Steven Weber Books

I loved this book. It covers the history of Open Source and explain WHY people do open source and HOW they make it happen!

The Success of Open Source in a not a just wistful paean to Linux as the title would suggest. Rather, it is two books in one.

The first book is one of the very best recapitulations of the open source movement and all of its predecessors. The second book is about how something that just seemingly shouldn't work, works so well, and how those principles behind its working extend to more than just the open source movement.

The author, a university professor, draws liberally from the traditions of historians, economists, sociologists, and psychologists to paint a compelling picture of why the forces behind open source are not going to go away any time soon. Read in best companion with The Cathedral and the Bazaar, which IS a bit of a wistful paean to Linux, it illuminates its subject wonderfully.

Steven's book brings a rich articulation of the social practices innovations unleashed by the Open Source collective: a new understanding of private property that better fit the tech forces and the challenges of the present. His book it is not a model; it is not the list of the 10 reasons why...; it is not the defense of an emerging theory; but an historical account in which anecdotes, facts, historical moment, tentative hypothesis, set the background to allows the reader to reshape her/his own questions. The book gave me a perspective I have been testing with IT architects, programmers, software designers...I feel myself much more prepare to engage in conversations about the future in a meaningful and effective way. Thanks to the author!

For the serious reader (and who indeed thinks open source is hilarious?), Weber provides a detailed history of how this idea developed. He traces it from the advent of unix in the 1970s, and the generous (ie. low fees) licensing terms by ATT. Which led to the BSD Unix that flourished in the 80s. Also during this time, GNU took off.

But the bulk of the book deals with the 90s onwards. Especially as linux grew from Torvalds' seminal contribution. Its intellectual roots in unix and GNU are studied. We also see the rise of the Free Software Foundation and Apache, as articulate enablers and promoters of open source. All of which was aided by the invention and meteoric growth of the Web. This played a vital role in enabling a global audience of programmers to hear of and contribute their efforts.

I'm a commercial software developer, and found the author's history of the UNIX culture and the story of its evolution into what we now call Open Source to be fascinating. That alone made it a good read for me. Add in the thought provoking analysis of the "whys" (the real point of this book), and it's a killer combo.

Warning: the book is *full* of sentences like "Pluralism at many different levels is being enabled by communications technologies and by experimentation with property; together, these are reducing the marginal cost of adding voices toward an asymptote of zero." Despite that, I've been able to read it at the pace of a thriller, not a textbook.

The other day I found myself in the passenger seat of my own car for an extended trip. Miles from nowhere with not much left to talk about and nothing but scratchy country music on the radio I noticed the guidebook I had received as a gift, stashed in the sidepocket and promptly forgotten. Raised on the Mountainers "100 Hikes" series, I knew guidebooks to be invaluable on the trail, but as reading material dryer than Central Oregon scree in mid-August.

As I thumbed the pages of "60 Hikes within 60 Miles: Seattle," I quickly moved from bored to engaged to engrossed. This book was good! In addition to finding dozens of previously overlooked trails within a short drive of my Seattle home, I learned many new and fascinating details about the places I've been hiking for years. The trail descriptions are accurate and appropriately detailed. The navigational instruction are clear and include useful visual landmarks in addition to the usual distance cues. What's best though, is that into the brief trail write-ups Weber and Stevens manage to weave bits of local history, trivia and entertaining lore that greatly enhance the hiking experience. I even found myself reading several sections aloud to my travelling companion. Finally, the authors also understand that sometimes the best hiking tip is not the trail itself, but the location of the local frosty mug or renowned double deluxe burger at trails end!

Whether you are new in town, just visiting, or a soggy Seattle native like myself, "60 Hikes" makes a great addition to your recreation library.

This is one of the best books I have found for the newbie hiker in seattle. If you have a GPS it is even better as you can just the coordinates in the book to find the starting point for each hike. The Maps are great! The descriptions are great!

