IT programming books related reviews
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Sams Teach Yourself Apache 2 in 24 Hours
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Daniel Lopez
Rating: 5/5
Title: Sams Teach Yourself Apache 2 in 24 Hours
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Daniel Lopez
Rating: 5/5
Although the title of the book is Apache 2, and it contains full information about it, I learnt from it all the basic things you need to know related to web servers. Being a complete beginner, I learnt not just about Apache, but also about what are SSL, PHP, CGI's, Proxy servers and Tomcat through the book. Everything is explained in plain english and easy to understand. Each chapter has an introductory section that makes it much easier to understand. It's like having the author by your side guiding you.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: PHP Black Book
Publisher: Coriolis Group Books
Authors: Peter Moulding
Rating: 2/5
Title: PHP Black Book
Publisher: Coriolis Group Books
Authors: Peter Moulding
Rating: 2/5
It took a lot of my time to read and understand, most of the examples in the book are pretty much useless, you won't often need to know at all. Even though "PHP essentials" is slightly outdated, it presented with useful examples, I can finish that book in a day or two, very easy reading. Moreover, it doesn't cost any money at all if read it online, I bought it on sale for 4 bucks. The best way to learn is by studying and actually doing examples. the black book is served more like a reference book to me.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Joe Celko's SQL for Smarties: Advanced SQL Programming (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Data Management Systems)
Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann
Authors: Joe Celko
Rating: 2/5
Title: Joe Celko's SQL for Smarties: Advanced SQL Programming (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Data Management Systems)
Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann
Authors: Joe Celko
Rating: 2/5
There is a lot here, some of it quite advanced and quite good. But well over half the examples I looked at had errors -- typos often, or repeated chunks of text. This made the examples pretty much worthless.His prose explanations are often very unclear indeed.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: SQL Server 7: A Beginner's Guide
Publisher: Osborne Publishing
Authors: Dusan Petkovic
Rating: 3/5
Title: SQL Server 7: A Beginner's Guide
Publisher: Osborne Publishing
Authors: Dusan Petkovic
Rating: 3/5
Since I had no background with SQL Server I carefully chose a beginners guide and am very pleased with this one. I was able to understand all but 2 or 3 short segments of the material and I anticipate using this book as a syntax reference later on. The author's background with databases was evident without being overwhelming. There were at least a dozen mislabeled figures or tables that could be misleading and the first two thirds of the book are heavy going as Transact-SQL is covered but I found the writing consistently accessible. The chapters on Data Warehouses and Data Marts were too sketchy to be of much value but the main point of the book was handily accomplished - the basics of building and managing SQL Server 7 databases. I am reading the MS Press self study guides currently and am glad I started where I did.
Product: Book Hardcover
Title: MCSD: SQL Server 6.5 Database Design Study Guide
Publisher: Sybex Inc
Authors: Kevin Hough
Rating: 4/5
Title: MCSD: SQL Server 6.5 Database Design Study Guide
Publisher: Sybex Inc
Authors: Kevin Hough
Rating: 4/5
I just bought this book yesterday and it seems pretty good but in the first chapter q. num. 7 the answer the book supplies on pp. 598-599 is incorrect. The software that came with the book will not install either. I just contacted sybex and I still have not heard from them. The rest of the book seems pretty good. I think that if you use this book along with Transcender's test questions you shouldn't have a problem passing the test. This book is just like any other study guide I've bought previously, it has some errors. The official curriculum has some text errors also, so if you purchase a study you can certainly expect some errors, it's a reality unfortunately.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Php Fast & Easy Web Development (Fast & Easy Web Development)
Publisher: Premier Press
Authors: Julie C. Meloni
Rating: 5/5
Title: Php Fast & Easy Web Development (Fast & Easy Web Development)
Publisher: Premier Press
Authors: Julie C. Meloni
Rating: 5/5
This is one of the best beginner PHP books I've seen. It has a nice visual layout and it addresses both Windows and Linux users. You'll find a great walk-through for building scripts that do the following: generate messages to HTML pages, work with system variables, connect to a database (MySql), create/modify/delete tables and records for the database, work with cookies, and more. There's no fluff in this book. It does not waste your time explaining normalization or database design. (If you need to learn about those things, then get a book about databases.) Also, I liked seeing all the references placed neatly in the back of the book, instead of sprinkled distractingly throughout the lesson examples.The only thing I saw missing was a comment that could have been made about the .php file extension. (Throughout the book, .php is used. However, some host providers (like mine!) use PHP3 and this requires giving your files a .php3 extension instead.)Overall though, the book is excellent. My goal was to build a shopping cart that would work with a database. By using this book, I was able to build the table and record creation scripts very quickly. If you're a master programmer, you might find the book too easy. However, I appreciated the clarity and ease in which the content was delivered, and I think most beginners will appreciate it as well.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 2005 New Features
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Michael Otey
Rating: 5/5
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 2005 New Features
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Michael Otey
Rating: 5/5
I recommend this book for database developers and DBAs who are interested in Yukon. It's well written, has the right level of detail, covers admin features, and has a good balanced approach. -Pn SQL Server MVP
Product: Book Paperback
Title: SQL Queries for Mere Mortals: A Hands-On Guide to Data Manipulation in SQL
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: Michael J. Hernandez, John L. Viescas
Rating: 5/5
Title: SQL Queries for Mere Mortals: A Hands-On Guide to Data Manipulation in SQL
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: Michael J. Hernandez, John L. Viescas
Rating: 5/5
I would say it is one of the best tech books I have read. I wanted to learn how to write SQL queries and now I know how to do it. Very easy to read and understand. It has so many hands on exercises that it makes so easy to learn it. I like this idea of hands on practice a lot! Wish all the books would follow this type of teaching. By doing exercises you memorize the syntax of queries like one, two, three. By buying this book I saved money on taking a class with a teacher. With this book you are good on your own. The negative part is CD. You MUST read the Readme file how to install it!!! Because you have to copy files on you hard drive before you can use it. Make sure you have Access 2000 as well!!! If you will ignore it - you are in trouble!!! For those who knows how to write queries in SQL it may not be a good book, will be too simple for you guys! But if you are totaly new - buy it, it's good!
Product: Book Paperback
Title: PHP 4 Developer's Guide
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
Authors: Blake Schwendiman
Rating: 3/5
Title: PHP 4 Developer's Guide
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
Authors: Blake Schwendiman
Rating: 3/5
Actually, this is a good book (not for novice). It covers more advanced topic needed for real life projects. But, I don't like the function reference part (it takes a REALLY lot of pages). I don't think it has any advantages. I hope the publisher will reprint it without the function reference part.Overall: This is a good book.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Notification Services
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Shyam Pather
Rating: 5/5
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Notification Services
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Shyam Pather
Rating: 5/5
I would highly recommend this book for anybody developing Sql Server 2000 Notifications Services applications. This book fills the gaps in the Books Online, which, for a large scale application are very important.
The book is structured to provide quick, step-by-step implementation instructions as well as detailed explanations of the hows and whys of Notification Services.
I was particularly grateful for Part III of the book that details optimization, deployment and administration requirements.
Another invaluable part of the book is the chapter on setting up your development environment. I had to do my first application before the publication of this book and I will tell you that had I had this book then, the time I would have saved would have paid for the price of the book many times over.
