IT programming books related reviews
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Mastering Oracle SQL and SQL*Plus
Publisher: Apress
Authors: Lex de Haan
Rating: 5/5
Title: Mastering Oracle SQL and SQL*Plus
Publisher: Apress
Authors: Lex de Haan
Rating: 5/5
This book gets you started as a beginner and takes you all the way to becoming an intermediate SQL expert. Even those who think they know SQL can learn a lot from the book. Lex de Haan is a rare bird: he is both a very good teacher AND a consummate SQL savvy seasoned by industry practice. Lex knows what errors people make and he sets all the traps, to pick you out after you've fallen into them.
And it's up to date with the latest Oracle stuff, without drowning in hype.
The smart exercises and answers make this book ideal for teachers. I've had loads of university students work with the Dutch version, and I've been sorry for the lack of an English equivalent. But here it is at last!
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Apache Jakarta-Tomcat
Publisher: Apress
Authors: James Goodwill
Rating: 2/5
Title: Apache Jakarta-Tomcat
Publisher: Apress
Authors: James Goodwill
Rating: 2/5
This book adds very little to the online documentation provided by the tomcat team and seems to be published in a hurry just to be the first tomcat book in place. E.g. on p.103 at the end of chapter 5 you can read: "In the next chapter, we cover securing a Web application using the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)." Well, there is no such chapter in the whole book. The same at the end of chapter 12, where Goodwill promises a Chapter on integrating the XML Apache Soap project into Tomcat. Again, no such Chapter.
Covering the basics, the book does a good job, but as said, the provided ducumentation does it as well.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: PHP Essentials
Publisher: Muska & Lipman/Premier-Trade
Authors: Julie C. Meloni
Rating: 5/5
Title: PHP Essentials
Publisher: Muska & Lipman/Premier-Trade
Authors: Julie C. Meloni
Rating: 5/5
for the internet development beginner, this book is ideal. it opens with a historical background of php, a tutorial on developing a php server and then a review of html. such a beginning is unpretencious and informative for the inexperienced developer. the php tutorial is informative, clear and covers all of the basics in a well approached progression. i was able to go through the lessons in the book quickly. meloni's explinations and examples were fantastic. the author always answered my questions during in her explinations. this is a great book for someone, like myself, who has minimal experience in web development. i'd recommend this to anyone who is at the beginning of their web development career or education, working with developers using php or have any interest in learning the basics of web developement for personal or professional use.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites: Visual QuickPro Guide
Publisher: Peachpit Press
Authors: Larry Ullman
Rating: 3/5
Title: PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites: Visual QuickPro Guide
Publisher: Peachpit Press
Authors: Larry Ullman
Rating: 3/5
I've tried many PHP books. This one seems to be alright, it does explain smoothly how to start coding in PHP utlizing mySQL database. It has helped me design acomplish one of the big projects PHP+mySQL projects - procreative.ca. I also use some of the examples shown in the book to teach my students. If you are planning to get to know PHP in more detail i would recommend you also get PHP Core which is far more detailed.
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 maintain several ASP applications with MS SQL backends and with this book I'm able to do things with SQL queries I never thought possible.This book has a thorough index and great code examples making it a perfect reference manual for solving complex SQL query problems.This is the only book you'll need for Transact-SQL.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 2000 High Availability
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: Allan Hirt, Cathan Cook, Kimberley Tripp, Microsoft Corp, Microsoft Corporation, Frank McBath
Rating: 2/5
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 2000 High Availability
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: Allan Hirt, Cathan Cook, Kimberley Tripp, Microsoft Corp, Microsoft Corporation, Frank McBath
Rating: 2/5
I liked some things about this book:cluster chapter
hardware coverage
Windows Server 2003 tidbitsI didn't like other things:replication coverage - way to short to be useful. Doesn't tell much about high availability in relation to replicaton.bad advice - several things they recommend even I know better than to do. I got to the point where I started ingoring the recommendations and just hunted for facts to help me form my own conclusions.performance stuff -- its to weak and not discussed as much as it should be. I think you need to really go into performance issues when you talk about high availability because poor performance makes a system less available.I guess the final word is that this is a decent book that you might want to get if SQL SERVER high availability is something you need to know about. Just don't expect a great book.
