Active Books

This book is an excellent buys. He goes over everthing in details.

The code samples arent all there but If you buying a book for code samples surf the web and save your money.

He beautifully describes every single aspect of .NET. Anyone who says that book is anything less of excellent needs thier head examined.

If you need code write it yourself and use the book as a guide. The way computer books are intended.

Nick

Just plain horrible. You'll find some code.... after flipping 40 pages or so.

If you are new to ASP.NET, this is not a good book for you. I don't understand why the author did not have the actual code in the download samples. If he don't want to share his code, why bother to write the book? We the beginners need to have the actual code to play with it, not just reading the examples!!!

I was hoping for something more along the line of Murach's ASP.NET with VB.NET where the examples are done using the IDE. That's why I never cared to much for Petzoid, except in the very beginning when all there was was Quick C for Windows. Murach's C# book is great if you just want to do Windows apps, but they do not cover ASP.NET using the language. I'm really sorry I spent the money on this book.

It seems crazy to resort to what could be line edited code when you have a very powerful tool.

Look, I've been programming for 20 years now, and I have read my fair share of books on the topics. ASP.NET is a new environment to me, but it's not foreign. I understand the concepts and I understand OOP.

My gripe with this book is this, his code samples on page 800 reference code written on page 400, which means you have to read all 1100+ pages to understand what he's talking about at any given point. You can't just flip open to a section on the topic you want and read.

Additionally, the title of the book is "Programming Microsoft ASP.NET" and it contains over 1100 pages. I would think that some portion of that would be dedicated to developing web applications.

To be fair, he does offer some insite on the topics of IIS, security, server processes, XML, the file system, extending controls, mobile compatibility, etc. etc.

But, he simply dances around the things that are really core to developing a web based application. His primary focus is on presenting data, without presenting ways to interact with it. Just being able to present data, without the ability to interact with it is not an application, it's a brochure.

Highly recommend the book - I have owned it for five years. I have trouble understanding books on computer languages, but this one makes sense. I had some HTML and database background, but no ASP. With the help of the book I created a small auction web site that was used as part of a charity fund raiser at work. Also used the principles on a couple other websites.

The book may be a little outdated - I am now looking for an ASP.NET book and I plan to find one from Nicholas Chase.

I found this book very helpful. It walks you through a real world application teaching you the concepts that you need to write good programs. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn ASP in a fast, step-by-step, fun and easy way. Every page counts. The author does not waste time giving long and confusing descriptions. This is one of the best books for the beginner and someone who has experience and wants to improve.

This one is a great example of a great tutorial book on a functional project from the ground up.
It walks you through all the way to a complete project you can feel comfortable with as a beginner in no time.
Highly recommended for any ASP novice.

If you are not familiar with ASP at all, this book might helpful to you. The best part of the book is it cover lots of things about ASP. Starting from writing a simple message on screen, up to creating an online store.
But all the code samples full with typos and errors. And after you finish half of the book, you are starting to code your own way.
Writer underestimates SQL language. He even says "UGLY SQL Code" and he types 15 lines of code, which you can accomplish same thing with 3-4 lines of SQL code, if you can create tables, choose column types and attributes wisely.
I bought this book, I am not fully satisfied but I am not dissapointed either.
My recommendation is, if you wanna buy this book don't pay for new one, buy a used one instead. Like me :)

This book is ONLY good if you want a jest of what ASP is about. But forget it if you are going into heavy ASP programming. It skims through the important to ASP and it leaves out many essential details. Even if you are beggining ASP it is worth getting a more complete book.

If you are looking for a beginners book, this is not for you. This is for intermediate to Advance level users. The text is explained very well - gives you a feeling that the author not only knows the subject but also knows how to teach it which is what you want in a book.

In depth discussion on most important features of ADO.NET and ASP.NET. Buy it and enjoy it if you are a professional developer. Don't buy it if you don't know anything.
It's a shame to give this book less than 5 stars.

