Microsoft Books

This is one of my all time favorite books because it covers an important subject of integrating Windows and UNIX systems on the same network. The picture on the book's cover shows a rock climber straddling two vertical cliffs, a perfectly appropriate metaphor for the daunting task of maintaining interoperability.

Three of the four authors either teach or support Georgia Tech's computers, and that may account for the book's tendency to focus on teaching rather than simply providing how-to's. For example, rather than showering a book with screenshots and lists, it contains a chapter on system planning, another on backup methodologies, another on file systems and another on upgrades and change management. This is actually a book that you might actually enjoy bringing to the beach with you; it's something you can read straight through rather than referring to it merely as a reference guide. I have several guides on linux and windows, and can safely say that while this book doesn't always cover a subject in depth, it provides enough to get started. I especially found helpful, for instance, its discussion of amanda, a unix backup solution (which definitely justified the space they spent on it), setting up nfs, setting up wins (with windows or through samba) user administration and dns.

The danger of this kind of book is that in attempting to cover all the variants of UNIX and Windows, it instead delivers a shallow treatment of them all. Luckily, that is not the case. Probably 40% of the book was about Windows implementations, and of the remaining 60%, 20% covered Linux, 20% covered Solaris and 20% covered other flavors such as HP-Unix and BSD.

Probably the most helpful thing about the book is how it juxtaposes the Windows way of doing things with its Unix counterpart. For me, I had quite a bit of linux knowledge, so I actually was very curious about the Windows way of doing things. Often it helps to see how a task is done in both systems.

While I generally love this book, I wanted to mention another excellent book for Windows 2000, the Ultimate Windows 2000 System Administration Guide by Robert Williams and Mark Walla(there are probably several others by now). I also wanted to see other topics: an emphasis on production-ready open source applications rather than on commercial solutions. The email section should have discussed postfix rather than sendmail. Although there are already several excellent guides on samba out there, I would have like to seen a discussion of more complex scenarios here. Also, I would have liked to see a chapter on dual boot systems, windows emulation programs and things like vmware or wine. Apache wasn't covered too much in depth, and neither was IIS, but it was nice to read a short introduction in 10 or so pages. I would have enjoyed a comparison between platforms for performance and security and how they figure into deployment decisions. A future edition should also talk about UNIX web gui's like Webmin.

As a long time MCSE and CNE, my clients with UNIX have wanted me to help them integrate NT with UNIX. Prior to finding this book I was hesitant, but after reading it it didn't seem so complicated and should lead to increased revenue. Most recommended if you want to make more money by doing your job better without the usual nightmares.

As expected, this is a top notch book. Includes the information I was expecting, and a little bonus: not only can you install the VB.NET Core Classes information, but the CD that comes with this book includes all the information (for integration into VS.NET) for the VB.NET Language Reference, also by O'Reilly. So, while you only get the hard-copy of one book, you get the information of two. Quite a deal.

Okay--I don't dream in code often, and I don't make a living by programming. I do it for fun. I don't have any of the expensive versions of Visual Studio--just the "Standard", cheapie one.

With that said, I love having the framework laid out for me. The fact that it integrates into VS is a big plus. And, if you're undecided, here's a little tip--you can install the VB.NET Core Classes information *AND* the VB.NET Language reference into VS with this CD. I imagine that the VB.NET Language Reference is the same way. Whatever, for the price of one, you get two (albeit only on hardcopy version).

So--well worth the money. I love it.

Whenever I need some help with Visual Basic.net, this is the first source that I use. Sometimes it is better than the on-line help. I would supplement this book with the "Visual Basic.Net: The Complete Reference" book. I would highly recommend that both books be added to your Visual Basic.Net reference library. Although not as fast as the on-line help, the book provides better answers to your Visual Basic.Net questions. The only error that I found is ADO.Net becomes ADO.Next in the chapter on ADO.Net. Must have been the publisher.

I am not a professional programmer so I need all the help I can get. I was stuck trying to get the Long Date format to work correctly so I consulted the help menu in VB.NET and all that provided was information that was incorrect and or that I could not implement correctly so I picked up my new copy of Programmer�s reference and found the solution within seconds. I use the previous version Programmer�s reference for VB6 and it also is an excellent resource. Both of these books by Dan Rahmel have MORE information that I can use in the real world than several of the 1500 page books on my shelves.
Lloyd Gregory techrep@lloydgregory.com

I'm in a class that uses this book as the text. I am very impressed with the step-by-step instruction. The text doesn't assume anything and yet, it doesn't insult my intelligence.

