Software Books

I received this order on time and in excellent condition. I will do business with again.

"The African American Odyssey" just got better with the release of the 3rd edition. Updated accounts, in-depth coverage, a broadened focus (the American West, and beyond America), and the wonderfully helpful enclosed CD which allows for additional research, all make this a comprehensive volume for any and all students of African American history.

The blending of the famous and the unknown, men and women, North and South, slave and free, provides for a tapestry that weaves together both the terror and the triumph of the African American experience which enabled them to move beyond the suffering to a place of healing hope. The faith-basis for so much of the African American triumph could have been covered more comprehensively, though it is more than hinted at in the original sources covered.

Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction .

An effective book, which the young new generation of African Americans can really gain their sense of knowledge from.

"The African American Odyssey" just got better with the release of the 3rd edition. Updated accounts, in-depth coverage, a broadened focus (the American West, and beyond America), and the wonderfully helpful enclosed CD which allows for additional research, all make this a comprehensive volume for any and all students of African American history.

The blending of the famous and the unknown, men and women, North and South, slave and free, provides for a tapestry that weaves together both the terror and the triumph of the African American experience which enabled them to move beyond the suffering to a place of healing hope. The faith-basis for so much of the African American triumph could have been covered more comprehensively, though it is more than hinted at in the original sources covered.

Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction , Soul Physicians, and Spiritual Friends.

I have been using this book as a second reference in my Algorithm
Engineering class during the whole semester. I found it extremely useful for its nice structure, content and diversity of subjects treated, especially the ones in computational geometry such as Geometric Sweeping and Voronoi diagrams, for instance. I believe this book should be useful to any student taking algorithms class for its structureness, clearness, and completeness.

This is a great book overall, but I give it 4 stars as it lacks the mathematical explanations that I personally was looking for. I am graduate student in Computer Science and a E-Commerce Consultant by profession. This book is more detailed than the Sedweick (I can't spell his name) in the sense that it has some more of a mathematical approach. It lacks the level of explanation that the Sedweick book provided. It has some math, but overlooks some steps thus targeting someone with a pretty solid math background, not someone with sophomore level undergraduate math background.

Overall.. if you're a student taking an algorithms or advanced algorithms class (especially a graduate class), you might want to invest in this book.

I have studied both undergrad and grad algorithm courses from this book at KFUPM. For a beginner, the author provides a moderate level of mathematical analysis which helps in building a solid foundation, but avoids minor details that may obscure the overall grasp of the subject. The Exercise sets at the end of each chapter vary from easy to challenging....

The book represents a well written, consistent and easy to follow view on the area of algorithm analysis. It gives an excellent overview of various mathematical and computer science areas, including but not limited to combinatorial geometry, NP-problems, complexity theory, graph theory, algorithm analysis, dynamic programming and even computational geometry.

Most of the chapters are intended for a senior level undergraduate and graduate student, but some (such as part 4 devoted to complexity problems) are more suitable for "mature" audience and require some preliminary knowledge in the area.

I found chapters on sorting, data structures, recursion and functional programming well written and structured, and examples to be practical as well as informative.

Sections on amortized analysis, randomized algorithms, approximation algorithms and iteration improvement deal with current directions in the algorithmic research and provide an excellent overview of the "state-of-the-art" in these areas. I also enjoyed reading through the section on greedy algorithms (shortest path and minimum spanning tree problems).

Section on computational complexity and analysis of the relationship between complexity classes seems to be a bit complicated, those who are interested in this area should probably do some preliminary reading.

The last section on computational geometry (my area of expertise) and applications of Voronoi diagrams could be extended, but even in the current state it givs a pretty good idea of what computational geometry is all about.

Overall, I give to this book a "5 star" review and recommend it for anyone who is seriously interested in learning exactly how algorithm design and analysis work. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and can only wish that author would write more books like that in the future!

The book was band new just like the seller said and arrived in a timely manner. I would buy from this seller again.

I used this book in my introductory level computer science course. I found this book to be an essential tool in my early undersanding of how computer works in general and more importantly how to develop working algorithms. This book is well designed and easy to read and easy to understand. This book comes with a CD ROM. I believe this is the key feature to this book. On the CD ROM there are emulators of various computer operations. (eg. Compiler tree breakdown, and many other emulators. An Excellent book!