Product: Book Hardcover
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Administrator's Companion (With CD-ROM)
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: Marcilina Garcia, Jamie Reding, Edward Whalen, Steve Adrien DeLuca
Rating: 5/5
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Administrator's Companion (With CD-ROM)
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: Marcilina Garcia, Jamie Reding, Edward Whalen, Steve Adrien DeLuca
Rating: 5/5
I found this book to be very helpful for people who have some database knowledge, but who are unfamiliar with SQL, and SQL server services. To this end, I found that this book has one of the most concise, and clear reference to the SQL language. I have read two tutorials before on the subject of SQL, but have always felt somehow that the ideas behind the language seem to elude me. Maybe the third time was the charm. After I read this particular book, I felt that I got a solid understanding of SQL, and I feel that I would be referring back to this book from time to time for its lucid explanation on SQL operations.Many previous posters have noted the abundance of tutorials for introducing users to how to use wizards. I find this a welcoming feature, as novices like me would certainly be comforted in knowing that there are such user-friendly features available in SQL to lower the learning curve. Nonetheless, some claims that the book lacked examples on how to use the T-SQL language is simply note true. The book provides corresponding examples of everything it covers in T-SQL script. So far, I have yet to find one script to fail executing on my default installation of SQL Server 2000. Those T-SQL scripts may not have the same sophistication as some other DBA books offer, they nonetheless provide a very good introduction to the novice in the field. I must also commend the author of this book in his clear style of writing. I didn't find a single instance where I was bogged down while reading this book by the complicated structure of the language. I find this to be an exceptional gift in any technical documentation.Overall, I found this book to be a perfect fit for my purpose. I have always resented books which packed too much information into too little space, and this book has shown that it has the right balance of material as it couldn't have hoped to be both a good introduction for novices and a "bible" for advanced users. I did not expect this to be the last book I will purchase on SQL Server, since it certainly doesn't cover the nitty-gritties of SQL Server as books like "Inside SQL Server 2000" do. As a first book, though, it is perfect.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Php Fast & Easy Web Development (Fast & Easy Web Development)
Publisher: Premier Press
Authors: Julie C. Meloni
Rating: 4/5
Title: Php Fast & Easy Web Development (Fast & Easy Web Development)
Publisher: Premier Press
Authors: Julie C. Meloni
Rating: 4/5
Overall, this book is a great introduction to PHP. The code examples are useful, and I have yet to find one that has errors in it. There are some formatting nuances in PHP that the author doesn't go into, and that would have helped. But the code from the CD-ROM worked fine when I ran into problems, and was useful in making comparisons. My biggest problem came in setting up MySQL -- I'm using Win2k and, like another reviewer, there are some real glitches that the book doesn't discuss. Luckily, I have enough experience that I was able to find my way around them, but more installation instructions would have helped. While this book is targeted at PHP, using MySQL is essential in how it's being implemented here, and therefore more information should have been included. There are a number of sites online dealing with PHP and MySQL (and also Apache Server, which comes with it), so finding what you need isn't too far away.I had one major concern regarding the installation files: When I scanned the CD, I found that one of the files on the Linux section had a virus in it...I don't know whether I got the warning because of Linux's use of multiple extensions or not, but I will be emailing the author/publisher regarding this. Overall, it's a great beginner's book, and a good intro to most of the types of PHP coding that you may find useful. When you're done with this one, you can move on to subjects like how to set up effective databases, normalization, etc., which are beyond the scope of this book. And if you have experience working with other online databases, you'll find this book a breeze to work through and a great place to get you going for more aggressive projects...
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Apache: The Definitive Guide (3rd Edition)
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Ben Laurie, Peter Laurie
Rating: 4/5
Title: Apache: The Definitive Guide (3rd Edition)
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Ben Laurie, Peter Laurie
Rating: 4/5
This book offers a step by step process of installing the Tomcat webserver
to Unix (primarily) and Windows servers. at every stage, the authors have
taken the time to include the information about windows operating system.the authors have taken the time to arrange the flow of the chapters to
match the events in a real world server configuration exercise of an
apache. the book also describes the differences in the versionf of Apache
for the benefit of users.In all, the book is good material for the not-so experienced apache users
like me.regards
Ravi Mahalingam
Columbia, SC Java Users group.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Advanced Transact-SQL for SQL Server 2000
Publisher: Apress
Authors: Itzik Ben-Gan, Tom Moreau
Rating: 1/5
Title: Advanced Transact-SQL for SQL Server 2000
Publisher: Apress
Authors: Itzik Ben-Gan, Tom Moreau
Rating: 1/5
Total waste of time. There must be an error or goof on every page. Worst code formatting I ever saw. On top of that, its pathetically bad writing. Returned mine Friday.
