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My first surprise was how small an envelope this book came in. Sure, it was a huge envelope in terms of height and width but not thickness. I didn't even think it was a book before I opened the envelope. The very last page is 207 (although officially it's 216) which holds the "Z" in the index section so it is quite brief. That isn't necessarily a problem, though. Some books talk too much, after all.

don't really think of myself as a recipe book reviewer but I guess I am today. I thought I was going to need a forklift to get Dooley and Brown's Cisco IOS Cookbook from my shelf to my desk but I managed to schlep it there on my own. There's a reason this tome weighs in at 1207 pages (which is much larger than the original). It has to be thorough.

Samba. To most people with a technical background, the word immediately invokes an image of Linux and Windows machines working and playing well together, however it is so much more (and for those of you who clicked on the link to this review thinking it was about the popular Brazilian music form, try Wikipedia instead). Even samba.org uses the line in its header "Opening Windows to a Wider World". However, just how far does that world extend?

I had reviewed O'Reilly's Learning MySQL by Tahaghoghi and Williams for Linux Magazine (published in Europe and known in the U.S. and Canada as Linux Pro Magazine) and was pondering the difference between 'Learning' MySQL and having a 'Cookbook' on the same subject by the same publisher. I suppose it's the difference between learning the basic principles of cooking vs. vastly deepening your repertoire of cooking styles and recipes. To quote from the Linux Magazine review of Learning MySQL, 'The book is primarily written for readers who "don't know much about deploying and using an actual database-management system...".' To quote from the Introduction of MySQL Cookbook, 'This book should be useful for anybody who uses MySQL...The book should appeal to people who do not now use MySQL but would like to'.

My review of this book recently appeared in Linux Magazine. I wrote that review a month or more ago and since then, have been perusing Dave Thau's book in a lot more detail. I still really like the book and I think it's a good way to learn JavaScript, but I've discovered the flaws.

Remember...this is the Definitive Reference, not the Definitive Guide. Yes both are O'Reilly series and are related ("Definitive" books are supposed to be crammed full of information) but there is also a critical difference. Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference is more like a dictionary or a small encyclopedia (although "small" is in the eye of the beholder) than a textbook or teaching guide. The book assumes that you are at least somewhat "html-literate". Don't pick it up if you've never designed a webpage before.

The question asked on the back cover was intriguing: "Tired of reading Object Oriented Analysis and Design books that only make sense after you're an expert?". Does this mean I don't have to be an "expert" to read and understand this book? How much of a "newbie" can I be? Ok, according the the book's intro, you need to know Java or C# in order to get anything out of this book. You don't have to be a guru but this should not be the first programming book you've picked up. This is the first "Head First" book I have reviewed so I have no way to compare it to others in the series. Guess it'll have to stand on its own merits.

The previous incarnation of this book (seven years old, now) was a heavy hitter in the Linux and UNIX communities. While that's not a bad thing, it doesn't do much for you if you administer a heterogeneous server and desktop environment (tell me you don't have any Windows computers at all where you work). Preston threw a much wider net this time, covering not only UNIX/Linux and Windows but Mac OS X, HP-UX, AIX, Solaris, and even VMware. Most backup and recovery books on the market target specific OS and hardware platforms. That would seem to make sense on the surface and would make the book easier to write. This book however, proposes to be the "one-stop-shopping" text for just about everyone's needs. Preston's first book on the subject was a smash. Let's see if lightning strikes twice in the same place.

I started out my career in the technical arena as basically a mechanic. As a freelance technician, I found myself taking jobs that involved installing PCs, Servers, Switches, and Routers. Most of these jobs were heavily scripted so it was just a matter of following the directions. If I ran into problems, I'd ask the crew chief (if I was working with a team) or I'd call the NOC (if I was working alone). I've replaced SCSI drives, upgraded RAM and installed CPUs like a kid putting together a bunch of Legos. I could do my job very competently without ever knowing how any of those components worked electronically or programmatically. These days I work with a bunch of software engineers so my understanding of computing has taken a completely different direction. That's where Jon Stokes' Inside the Machine comes in.

So far the Windows Vista books I've reviewed (Easy Microsoft Windows Vista (QUE) and Microsoft Windows Vista Unleashed (SAMS)) have been for the beginner/home user and home/small office/small business user respectively. From the introductory material in Windows Vista in a Nutshell, it seems this book is for the SOHO user as well, with a small nod to corporate users. For a "Desktop Quick Reference", this book weighs in at a hefty 732 pages. Though probably not the largest "In a Nutshell" book ever published, it's still pretty big, indicating that there's a lot of road to cover with Windows Vista. After getting into the book and the subject matter, I started to wonder if 732 pages was even close to enough.

