Software Books

This book really enhanced my enjoyment of Zoo Tycoon. I initially didn't want to spend the money for this book when I bought Zoo Tycoon, but, some of the scenarios in the game are so difficult that I spent a lot of time searching forums on the internet for help. So, I decided to go ahead and give this book a try. It is definitely worth it. There are a lot of secrets in this book that really help you out. You won't regret buying it.

I love playing simulation games. This is one of my favorites when I don't want any war, just a lot of sandbox activity. The graphics are a little rough, but it looks good on the screen of my tiny laptop.

A wonderful book and a great help when building zoo's and dealing with fussy animals (and humans!)

Now is they can come up with a book for Dino zoo (the expansion)
it would be a greater help!!

This guide is a must for all Zoo Tycoon owners.It's easy to follow and understand.I hope they come out with another guide for the expansion Dinosaur Digs.

Definately worth the money spent. There is a lot of useful information. However, Sybex needs to hurry and give us strategy guides for the expansion packs!

Good collecton of Eng-Rus-Eng dictionaries! RECOMMENDED!
My activity of a translator was hardly sped up. And I have counted, that a purchase of this CD Polyglossum save to me about 800 dollars on a purchase of the paper dictionaries.
Thank!

I have purchased this CD with Polyglossum-dictionaries two years back. Also is completely pleased with activity of the Polyglossum-2 dictionary.
Unexpectedly I have received from ETS Publishing House mail, in which one was writen that I can free download new version of the program - Polyglossum-3. I have downloaded from page of ETS Publishing House free update to version Polyglossum-3. This is really essential updating. A new principle of search of the words and simultaneous search under all dictionaries. Search both on headers of entries, and under all words in all dictionaries etc. At the expense of it quantity of the search words was increased approximately at 30 - 40 %. The program very correctly works with Windows XP. A thank for good user support. A thank to the Amazon.com employees for so useful contacts.

The largest set of ERE technical & science dictionaries. More 1 000 000 search, fantastical! Highly RECOMMEND! AAAAA+++++++++

Largest & modernest set of RusEngRus technical & science dictionaries, More 2.000.000 search words and pharses. Free update from Polglossum zShops to win XP and more 40 others download dictionaries . Delivery in real time. Lovest cost and high quality bu ETS Publishing House. AAAAAAAA+++++++++

2 years I use these the dictionary and practically I do not buy the paper dictionaries. Recently I find in Polyglossum zShop more new and updated dictionaries (40 or 50). Polyglossum-dictionary-shell update is free for dictionarie from the CD. Other dictionarie I have buy as registered user only for [$$$] Publishers priece. Delivery is trough Intenet - fast and comfortable . Very friendly ... Recdommend.

24 Victorian Display Fonts CD-ROM and Book (Dover Electronic Display Fonts Series)

A great collection of fonts that's easy to download to the Mac. I was impressed that there were no filler fonts (poorly designed fonts included in a collection to make it appear that you are getting a better deal). All were well designed. Some were classic and others very unique to a particular genre of Victorian Type. We were looking for a font that looked like it would be in a medical advertisement and one that looked like it would appear on the cover of a horror story. We found both on this disk and they look genuine on our poster.

A great resource for the cutting edge designer who want more choices in this currently fashionable font group (2006). Goes far beyond what is on either Mac or PC OS and reveals a treasure trove of standout designs.

Includes Arboret. That should be enough enticement if you're truly a font freak. Pages have maps/grids/graphics to show you what characters are actually there. Sometimes a few dingbats are incl. Some (many?) western European (non-English) characters are absent.

Hope there will be a second set of Victorian fonts from Dover.

These Victorian fonts were from a period of "anything goes" in type design and everyone will surely find some goodies here. Dan Solo had a huge collection of great old and new type faces. You'll find 24 of them here. Some, you might already have, and some are so nice that I believe if you find one gem here, it makes the price worthwhile. The fonts are in both Windows True Type and Macintosh formats. The pages have the complete alphabets and a character chart. Be sure to notice the "extra characters" that are offered in some fonts.

