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Category: General

The Maker’s Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse

The Maker’s Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse is a fun book. It uses a (fictional?) story of preparation for a coming zombie invasion to weave a narrative that presents a use case for an interesting set of electronic projects. The projects are all centered on survival; specifically, the things you are likely to find most useful in a situation where the electrical grid has failed and you find yourself surrounded by hostile forces. The progression of chapter topics is logical and each build upon the previous. We start with a both fun and well-thought-out description of the problem, an overview…

Junkyard Jam Band

As I opened Junkyard Jam Band, the first thing I thought of was a couple of books I read in the mid-1990s by a man named Craig Anderton. I still have his books covering electronic projects for musicians and do-it-yourself projects for guitarists on my shelf, but they are a bit outdated. The connection is a positive one. I have played guitar for more than 25 years, built my own effects, and even built my own full-on tube amplifier. Junkyard Jam Band is a worthy heir to the maker-musician throne that Anderton’s books sat on for me. David Erik Nelson…

The Smart Girl’s Guide to Privacy

At first I requested a review copy of The Smart Girl’s Guide to Privacy: Practical Tips for Staying Safe Online because I wanted to see whether it would be helpful for my middle school aged daughters. As I got into the book, I found tips and tricks that were helpful to an internet savvy long-timer like me could use. The book covers topics like controlling what you share and where, keeping your personally identifying information safe, how to mitigate against data loss and cracked passwords, dealing with harassment as a female, and more. The topics range from middle school appropriate…

How Software Works

I really enjoyed reading How Software Works: The Magic Behind Encryption, CGI, Search Engines, and Other Everyday Technologies. The author, V. Anton Spraul, also wrote Think Like A Programmer, which I reviewed three years ago. This book, like the older one, is not a “how-to” book in the sense of learning syntax, grammar, or other programming language-specific information. This is a conceptual book, one that explains the details of what software does algorithmically when performing tasks that seem like magic. The goal is to walk the reader through the most commonly used processes in software, but without using a single…

How Linux Works

This is the Second Edition of How Linux Works: What Every Superuser Should Know and is the only Linux-focused book I can recall that has a strong focus on the computer science, what is happening here and why, big picture instead of the how-tos. The reader does learn how to do things, but only after learning conceptually what is happening. This is something that is sorely lacking in today’s computer education classes and I am thrilled to see the author’s focus here. I am convinced that once a person understands the concept of what a computer is, what it does,…

Teach Your Kids to Code

Teach Your Kids to Code: A Parent-Friendly Guide to Python Programming is a unique and welcome addition to the recent trend of programming books with a focus on teaching children. Unlike books that are designed for self-study, Teach Your Kids to Code is intended to be used in a collaboration between an adult and a child. This could be a parent working with a daughter or son or a teacher working with one or more students. It certainly could be used for self-study, but I like how the intent and focus is to provide something to do together. The book covers…

Battle Lines: A Graphic History of the Civil War

I confess that I have never been deeply interested in The American Civil War. After reading this book, I’m convinced that the only reason I wasn’t interested is because of how the topic was presented to me. I am now very interested. Battle Lines: A Graphic History of the Civil War takes the history and scholarship surrounding the conflict which shaped the United States and which still has an impact on its internal politics and struggles and adds what was always missing for me: the human element. Each chapter takes an ordinary, everyday object from the era and uses that object…

The GNU Make Book

The GNU Make Book is intended for people who already have an understanding of GNU Make, what it is, and the basics of how and why someone would use it. The reader is assumed to know enough about programming and source code, about compiling and creating software executables to not need an introduction. The book begins by talking about setting environment variables in your makefile. If you know what this means, you will likely benefit from the book. If you don’t, you aren’t ready for this book. The GNU Make Book has six clear chapters, arranged in a logical order: The…

Build an HTML5 Game

No Starch Press has published a number of programming books that impress me, both in their depth and in their accessibility. Build an HTML5 Game is intended for people who already have a basic familiarity with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. This book takes you beyond the typical “let’s introduce tags and build basic web pages” stuff you usually see and walks the reader through building an entire browser-based game, start to finish. The programming starts immediately in Chapter 1, which is cool. All the important facets are covered from sprite animation, transitions and transforms, game logic, levels and sound, and quite…

The Cartoon Introduction to Philosophy

I like this sort of book, the type that combines complex ideas with approachable expression and style. It is even more enjoyable when I’m already interested in the topic. The Cartoon Introduction to Philosophy provides a solid, basic foundation to the thoughtful contemplation and interesting ideas in philosophy. It is scheduled to be published in April 2015. The book presents its information using an enjoyable graphic style that is well done and pleasant to the eyes. The topics are broken into six chapters, each of which builds on the previous. The order is logical, which is good for a book on…