This was my first book in the Exam Cram series, and I'm truly stunned over the absolute rubbish this book contains.

Luckily someone else has reviewed and posted most of the stuff that is highly questionable in this title, so I can soon throw it away and get on with my life...

It's packed with syntactical errors, wrong answers, typos, ambigous and subjective scenarios that doesn't rely on facts and blatant statements that are just not true...

'There is no such thing as a unique clustered index'..???

I almost fell out of my chair reading that explanation in one of the answers...

The authors also apparently have no knowledge of SQL Server's security model, as they fail to recognize that one of their 'correct' answers regarding the usage of a view, would not work because of a broken ownership chain..

and on and on and on...

I can't reccomend this title to *anyone* - it's so bad that if I could I'd be tempted to sue for mental damage...

I have never asked for my $ back for a book, but I am on this one. I took Practice Test 1: Almost 1 in 4 (13 out of 55) questions either have typos that would make the "correct" answer syntactically invalid, outright wrong "correct" answers, or very questionable "correct" answers. Q3. Typo: "VALUE" instead of "VALUES" Q7. Question is "What is relationship between Actors or Directors and Title." Answer incorrectly says "Many to Many". This would be true if question was "What is relationship between Actors and Directors." (One Actor can be directed by many Directors and one Director can direct many Actors). The title table is the resolution table for the many-to-many relationship between Actors and Directors. But per the question, one Actor can act in many titles; one Director can Direct many Titles. Q11. What is meant by the words "main" or "independent" entities? Where do these words come from? PaintScheme and OptionalEquipment should indeed be entities, but main? or independent? Also, recommends Customer table be keyed on Social Security numbers. These are not really unique (as they are supposed to be). Most pros would say this is a bad idea for a primary key. Q14. Since when is "Many to One" not a valid relationship cardinality? By convention, most people look at relationships like this as One to Many. It depends on which entity is your point of reference. Many to One is simply the inverse of One to Many; both are equally real and valid. Q16: Question refers to data type "text" generically in the question, but in the DDL mixes type text with type varchar. Q17: Question about relationship optionality. "Self-Recursive" is a word? Isn't that a tautology? What does recursive have to do with optionality? Q20: ">" sign is wrong for all answers according to the wording of the question. Should be "<" or "<=". Q22: Typo: "ANDprice" instead of "AND price" Q26: Adding memory to remote clients is not a hardware solution for poor performance? In a client/server environment? What about large, locally cached cursors? Q27. Question presupposes that we know and remember the exact schema of the (I assume) pubs database. Option "b" won't work because of ambiquous column names. This is true only because the particular data model chosen for pubs. It has nothing to do with SQL Server. This data model view is not given to us in the question. Also, the query has no join or where clause so we get nonsensical results (every author's name with every city/state we have & vice-versa). Q32. We are asked to insert 001001001 into an INT column. This is a bogus thing to do, but it works anyway. the value 1001001 is inserted (see Q34). Q34. This question is *exactly* the same as Q32, however this time, we are told the answer is "String or binary data would be truncated..." (see Q32). Which is right? Q40. Two of the answers given are 32,734 (this is the "correct" answer), and 32,768. According to SQL Server Books Online, neither is correct. BOL says: "A maximum of 32,767 databases can be created on a server." Q43. Asks a question about the 401K_Amt column of the Benefits table. All answers incorrectly transpose this to read 401K_Amt.Benefits instead of Benefits.401K_Amt. Q44. Maximum number of files used by a single database. I could not find answer anywhere, BOL, etc. Maybe this book is right. Correct answer given is 32,768. One option was 32,767, which, would agree with BOL's max number of DATABASES (Also incorrectly given in this book). What is a file? I hope they mean physical file, as in mydb.mdf. Q49. Each answer has a DDL statement that will not execute because it refers to a column that does not exist: prod_type(prod)

I just recently passed the 70-029 test on my first attempt with this book as one of my resources for practice. The questions are thought provoking and difficult, but with many errors in the questions and answers I would hesitate to recommend it. I spent too much valuable study time trying to figure out whether their questions were wrong or not. The publishers need to add erata to their site to help with this issue. That aside, this book did help me to identify some areas where I needed more study.

