IT programming books related reviews
Product: Book Paperback
Title: The Administrator's Guide to Microsoft SQL Server 6.5
Publisher: 29th Street Press
Authors: Kevin Cox, William Jones, Bill Jones
Rating: 5/5
Title: The Administrator's Guide to Microsoft SQL Server 6.5
Publisher: 29th Street Press
Authors: Kevin Cox, William Jones, Bill Jones
Rating: 5/5
Among the 6 MSSQL-Server books that I have waded through, everyone of them is good but not everybody has the time and resouces to commit the whole book just for a few programmer-related or administrator-related chapters. Like "Teach Yourself Transact-SQL within 21 days" that accomplishes its objectives to deliver T-SQL entirely at the programming level, this book also delivers by devoting itself essentially to administrating MSSQL-Server. There are a few distinctive features that I like about this book: 1) Every chapter is kept small and makes for assiduous reading easy at one go. 2) The presentation style is highly informal and interactive, focusing on the "you" administator and the tasks on hand. 3) Every section has a "hard-to-miss" header for easy identification of sub-topics. 4) The chapter introduction that highlights and the summary that reviews the core of the chapter without "missing the forest from the trees". 5) The size of the book (469 pages) is not intimidating or demoralizing, which is just about right.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: The Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: Ken Henderson
Rating: 4/5
Title: The Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Authors: Ken Henderson
Rating: 4/5
This is one of the books that after reading even couple of chapters you feel obligated to leave a feadback on.
This is the apotheosis of techinical writing. Serios, allways on the topic, never condesending or trying to insult your inteligence.
It is truely well-tempered writing; you go from page to page in somber and attentive procession.
This book should be included in ISO standards as a stick for measuing other technical writing.
If you need a SQL book that is a little more mellow, but still a good reading, consider Vieira's book.
If you are still confused why 4 stars, it is because I hate perfection and also am envious of the guy's excelence.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Essential PHP for Web Professionals
Publisher: Pearson Education
Authors: Christopher Cosentino
Rating: 3/5
Title: Essential PHP for Web Professionals
Publisher: Pearson Education
Authors: Christopher Cosentino
Rating: 3/5
Essential PHP for Web Professionals is intended as a concise how-to guide for somebody new to php and needs quick answers. For its size, the book covers quite a lot of breadth: from simple forms all the way to databases. The small size of the book makes topics easy to find though. Another big plus is the line numbers in the code listings that make the author's commentary easy to follow. However code readability suffers from the indentation style or lack of thereof. To round out this review, I should mention that there are a couple of irritating details. The section on how to install php on a Linux computer is clearly a cut & paste job from the Windows section. It makes reference to the c drive which of course does not exist in Linux. Thus a Linux user will find the installation chapter pretty well useless. I have sent off an email to the editor but have not yet received a reply. There is also a typo in the chapter on incorporating mySQL into php. The flag to compile apache with mySQL support is --with-mysql and not -with-mysql. This section for the Linux user is again useless because of it's incompleteness.In summary, I would recommend this book for the example scripts but if the reader requires more details on installation and/or database connectivity, other books will have to be consulted.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: MCSE Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Database Design and Implementation: Readiness Review Exam 70-229 (Pro-Certification)
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: Sharon Bjeletich, Eddy Hahn
Rating: 4/5
Title: MCSE Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Database Design and Implementation: Readiness Review Exam 70-229 (Pro-Certification)
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Authors: Sharon Bjeletich, Eddy Hahn
Rating: 4/5
I bought this book the day before I took the exam because I was struggling with the measure up tests. I read through the book in one day and passed the exam the next day.I was disappointed that the exam questions on the CD were the same as in the book. I was hoping there would be a different set of questions.I recommend this book if you're just looking to pass the exam and also have access to the course material. It will help reinforce what I learned in the course material in an exam-type way.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Apache Server for Dummies
Publisher: For Dummies
Authors: Ken A. L. Coar
Rating: 4/5
Title: Apache Server for Dummies
Publisher: For Dummies
Authors: Ken A. L. Coar
Rating: 4/5
This was pretty straight forward and easy to understand. There are times, however, that the author goes about explaining things that aren't too clear. The chapters about DIRECTIVES needed to be a bit clearer. Overall, this was a great read and is a good place to start from. I highly recommend reading this one!
