2 comments about Professional Oracle Programming (Programmer to Programmer).

1. This is an intermediate level book. It is intended for the application developer who already has some knowledge of SQL (which implies some knowledge of what databases do) and of programming (particularly Java). For instance, the first chapter of this book is on the internal structure of Oracle. That's a long ways from the standard beginning of this is what a database does.
   
   A thing this book is not for is the database administrator. There's very little on things like set-up, assigning users, security (there's a little on this); those kinds of administrative details. This book is, as I said at first, for developers.
   
   The book does go heavily into programming techniques like triggers, regular expressions, object types, XML, defining your own functions -- things like that.
   
   The authors all have extensive experience with Oracle, most of them work for or have worked for Oracle. As this series of books proclaims, this is a book written at the programmer to programmer level.



2. I have read all the books on Oracle and most seem pretty fluffy - lots of pages but the content is on a pretty basic level. This is the first book I have seen that really delves into the guts of Oracle - how it works, and how to program applications effectively for it. Just what I have been looking for!!!

5 comments about Barbarians Led by Bill Gates: Microsoft From The Inside: How The World's Richest Corporation Wields Its Power.

1. Although it may not be as in-depth as some other readers may expect, it does paint a vivid picture of what is going on in MS. In fact, it is very creditible. I am a programmer on Window platform and have witnessed their lack of direction. Bill has strong influence over the market. That's. Anyone given billions of dollar can roll out beautiful software. This book let's me see through form another side of the window.



2. The book was a well written account, some other titles which may be of interest are; 'hackers' by Steven Levy, 'Fire in the Valley: The making of the Personal Computer', 'Pirates of Silicon Valley' (movie). Reading/viewing these titles before 'Barbarians Led by Bill Gates' will provide a good chronology.



3. An insider's account of the development of windows and related events, Barbarians is excellent reading. It explodes the right wing fetish about the genius of Bill Gates, and nullifies the equally baseless conservative notion that huge bureaucratic enterprises are efficient, as long as they are private. It is also quite revealing of the dangers of allowing the monopolistic practices of any business to remain unchallenged. The thuggish tactics of Microsoft, from it's days as a IBM toady to it's genesis as Corporate bully number one, coupled with the mindless greed, the idea theft and the thick headed stupidity of the Microsoft upper management reveal the true nature of the corporate capitalist state. Worse for Chairman Bill, the book cannot be dismissed as the sour grapes ranting of unhappy competitors since Eller made millions as a Microsoft software developer and Edstrom is the daughter of one of MS' chief PR goons. Barbarians should be read by fans and foes of Microsoft alike, if for no other reason than to witness the alienation and frustration of all corporate employees, even those that are millionaires. Death to the corporate state.



4. I feel sorry for author. Dennis Welt BC Canada



5. As others have pointed out this first person/third person thing is quite hilarious. After about the second or third time you come across this "Eller" fellow who seems to be always on the scene and always right, you look back and see his name on the cover. But the funnier one is every now and then you can almost hear Jennifer Edstrom saying "and then mommy saved the day again ..."
   
   However I did give it more than the minimum, because I do think there is value in getting a perspective from what it looked like from the front line. I did finish the book, and I think I got some insight into Microsoft.

5 comments about Oracle SQL*Plus: The Definitive Guide (Definitive Guides).

1. Well written, plenty of examples, very easy to read and follow. As someone who is new to SQL*Plus, I appreciated that. Once I got things installed and running, it was easy to get right into iSQL*Plus (running SQL commands through a browser interface) - really cool. The chapter on Create HTML Reports was very nice as well.
   
   I found this book very helpful.



2. I have found this book to be a really great guide that is easy to follow. The author provides a gentle, but thorough introduction to topics like creating reports, writing scripts, customization etc. He offers methodologies and alternatives beyond the syntax that you can find in the manual. For example, he presents and evaluates six ways one can achieve some kind of if-then-else flow control in SQL*Plus.
   
   [...]



3. The glories of the command line. SQLPlus [I am not going to write that irritating asterix] is an acknowledgment of the reality that for many large computer programs and operating systems, a command line utility is vital. The book explains this for the specific instance of hooking to Oracle's database. It is meant as a definitive reference. Showing every command, often accompanied by example code.
   
