Directories Books

Of all the reference books for writers, I find the Dramatists Sourcebook to be the most complete. It doesn't have EVERYTHING, but it can tell you where to FIND everything.

Sources for production, contests, funding are updated each year (a couple of quibbles...I found one deadline date that was off last year), as well as useful service organizations for playwrights, and for those who haven't realized that a play is not a screnplay, always a lesson on formatting.

The Theater Communications Group puts out a lot of useful publications, but this one is at the top of my list.

Of all the reference books for writers, I find the Dramatists Sourcebook to be the most complete. It doesn't have EVERYTHING, but it can tell you where to FIND everything.

Sources for production, contests, funding are updated each year (a couple of quibbles...I found one deadline date that was off last year), as well as useful service organizations for playwrights, and for those who haven't realized that a play is not a screnplay, always a lesson on formatting.

The Theater Communications Group puts out a lot of useful publications, but this one is at the top of my list.

The title of this book is completely appropriate, though Dramtists Bible would also work. Every contest, every writers colony, every major theater company in America is to be found within these pages. It is perfectly mapped out and the details are wonderfully woven. I recommend this to the beginner playwright as well as the Tony winner. Bravo.

The Dramatists' Sourcebook is truly an invaluable resourse for anyone who writes for theatre. Hundreds and hundreds of entries for production, development, awards, and much more make this one of the most important books in my library. I highly recommend it for all playwrights, lyricists, and librettists.

This book is simply a must-have for anyone seeking the life of the working playwright. It's succinct, informative, and offers a wealth of information on grants, theatres, contests, and other opportunities.

My one minor complaint would be that the Sourcebook lacks almost any real information on proper play submission formatting (despite the fact that the book touts this assistance heavily on its covers).

As most theatres routinely point writers in the direction of the Sourcebook to answer such questions, it's a disappointment to find that the Sourcebook's _entire_ section on formatting consists of: one line of sample dialogue, followed by a somewhat confusing short paragraph which verbally describes formatting in vague terms as being essentially the same as those for screenplays -- and that's it. As I've been misled before on preferred formats for play (versus screenplay) submissions, a single sample page would have been an invaluable help.

But that's just one small complaint. And as a reference and information source, the Sourcebook is still a must-buy.

After hearing that The Encyclopedia of Alzheimer's Disease was honored as one of the top 25 reference books for 2002 by the New York Public Library Association, I immediately went out and bought this book. Now, when I talk to my mother's doctor, I quickly look up the unfamiliar terms and understand everything that he is saving. My husband's father also has Alzheimer's Disease and lives in another state which was making things difficult in finding the proper care for him. The Nursing Home Directory in the book helped us locate a good home for him who works closely with us even from a distance. Having 2 family members with Alzheimers is difficult to say the least, buying this book made it so much easier for us to understand what is going on and what we can expect in the future.
I was fortunate in meeting the authors at the Library's award ceremony. The authors' backgrounds in pharmacology, immunology and public housing provided them the necessary background to thoroughly investigate all of the aspects of Alzheimer's Disease and its care. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about Alzheimer's disease. It's also a must for anyone who needs to arrange for the care of a loved one afflicted with Alzheimer's Disease or a related disorder.

After hearing that The Encyclopedia of Alzheimer's Disease was honored as one of the top 25 reference books for 2002 by the New York Public Library Association, I immediately went out and bought this book. Now, when I talk to my mother's doctor, I quickly look up the unfamiliar terms and understand everything that he is saving. My husband's father also has Alzheimer's Disease and lives in another state which was making things difficult in finding the proper care for him. The Nursing Home Directory in the book helped us locate a good home for him who works closely with us even from a distance. Having 2 family members with Alzheimers is difficult to say the least, buying this book made it so much easier for us to understand what is going on and what we can expect in the future.
I was fortunate in meeting the authors at the Library's award ceremony. The authors' backgrounds in pharmacology, immunology and public housing provided them the necessary background to thoroughly investigate all of the aspects of Alzheimer's Disease and its care. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about Alzheimer's disease. It's also a must for anyone who needs to arrange for the care of a loved one afflicted with Alzheimer's Disease or a related disorder.

