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Review: Getting Started With Microsoft Application Virtualization

By on April 8, 2011 in Books, Reviews

If you’ve used Windows PCs for any length of time, you’re almost guaranteed to have had problems with application incompatibilities and messy uninstalls. Over time, your computer can get increasingly junked up with fragments of programs you’ve uninstalled. Then, if you have multiple computers or, say, use a home computer and a work machine, there’s no way to have all of your programs synced between your computers. You’ll have to install and setup all of your programs on each of your computers individually. Even in 2011, we’re still tied down with ’90′s limitations on our computers.

This problem is only extrapolated in enterprise settings. Managing applications installed on hundreds or thousands of computers can be terribly difficult. Then, keeping each employee’s files and settings on their machine even if they get a new computer, and making sure everything stays cost effective, all together makes for a complex situation. That’s where Microsoft’s Application Virtualization, App-V, comes in. It lets you created virtualized, self-contained copies of programs that can be streamed from the server and run on client machines without being installed. Everything work the same, no matter what computer you’re on. This is what I hope the future of computing looks like, and based on rumors, Windows 8 may include similar technology for standard users, but for now, this can be a reality in the enterprise. Continue Reading →

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Download “The Elements of Style” for Free

By on March 15, 2011 in Books, Quick Tips

One of the most celebrated texts for writers is William Strunk, Jr.’s The Elements of Style. If you’ve ever taken a writing class or done any extra studying about writing, you’ve likely seen this short book quoted or listed as recommended reading. Written initially as a short handbook for his students in 1918, Strunk’s work has remained a standard handbook of English writing ever since. It’s a brief book, but includes some of the best advice on correct English rules of usage, commonly misused and misspelled words, and

In the years since its original publishing, The Elements of Style has been updated numerous times, and in 1935 E. B. White contributed to the updating, causing the book to generally be known as Strunk and White. You can still purchase the most up-to-date version as a paper book from Amazon today, though oddly enough the latest editions are not available as eBooks. Both the Kindle Store and iBooks include copies of The Elements of Style, but they’re actually just reformatted copies of the original edition from others.

Since the original was published in 1918, though, the original Elements of Style is out of copyright in the US and most other countries. Thanks to that, the book was published fully on Wikisource, Wikipedia’s site for public domain books. You can read it online there, and since the chapters are quite short, it’s a great reference to keep bookmarked so you can check whenever you’re writing. Alternately, you can also download The Elements of Style in nicely formatted PDF, mobi, or ePub files from Feedbooks for free. These copies are great to save to your eBook library so you can read the whole book from your computer, iPhone/iPad, Kindle, or other device anytime you want.

Original 1918 edition of The Elements of Style in iBooks

The Elements of Style is definitely still a useful handbook for English writing, and I just read through the first section this afternoon as part of my required reading for my current technology communications class. Interestingly, it’s also a great companion book to the new book from A List Apart, The Elements of Content Strategy, which is written to help writers craft online content that’s as high quality as is demanded of traditional writers.

It’s amazing how timeless the advice in The Elements of Style is for it to still be relevant all these years later. Whether you’re a full-time writer or just need a few pointers to make your writing flow better, it’s a great guide that’s quick and easy to read. For free!

Download The Elements of Style in PDF, ePub, or mobi format from Feedbooks

Read more about The Elements of Style from Wikipedia

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Learn to Create Tumblr Themes the Easy Way

By on February 25, 2011 in Books, Reviews

Would you like to make a customized theme for your Tumblr site, or create new Tumblr themes to sell? While there are many reasons a WordPress blog is more versatile and powerful, Tumblr is still one of the easiest blogging systems to use. If you just want an easy way to publish your pictures, videos, thoughts, and more, Tumblr makes it easy to do. Best of all, it’s much easier to create new themes for.

