Best Business Software Guides
Design for minimum complexity and maximum creativity Reap the benefits of collaborative development Apply defensive programming techniques to reduce and flush out errors Exploit opportunities to refactor—or evolve—code, and do it safely Use construction practices that are right-weight for your project Debug problems quickly and effectively Resolve critical construction issues early and correctly Build quality into the beginning, middle, and end of your project. He is the author of several books, including Code Complete and Rapid Development, both honored with Software Development magazine's Jolt Award.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"readable encyclopedia of best practices on software quality, covering topics such as how to build classes, use data and control structures, debug, refactor, and code-tune. Yes, it would be nice if the book was updated to include substantive material on languages like Ruby or Python (cf. p. 65, Python "also contains some support for creating larger programs") but, in the words of Gertrude Stein, "Not everything can be about everything" -- though Code Complete does come pretty close. McConnell also sprinkles the text with classic words of wisdom, e.g. "The competent programmer is fully aware of the strictly limited size of his own skull" (Edsger Dijkstra), "Never debug standing up" (Gerald Weinberg), "Copy and paste is a design error" (David Parnas), "Any fool can defend his or her mistakes -- and most fools do." It is important to point out that even though this volume is encyclopedia-like, it does have both a sense of humor (e.g. "the encryption algorithm is so convoluted that it seems like it's been used on itself") and a clear authorial voice (e.g. "Though sometimes tempting, that's dumb."). 33, after quoting Edward Yourdon at length, McConnell adds "This lusty tribute to programming machismo is pure B.S. I found this to be bizarre, given that in the 1995 edition of "The Mythical Man-Month" Brooks states in no uncertain terms that he has changed his mind on this: "This I now perceive to be wrong" (p. 265). On a different note, although some of the on-line accompanying material is fascinating (e.g. the links to the original Dijkstra and Lawrence articles in ch."
"Very readable, excellent real-world examples and case studies, and many valuable insights."
"I'm a self taught programmer going on 5 years now doing it full time, and I have learned a lot of techniques that have filled in some holes in my skills."
"The Microsoft code way."
"Bad humor, takes a long time to convey information, but is useful."
"I'd also recommend the more recent Clean Code, especially for Java programmers, as it goes into more depth, even providing actual case studies in which code is dramatically cleaned up."
"I make all of my new programmers at least read selections from it (in fact that is part of our training program.)."
"Great book on software development."
In CODE, they show us the ingenious ways we manipulate language and invent new means of communicating with each other. Charles Petzold's latest book, Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software , crosses over into general-interest nonfiction from his usual programming genre. Topics covered : Mechanical and electrical representations of words and numbers, number systems, logic gates, performing mathematical operations with logic gates, microprocessors, machine code, memory and programming languages.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"For a reader like me, who asked every teacher from elementary school through college "why do we count to 10" and clung to the best answer of "it's arbitrary - it's just how it's always been done" until reading this book (and who struggled to convert binary to base ten), this book was gold."
"Added as an addition to my computer library."
"I just finished this book and got way more out of it than I expected."
"It is not meant to be intensive and, for that reason, I would not recommend this to anyone as a "supplementary book" for a digital design class but rather a concise introduction for a young, curious mind."
"Before I read this book, I already knew about logic gates, but I did not know (1) how electric and electonic devices can in the real world perform the function of logic gates and (2) how by arranging logic gates wisely one can perform addition and subtraction and (3) more complicated mathematical operations can be performed by doing "a lot of" additions and subtractions. But overall I think I have learned a lot from this book."
"This book takes a look at the most basic building blocks of modern technology."
"This book is a really great book."
"However, lately, there are still several books that do better job if you really want to learn more about machines."
Discover how microservices allow you to align your system design with your organization’s goals Learn options for integrating a service with the rest of your system Take an incremental approach when splitting monolithic codebases Deploy individual microservices through continuous integration Examine the complexities of testing and monitoring distributed services Manage security with user-to-service and service-to-service models Understand the challenges of scaling microservice architectures. Sam Newman is a technologist at ThoughtWorks, where he currently splits his time between encouraging and sharing Innovation globally and helping design and build their internal systems.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"My context: I helped build a system with a Rails "middle end" that talked to about eight microservices, and then moved that from Heroku to AWS. In fact, throughout I was thinking "I'll use this as a checklist next time I'm building a system" and then I was pleased to discover that the final, summary chapter is essentially that checklist."
