Computers & Internet Books - Page 22

Layout Workbook: A Real-World Guide to Building Pages in Graphic Design

Kristin Cullen

Amazon Price: $16.50 List Price: $25.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Rockport Publishers Amazon Marketplace: 42 new & used starting at $15.49

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Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Design & Decorative Arts -> Graphic Design -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

New in Paperback! An inspired resource for creating excellent layouts

Layout Workbook is one of five volumes in Rockport's series of practical and inspirational workbooks that cover the fundamental areas of the graphic design business. In this edition, author Kristin Cullen tackles the often perplexing job of nailing down a layout that works.

More than a collection of great examples of layout, this book is an invaluable resource for students, designers, and creative professionals who seek design understanding and inspiration. The book illuminates the broad category of layout, communicating specifically what it takes to design with excellence. It also addresses the heart of design-the how and why of the creative process.

Cullen approaches layout with a series of step-by-step fundamental chapters (a "how-to" of layout) addressing topics such as The Function of Design, Inspiration, The Design Process, Intuition, Structure and Organization, The Interaction of Visual Elements, Typography, and Design Analysis. The book offers inspirational quotations and a unique, progressive design that truly reflects its content.

MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-620): Configuring Windows Vista(TM) Client (Self Paced Training Kit 70-620)

I. McLean, Orin Thomas

Amazon Price: $37.79 List Price: $59.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Microsoft Press - Model: 9780735623903 Amazon Marketplace: 55 new & used starting at $32.00

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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Certification Central -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 37 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Book Description

Announcing an all-new Self-Paced Training Kit designed to help maximize your performance on 70-620, the required exam for the new Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS): Windows Vista Client certification. This 2-in-1 kit includes the official Microsoft® study guide, plus practice tests on CD to help you assess your skills. It comes packed with the tools and features that exam candidates want most--including in-depth, self-paced training based on final exam content; rigorous, objective-by-objective review; exam tips from expert, exam-certified authors; and customizable testing options. It also provides real-world scenarios, case study examples, and troubleshooting labs for skills and expertise that you can apply to the job.

Work at your own pace through the lessons and lab exercises. Focusing on configuring a Windows Vista client, this official study guide covers topics such as installing the client software, migrating from previous versions of the Microsoft Windows® client, and configuring systems settings, security features, network connectivity, communications and media applications, and mobile devices.

Then assess yourself by using 425 practice and review questions on the CD, which features multiple customizable testing options designed to meet your specific needs. Choose timed or untimed testing mode, generate random tests, or focus on discrete objectives or chapters. You get detailed explanations for right and wrong answers--including pointers back to the book for further study.

Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes (3rd Edition) (Sams Teach Yourself)

Ben Forta

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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Databases -> Database Management Systems
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 140 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Precisely what it promises to be: an introduction to SQL 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Ben Forta has a commendable honesty about him. He explains the intent of his books clearly in their Introductions and then proceeds to deliver just that. In this instance, Forta is clear that the book is for those new to SQL and who quickly want to learn how to get the most out of SQL. He is equally clear that the book does not cover every last aspect of SQL.

The book is becoming a bit long in tooth since it has not been updted since 2004. DBMSs covered are IBM DB2, Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL (Version 4), Oracle, PostgreSQL, Sybase Adaptive Server. Some of the information is now outdated and MySQL v5 has added new capabilities. On the whole, though, everything Forta presents here is still usable.

In 22 chapters, Forta teaches the reader the basics of SQL, more than enough to deal with perhaps 80% or more of common SQL requirements. Beyond that and you're in the realm of system architects and administrators who are simply not the audience for this book.

Be sure to download the sample databases and errata from the author's website.

On the whole, one of the best introductions to SQL available.

Jerry

Editorial Review:

Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes has established itself as the gold standard for introductory SQL books, offering a fast-paced accessible tutorial to the major themes and techniques involved in applying the SQL language. Forta's examples are clear and his writing style is crisp and concise. As with earlier editions, this revision includes coverage of current versions of all major commercial SQL platforms. New this time around is coverage of MySQL, and PostgreSQL. All examples have been tested against each SQL platform, with incompatibilities or platform distinctives called out and explained.

