economics-software

This is a disappointing read. Half of the book is the reference material from the help files and the other half is random report design techniques that don't fit together. Give this one a pass.

Like vitamins - read one a day for better reports. Glad I bought this book.

Crystal Reports Professional Results, by George Peckis a superbly organized and very highly recommended resource which provides a wealth of tips, ticks, and techniques on the creation and presentation of expert quality reports and complex, interactive analysis documentation both on and off the Web. George Peckis is particular adept at explaining just how to develop and design reports, make maps, tables, and charts, extract and present data from SQL databases, download ready-to-use sample report templates, and so much more.

When I hear the word OR read the word "complete", I tend to believe that's exactly what it is ... complete. This book, however, quite often refers you to the online help and does not give adequate information about the existing functions methods that are currently in the Crystal Reports. "The Complete Reference" means I can look up any function and read a description of what that function does and how to use it. This book does not provide that. Furthermore, I have previous versions of Crystal Complete Reference and this book, along with others repeats the EXACT wording out of those other books. I figure, I can understand why because it's accumulative, but, I would rather have a separate book with JUST the new features.

For critics of this book, the author explains in the preface that calling this book "complete" is a marketing tool--albeit one that is a bit misleading--and that there is no way a reference on Crystal Reports will be "complete" enough to answer every single quesion. Granted there are ways the book could be improved (more screen shots, more typical scenarios, etc) but so far this is the best CR 9.0 book that I have found. Perhaps book publishers should consider this.

The Complete Reference 9 saved me. I have questions this book has answers. The Tips and Cautions. These are good extras - they bring up things I didn't think of. Very valuable.

This book is a disappointment, but it was very close to good. The articles are mostly anecdotes and project descriptions by Wirth's students. I, too, was expecting more direct descriptions of Wirth's teachings. The glimpses shown here were almost enough, but in the end, unsatisfying.

I'm giving it three stars. If you will do anything to learn more about Wirth, you should certainly read this. For general programming insights of similar ilk other books, such as The Practice of Programming or Meyer's Object-oriented Software Construction, are better places to look.

Echoing the previous reviewer's sentiments, I expected to learn more about the person. Instead, you get some short articles (of uneven quality) by his students. Remarkably, the one most aligned with my current job--the Clint network--was the one I found most tedious.

As a minor plus, the book has a really *nice* cover.

I donated my copy to the local library.

This is the first nerd-book that I've read in a _long_ time that I could call inspiring. It got me back to my roots of computer science and applying Occam's razor to everything I see, think, or do. I only gave this a 4 star because one of the chapters is not congruent with the goals of the book. Chalk that up to the ego of that author and ignore it. The rest is great.

If you are an older generation software engineer and feel like you are drowning in the needless complexity of modern day languages like C++, perl, or java, then I think you owe it to yourself to give this book a try.

If you are a newer generation software engineer and haven't seen what some of your predecessors were doing before and around the time of your birth, then you REALLY owe it to yourself to give this book a try.

I was born the same month as Smalltalk. It's one of my favorite languages. When were YOU born?

Stupid book, stupid class, waste of time. Unless you are totally, 100% computer illiterate. I have a friend from Arkansas named Shawn, who didn't even know how to turn the computer on (literally), who used this book and is now typing his own personal letterheads and using all the Microsoft programs taught in this book to their full extent. He woulda given it 5 stars if maybe I found some use for it other than starting fires, making patties, disposable coasters, etc.

I propped up a table in the cafe at my college with it...that was about the most use I ever got out of it...

Well laid out, high physical quality, effectively written text good for teaching pure beginners how to use this tool [and even v.1 has some tips for those who are experienced] with lots of useful exercises. What limits this to 3 stars is the fact that OUTLOOK 2000 is not covered in any way whatsoever, despite the fact that it is an essential part of OFFICE which is heavily used in many organizations. The index also proved lacking when I wanted to find out about 'speaker's notes' in POWER POINT.

Very comprehensive coverage of Office 2000 application. I get stuck on something, there is an answer! It saves so much of my time! Try it!

Despite the advertising, I would say that this book is of little or no use to all but the beginning investor who wants a very easy to manage entry/exit system. I could replicate the "extensive historical research" that these "prominent authors" have performed for their systems in less than a few days and I'm no expert.

There are more pages of text devoted to the history of Fidelity and to an overview and explanation of the Select Funds (the only useful chapter in the book for me) than to the 3 "powerful mutual fund models". The "computer programs" included on disk are nothing more than incredibly simple spreadsheet templates.

I'm not sure if the authors are bull-market opportunists or just naive, but their book was/is a great disappointment to me.

Very detailed information on risk level, returns, and how to invest in fidelity select mutual funds.

I have been looking for someway to track the different Fidelity investments and trade on my own. This book and computer program is finally the anwser. I have been using the computer program for 6 months and have finally made money on my own. When the Dow came down so severly in late summer and fall, this system told me what to invest in and not lose like the dow. I am looking forward to trading with this system in the future.

I find GoldMine VERY counter-intuitive and difficult to use. I have used numerous other systems and have 20+ years in the computer industry.

This book covers the how to do many of the details of managing your data in goldmine.

Where if falls (very) short is that is doesn't really give you a road-map to use goldmine, no real best practices and how to at a high level.

There IS great info in this book, but by the time I broke down and bought it I had figured out 95% of what is covered. What I was hoping for was a theory of operation, something to make goldmine easier to manage.

All in all the book is better than the program!

Goldmine is very powerful and completely counter-intuitive. This book sheds light on the details of many of the areas of configureation and has lots of helpful information. It does fall short on best practice and usefull methods of using goldmine in a practical fashion.
I have found using goldmine to be a terrible and painful experience, simple things become impossibly complex (like data import) this book DOES address some of these topics.

