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Jini and Javaspaces Application Development

Published in Paperback by SAMS (05 December, 2001)

Author: Robert Flenner

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Poorly Written

I admit that my programming experience is rather limited, but this book made me feel like a complete .... There is no denying that the author knows what he is writing about, but he does not convey that information in an easily understood manner. Unless you already know everything there is to know about RMI, networking and advanced Java programming, stay away from this book.

Good information but code needs work

The book has a lot of good information though you need to be familiar with basic distributed programmins. The URL to download code does not work but i did find it (the code) at

[website]

Once you have the code you will find that it is still missing scripts. I persevered up to Chapter 10 where the code gets so large it is unreasonable to expect the reader to debug it.

The code I did get to run, after fixing package statements and imports and other typos, is actually very nice expecially when you run it on multiple machines.

The section on security needs expanding and updating to reflect Jini 2.0
Chris

Good so far - some problems though

I just bought this book and am most of the way through Chap 3. I am would like to point out some things about the book so far:

- The book is very current. It compares Jini and RMi etc.. to new technologies such as JXTA, .Net, and Web services.

- The author is very intelligent!! He has an excellent grasp of the role of distributed object systems and is not just repeating hype. He said that (paraphrase) "XML is a time-bomb becuase its not polymorpic enough, just describing the data is not powerful enough". Wow, good stuff.

- He presents the RMI stuff the best Ive seen but in the process gets ahead of himself. His code is not 100% complete. By this I mean he doesnt include all the extra stuff like package statements and he refers to scripts like compile.bat that start these services that are not printed or downloadable or included. In the book it refers to [URL] to get the code for the book and extra files and there are not links and I cant hack the path or find them..
So, I am hacking together some scripts and packaging this jar
files the old fashioned way.

- Also, Mr. Flenner is VERY good about actually describing all the services that are part of the Sun GUI StartService tool. Now, the reader can understand what all these services are such as: mahalo, norm, reggie, mercury, etc..

I'll write more later as I read more though the book..

Special Edition Using Microsoft Backoffice

Published in Hardcover by Que (March, 1997)

Authors: Donald M. Benage, Gregory A. Sullivan, Don Benage, and G A Sullivan Inc

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Useful, but 4 competing books make a better buy

I consider myself lucky that this was clearance priced. . . at my local [computer super-groovy store].

These books are reasonable in content, but they cost far too much to justify their content. I've read other books which cut through the hammy and fluffy text and give me what I need to know. In fact, buying four books on Backoffice ranging from $30 to $50 offers exponentially more information from more diverse sources - and typically come with their own CDs as well. I could care less if they are "Microsoft biased or not" Que has a habit of hyping up products they cover and oddly they cover non-Microsoft products, too.

Lots of padding, and here's one reason why. The TCP/IP section is nice I suppose, but it's not teaching me anything as to how it relates to Backoffice so far. It's going into the history and how the numerology is structured (DNS, subnet mask, et cetera), but if I want to know about TCP/IP protocol theory, lots of books devoted to that [and in greater depth] exist. This book acts as if it wants to be a be-all solution, but has to cut content in some areas to make up for it.

It's no wonder that both books are included on CD in HTML format. I'm hoping that the other reviewer was wrong about his CD not including the goodies for both books. Unfortunately it makes sense as many a company will change a product's content and legally find ways to justify it.

If you're not Richie Rich or Bill Gates, go find and buy up to four books which would effective equal the ridiculous cost of this two-volume set. The Que set is nothing more than a [not quite] cheap attempt to acquire revenue by providing heaps of padding.

An OK reference

Some of the chapters are heavily Microsoft biased. I was expecting more of a reference manual so I was disappointed. And even the reference chapters aren't that clearly written--though some are.
For the price, I'd look somewhere else for a BackOffice reference. (P.S. The included CD didn't come with all the books that the cover claimed it came with...)

Great for Beginners

This book is a great place to start learning about the different products that make up Microsoft Back Office. It is full of Tips that even today (as an MCSE), I find extremely useful

SQL Server 2000 Design & T-SQL Programming

Published in Paperback by McGraw-Hill Osborne Media (29 December, 2000)

Authors: Michael Reilly, Michelle Reilly, and Michelle Poolet

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Nightmare...