Making and Breaking the Grid: A Graphic Design Layout Workshop (Graphic Design)

Timothy Samara

List Price: $50.00 By: Rockport Publishers Amazon Marketplace: 4 new & used starting at $38.80

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 24 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The big book of clarity and chaos 3 out of 5 stars.
18 of 21 people found this review helpful.

What a strange publication. Divided into two sections the first explaining grid formatting with actual printed material and the second revealing how to design print without a grid.

There seems a contradiction here because the grid, used intelligently, will allow a whole range of graphic options to be presented with clarity. Some of the print examples reproduced in the first section do show this with perhaps the most useful item a grid thumbnail for each piece, unfortunately I thought it was rather too small on each spread despite being the key to explaining each format. From past experience, designing magazines, I would start work on a grid by concentrating on the text type size because it is the least flexible of all the elements on the page. This point really wasn't made enough of in the book's chapter: Grid Basics.

The reproductions show a reasonable range of design solutions, essentially print though there is an example of corporate signage. Missing are magazines (consumer or trade) timetables and the like. Without a grid this type of printed matter really wouldn't exist.

The book's contradiction, to my mind, start with the second section: 'Grid Deconstructions and Non-Grid-Based Design Projects'. The forty items shown seem to have a couple of common threads: their design is essentially arbitrary which makes them look very messy and frequently their typography (display and text) is used as a design element which makes the words unreadable. Their design is the opposite of grid stimulated creativity, in other words visual chaos.

Some of the examples are quite amazing. On page 180-181 twelve pages of a calendar are shown, totally useless as its impossible to see the days and dates. Pages 188-189 show eight spreads from a design school journal showing irregular shaped blocks of text creating a sort of collage. I doubt anyone made the effort to read any of it. What is interesting about this second section material is that so much of it comes from educational establishments. In the real world all this designer whimsy would be rejected by the client on sight of the first dummy

'Making and Breaking the Grid' is well printed with 175dpi and the layout is adequate and for a book about grids you would have thought its own grid would have been included but it is strangely missing. Overall I felt that because the contents present two opposite design ideals the book's editorial concept is rather flawed.

From my experience there is only one book that really explains it all: Muller-Brockmann's Grid Systems in Graphic Design (go to the book's site to see some spreads I've uploaded) published in Switzerland and full of good solid, practical, hands-on information. This book's only purpose is creative clarity.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

Editorial Review:

For designers working in every medium, layout is arguable the most basic and most important element. Effective layout is essential to communication and enables the end user to not only be drawn in with an innovative design but to digest information easily. Making and Breaking the Grid is a comprehensive layout design workshop that assumes that to effectively break the rules of grid-based design one must first understand those rules and see them applied to real-world projects. Text reveals top designers' work in process and rationale. Projects with similar characteristics are linked through a simple notational system that encourages exploration and comparison of structure ideas. Also included are historical overviews that summarise the development of layout concepts, both grid-based and non-grid based, in modern design practice.

Pro Silverlight 2 in C# 2008 (Windows.Net)

Matthew MacDonald

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Silverlight is a lightweight browser plug–in that frees your code from the traditional confines of the browser. It’s a rules–changing, groundbreaking technology that allows you to run rich client applications right inside the browser. Even more impressively, it’s able to host true .NET applications in non–Microsoft browsers (like Firefox) and on non–Microsoft platforms (like Mac OS X). Silverlight is still new and evolving fast, and you need a reliable guidebook to make sense of it.

With four–color graphics and screenshots throughout, Pro Silverlight 2 in C# 2008 is the perfect reference: you’ll learn about the features that put Silverlight in direct competition with Adobe Flash, such as rich support for 2D drawing, animations, and media playback, and best of all, you’ll experience the plumbing of .NET and the design model of WPF through Silverlight—all of the same .NET technology that developers use to design next–generation Windows applications. Author Matthew MacDonald provides an expertly crafted tutorial written from professional developer to professional developer. You’ll learn to create rich media applications using Silverlight in the environment you’re most productive in–no matter what the target platform.

