Distributed

The book is extremely trivial and doesn't give you in-depth & thoroughly coverage of any of its topics. A lot of material is monotonous & repetitive and the author doesn't provide comprehensive clarification of some distinctive and important terms...In general, this book is completely waste of time and money...

When I 1st started reading and studying this book, I thought it was great. Then I realized that I thought this only because it covered areas I was not familiar with. When I got to areas I WAS familiar with, I realized that the explanations were hard to follow and perfunctory compared to other books I had read on the same subjects. The EXAM CRAM series is much more readable and in-depth. The coverage of IUnknown, IDispatch, ATL and COM in general are hard to follow and too advanced for beginners. The accompanied CD is missing files required to compile and run the examples. All in all, it still won't hurt to have it as a reference once you do learn the basics elsewhere.

A brilliant book that every seasoned Windows C++ professional developer must read.

Firstly, I must take the time to correct the first set of amateurs that wrote bad reviews about this book. THE BOOK IS TO BE USED BY PEOPLE WHO ALREADY WHO KNOW SOME VC++ and want to get prepare to pass the 70-015 exam. Microsoft Visual C++ is probably the worlds greatest development environment for RAD development for the Windows environment and only the true gurus of industry can prove that they have what it takes to tackle this exam. Anyone expecting to tackle the more advance elements of windows programming from a C++ perspective should definitely add this book to their reference collection.

IF YOU DO NOT KNOW ANY VISUAL C++ DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK. There are several other books on the market that that will run you through the topics that will aid you to becoming a competent VC++ developer. As a starting point, I recommend "Visual C++ 6: The complete reference" , "C++: The complete reference" , and "programming applications for Windows" and that's just for starters.

BUY THIS BOOK IF YOU KNOW SOME VISUAL C++ (v6) and want master more advance topics. So far I have read the chapters covering topics on COM, DCOM, Document View Architecture, MSMQ, ADO, Sockets, Data Access, and ActiveX and that is not half of the advance topics that are actually covered by this text and I believe that they have been covered brilliantly.

ONLY OWN THIS BOOK IF YOU WANT TO INCREASE YOUR VISUAL C++ KNOWLEDGE.

While this book covers a lot of the areas pertaining to distributed OSes, it is very tersely worded and I have to wonder what monkey edited it. At least 1/2 of the pages contain grammatical errors. Figures are also stunningly frequently mislabeled. There is no way anyone should use this book until these errors are fixed for either a text or their own information.

Contentwise, the book assumes that you remember everything from your basic OS class, it doesn't explain ANYTHING that would normally be covered by a more basic OS book. This doesn't cut the mustard because not every professor covers every topic relating to normal OSes in Intro to OS(also, this book may be used at the masters level where it is possible that its been 10 years since the student has taken intro to os). It may be ok for a quickie reference into possible algorithms, but as an actual learning guide it stinks.

Sadly, I can't give this 0 stars.

This book has all the right material (and more). I found the topics to be presented in a straightforward and easy to understand manner just as most here have said. There's even a glossary and a list of acronyms provided which is a helpful tool. What else could you want? I would highly recommend checking this one out. Oh, and the couple naysay blurbs here are nonsensical as this has got to be one of the best books in its class.

Let's face it ... the IT market is near the bottom. A colleague (or should I say former colleague) handed me this book to 'freshen' up before that all important interview. It was quick and easy to read and helped me put some meat behind what I had been doing as well as articulate and formalize my knowledge. I think this is exactly what gave me the edge in the interviews (endless rounds of interviews). Now I not only landed but went from a senior engineer to a chief architect with a bump in pay. I just grabbed a copy for myself as I'm sure this is one book I will be referring to quite often. All in all - content wise I'd highly recommend this book. On the part of editing - well - not the best but the content is what I needed and got.

RW
Chief Architect

It's not so much that this is a bad or poorly written book (it isn't!), but it is seriously flawed:

- The vast majority of the book is about installing and configuring ISA, with relatively little coverage of ongoing using or troubleshooting.

