IT programming books related reviews
Product: Book Paperback
Title: PHP for the World Wide Web : Visual QuickStart Guide (2nd Edition) (Visual Quickstart Guides)
Publisher: Peachpit Press
Authors: Larry Ullman
Rating: 5/5
Title: PHP for the World Wide Web : Visual QuickStart Guide (2nd Edition) (Visual Quickstart Guides)
Publisher: Peachpit Press
Authors: Larry Ullman
Rating: 5/5
Easy to follow and useful subject matter I've been able to put to use right away. The book's companion website forums were (and are) active with other folks of varying skill levels ready to offer help and feedback as I worked through the sample scripts in the book.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: The Practical SQL Handbook: Using Structured Query Language (3rd Edition)
Publisher: Pearson Education
Authors: Judith S. Bowman, Sandra L. Emerson, Marcy Darnovsky
Rating: 5/5
Title: The Practical SQL Handbook: Using Structured Query Language (3rd Edition)
Publisher: Pearson Education
Authors: Judith S. Bowman, Sandra L. Emerson, Marcy Darnovsky
Rating: 5/5
Forget about the complaints that this book is just about Sybase SQL. Any book that tries to teach SQL has to use a vendor software as a tool to convey the concepts. This one happens to be using Sybase Anywhere. But it really doesn't matter. Imagine yourself learning how to drive, do you really care whether the car is Honda Accord or Toyota Camry? As long as you don't boycott Japanese product, your only concern should be whether the person sitting next to you is a good driver and teacher!This book is the best SQL teacher I've ever met. Granted, before reading this book, I've already had graduate level courses on relational database and years of working experience in using several big name vendor databases, but I still learned a lot from this one in both conceptual and technical senses. And because of that, I can tell with 100% confidence that this book teaches SQL in the most efficient and general way - it introduces key SQL concept in a crystal clear manner; it teaches basic SQL syntax in the most standard form as possible and reminds you of the vendor specific variations diligently wherever they occur; it presents the full picture from database design principle to FAQs of daily SQL usages in easy and concise language. It's simply the best SQL book for beginners. For experienced SQLers, this book can serve as a field guide to help you maintain a clear big picture of core SQL when you start to get lost in the forest of numerous vendor specific DBMS products.Oh, do you really care about the minor typos and the shabby free SQL Anywhere software comes with the book? (p.s., it works with limited functions). Again, your car may have scratches and some fancy functions of the stereo may not work, but as long as your purpose is to learn how to drive and you have a good teacher sitting next to you, it doesn't matter at all.I'm amazed by how good a teacher the authors are. Having taught myself, I know how difficult teaching could be. The authors of this book really know how to teach - teaching is art, they are masters. I salute them.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Apache Administrator's Handbook
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Rich Bowen, Daniel Lopez Ridruejo, Allan Liska
Rating: 5/5
Title: Apache Administrator's Handbook
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Rich Bowen, Daniel Lopez Ridruejo, Allan Liska
Rating: 5/5
Knowing little about web servers and nothing about Apache, I was looking for some detailed help installing and configuring Apache. The online docs were no help. I needed something that would explain, at a basic level, what needed to be done to get Apache going.I found this book very helpful in setting up my server. It covered everything about installing and configuring Apache. Config files were explained in detail. Integration with perl and php were wll covered. I also found the chapters on Security and logging helpful as well.This book is geared toward Unix servers but also contains specific information for the Win32 crowd. I highly recommend this book.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Web Application Development with PHP 4.0 (with CD-ROM)
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Tobias Ratschiller, Till Gerken
Rating: 5/5
Title: Web Application Development with PHP 4.0 (with CD-ROM)
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Tobias Ratschiller, Till Gerken
Rating: 5/5
