Software Books

I've been a Database guy for some 12 year now since graduating. I've worked on numerous large projects involving complex database problems. This book is THE most well read, THE most frequently referenced book in my collection. It's well written and is THE best learning + refresher guide out there.

the book will teach basic Oracle things and clear the misconcepts, myths and mis understanding prevailing amongst numerous Oracle users.
I am still to finish this book fully, but so far I am so enlightened by reading the first 3 topics of the book.
I recommend to all who are related to Oracle Database to go through this book, which would be very very helpful in understanding the Oracle Database. Also, it would make Oracle a fun to work with instead of huge and cumbersome tool which is the picture in majority of people's mind.

Tom has done a great job at busting several myths related to performance tuning, SQL, Architechture etc..

I think the entire book can be summarized in 4 words "Dont think just benchmark!"

This book delivers the clear insight before delving into intricate details on a good selection of topics that are critical to those concerned with deigning and implementating high performance database solutions.

My only wish is that this book covered more ground, especially on newer or perhaps peripheral topics such as RAC, ASM, XMLDB, OCI/OCCI, DataGuard and so on.. but maybe that's asking too much from one book.

Classic Tom Kyte. Get it on your bookshelf today if you implement or support Oracle database solutions for a living.

I've been an Oracle developer for 12 years, and this is the best book on Oracle that I've read. No waffle, well laid out and it's packed with information and relevant examples. I found it extremely useful for a complex piece of work I was doing recently - it paid for itself several times over. 5 stars !

I have the book for almost two years and use it
quite often. Devraj explains not only database, but the whole system. It is crucial for any good DBA to understands systems and software architecture. This book explains it all. Great explanation about mirroring. The best book on Oracle Database ever.

This is an excellent book and I learned a lot. The only problem of this book is the papers continue drop down after I read it for three month. I have to say the writer and knowledge are excellent, but manufacture bound quality of this book is low.

I haven't been a DBA for very long and although this book has everything in it explained very well, I'm not sure that I would recommend it for beginners. Beginners need more detail, which understandbly you can't fit into any one book. But this is definetely excellent as reference material to start you off in the right direction. I wouldn't dare do standby without it!

While this comprehensive book is a definitive and complete reference for Oracle DBAs who need to support mission-critical databases, it is also a key reference for developing a comprehensive high-availability posture in Oracle-centric enterprises.

This book focuses on making Oracle highly available and resilient, but also touches on related aspects, such as hardware, operating systems and networks. What I particularly liked is the way the book begins, with an exceptionally well-written chapter on identifying your uptime requirements. All of the material here applies to availability and reliability of enterprise-wide systems, not just Oracle. In fact, Parts I and II of this book should be read by anyone who is responsible for implementing and managing a 24x7 enterprise regardless of whether they are a DBA because the information in the first two parts of this eight-part book will have the whole team (SAs, DBAs, network analysts and service delivery/support staff) using a common framework.

The remaining six parts span chapters 7 through 20 and are specific to Oracle. There is an overwhelming amount of information here. What makes getting through these chapters so hard is the fact that nearly every page has some important tip, fact or technique. The sheer number of these, all of which are important, will consume two or three highlighters before you get to the end of the book

Overall, this book is essential for Oracle DBAs, and deserves a place in the library of every architect and operations manager in large 24x7 enterprises that use Oracle .

This is the only book I've read that refers to multiplexing and mirring the control file in words you can actually understand! I now understand the impact of both techniques, and I can make a quick decision on how best to use the features. You'll want this book after being exposed to all the other material on Oracle, because then you can appreciate the subject matter. There tends to be a "confusion zone" surrounding Oracle learning because the Oracle database tends to be so over-engineered in some areas. I'm sure the information in this book will apply to version 9i as well. Good job on what I've read so far.

I can't recommend this book highly enough. There is a wealth of advice on best practice for both Excel and VBA, which has not only prompted me to change the way I design new projects, but to revise old projects also. There are also a huge number of examples, including an application developed throughout the course of the book, which demonstrate applications for all the techniques discussed. Definitely not for the beginner, but there's loads of stuff here for intermediate to advanced developers. I think I'll be using this as a desktop reference for a long time to come...

This book of advanced Excel development was recommended to me by a co-worker whose project I inherited that used the concepts in the book based on the "Petras Template" example. It's classy and polished VBA programming and sure, you can brag about the concepts to the techies interviewing you during your next job hunt.

But, be careful.