- There is a lot of very basic stuff, as well as a lot of stuff that you'd normally find in a Microsoft reviewer's guide for ISA. For example, an entire chapter on how ISA fits into IP (and an intro to TCP/IP), an entire chapter on system requirements.

- Too much FLUFF! In addition to the 9 blank, lined pages of "NOTES", the 25 pages listing (doublespaced) TCP known-ports, and the extra large font that pumps the index up to 24 pages, there are too many step-by-step, illustrated, descriptions of how to do basic tasks. Subtract the fluffiness noted above along with a few other egregious instances, and you're looking at a 250 or 300 page book, not a 408 page book.

The only reason I read this book was because I was paid to do so. I don't use Microsoft software anymore, but I've used (and reviewed for publication) enough of it for a lifetime. Which is another reason not to buy this book--but an entirely different issue altogether.

If you must use ISA, or if you must consider using ISA, this book will actually be worth it--it comes with a 120-day trial version of the software (another odious practice, but that yet another issue as well).

Before I ever even thought of installing ISA, I read the book from cover to cover. Once completed, I installed ISA and referred back to the book for additional guidance. I'm still looking for the additional guidance.

This title does a great job of introducing ISA to the reader. It spends chapters of time covering the ISA concept, architecture and Microsoft Minimum Requirements. From there, however, the book gets a little more glossy and sales brochure like. Deployment scenarios, installation and (very) basic configuration are covered, but the author has chosen to really only cover the installation of ISA in an enterprise / array configuration, leaving the stand-alone server installation out in the cold. Past the installation, the author tour guides you through the basic setup of the server (which actually was very handy and without this it would have taken me quite a while to figure it out) and then moves on to briefly cover some of the major selling points.

What is really missing from this book is any specifics, or even an in-depth, point by point reference covering of the interface and components. For example, the author covers setting alerts for Intrusion Detection, but instead of explaining the configuration choices for each of the five actions, the author tells you that "Depending on your selection, a different window will appear that enables you to configure the option you selected."

The title is helpful, and I am glad I read it. But I find myself looking for a more in-depth reference that I can really learn ISA from.

I have read several of Curt Simmons' Windows 2000 books, so I was happy to pre-order this one. I'm not quite finished with it yet, but Simmons' typical style of concise and focused writing is the same here. The book is very clear, easy to read, and is full of step by steps and explanations. It makes sense of all the policy issues and policy elements and more difficult firewall configuration tactics. You won't have to skim through pages and pages of blubbering text - everything here is important. The book includes a trial version of ISA Server Enterprise edition on CD-ROM. Overall, I'm very pleased.

You have GOT to be kidding me! As a consultant who specializes in SAP implementations, I think this book is as silly as a self-help title. The information addressed is so general that one wonders how a person can even get near this monstrous ERP system without having been trained to a far greater degree than what the author proposes.

As ludicrous as "Learn Brain Surgery in 24 Hours." AVOID!!!

This is the only intro book available on SAP R/3. The book is on the way of getting outdated. The screen shots in the book and Real life screen shots (SAP 4.6 C or D) differ a lot. From this book, one does not learn much except navigation of SAP's various modules. It also gives some basic ideas abt using SAP system. This book is aimed at the end user and not for wannabe SAP Consultant.

This is a good book for a very basic overview of SAP. If you want more detail, get something else.

I was hoping that this edition would correct the problems of the earlier edition, but I was disappointed to find that many of the errors remained.

In addition, the text appears to be poorly edited, and the content is sometimes confusing and obtuse.

Overall, I was disappointed in the content and the editing.

I've read every book about Designer that I can get may hands on and this is The Best of Breed in my opinion. The book is really 2 books in 1; an excellent description of Designer and an equally excellent explanation of a methodology in which the tools can be used. This combination of conceptual clarity and practical application is unique and provides a "forest AND the trees" approach that makes reading and re-reading the book and outstanding learning experience. I can't wait for the next iteration!