This is not an intermediate book:

The author knows what he is talking about. Perhaps he made it overly complex, he goes in to great detail and some of it is overkill. I started reading it and I knew that I needed to get another book that simplifies some of the subjects and I would use this book when I need to get to the gritty details. I was rather disappointed that there was no Visual Basic .NET code. The author clearly is a C# expert. I may change my review once I read the whole book, I am sure I will appreciate his thoroughness once I have a grasp of ASP.NET.

This is quite a good book on real techniques to solve real problems. It's still going to be useful if you use for you're development third party controls and frameworks, you still will find valuable information inside. I wouldn't recommend it for the very beginner that wants a Learn-This-In-1-Hour book (and keep yourself in the ignorance :-)).

For anybody else with certain degree of familiarity with the .Net environment, the book is going to be extremely useful.

It's pretty clear that the author (Dino Esposito) knows the subject--he just can't seem to put it down on paper.

He has the habit of raising a question at the beginning of a paragraph, working his way around it for several semi-relevant sentences before finally saying what he means. It always left me thinking, "For Pete's sake, if that's what you wanted to say, then why didn't you just say it?" Or worse yet, he'll just meander off without ever really resolving the question at hand.

There are some good ideas in the book. In fact, it's really more of a loosely organized collection of things you can do with ASP.NET and ADO.NET. Unfortunately there are few concrete examples so you are going to need another book if you want more than an overview of developing .NET web apps. The book could more accurately be titled, "Some things you could do with ASP.NET and ADO.NET if you had a good book to work with". But this isn't it. Sigh.

And a little pet peeve for books from Microsoft Press: OK, you don't have to focus on non-MS technology, but geeze, don't pretend they don't exist. The chapter on "Interoperability" discussed *only* COM/ADO.

So, keep looking if you are really interested in "Building Web Solutions with APS.NET and ADO.NET."

I am relatively new to trap shooting. This book was just a compendium of useless ideas that clutter the brain and degrade shooting. It astounded me that a subject as inherently simple as trap shooting could be so massively over-complicated in such a fashion.

Do not buy the book. It is a waste of money and time.

There are mixed reviews and this is a preliminary critique as I have not read the book entirely. I will have a look at Costas points particularly, when I do so.

We all know there is a learning curve in trap shooting as in everything else. In the interests of helping someone or one's self much advice and criticism is given by shooters better than the shooter. What really bother's me is the relying of a bird being consistent...what is it with this sport which demands that the target be predictable...is that sport?

When I watch AA's I see basic faults which poise them on the edge of failure ..and I see them miss shots and I wondered why....??

They shoot better than I do and hold cups, pots, certificates, medallions and sponsorships ..but there is something beyond that level, beyond Olympic levels ..elusive, barely touched, not comprehended.

Perhaps like show jumping where one sees for the most part a sack of potatoes with arms and legs sawing on the reins and misdirecting the horse, they are hopeless jumpers in reality which doesn't say much for the lower grades of jumpers.......or shooters if a comparison is made.

The top levels at any individual sport are not the top at all but simply the best at what is called "the correct way". Trap shooting may be the same..the top guys are the tops at a certain system....thus the variables plaguing the new chum.

Immediately I got into this Russel book I realised this is an intellectual writing. This author is not a mantra chanting expert at dummy sucking but the possessor of a mind which understands the reality, passes through the looking glass and returns intact.

I recognise the book's systems and the approaches which I have worked out through hard experience ...but much more as well but which lies ahead of me. Ridiculed for shooting full /extra full,I see this author comprehends precisely why I do.

There is much comment about the gun "it's a gun and not a rifle"...but in actual fact most hits are almost misses!!...accidental hits. One can shoot a rifle two eyes open...the trick is to have the brain know what part of what is seen is the critical point for squeezing the trigger.

