This book is full of mistakes. It also begins by teaching you to program one way, and then tells you that this is wrong. I picked up this book as a refresher, because I have not done any C++ or UNIX in 10 years, but even I could pick out the mistakes in the book. It does not explain the important aspects of C++ very well, skipping over most things with just a cursory description of what is going on. Do not get this book..

TEACH YOURSELF C++ FOR LINUX IN 21 DAYS, while it may seem the ideal book to the budding Linux programmer because of its size, is a poor book for the beginner, and indeed for most programmers hoping to use C++. The book is a so-so introduction to C++ the language, but doesn't offer any useful Linux-specific information (if you want to program in Linux, you probably already know what vi and emacs are, and how to open a command-line). The CD-ROM, containing a distribution of Mandrake Linux, is three years old and thus already ancient compared to today's Linux scene.

The book is not really a "21 day" course, but rather a course made up of 21 units. Some units are too big to tackle in one day, such as the chapters on references and error-handling, unless one has 8 hours to dedicate to this. I'd say three months is a reasonable amount of time to complete this book.

When this book came out, in 1999, the K Desktop Environment (KDE), programmed in C++, was the most popular desktop and thus budding programmers could find plenty of code to work with and improve. In the years since, however, the GNOME desktop, programmed in C, has gained ascendency among power users, and is now the default in many distributions. So, learning C++ on Linux nowadays as a first step in programming gives one very little to work with, as C is the primary language. While in many operating systems one doesn't have to learn C before C++, in Linux it is almost essential because the kernel, most if not all GNU software, and GNOME programs are all in C. So, for the beginning Linux programmer I'd advise first going through Sam's C FOR LINUX PROGRAMMING IN 21 DAYS. Afterward, one could use this book, or ideally a more Linux-centric book, to reap the object-oriented benefits of C++.

Unfortunately, it is quickly apparent that TEACH YOURSELF C++ FOR LINUX IN 21 DAYS is actually just Sam's TEACH YOURSELF C++ in 21 DAYS with a couple of token references to the GNU Compiler Collection, and a very out-of-date "bonus week" added. This becomes particulary obvious as every chapter has talks about how to compile each example on, of all things, DOS. Another problem stemming from the fact the most of the authors aren't Linux programmers, one that consistently shows throughout the book, is the authors' lack of familiarity with free software and the GPL. As a result, the chapter on software design shows a process best suited to the programming department of a corporation, where everyone can get together every morning to discuss the project, and this would not be very efficient in the Linux world of international contribution over distance. A glance at the authors' experience shows they may not be dedicated to ideals of the GNU Public License and open-source software, for example Jesse Libery is now consulting on the .NET project. I would urge anyone wishing to program on Linux to use resources written by actual Linux programmers.

Bottom line, get Sam's C FOR LINUX PROGRAMMING IN 21 DAYS first if you're a beginner. If you're an experience programmer who already knows C, this book may be helpful, but it has its problems.

I bought "Teach Yourself C++ for Linux in 21 Days" to broaden my understanding beyond my school's course material. I was interested in the exposition on analysis and design, including UML concepts. What an interesting book this turned out to be!

There is plenty here for the beginning programmer. The authors lead the newbie right up from "what is a program," "what is a variable," and "what is a function" to the most advanced concepts of the language.

The section on object oriented design was both clear and well-illustrated. I enjoyed the authors' sense of humor and professional perspective. I also enjoyed the simple (but rare) illustration of how to use ctags with vi. That bonus was worth the price of the book right there! The tips on coding style and inclusion guards were other gems.

There is plenty more in this book to keep me growing. Sections covering namespaces, "catch," "throw," exceptions, and the Standard Template Library will keep me reading. These authors are truly the gurus' gurus.

When I started studying WebClasses (May 2001) I looked at a lot of different places, the web, training sites, magazines, and books. In my research, I read just about everyone of the reviews on this book and also on Wrox Press VB6 Web Programming. I bought both.

I don't need to repeat the drawbacks of this book that the other reviews already have mentioned. However, I do wish to emphasize one item that some one else brought out. This book is a mainly a teaching book. Not in the since of giving exact instructions (1. Do this. 2. Do that) as you would find in a high school/jr college class room (I've taught in both); however, it is useful if you need to teach yourself this technology and you don't have vast experience in the area.

