Personal Pages Books

This has to be the worst computer book I have ever read. It is very confusing, badly explained and full of mistakes.

It starts off with an overview of the .NET architecture which is totally meaningless. Nothing is explained, jargon is thrown about without clarification and there are some obscure diagrams which are not explained and don't mean anything.

The book is supposedly aimed at Classic ASP programmers (amongst others), yet spends a very dull chapter giving an overview of ASP.NET, without bothering to point out that almost everything explained is EXACTLY the same as Classic ASP.

The chapters on controls are really badly explained. He doesn't bother telling you what's going on, just gives some code (which is as full of mistakes as the text) and doesn't explain most of it. He throws in new controls and code without saying why or what it does.

Most of the text is self-contradictory and confusing. It swings from stunningly basic explanations of simple concepts to complex ideas that just aren't clarified. You are elft in total confusion.

The book is supposed to have a companion web site, but it doesn't exist.

In short, this book is not worth receiving as a present, never mind paying good money for. Given the normally high standards of Que's books, I can't imagine how they allowed this one to be published, especially with so many errors in it.

Don't buy it. Don't even steal it, it's that bad.

I would mirror the concerns of many reviewers above. Code samples contain frequent errors, including this gem:

void page_load(Object Sender, EventArgs e)
{
Dim myDataSet as DataSet;

... switching between language mid code-segment is obviously incorrect - and demonstrates to me that the author hasn't bothered to test the code he's written. This suspicion is further evidenced by his habit of leaving out crucial lines such as includes in other code segments.

Add this to his amusingly frustrating behaviour of referring to important concepts in an introduction to a section then never elaborating, I can't help but think this entire book is some sick joke written out of some sort of psychosis he developed as a child.

It says in the introduction the author lectures - I pity his students.

That this book was written in beta is very unfortunate indeed. That it has gone this long without an update is tragic. And that the publisher will not accept a trade-up for a more recent book is downright dirty.

The book is not worth its price. There is no CD and the book is laden with beta code that often times does not give the beginner the slightest hint as to what to try to make it work.

Yet this piece of work has its qualities. Not able to get anything to work past page 150, I put the book down and began reading two other books on .NET. At a certain point, the .NET light clicked on in my head. And now, a year later, I've returned to this book to find many valuable gems that my other books never mention.

This book is best suited for the intermediate .NET programmer, who has grasped the major differing concepts between ASP classic and .NET. Until then, the book is a jumble of listings that seem like you'd never use them. I've found this book to be a helpful (albeit inaccurate) resource when I need to quickly acquaint myself with a new object or class (the only reason I give it TWO stars instead of ONE)

If you're a beginner to .NET (or programming) I highly recommend "ASP.NET for Web Designers" by Peter Ladka.

The book has no coherent structure. He never relates the abstract information to a practical application or to specific examples of code.

If you don't have a background in programming, you're not going to be able to make sense of what he's trying to get at when he talks about programming languages. This is a pattern indicative of the entire book. If you don't have a background in what he's taking about, you won't understand him, but if you do have a background in what he's talking about, you don't need the book. Classic catch 22.

The examples include 99.5% of the code needed to work, and the author assumes you can figure out the remaining 0.5%. If you can't, the entire example won't work.

This is by no means a reference book on any kind. So often when reading through the book, the author will say that x, y, and z are the most common features/attributes, leaving me scrambling for information on all the features/attributes he left out, which happen to be the ones I need to use.

I don't know why I'm getting such a radically different opinion from the other reviews, but I certainly did not link this book.

This book understandable unlike another book I have on ASP.NET. I don't know why, but authors love to show you their programming prowess at the expense of the material. Leinecker doesn't fall into that trap, but delivers unencumbered content that's understandable.

This book is different from other decluttering books in that it focuses on finding balance in your life and helps you get to the root of problem. This way you begin to become healthy instead of just throwing your junk away and later accumulating more.

I've discovered my need to keep stuff around, particularly books, knitting supplies and old clothes, stems way back to my childhood when my mom threw away my stationary, sticker, toy & book collection. Often I'd come home from school to find my stuff gone, either given away to a cousin or friend or thrown in the trash, because she went on a crazed cleaning frenzy while I was away. This makes sense to me but I never put two and two together until reading this book. Fortunately this is one of the easier "causes" of cluttering to overcome (especially since I dealt with mom issues years ago), unlike compulsive shoppers or people with serious depression, anxiety or OCD conditions which I'm thinking this book won't do much in the way of helping without some therapy and medication.

