The Cheating of America: How Tax Avoidance and Evasion by the Super Rich Are Costing the Country Billions--and What You Can Do About It

Average customer rating:

Good research, but disparages capitalism

Duh

Just Kevin Phillips dribble in another book.

A Study of Tax Evasion By The Super Affluent

Muckracking Expose

The Cheating of America: How Tax Avoidance and Evasion by the Super Rich Are Costing the Country Billions--and What You Can Do About It
Charles Lewis
Manufacturer: Perennial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Taxes | Accounting | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Economic Conditions | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Economic Policy & Development | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
State & Local Government | Government | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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General | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
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Amazon.com

This book is a group project; Charles Lewis and Bill Allison are the principle authors, but they have relied on an "investigative team" that includes 19 other individuals affiliated with the Center for Public Integrity, a left-of-center research organization in Washington, D.C. What they've assembled in The Cheating of America is a muckraking survey of how the rich and powerful shirk their responsibilities: "We investigate the people and companies who have benefited most from our society and our way of life and then chosen to thumb their noses at the rest of us, by paying little or no taxes." The book is full of facts and figures, many sure to outrage. The authors identify, for instance, some 45,000 tax returns filed by people earning more than $100,000 and paying less than 7 percent of their income to the federal government--compared to millions of workers who earn much less and proportionally pay much more. (One recent IRS report counted 2,680 filers with incomes of $200,000 or more claiming they owed no taxes at all, up from just 85 in 1977.)

What makes the book succeed, however, is not its careful number crunching, but all the little stories that detail "the phenomenon of tax avoidance (that's legal), tax evasion (that's illegal), and tax 'avoision' (catch us if you can)." There are the wealthy film producers who use offshore trusts and tax shelters to hide their income, the millionaire tax evaders who renounce their U.S. citizenship in order to escape making tax payments, and the accountants who help it all happen. At times, the book feels like a long Reader's Digest article, all told in the service of an outrageous conclusion: "Many of the nation's wealthiest individuals and its largest corporations are not paying their fair share of taxes today." The Cheating of America will appeal to readers who appreciated the Center for Public Integrity's previous efforts, as well as admirers of Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele. --John J. Miller

Book Description

Charles Lewis, Bill Allison, and a team of researchers from the Center for Public Integrity -- an organization that the National Journal called "a watchdog in the corridors of power" -- investigated how millions of high-income adults and some major corporations cheat the government of billions through tax avoidance (legal), tax evasion (illegal), or tax "avoision" (catch me if you can).

Now Lewis and his team provide explosive revelations about who cheats and how they do it, from offshore banks to foreign "tax havens." Case studies of the most brazen dodgers will have taxpayers seeing red in this eye-opening report that puts the IRS on notice. Sure to enlighten and outrage, The Cheating of America is a must -- read for every citizen.

Customer Reviews:

Good research, but disparages capitalism.......2007-10-11

I profited from this book because the authors and their research staff related interesting stories of companies and their battles with the IRS using sources such as newspapers and Tax Court transcripts, and I bought a cheap used copy. The research was thorough and I skipped some of the tedious details. But, I fear that many other readers will buy into the denunciation of capitalism espoused by the authors. If you haven't already read books explaining why capitalism in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Ireland creates many more happy and prosperous people than U.S. and European socialism, then you would profit more from reading books such as "The Capitalist Manifesto" or "Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal" or "The Sovereign Individual."

The authors believe that because "taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society," the U.S. should continue taxing 35% of the economy and regulating another 10-15%. Unfortunately for the U.S., Hong Kong will be as rich as the U.S. in 10 years if current trends continue, and Singapore will be as rich in 20 years. Benevolent government is a delicate balance between anarchy and despotism, and the U.S. has long since descended into an anarchic despotic state where most government activities involve gathering everyone into numerous groups who steal from everyone else; or protecting people from their own foolishness; or operating military bases in 130 countries or acting as a referee in their civil wars. The authors fail to recognize that only a minor portion of U.S. federal government activity benefits the general welfare such as protecting property ownership and other individual rights; and that a special interest group can have millions of members who benefit from government spending at others' expense.

