Digital Books

This is a great book. It showed me new tips to do in Power Point that enhances your look of your presentation. I learned a lot of valuable information I will use in the future. The book was easy to follow and the CD has all of the templates discussed in the book that you can use or copy. I would highly recommend this book to someone who wants to improve their PowerPoint skills.

I do just enough presentations to know that I need to concentrate on improving my delivery and contents. I was excited to get a copy of Solving the PowerPoint Predicament: Using Digital Media for Effective Communication by Tom Bunzel. This is more than the typical "here's how PowerPoint works" book...

Contents: Planning an Effective Presentation; Implementing Professional Design Principles; Creating Dynamic Visuals; Secrets of Animation and Navigation; Using Video and Audio Effectively; Powerful Presentation Tools; The Latest Technologies - Beyond PowerPoint to the Future; Delivering a Killer Presentation; Index

Most books that talk about PowerPoint are tutorials on how to create one for your presentation. But realistically, nearly anyone can create a PowerPoint presentation with little effort. Whether it's effective or not is a vastly different story. Bunzel approaches the subject from the point of view of the presentation itself... what keeps an audience interested, what types of displays work to reinforce the message, etc. Once you understand what makes for a good presentation, it's much easier to decide what you should and shouldn't do in PowerPoint. Bunzel draws upon the experience of professional presenters, many who make their living using tools like PowerPoint to communicate to others. There are also a number of additional resources and recommendations for software you can add on to your presentation to make it stand out from others (photos, videos, software add-ons, etc).

For me, I was surprised to see how much animation can add to a presentation. I've always avoided the cheesy fade-ins and animations that come with PowerPoint, as I was under the impression that they were more distracting than helpful. But after reading this book, I realize that I've been limiting the possibilities. This is one of those books that could make the difference between boring your audience or firing them up, between being a one-time speaker to being a repeat invitee...

This book is a comprehensive resource for professionals who plan and deliver presentations. It begins with the basics and progresses to the use of more advanced presentation tools. This book also offers practical advice and step-by-step instructions (with numerous graphics and screen shots), which makes it easy for readers to immediately implement the techniques outlined. I especially liked having additional resources listed at the end of each chapter.

Everyone in the business world (and probably in government, education, and all the others as well) uses powerpoint. But that is not to say that it is used effectively. PowerPoint presentations can be just about as boring, trivial, and useless as presentations made in any other way.

This book is about how to make effective and hard hitting presentations. It is not a book on the mechanics of using PowerPoint, it is a book on using PowerPoint to communicate effectively. It teaches you to go beyond the normal bullets to tell a story that breaks through the barriers to reach the audience at all levels.

To be sure, the book does include a lot of information on doing more sophisticated things than normal with PowerPoint including using third-party add ons to extend its capabilities.

Recommended to anyone who makes presentations.

Tom Bunzel has been an indispensable presentation coach to me for years. In person and in his books he has an uncanny way to bring out the best in people. This book puts in one place Tom's knack for making technical stuff easy while keeping readers focused on the subtle arts of using PowerPoint to make effective presentations. This is the perfect book for new or seasoned presenters to take their communications to a whole new place.

This story had me from the beginning. Of course, who can resist puppies. But even so, a very clever way to introduce Izzy's family through the way they interacted with the new puppies.

Then Izzy is abandoned by her father, and left with a cold, distant mother. At this point she seems almost oblivious to what has happened, yet at the same time she is very independent. It's an interesting mix of strength and immaturity that does well in characterizing adolesence.

I have to admit the blurb sounded a little cliche, but the writing is good enough and the characters interesting enough to keep me reading and wanting to know what will happen next.

I'm so glad I stumbled upon this excerpt. The writing is terrific -- ironic, without being detached -- and the story is compelling. Leaves you wanting to read much more.

This is an endearing sentimental story about monumental loss. Izzy Chase has great spunk. She makes your heart get all fuzzy as you wish you could just hold her in your arms and say everything is going to be OK.

The opening scene with the puppy being squashed sets the stage for the impending seperation of Izzy's parents. I like the contrast between Izzy's pain over her parents spilt and the warm, wonderful relationship she has with the other puppies and her friend Jolene.

It was such an original coping mechanism when she started dying everything orange after her Dad leaves. I wonder if she'll ship him his orange clothes. I can't wait to see what other whacky and clever things she does in the wake of her parents spilt. I look forward to reading more of Elliott's endearing family story.

Izzy Chase is my favorite kind of heroine, a tomboy who toughens rather than crumbling in the face of tragedy and loss. We see glimpses of the trusting, happy girl in the young woman who's reinventing herself among performance artists, poets and drag queens in New York, but we mostly see the mask. Anne Elliott's writing has a beautiful compression and specificity, and this touching story is never sentimental or predictable. A writer who needs to be read by all!

Really love the opening scene with the dog. Izzy is very much a sympathetic character, especially as we learn more about her family background. The author's realistic style is highly readable, and we get a real sense of Izzy's thoughts and feelings although the book is written from a third person point of view.

The author's synopsis for what happens later in the book makes me want to read more--there is so much going on! I do feel bad for Izzy, though, for the "romantic disappointment" and "drunken date rapes" (Elliot)...

This book has great material on least squares filtering and spectral estimation techniques. And with Hayes providing the Matlab code to implement the formulas, it is a great help to the student in being able to run the code and see what the outputs should look like. The book reads well and is very easy to use. But it is not a substitute for an intro DSP book like Oppenheim/Schafer or Proakis.

This book very clearly explains advanced topics in DSP. The notation is consistent and very clean, as well as the book layout and the writing. The examples are useful and the review section is very helpful. This is how a technical book should be written.

I used this book to learn nearly all the topics covered in a hurry, in order to take the prelim exam at Berkeley. While it was a humbling experience, it made me truly learn to appreciate and love this book, and its great presentation and organization.