"Amazing book which talks about the archtectural Challa ended of building microservices."
"Read it before getting into cloud world."
"Good overview on the many aspects of micro services."
"This book is not solely about microservices, it talks about a lot of good practices in the different area (monitoring, deployments etc)."
"A very good synthesis of practice and history to the current thinking on microservices."
"Reading it through gives you a complete picture of building microservices."
"If you are searching for solutions with many existing microservices or ideas for performance enhancement, look elsewhere."
Best Enterprise Applications
Design for minimum complexity and maximum creativity Reap the benefits of collaborative development Apply defensive programming techniques to reduce and flush out errors Exploit opportunities to refactor—or evolve—code, and do it safely Use construction practices that are right-weight for your project Debug problems quickly and effectively Resolve critical construction issues early and correctly Build quality into the beginning, middle, and end of your project. He is the author of several books, including Code Complete and Rapid Development, both honored with Software Development magazine's Jolt Award.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"readable encyclopedia of best practices on software quality, covering topics such as how to build classes, use data and control structures, debug, refactor, and code-tune. Yes, it would be nice if the book was updated to include substantive material on languages like Ruby or Python (cf. p. 65, Python "also contains some support for creating larger programs") but, in the words of Gertrude Stein, "Not everything can be about everything" -- though Code Complete does come pretty close. McConnell also sprinkles the text with classic words of wisdom, e.g. "The competent programmer is fully aware of the strictly limited size of his own skull" (Edsger Dijkstra), "Never debug standing up" (Gerald Weinberg), "Copy and paste is a design error" (David Parnas), "Any fool can defend his or her mistakes -- and most fools do." It is important to point out that even though this volume is encyclopedia-like, it does have both a sense of humor (e.g. "the encryption algorithm is so convoluted that it seems like it's been used on itself") and a clear authorial voice (e.g. "Though sometimes tempting, that's dumb."). 33, after quoting Edward Yourdon at length, McConnell adds "This lusty tribute to programming machismo is pure B.S. I found this to be bizarre, given that in the 1995 edition of "The Mythical Man-Month" Brooks states in no uncertain terms that he has changed his mind on this: "This I now perceive to be wrong" (p. 265). On a different note, although some of the on-line accompanying material is fascinating (e.g. the links to the original Dijkstra and Lawrence articles in ch."
"Very readable, excellent real-world examples and case studies, and many valuable insights."
"I'm a self taught programmer going on 5 years now doing it full time, and I have learned a lot of techniques that have filled in some holes in my skills."
"The Microsoft code way."
"Bad humor, takes a long time to convey information, but is useful."
"I'd also recommend the more recent Clean Code, especially for Java programmers, as it goes into more depth, even providing actual case studies in which code is dramatically cleaned up."
"I make all of my new programmers at least read selections from it (in fact that is part of our training program.)."
"Great book on software development."
Best Presentation Software Books
No matter where you are on the organizational ladder, the odds are high that you've delivered a high-stakes presentation to your peers, your boss, your customers, or the general public. Connect with specific audiences Turn ideas into informative graphics Use sketching and diagramming techniques effectively Create graphics that enable audiences to process information easily Develop truly influential presentations Utilize presentation technology to your advantage. Principal of Duarte Design since 1990, Nancy Duarte passionately pursues the presentation development and design niche.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Phenomenally detailed and useful book on presentation design."
"Targeted towards important presentations,not day to day presentations."
"My Dad recently transition from being Director of Pathology to a Professor at a Medical School for Pathology."
"This book is the gold standard for presentation books."
"In my opinion, the best book on designing presentations."
"This is a great practical guide on developing better presentations."
"I came away with several ideas I used on a current project: drawing storyboards by hand, using the "push" transition, and creating a non-linear presentation."
"Great practical tools to polish up your presentation immediately."
