Active Books

The information was interesting, but too difficult to visualize. A video presentation would be beneficial.

Excellent book. Rich thinks outside the box and describes alternative nymphing techniques besides dead-drifting. The book also contains a wealth of practical information like how to put on split shots and how to simply build leaders

Randy Kadish

Nice reading when not possible going fishing but I expected more from the title. It is all about nymph fishing with split shots and floater not considering other nymphing techniques.
Few innovative ideas and often wandering....
From the same author much better buy "No hatch to match"

Outstanding book for those interested in advanced nymphing techniques; for the kind of fisherman who mostly nymphs and is interested in all phases of emergence and freshwater environments.

I enjoyed Osthoffs comprehensive treatment of agressive nymphing in this book. Osthoff deals with every aspect of his technique from tying to rigging to casting and presentation to fighting and landing fish. The overall organization of the book was fine, but at times it progressed counterintuitively. In any case I got really excited about trying out some the techniques. I think the most valuable idea here is the concept of prospecting - strategizing and moving (yourself as well as the nymph) to maximize opportunities to trigger aggression in fish. Osthoff does an excellent job in explaining his ideas and the illustrations are very effective. If you are like me and spend most of your time dead drifting nymphs and want to expand your repertoire into active nymphing this is a great book at a great price.

I bought this book based on reviews and my experience with it's 'cousin', "Exchange Server 5.5 Notes From the Field". It was more than worth the money spent! After having taken some of the MCP classes on Windows 2000 AD, this built on those skills with real world scenarios and the bandwidth analysis figures for most every kind of network traffic in Windows 2000 will make it a handy reference in the near future. One thing worth noting outside the technical references of this book are the discussions about project management skills and being able to facilitate the numerous teams required to make the migration to AD happen. Other topics covered are: NDS/LDAP integration, AD scpriting, UNIX/DNS migration/co-existance and Exchange Server integration with the ADC.

One of the most important thing to remember about the Notes From The Field series books is that they are high-level - very strategic. This book is not a how-to step-by-step. For that, you'll need another source. The Administrator's Handbook is really good. That said, this is a really good book if you're planning an AD deployment, especially if your organization is plagued with growth in many directions and many disparate systems.

What's really great about this book is that it is scenario based. Most of the scenarios are fictitious, but there is an amazing inside look of how Compaq deployed AD after acquiring Tandem and DEC. Also, what I found valuable was separate sections on integrating other systems: NT4 domains, Unix DNS, and Novell NDS. As with all Notes From The Field series, this books provides valuable metrics - how to size the AD database, how much replication traffic to expect, etc. These metrics allow us to gauge bandwidth requirements BEFORE deployment.

Altogether, this book will give you an excellent perspective on assessing what is the best strategy on your migration, what impacts you're going to face, and most importantly, the risks you are taking during the migration. From here, you will have enough information on how to plan your migration. Good luck!

This is a must-have book for anyone involved in planning and designing AD. It is so good to finally get a book that brings all the bucket loads of technical information together with the real world. After reading this book you'll have a much better understanding of AD and how it relates to your environment. The Compaq case study is especially outstanding. The authors are writting from experience not just giving their version of all the technical information about AD that's out there. This book is definetly well worth the money.

I bought this book based on reviews and my experience with it's 'cousin', "Exchange Server 5.5 Notes From the Field". It was more than worth the money spent! After having taken some of the MCP classes on Windows 2000 AD, this built on those skills with real world scenarios and the bandwidth analysis figures for most every kind of network traffic in Windows 2000 will make it a handy reference in the near future. One thing worth noting outside the technical references of this book are the discussions about project management skills and being able to facilitate the numerous teams required to make the migration to AD happen. Other topics covered are: NDS/LDAP integration, AD scpriting, UNIX/DNS migration/co-existance and Exchange Server integration with the ADC.

This book is strictly Microsoft Press throwing propaganda around about how great and wonderful AD is. My company rolled out AD and stopped because it was causing so many problems. This book is only good if you have MS babysitting you while you rollout so you can work around all of the bugs and share in the wonders of Microsoft and AD.

