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What is in the pipeline for head first?

 
Greenhorn
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Can't find a better place for this and it wasn't mentioned in wickedly smart web site, but what is cooking next?
I really like the ejb book, and wish I had the other when I took the java exam.
 
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Hey Mark,
Glad you liked the book! Here's what's cookin':
HF SCWCD, it will be a little late for the new exam but it's coming!
HF PHP, also a top priority book, coming this Spring
HF Video & Final Cut (not its real name), also in the Spring
It looks like HF Patterns will be coming out shortly there-after, but that's not totally set to go yet..
Also high on the list:
HF Security
HF SCMAD
Phew, I'm tired just listing them. We've got a GREAT group of co-authors, otherwise we'd never get them done!
Bert
 
tumbleweed
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Hmm so that is what is meant by Final Cut
 
Cowgirl and Author
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Hee-hee Final Cut really means Final Cut Pro 4 and Final Cut Express 2-- the video editing programs used to make movies both small (home movies) and large (Hollywood feature films). But the book is also about just making good movies on a home-user budget, using standard filmmaking techniques, and then putting them to work using Final Cut software. We're also doing a lot on making your own music soundtracks (even if you've never played an instrument) using the new generation of sound tools like GarageBand, SoundTrack, and Sonic Fire Pro.
We're aiming this book at geeks (hip geeks, of course) who want to use their digital video camera to make anything from really cool movies for their website to teaching/training/instructional videos or documentaries. We'll see... it's kind of an experiment, and our only real deviation from programming books
We might really suck at it, but I'm on a mission
And hey, if anyone is even *remotely* interested in being on our review list for this book, this book is already underway. You don't need any experience at all with video, movies, editing, etc. Just a potential interest.
cheers,
Kathy
 
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And hey, if anyone is even *remotely* interested in being on our review list for this book, this book is already underway. You don't need any experience at all with video, movies, editing, etc. Just a potential interest.
I'm already drooling. I don't use Final Cut, but I've played with a bunch of other software that does basically the same job. I also used to run a local video club and organized loads of meetings about video techniques, everything from location and lighting to avoiding corny scripts and keeping track of your material so you don't have to spend two hours looking for a two-second clip.
Please count me in. Pretty Please!
 
Johannes de Jong
tumbleweed
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I don't think I want to review the the book but I still want to talk to you guys about the coordination of the review process.
 
Kathy Sierra
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Johannes -- it is TIME to talk! We have four books that are all going to start reviews within the next thirty days! Help!
 
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You can count me in for the book reviews(no no not for the "final cut")
 
Johannes de Jong
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Oops sorry Kathy I missed this one.
 
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Originally posted by Kathy Sierra:
Hee-hee
...But the book is also about just making good movies on a home-user budget, using standard filmmaking techniques, and then putting them to work using Final Cut software.
...We're aiming this book at geeks (hip geeks, of course) who want to use their digital video camera to make anything from really cool movies for their website to teaching/training/instructional videos or documentaries...


With broadband and easier integration in Flash, videos are getting increasing attention in the elearning projects we have contact with. They have a pretty tight budget though. Isn't Final Cut Pro like around $US 1000?
Will the book be helpful for folks not using Final Cut Pro, just for the movie-making stuff in general?
 
Kathy Sierra
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Originally posted by Pauline McNamara:
Will the book be helpful for folks not using Final Cut Pro, just for the movie-making stuff in general?


Yes, definitely! But Final Cut Express 2 has just come out, and it is almost identical to Final Cut Pro 4, but it is under $300 US. The main thing missing from Express 2 is that it's just for video, where Final Cut Pro 4 can be used with film.
At least 1/3 of the book is devoted to techniques that aren't specific to any particular editing tool We also talk a lot about sound/audio/music and we cover three different tools -- one of which is on both the Mac and Windows, but the other two are Mac-only.
Using video as a training tool is something I'm really starting to get interested in, although I think it takes a unique approach. Obviously a talking head isn't going to be much of an asset. Normally I have not liked non-interactive approaches to teaching, but I'm willing to look at how to exploit whatever capabilities something like video (or a printed, paper book) has to offer.
I'd love to hear more about how people are using video or other motion graphics in their teaching -- either as a delivery vehicle for some of the content, or as something they show. There were some people at Sun who made excellent use of Flash animations to demonstrate things that happened over time like communication between a client and server... one guy had a cool Flash animation that showed the entire lifecycle of an Entity bean. I think video/animations are great for revealing things that aren't static, so you see the pieces as they happen over time. In the classroom, I am forever doing poor-man's animation by drawing on the white board, then quickly erasing this thing here and then showing it over there... (OK, now the serialized object appears over HERE...).
Eventually I made giant regrigerator magnets with pictures of all the pieces (Home, Component interface, EJBObject, bean, JNDI, etc.) and just moved them around, so I had to draw only the server and client boxes, and arrows connecting things.
Making the magnets is easy. You can get magnetic sheets to run through your ink-jet printer and cut out, or you can do it by hand -- using the adhesive magnetic business card things you get at the office supply store. I take some construction paper and create/color whatever the object I want (like, the Home looks like a house) and then laminate it, and then stick a magnet on to the back of it.
So... I'd like to hear more about other visual teaching techniques and especially video. I do feel that something like a webcast of someone doing nothing but lecturing is probably a huge waste of bandwidth... but if it's combined with a lot of visual things, like animations or simulations (like, a story or having people *act out* the various roles of the system), then it could be very cool and a very powerful teaching aid. I don't know...
Anyway, to answer your question again Pauline, yes, even if you use a different editing tool, there should be some useful things in there -- if you want to review the draft chapters let me know!! You can always skip all the pieces that teach the software
cheers,
Kathy
 
