Slashdot Mirror
Amazon's Best Computer Books of 2004
theodp writes "Amazon.com's Editors have announced their selections for the Best Books of 2004 in the Computers and Internet category. Their favorite book of the year? Excel Hacks, which edged out Head First Servlets & JSP (#3), a Grand Theft Auto Strategy Guide (#5) and The Data Warehouse ETL Toolkit (#8). Can Slashdot readers offer some more inspired choices?"
Valves - why they are better than transistors.
Transistors - why they are better than valves.
The Transputer - computing the future in paralell.
Pong - strategy guide.
And the number one computing book of 1979.
Miss DEC - the pagent.
Beep beep.
It's called "Hide The Fact You're On AOL By Using A Free Webmail Service." I just wrote it.
Doesn't stand against the classics, but since this is for this year only... PHP 5 Power Programming
I am Ergo the magnificent. Short in power, tall in stature, narrow of vision and wide of purpose.
Alternative to Amazon I have some computer related eigenpolls.
Agile Software Development Books
Best Practices for Software Development
Favorit websites
Spam Fighting Software
other books related eigenpoll are:
Alternative Science Books
Real Estate Investment books
Books on Accelerated Learning Techniques
Books for Automatic Trading Systems
I flipped through a bit and couldn't find what criteria they used to decide which were the best books. Out of the top 10 only 2 have any customer reviews. Is this a bestseller list, or just which publisher(s) paid the most to be on it?
Those are barely "Computer Books" Those are more acuratly described as "Books for idiots with an attention span of 5 seconds flat"
I was expecting to see real books on that list. Things like C Unleashed perhaps. Not that cornicopia of crap.
Why are you recommending them if you haven't read them?
They didn't mention The story about ping Clearly the best introduction to this network test tool.
Just look at the reviews, especially the one from John E. Fracisco.
If you're including "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Official Strategy Guide" as a computing book, "101 Tips for Winning At Monopoly" in the list for Business/Management.
Games are cool, but they're not computing.
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
Web Standards Solutions: The Markup and Style Handbook by Dan Cederholm Great book about designing web sites using proper xhtml and web standards. Great examples and practicle recipes!
Have a Happy.
I find it disturbing that #5 was the GTA: San Andreas strategy guide. Is the selection of computer and internet books so meager, that a strategy guide makes the top ten. I think that choice really shows the lack of serious consideration on this list. I can understand that Amazon is trying to appeal to a large audience and not the computer power user, but there are better choices even for the casual user other game strategy guides.
-- Wolfpup
"A man whose circumstances went beyond his control." -- Styx
Probably they felt that GNUCash is so easy you don't need a book with it, whereas Excel is such a beast you absolutely need a manual.
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
Programming Ruby by by Dave Thomas, Chad Fowler, Andy Hunt
More proof that consumer-oriented books are gaining traction, now that computers and related technologies are in the mainstream. Much bigger potential audience. A lot of developer info is available for free these days, too, which makes a developer-oriented book a harder sell. It will be interesting to see what the bestsellers are in the next few years.
Of course, there will always be developer-oriented material, especially innovative series like "Head First" that buck convention. (You either love or hate that series.)
EricPalm Database Programming: The Free Electronic Version
Linux Server Hacks, Knoppix Hacks, and Network Security Hacks.
Meh.
This might be more logical an indicator of what the buying public considers a good book.
Also windows and gaming heavy though. Erh... And why's there a book called "Windows XP for Dummies"? How dumb do you have to be to not only use XP but to require a book for it? And furthermore, a book slagging you off for being such a dummy? The mentally retarded mascochist niche must be bigger than I thought.
Blearf. Blearf, I say.
That the Grand Theft Auto Guide is getting it's due. I don't know what I would've done without it.
Frank Mittelbach, Michel Goossens et al.,
This book, launched in June 2004, is a <em>major</em> rewrite of the old book and for every LaTeX user its worth its price in gold. I have a dog-eared copy at my desk and I can attest to it.
-- Look to the Rose that blows about us--"Lo, Laughing," she says, "into the World I blow..."
Ok, Slashdot Hubris Avengers, let's get that DIY ad from the co-author knocked down.
A single, tongue-in-cheek post on a discussion forum, and you describe it as spam? Wow, you're a moron
I don't buy no book that doesn't have "for dummies" in the title.