Well written. Easy to understand. Good remainder for coaches who forget who they are coaching for and why they are coaching youth football.
Good reading for any coach just starting or who have just a couple of years under their belt

For a coach, the first 3 chapters were not needed. The rest of the book provided great insight and help with the game.

I've been coaching now for a couple of seasons and ran across this book. I decided to buy it, and a few others to add to my library. I feel like as a coach you can never learn too much, and this one seemed interesting.

I bought 4 books that day, but read this one first. I should have read it last because it made the other 3 look and sound retarded. Worst yet, it made me look stupid for buying them. The information provided in this book was absolutely great and very instructive. It really starts you off from the absolute basics of coaching, which can come across as a little condescending if you know anything about football. But quickly takes off into a world of information, some which you probably already knew but forgot over time.

It literally takes you by the hand and walks you through the process of getting through an entire season, from the first practice, how to handle parents, through team meetings, right into the seasons games. I highly recommend any coach that is working with youth teams (Jr. High and below) to take a look at this gem and get as much as they can from it.

This is my first year coaching and I found my knowledge of the game,and conditioning and prep drills lacking. This book may be too simple for those that have played the game a lot and are more than arm-chair quarterbacks.
I found the breakdown of practice sessions helpful because they stressed the different areas of the game but kept the pace moving to help keep the kids from getting bored.
This does not contain a playbook and if you are looking for this you might be disappointed.

This is an okay book, but the first half of this already thin ( about 120 pages 10"x7") book is just about something most guys who watch or have played football will already know. How wide is the field? How long is it? What's an even versus an odd defense? And so on.

The second half is very dilute, which is the real meat of coaching football. If you are an absolute novice, then buy this book. If you can get it free somewhere or very inexpensive, then it's worth a quick glance, but it is not a book you go back to over and over after the first reading, in my opinion.

Good luck to you coaches ... and remember the priority:
1. Children Safety
2. Build character
3. Win football games within spirit and letter of rules

If you can only do one occult book order a year, then this book should be included in that order. Nick Farrell’s writing is elegant and yet to the point. There are no typos in this book and the writing is at the level that any person could understand the concepts that he conveys in this book.

What I found most enjoyably about the book were the techniques that Nick uses in this book. The techniques are accessible and easily adapted to a person’s own style of magic, so that if you’re not inclined to use the Golden Dawn structure of magic you can stick with your own and still use these techniques.

There are several other bonuses to this book. Mr. Farrell does an excellent job of providing a history behind the techniques and who and how they came to be developed. Even better he actually knows who William Gray is as well as other more obscure occultists. It’s rare to find an author who quotes and uses the work of these ground breaking magicians and it’s good to see that Nick not only does that, but does it well. I rate this book a five out of five.

There have been books about creative imagination and even a few reasonable ones on pathworking. However this one gets down to the nuts and bolts of changing your life using active imagination. Some books will give you pathworkings, this one tells you the rules for creating them. It also explains how to build yourself an 'inner kingdom' in which to reveal your secret self.
The manuscript has been circulating in the esoteric counselling community for a while and there are many who were amazed at how effective the methods used were. I count myself among them. I used several of the techniques suggested on some of my tricker clients who were able for the first time to actually see and change patterns that had lasted for some time.
However the occultist in me was really impressed by the way this book explains the symbolic nature of our life and the esoteric techniques used.
However it is not a technical book for the shrinks, it is a handbook written in a simple and at times humorous style, in which the author happy to reveal much.
If you are a wiccan, practical magician or a counsellor this book is an amazing trove of information.

While I'm not an overt fan of "pathworking", I have to say it does have its objective uses. Typically I've found pathworkings to do little on the physical or Astral planes regardless of which author is claiming otherwise. Pathworking is a fancy name given to a guided meditation. The main difference is that a pathworking is usually constructed along Qabalistic lines of thought and uses more often than not Hermetic symbols whereas a guided meditation can be a simple affair to get you to realize you snore in bed.

