Yahoo Hacks: Tips & Tools for Living on the Web Frontier Review

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Yahoo Hacks: Tips & Tools for Living on the Web Frontier Review"The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated." That quote might apply to Yahoo when you look at all the mindshare that Google has garnered of late. It's almost as if Yahoo is irrelevant and Google owns the search world. Not quite, and Paul Bausch's new book Yahoo! Hacks - Tips & Tools for Living on the Web Frontier reminded me of all the good and incredibly valuable things you can do with Yahoo...
Contents: Search; Services; Communicating; Web Services; Applications; Webmastering; Index
Like all Hacks titles, you have a number of cool tips and tricks that you can do using Yahoo as your technology starting point. In this case, there's 100 of them that cover a wide range of topics. For instance, tip #39 - Monitor Your Commute shows how Yahoo can provide updated traffic conditions overlaying a map of your driving commute. Even better, those traffic updates can be formatted in RSS and put on your My Yahoo page. I did that one right away. Tip #83 - Randomize Your Windows Desktop Background shows how, using Yahoo's web services API and some VBA code, you can create a random Windows wallpaper each day. Just hope you don't choose a search term that isn't "work safe". :) The whole Web Services chapter shows how you can access Yahoo's API using a variety of languages such as Perl, PHP, Python and a few others. Once you get the basic core structure down, you open up a whole universe of possibilities in terms of programmatic integration of Yahoo into your applications. This is really cool stuff...
I've been just as guilty as the next person of getting all "Google"-y eye'd at other search engines and forgetting the site that opened up a whole world of internet realities. Many of the things we take for granted now were ground-breaking ideas that Yahoo was pushing in the early days. Having two strong competitors in the search arena will lead to even more innovative thinking as they play off of each other. I can see how the Yahoo! Hacks title could go into multiple editions without even trying...
Excellent read with lots of code you can use immediately. If you've wandered away from Yahoo for other pastures, perhaps it's time to wander back and see what other options are out there. Yahoo Hacks will expand your thinking as to what you can do with search engines...Yahoo Hacks: Tips & Tools for Living on the Web Frontier Overview
Yahoo! took the world by storm in the 1990s as a one-of-a-kind, searchable list of interesting web sites. But ten years later, it has expanded into a department store overflowing with useful and innovative tools and services-from email, blogging, social networking, and instant messaging, to news, financial markets, shopping, movie and TV listings, and much more. Today's Yahoo! keeps you connected with every aspect of your life and every corner of the Web.

Yahoo! Hacks shows you how to use, expand, personalize, and tweak Yahoo! in ways you never dreamed possible. You'll learn how to:

Fine-tune search queries with keyword shortcuts and advanced syntax
Manage and customize Yahoo! Mail, using it as your universal email client to access all your other accounts
Explore your social networks with Yahoo! 360, blogging your life, keeping up with friends, and making new contacts
Store, sort, blog, feed, track, and otherwise share photos with Flickr and RSS
Make My Yahoo! your Yahoo!, and personalize Yahoo!'s many properties
Roll your own Yahoo! applications with Yahoo! new Web Services API and Perl, PHP, Java, Python, Ruby, or the programming language of your choice
Visualize search results and topics, mash up images from around the Web, and remix other web content
List (or hide) your site with Yahoo!, and integrate Yahoo! Groups, Messenger, contextual search (Y!Q), or other Yahoo! features

Whether you want to become a power searcher, news monger, super shopper, or innovative web developer, Yahoo! Hacks provides the tools to take you further than you ever thought possible.


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iPhone Game Development: Developing 2D & 3D games in Objective-C (Animal Guide) Review