Dr. Dorsey and Mr. Koletzke set out to show how designer 2000 could be used in the context of an overall system development effort. As an experienced designer 2000 user, this is what makes the book the most useful to me. Not only do the authors show how to use the various parts of designer effectively, they provide a list of the missing parts - things that should be done in a good system development effort but which are not included in Designer 2000.

I would recommend this book to: 1) persons with some designer experience who are attempting to use designer 2000 for serious development efforts; 2) teachers in an advanced database design class; and 3) anybody interesting in understanding the role of software design tools in modern software practice. Novices will need to spend some time working with the tool, performing the designer tutorial that comes with designer, and perhaps reading some of the other literature on database design such as Date's "An Introduction to Database Systems".

Excellent book. I cannot wait for the authors to produce another edition to cover Designer 2000 version 2.1.

I'll admit that I have not fully read the contents of this book. I started off by going through the Skill Assessment and chapter Review Questions in order to evaluate where my weak areas are. Based on my experience with these mini-tests, I'm not holding out hope for high quality in the rest of the book. Many of the questions are unclear on what they're asking, and I've run accross several that are flat out WRONG in their answers. The CD test is useless, as it merely recycles the chapter review questions, and includes the same errors (plus others--like having the correct answer by a multiple answer (i.e., correct answer is both A & E) but only allowing you to choose one). I've used Sybex books in the past for my MCSE, and always felt they were of good quality, but this one is a definite let down.

Having bought the 1st edition by Govanus, I was unpleasantly surprised by its insufficient content and rambling commentary about the author's experiences. When I saw the bad reviews it got, I decided to try Sybex again and buy this 2nd edition by the Klingon sounding Hryhoruk. It was definitely better and worth the expense. BUT, after having passed all the chapter exams with scores of 95 or 100, I failed one of the two final exams on the included CD, which asked a significant number of questions that were NOT covered by the 2nd edition, but were covered on the 1st edition! It seems that Sybex decided to use/recycle questions from its 1st edition in the 2nd edition without coordinating or checking on their relevance. This can be very upsetting on the day before taking the real exam! You need to find at least one other source of study, since I found this 2nd edition Sybex book to be really lacking in the troubleshooting part of the exam, which I failed. Fortunately, my strengths in the other areas brought my overall exam score up to 81%, so I did get the Server+ certification. Since troubleshooting is essential in real life, Sybex has to get this part improved so that you don't suffer from the paper certification syndrome of good theoretical knowledge, but little practical application.

Use this book as a supplementary book in your exam prep. The Certification Bible is the daddy!

... and hope it will never see the light of day again. This is one of the worst books on programming that I've ever read. The examples are terrible, and most of them don't work.

Too bad that there is no zero star catagory.

This book appears to be some class notes slapped together to cash in on the client/server "dot com" boom of the ninties. If you see it in a used book bin for a dollar, don't waste your money.

The book has the worst explanations of programming concepts I have ever attempted to read and the CD-ROM is nearly worthless. You will be fortunate indeed if the examples work with your installation of VB6. Several of the examples that were to supposed to use a data control actually displayed a picture box and never did work as a data control. The only way that I could get them to work was to delete the picture boxes, add a data control and program it. For that I didn't need this book or the waste of my time trying to make the examples work. As a database programmer, I feel that the money spent on this book was a waste. I might as well have burned the money for warmth.

This is an excellent book for experienced client/server developer. Author identified new concepts of database connectivity in VB6 and future trend. Reader who uses other database tools such as "PowerBuilder" will find this book useful if he or she wants to switch to VB6. It would be better if author gives more "step by step" instructions. This book is not recommended for new c/s developer.

