Active Books

The book is an awful mishmash of ADSI programming concepts. Being a developer with a strong C++ background, I found it very confusing to follow the samples presented in the book, which are written in VB, VBScript, VBA and C++. The last straw for me was a VBA sample for Excel.

One of the topics that is covered poorly is property cache. The differences between cached and non-cached properties are layed out without any consistency and complicate the matter even more.

Besides, constant references to Spice Gilrs and Boy Zone make the book laughable to say the least.

The bottom line---it takes much more to write a good ADSI book than a couple of months of surfing documentation and putting it all together in a book.

If you need to learn ADSI fast and to implement it fast and with a good understanding, You're in the right place. Mr. Robinson as usual by the way, is a fun writer simply take the advantage on that and don't waste your time in MSDN as i did. I said to myself OK that shouldn't be that complicated it is just an Interface to tree... Well it is just an interface but now i understand how it works. I also like the mix and much of VB and C which gives one a good understanding of COM's back house work.

I first read this book to teach myself ADSI and the book really covers all the topics required to writte an application related to Active Directory (What I did using VB). You certainly can expect to cut and paste coding examples into your own application but all the requirements from a sound understanding are there. In summary I found the book very usefull and it is a musst to understand all the piece of code that you could find around.

This book provides a little of everything that is ADSI. From programming in Visual Basic, to Scripting, to C+. And from Active Directory, to LDAP, to Microsoft Management Console. I would recommend this book if you know alot about programming, a little about ADSI, and you are looking for sign posts to direct you along the way.

The main thing I garnered from this book is how many areas are directly or indirectly effected by ADSI. ADSI is not just for Microsoft Active Directory; ADSI supports LDAP and Novell NDS directories as well.

ADSI can be accessed using Microsoft COM+, OLE DB, or even ODBC. This book touches on each of these access methods, but not in great depth. For instance, the section on ADSI and Exchange Server, IIS, and Site Server, is a scant 30 pages.

"Professional ADSI Programming" is ideally suited as a roadmap to guide you to specific areas of ADSI development. You will need specific references, such as Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN), to provide the detail absent from this book.

At times the author gets side tracked from the topic he is trying to cover. This is more the fault of the editor than the author.

Its not a bad book if you are trying to get an overview of ADSI and have no prior experience with it but its certainly not the "professional" book it claims to be. The code snippets are amateurish. The editing is slipshod and there are several ambiguous sentences and even occasional grammatical errors. The code samples show you the very obvious things that you could learn by experimenting with the interfaces yourself. The author somehow does not seem to trust the intelligence of his readers and makes the samples repetitive - there are atleast a dozen samples that just iterate through various collection classes and spew stuff into a webpage. He also breaks off into frequent discourses about COM and ADO that are rather elementary. It would have instead been reasonable for him to just proceed on the presumption that we knew our basics on these subjects. Still its not a bad book for a novice to skim through.

1. Why do you need XML web services? More applications are moving to the web. Installation and configuration tasks are reduced to zero when using XML web services. Upgrades using Web services apply changes immediately. Virtually, every computer has a web browser, so client end software is not an issue. Applications using the Internet must connect to more logic and data separate across multiple machines.
2. XML web services use XML for data representation. XML data is transport over HTTP. It is easy to flow information through the firewall. You start by making some request from some client application. This triggers a response from the server. The requesting message carries information about the parameters required by the function. The web server initiates the function and returns the XML data. Http is not a proprietary data communication protocol like DCOM.
3. You can exchange messages using XML web services via HTTP-GET and HTTP-POST.
4. You must figure out what parameters to pass to the web service and you need to know what is to be returned.
5. Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI) provide a standard way to publish and discover information about XML.
6. Consuming XML Services: you don't have build XML web services to take advantage of what they offer. You may be only interested in consuming XML Web services. XML data is accessible through any client application.
7. The follow steps are required to consume an XML Web service: discover the XML web service, create a proxy class for the XML web service, make a reference to the proxy class, create an instance of the XML web service proxy class, and access the Webmethods in the XML Web service.

8. Public Sub Calculate_OnClick(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
Dim oService As New cMyService
txtOutput.Text = oService.Add(txtInput1.Text, txtInput2.Text)
end sub

Public Class cMyService
Inherits System.Web.Services.WebService

Public Function Add(ByVal a As Double, ByVal b As Double)
Return (a + b)
End Function
End Class


9. To create a web service, you need to create a web service class that derives from System.web.services.webservice. As you develop more and more XML web services for consumption, you'll see their power and utility withing the programming models you work with.
10. XML web services reuse capability will make them the building block components for web applications
11. XML web services can consume functions from other XML web service machines.
12. Web services are a stateless programming model. Each time a client invokes an ASP.NET web service, a new object is instantiated to handle the request. The object is destroyed after the method is called. Maintaining state information is done through either the Session object or the Application object.

