Tools Books

A good resource for faculty. Well written with nice integrated examples. I always recommend this book to faculty looking to develop rubrics for their teaching.

While it may not seem like it to students, grading is a very complex exercise for teachers and instructors. Anyone hoping to go into that line of work will have to learn about how complex and uncertain the art of grading can be, and this book is a strong compendium of current theory on such matters. An especially valuable aspect of this book is its coverage of the different schools of thought on whether grading is really an accurate assessment tool at all, and how all parties in the education process (students, teachers, administrators, parents, employers) have different conceptions of the usefulness and value of grades. But while this book is hugely informative at the practical level, beware of a few larger theoretical weaknesses. Frequently, certain practices that are currently held in high esteem become overused examples of larger concepts. The most glaring example is the inaccurately-titled chapter "Establishing Criteria and Standards for Grading" which is entirely about just one method, Primary Trait Analysis. At a higher level, this book assumes that all instructors will have the privilege of smaller class sizes, or welcoming administrative environments, in which experimenting with grading methods is possible or practical at all. Meanwhile this book (and many others like it) fails to distinguish between future advancements in theory and the real world in which such theories and practices have yet to be implemented on any appreciable scale. [~doomsdayer520~]

Do you love to teach but hate the grading process? That's where I was when I picked up this book. Very practically written, "Effective Grading" shows you how to choose the proper grading model for a class, how to motivate students through properly communicating your grading system, and how to structure your assignments to increase student learning. All this while drastically reducing the amount of time you need to spend on grading papers. Within a week of reading this book, I've made some drastic changes in my courses which will benefit both my students and myself.

I admit I was skeptical when I started this book--so many pedagogically oriented texts seem to sacrifice content and standards for "feel-good" solutions to education. However, I have found this book to offer excellent suggestions for every aspect of structuring classes to teach and evaluate what you most want your students to learn. In my college English classes, I've used variations of Primary Trait Analyses and Gateway Criteria and they have made a big difference in the levels of thinking and writing in my own students. Giving students specific guidelines allows them to focus on what's important about the assignment, set their priorities appropriately, and makes things much easier for me when the time comes for grading. I highly recommend this book.

That reader has a pretty strong idea, already, of how computers and compilers work, and is ready for a different kind of view. There are a few valuable differences here, compared to most discussions. The first is its emphasis on embedded systems. Loosely speaking, that's any computer that doesn't look like a computer: anti-lock brakes, iPods, microwave ovens, or the processor[s] internal to disk drives. Ignoring the tiny fraction with keyboards and screens, that's pretty much all of computing. The second distinctive feature of this book's viewpoint is it emphasis on the computer as a whole, including cooperating SoC components, operating systems and such, power management, and the instruction set processor itself. Programmers from the Windows/Unix world may be startled by the idea that the instruction set and processor data paths are variables, adjustable to the task at hand. The book's emphasis on close system integration follows the consequences of custom instruction sets out through the simulators, linkers, and compilers that put the processor to work. The authors offer wide-ranging and hard-won insight into optimization techniques, giving glimpses at the scars these project-hardened veterans have picked up along the way.

The book's most distinctive feature, however, is its emphasis on Very Long Instruction Word (VLIW) processors. These come in many flavors. One classic structure comes from TI's DSPs with 8 ALUs controlled in every cycle; standard superscalar and Intel's EPIC are also noted, for contrast and variety. The book is thick (over 600pp) and dense, so no summary can do it justice and still fit here.

The book's personal note is part of its charm. The authors aren't afraid to take on widespread opinoins in their "Flame" sidebars. One in particular struck home for me: the polite diatribe against "smart" assemblers that hide the machine from the people who really need to see it. Amen, brother! My worst experience of that sort was in the 90s-era TI C5x family. It had delayed branches, with two words in the delay slot. You could put either two one-word instructions or one two-word instruction into that slot. After annoyance that you can imagine, I discovered that the compiler was putting a one-word instruction in the branch shadow followed by a two-word instruction. It was executing one and a half instructions in the branch delay, with un-helpful effect. That second instruction was the one the assembler was "helping" with. If the immediate operand had been smaller, it would have been a one-word instruction and would have been fine. The immediate value was too big, though, so the assembler converted that same opcode into a different two-word machine instruction with a larger immediate field - kaboom!

It's a good survey and a good introduction for people who want a wider view of what computing is about. Given the rise of reconfigurable computing, it's also helpful in putting readers in the frame of mind needed for defining their own computers as a matter of course. The breadth of coverage means that, despite the book's mass, its coverage of some topics lacks depth. I can't really fault the authors, though, since there's so much to say and since different readers have such different needs. The depth is there, but it's in the exercises and copious references so readers have to dig into it on their own. This isn't a book for every reader, but it's a helpful compendium for people with many kinds of needs a bit away from what computer science usually offers.

