Jeffrey Jones Books

This book is a good reference but not for those who are not proficient already in MAX. As others have stated, the examples often skip steps, assume knowledge of the workings of the program and show "this is what you should end up with" pictures that don't relate at all to what the instructions give. I get the impression also that each chapter was written by a different person because they cover material that has sometimes been discussed or later chapters cover basic material that was left out at the beginning. If you are beginner, don't buy this.

I totally remember the Walking UFO project that Boss Hog had problems with. It drove my entire class insane, and only 3 people were able to finish it by just throwing the book out. The flow of several of the activites is broken too much... The editors really should have had people test these things out over and over to iron out these hiccups.

All this aside, this book was still helpful to have around. Not perfect, but it makes a good reference and can even give some good inspiration. All in all, it's worth the price and weight of the book (carrying this to and from school is MURDER). Certainly better than some of the other books.

Hello graphics gurus,

I've got some news for you if this book looks good. I'd like to direct you to the FIRST CHAPTER. This chapter covers simple transformation animation, even though the chapter is titled "ADVANCED Transformation Animation". This is NOT what I wish to squabble about. What really shocked me was the unclear transition between the text, the pictures, and the files on the CD. Following the directions, I labeled, linked, and altered several objects and dummies. Once completed, I continued to the next step, only to discover that the book forgot to mention several objects that needed to be labeled, linked, and altered. Once again, I was able to continue reading without losing respect for the editors ... The next step instructed me to rotate a dummy by its Y-axis in the top viewport, which I did. The comment under this instruction directed me to look at the figure on the next page. The blurb next to the figure stated "Top view of the UFO, with the leg properly positioned." Naturally, I figured that when I looked at the figure, I would see exactly what I had on the screen, but instead, the image was a screenshot from several steps before the rotation instructions, in the FRONT viewport. There is no mention of this image anywhere in the text, and there is no image demonstrating the proper rotation that the text led me to believe.

What should you learn from this little story? Well, I hope the editors are reading this: If you publish something, the consumers would appreciate it if the editors do their job and offer the public a book worth buying. I received Vol. #3 in the mail several hours ago, and I've already downed four aspirin. If the first chapter is any indication of the quality of work put into this book, it's looking to be a LONG weekend.

So long, fellow gurus, And remember, Scum lurks in pretty packaging.

Boss Hogg

Well, Boss Hog may get confused easily, but don't let him shy you away from an excellent text. I still recommend this book to people learning Max 3. The tutorials in the first several chapters are very intelligently written, and attempt to tackle very complicated concepts in a very concise manner. The text has helped me master more advanced concepts and tools of both Max the program and animation in general. The section on character work, while a regurgitation of what you'll find in Illusion of Life, Timing for Anim, and Foster's works, is still helpful to the beginner. The first third of the book is also an excellent source of principles that any budding animator who's transitioning to 3D would be wise to read. I've been animating professionally for 7 years, and I think that this text is great. If you get lost on the tutorials, then just read the text and LEARN the PRINCIPLES since that's really the important thing that these experts have to share with you!

This book is by far the best of the Max 2 series. The chapters on Controllers, Video Post and Compositing are invaluable. The knowledge of the authors really show through and the power of Max is appropriatey showcased in this book. Beginners may find it daunting, but it is a must for anyone who is serious about Max.

We used this book in a one semester graduate class for International Economics. We used the book mostly for open economy macro as opposed to trade theory i.e. Chapter 16 & on. Like our professor told us, the book builds on concepts in a gradual fashion starting from the Marshall-Lerner condition right up to the Dornbusch Overshooting Model covering along the way, the basic Keynesian framework, Mundell-Fleming framework and, the policy assignment problem. The concepts helped us trace the causes for UK's renouncement of the Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992 (and also how George Soros made his billions!). Using the book in this integrated fashion (Theory + Case Study) makes it a valuable addition to one's library.

Currently I am a student of Professor Jones, one of the text's authors. The text is as drawling and insufficient as Jones' lectures. My first complaint is that there is a crisis of definition. Having only taken one economics course prior, I find that the text tends to move too quickly through topics of international economics, failing to provide illustrative examples so one can better understand how theory is put into practice. Second, the conceptual framework, as in all classical economic theory, is rooted in a place far from reality, a point Jones fails to make clear. The world is not perfectly competitive and does not contain countries equipped with fully developed capitalist institutions (like banking and credit), necessary to make internal economic adjustments in the face of free trade prices. I find the utility of the course to be very low, especially when free-trade is non-existent in the world. Discussions on the state of the contemporary world are sorely needed, if at least to serve as as comparison to the theoretical one constructed by this text. My last complaint is Jones' characterization of "anti-globalizers," those who he claimed "rioted" and were "violent" on the streets of Seatle in 1999 during the meeting of the WTO. The irony is that many of those protesters were advocating for FREER trade, pointing out that US farm subsidies cripple the economies of some underdeveloped nations who primarily produce agricultural commodities. The text's mypopic view of economics will not help those interested in learning how the world economy actually operates.

