Studios Books

I have been programming for years and didn't really realize how much I didn't know.

Mr. Vaughn has been building databases and writing code against them since the beginning. His explanations of DB and ADO evolution is something that every webApp/dba should know.

The book is a fast read, imformative with lots of .Net examples.

Thanks for writing such a great book. I am excited to get the next version.

I am very inmpressed with this book! This is one that will be dog earred.

This is truly an outstanding book. Not only is it extremely well written and "readable" (unfortunately many a tech book is not these days), I feel it begins a dialog of sorts between the developer side of the fence and the database side of the fence (were that there were no fences, alas).

I've visited far too many organizations that work in near complete isolation when developing applications. For those types of organizations, no tool like Team System will improve things: if they don't collaborate already, a tool won't get them to do so.

We need more books like this in the market. Today's technology is so complex you simply can not perform your role properly without understanding the larger picture.

I'm a C programmer, new to SQL and Windows programming.

Bill's book has gotten me up to speed on SQL Server and Visual Studio in record time.

I looked at a number of books on these subjects and this one definitely stands out as being the most comprehensive. At the same time, it is easy to follow.

I highly recommend the book.

Reading the book, it is clear why Bill is a Microsoft MVP. I appreciate how Peter and he precisely describe and assess this complex landscape, including traps and warts. I believe you will also appreciate their deep knowledge.

Depending where you are on your journey to designing and building powerful solutions with SQL Server and Visual Studio, some of the chapters will be more valuable than others. I assure you that there will be sections of the book that are exactly what you need. The knowledge can keep you from making big mistakes, either in your selection of which version of SQL Server to use, in architecture and design, or simply in trying to figure out the myriad of implementation choices you might otherwise try on your own through days and days of trial and error.

As a software program manager, I appreciated gaining an overall appreciation for how the technologies and techniques need to fit together to deliver a successful solution. I especially appreciated the early chapters on architecture, the flowchart showing how to debug a connection on page 142, and other advice scatter through the book.

In subsequent books or articles from these authors, I'd appreciate more architectural graphics, e.g. showing various data access layers, and also a description of how AJAX techniques affect how we should think about building data-centric web applications.

I expect this book to be a valuable reference for many years to come.

Keillor is probably best known in the Midwest where his tales of the imaginary town of Lake Wobegon are heard on many radio stations in that region. This book is set in a variety of real Minnesota towns and depicts life in the rural Midwest. Those from these stomping grounds will easily relate to the short stories contained in this book. But even if you dwell in a California metropolis you will still find a warmth, perhaps uncommon, yet very appreciated. Take, for example, the following exerpt quoted from The Notebooks of Carl Krebsbach:
"It was the annual January thaw, nature's way of arousing false hopes and tempting the good people of Lake Wobegon to let lown their guard and not wear a scarf so that nature can kill them. A form of natural selection to reduce the optimist population and promote the survival of embittered stoics who believe that fate is against them. Which it is.
The thaw means that snow on the roof melts and freezes on the overhang of the eaves, forming a dam to back up the water so it can get under the shingles and freeze and gradually rip our house apart, which is nature's goal, to obliterate us. Nature is not benevolent towards us, it wants us out of here. It's good to know this. In summer, you can almost believe otherwise.
Luckily, summer is soon over. As it turns cold, our mood improves. we're excited. Cold is a stimulant. So is danger. It's good to have nature to deal with. That's why self-pity declines in the fall. People don't sit around and anguish over what to do with their lives. Instinct tells you. You're a mammal. Stay warm. Stay close to the food supply. Shovel the roof. Make babies. Make a few extra in case the wolves get one. And then on a cold night in January, you walk out in the moon light and agsinst all reason, beyodn all expectation, you're utterly happy."

In addition to Keillor's down-to-earth story telling this book contains wonderful photography by Richard Olsenius. I actually bought this book because I am a fan of photojounalistic photograghy. Great writing and great photography, a bookshelf is incomplete without this volume.