Best Project Management Software Books
A study guide for the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification exam, this book provides all the information project managers need to thoroughly prepare for the test. Andy Crowe is a Project Management Professional (PMP), a Six Sigma Black Belt, a Program Management Professional (PgMP), and the founder of Velociteach, a company that provides project management and certification training.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Ordered - 13 October 2013, Amazon chat verified it would be the 2nd printing, and that I should contact them if there was any issue. I saw reviews talking about mistakes in the first printing and I wanted to be certain that I didn't receive the 1st printing, which I saw at a local BN bookstore today for $99.95."
"The most efficient way to study for the test is to read this book, try to understand it, take a three-day bootcamp course with a great instructor and take the exam a week after that. The PMP Exam: Quick Reference Guide, Fifth Edition (Test Prep series) by Andy Crowe was also pretty useful."
"Well I can tell you that those errors did not carry on to the test and the test followed the advice and lessons given in this book. Now I will not argue that the test in this book final and other wise was not in line with the actual test. I equate the tests in this book as being the walk phase in the crawl, walk, run concept of education and training. The system works just like the actual test and the questions are spot on.So if you want to have the real test questions then use the test bank. Memorize the equations in this book and you will have all the math you need to know for the test. In the end for me I looked and what I had marked as important for memorization and items I highlighted thru the book x3 times the week before my test and did the same with my PMBOK but only once."
"In addition, the book comes with a week long free pass to their website."
Best Spreadsheet Books
Spreadsheet") guides you through every aspect of Excel Delivers essential coverage of all the newest features of Excel 2010 Presents material in a clear, concise, logical format that is ideal for all levels of Excel experience Includes a CD that contains all the templates and worksheets used in the book plus John Walkenbach's award-winning Power Utility Pak. You won't find a more comprehensive book on Excel 2010 than this!" If Excel can do it, John Walkenbach can show you how. Excel guru, Microsoft MVP, and author of all the previous top-selling editions of Excel Bible, John Walkenbach provides more than 1,000 pages packed with techniques, tips, and tricks for beginners as well as Excel power users. Preview how your copied text will look Spot trends in your data with Sparklines Chart your data using Excel's different chart types Master Excel formulas for useful worksheets Create effective charts suitable for the boardroom Analyze and present data with pivot tables.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I have been using Excel for more than 15 years and consider myself a competent intermediate level user (though many in the office think I'm an "advanced user"); however I felt that my knowledge of Excel had become stagnant and I knew that I wasn't really taking advantage of many of the newer analytical functions of Excel. The book is well organized into the following Parts, each with many chapters included: Part I: Getting Started with Excel. Part II: Working with Formulas and Functions. Part III: Creating Charts and Graphics. Part IV: Using Advanced Excel Features. Part V: Analyzing Data with Excel. Part VI: Programming Excel with VBA. For now, I am concentrating my efforts in Part IV and Part V - not sure I'll work long enough (or have need for) Part VI !"
"Since I didn't work with calendars generally during that time (as I do now, since I use formulas that include full dates in yyyymmdd format to calculate dates for project management schedules), my practice started out as using the full date, rather than year only. Instead of simply entering the value "2011" (the year when I bought the book), I had tested the formulas first by entering the base date as "1/1/2011," and then as "=DATE(2011,1,1). However, the print version included errors in the formulas for calculating dates of the U.S. holidays -- especially for those holidays that do not fall on the same day each year. For example, the date formula for Independence Day (a holiday that falls on the same date each year) was shown in the book as =DATE(A1,7,4) instead of =DATE(YEAR(A1),7,4)."
"The reason I did not give it five stars is, with all these types of reference books, the indexes are not perfect."
"I bought this book because of the positive reviews and also because I liked Walkenbach's "Excel 2000 Power Programming with VBA" that I bought many years ago. This book explains nothing more about FFT analysis than the Excel Help."