This well structured hiking book fills a gap in the suite of similar books that cover the Olympics and the Cascades in Western Washington. This volume does a good job identifying interesting hikes close to the metropolitan Puget Sound Basin--the title says it all. The book also adds features that many other hiking books lack, most notably good hike maps and hike profiles. You can do all the hikes in this book without supplemental maps.

First of all, I am Bryce Henderson Stevens, and I am not the author of this book. By a coincidence, we share the same first and last name, and I resided in Olympia, Washington, for many years, and have made some of the hikes detailed in the book I am reviewing. I now live in Clinton, Tennessee, but visit my Olympia home whenever I am able. I purchased copies of this book in part because the author and I share the same first and last name, and I invite my friends to examine it and discover the authors' pictures and realize that I am NOT the author. That being said, my recommecation is still based on having hiked many of these trails, and having several hiking guides in my personal library.

By another coincidence, my cousin, George Henderson, published "Lonely on the Mountain: a Skier's Memoir", this year, which is a recollection of his early years skiing and exploring Mount Hood. So, the hiking, climbing, and exploring interest is in my family, and may come with my own name. And in a third, curious coincidence, I have published my own memoir of having been camping just a few miles west of Mount St. Helens on 18 May 1980, when it erupted, which can be found in "Teaching Through Stories; Yours, Mine and Theirs", by Betty Roe, et alia. All of this not withstanding, I offer this review of the book, without prejudice in favor of the authors, neither of whom I am personally acquainted with:

Excellent directions and trail descriptions, including elevation maps keyed to the entire trail, let you know what to expect as you plan your hikes, and which trails may be too difficult for beginning hikers. Key information is provided in "at a glance" sections for each hike, and many of the featured hikes a have follow-up section on nearby activities of interest. This is the most informative trail guide in my library.

This book has a bunch of really good hikes right near Seattle and the Eastside which is what sets it apart from others I have seen (although it also has some farther out in the mountains). There are a lot of great options if you don't feel like driving too far. Really good if you have kids, or if you want some hard and some easy hikes. The book says it has 40 hikes available year-round, which is great in the winter months. Definitely recommended.

Dr. Mulvihill sure knows his stuff. Everything from breast cancer to neurofibromistosis! Easy to read, too. Quite the bathroom book for doctors!

Tell No One grabs you from the first and races to the end at break-neck speed. In the book, David Beck discovers that his wife, who died several years ago, might still be alive. This novel is about his attempt to find answers and be reunited with his wife. As I was reading Harlan Coben's descriptions of how it feels to lose a spouse, I am convinced that the author Coben has lost someone very dear to him. My husband died suddenly twelve years ago, and the description of the emotional pain felt was exactly as Mr. Coben describes it. I have never found anyone who has been able to capture the feelings of loss as well as this. I read the passages and I kept saying to myself, "That's it. That's exactly how I felt." No one can write like that unless they have experienced it. And, believe me, if I thought there was a chance that my spouse was still alive, I would go to the ends of the earth to find him - just as David Beck did in this book. It is full of mystery and suspense as he tries to unravel the truth and be reunited with his dear Elizabeth. Definitely a must read. You will not be disappointed.

Tell No One by Harlan Coben is about a man that believes his wife may still be alive 8 years after being supposedly murdered by a serial killer. This is the first novel by Mr. Coben and I was really impressed for most of the book. However, I felt there were too many twists to the story, and the narrative was too mixed up to tie all the events together. Even after finishing the book, I'm confused as to what exactly happened and why. The book alternates between first and third person, with the first person holding back information until the end. It just felt weird to me. On the plus side, it was an engaging story that kept me reading, but I felt like I needed to take notes for a test at the end.

This looking-back memoir of a couple drawn together in an unusual manner shows how and why Dave didn't give up on seeing her again. Something only the duo knew kept him clinging tightly to the "tie that binds" the link between life and death. They'd been drawn close together at a young age and their puppy love expanded into real, not true love. He never ever gave in to showing grief as that would show beyoungt doube that she hadn't merely vanished and, for all purposes, would never surface again. Shortly after she vanished withough a sound, Dave discovered a message on his computer, something only he and she knew. He was warned to TELL NO ONE.