//wiredweird

This is the first technical book that inspired me to read it cover-to-cover in many years. It was well-written, and covered a lot of material. I really liked the breadth of material, and enjoyed reading the lessons from personal experiences. Also, the choice of material validates one of the lessons I learned from my graduate advisor, many years ago, that architecture, software, and applications should all be studied together.

Very Long Instruction Word (VLIW) architectures are efficient because they replace costly and power-consuming consuming hardware for detecting and scheduling Instruction-Level Parallelism (ILP); with that functionality supplied by a smart compiler. Furthermore, such smart VLIW compilers and architectures can achieve levels of ILP and power efficiency many times that from hardware schedulers alone. Fisher, Faraboschi and Young's book explains -- skillfully covering software, hardware, theory, application, and business factors -- how such architectures can enable enormous increases in the capabilities of embedded systems.

It's a fabulous read, engagingly styled, with generous research and practical perspective, authoritative with Fisher being responsible for this paradigm of simultaneously engineering the compiler and processor.

Practicing engineers -- both chip architects and embedded system designers -- will find the techniques they will need to use and develop VLIW-based systems. Instructors will value the rare juxtaposition of advanced technology with practical deployment examples, and students will enjoy the unusually engaging and mind-expanding chapter exercises.

There are two ways to learn more about your country: you can study it directly by travelling around in it, or you can study it indirectly by leaving it. The first method yields facts and insights directly in-context, and the second by contrast.

Our tradition in computer engineering has been to seldom leave our neighborhood. If you want to learn about operating systems, you read an OS book; for multiprocessor systems, you get a book that maps out the MP space.

The book you are holding in your hands can serve admirably in that direct sense. If the technology you are working on is associated with VLIWs or "embedded computing", then clearly it is imperative that you read this book.

But what pleasantly surprised me was how useful this book is, even if one's work is not VLIW-related or has no obvious relationship to embedded computing. I had long felt it was time for Josh Fisher to write his magnum opus on VLIWs, so when I first heard he and his co-authors were working on a book with VLIw in the title, I naturally and enthusiastically assumed this was it. Then I heard the words "embedded computing" were also in the title, and felt considerable uncertainty, having spent most of my professional career in the general-purpose computing arena. I thought embedded computing was interesting, but mostly in the same sense that studying cosmology was interesting: intellectually challenging, but what does it have to do with me?

I should have known better. I don't think Josh Fisher can write boring text. He doesn't know how. (I still consider his "Very Long Instruction Word Architectures and the ELI-512" paper from ISCA-10 to be the finest conference publication I have ever read.) And he seems to have either found like-minded co-authors in Faraboschi and Young, or he taught them well, because Embedded Computing: A VLIW Approach is enthralling in its clarity and exhilarating in its scope. If you are involved in computer system design or programming, you must still read this book, because it will take you to places where the views are spectacular, including those looking over to where you usually live. You don't necessarily have to agree with every point the authors make, but you WILL understand what they are trying to say, and they WILL make you think.

One of the best legacies of the classic Hennessy and Patterson computer architecture textbooks is that the success of their format and style has encouraged more books like theirs. In Embedded Computing: A VLIW Approach, you will find the Pitfalls, Controversies, and occasional Opinion sidebars that made H&P such a joy to read. This kind of technical exposition is like vulcanology done while standing on an active volcano. Look over there, and see molten lava running under a new fissure in the rocks. Feel the heat; it commands your full attention. It's immersive, it's interesting, and it's immediate. If your Vibram soles start melting, it's still worth it. You probably needed new shoes anyway.

I first met Josh when I was a grad student at Carnegie-Mellon in 1982. He spent an hour earnestly describing to me how a sufficiently talented compiler could, in principle, find enough parallelism via a technique he called Trace Scheduling, to keep a really wild looking hardware engine busy. The compiler would speculatively move code all over the place, and then invent more code to fix up what it got wrong. I thought to myself "so THIS is what a lunatic looks like up close. I hope he's not dangerous." Two years later I joined him at Multiflow and learned more in the next five years than I ever have, before or since.

