Applications Books

I am not an expert developer but I have a fair amount of experience building financial applications in Java and C++. I spent quite some time looking for a book that would get me started with Web technologies. It is not easy. Yes, there are many books that describe one or another technology but I wanted to find one that puts these technologies in prospective. I was very pleased when I found this book. I can always dig deeper in one direction when I need to but this book helps me to understand how to get started and where to concentrate my efforts. I like it, I think it is very useful.

I have to disagree with the reviewer who disparaged this book's emphasis on history. The background on TCP/IP protocols explained how HTTP came to be and why servers and browsers work the way they do. Discussion of how web development platforms evolved provided insight into the problems newer approaches tried to solve and the problems some of them created. The authors may have gone overboard spouting the merits of "separating content from presentation" and touting the praises of MVC approaches, but their point is a valid one you can really relate to if you've worked with page-centric platforms like ASP and JSP. The historical review of different approaches explained the authors' reasons for ultimately choosing an MVC approach with Struts and JSTL, and offered insights into how development platforms may evolve in the future. This is a book that starts with basics and builds on them, covering protocols, markup languages, and development platforms. The history helps drive the points home. Personally, I learned a lot from this book. I agree that they could have provided a CD-ROM, but it turns out their website (webappbuilders.com) is pretty good and has other good info aside from the app's source code, including some articles from the authors.

This book is an ideal text for providing intermediate-level web developers with a solid grounding in architectural principles and more advanced techniques. Before going into why I like this book I do want to offer one caveat - the authors' approach is towards the Model-View-Controller paradigm, and is based on Java Standard Tag Library, Jarkata struts and Apache. These are solid elements, but if you are working in a different environment you will not appreciate this book as much.

The historical material in this book is not fluff if you approach it with the intent to gain a fuller understanding of the major components of the Internet and web. This material is rich with details about why the core web technologies developed and evolved, including design choices the pioneers made in the face of constraints. In a subtle way this part of the book is a primer on design and architecture.

What makes this book so valuable is the non-trivial application that brings this book alive. This is a refreshing change from other books that use thinly contrived snippets of code or trivial applications. The code for this application can be downloaded from the book's supporting web site, which also contains errata (thus far there are only two entries), and articles that are valuable resources with or without this book.

Overall this is one of the better books on web application design and development, and one that dives into code and technical details.

I've been writing Windows-based mutlimedia applications since Windows 95 was released. I've been looking for a good book to help the crossover to web application development, and I found that this was just the ticket. Explanations were solid and presented in a way that made experimentation easy (both from the browser and server side). Quite simply, this book served as a great jumping off point for deeper exploration into session management, security, web services (both SOAP and Rest), etc. Definitely a great introduction for folks with a software engineering background.

I always thought Amazon search is good but I stumbled upon this book at a store. It's a useful summary, but not a reference. I particularly like the examples and the way they build up from trivial to complex. The level of detail is right. Altogether, very refreshing.

This book delivers exactly what it promises - namely, to provide the reader with the necessary tools to use VBA against the various Access 2007 object models to amplify the capabilities of a custom Access 2007 solution. You will be shown the differences between using the DAO and ADO data access technologies, as well as the costs and benefits of using the older mdb file types versus the new accdb and project-related adp file types. A cogent explanation of the additional security features embedded in Access 2007 is also nicely covered.

The authors present a broad coverage of the subject matter which is amplified by their substantial real world experience - a nice benefit considering the myriad of texts that simply offer a better organized rehash of the help files.

A final comment will address the number of helpful sidebars presented in the text dealing with such issues as: using the "SQL Server Profiler", how to programmatically add, delete, and modify registry entries to persist user related variables; and receiving insider's expert information on undocumented legacy functionality.

An excellent text for what it sets out to accomplish.

This books was a TREMENDOUS help in writing a Human Resources application for my company. I'm no programmer--but this book helped me a great deal with some of the VB that was needed for the database. I did also rely on the internet a lot but this was a handy tool that covered a majority of the basics--the internet was for more advanced scripting. I highly recommend the book for those who work with Access often...and even for those who want to take advantage of the cool things code will enable you to do.

Access 2007 VBA is a great book for experienced and novice programmers alike. It is thoroughly detailed and yet covers the VBA basics at the beginning. What I like about this book is that it covers details that other books seem to always miss. This would include Microsoft Office integration. Or, in other words, the code that lets you work with other Office applications like manipulating Excel from Access or Word from Access. It also goes into working with Outlook and even SharePoint, which are two of the hardest to find information on when working with Access VBA. I am finding this book to be a great addition to my library and I believe you will too.


Bob Larson
Access World Forums Super Moderator
Utter Access VIP

I starting developing with Access 97 and have used each version since. I specialize in accounting applications and there have licensed several Access accounting applications for modification. This book addressed (easy to understand format) the areas that affect developers most (the U.I., code, classes). It is definitely for the experienced. It is a welcome addition to my library.