I was studying for the Microsoft exam 70-310 on XML Web Services and they suggested this MS press book on web services, but the MS press book is ONLY in C# even though the exam they want you to take is for Web services in VB.NET! Had to return that book. I got this one instead. I was happy to see that this book covered XML Web services in both VB.NET and C# and I was able to use this book to study for my exam. Passed!

Excellent book on webservices. Chapter 23 was something I had never seen before. WSDL is used extensively in the book, and Chapter 23 shows how to build take a standard HTML page and turn it into a WSDL document. What does this get you? Now you can screen scrape HTML pages and access the data as a property of the WSDL Document. I had never seen this before. Totally cool and unique technique!!

Any book on ASP.NET will mention Web services development, but "XML Web Services for ASP.NET" is an entire book dedicated to explaining all of the different sub-areas within the technology platform. And very well done. It's written by everyone's friend in .NET, Bill Evjen, one of the most outspoken advocates of .NET technology around.

The book is outstanding and takes an in-depth look at XML Web services, and Microsoft's specific implementation of the paradigm. All of the major considerations are explained well and adequately to become productive in developing your own library of Web services, or by extending the functionality of your applications.

The book's tone is very friendly, and non-intimidating, so it's a very easy, quick read. Bill also uses lots of practical analogies to make the more complex topics relevant, so it's an added bonus that this book appeals to the beginning as well as the seasoned developer.

Bill discusses areas critical to a thorough understanding of WS technology using .NET such as SOAP, UDDI, remoting, security, authentication, performance, and client development for calling an XML Web service from an ASP.NET WebForm or Windows Form, VB 6.0 app, or an ASP 3.0 Web page. The book also features some really good appendices, especially those on .NET's Web service classes, and an XSD primer for schema development.

The book is not about ASP.NET development, and so providing the reader has some experience with building third-generation Web applications, gets right to the meaty stuff. The chapters are short and to the point, and Bill's overview of ADO.NET is one of the better ones I've read in recent times. The most outstanding thing to me is that Bill liberally uses real-world code samples, with all code presented in both Visual Basic .NET and C#. Snafus in the code are very minimal, and I know form personal experience that good ol' Bill is extremely available and answers all his e-mail...about anything.

However, the book's printed code samples (I haven't checked the downloadable source code from the publisher) tend to reflect code generated from Visual Studio .NET, which in my opinion become confusing and therefore more difficult to replicate in an IDE environment like Dreamweaver MX or ASP.NET Web Matrix or non-IDE environment like Notepad due to all of the proprietary code VS.NET generates, and in doing so, using code behind. It's been my experience that it's easier to go the other way - provide the raw code and leave it up to the developer to implement in whatever means they see fit.

Another thing I did not care for (some of you may agree, I'm assuming most may not) was the physiology of the book itself, which was beyond the author's reasonable control. The binding is very flimsy and the spine breaks without much trouble. The paper isn't very durable, and doesn't lay flat for very long. I hope Wiley Publishing take into consideration that books of this nature get used & abused for their content more than most, and consider making corrections in the book's composition to make them last longer.

But beyond this, the book is a must-have for a user group as it's cross-language, multi-developmental platform, multi-subject appeal make it applicable to many different levels of developers, and is great for team environments.

When I purchased this book, hope will find examples, information about Web Services to help my projects. But I only found identical MSDN information. I could not believe my eyes but several of sentences was same with MSDN. If you want to buy a Web Services book this should not be one. I have purchased several books on XML Web services and this one was the most identical (also just copy and paste) one.

I loved this book. It helped me to think deeply about what is right action. Over my last few years, my spiritual development through contemplation and meditation has caused me need understanding of how to act in ways that have deeper alignment and truth. This book helped me better understand this topic.

I would love to see someone like Eckhart Tolle write a similar book- speaking more to what we "do" after we raise our consciousness and reduce our ego.

Bring your highlighter...

This book helps to answer questions about your inner feelings, and is highly recommened for anyone.