I did experience problems because of some of the drawbacks misprints and such, but if I had looked at the author's web site, I would have found fixes for the ones I found and saved myself time and frustrastion.

Even with the drawbacks, my overall experience was positive. I now feel I understand what WebClasses are and how to use them. I'm no expert, of course. That only comes with practice.

If you are looking for a book to teach the information needed for WebClasses, this one is a good one. If you are looking for a more comprehensive approach that teaches you about all areas of VB on the web, look at Wrox Press's VB6 Web Programming.

This is a great tutorial on WebClasses, and sadly one of the few books to do the technology justice. WebClasses are the Visual Basic 6.0 way to code web pages, and they rule for debugging and general maintainability. Read this book and learn why you should toss Active Server Pages in the trash (can you tell I hate ASP?). The writing is very straightforward and appropriate for someone with very little web development experience (i.e. truly "from Scratch). I lead a team of developers migrating a code base from ASP to VB 6.0 and Web Classes, and this book was very helpful for those with little web development (or even VB) experience. It briefly discusses scalability issues, but if you're looking to put up a high traffic site with the Microsoft toolset, you might be better off with Homer and Sussman's "MTS/MSMQ with VB/ASP" by Wrox.

We all know how difficult it is to find a book that is truly worthwhile. I have purchased several books on different but related topics and have been trying to synthesize the information into practical steps for a project I am working on.

Then along comes Jesse's book *Webclasses from Scratch* ! Jesse demonstrates how to use VB6, webclasses, SQL,ASP,ADO, and Javascript to produce a web-enabled database application.

I had become frustrated with getting my replacement tags to process properly. I even called Microsoft for help and the tech gave me an answer that did not work... I now see the one key element that was missing and my development schedule is back on track.

This is the ONLY book in print that *specifically* covers webclasses and Jesse does it in his own inimitable style: he assumes you are a novice VB programmer and takes it from there.

I think this is a 5 star book because it covers exactly what the title says, the example is fully functional and useful, and the style makes it very easy reading while teaching you what you want to know. Most importantly because the author demonstrates how the various technologies available to the modern VB programmer can be combined to accomplish a task.

Thank you Jesse, and I encourage you to write another one so you can cover things like how to handle rollbacks with or without MTS.

Not if you don't have compiler experience! The book is well organized, the author well known for his teaching abilities. However, the BORLAND TURBO C++ LITE compiler does not work, and will not work because it was put together in 1990 by BORLAND who will not support it, and as a matter of fact (this took me one week) NO ONE supports it. Its just too old. This is not the authors fault. SAMS publishing can't help, they just threw in whatever they found on the shelf. The source code saves much typing, but I find that you need experience in typing in code to find your own personal problems with typing in code, and recognizing what a semi-colon does, and so on. Just copying files and running the compiler won't create a programmer. You need to create your own programs; this creates experience. This book is a beginning. There are many more books by Jesse Liberty that I like better. I'll have a drink and toast all programming authors the day they get their programming books together and put a cd in with a proper compiler, or recommend which one to get., and where to get it. SAMS PUBLISHING owes me one!

C++ isn't just for C programmers. Jesse Liberty assumes you have no previous programming experience, yet moves experienced programmers along fast enough to get up and running with the language. The book is laid out in such a way that the reader is able to learn to THINK in C++, which is truly the key to learning any programming language. If you've been holding off on learning C++ because you think it's a difficult and cryptic language, dive into "Teach Yourself C++ in 24 Hours" and see what you've been missing!

I was skeptical about a 24 hour book but it has sinced changed my mind. This book explains the C++ concepts in a very easy to understand way. You learn the vocabulary, syntax, and other issues that are important to get you started and you do not get other garbage that just confuses you. You should have some programming language experience in order to completely understand it but you don't have to know C. I would recommend this book to anyone that wants to get into C++. I was lucky to be able to use my compiler here at work so I have typed in all the example programs in gnu C++ on an HP UNIX system and they all worked. I didn't even open the disk so I can't tell you how the disk is but the information in the book is very satisfying for that first step into C++. Great for beginners.

