Microsoft Books

Clearly explains important concepts. Though not updated for V5.0, this is the book to have for rapid understanding of VFP, especially if you're a 2.x developer. It's the kind of book you *wish* was included in the product package.

This is a book you will not want your employer to buy for you, because you'll want to own this book! Of the 896 pages in this book, there is almost no fluff ! In fact, this book is so good that I readily agree with one of the authors when he says, "it's a really good idea for you to read this report" (book), "more than once." Given the opportunity, I plan to re-read this book at least once. There is simply too much good material to absorb in just one reading.

I have finished three of four sections of this book, and I'm partly done with the fourth section. The section I have not finished is Robert Green's report on Developing Client/Server Applications with Visual FoxPro and SQL Server. The only reason I have not finished that section is that it is not immediately relevant to my employer...but it will be relevant later.

The three sections I've finished are: Visual FoxPro Data Dictionary by Doug Hennig; Visual FoxPro Form Designer by Stephen A. Sawyer; Object-Oriented Programming with Visual FoxPro by David Frankenbach.

Visual FoxPro Data Dictionary by Doug Hennig, covers: An introduction to the Data Dictionary; Databases; Tables and Indexes; Relations; Buffering and Transactions; Referential Integrity, Triggers, and Stored Procedures; Connections and Views; Extending the DBC; and other miscellaneous stuff.

Visual FoxPro Form Designer by Stephen A. Sawyer, covers: Visual FoxPro Forms - An Overview; The Form Designer; Common Members; The Form Object; The Form's DataEnvironment Object; Basic Control Objects; The List Controls - ComboBox and ListBox Controls; The Grid Control Object; Special-Purpose Control Objects; Form Coordination and Interaction; and Potpourri.

Object-Oriented Programming with Visual FoxPro by David Frankenbach, covers: Object-Oriented Programming Concepts; Techniques and Details; Applying Object-Oriented Programming; The Object Inspector; Advanced Topics; and other miscellaneous stuff.

With the advent of Visual FoxPro we now have not only many new capabilities but in some respect a new vocabulary and way of thinking. This book covers each of these all of these. The authors compare and contrast FoxPro 2.x with Visual FoxPro in order to clarify issues and to help FoxPro programmers to rapidly become productive in any version of Visual FoxPro. They explain well the difference between Databases and tables, and the importance of local and remote views. They explain how FoxPro was a graphical, and event driven, relational database management system, and how Visual FoxPro is Trigger sensitive, Wizard enhanced, Object-Oriented, Client/server, relational database management system with OLE controls, Transaction processing, Data buffering and a Data Dictionary enforcing Referential Integrity.

On a purely intellectual level the section on Object-Oriented Programming is probably the most important. However, the section on the Data Dictionary, at least in the near term, will be far more practical and useful! Both sections deserve to be read at least twice. The section on Object-Oriented Programming will probably need some concentrated effort, and to fully take advantage of it and Visual FoxPro's new capabilities will require a change of mindset. Object-Oriented Programming is perhaps the greatest advance in software development in 15 years and I'm glad that FoxPro now has its share of the pie.

Very simple and helpful for beginners and those with more PC knowledge. Covers many, many subjects in easy-to-use, easy-to-read format.

This book is another success for Cox and Dudley. If you have Word 6 then you won't need this, but if you are learning Word 7 then this is the way to go. Simple and easy exercises to follow. Useful tips and shortcuts to performing tasks. Easy reading and it does not take a month to digest. As a I am a computer instructor this is one of the best sellers

A friend at work gave me this book. It's a great little intro to excel basics and gives you a taste of the more advanced functions as well. This is a great overview for anyone interested in exploring the basic functions of excel. I used what I learned to build some nifty spreadsheets for my department. Before I started with this book I had very limited experience with Excel and this got me proficient with the basic range of excel functions and more. Even used my knowledge in a job interview test and I got the job!

I had tried reading through the entire list of Excel tutorials at the local library. All of them were disappointing to me, as they spent so much time extolling the glories of Excel that they never stopped to tell you what Excel was actually good for! And then they jumped right into complicated snippets of examples that were unrelated to anything in the real world, or even each other. These snippets were again designed to show off the glories of Excel, not to do anything practical, like build an actual real-life spreadsheet.

As a programmer by profession, I always liked to "roll my own" solutions, using Visual Basic, MS Access, C++, whatever was at hand. And I've done some pretty fancy applications, including using MS Chart for graphing purposes. But those were mostly custom applications that Excel couldn't handle.

