5 comments about Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech)).

1. To many people this book will be very helpful because it fills a very useful purpose in a particular niche market.
   
   One of the much trumpeted advantages of ASP.NET 2.0 is that the amount of code required to produce useful, usable basic applications has been dramatically reduced. Combining that with the whole mountain of new and easy-to-use features via the Visual Web developer 2005 Express Edition (VWD for short), it becomes possible to create starter applications with almost no code of your own.
   
   This book is based on that ability. It homes in on those built-in features that enable complete novices to create basic websites. It covers all the basics, including Master Pages, CSS Styles, Themes, Navigation, validation, some of the ASP.NET controls, and a short SQL Server crash course.
   
   Two CDs are bundled with the book. The first contains a copy of VWD itself and the second CD contains a range of video tutorials from the LearnVisualStudioNet site plus some useful links to videos from Wintellect and various other online resources.
   
   This book is aimed at readers with no previous experience of creating web pages or developing web sites.
   Its advantage is that it sticks firmly to the "low road" in that the author hasn't felt the need to (in his own words) " ... wander off into irrelevant product comparisons or advanced topics ..."
   
   If you are a beginner in this field and want to get a feel for the basics of creating web pages and websites before delving into the more complex areas of .NET coding then this relatively small, relatively inexpensive book should meet that need perfectly.
   
   Of course, it is unlikely to be your only web development book if you plan to move beyond the very basic projects, but what it does cover it covers very comprehensively and very clearly. Again, the author is totally clear in what he sets out to do. He says: "Another key ingredient of this book is its coverage of things that most other resources assume you already know. In fact it's Okay if you don't already know
   them. Everybody has to start somewhere and website development is tricky enough without having to fight a feeling of being left out. You won't get 'Sorry, you didn't learn our secret language umpteen years ago when we did so you can't play."' Here, just about everyone gets to play."
   
   My verdict: For its target audience it succeeds admirably in its aim to help beginners build dynamic data-driven web sites.



2. This book is very good in content. I enjoy reading it. Perfect for Beginners.



3. Weather you are a beginner or experienced developer, this book is an excellent resource. It even included a training CD along with the Program CD. Great resource. I use this application for my webpage timewiremedia.com



4. Being a newbie to Visual Web Developer 2005 Express seemed a little daunting at first and I quickley realised I was going to need a little guiding hand.
   Finding Visual Web Developer 2005 Express for Dummies on Amazon and purchasing this book were the two single important steps I could have taken for self-help.
   This book sets out how to do, plan, develop and implement the various technologies used to develop and deploy data driven web sites. This book's language is plain and concise allowing the reader to quickly begin planing and developing their web site with the least fuss.
   Easy to follow and read, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is considering developing a web site using VWD 2005 Express.



5. good book. very well explained, with step-to-step samples.
   easy starting kit for perfect novice.

1 comments about E Is For Empire: A New York Alphabet.

1. This is a great idea put together! By taking the alphabet and teaching kids a neat way by using rhymes to learn A to Z interesting facts on history and culture about each state in America. I pick this one as my favorite about the state of New York. Each letter describes a featured N.Y. landmark, like B is for Brooklyn. H is for Henry Hudson the explorer from which the river is named after. I wish they had books like this when I was a kid. What's so bad about a book that can educate kids with lots of original, intelligent contents. All 50 states are fun to collect, too-because of all the really beautifully illustrated works.

5 comments about Adobe Flash CS3 Professional On Demand.

1. I am the author for this book. Out of respect for Andy Anderson's high level of contribution to the previous versions of this book (for which he was fully compensated), I included his name on this updated title. Future reprints of this title will be changed accordingly with the publisher.
   
   In regards to ActionScript 3.0, this title walks you through the use of ActionScripting, but it is not a book on writing AS 3.0 code, which is out of the scope of this beginner to intermediate level book. As an author, I welcome any specific corrections that are needed to make the next printing a better book.



2. For those of you migrating from Actionscript 2 to 3 DO NOT BUY this book. Willy nilly though out the authors mix in older code with new code. Has a chapter on behaviors that is no longer supported. There are much better books out there.
   