I've been using Access off and on since Windows 95 and Access 2. This is absolutely one of the best texts on VBA I have read. Examples are clear, and appropriate; and explainations are complete without being longer than the need to be. The coverage of Access 2007's new features appears to be right on the money.

If you are working with Filemaker Pro files on the web, this book is essential. Although the title says, "Advanced," I think it would be perfect for beginners also.

I particularly appreciated the expository style of the book. In a way that I haven't found in many other computer manuals, the authors start with a real problem the reader has and show how to solve it, adding interesting general commentary along the way. For example, I had a problem developing an XSLT document to import variable numbers of repetitions of a field - there, on pp. 330-333 is a brief statement of the problem, specification of a solution, and clear explanation of the code. I recommend this book to any FMPro user who wants to work with FMPro and CDML, PHP or XML/XSLT. Well done! I hope these authors produce other books of the same calibre.

This is a very good book, and if you're looking to web-enable your FileMaker 6 application, this is pretty much the only source for in-depth information that's available.

However, this book definitely left me wanting more. I have been building a fairly sophisticated web application in CDML using the Web Companion, the web toolkit that comes built into FileMaker 6. This topic gets less than 50 pages, and feels light. Many of my questions went unanswered. This topic could have been 100 pages, easily.

Two other toolkits, Lasso and PHP, while great options, require you to acquire and install add-on software. Each gets 60+ pages in the book. It's great that there's additional information (possibly required to cover installation), but devoting that much space to things not built into FileMaker, while not giving enough depth to the built-in component, seems like the wrong focus.

Another flaw with the book is that it doesn't really cover larger-scale applications. You get information about how to access, search, modify, and delete data, but you don't really get advice about how to structure a full-blown web application. Things like managing user sessions, authentication, etc., really are not covered at all. You'll need another book (which won't use FileMaker as an example at all) to get information about these basic web application topics.

In the end, this book gave me enough information that I could get started, and a good enough CDML reference that I've been able to figure out a lot more on my own. That makes it quite a good book, well worth the money spent. I would love to purchase an expanded 2nd edition.

I should note that it remains to be seen how well this book will hold up after FileMaker 7 Advanced Server is released. There's a lot of changes in FileMaker 7, and all of the web functionality has moved to the Advanced Server (not yet released), so many things may change...

This is more than a book, it is really a course in web development. The authors communicate the material in a way that is easy to understand, and the book is filled with examples that you can do as you read. Although the focus is on FileMaker, the knowledge you'll glean will apply to web development efforts with other databases as well. I reviewed and skimmed the chapters out of sequence in order to get a sense of what the book had to offer. Once I had that overview, I began to read the chapters in sequence and I think that's the best approach, as material in succeeding chapters builds on the previous chapters. No stone is left unturned as XML/XSLT, Instant Web Publishing, CDML, Lasso, PHP and Web Services are covered concisely, yet in depth. Take your time with this book; after working through the material you'll be prepared to do web development using any of the aforementioned technologies.

This is one of the first books that goes beyond a mere rehash of the manual, like most FileMaker books out there. This book is a treasure trove for those who already have their feet wet in FileMaker and are looking to go to the next level.

Although the title suggest otherwise, Advanced Rails is really required reading for anyone using Rails - beginners and gurus alike. The information provided is excellent, with essential tips and sound advice. In particular, the chapters on routing, security, internationalization and database issues are well worth the purchase price. Like Obie's The Rails Way (Addison-Wesley Professional Ruby Series), this book should live on your desk in your workspace. What's missing? Well, it would have been nice to see information on Git considering the effort put into covering source control systems. It's also surprising that there is not more on testing techniques and issues. But overall, this book is fantastic, and chocked full of juicy info you won't find in any of the other Rails books currently available.

This book is almost worth it just for the first chapter's dive into Ruby metaprogramming, but the rest of the book doesn't disappoint. Ediger delivers useful advice regarding available methods, alternatives and considerations that all serious web developers should take into account.

This book should be non-optional for all Rails development teams, as it has some of the most sane and sober treatment of relevant topics I've ever read in a single book. From security to databases to deployment, this book gives the reader a solid foundation in nearly all of the major disciplines involved in building web applications.

As Ruby on Rails rocketed into the development community's hearts and minds a few years ago, the number of books on the subject climbed with it. However, a lot of these books were introductory in nature (Agile Web Development with Rails, Beginning Rails, Build Your Own Rails Applications, etc.). What's a budding Rails-head to do once they've gotten the basics down? Books like Advanced Rails -- which was released late last year by O'Reilly - aim to fill this void.

