Product Description

Excel Basics to Blackbelt is intended to serve as an accelerated guide to decision support designs. Its structure is designed to enhance the skills in Excel of those who have never used it for anything but possibly storing phone numbers, enabling them to reach to a level of mastery that will allow them to develop user interfaces and automated applications. To accomplish this, the major theme of the text is "the integration of the basic"; as a result readers will be able to develop decision support tools that are at once highly intuitive from a working-components perspective but also highly significant from the perspective of practical use and distribution. Applications integration discussed includes the use of MS MapPoint, XLStat and RISKOptimizer, as well as how to leverage Excel's iteration mode, web queries, visual basic code, and interface development. There are ample examples throughout the text.
Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #362285 in Books
* Published on: 2008-07-07
* Original language: English
* Number of items: 1
* Binding: Hardcover
* 344 pages

Editorial Reviews

Review
"There's nothing else out there that covers the full potential of Excel in the way that this text does. It's easy to read even if you're a novice to graphical decision support tool development, but it has gems that I doubt some of the most advanced developers are even aware of. The presentation of various approaches to leveraging Excel with other applications such as MS MapPoint, XLStat and RISKOptimizer is particularly valuable. Similarly eye-opening are the unique tactics Bendoly presents for capitalizing on many of the built-in but underutilized capabilities of Excel. The application examples provided serve as the building blocks for a whole universe of DSS development now made accessible to readers at all levels. This book should become a standard reference for analysts and consultants regardless of industry."
Daniel Bachrach, University of Alabama

"This is a must book for people seeking to get the best out of the wonderful tool of Excel. It fits in the sweet spot between the "Excel made simple" and the math and stat based Excel technical manuals. The practical feel of the book is conveyed through such evocative section headings as Harvesting Intelligence and Leveraging Dynamic Analysis. Though each of the chapters is worthy of comment, I think that Chapter 9, Scenario Generation and Optimization is of particular interest to managers wanting to put some real muscle behind their search for the best decision in the face of uncertainty. All together, this book is a major contribution to the business literature."
Richard B. Chase, University of Southern California

"Excel is the duct tape of decision support - handy, pervasive, and surprisingly effective. Bendoly's book helps users unlock its considerable power while avoiding costly errors. You'll be amazed at all you can do with a spreadsheet."
Thomas H. Davenport, Babson College

About the Author
Elliot Bendoly is an associate professor at Emory University's Goizueta Business School. He holds a Ph.D. from Indiana University in the fields of operations management and decision sciences with an information systems specialization in ERP and knowledge management. Professor Bendoly serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Operations Management and Decision Sciences. His research has been published in leading academic journals, including the Journal of Operations Management, Production and Operations Management, MIS Quarterly, ISR, Journal of Applied Psychology, Decision Sciences, and the Journal of Service Research. He is also the co-editor of Strategic ERP Extension and Use. He has served as the academic liaison for APICS and is a co-founder of the Behavioral Dynamics in Operations Management (BDOM) Network. He has lectured on decision support at research institutions such as Harvard, as well as to practitioners at firms such as AT Kearney and Price Waterhouse Coopers.
Customer Reviews

A novel look at the power of Excel!5
A novel look at the power of Excel. Great for people new to Excel2007, but also easily transferable to Excel2003. I had no idea it was this easy to develop amazing visual applications in Excel - The seamlessness of integration between Excel and other applications as well as the Internet was a new one for me as well.

I'm a Psychology Professor, and not in any way an "excel geek" and I found this book approachable, useful, and surprising! It's a relief to finally have something like this on my desk. Where have books like this been all this time?"

E. Christine Whitley

SO USEFUL! Broad application possibilites.5
I had no idea what Excel could do for me before reading this book. I'm in the field of medicine. I was able to create a customizable interface for large research experiments. This allowed me to do repeated experiments with variable numbers of groups, subjects and variables.

I automatically generated worksheets for data entry, statistical analysis, and elegant methods to present this data (including color, legends, error bars, etc.).

This made my work so much more efficient and my life SO MUCH EASIER!

Thanks, Dr. Bendoly.

Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #100763 in Books
* Published on: 2008-07-20
* Original language: English
* Number of items: 1
* Binding: Paperback
* 188 pages
Customer Reviews

Great Jumpstart for Newcomers To SharePoint Designer4
SharePoint Designer Tutorial. SharePoint Designer Tutorial is a straightforward hands on book targeted at the SharePoint Designer novice looking for a frills approach to becoming productive with SharePoint Designer. Focusing on building a business site in SharePoint with the aid of Designer, SharePoint Designer Tutorial walks you through a series of hands on exercises that when followed from end to end will help you not only build a robust site but will furthermore help you gain the skills to re-use in extending your SharePoint solutions. Concise and to the point at 166 pages the book is a great jumpstart for anyone looking to get comfortable with SharePoint Designer.

