Product Description
You're not alone.

At any given moment, somewhere in the world someone struggles with the same software design problems you have. You know you don't want to reinvent the wheel (or worse, a flat tire), so you look to Design Patterns--the lessons learned by those who've faced the same problems. With Design Patterns, you get to take advantage of the best practices and experience of others, so that you can spend your time on... something else. Something more challenging. Something more complex. Something more fun.

You want to learn about the patterns that matter--why to use them, when to use them, how to use them (and when NOT to use them). But you don't just want to see how patterns look in a book, you want to know how they look "in the wild".In their native environment. In other words, in real world applications. You also want to learn how patterns are used in the Java API, and how to exploit Java's built-in pattern support in your own code.

You want to learn the real OO design principles and why everything your boss told you about inheritance might be wrong (and what to do instead).You want to learn how those principles will help the next time you're up a creek without a design paddle pattern.

Most importantly, you want to learn the "secret language" of Design Patterns so that you can hold your own with your co-worker (and impress cocktail party guests) when he casually mentions his stunningly clever use of Command, Facade, Proxy, and Factory in between sips of a martini. You'll easily counter with your deep understanding of why Singleton isn't as simple as it sounds, how the Factory is so often misunderstood, or on the real relationship between Decorator, Facade and Adapter.

With Head First Design Patterns, you'll avoid the embarrassment of thinking Decorator is something from the "Trading Spaces" show. Best of all, in a way that won't put you to sleep!We think your time is too important (and too short) to spend it struggling with academic texts.

If you've read a Head First book, you know what to expect -a visually-rich format designed for the way your brain works. Using the latest research in neurobiology, cognitive science, and learning theory, Head First Design Patterns will load patterns into your brain in a way that sticks. In a way that lets you put them to work immediately. In a way that makes you better at solving software design problems, and better at speaking the language of patterns with others on your team. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (303)

Great book for actually understanding Design Patterns
This book is really great for learning design patterns.The authors try every way that they can think of to help you to remember the design patterns, and it is effective.It's easy to read, and it keeps you engaged, and you continue to remember the stuff after you close the book.I have found it very helpful in actually understanding and applying the design patterns.While the traditional Gof Design Patterns Book is a good reference book, this book is more practical and specific for learning.For learning design patterns, this is a great way to do it.It expects you to know some Java, but anyone with an Object Oriented language should be able to follow well.I'm very happy with this book.

One of my favorites!
This has got to be one of my favorite software development books.I reference this book whenever I'm attempting to solve a new problem in code.The author takes a topic that is usually very dry and obscure and makes it engaging and accessible.

This book is great for new developers looking to expand their coding prowess or experienced programmers needing to brush up.

Very good discussion of the topic
I really feel like I came away with a solid understanding of the topics presented.While they justify the presentation medium in the beginning, I do feel that at times the pages felt a little busy and were sometimes difficult to focus on.Only other complaint was the lack of real world examples.However, I still have yet to see anybody describing the patterns using real world examples.The only time I see realistic use of patterns is actually real patterns found in various programming frameworks that I use.Perhaps its just our OO lot in life to see example of Dog inheriting from Mammel which inherits from IAnimal (or Starbuzz coffee).But I do highly recommend this book looking for a good book on design patterns.

Head First Design Patterns
The best humor book I read ever! I'm not kidding, you will smile in every page! And easy learn hard topics.

One of the best
This book is one of the best that I've read so far on design patterns. The examples are "crystal" clear and entertaining at the same time. And the interaction that it keeps (asking you questions, inviting you to ask yourself questions and inviting you to complete some exercises...) it really helps you and keeps you focus while you're going through it.
I recommend this book to all the beginners but also to all you code-warriors out there who want to be better at what you do. ... Read more

Product Description
Stephen King's unparalleled imagination is in full force in this collection of four unabridged short stories originally found in the classic, Nightmares & Dreamscapes. An all-star cast of readers bring to life these timeless stories from the darkest places.

A pair of metal teeth in a convenience store may prove to be more than a novelty in Chattery Teeth. In My Pretty Pony, an elderly man on his deathbed warns his young grandson against the dangers of letting time slip away. A music exec learns that his dream job may lead him to a dark and murderous past in Sneakers. And in Dedication, a maid working in a hotel uses black magic in the hopes of benefitting her unborn son.