Author Brad Ediger has been kicking around the Rails scene since the pre-1.0 days. Though not a Rails "luminary" necessarily, he certainly qualifies as an advanced user. He is CTO for a Real Estate tech company called Tasman Labs and runs a web design (and Rails consulting) firm called Madriska Media Group. He seems like a sharp cookie and a decent writer.

Advanced Rails covers quite a bit of territory, going for breadth rather than depth most of the time. Each chapter covers a classic, pivotal development concern... well, at least most of them do. The chapters are as follows:

1. Foundational Techniques
2. ActiveSupport and RailTies
3. Rails Plugins
4. Database
5. Security
6. Performance
7. REST, Resources, and Web Services
8. i18n and L10n
9. Incorporating and Extending Rails
10. Large Projects

By "Foundational Techniques", Ediger is referring to Ruby and Rails techniques, principals and patterns like Metaprogramming, Don't Repeat Yourself, and Functional Programming techniques. The chapter also goes into a fair amount detail about the Object/Class/Module relationship. A bunch of this may not be particularly new material for most Rails users who've been at it for at least a few months. However, it's still nice to have all this stuff in one forty page chapter... good to have handy to refer to. Also, there are some nice nuggets in there that could save you some head-scratching. For example, what's the difference between Kernel#lambda and Proc.new? The answer is that, if you *return* a value from the block passed to Proc.new, the calling method is exited as well, abandoning any code that you might have after it.

If the first chapter feels like it's leaning towards a reference work, the second chapter -- which digs into all the goodies offered by ActiveSupport and RailTies -- pretty much falls over right into reference-land, complete with a method-by-method listing of features added to standard library classes. This may seem even more like just putting api docs available online into print, but Eidger defintely adds a bit more explanation. And, I haven't really seen anyone give a rundown of just what the heck RailTies does. That's the library that provides the glue to pull together the more famous Rails libraries to make it all work together as rails: generators, initializers, etc. There is definitely some interesting and not necessarily readily available information here.

Chapter three covers Rails Plugins, and is quick and painless. It explains the common files and directory structure in a plugin and talks about how Rails loads them. It also talks about using Piston instead of svn:externals to manage plugins and show some example plugins.

The following three chapters cover more of the classic eternal problems faced in running high-traffic sites: databases, security, and performance. These really make the most sense in an "advanced" book; they are the "brass tacks" that everyone must get down too if they go beyond the "toy app" stage. Ediger talks about the strengths and weaknesses of the various popular database systems. He also goes into the benefits of using the filesystem to store data, which is largely because web servers can make use of fast system calls to dump files straight into the TCP socket. He also covers some advanced db features like composite keys, stored procedures and clustering.

The security chapter isn't all that long and a lot of the info it covers can be found in beginner Rails books... SQL injection, cross-site scripting etc. However, the book would be remiss to not include this material and it is presented in a concise and complete manner. This would be good to refer back to now and then to make sure you haven't slipped in your security awareness. Ediger also doesn't hesitate to make specific recommendations, like "whitelist rather than blacklist".

He also jumps right into recommendations while writing about performance optimization in the next chapter: "Algorithmic improvements always beat code tweaks", "As a general rule, maintainability beats performance", "Only optimize what matters", "Measure twice, cut once". He then goes on to cover specific tools and techniques for uncovering your bottlenecks, from a quick explanation of basic statistics to using httpperf, benchmark, and Rails Analyzer Tools, improving database calls (using indexes and "include" on finders), and the various caching solutions. There is plenty of good information in this chapter; also a good bit of reference next time you need to track down a logjam.

Chapter seven covers RESTful Rails, from the very basic theory as outlined by Roy Fielding to exactly how Rails has chosen to use these concepts, and is the longest chapter in the book. The amount of coverage REST gets seems questionable since Rails has been very heavily into the RESTful approach for over a year and embraced the philosophy so thoroughly that it's hard to imagine anyone using Rails today without being exposed to the concepts.

On the other hand, one can still wire up verb-oriented actions in routes.rb and might be able to get away with ignoring all the RESTful goodness. So maybe there are some out there that can benefit from this chapter. Plus, having such thorough, theory-to-practice coverage allows the chapter to stand on its own as a solid reference to the whys and hows of RESTful Rails. It also has one of the better sections on RESTful routing that I have seen (routes being one of the more mysterious and sometimes frustrating pieces of Rails).

Rails has gotten plenty of grief for its lack of official support for Internationalization and Localization, but in Chapter eight, Ediger lays out the options, such as gettext, Gibberish, and Globalize. He is most enthusiastic about this last library and it does appear to be quite powerful, including support for translating strings, translating model fields, localizing numbers and dates, and even recording what needs to be translated by saving them in the database. Creating multi-lingual websites is a hard problem in any web-development framework and most other frameworks have plenty of head start. However, Ruby and Rails certainly isn't without options and it will only get better.

