Industrial Books

This book is packed with great photos. It is worth the price just to see what is happening with regard to design in the industry.

The downside is that, as one looking to open a start-up restaurant, the designs are way above what many new restaurants could afford to take on. The budget of any of the designs found in this book blows my start-up capital right out of the water!

A bright spot, though, is that regardless of the cost of the designs found in the book, it provides the reader with a plethora of options that can be scaled down to fit just about any budget.

Excellent book on restaurant design! It helped me with my concept and I'm opening this year. Great book to be inspired by.

We are building two large restaurants and after having worked on the outside for months we needed something to ignite our passion about the inside. This book helped us get started and has given us a base to discuss with the interior designers. The possibilities are endless, I love to just sit and look at it.

This book in particular is great for design professionals and those who enjoy looking at new and innovative ideas in the field. From the view point of a design student, it is very informative in what projects such as these entail and some even disclose project budgets - comparisons and realistic judgments can be made from this information. This is a wonderful visual tool and representation for clients of this trade that more is not always best.

I am ordering this book for the second time...to give to my client for which we are designing a restaurant. The wonderful examples and photos gave us alot to discuss in our first design meeting. It clearly helped to put the project on the right track with great ideas. We were able to read our client thoughts by the pictures they picked out as favorites. thank you christy

I was lucky enough to see Mike Rose present this material through an event sponsored by my investment adviser.

The investment guys sometimes go over everyone's head and there's a lot of ego involved. What I liked about this book was that you go step by step and in all of 10 minutes, you've got a pretty complete picture of what you need to do and why.

Rose recommends that the first $100,000 is the hardest to collect, but it's the most critical to do as fast as you can. (I'll leave the details to the reader. It's pretty obvious once you sort of get the argument).

This is a book that EVERY person entering the workforce should read. I plan on giving it to many of my family members as the time is right. It explains what retirement is, and how to do it.

The language is simple to understand, and what I appreciate most is that it's not some lacky hawking an investment product. It's a veteran adviser sharing a career's worth of nuggets.

My only complaint with the book is the appendix material doesn't explain how the "column B" factor is calculated.

Five stars. This is one of the most important books I've read in the past 10 years.

As a self-employed business owner, I found The Retirement Decision
immensely helpful. Finally, a book that equips those who save seriously
for retirement with real direction. The charts and tables are
incredibly easy to use. All I had to do was fill in my age, income, and
current savings. I now know how much I'll need for retirement and what
I must save each month to reach my goal. I never dreamed it could be so
clear-cut and simple.

I've already made adjustments to my retirement investment plans.

THOUGHT BOOK WAS EXCELLENT. REALLY THOUGHT THE BOOK WAS WRITTEN ABOUT ME AND MY LIFE. MUST READ FOR ANYONE THINKING OF RETIREING STARTING WITH YOUR CHILDREN. THEY NEED TO GET THESE CONCEPTS DOWN IN OREDER TO BE ABLE TO RETIRE. SHOULD BE REQUIRED READING IN HIGH SCHOOL AND COLLEGE.
AS THE PRESIDENT OF A EXECUTIVE SEARCH FIRM I AM SENDING COPIES TO ALL OUR BEST CLIENTS. I HOPE MIKE WRITES A FOLLOW-UP BOOK BECAUSE I REALLY APPRECIATED HIS DIRECT NATURE AND INFORMATION THAT WILL HELP ME AND MY CLIENTS FUTURE.

Amazingly, this in an entertaining book about personal financial matters! The illustrative stories about Ben Franklin, Warren Buffett and others were an inspiration to get my financial affairs in order and plan for the future. I've already sent a copy to my son, who's just starting his career, so he can see how possible it is to be financially independent by retirement. I recommend this book to everyone, even those in the latter years of the working life.

I don't know much about retirement and managing finances, but this book makes it so easy! It reads like it was written for the common man/woman, yet it gives expert advice. It helps you make clear, realistic goals that anyone can achieve. I only wish that this book would have came out sooner. If you don't know much about financing and retirement, or even if you do, this is simply the book for you. I've recommended it to all of my associates. Great book!!!

