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Product: Book - Paperback
Title: Programming Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Publisher: Microsoft Press Authors: Francesco Balena Rating: 5/5  You should get this book if: (a) you are new to VB with no prior programming experience (b) you are new to VB with prior programming experience (c) you are a moderate VB programmer (can work with basic controls, etc.) (d) you are a skilled VB programmer You get the idea, don't you? Basically, this is _THE BOOK_ for Visual Basic! There is absolutely no better book on the language! This book, 1000+ plus pages thick, gives you a comprehensive tutorial and serves as a reference to the VB language in case you know it already. Although I haven't gone over every part of the book yet, you can see from how the book is organized that Mr. Balena is a structured and good writer. The first Part in the book gives you an intro to the language, but the "intro" is basically what all newbies need to get the basic gist of VB. From then on, you can read the rest of the book for more cool topics or you can start building your own desktop apps and use the book as a reference. In the second part of the book, Mr. Balena goes over a wealth of controls included with Visual Basic. His two chapters on the "Windows Common Controls" were extremely useful to me because I can use it as a reference for the MS Common Dialog , Toolbar, and RichTextBox controls, to name a few. The Common Dialog control is where you get the typical Win32 FileOpen, FileSave, and Print forms. Mr. Balena goes over the properties of all the controls and explains them in detail. Then at the end of Part II, Mr. Balena goes over additional ActiveX controls like the MS Chart control. Part III is for all you database programmers who want to see the power of VB in database programming. It gives you a comprehensive review on using the ADO (ActiveX DataControl-- Microsoft's replacement of DAO and RDO as the newest and best database control for VB). This Part teaches you how to link with different types of databases like a SQL server, and it also gives a brief intro to SQL commands in case you're not familiar with them. Part IV is on ActiveX programming (including parts on creating your own ActiveX controls) and Part V is Internet programming. I have not yet looked at these sections in detail yet and so cannot provide a comprehensive review, but with the book's consistents outstanding performance in earlier parts, I'm sure these chapters are very good also. As a bonus, Mr. Balena provides a commonly used Windows API functions appendix at the end of the book. I hope you see that this book is very effective no matter what kind of programmer you are. If you're new you can learn. If you know the basics, you can learn the cool stuff. If you are a guru, you can use it as a complete reference which explains many things better than the MSDN documentation included w/ Visual Basic.
Product: Book - Paperback
Title: Head First Java, 2nd Edition Publisher: O'Reilly Authors: Kathy Sierra, Bert Bates Rating: 5/5 I noticed that the best praises for this book came mainly from readers who know something about OO-programming and Java. Readers who bought this book to learn Java seem unable to follow what's going on. It's ironic as the book is meant to be a beginner's book. But why is this book getting praises from seasoned Java programmers and not the other way round. The obvious explanation is that this book is not easy for a beginner to follow. A beginner needs structured, step-by-step, no-brainer instructions, which this book doesn't provide. Head First Java is more of a 3-in-1 book; a thinking book, a helicopter-view book and an enlightenment book. And that is why it appeals to readers who know Java. It brought them insight and enlightenment, sort of seeing the big picture. The experience would be, like that of the four blind man describing an elephant, would have felt if their sight were restored. My advice to beginners is not to rely on this book to learn Java. It's too advanced for you. Get a traditional book on Java and read concurrently with Head First Java or after you are quite conversant with the Java language.
Product: Book - Paperback
Title: Microsoft Windows Server(TM) 2003 PKI and Certificate Security (Pro - One-Offs) Publisher: Microsoft Press Authors: Microsoft Corporation, Brian Komar Rating: 5/5 Brian Komar is one of the top security minds on the continent. I have attended many of his security sessions at Microsoft technical training seminars, and this book has a prominent case on my bookshelf. There is a great deal of confusion regarding proper implementation of PKI's, and Brian Komar cuts through that Gordian Knot with a chain saw. This is the ONLY book I'll recommend on Microsoft PKI implementation.
Product: Book - Paperback
Title: Final Fantasy VIII Official Strategy Guide Publisher: Bradygames Authors: David Cassady Rating: 4/5  A great book to teach you all the techniques and strategies of Final Fantasy VIII. That's All Folks!
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