IT programming books related reviews
Product: Book Paperback
Title: MCSE Database Design on SQL Server 7 Exam Prep (Exam: 70-029)
Publisher: Coriolis Group Books
Authors: Brad Schulz, Greg Woody, Jose Amado-Blanco, Pam Barker, Christopher Leonard, Christopher A. Leonard, Pamela Barker
Rating: 5/5
Title: MCSE Database Design on SQL Server 7 Exam Prep (Exam: 70-029)
Publisher: Coriolis Group Books
Authors: Brad Schulz, Greg Woody, Jose Amado-Blanco, Pam Barker, Christopher Leonard, Christopher A. Leonard, Pamela Barker
Rating: 5/5
This is a wonderful book that delivers much more than its promise of preparing you for the MS Database Implementation exam. Readable, accurate, and thorough, it will now do duty as a trusty desktop reference now that I have passed the exam! Thanks, Coriolis!
Product: Book Textbook Binding
Title: SQL Server 7 Administration (The Fast Track Series)
Publisher: New Riders Publishing
Authors: Andy Ruth, Anil Desai
Rating: 2/5
Title: SQL Server 7 Administration (The Fast Track Series)
Publisher: New Riders Publishing
Authors: Andy Ruth, Anil Desai
Rating: 2/5
Hm, well the book opens with listing it's target audience. It mentions four "highlights" - brevity, focus, concentrated value and classroom tested. Well it's brief at 170 pages of material. And that is very cool (I wanted to say, at last!!!) It says it focuses on "people who know the technology but are not yet certified." This is where I have to say I was a little put off. I'm going to get to three errors in the first 29 pages, which leads me to question how successful they have been at that! "Concentrated value" in their terms says that the book might appeal to the wider audience - but with the errors, I think not!Let me get to the nitty-gritty that makes me say that this book was not proof read too closely. These are some simple examples of sloppy work. Page 25 lists the objects in SQL 7 and gives a definition for each. However, they list VIEW twice - and each time with a different definition. On page 28 they talk about SQL application design. They show a graphic, then next to the graphic give a description of each of the four scenarios that can be used. Their definition of "intelligent Server" is incorrect, and does not match the graphic shown to illustrate it. The "business" element is completely missing from the description, they replace it with "presentation". Finally, they define "NT and SQL Authentication" and fail to explain that mixed mode allows for EITHER Windows NT authentication OR a unique SQL login. Their explanation leads you to believe that you MUST have a unique SQL login and that NT account authentication pass-through does not work. I will add - their minimum hardware requirements are off - and don't match MS's own material, either.The book contains only one test to try - which is disappointing. It comes at the end of the book - so there is no reinforcement after each chapter. I like the idea of this book - but the execution here is poor. The editors were sloppy - which really hurts the value. I have not finished the book - probably not inclined to since there are errors so early on. I'll read some more to see what other errors I can find. Sadly, this is one great idea gone bad.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: PHP 5 for Dummies
Publisher: For Dummies
Authors: Janet Valade
Rating: 3/5
Title: PHP 5 for Dummies
Publisher: For Dummies
Authors: Janet Valade
Rating: 3/5
I got the book today and found it uses some weird syntax. For example the author uses echo_ instead of echo, etc. This happens numerous times in the book.
I also wouldn't call this book for people who have no knowledge of php. This does not introduce the basic concepts of the language well like for example the tags in php. All the author says is thats how scripts start. Other books gave me paragraphs why they have those tags. This book though is good for a beginner but has had some experience with the language.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Professional SQL Server 2000 Programming
Publisher: Wrox
Authors: Robert Vieira
Rating: 5/5
Title: Professional SQL Server 2000 Programming
Publisher: Wrox
Authors: Robert Vieira
Rating: 5/5
This book is actually really good. I thought Database programming and design would be one of the most boring things I've ever studied in my life, but with this book it was actually quite interesting. They would do well to trim off about 200 pages, but otherwise it's good. I don't like the fact that the book holds your hand so much, but I guess it's understandable since the target audience is people who have never done any database programming. If you're looking for a good introductory book to dealing with SQL Server from a non API standpoint (as in dealing directly with the Enterprise Manager, etc), then you can't really go wrong with this book.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Data Mining & Statistical Analysis Using SQL
Publisher: Apress
Authors: Jr., John N. Lovett, Robert P. Trueblood, John N. Lovett Jr.
