Book Description
Stevenson’s Operations Management surveys the field of operations in both services and manufacturing. As always, this new edition offers complete, balanced, and flexible coverage of operations management. With hands-on examples and support in the text, and the most extensive technology support package available, students will have a practical, deep, up to date, and motivating study resource. Combine that with the clear explanations of topics, and the countless presentation enhancements, this new Eighth Edition is the best ever. Coverage flows from the overall strategic issues of designing products and services and making major capacity and location decisions, through the operating processes and control systems, including well supported quantitative applications. Many specialty topics and quantitative techniques are segmented as supplements that can be highlighted or bypassed depending on your course structure. Topics are also supported with step-by-step examples and solved problems, many including example solutions built into Excel spreadsheets.
Customer Reviews:
great book.......2006-11-10
As an european engineer, I found this book verry interesting. I used it for an exam in Canada and I will surely used it for future references.
Poorly written problems.......2005-11-13
Lots of missing information and assumptions plague the problems that are found at the end of the chapters. A very difficult book to understand.
Very Quality and Fast.......2005-10-09
Product was a decent price and was delievered extremly fast, which was great since I needed it right away.
GREAT SELLER HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Operations Management with Student DVD and Power Web.......2005-09-19
The book has clear objectives and great examples. The DVD is an excellent addition to the book as well.
OM Book.......2005-09-11
This was a good purchase because it was a prompt delivery and was in good condition.
Book Description
ActionScript is the native scripting language of Flash. ActionScript knowledge is essential within the world of Flash design and development, as Flash remains a leading tool for cutting-edge interactive design and development. ActionScript is what gives Flash its power, but with that power comes a certain level of complexity, which can be intimidating. This beginners book, significantly updated since the last edition, covers all of the basics of ActionScript using the latest version of Flash, Flash 8. The skills acquired by working through this book will enable you to move on to more advanced friends of ED books such as Foundation PHP 5 for Flash, Foundation ActionScript Animation or Foundation XML for Flash. This book contains all you need to understand and make use of ActionScript, and to have some fun while learning. The Foundation series teaching style is ideal if youre a non-programmer who wants to learn Flash programming quickly and thoroughly. The authors teach the basics, and provide you an all-around proficiency in ActionScript, as well as Flash components within Flash 8. Youll gain the practical skills to build ActionScript based Flash projects, including making initial design decisions, structuring code, and testing. An ongoing case study means that by the end of the book, youll have constructed a cutting-edge Flash site to showcase your newly learned skills. Summary of Contents:
- Chapter 1 Interactive Flash
- Chapter 2 Making Plans
- Chapter 3 Movies That Remember
- Chapter 4 Movies That Decide for Themselves
- Chapter 5 More Power, Less Script
- Chapter 6 Movies That Remember How to Do Things
- Chapter 7 Objects and Classes
- Chapter 8 Objects on the Stage
- Chapter 9 Reusable Code and Realistic Movement
- Chapter 10 Games and Sprites
- Chapter 11 Drawing API
- Chapter 12 Adding Sound to Flash
- Chapter 13 Loading Dynamic Data with XML
- Chapter 14 Finishing the Futuremedia Case Study
- Chapter 15 Advanced ActionScript: Components and Classes
Customer Reviews:
A Great ActionScript Book By Designers For Designers.......2007-07-24
This is a great book for the designer interested in getting deeper into Flash through ActionScript 2.0. Primarily centered around web-based projects, with the occasional game project, Sham et al. lead the reader through basic programming fundamentals from a designer perspective. The reader is assumed to be mildly frightened by looking at code, but still interested in learing it. I can sympathize that many designers could be in this boat.
The language of the book is very non-technical and it's presented in a light-hearted manner to ease you into some difficult concepts. The authors do a great job of tricking you into getting excited about programming. So if you're a web designer who has always been impressed by what programmers can do, but were a little uncomfortable trying to just jump in on your own, this is THE book for you.
I have two warnings and one critique.
The first warning is that this is a Flash 8 book - hence ActionScript 2.0. The second warning is that almost all the projects in the book are web-based instead of game-based. Now it's Flash, so it kind of comes with the territory, and there is a full chapter devoted to making a game. However, the perfect book for me would be this exact same book, but centered almost completely around game-based projects. If you're strictly looking for that, this book isn't for you. I don't care as much, and there's still a lot to learn, so I don't regret purchasing the book.
My critique is regarding the book-long project where you make a website that uses ActionScript (the Futuremedia site). It's a case study where you can apply some of what you've learned to a "real" project. My problem with it is that you don't seem to learn a whole lot about ActionScripting by going through it. The authors (or whichever individual wrote the project) seem to be really proud of this project - proud in the sense that they like themselves for it - and you can tell by going throug it. Plus, its more content-oriented. There's much more to learn from everything else, so I'm just skipping the project and skimming over it whenever it's time to work on it a little (which isn't a whole lot anyway).
Overall, it's a great book so far (I'm about 1/3 done) and I'd recommend it to anyone who's new to programming and wants to learn it through ActionScript 2.0. Sham has an awesome ability to explain programming to a designer.
Well structured, No boring Jargon and Everything you need in one book........2007-05-13
I am new to actionscript, have watched a few Total Training dvd's, but they don't really go into indepth actionscript. Unless you buy all the dvd's which are expensive.
This book was great. And has given my mind more of an understanding, especially of the process, of programming.
I'm more a graphic designer, who is getting into web design, so if I can go from first page through to the end in 3 weeks and juggle a screaming 2yr old at the same time.....well then anyone can.( I am a stay at home dad!....by the way)
Good to keep for reference. Buy it.
Excellent Beginner ActionScript Guide.......2007-03-19
I was completely foreign to ActionScript before picking up this book. I had previously read one book on understanding the basic flash interface (i.e. using the drawing/tweening tools), but this was my first crack at ActionScript. Getting through this book was very easy. Each chapter is setup in a way that explains a specific topic, runs you through a few examples using what you just learned, and then continues on with an ongoing website project that you develop throughout the book.
Strengths: Writing is clear and concise, and doesn't feel like a programmer wrote the book. The context is a nice mix of theory and hands on practice to keep you interested while your learning some of the more complex topics. The teaching method looks to provide you with skills that you can apply and expand upon quickly, as opposed to just learning some commands and then throwing you out into the wild. The book projects are very well constructed and explained.
Weaknesses: Some of the later chapters advance quickly. I blew through the first 350 pages, but after that had to significantly slow down to fully understand each topic. I also noticed that one or two of the online downloads are missing files for the book project. These are not neccesary if you are writing everything from scratch (correctly), but it did sometimes get in the way of comparing my solutions to the books.
