Digital Books

"Inside an Empire of Mediocrity, the spirit of rebellion is reborn" - "Corpse of Freedom" is initially a story of friendship, following a teenager named Ryan and his befriending of Jeffery Neil. The only problem is that Jeffery Neil is dead and Ryan only knows about him through the online blog that Jeffery left behind. "Corpse of Freedom" follows Ryan and his adventures spiraling out of that, partially believing that the corpse has cursed him while he tries to escape the black hole of his hometown, as he's hunted by a strange tough guy and the area is swarmed with cops. "Corpse of Freedom" is an offbeat, entertaining, will make the reader think, making it highly recommended to fiction shelves everywhere and anyone looking for a different sort of story.

Great book. A fun, fast, and entertaining story about teen angst without any apology. It expresses a growing undercurrent in our society. Nothing contrived. The symbolism and metaphor don't bog you down with too much purpose and meaning. Just an entertaining coming of age book. And Funny, too. I haven't laughed so hard at characters and dialogue in a long time. I really recommend it as a change for any reader looking to read something with a fresh voice, instead of the same old stale prose.

This book without a doubt takes readers along an unconventional narrative-joy-ride at breakneck speed. By overlapping multiple narratives, clues and peripheral characters' stories, Corpse's pace moves a lot like a screenplay, dropping readers in and out of simultaneous scenes and unexpected dream sequences, bouncing back and forth through what feels like a ping-pong game of fun house mirrors complete with car chases, house parties and sex scenes. Maybe it was intended to be a teen-read, but the underlying message ups the ante from intelligent young-adult level to adult-level.

On one hand we have a story about teenaged existential conflict. On the other hand, (if the first isn't full enough for you) we have the exhumation of a corpse. But, instead of reburying him, Ryan chooses (against his friends' pleas) to keep his new "friend" Jeffrey, taking him home, to the park, or along for nights out on the town. Ryan finds Jeffrey's online journal entries written just before his mysterious death and finds himself drawn to their wisdom in a way that has heretofore escaped him in empathizing with the living. Ryan has grown up in this suburban American town whose atmosphere is literally browned by the mundane and confined lifestyles of its dwellers, where colorless corporations are fast taking over. Escape from "Everdale, USA" has been Ryan's only hope in amounting to someone distinctive but before "meeting" Jeffrey, all these hopes and ideas had been buried and unarticulated.

But how long can Ryan hang onto this corpse when a tattooed mystery-man in a devilish souped-up Buick Riviera is after him to claim it? Ryan's life and everyone else's around him is quickly spiraling out of control. Is this corpse cursed?

This book reads like a verbal rock 'n roll video, fast paced and hilariously strange but has a much deeper statement to make that shines through. While wholly unreasonable in reality, in the world Dax and Lloyd Garner create, this story totally works. Of course, we need to forgo our qualms with carrying decayed bodies around, talking to them, partying with them, for the length of two hundred seven pages. Normality doesn't apply here. Irony does. Which is exactly the stuff that keeps you thinking after the book's been set down. It is bold and intense, rooted in what one can only describe as a seriously original way of tackling the subject of existentialism and teenage-angst. It will leave you pondering its pieces for days.

Every once in a while, a great novel for young adults comes along. These are the true standouts among the genre; "A Catcher in the Rye" by Salinger, "The Outsiders" by Hinton, and most currently "Corpse of Freedom" by brothers Dax and Lloyd Garner.

This fast-moving read is the story of Ryan, a typical suburban teenager living in Everdale, a typical American suburb. One night Ryan and his friends try to shake off the ennui of their suburban existance by digging up the corpse of a teenager named Jeffery Neil.

After partying with the corpse, Ryans so-called friends ditch him, leaving him to keep the corpse in his filthy bedroom. Not knowing what to do about his dilemma, Ryan just keeps the corpse in his room while he tries to live out his life as normal as possible.

Ryan soon decides to Google Jeffery's name to find out more about him, and comes accross an online journal the teen kept right before he died. Through this journal, Ryan develops a quite unnatural friendship with the corpse, learning as much about himself as he does about Jeffery.

Jeffery's philosophy about freedom, individuality, and personal pursuit of excelence makes Ryan come to terms with the fact that his life is going nowhere fast. When he ditches his old friends and meets an independent young man named Manuelo, the two embark on an adventure of freedom outside the fishbowl of suburban conformity.

