Interactive Books

Bottom line - great how-to book. I am NOT in any way, shape, or form, a computer geek. Technology is not my friend, and nothing about machinery is inuitive to me. I am also a no-nonsence kinda guy. In this particular case, I want to edit, not spend my time READING about how to edit. So this book is GREAT! (Wouldn't know if it's the best 'cause I'm completely dependent on doing what it says to do so I have no way to compare it to other resources.) The layout is straightforward - topics are categorized and independant from each other. Like a cookbook. Simply go to the instructions on how to do a particular thing, and there you go! The book uses paragraph format in the beginning of each topic/chapter to explain the "why's" of the upcoming topic; like a comprehensive overview. (What's the purpose and point of doing "_____".) Then when it comes to the "how-tos", each subtopic/activity converts to bullet-points. (Click A, then do B, then press C.) The book also includes side notes and hints along with illustrations of what you should be seeing on the screen at that particular stage. Wonderful! Efficient!

This book is based on Avid Express Pro as of 2004 and will serve you well as a reference text. It is well-indexed and has useful cross-references in the text.

This book is very helpful for new beginners learning AXP. It is very detailed and to the point. A must have.

figata ci vediamo al solito posto alle 12.00. porta la corazzata
pinuccio

I am a beginner with Avid and was daunted by all the different and options available to me. Monohan's book was just what I needed. I am currently giong through the book from A to Z, which gives me an overview of all the options and work-methods the program has. Even though I allready had set up my workspace, this book gave me some interesting tips. Even though I had allready developed a workflow for my previous projects, I learned some new options by reading this book.

Interestingly, serving as a guide from a to Z is not where Monohan excells. It should be used as an index to all the available options from this program. Want to know how to find those audio-peaklevels? How to get rid of that nested alpha-channel? Or you want to remember that trick in lassoing to trim mode? Use the index or the table of contents and you'll find what you're looking for in no time.

Great value for its price!

wow, the set of fabled lands books are brilliant, they transport you into a whole new enchanted world where anything is possible. I would well recomend these books to everyone. I just want to know what happend to the last six in the series?, i,ve been looking for them everywhere!

The best solo RPG game ever!
These books create the most amazing fantasy world.
They allow you to roam about how you want to.
It was planned that enough of these books would be released to cover the map that is contained in each of this series.
However, I heard, that they charged too little for each book (in England I think they were just £5 or £6!!) so they couldn't finish the series for financial reasons!
An absolute shame - I do anything for the last few books!!

I strongly reccomend this wonderful roleplaying game. Absolutely non-lynear storyline, many different characters to start your game with and many mini-quests in the global quest.

I have been playing the Quest for more than 3 years, and it was a pity that only 6 books have been published. This is the most astounding Role Playing Games I have ever played. Specially for people who do not of RPG games on computers. I wish that Jamie Thomson and Dave Morris become aware of this and please publish the remaining 6 books.The descriptions in the book for places, characters and actions are so good that I have abandoned to play Fighting Fantasy Series. Best of all, for all readers, is that the adventure is unlimited and you can go back and forth.

wow, the set of fabled land books are brilliant, they transport you into a whole new world where anything is possible. I would well recomend this book to those of you who like to escape for a few hours into a land of fiction. I would just like to know what happend to the last 6 books in the series?, i,ve been looking for them everywhere!

If you are a seasoned sales person/manager who knows the pain of too many Nos or no answer proposals, this is your book. This is a fitting up to date replacement for the New Solution Selling. Marx has been there, dione that and got all the T-shirts,. It is a pure sales book which happily ignores completely the need for nurturing etc. But for pure in the trenches, gut feel selling this is the book. I took a while to read it as the title put me off. But boy was I was mistaken. Marx could have been listening in on many Rocket Builders consults wrto sales and the buyer's journey. He is so bang on. Some insights:

* The salesperson gains power by empowering the buyer.
* Selling is tough but so is buying today.
* Your prospects want to buy, why would you be invited.
* Contracting is essential to set and maintain buyer expectations.
* What is the buyer doing to move the sale forward?
* Use half baked/straw man ideas before you present the maximum idea
* Use progress reports to show how far you have come
* A critical path details where you are going.
* There is no correlation between a rapid turnaround of a proposal and a good sale. None.

