Microsoft Books

This book starts out strong with 3 chapters fully devoted to creating a sample application using the Publishing API. While the code examples are copious they are (necessarily) somewhat redundant. The authors chose to create an administration tool as the most effective means of illustrating the Publishing API's capability. This was an effective technique in that it exposed the core of the API very quickly to the reader, as well as having the added benefit of communicating the purpose of the MCMS Server. If you are uncertain, as I was, on what problems Microsoft Content Management Server may or may not be the right solution for, this book will take you a long way towards understanding the product and its role in the platform.

After finishing the baseline administration tool, the book takes a refreshing detour on the topic of search engines. Rather than going into detail I will summarize this chapter by saying this, if you need a primer on the basics of Search Engine Optimization, give this chapter a shot. I think you will like it.

Next, the authors spend three chapters on SharePoint integration and configuration. If you are using SharePoint as a foundation for your product or the enabling technology for your internal portal, you should consider the benefits of integrating with MCMS or possibly using MCMS in lieu of SharePoint. My experiences with SharePoint have always reminded me of the end of a brewery tour; fraught with bloat. While SharePoint is remarkably feature-rich, it always seems that the average user either isn't interested in the features or is intimidated by them. The appealing aspect of MCMS, from my perspective, is that the Publishing API is designed to allow you to write your applications/sites your way (with some caveats), and still have the added benefit of a tool that handles the administrative duties (transactional document management). I quickly got the feeling that if my singular goal was to manage web content across any number of channels then MCMS was a nice lightweight alternative to SharePoint. In fact, I kept thinking about website design firms and wondering how a product like this could impact the efficiency of their business.

The refreshing thing to learn, for me at least, was that while MCMS can and does integrate with SharePoint, SharePoint is not required. In fact the book does a fine job of illustrating how to avoid using SharePoint altogether.

With SharePoint fully dealt with, the book moves on from that point to discuss the intricacies of the aforementioned caveats of implementing dynamic content, validating dynamic content, and staging static content as well. Also of note are chapters devoted to integrating InfoPath as an editing tool and integrating RSS feeds into yours site, all with full code samples.

All in all, this book was enjoyable. With the exception of the unavoidable SharePoint section, the book was devoted to MCMS development and as such had a lot of example code to sift through. As a testament to this book, I think you could read the code examples alone and get an introduction to the Publishing API. One disclaimer, the example applications in this book are intentionally straight forward. All the sample code is procedural in nature. Take it for what it is, a readable set of examples. This book is not intended to address issues of application design, and if you expect that you will be sorely disappointed.

If you've ever been involved with MCMS 2002, you will know the authors of this title, and the great work they do for the Content Management Server community. They are either Microsoft employees or MVPs and are recognised experts in CMS development.

This book is next in line after the title, "Building Websites with Microsoft Content Management Server". It delves deep into the more advanced development topics on the MCMS platform. To help you understand the topics and areas presented, there is an abundance of code which is essential. The best thing about the code examples is that they are not throw away HelloWorld demonstrations, but real life applications and uses of functionality that you will more than likely adapt to use in your own implementation. That's where the experience of the authors shines through.

As well as pure MCMS content, there are also a number of chapters dedicated to explaining and demonstrating Sharepoint integration points and searching (a major feature lacking from MCMS). For many company intranets, MCMS or Sharepoint are not enough on their own and must be combined to provide a complete solution. This book goes some way towards making the combination less painful.

My only (selfish) criticism of this book is the timing of its release. It would have been an awesome training tool when I was getting into MCMS development!! That aside, the examples given are still very relevant for development today and will offer even the seasoned developer new tricks, give them a deeper understanding of the APIs, and provoke new ideas and thoughts on what can be achieved. Chapters on RSS enabling your sites and integrating Infopath forms to web services in MCMS are two areas that probably wouldn't have been covered a few years ago, but are now hot topics.

