IT programming books related reviews
Product: Book Paperback
Title: SQL Server 2000 for Experienced DBAs
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Brian Knight
Rating: 5/5
Title: SQL Server 2000 for Experienced DBAs
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Brian Knight
Rating: 5/5
If you are a DBA then the minimum knowledge that you need is included in this book. All the information in the chapters are necessary. If you were going to an interview and I was your interviewer you would need to aleast be able to answer the questions questions that you can find the answers to in this book. I am a frequenter of the sqlservercentral web site of which Brian is a Co-Founder. It is a great site. I would encourage you to go there and check it out. You can expect to receive the same quality from the site that you can in this book but maybe not the same topics. Great job Brian!
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Advanced Transact-SQL for SQL Server 2000
Publisher: Apress
Authors: Itzik Ben-Gan, Tom Moreau
Rating: 2/5
Title: Advanced Transact-SQL for SQL Server 2000
Publisher: Apress
Authors: Itzik Ben-Gan, Tom Moreau
Rating: 2/5
This book has lots of worked problems and solutions. For example, the authors show how to remove duplicates, handle hierarchies, auditing, pivot tables, password encryption, case sensitive searches, opening a cursor on a stored proc call, doing your own sort order, etc. It would be nice to have the code on CD, instead of downloading.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Beginning Php 4 (Programmer to Programmer)
Publisher: Peer Information
Authors: Chris Lea, Allan Kent, Ganesh Prasad, Chris Ullman
Rating: 2/5
Title: Beginning Php 4 (Programmer to Programmer)
Publisher: Peer Information
Authors: Chris Lea, Allan Kent, Ganesh Prasad, Chris Ullman
Rating: 2/5
This book reads as if someone recorded a group of teen-aged programmers telling someone how to write PHP scripts, and then simply transcribed what they said into a book. The style of writing is so sophomoric and the pacing is so distracting that I found it almost unreadable.The sentences are poorly constructed, and usually contain too many unnecessary words. I realize that the style is supposed to be casual, but it is possible to write in a casual style, without mixing metaphors, and adding words, in sentences like this one (from page 39):"Once we've established, at a fairly basic level, what goes on under the hood of PHP, we will take a look at some of the building blocks of the language, and how we can use PHP to store information in our web pages."First of all, is PHP like a car, or is like a building? Secondly, are we really going to learn how to store information in web pages? Don't you store information in files and databases and environment variables, and retrieve and display information on web pages? Perhaps the author of this
sentence meant that we will learn how to store information which we receive from users who have typed that information into forms on web pages.The quoted sentence could have been changed to something like:"In this chapter we will give a brief outline of how PHP works, and list some of its key features. We will also show how to display a web page which allows someone to enter information which the script will then store on a web server."It has been pointed out to me that the phrase "building blocks" in that sentence might refer to the components of PHP, or alternatively it might refer to the features of PHP being used as the building blocks of a system. In that case my suggested revision for the sentence would have to be changed. In either case, the sentence is confusing.I do not mean to single out this sentence in particular. This book is full of sentences like this.I suppose the authors of "Beginning PHP4" know something about PHP, but they don't seem to know the first thing about constructing a proper sentence. While it might be true that programming books should be written by programmers, they should be edited by professional editors.I usually buy the O'Reilly books, but my local bookstore was out of stock on O'Reilly PHP books, so I took a chance on this Wrox book. I now wish I had just gone to another store (and saved $00). I will certainly not buy another Wrox book again.Syd Allan
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Professional Data Warehousing with SQL Server 7.0 and OLAP Services
Publisher: Peer Information Inc.
Authors: Sakhr Youness
Rating: 5/5
Title: Professional Data Warehousing with SQL Server 7.0 and OLAP Services
Publisher: Peer Information Inc.
