Tools Books

An excellent book for beginning turners. Detailed explanations and lots of pictures.Taunton's Complete Illustrated Guide to Woodworking (Complete Illustrated Guide)

I am really impressed, what an introduction, great information!
I am interested in turning wood so I bought this book to research lathe wood working, and it seemingly covered questions that I had and so many others that I had not even thought of yet.
The illustrations give visualization to understanding of new jargon and concepts. I now feel like I have been properly introduced to a new creative expression in woodworking and am ready to pick up a gouge and try my hand at turning wood.

It was really great all Richard Raffan's book are so easy to do the projects as he writes and has photos of the item he is telling you about

All I needed to know, Plus much more.
Easy way to learn the tips and tricks of turning.
All turners should have a copy on hand.

Richard Raffan is by far one of the most recognized Master Turners in the world. This book is most likely a compilation of all of the works he has produced and presented in such a way that Turners on every level will gain something beneficial to their own turning. It is well organized and written in such plain language that every turner will have no problem understanding. The illustraions are top notch and very helpful. I would recomend this book to turners of every level.
Dave Earl

I can't say enough great things about this book. It's full of interesting projects to try, and the design of the book itself is great, light and airy, despite being packed with useful information.

You'll need some software to try the projects in it, an image editor of some kind and a printer. But that's all you need for most of the projects described. Janet Ashford has really creative ideas for transforming every day objects like metal tins and boxes, using computer designs.

I can just about guarantee, if you're artistic at all and you buy this book, you'll not only enjoy it, but you'll wind up designing some really amazing things as a result!

Being an arts and crafts designer from way back, I have always wanted to own this book. I couldn't find it on the shelves a couple of years ago and proposed to write such a book when I found myself inventing paper crafts for PrintMaster, a card design program produced by the Learning Company.

But Janet Ashford beat me to it. And she has the know-how it would have taken me years to acquire. This is a magnificent tome, one that inspires as well as informs the crafts addict. Her expanations are sophisticated but clear to anyone who has passed beyond the basics. Lots of the projects are very artful and have the look of "handmade" without being too cutsy or too advertisingly slick.

I recommend this book to anyone who loves crafts and has access to a computer with the big three type programs: layout, photo adjusting, and drawing. If you are new to computers, an accompanying book or class will set you up for this one.

The potential of the computer in craft has been seriously damaged by the excitement computers have generated. A parallel can be found when the Russian novelist Tolstoy was given a dictaphone to help speed up his writing. After a few weeks he threw it out the window. His neighbor asked if it didn't work. Tolstoy's reply was "It worked fine, but I got so excited using it I couldn't write." For almost two decades a generation of designers have succumbed to the excitement and hype of the computer without significantly adding any real content or substance to their work under the digitized banner. It is time for that to change, and Janet Ashford is a winning harbinger of that change.

It doesn't help matters that most design software seems to be written by the left-brain dominant spouses of craft practitioners...well intentioned souls with no sense of the real kinesthetics of working color, form, texture.

Janet Ashford has navigated through the difficult middle course between technology and entrancement. She draws! She creates custom palettes in her application software! She doesn't hit you over the head or talk down to the reader. Perhaps her experience of designing for and with her daughter has given her the wonderful tone of teaching someone she likes, who is lacking in knowledge but not in ability. That is a prized gift in any teacher, and Ashford has it mastered.

She has maintained her enthusiasm, her innocent pleasure in sharing the joys of color and pattern, line, light and form. She is conscientious in gathering really useful resources together into a book that can pay off in serious fun the first weekend you get to use it, without resorting to false expectations. Buy the book. Use the example. You, and your craft, will be enriched without hype or over-simplification. Serious artists and craftspeople do not expect the tool to do the real work of creation for them. This book is written for the serious artists and craftspeople at any stage of their careers...from about 9 years old on up.

Ashford knows the art of computer craftmaking and provides the reader with very good starting points for crafts that intertwine computer and manual art. Regarding hardware/software she clearly favors Mac/Adobe, so her recommendations reflect this. In spite of this slant, she gives some helpful overviews of the technological side of various formats, graphic standards, etc.
Want to intermingle computer graphics with your arts and crafts? Here's a good starting point.

This is a good reference for general information about using a computer to enhance or create art. The author mainly uses Adobe products, such as Photoshop and Illustrator for editing images and graphics. Before you will be able to create these projects, you have to be familiar with your software AND have software to create some of the effect (image editor, paint and graphics program). If you are looking for a book that specifically tells you how to do these things, that will not be found here. You have to be "computer-literate" and software-literate to get the most from this book.

