Utilities Books - Page 5

Upgrading to PHP 5

Adam Trachtenberg

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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Computer Science -> General AAS

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

Editorial Review:

If you're using PHP 4, then chances are good that an upgrade to PHP 5 is in your future. The more you've heard about the exciting new features in PHP 5, the sooner that upgrade is probably going to be. Although an in-depth, soup-to-nuts reference guide to the language is good to have on hand, it's not the book an experienced PHP programmer needs to get started with the latest release. What you need is a lean and focused guide that answers your most pressing questions: what's new with the technology, what's different, and how do I make the best use of it? In other words, you need a copy of Upgrading to PHP 5.

This new book is targeted toward PHP developers who are already familiar with PHP 4. Rather than serve as a definitive guide to the entire language, the book zeroes in on PHP 5's new features, and covers these features definitively. You'll find a concise appraisal of the differences between PHP 4 and PHP 5, a detailed look at what's new in this latest version, and you'll see how PHP 5 improves on PHP 4 code. See PHP 4 and PHP 5 code side-by-side, to learn how the new features make it easier to solve common PHP problems. Each new feature is shown in code, helping you understand why it's there, when to use it, and how it's better than PHP 4. Short, sample programs are included throughout the book.

Topics covered in Upgrading to PHP 5 include:
The new set of robust object-oriented programming features
An improved MySQL extension, supporting MySQL 4.1, prepared statements, and bound parameters
Completely rewritten support for XML: DOM, XSLT, SAX, and
SimpleXML
Easy web services with SOAP
SQLite, an embedded database library bundled with PHP 5
Cleaner error handling with exceptions
Other new language features, such as iterators, streams, and more.

Upgrading to PHP 5 won't make you wade through information you've covered before. Written by Adam Trachtenberg, coauthor of the popular PHP Cookbook, this book will take you straight into the heart of all that's new in PHP 5. By the time you've finished, you'll know PHP 5 in practice as well as in theory.

Microsoft Outlook 2000 for Windows for Dummies

Bill Dyszel

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Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Management & Leadership -> General AAS
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Certification Central -> General
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Certification Central -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Deep space adventurers have control panels on their spaceships, explorers in the Wild West had their faithful guides, and detectives have their little black books. Why? Because every adventurer knows how important it is to have good information. Knowing about the people with whom you're dealing, the things you need to do, and when you have to do them can make a difference between triumph and failure.

Okay, maybe your daily adventures aren't exactly life-and-death struggles, but having a tool to help you keep a handle on what you need to do and whom you need to see from day to day is really nice. Microsoft Outlook 2000 has become that tool for millions of professionals – and probably you, too! Outlook 2000 is a Personal Information Manager that can act as your assistant in dealing with the flurry of small, but important, details that stand between you and the work that you do.

But how do you get started with Outlook 2000 if you've never used it before? How do you make sense of all those buttons and windows? And how do you actually get something accomplished after you figure all that out? Let Microsoft Outlook 2000 For Windows For Dummies come dashing to your rescue. This easy-to-understand guide can make organizing your daily information easy by helping you bring together everything you need to know about your daily tasks, appointments, and e-mail messages into one convenient program.

Here are just a few things you can find in Microsoft Outlook 2000 For Windows For Dummies:

• Understanding the Outlook interface and finding the right View for you
• Using e-mail and filtering junk e-mail
• Setting up your contacts
• Scheduling appointments and meetings
• Tracking your task list
• Keeping an automatic journal in Outlook
• Sharing folders over the Internet
• Top Ten lists for creating better e-mail messages, using Outlook on the Internet, and finding shortcuts in Outlook

So whether you're using Outlook for the first time or you're an experienced user looking for ways to streamline Outlook, Microsoft Outlook 2002 For Windows For Dummies can help you organize your daily details and get back to business.

Desserts for Dummies

Bill Yosses, Alison Yates

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Does the thought of baking a cake conjure up a nightmare vision of a 15-ft layer cake, scrolled and fluted with decorations fit for a king?  If the word “dessert” just throws you into a cold sweat, the inside scoop on desserts is: they’re actually simple to make. And with the right help...well, just a piece of cake.