Obviously, using XML from Java applications is nothing new as the first two editions of this book attest. However, numerous changes have occurred which required a third edition of this book. From the Preface: "Quite a bit has changed since the second edition appeared. Specifications that were drafts have been finalized, new APIs have been introduced, and new uses for XML have emerged. Perhaps most significantly, two APIs discussed in the second edition--JDOM and JAXB--saw important changes...". Having established the necessity for a third edition, let's see what it's got under the hood.

To quote from the book's preface: "Building PCs isn't just for techies any more. It used to be, certainly. Only gamers and other geeks actually built their PCs from the ground up. Everyone else just called the Dell Dude and ordered a system. That started to change a few years ago. The first sign was when general merchandisers like Best Buy started stocking upgrade components." Someone told me years ago that building a PC was like building something with Legos. While I don't think it's a perfect analogy, it comes close. Building a PC or small server is well within the grasp of anyone who can use a screwdriver and likes to tinker. Building the Perfect PC, 2nd Edition makes it a snap.

There are plenty of books on the market that can teach you how to program in various languages such as JavaScript, Python, Perl, C++, ad infinitum. There are relatively few books available that can teach you how to program well, regardless of the programming language. Code Craft: The Practice of Writing Excellent Code touts itself as a book that can turn a good programmer into a great programmer. Let's see how closely the map matches the territory.

I always get a little nervous when I see the cover of a 912 page book on PHP and MySQL state 'The perfect introduction to PHP 5 and MySQL...no programming or database experience necessary!' On the one hand, you'd think that 912 pages would be ample space to teach the neophyte the nuts and bolts of server side web programming. On the other hand, I have trouble believing that I could hand this book to my father (who is a wonderful mechanic, carpenter and landscaper) who has no real computer skills and expect him to master PHP and MySQL. However, that's what a book review is for...to see where (and if) the rubber meets the road.

Books are usually reviewed separately, however both of these publications are inexorably linked as study and lab texts for Cisco's Netacademy WAN Technologies course (part 4 of the CCNA Network Academy curriculum). Of course, they are meant to be used in concert with the online content but can also be independent of it and thus can be said to "stand alone". Still, there are two different authors involved and information is presented differently. What if one book is excellent but the other...well...isnt? Here's where we find out.

When I first received Transcending CSS: The Fine Art of Web Design and took it out of the shipping box, I thought I had gotten a hold of a book on fine art by mistake. Actually, I wasn't far from the truth, and it's no mistake. Andy Clarke's book goes way beyond the traditional technical text on CSS for web designers and virtually redefines (at least for me) the term "web designer" to be equivalent to "artist".

I liked Fisher's Introduction to Java Phrasebook in that he very clearly explained what a phrasebook is and what it isn't. That's pretty much key when deciding to buy a phrasebook or not. He used the analogy of a foreign language phrasebook (from which the technical phrasebook gets its origins). Let's say you want to vacation in Germany but don't speak the language. With a German phrasebook, you could look up any number of common phrases to help you get by ("Where's the bathroom?" is a must). The phrasebook in no way shape or form is able to actually teach you the German language nor does it contain all of the phrases you might imagine wanting to say (such as "Do you come here often?"). Phrasebooks contain just enough to get you by. With that in mind, I proceeded through the pages of Fisher's text.

I'm an extremely visual learner. If you introduce yourself to me, chances are that I'll forget your name after a few minutes. If I see your name in print, it's locked in my brain for all time (ok, I'm exaggerating, but not by much). Codin' for the Web (like, Singin' in the Rain) is a very visual book. Peachpit Press seems to specialize in producing their texts using high quality paper, fonts, colors, and images. Even without reading the content, it's just a pleasure to look at the pages. However, without good content, the "eye candy" effect doesn't mean much.

I love countdowns. The final scenes of the original "Back to the Future" and "Back to the Future III" films when Marty and Doc are racing against time to get the DeLoren up to eighty-eight miles per hour are still exciting to me. Of course, I'm just in the audience and can enjoy the dynamic tension (even knowing how it turns out) without worrying about failure.

Morville and Rosenfeld's book is a real eye-opener for anyone who wants to understand the complexities of organizing web information at the enterprise-level. This isn't about how to put together a standards-compliant website (well, it is sort of) or how to develop web applications or graphic design for webpages. True, all of those functions are necessary for web development but the (apparently) growing career of Information Architecture (IA) is an entity all its own.