IT programming books related reviews
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Web Database Applications with PHP & MySQL, 2nd Edition
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Hugh E. Williams
Rating: 5/5
Title: Web Database Applications with PHP & MySQL, 2nd Edition
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Hugh E. Williams
Rating: 5/5
A fine work that covers all aspects of this fascinating field. The worked example of the on line wine store that runs through the book is both helpful and interesting and brings to fore the workability of the content. Great work!
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Advanced Transact-SQL for SQL Server 2000
Publisher: Apress
Authors: Itzik Ben-Gan, Tom Moreau
Rating: 5/5
Title: Advanced Transact-SQL for SQL Server 2000
Publisher: Apress
Authors: Itzik Ben-Gan, Tom Moreau
Rating: 5/5
I think it is great that we have a book devoted to the relational parts of the TSQL language, but not diving too much into the technical aspects of TSQL (like system stored procedures etc). This is a programming book, for those who wish to take their TSQL knowledge a step further. Perhaps not as advanced as the title suggets, but a great book for anyone at the intermediate level. Also, the book does cover some more advanced topics like dynamic order by, handling hierarchies etc. One of the books on my recommendation list!
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Professional Apache 2.0
Publisher: Wrox Press
Authors: Peter Wainwright, Poornachandra, Dr. Sarang, Afrasiab Ahmad, Sean Chittneden, Vivek Chopra, Micheal Link, Stephen G. Wadlow, Mathew Antony
Rating: 1/5
Title: Professional Apache 2.0
Publisher: Wrox Press
Authors: Peter Wainwright, Poornachandra, Dr. Sarang, Afrasiab Ahmad, Sean Chittneden, Vivek Chopra, Micheal Link, Stephen G. Wadlow, Mathew Antony
Rating: 1/5
I am a regular reader of Wrox books (never reviewed any however) and had bought a copy of the first edition of this book and even recommended it to 7 other colleagues. I was very happy to see this book updated for the GA release of Apache 2.0, but i am extremely disappointed with the sketchy presentation of content - trying to cover too much in too little space, haphazard narration style and pieces lying distraugt begging to be glued. It is very obvious that this book has been put together hurriedly and the writing style gives it away in more than many places.Read the section on mod_snake and you will know why...err better still don't read it.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: PHP and MySQL Web Development
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Luke Welling, Laura Thomson
Rating: 5/5
Title: PHP and MySQL Web Development
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Luke Welling, Laura Thomson
Rating: 5/5
this is a great book to use as a resource for php. it is complete and much better than others i have looked at.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Oracle SQL High-Performance Tuning (2nd Edition)
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
Authors: Guy Harrison
Rating: 4/5
Title: Oracle SQL High-Performance Tuning (2nd Edition)
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
Authors: Guy Harrison
Rating: 4/5
Except for some missing hints (pg. 57-59) and some mixed up hint syntax, I found the book accurate and very enlightening. I've now used it on two from-scratch VLDB projects. Almost every page has something I was able to use to refine SQL statements & PL/SQL server-side code. For example, pg. 206, the section on MAX & MIN statements was the key to my latest project being able to process 20X the number of records we currently do. The section on learning to read tkprof output was helpful. The bibliography was also great (but is probably outdated now). Worth every penny!
Product: Book Paperback
Title: SQL Server 7 Developer's Guide
Publisher: Osborne Publishing
Authors: Michael Otey, Paul Conte
Rating: 5/5
Title: SQL Server 7 Developer's Guide
Publisher: Osborne Publishing
Authors: Michael Otey, Paul Conte
Rating: 5/5
I bought this book with the hope that it will save me from my hopeless case, which was my final project. My final project was a web interactive database system for On-line student registeration, which I knew nothing about. Fortunately, this book was PERFECT. It will go with you from the start, and you will end with all the necessary information you want. As an advice, if you need something good and up to the point, this book is the solution. However, i suggest that you will start with the developper's chapters before the administrator's ones. As a conclusion, from all the developpers books i bought -and they are many, THIS IS THE BEST.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Microsoft Backoffice Resource Kit : Part 2: Microsoft Sna Server Resource Guide, Microsoft SQL Server Resource Guide, and Supplements to Part One (Microsoft Professional Editions)
Publisher: Microsoft Pr Rating: 5/5
Title: Microsoft Backoffice Resource Kit : Part 2: Microsoft Sna Server Resource Guide, Microsoft SQL Server Resource Guide, and Supplements to Part One (Microsoft Professional Editions)
Publisher: Microsoft Pr Rating: 5/5
This is the most complete reference and tool kit around for the NT 4.0 server platform. Must have for any business running NT4 servers. Tools and utilities are needed to effectivly run a network.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: SQL Server 2000 Black Book: A Resource for Real World Database Solutions and Techniques
Publisher: Paraglyph
Authors: Paul Whitehead, Patrick Dalton
Rating: 5/5
Title: SQL Server 2000 Black Book: A Resource for Real World Database Solutions and Techniques
Publisher: Paraglyph
Authors: Paul Whitehead, Patrick Dalton
Rating: 5/5
