Custom Firmware, Electronics Design, and PCB Layout

Daycounter Book Reviews

As a prolific reader of non-fiction engineering, technology, and business books, I find it hard to keep track of the books that I've read, and the lessons learned.  Also I have the tendency to forget that I've read a book, especially a bad one, and need a way of recording what I've read and what I haven't read.  Hopefully this list will be useful to others. 

I've rated each book with the following 3 ranks:

• Buy It
• Borrow It
• Skip It

ENTREPRENEURSHIP BOOKS

 

	Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder , by Nassim Nicholas Taleb This is one of the most most imporant books I've read over the last decade.  This is a must read for any entrepreneur, investor, or person who wants to understand what is wrong with our institutions.  This reveals the secrets to wealth creation, and prosperity, and how to have a good life.  The book is philosophical, and so you have to apply the teachings to your own situation, but it lays the foundation. I'd recommend getting the audiobook, as it's easier to think about what's beeing said as you listen.  The gist is that there are 3 properties to systems that can be exploited - fragility: the property of things which degrade with chaos, anti-fragility: the property of things that improve with chaos, and robust: the property of things that are insensitive to chaos.  To incrase wealth look for optionality, things with big upside and little or no down side.  Many options are free and occur in nature, and so we overlook them. Exploit bar bell distributions, and ignore opportunities with mediocre returns.  For example, invest 90% in something very stable, and then invest another 10% in something very antifragile. Some examples of optionality that I've come up with are using contractors instead of employees, time sharing equipment by purchasing it with partners, using mentors, friendship and invitations to events, precious metals.  All of these things have huge upside if we chose to excersise the option, and very little if we don't.  Options can appreciate with time, and if they don't no harm done. This explains what is wrong with big institutions and why they are destined to fail.  Anyone who reads this book will arrange his children to be taught as apprentices rather than going to college. (Read Feb, 2013) Buy It
	Transforming Your Go-to-Market Strategy: The Three Disciplines of Channel Management, by V. Kasturi Rangan This is essentially a useless textbook with no practical application, or real world entreprenurial application. Here's the gist. You can sell direct to the customer, to retailer, to a broker or to a distributor. Doesn't everyone already know that? He also doesnt' touch on MLM as a posibility. There are also some antedotes and case studies about giante companies like Del or GM. Whom is this book supposed to benefit? It useless for entreprenuers, and big companies have to much inertia to change their channels. The author is apparently a professor at Harvard, yet he doesn't state that he has any sort of real world experience marketing anything. I skimmed this because it was so boring. Heaven help this guy's poor students who have to read this crap, and sit through his lectures. (Read Feb, 2013) Skip It
	BRAND is a four letter word: Positioning and The Real Art of Marketing, by Austin McGhie. Style over substance. I skimmed it as, there wasn't much depth to the material, or anything very useful. Seemed like it was an ego book. (Hey look I'm such an expert, that I wrote a book.) (Read Feb, 2013) Skip It

ENGINEERING BOOKS

Analog Filter Books

Digital Design Books

	VHDL : Programming By Example , Douglas L. Perry, ISBN: 0-07-140070-2. Very good book. Good examples, and good explanations. After reading this book, I was able to quickly implement some VHDL designs. Worth buying as a reference book. Buy It
	Verilog HDL Synthesis, A Practical Primer, J. Bhasker, ISBN: 0-9650391-5-3. A bit too concise. A questionable buy. Skip It
	Advanced Digital Design with the Verilog HDL (2nd Edition) , Michael Ciletti, ISBN: 0-13-089161-4. Okay, but not great. Still looking for a good verilog book. Skip It

Manufacturing

Motor Control

	Motor Control Electronics Handbook, Valentine, ISBN: 0-07-066810-8. Very good and extensive book. Has schematics, and is extensive with 700 pages. Worth buying. Buy It
	Stepping Motors: A Guide to Theory and Practice (Control Engineering) , ISBN 0- 85296-029-8. Decent little book. Explains some concepts that are sometimes difficult to understand. Not sure I'd buy. Borrow It
	Electric Motors and Drives: Fundamentals, Types and Applications , Huges, ISBN: 0-7506-1741-1. Not a lot of useful information. No circuits. Just high level overview. Don't buy. Skip It