It was an honor to review an early draft of this book, and I was thrilled to be asked to contribute this foreword. As the book makes clear, general-purpose computing has traditionally gotten the glory, while embedded computing quietly keeps our infrastructure running. This is probably just a sign of the immaturity of the general-purpose computing environment (even though we non-embedded types don't like to admit that). With general-purpose computers, people "use the computer" to do something. But with embedded computers, people accomplish some task, blithely and happily unaware that there's a computer involved. Indeed, if they had to be conscious of the computer, their embedded computers would have already failed: antilock brakes and engine controllers, for instance. General-purpose CPUs have a few microarchitecture performance tricks to show their embedded brethren, but the embedded space has much more to teach the general computing folks about the bigger picture: total cost of ownership, who lives in the adjacent neighborhoods, and what they need for all to live harmoniously. This book is a wonderful contribution towards that evolution.

I used portions of this text during several embedded systems courses with Dr Peckol and it truly is an excellent resource and tool for an embedded engineer. It is a current, detailed, yet easily understandable look into all the aspects involved with embedded systems. I highly recommend this to anyone interested in this field or actively studying or working with embedded systems as you will no doubt benefit from Dr Peckol's insight.

I have used this text as reference to design and implement numerous embedded systems - from a simple numbers game to a wireless glove guitar.

The materials presented in this book walks you through the entire hardware/software thought process that is applicable to any engineering design. The book stresses the importance of developing a modular high-level design before any implementation - and to consider things such as use cases,extreme cases, scalability, performance, and safety. The book also goes over the importance of documentation - how to properly read and write design specifications/requirements, block diagrams, timing diagrams, etc.

In addition, the book covers the nitty-gritty details of digital implementation - from basic boolean algebra to complex kernel programming. The book also covers debugging/testing processes and common mistakes to avoid in embedded system development - backed with real-life examples. Finally, sample projects included in the book allow the reader to see and implement projects on their own.

The writing style makes the text an easy-read and the numerous diagrams and examples solidifies the concepts presented.

I highly recommend this book to any embedded systems engineer.

As a former student of Professor James Peckol and having read portions of this book in my spare time, I can assure any prospective students looking for a secondary reference that this is book to get!

This book provides the design processes and methodologies used in the real world (I am now in industry so I can attest to this) with some great examples. If you can take his class this is the next best thing...

This text book is insightful and extremely useful for faculty, graduate students and undergraduates alike in computer sciences. Up to date with much relevant information, presented in a detailed and articulate manner.

Author Peggy Bell is the worthy representative, and her book, "Fixin' Things" is the fitting memorial. This fascinating and credible story of the Civil War as seen (primarily) through the eyes and experienced through the lives of the women of the time, transports the reader into a ghastly world gone mad with the blood-letting, gut-spilling violence of insane men playing a to-the-death game of "King-of-the Hill." And through it all, the women were there; amazing women, with strength, resiliency, and fortitude. Feeding, nursing, wading through the blood and guts, bandaging mutilated men with strips torn off their petticoats, they fought through the war with unmitigated valor.

A wonderful piece of historical fiction, Bell's "Fixin' Things" has everything you could want in a good tale; a unique plot angle with twists and turns, lots of intriguing sub-plots thickening and expanding the story, remarkable characters brought to life, and scene depictions that run the full gamut from tender and lovely to terrifying and horrific. The story of the Battle of Gettysburg as told in this book was the best I have ever read. This book is an excellent tribute to the women who loved their broken country, mended it, and nursed it back to life.

Exceptionally written. Author keeps you 'in' the action. Does a super job of letting you see through words the events of the time. Paints the picture well. The author's rendition of the women of Gettysburg is enlightening, especially since we typically read only of men in times of war.

Peggy Ullman Bell's second book does NOT disappoint! This is an excellent historical fiction from the author of "Psappha, a Novel of Sappho," and will definitely be noticed! Well written, vivid, accurate historically, a fascinating and exciting read. And a most enjoyable story of a young woman's coming of age. Ms. Bell's writing in this book, as in "Psappha", takes you there and you can watch the story unfold! Hope to hear a LOT more from this Excellent author....

This is an unusual novel about the marvelous ways which women gave comfort and love during the civil war, an ode of love as responsibility in the care of others. While many books chronicle the adventures of males during this war, this is the first I have seen to get to the heart of the woman as homemaker, caregiver, and patriot. It is a book you will remember and ponder long after reading. The characters are diverse and stimulating. As fine a work of historical fiction as I have seen. It has everything from sexual abuse, to burying of body parts after surgery, to helping slaves to get north, to family conflicts. Throughout there is the heroism of women. I highly recommend it.

That science and technology are accepted as forces that improve life is a central precept of American culture but in Forces of Production, Noble argues against the notion of technological determinism as a bell weather of progress. Noble's is a Marxist critique: if workers see progress as inevitable and automatic, it "absolves...[them] of responsibility to change it and weds them instead to the technological projections of those in command."(xiii) Unless control is redirect away from "technical enthusiasts" and "neo-progressive politicians,"(353), he is skeptical of what the second industrial revolution portends for society and what advantage technology holds for the future. In making his point Noble analyzes the development of numerically controlled (N/C) machine tools in the post WWII era.

