Last week we announced that our book project was finally coming together,
this is a follow up based on some of the questions we received both online and
offline. If you're not familiar with the project, please check this link:
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/bestof/
Right now (Jul 13, 2003 about 7pm) the registration count stands at 284 - not
bad! We need 216 more to get to the point that we can drop the price to $15 from
$18. Plus if you register before Friday, you get an an additional $3 discount,
potentially bringing the price down to $12 a book. If you're going to buy, get
in now and help everyone get a better deal!
One of the big questions was the possibility of making the book available as
an ebook. Readers seem to be split about 50/50 on their preference for ebook
versus hard copy. I'm sure you know the arguments - you can search ebooks easily
and always have them on your machine, hardcopy is nice for when you don't have
access to the computer or like the ability to mark up the text with a
highlighter, and some like to print the ebooks so they can organize it the way
they want. What we plan to do is continue efforts with the printed book, once
that is under control we'll make it available as an ebook at a lower price point
(and those of you who buy the printed book will get the ebook when it's
available).
Another question was about shipping costs outside the US. Once we have the
final printed copy in hand so we can get the exact weight, we'll try to put up a
list showing the cost to ship to other counties.
Will we do the project again next year? We would definitely like to, but the
final decision is a few months out. Once we've been through the entire process
start to finish, we can evaluate if we can manage the work required to do it
again, we'll know if we can make it work at the price we targeted, and of
course, we'll know from you if you consider the project worthwhile. We're also
considering the possibility of printing a monthly/quarterly version that would
be three hole punched, ready for you to organize any way you want.
Many of you wanted to see the table of contents, we're glad to provide that
in this update:
Introduction
About the Authors
Security
10 Steps to Securing your SQL Server
SQL Server Security Part 1
SQL Server Security Part 2
SQL Server Security Part 3
How Safe are Your Passwords?
SQL Server Encryption Best and Worst Practices
Auditing Your SQL Server Environment Part I
Auditing Your SQL Server Environment Part II
Performance
Stored Procedures and Caching
How to Diagnose and Fix Wait Locks
Using SQL Trace to Audit Database Access
Using Bitwise Operators to Boost Performance
Speed of Partitioned Views
Optimizing Stored Procedures To Avoid Recompiles
Understanding Execution Plans Part 1
Advice on using COUNT ()
How Dynamic SQL Can Be Static SQL
IIS Connection Pooling? ADO Gotcha!
Database Design
User-defined Data Type Basics
Understanding the Difference between IS NULL and = NULL
Is a Temporary Table Really Necessary?
When to Use Dynamic SQL
Introduction to Stored Procedures
Worst Practices - Not Using Primary Keys and Clustered Indexes
Worst Practices - Objects Not Owned by DBO
Getting the Most Out of SQL Server 2000's Query Analyzer, Part I
Getting the Most Out of SQL Server 2000's Query Analyzer, Part II
Getting the Most Out of SQL Server 2000's Query Analyzer, Part III
Information Schema Views
A Normalization Primer
Version Control - Part 1- Dealing with Code
Version Control - Part 2 - Tracking Changes
Version Control - Part 3 - Migrating Objects to Production
Version Control - Part 4 - Rolling Back
Designing a Database with Microsoft Visio 2000
Coding Standards - Part 1
Coding Standards Part 2 - Formatting
Where's my data? and other QA tricks
Using Interface-Based Programming Techniques in SQL Server
Optimizing Your Cube’s Schema
Storing and Retrieving Binary Data in SQL Server
Administration
SQL Maintenance Plans - Under the Covers!
Services for SQL Server 2000
Clustering SQL Server 2000 from 500 Feet
Step-by-Step Guide to Clustering Windows 2000 and SQL Server 2000
Quickly Moving Databases
Beware to the System Generated Constraint Name
Nightly Failed Jobs Report
SQL Server: Enterprise vs. Standard
Move Your Master
Miscellaneous
Strict Database Standards and Conventions
Pitfalls to Avoid when Designing OLAP Cubes
What is the Maximum Page Size in SQL Server 2000?
Backup and Restore Back to Basics with SQL LiteSpeed
DTS
Loading a Series of Flat Files
Using DTS to Detect and Process a File
Marker File
Data Import Functionality Using SQL Server
Portable DTS Packages
Converting Shaped Recordsets into XML
Creating Stored Procedure Documentation with XML, SQL-DMO and XSLT
Rants
The Case for SQL Logins - Part One
The Case for SQL Logins - Part Two
Is 0% Downtime Possible?
Point - Counterpoint - Certification Should Be Required
Point - Counterpoint - Why You Should NOT Certify
I'd like to mention again how much we appreciate all the authors that
contribute to the site and especially those that were able to grant us print
rights to their articles. They put a lot of time and energy into sharing their
experience, we're pleased to be able to provide this opportunity to give them a
little more professional exposure.
Questions, comments, ideas? Post your comment, or email us directly, we'll do
our best to reply promptly.