5 comments about MCITP SQL Server 2005 Database Administration All-in-One Exam Guide (Exams 70-431, 70-443, & 70-444) (All-in-One).

1. I had already passed the 70-431 when I picked up this book, but it was great in helping me pass the 70-443, and I'm using it to study 70-444. The exam tips scattered throughout the book and the test specific notes at the end of the chapter (What you need to know) helped me focus on what was important. The practice questions in the back of each chapter and on the CD were realistic and challenging. I especially liked the explanations on the questions identifying why an answer was right, and why other answers were wrong.



2. This is the book I've been waiting for. Not only does the book have good explanations about many of the testable concepts, but the exercises have been great in showing me exactly how things work. As an example, I didn't really understand database mirroring, but the high availability strategies chapter included exercises where I was able to implement and configure a database mirror. After completing these exercises, I really understood database mirroring.



3. PREMISE: I am not yet over the obstacles (certification), I am just studying on this book, so I cannot say whether the book has helped me pass the exams or not.
   
   HOWEVER, judging from other certifications I achieved and the relative study books, this one will work, because it seems pretty comprehensive and detailed.
   
   It is a well-organized book, the pace is just right (and makes me think why one would want to read other books totaling 2000 pages or more to reach the same goal) and it gives tips and hints that I am sure will be valuable.
   
   The plus is that you can read it to learn about SQL Server 2005. It gives you a very good overview, and you feel that you are spending your time learning something.
   
   As a reference book it is quite superficial, i.e. it does not really expand much in any topic. This is fine though, if you are thinking of buying this book as a reference think again. That is not what is advertised.
   
   Four out of five stars in my opinion is be the best rating for a certification study guide: you cannot really make a certification guide something "special", so this type of books hardly ever gets five stars.
   
   However, there are two drawbacks that made me throttle back to three stars:
   
   Firstly, some of the answers to the end-of-chapter questions are wrong. They are easy to spot though, typically they start with "Correct Answer: C" (wrong) then they go on explaining why B is the correct answer.
   
   Secondly, the writing style is not exceedingly good. At the beginning it was just a little awkward to see the way some sentences are put together. Now that I am past the first half it is becoming somewhat annoying, and in some instances a little confusing.
   
   I do not blame the author: I think he did a very good job (nobody expects a SQL Server expert to write beautiful English prose, and lots of it). However, another pass at editing could have made this book much more enjoyable.



4. This is a great book! It is very well written and the material presented in a consitent and logical manner.
   
   Some of the material I knew before picking up this book. Since this would be my first MS cert, I read every section of the book. For the topics I already knew, I was impressed by how well Darril boiled the material down to the essence, the central point that you needed to learn. I was hoping that he'd do the same for the areas I did not know. I passed all three tests and this book was the reason.
   
   Read every page. Do every hands-on example. Review the exam tips and you'll not only pass the test but actually be able to do the work.



5. This book was well organized and helped me pass the 431 exam within a month of receiving this book.

2 comments about Google Guice: Agile Lightweight Dependency Injection Framework (Firstpress).

1. (DI) Dependancy Injection is critical to doing test driven development there are many DI frameworks but none are as simple to use, lightweight and as type safe as guice. The author does a very good job helping you get started using guice and even shows some advanced features of guice. If your into test driven development you owe it to yourself to check out how guice can make your life easier.



2. Google Guice is both the name of agile code, and an agile book. Just as agile development emphasizes light-weight processes and elevates YAGNI to a chant, Vanbrabant's style is quick, to the point, and covers all the important bits first and formost, only giving enough about non-essentials to alert you to them.
   
   Already in my Spring-dominated office I have had a manager and another developer, both conservative in their technologies, pick up the book, read it, and come back to me sold on trying out Guice in a project. Guice is that good; so is the book.

5 comments about Python Scripting for Computational Science (Texts in Computational Science and Engineering).

1. When I first got ahold of this book I had just finished learning all the gory details of good numerical codes. But when developing tests for simple cases I found that development went way too slow, so someone suggested I learn Python. This book provides a great demonstration of how python can supplement your existing codes. Either by organizing the tests, formatting output, or just adding pretty interfaces.
   
   This book contains a lot of the necessary extras that a scientist or engineer must do to get his work going or finished, which is too pedantic to be taught in most courses. It shows the power of Python over some other scripting languages for this purpose. It is definitely one of the best references on my book shelf.



