Reviews (2)

A good start, but don't stop here
This book is subtitled as "An all-inclusive survey of the fundamentals of parallel and distributed computing."It both succeeds and fails on this point.Leopold does indeed cover a wide expanse of technologies and approaches that characterize the space of high performance computing.It is in many ways still an emerging space, so conclusively nailing down every possible thread (no pun intended) in a coherent fashion is eminently difficult.The author's treatment of these different possibilities is uneven, overlooking some important contemporary technologies and implementations.It does cover a wide range of topics within the fields of distributed and parallel computing.Furthermore, within the chapters Leopold treats us to both high-level discussions of approaches and provides a glimpse into some of the implementation challenges involved.On the latter point especially, this book is very useful in that it gives the noninitiate some understanding and appreciation of the peculiarities of parallel programming, without requiring substantial technical background in the technologies.The examples in High Performance C and Parallel Fortran were very enlightening. A good start, but don't stop here
This book is subtitled as "An all-inclusive survey of the fundamentals of parallel and distributed computing."It both succeeds and fails on this point.Leopold does indeed cover a wide expanse of technologies and approaches that characterize the space of high performance computing.It is in many ways still an emerging space, so conclusively nailing down every possible thread (no pun intended) in a coherent fashion is eminently difficult.The author's treatment of these different possibilities is uneven, overlooking some important contemporary technologies and implementations.It does cover a wide range of topics within the fields of distributed and parallel computing.Furthermore, within the chapters Leopold treats us to both high-level discussions of approaches and provides a glimpse into some of the implementation challenges involved.On the latter point especially, this book is very useful in that it gives the noninitiate some understanding and appreciation of the peculiarities of parallel programming, without requiring substantial technical background in the technologies.The examples in High Performance C and Parallel Fortran were very enlightening.Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computers    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. Distributed processing    5. Electronic data processing    6. Parallel processing (Electroni    7. Parallel processing (Electronic computers)    8. Programming - General    9. Programming - Parallel Programming    10. Computers / Computer Engineering    11. Information technology industries    12. Parallel processing   

Reviews (3)

Very Informative
A Stitch In Time is a very good read. Review of A Stitch in Time
This is an extremely lively and readable account of changes in the U.S. apparel industry.It challenges the prevailing assumption that the industry is doomed to move offshore in its entirety. The authors arguepersuasively that there will be a continuing need for apparel production inthe U.S. by firms that cooperate more closely with retailers, and meet thedemand for timely production.In addition, the authors present afascinating history of the industry and a wonderfully detailed discussionof its changing technology. This book is useful to those interestedspecifically in the apparel industry, but also as a case study of how newinformation technologies are reshaping U.S. industries more generally.

A welcome in-depth look at the effects of the IT revolution
The book goes beyond the hyped-up jargon of e-commerce and information technology and instead provides a nuts and bolts understanding of theactual impact of these trends on businesses, workers and the Americaneconomy.While it focuses on just one industry (one with which we can allidentify, as consumers of clothing and customers of the Walmarts, J. Crewsand Dillard's of the world), it gives a much broader understanding of thetrends and forces that will eventually shape most industres, and affect whowins and loses in this emerging "IT" economy.Read more

Subjects:  1. Business & Economics    2. Business / Economics / Finance    3. Business/Economics    4. Clothing trade    5. Data processing    6. Earth Sciences - Geography    7. Industries - Retailing    8. Management    9. Manufacturing industries    10. Retail Management    11. Retail trade    12. Strategic Planning    13. Technical & Manufacturing Trades    14. Textile And Clothing Industries (Economic Aspects)    15. United States    16. Business & Economics / Retailing    17. Business strategy    18. Business | Management    19. Distributive industries    20. Domestic trade & commerce   

Reviews (9)

