Vern Ceder writes "I really expected to love Data Crunching. The Pragmatic Bookshelf has come up with some very good and, well, "pragmatic" texts in the past so I was looking for more of the same. Even better, the subject of the book was the routine data extraction, massaging and formatting that I (and a lot of other coders) spend so much time on. I was really looking forward to adding a couple more pragmatic tools to my coding toolbox. Unfortunately (as you may have guessed), I really can't say I love Data Crunching. It's a good book, but there are several minor points that keep if from being a truly great book." Read on for the rest of Ceder's review.

ijones writes "Codex, by Lev Grossman, is a novel about the advancement of basic, every-day technology. It reflects upon computer game technologies of the present day and upon the book-production technologies of previous centuries. Grossman links them together with obvious affection and in interesting and mysterious ways." Read on for the rest of Jones' review.

Ridgelift writes "Learning to develop web applications with Ruby on Rails has gained a huge amount of interest lately, but for people wanting to learn Rails there are no books on the subject. That's changed now with the pre-release of Agile Web Development with Ruby on Rails , the latest book from Dave Thomas and the author of Ruby on Rails David Heinemeier Hansson. It's really 3 books in one: a full Rails tutorial, an in depth guide to the components that make up Rails, and an introduction to developing applications using the Agile development model. There's even a quick introduction to Ruby, the language Rails is built with." Read on for an early review of the beta book. Full disclosure: Reviewer Miles K. Forrest points out that he has read earlier versions of the book's manuscript and provided critiques to the authors.

norburym writes " Essential Mac OS X Server Administration, written by Michael Bartosh and Ryan Faas, has been eagerly anticipated by the OS X Panther Server community. The wait is finally over and the authors have satisfied their audience with a meticulously written and detailed volume on OS X Server administration. This is not a book for the beginner: if you're an IT professional with an OS X Server deployment and want to gain a thorough understanding and appreciation of integrating Panther Server into your particular environment then this book will fully meet your expectations. Bartosh and Fass present a complete exploration of OS X Server software and services and client considerations between the covers of a volume essential to any systems administrator responsible for a cross-platform network." Read on for Norbury-Glaser's detailed review.

Simon P. Chappell writes "One of the perks of regular book reviewing is that, periodically, you'll check your mail box and discover a book waiting for you. A serendipitous surprise! I don't review all such books that I receive, but this one, Spring Into HTML and CSS by Molly E. Holzschlag, stood out from the crowd and I felt that I should share my thoughts on it with you." Read on for Chappell's brief review.

Michael J. Ross writes "As Windows users hear more about Linux, they may be intrigued to give it a try, if only to learn what the buzz is about. But a major hurdle, possibly the most daunting, is how to obtain and install Linux on their PCs without disrupting their Windows installation. To the average PC user (not a techie), the required steps are intimidating; to a computer newbie, they appear impossible. But with the introduction of Linux in the form of 'live CDs,' trying out Linux is as easy as popping a CD into one's computer and rebooting. The entire operating system is stored on the CD, thus avoiding having to install it on the hard drive. Test Driving Linux: From Windows to Linux in 60 Seconds , by David Brickner, includes a live CD and explains how to use it." Read on for the rest of Ross's review.

nellardo writes "If you've been programming C++ for any length of time, you probably have the book, Effective C++, by Scott Meyers on your shelves. Well, this book has just hit its third edition, and it's a major re-write and re-org. Do you need this book? If you program C++, yes, you probably do, even if you have a previous edition. Don't let the "Third Edition" faze you, because it has lots of new insights into the vagaries of the C++ language. And if you're new to C++, this is pretty much a must-own book." Read on for the rest of Nellardo's review.

Michael J. Ross writes "For veterans of the information technology (IT) industry, the late 1990s was a remarkable time. The "dot-com bubble" expanded, the venture capital flowed, and the NASDAQ stocks soared. But now that the bubble has deflated and the e-commerce party has wound down, U.S. IT managers are struggling with reduced budgets. Yet apparently many believe that the sector will regain its past glory and blistering growth rates. According to experienced IT consultant Erik Keller, it's not going to happen. He presents his case in Technology Paradise Lost, published by Manning Publications, whose user group representative kindly provided me with a copy of the book for review." Read on for the rest of Ross's review.

rednuhter writes "LPIC 1 Exam Cram 2 is the authoritative tree-based text to aid and abet interested parties accomplishing a LPI LPIC level 1 certification, Which (roughly translated) is the first (not quite open source) Linux exam for junior (intermediate) sysadmins; more information is available at Linux Professional Institute. It is (currently) the only (up to date) printed guide for the Linux Professional Institute Certification (LPIC) Level 1 exam." Read on for the rest of rednuhter's review.

jsuda (John Suda) writes "It seems as if everyone and his brother is writing books supporting standards-compliant Web design with XHTML and CSS. I have read and reviewed a half dozen this year alone. People are obviously trying to tell us something - plain HTML has to go! Web Designers' Reference: An Integrated Approach to Web Design with XHTML and CSS, by Craig Grannell, is the latest of these pronouncements." Read on for the rest of Suda's review.

