1 comments about Database Systems: Design, Implementation, and Management, Eighth Edition.

1. Book does not come with the student content that it is suppose to come with. It is supposed to come with online appendices A though L and downloads for files used in each chapter. I would not advise to by a 130 dollar incomplete book. It was release in December of 2007 unprepared for people to use because it makes references to sites and files that don't exist but are supposed to. Signed Cheated patron. I want my money back.

3 comments about The Reasoned Schemer.

1. I'm a long-time fan of the "Schemer" series of books and was excited to receive my preordered copy of "The Reasoned Schemer" yesterday- It was supposed to be published in July but must have been held up until now...
   
   I have no relationship with any of the authors and just want to put my $0.02 in on it, since not many others may have a copy yet- I think it is absolutely FANTASTIC so far!
   
   The book itself is very much in the same style as the rest of the "Schemers"- A Q&A style of exposition that helps your brain to absorb most of the essence of a new programming style without having to spend the time to write tons of actual code yourself to learn the basic philosophy.
   
   The main purpose of the book is to attach a set of logic programming commands to the core R5RS scheme that allow you to implement all kinds of cool things, such as constraint programming, pattern matching, nondeterministic programming, and PROLOG-like logical reasoning. The material covered is not too dissimilar from the material in the back of "On Lisp" or some parts of SICP. What distinguishes it is that the implementation used has been widdled down to its bare essence and uses a syntax modeled on standard FP scheme syntax. Plus, the subject matter is treated with a certain academic rigor that gives these new commands the feeling of a practical toolset instead of just a clever novelty. I could imagine incorporating these commands into my regular scheme code...
   
   As I mentioned, there is a list of new mysterious scheme commands that enable the logic reasoning abilities- They look superficially like the standard FP commands in scheme, but behave slightly different- They have names such as "conde", "caro", etc. There are also a couple of commands with no FP scheme analogue, such as "run" and "fresh". Using these new commands, logical reasoning can be mixed with standard FP scheme pretty seamlessly. An appendix at the end of the book implements the full set of commands- It totals about 150 LOC in length.
   
   I'm still only partially into the book, but just wanted to let folks know that this book has some really mind-blowing ideas and may be the answer to those, like me, who are still searching for a resource that will allow them to "get" PROLOG-like languages and want to learn how to incorporate such techniques into their programming projects with the least amount of fuss possible.
   [...]



2. This is a sequel to "The Little Schemer". It goes further into demonstrating why relational programming can be elegant and powerful. You would also benefit by having some previous knowledge of Prolog, for the text expresses its ideas in the framework of this language.
   
   Relational programming is shown to be a very different beast from procedural/OO programming. Beautiful and concise notation. Especially if you try to imagine expressing some of the book's examples in conventional C or Java. A programmer harking from that background might have an impedance mismatch. But upon reflection, perhaps it is especially for such a reader that the authors are writing.



3. As the saying goes, if you like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing you'll like. The authors have extended the approach of their classic book _The Little Schemer_ to encompass what is usually called logic programming, but which they refer to as "relational programming" (a much better name, in my opinion). They extend the Scheme language with relational analogues of many constructs, notably lambda and cond (in many, many variations), and also provide extended versions of standard Scheme operations like cons, car, and cdr. Basically, the relational approach involves taking the result of a function call and making it just another argument, but a special argument that can get assigned to as the result of the computation. Big deal, so what? you ask. The important thing is that _all_ of the function arguments behave this way, so that you can specify the result of a function (relation) and ask the system to generate the arguments. For instance, instead of saying 2 + 2 = X and figuring out what X is, you can say X + 2 = 4 and the system will figure out what X has to be (in this case... ummm... oh yeah, 2). To do this, the system uses a mechanism called "backtracking" which systematically tries alternatives until it either finds the answer, gives up, or (if you didn't program the search right) goes on forever. If you haven't seen this style of programming before, this book will definitely open your eyes.
   