It starts off with a very good introduction to linear algebra and probability theory for engineers, which should give you a taste of the effective way that this book is laid out. The format is excellent, and the important points clearly highlighted. This is a real joy to read!

The magic doesn't wear off into the later chapters, which include topics in signal modeling, least-squares methods, MMSE estimation, Levinson algorithm, spectral estimation, and adaptive filters.

I find this book to be a great source for both learning and reference, and as a bonus it includes Matlab codes for all the algorithms mentioned here.

One complain is that there are certain topics that could be covered more effectively. For example, the relationship between the different signal models and filtering is not mentioned, and this could help understand the motivation of the different signal models in the first place.

Anyway, once you get past Oppenheim/Schafer, Proakis/Manolakis and Lyons' material this can be a great way to start your journey into the more advanced topics in signal processing.

Clear examples, clean derivations, and easy to understand style has Monson Hayes' his signature written all over it. I have his schaum's outline on DSP, and its just as good. I haven't finish perusing this book; i am currently on signal modeling (ch.3, i think) where pade, shank and other methods are derived, and i've already found plenty of application to work on.

homework problems include both mathematical and computer (matlab) exercises that help cement understanding the material at the end of each chapter.

applicable, yet theoretically appealing, this book is best for those who has had an introductory DSP course, although it is very much self-contained - the author starts with a comprehensive review of linear algebra and random processes - it will serve the serious student with an interest on statistical description of signals and system very well.

The book is beautiful, really neat. It contains all the essential topics that you will expect in a Spectral Analysis book. I stumbled across it in library and was impressed with the treatment that the author gave this subject. I now have a copy of my own. The topics range from basic to advanced including a few topics on adaptive filter theory.

Each treatment is almost immediately followed by an example, simple but powerful way to introduce you to this topic. I found this one feauture made the topics covered really enjoyable. Linear algebra review captures the essence of the style of this book. It is a welcome addition to this area in DSP. The one by Stocia is too mathematical to be called an introductory book. This one is way much above Stocia's mathematical nightmare.

Storm over Warlock is another boy and his animals story. The protagonist is an animal handler, and the genetically altered wolverines are his responsibility. One of his enemies lets them out to try and get him in trouble, so he has to go and find 'em.

This gives him the Luke Skywalker role, while said enemy and the rest of the people suffer the Owen and Beru fate.

He is soon hunted himself, leading him to strange adventures, conflict, and even stranger aliens, the Wyvern, with their magical illusionist abilities.

Storm Over Warlock is the first novel in the Warlock series. Warlock is the second planet in the Circe system. First scouted four years previously, a Terran Survey Corps team has been sent to prepare the planet for the coming of the first pioneers.

In this novel, Shann Lantee has joined the Survey team as contract labor from the Dumps of Tyr, performing the dirty, tedious clean-up jobs and the dull maintenance routines. Yet one of these jobs is the care and feeding of the mutant wolverines, which soon becomes an act of friendship rather than a chore. While the wolverines return this friendship, they are mischievous and cunning, enjoying an occasional outing without formal permission. During one such escape, Shann and the wolverines witness the Tharg attack that overruns the camp. As the only known survivors, Shann immediately increases the distance between themselves and the camp.

As they travel, Shann comes across a downed Terran scoutship being harried by Tharg flyers, but the Tharg weapons set off an explosion that destroys one of the Tharg vessels and drives the other Tharg flyer from the scene. Shann investigates the crashed flyer and is fired on and pinned down by a survivor, but then a rock smashes the Tharg's head from above, thrown by Ragnar Thorvald, leader of the Survey team. Thorvald has been off-world on Survey business and was returning for the arrival of the settler ship, but their hail of the camp was not answered except by the Tharg flyers. The scoutship had been damaged during the fight and the pilot killed, so Thorvald sets an explosive surprise for the Tharg and abandons ship.

When Thorvald recognizes Shann, he immediately asks about the camp and receives little good news. However, he realizes that the Tharg have probably left many Survey items within the camp, since they are no use to the aliens, and then conceives a plan to raid the camp disguised as natives, thereby concealing the presence of Terran survivors. Thorvald and Shann prepare primitive tools and weapons for the attack to add authenticity to the subterfuge. They use bolos, fireballs, stink bombs and spears to kill a few Thargs and create a diversion while Thorvald gathers items from the camp, then they escape on a raft.

Thorvald has noted a "hound" within the camp and suspects trouble. Later, they discover that the alien animal is following their trail and that they can neither evade it nor even kill it with any weapon at their disposal.

In the journey downriver, Thorvald finally admits to Shann why they are heading toward the sea. Thorvald possesses a curious bone-like medallion with hypnotic carvings that has been found on a sea island beach. The object was very unlikely to be Tharg work, so possibly Warlock holds, or once held, a native race living somewhere near the sea. When Thorvald allows a few drops of water to fall on the object in his hand, he looks dazed and acts like he is mind-controlled.

As they float downriver, both Thorvald and Shann have weird dreams about skull mounts and veiled caverns. The first-in scout also had such dreams, which sometimes coincided with an "emanation" registering on certain instruments. They speculate that the river water may have conducted the dreams to them from the sea.

When they reach the sea, the dreams are even stronger. Thorvald is now obsessed with finding the things or persons who are projecting the dream. Then Thorvald apparently succumbs to the lure of these dreams, paddling their canoe away while Shann is asleep on the beach. Shann tries to build another craft, but destroys it later as he sleeps. The dreamers seemly want to remain unfound.

This novel has the signature characteristics of early Norton stories: a courageous young person coping with adversity on his own, with aliens and animals as well as telepathy and other psionic powers. It also displays another signature personality trait: perseverance to the point of obstinacy.

Storm Over Warlock is recommended for all Andre Norton fans and anyone who likes stories about young people, friendly animals, and even somewhat friendly aliens, successfully coping with a hostile environment and even more hostile sentients.

In this book and it's sequel, Ordeal in Otherwhere, Andre Norton continued to develop the far future history that would sustain many of her books though the next decade.