There is a lot of good information provided and several projects are shown using illustrations and photographs, not in a step-by-step format.

I have a lot of woodworking books. About 60 of them.

Yeung Chan's book is one of the best and most practical
of them all. He shows several ways to make each joint
so even with a modestly equipped shop you'll be able
to make quality joints.

Yeung's jig designs are great too. They aren't complicated
or hard to build and he explains how to make sure they
are accurate.

Gary Rogowski also wrote some great books about
making joints - but if you get just one get Classic Joints
with Power Tools.

I would like to highly recommend this book. I recently had the opportunity to attend a class on Chair Design and Construction. The instructor was Mr. Chan. As a weekend workworker I have always dreamed of one day designing and building a chair but thought that day was still pretty far into my future. Mr. Chan's prop for the class was a classic reproduction of a Ming Dynasty chair he built. He described how he first understood the joinery techniques, then how he replicated those joints by hand then then finally with power tools. His book describes many of those techniques.

I use this book as a reference to joint design and to remind me of the wonderful experience of the class.

This book is absolutely engrossing. Mr. Chan is inventive and does a great job of demonstrating how to re-create his designs.

This is a top book on joints. This books deals exclusively with joints and is full of information. There are some jigs shown at the beginning with plans that will allow you to create some of the common or not so common joints. The book is written simply and is attractive. If you use your table saw a lot you will like this book but a router and bandsaw are used in some of the joints. In the back of the book there is a small gallery. If you ever had any questions about joints they are probably explained in this book. I am pleased with this book you should also be.

Classic Joints with Power Tools by Yeung Chan is unique amongst books on wood working. Logical, concise, and written by someone with a wealth of experience. The unique thing is how adept he is in explaining it; yes, an excellent teacher.
When you see some of the pictures of work the author completed, which is included in the book in full color, as well as pictures of works created by others, you realize that this is the work of someone who practices what he preaches.
Simple yet profound. One tip for example, is when cutting stock, cut it 1/4" oversize, then re-joint it, and re-cut it to final size. You know the problem of cutting a board, and the internal stress makes the board move a little. Then you have an edge cup in your piece. By cutting and jointing it twice, you eliminate that. What a great idea.
This book is made for the master woodworker, and the beginner alike. For the master; so they can compare techniques, and glean a new bent on methods, and for the beginner, because they can learn the simple truth of the best way of creating the right joint, using the best procedure.
I can't recommend this book enough. It makes for a great read, and a convenient reference guide, due to the fact that it is laid out so logically. Buy it you won't be sorry.

I did like this book because it offers a "battle plan"-you feel empowered just reading it. Some of the ideas in the book are very very practical and I would have never thought about them. However...not all the ideas are all that original, and I was doing lots of the things described anyway. Another problem is that the author, instead of showing more about organizing paperwork, refers her readers to a different book... Overall, it's a pretty nice read, but for the organizing freaks out there-don't expect an epiphany!

I like the author's use of humor as well as the included lists for organization. It is possible to organize one area at a time. I have read Alexandria Stoddard in the past and like how this author incorporates her ideas especially for the Decompression Chamber. I live in a one room apartment so I can develop my own Cozy Corner.
This book is more an advanced course in organization than other books I have used in the past. This previous knowledge is often assumed. The book also has another problem common to books on organization. Many of us rent and for that reason cannot add built-ins to where we live.

Household Winners For Working Women: Your Personal Organizational Tool Kit To Declutter & Design A Comfortable Home is a highly practical and "user friendly" guide for keeping one's home free of useless encumbrances and enhancing a cozy, liveable space in which to better enjoy life. Written specifically for working women with limited time for housework, individual chapters address everything from an easy-to-access closet, to choosing groceries that offer maximum nutrition and delicious preparation with minimum fuss, to car cleaning and car jacking prevention tips, Household Winners For Working Women is packed cover to cover with solid, useful, and highly recommended ideas, suggestions, and advice.

I purchased this book as a gift for my wife. She is a fairly well organized person but she said that she needed to be better about certain tasks. So anyway, I gave it to her and she said it was perfect. The fact that she was able to read and zoom in on the relevant chapters to her pleased her to no end. I highly recommend this book. It is a great gift idea.

