Book Review: Programming Microsoft Visual Basic

For those interested in cutting through the verbiage and who just what to know if I think you should buy this or not, the answer is yes. Buy it! While I have some concerns about the production quality, the content is outstanding and Rick’s presentation of the content walks you through the material in a way that facilitates understanding the content. So buy it. With that said, let’s get into more depth about my appraisal of these three DVD’s.

Several weeks ago I was asked if I would be willing to review Rick Dobson’s new DVD set “Programming Visual Basic.Net and ADO.Net with SQL Server and Access.” Needless to say, I jumped at the chance. Those of you who have read my reviews on my Web site in the past will know that I like to let you, the reader, know right up front what my biases are so that you can properly evaluate the validity of my views. With that said, Rick is and has been one of my favorite technical authors for almost as long as he has been writing. I joined his Database Developers Group shortly after he announced it. Jeez, I don’t want anybody thinking I’m a Dobson groupie, but I do like and respect the man and his work so I was proud and honored to be asked to review the DVD set.

Now, before we go further, you need to realize I’m not the average database geek, even though my wife and others have referred to me as such. I’m not formally trained in computers. I’m self-taught through books and training courses about everything I know in the areas of databases, programming, and computers in general. As a matter of fact, my degrees are in mass communication and I have both worked in and taught, at the university level, television news and production. The reason why I explain all of this up front is so that you might understand why I might look at this review from a slightly different perspective than other reviewers. I hope that this different approach, however, will bring you a new perspective to Rick’s work.

“Programming Visual Basic.Net and ADO.Net with SQL Server and Access” is a three DVD disk set featuring Rick Dobson. Contained on these three DVDs are twelve one-hour lessons aimed at providing the viewer with a review of all the basics for performing data access and data manipulation. The lesson topics include both graphically and programmatically generating ADO.NET objects, introductory and advanced data manipulation, processing XML, Windows Forms, and data binding just to name a few. The set also includes all the slides used in the presentation, all the code samples, and all the completed labs. You get all this for just $35.95. That’s less than I paid for any one of Rick’s books.

My initial reactions to the first hour, I’m afraid to say, dealt more with the presentation than with the content. Having spent a good twenty years doing commercial and public television news and production, as well as having taught television production for ten years, I found the production quality to be wanting. Some of the effects used reminded me of both my former students and my own experience as a student. It seemed like any time we got a new piece of equipment, the effects generated by that equipment were overused to the point where they became cliché. You might know the old adage, a boy and his toys … well, that comes to mind every time I see a production where one effect is over used. But don’t get me wrong … I was, and am still to this day, just as guilty of over using new toys when I first get them. The result is that the transition effects used in the first hour reached that cliché level for me. The effects, combined with the setting (a potted tree in front of a blue curtain) distracted me from Rick’s presentation of the content.

Another observation was Rick’s uneasiness with the camera in the beginning. Again, my personal background interfered with my appreciation of the work. As the DVD’s played and the training sessions progressed, Rick got more and more comfortable with the camera and toward the last several hours I hardly noticed any discomfort on his part at all.

By the time I had watched the entire set of training sessions, I was paying more attention to Rick and what he was saying than to the stupid tree and curtain. The transitions still got on my nerves but that’s just me. The point is that you are buying the DVDs for Rick’s instruction. Once I got past the tree and the curtain, I realized just what an instructional treasure I had in my hands.

As the director of an IT department, I spend considerable money each year in training for both myself and my staff. Within the past year I have spent over twenty five hundred dollars of my own money and over three thousand dollars of my training budget on training CDs and DVDs. Many of these offended my production aesthetics as much or more and provided me with far less valuable informational content.

Rick takes these complex topics and breaks them down into structures and concepts that are more easily digested. He walks you through the examples so that you truly understand not only the basics but some of the more complex issues of Visual Basic.Net and ADO.Net with SQL Server and Access. And you get twelve hours of this great instruction for less than fifty dollars.

I used to tell my wife one of the reasons I liked Rick was because he was a magician with Access. “Programming Visual Basic.Net and ADO.Net with SQL Server and Access” is a magic act all in and of itself. If you haven’t gotten my point yet, go buy this DVD set. You won’t regret it.

Reviewer Biography

Paul M. Summitt is a member of the Database Developers Group. Paul serves as the IT Director for a retirement fund. He and his wife Mary started Summitt New Media in 1996 as an outgrowth of their work on the Web with VRML. The company is aimed at assisting selected clients in using modern information technology as a communication tool. Paul works with VB/VBA, Access, SQL Server and .NET technologies. He also holds the MCSE, CCNA, MCP+I, and MCP certifications in addition to his degrees in Mass Communication. You can find out more about the company at www.summittnewmedia.com, more about Paul at www.summittnewmedia.com/Paul, or you can contact Paul at psummitt@summittnewmedia.com.

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