5 comments about Oracle High-Performance SQL Tuning.

1. I bought a copy of this book in hopes of tuning the SQL in my Oracle8i database and I was not disappointed. When using the techniques in the book, I was able to quickly identify and tune the most resource intensive SQL statements in my system. The book is clear and easy to understand.



2. I have a very complex system with lots of subqueries, and I was unable to find good tuning information until I tried the techniques in this book.

   The book is simple to understand and explains the internals of complex Oracle SQL operations.

   I have been very heppy with the results from my tuning, and I am thankful to find this textbook.




3. It is a good book for those interested in the internals of sql. The knowledge of the author about the matter is excellent, and his writing style is clear, simple, and funny.



4. I'm sure that this was a great book in it's day, but it is 5 years old and useful only for firewood. The rule optimizer is not even there anymore. [...]



5. Still working my way through it, but have already gleaned several insights from it. This gives me information I had not yet found in Oracle manuals. (I'm an application developer, trying to work productively with database administrators and system administrators.)

No comments about The PostgreSQL Reference Manual Volume 1: SQL Language Reference.

5 comments about MySQL and JSP Web Applications: Data-Driven Programming Using Tomcat and MySQL (Kaleidoscope).

1. If you are using the Tomcat, MySQL, JSP configuration, this book is the absolute perfect marriage of these technologies. It covers every aspect of the implementation. It is required, however, that you do have a little background in 1 or more of these technologies. The examples are excellent and at times the book is a lighthearted read. Kudos to the author.



2. I picked up this book as a reference for integrating our PHP and MySQL designs with JSP pages. However the author sticks to a single fundamental method of JSP development for MySQL which is using Apache's Jakarta Turbine classes. No information is given as to the other mechanisms available to utilize MySQL with Java such as MySQL Connector/J or Resin JDBC. I believe this book is a very shortsighted approach to the many tools available in the Java and JSP world. I think the Turbine approach is fine, but should maybe have been a later chapter not most of the book. We developed our entire web site without the use of Turbine.

   Some discussion is given to strategies with JNDI and LDAP, as well as EJB. There is also a healthy discussion of XML which I believe would be better suited for an XML book, but serves as nothing more than filler here, which could have been used to expand upon the other methods of JDBC.

   I would have given this book three stars, but several errors in the code examples always bring down quality by at least one star. I expect a book written by a developer for the purpose of instruction to be error free in all code examples.

   All in all the book appears to be a step by step tutorial to building a program according to the developer's linear scheme, rather than a comprehensive discussion of all the options available to a JSP/Servlet developer integrating with MySQL. Sadly this really is the only book available on the subject at this time.




3. I was encouraged when I first started reading this book, but soon I grew disappointed. The book is peppered with useful tips here and there, but in general it's too linear, as an earlier review mentioned. The book is more of a recipe for a web app than a general guide, and it wastes too much space on design process. But worse than that, it is fraught with errors, as if edited by someone who didn't understand the material. Letters have been dropped from words, referenced figures don't show what the referencing text says, there are errors in XML examples. A funny example is on the "In This Chapter" sidebar on the opening page of Chapter 2 where one of the bullet items is "Bean Resistence". More power to the beans! He meant "Bean Persistence", but hey, if you're going to get it wrong, at least spell it right. :)



4. I have read this book from cover to cover and used many of the examples in some of my development. There are errors in the editing to be sure. For the most part most are minor e.g. links that end with .htm instead of .html will not work or if you create the database in mySQL, in my case on a Linux platform there are errors you will run into. These errors are limited to making sure you observe the case of the letters in creating and quering your database. This book is not for the beginner. It teaches a systematic approach to building an ecommerce web site using jsp's and mysql. The reason for the 5 star rating is this book makes you go out of the box to learn ant, turbine and other opensource packages to build a working e-commmerce web site. Personally I do not like to put java code int an html page = jsp's ... but this book offers sound eamples and good advice. One of the better practical but certainly not perfect books I've bought.



5. This is without a doubt the worst technical book I have ever bought.
   
   Some of the problems stem from the fact that most of the packages used are now out of date. Case in point: the book walks through the installation & configuration of Turbine (which is used for connection pooling), unfortunately the connection pooling part of Turbine has now been branched off into another project (and Tomcat now includes standard J2EE connection pooling anyway).

   The other major problem is that a nearly every instance of example code is either sloppy and badly edited, or in some cases plainly doesn't even work without serious debugging.