In the last few decades a fair amount of attention has turned toward the so-called "inner journey" of Christian discipleship, as opposed to the mere externals of our "outer" journey. One thinks, for example, of the writings of Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen, and Richard Foster. Parker Palmer writes out of this genre, and takes as his starting point the many "monastic metaphors and practices" that inform the inner journey--silence, solitude, contemplation, centeredness, and the like (p. 1). But therein lies a Catch-22. Many of us lead such frenetic and harried lives that trying to appropriate these "inner" ideals becomes practically impossible, an unattainable gold standard, the result being feelings of failure, guilt, and unspirituality. Still, we rightly sense that there is something true and good about whatever it means to lead a "centered" life. Conversely, viewed from the energy of an outwardly active life, is not such silence and solitude really a thinly veiled form of escape, passivity and withdrawal? Or perhaps obsession with action is a diversion and ploy to avoid one's "real" self? Thus, the "tug-of-war" (p. 5) between the active and contemplative life, both of which demand our attention and both of which seem opposed to the other.

To move beyond this stalemate Palmer encourages us to understand contemplation (which he defines as unmasking illusions to reveal reality) and action not as contradictory opposites but as complementary poles of a paradox that we should hold in tension. Further, we all have unique callings from God and should strive to maintain our own integrity, whether that veers toward one pole or the other. After two introductory chapters, Palmer devotes one chapter each to six stories or poems that have helped him to tease out the relationship between inner wholeness and outer activity: (1) "Active Life" by Chuang Tzu, a fourth century BC Chinese Taoist, (2) "The Woodcarver" by Tzu, (3) "The Angel" by the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, (4) the temptation of Jesus in the desert, (5) the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000, and (6) a poem by the Guatemalan activist Julia Esquivel entitled "Threatened with Resurrection." Palmer is at his best, I think, when he reminds us how much we are obsessed with outcomes, the almost ceaseless efforts we make to prove and justify ourselves, our fears of failure rather than embracing the power that comes from being "dis-illusioned," the task of becoming our own true selves instead of allowing others to define us, moving beyond criticism and praise, and the like. This is the third book by Palmer I have read, and he repeats much of his material, but I have found that many of his stories, and his willingness to share his own personal story, encourage me to develop a centered self out of which I can be the unique, active disciple God has called me to be.

I am pleased to read of the struggles shared by the author and insights received into spirituality of those who are active faith workers like myself. Many friends with whom I have shared some of the insights contained in this book are thankful to know their faith is still in reach in the active and confusing culture in which they and we work and try to find our being.
Chaplain Joyce

I believe the words were 'narrow-minded religious zealot,' though I might prefer 'nearly as arrogant as he is ignorant' to describe the previous reviewer. He had nothing interesting or useful to say, and thus decided simply to be mean. I feel no need to defend Parker Palmer; I do, however, feel compelled to rebuke said reviewer, and to hope that his angry demons will be exorcised. If only our poor reviewer spent less time judging, and more time reading (and learning)...

I really like the book because of the many examples. Usually most programmers can figure how to 'make a few changes' so the code will do what they want. The book strikes a good balance in content volume by dividing the book into sections so the user can go directly to the section they need help in. I don't read computer books front-to-back, I read the parts I need to know, and this book fits the bill.

This book lacks structure, details and an editorial hand. You can buy better, cheaper.

The only thing this book is useful for is reference. Even then, it's very poor reference. The code samples are full of errors and inconsistencies. I would not recommend this book. You can get better learning and reference material online.

This book has already helped me with answering my quesrions of how to implement a database using ASP. Besides the mimor annoyances of typos here and there (should have edited better), this book is the one-stop resource for ASP Code

As stated in the other reviews, the book has it all. I am constantly finding myself flipping through the reference it contains. The index for the reference is categorized so efficiently it makes life much easier.

The sample code provided covers many commonly found areas of ASP development, and is self documenting. I am extremely satisfied with the content found within it and would recommend it to developers of any level of experience.

This is a pretty comprehensive book covering everything from equipment to wax to turns. It would be nice to have a easier method of learning how to turn, but the way presented here for turns is pretty complicated. Snowboarding is not too complicated so I do not understand why this book is so long.

I've returned that book, didn't like it. For beginners I recommend "GO SNOWBOARD" - better, simpler,cheaper,latest issue,instructional DVD included.

This book is decent, but the Illustrated Guide to Snowboarding is a much more in-depth and well written book. It is also more entertaining with funny drawings and tips. This book really only skims the surface on all the areas you need to start snowboarding.

This book is great for begginers and also explains advanced tricks and techniques like methods, spins, cliff drops, carving and explains a little about racing and competative snowboarding. It also gives you usefull info like what to eat before you go, warm-ups, getting on and off chairlifts, ect.

I really got alot out of this book, if you want to save yourself a beating on the run's this is for you!

A caveat: I don't care about the test. I was searching through lots of books for some information about creating a Windows server based network and this book really stood out. (I was setting up my first network and was lost trying to figure out some things.)

I know many or most of you only care about the test, but I am writing this to tell others that if you need a good book about infrastructure I think you may want to get this one.

