IT programming books related reviews
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Google Hacks
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Tara Calishain, Rael Dornfest
Rating: 5/5
Title: Google Hacks
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Tara Calishain, Rael Dornfest
Rating: 5/5
Google is powerful for basic searches, which most people conduct by entering a few keywords and letting Google do the rest. Imagine the possibilities especially researchers, students, writers, professionals, and anyone who need to find specific or obscure information just by learning a few tricks. Entering _book reviews_ pulls out any resource having both words in it, not necessarily together as a phrase. Add quotes to "book reviews" and the results display sites with book reviews together as a phrase. This hardly unleashes Google's power. Even entering the keywords in a specific order can affect the results.You can search around Google's Web site to learn lesser known tips and tricks, but you won't find most of the hacks on the Internet without, ironically, hard searching. As a fervent reader, too often I read well-written books and never take the time to apply the tools and techniques. While reading this one, I immediately put the newfound knowledge to use with cool results and still use it though it's been a few weeks since I opened the book.You may be aware Google offers Google News, which searches and provides the latest news (http://news.google.com/). But did you know Google News supports two syntaxes? They are "intitle" and "site." "Intitle" searches for keywords within the headline or new item's title while "site" looks for the keyword in a specific site. The authors are straightforward when they mention Google News is not one of the best places for news.Non-techies, don't let the fact that O'Reilly and Associates is the publisher scare you away because the company's books are often synonymous with high tech topics and the name "hacks" in its title. It doesn't mean "bad" as a hack is also known as a trick or add-on for adding more power to a program or system. The tech-speak is kept to a minimum, which makes the hacks easy to read and reference. The book has tips for beginners, moderate users, and experts and each hack is represented by thermometer's temperature (high for expert and low for easy) for easy reference. Techies and programmers have nothing to fear as the book covers APIs (Application Programming Interface), which provide a basic building block for building software applications. In other words, Google Web APIs (http://www.google.com/apis/api_faq.html ) allow developers to query Google's search tool for use in developing software that accesses the many Web sites through Google. For example, a Web site providing the latest news on books and the book industry could use the Google API to regularly update the site with any new news relating to books. APIs for PHP, Python, ASP, C#, .NET, VB, and Java are included.Try out some of the hacks and get tips from other readers from the O'Reilly's Hacks Web site (http://hacks.oreilly.com/pub/ht/2) and Tara Calishain's ResearchBuzz buzztoolbox (http://www.buzztoolbox.com/google/). Reduce the time you spend sifting through garbage by hacking your way with Google using this book.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: PHP and MySQL Web Development, Second Edition
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Luke Welling, Laura Thomson
Rating: 4/5
Title: PHP and MySQL Web Development, Second Edition
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Luke Welling, Laura Thomson
Rating: 4/5
This book is so cool! As a beginner in PHP I leaned a lot in this book. The price is reasonable. I wish all books are like this "by example type", like the PHP book by Julie Melonie that book also rocks!.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: SQL/400 Developer's Guide
Publisher: 29th Street Press
Authors: Paul Conte, Mike Cravitz
Rating: 5/5
Title: SQL/400 Developer's Guide
Publisher: 29th Street Press
Authors: Paul Conte, Mike Cravitz
Rating: 5/5
This book is a good reference for AS/400 programmers who want to use SQL. I've found the answers to almost all my questions and lots of examples of good code. It doesn't cover JDBC programming much (just an overview), which I'd like to see. But the SQL/400 technical information goes from basics to advanced. Most of the embedded SQL examples are in RPG IV and use the latest release, which provides some neat coding techniques. The section on "soft coding" triggers is great!Overall, this is a very well done book that I highly recommend.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Apache: The Definitive Guide (3rd Edition)
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Ben Laurie, Peter Laurie
Rating: 3/5
Title: Apache: The Definitive Guide (3rd Edition)
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Ben Laurie, Peter Laurie
Rating: 3/5
Regardless of the fact that the publishers of this book claimed that it will help readers discover how to obtain, set-up, and secure the software on both Unix and Windows systems, do not bank on these claims if you are a Windows user.
The truth is that these publicity-claims are applicable to Unix, Linux and BSD platforms. Windows systems users need a lot of prayers, for events to shape-up as they would like.
Conversely, for non-Windows users, there is a lot to celebrate. This updated edition covered (the latest) Apache 2.0 without compromising on the older 1.3 version. Also, there are new sections on Cocoon, Tomcat, mod_perl, PHP, and several others.