I found this book to be a very good learning tool, as the course reader for an introductory international economics course. I find that most textbooks are good as reference, not as learning tools, but this book is an exception. In a very concise manner, it builds theory upon theory of international trade, until the student has developed a strong set of analysis tools. The portion on international finance is good intro as well, even though it does not compare with more specialized texts. This text is sufficient to prepare the reader for any advanced trade issues, with the exception of more mathematically based arguments (which the book does not develop, given its focus on beginners).

Currently I am a student of Professor Jones, one of the text's authors. The text is as drawling and insufficient as Jones' lectures. My first complaint is that there is a crisis of definition. Having only taken one economics course prior, I find that the text tends to move too quickly through topics of international economics, failing to provide illustrative examples so one can better understand how theory is put into practice. Second, the conceptual framework, as in all classical economic theory, is rooted in a place far from reality, a point Jones fails to make clear. The world is not perfectly competitive and does not contain countries equipped with fully developed capitalist institutions (like banking and credit), necessary to make internal economic adjustments in the face of free trade prices. I find the utility of the course to be very low, especially when free-trade is non-existent in the world. Discussions on the state of the contemporary world are sorely needed, if at least to serve as as comparison to the theoretical one constructed by this text. My last complaint is Jones' characterization of "anti-globalizers," those who he claimed "rioted" and were "violent" on the streets of Seatle in 1999 during the meeting of the WTO. The irony is that many of those protesters were advocating for FREER trade, pointing out that US farm subsidies cripple the economies of some underdeveloped nations who primarily produce agricultural commodities. The text's mypopic view of economics will not help those interested in learning how the world economy actually operates.

This textbook for International Economics is a rarity. It's intelligent, exceptionally well written by the experts in the field. It does include a thorough review of the state-of-the-art theory of international trade and finance. To facilitate learning and yet challenge the reader, the authors equipped each chapter with really tough exercises. Only having solved them one might have an impression that he grasped the metarial really well. Good exercises are an indispensable companion of a student. Here we have one of the best I have ever seen. And I have seen a lot. Superior to other textbooks and highly recommended.

I recently obtained the second edition of this text, since it seemed like it gave a fresh approach to the topic. I happen to be teaching this topic this semester, and so I went to the chapters dealing with computability and complexity theory. I found several glaring errors in terminology there, and this is simply unacceptable in a text. Apparently, the reviewers didn't do their job here. For example, in chapter 10, the author attempts to treat the classes P, NP, and NP-complete. Unfortunately, the term NP is used in many cases where NP-complete should be used. This leads to several areas of confusion. (Just because a problem is in the class NP, doesn't mean it is intractable -- it could be trivial, since P is a subset of NP.)

In summary, there are several other texts out there that are relatively readable and accurate. Among them are Introduction to Algorithms by Cormen et al, and Introduction to the Design and Analysis of Algorithms by Levitin.

For a long time I have been searching for an algorithm book which is comprehensible, easy to follow. This is the book, I am really looking for. The other books like "Introduction to Algorithms" and most of the others do not give the point of the subject, full of mathematics, strange symbols many unneccessary details, I think that the other authors must follow the approach like in this book.

I wish that the author had also written other books containing the other advanced algorithm issues like network flow, linear programming... I would have bought without hesitating...

I am a professor of computer science and used this book for my Algorithms class. Although it had a few errors, there were many things I liked about it. First, the size of the book is just right; it covers all of the major subjects and I was able to use the entire text in one semester. Other textbooks cover topics in so much detail, I often had to leave many topics out of the course. Second, the active learning approach is great; having students do in class exercises and group projects helped them grasp the material more quickly. Third, I liked the omission of higher level mathematics; our college offers a degree in computer science but also other computer-related degrees which do not require a knowledge of calculus. Any student should be able to grasp the math in this book. In conclusion, I will use this text again and look forward to other authors writing books that "get to the point" quickly like this author did.

This book has really fancy printing, and a lot of academic blah blah, but it isn't a practical manual to learn how to use OpenGL and the math and knowledge for learning computer graphics. This book is more theory than practical, you need some teacher to fill in the blanks this book confronts you with.