This is a salesman's/manager's must buy book.

Its been a good reading so far. Interesting points of view. I'll keep reading it for sure.

I can't speak for every industry but it's dead on for the media industry. When we look at the diminishing number of clients or prospects that have a solid respect for what we do, many of the answers (the little things) are in this book.

I don't hide the fact that I go against the grain in my search to improve procedures and systems to super serve clients while strengthening a company's bottom line. In that quest, a book called, "Close Like The Pros" by Steve Marx, had an impact on me. It's the closest strategy that I have found to date that I totally agree with in terms of real and realistic sales. "Close Like The Pros" is not a sales style, but rather a sales strategy for sales professionals who already understand why and how you should focus on customer needs. The book explains that providing the focus, power, and direction for the sale are important points to make during the sale. Oftentimes, management forces their own sales style on other members of their team and loses focus of the common goals to fill the client's needs while generating revenue for your company.

It's clear that Steve Marx has a sales training company because he provides a useful resource for the employee-focused manager. Those who live by partnership creation realize that it takes a great deal of work to provide that training and teach that skill to others. As an effective tool for the sales staff you want to educate and inspire, "Close Like the Pros" tells it like it is with clear, easy-to-follow examples. The book also includes easy and precise "how-to's" and encourages the exploration of the sales process in steps that permit growth. For the sales person who welcomes the opportunity to become even better, and for the manager who would appreciate an effective format for addressing the subject with new life, "Close Like the Pros" sets the stage for discussion in an active and energetic manner. I don't think there's any doubt that interactive selling is effective - "Close Like the Pros" will boost your own enthusiasm and renew your skills, whether you manage a staff of sales individuals or sell directly yourself. I've heard it said that 90% of all jobs are sales in one way or another. This book benefits people in every field because the ability to interact, to sell our product, or ourselves, is part of life as we know it.

I love this book. It's great for a party craft (as I first used it) or for sending/making cards.

I remember this book from when I was a kid. My 4YO loved it when he got this book. We've recently given it as gifts with a stamp pad. I would highly recommend it,since kids can make adorable pictures with little effort.

I used this book for 400 Girl Scouts at a day camp. The fingerprint animals and people worked for all ages and the girls loved to try new things from the book. Thanks for all the great fingerprint ideas. :)

I was not familiar with this book before I bought it; however, it was recommended by the teachers of the students for which this and several other Ed Emberley books were purchased. From the thank yous I have received, this book was a real hit! It is used in a Native American Mission School with great enthusiasm and even better results. What more could you ask for?

I used samples made from the book for a kid's craft at our library. The kid's and myself had a lot of fun.

This book is one of the best books I have read on Flash 5 techniques. I actually felt like I learned something after reading this book and going through their exercises. It answered questions I have always had when an animation did not work. He pretty much goes step by step with every exercise. He makes it easy to reread what you messed up on so you can do it again. Definitly a great teacher. If you are like myself and don't want to spend thousand's of dollars on a one or two day course learning the fundamentals of Flash 5, this book will definitly satisfy your needs.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough! It is simply the easiest
and best book out there for designers who wish to learn flash, bar none.
I started out knowing nothing about Flash 5 and created a great game
based on the old 50's Invaders from Mars movie, that everybody raves
about. Artists and graphic designers are usually not programmers, and
nearly all books about Flash are for programmers and are very hard for
us artists to crack into.

If I were to write a book for computer graphic design, I would use Mr.
Kaldahl's EZ Flash 5 as my blueprint to follow.

When I first received this book, I started my first project. I started getting excited because I was actually creating with flash! That is pretty much where the excitment ends.
This book is great for total beginners...which I was...but once you are done with the VERY SIMPLE projects, you really have no more than a beginners knowledge of flash.
That is why I am back at it again, trying to find another flash book to help me through my next stage which is putting MY ideas into creation.
See, the book didn't really help me learn to do the things I am interested in doing with flash. I don't care how to make a ball roll across the screen...if you know what I mean.