The authors assume that since rich people own a disproportionate share of corporations, and corporations have been paying a smaller share of total taxes during the last 30 years, that the IRS should pursue corporations more energetically; and that doing so will alleviate the crushing tax burden of individuals that are not rich. They fail to recognize that not only rich people, but also many ordinary people own shares in their pension plans; and to a large extent corporations are tax collectors that transfers taxes to their customers, most of whom are ordinary people. Even corporations selling luxury items to the rich still employ workers who suffer when the IRS drives corporations to manufacture elsewhere.

The authors lament the emigration of rich Americans to countries with lower taxes and advocate enforcement of a law that would prevent emigrants from visiting the United States after they renounce citizenship. They falsely believe that rich people cannot happily live luxuriously permanently outside the U.S. and enforcement of the law barring their return would discourage many from emigrating; and refuse to recognize that rich people can enjoy many other countries. The few that would be successfully discouraged would be offset by the many who would spend their tourist money elsewhere. London has successfully attracted the spending and capital of foreign billionaires using a favorable tax structure, and the U.S. could compete by emulating the practice (and making the airport experience more enjoyable). Millions of Mexicans emigrate to the U.S., rich and poor alike, and Mexico welcomes their return not only for the tourism industry, but as a humanitarian gesture. Building a Berlin Wall around the U.S. would be as counterproductive as it was in Germany.

Duh.......2005-10-07

Of course these taxes arent being paid! We've set up a system that allows it. The more complex a tax code is, the more exemptions that are allowed the more loopholes that are available to exploit. I seriously don't know why anyone would be shocked this happens.

The ironic solution to this mess, if you truely want to solve it, is to advocate a flat tax with no exemptions (maybe one) or a national sales tax and do away with national income tax.

If your concern is about the billions being wasted by the government over 50% of our budget is non-discretionary. That means congress can't touch it through yearly appropriation. That means it grows and grows and grows uncontrollably. This spending includes wealth transfers through welfare, corporate subsidies (WEalth transfer from poor to rich), and social security (poor to rich wealth transfer) to name a few. Ironically we spend billions to protect farmers the result of which is higher price for food and then billions more on food stamps so the poor can afford the higher priced food. Society as a result is hurt.

Well over 1 trillion is wasted in this manner...

Just Kevin Phillips dribble in another book........2005-09-23

My best defense to the 5 star reviewers is that a congressman no less once said that "Taxes are a levy on ignorance." I also want to make very clear that I am against tax evasion, but wholeheartily endorse taking legal, above board tax deductions. I am sure that most legitimate business people would agree.

For the record, I have been in a zero tax bracket since 1991 and when I was an employee, was getting refunds on ssi.

By the way, how does it make you tax happy animals feel to know that your ssi contributions will never come back to you. Why do you suppose that congressmen and senators don't participate in ssi?

A Study of Tax Evasion By The Super Affluent.......2005-07-24

"The Cheating Of America: How Tax Avoidance And Evasion by the Super Rich Are Costing the Country Billions-And What You Can Do About It" by Charles Lewis, Bill Allison, et. al., is a well-researched overview of how some of America's wealthiest citizens and corporations avoid and evade taxation.

"The Cheating Of America" tells us that at least $195 billion a year in taxes isn't collected from the ultra-wealthy.

This means the amounts collected from honest affluent people, middle-class earners, and low-income people are invariably higher. If all the rich paid their taxes, it's estimated the average taxpayer wouldn't have to pay thousands of dollars per year in extra taxes to make up the tax shortfall.

While $1.5 billion in new wealth is created every day in the U.S., we learn the number of full-time workers living in poverty has increased from 459,000 in 1998 to over 2.8 million in 2001.

A few of the issues:

--American companies legally open non-U.S. corporations to hold non-U.S. profits. But, these companies often engage in illegal pricing schemes to inflate their foreign profits at the expense of U.S. profits, effectively transferring taxable income to the foreign corporation.

In the 1950's, corporate taxes comprised 27% of the tax revenue. By the 1990's, corporate taxes only made up about 10% of the federal tax revenue. That's about a 2/3 decrease in corporate taxes. Individual taxpayers must make up the difference.

--Nonprofit Organizations operating businesses. The book estimates that non-profits control $1.3 trillion in wealth. While many nonprofits are legitimate, many aren't.

The authors write: "...the precedent for using the cover of benefiting mankind to avoid taxes has a long, rich tradition. ... Howard Hughes, for example, set up the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which owned the stock of his aircraft manufacturing corporation. The nonprofit medical institute gave hardly any money to charity during his lifetime, unless one considers bankrolling the reclusive lifestyle of Hughes a charitable purpose."

