Book Review: LED Lighting: A Primer to Lighting the Future by Sal Cangeloso

LED Lighting: A Primer to Lighting the Future by Sal Cangeloso is a very good primer to the world of LED lighting.

It begins with a chapter on key feature of LED lights in an attempt to win you over.

The book is structured very well but has too few illustrations for my taste. The information it carries is very thorough but may turn off non techies.

Although I am an electronics engineer and am very interested in green technologies, I felt that the primer was not very successful in keeping me interested. Perhaps this is what primers are for and my expectations were misplaced.

Recommended for those seeking a thorough but short reference about LED lighting. Not recommended for non-techies.

About the author:
Sal Cangeloso is a life-long technology enthusiast who founded computer hardware site XYZcomputing.com in 2003. In 2007, he started working for Geek.com. He now runs Geek.com and ExtremeTech.com. Sal is an inquisitive guy who loves computers, cameras, and pretty much anything electronic. via Amazon.com

[Disclaimer: I got this book for free as part of the Oreilly blogger review program I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255 : "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."] 

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Book Review: The Twitter Book by Tim O'Reilly and Sarah Milstein

I found The Twitter Book by Tim O'Reilly and Sarah Milstein a very good reference not only for beginners but also expert users.

What I enjoy most about this book is the progression of the topics from beginner use up to business use. There are various gems within that would show any user how effectively use Twitter and many of its tools.

Without this book, any Twitter user can easily get overwhelmed with information and updates from various tweets. Knowing and using the tools shared by the book can help greatly.

I recommend this book to every Twitter user and even for non-users who are already planning to start tweeting very soon.

About the authors:

Happily between gigs right now, Sarah Milstein was until recently UBM TechWeb's GM & Co-chair for Web 2.0 Expo. She's also co-author, with Tim O'Reilly, of The Twitter Book and a frequent speaker on social media for business. Previously, she was on the senior editorial staff at O'Reilly Media, where she founded Tools of Change for Publishing (TOC) and led development of the Missing Manuals. Before joining O'Reilly in 2003, Sarah was a freelance writer and editor, and a regular contributor to The New York Times. She was also the CSA program founder for Just Food, a local-food-and-farms non-profit, and co-founder of Two Tomatoes Records, a label that distributes and promotes the work of children's musician Laurie Berkner. She holds a B.A. from Rutgers University and an M.B.A. from U.C. Berkeley's Haas School of Business. Bonus fact: she was the 21st user of Twitter.

[Disclaimer: I got this book for free as part of the Oreilly blogger review program I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255 : "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."] 

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Book Review: Google Power Search by Stephan Spencer

Google Power Search is a brief but direct book(let) on how to exploit Google's various search engine features. Although the things discussed in the first two chapters may be readily available in various blogs and forums, the contents of the rest of the book are very valuable. Some advanced and not-so-well-known features are also introduced.

I am glad to have found the book as the section on common operators help me immediately in avoiding frustration in looking for what I really want. Finding what I need on the first page of results rather than on the third page is really great.

Highly recommended for those who do a lot of searching on the internet, especially those who want to find them quickly.

About the author:
Stephan Spencer is an author of The Art of SEO published in October 2009 by O'Reilly and co-authored by Eric Enge, Rand Fishkin and Jessie Stricchiola.

Stephan is the founder of Netconcepts. Netconcepts started out as a web design and marketing agency, but over time morphed into a leading SEO firm. Stephan, and Netconcepts, had been heavy into the science of SEO since 1999.

Netconcepts was acquired in January 2010 by paid and organic search software/services agency Covario. Covario is one of those rare companies to have made it onto the Inc 500 list two years in a row -- in 2009 and again in 2010.

Stephan is the inventor of the automated pay-for-performance natural search technology platform GravityStream, now re-branded as Organic Search Optimizer.

He is a Senior Contributor to Practical Ecommerce and to MarketingProfs.com, and a columnist for Search Engine Land and Multichannel Merchant. He's also contributed to DM News, Catalog Age, Catalog Success, Building Online Business, Unlimited, and NZ Marketing magazine, among others.

Stephan is a frequent conference speaker on SEO and other online marketing topics for the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), American Marketing Association (AMA), Shop.org, Internet Retailer, SMX, IncisiveMedia (Search Engine Strategies), O'Reilly/TechWeb, PubCon, ECMOD, IQPC and IIR. His hundreds of speaking gigs have taken him around the globe -- everywhere from Berlin, London, Toronto, Santiago, and Auckland, to New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and places in between.

Stephan is an avid blogger. He blogs at Stephan Spencer's Scatterings, Natural Search Blog, Business Blog Consulting, Changes For Good, and Google, I Suggest... He's also been a contributor for the following group blogs: Searchlight (part of the CNET Blog Network), Shop.org Blog, and MarketingProfs Daily Fix.

Stephan is on the advisory board of CrowdGather.

He holds an M.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

[Disclaimer: I got this book for free as part of the Oreilly blogger review program I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255 : "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."]

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Book Review: Building Wireless Sensor Networks By Robert Faludi

Building Wireless Sensor Networks is just what every wireless sensors enthusiast needs. It provides quick and practical guidance for building your very own wireless sensor networks using Zigbee.

I appreciate the well structured presentation of ideas as well as the very practical approach in creating projects while learning very important concepts. It is like a workbook and laboratory manual in one!

I particularly enjoyed how the author wrote the book in a conversational manner while maintaining the excitement for the reader.

The Appendix at the end of the book is very helpful in encouraging the reader to explore even further.

http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596807740

About the author:
Robert Faludi is an NYU Professor, SVA professor, and an expert consultant on commercial projects, including large-scale home energy monitoring. His work has appeared in The New York Times, CNet, Good Morning America, and elsewhere. He is a co-creator of the LilyPad XBee wearable radios, and Botanicalls, a system that allows thirsty plants to place phone calls for human help.


[Disclaimer: I got this book for free as part of the Oreilly blogger review program I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”]

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