IT programming books related reviews
Product: Book Paperback
Title: SQL Queries for Mere Mortals: A Hands-On Guide to Data Manipulation in SQL
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: Michael J. Hernandez, John L. Viescas
Rating: 5/5
Title: SQL Queries for Mere Mortals: A Hands-On Guide to Data Manipulation in SQL
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: Michael J. Hernandez, John L. Viescas
Rating: 5/5
I like this book! It reads well, and has something to offer to just about every SQL developer, and even (especially?!?) to those people I would class as 'power users'. Its taken a while to bring together and examining different chapters over many months has been 'interesting', it is good to see it finally all together.
Product: Book Hardcover
Title: MCSD: SQL Server 6.5 Database Design Study Guide
Publisher: Sybex Inc
Authors: Kevin Hough
Rating: 1/5
Title: MCSD: SQL Server 6.5 Database Design Study Guide
Publisher: Sybex Inc
Authors: Kevin Hough
Rating: 1/5
At first glance I was impressed with this book. I liked the layout, presentation, and style that fit the way I wanted to study. It gives concise presentation of subject matter without a lot of extraneous material. It would be a book I used as test preparation, not initial subject presentation. However, there were so many technical errors in the book that I stopped using it after 4 chapters. The chapter review question answers often contradicted the chapter text and the systems table chapter has the master and database tables all mixed up. The number of tables listed also does not match the number specified in the text for either. I would not recommend this book for study material. Too much of the material is in error.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Optimizing SQL Server 7: Planning and Building a High-Performance Database (Prentice Hall Series on Microsoft Technologies)
Publisher: Prentice Hall Ptr
Authors: Jeffrey R. Garbus, Robert D. Schneider
Rating: 1/5
Title: Optimizing SQL Server 7: Planning and Building a High-Performance Database (Prentice Hall Series on Microsoft Technologies)
Publisher: Prentice Hall Ptr
Authors: Jeffrey R. Garbus, Robert D. Schneider
Rating: 1/5
If there were a way to give 0 stars, that's what I'd rate this book. I found the previous version rather spotty in its coverage and thought that the depth was uneven from chapter to chapter. But it did contain some useful information, and I expected the same from this edition. To my considerable disappointment, this is simply the 6.5 book with search and replace of 6 with 7 and 2K with 8K. The author does not discuss the new optimizer or disk storage structures, but does include material on database devices (not a part of 7.0 storage architecture) and mirroring (not available in 7.0). The discussion of query plans is about 6.x. I am surprised that a respectable publisher like Prentice-Hall even let this out their doors (guess they needed the money) and I am even more surprised that a reputable author like Jeff Garbus lent his name to this "fleece the tourists" work.
Product: Book Hardcover
Title: MCSE/MCSD: SQL Server 7 Database Design Study Guide
Publisher: Sybex Inc
Authors: Kevin Hough
Rating: 1/5
Title: MCSE/MCSD: SQL Server 7 Database Design Study Guide
Publisher: Sybex Inc
Authors: Kevin Hough
Rating: 1/5
I am working on may last MCSE test so I have used several study guides. I have been using SQL Server about 3 years and need to make sure I understand everything that should be on the test. It is obvious that someone skilled in SQL Server hasn't proofread this book because there are several errors and contradictions. Coincidentally the SQL Server Admin book I used (different publisher) was also full of errors. I cannot find any corrections on Sybex's web site. My recommendation: Try another book or wait for the second (hopefully corrected) edition.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Hitchhiker's Guide to Visual Basic and SQL Server
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: William R. Vaughn
Rating: 4/5
Title: Hitchhiker's Guide to Visual Basic and SQL Server
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: William R. Vaughn
Rating: 4/5
In this book, William Vaughn presents the most comprehensive overview of interfacing VB6 and SQL Server 7 I have yet seen.Make no mistake. This book is not for beginners, so don't expect to be spoon fed. However, for the professional programmer, there are loads of excellent nuggets of information you are unlikely to find elsewhere.Williams conversational, witty writing style make this book an enjoyable read.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Professional SQL Server 7.0 Programming