The Victorians were responsible for some really hideous, over-decorated typeface designs - but you won't find them in this book. This Dover collection of 24 fine examples from the 19th century include many elegant faces deserving of more exposure, together with lightly-ornamented designs which recapture the charm of a bygone age. This isn't a reference book you'll leave on the shelf. The 24 faces are supplied as good quality Postscript and TrueType faces on CD-Rom. All have been deftly restored to their full glory - there are no broken kerns and worn hairlines with these little gems. My guess is that you'll find a use for most of them within a few months of receiving your copy. A must for any designer's library and a typographer's dream.

If you will entering the world of virtual environments, 3D graphics and worlds, virtual reality and even augmented reality, this book will give you ALL the background information you need. It summarizes everything from software, hardware devices, interaction and everything that deals with the Third dimension.

The book present a very good perspective that how is walking the tecnology of 3DUI, and limits that are growing down versus time.

A fortnight ago, at the Siggraph 2004 convention in Los Angeles, Addison-Wesley had a booth with many of their graphics books. This book was garnering a fair amount of interest. Now that I've had a chance to read it, I can see why.

It is a lucid explanation of how to design three dimensional user interfaces. The authors summarise a vast body of work done in past decades. Plus, unlike perhaps some books that might focus on only US research, they show the global scope of the effort.

Being a text on 3D graphics, you might expect considerable maths. There is indeed some, including a brief description of quarternions. But the amount of maths is deliberately downplayed. Enough is used to impart a basic flavour in certain sections. However, the general tenor of the book is at a higher level of design.

Many serious issues remain unresolved. The book shows you what these are. Very helpful if you are in this field. Especially for newcomers.

If you are interested in knowing 3D UI, you should buy this book. It covers almost every technologies designed or developed in recent years. This book consists of about 13 chapters. In each chapter, it explained the different aspect of 3D UI interfaces following chronological patterns. So, if you want to follow or know technological paradigms, it can be one of useful books you should reference.

I hope nobody takes academic in the negative sense. This is fascinating book that provides an overview of all of the different hardware and software techniques in the 3D user interface world. And it does a very capable job of using a combination of images and text to describe the technologies. It's academic in two regards; first, it's written like a paper, and second that it has little in terms of practical implementation.

Frankly I doubt you could go far beyond the academic in an overview of a field that is this broad and this early in it's development. What this book does do is provide some real incentive to enthusiasts and developers to evaluate and combine these technologies. I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone who is in the field or has an interest in it.

I have bought a number of modelling books over the years and I find 3ds Max modelling for games a superb resource with step by step instructions that guide the reader from basic modelling to more advanced character and environment building.

I think this book is a good resource for both novice and professional, who may look back on the book to see different styles and methods of object creation.

I will be recommending the book to all my friends who wish to take their 3d models to the next level.

This book was exactly what I was looking for. I could'nt put it down.

Tutorial after tutorial of information relevant to today's industry.

There's everythig from creating and placing textures onto simple objects,

to the more advanced character tutorial which goes into fine detail.

Definatley worth the investment if you are interested in creating game

content.

It's Got my vote.

This book is probably your best bet at getting a job in the games industry.

It takes you through the basic stages of prepping up a scene right through to the interview stage -pretty much everything has been thought of.

While some may want to skip ahead of the first few chapters -don't! You'll learn a lot about techniques and workflow essential to the job.

Most books will give examples of how a program performs certain tasks and you will struggle to use those techniques as a common practice -not so here, as you will be tutored in industry proven techniques and principles.

If you believe you have the talent but need a focus, welcome to your first port of call. highly reccomneded.

I wrote this book as the definitinve guide to starting out modelling for the games industry.
The book shows you exactly what you need to do to start creating 3d models and textures to be used in todays commercial software titles.

Once you have a good grasp of basic modelling, I take you through texture creation and using photographs to create texture maps in Photoshop.

Once you have a good grasp of modelling and texture creation, the tutorials get progressively more advanced in simple to follow, step by step tutorials ending in some really complex character modelling and texture baking.

