ACM Online Books and Courses Newsletters for Professional Members

February 2009

Dear Professional Member:

Welcome to the second issue of the ACM Online Books and Courses Newsletter. This newsletter will feature news on the latest book swap, highlighted books and topics on C# and Professional Development in Today's Economy including suggested courses, books, aids and applicable Digital Library articles.

With the update of our online books and courses, the least utilized books in both the Safari Books Online and Books24x7 collections have been removed (60 for Safari Books Online and 50 for Books24x7) and replaced with books which our members requested or in areas of high interest.

  Safari Books Online, the leading provider of an on-demand digital library for technology, creative and business professionals, will feature Hal Abelson, Ken Ledeen and Harry Lewis, authors of Blown to Bits: Your Life, Liberty and Happiness after the Digital Explosion, published by Pearson's Addison-Wesley Professional, in a webcast on Thursday, February 26, 2009, at 10:00 a.m. PST / 1:00 p.m. EST. While the newly-added book is open only to all professional members, all members can access the webcast.

In this webcast, the authors will reveal how the digital revolution is changing everything, in ways that are stunning even the most informed experts. Webcast participants will learn how the decisions corporations and governments are making right now will shape their futures and how they can have a say in those decisions.

To register for this event, click here, or visit: http://www.safaribooksonline.com/events/BlownToBitsEmail.html.

The new Safari Books Online books listings can be found at http://pd.acm.org/books/saf_new_books.cfm.

Some of the new titles include:

C# in Depth

Ruby Phrasebook

Wicket in Action

Python for Unix and Linux System Administration, 1st Edition

The Hamster Revolution: How to Manage Your Email Before it Manages You

You can see the complete Safari book listing at http://pd.acm.org/books/saf_books.cfm.

As an ACM member, you are also eligible for a special 20% savings from Safari Books Online. Upgrade to a Premium Library subscription and get unlimited access to over 7,500 technology and business books (with download capability), training videos, pre-published manuscripts, and short form works on very new or specialized technologies. A Full Library subscription (without download capability) with access to the complete collection of technology books, certification guides, and short form works from Safari Books Online is also available at a special 20% discount.

To learn more and to receive your upgrade discount, go to http://pd.acm.org/books/about_sel.cfm.

The recently added Books24x7 offering can be found at http://pd.acm.org/books/b24x7_new_books.cfm.

Some of the new titles include:

Foundations of Agile Python Development

Manage Software Testing

Beginning Microsoft Visual C# 2008

Beginning PHP and MySQL: From Novice to Professional, Third Edition

Practical Reporting with Ruby and Rails

You can see the complete Books24x7 book listing at http://pd.acm.org/books/b24x7_books.cfm .

With your ACM membership you can upgrade to the ITPro collection at a 40% savings. You gain access to both broad and deep coverage of over 100 different technology topics in over 20,000 books, making this collection a must-have resource for just-in-time learning. Premier industry publishers, such as Wrox, McGraw-Hill, Microsoft Press, and many more, best selling, classic and niche titles. Popular book series, such as The Complete Reference, Inside Out, Bibles and many others provide multifaceted, multi-skilled approaches to topics.

Go to http://pd.acm.org/books/purchase/login_books.cfm?id=252 to learn how to upgrade to the ITPro collection.

Skillsoft has introduced a number of new courses. Unlike the books which are swapped, courses are continually added and improved. Among the newest courses are:

Configure Security for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

Making Content Dynamic with DHTML

Windows Vista Security and Performance Improvements

You can see a complete list of all the courses at http://pd.acm.org/sks_listing_courses.cfm

One of the most popular topics in the ACM Books and Courses Program is C#. Below are some of the most highly used courses, books and articles in the ACM Digital Library on the subject:

Courses:

Programming C# for the VB6 Developer

Customizing Controls and Events in C#

.NET Remoting in C#

Books 24x7:

Beginning Microsoft Visual C# 2008 (NEW!)

Professional C# 2008

Illustrated C# 2008

Safari Books Online:

C# in Depth (NEW!)

Head First C#

C# Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Digital Library Articles (Highest cited articles since 2006):

Modern concurrency abstractions for C#

Generative programming for C#

  Head First Design Pattern - One of our most popular books is "Head First Design Pattern" is rated 4 ½ stars out of 5 on Amazon. It has been described on Amazon as "an intelligent and well thought-out discussion of Java design patterns, and if you don't know what a design pattern is then this is an excellent way to find out." Fernando Bernal on Computing Reviews said "…if you feel you'd rather learn about them in a fresh, informal, novel way, this book is a good place to start."

  Introduction to Algorithms - One of our most popular books is "Introduction to Algorithms," rated 4 stars out of 5 on Amazon. One Amazon reader reviewed it as "The definitive reference for data structures and algorithms." M. Vassilakopoulos on Computing Reviews said "This is an excellent introduction to a fundamental area of computer science: algorithms." One Bookpool reviewer has called the book, "… very well written, methodical and approaches the subject in a lucid manner. It does have some sophisticated mathematics on occasion but even those areas are thoroughly well explained."

With the changes to the economy, there are number of courses, books and aids that can help you with job transitions as well as managing your career in these unsettled times. Below are a few resources that can help you:

Course:

Preparing as the Interviewee

which incorporates in brief aids, such as:

• Preparing Job History Descriptions
• Interview Dressing for Advantage
• Compiling Your Resume

The Five-Minute Interview: A Job Hunter's Guide to a Successful Interview, Third Edition

The Truth About Managing Your Career ...and Nothing but the Truth

Also don't forget the ACM Job Board, where the latest computing jobs are posted.

We are always looking for feedback and recommendations on our course and book offerings. If you know of a book or a course you would like ACM to consider offering, please email me at Schneider@hq.acm.org.

Best regards,

David Schneider
Education Manager
Association for Computing Machinery