Headaches..Headaches..Headaches..

I personally go through a lot of technical books. This one is a nightmare. If you like to read books that are just get to the point, then this book is not for you. The writing style so horrible that I have to take a break on almost every 3-4 pages. This book claimed that it is for all level. However, I honestly don't think this book is for a beginner person. If you are looking for an entry-level book on the SQL 2000, I would recommend "SQL Server 2000 Programming" from Wrox.

Not nearly enough information on design

This book is OK, but gives the impression that you will learn how to design a SQL Server 2000 database, not as an academic computer science exercise, but for what I need it for - work!

There's only 4 chapters on the design, not nearly enough information on normalization, and the remainder of the book - using SQL Server 2000 - was covered far more comprehensively in Rob Veera's book from Wrox Press.

In short, OK for a complete beginner but not nearly enough meat for those who need to know this information on a daily basis.

Great book on SQL Server logic

This book has been specifically written for database administrators, designers or programmers who want to know more about logic behind SQL2000 GUI. This book also can be a significant step to understand T-SQL and database design and implementations. In particular for someone preparing for the MS certification exam on SQL7 or 2000 DB implementation, this book should be the first to start. After reading this book you should be well advanced in using not only proper T-SQL syntax but also understand execution plans in Query Analyzer. This book can give you a fresh view to understand how to design and write to get optimum from SQL Server. Final words in my review: this book is rather not for beginners but can give you info on SQL real world challenges.

On Time, Within Budget Software Project Management Practices and Techniques

Published in Paperback by John Wiley & Sons (December, 1995)

Author: E. M. Bennatan

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Very boring. No practical uses.

I was forced to buy this book for college course work. I found it boring, and I spent a lot of time trying to read the small print.

Good for reference

I think this book is a QUICK reference for any software professional working in a team or independent, ofcourse, in management perspective. This could have been had focus on certain important concepts instead of just introducing the names. I often refer to this book for a quick reference at work as I am involved in / leading a development team.

Excellent reference

This is a text based, pre-graphics, book. It doesn't have all the gee-whiz graphics of some of the new books on project management. It's down and dirty and gets to the point quickly. I consider this book a classic. I keep going back to it on a regular basis as a reference and follow some of Mr. Bennattan's recommendations.

I, too, didn't think much of the book when I first started but it is has grown on me quite a bit. It's concise and informative. Try the chapter on estimation, it serves as a good intro into estimation techniques.

Yes, "Rapid Development" is probably better but "On Time, Within Budget" is deserves it's place in your project management library.

Layer 3 Switching: A Guide for It Professionals (Prentice Hall Series in Computer Networking and Distributed Systems)

Published in Hardcover by Prentice Hall PTR (January, 1999)

Authors: Jim Metzler, James A. Metzler, and Lynn A. Denoia

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Average review score:

more for business people

As the name suggests, the book is more inclined towards marketing types. The book is not that technical and addresses the technology aspects of layer 3 switching using different vendor's implementations. The case studies aren't really practical. Given the recent advances in IETF standards in label switching, this book is little outdated.

A little disappointing work for Metz, whose previous book was titled, IP switching.

Bottom line, if you are developing the code you won't extract much out of it but it is good for sales/marketing people.

Soft, but good from a business angle

What I liked best about this book is near the back. I could show it to less technical people and talk about technology trends, and some vendor approaches. For marketers and decision makers. It doesn't really help with network design. It is also missing some other key points with respect to decision making.

Very good review of L3, info. is from 1997.

In this book, he really explains how Layer 3 switching is different than routing. He ends with a comprehensive overview of how several companies responded to a hypothetical lan problem (bottleneck etc..). 3COM responded with a CB3500 solution. Cisco responded with the 5000. Several other vendors responded with technology avail. at that time. Yes, the book is a bit outdated (market surveys and available technology are from 1997), but the theories presented remain current. I recommend to those trying to compare L3 to routing.