This book is awful. . . Get Rammers .Net Remoting Bible
This has to be on of the poorest written books I have ever purchased.
Not for beginners
This book is not for beginners. It is very complicated, contains errors and it is not clear at certain parts. While reading the first two chapters I was very happy about the book. It goes into details about distributed applications using traditional approaches and implementing distributed applications with .NET Remoting. However, in chapter three (which is some 60 pages long) you come across many errors. The code shown is not the same as the code which you download from the Internet. I spent the entire day trying to figure out why the events raised on the server are not handled by the client. It appears that the author forgot to put an attribute on the Events class. My second objection to this book is that too much information is put into chapter 3. Author shows you how to create a .NET Remoting client and server, how to convert a server object into XML Web Services object, then how to mix server activated objects and client activated objects, then how to prevent deploying client application on the same machine as server application by creating event repeater class which does not work. Neither the book code, nor downloaded code nor readers code work. The repeater is never invoked and is never handled by the client. The last but not least is an explanation on using interfaces to prevent publishing library code on the client machine. Due to the fact that you build two clases in the examples (one of them implements interface) it is not true that you don't need to deploy server library because the other class will be useless in the client application and client application would not compile. Those with the knowledge of C# will be able to fix it by defining one more interface for other class and then activate the remote object without the server library. Chapter 4 is an explanation of SOAP and Messages and on those 20 pages half is printed with replies and responses. The other chapters are informative but not so much to deserver any praise.
.NET Remoting-Too complex Period
You have got to be kidding. The examples are complex, not well explained, and basically the context is disjointed with no transition between subjects or chapter contents. This cannot be an introduction to Remoting, and is definitely not an intermediate introduction either. That leaves EXPERIENCED NET REMOTING Developers. Note I mentioned both "EXPERIENCED", "NET" and "REMOTING", though I doubt there would be use for those folks either. Cannot explain why this book would get ONE positive comment. I have yet to try the examples, but the way each example is explained is bizarre and confusing. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Client-Server Computing - General    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computer networks    4. Computers    5. Computers - Communications / Networking    6. Distributed Computer Systems    7. Distributed processing    8. Electronic data processing    9. Hardware - Personal Computers - General    10. Internet programming    11. Microcomputer Application Software    12. Microsoft .NET Framework    13. Networking - General    14. Programming - General    15. Computer Communications & Networking    16. Computers / General    17. Internet   

Reviews (6)

Poorly described material, too many mistakes!
I just got my hands on this book for my master program study. From just reading a couple of chapters, I can see where this book is going. It is clear that the book was published in a rush, and never reviewed properly. The author takes too much time struggling to explain the theory, and when it comes to the example, author simply tells that its obvious, although the theory behind is explained in at least 3 pages. Also, the amount of mistakes I found in this short period is enormous and unbarebale. You start to get lost when following the example and feel you can move forward.
Good DDBS book, but needs updating
This book was chosen as the main text for a distributed database systems graduate Computer Science course I recently took. For a CS course on the subject, it is an obvious pick since not many related texts exist on the market. The text is good, but needs updating since it was published in 1999. Research papers from IEEE and ACM were relied on as supplementary reading, since research in DDBS continues, and much has been written in the last four years.

Poorly written. Boring.
I think this book is poorly written. The authors go a long way describing all kinds of taxonomies (look at the abundance of 3d diagrams such as Figure 4.11) without letting the usergrasp the major ideas. Just check the discussion on the 10 types of distributed databases in chapter 4.Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Database    2. Computers    3. Computers - Data Base Management    4. Database Management - General    5. Distributed Databases    6. Networking - General    7. Computers / Database Management / General    8. Database software    9. Databases & data structures   

Editorial Review

"Client/server" are buzzwords that are much bandied about but that remain a fuzzy concept in many computer users' minds. In Read more

Reviews (6)

Excellent high-level overview.
If you've read several ...for Dummies books like I have, you know the quality in the series varies from excellent to mediocre to downright poor. Fortunately, C/S for Dummies ranks among the best of these yellow and black volumes which I keep as a handy reference. Great Book for Mainframe Programmer to Learn Client/Servers
When our company made the decision to go to a client/server environment from the traditional mainframe shop, I was anxious to say the least!I have been a mainframe programmer for over 20 years! So I set out to find an easy read of a book which would assist me in transitioning and was pleasantly surprised to find Doug Lowe's book on the subject.He really does a beautiful job of explaining in simple, no-nonsense terminology what client/server computing is all about!I am very happy that I found this book and am reading it for the second time, because of all the valuable material it contains.Thank you Doug Lowe!!