This book gives me hope that if I can just do a little at a time, he recommends working in 15 minute increments, one day all of the junk will be gone and I will actually be able to park my car in the garage!

The one section that I disagreed with is the one about dealing with clutter you may one day inherit. The author recommends confronting your parents, grandma, etc. and pretty much forcing them into weeding through and getting rid of their junk (with your help, of course) so you don't have to deal with it later. To me that sounds so invasive if not insulting. Getting rid of your junk has to be a personal decision you make, not forced upon you by someone else and the author is a bit contradictory here. I'd rather hire one of those gotjunk places and have them haul it away instead of alienating and offending my relatives to save me some work when they die.

There's a bunch of info. here for businesses dealing with clutterbugs and home office clutter, etc. that I didn't find particularly useful because I am strangely organized at work but I'm sure it would be helpful for others.

A big bulk of the book focuses on the emotional issues which cause clutter and features true stories written by real people struggling with their clutter problem. I don't know about you but it sure makes me feel less strange to know there are others out there who have more clutter than me!

This book is jam packed with information and is a very helpful starting point for those just beginning their decluttering lifestyle change. And as the book states many times, it is a lifestyle change.

This book really fills a niche that other books on cluttering aren't covering. What do you do if you are a person with a real clutter problem - a problem that needs more help than just a few pithy tips on how to organize or some guidelines on what to toss? This is the book for you.

I think the biggest value of this book comes from the situations and people who are presented that you might recognize yourself in, and the advice on what they did and what you might do if you are hanging onto your clutter for one of these reasons.

This book walks you through a real process of discovery, if you let it, and if you follow the steps you will change your life.

I'd recommend this book if you feel you have a real problem with clutter that goes beyond things just getting away from you. Start with this book so you can begin the process of untangling your emotions around this issue, then move on to It's All Too Much for some games and tips for how to begin going through your things.

I read this book because I enjoy things and my partner is a clutterbug, so I was looking for tips that would make me feel inspired to declutter and maybe some help for how to live with or organize my partner's things. It didn't help me much with that, but what is here is much deeper and is sure to be of value to the right people. When the people I love who have this problem are ready to tackle it, I will be ready to share this bok with them in a loving way.

I started reading Stop Clutter From Stealing Your Life: Discover Why You Clutter and How You Can Stop and then it vanished. I have lots more books so I moved on. When it turned up under the seat of my car, I thought I must need to read it, so I did, and I was gratified to find that while I may be a little messy, my issues positively pale in comparison to the stories in this book.

Author Mike Nelson delivers the clutterer's Bible in this volume, which delves into the psychology behind the behavior of cluttering. He's been there: he is a reformed clutterer who now runs an organization called Clutterless Recovery Groups, Inc. Nelson lost jobs and relationships due to his inability to let things go; his personal story is representative of the first-person stories in Chapter 8: CLUTTERERS' STORIES.

Nelson breaks the behavior down into degrees, starting with "mildly disorganized," moving through behavior based on rebellion, fear, and procrastination. He lists the groups of people who value time "too much" to clean up, information junkies, chaos junkies, and on to the hoarders; the last is an actual medical diagnosis. He asserts that clutterers are more likely to suffer from depression or anxiety disorders than ADD. The book contains many references to the psychology of the problem, and while you may not think that will help you to get organized, he states that understanding WHY you clutter is the beginning of change. He began his metamorphosis when he found a self-help group and discovered he was not alone. "Once I realized that my clutter was an outward expression of my inner conflicts or emotions," he writes, "I was able to do something about the problem and not just treat the symptoms by organizing my mess."

If what you want is a simple plan for organizing yourself, you'll find a high-level plan in Chapter 4: 40 WAYS TO LEAVE YOUR CLUTTER. These steps -- many are more like affirmations -- are admittedly Zen-like, but they are intended to focus your attitude about your stuff. He advises setting small goals and committing to 15 minutes at a time, until you have taken control of your environment and your life. He gives us the "HIII" rule: how important is it? What's the worst that can happen if I get rid of this?

