IT programming books related reviews
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes, Third Edition
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Ben Forta
Rating: 5/5
Title: Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes, Third Edition
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Ben Forta
Rating: 5/5
I would give this book only one star, but because it did do a good job of explaining the SQL language, I'm going to give it two. Not once in this book did they explain MySQL, which is the most popular database used today. Also, the book did cover ASP a little, but no PHP. How can you have a book about SQL and not cover the topics of PHP and MySQL, even if for a brief moment. However, they did cover Microsoft SQL Server, a commercial database server which most people will never have to interact with, and of all things, Microsoft Query. I didn't even know Microsoft still did this. They also covered Oracle, another important DBMS, but again people, Oracle is something only encountered in a commercial world. It is a great system, but most of us will not have to worry about it. And finally, the title totally throws the readers off. It is impossible to learn SQL in ten minutes. Besides the fact that most people can't read an entire book in ten minutes, it's impossible to comprehend all the material the book gives you in ten minutes. But anyway, if you're looking to get some information on how to use SQL with MySQL, or if you plan to use PHP to connect to your database, DON'T BUY THIS BOOK! It will not help you at all.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Oracle PL/SQL Programming, Third Edition
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Steven Feuerstein
Rating: 4/5
Title: Oracle PL/SQL Programming, Third Edition
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Steven Feuerstein
Rating: 4/5
I was introducted to this book as a student at DeVry Institute of Technology located in Dallas, TX. While this book is not adequate for those with no knowledge of relational database methodology of SQL experience, it is a great reference and tutorial for those who have prior knowledge of basic SQL. The book provides many examples of coding, along with guides illustrating debugging techniques. For those interested in SQL or an introduction into relational databases, I suggest both the Modern Database Management book (ISBN: 0-8053-6054-9) and the LAN Times Guide to SQL book (ISBN: 0-07-882026-X).
Product: Book Paperback
Title: PHP-Nuke Garage
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
Authors: Don Jones
Rating: 4/5
Title: PHP-Nuke Garage
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
Authors: Don Jones
Rating: 4/5
A painfully forced attempt at a hipster ambience. What with the cool shades of green and the musical instruments backdrop across the chapters. But in spite of this, and not because, it is still a decent read.
Jones makes a good case fo adopting PHP-Nuke to develop out and maintain a small website, that solicits user input in the form of content that will usually be later published on the site. The modules are more than just for making web pages. There are also crucial hooks to SQL databases. Which you'll need for more realistic scenarios.
You should know some HTML before venturing here. A lot of his code examples become easy to follow with this background, along with some experience of the basic operation of web servers. He discusses HTML page layout and how the program does seem to make development easier. But it is primarily for managing content, of course. Graphical layout is adequate but not really even in its remit. (For that, check out Dreamweaver for a more comprehensive treatment.) It's the manifold abilities like users having journals and making submissions and the like that are the focus.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Essential PHP Tools: Modules, Extensions, and Accelerators
Publisher: Apress
Authors: David Sklar
Rating: 3/5
Title: Essential PHP Tools: Modules, Extensions, and Accelerators
Publisher: Apress
Authors: David Sklar
Rating: 3/5
This book does alert you to many useful modues, extensions and accelerators and given that many of these are open source and their documentation can be skimpy, it's good to have examples and documentation from another source.
However, this book is not comprehensive in it's coverage of said modules, extensions and accelerators and in areas where it covers material already explained in the documentation, I preferred the original documentation's style and explanations. The book does mention things that the original documention does not, but the original documentation talks about things that the book does not.
In short, I had to read both the documentation and the book to fully understand the code.
Product:
Title:
Publisher: Rating: 5/5
Title:
Publisher: Rating: 5/5
I found this book very good and helpful. :-
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 System Administration Online Training Kit (It-Online Training Kit)
Publisher: Microsoft Pr Rating: 4/5
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 System Administration Online Training Kit (It-Online Training Kit)
Publisher: Microsoft Pr Rating: 4/5
I guess a review should really be more critic rather than blessing, so that other readers can use the review to decide and judge whether this kit is suitable for them.3.5 stars on material and 4 stars for online training presentation.1. There are mistakes in the quiz's questions and answers, such as:- 'All three drives' should be 'All four drives' instead, 'DLL' which should be 'DDL', syntax errors and etc.2. There is also a session 'Publishing Database Data on the Web' under chapter 'Automating Administrative Tasks' with pre-asseement quiz and final quiz questions which are completely irrelevant to the session material.3. Not enough administrative coverage. Does not covers:- Metadata, Linked Servers, Remote Servers, Full Text Search and etc.A good overall training kit for the subject of administering SQL Server 7. However, still, this kit itself should be treated as a real-time lecture only. You will need to use other books (such as 'Inside MS SQL Server 7', 'Books Online') as technical references and allow you to do more research into the corresponding readiness review simulation questions and understand the reasons and theory behind it.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Database-SQL-Rdbms Howto: Postgresql Object Relational Database System
Publisher: Iuniverse Inc
Authors: Al Dev
Rating: 5/5
Title: Database-SQL-Rdbms Howto: Postgresql Object Relational Database System
Publisher: Iuniverse Inc
Authors: Al Dev
Rating: 5/5
I think this is a great and informative book for getting aroudn with Postgres.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Transact SQL User Defined Functions
Publisher: Wordware Publishing, Inc.
Authors: Andrew Novick
Rating: 5/5
Title: Transact SQL User Defined Functions
Publisher: Wordware Publishing, Inc.
Authors: Andrew Novick
Rating: 5/5
The author did a great job describing User Defined Functions, how they are used, how they should NOT be used. It is a great book for people who don't know what User Defined Functions are and even for people who do. Even though I have used UDF's before, there were some great tips of when to use them and when not to.I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in UDF's and even those who are not. It will open the eyes of people who write TSQL on different ways to solve some of the simple problems you are faced with in writing TSQL.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Sams Teach Yourself PHP, MySQL and Apache in 24 Hours
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Julie C. Meloni
Rating: 4/5
Title: Sams Teach Yourself PHP, MySQL and Apache in 24 Hours
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Julie C. Meloni
Rating: 4/5
The author has posted errata, and there are only like 5 things, only 1 of which is an actual error. And that error doesn't even cause a "parse" error, just something you have to look hard to find. I gave this book to some of our junior level admins to get them up to speed on our development environment and they flew right through it and know a lot more than they did when they started. the author says over and over where to get help if there is a problem with installation, and how to determine where your errors are if something in your script is not working. but to say this is a bad or confusing book just makes no sense. I'm an IT manager and this book does a very good job of pulling from the three books to give you just what you need to get started. you're not supposed to get this book if you've been using these things for any great amount of time -- it's a beginner's book, it says that, and it is that. and it is a good one!
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 Unleashed
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Sharon Bjeletich, Greg Mable
Rating: 5/5
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 Unleashed
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Sharon Bjeletich, Greg Mable
Rating: 5/5
As a SQL Server DBA at a large retail company, I have to use Replication and Tunning up all the time, this book came at the right time to give me full of good information regarding SQL 7.0.Migrating to SQL Serverv 7.0 was of a good help too. Thank you.
