IT programming books related reviews
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft SQL Server 7 in 21 Days
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Richard Waymire, Rick Sawtell
Rating: 5/5
Title: Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft SQL Server 7 in 21 Days
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Richard Waymire, Rick Sawtell
Rating: 5/5
I was in the middle of the MOC SQL 7.0 class and being a newbie, my brain was feeling like mush. On the second day the instructor recommended this book. I checked out the reviews. This book has made it so easy to understand everything that is going on in class. I'm not of fan of "Learn x in x Days", but this book is awesome!!! I highly recommend it if you're new to SQL Server!
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Professional PHP Web Services
Publisher: Wrox Press
Authors: James Fuller, Ken Egervari, Harry Fuecks, Bryan Waters, Jon Stephens, Daniel Solin
Rating: 5/5
Title: Professional PHP Web Services
Publisher: Wrox Press
Authors: James Fuller, Ken Egervari, Harry Fuecks, Bryan Waters, Jon Stephens, Daniel Solin
Rating: 5/5
The content in this book simply rawks - all the latest information on how you can do web services using PHP.There is a wealth on information on how you can use PHP and SOAP (using popular libraries such as NuSOAP, PEAR::SOAP and ezSOAP), PHP and SOAP's front-runner (XML-RPC), how you can discover web services using UDDI. Infact, there is a quality library for PHP::UDDI, that was created for the book, and which the authors have very kindly hosted on sourceforge (phpuddi.sourceforge.net/).This is *the* book on the subject. Check it out today.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Programming Microsoft SQL Server 2000 with Microsoft Visual Basic .NET
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: Rick Dobson
Rating: 4/5
Title: Programming Microsoft SQL Server 2000 with Microsoft Visual Basic .NET
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: Rick Dobson
Rating: 4/5
Like most people, I appreciate humor. But when I'm pressed for time and need to learn the nuts and bolts of a programming language, I'd rather an author save his chuckles for his own time. Or her own time. Whatever. Dobson's book is right up my alley. It's serious, but not complicated. The pages are filled with good, technical information, supported by concise examples and efficient diagrams. No wasted space, no wasted words.In contrast, Karl Moore's book (VB .Net: The Tutorials), though quite informative, was annoying in its silliness. This tome served as a refreshing antidote. Of course reasonable people can disagree on the humor thing--the disagreeable can go to Moore's work. In this book, multiple topics are covered well: SQL programming, including the all-powerful stored procedure, Windows application programming, XML programming and ASP.Net programming. Dobson's treatment of SQL in concert with VB .Net should help anyone get up to speed writing DB applications in no time. It is a wonderful text that successfully paints with a broad and serious stroke.
Product: Book Hardcover
Title: OCP Introduction to Oracle9i: SQL Exam Guide
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Jason Couchman
Rating: 3/5
Title: OCP Introduction to Oracle9i: SQL Exam Guide
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Jason Couchman
Rating: 3/5
As a long term Oracle DBA, I have found the exam books good reference for daily use. They're usually well indexed, concise enough to point you in the right direction, and usually supply enough examples to understand something.This time, I purchased this for finally going for the OCP exam. I cannot speak for the accuracy of the material as it relates to exam questions yet, but I am seriously disappointed in the lack of response for corrections. I have emailed additional errors I found in the book hoping they would be added to his list on the exampilot website. Months have gone by and they have not been posted.I understand that with technical books, errors are going to be found - especially in something as complex as Oracle where things change constantly. However, if you are going to put out a book to aid people in passing an exam, you darn well better post corrections. There have historically been complaints about his previous books having errors, and I always took this with a grain of salt. Now however, I am seriously disappointed by his lack of corrections - critical for those who do not have a database handy to try stuff on or those new to Oracle and not knowledgable enough yet to pick out the errors.Three stars only because it's still proven to be a valuable reference, however I'd rather give it two stars because it's not truly meeting its intended purpose.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Microsoft SQL Server(TM) 2000 Administrator's Pocket Consultant (It-Administrator's Pocket Consultant)
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: William R. Stanek
Rating: 4/5
Title: Microsoft SQL Server(TM) 2000 Administrator's Pocket Consultant (It-Administrator's Pocket Consultant)
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: William R. Stanek
Rating: 4/5
This book does not cover any advanced topics. For example, it will not teach you how to program DTS or how to spot performance problems due to bad indexing. It does, however, provide a very rock solid instruction on how to perform 95% of SQL administrative tasks. Cynically speaking, this book will teach you how to become a very successful button pushing SQL monkey. If you want to become something better, than I strongly suggest you buy and master "SQL 2000 Unleashed" and "Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Performance Optimization and Tuning".