Written in a conversational style, Dr. Bishop guides us through a delightful process of decluttering and organizing our home environments--to Assess, Zone, Unload, Rearrange & Enjoy. Chapters address creating organized rooms and work and storage spaces throughout the home. This comprehensive manual is especially valuable for the numerous checklists for project planning and for documenting important family and household information. Also includes extensive, useful Resources, Apprendix, and Bibliography sections.

If reading from beginning-to-end is not your style, start by learning Dr. Bishop's philosophy of AZURE-ing (p.340-41) and move to Chapter 4 to create your own Personal Decompression Chamber. Then, in your personal care retreat, read the remaining chapters that will guide you in the process of organizing your other home environments, and simplifying your life to enjoy it more!

Linux System Security: The Administrator's Guide to Open Source Security Tools, Second Edition
by Scott Mann has advice on starting from scratch when you are setting up a machine to make it secure from attack from the outside.

It looks at everything from the filesystem upwards, and will give you a good starting point for looking at this.

Linux is better than Windows.

Actually all tools described are not Linux specific and can be used for any Unix including FreeBSD and Solaris.

The authors seems to know the subject and really used tools that they are writing about. For several popular tools the book provides some useful info that is difficult to find elsewhere. Pretty decent typography, although it's a little bit too academic and does not use icons on margins that IMHO simplify reading. 

As for the classic open security tools, the book covers PAM(36 pages), Sudo(20 pages), TCP Wrappers(24 pages), SSH(55 pages), Tripwire(24 pages), CFS and TCFS (30 pages), and ipchains.

From the first reading it looks like the chapters are *not* a rehash of existing online documentation. In addition to the chapters about classic open source security tools I like chapters about logs: a chapter on syslog (Ch.8) and a chapter on log file management (Ch.17). 

Now about weaknesses. The chapter on Tiger is rather weak. Moreover regrettably Tiger is a legacy tool, but actually information is not completely useless -- it's not difficult to switch to another tool after one understands how Tiger works. Actually Perl is superior for writing Unix vulnerability scanners in comparison with shell. May be hardening scripts like Bastille would be a better choice for this chapter in the second edition of the book.

Book is incomplete in a sense that neither Snort (or any similar intrusion detection tool), nor open source network scanners (Saint, Sara, etc.) are covered.

Of course there are some typos, but generally not that many. But what is really bad is that the Prentice Hall book page currently is pretty basic with no errata or additional links. The authors do not provide a WEB site for the book.

This book can probably be used for studying Unix security at universities along with somewhat outdated Practical Unix and Internet Security and this combination can somewhat compensate deficiencies of the latter (non tool oriented descriptive approach).

This book is well-written, thorough, and practical rather than academic. I particularly found the chapter on securing network services to be helpful, and was able to identify some potential security problems on the systems I support as a result of information provided in that chapter.

This book is incredibly thorough, and up to date. For example, Red Hat Linux 7 has just come out, and does now has xinetd as a replacement for inetd. Well, you guessed it, this book has about 27 pages on xinetd!

Want info on ipchains? This book has at least 50 pages on the subject!

I could go on and on about this book it is so good!

This book is written by experienced people, not just an author who was assigned another book to write.

You will not regret buying this book!

This book is clearly written and user friendly. Biafore gives links to information sources, making it easy for the reader to get more information on each of the hacks. These links alone are worth the price of the book.

I've been trading for over twenty years, including a period as a floor trader on the Chicago Board of Trade. Even with that experience there are tips and tricks in this book I found useful to the point where I employ them daily. To be complete as a reviewer I will say there is a lot of pretty basic stuff from my point of view, but still well worth reviewing since some of it I had forgotten.

Well written, easy reading, well organized

Online Investing Hacks is an excellent introduction to the world of investment. Though the title does contain the word 'Online', I would say that the general information the book provides on investing is not limited to the online realm.

Overall, I was very happy with the book, and found it incredibly useful. Though I do have several investments (401K, some stock, mutual funds etc) I would hardly consider myself an authority on the subject. This book provided very detailed explanations and tips on various forms of investment, from CD's to Index funds, and everything in between. While the experienced investor might not glean much from reading this book, anyone just getting started will find it an excellent reference, and resource.

The format of the book is similar to the other books in the 100 * Hacks series published by O'Reilly. There are exactly 100 hacks, or topics, which are spread across 9 chapters. Each one is an individual entity and can be read and understood without reliance on any of the other hacks.