   I bought it and returned it.



3. Excellent book. I found this book hits the essential of each feature in a succinct and comprehensive way. Very complete desktop reference. I use it every day.



4. This is a good book for an absolute beginner who wants to make simple motion graphics.
   
   I had trouble finding anything in here that wasn't in Flash 5 or MX.



5. As a web developer, I often have designers come to me with a Flash movie they have recently made. In my experience, sometimes their movie just works on the web, and sometimes it does not. I was hoping to understand why that is from this book.
   
   The chapter on publishing Flash movies is well done. The page layout is nice and easy to read. The majority of the chapter is dedicated to explaining the different publishing options available from the menu. That was great instruction and now I will know some options to look at if I run into problems.
   
   However, I was hoping for more information related to troubleshooting and some examples of common problems when publishing to the web. The designer who brought me the movie knows the design part of using Flash, and I know web programming, but it seems there is missing information in the middle that neither of us know. The designer expects me to know what to do because I'm the 'web guy.'
   
   So, the book was good at explaining menu options, but I will have to look elsewhere for information about troubleshooting web publishing.

5 comments about Building a Monitoring Infrastructure with Nagios.

1. The author clearly likes the product on the products own merits. The books is not written by a hack who was filling a void. He writes clearly and methodically explaining in detail why, what, how and when of Nagios. The index is very good and has allowed me to effectively use it as a reference in learning Nagios. I like some humor in my technical books and David does not disappoint me when he explains how to "ssh into his power strip" to do a little environmental monitoring.
   
   Nagios - in my opinion - is a killer-app with such flexibility as to be the "ultimate" monitoring tool. Learning it is a wise investment of anyone's time, and Josephesen's book is invaluable to understanding and exploiting all of Nagios's features... and yes, I am over the age of 13.



2. I use Nagios heavily at my company and as a result, I've purchased all of the available texts on the subject. This one is simply the best work on Nagios available right now. It's clear and succinct where even the online docs from the Nagios project can be confusing. It covers things that the No Starch volume barely touches on (WMI Scripting and Nagios) and honestly, the diagrams and code samples are clear and useful in real-world application.
   
   Really, buy this one. If you need another one, I would be surprised.



3. This book takes the fairly complicated matter of configuring Nagios for monitoring your network infrastructure and makes it straight forward. Kudos and many things to Mr. Josephsen.



4. It's well written, but it didn't provide much more insights and coverage than reading the existing documentation you can download for free. There are also some glaring gaps in its coverage. There's nothing about passive checks! And I don't think it was written before v3.0 came out.
   
   If you like written docs for stuff you reference often, it will be worth the money. But don't go to it with any significant troubleshooting problem.



5. Main benefit of this book is that it will teach you many things in a short time. You might want to purchase it if you want a quick start on Nagios, and don't plan to use Nagios on larger systems. Also, although the author's (brief?) style has some benefits, it also has some drawbacks.
   
   Things like distributed monitoring, fail-over, passive checks,... are barely touched. If you are installing Nagios for the first time, you probably won't miss these subjects elaborated, because you will want to have it running soon as possible. However, I think the Apress book covers these advanced topics much better, and gives a more comprehensive overview of Nagios. The decision is up to you. I preferred the lengthier book with more things explained, although it was a bit harder to read.
   
   One more thing that I disliked was that for Passive checks author references Chapter 2. I couldn't find anything about passive checks there, so I checked the Index. No mention of them there either. I gave this book a relatively bad review due to this kind of unclear issues and for the lack of distributed monitoring and failover coverage, which I think is very important for a monitoring system in a serious installation.
   
   As said, some things are better in this book than in Apress one (like ie. Windows check explanation), but in general, Apress book left a better impression on me.

5 comments about The Art and Science of C: A Library Based Introduction to Computer Science.

1. I borrowed this book from library and believed I had made a right decision.

   Quoted from the book, Mr. Roberts have been teaching computer science for over 20 years, I'm not sure how long he has taught C language but I suppose this book is written in a way that he believes is most beneficial to the readers, based on his teaching experience.

