No comments about Programmer's guide to the Oracle call interfaces : b release 7.1.

No comments about IFRS (IAS) - Praktische Umsetzung mit der Oracle E-Business-Suite.

No comments about Internet Industry Almanac.

2 comments about Usability in Practice: How Companies Develop User-Friendly Products.

1. Wondefull!! Autistic!!



2. I think this is a criticial book to read prior to other Usability volumes. Wiklund was ahead of his time and now it shows. It's divided into sections each highlighting a different company, a different team (e.g., software development, telecommunications) - I just focused on the section relevant to my current interest - and learned lots of real-world "we've been there - here's how it happens." Although each chapter author writes a bit differently, it all flows just fine. Don't forget to read Wiklund's Intro chapter. Ultimately, Deborah Mayhew's 1999 book helps you put Wiklund's chapters into nuts-and-bolts practice. An important book to re-read and show to newcomers.

5 comments about Oracle8i Web Development.

1. Not very impressed with this book, it has little to do with Oracle 8i and Oracle's Java Vision.

   With Web Development I was hoping for some database interaction, as the title states "Oracle 8i Web Development"

   Where is the Java coverage: JDBC SQLJ JSP Servlets BC4j

   This book is rubbish. I would not waste my money.

   It has nothing to do with 8i, and everything to do with basic OAS.

   Very frustrating!




2. Book Review for: Oracle8i Web Development written by Bradley D. Brown, published by McGraw-Hill companies, Inc. copyright 2000

   Sequels are sometimes a mere shadow of the original. Could this be true of Brad's second book, Oracle8i Web Development?

   The original book, Oracle Application Server Web Toolkit Reference, was written in early 1998 by Bradley, Richard J. Niemiec and Joseph C. Trezzo of TUSC and is an incredible value with its vast quantity of Web information. So how does Brad's new book stack up to the first?

   It took me several weeks to review Brad's first book due to the enormous amount of material and this one took longer for the same reason. This book took has an incredible amount of web development information, in fact I refer to it as the A to Z , numbers included, Oracle Web Development Manual.

   But the question is, did I like it and would I recommend it? The answer... absolutely. Because it covers just about everything you would need to know about developing an Oracle based web site. It starts with an well-itemized list of contents, which is 26 pages long, followed by 1050 pages of web development content as listed below.

   Hardware and OS considerations, specifications and installation of the web server, OAS configuration, web database, HTTP Listeners and Oracle8i built-ins are some of the topics discussed in the early chapters. Tuning, uptime and web server version differences are also covered to help educate the reader. There are several chapters on development tools and their differences, including many examples. The tools and languages covered at length are HTML, JAVA, XML, PL/SQL,PERL, cartridges, and Oracle Designer.

   Designing the site is thoroughly addressed, including discussions for a commerce server. Something I had not thought about until I read this, then realized "of course, makes a lot of sense to have a commerce server." The book goes on to describe utilities and offers troubleshooting tips , debugging code and security; an extremely important topic when you deal with your customer's information, like credit card processing. Need I say more, other than you are not getting a book with boring narrative, but one filled with page after page of code examples, topic tips, screen shots examples, diagrams and flow charts. In fact when I went back and looked at the layout of the book I realized it has an extremely good page layout and use of white space. In other words the layout appears to be "designed" rather than happenstance where many writers place diagrams and charts near pertinent text. It is not an easy task to keep the interest of a reader in a highly technical book, but my hat's off to Brad's accomplishment in doing so.

   The book concludes with a 38 page index and a 26 page appendix of great web sites. When I contacted Brad about the extremely helpful web sites to find his source he told me he had to compile the list. When you see the list you will know that that alone took a while to research not to mention that list is only the tip of the ice berg of the wealth of information, or should I say tip of the "gold" berg.

   If Brad intended to establish himself as a web authority, he has done it and this book demonstrates just that. What a nice gift to the community of web developers Brad has given us by sharing his wealth of knowledge on the subject. Thanks Brad!




3. The first thing I noticed when I got this book was the Oracle Application Server (OAS) chapters. The next thing was that the content was pulled almost word-for-word from the OAS documentation. I'm not that familiar with the other products covered in this book, but if this is how the rest of the book was written, save your money. If you have the products, you already have this book. It's just not all in one place. For example, compare the discussion of "Multiple Instances and Threads in Cartridges" on p. 142 of this book with p. 2-17 the OAS 4.0.7 Introduction to Applications book. Not only are the figures identical, but the text is almost a perfect match.



4. The first thing I noticed when I got this book was the Oracle Application Server (OAS) chapters. The next thing was that the content was pulled almost word-for-word from the OAS documentation. I'm not that familiar with the other products covered in this book, but if this is how the rest of the book was written, save your money. If you have the products, you already have this book. It's just not all in one place. For example, compare the discussion of "Multiple Instances and Threads in Cartridges" on p. 142 of this book with p. 2-17 the OAS 4.0.7 Introduction to Applications book. Not only are the figures identical, but the text is almost a perfect match.



5. Finally this is like Complete reference if you are an Oracle DBA. If you are planning on installating or already have I would strongly recommend to purchase this book. You must have some HTML, Java, XML experience to understand examples in this book. Extremely good coverage of OAS (oracle application server) from installation to configuration. The author gave detailed tips and techniques on writing PL/SQL stored procedures that dynamically generate HTML web pages using Oracle database, and every new feature in OAS PL/SQL cartridge is covered. More installation information on WebDB server is available on OTN (Oracle technology network).