After hearing that The Encyclopedia of Alzheimer's Disease was honored as one of the top 25 reference books for 2002 by the New York Public Library Association, I immediately went out and bought this book. Now, when I talk to my mother's doctor, I quickly look up the unfamiliar terms and understand everything that he is saving. My husband's father also has Alzheimer's Disease and lives in another state which was making things difficult in finding the proper care for him. The Nursing Home Directory in the book helped us locate a good home for him who works closely with us even from a distance. Having 2 family members with Alzheimers is difficult to say the least, buying this book made it so much easier for us to understand what is going on and what we can expect in the future.
I was fortunate in meeting the authors at the Library's award ceremony. The authors' backgrounds in pharmacology, immunology and public housing provided them the necessary background to thoroughly investigate all of the aspects of Alzheimer's Disease and its care. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about Alzheimer's disease. It's also a must for anyone who needs to arrange for the care of a loved one afflicted with Alzheimer's Disease or a related disorder.

After hearing that The Encyclopedia of Alzheimer's Disease was honored as one of the top 25 reference books for 2002 by the New York Public Library Association, I immediately went out and bought this book. Now, when I talk to my mother's doctor, I quickly look up the unfamiliar terms and understand everything that he is saving. My husband's father also has Alzheimer's Disease and lives in another state which was making things difficult in finding the proper care for him. The Nursing Home Directory in the book helped us locate a good home for him who works closely with us even from a distance. Having 2 family members with Alzheimers is difficult to say the least, buying this book made it so much easier for us to understand what is going on and what we can expect in the future.
I was fortunate in meeting the authors at the Library's award ceremony. The authors' backgrounds in pharmacology, immunology and public housing provided them the necessary background to thoroughly investigate all of the aspects of Alzheimer's Disease and its care. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about Alzheimer's disease. It's also a must for anyone who needs to arrange for the care of a loved one afflicted with Alzheimer's Disease or a related disorder.

This comprehensive tome touches on risk factors, brain chemistry, current research, therapies, diagnostic tests, disease course, alternative medical options, genetic concerns, biochemical changes, disease stages, support groups, nutrition, insurance concerns, caregiver issues, housing options, daycare, innovative and traditional nursing homes and both quality and end of life issues. The encyclopedia is followed by a comprehensive list of research facilities, resources and nursing homes that specialize in the treatment of AD patients. A much-needed reference for anyone involved with AD.

This book has helped my research about religions tremendously ! I have to recommend this book to any one seeking a Greater knowledge!

I found this to be eye opening. I have had a hard time finding a book that could teach me about the different religions/denominations. This one was very comprehensive. I highly recommend it.

While I don't own it (yet) I've been impressed with it since first learning of it. While this is not a work on which most households would spend hundreds of dollars, there really is no substitute for Melton's masterpiece. Even defunct and/or oddball sects are included, such as Kennedy worshippers, the House of David, and schismatic versions of many faiths. The organization of this work is by theological classification (Holiness movement or Black Muslim for two examples), but the index is comprehensive.

In this mammoth work (which is regularly updated), Melton has provided clear and unbiased descriptions of virtually every religious body of any size operating in the United States today.

Every religious body is identified by the "family" into which it fits (or from which it came) eg. Western Liturgical Family, Eastern Liturgical Family, etc., and described in terms of date of founding, major beliefs, size, number of congregations, organizational structure, and, in many cases, contact information.

This book is a must in every university or seminary library -- regardless of religion or denomination. The serious scholar will also wish to have a copy.

J. Gordon Melton's "Encyclopedia of American Religions" is a reference work to which I turn, year after year, in my work as both a scholar and journalist. And I eagerly look forward to each new edition (I viewed the 6th edition as I prepared this review).

This mammoth work contains both a series of essays on major religious traditions and a series of profiles of individual denominations, fellowships, and missions. The profiles on individual religious bodies number well over 2,300 in the 6th edition. Mailing addresses and bibliographic references (when available) for each individual body further add to the book's usefulness.