   If you must buy this book, don't even think about trying to follow the core example application without first downloading the source-code from the authors website. You WILL be needing it, even if only to 'fill in the blanks' from the poor instructions, and to help find the coding errors.

   In conclusion, I would never recommend this book to anyone - even another experienced programmer trying to add JSP/Servlets to their repertoire.

   Do yourself a favour, buy Murach's book instead.

5 comments about ADO.NET in a Nutshell.

1. This book is classic O'Reilly. It's separated into three sections. The first being a thorough but brief introduction to all aspects of the API. The second section is an API reference. And the third a quick reference. This third section is included on the CD that comes with the book and will integrate into Visual Studio.

   Don't expect the first section of the book, which is an introduction to ADO.NET to give you a gentle introduction to the subject. That's not the Nutshell form. If you don't know ADO at all you will want to buy both this book and an introductory book. If you know related APIs, or you know ADO.NET and you need a refresher or have weak spots you will find some new things in the first section. For me it was the support for disconnect access and also the integration with the XML features of SQL Server 2000.

   Although this book stays true to the Nutshell form it is a little longer in the introduction than the usual. The introductory section is seventeen chapters and is almost half of the length of the book. So if you are an intermediate or advanced engineer I think you could probably learn enough ADO directly from this book without any other introductory book.




2. I've owned this book for 3 days and cannot put it down! I have not been a big fan of O'Reilly over the years, but this book is "incredible". It goes into the detail that most books seem to omit and it's those details that we "developers" desperately need.

   I would recommend this book to ANY and ALL .NET developers who are writing code that hits against a database. There are topics covered in this book that Microsoft's own MSDN and VS.NET help system seem to fail at properly explaining. It's because of this that I've found myself (all too often) going to codeguru.com and google groups to get answers to ADO.NET questions that this book actually covers.

   My hat goes off to authors Matthew MacDonald and Bill Hamilton on a job well done.

   Coming from a Visual Basic background and now working in VB.NET and C#.NET, this book should satisfy both the VB.NET and C# developer.




3. I own over 50 books on .NET including several on ADO.NET. This book is my favorite on ADO.NET. Thus, it is the one I use most often. It has a great blend of discussion, documentation, and code samples. It is much easier and more thorough than much of the MSDN documentation or most other books. I've yet to run into a situation where the answer I need isn't either in this book or gives me a great starting point to find that answer.
   
   Virtually every ADO.NET oriented class, method, event, and property is covered.
   
   This book is definitely worth purchasing.



4. --A Concise Reference with only the useful information. ADO.NET really does take a different approach from the other database API's. I have worked alot with JDBC, MySql (via java and PHP), Oracle and ODBC. In ADO.NET, the concept of a disconnected Dataset forces you to rely heavily upon Microsoft's Object model. The alternative to this book seemed to be either: Search through MSDN's reference material Or Purchase one of the many books which regurgitate the steps in using the wizards. The MSDN reference material really did not show me the expected "idioms" or paradigms in writing function db applications. This book helped me to understand what is really happening beneath these opaque designs. It helped me to understand and solve some of the necessities in creating data driven ASP.NET DB applications.



5. The bitter, Faster, and Lighter way to learn ADO.NET , the book contains and explain ALL ADO.NET Classes in simple way , of course the book written by experts in Microsot .NET .
   I advise every one who want to learn ADO.NET in the fastest time to Buy this book .

1 comments about Advanced SQL Functions in Oracle 10g (Wordware Applications Library).

1. I found a few errors and most chapters lack details.
   
   In the 'model clause chapter' for example, more is needed for :
   REFERENCE MODELs,
   ITERATIVE MODELs (ITERATION_NUMBER (0-4294967295), PREVIOUS(), etc),
   FOR LOOPs,
   IS PRESENT,
   ETC.
   
   Also, more can be discussed for GROUPING_ID and GROUP_ID() and many other additions to advanced features such as hierarchical queries, analytical functions and others.

5 comments about DB2 for the COBOL Programmer. Part 1: An Introductory Course.

1. As a contract programmer, I can really appreciate a book that teaches new programming tools with a minimum of confusing, redundant, or unnecessary information. Steve Eckols' book "DB2 for the COBOL Programmer Part 1" certainly meets these standards.

   If you are an experienced COBOL programmer with work experience using any DBMS, whether or not it is SQL based, this book will help you to become a productive DB2 programmer in a minimum amount of time.

