ISBN:013147149XBook Description
PHP and ASP/ASP.NET have emerged as the two primary applicationdevelopment frameworks for developing web applications. PHP is opensource, and it is the most popular Apache module in use, by far. This bookcovers the key topics that developers familiar with basic PHP syntax need tomaster to become fully productive and effective with PHP 5. These topicsinclude customizing PHP through writing PHP extensions, object-orientedPHP programming, using and building PEAR components, PHP shellscripting, and XML with PHP. Simply put: Readers will understand how toextend PHP to meet the needs of any development project, no matter howcomplex
/p>Reviews From AMAZON.COM
Multiple Talents Or Just Plain Scam?
I have read the review below by P. N. Payne about the paid reviews. Immediately, I checked on the "See All My Reviews" link for Herrington, Boudville, and Matlock. Here's what I found:
Herrington: Reviewed 20 books on March 8th (no exaggeration), ranging from "RFID Essentials" (whatever that means), "Web site Cookbook", "Open GL", to "Degunking Your Home". Suspiciously, almost all of these reviews got 5 stars, where the pros stated are almost identical to those stated by the publisher, and the cons are really funny ones, such as "I would have liked full color throughout".
W Boudville: Reviewed 15 books on March 15th, including "Nanoelectronics and Nanosystems : From Transistors to Molecular and Quantum Devices", "The Origins of Cauchy's Rigorous Calculus (Dover Books on Mathematics)", "The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Major Authors", "Natural Resources and Violent Conflict: Options and Actions", and of course "Computational Geometry in C (Cambridge Tracts in Theoretical Computer Science)". This guy usually gives all his books 4 starts. I think he's playing it safer than Herrington.
John Matlock: This guy reviewed 11 books on March 15th. Apparently, he read the "Handbook of Parallel Computing and Statistics", "Practical Poser 6", "The Rock from Mars : A Detective Story on Two Planets", "Carrara 5 Pro Handbook", "Beginning Visual C# 2005", "The Glorious Cause : The American Revolution, 1763-1789", and of course a book about marketing, seeing how marketing relates to the American revolution, C#, Carrara, Astronomy, Posing, and Statistics. Matlock opts for the 5 stars on all his reviews.
Now about this book, I'm buying it, because I read some excerpts in the library and I think it's great, not because of the rating of these guys. My 5 stars are given for the book, and the people who wrote the book, but certainly not for the publisher. Now I'm not against anyone making a quick buck, but I'm certainly against people getting paid for misleading others. I think Amazon has a real challenge over here:
1. Review their rating system, raising an alarm when someone has a way above normal number of reviews/day.
2. Dealing with unethical publishers encouraging and paying for this trash, and I think this is the hardest challenge for Amazon.
I just hope that Amazon is not aware of this, which I really find it hard to believe.
Truth about Paid Reviews
Look behind the high star ratings, particularly those which come out right after a book prints. Ie: If the reviewer writes several reviews a day, and they are all high ratings, and you believe it, then you have just been scammed. Matlock writes up to 12 review a day, on all different kinds of books. 5 stars each. He actually reads 12 books including computer programming books in one 24 hour day plus has time to write and send 12 reviews? What ever happened to honesty? How much do these guy get paid for this garbage? This book may be outstanding, but you can not trust Matlock, Boudville, or Herrington to tell you that. Too bad, because my quick scan made me think it is a fairly good advanced PHP book.
I have purchased too many computer books based on these biased reviews, and feel like I have been cheated. This is a lousy way to treat your customers. Maybe CBS or NBC or Fox will expose this on national TV. One star for lack of honesty in paying for or participating in this scam.