   C is a cryptic and complex language, so the author teaches in a stepwise manner, he hides the complexity by introducing his private libraries and data abstractions. So the readers implement the functionality of C, which is independent from the complexity of C; once the readers have enough grasp at C, they may move on to explore the complexity of C.

   The author have done these with good intention because data types in ANSI C are limited in size, for example, the data type int is different from our perception of integer in daily life. The address operator & may be confusing as well.

   How did I use the book? I rewrited all the examples presented in book without his private libaries. I did the exercises in the book without his private libraries as well. Instead of copying all his codes and getting them work, I tried to make errors: for example, in the simple hello world program, omitted the preprocessor operator #, then read the error messages. I also tried to improve the efficiency of my algorithm.

   This maybe a good introductory book for people who have experience in programming in languages other than C since the syntax of C may confuse them, but owning it is not recommended.




2. I thought this was a wonderful beginners book. It gave me the basics and then allowed me to go on and try new things by myself. By the end I really felt like I could write my own programs in C.
   
   I only gave it four stars because I think five would have to be a textbook that really brought the information to life, while this one was rather dry.



3. I have read and worked through both of Eric Roberts books on C.
   Of all the programming books I have read, and there are many, his two are the best.
   
   My only regret is that he has not written books on C++.



4. This book is annoying with the way the author asks the user to write programs using his custom library functions, as opposed to the standard C commands. Because of this, I did not learn about scanf until probably the 7th or 8th week of the C programming course I was in. I feel like that alone warrants a 1-star rating. If you buy this book, you will be learning to program in "Roberts," not C.



5. I was frightened when I opened the book... The characters in the book look like a copied-material of a very very old 8-pin dot-printer output...

1 comments about Essentials of Programming Languages, 3rd Edition.

1. This is an advanced text in computer science. Meant perhaps for the 3rd or 4th year undergrad or for the grad student. Directed at a metalanguage level. It explains how to understand and compare various programming languages within a unified conceptual framework.
   
   A lot of this is via the writing of a "translator", or maybe call it a compiler or interpreter. While the latter 2 terms have very specific meanings that you are undoubtedly familiar with, at the book's level, it looks at the general case of going from a high level set of instructions in some language to "assembler".
   
   Good background if you do have to write an actual compiler or interpreter.

5 comments about Expert Oracle Database 10<i>g</i> Administration (Expert's Voice).

1. As a DBA with 9 years Oracle experience I was looking for a good general reference book for 10g, something to update my library. This book is not an 'expert' book. The author specifically says in the introduction that it is designed for novices looking to become DBAs. I feel quite misled by the title and most of the reviews here. I wish I'd saved my money. Very cursory explanation of some 10g topics. Lots of wasted space talking about Unix OS.
   Is in need of some technical editing, e.g., (page 206) "Under this constraint state, all new inserts and updates will be checked for compliance. Because the existing data *won't* [emphasis mine] be checked for compliance, there's no assurance that ..." Much of what is written in chapter 6 (Schema Management) is from a data warehouse point of view. This fact is not made clear--heaven help the novice DBA wanting to implement materialized views in his/her 100 Mb database.
   
   Oracle's powerful new version of OEM is given a spare (for a book of this size and scope) 25 pages. However, many of OEM's features are discussed separately under other topics. This may be a matter of taste, but I would have preferred a discussion of all the utilities in OEM in the OEM chapter, and not have to go hither and yon throughout the book for this info.
   
   There is some very good information here. It is not, however, organized for utility. It could have used more diagrams in places. And, for a book whose introduction indicates that the audience is novice DBAs, there is emphasis on some esoteric details (materialized views, flashback tables, etc.), and thin on others.



2. I knew this book for a long time and i am so lucky to get it... it explain stuff in a very nice and sequential way, the best about it is that it trains the DBA to use command line at all time.....



3. Guys..
   This is it. I have 2 other DBA books that i use to refer. I sold them on Ebay, and bought this book. This is the only book that i have on my desk. It got everything from Basics like 1NF ( first Normalization) to PL/SQL packages.
   Time spent reading this book is worth it. Thanks Sam for Wondeful book.