I strongly suggest for those of you who really want to learn how to use Flash, to buy this book. This book serves as a "beginner cookbook"! Last Fall, I took Flash 5 course by Brad Kaldahl and his book is excellent! In his introduction, he states:

"If you have never worked with Flash you will appreciate the easy to use, short, step by step projects. Rather than describing each palette and menu item and giving an explanation of what they do, you will learn by doing. From the second chapter on, you will be quickly producing exciting web content.

As an educator I designed this text because there are no book that tell you where you should start and provide a logical, easy to understand, progression for learning Flash. Both my students and I agree that the most enjoyable way to learn complex software is with short projects that show cool, fun, interesting technigues that can be used (or modified) immediately."

Authors who plan to write books on graphic design, animation or 3-D models should follow his example!

Be warned. Experienced users of other graphics software packages, looking to jump into Flash may find this book a little simple and repetitive. Having said that, let me also say that this book was exactly what I needed to get started. As a long time Photoshop/Illustrator/Pagemaker user, I was anxious to learn more about Flash and it's capabilities. I had even tried a couple of times to get through the provided lessons/tutorials, without actually retaining much.

The simple projects in this book allowed me to approach the otherwise non-intuitive Flash interface in a way that, while sometimes sophmoric, was at least not intimidating. In fact, rather than feeling dumb (as I sometimes do when reading instructional graphics books) this one actually made me feel pretty smart.

Take that for what it's worth. For the reader's reference, I consider myself to be of average intelligence. So I would say that the target audience for this book is somewhere slightly below average. Which, in this case, was just what I needed to get my feet wet. Having finished the book, I would not consider myself a Flash Master, but I think I've got the basics pretty well down. Now if I could just find a good intermediate level text....

you cannot go wrong w/ david carter "bug" books. i buy every one i can and my kids are getting too old for them. GREAT gifts

when are you going to mail this book ? or email me a phone # so i can talk to some one abouit this book.

I was happy to find the Bugs pop-up book, because my own children loved them, and now I am buying them for grandchildren. The books are fun and a delight for children, but probably too fragile for children under 3. The pop-ups are creative and clever, and there is a bit of a story line to the books, too.

My 16 month old son has only recently begun to sit still for books, but this was the first one that he paid rapt attention to, beginning to end. He brings it over for me to read it to him frequently. He has learned which way to pull the different flaps and tabs (they are different on different pages). Perhaps it's not the sturdiest of books, but for amount of pulling and yanking it has had, it has lasted far better than several other pop-up type books we have. We read it all the time, and he still hasn't tired of it. I will be getting him some others in the "bugs" series (he loves Chanukah Bugs, too), since they hold his attention so well! The bugs are cute, also.

I bought this book for my two 1/2 yr old. She loved all popup style books. But this book you have to be careful with. Each page had a different style of pull out, pop up. But the paper is very thin and tears easily. Not for a child to look through them selfs. Even as an adult I have to be very gentle with it.

The product came to my attention during the Christmas Season.
I could not be happier with my decision to purchase it.
I have read it twice and I cannot count how many times my wife has read it.

If you are familiar with this song and realize that it was written by Mark Lowry then having this book also written by him and him performing the song is just great. He puts as much thought in this book as is in the song. They go hand in hand.

The words to this song is the story of the real Christmas. Such a talented man is Mark Lowry. I understand that it is the only song he ever wrote...with one like this one, who needs another one!

I bought this for myself and then went back and ordered more for Christmas gifts. Everyone who received it has commented on the story and the music. It is also a special treat for me to listen to every Christmas season. I just love it.

This CD and book is THE most beautiful and meaningful gift I've ever received. My husband heard the song on the radio and went searching for it at music store where he found the Mark Lowry book/CD. I couldn't stop crying the first time I heard it. To read the birth of Christ through the eyes of His mother, the most Holy Theotokos, brings a new perspective to this great and holy holiday. I encourage everyone reading this review to purchase one for yourself and one for someone you love.

My 8 yr old loves the ology books. He received this one as a birthday gift and was pleasantly surprised to find the quill in the back of the book. Apparently he has wanted one since he saw Harry Potter... The quill has a ball point pen inserted in it, so that you can write without the mess of Indian Ink.