From an inner psychology aspect, the usage and implementation of a well executed pathworking can help you to acknowledge misplaced feelings and to challenge your own fears and phobias. This is done by objectively linking the fear or phobia to a symbol and then learning to deal with the symbol's energy or using Alchemy to transmute it into something more constructive in your mind.

This artform is nothing knew as Dion Fortune's crew have used pathworking as a main focus since the beginning of the 20th century. Others such as Dolores Ashcrowft-Nowicki have authored books on the subject as well and these would make good reading in addition to Farrell's book if you're of the notion to explore this time honored practice yourself.

In all fairness I should clarify that what you experience on the inside landscape of your mind's pathworking can alter your perceptions and insights on the outside. It's just that a normal pathworking event will not alter a dignitary's way of thinking just because you imagine it so. That would involve you having to do a ritual/spell and empowering it in some way. Still if you sufficiently alter your own psyche strongly enough, you'll find plenty of changes on the outside of yourself for you to experience.

Farrell offers a simple but fun experiment he calls "The Five Dollar Experiment" on page 21. It's a variation on his "Basic Visualization" lesson from the previous page. He's giving you advice on how to manifest $5 from an unexpected source to prove to you this works. After you've mastered this, he offers a technique taught to him by David Goddard and it is to help you from ever having to be in financial need again. Well thought of advice! One of the things I like about Farrell is that he's not ashamed to tell you that he learned a technique or idea from someone else to which he gives credit. THAT is rare in an author these days!

Then Farrell offers you some practical advice on building your own inner kingdom. This is a terrific idea as it can be a springboard for a variety of creative ideas during your life. And these don't have to be all "metaphysically" oriented either. One can certainly use their inner kingdom to bounce ideas off of such as talking to other dignitaries or intelligent magical beasts for advice. In the new age circles, there has been the art of creating a magical laboratory where you go to shut out the world to give yourself some time to think, plan and get your creative juices flowing. Farrell gives you much the same and offers plenty of advice on creating this inner world for you to romp around in at your leisure or when you absolutely MUST have an answer.

Another great chapter in this book that I highly recommend you read several times over is how to use your imagination to change your psyche. While it's true that's the fundamental focus of the whole book, here Farrell points out in specific detail an outline of steps on using your psyche to make majore changes in your life. He even discusses using this technique for helping someone who's been abused all their life. While not a panacea per se, this section can have life altering affects. However Farrell is wise to point out that no pathworking is completely 100% safe and especially where those involve altering your perceptual patterns to such a degree.

All in all, I have to rate this book a four star manual. It's offering a lot even though it's coming from an ultra reserved esoteric order-ish background. Of course there's a bibliography and unfortunately no index. Thus make sure you have your highlighter and Post-It-Notes handy so you can mark those particulars that you find helpful for later finding.

But, however, as Elias Legolas has already pointed out, this book is very similar to stuff already available, and does not really give any new information.

If there were no other books on this stuff (but there are plenty), then this book would be a good buy.

I remain the artist - Joe Blow. Yours Sincerely in "magical power".

I highly recommend this book. I was quite impressed by the author's insightful treatment of the powerful techiques of pathworking. Nick Farrell has not only drawn fron his own extensive experience but has also included very valuable technical information usually only available in a practicing magical lodge. Although this book is loaded with information, the author has managed to present this subject in a enjoyable and easy to read format.
The range of material is suitable for the beginner to the most experienced practitioner. This book well be particularly appreciated by those working in the Wiccan, Golden Dawn and Hermetic traditions.

Well written, common sense approach to stretching and avoiding injury due to common misconceptions about technique. Highly recommended!

A terrific book. It helps to clarifiy what your body needs in general at any age.
Sally baker

I'm 55 with severe lower back pains, trying to avoid surgery. I've tried 2 different physical therapists and multiple chiropractors, so I've done a fair amount of stretching before reading this book. However, in the first section of this book (through page 18) there were several tips that are priceless (e.g., the difference between Active and Passive stretching; recommending several stretches for warm-ups and several others for cool-down; an analogy with "taffy" illustrating why warm-ups are important). In addition, for the next several pages there is a list of several issues people have (back-pains, hip problems, knee problems, etc), and which exercises are best for people with these problems.