So I wanna preorder
- Excel Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips and Tools for dummies
- The World's 20 Greatest Unsolved Problems for dummies
But really interesting sounds No. 4:I don't need a signature.
Booch's _Object Oriented Analysis and Design_, but I didn't get it at Amazon so that could explain their error. :-)
"The spreadsheet is the software tool that turns everyone into a hacker"
Riiiiiight...
I really liked Edd Dumbbill's book on Mono - clear, concise and with no filler. It's sad that those traits are so unusual in most technical publishing.
/ qid=1101219728/sr=2-1/ref=pd_ka_b_2_1/102-0124431- 0374516/
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0596007922
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
Oh well, resubmitted with proper formatting...
Frank Mittelbach, Michel Goossens et al., The LaTeX Companion, 2nd edition.
This book, launched in June 2004, is a major rewrite of the old book and for every LaTeX user its worth its price in gold. I have a dog-eared copy at my desk and I can attest to it.
-- Look to the Rose that blows about us--"Lo, Laughing," she says, "into the World I blow..."
I was mentored in my first job out of college by a guy who helped McConnell write the new edition...the first edition did more to make me a better developer than any book on a specific language, technology, etc. and the second edition refreshed the code examples with current programming language, incorporated class and OO design, refactoring, and more modern development methods. Good stuff, check it out.
OK, I know this is off topic, mod me down if you want.
I decided to learn JavaScript and picked up a copy of "JavaScript:The Definitive Guide". Turns out it goes into detail about how the language works behind the scenes. Which isn't really what I was looking for. But I remember thinking, it would be cool to read a book like that about C. Can any one recommend a book that discusses more about how C works behind the scenes like the Javascipt book does?
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
The practicle? Is this the elementry particle that makes some of us experts at DIY whilst others struggle to tell the differrence between screw drivers and hammers?
Zen and the Art of Windows Maintenance?
I have nothing witty to fill this space with yet.
Now I am not exactly a pro-M$ person, but to call them hacks, that is a bit harsh no?? :-) Wow, check out the cover of Head First Servlets & JSP
:-)
Hot chick alert!
Man I could pool her connections, service her ports... *public thinking alert* shit I did it again *cough* nice lass.
#hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
Best career book you can buy
Monstar L
Check out the hilarious Dating Design Patterns. (Your spouse may wonder why you're reading it, though.)
EricExpert One-on-One J2EE Development without EJB by Rod Johnson, Juergen Hoeller.
This is an excellent book with great advice about many aspects of software development. As the title suggests, it describes how EJB is not necessary for most J2EE projects, and offers alternative solutions to many of the problems EJB's solve. It does center around the Spring framework, as the authors are the creators of that framework, but it does give other technologies a fair chance.
I've personally found the strategies and technologies discussed in this book to be very useful. My new projects are developed in a manner largely based on this book and they've been pretty successful so far.
....
nice to see a Ralf Kimball in there.
now that was the best thing in excel! :-)
-Programming Ruby the second edition. An excellent book for an excellent language. The second edition is packed full of useful advice and has a huge number of pages devoted to the standard library. I have both the PDF and the actual book. I like the PDF a bit more because it is easily searchable and has some color to it.
-The updated Code Complete. All around good update of a great book.
I am not Dave Thomas, Andy Hunt or Mr. McConnell
It didn't wast my time. I rather enjoyed the humor in the presentation. You know like when you see a really funny commercial. It doesn't mean that I'm buying his book, but still funny. Not idotic. Not nearly as idiotic as your posts.
BTW, Why are you calling him a pregnant goldfish?
[Amazon's splurb on Excel Hacks...] "The spreadsheet is the software tool that turns everyone into a hacker" Whoda thunk it. Microsoft Excel provides the true path to hacker enlightenment. Amazon said!
I read
IMHO
The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese!
14 lines of text just so he can include his signature and sell a fucking book is a waste of everybodies time.
That's as maybe. But it's not spamming. Spamming, by definition, is a bulk process. And you mean "everybody's", you fucking illiterate retard.
Sorry, done it myself a few times but I can't resist this. A post about a LaTeX book without proper formatting? Classic.
perl -e 'foreach(values %SIG){$_="IGNORE";}while(){}'
Hmmm is the formatting of you post testament to its teaching prowess?
