Interactive Books

Much has been written, let it simply be said this is the type of book you can pick up for ten minutes and learn something new and fascinating. The pop-outs and pull-out copies of historical documents is wonderful. I've stumbled on it at a retail outlet and have since bought several more as gifts. A good investment for all ages.

This is a wonderful source of material and has been most beneficial as a teaching tool for my middle school students as we study the Lewis and Clark journey to explore the Louisiana Purchase.
The pull outs are excellent and help students to really connect with Lewis and Clark as "real" people.
A wonderful addition to any educator's collection!

This is a very fun book to read. It has many pockets that contain maps, receipts, and letters that look and feel like the real artifacts. One gets the feeling of history looking through these things. It is appropriate for young people, and adults. It is not a book to read though for the "details" however. I highly recommend this book to school libraries or young people with an interest in Lewis and Clark history. For details of the expedition look at Undaunted Courage, and/or Moulton's book.

I purchased this book for my daughter after we visited Fort Clatsop, Oregon where The Lewis and Clark Expedition settled for the winter. My daughter is ten years old and absolutely loves the interative features of the book, such as the replicas of the maps and journal entries from the expedition. The book was such a hit for my daughter's birthday that my parent's ordered the book and a little girl at the party ordered one also.
The replica maps and writings are a little hard to read as the writing 100 years ago has evolved to what we have now. But helping your child interpret these readings makes this book a true family book.

Keeping history in perspective is important.What is 200 years?I am creeping on to 70 and my father was born in 1891.So,it was only 85 years before my father was born that Lewis and Clark completed their journey.Another way to look at it is that Clark died in 1866 only 25 years before my father's birth.Not really all that long ago,when you think of all that has happened in that short time.
This is a very unique book,only 48 pages;but a real excellent effort.Scattered throughout the book are over a dozen packets containing authentic looking reproductions of maps,letters and other documents that were prepared along the trip.It's almost like handling museum documents.Also included are many excellent paintings of scenes along the journey as well as sketches,maps and photographs of important items used.The paper,printing and overall construction of the book is superior in every way.At the back of the book there is a wealth of source material covering,acknowledgements,credits,notes and transcriptions.
All in all,a first class book on the Lewis and Clark Journey that shaped America.

Mr Funny is the 18th book in the Mr Men series, first published in 1976. This was a colorful favorite of mine when I was little. It features Mr Funny's unusual life, and a silly trip to the zoo, which is all nicely illustrated and fascinating to follow. Worth a look.

My children ages 4,5 and 7 LOVE the Mr Men books. They are easy to read and alot of fun.

We're so glad to have found Mr.Men on a US site!!Having been raised reading these great stories in England, my boys(Aged 3 and 5)now love these fun characters,We have the whole set!!

Even the worms laugh at Mr. Funny's shoe car!

This is one of the top 10 of the twenty or so Mr. Men books we've bought for our son. I grew up with Mr. Men when I was a kid growing up in the UK. Now I can read them to my son.

Mr. Funny goes on a road trip (in this shoe car) and tries to go to the zoo. However the zoo is closed because the animals are sad because they are ill. Mr. Funny to the rescue! He makes a series of ever funnier funny faces making the lion laugh is mane off, the elephant is trunk off and the funniest face made anywhere, ever; make the leopard laugh his spots off! His job done he returns home to a glass of toast and daisy sandwich!

A top 10 Mr. Men book!

How can anyone *not* love these books? "Mr. Funny" is especially dear. In a few, short pages this character spreads the news that laughter cures all. Who needs to sit through 2 hours of "Patch Adams" when you can read this little book in under five minutes?

If I could only put one multimedia learning book on my bookshelf, this would be it. The "General Principles" section provides one of the best overviews I've read of Behavioral, Cognitive, and Constructivist approaches to learning (although I do think they misrepresent the Instructional Systems Design process and treat it as a purely Behavioralist approach). This section also presents an excellent overview of the learning process. The book moves on to discuss methodologies and learning sequences at an unparalleled level, including a brilliant discussion of simulations and educational games. The book closes with an overview of an approach to Design and Development that's worth reading, but far less valuable than the previous sections. Of all my design books, this one has the most dog-eared pages and underlined text; the chapter-level bibliographies alone are worth the book's price! Anyone looking to delve deep into multimedia design for learning should have this book on his or her shelf.