To end everything off, I take you through a nice environment modelling tutorial and give you a great professional approach to putting a portfolio together and how to conduct yourself in an interview.

This is the very best guide to getting into the games industry on the market, and is completely up to date with 3dsMax 2009 and next generation techniques.

As well as the book there are hundreds of refernce photos from a photoshoot in an abandoned mental hospital in England - more than enough to keep an artist of any ability busy for the next 6 months. As well as the photoshoot and lots of example models to copy and adapt, there is an acompanying website with new content, photoshoots and tutorials planned throughout the comming months.

highly recommended

I've played around with 3ds max for a few years but never really got to grips with it until now.

3ds Max Modelling for Games has taught me more in a month than every other book and DVD I've wasted my money on all together.

The book is extremely simple to begin with, taking you through modelling a box, step by step.

Now I thought that this was a joke initially until I realised that the tutorial was not about modelling a box, but about setting 3ds max up properly with automatic backups, units, scale and the core principles of mapping and unwrapping textures. It even shows how to get a great looking render out of the simplest of models - something I had struggled with in the past.



The book moves on teaching more complex modelling techniques, more complex mapping and even how to take your own photographs and turn them into great looking texture maps - I didn't expect a number of great Photoshop lessons in a 3ds Max book.



Again the tutorials get more complex and cover normal mapping, dirt maps, ambient occlusion, scratch maps, specular maps, and complex lighting and rendering.

But the best thing about the book is that all of the tutorials grow all fit together as pieces of the final finished scene which is an abandoned warehouse. The models, the vehicle, the character - everything all fits together to make a scene with lots of rendering advice to put a good portfolio together.



Finally the book ends with some of the best advice I've ever seen on putting a portfolio together and how to act in an interview.



I haven't been able to put this book down since I got hold of it and I'm now looking forward to the massive character modelling tutorial.



5 stars from me.



p.s. The book has an accompanying website with extra content promised too.

An excellent introduction to Word Perfect. Clear, concise and good range of topics.

This is a very simplistic way to learn this program, if you can read and follow directions, you will love this!

I found this book after I got a bought computer with WP and Quattro Pro on it. I love it! It's perfect for a newbie like me who wasn't even sure how to start the program. I was surprised to see how much information the book had about working with tables and graphics and setting up a mail merge. I even learned how to keep all my names and addresses in address books and then use them in a mail merge. I plan to create my own cards and holiday greeting letters and send them out to my friends and family with a mail merge.

I don't know much about spreadsheets, but since I got Quattro Pro for free, I thought I might learn how to use it for my family's budget. The book has three bonus chapters that got me up and running in no time. There is a great section in the book that explains where to go for more help. I found the newsgroups and a great place called WordPerfect Universe where I can go to ask questions when I get stuck.

The book is easy to read and there are lots of illustrations to help you follow along. I've gained a lot of confidence in just a few weeks. I highly recommend this book to new users who want to get up and running quickly, but who also want to learn how to use some of the "advanced" features.

I just came back to Word Perfect after my iMac died suddenly, and was intrigued with all the advances I'd missed. The WP tutorials and tips are very helpful, but still I had questions and needed more. Sometimes you just want to study the information from a good book, and this is that book. The author treats the reader with respect, knowing that some are just turning on the computer and others are more knowledgeable. The instructions are clear, logical and address "real life" uses. As a special bonus, the author writes well and has a good sense of humor. I feel as if I'm taking a kind of class with this book, and, believe it or not, it's fun!

When I bought a new computer recently, I was glad to see WordPerfect and Quattro Pro offered by the manufacturer for a change, but I hadn't used the programs since early versions for Windows. So, I picked up this book to get up to speed and I couldn't be more pleased.

Laura Acklen is a gifted teacher and writer. The book is well-organized, taking you through the process of getting things done, while introducing you to the incredible depth of WordPerfect - what a great word processor! Although geared to those new to WordPerfect, the book doesn't shy away from covering more advanced features, such as using graphics or templates, and goes beyond the "point here, click that" of many software books. The book is also fun without being silly.