This book certainly deserved its place on Amazon's top ten list of the year. I have read many stories in the press about Celebration, and hoped that someone with real feel for the residents would write an in-depth account of life inside that strange place. Ross set aside his life for a year, and dedicated himself to participating fully in all of the activities of the town. His efforts paid off, the book is a real eye opener, and will surprise anyone expecting a simple-minded diatribe about Stepford Wives in a Mickey Mouse town. The Celebration Chronicles gives us all kinds of lessons about urban planning, civil liberties, and public life in privatized suburbia. Best of all, while the book is an absorbing piece of journalism it is also a responsible ethnographic study conducted with several hundred hours of interviews with residents and Disney employees. The reader knows she is getting at deep community truths and not just superficial opinions from a few sound bites. The chapters about the school controversy are worth the price of the book along, but Ross has done a great job throughout, and produced a masterful commentary on America at the end of the century.

Andrew Ross is hardly the kind of person for whom Celebration was built. He's single, he has no children, and he's apparently an educated intellectual with an abiding love of urban life. Nonetheless, he has done a very capable, skilled job in The Celebration Chronicles. Accurate coverage of the origins and early life of Disney's town required research and synthesis of the huge number of disparate elements - for example, architecural history and Disney's plans for its corporate future - and Ross has risen to the challenge in almost every way.

He does an especially good job - not surprising, for a college professor - of describing and analyzing the parents v. school war that had such an incredible influence on the town's development. Ross covers the external and internal politics, the education theory, and the human details of the school, as well as the many other, varied factors that fed into the battle.

The book also displays the results of the author's wide-ranging, thorough research. Ross appears to have entered into every social circle that would have him and even a few that wouldn't. He attended every town meeting, even those where he was the only resident present. He visited many residents and talked with the full range of social groups. He even carefully documented every rumor that blossomed on the flourishing town grapevine - that chapter makes for humorous reading indeed. All of Ross's research means that this book provides a very clear picture of the range and diversity of the residents and their lives in Celebration.

The book does founder a bit in the places where Ross's own leanings become too clear. His opinions - which, I'm grateful to say, are generally quarrantined in their own sections and chapters - about the town's issues are just what you'd expect from a hugely liberal educator without children. In the famed school battle, for example, his sympathy and empathy is all for the teachers and the lost innovative instruction paradigm. He appears totally incapable of understanding the parents' viewpoints, so his personal opinion is unbalanced.

Overall, though, this is a well-balanced, well-written, well-researched book. Considering the depth and complexity of the topic, this is an astounding work. Absolutely worth reading and owning, even if you'd never in your life consider residing in a place like Celebration.

This is an excellent portrayal of small town USA citizens and at the same time and earnest critique of Disney's capital appetite. Ross weaves these stories together to create a fascinating read.

Celebrationites are a unique crew hailing from all over the country for reasons as varies as hoping the monorail system at Disneyworld could use a retired doctor as the conductor to expecting the cutting edge, progressive school to improve teenage grades and angst. Ross interviews the citizenry allowing them to tell their stories to an honest interviewer and fellow townee as opposed to their usual experience of giving five minute sound bite interviews from media folk in town for the afternoon. Celebration comes across as a town with incredible civic involvement and interesting inhabitants. Most citizen issues seem common to small neighborhoods, although some do have to do with the Disney Company and their poor construction of houses.

Ross demonstrates how the Disney Co. established Celebration as an (overpriced) homestead for varied income level inhabitants and racial diversity. Unfortunately neither was accomplished and the town is largely white and upper middle class. Celebration was designed to combat the ills of the urban sprawl overtaking the central Florida region and to promote clean living, community sentiment and an alternative to the glare of franchise neon lights. Interestingly, Ross points out that at the same time the Disney Co. is daily recruiting underpaid labor from Florida's immigrant pool of Mexicans and Central Americans who are forced to squeeze into tiny apartments on the strip thus adding to the urban sprawl as well as exploited laborers.

Ross relies on concrete data and solid interview to critique Disney's plans and true motivations for building celebration - 20 years worth of permits to develop their property holdings in Central Florida and continue to fortify their kingdom.

