Eric Johnson Books

This is a beautifully and lavishly illustrated, textually rich book. Its glossy pages demand the reader's undivided attention and are sure to enthrall all mystery lovers, Everest aficionados, nostalgia junkies, history buffs, and climbing enthusiasts. This book is sure to provide the reader with many hours of enjoyment.

The book chronicles the search for George Mallory and Andrew Irvine by the 1999 Mallory & Irvine Research Expedition. It juxtaposes the dramatic turn of events during their expedition with those of the 1924 British Everest Expedition which saw Mallory and Irvine attempt a summit climb, only to disappear into the mists of Everest, never to be seen again. It makes for a spell binding narrative, as past events are woven through present day ones.

The 1999 Mallory & Irvine Research Expedition was a meticulously well-prepared and well-organized venture. With its discovery of George Leigh Mallory's body, it enjoyed much success. The research and analysis that went into its ultimate, well thought out conclusions were comprehensive and fascinating, with its strong reliance upon forensics and deductive reasoning. Their reconstruction of Mallory's and Irvine's last climb is riveting. Unfortunately, the ultimate question still remains unanswered. Did they or did they not reach the summit of Mount Everest back in 1924?

The beautiful photographs of the personal effects found upon Mallory's person underscore a certain poignancy about the discovery of Mallory's well preserved body. The photographs, which memorialize this discovery, are amazingly lovely and tasteful, considering its subject matter, and hauntingly illustrate the finality with which Everest may deal with mountaineers, no matter how accomplished.

The photographs also highlight how ill equipped for the harsh climatic conditions were the early Everest expeditions. It is amazing, and a credit to those early expeditioners' courage and fortitude, in braving such an inhospitable and harsh terrain with the inadequate clothing and equipment available to them at the time. Mallory and Irvine were certainly intrepid explorers!

This book is a fitting tribute to two men who sought to make a historic summit and, in their attempt, would forever be a part of Everest.

The certification exam 70-623 is geared to customer support. I have heard it is for Geek Squad and Nerds on site and such. Yet the materials in this book will be useful for anyone who services computers or provides customer/consumer support. It spends more time on soft skills than a lot of certification exam books do.

Having already worked through other books and written exams for 70-620 and 70-622, I still found I learned a lot from this book both about Vista and about some of its features and resources.

This book comes with a CD that has the PDF of the book, so you can keep the searchable electronic copy with you. This is a great resource. It also contains a sample test, electronic flashcards for learning and a custom test engine to help you prepare for what the real exam will be like.

This book, and the material that the Erics teach through it, contains skills that anyone in the computer industry could benefit from. Having worked through this book in a week, I was able to pass the 70-623 exam with flying colours.

One of the biggest advantages of this book over some others, is that it gives you the answer keys to the review questions at the end of each chapter, rather than needing to hunt and search, or find someone with an instructor CD.

A good book for beginner Motif programmers. Filled with lots fo examples. This book allows users to begin building simple applications starting from chapter 1, and moves them into more complex areas as the book progresses. The only fault in this book is that it introduces resources and resource files too early, which could confuse the reader.

An Excelent way to start Your X Programming. With this book You will learn the basics of C-oriented X Windows, that is initializing and showing windows, catching and handling events, and overview the usage of some interesting X-utilities as well as the usage and creation of some advanced utilities (such as widgets and toolkits)...

One star is probably too generaous. But it's OK, since the religious leaders and most citizens in Christ's day didn't understand what he was teaching either. Those people were always trying to discredit him and expose his weak areas (of which there were none). Thus, Momonism 101 rather than discreting Mormonism with it's half truths and misrepresented "facts" give this religion its greatest compliment by treating it's gospel the same as Jesus' gospel was treated. Both are the same gospel. Both were meligned.

Those with "eyes to see and ears to hear" will listen to the beginning of the teachings on up and WILL recognize the truth. Keep in mind, one never gets the truth from the enemy, else what would be the point of his writings?