Melton covers everything from the largest mainstream denominations to the smallest and most esoteric bodies. His broad editorial vision takes in nearly every conceivable religious tradition: Christianity in all its permutations (Anglican, Lutheran, Pentecostal, etc.), Judaism, Hinduism and other Eastern traditions, Neo-Pagan groups, "flying saucer"-related fellowships, Atheist and Humanist associations, and more. Each entry is written in an objective manner.

The latest edition of this book should be in every library in Canada and the United States. Furthermore, serious journalists and scholars of religion will find this to be a useful and fascinating edition to their own private libraries.

I am definitley a novice and your book is totally awesome!!!! Thank you

This is a great way to get into using the Net. I passed it along to the Librarian and Teachers at my kids' school. They said it was a fabulous resource for developing net-based curricula. Sites are grouped by subject in easy-to-use articles and the articles are grouped by general category. Pick a topic, hit the index and GO! You'll have a great trip.

Kitty Williams and Robin Lind have put together an excellent resource for net novice and expert alike. "Essential Net Novice Websites" includes nearly twenty catagories for websites to explore along with thoughtful backround material and explanations.

The book covers a wide range of topics and interests. There is something that will appeal to everyone. The business and government sites listed can get you to just about any professional site you can imagine. The information is summerized for the reader and is extremely helpful. Throughout the book the reader is consistently equipped with the means to further explore any topic as far as the imagination can take them. And there are also lots of places to go just for fun and entertainment.

My favorite aspect of this book is that it is a one volume reference that led me to all sorts of web pages that I would never have found on my own. My personal favorites border on the zany (Clifford Pickover's Web Page, America Unhenged) but there are certainly many practical websites covered as well (online shopping and travel arrangementa, etc.) At the very least, each article give the reader a springboard to endless net exploration. And don't forget to download the electronic companion which comes as a freebie with the book. It gives you the hyperlinks to every website mentioned.

Williams and Lind have done it all for you. Check out a copy of "Essential Net Novice Websites" and start you own personal exploration of the World Wide Web.

I handed this book to a colleague who had always actively maintained the internet was irrelevant to him. He reads voraciously, but wouldn't go on line. As he leafed through this book, he began to look like a kid in a candy shop! He wouldn't give me the book back. Give this book to your friends - whether or not they are on the net. It captures a sense (like no other book I've seen) of the ever expanding wealth of information and resources that surrounds us! Great Job!!

I'd been crashing around on the Internet and largely finding good sites by accident. Reading Essential Net Novice Websites was a real eye-opener. It was as if I'd been lost and authors Kitty Williams and Robin Lind had handed me a map. Suddenly the Internet had a shape and a form. And because of the authors' eclectic taste, I not only had the big picture but I could sample the many zany sites they had alerted me to. Internet tourists would do well to use this book as their travel guide.

When the news got out here in Australia that Fierce.com had finally landed in the "real" world, I raced out and bought a copy of "The Exclusive Book for Web Elitists" faster than you can say "Happy Hour at Sizzlers". Being a Fierce fan for longer than I care to remember, these guys have made me laugh over and over. And continue to do so now offline as well as on.

Tor and David are two of the craziest, abrasive, outspoken and out-of-control guys (with no particular quality attributed exclusively to either one) it's ever been my pleasure to come in contact with. And Matt is just plain unhinged. But all are hilariously funny and do the best "baffling with bulls**t" routine I've ever come across.

Just buy the book - it'll make you laugh, it'll probably make you cry and it will certainly make you look at the Web as it should be viewed - with one eye on the screen and the other on just how crazy and unreal (in the true sense of the word) this virtual reality world called the "WWW" really is. In other words - cross-eyed. (Well, it's worked for them!)

An excellent resource for "The best of the best", websites on the Internet. I will be visiting all of these websites and utilizing this book for quite some time to come. It was this book that brought me to Badpuppy.com, which I find to be the biggest best Gay & Lesbian Portal on the Internet. At the very least I now have a home on Badpuppy where I'm with many others who go through the trials and tribulations and the lifestyle questions the Gay & Lesbian community have come to expect.

Thank you Fierce.com for bringing all of these fine sites to the surface. I will be purchasing your book for years to come.