Anyone who is seeking a Microsoft Engineering certification should obtain this book. In fact, the entire Sybex series of books are great.

The book is an easy read, which is good. You'll have an easy time getting through the questions, but when you go to take the test you'll fail. This book is no where a good match for the exam. I suggest this book for people who want to learn about Win2k3 AD, but if you're getting it to prepare for the test you should think twice. Nothing this book discuss could have prepared me for the test. Bummer.

You could definitely tell when they switched authors. There were two chapters when I could tell the author really didn't know the subject and was merely regurgitating information. I stopped midway through those chapters and skipped onto the next chapter. I later got the info I needed for Certificate Services and High Availability Services from Whitepapers and I also discovered the MS Press book on this test. It was much better. Reading the Sybex book I had very little confidence in the author. Reading the MS Press book I had complete confidence in the author.

For example in the Sybex book, when they were describing High Availability Services, I kept seeing a single point of failure. After a while I got disgusted and looked for better sources of information. I printed out the chapter from the MS Press book from Safari and my issue was addressed within a few pages. My point being is that the author of the MS Press book obviously knew how the brain of an IT person works and was able to answer my questions and concerns as they arose while reading. This was not the case in Sybex.

I would say the MS Press author definitely understood the subject and me (as an IT professional) much better.

This book will teach you the basics. iT does not prepare you for the test. I read the whole book cover to cover and understood it completely. The test is nowhere as easy as this books questions. It does not go into depth with scenerios that can be helpful. I recommend you get the microsoft books for this test. If you are currently working with 2003 it will help alot. but do not plan to only use this book unless you luck up and get the perfectly tailored test to what this books covers.

Nora Chawick (1891-1972) spent most of her life studying Celtic (or, modern conveyance, "Keltic") history. She wrote many books and articles on the topic and also delivered numerous lectures on the subject at renowned univesities throughout Great Britain.

For a work of non-fiction, this is a very fluid read. The subject is compelling and, here, Chadwick has given us a full account of pretty much all that is known of this fascinating culture of people. The Celts essentially displaced and or assimilated into the indigenous culture(s) of Ireland. They originated in Europe and their eventual migration(s) to the Emerald Isle is still, to a large degree, a subject of endless study.

Chadwick yields this essential history in terms and text that we can all follow. She punctuates her account with numerous bits of Celt trivia, such as: "...human sacrifice among the Celts, although of great ritual significance, may have been practised [Eng. sp.] more commonly at times of communal danger or stress, rather than as part of regular ritual observance."

Other interesting tidbits are more generally about Ireland and the today's Irish people who ultimately emanated from their ancient ancestors: "Irish ballads, unlike those of the rest of Europe, are hardly ever related in the third person... (the influence of "speech poems").

My 1997 college thesis, for which the university awarded me a second-place spot for "Thesis of the Year," focused upon the Celts. I relied heavily upon Chadwick as one of about 40 sources for that monograph and her coherence and credibility helped me greatly to see that voluminous project though to its successful conclusion.

Anyone can read this book and come away with both an enhanced knowledge of a little-understood culture and a general gratification for having read a brilliantly competent work of non-fiction.

I've heard a lot of criticism on this work: that is is confusing, jumbled, and out dated. But I personally have found it helpful in my studies, and enjoyable to read. However, for someone very new to the subject of the Celts, I'd recommend "Exploring the World of the Celts" by Simon James, instead.

The book is fairly comprehensive, commenting on the many sub-groups of the peoples contained in the word "Celtic". But herein lies the biggest flaw, in my opinion. It is all very well to recognize the Gauls, Galatians, Welsh, and Picts as Celtic, but there are differences in these groups that may have been overlooked too casualy in Chadwick's work. I've learned all too well, in the process of my own studies, that we cannot correctly assess certain characteristics as generally Celtic, nor can we judge one sub-group of the Celts by another. To do so is simply incorrect. We may make educated assumptions about the social structure of the Britons based on, for example, recorded i nformation from from Gaul, but this will not neccisarily be true. We can't assume that all Celts fought in mortal combat at feasts because Posedonius tells us that is a practice of the Gauls. And I think that this type of assessment is too common in Chadwick's work. Nevertheless, because I'm capable of picking instances like these out, for the most part, I wasn't hampered by the work.

Anothe criticism of this book is that it is fairly unorganized. One paragraph may be talking about the Dalriadic Scots and next about the Welsh under Roman rule. In this sense, I wasn't able to use the book much for quick references, and I found myself knee-deep in only somewhat relevent information when looking for specific information.

My last criticism of The Celts is the near total lack of citations and explanitory footnotes. I'm not fond of taking information on the author's word alone. Although, I suppose this is a fualt rather in the dating of the book, typical of other works put out in the same age. That does not excuse the many times I came to be asking myself about the source of the information Chadwick had given.