Kathy Bates, Jerry Garcia, Daniel Cronenberg and Lindsay Crouse lend their voices to this haunting collection of classic stories that no Stephen King fan should be without. ... Read more

Product Description
Learning a complex new language is no easy task especially when it s an object-oriented computer programming language like Java.You might think the problem is your brain. It seems to have a mind of its own, a mind that doesn't always want to take in the dry, technical stuff you're forced to study.

The fact is your brain craves novelty. It's constantly searching, scanning, waiting for something unusual to happen. After all, that's the way it was built to help you stay alive. It takes all the routine, ordinary, dull stuff and filters it to the background so it won't interfere with your brain's real work--recording things that matter. How does your brain know what matters? It's like the creators of the Head First approach say, suppose you're out for a hike and a tiger jumps in front of you, what happens in your brain? Neurons fire. Emotions crank up. Chemicals surge.

That's how your brain knows.

And that's how your brain will learn Java. Head First Java combines puzzles, strong visuals, mysteries, and soul-searching interviews with famous Java objects to engage you in many different ways. It's fast, it's fun, and its effective. And, despite its playful appearance, Head First Java is serious stuff: a complete introduction to object-oriented programming and Java.You'll learn everything from the fundamentals to advanced topics, including threads, network sockets, and distributed programming with RMI.And the new. second edition focuses on Java 5.0, the latest version of the Java language and development platform.Because Java 5.0 is a major update to the platform, with deep, code-level changes, even more careful study and implementation is required.So learning the Head First way is more important than ever.

If you've read a Head First book, you know what to expect--a visually rich format designed for the way your brain works. If you haven't, you're in for a treat. You'll see why people say it's unlike any other Java book you've ever read.

By exploiting how your brain works, Head First Java compresses the time it takes to learn and retain--complex information.Its unique approach not only shows you what you need to know about Java syntax, it teaches you to think like a Java programmer. If you want to be bored, buy some other book. But if you want to understand Java, this book's for you.Amazon.com Review
It has taken four years, but with Head First Java the introductory Java book category has finally come of age. This is an excellent book, far more capable than any of the scores of Java-for-novices books that have come before it. Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates deserve rich kudos--and big sales--for developing this book's new way of teaching the Java programming language, because any reader with even a little bit of discipline will come away with true understanding of how the language works. Perhaps best of all, this is no protracted "Hello, World" introductory guide. Readers get substantial exposure to object-oriented design and implementation, serialization, neatwork programming, threads, and Remote Method Invocation (RMI).

Key to the authors' teaching style are carefully designed graphics. Rather than explain class inheritance (to cite one example) primarily with text, the authors use a series of tree diagrams that clarify the mechanism far more succinctly. The diagrams are carefully annotated with arrows and notes. Also characteristic of the unique teaching strategy is heavy reliance on exercises, in which the reader is asked to complete partial classes, write whole new code segments and do design work. Though there's little discussion of why the exercises' correct answers are what they are, it's clear that the practice work was carefully designed to reinforce the lesson at hand. If you've waited this long to give Java a try, this book is a great choice. --David Wall

Topics covered: The Java programming language for people with no Java experience, and even people with no programming experience at all. Key concepts read like a list of Java features: Object oriented design, variable type and scope, object properties and methods, inheritance and polymorphism, exceptions, graphical user interfaces (GUIs), network connectivity, Java archives (JAR files), and Remote Method Invocation (RMI). ... Read more

Customer Reviews (275)

Not my cup of tea...
I bought "Head First Java, 2nd edition" based on several good reviews here and on other sites, expecting a useful beginner book and a gentle introduction to the Java language.For a non-programmer.And to begin with things were moving along quite well.The authors want you to not use an IDE, rather type everything in notepad and then run it from the command line.This inevitably leads to some typos and subsequent compiler errors.The authors want you to see this and learn from it.Let me tell you this gets tedious after a short while.I want to learn Java, and spending excessive amounts of time hunting down typing/syntax errors doesn't help in that regard.In particular syntax errors, since they are never obvious and finding them means comparing the text in the book with what you see on your screen character by character.

But you move along, at a brisk pace, with introduction of new material every few pages.And then comes the Battleship game.Around page 135 or so.And you have to type the code, save the file, type more code, save more files, and then you realize there's an error.By design.Correct the error by re-typing one huge file.Except the error didn't go away.Start looking for errors.Can't find any.Look some more.Still no luck.Download the files from the books web site.Well, there's only two, and the second isn't being used yet.But the game will not function without some files from the previous chapter.And they don't work right anymore because you have changed things.As the book told you to do.And back and forth you go.And then you realize: you're not learning Java, you're spinning your wheels trying to sort out what the authors should have fixed in the first place.