That’s where the Rockable Press eBook Theme Tumblr Like a Pro comes in. This 138 page eBook, along with around 3 hours of included tutorial videos, takes you though everything you need to learn to start designing themes for Tumblr. You can learn to create beautiful themes for your own use, or to sell to the more than 14 million Tumblr users that have blogs online today! Even major theme developers like WooThemes have created themes for Tumblr, and there’s over 30 different Tumblr themes for sell today on ThemeForest by freelancers and small businesses. There’s a huge opportunity to create and sell new themes on marketplaces like ThemeForest, and this eBook will teach what it takes to go from zero to hero.

What’s Included?

The book first teaches about Tumblr’s origins, and the basics of designing themes for the service. It then progresses through the different types of posts in Tumblr, and how to customize your theme for each of them. Next, you’ll be able to take your theme knowledge to creating static pages, as well as adding customization options so your customers can tweak the font’s colors, fonts, and more. Finally, it progresses to more advanced topics, including how to create AJAX enabled themes, utalize the Tumblr API, and much more.

Throughout the text, you’ll see blocks of code to help you understand what’s being explained, as well as images of what the result should look like on your site.sshot-2011-02-25-[2]

As you’re reading, you’ll see markers that let you know when you should switch to the video. Just like a self-study course, you’ll be immersed in learning to theme Tumblr blogs with both the detailed text and the accompanying videos.

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The videos themselves are very informative; you’ll see the most important parts explained directly, and then see the code in action on Tumblr. All together, Theme Tumblr Like a Pro is more like a mini-course on creating Tumblr themes than a traditional eBook. It takes the best of both worlds, and really makes coding a theme seem simpler than you might have thought.

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Conclusion

Tumblr is actually amazingly simple to create themes for, and if you’ve found it daunting to create WordPress themes then you’ll be refreshed by Tumblr’s simplicity. Even though it’s simple, you’ll still need to learn the ropes before you can dive in and start creating world-class themes. Theme Tumblr Like a Pro is a great book to get you started. Far from simply teaching the basics, it’ll help you create advanced, dynamic themes. In fact, after reading it, I’m thinking that I should try creating a Tumblr theme even though I don’t use Tumblr myself anymore. I could always sell it on ThemeForest… :)

Theme Tumblr Like a Pro is available from Rockable Press for $29. For this, you’ll get the eBook in PDF format, as well as the sample theme with the source code and PSD files. You’ll also get around 3 hours of tutorial videos. All together, you’ll be fully equipped to learn everything you need to start coding themes. It’d be best if you knew at least some HTML and CSS before getting started. With everything included, it’s definitely a reasonable price, and if you can go sell new Tumblr themes when you’re done, all the better!

Don’t forget … if you do make a new Tumblr theme after reading this book, be sure to leave a comment here and let us see the results!

Get more info and purchase Theme Tumblr Like a Pro today!

ThemeForest Links:

Find Premium Tumblr Themes at ThemeForest

Get Started Selling Tumblr Themes on ThemeForest

Decided Tumblr’s not for you? Here’s how to Switch Your Tumblr blog to WordPress instead!

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Review: Cooking for Geeks

By on January 10, 2011 in Books

When’s the last time you did a chemistry experiment? Truth is, most of us do chemistry experiments more often than we imagine. Every time you try tweaking a recipe or try to cook something new, you’re doing a chemistry experiment. Best thing is, you can use the basic properties of food to make new dishes and recreate your favorite foods.

This can be difficult to do on your own, though, and most cookbooks are designed to just help you make individual recipes and don’t overly teach you how to design new ones. Cooking for Geeks is a great book that does exactly that. Author Jeff Potter guides you through the basic ways foods work so you’ll understand how everything from eggs to high temperature cooking works. It includes tons of recipes, but best of all, it’ll leave you with an understanding of what made that recipe tick and how you can use the ideas from it on your own. You’ll even learn better ways to make boiled eggs, of all things!

Whether you’re cooking on your own or using it with a school group to teach, Cooking for Geeks empowers you to take your cooking to the next level. Sure, cooking is not a technology centric thing, but this book makes cooking appeal to those of us who enjoy hacking and tweaking. Plus, when’s the last time you saw the Mac vs. PC debate mentioned in a cookbook? My family and I have found this book very educational and enjoyable, and if you find cooking any bit interesting, I believe you’ll be fascinated by this book, too.