This is a very funny yet extremely informative book with great illustrations about solar power using cats as examples. Very enjoyable!

This whimsical look at a usually dead-serious subject (solar energy, not cats) allows the information to sneak in under the "I can't learn that" radar. Cat lovers will especially enjoy the book, but non-cat lovers can also appreciate its charming approach to the subject. My four cats give it sixteen paws up. I give it two thumbs!

Jim Augustyne takes the Suessian approach to showing the reader our myopia when it comes to the nature of renewable energy, politics, and economics. Solar Energy is nature's way and cats are fundamentally in tune with nature. Even though Augustyne does not use rhyme to make his point, the reason is shown through the fun-house mirror of technologically advanced felines, and their 'natural' instincts and behaviour, optimized for solar utilization. Augustyne has developed an alternate universe of whimsy and pointy satire where kitties rule and our human foibles and blindness to the advantages of solar renewables are entertainingly exposed. The text and drawings unerringly capture feline personality and 'technical' accumen. A real entertainment bargain with a sideways squint at education. For real kids and kids at heart, like engineers, teachers, businessmen, homeowners, and politicians, of all ages.

One of the cleverest, funniest and most informative pieces of science writing to come along in years. Augustyn is equal parts Woody Allen and Stephen Hawking. But make no mistake: "The Return of the Solar Cat Book" is not only a rollicking good read and a visual delight, but an important contribution to the current debate over the nation's energy future. "It's the sun, stupid!" Augustyn is saying. "And here's why -- and how." Should be required reading for Presidents Bush and Putin, Energy Secy. Abraham and Ken Lay. Augustyn is way over the top. I wish I'd thought of "meowium" first.

I teach Middle School students all about the world in our tiny self-contained rural school. The topic of solar energy comes up in our physics curriculum; political aberrations are often discussed in our current events class; and, needless to say,we often share pet stories, especially reports on kitty capers.
I loved The Return of the Solar Cat Book immediately, and I realized my students were ready to appreciate it too. I took a chance and shared it with my students.It was a great decision. They adore the drawings, the author's wry wit, and the way the
book makes difficult science concepts very accessible.Now we learn and giggle together. I love it. Thank you, Jim Augustyn

Interesting and stimulating thoughts on returning to the moon. Too bad we let the momentum of the space race fade from memory. Many scientific achievements were due to man's applying time, energy, and money to the advancement of science and human potential rather than warfare.

What an exciting and educational collection of essays. Some of the essays are from famous space writers such as Andrew Chaiken and Robert Zimmerman. They even included Alan Steele who is one of my all time favorite science fiction writers. This book makes you think about many of the issues we will have to consider if we are to settle the moon. Some of these subjects include how to get back there, lunar manufacturing, spiritual aspects, as well as what it will mean to mankind. One of my favorite essays was on the "Overview Effect" by Frank White, which tells how the perspective of mankind can forever be changed. I thought this book was a fascinating read and well worth the money.

As our nation endeavors to recaputure the drive for a Return to the Moon, Rick Tumlinson has managed to enlist the insights of many of the leading space visionaries of the 21st Century. The passion and hopes of thousands are captured among the pages of the essays with Rick providing an overview of each and why it is important to read. As a 'Child of Apollo' and a 'Human Destiny' advocate, this book was among the gifts provided to 20 of my friends in the season of future-looking hope. This book is a must for the space enthusiast, the policy-wonk, or those just looking to regain the pioneering frontier spirit. While some may confuse it with Apollo 17 astronaut "Jack" Schmitt's book "Return to the Moon," (same title), the essay content provided by Rick Tumlinson is quite different. Return to the Moon is a book for the 'keeper library.'

Interest has recently accelerated in human visits to our celestial neighbor, as is evidenced in this book with its wide collection of essays on the subject, in the new NASA program and announced plans from almost all the other major spacefaring nations, but also in the coincidental simultaneous release of another book with the same title, from astronaut Harrison Schmitt. Both books are worth the serious interest of anybody wondering what all the fuss is about.

