Books about Graphical from Amazon.com

With revised material and new exercises based on ArcGIS version 9, this updated work acquaints geographers and GIS professionals with the principles of GIS as it teaches the mechanics of using ArcGIS software. Conceptual material is followed by scripted software exercises. Necessary GIS skills are presented in a variety of areas--map symbology, data overlay, map projection, and data conversion--as the making of maps and the analysis of geographic data is conceptualized. Spatial modeling exercises using the Model Builder technology of ArcGIS version 9 are also provided. Other topics covered include organizing data, planning a GIS project, creating derived data, and presenting results..
Price: $39.44 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Apple’s new Xcode 3 is the most powerful Mac development suite ever created In Xcode 3 Unleashed, renowned Mac developer Fritz Anderson has written the definitive guide to making the most of Xcode 3 to build any Macintosh or iPhone application.

Anderson leads you through a simple project that covers the entire Xcode 3.x development lifecycle. You’ll walk through building and debugging command-line tools, creating Mac OS X user interfaces, modeling data, localizing languages, compiling applications, and much more. Along the way, he introduces each of Apple’s remarkable development tools from the latest version of Interface Builder to Instruments—a powerful new tool for analyzing and optimizing your code.

Anderson shows how to manage your source code in any environment, whether you’re working solo or participating in a worldwide team. He thoroughly illuminates Xcode 3’s build system and shows how to make the most of Apple’s performance tools, led by the deep and powerful Shark statistical profiler.

Systematically updated for Xcode 3.x, this is a comprehensive revision of Anderson’s previous bestseller, Step into Xcode. Its breadth, depth, and practical focus will make it indispensable to every Mac developer: experienced programmers upgrading from Xcode 2 or migrating from CodeWarrior; UNIX/Linux programmers moving to Mac OS X; even new programmers.

Detailed information on how to…

• Succeed with every stage of the Mac OS X application lifecycle
• Make the most of Xcode 3’s core tools for editing, debugging, testing, and compilation
• Get the most from new improvements to Interface Builder
• Create robust applications using the Model-View-Controller paradigm
• Utilize dynamic libraries and frameworks
• Build Universal Binaries to run on both Intel and PowerPC Macs
• Add Spotlight searchability to data files
• Profile memory, I/O, graphics, and threading in real-time
• Accelerate both your applications and your development processes
• Leverage new improvements to the Xcode documentation system
• Avoid header ambiguity, disappearing links, and other Xcode development pitfalls

Introduction 1

Part I: The Life Cycle of a Mac OS X Application

Chapter 1: Kicking the Tires 11

Chapter 2: Simple Workflow and Passive Debugging 19

Chapter 3: Simple Active Debugging 29

Chapter 4: Compilation: The Basics 39

Chapter 5: Starting a Cocoa Application 47

Chapter 6: A Cocoa Application: Views 63

Chapter 7: A Cocoa Application: Controllers 75

Chapter 8: Version Control 93

Chapter 9: Property Lists 117

Chapter 10: Libraries and Dependent Targets 141

Chapter 11: File Packages and Bundles 153

Chapter 12: Unit Testing 167

Chapter 13: Creating a Custom View 181

Chapter 14: Dynamic Libraries and Frameworks 203

Chapter 15: Documentation in Xcode 221

Chapter 16: Using the Data Modeling Tools 243

Chapter 17: Cross-Development 267

Chapter 18: Spotlight (or, How to Build a Plug-in) 281

Chapter 19: Finishing Touches 301

Part II: Xcode Tasks

Chapter 20: Navigating an Xcode Project 331

Chapter 21: Xcode for make Veterans 353

Chapter 22: More About Debugging 373

Chapter 23: Xcode and Speed 395

Chapter 24: A Legacy Project 403

Chapter 25: Shark and the CHUD Tools 421

Chapter 26: Instruments 437

Chapter 27: Closing Snippets 461

Appendices

Appendix A: Some Build Variables 475

Appendix B: Project and Target Templates 485

Appendix C: Other Resources 501

Index 507

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Price: $25.45 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Designing a good interface isn't easy. Users demand software that is well-behaved, good-looking, and easy to use. Your clients or managers demand originality and a short time to market. Your UI technology -- web applications, desktop software, even mobile devices -- may give you the tools you need, but little guidance on how to use them well.