Shan Lantee is very much a Norton young adult hero. Reared in the Dumps of Tyr, he fought his way into a laboring position as a caretaker for a pair mutant wolverines used by Survey in exploring the planet of Warlock. This precarious toe-hold on respectability was threatened by the malice of Garth Thorvald, a young cadet. However, Garth's malicious action in releasing the wolverines led to Lantee being absent from the camp hunting them when the insect like Throgs (aliens with whom the Terrans cannot find common meeting ground and so they fight a war of running skirmishes) attacked and destroyed it.

Heading away from the camp, Lantee chances upon a downed space ship and meets up with Garth's older brother, who had been off world an effort to slow down colonization of Warlock.

The two begin a fantastic adventure as they cross the vividly described countryside, pulled by a compulsion that cannot be explained, while dodging Throgs and natural threats.

This books definitely bears reading and rereading. I may like it even more now, than it did nearly forty years ago.

Norton is one of the most prolific authors ever within the fields of science fiction and fantasy. Most of her works are very workmanlike enjoyable reads, but are often quite formulaic, with little to distinguish one work from the next. Not so with this work, written when she was at the height of her powers as a science fiction writer before turning mainly to fantasy.

Shann Lantee is left stranded on the alien world of Warlock after the Survey camp of which he was the lowest member is wiped out in an attack by the Throgs, beetle like beings so alien no one has figured out how to have any intelligent discourse with. From this fairly stock beginning this book quickly progresses from learning how to survive under harsh conditions while being chased by the Throgs to an investigation of the power of dreams and the value of being able to distinguish between real and unreal when Shann meets the Wyverns.

The Wyverns, the semi-aquatic native race, are masters of the illusion, the dream made real, delvers into the pre-ordained while maintaining the right of individuals to choose their actions. Some of the images Norton paints in describing these people and the tests they impose on Shann have remarkable staying power, haunting and fittingly alien. Norton's thematic points here on the role of fate, individual drive and determination, and the possibility of there being truly intelligent beings that we will never be able to communicate with are all well drawn, never starkly thrown at the reader, but developed naturally from the events of the story. It is these images combined with her strong thematic points that elevate this book well beyond the standard young-man adventure story, though it is also a very good example of that type of page-turning story.

Norton's prose is pretty utilitarian, not scaling the walls of the unforgettable line, but at the same time managing to paint a very coherent picture of her scenes, characters, and concepts. This makes this book both readable and understandable to a wide range of audience ages, from early teen to adult. At the same time, the 'science' here is pretty soft, mainly techno-babble words and concepts that allow her to set the environment for her story, which she acknowledges at one point by referring the Wyvern technology as 'effectively magic'. This is not really a detriment, as the science is definitely secondary to her story of different kinds of people, human or not.

A fine adventure, a compelling look at fate and dreams, an outstanding vision of intelligence in many different forms.

ýThe Throg task force struck the Terran Survey camp a few minutes after dawn, without warning, and with a deadly precisionýý

The planet Warlock in the Circe System was being surveyed for possible human colonization when the alien attack wiped out Terran Survey team---all except for Shann Lantee, its youngest and least important member.

Shann now realizes that he is the only one of his kind left alive, ýon a none-too-hospitable world controlled by enemies---without shelter or supplies.ý He does have two companion wolverines---genetically altered and highly intelligent scouts---

Okay Norton fans, weýre on a strange planet but in otherwise familiar territory: a young, low-caste human companioned with intelligent, mutant animals, manages to survive with their freely-offered assistance. Because of his new-found ability to communicate with his wolverines, he also establishes first contact with Warlockýs mysterious, semi-aquatic Wyverns.

ýStorm over Warlocký is one of Nortonýs finest SF adventure novels, equally as exotic and exciting as her ýPlague Shipý or ýLord of Thunder.ý Her hero Shann not only needs to overcome the prejudice of his own kind and survive on a strange new world, he must also learn how to earn the trust of his companions, the wolverines Taggi and Togi.

Nortonýs non-human characters, whether they be wolverines or Wyverns are fully-realized, sentient beings. They are not pushovers for pathetic, starving humans, no matter how plucky and likeable. Shann has to earn his own way with them.

We, her readers must also earn our way. We must never expect to fully understand how a wolverine or Wyvern thinks. We must learn to accept them as our equals, no matter what their shape or thought-processes.

Andre Norton keeps us turning the pages, not only for the cliff-hangers that Shann gets himself into, but also for the tantalizing glimpses into the minds of her non-human characters.

A lot of IT developpers forget what is the main essence of a WEB site. This short paper describes how to be efficient and successful according to Porter's theory of competitive strategy.

BUT... you might have some difficulty to apply it if you haven't read the theory (competitive strategy & competitive advantage). There are a lot of examples so it's quite easy to understand, even for a beginner.

Michael E. Porter is a Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. He is a leading authority in the field of competition and strategic management. This article was published in the March 2001 issue of the Harvard Business Review.

"The key question is not whether to deploy Internet technology but how to deploy it." According to Porter companies should build on the proven principles of effective strategy since the Internet per se will rarely be a competitive advantage. "Many of the companies that succeed will be ones that use the Internet as a complement to traditional ways of competing." In order to prove his point Porter discusses a long list of subjects, such as distorted market signals ("New technologies trigger rampant experimentation ... as a result, market behavior is distorted and must be interpreted with caution."), the impact of the Internet on the five competitive forces and industry structure ("Its greatest impact has been to enable reconfiguration of exisiting industries."), and the myth of the first mover. He then switches over to the future of Internet competition ("The next stage of the Internet's revolution will involve a shift in thinking from e-business to business, from e-strategy to strategy."), discussing the impact of the Internet on competitive advantage. Porter also discusses the Internet as a complement to traditional business. He uses sidebar and figures to translate the impact of the Internet into his famous models and frameworks (five forces, strategic positioning, and value chain). "Only by integrating the Internet into overall strategy will this powerful new technology become an equally powerful force for competitive advantage."