   The relational/logic programming style is usually learned by studying the Prolog language, which is how I learned it (though I'm no expert). Having a knowledge of Prolog will definitely make this book easier to understand, although the approach given here is more modern than Prolog in several ways. For one thing, the named relations of Prolog are replaced here by anonymous relations (analogous to lambda expressions being anonymous functions), and for another, the (somewhat brutal) "cut" operator of Prolog, which is used to control backtracking, is ignored in favor of more subtle approaches involving interleaving solutions and giving up after single results are found.
   
   I think the approach of learning-by-pattern-recognition that all the "Little X" books use is fairly effective here, though I think a lot of readers (meaning me) wouldn't mind a more extended discussion of the mechanics of the system.
   
   All in all, if you liked _The Little Schemer_ and are curious about new ways of programming, you should definitely pick up a copy of this book. It will stretch your mind like a Slinky, and when you're done you'll have learned a new way of looking at programming.

5 comments about Expert C# 2005 Business Objects, Second Edition (Expert).

1. This is an exceptional book. It provides both the examples of how-to use the framework and how it is built. This internal view of the framework provides invaluable insight into the internal workings of reflection and gives real world perspectives to using objects consistently in a distributed architechture. I like the book!



2. This book has a very good discussion of frameworks and includes the details of the CSLA (Component Scalable Logical Architecture) framework. However, I don't believe the book is worthwhile for the discussion of frameworks alone. If you're required to use CSLA, then this is the book for you.
   
   I give the book three stars because its contents can't be separated from the design of CSLA. The problem with CSLA is the layers. The use of "fat", fully encapsulated business objects has fallen out of favor recently and is not the best architecture for enterprise applications. Despite what the author says, I don't believe CSLA is truly a layered architecture, either.
   
   The book lacks a discussion of when CSLA is a good choice and when another architecture is better. Choosing to use CSLA pre-determines your architecture (the "A" stands for "Architecture", after all). You should always choose your architecture based on your requirements and never select an architecture in advance.
   
   That said, CSLA can be a good architecture for smaller projects. New developers often have issues understanding true multi-tiered architectures. Because CSLA uses an encapsulated architecture that's similar to the OOP training they had in school, those developers may find CSLA a good choice because it's easier for them to understand.



3. Author spends too much time in theory and less time showing real examples. Author wants you to down load code and spends time discussing bits and pieces of each section. Very, very, very steep learning curve. Not a good investment - wish I could find a CSLA book that teaches you step by step....



4. The book itself is somehow disappointing. Sounds like the old vb6 bo book, rather outdated.
   The main concept involved as a guideline on design is the fat table module object arbitrarily called business objects by the author, when the market is more oriented to model domains. Why should we choose fat objects instead of other solutions? It is not discussed on the book.
   A big issue is the way the book is written. He assumes you are a vb6 person. The author is not fully aware of the asp.net architecture. Look at this paragraph about keeping state on the page:
   "There's no automatic
   mechanism that puts all state data into each page; you must do that by hand. Often this means creating
   hidden fields on each page in which you can store state data that's required, but which the user
   shouldn't see. The pages can quickly become very complex as you add these extra fields.
   This can also be a security problem. When state data is sent to the client, that data becomes
   potentially available to the end user."
   
   So he's completely unaware of viewstate object which address all these issues. I think asp.net has gone a long way now and this guy don't even know one of the basic revolutionary concepts brought up by as.net.
   I have constantly the sensation that he is addressing a vb6 developer, but vb6 is long gone.



5. A good written book, it's a step by step trip in the author's mind: from idea through design to coding of his framework. You may not agree with all choices (such as heavy reflection use) but you always know why he did. A good start point to build your own businnes objects and a rich bag for your developer's toolbox.

5 comments about Teach Yourself VISUALLY HTML (Teach Yourself VISUALLY (Tech)).

1. When I am asked the question, "I want to learn programming, were should I begin?" my response is always, "learn HTML." While some people will legitimately argue that HTML is not true programming, it is easy to learn and the results are visual and immediate. The skills learned in the study of HTML are fundamental to more advanced programming and the ease of learning gives the beginner immediate and clear success.
   This book is the easiest way to learn HTML that I have ever seen. With the illustrations all in full color, it is the epitome of What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG). Every step is set out in clear detail and all of the most commonly used features of HTML are covered. From this point on I will recommend it as my preferred first book in HTML.