Some of these nonprofits are lobbying organizations and industry promotional groups (For example, lobbying for deregulation and tax cuts).

--Corporate use of "phantom losses" from transactions that lack economic substance. The Cheating Of America does a good job of discussing the problems with international banking and how some companies create many entities to try to confuse the IRS. The secretive nature of some foreign country banks makes it nearly impossible for the IRS to obtain the records it needs to properly evaluate a business's tax situation. It's estimated that $10 billion a year in tax revenue is lost to this type of tax shelter.

For example, sometimes, some foreign bank will "loan" a wealthy individual money. That money is really taxable income in disguise. And, interest payments on the "loan" are sometimes reported as tax-deductible, if the "loan" is disguised as a mortgage or business loan.

--Wealthy individuals, renouncing American citizenship to avoid taxes, but continuing to spend hundreds of days per year in the United States. (In fairness to some of the tax ex-patriots, many also faced serious legal problems because they engaged in fraudulent activity. So, avoiding criminal prosecution or civil lawsuits could also be a motive for fleeing the U.S.)

So, what can the average American do about this? Not much. The Cheating Of America devotes a short five-page chapter to discussing what you can do. First, it points out you can't benefit from these tax-evasion schemes yourself, unless you have a lot of money.

Why can't the middle-class benefit from these methods? Because they were never designed to benefit the middle class. For example, the major source of income for most people is labor. If you work for somebody else, your wages are usually reported to the government. It's almost impossible to avoid paying taxes on money earned from work. The book does point out that many sole proprietors who deal in cash underreport their income, and the book recommends paying with a check to prevent these people from under reporting income. However, this doesn't affect most of the exceptionally wealthy.

What about depositing a small amount in a foreign bank? Your money might well disappear. These banks aren't regulated by U.S. law, and many are fronts for organized crime, terrorism, and other bad behavior.

Further, it's pointed out that the wealthiest individuals can afford the best attorneys in the world to defend them in tax court. They can tie the tax court up for 20 years with tens of thousands of documents. A few million in legal fees is chump change. And, they often purchase political influence. (A few million dollars contributed to the local community of a small country--and its officials--can do wonders for helping to avoid extradition.)

Trying to put pressure on politicians to enforce existing laws and enact laws that enforce tax fairness is one possibility. The authors say asking our politicians questions and demanding answers is a good start.

Overall, I highly recommend "The Cheating Of America: How Tax Avoidance And Evasion by the Super Rich Are Costing the Country Billions--And What You Can Do About It" to all people interested in learning about tax evasion by the rich.

Muckracking Expose.......2005-03-13

Calling this "left-wing propaganda" and other editorial commentary in some reviews really just proves the premise that as America slips into decline, the only 'wealth' being created is tax cheating schemes, along with 'no-down-payment' real estate speculating courses, and "privatization" of public property such as utilities, or government research. This book has the scoop on all the famous tax cheat schemes, and consumer warnings against get involved in them. But precious little recommendations on how to solve the problem. But the main message of the book is that making money in America is no longer about producing a product, or providing a service, but about cheating on your income tax. Pretty much the USA is on the road toward becoming a corrupt third world bananna republic, like Mexico.

Book Description

The latest in the series of Simpsons Comics Compilations, brought to you by Matt Groening, the creator of "The Simpsons."

Customer Reviews:

"No time to unwrap, just light the whole pack!"---Selma.......2007-08-21

Another excellent, 174 pages of "The Simpsons." Some of these comics are better than their later episodes. This book includes appearances by some less frequent characters like Doctor Nick, Homer's former psychotic boss Hank Scorpio, Luann Van Houten's boyfriend Pyro, Dr. Colossus, and even Waylon Smithers's favorite 8 1/2-incher...Malibu Stacy!

"Judge Marge"--Marge becomes a T.V. judge and her frequent absence causes her household to fall apart. I like the part where Lisa goes on a power trip after she starts wearing a monocle.
"Stacy's Busy Day!"--A comic short for Malibu Stacy! I love it! Let's have more of these! Malibu Stacy shows off some of her many careers and identities (my favorites are "KISS Army Stacy" and "Cosmetic Surgery Stacy"). There are also fan letters, one from a fan who Stacy thinks is a "sharp-eyed little girl" with "an unusual and charming name," Waylon Smithers.
"Viva Bart"--In a Duff Beer contest, Homer wins two weeks in Bosqueverde--a tropical paradise that has been in a state of perpetual civil war for the past thirty years.
"Beauty School Hellcats"--After Selma makes an effort to make DMV customers actually look good in their driver's license photos, she and Patty are given a vacation to beauty school to get rid of her creative impulses.