I have been programming for several years and never really got interested in graphics programming until recently. I found the material very well organized and easily comprehended. The book is theory centric, but does provide a nice introduction to the philosophy of the OpenGL library. You should take away the principles involved in graphics programming more so than a book of example code.

Good treatment of the subject for specialists, but a book I like better is "Unlocking the Value of Your Business", which seems to produce the same bottom-line results, but faster and simpler.

This book tell about how I can estimate and calculate value of company or asset. It's very simple language and easy to understand.Having read this book, I know much about business valuation. It's excellence book.

This starts better than it finishes. Wulf is imprisoned, condemned to die for supposedly leading a troop of men to their deaths against The Slimy Ones, cthulhoid horrors from the Terrible East.

At his trial, he would not say why. Now the king lies dying, his doctor reveals that he, too is a World Master wizard, and it is sorcery that ails him. The dying king calls for Wulf to go on the quest to find the Dark Lady.

Wulf agrees rather than be lopped, and takes his prison companion with him, a highwaywoman, and the Doctor goes for sorcerous support.

Sorcerous storms, mutant animals and slimy ones are passed to reach another kingdom of men, to their surprise, and the Dark Lady is there.

Pretty much all downhill from there. Bewitching sorceress needs the strongest kind in the land to be superpowerful. Sort of a 2.75, this one.

The setting is apparently some far future post-apocalyptic type world, much as Gemmell did later.

Here's a perfect example of the short, compact, deftly realized paperback original that just isn't published these days. Even its genre of science-fantasy is nearly forgotten in this current age of bloated, overwritten Tolkien clones that have none of the Professor's mythic touch & intelligence.

The story: in a post-nuclear world that's been reduced to a Medieval state, the King is dying of an unknown malady. One of his warriors, unjustly condemned to die, volunteers to cross the wastelands in search of the mysterious Dark Lady, who has allied herself with another state (clearly the remains of the Soviet Union, also reduced to a Medieval state). Various mutations serve in place of traditional fantasy monsters & otherworldly beings, and do so very well. The journey itself is harrowing & well-written.

What lifts this story above its basic plot is the inclusion of the Dark Lady, apparently a primal force from the dawn of time, who has always existed & always allied herself with the strongest man. She is indeed La Belle Dame Sans Merci: not cruel, not malicious, but dangerously alluring & sad & utterly pitiless. This element made the story remain with me vividly, decades after first reading it.

As I said, it was never more than a paperback original, destined to be discarded & forgotten soon after it was sold & read. But it's still worth seeking out & reading now, and deserves to be reprinted in an anthology volume of such novels (or more properly novellas). It does in 150 pages what all too many 1000-page epics of today fail to do: entertains & enchants. Recommended!

This book needs to be edited and revised so that the language presented flows on a smoother gradient from simple to complex. It begins very simply and ends with a story containing a great deal of grammatical complexity, most of which has not been explained or presented. Also, it is impossible with the data given in the course to do some of the exercises. I found it very frustrating. Its greatest feature, however, is Charley Jones as a native speaker.

This is a great way to learn how the sounds of the language should be. One of the hard points about the language is trying to understand how the words should sound or be pronounced like. This tape helps you in learning the language and speaking it correctly. If you want to learn more about the language, this is the tape series you need.

Great quick review for classes that involve the study of infectious diseases...a sort of crib notes or spark notes for ID's. Loved it although would have like some more material in the book for the price. Overall, a handy guide to have, though.

When I received my package I was disappointed that I only received advertising material. Imagine my disappointment when I realized the shiny pamphlet was actually the BOOK I ordered! Nowhere in the description does it hint that all you get is 32 pages. They're nice enough pages, hence the 2 stars, but certainly not what I was expecting.

unfortunately for the South Vietnames, when we abandoned them, they bore the consequences of our shameful betrayal and intransigence. thousands more died or were "re-educated" and subjected to the tyranny of an authoritarian communist government that imposed its vision of society on those it trod under its jack boots...er, sandals. a brief search of the net will yield much info on the ex-pats who are bitter about how we threw their country to the wolves. withdrawing may having spared the lives of US soldiers, but did NOTHING for South Vietnam. though decently written, this books approach is with blinders to its subject.

The desires and motives of four social groups are examined herein. The author makes a compelling case for the serial nature of these groups' revolt against the war, and their resultant affect on the US withdrawl from the war.

This book is more "comic book" than I like, but I decided to keep it anyway.