Product Description
The only comprehensive system administration reference that's portable across all Linux distributions. Presents in-depth, real-world coverage of every key aspect of system administration: user management, security, networking, Internet services, package management, C programming, kernel compilation, hardware configuration, and much more. Softcover.Amazon.com Review
The key difference between Microsoft Windows and UNIX is that Windows is meant to be easy to learn, while UNIX is meant to compensate for a steep learning curve by providing extraordinary flexibility to knowledgeable users. Linux: Rute User's Tutorial and Exposition is the best book on the market in terms of flattening that learning curve. The author, Paul Sheer, uses this book as the text for a class he teaches, and its instructional value is unquestionable. Rather than attempt to make analogies for the way things are done in Windows or in Mac OS, or try to satisfy readers' requirements with mere recipes, Sheer tries to inculcate his readers into the Linux way of thinking. The idea is that work gets done differently in Linux, and you have to get a few concepts clear in order to work effectively in the environment.

Take, for example, Sheer's discussion of the /etc/passwd file, which is at the core of user authentication. He provides a listing of a typical /etc/passwd file, then explains what each element on each line is for. This leads smoothly into a discussion of /etc/shadow, the shadow password file, and its capacity for hiding passwords behind a one-way hash algorithm. Sheer's prose is unfailingly clear and detailed, which is good because he's chosen to omit graphics altogether (which means, incidentally, that this book focuses on the command shell--bash, to be precise--and even the chapter on X Windows lacks screen shots). Aside from a few weird typographical choices (a tiny picture of a penguin invariably follows the word "Linux" in body text, for example), this is a faultless book.--David Wall

Topics covered: How to be a competent Linux user, familiar with the command line, key utilities like "sed," and important related skills like C programming, shell scripting, and regular expression creation. There's coverage of server software--notably HTTPd, Sendmail, and Exim--and coverage of the PostgreSQL server. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

Better than most IMHO
This entire book can be found online:
[...]

Despite that I have a copy so that I can read it without a device.

Based on my exploration of a handful of Linux titles, this book seems better than most because it presents not only some practical ideas/tools/techniques, but also theoretical ones.

Check it out on the we and decide for yourself.

Great book
Great book, but the CD-ROM didn't come with it for some reason... slightly disapointed but will be able to read the html version online if I really need to.

The best book on the subject
The best Linux book, period.

Be careful -- some of this info is outdated
The only reason I gave this book three stars is that most of this info regards GNU/Linux systems that are running a 2.2 kernel.The book points out in its text that the 2.4 kernel is upcoming.As I write this, the 2.4 kernel has been around for years now, and the 2.6 kernel (non-testing) is on its way.Likewise, some non-kernel material is also *completely outdated* (sound card configuration and NFS spring to mind).This book doesn't even mention kudzu, which is the bread & butter of RedHat, Knoppix, Mandrake, etc.Another way to put this:if kudzu can't autoconfigure your ISA hardware, this book may help.

However, the material in this book which is still relevent is worthwhile.If the author releases an updated edition, I'd be very tempted to buy it.

Wow, this is excellent
I've read (not just scanned) about 15 Linux reference books of varying depth and direction.Rute is the best.If you can have only one or simply can't live knowing you don't have the definitive guide then you must grab a copy of RUTE.Check out the TOC and Preface for an idea of why I'm so enthused.Briefly, let me just say that topics covered (many and well) are each treated with respect (at least a paragraph of text, not just usage summaries that parrot the man pages) and obviously were learned in the field, not from other books.There are other reasons, but I leave them for you to discover.ENJOY. ... Read more

Product Description
The nine lessons in this book introduce the reader to effective finite element problem solving by demonstrating the use of the comprehensive ANSYS FEM software in a series of step-by-step tutorials.

Topics covered include problems involving trusses, plane stress, plane strain, axisymmetric and three-dimensional geometries, beams, plates, conduction and convection heat transfer, thermal stress, and more. The tutorials are suitable for either professional or student use. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Great First Step
Kent's book is very easy to follow and offers a real nice introduction to Ansys. It's a fast read and the exercise are easy.It would be fantastic if Kent would put out a sequel covering more difficult issues such as contact elements, fracture, and nonlinear analysis

Great Book!
This manual will allow you to easily learn the majority of the available resources of ANSYS.It takes you step by step through the processes in order to establish a method of using the program.This book introduces both GUI and command based ANSYS processing and even helps users learn which method is the best for solving certain problems.I would recommend this book for every user from the computer illiterate to the computer wizard.