Tumlinson and Medlicott's book brings forward the views of a number of people who have been advocating for a lunar return for some time, and this collection is a good way to get to know them. The arguments put forward are forceful and at times contradictory, but for somebody familiar with space development ideas, they are also quite familiar. Tourism, astronomy, precious metals, materials for space-based solar panels, or simply oxygen as a propellant provide economic incentives for lunar development. Many of the essays argue for a strong private component to lunar development, making use of lunar resources to earn profitable returns here on Earth.

Others of the essays see a strong government responsibility, at least in early phases, driven largely by scientific interest in the Moon itself, and by the potential, as General Pete Worden points out, for the Moon to be the ultimate site to develop risky technologies that might be too dangerous to pursue on Earth. Beyond the private/public debate and the surfeit of justifications, a number of the essays also express strong opinions on engineering details such as design of rocket boosters and lunar landers. One suspects that if space advocates figured out a way to actually agree on things, we might have returned to the Moon years ago. And to some extent these debates are moot for now, as NASA lays out its plans and other nations seem determined to follow.

A few of these essays provide longer-range views on space settlement and development. As Andrew Chaikin writes, the Moon will be a "catalyst for humanity's transformation into an interplanetary species." Frank White here talks of the "Overview Effect", the profound importance to a human being of physically seeing Earth as a "small planet suspended in space," and he and several others here envision thousands of people having that direct experience in permanent settlements on the lunar surface.

Several essays delve into the legal issues - what current law applies, and what new law would be useful, to a lunar colony? Alan Wasser lays out his "Space Settlement Initiative" proposal, to fund space development with lunar land grants based on proven performance, a variant on the "prize" approaches recently in the news. A noteworthy essay from Robert Richards points out that the Moon is really two distinct destinations: the near side and the far side. The far side would be much more isolated from Earth, and potentially much better preparation for the eventual colonization of Mars.

Inspirational color illustrations, not directly refered to in the text, are provided in the middle of the book; a "lunar declaration" that it's time to return comes at the end, along with a section of Moon Facts. One notable omission is an index - with the diversity of topics the table of contents isn't always sufficient to locate relevant discussion.

This book should definitely be read by anybody who questions the point of NASA's current plans for a lunar base. As astronomer Yoji Kondo writes in two of the essays here, science and exploration need to go together, each will enable the other, and robots and humans together will expand the human experience beyond anything we now know. Whether through NASA, the private sector, or the work of other nations, humans will be living and working on the Moon in coming decades and, as the best of these essays makes clear, that small step will change humanity forever.

Be warned that this collection of essays is designed more for the policy wonk than the engineer or scientist. Nevertheless, it contains fascinating pieces by such people as Paul Spudis, Alan Binder, Andrew Chaiken, and Courtney Stadd on the business, law, diplomatic, public policy, and economic aspects of returning to the Moon. The opinions are diverse, except for an agreement on an absolute necessity for returning humans to the Moon, this time to settle it and to make it a center of science and commerce. A must read for anyone interested in the how and why of exploring space.

Tom Wilson's premise: Employee incentives are just as important to corporations as they are to employees. Why? Because a company that aligns its own achievement with that of its employees is well on its way to success. Wilson uses a wide range of case studies to bolster his common- sense advice, including reminders that your employee rewards plan should be simple to understand, geared toward the kind of people you want to attract and should frequently vary. Even the most experienced manager can stand to learn a thing or two from Wilson's keen analysis of Amazon.com, Southwest Airlines, Saturn, and a host of other successful businesses. We from getAbstract think that you owe it to yourself - and to your employees - to read this well-crafted book.

Tom Wilson's new book is even better than his last, which I found to be one of the best reward systems books written. Rewards that Drive High Performance is a rich and easy reading collection of case studies from some of the country's leading organizations, including Amazon.com, Starbucks, Genzyme and many others. It is a book that I, as a manager, found to be very practical -- a compensation "text" for line managers because it shows what works and why, not just theory.

I really liked the way the cases were grouped, because it shows that reward systems need to be defined differently for different applications and company cultures. Best practices are useful to study, but Wilson's book goes beyond this to show how and why the best companies do what they do and align their reward systems with their business objectives.