The Fierce-sters have been there, done that, and are eminently qualified to direct us to the ultimate best of the Web. Follow their advice without hesitation. You'll waste less time and find more quality in your Internet surfing. Not to mention enjoying their fascinating reviews.

These guys are incredible. They write about websites, but you hardly have to go on the web to enjoy this thing. It's really about the twisted lives and relationships the author's lead. That's what makes it funny.

I actually got the book as a gift from my mother because she knows I use the internet. She saw the book in the store and decided to buy it for me. I was nonplussed at first when I saw it. I mean, after all, who wants a book about the web for a present. I put it in my bathroom and took a gander one fine day and I could not stop laughing. These guys are so funny. And there're these fake parody type articles in each chapter of the book that are really bizaare and didn't really know what to make of but they're pretty damn funny, too. Anyway, it might be a shameful thing to say, but I know about a lot more sites now so, really, they make surfing fun. Thanks, Fierce.

For those of you scratching your heads in despair as you contemplate the cost of your young'uns' college, Nancy Nitary has one solution you will certainly want to consider.

According to this book, two-thirds of all colleges in the United States offer some type of athletic scholarship program. According to this book, there are 3200 men and women varsity basketball programs, over 1,100 soccers programs and 1400 collegiate baseball and softball programs. The book is also broken down into types of sports, colleges and opportunities, depending on your child's goals. Does he want to play and doesn't care in which division (there are four)? The book covers that. Does he want to be in the Big Leagues? Nancy tells you how.

It was interesting to see a sample of the resume a student athlete should put together. It reveals coach contact information, the child's birthdate and more. While these details aren't typically suitable for the job market, they're one way a college scholarship and admissions committee can determine the student's status.

Personally, I'm thrilled to have such a well-written reference guide in the event one of my kids gets the wild idea of wanting to attend college in the States! Play ball! would take on a very different meaning, indeed. Thanks to Nancy, I have little to fear.

Christine Louise Hohlbaum, author of Diary of a Mother: Parenting Stories and Other Stuffand Sahm I Am: Tales of a Stay-at-Home Mom in Europe lives near Munich with her husband and athletic kids.

I have finished it cover to cover several times and have enjoyed the detailed information that is suitable for every athlete. I am in my 11th year of coaching high school and club water polo and will no doubt recommend this book to every one of my athletes. I had yet to find a book or resource outlet that I could recommend to all my players to help guide them on their college path; now I have one. From academics wise, to contacting a collegiate coach to what you should be doing each year you are in high school to prepare for college this book has it all! Each chapter is very informative and is a wealth of information for both players and parents. No high school student athlete should be without this book.

With the cost of a college education today, my wife and I felt like we'd have to mortgage our future to help put our kids through school. We've got three...two boys and a girl. All are student athletes: soccer, baseball and track. This book really was a God-send. It put things into instant perspective for us and gave us a definite plan of action. Before we were just guessing. We heard some things from other people and thought we knew some things ourselves. Boy, were we wrong. Ms. Nitardy is a real pro who knows all the ins and outs of wooing college coaches and maximizing any money you can get for your kid's education. It's not just what you say; it's how you say it. The book is easy to read and understand and truly covers all the bases. Everytime we had a question, the book seemed to answer it. We loved it and would highly recommend it to anyone who has student athletes who are seniors, juniors, even sophomores. Get paid to play? Why not our kids? It may be the only way they can get a college education and we can retire some day!

Get Paid to Play: Every Student Athlete's Guide to Over $1 Million in College ScholarshipsThis may be the best book we have in our home and the most important. Nancy Nitardy really opened our eyes with this book. Our son is a student athlete that was undecided about playing football in college because we and he did not know how to achieve that goal. After reading this book he has become more confident in his decision to play. Nancy dispels the mystery surrounding the recruiting process through step-by-step directions, explanations and examples that are clear and easy understand. Although he is starting a little late in the process, this book has renewed our son's hope. I recommend this book to anyone whose child is interested in post-high school participation in any activity that requires prior approval (athletics, the band, drill team, cheerleading, etc.). Both the child and the parents must read this book!

Nancy Nitardy has poured her extensive knowledge as a collegiate athlete, coach and recruiter into this wonderful book. I have had the opportunity to attend a couple of her seminars. This book follows her presentations and organizes the information into an easy guide to help you through the whole college recruitment process and beyond.