Overall I have been extremely satisfied with this book, and will most likely buy another Foundation guide.
Great Book for Beginner on up ...........2006-12-06
I am a current animation student in California and Flash is one of the tools we are using. While I have developed some proficiency animating in Flash, the scripting tends to turn my brain to mush after a while.
I picked up Foundation Flash 8 to learn some of the basics and have been using Foundation Actionscript for Flash 8 to gradually explore scripting. I am not a programmer but got through the first few chapters easy enough. The second half of the book is somewhat tougher but but filled with interesting chapters -especially the game chapter (chapter 10).
I haven't quite cleared the hurdle of the later chapters, find them more challenging, but I keep the book on my desk to pick at stuff. It is well written and comprehensive. From my perspective as a non-programming 'art head' I'd say it covers beginner to advanced level topics by the end of the book; that's pretty cool because many books seem to be simple rehashings of the product manuals designed to part you from $40-$50 while giving you no new info.
A diamond amongst coal........2006-12-02
As an old UNIX hack I have read quite a few programming manuals, from the original C (Kerninghan & Richie - when it was new!), to the present. Very few, if any, (including the O'Reilly series), have come close to being so informative, easy to read, and enjoyable as the 'ActionScript for Flash 8' book. I consider myself a poor programmer partly because I never found 'print Hello World!' that interesting. In any event, this book has taken me from rank Actionscript beginner to (dare I say it...) semi-advanced! Basically, cannot recommend it highly enough! For me, I enjoy the graphical nature of Actionscript and I am glad I finally found the right book to take me there. I think beginners and experienced Object-Oriented types will get a lot or something from it. Thanks Friends of ED!
Book Description
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Unleashed is a deep dive into the Visual Studio 2005 tool. Specifically, it will provide you with solid guidance and education that will allow you to squeeze the ultimate productivity and use out of the Visual Studio 2005 development environment. This book folds in real-world development experience with detailed information about the IDE to make you more productive and ease transition from other development environments (including prior versions of Visual Studio). This book will also help you increase team collaboration and project visibility with Visual Studio Team Systems and it will give you straight, to-the-point answers to common developer questions about the IDE.
Chapters include:
- Code Viewers, Explorers, and Browsers
- Refactoring Code 8
- Writing ASP .NET Applications
- Defining Standards and Practices
- Introduction to Visual Studio Team System
- Work Item Tracking
- Unit and Load Testing
Customer Reviews:
No codes samples available.......2007-03-07
An excellent book. Lots of examples. Unfortunately, you will have to type in all the code examples yourself as the Sams Publishing web page does not have any downloads even though the back covers says that they are available.
Great breakdown on the tool for novices and professionals alike!.......2007-02-21
This book did a great job of revealing the breadth of features available in the product. I think this book is quite useful to not only those that are just getting started but those that are seriously considering implementing VS/TFS in the organization. Even if you are an experienced user of Visual Studio you will certainly learn several new tricks. In fact, I reference this book with my clients who are interested in rolling out VS and TFS.
Microsoft Visual Studio Unleashed.......2007-01-10
The book has been a disappointment; it assumes that the reader knows almost everything there is to know about the Visual Studio 2005 program, and the explanations are vague, and far and few in between.
I just wasted valuable money buying this book. I should have checked its contents at the local bookstore first before purchaing it.
This book is poorly written.
Full of insightful information.......2006-12-18
I was very impressed with the content found in this book, there was wide coverage of not only the in's and out's of using the IDE, which is an excellent introduction to any beginner, but also great coverage of Visual Studio Team System and the automation model found within Visual Studio allowing anyone to extend the IDE, which is more in line with an intermediate developer. This book is well suited for the beginning to intermediate developer looking to get up to speed with Visual Studio 2005. Great job Lars and Mike.
Nice information, puts it all in context..........2006-10-08
OK... I can see why Microsoft Visual Studio has been such a popular IDE for developers. Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Unleashed from Lars Powers and Mike Snell does a nice job in explaining the value of the latest version of this classic, as well as being an in-depth guide to the feature set...
Contents:
Part 1 - An Introduction to Visual Studio 2005/.NET: A Quick Tour of Visual Studio 2005; A Quick Tour of the IDE; .NET Framework and Language Enhancements in 2005
Part 2 - The Visual Studio 2005 Environment - In-depth: Solutions and Projects; Browsers and Explorers; Introducing the Editors and Designers; Working with Visual Studio's Productivity Aids; Refactoring Code; Debugging with Visual Studio 2005; The Visual Studio Automation Object Model; Writing Macros, Add-ins, and Wizards; The .NET Community - Consuming and Creating Shared Code
Part 3 - Visual Studio 2005 at Work: Creating ASP.NET User Interfaces; Building Windows Forms; Working with Databases; Web Services and Visual Studio
Part 4 - Visual Studio Team System: Team Collaboration and Visual Studio Team System; Managing and Working with Team Projects; Source Control; Work Item Tracking; Modeling; Testing; Team Foundation Build; Index
For someone like me who isn't a .NET developer, I found Part 1 very useful. The intro and tour gave me a great overview of what the IDE offers, and I could easily relate the different parts to the environment (Eclipse) I'm already familiar with. With that background, I could have easily taken Parts 2 and 3 and become productive in relatively short order. The authors maintain a good blend of text to screenshots to code, so I felt like I was getting a combination of reference and tutorial information in one volume. The argument could be made that all this information can be found in the help files, as is the case with most applications. But it's a lot easier to learn a tool like this (at least for me) when there's a structured guide that puts all the information in context. The Unleashed titles do just that, and this one is no exception...