As to the stories in the book. They are great as usual. He likes that the stories or explanations are short. He doesn't have to read an entire book to get the information. For him Pirateology is still his favorite, but this is a really good book too.

My wife and I enjoyed these books as much as the kids! They were huge hits as Christmas gifts. Great way to get kids interested in ancient history/mythology. Try the other -ology books too!

My daughter received this book as a gift and loved it. Although it gives shortened versions of different greek myths, it is a great book to get children interested in them. The pop up Pandora's Box was a big hit with my four year old and she loved all the different objects that she could interact with. The storyline in the margins made for a great bedtime story and she was excited to see how the book started to turn to gold after he was given the gift of King Midas.

This Ology book is so packed with great info and interesting activities my daughter couldn't put it down. a definite good buy!

I really like Greek mythology and have read some books on it,so for anyone who is thinking of buying the book Mythology,I recommend also buying books in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series,by Rick Riordan. They are about a boy who discovers his father is a Greek god and the adventures he has. As for Mythology, I think it is a great source for information on the ancient Greeks, and highly recommend it.

Ella, age 9

It's often difficult to get my son, who just started fourth grade, to read. However, he really liked No Talking and I never had to battle with him to read while he was reading this book. He really enjoyed it and picked it up every night and never gave me a problem. It was our first Andrew Clements book and we'll now try other.

Last weekend I ordered my daughter away from the TV and requested she pick a selection from a bag of library [paper] books and audio books we had borrowed a few days earlier. She started listening to 'No Talking' and didn't come out of her room for hours. I had to check on her several times because I never figured she would listen to the ENTIRE book in one sitting. She LOVED the book, and the narrator as well. So, although I didn't hear it firsthand she did give me a little synopsis of the book and it was an afternoon well spent!

No Talking by Andrew Clements is a great book set in fifth grade where the students have challenged each other to a contest...boys versus girls. The rules of the contest are simple but can be very hard to follow. Students may talk at school only when an adult asks them a question, but then they can only answer using three words at a time. Students can not speak at home, on the playground, or in the lunchroom. The students keep track of their words and use the honor system to report them. When the principal demands that the contest must end, the students join together to silently face a new opponent in the competition. Clements does an excellent job of showing the voice of these students through their dialogues with one another. Their personalities shine through the pages.

Teachers will love the ideas and discussions that stem from this book. The book sparks conversations about peaceful ways to settle arguments like Mahatma Gandhi did in India. The teachers in the book complete many activities that allow students to follow the contest rules and still learn. One my favorites includes creating a story as a whole class where all students add to the story using only three words at a time. Students will love completing lessons that follow these from the book. It may even inspire a contest.

"No Talking" is a realistic and entertaining book that describes a competition between the boys and girls at Laketon Elementary. Each team tries to go untill the end of the week without talking. Commotion occurs as a result of the silence. The teachers and the principle are getting annoyed by the constant silence to they decide to take action on the nonsense. Does the teachers stop the competition or do the children pull them into the fun? Read to find out!

This book is about 5th grade girls and boys who compete over who can talk less. So who is it going to be - the girls or the boys? Read the book to find out!

One day Dave, the main character, is trying to see how long he can go without talking. When he is not talking, he hears some girls constantly talking behind him at lunch. The next thing he knows he has challenged the girls to a no talking contest. The rule of the contest is no talking to each other, and not talking to teachers with more than three words at a time. The boys and the girls do funny things to each other to try to get the other team to talk. Are the teachers going to approve of this, or are they going to savor the quietness? You'll have to read it to find out!!

This book reminds me of how much my friends and I talk. As much as we talk, I still think we could beat these kids in the contest because they NEVER stop talking!!

I think that No Talking is good for both boys and girls ages 8-12. I really like Andrew Clements books, and this one might be my favorite!

So if you like realistic and funny books that take place at school, this is definitely the book for you!

If you want to understand programming the Flash Communication Server and it's capabilities this is a good place to start.

Although I'm using Flash Media Server 2, this book is still highly relevant as not much has changed. The core objects and language is the same so I would not hesitate to recommend it for anyone looking to use FMS.