The next to last chapter of Advanced Rails runs through a number of alternatives to the standard components of the Rails framework. On the database end, it covers DataMapper, Ambition, and Og, giving this last one the most attention. For alternatives to ERB templates, Ediger talks about Markaby, Liquid and Haml, all in a very brisk fashion. He also talks about using traditional Rails components -- like ActiveRecord and ActionMailer -- outside of Rails applications. The chapter closes with a discussion of how to contribute to Rails (hint: submit a patch... don't just bitch!).

The last chapter is called "Large Projects" and covers some useful information about working on a Rails project with a team, beginning with version control (though anyone who is writing code that covers more than a single file and *not* using version control is just plain insane). This starts with a quick overview of Subversion, however this feels like it is really a set up for making a case for "decentralized version control". Ediger does a good job of explaining these concepts, using Mercurial for his examples. This seems a bit unfortunate, since many people on the Rails core team have embraced Git and it is looking like Rails will eventually move its repository to Git. However, Mercurial has a reputation of being more user-friendly, so that may have influenced his decision. And it's useful information regardless.

Chapter ten continues on to discuss avoiding migration numbering collisions, issue tracking, keeping Rails and required gems within a project, web servers, load balancers, production architecture and deployment tools like Capistrano. This is all covered in a fairly quick fashion so don't expect a lot of depth.

That last sentiment came up often while reading this book. It often felt like Ediger was trying to get every possible Rails-related topic into the book that he could, but didn't want to come out with some 1000-page behemoth. Plenty of the topics mentioned don't have much more coverage than you could get with a quick "googling". However, there is something to be said for being exposed to a lot of tools, projects and concepts in one go, even if the exposure is sometimes superficial. I definitely found reading this book worthwhile and will keep it around to refer back to now and then. I don't know if I'd go so far as to label it required reading, but then again books on web frameworks rarely are.

With 'Advanced Rails' the O'Reilly family of Rails books is looking to add a Rails book that talks about some of the extra stuff you can do with this great technology. At 300+ pages long this isn't a book with 'Learning' in the title, rather it assumes that you have some fundamental Rails knowledge and are looking to improve your skill set.

Chapter Overview:

01. Metaprogramming
02. ActiveSupport and RailTies
03. Rails Plugins
04. Database Stuff
05. Security
06. Performance
07. REST and Web Services
08. i18n and L10n
09. Incorporating and Extending Rails
10. Large Projects (Source Control and the like)

Rails is a powerful framework but it isn't an easy one to always understand and get working. If you are looking to use Rails in your web app and want to get better at understanding the ins and out of it, this book can really help fill in the blanks.

If you want to become a better Rails developer/admin pick up this book and get better immediately.

**** RECOMMENDED

For a programmer who doesn't work in an office full of rails gurus this book answers a ton of questions I would like to ask, but have no one I could ask.

Half of the book is bits of rails wisdom mixed in with recipe like code snippets.


A very timely book for me. I especially like the further reading sections at the end of each chapter. The book is new enough that all the links are current, and I have learned a few nuggets of knowledge from these as well.

The section on globalize was immediately useful on one of my current projects and returned my investment in the book many times over.

No wonder amazon only has one left today.

This book is great for the self taught person with significant insignificant questions. In completing this book, all those questions answer themselves. None of that "cutsie" just great tutorial. Instruction is easily to understand and follow. I've gone through the book a couple of times and discovered something new each time. When I finished with this book, I knew what I was doing and why.

Money well spent on this book.

Straigh-forward writing with no pretension. Some knowledge of 3D graphics vocabulary is helpful but not necessary.

Book is one example from beginning to end; presumably the author. Starts with some pictures and, step-by-detailed-step, ends with an avatar.

The only fault I found is that he doesn't mention Poser in the list of 3D modeling programs for human figures.

If you want to learn how to model a detailed digital human,this is THE book for you! You start out with totally empty viewports,and if you follow the book you'll end up having created a model with an incredible amount of detail.

The author explains in great detail the process of modelling every body part (head,neck,arms,hands,legs,feet and torso) with anatomical references where they're most important.

I wanted a book which I could use as a definitive guide to model a detailed and anatomically correct human body or body part,and I'll look no further when I have to do so. It's also got a clever chapter about modifying the same model to create very different ones, and a good chapter about texturing and UVW unwrapping. Finally, it refers to cloth and hair (somewhat briefly) and,no,it DOESN'T cover rigging. But it does cover, extremely well, human modelling, which is what mr.Brilliant had set out to do,I assume. Very very good!