4. read one month before taking the class, at lease, because it's not a 1200 pages book full of snapshot, but full of characters. good for students who never touch the Unix/Linux subject



5. A good book for a reader that did not attend Oracle courses or lack an expertise in several fields, definitely not a study textbook, but a reference for already working DBA.

5 comments about Murach's OS/390 and z/OS JCL.

1. My job requires me to write scripts on Windows and Unix platforms. I have no problem writing Windows batch files or Unix shell scripts to copy or move files, change permissions, create and delete directories, write results to log files, etc.
   
   Recently, I was asked to write a mainframe script. I was told to write this script in Rexx. When I looked into Rexx, it was just another scripting language. It was not hard to understand how it worked. However, unlike Windows batch files or Unix shell scripts, there was more to writing a Rexx program than just knowing the Rexx language - I needed JCL to run it!! I had seen JCL before. I knew each job started with a JOB card and that it executed PROCs and PGMs. I also knew that I did not know nearly enough about JCL to write JCL to do what I wanted it to do. That's when I went to Amazon and found this book.
   
   Not only did this book confirm what little I did know and correct some misundertandings I had, it went far more deeply into JCL to describe how to use many features that I did not know existed. One of the best features of this book is that it provides some background information on how mainframes work and the naming conventions used. This information is useful when JCL coding is introduced because the reader has a better idea of what the JCL is used for and what it happening with the various statements. JCL coding is not even introduced until Chapter 4!!
   
   After the background information, this book then goes through the various aspects of JCL coding. The basics of what I needed to know to run my Rexx program were addressed as were many concepts that I can now put in my "bag of tricks" for future projects. I am sure most of our mainframe programmers do not know most of this material.
   
   This book is not limited to JCL. It also describes how to compile Cobol programs, how to copy, move, sort, delete and print datasets using common mainframe utilities. It even has a chapter on Unix System Services. Prior to reading these chapters, I had no idea how to copy a dataset to a new dataset on the mainframe using a batch program. For me, this was a trivial issue on a Windows or Unix platform. I now know how to do it on the mainframe. This book clearly explains the process. It also provides coding examples for all concepts described throughout the book.
   
   If you are new to computing, I don't think you want to start with the mainframe as the first platform you learn. However, if you have some computing background from working with Windows and Unix, then I highly recommend this book to get a solid foundation on how to run batch programs on the mainframe.
   
   In the past, I had to ask a coworker to help me when I needed to work with JCL. I purchased this book so that I could code some JCL for myself to run my Rexx program. Now, not only does my Rexx program execute flawlessly, I also have a thorough understanding of how to write mainframe batch programs for future projects. Who knows, maybe my coworkers will start coming to me with their complex JCL coding problems!!



2. This book is a tremendous reference resource for anyone who works in the IBM mainframe environment, especially for those who don't work with JCL on a daily basis or for those seldom-used tasks for which you may not have any "canned" JCL readily available. I strongly recommend this book as an invaluable JCL reference document.



3. I must agree with the others reviews. This book is an invaluable resource that will save your time reading those boring, 1000-page, IBM Redbooks. It gives a nice introduction on IBM Mainframes, operating system concepts, as well mastering JCL skills. After reading this book you will feel more confident to go deeply into the IBM documentation and learn the extra skills needed to your area (databases, networking, programming, etc.).



4. Good reference book, I have it by my desk and use it often.
   
   I wish it had some info on FTP, may be next release.



5. This book is excellently written; clear, concise, and easy to understand. With examples on the opposite page of the text, it is very easy to follow and comprehend. It can easily read front to back or as a reference, it not only clearly explains what, but how and why. I've worked with JCL and mainframes for over 20 years and would strongly recommend this book for beginners or experienced professionals. I keep a well-thumbed, heavily highlighed, tabbed copy in my cube at all times. Keep in mind, this book is updated as dp systems are updated, so don't get the earlier editions (ie, the Second Edition in the gray and black cover) which are obsolete. You only need one book on JCL - this one is it.

5 comments about C++ Cookbook (Cookbooks (O'Reilly)).

