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I'll have to second SuperSparks on PCPro (although MaximumPC is still my favorite). PCPro is available here in the States at Border's, Barnes and Noble, etc.. It's a great magazine, but a tad expensive...around 15 bucks...but it comes with a pretty decent CD, it's nice and thick and has some excellent articles.
Ouch, that is pricy. It's one of the cheapest mags here as well :rolleyes:
Still at least you can get it, I've looked for MaximumPC, having heard so many good things about it, but I can't get ahold of it anywhere :(
An international annual subscription for the CD issue will cost 53$ U.S.. Their web site for anyone who is interested. Below is their blurb on the mag. I can attest to the fact that this isn't just sales hype; it's really is like they say here:
Please...I'm not trying to spam here. It that I've found this mag to be a tremendous resource for info. "No BS" as they say. I would highly recommend this one for anyone's library. I still find myself referring to back issues for info that I need.Quote:
Maximum PC is the savvy PC owner's monthly dose of new products, tips & techniques and in-depth reviews. It delivers truthful, straightforward, hard-hitting editorials to the PC owner. It also comes with a CD loaded with powerful demos of leading-edge software, and much more.
It's your PC, and someone has to give it to you straight. We'll give you the truth behind the hype, the beefiest reviews anywhere, adrenaline-pumping games, apps that let you work smarter, and tips and tweaks to fine-tune your machine and blast performance. At Maximum PC, we have one person's interest in mind: Yours.
Addendum: I stand corrected. I just went to Barnes and Noble and a copy of the UK's PC Pro with CD is $11.95, not $15 as I said before.
I agree with Bistro on Maximum PC .
A good one it is.
"Windows XP Home Edition Complete" by Sybex is the best computer book I read, and least expensive at $19.99. It covers every Windows function in clear and simple terms, and gives instructions on what menu commands to use to perform every function.
Very useful for beginners and intermediate users.
PC Mag and PC World are useful and interesting although PC Mag got the "media" bug and writes about anything electrical I think. Still I found their product reviews helpful when taken with a grain of salt.
Some of us live on Code Red and Pixie Stix :)Quote:
Originally Posted by bistro
Another magazine that sits next to my recent copies of MaxPC is CPU magazine. Some good (and well-known) writers like Anand, Sharky, and others.
If you do any building/upgrading, a decent First Aid manual is always nice to have on the shelf. :D
Aaaaaah! Skittles with a Pixie Stick chaser......life is good.
:D
Umm, well since I have owned about 300 or more computer reference books in my past, I am surprised no one else has said it ...
Save space and a TREE! Go E-BOOK :rolleyes:
My choices ... just about everything under the sun by SYBEX for testing.
O'Reilly for everything seriously tedious and in-depth.
I have to say that I agree with Silicon Scream. I have a bookshelf full of books and binders from Oracle 8i complete reference, through ColdFusion web application development resouce kit, JavaScript, C++, VB6, Linux Red Hat 7 Bible...... that cost me over a thousand dollars while I was taking my 2 year web developers course. I use the JavaScript book on occasion, but other than that they are pretty well all outdated after 3 years.
For most stuff I have a binder sitting right next to my PC with quick reference to ASCII special characters, HTML 4 tags with attributes, Regular expressions, UNIX cheat sheets and the 1st 4 chapters of "Build your own database driven website using PHP and MySQL" by Kevin Yank (sitepoint.com).
For hardware related stuff I rely on online resources and tend to look for stuff on an as needed basis.
So much for the paperless society that computers were supposed to bring. My wife could bring home hundreds of sheets every week of printed email jokes, manuals, and other "stuff" that people at work send to the printer and then forget about then print off again; they just sit in the printer tray then end up stacked up on a shelf. That's the paper I use to print off the occasional thing I think I should keep for a long term reference, recycled.
Almost everything else I need I can find by searching forums like Virtual Dr for OS/HW related stuff, Sitepoint for web development issues or doityourself.com for fixing stuff around the house....
I have loved the Internet since I got it in January 1997 for the volume of information available. Now I have some decent bookmarks and have toned my searching skills to some degree and have no real need to purchase 1500 page books that will become bookstops within a year.
(Edit: it's come a long way from the 28.8 kbps to the 2.7 M DSL)
I have Upgrading and Repairing Pcs 14th and the tenth aniversary edition by Scott Mueller, also have the older editions as a PDF and a DVD
The classic oldies Dos for Dummies, teach your self dos and Using Windows 3.11 and Windows 95 for dummies.
My Network + and A+ certification books my Mike Myers.
The complete FreeBSD
I picked up the "Microsoft Windows Command Line Admnistrator's Pocket Consultant" over the weekend @ $30.00 from B&N. A worthy add-on that I will continually use for scripts within my network.
I recommend this one for any admin