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Resources - Book Bytes |
| by Stephen M.H. Braitman - NBMA Director of Communications Book Bytes announces new publications of interest to our members and community in multimedia, technology, business, and culture. First appearance of each Book Bytes column is in the NBMA email events newsletter. To subscribe, send a blank email message to: nbmaevents-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. If you have a recommendation for review — and, especially, if you have published a book — send the information to . |
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January 2004 HOW TO DO EVERYTHING WITH ADOBE ENCORE DVD Doug Sahlin 349 pages, $24.99 McGraw-Hill Osborne www.osborne.com PC users have Adobe's Encore DVD software to create DVDs, and Doug Sahlin's book is the guide to get even the most squeamish neophyte started. Throughout this engaging, easy-to-use tutorial is his one overriding theory: "You should adopt a methodical workflow that enables you to create a professional-looking DVD that is flawless." How many times have we started a project with great ambition only to end up frustrated because sudden roadblocks of unexpected details keep cropping up. Sahlin presents an orderly approach that starts with the very important assembly of all the digitized assets that go into the DVD, including video and audio clips, titles, section markers, graphics, and all those items forgotten until needed later on in production. He sets out a good step-by-step plan of action, and, in particular, his explanation and instructions regarding timelines makes strong sense out of something that may seem abstract to a lot of folks. PRACTICAL SERVICE LEVEL MANAGEMENT: Delivering High-Quality Web-Based Services John McConnell with Eric Siegel 284 pages, $55 Cisco Press www.ciscopress.com The explosion of Web services for diverse markets of customers, clients, and internal staff defines a management dilemma for networking and computing resources. For the technical or business manager, the efficient and cost-effective use of the tools of commerce and communication become a critical component of a company's success. McConnell and Siegel are among the first to provide a comprehensive management theory and protocol for the range of Web services now considered essential in the competitive marketplace. This is a good overview of how fundamentally IT functions have become integrated with sales and marketing and key business strategies; the service manager's actions at the server or router level directly affects the organization's ability to generate revenues and meet customer satisfaction targets. This is a guide not only for technical managers, however; it is essential that business managers understand the underlying technological infrastructure that supports their operations. This book furthers communication between all parts of the enterprise. DESIGN RESEARCH: Methods and Perspectives Brenda Laurel, editor 334 pages, $39.95 The MIT Press mitpress.mit.edu "Underlying the discourse of this book about design research is a deeper conversation about the 'why' of design," states the prolific Brenda Laurel at the beginning of her thoughtful and action-provoking compendium. DESIGN RESEARCH brings together essays, interviews, and challenges from designers, artists, cultural mavens, even ethnographers to summarize the contemporary streams of design theory in almost all categories of culture. The 'why' of the book is a conversation with many voices about where design fits within the marketplace and the "productization" of experience and ideas. What is the role of the designer in defining products and services? How should entertainment goals align themselves with social improvement? Where does political responsibility lie in "pure design"? Should a designer be integrated more in business strategy development? When is design a mere marketing tool and when is it a weapon? If you work on any aspects of design from the creative or implementation sides, in print or on the Web, this is a book to turn your career inside out with serious examination and reflection. INTRUSION DETECTION AND INSPECTION Carl Endorf, Eugene Schultz, and Jim Mellander 386 pages, $39.99 McGraw-Hill Osborne www.osborne.com With the currency of worms spreading havoc through systems worldwide, this no-nonsense approach to both classic and innovative intrusion detection methods is now more necessary than ever. The authors detail aspects of hacking that a network or IT administrator may have spent less time defending against, and they look closely at internal system architectures for fundamental and subtle flaws. Their suggestions for placement of network sensors, for example, may give one pause at their current, less adequate incident response plan. The book's a sober wake-up call, with practical, tactical working plans to prevent cyber crime. SHOW ME ADOBE PHOTOSHOP CS Andy Anderson, Steve Johnson 508 pages, $19.99 Que www.quepublishing.com A picture's worth a thousand words. In the case of this