Performance Books

This book is one of many I have read on SQL Server 6.5. It is clear& very well written. It highlights key points and goes into the right amount of detail. It is a must-read for anyone designing, deploying, or administering a SQL SERVER 6.5 database.

Had response problems with current database setup and SQL statements. The chapters on Indexing and Optimizing really work. Ex. A simple query on two tables took 2.5 minutes. After applying some of the suggestions, the query took a little over 2 seconds...

The techniques described in this book are effective and well thought out. Even if performance optimization is not your main goal, this book is well worth reading. The book delivers in-depth information on indexing, locking, the optimizer and many other topics in a very readable format. Ideal for those with some knowledge of SQL Server who want to dig deeper.

This book completely demystifies a number of SQL tuning concepts. This book provides a superb overview of the various performance topics, and then drills down deep enough into the concepts to give you the insights necessary to tackle thorny performance problems with multiple causes. This is still a very valuable book for SQL 7.0--the majority of the concepts are still with us.

After you have spent 8-80 hours trying random combo's on the Server Configuration panel trying to guess what you should do, buy this book and score a direct hit! Microsoft should bundle this book with SQL Server. If a little more detail were provided on the internal data structures of SQL Server one could write a bulk loader that bypassed SQL Server entirely (I know its been done by others) and load 10 X as fast. (hint-hint) This is the closest thing to a K&R for MS SQL Server I've ever seen. I really like the brevity of this book. Every word counts! Very, very good job Ken!

You couldn't have stories that are more fun to listen to. These are why Superman is the premier Superhero today.

This is theatre of the mind at its best.I like Bud Collyer,the voice of the Man of Steel, better than ANY movie or TV Superman.I love the way he did Clark Kent as a tenor and Superman as a baritone-especially when Clark turns into his alter ego and Collyer would change mid-sentence-"This looks like a job FOR SEPERMAN!"The stories are action-packed and the serial format keeps you on the edge of your seat!Once you start listening,you won't want to stop!If you only know the man from Metropolis from books,movies nad TV you should get this.

I bought a copy of this great audio collection last weekend! I am a big comic book fan, and enjoy listening to and reading the classics. This is a must have for any comic book history collector! The quality is superior, and the great plots have you listening for hours on end. I enjoy having the tapes run in the background while I do my work in the office. I almost feel like I am reporter at the Daily Planet!

These stories are great. Superman is powerful but not so powerful that nothing is a challenge. Clark Kent has a backbone. Lois is not annoying. The stories are not far-fetched space aliens, but actual criminals and gangsters. These radio dramas are well written and will not bore. They are all connected into two large stories which helps. They come with a booklet on the history of the radio dramas and entertainment at the time which is very informative.

I love this CD set. This 5 CD set containing 27 action-packed radio episodes starts off with the explosion of Krypton and works in all of the classic Superman elements. Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen, Clark Kent and the Man of Steel. Did you know Jimmy Olsen appeared in the Radio Series long before his freckled face showed up in the comic?

This box set starts off with Supermans origin. A hero being useless without villians, he quickly faces off against serial style villians like the Yellow Mask and the Wolf. All the sound has been remastered and it comes in a great box set. I love it!

Telemedicine and Telehealth is a timely and useful book. As a Physician and Consultant, Teleheath provides a soup to nuts discussion about the issues relating to telehealth.
The first chapter details basic definitions of the field. The next five chapters deals with the patient, physicans, Healthcare in general, and lastly specific telemedicine services. The authors suggest the formula for telehealth success as improved quality and access to care at a lower cost and without raising professional objestions.
I found the chapters developing the business case for Telemedicine and telehealth services most compelling. These markets are still in their infancy and are still struggling to develop their potential. The authors share with us their strategy for selling Telehealth services (page 157).
Telemedice and Telehealth, also provides a cautionary note. The authors indicate that to date they were not aware of studies demonstrating a viable telehealth model with the current legislation and reimbursement structure. Further issues such as licensure, quality assurance and backup systems remain to be clearly defined.
This book is an excellent read. Concise, articulate and timely. I would recommend this book to any one intersted in Telemedicine or Telehealth.

Conceptually, the answer to many of health care's challenges lie in the use of new information technologies. Knowing this is the case and making it happen are two very different entities. This book ably bridges these two entities. The devil, as always, is in the details and the authors deftly elaborate the problems and provide solutions. I recommend this book to practitioners, administrators, managers and policy makers who are energetic and enthusiastic about the future direction of health care. Errol L. Biggs, Ph.D., Director - Programs in Health Administration, University of Colorado

As a software developer and member of the American Telemedicine Association, I found this book to be a very valuable reference. Our company is developing software solutions to allow patients and health care providers easy, secure access to medical information. This book has helped us understand how telemedicine is developing and how it will be used, so that we can see the developing niches for our products. This book provides the larger view of this developing field and gives readers inspiration to enter the exciting field.

