Posts Tagged ‘oreilly’

Web Design for Developers

Web Design for Developers (Pragmatic Bookshelf, $42.95 USD) will show you how to make your web-based application look professionally designed. You’ll learn how to pick the right colors and fonts, avoid costly interface and accessibility mistakes, and make your application really come alive.

Author Brian Hogan says, “If you’ve ever written an application and wished it looked a little better, then this book is for you. If you’ve ever looked at your favorite website and tried to pull apart the CSS to figure out how it works, you’re come to the right place.”

Brian walks you through some common Photoshop and CSS techniques and works through a complete web site redesign, taking a new design from concept all the way to implementation.

You’ll learn how to take a sketch and transform it into a digital mockup in Photoshop, and then finally into a working web page. You’ll see how to develop logos, icons, and buttons using Illustrator and Photoshop, and then code a web page that will load fast, be easy to maintain, and most of all, be accessible to all audiences.

Advance Praise

“This is the book I wish I had had when I started to build my first website. It covers web development from A to Z and will answer many of your questions while improving the quality of the sites you produce.”

–Shae Murphy, CTO, Social Brokerage

Web Design for Developers
Publisher: Pragmatic Bookshelf
Brian Hogan
ISBN: 9781934356135, 300 pages

Beautiful Testing

Successful software depends as much on scrupulous testing as it does on solid architecture or elegant code. But testing is not a routine process, it’s a constant exploration of methods and an evolution of good ideas.

Beautiful Testing (O’Reilly, $49.99 USD), edited by Adam Goucher and Tim Riley, offers 23 essays from 27 leading technical testers and developers that illustrate the qualities and techniques that make testing an art. Through personal anecdotes, you’ll learn how each of these professionals developed beautiful ways of testing a wide range of products–valuable knowledge that you can apply to your own projects.

"Readers will be able to jump in and start using the tools and techniques right now. The book has very practical examples and extensive links where they can find additional information," says Riley (@timr50).

"In each chapter we each learned at least one thing…We both have over a decade of testing experience and have read a lot of material in that time. If we learned something in each chapter, then most readers should as well and that, to us, is the measure of a great resource book," says Goucher (@adamgoucher).

Here’s a sample of what you’ll find inside:

1. Microsoft’s Alan Page knows a lot about large-scale test automation, and shares some of his secrets on how to make it beautiful
2. Scott Barber explains why performance testing needs to be a collaborative process, rather than simply an exercise in measuring speed
3. Karen Johnson describes how her professional experience intersected her personal life while testing medical software
4. Rex Black reveals how satisfying stakeholders for 25 years is a beautiful thing
5. Mathematician John D. Cook applies a classic definition of beauty, based on complexity and unity, to testing random number generators

Advance Praise

"Any one of the insights or practical suggestions from these testing gurus would be worth the price of the book. The ideas are elegant and possibly challenging, yet are presented clearly and enthusiastically. This comprehensive, ambitious, engaging, and entertaining collection belongs on the bookshelf of every testing professional."

–Ken Doran, QA Lead, Stanford University; Chair, Silicon Valley Software Quality Association

All author royalties will be donated to the Nothing But Nets (@NothingButNets) campaign to save lives by preventing malaria, a disease that kills millions of children in Africa each year.

Follow Adam and Tim’s tweets at @BeautifulTest.

Adam Goucher has been testing software professionally for over ten years. In that time he has worked with start-ups, large multi-nationals and ones in between in both traditional and agile testing environments. A believer in the communication of ideas big and small, he writes frequently at Adam Goucher and teaches testing skills at a Toronto area technical college.

Tim Riley is the Director of Quality Assurance at Mozilla. He has tested software for 18 years including everything from spacecraft simulators, ground control systems, high security operating systems, language platforms, application servers, hosted services and open source web applications.

Note: The words with @ denotes the twitter.com (http://www.twitter.com) ID’s of the respective authors/reviewers.

Keys: testing, oreilly, software, microsoft, tech

Apprenticeship Patterns

Are you doing all you can to further your career as a software developer? With today’s rapidly changing and ever-expanding technologies, being successful requires more than technical expertise. To grow professionally, you also need soft skills and effective learning techniques. Honing those skills is what Apprenticeship Patterns (O’Reilly, US $29.99) is all about. Authors Dave Hoover and Adewale Oshineye have cataloged dozens of behavior patterns to help you perfect essential aspects of your craft.

Compiled from years of research, many interviews, and feedback from O’Reilly’s online forum, these patterns address difficult situations that programmers, administrators, and DBAs face every day. And it’s not just about financial success. This book also approaches software development as a means to personal fulfillment. Co-author Adewale Oshineye says, "Readers will be able to take charge of their careers by applying the book’s patterns to solve the problems that they frequently encounter in their jobs."

Hoover expands on this point: "I think Ward Cunningham described best why this book is important right now. He believes that there is more information about what we do than one person can absorb, and yet some people still somehow master our craft. In his foreword, Ward wrote, ‘This book is full of patterns for mastering our complex field. Mastering is more than just knowing. It is knowing in a way that lightens your load…These patterns are a welcome contribution to this progression.’"