"Cruisin' for a Bruisin'"--After ruining his and Marge's cruise by giving booze to a recovering alcoholic dolphin, Homer takes Mr. Burns's discarded yacht to start his own cruise line, with some familiar Springfield couples as guests. Hank Scorpio appears at the end in a strip unrelated to this story (he's not one of my favorite characters).
"Crime Family Practice"--Short comic featuring Dr. Nick who is kidnapped to give medical treatment to the mob.
"Growing Pains"--Bart gets involved in a seed-selling scam, so The Simpsons put on a Seed Fair which includes a fashion report by Joan Rivers and her daughter. However, Mr. Burns, who's allergic to growing things (makes sense), may have the last say.
"The Abominable Dr. Colossus"--Dr. Colossus fans will like this book because he also appears in "Judge Marge." In this short, despite attempts at being evil and menacing, Dr. Colossus is seen as a lovable buffoon in Springfield.

"Merchants of Vengeance"--A wave of shoplifting plagues Springfield and shopkeepers Ned Flanders, Apu, and the comic Book Guy ban together to fight it. Comic Book Guy loves the crime-fighting group so much, he can't let it go even when the shoplifting stops. Comic Book Guy actually shows some emotion tearing up in one box.
"In Burns We Trust"--Mr. Burns takes over Rev. Lovejoy's church in his endless quest for more power. Meanwhile, Ned Flanders looks for a new church.
"How Marge Got Her Curtains Back"--In this short, Marge's curtains go down the garbage disposal and she's having a hard time finding that classic corncob pattern.

Not Exactly a classic but still good.......2007-03-22

Matt Groening (creator of America's favorite family--The Simpsons) serves up a heaping helping of comics that is sure to delight. From Marge becoming a judge to Lovejoy selling out to Burns, this is just one more classic example of the irreeverant humor that's captured America's heart. Vive Les Simpsons. I would give the selection five stars, but the cover is slightly missleading in that there is no camping in the entire grapic novel.

Average customer rating:

A lot of fun and good sense

Excerpts from published newspaper and magazine reviews

Excerpts from Published Reviews

A Dog in Heat Is a Hot Dog and Other Rules to Live By
E. jean Carroll
Manufacturer: Pocket
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Accessories:

philosophy hope in a jar daily moisturizer

ASIN: 0671568140

Customer Reviews:

A lot of fun and good sense.......2001-03-03

You will love this book if you've seen a few of E. Jean's advice columns, and would like a whole lot more! This is lots more of E. Jean's advice, to your heart's content, and amusing commentary as well. I was a little disappointed--but for a positive reason; I guess I'd already read many of these in Elle magazine, being a fan of E. Jean's! So if you regularly read Elle, this might be a little bit redundant. But I'm still not sorry I bought this.

Excerpts from published newspaper and magazine reviews.......1997-09-27

"It's a gas, and sometimes a revelation... E. Jean's punchy wisdom shines."
--- Indianapolis Star

"There's seldom a dull moment with outrageous E. Jean."
--- New York 'Newsday'

"For all of us who are 'tormented, driven witless and whipsawed by confusion,' there is E. Jean Carroll."
--- Chicago Tribune

"A 'Dear Abby' for the 'fin de siecle' generation."
--- Columbia Dispatch (SC)

"Witty and wise... You think E. Jean is either intoxicating or just intoxicated."
--- Entertainment Weekly

Excerpts from Published Reviews.......1997-09-27

"It's a gas, and sometimes a revelation... E. Jean's punchy wisdom shines."
--- Indianapolis Star

"There's seldom a dull moment with outrageous E. Jean."
--- New York 'Newsday'

"For all of us who are 'tormented, driven witless and whipsawed by confusion,' there is E. Jean Carroll."
--- Chicago Tribune

"A 'Dear Abby' for the 'fin de siecle' generation."
--- Columbia Dispatch (SC)

"Witty and wise... You think E. Jean is either intoxicating or just intoxicated."
--- Entertainment Weekly

