3D Books

This was the first Mr. Men book I bought my son when I saw it at the store. And talk about bringing back memories, I read these when I was his age growing up in England. The copy is now bent and dog-eared from repeated readings. Mr. Strong is the strongest person in the whole world because Mr. Strong eats lots and lots of EGGS!!!! You have to appreciate the healthy dietary implications and my son now loves eggs.
I wish they would stop the books that endlessly push cake, cookies and all things sweet in some kid's books. TV, ok I get that, but can't we keep SOME things "pure"???

This is the story of Mr. Strong.

Mr. Strong is the strongestperson in the whole wide world. Mr. Strong gets his power from eating eggs and more eggs.

This is part of the Mr. Men series. There are many other Mr. Men books available. These are great books for kids. The Mr. books are just the right length to read two of them to kids at bedtime, and they all teach some important lesson.

Most of the Mr. Men books have other Mr. Men in them, but this book only has Mr. Strong, a farmer, and a couple people that he meets in the town.

Of the Mr. Men books that I have read, I would not recommend this one, it it not the best work by Roger Hargreaves. I would recommend Mr. Tall before buying this one. If you do buy a Mr. Men book, then you should get a couple because they are very small.

If you are new to 3D programming in Java then this book is not a very good place to start. That's not to say this isn't a good book its just that you will need to be somewhat comfortable with Java3D before reading this book. Like the previous reviewer said the sun tutorials will help to understanding the examples used in this book, just don't think that this book will hold your hand.

There is some overlap between this book and the author's other book on Java game programming, "Killer Game Programming in Java", but overall there is enough new material to make it a worthwhile purchase. The author starts out trying to explain Java3D. His explanations are OK, but the best explanation I have ever found as an overview of the API is "Java 3D API Tutorial" on the Sun Microsystems website. It's old, but the basics haven't changed. For the specifics of working with Java 3D in the modern era, come back to this book. The author has done a good job of putting together some programming examples that show how to program in current versions of Java 3D including a 3D version of Conway's game of life. He then modifies the program to show off some of the features of Java 6 such as its ability to communicate with scripting languages. Further chapters show how to build creatures with operational limbs that demonstrate Java 3D's TransformGroups, how to handle physics and Java3D using a specific physics API, multitexturing for more natural looking outdoor scenes, and finally how to deal with level of detail problems using mixed mode rendering. In each case, the author just doesn't talk about how to do something, he produces working code that gets the job done and provides a blueprint for the reader to go further.

The section on non-standard input devices deals with interfacing devices such as webcams, game controllers, game pads, and the P5 Virtual Reality Glove to your 3D worlds and games. He mentions parts of Java that are seldom well-explained such as JInput to describe how to control these devices. In the section on webcams, the author talks about JMF and an alternative method of interfacing to cameras. This is good, since for all intents and purposes JMF is really a dead API with very little useful capability. One of the more interesting chapters in this section really has nothing to do with input devices, that being the chapter on JOAL, which is a wrapper around OpenAL, the OpenAudio Library. This is very practical since there are bugs in Java 3D's sound interface that have been there from the beginning and show no sign of being resolved. This chapter provides a practical way for Java programmers to get actual reliable 3D sound into their games and applications.

The final section of the book is on JOGL, which is a Java wrapper for the OpenGL graphics library. The author explains and illustrates the use of JOGL by first implementing a very simple application to clearly illustrate all of the steps needed. Next, a 3D world is written using JOGL that includes a floor with a checkerboard pattern, an orbiting earth, a skybox of stars, a billboard that shows a tree, overlays, and keyboard navigation.

This book, along with the Sun tutorial, is a good education in how to use the Java 3D API in general, and also how to build virtual worlds in Java as well as how to write 3D Java games, which was the book's original purpose. Highly recommended.

I strongly recommend this book (and any other from the same series) to all who use Windows 98. The book has outstanding visual presentations of exactly what the Win98 screen shows and from there carries you step-by-step to completion of the majority of common tasks within the OS. SOme advanced functions are also included. I really like the series and recommend it regularly to friends and family.