I particularly appreciated the chapters covering Quattro Pro. They were just what I needed to get me going again with this great spreadsheet program. In two days, I was impressing our neighborhood group with tables and charts of neighborhood statistics.

I highly recommend this book to anyone new to WordPerfect and Quattro Pro or anyone, who like me, has come home to these programs with which I used to love to work. Cheers for Reveal Codes!

The 'Access Data Analysis Cookbook' is a fantastic resource manual for anyone that needs to use Access on a daily basis to get the information they crave. Jammed with over 100 'recipes', you will learn how to write queries, export/import data, generate statistics, build/work with strings, and better manage your data.

I love this book. I have used Access for many years and feel that anyone that has to work with this simple, effective database at your job should pick up this great book, I guarantee it will help you out and save loads of time!

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

I am not sure if this was the intention of the authors, but I find this book to be amazingly helpful given my set of circumstances: I am pretty skilled in Excel and very new to Access, and I want to use Access in the same way I use Excel, but with much larger quantities of data. Of all the Access books I have been referencing, this one is by far the most useful. It provides lots of information on SQL if you are interested, but I'm ignoring that for now and still the book is great at providing the answers I need. I suspect there are lots of people in my shoes (heavy Excel background, but little experience with Access) and so I want to let you know about this excellent reference. I hope it helps you as much as it is helping me!

To be more specific, if you are skilled at constructing formulas in Excel to convert and reformat and analyze data, and you have at least a rudimentary understanding of Access (I have attended a few 2-hour workshops and that's all), and you find yourself stumped in terms of how to do something in Access that would be easy for you to do in Excel, but you can't do it in Excel because you have millions of rows of data, then I'm guessing you will love this book.

This book is not about designing forms, primary keys, or the use of built-in wizards to make easy queries or reports. This book is about applying Access to real-world business problems. The book addresses how to query data, how to move data to and from Access in various ways, the calculation of different financial and investment terms, and other such problems. The reader of this book should already have some Access experience and thus know how to get around the Access user interface, know basic table structures and relations among them, and how to construct simple queries. As long as you know this much or more, the book should be quite useful to anyone interested in business solutions using Access to analyze the data that is involved. The book consists of a series of recipes that provide example queries, programming tips, and also some requisite math. The following is a summary of each chapter's contents. Each section of each chapter is actually a recipe consisting of a problem - the section title - and its solution(s).

1. Query Construction - A variety of query issues are addressed, including the use of the AND, OR, IN, and NOT operators; creating union queries; and understanding join types.
1.1. Finding Unmatched Records
1.2. Making AND and OR Do What You Expect
1.3. Working with Criteria Using the IN Operator
1.4. Excluding Records with the NOT Operator
1.5. Parameterizing a Query
1.6. Returning a Top or Bottom Number of Records
1.7. Returning Distinct Records
1.8. Returning Random Records
1.9. Fine-Tuning Data Filtering with Subqueries
1.10. Combining Data with Union Queries
1.11. Inserting On-the-Fly Fields in Select Queries
1.12. Using Aliases to Simplify Your SQL Statements
1.13. Creating a Left Join
1.14. Creating a Right Join
1.15. Creating an Outer Join

2. Calculating with Queries - More on using queries to find solutions to business problems. It demonstrates how to apply aggregate functions, custom functions, regular expressions, and crosstabs.
2.1. Finding the Sum or Average in a Set of Data
2.2. Finding the Number of Items per Group
2.3. Using Expressions in Queries
2.4. Using Custom Functions in Queries
2.5. Using Regular Expressions in Queries
2.6. Using a Cartesian Product to Return All Combinations of Data
2.7. Creating a Crosstab Query to View Complex Information

3. Action Queries - How to apply queries to perform activities such as inserting, updating, and deleting data.
3.1. Running an Update Query
3.2. Appending Data
3.3. Deleting Data
3.4. Creating Tables with Make-Table Queries

4. Managing Tables, Fields, Indexes, and Queries - Introduces how to programmatically create and manipulate tables and queries.
4.1. Creating Tables Programmatically
4.2. Altering the Structure of a Table
4.3. Creating and Using an Index
4.4. Programmatically Removing a Table
4.5. Programmatically Creating a Query

