If you've ever visited the Art Institute and wished that you could spend more time enjoying the Thorne Rooms, this book is a way for you to visit them as often as you would like.

"Miniature Rooms" begins with a brief history of Mrs. Thorne and how the rooms came to be. The rest of the book is a complete catalog of the Rooms, divided into two sections - the European rooms and the American rooms. Every room is beautifully photographed from at least two angles, using the existing lighting in the rooms so that each has the same realistic quality enjoyed in the Institute. Along with each photograph is a description of the room and its furnishings. I would recommend "Miniature Rooms" to anyone who enjoys the Art of Miniatures.

Although I have been away from the world of Miniatures for 20 years, I was really inspired when I opened this book. The rooms were beyond beautiful! I will make every effort to see these miniature rooms in person when I next visit Chicago.

I'd love to own a room box or two but would REALLY love to have a full-scale version of these rooms to live in! So realistic and detailed!

I like this book.You can learn concept of data warehousing with book.Example are very good.

The book does not add anything over the Professional Series Oracle 8 Tuning Book. Hits a lot of topics superficially. I was expecting a book like this to dig deeper than the Professional Series based on the experience of the authors. Consider this book an abbreviation of the Professional Series meant for the non-professional public. Cost is also about half the cost of the professional series books. This review is appropriate for the Oracle Press books in general. Frank Davis --- Oracle8 Certified Database Admininstrator

There is a wealth of information in this book for both new and experienced DBAs. For the new DBA the book presents a panoramic view of database tuning that begins with installing a new instance, coverage of each facet of tuning, and putting it all together as a holistic approach. Experienced DBAs will probably discover that they already know most of the techniques; however, having them collected in a single book that systematically addresses each facet of the tuning process makes for a useful reference.

What I especially like about this book is the collection of rules that are on almost every page. These would have been even more useful if they were repeated in an appendix and cross-referenced to the chapters in which they appear. This would allow DBAs to skim through the rules, then jump to the applicable chapter and drill down into the details. I also like the chapter on Other Database Issues. Even experienced DBAs will discover something new in that chapter.

Some parts of book are irritatingly redundant - the authors state a rule or fact, then restate it again a few paragraphs later. This does not, in my opinion, diminish the overall value of the book, although it can slow you down when you're concentrating on a specific topic.

I found that the best way to read this book for maximum benefit is to do a pass from start to finish with a yellow highlighter. This approach allows you to tag information that may be new to focus upon during the second pass through the book. Also note that the book is true to its title - it thoroughly covers tuning, but only touches upon capacity planning, which is closely related and often included in similar books. This is not a criticism of the book (after all, the title is accurate), but to inform potential readers of what's actually covered.

Great buy, we improved processing time by 40%, many new techniques for setting up initialization parameters and SQLs.

This text is a waste of time and dollars. I really could not even suggest who the target audience might be. The book is just a haphazard collection of ideas with no in-depth content all presented in the most confusing manner possible.

For anyone looking for some solid advice on Data Warehousing look elsewhere. Even the Oracle side of this Oracle Press book is weak.

I order a steak not a hamburger! I immediately associated with the conceptual - high level portion - of the book which covered: building the data warehouse team, managing the data warehouse project, the data warehouse design (very important chapters outlining usage of the star schema), and implementation of the data mart. I found the first half of the book to make alot of sense. Having a Masters of Oracle DBA, I found the physical database chapters on (partitioning and tuning valuable). However, OLAP chapters seemed too sketchy. I would have preferred an in depth discussion of installing and running the Oracle Express Server (Multidimensional database) , integrating express objects with Visual Basic or Forms, and connecting Discoverer to the Multidimensional Database, as subject matter. I found the OLAP section discussing Oracle Discoverer to narrow. The chapters covering Oracle Discoverer administration significantly less through than the Oracle Tutorial Documentation. Here my questions to the author: What about building item hierarchies, creating cross-tables, or cross-table master detail reports, introduction to Discover filters, and security -> Oracle Book explaining Oracle Products. Bottom line, I think the author missed the boat by igoring the significance of multidimensional databases and how to interface with them using oracle products.

