PC Buyers' Guides Books

The Purchasing and Supply Manager's Guide To The C.P.M. Exam

Fred Sollish, John Semanik

Amazon Price: $37.79 List Price: $59.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Sybex Amazon Marketplace: 26 new & used starting at $32.32

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Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Industries & Professions -> Purchasing & Buying
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Marketing & Sales -> Marketing -> General
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Marketing & Sales -> Marketing -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Do not count on this as your single study source! 4 out of 5 stars.
8 of 11 people found this review helpful.

I bought this as an economical study reference. It is a great overview for key concepts but find additional sources to study by.

It took me failing the first test (after studing only from this book) to realize that the CPM exam answers are fomulated in a subjective manner. Many questions and answers are vauge and situational oriented. Questions are often worded as: choose the "most likely" or "least likely" answer, leaving 2 valid answers, the correct of which may depend on an organization's preference or even a buyer's experience!

The test seems to raise the difficulty by way intrepertation in an effort to ligitimize the CPM certification. The test is worded with such verbeage that I believe that it must have been written by a tenured government employee or mid level manager with a thesaurus.

As a purchasing professional with many years of experience, I found that most real world application and testing for certification in theory are quite different with occasional convergence.

The certification process will weed out the weak and I do take full responsibility for my first failure. Now that I know the rules of engagement, the battle is mine to be won.

Hats off to the authors for effectively simplifying a "complexable" (yes, I made that up!) subject.

It is a great reference and I will likely use it to train the buyers in our organization.

Editorial Review:

Sybex, the leader in certification, is offering C.P.M. (Certified Purchasing Manager) candidates a unique and economical resource: comprehensive coverage of all four certification exams in one book, at a very low price. Sponsored by the Institute for Supply Management (ISM), the C.P.M. (Certified Purchasing Manager) Certification is a globally recognized designation that validates the knowledge and skills required of today's purchasing professionals. The companion CD includes an advanced test engine with a bonus exam, electronic flash cards for PC and Palm devices, and the entire book in PDF.

Beginning PHP and MySQL 5: From Novice to Professional, Second Edition (Beginning from Novice to Professional)

W. Jason Gilmore

Amazon Price: $28.78 List Price: $44.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Apress Amazon Marketplace: 52 new & used starting at $13.99

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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Databases -> Specific Databases -> MySQL & mSQL
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Databases -> Beginning & Introductory
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Databases -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 100 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Book Description

• Essentially three books in one, provides thorough introductions to the PHP language, MySQL database, and shows you how these two technologies can be effectively integrated to build powerful websites.
• Provides over 500 code examples, including real-world tasks such as providing an auto-login feature, sending HTML-formatted email, testing password guessability, and uploading files via a Web interface.
• Updated for MySQL 5, includes new chapters introducing triggers, stored procedures, and views.

From the Back Cover

Interested in becoming a master of the PHP language and MySQL database but don't know where to begin? This bestselling book ranks among the most thorough and practical guides in print, covering all of the key concepts and features, and showing you how to effectively integrate PHP and MySQL to build powerful websites.

The book begins with a vast overview of PHP's capabilities, starting with a survey of the installation and configuration process on both the Windows and Linux platforms. Next, several chapters are devoted to basic PHP concepts, including variables, datatypes, arrays, functions, string manipulation, and processing user input. Other key PHP topics are also covered, including PEAR, session handling, LDAP integration, the Smarty templating engine, Web services, and PDO.

Next up is a presentation of MySQL's key features. You're first guided through MySQL's installation and configuration process, and are presented with an introduction to its storage engines, datatypes, administration utilities, security features, and data import/export facilities. New MySQL 5-specific chapters have been added in this edition, covering triggers, stored procedures, and views. Along the way, you'll gain insight into PHP's assortment of MySQL functions (using both the mysql and mysqli extensions), and learn how to create and execute queries, perform searches, and carry out key database tasks from within your Web application.