This book is a must-read for any athlete with the goal of playing sports in college, as well as their parents. Nancy points out the vast amount of opportunites available for athletes and how to go about living their dream.

Nancy Garrison Jenn has taken upon herself the challenge of boiling down a highly fragmented industry into a meaningful knowledge base that can be used by corporate executives and individuals to network to solve both business and career needs. Her summary chapters on how to select a recruiter and advice to both corporations and individuals provides a quick study on critical issues affecting all parties concerned. While some in the industry may quibble with her selection of individuals, without question she has identified the "Who's Who" of the search industry, reflecting a credible balance between US-based and global search professionals. Without question it is the only work of its kind.

In writing The Global 200, Nancy Garrison Jean has combined her enthusiasm for the international executive search industry with rigorous analysis to create a must read for clients, candidates, and search professionals. Bravo, Nancy!

The Global 200 is quite simply the most authoritative work on the global search business. A 'must' for every CEO

Nancy Garrison Jenn has pulled off another first in the retainer executive search field - a comprehensive list of 200 executive search consultants who work in a global environment. This is an excellent cross section of the experienced people in our profession. "The Global 200 Executive Recruiters" should be in every person's library.

The Global 200 Executive Recruiters is another proof of Nancy Garrison Jenn's in-depth knowledge of the world's executive recruitment market. Though interesting for recruiting companies to learn about their sector and their competitive position, the book is particularly of help to their clients and potential clients in assessing executive search firms and the recruiters with those firms. The Global 200 provides very useful and detailed information regarding recruiters and their expertise, both in terms of business sector specialization, as well as local, regional or global orientation. It is an excellent guide for both smaller companies and larger corporations on their path to find the executive talent they need to build a sustainable competitive edge.

I am writing a mainstream novel and a young adult historical fiction novel and I'd like get published as soon as I polish them up. I think this book will be a lot of help.

I did a TON of research on my own to attempt to find an agent. I picked up this book, hoping to add to my knowledge and list of available agents. I discovered I had wasted some of my precious writing time. Some of the agents I wrote are not accepting queries in 2001. This book would have saved me time, money and efforts had I bought it first.

This book offers supreme quality listings and a complete guide to every single agent in the U.S whether fee charging or not. It's a MUST HAVE to any develpoing writer.

It may seem strange to say that you love a big listing literary agents but I do. I've been writing my whole life. Just recently I decided to look into getting an agent for a book I wrote. I bought this book, sent out six queries, and already have an agent requesting to read my book. This book is indispensable. Read it if you are even thinking about looking for an agent.

I am planning way ahead. So far I only won a few poetry contests. However I have half of several novels, pieces of screenplays, and other odds and ends. If I ever do something real I want to have an agent (even if I do not need one.) This is part of the fun in writing.

This book is well organized with the types of agents and what they require. You can read the front cover and see that there are new listings and even e-mail addresses.

Contents at a glance:

Articles About Working with Literary Agents

Before You Start

Narrowing Your List

Contacting Agents

Before You Sigh

Literary Agents Listings

Articles About Working with Script Agents

Script Agents Listings

Writer's Conferences

Resources

Agents Index

Listings Index

Under the front cover is a Key to Symbols and Abbreviations used in the book.

Learn how to save time and money through a guide which shows how to use the Internet to locate the best travel bargains and save money. Internet Travel Planner goes beyond pinpointing the latest sites: it tells how to join online discussion forums, how to gain access to newspapers and reviews, and how to use online resources to create your very own custom made traveler's guidebook.

For all of you web travel fans, the Second Edition of Internet
Travel Planner has been updated with the best and newest web travel sites. As a former travel industry employee, I find this is the most complete and easy-to-read internet book now that all the large travel suppliers and surviving internet travel businesses have improved their online booking sites.

Using Michael Shapiro's book as a guide, a newcomer to researching travel can click through a website with ease. An interesting new appendix was added on digital photography. Do any of us world travelers leave home without a camera! Of course we love finding a good discount and each chapter lists sites known for the best deals. Travel sales are still down and businesses are reducing prices or adding incentives to get customers. I would highly recommend buying the book for yourself or giving it as a gift for the holidays.