Not sure who this book is for.2
Got this book to review to see if it was worthwhile for our end users, so my review is focused on that.

The book spends the first half going into basic what are the toolbars, what is HTML, CSS, etc. The stuff every new user book contains.
The examples are good, full of pictures and simple step processes. The examples are simple and make no real use of Sharepoint vs any web server, with the end result being a page for a wine company using master pages and displaying a table with wines and prices, hardcoded.
Good information for someone who wants to create their own pages above what the Edit Page provides.

After that it starts getting bad where the users are given examples where they need to install web parts and that they need to edit the web.config and configuring MS-Exchange. At that point we have passed the point of end user getting extra capability out for Sharepoint and gone into advanced computer user who have installed sharepoint, are familiar with web.config and other such configuration files.

Other bad items.

The previous wine page is gone and all example, like display the wine from a sharepoint list just do it to a blank page. There is a difference from making your site not look like Sharepoint to ignoring master pages and other functionaly that user expect from a Sharepoint page.
Workflows rate around 2 pages with a simple if this person edits an item send email but this is just shown not really exampled.
Example to display data are simple, with a simple example of conditional formating, xpath, and other items dealing with displaying data in lists.
There is no coverage about modifing the New form and Edit form for lists.

From the stand point of giving this to advanced end users and hoping I stop getting requests to do simple things like display a list with conditional formating I don't see this book helping them or me with that. The text and demos on the Microsoft site do a better job.

Product Description

Pro Oracle Spatial for Oracle Database 11g shows how to take advantage of Oracle Databases built–in feature set for working with location–based data. A great deal of the information used in business today is associated with location in some way, and analysis of that data is becoming ever more important in todays mobile and highly connected world. In Pro Oracle Spatial for Oracle Database 11g, authors Ravi Kothuri and Albert Godfrind address

* The special nature of spatial data and its role in professional and consumer applications
* Issues in spatial data management such as modeling, storing, accessing, and analyzing spatial data
* The Oracle Spatial solution and the integration of spatial data into enterprise databases
* How spatial information is used to understand business and support decisions, to manage customer relations, and to better serve private and corporate users

When you read Pro Oracle Spatial for Oracle Database 11g, you’re learning from the very best. Ravi Kothuri is a key member of Oracle’s Spatial development team. Albert Godfrind consults widely with Oracle clients on the implementation of Oracle Spatial, develops training courses, and presents frequently at conferences. Together they have crafted a technically sound and authoritative fountain of information on working with spatial data in the Oracle database. What you’ll learn

Pro Oracle Spatial for Oracle Database 11g delivers in helping you fully understand Oracles spatial data feature set. In reading the book, you’ll learn

* About new Oracle Spatial features in Oracle Database 11g, including support for the European Petroleum Standards Group (EPSG) data model, the ability to publish to Google Earth, integration with Google Maps, and much more
* The use of Oracles built-in SDO_GEOMETRY data type for storing location–based data
* How to geocode your data, beginning with postal addresses and ending with SDO_GEOMETRY objects that enable future analysis as well as forming the foundation of working with spatial data within Oracle
* How to create and display maps to help you visualize and analyze your geocoded data
* About network modeling, which is useful in computing routes, travel distances, and proximity based upon travel time
* How to optimize analysis of your spatial data by creating spatial indexes and custom operators

Who is this book for?

Pro Oracle Spatial for Oracle Database 11g is aimed at software developers who wish to develop applications using Oracles extensive and strong support for working with spatial, or geocoded, data.
About the Apress Pro Series

The Apress Pro series books are practical, professional tutorials to keep you on and moving up the professional ladder.

You have gotten the job, now you need to hone your skills in these tough competitive times. The Apress Pro series expands your skills and expertise in exactly the areas you need. Master the content of a Pro book, and you will always be able to get the job done in a professional development project. Written by experts in their field, Pro series books from Apress give you the hard–won solutions to problems you will face in your professional programming career.
Related Titles from Apress

* Expert Oracle Database Architecture: 91 and 10g Programming Techniques and Solutions
* Mastering Oracle SQL and SQL*Plus

Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #161321 in Books
* Published on: 2007-10-29
* Original language: English
* Number of items: 1
* Binding: Hardcover
* 787 pages

Editorial Reviews

About the Author
Ravi Kothuri holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and has been an active researcher and developer in the spatial and multimedia areas for the past 12 years. Currently, he serves as the project lead and software architect for various projects in Oracle Spatial. He has around 15 patents (some pending) on specific Oracle technology and has authored numerous articles for database conferences and journals. Other activities include teaching database courses for undergrads and reviewing of research articles for spatial and database conferences. Ravi enjoys music, movies, and playing with children.