Authors: Sakhr Youness
Rating: 5/5
I found this book to be the best among several book I reviewed about SQL Server data warehousing and OLAP. It handles most topics in a way that sets you on the right path to knowing what you need to know to do the job. It did help me, as a beginner, to smoothly start my first MS OLAP project. Of course, no one book can equally cover aspects of data warehousing. Therefore, this book will serve more as an intro, and in some cases, more than an intro to the world of MS DW.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Official Guide to Mini SQL 2.0
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Authors: Brian Jepson, David J. Hughes
Rating: 5/5
Title: Official Guide to Mini SQL 2.0
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Authors: Brian Jepson, David J. Hughes
Rating: 5/5
Boy, was I glad when this book finally came out. Sure, there are mailing lists and discussion groups devoted to MiniSQL (aka mSQL), but what I really wanted was a well-edited, authoritative guide to the best nearly free SQL database implementation. "Official Guide to MiniSQL 2.0" is almost everything I was hoping for. It certainly is authoritative, given that mSQL's creator, David Hughes, is the coauthor. It's also comprehensive, covering not only what mSQL can do but also, and more importantly for practical purposes, how you can interface with mSQL via Java, Perl, and other languages by using existing APIs. The downside to that breadth of coverage, however, is fewer examples of complete database applications. Ironically, mSQL doesn't really need the in-depth coverage as much as do the various APIs (from MsqlPerl to DBD::mSQL). Nevertheless, "Offical Guide to MiniSQL 2.0" is an indispensable resource for anyone using or considering MiniSQL.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 2000: A Guide to Enhancements and New Features
Publisher: Pearson Education
Authors: Rahul Sharma
Rating: 5/5
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 2000: A Guide to Enhancements and New Features
Publisher: Pearson Education
Authors: Rahul Sharma
Rating: 5/5
I have been an avid reader of Mr.Sharma's article at swynk.com and sqlservercentral.com and like the way he presents the information. No munching of words, just pure technical information. He has done the same in this book. The chapters on performance issues, profiler, indexed views, collations and the section on Advanced DBA topics is very good.Even though the chapter on the XML Support in SS2k is good it only talks about openxml and the other native support provided in SQL Server, he should also have covered SQLXML as well which is one thing that is missing from the book. With the release of SQLXML 3.0, the XML functionality of SQL Server is very much enhanced. It is a very good book though, written with careful thought, illustrated with a lot of examples, no page fillers unlike most of the technical books out there. A definite buy.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Beginning PHP 5 and MySQL: From Novice to Professional
Publisher: Apress
Authors: W. J. Gilmore
Rating: 5/5
Title: Beginning PHP 5 and MySQL: From Novice to Professional
Publisher: Apress
Authors: W. J. Gilmore
Rating: 5/5
PHP 5 and MySQL is a GREAT book and with out a doubt a new book that is definitely going to be a keeper. This one will not spend much time on the shelf and I am retiring my PHP4 Developers book. I have already folded a hundred corners for reference and I am also picking up on some stuff that I hadn't picked up on before.Using C# Client with a PHP Web Service
This is a classic example of the diversity of the PHP language and it's ability to fit into even the most proprietary environments. C# is a good language but I learned something totally new here in this example.
I am recommending this book to all the people in the shop, beginner to expert, it works for all. EXCELLENT BOOK Jason!
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Essential PHP Tools: Modules, Extensions, and Accelerators
Publisher: Apress
Authors: David Sklar
Rating: 5/5
Title: Essential PHP Tools: Modules, Extensions, and Accelerators
Publisher: Apress
Authors: David Sklar
Rating: 5/5
I have found HTML & Smarty chapter very useful. You will also find other chapter useful if you have to work on them in real life projects. Overall very practical book.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: PHP and MySQL Web Development
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Luke Welling, Laura Thomson
Rating: 5/5
Title: PHP and MySQL Web Development
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Luke Welling, Laura Thomson
Rating: 5/5
This is one of the best sams books I have bought. I bought this book knowing nothing about mysql or php. This book has great examples and is clear and concise. If you know SQl and already have experience with a server side programming language then you wil have a web application up in a week. Even if you don't know anything about server side programming or sql this book will serve as a great intro for the two. I HIGHLY recommend this book.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: MCSE SQL Server 2000 Database Design Exam Cram (Exam: 70-229)
Publisher: Coriolis Group Books
Authors: Sean Chase, Richard McMahon
Rating: 2/5
Title: MCSE SQL Server 2000 Database Design Exam Cram (Exam: 70-229)
Publisher: Coriolis Group Books
Authors: Sean Chase, Richard McMahon
Rating: 2/5
I bought this book a couple months ago and I'm really disappointed because I found several wrong answers on it, not forgetting to mention the fact that several parts of this book are made from "topics". That's it. But... if I need to study by topics I'll go straight to Books Online, and not for this certification book, right?
My opinion: Look for another book. There must be other better than this.