5. Working with String Data - Recipes on managing text-based data. Shows how to isolate parts of a string, how to remove spaces at any place in a string, and how to manipulate numbers stored as text.
5.1. Returning Characters from the Left or Right Side of a String
5.2. Returning Characters from the Middle of a String When the Start Position and Length Are Known
5.3. Returning the Start Position of a Substring When the Characters Are Known
5.4. Stripping Spaces from the Ends of a String
5.5. Stripping Spaces from the Middle of a String
5.6. Replacing One String with Another String
5.7. Concatenating Data
5.8. Sorting Numbers That Are Stored as Text
5.9. Categorizing Characters with ASCII Codes

6. Using Programming to Manipulate Data - How to use arrays, access the Windows Registry, encrypt data, and use transaction processing. Also covered are search methods, charts, and manipulating data relationships.
6.1. Using Excel Functions from Access
6.2. Working with In-Memory Data
6.3. Working with Multidimensional Arrays
6.4. Sorting an Array
6.5. Flattening Data
6.6. Expanding Data
6.7. Encrypting Data
6.8. Applying Proximate Matching
6.9. Using Transaction Processing
6.10. Reading from and Writing to the Windows Registry
6.11. Creating Charts
6.12. Scraping Web HTML
6.13. Creating Custom Report Formatting
6.14. Rounding Values
6.15. Running Word Mail Merges
6.16. Building a Multifaceted Query Selection Screen

7. Importing and Exporting Data - Different ways of moving data into and out of Access. Covers import/ export specifications, using the FileSystemObject, XML with XSLT, and communicating with SQL Server. Exchanging data with other applications in the Office suite is also covered. Also covers how to create an RSS feed.
7.1. Creating an Import/Export Specification
7.2. Automating Imports and Exports
7.3. Exporting Data with the FileSystemObject
7.4. Importing Data with the FileSystemObject
7.5. Importing and Exporting Using XML
7.6. Generating XML Schemas
7.7. Using XSLT on Import or Export
7.8. Working with XML via the MSXML Parser
7.9. Reading and Writing XML Attributes
7.10. Creating an RSS Feed
7.11. Passing Parameters to SQL Server
7.12. Handling Returned Values from SQL Server Stored Procedures
7.13. Working with SQL Server Data Types
7.14. Handling Embedded Quotation Marks
7.15. Importing Appointments from the Outlook Calendar
7.16. Importing Emails from Outlook
7.17. Working with Outlook Contacts
7.18. Importing Data from Excel
7.19. Exporting Data to Excel
7.20. Talking to PowerPoint
7.21. Selecting Random Data

8. Date and Time Calculations - How to add time, count elapsed time, work with leap years, and manage time zones in your calculations.
8.1. Counting Elapsed Time
8.2. Counting Elapsed Time with Exceptions
8.3. Working with Time Zones
8.4. Working Around Leap Years
8.5. Isolating the Day, Month, or Year
8.6. Isolating the Hour, Minute, or Second
8.7. Adding Time

9. Business and Finance Problems - Ways of calculating depreciation, loan paybacks, and return on investment are introduced, and investment concerns such as moving averages, Head and Shoulders patterns, Bollinger Bands, and trend calculations are discussed. One recipe explains how latitude and longitude are used to determine distances between geographical areas.
9.1. Calculating Weighted Averages
9.2. Calculating a Moving Average
9.3. Calculating Payback Period
9.4. Calculating Return on Investment
9.5. Calculating Straight-Line Depreciation
9.6. Creating a Loan Payment Schedule
9.7. Using PivotTables and PivotCharts
9.8. Creating PivotTables
9.9. Charting Data
9.10. Finding Trends
9.11. Finding Head and Shoulders Patterns
9.12. Working with Bollinger Bands
9.13. Calculating Distance Between Zip Codes