Our Rating: 9/10

Checkout the Official Cooking for Geeks site

Purchase Cooking for Geeks from Amazon.com [$21.54 paperback | $15.39 Kindle Edition]

Purchase Cooking for Geeks from O’Reilly [$34.99 print | $27.99 eBook]

I review for the O'Reilly Blogger Review Program

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The Personal MBA: Can You Get an MBA From a Book?

By on December 30, 2010 in Books, Featured, Reviews

Have you ever wondered if staying in college or going back to college long enough to get a MBA would make a significant difference in your career?  Making the choice to stay in college longer and spend tens of thousands of dollars for something of an uncertain benefit can be a very difficult thing to do.  The truth is, though, what you need is not another degree: you simply need to learn more about what makes business tick and how to improve your own ventures or the company you work for.  Now you just need to figure out what to study, and you’ll be ready to learn all the skills an MBA would give you on your own.

Why do you need to learn more about business?

First, though, you’ll need to decide if you really need to learn more about business.  When I personally started college, I never thought I would end up taking business classes.  I was shocked when my college required a number of business and economics focused classes, and initially resented having to take them.  I then started seeing how the classes had helped me look at the world of business differently, and I found the info in them benificual in everything from running my own site to working as a freelancer to my ministry work in Thailand.  The thing is, business permiates every part of life, and the more you can learn about how to start your vision, progress it into something others are willing to pay for, and then grow the business to fit your and the market’s needs, you’ll find it easier to do your own job or start the business you’ve always wanted to.

That’s where The Personal MBA comes in.  Author Josh Kaufman has been sharing tips and training on his website, PersonalMBA.com/blog, for years, trying to help people learn all they can about business from the best authors and online content.  From highlighting the best business books to distilling his own business knowledge in informative blog posts, the Personal MBA site has a wealth of info to help you learn everything from an MBA without having to go back to school.  Then, building on this knowledge, Kaufman has distilled it into his new book, The Personal MBA: Master the art of business.  This book is being released today, but I had the privilege to receive a pre-release copy for review and was very impressed at how thorough and informative this one book is.

An MBA in a book

The Personal MBA book is a nearly 400 page book that lets you explore all the topics you’ll come across about business and economics related to running your own company.  But rather than being a dry book that tries to teach you a whole field of knowledge in each chapter with different concepts mixed in throughout the whole thing, this book is designed to let you learn about individual concepts thoroughly with mini-essays about each.  It’s laid out similar to 37signals’ Rework or Getting Real, with short sections that pack in a powerful concept and make you ponder its implications for your work.  From ROI to Bias to Risk reversal to Association marketing, you’ll learn about an amazing variety of business concepts on your own pace with interesting and easy to understand explanations and applications.

Then, each section of the book includes a Share This Concept link at the end.  Each individual idea has a companion page on the book’s site, which includes a video explaining more about the topic, and an outline of what that section of the book discussed.  For example, page 180 discusses what bootstrapping means, how it’s benificial to your business, and more.  This section’s Share This Concept link, http://book.personalmba.com/bootstrapping/, both gives you more info about the topic and lets you share what you’ve learned with colleagues and friends.  If you take the time to explore this extra content, you’ll find that you learned even more from the book than you could from the text alone.

I was very impressed with the depth of business topics that The Personal MBA covered, and was very excited to see that it didn’t make business dry or difficult to understand.  Unlike a textbook, The Personal MBA is designed to let you explore a topic you need to learn more about, even if you haven’t read the whole book.  Whether you’re a business student or want to learn more on your own, you’ll find this book a great reference guide to help you master business better than you could on your own.  Best of all, it’s a great example of how much you can learn today online, from books, and in self study, without spending tens of thousands of dollars or wasting years of your life in school.  For once, technology and its related older cousin, paper books, have made life simpler and can help make you more productive!  The most important part isn’t about where you learn, or how you learn, but it’s what you learn and what you do with it.  The Personal MBA empowers you to understand the business world and drive your visions into profitable ventures, and if you’re motivated, you can use it to learn more than an undedicated person would in a traditional business program.