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
.. didn't make it.
.. highly recommended, even if it isn't current!
Okay, maybe C is passé (I personally don't think so), but this book gives a lot of great insight into this wonderful language
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
"Learning by Doing: Cisco Certified Network Administrator (CCNA) Lab Manual Version 4 Volumes 1 and 2" by Matthew Basham published and sold by lulu.com - http://www.lulu.com/content/72105.
49 20 61 72 65 20 6E 65 72 64 2E
I'd like to second the recommendation for Code Complete: Second Edition.
I'm not Mr. McConnell either.
Hackers & Painters
by Paul Graham
gowen (the OP, who's happy to be modded into oblivion once for this post, but isn't too keen to have it twice.)
You need to add "LIMIT 10" to the end of your sql statement.
Meh.
Design Patterns Elements of Object Oriented Design by Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, John Vlissides. This "classic" is one of my favorite books at the moment. I'll recommend it to the countless college grads and self taught OOP programmers who only know OOP at a syntax/functionality level. It will give you an insight on how to properly design OO systems instead of the common beginners mistake of using OOP as a thin layer on top of more procedural programming. This book will give you a good kickstart on how to properly think and use Object Orientation the way it was meant to be used.
[alk]
And you mean "everybody's", you fucking illiterate retard.
Spamming is not "a bulk process". It is simply Unsolicited Commercial Email, or in this case a post to Slashdot. "Bulk" doesn't come into it and I defy you to find a legal definition of spam that includes the term "bulk" in it's definition.
P.S: I meant "everybody is waste of time." did I? You're stupid and you don't know it!
Internet Routing Architectures -8 70233X/qid=1101221465/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/104-9991 110-4811128?v=glance&s=books&n=507846 1 453803/qid=1101221597/sr=8-2/ref=pd_csp_2/104-9991 110-4811128?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/157
Secrets and Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World -
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/047
Why was I mildly dissapointed I didn't get any hardcore anime popups?
Still it is a funky site, and I realise I haven't read dilbert of get fuzzy for 4 days now... see you on comics.com...
#hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
This short book of essays is a classic. It does not talk so much about OOP, or Patterns or Xtreme programing but just focuses on how you use code to solve hard problems.
:-)
Programming Pearls
by Jon Louis Bentley
One note. Some of the essays are more then twenty years old. Just say "gigabyte" every where he says kilobyte
Karl
"Write Great Code: Understanding the Machine"
Unbelievably interesting book. the premise being that the current generation of coders is among the first who were not *required* to learn Assembly Language, thus do not truly understand what is going on under the hood. Because of this, they are unable to create "great" code in high-level languages because they simply don't understand the inherent costs of various routines.
One of the secondary premises focuses on the fact that, while hardware power is advancing at Moore's Law pace, software is requiring more power at nearly the same rate, many times for no reason other than the developer(s) not knowing how to write truly efficient code.
"All that glitters is not gold"
\documentclass{slashdot}
\usepackage{url}
\title{Re:'LaTeX companion' should definitely be on the l}
\author{Anonymous Coward}
\begin{Document}
No, this formatting would be a testament to its teaching prowess. Except, I didn't use a book. I've pieced together my knowledge from various sites. \url{http://www.tug.org/tex-archive/info/lshort/} was helpful, but now I wish I had just bought a book. Seriously, don't try to tackle \LaTeX{} without a good book.
\end{document}
Linux Cookbook, CSS Cookbook, and Java Cookbook.
Out of all the computer books I own, I keep coming back to the Cookbooks over and over.
Meh.
Design Patterns Explained, by Alan Shalloway and James R. Trott.
The authors are extremely intelligent and the book offers a very direct and simple approach to the material.
It's very easy read and teaches very fundamental concepts involved in the architecture and design of applications with a focus on eXtreme Programming.
It will be great for the Office converts like me.
To show collagues that, "hey! i can also do these complex analysis/charting stuffs without Excel."
and some users being converted into Linux+OO desktops also need it, too.
I am not usually reading computer books, but I'm currently one-third into "The Art of UNIX progrmming" by Eric Raymond and think that it is very rewarding reading. Certainly more entertaining than books telling me how to least suffer from MS-ware...
