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Here's what Ben Rady, who calls himself software craftsman, states under his Statement of Values. I value similar things: I can sign my name under this statement. Excellent summary.

As a technical leader, I value:

* Talented People
* Rapid Feedback
* Individual Relationships
* Facilitation over command and control
* Continuous Improvement
* Frequent Delivery

As a programmer, I value:

* Working Software
* Clean Code
* Rich Communication
* Flexibility over efficiency
* Sustainable Pace
* Simplicity
* Failing Fast over hiding errors

As a human being, I value:

* Courage, not cowardice
* Humility, not hubris
* Compassion, not callousness
* Curiosity, not apathy
* Discipline, not carelessness
* Honesty, not deceit
* Patience, not intolerance

Reference
Statement of Values, Ben Rady

Object-Oriented Analysis and Design with Applications
by Grady Booch and others
ISBN 020189551X
Date Read 9/2007

My Rating

I am part of a book review team at Javalobby. I get a chance to get a free book, write a review, and get published. Not a bad deal. :-) I am not the biggest fan of the long review template that we use, but I have to follow what the team leader decided. :-(

This is a second book I reviewed for Javalobby. You can read the review at Javalobby.org here. Enjoy it.

One Minute Review
Positives
* Great use of abstraction
* Excellent (concise) UML 2.0 tutorial
* Filled with lots of useful ideas

Negatives
* Reads dry at times
* Too academic, too much theory

Summary
The information contained in this book is excellent. It has everything that you will if you want to adapt the Unified Process, learn UML 2.0, and do object oriented analysis and design. However, it is a very theoretical book, which makes it hard to read – hard to stay focused at times. Nonetheless, it is a very important book.

Resources
Applying UML and Patterns - in my opinion, the best book on OOAD

UML Distilled - the most popular UML book

Ajax on Java
by Steven Olson
ISBN 0596101872
Date Read 8/2007

My Rating

I'm published outside of my website! Hooraah!! :-) I reviewed this book as part of a Javalobby.org book-review team. I get a chance to get a free book, write a review, and get published. Not a bad deal. :-) You can read the full review at Javalobby.org here. Enjoy it.

One Minute Review
Positives
* Covers AJAX: a new way to do web applications
* Simple examples

Negatives
* Does not show best-practice implementations
* Very light introduction
* Only simple examples

Summary
This is a decent introduction to the Ajax world and how it pertains to Java development. It's just an introduction: a light treatment of the subject. If you're new to the subject, and would like to find out what Ajax is and what types of Ajax frameworks exist, this book gives you a good starting point.

However, if you would like get a more detailed/complete information on Ajax, this book does not suit your need. What are the advantages/disadvantages of each framework, how should you use each framework? You are not going to find that information in this book.

In my opinion, this book falls short on teaching and aiding the reader what the right choice in the vast Ajax world is. The author falls short on presenting a well researched approach to the frameworks. The examples are too simplistic to fully get a good grasp on the frameworks. Also, the constant usage of bad practices made this book hard to read for me (see my Ch.7 review).

All in all, a good overview of Ajax on Java, but not much more.

Resources
List of Java Frameworks