5 comments about Oracle 8I Dba Handbook (Oracle Press Series).

1. This is not a bad reference book to have around. However, most of the information one finds in this book can also be easily looked up in the Oracle online documentation.

   As a "must-have" Oracle book, I recommend Tom Kyte's "Expert One-on-One Oracle".




2. better than the Oracle8 version. But you can find better books on the same topic, e.g., 8i Tips and Techniques or Oracle Manual "Administrator's Guide".



3. If you want to learn Oracle, this book is a good starting point. An spread spectrum of topics is covered throughout the book and the style Loney writes Is straightforward and easy to understand. It is a good book in order to understand the basic concepts about oracle.



4. I lied on my resume to get a particular DBA job and got it all because of this book and after a few months on the job and asking stupid questions (and almost giving mydelf away) I actually turned pro. This book has enough excellent material in it to get you into the job and to keep you in the job.

   I bougt a second copy to supoprt the author after this book nearly quadrupled my income.




5. Bottom line, almost every time I have turned to this book for an answer it has totally let me down. Unfortunately I have had this book for several years and am just now getting around to writing my first review.
   
   I admit I'm not a DBA. I'm a developer that occasionally has to perform, and sometimes just wants some understanding of, DBA tasks. Every time I have opened this book it has either not had enough information on the subject or just doesn't even mention it. It has gotten to the point that every time I get an inclination to open the book I tell myself not to; only to think maybe this time it will for once be helpful; only to be let down once again :)
   
   I have a lot of respect for the authors so my hope is I'm just not using the book as it was intended. Maybe my dissatisfaction has something to do with the fact that I'm not a pure DBA or that I have used it more as a reference as opposed to reading it cover-to-cover as bedtime reading. Even so I wouldn't think it would make a huge difference.
   
   For me the Complete Reference series has served me much better.

5 comments about Oracle Discoverer Handbook.

1. While this book may be useful to the uninitiated, it is useless for the administrator. There is only one very small chapter on administration, and it does not provide any useful help.

   This book would have been much better if it addressed all the issues that an administrator needs to do to set up the environment for the users.




2. Hi... I agree that the book does not cover the admin edition, but to be fair, the book clearly states in the introduction that the intended audience is the end-user, not the administrator. It is therefore unfair to put it down because of that.

   As an end-user book, and as an aid to learning the tool, it is brilliant. It goes way beyond anything you'll find in Oracle's own documentation. It clearly lists all of the functions that you can use and provides dozens of workflows to help both novice and experienced users create workbooks.

   For the cost of dinner in most good restaurants, I think its excellent value for money, and a great place to start for anyone considering using this product.




3. I have used Oracle Discoverer for years now (ie: v.3.0, etc.) and I wished many times to have a book that I could look through when I needed help. I've taught courses in Discoverer at numerous companies to hundreds of users and this book would be an excellent resource for end-users to have. For the more advanced users there's plenty of information included as well. Having this book on my bookshelf by my computer is good and bad. Good - because there's always something I have to look up (even if I already know it, it's good to know it's there); and bad - because when an end-user sees the book, they always want to borrow it.

   I would give this book high marks as it's a good all round reference and learning book.




4. This is the only game in town as far as Oracle Discoverer goes. We use it on the job, and while most of the book doesn't work for us, since we use a specific pre-programmed EUL, the chapters on using functions are what makes money for us.



5. Lots of tips, tricks etc. for end users trying to learn Discoverer.

   Lacks best practices, installation/configuration options for Administrators. Unfortunately, this seems to be the only book available covering Oracle Discoverer. For Administrators, the only available resource is Oracle Documentation.

5 comments about Oracle8 PL/SQL Programming.

1. After reading this book, my programming skills leaped from Oracle kindergartener to Oracle goddess! As well as a great introduction to PL/SQL and a thorough reference, this book sits right next to my keyboard when I program. It not only covers basic PL/SQL, but also Oracle built-in packages, objects, collections, debugging, and the list goes on. Whether you're just getting started or having been programming for a while, this is an invaluable resource.



2. I think this book is the best book to begin writting PL/SQL code, so It has all programming level, from beginner to expert.



3. I rate books by what the author states as the goals for the book. The Introduction to any book should tell you this. Oracle 8 PL/SQL Programming states that the book "is appropriate for both experienced programmers who neet to know just the syntax for PL/SQL and its advanced features, and for novice programmers who are not familiar with other third-generation languages." While there is much to recommend in this book it does not fulfill its promise.

   Novice programers will find this book a diffuclt read. It does contain useful information, particularly when the authors delves into his expereinces. However it is not structured as an instruction text that a novice programmer can pick up and learn from.

   How does it work as a reference? The explinations of the syntax vary between encyclopedic, as in Chapeter 5: Built-in SQL Functions and lacking completenes as in Chapter 7: Subprograms: Procedures and Functions.