Also has cool lava lamp sections! ;) http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/08/26/155025 5
The book link is here... http://pragmaticprogrammer.com/starter_kit/au/inde x.html
Agile Artisans
No mentions of Dive Into Python?
Oh, probably, but it deserves redundancy.
It's such a fine line between stupid and clever.
"everybody's time" -- time belonging everybody. Its a possesive apostrophe. Like "Dave's hat" and "George Bush's foreign policy". "Everybodies" is the plural of "everybody", meaning "more than one everybody". See this cartoon.
Did you even graduate High School?
So you agree with me. I did mean "everybodies". The plural of everybody. I wasn't refering to a single collective time belonging to multiple people which was being wasted was I? I was refering to each individuals wasted time.
Compute!'s third book of Commodore 64 Games.
Type in hex code like mad!
Actually, this is the best computer book *ever*.
Didn't manage to read beyond the comma then?
I recently picked up Advanced PHP Programming by George Schlossnagle just the other day and (although I haven't had a chance to dig deeply into it) am very impressed with the content. Unlike so many PHP books, it shows some of the best methods for large scale PHP designs. It covers all of the new features of PHP 5 and explains other advanced topics , such as caching. I was already doing many of these things, but just seeing a different perspective opened a world of possibilities to me (and pointed out where my methodology could use improvement). I'm sure there will be much more to learn as I work through it.
Here's a link:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/067
As for the top books on Amazon.. I'm not sure many self-respecting developers would have many of them...
Nice affiliate links there, desktoplinuxa.
Then again, this whole thread is just begging for the Amazon-referral whores to come out in droves.
[...]avorite book of the year? Excel Hacks, which edged out Head First Servlets & JSP (#3), a Grand Theft Auto Strategy Guide (#5) and[...]
:) Oh come on, get a life, really :) For me it would be The Lord of the Rings (50th Anniversary Edition) (2004 edition, that is).
:) - Sorry, better a looser on LOTR than anything else on ExcelHacks (wow, we should name a dope variant like this :) ).
Excel Hacks as #1 ?
Yeah, I know, now you will be on me to have a life myself
I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I can think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.
... when their top rated music CD is this.
Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments might be moderated up.
The Story About Ping
Hmm, looks like O'Reilly used a different cover artist for that one.
Perhaps Low-Brow, but pretty funny you have to admit!
Since lots of people are linking to books on Amazon, it seems a good time to mention a useful trick mention in O'Reilly's Amazon Hacks: you can link to Amazon products in a much friendlier way, like so:
http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/059600542
Where the numeric parameter is the product's ASIN (which, for most books, is also the ISBN). This hack is also detailed on Oreilly.com.
Compare and Contrast.
You're an idiot who doesn't even know they're an idiot.
No.
1. Run 2. Switch to flashlight 3. Switch to gun 4. Blast zombie 5. Switch to flashlight 6. Repeat
Code Reading: The Open Source Perspective
This was the only book I bought and read in the last year. I think it was a great book and I wish I had it for a text book in college.
Ping! I love that duck!, January 26, 2000
Reviewer: John E. Fracisco (El Segundo, CA USA) -
PING! The magic duck!
Using deft allegory, the authors have provided an insightful and intuitive explanation of one of Unix's most venerable networking utilities. Even more stunning is that they were clearly working with a very early beta of the program, as their book first appeared in 1933, years (decades!) before the operating system and network infrastructure were finalized.
The book describes networking in terms even a child could understand, choosing to anthropomorphize the underlying packet structure. The ping packet is described as a duck, who, with other packets (more ducks), spends a certain period of time on the host machine (the wise-eyed boat). At the same time each day (I suspect this is scheduled under cron), the little packets (ducks) exit the host (boat) by way of a bridge (a bridge). From the bridge, the packets travel onto the internet (here embodied by the Yangtze River).
The title character -- er, packet, is called Ping. Ping meanders around the river before being received by another host (another boat). He spends a brief time on the other boat, but eventually returns to his original host machine (the wise-eyed boat) somewhat the worse for wear.
If you need a good, high-level overview of the ping utility, this is the book. I can't recommend it for most managers, as the technical aspects may be too overwhelming and the basic concepts too daunting.
