IT programming books related reviews
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Oracle Performance Troubleshooting: With Dictionary Internals, SQL & Tuning Scripts (Oracle In-Focus series)
Publisher: Rampant Techpress
Authors: Robin Schumacher
Rating: 5/5
Title: Oracle Performance Troubleshooting: With Dictionary Internals, SQL & Tuning Scripts (Oracle In-Focus series)
Publisher: Rampant Techpress
Authors: Robin Schumacher
Rating: 5/5
This book makes finding those buried nuggets of Oracle's keys to performance optimization very fast and easy. I found the scripts to be an invaluable tool for learning by seeing and a great way to understand what's going on under the covers of the DB engine. It has fast become one of my most used reference books and I highly recommend it.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: PHP Developer's Cookbook (2nd Edition)
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Sterling Hughes, Andrei Zmievski
Rating: 5/5
Title: PHP Developer's Cookbook (2nd Edition)
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Sterling Hughes, Andrei Zmievski
Rating: 5/5
Without a doubt this is a must-have for any serious medium-to-advance level PHP coder.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Optimizing Transact-SQL : Advanced Programming Techniques
Publisher: SQL Forum Press
Authors: David Rozenshtein, Anatoly Abramovich, Eugene Birger
Rating: 5/5
Title: Optimizing Transact-SQL : Advanced Programming Techniques
Publisher: SQL Forum Press
Authors: David Rozenshtein, Anatoly Abramovich, Eugene Birger
Rating: 5/5
Best of its kind. Understanding charecteristic functions made easy.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes, Third Edition
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Ben Forta
Rating: 5/5
Title: Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes, Third Edition
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Ben Forta
Rating: 5/5
I bought this book a couple of years ago when I was cramming for a job interview (I didn't get the job; no reflection on the book). This is absolutely the best introduction to SQL (the language) I have ever read.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: The Guru's Guide to SQL Server Stored Procedures, XML, and HTML (With CD-ROM)
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: Ken Henderson
Rating: 5/5
Title: The Guru's Guide to SQL Server Stored Procedures, XML, and HTML (With CD-ROM)
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: Ken Henderson
Rating: 5/5
I was a total beginner when I started with this book. Now I feel very comfortable with SQL Server and stored procedure programming. The expert advise and gobs of code are very much appreciated. This book is like no other that I've found.
Product: Book Hardcover
Title: OCP Introduction to Oracle9i: SQL Exam Guide
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Jason Couchman
Rating: 1/5
Title: OCP Introduction to Oracle9i: SQL Exam Guide
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Jason Couchman
Rating: 1/5
This book contains many errors, in text and tests. It does not help you in explaining how Oracle functions. The examples used in this book are too simple to be of any help.Without any experience in Oracle, passing the test with this book alone is very unlikely. I would recommend buying a different book! (if available)
Product: Book Hardcover
Title: Inside Microsoft SQL Server 7.0
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: Ron Soukup, Kalen Delaney
Rating: 5/5
Title: Inside Microsoft SQL Server 7.0
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: Ron Soukup, Kalen Delaney
Rating: 5/5
Trying to get your mind around OLAP Server? Guess we'll have to wait for an OLAP book. MDX? Not even in the index! Will DTS suffice for your ETL problems? No help here. English Query? Nope. These are classified as tools that ship with SQL Server, and when they are mentioned, the reader is pointed towards Books Online.The book appears to be a straight revision of the 6.5 edition - you might get by with that edition and the documentation that ships with SQL Server 7.0. I'd give it five stars for describing the core product in detail - its stated mission - but leaving out the new toys???
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Professional Apache (Professional)
Publisher: Wrox Press
Authors: Peter Wainwright
Rating: 5/5
Title: Professional Apache (Professional)
Publisher: Wrox Press
Authors: Peter Wainwright
Rating: 5/5
I leafed through both this book and the O'reilly book at a local store just to weight the two before making a buying decision. Professional Apache looked alot more complete and covered alot more than the O'reilly title. In fact this title seems to cover alot more than any other Apache book I have looked through.I have found the book as being quite easy to read and understand. It also does a really good job at fully explaining the aspect of Apache that the book is talking about in that chapter. As for currency, the latest version of Apache is talks about is 1.3.9I also did not find the book to be stale, dry reading. It was quite interesting. The book read quite quickly. I went from knowing very little about Apache to feeling quite confident with it in only a couple of days.All in all, a very good book to have.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 2000 DBA Survival Guide, Second Edition
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Mark Spenik, Orryn Sledge
Rating: 5/5
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 2000 DBA Survival Guide, Second Edition
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Mark Spenik, Orryn Sledge
Rating: 5/5
I bought this book upcoming becoming a SQL Server DBA. I had three years programming experience which included T-SQL, however, NO DBA experience! It provided excellent explanations of DBA tasks, especially the all important database backups and restorations. I did not require any other book resources. I highly recommend it for those entering the DBA field.
Side note: I only used this book for industry experience and have not used it towards an attempt at MCDBA certification. I have since read the MCSE SQL Server 2000 Administration Guide for Dummies and found the SQL Server 2000 DBA Survival Guide to provide more detail on certain subjects.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: SQL for Dummies
Publisher: For Dummies
Authors: Allen G. Taylor
Rating: 3/5
Title: SQL for Dummies
Publisher: For Dummies
Authors: Allen G. Taylor
Rating: 3/5
First off, I must stress that after I finished reading this book I did walk away with a far greater knowledge of SQL. To this end the book served its purpose and was worth the time/money I invested in the book.My most serious criticism is that the early chapters introduced complex examples, which I forced myself to understand...only to discover that the author explained the issues more thoroughly at a later stage. On page 55 the author explains the MIN function with a sub/nested SQL query...introducing nested queries at such an early stage was a little confusing and it distracted me from the function being discussed. As a result I spent considerable time working through the early chapters...but the later chapters were easy to follow.Had the author taken a bit of time to consider the placement and appropriateness of each example, this book would have received a 4/5 rating in my mind. Of course an indirect advantage of this lack of fore-thought is that if the reader is prepared to work through the earlier examples the learning process is much more active.