To drive one's self to shoot a narrow diameter, through full/extra full choking and shoot spot on..is the absolute level which beats just "a hit". In general even champions will say ..you are an idiot...use 3/4-1/2, scores are what is important and of course they are but there is a dimension beyond scores which come from seconds and "almost missed"..in my view, rarely understood.

Imagine if you or the best were shooting a .22 at the bird...how many experts and world champions would hit it? Extrapolate that..if one can shoot a narrow pattern to powder the birds time after time after time then that person s an accurate shooter. Shooting is essentially based on foot positon when it comes to consistancy...like all base mounted guns a predictable swivel is essential.

I really cannot comprehend how top shooters expect targets to be consistent, that's robot minded stuff. A recent report on an Irish competition referred to an erratic bird causing a champion to miss. In my view an expert shooter isn't one who has memorised every which way,and hits the bird so long as it is in the approved path but the shooter who is truly free and follows the bird wherever it goes.

I look forward to having the books delivered so that I can peruse the interesting mind of the writer at my leisure. One should read a paragraph at a time then lean back, close one's eyes and digest and visualise the material. One then needs to assimilate the information in one's shooting.

Nothing is less productive that experts who don't understand human response, the effect of the unconscious on the shooter, but expect one to follow a pattern they promote....it may get top results but it isn't becoming a top shooter.

There are so many variables. The sox are too tight, the clown alongg side you sights his broken gun at your target, shoes are not comfortable, variable,sunlight has one's graded glasses going beserk, eyesight plays tricks...and so on...the author has answers, in fact he is, to repeat myself, an intellectual writer.

As breathing is a problem for me I work on that...it makes a huge difference. The author knows it. Reducing the field of vision by squinting my left eye makes a huge difference..the author knows it. Visualising the hit is not so simple as one can be distracted...so it has to happen before the concentration exclusion of thinking about it..thinking about it is "static". The author knows it.

Of course many will not understand where his head goes but that is their sad loss. Verbose??(verbage is mentioned whatever that is..!??) ...well, any teacher worth two bob knows one reinforces and then explores, reinforces, reinforces, checks the response..then explores further when the class is ready to move forward.

In my view this book and its companion "Precision Shooting" have no choice but to be good because of the writer's intellectual and thus realistic co-ordination and timing, allowing some things to be training and others to be "unconscious responses". He allows hi readers to learn to grasp the merging of the shooter with the whole field.

Like the late JD Wilton, the brilliant Australian horse trainer,the author will be misunderstood by most people, the so called "racing experts" simply because "they don't get it"...but that has nothing to do with the correctness of the method.

In part that is very understandable as there is so much inconsistency ineducation, the initial education which introduces the brain to new thoughts.Lie JD Wilton he may not become worth hhis value but his legacy will be valued in gold bars...by a few.

Any way, use a system to realise the value of this soft covered jewel.Read the book in small doses if you feel resistant to intellect and to its reality, you can then either accept of reject the report.

So much hogwash is directed at the amateur shooter that reality sounds bizarre..but people genuinely try to help a person out.!!

One day there may be better books on shooting ..I accept that...but right now, these two books, Precision Shooting and are the "ants pants", but not now..

I also accept the criticism about diagrams being at the rear of a book..truly that is a pain in the neck but better than having it one page away rather than havng the text and photos interlaced..or to have detailed "fold outs".

In general reference books are edited by moderately competent people and perhaps cost was a factor...though that is no excuse in my mind to have a reader runnng all over a book to get continuity.

On the other hand illustrations can be a distraction to continuity of written concepts. Somewhere in there the publishers ought to have the decency to have blank pages scattered among photos or two sided illustrations rather than giving the reader a seemingly eternal search for information sustinence and security concerning the subject.

It's not so very hard to merge one's self in with the author but it does require the setting aside of prejudice and ingrained thinking.If you let this book absorb you the rest will follow.