I was what you would call a "Noobie" to all of Garrison's work until recently. I picked up this book at a college library after speaking to my mother about the Minnesota author project I was recently assigned. She was familiar with his work and suggested that I look into it....so I did. I never thought that this would open up such big can of worms, and I mean this in a good sense. After reading the book from cover to cover, I went on the internet to find out more about Garrison's work and turned up some very interesting search results. I then read it again and now I guess you could say that I'm hooked on the Lake Wobegon saga and I am planning on picking up a couple of his earlier writings related to Lake Wobegon.
I really enjoyed reading this book and I would recommend this book to anyone who has vast, little, or no knowledge of Lake Wobegon.

I was what you would call a "Noobie" to all of Garrison's work until recently. I picked up this book at a college library after speaking to my mother about the Minnesota author project I was recently assigned. She was familiar with his work and suggested that I look into it....so I did. I never thought that this would open up such big can of worms, and I mean this in a good sense. After reading the book from cover to cover, I went on the internet to find out more about Garrison's work and turned up some very interesting search results. I then read it again and now I guess you could say that I'm hooked on the Lake Wobegon saga and I am planning on picking up a couple of his earlier writings related to Lake Wobegon.
I really enjoyed reading this book and I would recommend this book to anyone who has vast, little, or no knowledge of Lake Wobegon.

Fans of Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion" are already an imaginative sort. We know what Arlene Bunsen looks like, or Pastor Inquist. We've got a good idea how Roger Hedlund has been rotating his crops, and the main goings on on Main Street. We don't need pictures of this area because we already know it by heart--we've seen it on the radio. This book does exactly what it should...it doesn't dispel our images of Lake Wobegon, but gives us pictures of its neighbors and people living their lives in rural Minnesota. All the images are sepia toned. With a few exceptions, the subjects are unposed and candid, getting ready for the prom, or readying the field for corn.

The composition of the shots are superb. The short prologue gives a first person retelling of how Keillor invented the town that "time forgot and the decades cannot improve." That introduction, however, is so short that it's almost unfair to say that this is a Garrison Keillor book. He essentially wrote the foreword (although it's not titled that way), and the pictures tell the real story.

My only disappointment is that there isn't any color. Certainly sepia tones give us nostalgia the way we'd like to remember it, but sunset on a farm is something you can't appreciate in shades of brown. Rural life has its monochromatic moments, to be sure, but there's enough color and life to help us remember that not everything is nostalgia.

This gripe doesn't detract from the beauty of this book, though. Thankfully we never see Lake Wobegon, only hints and shadows. It allows us to preserve our preconceptions, but gives us a deeper feeling of connection with the area. If you're a fan of APHC, you probably already own this book (or you should). If not, take a look at a lifestyle that might be foreign to you.

From the Central Minnesota prairie, in beautiful black and white pictures and picturesque prose, here is the Genesis of Garrison Keilor's magical mythical Lake Wobegon, site of "A Prairie Home Companion." Here we get to *see* the strong women, good-looking men, and above average children of and for whom he speaks on Saturday nights. Accompanying Richard Olsenius' stunning photography (how can the viewer not be deeply moved by the picture of the veterans at the St. Wendell cemetery on Memorial Day?) are excerpts from the Radio Show, interviews with inhabitants, and essays and musings from Keilor - like this:

"Culture isn't decor, it's what you know before you're twelve. It sticks with you all your born days. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. You can try to wrestle free of it, like those geese who trail the V-formation, trying to look as if they aren't part of this bunch, as if flying south were a personal decision on their part, but your feint towards independence only makes it clearer who you really are. Some people like hot dish better if it's called cassoulet, or pot roast if it's pot-au-feu. Fine. Suit yourself. Same difference."

Whatever you call those culinary delights, you'll like this book. Come see Father Kleinschmidt's Annual Blessing of the Snowmobiles. Ja, you betcha! Reviewed by TundraVision.