   Mr. Eckols has obviously put a great deal of thought into the book. It is organized in a straightforward manner. Most chapters end with a coding example that is kept simple to focus on the features introduced in that chapter.

   In addition to the basics of SQL for DB2, this book also includes some of the possible problems and efficiency issues normally learned by trial and error.

   I would highly recommend this book to all COBOL programmers who would like to learn DB2 (or SQL in general.)




2. If you're an applications programmer and ned to learn SQL to extract information from IBM's DB2 relational database products, this is the book for you. Don't let the size fool you; you can get through it in under a fortnight. This book contains the most of what any applications programmer working in the mainframe environment will need for all applications.



3. If you are an accomplished COBOL programmer I highly recommend this book. It will make you feel like a professional DB2 programmer.



4. This book was advertised as new, still in the wrapper. The book was not new. There were penciled-in remarks throughout the book. Several pages were starting to come out of the book. The wrapper was obviously applied by the owner of the book.



5. I purchased this book several years ago as a new Cobol/DB2 programmer. It was clearly written, with excellent, relevant examples. Highly recommended to those mainframers still out there! :-)

5 comments about Learning Oracle PL/SQL.

1. I've been a self taught Oracle PL/SQL developer for two years, so I was sceptical on reading a "Learning" book. After reading the first few chapters I was able to make improvements to my PL/SQL programs. It was definitely worth the time and money. The examples are well written and simple enough to make sense, but not too simple that they are "duh" type examples. I also liked the fact that the book explains how to set up and use Oracle/Apache to make PSP pages (Stored Procedures that generate web content). The PSP section makes up a good portion of the book that I didn't know was in it before I got it. With plenty of real-world experience tips, a section on tools and security, it will be a while before I have this ingrained and used on a daily basis. I defiantly got more than I was looking for.



2. I use a self-taught approach to learn new things like most people. And, like most people, I get frustrated with the lengthy superfluous nature of how-to books which throw everything in, including the kitchen sink. This book starts off well, and you can learn from it at a comfortably progressive pace, but it could use a larger scope. The author leaves a lot of code out of the book, though he does explain parts of it. In the end, the project he uses to illustrate PL/SQL becomes more complicated than it needs to be for a tutorial exercise. Still, I haven't seen anything better.



3. I've only read three chapters so far. It's been very good actually - I knew some SQL beforehand, although nothing very complicated, and it has been pretty easy for me to understand as well as very helpful for me in learning how to use PL/SQL. It has genuinely useful examples, and also provides tips as to how to perform unit testing on stored procedures and functions.

   Another very useful thing the author does is list common and not-as-common mistakes that a programmer may make (which may not always result in errors or exceptions), hence possibly saving you the trouble of hours of debugging.

   The only problem I've had with it is that he doesn't treat foreign keys as constraints. One of his sample column declarations is: "isbn VARCHAR2(100) FOREIGN KEY REFERENCES books (isbn)", but I kept getting an error until I changed it to: "isbn VARCHAR2(100), FOREIGN KEY (isbn) REFERENCES books (isbn)". I am not sure if this is a peculiarity of my installation (running Oracle 9i), but a check online reveals that many people also consider foreign keys a constraint.

   Except for that problem, I would have given this book 5 stars.




4. I've been developing with Sybase and SQL Server for about 5 years with very limited experience with Oracle in that time. I purchased this book hoping to get up to speed on the differences between Oracle's PL/SQL and the Sybase/Microsoft T-SQL syntax. From the title this book seemed appropriate for the job. In short, while the book might be an adequate, albeit SLOW, introduction to Oracle, it covers very little actual PL/SQL.

   If you are a programer/engineer/dba looking to "learn Oracle PL/SQL", interested in practical applications of such fundamental topics as constraints, foreign keys, indexes, joins, cursors, views, triggers, corelated subqueries and the like, look elsewhere. Don't take my word for it--take a peek at the index or table of contents and you'll see that the focus of this book has very little to do with PL/SQL.




5. This book is erroneously named. There's barely anything about PL/SQL. It's just a hodge-podge on oracle database server and oracle application server with minimum coverage on both.
   
   PL/SQL is an Oracle proprietary language that is available in a variety of Oracle products, and is somewhat different and differently used in each Oracle product. If you want to learn Oracle database server PL/SQL get books by Alice Rischert or Scott Urman because their coverage of PL/SQL is well explained and in depth.