2. The book is very helpful. The instructions are very clear and easy to follow.



3. This is the most colorful and most cutest book to have!!! Everything's fully explained.. Makes you what to explore further and eager to learn. I have gone through it repeatedly. by the end, you feel HTML is so powerful that other programming languages can stand aside. Simply LOVE Teach Yourself Visually HTML !!! GRAB YOUR COPY NOW!!!



4. I bought this book back in 2002 to learn HTML and it was exactly what I was looking for. Easy to follow VISUAL instruction. After years of webpaging I STILL referance this book for quick easy to find reminders and brushing up. I recommend it to anyone, but especially those who know absolutely nothing about HTML nor where to begin.



5. Two weeks ago I decided to re-work my company web sit. I ordered this book
   and "Creating Web Pages with HTML". Creating came first and with it I was able to create a seven page site with pictures in under twelve hours.
   
   Then came this book. There are three or four things in it that were not covered in "Creating" but "Creating" was much easier and simpler to follow and excecute. Creating did a much better job of taking it one step at a time, from the basic to the more complex in a more logical order.
   
   I am far from an expert and this will probably get the job done for you even with out any previous html experience, but I would recommend "Creating" for its simplicity.

5 comments about Pro EJB 3: Java Persistence API (Pro).

1. Anything that requires getting a bunch of jars on the server classpath was deemed unsuitable for automated deployments. I wonder how people manage automated deployments and configurations, especially in a multi-server clustered environment.



2. Pro EJB3 is a great book. Having been using it for over last 6 month on my recent project, I can definitely say that this book is invaluable.
   
   Have been worked on EJB 2.x for many years and on several projects with different application servers (Weblogic, JBoss, WebSphere), I understand the basics of EJB. So I want not only understand the basic how-to in EJB3 and JPA, but also want to understand the in depth explanations on transaction, persistence context and different behavior in the new system.
   
   The book explain all these topics very well. I had brought other book (hibernate in action with JPA pdf version), but found that book was too focused on hibernate (even I was a fan of the previous edition of hibernate in action book). This book is well focused on JPA,and I really likes JPA APIs.
   
   The book author is really nice and accessible. I have emailed Mike questions and he consistently replied promptly.
   
   This book worth the money !!!
   
   Chester



3. This is the best book out there that explains in detail how JPA works with some good examples. I found the book to be well structured and easy to read.
   
   I would recommend this book for anybody who is looking to work with JPA.



4. This book is a joy to read. Object relational mapping is explained in a very simple manner. What I like about this book is that it explains a certain concept and then immediately talk about the specific use-cases when that concept/design may not be the best choice. The authors then give excellent suggestions and alternatives.
   
   Very good reading material, simple examples used to explain complicated concepts. Writing style of the authors is also very engaging.
   
   A very good buy.



5. This books seems to achieve the goal it has in mind, that of providing the user with the information necessary to use the Java Persistence API. Unfortunately there are real problems in the execution of this book.
   
   A book like this should not only be full of examples, but it should be structured in such a way that it is easy for someone using the book to duplicate the examples on their own system. This book fails to do so.
   
   In chapter two we are promised a complete application using the new API by the end of the chapter. The source code is provided for the application discussed and it is a pretty good example of the API discussed up to that point. Unfortunately there isn't enough information for the reader to build and run the application on their own computer. There is no reason for this kind of omission this early in the book.
   
   The problems with the book continue as one moves on. I recognize that the target audience for this book includes only professional programmers of reasonable skill. I consider myself a very good Java programmer. That doesn't mean that I want to waste my time filling in gaps that should have been covered by a book I already spent my money on. It isn't any excuse for the omissions in this book.

5 comments about .NET and COM: The Complete Interoperability Guide Parts A and B.

1. This book has been an invaluble resource on a .NET/COM interop project I've been working on. Don Box's quote on the cover sums up the title nicely, "This is the last book that should be written about COM programming. There is nothing left to say."
   
   Since I'm a published author myself, I first bought a book on this topic from my publisher Microsoft Press. While accurate, it left a lot to desire. Very little advanced information was provided. However, this title from Adam Nathan's and Sams Publishing leaves nothing out, including extensive references.
   
