IT programming books related reviews
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Google for Dummies
Publisher: For Dummies
Authors: Brad Hill
Rating: 5/5
Title: Google for Dummies
Publisher: For Dummies
Authors: Brad Hill
Rating: 5/5
Part how-to and part reference, Google for Dummies is Brad Hill's newest title in the For Dummies series. Hill, whose Internet Searching For Dummies has undergone three updates, says that if he does another, it will contain the single sentence "Go to Google." He cites Google's 36-word home-page design, its accuracy and ability to almost read minds, and its behind-the-scenes offerings. Google lets you access an enormous images database, as well as news, directories, and groups, get instant stock quotes, search pages of thousands of mail-order catalogues, look up words and translate text, find someone's phone number or address, search in only the titles of web pages, play Google games, navigate search results using keys rather than the mouse, become an expert at specialty searches, get answers with Google's for-pay research service, and try out Google Labs, an open testing area.Want to start your own weblog? Google helps you do it for free on its Blogger.com site. For Dummies fans know you will find concise information laced with humor - lots of it, loads of icons and other navigational aids, a tear-out cheat sheet that highlights the best features and shortcuts, and lists of tips. You're guaranteed to chuckle when you translate your favorite English words into these languages: Elmer Fudd, Pig Latin, Hacker, Interlingua, and Klingon.The downside is learning that the Google Toolbar, which the author says is guaranteed to change your life by streamlining and consolidating search abilities, is not available to Mac users. You won't be able to use the pop-up ad blocker or practice one-click blog posting from the Google Toolbar. This book may contain more about Google than you ever wanted or needed to know, and it's not cheap. But if you want to discover all the nuances of Google, which daily searches over 200 million queries in 90 languages and has better brand recognition than Coca-Cola and Starbucks, you'll want to own this title.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: MCSA/MCSE/MCDBA: SQL Server 2000 Administration Study Guide, 2nd Edition (70-228)
Publisher: Sybex
Authors: Rick Sawtell, Joseph L. Jorden, Lance Mortensen, Joseph Jorden, Lance Mortensen, Rick Sawtell
Rating: 3/5
Title: MCSA/MCSE/MCDBA: SQL Server 2000 Administration Study Guide, 2nd Edition (70-228)
Publisher: Sybex
Authors: Rick Sawtell, Joseph L. Jorden, Lance Mortensen, Joseph Jorden, Lance Mortensen, Rick Sawtell
Rating: 3/5
I just got out of 70-228, having failed for the second time in a row. I used this guide AND the Transcender tests, and still failed. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you say... Must be his fault. I'd be inclined to think so myself, but I'm an MCSE and an MCSD for .NET, part of which was 70-229, and I know the whole certification drill by heart. I've reviewed the areas where I did the worst, looked for the topics in the book, and found the book to have pretty thin coverage. It's still a pretty good book, and the format is effective, hence the 3 stars, but the results speak for themselves. I'm off to the store to see the Micrsoft materials for this topic, which got very rare rave reviews.
