IT programming books related reviews
Product: Book Paperback
Title: The Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: Ken Henderson
Rating: 5/5
Title: The Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: Ken Henderson
Rating: 5/5
If you find yourself writing T-Sql code this book is an absolute gold mine! Unlike most other books that are dry and extremely difficult to read and full of pages and pages of useless examples and screen shots this book is full of techniques and advices that one would use everyday! I read this book cover to cover and find myself going back to it time and time again. Great book, Great author! I am anxiously awaiting the Guru's Guide to Sql Server Architecture.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Professional SQL Server 7.0 Programming
Publisher: Wrox Press
Authors: Rob Vieira
Rating: 4/5
Title: Professional SQL Server 7.0 Programming
Publisher: Wrox Press
Authors: Rob Vieira
Rating: 4/5
I used this book to prepare for exam 70-029 and have passed with a score of 857. It covers all the topics required for this exam. It is not exactly exam oriented, but makes your foundation of SQL server very strong. I also used transcender to prepare for this exam.I like Mr Vieira's sense of humor (the key, the whole key and nothing but the key so help you Codd) :-) I didn't have any experience in sql server and found this book very helpful as my first book of sql server.
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
Most of this book is little more than a rehash of the Books Online. If you need a print of the BOL, get this book. If instead you're looking for an advanced Transact-SQL book, don't get this book. It's not advanced in the least.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Core PHP Programming, Third Edition
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
Authors: Leon Atkinson, Zeev Suraski
Rating: 1/5
Title: Core PHP Programming, Third Edition
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
Authors: Leon Atkinson, Zeev Suraski
Rating: 1/5
yeah, i had to agree with the negative reviews. this book isn't very good. it reads like bad vcr instructions or something.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Microsoft SQL Server Training: Hands-On, Self-Paced Training for Microsoft SQL Server Version 6.5
Publisher: Microsoft Pr Rating: 2/5
Title: Microsoft SQL Server Training: Hands-On, Self-Paced Training for Microsoft SQL Server Version 6.5
Publisher: Microsoft Pr Rating: 2/5
I found the two books to be lacking in subject depth. Many times there would be a statement of fact which I knew meant nothing, but instead of following the statement of inference with the underlying facts the author would just go merrily on his way with the next subject. This collection of two books and a CD was worth about $19.95 instead of the $160 required to find out it's uslessness. If I could get my money back I would and if someone other than the authors immediate family had written in a review I would have never bought this kit. I think Microsoft Press should either rewrite this kit or take it off the market.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: SQL Server 2000 Programming by Example
Publisher: Que
Authors: Carlos Rojas, Fernando Guerrero
Rating: 5/5
Title: SQL Server 2000 Programming by Example
Publisher: Que
Authors: Carlos Rojas, Fernando Guerrero
Rating: 5/5
I've been teaching college database classes for years, and although I prefer to teach MySQL, it's important for serious IT students to get some experience on a full-blown enterprise database server, and for that I use MS SQL Server.
This is the only usable text I've found for developers who need to learn the fundamentals for constraints, triggers, stored procedures, etc. Most SQL Server books are about administration, and barely touch upon programming topics. Many of those targeting developers rely upon some custom database dreamed up by the author that pales beside the standard samples of pubs and Northwind included with the SQL Server product. The worst books trot out database basics that might be best learned using MS Access.
The authors walk through every operation with standalone examples using either pubs or Northwind, with dozens of code listings for each chapter. You might need to complete a few consecutive listings, but there are no long-running dependencies where the authors want you to follow their development project from start to finish. You can dive in and out of this book at any point with no set up required.
The tone is straighforward with clear explanations, definitions, and tips. No chitchat or bull gets in the way. There are some illustrative figures, but no page after page of useless screenshots. Like the Que series claims, you learn By Example--cranking out the listings yourself to see things work.
A relly nice book for students or professionals from beginning to intermediate levels. Oh yeah...the price is right.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Intrusion Detection with SNORT: Advanced IDS Techniques Using SNORT, Apache, MySQL, PHP, and ACID
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
Authors: Rafeeq Rehman
Rating: 3/5
Title: Intrusion Detection with SNORT: Advanced IDS Techniques Using SNORT, Apache, MySQL, PHP, and ACID
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
Authors: Rafeeq Rehman
Rating: 3/5
"Intrusion Detection with Snort: Advanced IDS, etc." (IDWS) was the second of this year's intrusion detection books I've reviewed. The first was Tim Crothers' "Implementing Intrusion Detection Systems" (4 stars). I was disappointed by IDWS, since I have a high opinion of Prentice Hall and the new "Bruce Perens' Open Source Series." (I'm looking forward to the book on CIFS, for example.) IDWS read poorly and doesn't deliver as much useful content as the competing Syngress book "Snort 2.0."