I've been a professional programmer for 10 years now (client/server applications), but I haven't made the move to WEB programming yet. Some colleagues pointed me to PHP for web development and I immediately fell in love with it (coming from C/C++). Still, many basic concepts of web development were completely hidden for me and while I had no problems to learn PHP's syntax quickly, I didn't quite understand all the meanings of sessions, XML, web security, and so on. Then I found this book and I was ENLIGHTED.Do I hate all those fluffy computers books with no meaningful content but lots of source and function references! In contrast, the authors of this book write in a very straight-forward way, precisely, and still entertaining. And they cover many concepts behind web development, focusing on the implementation with PHP. It may be a lucky coincidence, but the authors wrote exactly about the things that interest me as I'm starting professional web development with PHP. The only chapter I didn't really need was the one about coding conventions because experience has already taught me to comment and format my code. Everything else I can put into practice immediately. I've found particularly helpful the tips&tricks the authors provided; they're clearly taken from their own real life experience and have saved me hours of finding my own solutions to strange problems.Therefore, this book was great for me and I'd warmly recommend it to others. This one is going to stay on my desk for a while! :-)
Product: Book Hardcover
Title: MCSE: SQL Server 2000 Design Study Guide (Exam 70-229)
Publisher: Sybex
Authors: Marc Israel, J. Steven Jones, Marc Israel, Steve Jones
Rating: 3/5
Title: MCSE: SQL Server 2000 Design Study Guide (Exam 70-229)
Publisher: Sybex
Authors: Marc Israel, J. Steven Jones, Marc Israel, Steve Jones
Rating: 3/5
The book is set at a nice pace, is easy to follow and goes in depth about many helpful subjects. But I found myself becoming increasingly frustrated after each noticeable code error or typo. By the time you've finished with Chapter 2, you will have noticed more than a dozen anomalies. Some of them are minor text typos or grammar issues and are easily ignored. But most of them are more serious errors, such as during the important coding sections or the logical mistakes during the chapter review questions. Typos and mispellings way too frequently during the SQL syntax, and I found several review answers to be wrong. With each new error, my faith in the authors diminished and I found myself doubting the validity of their writing. I would give the book a 4.5 if it had few such errors. I lowered the book's review 1 point because all the errors had shattered my confidence in the authors and made me doubt the correctness of their information, and another half point for the pathetic software that came with it (already mentioned in other reviews). Come on guys, this is supposed to be a tech book.. Is it too much to ask for working software, correct review answers and typo-free sections in the SYNTAX part??
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: 4/5
Title: Intrusion Detection with SNORT: Advanced IDS Techniques Using SNORT, Apache, MySQL, PHP, and ACID
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR
Authors: Rafeeq Rehman
Rating: 4/5
This book is an effective introduction to Intruder Detection, demonstrating how popular open-source tools can be used. I found the code samples, table, diagrams and screenshots to be clear and useful. I learned what I'd hoped to learn and feel empowered to set up an IDS myself. Plenty of links and resources when I want to learn more.I read a few of the other reviews here after I read the book... especially Richard B's. I noticed some of the same techinical mistakes, but don't feel that they are a big deal. As a sr. software engineer and techinical editor, I always read critically, just mentally note them and continue. They aren't the kind of mistakes that make the code useless, or would confuse/mislead any level of reader. Another editing pass would help most books, and I none of the grammar mistakes annoy me - I read to learn what I can and move on, not to nitpick or get annoyed. As far as 1.9 vs. 2.0, I've looked at the snort site and agree that the release is signficant, but it doesn't break backwards compatibility, so it doesn't make this book any less revelant. 2.0 seems to mostly change the backend implementation - *the application is used identically* so I suspect the vast majority of this book is unaffected. The Syngress book covers 2.0, yet so does the website, which hypes this two-times-more-expensive book. That book too will no doubt soon be superceded, so read whatever you buy immediately ;-)
Product: Book Paperback
Title: PHP Fast & Easy Web Development, 2nd Edition
Publisher: Muska & Lipman/Premier-Trade
Authors: Julie C. Meloni
Rating: 5/5
Title: PHP Fast & Easy Web Development, 2nd Edition
Publisher: Muska & Lipman/Premier-Trade
Authors: Julie C. Meloni
Rating: 5/5
