Applications Books

I can't use this book because I am Dummer than I thought I was!! MY COMPUTER AT HOME AND AT WORK HAVE EXCELL 2003. THIS BOOK REFERS TO EXCELL 2007!!! THIS DUMMY DIDN'T REALIZE THAT UNTIL I TRIED TO USE THE BOOK AND IT REFERRED TO THE NEW FEATURES IN EXCEL 2007.

Great! Saved us unkown hours of headache. Probably not needed for the real pros, but then it is designed for us dummies and does as advertised.
If you are not up on the latest Escel don't try to figure it out without this book or one like it.

I know everything about Excel, except Formulas. When my son, the college student, asked for help with Excel, I said sure no problem. He needed help with Excel formulas. I immediately went on Amazon.com and bought Excel 2007 for Dummies. On his first test (after reading and studying the book), he got an 87%! Need I say more..

This book is excellent -- clear, detailed, and well-organized. And it always seems to have just the information I need.

To give a specific example: I was recently trying to prepare a robot for a local fire-fighting contest, and was counting on using a HiTechnic interface board to connect up one or more Sharp analog distance sensors. But the HiTechnic board didn't work for me, and the deadline was looming. I flipped through Extreme NXT, and there in Chapter 8 was the solution: a simple circuit for that does exactly what I need.

The NXT is a great robot controller, and this book effectively converts it from a closed to an open platform. I can't recommend it highly enough.

I bought this book to get a better idea of how to safely interface my own circuits to the Lego Mindstorms NXT. In my opinion, you can't find a better book for this purpose. "Extreme NXT" contains the pinouts and proper usage of the NXT motor and sensor ports. It also provides a large number of the most useful homebrew sensor implementations, right down to parts lists containing part numbers for common component suppliers like Digikey and Radio Shack.

My background is in engineering, with an emphasis in control systems. The first book I read in the field of hobbiest robotics was "Mobile Robots: Inspiration to Implementation" (Jones and Flynn). In those days, the 6811's were king for these sorts of projects. I spent many a happy day with my MIT Handyboard (a simple 6811 robot controller board). Things have come a long way. Nowadays NXT is available, and this book is the modern day equivalent to that excellent text for those who want to dig in and find out what the NXT is capable of. The book is written in a format that is easy to understand for the novice, but also supplies plenty of content to allow the more advanced user to be able to push the NXT envelope. The organization is superb, commonly used charts and tables are easily found. I have been finding myself referring most often to the pinout tables for the NXT connectors, and these are very conveniently found towards the front of the book.

Chapters are broke down into sensor and output types, starting with the more basic and easily contructed passive sensors up to more advanced and expandable I2C sensors. Motor control, h-bridges, etc are also covered in detail. Both the construction of the circuits, and the NXT code to run them, are covered. Code is provided in it's most basic form first, NXT-G, which every NXT user will be familiar with. Examples proceed to more complex compilers, such as NBC, for sensors or circuits that are better suited to those implementations.

The appendix provides complete source code listings, useful websites and links categorized by chapter. There is also a great tutorial on prototyping with breadboards and perfboard for the uninitiated. With this book, any skill level in electronics should be enough to do some cool things with the NXT kit.

This book will become a very useful addition to any hobby robotics library. For me, it will be the goto book for designing circuits to safely interface to the Lego NXT. Highly recommended!

Reviewer J. Doubek, said it best - "I bought this book to get a better idea of how to safely interface my own circuits to the Lego Mindstorms NXT. In my opinion, you can't find a better book for this purpose."

And that is very true! I cannot add much more to his review... This book is the 'Make' book for the NXT. The authors have explained everything so any builder of any age or skill level can understand the processes. It teaches several techniques that can be developed into viable career skills. Including soldering, electronics knowledge and usage, and handy-tech projects that will also get one's mind flowing with other ideas. If you are a 'Maker' or tinkerer or would like to learn some inside knowledge of the NXT and how to build outside of the box you will find no better starter book.

Grab it, read it, and use it to expand your NXT knowledge!

Chris
MDP, MCP
USA - NASA

EZ -Solutions GMAT Math Series Books

The overall content in the EZ-solutions set of nine GMAT books is very good. When I started studying for the GMAT I couldn't answer so many questions. But now that I have used the EZ -solutions books I can answer a lot of them. I still need to practice on my speed but they have helped me come a long way. The EZ-solutions books break down each subject covered in the GMAT with a step-by-step system.

The EZ-solutions set of nine GMAT books were extremely helpful considering I haven't had a math class in over six years, and I couldn't remember simple things such as integer properties. Like I said I had taken a GMAT practice exam and I couldn't answer many questions, but now I am getting a lot better.

