Good, solid beginner to intermediate reference book
930028
This book has been my #1 reference for getting up and running. For the beginner to the intermediate brewer this is a great reference. I noticed one guy panned this book, but if you'll notice, he was the only one. I had no problems with it. But now that I have been up and running for some time now I need a more technical reference for mashing and even partial mashing. That said, you cannot go wrong with this book.
1564057
I picked up this book while I was working my way through&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Beginning-JavaScript/dp/0470525932/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Beginning JavaScript</a>&nbsp;precisely because I wanted an encyclopedic reference at my fingertips. It's not a textbook or a learn-by-building-a-project guide. But if you have to develop on a corporate intranet with 2700 IE 6 users, this book can be a lifesaver - it tells you what will work where, as well as syntactical differences when writing for different BOMs & DOMs.
1506496
I think this book is great for beginners or people who haven't used Access in a long time.  The book clearly lays out the basics and then drills down specifics in later chapters to move users towards more intermediate levels of use.  You can skip around the book if you need a good refresher on a particular aspect of Access and not feel like you missed anything from the previous chapters.
4919377
I've been using this book for a while and since I am pretty familiar with it, the rather odd organization and hit-and-miss indexing aren't as much of a problem as they were.  So since I know where to start looking for the  information I need,  this book is very handy now.
I find that although  the prose style is not exciting, it is clear and definite (I don't find  myself wondering, "Did they mean *this* or *that*?").
The  bottom line is that if you are willing to make yourself use the book long  enough to get a feel for it, it will be a very useful reference.  However,  it would be much better if the familiarization period were unnecessary.
110041
It's a couple of years since I owned this book. Now that I have explored most of its contents, I would say that it is most suitable for beginning to intermediate level. The book is bulky with detailed discussion. It is as the author states, a reference and a tutorial. So, if you have plenty of time and not in a hurry, you would gain a lot from this book. It is not, however, "The Only Access Book You Need" as stated in the front cover. For that matter, I don't think any book would be able to do just that. You would need a least one decent VBA book to complement it. I have three VBA's right now :)

Access is such a vast technology, and don't expect to get everything explained with just one or two books.
2280087
Generally this is a well-conceived text with a lot of good reference information and useful examples showing the full gamut of Photoshop's layering capabilities. It is a general reference so many workflows apply here, including things like retouching, artistic options and compositing, though there isn't a lot of information on the latter type. In general it's what I might call "foot deep, mile wide" rather than "inch deep, mile wide."  There is a newer, photo-centric book from Peachpit called Real World Compositing, as well as Steve Caplain's popular book "How to Cheat in Photoshop" (also from Focal), if you're interested in combining photos.

The one vexing issue with this book here is that it visually breaks down the how-to copy in blocks of text on a color background, while other types of "tips" and special copy have different color backgrounds, and the general explanation copy is against page white. What results is that in some sections the pages become very cluttered with "boxes" in the forms of screen caps, colored text regions and white text regions, all jumbled together. It can be difficult at any given point in the book to know exactly where you are or what context you're in (unless you happen to be on a page with a section header or the start of a chapter). Overall though the information herein is useful and worth a look if you don't have a good book on retouching (most of which cover layers extensively). Definitely preferable to any of Kelby's quick-tricks books IMHO as it has more depth and context.
478016
Let me start by noting that, at its heart, this is a solidly written book for beginners. A neophyte with a modicum of aptitude could pick up this book and learn to program Javascript. It'd be a five-star-er--I'm sure it was a five-star book when the first edition came out.

Let me say that I'm an old hand at JS, and an even older hand at writing books and programming. JS is one of those languages (like most of them) where I sat down and started programming out of necessity. And when I do that, I like to go back to square one when I have a chance and see if I've overlooked any basics. This is the book I chose to use for that, based largely on the reviews of the top JS books on Amazon.

And, the thing is, I really like this book. I can see that the original author, Wilton, put a lot of care into it. He wrote his code clearly, and described it in easy-to-follow chunks. He takes small steps and gives just enough repetition. It's not a lightning introduction: It walks you through it.

Now, what happens with coding books is that the book gets written, and if it sells well, the publisher wants it updated for the next version. So the author (or someone new) comes in and goes to see what's valid and what's not, adds a few notes, a few caveats, and maybe a couple of chapters at the end. The publisher wrings a few more sales out of this and it's probably sufficient. At least for a second edition, if things haven't changed too much.

