Just over three years ago, I wrote a review on the first edition of In Search of Stupidity, by Merrill R. Chapman. Fortunately, I remember few specifics from books that I’ve read in the past, so I was able to enjoy reading the second edition without much déjà vu. Like the first edition, this book is an entertaining (and brutal) look at the history of the high-tech industry. I enjoyed the newer material – it isn’t often that you read a printed book with events that occurred only a few months ago. The second edition also includes some explicit analysis near the end of the book. If his analyses don’t help you improve your high-tech business, fear of being featured in the third edition probably will.

Applications = Code + Markup is another outstanding programming book by Charles Petzold. This book is all about WPF (the Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation), which is Microsoft’s next-generation API for building client applications on Windows.

I was all set to give this book a glowing review, but I was distracted by another project and wasn’t able to finish the book until recently. Fortunately, another reviewer beat me to it and said everything I was going to try to say:

http://blogs.msdn.com/karstenj/archive/2006/08/31/733708.aspx

What can I add to that? Be sure to check out chapter 32, an online chapter about 3-D in WPF. Petzold’s blog has other nuggests of WPF knowledge as well. Most importantly, check out the book’s Web site, which links to sample code, sample applications, and expertly maintained errata, to which I was happy to contribute.

My only complaint about the book would be the lack of section headings, though it certainly forces you to pay attention while you’re reading. Well, I could also complain that WPF could use another thirty chapters – we have a lot more to learn about this cool new technology.