AS A 55 YEAR OLD BEGINNING COMPUTER OWNER THIS POCKET SIZE BOOK AND ITS VIBRANT COLORS CAUGHT MY EYE. THE LIL' "FLOPPY DISK TEACHER" IS GREAT AND VERY EASY TO UNDERSTAND. AFTER A FEW DAYS I FELT LIKE I WAS THE TEACHER'S STAR PUPIL ! THE VISUAL EXPLANATIONS GAVE ME A GREAT SENSE OF ACCOMPLISHMENT, AND I WAS SUCCESSFUL AT EACH "LESSON". I RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO ALL NOVICES.ALSO WHAT IS NICE IS THAT THE COLORS MATCH MY COMPUTER'S SCREENS AND THAT MADE IT EASY TOO ! THIS BOOK SO INSPIRED ME THAT I HAVE ALSO PURCHASED SOME OF MARAN GRAPHICS OTHER VISUAL TEACHING BOOKS.

This book is written in a detached style, often in a passive voice. You never get inside any characters and get to know or care about them. Steve Martin does way more "telling" than "showing" and you end up feeling like you are reading a summary of a story, not a story itself.

I think the last sentence of the synopsis provided by the publisher is the perfect place to look when discussing this book: "Filled with the kind of witty, discerning observations that have brought Steve Martin critical success, Shopgirl is a work of disarming tenderness."

I agree with the first part of the sentence, but disagree with the second. When I shared my thoughts on Steve Martin's Pure Drivel I said that he was my writing role model. It is the intelligence with which he writes that amazes me and sets the bar (very high) to a level at which I wish to write someday. That intelligence comes through to create those witty and discerning observations.

While I liked Shopgirl, the piece that I thought was missing was feeling. Sure there was emotion written into the characters, but it seemed superficial. I could not feel for the characters because I did not believe they had feelings either. I still would like to stroke the intellectual part of your brain like Steve Martin, but I will have to bring my own passion to my characters.

Shopgirl is short, it's a quick read. It is more beach reading than intellectual stimulation. It was good, but not great.

This book is so horrible there are no words. It's the first time I had to force myself to finish a book. It's crass to say the least. Don't waste your money on this book. I love Steve Martins films but his writing leaves much to be desired.

The fact that it is by Steve Martin is a distraction. In fact, the fact that it is written by a man is a distraction. This is a beautifully written portrait of a young woman, written with a lot of sympathy and wit. Some of the sentences are so well written it would send pangs of professional envy through the heart of any writer. The only thing I dislike about this book is that I know it is written by an older man who is quite rich, and the book is about a young woman falling for an older man who is quite rich, and that bit is really annoying as you wonder who Martin is fantasizing about. Take that bit out, though, it really is a very beautifully scripted tale and worth purchasing and reading.

The novella is an art form which gives expression to a compact, intense literary experience for both author and auditor. "The Fox" by D. H. Lawrence is one such work. Another fine example and a Pulitzer prize-winner is the spare, elevated, compelling prose of Thornton Wilder's "The Bridge of San Luis Rey." "Shopgirl" is another. What is striking about "Shopgirl" is the intensity of reader-engendered emotion in response to Martin's characters. I had the experience of many in picking up the book to see whether or not Martin could write at all, and discovering to my surprise that I was unable to put it down. How much of this work is autobiographical is immaterial, since all of us are, like Odysseus in Tennyson's "Ulysses," a "part of all that we have met." What is delightful, wistful, sad, and encouraging is to watch the characters, seemingly cast in one dimension, become round, whole, living and breathing human beings in all their hope, desperation, and folly. Ray is perhaps the saddest man of all; he is not a bad man in the customary sense. He is stunted emotionally to the degree that he is unable to accept the frank, uncomplicated, generous love of Mirabelle for what it is, and never learns that no one loves without joy, and without pain. His insular nature never allows him true intimacy with her, despite her willingness to give without reservation or expectation of reward. She matures by the pain he causes her, and even Jeremy matures because he wants something for which he must reach. Two spirits grow together; one fails the impetus to mature and is left sadly behind. This novella is not stunningly brilliant, nor is it substantially lacking. It is in any case a tour-de-force for Martin as a first-novella. He has demonstrated that his range is broader by far than the "wild and crazy guy" of his younger days as a TV performer. Bravo, Mr. Martin, and bravo for a screenplay and film adaption that was intelligent and faithful to his novella. Claire Danes is simply luminous as Mirabelle, and Martin is quintessentially Ray. I'm happy to have bought the novella, and the DVD of the same title. You will enjoy both.

