This "first edition" was a wonderful resource when originally published in 1996. We used it to quickly and easily create a fully functional web/ftp server on Windows NT 3.51. Alas, now when trying to upgrade that server to NT 4.0, much of the advice in this book simply doesn't work. Apparently Microsoft has made numerous fundamental changes to NT 4.0 which obsoletes technical advice relevant to 3.51. An updated edition of this book is badly needed, especially due to the fact that much of the excellent technical information within it is simply unavailable elsewhere (I know, I've spent days/nights searching).

Scott Peck had both the fortune and misfortune to write a hugely influential best seller as a young man with his "The Road Less Travelled". His good fortune is that book made him a star. His bad fortune is that nothing he's written since has measured up. As a result, he became a guru to millions, yet he seems not up to the task of leading his flock of sheep to the Promised Land of mental and spiritual enlightenment.

In this book, Peck and his long suffering wife tour Britain in search of ancient rock formations. Along the way, Peck offers his observations on all sorts of existential subjects, from aging to holiness. Some of it is interesting, but Peck is just too full of his own "insights" while maintaining a gross ignorance of many aspects of his own life. For instance, he analyzes his wife's struggles with depression, yet it never occurs to him that there might be a link to his numerous acts of infidelity. Also, he moans constantly about his poor health, yet he smokes like a chimney and drinks like a fish. I mean, how sympathetic are we supposed to be? Also, for a man who supposedly has such a keen grasp of human nature, how is it he became estranged from his own children?

In sum, Peck has a few worthwhile insights, but mostly this book is a sad complilation of a man out of touch with himself. He should ditch the psychobabble and tend to that which is most important in life, namely, getting his health back and mending fences with his kids.

In Search Of Stones, in my opinion, does not measure up to previous books by Dr. M. Scott Peck. His choice of using megaliths as metaphors for revealing his human frailty is clever but not prophetic. He concludes that civilization has removed the mystery from some megalithic sites and casually brushes off stone formations that leave him feeling empty. One wonders if the man or the megalith is at fault. If a site, such as Clava Cairns, does not cause an epiphany, or at least a sense of spritual feeling, he theorizes that the orginal constructors lacked creativity. Perhaps it is he who lacks the understanding of a deeper spirituality that withdraws when he approaches. When Dr. Peck explains away the sin of adultry as being his need to connect with God, I do not wonder that some sacred places cause him to feel empty.

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This book takes an entirely different tack from Peck's well known "Road Less Travelled". It is a mix of a travel-log, semi-autobiography and view on ones travels thru life. The prose is enthralling, the welsh landscape alien and familiar at the same time. There is some disconcerting personal characterization with a lot left out, I think Peck did this on purpose to let us know he is human also. I wish he had gone farther. Otherwise its a great book for Peck fans.

This book really has nothing in particular to do with the Silicon Valley recruiters. It is just a list of recruiters from all over the country. It is not what the title claims to be.

Published back in 1998, a lot of the information in this book has long since gone out of date. There have been at least two area code changes since publication, and many of the recruiters have left to go to other companies.

Nonetheless, if you get a little creative you can still find plenty of local recruiting firms that are willing to talk to you based on the contact info in the book.

My two biggest complaints about this book:
* Recruiters are listed by individual's name, not company name. This makes it extremely difficult to look up a firm.
* Despite the title, this book is not specific to firms located in Silicon Valley...or even in California. There are firms listed from all over the US.

It's a decent reference book, but it could use a lot of improvement.

A good book with practical info

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!