Chapter 10. Statistics - The most math intensive of the chapters, it discusses statistical techniques such as frequency, variance, kurtosis, linear regression, combinations, and permutations. All the recipes here have great value in data analysis.
10.1. Creating a Histogram
10.2. Finding and Comparing the Mean, Mode, and Median
10.3. Calculating the Variance in a Set of Data
10.4. Finding the Covariance of Two Data Sets
10.5. Finding the Correlation of Two Sets of Data
10.6. Returning All Permutations in a Set of Data
10.7. Returning All Combinations in a Set of Data
10.8. Calculating the Frequency of a Value in a Set of Data
10.9. Generating Growth Rates
10.10. Determining the Probability Mass Function for a Set of Data
10.11. Computing the Kurtosis to Understand the Peakedness or Flatness of a Probability Mass Distribution
10.12. Determining the Skew of a Set of Data
10.13. Returning a Range of Data by Percentile
10.14. Determining the Rank of a Data Item
10.15. Determining the Slope and the Intercept of a Linear Regression
10.16. Measuring Volatility

One final word of advise is to purchase "Head First SQL" or some other good book on SQL if you don't already feel proficient. Although the book briefly explains each query it shows, I don't think the explanation is sufficient unless you see the stuff every day. A good thing about the book is that it shows screenshots of the application in just about every recipe and usually gives directions in clear numbered steps.

This book is compatible for Access 2007 and 2003(title of book doesn't let you know that), what it does is answer questions that the author poses. Many of these scenarios are relevant. I have never bought an o'reilly cookbook previously, but this book is very refreshing especially when you look at the current books out there. This book isn't for new people, this book is for people who want real solutions to the problems that they might face. If your looking for a first book to get a real grasp of access, get Access 2007 Inside and Out, if your someone who has read a book or two, or has some experience but still runs into hurdles in data manipulation, get this book.

Any involved in database management in general and Access in particular will want the ACCESS DATA ANALYSIS COOKBOOK, a survey which shows how to solve common problems of extracting data and performing calculations from large databases. From developing better queries and applying them to inserting, updating and deleting data to managing text-based data and using arrays, this offers a wealth of high-level technical Access information perfect for managers who already have the basics down.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

When I was in school, flash cards were the best way to learn and I always made my own. The exambusters cards cover many of my daughter's courses and I bought her several. Sometimes we work together and she and her friends study in a group too--making a trivia game. Try the software. The screensaver function is great!! In our house, we love to learn new languages. The program flashes words or phrases and then translation every few seconds. The material goes into your brain by osmosis and the constantly changing cards on the screen keep pulling you back to read more. The software is much easier to figure out than some other brands we've purchased. It's intuitive; you don't need to read a lot of confusing instructions. All in all, good investment.

In junior high, my son got a head start on high school courses and that helped him get better grades. He used both cards and CD. My son liked the software, so he studied more than he would have from a book. Learning is hard work, but the exambusters made him feel like it's not quite so bad. The software is well-laid out, colorful, and user-friendly. The messages they give when they score the tests are amusing.

I bought several courses. The cards offer basic concepts in small bites. The information was relevant to what was presented by my teacher. The cards and CD's gave good review before exams and a head start at the start of the new school year. The cards had a lot of questions; you can carry them in your pocket and learn a few each day. The software was easy to use. It is like the cards but on the screen. You can take a test or just review. Front is question, click for answer on back of card. The software can also show the cards on the screen at random, first the question, then the answer. They change every few seconds. That keeps you reading and wondering what's coming up next. It's entertaining while you're studying.

Every year I recommend them to my students. The ones who buy them seem to do a little better than they might have. The cards are numbered, so it's easy to tell them which ones they need to know, and which they can set aside based on the curriculum. It's harder to accomplish that type of culling of information with a review book you'd buy at the superstore.

I bought the cards for students I tutor for SAT/ACT/GED. I have them memorize the cards first. Otherwise, I'd have to dictate a vocabulary and formula list to each of them and that wastes time better spent on solving problems together and discussing concepts.