Stop Clutter devotes several sections to behavior that has a negative impact in the working world, with many practical routes to organizing paper and computer files; again the key is understanding what stands in the way of good habits. Later sections of the book deal with maintenance of the newly clutter-free environment, how to retrieve from a bout of backsliding, and deciding whether a self-help group can help you.

If you just plain hate this kind of theoretical approach to behavior change, this book won't be for you. But if you have an appetite for understanding what makes us behave the way we do, and especially if your surroundings are out of control by a little or a lot, this book could be life-changing. Beautifully organized and presented, it's a five-star book of its type. Get it, read it, commit to its principles -- and take back your life.

Linda Bulger, 2008

I wanted to read this book because I thought it might give me some ideas about coaching others on how to organize their lives and businesses. I never even considered that I myself might be a clutterer, but the more I read STOP CLUTTER FROM STEALING YOUR LIFE by Mike Nelson, the more I came to realize there are areas even in my life where I have allowed clutter to take over.

When my wife and I married 8 years ago, I had a house full of stuff, she had a house full of stuff, and now we have a two and a half car garage full of stuff. 8 years! This book has made me realize it's well past time to take action and rid our lives of some of this stuff we will never use! I also found many other useful ideas such as better organizing my own office, even finding ways to make better use of our closet space.

Clutter is all around us. This book will help you get things under control again. It's the old AA mantra of first admitting you have a problem. Often things we don't even realize put our lives into a state of turmoil. For instance, after reading this book, I realized when returning home from a business trip, it takes me much longer to unpack (sometimes up to a week) than it took me to pack! Putting something like that off just disrupts our lives.

There's a lot of information here. Some you will find useful, some not so much. But there is no doubt you will find something that applies to you and ways to make your life or business run smoother.

Mike Nelson writes, "Whatever your religious affiliation, you'll find something that will help you get closer to your God through decluttering." (p. 189)

He's not kidding around, and by golly, I believe him. If cleanliness is close to Godliness, as we have been taught, then neat and organized is at least saintly.

Personally I think Nelson is on to something profound. He opens the book with these words of wisdom: "This book is about more than just decluttering. It's about balance. A cluttered household is an unbalanced household. It's about not recluttering. It's about not having to buy more and more stuff to fill a hole in our souls. It's about learning what's really important in our lives and not using stuff to hide from life. People and pets are important; stuff is not...."

Nelson digs deeper into clutter than I thought humanly possible. Frankly I'm amazed. He asks first of all, "Are You a Clutter?" (Chapter 1). He makes a distinction between "hoarding" and "cluttering." "...[H]oarding is more dramatic...If you're a hoarder, it's unlikely that even a book as good as this one, by itself, is going to help you much...A clutter's mental attic at least has more lights on, so you can see your way around the boxes of mental eddies." He adds, "Hoarding is a medical diagnosis. Cluttering is a layman's term." He quotes John P. Zak, who is a psychiatrist, to the effect that the distinctions are not entirely clear, but "A hoarder finds it very difficult to get rid of the stuff without the occurrence of severe distress unless it is done in a very systematic, well-planned-out, therapeutic approach." (p. 143)

I would like myself to make a distinction between cluttering and polluting. Cluttering only messes up our own lives and those who have to live with or very near us. Pollution can destroy far and wide. So relax, fellow clutterer, you are not a polluter, at least not in my view. By the way, I'm known as neat, but I know the hidden truth: you should see the files on my computer!

Nelson gets down to the nitty-gritty of getting rid of clutter in Chapter 4 "40 Ways to Leave Your Clutter" (with no apologies to Paul Simon, or to those used to an ordinary 12-step program). First there is kindness and understanding in the guidance: "Be kind to yourself...Start small. Make small, reachable goals...Your goal is to have a home where you feel comfortable...Think locally, not globally. Try decluttering in 15-minute increments...." (pp. 54-55)

One gets the sense that Nelson has been up against it for a long, long time (and he has). But is he getting soft? Well, no. Consider some more of the 40 ways: "Make cluttering an area you've decluttered a crime in your house...Shopping is not a sport. The less you buy, the less you have to declutter...You're allowed to have more than one shredder...Never, ever, ever, ever give up. I have enough faith in you for both of us." (pp. 55-57)

Here's an answer to the joke question, "how do you know you're a redneck?" "The new TV sits on top of the old TV." More probably this could be a clutter joke-on-the-square. I've seen it, and I've heard the excuses for it. "Better height this way. The new TV isn't broken in yet. You never know..."