"Outrageously brilliant E. Jean Carroll is the only advice columnist in America with the wisdom, the guts, and the pure rambunctious flair to give it to you straight. And if you haven't caught her act, honey, you don't know what you're missing."
--- Quote from Book Jacket

Average customer rating:
A Dog in Heat Is a Hot Dog and Other Rules to Live By

Manufacturer: Pocket
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000HYSTTI

Book Description

Provides an original, first-hand view of the potential that motion pictures offered women from the Victorian era, and how, ultimately, the industry rejected one of its first and most important pioneers. Alice Guy BlachŽ was not only the world's first female director, but in 1896, she became the first of either sex to direct a fictional film. As the first director with the Gaumont Company in Paris, Alice Guy BlachŽ served as an influential figure in French film history, making more than 300 films, including some of the earliest sound subjects from the turn of the century. She continued her career in the United States, founding the Solax Company in 1910, and producing and directing 350 more films. Complementing the text are reprints of contemporary articles on Alice Guy BlachŽ from the American trade press, a reminiscence by her daughter, a brief evaluation of the career of her husband, Herbert BlachŽ and a complete filmography.

Book Description

Negotiating Cultures is a collection of essays and interviews that examines the role of cultural fusion, negotiation, and conflict in Eugenio Barba's creative work, research, and theories about theatrical performance. Barba, one of Europe's leading theatre artists, researchers, and theorists, has been at the cutting edge of the contemporary preoccupation with what Homi Bhabha calls the borders between cultures.

Book Description

JavaScript is one of the most important technologies on the web. It provides the means to add dynamic functionality to your web pages and serves as the backbone of Ajax-style web development. Beginning JavaScript with DOM Scripting and Ajax is an essential guide for modern JavaScript programming; it's practical but comprehensive. It covers everything you need to know to get up to speed with JavaScript development to add dynamic enhancements to web pages and program Ajax-style applications.

Experienced web developer Christian Heilmann begins gently by giving you an overview of JavaScript--its syntax, good coding practices, and the principles of DOM scripting. Then he builds up your JavaScript toolkit, covering dynamically manipulating markup, changing page styling on the fly using the CSS DOM, validating forms, dealing with images, and much more. Then he takes you to advanced territory, with a complete case study illustrating how many new JavaScript techniques can work together, plus a great introduction to Ajax development.

Customer Reviews:

It's about time.......2007-09-22

I have been going through a lot of javascript books to find that all of them want to teach you the trivial things javascript can do. Not only are the examples trivial, they teach the reader horrible habits. This book doesn't have any "Hello World" examples. It gets into what javascript SHOULD be used for, and how to use it correctly. Other reviews have said that the examples do not work. Do not let that throw you off. I went through the ENTIRE book and every single example worked for me. There are a few towards the end that require a server or a local host like xampp, but either way they still worked. Another review also complained about the DOMhelp library that Chris creates. Chris explains EVERY method in that library before you use it. The library does not do trivial things like "getLinks" You learn how to do that the regular way with the DOM. I think that reviewer got that method mixed up with DOMhelp.getTarget which gets the correct target that a user clicked on depending on which browser the user is using. That is mostly what Chris developed the library for, browser cross compatibility so you don't have to write extensive code. Simply put, some of the other reviews were not very well thought out. If you want to learn useful javascript the right way with plenty of examples to help you learn it, then this is the book for you.

Emphasize "beginner"; "professional" part is false.......2007-09-12

Just be aware of what you're getting into when you buy this book. It is *for beginners*, not for experienced developers. It spends the first 90 pages covering for- and while-loops, if-tests, and the rest of the machinery that you already know if you're an experienced programmer. It is the fate of most computer books, I'm afraid, that they either address rank beginners or professional software developers, with few addressing those in the middle.

After every chapter, I had to take a second to recapitulate what I had just learned into the terminology that I'm aware of from my experience with other languages. One large section, for instance, is devoted to namespace-collision issues -- but the word "namespare" appears nowhere in the index. If you need a book that will jumpstart to "Here's how you solve the namespace-collision problem in JavaScript," this book is not for you.

I had lots of specific questions, having just come to JavaScript. How do I set up a callback *chain*, for instance, on something like the window.onload event? This book is not at that level. It will be unable to answer that question for you. It spends so much time on beginners that it doesn't have enough time to help with best practices or common, cookbook-type programming problems.