Get intro but not quite for dummies
I thought the book was excellent at filling in gaps in my understanding of client server computing. It listed hot products from top vendors, explained real-world uses for the products, and offered suggestions on how to approach the client/server decisionmaking process, all in an easy to understand manner.I must add that if I had not had previous experience with IT/Client/server, I would have been lost.I found it a superb introduction to client/server computing. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Client-Server Computing - General    2. Client/server computing    3. Computer Books: Integrated Systems    4. Computers    5. Computers - Communications / Networking    6. Database Management - General    7. Database management    8. Distributed Databases    9. Distributed processing    10. Electronic data processing    11. Networking - General    12. Programming - General    13. Computer Communications & Networking    14. General Theory of Computing    15. Personal computers    16. Reference works   

Subjects:  1. Applied    2. Computer Engineering    3. Computer Simulation    4. Data processing    5. Electric Power Systems    6. Electricity    7. Engineering - Electrical & Electronic    8. Mathematical models    9. Power Resources    10. Science/Mathematics    11. Technology    12. Technology & Industrial Arts    13. Computer modelling & simulation    14. Power generation & distribution    15. Power networks, systems, stations & plants    16. Technology / Power Resources   

Reviews (4)

An excellent rigorous introduction
An excellent, rigorous, mathematical introduction to concurrent programming.This book concentrates on principles and theory, providing an excellent background for concurrent programming.
Very good introduction
Used at the University of Liege, Belgium as reference for the Parallel System lecture. Everyone found it very useful

A good Introductory Book
A very good introductory text to concurrent programming, using something like pseudo-ada as the example language. It starts introducing the basics concepts, like deadlocks, starvation, contention, etc. There's a entirechapter for Semaphores and Another one for Monitors. So, it explores thefolclorical problem of the Dinning Philosophers. Real paralell programmingis discused too. There's special chapters for the Languages Linda, Ocan andAda. It ends with a review of the Spartian Generals problem and a chapterabout real time sistems ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computers    3. Computers - Languages / Programming    4. Distributed processing    5. Electronic data processing    6. Parallel processing (Electronic computers)    7. Programming - Parallel Programming    8. Algorithms & procedures    9. Computers / Programming / Parallel   

Reviews (7)

Don't worth the money
This book is a collection of many topics about MPI, PVM, Pthread, UML, CORBA, etc.None of them explains thoroughly.All the parts don't have coherence and don't have a complete example about parallel and distributed application.Readers would be better off just Google these topics and will find free documents which are far better than this book.It wastes your money to buy this book.

Too shallow and wide-focused
I gave it 3 stars only because there are few books on the subject; it deserves only 2.
Excellent introduction to the topics.Fills a real need.
C++ has no keyword support for parallelism.One must rely on libraries for parallel and distributed applications in C++.This turns out to be a good thing because the C++ programmer isn't stuck with only one concurrency model supported by the language.Instead there are several standard options: POSIX (pthreads), MPI, PVM and CORBA.This book relies on the new Single UNIX Specification Standard which encompasses the POSIX standards for UNIX/Linux. You won't find anything in here that is specific to Microsoft Windows programming or the WIN32 API.Read more

