Learning PHP, MySQL, and JavaScript: A Step-By-Step Guide to Creating Dynamic Websites, by Robin Nixon
Filed under: Javascript, Non-fiction, PHP, book review, web design
This excellent book by 
Nixon is well versed in these techniques, and does a great job in showing how the powerful combination of PHP and MySQL workds together and how adding JavaScript can contribute to the creation of rich Internet applications and websites.
Learning PHP, MySQL, and JavaScript explains each technology separately, shows you how to combine them, and introduces valuable web programming concepts, including objects, XHTML, cookies, and session management. You’ll practice what you’ve learned with review questions in each chapter, and find a sample social networking platform built with the elements introduced in this book.
Using this book you will learn to:
- Understand PHP essentials and the basics of object-oriented programming
- Master MySQL, from database structure to complex queries
- Create web pages with PHP and MySQL by integrating forms and other HTML features
- Learn about JavaScript, from functions and event handling to accessing the Document Object Model
- Use libraries and packages, including the Smarty web template system, PEAR program repository, and the Yahoo! User Interface Library
- Make Ajax calls and turn your website into a highly dynamic environment
- Upload and manipulate files and images, validate user input, and secure your applications
I have spent lots of time with this book and have learned a lot from it. I have looked into several of the coding examples, and all of the ones I looked into worked. In addition to the great content, I also appreciated the crisp and clear presentational style, and do not hesitate to recommend it to others!
This Quiet Dust, and Other Writings, by William Styron
Filed under: Fiction, Short stories, William Styron, book review
There is no doubt that 
William Styron is one of America’s greatest contemporary writers. He wonderful writing can also be witnessed in this collection of short pieces; even though it is perhaps a little stiffer than usual in his writings. The stories cover a wide range of topics and contain his views and reflections, his observations on the state of the world and the ways of the world as he sees it.
This interesting collection includes considerations of Scott Fitzgerald, Faulkner, and others, as well as a re-evaluation of Thomas Wolfe, a review of Malcolm Cowley’s ”A Second Flowering”, as well as a piece on James Jones. It also contains articles about the battlefields of Vietnam and about Auschwitz. A wide range of writings written by a man with a wide range of interests, and who is engaged in the world he lives in and has spent a lot of time pondering a range of diverse topics. Styron was a writer who was willing to confront significant moral questions.
This is a collection you should read if you are interested in learning more about William Styron and his views. It is not a book you should start with if you have not read any of Styron’s novels yet. In that case, I would rather recommend The Confessions of Nat Turner or the magnificent Sophie’s Choice.
Praise for This Quiet Dust:
“Styron is pre-eminent…in his instinct for tragedy and in his respect for the sheer force of human feeling.” — Alfred Kazin
“[Styron is] the most accomplished craftsman, and one of the most penetrating witnesses of our life.” — Associated Press — Review
, 
, and The Confederation Handbook, by Peter F. Hamilton
Filed under: Peter F. Hamilton, Science Fiction, book review
This is a handbook – a book of “facts”, 
In this galactic almanac Peter F. Hamilton reveals the true potential of his brilliantly realized epic. Expanding on its concepts and complexities, The Confederation Handbook explores the 600-year history of more than 21,500 inhabited worlds, asteroids, and bitek habitats. You can discover how Edenist space colonies are grown; the real story of the Kulu Kings and the exiled Lord of Ruin; why Adamist religions caused the human schism by rejecting Affinity; the tragic legacy of Rubra, the Edenist rebel who created Valisk; learn about Voidhawk breeding and Tyrathca mating rituals, and much more!
The Confederation Handbook covering geology, politics, technology, weaponry, and alien life forms, and is a must read for Peter Hamilton’s legion of fans.
To some extent it is also a book of spoilers. Much of Night’s Dawn consists of going through a long series of adventures to find out the quirks of Hamilton’s galaxy. It is the wealth and appeal of his background, and the daring of his conceit – science fiction that overtly tackles all the issues usually left to religion – that make Night’s Dawn so popular.
With this book you get in neat summary the information that would otherwise require you to read thousands of pages of the trilogy itself. Indeed, if you read the first volume of Reality Dysfunction& and would like to know where the story goes, you have only to read this book, skip the next four and a half volumes, and read the last 100 pages of Naked God, and you will have the plot. On the other hand, readers who have read and learned all the information provided in the trilogy will find little new here.
Running Blind, by Desmond Bagley – classic thriller
Running Blind is another of the thrillers by English thriller master Desmond Bagley that has been made into a movie. It is a great, very suspenseful roller-coaster of a novel that tied me to me chair. 