5 comments about The Guru's Guide to SQL Server Architecture and Internals.

1. 500 pages of Win NT/2000 fundamentals in a SQL Server Architecture book. Come on, get real Ken Henderson.
   
   Almost zilch in the way of diagrams makes for very heavy going.
   
   I primarily bought the book to give me a total knowledge of SQL Server Architecture. I hadn't got far before I realised that a high level description of the architecture was not going to be included because, according to the author, it had been covered in a previous book. Not good enough and I am asking the publishers for my money back.
   
   Also, treatment of things like explanations of XML in a SQL Server Architecture book ? The author has done what no IT system should do ... not adhered to requirements which in this case are to explain SQL Server and Internals.
   
   All in all a disappointing experience.



2. Alas, this book was a VERY disappointing reading.
   
   Its one of the biggest sins is having a misleading title. "SQL Server Architecture and Internals" ? Forget it.
   
   The first whole third of the book is Win32 in a nutshell. It tells you about memory, processes, I/O and everything. But I already have my Richter dog-eared all right, I wouldn't need a reminder in a book on SQL Server.
   
   Then, about the SQL Server. Internals ? What a joke. The only internals that you would find are names of the DLLs where this or that SQL Server subsystem resides and a few hardcore debugger sessions to show you those DLLs actually get loaded. Uh-huh, thanks.
   
   Can you imagine a book on SQL Server internals which doesn't mention pages and/or extents ? In-depth description of different execution plans ? This is the one.
   
   What this book really is, is 20 chapters worth of overviews for more or less known SQL Server features. Average-to-good overviews of a less known features. Uhm, architecture, internals ? Nope - SQLXML, DTS, notification services, cursors, transactions. Take cursors - it says there are four types of cursors, you know, static, etc. and shows an SQL snippet for each. That's basically it. Take transactions - ACID, isolation levels and usage hints. Oh well, it could be worse...
   
   Difficult to say without reading other books by the same author (not that I have an urge any more), but it appears he has written a whole series of them. You find sentences like "In my other book..." all over the place. Just love it:
   
   [quote]
   I must confess that I was conflicted when I sat down to write this chapter. I wrestled with whether to update the SQLXML coverage in my last book, which was more focused on the practical application of SQLXML but which I felt really needed updating, or to write something completely new on just the architectural aspects of SQLXML, with little or no discussion of how to apply them in practice. Ultimately, I decided to do both things.
   [/quote]
   
   Isn't it great ?
   
   Oh, the chapter on Full-Text Search was hilarious. How about this:
   
   [quote]
   Communication between SQL Server and Microsoft Search occurs via a full-text provider. This provider resides in SQLFTQRY.DLL in the binn folder under your default SQL Server installation.
   ...
   The sp_fulltext_... system procedures interact with it via the undocumented DBCC CALLFULLTEXT command
   ...
   Table 16.1. DBCC CALLFULLTEXT Functions
   [*** A TABLE OF FUNCTION IDS TAKING THE ENTIRE PAGE ***]
   ...
   As a rule, you shouldn't call DBCC CALLFULLTEXT in your own code. The function IDs and parameters listed above could change between releases
   [/quote]
   
   What a heck did I just learn ???
   
   I thought this book would show me how to improve the performance of the applications that I write by knowing the database server architecture deeper. Instead, I got a book of not so bad overviews of different things for which there either was no coverage in the previous books or the author thought a quick reminder would be nice.
   
   To be fair, some of the discussions were reasonably interesting, like chapter 12 "Query Processor", but give me a break, it's like 40 pages in a 1000 pages book.
   
   Don't.



3. This is by far the best book available on Microsoft's Sql Server. I found it much far more informative and much deeper than Kalen Delaney's book - the only other one that comes close. It is a book unlike any other that I have read on Sql Server in that it is extremely deep - deeper than just about any technical book I think I have ever read - and extremely broad. Most books are one or the other, but this one really is both. Every chapter is a treasure chest of useful info. Several could be books unto themselves. The discussion of DTS for example is actually better than whole books on the subject. The User Mode Scheduler chapter is so deep I had to read it twice. The list could go on and on.
   