2. Langtangen's emphasis here is on a reader who comes from a strong background in engineering or science, and is familiar with common computational ideas and has done some programming, but not necessarily in Python. The typical book on Python is aimed at a general programming reader, and the examples in such a book usually are quite elementary, from a computational viewpoint.
   
   The merit of Langtangen's book is that he gets into a lot of computational ideas. This is not a trivial book. Aspects like parsing data in files, connecting to local and remote hosts, and interacting with programs written in other languages are covered. For the latter, the important cases of Fortran and C programs are explained. The choices of these languages is deliberate. In science and engineering, they are the dominant languages for raw computation. And you are likely to have legacy code written in these, that you cannot abandon while using Python.



3. I have both the 2nd and 3rd edition of the book. The book does have 'unexciting academic LaTeX format' which another reviewer pointed out, as is also true that one should 'NOT expect a cookbook of high performance algorithm implementations'. Rather, I would say that this is the type of book that algorithm-intense cookbooks could be made from.
   
   The book has a lot to offer someone prepared to slosh through and dig in deep to the guts of the book. In this sense I found the book to lack a sense of conceptual significance, in that much of the mundane material of everyday programming receives the same level of detail that the more complex subjects do. So, it is often that I find myself skimming the trivial to find the core. Unfortunately, some of the core code elements and examples are compiled from a litany of trivialities and then it is necessary to go back and pick up the bits and pieces to make sense of where you are focusing on.
   
   More often than not, the maze of obfuscation does lead to an interesting 'ah ha' and that makes the book worthwhile to me. I think the update from 2nd to 3rd editions is warranted, but should also have included a proper parsing of the chaff and a little creativity in layout would go a long way to making this book true reading material and a ready-by-your-side reference.
   
   As it stands, I need to get in the right frame of mind to approach the book on even a casual encounter. But when I do, I am pleased with what I can take away from it and readily apply. The Tools and Examples section, which has high applicability to testing code, is very worthwhile but, again, is a little shaded as in viewing the forest from the trees.



4. If you want to learn Python, you should get it. Author do not build some "big" application (like "internet store software" or "bookstore software") from beginning to end, but rather give you a lot of practical examples of using python.
   
   It is not like in others book that examples include only learned functions/methods, but use topics from the rest of book (you have example on page 25 and note that explanation of this and that function you found on page 543). By that you have interesting examples to use in real-world problems, not only examples to explain freshly learned topic.
   In other books interesting examples of use python you found on page 3234, because only when author introduce all useful functions. In this book nice examples is even on first pages.
   
   
   You learn how to use numerical packages (numpy) in python, using some useful tricks on lists and arrays, introduce to using graphical interface in Tk.



5. Python Scripting for Computational Science is both an introduction to the Python language and an excellent reference for the intermediate developer. The approach taken by the author is to present the language in the form of tasks to be solved accompanied by example code. As expected for a book on scientific computing the modules covered in the examples emphasize numerical packages but this in no way detracts from the applicability to general Python enthusiast.
   
   What really makes this book more than just another Python introduction is that the author bridges the gap between complied and interpreted code. He demonstrates how the speed of execution of compiled code can be tied to the rapid pace at which scripts can be developed. Examples are provided for interfacing C, C++ and FORTRAN code with Python. Calls to precompiled applications are also covered and the examples were easily adapted to my favorite computational tools. One of the risks with doing numerical work in a scripting language is the possibility of straying into computationally intensive tasks to which interpreted code is not well suited . Latter chapters discuss how to identify these portions of your code and how to migrating these tasks to a compiled language.

5 comments about GNU/Linux Application Programming, Second Edition (Programming Series).

1. I've been programming for a good while but I am relatively new to Linux. Sure I've flirted with it a little in the past but I've mostly been down in the worlds of Nulceus, vxworks, and threadx.
   
   I found myself needing to come up to speed fast on a lot of little things - multi threading, communications, piping and build processes. This book covers it all in good enough detail to get you on your feet fast. The sections on signals was especially helpful as was the nice overview of gdb which while not the debugger type I'm used to - really proved to me how useful that old program still is (and since I'm stuck with the command line version of it - how to really make that version sing).
   
   As a quick reference/introduction this book can't be beat. Highly recommended



2. This book covers a wide breadth of what you need to get started with Linux programming. The writing is very good and readable.
   
   The examples though simple, are very clear and concise, and makes you understand at a fundamental level what elements of Linux you need to know.
   The ones I liked in particular were:
   - IPC (interprocess communication)
   - Linux process model, and pThreads
   - shell scripting, awk, sed
   - bison, flex
   - tools like GDB (debugger), gprof (performance), gcov (code coverage)
   - sockets programming
   
   Note that this book does not go very deep into these topics, but if you need a refresher on the basics, or you don't know a particular area of linux, this book is highly recommended.
   