I must say, however, now that I've read this book and have actually discovered what Excel is good for, it can certainly handle much more than I had supposed! I will be using Excel from now on for various financial applications instead of relying on my programming skills with VB and Access.

The book begins with a basic spread sheet, which carries you all the way through to the final chapter, much like an accounting project in junior college might. And that was a welcome relief from those other tutorials. No dis-jointed jumping around from one unrelated example to the next exists here (as a reference guide might use). You follow the basic spreadsheet from chapter one all the way through to the final chapter, which builds in complexity, complete with pivot tables, and your understanding of Excel is added to as you go.

If you want to learn the basics of Excel, or just understand what this program is good for (as I wanted to know) this is the book for you. You can easily master the material in two weeks, or less, especially if you already have a basic understanding of computer programming.

All in all, an excellent primer.

I really like this book! I bought the 4th edition (1956) at a used book store and was anxious to get the latest version. I purchased it in 2001 when it came out, and have been very pleased with it. I would recommend this book to anyone involved in electronics.

This is hands down the best reference book ever published for electrical/electronics/communications engineers. There is an abundance of articles on virtually any topic you can think of. This reference book is not written for the mathematical engineer who needs reference books loaded with tables and equations. This is a reference book for the rest of us engineers who need to learn the basics of a particular technology without having to re-learn engineering mathematics. This book is an absolute must for every electrical engineer. Once you get the book, you'll wonder how you ever managed without it

I have worked with C# for some time now. I really wanted to learn about .NET Remoting and I did not have much idea about building distributed systems. This book gives you a step by step approach and it does require you to have some basic knowledge in any OOP language. Knowing some C# would be beneficial.

Thanks to the author for publishing this book! Excellent!

Very well written. I recommend this book to others that need to work with remoting.

Don and Martha have done it again! They have identified and exposed one of the most difficult challenges in business today -that of short term-ism - or the obsession with making quarterly numbers at the expense of long-term and lifetime customer value.
They've dared to question some of the most fundamental business tenants and then provided evidence that new ones have emerged, such as the critical need to build and maintain trust, the necessity of employee empowerment, and the power of social networking, just to name a few.

Yes, this book is enjoyable to read; but more importantly, it has real-life examples, practical advice, and executable strategies for those who dare to build great companies for the future, not just the next quarter.

Elizabeth Rech
Hingham, MA

I read all books from Don and Martha. "one to one future" was the first and the best book I've ever read related to CRM. "return on customers" was a first attempt to demonstrate that company value isn't necessarely equal to EBITDA and value of shares. Don and Martha introduced here the concept of long-term view vs short-termism.
With this latest book "rules to break & laws to follow" - I've read it in one day! - they follow their concept of demonstrating what real value to a company means.
I do like especially the introduction of an "employee/empowerment"-dimension which was a little bit missing until now.
Real great book. A must for all leaders and managers.
René F. Lisi

Trudi Reisner has truly put together a practical guide to using the intimidating--to me at least--Microsoft Excel program. Unlike other guides which insist you learn the history of the program since 1944 (or whenever it was), this aid has you just jump right in, get you started, show you the right way to do things, and show you the short-cuts which are just as useful. I only wish they didn't promise this 24 hour goal to learn Excel. It took me three times as long. But hey, I learned it, and I use it now. Highly recommended.

I have NO previous experience with Excel or any other spreadsheet program. I have no programming experience of any kind. Reading the lessons and following along at my computer was very easy. All the lessons were 'bite-sized' so as to only take about an hour, which is just enough studying for me after a hard days' work. By the time I finished the book I wrote my own budget and expense program using cross references to multiple pages with pie charts. All the basics are covered, you will be using Excel easily after completing this book. This book is not intended to cover VBA programming, that is a whole 'nother matter. I highly recommend this book!

From rent houses to computers (and even to raising a handicapped child to give him room for the most potential in Disabling America ISBN #0785262253), I just am floored every time I read another book by this guy.

Does he write 24 hours a day?

Is he a genius on ALL subjects?

Again, maybe I'm partial to his writing style or something, but let me say THIS book once again too my fear out of Office.

Oh I could do all the usual word processing and e-mail. But when it came to formatting my husband's Excel worksheets or using Access, I was stumped until Perry showed me how in under 24 hours. What I like best about this book's examples is that they are not these huge business-world examples with tons of data. His examples are single worksheets and small databases such as the ones I'd create for myself and my family. And if I had a business, I would want to start small so I learned the fundamentals and then work my way up to bigger projects.

Once again, I am indebted to this author. I strongly encourage you to read Teach Yourself Office 2003 in 24 Hours if you want to learn the REAL tricks and tools that help you do your daily computer tasks.