latest Show Me volume, the authors instruct in the use of Adobe's graphic design program Photoshop CS with a ratio of more than 50% illustrations to text. Each page is a topic, highlighted with a bullet point list for the most important function steps. The photos and illustrations of captured Photoshop pages are keyed by number to the bullet points, so that no element goes unnoticed. From the paths palette to layers to shape drawing to managing color for the Web, this is a handy guide even for experienced users. It is very useful as a reference to those tools in Photoshop that may not be top-of-mind all the time but they sure make life a whole heck of a lot easier if one could just remember what they were. Well, here they are. (By the way, the book prepares you for the ACE exam.) QUE'S OFFICIAL INTERNET YELLOW PAGES, 2004 Edition Joe Kraynek 1115 pages, $19.99 Que www.quepublishing.com It's 2004, and it's time, of course, for the latest INTERNET YELLOW PAGES. Some of you may be wondering about the relevancy of a thick, way thick paperback book devoted to Internet listings. With Google, Dogpile, Yahoo, and sundry other search engines and archives, why bother with a book? Because it's easier! And it can actually help you find a resource better than the search engines. Yes, there's still life in paper, and the tactile experience of thumbing through easily arranged categories (alphabetical! think of it!) is very satisfying. More satisfying, of course, is finding out about a previously unknown online discount store or identity theft reporting service or where the best history of women in aviation is. A book like this invites serendipity. SUPERCADE: A VISUAL HISTORY OF THE VIDEOGAME AGE 1971-1984 Van Burnham 448 pages, $29.95 MIT Press mitpress.mit.edu A coffee table book bound to impress those of a certain age and era, SUPERCADE is a sumptuous (and heavy) compendium of images, reminiscences, a nd histories of development and cultural upheaval. It didn't really start with Pong, though that was the popular breakthrough that made people see dollar signs in video games. Enthusiast Van Burnham starts way back, at the Brookhaven National Labs and their "first interactive blips of electronic light," then crashes through such sentimental favorites as Pac-Man and the Atari. In some ways it doesn't seem like such a long time ago; in other ways it's light years. Collectors take note: Some of the original arcade games can help finance your child's college education! $30 MUSIC SCHOOL Michael W. Dean 517 pages, $30.00 Thomson Course Technology www.courseptr.com If you've always wanted to be in the music business as a performer, but never had the courage to risk the titanic obstacles of the professional music industry, then $30 MUSIC SCHOOL is the one-stop shop of DIY (Do It Yourself) career transition. Here's everything in summary detail about musical instruments, songwriting, live performing (and how to book gigs), contracts, management, the recording studio, making your own CD, and all tangled business stuff. Most valuable: a chapter on "Spouses, Kids, and Jobs." There are amusing and instructive interviews along the way with notables like Henry Rollins and Jonathan Richman, and the accompanying CD includes alt rock producer extraordinaire Steve Albini throwing cold water on your aspirations. But that will only encourage you more, yes? MAC OS X PANTHER EDITION: THE MISSING MANUAL David Pogue 782 pages, $29.95 O'Reilly /www.oreilly.com As one who will soon upgrade to Mac OS 10.3, the Panther Edition (but not until I can find 3 gigabytes of free space, jeesh!), I am one of the fortunate targets of this new entry in the "Missing Manual" series. Some of us plunge right into a new software tool, hitting and missing the right and wrong functions until we think we know enough to assume we're proficient enough to really use it in our work (and play). Of course, this method has been the keystone of the Mac's success. However, I'd be willing to bet the normal user of any OS only utilizes about 20% of the total power and functionality available to them. That's because they haven't accidentally discovered them yet. David Pogue's book gives you that power right at the start. No guessing games. If you thought that creating your own powerful actions through AppleScript was intimidating and science fiction, here's the rational plan of understanding. If file sharing and faxing and printer configuration details escape you, here is where you'll find illumination. Those of you who may feel you're a full-service independent computer person may be surprised at what to be high and mighty, no matter what your level of expertise. UPGRADING AND REPAIRING LAPTOPS Scott Mueller 882 pages, $49.99 Que www.quepublishing.com Proclaimed as "the only book of its kind on the market," UPGRADING AND REPAIRING LAPTOPS is a massive undertaking that allows technicians access to a whole new line of business for their customer service. It's both PC hardware and software intensive, with clear illustrations and diagrams. The laptop overview at the beginning