It was difficult to find the exact descriptive word for this Alice Hoffman novel. "Spectacular" "Imaginative", "Dream-Like"...I couldn't choose. I found "The Ice Queen" absolutely breathtaking. The tale's core centers around fairytails and the realization that life is more than what you wish for. The main character sees her life in "before and after" terms. A quiet librarian, she's forced into living in an uncomfortable environment and then struck by lightning. Much like being reborn, we see her evolve through relationships with a lover, her brother and her sister-in-law. I really enjoy Hoffman's books and this is one of my fave. You many never look at the color red the same way again!

Fairy tales about life and death and cheating both are the basis for this book, I think. I'm not sure and I don't think I want to know for sure. I found myself just enjoying the story as I was pulled through the lives of the characters. Bizarre and unusual yet identifiable. Not my kind of book, but I loved it. Not my style of writing, but who cares when the story line is good. So many novels written these days are long on prose and short on story telling. Not this gem. Enjoy!

This book was wonderful. If you have never read an Alice Hoffman book i would suggest this one as your first.

I just read a review in which someone said "The Ice Queen Stinks"...I can not for the life of me believe that...from now on in I'm not going to be able to trust another review. This book is so beautiful. And more so, because my father died two years ago and sometimes when I see a butterfly, especially a Monarch, I know it's him.

I also feel sad for the person who didn't finish this book, because the end was incredible and it's where you start really caring about the characters (esp. the main character). I think Hoffman intended on making the main character not very likable, because she (the main character) didn't like herself. Anyway...10 stars, in my opinion.

The protagonist of this chilly and unsatisfying novel blames herself for her mother's death. When she was eight, her mother said she was going out to celebrate her 30th birthday with friends. The little girl gets angry and says she wishes she will never see her again -- and of course the mother dies.
From this day on, the "heroine" is like an ice maiden, emotionally frozen. She makes a second wish -- that she should be struck by lightning -- and that also comes true. She joins a support group for other damaged victims of lightning strikes and hears of one survivor who died for 45 minutes and came back to life. So she seeks out this man whose flesh is so hot that merely touching it can cause second or third-degree burns. This man is so hot he can eat raw food and it gets cooked in his mouth. (Yes, he's a real hottie.) They make passionate love in a bath full of ice cubes. The man has a secret -- but when it's revealed it turns out to be pretty ho-hum.
I can't really go on with a description of the plot for to do so would be wasting my time, just as reading the book would be wasting yours.
This book has no characters and little plot. Various people flit in and out -- the heroine's brother, another burn victim, the librarian. None has any real character. The reader's guide at the end poses this question: "The narrator's two romantic interests, Lazarus and Jack, are different from each other. What does each of these men offer her?" In fact, they are completely alike in that neither has any character at all.
Hoffman apparently isn't interested in men. She doesn't bother describing them. She's not all that much interested in women either. She's interested in mood, in weather, in atmosphere, in words -- and she has talent. But this doesn't add up to a satisfying novel that tells us anything about her characters or the human condition in general.
I read Hoffman's "Seventh Heaven" and enjoyed it. It had a certain magical quality even though I thought it was seriously flawed. Unfortunately, I can't recommend this book at all. It started out being depressing and ended up being boring.

Shipping time was great but unlike all other used books rated as in very good condition that I have purchased via amazon, this book had extensive underlines, highlights, and margin notes added by the previous reader. Such notations are problematic and were unexpected. Otherwise, the book was in nice condition. The seller is new so is likely learning.

Having read and loved "Disgrace" a few years back, I found myself surprisingly wary of "Waiting for the Barbarians." I was supposed to read it for my book club but begged off it, then recently on a slow afternoon picked it up. The Coetzee trademarks are all there -- South African setting, middle aged male protagonist with a womanizing bent, allegories and political symbols aplenty. So why do I love one Coetzee novel but have a lukewarm reaction to a second?