Book Description
In this book, youll learn how to:
- Install, configure, and troubleshoot a testing environment with PHP/MySQL and Apache or IIS
- Learn the fundamentals of PHP and good database design
- Use Dreamweaver 8 server behaviors to create robust dynamic applications that validate user input for greater security and reliability
- Incorporate live XML feeds into your web pages with PHP and Dreamweaver 8s new XSL Transformation server behavior
- Download and apply a suite of custom-built PHP functions designed exclusively for this book
Want to add the power of a database to your websites? Build online forms that send feedback straight to your inbox? Incorporate live news feeds and XML data into your web pages? This book shows you how to do all that and more. Dreamweaver 8 takes a lot of the hard work out of integrating a database into your websites, but it cant do everything. So instead of just giving you a series of instructions to click this and click that, this book helps you understand whats going on in the background. As a result, youre more likely to remember and to get it right. Most books on PHP concentrate on code and throw all design considerations out the window. This one is different. It makes use of Dreamweaver 8s vastly improved CSS rendering, and shows you how to build a site thats smart in both senses of the word. It looks good and is intelligent too. Youll learn how to change the entire look of the site, using PHP to serve up different stylesheets each month. Youll also build a contact form protected against email injection attacks. All of Dreamweavers PHP server behaviors are put through their paces, and youll even make some custom server behaviors that will come in useful on any site you create. Two chapters take you through the setup process with step-by-step instructions for both Windows and Mac OS X, helping you make the right choices: Apache or IIS? Remote or local testing? There are even instructions on how to set up virtual hosts on your own computer. And in the unlikely event that things go wrong, theres plenty of troubleshooting advice too. In this book we look specifically at using Dreamweaver's built-in server behaviors to build dynamic web sites using PHP and MySQL, the worlds most popular open source server-side language and database server combination, which are both reliable, powerful, and open source (and therefore free to use!) This latest version of Dreamweaver includes more powerful support for PHP and MySQL than ever before, and we'll show you how to make this work for you. No previous experience of PHP or MySQL is necessary to use this book. Examples built throughout the book include a content management system, and an online image gallery. All examples are designed to meet modern usability requirements and be web standards compliant. Summary of Contents:
- Introduction
- Chapter 1: So, You Want to Build Dynamic Sites?
- Chapter 2: Dreamweaver and PHPA Productive Partnership
- Chapter 3: Getting the Work Environment Ready
- Chapter 4: Getting Ready for the Case Study
- Chapter 5: Integrating PHP into Your Site
- Chapter 6: Getting Feedback from an Online Form
- Chapter 7: Putting the Power of a Database
- Chapter 8: Building a Random Quotation Generator
- Chapter 9: Working with Multiple Tables
- Chapter 10: Using Sessions to Track
- Chapter 11: Displaying a Blog and Photo Gallery
- Chapter 12: Using XSLT to Display Live News Feeds and XML
- Appendix A: Using Languages Other Than English in MySQL
- Appendix B: Essential MySQL Maintenance
- Index
Customer Reviews:
If 4.5 stars were an option, I'd go with that.......2007-10-13
This is a very good book for learning PHP, and surprisingly, most of the examples work right out of the book as he's written them, which seems rare for a programming book these days. The projects that he has you complete are highly relevant to what you'd actually be doing with PHP, and that makes it even better.
The only trouble I had with this book was that he sure packed a lot of information into each chapter, and he didn't use the sidebars as much as I would have hoped. It's easy enough to follow along with the examples the first time, but if you want to go back again and figure out how he programmed a small detail, you'll never find it unless you reread the whole chapter again. All it would have taken was a few little bullets here and there in the margins to point out some of the off-topic stuff that was going on in the examples, and the book would be much more functional as a reference. As it stands, I probably will have to get a whole new book for that purpose.
Also, the support on this book is phenomenal. I missed a small detail in Chapter 6 that caused my script to fail, and when I posted on the book's message board, I had a reply from the author in less than a day. That's a really cool added bonus.
Disappointed and which I could return it.......2007-09-26
This man makes a promise of a written format that can be followed. The writtng is NOT CLEAR and leaves much to the readers imagination of to what exactly the format should be. There is no CD so that you can see how the step by step process works. He names his files but does not show the real differences between how he is set up and how you can set up to fit your needs. I waisted my money. He claims in the book there is support which at best is terrible.
The worst book I have ever bought on coding. If I were you try another writter.
Informative though somewhat disorganized.......2007-09-19
This is a good book. It teaches many useful techniques and how lots of "how to" ideas. However, the faux site that is created isn't goal oriented which left me feeling like the book was just a collection of random things to do. It seemed disorganized at times when you would or wouldn't create another page from scratch vs. revamping one you had already made. It was not always clear why you would be better to take one approach vs. the other. Setting up the localhost environment was somewhat confusing, though not too bad.
I will definitely use it frequently. Good information, good book, good deal.
Glad I made the purchase!.......2007-08-07
After skimming the book, and reading several chapters, I cannot wait to sit down with Dreamweaver 8 and really put the clearly written book to use. I believe it and PHP Solutions: Dynamic Web Design Made Easy (Solutions) by David Powers will compliment each other.
Excellent Book.......2007-07-26
Very well written. Easy to understand with clear instructions and good hands on training examples. This book is an excellent resource for beginners and intermediate level. The author makes a really good job explaining PHP concepts.
Book Description
In this book you'll learn how to:
- Create dynamic websites with design and usability in mind, as well as functionality
- Understand how PHP scripts work, giving you confidence to adapt them to your own needs
- Bring online forms to life, check required fields, and ensure user input is safe to process
- Upload files and automatically create thumbnails from larger images
- Manage website content with a searchable database
You want to make your websites more dynamic by adding a feedback form, creating a private area where members can upload images that are automatically resized, or perhaps storing all your content in a database. The problem is, you're not a programmer and the thought of writing code sends a chill up your spine. Or maybe you've dabbled a bit in PHP and MySQL, but you can't get past baby steps. If this describes you, then you've just found the right book. PHP and the MySQL database are deservedly the most popular combination for creating dynamic websites. They're free, easy to use, and provided by many web hosting companies in their standard packages. Unfortunately, most PHP books either expect you to be an expert already or force you to go through endless exercises of little practical value. In contrast, this book gives you real value right away through a series of practical examples that you can incorporate directly into your sites, optimizing performance and adding functionality such as file uploading, email feedback forms, image galleries, content management systems, and much more. Each solution is created with not only functionality in mind, but also visual design. But this book doesn't just provide a collection of ready-made scripts: each PHP Solution builds on what's gone before, teaching you the basics of PHP and database design quickly and painlessly. By the end of the book, you'll have the confidence to start writing your own scripts or&8212;if you prefer to leave that task to othersto adapt existing scripts to your own requirements. Right from the start, you're shown how easy it is to protect your sites by adopting secure coding practices. The book has been written with an eye on forward and backward compatibilityrecommending the latest PHP 5 techniques, but providing alternative solutions for servers still running PHP 4.3. All database examples demonstrate how to use the original MySQL extension, MySQL Improved, or the PHP Data Objects (PDO) introduced in PHP 5.1, letting you choose the most suitable option for your setup. Summary of Contents:
- Chapter 1: What Is PHPAnd Why Should I Care?