Michael Shapiro's Internet Travel Planner isn't just another listing of Internet sites to be obsolete in a few months time: it provides some important tips linking travel to the Internet, from creating a custom guidebook to using the internet to see pictures of hotel rooms and connect with other travelers through travel chats and forums. And for those worrying about the book's longevity: free updates are offered online!

I found this book to be both informative and useful even though I had already used the internet for travel purposes. My husband found out about free email accounts and signed up for one within a few minutes (Chapter 14). After reading Shapiro's Internet Travel Planner, I realized that by booking airline tickets on line, I had only begun to scratch the surface of the possibilities for travel planning on line. What I found most useful for both `arm chair travel' and trip planning was Shapiro's chapter on discussion forums and bulletin boards. Search engines are great but I find the results to be catch as catch can. In Chapter 13 I got a clear sense of which sites were worth my time. Shapiro covers everything from frequent flyer miles to vacation package sites, from weather to medicine abroad. The book is easy to use-it offers an index and appendices that allow you to find websites quickly. Read this book even if you wouldn't book a flight or make a reservation on line. The web is too great and too vast a resource to skip and you'll be glad you have this guide as you surf.

My favorite thing about this book is this. You've got a specific question on your mind about doing something travel-related on the Net. And then you just look in the table of contents, and I swear, Shapiro has covered it to some extent. Like, a dependable site for car rentals, or where to find opinions and reviews from other travelers, or getting train passes, dealing with frequent flier miles...and lots of other stuff.

This book isn't a list, or directory, of travel Web sites. Shapiro picked Web sites he considers to be the strongest ones for each topic. And he goes into the details of what to expect for each one. This helps you decide which site is best for your particular needs, for instance, whether you're seeking a last minute hotel bargain, a night in a B&B or a homestay.

This also means that he's willing to be critical. For example, right now Priceline is quite the rage. In the budget travel section he describes how to get the most out of it while also going over the unsexy fine print... that you can't pick an exact flight time, tickets are non-refundable and you don't earn frequent flier mileage. I don't know about you, but that's the info that nobody ever tells me.

A bonus is the First Person section of various chapters. Basically, Shapiro includes interviews, emails and other stories from folks who've used specific sites. You get to see what worked, what didn't and why -- all with opinions.

Hey all you AOL users: Shapiro's got you covered. In many sections he includes a blip, customized to you, that goes over how you use certain sites specifically on AOL.

I'd say that Internet Travel Planner is especially friendly for someone new to the Net. However, it's also helpful for folks who already know Web travel. I know a decent amount about various travel Web sites, yet I find that Shapiro highlights certain features I didn't realize existed in sites I thought I knew well. And on top of it all, you get some non-Net travel advice, like seven tips for finding cheap airline flights. The stuff you'd otherwise have to find out the hard way.

On top of it all, if you have questions or comments, he leaves his email in the introduction for you to contact him. Now that's service.

In the last decade, the performance of J2EE applications has become of monumental importance in enterprise industries that use these applications. With the complexity of J2EE applications increasing every year, it is crucial that users of these applications be presented with a level of performance that is acceptable to them, this performance usually codified in the ubiquitous "response time." The authors of this book have given a good introduction of how to deal with performance issues in WebLogic applications and have discussed a freely available tool, called Grinder, which allows load-generating and data collection. The book though can be read with respect to any load-generating tool, such as Mercury LoadRunner, etc. Even though Grinder is free, it may take time for enterprise users to trust it in testing and modeling.

After a brief introduction to what the book is all about, the authors begin in chapter 1 with discussion on a testing methodology for doing performance studies of J2EE applications, which they hope will be generic enough for all readers. Their methodology boils down to first defining the performance metrics for the application, and then setting a target for the metrics. Test scripts that accurately simulate the application usage must then be obtained, and the statistical sampling method and metrics must then be defined. The authors emphasize the need for a realistic `usage profile' for the application, and they recommend strongly a fixed number of users per test run, with subsequent runs changing the number of users. They do not give quantitative reasons for not varying the number of users, but merely say that such an approach is "statistically incorrect."