He keeps doing it. Every few months, another title is written by this Greg Perry. He's the Issaac Asimov of computer books! What, has this guy written 100 or more? I don't know but it seems like it.

What gets me is that he keesp writing quality books, ones that I go back to reference, and between the lines he keeps a sense of humor to boot! Try to find THAT in a computer book, even a wishy-washy Dummies book the humor is often forced.

If you used previous versions of Office but you upgraded to 2003, you might not think you need to read a book. Sure, Office 2003 is a cosmetic upgrade more than anything, but it's not fully one and this book is your KEY to making the most of the new version.

It will NOT throw tons of material you'll never use. It won't throw fancy spreadsheets and database examples at you, it shows you how to make real ones to get the job done.

Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft SQL Server T-SQL in 10 Minutes (Sams Teach Yourself)
by Ben Forta

Short Review:
If T-SQL (Transact-Structured Query Language) is foreign tongue to you, after reading this book, you will speak T-SQL. This book is SQL Server version of best-selling book Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes. This book teaches what a SQL developer must know methodically, systematically, and exactly. Anybody who are new to SQL Server and wants to learn most of T-SQL which can be implemented in short time in their application - BUY this book immediately.

Detail Review:
This is the one book I was awaiting eagerly. I claim that I am very experience Database Administrator and Database Developer, however, I have learned something new from this book of acclaimed author Ben Forta.

This book is focused on T-SQL only. It begins with simple data retrieval and continues to develop complex topics. It addresses various topics that are enough to get some work done with SQL Server as well explains concept in depth. SQL Server 2005 is a very complex, feature rich product. This book does a wonderful job of explaining the various features with out going to too many details that majority of the users will not need anyway. This book covers all of the important aspects of SQL Server 2005 without clouding the information with tons of examples that are not for every user.

Author has divided the book into short comprehensible chapters along with to the point examples and explanations of the concepts. If you see "Table of Contents" of this book, you will find that this book covers many areas. I will talk about few of my personal favorite chapters of this book here to demonstrate, what this book does is best at.

Chapter 5: Sorting Retrieved Data
If you want to sort in descending order on multiple columns, be sure each column has its own DESC keyword.
When you are sorting textual data, is A the same as a? And does a come before B or after Z? In dictionary sort order, A is treated the same as a. If you need an alternate sort order, you can not accomplish it with a simple ORDER BY clause.
It is not required, and it is perfectly legal to sort data by a column that is not retrieved.

Chapter 10: Using Data Manipulation Functions
It is far safer to always use a full four digit year so that SQL Server does not have to make any assumptions for you.
When comparing dates, always use DATEDIFF(), and do not make assumptions about how dates are stored.

Chapter 15: Creating Advanced Joins
It is worth noting that table aliases are only used during query execution. Unlike column aliases, table aliases are never returned to the client.
Self joins are often used to replace statements using subqueries that retrieve data from the same table as the outer statement. Sometimes these joins execute far more quickly than do subqueries.

Chapter 22: Programming with T-SQL
This is my most favorite chapter. Experienced programmers will find this chapter most interesting.

To discover the secret of SQL, this is the book you need to read, extremely well written, easy to follow and most importantly to the point. This has got to be the smallest SQL book in existence with highest amount of quality content. A really MUST have book.

Rating: 5 stars

In Summary, A MUST read.

Pinal Dave
Principal Database Administrator
(http://www.SQLAuthority.com)

I am brand new to SQL Server and have been reading a handful of large SQL Server for beginners type books, but I kept getting hung up on all the T-SQL commands. No book seemed to explain it clearly, or they'd suddenly introduce a series of mind-numbing code without explanation - assuming you knew it. Fortunately for me, I stumbled on this gem of a book. It is well laid out, concise, and there is no filler. It starts with the absolute basics and works on up through to more complex T-SQL scripts (stored procedures, cursors, triggers etc.), but by the time you get there - you're more confident with this stuff. I'd highly recommend this book if you want to learn T-SQL.

M Bijaoui takes a balanced approach to both theory and practice in this book. A good half share of the book describes the underlying theory of scaling systems, but without diving too deeply in complex systems theory. On the other hand, it actually describes (presumably from real world experiences) the practicalities of scaling up Exchange.

Its pitch is just about right: not so deep that you'd get the bends, but just deep enough that you can get by with a snorkel.

This topic is clearly right in Mr. Bijaoui's sweet spot and he delivers with a home run. If you are looking to build a big, honkin' server, but also want to know all of the gotchas along the way, this book is for you.

Just what I was looking for...