It's refreshing to see a book from a leading consultant not geared to "provide just enough" to entice the reader to want to know more -- this book truly tells the whole story, and does it in a way that proves to be a compelling read.

In the modern economy, organizations that compete for the best people must learn to design reward systems that drive performance. The author argues that in today's marketplace, more and more companies are seeing employee benefits not as an expense, but as a tool for achieving particular goals. The author further explains that with loyalty gone, workers need a reward system that works, or they will leave the company.

Author Thomas Wilson explored many different reward systems from different firms. As he reviewed the most successful firms, he started to notice similarities. The author noticed that regardless of the individual goals of each organization's reward program, they all shared these 10 key factors:

· Reward systems play a crucial role in performance.
· Measures give rewards relevance, rewards give measures meaning.
· Alignment with the company's philosophies and values, along with consistency are essential.
· How people are paid is often more important than how much they are paid.
· Build programs with a vision, improving them over time.
· The value of the reward, including psychological value, should exceed its cost.
· Recognize that the program does not become real for workers until the first payment.
· Translate measures into action guidelines for employees.
· Make rewards more meaningful by combing financial with non-financial rewards.
· Use rewards as strategic management systems used to support the strategy, goals, and values of a company.

"This book provides a series of stories that offer a window into today's organizations. While the focus is on the reward systems that these organizations devised and implemented, the true picture goes much deeper. Each story reflects an organization that was facing a need to change the way it coducted its business and developed a process to support and reinforce change. So, the reward systems are manifestations of a new set of values and practices within organizations...The case studies in this book were developed with representatives of these organizations. They are true, real-life descriptions of what goes on inside these companies...While this book can be read from front to back, it was not written to be read in a traditional manner. It may be useful to take a non-linear approach, jumping from one section to another...This book is not intended to represent the best practices of the best companies, although it often does. It is a book about reality. It may not include the design for the perfect reward system, but it should give you ideas and approaches that will change the way you think about, develop, and manage rewards (pp.1-7)."

In this context, Thomas B. Wilson focuses on:

* How does an organization such as Amazon.com instill or retain the entrepreneurial spirit that it had when it was small?

* how companies such as DuPont, Coca-Cola, and Cisco Systems seek to create a bridge between the requirements for success and each individual.

* how companies retain a customer focus so that people collaborate and strive to perform better.

* how companies such as DuPont, Cumming Engine, and K/P Corporation encouraged people to collaborate and provided a share of the benefit if improvements could be achieved.

* how companies retain their critical talents.

* how companies such as Allied Signal, and Harvard University Health Services have integrated a variety of quality management processes into their organizations.

* how companies have changed their reward systems to support new business strategies.

Finally, he writes that "to aid you in developing your own approach to change, I have summarized the 10 key factors that seem to most accurately determine what makes reward systems successful. While this list summarizes common characteristics, the true significance is in applying these principles to your own situation and to learn from the direct application of experience."

1. Reward systems play a crucial role in performance.

2. Measures give rewards relevance; rewards give measures meaning.

3. Alignment and consistency are essential.

4. How people are paid is often more important than how much they are paid.

5. Build programs with a vision, and then improve them over time.

6. The value of the reward should exceed the cost.

7. The program begins after the first payouts.

8. Translate measures into action.

9. Make rewards meaningful.

10. Take a strategic, systemic, and holistic approach.

Highly recommended.

This book provides insights into some of the most talked about companies in America. It helped me understand their situation, and how they developed an effective reward system. It also gave me specific tools, and hundreds of ideas. It is clear, well written, and well presented. Thanks.

Cripps has a solid reputation for his books on power amplifier design, but I wondered whether a revision would contain sufficient new material to be worthwhile. I was pleasantly surprized by the expanded material, and the new insight into high efficiency designs in particular. Cripps has a special talent for tackling difficult topics and providing a thorough but understandable treatment. Most of all, he seems to always tie the analysis to a unique physical insight.

I highly recommend this book.