Purchase The Personal MBA from Amazon.com ($15.21)

Purchase The Personal MBA in Kindle eBook format ($14.99)

Learn more about The Personal MBA

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Review: The Myths of Innovation by Scott Berkun

By on December 1, 2010 in Books

Have you ever wondered what the famous inventers had that made them different than you?  Are the technological marvels of our days something greater than we, ordinary humans we are, could ever be capable of producing?  The Myths of Innovation is a fascinating book by Scott Berkun that digs through the history of invention and brings out the common misconceptions about the process of innovation.

After first reminding us that the word Innovation means “significant positive change” and is thus not something that ordinary services or products display, Berkun then shows you how many of the “innovations” of today are simply the result of centuries of smaller advances.  He uncovers the myths behind many famous creative moments, and shows us that there’s no magical trick to invention.  Rather, the inventive and creative people that we eulogize simply worked and worked, putting their best effort with the cumulative advances of civilization into something we’d use today.

I found this book to be a very enjoyable history of the major milestones of invention throughout history.  History is the best tool for teaching us from other’s mistakes and progresses, and this book helps expose where our folktales often stray from the true way breakthroughs were discovered.  After arming them with this knowledge, Berkun inspires readers to go and keep striving instead of waiting around for the mythical creative spark.  Whether you’re simply curious about the process behind invention and true innovation, or want to be inspired to go out and create something yourself, this is an entertaining and educational book you’ll enjoy.

Our Rating: 10/10

Purchase The Myths of Innovation from O’Reilly Press [$14.99 eBook/$17.99 print]

Purchase The Myths of Innovation from Amazon.com [$9.99 Kindle eBook/$11.00 print]

I review for the O'Reilly Blogger Review Program

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Free Book Giveaway! Our Review of the Digging Into WordPress 3 eBook

By on September 6, 2010 in Books, Reviews, Techinch

Are you wanting to learn more about WordPress?  From mainstream websites to personal blogs, WordPress is one of the most important and powerful publishing platforms today.  There’s a wealth of information of information available online, but it can be very difficult to learn everything there is to know about something as big as WordPress from scattered blog posts and articles.  That’s where Digging into WordPress fits in.  Keep reading for our review of the latest version of this impressive book, and for an opportunity to win one of 2 copies we’re giving away this week!

Digging into WordPress is a great eBook that gives you a through WordPress education in a fun and exciting way.  It is aimed at users that know at least some HTML, CSS, and PHP, but if you even have the slightest knowledge of web design and have a strong desire to push on and learn more, you’ll be able to learn a lot from this book.  Best of all, it was recently updated for WordPress 3.0!  Whether you’re still trying to learn your way around WordPress, are trying to hack your favorite Elegant Theme or WooTheme to work the way you want, or are trying to become the new 3rd most important person in WordPress, this is the book for you.  It covers all the following and more:

  • Unique ways to secure your WordPress site
  • Great ways to incorporate Twitter and other social media into your site
  • In depth SEO information
  • Using WordPress as a CMS with custom Taxonomies, fields, post types, and more
  • Creating and using WordPress child themes
  • Over 20 pages devoted to the latest WordPress 3.0 features, including WordPress MultiSite, custom menus, and more, with WP 3.0 specific updates throughout the book

With all that content, Digging into WordPress is a massive eBook, with nearly 450 pages of tips, tricks, and instruction.  It’s also a beautiful book that looks great on your netbook or eReader screen!

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If you’re a visual learner, Digging into WordPress will be especially helpful.  It frequently includes screenshots of websites and WordPress admin screens to illustrate what its talking about.  The whole book is beautifully designed, which makes it a pleasure to read while still giving you a ton of WordPress instruction.