   Most of the examples are in C, as expected, (being Linux) except for a very short example in Ruby with Sockets programing.



3. Looks like I'm going to break the mould of giving five star reviews to this book.
   
   Part I is a brief overview of the history and motivation behind Linux. No bones there.
   
   Part II covers compiler and related tools. I learnt a few things from these chapters (I wasn't familiar with either autotools or gcov).
   
   Part III covers application development. The emphasis is mainly on IPC. There are some grim errors in the code. In particular, I winced when I saw the use of asserts that contained statements performing actions with (necessary!) side-effects. Compiled in optimized mode in most environments, this code will crash. For this section, Stevens/Rago APUE or Rochkind AUP serve much better.
   
   Part IV, shell scripts and tools is OK, as is part V, debug/test.
   
   I'm not sure why there's a CD included. It contains the source code (of little value, easily downloaded) and all of the diagrams used in the book. I can't imagine that they will ever come in handy.



4. Bought this book as it had so many good reviews on Amazon.com. I really should have paid more attention to the one review that said "Disappointing" (Paul Floyd of Grenoble, France).
   
   I haven't yet read the bits about history, tools or shell scripting. What I have read is the section covering application development. This skims through areas such as sockets, threading, semaphores, mutexes, message queues, memory-mapped files etc. All useful areas, but this book does little more than tell you what the man pages tell you. That's where the first bit of lazy authoring comes in. The second bit of lazy authoring is the complete absence of an explanation of how to use these areas together, or an example of using them together. Given the list of topics, an example would have been useful that starts a worker thread to handle a TCP connection, that thread waiting on file descriptors and a timeout using select or poll, using mutexes to protect data, a message queue to communicate between the main thread and the worker thread, and possibly a memory-mapped file to create a circular log of the last N actions performed. Unfortunately the author didn't attempt that. But we should possibly consider ourselves lucky that he didn't, as the example code he does provide contains some major failings, most notably putting code inside assertions that is required even in optimised release builds. When this code gets compiled out in an optimised release build the examples fail. Obvious to anyone that knows about assertions, but not necessarily to everyone reading the book.



5. This book is perfect for anyone who needs to write application software for GNU/Linux. It describes all those miscellaneous features for programming that are above the kernel but below the level of integrated development environments. It describes makefiles, gcc, debugging, object file analysis, sockets, pthreads, performance analysis and much more. The latest edition also has an excellent overview of virtualization.
   
   The author doesn't go into detail on any one subject, and that is what makes the book so good. I can find details in various online sources. This book is perfect for someone who had normal training in C/C++ and now needs to understand how to develop on a GNU/Linux system.

5 comments about E-on Software's Vue 6 Revealed.

1. The book introduce you to the software by practical projects. All projects are easy to follow. After completing those projects, you will have a solid basis for Vue 6.



2. I was so excited to finally get this book in the post so I could begin some tutorials in Vue 6 Infinite. Unfortunately the book arrived and was printed in black and white, was on poor quality paper, and was not bound terribly well. In fact pages wanted to fall out before I had even read a page. This does not fair well for something I was hoping would be a useful regular resource. I have begun reading the content and feel it may have some useful material, just a shame the overall package does not match it. I would have returned this book, but sadly it would have cost me the price of my initial purchase to return it.



3. Book is excellent for anybody starting with Vue 6, hopefully the author will be following on more advanced tehniques and in color would help.
   I have been in Animation for over 18 years and use Vue for quick backgrounds for 3D Max. Excellent program



4. This book really sucks. It cuts too many corners in content and the graphics are too small and hard to see. The binding falls apart within 2 minutes of flipping through the pages. Save your money and just use the tutorials on Eons' website.



5. Very simple tutorials which do a great job of walking you step by step through most of the features of VUE. The manual that comes with Vue is rather scattered and all-around unhelpful. Better to ditch that and just start with this book. If you have some experience with 3d tools then you can zip through this book in a day or two. So, overall, a great book that most people would find very helpful.

5 comments about Expert Spring MVC and Web Flow (Expert).

1. Other reviews have mentioned that there are many problems with the examples in this book. I can only reaffirm what they've said.
   