   In Chapter 5 the author catalogues over a hundred functions available in PL/SQL. If the goal is to be a reference work this is a fine approach. It is not very useful to a novice programmer trying to learn PL/SQL. For the novice cataloguse do not demonstrate how to put the pieces together.

   In Chapter 7 we are formally intorduced to the Procedured and Functions. The problem is each element of the all important features of the language is NOT explained.

   For example, the AS and IN clauses are presented in the specification of the formal syntax but are not explained in the chapter. This oversite would be acceptable if these terms had been discussed elsewhere. A check of the Index for pointer to an explination revealed nothing useful.

   With respect to this example we are left with one of two conlusions. Either there is not explination for these terms or the index is not up to the task of providing us a pointer. In either case it makes this work a poor reference. How are we supposed to find details when there is no path to them?




4. I use this book for reference of PL/SQL programming. Ther're some examples in the book. The format and index of this book is good too.



5. I use this book to learn PL/SQL. It is well-written and easy to follow. The codes in the book are also helpful for learning and practicing what you are reading. The book is good for biginners and certainly useful for intermediates and experts. If you are new to PL/SQL programming, after going through this book carefully you should start writing your own codes in PL/SQL. The book can also be used as reference to check syntax or to review concepts. There are certainly other PL/SQL books but this one can be a starting point. Overall the author did a good job and I can recommend the book.

5 comments about Apple Confidential.

1. After reading the insufferable iWoz, I wanted a book about the early days of Apple that didn't suck. A friend gave me Apple Confidential 2.0 for my birthday, and it was just what the doctor ordered. It emphatically didn't suck.
   
   This is a well-written account of Apple, from the early pre-Apple blue box days through the book's 2004 publication. Instead of taking a traditional day-by-day walk through the company's history, Linzmayer arranges his chapters by topic. This makes following the individual threads of Apple much easier. Extra quotes and notes are included in the margins, which add colour and depth to the story. Jef Raskin, who unabashedly called himself the father of the Macintosh, said that this book was the most accurate depiction of how the original Mac was created.
   
   Each chapter mostly stands alone. Since each chapter covers only one topic (say, the development of the Newton), some of the chapters in the tumultuous 90s are a bit hard to follow if you're not already aware of certain pieces of Apple history. Many topics are referenced without a word of explanation, just an occasional pointer to the later chapter. The most glaring examples of this are the references to Be, the Star Trek project, and Copland.
   
   The chapter about the Star Trek project is a great example of another problem of the book. It's too early to talk about more recent developments. Star Trek was the project started in 1992 to bring the Mac OS to Intel. According to this book, the project was shelved in 1993. Typing on a MacTel today, it's obvious that the project was resurrected. I know that I'm not alone in wondering how this actually came about.
   
   Even with those complaints, I recommend the book. The early days of Apple are interesting indeed, and understanding them is critical to understanding Apple today.



2. This is the most thorough book on Apple's history that I've ever seen, can't wait for Apple Confidential 3.0



3. Don't just buy the book because you love Apple or the review is good. Go to local book store and see the book yourself first before buy one.



4. This book contains all the informations a mac lover like me need to know to understand how the Apple has born. This is a very nice reading for me, I've readed it in few days. Very good also the notes at the sides.
   A must for all mac fanatics in the world. Thanks Owen. Luca.



5. This is a great book that talks about the History of Apple Computer. I couldn't put it down and it was fun walk down memory lane of Apple computers and tech history.

5 comments about e-Commerce Applications Using Oracle8i and Java From Scratch.

1. I have a basically Java background but no Oracle experience. This book helped me in understanding the ways in which I can make use of Oracle technology and my Java knowledge while working on e-Commerce projects. The scalability and performance topics in the book helped me a lot in my current project.



2. I have read several books about eCommerce development. This is the only book that gave me enough information to understand the various aspects of developing eCommerce applications. The book uses the idea of an application that is developed throughout the book and various issues are dealt with in a logical fashion. Very practical and full of valuable tips. I was able to run all the code (some code had errors but I was easily able to fix them). I am disappointed that some reviews are focussing on a few typos in the book instead of looking at the bigger picture.



3. Don't even bother about this book. The only thing good about this book is its title. It is a waste of time and money. There are so many good books out there.



4. This book is a real value for those who want to get started on Oracle with Java. Less pages and enough to digest information. Of course, if you are loking to master Java technologies or Oracle or eCommerce, this not the deal for you. (...)



5. This book lacks the detail required to get someone new up and running. The first 2 chapters are the best, but still need a little polishing. The rest of the book is lacking quite a bit of neccessary information so a user can read it and use the concepts.

5 comments about Visual Basic Oracle 8 Programmer's Reference.

