Database Underground | Sean McCown » Now THAT'S Training... Or IS It?

October 09, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Now THAT'S Training... Or IS It?

TAGS: Database News

As many of you know, I do book reviews on many IT topics. Well, a lot of you may not know that I've started reviewing video titles as well. I've got some video titles that I've posted very recently, and I'd like to talk about them for a min. I've also got some book reviews that I've posted recently, and I'll tell you about those briefly too.

I've got 2 examples here of video training; one excellent, and one horrible. I'll briefly discuss both of them and you can go read the full reviews if you like.

AppDev:
I've gotten a hold of the training from AppDev and have finished like 3 of their titles. Their training is simply top notch. The production quality is very high, and the instruction is fantastic. You can really tell that these guys know their stuff. I've got the SQL Server 2005 training, and I'm starting to go through it now. I'll let you guys know when I've got it posted. Seriously though, if you ever get a chance to take any of their training, don't pass it up.

SQLUSA:
I've also been through the SQLUSA training. I honestly can't imagine a bigger waste of money. You'd really be better off learning SQL from a house painter. This guy spends so much time just surfing the web and rehashing things he's already said. His code doesn't even work often times and he has to take drastic measures to fix it. For example... He couldn't get his data to load one time and after trying a few things, ended up taking the PKs and FKS off the tables. Just ridiculous. Also, another time he was trying to show us the SQL services, and got lost in the OS. He tried a couple things before he found the services window. Dude, edit that crap out. And yet another time, his phone rang and he didn't edit that out either. Anyway, you can read much more detail in the review.
Know though, the one I reviewed is for OLAP, but they also have one for managine SQL2K5, which I went through a little bit, but didn't actually do a write-up on it yet. Trust me though, it's equally pathetic.

I'm also doing a series on certifications for SQL2K5. I've got some of the official materials now, and I'm collecting more so as they come in, I'll be reviewing them and putting them in a big cert bundle. Is anyone interested in that?

You can see all the reviews at www.ITBookworm.com and click on Videos on the left.

Posted by Sean McCown on October 9, 2006 04:28 PM

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