   The other thing that I really didn't like was the disorganized fashion with which the examples were presented. The authors seemed to jump around describing one small section of the problem in great detail, then 3-4 pages later would give you the critical piece of information you needed to understand their example 3 pages before. I am a fan of examples that are logically presented:
   First you do x,
   Then you do y,
   you configure x to point to y
   now deploy it, type this in the url field, and there you go, it works.
   
   I found these examples to be more like:
   First you do x,
   then let me tell you everything there is to know about x.
   y is very important as well.
   if you wanted to set up y you could do it like this.
   of another popular way of configuring y is like this.
   and then there's this thing called z.
   z is also very important, and here's some more information about z.
   But of course, before we can set up z, we need to configure x to point to y.
   I'm sure you can figure out how to configure x and y.
   that's it, we're done.
   
   So when you're done reading you feel like you have increased your general knowledge of the subject, but you really don't know exactly what you're supposed to do to actually make something that works.
   
   I also would have liked more information about using commons-validator with Spring MVC instead of so much detail on VaLang. This would have been especially helpful for people moving from Struts to Spring MVC.
   
   Those are the negative aspects of the book. On a positive note, it is fairly well written. There is a lot of good information that will increase your general understanding of the MVC and WebFlow frameworks. I do use this book as a reference from time to time, and it has provided me some value in that respect.
   
   Overall though, I do not recommend purchasing this book. I think you can get a better idea of the WebFlow framework just by using the documentation on Spring's website, downloading the framework and walking through the examples. As far as MVC I think this book is better in the MVC chapters than it is in the WebFlow chapters, but with the release of Spring 2.0 even those chapters are now out of date.



2. As computer books continue their never ending slide into the abyss, Apress and Manning seem to be leading the way. This book is one of the best works of fiction ever written. From incomplete and non-working examples to the many errors, the publishers would be better served by pulling this tome off the market and starting over. There is nothing "expert" in this text nor is there anything the least bit helpful. Well, ok, I will admit the UML diagrams are nice.
   
   Avoid this book at all costs.



3. The book provides really good information and I was able to build out an application after reading it. The only problem is the editing and I hope a 2nd edition is released with fixes and updates for Spring 2.0. There are good PDF presentations out there that give a quick overview and one good tutorial that's a working example. I would google for those and read them alongside with this book.



4. I completely agree with the reviewer who points out how almost chaotically the information is delivered in this book - for the most part. Generally, you need to skip from section to section and back a few times before you can get all the pieces together. That's unacceptable. It's impossible to use this book as a convenient reference since each example generally provides only partial answers, and you have to scan back and forth through the pages to look for the clarification on the missing pieces. Often, the coverage is quite superficial. The official Spring Reference Guide on the Spring site does not get into too much detail on Spring MVC, leaving out lots of important and interesting details. Nevertheless, much more - and better - information is indeed available on-line today - at no cost. I haven't yet seen a perfect one-stop source for Spring MVC, but this book is definitely a waste of money. It may have been okay a couple of years ago when much less info was available online, but certainly not today.
   
   The only part of this book that is very well written is the chapters on Spring Web Flow. Indeed, it appears that the chapters were written by someone other than the authors of the rest of the book. Someone who understood and appreciated the importance of a very thoughtfully organized FLOW of any sequence of logical steps, be it a software application, or a flow of information such as an instructions manual, or a tutorial. That's why Colin Yates, the apparent main contributor to Chapters 11 and 12 (on Spring Web Flow), does a much better job than the rest of the authors. Unfortunately, those Web Flow chapters are largely obsolete today. Some code in the book won't work. You'll immediately see that the classes in the org.springframework.webflow.test package you get with your latest Webflow distribution differ from the ones used in the book's examples. What's even worse is that the flow configuration XML files in the examples apparently use the old/obsolete XML schema. That means you shouldn't use them as examples for your own code. Just compare the code from the latest Spring [on-line] Reference Guide and the examples in the book and you will instantly see the difference.
   
   For a very good introduction to Spring Web Flow, see the Spring Reference Guide (http://static.springframework.org/spring-webflow/docs/1.0.x/reference/introduction.html) and the article by the author of Spring Web Flow at http://www.ervacon.com/products/swf/intro/index.html, which is excellent.
   
   Do not waste money on this book! Honestly. ;)



5. The book was great pre-release book, but like most programming books for specific frameworks becomes almost useless within a few months

2 comments about Beginning SQL Server 2005 Express for Developers: From Novice to Professional (Expert's Voice in .Net).

