Readable book suitable for those interested in introduction to high level sales concepts and a 1995 view of anticipated impact of technology on selling.

This book is an excellent choice for individuals hell-bent on implementing sales automation without really knowing why. For those who are struggling to develop a vision for their sales automation initiative, Tom Siebel does a good job of balancing relevant historical information with real world examples and hypothetical situations. One might expect a book written by Tom Siebel to make the case for his company's own software solution, but that is not the case. Instead, Tom provides keen insight into the benefits of automation as it relates to the processes of selling and customer relationship management. Those who are have already developed and successfully articulated a clear vision for their sales automation initiative may find this book interesting, but probably of little value in moving forward. "Virtual Selling" concentrates exclusively on vision. Those looking for advice or information on the process one goes through in successfully developing and implementing a sales automation initiatve need to look elsewhere. Anyone wishing further information regarding this book, or sales automation in general, should feel free to email me at adamleft@webspan.net - Adam Lefton

Read the Microsoft documentation instead. This book is a thinly disguised rip-off of the Microsoft documentation padded with examples of dubious value. In 590 pages this book manages to add no value or information beyond the original documentation. That's quite an achievement.

If you want to learn ISAPI...think again. This was "hot" 2 years ago...now it is all but dead.

ISAPI's big promise was better performance and memory usage...ironic that it has now fallen in favor to the biggest performance pig of all web applications...ASP. In an age of fast machines and small web apps, rapid development and ease of use wins out over performance.

ISAPI is hard to learn, harder to get right, unstable, bug ridden (if written in MFC) and surprisingly inflexible.

Look, you're a smart person. You want to do the right thing. You don't need to subject yourself to the torture of learning ISAPI. Only hard-core programmers who are tasked with writing a custom web app that is going to get some VERY heavy traffic should even bother with ISAPI.

So why did I give this book 4 stars? There are no good ISAPI books out there. This one has the most information in it and will allow you the best chance to actually develop something that works. Get this book and hit Genusa's (now dusty) ISAPI site. Also spend a lot of time in the Microsoft knowledge base...there are plenty of workarounds and bugs to learn about too.

Keep in mind that with ISAPI you had better be a damn good programmer. If your DLL ever crashes...bye bye web server. This is harder than you think if you are doing "serious" web programming which includes database access.

Smart managers will not allow mission-critical web apps to be developed in ISAPI by a web punk who has never done this before. Do everyone a favor and get a clue. There is a reason why nobody is doing this stuff anymore!

Game over. Go home and don't look back. Go off and learn ASP and Cold Fusion like a good little web programmer. You will have a marketable skill and will actually get things done.

ISAPI is Microsoft's approach to adding capabilities to web serving. There are only a few books that describe how to use ISAPI. This book is the best of them, because the author: 1) provides examples in both C and C++, and 2) compares ISAPI with CGI solutions. Unfortunately, ISAPI is a complicated subject, so more and shorter examples would help elucidate the reader.

I'm a UC Davis student who took the plant biology course that uses this book. The professor doesn't even follow the book because it's so bad. It's unorganized, confusing, and useless for my class. Even some of the illustrations in the book are wrong. Don't buy this book if you just plan to learn plant biology. If you have to buy this book because course requirement, good luck

In the introduction to this book, Mr. Senior states (rather proudly I might add) that he has so very professionally hacked away 2 thirds( aw, just a few sentences..) of the entire story. He claims that much of it was needless details (such as descriptions of battles, ect.) but rambles on to announce that he has cleanly ripped away a few other side plots not necessary to to the well-being of the whole (as he sees it); any of the adventures of Sir Gareth, you won't find here. Other knights seem to drop into the story, and while all of the characters in the tale will appear to know who they are, you are left in the dark, because they happened to be on the editor's 'bad list' and their earlier excursions were deleted.
But then Mr. Senior finishes with this; that we must "not bewail these losses" (after all, he knows what he's doing). I suppose 2 thirds of Sir Thomas Malory's work was in vain.

This book is riddled with typos, missing instructions, and organizational errors. I was forced to go out and buy another book on Access. Don't waste your time and money on this book

a book that required gritted-teeth to complete.

If you were expecting a Dava Sobel style (Longitude) book of fascinating insight and drama, you will be deeply disappointed.

The author wanders randomly through 17th century gardening, seemingly without direction or interest.

If you expected to see HOW Mr Fairchild did things, you won't get it. If you expected explanations on the methods used, you won't get it. If you expected even rudimentary paragraphs on the sex organs of plants or a light-weight explanation of SAP flow, once again, you won't find it. If you wanted endless vague descriptions of people long dead, then this book is for you.

The final few pages top of an execrable book by being blatently pro-GM, despite most intelligent people having grave misgivings on the directions being taken.

I cannot recommend the book unless you already have a detailed knowledge of gardening and 17th century Britain. But then you don't need this book either.

Does this author know how to write? My 6 year old daughter can write better.