Upgrading and Repairing PCs (19th Edition) Review

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(More customer reviews)Great reference covering the most recent technologies. I've been following the series since the 3rd edition and each one has been worth its weight in gold! If only Amazon knew, I would be willing to pay in excess of $200.00 for this! ;D My personal last edition was the 13th, so this will make a fine addition to the library.
I love how Scott covers the history, and even though there have been complaints on earlier editions of this inclusion of past technologies, it is valuable information.
This edition was a Christmas gift to my brother who is now getting into computer repair. After a few days, he is eating the book up alive! Amazon was great in its shipment and technically was not going to release it until a couple of days before Christmas, however they not only made an earlier release date but got it to me before Christmas. I'll be purchasing a copy for my self after this review!
If your in doubt as whether to purchase this, don't be. This is a very inexpensive way to add to your understanding, what could take you "forever" in your Google searches!

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Computer Repair with Diagnostic Flowcharts: Troubleshooting PC Hardware Problems from Boot Failure to Poor Performance, Revised Edition Review

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(More customer reviews)Handy flowcharts with accompaning detailed descriptions. Very logically organized and layed out. It provides you with a structured process for tracking down pc problems. Highly recommended.
Having a little troubleshooting experience would be helpful, but not absolutely necessary. A fair number of pc problems have very simple solutions. The author does not overlook the obvious(is it plugged in? are all the mute buttons unchecked?) on way to making a proper diagnosis.
If you are at all serious about providing your own tech support (or support to friends and family), get this book. Money well spent.

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The updated edition of the classic visual manual for troubleshooting PC hardware problems. Morris Rosenthal creates a visual expert system for diagnosing component failure and identifying conflicts. The seventeen diagnostic flowcharts at the core of this book are intended for the intermediate to advanced hobbyist, or the beginning technician. Following a structured approach to troubleshooting hardware reduces the false diagnoses and parts wastage typical of the "swap 'till you drop" school of thought. Flowcharts include: Power Supply Failure, Video Failure, Video Performance, Motherboard, CPU, RAM Failure, Motherboard, CPU, RAM Performance, IDE Drive Failure, Hard Drive Boot and Performance, CD or DVD Playback, CD or DVD Recording Problem, Modem Failure, Modem Performance, Sound Failure, Sound and Game Controller Performance, Network Failure, Peripheral Failure, SCSI Failure and Conflict Resolution.Computer Repair with Diagnostic Flowcharts is used as a classroom text in colleges and technical schools andby the U.S. government for training forensic technicians. It's also a favorite reference with consumers and technicians all over the world.

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Using the iPhone (covers 3G, 3Gs and 4 running iOS4) Review

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(More customer reviews)I picked this book up for a friend and this is what he had to say:
"It is a guide to basic iPhone operation with step by step instructions for most
tasks. I don't think this is widely needed due to the iPhone being fairly intuitive or
at least consistent in design. But the book is much more explicit than the
small "manual" included with the iPhone, so some will find value.

There are a handful of interesting tips that are not obvious, but I would have
liked more. In my case, it was marginally helpful for a different reason. I did not yet
have access to an iPhone and needed to know more about it for a work-related project.
The purchase includes online access to audio and video clips. Videos can be
helpful for some things, but I'd much rather read a transcript of the audio. I
mean, I got the book, right? I can obviously read.

That said, after 2 days of various registration attempts, I was unable to
actually access the online media.

Note that Apple does have a fairly detailed user guide online and available on
the phone itself.
Suggest 3 stars as it mostly delivers what it claims."


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Fundamentals of Mobile and Pervasive Computing Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is a good entry point for someone wishing to learn about wireless computing and communication. It provides a broad survey of the various kinds of wireless applications and implementation design patterns, discussing the technology performance limitations and trade-offs that motivate each design decision. The viability and effectiveness of every design choice depends upon the other choices taken, motivating many complex mathematical optimization problems.

