IT programming books related reviews
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Mastering Oracle SQL
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Sanjay Mishra, Alan Beaulieu
Rating: 5/5
Title: Mastering Oracle SQL
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Sanjay Mishra, Alan Beaulieu
Rating: 5/5
Must read for SQL and Oracle professionals. Covers in detail, join processing, subqueries with good examples.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Beginning Php 4 (Programmer to Programmer)
Publisher: Peer Information
Authors: Chris Lea, Allan Kent, Ganesh Prasad, Chris Ullman
Rating: 4/5
Title: Beginning Php 4 (Programmer to Programmer)
Publisher: Peer Information
Authors: Chris Lea, Allan Kent, Ganesh Prasad, Chris Ullman
Rating: 4/5
I knew basic HTML and that was it. I've had courses in C++ and VB, so I have some programming background. This book taught me the basics of PHP and MySQL. If you want to make small websites, this book is for you. I personally run a gaming guild website and this book taught me how to make great websites.
If you want to make gigantic websites though, I might choice another book, but if you are just the casual web programmer, get this book.
Product: Book Hardcover
Title: Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2000 (With CD-ROM)
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: Kalen Delaney
Rating: 1/5
Title: Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2000 (With CD-ROM)
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: Kalen Delaney
Rating: 1/5
This book isn't for the raw beginner. It does assume a certain level of familiarity with the product, but not necessarily any particular version. It covers just about every internal component of SQL Server in depth. Since many components in SQL Sever didn't change between 7.0 and 2000, some of the topics had few changes. But don't let that stop you from upgrading your book when you upgrade your software. There are changes and new features laid out in detail in the book, and there is always something to go back and get a refresher on. This book is invaluable as a troubleshooting reference, as well as in the proper physical design of a database. The concepts in this book give the reader a solid foundation for understanding how and why internal things work the way they do. Once you understand the internals, you can follow up with other books on the bells and whistles that exist outside of the internal engines.
Product: Book Hardcover
Title: Oracle8i Certified Professional SQL & PL/SQL Exam Guide
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
Authors: Jason S. Couchman
Rating: 3/5
Title: Oracle8i Certified Professional SQL & PL/SQL Exam Guide
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
Authors: Jason S. Couchman
Rating: 3/5
It is a decent book. I believe using this book alone you will not pass the test. Unless you have been working on oracle for a while. I used this book as supplement of the Sybex study guide. The practice exam questions were helpful. I passed my exam (1z0-001) on March 29, 2004 relying on the Sybex Study Guide. I would not recommend this book to someone new to oracle but I can recommend that as second reference.
I give 3 stars.
Product: Book Mass Market Paperback
Title: McSe Exam Notes: SQL Server 6.5 Administration (Certificaiton Study Guide)
Publisher: Sybex Inc
Authors: Rick Sawtell, Lance Mortensen
Rating: 4/5
Title: McSe Exam Notes: SQL Server 6.5 Administration (Certificaiton Study Guide)
Publisher: Sybex Inc
Authors: Rick Sawtell, Lance Mortensen
Rating: 4/5
This is one of 2 books I'm using for preparation. It is clearly written and well laid out. The only criticisms I have are the simplicity of the questions (which I would say do not prepare you for the real exam) and the extra information in some sections (usually preceded by "this is not in the exam but is useful to know"). This type of information does not belong in a book entitled "Exam Notes" which should be just the exam facts. What I don't understand is how Study Guides and Exam Notes are around the same length. Shouldn't the study notes be a very compressed version of the Study Guide? Don't get fooled into buying the study guide, test success and exam notes as they are as verbose as each other.