It all begins with a simple errand – a package to deliver. “It’ll be simple”, they said at the Department. “You’ll just be a messenger boy.” But to Alan Stewart, on a deserted road in Iceland with a murdered man at his feet, it looks anything but simple. Almost immediately, he finds himself in a maze of bluffs and double-bluffs. Set amongst some of the most dramatic scenery in the world, Stewart and his girlfriend, Erin, are faced with treacherous natural obstacles and deadly threats, as they battle to carry out the mission.
Stewart escapes a very cunning trap and in doing so stumbles, almost by accident, on the scary possibility that a top official in British intelligence may actually be a Russian mole. What follows is a spellbinding sequence of action involving the mole, the Russians, some stray CIA agents in fascinating pursuit all across Iceland.
Running Blind culminates in a shootout that contains a huge surprise, and a shocking conclusion.
An excellent thriller! The language and descriptions are excellent, the plot full of surprising twists, and the suspense almost intolerable. Running Blind moves at a faster pace than the average Bagley novel. Still very well worth reading!
The Last Frontier, by Alistair MacLean
Filed under: Alistair MacLean, Thriller, book review
(a k a The Secret Ways) This 
Michael Reynolds is a capable agent but not a superman. He doesn’t even have any fancy technology. He is well trained and resourceful. His skills are immediately put to the test when something goes wrong and he falls into the hands of the ruthless Hungarian Secret Police. In an attempt to continue his mission, he seeks the help of the leader of an underground movement that is set up to smuggle Hungarians over the border into the West.
The Last Frontier was published in 1959, just three years after the crushing of the October Revolution by the Russian troops. It is a tough book to read, and an excellent spy thriller. If you don’t know or have forgotten just how hard-fought the Cold War was for the United States and its Western Allies, and how desperate many people in the Eastern European countries were under Soviet rule, this may be a good book to read. It is, I think, very realistic on some levels, and besides: it is great entertainment, and very exciting. The Last Frontier is recommended to fans of Cold War spy fiction and to fans of Alistair MacLean.
Praise for The Last Frontier:
‘Breathless, bloody and detailed.’ Daily Telegraph
‘Swift-moving, with a tremendous climactic scene on the snow-swept roof of a trans-Hungarian express.’ Glasgow Herald
, Amazon UK
, and Amazon CAN
. See also Bokkilden.no and Tanum.The Eleventh Commandment, by Jeffrey Archer
Filed under: Fiction, Jeffrey Archer, New York Times bestseller, Thriller, bestseller, book review
Connor Fitzgerald works for the CIA. Nobody knows of his double life, 
Actually, Connor is being sent on a bogus mission, set up by the director of the CIA, presumably with the permission of the White House. The job ploy is to eliminate Connor, who has, in the Director’s view, become a threat to her job.
The Eleventh Commandment is another Jeffrey Archer-tale with a lot of twists in the tale, and clearly with some references to the goings on of the real world. Well worth an intensive weekend of reading!
The Bomb Vessel, by Richard Woodman
Filed under: Nathaniel Drinkwater, Richard Woodman, book review, historical fiction, naval fiction
This is a book in the excellent and very realistic historical fiction series from the Age of Sail by Richard Woodman, featuring Nathaniel Drinkwater. This books, The Bomb Vessel takes place early in the Napoleonic Wars, and covers the time period from September 1800 to July 1801. Nathaniel Drinkwater has returned from the Red Sea and is on 
At the same time, he is also forced to deal with a problematic situation that his brother has gotten himself into by murdering his girlfriend and her lover.
Virago, with other known characters such as Mr. Rogers, Tregembo and Mr. Q, joins Nelson’s fleet bound for Copenhagen and Drinkwater has ample opportunity to distinguish himself at the first Battle of Copenhagen in April 1801. And being a man that wants to make something of himself, he throws himself into whatever action he can find. In the end, he is personally congratulated by Horatio Nelson and promoted to Commander.
Drinkwater has developed into a tough and skillful man. As Tregembo states, “Men don’t cross the lieutenant too successfully, zur, leastaways not sensible men”‘. He is a tough and quite formidable fighting man even though his wounds from 20 years of service start to bother him. Drinkwater is quicker tempered and less introspective than Horatio Hornblower, but still in many ways reminds me of him. He is very willing to take risks, has a good understanding of tactics, and no fear in battle. In many ways Drinkwater is a more believable hero than Hornblower!
The Bomb Vessel has great descriptions of the Battle of Copenhagen. As well, Woodman’s descriptions of the historical characters involved seem to be very good. The book is a quick but very entertaining read. One of the better in a very good series!
