Book Bytes Special Report

Book Bytes Special Report:

Three Titles We Don’t Recommend for 2005 (And Why)

Book Bytes receives not-so-subtle reader comments that “all of your reviews are always so d@#% positive, and why don’t you ever tell us which books NOT to buy, Nemo?” With limited reviewing time available, cream rises to the top, meaning we tend to concentrate on the books we find to be most worthwhile for our readers. Here are three exceptions:

Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0 Classroom in a Book (Windows Version — Includes CD-ROM)
by Adobe Press (no author listed)
ISBN 0-321027080-0, 296 pages
$35 US, $49.99 CN, £26.99 UK

I have three gripes with Adobe Press:

• This new “official training workbook” relates almost exclusively to the Windows version of Photoshop Elements 3, and disregards just about all Macintosh customers.

• The writing style is friendly, but the content is too limited for a $35 book.

• Only a few tools and techniques are explained in any depth, leaving a new Elements user clueless regarding how to proceed, and frustrated having bought the wrong book.

Elements 3 for Windows is different, for the first time, from its Macintosh sibling, because Adobe includes its own equivalent of Apple’s “free” iPhoto software. I’m over-simplifying, but there’s no need to explain further just now.

If I learn five new techniques from reading Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0 Classroom in a Book, that’s $7 each, which seems a little high. Therefore, Macintosh users of Elements 3 should avoid this title and choose something better from here or reviews to be published in 2005.

If I’m pushed to give a Book Bytes rating, this title will receive 1 out of 5 for Mac readers and 2 out of 5 for Windozers. Nuff said.

Steal This File Sharing Book: What They Won’t Tell You About File Sharing
by Wallace Wang
No Starch Press
ISBN 1-59327-050-X, 272 pages
$19.95 US, $27.95 CN

What’s not to like about Wallace (formerly known as Wally) Wang, a smart (some would say smart-ass) writer who tells it like it is and plays his audience for laughs? Nothing! His books are good, and his combo of wit and wisdom works wonders.

Hey! Why then are we not recommending Steal This File Sharing Book? Because MyMac.com cannot support theft of legally-protected files via the Internet (or elsewhere), and we’re a little surprised that Wang and No Starch Press explain how to do it.

Owen Rubin and I just completed an extensive four-part essay on digital rights management (see: https://www.mymac.com/showarticle.php?id=1842 for the first segment). Our conclusion is that even though you can complete the perfect victimless crime by stealing songs, movies, and more, using your computer, it’s better for everyone involved if we respect the rights of creators and publishers, in spite of any opinions on the business practices of the latter.

If you persist in buying Steal This File Sharing Book, you’ll have doors opened to every aspect of online file sharing and swapping, including (Chapter 14) Sharing Pornography, and (Chapter 15) Miscellaneous Thievery. Wang knows his topic well, and offers (Chapter 16) The Legal Alternatives, for readers who haven’t yet been caught by the download police.

I read every word in this well-researched book, and it made me wish that free, legal, high-quality downloads and media samples were available several years ago, so that file swapping didn’t become the zoo that it is. For readers who are determined to steal or buy Steal This File Sharing Book, our provisional Book Bytes rating would be 3 out of 5 for Windozers and 2 out of 5 for Macintoshers.

Hacking iPod + iTunes (Extreme Tech Series)
by Scott Knaster
Wiley Press
ISBN 0-7645-6984-8, 283 pages
$24.99 US, $35.99 CN, £16.99 UK

The waters are about get murky. I like this book a lot, and its non-hacking content places it somewhere in the 3 to 4 (out of 5) range on our Book Bytes rating scale, for beginner to intermediate level iPodders and iTuners. Where’s the beef? It’s in the title and the split personality of Hacking iPod + iTunes.

If you really want to “install and run Linux on your iPod” or “hack iPod’s database” or modify iTunes or iPod beyond your Apple warranty, this book is not your best purchase, although you will be able to accomplish a few “mods.” Author Knaster instead fills most pages with easily implemented, safe, stable ways to maximize your Podding experience, well worth the book’s purchase price.

This title was the first one I read after obtaining my iPod, and I read and re-read it for weeks, with much satisfaction. I learned:

• how to use Sound Check to even out song volume

• where the “deleted” songs really hide in iTunes

• how to edit song length, plus glue together several cropped tunes

• to burn a very long playlist over multiple CDs

and oodles more, all previously unknown to me.

Then I read through the few true hacks, which neither interested me nor propelled me to dig deeper. Knaster stretches the term “hacking” to include what used to be called “power using,” and if neither term warms your heart, you are a good potential candidate for the bulk of Hacking iPod + iTunes.

At the risk of sounding like a nitwit, how about if we propose a change of the title to: Getting the Absolute Most and Best From Your iPod + iTunes? This book would receive the aforementioned strong recommendation, but the Hacking misnomer title cruises into a Book Bytes rating of 2 out of 5 solely because of its title and/or its scarcity of true “Extreme Tech” hacks.