Mac OS X v. 10.2 Jaguar Killer Tips
by Scott Kelby
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Book Reviews of Mac OS X v. 10.2 Jaguar Killer Tips
Book Review: A Book You'll Love to Hate
Summary: 2 Stars
I decided I had to speak out against this book before other unsuspecting geeks were barraged with Scott Kelby's patronizing platitudes. This book *does* have some useful tips -- I will begrudgingly give it that. But at what price!Outside of the very occasional, tiny pearl, this book has little to recommend itself. The author's style is pedantic at best. It would appear that Mr. Kelby wrote the entire book to comment on how clever he is and how useless Apple's Human Interface folks are.
All this would certainly be forgiveable, or at least bearable, if only there were sufficient, useful information contained herein. It couldn't be farther from the reality of the situation! Not only is there little in the book that isn't solved by looking at the interface (e.g. using the Dock preference pane to change dock behavior, using the red/x button to close non-active windows, getting "More Info" from the System Profiler by using the "About This Mac..." dialog box), the author will deliberately avoid giving useful information to the reader to impress on us the value of his solution.
Take for instance the "problem" addressed at the bottom of page 87, command (apple) + n does not create a new folder (as it did in Mac OS 9). Mr. Kelby does not point out that you now just need to become accustomed to using another finger to hold down the shift key in addition to "command" and "n". No! He suggests instead that you control click in the appropriate place and select "New Folder" from the pop-up contextual menu!
I plan to keep this book for reference now that I own it for the occasional interesting tidbit, but unless you enjoy being talked down to as a reader and letting a book get away with assuming it's preaching to an appreciative choir all the while, do not buy this book.
Book Review: Lavish but lacking
Summary: 2 Stars
This book may deserve recognition for its artwork, design, and typography, but the writing is unfortunately quite weak and sophomoric in tone. Kelby spends far too much time self-consciously riffing and jesting that he loses focus and overwhelms the presumed core purpose of the book.Jaguar (a.k.a., Mac OS X 10.2) is a major upgrade with a great deal for people to learn -- even longtime Macintosh users; for that reason, it's very important that a guide to using it be cogent and include step-by-step explanations. Instead, readers get an uneven, confusing treatment of the subject.
Kelby isn't entirely unfunny, but I think he could learn much by studying the work of David Pogue, a more polished technology writer whose wit doesn't get in the way of his teaching. Also, some may be put off by the intensely saturated, almost cartoonish visuals in the design of the Kelby volume, though I concede that some others may find it cute.
In the end, those who wish to avoid serious frustration will likely have better luck with OS X: The Missing Manual, 2nd edition, which has been substantially revised to reflect the new aspects of Jaguar.
Some other reader reviewers have pooh-poohed these concerns, saying that the Kelby volume is merely a collection of "killer tips," and as such should be somehow immune from criticism for that reason. I respectfully disagree. It's true that Pogue's tome is more of a reference work than a compendium of tips (though it certainly has plenty of the latter). In the end, if you want completeness and clarity, go with Pogue. If you want a lot of disjointed giggling, go with Kelby.
Book Review: Killer Book
Summary: 5 Stars
Scott Kelby has written a killer book for OS X Jaguar users. How often do you open a compute manual and immediately read all of the sidebars? After all that is where the nitty gritty information is. Mac OS X Killer Tips is nothing but sidebars - two hundred sixty-nine pages of sidebars. The book is well organized into chapters which cover everything from windows, icons, cool tips, cheap tips, trouble shooting and everything in-between. It doesn't have to be read in any particular order, but I would certainly recommend reading all of it.
At first the thought of learning all of those tips is a bit overwhelming; however I have a system which works pretty well for me. I keep a stack of sticky notes or flags handy. When I find a tip that looks like one I could really like to learn I mark it. Be careful or you will have sticks on every page. Then at the conclusion of a chapter, I choose the two or three which I like best and use them until they are second nature. Then I look for the next two or three. At this rate it might take a while to master the "killer tips" but the book has already made my life easier. I highly recommend it for novice or expert.
Just for fun read the introduction to the book and then the introductions to each chapter. They are amusing and will give you a chuckle or two. And if you want to have even more fun, read Macintosh - The Naked Truth, also by Scott Kelby.
Book Review: A GOOD CASE OF QUALITY OVER QUANTITY
Summary: 4 Stars
The 288 pages of this book may not seem impressive; but its contents do. A question of quality; not just quantity!"Mac OS X v. 10.2 Killer Tips" measured upto standard. The book offered a thorough analysis of every aspect of the 'Mac OS X version 10.2': including accurate dissection, which ranged from its BSD UNIX foundation to Aqua. No foreseeable Mac OS X problem eluded this book.
Despite its small size, comprehensive diagnosis-and-treatment pattern was maintained throughout the chapters. It even provided guidance on how best to configure and/or troubleshoot potential hardware and networking problems. Each page was colourfully illustrated, thus making it easy for readers (or troubleshooters) to grasp all the salient points.
Indeed, this is one book which will be of great assistance to anybody who runs the Mac OS X 10.2 operating system. It offers concise, but accurately vital tips. It is a dependable troubleshooting guide, which all-level Mac users can count on.
Book Review: A tip or two for everyone!
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a terrific book for brand new users of Mac OS X, but if you're a long time user it's value falls a bit. A lot of these tips are keyboard shortcuts and other little things that you pick up just by messing around with the OS. But there are so many hidden corners of OS X that you're bound to miss a few and that's where this book comes in.The tips cover everything from the iapps, to managing the Finder, the Dock, the Classic enoronment, icons and more. There are so many tips offered, covering so many aspects of your Mac that you're bound to run into a few things that pique your interest. I discovreed the Font Panel because of this book and it has helped me so much, that it alone makes the purchase worthwile. Thats the kind of benefit this book can give. You might have to wade through a bunch of stuff you already know or don't care about but then, you run into someting that makes you jump for joy!