UI designers over the years have refined the art of interface design, evolving many best practices and reusable ideas. If you learn these, and understand why the best user interfaces work so well, you too can design engaging and usable interfaces with less guesswork and more confidence.

"Designing Interfaces" captures those best practices as design patterns -- solutions to common design problems, tailored to the situation at hand. Each pattern contains practical advice that you can put to use immediately, plus a variety of examples illustrated in full color. You'll get recommendations, design alternatives, and warnings on when not to use them.

Each chapter's introduction describes key design concepts that are often misunderstood, such as affordances, visual hierarchy, navigational distance, and the use of color. These give you a deeper understanding of why the patterns work, and how to apply them with more insight.

A book can't design an interface for you -- no foolproof design process is given here -- but "Designing Interfaces" does give you concrete ideas that you can mix and recombine as you see fit. Experienced designers can use it as a sourcebook of ideas. Novice designers will find a roadmap to the world of interface and interaction design, with enough guidance to start using these patterns immediately..
Price: $28.92 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Get the essential reference for deploying, managing, automating, troubleshooting, and optimizing Windows Server 2008 with expert insights and best practices from Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs) and the Windows Server team at Microsoft. This official Microsoft® RESOURCE KIT features six volumes of in-depth technical information that every Windows® administrator needs to understand to master Windows Server 2008 administration. You get detailed information about networking, network aspect projection, security features, Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.0, Active Directory®, and Windows PowerShellTM. You also get more than 200 time-saving tools, scripts for automation, job aids, eBook resources, plus a fully searchable eBook of each RESOURCE KIT volume on DVD.

Key Book Benefits:

Provides six volumes of in-depth technical information for administering, optimizing, troubleshooting, and automating Windows Server 2008

Delivers definitive product information with expert insights straight from the Windows Server team at Microsoft, Microsoft MVPs, and field consultants

Details information that every Windows administrator needs about Windows Server performance, troubleshooting, security services, group policy, Active Directory, IIS 7, and Windows PowerShell

Features a DVD with more than 200 essential tools and scripts, eBooks with additional technical information, tips, and best practices plus a fully searchable eBook of all six RESOURCE KIT volumes.
Price: $153.38 [Notify me when price goes down.]

For software development professionals and computer science students, Modern Operating Systems gives a solid conceptual overview of operating system design, including detailed case studies of Unix/Linux and Windows 2000.

What makes an operating system modern? According to author Andrew Tanenbaum, it is the awareness of high-demand computer applications--primarily in the areas of multimedia, parallel and distributed computing, and security. The development of faster and more advanced hardware has driven progress in software, including enhancements to the operating system. It is one thing to run an old operating system on current hardware, and another to effectively leverage current hardware to best serve modern software applications. If you don't believe it, install Windows 3.0 on a modern PC and try surfing the Internet or burning a CD.

Readers familiar with Tanenbaum's previous text, Operating Systems, know the author is a great proponent of simple design and hands-on experimentation. His earlier book came bundled with the source code for an operating system called Minux, a simple variant of Unix and the platform used by Linus Torvalds to develop Linux. Although this book does not come with any source code, he illustrates many of his points with code fragments (C, usually with Unix system calls).

The first half of Modern Operating Systems focuses on traditional operating systems concepts: processes, deadlocks, memory management, I/O, and file systems. There is nothing groundbreaking in these early chapters, but all topics are well covered, each including sections on current research and a set of student problems. It is enlightening to read Tanenbaum's explanations of the design decisions made by past operating systems gurus, including his view that additional research on the problem of deadlocks is impractical except for "keeping otherwise unemployed graph theorists off the streets."