1. Unlike a self-proclaimed "C++ Wizard," I'm of the opinion that this book is inherently useful in many ways, even for experienced programmers. Basically, it offers several ways to tackle various programming challenges with C++-centric solutions.
   
   Whining about brace style is a hopelessly lost cause. K&R style braces save lines and reduces page count in the publishing industry. Get used to it or get out of it, I say.
   
   However, this isn't a rant.
   
   There is a good portion of the book that would be more helpful to aspiring programmers and less useful to advanced programmers, such as "Making Sure a Header File Gets Include Only Once. In my programming career, I've seen a lot of bad code. If more develooping programmers would have read this book, my life would surely have been easier!
   
   Like any cookbook, a recipe is a guideline for producing a desired result. It is up to the chef to decide when to depart from the guideline and by how much. It is oftentimes difficult to find the core solution in a set of API documentation, for example, in string handling. The C++ Cookbook has a whole chapter on string manipulation and text processing. It is much easier to look at the often short and sweet recipes in the book and decide whether or not they are close enough to what you want to do to use them as a baseline for writing your own code, rather than just referring to an API document and trying to figure out which set of operations you want to use to accomplish the task at hand.
   
   I don't think that this book is some kind of answer to all of our C++-related prayers; what cookbook have you used that can be so much to so many? In all, it is a worthwhile product for those seeking assistance with their everyday coding. It does tend to promote Boost. Boost is a large project of common C++ "needs" wrapped up in a fairly platform agnostic package and available as a free download. It is a lot like a "Swiss Army Knife" API for C++ in a way similar to what the JDK is to Java developers.
   
   C++ Cookbook will be very helpful to programmers who don't want to spend time solving every little problem themselves. It may not be the best text for a veteran with ingrained Computer Sciences education, but for self-taught, non-CS disciplinarians, it may well be the ticket to writing much better code in less time. For someone making a transition from C to C++, it is an indepensible "how to" reference that you can easily read when the mood strikes. If you think FILE* before fstream, chances are this book will be a big help!
   
   A few aspects of the book are specific to a particular platform, though for the most part, it is platform independent.
   
   Not every C++ book needs to be written for the hardcore daily-life programmer. Hobbyists and others who find that they need to use C++ are certain to find it full of useful nuggets. There are often dozens of ways to set about solving a particular programming challenge. This book offers its solutions in a very readable, enjoyable manner that is also interesting and practical. If you're a C++ Wizard, you probably don't need this book, but in my experience, more than half the guys who think they're C++ Wizards tend to be wanna bes.
   
   There is a lot of good information inside of this book that should be known by most experienced C++ programmers. There are also a lot of good information that is easily forgotten by programmers who don't work in a particular area of the language very often. The Cookbook provides an easy way to look up the recipe and implement a viable solution without having to sort through barely comprehensible API documentation, which is often a lot like trying to bake a chocolate cake with the first steps being milk the cow and fetch the eggs, or more likely sometimes, plant the grass so that you can raise cows to eventually milk! This book is more like a box of cake mix. Maybe not perfect in the eyes of a master chef, but good enough for the rest of us to use and enjoy.



2. This book contains a lot of clever code fragments. Unfortunately I've found numerous bugs in them and some code fails to compile all together. Take for example the author's matrix class, it uses nested templates (partial specialization) which does not work on most compilers, including the latest VC++. At the very least then, the cookbook should have provided alternate means of achieving the task given that Visual C++ is listed as a supported compiler. In other areas I have found bugs and poor initializations. Granted, the programs show the way that tasks could be done. But this is not an algorithms book (and spends very little time discussing the algorithms). It is clear that the authors did not even bother compiling the code snippets on every "supported" compiler, so how can I believe they have tested them? If I want to debug code, I'd rather spend the time debugging my own than someone else's.
   
   The bottom line is that a code from a "cookbook" is supposed to work out of the box and have good instructions on how to extend and modify the code. This books' do not. As such this book is of little value.