I have had this book for over 20 years....it is food-stained and dog-earred but remains my favorite in my 200+ cookbook library! Marlene's carrot cake recipe is the best of its type;very moist and flavorful. The bacon-stuffed cherry tomatoes are colorful,and always a hit as is the steak-in-a-bag recipe! My kids love the dilled shrimp and I make her chili recipe at least once a year. My daughter carved the whale-filled fruit bowl for one of my summer card parties, and it was quite a conversation piece!

A friend/caterer told me about Marlene Sorosky's cookbooks as 'never fail' recipes that are very good. I use her recipes all the time.

There are few cookbook authors whose recipes I use without testing them ahead of time, usually several times. Marlene Sorosky is actually the ONLY one. This book is no exception. Everything I have tried is marvelous, the first time and every time thereafter. Try it, you'll like it!

Instructions are easy to follow. Chili cheese bites are a favorite with my guests. Nice color pictures. Too bad it is out of print.

Everything in this book is wonderful and, if you follow her directions, turns out. We give this book to all our friends and family because it's so wonderful! Steak in a bag is to die for and I'm not a steak fan. Moby mellon is great, Chocolate Mouse cake is wonderful. Liver Pate is always a hit. Can't go wrong with this one.

Simply put, read this book and you will definitely be able to produce excellent movies.
The book can be read from start to finish or just dip in to where the specific information is. The book is written so both ways work.The clear instructions enable even a novice to be proud - even amazed at what they can do.
Two days after reading this book I put a mini movie on the internet! If I can, you can!

As an owner of the author's Pinnacle Studio 8 book, I waited to buy what I anticipated to be his Pinnacle Studio 9 Plus book. But wait no more. A supplemental chapter covering the 9 Plus features - PIP, Pan and Zoom, and Chroma Key, is avaiable at http://www.doceo.com/studio9.html under "Click here to download free chapter on new features of Studio Plus", and now I have the equivalent of the Studio Plus 9 book.
I agree with the other reviewer's comments and no point in repeating them here, except to say that for me the best parts about the author's presentations are the illustrative examples.

Pinnacle's Studio 9 is a love it or hate it package. At $99 (retail price) it is very inexpensive for what you get. The problem, people report, has been getting it to work on their system -- I also hear that the newest release of the package is much, much better. It also seems to work better with Intel Pentium CPU's than with AMD and it also likes memory, say a gigabyte.

But as for the book, this is one of the Visual Quickstart Guides. They're great. They use a format of having two columns on each page with the outside column being text and the inside being pictures. Each page is devoted to some small task and handles that task completely. You can start at the front of the book and go all the way through and you'll get a pretty good tutorial on the software. Or you can use the index to skip around and quickly get to the particular detail you are looking for.

Jan Ozer is an excellent writer. He starts out with the statement "you have the manual for the software" and then goes on from there. This is not a manual of how to, this is a what and why kind of book that explains what it is that you are trying to do and then goes on to tell you how to do it. The manual tells you how to do a J-Cut and an L-Cut. This book tells you what they are.

I've read numerous technical books on many subjects and have never sailed through the software as smoothly as with this book.
If you're looking for a tutorial that can whiz you through the subject matter with ease and accuracy this is it! No matter where you wish to refer back to, you can do it without reading the whole chapter (as with other tutorials). Quickstart is the name however I feel it should be named Quick referrence.
Best investment I've made in a while. I'm making movies that are in awe at my office. I've been told they have been made professionally.

This is probably one of the most informative books on video editing that you can buy. The author is an expert in the field and has the ability to not just tell you how to do something, but make you understand what is going on and thereby enabling an intuitive feel for using the program. His "Studio 8 for Windows" carried me from the depths of ignorance to a level of competence that allows me to knock out complicated projects in record time; this new Studio 9 version will do the same for you plus. This book will enable the beginner to successfully edit productions with minimum heartache....but READ before you start clicking madly away.

