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Craig Maloney and honestpuck contribute two reviews for your almost-the-weekend reading pleasure: read below for their respective impressions of two dead-tree compendiums of online humor: Bride of the Bastard Operator From Hell and The Best of The Joy of Tech. Bride of the Bastard Operator From Hell, The Best of The Joy of Tech author (see each) pages (see each) publisher (see each) rating (see each) reviewer (see each) ISBN (see each) summary Tech-oriented humor in strip-cartoon form; your mileage and laughter may vary.

Bride of the Bastard Operator From Hell author Simon Travaglia pages 160 publisher Plan 9 rating 8 reviewer Craig Maloney publisher Plan 9 rating 8 reviewer Craig Maloney ISBN 1929462484

> DUMMY MODE ON < If you've been around computers for a while, you've probably read the adventures of The Bastard Operator from Hell (or BOFH). Throughout the years, Simon Travaglia's version of the BOFH has become the canonical version with it's witty and humorously sadistic vignettes. Bride of the Bastard is the third print compilation of the tales of treachery from The Register. (Note: a fourth, Dummy Mode is Forever is now available as well.)

When we last left our heroes...

The Bride of the Bastard Operator From Hell picks up right where The Son of the Bastard Operator from Hell leaves off. The higher-ups of the corporation want this new-fangled video conferencing, and the Bastard is only happy to oblige, with his usual underhanded tricks, and wanting to dabble in his movie making abilities. What follows is 35 hilarious tales which would get anyone outside of a complete bastard from hell fired or sent to prison. Similar to Son of the Bastard, the stories in Bride of the Bastard Operator From Hell are only a few pages apiece, so the casual reader can take in a few without much trouble. The truly voracious reader will look at this book as merely an appetizer. What it lacks in quantity it more than makes up for in quality. There are some real laugh-out-loud moments in this book which have to be read in context in order to appreciate them. Suffice to say, readers of this book won't be disappointed.

Judge this book by its cover

This edition of The Bastard Operator from Hell is expertly illustrated by Jeffrey Darlington, creator of the web-comic "General Protection Fault." Unlike The Son of the Bastard Operator from Hell, Jeffrey illustrated every single story with an illustration that matches the story. It's a welcome change to have a matching illustration to look forward to rather than the handful of sight gags penned in the previous volume by J.D. "Illiad" Frazer.

Plan Nine Publishing does fantastic work laying out their books, and this book is no exception. My only complaint remains from the previous book: no table of contents. Locating a story in this book to come back to is downright difficult, and a table of contents would help out greatly.

So what's in it for me?

If you're a fan of the series, you've probably already read this book. If you're on the fence about this book, get the heck off of it and pick it up before someone applies current to it. If you've never heard of the BOFH, this book would be a fine place to get acquainted with him. Just make sure you watch your step. And don't take the lift.

The Best of The Joy of Tech authors Nitrozac and Snaggy pages 192 publisher O'Reilly rating 7 reviewer honestpuck (Tony Williams) ISBN 0596005784

I must be crazy, I was flamed so badly after my last review of a cartoon book that I had to replace my asbestos review suit. The Best of The Joy of Tech may be worth the risk.

Of course it's easy to enjoy a cartoon book by a pair of cartoonists that share your prejudices. It is obvious from the cartoons that Nitrozac and Snaggy are Macintosh-loving, Linux-leaning, Microsoft-loathing geeks. Hmmm, sounds like me.

Not that Nitrozac and Snaggy are totally one-eyed. They still have a dig at Apple and Macintosh owners along the way. Unlike quite a lot of cartoons about tech, these two also see the more human side, just as likely to make a joke about your cat's relationship to you and the computer as poke fun at LARTing end-users or pointy-headed bosses. Their cartoons are more about living with technology than working with it.

The book reproduces a couple of hundred of 'The Joy of Tech' cartoons from their website, in improved colour and resolution. There are also a small number that are original for the book and some funny marginalia in a couple of spots. It also has the matching JoyPoll and a short comment about the cartoon in a 'JoyWorld' section at the back of the book.

I find a fairly large number of the cartoons repeatedly funny and most of the rest worth a chuckle. These two have a good eye for the whimsical, ironic and downright funny side to a wired in, geek life. They even manage to get in a sly reference to Slashdot with a fake O'Reilly book, "Trolling In a Nutshell" with a troll wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with "FIRST POST" on the cover and an Introduction by 'Anonymous Coward.' There's even a couple of margin cartoons of CmdrTaco and CowboyNeal, just for the Slashdot readers who'd like to know what those two should look like.

Oh, that reminds me. The book has a very Wozniak foreword (by Steve himself) and an introduction by David Pogue that is nowhere near as good as the book (I'm sorry David, but any self-respecting geek [male or female] would rather do almost anything than edit the Windows registry, starting with install a decent operating system and working all the way through to changing jobs -- heck, I'd rather sleep with Jobs.)

The book is broken up into various sections, each with a theme. It starts with "Boot-Up" and continues with "4nim4l cr4ck3rs" (most about cats), the whimsical "Geek Love", "Hacks and Cracks" (I loved the couple who want to buy a house within 50 metres of a war-chalked wall), "Techie-daze," "How about them *nix" (featuring the luscious 'Linux Lass'), "The Joy of Mac," "Who do you want to poke fun at today?" (you'll enjoy the 'Stress Relief Dartboard'), "Sci-Fi The Comic Frontier," and "Do You think I'm Xexy" before finishing with "The World According to Geek" (with 'The Lord of The Root - One Geek To Rule Them All', the two good-looking woman who don't shy away from maths and the Barbie 'DotCom Rescue' CD-ROM game).

If you go to Joy Of Tech you can grab a copy from the authors that has been signed (you even get a chance to ask for a custom inscription) and for an extra fee Nitrozac will even bless your book and attach a lucky sticker. You could go to the O'Reilly page, but since they don't have example cartoons and I don't imagine a cartoon book will ever have errata there isn't much point.

It's not easy to review a cartoon book. Suffice to say that I found the 'toons in this book to be a good variety from amusing through to funny with some that are just a little too true to make me do more than groan. If you've never come across this pair (and they've been slashdotted at least once) then check out the site and if you like the last few examples then the book will not disappoint. Hang on a second, just let me do up my collar - OK, flame away.

You can purchase The Best of the Joy of Tech (and just maybe a used copy of Bride of the Bastard Operator from Hell) from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, carefully read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Craig Maloney writes "MySQL (love it or hate it) is one of the most popular databases for deploying websites. Perl (also love it or hate it) was almost synonymous with website programming. Arguably there are different choices for different needs in web development (PostgreSQL, PHP, Java, etc.), but there is no argument that if you are planning on putting together a website, using MySQL and Perl that MySQL & Perl for the Web will aid immensely in that development." Read on for the rest of Maloney's concise review of the book. While not new, he says it's still a valuable volume. MySQL and Perl for the Web author Paul DuBois pages 552 publisher New Riders rating 10 reviewer Craig Maloney ISBN 0735710546 summary A clear, well written book for Perl and MySQL

Who is this book for? Developers looking for a quality book on Perl and database development should not pass this book up. While the title of this book is MySQL & Perl for the Web, it could have easily been called DBD/DBI & Perl for the Web. The SQL examples may or may not work with various databases, but the DBI interface code should remain the same. This book will also do well as a reference for experienced coders looking for well-crafted examples of web-based applications. What's good? The second chapter should be enough to get anyone up to speed with using Perl, DBI, CGI, Apache, and MySQL. After a brief introduction and configuration of MySQL and Apache, the author settles in to discuss coding DBI and Perl. The remainder of the chapter details the best practices for using Perl and DBI together. Near the end of the second chapter, the author creates a fully functional to-do list, demonstrating ways to add, update, and delete information from the database using Perl and DBI. Instead of taking small baby steps over many chapters, the author shows important concepts and best practices for those concepts quickly. Even seasoned (hardened?) programmers may learn new tricks or methodologies from the second chapter of this book.

