its the best i've ever read, or even heard about.

The Only MS Exchange 2003 Book you need.......2005-08-03

This book is packed with everything you need to know about Exchange 2003 to attain a very advanced understanding of the product. It includes information on designing the environment, managing, opimizing and troubleshooting (including disaster recovery planning and methods). It has all of the material you need to know to pass exams 070-284 and 285 for MCSA/E: Messaging credential, so you don't need to buy any other books! The CD ROM has the ebook format plus tools and resources that you can use on the job. I have around 60 MS Press books in my library, and this is easilly one of the very best written as well as more useful.

Average customer rating:

Great book, but a bit US oriented
Phenomenally Useful -- worth its weight in gold
Essential
Actionable usability wisdom for better customer experiences
THE best there is

Prioritizing Web Usability (VOICES)
Jakob Nielsen , and Hoa Loranger
Manufacturer: New Riders Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Website Architecture & Usability | Web Development | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Programming | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Systems Analysis & Design | Computer Science | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition
Designing Web Usability : The Practice of Simplicity
Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Web Sites
Designing Interfaces: Patterns for Effective Interaction Design
Ambient Findability: What We Find Changes Who We Become

ASIN: 0321350316

Book Description

In 2000, Jakob Nielsen, the world’s leading expert on Web usability, published a book that changed how people think about the WebâDesigning Web Usability (New Riders). Many applauded. A few jeered. But everyone listened. The best-selling usability guru is back and has revisited his classic guide, joined forces with Web usability consultant Hoa Loranger, and created an updated companion book that covers the essential changes to the Web and usability today. Prioritizing Web Usability is the guide for anyone who wants to take their Web site(s) to next level and make usability a priority! Through the authors’ wisdom, experience, and hundreds of real-world user tests and contemporary Web site critiques, you’ll learn about site design, user experience and usability testing, navigation and search capabilities, old guidelines and prioritizing usability issues, page design and layout, content design, and more!

Customer Reviews:

Great book, but a bit US oriented.......2007-03-31

This is a great book (bible?) when it comes to usability issues. Reading is easy if you're not totaly new to using and coding websites.

The only "downside" to this book is that it is very US website oriented. As web design/usability in the US is way behind Europe and especialy Scandinavia many of the design/GUI examples in the book feels "old school".

If you are into improving usability for websites - buy this book!

Phenomenally Useful -- worth its weight in gold.......2007-02-28

Here it is Feb 2007, and I've had a website for my business since Feb of 2002. For five years I've been asking people to visit my site and give me feedback for how to improve it. What I usually got back was "lots of great information, Dan." "Easy-to-use navigation." "Loved it. Great site."

That wasn't what I was looking for. I wanted a REAL critique with REAL suggestions for how to make it better.

When I came across this book it was like an answer to prayer. I devoured it on a cross country flight, and then I followed some of its advice. In the book, they talk about how they worked with people individually, giving them tasks to find or do things online. The people were asked to perform those tasks without any guidance and also while "thinking out loud" ... that is, explaining what their thoughts were re: likes and dislikes, what they expected to see on certain sites, why they were doing what they were doing, etc.

The one piece of advice in this book that they keep suggesting over and over is "do this with your site."

So I did. I instructed some clients on the "think out loud" process, and then gave them the following scenario: "I'm your boss. I just came back from a luncheon and heard Dan Bobinski speak. Here's his card; his website is on there. See if you can find out how much he would charge to come out and work with our managers."

I then sat back and took notes while my clients tried to accomplish that task while they 'thought out loud.'

All I can say is I was devastated. They couldn't find the information. Even when they were on the right track, they couldn't identify the links or the proper info. And when I say I was devastated, I mean I was cut to the core. My website was TERRIBLE.

On the plane ride back I went through the book again, and then made a few changes to my website as soon as I could. I saw improved results almost immediately. I went from getting two or three inquiries from my website each month to getting two or three per week. And, with more changes, it's now up to two or three per day.

My team is now in the final stages of a total (and I mean TOTAL) site redesign based on the suggestions in this book, and it should be ready to launch in a few months. Everyone is excited.

This book retails for $50 ($33 here on Amazon at the time of this writing). That seems steep to some, but I must say, I would gladly pay ten or twenty times that amount for the information it contains. It is probably one of the few books that is literally worth its weight in gold.

If you run a website, or have any say whatsoever in how your website is designed, this book is an absolute must read. That's a "must" with 18" bold Helvetica letters. And get your entire web team to read it, discuss it, and beta test their ideas using Nielsen's and Loranger's suggestions.

If it doesn't pay off for you and you don't think the book was worth it, just get a hold of me and I'll buy the book from you. :-)

Oh -- and the only reason I'm giving it five stars is because I can't give it ten.