Nelson understands all this and a lot, lot more. There's even a chapter on "OPC--Other People's Clutter." You think you're doing your surviving relatives a favor by leaving all that junk to them so they can go through it after you're dead? Forget it. You are just giving them a burden. Nelson emphasizes that it can be very emotionally painful for your loved ones to go through all that junk. Shape up and ship it out before you go-go.

Chapter 7 is on paper clutter, and paper clutter leads to computer filing, and yes, you can be (I am! I've already confessed) a file clutterer and an email clutterer

I'm going to work on it. I promise. Yahoo gives me unlimited space (ah, the riches), so why should I delete a single email? Well, because I can't find anything. Nelson's advice is succinct: "Read, respond, delete." (p. 225)

Chapter 7 also includes a little multiple choice test to find out what kind of learner you are, so you'll know how to go about learning to clean up the clutter. I'm a "D," a logical learner with A (visual) tendencies. C's (emotional learners) declare, "I can't breathe. I'm drowning in clutter." D's state firmly that they'll start "at the left corner of my desk and work to the right." Yeah, but how about the procrastinator learners?

Nelson also guides us on how to live with clutterers. He makes this salient point (among many others): "Cluttering is about control. In a household with a clutterer and non-clutterers, the clutter always wins." (p. 162) He adds, "For clutters married to each other, each one sees the other's clutter as "a real mess," and will be sure to point that out." (p. 163)

Dang! This is a good book! I could go on and on. Fortunately Amazon has a word limit... Well, one more thing. Nelson ends the book with affirmations and promises. Here's one of the best for clutterers: "I live in a clutter-free environment, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally." (p. 245)

The book and chapters looks great, however it is impossible to run the samples, I got a lot of wrong messages. I tried a lot of time without result. Do not buy this book.

I was allotted money by my boss to get books to learn ASP to expand our websites capacity. I got the SAMS Active Server Pages 3.0 and this book based on reviews I'd read. I ALMOST NEVER USED THE JUMPSTART BOOK! Any time I flipped through for an answer to a problem, I found the book wasn't really laid out to help me. I was greatly disappointed. I threw this book away and learned all I know from the SAMS book.

It's really a very very useful tool for the people who want to master ASP.NET through specific examples. The book works like you have a live teacher who understands your thoughts and questions. The writting is extremely clear and focuses on what you expect to learn. I know Ken from the past (I own all Acces Dev. Hand Book series) and Paul from Access VB Adv. Mag. Here simply they continue a successful tradition. Congratualtions!

As a co-author on this book, I feel compelled to respond to Andres' review. I've never done this before, but this review is so slanderous as to cause both Paul and me great distress.

Every book has typographical errors--that's the way the business is. If we're alerted to them, we're That's the great part about not having a CD--the samples can be updated "on the fly".

As opposed to Andres' comments, the samples DO work, if installed correctly. Getting ASP.NET up and running prior to installing the book samples is crucial. Many, many readers have used the samples without incident, and have told us so.

In addition, either Andres contacted other authors, or sent email to the wrong addresses--both Paul and I respond to each and every email we get--usually, within minutes, if not seconds. Implying that we ignored his email is, to us, quite painful. One might accuse us of many things, but not answering email is NOT one of them.

We welcome user comments and questions, and have corresponded with many readers of the book. Our email addresses are prominently displayed within the book itself, and in many other places online. Please, if you're one of the very small minority who is having trouble installing or running the sample applications, let us know. With ASP.NET and Visual Studio .NET set up correctly, the samples install and run without a hitch.

Obviously, this is not the correct forum for discussions involving these reviews, but being incorrectly accused of ignoring a reader's email is inexcusable.

I think that Getz and Sheriff's reputations in the VB community are peerless. Their countless magazine articles and numerous books have helped me personally over the past decade, and their names are ones I look for and know I can count on.

This includes ASP.NET Developer's Jumpstart. I admit that getting the environment to sit up and beg is tricky, but I'm pretty sure I read in the Introduction that the basics wouldn't be covered. There are many texts and KBs to help with that.

If you have ASP.NET installed correctly, the samples run as described. This text was a big help to me, especially with its treatment of VB.NET in ASP.NET. The ADO.NET treatment was equally valuable. I couldn't recommend this book more highly.