I became very interested in studying Mormonism after I took some "missionary lessons" from Mormon missionaries who came to my door. They were nice young men but they were truly unable to answer many questions that I had. The difference between the content of their lessons and the content of the research I did is indescribable.
I've read several books now, including the controversial, The God Makers. I prefer Mormonism 101 to any book I've read because this book documents and references everything very well. Not one thing is claimed without very accurate proof.
However one thing I have noticed to be consistently true is that believing Mormons are very difficult to talk religion with. Overall they are programmed to deny anything that the church has successfully kept from them their whole lives. In the beginning I was really shocked at how few Mormons know anything about their religion. And who can blame them? At their church and on their official website not one word of anything the Mormon church wants to keep from them is mentioned. The most truthful accusation I've ever heard about the Mormon church is how much they sanitize their history and teachings. IT IS SO TRUE.
Even the Mormon bishop that I got to know over time denied to me that Joseph Smith was ever a polygamist. He was a very kind man but obviously like most Mormons, very ignorant to the truths of Mormon history. He even joked with me and said that if the Mormon church had to do it over again they definately would not have named their big university after Brigham Young because now there is so many things about Brigham Young that is exposed on the internet that is causing deep problems and embarrassments to the Mormon church.
This world is full of history of false organizations that have a following of devout believers. The Mormon church is no different. Joseph Smith is one of the most successful con men ever to live in America. It is so rediculously obvious but believing Mormons will always refuse to research it.
And from an archaelogist's point of view, the Book of Mormon couldn't be any more rediculous. There is so much evidence that disproves the Book of Mormon, but again, believing Mormons are just too innocently narrow-minded.
At my new church that I've just started to attend, there is an ex-Mormon support group which is really growing. One may wonder why someone who has left this religion may need to join a support group. Well study the Mormon religion for yourself and you will see why.

Disclaimer - I was born Roman Catholic and converted to become a member of the Episcopal Church. Having said that, I found this book to be awfully thin in its theological comparisons of mainstream Christianity and the LDS Church. At the end of each chapter, it provides "dialouges" for confronting Mormons on various aspects of their faith, but from a hostile point of view.

I bought this book hoping to learn more about the LDS church, but instead I fear that I helped support a biased, and most likely bigoted, organization called the "Mormon Research Ministry." The authors of this book run the MRM and upon investigating their website you can see they are nothing but a shill for fundamentalist Evangelical Christians who are ardently anti-Mormon. The banner on the site proclaims "Challenging Mormon Principles Since 1979". While the LDS church may embrace beliefs not common to other denominations, I would suggest that some of the theological differences between Catholics and Baptists are as vast, and quite varied. It is unfair to lump all Christian denominations (Methodists, Episcopalians, Catholics, Baptists, Lutherans, Adventists, etc.) as "mainstream" when there are vast theological differences among them, all the while excluding the LDS church. It is an intellectually dishonest technique to suggest that there is any one definition of mainstream Christianity without at least allowing for a definition of how the authors view "mainstream."

I have no horse in this race. I am not inclined to believe that any one man's faith is more correct than the other, but from an intellectual standpoint this book is flawed. I know many Evangelicals, and quite a few Latter-Day Saints. All are good people. Unfortunately, the authors chose to paint Mormons as mindless sheep instead of thoroughly explaining from a historical context the background of the LDS church, then proceeding with a critical, yet evenly balanced, look at the theology of the church while juxtaposing other Christian theologies.

"Mormonism 101" is another text designed for those who know nothing about Mormonism. The authors present a distorted picture of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, its history, doctrine, leaders, and scriptures to an audience who would know nothing about Latter-day Saints.

However, knowledgeable Mormons can blow holes into their arguments.