Power Supply and Transformer Design

	Power Supply Cookbook, Second Edition (EDN Series for Design Engineers) , Marty Brown, ISBN: 0-7506-7329-X, Practical, and concise. Well worth the price. Buy it. Buy It
	Switching Power Supply Design, Abraham I. Pressman, ISBN: 0-07-052236-7 , Comprehensive and very well written. Covers all of the important topologies. Buy this! Buy It
	Switchmode Power Supply Handbook, Keith Billings, ISBN: 0-07-006719-8, Well written, good book, very practical and comprehensive. However, I like the Pressman book better. Buy this! Buy It
	Transformer and Inductor Design Handbook, Colonel Wm. T. McLyman, ISBN: 0-8247-5393-3. This is a very practical book, on the subject. It contains lots of practical advice on how to select your transformer, for various power supply topologies. It is very well written, and has very good illustrations. You can tell that this guy has actually designed transformers, and isn't just regurgitating other academic material. Buy this one if you can afford it - it's pricey. Buy It
	Handbook of Transformer Design and Applications , William M. Flanagan, ISBN:0-07-021291-0. Very disappointing. Not practical. Poorly written. Most people these days are designing switching mode power supplies, and this book doesn't say much about the subject. Don't buy. Skip It
	Handbook of Transformer Design and Applications, William M. Flanagan, ISBN:0-07-021291-0. Very disappointing. Not practical. Poorly written. Most people these days are designing switching mode power supplies, and this book doesn't say much about the subject. Don't buy. Skip ItIt

RF and Antenna Books

	RF Circuit Design , Chris Bowick. ISBN: 07506-7244-7. This is one of the best RF books out there on the subject.  It holds your hand through the complex process of using Smith charts, and S parameters. It gives a great explanation of how to create matching circuits. I just which that the book had been longer, and covered other topics in such great detail. If you are going to buy an RF book, buy this first. Buy It
	Build Your Own Low-Power Transmitters: Projects for the Electronics Experimenter , Graf and Sheets, ISBN: 0-7506-7244-7. Very good Book! Has lots of different lower frequency transmitters for AM, FM, and TV. Lots of working examples with actual component values, and very good circuit descriptions. Buy this one. Buy It
	Antenna Theory and Design, 2nd Edition, Warren Sutzman and Garry Thiele, ISBN 978-0471025900. Good book that doesn't get bogged down with excessive math. Well written and coherent. Covers good topics. Buy It
	Antennas , Kraus, ISB: 0-07-112240-0. This is the Antenna Bible. Buy this one!! Buy It
	Antenna Engineering Handbook, Richard Johnson, ISBN:0-07-032381-X. Decent as a handbook. Somewhat disjoint. Borrow It
	Foundations of Interconnect and Microstrip Design , Edwards and Steer, ISBN: 0-471-60701-0. This is a decent book. Has some accurate formulas for microstrip design. Has an emphasis on intra-chip connections. I'm not sure I'd buy. Borrow It
	RF Circuit Design: Theory & Applications (2nd Edition) , Reinhold Ludwig ISBN, 0-13095327-7. More of a text book. Good explenation of 2 port parameters. Lots of math., not much real circuit design. Borrow It
	Microwave and Rf Design of Wireless Systems , David Pozar. ISBN 978-0471322825 . Decent book. Discusses system level RF design, as well as lower level topics such as S-parameters, Friis Equation, etc. Borrow It
	Antenna Handbook , Y. T. Lo, S. W. Lee. ISBN 978-0442015923. Great book if you like doing 3D integrals. Nearly pure math without descriptive text. Has some good tables of theoretical antenna properties. It would be better with some real world examples Skip It
	Microstrip Antenna Design Handbook (Artech House Antennas and Propagation Library), Garg, Bhartia ISBN:0-89006-513-6. This is an incomprehensible, disjoint, dump of integral equations. Might be good for someone who already was an expert in the field. A fairly useless book from a design point of view. Don't buy. Skip It
	Microstrip Antennas: The Analysis and Design of Microstrip Antennas and Arrays, Pozar and Schambert, ISBN: 0-7803-1078-0. This is just a dump of journal articles.
	Practical RF Handbook, Hickman, ISBN: 0750653698. Terrible, useless book. Nothing but vague block diagrams and vague descriptions. Skip It
	RF Design Guide Systems, Circuits and Equations, Vizmuller, ISBN 0-89006-754-6. Terrible, vague book, no useful circuits Skip It
	Practical Rf Design Manual, Doug Memaw, ISBN: 1-891237-00-4. Okay book, but not great. Some useful circuits. A little math. Skip It

Software and Programming Books

Other Daycounter Links

We offer a broad range of electrical engineering calculators and electronics articles and tutorials. 

Daycounter specializes in contract electronics design.  Do you need some help on your project?  Contact us to get a quote.

[Employment] [Downloads][Articles] [Contact Us]

Call us now at 1.801.938.4264

© Copyright 2004 Daycounter, Inc.  All rights Reserved.