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Product: Book - Hardcover
Title: CISSP All-in-One Exam Guide, Second Edition (All-in-One) Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media Authors: Shon Harris, Shon Harris Rating: 5/5  After spending a few weeks agonizing over which book to buy, I bought Shon Harris' CISSP book about a month before I was scheduled to take the CISSP exam. I read it cover to cover in my free time (evenings mostly) during the next few weeks. Let me say up front here that I used no other reference material of any kind. The book covered areas of which I was both familiar and unfamiliar. The sections on the Orange Book and Common Criteria were entirely new to me. The sections on the OSI model and cryptography were not. Faithfully, I took each practice exam at the end of each chapter and scored an average of 92% throughout the book. Come exam day, I was pleasantly surprised to find that there were virtually no questions that the book did not cover. Yes the exam asked more questions in some areas than others, but the book did cover the material. I completed the exam in half the allotted time and walked out confident that I had passed (and easily). A few weeks later my suspicions were confirmed when I received my notification that I had passed. So what's it mean to you? To me, it means this book is capable of getting you a passing score on the CISSP exam. So, buy this book and read it cover to cover. If you find there are areas that you just don't get or can't absorb, then sure, find another source to fill in the blanks for you. Otherwise, go confidently into the exam room knowing you've done an appropriate amount of preparation and enjoy the experience!
Product: Book - Hardcover
Title: MCSA/MCSE Windows XP Professional Study Guide, Second Edition (70-270) Publisher: Sybex Inc Authors: Lisa Donald, James Chellis Rating: 2/5  In order to appreciate a review, I believe it's necessary to understand reviewer's perspective. In my case I am NOT someone who already passed the exam and therefore loves whatever book got me there. Nor am I someone who just failed the exam and needs to tear apart the piece of junk that lead me to failure. I'm like you- looking for the best book to study and learn from so that I may pass the exam with as little struggle as possible. One final cautionary note: Some reviewers out there, especially a few famed Top Reviewers, seem to never have met a book they didn't like. Their reviews are filled will comments like, "oh this book is great to supplement the class I'm teaching..." or something similar. My advice is to take this information with a grain-of-salt. The fact that so-and-so thought a book was a great edition to their collection says nothing of its real value to someone in my or your position. On with the review! Lisa Donald is another very knowledge techie who can't write to save her life. A lot of this book is a poor summation from Microsoft's own technical reference library. I know this to be true because I constantly referenced Microsoft's website to gain further clarification from the often obtusely explained material in this book. Check out this sentence, chpt. 2, p. 47, in reference to the /checkupgradeonly switch used with the winnt32 command: "Used to check the current operating system forupgrade compatibility with the hardware and softwarethat is currently installed and will be upgraded towindows XP professional." Why not just say, "Checks currently installed OS, hardware and software for its ability to be upgraded to XP" The book is filled with verbose statements like this. Fortunately in this case the sentence is still understandable. Unfortunately, most of the other poorly written pages are nearly indecipherable. I love this one from chpt. 5, page 178. Here Lisa is describing the two sets of files that are used with Windows XP Multilanguage Version: "Language groups, which contain the fonts and files required to process and display specific languages. Windows XP Professional Multilanguage Version files, which contain the language content required by the user interface...." Seems simple enough on the surface, but try to explain to somebody how these two descriptions are really different. Such an attempt would require actually understanding the difference between these two sets of files: Language Groups and Win XP Pro Multilanguage Version files. Lets look at Language Groups. Looks like Lisa is saying that Language groups contain fonts for different languages so they can be displayed. Ok, no problem- now lets look at what the other sets of files do: Contain language content (what's that if not fonts???) required by the User Interface (how is that different than displaying them???). What's lacking here is an explanation. The author does not concern herself with ensuring that the information she is providing imparts understanding or learning. This pattern continues throughout the text- it is almost devoid of comparisons to real life or easy to understand examples that would help relate the material to the reader. On the somewhat bright side, the book is well organized and seems very detailed (although it isn?t complete). The old adage of never rely on one book to prepare for a certification exam certainly applies here. I found several errors, mostly due to the mind-numbingly poor attempt to write clearly, instead of out right inaccuracies (although those exist as well.) The other good news (at least for the author) is that to the best of my knowledge, there aren't any decent study guides out there for the 70-270 exam. Exam Cram 2 publishes their indispensable review of the exam, but this is not intended to be a one stop shopping book, only a review book. That having been said, go ahead a buy Lisa Donald's "MSCA/MCSE Windows XP Pro Study Guide", just don't expect much. While you are at it, pick up "Exam Cram 2: MCSE 70-270 Windows XP Professional". The Exam Cram 2 book is really great- well written, easy to follow, clear explanation, better coverage than this Sybex book and directions on where to find more detailed information at the end of each chapter. Finally, check out the Transcender Practice Exams, they are the best in the business for practice exams but also the most expensive (along with Self-Test, who are both owned by Kaplan.) I hope this helps and good luck with the exam!
Product: Book - Paperback
Title: A Programmer's Guide to Java (tm) Certification Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional Authors: Khalid A. Mughal, Rolf W. Rasmussen Rating: 5/5 Most books expect you to be familiar with Java before you study Certification Guide. Even if they promise you don't need to be familiar, the organization of topics will not be comfortable to new comers. This book organizes sequentially. No forward references. Exercises are good. Don't have a second thought on buying this.
Product: Book - Paperback
Title: The Java(TM) Tutorial: A Short Course on the Basics (3rd Edition) Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional Authors: Mary Campione, Kathy Walrath, Alison Huml Rating: 5/5 This book is wonderful if you don't know much about java. It is well written and easy to follow. There are a few times where I got confused on a couple subjects but I usually figured it out by checking SUN's website and re-reading the material. I recommend this book to any aspiring J programmer.
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