News and Media Books

In this book Mr. Chester warns that the big communications media -- TV Networks, Big Cable Companies, Microsoft, etc. are attempting to find ways to take over, control, and therefore make a lot of money on the Internet. He is absolutely correct. They would love to do just exactly this.

The author is head of an organization, The Center for Digital Democracy, that is attempting to preserve the openness and diversity of the Internet in the broadband era. The book is a Wake-Up call to get people's attention to the problem.

I'm not so sure that I fully agree with his fears. Yes, from a connectivity standpoint he is right, someone, probably a large company will own the wire that comes into your house. But I don't see it likely that they will have much control over the content being delivered. If they could, the politicians would find a way to eliminate the SPAM (I get several a day), phising (I just got one of these today), viruses and porn that is on the net now.

Part of the problem from the big company standpoint is that the web is international in scope, you can't control the web hosts in China or Nigeria. It will be interesting to see how this works out in the future.

There is an irony in writing a review of Jeff Chester's (Center for Digital Democracy) critique of new media and the future of democracy on this site given how successful Amazon has been in using the internet to do the things that Mr Chester so despises. The book contains very detailed discussions about how large telecommunications companies have and are subverting democratic processes in America. The book is both a brief history of political developments in modern communications and a work of art in judiciously critiquing these developments in order to suggest what we as citizens should do about it. Armed with this in hand roll on the revolution!

I feel really lucky to have stumbled across this book. It is not Lingo heavy, but tells you all the little tricks to making Director work for you, including what is the best movie format for your target audience, how to mask movies, how to control sound with simple commands, and much more. The author has a genuine enthusiasm for his subject matter, and he plainly has a lot of experience in designing multimedia interfaces with Director. His advice is straight from the field, and that's invaluable. His generous sharing of experience steers you away from frustrating mistakes that would otherwise drive you crazy. This book tells you all the cool, juicy stuff you need to know to make presentations with Director. You will not become a Lingo God, but if you are a beginner, you will advance to intermeadiate and borderline advanced levels with the knowledge gained from this book. And the author makes it all seem so easy - which it is!

This is a great book for web and multimedia developers. I have been using Flash and Dreamweaver, but saw a demo on what Director can do for the web. Although this book cover more than developing for the web, there's a ton of information to build the coolest interactive Shockwave sites. This book was extremely easy to follow. The section about the games and how to build them quickly was amazing. This book is worth getting.

I know these are not the most amazing books ever written but i enjoy them. I love catherine hapka's series star power it is alot like this story. they are both about "down to earth teens" it makes them seem unreal, but is nice for people who want a sweet story instead of most storys about teens. In this book it is school spirt week and at the end of the week there is a sadie hokins dance. Troy is waiting for Grabreila to ask him, but there is something else on her mind. She over hears her mom on the phone talking to her boss. And grabriala thinks they are going to have to move again. The ending is not queit what i thought it would be but it does have that super sweet happy ending.

This is a short and sweet book. I read it in a day (plus or minsus a few hours.) It was a sweet story. I think that it is very nice for young girls to read i would recommened it to anyone who likes disney or the movies (high school musical 1 or 2.) This book takes place inbetween the two movies. And at the moment there is a battle of the bands, troy is doing it with his b-ball friends. Sharpay is doing a girl group, with her devoted "fans" (and taylor.) so where does that leave gabreila and ryan?? the book of course has a happy ending but is very nice.

This is an adorable book for young fans of the movie, or any little kid who loves dalmatians. In the book Oddball is hideing, and her bothers try to find her by asking the other dogs from the movie if they've seen her, and in the end they come up with a plan to get her out of hideing.

This is an adorable book for young fans of the movie, or any little kid who loves dalmatians. In the book Oddball is hideing, and her bothers try to find her by asking the other dogs from the movie if they've seen her, and in the end they come up with a plan to get her out of hideing.

I liked this story it was really interesting and it is funny and it is cool how the car can do all those thing. When I saw the cover I thought it would be boring but it was very interesting I liked the movie the best but I liked the book to and I loved when she was looking for a car I thought that she was going to pick a diffrent car and then she picked herbie and it was awesome she did not like him at first and then she saw kevin and she loved herbie and they fixed herbie up really good and bet the best race car driver in the world and herbie had a mind of his own and it was awesome to see that she loved the car after they washed it up and she was keeping a secret she said she was maxx and she wasn't and she lied to her dad and the news and every body and the bad thing about it is that she lied to her dad and that is very very very bad and I wish that she would have just told them and not have to be in that kind of thing she did it I would not have done that if I were her I would not have lied and be in a bigger mess I would have just went on and told the truth but I don't like her ling because it is just not right for her to lie right in her dads face it hurt him more but then he was really mad because she did not tell him the truth the first time and that is why he was mad because she lied to him the first and then he was there when she toke off her helmet and he was very mad at her because he thought that she would not lie to him but then he saw her and then he did not beleive her no more then her brother got in a car reck and he picked magie to drive and her dad said it was okay with him and then her dad was happy again when she won her dad was so proud of her. that is all i had to say.THE END!!!!!!!!!!