One minor annoyance I had with the book is that it is geared toward those of you who, for some reason or another, run Microsoft's Windows OS, or have access to Microsoft Excel. Luckily, of the Excel examples that I played with, Open Office's Calc program handled them with minimal tweaking.

I can easily recommend this book to anyone who wants to invest, but is unsure of what to invest in, or needs some tips on making the most of preexisting investments. Those of you who enjoy research and building your own stats and graphs will also find parts of this book rather intriguing, as it covers data acquisition and manipulation with Excel in great detail. It will make an excellent addition to my reference shelf, and I have a feeling it will be well thumbed through in a very short time.

It seems like everyone is involved in investing in some form or another. While I always felt like I should be investing too, it was never clear to me how to begin this process. After all, it's my money. How can I be sure I'm investing in something that will provide some sort of reasonable return? This book is an excellent resource in answering some of those questions and putting the new investor on the right track.

This book is written in the same format as the other "hacks" series by O'Reilly. This format is very easy to read, and the format makes it very easy to find answers. Rather then having to read the book from cover to cover, the reader can pick out topics they are dealing with, read the answer, and move on. Since many of the people interesting in a book of this nature will likely have little time, the book's format works to its advantage.

The book begins with some basic introduction to the stock market and tips for selecting appropriate stocks or mutual funds. The whole middle section of the book deals with data analysis. The author discusses how to understand a company's balance sheet (e.g. what that P/E ratio means), how to spot companies in financial trouble, how to pick a good stock, and even how to trade. There is also a good discussion on minimizing the effect of taxes on your little return on investment.

The author even goes further and gets into a discussion on financial planning. In addition to discussing debt reduction, the author also talks about IRA plans and different strategies for saving for your child's education expenses. I think my favorite part of this book was the discussion on different education savings plans. The author discusses the ins and outs (as well as tax consequences) of each of the plans, and provides some examples illustrating the fact that it's better to start saving earlier than later.

This is an excellent book, not just for its investing advice, but also for its sound financial planning. This is a great book for anyone who is interested in increasing their wealth, saving for a rainy day, or simply saving for future financial goals.

Online Investing Hacks by Bonnie Biafore (O'Reilly) is one of those books that can pay for itself in short order, as well as over and over.

Chapter list: Screening Investments; Hacking Excel for Financial Analysis; Collecting Financial Data; Analyzing Company Fundamentals; Technical Analysis; Executing Trades; Investing in Mutual Funds; Managing Your Portfolio; Financial Planning; Index

I worked at Enron from 1998 through 2001, and spent plenty of time during that dot.com era following my stock portfolio. I watched my Enron stock value go from incredible value to a point where it cost more to sell the stock than it was worth. I won a few bets (face it, that's what they were) on a few dot.coms and lost many more. What could have been an incredible nest egg, isn't. This book would have been a lifesaver if I had read and paid attention to it a few years ago. Biafore shows you how you can analyze and invest wisely using a variety of tools available to everyone.

If you're an Excel user, you'll find it an invaluable tool for analysis. She'll show you how you can use it to create financial charts (#13), calculate compound annual rates of growth (#26), and use rational values to buy and sell wisely (#36). #39 - Spot Hanky Panky with Cash Flow Analysis (using Enron as an example) would have literally saved me hundreds of thousands of dollars had I known about it. Even if you don't care about the investing tips, the hack on downloading data via Excel web queries (#7) was something I didn't know how to do (or that you could even do it!). The book has a little something for everyone.

As with all Hacks titles, you probably won't be interested in every single item. Some may not be applicable to your situation or may be too complex for what you care to handle. But all it would take is one hack to work out and change your investing for this book to pay huge dividends. If you do your own investing, you owe it to yourself to get this book.

In a time when new computer languages are dime a dozen, perl unquestionably retains its beauty. Keeping with the philosophy of perl - there is more than one way to do it - the book shows you ingenious ways to work with this powerful language. This is a true hacks book and meant mostly for the advanced user. Before reading this book, I didn't even realize what I didn't know and I rate myself just short of contributing to CPAN. Even if you have read all the popular books - Perl Programming, Perl Best Practices etc. you'll still find a lot of gems.

Simply put if you like perl, you'll love this book. Welcome to the next level...