An excellent book, I highly recommend it!

Author Stephen Coonts has written a dozen books with, "Liberty", the 8th that feature the character of Jake Grafton. The last book I read by Mr. Coonts was by no means exceptional, but this book is just poorly done. Whether misquoting one of the best-known figures of the 20th Century, Sir Winston Spencer Churchill, or just letting generalities slide by when detail is critical, this book is just badly executed. The plot winds around itself and actually shows some promise as you get past the first 90%, the problem, even then, is that the book still has not decided what story it is trying to tell.

One of the reasons is that the book is so opportunistic, cliché, and appears to have been rushed as it was inspired by events of September 11, 2001. This book is fiction, but fiction does not mean that any sense of balance should be tossed for dramatic effect. This book is littered with stereotypes of the worst sort, and absolute disrespect for non-Christian religions. The black hats this time are designated by the fantastically weak name of, "The Sword Of Islam", is that the best the author could invent for the opposition in this book? I was completely unimpressed and disappointed that these persons were repeatedly described as billions of ignorant, uneducated mud hut dwellers, and other names that are unprintable here, and should be beneath a writer of Mr. Coonts' track record. Islam is not the problem the World faces, certain individuals that distort Islam, just as others distort Christianity to justify the murder of people they do not like are the issue, not the religion that is mentioned.

Another theme the author tries to sell is the ends justify any means when dealing with terrorism, and he tries to buttress his case by comparing the issue of terrorism with the Civil War and the Civil Liberties that then President Abraham Lincoln suspended, and other constitutional laws he stepped through or around. The threat is not the same; this is an international not a national issue, so I find the author's reasoning/logic/story justification flawed, and very weak.

Anyone who has read a handful of books in this genre is well acquainted with certain acronyms, FBI, CIA, and yes Mr. Coonts the NSA. The writer mentioned the NSA repeatedly throughout the book, so why does he need to tell readers on page 414 of 420 pages that NSA means National Security Agency? Give your readers a bit more credit.

The ending of the book is as unsatisfying as it is contrived and familiar. There were at least three good books that are hiding in this mélange of almosts and false starts. But when collected under one title they are unworthy of your time.

Mr. Coonts continues to write about American heroes who get the job done in spite of adversity. I enjoyed this book so much that I could not put it down, so I finished it in less than 24 hours. Stephen Coonts is an outstanding writer who continues to write about the good guys versus the bad guys, and I am a sucker for this kind of book. Rear Admiral Jake Grafton is back, looking for terrorists who are out to decimate the United States, and he does the kind of superb job that we have come to expect of our American sailors and soldiers who put their lives in harm's way, while sacrificing much of their personal lives.

Because Mr. Coonts was in San Diego signing copies of this book and his older ones, I had a chance to see him and hear him speak. He is a wonderful, warm human being who treats all of his fans as if they are personal friends. He comes across as a genuine person who loves flying, writing, and people. Although I'm sure he would have been a great admiral, he does not give off the same tough image as Admiral Jake Grafton. I assume that Admiral Jake Grafton is modeled after someone else he knows, even though most of us suspect that the Jake Grafton of Flight of the Intruder was modeled after Mr. Coonts.

You will enjoy Liberty and all of Mr. Coonts' other books. They all rate a five. Good reading.

Coonts has done it again. Jake Grafton is back, this time as Rear Admiral Grafton working in Anti-terrorism. Coonts, as always, never fails to keep you enthralled in action as he gracefully switches back and forth between the multiple story-line threads. This book is thrilling and keeps you on the edge of your seat. Just as before, Grafton seems to find a way to get out of a few pretty sticky situations. An awesome book and a great addition to the Jake Grafton Novel Series. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Way to Go Coonts, keep 'em coming please!

Gery Spence's ideas would turn these united States into a socialist dystopia. His ideas are anathema to liberty.

Example: That Congress shall make no law abridging freedom of speech is set in the First Amendment. We can be certain that the founders meant political speech.

Spence's solution: Eliminate campaign contributions, so that only thos who control a TV network or newspaper chain can influence the outcome of an election. While he rails against the big corporation, this one proposal gives unprecedented power to a small sub-group of corporations.

