No comments about Oracle Data Mining: Mining Gold from Your Warehouse (Oracle In-Focus series).

No comments about JDBC Metadata, MySQL, and Oracle Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach (Expert's Voice in Java).

5 comments about Java Programming with Oracle JDBC.

1. Looks like most of the material came from oracle documentation. Examples are very basic



2. This book gives good coverage of Oracle's JDBC implementation. That is about as far as it goes. This is just too close to being documentation. When purchasing books on a specific technology, I am looking for the author's insight. Specific things the author learned while working with it. Give me best practices, suggestions, things to avoid, etc. Tell me what I won't learn from Oracle's docs, don't just rewrite them.



3. This book is for Java developers who need to get the most out of using JDBC and Oracle (version 8.1.6). Choosing a specific database allows a lot more detail. Other JDBC books may skip database-dependent parts of the API; this book even gives code examples for the hard stuff. It is slow to read end-to-end, but "dipping" works well - there's almost always a helpful code example nearby.

   There are problems, though. The author is obviously very familiar with Oracle, but lacks the experience to make comparisons with other products, this book won't help you choose when to use Oracle or whan another system might be more appropriate. Also I noticed other signs of lack of research - he sometimes gets abbreviations wrong, and the Java code is not particularly well-written.

   The big problem for me is that the book assumes you only ever use Oracle. There is no consideration of code portability, it offers no wisdom about avoiding or encapsulating proprietary Oracle-specific extensions. The techniques in this book could easily lock your product into Oracle, worse, they might even lock your product into a specific version of Oracle.

   The book has minor discussion of extra features in Oracle8i and Oracle9i, but nothing about JDBC 3. It's less helpful if you are using a version older than 8.1.6, too.

   If you (or your management) have already sold your soul to Oracle, get this book. If you might need to use other databases, get a more generic book, but keep this one for those times when only a specific Oracle feature will do the trick.




4. Let me start by saying that had I purchased this book 2 years ago when it was first released, I would have given it 5 stars.

   This is a very well-written book, with good explanations and sample code. However, the book is fairly out of date, and much of the performance tuning suggestions he makes don't really apply as much when using the latest Oracle JDBC drivers and Oracle9 database. This book covers Oracle 8.1.6, and a lot of changes have been made between that release and 8.1.7 and Oracle9.

   I recommend the newer "Oracle 9i JDBC Programming" book by Jason Price for much more current coverage of this topic.




5. A no-nonsense, well-written and well-organized introduction to the Java programming language with Oracle JDBC. It uses a careful, example-based, easy to understand approach. A friendly and well-written book recommended for anyone ready to learn the power of Java programming language with Oracle JDBC.
   Thank you

3 comments about The JobBank Guide To Computer & High-Tech Companies.

1. Hey this book is great! I now can fix minor problems on my computer



2. i read the previous edition (1997) to the jobbank guide to computer and high-tech companies, and i must say that it was well-written. i'd recommend it for anyone looking to get an overview of who's who in an exploding industry. i'd also recommend a look at the VaultReports Guide to the High-Tech Industry, which was extremely insightful and a bit more of a fun read.



3. great list of technical headhunters
   great place to make calls when looking for a job

5 comments about Oracle SQL Tuning & CBO Internals (Oracle In-Focus series).

1. This book contain obsolete information. Most of the text refers to Oracle 7 or Oracle 8 and mostly incorrect information.
   
   Its not worth the money and time you spend reading it.



2. I was happy with the price and quality of this book. The book has detailed information about the internal workings of the cost based optimizer and the scriptgs were helpful. I could recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about Oracle SQL internals of the optimzier.



3. Easily the most useless Oracle book I've ever read.
   
   I lost track of how many times it referred to the 'new features' in 8i. It even has a warning about using the CBO in release 7. Then it introduces new features in 10g. Is this a new features book or a tuning book? Does it know what it aims to be?
   
   To add insult to injury, it provided no information that isn't easily accessable from the Oracle website or Metalink.
   
   I should call the police because Ms. Floss and Rampart robbed me.



4. As other reviewers have noted this book is mostly a collection of old lightweight articles by other authors (some of them not even credited).
   Judging by the number of contradictions I wonder if Kim Floss herself understands the material that she re-printed.
   For the real insight into CBO get Cost Based Oracle by Jonathan Lewis.