To be completely honest, this isn't the book I thought it was going to be. Most O'Reilly Hacks books start off pretty simply and in a few chapters take you to the further reaches of their subject area. Whilst this is a great way to quickly get a good taste of a particular topic, it has the occasional disadvantage that for subjects that you know well, the first couple of chapters can seem a bit basic. As I know Perl pretty well, I thought I would be on familiar ground for at least half of the book.

I was wrong.

Oh, it started off easily enough. Making use of various browser and command line tools to get easy access to Perl documentation, creating some useful shell aliases to cut down typing for your most common tasks. "Oh yes", I thought smugly to myself, "I know all that". But by about Hack 5 I was reading about little tweaks that I didn't know about. I'd start a hack thinking that I knew everything that the authors were going to cover and end up frustrated that I was on the tube and couldn't immediately try out the new trick I had just learnt.

It's really that kind of book. Pretty much everyone who reads it will pick up something that will it easier for them to get their job done (well, assuming that their job involves writing Perl code!) And, of course, looking at the list of authors, that's only to be expected. The three authors listed on the cover are three of the Perl communities most respected members. And the list of other contributers reads like a who's who of people who are doing interesting things with Perl - people whose use.perl journals are always interesting or whose posts on Perl Monks are worth reading before other people's. Luckily, it turns out that all these excellent programmers can also explain what they are doing (and why they are doing it) very clearly.

Like all books in the Hacks series, it's a little bitty. The hacks are organised into nine broad chapters, but the connections between hacks in the same chapter can sometimes be a bit hard to see. But I enjoyed that. In places it made the book a bit of a rollercoaster ride. You're never quite sure what is coming next, but you know it's going to be fun.

In fact, the more I think about it, the more apt the fairground analogy seems. When you ask Perl programmers what they like about Perl, you'll often hear "fun" mentioned near the top of the list. People use Perl because they enjoy it. And the authors' enjoyment of Perl really comes through in the book. It's obvious that they really wanted to show people the things that they thought were really cool.

Although I did learn useful tips from the earlier part of the book, it was really the last three chapters that were the most useful for me. Chapter 7, Developer Tricks, had a lot of useful things to say about testing, Chapter 8, Know Thy Code, contains a lot of information on using Perl to examine your Perl code and Chapter 9, Expand Your Perl Foo was a grab-bag of obscure (but still useful) Perl tricks.

So where does this book fit in to O'Reilly's Perl canon? I can't recommend it for beginners. But if you're a working Perl programmer with a couple of years' experience then I'd be very surprised if you didn't pick up something that will be useful to you. And don't worry about it overlapping with other books in your Perl library - offhand I can't think of anything in the book that has been covered in any previous Perl book.

All in all, this would make a very useful addition to your Perl library.

Perl is my workhorse language. I've written more Perl code, both personally and professionally, than any other language I've learned. Whenever I receive a new project, I immediately think of how I would accomplish it quickly in Perl. I've also been a fan of O'Reilly's "Hacks" series of books. When I heard of the marriage of Perl and O'Reilly's "Hacks" series in the book Perl Hacks, I knew I had to pick up a copy. It was a match made in heaven. The nature of Perl for terse, yet powerful constructs, and the hackish nature of the "Hacks" series makes for one of my favorite books in this series. The collection of articles in Perl Hacks are great for putting more productivity into your programming experience.

Those of you not familiar with O'Reilly's "Hacks" Series may need an introduction. The "Hacks" Series is an ever-growing set of books with focused attention on a particular topic, like Astronomy, Mental Improvement, or even Halo 2. The books are generally short, and contain article-length "hacks" of varying difficulty, noted by a thermometer next to the hack number and description. These "hacks" fall into several categories; the non-obvious solution to a problem, the performance improvement, and the "gee, I didn't know it could do that" oddity. What makes this series special compared with other books is the willingness to "void the warranty" on a particular product, and get straight to the internals, whether they lay in hardware or software. If something can be made better by opening the covers, or twiddling with the program layout, then its eligible for inclusion in these books. The series lends itself to a wide range of topics, and the format is great for a quick read, or for (my favorite) just randomly opening the book and reading what's there.