Is that the end? Are we left with one very well written tutorial chapter? Thankfully, the rest of the book has plenty to offer. Subsequent chapters include:

• Improving performance with mod_perl
• Generating and processing forms
• Writing form-based applications
• Automating the form-handling process
• Performing searches
• Session management
• Security and privacy issues
• E-commerce applications

Each chapter is clearly written, with several examples used to demonstrate the concepts presented. The examples are clearly written, and the author makes the whole learning process enjoyable and fun. The examples range from a give-away contest (including a random drawing), an electronic greeting card program, polling programs, and a shopping cart program. Each of the examples is presented completely, but are introduced in pieces (subroutines, modules, etc.) The full source code is available from the author's website at http://www.kitebird.com/mysql-perl/

What's in it for me? MySQL & Perl for the Web is the book that Perl programmers on any project will wish The Other Guy had read. The examples are clear, the writing is engaging, and the code is maintainable. This is a practical book and should not be overlooked in any serious Perl programmer's library.

You can purchase MySQL and Perl for the Web from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Craig Maloney writes "If you are a Windows programmer looking to create or move your stand-alone database applications away from Microsoft-specific tools such as Visual Basic, Visual C++, Access or SQL Server, MySQL: Building User Interfaces is written just for you." Read on for the rest of Craig's review. MySQL: Building User Interfaces author Matthew Stucky pages 632 publisher New Riders rating 4/10 reviewer Craig Maloney ISBN 073571049X summary MySQL and GTK+ are used to create cross-platform applications, with copious code listings.

What's in the book? The first chapter guides the reader through the basics of MySQL and how it compares to Access 2000 and SQL Server 97. Next, a code listing demonstrates the basics of connecting to MySQL via C using the MySQL C API. the book gives an all-too-brief whirlwind tour to the basics of MySQL. The next four chapters are a tutorial on how to use GTK+ and GLADE, focusing on how these toolkits are similar and different from their Visual Basic counterparts. GTK+ was chosen in this book because of its cross-platform compatibility with both Windows and Linux / UNIX operating environments. The second part of the book takes what was learned about MySQL and GTK+ with GLADE and uses it to create a stand-alone application (a real-world order-entry application). What's Good? Throughout MySQL: Building User Interfaces, Stuckey describes exactly what he is doing and why he is doing it that way. The introduction to GTK+ in the first part of the book describes just about every GTK+ widget available (menus, buttons, sliders, status bars, etc.), and creates a monster busy-box application (not to be confused with the busy-box application by Bruce Perens) demonstrating those widgets by themselves. Later in the book Stuckey uses Glade to put applications together, but not using Glade early on gives the reader a chance to see what is happening under Glade's abstraction. During the building of the order-entry application, Stuckey explains the design decisions behind the widgets. Each window of the application is introduced first with a diagram describing where the widgets will be followed by the code for each widget. The design looks like a Visual Basic application designed by a a programmer, with an eye toward the functional rather than the aesthetics of user interface design, but as an introduction to GTK+ programming it works well. What's Bad? If there was ever a book that required a CD-ROM to accompany it, this book gets my nomination. Authors have to walk a fine line between presenting code snippets that don't make sense by themselves, or risk boring readers with page after page of code that might confuse readers who aren't yet ready to view full code listings. MySQL: Building User Interfaces chose to include the full code listing for everything. This is both a blessing and a curse: readers have the code right in front of them and don't have to worry about being in front of a computer while reading the book, but the flow of the book is interrupted every time something is introduced.

The descriptions also suffer, because those code listings are expected to explain in more detail what is going on. In the GTK+ introduction, widgets are introduced with short paragraph introductions. The real-world application, which should be the focus of the book, reads like an assembly line: A screen is introduced, the widgets are placed, and the code is listed. Worse, files which make little sense without a computer (such as files generated by glade) are presented along with the code listings. This makes reading this book a chore. Thankfully, there is an FTP site with the code ready to use, but future versions of this book would be best served to include it on disc.

Perhaps a balance can be struck in a future edition where important code concepts are highlighted without sacrificing seeing the code in a meaningful context.

So, what's in it for me? Windows programmers who need a hand in getting their applications to Linux or UNIX may find this book helpful (but overwhelming) as they learn. This book stands out as a bridge for Windows programmers to make their transition to Linux and UNIX smoother, but the emphasis and amount of code listings in this book may make Windows programmers choose a different route.

You can purchase MySQL: Building User Interfaces from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Craig Maloney writes "Linux Programming By Example is a book aimed squarely at programmers learning how to program the Linux and UNIX system for the first time." Read Craig's review of Linux Programming by Example (below) to find his take on whether the book delivers on the promise of its title. Linux Programming By Example author Kurt Wall pages 533 publisher QUE (InformIT) rating 9/10 reviewer Craig Maloney ISBN 0789722151 summary Linux Programming by Example is a concise and solid introduction to programming under the Linux system. Excellent instructions accompany fully-working examples of code.

There are plenty of books on this topic as any trip to the bookstore will show. Where this book excels compared with other Linux programming books is its consistent focus throughout. Other books tend to explain a multitude of concepts without relating them back to a real-world example. In Linux Programming By Example, the author introduces a concept, and explains it with an example. In the last chapter, the author integrates the knowledge he's presented, utilizing many of the book's concepts in building a simple CD-Database program. Of course, not all of the concepts relate to the final CD database (The chapters TCP/IP Programming, The Sound API and Using the Mouse are not referred to in the final program), but it's helpful for beginning programmers unsure how all of these pieces fit in the bigger picture of a working program.

Begin at the beginning

Linux Programming By Example begins with topics that don't get covered until the end of many books. The book starts by discussing how to use GCC and make on a Linux machine, and how to create a Makefile. It's always puzzled me why some books don't cover the compiler or the make process until the end of the book. What's the point in that? Granted, chapters in debugging and RCS are left to the end of the book, but presenting key concepts in the development process early in the book helps the reader to get a better feel for how all of these concepts interrelate in a Linux/UNIX environment.

Moving forward

From the basics of compilation and making programs, the book moves to the basics of a Linux system in Part II: System Programming. This is where the book truly shines. In the section on processes, Wall discusses the elements that make up a process, how to manipulate a process, and why you would want to do this anyway. The book assumes no prior UNIX knowledge, but doesn't plod along like most introductory texts. In the section on signals, the book defines what signals are, early signal APIs and their issues, POSIX and Linux signal APIs, and how to use signals and signal sets. In this chapter, the author not only lists the signals supported by the Linux system, but also other signals supported by POSIX and other UNIX systems. While this might sound confusing, the author takes time out to explain which signals are really important in a Linux environment. This is a key reason why this book retains its readability without losing depth. Each chapter in the System Programming portion of the book retains this format -- not only demonstrating what the topic is, but also where this fits in a Linux/UNIX system and why you would even bother to know this in the first place.