Samba Administrator's Handbook

Published in Paperback by Hungry Minds, Inc (December, 1999)

Authors: Ed Brooksbank, Edward G. Brooksbank, George D. Haberberger, and Lisa A. Doyle

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If the best software is perhaps that which is inspired by the narrowest ambition, Samba exemplifies the doctrine of doing one thing and doing it well. It enables computers that run Microsoft Windows to access--without any special client-side software--file and print servers that run on Unix variants. Samba Administrator's Handbook exhibits similar focus in its single-minded quest to document Samba administration procedures and, especially, the contents of Samba's configuration files. It does a fine job of explaining how to install, configure, optimize, and troubleshoot Samba on all of its platforms, with a good balance of instruction and explanation. Instruction is emphasized, but enough background is provided to satisfy readers' curiosity and help them to try new approaches.

Much of this book follows the proven format of Unix man pages, in which a command is presented in generic form with all of its parameters and switches; detailed descriptions of the parameters and switches follow. (The descriptions in this book go into significantly more detail than online documentation.) An excellent section on best practices recommends practical ways to perform backups, manage log files, configure profiles for roaming users, and do other Samba administration work. Sections on troubleshooting are not so much about bug-squashing strategies as about potentially handy utilities, such as ipconfig and net print, but that's not the end of the world. This is solid Samba documentation for those who want more meat than the online documents can provide. --David Wall

Topics covered: Samba on Free BSD, Net BSD, several proprietary Unix flavors, and several Linux distributions (especially Red Hat Linux and Caldera OpenLinux). Installation, configuration with the Samba Web Administration Tool (SWAT), and strategies for configuring Unix for Samba's benefit, in addition to recommended settings and procedures for top network performance. An appendix documents error messages.

Average review score:

Next to worthless

This book was almost a total waste of time and money. First, it only covers configuring Samba using SWAT which makes it worthless if you are running a secure server. In addition to this, the index does not include any of the configuration directives so if you do have some idea what you are looking for you can't find it without thumbing through the entire book.

Fails to develop any concepts, disorganized.

This book was no help to me, even though I have a nice running Samba configuration already. It fails to develop any concepts or theory, and does not connect any problems or tasks with associated commands. The reader is left wondering if someone has really written a book on this topic that is worth reading, such as in the O'Reilly series. I see here over Amazon that there is, and plan to try that one next. This book is all over the place. At one point they are talking about the options to basic Unix commands, then giving lists of arguments for Samba commands, while never explaining how the two relate.

To give a specific example of how bad this book is, it shows on page 18 and 19 what happens when you use "smbclient," giving the command syntax and a sample output. At no point does it describe what any of the output fields mean in any particular context. It simply adds nothing to the basic command, and gives no clue as to why anyone would use this command.

Another reviewer suggested it would be good as a booster seat for a child. I think it's a little small for this purpose, but might be good for elevating something like elevating a desktop pencil sharpener.

This book is just a printed version of the SWAT help file

Most of the stuff in this book I could have figured out by using the SWAT interface and reading its help file.

There needs to be more description of the commands/settings and not just a list of all the conf lines.

The index in the back has erroneous listings (see cache) as well.

Looks like it would be better if I used it for a hi chair for my kids.

Developing Client/Server Systems Using Sybase SQL Server System 11

Published in Paperback by John Wiley & Sons (19 April, 1996)

Author: Sanjiv Purba

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Average review score:

Not a so good book.

* Bad index, so I can not use it as a reference book.

* Chapters 1, 2 and 3, whom are they geared to? Not that much useful.

* It is always hard to find answers to simple and basic questions, if exists in the book at all.

* It may be useful to an expert database programmer that is Sybase beginner, as a book to get snippets of information about Sybase. That is on the bases of something better than nothing.

Great book for developers

I really liked the book. Most of the Sybase books you see are written for DBA's. This is an excellent guide for the everyday programmer. The author does a great job coving stored procedures and triggers. Very easy to understand and informative. I would give this book 4.8 stars. My only knock on the book is the index. It's a little too small. Overall an excellent book.

Infomaker 5: Professional Reference: A Guide to Developing Client/Server Applications

Published in Paperback by Computing McGraw-Hill (July, 1997)

Author: Jane Roseen

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Not a very good tutorial.