Add to this plot Ryan's infatuation with the snotty, spoiled little high-school princess, numerous confrontations with her boyfriend (the wealthy school stud), and a ghoulish stalker who hunts him down like wounded prey, and you have a great novel that even seasoned fiction afficianados will enjoy!

Like "I Am the Cheese", "Anthem", and "The Giver", "Corpse of Freedom"'s Libertarian message of personal liberty and individuality make it a must-read for every American adolescent. Who knows? It just may even counteract the socialist, conformist mentality being fostered in todays American youth (if we're lucky!)

A good user friendly guide to help you understand the shortcuts and operation of Cubase. I found Robert Guerin's explanations of midi and it's use in cubase most help full.Also the use of the project pool and how best to organize and remove files on the hard drive.In the back of the book you will find the most relevent shortcuts for use on the keyboard for Audio recording and Midi operation.
There is alot more to the book as others have aready mentioned.
The bottom line is if your having trouble understanding how to operate this recording software,BUY THIS BOOK!
This book is definitely worth buying.

This book is twice what the handbook is, especially if you only have the pdf version. Since the pdf version is the only version you get when you buy Cubase and if you want the hardcopy version you have to buy it, save yourself some time and money. Buy this book instead of the Cubase manual. This book is easily laid out and enjoyable to read. The illustrations are right on the mark and compliment the text excellently. My knowledge of Cubase doubled after reading this book, and it helped take my recording to the next level. As I pick out recordings and listen to them, it is easy to tell which one were recorded before reading this book and which one were recorded after. I recommend this book for anyone serious about recording using the Steinberg Cubase software.

Cubase SX and SL are exceptional packages that actually come with good manuals. Unfortunately, the reference manual is 700 pages long and only provided on disk (to be fair, it is also available for purchase separately). Some people adapt well to electronic books, but I don't - I like to riffle through the pages looking for useful tidbits and inspiration. For folks like me, Robert Guerin has written the perfect book.

Cubase SX Power is written very much from the practitioner's point of view. It offers a tour of the software, accompanied with little exercises, that covers the things most likely to be of importance to someone trying to create and record a piece of music. As such, it is a bit more focused that the manuals are. It tries to give you the basics you need, and doesn't dwell at length on some of the more intricate details that are more confusing than helpful at first..

What it does very well is get you over the initial learning curve that Steinberg's software presents to the novice. The writing style is clear, without any frills. This isn't a 'for dummies' kind of book though - Guerin assumes that the reader already knows some of the basics of recording and is intelligent enough to have a computer in the first place. The book has stood the test of time for me and is often the first place I look when I have a question - which is the best recommendation I can give any reference book.

Anyone who has Cubase Sx knows that the rather large manual comes in PDF format on the CD. This is both annoying and a little cheap on the part of steinberg. To the rescue come Robert Guerin's Cubase Power. Much more than a manual this is a great tool for anyone who uses Cubase SX. If you new to the program or a long time user, this book is a must. The thing that sets this book apart from many similar books is the writing style of the author. Using a clear and easy to follow style, he never gets bogged down in the details but never loses site of what he is trying to teach you. Teaching by example he leads us thought real world ideas and issues.

I kept thinking about another book "Making Music With Emagic Logic Audio by Stephen Bennett" while reading this. How deferent the two books are. How one author has a clear idea of what he is trying to do and how another is lost in useless details and unclear language. How one may be a an "expert" but have little idea how to share the knowledge in easy language.

This book should come with Cubase SX instead of the PDF manual. It would make using Cubase SX an even more elegant and rewarding experience.

What a power tool in a few short pages! I would reccommend this essay to any writer. It is now taped to my computer desk and I am odering, today,of all his books from Amazon.

As a 40-year journalist (columnist/editor/publisher), and now author of three books, I thought I knew it all (famous last words). I was always fairly confident of my punctuation, grammar, POV, and the various techniques of writing, but frankly admit that I often hesitated when it came to paragraph and section breaks.

So when I saw the title of Mr. Lukeman's Amazon Short, I thought: AH-HA--that's exactly what I need!

I downloaded that sucker quicker than a cursor-blink--and am I ever glad I did! I learned more in those few pages than I learned from more than forty writing books in my collection. As a result, with the current book I'm writing, I feel much more confident of where, when and how to end my graphs and section breaks.

Thanks, Mr. Lukeman. Now I DO know it all. LOL ...

An interesting essay on paragraphs being punctuation and the effective use of paragraphs to bring a story to life. He presented a number of ideas I'll be using in my own writing.

