Stern reviewed one of the most gimme books of the year: O'Reilly's User Friendly. The whole gang is gathered together in a dead tree version, which means you can finally take UF where ever you want to be.

Long-time reviewer Jason Bennett has sent a review of the official Sun tutorial on the new Swing GUI package called, not surprisingly, The JFC Swing Tutorial. If you are learning Java, use Java or want to learn Java, click below to learn more about this new book.

Boy, is this book overdue. If you're reeling from media hype about gazillion-dollar start-ups, Net billionaires, worker benefits and stock options, here's the story -- truly nailed down -- of what life is really like for many workers in the new, hi-tech workplace.

Duncan Lawie has returned with a review of Greg Egan's Teranesia, which continues his string of reviews regarding well-written science fiction. This novel, a near future adventure, is in Egan's own words, "about evolution, the Indian Rationalists Association, the break-up of Indonesia, quantum mechanics and sex". Click below to read more - and look for next week's review of Cities in Flight.

Stern has returned to us with a review of Ravi Kalakota and Marcia Robinson's book e-Business: Roadmap for Success. The book purports to help map the way your business can be succesful using technology. Read more to find out if they actually can explain it.

Chris Worth has come to me (surprise!) with a review of one of the most definitive books on nanotechnology, Nanosystems. K. Eric Drexler's response to the technical issues raised by critics to nanotechnology, the book is a technical treatise

Michael Lewis' "The New, New Thing" focuses on mythic Silicon Valley entrepreneur (and Netscape founder) Jim Clark to explain how Silicon Valley really works. It's a great read, but the author perhaps admires his ego-maniacal subject a bit too much.

Jason Bennett has returned after a long hiatus, bringing with him a review of Benjamin L. Kovitz' Practical Software Requirements. Jason's theme has been software engineering, and this review does not disappoint, drawing on themes of what you actually need to accomplish your job.

Do you enjoy the notion of alternative history, and the question of "What if?" Pasquale's Angel is a deftly written book by Paul J. McAuley, with a setting of renaissance Italy. Character development is strong, and the story is well told - both the reviewer, D.C. Lawie and I agree on this. Click below to learn more about the book.

jamie dyer wrote of Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, a book that I can remember reading years ago. The book does an excellent job of getting to the roots of said computer revolution, but also shows the human side to things. Read more about it below.

Contemporary Logic Design, written by Randy H. Katz, is reviewed by Deepak Saxena. The tome is a thorough introduction to the world of digital logic design. Click below to learn more about whether the book is for you or not.

chromatic has continued our trend of reviewing ever Neal Stephenson book ever written, with this weeks subject being Snow Crash. A book that has Sumeria, the USS Enterprise, and the Metaverse - what more could you ask for? Follow the link (white rabbit) below to read more.

cmalek has sent us a review of Paul E. Cerruzi's A History Of Moderning Computing, which delves into the past of the machines we use today. To read more about your computer's ancestors, click below.

Thanks to Janice Wright for returning with a review of O'Reilly's PalmPilot: The Ultimate Guide (2nd Edition). It's the 2nd edition, written by David Pogue and Jeff Hawkins - click below to learn how to make the most of your PalmPilot.

Simon Singh has written a readable and timely book about what he suggests is the Golden Age of Cryptography, complete with tales of code-breaking intrigue from Mary Queen of Scots to the NSA. Codes have dramatically altered the history of the world. Quantum cryptography will take the evolution of secrecy to a completely different level.

There's been quite a bit of attention to Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon as well as The Diamond Age. The Big U, reviewed here by Sebbo, is one of his earliest books. Click below to read more - and to try your hand at the questions at the end of the review.

Duncan Lawie recently reviewed Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination. This time around, he's taken a look at Kim Stanley Robinson's Antarctica. Click below to read more.

O'Reilly's Running Linux is something of an established textbook on learning Linux from the beginning to getting deeper in the innards. The latest version is written by Lar Kaufman, Matt Welsh and Kalle Dalheimer. Click below to read the review of the newest edition of the book.

I'd like to take a quick moment to welcome Duncan Lawie to our expanding list of book reviewers. Duncan comes from a background of professional book review, and has choosen one of the grand-dames of science fiction novels, Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination. Click below to learn more about one of the most important works in modern science fiction.

Something that we all strive for and pride ourselves on is our intelligence. But are there things that can make us smarter then the machines we've made? Clampe takes a look at Donald A. Norman's book Things That Make Us Smart: Defending Human Attributes in the Age of the Machine to find out.