I have a little insight into the creation of this work, having lived as the artist's partner for fourteen years, including the three year period in which SPIRIT OF THE POSE was created. Karl poured every drop of himself into the design and content of this work. For every sketch included, dozens equally as beautiful were put aside, hopefully, for the next publication. His words come not only from his heart and mind, but from careful study of himself as a man, and an artist. I can't remember how many times complete strangers to me, students of Karl's, would tell me how his teachings transformed not only their art, but their lives. This book is not to be flipped through on a coffee table. Use it to gaze into your own world of potential. And look for his next book in 2007!!

I'm a student of Karl's, so I may be biased, but it was through this book that I discovered Karl and decided to seek his teaching. The book is full of expert, dynamic, energetic, and fun figure drawings, peppered throughout with little gems of wisdom. I'd absolutely recommend it for anyone, but especially fellow artists looking for clues and inspiration to help them along their path.

This book is absolutely beautiful. I bought if as a gift for my husband, but I find myself drawn to it each time I pass it by on our coffee table. I sit down and start to flip through the pages and find myself completely mesmerized. The text is also a lovely adjunct. This book is a visual meditation!

My big surprise was the nice size of the book. I like to see all of the details. There are very few words in this book but that is not important as the drawings speak for themselves. What he does write helps you to think about your art though. Very beautiful gesture drawings and they go well with my Hienrich Kley books.

I also enjoyed the little quirky birds. Oh the price may be steep for some, it was for me, and I receive it as a gift. But it is worth the price. Many page after page of quality figures, both male and female. Enjoy

There is a quickening, a life force, a vitality in this man's work I have never seen. One knows, just by opening the book, that there is far more going on than just figure drawing - that there is a deep and rich, truly inspired human at the other end of the pencil: passionate, vibrant, and spirited. Karls work shows the strength of his academic knowlege, but it has been set free from its constraints and shows us his voice, clear and strong. Bravo.

This is an excellent and practical tome. My only complaint is that they didn't include this masterpiece of simplicity:

Worst. President. Ever.

Citizen posters at the acclaimed political web log www.dkos.com contributed ten of their best ideas for progressive bumper stickers to this effort. Exercise your First Amendment rights and have a good laugh!

The ten bumperstickers are:

Asses of Evil
Thanks for Not Paying Attention
Four More Wars!
More Trees, Less Bush
It Takes a Village Idiot
One Person, One Vote (*May Not Apply in Certain States)
Putting the "Con" In Conservative
We're Gooder!
Leave No Billionaire Behind

Bring Back Monica Lewinsky

These fabulous bumper stickers double as postcards, so I sent a few to friends. Then the other night, one of the recipients called me asking why I sent him a postcard that was blank white on the back. Apparently, the sticker came off in the mail. I'm putting the rest in envelopes before sending them, which kind of defeats the whole "postcard" thing.

These are great bumper stickers and they get the message out. Sadly, bumper stickers are all some people read...

I am a girl that never puts bumper stickers on her car, but damnit I had to do it!! I look in the review mirror and see people straining to read, and then laughing their heads off! What better way to prove your point than with humor! I loved every one of these stickers, and I wouldnt suggest mailing them out of envelope, they are so great mailmen will be stealing them :)

My review is for the book stink. It is written by Megan Mc Donald Illustrated
by Peter H. Reynolds. The Genre of this book is Adventure.
Stink is a short guy. Stink writes a report about the 6th president ,James Madison .He writes it because Madison was the shortest president. Stink wants Madison on the State Quarter. Will they give it to him? Read the book and see!
The Author's message is if you short you can grow to be tall. Don't be
afraid or feel bad about yourself. Our class picked it because it is funny.
Its great because it has comic in side.