- Chapter 2: Getting Ready to Work with PHP
- Chapter 3: How to Write PHP Scripts
- Chapter 4: Lightening Your Workload with Includes
- Chapter 5: Bringing Forms to Life
- Chapter 6: Uploading Files
- Chapter 7: Using PHP to Manage Files
- Chapter 8: Generating Thumbnail Images
- Chapter 9: Pages That Remember: Simple Login and Multipage Forms
- Chapter 10: Setting Up MySQL and phpMyAdmin
- Chapter 11: Getting Started with a Database
- Chapter 12: Creating a Dynamic Online Gallery
- Chapter 13: Managing Content
- Chapter 14: Solutions to Common PHP/MySQL Problems
- Chapter 15: Keeping Intruders at Bay
Customer Reviews:
Good book for those not new to development, but new to php.......2007-10-22
I've had trouble learning PHP from other resources before this book. I think it's because most books and tutorials take a "look at what this function you'll never use can do" approach. Not this book. As with most "FOE" books, the progressive learning centers around a (mostly) real world project that includes css and html issues. I think that is why this just "clicks" with me - I've never been able to get any use out of bland theory that is divorced from the rest of the whole picture. I've got to see the beauty of the design and the elegance of the code together - and this book does that.
Is it the complete all out reference for php? Probably not. And I don't guess an absolute web design beginner would be thrilled with it. But I don't think it is meant for either of those two things. I think it is best for those who may have tried php before but just couldn't stick with it. This book has enough in it to get you over the hump with php. At that point you can start answering your own question.
I just wish this book would have been around 5 years ago.
An easy read........2007-10-21
This book is very easy to read and far from the boring technical manual I was afraid off. Although, it's casual style by no means hinders the great amount of information it contains.
Absolutely the best PHP book I've used.......2007-10-03
Thanks David!!
This is by far the best PHP book I've purchased. PHP and MySQL are much easier to understand then ASP and SQL Server. This is coming form someone that learned ASP and MSSQL first.
Regards!
Rich
Not for beginners.......2007-09-24
If you're looking for a book to learn php, this one's not the one. The author is relying heavily on the reader's mind-reading abilities figuring out what to do. This book requires lots of head scratching, note taking, and is very frustrating to follow. It contains far too many mistakes and typos to have been released. It seems the buyer is the proof reader. Several times I have thought I had made a mistake only to find that it was yet another mistyped line/word/phrase in the book. The download files given to compare the work to are not the same as the ones created if you're following the chapters. Maybe it's good for experienced programmers, but if I were experienced with php, would I need the book? I guess software/programming books are much like software itself: authors and developers release it and rely on the buyers to find the mistakes and fix them after it has been sold. Only with a book you're stuck wit hit. The corrections mentioned on the publisher's website for this book contain errors, too. So don't rely on them to be correct!
Looks Good!.......2007-08-07
After skimming the book, and reading several chapters, I cannot wait to sit down with Dreamweaver 8 and really put the clearly written book to use. I believe it and Foundation PHP for Dreamweaver 8 by David Powers will compliment each other.
Average customer rating:
- Great Overview of PHP and MySQL, with even some gotchas for your ActionScript
- Everything I was looking for
- What a great book!
- OVER RATED FOR NOVICES!
- Very good book on integrating php and mysql with Flash
|
Foundation PHP 5 for Flash (Foundation)
David Powers
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Similar Items:
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Foundation ActionScript Animation: Making Things Move! (Foundation)
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Object-Oriented ActionScript For Flash 8
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Foundation ActionScript for Flash 8 (Foundation)
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Foundation PHP for Dreamweaver 8
ASIN: 1590594665 |
Book Description
David Powers has been professionally involved with the electronic media for some 30 years, mostly in radio and television—he was BBC Tokyo correspondent in the late 1980s and early 1990s—but more recently with the Internet. He built his first site in 1995, and was instantly hooked. Eventually, the sheer tedium of updating content convinced him there must be a better way. After a brief flirtation with ASP, he experimented with PHP, and found himself hooked yet again.
A fluent Japanese speaker, Powers specializes in building Japanese-English bilingual websites, writing about Japan, and translating Japanese (he’s translated several plays). He co-authored Foundation Dreamweaver MX 2004 (1590593081) and PHP Web Development with Dreamweaver MX 2004 (1590593502). Powers also worked as technical reviewer on a number of web-related titles for Apress.
Customer Reviews:
Great Overview of PHP and MySQL, with even some gotchas for your ActionScript.......2007-05-14
I came to this book with a basic knowledge of ASP and Microsoft SQL Server. Using back end technologies with Flash is quite a change from (X)HTML, and this book really helps you get your head around the change in logic needed to effectively use Flash with a back end.
I haven't quite finished the book, but everything I've read so far has been great. Highly recommended.
Everything I was looking for.......2007-04-06
I'm a Flash developer transitioning into creating RICH applications and decided you use PHP for that technology. I wanted a book that would guide me from the ground up with integrating PHP into Flash. This book did the job!!!!
It showed me step by step how to create my own local Apache and MySQL servers with ease, and clearly explained the configuration woes a newcomer when face. Very impressive!!!
The book then guides you through several examples of using Flash and PHP together. In fact you'll end up with a pretty cool game on HangMan once you're done.
What a great book!.......2006-09-22
"Foundation PHP 5 for Flash" by David Powers is a great book, as I've come to expect from both David Powers and his publisher, Friends of ED.
The word "Foundation" in the title may lead you to think this is a beginner's book; it decidedly is not. As stated on the back cover, the book is aimed at the "reasonably experienced Flash user who has mastered the basics." I'd even say that it takes a mastery of more than just the basics to get the most out of this book. Without a very good knowledge of ActionScript, much of the material would be difficult to follow.
That being said, this book is not about ActionScript. It's not even really about Flash. It's a book about PHP -- and a very, very good book about PHP at that. It's also a book about MySQL. Prior to the most advanced chapters, the tie-in with Flash (and ActionScript) is said in one word: LoadVars. Once you get past that, you can pretty much forget about ActionScript for much of the book and focus on learning PHP and MySQL. Although the book does show by example how to get variables between your Flash user and LoadVars in ActionScript, you really do need to be comfortable with the ins and outs of Flash in general and ActionScript in particular in order to make full use of those examples, and this is not the book for learning that part of it. In the more advanced chapters, more ActionScript comes into play, and it can get confusing if you're not already comfortable with it. (I'd liken diving into this book without knowing ActionScript or PHP to learning to speak Spanish and Italian at the same time: at some point, you're going to say "dónde" when you mean to say "dove.")
What this book does cover extremely well is everything that happens on the back end, outside of Flash. The chapters that introduce PHP do much more than just introduce it: they are an excellent tutorial in the language that would even be a great resource for people who just want to learn PHP without having anything to do with Flash. Concepts are explained clearly and completely, and the examples are extremely useful and illustrative. The same can be said for the MySQL chapters: You really do learn MySQL, and not just by breezing through one or two superficial examples as in most PHP books.