Discover how this book can help you make the best of both your life and your career:

Burned out at work? "Nurture Your Passion" by finding a pet project to rediscover the joy of problem solving. Feeling overwhelmed by new information? Re-explore familiar territory by building something you’ve built before, then use "Retreat into Competence" to move forward again. Stuck in your learning? Seek a team of experienced and talented developers with whom you can "Be the Worst" for a while.

Advance Praise
"Brilliant stuff! Reading this book was like being in a time machine that pulled me back to those key learning moments in my career as a professional software developer and, instead of having to learn the best practices the hard way, I had a guru sitting on my shoulder guiding me every step toward master craftsmanship. I’ll certainly be recommending this book to clients. I wish I had this book 14 years ago!"
–Russ Miles, CEO, OpenCredo

Dave Hoover, Obtiva’s Chief Craftsman, enjoys developing software developers while developing software. He specializes in delivering projects for entrepreneurs.

Adewale Oshineye, an engineer at Google, has worked on projects ranging from point-of-sale systems for electrical retailers to trading systems for investment banks.

Apprenticeship Patterns
Dave Hoover, Adewale Oshineye
ISBN: 9780596518387, 166 pages,
Book Price: $29.99 USD,
Ebook Price: $23.99 USD

Windows 7: Up and Running

Looking for the quickest path to get started with Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system? With Windows 7: Up and Running (O’Reilly, US $24.99), by Microsoft MVP Wei-Meng Lee, you get the essential information you need to upgrade or install the system and configure it to fit your activities, along with a tour of Windows 7’s features and built-in applications.

And for those of you who have been around the block a few times with Windows, Lee says, "Even if you are already familiar with Windows, this book will still offer you some info that you may not already know."

Microsoft has learned from the mistakes of Windows Vista, and Windows 7 shows it—this new OS is much faster and more stable. Lee says, "When I tried Windows 7, it became clear to me that this was no Vista—Windows 7 is actually more stable and it runs beautifully even on older hardware."

With Windows 7: Up and Running, you’ll learn what’s new and what’s changed from XP and Vista, and get advice on ways to use this system for work, entertainment, instant communication, and more. Windows 7 is poised to be a big hit, and with this handy guide, you can be up and running—and productive—with it right away.

This book will show you how to:

• Master the user interface, including the taskbar, jump lists, desktop gadgets, Aero Shake, and notification area
• Discover the joys of networking with HomeGroup file sharing and improved Wi-Fi
• Tour the system’s improved security, including the Action Center, User Account Control, and Credential Manager
• Learn how to use Windows Live Essentials for messaging, photo sharing, moviemaking, emailing, and blogging
• Get to know built-in applications such as Internet Explorer 8, Windows Media Player 12, Microsoft Paint, and WordPad
• Learn about optional Microsoft software to enhance your Windows 7 experience

Wei-Meng Lee (Microsoft MVP) http://weimenglee.blogspot.com is a technologist and founder of Developer Learning Solutions http://www.developerlearningsolutions.com, a technology company specializing in hands-on training on the latest Microsoft technologies.

Windows 7: Up and Running
Wei-Meng Lee
ISBN: 9780596804046, 202 pages
Book Price: $24.99 USD
Ebook Price: $19.99 USD

About O’Reilly
O’Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O’Reilly Media has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying "faint signals" from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism.

windows 7, microsoft, windows, oreilly, wei meng lee, vista

Programming the Semantic Web

The promise of the semantic web–in which machines can find, share, and combine data on the Web–is not just a technical possibility, but a practical reality. Programming the Semantic Web (O’Reilly Media, $39.99 USD) demonstrates several ways to implement semantic web applications, using current and emerging standards and technologies. You’ll learn how to incorporate existing data sources into semantically aware applications and publish rich semantic data.

Each chapter walks you through a single piece of semantic technology and explains how you can use it to solve real problems. Whether you’re writing a simple mashup or maintaining a high-performance enterprise solution, Programming the Semantic Web provides a standard, flexible approach for integrating and future-proofing systems and data.

This book will help you:

• Learn how the semantic web allows new and unexpected uses of data to emerge
• Understand how semantic technologies promote data portability with a simple, abstract model for knowledge representation
• Become familiar with semantic standards, such as the Resource Description Framework (RDF) and the Web Ontology Language (OWL)
• Make use of semantic programming techniques to both enrich and simplify current web applications

In the preface of the book, authors Toby Segaran, Colin Evans, and Jamie Taylor, state that whether or not the semantic web can do anything interesting is solely up to you, the developer. They continue, "While the vision of the semantic web holds a great deal of promise, the real value of this vision is the technology that it has spawned for making data more portable and extensible. Whether you’re writing a simple ‘mashup’ or maintaining a high-performance enterprise solution, this book provides a standard, flexible approach for integrating and future-proofing systems and data."

Advanced Praise

"The technologies are here, the tools are ready, and this book will show you how to make it work for you."
–Jim Hendler, AI researcher and one of the originators of the semantic web

"’Programming the Semantic Web’ is hands-down the best practical introduction to the semantic web, a must-read for all engineers new to the Web of data. This book will give you the tools to both publish data on the Web and to exploit metadata in your own applications."
–Peter Mika, Researcher and data architect, Yahoo!