No biography is available for this author.

No biography is available for this author.
Customer Reviews

Essential Purchase For Oracle DBers Working With Spatial Data5
'Pro Oracle Spatial for Oracle Database 11g' is one of those books that take a niche topic and then focus on it. For this book by Apress the topic is the spatial package that comes for Oracle 11. With nearly 800 pages of content spread over 17 chapters you will learn all the ins and outs of this important technology. Used extensively for geographical analysis but also for anything else that reads in spatial data this is a necessary purchase for anyone working with said types of data.

Great work by Apress as per usual and a must buy for any Oracle admins and/or developers that need this package.

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Oracle Spatial5
this book has all you need to know about Spatial, chapters are easy to read....and the advanced subjects are very well explained....certainly a must have one....

Must a read book5
I am currently working on system, the involves Oracle Spatial technology. This book was going to be me first step (almost) towards getting familliar with Spatial. I was little anxious about the level expected from the book's reader: "Intermediate-Advanced"; I haven't exactly felt like "advanced" in Oracle technology. It wasn't so bad; the book is really well written and I had no problems with understanding anything.

The book consists of six parts (including appendices). All the parts cover following subjects:
- Introduction to the technology. Technologies, to be exact; architectures of both, Spatial and Locator options are described -
differences between them.
- Basic concepts - basic know-how. The part, I needed the most met my expectations in 100%. It helped me to start coding really fast.
- Network analysis - more advanced subjects covered, the mostly ARE NOT available in Locator option (one I have access to); network analysis and routing engine, geometry engine. Also indexes and operators are described in one chapter of the book.
- Map Visualisation and creation - a lot of knowlege about MapBuilder, MapViewer and it's API - really helpful for anybody, who needs to visualize maps stored in Spatial.
- Sample applications and case studies - I always look for such chapter in every IT book I read. This is the place, where programmer might find a lot of answers to one's questions. There is also a chapter in this part, the belongs to the category "MUST read" - "Tips, common mistakes and common errors".

There is also sample code available for the readers - to be downloaded from the publisher's web page. It is really helpful to have it while reading the book. There is only one "but" - was, to be exact. About two weeks after the book had been published, the code wasn't available on the page. At least, I couldn't find it. Now it is possible to download it from here.

The book is really good - "must have" of every Oracle Spatial user. It might be helpful for the beginner and advanced developers as well. I would recommend it to everyone, who needs to get to know Oracle Spatial well. All the 756 pages (excluding index) are filled with reliable knowledge, especially that one of the authors - Ravi Kothuri is a member of Oralce spatial development team, where he works as software architect and team leader.

Product Description

Build and manage a scalable storage infrastructure with Oracle Automatic Storage Management

Streamline data management and provisioning using Oracle Automatic Storage Management (Oracle ASM) and the detailed information contained in this exclusive Oracle Press resource. Written by a team of database experts, Oracle Automatic Storage Management: Under-the-Hood & Practical Deployment Guide explains how to build and maintain a dynamic, highly available Oracle database storage environment. Inside, you'll learn how to configure storage for Oracle ASM, build disk groups, use data striping and mirroring, and optimize performance. You'll also learn how to ensure consistency across server and storage platforms, maximize data redundancy, and administer Oracle ASM from the command line.

*
Manage Oracle ASM Instances and configure Oracle RDBMS instances to leverage Oracle ASM
* Define, discover, and manage disk storage under Oracle ASM
* Create external, normal-redundancy, and high-redundancy disk groups
* Add and remove Oracle ASM storage without affecting RDMS instance availability
* Learn how Oracle ASM provides even I/O distribution
* Work with Oracle ASM directories, files, templates, and aliases
* Improve storage performance and integrity using the ASMLIB API
* Simplify system administration with the Oracle ASM command line interface
*
Understand key internal Oracle ASM structures and algorithms

Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #35730 in Books
* Published on: 2007-11-05
* Original language: English
* Number of items: 1
* Binding: Paperback
* 340 pages

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Nitin Vengurlekar works at Oracle in the Real Application Cluster (RAC) engineering group, with specific emphasis on ASM. Nitin is a popular conference presenter on this topic.

