Oracle8i Networking 101

Rating:
Summary: A very silly book.
Review: I found it very difficult to extract the information I needed from this book. There are far too many "Well let's see." and "Simple, right?", and silly analogies which dilute the material. The author can't make a point without embedding it in a story. I'd rather read the Oracle documentation and avoid the annoying task of weeding through irrelevant text.

Rating:
Summary: Expand your networking knowledge using Oracle as a base
Review: I found this book to be exactly what I needed when I was searching to expand my networking knowledge. I have been an Oracle DBA for nearly 7 years but felt that I needed to strengthen my knowledge and understanding of network architecture. I selected Marlene's Oracle 8i Networking book to help me strengthen my networking knowledge and am very pleased with the choice. I learned a deeper understanding of networks within an Oracle environment that I am very comfortable with. Marlene has a very easy to read writing style which would also make this book perfect for beginners.

Rating:
Summary: Oracle 8i Networking 101
Review: If you are new to Oralce and want somewhere to start, you will find this book very usefull. I had to set up a new (small scale) Oracle DB (including Oracle Express and OSA)on an NT platform.I have spent the past 5 years in the IT industry so wanted a book that was technical enought to keep me interested but not too advanced that it goes over my head. With the help of this book I was able to set up my servers and get them all "talking" to each other. Well worth the money.....

Rating:
Summary: Condecending
Review: Most computer books are very poorly written. No matter how intelligent you are, it's often more difficult than it should be to understand the material. Sometimes you're left feeling like a dummy.

That, of course, is why the original "DOS for Dummies" book became so popular. People with no background in a subject often want an introductory book that is well written and contains the background material you need to understand a subject, as opposed to the typical computer book that is often authored by a computer nerd who has the writing skills of a 12 year old and skips over key concepts because the author somehow just assumes you already know.

The new Oracle 101 series of books is an attempt to create something like a "Dummies" series for Oracle (a set of introductory books) but so far most of these books fall on their face because the authors don't understand what makes an introductory book successful.

The original DOS for Dummies was successful for one simple reason: It was a good book. The word "Dummies" in the title was a joke. The whole point was that readers were not dummies, that they were intelligent people who were being made to feel like dummies because the available books were so bad.

Unfortunately, the author of this book on Oracle networking didn't get the joke. She actually believes that you are a dummy.

This book is written as if the author is talking to a grade school student. It isn't merely condecending. It's insulting. The author writes as if she really believes you are mostly incapable of understanding anything unless it's couched in baby talk.

I, for one, would like to stand up and say that I don't need to read for a third of a page about a recipe for jello salad in order to understand an explanation of how network software is layered. I already know what "layered" means. And I don't need all the talky, conversational comments: "Did you spot all the references to the listener in that example? Good!"

Sometimes an analogy is helpful, but in this book the author has decided to begin nearly every topic with an anlogy, and many are tortured. For example, the discussion of MTS begins with a full page devoted to a discussion of cleaning house. The only point is that it's easier to clean house if you have someone to help you. I hardly need a full page of text to understand that.

Moveover, the analogy is completely wrong. The idea of MTS is that one process handles many client tasks. The house cleaning analogy would work if MTS put several processes to work on a single client task, but it doesn't -- it does the reverse.

There's nothing wrong with a Dummies book, an introductory level book, or whatever you want to call it. But the whole point is to turn out a quality book, where the author understands that readers: (1) are intelligent, but (2) may lack previous experience with the topic, so (3) background concepts and terms will need to be fully explained.

Unfortunately, this book does the opposite. The author doesn't get the "Dummies" joke. She is convinced that you really are a dummy, that you must be talked down to and that the book must be filled with baby talk if you are to understand.

I'd suggest you avoid this one, which runs to almost 500 pages, and instead get the O'Reilly book on Net8. The O'Reilly book is half the number of pages yet it still covers the material, it's very well written and it doesn't insult your intelligence. Plus you won't have to wade through a full page discussion about cleaning house, recipies for jello salad, etc.