Perl Hacks is not a book that you'd find yourself reading straight through (although you do want to make sure you visit every hack in the book at least once). The book is divided into nine chapters: Productivity Hacks, User Interaction, Data Munging, Working with Modules, Object Hacks, Debugging, Developer Tricks, Know Thy Code, and Expand Your Perl Foo. There are 101 hacks in this book, ranging from the simple (Reading files backward, or managing your module paths) to the truly perverse (Replacing bad code without touching it by substituting the system-wide exit call with your own[...]. Each hack title is listed in the table of contents, with both the page number and the hack number. Each hack contains a graphic of a thermometer next to the number to show the relative difficulty of the hack (higher temperatures = more difficult hacks). There quite a variety of hacks placed throughout the book. Not once did I feel that the book was padded with something that really didn't belong in the book. If anything Perl Hacks opened my eyes to things that I would never have thought to do, but could easily see as being useful. I wouldn't have thought to create my own personal module bundles for moving my Perl programs between machines (I've always done it the old fashioned way: run, cpan install, repeat), but hack #31 makes it so "of course" that I'm thinking of including this in all of my Perl code that I ship. Hack #74 shows how to trace all of the modules your program uses (and all of their modules, too). Hack #52 is a simple hack ("Make Invisible Characters Apparent") but I can see this saving a developer or two some time when figuring out why their code isn't behaving properly. Of course, not all hacks in the book are productive (at least, not while you're programming). Hack #37, "Drink to the CPAN" is a drinking game you and your Perl buddies may want to try.

Perl Hacks is a short book, at less than 300 pages, but it's loaded with incredibly useful information. Much like the "Perl Cookbook" (also from O'Reilly) you'll find lots of useful items hidden in their pages. Many times I started with one hack, and finished the chapter reading the rest of the hacks because there were just that interesting. Perl Hacks is highly recommended for any Perl programmer to have on their programmer book shelf. Sure, you might be able to find some of the hacks out there on the net, but I think you'll find as I have that this is more of a go-to reference for finding out some of the more interesting corners of Perl.

I received this book as a token of appreciation for my contributions to
the 2006 Perl Advent Calendar. It's the first book I read as part of the
O'Reilly Hacks' series of books, and it proved to be a light yet informative and entertaining
read.

The book covers various useful "hacks" or small tricks that allow one to
achieve a lot of cool tasks when working with Perl. These tricks are unorthodox
and stretch the limit of one's Perl knowledge. Since they require an advanced
knowledge and understanding of Perl, I would recommend this book only for Perl
experts. Some of the B:: using modules were even too high-level for me to
understand how they worked internally. However, I understood the purpose of the
code in all cases, even if I didn't understand the code itself.

So it is a recommended read for people who've worked with Perl a lot,
and wish to learn many new and useful tricks. Perl Hacks for Perl hackers,
indeed!

From the title, I wasn't quite sure what to expect from Perl Hacks. Was it going to be about rummaging around in Perl's internals? Making Perl do clever, yet ultimately dumb and pointless tricks? It turns out that, while there is some fairly voodooish material here, some of it quite playful, on the whole it's a very practical book. Aimed firmly at the advanced Perl programmer who knows when it's appropriate to mess about with the symbol table, temporarily turn off warnings, or crack out one of the B:: modules, this is a collection of 101 suggestions to improve your productivity, boggle your mind about what Perl can do, or both.

The content reminds me a little of the likes of Exceptional C++ Style, a mixture of advanced best practices, and things which you may not need to know, but you'll probably still be interested in finding out how it works. For instance, have you ever considered tieing an array or hash variable to a function? Ever wanted to name a supposed anonymous subroutine? Print out the source code as well as the line number of a syntax error? Nor me, but Perl Hacks shows how it could be useful. These are illustrative of the spirit of the book.

My favourite material was probably the chapter on modules. Included are how-tos for outputting all the modules used in a package, automatically reloading modules in running code, shortening long package names with the CPAN 'aliased' module, and making up your own bundle of modules for easy installation. There's also an interesting object chapter with subjects such as: inside out objects, using YAML for serialisation, using traits and autogeneration of accessors.

Additionally, there's a little on using those scary B:: packages, using modules which use the B:: packages or other dark magic (e.g. peeking inside closures), some fairly hardcore tracing and profiling, that touches on some Perl VM internals. Also worth mentioning is the hack that hijacks the angle bracket glob operator to create Haskell/Python-style list comprehensions.

You are going to have to be one scarily gifted Perl hacker not to find something useful or at least thought-provoking at regular intervals throughout this book. My only complaint is that the hack format, which the blurb on the back of the book describes as a "short lesson", does not lend itself equally well to all hacks. While I liked the chapter on objects, some of the hacks (in particular the traits hack, some of the testing material) were too short.

If you like the sound of a book that's somewhere between Perl Cookbook, Perl Best Practices and the second edition of Advanced Perl Programming, you're going to love this.