Jim Crescenzi
IEEE Life Fellow

An excellent source of information. Mr Cripps very articulatly reviews at all classes of RF power amplification, and explains theoretical design principles and suggests improvements. His 'Load-pull' technique method is already widely used in design of PA's and serves as a good design aid. Although I would have liked him to go deeper into 'high-efficiciency PA techniques, spending more time on 'Chierix, Khan and Doherty methods. His book is the best reference on PA's I have seen in the last decade, I could not put it down. I look forward to his next book

This second edition has added 120 pages of new material and revised much of the first edition material.

The author addresses common misconceptions and overlooked phenomena with explanations and simulation results.

I gained a lot of insights from this book. It methodically treats RF power amplifier in a way that develops understanding of the fundamentals. I particulary like the explanation on the Load-Pull Countours/Theory (Ch 2), Matching Network Design for Reduced Conduction Angle PAs(Ch 3), and the Two-Tone Envelope Analysis (Ch 7). In short, thanks to this book, the way I look at PAs has been transformed: from nebulous beliefs and assumptions to insights and better understanding. I believe this book is a must have for Engineers working on RF PAs. Sincerely, ATS

An excellent source of information. Mr Cripps very articulatly reviews at all classes of RF power amplification, and explains theoretical design principles and suggests improvements. His 'Load-pull' technique method is already widely used in design of PA's and serves as a good design aid. Although I would have liked him to go deeper into 'high-efficiciency PA techniques, spending more time on 'Chierix, Khan and Doherty methods. His book is the best reference on PA's I have seen in the last decade, I could not put it down. I look forward to his next book

Unfortunately, the essays are a bit of a drudge, but the book itself is definitive, and as a life long NY City resident I must admit - abosultely dazzling. Its less about Robert Moses, more about his hand over projects that involved countless talented Americans. Learn about highways never built, public parks on the grandest of scales, and how to clear a city slum via Title 1. You thought you knew NY City, and perhaps were even sure Manhattan was all you would ever need to know. This book shows the sophisticated development of Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and The Bronx, as well as their more popular and over crowded, smaller brother. Simply amazing.

Ballon & Jackson have put together a very useful documentation of the amazing works built in New York under Robert Moses. It is mainly narrative and a documentation, but where it gets into the more subjective business of assessment it is balanced and reasonable. The book is an excellent counterpoint to Robert Caro's "The Power Broker" which although eloquent and informative is a horribly slanted view of the man and of the issues.

Peter Samuel editor TOLLROADSnews.com Maryland

Now this man had POWER. It is amazing how much control he had over the building of infastructure in NYC, he was the first and last word. He was like a 20th century Baron Hausemann. This book is well written and scholarly and frankly just fascinating. I saw a documentary on Robert Moses one time and was just blown away at his hubris and power. His reign over NYC spanned several powerful mayors and to this day no person has ever had so much power of the cities infrastructure. Great book, highly recommended.

The Power Broker (another prominent work on Moses) is a product of the 1970s pessimism concerning the death of the city, saying that Moses helped bring about the downfall experienced in 1974 when the book was published. In Ballon's book, we have the experience that 30 years of hindsight provides, and the tone is radically different Ballon and other essayists provide a more modern insight to Moses and his achievements. Do not be fooled, this is not a coffee table book, but almost a text book for urban planners on the practices employed by Moses. The book was inspired by the museum exhibits going on currently in New York City concerning Moses and his works, and is an excellent supplement to them. If you are interested in NYC, public works, or Urban History- this is a must buy, and will become more important as time wears on.
I also recommend The Power Broker and Moses' own book Public Works: A Dangerous Trade

ROBERT MOSES AND THE MODERN CITY: THE TRANSFORMATION OF NEW YORK, which offers a new look at legendary architect Robert Moses, who reshaped the skyline of New York City. Readers familiar with New York will readily recognize some of his major contributions from the Lincoln Center to the Cross Bronx Expressway - so it's surprising to note this is the first major publication since the 1974 biography THE POWER BROKER appeared - and ROBERT MOSES AND THE MODERN CITY: THE TRANSFORMATION OF NEW YORK comes packed with photos that his biography doesn't provide. Far from hastening the demise of New York, this book shows how his works strengthened the central city and brought it into modern times, altering road systems and creating an urban design plan to foster changes. Plenty of detailed history surround the photos and descriptions of each project's special challenges, making this a top pick not just for New York libraries, but for any college-level art or urban planning collection.