Despite my criticisms I did find the book enjoyable, easy to read, and helpful. It is more the type of book I'd pick up to read to brush up, rather than the type of book I'd pick up for reference or for details on a specific subject. The most thourough and well explained chapter in the book seems to be "The Celts in Europe". The intro by Barry Cunliff was also a nice addition.

There are a lot of good things about this book. It also has some flaws. For example the presentation and organization of the book could have been better. All of the same I consider it a good introduction. Chadwick and Cunliffe are two of the greatest living authors of Celtic history today and this book it certainly is head and shoulders above many of the books on the Celts out today that are full of misinformation and tall tales.
Recommended to the beginner.

Nora Chadwick is probably cited by every book on the Celts published since 1970. A lot of work has been done since then in archaeology and linguistics. Chadwick's view of the Celts is therefore a bit dated. She doesn't even examine Celtic architecture and technology in very great detail. It is now generally accepted that the Celts had a profound impact upon Roman technology and culture. The Romans didn't simply evict the Celts, but rather absorbed entire populations in Italy, Spain, Gaul, and Britain. Each absorption brought something new to the mixture. Each absorption drained the rich world of Celtic development of further resources. And current research shows that Chadwick's treatment of the Romans in the British isles is quite inadequate.

This book is best considered as an introduction to the profound reconsiderations of Celtic history and prehistory which the late 20th century produced. Modern scholarship often attempts to extend Chadwick's work, but sometimes invalidates it. Her book was profound and evocative in its day, but it is now little more than a testimonial to the state of Celtic research a generation ago.

The pictures are fine. But, this is a dated, poorly cited book. The chapters are choppy and incoherent in spots. There is no flow or chronological synthesis to this volume. Footnotes and a larger bibliography may have helped her case. The Celts were never a civilization. The word itself comes from the word for city.
Even archaeology magazine stated these tribes did not have cities.

The positive rev's of this book are grasping at wet straws.
Stephen Oppenheimer, Bryan Sykes, Malcolm Chapman, Simon James, and John Collis have all written far more well researched books that detail the Celts as an 18th century creation of the Romantic movement.
Neither this or even the far better Celtic books written by Barry Cunliffe have disproved the 5 authors I mentioned.

In recent decades the Celts have been the most overomanticized, overated, and written about people of the ancient world. Is it a coincidence that their followers have often demonized the other peoples of the ancient world to bolster the sagging image of this half mythical people?
At least Miss Chadwick spent little time doing that. I give it 2 stars.

My wife got me Outside Fitness for Christmas knowing I enjoy the magazine and am working on getting back into shape.
What she didn't realize is that I have actually been getting more and more disapointed in Outside magazine. Quality is slipping as they are trying to compete with various new "mens"magazines none of which appeal to me.
Well Outside Fitness is severely lacking too. It was a nice idea and could have been great. Also, this book like a previous reviewer has already said, could definitely use some heavy editing.
Be nice if it were like the old Outside magazine - Be nicer if Outside Magazine were like its old self!

Paul Scott is very thorough in this book describing the science behind functional training. The exercises are very useful for beginning a workout routine. For advanced people I recommend that you incorporate a few of the exercises into your routine as well. You'd be surprised at what a difference it makes.
A couple of the reviewers were bitching about some typos. Come on people this isn't English Comp class. Quit being so [...]. It's an interesting read and I highly recommend it.

As a mountain guide, I geuss I am more interested in the practical advice given in this book than whether it has enough slick style, perfect spelling, excellent grammar or impeccable editing. And really don't consider this book an excuse to ravage the Outside Magazine's style.
I have been using the original "Shape Of Your Life" workout that appeared in Outside Magazine for about 2 years, and was happy to see this book update that workout and take it to the next level. While this version takes more time out of my day to workout than the old version, it also seems to be getting me in better physical condition. As Mr. Scott says the program is only an outline and after I finish the 24 weeks I will start combining the best of the original workout with this one to keep it interesting.

I'm a middle-aged guy who maintained a decent level of fitness throughout my 20s and 30s, by doing repetitive weightlifting exercises and running. My motivation was primarily aesthetic, and, alas, the results were little more than that, as well. That is, despite how I looked I did not feel very "functionally fit," and my motivation began to wane, big-time, in my late 30s. I had used the Body Sculpting Bible for Men for a while, to good effect, but after a while, I just could not keep up the grind -- the excruciatingly repetitive routine of numerous exercises, most of which (and the authors of that book are very explicit and intentional about this) work your muscles in super-isolation. For someone after a purely aesthetic outcome, I would still recommend that book. However, for someone who wants to *feel* great, and actually *be* fit, in a 'healthy,' deep way, and not just in a 'cosmetic,' shallow sense, this (Outside Fitness) is a great book. It has given me a new direction, and new motivation, in the physical aspect of my life, and for that I am grateful and just downright happy. It's great when for years you have a vague, unarticulated intuition about how something should be done, and then finally you read its articulation, and you have this "Aha!" moment -- that was my experience reading this book.