Very well-written, easy to follow, and confidence inspiring.

Well done, Mr. Mostafavi!

This is an introductory book on programming in Visual Basic 2005. However it does presume that you have programmed before on some kind of system. It doesn't matter which language, but the basic concept of writing commands, logic, and so on should be familiar to the reader. To be sure, he does give a bit of instruction into basic programming principles, but it is pretty basic.

Next he goes into a description of Visual Studio which is used to program in several Microsoft languages. Then on to writing programs. He leads you through the writing of a pretty basic program. While basic in nature this program covers a lot of the principles of programming. By the end of the chapter, you've put a small window on your screen.

Throughout the book he uses a series of extentions to the little program, and by the end of the book you should have a pretty good understanding of the language.

I'm an experienced programmer although I'm just learning VB. This book is essential to becoming productive quickly.

Being a VB Consultant and a VB Teacher, I've had the opportunity to go through many VB books. By far, VB4 Unleashed is the best. If you're already a good VB programmer, VB4 Unleashed will take you further. You'll learn how-to easily add sound (.wav) to your applications, how-to make screen savers, and even help files. Best part is that there is NO need to purchase any additional third-party controls in order to use the examples. (E.G. Learn Visual Basic in 21 days requires purchase of 3rd party OCX controls to use many of the examples.) I highly recommend this book. Kevin Scott, Visual Basic Application Developer, First Logic Inc.

Several years ago, I was teaching a college course in Visual Basic, a VB course for a local company and VB in community education classes. At times, there was a need for quick projects and this was one of the primary sources that I consulted. There were also times when students would come to me and ask questions about specific problems they were having in their work. A few times I was able to get some good ideas or at least hints as to how their problems could be solved from this book.
The book contains a series of 68 different complete projects using VB 5. The range of the projects is considerable, the general categories are:

*) Extending control features
*) View controls
*) Class fundamentals
*) Object fundamentals
*) ActiveX controls
*) Internet integration
*) Application performance
*) Using the WIN32 API
*) Windows socket programming
*) Forms
*) Databases
*) Logo compliant applications
*) Extending VS and managing development

The area that I found most useful was "Using the WIN32 API." I am a firm believer in teaching about API's and I used the ideas in that section to develop exercises where the students were required to call several of the API's. This is a very good book for the learning of the now largely deceased VB 5. However, many of the ideas and principles still live in VB.NET, so it can still be of value.

This books just provide you with everything you want to know about VB5.0. It is so useful!

Visual Basics for Behavioral Psychologists is an essential guide to those seeking to streamline their data collection process or create innovative experiments. This step-by-step guide successfully leads you through the sometimes grueling process of generating computer code and programs. This manual will not only allow you to develop the standards programs described in the text, but it will give you skills to generate novel material to suite your individual needs.

Very useful if you're a psychologist who is scared of Visual Basic and those giant manuals on the software. This clearly teaches you the basics you need for programming psychological experiments and then some. This book is for the ".Net" version of Visual Basic. There are some differences if you only have the VB 6.0 version. You can get the book much quicker if you just order it directly from the publisher at contextpress dot com. Amazon took 3 months to deliver this to someone I know.

A remarkably concise and clear intoduction to client/server application development with VB. A good first book to read before you get into the details of coding.

This book is what I've been looking for! It covers it all, from the Visual Basic environment itself to how to write a database application. Excellent examples and the language is very easy to read. Great book!

Active Directory is without a doubt the most important part of Windows 2000 and this book -- written entirely based upon the release version of Windows 2000 (not based on the betas) -- is a comprehensive introduction and reference to this important technology.

Building from the ground up, it combines step-by-step instructions to do complex tasks instead of dismissively telling you that you should do X (where X is undocumented elsewhere) and also teaches basic VBScript and integrates scripting solutions alongside point-and-click and command line methods.

The topics covered range from understanding and installing Active Directory through all the constituent parts to Group Policy, other Intellimirror technologies and advanced topics such as troubleshooting, interoperability and design issues.

I hope you enjoy the book.

I have gone over several books on AD but this is the only one that provided me in depth information. This is not a book for the very beginners of Active Directory but is a book that needs to read.