The nuts-and-bolts chapters are particularly brilliant. David Powers's walk-throughs on installing Apache, PHP and MySQL are legendary. You simply couldn't ask for a better guide! The appendices -- including 20 whole pages on various things that might go wrong and what to do about it -- are indispensable.
My only criticism is of the often convoluted examples. The author's style is to build up the examples iteratively, retracing and revising the code, step by step, over many pages as you learn new techniques. He will often walk you through the "obvious-but-wrong" way of doing something, then make changes little by little, introducing new concepts along the way. While this is perhaps a good way of learning, it sometimes feels like you're reaching over your head with your right hand to scratch your left ear.
As usual, the Friends of ED name on the cover means you're buying quality. Everything from the paper to the layout to the typography is top-of-the-line. While black-and-white printing usually doesn't work well for Flash books, it's perfectly fine for this book (remember, I told you that this isn't really a book about Flash). The author is very active in the Friends of ED readers' forum, so you can be certain that any questions you have about the examples (or about pretty much anything else for that matter) will be answered by the author himself in great detail if you address them on the forum.
So if you know ActionScript and want to learn how to put a database behind it, or if you're a skilled PHP programmer looking for another way to apply your knowledge, or even if you have no real interest in Flash but want to gain a deep understanding of PHP/MySQL, this is a great book for you. Be prepared to spend lots of time with it -- it's nearly 700 pages and it has zero fluff -- but it is time very well spent indeed.
OVER RATED FOR NOVICES!.......2006-09-17
On the upside, the tutorials on installation are excellent. Apache, PHP 5 installation and if you get that far, the MySQL installation are all well described and carefully written. The forum works, if you happen to be a programmer. Theres quick help for those seeking answers but not so quick if you are novice...
When you get into trouble is when you realize that version changes make understanding the complex code jargon very difficlut to understand- though coded exaples for the Flash version that I have were provided. The examples are impossibly long and complicated and when you finally sift though them Eureka, it does not work. FRUSTRATING. Though said to have working examples, I could not get the tedious long examples to work on my computer- and spent many hours re reading the entire book to find out why. I did not expect a quick and easy solution to learning but after two months, I made no progress and found my incompetnce with programming becomiing overwhelming. This book may kill your desire to learn, even if you are willing to spend the time.
This book is a time bandit. Phenomonally complicated for beginners, it's written for experienced programmers, though said to be for novices. It has been my experience to see most programmers who write books, write at a level that is not possible to understand by beginners. It's like going into a new city and asking for directions from a local resident, " it's easy to find and you can't miss it " is the norm. Powers may leave you sleeping on the street.
Very good book on integrating php and mysql with Flash.......2006-07-26
I was very pleased with the book. I like the author's style, and I especially like how the projects are more than your typical "hello world" examples. Yes, some of them do take a little time, but you can type them out or read along as you wish, and they don't take that much time. I thought the book was absolutely excellent at accomplishing what it sets out to do - show you how to integrate flash with PHP and MySQL. Very nice job.
Customer Reviews:
Get your hands dirty good.......2007-04-21
This is a great book covering a lot of the advanced features of PHP and how to use them in your scripts. There are a lot of examples and this books teaches a lot about OOP and various design patterns. This book is very well written and easy to understand.
Multiple Talents Or Just Plain Scam?.......2006-03-19
I have read the review below by P. N. Payne about the paid reviews. Immediately, I checked on the "See All My Reviews" link for Herrington, Boudville, and Matlock. Here's what I found:
Herrington: Reviewed 20 books on March 8th (no exaggeration), ranging from "RFID Essentials" (whatever that means), "Web site Cookbook", "Open GL", to "Degunking Your Home". Suspiciously, almost all of these reviews got 5 stars, where the pros stated are almost identical to those stated by the publisher, and the cons are really funny ones, such as "I would have liked full color throughout".
W Boudville: Reviewed 15 books on March 15th, including "Nanoelectronics and Nanosystems : From Transistors to Molecular and Quantum Devices", "The Origins of Cauchy's Rigorous Calculus (Dover Books on Mathematics)", "The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Major Authors", "Natural Resources and Violent Conflict: Options and Actions", and of course "Computational Geometry in C (Cambridge Tracts in Theoretical Computer Science)". This guy usually gives all his books 4 starts. I think he's playing it safer than Herrington.
John Matlock: This guy reviewed 11 books on March 15th. Apparently, he read the "Handbook of Parallel Computing and Statistics", "Practical Poser 6", "The Rock from Mars : A Detective Story on Two Planets", "Carrara 5 Pro Handbook", "Beginning Visual C# 2005", "The Glorious Cause : The American Revolution, 1763-1789", and of course a book about marketing, seeing how marketing relates to the American revolution, C#, Carrara, Astronomy, Posing, and Statistics. Matlock opts for the 5 stars on all his reviews.
Now about this book, I'm buying it, because I read some excerpts in the library and I think it's great, not because of the rating of these guys. My 5 stars are given for the book, and the people who wrote the book, but certainly not for the publisher. Now I'm not against anyone making a quick buck, but I'm certainly against people getting paid for misleading others. I think Amazon has a real challenge over here:
1. Review their rating system, raising an alarm when someone has a way above normal number of reviews/day.
2. Dealing with unethical publishers encouraging and paying for this trash, and I think this is the hardest challenge for Amazon.
I just hope that Amazon is not aware of this, which I really find it hard to believe.
Truth about Paid Reviews.......2006-01-19
Look behind the high star ratings, particularly those which come out right after a book prints. Ie: If the reviewer writes several reviews a day, and they are all high ratings, and you believe it, then you have just been scammed. Matlock writes up to 12 review a day, on all different kinds of books. 5 stars each. He actually reads 12 books including computer programming books in one 24 hour day plus has time to write and send 12 reviews? What ever happened to honesty? How much do these guy get paid for this garbage? This book may be outstanding, but you can not trust Matlock, Boudville, or Herrington to tell you that. Too bad, because my quick scan made me think it is a fairly good advanced PHP book.
I have purchased too many computer books based on these biased reviews, and feel like I have been cheated. This is a lousy way to treat your customers. Maybe CBS or NBC or Fox will expose this on national TV. One star for lack of honesty in paying for or participating in this scam.
Best book I've found on php5.......2005-12-11
I got this book after reading a rather poor intro on php 5 (Learning php5) and was rather pleased with the book.
I had no experience with php (well other than reading the other book) and found this book very accessible. The book gives you enough information to get started on php5 and the majority of its features. It even has information about writing your own php extensions. Although I really didn't find the all the Pear info that helpful.
I do really wish the book had more information on design patterns etc for php 5. It did go over a few but not ones that are particularly useful for building applications for the web. But I guess this is sort of the status of PHP, its still seems to be a sort of hacky scripting language.