   If you are working with COM objects from .NET, or vice-versa, this book will be an excellent resource.



2. Never one to skimp on books, I ordered three with almost exactly the same title on COM/.NET Interop when I needed some information on the subject. Adam Nathan's book is by far my favorite. I've never found an answer in another book that wasn't in Nathan's (and have found many in his that I didn't find anywhere else).
   
   It seems like this book isn't as easy to get on amazon as it once was--a pity, because it's the first (and maybe only) Interop book you'll need. Maybe he'll come out with another edition as .NET changes...



3. I read Troelsen's book on COM/.NET interroperability. This two volume set easily exceeds in content. Both books provide valuable information that I use regularly in developing .NET solutions that use COM as clients and servers. If I had to have only one selection, I would choose these books (Adam Nathan's) for the extensive content.



4. My co-worker had a previous edition of this book (now set) and it was the bible for any question regarding .Net/COM interop. When he left the company and took the book with him I was sad. Now it's back in print, however, and happy days are here again.
   
   I'm not going to pretend that I'm a COM God; I'm mostly a desktop .Net component developer who has to expose the component to both managed and unmanaged (COM) clients. This book was invaluable for walking us through some of the trickier steps of integrating our new component with the main client (QuickBooks accounting software) in a way that supported new version deployment and backwards compatibility.
   
   The way that Nathan describes best practices for exposing managed libraries to COM is clear and concise (as much as you can be when talking about COM, I suppose). It directly led to several utilities and build steps we added in order to create better components.
   
   I highly recommend this book set.



5. This product requires some knowledge and experience in coding with .NET and in Visual Studio but it contains all you need to know about the interoperability of .NET and COM. Many hints, detailed information and examples are included and guide through the interoperability of managed and unmanaged components.

5 comments about AIX 5L Administration.

1. I found this book to be both comprehensive and well written. It was recommended to me by a very experienced AIX user. I am much less experienced, but I also found the book very helpful- it has a good mix of information, and is presented in a logical, well formatted way.



2. This is a great book. It is very informative and very useful.



3. The book is written well but I was left disappointed. I'm an experienced Solaris Admin, so I mainly wanted to see the differences between the two. I feel that the book could of basically been condensed into one sentence. "Use smit for almost everything." Most of the book is just guidance through the smit menu's or explaining technical principals like the differences between RAID levels or Power 4 vs Power 5. I feel that I've got more out of the IBM Red books and can't recommend this book to anyone but beginners who need the extra guidance through SMIT or basic concepts like RAID.



4. The book presents an excellent systematic presentation of AIX
   administration. It is written in a refreshing style that is not found in
   typical AIX documentation.



5. I work at a place that uses AIX extensively. I was hoping to be able to learn as much as I could from this book to help with system administration duties in my company, but so far I've learned...ZIPPY! The book seems to assume that I've been administering UNIX since I started walking. If you are a beginner to UNIX do not get this book to learn. This being said, can anyone recommend a book for a beginning Unix System Administrator? I've been in the Windows world for 10 years, so I am familiar with things like the OSI model, FDDI, file systems, FTP servers, you know, computer stuff. I just want to become a UNIX guru to be able to help. I don't need to have my hand held for every little computer concept.
   
   Felton

1 comments about The Game Design Reader: A Rules of Play Anthology.

1. Curious minds that have delighted in games will love this book! I adored the compilation of shared thoughts from "Who's Who" in game design. Aesthetically, the book is so cute! My copy sits on my coffee table. The book had me at the cover...

5 comments about Programming Microsoft Windows Forms (Pro Developer).

1. This is hands down the most clearly-written explanation of programing windows forms using C# that I have read or seen on the market. Petzold has an easy and engaging writing style. He takes the time to explain the WHAT and the WHY of what you are doing. This is a great book for someone just sitting down to Visual Studio 2005 to begin learning C# programming. His examples and walkthroughs produce useful and functioning examples of the most common aspects of Win Form programming. My only complaint is that he can only dedicate a chapter to some pretty key concepts, like data-binding. My interest is piqued, and then the chapter ends and we move on to new concepts. This is a small complaint because what he does provide is complete and enlightening. It provides a solid foundation to build off of create your own experiments.
   