1. This book is a easy introduction to practically all basic concepts and technologies involved in Visual Basic programming for Oracle 8 back end. Among many other things it covers ADO, OO4O, PL/SQL. Contains many useful tables. It could be very useful as a startup manual for Visual Basic programmers who are new to the Oracle world. However, if you are experienced in Oracle, VB and PL/SQL, look elsewhere. Even for inexperienced programmers this book could become worthless after a week. For thorough Oracle presentation I would recommend the following books: ISBN: 007212606X ISBN: 1565923359



2. An OK reference, but could use some reorganizing. The author chooses to cover OO4O in earlier chapters before covering ADO, which makes it difficult to follow the examples if you're only interested in ADO. I find myself constantly having to flip back to the OO4O chapters (which most people probably skip) to figure out what the author is trying to explain in the ADO sections. The PL/SQL sections are good, especially if you're a beginner.



3. This is quite possibly the most poorly written book I've ever purchased. This guy writes at a third grade level....absolutely painful to read. I went through the first two chapters and simply couldn't take anymore. How any of the previous reviewers could have possibly rated this book at more than two starts is beyond me. I highly recommend going to a local bookstore before ordering this book from Amazon and actually skimming through parts of the book.



4. If your like me, the main reason I bought this book was to use ADO to retrieve Oracle data from within my VB application. I go to that section of the book (chapter 13)and instead of solutions I find all sorts of excuses why Orcale and VB dont work together!!! His excuses include "Oracle and ADO have not been the best of partners" and after showing a code example he states "remember, you'll have to wait for ADO 2.5 before you can run this". I bought the book to get a project done now, I dont need an author telling me that "here's how its done but its not going to work until a new version of the software is released!!!!"



5. I just skimmed this book at a book store. It did not impress me. With most of the VB programmers using ADO, the author could have devouted less pages to OO40 and concentrated on the nitty gritty of ADO and VB. If you can read MSDN and browse the NET, you don't need the book. Especially if you have even an average understanding of programming front ends and back ends.

5 comments about F'd Companies: Spectacular Dot-com Flameouts.

1. I wish I could find another book as funny and informative as this one. It is definitely one of my favorites!



2. It's a shame that so much money was wasted in the dot-com onslaught in the mid 90s. Philip Kaplan gives a pretty good and basic account of why some of these companies burned out ( and burned through millions of dollars) in the blink of an eye. However questionable his insight is to some readers, I'm sure many will be turned off be the profane nature of the writing.
   
   I know what you are thinking. You buy a book with a title like "F'd Companies" you'd expect some profanity. But this book seems to be written in the style of: " Lets see how many times I can use the F word and various combinations of the F word, plus other curse words" Although amusing, it just gets downright tiresome to read page after page. If you really want this book, place it where your kids can't reach it.
   
   A quick and dirty read, pick it up cheap if you can.



3. What a character-- it takes this kind of guy to counter what the ivory tower gurus say is right...from the underbelly comes Philip Kaplan-- a good guy to know especially if you don't want to f___ up your company, business etc. Look at these flamouts-- there is something to learn from all of them-- even if it's what NOT DO DO.....gotta give the guy credit-- he isn't afraid to speak out....and we need more of that to avoid the next "Dot Bomb" era or will it be Tulips again???



4. I really enjoyed this book. It is a quick read, but will definately give you a chuckle. If you do not like profanity, this book is not for you. However, if you want to see how the dot bomb wasted millions / billions of dollars, then F'd company will share the stupidty of these companies. I just wonder who was dumber, the people who started these companies, or the morons who gave them cash?



5. I'm a classics and linguistics major who's occasionally dated engineers, but I really have almost no insight into these companies and the corporate culture that bred them. Kaplan provides a hilariously profane catalogue of the worst offenders, explaining their failures, discussing what would've worked, and more than once talking about jacking off.
   
   I found this a great insight into the mid-to-late 90s and a wonderfully funny read. I'm deducting a star for repetitive mechanics and sometimes-incorrect punctuation (just because you're a computer man doesn't mean that you shouldn't even try). That being said, it's pretty neat to have a tour guide who grew up wallowing in the midst of all this, so he feels no shame in saying things like "BUT HEY, THEY HAD 20 MILLION PAGEVIEWS A DAY! Douchebags."
   
   Buy it; it's well worth your money.

5 comments about Oracle9i Web Development.

1. I don't now what author is trying to say about Oracle9i Web Development in this book. Don't deserve even a single star.



2. If you read segments of this book, I can undertstand how you might think it's not a valuable book. However, this book was written thinking that people would read it cover-to-cover. If you pick it up and read it as a reference book, it will have little value. If you're intention is to learn about Web development from start to finish, this book is for you. If not, it's not for you.