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iPhone Game Development: Developing 2D & 3D games in Objective-C (Animal Guide) ReviewUnfortunately, this book does not meet up to its potential. The main issues I have with it are the code examples and example applications.
* The book does NOT provide complete step-by-step walkthroughs of operations (although, they are generally 'good enough').
* The book does NOT contain complete listings of the project code text. This is a BIG problem.
* The source code is available on SourceForge, but it does NOT match the text in the book!!!
I have no clue why the persons modifying the files changed them so drastically.
So, be aware that there are serious issues regarding learning from this text. I can only hope that someone at O'Reilly sees the problem, and acts to fix it.
Edit : I have downgraded this book from two-star to one-star. The more I get into it the worse it gets. Typos. Coding errors. Misnamed classes, files, methods, member names; the list goes on. It is obvious that the authors of this book did NOT code the projects from the proofs they got from the publisher. It is unlikely that they even read the text of the code; some of the errors are so obvious that even a cursory read shows them up.
Edit #2 : It is now apparent to me that the authors of the Book and the Code are old C++ coders from way back. Anachronisms like 'Hungarian Notation' and other Microsoft C++ patterns are rampant. Misuse and misunderstanding of Objective-C and Cocoa Touch patterns and usages abound. You will learn a LOT of incorrect habits looking at this code and text. Beware.
You will spend more time trying to fix the errors in the book than you will spend understanding the concepts presented.
Get a different book on Game Engine Design and work your own iPhone compatible version from there.
It will be easier. A lot easier.iPhone Game Development: Developing 2D & 3D games in Objective-C (Animal Guide) Overview
What do you need to know to create a game for the iPhone? Even if you've already built some iPhone applications, developing games using iPhone's gestural interface and limited screen layout requires new skills. With iPhone Game Development, you get everything from game development basics and iPhone programming fundamentals to guidelines for dealing with special graphics and audio needs, creating in-game physics, and much more. Loaded with descriptive examples and clear explanations, this book helps you learn the technical design issues particular to the iPhone and iPod Touch, and suggests ways to maximize performance in different types of games. You also get plug-in classes to compensate for the areas where the iPhone's game programming support is weak.



Learn how to develop iPhone games that provide engaging user experiences
Become familiar with Objective-C and the Xcode suite of tools
Learn what it takes to adapt the iPhone interface to games
Create a robust, scalable framework for a game app
Understand the requirements for implementing 2D and 3D graphics
Learn how to add music and audio effects, as well as menus and controls
Get instructions for publishing your game to the App Store


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Essential ActionScript 2.0 Review

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Essential ActionScript 2.0 ReviewYou know ActionScript has come of age when a book like this comes out. Colin Moock had already written arguably the bible on ActionScript 1.0, and though I was worried at the decision that this book was to be a supplement to ActionScript for Flash MX, rather than a sequel, I now couldn't agree more with the logic. The resultant book would have been too big for its binding!!!
Technically perfect, this book reminds me of why I fell in love with O'Reilly books in the first place. It reminds me of my first read of Larry Wall's Programming Perl book: concise, authoritative, and not without a bit of humor! And let me tell you, nowhere is humor more difficult than in a computer book, am I right?
Mr. Moock leads us down a path that teaches how to actually write an application in Flash. And you didn't think it was possible! Believe me, I had my doubts too, but the fact that the book applies several design patterns to Flash programming by the end speaks for itself. When you're ready to write mature, object-oriented applications in ActionScript 2.0, you're ready to pick this one up.Essential ActionScript 2.0 Overview
In September 2003, Macromedia released Flash MX 2004, and with it, ActionScript 2.0, a dramatically improved version of Flash's programming language.ActionScript 2.0 introduces a formal object-oriented programming syntax and methodology for creating Flash applications.From a developer's perspective, the new OOP-based techniques in ActionScript 2.0 make applications more natural to plan and conceptualize, more stable, more reusable across projects, easier to maintain, change, and expand upon, and much more. In short, they enhance the entire development process.

In Essential ActionScript 2.0, bestselling author Colin Moock--one of the most universally respected developers in the Flash community--covers everything you'll need to know about the new ActionScript language and its methodologies for producing movies, animation, and applications on the web. Moock guides readers through this important new territory with his trademark easy-to-understand style and expertise. Moock's goal throughout the book is not just to get you to use object-oriented programming in your daily Flash work: he wants you to reap the benefits of OOP; he wants you to understand ActionScript 2.0 completely.And without question, Moock is the author who can make this happen.

Essential ActionScript 2.0 begins with a tour of the language, including the fundamentals of object-oriented concepts, syntax, and usage. Those who are new to OOP will learn the basics and how to apply their understanding. Those who are familiar with OOP will leverage their prior experience to learn about Flash-based OOP. The next part of the book shows how to structure entire applications with ActionScript 2.0, teaching you best practices and techniques to build scalable, extensible, stable apps. Next, you'll explore a variety of approaches to various programming situations by applying object-oriented programming strategies, known as design patterns, to Flash.

Experienced Flash developers and programmers coming from other languages will enjoy the sheer depth of Moocks's coverage and expertise in Essential ActionScript 2.0. Novice programmers will appreciate the frequent, low-jargon explanations that are often glossed over by advanced programming books.As usual, Moock guarantees quality and accuracy by working closely with Macromedia Flash engineers, including Rebecca Sun, lead developer of ActionScript 2.0. Whether you're ready to make the move to ActionScript 2.0 now or simply assessing it for the future, you'll find everything you need to know within this book. Essential ActionScript 2.0 is the one book every ActionScript coder must own.


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