I used this as a class textbook and it worked fairly well. This is not a single program book so this will work well with whatever program you model with. Although, depending on what you model with, depends on if you need to go out and find plug-ins that will do what he does. The book is really good going through step by step. Although there are some occasions where he leaps forwards ahead with really telling you what to do. Also, sometimes when he gives instructions, there aren't any images to go along with them, so you have to end up guessing what to do.
This is modeling for realism/cinematics and if you want to use this book to model in-game characters, you are out of luck. The was he teaches you to model is extremely high poly (especially in the head). The CD doesn't do much for you, it mainly just has naked pictures of the guy he models on it so you can copy exactly what he does. The book does give good information on the differences between modeling men and women, although it is fairly brief. He does go into UV mapping pretty good as well as modeling hair. The book doesn't, however, go into modeling clothing fairly well, just a short chapter. The book also doesn't even mention rigging, which I think is a crucial part in character modeling.

Given that you are already familiar with some type of modeling software, this book is the best resource you could have! The non-software specific approach of the book keeps it focused on the concepts of creating a good model rather than the user interface. Every detail of the body is covered with step-by-step diagrams, and a lot of it focuses on creating a topology that is animatable and will subdivide correctly (ie the mesh is mostly in quads). It also covers texturing, rigging, facial animation, both modeled and simulated hair, and simple clothing. The book discusses anatomy to the extent that it is needed to create a realistic model, and uses those concepts to demonstrate how the male model you create can be changed into a female, or into a fantasy character that looks completely different.

One thing that did make it a little difficult to use was that in the screenshots, the mesh was transparent and therefore you couldn't tell whether vertices were at the front or the back of the model. More screenshots with an opaque mesh would have made it easier to see the topology.

Overall, the explanations are concise and makes the task seem efficient, easy, and fun.

I came into contact with Stuart Anslow around 2002 via internet. As is the case of every good instructor I have met, he is first and foremost a dedicated martial arts student. He showed a passion for TaeKwon-Do beyond physical practice, and simultaneously carried out an important number of projects: developing an international network of martial artists, offering an extraordinary martial arts resources webpage, keeping a serious standard in his personal practice and his duties to offer intelligent instruction to his students. As a part-time TaeKwon-Do researcher myself with 24 years of diligent training and more than a hundred martial arts books in my library, I had found some of Stuart's ideas quite interesting, but they seemed an attempt to cover too many matters.
When I saw the book, my opinion changed completely. Stuart has successfully condensed his experience on TaeKwon-Do patterns in a coherent and solid piece in which he shares what he knows (a bunchful of knowledge, indeed), his reaserch, and is not afraid to publicly discuss his doubts on alternative interpretations of the motions. In the martial arts environment there is a tendency of teachers to force their students into their opinions, preventing a decent dosage of independant thinking to develop. Free spirits typically depart from regimented styles, and thus such styles tend to stagnate. Beyond the good content of the book, Mr. Anslow shows ITF stylists they can and should think for themselves. This refreshing book is very attractive in its format, the pictures are easy to follow, and there are some "pearls of wisdom" that make the purchase almost an obligation. Most of the content of the book is simply excellent (which doesn't mean I fully agree with some concepts, but in each case, it would deserve an in-depth discussion, at the bottom line, on whether applications were meant to be the heart of ITF TaeKwon-Do patterns). Mr. Anslow has obviously put a lot of energy into this book, obtaining an impressive result.
My reason for not granting a five star qualification (I would have actually awarded the book a 4.5) is that (a) the history part is rather simplistic, and has some mistakes (maybe edition problems: Taek Kyon is called Taek Kwon; Tae Soo Do and Tang Soo Do names are interchanged); (b) the book serves to preserve and enlarge Gen. Choi's image as adroitly designing TaeKwon-Do techniques having specific reasons in his mind, while authorized historical accounts have pointed out that many changes in technique resulted from more or less casual circumstances in which Gen. Choi had little or no participation; (c) the book assumes all moves found in ITF patterns have a reasonable and effective combat application, of which I am not yet convinced; and (d)some techniques -specially the comparison between ITF TaeKwon-Do and an unspecific Karate style- are shown in photographs of students with evident lack of Karate skills, and even a TaeKwon-Do level insufficient for a book of the quality Mr. Anslow intended, although it is evident Mr. Anslow was being generous with his own student allowing them to actively be part of the book.
If my students were English language speakers, I would make this book mandatory reading before black belt testing.

I have almost 30 years in the arts and a collector of all things Taekwon-Do/Martial Arts related and this truly is one of the better books out there. Stuart has put a lot of work in this first volume and it will end up being a book that in ten years time will be considered a must have for all Taekwon-Do and especially ChangHon (ITF) stylist.

Having conversations with several ITF MASTERS and they are in agreement, one of the better books out there even though we may not agree with everything that Stuart writes about, but it's well worth it for any martial artist!

I found the pattern applications to have a fair amount of resonance with my own training. (Not to mention Mr. Anslow's usenet postings and older articles which I'd already read elsewhere.) I thought the historical explorations of the pattern stories, and the look into what each pattern was generally intended to teach was the most compelling reading.

Chang Hon Taekwon-Do has deep roots in Shotokan Karate. The applications of the Chang Hon and Shotokan stands close, and this is the first book who take this fact seriusly.