This book is a disturbing look into a deeply troubled mind. Unfortunately that is all I can say about William Morain. The fact that a man with a Phd has the nerve to wright what is clearly an attempt at psychological slander is amazing. If you truely want to find out FACTS about Joseph Smith and the Mormon religion, then check out some books that wouldn't be displayed at the local Moromon linching. However, if you just want a good "Bash The Mormons" book then you have a winner.

I give the book two stars because the work does demonstrate some portion of creativity.

But about Joseph Smith and his remarkable work, I expected much more analysis. Smith, with no formal education, wrote a book in his early 20s that millions two centuries later revere as others do the Bible or the Koran. He singlehandedly conceived, designed, initiated, recruited leadership for, and wrote policies and standards for a whole new religion with few subsequent changes that has florished for two centuries and seems destined in this century to become the third largest Christian religion in North America(after Catholics and Baptists). Great leaders such as Brigham Young, Sidney Rigdon, and intellectuals like Eliza R. Snow and John Taylor looked up to him and revered him. He may yet be widely regarded as the most influential man of his time.

To write Smith and the Book of Mormon off as shallow and simply a result of an excrutiating childhood trauma seems itself shallow and may reveal Morian's own psychological expession of self hatred. Marian's roots trace back to Smith, at least indirectly, as a multigenerational decendent of a splinter group founded by Joseph Smith's wife and son.

Smith's childhood trauma was important and no doubt did influence his subsequent psyche and behavior to some extent but it seems downright goofy to suppose that it defined his whole life or explained his extraordinary capability. Smith is one of the few young people in history to create a whole new philosophy, let alone one that has moved millions for centuries. Marian does little or nothing to explain the psycholgical underpinnings of how the man was able to do that. Rather he says the Book of Mormon is shallow and that Smith's work was driven by the horror from a sharp blade and his resonses and family relationships associated with that experience.

Marian may have a valid point about the trauma, but, like the people who think birth order explains everything, this is WAY overblown! Its worth a page, not a book!

This is a quick and easy read, perfect for after dinner reading. The argument intriguing, but one shouldn't take it so seriously. It's best to read this book with the same healthy skepticism one would bring to a "JFK assassination conspiracy" book. The author is simply connecting dots in Joseph Smith's life to construct his theory that Smith had a personality disorder, and that this disorder was the essence of his religious genius. The book's critical flaw is methodological: Morain never really compares Smith with other case studies from the literature on dissociative disorders, rendering his conclusions pure speculation. Still, Morain scores a few interesting points, and made me say "hmmmmmmmm" more than once. Five stars for readability. Three stars for scholarship. That's an average of 4.

This book isn't very good. The Passtrack is better. The best one to get is from Securities Training Corporation. They have 13 practice tests. I did all of the practice tests and got a 95% on the exam.

I had previously disparaged this text as a poor study guide (in my PASSTRACK review), but now realize the book is well worth your attention if you are just beginning to study for the Series 7. The price is incredible. I would recommend this book as a starting point, however. Once your firm decides to sponsor you, you can consult thier much denser texts and go from there. I wouldn't recommend using the Barrons as your ONLY means of preparing for the spectre, I mean seven.

Unfortunately, the Barron's hasn't been updated in 3 years, so beware. Additionally, I found some typos in the exam sections which leave one vexed and pining for clarity. Finally, the index needs to be expanded so as to facilitate "quick searches." Nevertheless, the Barrons needs to be commended for packing in so much material into 300 pages.

I've been teaching the Series 7 exam for quite some time [...] and for the money [...], I believe that this book is well worth the small cost. If you read what other reviewers say, please keep in mind that they are comparing this book to others costing up to 30 times the price. The Securitites Training Corp's material cost almost [price]. But, if you want a concise inexpensive book that will definately bring you enlightenment on most of the important tested topics, then by all means buy this book. Keep in mind that I can recommend any book I like, but for the money this one is well worth it.