The format of the EZ-solutions set of nine GMAT books is very good as it breaks down each topic in different books.

The text of the EZ-solutions set of nine GMAT is perfectly clear and precisely to the point. After going through each of the nine EZ-solutions set of nine GMAT books more than once and taking them with me where ever I have gone, they hold up nicely.

I believe that anybody studying for the GMAT should have the EZ-solutions set of nine GMAT books in their collection. They should also get the Official guide, with the Kaplan math review as well. The math lessons in the EZ-solutions GMAT books are much better than the Official, Kaplan, and PR. They have a lot more examples, with a lot more instruction as well. The Official GMAT guide isn't a good book for instruction but just for extra problems. Kaplan and PR have a decent math review in their book but the EZ-solutions GMAT set of nine books really bring it home.

I would recommend the EZ-solutions GMAT set of nine book series to anyone studying for the GMAT. Especially those individuals that who need a math review, and just not practice problems. This set of nine books breaks down each subject covered on the GMAT, and gives detailed expiations of each one.

The EZ-solutions GMAT set of nine books are a little more pricey then those currently on the market. But if you are serious about taking the GMAT and getting a good score I believe they are worth the extra money. As I mentioned earlier some of the other books on the market don't have as good a math lessons as the EZ-solutions GMAT books. Highly recommended!

After going through all the GMAT books, here is my honest opinion about some of the most popular GMAT books:

Official Guide:
Pros - Excellent source of GMAT questions. Very well organized with real test like questions.
Cons - No review of any math content or test-taking strategies. Not enough explanations of practice questions.
Overall, the Official Guide is a must have for all test-takers. It will give you a good idea about the type of questions to expect on the GMAT; however, if you need more than just a bank of questions, you need to look at some other source.

Kaplan:
Pros - Good for additional practice questions as a supplement
Cons - Review of math content is not thorough but just the very basics. Not enough explanation of test taking strategies. Full of guessing techniques with no real mathematical solutions. Not good enough explanations of practice questions. Unrealistic questions.

Princeton:
Pros - Good for additional practice questions as a supplement
Cons - Review of math content is not thorough but just the very basics. Not enough explanation of test taking strategies. Full of guessing techniques with no real mathematical solutions. Not good enough explanations of practice questions. Weird sense of humor.

Barrons:
Pros - Good math review. Big list of questions. Good test taking strategies. Very well organized. This is by far the best of the all-in-one kinds of books.
Cons - Although the book has a good math review, it doesn't go deep enough into each concept. Not enough explanations to practice questions. Does not have a good section for logical reasoning (permutation, combination, probability, etc) questions, which is one of the most important question-type. Does not break down the concepts/questions step by step.

EZ Solutions (set of 9 books):
Pros - Thorough math review from A to Z. Effective test taking strategies. Abundant solved examples. Numerous practice exercises. Great practice question bank in basic and advanced workbooks.
As with most books, you are expected to already have a good knowledge about the various match concepts, but with these books, you can literally start from scratch and reach the most advanced level of the GMAT.
Cons - To get the best result from these books, you have to invest in buying several books (set of 9 books), but if you compare the cost and benefits, the benefits outweigh the cost, or you can buy a few not all. Missing the verbal section. This is not a good option if you are looking for a mediocre score or just looking for a very basic brush-up. Recommended for serious test takers only.

Some of the other books has no real content; whereas, there are some other books that I haven't yet had an opportunity to review, but may be some of them are good supplementary aids.

I hope my review will help some of you in making the right decision.

I bought the series of EZ Solutions for the GMAT and found them to be very helpful. After going through GMAT books from Kaplan, Princeton Review, and others, I needed something more in-depth to tackle all type of questions. The EZ books cover a broad spectrum of content and practice questions with detailed explanations. These are great books for those who are seeking to perfect their score or need something more than just the basic review provided in regular study guides. They are also a good review for those who have been out of school for a while and need to refresh their math skills to score higher on the GMAT . The EZ books are very detailed and comprehensive, far more than any other book that I have seen. I would highly recommend using the EZ Solutions GMAT set of books to improve your scores!

I have been involved in corporate turnarounds and strategic renewal for more than two decades. Many companies, unfortunately, attempt to rely on chance, fate, luck or magic to solve their growth issues or they continue to stay wedded to the same strategies that have led to their stalled growth while still expecting different outcomes. Now, there is a book and an author that has a better solution. Dr. Meyer offers a rigorous but pragmatic approach for enterprises that truly wish to ensure sustained growth. Moreover, he demonstrates in a tangible way that his approach really works by highlighting companies who have followed his methodology. If you are an executive who wants to learn how to leverage knowledge, innovation, and creative business models to ensure long-term corporate growth, this is a must read. F.G. Crane, Former President, QMA Consulting Group Ltd.

