Mat's rating:
 5.0
On May 12, 2013 Mat Powell wrote: Windows PowerShell™ 3.0 Step by Step
I’ve always been a C-variant kind of guy. For Windows development (especially if i’ve needed to integrate with anything Microsoft) C# has always been my preferred choice.
A colleague was always talking about PowerShell so I decided to give it a shot. Being completely new to the PowerShell arena, this book helped immensely. The author starts from the basics and builds from there. The examples were great and easy to follow, and the pace was spot on.
Highly recommend to someone wanting to pick up PowerShell or build upon an existing foundation. Full Review >
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Developing for the Mac and iOS App Stores
Mat's rating:
 4.0
On Jan 20, 2013 Mat Powell wrote: Learning Cocoa with Objective-C
A great introduction to iOS and application development for Apple platforms. Although targeted to the beginner and intermediate crowd, it still manages to deliver a great foundation into iOS development. Examples were well explained and for the most part, error free. I’d recommend this book for anyone looking to get into development with Cocoa & Objective-C. Full Review >
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C Tips from the New School
Mat's rating:
2.0
On Dec 24, 2012 Mat Powell wrote: 21st Century C
A great concept, however once I read about an acceptable baseline for memory leaks, I had a hard time finishing it. There are some great (and some terrible) tips in this book, so take it for what it is. I picked up a few things here and there, but overall i would not recommend this book. Full Review >
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A Playful Introduction to Programming
Mat's rating:
5.0
On Nov 28, 2012 Mat Powell wrote: Python for Kids
I’ve heard some great things about this series and decided to check it out for myself. Python for Kids is well, for kids. The author starts from the ground up on building applications with the python language with material that is simplistic and entertaining enough for anyone to go through it. The book covers the basics of installing, configuring, and developing in python from the shell. Later on you get to tinker with turtles to make shapes and simplistic games. An overall entertaining and enjoyable read—even from a season developer standpoint. Recommended for young audiences or those looking to get into programming. Full Review >
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Mat's rating:
5.0
On Nov 23, 2012 Mat Powell wrote: CLR via C#
Probably one of the best entry-mid level reference books on the C# language i’ve had the pleasure of reading. CLR via C# is a sizable volume that hammers out great concepts and techniques of OOP by showing how they operate in the CLR. Full Review >
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Mat's rating:
4.0
On Nov 19, 2012 Mat Powell wrote: Python for Data Analysis
A great book on statistical analysis with Python utilizing big-data. I was skeptical about this title at first (I’m not much of a mathematician at all) I was overall pleased with the experience and flow of this book. Mostly focusing on Pandas, this book also cameos IPython and Num-Py. Recommended for anyone who’s doing some serious number crunching or analysis with large datasets. Full Review >
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Mat's rating:
3.0
On Sep 29, 2012 Mat Powell wrote: Start Here - Learning Javascript
Not a bad little beginners book on javascript. With that in mind, if you’ve had ANY experience in software development or javascripting—you probably own’t get much out of it at all. Full Review >
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Creative Techniques for Photographers, Artists, and Designers (Covers GIMP 2.8)
Mat's rating:
5.0
On Sep 18, 2012 Mat Powell wrote: The Artist's Guide to GIMP
Decided to take a little detour from the world of technology and check out a different book. This one happened to be on GIMP. While I’ve always appreciated the power and versatility of GIMP, i’ve never really known how to make use of about 99% of the features it contained. That’s where this book comes in handy. Full Review >
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Mat's rating:
4.0
On Aug 16, 2012 Mat Powell wrote: Giving Perl a Fair Shot
When I obtained my copy of the updated Intermediate Perl from O’Reilly, I was pretty stoked. For awhile, i’ve really wanted to give perl another serious shot (some of my colleagues swear by it), and I figured this would be a great time to do that. Full Review >
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Mat's rating:
4.0
On Aug 2, 2012 Mat Powell wrote: PostgeSQL Up & Running
At a commanding 163 pages, PostgreSQL Up in Running is a quick read for those looking for the basics of administrating your postgres installation (oddly, installing/configuring is not in scope of this book). The book goes over basic configuration, however the chapters i was after were the chapters on functions, performance tuning, and replication. Overall a great little reference for any user/administrator of PostgreSQL. Full Review >
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How to avoid common mistakes
Mat's rating:
4.0
On Jul 30, 2012 Mat Powell wrote: Safe C++
The latest C++ from O’Reilly promotes writing safe code. Safe C++ is an intermediate book that preaches good coding practices to ensure your code runs as efficiently (and safely) as possible. At under 150 pages and small, precise code snippets, this book goes pretty quick. The first couple of chapters cover basics and get into bugs, then the book moves into pointers, memory leaks, proper utilization of constructors/destructors, debugging and testing. A great (and quick) read for those looking to polish their skills in C++. Full Review >