They also point out the need for including "think times" between the executions of each request in a script, asserting that the think times will have a very dramatic effect on the observed response times and throughput for a given user load. They are correct in this claim, as testing and modeling studies will show, and they give examples of this in chapter 4 of the book. In addition, they remark that the attempt to simulate more users by decreasing the think time, with the assumption that the resulting data can be then extrapolated to obtain the performance at real think times. They point out, correctly, that applications do not scale linearly over different time scales, and that the application and Web servers, the database server, and the operating system do not interact the same way with different user loads. Performance testers and modelers have verified them time and time again, and so it is beneficial for a reader who might be new to the field to see the case studies illustrating this included in the book.

The authors discuss two sampling methods in the book, namely the `cycle' method, and the `snapshot' method. Defining a cycle as a complete execution of a test script by a simulated user, each user will thus execute every request in the script once. Increasing the number of cycles will result in more meaningful statistics, but the time to run a large number of cycles might be too prohibitive. The snapshot method involves capturing the data for a specified period of time.

It is rare to see in books at this level a statement that acknowledges the difficulty in the mathematical or simulation modeling of Internet traffic. The authors though are cognizant of this difficulty, and give some brief suggestions on how to simulate the Internet in a test environment.

The authors also devote a fair amount of time discussing how to assess the accuracy of the test results. The authors report that variability of up to 50% on the performance testing of applications has been observed, and so they propose a measurement of "quality" for the sample data. This is defined as the standard deviation divided by the arithmetic mean, and when close to zero indicates high quality in the sample data. A value above 0.25 for the quality they take as a sign that the tests are not reproducible, and they therefore encourage the running of more cycles of the test in order to pin down the origins of this non-reproducibility. They define a "load factor" to better quantify this, which they define in terms of an "aggregate" average response time. Plotting this quantity versus the number of cycles gives some information on a bad quality indicator.

Frequently, application development using J2EE requires that the impact of design changes or proposals on application performance must be understood. The authors address how performance can be impacted in the context of building servlet applications. The dynamic nature of servlet applications entails that special measures be taken to maximize the performance of the application. The authors discuss how to choose a session mechanism that will preserve the session in user requests, and how to manage the servlet thread pool. Other helpful hints are given on how to increase performance, such as making sure that the auto-reload feature of servlets is disabled in a production environment. In testing the servlet API, the authors choose the snapshot method of data collection, and used zero think times as a baseline, since the real think times are unknown. They use WebLogic Server 6.1 in this discussion however, which makes their presentation somewhat dated, since WebLogic is now in version 8.1. The authors also test the performance when the WebLogic performance pack is activated, for both the average response time and the transactional rate. Also studied is the cost of maintaining HTTP logs, an issue that is very important for those businesses who must keep these logs, either for advertising purposes or other reasons. By running tests, the authors conclude, as expected for those readers who have managed Web servers, that the keeping of log files can have a considerable impact on performance, for a high number of users. The effects of the size of the response generated by the test servlet is also studied, along with the effects of using HTTP 1.0 versus HTTP 1.1.

This is the best book yet about J2EE performance tuning. I hope 'Expert Press' (which looks like a Wrox imprint) continues as they have started.

The authors lay out a practical method for performance tuning of Web Applications and EJB's on BEA Weblogic, but there is no reason why the approach (and the 'Grinder' tool) cannot be used to evaluate different approaches on any other Web and Application server.

Note that this is a specialized book. It will not teach you how to do Java or EJBs. What it will do is help you evaluate how to deploy them in the real world to get the performance you need, and also to help you evaluate different approaches.

I was looking for a book to help me understand how regular performance testing is performed so that I could construct a plan to do Denial of Service security testing. I knew nothing about performance testing at all. The books really well laid out, structured, has great examples and is really methodical. It was perfect !

It was a great book! Had lots of information about Performance Testing. When coupled with the power of Panorama(TM) by Altaworks.com, it is incredible.

Thanks for making such a good book avaliable. I think the chapter on testing EJB design patterns is very well written. I would recommend this book as it is one of the best I've gotten my hands on.