Joseph's book contains abundant promise and abundant disappointment. Its bookends--the start and finish--provide provide reasonable interpretations of data from neurological and fossil research. The center, unfortunately, merely affords a bully pulpit for the author's unsubstantiated rants about religious literature, especially the Koran and the Bible. This juxtaposition of authority and speculation is paralleled by displays of scholarly writing (e.g., citing sources for stated views) at the outset and junior high writing (e.g., missing citations and bizarre interpretations of religious writ) in the middle. Joseph is to be commended for his imagination, but misrepresents his book as a scholarly contribution.

This book is not about what it is purported to be about.

About 20% of the content deals with neurology and spiritual experiences. The rest can only be described as wildly speculative material reminiscent of Von Daniken and Velikovsky.

A great deal of attention is devoted to the notion that a "super-race" of humanoids lived on Earth 15,000 years ago. Their advanced civilization, housed on the continent of Atlantis, was destroyed when the planet Venus, originally a moon of Jupiter, careened past Mars, stealing that planet's ocean and atmosphere, and came close to Earth, leaving much of the water here in its wake -- hence, stories of a big flood that appear in mythologies the world over.

The current theory of evolution may be problematic, but it is more believable than the author's suggestion that life was planted here, designed so new species would unfold in a carefully-crafted plan to terraform the planet in stages.

There is a large amount of graphic violence, including depictions of medieval torture. Numerous examples of clergy or prophets "gone bad" are given to demonstrate the "close connection" in the brain between spirituality, sex, and violence. The author asserts that gay men have waged a religious war on women, but he cannot provide any examples to back this up. Abraham and Jesus are described as sexual deviants. On the whole, the fact that spirituality has inspired acts of good is overlooked (as is any other fact that would counter his claims).

To be fair, the content that does deal with the stated topic seems to be on a sound footing. The evidence he offers more or less matches what I'd seen elsewhere regarding neurological aspects of spiritual experience. However, I didn't find these portions of the book particularly enlightening.

The editing and layout is extremely sloppy, and (as if it mattered) footnotes are not consistently provided.

A reviewer (see below) complains that the author, Joseph, states that perhaps 50% of all Catholic Priests are homosexuals, and objects to Joseph's discussion about pedophile priests--claiming there is no proof. What a "morooon." The Transmitter to God was published two years ago, in 2000, and two years later the news media reports the astonishing news that perhaps 50% of all Catholic Priests are homosexuals and that Pedophile priests have been raping children. My hat is off to Joseph. He is clearly ahead of his time. Sex, is just one of the issues discussed in the Transmitter to God. Jospeh has chapters on religion and violence (two years before 9/11), evolution, genetics, the death of Dariwn, and he offers the reader a lot of intriguing speculation about the brain and spirituality which he then backs up with scores of scientific articles. If you looking for the same old comfortable platitudes, so that you will not have to think, then avoid this book. If you are looking for something new and exciting, for an author that thinks outside the box, this is the book for you.

The entire time I was reading this, I felt like I was reading a sequel to a book I never read. Something is missing. I will keep the book on the shelf, but as of yet, I just don't get it. Unless you have some secret knowledge, don't buy this book!

This is an important book because it gives one a very good idea of the spiritual principles of a brilliant American statesman and what might be behind secret organisations who seem to rule the world.

On the subject of the crucifixion similar or different theories are found in books such as the Nag Hammadi library and Secrets of Golgotha by Dr Ernest Lee Martin. In addition the claim of the archaeologist and anaesthetist Ron Wyatt, who apparently found the ark of the covenant in a rock chamber underneath the place of crucifixion on Golgotha, with dried blood on the mercy seat, offers another perspective. All this can become quite confusing. Unfortunately the statements in The Book of the Holy Grail about the double crucifixion of Simon of Cyrene and Jesus Christ, and Christ's faked death, that contradict evangelical reports, are not proved substantially with footnotes, which makes it harder to believe this alternative story.

Jesus is reported to have rebuked people who put too much value on their biological descent from Abraham, and the Cathars and Waldensians rather believed in a purified and individualized spirituality. One gets thus the impression that this book is about a rather strange mixture of Christianity and Judaism.
The descriptions of the spiritual world and references to Melchizedek, Lucifer and Michael are interesting, but does not reveal much more than what a reader of the Bible already knows.