This is an excellent text in terms of coverage and pacing. If you are interested in human-computer interaction, this is a 'must have' text. What astonished me about this book is that it covered more issues in HCI than many dedicated user interface design books. The text admirably blends practical considerations with theoretical concerns and trends. It strongly focuses on motivational issues surrounding users of learning packages(an area largely ignored in the bulk of standard HCI texts). Don't pass over this book.

I just find it very well put together.. It takes you through the various facets of designing a course/presentation that will actually be used and useful.

Had to buy it for a class; execellent resource for it's target audience. Make sure you're a memeber of that target audience (instructional technologists) before you buy :)

The first clue as to the value of a book is the number of editions. Generally, the true standards in a field will continue to live and be revised. This book is the standard for multimedia design and production. The foundations and theory that are explored in the beginning are as valuable as the detail in the production process that is explained. The most significant aspect of this book has to be the detail concerning methods, especially instructional simulations. Simply a must have for anyone in the field of multimedia who is looking to develop products that go beyond the traditional page turner.

If you only buy one book to help your family through your divorce, this is the one to buy! Dr. Lois takes the fear and taboo out of divorce and makes it an easy subject to discuss. As a webmaster of a Single Parents Support page, I have read dozens of books and none have been as unique as this one.

This brilliant book is designed to be read WITH your children. Kids get a chance to read about familiar characters, colour, draw and discuss their similar feelings. By basing the book on Fairy Tale characters, children learn that even the most perfect of lives can go wrong.

This fantastic piece of writing asks questions as easy as "how did that make you feel?" to "What rules have the Judge made, and what do you do if someone breakes them?"

The children learn that fear and tears is OK and normal--even moms and dads cry and feel scared! Take the time, track this book down. You'll be glad that you did.

Jill Lassaline

This book is not just for very young children. My 11 yo daughter had so much anger wrapped around our divorce that we just couldn't even talk. This book was the break-through we needed to begin talking, crying, understanding, and moving on. She made this book her own, colored the pictures, and had us read it together multiple times, using it to begin discussions about the issues that troubled her.

As an elementary school counselor, I have many children referred to me for support during their parents' divorce. This is the best book I have found for giving specific, insightful tips, targeting children's specific personality types. A quiet, introspective child experiences divorce differently than an extremely outgoing child. Dr. Nightingale gives tips for the whole divorce process, from beginning to end. Concepts are presented with gentleness and grace. As District Counselor, I have purchased a copy for each of the elementary school counselors in our district. We all use this book often and appreciate it!

I love this book. It helped me talk to my son about his concerns and feelings as we went through an uncomfortable divorce. This book helped me explain to him that he was not to blame for the problems between his mother and I. As he used the workbook pages it helped him express his fears and let me demonstrate that I heard his concerns. I was also able to show him that I will always love him, so much so that now, six months later, we talk a lot more than before and are becoming fast friends. Thanks for your helpful insight

I bought this book because I didn't know how to talk to my daughters about the divorce. Reading through this story gave us the words to discuss difficult issues. I recommended this book to the other parents in my divorce recovery group. They also were grateful to have a way to talk about divorce with their kids.

Although I have been reading a lot of documents related to OpenCable, I was looking forward to a comprising work, where all was coming together. That book is now available. The good structure and well managed balance between the bigger picture and the details makes this is a very interesting book for a wide audience in the North American cable community.

No kidding. Michael Adams has taken very complex technical subject matter and crystallized it in a conversational, easy-to-read manner, injecting personality and humor to make the text thoroughly enjoyable. Very refreshing approach to material that is usually inaccessable to non-engineers. Highly recommended for anyone in the broadband networking arena. Calculus is not a prerequisite!

The opencable industry has great promise and potential. In its early formative stage, various industry participants (hardware and software developers, service providers, cable MSO engineers, etc.) really need and will benefit greatly from this book.