Murali Vallath is an Oracle Certified Database Administrator and is president of the Oracle RAC Special Interest Group.

Rich Long is Director of Development for Automatic Storage Management at Oracle and has managed ASM development since the project’s inception.

Customer Reviews

Excellent reference book5
This is a essential book for beginners and advanced users. DBAs can have good references to implement ASM without problems. There are many information not found in conventional forums.

ASM Book review by Oracle press5
Other than Oracle documentation, this is the only ASM source of information that I know of. This book is a relatively fast read and comes in at under 300 pages.

The first chapter is very helpful and I learned some information about disk storage that I did not know. I am more comfortable talking with SAN and system administrators now. They also get the feel that I know what I am talking about. After the first chapter, the book dives right into ASM architecture and management. Each chapter is well written and easy to understand. This book also covers the new features in Oracle 11 and you can see that Oracle is dedicated to maturing ASM. ASM is here to stay and it will gain in popularity.

One of the areas that I thought could have been better is the discussion and explanation of RAC, ASM and how the cluster registry is affected. It would have been nice to have a chapter on OCFS just as a supplement. Some shops will utilize both OCFS and ASM. OCFS will host the OCR and voting file as ASM can not be used.

If you are new to ASM or you are an expert, this book is a good read. If you are new to ASM will get more out of it (obviously) since it covers everything you need to know to install and maintain ASM. Fortunately since this is the only ASM book (as of today) and it is great source of information you will not be wasting your time. This book comes highly recommended.

George Loewenthal
Denver, Colorado

ASM Best Book5
Oracle Automatic Storage Management Under-the-Hood & Practical Deployment Guide.This is a must have book for those who are working on ASM or who are planning to implement ASM.Chapters like "ASM Space Allocation and Rebalance","ASMLIB Concepts and Overview","Managing Database in ASM" and "ASM and Storage Array Configuration" gives you in detail information.

After reading the book I can say that now I know what actually is ASM/How it works/How to Implement ASM and I don't need any more training on ASM.


-MOHAMMED MOINUDDIN UMAIR
Senior Tuning Consultant,LEHMAN BROTHERS,NEW JERSEY

Product Description

The Berkeley DB Book is a practical guide to the intricacies of the Berkeley DB. This book covers in-depth the complex design issues that are mostly only touched on in terse footnotes within the dense Berkeley DB reference manual. It explains the technology at a higher level and also covers the internals, providing generous code and design examples.

In this book, you will get to see a developers perspective on intriguing design issues in Berkeley DB�based applications, and you will be able to choose design options for specific conditions. Also included is a special look at fault tolerance and high-availability frameworks. Berkeley DB is becoming the database of choice for large-scale applications like search engines and high-traffic web sites.

Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #314503 in Books
* Published on: 2007-10-08
* Original language: English
* Number of items: 1
* Binding: Hardcover
* 442 pages

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Himanshu Yadava is a software developer and provides software design and development consultancy through his company BitSeer Inc. His areas of interest include embedded databases, fault tolerance and monitoring/management frameworks. Previously he has worked in various technical roles at Orcale, Kineto Wireless, ProactiveNet (now a part of BMC software) and Infosys Technologies. He maintains a Berkeley DB information page on his company's website (http://www.bitseer.com).

Customer Reviews

Excellent (but it would be better in C)4
Berkeley DB (BDB) has certainly grown up over the years, from a simple key/value database to a key/value database with transactional capabilities, replication and more. I read The Berkeley DB Book by Himanshu Yadava, and I was fascinated. The book is very well written; it is always clear, and the author discusses all programming facets of BDB and, where appropriate, compares Berkeley DB to relational database systems, which is a great help if you are used to the latter.

The book is for programmers, and as such, it has a ton of code, which is great. The author writes "Using just C in my code examples would have addressed the largest subsection of programmers", and I agree: I was a bit disappointed that coding is mainly in C++, but chapter 12 shows you the C API (and if you want Java, its API is discussed in chapter 11).

From why and when to use Berkeley DB, through building simple applications and an in-depth discussion of data stores, the book goes on to advanced operations (cursors, duplicate keys, joins, etc.) with plenty of good examples. In Chapter 8, replication; the architecture and APIs provided by BDB, and as always, good code samples. Just before discussing the BDB utilities (the command-line tools: db_stat, db_checkpoint, etc), Himanshu Yadava goes into great detail building distributed transactions and discussing strategies you can apply.

