IT programming books related reviews
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Hardening Apache
Publisher: Apress
Authors: Tony Mobily
Rating: 5/5
Title: Hardening Apache
Publisher: Apress
Authors: Tony Mobily
Rating: 5/5
Understanding how to configure Apache from a security standpoint properly is not easy since the related information is sparse and fragmented. This could be the reason why many web administrators are pretty clueless when it comes to Apache security and why so many web servers are vulnerable.
In this sense I think this book fills a huge gap, providing web administrators with a concise and yet complete guide aimed at taking them from the very beginning of the installation process through to the final steps of server configuration.
Information throughout the book is very well focused and is presented with a clean and friendly writing style. The book provides a clear and detailed walkthrough of the process of securing an Apache installation, covering both versions 1.3.x and 2.x and thus providing long lasting information. The book has lots of references and pointers to resources on the web, and - more importantly - instructions on how to read them.
Sure enough, the book requires some familiarity with Unix and Apache - this is not the kind of book you would buy to learn the very basics of *nix and web site administration.
I totally agree with what I've read before: every serious system administrator should have this book.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Php 4 Bible (Bible (Wiley))
Publisher: Hungry Minds
Authors: Tim Converse, Joyce Park
Rating: 3/5
Title: Php 4 Bible (Bible (Wiley))
Publisher: Hungry Minds
Authors: Tim Converse, Joyce Park
Rating: 3/5
At times this book looks as if it were written by consumate programmers that assume the reader has an extensive C++ background. At other times I felt it was irrelevant. Who would write the vapid little programs they use for examples? Like so many other manuals out there, the examples are not useful for the real world.A "Bible" should have a comprehensive introduction to the basics in the beginning. This book seems to blast past that in a hurry to get to databases and other subjects. Many times something new is presented and not clarified or clarified later. An example is the modulus ( % ), they place it in an example, and then two paragraphs later they tell you what it is for and not to worry - it's all in a later chapter. An awful lot of things are brought up this way. It makes for herky jerky reading. Nothing is linear.As a reference, it's not very good. An eample would be the modulus above. I think it and other math operators should all be introduced in one place. Introduce it as a basic concept and then you can use it later. They cover math operators and then later tell you there are more math operators. The appendices in the back are flimsy and useless. More meat would be nice.In chapter 3 getting started, nothing about the installation on my PC went according to the book. The directions for setting up Windows 2000 were outdated and I had to make some guesses. The latest version of PHP does not install anything like the book says. Ya, I found out after I bought this, that they had just released a new version of the book. Unfortunatly I bought this for a class I was taking. I am stuck with it.It surprises me that a book on a language that can be installed on so many platforms has so little in it about installation issues. The size of the book is much smaller than the JavaScript Bible. How can that be? It's a much richer language.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: PHP and MySQL Web Development
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Luke Welling, Laura Thomson
Rating: 5/5
Title: PHP and MySQL Web Development
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Luke Welling, Laura Thomson
Rating: 5/5
Firstly, I'm not some programmer with a Ph.D. in Software Engineering or a guru who's been using Unix for 20 years. When I got this book I knew some C++ (learned some in IT/Computer Science classes in high-school) and a fair amount of HTML. This book was, and still is, the perfect level for me (if you don't know any real programming yet, but are an advanced computer user, you won't have any problems though).The book is well structured and coherent. It's not something where one will just flip through and maybe learn something near here and there. It starts at the basics and then covers more and more advanced material. Everything is very well explained - I hardly ever had to re-read any sections - I nearly always understood the things after reading through the chapters. And no, I'm not genius. ;)This book doesn't just tell you about all the basic PHP functions, MySQL basics and how to use them both together. Only about a third of the book is on that. The main part of the book deals with real-world applications - E-commerce is the focus of this book, but Part V of the book (Building Practical PHP and MySQL Projects) also covers designing/programming other projects such as a forum or a Email service (yes, you'll learn to make something like Hotmail). Don't think that you will only be able to make E-commerce sites after reading this book - I presonally don't make any E-commerce sites as of yet, yet I have learned extremely much from this book, and I am only about half-way through. Frankly, this book rocks for PHP beginners and intermediates. This book is even sort of fun to read if you're a bit of a geek who's motivated to learn, I guess. I love this book! :)My only complaint: Since version 4.2.x of PHP, global variables are set to 'off' by default. This basically means that one needs to code one's scripts in a slightly different way when one posts/gets variables, uses cookies or uses sessions (you will definitely use this stuff when you get into slightly more advanaced PHP applications). It is easy to code in the new way, but one will probably need a bit of outside help. This isn't the book's fault though, so it still deserves 5/5 stars, in my humble opinion. I'm sure the next edition (if a second one will be published) will clear this up.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: The Practical SQL Handbook: Using Structured Query Language (3rd Edition)
Publisher: Pearson Education
Authors: Judith S. Bowman, Sandra L. Emerson, Marcy Darnovsky
Rating: 5/5
Title: The Practical SQL Handbook: Using Structured Query Language (3rd Edition)
Publisher: Pearson Education
Authors: Judith S. Bowman, Sandra L. Emerson, Marcy Darnovsky
Rating: 5/5
While the title may sound a little flat, it describes prefectly the content between the covers, often a rare treat in the hyped-up technical book sector.This work is a wonderful introduction to standard SQL, presented in a platform-independent method that is appropriate for introductory texts.The section on DBMS-specific syntax makes the generic descriptions usable in the real world, so even though you will be learning basic SQL, you will be able to use this knowledge from day one.I highly recommend this to new SQLers.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Core PHP Programming: Using PHP to Build Dynamic Web Sites (2nd Edition)
Publisher: Pearson Education
Authors: Leon Atkinson
Rating: 1/5
Title: Core PHP Programming: Using PHP to Build Dynamic Web Sites (2nd Edition)
Publisher: Pearson Education
Authors: Leon Atkinson
Rating: 1/5
This book does not know what it is trying to be - it is an OK copy of the online docs - but is bulked up (lots of space and a BIG font) to make it look like it covers a lot of ground. This makes it look like a detailed tutorial - and this it definitely is not. I came to the book (and PHP) as a complete novice - and found that there was a simple lack of good examples - all of the functions are documented - but there is little in the way of description as to why you would want to use any of them.At the end of the day I felt that I would have been better off printing out the docs that down load from the PHP web site.Tom.