1. This is an excellent book for learning SQL Server 2005 Express. I started learning MS Access in 2003 when my wife asked me to develop a database for her to use at work. At the time I knew only the words "relational database". Over 99% of what I needed to know to develop that contact and resource management database to its fully featured capability came from multiple books.
   
   The expectations have changed over time and now I need to use SQL Server 2005 Express as a back end with Access as the front end for that database. Knowing nothing about SQL Server 2005, I needed a very good book to help bring me up to speed. I found that in Robin Dewson's "Beginning SQL Server 2005 Express."
   
   From the installation of SQL Server 2005 Express through an explanation of Triggers and Reporting Services, there is a clear and concise explanation of each aspect with the opportunity to Try It Out. I needed to know all of what he presents and I was especially interested in Installation, Security, and Database Backup, Recovery, and Maintenance. The Installation chapter explains very carefully and clearly authentication mode, service accounts, user instances, etc. The Security chapter clearly explains logins, server roles, database roles, and schemas. The Database Backup, Recovery, and Maintenance chapter is also clear and carefully written with information on types of backups, detaching and attaching a database, and transaction logs.
   
   The Chapter headings are:
   1. SQL Server 2005 Express Overview and Installation
   2. SQL Server Management Studio Express
   3. Database Design and Creation
   4. Security
   5. Defining Tables
   6. Creating Indexes and Database Diagramming
   7. Database Backup, Recovery, and Maintenance
   8. Working with the Data
   9. Building a View
   10. Stored Procedures
   11. T-SQL Essentials
   12. Advanced T-SQL
   13. Triggers
   14. Reporting Services
   
   Robin Dewson is a very good teacher with the gift of knowing how to present a concept and then build concept on concept. He also provides helpful tips on things to do and not to do.



2. I have been querying SQL Server databases for six years using .Net. This book took me inside SQL Server and showed me how to manage tables, relations, stored proceedures, indexes and triggers.
   
   The book achieves great mix of instruction and best practices. At times, I found myself wanting to know more but the book is already over 400 pages.

5 comments about RMAN Recipes for Oracle Database 11g: A Problem-Solution Approach (Expert's Voice in Oracle).

1. I just finished reading this book. I must admit that I like technical books that have examples you can test and see the results yourself. The book has a lot information and especially rman new features with Oracle 11g. The best way to take advantage of this book is to have a test server on hand to try RMAN problems in the book. I recommend this book. It will enhance your knowledge of rman in Oracle 11g.
   I give 5 stars.



2. I've referred to this book numerous times; it's excellent. In fact, I can barely get it back from one of my peers. In essence ... you're faced with a specific problem and this books provides an excellent guideline for tailoring a solution to your situation. A must buy!



3. This is an excellent book that I ever had. This book provides us what we need to do in a step by step method for all imaginable scenarios. This may look repetitive but it provides the complete solution in that fashion rather making us to scrape through different chapters and leaving us in doubt on what to do. If some one is looking for rman internal algorithms, they can search elsewhere. But if they are trying to have a book that could provide easy, quick and straight forward solutions in a crisis, this is the one they might need. This really helped me to troubleshoot and resolve the issues on different occassions.RMAN Recipes for Oracle Database 11g: A Problem-Solution Approach (Expert's Voice in Oracle)
   -Nehru Kaja.



4. I just took a graduate level course on RMAN at Regis University which was taught by one of the authors (Darl Kuhn). I am very new to Oracle and this book serves several purposes:
   --Introduction to RMAN for those who have never used it
   --Learning through hands-on case scenarios and how to utilize them (for almost ANY situation)
   --A continuous reference for experienced DBAs
   --Touches on a few topics external to basic RMAN, such as the restoration of online redo logs, running RMAN on Windows, the data recovery adviser, and utilizing RMAN through the enterprise manager.
   
   I sell most of my text books after I'm done with the class, this one I will keep.



5. I have had this book just over a month and have found the book quite useful. I have yet to review the entire book but have been picking it and reading it from time to time and learning new things or better ways of doing tasks in RMAN.

5 comments about Professional SQL Server 2005 Programming (Programmer to Programmer).

1. I would highly recommend this book for both someone new to database development and for those who are migrating from earlier versions of SQL Server.
   
   Maybe I'm just a groupie for this author, since I've purchased this same book for SQL Server 7, 2000, and now 2005, but I continue to find his approach easily readable and full of practical advice that is immediately applicable to projects.
   