What you’ll learn

• Develop rich media applications using Silverlight across browsers and platforms.
• Create a project, set up a layout, and use controls.
• Handle 2D drawing, animation, and media playback through Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF).
• Integrate web services support.
• Use Silverlight in conjunction with ASP.NET and its interactions with HTML.

Who is this book for?

.NET developers encountering Silverlight for the first time. No prior knowledge of WPF or ASP.NET is assumed.

About the Apress Pro Series

The Apress Pro series books are practical, professional tutorials to keep you on and moving up the professional ladder.

You have gotten the job, now you need to hone your skills in these tough competitive times. The Apress Pro series expands your skills and expertise in exactly the areas you need. Master the content of a Pro book, and you will always be able to get the job done in a professional development project. Written by experts in their field, Pro series books from Apress give you the hard-won solutions to problems you will face in your professional programming career.

MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-536): Microsoft® .NET Framework Application Development Foundation, Second Edition

Tony Northrup

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Editorial Review:

Exam Prep Guide Ace your preparation for the skills measured by MCTS Exam 70-536 and on the job. Work at your own pace through a series of lessons and reviews that fully cover each exam objective. Then, reinforce what you ve learned by applying your knowledge to real-world case scenarios and labs. This official Microsoft study guide is designed to help you make the most of your study time. Maximize your performance on the exam by learning to: Use system types, collections, and generics to help manage data Validate input, reformat text, and extract data with regular expressions Develop services, application domains, and multithreaded applications Enhance your application by adding graphics and images Implement code access security, role-based security, and data encryption Work with serialization and reflection techniques Instrument your applications with logging and tracing Interact with legacy code using COM Interop and PInvoke Practice Tests Assess your skills with practice tests on CD. You can work through hundreds of questions using multiple testing modes to meet your specific learning needs.You get detailed explanations for right and wrong answers including a customized learning path that describes how and where to focus your studies. Your kit includes: 15% exam discount from Microsoft. Offer expires 12/31/10. Details inside. Official self-paced study guide. Practice tests with multiple, customizable testing options and a learning plan based on your results. 450 practice and review questions. Case scenarios and lab exercises. Code samples on CD. 90-day evaluation version of Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition. Fully searchable eBook.

CSS: The Missing Manual

David McFarland

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 63 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Web site design has grown up. Unlike the old days, when designers cobbled together chunky HTML, bandwidth-hogging graphics, and a prayer to make their sites look good, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) now lets your inner designer come out and play. But CSS isn't just a tool to pretty up your site; it's a reliable method for handling all kinds of presentation--from fonts and colors to page layout. "CSS: The Missing Manual" clearly explains this powerful design language and how you can use it to build sparklingly new Web sites or refurbish old sites that are ready for an upgrade.

Like their counterparts in print page-layout programs, style sheets allow designers to apply typographic styles, graphic enhancements, and precise layout instructions to elements on a Web page. Unfortunately, due to CSS's complexity and the many challenges of building pages that work in all Web browsers, most Web authors treat CSS as a kind of window-dressing to spruce up the appearance of their sites. Integrating CSS with a site's underlying HTML is hard work, and often frustratingly complicated. As a result many of the most powerful features of CSS are left untapped. With this book, beginners and Web-building veterans alike can learn how to navigate the ins-and-outs of CSS and take complete control over their Web pages' appearance.

Author David McFarland (the bestselling author of O'Reilly's "Dreamweaver: The Missing Manual") combines crystal-clear explanations, real-world examples, a dash of humor, and dozens of step-by-step tutorials to show you ways to design sites with CSS that work consistently across browsers. You'll learn how to: Create HTML that's simpler, uses less code, is search-engine friendly, and works well with CSS Style text by changing fonts, colors, font sizes, and adding borders Turn simple HTML links into complex and attractive navigation bars-complete with CSS-only rollover effects that add interactivity to your Web pages Style images to create effective photo galleries and special effects like CSS-based drop shadows Make HTML forms look great without a lot of messy HTML Overcome the most hair-pulling browser bugs so your Web pages work consistently from browser to browser Create complex layouts using CSS, including multi-column designs that don't require using old techniques like HTML tables Style Web pages for printing

Unlike competing books, this Missing Manual doesn't assume that everyone in the world only surfs the Web with Microsoft's Internet Explorer; our book provides support for all major Web browsers and is one of the first books to thoroughly document the newly expanded CSS support in IE7, currently in beta release.