Perhaps we are really living in the times of the fulfilment of prophecies that were predicted in the Book of the Holy Grail, which would leave one with the hope that peace on earth might become more part of everyday reality.

I found this book by doing a search on Thomas Jefferson, and when I read the description of the book I went, "Right, as if." I think I've seen every possible conspiracy theory somewhere on the web, so the idea that there could be an unpublished manuscript by Joseph of Arimathea which was translated by, of all people, Thomas Jefferson, seemed simply ridiculous on the face of it. But ever since I read Holy Blood, Holy Grail, I've been addicted to reading just about every book that has to do with the idea that there was a secret bloodline originating with Jesus, and I couldn't stand not reading this one. To my surprise, I found it fascinating. The idea that Joseph of Arimathea is Jesus' father is, in itself, remarkable. It explains the legends of Joseph taking the young Jesus to Glastonbury, which wouldn't be possible if Joseph of Arimathea was just another of Jesus' disciples. I also love the metaphysics, the idea that the reason our world is so screwed up is that the imperfections were deliberately put in to give us something to struggle against--a self-improvement therapy on a universal scale--the earth as an enormous Role Playing Game, and we're all gods who are playing the game. Fits in perfectly with the whole Matrix concept. And, what other book says that God was married to Goddess, and we are their sons and daughters? Much less sexist than the traditional Judeo-Christian creation myth where all comes from a patriarchal God. This book is hard going and it doesn't surprise me that some of the other readers get turned off by the historical claims, but once you get past that, this is a wonderful book of wisdom. Considering that there isn't any more scientific proof for the authenticity of the gospels than is offered for this one, maybe that's enough.

Ben Bova usually writes workmanlike science fiction novels that are stronger in the exploration of scientific ideas than in characterization. In Brothers, Bova tries to work on characterization and fails miserably.

The story is about two brothers, Arthur and Jesse Marshak, who are opposing each other in a science trial. Arthur has been developing the technology to re-grow organs, a technology that may have led to the death of one his employees. Against this backdrop, the sibling rivalry of the brothers is played out. The story of the problems with the technology isn't bad but the characters just are too unbelievable.

Arthur Marshak is the older brother and a good and decent man. His brother Jesse is portrayed as selfish and self-centred early on but becomes more likable as the story progresses. Jesse is either a jerk or he isn't and Bova doesn't give him enough complexity to balance it. Nor does he undergo a conversion of great significance during the story. Jesse's characterization is bad but his wife Julia's is abysmal. Julia is portrayed as the most sympathetic and compassionate individual in the story. Yet this woman quite literally goes from Arthur's bed to Jesse's. In real life actions like this break up families and are not done by caring, compassionate individuals. Subordinate characters fare no better. The key politician is stereotypically just out for votes. The fundamentalist Christian preacher is unprincipled and perhaps even a crook. It strikes me that writers can only get away with these types of attacks on Protestants and the stereotypes are highly discriminatory.

Will the science trial turn out favourably? Will the two brothers be reconciled? The conclusion doesn't make a lot of sense. Bova can do better.

I was 2/3rd's of the way through this book and realized that nothing was going on. Two very self absorbed brothers make amends while each maintaining their own opposing views. I guess I was disappointed to say the least. The ending was very anticlimactic.

When I first examined "Brothers" I was a bit dismayed to find its construction utilizing the "different chapter, different viewpoint" technique, the very same style which had forced me to read Monsarrat's "Kapillan Of Malta", in two unsatisfying operations... all the odds, and then all the evens.
But Ben Bova has done a rather better job with what is, in fact, a very difficult technique. His chapters are short, so that the reader does not lose the thread of the narrative, and the register and voice of each viewpoint's dialogue is authentically maintained. Even the many flashback or flash-forward sequences are well signalled and slip seamlessly into the structure. Perhaps those of my reviewing colleagues at Amazon, who so panned this work, should try their hand at this genre....Folks, it is harder than it looks, and Bova has done it well!