And yet it does seem confused about exactly who its audience is. Right after a chapter on basic flow control, Heilmann tosses off "XSLT" as though he expects his readers to know what that is. I submit that those who needed the first chapter will not need the XSLT bit, and conversely.

So just be aware what you're getting into. I'm actually not blaming Heilmann, though I do blame whoever gave the book its title; it's much more about novices than professionals. If you look on the back of this book, you'll see the flow chart that Apress recommends: start with Heilmann's book, and progress into "Pro JavaScript Techniques" and "Pro CSS Techniques." "Pro Javascript" will be my next step.

Meh..........2007-08-14

He makes me cringe because he describes a lot of practices that are just really cheesy and annoying. People new to programming who start with this book are not going to advance the state of javascript enabled websites. Also, the examples are overly long. There's a 4 page example for each concept.

Bookmarked throughout - lots of useful stuff.......2007-06-15

I liked this book - it has many real applications and explanations. I found myself slipping in markers on lots of pages so that I could come back for information that I knew I needed or showed a better way to code something that I had already done.

Buy DOM Scripting (friendsOfEd) instead.......2007-03-24

Don't let the all-inclusive title of this book fool you - it really doesn't seem to teach that much more than what you could learn by reading DOM Scripting (from Friends of ED). DOM Scripting: Web Design with JavaScript and the Document Object Model

I keep running into a custom object in the code examples of the book called "DOMhelp". While I like the author's ideas about scripting in a more object oriented way, this does not help at all when trying to demonstrate DOM Scripting. For example, instead of using the actual DOM methods to get all the links on the page and loop through them, he shows you a line of code that just says "DOMhelp.getlinks". Yes, that line does the same thing by accessing his object and running the regular DOM functions, but what does it teach me? Nothing. That alone is a big enough annoyance to regret buying this book.

This book also pulls the "we'll explain that part later" trick one too many times. It's not that this book is completely awful, it's really that you can find a much better book to teach you more useful (and universal) things with DOM Scripting.

Beginning PHP 5 and MySQL E-Commerce: From Novice to Professional

Average customer rating:

Great
Introduction to E-Commerce and the Smarty Framework
Misleading
The Right Book
Great programming cookbook

Beginning PHP 5 and MySQL E-Commerce: From Novice to Professional
Cristian Darie , and Mihai Bucica
Manufacturer: Apress
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

E-commerce | Web Development | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Programming | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Software | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Accessories:

ASIN: 1590593928

Book Description

Beginning PHP 5 E-Commerce shows you how to build a full E-commerce website from design to deployment. This book will be one of the first books dedicated specifically to PHP/MySQL E-commerce development. Guiding you through every step of the design and build process, this book will have you building high-quality, extendable E-commerce websites quickly and with confidence.

This book is primarily aimed at intermediate PHP 5 and MySQL developers willing to learn how to develop quality E-commerce sites. This book is also appropriate for programmers experienced with other web development technologies like ASP.NET or Java, who learn best by example, and want to experience PHP/MySQL development techniques first hand or who need to refer to a quick documentation for a fully developed E-commerce website.

This book shows you how to build a site in three phases. The first phase puts the site live on the web, with an attractive interface and fully searchable product catalog. You can start receiving orders right away, using PayPal's service to handle the shopping cart, checkout, and payment. The second phase adds facilities to increase sales through cross selling and upselling, enhanced customer service, and a better shopping experience. Along the way you'll build your own shopping basket and checkout, but continue to use PayPal for credit card processing. In the third phase, to reduce costs, you’ll find out how to automate order processing, and carry out your own credit card transactions through Verisign PayFlow Pro, and learn how to integrate with other systems using XML Web Services.

Customer Reviews:

Great.......2007-06-12

Although I am having A LOT of trouble implementing all the code, this is the only book I have seen that will actually walk you through all the steps. And the author actually does reply to his emails. I would definitely recomend his second edition of this book.

Introduction to E-Commerce and the Smarty Framework.......2007-02-15

I've read, and enjoyed, other books by Cristian Darie. This book is no different. This book shows how to use PHP 5 and the Smarty framework to produce an E-Commerce site. The Smarty framework is a good choice for PHP developers seeking to implement a good template. This book fills a gap by being a good introduction to this framework as well.