Deckers gives you a concise tour of computer science. Not enough to turn you into a programmer, given the space limitations of the book. But he covers many key ideas in the field. Including Usenet, email, virtual communities [think Second Life], and the World Wide Web. Naturally, he has to explain HTML, as the graphical language of the Web. HTML is so simple that he essentially explains all its important points. Including the crucial hyperlink tag.

The book then segues naturally from HTML to XML. Where you can now write your own tags. Immensely flexible and popular.

It is only after this, that the book goes into the traditional topics of computer science. The explanations of what makes a programming language. He uses JavaScript as one example of such a language. So you learn about constructs like for loops, if-else and while statements.

The book is really dominated by the Web. The pedagogy stresses this.

This book is one of the two texts in FSU's COP 3502: "Introduction to Computer Science" course (a required course in their Computer Science degree). As the authors state in the preface, they "wanted to design a 'CS 0' course that was a true survey course." They did an excellent job. Basically, they start with the assumption that the reader has never turned on a computer in his life and take him through its history, how to use it, what programming is about, and how the hardware works. They even teach a bit of HTML and JavaScript. There's very little I can say that is bad about the book. It comes down to some typgraphical errors, an incorrect web address for the online portion of the book (easily figured out from the page their web address takes you to), and my belief that they took out too many steps in describing computer switches, gates, and circuits. Frankly, I'm amazed that they reasonably went from a neophyte level to a fully-grounded level in one book. I rate it as 5 stars out of 5.

There's not much that needs to be said about the quality of the scholarship in the Anchor Bible series as a whole and the Anchor Bible Dictionary in particular - world class. This review is simply to recommend the digital version of the dictionary. I live in the UK and its pretty hard to get the disc version so I bought from Amazon in the US and paid the import duty (17.5% - outrageous!) The shipping costs on the hardback were prohibitive
The product loaded easily and immediately interfaced with other digital versions of book I have on my machine which uses the 'logos' system. The system allows a range of 'bookmarking' across the 'logos' library which really helps with research. The disc does not just reproduce the pages of the hardback work but provides links to other parts of the book which are relevant to the article you're reading. It also enables you to read bible references mentioned in the text by hovering your mouse over the reference.
The ability to seach against individual words or strings of words is magnificent. Also 'copy and paste' facility means it's really easy to export text to other documents.
In short, unless you really love the feel of books, (and who doesn't) and value that above convenience (and this is a reference/research resource not 'furniture' after all) then there's no contest - buy the disc not the book. That said the physical books are lovely to have ....No! I made the right choice!

I bought this at the recommendation of one of my professors and I'm so happy that I got this as my first Bible reference software. Not only is the content absolutely fantastic, but the Logos system works great, even though I consider myself a beginner user so far. I keep my notebook with me in class and can very quickly find supplementary information that is related to topics being discussed. It is also great to have at my fingertips while doing homework when I run into a new idea in my reading and want to get another explanation for it. I also love the links to the Unabridged Theological Dictionary of the NT. I currently use the books in my seminary library, but am looking forward to getting that on CD-ROM as well.

There are many bible dictionaries available on the market but the Anchor Bible Dictionary (ABD) is probably the most comprehensive and represents the finest of biblical scholarship. There are more than 7200 pages, 6000 entries from 800 leading international scholars. Having it available through the Logos Library System is an enormous advantage (if you want something even better than Logos, check out the Accordance for Mac version of this dictionary). You can do quick searches, easy cross-referencing and also sorts of other fun stuff. If you are going to invest in a Bible Dictionary, you can't do wrong with this CD-ROM version of ABD.

First this is in reality more like an Encyclopedia than a Dictionary. While it is more "Liberal" in its perspective you also have conservative author's as well. Like anytype of of book you need to think for yourself. Where it is helpful is in giving a lot of archeological data and excellent bibliographies. I am currently a seminary student working on an MDiv degree. Having it on computer is a life saver. My school's library only has one set for a lot of students (our seminary has over 400 students and that doesn't include the undergrad students). In a class I took on the book of Acts and the General/Catholic epistles we had two sections of the class with 45 students all needing the same volumes of ABD. However having it on computer solves that problem. Also it makes doing research and adding quotes to my research/exegesis papers a synch. This is a really great resource. It should not be your only resource. There are a lot of good Bible dictionaries out there, so don't just depend upon one. God calls upon us to think for ourselves, Paul said to his young friend Timothy "To study". Logos/Libronix has some great titles available, check them out.

