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Computing Recent Picks

January 2011

The underlined title links will take you directly to our catalogue.
Some featured items are linked via a book cover to enable you to read more reviews.

Designing for interaction : creating smart applications and clever devices / Dan Saffer.
"An armband on a jogger gathers more than just sweat; it also records physiological data to download. A robot receptionist not only answers the phone but also gossips. These are not the stuff of dreams. They are on the market or near to it right now. Practitioner (on many levels) Saffer describes how to design products that are just as innovative, practical and human-centered, starting with definitions and the history of this new field, then shifting to defining the product, choosing an approach, using the elements of interactive design (motion, space, time, appearance, texture, sound) and their laws, characteristics of good design, design research and brainstorming, the craft end (task flows, storyboards, etc.), interface design basics, developing smart applications and clever devices, and designing for service. He closes with a peek into the future and a section on design ethics. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)" (Syndetics summary)

Syndetics book cover Smashing WordPress : beyond the blog / Thord Daniel Hedengren.
"Smashing WordPress shows you how to utilize the power of the WordPress platform, and provides a creative spark to help you build WordPress-powered sites that go beyond the obvious. You will learn the core concepts used to build just about anything in WordPress, resulting in fast deployments and greater design flexibility.
Inside, WordPress expert Thord Daniel Hedengren takes you beyond the blog and shows you how WordPress can serve as a CMS, a photo gallery, an e-commerce site, and more." (Amazon)

Syndetics book cover 500 simple website hints, tips, and techniques : the easy, all-in-one guide to those inside secrets for building better websites / Jamie Freeman.
"500 Simple Website Hints, Tips, and Techniques is a jargon-free guidebook on the basics of website design, packed with essential advice and step-by-step projects. Whether you need a site for personal or professional purposes, this book contains everything you need to know to get started. The book offers tips and hints on planning your site, with an introduction to information architecture, HTML basics, file and image formats, and methods of testing websites. Key design aspects, such as colors, typefaces, and layouts are also explored.To be successful, a website needs to be accessible to as many people as possible. The book includes advice on following W3C Web Standards, ensuring maximum compatibility as well as achieving a high ranking in search engines. Once you've got a website that works and can be easily found, the book explains the best way to add fun extras, such as Flash and animated rollovers. Illustrated throughout with inspiring examples of great websites, 500 Simple Website Hints, Tips, and Techniques is the ideal beginner's guide. Book jacket." (Syndetics summary)

Syndetics book cover Programming Windows Azure / Sriram Krishnan.
"Krishnan, a member of the Windows Azure program management team and a cloud computing veteran, offers a readable and thorough how-to book on the features and capabilities of Azure, Microsoft's new Internet services platform. Topics include developing cloud applications with Azure, service models, service management, native and non-.NET code, storage basics, blobs, queues, tables, common storage tasks, secure backup systems, and SQL Azure. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)" (Syndetics summary)

Syndetics book cover Silverlight 4 for dummies / by Mahesh Krishnan and Philip Beadle.
Silverlight makes stunning Web effects-- animation, streaming media, audiovisual playback-- easier than you could have imagined. This book is packed with all the info you need to start creating applications using Visual Studio and Expression Blend.