yeah, i'm not 2 happy w/that thought, but i agree - i try to avoid MS prods 4 the most part. i figure if i'm going 2 work @ becoming proficient at a prog, and its oriented towards a particular platform then i should learn the platform as well 2 make sure i can ferret out prog & OS issues. means i need to delve into Win2K land b4 i go the SQL route. unless, of course, BG decides to port it to Linux! 8)

Well, you don't have to be a Win2K Guru to be good. As long as you got a good SQL and relational db foundation, you're good to go with any database.

This is a really good SQL Server 2000 book. I have it and it'll get you up and running fast.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1861005237/ref=pd_sr_ec_ir_b/102-1094467-5582532


Here's a list of my reviews from Amazon.com on some of the books I've read.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/cm/member-reviews/-/A2HEEBN9QJWP00/1/ref=cm_mp_rv/102-1094467-5582532


Check out my review of "Data Structures Via C++: Objects by Evolution."

just read all 14 reviews - i VERY much like ur style. seems to be honest (after all, i'm really NOT a mind reader) and definitely to the point! just about tripled my to-buy book list w/just 2 pages of surfing

I love controversial reviews. They always crack me up!
Check this review out - it's on Jakob Nielsen's "Web Usability," which is a very popular book in the web community. I have to say that I disagree with a lot of his ideas. If you read this book, most of his statistics are pulled out of thin air... he uses words such as "Experts say that..." and "From my experience...."

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail/-/books/156205810X/customer-reviews/4/ref=cm_rev_next/102-1094467-5582532?show=-submittime

This is the guy that shot down Flash and said it was a waste. He wrote a segment on his site. It's kind of humorous that just recently he had seconds thoughts AFTER he had a meeting with Macromedia, you can see the segment update on the botton of the page... (can someone say payoff?)

The link to that Flash segment:
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20001029.html

I would respect/follow his ideas MORE if he was a graphic designer which he is not and he even admits on his site that he isn't. How can you criticize usebility if you're not a graphic designer and all pages deal with graphic design?

I agree more with the article Julie Meloni wrote for Webmonkey. She has her own thoughts on Jakob. Check it out.

http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/01/26/index1a.html?tw=commentary

LOL, I hear ya, Im a PHP Man myself and I run my server and sites from home using Cold Fusion, MSSQL and MySQL. Great for all I should say. But I personlaly think MySQL is better if your a Hard Scripter. If your 1 esy street like Microsoft, then go with ASP using ASP.NET. These, yes can be ran from your desktop srvers even if you wanted too. But again, these are my opinions.