If you are not familiar with Smarty, the following description is from their web site:

Smarty is a template engine for PHP. More specifically, it facilitates a manageable way to separate application logic and content from its presentation. This is best described in a situation where the application programmer and the template designer play different roles, or in most cases are not the same person.

This book guides you as the author develops an advanced E-Commerce system. Think of something such as Amazon, complete with product reviews, customer and catalog management. Once the user is finished reading the book they are left with working catalog order system that they can modify to suit their needs. Or completely create their own similar system.

The table of contents for the book follows:

Chapter 1: Starting an E-Commerce Site
Chapter 2: Laying Out the Foundations
Chapter 3: Creating the Product Catalog: Part I
Chapter 4: Creating the Product Catalog: Part II
Chapter 5: Searching the Catalog
Chapter 6: Receiving Payments using PayPal
Chapter 7: Catalog Administration
Chapter 8: The Shopping Basket
Chapter 9: Dealing with Customer Orders
Chapter 10: Product Recommendations
Chapter 11: Customer Details
Chapter 12: Implementing the Order Pipline: Part I
Chapter 13: Implementing the Order Pipeline: Part II
Chapter 14: Credit Card Transactions
Chapter 15: Product Reviews
Chapter 16: Connecting to Web Services

Misleading.......2007-02-05

I have purchased a multitude of books from Amazon over the years. However, I have never written a book review, no matter how bad the book turned out to be. But, there is always a first time. This is one of the worst - if not the worst - tech books I have ever read, and with over 25 years of Engineering and Software development experience I have read a lot of books.

Now I know why Apress doesn't let you look inside their books on the Amazon website before you purchase. If they did there might not be an Apress at all. First, there is nothing "novice" about this book. Second, you had better know how to use Smarty, and I mean use it well. Don't rely on the Smarty website documentation to help and there are not many definitive books on the subject either. I only found one title devoted to Smarty on Amazon and that would cost another 39.99.

I typically like to review books in the local bookstore and take a gander at Amazon "reviews" before purchase. However, I couldn't find the book locally (which should have told me something) and I failed to pay proper attention to the reviews, i.e., take a look at Michael Brand's review. The editorial book review doesn't even mention Smarty which is a major part of this book.

This book reviews at 4.5 stars. From this, I can only assume the large majority of those reviewing the book work at Apress or are kin to the authors. After the first three chapters I was seeing stars. Don't be suckered in to buying this book unless you are thoroughly familiar with Smarty.

So, if your an experienced -not novice- php/mysql programmer and Smarty wizard, and love to read(and debug) code with little useful explanatory info, then by all means buy this book. Oh, did I mention it makes a great coaster for coffee?

JC.

The Right Book.......2007-01-20

I dont usually spend time writting this stuff, and when i did it, it was not for good reasons. But this time, i'm really really really happy about the material in the book, it not only teaches you about the code, it get depth really depth in how you must implement, think, best practices, and a lot of things that even if you are an experienced programer havent thought about.
If i could give the book 10 stars, i would.

Great programming cookbook.......2006-11-15

This book really helped me start my site. I was new to php and databases at the time, and I always learn best by example. By the time I finished the book, I had way more examples than I needed -- and a skeleton for my site.

Beginning Perl Web Development: From Novice to Professional (Beginning: From Novice to Professional)

Average customer rating:

A Sampler of What Perl Can Do on the Web
The Perl Handbook for Internet Development
Perl programming for your Internet needs

Beginning Perl Web Development: From Novice to Professional (Beginning: From Novice to Professional)
Steve Suehring
Manufacturer: Apress
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Programming | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Software | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1590595319

Book Description

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who has worked through a beginning Perl book. Read the whole book, appendix first.

— Jerry Kassebaum, Perl Monks

Beginning Perl Web Development: From Novice to Professional introduces you to the world of Perl Internet application development. This book tackles all areas crucial to developing your first web applications and includes a powerful combination of real-world examples coupled with advice. Topics range from serving and consuming RSS feeds, to monitoring Internet servers, to interfacing with e-mail. You'll learn how to use Perl with ancillary packages like Mason and Nagios.

Though not version specific, this book is an ideal read if you have had some grounding in Perl basics and now want to move into the world of web application development. Author Steve Suehring emphasizes the security implications of Perl, drawing on years of experience teaching readers how to "think safe," avoid common pitfalls, and produce well-planned, secure code.