If you like to see what the Cang Hon patterns is all about, you cant miss it.

I have practiced martial arts for 23 years, have exposure to three main styles, and am graded as a 4th degree BB. I currently practice traditional Taekwondo, and have for the past few years been researching and writing my own TKD bunkai book.

Stuart Anslow's book is THE BEST taekwondo book available on the market.

The book goes through history and background of each pattern, pattern sequences, applications and variations. Though there are some typos, the information is presented clearly. Another plus is the book is written in such a way that you feel like you were standing in Stuart's training session - it's written in such a personable manner.

The applications are practical and well thought out. I have not seen such breadth nor insight coming from any other ITF TKD instructor. In fact I have not seen a collection of such solid apps in any other martial arts book (and I have quite a lot).

Given my research over the last few years into TKD bunkai, I know for a fact that there is a major dearth of such information for the traditional and ITF TKD world. Publication of this book fills this hole and I think the book will be a profound toolkit for any serious practitioner or instructor of TKD.

I have been acquainted with Stuart since 2003, and I know for a fact that this guy literally pours his heart into his martial arts school, his training, and now this book. Stuart upholds many of the values that small independant schools and traditional stylists hold dear - and I applaude him for putting the extra effort into improving the resources availalbe for martial artists everywhere.

Colin Wee
[..]

I hate the term `Packaging Yourself' that is on the cover, but besides that I think this is a well written and important book. We are all different; how we discover what makes us unique and how we express that to a college is an important part of the application process.

The 2004 movie Spanglish, starring Adam Sandler, Téa Leoni, Cloris Leachman and Paz Vega, starts with a scene in a college admissions office. Admissions officers sit around a table going through applications. Uninspired to continue reading after looking at a sentence or two, one officer puts down the essay in her hands and moves to the next one. She does this a couple of times till she reaches an essay with a unique beginning. The applicant writes about the most influential person in her life -- her mother, a Mexican immigrant who works as a housekeeper. The officer is enticed enough to continue reading. She's hooked.

THE COLLEGE HOOK is a book I wish I had available to me when I prepared for college admissions in my high school days. It's definitely a valuable guide for those applying to college.

In order to increase your chances of admission to the college of your choice, college consultant Pam Proctor designed the book to help you learn how to define your special achievements - your hook - (even if you think you don't have any). After that, she teaches you how to package that information (your college application) and sell yourself (your interview) during the college application process.

Pam Proctor provides all types of tips to help the college applicant - inspiring anecdotes of students' experiences, clear sample essays, letters and selected references and more. THE COLLEGE HOOK is worth its price to learn how to stand out as a college applicant.

Fafa Demasio

Gaining admittance into the college of your choice is no easy task. With THE COLLEGE HOOK, written by Pam Proctor, the president of College Application Consultants, Inc., I have to say that your odds are greatly improved!

The book is broken down into four main parts: Discovering Your Hook, The Top Ten College Hooks, Packaging Your Hook, and Selling Your Hook. Each main category is then broken down into smaller, more-manageable sections, such as Hooks That Worked, The Resume Power Play, and Acing the Interview.

I know you're asking yourself: "What in the world, exactly, is the college hook?" According to Ms. Proctor, it's pretty simple: it's "that one special interest that will cause admissions officials to salivate over an application and significantly increase the odds of getting into a favorite college."

Basically, colleges are looking for that unique "something" that makes you you - that "something" that will make their college a better college, and will make them sorry if they don't accept you! But to find your hook, you have to find the strengths and weaknesses in yourself, and that's not always an easy task. But THE COLLEGE HOOK stresses the importance of doing just that, and The Top Ten College Hooks (including Athletic, International, Music, Political, Technology, Humanitarian, Science, Writing, Drama, and Multicultural) go a long way in helping you figure out your personal hook before you begin the college admissions process.

This is a must-read for teens getting ready to begin sending out those college applications. From writing an interesting, professional resume to acing your admissions interview, everything about the application process is covered.

Reviewed by: Jennifer Wardrip, aka "The Genius"

Finally a college admission aid that succinctly defines it! Easy to use,well organized,and timely. As a father having faced college admission with three kids and facing it with a fourth the information is a god-send.The format and style will even encourage your kid's participation. Jim . Georgia.

This is, without a doubt, a well-crafted book, well-organized, well-written, full of lots of practical and useful tips. There's a couple of aspects of it, however, that detract considerably from its usefulness in my situation.

The first one is major: the anecdotes she relates, which are meant to be inspiring, are in my view actually discouraging to the teens who might read this book. Example? The girl who just couldn't figure out her "hook", then thought back, and it suddenly struck her, oh YEAH, that's right, I was a Broadway star in 9th grade, praised in reviews in the New York Times, featured on the cast album in two solos, etc. I mean, come on. My daughter, who is a top student with great test scores and great extracurriculars, is freaking out that she might not get into Yale because "everyone who gets in is a published novelist or something." The examples in this book perpetuate that myth, and make it seem like only those sorts of people will stand a chance. I bought this book for her, but luckily read it first, and now I'm not going to give it to her to read, because it will just exacerbate her concerns.