Publisher: Wrox Press
Authors: Rob Vieira
Rating: 5/5
Title: Professional SQL Server 7.0 Programming
Publisher: Wrox Press
Authors: Rob Vieira
Rating: 5/5
I am using this book to study for my MCDBA. Although this book is not intented for passing the test (this book goes much deeper than that), it is easier to read than Exam Cram book on the same topic. What separate this book from other technical books is the author ability to explain complex concepts in plain english. I have read dozens of technical book, this one is probably the best written book in computer field. It has the perfect balance of technical depth and readability
Product: Book Paperback
Title: PHP MySQL Website Programming: Problem - Design - Solution
Publisher: Apress
Authors: Chris Lea, Mike Buzzard, Dilip Thomas, Jessey White-Cinis
Rating: 5/5
Title: PHP MySQL Website Programming: Problem - Design - Solution
Publisher: Apress
Authors: Chris Lea, Mike Buzzard, Dilip Thomas, Jessey White-Cinis
Rating: 5/5
You should buy this book, if you want to learn PHP the most effective way. The book dissects the creation of a content driven website by its module, and presents content on creating each of these modules from scratch (thru individual chapters)...You can't get more real world than this. Many thanks to the authors and the publisher.I very highly recommend this book, and have just ordered 24 copies of it for my web development training class here in Arizona.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 with ASP, ColdFusion, and PHP : Training from the Source
Publisher: Macromedia Press
Authors: Jeffrey Bardzell
Rating: 5/5
Title: Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004 with ASP, ColdFusion, and PHP : Training from the Source
Publisher: Macromedia Press
Authors: Jeffrey Bardzell
Rating: 5/5
This book is excellent! We highly recommend it. Jeffery Bardzell handles the matter of building a dynamic website with exact step by step examples and builds the sample Newland Tours website. This book is identical to Macromedia's "Dreamweaver MX Dynamic Applications" training from the source, except that this book has PHP references in it as well. Therefore if you have that book, you don't need this one and visa versa.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Apache: the Definitive Guide (With CD-ROM)
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Ben Laurie, Peter Laurie
Rating: 3/5
Title: Apache: the Definitive Guide (With CD-ROM)
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Ben Laurie, Peter Laurie
Rating: 3/5
This is a good starting place for the admin that is only hosting a few sites and doesn't need to do anything extreme or fancy. This is not for the admin that has to deal with the in-depth intricacies that go with hosting sites for a major hosting company or ISP, although, it does make an ok reference manual to do quick lookups of the basics. If I had to buy it again, I would look for a used copy, but I would buy it.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Building Custom Php Extensions
Publisher: Lulu Press
Authors: Blake Schwendiman
Rating: 4/5
Title: Building Custom Php Extensions
Publisher: Lulu Press
Authors: Blake Schwendiman
Rating: 4/5
This book will save you a lot of time if you have to implement
a serious PHP extension for the first time. It's definitely
worth it -- not so much because the book is so great (it is
very good overall) -- but more because there isn't any other
resource quite like it out there.Having said that, it could have had a more discussion
of the overal environment of PHP extension programming, including:- how/when zvals are garbage collected (how can you verify
you're not creating memory leaks?)
- when zvals are created and consumed and who "owns" them
as they are passed around between functions
- threading issues: what are you allowed to do/not do wrt.
threading?
- Many PHP macros are written dangerously, e.g. they hardly
ever use constructs like "do {..} while (0)" or extra parens.Obviously if you get these issues wrong you're likely to
have some trouble - and hard to debug trouble at that.In other words, the first chapter is "First PHP extension"
but an overall introductory chapter about the funny little
world that PHP extensions live in before that would have
been nice. But overall a great book and glad to have found it.