The definitely guide to Derby. This offers much more explanation and information than the online documentation provided by Apache. But what do you expect... it comes from the minds at IBM themselves.

However, unlike most of IBM's publications and documentation, this is actually readable and informative. You don't have to wade through a series of unknowns and missing pieces of the puzzle in order to figure out what IBM was trying to actually get at.

This will not only help you define and work with Apache Derby, but also make your applications lighter, faster and easier to deploy.

Apache Derby is a very promising package that is being freely offered, as both source code and binaries. This book is an aggressive promotion of its virtues. The authors stress many things about Derby, or its IBM sidekick, Cloudscape.

Derby addresses a persistent need amongst many Java programmers for an easy to use SQL database. Often, a Java programmer has only cursory expertise in coding for a full database like IBM's DB2 or Oracle. Best usage of these often requires you to be a DBA.

By contrast, Derby comes as a Java JAR file, and can be plonked into your programming environment just as any other JAR file. The book explains in depth how to then interact with Derby, at the level of your Java source code. You can see that you get a pretty powerful engine. Including features like stored procedures and user defined functions, that let you optimise for speed.

Speaking of speed, that is perhaps the biggest possible drawback of Derby. It is run as Java bytecode in a jvm, which is not quite as fast as a package compiled into native binaries. The book seems to deprecate this aspect, but you should be aware of it.

You might find Derby useful enough that you don't have to migrate to a full database like DB2. The book stresses that the code you write to interface with Derby will also do for DB2. There is a potential problem here for IBM, if it loses DB2 business to Derby. But maybe it feels that if it never promoted Derby, then sooner or later, an equivalent product would come along.

Obviously, to use Derby, you still need to know basic SQL statements. And some understanding of how to develop related tables to hold your data. The text is not meant to teach you these skills.

The first chapter also makes various cogent points about the advantages of using Derby. With sometimes unintentional hilarity. A passage says the intent is not to besmirch Microsoft. But despite this pious protestation, it proceeds immediately to do just that. By opining that Microsoft's SQL Server has a 5 year lag between upgrades - Server 2000 and Server 2005. While Derby has source code available, and a much faster cycle for introducing new capabilities.

Apache Derby is the only open source, pure Java RDBMS database and APACHE DERBY-OFF TO THE RACES comes from IBM's own database experts and tells how to make the most of Derby and its commercial counterpart IBM Cloudscape. Learn how to support development efforts, install Derby on both Windows and Linux systems, how to understand how programming languages interact with them, and build sample applications step-by-step: everything is here to learn the fundamentals and troubleshoot virtually any problem.

If you've ever been curious about using or integrating Apache Derby (or IBM Cloudscape) into your project, here's the book you'll need... Apache Derby - Off to the Races by Paul C. Zikopoulos, Dan Scott, and George Baklarz. Very well done...

Contents: On Your Marks... Get Set... Go!!! - An Introduction to the Apache Derby and IBM Cloudscape Community; Deployment Options for Apache Derby Databases; Apache Derby Databases; Installing Apache Derby and IBM Cloudscape on Windows; Installing Apache Derby and IBM Cloudscape on Linux; Managing an Apache Derby Database; Security; SQL; Developing Apache Derby Applications with JDBC; Developing Apache Derby Applications with Perl, PHP, Python, and ODBC; "Your Momma Loves Drama" in JDBC; "Your Momma Loves Drama" in Windows; "Your Momma Loves Drama" in PHP; "Your Momma Loves Drama" in Perl; "Your Momma Loves Drama" In Python; Web Site Contents; Apache Derby and IBM Cloudscape Resources; Troubleshooting Hints and Tips; Index

Derby is one of those technologies that has remained "under the radar" for awhile. The Cloudscape database from IBM was released to the open source community under the name Derby, and basically those two packages are the same core code. Cloudscape has a few more add-ons and support from IBM, but if you learn one you learn them both. The authors do a very good job here in helping the reader to understand the architecture and benefits of having a small-footprint embedded relational database system in your application. The start of the book lays the groundwork very well, and establishes the "why" of Derby. But rather than remaining a high-level overview, they dive into the core of the software, showing how to install it, work with it, and how to secure your data. The real value comes when they take a sample ticket application ("Your Momma Loves Drama") and shows how Derby can be integrated the application in a number of different languages. Even if you don't necessarily know Perl, PHP, or Python, you should be able to follow along enough to extrapolate how the concepts can be applied to your platform of choice. After reviewing this book, I've got some ideas on how I'd like to play around with this...