What You Will Learn from This Book

• Install and configure Apache, PHP and MySQL on both Windows and Linux
• Accept and process information submitted via HTML forms
• Authenticate users and track user preferences and data using PHP's session-handling capabilities
• Process Web-based file uploads using the HTTP_Upload PEAR package
• Create your own RSS aggregator using Magpie, and process XML files in amazingly efficient fashion using SimpleXML
• Use both command-line and graphical MySQL clients to effectively manage your data
• Secure the MySQL server, creating roles and restricting access even at very granular levels
• Effectively integrate PHP and MySQL to create dynamic, data-driven web applications

Who This Book Is For

This book is for the budding web developer searching for a powerful and low-cost solution to building flexible, scalable websites.

Don't Get Taken Every Time: The Ultimate Guide to Buying or Leasing a Car, in the Showroom or on the Internet

Remar Sutton

Amazon Price: $11.20 List Price: $14.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Penguin (Non-Classics) Amazon Marketplace: 46 new & used starting at $4.03

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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Hardware -> PC Buyers' Guides
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Automotive -> Buyers' Guides
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Automotive -> Buying & Leasing

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Good info, but the online stuff is overblown ... 4 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

This book provides some good information on buying cars, and many of the tips suggested are spot on. But when it comes to the role of computers and the Internet in this equation, the author really needs to do more research for the next edition of this book. I work for one of the bigger online car-buying sites as well as providing support for car dealerships in getting their inventory online, and I thought it important to clear the air about a few things.
First of all, the way the author presents things, you would think that if you were to visit autotrader.com (or a similar site) with cookies turned on, suddenly every dealer in town knows your life history. But I'm here to tell you that these sites aren't nearly that sophisticated, and neither are the dealers. In fact, some dealers still keep their car inventory on Excel spreadsheets! And for the ones that do have some sort of server for managing inventory and sales, many of them don't even know how to use them beyond the basic essentials. In fact, I myself know more about these systems than do most dealers, and I've never personally worked with any of them. Trust me when I say that, contrary to what this book will tell you, dealers (or at least none of the ones I've seen) don't have some elaberate network of supercomputers to track your every move online. Heck, most of them could barely manage a Google search on their own :)
In fact, as far as the web is concerned, dealers won't pay attention to you unless you actually go online and fill out a form requesting a price quote or further information about a car, and then they only have as much data as you give them. Once you fill out the form, your request for information goes into a 'lead management tool' (one of these I also provide support for), which is little more than an Outlook-style web interface where dealers can track their dealings with you. For example, they can log any email, phone, or personal meetings, etc that they have with you, along with reminders of appointments to test drive a car and other important events. But my question to you is, since you have obviously expressed an interest in one or more of their vehicles, why WOULDN'T they want to keep a log of their correspondance with you? It's not like they're going to sell the information. In fact, as soon as the correspondance ends (either in you buying a car or doing business somewhere else), they'll either mark you as 'sold' or 'dead' respectively and that's pretty much the end of it, untl/unless you write them again. In fact, the worst that can happen is you may get occassional spam from the dealer (something I'm not particularly happy that dealers do) about sales events and such, and you can even opt out of those.

All that being said, even with the advent of car-buying websies, the best way to get a good deal on a car is still to go to the dealership and haggle (and this book will show you how to do that). If you do buy a car online without ever having visited a dealership, you're going to pay way more than you should 99% of the time. I have the luxury of seeing both the sticker and invoice prices on cars for many dealerships and it's not uncommon to see them differ by thousands of dollars. A tip I'd like to share with you (and I don't think this is in the book) is that if you find a particular option or color on a car that the dealership doesn't have, even if you're willing to live without that option or color, tell the dealer that you MUST have said item and tell them it's a deal-breaker if you can't get it. You'd be amazed at how fast the price comes down :) Oh, and if you want to get the extended warranty, NEVER do so at the price they quote you. I was able to get $800 knocked off the price without even expending any effort.