I find some previous reviewers' complaints about the design and writing quality puzzling. (Are we talking about the same book?) I very much like Scott's conversational writing style. I have read a lot of fitness books, and this is absolutely one of the most readable -- and I appreciate that. And since this is as much a book about fitness *philosophy* as it is about technique, then naturally there will be some text (I would have been happy to read more), and not just pic after pic of some caveman lifting dumbbells over his head. (And having a photo of a triathlete on the cover makes perfect sense to me.)

And the 'program' is flexible and easily adaptable to the reader's unique goals and starting point. This may not be 'black-and-white' enough for some, but again this is a different philosophy. Maybe the book's not for everyone -- and maybe it's not even the best book on functional fitness -- but it's a really good first foray into it, in my view.

I really wanted to like this book. It has been a couple of years in the making, following the "Shape of Your Life" series originally published in Outside Magazine. My issue is primarily with the poor presentation of what is some generally great information. There are too many typos to address individually so I'm going to concentrate on a couple of major issues.

Let's start with the cover. Outside has long been recognized for great editorial design. The cover does not live up to the standard set by the magazine. It is dated, unauthentic, confusing and uninspiring. I think to a certain extent you can judge a book by its cover. This book is about functional fitness and yet features a shirtless dude carrying his bike over his head for reason other than to show-off his back. Compare it with "Conditioning for Outdoor Fitness" and the difference is clear.

Once you get inside there are other perfectly avoidable errors. The illustration accompanying the "Stability-Ball Dumbell Row" is actually the illustration for the "Stability-Ball Tricep Extension" and is used again later in the book. Either no one responsible for the book noticed, or they figured none of us would notice. No matter what the explanation, it calls into question the accuracy and thoroughness of the rest of the book. There's really no excuse for such sloppiness.

It seems like a project that lacked the support and supervision of the magazine that sets the standard for outdoor enthusiast publications. I sincerely hope they consider repackaging and re-editing the material in another edition. It, and we, deserve better.

Honestly, you may want to pass on this one! The pragmatic book's coverage on this as well as the online resources should be enough to get you by. There were no aha moments with this one, it is a bit of a dry read, with some repetition. I was hoping to dig deeper into the magic that allows ActiveRecord to learn your table names by introspection with some specific gotchas relating to feature support across the different DBMS. I feel like I have a reasonable resource book to allow me to search for ActiveRecord information in one spot. However it is nowhere near as good as Obie Fernandez's The Rails Way as far as references go. There are sections in there which are too repetitive and which may have been aided by the use of the occasional table (pun not intended!) or two.

There may just not be enough material in here to warrant the expense. However, the idea was good and there may still be hope for a second edition with a bit less repetition and more in-depth discussions.

Right at the start of Pro Active Record the authors address a possible problem some may have with it: that there's not enough in Active Record to warrant a full book. They point out that the basics are well covered as sections elsewhere but that this is the first book to really dig into working with legacy schema and other `advanced' uses. That's fair enough, but after reading the book I am still left with the question of why, then, they dedicate the first half to covering ActiveRecord's most basic concepts?

Judging from postings on the rails email list, there's certainly a lot of confusion about ActiveRecord, associations, observers, how to work with legacy table names and primary keys, and so on. But in a book with a title prefix of "Pro" I was expecting to jump straight into the nitty gritty of topics like compound/composite primary keys and performance tuning, probably with some real world examples, and maybe with a serious exploration of AR's internals. As it is, such topics only get a quick treatment in the final chapter (the compound/composite primary keys section is a paragraph referring users to a plugin).

It's almost always instructive reading other developers' code and it would be unfair to claim that I didn't spot a couple of tips that may prove useful, but they were passing things. And sometimes I found myself wondering what happened to the tech review process, particularly in the coverage of the has_one association, where not only is the variable naming confusing, but they seem to be calling the each method on a single ActiveRecord instance.

I'm left wondering what the audience is for this book. The title and blurbs suggest it's pitched at people who want to go deeper into ActiveRecord than they have before, but the content is better suited for someone with some database experience who wants to pick up ActiveRecord to write some scripts. As it is, if you've worked with ActiveRecord before your time will be better spent writing plugins and exploring the internals for yourself, and if you've not you'll get most of the same material from a decent Rails book and some time exploring.