Although this article has come too late for many Internet companies, it is essential reading for managers of organizations that are considering or need to improve their online strategy. It provides great insights into how the Internet links into traditional business and strategies. For readers unfamiliar with Porter's previous work I recommend his 1996-article 'What is Strategy?', or his book 'On Competition' which is great value-for-money. The author uses simple US-English.

To my surprise that this e-Book had provided me an inside of the structure of the Internet presently. Michael has identified key strategies for organizations needed to grow & survive in this still growing Internet business world. However, he only emphasized primarily on "what" need to be done in order to stay competitive. But, little has been mentioned on "how" these strategies need to be implemented, and numerous real-life examples will truly complete the entire understanding of this article.

Michael E. Porter is a Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. He is a leading authority in the field of competition and strategic management. This article was published in the March 2001 issue of the Harvard Business Review.

"The key question is not whether to deploy Internet technology but how to deploy it." According to Porter companies should build on the proven principles of effective strategy since the Internet per se will rarely be a competitive advantage. "Many of the companies that succeed will be ones that use the Internet as a complement to traditional ways of competing." In order to prove his point Porter discusses a long list of subjects, such as distorted market signals ("New technologies trigger rampant experimentation ... as a result, market behavior is distorted and must be interpreted with caution."), the impact of the Internet on the five competitive forces and industry structure ("Its greatest impact has been to enable reconfiguration of exisiting industries."), and the myth of the first mover. He then switches over to the future of Internet competition ("The next stage of the Internet's revolution will involve a shift in thinking from e-business to business, from e-strategy to strategy."), discussing the impact of the Internet on competitive advantage. Porter also discusses the Internet as a complement to traditional business. He uses sidebar and figures to translate the impact of the Internet into his famous models and frameworks (five forces, strategic positioning, and value chain). "Only by integrating the Internet into overall strategy will this powerful new technology become an equally powerful force for competitive advantage."

Although this article has come too late for many Internet companies, it is essential reading for managers of organizations that are considering or need to improve their online strategy. It provides great insights into how the Internet links into traditional business and strategies. For readers unfamiliar with Porter's previous work I recommend his 1996-article 'What is Strategy?', or his book 'On Competition' which is great value-for-money. The author uses simple US-English.

Michael E. Porter is Harvard Business School professor and a leading authority on competition. He has written several important novels and articles in the field of competition and strategic management.

In this Harvard Business Review article, Michael Porter describes the impact of the Internet on competition and strategy, through discussing distorted market signals, the impact on industry structure (Porter's five forces), the myth of the first mover, the impact on competitive advantage, and the Internet as a complement. The author concludes that the Internet does not render strategy obsolete, but makes it even more important than ever for companies to distinguish themselves through strategy. "... the fundamentals of competition remain unchanged. The next stage of the Internet's evolution will involve a shift in thinking from e-business to business, from e-strategy to strategy."

For various Internet-companies this article has come too late (March 2001), but it is extremely attractive and useful for all people looking to extend their traditional businesses into cyberspace (Internet, World Wide Web, and e-commerce). Michael E. Porter makes extensive use of his previous research into competition and strategy, and combines these with Internet examples and cases. The author uses simple US-English.

This is my favorite medical-debunking book of late, very related to the topic of end of empire, which is why I put it in my listmania of that topic, along with books on climate disaster, corporate/imperial/military-industrial complex overreach, peak oil and etc!). Levine is an erudite genius and skillfully and wholistically weaves anthropology, history, sociology and art in with his vast knowledge of orthodox medicine. Especially fascinating are his little known revelations, such as: during antebellum times in the USA, a slave who was a chronic runaway or disobedient would be diagnosed with a mental illness. Levine ties this in with current diagnosis of rebellious teenagers with their very own dysfunction to be medicated, ("compulsive anti-authoritarianism" (?) Well, I can't recall the term right now, had to return the book to the library, alas, but I suspect I will check it out again and again and eventually break down and buy it, which is a rare occurence. That just shows you how much I admire this book and find it valuable, especially coming from a large family full of misfit artistic melancholic, indigenous anti authority types).
~ Lesley Thomas, author of award-winning arctic shaman eco-novel Flight of the Goose

The rate of depression in the U.S. has increased tenfold in the last fifty years, indicating an underlying social issue as well as a health challenge. Surviving America's Depression Epidemic: How to Find Morale, Energy and Community in A World Gone Crazy surveys the roots of these issues, discussing how to revitalize depressed people and a depressing culture and offering insights on how to change ideas and behavior patterns. Both college-level holdings strong in psychology and general-interest lending libraries will find this a most accessible account identifying the foundations of societal depression and offering plenty of insights on how to combat it.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

The reviews here for this book so far have been pretty detached and impersonal. I'm now going to provide a personal account. I do not say this lightly: This book saved my life.

Last year I picked up Bruce Levine's "Surviving America's Depression Epidemic" at Barnes & Noble as a sort of impulse buy. I was scouring the self-help/psychology section during what was probably my worst depressive episode of my entire life. I don't know what possessed me to pick this particular book. I seriously wasn't expecting much. I wasn't actually familar with the author and the title itself is sort of hokey-sounding. I was prepared for nothing more than a superficial rewording of stuff that I'd already heard a million times or some crackpot theory. However, as soon as I got past the title and started on the introduction, I realized I was reading something very, very different. Dr. Levine's book is well-written, well-researched (the last 24 or so pages of the book consists of copious bibliographical notes), and well-designed. But it isn't just rehashing of old information with a new wrapper. Levine culls much insight out of the available research on not only the nature of what we call "depression" but also into the way we live.