Most enterprises understand that they must innovate if they hope to survive and grow. The quest for radical, new-to-the-world innovation is one way to go, but is costly, uncertain, and often takes ten years or more to bear fruit. The other path--the path most often taken--is incremental innovation of existing product/service lines for current customers and markets. This incremental approach is safer and faster, and keeps the cash registers ringing, but cannot revitalize the business.

In THE FAST PATH TO CORPORATE GROW, Marc Meyer provides a third option for business managers and R&D professionals: innovation in markets and in business models. His book offers a practical method for leveraging existing technical capabilities and know-how to new customer groups. He provides an answer to the question: "How can we serve new customers and create new businesses from the technological capabilities we have already mastered?"

Well worth reading. Many examples of successful implementation.

All enterprises are in transition whether they like it or not. Marc Meyer presents explicit examples of how enlightened management address the inevitable "transitions" they face in the pursuit of corporate growth by leveraging knowledge and technologies that have the latent potential of stimulation of their paths to growth. He presents compelling approaches that have produced signification growth and revitalization of their established methods of new product or services development. His methods require disciplines that, at first blush, seem difficult and too rigorous to implement within the organizations. However, his examples of IBM, Mars, and Honda give confidence of successful outcomes if applied. His general principles can be applied and are aptly suitable to arrays of product or services with unexpected positive results even in the face of difficulties, impediments, and risks. This book requires a serious "reading" worthy of the effort. Alvin P. Lehnerd

I knew almost nothing about FileMaker Pro but needed to learn it fast for a project. I read this book in about 5 hours and after that, I could do all but the most coplicated things in FileMaker. I have a Mac and this book is great for Mac or Windows. Unless you need to do very complicated scripts and formulas, this book is great for you. I hope he updates it for FMP 7. All in all, read this book and you will gain a skill you never knew how useful it could be. I make databases for all sorts of things now, and it just takes me a couple hours.

I wrote the book, so call me biased. Still I wanted to highlight that FileMaker 6 is not just another upgrade and the book not just another revision (I know because I've been doing this since FileMaker 4). Two cool features, highlighted in the book, make FileMaker 6 worth the upgrade: full XML support and auto-importing of digital camera images (Mac only).

* While XML is a blessing to database geeks, it's also accessible to plain folks via FileMaker's support of XML-based templates. You'll find a free collection on the FileMaker site (www.filemaker.com) that will let you do nifty things like add live package tracking to a FileMaker database or import songlists from iTunes. If you are a database geek, the XML support means the barriers are finally down for using FileMaker with corporate-scale databases.
* As for importing digital camera images, FileMaker doesn't just grab the photo but also grabs all the metadata for each image. Such data includes camera settings, which FileMaker can dump directly into several of the 20 templates included in the program. If you use lots of digital images, this alone can make sorting and finding photos way easier.

Just like the program, FileMake Pro 6 Visual QuickStart Guide's been fine-tuned and honed from top to bottom. And it's got the best index in the business, so you can actually find the answers to your questions.

HTH,
Nolan

If you know absolutely nothing about Filemaker, this book is easily the best. Some may pass it up because of a lack of practice files. However, I think that is a plus. I found it easier to develop my own practice database(s) as I went along.

If you want to learn more, I recommend moving on to the Advanced Peachpit book and then to Kubica's, which is too comprehensive and advanced to be used as a learning tool, but an excellent reference manual.

This book is an excellent reference on finite fields. Chapter 1 covers the necessary background material at the right level for someone with a good knowledge of mathematics, but little algebra. Chapter 2 covers the basics of finite fields and chapter 3 goes into more detail on polynomials. The later chapters treat special topics and some applications. The proofs are clear, not over detailed and not overly terse either. If you just want to know the basics then there may be more in this book than you will ever need, but if you want a thorough reference it is recommended.

This is the best book on Galois (Finite) Fields, written by Austrian and Australian professors can be recomended as the most complete reference in the field. It is amazing how helpful it has been to me since time I wrote my MS diploma. Though an instance I was using was borrowed from library, I'd recomend everybody, who is related to deescrete math to have one.