Subjects:  1. C (Programming Language)    2. C++ (Computer program language    3. C++ (Computer program language)    4. Client-Server Computing - General    5. Computer Books: General    6. Computers    7. Computers - Languages / Programming    8. Distributed processing    9. Electronic data processing    10. Parallel Processing    11. Parallel programming (Computer    12. Parallel programming (Computer science)    13. Programming - Parallel Programming    14. Programming Languages - C    15. Programming Languages - C++    16. C & Visual C    17. Computers / Programming / Parallel   

Reviews (27)

fair book but just rehash of Metalink and Oracle RAC documentation
Currently this book is the only half way decent book available for RAC and Oracle. With that said its a disappointment. I got more out of metalink and the Oracle RAC documentation for free. This year a new RAC book comes out by Apress called Oracle RAC Linux. Lets pray that it does a better job. In all fairness, RAC is very complex and covers many disciplines. Still the authors could have done a much better job than simply rehashing the documentation.

content is just so-so
This isn't a great book the facts are very misleading and inaccurate, for example the book implies having 99.999% uptime is unachievable. I have implemented many systems which have uptimes approaching 100%.
Puts a lot of RAC information right at your fingertips
A lot of people's criticism of this book is that some of the information can be found on Metalink. Well who wants to have to search metalink everytime you need to look up something.Plus Mike's interpretation of RAC is based on years of experience.Most everyone will have a lot to gain from this book. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Database    2. Computers    3. Computers - Data Base Management    4. Database Management - General    5. Database Management - Oracle    6. Distributed processing    7. Electronic data processing    8. Oracle (Computer file)    9. Parallel processing (Electroni    10. Parallel processing (Electronic computers)    11. Relational Databases    12. Computers / Database Management / General    13. Oracle   

Reviews (10)

Good, verbose
I started reading this book without knowing anything about RMI.By the time I was done, I started getting an idea what RMI is all about.The examples are good and the book is worth atleast two readings. In the first reading, what is RMI etc. is put in place. In the second reading one may want to place emphasis on what goes into the stubs and skeletons etc. A Good overview of RMI
I thought that this book was a good overview of Java RMI. Athough I do have to agree with the other reviewers, this book is a bit wordy. I do the fact that code is repeated throght the text. This prevents having to lookfor it in previous chapters. Worth buying if your new to Java and RMI.

Good overview of RMI but very padded.
I thought this book was a pretty good intro and overview of RMI.I walked away with a pretty solid understanding of RMI, but most of this could have been accomplished in 100 rather than ~300 pages.It almost seemed like theauthor needed to add filler, so 100 pages of reference was added and lotsof sample code, repeated twice everytime. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Application software    2. Computer Books And Software    3. Computers    4. Computers - Languages / Programming    5. Distributed processing    6. Electronic data processing    7. Java (Computer program languag    8. Java (Computer program language)    9. Programming Languages - General    10. Programming Languages - Java    11. RMI (Computer architecture)    12. Java & variants   

Reviews (5)

Very practical
Very practical, helpfulland easy to follow book. What is more important it gives you possibility to easily make your own templates for analysis and design.

One of the best book I ever read
Easy to read and understand.Good and practical methodology.Cover most essential parts of Software Analysis and Design. Platform independent, plain english, and complete - buy it.
I have read this book three times, and each I learn something new.It isnice to have a book that is independent of any development platform, and inPLAIN ENGLISH to boot.This book is more valuable than the course I hadtaken in college.Read more

Subjects:  1. Client-Server Computing - General    2. Client/server computing    3. Computer Books: General    4. Computers    5. Computers - Communications / Networking    6. Distributed Computer Systems    7. Graphical user interfaces (Com    8. Graphical user interfaces (Computer systems)    9. Management Information Systems    10. Networking - General    11. Programming - Systems Analysis & Design    12. User Interface    13. Computers / Client-Server Computing    14. Databases & data structures    15. Systems analysis & design   

Reviews (6)

Where's the Beef?
This one is strictly for amateurs. Perhaps the last section on customized Visual Basic programming is better. The first 4/5 ths of the book are Very Superficial. No details at all. I cannot believe a team of "high-powered Sql Server experts" came up with this cotton candy. Okay for an introduction if nothing else.