Johannes de Jong
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one guy had a cool Flash animation that showed the entire lifecycle of an Entity bean
This sounds great !!!
 
Pauline McNamara
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Originally posted by Kathy Sierra:
Yes, definitely! But Final Cut Express 2 has just come out, and it is almost identical to Final Cut Pro 4, but it is under $300 US. The main thing missing from Express 2 is that it's just for video, where Final Cut Pro 4 can be used with film.
At least 1/3 of the book is devoted to techniques that aren't specific to any particular editing tool We also talk a lot about sound/audio/music and we cover three different tools -- one of which is on both the Mac and Windows, but the other two are Mac-only.


OK, now I'm drooling too.

Using video as a training tool is something I'm really starting to get interested in, although I think it takes a unique approach. Obviously a talking head isn't going to be much of an asset.


I was really, really skeptical of talking head videos too. Then I took a 100% distance course that involved a CD with some talking head lectures (not exclusively). Admittedly not very imaginative, and the lecturer didn't use anything else to spiff it up at all, but as an alternative to reading the same material it was *much* more enjoyable. I picked a time when I was in a mood for it, got my coffee and my comfy chair ready, relaxed and took my notes. Rewind and replay when necessary.

There were some people at Sun who made excellent use of Flash animations to demonstrate things that happened over time like communication between a client and server... one guy had a cool Flash animation that showed the entire lifecycle of an Entity bean.


Oooo, sounds nice, any links??

... if you want to review the draft chapters let me know!! You can always skip all the pieces that teach the software


Someone say something about a mission? Sign me up - you be preachin' to the saved, sista.
 
Kathy Sierra
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Consider yourself on a mission, Pauline (Frank too).
If anyone else wants to review the digital video book, let me know!
cheers,
Kathy
 
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[BB]HF PHP, also a top priority book, coming this Spring
hmm.. I thought you guys evangelized java everywhere, along with all j2ee technologies.
Not that I don't like PHP, I think it's great. But it really surprised me.
 
Frank Carver
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If anyone is looking for suggestions, I'd love to see "Head First Flash"
 
Pauline McNamara
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Really? I'd been wondering if there would be a market for that. There's soooo many Flash books out there. Have you tried other books already?
Hmmm.
 
Frank Carver
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Have you tried other books already?
Not really. But all ones I've looked at (in libraries and bookshops) all seem to assume that you mainly want to make (animated) pictures, whereas I see a huge wave of situations coming which use flash as a smart UI layer for web applications.
Mainly, though, I haven't got over the hurdle of having to pay (a large amount) just to be able to create any flash files at all. Java is easy. Download it, install, and you can play using just Notepad and a command line. I keep looking for some sort of open/free (or even low cost) flash compiler, but all I can find are Macromedia's fancy IDEs.
One book I looked at sticks in my mind. Right at the start it said (roughly) "All you need is such and such a CPU, so much memory, so much disk space and you can create awesome flash movies. Of course, you will also need to install the Flash software."
It might well be that I simply don't "get" what Flash is all about, and none of the books I have seen so far have cleared up my misunderstanding . . . But isn't that where the "head first" approach comes into its own?
As an aside, can anyone recommend any Flash books, and/or anywhere to get a basic flash (swf) compiler without paying an arm and a leg?
 