   For an Oracle DBA, a good acquaintance with SQLPlus is probably mandatory. From the book, you can see how to quickly interrogate the database and get results in various useful paginated formats. Plus, and vitally, you can see how to build script files that can be run, where these files encode your experience in amassing customised sequences of commands specific to your needs. Exactly analogous to batch files in most operating systems, and just as useful.
   
   Along those lines, SQLPlus is conceptually not that hard. When using Oracle, it is often far more important, and harder, to design optimal tables for a given problem.



4. Oracle SQL Plus: The Defnitive Guide
   Jonthan Gennick
   1-56592-578-5
   
   This book is great for those using the SQL Plus tool. I use SQL Plus for Oracle 8 and 9. This book covers up to 8i but I have not had any trouble using the commands in 9i. I have not tried the commands listed on 10g yet. The book is easy to use since the topics are split into reasonable chapters and the font is large enough to read with the book beside the keyboard. I also like the chapters that list commonly used items in tables. One example would be the chapter listing the user_ and all_ views. The chapter covering the SET command is one I use frequently. This book is fairly specific to the usage of SQL Plus itself and does not delve too deeply into the inner workings of the Oracle database, but it does have examples in SQL query language and PL/SQL stored procedures. If one is looking for a book on SQL itself, I recommend another title. If one needs a book on SQL Plus, get this one.



5. This book covers the basics of using SQL*Plus for adhoc querying through using it for batch processing. An excellent, extremely readable reference.

4 comments about Oracle Database 10g Linux Administration.

1. I was very anxious for this book to come out since it had a very lucrative table of contents with all the "right" stuff in it.
   Unfortunately I found the book to have a lot of unneeded info such as history of Oracle, history of Linux, Unix, overview of Oracle products,etc junk. If you an Oracle professional, you probably know all of this anyways. I was hoping to find "trade secrets" and "best pratices of ORacle on Linux" that will help me , but instead found very basic descriptive information, nothing detailed in particular.
   There is nothing "special" about Oracle architecture, backup and recovery in this book that refers to Linux that you can't find in any other oracle 10g book. The only useful detail that I found is remapping of kernel base when using Large memory for SGA, but that also can be dug out of OTN. Also you will find a much better overview of Linux from any "Linux Administration" book.
   
   Overall this book may be ok for a newbie as introduction, but if you are past that stage, I would say pass on this one.



2. As an experienced Oracle DBA, I wanted a nice text that covers Linux specifics to Oracle 10g. This book is okay not perfect but the only real Oracle 10g for Linux book on the market.
   
   Good
   1. RAC coverage is decent
   2. Linux tuning for Oracle is nice
   
   Bad
   1. Data Guard coverage is very weak
   2. No workarounds for installation issues with Linux and Oracle
   
   So I give it 3 stars because its not bad but not great. I hope that the other Linux for Oracle RAC book that comes out next year is better.



3. If you read the editorial review: It is stated that the book is about installing and configuring Oracle Database 10g on Linux. Yes, the author did explain clearly the process of installing and configuring the Oracle 10g on Linux. He also covered a few more topics such as HA (High Availability), Tuning SQL, RAC, Replication, Index and Partitioning ... but not in depth. But the coverage is acceptable and useful. Do buy this book and you will find it useful if you love Oracle DBMS running on LINUX platform.



4. This is a well written book for anyone who wants to learn lots of useful Linux specific details and perspective about set up, administration, monitoring, and tuning Oracle 10g on Linux.
   
   Granted, there's lots of free documentation on Oracle's web site. But, instead of just being dry documentation that's not a lot of fun to read, this book gives conciseness, and prose that communicates the authors actual real-world experience of working with this stuff.
   
   If you're administering Oracles 10g on Linux, this is a great book to read.

No comments about Oracle Application Server Portal Handbook (Osborne Oracle Press).

5 comments about Mastering Oracle PL/SQL: Practical Solutions.

1. The book takes a bottom-up approach: the first part shows useful coding and optimizing techniques, while the second one gives real world applications and tips on program design.
   
   I have two minor complaints, however:
   
   Most chapters assume at least a good knowledge of PL/SQL and build on that, which I think is fair for a book titled "Mastering ...". On the other hand, two of the chapters (Triggers especially, and PL/SQL Debugging to a degree) take a different approach and start from the beginning, explaining the basics, too. It may be just me, but I think those pages are wasted.
   