After about four hours of this I closed the book, put it up on the bookshelf, headed out for the local bookstore and picked up "Sam's Teach Yourself Java in 24 hours, 5th edition".I'm about half way through it now, and it has been a much nicer experience.

So while "Head First Java, 2nd edition" may be a fine and useful book for others, it has been a waste of time and money for me.

Good book
I have bought many books that teaches Java and none of them work for me. They all are overloaded with not very helpful information.
I like the language of this book and the way they explain things. Sometimes, I wish they give more examples but overall it's a great book especially for people who have little to medium knowledge of Java.

More a Java Programming Class than a Reference Book
When you first glance through this book you will notice all of the retro pictures and half jokes.I've never read a Dummys/Idiots book on programming, but I can imagine them having the same look and feel.But then when you dig into the actual content...

This book, to me, felt like a good class on Java programming from a great professor who has real world experience - the tone is conversational and the topics selected that make the most real world sense.There are a few large "class projects" that have a very real world feel to them (a networked beatbox anyone?).Important points are pounded home.It is the class but without the text book...

The topics covered also seemed to have a "real person" feel as opposed to a textbook feel.I read another popular Java book just before this one.It threw 2 chapters on GUI basics as almost an afterthought, there was no networking, nothing about inner classes, nothing about making distribution packages, etc.In that book the basic ideas were gone over in great depth, greater than here, but these more practical topics were skipped or had the briefest mentioned.

With this book you start using Swing just a little more than half way through the book.All the topics in the last paragraph (plus many others) were covered in a practical method.

This book, however, isn't perfect.As mentioned above, this book is like a good class on Java programming without the textbook.Sometimes the textbook is needed.When I was in school I always read the textbook no matter how good the prof - it was needed to get the full benefit of the info.I also like having good reference books that I can leaf through when I have an issue.This book is a mediocre, at best, reference book and admits it.

It also often gets too cute.OK, sometimes that is needed, but it can get a little...As another reviewer mentioned, this books often seems to be aimed at collage age kids, not professional programmers. Not necessarily a bad thing- I've been out of my 20s longer than I care to admit and I never felt I was too old to be reading it.

I would recommend this book if you are just starting off in Java or are rusty and want to pick it back up.I would also recommend getting a more conventional book asfoil and as a reference.

Not useful
If you have previous expereince in OOP, skip this title. It drags through concepts you all ready know. You'd be better off buying a Java reference book. My two cents.

Head First Java
As other books from Head First collection, this is a must have. It's not a language reference, but a complete beginner companion. Irreverent texts help you to understand weird topics. ... Read more

Product Description
High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Kathleen Doyle "Kathy" Bates is an American actress and director. After several small roles in film and television, Bates rose to prominence with her performance in Misery, for which she won both the Academy Award for Best Actress and a Golden Globe. She followed this with major roles in Fried Green Tomatoes and Dolores Claiborne, before playing a featured role as Margaret "Molly" Brown in Titanic. During this time she began her directing career, primarily in television. ... Read more

Product Description
INSCRIBED AND SIGNED BY ANNE PITONIAK AND KATHY BATES. Nice photograph of the two actresses in a scene from Marsha Norman's Pulitzer Prize winning play "Night Mother." Both actresses received Tony nominations for their performances as a mother and daughter. Kathy Bates of course went on to a rich film career and won an Oscar in 1990 for her touching and scary performance in "Misery." Photo caption attached to the verso of the photograph. Included is a playbill from the play. Both items are vg. and are being sold as a collection. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (150)

Great book ever
Its fun to read and learn! Each page will give you an "AHA" moment !

perfect
The seller did a amazing working. the product was shipped in the same day that I paid. thanks

The book helped me a lot
The book helped me a lot with my J2EE studies. Everything is being explained in very friendly and understandable way.
I'd like the book to include also explanations about the work with Data Bases though.

Good book but not complete
It is a good book but to get the J2EE 5 Web Component Developer certificate you must use other resources. Nevertheless, I would say that I learned a lot reading this book and it wouldn't be fair to grade it with 4 stars. I recommend this book for people who don't know nothing about web development using Java. However, if you want to be an expert you should read other books for complementing the knowledge.

Excellent book on Servlets & JSP
The Head First series is like a seal of quality, its friendly approach and way of explaining concepts just show that. And Head First Servlets & JSP is no different.

The book is recommended for those who want to learn JEE (the web part), but if you have to have some background on Java, if you don't buy Head First Java first!