Undoubtedly an excellent book, but comprehensive ... only up to 1983, as this is essentially an IDENTICAL reprint by CUP of the original 1983 book by Addison-Wesley. Don't be misled by the 1997 edition date; second edition = first edition, not a single result from 1983 - 1997.

This book teaches not only basic concepts of PowerBuilder, but also how to create real world applications. The authors are very serious on the quality of this book, one of the authors responded my e-mail about this book. I hope to see more books from these authors.

Throughout many books available for PowerBuilder today this one is more deeply and carefully covers all the details you will need from day to day operations. I've red over dozens of books and I think that this one the only one that is not tells you where to click, but teaches you how to build an application and logical design. I do hope that authors of the book (B. Smith and G. Schaad) will issue a newer version that will cover features implemented with PB 6.x and PB 7

This is by far the easiest-to-read and -understand book I have read on PowerBuilder. It is very well edited also, with no grammatical or spelling errors that I could discern. This is a far better book on PowerBuilder than I have read by any other author. Bravo!

Thank God for this book. Folland is the grand-master of my life. I'm a grad student in applied math, studying for qualifying exams, and this book has been extremely helpful to me because it is perfectly rigorous and also crystal clear. When I say Folland is The One, I am referring to The Matrix. This book is that good. His treatment of distributions (otherwise known as "generalized functions") is especially nice.

I've been asked to teach a course on Fourier analysis,I knew nothing on the subject so I took about 15 books on this subject and went over all of them. My conclusion was that Folland's book is the best!. He explain the theory yet never forget for a minute the intuitive side of the subject. The book contains almost all the important issues and notions of the subject. If you have a solid background in vector calculus and you know some basic facts about ODE this is a very good book to learn the subject from. Moreover the book give the reader some of the important motivations to the basic ideas of functional analysis such as generating functions distrbutions it gives the connection also between linear algebra and the basic ideas that lies at the foundations for understanding normed function spaces and more. Moreover the book draw the line , in a very elegant way, between functional analysis PDE and Fourier analysis. Main subjects are:Fourier series,orthogonal sets Fourier and Laplace transforms,convolution, generating functions,Green functions, and more. Very recommended!.

Concepts are not hidden under obscure mathematical notation: they are stated explicitly in plain english and illustrated with examples. I read a couple of other books on this topic (and PDE) without really understanding the subtleties. With this book everything becomes magically clear and obvious -as you read- and don't feel like you need take another course in real analysis to understand this topic. Bonus: you get solutions to exercices.

I am an optical engineering student and felt that this book was quite understandable (although I read the optics back half first, which then motivated the mathematical front half for me). It gave me additional insight into the Fourier transform as well as the applications of Fourier analysis in optics. I also learned as much on optics from this book as I have from any dedicated optics book. It has so many jewels that other books don't have that I wish I was rich enough to own a copy rather than having to check it out from the library.

This is a delightful reference book on the Fractional Fourier Transform. The authors did a great job explaining systems theory leading up to a thorough treatment of the Fractional Fourier Transform and other fractional transforms. Plenty of references are cited leading the reader to a rich source of background and follow-up material. Later chapters delve into suggested applications which complete a rather pleasing read of the entire subject. Buy this book.

From my point of view as a deeply intested reader of the book, this book is an excellent source book for those who want to increase his/her knowledge on concepts of signals and sytems. It is a comprehensive study on the signal and system representation in generalized frequency domains with very useful applications in different era of electrical engineering. Starting with a general representation theory and then focusing on time-frequency representations, the book prepares the reader for the novel generalized Fourier trasnform. In this new world, the traditional frequency domain is no more than a special condition. Thus, in any application that Fourier transform can be used, the FrFT lends itself to a variety of applications including image restoration, denoising, optical wave propogation, filtering, quantum mechanics, information theory etc., generally as an optimization problem over a contiuum of frequency domains. You should read this book if you are a EE. Thanks to the authors.

It's Sunday evening. Beginning Friday night I started fighting with a windows machine that somehow got totally screwed up with I don't know how many pieces of bad stuff.

The background screen - which used to be green grass, clouds and such - now is all black with a sign that reads 'WARNING - Your Computer is Infected, Click here to order our program to fix it.' Like I'm really going to buy software from someone who deliberately messed up my machine. Yes, they somehow hid the tabs on the Display Properties screen that allow me to reset the background. The other problems, let me just say CoolWebSearch. If you know what that means, well....

This afternoon I took time off to go to a movie. I walked into a book store and found this book. Just about every other page says 'more secure,' 'no viruses,' etc. I've got to say that I don't much care about the free aspects, but it was a really lousy weekend. I'm having to start over from scratch, reload Windows, reload the aps, etc.