is most valuable for general audiences, anyone who wants to know more about the innards of the thing they're pounding away at airports and libraries, while the ensuing chapters detail all the critical components of the compact machines that one needs to worry about. An accompanying CD-ROM is probably "R" rated since it shows the complete strip-down of a laptop. COMPLETE DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY, 2nd Edition Ben Long 510 pages, $39.95 Charles River Media www.charlesriver.com The second edition of COMPLETE DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY encompasses the evolution of the digital photography art and marketplace since the last edition a year and a half ago. Ben Long has brought out a book that is pretty much state-of-the-art on the subject, at this moment in time anyway. As in the improvement from 3 to 6 megapixels as standard in high-end digital cameras, Long captures the essential changes in products and techniques that make professional and amateur digital photography more affordable and accessible. His full-color encyclopedic approach starts with basics concerning the history of photography, the differences between digital and film, and - helpfully - a section on "What's Wrong with Digital Photography" that punctures illusions at the same time as it promotes the real advantages of the medium. Extensive chapters on choosing cameras, shooting basics and tips, editing preparations, and special effects are able to bring beginners along as well as pros with no ill, pardon, effects. The included CD-ROM replicates most of the book's images for more-accurate representation,with many tutorials, videos, and demos (Photoshop, ImageBuddy, iView MediaPro, and more). FILEMAKER PRO 6 FOR WINDOWS & MACINTOSH Nolan Hester 366 pages, $21.99 Peachpit Press www.peachpit.com The latest FileMaker Pro has even more sophisticated tools than before for Web-based database swapping through XML. If you're a Max OS X user, then you also have the capability of directly importing digital images from your camera into the program. These and other innovations justify upgrading the version 6, and Nolan Hester makes the best of incorporating the new version tricks into the basic Visual Quickstart Guide tutorial. With plenty of cogent, patient explanations by number to the critical functions of FileMaker, this is a book cleared for takeoff. No fooling around (unless you would consider the database and FileMaker basics section unnecessarily theoretical). The only criticism I might add is that there is no reason this book could not also be used to help with previous FileMaker versions. To that purpose, it could be a bit more explicit about what functions or techniques are the same between version 6 and earlier versions. REAL WORLD COLOR MANAGEMENT Bruce Fraser, Chris Murphy, and Fred Bunting 534 pages, $49.99 Peachpit Press www.peachpit.com If you're a graphics professional, either in print or the Web, you've probably encountered problems with color fidelity as you've moved from a creation medium to the final medium. The worlds of advertising, consumer product e-commerce, and fine art reproduction are probably more critically attuned to color management than any other, but even if you "only" design Web pages or brochures, this book is an essential resource on the subject. Starting with the fundamentals of color science it moves rapidly into real-world scenarios like how to deal with inkjet printers, ColorSync profiles, what QuarkXpress does to your color, and how automation and scripting can save your life. There's a valuable section on workflow issues that deal with color management as a production process, something the overworked graphic designer probably ignores when the deadline is approaching; but even a little workflow can improve one's state of mind (and quality of delivery). With generous use of full color illustrations throughout, REAL WORLD COLOR MANAGEMENT lives up to its subtitle, "Industrial-Strength Production Techniques." SPECIAL EDITION: USING MAC OS X v10.2 Brad Miser 915 pages, $39.99 Que www.quepublishing.com THE ROBIN WILLIAMS MAC OS X BOOK Robin Williams 784 pages, $29.99 Peachpit Press www.peachpit.com MAC OS X ADVANCES Maria Langer 344 pages, $24.99 Peachpit Press www.peachpit.com Brad Miser has written 11 books on the Mac. Robin Williams has written more than 20 books, on the Mac and on design. Maria Langer has written over 50 books on everything from the Mac to FileMaker to small business topics. Whom do you trust? Both Miser and Williams take the comprehensive approach, dealing massive conglomerates of tutorials, tips, and technical assistance for beginning and intermediate users of the latest Macintosh operating system. Their books' encyclopedic nature allows the user to migrate from any earlier OS with ease, while someone absolutely new to the Mac will be presented clear and patient explanations with plenty of illustrations. Choosing between the two may be more a preference to style. The Robin Williams is rather flamboyant with large white