I was approached last year about reviewing a book, this was quite a surprise as I had never had anything to do with such things before. I was interested so after a quick exchange with the publishers I was on board and ready to go. I received a brief outline of the book chapters and some guideline material to assist me in the process. A few days or a week later I received the first chapter along with the book preface to review. Then depending on how the author was progressing, the new chapters  would arrive each week to have me review them. I would then have to review then write comments apply tracking and enter edits to the document and the chapter returns to the author vvia the publisher.

I needed to review each chapter for its technical merit; Did the content cover the topic for the chapter, what things could be done to improve it, does it have suitable material to allow someone to understand, and therefore get any value for the money they hand over to the bookstore, publisher and author or are they getting a dud.

Now just a thing to be  aware of is that you will not likely get any payment for the effort you put in, however, in my case I am getting a couple of book copies as well as I get recognition for the assistance in technical review in the book.

I am now about to review a second one and this is going to be additionally interesting as I have quite a personal interest in the area, where the author is writing. This has a few benefits, the things the author is going to cover are going to cut down on some research I have to do and will likely ask em a few questions I am going to need to know answers to.

Both these books are on topics about Oracle product, the first is for a newbie DBA, although I am sure a number of more experienced DBA’s can get a bit out of it. The second I have just stated on relates to Oracle Middleware and Fusion

I would recommend this heartily to anyone else as there is much to be gained and little to lose except some slack time and possibly some sleep. Book review work is an excellent way to get in some material reading. It makes you really think about what it is you are reviewing and finally you have to learn something.

Have a great week all

See ya round

Peter

Hi All

Pacific DBMS whom I work for, is looking for an additional Oracle DBA for the team.

To submit an application you can contact Pacific DBMS directly. If you need to know anything then you can contact me for information peterdotmclartyatpameacsdotcom. I just realised that I dont have sufficient information displayed on the main site or on the blog

This is only open to DBA’s currently residing in Australia or those that have residency status. For those of you looking for work this is not an entry level position.

Happy job hunting

See you around

Peter

Wow yes its true, Dainis Graveris has created the following blog to show what is a good set of plugins to use on a blog. I am not sure they are all you might wish to have. I do agree with a lot of them, however some seem to share a common purpose, so might have issues co-residing on your blog. Is it a good list yes, I think for someone who is starting out then you are staring at a great collection,

130 WordPress Plugins You Could Ever Need: The Best Of: Part 1 | 1stwebdesigner – Love In Design

What I have installed is some of these with some not mentioned Nofollow Reciprocity – it identifies if a blog has nofollow on and then blocks its follow links. You can check it out and download it here Advertising Manager, everyone needs Google ads or from some other ad network this is the update for Adsense that is listed in the 130 list Related Websites is another good one, initially you can only see other sites that are related, once you are of a suitable size then you can apply for a API key, you will need at least 30 blogs depending on activity and quality, thats not my call. Once you have an API key then your blog will show up in related websites elsewhere.

Another one I use of which Dainis was not likey to list is GWA Autoresponder for a newletter manager, the free one is great I use it for this site and the Pro version is a bargain which I use for another site.

I would say to anyone with a blog that they experiment with this list and see if you can utilise any or all, and then blog your own list of amendments to the list and why they are useful. Just take your time and understand each as you add them so that you dont have any really unexpected behaviours, that become a problem as you have overloaded your blog