The book introduces us to the concept of add-ins and templates. So, there you are showing off your project to your manager or users. But, what do they click on? The add-in or the template? What are all those true/false cells over there? How can the user save the workbook? What heppens if you forget to hide the columns that use cell logic. Hmmm. These questions and others will be asked of your typically non-technical users who have NO idea what goes on behind the scenes. If they open up the template and screw around with the code or re-name the add-in, you'll have chaos.

To be fair, there's tons of advanced concepts to learn here and no doubt you'll benefit from them. But, remember, as a developer, your first goal is to produce a robust application. However, you may have click a couple of functions to get all tabs in your template to show. If you don't do that, you can't see them! Oh, and don't forget to save your add-in.xla or all your changes won't take effect.

Not for beginners or dummies, but for VERY careful developers!

This is a great book for power programmers. But be aware, this book is not for those who want to learn Excel. It's just for those who know Excel and want to imrove their programming capabilities.

When picking up this book, I was an advanced Excel user. Having discovered most of its features by trial-and-error, and coming from a fairly solid programming background, I understood well the interaction between the underlying object model and the sheets appearing on the screen to end users. I have also crafted many sophisticated worksheet formulas, and explored just about every suggestion of literature such as "Excel Hacks" and "Advanced Excel Report Development".

Professional Excel Development offers ideas and tools necessary for designing full-fledged, robust Excel-based applications. It does not spend time explaining how various features work, but rather goes into detail on how to put these features to best use.

Here is what I picked up from this book, together with the authors' Excel 2003 VBA reference:
* ways to leverage Excel's built-in features to avoid excessive coding
* advanced design techniques for using Excel as a WYSIWYG interface designer
* techniques for creating custom menu bars and programming their behavior
* various means of interacting with the user and simplifying their sessions by providing guidance as to which steps need to be taken
* restricting the Excel environment to take on the appearance of a product condusive of the goal stated in previous bullet
* using VBA in conjunction with the Excel object model to create powerful object-oriented structures for spreadsheet-based applications
* programming Excel-based solutions in an executable to provide a more standalone application
* using Windows API calls to increase robustness of the application

One key feature of this book is its consistent approach. The authors maintain a consistent structure, using the same application throughout the book for their "practical example" to demonstrate new features made available through the material in each chapter. Also, the "best practices" approach provides a level of consistency that is generally desired of anywhat sophisticated applications. Useable modules are provided on the accompanying CD, ready to be used in readers' own applications.

In the beginning, the authors explain the audiences for which this book may or may not be intended. They separate these into users, power users, VBA developers, Excel developers, and professional developers. The latter three categories of users will benefit the most from this book, each in his/her own way. VBA developers will learn how to use built-in features (I think this is where I started); Excel developers will learn how to incorporate Excel-based solutions into larger applications; Professional developers will be exposed to a great variety of "best practices", optimization techniques, and various other means for developing consistency in Excel applications.

If you do not fall into the latter three categories, you might not pick up much from this book. It is not useless to you, however; you can still find many worksheet/userform design techniques, and get an introduction to the kind of power VBA-based programming can offer. Nonetheless, you may be well-advised to start off with something simpler, such as John Walkenbach's Excel Power Programming (as alluded to by the authors of this book), simply because the present book assumes a good degree of knowledge and leaves much for the reader to figure out from the fully-functional examples provided - thereby covering the ground that it does.

Overall, this book makes for a wonderful reference to the various under-the-hood features of Excel. Even if you've already encountered many of the techniques described, and could technically discover them further on your own, it is useful to have them readily available in a single collection. Very few items are left out; application design, object-oriented programming techniques, database applications, debugging techniques, Office automation, and external interop are all covered here. Professional Excel Development is a solid reference to be consulted for years to come.

When you search the web and most of the books around, you can find solution to your problems most of the time, but you are rarely sure it was the best way to do it and how it would fit to the rest of your code. The authors of this book are not afraid to tell what they suppose to be the best for you, along with full featured versions of code illustrating each chapter.

I found it easy to take the code from a sufficiently leveled chapter and adapt it to get just the application that I needed, knowing it would be fast, clean and complete at the same time, although I didn't understand all the details at first. Now, the book serves as a widely findable documentation for the packages that I make. Highly recommendable.

This guide is the definitive guide to advantage. No where else on the planet can you get the information detailed in this book.
If you use advantage, you must have this book!

I was a beginner at database usage, but I was able to pick up the nuances of ADS through the use of this book. It is my main source of reference for questions concerning ADS, and has helped solve many of my problems. ADS is a great resource, and this book is the ultimate companion.