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
I bought the book because of the O'Reilly Nutshell label. However, I should have realized from the start how thin it was (200 pages). Not only is this book think physically, it's thin in every sense of the word. I was hoping for a very complete reference. Instead, SQL in a Nutshell is woefully shallow. For example, it spends only about 20 small, well-spaced pages on the SELECT statement. 20 pages to cover what is arguably the most important statement in all of SQL. Throughout the book, Kline skimps on the specific quirks of each RDBMS. You'd be much better off reading the doc set for whatever RDBMS you choose.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: SQL Server Backup and Recovery: Tools and Techniques
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
Authors: Frank McBath
Rating: 5/5
Title: SQL Server Backup and Recovery: Tools and Techniques
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
Authors: Frank McBath
Rating: 5/5
Just got back from the book store and spent a bit reading this book. It's actually quite good. McBath makes the assumption that you are a DBA. Not someone who reads Gartner reports and goes to meetings.I've become accustomed to a wide variety of lame backup and recovery books. A good example is Anil Desai's... long on planning, but short on how to actually do the work. In his book, backups don't actually start till chapter 6! Easily 2/3 of the book is fluff. For example, Desai talks about log shipping-- 5 pages. McBath has a whole chapter on it in a how-to format. BOL doesn't cover it in depth, and where it does, it's wrong (ie. sp_change_primary_role example is wrong on fail over). SQL Server Resource Kit has a whole chapter on it, but not one example of how to implement. Long on theory, short on getting it done-- typical of MS Press books.The book covers just about all the methods for backing up and recovery using standard tools. It also covers using DBCC to recovery data. Then it expands out into rebuilding your stuff from scratch and reloading it (ex. I lost my master database and here's what I got to do). McBath's book tells you what breaks along the way and how to fix it. Anyone who's had to rebuild master and got in that infinite loop problem knows the hard way. McBath tells you about the problem *BEFORE* you hit it and how to work around it. The Desai book doesn't even tell you how to properly bring the SQL Server into single user.This is also the only book out there... including Delaney's... that actually flow charts the sequence of events on how a backup and recovery actually work internally. LSN's, GAM Pages, etc... That way you get the theory as well as the practical I-got-to-get-my-job-done stuff. The section on DBCCs is the first place I've seen where it's pretty much explained well. Delaney's book is also great here, but McBath put's it in context for recovery of data. The straight dope is here. It's dialed in right.Another interesting point was he shows you the output of the scripts. That way you can see what it's supposed to do *BEFORE* you do it on your box. By doing this, he's also showing you that the scripts have been tested and run, too.What I liked most was that it used the GUI and T-SQL scripts. This is great cause most people use a GUI which you can't script in SQL Agent, etc... What's also cool is the Mohan/Narang paper as the appendix. Mohan outlined the ARIES Write Ahead Log (WAL) protocol recovery mechanism that SQL Server is premised upon. I wish there was more intro to it here. It's just tacked on the back. But this is just gold.Stuff missing that would be cool: Covering third party tools like Legato. In a major data center, they are mandatory.Finally a book for SQL Server that rivals Oracle Press's long standing tome on Backup and Recovery by Velpuri.McBath's book is non-stop backup and recovery issues from beginning to end.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Google Hacks Exposed: Improving Your Rank On Google
Publisher: Global Niches
Authors: Kevin Prag
Rating: 1/5
Title: Google Hacks Exposed: Improving Your Rank On Google
Publisher: Global Niches
Authors: Kevin Prag
Rating: 1/5
Read the first two (oldest) reviews and see how similar the writing styles and commentary are, when compared to the author's (review before this one). All three were written by the same person IMO. Sad... and it might even be a decent book for all I know. But I won't support anyone who spams Amazon's rankings, and I think it's very possible in this case. Easy enough to set up multiple accounts and post things from different ones over time....
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Murach's SQL for SQL Server
Publisher: Mike Murach & Associates
Authors: Bryan Syverson
Rating: 5/5
Title: Murach's SQL for SQL Server
Publisher: Mike Murach & Associates
Authors: Bryan Syverson
Rating: 5/5
Murach's SQL For SQL Server is a comprehensive reference and professional training manual for computer programmers which offers both basic and advanced tutorials in such things as how to write SQL queries that retrieve and update the stored contents of a Microsoft SQL Server database; designing databases; and using features embraced by professions such as triggers, locking and security, stored procedures; and much, much more. A solid guide packed with examples, tips, tricks, and techniques, Murach's SQL For SQL Server also includes a CD-ROM containing the Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine, Microsoft SQL Server Enterprise Evaluation Edition, Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Books Online, five databases that can be used in conjunction with the text, examples from the book, and a great deal more. Murach's SQL For SQL Server is an invaluable and highly recommended addition to SQL oriented reference collections.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Teach Yourself Pl/SQL in 21 Days (Sams Teach Yourself)
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Tom Luers, Timothy Atwood, Jonathan Gennick
Rating: 5/5
Title: Teach Yourself Pl/SQL in 21 Days (Sams Teach Yourself)
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Tom Luers, Timothy Atwood, Jonathan Gennick
Rating: 5/5
I've found this book very helpfu
