IT programming books related reviews
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
I HIGHLY recommend 'The Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL'. Although the book is dated (doesn't cover OLAP and other SQL-7 features), it is superbly written stylistically (probably the best-written technical book I've EVER read). The writing style is concise, elegant and most importantly, not antagonzing. The book is stuffed with little tidbits and fills in LOTS of blanks. Within the first few pages I learned that a blank time in a timedate field evaluates to midnight, and that can cause problems:"The following example uses the BETWEEN operator to return orders occuring between October 1990 and May 1995, Inclusively. I've included the time with the second of the two dates because without it, the time would default to midnight (SQL Server datetime columns always store both the date and time; an omitted time defaults to midnight), making the query noninclusive. Without specification of the time portion, the query would return only orders placed up through the first millisecond of May 31.SELECT ordernumber, orderdate, amount FROM orders Where orderdate BETWEEN '10/01/90' AND '05/31/95 23:59:59.999'"Note the clarity of the writing and the clear capitalization scheme used. Moreover, this is important stuff. I never would've guessed that SQL Server is that dumb, and it's really necessary to know . For all I know, they may have fixed this on 7.0, but I still have clients on 6.5).Obviously from this example you can see that you don't have to be an aspiring guru yourself to get a lot out of it. Don't let the title scare you off: it's fine for beginners and will get you way beyond beginner's level quickly.It will take you as far as you want to go, if you put in the time and effort. I consider it a must on any SQL bookshelf (now, if only they'd update to include OLAP, DTS etc.).
Product: Book Hardcover
Title: MCSE Training Kit: Microsoft(r) SQL Server(tm) 2000 System Administration
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: Microsoft Corporation
Rating: 2/5
Title: MCSE Training Kit: Microsoft(r) SQL Server(tm) 2000 System Administration
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: Microsoft Corporation
Rating: 2/5
I find myself reading, re-reading, and re-reading paragraphs again and again; simply to realize that much of it is simply Microsoft-babble. or .. "microbabble" for short. (I've coined a new phrase!) Ok, sure, there are a lot of technical terms that the reader has to deal with. But I keep asking myself as I read this book whether it was a robot who wrote it, or whether it was a kindergarden teacher trying to teach by simply throwing out technical terms at the reader. I would give an example except, I am a kinder person than that. More on that in chapter 17.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 Database Implementation Online Training Kit: McSe Training for Exam 70-029 (It-Online Training Kit)
Publisher: Microsoft Press Rating: 4/5
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 Database Implementation Online Training Kit: McSe Training for Exam 70-029 (It-Online Training Kit)
Publisher: Microsoft Press Rating: 4/5
For those who just want to achieve MCDBA and if only score is relevant to you, here is my score 897/1000 for (70-029) and 920/1000 for (70-028).Look at my review on SQL Server 7.0 System Administration Online Training Kit (70-028). I hold the same opinion for this (70-029) training kit. Yes, there are still mistakes, and not enough coverage of the subject material. I can never stress enough; you still need to have the 'Inside MS SQL Server 7.0', 'Books Online' (comes with the 120 days evaluation SQL Server 7.0 software with this kit) and actual code implementation experience. You need more time to prepare and expose yourself to this particular course. Time is the essence. This examination can be a long one, more difficult than others, but nothing is difficult if you have the determination to succeed.
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
As I am implementing an ERP in my group the need to use SQL is very strong. This book is very well written and helped me to succeed in my first SQL steps. Sorry for my poor english but this guide is very useful.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Advanced PHP for Flash
Publisher: Wrox Press
Authors: Steve Webster, Matt Rice, Havard Eide, Jacob Hanson, Todd Marks, James Palmer, Kev Sutherland
Rating: 5/5
Title: Advanced PHP for Flash
Publisher: Wrox Press
Authors: Steve Webster, Matt Rice, Havard Eide, Jacob Hanson, Todd Marks, James Palmer, Kev Sutherland
Rating: 5/5
This book will give you what you need to get PHP & Flash working together. I really like this book because what they teach you is usuable in the real world. I have learned alot from this book.Thanks guys!