Customer Reviews:

A Sampler of What Perl Can Do on the Web.......2006-04-28

My warning with "Beginning Perl Web Development: From Novice to Professional" is to understand what author Steve Suehring means by the word "novice." He does not mean it as a synonym for "beginner". If you don't have some degree of skill in Perl, you will be overwhelmed.

That being said, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who has worked through a beginning Perl book, or several. (I've found that the best way to learn any computer language is to work through several introductory books, getting most of the examples to work on my computer.) Do like I did and read through the appendix, "Perl Basics," first. I'll admit I learned a few things, and I'd bet that you will, too. This appendix is worth the price of the book.

I don't think that anyone will become an expert (or professional) in the areas Suehring covers by reading this book. However, this is an excellent book for seeing what is out there and getting your feet wet. His section on databases led me to read a book on SQL, and I'm about halfway through another. I'm grateful for his push in that direction!

Next for me will probably be a book on LWP, a Perl module to automate web surfing. Suehring gave me a start, but I need more.

I already had some background in CGI using Perl. I enjoyed the review, though. CGI, Common Gateway Interface, is a way to go beyond HTML. For instance, I use it to read and write files on my website in response to user input.

I don't at this time have a great deal of interest in Net::Tools, that is such skills as sending e-mail from web-sites and pinging them. Nor do I see myself studying XML and RSS, Perl templates and Mason, or learning about the Apache server. However, I'm glad I read through the whole book to get an idea of what is involved.

I should include a comment that "Beginning Perl Web Development: From Novice to Professional" is a bit Unix-centric, like so many Perl books. I should also share that the source-code on the web-site for the examples is all in .tar.gz format, rather than the .zip format we Windows users are accustomed to dealing with. So if you are a Windows user, plan to do a lot of typing. Or to figure out that .tar.gz thing.

Read the whole book, appendix first. (Either now, or when you have a couple Perl tutorials under your belt.) My guess is "Beginning Perl Web Development: From Novice to Professional" will lead you to find a new area of interest or two, too, and probably different ones from mine.

The Perl Handbook for Internet Development.......2005-12-04

Perl and the Internet, especially the web, are nothing new. CGI programming and Perl were part of the early wild, wild west days of the World Wide Web. However, Perl is more than just a CGI processor relegated to handling simple email forms and other mundane web tasks. In this book the author will take you through several examples and topics dealing with using Perl for database development, XML and RSS feeds, performance monitoring of your web server, and advanced CGI tasks such as how to handle uploaded files on the web with Perl, and much more.

Each section goes over a concept, introduces the module you will be using to accomplish the task, shows you the source code and walk you through it. In addition, tips as well as things to avoid are listed throughout each example for things to watch out for, or for common programming pitfalls to avoid with Perl. Sections themselves are broken down into topics that group concepts such as separate topics on XML and RSS feeds, CGI, Performance Monitoring and Web Templates.

This is a good book for the Perl programmer with some skills beneath his or her belt. It helps you take the simple Perl you may be using on your website today and help develop it to use all the power and functionality of Perl.

Perl programming for your Internet needs.......2005-11-24

The focus of this book is on interacting with the Internet using Perl. It assumes some very basic knowledge of programming such as the concepts of scalar variables, arrays, if/then/else, and similar items. If you are not familiar with these items in a Perl environment then it is still all covered pretty well in the Appendix. The first section of the book contains information on working with CGI modules, databases, and interacting with the operating system for directory information, file uploads, etc. The second section discusses working with the LWP and Net::Tools. The LWP is the Library of WWW modules in Perl. This collection of modules allows you to write Perl programs that include the most common web tasks built in including retrieving web pages and submitting web-based forms. While the LWP supports various web protocols including HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, and NNTP the book concentrates primarily on using the LWP with HTTP and HTTPS. The NET::Tools primarily look at working with POP3 and SMTP services. The third section of the book is about using Perl with XML, SOAP, and RSS. The following section focuses on using mod_perl to enhance performance. As a module embedded in the Apache server this allows Perl to execute faster and allows the Perl programs to access the Apache request object. The fifth and final section focuses on working with templates, and building perl based web sites with Mason. Mason is used to insert Perl code directly into an HTML page. This in turn allows for a dynamic web site with elements common to all pages but still allowing some changes based on the page being accessed. Beginning Perl Web Development is highly recommended to anyone who wants to use Perl for added functionality with your web site or to allow interaction with other web sites.

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