I'm not sure. Coetzee is a magnificent writer; the prose sings. Yet there is something familiar about this type of story -- the big bad colonialists who project fearsome stereotypes onto natives, the erstwhile protagonist who defies simplistic orders, the twist at the end that shows that political quagmires have all kinds of shades of gray. It seems to me this isn't the most original novel I've read recently.

Then there's the misogyny. The male protagonist of this novel (he doesn't have a name) engages in sexual acts with natives that are supposed to represent the personal side of colonialism. There is metaphorical degradation and literal degradation. Some of the sexual scenes are graphic and disturbing. I'm sure some will protest that it's sexuality with a point to make. Yes, that's true, but that doesn't make it any more pleasant to read about.

I'm sure there are many who will enjoy this novel. I, for one, would recommend "Disgrace."

It occurs to me that we crush insects beneath our feet, miracles of creation too, beetles, worms, cockroaches, ants, in their various ways.
- J.M. Coetzee

Concerned as it is with the historical and contemporary experience of formerly European colonies, postcolonial studies have shown little interest in the effects of such controlling power on non-human animals. In identifying the political, sociological, and economic impact of "Western" imperialistic pursuits upon non-European "others," post-colonialism has concentrated almost singularly on "other" humans. The cost of European territorial conquest and the discursive operations of empire however, were not borne solely by human beings, but arguably, by non-human animals as well. Indeed, it is just this argument that forms the subtext of J.M. Coetzee's allegory of territorialism, Waiting for the Barbarians. Relying on the narrator's imperialistic use of animal imagery, Coetzee effectively criticizes the operations of empire whose colonial legacy is responsible for the construction of what is essentially, a non-human animal subaltern.

This exquisitely written book may also be the most important thing Coetzee has written. Like many of his other books, it explores the meaning of what it means for people to cause each other pain--this time, in the context of a remote colonial outpost of a "generic" empire. Coetzee is not only a scholar but a true artist.

I like the way Coetzee writes dialogue -- terse with no quotation marks. Many times what is spoken and what is only thought bleed together beautifully. Many other writers use this device, Cormac McCarthy springs to mind, but I find Coetzee bar none.

I face this book (and the many others like it) from a different point of view... if you need a book first to find your way around in SL, you better should not be there at all. Every user with a little but of mind will not need it. On this specific title it also annoyed me to see, that knowing second life, I partially see this as a clique of SL veterans celebrating themself... always the same names.
Just go there instead. look around, use your eyes and mind. Look at the menues. Save the money for the book amd use it to settle in SL instead...

Sure, sure, second life - what is that? Well, take it from someone older than 21 by many years, this is the best game around! Thanks to my daughter and son-in-law, I can shop, dance, party, meet new friends, and never leave my home! Check out this great addition to the Second Life Scene.

Very good starter book for the absolute newbie. Really helps to get on and start having fun.

I think this book is great for learning the basics, for understanding how Second Life works, and for gaining a flavour of what awaits you.

But, as is often pointed out, such guides are very quickly out of date. And what it doesn't give you, is a real insight into what really goes on every day in-world.

For this, you need to check out the free guide to Second Life, The AvaStar (www.the-avastar.com). It's an online newspaper covering the news, business, fashion, travel, entertainment and events of the virtual world, and every week publishes a 'Guide to...' feature, focusing on the best places to go in-world.

If you read through the paper once, you'll immediately gain an excellent understanding as to what is going on in the world. (All the back issues are available to download for free at the website).

Good luck and have fun!

Book was what it was advertised to be. Full of easy to understand instructions. Excellent buy.

I expected a book that would discuss game engine design in a fairly straight-forward manner. A book that started off with a discussion of the basic principles, and then moved on to the complex details would have been easier to follow.

This book was not initially what I expected, due to the fact that it is very math-oriented. Within minutes of starting the book I was faced with mathematical proofs.

However, the book is very thorough, and covers a diverse range of topics. Included with the book is the WildMagic engine, which is an implementation of the material discussed in the book.

I would recommend it as a reference for somebody who is already familiar with game development, and who is not daunted by fairly complex math. I would caution beginners wanting to learn about game engine design to stay away.