There are 2 issues I've got with the book, which kept me from giving it a perfect 5. First, there is no clear indication of which stretches are "Active" vs "Passive". Second, this book would be as close to perfection as possible if there were icons indicating which exercises were Active, which were Passive, which were particularly recommended for warm-up or cool-down, and which were specifically useful or contra-indicated for people with the various issues such as back-pain, neck problems, hip problems, knee problems, etc.

Even with these 2 issues, I heartily recommend this book for anyone who needs to who is ANY age who wants to start or continue stretching but has the slightest doubts about how to proceed.

I hope the author fixes these 2 issues and either posts the keys on a website or publishes a new version of the book. I know I'd buy it!

Very nice, very clear. VERY gentle mild stretching for beginners, good idea, feels good. good photos too. I'm not an "expert" in stretching, and there may be some instances where "perfect form" is neglected. But this is so gentle and elementary, nobody's going to get hurt here. We enjoy it.

Maybe i am too young or too healthy for this book,though i am neither, i am going to put it aside for next ten years.

Action Learning (AL) is a popular method for improving organizational effectiveness by learning how to address real problems in real time. Authors Judy O'Neil and Victoria J. Marsick provide a solid introduction to the four AL "schools," or methods. They help you assess whether AL is right for your firm and, if so, which school of thinking you should choose. They offer good information and give you the basics of getting started with AL. Their book has a familiar textbook style, with case studies and an appendix offering deeper theory. However, awkward phrasing, repetitive language and an academic approach can, at times, distract from the content. Nonetheless, getAbstract thinks the book offers a useful explanation of AL for executives and managers, especially those with human-resource or training responsibilities.

Understanding Action Learning, by O'Neil & Marsick, is an excellent resource for practitioners interested in building a learning environment in the workplace focused on solving real problems and addressing real challenges through a collaborative process. The book's major strengths are its readability and applicability. The authors have extensive experience in global applications of Action Learning and provide many examples of how it has been used successfully in different kinds of organizations. It is probably unrealistic to expect any book to serve as a "cookbook" for implementing AL as it takes on different forms depending on the context; however, the accompanying templates, tools, and strategies could easily be adapted for use in a variety of settings. The multiple real-world examples helped me understand how AL might look in different types of organizations. The book provides an excellent overview of AL, and serves as a good resource for people trying to decide if AL is the appropriate approach to use in their workplace. I found the experience-based strategies for success extremely helpful. I also appreciated the emphasis on action learning as a cyclical, continuous process of creating and supporting positive organizational change.

Having had the privilege of working with Judy O'Neil in co-designing many different leadership programs, I have used many of the tools included in her book, Understanding Action Learning, for successful results. Because Action Learning requires a considerable investment in time from the participants and others in the organization, having a very clear goals on the desired outcome is essential. Understanding Action Learning outlines a process to help the program manager design a program that would best fit the needs of the organization.

Once the program has been designed, Understanding Action Learning offers a wealth of material to enable the participants to really learn from their experience in the program. What I have found to be especially helpful are the tools around helping participants reflect and take action on the project work as it unfolds.

In addition to the materials that I have tested in my own programs, Understanding Action Learning includes other approaches that I have not yet found the opportunity to apply. If others find Action Learning to be an invaluable tool in developing future leaders as I do, then I highly recommend this book as an essential resource to support a successful implementation of an Action Learning program.

Since most people develop their leadership skills through real-life experiences, I wanted to understand how to help others maximize their learning while they engage in real work. The O'Neil and Marsick book, Understanding Action Learning, has been the most helpful book that I've read about how to design, implement and evaluate a developmental program which includes an action learning approach.

In particular, the sections which describe the different kinds of learning outcomes one might achieve through this process and how to design an initiative to meet these goals, were helpful. I also found the chapter on the role of learning coaches to be very informative.