Best Tutorial Around
I recently used Dr. Lawrence's ANSYS tutorial in a senior level course for a Mechanical Engineering Degree, and loved it.This book was unlike many other tutorials in the fact that the useful information is not hidden with pages of description.Dr. Lawrence explains why a certain part is analyzed the way it is, and then proceeds to give the steps used to analyze.When compared to other tutorials, that have pages of description on keystrokes, shortcuts, hints, etc. this book truly teaches the students/users how to jump in and use the software, they should already have the adequate background.In the future, I hope that all software tutorials take a lesson from Dr. Kent Lawrence and bypass all of the story telling and get to the point.

waste of money
most of the information in the book is trivial and already available free on-line in the form of different tutorials. Bought the book but did not learn any thing new. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

Cg tutorial
This is one of the books highly recommended for learning hardware programming. Found it likewise.

excellent guide to using cg
As the owner of a game company, books like this are a valuable asset in getting our developers who aren't familiar with CG up to speed on the subject.

This book is highly recommended by our development staff, and our developers went out an purchased their own personal copies of the book even though we have it in our office library.

High-grade, low-math intro to vertex shaders
The current generation of GPUs puts a huge amount of rendering power at your fingertips. This book gives a great intro to a range of highly versatile techniques, including bump maps, shadows, complex illumination models, fog, non-realistic rendering, and lots more. You need a little math, but only what's given here. For example, you'll need to know what a dot product is, and the formulas are given. You won't need to know all the extras, like the geometric and trigonometric properties of dot products - those are simply stated where they become useful. Best, the entire discussion is illustrated with simple, legible samples of working code. The cut&paster gets off to a running start. This book really delivers what the title promises: Cg, by means of clear discussion and useful examples.

The book does not deliver what the title does not promise. For example, the authors discuss the effect of finer or coarser tesselation on image quality, but give no idea how to create the geometric models. Because the authors discuss only what goes on inside the GPU, they scarcely mention how to get your shader programs into it, and scarcely mention vertex shaders at all. Those aren't defects in the book, they're choices made by the authors. This book does a lot, but you'll need other references, possibly more than one of them, if you want to build a complete application.

Advanced graphics programmers have probably seen most of this before, and the barest beginners are still struggling with their box's shrink-wrap code samples. If you're ready for the second and third steps of graphics programming, then this could be very helpful. The "gallery" section could be a bit longer and the images a bit bigger, but this is really a how-to book and succeeds nicely in what it set out to do.

-- wiredweird

Good intro to shaders
This is a well written book covering the Cg shading language. It contains a lot of useful information about Cg and graphics programming techniques in general. Unfortunately, I felt like it didn't cover as much of Cg as I would have liked, making the book less useful than it could have been.

The book starts with a history of shaders and programmable hardware, an overview of Cg, and a summary of related technologies, such as HLSL and CgFX. It then spends some time covering the syntax and semantics of Cg, and then moves on to the core material of the book, in which the authors explain key graphics pipeline functionality and how it can be implemented using Cg. The book concludes with several appendices covering the Cg runtime, CgFX file format, and Cg standard library, as well as other reference material.

The topics covered include transformations, animation, lighting, environment mapping, bump mapping, fog, shadow mapping, toon shading, and projective texturing. The explanations are all clear and understandable, in particular the chapter on bump mapping, which is one of the easiest introductions to the topic I've encountered. Features of Cg are introduced as needed while explaining these topics, rather than introducing them all at once, which is very conducive to learning. In addition, the authors include warnings and workarounds for techniques which may not be supported on older hardware, as well as advice on attaining optimal performance.

I have two primary complaints about the book. The first is that they never really discuss the application code using the shaders, which made it a bit difficult to understand how they fit in at times. The second is that the book isn't nearly as complete a reference as you might expect. For a great deal of the functions and functionality in Cg, they simply refer you to the Cg reference manual. Although this electronic document is freely available, it's fairly brief at times, so a more detailed explanation in the book would have been appreciated. Similarly, I would have liked to have seen more detailed explanation of CgFX, as well as examples of using it.

Overall, though, this book does a very good job of introducing the reader to Cg and to shaders in general. If you're new to these topics, I'd recommend it. Even if you're a DirectX programmer intending to use HLSL, you'll find this book useful since the languages are identical (though the usage is of course different). If you're already an experienced graphics programmer with some knowledge of shaders, then you'll likely be able to find everything you need in the freely available documentation instead.

Good introduction to Cg
My review here is from an experienced OpenGL programmer's perspective.