In short, though most of these websites may be crap, don't let this book scare you into looking around if you wish. This is especially true for auto manufacturer websites, as looking on these sites will give you a lot of useful information about the car, such as what options come with various model packages. The only thing you need to concern yourself with is that I would STRONLY advise NOT using Internet Explorer as your primary web browser (try Firefox or Opera if you are on Windows). The reason why is not because of anything specifically to do with looking for cars online; it's just that IE is a very insecure browser and you're potentially putting yourself at risk every time you use it. See here for more info:

[...]

Editorial Review:

Now completely rewritten and back in a handy trade paperback edition

Through six editions, this invaluable tool by “Public Enemy #1 of the car dealers” (The Washington Post) has remained the definitive guide on buying or leasing a new or used vehicle. Completely updated, Don’t Get Taken Every Time takes readers inside the world of the auto business itself. It exposes hundreds of tricks some dealers use to separate unwary customers from their money. Sutton alerts people to dealer scams on the Internet, tampering with credit ratings, and more. From negotiating to financing, the step-by-step techniques offered here make any car shopper a savvy purchaser.

Building Online Communities With Drupal, phpBB, and WordPress

Robert T. Douglass, Mike Little, Jared W. Smith

Amazon Price: $34.99 List Price: $49.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Apress Amazon Marketplace: 49 new & used starting at $15.50

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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Computer Science -> Software Engineering -> Information Systems
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Hardware -> PC Buyers' Guides
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Programming -> Software Design, Testing & Engineering -> Software Development

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 28 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Theres Advanced, Basic and This book - Way To Simple! 1 out of 5 stars.
7 of 12 people found this review helpful.

This is basically an outline for beginners ONLY. If you expect to be able to move on past simple installation and configuration, save your money! The software Drupal, phpBB and wordpress are all excellent programs. This book is an introduction to each and has nothing to do with building online communities. Way to simple. SORRY!!!

Editorial Review:

Content management, blogs, and online forums are among the most significant online trends today, and Drupal, phpBB, and WordPress are three of the most popular open source applications facilitating these trends.

Drupal is a full content management system that allows you to create any type of website you desire, from an e-commerce to a community-based site. phpBB enables you to set up a bulletin board or forum. And WordPress is the software of choice for the exploding blog community. All three technologies are based on PHP and MySQL.

Building Online Communities with Drupal, phpBB, and Wordpress is authored by a team of experts. Robert T. Douglass recently created the Drupal-powered blog site NowPublic.com. Mike Little is a founder and contributing developer of the WordPress project. And Jared W. Smith has been a longtime support team member of phpBBHacks.com and has been building sites with phpBB since the first beta releases.

STOP Buying Health Plans and START Buying Health Insurance!: An Easy-To-Understand Guide to the How and Why of Consumer Directed Healthcare (HSAs, HRAs and Deductible-First Medical Insurance)

Jeffrey Ingalls

Amazon Price: $11.65 List Price: $12.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: iUniverse, Inc. Amazon Marketplace: 18 new & used starting at $8.04

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Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Industries & Professions -> Insurance -> Health
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Industries & Professions -> Insurance -> General
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Industries & Professions -> Insurance -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

It's money in my pocket, and yours too. 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I'm an entrepreneur, I'm not an administrator. Insurance has always been an irksome expensive time-consuming necessity, and dealing with it took me away from running my business. Once I read this book, I realized that I had an opportunity to improve my company bottom line AND improve the lives and compensation of my employees. I now have a compensation package that is very difficult to compete with, and don't have to worry so much about having my talent stolen away.

New thoughts for solving and old problem. 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

The book was a great read. It finally answers the old question, "How to control the rising cost of healthcare without lowering benefits." It should be read by both employers as well as employees so the mind set towards healthcare in this country can change for the better.

Editorial Review:

We are all excellent consumers. We collectively have no problem clearly identifying what we want, how we want it and when the price is right. We make our educated presence known in almost every marketplace except one— healthcare. Managed care and its first dollar benefits have created a problem and the solution is … consumer directed healthcare. We can fix our system of healthcare and your second largest business expense, behind payroll, if we stop buying health plans and start buying health insurance.