About the Authors

Colin Evans combines machine learning and semantic analysis into a deadly one-two punch against information entropy and noisy data. The results of his efforts appear as millions of facts in Freebase.

Toby Segaran is the author of Programming Collective Intelligence, a very popular O’Reilly title. He was the founder of Incellico, a biotech software company later acquired by Genstruct.

Jamie Taylor started one of the first ISPs in San Francisco so he could get a better connection at home. He is now helping to organize the world’s structured information at Metaweb where he oversees data operations.

Additional Resources

For more information about the book, including table of contents, index, author bios, and cover graphic, see: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596153816

Programming the Semantic Web
Toby Segaran, Colin Evans, Jamie Taylor
ISBN: 9780596153816, 298 pages,
Book Price: $39.99 USD, £30.99 GBP
Ebook Price: $31.99 USD
order@oreilly.com
1-800-998-9938
1-707-827-7000

About O’Reilly

O’Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O’Reilly Media has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying "faint signals" from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism.

oreilly, Toby Segaran, Colin Evans, Jamie Taylor, web, Semantic Web

Technorati Tags: oreilly, Toby Segaran, Colin Evans, Jamie Taylor, web, Semantic Web

Even Faster Web Sites

Sebastopol, CA – Performance is critical to the success of any web site, and yet today’s web applications push browsers to their limits with increasing amounts of rich content and heavy use of Ajax. In his newest book, Even Faster Web Sites, (O’Reilly, US $34.99), Steve Souders, web performance evangelist at Google and former Chief Performance Yahoo!, provides valuable techniques to help you optimize your site’s performance.

Souders’ previous book, the bestselling High Performance Web Sites, shocked the web development world by revealing that 80% of the time it takes for a web page to load is on the client side. In Even Faster Web Sites, Souders and eight expert contributors provide best practices and pragmatic advice for improving your site’s performance in three critical categories:

JavaScript: Get advice for understanding Ajax performance, writing efficient JavaScript, creating responsive applications, loading scripts without blocking other components, and more.
Network: Learn to share resources across multiple domains, reduce image size without loss of quality, and use chunked encoding to render pages faster.
Browser: Discover alternatives to iframes, how to simplify CSS selectors, and other techniques.

Speed is essential for today’s rich media web sites and Web 2.0 applications. With Even Faster Web Sites, you’ll learn how to shave precious seconds off your sites’ load times and make them respond even faster.

The book contains six guest chapters contributed by Dion Almaer, Doug Crockford, Ben Galbraith, Tony Gentilcore, Dylan Schiemann, Stoyan Stefanov, Nicole Sullivan, and Nicholas C. Zakas.

Steve Souders works at Google on web performance and open source initiatives. His books High Performance Web Sites and Even Faster Web Sites explain his best practices for performance along with the research and real-world results behind them. Steve is the creator of YSlow, the performance analysis extension to Firebug with more than 1 million downloads. He serves as co-chair of Velocity, the web performance and operations conference sponsored by O’Reilly. He frequently speaks at such conferences as OSCON, Rich Web Experience, Web 2.0 Expo, and The Ajax Experience.

Additional Resources:

For more information about the book, including table of contents, index, author bios, and cover graphic, see: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596522308

Even Faster Web Sites
Steve Souders
ISBN: 9780596522308, 254 pages,
Book Price: $34.99 USD, £26.99 GBP
Ebook Price: $27.99 USD
order@oreilly.com
1-800-998-9938
1-707-827-7000

About O’Reilly

O’Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O’Reilly Media has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying "faint signals" from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism.

The Art of Concurrency

If you’re looking to take full advantage of multi-core processors with concurrent programming, The Art of Concurrency (O’Reilly, US $44.99), by Clay Breshears, provides the knowledge and hands-on experience you need. The book is one of the few resources that focuses on implementing algorithms in the shared-memory model of multicore processors, rather than just theoretical models or distributed-memory architectures. The book provides detailed explanations and usable samples to help you transform algorithms from serial to parallel code, along with advice and analysis for avoiding mistakes that programmers typically make when first attempting these computations.

Written by a senior Intel engineer with over two decades of parallel and concurrent programming experience, this book will help you:

1. Explore differences between programming for shared-memory and distributed-memory
2. Learn guidelines for designing multithreaded applications, including testing and tuning
3. Discover how to make best use of different threading libraries, including Windows threads, POSIX threads, OpenMP, and Intel Threading Building Blocks
4. Explore how to implement concurrent algorithms that involve sorting, searching, graphs, and other practical computations

The Art of Concurrency shows you how to keep algorithms scalable to take advantage of new processors with even more cores. For developing parallel code algorithms and for concurrent programming, this book is essential.

Clay Breshears is currently a Course Architect for the Intel Software College, specializing in multi-core and multithreaded programming and training.

The Art of Concurrency
Clay Breshears
ISBN: 9780596521530, 302 pages,
Book Price: $44.99 USD, £34.50 GBP
Ebook Price: $35.99 USD