What's good?

Linux Programming By Example is clearly aimed at getting programmers up to speed on not only programming Linux systems, but also POSIX based systems. Wherever possible, the author makes a point of pointing out the POSIX way. This book could have been easily called POSIX Programming by Example. The author also makes no bones about implementation issues with Linux and the POSIX or System V way of implementation. The book clearly states where Linux falls short of the full POSIX standard, and where pitfalls with porting code from other systems may occur. It's a refreshing change from other beginner texts which assume the reader will discover these pitfalls on their own.

So what's in it for me?

If you're looking for a quick, effective way to get up to speed in Linux and UNIX programming without breaking the bank, Linux Programming by Example is the book to take you there. This book is designed for programmers who are familiar with programming on other systems but haven't dealt with Linux before.

You might have trouble locating this book, since QUE let it lapse for a while, but there should be another batch hitting stores soon. You won't be disappointed.

You can purchase Linux Programming By Example from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Craig Maloney writes: "Bram Moolenaar's Vim editor has quickly become the clone of choice for users of the venerable vi editor. Unfortunately, until recently finding documentation for the features of Vim meant spending quality time with the help files that come with Vim. While the help files are very good, a manual/tutorial of the Vim editor was needed. Other vi books included scant pages about the improvements of Vim over standard vi, but Vim isn't only a slight improvement to vi. Vi IMproved -- Vim is the manual Vim users need to help them get the full benefit out of Vim." Read on for more of Craig's review of this book below. Vi IMproved -- Vim author Steve Oualline pages 572 publisher New Riders rating 7.5/10 reviewer Craig Maloney ISBN 0735710015 summary The first and only published book covering the basic and advanced usage of Vi IMproved.

Learning to crawl

Books describing editors generally fall into two categories. The first category of books will describe a particular function (like moving through a file) with all the known ways for performing that function, ad nauseum. The second category distills the myriad of ways to perform that function into a handful of the most common or most useful ways. Vi IMproved -- Vim combines both methods with good results.

The first section of the book is entitled Basic Editing; this section introduces the reader to starting and using Vim effectively without getting too bogged down in the gory details of Vim's vi heritage. In the chapter on moving around, the author begins with two methods of movement. In the details portion, the author has the reader performing more complex movements. This is a good approach, much like learning how to walk before learning how to hop, skip, jump, and dance through your document. Unfortunately this approach makes using this book as a reference very difficult. I would read sections that I wanted to use later, only to realize I couldn't find the section again. Vi IMproved -- Vim more than makes up for this shortcoming with a generous appendix detailing the Normal Mode, Command Mode, and Visual Mode commands along with a well-designed quick-reference section.

Made to Order

One of the strengths of Vim over other vi clones is Vim's ability to be used as a regular GUI application, and not just as an xterm-enhanced application.

Vi -- IMproved Vim shows not only how to use the GUI, but also how to customize the GUI to fit the reader's preferences. A good portion of this book deals with customizing Vim to suit the reader's style through the various parameters, menus, and GUI elements. Users who like their editors as stock as possible will find themselves skipping a lot of pages in this book. However even they will be tempted to try out some of the neat functions that pop up as they flip through the pages. The author conveys a sense of exploration, inviting users to experiment and try out new things with Vim.

Errata

Unfortunately, with vi and its clones, a single letter can mean the difference between moving through the document and deleting half of it by accident. Vi IMproved -- Vim is plagued with typos and errors, making this a difficult book for newbies to get into without having the errata sheet from http://vim.sf.net handy. It's understandable why a book like this would have some errors, especially with vi and Vim's terse keyboard commands.

Conclusion

Users of Vim will no doubt be thrilled with Vi IMproved -- Vim. Having a reference outside of the help menus in the program is a godsend for any user of Vim. Unfortunately the errors in this book mar what could have been the definitive book for Vim users, but for those who are starting out with Vim, or who would like to know more about Vim, this book is the perfect starting point and reference. The book covers the 5.x series of editors, but that shouldn't be a problem for most people looking to get started with the 6.x series.

If you're using Vim, you need Vi IMproved -- Vim.

You can purchase Vi IMproved from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Craig Maloney writes with the review below of the latest release from User Friendly, laughware which finally hit 1.0 earlier this year. Read on for Craig's impressions of the book, which is loaded with more than just reprints of the UF comics you've seen on the web. User Friendly 1.0 author J.D. "Illiad" frazer pages 112 publisher Plan Nine Publishing rating 9/10 reviewer Craig Maloney ISBN 1929462395 summary An �autobiographical� look at the thoughts and ideas that make up the User Friendly comic strip and community.

Greetings Cave Dwellers

Arguably one of the most successful and popular online comics is User Friendly. With three full-length books in print, a community of dedicated readers, and merchandise that has been featured on major computer celebrities globally, one would have a hard time disputing the popularity and the success of User Friendly. Over the past four years, User Friendly has grown from a small inter-office comic into an internet destination and a community of loyal readers. User Friendly 1.0 collects not only the comics that have not been published before (O'Reilly didn't include them in the previous books because of layout and other considerations), but also various essays, thoughts, illustrations, and other comics not necessarily related to User Friendly.

It All Began Here

The first section of the book contains the comics that didn't make it in the first User Friendly book (User Friendly, published by O'Reilly and Associates). These are the comics that introduce the crew of Columbia Internet (the friendliest, hardest-working and most neurotic little internet service provider), and births Dust Puppy (from a server that hasn't been upgraded in a year). The drawings are more primitive, with four frames of story rather than the three we enjoy today, but don't let that detract you from the humor and the sheer fun of the comics. Sure, they're not the same as what you're expecting from the current dailies, but they have a certain charm all their own.

Introduce Yourself / Essay Contest

The latter half of the book introduces the characters of User Friendly and their real-world analogues. Yes folks, the secret is out and revealed for the first time; User Friendly is based on real-people, although Illiad is quick to point out the people the characters are based on aren't QUITE as neurotic as their cartoon counterparts. Illiad also takes the latter part of the book to talk about his views on art, drawing women, community schisms, and the practical joke of 1999 and its aftermath. These essays show Illiad as a cartoonist who is not only humbled and flattered by the acceptance of his work, but also an artist who appreciates the community that has evolved from that work. Illiad appreciates his fans, and it's that appreciation of the fans that makes a book like User Friendly 1.0 not only possible, but also readable.

Bonus

As an added bonus, User Friendly 1.0 also features several SuSE Friendly comics (strips done for SuSE) and the crossover between User Friendly and Sluggy Freelance (in case you missed it). The strips are a nice treat for the fans and I have User Friendly to thank for my Sluggy Freelance addiction. :)

For the fans

If you don't like User Friendly, you've already skipped this review, and won't buy this book. That's quite all right, as this book isn't meant for you anyway. For the people who are fans of the comic, or who have a passing interest in the behind the scenes thoughts and ideas of User Friendly (or who want to see the early comics and the crossover appearances), this book is a no-brainer purchase. The writing is genuine, and having the rest of the comics in print is a bonus. User Friendly 1.0 is a labor of love for the community, and the community won't be disappointed.