Working in pharmacy, and also serving, from time to time, on a panel which examines potential names for newly patented prototype medications, I was naturally interested in the medical research background to this story...and could well imagine the authenticity of the underlying conflicts as the factions representing medical and social ethics, academic lobbying, political aspirations, avarice versus selflessness, and humanitarianism versus personal ambition fought it out against a University laboratory background ...test tubes at ten paces!

The theme of genetic modification , in this case the viability of empowering the human body to grow its own replacement parts,thus requiring no donor organs and no surgery, is probably even more keenly debated now than when this book was written five years ago...and the points this book makes, or leaves for us to ponder, are still the subject of much media exploration, and a lot of bandwagonning and bandstanding! .....

The brothers of the story, Arthur, the protective elder, and Jesse , the indulged younger, represent the conflict of research for financial gain versus research to aid the poor and needy...though, as in real life, the two philosophies waver, weaken at times, even change direction, the whole issue complicated by the fact that both men have been engaged to the same woman, but only one has married her!

Add to this a few potboiler subplots.......a mother dying of cancer, too late for the research to help her, a suicidal, cancer-prone genetic researcher in love with the lab's experimental , near-human chimp, an ultrasound that predicts a spina-bifida child (who COULD be helped), an evangelizing clergymen, ambitious politicians, patent-poaching foreign firms, agressive journalists, and the inevitable animal-rights liberationists , and you have something for everyone here!

And with the New York background so vividly described, and the details of each character's appearance, wardrobe and restaurant selections made so available to us, one need almost not wait for the movie to be made.... except that one has the sneaking suspicion that Bova intended this novel to be televised.......pity Sean Connery and Robert Redford are getting a bit long in the tooth.....suppose we'll just have to settle for John Travolta and Hugh Grant...and fake New York accents!

READ "BROTHERS" BY BEN BOVA...IT ISN'T AS BAD AS EVERYONE SAYS!
DARE I ADMIT I ENJOYED IT?

When I first saw this book it looked very promising. Unfortunately it isn't. Although this book appears to be written for people who are experienced programmers, it spends time teaching basic concepts. The first chapter is an "Intro to Java" including a discussion about what data types are available in Java. The remainder of the first half of the book teaches simple AI techniques. Why was paper wasted on such trivial topics? If somebody wants to learn about Java they would be better off buying an introductory Java book. If they want to learn about basic AI they would learn more with an introductory AI book. I could understand it if the authors spent a little time touching on the basic concepts, but devoting half the book to them is a waste. The second half of the book is slightly more useful but it doesn't make up for the first half (or the fact that much of the example code doesn't work). If the book were cut in half with the second half being sold for 1/2 price, then the book might be worth it. But as it is now, it is a waste of money.

Following several unsuccessful attempts to get the NewsFilter application to work using JDK 1.1.8, I am convinced that the non-functioning software is a serious impediment to learning the material presented in the book, regardless of how well written the prose. I did like the introduction to Java and AI in the beginning of the book to set the stage for the actual demonstration projects later in the book, however, I agree with several other reviewers that these topics can not be adequately covered in the number of pages allocated. Overall, I was very disappointed with the book and would not recommend the book, particularly given its relatively high price.

A readable introduction to the principles of Intelligent Agents and Artificial Intelligence.

The topics described are illustrated with example applications, however, as the authors point out, the book does not aim to teach Java (or object oriented) programming. As such the examples do not take full advantage of the features offered by an object-oriented language, for example there is little use of Interfaces, which would promote reuse. The designs are not expressed in UML, which would be useful. Also some of the examples are rather lacking in substance. At this time, we have not pursued the topics covered in this book to see how well they scale to real world applications...

This is the worst java book I've ever read. The book is unorganized and the content is not suitable for the beginner at all.

The companion CD-ROM is useless.

If the authors would like to publish the new version for JDK 1.2, there will be a lot of works they need to get accomplished.

Simple words from me.... Don't buy this book.

Covers alot of fancy staff but has a great lack of contents. It seems like the author has rushed through the book just to fill it out with the Java 1.1 features and forgot to describe the import basics behind the language. There's now way you're gonna be a Java guru by reading this book!

It is very thorough. Almost everything important about java is in there including JDBC, JNI, Java Beans, Servlets, security management, even the specification of the virtual machine and most is explained well understandble. It is the best java book I ever saw!