Noah Lukeman's book has great value for both personal and professional communication. It's like owning a magical tool that translates vague thinking into precise action. There's nothing like it on the market.

This book is great. The information provided will help anyone that is thinking about trying infrared photography. Digital cameras make the process so much easier without the hassle of trying to find a pro lab that will develop infrared film. This was a good purchase and I intend to get lots of use out of it.

Infrared light is close in the spectrum to heat. As a result, cold things like trees and water dramatically change their appearance. And the warm skin of people put out a more intense image. Again because of the heat effect, skin blemishes such as acne tend to disappear. This may offer some distinct advantages in photographing young people. Likewise the somewhat strange effect produced by infrared photography may have effects that appeal in industrial or commercial shoots.

While there are a lot of books on taking, using, processing infrared pictures, in this book that only takes up about half the content of the book. The most interesting half is on getting yourself an infrared camera. At the minimal end of the game there's building yourself a filter that can be put on the front of a camera. Or, you might consider that some cameras are easy to convert to infrared photography only. He gives a list (many of these are under $100 on eBay that can be professionally or perhaps even converted by you.

Actually, as the author points out in several places in this book, digital infrared photography is exclusively near infrared (NIR)photography, and should not be confused with heat/thermal photography, which, as Busch says, is something else entirely.

Indeed, the technical accuracy and depth of coverage are one of the strengths of this book. It explains the process of IR photography in enough detail that even those new to this type of shooting will be comfortable with the technical demands, which, after you've read the book, aren't that complicated at all.

There are two other aspects that I particularly enjoyed. First, unlike most other books in IR photography, this one doesn't deal exclusively with landscape photography. Instead, the author invites you to explore architectural photography, close-ups, even sports (!) and other varied subject matter. If you thought of IR photography as a quirky special effect, you'll discover that it's a genre of its own.

Second, the do-it-yourself parts of this book are commendable. The author shows you how to build an auxiliary viewfinder from parts salvaged from a single-use film camera, how to make your own IR filter on the cheap, and how to convert your own camera to full time infrared shooting. There are even step-by-step illustrated instructions for converting a popular camera model.

None of the other IR books I've read touch on all the topics found here. This is highly recommended.

I picked up this book after already being really interested in IR photography, or as David corrects, is near IR photography.

He shows you how you can convert your camera, but also recommends LifePixel for conversion, which I had done. He does not steer you wrong there with that suggestion. I do have some sample images on my blog at [...]

David gives you several ideas for dIR photography and more than just typical IR subjects as well. This is a definate keeper.

I gave this Comic to my little 10 year old brother since he spends most his time playing video games, and i try to get him to read, but this is the first book where he actually enjoyed reading and he is asking me to get volume 2, I am very impressed of his improvement. I look forward to reading this myself, since i have already read and watched the original Ramayana, I expect it to be as deep and penetrating as the Original Ramayana

Wonderful. Epic. Fantastic. Whatever, just get the next volume out as fast as possible because I can not wait for it.

As the title of this review suggests, this is a very vivid comic book, both in plot and illustrations. This is the most beautiful comic book I've seen so far. The illustrations are very intricate, just like Hindu art. I also like the storyline, which is a combination of Hindu myth and the Matrix. The only problem is that I'm anxious for volume two to come out.

Deepak Chopra & Shekhar Kapur's Ramayan 3392 AD Volume 1: The Mahavinaash Age (Ramayan 3392 A.D.) I didn't realize that Volume 1 also included the first book and the rest of the issues released. I ended up buying them separately as well. But the story and the graphics were amazing. Being a sci-fi/fantasy buff, the mythology being discovered is great. I grew up hearing Ramayan from my grandfather when I was little, so to see a twist to the story is pretty cool.

This book is designed and written for higher education institutions which are considering or are engaged in distance education as a new education communications channel. The book's greatest strength is that it contains perspectives from many different individuals who are actively involved in distance education. The topics cover many different areas such as: defining distance education, implications for higher education, attraction of online distance education, future of distance education, faculty perceptions of distance education, teaching effectiveness, strategies for success, service providers for distance education, quality assurance issues, success factors, and many others.

Those in higher education will often adopt a new technology without fully investigating the potential and cost of the technology. This book has an excellent section on the benefits and disadvantages of using distance education. It is noted that distance education is not a panacea but it is another useful technology that can be used to enhance learning and meet needs of students who are not able to attend a traditional class-learning environment.