This book gives you an excellent foundation upon which you can begin building a game engine. It covers all of the essentials (matrix algebra through artificial intelligence) wonderfully. It isn't so much a cookbook that will show you, step-by-step how to build a game engine, it gives you all of the tools to do so though.

This book is fantastically comprehensive, though I bought it more for the CG algorithms than anything else.

My biggest gripe is with the pseudo-code. My C++ is not great, but I can get by - I found the code in general under-commented for a textbook. If you were writing software, it might be fine, but the purpose of the code is to explain the algorithms, and to work in concert with the text, which it does not. Furthermore, I found the text did not fill in the holes - I was left to try to figure out what Eberley was doing by going through the code. Possibly if I had read the whole thing through from cover to cover things would be clearer.

If you're just looking for an algorithm reference, you could do better.

Are you a professional or student working in game development? If you are, then this book is for you. Author David H. Eberly has done an outstanding job of writing a second edition of a book which focuses on the design of the scene graph management system and its associated rendering layer.

Eberly, begins this book by discussing the details of a rendering system, including transformations, camera models, culling and clipping, rastering, and issues regarding software versus hardware rendering and about specific graphics application programmer interfaces in use these days. In addition, the author discusses rendering from the perspective of actually writing all of the subsystems for a software renderer. He also takes a look at the essentials of organizing your data as a scene graph. Then, he focuses on specifically designed nodes and subsystems of the scene graph management system. The author then looks at some general concepts you see in attempting to have physical realism in a three-dimensional application. Next, he discusses a lot of mathematical detail for much of the source code you will find in Wild Magic. Then, he takes a brief look at the basic principles of object-oriented design and programming. The author continues by discussing memory management. Finally, he takes a look at a handful of sample shaders and the applications that use them.

This most excellent book is very much enhanced, describing the foundations for shader programming and how an engine can support it. Perhaps more importantly, the book is the most comprehensive reference available for the development of shader-based 3D graphics engines!

This book is not about "Game Engine Design" -- it's about algorithms that you may come across when writing a 3D game engine. There's very little treatment of "engine design" in this book.

Even though the title is misleading, it's still a great book if you're looking for a reference on 3D game engine algorithms.

This is the rare book that will have you thinking about it months after reading it. The author presents some of the most basic principles of economics in an accessible format. For anyone who missed out on taking econ in college, this book is a useful read.

However, a few things keep this book from getting 5 stars. The author's hyperbole often borders on distracting, and a few of his conclusions seem unsupported by the evidence presented. Also, the author did not always distinguish between his opinions and economic analysis. In a book like this, the line between theory and opinion should be clear.

If you liked Freakonomics and you are looking for more economic reading material then you will probably like this book.

This is an accessable, fun read. I also read Fair Play and More Sex is Safe Sex by Landsburg. He is the best author in this area.

This was a great book.

A lot of people don't bother to think arguments all the way through when they make them, and this author did a great job when he took sample letters (from the paper) and carried the arguments contained therein to their logical conclusions. (The Sound and the Fury chapter).

In addition, sometimes people who like to read about Economics as a hobby don't notice a lot of the little things around them that need explaining. (Popcorn prices at movies.) This book does explain many of those things.

Lastly, the author does his best work by uncloaking the environmental movement as a religion and NOT as science. It is telling that he went against a coreligionist (a Jew) in stating his objection to the indoctrination of his child with a religion just as quickly as he went against a Christian for brining Santa Claus into the classroom.

The entire book was worth the purchase price if for no other reason than the chapter on environmentalism.

This book isn't even something I would typically refer to as a book. It is more a cobbling together of blog-like material, short articles, rants against things and people in the popular media that the author doesn't like, bad examples of economic thought-processes that simply collapse at the first poke of logical analysis, and contradictory arguments.

Don't get me wrong - I absolutely love economics, one of the most beautiful and fascinating sciences we have. I am not an economist, but am a successful business owner, fairly smart, well educated, and no slouch when it comes to analytical thought.

This book falls flat, not because of the subject matter, but because of the way it is presented. It seems more an attack on everything that ever annoyed the author. Ideas that might otherwise have been well presented seem somehow warped to serve the authors underlying opinions and politics, and the ideas suffer for it.