On the topic of baptism for the dead, the authors claim that Herbews 9:27 refutes the idea that the dead can be saved. However, this verse simply states that, after death, one is judged. It ssays nothing about what occurs in-between one's death and judegement, and cannot be taken, as Evangelicals do, as a proof-text against the Mormon practice of baptism for the dead. To do such is nothing short of scriptural eisegesis. Moreover, early Christians DID believe in salvation for the dead, as Jeffrey A. Trumbower (who is not a Mormon) reveals in his book, "Rescue for the Dead: The Posthumous Salvation of Non-Christians in Early Christianity."

The pronoun "they" in 1 Corinthians 15:29 is cited as evidence contrary to the LDS interpretation. However, the Greek does not use the pronoun, but a present passive participle, and Paul, unless he stated such, which he did not, could only have been talking about Christian baptism. The LDS interpretation is entirely sound.

Alma 34:32-34 is cited as evidence against the LDS practice from the Book of Mormon volume.But his words were addressed to the Zoramites, who had dissented from the Nephite religion and had already "received so many witnesses" (Alma 34:30). Unlike those who die without having heard the gospel (see D&C 138:32-34), the Zoramites had heard and accepted the gospel but then had rejected it. Amulek was calling upon them to repent and return to the fold lest they die in their sins, thereby placing their souls in eternal jeopardy (see Mosiah 2:33; D&C 76:31-38).

Another misreading of the passage has led some people to believe that the "same spirit" (Alma 34:34) refers to a person's own spirit, which they suppose cannot change after death. Occasionally, some have suggested that this means that a smoker, for example, will still have a craving for tobacco after he dies, but that his spirit will not be able to satisfy this craving. However, a careful reading of the next verse shows what Amulek meant. Speaking to these people who had already been members of the church, he declared:

[I]f ye have procrastinated the day of your repentance even until death, behold, ye have become subjected to the spirit of the devil, and he doth seal you his; therefore, the Spirit of the Lord hath withdrawn from you, and hath no place in you, and the devil hath all power over you; and this is the final state of the wicked. (Alma 34:35)

From this it is clear that the "same spirit" that possesses the wicked person and will continue to possess him in the hereafter is the devil, not the individual's spirit. Those who do the devil's will and refuse to repent will come under his power both in this world and the world to come. This is particularly true of those who have already entered into the covenant by being baptised.

There is no real contradiction with the Mormon practice, McKeever and Johnson's protestations to the contrary notwithstanding.

The authors claim that the pericope in the synoptic gospels about the seven husbands refutes the LDS belief in eternal marriage.

The Jews seem to have believed in eternal marriage from at least second-temple times, since they posed the question about the woman with seven successive husbands, asking which of them would be her husband "in the resurrection" (Matthew 22:28; Mark 12:23; Luke 20:33). The concept of eternal marriage is well-attested among Jews in the medieval period and is frequently mentioned in the Zohar, which also notes that God has a wife, the Matrona ("mother"), and is known in the Talmud. The the Falasha 5 Baruch has Jeremiah's scribe Baruch is being shown various parts of the heavenly Jerusalem, with different gates for different heirs. The test then says, "I asked the angel who conducted me and said to him: `Who enters through this gate?' He who guided me answered and said to me: `Blessed are those who enter through this gate. (Here) the husband remains with his wife and the wife remains with her husband.'

A hint of the eternal nature of marriage is found in Tertullian's discussion of the widow, in which he wrote, "Indeed, she prays for his [her husband's] soul, and requests refreshment for him meanwhile, and fellowship (with him) in the first resurrection" (On Monogamy 10). In the same passage, speaking of marriage, he wrote, "if we believe the resurrection of the dead, of course we shall be bound to them with whom we are destined to rise, to render an account the one of the other . . . "But if `in that age they will neither marry nor be given in marriage, but will be equal to angels,' is not the fact that there will be no restitution of the conjugal relation a reason why we shall not be bound to our departed consorts?" Nay, but the more shall we be bound (to them), because we are destined to a better estate -- destined (as we are) to rise to a spiritual consortship, to recognize as well our own selves as them who are ours . . . Consequently, we who shall be with God shall be together; since we shall all be with the one God--albeit the wages be various, albeit there be `many mansions,' in the house of the same Father--having labored for the `one penny' of the selfsame hire, that is, of eternal life; in which (eternal life) God will still less separate them whom He has conjoined, than in this lesser life He forbids them to be separated."

