• reading science books
• Programmer's Guide to the IBM PC (Peter Norton)
• about how a PC works: hardware and software. How MS-Dos is loaded when the computer is turned on. Interrupts. Harddisk and floppydisks. That is a good book for beginers. I have read it since 1988 and still enjoy it.
• Linux secrets (Naba Barkakati)
• if you want to set up Linux (slackware) in your computer. After reading this book, you will be able to install Linux, set up mail and news, connect to the internet via modem ... I used Linux for network programming in my CS118 class. However, I recommend Linux Redhat 6.2. Redhat is easy to install and has friendly GUIs.
• UNIX System Administration Handbook (Evi Nemeth-Garth Snyder-Scott Seebass- Trent R.Hein)
• This is a bible for UNIX administrators. It is a must-have book.
• Operating System Concept (Silberschatz Galvin)
• If you want to fully understand the Unix Operating System concept (semaphore, deadlock, IO requests, thread ...) then this is the book for you.
• Inside the Registry for Windows 95 (Gunter Born)
• If you want to play around with registry, this is a good book for you. You can change your Windows 95 in the way you want and make it runs faster and smoother ... or dumber. But please remember, if you make one mistake then your windows 95 won't boot up again. Be careful when you deal with registry.
• Upgrading and Repairing PCs (Mueller)
• If you want to build your own computer like I did, this is the book I recommend to you (of course, you must have some knowledge about serial ports, parallel ports, printer, CPUs,....)
• Open Computing Unix Unbound (Harley Hahn)
• If you are new in Unix environment, then this book is for you. You will find some useful tricks and how to set up Unix environment. But if you have some ideas how Unix works, then you should read "Unix in a Nutshell"
• Unix in a Nutshell (Daniel Gilly)
• As a Dos lover, I like to use commands in Unix. This book is a good reference book.
• Linux Programming (Neil Matthew & Richard Stones)
• A good book for beginner. It is about Linux environment configuaration, networking programming, development tools, programming for the Internet, Shell programming, and debugging.
• CGI Programming on the World Wide Web (Shishir Gundavaram)
• Good for everyone who wants to program on WWW. Have good examples. However, you should know how to program in Perl first.
• Professional Active Server Pages 2.0 (Wrox publisher)
• Everything you wants to know about ASP. However, I found an example that does not work. Besides this book, I recommend ASP in a Nutshell

<--- in case you get bored :-)

• programming
• Perl and CGI (1998)
• Java (1997)
• Ada (1997)
• C and C++ (1996)
• Lotus and Quatro (1989)
• Dbase III and FoxBase (1989)
• Pascal (1989)

<--- in case you get bored :-)

• Fixing electric toys, radio, and television (1982)

• some experiences and tricks : (click here)

• Installing softwares (any new freeware and shareware on the net) to see how they work

• Please come back to check some freeware and shareware I recommend.