Pauline McNamara
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The educational prices are usually a pretty good deal (at least compared to the full price ). I haven't heard of anyone using an alternative, a quick search brought up something called KoolMoves. Looks like lots of cartoons, but apparently has ActionScripting too. Might have to check that out myself.
For hooking up Flash with web apps, you'll want to check out Flash Remoting. Chez Macromedia it costs of course, but there are alternatives (open amp, carbon five)

Books, yum. If you're looking for more-than-just-animation-stuff, in my opinion O'Reilly has, well, the definitive guide:
Colin Moock's ActionScript The Definitive Guide. You probably want to wait a bit on this though, he's got a newer edition coming out that covers ActionScript 2, the (finally!) OOP-friendly version of AS. Somewhere there's a pdf with sample chapters but I can't find that right now.
 
Pauline McNamara
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It might well be that I simply don't "get" what Flash is all about, and none of the books I have seen so far have cleared up my misunderstanding . . . But isn't that where the "head first" approach comes into its own?


It takes a lot of getting used to for anyone, I think, but especially for *real* programmers. The most recent version has gone a long way to satisfy that crowd, though. You can actually write bonefide classes now. And you don't have to do too much muddling with ActionScript to get a basic set of screens working.
Still, it just might be a good candidate for Head First... hmmmm.
 
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It looks like HF Patterns will be coming out shortly there-after, but that's not totally set to go yet..


That would be great!
I would love to have a good (HF) pattern book !
Please keep it "in the pipeline".
 
Kathy Sierra
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We'll be releasing Head First Astrology and Head First Home Brewing in July.
 
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I too, am a HUGE fan of the Head First line and would love to help by reviewing anything I can.

I've pretty much decided I'm reading/learning anything you write a book on.

One thing that seemed weird. Why did you do the EJB book before the Servlet/JSP book? It just doesn't make sense. I've been drooling over the EJB book after reading the HF Java book, but wanting to "master" servelt/jsp before moving to EJB's. I know you don't need to know servlets before tackling EJB's but it seemed like a logical order to do the servlet book first.

Either way, I'm very excited to see the other titles. I'll buy 'em all. I have no interest in PHP, but I'll know it......
 
mister krabs
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How will "HF Home Brewing" compare to "The Joy of Home Brewing"? Do you really think you can knock "Uncle Charlie" off the top of the heap?
 
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I've enjoyed "The Joye of Snacks" by "A Witch", never read the other one

HF Astrology sounds interesting, you also covering headology in that or will that be a separate volume?
 
Kathy Sierra
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Originally posted by E Weibust:

One thing that seemed weird. Why did you do the EJB book before the Servlet/JSP book? .



Howdy! (by the way, we'll be taking you up on your offer to help review -- consider yourself enlisted)

We did the EJB book because there weren't any books for that exam, and Sun wanted at least *something* out that people could use to prepare for the exam. At the time, the Servlets/JSP exam hadn't been updated for the new specs (J2EE 1.4), and there was already a good exam book out for that. So we really just went in order of the exams--the EJB exam came out first, so we decided to get that one out first.

We're *always* looking for input/suggestions on what topics people might want in a HF format .

Thanks so much for your comments!

cheers,
Kathy (currently chained to my computer for the next ten days finishing the Servlets book...)
 
E Weibust
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Great! Where do I go to get the review instructions and a draft?

Erik
 
Bert Bates
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Erik - send Kathy an email !
 
Greenhorn
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No posts in 2 years,...is this just a dead thread?

I love my Head First books,...I'm working through 2 of them right now - finishing the last couple chapters of the Java book, and chomping at the bit to get through the HTML/CSS book. I also have made it some distance through the design patterns book, and have (but haven't started) the JSP/Servlets book.

I plugged in a request (through the Head First site) for a Struts book.

How do you determine who reviews the books?
 
Greenhorn
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Is there likely to be a head first jsf book written? anything planned?
 
Bert Bates
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Hi Guys,

A little pre-update message. The HF crew is really focused on getting the HF OOAD book done - it's incredibly close at this point. After a little rest we'll take a look at what's coming next and provide some sort of tentative list.

As far as JSF is concerned, my guess (and it's really, really, really! just a guess!!!), is that when it's time for a new version of the Servlets exam (and I really, really, really, don't know anything about the timing of that :roll: ), we'll see if it (the new, unscheduled SCWCD exam), includes any JSF topics. If it does, then of course a new, hypothetical HF Servlets book would have to have a JSF section.

hth,

Bert
 
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Originally posted by Bert Bates:
Hi Guys,
...
As far as JSF is concerned, my guess (and it's really, really, really! just a guess!!!), is that when it's time for a new version of the Servlets exam (and I really, really, really, don't know anything about the timing of that :roll: ), we'll see if it (the new, unscheduled SCWCD exam), includes any JSF topics. If it does, then of course a new, hypothetical HF Servlets book would have to have a JSF section.

hth,

Bert




HF Servlet is the best place where JSF belongs and it should be one of the last chapters. Other make no sense when one does not understand the theory behind .

Regards,
Darya
 
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