Michael Adams has done a great job of pulling together various information pieces in a coherent framework in an understandable and easy to read manner: history, rationale, process, market and technical details of the OpenCable architecture; current status and future direction. I recommend this book highly.

Satish Thatte, Director, Product Management & Standards LG Electronics Research Center of America Princeton Junction, NJ

If you need a way to get employees, vendors, customers or anyone else up to speed quickly on how cable television networks are being re-designed for digital and interactive services, this is the book for you. It clearly and concisely covers the widely varying technical issues involved in designing broadband systems. I think it will a handy reference tool to both technical and non-technical readers.

Although I have been reading a lot of OpenCable documents, there was a wish to have a book that gave the overview and connected the pieces together. That book has now arrived. I can recommend it to all that like to have more knowledge on digital cable and the overview of opencable.

I have a litte doubt and try to solve my problems talking with the writer email showed in the book, but I never received a anwser...

This is an excellent book for those with an interest in creating Multimedia Applications for J2Me Mobile devices.

I would say that the book is split into three sections:

Section 1 (chapters 1 to 3): This section gives detailed information about the architecture of the MMAPI and how it fits within the J2Me platform. There is also has a good "getting started" guide to be found here.

Section 2 (chapters 4 to 8): Deal with how one uses the Player object in all its forms from playing simple tones, to playing back captured and streamed video.

This section was the most useful to me. It provides excellent
background information about each of the subject areas. An example of this is that it gives a full history of the MIDI standard, and an overview of the protocol itself, before it starts talking about how you write the code to play a midi file in J2Me.

Section 3: (the last chapter) is a case study, providing yet more code examples, and a companion blog site.

The only criticism that I have, is that the book, could have delved into the realms of streaming media a little deeper. The company that I work for, weComm is actively involved in the mobile TV space and I was pivotal in the creation of our application for streaming TV, and therefore I was hoping that this topic would be covered in more detail. That aside, I was very impressed, the subject matter was covered very thoroughly, and I felt guided through the MMAPI as I was reading it.

When I got this book I jumped straight to Chapter 9 viz. "Case Study: Device Blogging". This chapter nicely explains how to write a blogging Midlet for a phone device which includes writing a Blog post, capturing/uploading images to a blog, and capturing/posting audio to a blog. The author explains the MMAPI concepts using the MVC paradigm along with complete source code for client and server side processing of application and interaction logic.

The rest of the book goes deep into the MMAPI architecture and concepts with the help of source code of working applications. The functional Multimedia player example in the 3rd chapter explains the role of various components of MMAPI architecture. A dedicated chapter on Media player lifecycle and events is very helpful in understanding the basic concepts of event handling. The book also covers some of the fundamental concepts behind controlling pitch, tempo, audio mixing with the help of examples.

Chapter 7 is dedicated to the MIDI specification which is very comprehensive and well explained within the context of JavaME framework. Writing a book like this requires a thorough knowledge of both JavaME and the various subtleties of tone, pitch, sequencing, octaves, frequency, audio conversion and their treatment on the device and at the network level. In my opinion the author has done a great job.

All in all this book is a great resource if you are planning to develop the next Mobile video sharing, photo sharing application or your next multi-media player for a Mobile phone.

Pro Java ME MMAPI: Mobile Media API for Java Micro Edition has amazed me. The book is unique as it covers and desmyifies one of the most fragmented and confuse Optional Packages for JME.

I've read more than a dozen books about JME but this is the first book that has really cleared some doubts I had regarding Mobile Media in JME.

I strongly recommend this book if you are developing Multimedia Applications using JME.

Vikram Goyal has done an outstanding job by clarifying and detailing every aspect of MMAPI, discussing the way it has been specified, emphasizing the differences that may occur from one implementation to another and also providing clear, detailed and error free examples that illustrate the aspects being discussed.

Also, the text is very well-written and I've found only 3 typos. Very impressive! Apress is also doing a wonderful job.

Chapter 1 introduces MMAPI and presents its features and requirements as defined by the JCP - Java Community Process, compares MMAPI and the MIDP 2.0 Media subset, where it fits regarding the JME Software stack and at last it lists the manufactures and market players supporting MMAPI.
Nice introduction!