spaces, nice cursive headers, and dynamic use of illustrations heavily notated with circles, arrows, and text blocks. Brad Miser uses the more traditional blocky Que publishing style, where it takes a bit more attention to catch critical Tips, Notes, and Cautions highlighted by thin borders. Miser takes a step-by-step number approach to solutions, such as in teaching how to change the desktop appearance. There are 14 steps, starting with "Choose Finder, Preferences to open the Finder Preferences window," using concise screenshots and a couple important Tips. Williams, in the section regarding System Preferences, makes short work of it by using a large graphic to explain how to drag a photo and drop it onto the "well" of the Desktop Preference screen. Although I wouldn't characterize the Williams approach as merely results oriented, you do get more detailed, systematic explanations from Miser. Which may or may not be needed depending on your sensibility. Even more pointed an experience is the Maria Langer book that follows the Peachpit formula of column-organized topics geared to quick comprehension and even quicker action. This is a motorcycle compared with the other books' SUVs. If you're migrating to OS X from earlier systems, the concise breeziness of the chapter detailing the differences will get you off and running without a lot of excess verbiage. She has good sections on OS utilities -- such as Stuffit Expander and the Print Center -- which often get short shrift, and data on Speech and Handwriting Features makes these arcane tools appear quite practical and useful. MAC OS X POCKET GUIDE, 2nd Edition Chuck Toporek 141 pages, $14.95 MACINTOSH TROUBLESHOOTING POCKET GUIDE David Lerner and Aaron Freimark 72 pages, $12.95 WORD POCKET GUIDE Walter Glenn 143 pages, $12.95 O'Reilly www.oreilly.com These are so cute! These mini Pocket Guides from O'Reilly answer almost all the essential questions there are to operating the Macintosh system as well as the principal word processing program. Sometimes there's a bit of shorthand in explanations that may leave more analytical readers wanting more. (Hey, there're always the Goliaths by Brad Miser and Robin Williams!) However, anyone with even minimal experience at Mac OS systems, old or new, will be using these handy guides often. In Toporek, he's got about 10 pages on basic UNIX commands, for example, a subject I always start to glaze over when it comes up. But he gives the skinny with a clarity I could understand, and now I'm practically ready to be a superuser. The Troubleshooting guide is very Socratic, with lists of questions arranged by topic ("Being Prepared," "Crisis Situations," "File Sharing," et al) and covering OS 9 and OS X. Slim as the book was, I found new and interesting information immediately. I even found out how to clean my PowerBook screen. No book has ever told me that before! REAL WORLD DIGITAL VIDEO Peter Shaner and Gerald Everett Jones 434 pages, $49.99 Peachpit Press www.peachpit.com The subtitle of this book is, "Industrial-Strength Video Production Techniques," which, actually, only serves part of what is offered within. Shaner and Jones have produced a complete manual on the process of creating digital video, and it's an inclusive, expansive theme. Much of what they explain relates to the practicalities of digital videomaking, including a fair assessment of rental vs. purchase, lighting and staffing requirements, legal issues; in short, all those things that go into the final product of a video or film but may escape newcomers who are totally hypnotized by the hardware and cool computer tools. That's all in here, too, with plenty about non-linear editing, sound polishing, and PC / Mac particularities. But if you're working at making a digital video, you'll also need to know about how to set up a scene, and how the heck you distribute the thing after you're done, and how the Internet can be useful to you. All this and more. A companion DVD includes sample videos, interviews, demo software, and production tools. HOW TO USE ULEAD DVD WORKSHOP Tom Bunzel 381 pages, $29.99 Que www.quepublishing.com A colorful step-by-step guide to all the processes involved in producing professional DVD, VCD, and SVCD discs from various source materials using the Ulead DVD Workshop and MovieFactory software tools. The stages of production are broken down into relatively clear, straightforward digestible chunks: "How to start editing"; How to start making menus"; "How to combine clips"; etc. If Ulead is your tool, this is the owner's manual you should have gotten with the product but didn't. Actually it's better than any owner's manual I've ever seen. Includes a DVD-ROM with project files, sample images and movies, as well as trial software for all the major Ulead products. DESIGNWHYS: DESIGNING WEB SITE INTERFACE ELEMENTS Eric Eaton 255 pages, $40 Peachpit Press www.peachpit.com Interface design is something a Web designer needs to constantly reinvent for themselves. The culture of interactivity through the Web is always evolving, and the savvy