The most difficult aspect of reading IDWS is the author's grammar, particularly his avoidance of using definitive articles like "the", and other important words. For instance, p. 3 says "Apache web server takes help from ACID, etc." p. 133 claims "However, if you are using HTTP decode preprocessor, this attempt can detected." Beyond grammar, the author demonstrates weak knowledge of the IDS field, stating on p. 1 "Intrusion detection methods starting appearing in the last few years." James Anderson led the way in 1980, followed by Denning and Neumann in 1983 and Todd Heberlein in 1990! The author also repeatedly compares IDS to anti-virus signatures, which is simplistic and incorrect.
Technical errors further hamper IDWS. p. 89 makes the mistake of saying TCP sequence numbers count packets; they really count bytes of application data. p. 96-97 confuses the use of standard Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) with their use in Snort, which is different. (SF+ means SYN and FIN and zero or more other flags, not SYN AND FIN alone.) The fuzzy diagrams don't appear professional, and acronyms like "PHP" are defined incorrectly as "Pretty Home Page" (rather than the self-referencing "PHP Hypertext Processor.")
Coverage of important topics is lacking or outdated. First, Snort 1.9 is the basis for the text. However, 2.0 is available and covered by the Syngress book. The output system Barnyard and unified logging receive a total of one page. No meaningful mention is made of the effects of collecting traffic via hub, SPAN port, or tap. The port list on pp. 87-88 shows "well known ports," but doesn't say if they are TCP or UDP. The author makes odd claims about Snort "not [being] able to analyze application layer protocols," which is misleading. Snort rules aren't designed specifically for HTTP, for example, but they can be used to inspect HTTP requests and responses.
My favorite part of IDWS was the coverage of using the MySQL database. Appendix B provides helpful supplemental material on this subject also. Bottom line: I would pass on IDWS but keep an eye on the other titles in the PHPTR "Open Source Series."
Product: Book Paperback
Title: SQL Server 2000 Stored Procedure & XML Programming, Second Edition
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Dejan Sunderic
Rating: 5/5
Title: SQL Server 2000 Stored Procedure & XML Programming, Second Edition
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Dejan Sunderic
Rating: 5/5
Extremely helpful for SQL/XML. Great examples. Very simple to understand. Author has an interative way of writing. Last 4 chapters are a must read for any SQL developer.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: XML and PHP
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Vikram Vaswani
Rating: 4/5
Title: XML and PHP
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Vikram Vaswani
Rating: 4/5
An extremely helpful introduction to several salient technologies for PHP developers. It gives enough discussion into several XML/PHP technologies to allow you to a) understand what the technologies aims are b) how it can be used and c) if the technology is right for your application. It gives you enough of a boost into the technology so that you avoid wasting time developing with an irrelevant technology, and go straight to what is best for your own project.The book can be skimmed very effectively by reading just the well commented and frequent source code listings, reverting to the adjacent paragraphs of text where more explanation is needed.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: SQL server 2000 Stored Procedure Handbook
Publisher: Wrox Press
Authors: Tony Bain, Robin Dewson, Chuck Hawkins, Louis Davidson
Rating: 4/5
Title: SQL server 2000 Stored Procedure Handbook
Publisher: Wrox Press
Authors: Tony Bain, Robin Dewson, Chuck Hawkins, Louis Davidson
Rating: 4/5
One of the skimpiest of the books dedicated to SQL Server sprocs, it's also among the most lightweight in terms of its content, unfortunately. There are numerous minor digressions in coverage -- like using SQL's mail sending functionality -- that really belong in a more general purpose SQL book than this one. It also doesn't delve into a whole lot of detail on any one aspect of its coverage. That said, it does covers all the basics you need to get up-to-speed on stored procedures. It's also well written and easy to read, without too much technospeak (which is not always true of other similar titles). But like most Wrox books, its index is thin and barely usable. (When, oh when, will Wrox learn how to index a book?)This is definitely not my favorite SQL Server sproc book, but for someone new to the subject, it still deserves the four stars I gave it.