The pseudepigraphic Joseph and Aseneth 15:6 has a heavenly messenger telling Aseneth, "Behold, I have given you today to Joseph for a bride, and he himself will be your bridegroom for ever (and) ever." In a later passage, the Egyptian king tells Joseph, "Behold, is not this one betrothed to you since eternity? And she shall be your wife from now on and for ever (and) ever" (Joseph and Aseneth 21:3). Pharaoh then tells Aseneth, "justly the Lord, the God of Joseph, has chosen you as a bride for Joseph, because he is the firstborn son of God. And you shall be called a daughter of the Most High and a bride of Joseph from now on and for ever" Joseph and Aseneth 21:4).

As for Jesus' response to the Sadducees' question that "in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven" (Matthew 22:30; Mark 12:25; Luke 20:35). As noted earlier, Tertullian did not understand this passage to mean that there would be no marriage in the hereafter. Most important, however, is the source of the story the Sadducees told Jesus. It comes from one of the books of the Apocrypha, Tobit, where a woman named Sara was married to seven men, each of whom died on the wedding night (Tobit 3:7-9; 6:13; 7:10-11). The text also notes that "Raphael [the archangel] was sent . . . to give Sara the daughter of Raguel for a wife to Tobias the son of Tobit . . . because she belonged to Tobias by right of inheritance [cf. Deuteronomy 25:5-6]" (Tobit 3:17). Jesus probably had this account in mind when he told his Sadducean interrogators, "Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God" (Matthew 22:29). They had neglected to note that she had married an eighth husband and that God had sent an angel to arrange that marriage. This suggests that she had not been sealed to the other seven, so none of them could claim her as wife in the resurrection. Understood exegetically, these verses in the synoptics are not contrary to eternal marriage.

Much more could be said about the inaccuracies contained in "Mormonism 101," but this should be suffice to show that the authors misinterpret/misrepresent The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I welcome sincere feedback at Robert.S.Boylan@nuim.ie

I just finished Mormonism 101 by Bill McKeever and Eric Johnson (of the best ministry to Mormons I've found mrm.org), and now can wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who is wondering about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Each chapter of the book "compares the teachings of the Mormon leaders, both past and present, with those of the Bible" (9) with the purpose of showing that in opposition to all claims to the contrary, Mormonism is NOT Christianity by any stretch of the imagination.

When trying to learn about a rival religion, all too often Christians rely on Christian sources that do a poor job of explaining their opponents. As a result, the refutations they offer end up refuting no one but the person who naively relies on that faulty source (for instance, Norman Geisler wrote a book called The Reincarnation Sensation that does a very poor job of explaining and refuting reincarnation).

Thankfully, this error is greatly reduced by authors when they spend a lot of time quoting their opponent's sources, and this is exactly what Mormonism 101 does.

The authors utilize dozens of Mormon sources to explain Mormon doctrine. They give the quotes with references in the end notes and challenge anyone to prove where they misquoted or took the words out of context.

If you want to know what Mormonism teaches on such topics as God, Jesus, the Trinity, human beings, the Fall, the Bible, atonement, grace and works, heaven and hell, communion and baptism, the word of wisdom, the temple, dark-skinned peoples, Joseph Smith and church leadership you can read Mormon leaders in their own words in this book. The only thing better is taking the bibliography and reading the Mormon sources yourself.

In my mind, this fact alone makes this book indispensable. However, I also recommend this book for three other reasons.

First, their explanation of Christian doctrine is clearly orthodox (except when it follows Leon Morris by calling justification an "process" [161, 163] though they do separate it from sanctification and describe it as "instantaneous" [166]; I think this may have just been a poor choice of words), but the value comes when the authors contrasting Christian doctrine with Mormon understandings of those same doctrine.