Chapter 2 explains the MMAPI Architecture, the main high-level interfaces, delivers an introduction to the supported protocols and content types, presents the relevant feature sets and the security issues one must take into consideration. It also details the MIDP 2.0 Media subset so that one can understand what's left out on devices implementing it.

Chapter 3 introduces the reader to MMAPI hands-on programming by explaining two simple MIDlets. It also builds the foundation regarding the overall development process and environment.

Chapter 4 is unique, it details the Media Player lifecycle, its possible states and transitions. It explains each state very thoroughly as well as Player events and how to work with them, even the limitations and issues regarding custom events. I've never read a book covering MMAPI with such a detailed explanation.

Chapter 5 covers all the issues regarding the access of media over networks. It starts with a very clear explanation of Threads in JME as well as the security permissions for media acess over networks. Then it puts it all together in a very clear and easy to follow example.

Chapters 6 and 7 are the best ones in my opinion. Those two chapters do pay the book, definitely.Vikram has been brilliant and desmystified Synthetic Tones and the MIDI protocol. He has remembered me of my of childhood, when I've had musical theory classes as it explains everything music and shows you how that all fits into programming with MMAPI. Those chapters are so complete that they have a lot of tips on how to convert from RTTTL to MMAPI format, the MIDI specification and message format and how to work with MIDI in MMAPI, how to create JTS files and other niceties. Thanks Vikram :)

Chapter 8 explains how to work with Audio and Video, playback, capturing, storing, controlling, mixing, it's everything there. It also describes the details of Media Encodings and Sampled Audio as well as the GUI options for dealing with Video.

Chapter 9 has a very cool Device Blogging application that builds upon all the subjects presented so far and also gives a good example of MVC pattern in JME.

Well, the only criticism I have is regarding the section about Streaming Media and also the Appendix C about the JSR 234 - Advanced Multimedia Supplements. Considering that Vikram has proved he's really a subject matter expert He could have provided better sections about them.

In fact, He has already written an article about Streaming in JME and it's available on his web site (so I forgive him) but AMMS is still to be covered. What about on the second edition of his book? Let's wait and see!

A must have book, absolutely!

This is a well written book. It's not for beginners but then again you don't have be a J2ME (Java ME) guru to understand it. The writing style is technically clear and straight forward without a lot of personal fluff.

Since MMAPI is a subset of Java ME, the scope of the subject is fairly limited but the author covers it well. The only area I might like more explanation is with respect to DataSource and SourceStream. This is covered briefly at the beginning of the book, but it would be nice to know how to implement a custom protocol.

The biggest problem I have had with the MMAPI is it's inconsistent implementation and the author is quick to acknowledge this. One could probably write a whole chapter about the quirks of various mobile devices.

In conclusion, I doubt you will find another book specifically on MMAPI that has the depth that this one does. I highly recommend this book if you are looking to get your feet wet with the MMAPI.

BTW, I really appreciate the time the editors spent to proof read the text as there are very few errors, if any. It's always frustrating to me when I read a book with a lot of code and spelling errors. That's not the case here. Well done!

Ever wonder what the heck you're going to buy for all the birthday parties your child is invited to?

I stumbled across the Puzzle Books series by Susannah Leigh sort of by accident and LOVE to give these books as gifts. Puzzle Castle tells an adventure story while encorporating mazes, puzzles, seek and find, and a number of other interactive games that are suitable for kids ages 3 and up.

In this story, our heroine is Sophie the brave knight. Her friend Titus the Timid has invited her to Puzzle Castle for a banquet, but first she must get rid of the monster in the dungeon. It is a cute, interactive story.

My son is only 3, so some of these puzzles are a little too old for him. But we read this together at bed time and have a lot of fun. This is a great book to grow into, and you can read it over and over and spot something new each time.

My 2 boys love all the Usborne Puzzle books. They are cheerful and fun, with a variety of hidden pictures and clues to solve. We have all the titles, but this book is the favorite of my 6 year old.