Beth always had held her head high, back straight. Beth and David were both bright kids, rational in the face of irrational love. Their first kiss was at the age of twelve; they married at age 25. Eight years earlier, Dave's wife had been abducted at Lake Charmaine, Michigan. Fifty years ago, this was the site of a rich-kids summer camp Christine may have hated. If the relationship could survive on the unspoken lies. On the 13th year after she was gone, nobody discovered, a strange happening occured. He would never have closure, so he married Beth, his first love and she took a place in the yearly pilgrimage and rituals to keep alive her memory good and bad.

Dave's therapist, John M. Randolph, urged him to try to forget that day, put it in comtemplation perspective the fact that it was over and done with, thatshe was gone for good,k but loving Beth with her melancholy moods like Meriweather Lewis long ago was alaive and willing to make him the man only she could bring alive and impatient for growth. He lacked the patience and experience of life, never able to bring fruition to t heir married life or joyful union behind closed doors. A premonition taunted his sensibility that the fault lay within him.

Actually, it was unresolved fears on the wife's conscience which caused the problem to prolong and grow into a hugh mountain with deep chasms to keep their secret under wraps. He may one day overcome his problem with the help of Beth, who had loved him her whole life. She was God's helpter, the angel sent to save thir marriage and life together. An unusual story told in an unusual way.

As with all of Mr. Coben's books, this grabs you right from the start and has an ending that will blow you out of the water. He's the reason people don't get back from lunch on time.

This is the second Coben book I have read (Gone for Good being the other) and I loved it!!! It grabs you from page one and takes you on a wild wild ride!!!! I can't wait to start another Coben book!!!!

I love, love this film. I have to say that it is better than the actual play. I saw the play in NYC when Joey Fatone was cast as "Mark" in August 2002. Joey was great. You could tell he really wanted to get into the part. I think he should do more plays. I fell in love with the characters since then. Rent is such a moving story. Roger and mimi are my two favorites. I only wish I could have gotten to seen Adam pascal on broadway. I love his voice. I think Manely pope was there when I went to see it at the theater. Not too sure. If you have a chance to go to the play in NYC ,I would go. you can truly see how amazing this story is. Rent is closing - last show September 17 th 2008 !!! if not the movie is just as good. buy this dvd.

I don't have much to say about Rent except for that it was well directed and has a great story line. It's definitely not a "for everyone" movie, but for the right person it definitely tugs at the heart strings. I cannot count the number of times I have watched it and/or listened to the soundtrack. The movie was very well cast and the addition of Rosario Dawson & Traci Tomms as JoAnne and Mimi were exquisite - I actually prefer them over the originals.

I have never seen the play, i wasn't all that interested in Rent as a whole until i actually saw it. I fell in love with this instantly and wouldn't mind seeing the play sometime now. Just goes to show, never judge a book by its cover.

Rent is the most amazing and touching movie I have ever seen in my entire life! The songs, the characters and the story are all completely real. The songs are catchy, the characters are colorful, and the story is beautiful. This is the most beautiful movie I have ever seen and it is AMAZING!

The musical RENT is a film adaptation of a Broadway play. I've recently seen a pretty dang good Chicago production of it. It's got no shortage of heart, lots of energy, and lots of laughs and tears. It's also got some weaknesses that are precariously close to being its death blow. Its flaws don't kill it, but they come close.

The performances are absolutely amazing. I don't have a single critical thing to say about any of the actors.

Musically, I know this music has made the global rounds and it's huge. I don't think there's anything bad to say about the musical score either.

But looking critically at RENT, both as a story and as a film, reveals glaring flaws that keep me personally from falling head-over-heels in love with it and becoming a full-fledged RENT-head. This story has some problems that are both unfortunate and major, paradoxically leaving me with a sense of disingenuousness. Which doesn't make sense considering its origin, where it came from, Larson. I shouldn't be able to call 'BS' on RENT and be justified, and yet I can.

RENT assumes rather than earns its authenticity.