O'Neil and Marsick provide many examples of how organizations are incorporating the action learning process into their work. Community based health organizations and multi-organizational teams can benefit from this approach as well. This book is an excellent resource for those helping to develop high performance health teams.

Having some experience with Action Learning I found the book to provide a concise and well rounded explanation for the different schools of AL and what it takes to implement these programs. It was particularly helpful to read the examples of different programs implemented in corporations. This book provides theory, how-to and real-life examples in a easy to read and relevant package. I would recommend anyone looking to weed through all the literature and implement Action Learning in their corporation or practice to use this book to guide your efforts.

was suggested by a teacher. exellent guide for beginners like me. im new to win-200, its a really great for people like me. the book is well written, clear and consice. i would suggest it to any body who is new to active directory. active directory is based on dns, it does a wounderful job of explaining the dns server. chap 7 is the actuall part of installing the active directory which i belive is the appropriate time to do it once you have the basics covered from chap 1 - chap 6. Go for it.

Although I've read other books by Joe Casad which I liked, I'm disappointed with this book. I don't think its a book for someone who is a beginner or even someone who has a basic knowledge of active directory. I think this is geared for someone who has experience with NT and wants to upgrade to Win 2000 active directory. There's nothing wrong with that. But I think perhaps the author should have been more clear on that so that people like me don't have to waste time and money to find that out. I also think that there seems to be no order to the book. It jumps around from subject to subject. Maybe others would disagree, but I like to have a book that starts with basics and then works itself up. This book altogether has been a frustrating experience.

After reading hundreds of pages in 2 different Microsoft Press books, I knew all of the components of Active Directory, but still did not understand its purpose or functionality. Within 14 pages of this book, it all made sense. This book is easy to read with great flow and still presents material in great depth.

I work as a Microsoft Certified Trainer and spend a lot of time looking for texts that are accurate, easy to understand, and thorough. In short, I have recommended this one to all of my fellow trainers for Win2K preparation and will consider it as a reference source for our students.

Although I appreciate the Authors insight and layout in the way OU's are described in this book, other issues are still vague and need more step by step examples.

As an NT 4 MCSE, I have taken the classes for MCSE 2000 certification and work with mixed mode Windows NT4 and Windows NT2K daily. There is alot of information in this book, though as you get deeper into security and group policies - some real world examples would be a huge help in understanding Active Directory.

We need some case study type examples for networks of 10 to 25 users, 50 to 100 users and also networks of 500 to 1000 users, with sample OU's and group policy settings - step by step. And also it would be nice to see the pros and cons of these sample networks with and with Active Directory installed.

This is a complex issue, the author has done a good job here with a wide and comprehensive overview on Active Directory - though I will be purchasing other books on Active Directory.

This book is an excellent examination of active directory. I particularly recommend this book for administrators moving from NT4 to W2K. Active directory represents the single biggest change from NT4 and for many folks represents the single biggest point of confusion in the migration.

I baught this book for my sister. She uses it in her business class. She loves it. The professor uses examples from the same book. She is very happy with it. Even though we baught it used, the condition of the book was well kept. And delivery was on time. We only waited one week. We definitely recommend this book.

Come on, forget about the so-called bible eco-textbook. This is definitely not an old-fashion bible but nowadays the most friendly economic textbook I've ever read! Explanation is basically step-by-step, examples are down to earth, graphs are definitely clear without redundancy (as many textbooks do!!!) I believe beginners without background on business or social science could totally understand what economics is about by this book. Strongly Recommend.

well, i was a little surprised to see this book (as probably many others as well) being judged by the extent as to which it matches the lectures held by other professors.
i just stumbled across it today in my university's library. as i am studying in germany, i of course do not enjoy the teaching of either of the authors. but knowing that oftentimes american authors' explanations tend to suit my way of learning and - most importantly - understadning things better than those of german profs, i gave it and try and took a peek into it.
it was a pleasure to see how easy things became then. i have to admit that i already had some background on the subject from my lectures so far, but those were and are being held in a completetly different style. this book actually makes a really good read (it's fun!) and that is the best way to get a hold of things, ain't it?
i'd have to say that if one actually wants to learn something and not just read what his/her own professor talks about in class, this is an excellent (supplementary) reading.

i admit, though, that the price is a downside of this otherwise very recommendable product.