Our company (Hudson Medical Systems) has been using the Advantage Database Server in our medical transcription and dictation products for over 3 years now and we could not be more satisfied with its ease-of-use, performance, and cost. I was pleased to see a new book devoted to this remarkable product that explains the unique features of ADS in such a logical and straight-forward manner. We especially liked the dicussion of the new features in version 7.0 that we are interested in. I would recommend this book to any database developer, regardless of their familiarity with ADS, as a great resource when developing applications.

We have been making Point Of Sale Applications since the DOS days and have been through several databases over the time. Advantage Database Server has performed far beyond than we ever expected from any Database Server Software. Programming in Delphi, we found the Advantage Database Server to be the most flexible and powerful Database Server and still reasonable priced. I wish we had have this book from the start. We have used Advantage Database Server for over three years and we have learned a lot by reading this book. You, definetly, need this book if you are looking for a new database server or you are already using Advantage Database Server. You don't want to miss out on this book!!!

Whether you're upgrading a BDE app to a client server database or developing a new single-user or scaleable multi-user app, Advantage Database should be at the top of your list of databases to consider. Native Delphi VCL components, ISAM file formats, free local server, easy installation and maintenance-free design make designing and deploying ADS apps a snap.

Now with "Advantage Database Server: The Official Guide", Cary Jensen and Loy Anderson have made life even easier. Although the Advantage help file documentation makes an excellent reference, it's no substitute for Jensen and Anderson's step-by-step guide to creating an Advantage database, connecting your app to it and deploying your end product.

If you've attended one of Cary Jensen's excellent Advantage Workshop seminars you'll recognize that this intuitive, and easy to read book is based on his well developed course book. If you haven't yet had the benefit of Cary Jensen's Advantage Workshop, you probably won't need it after reading "Advantage Database Server: The Official Guide"!

Whether you're an Advantage expert or rookie this book's a keeper as both an introduction and a reference. If you're looking for a low cost, maintenance free, high performance, scaleable database that you can learn to use and deploy in a day, this book and the included companion CD contain everything you need to get started.

Buy this book. Enough said. Doesn't get any easier.

While confirming many of my already developed ColdFusion skills, this amazing book tough me a few new techniques that have brought me to the next level. An excellent book!

I have been programming in Coldfusion for over a year now but with this book, I've discovered more techniques in creating an efficient code.

Although I haven't taken the exam yet, I'm pretty sure that what I've learned would be a great help in passing it.

Once again the pen of Ben comes produces a gem! This book is the perfect capstone to any introductory level book for developers that not only want to study for the Cold Fusion certification exam but take their knowledge of Cold Fusion to the next level. This 378 page tomb has more higher level tips and tricks than his equally well written 1000 page+ giants. Several tips and tricks have saved me hours of time and helped me produce better code. Now all that I need to do is pass the exam and I am sure that this book will indeed do the trick. Keep em' coming Ben...

I have been working exclusively in cold fusion for a bit over 1yr. Just when I thought I knew everything there is to know to pass the CF certification test, reading this book was a humbling experience -- I learned something new in every chapter.

This book was a quick read, it took about 20 hrs +/- to complete all 38 chapters. By the time I was done with this book, it only took me 25 minutes to complete the 60 questions (90min) exam. Best of all, quite a few of the questions on the exam came straight from the book.

The only flaw, if that's what it is, is that it was written with CF 4.5 in mind -- Did not cover things such as CFFLUSH, CFGRAPH, and other new tags.

Even if you think you know all there is to know, you can still learn a few things from this book. It's a MUST GET!!

(An earlier review may also appear after trying to merge and update an older acct with a new acct.) ...I picked this volume up at TechEd 2001. It maintains its relevancy four years later. The competition between related books brought the race down to "McGraw-Hill's Encyclopedia of Networking & Telecommunications" winning by one length over the "Microsoft Encyclopedia of Networking".
Tom Sheldon provided the most well-grounded and well-rounded information to fulfill the title of an "encyclopedia of networking" compared to Mitch Tulloch's very good but more Microsofted (I think microsoft as a verb can now come into play) approach to the subject and its fields.
Sheldon's book contains a greater variety of entries and their corresponding information (i.e. terms/acronyms like "NSA" & "PKI") instead of a namebrand focused presentation. I would like to see a "Special Characters" index category like Tulloch's book has, but this is not as necessary when using the search capability of the book's CD edition (which is included and loaded with hyperlinks to outside information sources).
I highly recommend Tom Sheldon's book. It's user-friendly layout and design are easy on the eyes, and I'm glad to have it at my desk (when I'm able to return it there after tracking down who last borrowed it).