I would definitely recommend this book. But, don't just take my word for it.

Here is what a leading metaphysical reviewer says about the Psychic Counselor's Handbook:

Richard Fuller, according to his own words receives daily books from all over the world and makes his decision of promoting and endorsing a particular book dependent on two major factors:

"I must find the author's integrity within the pages of the book. Once I have read the book from cover to cover I must be able to say that it will lead people to a better place."

His comment about the Psychic Counselor's Handbook was: "Yes, I would endorse and promote this book. You have a booster here."

Who is Richard Fuller?

Richard Fuller, senior editor and columnist has spent his entire working life as a writer, magazine editor and advertising executive. He is considered by his peers to be a truth-seeker, upholding the highest levels of integrity in his support of the new age community. He only endorses the finest books, videos and recordings available. Any work that is endorsed by Mr. Fuller is very worthy of your interest.

How often can you hope to get advice that's frank, honest and from life's experience? When you read this book you will feel like you are there in person with author and medium Ralph Jordan. How authentic he is, and what alot we have to learn. A must read for anyone who sees themselves as a psychic counselor, healer or a "wannabe".

The amount of books on counseling techniques is so great that it would easily fill a library. So, why should it be that there is one book on the art of counseling which belongs on every practitioner's table? Actually, there are two reasons why Reverend Ralph D. Jordan's "Psychic Counselor's Handbook" is outstanding. Number one is the book itself. Starting with The Basics, it provides the reader with a working model that he can use no matter what psychotherapeutic approach or group of clients he is working with. A vivid and comprehensive description of the Techniques, Tools and Attitudes for successful counseling is followed by a whole chapter on Pitfalls, which is as rare as it is invaluable for anyone who wishes to avoid them. In Part Four, the editor has compiled dialogues between the author and some of his students, dealing with subject matters which even the very experienced counselor might like to clarify for himself. Plus, they have managed to fit all of this into 160 pages of a robust paperback, thus giving the counselor a true handbook which he can carry with him and read chapter for chapter just as well as put on his office table and use as a reference book. Still, there is a second reason which strongly recommends the "Psychic Counselor's Handbook": its author. For Ralph D. Jordan is not only a brilliant psychic counselor and masterful practitioner of transactional analysis, Jungian psychology and behavioral confrontation but, being a student of Paramahansa Yogananda, has gone on to teach a pathway of metaphysical evolution that has helped thousands of Western seekers to make a better life for themselves. Thus, getting his book is also a wonderful investment in our self-growth - at a very good price.

As a practicing psychiatrist, I can say that this book channeled by Ralph Jordan, has been an eye opener in regards to the way I practice psychiatry, the way I view my patients, and my overall attitude about life. I have learned that, too often, we counselors have a tendency to view our patients/clients from a superior perspective, a "poor you, you're not good enough" attitude. This no nonsense book states it as it is, which is that we're all equal, we just make our choices. His approach to the use of non-empathy, non-judgment, non-pity is very refreshing when working with my clients because it gives the freedom to see them as just another human being, not a subject incapable of thinking or incapable of caring for themselves.

A point well brought out in the book is the concept of the law of attraction, knowing that the people that come into the office for counseling are coming due to similarly acting properties, or "bugaboos" as it's termed in the book, in the life of the counselor. I have learned that this is an important factor in psychiatry and plays into counter transference feelings/ideas the therapist may have for the client. The psychic counselor is just as prone to counter transference issues, and transference issues, as the mental health counselor. Counter transference issues get in the way of how we counsel; that's why the "Twelve Golden Rules of Psychic Counseling" are particularly helpful, because they point out the pitfalls a counselor will encounter, signaling that counter transference issues are interfering. Transference is an oft overlooked but very important factor in how someone hears the counselor and the expectations placed on the counselor.

It's a wonderful book, full of a wealth of information and wisdom which is helpful for moving beyond the ordinary into another aspect of counseling. Starting from page one, the reader is made aware that Ralph Jordan values professional ethics, the belief in being a neutral reader vs. one infusing their own values into the reading, and the assistance of God in all things. One builds an ethical practice by treating everything as information. There is no such thing as "good or bad: things simply are." The book is divided in 4 different parts: The Basics; Techniques, Tools and Attitudes; Pitfalls; and Seeker/Teacher Dialogue. There are Appendices also which add more valuable insights. This is psychic counseling done with the recognition that truth comes from God, that "Everything is working for God's greater recognition on this earth plane." Just reminding oneself of that principle helps to change the course of the psychic reading from being non-neutral to being a more neutral reading.