While it was reloading, I turned to Chapter 23 in this book, 'A Friendly, Free and Powerful Alternatives to Windows XP. The last paragraph on that page starts out - ' No worries about viruses, worms, Trojan Horses, or anything else that may infest a Windoes Computer. The sick machine will have finished reloading Windows XP in approximately 31 minutes. While it sits there, I'm going get the Friendly, Free and Powferful etc. system and give it a try.

I don't need more weekends like this. This is what I needed out of this book. You may be more interested in the free applications, games, graphics or other packages. It's all here.

Are you looking for computer software to write letters, create spreadsheets, manipulate images, or surf the web, and you don't have hundreds (or more realistically thousands) of dollars to send off to a certain computer company in the Pacific Northwest? There are very good alternatives out there, and best of all, it's FREE! Check out Free Software For Dummies by Mary Leete.

Contents:
Part 1 - Plunging Into Free Software: How to Use Tons of Powerful, Free Software - Fast!; The Best Places to Get Free Software
Part 2 - Using Powerful, Free Office Software: Word Processing with OpenOffice.org Writer; Formatting Your Writer Documents; Creating Spreadsheets with OpenOffice.org Calc; Juggling Numbers in Calc; Building Databases with OpenOffice.org Base; Creating Reports from Your Database
Part 3 - Exploring the Internet - More Easily, More Securely, and More Featurefully: Surfing and Searching the Web Securely with Mozilla Firefox; Reading E-mail with Mozilla Thunderbird; Publishing Your Own Web Pages with OpenOffice.org Writer; Enjoying Podcasts with iPodder; Making Free Phone Calls with Skype
Part 4 - Using Powerful, Free Multimedia Software: Creating Graphics with OpenOffice.org Draw; Making Presentations with OpenOffice.org Impress; Digital Imaging with the GIMP; Drawing and Filtering Images in the GIMP; Drawing Diagrams with Dia; Creating 3D Animations with Blender; Recording Sound with Audacity
Part 5 - More Powerful, Free Software: Learning with Free Educational Software; Fun with Arcade, Simulation, Puzzle, Strategy, and 3D Games; A Friendly, Free, and Powerful Alternative to Windows XP
Part 6 - The Parts of Tens: Ten Lists of More Great Free Software and Stuff: A Directory; Ten Unreasonable Advantages of Free Software
Appendix: Installing Programs Using KPackage and Installation Wizards; Index

There's a pretty good chance you've heard of some of these packages even before you read the book. Firefox for web browsing has been all the rage, and GIMP is pretty well-known in the graphics area. But maybe you didn't know (if you're not an IT geek already) that OpenOffice.org has a office productivity software suite that comes very close to all the functionality you'd get in Microsoft Office. It even creates output files compatible with Office! Why spend hundreds if it's not necessary? Do you need diagramming software like Visio but can't afford a copy for home? Check out Dia. In the entertainment section, you can even avoid buying Microsoft's Flight Simulator and Flight Gear instead. Worried about not having enough scenery for your flying adventures? Does three DVDs worth of scenery make you feel better? :-) Tired of running three different instant messaging clients? Run just one, Gaim, that interfaces with all three services.

While you could write complete books to teach you how to run any one of these major software packages (OpenOffice.org, GIMP, Firefox), Free Software For Dummies gives you just enough information to allow you to become productive in short order. If you want to wring every last ounce of functionality from the software, you'll have to explore on your own (or buy another book). But it's nice that you're not left with "here's a package, here's where you download it, next!". There's a nice balance between letting you know the software exists and giving you some education on how to use it.

Going through this book, I was once again surprised to see how much of the free software competes with packages from Microsoft. A book like this must make them a little uneasy should everyone figure out that there are alternatives. While I know about many of these software alternatives (and use a number of them myself), this book motivated me to check out a few more. Very good stuff, and very well written. The book will pay for itself the first time you download a software system and save the cost of the "other" choice... Recommended read.

Free Software for Dummies is a perfect introduction to the universe of free software. It not only points readers to the best software available but also includes a short guide to using each application. I was pleased that it covers the Macintosh platform as well as Windows and Linux.

Reading this book, you begin to appreciate how you can do most things without needing the standard commercial software. These are powerful programs. And often they have advantages. For one thing, the programs that are the focus of the book are open source, meaning that you're free to tweak the software and add features you'd like.

Some of the programs covered are already quickly becoming mainstream, such Skype and Firefox. Others, such as the office and graphics applications, deserve a much wider audience.

This book serves an important role in bringing these valuable resources to a wider audience.