Wartime necessity and the subsequent Cold War centralized research and development into what became known as the military-industrial complex. In Part I of his volume, titled "Command and Control," Noble argues that scientists lost their sense of independence and came to "resemble closely their military and corporate brethren."(20) Labor, as a component of the production matrix, was changed as well by a defense establishment which emphasized performance over cost to counter the (Noble would say perceived) Soviet threat. Increased union membership during the war augmented labor's power and heightened labor/management conflict on the machine shop floor.

Who controlled the shop; who controlled the pace of production? Automation, on the one hand, seemed to offer management a means of maintaining control, but labor saw this as a threat to their jobs. Scientist and engineers, more closely allied with those having social power, were predisposed to adhere to the wishes of their patrons, rather than shop stewards, to help make the automatic factory possible.

Noble presents various methods of N/C and explains how the "Darwinian" potential of N/C was stymied when John T. Parson's N/C project was co-opted by MIT in close alliance with the Air Force. The record-playback (R/P) option may have been easier to program and more accurate in that it captured a machinists skill, but it would have "lent itself to programming on the shop floor, and worker and/or union control of the process."(151) This was unacceptable to managers who wanted to maintain control and keep decision making off the floor. The prevailing cultural thus had more influence in developing N/C than did technical or economic needs. The Automatically Programmed Tools (APT) system that was developed, while sophisticated was expensive. None-the-less it became the industry standard.

Noble challenges the ideology of technology as the key to social and human progress. Instead he sees a system of political, moral, and cultural "domination which masks as progress."(351). Indeed, it is Noble's social interpretation of technology that is the major contribution of the book. Unfortunately what also is apparent is his omission of any comparison to the Soviet system and thus his argument is degraded as more of an attack on capitalism than a sincere effort to clarify the role of society in technology. Regardless of this shortcoming, by questioning the relationship of society to technology, Forces of Production challenges the idea of technological determinism in defining the meaning of progress.

I read this book as part for a course in "Philosophy and Technology" when I was an undergraduate. It is a detailed exposition of how the technologies we adopt are not inevitable, but are instead the consequence of specific choices made by specific people in power (or seeking to be in power). One of the books that fundamentally changed my worldview. Together with his "America By Design," a dull but exacting analysis of engineering education in the U.S., this book should be read as a cautionary tale for the course higher education is taking in its current romance with corporate sponsorship and collaboration. . .

The infantilism of American culture that started with Reagan appears in many guises. For example, Ron Grossman in the Chicago Tribune pointed out last Sunday that the United States Postal Service has a stamp for Bugs Bunny but none for John Brown, the rebel of Harper's Ferry.

The Smithsonian Institution recently thought fit to exhibit Daisy's shortened Levi's from the 1970s television series The Dukes of Hazzard.

The infantilism is that the author of Forces of Production, David Noble, was a serious and pro-labor voice who worked at the Smithsonian in the 1970s and was forced out under Reagan...in favor of Daisy's shorts, it appears.

The subject of Forces of Production may seem to be specialized for overtly it is on numerically-controlled machine tools, nowadays a very small application of computers. Nonetheless this book can be read in the context, not only of machine tools but also of computerization in general.

Noble's book is an account of management folly. Machine tool automation was implemented to eliminate not the unskilled but men like my great-grandfather: machinists who had the nerve to set their own pace, and to design as they saw fit tools to accomplish their job.

The machinist occupies in the world of physical tools somewhat the same space as is occupied by the advanced programmer since the machinist has the choice, in a well-run shop, of deciding not to fashion the part that management wants, but instead to fashion a tool that will in turn make the part that management wants...faster, more accurately and in the long and short run cheaper.

Like Harry Braverman's Labor and Monopoly Capital, Noble shows how this economic rationality was subverted by the high priests of economic rationality: the CEOs.

Ultimately preferring control over profits, the managers of machine shops imported programmatic numerical control NOT to make the skilled machinist's life easier but instead to eliminate the skilled union men.

Noble shows how a rough compromise was hammered out because the unskilled machinists, and the alienated skilled machinists, stood by (under management's direction) as the improperly programmed machine tools produced "scrap at high speeds."

Union negotiation then restored the skilled men to their positions to get the technology under control.

There is a striking parallel here with the situation in white-collar computer programming, for it has been the consistent discovery of skilled programmers that the computer itself can be used, NOT to "focus on the bottom line goals of management" (as goes the management songbook) but instead to fashion tools...that accomplish, in a laughing and almost scornful way, the goals of the management.