What most struck me was that Levine absolutely refuses to oversimplify the problem of depression. He tackles the issues from an expansive sociological framework that puts what clinical psychology labels as an "illness" into a wider historical, social, and personal context. His thesis is as follows (quoting from the Introduction itself):

"Americans live in the age of industrialized medicine, and everyone - inside and outside of health care - is now in the same boat. Doctors are financially pressured to be speedy mechanics, and patients often recieve assembly-line treatment, which can be a painful reminder of their assembly-line lives. While most Americans manage to go to work and pay their bills, more than a few struggle just to get out of bed, and growing numbers feel fragile, hollow, hopeless, and defeated.

"In 1998, Martin Seligman, then president of the American Psychological Association, spoke to the National Press club about an American depression epidemic: '[W]e discovered two astonishing things about the rate of depression across the century. The first was there now is between ten and twenty times as much of it as there was fifty years ago. And the second is that it has become a young person's problem. When I first started working in depression thirty years ago... the average age of onset was 29.5. Now the average age is between fourteen and fifteen.'

"Despite the unparalleled material wealth of the United States, we Americans - especially our young - are increasingly unhappy. What is happening in our society and culture? How is it that the more we have come to rely on mental health professionals, the higher the rates of depression? And are we in need of a different approach to overcoming despair?"

Levine tackles these questions with tenacity and wisdom I've never seen in any other book on depression. He redefines depression itself as a coping mechanism to shut down the anguish we feel. He offers hope to those who feel sensitive and misunderstood by relating historical examples (from Abraham Lincoln to Kurt Cobain) and offers insights into how we as individuals can find ourselves at odds with the society we grew up in. Depression is not a disease to be anesthetized with drugs, but a vital cry of our own humanity calling out to us in a largely dehumanizing world. Doctors no longer treat us as individuals just when we truly need it, but rather we become a list of symptoms and a consequent prescription.

This all may sound at odds with the current research on depression as a biological disorder organic to the brain. However, Levine reveals that this isn't at all at odds with the current RESEARCH (which has never supported a purely chemical genesis for depression) but rather the current THEORY of biological depression as popularized almost exclusively by pharmaceutical industry propaganda. It's interesting that Levine wrote this book several months prior to the widely publicised findings earlier this year (originally made public by The Wall Street Journal in January 2008) of a survey of studies submitted to the FDA that were never published. (The survey revealed that the alleged efficacy of antidepressants may have been highly inflated.)

Levine's plan of healing is empathetic, wise, and liberating. I must state here and now that this book is not for people who have already made up their minds about depression and already decided they are "cured." If, however, you are like me and have not been helped by the current mental health industry and still feel numb, hurting, and lost in your life, I urge you to give this book a chance.

Had I heard what the book was about before I had the chance to actually read it, I might have dismissed it. However, several months after finishing it, my life has been completely transformed and I no longer feel so "broken." The term life-affirming gets thrown around a lot these days. But I cannot hesitate to call this a life-affirming read for anyone who is still struggling.

Levine also takes an interesting angle that I was not aware of when I first bought it (but apparently is in concert with the publisher's - Chelsea Green Publishing - credo). Levine posits that the society of consumer culture that contributes to depression cannot be sustainable in the long run. This is interesting and, although it may seem irrelevant when you just want to feel better, it actually helped me get out of my own head and see depression as a cultural problem as well. In other words, it helped me stop taking depression so personally. (This is an important point, and Chapter 5 deals with the dangers of "Self Absorption.") It is truly liberating to realize there may not be anything really wrong with YOU if you are depressed, but there may indeed be something very wrong with the society you live in.

And, if all that wasn't enough incentive to buy a copy, for the environmentally conscientious among us, Chelsea Green publishes all their books on recycled paper! You can't go wrong.

This book is much more than a self-help book--the issue is bigger than any one individual. All of us, whether we're depressed ourselves or not, have been touched by depression through friends, family, and colleagues. This book helps make sense of it all and offers suggestions about how, collectively, we get on the road to recovery. I am recommending this book to people at every opportunity. Dr. Levine hits the nail on the head.

I have just finished reading this book, and I am so grateful for every chapter. Other books on depression have left me feeling more confused, not less. I had read articles by Levine before and felt he was on point at analyizing why depressed people, including myself, are not being helped by current treatments. This book delivers valuable insights into how Big Pharma and its allies have won the minds, hearts and money of Americans. It also brilliantly takes to task America's skewed values - while offering energizing ideas for combating depression and crushed morale.

It is one of those few books that explains the concepts of label switching in a lucid style without confounding the readers. A must read.

This book delivers. Outstanding discription of concepts and very good reference sites.

Outstanding descriptions and comparisons of various switching technology models. Presents the nuts and bolt of switching and what they mean in terms of performance, scalability, etc. Also, some outstanding references. Clear writing style. Tough concepts sometimes seem simplistic, until incorporated into the models. Must read.

This book was the first in series on the MPLS topic by Yakov and Davie, the two leading experts in the subject area. At the time this book was published, people didn't even know the term MPLS as opposed to now when it has become a latest acronym to be exploited by marketing parasites.

This book gives an excellent description of different label switching techniques implemented by different vendors at the time, such as IBM, Toshiba, Ipsilon and cisco. This breaks down the chapters on vendor by vendor basis, explains their implementation and then at the end compares all the different approaches.

Even though Yakov and Davie are both from cisco, you can't tell it from reading the book because they have presented the implementations in total impartiality and fairness and only judging the implementations on its technical merits.

After reading the book, you'd understand fundamentals like FEC, label stack encoding, LDP and various techniques/signaling to carry label switching information.

If you want to buy a book om MPLS today, you should go for the latest edition of this book, titled, 'MPLS technology and applications'.

There is no doubt about this great written book. The reason I only gave this book 4 starts is that I bought the book of "MPLS : Technology and Applications " from the same authors before this one. The coverage and contents between those two books are quite the same - Douh !. My suggestion is that just buy the "MPLS" one if you do not care about CSR and ARIS stuffs too much.

That's an exciting and useful book in all synthesis manner: almost no gate-level circuits inside, as in modern EDA tools it don't need to.

