• Author: hacknot.info
• Format: PDF
• Price: free

This book contains 46 essays, each of which was originally published on the HackNot site between July 2003 and October 2006.

Chapters include:

• The A to Z of Programmer Predilections
• The Hazards of Being Quality Guy
• A Dozen Ways to Sustain Irrational Technology Decisions
• My Kingdom for a Door
• Interview with the Sociopath
• The Art of Flame War
• Testers: Are They Vegetable or Mineral?
• Corporate Pimps: Dealing With Technical Recruiters
• Developers are from Mars, Programmers are from Venus
• To The Management
• Great Mistakes in Technical Leadership
• The Architecture Group
• The Mismeasure of Man
• Meeting Driven Development
• Extreme Deprogramming
• New Methodologies or New Age Methodologies?
• Rhetorical AntiPatterns in XP
• The Deflowering of a Pair Programming Virgin
• XP and ESP: The Truth is Out There!
• Thought Leaders and Thought Followers
• Dude, Where’s my Spacecraft?
• User is a Four Letter Word
• The Folly of Emergent Design
• The Top Ten Elements of Good Software Design
• Oral Documentation: Not Worth the Paper it’s Written On
• FUDD: Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt and Design Documentation
• Get Your Filthy Tags Out of My Javadoc, Eugene
• Naming Classes: Do it Once and Do it Right
• In Praise of Code Reviews
• Web Accessibility for the Apathetic
• SWT: So What?
• Debugging 101
• Spare a Thought for the Next Guy
• Six Legacy Code AntiPatterns
• The Skeptical Software Development Manifesto
• Basic Critical Thinking for Software Developers
• Anecdotal Evidence and Other Fairy Tales
• Function Points: Numerology for Software Developers
• Programming and the Scientific Method
• From Tulip Mania to Dot Com Mania
• The Crooked Timber of Software Development
• From James Dean to J2EE: The Genesis of Cool
• IEEE Software Endorses Plagiarism
• Early Adopters or Trend Surfers?
• Reuse is Dead. Long Live Reuse
• All Aboard the Gravy Train

http://www.hacknot.info/hacknot/action/book

• Author: P. Bourque, R. Dupuis, A. Abran, J. W. Moore, and L. L. Tripp
• Format: PDF, online HTML
• Price: free

The software engineering body of knowledge is an all-inclusive term that describes the sum of knowledge within the profession of software engineering. Since it is usually not possible to put the full body of knowledge of even an emerging discipline, such as software engineering, into a single document, there is a need for a Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge. This Guide will seek to identify and describe that subset of the body of knowledge that is generally accepted, even though software engineers must be knowledgeable not only in software engineering, but also, of course, in other related disciplines.

Chapters include:

• Introduction to the Guide
• Software Requirements
• Software Design
• Software Construction
• Software Testing
• Software Maintenance
• Software Configuration Management
• Software Engineering Management
• Software Engineering Process
• Software Engineering Tools and Methods
• Software Quality
• Related Disciplines of Software Engineering

HTML: http://www.swebok.org/htmlformat.html
PDF: http://www.swebok.org/ironman/pdf/SWEBOK_Guide_2004.pdf

• Author: IBM
• Format: PDF
• Price: free

A searchable list of the most recently published IBM Redbooks.

IBM Redbooks are developed and published by the IBM International Technical Support Organization, ITSO. The ITSO develops and delivers skills, technical know-how, and materials to IBM technical professionals, Business Partners, clients, and the marketplace in general.

The ITSO works with IBM Divisions and Business Partners in the process of developing IBM Redbooks, Redpapers, Technotes, workshops, and other materials. The ITSO is part of the IBM Global Content Services organization within IBM Sales & Distribution.

The ITSO’s value-add information products address product, platform, and solution perspectives. They explore integration, implementation, and operation of realistic client scenarios that include PeopleSoft, Linux, Windows, SAP, Oracle, and others.

IBM Redbooks are the ITSO’s core product. They typically provide positioning and value guidance, installation and implementation experiences, typical solution scenarios, and step-by-step “how-to” guidelines. They often include sample code and other support materials that are also available as downloads.

http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks.nsf/redbooks/

• Author: Joel Spolsky
• Format: online HTML, (print edition available for purchase at amazon.com)
• Price: free (print edition $19.77)

User interface design is straightforward, easy, and most of all fun. There is no reason to be afraid. It is all about making people happy by providing them with what they expect. The rules are simple, and all you have to do is follow them. This book will explain what those rules are, so you can design user interfaces that work and behave as expected and cause less frustration to the user.

Chapters include:

• Controlling Your Environment Makes You Happy
• Figuring Out What They Expected
• Choices
• Affordances and Metaphors
• Consistency and Other Hobgoblins
• Designing for People Who Have Better Things To Do With Their Lives
• Designing for People Who Have Better Things To Do With Their Lives, Part Two
• Designing for People Who Have Better Things To Do With Their Lives, Part Three
• The Process of Designing a Product

Print edition contains 7 new chapters not found in the online edition.

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/uibook/chapters/fog0000000057.html

• Author: Alan & Colston
• Format: online HTML (formatted for easier printing)
• Price: free

This book is an eight day beginner level course, non language specific, delivered two days a week for four weeks. The goal is to put the fun into programming while you are learning and to help the reader either become a better programmer, understand what less experienced programmers are struggling with, or communicate more effectively with other experienced programmers.

Chapters include:

• Thinking about Thinking
• Thinking about Programming
• The Programmer at Work
• Customs and Practices
• Design Principles
• Prudence and Safety
• Some Weird Stuff…

http://www.reciprocality.org/Reciprocality/r0/