Product: Book Hardcover
Title: Oracle8i Certified Professional SQL & PL/SQL Exam Guide
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
Authors: Jason S. Couchman
Rating: 2/5
Title: Oracle8i Certified Professional SQL & PL/SQL Exam Guide
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
Authors: Jason S. Couchman
Rating: 2/5
This book is comprehensive and easy to understand, but contains many errors and contradictions. The Excercise questions are often vague or outright wrong. Furthermore the answer is just what letter is write with no explanation.My advice go elsewhere. I hear SYBEX is good.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Oracle DBA SQL Quick Reference
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
Authors: Charlie Russel, Robert Cordingley
Rating: 4/5
Title: Oracle DBA SQL Quick Reference
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
Authors: Charlie Russel, Robert Cordingley
Rating: 4/5
Remember the early days of Oracle's products? Now we've reached the heights of Oracle 9i. How things are grown. The multiple table joins; the many obscure syntactical variants added by what are now centuries of person years of coding. Perhaps it is inevitable that any successful software will continually add refinements that increase its capabilities, but usually this is done at a concomitant loss of simplicity. Typically you as a database administrator will rarely use most features. But how to find the occasional rarity that you need, and have forgotten (or perhaps never knew)?By definition, the vendor's manuals are authoritative. But often these fall short in usability or pedagogy. (Oracle is by no means alone in this.) So here, Russel and Cordingley give you an independent, simple index into 9i. A quick perusal shows no index. But a second look shows that the entire book is really a graphical index into, and a refresher of, the command syntax. Like conventional indices, the book does not attempt to explain its entries. For example, on page 146, we see a graph for "add hash substitution". They assume you know what this means, but that you need a quick reminder of HOW to invoke it. Given that you have the database and its online help accessible (otherwise why would you need this book?), this is a fair assumption. Clearly, you can consult the online or hardcopy documentation for more information. The stress in the book is on simplicity. There is a little irony here. A database is a means whereby you can store data in a silo and easily get summaries and subsets ("views") of it. When you strip away the technical jargon, every database package aspires to this. If you regard the commands and capabilities of a database as data (or metadata), then you cannot usually change these. But how do you get summaries and views of THIS data? That is what the vendor's online help and documentation is all about. The irony about this book is not that it was written, but that it was not written by Oracle. The vendor's raison d'etre is to provide tools for access to information. But here, others have seen a need to write another tool to get at the vendor's own data.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Unleashed (2nd Edition)
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Ray Rankins, Paul Jensen, Paul Bertucci
Rating: 5/5
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Unleashed (2nd Edition)
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Ray Rankins, Paul Jensen, Paul Bertucci
Rating: 5/5
Computer books must sell on weight because so many are filled with unnecessary bumph to add padding. NOT the case with this book, every page is filled with constructive detailed information put into plain English. The knowledge and experience of the authors shines through and I have used much of the wisdom parted with in this book in numerous situations at work - it has a permanent place on my desk. This book also helped me pass the Microsoft SQL Server exams.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: SQL In A Nutshell, 2nd Edition
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Kevin Kline, Daniel Kline, Brand Hunt
Rating: 2/5
Title: SQL In A Nutshell, 2nd Edition
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Kevin Kline, Daniel Kline, Brand Hunt
Rating: 2/5
The problem with this book is that it covers various SQL dialects, but don't tell you how to convert between them. Because of this basic flaw the book falls flat on its face as far as I'm concerned.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Optimizing Transact-SQL : Advanced Programming Techniques
Publisher: SQL Forum Press
Authors: David Rozenshtein, Anatoly Abramovich, Eugene Birger
Rating: 4/5
Title: Optimizing Transact-SQL : Advanced Programming Techniques
Publisher: SQL Forum Press
Authors: David Rozenshtein, Anatoly Abramovich, Eugene Birger
Rating: 4/5
This book shows how to build better SQL. I find the info useful in building higher performance SQL statements.
Product: Book Hardcover
Title: MCDBA Administering SQL Server 2000 Study Guide (Exam 70-228)
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Joyjit Mukherjee
Rating: 5/5
Title: MCDBA Administering SQL Server 2000 Study Guide (Exam 70-228)
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Joyjit Mukherjee
Rating: 5/5
The questions and simulations provided in the CD are very helpful for preparing the exam, 70-228. The exam watch tips were excellent. Overall, the book is a tremendous help for preparing for the exam.
Product: Book Hardcover
Title: MCDBA SQL Server 2000 All-in-One Exam Guide (Book/CD Set)
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
Authors: Dave Perkovich
Rating: 1/5
Title: MCDBA SQL Server 2000 All-in-One Exam Guide (Book/CD Set)
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
Authors: Dave Perkovich
Rating: 1/5
I thought this was an OK book until I took the SQL Server 2000 certification exams. Total trash! Luckily, I had also studied Rob Vieira's book, Professional SQL Server 2000 Programming. Stay away!
Product: Book Unknown Binding
Title: Special Edition Using Microsoft SQL Server 7.0
Publisher: Que
Authors: Stephen Wynkoop
Rating: 2/5
Title: Special Edition Using Microsoft SQL Server 7.0
Publisher: Que
Authors: Stephen Wynkoop
Rating: 2/5
This book is a great resource! The layout is in very logical segments with some great examples. I look forward to using this book for a long time to come.
