Multimedia Books

I use Photodraw on a daily basis, too, for my web graphics...for the last 9 years. I have tried other editors, but nothing is as useful to what I do with images as Photodraw. I am amazed, too, that I'm still using it, but I absolutely love it. I so wish MS had never let this one go.

If you're a PC person and want to do graphics like those Mac people with Photo Shop, this is the program for you. Nine years after I originally bought this product, I still use it on a daily basis. Those Photo Shop people have to do multiple tasks to get things done, when PhotoDraw V2 gets them done in one click. The ease of use of this product made me a believer in its capabilities.

I have owned MS Photodraw V2 for almost 9 years, having first purchased it with MS Office 2000. Like the other reviewers, I use it on a daily basis and I am still amazed with its functionality and the quality of the results. I also own Adobe Photoshop and use that occasionally but for most picture editing projects, I use MS Photodraw. Being able to crop, resize, add special effects (such as making a pic and animated .gif or putting 3D into the picture), cloning parts of an image, erasing/adding areas back into the pic, and adding text are just small examples of how I continue to use this product. Little did I know 9 years ago that I would still be using any computer program from that time period, but when Microsoft made MS Photodraw, they created a timeless jewel that continues to provide professional results.

I first bought this program when it was first released to modify digital photos. Little did I realize that I had purchased (for far less than the going rate today) the best to EVER come along. It did take time for me to maximize the full benefits of the program and over time I have purchased others since there has been no upgrade for PhotoDraw 2000. For example Digital Image Suite is relatively inexpensive and it definitely has some improved features but it lacks many of the best PhotoDraw 2000 features. I use both programs for images, saving and closing in one in one program and opening in the other. PhotoDraw 2000 saves in its own format so one needs to save as PNG or other format to work two programs so it can be cumbersome for the lesser motivated. Overall if I had to choose one program the winner would still be PhotoDraw 2000.

We have both the German and Italian. Even my 4-year-old is learning. The story in each language is the same, it's nice to compare the different languages. After the story there are many useful words are said on the cassette (of course you can follow in the book too) followed by songs.

I like the format of the book with the repetition of phrases that are frequently used. Also liked the variations on the verbs which helps to teach grammer. In addition, the story is pleasant. I listen to the tape and read the book frequently to enrich my vocabulary and it doesn't get "stale". Also let my grandchildren listen and they are picking up words and phrases. I also have the "five crayons" and "visit to grandmom" which I will start on after I have mastered this book. (I also take an adult language course, this is just fun.)

My son is 2 1/2. My husband is fluent in italian and we are always looking for italian books, music, and toys. I fully recommend these books. My son likes having his own music to play and he loves finding things in the pictures. Using an italian dictionary with the book to play " I spy" is a wonderful part of story time.

The book is also easy enough for the non fluent relatives. Having the english version of the story right there is extremely helpful. My only reservation is that the book is in paperback. I would have given 5 stars if it was a hardback with thicker more kid resistant pages. But this book is definately worth buying even at full price!!!

The Nicholas stories on tape are very easy to learn from because they are read slowly and clearly. They also keep the sentence structures pretty simple and repeat words and phrases a lot, which might be annoying for a book in your native language, but is very helpful to children learning a second language. My children don't like to listen to regular Spanish books on tape (often spoken quickly and the words seem to run together, more complex vocabulary, verb conjugations, etc.). However, they enjoy all the tapes in this series, even after we've heard them 50 times each.

My son is in kindergarten in a Spanish immersion school, so we always keep these tapes playing in the car to give him extra practice listening to Spanish. The tape has a dictionary portion with 50 words from the story, spoken first in English and then twice in Spanish. This might sound dry, but our kids really like this portion of the tape. Even our 20-month-old repeats both the English and the Spanish words during the dictionary section.

The story is read only in Spanish on the tape -- this has worked fine for us. However, the book is written in both Spanish and English, so if you wanted to enhance your child's understanding of what they were hearing, you could read them the story occasionally in English.

I would recommend first buying The Missing Cat and then A Visit to Grandma before buying The Five Crayons. (The music on The Five Crayons, while perhaps more culturally authentic, has some fast songs and is sung in a style that makes it a little more difficult to understand the words). In general, I've found that for my children to understand the songs, it helped a lot if I sat down with the book and read the English translations of the lyrics to them.

Overall, I'd say all that this series of books and tapes are a very good value -- lots of learning to be gained for a very small amount of money. If they made more tapes in this series, we would certainly buy them!