It is the second half of the book that differentiates itself from older operating systems texts. Here, each chapter describes an element of what constitutes a modern operating system--awareness of multimedia applications, multiple processors, computer networks, and a high level of security. The chapter on multimedia functionality focuses on such features as handling massive files and providing video-on-demand. Included in the discussion on multiprocessor platforms are clustered computers and distributed computing. Finally, the importance of security is discussed--a lively enumeration of the scores of ways operating systems can be vulnerable to attack, from password security to computer viruses and Internet worms.

Included at the end of the book are case studies of two popular operating systems: Unix/Linux and Windows 2000. There is a bias toward the Unix/Linux approach, not surprising given the author's experience and academic bent, but this bias does not detract from Tanenbaum's analysis. Both operating systems are dissected, describing how each implements processes, file systems, memory management, and other operating system fundamentals.

Tanenbaum's mantra is simple, accessible operating system design. Given that modern operating systems have extensive features, he is forced to reconcile physical size with simplicity. Toward this end, he makes frequent references to the Frederick Brooks classic The Mythical Man-Month for wisdom on managing large, complex software development projects. He finds both Windows 2000 and Unix/Linux guilty of being too complicated--with a particular skewering of Windows 2000 and its "mammoth Win32 API." A primary culprit is the attempt to make operating systems more "user-friendly," which Tanenbaum views as an excuse for bloated code. The solution is to have smart people, the smallest possible team, and well-defined interactions between various operating systems components. Future operating system design will benefit if the advice in this book is taken to heart. --Pete Ostenson.
Price: $84.54 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Bill Buxton and I share a common belief that design leadership together with technical leadership drives innovation Sketching, prototyping, and design are essential parts of the process we use to create new products Bill Buxton brings design leadership and creativity to Microsoft. Through his thought-provoking personal examples he is inspiring others to better understand the role of design in their own companies--Bill Gates, Chairman, Microsoft

Informed design is essential. While it might seem that Bill Buxton is exaggerating or kidding with this bold assertion, neither is the case. In an impeccably argued and sumptuously illustrated book, design star Buxton convinces us that design simply must be integrated into the heart of business--Roger Martin, Dean, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto

Design is explained, with the means and manner for successes and failures illuminated by engaging stories, true examples and personal anecdotes. In Sketching User Experiences, Bill Buxton clarifies the processes and skills of design from sketching to experience modeling, in a lively and informative style that is rich with stories and full of his own heart and enthusiasm. At the start we are lost in mountain snows and northern seas, but by the end we are equipped with a deep understanding of the tools of creative design.--Bill Moggridge, Cofounder of IDEO and author of Designing Interactions

Like any secret society, the design community has its strange rituals and initiation procedures. Bill opens up the mysteries of the magical process of design, taking us through a land in which story-telling, orange squeezers, the Wizard of Oz, I-pods, avalanche avoidance, bicycle suspension sketching, and faking it are all points on the design pilgrims journey. There are lots of ideas and techniques in this book to feed good design and transform the way we think about creating useful stuff". Peter Gabriel

I love this book. There are very few resources available that see across and through all of the disciplines involved in developing great experiences. This is complex stuff and Buxton's work is both informed and insightful. He shares the work in an intimate manner that engages the reader and you will find yourself nodding with agreement, and smiling at the poignant relevance of his examples.--Alistair Hamilton, Symbol Technologies, NY

Books that have proposed bringing design into HCI are aplenty, though books that propose bringing software in to Design less common. Nevertheless, Bill manages to skilfully steer a course between the excesses of the two approaches and offers something truly in-between. It could be a real boon to the innovation business by bringing the best of both worlds: design and HCI. --Richard Harper, Microsoft Research, Cambridge

There is almost a fervor in the way that new products, with their rich and dynamic interfaces, are being released to the publictypically promising to make lives easier, solve the most difficult of problems, and maybe even make the world a better place. The reality is that few survive, much less deliver on their promise. The folly? An absence of design, and an over-reliance on technology alone as the solution.