I began reading this book with the assumption that wireless application design rested on the same principles as the design of ordinary distributed computer systems, save for a narrower communication bandwidth, and occasional planned disconnections. This book made me realize that things are much more complicated in the wireless world. In ordinary distributed systems, the main challenge is the design of a static scheme for distributing work among communicating components. Once that is done, one can pretty much separate the infrastructure oriented code from the business logic. In the wireless world, the communication bandwidth's variability and lack of reliability requires the distribution of tasks to react to changing network conditions; this radically increases the difficulty of separating infrastructure concerns from business logic. The limitations of typical mobile devices (small memory, limited power, and slow processor speed) only add to the developer's burden. In designing an application for a pre-existing wireless system, traditional methods of program organization may not be appropriate. The need to discover or invent algorithms that take into account a mobile network's unique characteristics creates a challenge somewhat akin to that faced by the early users of novel massively-parallel computer architectures.
One learns that there are no general purpose easy answers to these problems, but the book does an excellent job in laying out the issues, concerns and approaches, while providing ample bibliographies of published research that readers can delve into for their specific problem. The reader comes away with a familiarity in the terms, concepts and acronyms used in the wireless community, providing an excellent foundation for further reading in the literature (which, unfortunately, is not always as well-written or accessible to the newcomer as is this text).


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This book details the engineering principles underlying mobile computing, serving as a basic reference as text for graduate and advanced undergraduates. It is the first systematic explanation of mobile communications as a discipline in itself, containing Exercises, projects, and solutions.

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BlackBerry Application Development For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech)) Review

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(More customer reviews)This "Dummies" book is like most of the books in this series: helpful, easy-to-follow instructions from basic applications to more complicated applications. There is even a chapter dealing with submitting your own app to the Blackberry app world, pricing and submitting it to RIM. The book assumes you have some familiarity with Java because that is the language used to create apps for Blackberry.


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Designing the Mobile User Experience Review

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(More customer reviews)Handheld Usability
The above link is to a book that is easily the predecessor to "Designing the Mobile User Experience." The shame of it is that Barbara Ballard and Scott Weiss did not collaborate to produce a second edition, sharing both of their insights. Instead, Ballard writes the same book, but in 2007 instead of 2002, with many of the same weaknesses, and many of the same strengths. Readers who liked "Handheld Usability" will enjoy "Designing the Mobile User Experience," but will be frustrated by the lack of detailed WAP design advice. Also missing is detailed advice for FlashLite, UIOne, SVG, tat, Java, and other environments. Ballard is a very strong writer, with very strong opinions. Fortunately, she is very smart and knowledgable, with extensive experience working at Sprint and since, providing services to Sprint. Wiley did her a disservice by printing the book in black and white, and does a crazy disservice to readers by charging so much for the book. However, designers who want to learn about mobile will benefit from this book. Experienced mobile designers will be frustrated, as they were with "Handheld Usability." Even experienced mobile designers should consider purchasing this book, as a reference and as a supplement to their own knowledge.

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Gain the knowledge and tools to deliver compelling mobile phone applications.
Mobile and wireless application design is complex and challenging. Selecting an application technology and designing a mobile application require an understanding of the benefits, costs, context, and restrictions of the development company, end user, target device, and industry structure.
Designing the Mobile User Experience provides the experienced product development professional with an understanding of the users, technologies, devices, design principles, techniques and industry players unique to the mobile and wireless space. Barbara Ballard describes the different components affecting the user experience and principles applicable to the mobile environment, enabling the reader to choose effective technologies, platforms, and devices, plan appropriate application features, apply pervasive design patterns, and choose and apply appropriate research techniques.
Designing the Mobile User Experience:
Provides a comprehensive guide to the mobile user experience, offering guidance to help make appropriate product development and design decisions.
Gives product development professionals the tools necessary to understand development in the mobile environment.
Clarifies the components affecting the user experience and principles uniquely applicable to the mobile application field.
Explores industry structure and power dynamics, providing insight into how mobile technologies and platforms become available on current and future phones.
Provides user interface design patterns, design resources, and user research methods for mobile user interface design.
Illustrates concepts with example photographs, explanatory tables and charts, and an example application.

Designing the Mobile User Experience is an invaluable resource for information architects, user experience planners and designers, interaction designers, human factors specialists, ergonomists, product marketing specialists, and brand managers. Managers and directors within organizations entering the mobile space, advanced students, partnership managers, software architects, solution architects, development managers, graphic designers, visual designers, and interface designers will also find this to be an excellent guide to the topic.