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The book is filled with sample code that can help you do exactly you want to with your WordPress themes and backend PHP, even if you only have a basic understanding of PHP coding.  You always learn more when you learn by doing, so be sure to try out the code on your own site or WordPress test install so you’ll really understand how it works.  And if you’re already an advanced WordPress developer, it can be a great resource of code snippets for those little, hard-to-remember functions.

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But it’s not all code, work, and study … Digging into WordPress is fun, too.  It’s filled with funny and inspirational quotes, pointers, and off-the-wall remarks that break up the monotony of studying.  This book is as informative as a textbook, but if you’re any bit into web development, it’ll be as fun to read as a tech book can be.

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As mentioned before, the book has been fully updated with WordPress 3.0 information, so you’ll be armed with the latest tools when you set off to create your own new themes.  Best of all, if you purchase a copy of Digging into WordPress (or have purchased one in the past), you’ll receive free updates to the book when they’re published!  So you’ll learn about WP 3.0 today, and will also get the latest information when new versions of WordPress are released in the future.  Technology changes daily, so too often, books are outdated as soon as you buy them.  Not Digging into WordPress … it’s a living eBook :)

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We’re very impressed with the content and quality of this book, and highly recommend it.  If you’d like to see more, be sure to check out the free sample chapter.  Or take a look around the companion site, DigWP.com; it includes an amazing amount of WordPress tips and tricks, such as this great tip on using Tumblr-style link posts in WordPress!

Usually, when I finish reading a tech book, I think I wish it’d covered *whatever* better, but this book left no room for missing information.  You’re supposed to point out where books came short in reviews, but I couldn’t find anything to critique.  450 pages of content, up to date information, full-color graphics, and free updates in the future … what’s not to love?  If you’re wanting to learn more about WordPress, this is the book to get!

Win a Free Copy of Digging Into WordPress

Update: Our contest is now closed, and the winners are Roger and jawshua. Thanks everyone for participating!

Best of all, we’re giving away 2 PDF copies of Digging Into WordPress!  To enter, simply leave a comment below and let us know why you want to read Digging into WordPress, or follow us on Twitter (@techinch for just Techinch posts, or @maguay for more random tech stuff and interesting posts), and tweet the following or just click Tweet at the bottom of this post:

Win a free copy of Digging into WordPress from @techinch! http://bit.ly/digwp3

Important: Make sure to mention @maguay or @techinch in the Tweet, or we may not see it and won’t be able to count it in this contest!

Want a better chance at winning?  Leave a comment and retweet this post for 2 entries!  The contest closes at midnight Friday, September 10th, EST time, so make sure to comment before then.

And a special thanks to Chris Coyier and Jeff Starr, the authors of Digging into WordPress, for sponsoring this contest.

Purchase Digging into WordPress

If you don’t win the contest, don’t despair.  You can still purchase a copy and learn all the great tips yourself.  The eBook version costs $27, and comes with fully free updates.  Digging into WordPress has already gone through 3 major versions, and if you purchased a previous version, you automatically got a new copy for download as soon as it came out.  It even includes several WordPress themes for free!  This all makes it one of the best WordPress book deals available.  You’ll be able to take advantage of all the tips and information in the current version, and will be able to keep your knowledge up to date as WordPress evolves!

Find Out More and Purchase Digging Into WordPress today!
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Evernote Essentials | Review

By on July 22, 2010 in Books, Techinch

Like it or not, humans are forgetful.  Admit it … even the best of us have forgotten lots of important information over the years.  Ask me; I managed to forget to make hotel reservations three days in a row this week, even though people reminded me each day!  I’ve often envied cameras and phones; they run out of storage space, and we simply stick in a new, larger SD card.  Evernote claims it can help you Remember Everything, but somehow it seems like the most obvious solutions don’t seem that obvious at first.  It seems like a good idea; just jot down all your thoughts, and then find them again anytime, anywhere.  But for me, Evernote didn’t click until recently.  If you’ve been feeling in the dark about Evernote, perhaps using it haphazardly but not regularly, you might need something to help it make more sense.  Or, even if you’ve been using it for a while, you might be wondering how you can get more usefulness out of it.