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The Hands-On Guide to Dissecting Malicious Software
Mat's rating:
5.0
On Jul 24, 2012 Mat Powell wrote: Practical Malware Analysis
Practical Malware Analysis is a great introduction into the world of malware analysis and disassembly. From the start you will learn relevant skills on how to successfully (and safely) reverse engineer malware and create host-based and network-based signatures for the exercises. The labs are (usually) broken out into 3 parts: One for beginners, intermediate, and advanced skill sets. I really enjoyed this concept and wished more technical books took this approach. It allows you to complete the book, practice what you’ve learned (or read another book on the topic) then come back and revisit the more difficult labs. Highly recommend for anyone in the information security realm who works with or combats malware. Full Review >
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Building Web Apps with JavaScript
Mat's rating:
1.0
On Mar 5, 2012 Mat Powell wrote: Head First HTML5 Programming
This is the first (and LAST) book from the Head First series that I will be reading. I don’t want to do crossword puzzles or look at pictures of tigers to learn HTML5. I want a moderately serious book that conveys a technological topic. These books are radically different from the core O’Reilly books and is a terrible let-down. Full Review >
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Mat's rating:
2.0
On Feb 12, 2012 Mat Powell wrote: PHP & MySQL : The Missing Manual
I’m a big fan of the Missing Manual series of books. Their information is (generally) straightfoward and workable. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of this book. This book was riddled with errors (unworkable code)—even in the authors digital download. The author also jumped around and sometimes talked about placing code in a particular place, but never actually told you where that place was. That being said, the book does attempt to give you a ground-up approach to building sites with PHP & MySQL, but with all of the coding errors and sporadic navigation this book simply fails to deliver. Full Review >
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The Penetration Tester's Guide
Mat's rating:
5.0
On Nov 10, 2011 Mat Powell wrote: Metasploit: The Penetration Testers Guide
If you’re seriously looking into doing some penetration testing, this is the book for you.
The authors quickly take you through a crash course in metasploit basics and from there start building your foundation for discovery and exploitation. You’ll start with basic navigation and OS fingerprinting and eventually get to opening up (root) sessions on the target machine through various vulnerabilities—through the notorious MS08-067, client-side exploitation, web exploits, and even SQLServer exploits. You’ll also cover some of the key auxiliary tools used—sniffers, scanners, and crawlers.
Full Review >
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Mat's rating:
4.0
On Jul 31, 2011 Mat Powell wrote: Learning Rails 3
To be honest, I’m still not a huge fan of Rails. Personal preference, of course. I’ve tried several online tutorials and getting started guides and conceptually it just seemed convoluted to me. Then I got ahold of this book. While i’m still not ruby’s greatest fan, the authors did a great job of presenting the content in short, precise chapters. Each chapter had a critical point to teach, and taught it well and in a minimal amount of pages as to keep from sliding off topic. Full Review >
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Ruby and Cocoa on OS X
Mat's rating:
4.0
On Jul 5, 2011 Mat Powell wrote: MacRuby: The Definitive Guide by Matt Aimonetti
I managed to snag an early release copy of MacRuby: The Definitive Gude from O’Reilly books. While for a tech book it’s relatively short, (209 pages and the last two chapters are still “todo”) it seems to be a great reference volume for the Ruby programmer. Full Review >
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Mat's rating:
5.0
On Jun 23, 2011 Mat Powell wrote: HTML5 Canvas by Steve Fulton & Jeff Fulton
With all the hype going in the tech community about HTML5 and it’s predicted future, I decided to pick up this book from O’Reilly tinker around with it and see what’s what. Needless to say, I’m bought in. Full Review >
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Mat's rating:
5.0
On Apr 29, 2011 Mat Powell wrote: JavaScript: The Definitive Guide by David Flanagan
I've heard that this is the book if you wanted THE book on JavaScript. This book explains just about everything there is about JavaScript--the theories, the practice, the hows and whys. Full Review >
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Mat's rating:
4.0
On Apr 18, 2011 Mat Powell wrote: Take Control of iPhone and iPod touch Networking & Security, iOS 4 Edition by Glenn Fleishman
A rather light read on an introduction to iOS networking and security. The book was enough to inform, but not go overboard on the how's and why's making it a quick and informative read. Full Review >
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Fundamentals of iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Development
Mat's rating:
3.0
On Apr 9, 2011 Mat Powell wrote: Programming iOS 4 by Matt Neuburg
I must say that this book wasn't quite what I was looking for in an iOS4 book. While the book contained good content, I thought it contained more concepts and theory over actual implementation. The book was divided up into 7 sections (the Language, the IDE, Cocoa, Views, Interface, Some Frameworks, and Final Topics). Full Review >
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