Fiction, nonfiction, poetry, & technology book reviews, plus social, political, & economic commentary
Mac Hacks Tips & Tools for Unlocking the Power of OS X Chris Seibold (O’Reilly – paperback, Kindle) Many people buy Apple’s Macintosh computers precisely because they do not want to have to mess with their machines. They just want to open a specific app, use it, close it and move on to the other … Continue reading Mac Hacks – More than 50 ways to unlock the power of OS X – #apple #mac #bookreview
In the world of Big Data, Hadoop has become the hard-charging elephant in the room. Its big-name users now span the alphabet and include such notables as Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Google, the New York Times, and Yahoo. Not bad for software named after a child’s toy elephant. Computer systems that run Hadoop can store, process, … Continue reading Hadoop is hot! Three new how-to books for riding the Big Data elephant – #programming #bookreview
Mac Kung Fu, 2nd Edition Kier Thomas (Pragmatic Bookshelf – Paperback, Kindle) More than a hundred new tips and tricks have been packed into the new edition of Kier Thomas’s popular how-to guide for OS X Mountain Lion. His book now offers “Over 400 Tips, Tricks, Hints, and Hacks for Apple OS X.” And it … Continue reading Mac Kung Fu – Kick productivity into higher gear with 400+ tips, tricks – #bookreview
Master Your Mac Matt Cone (No Starch Press, paperback – Kindle) This well-written how-to book will please many new Mac users, as well as many who have been using Macs for years. But, to fully benefit from this excellent new guide, you must be willing to go beneath the Mac’s easy-to-use OS X surface and work at the command line. In other words, … Continue reading Master Your Mac – Useful how-to projects for intermediate users – #bookreview
Adobe Edge Animate: The Missing Manual Chris Grover (O’Reilly, paperback – Kindle) Chris Grover’s well-written and updated new book shows you how to build animated HTML 5 graphics for the iPhone, the iPad, and the Web, using familiar Adobe features. By the sixth page of the first chapter, you are using the software to begin … Continue reading Adobe Edge Animate: The Missing Manual – #bookreview
Programming C# 5.0 Ian Griffiths (O’Reilly, paperback – Kindle) Ian Griffiths’ new book is for “experienced developers,” not for beginners hoping to learn the basics of programming while also learning C#. The focus is “Building Windows 8, Web, and Desktop Applications for the .NET 4.5 Framework.” Earlier editions in the Programming C# series have “explained some … Continue reading Programming C# 5.0 – Excellent how-to guide for experienced developers ready to learn C# – #bookreview
Programming Google App Engine, 2nd Edition Dan Sanderson (O’Reilly, paperback – Kindle) O’Reilly recently has published a new edition of Dan Sanderson’s Programing Google App Engine. The new edition updates the 2009 first edition and includes coverage of Java 6 and Python 2.7 support, multithreading, asynchronous service APIs, and using frameworks such as webapp2 and Django … Continue reading Programming Google App Engine, 2nd Edition – An important how-to guide, updated – #programming #bookreview
Learning Unix for OS X Mountain Lion (O’Reilly, paperback – Kindle) When I showed this book–and its “Going Deep with the Terminal and Shell”–tagline to my Mac-centric wife, her first response was: “Why?” Her Macintosh, she declared, already does everything she needs it to do, with no fuss. Why bother with terminals and shells–and Unix? … Continue reading Learning Unix for OS X Mountain Lion – Working with the Terminal and Shell – #bookreview
Learning Node Shelley Powers (O’Reilly, paperback – Kindle) “Node is designed to be used for [server-side] applications that are heavy on input/output (I/O), but light on computation,” veteran Web technology author Shelley Powers notes in Learning Node, her ninth and newest how-to book from O’Reilly. “Node.js,” she explains, “is a server-side technology that’s based on … Continue reading Learning Node – A good how-to guide for server-side Web development with Node.js – #programming #bookreview
Adobe Edge Animate Preview 7: The Missing Manual Chris Grover (O’Reilly, paperback – Kindle) Chris Glover’s well-written new book shows you how to build animated HTML 5 graphics for the iPhone, the iPad, and the Web, using familiar Adobe features. By the sixth page of the first chapter, you are using the software to create … Continue reading Adobe Edge Animate Preview 7: The Missing Manual – #bookreview #html5 #animation
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