The author also displays a good bit of ignorance of things outside the field of economics, which damage the examples he uses to show economic ideas.

For example, much of the book amounts to rants that point out, directly or indirectly, his views on the stupidity of "environmentalists" and the "religion of environmentalism." There are places where he makes assertions which are scientifically wrong, then draws conclusions from them. I found myself wishing he had done even a little research on basic biology and ecology.

This isn't an issue of pro- or anti-environmentalism. Whichever side of the fence you fall on in regards to the issues, you will be disappointed with the lack of thought or knowledge behind much of this book.

That said, the author obviously has a good understanding of the tools and theories of economics (he is after all an economist), and if you are willing to set logic and critical thinking on the shelf for a bit, you may get some benefit from this book, but you will have to wade through an awful lot of ego and narcissism to get it.

More likely, you will end up with the impression that the author knows how to use the tools but uses them to create constructs that simply collapse.

Chances are, if you've read the excerpts and marketing material for this book and think it sounds like something you would like to read, what you are really looking for is more likely to be found in "the undercover economist" or "naked economics."

(This is where I would normally end a review, so you can stop reading here if you like - the rest is my personal reaction to a few specifics.)

A couple specific issues:

I normally try not to address specific issues as part of a review, because I know my personal responses may not apply to other readers. I do have a few specific responses that I just can't resist bringing up.

These are MUCH more personal than my general review above, so please take them with a grain of salt.

1.
One chapter describes how the author and some buddies have lunch (he said every day) and discuss "big mysteries" that seem to have stumped them. One of these questions is why ticket prices don't go up for certain performances that regularly sell out and have lines of people camping to buy tickets. He points out some economic principles, then mentions a theory that somebody offered to him, which seems pretty sensible. He then concludes by saying that this theory could be the answer, but nobody really knows. It's this type of mystery that economists theorize about and try to solve every day.

Honestly, when I was done laughing, this nearly made me put the book down. I know the author is discussing theory, but it reminds me of a statement by Alan Greenspan (I forget where he wrote/said it, but it stuck with me ) that he was shocked by the number of economists that have trouble differentiating between theoretical models and the real world of people, decisions, and data.

I strongly suspect that if Alan Greenspan wanted to know why ticket prices don't go up under certain circumstances, he'd have a first-year intern pick up the phone, hunt down some of the people responsible for setting ticket prices for these performances, and ask them. Sure, you may not get an economically sound theory dropped into your lap this way, but it should get you a lot closer than endless pontificating over coffee and bagels.

2.
In another chapter, the author uses the Simpsons to illustrate a few points about benefits and fixed resources. The argument goes something like this: The only thing to do in Springfield is go to the park, so the city of Springfield puts in a new, publicly funded aquarium, which is free to visit.

Now the Simpsons can go to the park or the aquarium, which initially sounds great. However, since the "cost" of standing in line at the aquarium will exactly balance the enjoyment of going to the aquarium over the park (short line, people join, long line, people leave, causing equilibrium), the Simpsons gain absolutely no benefit from going to the aquarium over the park. In fact, nobody gets any benefit from it, or any other publicly owned resources, because economic benefit comes only from owning fixed resources.

This may be economically sound theory and modeling (I think some economists might disagree), but I suspect that if you asked the people of Springfield, you might find that they assign some value to the CHOICE of whether to go to the park or the aquarium, or the ability to alternate, rather than just go to the park every day.

I'm not sure if, technically, choice itself is a fixed resource, but people do derive benefit from the ability to make choices. This is clearly shown in the business world. Also, while the Simpsons may be cartoons, most families and people are a bit more complex and can't just be load balanced like a busy network server.

Real world people and families have attributes like boredom, enjoyment of new things, drug dealers at the park, a daughter who just saw "finding Nemo" and demands to see fish for her birthday no matter how long she has to stand in line.

This isn't a problem with the model, which is great for describing an idea or making a point, or predicting something to be verified by empirical methods. It's a problem with the authors seeming certainty that this simple model can then be taken and successfully applied to the complex real world.

You could also point out that, since the park is also publicly funded and is not a fixed resource, by the same logic it also adds absolutely no benefit to anyone over just staying home and staring at the wall all day.