This, however, is the fourth edition of a book that was originally written in 2000! For WEB technology! Wilton focuses smartly on the nuts-and-bolts of JS, so that stuff holds up, but if your mission is to get stuff done on a modern website with JS, this book is going to feel really stale.

Some examples:

The book starts off by having you write stuff to the status bar. What's that? You don't know what a status bar is? That's because they haven't been used in browsers much for years.

Browsers: There's a lot of emphasis on IE6 compatibility issues even though IE6 is down to about 2% of the market. Chrome (with about 20%+ market share) is included as an after-thought, and sometimes not at all. Forget about Safari or mobile devices.

There's a discussion on frames that's completely innocent of the debate over whether they should be used at all.

There's a chapter on DHTML. It's fine, but "DHTML" isn't the preferred nomenclature, to quote Walter Sobchak. Generally, the constituent parts of HTML, Javascript and CSS are used because, well, they're different things (and require different approaches).

All of chapter 13 is devoted to ActiveX, reflecting a year 2000 sensibility, when you could just program for IE.

The Ajax chapter was added in the third edition by McPeak, who presumably also updated this edition, and it starts with a link to Google Suggest which is no longer valid (because Google Suggest was incorporated into regular Google the year before the fourth edition was released.)

McPeak also presumably added the chapter on Javascript libraries which jumps between Jquery, Prototype and MooTools. It's not bad, but it's not much, either.

I don't really fault McPeak here. It's a tough thing to do, to go through and revise this stuff and keep it technically accurate. Keeping it fresh is nigh impossible. I think the smart thing to do, really, would be to teach Javascript hand-in-hand with a particular framework. That approach would present its own problems, of course, but it would eliminate pages and pages of browser-specific stuff.

In any event, it wouldn't be this book. For Javascript fundamentals, this is still solid. Just don't look to getting more than your beak wet when it comes to use in real life.

I still give it three stars, which is high praise for an eleven year old tech book.

The Kindle version gets only two stars, however: Wrox didn't format any of the code, so it's all left-indented. That was hard for ME to read, and it'd be torture for a JS initiate.
38933
An excellent book for beginners, Beginning Active Server Pages 3.0 starts simply and builds on what you've learned until you code a fairly fully-featured application.  By the time you've gone through the book,  you'll be able to create web pages that can return and capture information  stored in databases, tailor pages based on information captured from input  by users -- in short, create web pages that are in fact active.
Although  there are some grammatical errors in the text itself, I think another  reviewer perhaps overstated their existence.  More importantly though, the  examples and exercises take you through using the materials covered in a  clear, concise manner.  Not a lot of fluff or worthless  repetition.
Although geared towards Windows 2000, the book can be used if  you have a Windows 95/98 platform, at least as far as learning ASP basic  coding techniques.  An appendix covers use of Personal Web Server (required  to let your 95/98 based PC act as a server and thus run the ASP  code).
Numerous other appendices provide worthwhile reference materials  concerning errors, VBScript reference, runtime libraries. etc.
If you are  looking to teach yourself ASP, this is an excellent book to use to achieve  that end.  Don't let its size (1100+ pages) turn you away.
4689311
WPF 4 Unleashed is an excellent reference book to keep around once you've already got some WPF experience.  For someone just starting out with WPF, you can certainly use this book and it will get you going... But in my opinion, a beginner would be better off with a book that provided examples and exercises to gain hands-on experience.  This book will explain concepts to you, which is why it's great to keep around once you've got some experience under your belt.  Starting off with it might not be the best choice though.  In particular, chapter 2, titled "XAML Demystified" is brutal.  As I was reading the book, I actually had already been working a fair amount with WPF, and so I thought I'd be speeding through the early chapters with no problem at all.  Contrary to the chapter title, I have never been *more* mystified by XAML than when reading this chapter.  I hate to say it, but I think this chapter needs to be thrown out and re-done... and/or moved much later in the book... and/or renamed something like, "XAML Deep Dive... Hang On Tight".  After I got through that chapter, I had no idea what was important and what wasn't, what was useful and what was just extra trivia, and I had an overall feeling of terror about WPF which made me scream out, "WINFORMS!!!!".