The book also includes a number of "essential how-tos, tips and tricks" that are obviously taken from the authors' own experiences with MCMS customers. You too will have wondered how to do these things, and if you worked it out alone, would be cursing not having had this book in your collection at the time.

I consider this book, along with its predecessor, `must have' guides with material for anybody involved in MCMS development. You will definitely get a lot out of them.

This book offers a hands-on approach to learning MCMS topics that mimic real world problems. While most books and manuals focus on the ideal or typical scenario, this book explores how to deal with the tough scenarios where the product shortcomings need to be overcome by creative and innovative solutions. Definitive answers are provided to many of the tough questions that every developer asks when delving deep into MCMS. Working code samples make up a significant portion of the book and are extremely valuable in understanding the topics being explained.

A few chapters of the book focus on the integration of MCMS and SharePoint technologies which while being a failry popular topic in industry is not something that has been well documented until now. Integration of MCMS with SharePoint or RSS is viewed as a difficult task but has now been made significantly easier.

This book is meant for developers that want to push MCMS past the typical scenario and get the most out of the product. It is not meant to teach MCMS but to help developers familiar with the product to get to the next level of expertise.

It is excellent book. Writer explained the advanced concepts of Visual C++ very easily. Any one can learn Advanced concept by reading this excellent book.

It is the second book i bought for learning visual C++, and I found it VERY useful, especially for those who is familiar with C++ but know nothing about MFC programming. Comparing to "Programming Visual C++ by Kruglinski", this one is more suitable for new-bee not only cos it has a good intro on VC++(first chapter) but also it uses simple and easy-to-understand language(little jargons).

BUY THIS AS YOUR FIRST BOOK ON VC++

This is a good book for robust GUI develepment in Visual C++. This book assumes the familiarity of the user with C++ concept, so this can not be a book for new learner. This book can be used a reference materials for RAD. This book has very fairly dealt with all the complicated aspect of Visual C++ like DLL, Multithreading, ActiveX control, Memory management etc. Examples provided in this book is really of day to day use, so by customising those example one can build ones own application very fast without any difficulty. This book is very good for GUI development for Microsoft windows. Still there are a lot of scope for further improvement of this book. It would be really good if it provides a bit more information about latest technolgy like DCOM, CORBA, Socket Communication etc. Some example for inter process communication will be useful. By providing all these resources this book will turn out to be really a complete visual C++ book rather being a GUI Book. As a whole this book is good because whatever area it has covered it has tried to provide good information.

This must be one of the best - if not the best - development books I have invested in - hard earned UK £'ss (yep, that's a lot more than some of you yanks have to pay!!!)

Examples and explainations excellent. It certainly plugged some of the gaps I had.

I have been using this book as my primary reference for the past 2 years. Not only does Ms Balter present the basics in a clear and concise manner, the advanced topics included have allowed me to really exploit the power of Access 95. Our organization is migrating to Access 2000 within the year, and I am eagerly awaiting the release of the next edition of this excellent manual.

This is a great book for an individual who wants to learn more about developing applications for Access 95. The author is very concise and doesn't leave the reader guessing about what she is trying to accomplish in her examples. The book probably isn't for an absolute beginner, but you could learn the essentials from here even if you are a beginner. I found that this book is my most popular reference handbook. It doesn't collect dust on the shelf like others that I have. I just wish the author would write a book on Visual Basic 6.0 next.

5 Stars

A useful book, shipment very fast! in 9 days i received it...and i live in Italy.

Thanks Amazon

Creative
Clear
Consistent
Cost little

Most software "companions" (more than a manual...not quite a book) really do not do justice to the software. Quite the contrary for the AMPL guide. AMPL (the language) is a *very* powerful and *very* easy to use Optimization package. It interfaces with most of the major solvers. Users program in AMPL which is more or less pseudocode and then solve LP, nonlinear, combinatorial, integer, etc. programs. Unlike most software packages, it is both robust and easy to use. Likewise with the companion/book. There are many great, easy to follow examples, and it clearly explains the intrecacies of the language. A must use software and most own book for anyone doing any optimization work.