This is an good introduction to the Cg shading language. It goes well beyond the free introductory PDFs on Cg that you can download from the nVidia site, and will quickly bring you up to speed. If you are unfamiliar with the new generation of graphics cards with programmable GPUs, you will love the introductory chapters. There is also an excellent chapter on bump mapping - the best, practical explanation of the technique I have ever seen. (Other books keep harping about tangent space, without explaining *why* you choose tangent space - never mentioning that it *is* possible to do it in object space.)

Now, for a few gripes:

1. There is no clear explanation for how exactly information (say, a calculated light position) should be passed from the vertex program to the fragment program. There are many ways to do this, and there is no suggested way of doing this. (eg: I can use outfloat3 var: POSITION, NORMAL, COLOR0, TEXCOORD0 - which one should I use and why?)

2. The vertex and fragment programs are given as such without any calling code. This may be really tough for beginners.

3. It does not provide a good reference to all the built in Cg functions. In many cases, you have to guess whether a function returns a value or modifes a parameter passed in. For example, there is only 1 line in the book about the faceforward(Ng, I, N) call. What is Ng? Does this function return any value?

4. The utility value of this book will plummet after you go through it once, since it is only an introduction. So I feel it should be priced accordingly. $45 is too much. I recommend getting it used, like I did, for half the price.

I like the book, but it is definitely not in the calibre of the Red book. (The OpenGL programming guide) ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great Tutorial
For someone that never touched HTML in their life this book was pretty easy to learn from. They carefully explained each lesson step by step. the Disk helped a lot too. It really was great.... ... Read more

Product Description

Software engineering is widely recognized as one of the most exciting, stimulating, and profitable research areas, with a significant practical impact on the software industry. Thus, training future generations of software engineering researchers and bridging the gap between academia and industry are vital to the field. The International Summer School on Software Engineering (ISSSE), which started in 2003, aims to contribute both to training future researchers and to facilitating the exchange of knowledge between academia and industry.

This volume constitutes a collection of articles originating from tutorial lectures given during the last three ISSSE summer schools, as well as a number of contributions on some of the latest findings in the field of software engineering. The book is organized in three parts on software requirements and design; software testing and reverse engineering; and management.

Product Description

This tutorial presents a collection of research papers on themes discussed at the Lipari Summer School on Advances in Software Engineering, held on Lipari Island, Italy, in July 2007. It was the 19th in a well-known series of annual international schools, addressed at computer science researchers. The courses dealt with domain and requirements engineering, high-level modelling, software product line techniques, evolvable software, the evolution of service-oriented software architectures, Web services, and security in such evolving distributed systems.

The nine revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected by 21 reviewers. The papers are organized in topical sections on foundations and methodology, service oriented architecture and web services, software technology, and security. This book is written with the intent to produce a state-of-the-art compendium of recent advances in software engineering.

Product Description
Whether the goal is to create photorealistic visual effects for feature films, special effects for broadcast television commercials, or short films for business or game development, Shake 4.1 Essential Training offers a superb training experience. Visual effects artists new to Shake will be able to master this world-class digital compositing program. Senior visual effects artist and trainer Steve Wright covers every aspect of Shake 4.1, from mastering the GUI to final render. Along the way, he teaches the essentials of importing footage, digital keying, color correction, keyframe animation, and much more. Exercise files and media accompany the tutorials.

Topics Include:

• Keying with Keylight and Primatte
• Shortcuts and productivity tools
• Compositing CGI
• Correcting color
• Rotoscoping
• Working with animation curves
• Warping and morphing
• Using expressions
• Creating macros

Customer Reviews (2)

Talks too fast but knows everything
Wright's DVD is invaluable, but even with a 24" monitor, it's nearly impossible to follow his examples while Shake is open and I can play monkey see monkey do.It works best if I play his tutorial on my laptop and do the Shake on the desktop. Neither Wright's dvd nor Shake plays well with other programs on the screen at the same time.

C.Eidsvik

DRM prevents disc from playing on my mac...
When you have a video training program that you are selling for nearly $100, naturally you do not want it copied and distributed for free over the internet. So you do some very clever engineering, using hidden files and proprietary software and DRM, so that people can't copy your product. Problem is, that clever technological feat means that your DVD-ROM might not actually play at all, say, if Apple decides to update its Quicktime software or if your home computer is configured differently than the computer the product was created on.
I have a Dual G5 Power Mac, with 4 GB of RAM, and I'm running OS X 10.4.11, and I could not get this to play on my computer. Worse yet, it actually locked up my machine, forcing a reboot! (I haven't had that happen in years!) The technical support from the publisher was quick and friendly, but sadly, they could not help me get this DVD-ROM to play. In the end, they suggested that I return the disc to Amazon for a refund, and instead, stream the video from their site (for a small monthly fee) instead. I have tried that option, and found that the tutorials stream very well from their site.
The quality of the information presented by Steve Wright about Shake 4.1 in this training series is top notch. Mr. Wright knows Shake very well, and more importantly, he knows how to teach that information in an easy to understand manner. I would have given this five stars if only it would play on my machine. ... Read more