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'm only just getting started with the book but it's truly excellent so far. It's readable, the examples are good and I'm enjoying it. Much unlike other books in this genre (see my Hawhee VB review).This book is not for pure beginners. In other words, those with no IT experience. Still, I have no SQL/database background and it's fine for me. I don't know if it'll help for the 70-29 test (author comments on it) but it's better than the Sybex book, at least so far.I recommend the book unreservedly and hope other authors look at how it was written. They could learn something from this book. We will too.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites: Visual QuickPro Guide
Publisher: Peachpit Press
Authors: Larry Ullman
Rating: 5/5
Title: PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites: Visual QuickPro Guide
Publisher: Peachpit Press
Authors: Larry Ullman
Rating: 5/5
Due to time constraints, I have to learn PHP in a big hurry, with this book, it's all coming together in my head and from there to the web where I can see the fruits of my labor come to life!
I would recommend this book to anyone wanting (or needing) to learn PHP and MySQL. It's written in a straight forward easy to grasp language and the visuals are superb. This is a must for any web developers library.
Thanks Larry, another GREAT book!
Product: Book Hardcover
Title: MCDBA SQL Server 2000 Database Design Study Guide (Exam 70-229)
Publisher: Osborne/McGraw-Hill
Authors: Syngress Media Inc, Anil Desai, Jeffery Bane, Craig Robinson
Rating: 1/5
Title: MCDBA SQL Server 2000 Database Design Study Guide (Exam 70-229)
Publisher: Osborne/McGraw-Hill
Authors: Syngress Media Inc, Anil Desai, Jeffery Bane, Craig Robinson
Rating: 1/5
Having been silly enough to buy this hopelessly inacurate book myself, I want to warn other off.Both the text and the self-tests are riddled with errors. For example:
1) On page 175 there is an example stored procedure which uses an IF statement. However, the code is wrong because it doesn't correctly use BEGIN and END to delimit the statement blocks.
2) The answer to self-test question 6 in chapter 5 states: "a left outer join will return all rows from the left result set and rows from the right result set that match rows in the left result set, as well as those that don't match rows in the left result set" (sic). Anyone who has a basic grasp of SQL (and can decipher that awful sentence) can tell you that is utter nonsense!!
3) The answer to self-test question 8 in the same chapter states "a T-SQL variable cannot be aliased in a query". That is also just plain WRONG.These are just the ones that I've noticed so far, having read half the book. Other complaints: its light on detail, badly written (see other review about bad grammer, this is very true) and the index is absolutely useless.Do yourself a favour, do not buy this damn thing under any circumstances.
Product: Book Hardcover
Title: Data Mining with Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Technical Reference
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: Claude Seidman
Rating: 3/5
Title: Data Mining with Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Technical Reference
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: Claude Seidman
Rating: 3/5
If you don't know ANYTHING about SQL/Analysis Server and need to learn about its implementation of data mining, you'll enjoy this book. In addition to data mining there's a fair amount of discussion on DSO, DTS, data warehousing, etc. (Of course, if don't anything about these technologies jumping into Analysis Server's implementation of data mining might be a bit premature.) But, if you are familiar with Analysis Server and data warehousing and want to learn a little data mining, then there's about a hundred pages of good reading. Seidman covers the basics of the two data mining technologies Microsoft implemented - decision trees & clustering.Finally, be prepared for some serious grunt work if you like to "read and code". The author does not include any helpful downloads to get going quickly.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Oracle Pl/SQL Programming (Oracle Series)
Publisher: Oracle Pr
Authors: Scott Urman, Tim Smith
Rating: 5/5
Title: Oracle Pl/SQL Programming (Oracle Series)
Publisher: Oracle Pr
Authors: Scott Urman, Tim Smith
Rating: 5/5
I wanted a book that would help me start coding PL/SQL within a day or so. I wanted a book that had lots of concise and consistent PL/SQL code snippets. This book sure fills the bill. This book (combined with the Feuerstein books) has me running full speed with PL/SQL.