Review of: Telemedicine and Telehealth by Adam W. Darkins and Margaret A. Cary

This important book begins the necessary critical conversation of defining the fundamental of concepts and terms, as well as those areas of current and future applications, involved in the merging of health care delivery and high technology systems. The authors wisely suggest using the term Telehealth to address the broad range of health applications which high technology, the Internet in particular, can greatly impact.

These concerns are set in the context of both a historical view of health care and society, particularly in the more technologically developed societies of the U.S. Western Europe and Japan, and these societiesÕ current and future trends toward change of lifestyle driven by their adaptation of new technologies. These are vital concerns, both within health care delivery in particular, as well as within the economic and social evolution of these societies in general.

Their book focuses on the patientÕs experience of health care service as facilitated by this new technology rather than being yet another discussion of the fascinating innovations within the technology itself, a very important distinction.

Being physicians themselves, authors Darkins and Cary have professionally grown up through the very cusp of change they are defining for us; they know the pre-high technology delivery of health care and have been witness to, and advocates for, the introduction of high technology to the health care systems in which each have worked, both in the U.S. and England.

Their book is both comprehensive in its discussion of the issues involved as well as being detailed in its coverage of those particulars necessary to see the overall picture clearly.

Because of the timeliness of this merging of high technology and healthcare delivery, one wishes this book could be made more available to a wider reading public through a greater promotional effort by the publisher.

As a practicing physician with a keen interest in information technologies and their applications in healthcare, I always approach books like this with some bemusement. In turn, I was pleasantly surprised by my delight with this book. To succeed in the charge to bridge the digital divide and to eliminate health disparities, we physicians and managers will have to arm ourselves with timely solutions which are informed by experience and science. Coupled with the practical and the "how to" make "Telemedicine and Telehealth" a valuable resource for anyone interested in creating the future healthcare system. It connects and transcends the important elements and issues rather than just regurgitating the problems we've heard over and over again. If you believe, as I do, that the future of healthcare will be greatly enhanced by the new information technologies, this book helps to put the present and future in perspective. Darkins and Cary absolutely succeed!

A real shot in the arm. You will really be amazaed at what you read.

Two original devices set There are No Limits apart from other inspirational texts, and in order to fully appreciate Danny Cox's book, you'll have to make full use of both. At regular intervals throughout the course of the book, Cox inserts "Immediate Actions" and "Points to Ponder." By suggesting through these sections concrete steps that you can take right away, the book surpasses many of its peers, which often fail to find ground amid lofty hyperbole. But the practical nature of this book can only be realized if you actually take the recommended steps as you read, and gloss over some jargon-laden prose ("Appoint yourself the dean of Every Day University"). Cox, an Air Force veteran, draws on his personal experiences, as well as those of high-profile celebrities and authors to illustrate his ideas. While he wrote the book for a general audience, we recommend it particularly to salespeople, or those charged with managing or motivating a sales force.

Danny Cox shows the average person (like me) how to break through the mediocrity that threatens us all. He provides practical insight and keys to breaking through the personal barriers we surround ourselves with. If only we all had a Danny Cox cheering us on every day!

I expecially like the short chapter format that closes with a call to action. I believe this makes it an easier read for busy managers who are constantly traveling.

Danny Cox helps the average person (like me) achieve above average goals and dreams. Are you stuck in an endless cycle of daily routines? Never think of what you want to achieve, but only how you can achieve for others, then this book is for you! I was particularly helped by the ten behaviors cultivated by barrier breakers and the a-c-c-e-l-e-r-a-t-e points. Tis book has been very encouraging to me, a church planter out on my own working two jobs, with a family of five. I have dared again to set my eyes on goals and dreams that I previously thought were only fantasies! What would I achieve if I had a Danny Cox motivating me daily! Well this book is a good start!

This is the first book I read about 16 personality types. Easy to read and it makes sense.

Written by certified human resource professional and award-winning author and consultant Donna Dunning, TLC At Work invests heavily in the concepts of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality inventory and Dunning's twenty years of experience. "TLC" stands for "Training, Leading, and Coaching", in this excellent guide especially for human resource professionals and people seeking to improve their performance at work. Chapters address how to build relationships and establish credibility, rapport, and trust, how to facilitate development, enhancing the five basic workplace competencies of self-responsibility, communication, mindfulness, productivity, and proactivity, and more. Of especial interest is the recommendations for using coaching to help people who think and react in very different ways learn to balance and effectively fine-tune their gut responses to a given situation. A highly recommended and superbly useful guidebook; though intended for business use, its principles are also directly applicable to volunteers coordinating or managing smaller projects such as a community theater production or a charity drive.