The book starts showing some concepts on the Internet, how servers work, pages and HTML. ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC! They can make computers look much simpler and easy to learn.
Then, they show some simple web app. and explain it, then you'll see that this small app. got some problems (the HTML and Java code are mixed, making it painfully hard to maintain and understand) so they introduce other concepts like JSP, and they progress, showing that scriptlets in JSP are terrible too, so they present JSTL and so on. Even Enterprise Design Patterns are covered.

I found the book covers pretty well all the non-framework part of JEE, that is just Sun technology, no Struts, JSF, Hibernate, Spring, etc. But that's an excellent intro for Java Enterprise Edition. And of course, probably the best book for the Sun Certified Web Components Developer (SCWCD), with a lot of exercises in the last pages of each chapter. Every topic for the SCWCD is covered.

Definitely recommended! ... Read more

Product Description
"This is the International Edition. The content is in English, same as US version but different cover. Please DO NOT buy if you can not accept this difference.Ship from Shanghai China, please allow about 3 weeks on the way to US or Europe.Message me if you have any questions." ... Read more

Product Description
High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Waterboy is a 1998 American comedy film directed by Frank Coraci. It stars Adam Sandler alongside Henry Winkler, Kathy Bates, Jerry Reed, and Fairuza Balk. Lynn Swann, Lawrence Taylor, Jimmy Johnson, Bill Cowher, Paul Wight, and Rob Schneider have cameos. Sandler produced the movie and co-wrote the script with Tim Herlihy. The movie was extremely profitable, earning over $160 million in the United States alone and made Sandler a successful actor with The Waterboy becoming his second $100 million film in a year, along with The Wedding Singer. ... Read more

Product Description
An innovative counting book--featuring vivid, full-color illustrations, die-cut pages, and repetitive verses based on the familiar nursery song--introduces youngsters to the world of numbers and counting. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

BAD AUDIO
OVERALL THE TAPES WERE GOOD BUT ONE OF THE TAPES HAD VERY DISTORTED AUDIO THROUGHOUT THE ENTRIE TAPE I WAS VERY UPSET THAT I'D ALREADY PAID FOR IT...BUT THE OTHER TAPES WERE GOOD ... Read more

Product Description
Performance by Kathy Bates
Six cassettes, 9 hours

INDEMNITY ONLY
Meeting an anonymous client late on a sizzling summer night is asking for trouble. But trouble is Chicago private eye V.I. Warshawski's specialty. Her client says he's the prominent banker, John Thayer. Turns out he's not. He says his son's girlfriend, Anita Hill, is missing. Turns out that's not her real name. V.I.'s search turns up someone soon enough -- the real John Thayer's son, and he's dead. Who's V.I.'s client? Why has she been set up and sent out on a wild-goose chase? By the time she's got it figured, things are hotter -- and deadlier -- than Chicago in July. V.I.'s in a desperate race against time. At stake: a young woman's life.

BURN MARKS
Someone knocking on the door at 3 A.M. is never good news. For V.I. Warshawski, the bad news arrives in the form of her wacky, unwelcome Aunt Elena. The fire that has just burned down a sleazy SRO hotel has brought Elena to V.I.'s doorstep. Uncovering an arsonist -- and the secrets hidden behind Elena's boozy smile - will send V.I. into the seedy world of Chicago's homeless... into the Windy City's backroom deals and bedroom politics, where new schemers and old cronies team up to get V.I. off the case -- by hook, by crook, or by homicide.

BLOOD SHOT
This time, V.I.'s girlhood pal Caroline needs her services.Caroline wants V.I. to uncover the identity of her father--which Caroline's dying mother angrily refuses to divulge.For V.I., it's a routine missing-persons search that means going back to her old stomping grounds, where she's not so hot to trot.But Caroline calls it quits when her friend, the head of a local recycling projec, is found dead in the polluted waters of a local pond.The trouble is, V.I. won't quit--because the search for Caroline's father has lead her into a toxic mix of corporate chicanery and chemical corruption.Add a dire family secret, and you've got a brew that could prove poisonous--especially to a certain private eye who knows too much.
... Read more

Product Description
Learning a complex new language is no easy task especially when it's an object-oriented computer programming language like Java. You might think the problem is your brain. It seems to have a mind of its own, a mind that doesn't always want to take in the dry, technical stuff you're forced to study.