3. I am reading this book and I think it is interesting and helpful.



4. This is one of the most poorly written and disappointing books I have ever come across.

   The information is covered in a strange haphazard way, almost misleading in its treatment of topics. e.g. the 3rd chapter has a section titled 'Tuning Application Modules', where the author manages to cover tuning (1) CGI/Perl apps (2) PL/SQL, PSP apps (3) JSP/JServ apps AND (4) the use of Explain Plan, Tkprof tools etc ... ALL in a about 6 pages or so.

   Soon after in the book, he then devotes nearly 50 pages to (hold your breath) .. HTML !! But wait, another 40 pages of (.. guess .. nope, wrong again) JAVASCRIPT !!! The romp continues with a near 90 page foray into XML, followed by (and you'd never guess this one .. ) wireless development. Under 40 pages to that last topic of course, after all - understanding what 9iAS has to offer in way off wireless development should be a breeze once you've devoted 50 pages to mastering HTML, right ?

   And Java ? Yes, it makes its appearance in a chapter all by itself (c'mon, you caught on that trend by now hopefully). On the 4th page, the section 'J2xE' begins with this nugget -
   " .. J2EE is simpler than I envisioned: J stands for Java, which you probably guessed. 2 stands for Java platform 2, which includes versions 1.2 and later of the JDK. Version 2 is currently the latest and greatest version of Java. The first E stands for Enterprise or .. "
   And so it continues all the way to the end of that paragraph.

   I greatly regret not checking the other reviews before I bought the book. As such, I have myself to thank for wasting my money. I hope you will not make the same mistake.




5. I sincerely believe that Brad did an expert job on the book.
   With hands-on examples and configuration parameters that will help you to be up and running, you can't easily beat this expert's advice from other sources.
   I feel this book is like having a guru sit beside you and instructing you, while you go ahead and do the coding.

2 comments about Oracle PL/SQL Interview Questions, Answers, and Explanations: Oracle PL/SQL FAQ (Oracle Interview Questions).

1. While this book has some good material, the quality of proof reading and editing that went into it is simply appalling. Everyday English words are misspelled.
   
   Whatever happened to subject-verb agreement?
   
   Whatever happened to basic English?
   
   You won't find any such things in this book.
   
   Honestly, for the price being charged, it is just plain rip-off.
   
   I have never seen a professional publication so badly, carelessly, and recklessly produced.
   
   I have given it two stars only because some of the technical content is worthwhile. Otherwise, it would not even deserve one star.
   
   Sorry, English matters.



2. 
   
   
   
   In agreement with other reviers: this book is filled
   with technical details about Oracle PL/SQL,
   and it will certainly assist me in my job search. As a
   beginner in Oracle, may of the publication that I find
   are very technical. This guide is included in that list.
   
   But I do find the information of some use.
   
   The book is expensive, but I find that you get
   what you pay for. It is worth the purchase.

5 comments about Oracle9i Database Administrator: Implementation and Administration.

1. I find this book very informative and worth buying for your regular usage&reference. Though it did not cover advanced topics and give more examples in general but the flow of this book is very good and easy to understand. I strongly recommend this book for the people who want to know more about the details of Oracle9i Architecture&Administration.



2. Oracle occupies over 30% database market in the world. So Oracle's skill is valuable. But it is difficult to learn in the beginning. Although a lot of courses, they are expensive. This book gives u the beginning. After finish it, you will have confidence to take the examination. But if u learn more about Oracle on Linux platform. I am sure that you can find a job in the world. This book is good.



3. I had this book over a year. I started reading it when I passed my first ocp exam (1z0-001). This book is very organized and sufficiently detailed to give you a solid knowledge to master the topic covered in the exam 1z0-031, Fundamentals I. I think this book is not written for someone who wants to rush in getting certified. If you take your time and read this book you will get a solid knowledge of the topic covered in the exam 1z0-031, Fundamentals I. The book walks you through some pratices that build over time a complete understanding of the topic on the exam. But I did not rely mainly on this book for the exam 1z0-031. Since the book does not have a lot of practice exam questions I had to use other references such as the Sybex book by (Chip Dawes and Biju Thomas) and the oracle press book by (J. Couchman and Sudheer Marisetti). Those are good books too. But they tend to focus more on the idea of "what you need to know to get certified". The Sybex book is pretty good with Chapters well-structured and explained. The Oracle press book provides more practice exam questions that I used to test my knowledge of the topic.
   I will definitely recommend this book to ocp candidates. I give 5 stars. I will probably buy the one related to exam 1z0-032, Fundamentals II
   DeKalb, IL US



4. i just finished teaching a 10 week intensive course on database administration using this book, and i found that there were far too many errors to make this an effective text. the typos were extremely frustrating for the students, and virtually every chapter had several important mistakes. these typos make the labs all but unusable, and the book is in dire need of an editor! it made my 10 week class difficult, to say the least.



5. The book is great for my class. The reviews really help and are easy to follow.