Out of the dozen or 15 Wrox Press books we have at the office, this one is the only one I regret buying. If you own any other Wrox Press ASP books, DON'T BUY THIS ONE -- IT'S REDUNDANT to the nth degree! Truly, if you own ANY ASP books, or have any ASP experience, whatsoever, this book's probably not worth your money.

It's one thing to learn ASP, it's another to put its many techniques into practice on a real commerce site.

Homer's book is really about the Wrox site, and how it is set up and maintained. It's full of useful tips, and its eclectic coverage is exactly what you would expect for this type of study. As other readers have noted, it's not an ASP tutorial, but advice for those who already know the subject. Several of the techniques discussed have since found their way onto sites I maintain.

I would have to say it's one of the most enjoyable and stimulating technical books I've read in quite a long time.

This is a book for webmasters without a high speed internet connection. Wrox's library for ASP is excellent but this book stands out as a brick (I'm currently using it to keep my stack of takeout menus from falling over). Many of these techniques can be found online at many fine ASP websites. Its not a bad book. It lacks focus and many of the topics can be easily covered in a few articles.

If you are a webmaster or a ASP developer who deals with the whole project, from design to deployment, this is the #1 book I would recommend to you! It helped me a great deal for the work I have done. The book covers all the aspects of the ASP-based packages that webmasters and top ASP team leaders concern about.

If you are a new programmer trying to learn ASP syntax, however, it might help more if you read Professional ASP Programmer's Reference, another book in the series, before using this book.

It's useful if you have full control and access to a live web server. Since I have some background in ASP, IIS 4 and site management, I only found some information is useful.

ASP.NET in a nutshell appeals to two audiences: beginners and advanced developers. The middle group is neglected. The samples were easily coded and worked. However, the object model describing the objects were referenced as complex schematics in the appendix. Another set of examples needed to be included that showed how to interact with the object methods and properties of the .net components. I had to go to the web and read numerous articles to discover how to manipulate the components through their object model. I've included a few samples on my site.

Configuration Settings was not clearly described. The custom error handling was difficult to understand.

The tree control view was initialized using an xml structure. The OnTreeNodePopulate event was need a sample code demonstration. I create a treenode called Industry which loads the children nodes on demand using the PopulateOnDemand callback.

The Datalist control has a number of important attributes which must be attended too: Datakeyfield (Primary Index), Datasource (the Oledb database connection-a AccessDataSource type). ASP.net carries the Visual C++ tradition of event mapping. I've chosen to use OnItemCommand event to capture the e.commandname for "Insert","Edit","Update", and "Delete". Insert requires a special routine of making visible a panel with an input form embedded and upon clicking the save button mapping to the AddNewRecord function which creates a insert into sql string and assigns it to the datasource insertcommand attribute and transacts the dml then resets the input variable and hides the panel.

ASP.NET System.Data.OleDB (connection, command object) active Server Pages. The oledb coverage is highly neglected in the ASP.NET in a nutshell book. I used the internet to discover how to open a MS access oledb connection and execute an Update DML using the oledbcommand object.

Validators were very interest. I create an input form has three types of validation routines: required validator, custom validator, and range validator.
If the validation rule is not met than an custom error message will appear to the right of the textbox. You can force validation by calling the validator method validate. The result can be returned to the calling program by invoking the IsValid method. I've used a regular expression to check for valid email, currency, and other patterns. There are a number of helpful sites for regular expression that are searchable from my site from "active server pages" query.


ASP.NET Calendar Control - Changing Display Years - Updating a Textbox with selection - Active Server Pages I coded a codeset of interaction between a textbox, dropdown combo box, and a calendar. I started by populating a drop down combo box with plus and minus 20 years from the current year and selecting the current year. An event handler is defined for the OnSelectedIndexChanged value which called "Set_Calendar" eventhandler. "Set_Calendar" event handler uses the selected value for year from the drpCalYear control to initialize the calendar using the VisibleDate property of the calendar control. The autopostback attribute of the drop down combobox must be set to true allowing a postback when index selection change has occurred.