I am a self-taught DBA in need to understand how to cope with my day-to-day job. This book comes in very handy. It covers everything you need to know about administration, from the installation, optimization, hardware selection and so on. The writers pour their own experience into the book. Don't hesitate: buy this book before it's out of print and you'll never be sorry afterwards.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: PHP and MySQL Web Development
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Luke Welling, Laura Thomson
Rating: 3/5
Title: PHP and MySQL Web Development
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Luke Welling, Laura Thomson
Rating: 3/5
I read page after page of glowing reviews for this book and of course decided this was the best book on the subject and ordered one right there. I got my new book, eagerly read the first hundred pages and thought, "yep, this is the one." I knew nothing of PHP or databases or even programming, but I like to think I'm a quick study. How wrong I was... at least so far. The problem with this book is that there are a lot of things included that just don't matter, and the most basic important things that do matter (like retrieving data from the database --the whole point of the book I might add, and inserting binary files into a MySQL database) are either MIA or get a vague and very limited two-page treatment and end right when it starts talking about what you NEED to know. The index for this book is completely unmanagable (try finding PHP's "Select" function, I dare you -- it's listed under "rows" --does that make any sense at all?) and it is a bit outdated as well. If you use phpMyAdmin to set up your databases, this book won't help. Every example assumes you use the older "MySQL monitor." Another thing that bothered me was the way the authors say every little piece of code is "easy". We have very different definitions of "easy." Their definition makes me feel like a moron. Also you should know a little programming before reading this book. There are a lot of phrases like "This should be familiar to C programmers" and "[whatever] functions in php much like it does in Perl." In the end, my dissapointment is my own fault because the book says right on it: "Intermediate -- advanced" If you don't know anything about programming, go with another book or at least read up on C or Perl before you tackle this one.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Google Hacking for Penetration Testers
Publisher: Syngress
Authors: Johnny Long
Rating: 5/5
Title: Google Hacking for Penetration Testers
Publisher: Syngress
Authors: Johnny Long
Rating: 5/5
Some months ago after reading an article about people using the Google search engine to look up credit card numbers using Google syntax, I came across a web site run by Johnny Long. This site is dedicated to tricks and tips of how Google can be used to hack information in places many would consider to be "unlikely". The site is loaded with good information, so I was happy to have the chance to review Long's book entitled "Google Hacking for Penetration Testers" (2005, Syngress, 502 pages, $31.47 at Amazon). While loaded with great information and content, I must say that I left the book with mixed feelings.
The mixed feelings mainly arise from the way the book is written. While the book is set up as a tool to help penetration testers, there are absolutely no disclaimers addressing the liabilities and risks that can arise from penetration testing, or the fact that anyone planning to do any penetration testing should have the written approval from the target company before testing begins. But then again, the tone of the book is how Google can be used to do "pre-testing" to identify holes that may be good targets for more detailed penetration testing. This is a thin line that is made thinner by the way the text is written. Specifically, it is written as if the target audience is the hacker and not the people who need to do the testing or setting up defenses. In fact, you do not hit any discussion of defensive approaches or ways to prevent these type of probes/attacks until Chapter 11 on page 321.
This is not to say that the book is not chock full of good, solid information. Long does present a thorough overview and explanation of the ways Google syntax can be used to extract many different kinds of interesting information. Whether it be finding specific file types, server type information, Microsoft Outlook mail/pst files, instant messaging buddy lists, passwords, and/or user names, Long shows how it is done. (A side note for Lotus Notes administrators: the only mention of Notes in the book is not by name, but as a screen shot of "even 'tight-lipped' software".)
Parts of the book may get too technical for "non-techies", but you can easily skim over this information and ask your technical staff for deeper explanations of proxy servers, packet routing, and caching from your own staff who may have a better understanding of the concepts.
Who Should Read This Book?
So like me, if you can look beyond the elements of the book that gave me cause for concern, you will see that Long does provide a bevy of useful information for professional security auditors, information systems managers, system administrators, application developers, and information security managers. However, it would be advisable to consider the concerns I do have about what the book does not say/recommend. There is no substitute for getting written agreements from your customers (i.e. targets) or consult with your attorneys. Also make sure your professional liability insurance is sufficient to cover any potential losses that may arise from penetration testing without authorization or gone bad. All this being said, this will be a top shelf reference book in my professional library.
Scorecard
Long chips it in from the greenside bunker to score a birdie on a Par 4.