Second, unlike many other Christian sources on Mormonism that I've read, this book stays away from the sensational and like Dragnet gives "just the facts." While it makes for a little less interesting reading, bringing up the sensational never gets far in evangelism.

Third, for the observant reader Mormonism 101 is absolutely filled with witnessing tips and helpful tactics. These appear not just at the end of each of the book's 6 sections, but are riddled throughout. I think this is so helpful that I will begin to add these tactics regularly to my blog.

If you're wondering about Mormonism, which I heard this weekend is the second fastest growing religion behind Islam, or if you have a friend or family member who is a Mormon or is considering Mormonism, or if you're just curious you cannot find a better entry-level resource than Mormonism 101.

If you're looking for a guide to Linux and a distribution that will work on an older computer with very little hard drive space, and only need to play around with it and not do anything terribly useful, then this may be the book for you. Otherwise, I suggest you look elsewhere.

While this may have been a helpful book at one time, this distribution is now very out of date. As the book focuses on the Slackware distribution included, it may or may not pertain to newer Slackware distributions or other distributions. The book includes the Slackware 3.3 distribution on a single CD.

I purchased this book as it was recommeneded as one of the few ways to get Linux on an old 486 laptop. I had no previous experience with Linux, but with this book and some helpful websites I was able to install it to the laptop. The laptop only had a floppy drive, requiring a floppy installation (about 2.5 hours). While I did learn much about Linux in this process, I didn't really make the computer much more useful than when it had Windows 3.1 installed (for my limited needs). I'm giving two stars because it did assist me in installing Linux.

Summary: The book and distribution are now out of date. The book does not necessarily stand on its own in guiding installation. Not recommended as an introduction to Linux as there MUST be better books out there now.

This book covers exactly what its name says it does. It is an in-depth tutorial and discussion of configuration and installation concerns with regard to the Slackware Linux operating system. Period. It doesn't cover commands or the X Window system to any great extent, but then again, it never claims to do so. It does provide a thorough examination of Linux installation. After reading this book (OK, after reading the first couple of chapters), I was able to install Linux with no problems on my home PC. I am still looking for a good command reference manual so that I'll be able to become proficient with this operating system. All in all, this is a great book as far as it goes.

At first I found this book very daunting, technically oriented, and not very newbie friendly. However, I found that if I re-read the chapters on installation and config before I touched my computer, it started to make more and more sense. This is an excellent book for those with a bit of computer experience (I would not recommend this to those who are quite new to computers and OSes). Following installation it is gives a quick overview of Linux functions and programs which should get the average person up and running.

I read this book from cover to cover and am still using it as a guide for building my new linux friendly computer. The depth it goes into on setting up Xfree86 and the touching on shell programming is awesome. The cd's were also a lifesaver and a resource to get software without searching all over the net. Id reccommend this book to any linux newbie.

I never even heard of linux and then I bought this book and it was pretty good in installing. I did hear though that Slackware 3.3 has some security flaws so i downloaded 3.6. I had to do alot of guesswork, so this book is for intermediate to expert computer users. I found many of the applications in both the cd's to be very helpful.

This book seems to want to introduce all and everything under the sun, as as such, the book looses focus quite a bit. For example, the in the beginning the author introduces samples of python, perl, and tcl, talks about batch, and then introduces a variety of text editors for all platforms. Later in the next chapter, we learn how to launch a music player and then echo out text, and then how to setup variable in bourne shell, and the c shell. I am grateful for his enthusiasm on the topic, but feels like I'm on a roller coaster ride of scrambled ideas related to shell scripting.

In looking forward to the chapter "Scripting with Files", I see some minor notes on chmod and file test conditionals for files. I don't see more advance topics like using find or stat or related topics, and instead we are presented with a conversation on Next file systems, Mac OS X file systems (UFS and HFS+). And on those topics, we get "gee that's neat to know" trivia, but it's totally useless, as there nothing on Mac specific commands like ditto or setfile to handle the Mac flavor of Unix.