Enter Evernote Essentials.  This hot-off-the-press eBook (assuming, as I do, that in 2010 Tumblr and PDFs count as a press) helps you quickly discover all of Evernote’s features and start using them to make you more productive and forget less.  Evernote may not be the most confusing application ever; in fact, it may be one of the simplest.  But author Brett Kelly, a new member of the Evernote team, ties it all together and helps you see how Evernote brings your thoughts from your browser, desktop, and mobile device all together.  This is not a weighty, 500 page book that takes you through every nook and cranny of a program, but instead is a light-reading book that can help you get the most out of Evernote.  Let’s look at what Evernote Essentials contains, and why you just might want to read it.

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Screenshots, captions, witty comments … Evernote Essentials has it all!

Evernote Essentials starts with a quick overview of the Evernote service in general, and helps new users get up to speed on some terminology.  Then it dives into a look at the features and settings in all of Evernote’s major platforms: the desktop, web, and mobile versions, Evernote via email, and more.  Next you’ll learn how to effectively organize and find anything you store in Evernote.  Tagging is often difficult for new users to understand, and can be messy and confusing for advanced users who’ve used Evernote a long time, so you may want to pay extra attention to the section on tagging to help you stay organized.

Examples of great Evernote usage ideas ranging from cooking to programming follow.  Bloggers, you’re not neglected; there’s a whole section on how Evernote can help you keep up with your ideas and post drafts.  Secret Service agent looking for a way to remember everything?  You’re covered too.

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The sections I found most useful were the ones about using Evernote via email and about the advanced search options in Evernote.  Did you know you could search for all notes containing images with text that Evernote recognized?  Or that you could find all notes created in the past week by just entering created:week-1 in Evernote’s search box?  Guess what; you can!  I’ve used Evernote for over a year, but this one section taught me a lot that I’d overlooked in Evernote.  Anything that can make you more productive and organized is valuable, and this one book helped me get a lot more out of the free Evernote service.  The best thing is, you’ll likely have fun reading the book too, and be more excited about getting your notes organized in Evernote.

Getting Evernote Essentials

Evernote Essentials is available as a DRM-free PDF for $25, and the author promises to regularly update the book with new information and make the latest version available free of charge to customers.  In fact, you won’t even have to worry about having the latest copy; when the book is updated, you’ll be automatically emailed with the newest version.  The PDF is fully searchable, so you can easily find anything you’re looking for in the book anytime.  In fact, since all Evernote users can store PDFs in Evernote, I’d suggest you save the book in Evernote for a quick reference guide!  To top it off, the author promises a full refund within 30 days if you don’t feel the book met your expectations.  Not bad, eh?  Check it out at the link below:

Get More Info and Purchase Evernote Essentials Today!

Evernote Essentials cover image

Let us know how this book helped you use Evernote more effectively to remember and find your info easier than ever.

P.S.: Hey Mr. Brett Kelly, would you mind sharing a couple of your Cumin Waffle recipes with us? A public Evernote notebook would do!  After all, reading your book made me hungry :)

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Review of VirtualBox 3.1 Beginner’s Guide

By on July 5, 2010 in Books, Techinch

Are you just getting started with desktop virtualization?  Let’s look at the new book VirtualBox 3.1 Beginner’s Guide, which is a book that may be a great help getting started with desktop virtualization quickly and easily.

Computers today can be very complicated machines.  Even though popular mobile devices are being pointed out as the future in easy computing, there are still many reasons you’ll want to use a full PC for the foreseeable future.  However, constant upgrades and changes make it hard to stay on top and often mess up older programs.  This is where virtualization comes in, as it lets you run older or newer operating systems on top of your main computer without getting rid of your existing version of Windows, programs, and files.