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Oracle Database 10g SQL (Osborne ORACLE Press Series)
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Jason Price, Jason Price, McGraw-Hill
Rating: 5/5
Title: Oracle Database 10g SQL (Osborne ORACLE Press Series)
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Jason Price, Jason Price, McGraw-Hill
Rating: 5/5
This is the best book on SQL I've found. It has everything I needed: it teaches Oracle from the ground up. I didn't know SQL or PL/SQL before buying this book, and now I'm an expert! I even understood the advanced chapters. I give this book full marks and highly recommend it.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Php 4 Bible (Bible (Wiley))
Publisher: Hungry Minds
Authors: Tim Converse, Joyce Park
Rating: 5/5
Title: Php 4 Bible (Bible (Wiley))
Publisher: Hungry Minds
Authors: Tim Converse, Joyce Park
Rating: 5/5
Strong introduction to PHP, MySQL, and related subjects. Very readable. Efficiently written. Doesn't waste your time with unnecessary fluff, but offers occasional dry humor directed at the professional programmer that made me chuckle. Looking forward to future books by this duo. I strongly recommend this book.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Sams Teach Yourself PHP, MySQL and Apache in 24 Hours
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Julie C. Meloni
Rating: 5/5
Title: Sams Teach Yourself PHP, MySQL and Apache in 24 Hours
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Julie C. Meloni
Rating: 5/5
First, be sure you purchase the latest edition of every tech book you buy. Unfortunately, Amazon doesn't have the latest edition under Meloni's or Zandsta's name. You have to type the isbn number, 0672326205, in the search box to find the newest edition as of this review. Also keep in mind when reading reviews that Amazon mixes reviews of older editions with new editions which makes it very difficult to make an assessment unless the edition is mentioned in the review. New editions usually correct the complaints given in bad reviews so don't pass judgment so quickly unless you know exactly which edition the reviewer is writing about.This is an excellent book for beginners who know nothing about programming. However you must know XHTML before beginning this book. This book and "Teach Yourself PHP in 24 Hours" by Zandstra are built using exactly, word for word, much of the same content. However Meloni's book occasionally has more explicate examples and explanation, however it is missing four essential chapters that can be found in Zandstra's book.1. Arrays
2. Objects
3. Regular Expressions
4. PEAR - Reusable Components to Extend the Power of PHPNo real concern, because the reader could research these topics on php.net or other sites and my have to do so in order to complete the book since it refers to arrays but doesn't explain them.Meloni's book, compared to Zandsta's, does have better examples with actual programs that may be usful to you. Meloni's book, as the title emplies, also goes deeper into Apache and MySQL.After reading this book, you'll wont to get something like, The PHP Anthology By Harry Fuecks Vol. 1&2... or PHP and MySQL Web Development, Second Edition by Luke Welling, Laura Thomson. These books will teach you by example and are excellent. A note to beginners... Learning to program can be very difficult. Unless you are some kind of genius, you must be dedicated and patient with your quest. Programming is a totally different way of thinking and there is a lot to learn... I think this book is a great way to learn PHP and to learn how to program in general. Good Luck!
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Oracle8 DBA: SQL and PL/SQL Exam Cram (Exam: 1Z0-001)
Publisher: Coriolis Group Books
Authors: Michael R. Ault, Michael L. Ault
Rating: 1/5
Title: Oracle8 DBA: SQL and PL/SQL Exam Cram (Exam: 1Z0-001)
Publisher: Coriolis Group Books
Authors: Michael R. Ault, Michael L. Ault
Rating: 1/5
A disorganized rambling of random SQL and Oracle Archecture factoids. Chapters are "organized" so that you basically have read the whole book for the first exam, then all of it all over again for the second exam, because it's all mixed up together.Instead, use Oracle 8 documentation and Jason Couchman's Oracle 8 DBA Certification Guide. SelfTestSoftware practice exams are also immensely helpful.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Professional PHP Programming
Publisher:
Authors: Jesus Castagnetto, Sascha Schumann, Harish Rawat, Chris Scollo, Deepak T. Veliath
Rating: 5/5
Title: Professional PHP Programming
Publisher:
Authors: Jesus Castagnetto, Sascha Schumann, Harish Rawat, Chris Scollo, Deepak T. Veliath
Rating: 5/5
You people are crazy giving this book only 4 stars. To those who complain about the extremely brief function reference: it's better not to include it. Why? Because the book would have been too huge. If you want a good function reference printed out, it would have to be a second book. They did something better: they organized the functions by category and left the alphabetical and example listing to the easy-to-find html version on the web which they apparently assumed the reader would be intelligent enough to save to their hard drive and use "find" in the edit menu when they need the info. It's easier than lugging a book around and many times faster. Just bookmark the PHP reference you should have already saved to your hard drive.The Environment variables listing and web browser compatibility sections were much needed.OK, OK a good function reference would have been nice. But how often are complete ones included? When they are included, they aren't very impressive. A better formatted version than that enormously-space-wasting web function reference would have been nice. It could have replaced the verbose sections that detailed specific PHP applications. Those should have been left out.