4 comments about So You Want to be an Oracle DBA?: Still more useful information, scripts and suggestions for the new and experienced Oracle DBA..

1. First, you need to know that this book is based on version 9i and is focused on the UNIX environment. If you're using Oracle 8i and have no immediate plans to upgrade you will find that the previous edition (ISBN 0595174485) to be more suitable.

   The ideal audience for this book is the new Oracle DBA or UNIX system administrators who have either inherited DBA responsibilities or who want to gain cross-functional skills. Experienced DBAs will find much of this book too basic, and may complain that it doesn't cover the full range of database administration topics.

   In my opinion the relatively narrow scope of this book is one of its strengths. Instead of overwhelming the new DBA with hundreds of pages it sticks to the essentials. Another point in its favor is that the author doesn't attempt to go into gory details about how things work (information that you can get from other books as your comfort level and self-confidence improve), but remains focused on what you need to do in order to effectively manage and support an Oracle 9i instance.

   While I liked the Getting Started and Some DBA tasks (Sections I and II) that start this book, I especially liked Section III, which covers tuning. This is the essence of what a DBA does, and the basics are well covered. This section also gives some excellent scripts that the new DBA will find invaluable. Section IV, is somewhat useful, but Section V is another favorite because it shows how to begin building your own set of tools, which is the hallmark of an experienced DBA. The scripts that are provided in this section are the foundation of database administration, and will spark ideas for additional and more specific scripts. The value is that you can learn much from what is provided.

   Each topic in this book is given a brief 2-3 pages, which makes it somewhat terse. In many cases you'll have to go to other books for deeper explanations, but at least you'll be quickly functional.

   If I had to choose a single book with which to get started this would be it. Of course you'll outgrow this as your skills and experience evolve, but it will get you started and does so using good practices and workable techniques.




2. If you are used to books from oracle press,Wiley,Osborne or other publishers, This book is not readable at all..



3. If you are used to books from oracle press,Wiley,Osborne or other publishers, This book is not readable at all..



4. This book is an excellent Oracle how to guide. It is quick and to the point on several DBA topics. It keeps the theory to a minimum so as to be concise as possible. It is an excellent resource for a junior DBA.
   I use this book a companion to my other Oracle books, and keep a copy within easy reach.

No comments about Oracle Datenbankadministration mit SQL-Scripten.

1 comments about Electronic Discourse: Linguistic Individuals in Virtual Space (Suny Series in Computer Mediated Communication).

1. The conclusion drawn from the research run by Davis/Brewer, that electronic communication has both attributes of oral and written language is irrelevant, I guess, for most of today's electronic communication. The experiment performed by Davis/Brewer was in my opinion artificial (has anyone heard about mainframe software conferencing VAXNotes??) and has hardly anything to do with the way we use email / chatrooms / blogs, which were not yet there at that time (around 1990).
   Therefore, I find this book's title overhyped and misleading, the content being far from issues of computer mediated communication and virtuality. On the positive side, authors have sound knowledge of today's linguistic theories. It is only hardcore linguists, who may somehow profit from this book. Anyone else should get an excellent Sherry Turkle's "Life on the Screen" instead.

3 comments about Oracle8 Data Warehousing (Oracle Press Series).

1. The book provides a good and almost impartial overview and introduction on the subject covering almost everything that has to be said about DataWarehousing. It is well organised, easy and fun to read. It definitely gave me a good understanding on a subject that I had no prior knownledge. I recommended it.

   However I have a few comments which do not alter the value of the book : a) I would like to see a short introduction , no more that ten pages , which explains the subject and it's relation to the Oracle Tools. It took me quit a few pages of reading to discover it. b) I would like to see more details on the Star Schema since it is a central concept. Moreover I would like to see a few real life examples of models implementing the star schema. c) I would like to see more on the Oracle Express Solution and especially the Express Server (it's architecture etc.)and posibly a few examples.




2. I order a steak not a hamburger! I immediately associated with the conceptual - high level portion - of the book which covered: building the data warehouse team, managing the data warehouse project, the data warehouse design (very important chapters outlining usage of the star schema), and implementation of the data mart. I found the first half of the book to make alot of sense. Having a Masters of Oracle DBA, I found the physical database chapters on (partitioning and tuning valuable). However, OLAP chapters seemed too sketchy. I would have preferred an in depth discussion of installing and running the Oracle Express Server (Multidimensional database) , integrating express objects with Visual Basic or Forms, and connecting Discoverer to the Multidimensional Database, as subject matter. I found the OLAP section discussing Oracle Discoverer to narrow. The chapters covering Oracle Discoverer administration significantly less through than the Oracle Tutorial Documentation. Here my questions to the author: What about building item hierarchies, creating cross-tables, or cross-table master detail reports, introduction to Discover filters, and security -> Oracle Book explaining Oracle Products. Bottom line, I think the author missed the boat by igoring the significance of multidimensional databases and how to interface with them using oracle products.



3. This text is a waste of time and dollars. I really could not even suggest who the target audience might be. The book is just a haphazard collection of ideas with no in-depth content all presented in the most confusing manner possible.

   For anyone looking for some solid advice on Data Warehousing look elsewhere. Even the Oracle side of this Oracle Press book is weak.

No comments about Systems Building with Oracle.