Anyone interested in data storage should read this book, if only to remember that your multi-CPU, terabyte relational database is great, but that there are still a myriad applications that would greatly profit from a smaller, light-weight and blindingly fast database system like Berkeley DB.The Berkeley DB Book belongs on your bookshelf.

Good overview of BerkeleyDB4
I bought this book to prepare for a project using BerkelyDB. I read the product documentation a few times, but wanted to make sure I hadn't overlooked anything. My interests are rather specialized, I did not pay any attention to replication, for example. I did not read this book cover to cover, I spent an intensive few days trying to resolve some specific questions.

Why care about BerkelyDB?
Berkely DB is an important alternative in cases where a SQL database is not a good solution due to cost, data volumes, administration support, or processing model. BerkelyDB is better described as a set of data store libraries for an in-process, but multi threaded and multi process transactional data store. BerkelyDB is a very mature open source product, with a long history of production deployments.

Why care about this book?
It is the only one written in the last 7 years on this topic, so if it is any good you have to get it. The (free) product documentation is quite good, but rather scattered. As the author says in the introduction, putting it together in one document, with additional commentary is worthwhile.

What I liked?
The text is clean, the layout is well organized. I found it easy to jump to the areas I was interested in. In the end I answered my questions and was satisfied with the content.

What I didn't like?
The author made several decisions that do not fit my particular needs. First, the book is written using C++ examples, and I work in Java these days. That decision is certainly defensible, but using C++ required (for the sake of brevity) using some non standard libraries for things like threading. With Java this is not needed. Secondly, the examples tend to show programs in full. For my purposes I really only care about the specific BDB calls under discussion, the complete examples just take up extra space. My greatest disappointment with the book is that it did not go into architectural issues to any great depth. This is unfortunate, since the data model for BDB is radically different than the relational model.

Product Description

Database professionals will find that this new edition aids in mastering the latest version of Microsoft's SQL Server. Developers and database administrators (DBAs) use SQL on a daily basis in application development and the subsequent problem solving and fine tuning. Answers to SQL issues can be quickly located helping the DBA or developer optimize and tune a database to maximum efficiency.

Basic questions are easily located on the topics of filtering, sorting, operators, conditionals, pseudo columns, single row functions, joins, grouping functions, sub queries, composite queries, hierarchies, flashback queries, parallel queries, expressions and regular expressions. Assistance on DML, data types (including collections), XML, DDL for basic database objects such as tales, views and indexes, partitioning, and security is also considered.

* Identifies the most common issues DBAs face day to day for easy reference
*Provides DBAs with solutions actually used by the authors in enterprise environments to resolve common and specialized problems to optimization issues.
* Addresses issues that have been introduced by new features which can add more control but reduce performance.
Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #661330 in Books
* Published on: 2007-04-13
* Original language: English
* Number of items: 1
* Binding: Paperback
* 520 pages

Editorial Reviews

About the Author
Ken England is President and Founder of Database Technologies, a database consulting, product evaluation and training firm. A Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer and a Microsoft Certified Trainer, Ken England is widely regarded as an authority on SQL Server and other leading database products. He is also the author of the SQL Server 6.5 Performance Optimization and Tuning Handbook.

Gavin Powell, BSc. Comp.Sci., OCP (Oracle8i Certified Professional) has fifteen years of computer industry experience. Diverse experience in database administration and database development in both relational and object databases. Applications development experience is procedural and object-oriented. He also has some systems administration experience. His extensive consulting experience includes software vendors, internet .COM's (some unfortunately have met with their demise), accounting, banking, financial services, the travel industry, construction, retail, mining, shipping, education and general advisory capacity. Gavin Powell has worked with many software products, tools and programming languages. These tools include items in the list shown below. He has authored two successful books Oracle .High performance Tuning and the just released Oracle SQL

Customer Reviews

My name on the cover2
Up to this point, I have avoided reviewing this book because I don't like being negative, but this book has damaged Ken England's reputation and I would like to clear the air.

About 18 months ago the publishers offered me the opportunity to be technical editor for this new edition. I was flattered because I considered Ken's previous edition to be the best written on the subject. The publishers also requested my permission to reprint, on the back cover, a review I did of the previous edition. That tickled my ego as well.

After reading the draft, I was appalled at the gross errors of fact and, perhaps worse, the errors of omission in regard to the many important new performance tuning features of SQL Server 2005. I gave the publishers my opinion of the book and told them I could not be involved unless I could rewrite the new material entirely. They did not agree and found another technical editor.