In the end, desserts are no harder to make than entrées. And with Desserts For Dummies, you’ll cut even a Wedding Cake recipe down to size, flip Crepes Suzette with aplomb, and throw together a batch of Chocolate Truffles your local chocolatier will envy. And with this handy, down-to-earth guide from a leading pastry chef and a former New York Times restaurant critic, you’ll discover the proper way to read a dessert recipe, organize your ingredients, and also how to:

• Think like a sweet chef—including basic tips on measuring, weighing, presenting, gauging cooking time, and pairing desse rts with meals
• Stock a pantry, and use leftovers creatively (such as caramel and meringue)
• Set up a kitchen—including tips on counter height and ovens
• Select the right cooking tools and how to use them

Before you know it, you’ll start creating desserts that you’ve only dreamed of, like:

• Pies and tarts—including Mom’s Apple Pie, Banana Cream Pie, Raspberry Tart, and Linzertorte
• Puff pastry, cream puffs, and éclairs—Classic Puff Pastry, Profiteroles, Napoleons, and Eclairs
• Crepes and blinis—including Crepes Suzette and Chocolate Blinis with Diced Bananas
• Custards and puddings—including Zabaglione, Vanilla Pastry Cream, Traditional Bread Pudding, and Rice Pudding
• Homemade cakes—including Whipped Cream Layer Cake, Classic Chocolate Mousse Layer Cake, and Yellow Chiffon Cake with Chocolate Frosting

With over 130 delicious recipes to choose from, plus sixteen pages of color photos, a summary cheatsheet of baking essentials, black-and-white how-to illustrations, and humorous cartoons along the way, Desserts For Dummies brings the world of delicious, elegant desserts right to your kitchen. And a little magic into the lives of your friends and family.

Designing Effective Wizards: A Multidisciplinary Approach

Daina Pupons Wickham, Debra L. Mayhew, Teresa Stoll, Kenneth June Toley III

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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Graphic Design -> General
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Graphic Design -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

This is the first "nuts and bolts" how-to guide for building wizards that help users perform complex tasks in software. Written by the IBM team that has standardized wizard development across a wide range of software products and families, the book brings together the wisdom of usability experts, programmers, technical writers, and other disciplines. The step-by-step guidance it offers is designed to work equally well on any contemporary platform, from IBM mainframes to Windows, Unix/Linux, Java, and Web-based applications alike. Designing Effective Wizards: A Multidisciplinary Approach outlines a practical set of processes and methods for effective wizard design, identifying key issues and problems encountered during the design process -- and IBM's best solutions. The authors begin by introducing the concept and goals of wizards; then explain how to gather requirements, prototype wizards, and evaluate designs. The book includes specific guidelines for wizard design, as well as techniques for avoiding errors and refining interactivity. The book contains three detailed case studies, as well as practical checklist for planning wizard projects. A four-color insert illustrates a wide range of examples, which may also be found on an accompanying CD-ROM For all software developers, interface designers, usability professionals, and Web interface designers.

Simple Computer Tune-up: Speed Up Your PC

CA, Jim Geier

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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Hardware -> Maintenance, Repair & Upgrading

Editorial Review:

• Forgoing the "techie-talk," CA explains how PC Pitstop Optimize performs four main functions: it removes "junk" files to free up disk space, adjusts Internet settings for better performance, removes invalid registry keys, and adjusts several registry settings that can
  improve overall performance
• Also shows how PC Pitstop Optimize can revitalize system performance, regain hard drive space, rev up an Internet connection, and fix registry errors
• CA will include its complete PC Pitstop Optimize, valued at $30.00, free with this book (no renewal needed)

Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

Writing MS-Dos Device Drivers

Robert S. Lai, Waite Group. The

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Best... And Last Book on This Topic 5 out of 5 stars.
19 of 20 people found this review helpful.

If you are even reading this review, it is probably because you, for one reason or another, need to write an MS-DOS device driver. I was in the same boat, and this book saved me.

I could not have done it without it. So little material remains about DOS device drivers.

This book provides detailed information on writting both character and block device drivers. Many examples are provided as this book guides you toward the development of more complex drivers.

Most of this book assumes that your are knowledgable in Assembly Language programming. However, the most useful section for me was a framework for developing device drivers in C.

It is for beginers 1 out of 5 stars.
5 of 16 people found this review helpful.

This book just for beginers. Also, there is lot of assembly example instead of C language.

