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My Bookshelf

A techie book addict shares his spoils.

By Mike Kaltschnee

I HAVE a confession to make. It's not easy for me, but it's something that I have to share with you. I am addicted to books. I know, I can already hear the gasps, see the look of shock on your faces.Yes, I spend far too much time drinking coffee and perusing shelves at the local Borders. But it keeps me current, and I almost always learn something new when I'm there. When I buy something I consider it part of my continuing education, rather than an expense. And given the size of my library, I should have a great education by now?

My favorite books are from a company that has been covering the Internet before there was a World Wide Web. Tim O'Reilly started a documentation and consulting company, O'Reilly & Associates, in 1978, not knowing that success as a book publisher was his future. His success is evident, since no other publisher has as widely covered all aspects of the Internet as O'Reilly, or with as much depth or candor.

I teach several Internet classes at Naugatuck Valley Community Technical College, and I know I'm not alone in recommending O'Reilly's books to my students. Many of the other teachers own and use the brightly colored books in their classes.

I use Programming Perl, 2nd Edition in my Webmaster program as a reference, and I recommend Webmaster in a Nutshell. This an interesting book, which has a CD-ROM with the full text of five O'Reilly books, including the Perl book, HTML: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition, CGI Programming on the World Wide Web, JavaScript: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition, and the electronic edition of the book that comes with it, Webmaster in a Nutshell. It's an amazing collection of information, and is reasonably priced (for a computer book) at $69.95.

Several years ago we had a project that involved 'frames,' which is an advanced Web design trick to make only parts of the screen move. It's great for putting books or creating advanced layouts online. Unfortunately, no Web page tools supported frames, so we had to code them by hand. I had recently bought HTML: The Definitive Guide and would have never figured them out without it. I learned the finer points of HTML from the book, and refer to it often.

The great thing about the O'Reilly books is that the information is provided in a concise, well-organized manner and is written by someone who really knows the material. The Perl book, for example, is written by Larry Wall, the guy who created the language. You can't find a better source.

When I was offered the latest book from O'Reilly, Perl Resource Kit, Unix Edition, I leaped at it. I'm still finding new tools, tricks, and ideas from the books. It's a massive compilation of information and software on CD-ROM, which includes the Java/Perl Tool, written by Larry Wall. My first pass gives me the impression that this is more information than I could use or read in the next year. It's not inexpensive at $149.95 but is worth it if you're serious about Perl under Unix. I wish we had had this two years ago when we started programming in Perl.

Besides the O'Reilly books, my favorite author has to be Laura LeMay. I, like many others, learned about Web page creation and design from her. I bought a copy of Teach Yourself Web Publishing in 14 days many years ago. It got me started and gave me the background I needed to create many Web sites. I am hard to please when it comes to technical books, but Laura has never steered me wrong. I have recommended this book to countless people, including friends and hundreds of people at seminars, and I have even received fan mail for it, with a 'thanks for the seminar' thrown in at the end for me. Yeesh. So, get yourself a cappuccino and a cookie, and settle down at Borders with a good read. You might do something more than entertain yourself. You might just learn something.

My Bookshelf

A techie book addict shares his spoils.

*By Mike Kaltschnee*
I HAVE a confession to make. It's not easy for me, but it's something that I have to share with you. I am addicted to books. I know, I can already hear the gasps, see the look of shock on your faces.Yes, I spend far too much time drinking coffee and perusing shelves at the local Borders. But it keeps me current, and I almost always learn something new when I'm there. When I buy something I consider it part of my continuing education, rather than an expense. And given the size of my library, I should have a great education by now? My favorite books are from a company that has been covering the Internet before there was a World Wide Web. Tim O'Reilly started a documentation and consulting company, O'Reilly & Associates, in 1978, not knowing that success as a book publisher was his future. His success is evident, since no other publisher has as widely covered all aspects of the Internet as O'Reilly, or with as much depth or candor. I teach several Internet classes at Naugatuck Valley Community Technical College, and I know I'm not alone in recommending O'Reilly's books to my students. Many of the other teachers own and use the brightly colored books in their classes. I use Programming Perl, 2nd Edition in my Webmaster program as a reference, and I recommend Webmaster in a Nutshell. This an interesting book, which has a CD-ROM with the full text of five O'Reilly books, including the Perl book, HTML: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition, CGI Programming on the World Wide Web, JavaScript: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition, and the electronic edition of the book that comes with it, Webmaster in a Nutshell. It's an amazing collection of information, and is reasonably priced (for a computer book) at $69.95. Several years ago we had a project that involved 'frames,' which is an advanced Web design trick to make only parts of the screen move. It's great for putting books or creating advanced layouts online. Unfortunately, no Web page tools supported frames, so we had to code them by hand. I had recently bought HTML: The Definitive Guide and would have never figured them out without it. I learned the finer points of HTML from the book, and refer to it often. The great thing about the O'Reilly books is that the information is provided in a concise, well-organized manner and is written by someone who really knows the material. The Perl book, for example, is written by Larry Wall, the guy who created the language. You can't find a better source. When I was offered the latest book from O'Reilly, Perl Resource Kit, Unix Edition, I leaped at it. I'm still finding new tools, tricks, and ideas from the books. It's a massive compilation of information and software on CD-ROM, which includes the Java/Perl Tool, written by Larry Wall. My first pass gives me the impression that this is more information than I could use or read in the next year. It's not inexpensive at $149.95 but is worth it if you're serious about Perl under Unix. I wish we had had this two years ago when we started programming in Perl. Besides the O'Reilly books, my favorite author has to be Laura LeMay. I, like many others, learned about Web page creation and design from her. I bought a copy of Teach Yourself Web Publishing in 14 days many years ago. It got me started and gave me the background I needed to create many Web sites. I am hard to please when it comes to technical books, but Laura has never steered me wrong. I have recommended this book to countless people, including friends and hundreds of people at seminars, and I have even received fan mail for it, with a 'thanks for the seminar' thrown in at the end for me. Yeesh. So, get yourself a cappuccino and a cookie, and settle down at Borders with a good read. You might do something more than entertain yourself. You might just learn something.

Mike is a co-owner of DeMorgan Industries, the leading developer of Web graphics, and also teaches Webmaster and Internet marketing classes at the Internet School in Naugatuck Valley Community Technology College. You can reach Mike at: mikek@demorgan.com.