Twenty-one-year-old Maggie Peyton has just graduated college, and is about to start a high-ranking, behind-the-scenes job at ESPN in the Big Apple. But first she must survive a month-long stint in her hometown of Riverside, California, where she is sure she will spend her time skateboarding. Oh yeah, and looking for a job that will cover her new apartment's first and last rent payments. However, when her father takes her to a used car lot, she is quickly drawn to Herbie, a white, '63 Love Bug that could use a bit of a paint job, as well as some other work under the hood. Which is how Maggie ends up getting involved with her best friend from high school, Kevin, who intends on fixing up Herbie, free of charge. The only catch is that Herbie has a complete mind of his own, and a heart for racing, which is how he and Maggie, along with Kevin, get mixed up with Trip Murphy, a professional racecar driver who bugs Herbie just as much as Maggie. Now the little car has decided that he's going to beat Trip in a race that Maggie's not even sure she wants to participate in. But when Herbie's driving, she has no choice.

I adore the past HERBIE movies, so hearing about the newest release HERBIE FULLY LOADED starring Lindsay Lohan, I knew that the film would capture my heart instantly. However, waiting is not one of my virtues, so when I saw the HERBIE FULLY LOADED novelization recently, I had to pick-it up. Irene Trimble has done a fabulous job of bringing the movie to life with this novelization. The characters are quirky and fun, and Herbie is completely adorable. While it is obvious from the movie trailers that the novelization cut parts of the movie out, it features enough to tide over any HERBIE fan until the movie is released to theaters. Overall, this is a must have novelization for HERBIE or Lindsay Lohan fans. You won't be disappointed!

Erika Sorocco
Book Review Columnist for The Community Bugle Newspaper

great entertainment,Use coloring books for tracing pictures to draw my own scene. have brought other books from Amazon.com and is worth time, effort, and cash.

customer from Amazon.com

The book is very good. Even though I havent seen the movie I still like it! It would make a good stocking stuffer.

A fun and interesting book filled with action and adventure. I recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a book that will strech their imagination.

I think this Treasure Planet book is really good. The pictures are great and the book is just like the movie. Jim finds a map and joins the crew. An alien first told him to beware of a cyborg. He sets sail on the ship as a cabin boy and Silver as the cook. Silver teaches Jim what he knows and is beginning to get a soft place for Jim. They find the treasure but it is a trap. They escape and Silver leaves the crew. I recommend this book to anyone who like short adventure stories.

This is best craft book for children I have ever read. It is absolutely perfect; you can't go wrong with this one.

This is a great book for kids ages 3-8. The activities are not only enjoyable and well-explained, but they acutally come out looking as good as the pictures in the book. The materials needed are common items that we had in the house which did away with needing to make frequent trips to buy things. There is a gentle humor in this book that fits perfectly with the stories that were selected to accompany the crafts. One extra bonus - my daughter frequentlty chooses this as her "bedtime book". How many other "craft" books can match that?

What is it about blogging that inspires millions to commit their feelings to a public place? The author of Dispatches from Blogistan : A Travel Guide for the Modern Blogger is a technology journalist and media pioneer who here surveys the culture of blogs, reviews its tools and design features, and considers related issues of privacy, trust, and safeguards on the Net. While it's a cultural and social overview, it also provides novice bloggers with plenty of facts about the online self-publishing revolution - and the hot topic will prove popular not only for computer libraries, but for general-interest holdings and college collections interested in the culture of the Internet.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

This is a shortened copy of a review that I wrote for TidBITS [....]

In today's world of profit-pumping book publishing, a blog-related title is easy - the technology is simple enough to explain without much research or tech-writing talent and the buzz factor should make the book easy to market. Suzanne, however, pleased and surprised me by taking the text far beyond a get-rich-quick effort seen in other blogging titles. She includes historical context and piles of advice, and dishes it out with an appealing writing style intermixed with interviews and quotes from Internet denizens such as Cory Doctorow and Laura Lemay.

My favorite part of the book is the section covering topics like why an RSS newsreader is cool, and what the deal is with tags, tag clouds, blog search engines, [...] trackback links, permalinks, Flickr, and other jargon that savvy Internet users fling around widely but rarely explain with any sort of satisfying depth. I read this section with avid interest, since I hadn't previously understood how it all fit together.

Suzanne's prose is personal and witty, and I expect to keep this book on my shelf as a reference for a few years and perhaps as a memento of an era after that.

I bought this book for my daughter when she was about 2 years old (and really in the "Dora" phase). The pages are really easy to turn, and the book is full of colorful pictures. It only takes about 3 minutes to read the entire book to my child, but she is always satisfied afterwards. It's now been 2 1/2 years since I bought the book, and she's no longer a huge fan of Dora, but she still loves this book. My son, who is 2, also loves the book, and I like that it's a board book, so he can't destroy it---the book is still in excellent condition. If I had to give away all but ten books in my house, the three Dora board books I have would make the cut!

My 18 month old daughter is in love with Dora so I bought her a boxed set of books. This book came with the set. It's a cute book that shows different modes of transportation. It's also very colorful so it keeps my daughters attention.