Books

Books are one of my favourite ways to learn new technology, and brush up on the existing technology we have deployed.

I always have a stack of ‘Pocket Consultant’ books on my desk, and especially now with the surge in popularity of eBooks, and a Kindle App for my phone, i have even more books in my pocket when i am on the road. I have always tried to ‘educate’ my friends to the benefits of reading a book on a subject rather than just trying to learn as you go, for one reason, which is, that i learn more.

It may sound obvious, or even patronising, but if i told you i know people who deploy and support an OS, and have never even read the system requirements, perhaps you will understand why i try to suggest they get themselves a copy of the book!

The best thing i can give as an example as to why the books are so important to me, is Small Business Server.

I started out in IT in 2004, i knew literally nothing, and i had not even seen a Network Card (i remember this caused a titter amongst my class mates, who’s laughing now)

I was studying the MCSE Curriculum (this was the last Win2000 MCSE course that particular MSA ran) and i was hooked. Unfortunately for me, life as an SBS Admin was full of silly wizards and obstacles that just got in the way of what i had spent a year learning. I treated SBS like it was built for idiot’s who didn’t know how to manage a proper Domain Controller.

This was my biggest mistake.

I was also at this time hooked on Microsoft Certification exams, and after finishing my MCSA/E, then MCSA/E+S (ISA Server specialisation) as well as a few other exams, i decided since i was working with SBS 2003, i would do that exam as well.

I got myself a copy of Harry Brelsford’s Red Book, and that book really opened my eyes on what those SBS Wizards were doing in the background, and also showed me how i had literally wasted hours of my life on installs, doing tasks that wizards had been built for, that i didn’t even know existed. An excellent example of that would be the /connectcomputer process from SBS 2003, that moved User Profiles. If i had known about that…

So i was totally converted to ‘the SBS Way’ and i also learned a lot more about SBS from reading a book than i had in maybe 18months of (trying) to administer it. Not only did my job get a lot easier, but the problems i had been having with SBS, disappeared.

I have been lucky enough to work on several books now as a Technical Reviewer, and i found the process very enjoyable indeed, and hope like to think i almost improved the books a tiny tiny amount.

I also recently published my own eBook on Migrating SBS 2003 to SBS 2011 Essentials.

I have added a new page to list some books that i have read recently.

Books I have worked on

Little bit of shameless self promotion, i worked as a technical reviewer on the following books.