I've tried several courses: math, science, history and language. My kids especially love the Sign Language cards! I purchased all three card sets and the CD-software. The photographs are more realistic than drawings which you mostly find in ASL products. Great for younger kids too. My daughter's using them in her Brownie troupe and my three-year-old has picked up on some of the alphabet and numbers already. My older son has some mild learning disabilities and looking at a page in a book with so much information all together makes him nervous. I put one card at a time on a cleared table. It helps him focus and that gives him more confidence. People have been making or using flash cards forever, and I think they always will be no matter how fancy computers and software gets (but the Exambusters software is good too). I've recommended them to others.

When I was in school, flash cards were the best way to learn and I always made my own. The exambusters cards cover many of my daughter's courses and I bought her several. Sometimes we work together and she and her friends study in a group too--making a trivia game. Try the software. The screensaver function is great!! In our house, we love to learn new languages. The program flashes words or phrases and then translation every few seconds. The material goes into your brain by osmosis and the constantly changing cards on the screen keep pulling you back to read more. The software is much easier to figure out than some other brands we've purchased. It's intuitive; you don't need to read a lot of confusing instructions. All in all, good investment.

In junior high, my son got a head start on high school courses and that helped him get better grades. He used both cards and CD. My son liked the software, so he studied more than he would have from a book. Learning is hard work, but the exambusters made him feel like it's not quite so bad. The software is well-laid out, colorful, and user-friendly. The messages they give when they score the tests are amusing.

I bought several courses. The cards offer basic concepts in small bites. The information was relevant to what was presented by my teacher. The cards and CD's gave good review before exams and a head start at the start of the new school year. The cards had a lot of questions; you can carry them in your pocket and learn a few each day. The software was easy to use. It is like the cards but on the screen. You can take a test or just review. Front is question, click for answer on back of card. The software can also show the cards on the screen at random, first the question, then the answer. They change every few seconds. That keeps you reading and wondering what's coming up next. It's entertaining while you're studying.

Every year I recommend them to my students. The ones who buy them seem to do a little better than they might have. The cards are numbered, so it's easy to tell them which ones they need to know, and which they can set aside based on the curriculum. It's harder to accomplish that type of culling of information with a review book you'd buy at the superstore.

Many years ago I needed to learn ASP/ADO. I saw a lot of learning in front of me. But I was thrilled to find this book. It gave me the simple, clear explanations I needed to get rolling with ADO in short order. It's still one I keep handy, even thought I now use this technology to make my living. I have several big/thick ADO books, but this one is a quick reference that I still turn to often, as well as highly recommend to ADO (database connectivity) newbies for both web and Microsoft Office linking.

An excellent reference for the novise to advanced programmer. If you need a good overview of how to connect to a SQL Server or Access DB using VB, then you have got to get this book!

This was a very good book but it was not perfect. The code contained some coding errors, but what was worst was that I could not establish an internet connection to Rob's SQL server. Due to the connection problem I could not run those examples, which comprised about a third of the book. I e-mailed Rob, but Rob apparently is too good for his readers to reply back to. I would have given the book 5 stars if it weren't for these problems. The book certainly was not for beginners as it rightly claims. I actually had to read it twice. Any coding errors I was able to solve with some work. The book does offer a lot to learn though.

I bought this book looking for an introduction to ADO and DB programming in general with no prior ADO experience. I read the first 4 chapters for an introduction, and I have used the rest of the book for information on how to complete specific tasks. I have successfully created ADO applications using VB, Access, and ASP, using this book and online help as references. This is probably not the most complete book available for ADO programming, but if you have not used ADO in the past, you will not find a better introduction than this book!

This book is genuinely about ADO Programming without self promotion. Rob starts his book with the basic elements that lead up to ADO technology and steps up to very sophisticated programming procedures/techniques using ADO with Sql Server, MS Access 2000, Excel 2000, ASP and the Web in a very efficient and easy to understand manner. Of the features which set this book apart from others are the numerous runtime examples on Rob's website of procedures using ADO within VB/ASP scripts, and also the companion cd which includes all the of the programming code for each of the ADO examples on the website and all of the examples in the book. The information contained in this book has significantly enhanced my understanding of and coding abilities with ADO in a very short period of time, particularly in the web environment. I would highly recommend this book to any serious developer of data processing applications using ADO technology; especially for web applications.