You can purchase User Friendly 1.0 from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Craig Maloney submitted this review of Addison-Wesley's entry in the tough field of books on C (book title: C), and pulls no punches in comparing it to others. He says it's slightly above average, but that "experienced programmers will likely pass on this book." Read the complete review below for his reasoning. C (Addison-Wesley Nitty Gritty Programming Series) author Klaus Schr�der pages 400 publisher Addison-Wesley rating 5.5 reviewer Craig Maloney ISBN 0-201-75878-4 summary A slightly better than average C book with some very good points, but poor delivery.

Lost in the Company of Giants

It's hard not to take a book like C and compare it to such acclaimed and trusted books as K&R, Expert C Programming, and other lesser known, but equally good tomes. Unfortunately C doesn't really compare with many of the other classic books covering the C language. For starters, the writing in this book isn't quite up to the same caliber as the other books. Part of the problem with this book is language. English does not appear to be the author's native language. There are sentences in this book that require a few glances to glean the full meaning. C is difficult enough to present without a language barrier introducing more problems. Another problem is organization. The ideas presented at the beginning of the book are muddled and disjointed, with multiple ideas introduced but not formally explained until later. Beginners will have a terrible time working through this book without becoming quickly confused, and experienced programmers will likely pass on this book in favor of the other well-known books.

Not All Bad

The book is not all bad, however. The examples in the book are plentiful and are based on tried-and-true examples found in books like K&R. There are some idioms that are used in the examples that will irk the more structured programmers (not using braces in certain areas being the biggest example), but most of the examples are pretty good. Also, the explanations of the more advanced topics are relatively good considering how confusing the more basic material is. Memory management is explained well, with clear diagrams (although the programs are a bit confusing without a careful eye).

So What's in it for Me?

Addison-Wesley is clearly marketing this book to the same crowd that purchases quick-learning books. Unfortunately beginners purchasing this book will quickly find themselves lost amid the confusing descriptions in this book. Those who manage to muddle through will find some tasty bits of information locked inside, but the work involved in getting there outweighs the rewards. Most programmers will probably want to leaf through a copy of this book before purchasing it to make sure they'll get the most out of it.

You can purchase C from Fatbrain. Want to see your own review here? Just read the book review guidelines, then use Slashdot's handy submission form.

Craig Maloney writes with this review of The Linux Cookbook, a hope-inspiring entrant in the still too-small category of generalized, readable references for non-programmers, as well as the even-smaller category of books with a complete free version online. Craig's found some flaws as well as bright spots, but it still sounds like a good book to check out for users who aren't sure which FM to R, no matter what their level of experience. The LinuxCookbook author Michael Stutz pages 300 publisher No Starch Press rating 7 reviewer Craig Maloney ISBN 1-886411-48-4 summary Hundreds of answers (with a focus on the command-line) to commonand not-so common questions.

Allez Cuisine!

The Linux Cookbook is a collection of "recipes" for doing various tasks with your Linux machine. Where the Cookbook shines, though is the sheer number and variety of these recipes. There are plenty of varied tasks covered in the book, from the simple 'How do I copy a file?' to the more complex 'How do I archive a web site?', Six chapters deal with the various aspects of text: analyzing, searching and replacing, grammar checking, and formatting. There are even chapters dealing with the less-explored topics of customizing X, setting up reminders, and editing sound files.

Recipe Format:

The recipe format is both the book's strongest feature and its weakest point. The recipes make for a well-organized and logical structure to find information. Each point and sub-point is clearly marked, and makes for a very quick and enjoyable read. Unfortunately, topics that could benefit from a different approach are just not covered thoroughly. In the section for listing files, ls is well covered, while Midnight Commander is briefly introduced. This wouldn't bother me as much, except Midnight Commander and Mozilla URLs are given at the beginning of the section. This presentation could also lead people to think the material presented is the only way, or the best way to do these commands. There is only one method mentioned for shutting down a Linux machine; the venerable CTRL-ALT-DEL. No mention is made in the book of the shutdown command. Granted, CTRL-ALT-DEL will get the job done, but I'm not sure I would have presented it as the best, or only way to shut down a Linux machine. [T - Especially when on many distros, CTRL-ALT-DELETE is configured to restart rather than shut down the machine; this behavior, though, is configurable through /etc/inittab.]

Season to taste:

As I've mentioned in the previous section, some of the commands the author chose as his answers are quite curious to me. In the section to find hostnames from IP addresses, the author has chosen to use the command "dig" rather than the command I generally use "nslookup". Granted, "dig" gives other useful information aside from the IP and hostname, but the author doesn't seem to care about the additional information when presenting the output of the command.

This book also concentrates on using GNU and Open Source software for it's solutions. There is no mention of software that is not strictly Open Source. The only package information is for the Debian distribution by providing the apt name for retrieving the package. No other distribution is mentioned as having packages available. The author's reasoning is that Debian is the only "entirely committed to free software by design" distribution. URL's are provided only for packages that are not distributed by default with Debian, which might prove to be a nuisance for people using other distributions. I found myself trying some recipes, only to find my distribution didn't include that command by default.

Linux is a command-line operating system by default, and this book tries to work within those defaults by providing command-line methods rather than GUI methods. This gets around some of the various intricacies of the various distributions, but might prove confusing for the person who boots up the first time and can't find virtual console one because GDM is running. When appropriate, the book will defer to a GUI tool rather than a command-line tool. The GIMP is briefly discussed for several of the recipes, and GUI programs make up less than 10% of the answers to the recipe questions.

So, what's in it for me?:

It's tough for me to fully recommend this book to everyone. For the beginner, I recommend caution when starting off with this book. They may want to make this book their second book along with an installation and getting started tutorial. Beginners will find this book invaluable once they have a firm grasp on their distribution before being able to fully handle this book. For the seasoned Linux user, I recommend reading this book while putting your suppositions aside. There is plenty of good information to be had in these pages, and the author has tried painstakingly to make the answers in it as relevant to every Linux user as he can. The Linux Cookbook is a useful collection for those who don't mind getting comfortable with their shell prompt and a search engine.

There is also an electronic version of this book available at http://dsl.org/cookbook which is a living version of the printed book; for the sake of this review, only the printed book was reviewed.

You can purchase The Linux Cookbook from Fatbrain.

Craig Maloney contributed this review, because you can't always read a 600-page, densely written technical manual without a little something to leaven the bread. The Root of All Evil author J.D. "Illiad" Frazer pages 136 publisher O'Reilly rating 9 reviewer Craig Maloney ISBN 0-596-00193-2 summary The third collection of User Friendly comic strips covering all of the strips appearing in Y2K.

Unless you've been living behind a 2400 baud modem for the past few years, you've probably heard of the tales of Columbia Internet as described in the online comic strip User Friendly. You've probably even looked at a few strips from time to time. You may even have bought the two previous books "User Friendly" and "Evil Geniuses in a Nutshell". Whatever experience you've had with User Friendly, you'll really enjoy the third printed installment "The Root of All Evil".

What's good?