When I read the book fully I'll give a proper review....however at this early stage, I highly recommend it...cheers Tony

Nothing special in this or his other book. I have been trapshooting for a couple of years and really didnt find anything in either of the authors books that I haven't already learned just from shooting or other books that are out there. I looked on the ATA website to see the authors averages but could not find a listing for him so it kind of makes me wonder just how much actual experience the author has. To me that is important as there are a lot of opinions from the author in the book that are hopefully backed by experience and not just someones own personal theories. I would recommend spending your money getting lessons/books from an accomplished, well known shooter rather than on this book.

This book is by far the best how to book I have ever
read. It has more info on attitude that I have ever come
across. Should be read by everyone that has anything
to do with sports!

This book was over the top, I wish it had more pictures to show a shooter what it could look like and I wish it had more info about the 27 yard line shoots but I see James has put that in another book. I give this book a 6 and if the scale went to 10 I would give it a 10, a lot of shooters should read this.
Thanks James,
Bubba

This book covered a lot of information. I haven't taken the exam yet so I really can't say if the book helps in that perspective. I was able to follow a lot of the exercises. The book was written well in understandable terms and it is our text for a networking class at school. I would say that after reading this book I have a much better idea of what W2K server has to offer.

Sorry, but I still haven't received the books I purchased I really want you to give me a reply because I have already paid my credit card debt.

This book is very wordy and has several instances of inaccurate information and typo's that make for difficult reading. The test questions in the book and on the CD are mostly ambiguous and often don't give enough information to properly answer the questions. Although I did pass the test, it was mostly because of experience, not because I read this book.

This book contains as many mistakes as the Windows 2000 Professional book written by these same useless Shinder clowns. After reading the first 3 chapters I realized I was wasting my time reading this muddled garbage and threw the book in the trash where it belongs. I have ordered the Microsoft Training Kit to study for the 70-215 exam. Most of this book is an exact copy of the Windows 2000 Professional book - they haven't even bothered to replace all the "Windows 2000 Professional" parts with "Windows 2000 Server" that they've copied.

After using a Cisco Press book to study for the CCNA exam, using this book to study for the 2K Server exam was a BIG disappointment. This book was not written by an author and it shows. It was mashed together using material from no less than 10 'contibutors' and some of them have very poor writing skills (which apparently the copy editors don't care to compensate for).

The book starts out stating how important it is to know the 'why' as well as the 'what' due to the new format of the 2K exams, yet the book is filled with instances where a concept is introduced never to be explained (command-line switches, using CD-ROMs with RIS, etc., etc.). This tends to raise more questions than it answers and only confuses the reader. I wouldn't have the slightest idea how to correctly answer an exam question based on the way the information was presented in this book.

The material on boot and system file locations was so confusing and poorly written that I e-mailed one of the editors for clarification. (They agreed with the concerns I expressed about the presentation of the material.) I've been working with 2K Server for about 6 months and have installed my share of servers so it's not like I'm not familier with the material. If it confuses me I pity those without much experience who try and use this book to pass the exam.

If you look at it from the proper perspective, this is a great book. The author describes the extreme. I know a guy who was the opposite extreme. He brought 3 pairs of shoes to the top of Half Dome. Most people are somewhere in the middle of those two extremes, and some people are more extreme than either end.

This is a good book, especially for the beginner hiker. Read what it has to offer, and find your own place in the backpacking world.

This book has some useful information in it as long as you are reading it with a critical mind. Each person pursuing "ultralight" is going to have preferences regarding trade-offs and items that cannot be left behind. Ryel prefers to do without the extra ounces of books on the trail, but needs his double-wall tent in inclement weather. Others will carry only the shelter of a 12 oz. sil-nylon tarp and afford themselves the luxury of reading material.