   One thing I really appreciate about the book is that the author includes a good section (Approximately the first 300 pages) on Windows insides and fundamental concepts. His reasoning for including this type of info in a Sql Server book is sound: because most Dba's do not have the grasp of Windows fundamentals they will need to understand the indepth writing on Sql Server that he offers in the subsequent chapters and because he doesn't want readers to have to read multiple other books just to understand his. The author writes about Sql Server from the perspective of a professional developer and wants to first make sure his readers understand Windows and networking and COM and etc. at that level so that they can follow the rest of the book. It would have been easier for him to have said, "Read XML 101 chapter 8 before you read this chapter of mine," but he doesn't take the easy way out. Instead he covers everything you need to know to understand Sql insides in a single book.
   
   The author's writing on Windows insides goes beyond merely providing info. He seems to be trying to teach basic debugging and exploring skills. He claims to want to teach Dba's and readers how to explore Sql insides on their own - the assumption being that no one book could fully cover Sql's insides given how complex it is and things continue to change. That is an admirable goal though I do not know if the average Dba is up to the task. Irregardless if you really want to understand Sql and gain the tools to continue to explore it for years to come you could not ask for a better book to launch from.
   
   I regularly read Windows fundamentals books and can also report that the author's writing on Windows insides is more thorough than that by any other author. It is also done from the perspective of Sql Server. The exercises often feature the Sql Server.exe process for example. When an application is investigated from a Windows insides standpoint that application is Sql Server. This Windows insides part of the book is an indispensable piece and a real gem. It could (and should) be a book itself.
   
   Another thing I really like is that the author avoids repeating what you can find in other Sql insides books and whitepapers. Somewhere at the beginning, I think in the preface, he says that he avoided covering the storage engine because it was already covered well enough elsewhere. Delaney's book has full writing on the storage engine and this book doesn't try to replace that. For that reason I think they make a nice set. The author's book gets into query processor insides, memory insides, threading insides, and many, many others, but leaves the storage engine and some other pieces to the books and whitepapers that preceded it. I see the most indepth and expansive Sql insides coverage in this book that I have seen in any Sql book, but I also see where he avoided needlessly repeating what other people have already well covered.
   
   Like the other two Guru Guide books this book is extremely well written. I was often impressed with the author's knack for making rather complex topics easy to understand. Nowhere is this more evident than in the User Mode Scheduling chapter wherein he takes a subject that is obviously rather complex yet critical to understanding how Sql Server works and that AFAIK is not covered in any other book (certainly not in Delaney's) and reduces it down to something anyone can understand. He builds on the Windows insides discussion earlier in the book to explain very succinctly how Sql Server schedules work to be done and carries it out. For me this was worth the cost of admission alone.
   
   If I had to pick just one book to buy on Sql Server, this would be the one. I'd follow it up with Delaney's book and the author's other Guru Guide books.



4. People who aspire to be real experts in Sql Server 2000 should read this book cover-to-cover (skipping the pompous Essay in the back and the "quotes" at the beginning of each chapter). There is a lot here and it will help remind you how you should be coding your sql and why.



5. The book is good but is becoming quite dated. For those using SQL Server 2005 it is a little disappointing because SQL Server architecture has changed so much. Its overall value is reduced by this.

5 comments about PHP and MySQL Web Development, Second Edition.

1. I got this book because I wanted to learn PHP and MySQL. Although the book does an OK job helping you set up your AMP, you will need to visit the MySQL, PHP and Apache sites to complete your setup. The PHP info given is really quick, I assume the author thinks because he mentions something that I am suppose to completely understand. This book is not for beginners at all. It seemed to have some good info and nice code to help you build a site as long as you did not plan on altering the code to much, because you better know what you are doing. I'm sure this book would be good for someone who has some programming experience not just HTML. You should look else where if you have no actual programming experience.



2. Before begin what I have to say about the book, I have to position me on the subject. I am considered an expert user, with a B.Sc. in Informatics, but I haven't practice programming for more than a decade. So, I understand the aspects of programming and databases, but I was not familiar with PHP and MySQL before reading this book. And after finish reading it I was, so I believe that this book it does its job and it does it well, at least to a person like me.
   It explains the aspects of PHP and progressively it leads the reader to more elements of the language. It is not a reference, so you will need a reference (probably an online one) to see the arguments of a function, etc. But, if you know that a function exists, it is very easy to use it...
   The book also shows the reader how PHP integrates with a database like MySQL. With this knowledge, you can make a dynamic web site by yourself. It is actually easy for an entry level web site.
   There are more to learn that are not covered on this book. But if you master the content of this book, you have the basis to a deeper usage of PHP and making of dynamic web sites.
   Finally, I have to mention the contents of the CD-ROM, that includes a complete application, an example that is devoloped in every chapter of the book. You can see how things work by using the application from the CD-ROM.
   A very good book to understand PHP and database based web sites. Probably not the best, but certainly a good and effective one.