Best Windows Server Guides
Learn how to use PowerShell on Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 Tour PowerShell's core features, including the command model, object-based pipeline, and ubiquitous scripting Master fundamentals such as the interactive shell, pipeline, and object concepts Perform common tasks that involve working with files, Internet-connected scripts, user interaction, and more Solve tasks in systems and enterprise management, such as working with Active Directory and the filesystem. Q&A with Lee Holmes, author of "The Windows PowerShell Cookbook". With the release of Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, Windows PowerShell has added many significant features to address the realities of modern, multi-machine environments. PowerShell has also made many changes to simplify and improve its fundamentals (scripting and built-in commands.). By breaking the "PowerShell Cookbook" into a series of simple, isolated recipes, I hope that they see evidence that you don't need to be an expert in PowerShell to start using it or improving your day-to-day tasks.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Has a decent set up to powershell at the beginning that explains some basics but then it jumps right into it."
"This book is probably not for a programming novice, but it makes an excellent reference book that's full of examples."
"Essentially there are many different problems and solutions given for those problems. It addresses many things that are better handled with a fully working example."
"Decent book, excellent reference when learning posh."
"Great!"
"Well written but I would not call it complete."
Best SharePoint Guides
Experience learning made easy—and quickly teach yourself how to boost team collaboration with SharePoint 2013. Olga M. Londer , MCSE, MCT, is a technology evangelist for Microsoft Corporation and has served as a technical lead on numerous projects for major clients.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Good step by step guide and easy to following."
"This book will take through the basics, from an end user/site owners perspective, and show you how to do most things that end users regularly do in SharePoint like create lists, export lists to a spreadsheet, adding webparts to a page or removing them etc. The book is split into 15 chapters with each chapter covering a different topic from the very basic navigating around SharePoint (how to get to site settings, view all site contents etc) through to a basic overview of content management (document sets, creating page layouts etc.)."
"Excellent book and very helpful when learning SharePoint 2013."
"Seems thorough and understandable, though I have not gotten into it a lot, Let me know what can be done in Sharepoint, which I want to pursue further, especially project management features."
"Very helpful."
"Want to learn about SharePoint 2013?"
"Want to learn about SharePoint 2013?"
Best Microsoft Project Guides
Includes information on AtTask, a leading web-based project management tool, and a guide for using this powerful software for portfolio optimization. in mathematics at the University of Notre Dame while on an Air Force ROTC scholarship.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"I feel like this book does what it can to simplify things while still giving tons of detail but doesn't fully succeed in giving you a clear checklist or flowchart to take away."
"I like the level of detail about each topic and the examples provided, The only issue that I had was I purchase the digital version for my Samsung tablet, which meant I had to install the KIndle product."
"Needed for a class, but kept after."
"It doesn't go into mind numbing detail but topics are addressed multiple times throughout the text."
"Class would have been better with a different instructor, but thank god this book is well laid out and easy to follow."
"lol But it's my fault for waiting till the last minute to get it, which resulted in it not being in the local book stores with just 3 business days left before the class was scheduled to start."
"This book came in very good condition nearly new with all the CDS intact, thanks very much needed it because I am a little loss in my class!"
"Locations force you to search for figures mentioned in a assignment instead of being able to find a specific page."
Best Social Media for Business
Liar’s Poker meets The Social Network in an irreverent exposé of life inside the tech bubble, from industry provocateur Antonio García Martínez, a former Twitter advisor, Facebook product manager and startup founder/CEO. He also fathered two children with a woman he barely knew, committed lewd acts and brewed illegal beer on the Facebook campus (accidentally flooding Zuckerberg's desk), lived on a sailboat, raced sport cars on the 101, and enthusiastically pursued the life of an overpaid Silicon Valley wastrel. Weighing in on everything from startups and credit derivatives to Big Brother and data tracking, social media monetization and digital “privacy,” García Martínez shares his scathing observations and outrageous antics, taking us on a humorous, subversive tour of the fascinatingly insular tech industry. Chaos Monkeys lays bare the hijinks, trade secrets, and power plays of the visionaries, grunts, sociopaths, opportunists, accidental tourists, and money cowboys who are revolutionizing our world.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Facebook very carefully maintains a public relations campaign (almost more internally focused than external) to convince the world it is the best place to work… ever. It is all here… the creepy propaganda, the failed high-profile projects, the surreal manager/staff relationships, the cultivated cult-like atmosphere, the sharp divide between the have-it-all, and the "hope to have enough to escape" staff. Best of all it describes how the advertising media really operates, going back to the dawn of it, and how Facebook, Google, et al are merely extensions of a system that has existed for two centuries. For myself, having lived through much of the same experience at Facebook (from onboarding, the devotion, the cynicism, to the inglorious, frustrated exit bungled by one of the legion of Facebook's incompetent and narcissistic manager corps) I found myself going from laughter, to nodding agreement, to gut-wrenching bouts of PTSD as I turned the pages of 'Chaos Monkeys'. Now I no longer have to justify myself to people who ask me why I left Facebook - I can just tell them to read this book, since it explains it better than I ever could."