Though not perfect, it is still the best book around on wireless networks. It was chosen as the course book for mobile and wireless networks course during my graduation. I liked it very much and enjoyed reading it. It is written in a simple and easy to follow style, avoiding unnecessary text and explanations. It covers a wide range of topics in wireless networks, e.g., MAC for wireless, telecom networks, WLANs, mobile network layer (Mobile IP and etc), mobile transport layer, and satellite and broadcast systems, along with an introductory chapter on wireless transmission fundamentals. However it is SERIOUSLY missing IEEE 802.16 WiMAX.
I have consulted a few other books in this area. In particular, I found it better than William Stallings's Wireless Communications & Networks.

When you pick this book up, it looks completely boring! Neither the title nor the cover is enticing. However the content is excellent - it has a thorough coverage of all kinds of current and upcoming wireless technologies. Not many books today mention anything about technologies such as bluetooth, however this one has a couple of pages coverage. If you're looking to get an overview of what is happening in wireless, this is a good place to start. I would definitely recommend picking up a copy of this book - I was very happy to have bought it.

This book offers an excellent introduction and exciting insights on latest mobile technologies; from wireless transmission, telecommunication systems, satellites to wireless LAN/ATM, mobile network/transport protocols and the WAP development. The contents are not only well-organized and balanced, but also easy to understand and interesting.

I have read a few books on the overall subject, and this is by far the best-written book. I recommend this book very highly to IT engineers, managers and others who are interested in learning how the latest mobile technology works and how it is becoming the next-wave for the Internet and Web phenomenon.

Very good book that explains current research and technologies covering especially OSI/ISO layers 1 to 4 in mobile/wireless communications. WAP is also discussed. Managers, some developpers may find the first 10 chapters too detailed as the book goes far (up to single bit description in packet headers) in protocols explanations.

This book is ideal for communication systems and telecom engineers and give an excellent up-to-date idea of the mobile/wireless communications field for others.

Clear and easy to understand book! Get a copy of it if you have been struggling to incorporate technology in meaningful ways in your curriculum. You will be happy you did.

A colleague lent me his copy of this book when I told him I was interested in having my students put together multimedia projects in my language arts class. I found this book to be straight forward and practical. Great tips about how to have your students develop their own multimedia projects that meet content and technology standards. I've read other books on this subject and quite frankly found them to be exhausting to read. Way too much stuff that didn't seem necessary. Besids being well written, the book is also reasonably priced!

I'm a middle school teacher who has been reluctant to use computers with my students. After reading the book by Green and Brown, I took the challenge of having my students do computer-based projects. Their book made the entire process so easy! I can't believe I was so hesitant. I highly recommend this book to all K-12 teachers who want to incorporate computer-based projects with their students.

This is a great book for teachers on how to set up multimedia projects with your students. It was well written and provided practical ideas on how to organize projects, manage students, and how to grade the projects. I highly recommend this book for all teachers.

This book does a great job explaining drug class pathophysiology, as well as outlining nursing considerations, and implementation. A very well rounded approach for nurses and nursing students!

This is a great book that will help you understand pharm as well as patho. I use it for both subjects

Helpful and easy to follow text. Illustrations, graphs, and charts very helpful.

This Pharmacology book is a very easy reading. Each chapter is only 5 to 7 pages long. At the end of each chapter are wonderful study questions that cover all important aspects of the chapter. There is also a great website you can go to for other study questions and NCLEX questions for nurses.

Great book for the "Business of Podcasting"! I like the clear layout with tips and reviews at the end of each chapter. I would also recommend the
Podcasting For Dummies and Podcast Solutions if you want core books and are just starting with the plan of a business podcast show. The one thing they left out mentioning is WaveLab Essential 6 with build in Podcasting for about $99.00 on Amazon. I use it for all my audio production including my podcast and love it!

I liked this book a lot. It is very well outlined. And it is very well written. I found it to be an easy read. But not a particularly quick read since it is pretty thick in page count and page size. The book is broken into four parts and 16 chapters:

I. Podcasting overview: Understanding the medium and its impact on business (Chapters 1-3)
II. Podcasting fundamentals: Planning and development (Chapters 4-6)
III. Producing the podcast: Production, delivery and legal issues (Chapters 7-10)
IV. Podcast distribution: Marketing, measuring and monetizing (Chapters 11-16)

Social media and Web 2.0 is comprised of a few tools that people and businesses can use to be a part of that community. The main one is blogging. And podcasting is a natural extension of blogging. What is said and has been written about blogging can also be said and written about podcasting. And this book does just that. Some people read books to get their information. Others listen to the radio or watch TV. I suspect many more listen to the radio and watch TV than read books.