Overall, this is a good book; but would have been impeccable, if all the claims its publisher advertised have real life applications.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 Database Implementation Training Kit (Training Kit)
Publisher: Microsoft Press Rating: 4/5
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 Database Implementation Training Kit (Training Kit)
Publisher: Microsoft Press Rating: 4/5
This book is good for teaching the basics and nessesities in deploying and managing a Microsoft SQL 7 Database server. I personally work with SQL7 servers for part of my profession and can say that this book covers the important issues in administration. If you are preparing to take the certification exam in SQL7 or are simply looking for a guide to show you the ropes, this book is a must.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Beginning PHP4 Databases
Publisher: Wrox Press
Authors: Andrew Hill, Chris Lea, Christopher Scollo, Deepak Thomas, Harish Rawat
Rating: 5/5
Title: Beginning PHP4 Databases
Publisher: Wrox Press
Authors: Andrew Hill, Chris Lea, Christopher Scollo, Deepak Thomas, Harish Rawat
Rating: 5/5
I just got a copy of this book last week, and this was exactly the content that i was in search of - Getting upto speed with PHP and databases, to build robust database driven web applications.
Infact, this book manages to provide solutions to the large number of problems that newbie PHP programmers post on sites like phpbeginners.com,php.net and phpbuilder.
The approach to presenting a database agnostic solution, through the use of the most recommended PEAR::DB abstraction layer (i even found documentation about PEAR::DB, that i had spent ages figuring out for myself) sets this book in a class of its own.
The typos and grammar stand out at places, but who cares when you have gotten what you wanted.
I highly recommend this book to the BEGINNING/NEWBIE PHP Programmer.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Beginning SQL Programming (Programmer to Programmer)
Publisher: Wrox Press
Authors: John Kauffman, Brian Matsik, Kevin Spencer, Ian Herbert, Sakhr Youness, Julian Skinner
Rating: 3/5
Title: Beginning SQL Programming (Programmer to Programmer)
Publisher: Wrox Press
Authors: John Kauffman, Brian Matsik, Kevin Spencer, Ian Herbert, Sakhr Youness, Julian Skinner
Rating: 3/5
This book is [price] and I cannot see the justification for it. 90% of the informatin of this book is contained in Rob Vierra's SQL 2000 book. If you already own Rob Vierra's book, you probably don't need this book to teach you the fundamentals of SQL.This book does a great job for teaching you the fundamentals of SQL. But I am not sure if THAT is worth [price] since SQL is a relatively easy language to learn. Almost every Database book I won teach the concepts of this book. I expected MUCH more and show some cutting edge SQL scripting for its price. But this book fails to deliver it.
Product: Book Hardcover
Title: OCA/OCP: Introduction to Oracle9i SQL Study Guide
Publisher: Sybex
Authors: Chip Dawes, Biju Thomas, Chip Dawes, Biju Thomas
Rating: 5/5
Title: OCA/OCP: Introduction to Oracle9i SQL Study Guide
Publisher: Sybex
Authors: Chip Dawes, Biju Thomas, Chip Dawes, Biju Thomas
Rating: 5/5
I recently passed the exam. Scored 54/57. I used this book and the materials that come in the CD (review questions, flash cards and 2 BONUS exams). Plus my several years of experience in Oracle also helped a lot. In my opinion, this is the only book needed to get through the exam. Although, bit of practical experience is needed to come out in flying colors. There are few mistakes, but they are easier to identify. The book covers a lot of topics - more than 100% of what is needed to pass the exam. Real exam would be a cake-walk. This book is a definite preparatory material.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Apache Server 2 Bible
Publisher: Wiley
Authors: Mohammed J. Kabir
Rating: 5/5
Title: Apache Server 2 Bible
Publisher: Wiley
Authors: Mohammed J. Kabir
Rating: 5/5
The book is not superb nor explains everything about Apache , but this book really concentrates on Apache. I've seen lots of books titled Apache Web Server but full of web tutorials, TCP/IP and even HTML reference. This book is not perfect but very satisfactory.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Php 4 Bible (Bible (Wiley))
Publisher: Hungry Minds
Authors: Tim Converse, Joyce Park
Rating: 5/5
Title: Php 4 Bible (Bible (Wiley))
Publisher: Hungry Minds
Authors: Tim Converse, Joyce Park
Rating: 5/5
For a beginner PHP developer, this book should be excellent for a start. Although it doesn't cover Oracle or MS SQL related function, it has short tutorial of SQL language; enough for building a dynamic database-driven web sites. I used to use Perl, this book made migrating to PHP simple. I like this book mostly because it explains function's behaviour clearly and list them by category (array functions, string functions, trigonometri function, etc.). It also has troubleshooting section for you to refer if you encounter problems running your script and doesn't understand what php said.