This book is all about the design of applications using Macromedia's Flash Communication Server MX. FCS MX enables the building of media-rich web applications by taking care of the basic tasks required in the networking of the applications. Thus, you can focus on the application itself rather than worrying about low-level communication details.

Since this book is concerned with situations where multiple Flash applications will be executing on the same server simultaneously, there is going to be considerable effort involved in coordinating events, which is addressed by this book. You should already have FCS installed and running on your server and you should also have Flash MX available on the client. The following is description of the book by chapter:

Chapter 1, Introducing the Flash Communication Server - Acts as an introduction to FCS and an overview of the whole book.

Chapter 2, Communication Components - How the FlashCom communication components encapsulate commonly needed features such as chat, video recording and playback, bandwidth control,and user configuration. These components implement many basic building blocks for your application.

Chapter 3, Managing Connections - This chapter covers connections in more depth past the SimpleConnect component, including how to write custom code to handle various changes in the connection status as well as different errors.

Chapter 4, Applications, Instances, and Server-Side ActionScript - This chapter describes how to write Server-Side ActionScript and work with the objects that control application instances and the Flash movies that connect to them.

Chapter 5, Managing Streams - Offers a somewhat oversimplified but complete example that shows the basic steps in publishing one live stream and subscribing to a second.

Chapter 6, Camera and Microphone - This chapter explains how to use both the Microphone and Camera classes to record live streams. These classes are at the heart of most communication applications involving multimedia.

Chapter 7, Media Preparation and Delivery - This chapter covers many details for compressing and streaming audio and video.

Chapter 8, Shared Objects - This chapter starts an entirely new subject - shared objects, which provide a mechanism for the transmission of data between client and server.

Chapter 9, Remote Methods - This chapter also shows how to broadcast method calls to every movie and application instance connected to a shared object or stream, or send them to and from individual movies using RMI.

Chapter 10, Server Management API - Discusses the Server Management API and its applications, including monitoring a FlashCom Server, gathering statistics on application instances, and managing the log streams.

Chapter 11, Flash Remoting - Demonstrates how Flash Remoting can be used to add data connectivity to FlashCom applications. Flash Remoting can access web services, server-side scripts, CGI applications, XML files, or the local filesystem with the help of an application server such as ColdFusion.

Chapter 12, ColdFusion MX and FlashCom - Teaches some specifics involved in using Flash Remoting with ColdFusion MX and FlashCom. There are some practical working examples shown that demonstrate how you can leverage the benefits of Flash Remoting in conjunction with FlashCom.

Chapter 13, Building Communication Components - This is the first step in building complete applications, and is demonstrated through an extensive example.

Chapter 14, Understanding the Macromedia Component Framework - How to modify an existing component and how to create a new one. Also discusses server-side framework code and its core features and data structures.

Chapter 15, Application Design Patterns and Best Practices - Describes some of the best practices available to application developers. This chapter provides some useful design options, patterns, and best practices that will help you build better applications.

Chapter 16, Building Scalable Applications - Deals with building multi-instance and multiserver applications that don't bog down as the number of client connections increases.

Chapter 17, Network Performance, Latency, Concurrency - Traditional network design issues affect FCS also.

Chapter 18, Securing Applications - Specifically this chapter examines the three A's of security - Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting.

Excellent book, stuffed of examples very well explained, easy to read and to understand, essential for who desires initiate or even though to profound itself studies on FlashCom.
Obligator reference in projects involving FlashCom, either for fast consultations and advanced tasks.
Excellent approach of subjects as Design patterns and security, yonder a perfect demonstration about audio, video and much more.

If you're a developer looking into real-time server communication using Adobe Flash, this book is a must-have. It guides you thru various levels of application development in an easy to understand format, and provides well documented pieces of code to assist you in the learning process of putting together your project:

Topics covered include:

- learning about components and how to use them
- establishing and managing client connections
- publishing live and recorded streams
- local communication with clients
- remote communication with outside applications

The book also shows how to build and integrate your own custom components, and how to scale your application using the components that you've created. Other highlights include information on how to use shared objects and server management API, as well as ways to improve both design and performance.