Picked up this book in the clearance bin at a technical bookstore close to my work place for Five Dollars. I thought I had an incredible bargain in my hands until I read the book. What a piece of trash! I do a lot of Object oriented coding with Powerbuilder on WindowsNT4.0. I was interested in the design patterns & OO programming techniques that the authors say that they are covering in the book in the preface. I have already read the Patterns book by Erich Gamma/John Vlissides and I was interested in how the authors might have applied those techniques with PowerBuilder. It was a major disappointment for me when I discovered that the authors had no clue of OO programming and a very bad understanding of Patterns in particular. They seem to know enough about Powerbuilder, but they are totally ignorant of OOP and patterns.

I spent only five dollars to buy this book but still I feel ripped off. BUYER BEWARE!

How WROX decided to push this terrible piece of writing on their readers is beyond my comprehension. I am a senior Sybase/PowerBuilder programmer, and I felt like laughing at the inaccuracies and inconsistencies that I constantly encountered in this stinker. When I read the reviews at Amazon that this is a great OOP/Design Patterns book, I was intrigued enough to snap up a copy. I am a great fan of using Patterns in my code. But the authors of this book give a completely uneducated and uninformed writing on this complex subject. Coders who are experienced in Patterns/OOP will laugh at this garbage. Novice programmers will be misled completely. I will never buy another WROX title again. My guess is that the reviewers who gave this turkey 5 stars must be friends of the author.

I bought this book based on the reviews at amazon. The time I spent on this book could have been better utilized elsewhere. The author tries to talk about powerbuilder/OOP/design patterns/ActiveX/OCX/VB and so on without any grasp of the concepts underlying any of these technologies and methodologies. The result is a hopeless morass of confused ramblings with no direction. I wonder how some of the other reviewers gave this sorry excuse of a book 5 stars.

If you want to learn ISAPI programming, getting this book might help little.

This book is great help for people whose eyes are sore from looking at their monitors and are looking for a printed version of the MSDN, and for added value, you get useless comments in the middle of all this to help you go to sleep on those sleepless nights. On the up side, this book does have an inspiring contents page, but unfortunately falls short of the content itself. With all due respect to the Author, my only problem with this book is that there is not enough depth. Perhaps, they should try a part two called (Now lets discuss how apply these server based APIs to write cool server based applications) - there u go, you can have the title for free ;)

This book is most usful for gaining a quick and clear understanding for writing NT services. I had almost no problem writing a heavy duty NT service after reading the first few chapters.

Perhaps the bigest bonus is that Douglas Reilly answers his email! He chose to focus on named pipes for his completion port section (as did the other NT Services books I could find) and I needed the sockets architecture. He responded to my question almost immediately [Thanks, Mr. Reilly] and gave me references which eventually led to a solution for my programming problem.

I would recommend this to anyone who wants a quick introduction to dealing with NT Services, writing Event Log messages (I did not even know there was a message compliler) and NT Registery. The book has much more, but I was only interested in those topics.

She does not have a firm grasp on the concepts of winframe. I am surprised there is a report that she is writting another book. Her mistakes are numerous and I know why there are soo many paper CCA's and MCSE. Visit the real world laura

"The graphics engine transmits commands to the graphics engine that the printer driver uses to create line drawings if the printing device is a plotter."

The above quote comes from the overview section of the chapter on printing. In my mind this quote defines the problem with this book, and many other books written by 'experts'. I do IS project work. In the morning I might work on a Citrix server, in the afternoon, try to figure out why one vendor's VB program won't play nice with all the other vendor's VB programs. When I reach for a reference book, I want concise information in a well arranged format. I don't want detailed descriptions that display the author's voluminous knowledge. If the author wishes to include such descriptions, that's fine, but don't forget the 'meat'.

I did get a fair amount of useful information from this book. On that basis I can recommend it's purchase; but, please, let's have some 'how to' books that really show us how to. If you authors want to impress each other with your intellect, do it at conferences.

It should be a personal procession of every Winframe Admin. The book is full of tips and how to do's. A winner with entry level and even advance level Wi nframe Administrator. One source for information. No need to go to the web for info, It's all in the book.. Peter's & Associates Inc. should be proud to have a knowledgeable person on their staff. Looking forward for the next revision.