Product Description
With a completion time of 75+ hours, this book is certified as Expert level for Microsoft Word.Aimed at beginners, this comprehensive book covers beginning through advanced features of the software.Lessons contain objectives, step-by-step instructions, screen illustrations, tips, notes, Internet coverage, chapter summaries, end-of-chapter exercises, and projects.Extra challenging activities are provided, along with unit reviews containing Command Summary, Review Questions, Applications, and On-the-Job Simulations. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A Guide for Those Needing a Tutor
This book offers a basic instruction to Word 2000.The lessons are easy to follow and the CD gives added instruction.It is a great guide for those of us who need thorough instruction.

The best set of tutorials on Word!
I teach a technical writing/advanced Word course at a university. After reviewing several similar books, I found this one to be simply the best available. It's easy to read, and easy to follow. Good job! ... Read more

Product Description
Certified by Microsoft as Expert in preparation for the MOUS exam, this book covers the beginning, intermediate, and advanced capabilities of Access.Self-paced, and self-instructional, this book provides all the instruction necessary to become a knowledgeable user of Access. ... Read more

Product Description
With an estimated completion time of 35+ hours, this is a comprehensive book is aimed at beginners of Microsoft Excel. Covers beginning through advanced features of the software.Lessons contain objectives, step-by-step instructions, screen illustrations, tips, notes, Internet coverage, chapter summaries, end-of-chapter exercises, and projects. ... Read more

Product Description
This book should be of interest to students studying calculus who have access to the MAPLE algebra computation systems either on the Macintosh or other hardware systems. ... Read more

Product Description
(CMP Books) A telecommunications guide based on up-to-the minute experiences. Explains how to handle some the trickier aspects of managing organization's telecommunications resources. Covers how to set up PBX and voice mail, how to implement enhancements to telephone systems, how to negotiate the big telecom buy, and more. Softcover. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Very basic, basic stuff
I bought this book as a part of my graduate coursework in telecommunications field.I was truly disappointed with the book and suprised that it is even required for graduate school curriculum.The author in many cases is contradicting herself from one chapter to another.There are a couple of typing errors in the book too.The writing is poor.The information Ms. Laino is sharing with the public is nothing new for the people who have been in the industry for a while.I would recommend it only for the individuals who know absolutely nothing about telecommunications and need vary basic guidelines on how to manage Telecommunications systems and resources. ... Read more

Product Description
Designed to cover the beginning and intermediate features ofWordPerfect for Windows, Versions 5.1/5.2.Activities in the text covers a variety of topics that are geared to user interest.Easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions guide users through the features of the software.Text utilizes a hands-on approach that emphasizes doing.Ideal for either individualized or group instruction. ... Read more

Product Description
This text represents a comprehensive instructional tool that covers all the basic features you need to know about Microsoft Works 4.5 for windows.Instructions, activities, and applications are included for accessing the Internet and using e-mail. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a tutorial manual for the beginning user of Pro/MANUFACTURING. The manual assumes the user has a basic working knowledge of Pro/ENGINEER and CNC milling. It guides the user through several examples that start with a simple click-by-click procedure to perform a volume milling sequence for the beginner to gain a basic familiarity with the manufacturing module. The manual includes a discussion of hole making, volume milling, profile milling and surface milling. The last section, on surface milling, discusses more sophisticated approaches and includes a discussion of various hints and techniques for solving problems and generating procedures to develop the milling process. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

This Book Is Not Very Good
This so-called Tutorial book is not helpful at all.It is confusing and in many cases, makes no sense at all.It is a good thing it is out of print because it actually set me back in learning Informix rather thanhelped me.Mahler has his own method for programming Informix and itdoesn't agree with the way I program.The title should read,"Mahler's Only Way To Program Informix--An UnapproachableApproach".

When he covers a topic, you are always left with manymore questions than you start with.In research, maybe this is a goodthing, in programming, you don't have time to be wasting on hisgarbage.

I did better with the vendors own publications which were highlywordy and overly descriptive, but at least, I got the answer I needed.

Ifyou want my recommendation, go look up Kathy Kipp's, "ProgrammingInformix SQL/4GL A Step-by-Step Approach". ... Read more