If you wanted to stretch this logic a bit, the author seems to be saying that your choice between a day at the park, a day at the aquarium, a day at the beach, a day at a national park like Yellowstone or Yosemite, a cruise on the ocean, or any other activity that utilizes public (not fixed) resources adds absolutely no benefit to you or anyone else over just sitting home counting the number of times your ceiling fan goes around.

3.
When you get right down to it, this isn't a book about economics, it's a book about the authors opinion on environmentalism. There is nothing wrong with that in itself, but this book makes a promise, that it is a book on economics, which it fails to keep.

I fall somewhere in the middle on environmental issues, but positions aside, if you are looking for an interesting book on economics, this probably isn't it.

What discussion on economics you find here is mainly buildup for the main argument, which is an angry tirade against anything and everything environmental, which ends (literally, the end of the book) in a letter that the author purportedly wrote to a kindergarten teacher, chastising her for teaching children about recycling.

Ironically, the author talks a lot about equilibrium and balance in this book, in terms of economics. The only real balance I find here is that he seems to exactly balance out the rabid people that you find out on the extreme edge of environmentalism (as on the extreme edge of anything), by being almost exactly like them, only with an opposing anti-environmental opinion.

He seems completely impassioned, angry, ignorant (though not of economics), and certain that anyone with a differing opinion must simply be stupid, since he is so obviously right.

Again, there's nothing wrong with that, since it's his book.

However, as a reader, I don't like to pick up a book that presents itself as an interesting romp through some light economics and then discover that it's really an angry sounding, extremist argument from either end of the enviro-political spectrum.

Before I review the book, I have to provide a digression (I have to lay down these foundations before I can critique the book): There is nothing wrong with economics, it is a beautiful social science (I am a Ph.D. student in economics myself). What one has to bear in mind is that economics explains certain aspects of human behavior and how society works, it is a science, but not one without bounds. When applied methodically and correctly, it gives powerful insights in the subjects it studies. But one must understand that it is not without limitations, to name just a couple: economics is the study of "homo economus", it is by definition anthropocentric. I am not saying this is right or wrong, but certainly there are people who do not share the same view (environmentalists may think, for example, other species have rights too); another foundation of economics is that people are rational, but even economists admit that under certain conditions humans can be "unpredictable" or appear "irrational", and their preferences can be unstable (e.g. see Richard Thaler's works).

Now back to the book. Landsburg labels himself as a libertarian economist, and he takes such doctrine as "free market" as religion. It is true that under perfect competition, low transaction cost, etc., free market will achieve the most efficient allocation of resources. However, we must not forget that the real world is full of obstacles to competition and transaction costs can be forbiddingly high. But though Landsburg claims that he is trying to apply economic principles to "real world" problems, but more often than not, he retreats into the simplistic assumptions of first year college microeconomics.

Parts of the book are simply bad economics. For example, when one reader complains about the quality of air is getting unbearable in the city he lives, Landsburg comments: the fact that he did not move away proves that he is indifferent (between living there and moving away) after all (I actually couldn't locate this in the book at the moment, but I am pretty certain he said something along that line), completely ignoring elasticity (people are not perfectly mobile and can't just move from one city to another on a whim) and transaction costs.

Parts of the book are bad writing. I've read the chapter about popcorns at theaters at least 3 times, to date I am still trying to figure out what he tried to say. Also as other readers point out, his arrogant and snobbish attitude permeates the whole book. He sounds like as if he's the only one who knows the answers to all the questions of the universe. Anyone who does not accept his logic is simply branded "unscientific". One gets the impression that Landsburg is not just impatient, but also a deeply insecure person.

Parts of the book are not easy to tell whether they are bad economics, bad writing, or both. For example, in Chapter 7, he says that he is not sure why he spends a 3 cents worth of effort to grab a one-dollar bill. I understand that the whole chapter is about cost-benefit analysis, but to say that he "is not sure why" is misleading to say the least, because his private gain from this action is 97 cents so it makes perfect sense to do so. I am sure Landsburg actually understands this, but the way he tells the story is just a bad presentation and will make the layman scratch his head (as Landsburg puts it himself): are economists really so "dense"?