We need design. But design as described here depends on different skillsetseach essential, but on their own, none sufficient. In this rich ecology, designers are faced with new challengeschallenges that build on, rather than replace, existing skills and practice.

Sketching User Experiences approaches design and design thinking as something distinct that needs to be better understoodby both designers and the people with whom they need to work in order to achieve success with new products and systems. So while the focus is on design, the approach is holistic. Hence, the book speaks to designers, usability specialists, the HCI community, product managers, and business executives. There is an emphasis on balancing the back-end concern with usability and engineering excellence (getting the design right) with an up-front investment in sketching and ideation (getting the right design). Overall, the objective is to build the notion of informed design: molding emerging technology into a form that serves our society and reflects its values.

Grounded in both practice and scientific research, Bill Buxtons engaging work aims to spark the imagination while encouraging the use of new techniques, breathing new life into user experience design.

Covers sketching and early prototyping design methods suitable for dynamic product capabilities: cell phones that communicate with each other and other embedded systems, smart appliances, and things you only imagine in your dreams;
Thorough coverage of the design sketching method which helps easily build experience prototypeswithout the effort of engineering prototypes which are difficult to abandon;
Reaches out to a range of designers, including user interface designers, industrial designers, software engineers, usability engineers, product managers, and others;
Full of case studies, examples, exercises, and projects, and access to video clips (www.mkp.com/sketching) that demonstrate the principles and methods.

About the Author

Trained as a musician, Bill Buxton began using computers over thirty years ago in his art. This early experience, both in the studio an on stage, helped develop a deep appreciation of both the positive and negative aspects of technology and its impact. This increasingly drew him into both design and research, with a very strong emphasis on interaction and the human aspects of technology. He first came to prominence for his work at the University of Toronto on digital musical instruments and the novel interfaces that they employed. This work in the late 70s gained the attention of Xerox PARC, where Buxton participated in pioneering work in collaborative work, interaction techniques and ubiquitous computing. He then went on to become Chief Scientist of SGI and Alias|Wavefront, where he had the opportunity to work with some of the top film makers and industrial designers in the world. He is now a principal researcher at Microsoft Corp., where he splits his time between research and helping make design a fundamental pillar of the corporate culture.

* Covers sketching and early prototyping design methods suitable for dynamic product capabilities: cell phones that communicate with each other and other embedded systems, "smart" appliances, and things you only imagine in your dreams;

* Thorough coverage of the design sketching method which helps easily build experience prototypeswithout the effort of engineering prototypes which are difficult to abandon;

* Reaches out to a range of designers, including user interface designers, industrial designers, software engineers, usability engineers, product managers, and others;

* Full of case studies, examples, exercises, and projects, and access to video clips that demonstrate the principles and methods..
Price: $30.54 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Redish has done her homework and created a thorough overview of the issues in writing for the Web. Ironically, I must recommend that you read her every word so that you can find out why your customers won't read very many words on your website -- and what to do about it.;-- Jakob Nielsen, Principal, Nielsen Norman GroupThere are at least twelve billion web pages out there. Twelve billion voices talking, but saying mostly nothing. If just 1% of those pages followed Ginnys practical, clear advice, the world would be a better place. Fortunately, you can follow her advice for 100% of your own sites pages, so pick up a copy of Letting Go of the Words and start communicating effectively today.--Lou Rosenfeld, co-author, Information Architecture for the World Wide WebOn the web, whether on the job or at home, we usually want to grab information and use it quickly. We go to the web to get answers to questions or to complete tasks to gather information, reading only what we need. We are all too busy to read much on the web.This book helps you write successfully for web users. It offers strategy, process, and tactics for creating or revising content for the web. It helps you plan, organize, write, design, and test web content that will make web users come back again and again to your site. Learn how to create usable and useful content for the web from the master Ginny Redish. Ginny has taught and mentored hundreds of writers, information designers, and content owners in the principles and secrets of creating web information that is easy to scan, easy to read, and easy to use. This practical, informative book will help anyone creating web content do it better.Features* Clearly-explained guidelines with full color illustrations and examples from actual web sites throughout the book. * Written in easy-to-read style with many ;befores; and ;afters.;* Specific guidelines for web-based press releases, legal notices, and other documents.* Tips on making web content accessible for people with special needs.Janice (Ginny) Redish has been helping clients and colleagues communicate clearly for more than 20 years. For the past ten years, her focus has been helping people create usable and useful web sites. She is co-author of two classic books on usability: A Practical Guide to Usability Testing (with Joseph Dumas), and User and Task Analysis for Interface Design (with JoAnn Hackos), and is the recipient of many awards.* Clearly-explained guidelines with full color illustrations and examples from actual web sites throughout the book.* Written in easy-to-read style with many ;befores; and ;afters.;* Specific guidelines for web-based press releases, legal notices, and other documents. * Tips on making web content accessible for people with special needs..
Price: $31.24 [Notify me when price goes down.]