THis book is pretty straightforward and helpful for my class but we didn't get to use it that much. It is worth having.

I feel I wasted my money really. My class never uses this book. The book merely is an exact copy, if not less material than what my professor teaches. I gave it 3 stars because frankly it is a good book. It can provide a lot of information. The one thing I saw that the book is definitely lacking is graphs. I am an extremely visual person, and without graphs, the information really doesn't click.

Just make sure your professor uses this book intesively before buying it, or else you will be wasting a lot of money, and if you are a starving college student, this book can easily be the same price as 8-10 large pizzas, thats a 8-10 weeks of eating...think about it.

They give you an introduction to just about every thing you can think of in ASP.NET. The big problem though is the chapters do not give nearly enough details. They give you an overview, maybe 1-2 very simple examples, and that's it! If you are creating a web app for business purposes you will surely encounter many ASP issues that are NOT addressed in this book. In the end, you will end up buying 2-3 more books to make up for the lack of details in this one, therefore I would advise to pass on this book.

I have to say I'm rating this product without completly reading the whole thing, that said... I can say the book is a real useful tool to introduce you into the basics of dotNET programing.

I've programming in VBscript (ASP) pages for years, and I've been meaning to start with the dotNET stuff for quite a bit now. This book is writen in the same way as all for dummies books, very easy to follow, and very straight forward, however it's exactly about what the title says: a reference.

To actually learn dotNET programming from zero, you have to learn a hell of a lot of stuff! Thats why this book is so good. If you have never programmed before and want to jump in to the dotNET world, this book provides you with the basics of almost everything you need. BUT this is the thing: You will be a bit confused if you don't know any programming at all and you start reading from the beggining, for its been perfect so far, but for newbies I guess it would be confussing so you will find your self skipping to later chapters to get some introduction into HTML or Visual basic.net or C#. The book will save you a lot of time and money if you have some basic knowledge of HTML and server side programming, but if you none at all I would start with the Visual Basic or C# part, or even HTML if you need it.

So the conclusion is It's a very useful compilation of 8 books that you would normally buy separatly if you had NOOO IDEA at all of developping websites with programming languajes. If you have some basic knowledge you will probably not read all of it, but hey! its a reference book for dummies! So as I said, pretty good buy and very complete. Of course you will need to get other docummentation in order to get a higher knowledge of decent dotNET programming.

One thing i noticed is that the main code examples are in both languajes C# and VB.net but sometimes it only mentions the C# cases, so it seems its more focused to this languaje.

Saved me some money combining several books. Easy to read and understand.

Very well organized book for starter.

Reason giving only 4 stars is while the first few chapters has both C# and VB source codes, when it gets to later advanced topics, only VB codes are available.

My company throws different projects in my lap and I have to scramble to learn new technology in order to meet the deadline.
I was very impressed on how this book helped set up things I needed in Asp.net.
Easy to find things and very easy to follow with plain explanations.
ANd, with C++ and VB reference, I was very pleased.
It might not have ALL the answers, but no book ever does.
As a beginner, I was very pleased.

Bill Evjen, one of the most prolific writers on all things ASP.NET, presents his latest technical literary offering with his overview of the Beta 1 release of ASP.NET 2.0. I've been playing with ASP.NET 2.0 since the early alpha bits, and I got a lot of out of this title.

Admittedly not a primer for the .NET neophyte, Bill dives right into the major changes in the architectural, infrastructure and syntactical concerns facing next-gen web developers. The book is a quick read, containing 16 succinct but not light chapters on the major areas of building and administering ASP.NET web applications. Although the book takes a slight slant towards Visual Basic .NET, nearly all the code samples are presented in both VB .NET and C#.

The book's high points, in my humble opinion, are evident in the "Membership and Role Management", "Personalization", "Additional New Controls" and "Changes to 1.0 Controls" chapters, being an outstanding breakdown of V2's improvements and new features for those respective topics.