It's easy to see how the author arrived at his own conclusions and his recommendations do make sense, but they are not the only way. Opinions are good and the author doesn't hide his, however, a fairer and perhaps purer treatment of going ultralight should probably address more directly how to get as light as possible and then discuss the trade-offs. For example, it makes little sense to me that 4+ lb. double-walled tents should end up getting the thumbs up (because they shelter you properly in rain and don't have as many problems with condensation... everyone knows that), while well-ventilated single-wall tents are discouraged and lightweight tarps only get honorable mention toward the end of the chapter. This is just one example where the author reveals that, at the time of writing, he was ultralight in spirit, but only a lightweight in practice. I will carry a 1 lb. tarp and fuss with it a bit every night if it means shaving 3+ lbs., getting to add back a small luxury item, and being connected with nature even during a rain storm. Ryel confesses to wanting to sleep under the stars every chance he gets, hates fussing with improvised shelters, and had at least one bad experience getting wet under a tarp, so now it's "real tents" or nothing. You get my point.

Even so, most areas of importance get at least some attention from the author and you get enough information to form your own opinions. This book is better than some, maybe not as good as others. Not the last word in going ultralight, but enough information to make the book purchase worthwhile, especially if you have an afternoon or two to reflect on the author's opinions and see how they compare to your own. I definitely liked this book better than Don Ladigan's "Lighten Up! A Complete Handbook...", which was far from "complete" and should have been subtitled "A Beginner's Guide". I would buy this book again, hopefully on discount.

We were interested in getting into backpacking and were given this book for Christmas. As folks who knew nothing about backpacking, the product info in this book has been very useful. It is obvious that this book will become quickly outdated, but for us it has been quite useful to understand what we need and what is available.

This book goes over the writrers gear list of his commercially bought products that he cut the labels off of and shortened the straps to lighten the load. Most of the info in this book is stated on the internet in better wording and a more practical manner. Much of this book is just his opinion of how things might work because he never enven tried the products. From my understanding he doesn't even have any serious experience under his belt. He has hiked several hundred miles but never completed any long distance trails. His biggest achievement is that he attempted the PCT. Save your money and do some online research or if you want to buy a book, find a copy of Ray Jardine's "Beyound Backpacking."

I purchased this book after having heard good things about it. What I got was one of the biggest disappointments of my life as far as books go. Kestenbaum has a right to hike however he wishes, but to pass off his personal ideas as the "one true way" is absolute bull!

First, he talks about how no extra ounce hitches a ride in HIS pack. He religiously cuts every tag and extra strap off of every piece of gear he owns. He carefully selects his gear. Yet, he still maintains a pack of over 12 pounds. The vast majority of people who consider themselves ultralight maintain a base pack weight of UNDER 12 lbs, not over it! Kestenbaum continuously skips over gear that many ultralighters love, and gives preference to his personal selections, despite the extra weight involved. Yet remember, no extra ounce hitches a ride in HIS pack!

Second, and this is the worst of the book in my opinion, is that the section on meditation (yep, there's a section on meditation) is longer than the sections on hygiene and water treatment! Please Mr. Kestenbaum, explain to me how meditation is more important to backpacking than hygiene and meditation?

Kestenbaum's work has some useful information, but not much. In truth, the vast majority of the useful information is available on the internet for no money. Of the ultralight authors out there, Ryel Kestenbaum shouldn't even be mentioned. His base weight exceeds the limits of what is considered ultralight, his philosophy is pointless to ultralight backpacking, and his information is weak at best. Money spent on this book would be best spent elsewhere.

Although it spends a lot of time talking about OpenLDAP, the version is covers is outdated. I would also have hoped to find more information about how to choose which schema's. The email section does not mention the different attempts at standardizing a schema.

I am giving this 3 stars because it does a fair job of explaining basic LDAP structure. It does a fairly good job on administration of just LDAP but LDAP is usually used as a base upon which other applications rely upon.

If you are trying to integrate something with LDAP, as I was, then this is not the book for that. Also, this book is a little dated as it does not cover openLDAP 2.4. SLURPD is no longer used for replication in the latest openLDAP 2.4 releases...