For example, in 1974 I was confronted in a computer center with 50 different programs to scan and to print mailing lists. Being a lazy hippie I suggested to my boss that I write ONE program that would read and parse the format and the logic rules. My manager approved and as a result I implemented a form of "data base."

Of course, management does see the wisdom of this move, but typically (as related in the case of machine tools by David Noble) management prefers to alienate the programmers from the tools, which are bought from third parties. While this makes sense in many environments it has also produced unrecognized disasters...especially where the programmers know or believe they could do a better job.

For example, the state of Virginia recently wasted five years and millions of dollars in trying to use a generalized solution from Peoplesoft to automate human resources. A new manager walked in and had one or two good programmers code, in-house, the most needed routines on the Web.

Reading Noble's important work teaches us how to avoid Luddism (and Luddism itself may have a bad name for certain historians have shown that the Luddite textile weavers of the early 19th century were critics, not of technology itself, but of its use to downsize and to degrade.) It gives the ordinary person who wants at one and the same time to be successful at his profession and to have time for his family an informed way of criticising "scrap at high speeds."

I certainly wouldn't have heard of this book if it weren't for Noam Chomsky citing it. David Noble dared to break ranks and suggest that maybe all was not right with machine tool automation. My favorite chapter,entitled "Who's running the shop" describes GE's aircraft division's "Pilot Project" in the 60's. It is first of all a damn good tale--rivaling the arabian nights as a never ending fascinating tale. Secondly, it is a sobering tale of labor-management relations. One suspects that GE management would rather the incident was forgotten. Here is a rough summary: The Air Force gave GE super-expensive numerically controlled (i.e. computerized) machining tools and local GE managers used these as a weapon to deskill workers and lower their pay, but it backfired because without the good will and understanding of the workers it produced only scrap metal at a fantastic rate. The "Pilot Project" was a compromise that enabled the incompetant management to save face, and the workers and union essentially ran the shop during this time. Understandably the union and workers wanted the pilot project to go on forever, and equally understandably the higher corporate management wanted this example of worker control to end as soon as possible even though it worked extremely well.

In his consistently insightful, informative, and often humorous book, Gadgets, Games, and Gizmos for Learning, Karl M. Kapp has crafted a significant conduit of information that may bridge chasms created by misperception, distrust, and disrespect that often exist between the Boomer and the Gamer generations. The author points out that if large numbers of individuals in the gamer generation do not engage in the symbiotic relationship that occurs when the knowledge base is transferred form one generation to the next, we will irrevocably lose one of our most valuable assets.

Inevitably, as increasing numbers of highly skilled Boomers leave the work force, Gamers will be needed to fill the ensuing knowledge gap. Dr. Kapp clearly and systematically presents practical and appropriate, adaptations that schools and organizations must implement to entice Gamers to close the knowledge gap by obtaining the advanced educational credentials needed to fill jobs currently held by well-trained, highly-skilled Boomers. This book is especially valuable for everyone one who has, or will have, contact with gamers, including the gamers themselves.

For example, by reading this book:

Employers will learn that given an adaptive work environment, which accommodates non-traditional working and learning styles, Gamers' may actually be more efficient and productive than their Boomer counterparts.

Primary, secondary, and tertiary educators will learn why a growing number of prominent educators, such as Dr. Kapp, are recognizing that video game play actually improves cognition.

Contrary to what many parents believe, playing video games can promote intellectual stimulation, encourage social interaction, and does not have a positive correlation with violence.

Gamers, most importantly, learn how they can eventually become fiscally self-sufficient by understanding that their video game skills combined with the required educational credentials, may yield high-paying, marketable job skills.

Although this work is factual and well referenced, it is much easier to read and far less erudite then some other books on similar topics. For example, I enjoyed What Video Games Have to Teach Us About... by James Paul Gee, the first time I read it. However, I realized how much I had originally misinterpreted when I reread it. Karl M. Kapp's Gadgets, Games, and Gizmos for Learning would be a valuable resource for anyone seeking an accessible, well-documented reference tool, or simply a fascinating book to read.

Rebekah Fulford
Emmaus, PA

This book is a must-have for instructional designers and other purveyors of e-Learning and Training solutions; for those who see the need and are ready to move beyond the standard teaching tools that we've been using today in preparation for the New Learners ("Gamers" and "Digital Natives").

We've been passing this book around our office. It's inspired some great conversations, both internally and with clients, about the changing nature of the workforce and the ways the training industry will need to adapt. We've gotten some great ideas for our products and programs and are itchy to implement them.