One of the most powerful definitive works on what one needs to do when mentoring or helping others. Training, Leading and Coaching at Work answers the often raised questions about mentoring - a good idea in theory, but what do I actually do?

TLC at Work provides real situations and real responses that all can learn and put into immediate use in the workplace. This book should be required reading for all University Students no matter what field of study they are in. Used as a reference guide, it will help the professors understand the students and will help the students advance more quickly in their careers. A must read! TLC at Work will lead to people describing their workplace as one that supports a TLC attitude to the staff.

A nice blend of theory and practice. Filled with practical down to earth tools that can be implemented easily. Myers-Briggs afficinados will find it immediately useful and so will those without a background in type because it's written so that a deep understanding of type is not required for value to be found.

If you are responsible for training or developing other people, if you are in a leadership role or if you simply want to accelerate your career development, we recommend Donna Dunning's book as your personal study guide. The author utilizes her 20 plus years of experience in employee development to identify succinctly the five basic competencies everyone needs to succeed. Going a step deeper than the usual treatment, she recognizes that individuals who want to develop a particular competency may not understand what mastering that competency looks like. For example, what does "mindfulness" look like? Can you see mindfulness? Not really. But you can see the results of mindful behavior. Dunning focuses on identifying specific behaviors that demonstrate each competency so anyone who wants to develop a skill knows exactly what to do. Then she takes the process still further, identifying how personality types and preferences have an impact on the development of each of the five basic competencies. She shows facilitators how to work most effectively with each personality type to develop individuals to their full potential in a collaborative manner with the least amount of frustration and resistance.

Although this is a departure from author Lundin's famous "Fish" series of customer service focused books, "Top Performer" demonstrates yet another means of identifying and delivering excellent customer service. It is novel in that most people would never seriously consider a street performer to be excellent at focusing upon the "needs" of his customers and then delivering customer service that fulfills those needs. As in the "Fish" series, "Top Performer" will deliver those "light bulb goes on" moments. The lessons that it delivers are easy to recall and should be part of any process used to identify and deliver superior sales and service. This is a fast and easy read which you will end up going back to periodically for a refresher course.

What a cool concept, increase the energy of yourself and those people around you. Without getting metaphysical, Lundin and Hagerman have touched on something that is real but cannot be seen. A great, fun read to keep me on the path of continuous improvement.

Lundin and Hagerman have authored a book that is surprising in its depth. A burned-out businessman goes in search of new energy to stay on top of his game. What he finds surprises him and it will surprise you, the reader!

This clever fable of life lessons from a street performer is something we all need to learn. Life is about relationships--about living the moment with gusto--about honoring mistakes and surprises, and finally about taking care of one another. The principles that spark the protagonist are good advice for life. This book is a great gift. How rare to find a "business book" that is fun to read and offers life-changing advice.

Anyone who works in sales or customer service industries should definately read this book. It tells the story of a successful salesperson who finds that the extra hours and discipline which have worked well early in his career are no longer enough. His home life is strained, his motivation is low, and he no longer can sustain himself on the challenge of just meeting his targets. He finds the answers he needs from discussions with street performers and learns tools and strategies to excel and rekindle the excitement in his job and life. A quick and fun read full of great ideas that stick with you!

A wonderful journey in the land of intuitive reasoning and inner potential mining. For those of us struggling in the pursuit of new business ideas or suffocating in unattainable bottom lines. Top Performer will help you tap your natural energy, awaken your curiosity and leverage your unique abilities. A truly sustainable new year's resolution!

« L'armée de l'air américaine essaie de rendre compte de sa performance en utilisant la méthode du Balanced Scorecard, mais j'aime la façon qu'a Hubert Rampersad de relier le Balanced Scorecard avec le tableau prospectif personnel. C'est presque comme si Kaplan et Norton rejoignaient Stephen Covey. »- Bob Marx, United States Air Force

« Hubert Rampersad utilise le tableau de bord équilibré et d'autres concepts de management pour les réunir en un cadre éthique. En unifiant changement organisationnel et éthique individuelle, il a écrit une synthèse remarquable qui répond aux défis posés par la gestion d'entreprise au XXIe siècle ». - Paul Bracken, Professeur de Gestion, Yale School of Management