I have been looking for a book my 7 year old would want to read on his own - and this is it! The chapters are short, the words are not too small and well spaced. There is also a comic by Stink at the end of each chapter that my sons loves to read. My son read it all on his own, even without me there! I am thrilled to have found a book about a 2nd grade boy that my son can relate to!

My kids have all Judy Moody and Stink books. They love them, and I know for the fact that they help kids who struggle with reading in [...]. They are easy to read and have a good story, are funny and appealing to that age group. A must have!

My kids age 9years and 6years love this CD. They have listened to it more times than I can count. I bought it because they took it out of the library so many times.

I am a big fan of the Jody Moody series, so I was thrilled when I heard they were coming out with a series about Joudy's little brother Stink! This book is well written and easy for young and old readers to understand. It is a very funny and enjoyable book! I totally recommend it to anyone who likes comedy.

This is a great book full of many, many different project ideas. For someone who has even a passing interest in this media, it's a must have! The photography is beautiful and the overall quality is excellent!

This book gives both inspiration and detailed instructions. It covers a multitude of media, and I have improved my own art since I purchased this book. Well worth the cost. I find myself picking it up at least twice a week just to browse through the pictures. Does that make me a kindergartner? Maybe,judging from the pure joy looking at the illustrations provides! Thanks, Somerset Studio and the artists who are part of that company.

I love this book. The photos are beautiful. The projects are appealing. I feel like I could make anything in this book that I chose to do. The quality of this book is excellent. The pages are high quality paper. I don't think that this book is pricy at all. Most books I buy for this price contain half the information. This book is thicker and heavier with more in it than most craft books of the same price. As usual, Somerset has produces a quality product.

This is a beautiful book of wonderful pieces of art which are all done with transparent collage images. The reason I got this book was because I love to work with this medium. They have that see-thru quality that resonates into a different look at art.

So much of the art work in this book is so easy to do, I was amazed. The directions are clear and concise and even a novice can do some of these projects. Working with varied mediums such as glass, wood and fabric made the transparent images look different and new.

I would recommend this book to anyone who hasn't tried their hand at working with transparencies in their collages or altered art. They will be surprised at how this medium will enhance their art.

This book is really magical. I'd been looking for some information on using transparencies and this is excellent. You'll be inspired.

Joe Weatherly is one of those artists who not only loves to draw and paint, but he also has a passion for teaching. I was lucky to find a mentor and friend through his Animal Drawing classes and demonstrations. I remember having his class one "Rainy" Friday at the SF Zoo, and he showed me his sketchbook. I was blown away by his quick and correct eye. The confidence in his anatomy work showed years of experience and dedication. Now to be able to own a copy of his sketchbook is a real treat. Animal Essence: The Art of Joe Weatherly, is one of my favorite books in my private collection of art books. And will remain there for years to come.

Another great book by Joe! The thing that I love about this book is that it is very realistic in an the artists range. He includes actual pages from his sketchbook, showing how every artist, no matter how skilled, has drawings that do and don't work. This makes his level of skill feel so much more attainable for the aspiring artist. He has beautiful paintings and renderings in addition to his energy-filled sketches, depicting his wide range and extreme capabilities with the subject. Animal Essence goes one step farther than The Weatherly Guide to Drawing Animals, in that he goes beyond anatomical studies into the realm of story, color, and mood. Both books work beautifully together in not only introducing the reader to animal art work but also as a teaching tool for those who aspire to achieve great skill in this area. It is a beautiful book and I would recommend it to anyone, artist or not.

I love this book. I am an Illustration Student at the Academy of Art in San Francisco and I ALWAYS use this book for any animal reference I need. It is very useful to have this book because of the scope of animals in it. Whether I need farm animals or exotic jungle cats, I can go to this book and get the most comprehensive anatomical reference I have come across.