In Chapter 2, Kapp gets practical, providing endless examples of different types of learning games. This would be a great place to start a project-design/brainstorming session.

It's an easy-to-read book, packed with useful information -- even if you "cheat the book" a bit and skim. Kapp includes a ton of real-life examples and case studies, including observations and lessons learned while watching his own children play games.

Highly recommended by this Instructional Designer!

So there are a lot of book about games out now but I think I would class Dr. Kapp's work in with the likes of John Beck and Mitchell Wade's "Got Game" in that it focuses on ways that we could use game, gadgets and gizmos to accomplish some important business goals.

This book provides a thread common to all the "G's" mentioned in the title...that these devices/experiences represent not generational disconnects but channels and conduits that can allow us to address the huge brain suck that is coming soon as the baby-boomer generation heads to retirement.

I think this book nicely walks the thin line between academic coverage and pragmatic usefulness and comes away with a good bit of both. I found the book to be engaging, accessible and in a crucial test...useful.

This is not only an informative read, but a fun read (and I never thought I'd say something like that about a 'work' book). Kapp has a playful way of pointing out how gamers' and the gaming generation's pasttimes are not only viable as learning methodology, but superior, in many ways, to previously used practices. Working in the Healthcare IT field (specifically, in EMR Training), the chapter titled "Cheaters Never Win...or Do They?" really put things into perspective. If you redefine the term 'cheat' to include workflows out of the norm (shortcuts, etc.), work becomes more efficient and streamlined and the learner walks away not only learning, but feeling like they might have got one over on 'the system'...everyone wins!

All in all, it's a great way for a gamer/geek (like myself) to finally prove my parents, my wife, and everyone else wrong - I WASN'T WASTING MY TIME ALL THESE YEARS PLAYING THOSE STUPID GAMES!

The back cover of the book has the following book review statement from John Lucey, Executive Vice President & General Manager, USFilter Engineering & Construction.

This book is a "must read" for anyone involved in implementing a GIS for a water or wastewater utility. Being the first published reference book on this topic, it would be a valuable addition to your reference library. I like the "cookbook" style of the book which is quite appropriate for utility professionals. The book is filled with numerous examples of GIS applications in the water industry that are both current and practical. The extensive listings of GIS data, software, and the Internet resources will help you to build the right kind of GIS for your system.

John Lucey, P.E.
Executive Vice President & General Manager, USFilter Engineering & Construction
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Arguably, this is the best introductory GIS and water, wastewater, stormwater book around. The material is very readable and well organized, making the book an excellent foundation for additional detailed study. The selection and organization of topics, style of presentation, emphasis and writing are excellent. Examples to reinforce concepts are also provided. For example, GIS data and software examples are presented before their applications and GIS case studies are presented before the methods are explained.

This book provides a wealth of information and resources. In addition to the examples and practical case studies, the book also provides links to web sites that offer articles, tutorials and more samples, as well as organizations that have an interest in all aspects of the GIS and water resources and water distribution networks. The book also includes an introduction to Internet GIS, GeoSpatial database tools for water resources, integration of hydrologic and hydraulic models with GIS, and several other resources. For anyone who wants a solid introduction to these topics, these chapters are a must read.

This book provides exhaustive coverage of everything you need to know in order to master the GIS applications for water related fields. The book is designed for readers of all levels from experienced GIS users to those with little or no GIS experience. It does so by providing beginners with basic underlying GIS topics, while at the same time offering experienced GIS developers detailed and exhaustive coverage of the GIS tools for water, wastewater and stormwater systems.

By simply flipping through the pages of this book, it becomes evident that an enormous amount of time and effort went into it. It offers the same high quality and detailed coverage that you would find in most college level academic books. In fact, this book is written using the recommendations of the Accreditation of the American Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET) and ASCE's Excellence in Civil Engineering program.

The book is so diverse to cover many topics and yet all written comprehensively for each topics. You get real-world experience with the tools and case studies presented in this book, such that you might use in a job somewhere.

I recommend this book to any water professional or civil engineer that deals with everyday GIS. An excellent job of expository writing and worth every nickel you pay for it.