«Total Performance Scorecard est une approche rigoureuse, systématique et intégrée, à la fois de la réussite individuelle et de celle de l'entreprise. Elle synthétise et prolonge les concepts de conduite du changement et de la réussite, du point de vue de la personne, du management et de l'organisation. Aux dirigeants, elle propose les outils pour établir un bilan complet de la santé de leur organisation, et à chacun un trésor de connaissances pour conduire sa réussite personnelle».Dave Ulrich, Professeur en Administration des Affaires,Université de Michigan

«Plus que jamais, les entreprises qui réussissent sont des systèmes à haute performance. Réaliser la concordance des intérêts et des objectifs de chacun avec les objectifs organisationnels, dans tous les domaines et à tous les niveaux de l'entreprise, est la condition de la performance. Total Performance Scorecard est un nouvel instrument qui produit cette cohérence. Il crée une base durable pour une action guidée par les valeurs et l'éthique. Hubert Rampersad a réussi, sur cette idée, une très belle et très convaincante performance». - Professeur Kuno Rechkemmer, directeur de DaimlerChrysler (chaire pour l'économie générale de l'entreprise) professeur à l'institut du management et des technologies de Stuttgart

«Trop souvent, on constate un décalage entre les objectifs poursuivis par l'entreprise, la manière dont l'individu fixe ses objectifs personnels et celle par laquelle il se fait évaluer. Total Performance Scorecard comble cette lacune. Il propose un système intégré qui établit le lien entre les efforts d'amélioration continue, l'apprentissage individuel et les programmes de développement. Si vous êtes à la recherche d'une boîte à outils pour améliorerles résultats de votre entreprise, voici le livre qu'il vous faut!» Philip Anderson, Professeur d'Entrepreneurship, INSEAD

This book has been an absolute lifesaver. There have been many occasions when it has proved its value as a reference.

I have saved time and money by using this book's practical recommendations to increase performance. It is also the only book that I have seen that attempts to optimize Backoffice apps. Highly recommended!

This definitely has some great tips for making NT scream. I have referred to it several times. The Registry chapter is awesome.

Until now, I haven't been able to find any performance tuning resources that covered both Windows NT and MS BackOffice. This book has already helped me make vast performance improvements. I'm also already beginning to act on the book's recommendations to implement capacity planning procedures for the NT environment.

I was impressed with Gardinier's concise recommendations. This book not only gave me insight on where and when to optimize my NT systems but it also provided me with hard numbers to compare against. I also benefited immensely from the chapters dedicated to optimizing MS BackOffice applications.

This book I have found to be very valuable as a reference book particularly for people who take their horse sport seriously. I myself am into endurance, and have found absolutely everything I needed to know about what can possibly go wrong with an endurance horse, whether it be training techniques, nutrition, lameness, etc etc. The detail is immnense, and I have not found any veterinary condition not written about, and yet it is easy to understand, and very readable. There are photos and diagrams on almost every page, and the book is 565 pages long, plus has a huge appendix, and bibliography section at the end. I would strongly recommend this book to any competitive horse owner.

This is an exceptionally good reference book, a must-have for horse owners. The photographs are extremely well done. Many are by Dr. Loving herself, and illustrate exactly the points made in the text. I gave this book only 4 of 5 stars because the information on infectious diseases and vaccines is not up to par.

How could it be this comprehensive? How can it be this beautiful?
This book should become a milestone in the equine veterinary literature for the horse owner. It is visually gorgeous. The photographs clearly depict the subject matter, and the detail of discussion is stunning. Dr. Loving manages that rare art of describing highly technical subjects in an understandable way. Yet, she also seems to address the horse owner as a colleague, capable of understanding and impacting his or her horses' well-being. So often, when I have read these sorts of books, they either stop short of telling me the details that really interest me, or they tell everything, but in Latin.
I have never seen laminitis illustrated and explained so clearly as it is in this book. Dr. Loving addresses its varied causes, as well as prevention, therapy and how to recognize it. She shows photographs of laminitic hooves, horses rocked back off their forelegs, detailed diagrams and x-rays of coffin bone rotation.
Every section I have read in this book shows the same level of clarity, detail and respect for the reader that is found in the section on laminitis. At every step, Dr. Loving shows us photos of horses, diagrams, X-rays and ultrasound images to reinforce and illustrate the written discussion.
I have ridden, cared for and lived with horses at home for nearly fifty years. I rode dressage and evented when I was younger, happily relax and ride trails now. No matter your level of equine insanity, this wonderful book will support and guide you well. In my view, it is an absolutely indespensible addition to every horse owner's library. I bought one for myself, and now I am going to buy one for each of my two sisters.