On one topic on "Controlling Processes", the author explains the concept of processes and shows a screen shot of a Windows Task Manager. I was thinking, that well, maybe this book offers something different by showing how to script with Windows specific commands, like tasklist, but nope, we only get the screen shot, and following discussion on ps command and the /proc directory on Linux.

Overall, the book offers a lot of trivia on a variety of topics, and in some places there may be some scripts -- if you are lucky -- relating to the topic, and interspersed chaotically is some introduction material on shell scripting, sometimes bourne, sometimes c shell, sometimes something different. If this type of style works for you, then this might be the book, but I think for most of us, we'll want to follow more focused organized books relating to shell scripting (and of a particular scripting language, e.g. POSIX shell or other shell language).

The claims that the author gives equal scripting time to each OS and all shells is very misleading.
The author hates Windows and never misses a chance to let you know this - I wish the author had left the personal views and OS politics out ...
or just not covered Windows at all. (Which by the way isn't covered at all - other than the Cygwin program and why the author hates Windows so much.)

This book uses the BASH shell almost exclusively with some "oh yea, this syntax won't work on the C Shell" thrown in.
the Korn & Z Shells are treated like they don't even exist - and BASH is always the only way to go.

The book at about Chapter 3 becomes more of a "look what i can do" and "here write this out in a text editor and save the file as this", without much explaInation as to why it happens that way and what the syntax introduced means. With some syntax being introduced in a script and never being explained or referenced at all.

The terms the Author uses are as technical as you can get (like Palindromic Scripting" instead of saying a number reads the same forward and backwards (ex. 15851) or even symmetrical would have been a better term for a newbie. Luckily i know what Palindromic numbers are.

Not a good book for Newbies ... too much un-explained out of nowhere syntax - related in the most technical terms the Author could find. It reads more like a technical manual on something ... not a how to learn from the ground up book. Your just as well off reading the MAN pages.

It is nice , useful book. I found it to be the nice match to the Linux and UNIX for a beginner training suite, 4DVDs + 2CDs includes 4 Unix Academy Certifications ed.2008. They supplement one another very nicely and helpfully.
It is easy to read and follow, the examples are clear and well described. Overall very nice effort!

It's rather hard to "shell script Windows" without some form of third party add-on. The base Windows command line, as it currently stands, is ill-suited to anything but the most basic of commands, and kicking off WMI scripts, whereas pretty much any Unix system comes standard with a full suite of scripting tools and shells.

This should be changing with Monad in Windows Vista, but for right now, shell scripting in Windows without third party tools is just not going to compare to what you can do with Unix.

This book is great for shell beginners. I got it with the hopes that it would teach from the ground up and it does that without losing the reader. It starts with a good history of *nix and lets you choose what shell to use. It teaches all the basic shell commands and gives the reader a good knowledge of the underlying *nix core. I recommend this book to any beginner interested in shell programming.

Beginning Python is book on programing using the python language. This book serves as a tutorial or guide to the python language for anyone. If all you know is how to save text files,then you can learn python using this book. If you are an expert programmer then this book then this would be great if you love Java, C++, Perl, or any other language you will have a great time learning Python

I did not find this book very helpful for learning Python. First of all the book is not very informative. In each chapter, you are introduced to a new idea (e.g. lists) but you don't really learn much about it, different/creative ways to use it, or why you would want to.

Any book that purports to teach you a programming language ultimately passes or fails based on the examples it gives you in the text and the excercises it gives you at the end of each chapter. This is where the book is especially poor. There is only one example that runs throughout this book: how to make an omelet. On its own, it's not horrible. In general, program is like a recipe: you give it stuff at the begining and instructions and then you end up with a finished product (although, oddly, this analogy is never made in the book). The main problem, though, is that this is the only example. Every new idea is shown only once, in the context of this example, and many tricks that can be done with Python, but are not relevant to this example are not included in the book.