A lot of algorithms (eg. log, sin, sqr...) which is beyond fast adders or one-cycle multipliers that can be easily found in many DSP hardware books. In fact, we make and sells a DSP state-machine chips in almost a million pcs that certain arithmetic circuit blocks is inspired by the book.

This book is quite original in its presentation. The selection of implementations is of interest.
The theoretical foundations are sound and presented in a well organized way.
The applications cope with the actual technology: especially in what concerns programmable devices.
It is a good book for advanced students and a must have tool for the professional designer.

In the part dedicated to general algorithms, very interesting new presentations or generalizations, made this work attractive at the theoretical point of view. Extensions of booth algorithms and generalizations to base B operation make the work innovative at the mathematical point of view. At the implementation level there is very good and innovative ideas towards special applications in FPGA (mainly Xilinx oriented). It would have been desirable to cope with some other technology, but the book may be considered self containing anyway.

The presentation of arithmetic theory and applications is innovative. Some of the topics are inedited; they present new approaches for both algorithmic and implementation aspects. It is a very interesting reference book for what refer to computer arithmetic in general and special purpose arithmetic circuit in particular.

There's a lot to like here. It goes over all the low-level stuff you could hope for, including creative number system, carry-lookahead, Booth encodings, and SRT division. It addresses some of the needs of crypto people, with discussion of finite-field arithmetic. It even gives enough intro to residue number systems for the desperate developer to gain a toehold - 10,000 digit addition or subtraction can be done in a few-digit time, as long as the expense of getting into and out of RNS are amortized.

That's all good for someone who can't trust their synthesis tools for good carry chains, or for someone headed way into the weirdness. The ranges where I live get distressingly little attention. If you need a dot product of two vectors, this will do a great job on the multiply and add steps as long as you can work out all the pipelining implications for yourself, but those were never the problem - it's the parallelism (how many multiplies can you run? how deep is your adder tree? or do you have something better?). It's the memory bottleneck (what do you mean you read "a word" from memory? I want 100). It's the numbers that number-crunchers use, i.e. IEEE 754, which get a moment of mention at the beginning and at the end. Those start turning strange with NaNs, signed zeroes, and denorms, then go totally off the rails when things like Intel (not always IEEE) compliance arise from the deep.

This could be a good text for a mid-level practitioner or student, fluent with logic design but blissfully ignorant of numerical analysis. If that's your trajectory, you'll spend some amount of time where this book lives. Then you'll advance, and it will no longer serve you. That's not a criticism, since every level has its own needs, but the prospective buyer should weigh needs to be met against needs that this meets. Not all readers will find a match.

-- wiredweird

Food cravings, yes. I'm there:

>> JorG longed for the cool, refreshing taste of some real Gurmling beer, and he wanted his lips to burn from the spiciness of one of the round cheese pie things that Cindy had made for him when he was on Gurm 12. Sadly, there were no Stubian substitutes for either. <<

This second in series to REDNECK RIVIERA opened with a pleasant reconnect to the pervious story. The references to simple, tangy tastes bid me welcome, accompanied by my dripping drools. Then slips of songs added auditory appeal, "OoomPaPaMauMau."

(Amazon Shorts, as noted in my review of V. O. by Betty Dravis, are brain stimulants, especially for awakening Right Brain Singularities and sliding through ozone worm holes).

I enjoyed the enhancements here of the previous story, embellishments tacked on in the recap.

>> What kind of universe was it that let the inferior Gurmlings develop the most succulent taste treat JorG had ever eaten, and not given the recipe to the Stubians. <<

I'm not gonna say what that treat was, but, "When the moon hits your eye like a big ..." Florida oranges and pecan logs were slurped in, too, blending a sugar-high into the turbo-charged tastebud ambiance. Salt, pepper, sugar; staples from the earth.

THEN JorG came on with the BIGGER addiction. NASCAR. I could only guess what was coming down the track, but no guess was needed about one thing:

The RACE was going to split my sides, not in pain, but in "hee haws" bursting forth.

I suppose I don't have to warn you, if you like Redneck humor, that the hilarious slang would not be expletively deleted. Don't know if that style should be accompanied by a warning to gentility, or a come on ("along and listen to, a lullaby on Broadway," dee doo, dee du..."). If you're a Redneck you know what a "Come-along" does; it drags heavy items across gravel and weeds, into the scuffed bed of a pickup truck.

The race car JorG had built for Billy Joe was not for the squeamish:

>> There was a small laser hidden in the right front fender that billljo could use to shoot out the tires of any car racer machine that was in front of him. <<

That, of course, was only the start of the list of "add on's," some of which were accompanied by the disclaimer, "... or at least, that was the theory. Should work! ..."

You know those fluky "never say never" advisories? The ones which automatically contain reality altering "boosters"?

Here's a doozy of a "never" statement, made by JorG in TALLADEGA TWOSTEP:

>> What the h..., he put it in the trunk, and figured that it would never be used! <<

"It" was a tractor beam JorG wanted to add to the mechanical-terror-tricks in the "space-travel-enhanced" race-car he had designed for Billy Joe.

Here's another "never" example from COAL & COCA COLA, one of my true stories "coming soon" to the Amazon Shorts collection:

"I'll never see that match book cover again."

You gotta see JorG's vehicle. It had its deck stacked so high Tim Taylor would back off in horror. Primed for seam-bursting comedy, I opened a box of Kleenex and placed it beside my laptop, ready to laugh with tears a-rolling. One box wasn't enough. (Okay, I'm exaggerating, but only slightly.)

I was glad this story was longer than REDNECK RIVERIA; I was ready for more. I was also glad RIVERIA was short enough for a quick reading investment to determine Don Harpe's reliability as a tall tale comedian.

I'll be reading this whole series, but will probably not review the next ones. If you read these first two, you'll not need a push to continue. E. Don Harpe is good at setting up anticipation for long hauls of hilarity, and he Super Glues the rivets. You'll be wide-eyed and dialed-in, maybe zeroed-in, too.