   Furthermore, there is a certain amount of overlap with Tom Kyte's Expert One-on-One Oracle, also from Apress.



2. With 15 years experience in Oracle as DBA and developer, I wrote a lot of packages and found in this book true advices and practical solutions, wich sound good to me. The best feature is that you can experiment all the code found in it and see by yourself the advantage of using the way proposed by McDonald. I like these books where autors breaks some common ideas ans show by "A + B" that the right solution is not the most common. A real useful book written by a true professional.



3. As a Developer working predominantly with Oracle Databases for over five years, I'm always looking for books to help me produce better code. I have to say this is one of them. The author has produced a book that explains concepts in a practical manner that is also easy to read. I began reading this book just before starting a major development project and the code insights and examples assisted me greatly in this project.
   
   Probably more a information and guidence book rather than a reference book. I found I read it from cover to cover and used the information as a platform for future developing. Some great code examples which I have used to great effect though!



4. The book is good but many solutions are not tested fully so its not that they can be cut and pasted directly out of the book. you may have to troubleshoot many of them. Otherwise a real good book.



5. This is great book, It has a lots of example and explained really well. Great Work!

2 comments about Oracle 10g: SQL.

1. This book arrived in relatively short time. It arrived in good condition even after our mail curriers got through with it.



2. This book was the required reading for a database concepts class as part of a master's program. It's a great introduction into not only to SQL, but also Oracle. As someone who has worked with SQL often, but never with Oracle, I found this book to be very informative and helpful. It will serve as a good reference in the future.

No comments about BI Publisher for Oracle E-Business Suite.

5 comments about Oracle Database 10g High Availability with RAC, Flashback, and Data Guard (Osborne ORACLE Press Series).

1. I like this book and it has excellent breadth especially the RAC wait event tuning. My only issue was that it did not have enough detail, but I liked what was there.



2. The writers like to subsitute the Oracle manual in OTN but make no difference . eg, I wanted to setup the Dataguard through EM10g Grid Control. In fact , the creation standby database wizard was filled of bugs and user can't make use of it till patching and huge manual works. It's no doubt that writers never tried on this features. The book is rather splotchy and winding.



3. It is one of the few good books available in the market which covers RAC, DataGuard and Flashback features all in one.
   
   One of the drawbacks of this book is the fact that too much has been packed into one single book and it seems to loose its focus and lacks in detail.
   
   Overall, I still recommend this to my students who undergo my RAC and DG courses.
   
   
   Arif Khan
   Oracle Consultant, (...)



4. I agree with one other poster that this book attempts to cover all major HA features in Oracle in one small book. It is ok for a very high level overview hence the 1 star but falls flat for major details on the individual HA features. Instead my advice is to get The Oracle 9i RAC book from Rampant Press, Oracle Streams book and Oracle Data Guard book all from Rampant Press and read the Oracle concepts manuals for these HA features.



5. I like this book. It does not go into details but gives you at least the basic you need to deploy quickly RAC, DG, Flashback, and Streams. The author also spent time defining HA from the DBA point of view.
   Overall, I recommend this book and gives 5 stars

5 comments about Gates: How Microsoft's Mogul Reinvented an Industry--and Made Himself the Richest Man in America.

1. This very readable book provides a candid overview of the rise of Bill Gates and Microsoft. I found it interesting and insightful. Like much of the material about "billg", I find it a little sycophantic -- but it is not over the top. Key success ingredients: early signs of selfishness, million dollar trust-fund from his grandfather (which no doubt provided safety and leverage at the start), an early passion for an incredibly important technology at the critical period and a shrewd, single-mindedness. I suspect Bill is not a particularly compassionate, polite, happy or fair person -- however I bet he is really efficient!



2. I bought this book expecting to skim through it to find out a little more about what Bill Gates was like. But it's a wonderfully readable history of the growth of PC's, from the early days when the best a school kid (Bill himself) could do was to try to get access to a teletype time-share system, on through the first home "computers" that amounted to little more than a bunch of switches and LEDs (no keyboard or monitor), to IBM coming out with the PC and Microsoft's amazing good fortune at supplying the OS (great story! Bill just cared about programming languages, mostly BASIC, and saw the DOS manuever mostly just as a way to ensure that BASIC would run on the new IBM machine!), on thru the OS/2 vs. Windows battles.