Currently many more people taking part in Social Media and Web 2.0 are blogging than podcasting. But that statistic very well may change. And by reading this book one will probably understand and realize why. And even better, one will learn how to get involved in podcasting.

This book is specifically written for a business audience. It focuses on how businesses can incorporate podcasting into their marketing mix. It covers planning, content creation, legal considerations, branding, marketing, advertising, monetization, and much more.

I liked the chapter summaries at the end of each chapter called "Lessons Learned." They made it easy to get an overview of the book before I read it page to page. My favorite chapter was the seventh. It went into "Podcast Production." It got into sufficient detail and specifics that I pretty much saw what was involved in creating audio and/or video files. Emphasis was more on audio files.

The bottom line is that businesses should understand the power of podcasting and how to use it in their marketing mix. Podcasting can significantly improve a company's communications efforts with its customers, prospects, and the media. 5 stars!

As a podcasting and new media consultant, I've read just about every podcasting book out there (and authored one myself). This book is now at the top of the short list of books that every business podcaster (or podcaster with business aspirations) needs to read. The authors know there stuff and have done their research. I'll be referring again and again to the case studies and ideas shared in this book.

This book stands head and shoulders above all other podcasting books for teaching you how to make podcasting a go within the enterprise. I haven't read another book that addresses so many of the concerns that businesses have when they want to start podcasting. The other two that I have read focus on the independent podcaster and the issues that they encounter with a small focus on business interests.

What makes this book stand out so much for me is that it is written at a technical level that anyone can understand regardless of their role within a business. Every idiosyncratic element of taking a podcast from the planning stages production, copyright, distribution with rss, ROI and podcasting's role in integrated marketing is addressed in full.

Businesses and "internal champions", as they are called in the book, tasked with creating a new or social media presence through podcasting should pick up a copy. Podcast consultants, you too could learn a thing or two from this book. I did.

Many thanks to the authors!

Great practical and valuable information on dealing with challenging behaviors in a positive way. I would definitely recommend this for every parent's bookshelf and teachers as well. Another book I recently read,
Bully-Proofing Children: A Practical, Hands-On Guide to Stop Bullying- don't get misled by the title- is all about parenting and teaching in a positive way to empower children...the best way to avoid raising bullies or victims. Scripts,lessons, techniques, and stories to teach deal with important issues of setting limits, building self-esteem, managing anger,expressing feelings and conflict resolution. Children learn cooperation, getting along and kindness thru detailed lesson plans laid out in the book. Highly recommended.

This is written as a text book but it is readable and practical and it is perfect for parents. Reading it is much like sitting down with a friend and talking about real day-to-day problems babies, toddlers and young children have as they learn to cope with their feelings and to comply with parents' rules for safe, responsible behavior.

The book has simple, practical lists of things to do when toddlers bite, preschoolers fight and school-aged children pick up bad words. It gives help on potty training, sleep problems and thumb-sucking. An in depth index makes it easy to find topics.

You will want to order a second copy to lend to friends so they don't take yours!!

This is one of the best books that I have ever read. I am a 2nd year Early Childhood Education student and my brilliant professor suggested that we read this book for his class "Child Profile." So many teachers struggle with challenging behaviour and this book describes positive techniques to use with children of all ages. Behaviour guidance is about helping children develop self-control, it's not about pleasing the teacher. Every teacher should read this book!!

This is one of the best books that I have ever read. I am a 2nd year Early Childhood Education student and my brilliant professor suggested that we read this book for his class "Child Guidance." So many teachers struggle with challenging behaviour and this book describes positive techniques to use with children of all ages. Behaviour guidance is about helping children develop self-control, it's not about pleasing the teacher. Every teacher should read this book!!

I normally don't write reviews, but after meeting the author at a recent conference, I felt I had to spread the word. This is one of the best books on technology I have read in a while, and I read a lot of tech books for my job. If you know technology but need the video part it works, if you know video and need the technology part, it works, if you need both it works. The book just works. I have been following Richard's podcasts for a couple years, but have never read any of his books, my loss. If you are interested in video podcasting, this is the book for you. My only warning would be make sure you are interested in podcasting and not streaming. There is a huge difference and this book shows you the difference, then teaches you podcasting.