Good, but not Great.......2005-11-21
I really enjoyed reading this book, and I did learn a good deal of things in the process. However this book covers a lot of topics, and because of that it doesn't get too in depth about any one subject. It mostly skims over many of the new OOP features of PHP5, and PEAR. Think of this book as a good resource for further web research.
Book Description
"This book offers most everything the new or intermediate Illustrator user needs to make the most of Illustrator CS web graphics."
—Andy Barkl, Technical Reviewer
Unleash Illustrator's Power to Make Dynamic Web Graphics—Fast
Adobe Illustrator is a powerhouse web graphics tool. The problem is most people don't really know how to use it. That's where this book comes in. Step by step, The Hidden Power of Illustrator CS: Web Graphics Techniques teaches you to use everything Illustrator CS has to offer, helping you understand the new features, stop stumbling over the tools, anticipate problems, and get better, cleaner results. This is a valuable and easy-to-use resource for all Illustrator users ready to take their art to the web. Traditional print designers and students will benefit from its clear explanation of core web concepts while web professionals will soak up the advanced instruction, including in-depth coverage of SVG, web animation, and interactivity. Here's just a little of what you'll learn:
- Mastering essential Illustrator tools--and choosing the right one for the job
- Setting up your work environment
- Integrating your work with other applications, including GoLive, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, and ImageReady
- Using information in existing web pages to optimize images
- Building common web buttons and banners
- Setting up and exporting CSS layers from Illustrator
- Using Illustrator to build complete web pages
- Creating and using web page templates
- Setting up animations in Illustrator
- Understanding SVG and using it for interactivity
- Creating 3D animations using new Illustrator features
Customer Reviews:
Sheading new light on Illustrator.......2004-09-22
I hardly ever buy books on software because they are all hard to read and follow. This book intrigued me because I am coming from an extensive print background trying to venture into web design. Who knew the program that I use on a daily basis had such web design power? This book is awesome, it's set up in a clear, easy to follow way and the author is extremely knowledgable in the ways of Illustrator. Pick up this book now!
Illustrator CS: Not Just For Print Anymore.......2004-02-23
Adobe Illustrator is a highly regarded professional software for creating digital artwork. Over the years Illustrator's capabilities have been closely identified with print publishing, where the application's high quality precise vector line-art can be scaled up or down in size and not change its resolution. It turns out there's far more uses for Illustrator than just print work. Adobe has been steadily adding features in its last three versions that make Illustrator a very valuable tool for creating Web graphics.
"The Hidden Power of Illustrator CS: Web Graphics Techniques", by author Steve Kurth, focuses on many features that Adobe has bestowed to its latest version of Illustrator. What the book does very well is elaborate on important Web graphics features that Adobe sparingly describes in its Illustrator CS users manual, or omits all together.
Prior to reading "The Hidden Power of Illustrator CS: Web Graphics Techniques" I've been creating navigation buttons, banners, and most other Web page visual components in PhotoShop. If I've needed to slice a graphic or create a button roll-over effect, I have relied on PhotoShop's integrated companion ImageReady. Thanks to this book I'm now much better informed about what Illustrator CS can offer, and it's going to change the way I create Web graphics.
I wouldn't recommend this book for the person who hasn't spent some time using Adobe Illustrator. The author attempts to address many of the application's basic features in the first two chapters. However, it's not going to be adequate for beginners, although users already experienced with Macromedia FreeHand or CorelDraw may find these two chapters quite useful for understanding and adapting their acquired knowledge into effectively using Illustrator CS.
Chapter Three begins explaining what makes Illustrator CS such a great tool for creating Web graphics. The author, Steve Kurth, has more than 10 years experience as a graphics professional. His "how-to's" with Illustrator CS are peppered with explanations of time-saving techniques for increasing workflow productivity when creating Web graphics with Adobe Illustrator. This is particularly the case in chapters five and six "Preparing The Work Environment" and "Preparing Single Graphics".
In Chapter Eight, "Creating Complete Pages", Steve Kurth explains and shows (with sample screen shots) how an entire Web page can be an Illustrator graphic sliced into sections that lessen the apparent wait of screen loading for dial-up users. He also explains how links can be created with specific bits of HTML code embedded into Illustrator Web graphics. Additionally, there are good explanations and examples throughout the chapter explaining how important Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) embedded code can be for precise placement and alignment of graphics in a Web page (better than HTML code instructions), and for creating fancy functional items such as drop-down menus.
With Adobe having given Illustrator CS 3-D graphics creation abilities, the possibilities for making sophisticated Web animations are exciting. Chapter Nine provides some easy-to-follow examples that certainly fueled a number of animation ideas I will be trying. Sequential frames created in Illustrator layers can be exported as a series of GIF graphics, or they can be exported to Macromedia Flash, Adobe AfterEffects or LiveMotion to create quick-loading vector graphics animations.
Chapter Ten is devoted to explaining the features, advantages, and the hopes for the Scaled Vector Graphics (SVG) format. Similar to SWF Flash files, SVG is also a quick-loading vector format that displays well in Web browsers-as long as you have the free plug-in that must be downloaded from Adobe and installed. Unlike the proprietary Flash format, SVG is an open standard. The descriptions given of SVG makes it seem considerably more versatile for website designers than SWF. The Flash plug-in, however, was introduced well before SVG and now enjoys a much larger market share. SVG's ultimate success (and survival) may hinge on developers writing future versions of Web browsers that will natively display the SVG format the way they currently support JPEG, GIF, and PNG.
"The Hidden Power of Illustrator CS: Web Graphics Techniques" is a treasure of information. If you use Illustrator and have not moved up to CS (v. 11), the book will likely motivate an upgrade.
Tom Shackle is a freelance media professional and a member of the Alaskan Apple Users Group
Good - and Not Just Web Stuff.......2004-02-20
I got this book even though I already know Illustrator. I am a print designer and I wanted to learn web stuff, too. There was plenty of that, and current stuff too. A lot of books on web graphics were written 4 years ago and a lot has changed. This book was up-todate and pertintent. It was complete and easy-to -read.
The part that came as a surprise is that I learned a lot I didn't know about Illustrator in general while reading it. I was surprised at that. I especially liked the animation section. A good book for any Illustrator user.
An amazing book about Illustrator for web.......2004-02-10
This book was a real eye opener for me. I love Illustrator, and I've been using it for many years, but never realized it has such practical application for web design. Steve Kurth gives practical examples of ways to make your workflow more productive, and his technical expertise in Illustrator is unsurpassed.
Kurth presents a comprehensive training course in the efficient use of Illustrator and aspects that especially apply to web creation. The "Save for Web Reference" gave an excellent overview of file formats and optimizing for web.