   It even has a lot of inside detail on the development of the Apple Macintosh. I recently read "Accidental Empires" (the basis for the TV documentary "Triumph of the Nerds"), and found Gates to be a far better and more readable history of the PC's startup.

   The book is packed with interviews and amusing or interesting anecdotes. It's well written and well edited. One drawback for some people will be that it hasn't been updated since 1995, but for the two main things that have happened since then - the anti-trust suit against Microsoft and the rise of the Internet - there are plenty of other sources.




3. I won't get wordy here but I read this book twice and enjoyed it both times. It goes into the life of Bill Gates; his thought process, his work ethics, his childhood and how Microsoft established it's dominance. It's a good read even though it's over 500 pages. I highly recommend this book along with the book "Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire". This is the way it really happened. Not the way the movie "Pirates of SV" incorrectly portrayed it.



4. If you want to know more about Microsoft's early history, Bill Gates' life, and the history of personal computers, you will find this book highly appropriate for the job. Gates book reads more like a novel, as it's full of anecdotes, personal accounts, and photographs. This is a great book.



5. This is the version of Microsoft and the rise of Gates that you should read if you think that computers are utterly wonderful and fascinating things in themselves: it is full of breathless excitment, multiple exclamation points, and minute personal detail. The tone of the book would suggest that the development of software for the PC is as fantastic a technological achievement as putting men on the moon, or even, if you go along with the quote that precedes the introduction, as godlike as the creation of the universe. (I kid you not on that quote.)
   
   However, if you think of computers as a flawed, though useful tool that you want to use, that you want to work for the task at hand and do not care to coax it through innumerable design flaws and bugs, that kind of ga-ga view is preposterous and indeed superfluous. I found reading this a dreary task of wending my way though a proliferation of silly adjectives and presumptions about the significance of what was being achieved. Don't get me wrong, I love my computer and its instant info access (particularly as a writer), but I do not equate it with anything as significant as the invention of movable type. If you never felt like a god while programming a hobbyist computer or shared kid geeks' excitment at telephoning a mainframe in the late 1960s - what these first programmers were achieving is never even explained, as the book assumes the reader should know - this gets pretty tedious after a few hundred pages of hyperbole. Unbelievable as it may seem, there are those of us who want their computers to work as reliably and simply as toasters (as an acquaintence, who is an employee at MS, characterised me).
   
   That tone aside, you get a fairly good idea of how Gates did what he did up until the early 1990s. At building a great company, there is no question he was a genius. Moreover, it is interesting in that he understood and contributed to the early technology's development, yet had the guts, self confidence, and business smarts to do it all. Now that is something I deeply respect. He was lucky to be sure, but he was able to do what a lot of others couldn't. Gates made a huge number of path-breaking decisions about licensing, pricing schemes, intellectual property questions, etc., which are complex and extremely innovative and savvy.
   
   Nonetheless, this book covers much of the same ground that "Hard Drive" does, and in fact offers much less than that book. In particular, the book does not question how Microsoft does business, i.e. whether it is unfair or unethical. As such, it is wholly admiring hagiography, even if it portrays Gates as an abrasive and very difficult person. You get virtually no insight into the FTC anti-trust case or the supposed unfair advantages the MS got from selling both the operating system and higher-level application which forces competitors to share their technology, while MS does not have to do so. These are tough questions that need to be asked and debated.
   
   As such, behind the florid razzle-dazzle rhetoric, this book fails to dig deeply. Indeed, I think they got a lot of what motivated Gates wrong: they imply that because he discovered people of equal talent at Harvard and so went into computers and business instead. They explain little that you find in Hard Drive about his ruthless competitive spirit or how he incessently read about great conquerors as well as the hard core business press. He wanted to build an empire from an early age, and he loved computers in a way I will never comprehend.
   
   With these criticisms in mind, I would not recommend this book for critical readers who want to understand the company. The authors, in my reading, unabashedly worship Gates and assume the reader shares their unbounded enthusiasm for software and computer technology. There is more to it than that, far more.
   
   Not recommended.