Category: Books

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Books

HTML5: Up and Running

HTML5: Up and RunningFinishing up reading HTML5: Up and Running. It’s a pretty solid book describing some of the upcoming HTML5 features, with some great examples on how to implement such features now.

The chapter of Forms was really great. Using input types is something I will begin right away. Knowing that they degrade gracefully in older browsers is great.

Portions of the book seemed a bit out of place. While the first chapter regarding the history of HTML was extremely interesting for me to read, it really had very little if anything to do with what I was expecting to read in a book on HTML5.

Overall though, it does do a great job of introducing and explaining how to implement HTML5 features in browsers today.

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Books

X-Men: Second Coming

X-Men: Second ComingI had a 40% off coupon on Borders that I was on a mission to use up. Since I’ve read pretty much every tech book out, I figured I’d attempt to go way back to my roots and try some comics or a graphic novel. I hadn’t really read an X-Men crossover since probably high school, but had heard good things about Second Coming and it was all shiny and hardbound and seemed the perfect candidate for my coupon’s use.

It was a collection of the following issues:

  • Chapter 1: X-Men: Second Coming #1
  • Chapter 2: Uncanny X-Men #523
  • Chapter 3: New Mutants #12
  • Chapter 4: X-Men: Legacy #235
  • Chapter 5: X-Force #26
  • Chapter 6: Uncanny X-Men #524
  • Chapter 7: New Mutants #13
  • Chapter 8: X-Men: Legacy #236
  • Chapter 9: X-Force #27
  • Chapter 10: Uncanny X-Men #525
  • Chapter 11: New Mutants #14
  • Chapter 12: X-Men: Legacy #237
  • Chapter 13: X-Force #28
  • Chapter 14: X-Men: Second Coming #2

There’s plenty of summaries regarding the story, but there were a few moments that really stuck out for me.

Nightcrawler (Kurt Wagner) died! He’s been one of my favorite characters since as long as I could remember, and was really bummed when he died. Granted he did die a most noble death that was right in line with his character, it was very sad nonetheless.

I also thought it was really cool when a severely weakened Magneto crawled out of the sick bay to defend the few mutants remaining. He’s always been one of if not my favorite villains, and to see him put the preservation of his species before his own health was pretty awesome. Also even though the Sentinels registered his health around 30% he was still able to rip thru them.

This was one of the darkest stories I’ve read in a while, with a crazy amount of casualties. Extremely good stuff, it really reminded me of why I did enjoy reading comics so very long ago.

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Books

Programming the Mobile Web

Programming the Mobile WebIt’s still tough finding good sources of information when developing for the mobile web. I’ve found amazing resources if you’re developing native applications, but when developing mobile friendly sites it’s a different story.

Been reading Programming the Mobile Web and even though I still have a few chapters to go, must say that it’s a must own if you’re a web developer who is interested in making your site mobile friendly or even developing a mobile version of your site.

The book does a great job covering all the different platforms and browsers to account for (it’s so crazy how many there are) as well as best practices to handle all the variety out there. Even if you have a good understanding of developing for the mobile, I’m sure you’ll find a few useful tips along the way.

An excellent resource that I’m sure I’ll be opening up many times again long after I’m done reading through it.

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Books

Developing Hybrid Applications for the iPhone

Developing Hybrid Applications for the iPhonePicked up a copy of Developing Hybrid Applications for the IPhone by Lee S. Barney earlier this week. Had a 33% off coupon at Borders and was itching for something new to read.

Been messing with iPhone development for a bit and since I’m a web developer figured I’d take a hard look at writing web applications for the iPhone vs going the SDK Objective-C route.

I’m really glad I picked this book up. They do an excellent job of reminding me how cool Dashcode is for developing web applications for the iPhone. My only knock on Dashcode in the past was the lack of documentation, but this book does a decent job of covering it. Still wish there was more documentation on Dashcode if anyone is reading this.

The book covers both using the QuickConnect and PhoneGap frameworks for developing hybrid iPhone apps. It’s a fairly easy read and they do cover most of the iPhone functionality that would be used in the majority of projects. While the SDK and Objective-C are still the best way to go, sometimes web applications or hybrid applications do make sense, and that’s where this book was very handy. Just for me to rediscover Dashcode alone justified the purchase.

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Books

Learning Joomla! 1.5 Extension Development

If you’re looking to create extensions for Joomla! 1.5 then you should really check out Learning Joomla! 1.5 Extension Development. I had a project that required a custom component to be created, and the online documentation wasn’t really as good as I’d of liked it to of been.

So I went looking to see if any books had been published recently on extension development. Learning Joomla! 1.5 Extension Development got some decent review online, and I was really stumped with creating my component. So a copy was ordered.

The book does an excellent job of building an extension that makes use of most of the features that would be found in a typical extension. Covering, components, modules, as well as plugins.

With it’s focus on MVC practices, this at first seemed like overkill to me, but once all the features were piling up, it really paid off.

The chapters on creating the admin end of a component were extremely valuable to me. My client now has an easy to use custom component that makes use of the Joomla! admin interface for a seemless CMS experience.

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Books

Head First SQL

I’m a big fan of the Head First series of books by O’Reilly, and noticed that they had released one of SQL. My SQL skills are pretty solid to begin with, but you can never know too much SQL so I figured I’d have to pick up Head First SQL and give it a read.

Tech books for me almost always written for a complete beginner or an expert in the field. It’s rare that you find one written for someone who already has a basic understanding, but wants to learn a bit more. Head First SQL did a really good job of explaining the basics of SQL as well as the more complex aspects of SQL.

The chapters on subqueries and joins was great for me. Those are areas that I can always get better with. Also some of the early chapters reminded me of IN and BETWEEN both of which I’d pretty much forgotten about over the years.

Another cool thing about this book is that not only is it a guide, but it also serves pretty well as a reference as well. Explaining SQL isn’t always the easiest thing to do, but Head First SQL has done the best job that I’ve read to date.