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Windows Communication Foundation 4 Step by Step (Step by Step (Microsoft)) Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a good resource for learning WCF. It covers a ton of topics and they are shown in the context of real world applications.
The book starts out with a few chapters introducing WCF and Hosting possibilities.
It then contains chapter on securing an enterprise (intranet) as well as what it takes to secure a service exposed to the internet. These are great chapters, but a little confusing when it comes to the certificate deployment to the clients. I also would have like to have seen how to specifically secure Ajax and WPF clients over the internet.
The book then covers transactions, reliable sessions, performance, discovery, routing, REST, asynchronous operations, workflows, state, and data contracts.
The main thing I like about the book is the attempt to show real world situations.
The main thing I thought the book could use was some diagrams (UML or whatever) to help describe the execution of some of the code being explained and to help show some context. I would have also liked to see a complete chapter on just configuration. None of the books I have seen on WCF have very good details on configuration.
The code samples are well organized and very usable.
This is a book that must be read. It is not a quick reference. That is not a bad thing, the explanations are thorough, just not in a quick look up format.
All in all I recommend reading this book. It contains a ton of information and is one of the better WCF 4 books available.

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Your hands-on, step-by-step guide to building connected, service-oriented applications.

Teach yourself the essentials of Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) 4 -- one step at a time. With this practical, learn-by-doing tutorial, you get the clear guidance and hands-on examples you need to begin creating Web services for robust Windows-based business applications.

Discover how to:

Build and host SOAP and REST services
Maintain service contracts and data contracts
Control configuration and communications programmatically
Implement message encryption, authentication, and authorization
Manage identity with Windows CardSpace
Begin working with Windows Workflow Foundation to create scalable and durable business services
Implement service discovery and message routing
Optimize performance with service throttling, encoding, and streaming
Integrate WCF services with ASP.NET clients and enterprise services components

Your Step by Step digital content includes:

Practice exercises
Downloadable code samples
Fully searchable online edition of the book -- with unlimited access on the Web

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Designing the iPhone User Experience: A User-Centered Approach to Sketching and Prototyping iPhone Apps Review

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(More customer reviews)I design and create iPhone and mobile apps for a living, so I've seen my share of carbon-copied iPhone HIG's with little thought about the user research, experience design overall device navigation. Suzanne's book is not this! She covers all of these important mobile user experience topics plus some. She starts you off with a classic interaction design approach, then dives into how these research elements apply to device design, and provides a great deal of exemplars to back up her thoughts.
For those already familiar with user experience design, Suzanne's discussion of the device capabilities, navigation and interface elements/interplay is equally as valuable. Suzanne's book actually changed the way I approached my soon-to-be-released iPhone App DrivingBuddy. You could spend hours looking for examples of well-designed mobile apps and diagnosing why exactly they are great, or you could just read Suzanne's book :)
This book is clearly written for a designerly audience, but also lays the groundwork for user experience newbies. I highly recommend this book to anyone tackling the difficult task of designing for mobile.

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"In her book Designing the iPhone User Experience, Suzanne Ginsburg takes a fresh look at cutting-edge, user-centered design from the perspectiveof designing mobile user experiences for the iPhone. Her book brings together everything you need to know to design great products for mobilecontexts."—Pabini Gabriel-Petit, UX Strategy & Design Consultant and Publisher and Editor in Chief of UXmatters"It's about time! Suzanne Ginsburg takes the best of User-Centered Design (UCD) principles and tweaks them with a dash of mobile and a lot of hintsabout what it means to implement the Apple Human Interface Guidelines for iPhone. Your idea for an iPhone app has much better chances of beingaccepted by iPhone owners (and by the iTunes watchdogs guarding entry to the App Store) if you follow even half of the suggestions in this book."—Nancy Frishberg, Ph.D., User Experience Strategist and past Chair of BayCHI