Some features were new to me, such as exporting to CSS layers for creating motion animation and more complex design effects. Pixel dimensions when transferring art to GoLive and Dreamweaver was a very useful reference. I found the detailed color discussion most informative.
In the section on creating browser templates. Steve Kurth walks us through constructing an Illustrator template for creating a full web page, something I had never thought of doing before.
All in all, I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in fully and efficiently using Illustrator to design for web. It will definitely increase your production knowledge.
Express instructions, screenshots, tutorials, & more.......2004-01-12
The Hidden Power Of Illustrator CS Web Graphics Techniques by Illustrator CS software expert Steve Kurth is a "do-it-yourself" guidebook for tapping into the depths of Adobe Illustrator's graphics capabilities with respect to an effective and attractive website presentation. Express instructions, screenshots, tutorials for advanced web tools, instructions for building one's own page, and so much more utilizing Illustrator CS software fill the pages of this resourceful and easy-to-follow instructional from cover to cover.
Book Description
The Resource Description Framework (RDF) is a structure for describing and interchanging metadata on the Web--anything from library catalogs and worldwide directories to bioinformatics, Mozilla internal data structures, and knowledge bases for artificial intelligence projects. RDF provides a consistent framework and syntax for describing and querying data, making it possible to share website descriptions more easily. RDF's capabilities, however, have long been shrouded by its reputation for complexity and a difficult family of specifications. Practical RDF breaks through this reputation with immediate and solvable problems to help you understand, master, and implement RDF solutions. Practical RDF explains RDF from the ground up, providing real-world examples and descriptions of how the technology is being used in applications like Mozilla, FOAF, and Chandler, as well as infrastructure you can use to build your own applications. This book cuts to the heart of the W3C's often obscure specifications, giving you tools to apply RDF successfully in your own projects. The first part of the book focuses on the RDF specifications. After an introduction to RDF, the book covers the RDF specification documents themselves, including RDF Semantics and Concepts and Abstract Model specifications, RDF constructs, and the RDF Schema. The second section focuses on programming language support, and the tools and utilities that allow developers to review, edit, parse, store, and manipulate RDF/XML. Subsequent sections focus on RDF's data roots, programming and framework support, and practical implementation and use of RDF and RDF/XML. If you want to know how to apply RDF to information processing, Practical RDF is for you. Whether your interests lie in large-scale information aggregation and analysis or in smaller-scale projects like weblog syndication, this book will provide you with a solid foundation for working with RDF.
Customer Reviews:
Good and somewhat oddly constructed book on RDF.......2006-11-14
If you want to know how to apply RDF to information processing, this book is for you. Whether you are interested in large-scale information aggregation and analysis or in smaller-scale projects like weblog syndication, this book provides a solid foundation for working with RDF. If you are looking for a theoretical explanation of intelligent web bots, tutorials on how to create knowledge systems, or an in-depth look at topic maps and ontologies, you should probably look elsewhere. Also, a basic understanding of XML and web technologies is helpful for reading this book, so you may want to start with those first if you don't have any background in them.
The first section of this book (Chapter 1 through Chapter 6) focuses on the RDF specifications. Chapter 1 focuses on introducing RDF, but more than that, it also looks at some of the historical events leading up to the current RDF effort. In addition, this chapter also looks at issues of when you would, and would not, use RDF/XML as compared to "standard" XML.
Following the introductory chapter, the rest of the first section covers the RDF specification documents themselves. This includes coverage of the RDF Semantics and Concepts and Abstract Model specifications in Chapter 2; the basic XML syntax in Chapter 3; coverage of some of the more unusual RDF constructs--containers, collections, and reification in Chapter 4; and the RDF Schema in Chapter 5. As a way of pulling all of the coverage together, Chapter 6 then uses all you've learned about RDF to that point to create a relatively complex vocabulary, which is then used for demonstration purposes throughout the rest of the book.
The second section of the book focuses on programming language support, as well as the tools and utilities that allow a person to review, edit, parse, and generally work with RDF/XML. Chapter 7 focuses on various RDF editors, including those with graphical support for creating RDF models. In addition, the chapter also covers an RDF/XML browser, as well as a couple of the more popular RDF/XML parsers.
To be useful, any specification related to data requires tools to work with the data, and RDF is no exception. Chapter 8 provides an overview and examples of accessing and generating RDF/XML using Jena, a Java-based RDF API. Chapter 9 covers APIs that are based in PHP, Perl, and Python.
After the programming language grounding, the book refocuses on RDF's data roots with a chapter that examines some of the RDF query languages used to query RDF model data, in a database or as persisted to RDF/XML documents. Chapter 10 also has the code for the RDF Query-O-Matic, a utility that processes RDQL (RDF Query Language) queries. The last chapter in the second section finishes the review of programming and framework support for RDF by looking at some other programming language support, as well as some of the frameworks, such as Redland and Redfoot.
The last section of the book then focuses on the use of RDF and RDF/XML, beginning with an overview of the W3C's ontology language effort, OWL. If RDF is analogous to the relational data model, and RDF/XML is analogous to relational database systems, then OWL is equivalent to applications such as SAP and PeopleSoft, which implement a business domain model on top of the relational store.
The next chapter focuses on RSS, the implementation of RDF/XML most widely used, which supports syndication and aggregation of news sources. RSS is used to syndicate news sources as diverse as Salon and Wired, as well as online personal journals known as weblogs, a web technology gaining popularity.
A specification is only as good as the applications that use it, and RDF is used in a surprising number of sophisticated commercial and noncommercial applications. I say "surprising" primarily because RDF is not a well-known specification. However, it is one of the older specifications, and this is a good guide to it.
Good book, lots of information.......2006-04-11
This book is jam packed with RDF information. RDF itself is a fairly obscure and it is often difficult to find a single mass of information that is comprehensive enough to be useful. This book is definitely a good move towards consolidating the information available about RDF, though I fear that "Practical" is a misnomer, as this is much more comprehensive than practical.
A huge time saver.......2006-04-01
This book is Practical RDF and not "Progamming with RDF (with examples)". Yes, you can find all of the information in this book by searching the Internet. The point is that your results will vary based on who you, how much time you have at your disposal, which day it is, and whether your phone is about to ring.
What Powers and the editors have done in Practical RDF is put the most relevant information (available at the time) in one place, with the typical advantages and disadvantages of a book, such as, you don't need an internet connection, it's operating system neutral, you can make notes in it, it's easy to put down and return to, etc..
I spent the last month researching RDF online. After all that work, I frankly didn't learn much from the book. However, I could have saved myself a lot of time had the book arrived at my door earlier.