If anyone wants to learn the basics of Computer Vision, this book must be the starting point. No other go.. This speaks of the exceptional treatment of the concepts in this classic book. I very strongly recommend this indispensible book to anyone who wants to learn Computer Vision.

A classic book covering all the fundmentals. Recommend to those who want to know something about vision before doing some real research.

I have to admit that I read this book many years ago. This is not a book that should be read as a way to keep oneself updated on the latest research in the field. It should be seen as a comprehensive, but systematic introduction to basic machine vision techniques. As such, it is a great book, maybe a classic. Its focus is on such topics as Binary Image Processing, Optics, Image formation, Transforms, Filtering, Stereo vision, Optical flow, Noise reduction, etc. It is well organized, and it covers the fundamentals of many useful techniques.

When I first picked up Robot Vision, I was a bit concerned at the age of the book: the field of computer/machine/robot vision progresses at a fantastic pace, and it would seem a given that such a book would be so out of date as to be useless.

However, while this book might not reflect the latest research, especially the tight interweaving of computer graphics and computer vision as exists now or in areas such as active vision, it is a rich presentation of the core ideas of machine vision. In particular, it provides a mathematically rigorous presentation, focusing on core notions of geometric optics and calibration, as well as classic approaches to segmentation, edge detection, signal filtering, and the like.

I would strongly suggest this book as a text that every serious computer vision, robotics, or computer graphics researcher should own; of course, it isn't the _only_ book you should own, and the bibliography certainly won't let you in on the latest trends in vision. Nonetheless, I think the book is so well written that it will remain useful for many years to come.

This book does a good job of introducing the readers to the basics of computer vision - it really has nothing to do with robots outside of the last chapter, other than if you build one and need to give it vision capabilities, you need to know the information in this book. Physics equations via calculus and ODE are used to describe how light intereacts with solid objects and also with image sensors, the latter tieing in to the subject of robot vision. Therefore, the reader should have a good knowledge of first-year university physics as well as multi-variable calculus. As a reference for the geometrical and physical mathematics of light interacting with surfaces and the camera, it is particularly excellent.

Horn does a great job of deriving and providing the equations you need, and brings it all together with excellent narrative and very good illustrations. The book goes all the way from the basics of image formation, to simple matrix operations such as edge detection, to some more advanced topics such as shape from shading. The final chapter, on picking parts out of a bin, uses the ideas developed in previous chapters to come up with the basic design of a robot hand-eye system that is capable of picking up specific parts from a parts bin. It really is a very good unifying capstone to the entire book. The only drawback I can see in the book is that it pretty much stays in the domain of continuous mathematics. There is not much in the way of explicit algorithm steps - the author expects the reader to be able to do that based on his explanation and equations, and given the high quality of the text this is really not too rash of an assumption.

Because of its age it doesn't have some of the more modern techniques and algorithms, but if I had to choose between this older book and that more recently published waste of trees, "Computer Vision: A Modern Approach", give me this book every time. You get a firm foundation in the basics, plus a good understanding of some more advanced topics too.

I found this to be an excellent introduction to how to build a fully functional, autonomous robot. This book covers everything you need to build robots using LEGO Technics (think LEGO blocks plus gears, motors, etc.) and a Handyboard, a robot brain developed to get the hard digital electronics out of the way so you can concentrate on putting together a good design with motors and sensors and software intelligence.

As someone looking for how to break into robotics without first getting bachelors in Electrical Engineering or Mechanical Engineering, this book was for me. I got the basics of the two topics covered and was able to dive right into the interesting "what can I do with my robot" scenarios.

This book also goes into some detail on inexpensive sensor components out in the electronics market and how to use them in robots. I found this to be a great source of ideas and instructions even when not creating robots using the Handyboard brain.

For those looking to dabble, be aware that this is a book best used in conjunction with real, live robot parts. (...)