That being said, the remainder of the book really is quite good... But I personally prefer books with hands-on exercises, introducing common stumbling blocks and helping you through the right way to tackle them as you go.  I can't emphasize enough, however, this is a great reference book to keep around as you work on your WPF app.
4641532
This is the book my teacher used for reference. It is a great little book which I still use it every once in a while to refresh my memory. It has something for both the advanced student, and a complete beginner.

It gives a clear overall definition of the postures and stances. However, some of the transitions are not clearly defined, and are therefore hard to follow for someone unfamiliar with this particular form. Weight distribution and foot placement diagrams are a big help when it comes to shifting the body from posture to posture. This is a big plus, since Cheng M'an Ching placed more emphasis on straight back and equilibrium.

If you don't have access to an instructor and want to learn the CMC form, this is the book I would recommend.
1357686
Nice reference guide to help people get up and running with Gephi.  Provides easy to follow examples using sample data to help make the points come to life.  I could have used this when I took my first SNA course.  Would have saved me a ton of time trying to figure out the basics.

One of the things I appreciate about this reference book is the plain and simple language.  Makes the content feel more approachable.  Specifically when providing definitions to some of the unique jargon.

I thought chapter 6 covering filters, statistics and rankings was particularly useful.  in particular I like the simple explanation of the Statistics and how to interpret the results.  I also noted that applying filters impacts the stats results which may not necessarily be intuitive.

My only critique would be from an organizational perspective I think it might be useful to talk about all of the layout options, strategies and goals up front.  For example I was left wanting in Chapter 2 but then was given useful information in Chapter 3 about how to determine which layout approach is most relevant for my data and goals. Would love to see this information packaged in a summary table then expanded upon in later chapters using the examples.
2027704
I used this book to learn the basics of Catia V5. It does the job in a nice fashion.
It covers also some more advanced topics, giving enough information to move to more complete and detailed manuals. It's a no frills book, getting you the right information and hands on exercises.
I recommend it to every beginner who wants to move to an intermediate level.
3111327
This is a nice reference book on C++.
If I were new to C++, I would not start learning C++ with this book. Rather, I would use these below three steps and the relevant books in this order:

1. Accelerated C++ by Andrew Koenig & Barbara Moo -- Read and practice example code and exercises from this book first.

2. Programming: Principles and Practice Using C++ (2nd Edition) by Bjarne Stroustrup -- Chapters 5,6, and 7 are gems in this book. You can in fact use this book in parallel with the Accelerated C++ book and

3. (a) The C++ Programming Language (4th Edition) by Bjarne Stroustrup,  -- Definite reference book to have.
3. (b) The C++ Standard Library: A Tutorial and Reference (2nd Edition) by Nicolai M. Josuttis, -- Clear examples and very methodical
3. (c) C++ Templates: The Complete Guide by David Vandevoorde -- What can I say! This is simply a classic.

C++ is not a race. It is a marathon. So, enjoy learning and also make use of many many C++ resources online.
616171
A very good .NET database book for beginners and those who already knows a bit more. I enjoyed the writing which is very competent and I believe that this book is a very good and solid reference on most kinds of .NET database access.
183434
This is an excellent tutorial and simple reference book to get one started coding client-side applications.

The early chapters quickly walk the reader through the terminology, debugging and testing setup, and the mix of technologies involved in making a web page.  Later on, there is less hand-holding, more advanced material is explained in less detail, but with excellent code examples, making this book a good reference rather than a textbook.  The differences betweem platforms are addressed throughout the book, including Opera, Chrome and Safari browsers.

The book is organized with code on the right-hand side of the page, and text on the left, making it easier to search for the relevant code example.

However, this is not a cookbook-style reference. The information is organized by how to use a particular feature of the technology, rather then by how to accomplish a task. Accordingly, both the Table of Content in front of the book and in the beginning of each chapter, and Perspective at the end of chapters list the technology features discussed in the section.

If you expect to use this book mostly as a reference on how to get things done, plan on spending some time to get familiar with how material is organized, even if you already know your way around JavaScript and DOM.
1117761
This is an enjoyable, readable, intermediate level book on no limit hold-em.  Not a primer or for advanced players, but a valuable addition for a novice- intermediate like myself.  There is a good section on pot odds.  The discussion on continuation bets specifically helped me. References to Doyle Brunson's books was helpful.  It was written in a stream of consciousness manner, which was not a problem at all.  Generally better than a lot of poker books I've read.
3144846
As a complete beginner, this is the right entry level book that I needed.