Just the Computer Essentials: A Plain-English, No-Nonsense Guide to Buying and Maintaining a PC Running the Windows Vista™ Operating System for Your Home or Home Office

James, A White

Amazon Price: $16.47 List Price: $24.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: IROL Press, LLC Amazon Marketplace: 19 new & used starting at $15.13

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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Hardware -> PC Buyers' Guides
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Hardware -> PCs
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Programming -> APIs & Operating Environments -> Operating Systems Theory

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

You've seen the books for "dummies" and you're beyond that - you know how to turn a computer on, check your email, and surf the Internet. There are books for geniuses that focus on getting over-detailed on technology you don't care anything about. Why can't there be a book for you - a book to help you buy a new computer or help you protect your computer and data without all the useless information???

You've come to the right place! Just the Computer Essentials is a book written for the everyday user. Jim White wrote

Just the Computer Essentials to help you with your day-to-day work without taking up your whole day.

Just the Computer Essentials will help you understand exactly what you need to know when buying a new PC.

Jim White's Just the Computer Essentials will:

• Help you understand exactly what you need to know when buying a new PC
• Lead you in protecting your computer from dangers such as viruses, spyware, spam and phishing
• Show you how to set up a backup strategy to safeguard all your important files
• Coach you how to recover your computer from system problems - starting with the least intrusive all the way to disaster recovery
• Teach you how to migrate your files and settings from one computer to a new PC running the Windows Vista(tm) operating system

If you're ready to purchase a new computer or need help protecting your data on a computer running the Windows Vista operating system, then this book's for you!

Beginning PHP and PostgreSQL 8: From Novice to Professional (Beginning: From Novice to Professional)

W. Jason Gilmore, Robert H. Treat

Amazon Price: $31.49 List Price: $49.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Apress Amazon Marketplace: 37 new & used starting at $21.43

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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Databases -> Beginning & Introductory
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Databases -> General
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Databases -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Supposed to be a PHP-PostgreSql not Smarty-Pear 2 out of 5 stars.
10 of 11 people found this review helpful.

What's annoying about this book is that I bought it to learn more about PHP and PostgreSQL but the authors decide to use Smarty and PearDB throughout instead. If I wanted to learn those two I would have bought books about them. Smarty and PearDB is used in every single piece of code they do which is extremely annoying. I don't want to learn Smarty or PearDB. If you're trying to learn PHP and PostgreSQL don't buy this book. If you want to learn Smarty and PearDB this book might be for you.

Editorial Review:

I think this is a great book for beginners especially those curious about PostgreSQL.

— Joe Topjian, Adminspotting.net

Beginning PHP and PostgreSQL 8 delves into some of the most popular open source web development technologies, the PostgreSQL 8 database server and PHP 5 scripting language. Youll learn to reap the benefits of these core technologies by using them in unison to create dynamic, data-driven web applications. This is an ideal read if you are a web designer, programmer, hobbyist, or novice who wants to create applications with PHP 5 and PostgreSQL 8.

Buying a Computer For Dummies (Buying a Computer for Dummies)

Dan Gookin

Amazon Price: $17.15 List Price: $21.99 In stock soon. Order now to get in line. First come, first served. By: For Dummies Amazon Marketplace: 46 new & used starting at $0.01

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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Hardware -> PC Buyers' Guides
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Hardware -> PCs
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Excellent but necessarily incomplete 4 out of 5 stars.
8 of 9 people found this review helpful.

Okay, this is a little tough to explain. This is an EXCELLENT guide for people who need to buy a new home computer or laptop. But it by itself will not be enough to guide those people through the process smoothly.

There are two considerable strengths to this guide. First of all, it demystifies all the jargon and obscure terminology, and does a commendable job doing it. Second, Dan Gookin's advice to think about SOFTWARE primarily and not HARDWARE or PRICE when one is buying is worth its weight in gold. (The fact that brand names are scarcely used in this book is a strength and not a weakness, I believe, and fits in with Mr. Gookin's approach.) And for people who think "For Dummies" guides have too much clowning around, there is very little of it here, and it is not intrusive.