"The Root of All Evil" picks up right where "Evil Geniuses in a Nutshell" left off, with the first comic being the result of a "Y2K" error. Normality returns to Columbia Internet in short order, however, with the invention of an office assistant for VI called "VIGOR" (which spawned it's own real-life equivalent). There's plenty of good story lines in this collection: Pitr challenging Crud Puppy, the introduction of Cat Five, the Coffee Ring incident, Dark Side Dave, the X-Friends, the camping trip, and many many more. But the real reason many UFies should get this book is the introduction of the character that's quickly become a fan favorite: Sid Dabster. The battles between Pitr and Sid are absolutely hysterical. If you need proof, just think what might happen to Sid who has all of his old code on punched cards neatly stacked in a room, only to have his rival Pitr waiting outside the door with a leaf blower. There's plenty of moments like this in "The Root of All Evil" to keep you smiling.

The comics are transferred to the page rather well, with only a few contrast issues. Unlike the previous books, all of the Sunday comics are in their proper height.

What's bad?

There's only two nitpicks I can level at this collection, and they're both extremely picky. The first is the Sunday comics are all in black and white. Unfortunately, to print 1/7th of this book in color would probably increase the printing costs way beyond what User Friendly's audience would pay. Fortunately if you really want to see them in their original glory, you can view them online. The second nitpick can be levelled at any collection of topical comic strips. Sometimes the jokes are too topical. A few of the Sunday sight gags (which tend to be more topical than the weekday gags) left me scratching my head. Some of the jokes are starting to show their age (this is internet time, of course :) ), but there's also a certain nostalgia in comic collections like this. It's like going back and reading Bloom County books with their references to 1980's popular culture. Sure the "I Love You" virus is remembered about as well as a Sean Penn joke, but there's a certain charm in remembering a time when "I Love You" was zipping effortlessly across the net, and X-Men was the movie everyone camped out to see. Do I think User Friendly should be less topical? Of course not. That's some of the beauty of User Friendly (and Bloom County, for that matter). The strips in this book perfectly capture the humor of the situations we all were facing at the time. Just remember you might have to bring some of those old memories back to fully enjoy this book.

What's in it for me?

If you have the previous User Friendly books, this is a no-brainer purchase. If you don't have them, you might want to get the other two books before purchasing this one. If you've never viewed User Friendly, view a few strips online or leaf through the other books first. If you're like most geeks, you'll find you'll want as much User Friendly as you can get!

You can purchase this book from FatBrain.

Craig Maloney contributed this review, because you can't always read a 600-page, densely written technical manual without a little something to leaven the bread. The Root of All Evil author J.D. "Illiad" Frazer pages 136 publisher O'Reilly rating 9 reviewer Craig Maloney ISBN 0-596-00193-2 summary The third collection of User Friendly comic strips covering all of the strips appearing in Y2K.

Unless you've been living behind a 2400 baud modem for the past few years, you've probably heard of the tales of Columbia Internet as described in the online comic strip User Friendly. You've probably even looked at a few strips from time to time. You may even have bought the two previous books "User Friendly" and "Evil Geniuses in a Nutshell". Whatever experience you've had with User Friendly, you'll really enjoy the third printed installment "The Root of All Evil".

What's good?

"The Root of All Evil" picks up right where "Evil Geniuses in a Nutshell" left off, with the first comic being the result of a "Y2K" error. Normality returns to Columbia Internet in short order, however, with the invention of an office assistant for VI called "VIGOR" (which spawned it's own real-life equivalent). There's plenty of good story lines in this collection: Pitr challenging Crud Puppy, the introduction of Cat Five, the Coffee Ring incident, Dark Side Dave, the X-Friends, the camping trip, and many many more. But the real reason many UFies should get this book is the introduction of the character that's quickly become a fan favorite: Sid Dabster. The battles between Pitr and Sid are absolutely hysterical. If you need proof, just think what might happen to Sid who has all of his old code on punched cards neatly stacked in a room, only to have his rival Pitr waiting outside the door with a leaf blower. There's plenty of moments like this in "The Root of All Evil" to keep you smiling.

The comics are transferred to the page rather well, with only a few contrast issues. Unlike the previous books, all of the Sunday comics are in their proper height.

What's bad?

There's only two nitpicks I can level at this collection, and they're both extremely picky. The first is the Sunday comics are all in black and white. Unfortunately, to print 1/7th of this book in color would probably increase the printing costs way beyond what User Friendly's audience would pay. Fortunately if you really want to see them in their original glory, you can view them online. The second nitpick can be levelled at any collection of topical comic strips. Sometimes the jokes are too topical. A few of the Sunday sight gags (which tend to be more topical than the weekday gags) left me scratching my head. Some of the jokes are starting to show their age (this is internet time, of course :) ), but there's also a certain nostalgia in comic collections like this. It's like going back and reading Bloom County books with their references to 1980's popular culture. Sure the "I Love You" virus is remembered about as well as a Sean Penn joke, but there's a certain charm in remembering a time when "I Love You" was zipping effortlessly across the net, and X-Men was the movie everyone camped out to see. Do I think User Friendly should be less topical? Of course not. That's some of the beauty of User Friendly (and Bloom County, for that matter). The strips in this book perfectly capture the humor of the situations we all were facing at the time. Just remember you might have to bring some of those old memories back to fully enjoy this book.

What's in it for me?

If you have the previous User Friendly books, this is a no-brainer purchase. If you don't have them, you might want to get the other two books before purchasing this one. If you've never viewed User Friendly, view a few strips online or leaf through the other books first. If you're like most geeks, you'll find you'll want as much User Friendly as you can get!

You can purchase this book from FatBrain.

Craig Maloney contributes the below review of a book he claims is long overdue -- the second edition of Gary Feld's The Book of SCSI. Probably it won't be long until someone is reviewing The Book of Firewire, but SCSI remains probably the most widespread standard for high-quality, reasonably priced storage. I know it's gotten better since the last time I struggled with termination issues and bad cables, but if you rely on SCSI every day, you may need this book.

The Book of SCSI, 2nd Edition: I/O for the New Millennium author Gary Field, Peter M. Ridge pages 456 publisher No Starch Press rating 7.5 reviewer Craig Maloney ISBN 1-886411-10-7 summary A one stop resource for the SCSI protocol.

What's Good? For those in a hurry, Appendix A (The All-Platform Technical Reference) is the entire book in a nutshell. I think Appendix A should be included with every SCSI card sold. It includes pin-out descriptions of the major and not-so-major SCSI interfaces, tables for bus timings, and a quick description of termination rules. The pages that surround Appendix A are also quite good.

The chapter on connecting devices to a PC talks at length about one of the more troubling aspects of SCSI; termination. Anyone who has had to troubleshoot SCSI installation problems will enjoy how thorough Chapter 6 deals with troubleshooting. (It even includes what a SCSI signal should look like on an oscilloscope). Programmers will find a Chapter with information on programming using ASPI, as well as protocol specifications for those looking for more low-level information. You'd be very hard pressed to find a more complete and readable treatment of the SCSI protocol than this book.

What's Bad? Unfortunately completeness can lead to information overload. Novice users will find themselves at a disadvantage with the sheer amount of material presented.

When discussing how to set up a SCSI adapter, the book mentions the various PC busses from the earliest IBM PC to draft revisions of PCI and everything in-between. Had I been a novice reader, I would have been overwhelmed with all the information about historical PC busses that are no longer in use. (When was the last time you used VLB or EISA?) In the interest of completeness, the authors also include a chart comparing these interfaces. I question whether this is really necessary. Some may also be put off by the hand-drawn diagrams in the earlier chapters.