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Microsoft SQL Server Black Book: The Database Designer's and Administrator's Essential Guide to Setting Up Efficient Client-Server Tasks with SQL Server
Publisher: Coriolis Group Books
Authors: Patrick Dalton
Rating: 2/5
Title: Microsoft SQL Server Black Book: The Database Designer's and Administrator's Essential Guide to Setting Up Efficient Client-Server Tasks with SQL Server
Publisher: Coriolis Group Books
Authors: Patrick Dalton
Rating: 2/5
I bought this book because it is advertised as a beginner's tutorial as well as for the more experienced SQL administrator. Not only does the book not live up to this, many of the SQL Server set up steps are out of order or missing all together. In total, the manual is very confusing and tends to leave out important background data or prerequisite steps for most of the exercises. I never really made it past chapter 3, and I am an entry-level Technical Analyst with Visual Basic 5 and NT 3.5/4.0 experience. I'm sorry, Mr. Dalton really missed the mark with this one. I'm still looking for a TRUE beginner's SQL Server tutorial.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: How to Do Everything with Google
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Fritz Schneider, Nancy Blachman, Eric Fredricksen, Fritz Schneider, Nancy Blachman, Eric Fredricksen
Rating: 5/5
Title: How to Do Everything with Google
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Fritz Schneider, Nancy Blachman, Eric Fredricksen, Fritz Schneider, Nancy Blachman, Eric Fredricksen
Rating: 5/5
I have used Google for years. I was pleasently surprised to find that this book offers a bunch of tricks and tips that I was not aware of. The section on Google News was particularly enlightening. Many of the other functions of Google that I never used(image, froogle) I now understand and am impressed with thier usefulness.
All in all a good book. Great if you have never used Google, or even if you are an experienced user.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Beginning PHP 5 and MySQL: From Novice to Professional
Publisher: Apress
Authors: W. J. Gilmore
Rating: 5/5
Title: Beginning PHP 5 and MySQL: From Novice to Professional
Publisher: Apress
Authors: W. J. Gilmore
Rating: 5/5
This book was an excellent introduction to PHP 5. Coming from a J2EE background, Gilmore's precise and detailed explanations helped me understand what PHP 5 had to offer, engineer to engineer. Gilmore's book assumes that you're intelligent, and that you're interested in the details. He then explains those details in depths. All in all, an excellent book.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes, Third Edition
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Ben Forta
Rating: 4/5
Title: Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes, Third Edition
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Ben Forta
Rating: 4/5
If you are a beginner, and have a database to practice SQL on, then this book is for you. If you have never created a database, you will need to in order to use this book. Trouble is, the book tells you how to create the database in Appendix A, and Appendix A is not very thorough. If you succeed in blindly creating your database, the book is excellent thereafter.Some of the coding does not follow current ANSI standards, but it works.I was an absolute raw beginner when I picked up this book. It served me well. Had I tried the companion "21 day" book by SAMS first, I would have quit trying before I learned SQL. Thankfully, I read this book first.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Sybase Transact SQL Guidelines Best Practices
Publisher: Isosf Software
Authors: Mich Talebzadeh, Ryan Thomas Putnam
Rating: 5/5
Title: Sybase Transact SQL Guidelines Best Practices
Publisher: Isosf Software
Authors: Mich Talebzadeh, Ryan Thomas Putnam
Rating: 5/5
For the seasoned developer and administrator alike, this book targets all of those vexing problems that you are currently dealing with or want to avoid in the future. My company was putting together a set of "Best Practices" surrounding SQL development and deployment in a diverse environment. We had to deal with access from the web (Cold Fusion), EJB's (WebSphere), EAI systems (SeeBeyond and ETI), client-server (PowerBuilder), and lastly, batch. Each system had its own unique performance challenge and this book helped us to address them. It's currently a centerpiece in our SQL best practices library. I highly recommend it.