Chapter 1. GIS Basics
Chapter 2. GIS Development Software
Chapter 3. GIS Applications Software
Chapter 4. GIS Data
Chapter 5. Internet GIS
Chapter 6. GIS Database Design
Chapter 7. Modeling Integration
Chapter 8. Water System Applications
Chapter 9. Wastewater System Applications
Chapter 10. Stormwater System Applications
Chapter 11. Case Studies
Chapter 12. GIS Resources
Appendix A. Acronyms
Appendix B. Glossary
Appendix C. Conversion Factors
Appendix D. Notations

References
Index

GIS Tools for Water, Wastewater, and Stormwater Systems
By U.M.Shamsi

Abstract

Data and software are the two most important tools for developing GIS applications. GIS Tools for Water, Wastewater, and Stormwater Systems presents a step-by-step approach covering GIS application case studies, examples, and costs associated with hardware, software, data conversion, and implementation. It addresses a broad range of GIS issues, from basic definitions to specific applications, teaching how to utilize GIS tools and implement them in a practical and cost-effective manner in the fields of water, wastewater, and stormwater management. Written in textbook format with stylistic focus on the inductive presentation of examples before principles, this book provides state-of-the-art information about the tools required to develop GIS applications for water, wastewater, and stormwater systems. This book is geared for any professional involved in the management and operation of water, wastewater, and stormwater systems, as well as civil and environmental project engineers and project managers. With a substantial amount of pictures, diagrams, graphs, and illustrations, this book is also suitable for use in the classroom. Each chapter begins with learning objectives, and ends with a chapter summary and practice problems that can be used as assignments for the student.

It is very interesting book. I exactly found the pragmatic information I needed and answer to all my questions.

"Going Global? Power Tools for Negotiating International Deals" is one of the best business books I have bought. It is a powerful practical guide to negotiating through the complexities of the deal. No lofty concepts, no philosophical wanderings - just clear straight forward explanations of the issues, what you should ask for, and what you can afford to compromise on. I would highly recommend this book."

This is not a text book, nor does it contain everthing you ever needed to know about negotiating business deals. However, the Author, Jim Klotz, has succeeded in summarising in 285 pages all of the essential elements required to ensure a successful outcome from the negotiating process. It is written in plain english, with outstanding clarity. It fits easily into a briefcase, perfect for last minute reassurance in the airplane or taxi. Buy it. It has already proved to be a most valuable resource.

I rank this book as one of the most important business guides that I have ever read. As a Canadian SME we have been exporting services for over a decade but we had no idea there were so many pitfalls that we could have been our death trap. This book outlines in a clear and concise way the basics that you need to do international deals - and when it is time to call your lawyer. Chapters 1 and 2 on "The Basics of International Business Deals" and "Negotiating International Sales of Goods and Services" should be mandatory reading for all your international sales staff. If you need to go beyond that to agency, consulting, distribution, licencing and joint ventures - all the information is there, but you can pick and choose what is important to you. You don't need to read the whole book at once, it can be a long term reference as your international work expands. There are excellent references in the book, so it is easy to find more information. I enjoyed the book so much, I took the time to go to Toronto to meet the author, so now I know there is much more to learn, but this is an excellent book by a brilliant author. Dont get on the plane for your next trip without this book in your pocket!

I needed to replace my wife's driver side mirror and the direction I found in this book was perfect. I looked through the rest of this book and they do a pretty good job breaking down each task and there are plenty of pictures to illustrate the steps.

I grew up in the house of a mechanic and always had access to Chilton books. I do all my own automotive work and since discovering the Haynes manuals I can honestly tell you some things Haynes covers in great detail are just remove and replace items in the Chilton Books. I have bought a Haynes Manual for every car I have owned and every car in our family from day one when we bought the car for reference on maintenance. I have yet to not find the information I needed to repair the car when it broke down.
And for a novice the best way to not be confused it to read it again and try to understand what they are actually saying and follow directions exact. Shortcuts are expensive

The descriptions of how to do the work are accurate, but can be hard to follow if you are not used to doing your own work on your car. Some of the pictures could have been more detailed/better angles to identify exactly what to remove during each step.

I am no mechanic, though I have worked on my own cars for years and have done many of my own simple repairs. If something seems too difficult, I am more likely to let a professional do it. BUT, professionals these days are way too expensive for things you could be doing yourself.

For example, I replaced a water punp on my 1998 Taurus. It was not too difficult, but this book provided some useful tips and things to avoid. Pep boys wanted $180-200, though I picked up the part for $30 and did it myself in about one hour. Saving that much is enough to get my off my rump and into the garage.

This book also gave me some very useful information on diagnosing my non-functioning A/C. This included how to pull the blower resistor from under the dash and how to test the connections with a Ohm meter. I bought one at Harbor Freight for $3 and found out that it (the resistor assembly) was bad. Ford sold me a new one for $15 and the A/C was fixed. This cost me $18 total and some sweat, but it would have been several hundred at at repair shop. I'm sure I would have had to pay for hours and hours of diagnosis - all for a simple-to-reach $15 part that I knew nothing about beforehand.