This book presents an introduction to various aspects of robot building and planning. It is written as an undergraduate textbook, and contains numerous exercises throughout the text. The book assumes that students and other readers will have access to Handyboards and LEGO Technic equipment, as well as a desktop PC and hobbyist-level soldering equipment. The book walks the reader through analyzing a Handyboard, how to use it, how to build custom sensors and motors, and how to write programs in assembly language. All of this information would be very useful to first-year engineering students as it would help them put theory from many of their other classes into practice. Nevertheless, most of the tasks and programs described in the book could actually be built with a standard LEGO RCX brick. On the other hand, a person who masters the material in this book would be able to take advantage of the extra sensors and motors that the Handyboard supports and build far more sophisticated robots than would be possible with LEGO Mindstorms equipment. Anyone who builds robots using LEGO equipment, whether with a Handyboard or an RCX, will find information in this book about Braitenberg vehicles, LEGO design, control theory, and robotics contests quite useful. The introduction to Assembly language in Appendix A is also presented in an easily accessible style.

I just finished participating in the MIT 6.270 Autonomous Robot Competition. This book really pulls together everything you need to understand how to build a robot from Lego parts, and interface it to the real world using a variety of sensors and actuators (aka motors). There is so much to be learned by actually BUILDING a robot - this is a great book to help you dig into your own project. You can order the same hardware and software used in the MIT class off the internet as well.

The basic content of this book is excellent. It provides a readily accessible introduction to the principles of engineering. This book could easily be used as the text for a first year course in a unified engineering curriculum including Computer Science. The one flaw with this book is that it appears to have been rushed out by the publisher. Many of the page references are to the wrong pages and some of the pictures are rather blurry. Finally, the instructions for creating and downloading ICB files to incorporate assembly language modules for interrupt side programming and similar purposes needs to be reworked in a future edition. I hope that a future edition will also have a chapter on electrical design and construction techniques to compliment the chapter on mechanical techniques. I also look forward to a third chapter on sensing and possibly a second chapter on control theory. Regardless, this is overall an excellent book and should be acquired by anyone interested in small robots.

After 12 years of running an engineering club, I finally found a helpful book. I work with students from 6th to 12th grades. My 8th and 9th graders have no problem following this book. As a matter of fact I can't keep it on my desk. It is frequently either checked out or on the floor with the "builder". Yes, it is a freshman college book but my kids seem to have no problems reading it. My students participate in BEST, FIRST and Botball.

This book is one of a kind, it was put out in the early 90s but the autobiographical essays are still valid. The quotes and newspapers tidbits are fanatastic as well. Format is reader friendly. If you have any interest in the working class, or human resources for that matter this book would be enlightening

This is not a book for employers, bosses, or anyone who represents authority in the workplace. (Although they might learn something from reading it.) No, this is a book for those who want to be reassured that they are not the only people who have ever lashed back at their employers. For those who are considering such actions, it gives some excellent examples of what can be done. There are also numerous quotes and news-clips about sabotage, employee moral, and the nature of work. The book is broken down by catagories such as office workplaces, entertainment industry, and the food services. Some anecdotes pale in comparison to others, but it is important to understand that Martin Sprouse collected stories from people from all walks of life. Some were more daring than others, but the emotions behind their actions are all the same. It is best read a few anecdotes at a time, otherwise the impact of each individual action is lost in a miasma of backlash. In all it is an enlivened book which speaks volumes as to the ways that the business place fails to inspire the loyalty or satisfaction which is so ofted touted as an essential aspect of productive work.

If you're in charge of workplace safety and security, this book will scare the hell out of you. If you're a wage slave, you will find many inspiring stories within. Whether or not you have what it takes to attempt to recreate these events, it is quite an entertaining read.

This book has HUNDRED of stories about "getting back" from people of all walks of life. Stories about the computer industry (deleting files, bugs), hotel, food processing, newspaper, office, military, government, retail, and many more. Well laid out, exciting stories and very informative. It has inspired me to write (edit) a spin off type book. I can't recommend it enough!

I read this book and dropped out of business school. I'll never respect another boss as long as I live.