The reader was very impressed by the excellent end of chapter references. This will allow anyone who desires to investigate more fully the issues raised in the book to do so. The chapters dealing with various distance education delivery models and implementation will be useful to those who wish to move forward with this technology in their organization.

The reader highly recommends that those interested in distant education take the time to read this book before they embark on distance education. The book will help to minimize "re-inventing the wheel" and thus save time, money and effort.

This book provides an outstanding range of ideas, research, and insights into distance learning programs. The book is enlightening about how to improve distance teaching and learning, the design of these programs, their successes and failures, and how they are impacting institutions of higher education,

This is a great book for anyone considering setting up a distance learning program. The authors are even-handed in their treatment of issues that must be dealt with and provide practical advice for implementing a distance learning program.

The eyes of University Presidents and Vice-Chancellors all around the world light up as they think of those hundreds of millions of potential students out there, just waiting to pay money to study at their Universities - "If just 1% of them came here.... $$$$!!! Information Technology via the Internet and on-line delivery of our courses - will that provide the answer?" As Universities (and other educational institutions) rush to establish a presence in the "virtual" education market, often building Internet classrooms that in many cases resemble the "Field of Dreams" model - "build it and they will come" (they don't, and won't, of course) this book is a welcome steadying contribution.

Let me declare an interest before going any further - I am the author of a chapter in this book. That said, the book provides a serious collection of research articles aimed at making some early sense out of this fast-growing area. It is important to remember it is early days yet and much of the research conducted to date, and the practice, is preliminary - a problem compounded by the rapidly changing technology.

While most of the chapters in the book paint a generally optimistic picture, there are many problems, pitfalls and dilemmas identified. These range from restrictions and difficulties involved in state financing of education, through the difficulty of authenticating student work and testing of students, technological limitations, special dedication and skill attributes required in students, the suitability of some courses to remote delivery, to library strategies. This suggests that at least in the eyes of these practitioners (and most of them are) it will be far from plain sailing. Somebody needs to tell those Presidents!

There are several chapters that provide guidance in (very early) "best practice" and these present a useful if somewhat disjointed guide for those considering running such courses. Perhaps a future work could attempt to establish a "best practice" manual, although as the courses come to conform to a standard blueprint the competitive edge will blur.

For academics the book identifies many areas for additional research. These include further work in the potential take up of on-line education by both students and Universities, the influence of the isolation effect, measurement of learning achievements, and interaction of students with the technology.

Overall the book offers a very good collection of experience and research. There is much more work to be done and many more experiences to be had. Uninversity management (and many academics ) will push to move ahead - there could be a lot of fallout, but in the end is it just possible this could be the University of the future? For a small percentage of students - maybe.

Clear, non-technical descriptions of telecommunication terminology and concepts are what the reader can expect from this title. It covers LANS, WANS, voice, data, and standards.

There are so many Telcomm terms and there are more every year. It's always good to have a easy-to-read technical reference book like this one. It's easy to read even for a Taiwanese! :-)

Btw, I hope there will be revised version of this book every two or three year. Thank you Mr. Muller, the author of the book, for providing the nice book.

This is a remarkably good reference work, especially considering (or because?) it is the work of one person (and no doubt a good editor). The articles are long enough to cover complex topics yet focused enough to provide a handle on the subject. Muller has an excellent sense of proportion. He offers succinct synopses of technical matters without getting bogged down in stuff only an engineer would understand. You can get a quick overview of "distance learning" and "outsourcing," on the one hand, or PCS 1900 and CDMA on the other. And all of it is very well and clearly written. Useful for anyone in the industry, or just for the curious.

This book it's has to be in every engeener desktop and also it's a great dictionary for universities stands and for students tools.

I always enjoyed foreign movies as dialogue was always so rich, so vivid, awakening. Good writing is for me a magnet, the pleasure almost spiritual. Sometimes in sci-fi and fantasy, authors forget to actually write and, instead, focus on mathematics, empericals or paranormals. Diabolical Compassion is one of those authentic pieces not subject to genre or media 'hype' but a powerful testimony of authentic writing.
Eugen M. Bacon
Amazon Shorts Author, The Hybrid/ The Firemaker: A Hybrid Story

Del Toro is a prolific writer in the Spanish language, so what a nice surprise it is to discover she writes in English, too. About ten years ago I read one of her books, "Un Dios para Cordelia", in Spanish. The first thing that I noticed about the writing was how she liked to write is a style I would describe as jazz music---the ideas being presented were clear and interesting by themselves but here and there she would express them in a phrase, sentence or an entire paragraph in such a clever and poetic way that I would pause and say 'wow'. The same thing happened when I read "Diabolical Compassion", a lovely little short that renewed my faith in the human race when I read it.