What's more, the excercizes are all keyed to the same example of making an omelet, which gets more and more ponderous with every passing chapter. Worst of all, as soon as your code no longer performs the way they describe, you're out of luck. You can no longer work through the ideas in the book and it is largely useless.

The bottom line is that there are much better books for learning Python. I would recomend getting "Learning Python" by Lutz and Ascher.

My primary compliment to "Beginning Python" is that it makes learning Python seem easy. .

The book covers a lot of Python basics like strings, numbers, operators, variables. It also covers advanced topics like network programming, extending Python through C/C++, threading, GUI programming and Python with XML. In the end it discusses about the new features of Python release 2.4. Last Chapter "Integrating Java with Python" covers - scripting with java applications, Jython, integrating Java and Jython, J2EE servlets in Jython. I find it useful for both python and java programmer.

Book provides exercises at the end of every chapter, which can help you for self study and better understanding of the concepts. The explanations and the code throughout the book are easy to understand

I think this book would be a good choice for someone in the beginner to intermediate range. If you are a programmer (C, C++, Java, Perl) then it may be a little slow for you. A lot of time is put into syntax, control flow, and basic data structures, it can get a little difficult to digest. I thought more could have gone into topics like "Writing Shareware and Commercial programs".

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn Python but is new to programming.

Python is one of those programming languages I hear about a lot, but I've never taken the time to pick up a book and find out more about it. To fix that, I got a copy of Beginning Python (published by Wrox) by Peter Norton, Alex Samuel, David Aitel, Eric Foster-Johnson, Leonard Richardson, Jason Diamond, Aleatha Parker, and Michael Roberts. Not a bad title to use to get started...

Contents: Introduction; Programming Basics and Strings; Numbers and Operators; Variables - Names for Values; Making Decisions; Functions; Classes and Objects; Organizing Programs; Files and Directories; Other Features of the Language; Building a Module; Text Processing; Testing; Writing a GUI with Python; Accessing Databases; Using Python for XML; Network Programming; Extension Programming with C; Writing Shareware and Commercial Programs; Numerical Programming; Python in the Enterprise; Web Applications and Web Services; Integrating Java with Python; Answers to Exercises; Online Resources; What's New in Python 2.4; Glossary; Index

When I first started reading, I was a little disappointed at the target level. Up through about the Functions chapter, it's information that any programmer should already know (loops, variables, etc.) and would be best used by someone who had never programmed before in their life. While they do say that particular demographic is intended as a reader, I was hoping for more. From Classes on, it's material that squarely hits where intermediate programmers live and breathe, and it's at that point that the book takes off (in my opinion). Using the basic Python skills learned in the first section, you start to see how those concepts are applied in real programs that actually do stuff. And given the wide array of subjects they hit (C integration, GUI development, XML, etc.), you should quickly learn how best to use this language in many of the common situations you'll run into on a day-to-day basis. The writing style and format is consistent, as well as their use of examples throughout the book. You don't find yourself switching gears every few pages for some new contrived example that just came out of left field.

This is a book I'll be holding onto in order to free up time to get some hands-on experience with Python. It gives me what I need to know along with numerous ways to apply that knowledge, and from there I can decide how much further to take my learning...

The Civil War was not politically a 'bipartisan' war in anything like the sense what would be true of the two world wars. It was required to be waged as a party war. The Republicans became Union to throw people off. Theoretically, it was a Republican victory. It is legend that the ruthless quality of Southern reconstruction was the outgrowth of hatreds carried over from wartime and prolonged. The Northerners did not know how to manage their 'great victory' over the South; thus, it was a disastrophe -- to say the least. There was a conspiracy to take over and turn the white Southerners into slaves! Slaves of conscience, slaves to sin, not to Christ.