If you are interested in Video Podcasting as a Professional, then this is the resource for you. The book is a treasure trove of knowledge with a great support web site as well providing you additional information, forms and tips that any video podcaster will find useful. If you have never done a video podcast from beginning to end, you will be shocked at the details and the steps required to do this properly. Richard and Mark have put a lot of detail in their book and what has been great for me is that when I ran in to a problem on the book's website, Richard responded to me very quickly and helped me with my problem. I would completely recommend this book to anyone currently doing video podcasts or simply interested in the process. If you are looking to do video podcasts professionally, then this is a must have book.

This is the book that I've been waiting for Richard Harrington and Mark Weiser to write. These guys know video Podcasting cold - from brainstorming, to gearing-up, to production, to promotion. They've been in the trenches since the beginning and know all the pitfalls and how to overcome them to achieve success. Great, great stuff! I'm so glad to have all this knowledge in one place so beautifully laid out and easy to read. This is where the industry is going, and this book will become the bible for video Podcasting.

This is a great book. It goes through all the steps of making a video podcast with examples. The resources on a companion site also offer additional support.

C'est un trés bon ouvrage sur le sujet. Il fournit de bonnes pistes concernant la gestion des buffers de reception et la synchro des medias. Rien que pour cela le livre est incontournable.
Olivier Rassemusse

Perkins offers us a deep explanation of how RTP can handle real time audio and, more importantly, video across a standard Internet connection. RTP has now been around for some 10 years, and has been extensively built out, based on practical feedback from its earlier usages.

As you might expect, much of the text concerns the packet formats used in RTP. There are subsidiary protocols within RTP, like its control protocol. Naturally, these are explained, as they are a necessary part of the overall RTP.

Some chapters delve into specific timing issues. One, called lip synchronisation, refers to the difficulty of synchronising the audio and video portions of a video signal. Other chapters discuss how to conceal lost video packets. Error concealment is a very practical necessity in this field.

The author is an expert in RTP/RTCP area, and this book is a must-have reference if you are working on this area or interested in . inlcuding VoIP/Videoconferencing, Streaming. The book presents the all technical aspects of RTP/RTCP precisely and correctly.

Colin Perkins is obviously well regarded in the area of RTP with many papers and research to his credit. This book is a very thorough and readable text on RTP. All aspects of RTP are covered in sufficient depth. The only thing that would have improved it would have been access to code. At various sections in the book he refers to an RTP stack that he has written. If this were made available as part of the book it would have been a killer combination.

If I lost this book, I'd buy another one!

Good introduction to digital audio, but not much help in trouble shooting.
A good reference for the price

For non-audiophiles this book answers a lot of questions and clears up a few mysteries about the Live!, multi-speaker setups, surround sound, Dolby Digital and DTS, and PC sound in general. Very will written, enjoyable to read. Even though we are now in the "Audigy era", Creative's retirement of their Live! 5.1 line in lieu of a slightly inferior budget Live! 5.1 card is rather premature and clearly business driven (ie, push the Audigy series), since I am convinced that a Live! 5.1 system meets and exceeds the needs of many (possibly most) PC users, gamers, and movie watchers, and will continue to do so for several years. Its a great card with a lot of power left in it and this book really does it justice. True Audigy-brandishing audiophiles will probably find nothing new here, although they might still find it interesting to read

The collaborative effort of website developer Lars Ahlzen and software engineer Clarence Song, The Sound Blaster Live! Book is a complete and through guide to the single most popular computer sound card on the current market. Individual chapters deftly address how to physically connect the Sound Blaster Live! hardware and peripherals, configuring the sound card to play games, creating a music library, connecting MIDI instruments, and much, much more. An accompanying CD-ROM contains music and audio files, sample sound clips, SoundFonts, and useful freeware ans shareware in this succinct and useful guide which is especially recommended for anyone with a keen interest in quality computer audio.

Although some information has become obsolete at the time of printing, much of the audio-engineering technology and concepts still applies.

The book is by as far I have seen, the best reading material for the uninitiated in exploiting the use of sound cards. It also serves as a good external reference for developers as well, as there seems to be a lack of them in this area.

Like Strict Evaluation pointed out, the book is "encyclopaedic". A topic such as EAX itself is worth writing the whole book about. The authors deserves credit for covering so much breadth and depth.

I look forward to coverage of these topics, if there's an upcoming Audigy version:
- Code samples for using EAX
- Prodikeys (that'll definitely be interesting)