Essential.......2007-01-26

This is an essential book to all who design pages for web or work with hipermedia and would like your own work to be easily navigated. The content is very clear and helpful.

Actionable usability wisdom for better customer experiences.......2007-01-05

Jakob Nielsen is the acknowledged guru of web usability. I found this to be one of his most useful books yet, with screen shots of sites to illustrate both good implementations and violations of usability best practices. His reasoning behind prioritizing which usability issues to go after first is sound. While I don't agree with 100% of what he recommends, I agree strongly with about 95% of it. And all his opinions are grounded in years of extensive research. Nielsen's books are always specific and actionable. A great read for anyone who cares about improving the user experience online.

THE best there is.......2007-01-04

If more businesses read this, they'd have better web sites. And the rest of us wouldn't have to put up with their poorly designed, often unusable web site.

If you do business online, hope to do business online, or have any connection with doing business online, you probably need this book. What to do, what not to do, and why.

If you can only afford 1 book, make it this one. It'll save you from making a ton of mistakes, and is worth the price.

Getting to Know ArcGIS Desktop: The Basics of ArcView, ArcEditor, and ArcInfo Updated for ArcGIS 9 (Getting to Know series)

Average customer rating:

Vista incompatability.
Good book
ArcGIS
Worthwhile
The perfect guide to learn ArcGIS

Getting to Know ArcGIS Desktop: The Basics of ArcView, ArcEditor, and ArcInfo Updated for ArcGIS 9 (Getting to Know series)
Tim Ormsby , Eileen Napoleon , and Robert Burke
Manufacturer: Esri Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Graphic Design | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Modeling & Simulation | Computer Science | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Software | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Science Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Computers & Internet | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Professional | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Science | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

GIS Tutorial: Workbook for ArcView 9.0 (GIS Tutorial series)
Getting to Know ArcObjects (With CD-ROM)
Georgraphic Information Systems and Science
The ESRI Guide to GIS Analysis Volume 1: Geographic Patterns & Relationships
The ESRI Guide to GIS Analysis: Volume 2: Spatial Measurements and Statistics

ASIN: 158948083X

Book Description

With revised material and new exercises based on ArcGIS version 9, this updated work acquaints geographers and GIS professionals with the principles of GIS as it teaches the mechanics of using ArcGIS software. Conceptual material is followed by scripted software exercises. Necessary GIS skills are presented in a variety of areas--map symbology, data overlay, map projection, and data conversion--as the making of maps and the analysis of geographic data is conceptualized. Spatial modeling exercises using the Model Builder technology of ArcGIS version 9 are also provided. Other topics covered include organizing data, planning a GIS project, creating derived data, and presenting results.

Customer Reviews:

Vista incompatability........2007-10-11

I purchased the software for a class and found out the software doesn't work on Vista. Not anyones fault but my own. So although the book is required and provides reading the ability for me to do software excercises is nil on my computer.
The purchase process was fast and I was pleased with the quickness of delivery. The book is new and overall I am happy with the outcome.

Good book.......2007-10-10

The book is good for working with GIS, I especially like the CDs that come with it that allows you to practice at home...any college taking GIS would be lucky to have this book!!

ArcGIS.......2007-09-28

The Book is perfect. I received activation and registration from the publisher the next business day for starting use the software. I am perfectly satisfy with the product.

Worthwhile.......2007-09-14

Very through tutorial. Successfully completing the lessons in this book would probably be worth 4 semester units if it were a college level course.

It can be a little obtuse at times therefore 4 stars not 5.

The perfect guide to learn ArcGIS.......2007-08-27

Complete, easy to use and with a lot of color illustration step by step, the best guide for a software i have ever read...

Designing Web Usability : The Practice of Simplicity

Average customer rating:

Outdated and no news at all
Very nice book
Not quite what I expected..
Simple IS usually better
It's outdated but you can skim through it

Designing Web Usability : The Practice of Simplicity
Jakob Nielsen
Manufacturer: Peachpit Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Website Architecture & Usability | Web Development | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Graphic Design | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Software | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Computers & Internet | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition
Prioritizing Web Usability (VOICES)
Homepage Usability: 50 Websites Deconstructed
Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Web Sites
The Elements of User Experience: User-Centered Design for the Web

ASIN: 156205810X

Amazon.com

Creating Web sites is easy. Creating sites that truly meet the needs and expectations of the wide range of online users is quite another story. In Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity, renowned Web usability guru Jakob Nielsen shares his insightful thoughts on the subject. Packed with annotated examples of actual Web sites, this book sets out many of the design precepts all Web developers should follow.

