Digital Meanderings
Meanderings of a coder

The title of this post is a bit of a misnomer, but writing the full titles of these two books would’ve been insane. This post is about two books from John Perkins - Confessions of an Economic Hit Man and The Secret History of the American Empire.

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

Just the title of this book had me thoroughly intrigued. This non-fiction, fast-paced book guides you into a cloak-and-dagger world that is usually reserved for CIA spies. The main characters are economic hit men (EHM) of which John Perkins was one, jackals and the military. The goal of an EHM? To gain control of a country, more correctly its resources, without having to invade.

If only half of this book is true, it paints a scary picture of how the US Government operates. The stories told are of assassinations and of one-sided deals that were a boon the American companies involved.

The Secret History of the American Empire

This book is a follow-up to Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. It goes into greater detail regarding the events mentioned in Confessions. It discusses John’s meteoric rise in the EHM ranks and his moral awakening.

Although a truly a great book the last chapter was too preachy for me. I understand his plight and why he’s trying to motivate the reader but I feel that it is misplaced and it better suited for another book.

Wrap-Up

If you’re interested in clandestine operations of the United States these books will prove to be a great read.

—I have read and thoroughly enjoyed both of these books. In the interest of full disclosure, this post contains Amazon affiliate links.

I am embarking on a new project and I’d like to use AJAX. Being unfamiliar with AJAX I decided to buy some books on the subject. After an hour or so spent browsing Barnes and Noble I settled on two books: Pro Apache Struts with Ajax and Practical Ajax Project with Java Technology both from Apress Publishing.

Below you’ll find mini-reviews of each book and the reason for this post.

Pro Apache Struts with Ajax

I have been using Struts for about two years now. By no means am I an expert but I am quite proficient. I was drawn to this book for two reasons: 1) I could use some more in-depth knowledge of Struts and 2) Combining Struts and Ajax seemed like a natural progression.

I perused the book before purchasing it and I found some interesting pieces of information and a very nice introduction to Ant. So I figured it was worth a shot. If the Struts part of this book is so in-depth, imagine the Ajax portion!

To say the least, the Ajax information in this book is lacking. By lacking, I mean the XMLHttpRequest object is explained and that is about it. If you look in the Index under “Ajax” there are a few references, but everything listed is in the appendix.

Although this book is interesting and still worth the price I found the title to be very misleading. I almost feel cheated because it seems like the publisher is trying to win sales on the back of the Ajax hype.

Practical Ajax Project with Java Technology

This is an excellent book. For a technical book it is a really great read!

The book is laid out in different projects starting from an implementation of Johnny Carson’s Karnak through a simple webmail application and onto a chat and RSS reader application.

Along the way the author, Frank Zammetti, shows us different Ajax Libraries such as Java Web Parts and DWR.

Also included in the book are some design patterns and anti-patterns. Although this falls more into the academic arena these sections are also a good read.

In the end, I would definitely recommend this book to someone who is looking for an introductory course in AJAX. As I mentioned, it is more of a big tutorial so those looking for a reference book may want to look elsewhere.