IT programming books related reviews
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Portable DBA: SQL Server
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Damir Bersinic, Stephen Giles
Rating: 5/5
Title: Portable DBA: SQL Server
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Damir Bersinic, Stephen Giles
Rating: 5/5
This was a great read! Very concise and packed with useful information that no DBA should be without. Whether you are a SQL specialist already or new to SQL altogether, this book is packed with great information in one, small and manageable format and an easy read. Kudos to Steve and Damir!
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 Database Implementation Training Kit (Training Kit)
Publisher: Microsoft Press Rating: 2/5
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 Database Implementation Training Kit (Training Kit)
Publisher: Microsoft Press Rating: 2/5
The book, the accompanying CD and Books on Line are enough to pass... although it took me over 2 monthes of reading/practice/study ! (Books On Line comes FREE from MS with SQL ... SQL comes FREE with this book) In most other MS exams, you can pretty much zip through them ... this exam covered a ton. The materials presented in this book, if studied and practiced, will be enough to pass ('nuff said ?)
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: 4/5
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: 4/5
This book is not his basic volume in SQL, but his advanced volume. It helps you along explaining different issues with an excellent explanation of NULLS, their pros and their cons. It gives examples of solving problems in different SQL ways. A great buy.
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
O9iJP is loaded with examples, on integrating Java with Oracle technologies such as PL/SQL, SQL*Loader, interMedia Text, and more. Rather than a guide to Java, JDBC or PL/SQL, this book is first and foremost a collection of useful tips and tricks, that I found of great value.For example, in one of my own applications, I had been using C procs for extended file handling (working with directories, etc.). The file handling package developed and illustrated O9iJP showed me a much better alternative, as I had been having contsant maintenance problems with the C procs (related to listener setup, etc.).
Product: Book Paperback
Title: PHP-Nuke Garage
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
Authors: Don Jones
Rating: 5/5
Title: PHP-Nuke Garage
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
Authors: Don Jones
Rating: 5/5
This is a well written overview of Nuke. It lays out step by step instructions on how to maintain Nuke. I disagree with the review that states the book is useless since it doesn't go into detailed install instructions. The install of Nuke is very easy if you can't install it on your server, you shouldn't be hosting yourself.
I agree you need some html and basic skills to operate Nuke, but this book makes it easy.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: PHP Bible, 2nd Edition
Publisher: Wiley
Authors: Tim Converse, Joyce Park
Rating: 2/5
Title: PHP Bible, 2nd Edition
Publisher: Wiley
Authors: Tim Converse, Joyce Park
Rating: 2/5
At first sight, it looks a nice book and after you notice its hundreds of pages you may think "I've found THE book to start learning PHP". Nothing could be more wrong!! If you know nothing about PHP just stay away of this book. It's not well structured (you hardly find what you want by using the index), the author wastes paper with silly advices (not speaking about the first chapters which are really needless) and the examples all along the book don't work as an invitation to keep reading it... I bought it as a victim of a good marketing operation but now I sell it together with MySQL Bible on a good price to those who don't believe me.
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
I didn't find anything in this book that make it worth purchasing. The writing is terrible, as several others have pointed out, and there's really nothing advanced about the examples. The topics are hit and miss - sometimes they cover essential topics, sometimes they don't.This is one of those books that proves the old adage, "The mere fact that you believe you have something to say doesn't mean it's worth saying." :-)
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft SQL Server 2000 in 21 Days (2nd Edition, Book Only)
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Richard Waymire, Rick Sawtell
Rating: 4/5
Title: Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft SQL Server 2000 in 21 Days (2nd Edition, Book Only)
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Richard Waymire, Rick Sawtell
Rating: 4/5
Excellent book for beginners. I passed my MCP exam using this book. However there are some concepts like replication and data warehousing which are not covered in detail.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Oracle SQL High-Performance Tuning (2nd Edition)
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
Authors: Guy Harrison
Rating: 5/5
Title: Oracle SQL High-Performance Tuning (2nd Edition)
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
Authors: Guy Harrison
Rating: 5/5
This book has it all. I cannot recommend it highly enough. I can only hope that there are similar books available if my work ever shifts to competing databases. After 3 years of working with Oracle 7, I've only amassed about 1% of the practical knowledge and insights that Mr. Harrison shares with us in this book. Like the title suggests, it teaches Oracle database and SQL statement performance tuning rules, strategies and tips. However, it also dips into other valuable topics like principles of indexing, explaining the ever-mysterious tkprof output, configuring and tuning the database server itself, and listing other resources to fill the void of Oracle documentation. This book and Fuerstein's PL/SQL programming book have become standard issue for all developers on our project.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Bible with CD-ROM
Publisher: Wiley
Authors: Paul Nielsen
Rating: 3/5
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Bible with CD-ROM
Publisher: Wiley
Authors: Paul Nielsen
Rating: 3/5
I have never seen such a poorly edited book. If you know a lot about databases already, it's a good book to introduce you to SQL Server (say, if you're coming from Oracle). But if you're new to a lot of the concepts, I'd worry that the egregious mistakes on almost every page could lead you astray. E.g., Table 7-1, page 217 lists a Full Outer Join as "Matches rows using a non-equal condition" and a Theta Join as "Includes all the rows from both tables regardless of whether a match exists." WRONG! Obviously the descriptions have just been transposed, but this is the case throughout the text - the content is there, but it's like it's been put through a blender. The text is rife with typos and grammatical errors - in the *same* table Cartesian is spelled "cartisian", lovely. Was this written on a typewriter? This book, like every other 800-page, screenshot-laden, icons-in-the-margins, third-party, version-specific software reference, was obviously slammed out in a hurry and shoved through the process without any concern for quality, but having said that, I still give it three stars, because it's useful if you can tolerate its barely readable text.