Landsburg's attitude toward environmentalism and conservation is appallingly ignorant. He calls environmentalism "the religion of ecology" to imply how unscientific it is, but his own stubborn hatred toward the environment (not just environmentalism) and single-minded faith in libertarian economics are not a shred less unreasonable or zealous than any religious beliefs. I don't consider myself to be in the environmentalist group, and certainly extreme environmentalism has its pitfalls. But from Landsburg's writing, it is apparent that he never bothered to read the other side's arguments at all. For example, he says that if "you want large forests, your best strategy might be to use paper as wastefully as possible" (yes, he actually said "wastefully", chapter 24), but that is assuming people strictly care about the number of trees, and not the composition (diversity of the biota, native species vs. introduced species, etc.) of the ecosystem, not to mention the disturbance, distress and destruction logging can cause to the environment. To an environmentalist, a coastal Californian redwood surviving from Aristotelian times may well give her more "utility" (to use economists' jargon) than newly planted timber crop from lumber companies. It is pretty clear that Landsburg has not the faintest idea about these issues. In the same chapter, he also suggests that "we can pick up a lot of valuable knowledge by wiping out a few species to see what happens", well, have we humans been doing that for, uh, the last few centuries? Need we count the number of species that have been wiped out and are being wiped out everyday? Have we not learned anything yet? (certainly not Landsburg).

Actually, one should not equate Landsburg with the word "economist". Fortunately for us, there are other economists with more reasonable, patient and perhaps humble minds. For example, for the topic of environmental economics, I suggest the reader (and Landsburg) read John Krutilla's "Conservation reconsidered" for a more sophisticated and reasoned argument about conservation.

Welcome to 1995.

This book weighs in at around 1.5 kilos and probably half of it could be culled from the book today. A lot of the material focuses on specifics for DOS (Windows 95 inclusive) programming, which is all unnecessary today under modern operating systems, if supported at all.


This book is worth reading if you're interested in a history lesson, it shows how much work was required to get small things done and the amount of knowledge required.

These days, thanks to reusable software in the forms of libraries programmers can focus on higher level aspects and worry less about reinventing the low level functions.

Personally I flipped through the book up to Chapter 10, 3D Fundamentals (having already coded a tetris game in C, with sound effects and music, prior to opening this book). This part has some good introductory theory including vector math, matrices, fixed point math and background informatioj required to implement 3D graphics without something like OpenGL.

The rest of the book, more 3D engine impementation, BSP and then Voxels and raycasting is most excellent and I would definitely recommend it on this basis, this information can most definitely be applied to writing programs with software rendering in modern languages and programming environments.

Thank you Andre Lamothe!

I owned this book for a while but I didn't actually pick it up and start reading it until a few weeks ago... people will complain that this book is outdated and blah blah... well those people are people who want to be spoon fed everything and have no creativity... if you have any kind of brain, this book is an awesome intro to 3d graphics... just check out my site http://members.rogers.com/vetro

I started coding a 3d graphics engine... I had to improvise, but the techniques are all based on the last half of this book

V

This book is a very good intro for 2D and 3D programming. The source code is simple and easy to understand. It lacks some things, like bitmap rotation, but no book is complete. The code can be compiled with the Watcon 11.0 compiler or Open Watcon compiler with some minor changes.

After I have bought this book for 10 years, I am still refers to it occasionally for implementing certain graphics features in my software applications such as charting.

This book provides real programming in 2D and 3D the classics way using nothing more but merely math algorithm. Although this book is destinated for MS-DOS environment, no DirectX tutorial within, with knowledge of classics 2D and 3D descriptions from this book, you can be sure of, porting to any new environment is not a problem...because you owns the root.

Moreover, in today's gaming industry or enterprise, in order to push to limits, it has to be a self-written 3D engine for sure.

This is a golden book, grab a copy while still available, is surely worthy.

Sincerely,
Ricky Gai.

Review updated: 13/04/2006.

The first half of the book is simply great. With the help of
this book , I 've written a complete VGA library in assembly.

The quality of the illustrations on 3D concepts like cross products , however , is too low and doesn't help to understand the material.

But the rest is truly amazing (André even covers the Pentium's FPU processor).