Books Review

Internet and Web Directory

A handy reference to useful Websites on the Net

It’s paradoxical that while the Internet is supposed to relieve us of printed directories and catalogues, there’s a printed directory to guide us to various Websites on the Internet. This is the fifth edition of Harley Hahn’s Internet and Web Golden Directory, which proves its popularity and usefulness. What makes it stand out is not its comprehensiveness but its selectivity. To quote an example, while AltaVista lists 24,585,410 sites on travel, this directory covers only 38 sites, out of which some proved to be very useful. This could really be of help if you’re short on time and need a good site on a specific topic. 

Thousands of sites are grouped into over 150 categories. The list of categories represents virtually every important type of human activity from agriculture to X-rated sites. The accompanying CD-ROM provides an electronic version of the book with easy search options that add to its value. For any serious information seeker on the Web, this book can
be of great help.

Preparing for CCNP 

Two books that cover Cisco’s CIT and ACRC exams

These two books are good study guides to help you prepare for Cisco’s new CCNP (Cisco Certified Network Professional) certification. They prepare you for Cisco’s Internetwork troubleshooting (CIT) and advanced CISCO router configuration
(ACRC) exams. The books cover each topic that’s specified by Cisco for their exam. 

The books are organized into chapters, which contain objectives for that chapter, exercises, summary, a two-minute drill, and a self-test. Each topic is covered in great detail. Both books come with CD-ROMs that contain the electronic and searchable version of the study guide. The CIT 4.0 CD-ROM contains over 250 practice exam questions while ACRC contains over 400. 

The books and the CD-ROMs could prove useful to students preparing for these exams.

Access 2000 made easy

Useful for beginners and experts,
a study guide for MOUS exam

This is a comprehensive book, looking into every possible aspect of using Microsoft Access 2000
RDBMS. It’s divided into three sections and 29 chapters, each one concentrating on a different aspect of Access 2000. Each topic is clearly explained and is followed by a step-by-step exercise, so you can actually practice what you’ve learnt. The book has many illustrations and figures to make life 

easy. Tips, notes, and cautions are liberally sprinkled throughout the book to further aid the learning process. 

The book doubles up as a study guide for the Microsoft Office User Specialist (MOUS) exam for Access 2000. The accompanying CD-ROM contains a few sample databases you can use, and a personal test engine with nearly 150 questions to help you prepare for the exam. This book is a great resource for beginners as well as experts, and also for those preparing for MOUS in Access 2000.

Everything About Java

Covers all aspects of Java from basic to
in-depth programming in detail

This book is written by one of the main hands behind the evolution of Java–Peter
Naughton, along with Herbert Schildt. It deals mainly with Java 2, and as suggested by its name, acts as a complete reference. It covers all aspects of Java–applets, networking, and applications–in detail. There’s a comprehensive description of Java libraries. It includes details on
AWT, Swing, servlets, and the new threading model. It also describes how to migrate code from C++ to Java. 

Both beginners and old hands will find this book immensely useful. Beginners can rest assured, for contrary to popular belief, the book proves beyond doubt that you needn’t know C or C++ to learn Java. Programmers who already know Java will find it to be a good reference.

The book is divided into four parts. Part I talks about the basics of the language, such as variables, functions, etc. Part II talks of the standard Java library, as much of the power of Java is found in its library. Part III points out some of the issues related to the Java development environment, including an overview of Java beans, Swing and
servlets. Part IV presents a number of high-powered Java applets. The final applet–called Scrabblet–is a complete, multi-user networked game. It shows you how to handle some of the toughest issues involved in Web-based programming.

Overall, this book is a complete reference for those involved in Java programming.