I don't know what others are talking about here ... If you have the slightest comfort level with computers, Goldmine 6 and this book ARE intuitive and very valuable. I will say that I looked at previous versions and found this not ot be the case though.

I figured I would order this book and download the 30 day trial before I made the full commitment to the program. After about 10 days of reading this book and working with the demo. I went ahead and purchased the full program. I haven't been disappointed!

I think the book is very well laid out, and tells you how the program works. As to the criticism that it doesn't tell you how make Goldmine useful for your purposes, there are some examples of what the writer does in his own company and other examples, but I would assume most people would already have an idea of what they are trying to do before they get to this point. The book does tell you how to do that if you already have an idea of where you want to go.

All that being said, if you are serious about using this tool to its fullest, and your livelyhood, find a knowledgeable reseller, and ask them to help you for a couple of hours filling in the fine points of what you are trying to do.

The product was not what I expected. I found 2 typos and I did not even go through the whole presentation. Some of the grammar was odd as well.

Very informative, useful information. Very relevant to everyday dealings both professional and personal.

Take it from someone on the inside, this book is not going to help you. I picked up the book while killing time at a bookstore and was amazed at the bad advice. Some of the sample questions were outright illegal ("Do you own a computer?" -- If I asked this, the HR department would have a fit!), while others were industry standard ("Tell me about a time when you had a problem in a group and how you solved it.")

You can get similar information online for free, and it will probably be better quality.

There is nothing in this book that you can't get from any free internet site on job search and interview help. I have interviewed microsoft and know of others who have interviewed Microsoft, some work there some don't. Nothing in the book helped my experience with MSFT and nothig will help anyone else either. If you buy this book you will be wasting your money. As far as the interview with Microsoft it can be said in one sentence. BE YOURSELF. If they like you they hire you if they don't they won't. It's mostley a beauty pagent and each set of interviewer will have his/her notion of who they want to hire. DON'T WAST YOUR MONEY ON THIS BOOK.

So many people are in awe of Microsoft (MS) that, on one level, this book fulfills the basic purpose of telling the reader what the rudiments are of getting a job there. Sure, if you're planning to apply for the job of personal assistant to Bill Gates or establish yourself as the imminent software guru who's going to develop the MS strategic thrust for 2005 -- then this book may be too basic. But, keeping in mind that MS employs lots and LOTS of people, the book is a true getting-started guide which can help someone honestly considering how to get a job at MS -- at multiple levels of the company. (Despite the "Unofficial" word in the book's title, Smith had to have had some critical sources who really KNOW how MS works).

Moreover, there's a second reason why this book clicks. So many people admire the company and list it on their most-favored list (and invest in it!), that here's a whole new way to look at the company. By reading about how the employment game works at MS, one can perhaps glean how it is that the company competes and performs. Which makes the book valuable even if you're planning to continue working in automotives or clothing sales.

For most people, Microsoft is now a monolith. Smith sought to unlock the basics of how MS hires people. In the main, she succeeds. (There's also a wealth of addresses and links for MS worldwide!)

Will everyone who reads this book and applies for a job at MS get hired there? Probably not. Will everyone who reads this book and applies for a job at MS have a better shot at getting employed? Yes.

This is a great book if your boss asks what book they should buy to learn Goldmine. Its not helpful, poorley written and should make you look like a superstar as long as you already know the program.

If you have an inclination to buy this book, look at ACT! or MS Outlook instead of Goldmine. These books are written by Goldmine Certified Consultants. Do you really believe they are going to give their secrets away...when they charge thousands a day?

You will find the only real solution to any problem beyond the GoldMine Unknowledgeable Base (which I believe they purposely do not update) or their Customer Disservice Department is as basic as it gets. FrontRange (owner of Goldmine) constantly refers you to Goldmine Certified Consultants. It is obvious that FrontRange is leaving individuals and small business owners "Out On The Range!"

This book suffers from the same problems as the GoldMine for Dummys book. If you have been using GoldMine and have a good understanding of its purpose and function then the book contains interesting information. If you are not knowledgeable about GoldMine and your boss drops it on your desk and tells you to learn it then this book has minimal value. The book lacks an integrated approach.
The information is good and accurate but is basically scattered pieces of knowledge. Think of it like this, suppose that someone wanted to teach you chess. They described each and every piece and the board. They described the manner in which each piece could move and restrictions on movement. Then they said to go play chess. You would surely lose if you don't know that the goal is to capture the other king nor how all the pieces work together to create an effective defense or offense. This book describes how each piece works but not how to get them to work together.
Unfortunately I can't point anyone to any other book on GoldMine that does not suffer the same problem. They describe all the ingredients and how to prepare the ingredients but not how to bake the cake.

This book sucked and didn't help me at all. Yeah, maybe if I would have read every page front to back I might have understood this program a little more. But who has time for that? And who wants to read a reference book anyway? I got it so I could reference it when I was having trouble with quickbooks. You can figure a lot of the program on your on; but it's the details that are lacking in this book and it's the details you want. I ended up hiring a contractor to come in and teach me the program.

When I first started using this book I thought it was helpful, but when I needed help and information about entering transactions, I realized the shallowness of the book. The author knows a lot about business issues, but I needed bookkeeping help, I needed to understand what to do and why to do it that way.

I recommend you buy Quickbooks The Offical Guide instead if you want to learn Quickbooks inside and out - which is the only way to get the software to do exactly what you need.

As the bookkeeper for a start up internet company, QB for Dummies was helpful as a quick tutorial and overview. If you run a small family business, this is the perfect book for you. But if you're a company that expects to grow (as many of us startups are hopeful of), there's just not enough detail. I am now forced to look for a different book that will give me detailed help in creating the reports I need for financial analysis. Good thing I was given this one for free...