Martin Ecker writes "Following up on last year's first installment of the "GPU Gems" book series, NVIDIA has recently finished work on the second book in the series titled GPU Gems 2 - Programming Techniques for High-Performance Graphics and General-Purpose Computation, published by Addison-Wesley. Just like the first book, GPU Gems 2 is a collection of articles by various authors from game development companies, academia, and tool developers on advanced techniques for programming graphics processing units (or GPUs for short). It is aimed at intermediate to advanced graphics developers that are familiar with the most common graphics APIs - in particular OpenGL and Direct3D - and high-level shading languages, such as GLSL, HLSL, or Cg. The reader should also be proficient in C++. As with GPU Gems, GPU Gems 2 is not for beginners. For professional graphics and game developers, however, it is an excellent collection of interesting techniques, tips, and tricks." Read on for Ecker's review.

jkauzlar (Joe Kauzlarich) writes "You've had a long, tedious day at work. You have some money in the bank and decide that you need to spend some of it on yourself rather than hand it over to the Man. Therefore, being a nerd, you go straight to the bookstore after work. You don't see anything exciting in the new releases for science fiction; you look at the new pop-science books, but nothing jumps out at you from the shelf- but wait... what's this massive new book by the acclaimed physicist Roger Penrose, The Road to Reality? The subtitle seems a bit presumptuous: 'A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe.' You pick up the heavy volume to inspect its contents ..." Read on for the rest of Kauzlarich's review.

Craig Maloney writes "Anyone who codes in Perl can relate to working on other people's code. Sometimes the code will thankfully include "use warnings" and be a joy to maintain. More likely, though, the code will have so many warnings that the useful output is long gone in the stratosphere of your scroll buffer. Even good code written for earlier versions of Perl can become aged and decrepit, requiring elderly modules that may or may not work with newer versions of Perl. Maintaining this code can be a hassle, but fortunately Perl Medic: Transforming Legacy Code (referred to for the duration of the review as Perl Medic) provides some very useful tips for getting through these migrations, and will help the next person maintaining your code." Read on for the rest of Maloney's review.

Simon P. Chappell writes "This is a hard review to write because I feel that I should be biased in favour of this book. I was one of the original reviewers of the book proposal. I read it and said "Yes, they'll be lining up around the block for a book like this!" Well, maybe those weren't my exact words, but I did offer my endorsement. After all, the Jakarta project of the Apache Software Foundation has an excellent reputation for quality Java code products and the Commons is quite the supply of diamonds in the rough. What could go wrong?" Read on for the rest of Chappell's review to find out.

norburym (Mary Norbury-Glaser) writes "Firefox and Thunderbird Garage, written by Chris Hofmann, Director of Engineering at the Mozilla Foundation; Marcia Knous, Mozilla Foundation Project Manager; and John Hedtke, president of JVH Communications (and an accomplished technical writer) is published by Prentice Hall PTR. This is the most recent addition to their Garage Series of books, which aims to bring the newest topics in technology to print in an engaging and readable manner. Firefox and Thunderbird Garage does not disappoint: the authors have covered all the bases on these two popular apps with a combined writing style that keeps the subject matter alive and interesting." Read on for the rest of Norbury-Glaser's review.

Bjorn writes ""Gaming Hacks" by Simon Carless dives into a spectrum of topics, ranging from emulators to MMORPG lingo to playing LAN-only console games online. If you're looking for something that covers topics like these, but don't want to waste your time searching the Internet for answers, this book is for you." (Simon, formerly Slashdot's Games editor, is now Managing Editor for the online arm of Game Developer Magazine, Gamasutra.com.) Read on for the rest of Bjorn's review.

gnetwerker writes "John Markoff of the New York Times has written a new book on the pre-history of the PC, and the convergence of that history with the 1960s drug culture and anti-Vietnam War movement in the Bay Area. I was privileged to receive a pre-publication copy." Read on for gnetworker's review of Markoff's What The Dormouse Said: How the 60s Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry.

danny writes "I haven't stopped writing book reviews, it's just been a while since I wrote any suitable for Slashdot. Read on for my review of China Mieville's Iron Council."

Frank Buss writes "Common Lisp is an ANSI standard, which defines a general purpose language and library, and is implemented by free and commercial compilers and IDEs; see *hyper-cliki* for more general information about Common Lisp. The book Practical Common Lisp explains the language with many practical examples and is available in full text online, too." Read on for the rest of Buss' review.

r3lody (Raymond Lodato) writes "Over the years, I've read a number of books on Excel programming. Each one seemed much like the previous one, generally talking about writing macros and creating data-entry forms. Professional Excel Development takes the concept quite a bit farther. Rather than giving you the same old tired lessons, this book goes into detail on exactly how to build professional level applications. It even explains how to make your Excel-based application look as though Excel had nothing to do with it. Suffice it to say, this ain't your daddy's Excel book." Read on for the rest of Lodato's review.