designer constantly incorporates into their work ethic the ever-growing sophistication of users as well as the elegant simplicities that combine aesthetics and functionality. Eric Eaton starts at the beginning, with the philosophy of how and why users interact with images and objects on a page. He proceeds to analyze every little byte of graphical detail that goes into a Web page, from radial buttons to input fields. Nothing is too small or too obvious to escape his reexamination of the fundamentals. This sumptuously illustrated manual is a necessary basic training course for any graphic designer who thinks they know it all. They're in for a big surprise. THE WIRELESS NETWORKING STARTER KIT Adam Engst and Glenn Fleishmann 318 pages, $29.95 Peachpit Press www.peachpit.com MAXIMUM WIRELESS SECURITY Dr. Cyrus Peikari and Seth Fogie 390 pages, $39.99 SAMS www.sampublishing.com The STARTER KIT is all the basics you'll need for setting up a local wireless (Wi-Fi) network in your home or small business setting. Thankfully it's platform agnostic, with full instructions for both Macintosh and Windows users. Engst and Fleishman leave no bones undisturbed starting with "Networking Basics" and "How Wireless Works," good theoretical groundings that will help dispel the mystery of the technology. The connections chapter is quite detailed, particularly in software configuring issues. Adding modules or extending the range of your network are covered extensively, as well as security. Security, however, is the prime territory of Peikari and Fogie. Their MAXIMUM WIRELESS SECURITY has enough practical advice on how to avoid an encyclopedia of wireless attacks, from sniffers to spoofing, from denial-of-service to Trojan horses, and more. There's quite an advanced technical section on programming basics germane to wireless, from the Java and encryption side of things. But if you're managing a wireless network that extends to any level beyond the four walls of your home or office, this is something you'll need to understand. Comes with a CD-ROM full of free and demo wireless auditing tools like AirSnort, Kismet, and NetStumbler. BUILDING WEB SITES WITH MACROMEDIA STUDIOMX Tom Green, Jordan L. Chilcott, and Chris S. Flick 756 pages, $49.99 New Riders www.newriders.com www.interactivityunlimited.com/book/studiomx The increasingly dynamic content of modern Web sites demands that Webmasters utilize their (expensive) tools to their maximum potential. Most Web folks reading this are familiar with Flash, ColdFusion, Fireworks, Dreamweaver, and all the other cool Macromedia software that makes their life so much easier. However, I'd be willing to bet most people came to each of the various tools individually, learning either on the fly or in a more formal setting, applying what was learned from each as an add-on to their previous level of knowledge. Not too many people approach the complete Macromedia suite of tools in a holistic manner. That's the goal of this latest New Riders book, looking at all the ingredients of Macromedia StudioMX and defining all their various strengths and weaknesses as total Web-creating package. There's a refreshing view based on need, such as animation, navigation, and content management, that pulls from the best tool or tools through the normal Web development process. In fact, the authors are tool-agnostic, and they appreciate the ability to mix and match appropriately. PHOTOSHOP 7 / IMAGEREADY FOR THE WEB: H.O.T. HANDS-ON TRAINING Lynda Weinman and Jan Kabili 591 pages, $49.99 Peachpit Press www.peachpit.com Another widely anticipated publication by the peripatetic Lynda Weinman, her latest Hands-On book is a beautiful looking multimedia training program for beginning-to-intermediate level Web designers and developers. With colorful graphics and savvy educational design, Weinman and Kabili integrates the concise tutorials with CD-ROM visualizations and samples. You can use this book piecemeal for specific instructions, such as figuring out transparent GIFs, image maps, layers, and background images, but it works even better from start-to-finish as a comprehensive courseware for the eager student. PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 2.0: 50 WAYS TO CREATE COOL PICTURES Dave Huss 314 pages, $29.99 New Riders www.newriders.com Digital cameras are generally simple to use. However, getting fine pictures out of them takes a bit more than just point-and-click. Dave Huss has a good-natured way of explaining how you can get optimal results both behind the camera and in front of your computer. There are tips here, for instance, on how you can avoid distortion and, if you get it anyway, how you can fix it in "post-op" with the software. The "Making Photos Look Professional" chapter is extensive and includes some photographic basics, as well, such as lighting and composition, but he always ties it up for the digital relevance. I didn't count, but I actually think there are more than 50 ways to create cool pictures in this book. |
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