I just (a year ago) spent $600 on some front end parts at a repair shop, but looking through this book, think I could have done it myself for under $100. O'reilly auto will even loan you the special tool needed.

I also have used Chilton's in the past, though not for this car. In my opinion, Haynes is far easier to use and assumes less about the readers skill level.

I recommend fully, especially in the day of the $100+/hour labor charge.

Hiring Great People provides an excellent, common sense approach to handling some of today's more challenging staffing issues. From recruiting to orientation and everything in between, hiring managers can depend on the sound advice presented by Klinvex, Klinvex and O'Connell.

Whether in your briefcase or on the bookshelf, this is a must have for the human resources professional or for any professional involved in selection and hiring. This book is really appropriate for any audience. I have used it as a textbook with my graduate personnel selection classes.

Hiring Great People is a well-written, easy to read book. At the same time, it presents highly technical information in a format which demonstrates how such information can be turned into practice. There are may useful hints, guidelines and forms in the book. As I have indicated above, I have used this book as a text in graduate courses. It is more valuable than books which cost five times as much.

This is not a book about fluff or fads -- it deals with the latest research and technology in the practice of personnel selection in a highly readable fashion. I find myself turning to it repeatedly for advice on topics such as interviewing and competency assessment.

Kevin C. Klinvex, Matthew S. O'Connell, and Christopher P. Klinvex present a guide to creating a more effective hiring process. They cover each step, from defining the job to hiring the best person. The book provides techniques for attracting the right employees through advertising and promotion. It also covers effective use of applications, interviews, testing, and background checks. This book is clear, well-organized, and easy-to-read. While some of the suggestions may be obvious to those who are experienced at hiring, they are presented in a careful, step-by-step way. We at getAbstract recommend this book to those involved in the hiring process in larger companies, from company owners and top managers to human resource professionals. Small business owners who wish to use more sophisticated hiring techniques may also find it useful.

Not another book on hiring! Enough! Can any more be said that hasn't been said already? Can the same information be presented any better than it has before?

I'll admit that I opened this book, part of McGraw-Hill's Briefcase series, with a bias to dismiss the publication as just another also-ran. Surprise! Hiring Great People caught my attention right away and held it for most of the book. Starting with the three-page detailed table of contents, the book was easy to read and easy to use. A Manager's Checklist at the end of each chapter offers a good summary for reality-checking and later reference.

I liked the way each chapter begins with a scenario, usually including dialog, that catches the reader's attention and focuses on the problem to be solved by the chapter's content. Nicely done. An abundance of examples aid in understanding of the authors' points and in the practical application of the knowledge presented. A common feature of the Briefcase books is effective use of icons to call out sidebars and boxes that highlight and amplify the text. The boxes are categorized as Smart Managing (tactics), Caution (warnings), Tricks of the Trade, Key Terms (jargon explained), Examples, Tools (proven procedures), and Mistake Proofing (how to minimize the risk of a bad hire).

The book begins with an emphasis on competency-based job descriptions. Helpful information includes definitions of competencies and advice on conducting a competency analysis. The second chapter jumps right in with the legal stuff that employers must be wary of today. A number of pertinent laws are carefully explained so the reader knows what to do and how to avoid costly mistakes. The chapter on attracting the right employees (note: not just warm bodies) addresses recruiting as well as what today's workers are looking for. The table on page 47 provides information on over a dozen internet sites that can be used for recruiting.

So now we have all these applications coming in. What should we do with them? Chapter 4 shows us how to use those applications as screening tools in our efforts to find the right people to bring in for interviews. Chapter 5 does the same thing with resumes. Frankly, I was astonished at the volume of advice; I learned about tools and procedures that opened my eyes about my own hiring. The next two chapters on interviewing was equally valuable; again, I gained knowledge that I didn't have before. Just when you think you know it all, this kind of book comes along to remind you and give you some more.

Do these applicants really care about working here, or are they just looking for a job? Chapter 8 shows us how to evaluate how motivated that applicant is to perform. The interviewing approaches are most useful, as are the charts and score sheets to help the interviewer focus on what's most important. Testing and background checks were discussed next-good sequencing of chapters. I thought the chapter on testing got a bit too deep in testing methodology for a book like this, but the information is interesting.

The chapter on making the hiring decisions and notifying applicants includes a weighting system that helps put appropriate emphasis on the most important characteristics. I liked the advice about sending polite rejection letters promptly. There are so many applicants that wait a long time-nervously and needlessly. Chapter 12 advises wise ways to bring new employees on board with the right kind of offer of employment and the subsequent orientation process. The final chapter on blended workforces highlighted the alternatives that employers have today, using part-timers, job-share, and contingent workers to get the job done.