Problems With This Book
As good as it is, The Story About Ping is not without its faults. There is no index, and though the ping(8) man pages cover the command line options well enough, some review of them seems to be in order. Likewise, in a book solely about Ping, I would have expected a more detailed overview of the ICMP packet structure.
But even with these problems, The Story About Ping has earned a place on my bookshelf, right between Stevens' Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment, and my dog-eared copy of Dante's seminal work on MS Windows, Inferno. Who can read that passage on the Windows API ("Obscure, profound it was, and nebulous, So that by fixing on its depths my sight -- Nothing whatever I discerned therein."), without shaking their head with deep understanding. But I digress.
Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Panther Edition by David Pogue is an excellent book for Mac OS X users, both new and pro.
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, START
I thought this was a list of books. While an inflatable girlfriend is probably high on many of our lists, it does not belong here.
These lists are cobbled up to unload excess inventory on easily duped consumers. Come on folks, this is Retailing 101.
"Refactoring to Patterns" gotta be my favorite software book of the year (assuming it was indeed published in 2004). Finally someone who makes the connection between test-driven development and design patterns!
"In our tactical decisions, we are operating contrary to our strategic interest."
This is an excellent introduction to the Objective-C language and the Cocoa frameworks. It's hands-on, learn-by-doing in approach, but with useful contextualization so you don't feel like you're just typing in examples.
If you're programming for Mac OS X, this book is a necessity.
Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X
10324232 3 <--- they need a new
323234
323321
34422
32425
23443
233
23421 <--- database engine
10008
8777
Wer mit Ungeheuern kämpft, mag zusehn, dass er nicht dabei zum Ungeheuer wird. --Nietzsche
I think the Head First books are actually quite good, at least Head First Java. It brings up new topics in exactly the right order (the authors having taught Java to many many people), its fun, it actually sticks!
I wonder how many who are poo-pooing it have actually read it? Some people seem to actually fly into a rage when they see it, judging by some reviews. "Computer Science should be hard to understand. Lots of dense text, no pictures, left side of brain only damnit!"
Being bitter is drinking poison and hoping someone else will die
Thanks for going through so much trouble to correct me. Now I'm better informed and you're...well, you're in exactly the same position you were when we started this. Couldn't leave it alone could you?
I consulted slashcode and it was obvious that the table "slashdot_comments" did not exist. Finally, I couldn't find the field "nerds" in any table defined, so I don't think this statement does what you want it to.
Written by Robert Love who is, I think, the maintainer of the 2.6 kernel. This book reads exceptionally well. Love uses humor, and descriptions which anyone whose been through a couple of years of a CS major should be able to understand. Even people who have no prior experience in Linux, the Kernel or core OS techniques and mechanisms could probably still glean a lot from this book. My personal favorite part (so far, I'm not quite done with it) is the description of the new scheduling system. Yowsa! That's fast!
Oh dear, slashdot will serious disrupt the Amazon review system, for the Fracisco comment mentioned above:
6963 of 7162 people found the following review helpful.
Wow that's like 2.8 percent package loss. That's worse than the post office :-)
Anything I post is strictly my own thoughts and doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the opinions of IBM.
Computer geek plus judo is a path to spiritual enlightenment - or at least a hardy belly laugh.
You only use 2% of your DNA
Spam Kings: The Real Story behind the High-Rolling Hucksters Pushing Porn, Pills, and %*@)# Enlargements
1 r3@lly 3nj0y'd 7h1$ 0n3.
Head First Servlets & JSP (#3)
For those of you unfamiliar with the Head First series by O'Reilly, you should check it out. I bought Head First Java and I consider it one of the best programming books I've got. Most programming books I've read (Deitel specifically) try to make it into a reference book, which is fine if you've got a pretty good understanding of programming. Head First is for newbies and rather than being a reference book, its bed time reading material! It's really interesting in the way it is presented, and genuinely funny.
If you actually want to learn something (and retain it), go get one of these books.
100% Awesome.
By knowing assembly and what the compiler can and cannot do, when writing programs that need some performance, one just give the compiler a few hints on what it can't do fully automatically (such as the algorithmic and floating-point issues above), and leave things that the compiler does well, such as register allocation, to the compiler. Readability usually is not hurt in this way; on the contrary, the program often appear cleaner.