Next week I won't have access to my notebook, which means no internet, no e-mail. Actually I started wondering two weeks ago how much I would miss and how many e-mails, postings and whatsoever I'd have to read afterwards.
A few minutes ago I found this video and realized that it can't be that much...
Check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUNIzsntFsU
After some weeks without any blogging, I finally thought it could be interesting to talk about books. But first of all for those who are wondering just a few words about this language mix-up: As from now I'm going to write everything in english that could be at least somehow interesting for english readers, particularly in regard to security or PHP related topics. I apologize for any mistakes as this is not my mother language.
So here is what I am reading. The quality isn't that good since it was taken with my cell phone.
What do we have?
1 - PHP 5 & MySQL 4.1 by Sven Letzel, Friedhelm Betz
I actually bought this book several years ago, the time I started with programming web applications. It covers all the basic aspects of PHP programming with MySQL but isn't that well written. I guess there exist much better books. Finally I do not recommend this one.
2 - Professionelle PHP 5 - Programmierung by Georg Schlossnagle
There is no doubt that Georg Schlossnagle is a very experienced developer and this book turns out accordingly. From the very beginning the reader can see clearly that Georg knows what he is talking about. The book is divided into five main chapters with a lot of subchapters. The author introduces with no more then 250 excellently written pages, dealing with in-depth basics of good programming. You may already guess that this introduction is not as superficial as in other books - a must-read and so are the following chapters: Georg continues with caching, interactions with databases, one chapter about various security related topics and performance. Finally he rounds off with extending the PHP core.
Friends of mine who read the original english written edition told me the latter was much better to read however except of many spelling mistakes I think this one is fine too and a good reference book.
3 - PHP 5 für Fortgeschrittene by Harry Fuecks
This is one of my favorites and it's based on an originally english written edition as well as Georg Schlossnagle's, which I bought previously by the way.
Actually this book appears to be difficult to discribe as it covers all the basic aspects of PHP 5 like a good explanation of OOP but seems to be much more practical oriented. Fuecks gives a lot of examples on how to work properly with xdebug, PEAR, streams, user authentication, cache, XML and of course web services but unfortunately I remember a lot of XSS flaws. So for those who think to have some gap's in their knowledge, this is the book you are looking for.
4 - Enterprise PHP Tools by Stefan Priebsch
Definitely a must-read for everyone who claims himself a serious PHP programmer. The title already gives a slight impression on what this is about and the very first sentence literally says that this was not about PHP - programming. So what is it about? It's all about essential tools any PHP developer should use if he wants to make his daily work easier. Priebsch explains in an almost unimproveable way what xdebug, subversion, phpUnit, PHPDocumentor, Phing and VMware actually are and why they do help to work efficiently. Awesome work!
5 - PHP Design Patterns by Stephan Schmidt
Yet another book about PHP, published in the end of 2006. It's is about design pattern and actually the first german book covering this highly interesting theme. Since PHP 5 comes up with a way better OOP model it appears to me that design patterns become more and more popular, which in fact is very good news and people like Stephan Schmidt help to improve the overall quality of PHP code.
The author points out perfectly how important a good application design is and what the benefits of patterns are. The most common ones are explained on a lot websites, you will also find some on php.net but here you'll not only run across some explanations but get a whole discussion on each pattern mentioned. The author follows a step by step routine, which makes it easy to understand the current problem.
6 - PHP - Sicherheit by Christopher Kunz & Peter Prochaska
This book is definitely a must-read, not only because it is written extremely well but also because a solid knowledge of security is a necessary prerequisite to write professional web - not only PHP - applications. It covers everything needed to write secure PHP code and as well some basics about information security.
For your information, Christopher, Peter and furthermore Stefan Esser are currently working on a second edition of this book, which will be an updated rewrite of the first but additionally contain a chapter dealing with Suhosin and neat things like ext/filter. It's meant to be released by the end of march.
7 - High Performance MySQL by Jeremy D. Zawodny & Derek J. Balling
I still haven't finished this one but so far I can tell you that it's adressed to people who already have a clue about databases and are looking for an in-depth reference book.
8 - Web 2.0 by Tom Alby
Like the title states it deals with changes of the web, web 2.0 and what's behind this expression. Interesting reading but - concerning web 2.0 - nothing too exceptional after having read Tim O' Reilly's original statement.
9 - Die heimliche Medienrevolution by Erik Möller
This is in fact very interesting for everyone who is interested in media and how it influences the entire world. Firstly Möller discribes which kinds of media exist and how they developed over the years, then he concentrates on open source software, wikis and weblogs...
You will get a very broad background knowledge about how the world really works, this book is definitely worth reading and as someone on amazon.de states it should become a mandatory reading in schools and basic knowledge of adults.
Maybe I should write a more comprehensive article about this book one day.
10 - The Art Of Deception by Kevin Mitnick
One of my newest books, I've already mentioned it before. Unfortunately I haven't had time to finish it but read until chapter four I think. Well actually I knew what it might deal with by the time I saw that Mitnick wrote a book and so far it matches my expectations. So for those who are interested in manipulating people or gathering confidential information - buy this book.
I'm going to write a full review on this book once I have finshed it.
11 - Weblogs - Eine kommunikationssoziologische Studie by Jan Schmidt
While having read this entry you may have noticed how much I'm interested in everything that deals with media and people and/or their behaviour. In my opinion the simple existence of weblogs is something to keep an eye on. I bought this book because I found the title was interesting but haven't read it yet.
Thats it! Maybe someone wants to leave a comment. You're welcome.