To answer some of the points of contention in previous reviews of this book:

Despite the review from Adam Cassel questioning the truth of an assertion that Ken England did not write this edition, I can confirm that Ken England did not participate at all in the re-write of this book. He knew nothing about it until after it was published.

Gavin Powell did write the new material. His reply to the criticism in an earlier review is disingenuous. ("My most sincere and profuse apologies if you are finding things which are out of date. Please return the book to the retailer you purchased it from if it is too out of date.") He implies that the errors are leftovers from the previous edition that got overlooked in the update process. That is not true. Things are not "out of date", they are wrong and the errors are his.

I gave this book 2 stars instead of zero because Ken's core material is still in there and it is still worth reading. As soon as the previous version is out of print, this will be the only place you can find it.

Kurt




Ken England Not the Author?1

How can this be possible? I don't believe this story. Essentially, you are claiming, and by stating you know Ken and spoke to him that Ken is claiming, a man who has written two books, and is at least as smart as the average lawyer or publishing agent, was duped into a contract with a publisher, at some point contingent with, or subsequent to, writing one or both of his other books, that allowed his name to be used as the author of any forthcoming book the publisher wished to put out without his knowledge or permission and without his receiving any remuneration for said "rogue" book? That is total BS. There is something going on here, but it is not what you claim. I tell you, I think Ken needs to and owes people a full explaination of the circumstances surrounding this book if only to set things straight. If this is even remotely true, that his name was used without his knolwedge, permission, and that he is receiving no remuyneration for sales related to this book, he needs to make a comment here online as he can freely do. Elsewise, this is BS and Ken is in some way complicit in this fiasco or mythology you are creating.

Disapointment1
I found the book to be very disappointing. In the past I purchased the previous books for SQL Server 6.5 and SQL Server 2000. Both were excellent books, so when I saw that there is book for SQL Server 2005, I bought it immediately. Unfortunately I felt that this book is not as good as the previous books. The book is completely based on the 2000 version, with just few things that were added. It doesn't give you deep cover of many of the new tools and options that we have with SQL Server 2005 and sometimes it even writes about things that exist only for backwards compatibility with out even mentioning that there is a new way to get the information. For example - It gives a great explanation about DBCC Showcontig statement, and doesn't even mention the sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats DMV (If you look at BOL the first thing that it will write about DBCC showcontig is "This feature will be removed in a future version of Microsoft SQL Server. Avoid using this feature in new development work, and plan to modify applications that currently use this feature. Use sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats instead.").

One of the most important improvements of SQL Server 2005 was the Dynamic Management Views. The book hardly writes about the DMV. For example the book has a chapter about indexes. It didn't even mention sys.dm_db_index_XXXX and the sys.dm_db_missing_index_XXXX dynamic management views in that chapter. In my opinion if you write a chapter about indexes, you should include an explanation about those DMV.

Sometimes it even gives you completely wrong information. The explanation about set statistics xml is only 4 lines, saying that it just gives you the same information but in XML format (doesn't even says the same as what. Since this comes just after the explanation of set statistics time and set statistics io statements, I assume that the author meant those statements). In reality set statistics xml gives you much more information and it is one of the most important tools that we can use to optimize query.

While I wrote this review, I read 2 reviews saying that this book was not written by Ken England and Gavin Powell. I guess that this explains the hugh difference between there previous books and this book that just used there good reputation but apparently has nothing to do with them.

Adi

Product Description

Pro ASP.NET for SQL Server: High Performance Data Access for Web Developers explains how to use ASP.NET 2.0 and SQL Server 2005 most efficiently together. It covers all crucial performance issues and illustrates optimal techniques with enterprise-quality development.

Performance is always an issue, and optimizing database access is one of the most daunting performance challenges facing web developers. With Brennan Stehling as your guide, youll explore the many overlaps of web and database technologies, including configuration, programming, performance tuning, and deployment. You’ll learn how to make high-performance database access not just a goal, but a reality.

What you’ll learn

* Discover what impedes ASP.NET 2.0 access to SQL Server 2005 and how to make web applications and databases work blindingly fast together.
* Learn to make the subtle choices between DataSets, DataReaders, and DataObjects, to simplify code and maximize performance.
* Optimize data-bound controls and create your own.
* See when a custom database provider is advisable and how to build one.
* Understand how to monitor and measure web/database performance.
* Learn to build, deploy, and configure enterprise-level web applications against SQL Server 2005.


Who is this book for?