Having said all of these nice things, the book is occasionally minimal on key information. It could be argued that to make this guide complete, the author would have had to have written an 800-page book. In any case, this book alone won't get you through the computer-buying process comfortably. You should supplement the book with a friend who is moderately or heavily tech savvy.

In short, this is a great beginning and I honestly think it would be foolish for a computer beginner to buy a new machine without having read this very price-friendly work. But that reading will have to be supplemented by a friend or work colleague in the know about personal computers.

Editorial Review:

• Realizing that purchasing a computer is a significant investment, beloved author Dan Gookin assists readers in finding a tailor-made computer that suits specific needs while also offering longevity
• Delivers all the know-how in an understandable, enjoyable, friendly style so readers don't feel overwhelmed by all the choices they'll face when buying a computer
• Walks readers step by step through all the new developments: CD burner/DVD combo drives, processor upgrades, flat panel displays, new modem and networking options, new peripherals, and more
• An essential reference for first-time computer buyers looking to make a wise purchase, and for anyone looking to get an additional computer

Pro .NET 2.0 Graphics Programming (Expert's Voice in .Net)

Eric White

Amazon Price: $40.36 List Price: $49.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Apress Amazon Marketplace: 33 new & used starting at $19.98

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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Computer Science -> Software Engineering -> Information Systems
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Graphic Design -> General
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Graphic Design -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Whether you are using Windows Forms to build rich-client business applications, or the ASP.NET 2.0 framework to build powerful web applications or web services, the use of well-designed graphics will greatly enhance their usability, impact, and visual appeal. This book provides a comprehensive guide to the use of graphics in .NET applications and aims to provide you with all the information you need to build effective custom controls.

The opening section of the book investigates the .NET Framework classes that implement graphics. It covers all of the classes, methods, and techniques needed to create, manipulate, and display precise graphics in a form, a page being sent to a printer, or an image.

On this foundation, the second section describes how to design and build effective custom controls for use in a business environment. Topics covered include building composite controls, implementing keyboard navigation, and enhancing design-time support.

The final section of the book explores the use of GDI+ and ASP.NET to build custom controls that can provide reusable, GUI components for web projects, and to deliver customized graphics over the Internet.

WebTV for Dummies Quick Reference

Renée Gentry

Amazon Price: $12.99 List Price: $12.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: For Dummies Amazon Marketplace: 33 new & used starting at $2.35

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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Home Computing -> Internet -> General AAS
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Hardware -> PC Buyers' Guides
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Networking -> Networks, Protocols & APIs -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

WebTV Made Quick and Easy 5 out of 5 stars.
31 of 36 people found this review helpful.

As a WebTV employee, Renee knew precisely what WebTV subscribers need to know to "get-up-to-speed" with WebTV. Renee explains the many functions of WebTV in clear, precise detail. Her "Quick Reference" will become your first source for WebTV information.

web tv for dummies 1 out of 5 stars.
24 of 28 people found this review helpful.

I thought that this book was not very useful to me and i am a new owner of the web tv. almost everthing that is in the book is already been written by web tv for you. (how to use e mail, search, what lol means) come on now we are really not that dumb. save your self some money and get a diffrent book

Not smart enough to be a dummy. 1 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

While Gentry's book has useful information it lacks some very basic information which is essential for the new user of WebTV. How about pictures of a keyboard and a remote indicating the function of all keys other than letters. For instance, wouldn't it be nice were there a discussion of the "option" button and what appears on the screen when the button is depressed.

Editorial Review:

This one-stop guide offers easy-to-understand tips and shortcuts for installing and enjoying the fast-growing Internet system that allows people to surf the Web on their television screen. The book provides concise answers and information on the latest Web TV technology as well as advice on browsing, search engines, e-mail, WebPIP, TV Crossover Links, and much more.