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Oracle 9i Java Programming: Solutions for Developers Using PL/SQL and Java
Publisher: Peer Information
Authors: Bjarki Holm, John Carnell, Tomas Stubbs, Poornachandra Sarang, Kevin Mukhar, Sant Singh, Jaeda Goodman, Ben Marcotte, Mauricio Naranjo, Anand Raj, Mark Piermanini
Rating: 5/5
Title: Oracle 9i Java Programming: Solutions for Developers Using PL/SQL and Java
Publisher: Peer Information
Authors: Bjarki Holm, John Carnell, Tomas Stubbs, Poornachandra Sarang, Kevin Mukhar, Sant Singh, Jaeda Goodman, Ben Marcotte, Mauricio Naranjo, Anand Raj, Mark Piermanini
Rating: 5/5
This book is a great guide to writing Oracle Java stored procedures. Of course, it has its cons and pros. On the bad side, there are the obvious differences in writing style and flavour of the different chapters (although not to the level of irritation), which is probably a result of so many authors. Although I had some experience with Java, JDBC and SQLJ before, I really liked many of the chapters dealing with the fundamentals, especially the Exception chapter. I found much of the Oracle-Java specific material very useful, such as the chapters on Java and SQL performance, on using Java and PL/SQL together, and more. All in all, this book is packed with useful examples and practical solutions to real-life issues (mostly scalability and performance related), which made it very useful and pleasent to read.
Product: Book Unknown Binding
Title: Sybase SQL Server 11 Unleashed
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Ray Rankins, Jeff Garbus, David Solomon, Bennett W. McEwan
Rating: 5/5
Title: Sybase SQL Server 11 Unleashed
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Ray Rankins, Jeff Garbus, David Solomon, Bennett W. McEwan
Rating: 5/5
This book is copyrighted 1996 but don't let that fool you. It is still the best book on Sybase ASE available. Of course this might say more about the efficacy of Sybase than the book, but we aren't reviewing RDBMs here.There are a few things that are lacking in this book but if you are just starting out with Sybase, either coming from another RDBMs or starting from scratch, this is it. A second revision would be most welcome as would a 'Sybase on Linux Unleashed'.To sum it up, if you want to use Sybase, buy this 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
This book changed the way I think about Transact-SQL as a language. It showed me ways of doing things that I never knew existed. It has techniques you will find nowhere else. My favorite things:- sp_generate_script - an ingenious piece of code no DBA should be without- the OLE Automation chapter - I had no idea you could do so many wonderful things with OLE Automation and T-SQL- the ranking and set queries - very clever use of some of the language's more essoteric features- the quotes that open each chapter - insightful and even downright funny at times- Henderson's dry wit and no-frills style of writing - this has produced my favorite technical book in years- Too many other things too numerous to listThe book is a work of art. Get your copy now and start learning from the guru.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Oracle SQL Interactive Workbook (2nd Edition)
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
Authors: Alice Rischert
Rating: 5/5
Title: Oracle SQL Interactive Workbook (2nd Edition)
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
Authors: Alice Rischert
Rating: 5/5
I really liked reading and doing the lessons in this book. The hands-on exercises are fantastic. Better yet, there were a few things I didn't understand clearly, and so I e-mailed the author and she answered any questions that I had. There are a few minor glitches in the book, some proof-read errors, which most of them are corrected on their web site which are listed on the errata page. I've already reported a couple errors that I found and they will update their proof-read error page. One annoying thing was having to turn back and forth to the back of the book to see the database schema diagram. The best thing to do is just photo copy the diagram so you don't have to constantly turn to the back of the book while doing the exercises.
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 learned enough from this book after only 2 1/2 weeks to pass my certification exam on the first try. The explanations of cursors, stored procedures, triggers, and free text searching are the best I have seen in any book, including those not specifically oriented to TSQL. This book would be a bargain at twice the price. Highly recommended.