We came across this book about 6 months ago when my daughter was 2.5, and she cannot stop talking about Sophie, the brave knight, the dragon, and Cecil, the friendly ghost. We then went on to buy more puzzle books, which were all good, and which were all finished within one sitting because my daughter was so enthralled, but Puzzle Castle really seems to be the stand-out. This is such a fun activity for parents to do with their children, and the puzzles will appeal to children of all ages.

These books provide hours of entertainment and are great fun for the child, the friends, siblings and the parents. All will enjoy these books. Puzzle Castle is about " Sophie " who is helping her friend find the monster in the dungeons before the grand banquet. " Cecil " the castle ghost you must find on each of the double pages and he does hide! " Jester Jim " is practicing juggling and you need to find his juggling balls and you never know how many there will be. Then in each of the double pages in these wonderful illustrations you need to find " useful equipment " that consists of flashlight, key, extra-brave toffees, monster protection shield and many more objects. You don't know what page which object is on so you must remember these objects (or look back in the first couple pictures until you get it narrowed down) The adventure takes you to find a safe route across the moat, matching people with the rooms, My favorite was finding the right baby with the right outfit. Each set of double pictures also has a puzzle, full of mazes, searches and just a lot of fun. Then at the end they make it to the grand banquet. This really was a lot of fun.

My sister gave my 3 year old daughter this book on the strength of the unusual heroine - a female knight. My daughter loved it so much that we bought the whole collection of Puzzle books, and every one has been a complete success. She reads (or rather, we read) them over and over. The illustrations are so rich and interesting that we find all sorts of things to discuss even after completing the particular puzzle at hand.

The book was delivered on time and the quality of the book is great.

This was by far the most useful resource that I found for my dissertation proposal. Maxwell's writing is clear, smart, and informative. The sample proposal in the back of the book was extremely useful as well.

This is the best book I have found that describes, in simple easy to read language, how to design qualitative research. I enjoyed reading it. The exercises included throughout the book facilitated my learning. I highly recommend it!

Having acquired a veritable library of qualitative methods books and journal articles, I still felt like I was floundering. This book gave me not only a new and more valuable way of thinking about what I was doing, but a step-by-step action guide, practical, practicable, and with a depth (both explicated and in specific references) that makes me much more confident about eventual orals. Short and extremely sweet!

This brief, thorough, and engaging introduction to qualitative research design has no equal. Maxwell avoids the superficial and confused paradigm discussions that so many qualitative authors engage in. He takes a pragmatic and rigorous approach that builds on the potential strengths of qualitative research while promoting well-accepted principles of scientific validity and integrity.

The chapter on validity is especially noteworthy, recognizing that "Validity is a goal not a product; it is never something that can be proven or taken for granted" and that "Validity is also relative: It has to be assessed in relationship to the purposes and circumstances of the research, rather than being a context-independent property of methods or conclusions. Finally validity threats are made implausible by evidence not methods; methods are only a way of getting evidence that can help you rule out these threats." Amen.

This book is excellent. Not only is it fun to read but also very informative. You can read it from front to back and you can use it as a reference manual. What graphics mode for tracks does what? You'll find it! What compression scheme do I need for what purpose? You'll find it! How do I change the movie controller? Why do I have to change it sometimes? Just look it up! Did you ever wanted to know how the people from Apple make movie trailers?

The CD contains an audio tour, many examples, and software (QuickTime 5 Pro, full versions and demo versions of various tools) for Windows and Macintosh computers.

This book was written very well, and is full of useful information. It isn't just for the web! It's a must-have for anyone working with Quicktime. Good book.

I like a lot Mr.Gulie's writing and especially the chapter about SMIL and how it can be used to create QuickTime movies.

The main reason I bought the book was that it had license keys for QuickTime5 Pro for PC and Mac. Those keys costed [price] each at that time if one bought them separately (supposing they had both a Mac and a PC). So it was a good deal apart from the book content itself. An unfortunate thing is that the QT5Pro keys won't work with QT6Pro and that QT6 can't coexist with QT5 on the same machine. So I do still use QuickTime5 (Pro) on my machine...

The book also contains a CD with lots of material which is a must for books about multimedia and rich content (would be a big download for one to get from the publisher's website).