Although useful, the book needs a revision.
This book does not provide examples of sufficient quality and number. Examples lack in the explanation of the master plan and the end result, as well as the specifics of the data models involved.In fact, those examples thatare there, have errors, especially Chapter 2. Hard To Follow and has Errors
Catherine is right. I tried to work through Chapter 2 which was touted as buildig a "simple" package. The package was simplebut I spent hours on it trying to follow poorly laid out directions and missing parts. Chapter 2 needs a redo so that one heads into the rest of the book with confidence in the authors. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Client-Server Computing - General    2. Client/server computing    3. Computer Books: General    4. Computers    5. Computers - Data Base Management    6. Data Transmission Systems    7. Data Transmission Systems - General    8. Database Management - SQL Server    9. Distributed Computer Systems    10. Programming Languages - SQL    11. SQL server    12. Computers / Programming Languages / SQL    13. SQL   

Reviews (2)

The most important book for understanding distributed AI
This book is the best source for obtaining knowledge about Distributed AI and Intelligent Agents. In particular I will recommend the chapters about coordination techniques and negotiation in multi-agent systems, as well as the thorough introduction (with a lot of good references!). This book is an excellent formal discussion of DAI.
This book could serve as a text book for an class in agent technology. In particular, the formal description of communication theory in chapter 3, "Logical Foundations of Distributed Artificial Intelligence" is a must read for any serious student of the field. This text is not for the average reader, but is invaluable to anyone who intends to pursue serious work in the field of DAI. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Artificial Intelligence    2. Artificial Intelligence - General    3. Computer Books: General    4. Computers    5. Computers - General Information    6. Distributed Computer Systems    7. Distributed processing    8. Electronic data processing    9. Management Information Systems    10. Computers / Artificial Intelligence   

Reviews (1)

no mention of BitTorrent?!
Birman gives a lucid explanation of various ideas involved in making a distributed computing system. Some have been around for years, like CORBA. Yet he advises, correctly, that its industry implementations have many difficulties regarding ease of interoperability. Which has greatly constrained CORBA's success.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computer Science    3. Computer networks    4. Computers    5. Computers - General Information    6. Data Processing - General    7. Distributed processing    8. Electronic data processing    9. Networking - General    10. Programming - Systems Analysis & Design    11. Reliability    12. Web services    13. Assurance    14. Client/Server    15. Computers / Networking / General    16. General Theory of Computing    17. Peer to Peer    18. Transactional systems   

Reviews (1)

COMPLEX AND NOT TOO CLEAR, BUT ONLY TITLE ON SUBJECT
As a user of SAP at a retail company, I was excited to see a title written on SAP specifically for retail.Retail is not one of the traditional industries focused on by SAP and its system shows a strong bias for manufacturing, so I was hoping this book would shed some light on the capabilities of the system that were being underappreciated at my company.Well, the result was that I was quite dissapointed after reading through it.First, the book seems to have been written in German and translated (poorly) to English, because the language is very choppy.Besides, there book lays out a grand vision of the architecture of the system without giving the user much idea on implementation or actual utility of functions.If you are ready to invest a few million on new developments, maybe this book is for you, but if you are looking for small improvements and ideas for medium-term development, this book takes too much of a birds-eye view to be useful. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Automation    2. Business & Economics    3. Business / Economics / Finance    4. Business/Economics    5. Data processing    6. Database Management - General    7. Distributed Computer Systems    8. Industries - Retailing    9. Information Management    10. Inventories, Retail    11. Management    12. Management Information Systems    13. Retail Management    14. Retail trade    15. SAP Retail    16. Business & Economics / Management    17. Business mathematics & systems    18. ERP Systems    19. Electronic Commerce    20. Retail Information Systems    21. Retail sector    22. SAP    23. Trade Information Systems    24. Trade Management   

Reviews (2)

Poorly Written
The overly priced book attempts to explain distributed computing. Unfortunately, Liu's grammar is so poor that the book is hard to understand at times. The book was written a while ago and a lot of it is outdated. I would not recommend this book.