Disclaimer: I was sent a copy of this book for review by the publisher.

I was ecstatic when I heard a book dedicated strictly to Active Record was being written and signed up for a copy right away. As a Java developer with just a little bit of Hibernate experience, Active Record has been my biggest challenge learning ROR (in addition to some of the Ruby language idioms). I've read a lot of the other Rails books (e.g. Prag Programmer series) which also cover Active Record, but not in as much detail as this book. In particular, I found the numerous code examples very useful and easy to understand. The authors provide a lot of "here's the SQL generated by Active Record" which help me better understand the "man behind the curtain".

As some of the other reviews have already stated, the introductory and overview sections of this book are excellent. After that, there is a chapter dedicated to explaining the core features of "Active Record". That helps lay the foundation for the rest of the book which covers more advanced topics. Depending on whether you're working with a new schema or legacy schema, there are a lot of tips to help you successfully use Active Record in your real world application.

Hibernate is Java's ORM equivalent to Rails Active Record. The book "Java Persistence with Hibernate" is a whopping 841 pages. "Pro Active Record" is 280 pages, so it's only fitting that the ROR persistence framework can be explained in 1/3 the number of pages. Don't be discouraged by the size of this book as it packs a lot punch. I currently own almost all the good Ruby / ROR books, but this book is one that I always keep by my side.

No fear of the legacy database!

Excellent book overall, but Chapter 7 is what takes the cake for me.
It's generally considered a pain to use ROR with legacy databases, but
K.Marshall et al, show that it is not only doable, but not bad at all.

Excellent examples and explanations, showing code in a step by step approach - starting at the very beginning (what active record is, configuring/installing it, etc...).

At the same time, the style is extremely laid back (at times the authors poke a bit of fun at each other), which is always welcomed when learning something new.

Great book and great choice to include information on getting active record working with legacy databases.

Visuals:
Font size and layout are good. Easy on the eyes. Large and frequent sub-headings make it easier to locate information.

Audience:
The book lists it's intended "User level" at "Intermediate-Advanced".

Practicality:
It really depends on what you are expecting. I've been using Rails and ActiveRecord for about 2 years, so I should fit into the target audience. After reading the book I still think it will be a great reference book to have within arm's reach while working with ActiveRecord. To me it will serve as an API to AR. So it will be practical in that sense.

On the other hand, while reading it I never experienced any "aha!" moments where I felt like I learned something new or exciting, which I had hoped for from a "Pro" book.

If you are a beginner (never having used AR) it will definitely save you time (and eye strain) hunting down tutorials on blogs.

Overall:
It's a good Active Record reference & usage tutorial(s). I would have appreciated this book even more when I was first starting to use the Ruby on Rails framework. So if you are a beginner, don't let the "Intermediate - Advanced" user level scare you off. If you are using Rails, even as a beginner, you will probably be using Active Record too. In fact I think this book would probably be better named "Beginning Active Record" instead of "Pro Active Record".

I was kind of surprised when I read the Introduction to the book that it starts off with:

"Is there really enough to talk about in Active Record to fill a whole book?"

"Our answer, then and now, is, "Yes and no""

As an "Intermediate - Advanced" user, that's kind of how I felt at the end of this "Pro" book.

I give the book 4 stars, with the assumption that you go into it with the expectation of "Beginning Active Record".

Inspiring Person, Great Role Model for All People, All Ages

I had the privilege of participating with Bob Holtel in a Zion National Park Active Elderhostel hiking program, March 12, through March 17, 2007. Each participant said a few words about themselves during the orientation meeting. Bob intrigued me when he said that he had run the entire Pacific Coast Trail. He said that he had a couple of books (Soul, Sweat & Survival on the Pacific Crest Trail) if anyone was interested in reading about his adventure. He only brought a couple of them and luckily I bought one the first night. As I started reading it and watching him run ahead of all the other participants in the daily hikes, I began to realize how lucky I was to be with such a dedicated, knowledgeable hiker/runner. At breakfasts I did my best to sit at the same table as Bob to pick his brain and to get him talking about his Pacific Coast Trail run.

On the third day, I asked Bob whether he would pick a few parts of his book that he valued the most and read them to me. He read two small sections to me at breakfast. I then asked him to read to me the same two sections after we had arduously climbed Observation Point overlooking Angels Landing on our last hike (Bob's run) of the five-day program. I video-taped him reading the sections with Zion National Park Canyon in the background! (At the end of this review, I have written what he read with exuberance.) At the end of that days hike/run, I took a picture of Bob totally submerged in the Virgin River after his run so that he could prevent overuse injuries by using cold therapy, and a picture of his left foot because his second toe is permanently bent over his big toe because New Balance had inadvertently sent him a set of shoes with the left shoe a full-size smaller than the right shoe. Bob had no choice but to run with that too-small left shoe because the shoes were shipped to a remote post office and his other shoes were worn out and he was going to run over sharp, volcanic rock on the next leg of his run.

