Category: Book Review

Looking for a tech gift for the geek on your list? Take a look at these three books. They are all geek-worthy and will help your geek get more out of his or her Mac. Of course, you can also buy them for yourself.

This new edition of the Mac OS X “Missing Manuals” series shows no signs of relinquishing its position this country’s bestselling computer book. In fact, given all the well-publicized problems with Apple’s latest OS, it might become the most-needed computer book in the U.S. as well.

Just got a shiny new DSLR? Sick of those "how to" books that make aperture sound like a boring word? This easy to read (and full of pictures) book answers the questions every amateur has always wanted to ask the pros.

Probably the reason that most people will buy Mac OS X Snow Leopard Bible is to learn how to make (better) use of the amazingly sophisticated and flexible operating system – in all its complexities. Read the full review here.

A very well written and superbly illustrated book that explains the internal workings of Snow Leopard, covering all the things that a new user should learn from A to Z. If you are looking for a really good book to have on hand or to give as a gift to someone, consider Ms. Williams and Mr. Tollett’s Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard book. Read full review here.

When they first began publishing the "Dummy" books, a lot of folks took the titles to be demeaning or designed to make fun of those who bought and read the books. Time has passed and there are simply dozens of titles appearing each year covering every topic imaginable. The Mac series of Dummy books goes back to the OS 7 time period and continues to this day. Amongst those leading the way in writing Mac Dummy books has been Bob "Dr. Mac" LeVitus.

Better Photos in the Blink of An Eye

Despite the bundled tutorials, paper-based instruction is still very useful. Such a book as this is particularly welcome to anyone new to the software, which requires Mac OS X 10.5. or above. The GarageBand ’09 software’s functionality and interface can be confusing or slightly overwhelming. A guided, graded introduction is a boon. And if it takes you further into the less immediate features of the software, as this book does, so much the better.

The truth is that there are as many "secrets" in this book as you will find in any other photography book, which is to say there are no secrets.

Photographer and author Jeff Revell takes a slightly different approach in his book, Canon 50D: From Snapshots to Great Shots. Instead of simply rewriting and expanding on what the camera’s manual says, Revell’s book focuses on how to take great photos by using selected camera features and functions of the Canon 50D.

I’ve read and used at least a dozen or so Photoshop books in the last four years. With each new Photoshop of CS update, the manual styled books for the application grow larger and better. Figuring out which books will be mot useful for you largely depends on your experience and skills with the application, your learning style, and what you want to learn. Check out this review of four different Adobe Photoshop CS4 books.

Considering scanning all those old family photos, negatives and slides that have accumulated for what seems like centuries? Russ takes a look at Sascha Steinhoff’s book, Scanning Negatives and Slides – Digitizing Your Photographic Archive. Is it what you need to get going?

The style of the book is simple, down-to-earth, intelligent and witty. The exercises have substance. Anyone putting the recommendations into practice should end up with a nice-looking website that works.

XML (eXtensible Markup Language) has become the medium to move data in efficient and predictable ways. Derived from a similar markup language, SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language), XML is structured, but not as highly as SGML. Structure is what it’s all about. The very loosely structured HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is also derived from SGML. Even the XML markup looks amazingly like HTML, except, as the author explains, HTML defines how information will look, while XML defines how the information is formatted.

Do you want to program the iPhone or iPod touch, the Mac, or maybe even an Android phone from Google, and you have no idea where to start? Start here.