Book Reviews



By Heather La Bash

Franck Boston, Fotolia

Blender 3D 2.49

Brito, a specialist in information visualization, teaches product designers, artists, and game developers how to create realistic 3D mechanical models and product visualizations. In three fun and practical step-by-step projects, the reader learns how to arrange three-point light systems, use textures to create special effects, and create photo-realistic environments.

Blender 3D 2.49 Incredible Machines

Allan Brito

Packt Publishing, 2009

ISBN: 1847197469

US$ 44.99, UK£ 27.99

http://www.packtpub.com/book/blender-3d-2-49-incredible-machines

The Art of Community

Ubuntu community manager Jono Bacon shares his experiences and observations to help you develop your community into a vibrant and "reliable support network, a valuable source of new ideas, and a powerful marketing force," as well as create non-bureaucratic processes for successful cooperation. Available under a Creative Commons license and in print.

The Art of Community: Building the New Age of Participation

Jono Bacon

O'Reilly, 2009

ISBN: 0-596-15671-5

US$ 39.99, UK£ 30.99

http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596157234/

VMware Cookbook

Written for system administrators familiar with VMware, the authors of VMware Cookbook provide VMware ESX and ESXi solutions in a variety of network nvironments. Authors Troy and Helmke show you how to avoid and troubleshoot VMware problems, configure and fine-tune your network, and understand disk storage configuration.

VMware Cookbook: A Real-World Guide to Effective VMware Use

Ryan Troy, Matthew Helmke

O'Reilly, 2009

ISBN 0-596-15725-8

US$ 39.99, UK£ 30.99

http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596157265

GeoDjango

GeoDjango is an open source geographic framework that extends the Django web framework. This introduction, for developers interested in writing "rich GIS web applications," begins with an introduction to GIS, then teaches the reader how to build "geospatial data models," retrieve and add data with map-based interfaces and queries, and use the GeoIP API.

Beginning GeoDjango: Rich GIS Web Applications with Python

Stuart Marsh

Apress, 2009

ISBN 1-4302-2531-9

US$ 49.99, UK£ 39.49

www.apress.com/book/view/9781430225317

Pro Bash Programming

Author Johnson teaches programmers to write professional Bash 4.0 programs with the use of standard programming techniques. Pro Bash Programming shows you how to write new utilities and complete programming tasks from the shell, use "Bash's readlines and history libraries" to save typing, get the most from new Bash 4.0 features, and create shell scripts that pull information directly from the Internet.

Pro Bash Programming: Scripting the GNU/Linux Shell

Chris F.A. Johnson

Apress, 2009

ISBN 1-4302-1997-1

US$ 34.99, UK£ 25.99

http://www.apress.com/book/view/9781430219972

Django E-Commerce

Using the popular Django web development framework, McGaw demonstrates how to build powerful e-commerce sites. Novice developers interested in building lightweight, dynamic websites will learn best practices for architecting their sites, how to get the most out of AJAX, how to create secure sites, and SEO best practices. By the end of the process, readers will have an e-commerce module ready to deploy.

Beginning Django E-Commerce

James McGaw

Apress, 2009

ISBN 1-4302-2535-1

US$ 44.99, UK£ 31.49

http://www.apress.com/book/view/1430225351

The Book of Xen

The open source virtualization tool Xen will let you consolidate your hardware and finally put extra cycles to use. The authors show you how to put Xen to best use by helping with your Xen installation, networking, memory management, and virtualized storage. They also show how to "use Xen and standard Linux tools to take snapshot backups, perform QoS operations on network traffic, and limit over-aggressive disk users."

The Book of Xen: Practical Guide for the System Adminstrator

Chris Takemura, Luke S. Crawford

No Starch Press, 2009

ISBN 1-59327-186-7

US$ 49.95, UK£ 39.49

http://nostarch.com/xen.htm

Beautiful Testing

Software tester Adam Goucher and Mozilla QA Director Tim Riley offer 23 essays discussing the "evolution of good ideas" and methods employed during the scrupulous testing of products and software. From large-scale automation to the collaborative process, 27 leading testers and developers offer insight into the testing process and its intersection with beauty and project development.

Beautiful Testing: Leading Professionals Reveal How They Improve Software

Tim Riley, Adam Goucher

O'Reilly, 2009

ISBN 0-596-15981-1

US$ 49.99, UK£ 38.50

http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596159825