I also took many other pictures capturing this very unique person. I had been having some pretty serious tennis injuries (I was 62 years old, and Bob was 76 years old) and I asked for some preventive advice. He suggested that I go see the most experienced, most knowledgeable Physical Therapist available. I did and now about nine months later I am starting to play tennis with much fewer injuries!

Yesterday, November 15, 2007, I called Bob to thank him for his advice and he told me that he is planning on running the Pacific Coast Trail again - this time from North to South in two summers. He will be 80 years old when he crosses the finish line in Mexico.

After experiencing Bob Holtel at Zion National Park and reading his book, I contacted Etta Clark who wrote Growing Old Is Not for Sissies and suggested that she include Bob in her upcoming third book in the series. Bob was in his mid-fifties when he ran in three summers the Pacific Coast Trail from the Mexico to Canada. This is a great read. But if you want to experience Bob first hand, you could sign up for the active Elderhostel hiking event during the first week in March, 2008. He will be there!

The quotes that Bob read for me as I video-taped him on Observation Point, Zion National Park.
Page 67, "This primitive form of running, that propels one through open space on timberline routes, allows me to view life from a new perspective. How many people ever go to see anything comparable to this? How truly lucky I feel to celebrate this affirmation: I experience a perfect place at a perfect time without owning it. I use my lowest gears to make the ascents, the effort puts me at my highest element. I feel like modified Henry Thoreau on the move."

Page 155, "Almost anyone can be a hero for a day; it's hanging in there that counts. I believe God rewards faithfulness. The long haul is what costs and counts. We're all in for a long haul in one way or another. For my part, I'd like to have an interesting one. God gave a flower perfect discipline. I battle in the rain to attain a similar quality. This day nature has overpowered me and I feel humbled."

I'm one of those vicarious PCT thru-hikers who merely has section hiked portions of the grand trail. Bob Holtel hiked the entire way and his journey is epic and makes for a great read. I devoured the entire book in one sitting and was a little depressed when I was finished. Holtel writes very well and it's as if you're with him throughout every painful mile. When he can't find water for an evening, you're thirsty along with him. When he spies a black bear meandering across the path, you see the animal as well. He really has a story teller's gift and this book is nirvana for anyone who has actually thru hiked the Pacific Crest Trail or who has aspirations of someday doing it.

From the border of Mexico all the way up to Washington, you're in step with Holtel without a boring or wasted word. This is a gripping book and an infectious reading experience.

I was so inspired by this book that I called Bob Holtel and left a message on his answering machine, thanking him for giving the world such a wonderful gift. It's not the narrative, which as the disappointed reviewer said, is primarily a trail diary--though a terrifically good one, especially if you're a trailie or trail ultrarunner. No, what's deeply inspiring is Holtel's spirit, which is unique. I swear, there's a wonderful, pure spiritual vibration in the writing. I felt better for having read the book, smiled often while reading it, and have recommended it to many friends who've found the same inspiration in it.

Yes it is truly amazing what the man accomplished and
I cannot take anything away from his feat.
His book, on the other hand, I was sorry that I bought.
After the first 3 chapters I gave up. Barely making it
out of the desert. Maybe I'll pick it up at a later date
but I just got tired of "Day 1: I ran", "Day 2: I ran",
"Day 3:I ran, it rained"... yawn.
I need a book to convince my wife to hike for more than
10 days at a stretch and this fell far short.
Not recommended

This book suffers from; 1. terrible writing and 2. a story that is only mildly interesting in the first place.

The writing:
Somewhere in the book it is mentioned that Holtel is a man of few words. This becomes painfully obvious in the first few pages of the book. The book is basically a day by day journal of his runs. Every day's entry reads pretty much the same - difficult hills, rocky descents, etc. He does little, if anything, to describe the beauty surrounding him, the people he encounters, or even a brief history of the trail.

The story:
The author likes to say that he "ran the Pacific Crest Trail". While this is technically true he did not cover it in one stretch - as I think most people would assume from this statement. It took him over three summers to cover the distance. This undoubtedly was a great way to spend three summers but in my book it doesn't make him out to be the great hero he would like to be.

He also likes to repeatedly tell about how difficult it was and how amazed everyone he met on the way was when he told them what he was doing. This gets very tiresome very fast.