3. This book was suggested to me to used if I wanted to learn PHP and MySQL. I found it to be a very good book but at times there were sections that were not explained well enough and also there were some typos in the code sections. Beside that this book is a very good book to use, but I would advise getting a complimentary book especially if this is your first stab at programming in PHP or using MySQL. This is more of an intermediate level book than a beginner book.



4. This is a well-written book for learning how to build Internet applications with two of the most popular open-source web development technologies. PHP is one of the big four server-side scripting languages (along with ASP, ColdFusion, and JSP) and MySQL is one of the best high performance, scalable web-based RDBMS systems available. Together, they provide a powerful combination. The book is divided into two sections; the first half of the book gets you up to speed with both PHP and MySQL, while the second half presents some practical projects. The projects are the real jewel of the book. Not only are the projects described and constructed in a logical, component-based manner, but the selection of projects represents an excellent cross-section of common components that are built into many web sites, including: user authentication and personalization, a shopping cart, content management system, web-based email service, mailing list manager, and web forums. Because of the selection and clarity of the projects, this book makes a great general purpose reference for how to build these types of web applications, no matter which implementation language you choose.



5. This is my 2nd book regarding php and mysql. My first one got stolen a while back. Anyways, This is a great resource for those who want to create php dynamic and interactive web pages. The codes are good but ive seen better. With this book, You could start making php in no time at all. Samples are interesting and the codes could be used to jump start your own projects. I recommend this for beginners and mid-level php programmers.
   
   PS: I spilled coffee on mine :(

5 comments about Administrator's Guide to SQL Server 2005 (Microsoft Windows Server System Series).

1. The Administrator's Guide to SQL Server 2005 is a great reference for DBAs and System Administrators planning to implement and maintain SQL Server 2005. While the book is written for Administrators, database developers will benefit from it as well. For example, one of my day to day activities includes testing various SQL Server configurations before they are implemented into production environments that require near 100% uptime. The chapter covering high-availability provided thorough step by step instructions on how to set up database mirroring and replication. I was especially delighted to find instructions on how to create a production-like test environment using virtual machine technology at the end of the chapter. Each chapter is well written and loaded with good practical advice. I highly recommend this book!



2. A pet peeve i have w/ Microsoft books is they just mirror the help files. This admin guide is not much more than regurgitated help files. I was hoping for some useful examples, closer to real life problems & solutions. Not there. Plz use the help files in Books Online to look up topics THEN examine the same topic in this book at a local bookstore BEFORE buying it.



3. During reading the first 3 chapters. this book was very promising. The the author kept repeating himself "I will show you how to do this, to do that". But after the first 3 chapters, his writing becomes dull. Nothing useful to go on reading. Maybe He was rushing to publish this book or the style that he prepared to go into his writing just died out. Whatever reason, one thing I learned from this book is: What a SQL Server DBA is supposed to do on a daily, weekly, monthly basis. I read so many 5 stars books going into details about writing code to backup, restore, scheduling...etc. But those books forget one point: What a SQL Server DBA is supposed to do on a daily basis. Maybe it is not important for an experienced DBA but it may be important for other I.T guys who want to be DBA. That's why we read books for.
   After all if you are looking for a deep down details of T-SQL programming, Integration Services, Report Services...etc. Then this book is not for you. If you'd like to know what you are supposed to do as a DBA, this book may be helpful to you.



4. First, I'm not a DBA but I install, maintain, and use SQL Server 2005 in lab and workgroup settings.
   
   I found this book to work well as an advance organizer and a good source of advice for DBA tasks. I've use the book mainly for topic overviews and guidance on management issues. (I haven't read the reporting and BI chapters -- at least not yet.) I've found the checklists helpful and the script snippets very useful. Scripts, of course, are a great way to capture and document your actions and the book often takes this approach to tasks.
   
   Reviewers who mention the content of SQL Server 2005 books are right that the content is likely to be in Books On Line (BOL). However, I bought this book to organize and filter these topics for me. If you can get what you need from BOL as quickly and conveniently as you can with this book then use BOL. I can't, so I bought a copy.



5. Way too much, here's what I'm gonna tell you and not enough telling you. Also way too much background and theory instead of actually doing anything.