Fiction, nonfiction, poetry, & technology book reviews, plus social, political, & economic commentary
This fourth edition of Ben Frain’s Responsive Web Design with HTML5 and CSS continues an information flow that has now spanned a decade and helped numerous new and experienced web designers. The book is well written and well illustrated with plenty of code examples to support key topics and instructions. The major principles of responsive … Continue reading Responsive Web Design with HTML5 & CSS, Fourth Edition – #bookreview
Node.js in Practice Alex Young and Marc Harter Manning – paperback I have had a long-term, love-ignore relationship with Node.js. I have taken Node classes, read Node books, and tinkered with Node programming both on Windows and Linux machines. Sometimes I have loved working with Node.js. Other times, I have ignored it for months … Continue reading NODE.js IN PRACTICE – A well-focused guide to understanding & using this powerful web development platform – #programming #bookreview
Functional JavaScript Introducing Functional Programming with Underscore.js Michael Fogus (O’Reilly – paperback, Kindle) When I first started tinkering with JavaScript, object-oriented programming (OOP) was the rage, and JavaScript frequently was touted as one of the key object-oriented languages. After all, according to many online descriptions, almost everything within JavaScript “is OO.” Now, in this enjoyable … Continue reading Functional JavaScript – Applying functional techniques and Underscore.js – #programming #bookreview
The Modern Web Multi-Device Web Development with HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript Peter Gasston (No Starch Press – Kindle, paperback) After a quick first glance, you might look right past this book. You might assume its title, “The Modern Web,” simply introduces some kind of heavily footnoted, academic study of the Internet. Not so, Web breath. … Continue reading The Modern Web: Multi-Device Web Development with HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript – #bookreview
Killer UX Design Jodie Moule (SitePoint – paperback, Kindle) The overused term “killer app” tends to kill my curiosity about books with “killer” in the title. Still, “killer” title aside, Killer UX Design deserves some attention, particularly if you are struggling to create a better user experience (UX) for products, websites, services, processes, or systems. The … Continue reading Killer UX Design – How to create compelling, user-centered interfaces – #bookreview
Getting Started with Mule Cloud Connect Ryan Carter (O’Reilly – paperback, Kindle) In a digital world increasingly cluttered with Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platforms, Open APIs, and social networks, complexity quickly can get out of hand. “It all starts,” Ryan Carter writes in his new book, “with a simple API that publishes somebody’s status to Facebook, sends a Tweet, or updates a … Continue reading Getting Started with Mule Cloud Connect – To help sort out the chaos of Internet services – #bookreview
HTML5 and JavaScript Web Apps Wesley Hales (O’Reilly, paperback – Kindle) Increasingly, the world of Web development is taking on a “mobile first” attitude. And for good reason. Sales of desktop and laptop computers are shrinking, while sales of mobile devices seem to be swelling into a flood. “Consumers are on track to buy one … Continue reading HTML5 and JavaScript Web Apps – With emphasis on the Mobile Web – #programming #bookreview
WordPress: The Missing Manual Matthew MacDonald (O’Reilly, paperback – Kindle) It’s easy to set up and launch a basic WordPress blog. But once you do, it’s also very easy to just keep blogging and ignore the many other options and features that WordPress offers. (I’m guilty of that, which is why I’m happy to see … Continue reading WordPress: The Missing Manual – Covers what you need to know & can profit from – #bookreview
Selectors, Specificity, and the Cascade: Applying CSS3 to Documents Eric A. Meyer (O’Reilly, paperback – Kindle) If you know some basic CSS but wonder how the “cascade” part of Cascading Style Sheets works, here is a useful guide. Actually, this is a 73-page, two-chapter excerpt from the upcoming fourth edition of Eric A. Meyer’s CSS: … Continue reading Specificity, Selectors, and the Cascade: Applying CSS3 to Documents – #bookreview
Programming Google App Engine, 2nd Edition Dan Sanderson (O’Reilly, paperback – Kindle) O’Reilly recently has published a new edition of Dan Sanderson’s Programing Google App Engine. The new edition updates the 2009 first edition and includes coverage of Java 6 and Python 2.7 support, multithreading, asynchronous service APIs, and using frameworks such as webapp2 and Django … Continue reading Programming Google App Engine, 2nd Edition – An important how-to guide, updated – #programming #bookreview
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