Given the fiercely competitive state of the iPhone app landscape,it has become increasingly challenging for app designers and developers to differentiate their apps. The days are long gone when it was possible to crank out an app over the weekend and refine it after receiving a few not so flattering user reviews. Users now have choices -- lots of them. If your app is difficult to use or doesn't meet their needs, finding another one is just a tap away.
To illustrate, consider the ever-growing field of Twitter clients. There are hundreds of variations in the App Store but only a handful stand out from the pack (such as Tweetie or Twitterific). For most apps, it boils down to one thing: the user experience. The same is true for countless other categories within the App Store; well-designed apps are more likely to attract and retain users. Of course there are other critical aspects of iPhone app development: the coding, the marketing, the customer support. All of the elements must come together.
Designing the iPhone User Experience will help you tackle the user experience part of the iPhone challenge. Three key themes will be reinforced throughout the book: Know thy user, the Design Lifecycle, and Attention to Detail:

Know Thy User Millions of people depend on iPhone apps to get them to work, find their next meal, and stay in touch with family and friends. Professionals of all kinds also rely on iPhone apps: doctors look up drug interactions; photographers fine-tune lighting; cyclists find the best routes. To truly understand how your apps can fit into their lives, designers and developers must learn how users do things today, what's important to them, and what needs have not been met. Part II, Introduction to User Research, will introduce a variety of user research methods.
The Design Lifecycle Award-winning designs rarely happen overnight; they usually only occur after many rigorous design cycles. To illustrate this point, consider USA TODAY's iPhone application, which went through at least seven iterations for the article view in their app. These kinds of iterations should happen before you launch your app, since it will save valuable time and money, not to mention the headaches a bad design could create for your user. More importantly, you may only have one chance to impress your users -- you do not want to sell them half-baked ideas. Part III, Developing your App Concept, will explain how to iteratively design and test your app concepts.
Attention to Detail Most professionals know that attention to detail is important, but hundreds of apps fail to incorporate even the most basic design principles. This lack of attention is not merely an aesthetic issue (which is important) it also affects the way apps function. For example, a news article without proper alignment will be difficult to read, and a poorly rendered icon will be challenging to interpret. Apps with a razor sharp attention to detail will stand out because their apps will look good and perform well. Part IV, Refining your App Concept, will show you how to make to your app shine, from visual design and branding to accessibility and localization.
Mastering these three areas will help set your app apart from the crowd. You may not have an award-winning app over night. But knowing your users, iterative design, and attention to detail are important first steps.

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Mobile Web Design For Dummies Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a great introduction to designing web pages for mobile phones because it covers the basic knowledge one needs to understand the design challenges posed by mobile phones. It does require a basic understanding of XHTML, CSS, and a little Javascript to work the examples in the book but the information is great and the examples are thorough and clear.

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The perfect place to learn how to design Web sites for mobile devices!
With the popularity of Internet access via cell phones and other mobile devices, Web designers now have to consider as many as eight operating systems, several browsers, and a slew of new devices as they plan a new site, a new interface, or a new sub-site. This easy-to-follow friendly book guides you through this brave new world with a clear look at the fundamentals and offers practical techniques and tricks you may not have considered.
Explores all issues to consider in planning a mobile site
Covers the tools needed for mobile design, in particular XHTML and CSS
Shows you how to plan for multimedia, e-commerce, and marketing your site, including adding audio, video, and social networking
Provides real-world examples and tips to help you avoid common pitfalls

If you're contemplating Web design in a mobile world, start first with this practical guide.

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Technical Communication Today (4th Edition) Review

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(More customer reviews)An excellent book, very well presented and is easy to read and understand. I feel that this book has improved my writing abilities vastly in the past month.

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Technical Communication Today remains the only text to fully centralize the computer in the technical workplace, presenting howwriters usecomputers throughout their communication process. Each chapter places an emphasis on the activity of producing effective documents by following a process approach that mirrors how professionals communicate in the technical workplace and how students learn in the classroom. The text incorporates the newest technology-driven changes in workplace communication with in-depth discussions of email, instant messaging, working in virtual teams, making Web sites, blogging, podcasting, incorporating digital audio and visuals in documents,using PDAs, and negotiating ethical situations in electronic communicationamong many other available strategies and tools.