RENT has an unflinching, unapologetic self-centeredness that both serves it and cripples it. It has devoted so much focus and effort into being Gen-X'y, bohemian, and anti-establishment, that it has overlooked having a genuine identity of its own. Its uniqueness is stereotypical. It's confined to its freedom. Its portrayal of village artists and photographers is obvious, clunky, one-dimensional, cliché. The film is far too self-congratulatory to even consider noticing this.

RENT is trying (plaintively?) to make its characters' last year on Earth a celebration, but the thing is, I feel like a terrible situation of tremendous gravity, urgency, and despair has been turned into something of a 3-ring circus. On some level I feel like I have to question how seriously this was meant to be taken. Only its origin saves it from being creatively bankrupt. The exact same story coming from any Hollywood writer would rightfully get burned at the stake. Ultimately, these decisions ARE Larson's prerogative. I guess that being homeless and your imminent AIDS-related death doesn't automatically require an uptight documentary-style treatment.

RENT's excessive prettiness is also a big detriment to the film's authenticity, honestly. These people are awfully beautiful to be homeless AIDS victims. These are all designer characters. Their appearance is a deliberate, calculated, manicured image designed to make the idea more digestible. I rather suspect some watch this so they can feel like they've adopted some of the suffering of an underprivileged group of people. Do those individuals spend any actual time with the homeless? Who's to say. This mentality has infected other visual aspects of the film, too. Everything is so manicured and staged it becomes false. Everything is designer and Hollywood and perfect, including--nay, ESPECIALLY the abandoned buildings and alleys. The cinematography is a technical masterpiece and everything happens much too perfectly for me to believe in the world of RENT. It's not to be unexpected in a musical, but the nature of the subject matter changes the game quite a bit. Would I apply that equally to all films everywhere? Unfortunately, we're in the territory of art criticism here and it's subjective--and context matters, so no. For instance, Chicago has all the exact same traits, but they work for the film it instead of against it. And, say, a maverick cop out to kick some butt lacking authenticity is an entirely different ball game than being fake about THIS.

The entire scene with Sarah Silverman is the epitome of what I'm talking about. It fails to be the stark contrast with the rest of the film that it's trying to be. Furthermore, the entire subplot is an absurd non sequitur, but that's beside the point. It's trying to contrast how perfectly neat and tidy this corporate world is with how free and loose the world of the rest of the film is, but the entire film is actually neat and tidy--the spontaneity and freedom are artificial. I don't buy it.

But thanks to the performances, damn, RENT sure does have a fire in its britches.

In a way, it is simultaneously justified and questionable to call this film fakey, as it is just Jonathon Larson's feelings on the subject rendered in musical form. It really has an energy to it, no denying that. It really challenges you to drop your hangups and relax and enjoy the ride.

I'm not a RENT-head, nor do I hate it. I don't think it's mediocre, canned, or kitsch. I don't think it's amazing or enlightening. Calling it pretentious isn't exactly fair, though there is a pretentiousness to it. I do, however, feel confident in saying both that it has flaws and has something to it.

So, how you feel about RENT will always come down to how deeply you connect to the characters and how much you're feeling the music. Is it an electrifying, heartbreaking celebration of life and love, or is it a mockery? Both cases could be made. My bottom line opinion: RENT is successful in spite of itself. The actors work harder than they should have to to sell a story that's working against them, confined by excessively stiff character molds--and they are so good, they pull it off. What's strong is incredibly strong. But to pretend its flaws didn't exist would be, for me, an intellectual suicide.

I loved this book a lot. So very funny and I fell in love with everyone in it! It's one of those rare books you carry around in your head and heart long after the final page, missing your friends and wondering what they're doing. I smile just thinking about it.

This is a very funny 1st person Ivy League tour through love, lust, academia, literary attempts, mother-daughter feelings, friendships, all told at a breakneck speed, with great humor, and laughs thrown in for good measure! The apartment scenes in the Harvard neighborhood were great, as well as the dining (IHOP, especailly) and general descriptions. Worth a few fun hours! But are there really schools which "teach" 8 year old boys about parenthood by making him carry a sack of flour? Maybe, but a strange way to teach! Also, the infatuation with the mailman never really rang true to this jaded reader, but all is fair in love and war! And the ending seemed a bit unfocused, but probably still realistic. Perfect for a sequel!