With out a well-developed back ground in relational databases, I would not have been able to follow the book and tutorials. The tutorials contain errors and misdirection. For instance, the author, in chapter 8, instructs the user to input his/her very first row in a sample table that was just created. When the data is committed to the database, an error occurs because data is missing from a primary table (the primary table must be filled out first). This was one of the many errors I found in the tutorial.

The book is far short of what I experienced a similar tutorial for MS Access published by the MS press.

Better than the documentation, but that isn't saying much.

The focus of this book is mainly on telling you the names of the parts of Infomaker. While it does have examples of how to use some of the features of Infomaker, they tend to be very basic. If you are looking for information about creating queries, this book isn't for you. The Infomaker 5 documentation is so poor that I did learn some things, but it didn't answer most of my questions.

Microsoft(r) Data Warehousing: Building Distributed Decision Support Systems

Published in Paperback by John Wiley & Sons (22 March, 1999)

Authors: Robert S. Craig, Joseph A. Vivona, David Berkovitch, David Bercovitch, and David Bercovich

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Data warehouses can help businesses identify trends early enough to capitalize upon them and can prove immensely valuable in running a company well. However, implementing a data warehouse requires that considerable effort be spent in corralling an organization's business processes, decision makers, customer base, and technology resources into a manageable form. Microsoft Data Warehousing helps map the process for you, particularly if you're planning to build your warehouse around Microsoft SQL Server 7 and its related technologies.

The Microsoft Data Warehousing Framework centers on the Microsoft Repository, and the authors of this book go into depth on how Repository represents metadata. They also cover the Component Object Model (COM), Open Database Connectivity (ODBC), Object Linking and Embedding database (OLE DB), and ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) as they relate to enterprise databases. While Microsoft Data Warehousing gets into actual development of SQL Server systems to a small extent, the book's illustrations are mainly useful as educational tools--you'll want to have a more development-centric book on hand for actual construction work.

In addition to its overview of Microsoft's enterprise database technologies, this book provides quite a bit of management information and commentary. If you are curious about what enterprise data management can do for your company or you are involved in designing a warehouse system from the top, you will find this business-centric information helpful. --David Wall

Average review score:

Terrible, shallow, lacking substance

This book is a big waste of time and money. It is lacking the substance and detail needed to understand this important topic. All the book goes into is high level topics and dancing around the substantial issues without handling them.

If you want to really learn about MS OLAP, DTS, MDX, OLE DB for OLAP, ADOMD, etc., then DO NOT buy this book. It will not serve these purposes.

Good Overview of Datawarehousing

A reader totally unfamiliar with data warehousing could read this book and come away with a good understanding of the datawarehousing world. The portion that covers the actual Microsoft tools and dialogues is not very detailed, but I guess one could look at a more detailed book for the specifics.

Designing & Implementing Microsoft Index Server

Published in Paperback by SAMS (01 December, 1996)

Authors: Mark Swank, Drew Kittel, and Drew Swank

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No real help or insight

If your looking for insight or help in setting up or implementing the index server this book offers no help. I was highly disappointed in what this book has to offer.

Factual but lacking in content and overall design concepts

Overall, the book contains (and looks like reprints) of details that are available via Microsoft's MSDN library. While this is useful for non-MSDN subscribers, neither source is comprehensive in describing the actual setup, use and practical examples. Actual syntax of commands and functionality is missing - appendices are unclear and effectively describe what the term means - not how it's used nor it's options. This is definitely NOT a step-by-step book. After reading, I found I had more knowledge about the product, but was still unable to effectively set it up. Am still seeking other sources. I do not recommend this book for anyone attempting a functional use.

Good summary of the product all in one place

I thought the book was a good one. There was plenty of information about the Microsoft Index Server. And since there are no other books (that I am aware of) on this subject... its even better. There is information about all areas of Index Server, from what the product is, to how to install it, and things like the registry keys that you can tweak to change performance of Index Server. It discusses how to use Index server on a multi-homed IIS server (although briefly) and describes how to use all the major parts of index server.

I think there needed to be more good examples, and then I would give the book a GREAT review.

I am looking forward to getting version of book for Index Server 2.0???

Thanks

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