Should be the first device driver book you read... 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is an excellent book. Approaching device drivers via DOS is probably the best method to understanding device drivers in general. As to previous comments that the examples were written in assembly rather than C, this is a strength, not a weakness. Many drivers during the heyday of DOS were written in assembly. And while assembly is. admittedly, a difficult language in which to program, it does force you to stick your head into the hardware and keep it there (which is what device drivers are all about).
The only negative comment is that the book cannot be viewed on the Amazon website, particularly the table of contents and an excerpt.

Editorial Review:

This superb introduction to device drivers describes what device drivers do, how they interface with DOS, and provides examples and techniques for building a collection of device drivers that can be customized for individual use.

Deploying .Net (Patterns & Practices) (Patterns & Practices)

Microsoft

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Editorial Review:

Description: This guide provides guidance, recommendations, and the technical information you need to plan successfully for and deploy Microsoft .NET applications. It is for information technology managers, lead developers, developers, test team members, and system administrators. Read this guide if you are planning to deploy a .NET application, or if you are currently implementing a deployment strategy. Also read this guide if you need to update a solution that has already been rolled out to the production environment.

Oracle Designer Handbook

Dr. Paul Dorsey

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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Databases -> Database Design
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Databases -> Database Management Systems

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Excellent all-in-one book, but could use more on generation. 4 out of 5 stars.
10 of 10 people found this review helpful.

As usual, the authors have produced a very useful and easily readable work. An absolute must to those interested in using this tool, especially if upgrading from earlier version. I would have recommended a little less on methodology (well-covered in their book on Version 1.x of Designer/2000) and a lot more on generation. Success with this tool normally is determined by the quality of the generated output of Designer.

Excellent Book 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 8 people found this review helpful.

I have significant experience in all aspects of system design using other tools (i.e. Visio) and am working toward an Oracle Master certificate as a Design Engineer, so I found myself bypassing many of the early chapters geared toward design methodology; however, for those with less experience they can be very useful.

The later chapters that get into the actual workings of the tool are well done and cover a good deal of information. I can agree somewhat with the other reviewers who say they would have liked to have seen a bit more on generation, but the Designer Generation book specifically does that. I definitely recommend the book--it's been quite helpful to me.

Editorial Review:

This book offers a comprehensive system development method using Oracle's design tools.

STL for C++ Programmers

Leen Ammeraal

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

"It is the first book that I have read that makes STL quickly usable by working programmers" Francis Glassborow, Chair of The Association of C & C++ Users (ACCU) STL for C++ programmers Leen Ammeraal The Standard Template Library (STL) provides many useful and generally applicable programming tools. This book combines reference material and a well-paced tutorial to get you past the basics quickly. Small, complete programs illustrate the key STL features such as containers, algorithms, iterators and function objects. A section is devoted to the new string data type. All STL algorithms are formally presented by their prototypes and then informally described to show how to use them in practice. Concepts are well illustrated with a large number of example programs all of which are available via ftp (for access details please refer to the preface of the book or Wiley’s website). Finally, special examples are given to explain the advanced notions of function objects and function adaptors, including predicates, binders and negators.

Ipv6 : The New Internet Protocol

Christian Huitema

List Price: $41.00 By: Prentice Hall Amazon Marketplace: 17 new & used starting at $0.01

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Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Networking -> Networks, Protocols & APIs -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

quite outdated 2 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

OK intro for technical readers, but there is a lot here that is completely out of date since the book was written in 1997. Lots of new and revised standards have been published since then.

Eh 2 out of 5 stars.
5 of 7 people found this review helpful.

If you're technical enough to read the RPCs, there's no reason to shell out for this book.

good overall review 4 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

IPv6 is still going thru some changes. While the book is not as up to date as I would like it to be, it does a pretty good job of explaining what is (was) different from IPv4 and the why of it. As for comparisons to IPv4, they can be found throughout different sections of the book, tho not in detail. Overall, a good guide to IPng w/ good explainations.

Editorial Review:

The fast-selling first edition was based on the draft IPv6 standard and now the standard has been finalized. The protocol addresses a major problem that is facing the Internet--shrinking bandwidth. The Ipv6 standard provides for additional bandwidth by incorporating changes in the addressing structure (the Internet was running out of address space/domains) and allocating resources differently (to prevent disasters like exploding routing tables).