We in the information business know how hard it is for our colleagues to embrace semi-new technology. Having a (or several) copy of this bookoin your bookshelf can save you loads of breath. Most people don't take well to "go do your own research." This book contains the research on RDF and is therefore indispensable for all except those who are fortunate enough to work independently.
As noted in other reviews, there are areas for improvement. The technology has advanced since 2003. The original text was probably rushed. This book is due for a second revision, perhaps with more focus on OWL and inference (e.g., take the cwm out for a spin).
For those seeking programming grit, the problem is very similar to programming with XML: which platform, language, and tools do you choose? With XML and RDF, many cross-platform tools exist (Jena, Sesame, Redland). As with most programming books, online documentation from open source tools are likely to be far more useful.
When you want to learn about a largish subject, buy a book. When you want to program, there's no substitute for writing code.
In sum, if there was a book that better educates the uninitiated to RDF, I would mention it here. But I haven't found one, and of course I'm hopeful that someone will write it. Until then, Practical RDF is the best of the pack.
Good book but needs editing...........2005-06-28
I started reading the book and very soon realized that even though I was learning a few things about RDF, I was getting stuck with mismatch between text and graphical representation, and other editing problems that can and should be fixed... may be in a new release or in a revised printing. I am happy to have a book to read but by no means I am happy with the quality of presentation.
If you want Practical RDF, this is the book!.......2005-03-23
This is a very good book on a subject that is notoriously difficult to present. It *is* a practical book, with syntax examples from the start, but by necessity there is also quite a lot of theory in the early chapters. After covering the concepts involved in RDF and RDF Schema Shelley moves on to creating vocabularies and gives good (practical) overviews of the toolkits/APIs available to the developer. The latter sections explore existing (and potential) applications. As Shelley makes clear in the introduction, there are many different ways of viewing RDF. The way she goes about it is from the point of view of someone who works with Web technologies on a daily basis, sleeves rolled up.
The writing style is fairly informal, which may not be to everyone's tastes. But I liked it, found it friendly, and think it's very helpful in this context. Rather than fudging issues Shelley is honest for example when applications don't behave as they're meant to. The occasional editorial errors are irritating, but don't really get in the way of the content.
Shelley's commitment to the subject matter and the book are not in doubt. She was brave enough to put her early drafts online for public review, and since publication has been providing maintenance material on her Practical RDF weblog. Her own practical work takes advantage of the techniques discussed in the book, check out the Burningbird blog.
The Resource Description Framework is at the heart of rapidly growing aspects of Web development, and Shelley's book provides a practical introduction. With the code, explanations and pointers to related material provided it's certainly enough for any developer to start taking advantage of RDF technologies. Whether you're looking for a good modeling approach for your application, or arrived at RDF from RSS syndication, or are interested in the Semantic Web vision, you'll get lots from this book.
Book Description
Learn advanced techniques for maximizing the Google search engine and extract the best content from Google without having to learn complicated code. Go under the hood and learn a wide range of advanced web search techniques through practical examples. This is an ideal resource for students, librarians, journalists, researchers, businesspeople, lawyers, investigators, and anyone interested in conducting an in-depth search.
Customer Reviews:
Comes in handy sometimes.......2007-02-09
The book is a bit outdated, but there is nothing anybody can do about it. By the time a book is written, edited, published and finally available for purchase at your local book store did pass so much time that is measured in Google or Internet time a small eternity. Every book to the subject is by default outdated by the time you can buy it.
However, as long as the book provides general truth and methods in addition to specifics, long time value is still guaranteed. I would say this is partially true with this book. It does focus on specifics and most stuff is still true, but a lot of stuff changed since then, in some cases dramatically.
I use Google for years now and consider myself very Internet savvy, especially when it comes to search engines and even I learned some nice tricks from the book.
It comes in handy sometimes and I am sure that it will be useful for a few more years to come, but I would not expect too much from it. I have not found any better book in print format yet, but the best place for this kind of information is actually the Internet itself.
Still, I love to have a print version around. That's may be just me being old fashioned, but I am sure that I am not the only one out there.
Really Power Searching!.......2006-08-19
I think this is a great book for people that want to know more about searching in general and using google to search-- in particular.
The author has thrown in his vast personal experience and expertise. It shows in the books' tips and search strategies.
He supplements the technical stuff with his real world samples that show the readers how particular google features can be put to good use.
It assembles the most useful links to make it easier for readers to use.
Oh , btw, i am in no way related to the author. :)
3 Stars.......2006-06-20
If you want to create the type of AdWords campaigns that maximize the ROI for your marketing dollars, win you new business and increased customer loyalty, you need help from an industry expert.
Save Your Money.......2005-09-18
Although this book is well written and contained much information, there was little information included that is not already available on Google's Help pages for free. Buy this book only if you don't like reading online help pages.
Does Justice to the Evils of Google.......2005-09-17
This is a thorough and conscientious work. However, I also appreciate the work for the directions in which it could have potentially taken the inquiry (i.e. where it pointed but didn't take us). For example, the concern that the federal government could require Google furnish the personal information of its users is misplaced.
fireflySun DOT com/book/Google2.php
And victims of gang cyberstalking might welcome such a registry. Consider the following:
1. Stalking gangs use Google to search IP addresses to keep tabs on the activities of its victims, often disrupting their relationships with third parties and collecting information to create / disseminate dossiers.
2. Just a single post by an epileptically-posting belligerent in Usenet's unmoderated news groups (over 90% of which amount to flame wars) is cloned by news readers (as many times as there are news readers to archive it to the web under a unique URL). Google then archives all these posts, and they rank highly in a search of your name in Google.
3. Google's customer service could not keep pace with its OCD-like hoarding of content, and when you request that Google remove a link to a malicious and libelous message containing nothing accurate except your illicitly-procured residential address and phone number, Google threatens by claiming that if you compel them with a legal document to remove any message, your name and document will be referred to a free speech web site for blacklisting (chillingeffects.org).
So Google itself, and our infatuation with it (and dependence on it), is still young enough that we ignore the fact Google is a public safety and health risk (i.e. "The Great Repression").
Books:
- Our Grandmothers' Drums
- Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind
- Principles and Practice of Aviation Psychology (Volume in the Human Factors in Transportation Series)
- Public Policy Analysis: A Political Economy Approach
- Setting the East Ablaze: Lenins Dream of an Empire in Asia
- Slaughterhouse: The Shocking Story of Greed, Neglect, And Inhumane Treatment Inside the U.s. Meat Industry
- The 48 Laws of Power
- The Elegant Solution: Toyota's Formula for Mastering Innovation
- The End of Oil: On the Edge of a Perilous New World
- The Euro, 2nd Edition
Books Index
Books Home
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