Other topics that were of interest:
Understanding the system.array
Using .net collections
working with arraylists and hashtables
Using the application object
Using the session object
reading and writing cookies
using the query string
understanding VB classes
formating Numbers, dates, and times
Using the datareader
overriding producings
raising events and implement callbacks

The description of this book says it's for ASP developers transitioning to ASP.NET. I have worked with ASP for over a year, and this book was pretty much useless. The only redeeming factor was that I was able to get it from my local library, so I found out before it cost me any cash. The first part of the book delves into topics with zero explanation, and very little code, so you don't have a chance to get your feet wet with actual code, and the topics are dull and dry. The last portion of the book looks like it would be a nice reference, but honestly, why would you buy a book like this for a reference? Isn't that what the 'net is for?

Two thumbs down. I'm working through a Sam's teach yourself in 21 days book and it is significantly better for anyone transitioning from classic ASP or learning ASP.NET from scratch,

I've been reading O'Reilly since the days of the tiny fifty page staple-bound brown Nutshell books that covered shell commands and the first version of Perl. This book is that has taken that same approach to data condensation and applied it to everything you need to know about ASP.NET. And extend they have at almost a thousand pages it is far heavier than the original books, but that doesn't make it any less worthwhile.

The first section covers all of the conceptual introductions to the topics, .NET controls, web services, configuration and security and all of the basics. The second section covers each section of the class library in a concise and consistent form that make it so much easier to grab for the book before you even press F1 to bring up the MSDN. Where necessary they include code fragments to demonstrate the point along with the explanatory text but it is never overblown or unnecessary.

This isn't light bedtime reading but it is an invaluable reference to sit next to the keyboard of any ASP.NET programmer.

Just bought the 2nd edition and I was looking forward to the CD with the Visual Studio .Net doc'n plug-in, but when I received the book it didn't have the CD. I called O'Reilly and customer support told me that they had decided not to include the CD, and Amazon just has an old image of the cover (O'Reilly has the "old" cover image too then!).

I had installed the add-in for other O'Reilly nutshell books (ADO.Net and Windows Forms) and found them to be useful, and thus I was disappointed that this book is not including the CD. Perhaps O'Reilly is planning to sell a plug-in for all of the FCL, and that is why the CD was pulled...

I concur with other reviewers on the following points:

1) The organization is good and focuses strictly on the relevant web classes in .NET.

2) The documentation, however, is more or less a repeat of ASP.NET information from MSDN. In a lot of O'Reilly Nutshell books, the authors typically add more insight to the classes they cover that the official documentation does not. With this book, I really did not get that impression.

If you need an offline version of the MSDN documentation, this is great. Another detraction is that the book does not come with a documentation add-in CD like the other .NET in a Nutshell books.

3) The most egregious fault with this book is that the authors do NOT tell you that the book is mostly in VB.NET syntax. I'm trying to learn C# and the book's latter parts is all VB.NET. I really wish the authors were upfront about this, so I could save myself some money. *sigh*

Future ASP.NET Authors: If you're going to write about ASP.NET, please specify, somewhere on the cover or in the introduction, the language you will be using for examples.

C# programmers may be better off reading other ASP.NET books, which usually are in C# (or at least tell you upfront which language is being used).

This is a great book but we ordered the wrong book we needed The Creative Journal for Children

This book is a great book, especially if you are new to the world of art and self-expression. It is a real "jogger" to the creativity in all of us, and especially me. I failed 9th grade art, because I hated art class so much! The way it was taught, the teacher, the students, etc. This is my first art book, and after working with it some, I eagerly bought Lucia's other books as well. Doing the excersises in her books, completely opened up my mind and creativity. I joyfully recommend it.

I thought it was a blank journal with excersizes in it, but its not. Its a book filled with other peoples journal entrees for the excersizes. I returned it.

The activites are a guide to self discovery. It's user friendly and not too abstract so the everyday person can use and enjoy it.

I bought this book because I was intriuged by the title. I now do creative journal exercises at any and every chance I get!! I am a Psychology major, and minoring in Art, so this is exactly the book I needed to tie the two together perfectly. I am going to use this book throughout my career, that I am sure of. And something neat about the way this book is set up is that it is in "lesson" format, so when you want to a certain exercise (i.e. "where am I at?" or "current challenge" etc.) you can simply look it up and find that particular one. I plan to buy a copy of this book for my best friends, sisters, nieces, and aunts.

I never write reviews, but this is an ex.Message :-)
The most helpful part of this book is author's business and architectural approaches.
There are some bugs in the code-examples, but!
Even if you're not experienced developer you can find and fix them.
More you can take it as sudoku puzzles.

