IT programming books related reviews
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Internet Annoyances
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Preston Gralla
Rating: 5/5
Title: Internet Annoyances
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Preston Gralla
Rating: 5/5
I recently had the chance to read and review the book Internet Annoyances by Preston Gralla (O'Reilly). All I can say is that I'm really getting hooked on this Annoyances series. Internet Annoyances is no exception...
Chapter List:
Chapter 1 - Email and Spam Annoyances: General Email Annoyances; Spam; Outlook 2003 and Outlook Express; Gmail; Eudora 6
Chapter 2 - Making The Connection Annoyances: General Connection Annoyances; Broadband: Cable and DSL Connections; Routers and Home Networks
Chapter 3 - Wireless Annoyances: Home Wireless Networks and Routers; Cell Phones and the Net; WiFi Security; HotSpots
Chapter 4 - Web Hosting, Design, and Blog Annoyances: Domain and Hosting Hassles; Design and Maintenance Help; Blogging
Chapter 5 - Browser Annoyances: Pop-Ups, Ads, and Flash; Favorites and Bookmarks; Working the Interface; Speedups and Shortcuts; Cookies
Chapter 6 - AOL Annoyances: General AOL Annoyances; Email
Chapter 7 - IM Annoyances: General Instant Messaging Annoyances; AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), Windows Messenger; Yahoo! Messenger; ICQ
Chapter 8 - Searching Annoyances: General Search Annoyances; Government and the Law; Google; Amazon; eBay; Yahoo!
Chapter 9 - Security Annoyances: General Security Annoyances; Spyware; Trojans, Worms, and Viruses; Firewalls
Chapter 10 - Shopping and Auction Annoyances: General Shopping Annoyances; eBay Annoyances; Amazon Annoyances
Index
As you can see, this book covers quite a bit of ground. Each chapter/subsection consists of a number of annoyances in the form of "questions" from readers or contributors. Imagine a weekly newspaper Q&A column and you get the idea. Gralla then answers the question in a straight-forward, understandable way that often includes a liberal dose of humor. What's even better is that he often includes links to websites that offer some unique service or twist on the subject (like using Teoma as a search engine for tech subjects) or a lead to a piece of software that will dramatically change the way you do something (like the Asterisk Key utility to show you the passwords behind the asterisks in a password field). And sometimes its just letting you know that Amazon.com *does* have a 1-800 number for customer service where you can speak to a real person (1-800-201-7575).
You won't necessarily learn something from every tip included in the book. You may even skip entire chapters (don't ask me questions about the AOL chapter, OK?). But that's OK and to be expected. Odds are that you'll pick up at least 10 - 20 tips or tricks that will make the whole book worth every penny you spend on it. Just the fact I don't have to continue to see IE launched as a quarter-size window any more was worth the price of admission for me!
Great stuff here, and a recommended read...
Product: Book Paperback
Title: SQL Server The Complete Reference
Publisher: Osborne Publishing
Authors: Gayle Coffman
Rating: 1/5
Title: SQL Server The Complete Reference
Publisher: Osborne Publishing
Authors: Gayle Coffman
Rating: 1/5
I would like to point out the inconsistency of examples. Some keywords have examples while others don't. Why? It certainly does not qualify as a "complete reference".
Product: Book Paperback
Title: PHP Essentials
Publisher: Muska & Lipman/Premier-Trade
Authors: Julie C. Meloni
Rating: 4/5
Title: PHP Essentials
Publisher: Muska & Lipman/Premier-Trade
Authors: Julie C. Meloni
Rating: 4/5
PHP Essentials was one of the most helpful books I've found for PHP. I help program for and maintain databases on my fianc? website, and we use a lot of PHP. When I first looked at this book, I found examples of all sorts that helped out. There's examples on PGP encryption and even writing your own online store. The basic syntax is covered for everything from basic data structures to integrating databases into the page... and it even gets into specific database programs (MS SQL, mysql, postgresSQL, Informix, and plain ODBC to name a few). If you're just starting our or working with databases, I recommend this book.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Oracle PL/SQL 101
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Christopher Allen
Rating: 5/5
Title: Oracle PL/SQL 101
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Christopher Allen
Rating: 5/5
I am an experienced DB programmer, but have never used Oracle. This is a good introduction. The book actually covers more on SQL-PLUS than on PL/SQL as the PL/SQL part doesn't start until page 285. I was able to get through the entire book in one day and feel competent in programming with the Oracle DBMS.