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Mobile Design and Development: Practical Concepts and Techniques for Creating Mobile Sites and Web Apps (Animal Guide) Review

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(More customer reviews)Original review written by Pasquale Granato, JUG Lugano, [...] First of all, let's clear the field from a possible misunderstanding: this book is not about general mobile design and development but it is about web mobile development. The author states a precise, despite arguable, opinion that brutally said is: do not code native applications but prefer as much as you can web applications. This statement is largely discussed across the book and everyone can make up his own opinion about this. Mine is that currently times are not mature to consider to write just web applications both because mobile browser are not powerful enough (on average) to assure a smooth experience on all devices and because of the lack of a good way to make money from your web app.
The first three chapters of the book are a really good introduction to the history of mobile, to the mobile current status and to the reasons that should drive an approach to the mobile development. These chapters are a well written recap of the status of the art and present a lot of data useful to understand the global situation. Unfortunately the book is printed in black and white and several pie-charts and graphs are pretty much impossible to read.
The central part of the book, chapters from four to ten, is devoted to design issues and, despite the lack of an in-depth examination of some subjects, offers a pretty good survey of the topic.
The final part of the book is slightly more technical covering topics such as XHTML-MP, CSS, HTML5, device adaptation, etc. The problem here is that there is nothing really practical and all remains at an introductory level. To give you an example, a capital topic in device adaptation like Media Queries is covered in half a page with just a trivial example. Furthermore the author seems to be unaware of things like XwapProfile or UAProf (that is probably a obsolete and unreliable method but deserve at least a notation).
My biggest complain is anyway about the author's obsession for the iPhone. The Apple's jewel is referenced continuously and always with great glorification: the word iPhone recurs 99 times in the book and out of the 115 pictures in the book as many as 37 depict an iPhone. An entire chapter is devoted to iPhone web applications development even though most of the concepts presented here are common to other modern devices.
This is overall a decent introductory book, if you are completely new to the field, and it's packed with many good advices but do not expect much from the practical techniques promised by the title.

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Mobile and Wireless Design Essentials Review

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(More customer reviews)I am studying towards a Ph.D. in Information Systems. I was given an assignment to research wireless technologies. I decided to read this book to refresh my memory about the topic. The information in the book is better presented than any journal article on the topic that I have read to date, even articles from world renown researchers from MIT, Stanford, Duke and alike. The author takes a very difficult topic and presents in a crystal clear manner that can be understood by virtually anyone. Moreover, the information is not watered-down. To the contrary, it is the single most valuable resource that I have found on the topic after conducting a thorough literature review. I would recommend it to anyone who deals with wireless networks or wants to increase their knowledge about the topic.

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Describes mobile and wireless design techniques from the developer's perspective, offering in-depth analysis of the complete range of network technologies
Details development options for building Smart Client, Thin Client, and messaging applications as well as PIM (personal information management) and location-based services
The author is an experienced trainer who leads seminars and workshops worldwide for iAnywhere Solutions, a subsidiary of Sybase

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Wi-Fi Toys: 15 Cool Wireless Projects for Home, Office, and Entertainment (ExtremeTech) Review

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(More customer reviews)I was hoping that this book would help me boost my Wi-Fi signal around the house, since the reception downstairs is a little weak. Well, it did show me how to boost my signal - for up to 20 miles! Ok, seriously, long distance wi-fi is one of the 15 projects in this book, but my solution was actually in building the high-gain antenna project in chapter 4, which did indeed solve my reception problems.
The book is very well written, and has plenty of photos to guide you along the way. The projects are definately cool, and there are plenty to keep us geek types busy.
If you are using wireless networking, I would encourage you to take a look at this book.

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This ultra-cool volume invites readers to tap into your inner geek and build seventeen ultra-cool wireless devices including a solar powered access point, a wireless picture frame that dynamically changes its own photos, and even a wireless car-to-car audio and video system
With a few simple tools, some off-the-shelf parts, and this book, readers will be creating wireless devices they never thought were possible-toys that certainly can't be found at the local computer store
Written by the cofounder and members of the Southern California Wireless Users Group, this book provides readers with hands-on instruction and insider tips and tricks from those who are on the bleeding edge of wireless technology
New addition to the ExtremeTech line of books-books for serious technophiles

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