A very solid addition to your programming bookshelf. Between this book and the online resources, you should have everything you need to master the Derby/Cloudscape software.

This book helps ease the monumental transition from Avid to FCP. It is definitely a must for anyone going through the change, but becomes less useful once you get the hang of FCP. Once you are through the transtion, then get the book Final Cut Pro 5 for Mac, which answers the rest.

This book I could only find used, it is not easy to come by...

If you are ever forced to quickly learn Final Cut pro for the odd job where Avid is not a viable option, or you want to start editing your on stuff on the cheap, buy this, read it and practise it for a week and you will be a Pro at Pro, knowing everything there is to know, at least, where to find it and whether it is doable or not. It is a book written by an Avid editor for Avid editors who have to go through the same learning curve. You can be very surprised going through it on how similar the two editing systems are and most of all, how quickly you can synthesise the information and make it second nature. I fervently recommend this book being so well written, going always to the point and covering everything properly.

As an Avid editor and now learning FCP, I can recommend this book for helping to understand where everthing is. This book is a must unless you want to tear your hair out. If you know how it feels going from Media Composer to DS, then you will understand why you need this book and I might add others.

We have been an Avid only edit house for years, but reciently purchased two Final Cut systems. Most of the transition was pretty easy, but trying to figure out how to do some of the things in FCP that we did in our sleep on the Avid slowed us down a bit. This book draws great parallels between the two systems.

I'm glad that there's finally one book about atl server, but this one seems to have been written in haste. Sure it shows you how to hook up to a database and pull out records, but the examples are not nearly as complex as msdn's . In particular, the caching section is seriously lacking...

This is an excellent book on the definitive technology for VC++ developers wanting to write web applications. ATL Server is the evolution of ISAPI; better, faster and much easier to write. If you are comfortable with C++ template programming and attributed Visual C++, you will find this framework a joy to work with. Just like ATL, ATL Server is streamlined, high performance and easy to extend.

Written by the ATL Server team, this book will guide you through the different parts of ATL Server, giving you not only reasons for why certain design decisions were made but also real-world examples.

The ATL Server library is the perfect addition to ATL, adding the ability to create web services and web applications with the light-weight model of ATL. I found this book very useful for getting new members of my development team up to speed on the basics of ATL Server development (both those with previous ISAPI experience and those without).

I also found this book very useful when tackling some of the more difficult problems that our application faced. In particular the Advanced sections on SRF files, Request Handlers and Web Services provided a number of useful techniques that we were able to apply in our application.

The book also outlines some techniques for using parts of the ATL Server library in non-web applications, which we are finding very useful as we update some of our existing code.

If you're a hardcore C++ developer wanting to do native web development, ATL Server is a great library to work with. If you've done ISAPI extensions, you'll find ATL Server to be a natural, flexible and very performant extension of that model, which makes development a *lot* faster.

And if you like that, then this book is a great way to get you up to speed on ATL Server. It is, after all, written by the people who wrote it. The book is wonderfully easy to read, covers both the basics and plenty of advanced ATL Server topics, and has tons of examples. Plus, it has the advantage of being written with real applications in mind.

On the other hand, if the profile above doesn't sound like it fits you, then this book is probably not for you :)

We adopted this text for drafting class in our school. All I want to say is that it is a wonderful book. The drafting examples and exercises in this book starting from Chapter 1 through Chapter 17 are simply wonderful, exactly what students need to get "hands on" experience on real drawings.

I have not read the other chapters of this book, but they also surely look wonderful.

I recommend this book to any faculty member that wants to teach a drafting class.

Reminder for the faculty!!!! Make sure you do not forget to ask for teaching support material for this book from the publisher. The teaching support material that comes with this book is simply out of this world.