Secondly, I'd assumed that the book was focused on the college application process, which it sort of is, but much of the germane advice (good tips all) pertains to the student's whole high school career, and what they can do to position themselves. This is a book for parents of such kids, who can help encourage and enable activities and events that will help once the senior year application process begins.

I purchased this book for my wife when I got her a digital camera for Christmas. It was well worth the money. The book explains photography as well as post processing which is a critical part of digital photography today.

I know Matt Bamberg's writing and love his blog (digitalartphotographyfordummies.com). If you're new to photography and confused by all the terms, Matt takes you through the basics (although he says the book assumes you know the principles of photography, he patiently explains the technical stuff). If you're a seasoned pro, skip the refresher course and just enjoy the fabulous photos--which, by the way, everyone will appreciate.

I'm the outgoing vice president of NLAPW Palm Springs--we were honored to be among Matt's first speaking engagements--and have seen our members create beautiful digital art photography. Thanks to Matt's book, I now know how it was done! Artists seeking to sell and exhibit their work will find great career guidance. For other shutterbugs, the book will eliminate some of those photos that you cringe at later (I know I have a few!)

The image manipulation tips in Photoshop are extremely valuable. This is a terrific book, even if you've only toyed with the idea of doing digital photography. Matt's vivid, lively prose makes this a pleasurable read.

This is a great book for anyone using digital photography -- whether
you are just starting out or have some experience. There is something
for everyone! I found it to be a great source of information when it comes
to Photoshop. Of all my Photoshop books, I find I reach for this one the
most. It is permanently planted by my computer for quick reference when
I need it. It has GREAT editing tips and is easy to read and comprehend.

Matt Bamberg's book Digital Art Photography for Dummies is an excellent resource for both the beginner and the advanced student of Digital Photography. I have read the book and of especial interest to me were the numerous overt and subtle suggestions about technique and execution. Suggestions which I have used to great effect to dramatically improve my own compositions and to better concentrate and focus my shots.

In addition I really benefited from the suggestions regarding how to process and enhance your work, post shooting. One of the more important foci of the book regards how to transform your work from more simple photographic imagery into more complex renditions which can be considered artistic. Matt explains these techniques for image modification easily and logically and it was not difficult with the right equipment and software for me to begin experimenting with altering my works to produce far more spectacular work. Work which others have expressed interest in. I have even become my church photographer and have recently had other people ask me to undertake photographic assignments on their behalf. In addition I have started the process of taking previous shots and altering them for inclusion into my written works, as graphic enhancements to my writings.

However the book also contains a myriad of techniques which are useful and helpful for the amateur and for the individual who uses photography as a part of their other work. I am often involved in investigations and through some experimentation and adaptation I have used techniques suggested and explained by Matt in order to clarify, focus, and render my investigative photographs far sharper, clearer, and more relevant for my clients. So the book has indirectly benefited me professionally as well.

I have enjoyed Matt's book, have visited his blog and site, and found him to be an accessible and helpful author. Additionally he obviously knows his subject matter and is therefore professionally well-qualified. He seems very experienced and yet eagerly experimental, two traits I like in any individual who is trying to teach me something new.

I have Matt's book and consider it a valuable addition to my personal library on the subjects of both art and photography.

I recommend the book.

Jack.

If you are a digital photographer that is starting out or trying to get into the "art" side, then this book is for you. This book is well written, easy to understand, and full of excellent images and great walk throughs. I can tell that Matt is very comfortable with this topic and is an expert in his field. It touches on many easy ways for new shutterbugs to expand their knowledge without taking the fun out of photography. His Adobe Photoshop knowledge is also very useful when post processing scans of film, slides, or negatives as well as existing digital images.
Matt, thanks for your time and energy in writing this book. I will recommend it to both family and friends.

One of the few modern philsophy books with practical value...how to live one's life...and theoretical rigour from a philosophical perspective. This is a masterful synthesis of analytical philsophy, normative ethics, economics and business. I highly recommend this to serious students of any of these disciplines. Berumen begins by showing how ethical propositions have meaning and how logic applies to them; he then shows that the folly of moral relativism; and then he comes up with a set of moral principles based on our rational prohibitions and the concept of impartiality, which he contends represent the only universal moral rules possible. Berumen defines evil as the suffering of those who can suffer, whether human or other animals, and he says the basis of universal morality is to avoid causing others to suffer, that which all rational creatures would avoid for themselves without an overriding reason. Berumen then goes on to show how capitalism is more justifiable than socialism from an ethical perspective, primarily on the basis of rules against taking another's property or restricting his freedom to trade or produce. However, Berumen argues that these are not absolute rights...and that one can violate a moral precept when the facts and logic enable one to prescribe a universal exception to the circumstance, such that all rational people would prescribe the same thing given the same facts. Finally, he takes up various business issues such as corporate governance, the environment, selling, and fiduciary responsibility. His comments on the treatment of animals and our duties towards them are among the best I have encountered.