I don't know what this guy was smoking when he wrote it, or what the publisher was snorting when he signed this guy, but for christ's sake let's sterilize both of them to prevent this type of [garbage] from clogging our inputs.

This book will teach you everything you need to know about putting a database on the web except how to put a database on the web. It describes how to make a basic database and how to make a basic web page, but whenever the subject of actually connecting the two comes up, the author says the scripting is too hard and you should hire a consultant.

This book is a complete waste of money.

I read this book, and thought it was a good introduction into web databases. Yeah, the info is not up-to-date, but it still has a lot of usful information for the web database newbie.

This is an exemplary example of NOT judging a book by it's cover. The back of the book insist this is "a hilarious and chilling.......playground for the rich, ...brilliantly suspenseful.."ad nauseum. First I couldn't keep the characters straight because one of the protagonists was a detective named Lynn Cutter. I thought it was a female, which threw me really off track when MR. Cutter gives private investigator Breda Burrows a long look at her blue eyes and long legs. MR. Cutter is a policeman, but one who is hoping he will get into no more trouble until his pension comes through in a matter of months. Along stumbles (literally) Ms. Breda Burrows, a strong woman, but desperately in need of someone with a badge to help her solve the mystery of a rich woman who believes her husband is philandering by giving sperm to a sperm bank. My sympathies and sense of humor lie with Mr. Cutter, who is really a very funny character and brings life into this incredibly boring story. As Breda's guide they must wander through the glazed world of Palm Springs, where they will encounter oddities that don't fit, bodies that shouldn't be dead and loads of money. This book is not captivating enough, even with Mr. Cutter as a lively character to warrant one star.

Sure, the plot lines are more than a little strange, and I do not mean strange in a good way, but has no one else noticed how unbelievably CLUMSY this book is? I kept reading because one of the plot lines (the more serious one--with the bald fugitive) dragged me along. But it was doggone hard to deal with the style. Maybe I should say lack of style, unless a surfeit of exclamation points counts as "style." I've read Wambaugh's nonfiction in the past, and I've never found it to be particularly ineptly written. Maybe I stumbled on books he spent some time polishing, I dunno. But this book is a wreck. There isn't a graceful descriptive sentence in it, and the dialogue is almost unbearable. Even if it had been well-written, it would be pretty hard to enjoy a book where the dog is the only truly appealing character.

Lynn Cutter wants only to drink away the days in gorgeous Palm Springs while waiting on the possible arrival of his hoped for disability pension check. When smart, tough, sexy ex-cop turned P.I. Breda Burrows enlists his assistance for a case that she's working on, he agrees to help, against his better judgment. At first the case seems simple enough, socialite Rhonda Devon wants to know why her older husband has been to a sperm bank without her knowledge. Breda figures she can do surveillance on hubby while Lynn uses his police badge to ask some questions and open some doors for her. However, when Devon's husband is spotted meeting a mysterious man who's previously attacked a cop at an airport, then the focus of their case becomes as much about this mysterious "fugitive" as it is about wandering husbands and spousal secrets. Enter a young cop who is way too gung ho for his and everyone else's good, and you have the makings of a typical Wambaugh at his best story. Humor, laced with deadly violence, a mystery that's not exactly what it seems, and characters that grow on you in spite of (or perhaps because of) their faults and foibles.

All of Wambaugh's works tend to be both tragic and funny at the same time, and this one is no exception. However I would rate it as one of his better comic mysteries, using comedy in the old Greek sense of the opposite of tragedy. To tell more would spoil the ending of the book, but I would actually place this book with his less tragic works, such as FINNEGAN'S WEEK, or THE DELTA STAR, and less so with his more tragic tales, like THE SECRETS OF HARRY BRIGHT. Since I'm one of those who enjoys Wambaugh when he's not as much in the dark side of life, this is one of my favorites. Experienced Wambaugh readers should know what I'm talking about here, but I would easily recommend this book to anyone who likes a good mystery, be they long time Wambaugh fans or not. A five-star rating for suspense, a compelling story, sympathetic characters, and a fun read.