Slashdot Mirror

Yes, it's a milestone many of you thought would never happen: a Slashdot book review on ActiveX. Jon Veal wrote this review up and sent it our way. For those of you who haven't seen this little treasure, think the words "comic novella". Click below for more. Mr. Bunny's Guide to ActiveX author Carlton Egremont III pages publisher rating 10 reviewer Jon Veal ISBN summary A very short and funny book explaining the basics of ActiveX. The Scenario A book about Active X in less than 100 pages ? Well as you might guess from the title this is not an ordinary computing book. It is a humourous look at Active X. Starting with the concept of the pixel, Mr Bunny explains topics such as the Windows registry, Visual Basic 5 and the Internet to Farmer Jake. (Farmer Jake represents a Computer Professional.)

This is not a serious book. Very little useful technical information can be gained from it, however it is very funny. It could be considered to be anti-microsoft. There are lots of digs about the registry and the stability (or lack of) of Visual Basic.

What's Bad? The sense of humour of the writer might not be to everyones taste. It is certainly not a good guide to activeX for that you should look else where.

What's Good? It makes a refreshing change from other computing books. Useful tips include: 'Do not use matches near the windows registry'.

The technical content of the book is correct so it is possible that someone might actually learn something from the book.

So What's In It For Me? I wouldn't have believed that a book with 'Active X' in the title could make me laugh out loud. Check out the web-site for quotes from the book (http://www.mrbunny.com) Overall a very entertaining read but don't expect to gain anything useful from it.

Buy this book over here.

Table of Contents Chapter 0: The Adventure Begins

Chapter 1: The Case for Component Based Software

Chapter 2: The underpinnings of ActiveX

Chapter 3: Inside the Registry

Chapter 4: Visual Basics

Chapter 5: ActiveX Controls

Chapter 6: Delivering the Goods

Ok, I've been working like a madman to get caught up, and I have several things worth mentioning, but don't want to post so many articles. Normally I don't do quickies mid day, but if I don't, I'll never catch up *grin*. First Jan Csernoch wrote in to tell us about his c64 site which contains tons of stuff about the classic machine that I'm sure alot of you folks logged some serious time with. Chris sent us a link to Mr. Bunny's Guide to ActiveX. Kurt (another one of my roomies) bought this book. It is great fun, especially if you've ever had to code ActiveX, but even if you haven't, you'll enjoy it. John Gotts posted a page of Pictures from LinuxExpo for those who might be interested. Roddy Richards wrote in to tell us that they have released the source (GNU GPL) to NetStat, they're network monitoring stuff. He warns that some IPs may not be resolving properly right now though. Finally, Jules wrote in to tell us that the Gnoutes project (we announced it yesterday- it aims to do Lotus Notes like stuff) has been renamed to Yoga.