Prime Time, by Liza Marklund
Filed under: Annika Bengtzon, Liza Marklund, Swedish writer, book review, crime book
This is the fourth book written in Liza Marklund’s series 
In Prime Time, well translated by Ingrid Eng-Rundlow, Annika gets involved in the investigation of a Swedish media personality, perhaps the brightest star of them all, TV presenter Michelle Carlsson. Carlsson has been on a Midsummer Eve party with 12 other people, in a beautiful and remote manor house in Sweden, and is found shot to death in a mobile control room. Michelle Carlsson was shot after a late night of drinking, quarreling and sex.
It is quickly established that more or less all of the other twelve people present both had opportunity and motives for wanting Carlsson dead. Liza Marklund takes us into the world behind the cameras, into a world where very few people like one another, where there is lot of envy and backstabbing, where the competition for the top spot is extremely intense and everybody is involved in a more or less continuous fight for power, money and fame.
With the murder, things get more complicated for Annika Bengtzon. One of the suspects is a close friend. And the relationship to her partner Thomas gets worse – he accuses her of letting the family down. And, on top of all of that, her boss also involves her in a power struggle in the newspaper. So Annika is often angry, complaining and difficult in this book. Meanwhile there’s a killer on the loose – and a tense drama about to unfold in the public eye. And in the center of it all is Annika, who in the end is the one who actually solves the mystery.
Prime Time is an interesting and good book, and times quite suspenseful. Even so, in my opinion it is the weakest of the books in the Annika Bengtzon series. However, it is still well worth reading, and you should, if possible, read the series in chronological sequence – that is, read Prime Time after Paradise and before The Bomber.
at amazon US andamazon UK: Liza Marklund (books and DVD’s)
. Links to books by James Patterson at amazon US
and amazon UK
.Styling Web Pages with CSS: Visual QuickProject Guide, by Tom Negrino and Dori Smith
This book offers a very quick introduction to CSS. 
The book starts with the basics – rules, selectors, classes, IDs, the cascade, internal and external style sheets, Divs, boxes, floats, padding, margins – everything is covered, both in a very basic manner. Next are styling elements, working with images, menus and navigation, and moving styles from internal to external style sheets. Rounding out this project-based guide is working with browsers, both old and new, and debugging CSS.
Styling Web Pages with CSS is very succinct and to the point. However, there are some minor mistakes in it, and there are lots of things that are not explained – so while most of the recommendations in the book work, it is very hard to understand why, and the book provides very little in the way of recommendations for where to go to learn more about particular topics or find more in-depth information.
I would consider this book an introduction for people liking to learn visually. However, it has limited value at all beyond the very first introduction. Generally I would say that this is one of the weaker Visual QuickProject books, and it was not as good as I had expected it to be.
Audacity, Privateer Out of Portsmouth, by J. E. Fender
Filed under: J. E. Fender, book review, historical fiction
This is an interesting nautical fiction novel by J.E. Fender. This is the second volume of the Frost Saga, the story of one Geoffrey Frost, a mariner from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, who is a great navigator,
Geoffrey Frost has entered the American Revolution on behalf of the colony of New Hampshire, commanding a captured British sloop o’ war and sailing out of Portsmouth to harass the British fleet. And as Frost doesn’t like to waste time, the story about him too moves fast, with little time spent ashore and lots of nautical action compared to most of the novels about naval warfare in the age of sail.
The story in Audacity, as in the first book in the series, is set during the American Revolution. Here Frost and his crew engage an English frigate very smartly, destroy another English Navy ship, and capture several British trading and supply ships. For Frost and his crew, that means a very nice sum in prize money, and it also serves to enhance Frost’s reputation and influence.
Audacity is very entertaining, rich on historical detail, and has great descriptions of the naval actions the ship engages in. The weakest part of the book is in the exceedingly conceited manner of behavior of the some of the characters, most notably Frost himself. He speaks as if he was reading from a government document or the small print clauses in an insurance policy. I think it is fairly unlikely that anyone ever stood on a quarterdeck and emitted any of the pompous speeches that Geoffrey Frost is guilty of.
Overall, I view Audacity as a very nice read, entertaining, and quite interesting as it deals with the Civil War and the emerging navy of the US. And I enjoy ther hero, the smart and brave Geoffrey Frost a lot!
Praise:
“This entertaining novel .. offers historical detail .. plenty of action, and unforgettable characters.” —Booklist
“The battle scenes are plentiful, the historic references neatly woven in ..”—Concord Monitor
“A seafaring yarn of the American Revolution, Audacity plunges into action and claps on sail.”—The Historical Novels Review
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