I stumbled accross the old 2nd edition in our library and a day later I was in awe of Mr Sheldons fantatistic book. Unlike most networking books their is no waffle in this one. His style of writing disects networking information into logical digestible chunks. The second edition can be downloaded from his site but I recommend you getting your hands on the latest edition if possile because it is more upto date and has lots of new additions. This book is a one stop shop for everything you need to know about networking and a priceless resource for any networking student.

Firstly I'd like to say...Thanks Tom, for helping to keep me in a job! Up until recently I worked as a Network Administrator in Sydney and believe me, your books saved my bacon on more than a few occasions! I first received the electronic edition of the Encyclopedia of Networking whilst studying Computer Technology and e-business in Sydney. The encyclopedia was included as part of the overall course and many references were made in the college's learning guides to certain chapters when more detailed information was necessary on a particular topic. I'm currently involved in the area of Multimedia and Telecommunications and recently obtained a copy of the latest edition, The Encyclopedia of Networking and Telecommunications and am amazed at how much extra and updated information has been included. I keep the book close by at all times and find myself referring to it quite regularly. I could now honestly say that it's become my IT bible! It covers all aspects of networking, the Internet, Electronic Communication, topologies, protocols, security and various configurations in absolute and thorough detail. The encyclopedia also comes with a CD that can be loaded onto your computer as a PDF file and the search facility works brilliantly. I must say that if anyone is involved in, or wants to know anything about Networking and Telecommunications this book is an absolute must! Personally, I can't see how I could do my job without it. Thanks a million Tom! ...John Botica

Tom Sheldon can capture the core of a hard to read, multi-hundred page networking book in less than a couple of pages. Crystal clear definitions, well structured text and diagrams, plus excellent cross-references make his "Encyclopedia of Networking" a huge time saver for any networking professional. Manuel Vexler, Certified Network Engineer

I work for an ISP in the Upstate NY area in 2nd level Internet support. I have found this book to be a very handy and comprehensive reference on Networking technologies. We are also an ILEC and I am impressed with how well this reference covers terms or acronyms that I am unfamiliar with when dealing with this side of the business. Great job Tom! Keep up the good work.

I recently acquired my Network+ certification thanks to this book. It's very well written and does a good job explaining just about everything you need to know.

My only qualm is that Token Ring coverage is a bit light as I was very surprised to find a lot of questions about Token Ring on the exam. While I had enough knowledge to get through most of them, there were some that the book did not cover in this particular topic. You probably won't need another resource for it, just be sure not to underestimate token ring when you take the exam.

Finally, be sure to take the test at the end of the book. This is probably the closest test of the bunch (CD exams with $50 upgrade and all) to assess your ability to pass the exam.

I just got back from taking the exam and got a 833/900 which yeilds a 92%! I was on a timed deadline for the exam as my voucher was about to expire. I read this book front and back and feel Ive gotten the grade because I did.

The best part of this book was the last 72 test questions it gave. I did these right before I had the exam and they did a great job preparing me for what I was about to see.

Get this book!

Passed the Network + exam, this is the only book you will need. Make sure you read the book front to back, I read it twice.

I'll get right to it and list the good and bad about this book:

Strengths
1. The book is an excellent exam prep tool, it is organized and laid out with great focus on fulfilling the exam objectives and ensuring the reader is well-prepared. Includes some handy exam tips on the types of questions which you can expect in the exam.
2. It has a very useful "Fast Facts" section at the back which summarizes a lot of useful information concisely, good resource for revising for the exam and for memorizing facts.
3. Has a very good section devoted entirely to TCP/IP.
4. Includes better-than-average testing software which has harder questions.

Weaknesses
1. Considering this is not an 'introduction to networking' book, this may not be a big deal, but this book is definitely not a book for beginners, some background in IT and networking is required to make full use of this book. Many times a new term or abbreviation is used without prior explanation of what it means.
2. Although it was published in 2002, I found some of the information in the book a little outdated. For example I found the OS section to cover a bit too much on the older Windows 98/Me than I like. This maybe a reflection of the fact that the exam covers these 'older' OS too, but I'd like it if it has a more current feel. Also some of the hardware recommendations given in the book feels like it was made back in 1999!

All in all, an excellent tool to help you pass your Network+ exam. I know it helped me :)

Excellent, excellent book. This was my main study material for the Net+ exam and it didn't fail me. Like another review noted, read the Fast Facts! Memorize them, get a solid understanding of various environments with different OSs, and know how to troubleshoot networks (hands-on helps if you are new to this).

Definitely easy if you already started down the road of CompTIA certifications.