The book provides a good and almost impartial overview and introduction on the subject covering almost everything that has to be said about DataWarehousing. It is well organised, easy and fun to read. It definitely gave me a good understanding on a subject that I had no prior knownledge. I recommended it.

However I have a few comments which do not alter the value of the book : a) I would like to see a short introduction , no more that ten pages , which explains the subject and it's relation to the Oracle Tools. It took me quit a few pages of reading to discover it. b) I would like to see more details on the Star Schema since it is a central concept. Moreover I would like to see a few real life examples of models implementing the star schema. c) I would like to see more on the Oracle Express Solution and especially the Express Server (it's architecture etc.)and posibly a few examples.

After only reviewing the book for about 45 minutes, I found some glaring problems.

Over fifty pages to start the book on how to use Google and usenet newsgroups?!? I'm a beginner with Oracle 9i, not with a computer or on the internet. How about save the trees or provide say, ten pages on installation or command line reference (see last point).

On page 11, "The company reaches 4,223 billion in sales" (That's over 4 trillion) Then sales fall to "5,684 million" in the next paragraph. OK.

On Page 63, "NOTE: Even though Oracle runs on a wide assortment of computers, we will concentrate on Sun Solaris..."

Then on to page 287, Oracle Enterprise Manager is breezed over with instructions on how to use it in Win 2K! Most of the screen shots in the book are windows dialogs. Not even a single note on use of the command line tools to start oem!

Skip this one!

As titled, this book is a BEGINNER's guide. I've been an Oracle DBA for 9 years and am searching for a book to introduce the Oracle database to college students. You are not going to effectively administer Oracle databases by buying this book, however, you are going to be introduced to the concepts and get good introductory examples as well as a guide on where and how to get started.

I have been developing commercial information systems applications for 14 years and though I have actually worked with Oracle SQL and PL/SQL at the programming level on numerous occasions I really didn't know how this product was structured, put together. This book provided me with the historical and conceptual overview of the Oracle database product and company that I was looking for. I think that this is what the book was written for and for this it deserves 5 stars. I can now map my next steps of study and practice with confidence.

If you plan to take the Microsoft 70-019 exam, do not buy this book. It contains nothing but superficial information. It only skims on the major topics. No detailed explanation, especially on DTS. Don't waste your money on this one.

The book carries very important informations for the beginners in data warehousing. These informations include basic concepts of data warehousing and tips for using SQL Server 7. Experient Data Warehouse developers will find this book useless since it brings little technical data.

When I purchased this book it was with the intent of learning what a data warehouse is and how best to implement one from a conceptual level. It has accomplished that goal admirably.

If you are a seasoned SQL person and want to know what the DW buzz is about, buy it. If you are an IS executive trying to make a decision on how best to proceed with your own warehouse, but it. However, if you are looking for a How-To guide for on the serious implementation details (ie: DTS), you should go over the fundamentals of SQL 7 somewhere else.

I am totaly novice in Oracle DBA programing. When I bought this book I thought it would be a good place to start. Well, I was completely dissapointed. This book is neither for beginers nor for some who knows basic DBA programming. Today I returned it to the bookstore.

This book tries to cover everything about Oracle 8i all in one shot. There is so much to learn about Oracle that such a book would be immense. Even though it has "A Beginner's Guide" in the title, there is not enough substance to teach a new user nor is there enough to satisfy an experienced user. So it befits the title "Jack of all trades. Master of none". It would be better to spend your money on several more focused books than on this very blurry plate of spaghetti .

I am an absolute beginner in Oracle, and I was looking for a book that will show me step-by-step how to create and administer an Oracle database. This book will give you a little idea how to administer an Oracle database alright, but it is assuming you already have a database to administer!... Gladly, I just borrowed this book. Now I understand why the guy who lent it wasn't very happy with his purchase.