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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?"
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?
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.
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
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
Spent 5 minutes on GameFAQs? Seriously, it amazes me that anyone actually still buys strategy guides.
TODO: Something witty here...
Actually excel does qualify as a hacker tool is the most correct sense of the word because it allows people with little or no programming experience to quickly hack together small timesaving data manipulation programs. The no of corporate depts alone I have seen where they all have their own little excel apps to this that and the other is staggering. I hate having to clean up all the data islands but I have to admit excel is great tool for these people.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
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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.
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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.
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
These lists are cobbled up to unload excess inventory on easily duped consumers. Come on folks, this is Retailing 101.
I second that. It is a truly interesting read. It is also available online at http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/taoup/
Linux is not Windows
I read it recently and the author did a great job in explaining the strong points of the language instead of writing just another boring introduction to beginner level programming tools like if, for,... like so many other books on programming languages do.
Linux is not Windows
If a left shift is suddenly more expensive than a multiply, compiler writers need to be shot. A left shift is a single instruction, and far fewer execution cycles than a multiply.
And for the record, it's not simpleminded nor 1337 - it demonstrates a knowledge of the number system you're working in. That you don't seem to grasp that gives me doubt as to your abilities in the first place.