Only one thing I would consider as a pros - is an examples based on the OLEDB non-SQL provider, which is little bit outdated, for small and medium-size companies.

Book is especially helpful for developers who specialized on the in-house extranet applications.

With the Best Regards to Author!

~Part I - The ASP.NET Programming Environment
Chapter 1 - Introducing ASP.NET
Chapter 2 - Introducing ASP.NET Web Forms and Controls
Chapter 3 - Using ADO.NET in the .NET Framework
Chapter 4 - Data Binding
Chapter 5 - Input Validation
Chapter 6 - User Controls
Chapter 7 - Custom Controls
Chapter 8 - Business Objectives
Chapter 9 - Working with ASP.NET Web Services
Chapter 10 - ASP.NET Applications
Chapter 11 - Caching
Chapter 12 - Tracing
Chapter 13 - Security

Part II - Projects
~Project 1 - A Personal Finance Manager

Chapter 14 - The Design of the Personal Finance Manager
Chapter 15 - Chart of Accounts
Chapter 16 - Transactions
Chapter 17 - The Trial Balance Report

Project 2 - Web Services
Chapter 18 - Creating a Generic Database Web Service
Chapter 19 - Designing a Navigation System
Chapter 20 - Incorporating Web Services in the Chart
Chapter 21 - Incorporating Web Services in the Chart of Accounts Form
Chapter 22 - Incorporating Web Services in the~~~ Trial Balance

Project 3 - Inventory Management System
Chapter 23 - The Design of the Inventory Management System
Chapter 24 - Inventory Masters
Chapter 25 - Inventory Movements
Chapter 26 - The Inventory Balances Report

Project 4 - The GenEditAdd Control
Chapter 27 - Using the GenAdd Control
Chapter 28 - Extending the GenEditAdd Control

Project 5 - Visual Studio.NET
Chapter 29 - Displaying Database Data Using a Strongly-Typed DataSet
Chapter 30 - Writing CRUD Applications with~~ Visual Studio.NET
Chapter 31 - Creating a Web Service Using Visual Studio.NET

Part III - Appendixes
Appendix A: Installing the Sample Database
Appendix B: HailStormIndex~

The author's ADO chapter was excellent. I found the entire book to be a great source with well thought out examples. I have 6 other ASP.net books, and I highly reccomend this one.

I got this book mainly to reuse the GenEditAdd component described in it. However, it seems that the book is totally unsupported now.

The author's web site has not been updated recently. The versions of the source code available from the author and the publisher are different, and at least one of those versions appears to be based on a .NET beta.

The author's contact email address does not seem to be working. Neither does the contact form on his website.

The writing style is great and his projects are pretty well thought out. However, I have to downgrade my rating of this book because:
1) Appears to be based on an early beta.
2) Most of his coding examples produce poorly structure html. To borrow a phrase from the xhtml/xml world, it is not "well formed." In other words, it doesn't follow accepted w3 standards.
3) His use of CSS is just flat out not right.

This book was a very good and informative book. It is a great title for beginners who are not well informed on what NLP is or its functions. There are some areas where it does not go into much detail and it just skims the tops of some of its subjects, although most are detailed to the point of satisfaction, it still leaves you with the desire to learn more. Most of the examples that they give in this book are leaned toward business use instead of general uses but the examples are worded in a way were it can be applied to general situations and not just business. I recommend this book to anyone who would like to learn the essential basics of NLP.

I've noticed that this book has regularly appeared high up in the specialist subject lists for "memory improvement" and "presentations".

At the risk of losing a few readers I feel, therefore, that it is only fair to point out that this book says nothing about improving one's memory [ as far as I remember ;) ], and has only one chapter on presentation skills.

For presentation skills I have another complete book on the subject, in the same series, called "Successful Presentation Skills."

For memory skills I'd recommend checking out books by Tony Buzan and Dominic O'Brien.

Happy reading

Andy Bradbury

Once again, I've fallen for the old "froth & bubble". This book is far too short to give you a sustantial insight into how these processes work - and how to practically apply them. In my opinion it is far too brief and too general. It seems that it may be more useful for students of the subject who need a "quick reference" book.
Apart from these quibbles it is well written.

This book is fine for those who want to get an overview of some of the NLP concepts quickly. Serious readers of NLP will find this superficial. If you really want to learn NLP and apply it in your day to day life, you will be better off reading other NLP books which explain these much more in depth.