This book literally launched my CG animation career. I later took a class in CG animation and modeling and the tutorials in this book were in that class. Its was an excellent class, since it helped you learn the book's content is covered in 3 weeks instead of 2-3 months of night time after work animation. But this book is $30 not $2k.
What a great book. It does assume you know the basics, so learn the basics first and then dive in head first.

not even worth giving it up to my dog to chew on.

I have read several books about 3D Max but I consider this book one of the best books ! and I have learnt a lot from it ...If you want to make professional media animations logos you have to own one !

I have read several books about 3D Max but I consider this book one of the best books ! and I have learnt a lot from it ...If you want to make professional media animations logos you have to own one !

Finally a book that merges great tutorial writing and impressive content. Going through this book, I was intrigued with every sentence. Not only did I want to read what Chismar had to say but I would learn things at random times. New techniques and tricks sprawl throughout this book, were at times I even felt a little guilty getting all this info for just a few bucks. Don't keep us waiting too long for the next one, John.

Even if I'm not working in vfx, so I haven't a great experience, I think this book should be in every comps shelf: very simple, well written, it deals with the math under every (even the simplest) operation you can do in your compositing package (it's quite software-indipendent). It explains several wonderful tricks too.
Globally, very useful in my opinion.

Ron goes over the very concepts of compositing that are essential to know in the computer graphics feild. I have bought several copies of this book as the disappear from my desk (no longer kept in public view)

This book is exceptional and a must for anyone pursuing this area of interest. The only disappointment I had in purchasing this item is that it is supposed to come with a CD, and the CD was never shipped to me. What's up, Amazon?

That can I say about Mr Brinkman. Well he's one of the God's of compositing and VFX. Mad about the math behind Node based compositing software, which incidentally is a good thing. This is not meant to be a 'Shake' bible as it is supposed to be non software specific. However it uses 'Shake' language and node naming. This is not a criticism as 'Shake' is the meccano kit of compositing. Understand the mode and the math behind it and you can do anything. I would also assume that this will still be relevant when shake is 'reborn'.

This is also essential for other composing software where the math is hidden. If you've ever considered what happens inside that 'magic button' after you've clicked.

I also think that Steve Wright's 'Digital Compositing for Film and Video, Second Edition' is a must too. Another great book from a great man of VFX.

Having not been personally taught by Mr. Brinkman and Mr Wright these books prove to be the next best thing.

This book is a in depth study of the techniques and technologies involved in the art of compositing. Not sooo technical that no one will understand it, but technical enough that it even explains in detail the algorithms and math used for antialiasing, blurs, the transfer operators like multiply, screen overlay., etc... I am a professional cg artist and highly recommend this book.

I have been learning ColdFusion for about 5 months now and have 4 books on it. So far I have this one and 3 others. And out of all the books I have on ColdFusion, I use this one and one other one the most. Even though it is written in ColdFusion MX, it still has a lot of good ColdFusion examples and descriptions on how to make some of the most popular applications. Great book if your looking for a book that is a little cheaper and still has a lot of great info. If your looking for the new breakthrough features of CF8, than mabye you should try somewhere else. But overall, a great book for the price!!

This book is the best Cold Fusion book to date. I use this book daily. The book contains clear examples without a lot of fluff. Can't wait until the next release.

Everithing you need to good programming in ColdFusion. Not to useful if you're interested in Server Configuration.

The only quibble I have with this book is that it is not long enough! Some parts just paraphrase ColdFusion documentation, which is not bad in itself but left me wanting to know more from the author about how he applied the feature to a project.

It would be phenomenal if the author could expand this book or, better yet, put together a new book of more extended examples called "ColdFusion Examples in a Nutshell," similar to "Java Examples in a Nutshell" by David Flanagan.

Having said that, I can now state that this book is a shining example of what a programming book is supposed to be:
(1) Well-Organized. Chapters are grouped logically.
(2) Well-Documented. Almost every topic has at least one example; a few have a complete set of templates to guide the beginning CF (ColdFusion) programmer.
(3) Well-Balanced. In addition to instructive code, the author also provides many in-depth explanations of ColdFusion and database principles.

About six months ago the company I work for recently moved to Coldfusion 5 server (holding off on CFMX until all the bugs are worked out) and since that time, application programming duties have been dumped on me. As a web designer and not a programmer, this was a more than a little worrisome. After trying to wade through Forta's Construction Kit, Hewitt's Core Coldfusion 5, as well as "Mastering Coldfusion 5" it was as if the light was turned on by Rob Brooks-Bilson's Programming Coldfusion.

By the by, those books mentioned are all great books. I own all of them. But when it came down to what I really needed to know and understand Bilson came through like no other. Great job Rob! Keep up the good work.