Also to be appreciated is a great compendium featuring the new languages shipping with both VB .NET 8.0 and C# 2.0, including new enhancements to both languages like generics, partial classes and anonymous methods. He also breaks down new language-specific improvements, such as VB .NET's new keywords and C# iterators.

In criticism, I would have liked to see a discussion of authoring the revamped custom control development model, which the book didn't cover. But in Bill's defense, that respective programming convention isn't quite finished yet. The only other thing lacking would be more descriptive ASP.NET 2.0 APIs, which is usually a hallmark of Wrox-produced texts (the only area to get such treatment in this title is the WebParts/Portal Framework APIs). But then again, moving towards more declarative programming is one of V2's goals, so this may be intentional.

With the exception of Bill looking a bit harried on the cover, it's a masterful work: well-rooted in the ASP.NET fundamentals while accommodating advanced topics, accompanied by relevant, code-heavy examples, all written in Bill's very appreciated friendly voice, with the right timely intermingling of humor.

Bravo and cheers, Bill! Great work!

The book has 15 chapters and they are wisely categorized, starting from an introduction to ASP.NET 2.0 and why was it needed with some of its new features at a glance, it also discusses Visual Studio 2005 IDE enhancements and the new server controls like Grid View and Details View controls for effective display of information. It also has a chapter dedicated to Personalization and Membership and Role Management which is an awesome new feature.

It also discusses Web Parts and Portal Framework and some of the language enhancements in VB 8.0 and C# 2.0. The book also features SQL cache invalidation and its benefits, lastly it gives us an insight into the additional new controls shipped with ASP.NET 2.0 like Mutliview & View Server controls and Wizard Server control.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone seriously thinking to know more about ASP.NET 2.0 but note that this book was written for Beta 1 of ASP.NET, therefore there are some changes in the Beta 2 for example Directory Naming Changes and Compilation Model Changes, visit Updated Changes for Beta 2 and Features postponed for ASP.NET 2.0 Beta 2 for more information.

Happy reading!

Note that this is a book based on the Beta release of the software. Usually, emphasize usually, Microsoft Beta software is actually pretty far along and most of the changes from Beta to production are really just bug fixes and not changes in the look, feel, and functionality of the product. But this is not to guarantee that changes won't be included in the final release.

The biggest change I can see in ASP.NET 2.0 is on their approach to eliminate much of the intense coding that ASP.NET required. ASP.NET was quite verbose - doing a program was rather like writing War and Peace, and you had better be exactly right in your spelling, grammer, and punctuation. The goal was to reduce the amount of code needed by two thirds. And it appears that they've accomplished this.

The next major point seems to be that ASP.NET is integrated more closely with the rest of .NET. You use Visual Studio 2005 to build any type of .NET component, including ASP.NET. When microsoft says Integrated Development Environment, they mean it. All of their applications are tied together, some loosely, some more tightly, and the indications are that in the future they will be much more tightly.

All in all, this book is just what it says, a Beta Preview. It presumes some understanding of version 1, and tells you what's happening in version 2. It is amazing to see the amount of access and availability to resources within Microsoft that Mr. Evjen had to produce this book

This is a very well written guide to the new features in ASP.NET 2.0. The new controls are covered in depth, as are portals and personalization. Themes and skins are given their own chapter. The book is code and screenshot heavy. Exposition is kept to the bare minimum and sometimes less. The material is also terse and advanced enough to only be suitable for those who are familiar with ASP.NET 1.0.

I was unimpressed by this book. MSDN documentation was 10x better, they failed to include any reference to Remote Scripting or Callback methods, they didn't add in any reference of how to use client side script handlers or a number of features you would expect that are included in 2.0. If you want an update to all the past controls that you already know then this is great, if you want to delve deeply into the advanced new features of ASP.NET 2.0 then I don't recommend this. The author also is obviously a VB developer but pads the book by using a generic converter for most of his code, quite a poor display in my opinion.