Did they accidently put out a beta release?
This book frustrated me.It had typos everywhere, improper grammer and incorrect code samples.That was my main problem with this.Although the author states that he's had many students review this over two years, he should've looked it over more than once.Maybe I should be a book editor with all of the errors I caught!I don't think this book should have been published in its current state... ESPECIALLY at $70 for a paperback.The organization of the book seemed choppy. I personally would have had RMI and CORBA back to back as competing remoting technologies, and then have the two Internet-related chapters together.Read more

Subjects:  1. Client-Server Computing - General    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computers    4. Computers - Languages / Programming    5. Distributed Computer Systems    6. Distributed processing    7. Electronic data processing    8. Networking - General    9. Programming - Object Oriented Programming    10. Computer Programming    11. Computers / Data Processing   

Editorial Review

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Reviews (19)

Outdated
Upon opening this book I was excited. Until I try to work with the examples and found that the examples were based on jini 1.0. Are we talking about the same technology?!?
Nice concept but the code refers to packages, interfaces and classes that don't exist.Not deprecated, just not there to begin with.And they're different enough that it really has no relevance to the actual technology.Very disappointed.

Excellent virtual read, but fails a little in practicalities
Javaspaces is a promising technology for solving difficult problemsrelatively easily. This book does what it says, it lays out the sciencebehind Javaspaces clearly and concisely with good use cases, patterns andsuggestions. The author is very clear and the book flows very well. Uponreading the book I was champing at the bit to experiment with JavaSpaces.It really is a super read.The problem is, however, that Javaspaces is astill-emerging technology. The simplicity and clarity that is documented inthe book, does not directly tie over to the actual using of Javaspaces. Thecurrent tools are raw and unwieldy, and there are many difficulties tryingto actual start a java space up. Read more

Subjects:  1. Computer Books: Languages    2. Computer Networks    3. Computer Programming Languages    4. Computers    5. Computers - Languages / Programming    6. Distributed processing    7. Electronic data processing    8. Java (Computer program languag    9. Java (Computer program language)    10. JavaSpaces technology    11. Programming Languages - Java    12. Computers / Programming Languages / Java    13. Java & variants    14. Programming languages   

Subjects:  1. Artificial Intelligence - General    2. Chemistry - General    3. Computer Science    4. Computers - General Information    5. Distributed processing    6. Electronic data processing    7. Intelligent agents (Computer s    8. Intelligent agents (Computer software)    9. Science    10. Science/Mathematics    11. System design    12. Artificial intelligence    13. Computers / Artificial Intelligence   

Reviews (1)

The only book so far on MPEG and distributed multimedia databases
This book is a very academic one about the technologies, concepts, and tools necessary for the design and use of distributed content-based multimedia systems. SQL/MM is an international standards effort to extend SQL to support multimedia applications, including access and manipulation of geographic data. MPEG-7 and MPEG-21 are, respectively, about the indexing/retrieval and distribution of multimedia objects. This book focuses on combining these standard technologies to produce functional and scalable distributed multimedia databases.
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Subjects:  1. Computer Books: General    2. Computers    3. Database Management - General    4. Distributed databases    5. General    6. Interactive & Multimedia    7. MPEG (Video coding standard)    8. Multimedia systems    9. Technology & Industrial Arts    10. Computers / Database Management / General    11. Databases & data structures    12. Multimedia   

Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming    2. Computer Books: Languages    3. Distributed processing    4. Electronic data processing    5. Programming Languages - General    6. Prolog (Computer program langu    7. Prolog (Computer program language)    8. Prolog (Programming Language)    9. Parallel processing    10. Prolog