On the CD

The CD includes items such as the SCSI FAQ, ASPI Development Files, ASPI tar, SCSI disk driver source for MSDOS, Western Digital SCSI Utilities, SCSITool, Postmark I/O benchmark source code, and Linux SCSI information. Of note, the CD also includes a PDF file of the entire book.

What's in it for me?

The Book of SCSI is definitely written by SCSI enthusiasts. On the early pages, the authors include a bit of SCSI poetry, and the CD includes a text file entitled "SCSI: A Game With Many Rules and No Rulebook?". This book reads with an excitement only an enthusiast can project. If you have ever been curious about SCSI, I encourage you to sit down and read the first few chapters of this book. If you are in a position to use SCSI components more than occasionally, I recommend you purchase this book and keep it on your reference shelf for those times when troubleshooting is necessary.

My biggest complaint? I wish the authors had written this book ten years ago. However, it is still a welcome addition to my library today.

• Chapter Listing
• Chapter 1: Welcome to SCSI
• Chapter 1.5: A Cornucopia of SCSI Devices
• Chapter 2: A Look at SCSI-3
• Chapter 3: SCSI Anatomy
• Chapter 4: Adding SCSI to Your PC
• Chapter 5: How to Connect Your SCSI Hardware
• Chapter 6: Troubleshooting Your SCSI Installation
• Chapter 7: How the Bus Works
• Chapter 8: Understanding Device Drivers
• Chapter 9: Performance Tuning Your SCSI Subsystem
• Chapter 10: RAID: redundant Array of Independent Disks
• Chapter 11: A Profile of ASPI Programming
• Chapter 12: The Future of SCSI and Storage in General
• Appendix A: All-Platform Technical Reference
• Appendix B: PC Technical Reference
• Appendix C: A Look at SCSI Test Equipment
• Appendix D: ATA/IDE versus SCSI
• Appendix E: A Small ASPI Demo Application
• Glossary
• Index

You can purchase this book at Fatbrain.

Craig Maloney writes the review below of Linux Game Programming. From the sound of it, there may be a considerable market need for more books on programming the fun stuff for GNU/Linux. This one may even suit your needs, but earns some harsh words from Craig.

Linux Game Programming author Mark "Nurgle" Collins et al. pages 331 publisher Prima Tech rating 3 reviewer Craig Maloney ISBN 0-7615-3255-2 summary A hastily compiled book with some useful tidbits, but no main course.

Overview There are precious few books which mention programming games under Linux. There even fewer that cover programming games under Linux exclusively. Linux Game Programming is the first published book exclusively dedicated to programming games under Linux. Unfortunately this book was rushed to the publishers just to obtain the dubious distinction of being the first. Worse, this book has many errors and a CD which is next to worthless.

What's good? It's very hard to find anything that's really outstanding in this book. The chapters offer what amounts to little more than a starting point for learning, with just enough to get the reader interested in the topic before moving on to the next topic. The sections on Artifical Intelligence and Porting stick out in my mind as some of the books strong sections, but even those could use some more elaboration. What's Bad? In trying to cover as many aspects of Linux game development, the book ends up giving little more than a synopsis of the material. Also, some of the choices are curious. Why have a chapter on SDL which only deals with using SDL for the input methods? There seems to be a lack of focus for the overall book for what it wishes to accomplish. Also, dedicating whole chapters printing out open source licenses (GPL, LGPL, Artistic, BSD, and Mozilla) is nothing more than fluff for a book like this (although the author does include a chapter discussing the benefits and drawbacks to chosing an open-source license verses a closed source approach.) The code is not complete, and doesn't show how to use it in a full program. Worse, there are no complete working game programs, either in the book or on the CD.

The CD is incomplete and a waste. It includes the examples from the book. Unfortunately, the examples are all in MSDOS format, so the reader will have to convert them in order to get them to run (if they'll even run at all. I had a hard time getting some to even compile). Also included on the CD is the SDL 1.1.8 kit in source and RPM format (the development RPM is missing, though, so you'll need to pick that up as well in order to actually DEVELOP SDL games). There are also source tar files for Mesa3D, OpenAL, and SVGALib. Also included is the Indrema SDK, which might be of interest for some people. There are also some strange additions on the CD. The first weird addition is the Linux Source for kernels 2.2.18, 2.4.0, and 2.4.1. Why include these on a CD for Linux game development? The second odd addition is a directory for PrettyPoly. The software is packaged as a tarball of the author's CVS root directory. How this made it onto the CD in this format is almost as inexplicable as having MSDOS formatted files destined for a Linux machine.

Conclusion This book could have been so much more. If the authors had taken the time to describe designing and developing several Linux games from the ground up, this book would have been better for it. As it is, it's barely good as a reference for what it does cover. I am very disappointed in this book. It could have been so much more, but falls way short of its potential.

There's one gripe I want to air about this series as well. Why does Andre LaMothe get his picture on the back cover of every one of these books as the 'Series Editor'? Also on the spine, his name is at the top. I'll admit that I like LaMothe's writing, but giving him top billing on the Prima Tech Game Developers series seems pretentious to me.

Table of Contents

• Introduction

1. Introduction to Game Development
2. Linux Development Tools
3. The Structure of a Game
4. 2D Graphics Under Linux
5. Input with SDL
6. 3D Graphics for Linux Games
7. Using OpenGL in Games
8. Sound Under Linux
9. Networking
10. Artificial Intelligence
11. OpenSource: Friend or Foe?

1. OpenSource License Agreements
2. Porting
3. References
4. Glossary
5. What's on the CD-ROM

You can purchase this book at Fatbrain.

Craig Maloney contributed this review of the Perl CD Bookshelf 2.0, which he calls "the most portable way to get five Perl books from here to there." Like others in the same series, this package from O'Reilly assembles several related titles onto a single, searchable disk to save endless page-thumbing, but not without a few glitches.

Perl CD Bookshelf 2.0 author (Various) pages N/A publisher O'Reilly and Associates, Inc. rating 8 reviewer Craig Maloney ISBN 0-596-00164-9 summary The update to the previous Perl CD Bookshelf with a new edition, two deletions, and a new title.

Books, but not a book

O'Reilly's Perl CD Bookshelf 2.0 includes the following books, which have all been reviewed earlier on Slashdot before:

• Perl in a Nutshell , by Ellen Siever, Stephen Spainhour & Nathan Patwardhan
• Programming Perl, 3rd Edition , by Larry Wall, Tom Christiansen & Jon Orwant
• Advanced Perl Programming , by Sriram Srinivasan
• Perl Cookbook , by Tom Christiansen and Nathan Torkington
• Perl for System Administration , by David N. Blank-Edelman

Overview The Perl Bookshelf 2.0 is O'Reilly's updated version of its popular Perl Bookshelf. It includes five books rather than the six of the previous edition, and removes the Learning Perl and Learning Perl on Win32 Systems in favor of Perl for System Administration. It also includes a Java-based search engine to search the books, and a master index for all of the books. Like the previous Perl Bookshelf review I'll be doing a 'meta review' of the presentation of the content rather than the content itself. What's in it for me? As mentioned before, this edition includes five searchable and indexed O'Reilly Perl books. The removal of Learning Perl and Learning Perl for Win32 Systems doesn't bother me, since this bookshelf has material that can be used by everyone rather than books for just beginners, or Win32 Perl programmers. Included in the package is a CD-ROM and a paperback version of Perl in a Nutshell, the same version as the first edition. On the CD-ROM, you'll find the five books in HTML format, as well as a (proprietary) Java search engine. Unlike the first edition, the JRE is not included on the CDROM. Windows users get the added benefit of having an autorun.inf file to begin their session for them. What's good? Perl for Systems Administration is a worthy addition to this library. The other four books have proven themselves to be worthy of being in every Perl programmer's library. Having them all in one convenient searchable spot is, of course, a huge advantage. The layout for each of the books is adequate, and is very cross platform. The indexes take advantage of named tags and clicking on an index entry takes you directly to the section specified.

