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Mastering EJB Book Woes

 
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This is mostly just a rant:
I recently purchased Ed Roman's famous "Mastering Enterprise JavaBeans". What I did not realize is that Wiley had published a second edition already, and most of the examples used in the book are thick with deprecated methods, and code that just doesn't work on any of the app servers I have been able to get my hands on.
I called Wiley, and wrote them e-mails, asking if I could possibly trade this brand-new waste of money for the current edition. All I got was : "Sorry, it's against our policy to trade books."
I am personally shocked by Wiley's poor customr service. They literally offered me nothing. And the real kicker is, the edition I bought cost 49.99, and the current edition is only $45.00!
 
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Bummer, the book wasn't too bad a few years ago. Probably not what you wanted to hear, the good news is I might be able to offer a solution. If you go to www.middleware-company.com/library/libraryIndex.shtml you will see that Ed Roman offers the II addition as a downloadable PDF. Since you had this problem I'll also give you permission to down load the "EJB Design Patterns" PDF you find at that site. Once you are comfortable with EJBs read the pattern book to see ways to improve on their use.
 
John Fontana
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Originally posted by Robert J Pitman:
Bummer, the book wasn't too bad a few years ago. Probably not what you wanted to hear, the good news is I might be able to offer a solution. If you go to www.middleware-company.com/library/libraryIndex.shtml you will see that Ed Roman offers the II addition as a downloadable PDF. Since you had this problem I'll also give you permission to down load the "EJB Design Patterns" PDF you find at that site. Once you are comfortable with EJBs read the pattern book to see ways to improve on their use.


Thanks! Although I already joined the serverside, and downloading the pdf is how I discovered that my copy was an outdated one. I even asked Wiley if I could at least get a printable copy of it (although I'd probably use up a $30 print cartridge anyway).
I am trying to use the PDF, although it is really slowing down the learning process flipping back and forth between the PDF, my IDE, command line, app-server admin screen, and xml editor. Uggh. And then seeing a 49.99 block of useless wood-pulp. I could really use that 49.99 right now.
Although unrelated (more rant), this whole situation really has made me re-think why I got into programming in the first place. I love it because it's challenging, yet there's a pretty reliable ratio of time spent vs. what you get out of it. EJB's themselves contradict all the things I like about programming!
 
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Hope you learned your lesson John
I've made it a habit never to buy books from a bookstore unless I absolutely positive it's the one I want. (investigation what it's about and the quality on sites like amazon.com.)
Usually if I order from amazon.co.uk (i'm from Belgium) I get the book in 2 days. That's nice too imo

I hope you continue studying EJB

Dave
 
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I must be missing something here... can't you just return the book? Most bookstores allow returns within 30 days, with receipt. In fact, I'm going to Barnes & Noble this afternoon to return a book I got from them a couple of weeks ago because I found it cheaper online.
 
John Fontana
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Originally posted by Junilu Lacar:
I must be missing something here... can't you just return the book? Most bookstores allow returns within 30 days, with receipt. In fact, I'm going to Barnes & Noble this afternoon to return a book I got from them a couple of weeks ago because I found it cheaper online.


Unfortunately it took me a few weeks to get around to reading it and trying the code. Because I'm so new to EJB's, it took a while for me to realize that the code was old, so it was past my time to return to B&N...
I think I will try the "I'll speak to a manager" approach at B&N on Monday...fingers are crossed!
At this point I can't give up EJB's just because it's done such a good job of mocking me, so mastering them is a personal vendetta at this point!
 
Consider Paul's rocket mass heater.
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