The Psychic Counselor's Handbook will always serve as a reference book, even a text of inspiration, when it comes to counseling of any type. Thank you, Ralph Jordan, for your channeled ideas!

The amount of books on counseling techniques is so great that it would easily fill a library. So, why should it be that there is one book on the art of counseling which belongs on every practitioner's table? Actually, there are two reasons why Reverend Dr. Ralph D. Jordan's "Psychic Counselor's Handbook" is outstanding. Number one is the book itself. Starting with the Basics, it provides the reader with a working model that he can use no matter what psychotherapeutic approach or group of clients he is working with. A vivid and comprehensive description of the Techniques, Tools and Attitudes for successful counseling is followed by a whole chapter on Pitfalls, which is as rare as it is invaluable for anyone who wishes to avoid them. In Part Four, the editor has compiled dialogues between the author and some of his students, dealing with subject matters which even the very experienced counselor might like to clarify for himself. Plus, they have managed to fit all of this into 160 pages of a robust paperback, thus giving the counselor a true handbook which he can carry with him and read chapter for chapter just as well as put on his office table and use as a reference book. Still, there is a second reason which strongly recommends the "Psychic Counselor's Handbook": its author. For Ralph D. Jordan is not only a brilliant psychic counselor and masterful practitioner of transactional analysis, Jungian psychology and behavioral confrontation but, being a student of Paramahansa Yogananda, has gone on to teach a pathway of metaphysical evolution that has helped thousands of Western seekers to make a better life for themselves. Thus, getting his book is also a wonderful investment in our self-growth - at a very good price.

I happened upon this book while looking for some words of wisdom about motivation. I am an educator and pursuing my Masters Degree in Education. I am interested in motivation, and Muna has made his chapter on motivation and job performance so relevant that I can easily translate the metaphor of the tripod to the needs and talents of my students in an effort to increase performance and learning. Thank you, Farid. Excellent read!

The Seven Metaphors was one of the nicest Christmas presents that I recieved this year. It covers seven tools covering various subjects from child upbringing to retirement planning.

This book is valuable for both business management and personal life. For example, the chapter entitled the Helicopter View is very useful for solving business as well as personal problems. I enjoyed this book very much.

Dr. Muna succeeded in distilling a career of valuable experience and wide reading into a very interesting, clearly written, and thought provoking book full of wise comment. I could not put the book down once I started reading it. I highly recommend it.

As a regional director for a multinational company, I found this book extremely helpful in highliting the different ways available to you when you are facing a problem,planning your retirement, or strengthening your leadership quality. I strongly recommend it for any manager who wants to climb up the corporate ladder.

As an expatiate working in Germany, Dr. Muna's book applied to situations that I have encountered in Germany. Although his book only attempts to deal with the management styles in the Middle East, it has a much broader reach that can be applied to many management situations, especially on the Affiliate level in American companies. I found his to be book very insightful and applicable. This is a must read for managers, especially those who work abroad.

This is a great first book in stocks. Before reading this book I didn't know what questions to ask or where to begin investing in the stock market. I especially like this book's ground up approach
1) providing motivation to invest
2) defining stock jargon
3) introducing professional tools and resources

The rest of the book introduces investing strategy, stock analysis, economic trends, and many many other details. I like how the author doesn't seem to be pushing an agenda, but just introducing the tools to be used by both aggressive and conservative investors.

This was my first "stock" book I bought. I was not disappointed. The book gave me some excellent suggestions on how to pick stocks. Author stressed on doing fundamental analyses before choosing any stock. The language and format of the book is very user friendly. I, however, dont agree with the rapid screening method given in the book. I tried to apply that method to more than a dozen stocks ranked by Zack's at #1, But the method rejected them all!. Either the Zack's are not doing good job or there is something wrong with the method. Overall the book is an excellent resource for beginners and intermediate investors.

I was a novice to the financial markets before I read this book. I have successfully used the ideas and principles in this book to improve my investment criteria, and feel much more confident about success in the stock market.

This book provides information about technical and fundametal analysis.It is written in a clear way. I would recommend this book to my friends.

This book is tremendous! It is a very easy read and provides great insight into investing in the stock market. I highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in the stock market but does not have a lot of stock picking experience.