Andrew Johnson was not exactly a Tennessean but we claim his as one of our own. The Andrew Johnson Hotel on the River here was the tallest building and certainly glamorous (still is inside); that is the place where Hank Williams, Sr., died when his chauffeur stopped there to let him 'dry out.' Johnson had an impossible duty to the country to fulfill and he performed badly. Like the other Johnson president some hundred years later, who ascended to the presidency the same way he did ([...] of the real president, Lincoln, Kennedy) also from the South, they chose the wrong programs to push through the public: civil rights. Both ended disastrously.

This 17th president, now two and a half centuries since his time, has his reputation rehabilitated a bit. He changed parties and, thus, the Democratic nation was founded. Read STORY OF THE COPPERHEADS, THE HIDDEN CIVIL WAR by Gray Wood.

Johnson was almost impeached, but that's nothing special; if you're from the South, the Northerners automatically try to bring the important person down to their size. Why is it that so many of them moved South? We are inundated with those harsh-speaking 'know-it-all's who want to change us. If we are so bad in the South, I can't understand why they came here in the first place. Another Southern president, Clinton, was almost impeached. Richard Nixon, from California, was almost impeached. Blount was, too, when he was Tennessee's Governor. But impeachment never happens. I can't see why they go to all of that bother to desecrate the reputation as, if they are worthy to be elected president, they will overcome the bad name and rebound, like Jefferson Davis did for the Confederacy.

Just saw white-haired Ms. Pelot in a replay of the Beer Board on city Council still wearing that yellow, sexy, low-cut top with her white beads. She is trying to be a Southern belle but won't make it. They even bought a special chair for her. She was elected four years ago, and now it is her time to go as she has clearly taken over the reigns of Mayorship. I ran into Bill Lyons and asked, "Are you still running this town?" He admitted that he certainly is. Tell that to the young mayor and 'friend' who has decided to become interested in local politics.

I read this book some time ago for a college course and it is one of those rare books that sticks with you. It came to mind again recently since Andrew Johnson is the only other President other than the current occupant to undergo impeachment. Toward the end of the book there is an excellent summary of the impeachment proceedings brought against Johnson in the winter/spring of 1868. It is enlightening to compare that process with what has gone on today. But the book is much more than about the impeachment. It covers a variety of topics centering around the way in which Andrew Johnson squandered many opportunities to make Presidential Reconstruction work and to cooperate at least somewhat with the Republicans in Congress. My history professor always said that McKitrick reached a little far with some of his comparisons and analogies. In this book, for instance, you will find comparisons of the defeated South and how the North related to it in terms of the U.S. and Japan after WWII. There is social psychology in the book regarding symbolic requirements that a victor in war expects in order to consider his victory complete. There is imaginary scenario making with John Andrew and Wade Hampton. Far reaching some of these techniques may have been, but they also always serve to make the authors' points and the book is quite focused despite its scope. I will also say that it is a very entertaining book. Some of its accounts will make you smile, if not laugh. For example, you won't find many better descriptions of Lorenzo Thomas's attempts to become Secretary of War as Stanton refused to leave his office. Where else can you find a description of Congressman Ashley, rabidly pro-impeachment, as an "occult mixture of superstition and lunacy" or a description of Ashley, Boutwell, and Ben Butler as a "baleful trio of buzzards..." Andrew Johnson's disastrous "Swing Around the Circle" in the Congressional elections also, though tragic in ways, has some very funny descriptions.

I do not want to end with people thinking this is a light-hearted work, though. It is a serious analysis of the way personality can affect great national issues. The chapter on the tortured path taken to get to the 14th Amendment is alone worth the price of the book. This book was originally written in 1960 and though some of its findings may have been modified by later research by other authors, it is still very valuable. I noticed that Professor Eric Foner used parts of it not long ago in a course at Columbia, so it obviously still has value in teaching and respect within the historical profession.

You will spend quality time in reading about an important aspect of our history if you purchase this book. I highly recommend it.

My daughter loves Caillou so this book is perfect for her collection. My only wish is that it was in hardcover or board book format. It is very flimsy and will probably rip easily.

My 3 yrs old son loves Caillou.
We have Dvd,too.So My son likes to compare with it.