The inclusion of Perl in a Nutshell is also a nice touch, since Perl in a Nutshell can answer the mundane problems, while the CD can be used for the tougher ones.

What's bad? The Java search engine may be the only way to make The Perl Bookshelf cross platform, but it is very weak. Worse, if you are running Linux, the search engine won't work at all. You'll need to visit O'Reilly and download a patch, copy the CD to your hard disc, and apply the patch using a 'fixed' shell script. Windows users fortunately will not have to go through such hoops to get the search running properly. The searches themselves leave something to be desired as well, namely the lack of a highlighting of the search term or even the ability to move to the term being searched. For instance, searching on 'chomp' will bring up the Perl function page as one of it's choices. However, it brings it up without positioning the page to the function itself, so the user has to scroll through the list of functions to get to the one she wants. Thankfully, the master index is very complete, so you may not even have to bother with the search engine at all. It's a shame that something which could have been so powerful is so crippled.

Conclusion This is the most portable way to get five Perl books from here to there. While there are problems with the keyword search, the master index should be good enough to get you the information you need. If you've been considering getting these books this is the most cost effective way to bring them into your library."

You can purchase this CD at FatBrain.

Craig Maloney wrote this review of a book intended to remove some of the confusion from the powerful, free 3D modelling program Blender. Blender is fun to play with, and has been used to create some amazing 3D graphics, but it's not exactly intuitive. Just figuring out what some of the major buttons do was a triumph for me, but I haven't touched it in a few years -- I'd like to try Blender again, but with a book like this one at the ready to supplement the user interface.

The Blender Book author Carsten Wartmann pages 311 publisher No Starch Press rating 8.5 reviewer Craig Maloney ISBN 1-886411-44-1 summary One of the best books around to learn how to use Blender, the free 3D modelling and animation suite from Not A Number.

What it's about This book was originally published in German as "Das Blender Buch." I was a little wary of picking it up simply because it is a translation of the original. Thankfully, I didn't have to worry, as this translation is very fluid and natural. The topics themselves, however, might be a little dense for the first-time reader and may require several re-readings to get the full meaning.

Blender is a free (as in beer) 3D modelling and animation software package. It was developed internally by Not-A-Number (NaN) for their studio work, but was later released to the general public. Blender is very powerful, and likewise very complex. The Blender Book is a gentle introduction for anyone who is interested not only in getting the most out of Blender, but also for anyone who is curious about 3D graphics.

Chapter by chapter The book starts off with a general overview of what Blender is, how to get it, and why you would want it in the first place. It then gives a very thorough, non-mathematical synopsis of color, 3D graphics, and animation techniques. Chapter 3 begins the Blender-specific topics with a quick overview of the blender interface, culminating in a simple keyframe animation. Chapter 4 introduces the basics of the Blender interface, with descriptions of the different mouse and keyboard functions that Blender uses. Chapter 5 delves into actually modelling objects in Blender, and Chapters 6 and 7 discuss materials and lighting. Chapters 8 deals with path animation, keyframe animation, interpolation curves (IPO curves), and vertex keys. Chapter 9 is a whole chapter about Inverse Kinematics (IKAs), which have been rather troubling for some Blender users. The chapter begins with tutorials for animating a robot arm, and ends with a skeleton animation of a bottle. Chapter 10 discusses particle animation, animating not only a camp fire, but also a rocket with a smoke trail, and a school of fish.

The last sections of the book deal with putting all these concepts together. Chapter 11 introduces the sequence editor, which allows the user to integrate clips with a pretty sophisticated post-production system. The example described in this chapter is a video titling sequence for a beach vacation in Indonesia. Chapter 12 discusses Python scripting in Blender, and how to use it for your animations and as a function plotter. Chapter 13 is the big reward: rendering. Naturally rendering has been discussed before this point, but this chapter contains all the neat tricks which Blender can do with the final rendering. Chapters 14 and 15 are full-scale, top-to-bottom animation and modelling tutorials, which are very useful for both beginners and experts to see how Blender manages to take a project from concept to completion.

The appendices are very well thought out, including a keyboard reference, tips and tricks, command line arguments, a Blender/Python API reference (Overview of Blender Modules), installation instructions, a glossary, and a listing of what's included on the CD. The index is also quite useful, allowing me on several occasions to find information rather quickly.

The pages of the book are very well laid out, with a 10-page full-color insert for those images that need the added benefit of color. The CD-ROM includes the 1.8 version of Blender (an older version, since as of this review Blender is now up to 2.12), and all the .blend files used in creating the animations. It also includes a gallery of the finished animations.

The upshot I have very few gripes with this book after reading it. The Blender Book was published before the program's 2.x series came out. While little in Blender's human interface has changed, it would be nice to have had an addendum for the changes from 1.8 to 2.x. Also, it would have been nice to have this book in full color, but the cost in doing such would have made this book prohibitively expensive.

The Blender Book is a book that I would give (and have given) to any aspiring 3D artist looking to use Blender. With its rich tutorials and its clear explanations of difficult concepts, The Blender Book is the perfect companion for teaching budding and intermediate 3D artists about this exciting and powerful tool.

Chapter Listing:

1. Introduction
2. Basics of 3D Graphics
3. Quick Start
4. Blender Basics
5. Modeling Tutorials
6. Material Tutorials
7. Light, Shadows, and World Tutorials
8. Keyframe, Path, Lattice, and Vertex Key Animation Tutorials
9. Inverse Kinematics Tutorials
10. Getting Small: Particle Animation Tutorials
11. The Final Cut: Postproduction
12. Python Tutorials
13. The Big Reward: Rendering
14. Laser Tutorial
15. Animating a Torpedo Through A School of Fish

1. Keyboard Commands
2. Tips, Tricks, and Useful Programs
3. Command Line Arguments
4. Overview of Blender Modules
5. Installing Blender
6. Glossary
7. What's on the CD?

• Index

You can purchase this book at Fatbrain.

ESR writes "The Wall Street Journal called me less than an hour ago to quiz me about the Halloween Document.

I gave them the sound bites they were looking for. In the process I found out that they've already talked with Microsoft -- and Microsoft has officially admitted that the memorandum is genuine!

This fact should become public knowledge no later than tomorrow evening (Nov 3) when the WSJ story runs.

As you peruse your WSJ tomorrow, the distant noise you hear will be me -- laughing my butt off at the people who leapt to accuse me of having been hoaxed, or even of perpetrating the hoax myself."