The author does make an attempt at application integration but does an extremely poor job of it. For example, on the topic of Replacing NIS there is absolutely no mention of NSCD (Name Server Caching Daemon) which is included on every major Linux distribution. If you are integrating Samba with openLDAP, then it's crucial that you understand how NSCD works as it can cause Samba to break yet all the Linux tool-sets continue working.

If you have this book, then on page 113, the author talks about optimizing nss_ldap searches which is good. But later in the book on page 168 on the topic of Samba integration, there is no mention of the fact that you may, and most likely, need to revisit the contents of page 113 again. Samba and associated tools, by default, create a Computers container to hold computer accounts. If you implemented the searches as described on page-113 alone, you find you can not join workstations to a samba domain unless you also include a line that reads:

nss_base_passwd ou=computers,dc=plainjoe,dc=org?one

I sense that some attention to detail is lost considering the 2nd half of the book is on application integration and things like I just explained are left out. I suppose one could argue that you should have learned this after reading page 113 but it would have saved me some time if it was mentioned...

I would recommend this book as a companion to other openLDAP books that do a better job of covering application integration. I give this 3 stars because the Active Directory coverage and reference seems pretty good and the coverage of .conf file settings seems good.

I'm happy with this book. It's a little out of date and the details are getting a bit, shall we say, "off". However, it is a much better set of documentation that rummaging through the RFCs and paltry OpenLDAP README content :)

This book is written a while ago and it definitely needs update. It frequently refers to RFCs and states "blah blah is not yet accepted as standard" but probably it is accepted as one by now.

The organization of this book is a little chaotic. When I read it from the chapter 1, introduction, it was still not clear what I was getting into. After reading it all, I still think the introduction was not very helpful. I don't think reading this book from cover to cover all through would help a lot.

Nonetheless, after reading through this book with actual practice (installing OpenLDAP and running the examples as the book illustrated), I got good grasp of the concepts of LDAP and understanding how it works.

I like its practical examples and connection to other applications.

In conclusion, I feel I spent my money well on this book.

Another great O'reilly book. O'reilly, IMHO are the best technical books.

After having taken the (very) expensive classroom training, attendance at seminars/conventions, I have come to the conclusion that there will "Never" be a book or set of books that will cover what someone needs in order to fully understand the workings of DNN without paying the extreme prices for official DNN corp training and support. Too many "secrets" exist within DNN to be published in printed material. Professional skinning results require support and extra training (even to comply with published HTMl/XHTML standards), let alone ADA compliance.

DNN may be "Free", but the training, seminars, books and paid for support are NOT. Beware "Free" Gifts. The DNN corporation is making their money off of support for a product that doesn't even rate within the top 30 content management systems.

If you are hoping to get help installing DotNetNike you will be disappointed in this book.

An interesting enough background history of DNN with a bit of technical information thrown in and put into context. But don't buy this book if you expect it to help you build your own modules.

hard to read, not complete, messy but still something that brings you forward when you have no access to other resources.
Still compared with what you can download for free from the DNN homepage (especially the training videos) this book is a waste of money and time for the novice as well as for the experienced professional.

When I first say DNN and the interface I was impressed until I tried to actually use it. The book is by far poor and riddle with mistakes and a discombobulated mess. I would not recommend anyone using DNN or buying the book.

This book doesnot give much information on Java script and VB script. It is Best book for learners of VB script,ASP,Java script.

This is book is very useful for the beginners. If you want to start ASP for the first time means surely this book will do all for you.

hi my friend : how are you ? my E-mail adreess is : ( hsas86@hotmail.com ) my mobail no is: ( +971504554305 ) thanks for coming to my site

The book begins by explaining how to set up IIS and NT. That's nice, but, if I wanted to know that I would have bought IIS Unleashed and NT Server Unleashed.

This book also contains JScript (not JavaScript) and HTML references, in addition to its VBScript references. This is good if you're just getting into web authoring. But, for those of us who are already familiar with these and are looking for a definitive language, DOM, and ASP Component reference, this is not the book.