5. One of the reviewers of this book (Donald Burleson) is also a contributor, in fact he seems to have a track record of rave reviewing books he has co-authored or published. Treat with caution and believe what the independent contributors say!

No comments about Linux Recipes for Oracle DBAs (Recipes: a Problem-Solution Approach).

No comments about Oracle SQL.

4 comments about Oracle8i Backup & Recovery.

1. Finally book that explains it all. Very simple, easy to read/understand. Backup commands in various operating systems VMS, Windows NT, UNIX, VMS, Physical, logical backups and useful backup scripts. Author has done excellent job explaining backup/recovery using Oracle Enterprise Manager 2.1 against Oracle 8i database. Very good examples on using Oracle Console/Oracle Management Server. This book is very new and has already one of my favorite book among other Oracle press books I have in my library. Oracle Enterprise Manager is available on OTN Network for download ...



2. Well written, informative, accurate. The coverage of recovery internals is excellent. The only book in the bibliography of Oracle's "Oracle 8i Data Server Internals" seminars.



3. The first five chapters of this book have good technical information, but could be better if expressed more clearly. Forget that! The other five chapters have great technical information and got through to me very well. Chapter 10 is a set of 22 valuable "case studies" in which the authors simulate a set of failures they say are representative of DBAs' most common problems. For each, they explain the right DBA reactions; sometimes they explain other reactions and why those are aren't as useful. Good connections with Oracle. Strong technical credibility. Great explanations in the second half. Valuable!



4. This book does an excellent job in helping both the experinced and the novice learn about the Oracle Backup and Recovery features. It saved me a lot of time and money (didn't have to hire that consultant). Excellent explination of features and actually gives sound advice.

No comments about Practical Guide to Using SQL in Oracle.

5 comments about OCP: Oracle9i DBA Fundamentals II Study Guide.

1. I passed the exam and used this book during my study but fortunately not only this book.

   Pros
   - The book is clear and quite pleasant to read
   - You certainly need to know what's in this book to pass the exam

   Cons
   - All subjects in the test list are covered but not in depth
   - During this Oracle certification exam, you will have basic questions about backup/recovery and Oracle networks concepts. You will certainly be able to answer these questions if you have a good understanding of the content of this book. On the other hand, you will also have "mastery" questions which required an in depth knowledge of the subject (mainly of commands). The answer to these questions is simply not in this book. Approximatively 1 question out of 3 are concerned which in my opinion is too much.




2. Having used the previous two study guides in the set for Oracle 9i DBA OCP, I found the third book (this one) to be missing the depth the first two had. I've been using Oracle's online documentation to supplement my study. This book gave me a good overview for starting, but the authors seem to pick a few examples for mostly illustrative purposes, and the questions just didn't do the subject material justice. I expect more from a study guide than just that. Organization could be better too. (Same goes for Oracle's docs.) There are so many convoluted ways to backup/restore/recover that a study guide needs to bring it all together in a concise summary. Of course that's a good exercise left to the student, along with the some hands-on stuff, which I need to get back to. I just wish I had a study guide that made better sense of it all.



3. I used this book as supplement and the oracle press book (R. Velpuri) as main reference. This book published by sybex does not account for all the objectives covered in the exam (1z0-032). The books covers some of the topics but not into details. I read the whole book twice and gained some knowledge out of it but I believe it is not a complete study guide for preparing for the exam. I also used the practice exam questions on the CD.



4. If you use only this book, you will not pass the exam. The practice exams include topics that are not covered anywhere in the book. The level of detail provided by both the exams and the content is not sufficient to pass the real exam. I scored 95% - 100% consistently on all exams in this book including the 3 bonus exams on the cdrom and still did not pass the real exam. I found that the real exam covered several topics that either were not covered at all in this book or did not provide the level of detail or understanding necessary to pass the exam.



5. You're not going to get certified with this book, but the CD is pretty good at testing your Backup and Recovery knowledge. The CD also quizzes you on Recovery Manager (RMAN), parameter files, Import, Export, SQL Loader and Listener Control utility. Everyone here is accurate; that Oracle DBA II test is very difficult to pass with this book alone, but any practice test helps.