Well written: clear, non-pedantic, and interesting. The idea is that we have certain rational prohibitions to avoid unnecessary harm to ourselves and that this forms the basis of morality. Berumen says there is no rational requirement to be moral towards others; this comes from joining impartiality with our own rational prohibitions, which requires we extend it to everyone else who can suffer or die, with some proportinate formula for other animals. He comes up with a short list of general maxims...don't kill, cause pain, disable, lie, steal, or violate specified duties/obligations. These are not absolute, however, for we can always come up with a case where an exception would be the right thing to do. We can justify such exceptions by applying a Kantian universal, making it apply all of the time to all such situations. Unlike Kant, Berumen will take specific facts and consequencs into account. He then shows how capitalism, or more specifically, private property and free exchange, are allowed by morality, and why collectivism is morally problematic. Less interesting stuff on business (to me) follows, though I am sure it would be valuable to people interested in the practical business side. The exception (to me) are the chapters on business duties towards animals and the environment. One of the better books on ethics, and the first I have read that really takes a hard look at the concepts underlying socialism and capitalism from an ethical standpoint

Like the physician's oath, the author says the most important moral principle is to do no harm, at least, not without being able to will that what we undertake becomes a universal law covering all the same circumstances. This is an excellent book, especially when it comes to making complicated ideas easy-or easier-to understand. I really liked the section on fiduciary responsibility. The writing is clear and the subject is timely.

One of the most important points the author makes is that the evil done by an individual or business (the death and suffering it causes) is generally more important than the good works that it performs, that is, unless we can make a specific exception to the rule against causing harm a universal prescription. Thus, a polluter despoiling the environment is not relieved of his moral responsibilities because he donates to other environmental causes.

Do No Evil is written clearly and logically. A lot of philsophy is either too ethereal or too technical. Berumen starts by laying out the nature of ethics, then proceeds to show what we can and cannot justify as universal princples, and applies these ideas to economics and business. Along the way he shows that capitalism is by default the most moral system, but not something whose princples are invioble, for certain macro moral rules have precedence. Longish, but very good.

This is an excellent book. It helps the beginners of "Dynamical Systems" to understand this branch of Mathematical Physics using Maple. It is very useful for undergraduate students as well as for teachers.

Thought I'd give a more in depth review than the others here.

Most advanced math textbooks contain one or two chapters that turn me off. I must say that every chapter in this book had useful information or very good applications.

The opening chapter is a brief introduction to Maple V (some Maple 8 commands are posted on the books website). Note that Maple 9 is now out and no doubt Maple X will soon follow.

Chapters 1-7 cover planar systems in some detail, vectorfield in DEplot is a real winner here. Chapters 8 and 9 cover 3D and nonautonomous systems - the poincare command in Maple is a real time saver.

Chapters 10-12 cover a lot of research results on limit cycles - the most lucid I have seen in any textbook.

The remaining half of the book concentrates on both real and complex discrete systems. There are the usual cobweb diagrams, bifurcation diagrams and Mandelbrot set. Where this book comes into its own, however, is in Chapters 16-20.

Lasers and nonlinear optics are investigated using complex iterative maps. Fractals and even multifractals are discussed in some detail. The book ends with a chapter dedicated to chaos control.

Overall, the book is concise with pertinent examples and applications. It is not dogged down with math notation, theorems and proofs.

Strogatz, Perko and Allgood are good books to practice more Maple programing techniques.

This book is a very nice introduction to the theory of dynamical
systems. It covers all aspects and even more than usually thaught
in a class on dynamical systems. Especially, I like to see
many examples for various applications. These examples and the
Maple programs make it well suitable for students to learn
on dynamical systems by themself.

A great book. Great web pages and short, easy to copy and edit
Maple programs. Lots of material not covered in other books on this topic. Maple is my favorite package. The others are not
as user friendly. I felt I must write again since amazon have been showing excerpts from book. What a geat idea. Chapters in this book that interested me were fractals, multifractals and
optics. Authors web-site is given on back cover of book. Enjoy!

This is only book I find with program files that work right away. Graphics in Maple is excelent for chaotic system and algebra very powerful. I like to rotate figures in 3D and use animation. I learn more about optics, it nice to see complex numbers used in applications. Lots of other applications also.

Book is best for students who want to get programs working quickly. There is a website with working programs. You should also look at Maple Application website for many many examples.

I recomend book to everyone.