3. The 'C++ Cookbook' is a great resource for any developer that might be new to or still mastering the C++ programming language. Packed with over 500 pages and broken up into 15 chapters, this book is well written and easy to follow. My main "gripe" with this book is that when I think of a cookbook, many times it's full of solutions are less well known, or slightly more challenging tasks that the average programmer might not know the solution to. With this cookbook, I feel it's geared more towards the more junior level developer who isn't a master of the language and is still learning their trade. I don't feel that this book is perfect for senior programmers, but it DOES offer common solutions in one book, so I might be incorrect in this assumption. All in all, a solid book, and one well worth keeping on your desk and you code with C++!!
   
   **** RECOMMENDED



4. Are you a C++ programmer? If you are, then this book is for you. Authors D. Ryan Stephens, Christopher Diggins, Jonathan Turkanis and Jeff Cogswell, have done an outstanding job of writing a book about solving common problems with C++, but not a book about learning C++.
   
   Stephens, Diggins, Turkanis and Cogswell, begin by showing you recipes that contain recipes for transforming C++ source code into executable programs and libraries. Then, the authors show you recipes that describe techniques that you apply from within header files. Next, they show you solutions to common problems when working with C++'s numeric types. The authors also show you recipes for working with strings and text files. They continue with an overview of how to manipulate dates and times. Then, the authors describe the data structures in the standard library that you can use to store data. Next, they describe how to work with the standard algorithms and how to use them on the standard containers. The authors also show you solutions to common problems related to working with C++ classes. They continue by showing you recipes for using C++'s exception-handling features. Then, the authors present an overview of streams and files. Next, they provide you with solutions to common numerical programming problems and demonstrate how to use generic programming techniques to write numerical code effectively. The authors also describe how to write multithreaded programs in C++ using the Boost Threads library. They continue by describing solutions to some common requirements when internationalizing C++ programs. Then, the authors present an overview of XML. Finally, they describe a few facets of C++ that do not actually fit neatly into any of the other chapters: Function and member pointers, const variables and member functions, and standalone operators and a few other topics.
   
   Throughout this most excellent book, the authors give real life solutions that reflect the current best practices in C++ programming. More importantly, they focus on performance and portability, with a strong emphasis on formal and ad hoc standards.



5. A good book in a nice and handable format to take a look at the most importance topics in the c++ programming

5 comments about Security Warrior.

1. This book should be titled "General Security Buzzwords 101 For The High Level User." The information in it just misses the information that one would be looking for in a technical environment.



2. Security Warrior has good overall coverage and plenty technical details for people like me who are interested in the technical details.



3. This book is outstanding and an essential read for anyone doing web-based application development.
   
   It is very eye-opening to the current state of web security.



4. This book contains some okay level of steering, but that's about it. The technical accuracy I see exhibited here can only be rivaled by your grandma explaining Windows system internals. It doesn't end at just the author's confusion of C and C++ (classic "strcpy() and other C++ functions" babble); the very explanation of why a program crashes, or how an attack works, or how variables and buffers get created is flat wrong.
   
   I had to stop reading this in the buffer overflow chapter. Highlights include the flawed interpretation of the error message from when bigmac() returned (it returned to non-mapped memory, the book says it read past the end of a string); the horrible explanation of how buffers work (buffers are not simple variables, and variables do not allocate multiple chunks of memory for themselves as explained); and the incorrect description of the return-to-text attack (returned to existing code, but the book says it's run code you injected onto the stack). After reading a stream of these such inaccuracies, I stopped looking for something that actually came out right.
   
   The buffer overflow chapter can easily be replaced with Hacking: The Art of Exploitation. Read that instead. It's also got better networking and WEP attack explanations.



5. This is one of my favorite security books from O'Reilly, primarily for the first four chapters which are dedicated to reverse engineering software. While there are a few texts out there that are dedicated to the subject and go into almost painful detail, this book is great for someone who is new to the skill. The other chapter that I was happy to see was chapter twenty-two which covers forensics and anti-forensics. While the coverage on anti-forensics was a bit light, it was great to actually see it included. I would be very interested to see (perhaps write?) a full book on this from O'Reilly sometime in the future, particularly given some of the attack methods on full disk encryption coming out of Princeton as of late.
   
   Overall, a great tome on security with a good body of solid and applicable information. I'm hoping to see an updated edition.