Anyone involved in .NET web development will find this book invaluable. Whether you’re struggling just to handle traffic or scaling up to meet demand, you’ll find all the tools, tips, and techniques you need for high-performance web access to databases. If you want to build enterprise-level web database applications 100% of the time, this book will telland showyou how to do it.

About the Apress Pro Series

The Apress Pro series books are practical, professional tutorials to keep you on and moving up the professional ladder.

You have gotten the job, now you need to hone your skills in these tough competitive times. The Apress Pro series expands your skills and expertise in exactly the areas you need. Master the content of a Pro book, and you will always be able to get the job done in a professional development project. Written by experts in their field, Pro series books from Apress give you the hard-won solutions to problems you will face in your professional programming career.

Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #68643 in Books
* Published on: 2007-09-21
* Original language: English
* Number of items: 1
* Binding: Paperback
* 408 pages

Editorial Reviews

About the Author
Brennan Stehling is a consultant in Milwaukee who specializes in web, console, and desktop development projects. He's worked with .NET for several years, particularly since the .NET 2.0 Beta 1 release. He blogs regularly on .NET topics at http://brennan.offwhite.net/blog/. He also develops reusable tools in C# and makes them available to developers at SmallSharpTools.com. In his spare time, Brennan plays Gaelic hurling, an Irish sport that has become popular in Milwaukee over the past 10 years.

Product Description

The Handbook of Database Security: Applications & Trends, an edited volume by renowned researchers within data security, provides an up-to-date overview of data security models, techniques, and architectures in a variety of data management applications and settings. This edited volume represents the most comprehensive work on numerous data security aspects published in the last ten years.

The Handbook of Database Security: Applications & Trends places a particular focus on data-centric security aspects that reach beyond traditional and well-studied data security aspects in databases. It also covers security in advanced database systems, data privacy and trust management, and data outsourcing, and outlines directions for future research in these fields.

The Handbook of Database Security: Applications & Trends is designed for a professional audience composed of practitioners and researchers in industry and academia as a reference book. This volume is also suitable for advanced-level students in computer science interested in the state-of-the-art in data security. Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #1945317 in Books
* Published on: 2007-11-30
* Original language: English
* Number of items: 1
* Binding: Hardcover
* 579 pages

Product Description

Authoritative and up to date, this eleventh edition of the popular Concise Oxford English Dictionary (WindowsR) CD-ROM contains over 240,000 words, phrases, and definitions, including all the latest new words. It offers rich vocabulary coverage, with full treatment of World English, rare, historical, and archaic terms, as well as scientific and technical vocabulary, and provides hundreds of helpful notes on grammar and usage.

This electronic version of the dictionary offers full-text search functionality, instant look-up from WindowsR documents, including email and the Web, high-quality spoken pronunciations for thousands of words, and interactive educational word games, making it ideal for family, school, or office use.

New to this edition is a fascinating Word Histories feature, telling the often bizarre stories of the origins and development of hundreds of words. For example, did you know that the word grammar is related to glamour, or that
cockney used to mean a spoilt child?

This dictionary also contains full appendices on topics such as alphabets, currencies, electronic English, and the registers of language, from formal to slang, plus a useful Guide to Good English with advice on grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #680721 in Books
* Published on: 2005-01-20
* Platforms: Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows NT, Windows XP, Windows Me
* Original language: English
* Number of items: 1
* Binding: CD-ROM

Editorial Reviews

Review
`Review from previous edition This dictionary is a user-friendly, easy to install, and practical program.' TEEM - Independent Teachers' Evaluation Panel

`The Concise Oxford English Dictionary on CD-ROM gives the user immediate access to the contents of possibly the most authoritative dictonary of English....speed of access and ease of use make this a highly useful tool.' Schoolzone Evaluation, Department for Education and Skills
Customer Reviews

My "desktop" dictionary4
I used to use the Random House Unabridged as my computer dictionary. But the Win95 version didn't work with XP, and the XP version was painfully slow. After looking around I chose the Concise OED as a replacement. I've been very happy with it, and I recommend it to anyone who uses their computer to write.