I purchased this book a year and a half ago, after it was recommended to me, but didn't read it until now. Boy was I pleased to have picked it up, though.

This was my first book on the practice of Penetration Testing, so the processes, methodologies and general underlying theories it presented were extremely valuable. In my day to day course as a Sys Admin, I found myself reanalyzing my network with newly gained perspectives. I found it to be very effective in turning the vague unknown threat into something visible and tangible -- instead of following what best practices I was aware of to create security, this book helped greatly in defining -why- those best practices created a secure front, and which would be more valuable to implement in my organization.

I also echo the others, that it was fairly dry in general, but the sidebars and real life stories, quenching that dryness, has created a very strong fondness in my memory. All in all, I would highly recommend this to anyone, particularly if they're entering the world of security from a Microsoft background.

Just the basic concept of this book is interesting. If anyone wanted to do a denial of service attack on my web site, or was really interested in coming in -- well, why would they care. But the Microsoft site, if you could bring it down you would certainly have bragging rights in certain circles.

So if you really want to know about security, who better to read than people responsible for keeping the Microsoft site up and running.

The book has four major sections:

Planning and Performing Security assessments
Penetration Testing for Nonintrusive Attacks
Penetration Testing for Instrusive Attacks
Security Assessment Case Studies.

One thing I really appreciate in this book is the little stories from the real world. In between the description and tutorials (this is computer stuff, it's pretty dry) there are little notes of what really happened in a situation where this particular area was being tested. It gives the book the ring of truth, the sound of experience.

Highly Recommended.

Now, I've read some pretty bad books on penetration testing and nobody seemed to get this fun subject right! Good news - this time somebody did! This great tome ("Assessing Network Security") comes to us direct from the bunkers of Redmond. Written by three Microsoft security researchers, the book provides a great overview as well as in-depth coverage of assessing security via pen testing, scanning, IT audit and other means.

The books starts from a nice overview of key principles of security (definitely not news for industry practitioners, but nice anyway), and then goes on to defines vulnerability assessment, penetration testing and security audit. A critically important section on reporting the findings is also nicely written and shows that the authors are knowledgeable about the subject. The book then goes into developing and maintaining the pentesting skills, and descends into choosing the training and resources (nice for those starting in the field). The actual pentesting process is split into non-intrusive (combining the usual "intelligence gathering" with port scans, sweeps and various host queries) and intrusive tests (such as running a vulnerability scanner, brute-forcing passwords, DoS testing and others). Some entries seem to belong in both categories (such as sniffing) but are placed into the intrusive section, for whatever reason. All the host latest content (wireless, Bluetooth and web assessments) is well represented in the book. A fairly insightful social engineering testing section (that touched on dumpster diving and other non-network assessment methods) is also present. My favorite chapter was the one on 'case studies' - examples of specific threats/tests against web, email, VPN and domain controller systems.

Among other features that I liked were 'notes from the field' sidebars with fun stories related by authors and FAQs at the end of each section. On the down side, the book is somewhat Windows-focused (although it is amazingly vendor-neutral in most respects, considering the source). The book is also somewhat dry, although sidebars provide the needed relief when the text gets too process-oriented at times.

The book is largely about methodology, but I'd have preferred to see a bit more technical content, since it is a 600-page volume. I think checklists, present in the Appendix, are a great step in that direction.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and think it is both a great guide and a reference for most security professionals, especially for those starting to be involved with penetration testing.