Katinka O'Toole is 35 years old and is recovering from a short marriage with a Harverd Proffeser. She is strugling to find her place in the writing world when she gets a breakthrough letter who is delivered by the mailman she has fallen in love with.

The man Katinka's mother is dating, who happens to live in her apartments, his daughter and son-in-law have the perfect blind date for Katinka. Jake Barnes is brought into her the picture. He is a classy guy and very polite although he has curly red hair on his knuckles. With all the love and madness surrounding her, she is just having fun.

This book was cute and full of suprises and fun. If you enjoy saucy romances, this book is for you but if you get bored easliy and you are more in to anger and death, this book definently isn't for you. ENJOY

I would certainly classify this novel as genre fiction- A Romantic Comedy. As with all genre fiction, it is what it is. You either like it or you don't. But you can't try to analyze it into something that it's not. If you try, you'll only be disappointed. My advice with this novel is to enjoy it for what it is- a nice romantic comedy. You can try to break it down in terms of whatever literary concept suits you, but that might be unfair to the author and the book. After all, would you analyze something more literary from a genre fiction perspective? Never. So why try to analyze this from a literary perspective? It's a very light read and thoroughly enjoyable when absorbed from the right perspective.

Medwed's debut novel relates the romantic and literary exploits of Katrinka O'Toole. Given thatr Katrinka is mostly a frustrated wirter and lover both, the exploits are somewhat chaotic, obsessive and disjointed--but that's where the fun comes in.

Over and above an adept hand at romantic comedy, Medwed has a nifty ability to cleverly encapsulate and parody the aloofness, snobbery and liberal goings and general absurdities attendant to life in and around Harvard, a skill which also adds to the fun of the book.

This is a debut novel and some of the expected flaws attendant to such an effort are present--the books a tad disjointed, a few of the characters are mere characatures--but overall it's a fun book & a pleasant read. It's plane or beach fare-not too demanding and mostly rewarding.

I ordered this, along with another book. You shipped the other book and cancelled my order for this book, which was the book I really wanted. I'm not happy with the ordering process on this item and cannot comment on the book since I've never actually seen it.

This book is cool. Vogue is definitely the place to see all the latest and greatest fashion trend and the art of photograhing and show them.

Grace: Thirty years of fashion in Vogue is a delightful collection of some of the most memorable and influential fashion photographs since the nineteen seventies.....all of them touched by the imaginative and chic eye of super stylist and editor Grace Coddington. The range of fashion fantasies is impressive. From the tough erotic chic of helmut newton, whimsical femininity of sarah moon on thru the joyful, innocent sexiness of bruce weber, Miss coddington helps each image become something entertaining and memorable. The printing is terrific , layouts are elegant , plus, perfectly boxed in a delicious and very chic pumpkin. Well worth it's luxe weight....

I just recently purchase this book, at a time when I was getting a bit discourage as a stylist. It helped me to realize that there are good days and bad days and to keep my head up! I believe that the book chosed me at that very moment. It is very helpful in terms of preparation for production shoots. Also informative in knowing the different ways each photographer preps and how Mrs. Coddington binds with each photographer's concepts. I have had the pleasure of working with Mrs. Coddington as a model, and I can confirm that she is a down to earth person which makes one feel comfortable when working for her. Thank you for sharing your 30 yrs!

In this book, published in 1992, a group of academics from the Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy have written a series of brilliant and provocative essays on the economic foundations of the next security system, that is, of the XXI century. They define three broad scenarios: a) Controlled multilateralism; b) coexistence of blocks; and c) neomercantilism.