Rating: 3/5
Title: Data Mining & Statistical Analysis Using SQL
Publisher: Apress
Authors: Jr., John N. Lovett, Robert P. Trueblood, John N. Lovett Jr.
Rating: 3/5
This would be a good book for Statistical Analysis using SQL, but it lacks the other side of data mining-data visualization. I hope the authors would include some non-statistical techniques of data mining in their future edition.At the meanwhile, reader may read other books, such as C. Westphal's Data Mining Solutions, for non-statistical data visualization techniques.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Hands On SQL Server 7 with VB6 (Hands on)
Publisher: Premier Press
Authors: Wayne S. Freeze
Rating: 3/5
Title: Hands On SQL Server 7 with VB6 (Hands on)
Publisher: Premier Press
Authors: Wayne S. Freeze
Rating: 3/5
This book is a good starting point to learning the interaction between VB6 and SQL Server. I found it did not go far enough into real life ADO issues and solutions. I have worked a great deal in MS Access and VB before SQL Server. I was looking for a book to bridge the gap between VB and SQL server that would cover some of the data access and manipulation techniques that I use in MS Access. It falls short on going into complex data extraction and bounces between client/server and web page presentations.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Oracle PL/SQL 101
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Christopher Allen
Rating: 5/5
Title: Oracle PL/SQL 101
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
Authors: Christopher Allen
Rating: 5/5
This book has been very helpful so far with my database class @ DeVry. The author has broken the information down into bits that are easy to understand and I really appreciate all of the exercises included throughout the chapters for practice.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: Writing Apache Modules with Perl and C
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Lincoln Stein, Doug MacEachern
Rating: 5/5
Title: Writing Apache Modules with Perl and C
Publisher: O'Reilly
Authors: Lincoln Stein, Doug MacEachern
Rating: 5/5
I can't say enough good things about this book. I particularly appreciate the way in which it makes the mod_perl Apache module clearly and easily accessible despite its complexity.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: The Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Performance Optimization and Tuning Handbook
Publisher: Digital Press
Authors: Ken England
Rating: 5/5
Title: The Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Performance Optimization and Tuning Handbook
Publisher: Digital Press
Authors: Ken England
Rating: 5/5
I would say this this is one of my favorite SQL Server books and I have alot. If you want plain english internals, query optimization, information on locking and the things to think about when you are designing a new system or improving an old one, then Ken England has the book for you. I agree with another reader that this book reads like Ken is in the room talking to you. What is my favorite part...the part on the default data cache which if you are a Sybase DBA or a guy from way back this is something that they teach you right away and you would configure yourself along with the stored procedure cache. In SQL 2000 they are integrated and have been for a while but Ken does a real nice job of explaining them so that you can understand the need for memory how things come in and out of memory etc. I also like how he gets you to ask yourself the same questions that he asks himself, " Is this going to cause a locking problem in the future." I would say that If you want a book that is down and dirty to the point for every DBA to learn about and understand sql server and how to optimize it, look no further all of the essentials that you wished that you had known years ago are here. While there are other good authors out there like, Kalen Delaney, Rob Vieira, Mike Otey, Ken Henderson, etc.. This book is in the catagory of.. You need to have it and know everything in it. Any DBA worth their weight would own this book.
Product: Book Paperback
Title: PHP and MySQL Web Development
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Luke Welling, Laura Thomson
Rating: 2/5
Title: PHP and MySQL Web Development
Publisher: Sams
Authors: Luke Welling, Laura Thomson
Rating: 2/5
This book was hard to follow in places and the code included with the book didn't seem to work half the time. Trying the simple examples given on page 506 (Listing 24.4) I spend good part of an 8 hour work day trying all kinds of things to make that simple script to work, but to no avail. I eliminated the if statement, the only code in the example, and it worked. This experience and the haphazard presentation and confusing explanations of the examples that followed I gave up on using the code in this book and found alternative examples elsewhere.On a positive note this book has a good introduction to SQL functions.