Want to learn how to turn humdrum Web sites into destinations that will capture viewers and keep them longer? Pick up "CSS: The Missing Manual" and learn the real magic of this tool.

Cruel Intent (Thorndike Press Large Print Basic Series)

Judith A. Jance

Amazon Price: $26.58 List Price: $34.95 Not yet published By: Thorndike Press

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A new and chilling tale of suspense from the New York Times bestselling author of Hand of Evil

On a dating site, singleatheart.com, bored housewives can find romance with married men looking for sex without strings. But these "married singles" are flirting with more than just their vows. At the heart of this seemingly innocent service, a vengeful computer hacker is playing games with people's lives...and deaths.

Ex-television journalist Ali Reynolds just wants a break from excitement. In the midst of a remodel, the last thing she expects is a murder investigation that will stop the construction on her home. But when the savagely murdered body of stay-at-home mom Morgan Forester is found, Ali's contractor Bryan is the prime suspect. Bryan swears he has nothing to do with his wife's murder -- but as the investigation progresses, Ali seems to be the only resident of Sedona who believes him.

Determined to prove Bryan's innocence, Ali unknowingly lands herself directly in the path of a calculating killer. In a world filled with encrypted computer traps and life-threatening lies, will Ali be able to decode the actions of a ruthless man determined to destroy women -- before he uses his wicked website to find her?

Non-Designer's Design Book, The (3rd Edition) (Non Designer's Design Book)

Robin Williams

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 215 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

great intro to designTurned the 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Turned the light on for me as to why my fliers, brochures and business cards were so hard to really "get." Because I'm a visual artist I hadn't thot I needed any help. How wrong I was! This book is great for beginners, it's short and sweet, and great bathroom reading!

Editorial Review:

A lot has happened in the world of digital design since the first edition of this title was published, but one thing remains true: There is an ever-growing number of people attempting to design pages with no formal training. This book is the one place they can turn to find quick, non-intimidating, excellent design help from trusted design instructor Robin Williams. This revised classic--now in full color--includes a new section on the hot topic of Color itself. In The Non-Designer's Design Book, 3rd Edition, Robin turns her attention to the basic principles that govern good design. Readers who follow her clearly explained concepts will produce more sophisticated and professional pages immediately. Humor-infused, jargon-free prose interspersed with design exercises, quizzes, and illustrations make learning a snap--which is just what audiences have come to expect from this best-selling author.

Microsoft® Office Project 2007 Step by Step (Step By Step (Microsoft))

Carl Chatfield, Timothy Johnson

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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Microsoft -> Applications -> Project
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A Project Stroll 5 out of 5 stars.
11 of 11 people found this review helpful.

This has been a great book for learning Project 2007. If you already know Project, it does a great job of providing review material, guiding you away from unnecessary chapters. If you have never really spent time with Project, this book does a very good job of walking you through, Step by Step, aspects and capabilities of Project, as well as exposing you to solid project management practices.

Editorial Review:

Experience learning made easy and quickly teach yourself how to manage your projects with Project 2007. With Step By Step, you set the pace building and practicing the skills you need, just when you need them! Build a project plan and fine-tune the details Schedule tasks, assign resources, and manage dependencies Monitor progress and costs and keep your project on track Format Gantt charts and other views to communicate project data Begin exploring enterprise project management systems Your all-in-one learning experience includes: Files for building skills and practicing the book s lessons Fully searchable eBook Bonus guide to the Ribbon, the new Microsoft Office interface Quick course on project management in the Appendix Windows Vista Product Guide eReference plus other resources on CD