This guide segments discussions of Web usability into page, content, site, and intranet design. This breakdown skillfully isolates for the reader many subtly different challenges that are often mixed together in other discussions. For example, Nielsen addresses the requirements of viewing pages on varying monitor sizes separately from writing concise text for "scanability." Along the way, the author pulls no punches with his opinions, using phrases like "frames: just say no" to immediately make his feelings known. Fortunately, his advise is some of the best you'll find.

One of the unique aspects of this title is the use of actual statistics to buttress the author's opinions on various techniques and technologies. He includes survey results on sizes of screens, types of queries submitted to search portals, response times by connection type and more. This book is intended as the first of two volumes--focusing on the "what." The author promises a follow-up title that will show the "hows" and, based on this installation, we can't wait. --Stephen W. Plain

Topics covered: Cross-platform design, response time considerations, writing for the Web, multimedia implementation, navigation strategies, search boxes, corporate intranet design, accessibility for disabled users, international considerations, and future predictions.

Book Description

Users experience the usability of a web site before they have committed to using it and before making any purchase decisions. The web is the ultimate environment for empowerment, and he or she who clicks the mouse decides everything. Designing Web Usability is the definitive guide to usability from Jakob Nielsen, the world's leading authority. Over 250,000 Internet professionals around the world have turned to this landmark book, in which Nielsen shares the full weight of his wisdom and experience. From content and page design to designing for ease of navigation and users with disabilities, he delivers complete direction on how to connect with any web user, in any situation. Nielsen has arrived at a series of principles that work in support of his findings: 1. That web users want to find what they're after quickly; 2. If they don't know what they're after, they nevertheless want to browse quickly and access information they come across in a logical manner. This book is a must-have for anyone who thinks seriously about the web.

Customer Reviews:

Outdated and no news at all.......2007-08-24

You wont find anything in this book what general common sense already told you.
Besides it's outoutdated and for this reason all examples are useless.

Very nice book.......2006-05-11

this is a very good book about web usability and its not a complex kind of book, you start reading it and u dont want to stop it untill you finish it!

Not quite what I expected.........2006-04-23

As an avid read of Mr.Nielsen's blog and his website, I figured this book would comprise the "Bible of Web Design". Unfortunately, I was a bit let down.

His book does cover many aspects of web design and usability. In fact, he does a very good job at pointing out examples of bad web design. He uses full page pictures analyzing pages and their faults. Additionally, he lays out some ground rules for website design but many of them are redundnant and obvious to those who have designed sites in the past and read his blog/site.

Today though, this book is getting a tad out of date. It was written prior to the Web 2.0 boom and the usability gains included with AJAX and similar technologies.

This book does a good job at educating you that you ought not make websites like many people make their myspace pages (moving backgrounds, sounds onload, etc) but does not really provide any new information on how someone ought to approach new ideas in usability. For a beginner in web design and page layout, I would recommend this book. For someone who has been doing it for a long time I would pass this by.

Simple IS usually better.......2006-04-12

Please people don't design incredibly complex sites with over the top graphics that take an hour(feels like) to download even on broadband! I encounter this everyday and can't imagine what it must be like for those on dial-up, which is still most of the internet user base. Designers like to design and justify their high paying jobs by these crazy sites that simply drive me nuts. I recently tried looking for sunglasses on the Ray Ban site and Holy [...]! What a pain in the [...]! I finally went to a small reseller site where I could actually see the glasses quickly and make a purchase. The Ray Ban site I'm sure cost a fortune and is pretty but NOT user friendly. Web site designers need to remember that these sites are for people to find products and services, not to win design contests. My ex is a graphic designer(excuse me...User Interface Experience) for a very well know company and I know how they think. The more elaborate the better, we can charge clients more! KISS

It's outdated but you can skim through it.......2006-02-26

He offers some good pointers for web standards and usability such as providing more user content and less fluff. Making it easier to navigate around a website, helping the user realize where they are within a website makes sense. Even if you have a search engine, if the website is poorly designed/described, a search option won't be of any use to the user at all.

There were some points that I didn't agree with and it was because this book is outdated. Some points such as leaving links blue, removing search capabilities on extranet websites but having this feature is essential for intranet websites is a bit contradictory. Having the option to search is beneficial to web surfers of extranet and intranet sites. "Web design still needs to be grounded in a strong sense of structure and navigation support." (224) Using a wider search box to illicit users to enter more words in their query, it's actually better to focus on specific keywords when searching.

If the information were "common sense," then there wouldn't be a need to write a book about it. Bad websites wouldn't exist and we would live in a dandy world, chock full of great navigational websites. But that's not reality and there does need to be a set of updated web standards out there for web designers/developers to go by. There is some chaos out there but at least this book provides a foundation for people to begin developing user-friendly websites. "Overall usability is increased by consistency."

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books