Whether you believe that socialists or social conservatives control the media, this effectively silences those with opposing views. Stalin and Hitler would be proud of such an idea - and to couch it in the name of freedom is obscene.

No one says Gerry Spence is a great writer; his prose is overblown, more suited to the novelists' courtroom than a serious book, but his ideas will surely upset the status quo. Good. His statements that American workers who have less control over their own lives than ever before have become slaves to the--whatever, be it culture, government, corporation or all of the above is one that many Americans will agree with if they are brave enough to admit it. He advocates taking back that control we should have in a democracy through several methods--the first of which is to live simply so that the corporation/government handouts are less necessary for your livelihood, and the second is to seriously look at the way big money and government control everything in this country. We have a duty to overthrow a corrupt and onerous gov't according to the constitution, says Spence and he lays out his ideas about how to go about that. I particularly like his idea of a voting lottery (with a stick and a carrot to spur voters to take responsibility for themselves and their government.) Bravo to Spence for writing something that steps beyond what today's political leaders put forward as radical changes yet have the end result of maintaining the status quo. He really thinks we can CHANGE things and be powerful and independent again.

I have read several of Gerry Spence's books, some of which I loved and some of which bored me to sleep at night. This one is definately a must buy!
I am a 39 year old US Citizen who returned to the USA just 2 years ago after living from age 18-26 in Soviet Occupied East Germany and age 29-35 in "Reunified" Germany with the in between years spent in Hungary, South Africa and The United Arab Emirates. Upon my return to this country I was floored by just how similar the US has become to many of those countries whose governments I viewed as "police states".
In this book, Gerry Spence responds to many of my concerns, points out many recent dangerous precedents and sounds the alarm that our freedoms and Rights really are in jeopardy! For the first time since my return to the USA I realize that my observations are in fact valid and that there are others out there who are well travelled, educated and/or observant enough to see what is really going on.
Gerry likes to be a poet and he likes to spin fine webs of utopian bliss but he is also a very observant and astute critic of American ideals and images VS the reality behind them. Give the book a read! What else can you get for $2.00 that might just change your perception of life in the USA?

ASP is not as simple as HTML. Speaking from experience, I can say learning ASP can be frustrating. For example, not all web hosting sites will support ASP. Still, in my experience, ASP from Scratch does a good job introducing the beginner to the subject. Before devoting too much time to ASP development, it would be prudent to ask the hosting service how their servers handle interactive programming. Once you know for certain AS Pages are supported you can get started in earnest and "ASP from Scratch" is a good tool to start with. To use this book, you should have a familiarity with HTML. Nicholas Chase walks the reader through the interactivity of ASP from simple to complex very well. The book is well organized and his writing is clear and understandable. Still, due to security and other issues, a web hosting site may require a programmer to use some site specific syntax. Again, a few good questions to the web host's technical support people will serve the reader well. Overall, I can recommend this book to any serious ASP programmer. There are a few typos that the author has corrected and posted at his web site. There aren't many, but a few minutes to insert these corrections before you get started will make your use of the book easier. If you take the time to read and study Mr. Chase's work, you'll learn a lot about ASP's. I have. RJones

I personally love "by example" books and this book is certainly that. What better way to learn than having ASP concepts explained in the context of an actual web-site? Nicholas Chase has done an excellent job in defining what you are going to do, explaining how to do it, and then stepping you through the explanation. It's a perfect starting point for learning ASP and VBScript.

An excellent and productive beginning!

With all the anti-Microsoft sentiment flying around these days, few of us appreciate and understand the joke. Make it simple, dummy! It is easy to make it hard, but very difficult to make things simple. And, in the world of simplicity, NT is above UNIX, ASP is above pearl or JSP.

In line with the 'keep it simple!' philosopy(which actually makes your rich as well), is Nicholas Chase. His book, Active Server Pages 3.0 from scratch, has allowed me to be productive in interacting with my web server and databases within days. If you are interested in being productive very fast, Nick's book is the one. People don't have the time for cryptic codes and gigantic books, they have business to run. This book will definitly allow you to do just that.

The pen is surely mightier than the sword!

