Question for all my IT Brothers

[DarthRacer]

My IT skillz are getting outdated. My current job isn't providing any training so I need to go and do it on my own.
I want to get the OCA for Oracle 9i. The trouble is finding the right training materials. Can any of you help me locate a good set of books or CBTs?

 

[FastEddy]

OAC, CBT, WTF!
Hope I was of some help.

 

[bigfreak]

I know Oracle is a db thing. I'm guessing OCA is a certification?? Other than that I'm lost man. All the db stuff I do is MySQL or... well... as embarassing as it is to admit... I have the company using Access for a couple of things (don't hit me, please). Oh yeah and the accounting system is old ass Fox Pro tables.

I donno squat about Oracle certification sorry. Check out the book store and see what kind of stuff they sell maybe?

 

[mcvickj]

I've always been intersted in learning something about Oracle but we don't use it at work. Most of our stuff is MySQL. We also have some Access stuff. For certs I've always liked using the official books. Like some of my Cisco stuff is right from the Cisco Press. Some of my other books are from Sybex. I've been pretty happy with them.

I suppose the best way to find out what you like is to cruise over to your local library or the closest Barnes and Noble.

EDIT: For reference books you can't go wrong with anything from O'Rilley. 95% of the books we have in our office are from O'Rilley.

 

[msly]

The only thing i do not like about cert books is they are written just to pass the test. If you are looking to get certified then yes that is the way to go. If you looking to bone up on your skills I would stay away from the cert books.

I like some of the Sams Unleashed books.

 

[MyJeep]

mcvickj is absolutely correct. You can't go wrong with O'Rilley books.

 

[FastEddy]

One of my stores is a block away from O'Rilleys in Sebastopol CA.
They have a warehouse sale every year. Torn cover... 5 bucks, SOLD.

 

[lykan]

If you want to keep your IT skills up to date I seriously would consider ging over to the devshed.com and reading about Mysql it's what everyone is converting to due to it's flexibility stability, and multiple os connectivity.

Getting the hang of the basics is pretty easy but it's addicting to play with.

 

[DarthRacer]

Thanks for the responses.
Yes, I've toured "virtual" bookstores like bookpool.com and I'm just worried I'll buy the wrong books, as in the worst written books. I'll look into the O'Rilley and Sams books, maybe even explore some MySql stuff. thanks

 

[robriguez]

I have only ever used o'Reiley and Sybex books. Both are very comprehensive and explain things a bit better I think.

We use Progress and a very old ISAM database so I am completely out of the loop when it comes to MySQL, Access, Oracle, or any of the other mainstream systems.