BTW, thanks for the braking power on the cliche's rolling off my tongue (drooling on the keyboard). The brakes didn't work, but we tried. Reading Harpe's Redneck Shorts, you might need that braking power. He'll take you for a RIDE.

VRRRROOOOOOOooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Houston, we have a launch!

Linda G. Shelnutt.

What do you expect when good ole boy Billie Joe gets help from his Stubian friend JorG to enter a NASCAR race using a Stubian special that JorG brought with him. Was that really Elvis helping out on Billie Joe's pit crew? These and other humorous answeres await the reader in this imaginative sequel to "Redneck Riviera." A must read for those who love redneck humor.

After reading the hilariously funny Redneck Riviera, I wondered if Mr. Harpe could maintain that level of humor in a series. I was not disappointed! He surpassed my expectations with Talladega Twostep. Having an alien (JorG) speaking the "Good ol' Boy" language, and dressing in an Elvis costume was a stroke of genius. Once again I find myself wondering if the author can maintain the humor in yet another installment - but somehow I believe he will! Move over Jeff Foxworthy - E. Don Harpe is coming!

Phil Whitley, author of KEECHIE

As an Amazon Shorts writer, something about Talladega Twostep, perhaps the title, held definite intrigue. With a penchant for good writing and a sucker for hilarity, I felt that JorG, a Stubian green with authentic pint nostalgia, indicated possibility. The story is well written. E. D. Harpe is a comfortable writer whose avid imagination I could easily enjoy.
Eugen M. Bacon
Author, The Hybrid/ The Firemaker: A Hybrid Story

After I read the first E. Don Harpe story, Redneck Riviera, on Amazon, I was hoping for a second, and when I saw Talladega Twostep, I was hoping it would be as much fun and as many laughs as the first one. I wasn't disappointed. Talladega Twostep is well written, it's a laugh a minute, and may even be funnier than Redneck Riviera. This series will give the rest of the redneck humor world a run for it's money! Great story, and now I'm waiting for number three.

Fremont County, Colorado's native daughter Linda Shelnutt, whose heart is rooted in its familiar soil but whose mind soars literally to the stars, has given us another in what she calls her 'visceral history' series. What I call it is her quest to publicize and pay tribute to the American Common People... to explore their inner nobility and devotion...and thereby to make an important point:

It is the little people of this land...who work hard...pay their taxes... and contribute by the example of their daily lives that is the source of the greatness of our country and the ultimate worth of the communities which make it up.

In past stories she has shown us the worth and honor present in the lives of individual coal miners, truck drivers, malt shop operators and bakers. In this piece she introduces us to Frank and Irene Witty...morticians.

No doubt they heard the words of the above title many, many times in their years of service to Linda's small community of Florence and its environs. What comes through most is that they ACTUALLY HEARD THEM... each and every time.

These simple people were the way I remembered doctors, pharmacists, lawyers, store keepers and policemen back in the Fifties. They were invested body and soul in the people and community they served. And let's not forget the milkman, breadman, laundry man and pastry man who delivered to your door. Remember them?? They were the family friends you said 'hello' to on the street. By its eloquent title this piece captures the core of their philosophy: these cold dead remains were somebody's loved one. they shared the grief of the survivors and helped them heal. They lived honorably and practiced what could be a mind-numbing profession with empathy and caring.

Linda presents her case with skill, exploring the downside of these good peoples lives as well as the triumphs. The humor and the foul-ups. What emerges is a portrait of American deceny that blends nicely into the growing composite of her community she's presenting for America to see.

Her overall message? To me it is "what a precious treasure we have in this country...the American People...why are we losing our way with today's bureaucrat infested, over-lawyered, flabby, empty society our rush to the "global economy" to the neglect of our own skilled labor force and the callous way we treat one another seems inevitably destined to bring about?"

These good people stand as a simple, eloquent tribute to the way it should be...to the way it could have been.

And Linda's concluding passage will bring tears to your eyes...tears of happiness...maybe even regret...certainly pride that this country produced such people. FIVE STARS John W. Cassell

John W. Cassell is the author of five books on the American Counterculture of the 1960's and 1970's, as well as numerous short stories primarily in the military fiction and adventure genres. He recently retired from a career in law enforcement and criminal prosecution that spanned from 1971-2006.

Almost all those who have reached adulthood have been through the experience of attending a funeral...this story is about a mortician and his wife, and their lives in a small town in Colorado.

Frank and Irene prepared people's loved ones for their final formal ceremony on earth....their own funeral. As they explain it, sensitivity to the grief of family and friends was what they believed to be the real key to a successful period of grieving from the moment of death to the burial, entombment, or cremation. Rural America of the early and mid twentieth century was known for intensely personal funerals, warm and supportive. After all, the deceased had usually lived in the community all of his/her life, and many of those attending the funeral actually had attended elementary school, Junior High, and High School in the community with the person in the coffin. And, what a difference there is between the funeral of one who dies young and a person who dies well along in years. Truth be told, it really can't be a total surprise to anyone when a person over the age of seventy passes on...the shock comes when a person under the age of thirty dies, and the sense of loss and wasted promise is keen. Such funerals required a degree of sensitivity and compassion that can't be taught...it must be a part of who you really are deep in your heart!

During life's most difficult and saddest times, it's comforting to know there will be people like Frank and Irene to lighten our burden.

--- John Michael O'Loughlin

I just finished reading, This is Someone's Loved One: An Undertaker's View. A revealing story about a man and wife who spent decades caring for the remains of loved ones who passed on. As with other writings by the author, Linda G. Shelnutt, the story is masterfully written.
On a personal note I have been to many funerals, some family and many friends. I have also, as a police officer, observed what goes on in the rooms where the dead are prepared for burial; sometimes even being subjected to autopsy. Respect was always foremost in every case.
In this story you will meet Frank and Irene Witty, the "undertaker" and his wife. Both tell of a life committed to honoring the dead and providing a indispensable service. In addition, Frank and his wife gave solace to those left behind.
The author, through her professional writing ability, took me on a tour that even I learned from. Questions that I have always wanted to ask, but was afraid to, were answered.
A must read, for we all lose loved ones and have a need to know what process takes place when the hearse arrives.
Great work, Linda!