"If anything, the vivid metaphors he uses to describe the otherwise dull and esoteric details of identity matching and attribution will serve you well anytime you must summon a complete picture of this complex web in your head. Even non-specialists will find fascinating the descriptions of how private data is collected and sold, not to mention probably realizing they have been worried about the wrong kind of privacy violations. His detailed accounts of many of these meetings (confrontations) offer a unique behind-the-scenes vantage which many manuals for silicon valley success avoid, so the authors can remain in good stead with the figures involved. In reality, the unspoken “hard” part of any startup is not the actual hours involved, or the idea, or execution, but rather the unwavering conviction you must have to keep at it when things are totally falling apart. Every entrepreneur will immediately recognize what Antonio unabashedly portrays: the dreadful gulf between the inward awareness of all the chaos and flux at the startup, while preserving the outward image of polish, order and optimism. While I wouldn’t necessarily advocate “praying for Antonio’s soul,” as a previous reviewer stated, his relentless self-deprecation and raw honesty balance out some of the selfish decisions he makes in the book. He is extremely well read, and I suspect this background informs a somewhat tragic theme of the book— for a certain type of person, the only hope that can lift the cynicism and misanthropy of early life disappointment is to undergo a meaningful quest with loyal companions."
"I'm sure a lot of people are going to get hung up on some offhand sexist comments or the dirt thrown at Facebook's execs (and I'm sure that Martinez could have avoided both while keeping the book interesting)."
"I highly recommend this book if you have ever worked with or for a startup, are thinking of founding your own startup, or are simply curious about life in the Silicon Valley."
Best Management Information Systems
Enterprise Integration Patterns provides an invaluable catalog of sixty-five patterns, with real-world solutions that demonstrate the formidable of messaging and help you to design effective messaging solutions for your enterprise. Do you want to understand how a system designed using integration patterns can be implemented using Java Web services, .NET message queuing, and a TIBCO-based publish-subscribe architecture? Utilizing years of practical experience, seasoned experts Gregor Hohpe and Bobby Woolf show how asynchronous messaging has proven to be the best strategy for enterprise integration success. The authors also include examples covering a variety of different integration technologies, such as JMS, MSMQ, TIBCO ActiveEnterprise, Microsoft BizTalk, SOAP, and XSL. A case study describing a bond trading system illustrates the patterns in practice, and the book offers a look at emerging standards, as well as insights into what the future of enterprise integration might hold.
Reviews
Find Best Price at Amazon"Arrived on time, used , but in very good and clean condition, almost like new."
"Going further, when you consider that an application can coordinate its own interaction with internal subsystems using Enterprise Integration Patterns, this design philosophy truly applies everywhere."
"Excelente."
"In the present resurgence of functional languages, this book should be highly regarded for its depth of focus on messaging patterns and their proper use."
"We were trying to explain the problems with passing a large file up and down a messaging bus to our bioinformatics users, when I ran across Enterprise Integration Patterns."
"This is the third pattern book in my collection (the other two are Analysis Patterns by Martin Fowler and the definitive Design Patterns by the Gang of Four) and IMHO this is the best example yet of where patterns can really improve the development process."
"This book is a must for any developer, manager, or systems architect engaged in designing, developing, or deploying distributed systems based on messaging patterns."
"great book, must read for everyone looking at Enterprise Integration. However I feel that this book needs a upgrade by referencing new technologies."