Duh, should someone explain to the previous pair that BOOK reviews are meant to be about the book that is on sale rather than bitching because the book wasn't what they thought it OUGHT to be about?

Ive bought three copies of this book over the last ten years, one from each edition and believe it or not I didnt do that because its frothy or shallow.

I also agree with Andy Smiths review. Ive read quite a few books on NLP and Ive seen several which have good things to say but spend too much time getting them said. And some like 'Neurolinguistic Programming for Dummies' which would have been a whole lot better if they hadnt been published at all.

I like this book because I agree with Andy Smith that it packs a lot of information in to a pretty small space and without losing the important details. IMO its a great introduction to NLP and a useful reference book after that. Who else takes time to explain the presuppositions for instance? They arent covered in this much detail in any of the other NLP books I've read. Samething on the eye accessing cues. Andrew Bradbury doesnt just tell us what they are he shows how they work with the three main thinking modes (visual auditary and kinesthetic) and tells us how we can get the best rapport with someone in each mode. Great stuff for interviewers sales people and just about everyone else I should think.

So I would recommend this book to anyone who has a beginners interest in NLP. IMO its worth every cent.

I didn't find this book very useful although it was interesting.

I believe that the author is sincere about her claims that drawing with the other hand can lead to well-being. However, it is very common knowledge now that artistic creativity involves the whole brain, not just the mysterious right brain. Using one hand or the other does not just use the right brain-- in fact, if you saw someone draw while hooked up to brain scan, many parts of the brain would literally light up.

I give the exercises in this book 5 stars and I think it is great way to discover your creativity and experience parts of yourself that are otherwise untapped (although that it "heals" is yet to be proven-- it would be great to see the studies that prove this claim). It is the theory that the author is basing her claims on that is the problem. Artistic expression, even with a non-dominant hand, is a little more complex than the "intuitive" part of the brain or the right brain doing all the work. This idea has been proven incorrect for the last 10 or 15 years, it is time the author caught up with the literature in order to give her readers the best possible information on why art expression is a way to health.

I picked up this book while going through a phase. I was trying to tap into my more artistic side which had been easy for me up until about three years ago, with real world concerns pressing in and working at a job that didn't spark my creativity I found it harder and harder to distinguish what I really wanted to do compared to what I thought I should do. This book I was hoping would help-and it did. It has many, many exercises to help you get more in touch with your more spontaneous, child like side. Many of these exercises were uncomfortable for me at first for me because they involved giving up the control I held so rigidly to.In fact I found it very hard because giving up control would mean I would have to trust in myself. I didn't know how to flow anymore and this book is all about flow. Some of the exercises involve drawing pictures with your non-dominant hand and others involve getting in touch with different parts of yourself you might have left behind for some reason or another. I find Lucia Cappachione an author who's style is very warm and the personal stories she tells in the book set her apart from self help guru's who just preach and preach and give nothing of themselve's in turn. This book is never boring and is like a kid's activity book for adults.

I'm not sure how I came across this book, but non-dominant hand writing is an astounding technique. If you get only one thing out of this book, it's the reliable truth you can get from yourself when you are looking for answers. My own left hand seems to be me at about the age of six, about the time I had to start really following rules not of my own making. She's nothing like the case studies in the book - there's no fight between my conscious and my subconscious, just a relief that there's an outlet. (My left hand actually helped me find a camera I thought I'd lost, so there are plenty of practical things the left hand can tell you as well!)

My left handed writing sessions which I do a couple times a week have given me amazing clarity about the things I want, my priorities, how to handle tricky situations well, and how I really feel about things. Right hand tells me what I think. Left hand tells me how I feel. I am grateful to the writer for this book.

This book mixes theoretical discussion of brain hemisphere function with prescription of practical exercises designed to reawaken the neural circuitry associated with the non-dominant hand. The writer, a qualified psychologist who uses a form of art therapy, draws on her knowledge of Sperry, Jung and Transactional Analysis in positing a theory that exercising the less used hand can lead to the rediscovery or re-emergence of long forgotten aspects of personality and unrealised talents. She cites personal experience and the experience of clients/patients who have engaged with her in a therapeutic relationship. The book is very interesting and ought to be taken seriously, even though the theory would have to be regarded as speculative at this point of time.