Another thing about such books are that they're usually not printed in color :(, obviously to keep the cost low

This book contains all of the otherwise unwritten techniques for producing QuickTime movies and panoramas for the web, appropriate for both Macintosh and Windows users.

Steve Gulie is in constant contact with producers of QuickTime content (on the mailing list), and is familiar with their day-to-day travails. The book is essentially an embellished FAQ, plus suggestions from Steve's first-hand experience in producing QuickTime for the Web.

The book comes with a QuickTime Pro license for both the Macintosh and Windows, which more than pays for the cost of the book. In addition, the accompanying CD contains demos or fully functional versions of dozens of useful application, for Mac and Windows.

If you're doing any QuickTime production and delivering it on the web, then you need this book.

Steve Gulie does it again. It is rare to read a technical book that makes you laugh out loud, but Steve leavens the clearly-explained information about the intricacies of QuickTime and Web browers with wit and humour.
This second edition includes QT 5 Pro Keys for Windows and Macintosh - separately these alone would cost nearly (...), so the book is a bargain too.

Full disclosure - I am an engineer on the QuickTime team, know the author, and proof-read this book. I know that it is accurate and helpful, and that it will explain techniques that would take you a long time tolearn on your own.

Teach Yourself Acid 3.0 is an excellent resource. Although Acid comes with a manual on PDF, everybody knows that switching between your software and Adobe Acrobat Reader is tedious and a strain on the eyes--which in turn means that you probably won't learn all about Acid's possibilities. With TYA 3.0, you can have the book open while you work with Acid (this alone vastly improves your learning curve); additionally, every chapter (or "hour") of this text has exercises and activities that you can do with the supplied CD-Rom loops. I really recommend doing the exercises--they WILL give you ideas for your own Acid projects.

While it might initially seem a little pricey, the tips, exercises, and CD-Rom make it invaluable.

This book is terrific! I just recently started experimenting with computer music using the ACID 3 programs, and this book makes an already easy to learn program even easier to understand. It is clearly written with the beginner in mind yet will take you as far up the technical ACID 3.0 learning curve as you wish. There is only one change I would make in the contents of Sam's Teach Yourself ACID 3.0 in 24 Hours, and that would be the inclusion of a comprehensive TROUBLESHOOTING section. The book is carefully written in a fashion, that if you follow the instructions to the letter, you should experience no technical problems. But as most will not have the infallibility to successfully follow the instructions without at least a few mistakes, I would wish there be a simple and quick to reference TROUBLESHOOTING section that helps you to easily go back and correct what you may have missed. But with this aside, the book is terrific. Definitely written for actual human beings. Well done.

As a Sonar user, a Sound Forge user, a Vegas Video user, I was completely amazed to discover the power hidden within Acid--whose very name unfortunately causes scornful and undeserved ridicule as with the review below.

Many see Acid as a toy, and it is anything but as anyone who digs beneath the surface will quickly discover.

Acid 3.0 is a professional tool used in professional environments to achieve professional results faster than ever before and where time is money, Acid shines.

For anyone wanting to push this tool past it's apparent limits, using it as the ultimate tool with which to bring together tracks from various sources (including Cubase) this book is essential to understanding its hidden strengths, and workarounds for inherent weaknesses found in some extreme BPM and pitch-shifting tasks. "Acid 3.0 in 24 Hours" is essential to understanding track management, bus usage, FX options, video scoring, and timing adjustments to name but a few.

Do not be fooled. Acid is a most powerful non-destructive digital audio construction tool, although its name may draw prejudice. This book is as worthy a companion and reference as exists for it.

Buy this book. Even the Acid experienced will learn from it.

i got the software and this book on friday, by monday i was making incredible music, i dont know anything about music
i am a flash developer and this works great for flash too.
i only read half of the book and it kicks ...!!!
acid pro 3 is to music what flash is to the internet. it will change everything... the book is excellent, it starts out basic and take you in fast, this book is great for the novice as well as the advanced user. also check out sound forge power book here at amazon, these two programs together and you can do anything.

This is a carefully-written explanation of a complex piece of computer technology. It takes way more hours than the title promises. But it is a wonderful introduction to the fascinating world of audio recording technology. Super Dooper!