I am using this text for teaching AutoCAD this semester and so was going through the book during this break. This is an excellent resource for learning AutoCAD 2004 and I am sure it would be a great help in teaching the AutoCAD class. The layout of this book is perfect and is exactly what people need. All the new features of AutoCAD 2004 are explained in detail and are made really simple in this book. I am particularly impressed with the way Sham has explained the modified version of Mtext command and inserting blocks and hatches using the new "palette window". Sham has also explained in detail the various methods of adding new blocks to the palette window. Before I finish, I would also like to mention that the 3D modeling in this book is wonderful!!! One of the best I have seen in AutoCAD books. I am sure the explanation of 3D modeling in this book is one of the best launching pads for the students who want to take classes in advanced solid modeling programs.

My recommendation, looking of AutoCAD books, go ahead and buy this book!!! You would love this book and the exercises in it.

Without taking much space here, I simply wanna say that the 3d in this book is worth all the money! I have used a few other books in the past, but the examples of 3d in this teach a lot new techniques of working. It taught me that AutoCAD is much more than just 2d drafting. I am extremely happy I bought this book :-)

This book is easy to learn AutoCAD. All the commands of AutoCAD are explained with lots of graphic and text. The flow of topics covering AutoCAD is in a good sequence. I use this book to teach students in my class. The exercises and examples are well stated and explained. Above all this, I have the liberty to contact the author for the technical support if I have any technical difficulties using AutoCAD because the Author provides free technical support. This book is recommended to all students willing to learn AutoCAD.

Written in a very own Allen's style, this item offers great tips on common topics that not always, and not necesarily, are mastered by intermediate users. Onstott's work is very useful also. Very good purchase for new users who wish to push a little more. And for the Professionals? Not bad. A very good reminder about seemed-to-be-easy daily matters at office.
Paper and Printing quality of the product are simply excellent.

It is not surprising, considering the fact that Lynn Allen is the Technical Evangelist for Autodesk and that she meets with thousands of AutoCAD users every year, that once again her book is packed to the ceiling with fantastic tips, insights, tricks and strategies for putting AutoCAD in high gear. The book offers invaluable information in bite-sized morsels which can easily and gradually be implemented into any AutoCAD-based process to simplify and streamline it. Lynn also maintains an equally beneficial blog at [..] if you want a sampling of the kind of material conveniently compiled in this book. Highly recommended for anyone seeking "AutoCAD PowerUser" proficiency.

I have been using AutoCAD since 1992, after the first couple years of using AutoCAD, I stopped learning new tricks and learning better ways of using AutoCAD because I was able to do my job with the set of AutoCAD skills I have. This book helps me brush up my CAD skills and taught me many new tricks to be more efficient. It was never too late to teach an old dog new tricks!

This book is fantastic!! It really allows a power user more options and tips and tricks. Every tip ends up saving time and makes CAD more fun to use. Lynn keep up the great work.

While reading "A Needle in the Right Hand of God" I got frustrated by the size of the plates and the lack of clear references to the various scenes. Then, I bought this...Voila! This incredible piece of work is so illuminating, amazing in its details and versatility. It is filled with surprises and knowledge. I thought it was a bit pricey, but now I would have paid even more for it!

Being a Hood (and a student of Dr. Foys), I found this CD to be extremely informational and easy to use for background information regarding assignments. Pop the CD and you're on your way towards a whole bank of knowledge.

This CD proves to be handy to the novice who wishes to know more about the Bayeux Tapestry or the time period, to professors and students alike. One piece of advice: TAKE IT SLOW--regardless of your level of knowledge. This CD is filled with information, as well as detailed maps, photographs and clips.

I recommend this CD to all people alike interested in this particular field.

This amazing CD offers not only incredible visual detail of the tapestry, but also a treasure of historical, literary and topographical information related to the battle. A panoramic photograph of the battle site and an interactive map are just two examples of the many wonderful features of this CD. Anyone interested in the Middle Ages, the tapestry, the battle, or the era of the Norman Conquest must own this invaluable resource. (I have very little savvy when it comes to computers; but I had no trouble at all running this on Windows--very user friendly.)

This CD-ROM edition of the Bayeux Tapestry is a great program for students, teachers or people just interested in learning about this famous piece of history. An amazing amount of detail is included, from a basic introduction, to scholarly arguments about how to interpret a single inscription or figure in the border. The videos and colour maps are helpful, as is the ability to search through the entire program by keyword. As a Mac user, I was also grateful to find that it runs on both PCs and Macs.