If you're the type of learner who benefits from *doing* and *playing around with possibilities*, I think you'll find Meloni's approach workable. I hadn't done any programming for decades (and that obviously was neither MySQL nor web-based), and was used to FoxBase and Filemaker style databases, but this book was the easiest of all those PHP/MySQL books I looked into -- so that I was able to get set up and connect with my ISP's MySQL db and begin playing around with web pages through PHP.Sometimes the examples are worked through with painfully repetitive details, but this enabled me to get more comfortable with the PHP approach to sending commands and getting information from a MySQL database. The examples (code helpfully available for online download) left with models whose operation I understood and could modify into boilerplate for experimenting with my own projects. And for me it really worked to be able to get into the throws of development BEFORE I had to learn vast amounts of PHP that was not yet relevant to me. The book begins with a section of installation and configuration of PHP, MySQL, and Apache (which was unneeded since I used my ISP's setup. Then three brief chapters nicely outline just the basics of PHP you'll need for using its language. In a third section she shows the use of PHP for querying for types of browsers and operating systems, sending email, and working with files through a browser. Finally, the fourth section walks you through basic MySQL database processes such as creating the db and its tables, listing information about them, and displaying selections of their data -- all done through PHP/HTML in browser pages (e.g., for a 'My Music Collection' db) in ways that you'll want to use when you develop your own sites. - Very helpful!The fifth section has chapters to help you regulate visitors to your site -- setting up ids & passwords, storing them in the database and in cookies.The sixth section puts all this together in a full "Contact Management System" - still walking you slowly through the process.There is not a lot of detailed explanation about exactly why one must use the exact PHP or MySQL commands (from among alternate strategies), but I'm content now to start learning that from intermediate level books. What Meloni offered me that other "introductions" did not was a quick way to get in and actually toy around with my own actual MySQL dbs through PHP/HTML pages that I created and got online. As a beginning experience - it sure worked for me!
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Transact-SQL
Publisher: Wiley
Authors: William C. Amo
Rating: 4/5
Title: Transact-SQL
Publisher: Wiley
Authors: William C. Amo
Rating: 4/5
This book gave a decent overview of Transact SQL and its relation to SQL Server 7. It does give some useful hints on database admin inside of SQL Server. Don't look to this book as a nall encompassing reference to SQL Server although it is a good handbook to have around when programming Transact SQL.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 7 DBA Survival Guide
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Orryn Sledge
Rating: 5/5
Title: Microsoft SQL Server 7 DBA Survival Guide
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Orryn Sledge
Rating: 5/5
Unfortunately I cannot share excitement of those who gave this book 4,5 or 5 stars. This book is good but still contains some mixture of old and new information. For example on page 259 authors claim that "incomplete transactions that occur after database process is started are NOT backed up", this is not true. In SQL 7.0 manual stated "Extents containing data are written to the backup set without regard to synchronizing pages being modified by users during the backup". They don't even mention new "Fuzzy backup" technology (see "Fuzzy Backup and Restore Operations" in BOL). On page 260 Authors claim that "performing full database backup does not clear inactive part of transaction log" this is also not true. Page 272 "The database log must reside on separate device from database": first there is no such thing as "device" in SQL 7.0, second there is no way to put database and log on the same file. Looks like they didn't cleaned up 6.5 manuscript properly.So, if you find something that does not supported by your practical experience, very likely you and not the authors are right.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Oracle PL/SQL Programming, Third Edition
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Steven Feuerstein
Rating: 5/5
Title: Oracle PL/SQL Programming, Third Edition
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Steven Feuerstein
Rating: 5/5
This book is a carefully documented manual for learning PL/SQL that is written by the one and only Steven Feuerstein. His unique style of writing coupled with his intricate knowledge of the subject makes it a pleasure to read and learn.
Programmers will actually learn the most effective way to write the best PL/SQL code by following Stevens practical advice from real life experiences with PL/SQL and the examples that are so clearly explained. Don't miss the humor too.
The book covers virtually everthing one needs to learn PL/SQL including Packages, procedures, functions and Oracle's built-ins. It also tells you where and when the differences arise between the various revisions and their numbers. A great benefit along with the book is a diskette with code and a few utilities. Most of the code is generic and can be simply cut and pasted into the application with little or not trouble. If you don't have this bible of Oracle on your desk, then you don't want to learn PL/SQL.
And remember Steven is the world's leading authority on PL/SQL. Drop in at his site to know more about him http://www.revealnet.com