   Even as an experienced programmer with SQL Server, I'm glad I bought this book, rather than just a "what's new in 2005 version." After a quick scan of the table of contents, I easily found what was new in 2005 and focused on the parts that were relevant to our applications. It's also a great resource to have on the shelf. It has come in handy when our team runs into not-so-common problems. We've been able to crack it open and find exactly what we need.



2. I found this book extremely helpful in wrapping my brain around some very difficult to grasp concepts. The author writes in a way that's very easy to understand (especially with such a difficult topic such as SQL programming).



3. I've never been a fan of the Wrox product line, but purchased this book on the recommendation of a friend.
   I couldn't be happier. The author is one of the most knowledgeable, and he writes in an accessible style.
   I've heard some gripes about how he discusses the organization of his book a little too much, but the reasons for these passages are to reinforce the importance of the concepts being covered in relation to other concepts.
   I'd recommend this book to beginners who are fast learners, or to old hands that want to pick up a new trick or two.



4. The second topic I looked up I ran across this problem...
   
   Page 353:
   
   He says there are four different isolation levels you can set - that was in SQL Server 2000 - this book is about SQL Server 2005. Where is SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL SNAPSHOT?
   
   Chapter 12, 'Transactions and Locks' is almost a cut and paste from his 'Transactions and Locks' chapter in SQL Server 2000 Programming!
   
   Encryption - Let's see - 2 pages, and 3/4 of a page is a copy of an image from BOL.
   
   His 2000 book is better.



5. When working with databases, there's querying, and everything else. A DBA might set up a database; an advanced user might progam stored procedures and triggers, ponder indexing, effectively use cursors, etc. - but if you just want to know how to write a query to accompish a task, this is *not* the right book to help you learn. Check out 'SQL Server 2005 T-SQL Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach' by Sack.

5 comments about Business Objects XI - CBT: Designer XI (2nd Edition).

1. While there are pieces of this book that are very useful for Universe newbies, like myself, there are far too many things that have been left out. It's obvious that this book is based on Mr Schmidt's training class since things that you would see in person (like intermediate steps taken to get from A to D) are not in the book itself. You have to rely too heavily on the video segments that are on the CD to fill in the gaps - video should augment the text, not replace it.



2. We found this book as an excellent tool for selftraining and teaching others, too. The advantage is the amount of useful examples.



3. This is the third book I have bought by Robert Schmidt. I learned to design reports from his book "Creating documents with Business Objects". It is an excellent resource book. I learned to design advance level reports using his book and I always keep it as a reference. In Business Objects, the Help menu does not offer much help when you look for answers. His book is a better resource then the BO Documentation. He has explained everything in a very clear and concise manner.
   In his book and CBT on "Business Objects XI: Creating Universes with Designer XI", again he has done a marvelous job in explaining basic but important aspects of creating universes. I would highly recommend both the book (for reference) and CBT( to learn faster and have a better understanding of concepts). He has given good examples on report context and universe context. The presentations are very clear. The real world examples make is so much easier to understand the concepts.
   I am very much impressed by the author . Whenever I had a problem, he immediately answered my questions with the explanations. He will go an extra mile and will even call you to help you out. So, rest assure your investment will not be wasted.



4. This edition is an updated version of the previous edition. It has been rewritten and updated to clarify some of the topics. We have also removed the videos from the presentation and replaced them with a fully developed CBT. The CBT has more videos, better examples and quality audio. The presentation is still included for those that want to use the text to train Business Objects Designer. When you order this title you get a full, improved version of the text, the presentation, and a great CBT.



5. We've have been buying the Creating Documents with Business Objects books for years. Whenever we hire a new employee, we order the Web Intelligence book, and if they are to make universes, they also get the Designer book. This combination has worked very well for our employees. Recently, we ordered the CBT versions of these books and were surprised to see that we still got the same book. We quickly put the CD in to check the CBT and were happy to see that the CBT is actually quite good. We were also surprised that we got both at the same price as the previous versions of the books. The Designer book comes with a presentation that allows us to teach a class on Universes. The Web Intelligence book did not come with the presentation. We contacted Schmidt Ink, and were informed the non-CBT version of the book has the presentation. The person we spoke with also said that the presentation will be on the next print of the CBT. By the way, Schmidt Ink sent us a free copy of the previous edition, since we bought so many CBT's. We are very happy that these CBT's are available. They are high quality, easy to use, and inexpensive. One other note, so far the author has been very helpful. We have contacted him several times and he has discussed several matters with us, which is one of the reasons for this review. I just want to thank the author for great books and for helping us so many times.
   
   Business Objects XI - CBT: Web Intelligence XI