Product Description

An alphabetical guide to the most common problems of grammar and vocabulary.
Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #239312 in Books
* Published on: 1986-01
* Original language: English
* Number of items: 1
* Binding: Paperback
* 288 pages

Editorial Reviews

About the Author
Michael Swan is a writer specializing in English language teaching and reference materials. His interests include pedagogic grammar, mother-tongue influence in second language acquisition, and the relationship between applied linguistic theory and classroom language-teaching practice, and he has published a number of articles on these topics. Michael has had extensive experience with adult learners and has worked with teachers in many countries. He is a Visiting Professor at St Mary's College, University of Surrey.
Customer Reviews

Good for reference4
Not only for beginners, but also for intermediate level students. Please take into account that this book is "a shortened and simplified version" of Practical English Usage. If you want a book to carry for studying in the bus, BSE is good, but for having it in your desk, PSE is better.

Product Description

GRAMMAR WITH LAUGHTER is part of the popular series of photocopiable resource books designed to enliven your lessons. It contains 82 lessons each dealing with a different area of English grammar.
Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #1331849 in Books
* Published on: 1999-01-01
* Number of items: 1
* Binding: Paperback

Product Description

English Words: History and Structure is concerned primarily with the learned vocabulary of English, the words borrowed from the classical languages and French. It is both an introduction to some of the basic principles of linguistic analysis and a helpful manual for vocabulary discernment and enrichment. Designed to deepen and strengthen the knowledge acquired in the classroom, exercises to accompany each chapter and further readings on recent loans and the legal and medical vocabulary of English are available online at http://uk.cambridge.org/linguistics/resources/englishwor ds.
Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #845360 in Books
* Published on: 2001-07-16
* Original language: English
* Number of items: 1
* Binding: Paperback
* 220 pages

Editorial Reviews

Review
'... read this book and recommend it to your sceptical colleagues ... it will certainly enhance the language awareness of already proficient English speakers ... attention to the history of words can illuminate the complex relationships between meaning, spelling and pronunciation in English, and can reveal the English lexicon as much more systematic than it appears.' ATEFL Issues

Stockwell and Minkova cover a large amount of material in this work. Yet despite the abundance of sophisticated linguistic terminology, it is in fact a book which is very easy to understand. Anyone studying the history of the English language ... will benefit from it.' fun-with-words.com

About the Author
Robert Stockwell is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Linguistics at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Donka Minkova is Professor of English in the Department of English at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Product Description

A modern, speaking-centred general English course that helps students use language naturally.
Product Details

* Published on: 2006-04-27
* Original language: English
* Binding: Paperback
* 64 pages

Product Description

If you already speak English, but now would like to start speaking even better, then Speak English Like an American is for you. This book and CD set is designed to help native speakers of any language speak better English. Over 300 of the most-used American English idioms and phrases are presented in engaging dialogue, with plenty of usage examples, illustrations, and lots of exercises -- with convenient answer key -- to help you learn the material. The audio CD includes all of the dialogues. Ideal for self-study. A fun and effective way to improve your conversational English!
Product Details

* Amazon Sales Rank: #5998 in Books
* Published on: 2007-02
* Original language: English
* Number of items: 1
* Binding: Paperback
* 176 pages

Editorial Reviews

Review
A highly recommended self-teaching tool... -- Midwest Library Review (review refers to the Spanish edition of this book)

I must admit that even after 15 years living in America, I found this book useful and relevant... -- Vadim Yarmolinets, Novoye Russkoye Slovo Newspaper (refers to the Russian edition of this book)

This book will serve as a great support for those who want to master contemporary conversational English. -- Dr. Vladimir Mylnikov, ESL instructor, Monterey, CA

About the Author
Amy Gillett has taught English as a Second Language (ESL) in Prague, Czech Republic, and in Stamford, Connecticut. Her articles and humorous essays have appeared in many American publications, including MAD Magazine, Family Circle, and the San Francisco Chronicle. Ms. Gillett holds a Bachelor’s degree in Slavic Languages and Literature and a Master’s in Russian and East European Studies, both from Stanford University. She is also the author of Speak English Like an American for Native Russian Speakers, Speak English Like an American for Native Spanish Speakers, and Speak English Like an American for Native Japanese Speakers.
Customer Reviews

A very good option5
I live in Venezuela, I speak spanish as native language. I'm learning English by myself as a second language. This book and CD audio are very good, in it you will find dialogues and dayly expressions that can help you if you are not an expert. I can write in English so so, but my hear is not trainned to listen english conversation and dialogues. If you want to improve your English vocabulary and train your hear, it is for you.
The seller was on time and the package fine. I'm very glad.

Very useful and fun for improving English5
Speak English Like an American has a great format. You learn hundreds of American English idioms and phrases through a story. You have the option of listening along on a CD too.

Not useful in improving english.1
I was really dissapointed with this book. It is not worth the money. All it does in this book, so called "Speak like an American" is to provide some american english slang.