So far, it seems that they were right in predicting that the most likely and desirable outcome would be some form of controlled multilateralism. Certainly, it could be said that coexistence of blocks is also a reality, but we are seeing a lot more interrelation between these blocks than what the scenario took into account. Some countries have built institutional bridges across the blocks, like Mexico, which belongs to NAFTA, but also has a Free Trade Agreement with the European Union, several Latin American countries, Israel, and is now negotiating one with Japan, beyond its membership in APEC.

The security system seems to stay also within controlled multilateralism, as actions on the former Yugoslavia and Irak show. Summing up, the book's arguments and points are still relevant to analyze the world's options regarding this new century. The interplay between the economic and the security systems are clearly defined, and the tone of the book is objective, neither overly optimistic nor pessimistic. It's good analysis, even if not each and every detail is still accurate. Recommended for students of very different specialties: international economics, national security, prospective studies, etc.

I have never worked with Web Services, but I have strong skill in Java. This book has opened me a new and interesting frontears on this topic. The Axis webapp that is explained as a very usefull tool to start working and putting up your first Web Service.
Max Pellizzaro.
http://www.maxpellizzaro.com

Just as I stated in the title, it's a great book to start you with. It's written in a clear and precise manner where you could learn the basics of Java Web Services and not be intimidated by it.

I bought this, hoping to be able to use it on a web services project I'm doing.

I find it's completely out of date. Both Sun's JWSDP and Apache Axis have moved on since this was written, and you'll get better information from their websites than you'll get from this book.

Don't bother with it.

Part 1 (6 chapters) - Absolutely a waste of time, not worth a read. And the code examples are not related to JWSDP.

Part 2 (6 chapters) - Discusses on SOAP, UDDI and WSDL. The code discusses using a Older version of Apache SOAP and Apache Axis. The code needs a complete rewrite.

Part 3 - Discusses on JAXP, JAXB, JAXR, JAXM and JAXRPC. Good introductions but the JAXB chapter is based on DTD (which is obsoleted in the latest specs). JAXM and JAXRPC chapters just reproduces the Sun JWSDP tutorial...not much value addition.

Part 4 - Security, WSFL, WSIF (based on IBM Specs) currently these specs are obsolete no further releases.

It might've been a good book during 2002. The code and content needs an update to the latest specs and SOAP implementations.

It is a good introductory book to web services standards like SOAP, WSDL and UDDI but also goes further and talks about topics like WSFL, WSIF which are not covered by all books on web services but are essential to any real business processes exposed as web services where flow control and service unit(s) choreagraphy is as important as the single unit service request/response. Java specifications relating to web services are also covered like JAXM and JAX-RPC. I wish more examples and code was given, perhaps even a chapter or two, for ebXML which may not be a part of web services standards but still uses SOAP and defines industry standards for business to business collaborations especially dealing with supply chain commerce issues.
I agree with a previous reviewer (John Sfikas) that this book alone isn't exactly an eye opener for experianced professionals who have been dabbling with all the tools mentioned in this book like Apache SOAP, Axis, WSTK, Tomcat, Jetty etc. and know the challenges facing B2B collaborations on the internet quite intimately, but this book combined with "Building Web Services with Java: Making Sense of XML, SOAP, WSDL and UDDI" will give a much needed practical grounding to start making sophisticated web services in the real world. I highly recommend getting both these books but be prepared to use your brain and further what is presented in these books to deploy web services satisfying your needs. They will certainly not amount to spoon feeding you a near solution to your collaboration problems.

This book (okay, it's not actually a book but we'll get to that shortly), arrives in a hugely impressive foil box, both figuratively and literally. It is only when you open this impressive box that you find you have paid $175.00 for a small number of pamphlets. Quite large pamphlets, but pamphlets nonetheless.

To compound their ignominy, the work isn't even that great (though that is obviously a personal opinion). The majority of the work suffers from being enlarged to fit the oversized pamphlet specs but a lot of the work, regardless of the size, is just mediocre, plain and simple. The work that stands out the most is by Karl Lagerfeld which certainly surprised me considering the distinguished list of photographers involved.

All in all, I would have liked to keep the box. Since that option was unavailable, I returned the item, beautiful box, pamphlets and all.