This is a thought provoking defense of free grace. If it fails at it's attempted thesis, (which I'm not admitting) then at the very least, it shoots buckshot into neo-reformed theology. Also, reviewer ED with his arguments 1,2 and 3 should seriously go and invest in some tomes on critical thinking. There were enough informal fallacies in that review to make it homework for a logic course.

I love this book. As someone who once promoted lordship salvation, this book is especially comforting. I had absolutely no assurance of my salvation back when I held the view of lordship advocates, and since realizing that salvation is really by faith alone, I no longer doubt my salvation. I glanced at the introduction to MacArthur's book "Saved Without A Doubt", and it is understandable to me why some in his congregation who are pretty solid Christians would doubt their salvation. I feel for the man who wrote the letter to MacArthur that was quoted at the beginning of his book; I know what he is going through. Anyone who holds to lordship salvation and thinks they can have assurance of their own salvation is kidding theirself...or either they do not understand how utterly wicked their own sins are in God's eyes. This book was very comforting to me, and in addition to helping me have assurance of my own salvation, it has encouraged me to be more of a soul winner, since the gospel is even simpler than I had imagined. Hodges' arguments are very scriptural and his exegesis is superb. I wholeheartedly recommend this book.

This work by Hodges is primarily topical, and as such lacks the "meat" that many may be looking for in the "Lordship Salvation" debate. It is firmly rooted in biblical study, but for those searching for a more exegetical approach, see the commentaries on James and the Epistles of John, and The Gospel Under Siege, by the same author.

This volume deals with concepts such as faith, discipleship, and repentance, which seem to have been confused and mishandled. Hodges' clarity of these subjects is extremely refreshing. This book seems to be the author's venue for tackling these issues in a topical manner.

Absolutely Free is a wonderful introduction to a fresh and inspiring way to understand the free message of the gospel.

This is a fascinating view of a woman who has been stereotyped throughout history as a grandmotherly type, comfortable and full of fluff as as a pillow, when in actuality Martha Washington was a far more complex, interesting,and strong, person than we have been led to believe. This book has been well researched and gives a good account of what it was like to have lived in this time period. I teach at an all girls' school and we are considering it for summer reading. We are interested in our students studying about powerful, strong , dynamic women. Helen Bryan's book certainly gives us a new and richer perspective on an old icon of American history.

"First Lady of Liberty" is a well-documented, yet easily readable, account of the life of Martha Washington and the cataclysmic times in which she lived. Martha emerges as a complex character, not just the one dimensional figure about which most Americans learn in school. Privately preferring a life at home with her extended family,she becomes an active participant in George Washington's military and political career, doing much to ensure his success.

Bryan's extensive research reads lightly. There is a wealth of new material about each of her husbands, her little known half-sister who was part-African, part-Cherokee, Martha's views on slave owning, and indiviual stories and dramas involving many of the people to whom she was closest. (Look, for example, for the mystery of Mulatto Jack and the story of the Dunbar suit.)

Readers of biography, American history, Black history, feminist history, and those who enjoy a good read will all come away fulfilled from reading this book.

I never realized what a central figure Martha Washington was in our country's history until I read this book. The author, Helen Bryan, does a superb job of uncovering Martha Washington's complex and intelligent character, in a fresh perspective and voice. Anyone interested in colonial life, women's studies, the American Revolution, or just an entertaining read, should pick up this book.

Isabella and Ingersoll do a fine job of portraying Captain America and the Falcon in this novel. The topic, American militias, is portrayed in a somewhat simplistic manner, but no less simplistic than you'd expect to find in the pages of a comic book. All in all, I enjoyed reading this title and would recommend it to any loyal fan of Cap or comics in general.

This is brain candy, not art.

Enjoy it for what it is. Try not to think too much about it.

I enjoyed reading Captain America comics as a kid now I can relive the thrill in the novels. Captain America has always stood for the things that make this county great. He may be fictitious but the evil he fights is real in our world. This book can be enjoyed by everyone since it covers the origin of the Captain and his friendship with the Falcon. It's fun, easy reading and I would recommend it with the other Marvel novels in print. It's good for introducing young readers to Marvel character and for us comic lovers to be kids again.