This edition has evolved to address the needs of today's student. While maintaining its unique table of contents and functions-based approach, the text now includes additional components to build skill, address critical thinking, solve applications, and apply technology to support traditional algebraic solutions. It continues to incorporate an open design, helpful features, careful explanations of topics, and a comprehensive package of supplements and study aids to provide new and relevant opportunities for learning and teaching.

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Price: $94.97 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Linux Journal Readers’ Choice Awards 2008 Favorite Linux Book, Honorable Mention. http://www.linuxjournal.com

“. . . this one (Ubuntu Linux book) is at the head of the pack for getting started with your penguin experience. . . .”
—Tom Duff

“Benjamin Mako Hill et al. have produced an excellent book that speaks to everyone who uses or is considering using Ubuntu.”
—James Pyles, Reviewer, “The Linux Tutorial”

“Well written in an easy-to-follow format. Full of information for folks new to Linux or just new to Ubuntu. Even nontechnical users would find this a very helpful resource.”
—Ben Gerber, Arsgeek.com

“I’d recommend picking it up if you are running Ubuntu.”
—Tony Lawrence, owner of aplawrence.com

Ubuntu is a complete, free operating system that emphasizes community, support, and ease of use without compromising speed, power, or flexibility. It’s Linux for human beings—designed for everyone from computer novices to experts. Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Long Term Support), a.k.a., “Hardy Heron,” is the latest release—more powerful, more flexible, and friendlier than ever. The Official Ubuntu Book, Third Edition, will get you up and running quickly.

Written by expert leading Ubuntu community members, this book covers all you need to know to make the most of Ubuntu 8.04 LTS, whether you’re a home user, small business user, server administrator, or programmer. The authors cover Ubuntu 8.04 LTS from start to finish: installation, configuration, desktop productivity, games, management, support, and much more. Among the many new topics covered in this edition: the new Edubuntu and the brand new Kubuntu Remix including KDE 4.

The Official Ubuntu Book, Third Edition, covers standard desktop applications, from word processing, spreadsheets, Web browsing, e-mail, instant messaging, music, video, and games to software development, databases, and server applications. In addition, you’ll

• Learn how to customize Ubuntu for home, small business, school, government, and enterprise environments
• Learn how to quickly update Ubuntu to accommodate new versions and new applications
• Find up-to-the-minute troubleshooting advice from Ubuntu users worldwide
• Learn Ubuntu Server installation and administration, including LVM and RAID implementation
• Learn about Edubuntu—Ubuntu optimized specifically for the classroom

The DVD includes the complete Ubuntu Linux operating system for installation on PC platforms, preconfigured with an outstanding desktop environment for both home and business computing. It can be used to install other complete variants of Ubuntu including Kubuntu (with the KDE environment), and Edubuntu (for use in schools).

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Price: $21.78 [Notify me when price goes down.]