   I have worked through many programming books over the years (or should I say attempted to). The Step-by-Step guides always leave me wanting more answers about how things work, in addition to how to make it work, and seem to be pretty superficial. This book has left me anxious to read more of Petzold's work. He has skillfully broken through my thick head and can do the same for you.



2. I wanted to do some windows programming in C#, bougt a lot of books but found this the only one that really helped.



3. This book is, as the author explains, done in Petzold style. Meaning it is shown with the code behind the GUI tools instead of being done with the tools. Unfortunately any forms which are built with code cannot then be manipulated with the GUI tools which defeats the intention of the makers of Visual Studio as a Rapid Application Developement (RAD) tool.
   
   If all you have however is the compiler and a text editor then this book is for you but since Visual C# is freely available you can write some nifty applications without needing to know how to invoke the compiler from the command line.
   
   Still, there are some things in this book which are helpful to know and the GUI tools, on occasion, don't exactly fit the bill. So it's nice to know what the code behind the GUI is doing but you'll soon be forgetting most of what you learn because you'll be using the GUI tools.
   
   I would much rather have had a book which shows how to use the GUI tools more effectively than what the code does.
   
   Edwin E. Smith
   Freehold Consulting
   Coffeyville, KS



4. This book is a good updated to his first book on programming forms in C# 1.1. There have been alot of useful changes from C# 1.1 to 2.0. I just wish he would rewrite the first book with the 2.0 updates instead.



5. Programming Microsoft Windows Forms is a great introduction into windows forms. It takes the magic out of windows programming by showing how to do everything from scratch, which, with windows forms, turns out to be pretty easy.
   
   I haven't programmed for windows since MFC, COM, and Visual Studio 6 were considered new. Windows forms makes a lot of the tasks that used to be tedious easy and Petzold as always is very easy to follow.
   
   Although this book is not an introduction into C#, it is easy to pick up assuming you already know some other languages like C++ or Java. I didn't know any C# before I started reading this book and already feel comfortable with it.
   
   One thing to note is that this book covers .NET 2.0 and the current version (as of April 2008) is .NET 3.5. However, I haven't had any problems compiling the example code using Visual C# 2008 Express Edition.

5 comments about OpenOffice.org for Dummies.

1. We are a company that pride our selves on being cutting edge, if not bleeding edge with open source software solutions. We had used MS office for years but as OOo has gotten more advanced we
   started migrating over to it as a great alternative.One of my main job duties here is actually the OOo expert. I field any questions, do training, and I am basically the PR front for our now 800 users. I just ordered 20 copies of your book so I can lend them out to users with concerns and questions. It is a great book and a terrific resource for our organization.



2. The book covers the major aspects of the software suite, but it really doesn't get into the details of the programs. For that, I recommend a Dummies book on the Microsoft version, since they don't have an in-depth book on the OpenOffice.org version of the software applications. For what it is, an overview of the suite, it is very good. I highly recommend it as a fantastic starting point. I paid a paltry $7 for the book, delivered. How can you go wrong with a price like that? Truth be told, I believe it would have been worth the cover price of $24.99. It is an excellent book to start with, but you'll want to dig deeper after you make it through this book. I hope the authors will consider making full-blown Dummies books for Impress/Presentation, and Calc/Spreadsheet, and the Writer/Text Document applications, too.
   
   I highly recommend OpenOffice.org to all non-profit organizations, as well as for-profit companies: save yourselves $200-$500, per computer, along with the upgrade/compatibility issues, and dump Microsoft. You will be glad you did. Cheers!



3. Pretty much of a getting started but does talk about many important points.
   Though I am very skilled in Excel, Open office is still irritating.
   I would buy it again.



4. All supplied material for review of this book said it was new and up to date but did not give the version number of Open Office that was covered. When I received the book I was frustrated and well into it when I found it was for version 1.1. The Open Office I have is 2.2. The data base portion is not even mentioned in this book. I found that I wasted a lot of time. If any of these books do not show the version number of the program they are working with I would not buy them!



5. Best book on the subject but spends a lot of time on stuff 90% of us will never use.