I loved this story! It is rare to find this kind of insightful commentary, scandalous behavior and smart humor all in one story. I have been waiting for the opportunity to read something by this author in English, and I was not disappointed.

I am constantly trying to get new stuff, and I really like short stories, so now that you have this Amazon initiative of selling short pieces, I have the opportunity to read remarkable stories such as Diabolical Compassion, from Malu Huacuja Del Toro, this is not the first piece that I read from her and she never let me down. Honestly she is one of the sharpest pens around.

This book provides an excellent overview of the emerging trends in the digital marketing age. It's a must read for marketing professionals looking to capitalize on advances in technologies. The authors did a great job explaining the marketing relevance of a myriad of new digital technologies without getting into all the technical details.

I hope the authors continue to update this publication as the industry is moving at warp speed. One area I'd like to see discussed in more detail is the role of Mashups in Digimarketing.

I found the discussion of consumer mashups both interesting and informative but how about enterprise mashups that mashup data from sources other than publicly available web sources? A good description of the difference between consumer and enterprise mashups can be found at: [...]

I have been looking for this kind of book for years. The term "digimarketing" immediately caught my attention. I have to thank the authors for taking the courage to write this easy-to-be-obsolete book. Wertime and Fenwick did a very good job in making all the techincal stuff become so easy to understand to most marketing managers who don't have deep technical savvy. I also love the beauty of how this book is organized. Yet what I like most is the last part of the book where you are guided to bring everything to a step-by-step implementing plan.

It is no doubt that "digimarketing" is increasingly important versus traditional marketing. It is now already "mainstream" as emphasized by the authors. Those marketing professionals who do not pay enough attention to digimarketing will soon find left far behind. And for small business owner like me, this book is extremely helpful. It captures in a very friendly manner everything that I had to read and consolidate from a dozen of other books on the similar topic. I will start implementing what I read right now! Strongly recommended!

DigiMarketing: The Essential Guide to New Media and Digital Marketing

Great book. Highly recommended. Really captures many of the most important trends and technologies that are shaping electronic commerce. I have seen many of these same issues, trends and cases in other publications and books but DigiMarketing brings them all together in a highly educational manner. This is a MUST READ book for anyone who wants to stay ahead of these crucial trends

Just finished reading DigiMarketing. I found it to be a terrific read --
interesting, informative, and well-organized. The examples and
DigiMarketing best practices were very useful. It's the kind of stuff that
I can refer to when I do my next digital campaign. I also liked the
digital marketing planning framework that was covered in the third section
of the book. That was also very helpful and informative. As a small
business owner, I need this kind of practical information. I hope the
authors will be publishing updated versions of this book in future years.

Over the past couple of months I've read a small pile of computer graphics books from the "Inspired" and New Riders [digital] series and others. I would put 3D design in the position of being one of the first practial how-to books a beginner should work with. Each section is clearly laid out, doesn't confuse with too much detail, and helps you gently step into CG. This book will get you oriented and everything after this will just be deeper studies in specific areas.

A lush, beautiful introduction to the world of 3D. Perfect for newbies and those just wondering what 3D is all about. Plus it includes a Cinema 4D tutorial (building a photo-realistic pool cue).

This book left me wanting more from this publisher and this author.

The BEST book out there for beginning 3D artists. Period. Should be included with all 3D software packages. If you're thinking about getting into 3D design, buy this first!!!!!!

Digital 3D Design is like a visual dictionary for the 3D design world. Out of all the 3D books I own, this is the one I recommend the most in teaching 3D and animation classes (with Bill Fleming's Photorealistic Toolkit a close second!).

It covers concepts and terms (introductory and advanced) in very clear and concise ways, fully illustrated.

It discusses all the major 3D packages, including Maya, LightWave, Cinema 4DXL, ElectricImage, SoftImage and others, discussing advantages of each.

It covers views, 3D space, lighting, shading, textures, resolution, UV mapping, splines, curves, polygons, points, advanced modeling concepts, raytracing, rendering, radiosity, setting up skeletons, animation, inverse kinematics--everything you'd expect if you were looking for the ideal textbook for a 3D class (I'm using it for my modeling and animation classes).

All this for around less than $30. A book every 3D designer, and instructor, should own! Highly recommended.