If this sounds complicated, trust me, it’s not that bad.  Modern virtualization programs are quite easy to use, but still can be somewhat confusing.  This is where VirtualBox 3.1 Beginner’s Guide comes in.  Virtualization sounds confusing, so author Alfonso V. Romero simply steps you through the process.  Ever step of each process is demonstrated with a screenshot, so you’ll easily know what’s going on even if you’ve never ran a virtual machine before.  When I first started reading the book, I thought at first that it didn’t explain enough at first, but soon it became clear that the author intended you to learn by doing.  He finishes each chapter with a pop quiz; the questions and provided answers were often humorous, but may help drive home the points if you’re having trouble remembering them.  Otherwise, you don’t have to do the quizzes; after all, that’s the virtue of self-study, right? :)

If you’ve already been using desktop virtualization, but have not done much more than run XP on your newer computer or played with Linux on top of Windows, then this book still offers stuff to help you take virtualization even further.  Chapter 6 covers advanced networking with VirtualBox, helping you create virtual networks so you can simulate and group-manage several virtual machines just like you would an office of traditional computers.  Chapter 7 then takes you on an overview of Virtual Appliances, prebuilt virtual machines that have become popular with VMware and VirtualBox.  Chapter 8 shows you how you can remotely manage your virtual machines, though there’s one other way that the book doesn’t mention: since they’re all running directly on your main normal computer, you could always manage your virtual machines via Remote Desktop or a tool like LogMeIn.  I’ve done this several times, and it works great :) .  Finally, Appendix A covers VirtualBox’ snapshot feature, which lets you roll back changes in your virtual machines.  In all, these sections will be interesting and informative for more advanced users.

However, if you’ve been using virtualization for years and already understand the concepts (or perhaps could manage virtual machines in your sleep), then this book is likely not for you.  But, you still could find it useful if you ever need to teach your boss, coworker, or friend how to use virtualization.

Mac and Linux Users Welcome, Too

While this book is generally Windows-centric, VirtualBox itself runs on Windows, Mac OS, and Linux.  The program itself works mainly the same across all these platforms, so even if you’re wanting to use VirtualBox to run Windows on your Mac you may still find it helpful.  It will look somewhat different, so you may want to check out the sample chapter (link below) first and make sure you can follow it on your operating system.

The eBook

Considering I reviewed an eBook copy of VirtualBox 3.1 Beginner’s Guide, I thought I’d mention the overall eBook experience with the book.  First, this book is published by Packt Publishing, and they offer all of their books either in standard paper (a real book) or as a DRM-free PDF.  Just like most publishers today, they offer the eBook versions for much less than the paper version, so if you don’t mind reading on your screen or ereader device they can be a great value.  The PDFs are fully searchable and are designed to fit nicely on the screen.  The actual text of the book is about 520 pixels wide, so it will display nicely even on smaller screens.  And, you can even print the eBook yourself if you decide you’d rather have it on paper.

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You can always re-download your PDF eBook purchases from Packt with your online account.  Simply login to your account and scroll down to the Recent Downloads section.  Here you can select and download your purchased eBooks along with other free eBooks that may be available.  The download will be in zip format, so download it and then extract the PDF from the zip file, and you’re ready to read.

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One interesting thing about Packt eBooks is that they include your name and billing address on the footer of each page.  This is an anti-piracy measure, and I found it a nice way to make sure people are honest with their digital purchases while still giving you the freedom of a PDF eBook without DRM.

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Conclusion

VirtualBox 3.1 Beginner’s Guide is available directly from Packt Publishing for $44.99 for the standard book or $33.99 for the eBook.  If you’d rather have both, you can purchase both the ebook and the paper book as a set for $50.99.  Packt offers free shipping in many locations around the world.  Alternately, if you’re an Amazon customer, it is also available from Amazon.com for $39.50, which is actually the best deal if you wish to purchase the paper book.  Or, if you’d like to read more before you actually purchase the book, check out this sample chapter for a full exercise you can try out and see if this book is good for you.

As always, the VirtualBox software itself is a free download from Oracle (formally Sun).  You may notice that the current version is 3.2 (or possibly a higher version, depending on when you check), but as long as the version is 3.something, it should generally look and work the same as the book shows.  The recent 3.2 update added some features, but it didn’t change anything covered in the book.

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