Every horse owner should have a copy of this book. And with the price being less than a vet's farm call, it will pay for itself many times over. What I really appreciated about the book was that it isn't so technical that you need a medical degree to understand it, yet at the same time it is very thorough and the pictures, wow the pictures! For example not only are you told how to care for a deep wound, but how it should look at various staging of healing. How many times have you treated a wound and called the vet daily wondering if it's healing o.k. or getting worse?

The only thing that I was a tad disappointed in was most of the hoof shots showed shod horses and I am practicing natural hoof care and barefoot trimmning. But if you want a book on Barefoot Hoof Care, you should order a book specific to that topic. This book, it covers everything else you will ever wonder about with your horse and health related problems.

I don't call many of my 1000 books a "bible" of whatever subject, but this is my "bible" of horse health.

If only one comprehensive horse care 'bible' were to be chosen for a library, it should be the extensive and well-illustrated reference ALL HORSE SYSTEMS GO: THE HORSE OWNER'S FULL-COLOR VETERINARY CARE AND CONDITIONING RESOURCE FOR MODERN PERFORMANCE, SPORT AND PLEASURE HORSES. Written by a horse vet specialist, it packs in not only the anticipated horse care and health solutions chapters, but includes tips on fitness, conditioning, and much more. Small color photos throughout add interest but the meat is in the chapters of medical insights backed by a practicing vet's long-time experience: chapters which can save a horse's life whether consulted quickly in an emergency or used as preventative points. Over 600 pages of facts and a clear organizational structure makes it quick and easy for horse owners to gain immediate access and insights - or for library patrons to use it as an instant reference.

Diane C. Donovan, Editor
California Bookwatch

It contains a huge amount of interesting information and the CD-ROM that comes with it is just fascinating. This is a great book for learning about Microprocesser architecture.

Being an ASIC designer, I bought this book to improve my understanding of the architecture and techniques used in high performance design. Looking at the book alone, I have a mixed feeling: the chapters that are dedicated inner workings of a processor completely satisfied my expectations. They include an in-depth description of all the main blocks that make a high-end processor or memory system work: register renaming, instruction decoding and scheduling, cache operation etc. This is really very excellent material! On the other hand, I consider the chapters dedicated to the system perspective to be of much lower quality and not in line with the title of the book. In a bit more than 100 pages, the author describes almost all other aspects of a modern PC, including Total-Cost-of-Ownership, Windows Qualification, Ethernet principles, Internet connectivity and even VESA Local Bus standard. Obviously, it is impossible to discuss such a wide range of topics in such a limited space. This flaw is compensated by a fantastic CD-ROM that contains an overwhelming library with a selection of research papers, articles from magazines, interviews and even a VHDL and Verilog simulator! Conclusion: I strongly recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand the secrets of a modern microprocessor. The removal of chapters about system aspects would have resulted in a 5 star rating.

I work in Retail computer Sales, and I have been searching for a book that allowed me to not just sell the computers but also to give me the technical edge above other competitors. Well this is the book that does it. Warning however, do not buy it if you are not a Engineer or have a craving interest in computer Science. I happend to have the craving interest in computer science. The CD Rom that comes with it is facinating. It's like haveing a PhD in CS 24/7. So far he (the Author) has been my best in-direct computer Science professor.

This book is indeed an anatomy of high-performance processor design. In classic computer architecture books like Hennesey and Patterson's, it covers topics like out-of-order execution and speculative execution mechanisms, but only in abstract and algorithmic levels. This book uses an actual K6 microarchitecture as a foundation and explains these difficult concepts in RTL with pseudo code illustration. This can really help someone with purely ASIC background (knowledge of HDL) to fully understand the implementation of a RISC core with out-of-order and speculative execution capabilities

This is a very well made book and CD-ROM. The book is both clear and detailed. The title can be read to narrowly though. In addition to going through the K6 3D microprocessor, the book has a wealth of information on related issues. Among other things, I found it very interesting to read the perspectives provided by six of the IEEE/ACM Eckert-Mauchly award winners on significant past and present books/papers/lectures/events. The book has many pointers to the CD-ROM, and let me tell you, the CD-ROM is dynamite. It includes the hypertext version of the book, technical presentations, audio and video clips of the people behind the K6 3D, three demo simulators, and many technical research papers. The CD-ROM has provided me with many hours of browsing. I browse and check things using the CD-ROM, but I try to understand them with the book in front of me. The good integration between book and CD-ROM makes this natural. By the way, I even found the classic 1946 Princeton paper "Preliminary Discussion of the Logical Design of an Electronic Computing Instrument" by Burks, Goldstine, and von Neumann on the CD-ROM. It still makes for great reading.