Anton Chuvakin, Ph.D., GCIA, GCIH is a Security Strategist with a major security information management company. He is the author of the book "Security Warrior" (O'Reilly, 2004) and a contributor to "Known Your Enemy II (AWL, 2004). His areas of infosec expertise include intrusion detection, UNIX security, forensics, honeypots, etc. In his spare time, he maintains his security portal info-secure.org

This book will take you from absolutely no knowledge of DotnetNuke and get you well on your way. Simple to follow. Like any good intro book it will help you to understand how DNN works and gives you enough information to know where to go to learn more. For example after you are shown what a skin is and how to use it you are then shown how to make one of your own. You should then understand where you want to go from there. My experience level is 1.5 years as an ASP.net, VB and C# Developer with SQL server 2005. I have no previous knowledge of DNN. It will be very helpful if you know a bit about Visual Web developer, Light Coding, CSS, XML and some graphics program knowledge such as Fireworks or Photoshop. However, this book will get even the non programmer where he needs to be to use DNN. In short - if you are new, Start here.

It's not for the complete novice and it won't teach you how to code. But it will get you up and going with VWD and DNN. Well written with good screenshots. He also takes you through the process of creating modules. It's a good primer and was what I was looking for.

This is a very good introduction to DotNetNuke. It will help you install DNN on you own machine and guide you through building a simple website.

If you know a little about programming in VB and know something about HTML and CSS, this book will show you how to write your own DNN modules and create your own DNN skins and containers. You won't learn how to write complex modules or elaborate skins but you'll learn the basics.

If you already know how to install DNN and how to create DNN modules and skins, this book is not for you.

If you know nothing about programming in VB and know nothing about HTML, then you should probably learn about them before you tackle this book.

This book has given me immense new ways to work with the Windows XP. It is infomative and simple to understand. I highly recommend it to all Microsoft Windowa XP users. You will be glad you got a copy.

PC users who would understand the underlying power behind the Windows system will appreciate the weighty, information-packed Preston Gralla Big Book of Windows Hacks, a coverage packed with time-saving tips and hints. From how to save regularly-used searches to disabling Windows Mail's splash screen, stopping Firefox memory leaks, and backing up Vista hacks, THE BIG BOOK OF WINDOWS HACKS is a 'must' for any collection catering to patrons behind the novice stages.

§
Despite Microsoft's claims that their vaunted "focus groups" and client experience consultants have allowed them to offer us painless computing, you and the rest of the world know it isn't true. Waiting for Windows XP or Vista to boot up and shut down certainly are irritations in themselves worth a hack or two.

As you can imagine, this is a large book. That is not just the number of pages (650) but also the format -- of the fold-flat variety. This big book of hacks is easy to work with physically.

The editorial review on this page describes the contents well except that I would alter "contains more than 100 hacks" to "contains almost 200 hacks." Quite a difference.

The writing is clear and informed. I'm sure you have read many of Gralla's magazine contributions over the years. Be sure that the book is not all text. There are plenty of illustrations and even photos (for the hardware hacks) to guide you. The hacks themselves are directed at all versions of Windows, with the focus on XP and Vista.

Consider this book a compendium of all those tips you always rip out of your computer magazine subscriptions to save -- then lose track of. Here they are, all in one place, not easily lost given the size of this book!
§

Once you have been initialized into the world of Delphi, it is time to move on to the realm of developers. When that point is reached, there is no better source of educational exercises than this book. It is split into 123 different problems, each with statement, purpose, list of required GUI objects and properties; source code and complete explanation. Many of the exercises include Windows API calls, which are a must for serious developers. It is sometimes easy to forget that our programming efforts are a collaborative one with Windows. And there are times when it is best to skip the translation and go directly to the source.
Split into twelve chapters:

1. Forms,
2. Standard Components,
3. Document and Text,
4. Mouse and Menu,
5. Graphics,
6. Multimedia,
7. Environment and System,
8. Peripherals,
9. Database,
10. OLE and DDE,
11. The Polished Application, and
12. Tips and Tricks

All of the fundamentals are covered. I found it to be an excellent source of exercises for a course in Delphi. While they may not be exactly what you want, all are very easy to tweak to your tastes.
Although it is not as popular as some other tools, Delphi is an excellent developmental environmental. If you are teaching a course or just want to learn it on your own, this is a superb resource

Published in Journal of Recreational Mathematics, reprinted with permission.