This is a nice, simple step by step book. If you are already familiar with SQL, you can breeze through. Definitely worth the price.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: A Guide to SQL Standard (4th Edition)
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: C. J. Date, Hugh Darwen
Rating: 2/5
Title: A Guide to SQL Standard (4th Edition)
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: C. J. Date, Hugh Darwen
Rating: 2/5
If you are looking for a book that will take you through the SQL standard, explaining what each part means and how to use each feature, then you need to look elsewhere. If you are an expert SQL user, and interested in some of the intimate detail of the standard, for example the way time and dates work, and why they work the way they do, this may well be the book for you, but it?s still expensive for the number of pages. If you known the basics well already, and want to become a power SQL user, then I?d recommend Joe Celko's SQL for Smarties
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Hitchhiker's Guide to Visual Basic and SQL Server
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: William R. Vaughn
Rating: 1/5
Title: Hitchhiker's Guide to Visual Basic and SQL Server
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: William R. Vaughn
Rating: 1/5
This book will someday be a great show on PBS. But as far as learning VB and SQLS dont buy it. After several hundred pages of recent history I finally got to the reason I bought the book. On about page 800 and something the author finally talks about using an ADO Datagrid to SQL-S. Unfortunately he never goes beyond a simple example using the Data Object Wizard. I'm still looking and out $40.
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
Written in the book is everything you need to know about PHP. I should have bought this book when i was a newbie or lets say this book should have existed when a was a newbie 3 years ago.
Kudos to the author of the book!
Product: Book Paperback
Title: The Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: Ken Henderson
Rating: 5/5
Title: The Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: Ken Henderson
Rating: 5/5
There is something for everyone here. If you are a beginner, you owe it to yourself to read through this book until you get it. The opening chapter is as good an intro to the TSQL language as I've found. If you're an amateur, you'll want to read through this to get on the road to becoming an expert. There's enough code here to earn your Phd in TSQL programming. And if you're an expert, you'll want to research and study this book and the insights it shares. You will not find better TSQL coding techniques and explanations anywhere. This book will take you to the next level into the realm of the gurus.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: PHP and PostgreSQL Advanced Web Programming
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Ewald Geschwinde, Hans-Juergen Schoenig
Rating: 4/5
Title: PHP and PostgreSQL Advanced Web Programming
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Ewald Geschwinde, Hans-Juergen Schoenig
Rating: 4/5
While the book was obviously written by people whose first language is not English, and everything is not in it, it is excellent for extending the use of PostgreSQL and PHP. It may not be as approachable as the the Williams and Lane, Web Database Applications with PHP and MySQL,O'Reilly, 2002, it is comparable for those who want to use PostgreSQL instead of MySQL. The beginning stuff including string manipulation belongs in other books. For what the book promises, in my opinion it delivers. It is not a beginning PostgreSQL or PHP text, nor should it be.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Oracle PL/SQL Programming, Third Edition
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Steven Feuerstein
Rating: 4/5
Title: Oracle PL/SQL Programming, Third Edition
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Steven Feuerstein
Rating: 4/5
This book by Steven and Bill is not only usefull for programmers who start of with PL/SQL. I think I was experienced in PL/SQL programming but learned some nice features. The book covers not only PL/SQL 2.3, but PL/SQL 8 and the differences between several versions of PL/SQL. The guidelines in this book are very good in general, although I do not always agree with the authors. Most important in these guidelines are the arguments. A 'buy' one for every Oracle PL/SQL programmer.