It gives some pretty good examples of some intermediate ASP techniques. However, this book's focus is NOT on ASP, but general page setup and development using ASP to spice it up a bit. This is an excellent book for beginners, just delving into ASP.

If your looking for straight ASP don't buy this book. This book spends a big chuck on HTML, then SQL (just straight SQL not via ASP pages), and it explores VBScript and JScript. It makes a nice over-all reference book but it would be disapponting if ASP is all you wanted. I look at this book as part one of two. The next book to get is Active Server Pages 2.0 Unleashed. ASP 2.0 book ignores all the basics of this first ASP book and dives into the fun stuff. But if your new to ASP and VBScript definitely get the Active Server Pages Unleashed book first. This book is probably my number one reference book as it covers a lot of material.

This book has by far the only decent coverage of OLE DB using ATL in a book that is currently on sale.
and it is good on covering C++ ASP related code.

There is a problem with some of the code examples in Chapter 7. There are some minor dicrepancy in the some of the earlier code. I went back and checked the code in 7 again and the download code will not work and the code described would have to be modified in order to work. I consider this an egregious error on the part of the publisher and authors, especially since they've had more than 2 years to correct the mistake. I did find some of the information in some of the other chapters useful, but when sections are this bad, I begin to question everything else. I also examined wrox web site and found it humourous that the only errata given for a 2 year old book is only 8 days old.

It is really a Beginning Book although it doesn't really fit the title. Alot of folks will probably be scared away by the treatment that they put on ATL and OLEDB providers but i love it! Why? Becoz i've read Grime's Beginning ATL 3 COM and it was really painful reading but these guys made the concept seemed EASY!

I like their walktruhs on RDS, ADSI and MSMQ, really neat. Something for me to get started on concepts which I am new to. Their treatment on MTS seemed like they pilfered the chapter from another wrox book - Professional VB MTS which covers the topic slightly in detail.

Otherwise, this is truely a Beginning Book, but a caveat to VB and ASP only programmers as they will find this book too hard. Wish that Wrox come up with another book called Beginning COM ASP with ATL. Which will be really be great with the way they handled the topic.

I read this book and then the amazon reviews...I have no idea where the negative reviews are coming from. I had no problem getting the code to work. If you are an ASP developer looking to write components, this book has what you need. You will learn how to write your own VB and C++ components and have them connect to the backend with (or without) MTS as desired. You need to know C++ (of course) and some COM to get the most out of the C++ components section...which has a nice coverage of the various threading models. While not as theoretical as some COM books, it gives you enough COM to get your components up and running...If you are developing ASP components, this is the book.

If there is one thing that I hate about computer books is that a great deal of effort is spent at the front of the book thanking the cat, the dog, the parents, the brothers and sisters, the goldfish for all the help and inspiration. Then they move on to the publisher, the agent, the technical editors etc.etc.

Same with this book. So I read the boring introduction. The usual story. I move on to the first chapter. Uninspired but interesting. First stupid example out the chute and it doesn't work.

And you know why. I will tell you why because all those people in the intro didn't do their JOB of checking the examples. They become buddy-buddy with the authors and out goes the critical and detached supervision that is needed.

I have a million DLLs, OCXs, ActiveXs on my PC that no one else has. But if I write a book, I MUST write it on a PC that has none of that. I can ASSUME nothing. Absolutely nothing.

It took me two days of hard yakka, reading the entire MS Scripting Technologies site to figure out what those three stooges forgot to mention. A great many things that they had already preconfigured on their PCs, but did bother telling the rest of us.

The technical editors being buddy-buddy with the the authors just get the heads-up on what they need to install. Oh Yes, everything works fine. Stuff the reader. Who cares about the reader ?

Well the reader is the stupid schmuck that goes out and buys your tripe. Think about that next time you publish a book.

If I could give this book a minus 5 stars I would.