Once in a while you'll come across a book that you can't put down. Well, this is it. It doesn't matter if you're using Delphi 1 or Delphi 5, this book has enough tricks and how to's to pay for itself 10x over. It's well organized, concise, plenty of code snippets, and lots of working programs on the CD-Rom. If you want a fun read and like magical code, this How To book will put a smile on your face and add a shine to your programs!

Once in a while you'll stumble across a gem of a book that you can't put down. This is it! If you ever get to a point in your program that you think you need to put some pizzazz in it, this book might be just what you're looking for.

It has something for everyone. It's chaulked full of usefull tidbits that you can add to any application. I'll list a few entries from the table of contents so you know what I mean:
"Size a form's control automatically"
"Add search and replace to my editor"
"Remember the sizes and locations of my forms"
"Make the ENTER key act like the TAB key..."
"Determine system resouces and display them"
"Modify menus at run time"
"Create a readme file viewer"
"Fade one picture into another"
"Play wave and midi files"
"Make a customizable toolbar like Delphi's"

It has 103 of these "How To's" do make your application really shine. Two or three of these features would pay for the book. That's like getting the other 100 for free!

Even though this book is written for Delphi 1, the majority of these tricks will also work for Delphi 2. All of the sample code is on the CD-Rom so you can easily see it working before you install it into your application.

If you want to spruce up your application, I definitely recommend this book. You'll also improve your Delphi techniques by learning how some of these "tricks" are performed. This book is a keeper. Don't leave the bookstore without it!

I tried the Microsoft Press, returned it. Tried the Sybex, returned it. Finally found this gem written by Curt Simmons from a publisher (Prentice Hall) not known for their Certification books. This book has all that you need to pass the exam and none of the junk that waste your time. This author has done what Sybex and Microsoft couldn't, write an easy to understand book with the material you need to help you achieve a great passing score in minimal time. I'd give this book a 6 stars if it was possible.

Like to book claims, 'Pass Microsoft's Active directory exam with flying colors!'. This book is well-organized, containing only relevant information that you need. The book is only 300 pages and the content is written in a easy to understand format(short chapters). Curt Simmons knows his exams, he stresses design considerations rather than 'how-to configure the OS' stuff which is not on the exam and justs wastes your time. The 5 case studies included (although not as complex as the real thing) gets you familiar with the format and helps you identify the info that is important for answering the question(s). Also comes with a Training CBT and companion website. I highly recommend this book for preparing for 70-219, if you can find it as availability is scarce.

This book is very easy to read and is very focused on the content I saw on the exam. There are 5 case study questions that look like the exam format and they really tested my knowledge of AD design issues. I recommend it!

Of all the Visual QuickStart books that I've read, this book is by far the best. It explains how to use all of CorelDRAW 7's features in easy to follow steps that even a novice like myself can understand. Also, although it's not its purpose, it does a very good job in teaching the user about the software, beyond just merely how to use it. It gives the user an overview about what makes the software tick, without the overkill that one can find in other books about CorelDRAW 7. It has been a lifesaver for me, for it enabled me to teach myself the software, which is what "QuickStart" is all about.

I like the Visual Quick Start range of books a lot as they help me to get started with the minimum pain. I wanted a quick-in to Corel Draw (7) and this handy book summarises all the main functions of Corel Draw. It's entirely in black and white but is written in manageable sections that helped me to get started pretty quickly before I felt the need to look out for a more comprehensive manual. Well written, good value.

This book has the step-by-step guidance that I need when I work through a program as complex as CorelDraw 7! In addition, it is really visually awesome. The graphic design in this book puts it way above most computer software books. Using it, you'll find yourself opening whole new creative worlds