The fact is your brain craves novelty. It's constantly searching, scanning, waiting for something unusual to happen. After all, that's the way it was built to help you stay alive. It takes all the routine, ordinary, dull stuff and filters it to the background so it won't interfere with your brain's real work--recording things that matter. How does your brain know what matters? It's like the creators of the Head First approach say, suppose you're out for a hike and a tiger jumps in front of you, what happens in your brain? Neurons fire. Emotions crank up. Chemicals surge.

That's how your brain knows.

And that's how your brain will learn Java. "Head First Java combines puzzles, strong visuals, mysteries, and soul-searching interviews with famous Java objects to engage you in many different ways. It's fast, it's fun, and its effective. And, despite its playful appearance, Head First Java is serious stuff: a complete introduction to object-oriented programming and Java. You'll learn everything from the fundamentals to advanced topics, including threads, network sockets, and distributed programming with RMI. And the new. second edition focuses on Java 5.0, the latest version of the Java language and development platform. Because Java 5.0 is a major update to the platform, with deep, code-level changes, even more careful study and implementation is required. So learning the Head Firstway is more important than ever.

If you've read a Head First book, you know what to expect--a visually rich format designed for the way your brain works. If you haven't, you're in for a treat. You'll see why people say it's unlike any other Java book you've ever read.

By exploiting how your brain works, "Head First Java compresses the time it takes to learn and retain--complex information. Its unique approach not only shows you what you need to know about Java syntax, it teaches you to think like a Java programmer. If you want to be bored, buy some other book. But if you want to understand Java, this book's for you.

... Read more

Product Description
What do Ford Financial, IBM, and Victoria's Secret have in common? Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB).As the industry standard for platform-independent reusable business components, EJB has just become Sun Microsystem's latest developer certification. Whether you want to be certifiable or just want to learn the technology inside and out, Head First EJB will get you there in the least painful way. And with the greatest understanding. You'll learn not just what the technology *is*, but more importantly, *why* it is, and what it is and isn't good for. You'll learn tricks and tips for EJB development, along with tricks and tips for passing this latest, very challenging Sun Certified Business Component Developer (SCBCD) exam. You'll learn how to think like a server. You'll learn how to think like a bean. And because this is a Head First book, you'll learn how to think about thinking.Co-author Kathy Sierra was one of Sun's first employees to teach brave, early adopter customers how to use EJB. She has the scars. But besides dragging you deep into EJB technology, Kathy and Bert will see you through your certification exam, if you decide to go for it. And nobody knows the certification like they do - they're co--evelopers of Sun's actual exam! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (73)

BEST! But not today, of course
Best! It does not cover EJB3, as it's outdated, but few years ago it was great! Not sure if there is 2nd or 3rd editions, probably they are more updated, but the one I read was about EJB, which is an interesting technology but so terribly heavy-weight, led in raise of Spring framework, etc. (I am getting into history now, sorry!.. ;-)

Disappointing -- confusing with lots of jargon
Had high hopes for the book, with cartoons and all. But they got into lots of agonizingly boring technical detail without putting it into a clear context. The explanations could have been much clearer by providing that context.

Valuable even if you want to use EJB 3.0
This book helped me to understand what is enterprise how they fit together how to create EJB 2.0 actually it let you have a strong understanding of J2EE concepst.the authors are very experienced and their books are really the best and should be best ev er selling

Outdated but still good for EJB 2.X folks out there
This was a great book for me, ( had to use wrath of EJB 2.1 in several projects =( ). So when EJB 3 came out and i went through EJB 3 ( via Oreilly's book ) i was amazed, pleased and overjoyed.

The new Exam covers EJB3. However if you are still planning to give EJB 2.X exam, this is BEST book you'll buy. It guides you step by step towards steep learning curve that EJB comes with and makes it real easy to remember things.

I am usually critical of Head First "Kids" like format, but this book justifies that because of the subject being such. EJB 2.x deserved this kind of book, where one go one step at a time to understand things.

Book Covers :

1. ) Transaction Management
2. ) All kinds of Beans ( what you do, what container does etc etc. )

What it does not Cover :
1.) EJB 3
2.) Deployment to JBOSS container ( these days with EJB 3 more and more people are adopting JBOSS AS ), neither does it cover deployment specifics of Websphere. ( And in reality Why should it ever do that? this book is only for certification etc. )

If you want to earn SCBCD ( old one ) or if you are working for EJB 2.X project, do yourself the favor of buying this book

Regards
Vyas, Anirudh

Book is Out of Date for EJB 3.
This book is out-of date.It does not cover EJB 3 which is the current paradigm.For EJB 1 & 2 it is a good book, but these are not used.If you are preparing for SCBCD this is not the book to use ... Read more