For those that can't wait, news.com is also confirming it. Thanks to David Fred for this link. Update! VNUNet believes Microsoft sanctioned the leak since it gives credibility to Microsoft's claim that Linux is competition for them. Microsoft's UK marketing manager also says Linux is not a threat. This reader's comment points out that the document focusses on License forking, not code forking. Links from LinuxToday.

While I know that ICQ isn't exactly the darling of the hardcore community, it still is pretty interesting that Mirablis has a client for the Pilot. Thanks to Craig Maloney for sending this in. I guess when the Linux port is done, I could try to compile BitchX...

Craig Maloney has written up a great review of Java Game Programming for Dummies availible through Amazon.com. If you are interested in a book that is useful for both beginners or want to know more, click below. Java Game Programming for Dummies

Wayne Holder and Doug Bell

Review by: Craig Maloney.

Admit it. You've bought a "Dummies" book before, haven't you? You've probably seen such titles as "Chess for Dummies: or "Personal Finance for Dummies". (God help you if you bought "Sex for Dummies". :) ) Unfortunately, some of these "Dummies" books lightly touch on the subjects they try to educate upon. I found this to be true with "Crystal Reports for Dummies" (It was for work, OK?) The book was less helpful than the manual, and covered vastly less than what I needed to use it for. When I saw this book was going to be printed on Amazon.com, my first reaction was quite mixed.. Would this book be like the other game programming texts in my library? Would it touch on the same topics with the same brief introductions? Would it come up with some other crazy, unsupported framework? Happily, this book doesn't use the same stale examples (There isn't one single asteroids clone in this book, something that has been done to death in other books) It is also quite technical for a "Dummies" book. There isn't a tutorial on what object orient programming is in this book. There also isn't any mention of networked gaming in this book. What you will find, though, is a good introduction to 2D and 3D gaming concepts, as well as some different ways about achieving the same goals.

The book quickly takes the reader from a simple ball animation to a full fledged Pong implementation in two chapters. The example is quite straightforward, and the book takes very little time explaining it. The third and fourth chapter describe ball physics and how they relate to golf and pool. These chapters are why I picked this book up. Math discussions in school made me quite bleary eyed. This book, however, makes such subjects fun (with charts and diagrams even! )

Quite possibly the wildest part of this book is how they describe collision detection. Most books usually mention collision detection in association with sprite classes. This book, however, mentions it in the pool game example. In what is quite possibly the most math I have ever seen in a computer book, they use a function of time to compute the balls position.

Chapter five presents the sliding blocks puzzle, and a discussion on how to use images with applets. Pretty standard fare. The sixth chapter discusses the AWT in more detail with a blackjack example. There is a lot of information in this chapter, ranging from using a single image for graphics to differences between browser layouts.

I haven't read much past these chapters (the book just came out). The rest of the book looks just as interesting, though. Chapter 7 discusses 2D environments and has a Maze generating example. Sprites come into play in Chapter 8, with a action game. Animations, timelines, and sounds are covered in chapter 9. Chapter 10 does the obligatory 3D maze, and Chapter 11 is on how to texture the 3D worlds. I've seen better discussions on imaging than what's in chapter 12's "Advanced Imaging" (Read Kick Ass Java if you can find it), but the chapter does a good job explaining the basics.

The last three chapters are what really set this book apart from the rest. Each dummies book has a top ten list relating to the topic. This book has three such lists: Ten Secrets to making fun games, Ten Ways to Say 'Game Over', and "Ten Ways to Optimize your Java Code". Each of these lists bring up points many programmers miss in their game programming.

I recommend this book for anyone with experience in Java looking for a way to make a Java game. There is a lot of useful information in this book beyond the basics. The examples are well thought out, and give a broader treatment of the games Java is capable of. The examples also seem robust, and are all JDK 1.1.5 compatible (Most of the other books I've read are not JDK 1.1 compatible). Hopefully the authors will put some networked games in a future edition (or in a "More Java Game Programming for Dummies" book). Purchase it at Amazon.com.

Craig Maloney has written up a great review of Java Game Programming for Dummies availible through Amazon.com. If you are interested in a book that is useful for both beginners or want to know more, click below. Java Game Programming for Dummies

Wayne Holder and Doug Bell

Review by: Craig Maloney.

Admit it. You've bought a "Dummies" book before, haven't you? You've probably seen such titles as "Chess for Dummies: or "Personal Finance for Dummies". (God help you if you bought "Sex for Dummies". :) ) Unfortunately, some of these "Dummies" books lightly touch on the subjects they try to educate upon. I found this to be true with "Crystal Reports for Dummies" (It was for work, OK?) The book was less helpful than the manual, and covered vastly less than what I needed to use it for. When I saw this book was going to be printed on Amazon.com, my first reaction was quite mixed.. Would this book be like the other game programming texts in my library? Would it touch on the same topics with the same brief introductions? Would it come up with some other crazy, unsupported framework? Happily, this book doesn't use the same stale examples (There isn't one single asteroids clone in this book, something that has been done to death in other books) It is also quite technical for a "Dummies" book. There isn't a tutorial on what object orient programming is in this book. There also isn't any mention of networked gaming in this book. What you will find, though, is a good introduction to 2D and 3D gaming concepts, as well as some different ways about achieving the same goals.

The book quickly takes the reader from a simple ball animation to a full fledged Pong implementation in two chapters. The example is quite straightforward, and the book takes very little time explaining it. The third and fourth chapter describe ball physics and how they relate to golf and pool. These chapters are why I picked this book up. Math discussions in school made me quite bleary eyed. This book, however, makes such subjects fun (with charts and diagrams even! )

Quite possibly the wildest part of this book is how they describe collision detection. Most books usually mention collision detection in association with sprite classes. This book, however, mentions it in the pool game example. In what is quite possibly the most math I have ever seen in a computer book, they use a function of time to compute the balls position.

Chapter five presents the sliding blocks puzzle, and a discussion on how to use images with applets. Pretty standard fare. The sixth chapter discusses the AWT in more detail with a blackjack example. There is a lot of information in this chapter, ranging from using a single image for graphics to differences between browser layouts.

I haven't read much past these chapters (the book just came out). The rest of the book looks just as interesting, though. Chapter 7 discusses 2D environments and has a Maze generating example. Sprites come into play in Chapter 8, with a action game. Animations, timelines, and sounds are covered in chapter 9. Chapter 10 does the obligatory 3D maze, and Chapter 11 is on how to texture the 3D worlds. I've seen better discussions on imaging than what's in chapter 12's "Advanced Imaging" (Read Kick Ass Java if you can find it), but the chapter does a good job explaining the basics.

The last three chapters are what really set this book apart from the rest. Each dummies book has a top ten list relating to the topic. This book has three such lists: Ten Secrets to making fun games, Ten Ways to Say 'Game Over', and "Ten Ways to Optimize your Java Code". Each of these lists bring up points many programmers miss in their game programming.

I recommend this book for anyone with experience in Java looking for a way to make a Java game. There is a lot of useful information in this book beyond the basics. The examples are well thought out, and give a broader treatment of the games Java is capable of. The examples also seem robust, and are all JDK 1.1.5 compatible (Most of the other books I've read are not JDK 1.1 compatible). Hopefully the authors will put some networked games in a future edition (or in a "More Java Game Programming for Dummies" book). Purchase it at Amazon.com.