I've known Joe for years and this time, he went over the top with his gorgeous book, "Animal Essence". This book is full of rich and beautiful illustrations done with pencil, ink, washes, oils, and other mixed media. It is sized perfectly for toting along as a reference book on location or it makes a wonderful table top display. This book is an excellent field study book, practical and applicable to the approach for drawing animals on location. His personal experiences in the South American jungles explodes across the pages where one can appreciate the animals, flora and fauna of his adventures and experience in particular the big cats. Additionally, he has lots of animals from Africa such as zebra, lions, elephants, and giraffe. It is a full color book lush with wonderful illustrations, gestures, and full colored paintings and everything in between. It is well worth the price. I recommend this book to my students for a level of professionalism and working exposure to illustrating animals that I have not found in other material since Rein Poortvliet. Way to go Joe!

Joe Weatherly has proved to be a master at animal drawing. This book shows his great talent in many different mediums from oil painting to simple pencil drawings. Joe really brings out the emotion and captures the animals beauty in all of his drawings. There are great tips along the way to help the aspiring artist to work on their own skills and techniques. This is an excellent book.

The book is well layed-out, and descriptions are clear and concise. The first 95 pages or so are relatively basic. I have used a crusty version of Homesite to create a few basic Websites in-the-past, so those first 95 pages didn't teach me anything that I didn't already know. Except perhaps for the design and paper and pencil preparation.

After page 95 (or so), you jump right into Dreamweaver and are instructed as to its' functions. The Webpage you're building is a basic HTML page, and does not use any server-side technology like ASP, or PHP, or CGI/Perl.

It too is well layed-out, and step-by-step. I only wished that a deeper discussion of CSS integration was employed.

So, for the beginner, or for someone who likes to paper & pencil prep, I'd have to say that this is a worthwhile buy.

For the more advanced user, I'd have to say that you may be better off with more of a reference-style tome.

All said, I do not regret the purchase.

This book takes you from web-site zero through building a basic client-side only web site using Dreamweaver 8.

My only critique is that it seemed like we didn't even get to actually using Dreamweaver 8 until about page 100. Before that was an intro to general web-site concepts and HTML.

Anyway, it's an attractive and informative book that is priced lower than most.

If you are looking for website building software, you might want to take a look at Dreamweaver 8: Design and Construction. This book educates the reader on the various aspects of Dreamweaver 8. It also shows the reader, step by step, how to build a website using this software. The author also includes all sort so tips, illustrations of what the reader will see as he or she builds their site, and helpful tech talk boxes that explain some of the more technical issues in an easy to understand way. Everything in this manual is suitable for those with little or no knowledge of website design or website design software.

I believe that the best way to choose website software is to understand what that particular program can do and how this may or may not suit your needs and your abilities. It doesn't help to buy software that can do seemingly magical things if you don't have a clue how to actually make it work. This book helps the reader understand the basics of the Dreamweaver 8 program with a taste of some of the more complex things that can be done.

This book is well written and laid out well (for the most part), but the lack of color really, really hurts this Dreamweaver 8 guide. Perhaps I am being a bit of a stickler, but a book in 2006 not only needs to have good content, but it need to also have a great layout as well. Deciding to go with 5 major colors (white, black, grey, blue, dark blue) not only makes the book seem dull and drab, it detracts from the reader the good content within.

For anyone that uses Dreamweaver 8 on a daily basis this is a great reference guide but the layout editor could have done a much better job. If you care about content more than pizzaz, I think you will be happy with this book

**** RECOMMENDED

Are you new to Dreamweaver 8? If you are, then this book is for you! Author Marc Campbell, has done an outstanding job of writing a book for people who are new to creating their own web sites from the ground up and all that it entails.

Campbell, begins by showing you how to devise your plan. Then, the author shows you how to develop a blueprint for your site. Next, he shows you how to add just about anything to the pages of your site. Finally, the author shows you how to take the working prototype that exists on your computer and publish it to the Web for all of the world to see.

This most excellent book serves an introduction to creating web sites using Macromedia Dreamweaver 8. More importantly, the focus throughout this book is that sound design and usability are inextricably linked.