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Summary: Insightful, entertaining and opinionated
Review: Greenspun does an excellent job of presenting real-life examples both of ideas that work and ideas that don't, and then of formulating lessons to be drawn from them. Rather inflammatory lessons, more often than not, but ones backed up by a coherent and clearly-explained philosophy.It convinced *me* to go learn SQL post-haste.
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Summary: Light enough for a manger, detailed enough for a s/w nerd
Review: Don't spend any money on building a website service until you take a look at this book. Phil shares a heap of practical experience and entertains at the same time. Amazingly this book is an easy read and yet still detailed enough to get you started technically.
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Summary: Phil Greenspun puts the "Master" in Web Master
Review: You have to love a computer book that will keep you up all night reading instead of just putting you to sleep. Phil knows the truth about building real interactive web sites and doesn't waste time teaching you the HTML that you can learn from any one of a 100 other books. One of my favorite parts is where he talks about how people in the 90's take credit for innovations of the 60's -- and this was written _before_ Al Gore said he invented the internet!
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Summary: Hello Hollywood . . .
Review: Jerry Seinfeld, get the movie rights to this book
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Summary: Tell us what you REALLY think, Philip
Review: I viewed it as a good sign that the book was not more than two inches thick, had no CD or floppy in the back, and wasn't focused entirely on Microsoft products. [You'd expect that in an electronic version :) The story behind the story behind the story talks more about the CD/floppy business.] It's one of the best written computer books I've read in several years -- you actually feel like you're having a conversation with someone. The material is interesting, timely, and presented by someone who actually builds web sites for a living (not just writes books about them). Philip doesn't waste your time with large and pointless screen shots, nor are there ninety consecutive pages of source code. He points out the good, the bad, and the ugly. The amount of academic self-indulgence can be too much at times. On more than one occasion I thought I was going to projectile vomit if I read yet another MIT/emacs is the center of the universe story. Can't wait for the hardcopy version...
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Summary: Everything there is to know about web publishing
Review: This book covers everything there is to know about web publishing. From technology to over-all principals and from business view to non-profit organizations. This book is simple enough for a beginner, and it goes deep enough for a professional. Mr. Greenspun really seems to know what he is talking about and it seems that he has very much experience. I was also very impressed by the way that he writes. Text is easy to read which is quite rare in computer books.
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Summary: Simply Inspring !
Review: This is what the Internet should be. Not simply from a techincal perspective but the general "phil"osophy discussed. Philip is the Web developer I have been aspiring to be. I have been profoundly effected by this book.
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Summary: Irreverent, highly-readable straight talk from the trenches
Review: This is an abundance of valuable information gleaned from real-world experience. If you are considering doing a web site, I can't imagine a better place to start than this.
Rating:
Summary: "My, oh my. Jazz, clean and clear."
Review: Last spring (1998), Jaron Lanier visited UNC-Wilmington. After listening to him for a couple of hours, I decided the present standards, protocols, and tools weren't ready for a robust (ugh, I hate that word) Open Space on the net. It took me about 5 minutes of reading "Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing" [online version] for me to realize that anyone with a text editor and some time could make a Greenspun Forum sing whatever suited their fancy. It's really that simple. And if you have the resources to go it alone, the knowledge shared here will get you a world class soup-to-nuts package for the price of macaroni and cheese. The reviews that follow say it even better...
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Summary: Avoid Headaches - and Profit from the Web
Review: If you're planning to build a web site to make money, whether for an existing business or a new one, Buy this book!!!! It will become your bible. Greenspun's writing is funny, entertaining and above all incredibly useful. As an advertising sales rep for an internet company I've seen companies launch painfully slow, hard to navigate, counter-intuitive sites after months of big promises. It's a shame they didn't read this book first. Now I've got an idea for a database driven web service and found Greenspun's book online during my research. As a non-techie I can now talk the talk with developers and make sure I get the best site possible.
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