Richard Neal Huffman (my wife's name, Jane Huffman, is listed but I wrote this review).

The Bear And I

"This is Someone's Loved One: An Undertaker's View" is the chronicle of two selfless people who dedicated their lives to easing the grief of others. On the surface, it is the telling biography of mortician Frank Witty and his wife Irene, but dig a little deeper and you find a parable about love and sacrifice from an exclusive and unique class of inspired artisans.

With this story, Linda G. Shelnutt has created another riveting account in her ongoing series of documentaries detailing the lives, loves, needs and dreams of the middle class working man and woman of America; decent and unpretentious people who sometimes work in the shadows of obscurity, but who help raise up their neighborhoods and communities just the same with their unflinching commitment to integrity, distinction, and each other.

Ms. Shelnutt is a great writer, but she also understands the subtleties of her primary objective. A great biographer never makes the story about the narrator, but about the subject; she never allows herself the conceit of rising above the people whose humble lives she is recording. With straight forward, honest prose, she draws the reader into a world where her subjects have struggled without protest, lays bare their deepest emotions and, by extension, the emotions of her audience as well.

Take for instance, Mr. Frank and Irene Witty, who buried over 4,000 dearly departed over the course of their long careers. Since so few of us look forward to dying, that's an awful lot of reluctant clients!

"You've gotta be some kind of nut to stick your nose in all that," Frank concluded with a half smile. His sense of humor was quick and lifting as his tears were ready and real. He and Irene repeated that many people they assisted during the death of loved ones had become family. Having buried 4,000, that gave him an extended group.

A medical examiner working in a metropolis with a population that exceeds 500,000 people could go an entire career without ever having to perform their grisly work on someone they knew; the Wittys, working in the small town of Florence, Colorado during the late `40's through the early `90's, had the unenviable responsibility of laying to rest many friends and acquaintances, the family of friends, the friends of friends, and, sadly, the children of friends. Most people despise the sound of a shrilling telephone, but imagine having a job where the sound of a ringing phone portends the death of someone - possibly someone you know - almost every time it rings. Death has no schedule, so the Wittys were always on call; when you're a mortician, every shift is a graveyard shift.

Like Frank Witty said himself, "You've gotta be some kind of nut to stick your nose in all of that."

Frank Witty was a mortician by title, his wife was a beautician, but they were both so much more than that. They were artists, psychologists, theologians, magicians and grief counselors. Neither of them had a happy job, but together, they helped people through the distressful process of burying a loved one. A funeral is never easy for the people who are left behind, but the Wittys did as much as they conceivably could to ensure that the proceedings went as smoothly and as painlessly as possible. `We Care' is a slogan many impersonal businesses prop up on their door; the Wittys had it engraved into their very souls. People could not help but react favorably to the warmth of their spirit, despite the depressing circumstances of their meeting.

With "An Undertaker's View," Linda G. Shelnutt takes the reader gently by the hand, leads them beyond the black curtain, and introduces them to a world not often explored in mainstream non-fiction. She lifts the veil on the secrets of embalming, dressing and casketing (always with good taste), and the delicate art of applying make-up to imbue a body with the verisimilitude of life. Often times, especially in the cases of people who have died from a wasting disease, Frank and his wife can make the deceased look better lying in state than they appeared in their hospital bed prior to passing away. In this case, the Wittys are able to give hope and joy to the grieving; it is far easier to believe a loved one is in a better place if they look healthy and at peace in their coffin.

Frank and Irene honestly cared for the bodies that came under their careful ministrations. They treated them with honor and with dignity. Linda G. Shelnutt does the same for Frank and Irene Witty, acting like their literary mortician as it were, dressing them up, laying them out, placing them on view one final time, so that we may all come together to celebrate and honor the lives of these two people who gave and sacrificed so much so that others would suffer less.

Let us hope that the Funeral Director who took care of their final arrangements treated them with as much respect as they treated their clients, or with as much care as Ms. Shelnutt treated them.

ERO

"This is Someone's Loved One: An Undertaker's View" is the story of the life of Colorado undertaker Frank Witty and his wife Irene. Frank worked for over forty-five years as a licensed embalmer and judging from this story he was the perfect man for the job. While he is self-deprecating (saying he wanted to be a doctor but was afraid he'd be dead before completing the training so he became a mortician), he has a nice gentle sense of humor and is filled with compassion. Irene also seems to fit perfectly into the role of being an undertaker's wife, even fixing the hair of the deceased. People who had to bury their loved ones were fortunate to have the Wittys to help them.

Using the image of weaving a tapestry of their lives, author Linda G. Shelnutt does a wonderful job of making the reader feel as if they knew the Wittys. Frank's story is especially interesting as he was essentially on call all the time (death doesn't follow a schedule) and yet never complained and always had compassion and respect for all the dead and their families. In particular he got upset when someone referred to a body as a "stiff" or otherwise disrespected the body. Both Frank and Irene have a nice sense of humor, but never at the expense of the deceased, like when Irene, who fixed the hair of the deceased, mentions that while she had a lot of work, she never had any complaints. One of the most interesting parts of the story is when the Wittys talk about the tradition different cultures have when burying their dead - it was fascinating to read about how the Chinese, Orthodox Jews, and others honor their dead. Reading the story you get the impression that Frank cared for each and every person he buried and his eleven-year-old niece summed it up well when she said, "Uncle Frank makes all his people die with smiles on their faces."

Linda Shelnutt has a nice way with words, which shows in the way she uses the tapestry images as she weaves in the details of the Witty's life throughout the tale. She wraps up the Witty's tale so nicely that I had tears in my eyes twice - the first time with the story of a visit that hummingbirds made to a grieving widow and the second time when reading the very last sentence.

Well done.