Tools Books

Packaged neatly in this little book is a pass into the rarefied world of White House politics few individuals ever get to experience first hand. In concise language this easy to read book brakes out policy making in the executive branch to its composite processes and walks students through three real case studies taken from the authors own experiences. Well worth the read for students of public policy, young Hill staffers or anyone interested in an honest insight into the Clinton administration without the scandalous fluff.

Behind the oaken doors of power lies a world few can understand, and even fewer can explain. Misters Weinstein and Shambaugh are elect members of a select few who have experienced that exclusive world and can translate its workings from geeky-wonk-speak into layman's English. The text details specific, interesting and instructive examples of individual policies' evolution, and draws from those anacdotes well-packaged principles for application across the broad policy spectrum. Essential reading for anybody who wishes to influence policy.

The real benefit of this book is its non-biased information comparing and contrasting various deliver methodologies. As a corporate training manager with a diverse multinational audience, I have found that this book is a valuable reference. My team and I refer to it often ... and it has become a valuable tool in our ROI discussions with senior management. I highly recommend it!

This book takes a unique approach to web-based training. Where other books focus on telling us how to develop web-based training or focus on the technology choices we have while designing and developing WBT, these authors provide us with practical tools that help us determine if we SHOULD be offering a specific course over the web. In addition, the surveys and questionnaires provided on the included CD can be modified or used as-is. They help us with the business decisions and the intructional decisions that go into this determination. I bought a copy and have recommended it to others. Great book!

Professonally compiled and deftly co-edited by the team of Ken Greenebaum and Ronen Barzel, Audio Anecdotes II: Tools, Tips, And Techniques For Digital Audio is a handy manual of tips, tricks, and techniques especially for professionals in the digital audio field. Volume two includes a variety of articles by expert authors concerning field recording, signal processing and filters, spatialization, computer techniques such as wrapped I/O and the ring buffer FIFO queue, music theory, sound design, and more. A glossary of audio terms will help those new to the lingo understand the more advanced essays, an index allows for quick and easy research, and an enclosed CD-ROm features demos, source code, and examples. A superb reference, resource, and research tool highly recommended for anyone applying digital sound to computer-created projects, including musicians, game developers, and software producers, Audio Anecdotes II combines expert knowledge and analysis with a straightfoward instructional style for effective communication.

Like Greenbaum's previous work in this series, this book is packed full of articles on all phases of audio processing and synthesis. It is to the audio processing world what the "Graphics Gems" series is/was to the graphics programming world. Continuing the tradition from the first volume, this volume presents additional processing techniques, explores new areas, and teaches some basic concepts.
The book begins with a section of tips on how to make good recordings in various environments. The next section goes into the technicalities of sound synthesis, more precisely oscillator control and subtractive synthesis. Section 3 is a continuation from Volume 1, in that it continues with a discussion of basic signal processing operators like filters and transforms. A particularly interesting paper in this section is the concluding chapter, on integer arithmetic-based fast Fourier transforms.Section 4 is about spatialization. It doesn't exactly reveal what happens inside your Sennheiser Toltec processor, but it covers the basic ideas. Low-level must-know techniques, such as circular FIFOs and framing, are covered in some detail in section 5. Section 6 presents some popular tools, such as the SoX library,which is the swiss army knife of sound processing programs, and the wonderful synthesis toolkit by Perry Cook which is featured in his own book, "Real Sound Synthesis for Interactive Applications". It was a surprise to see a page on the QED package. QEDesign is an easy-to-use, multi-platform advanced digital filter design package. It is completely menu-driven and user intuitive, affording almost a non-existent start-up and learning curve. it is neither unique nor the best, but it's just a page out of the entire book. Music theory is the topic of section 7. This may be a foreign language for many engineers, as well as a foreign approach. For example, the authors explain what consonance and dissonance are, and how they fit in the sound scale, but there is no discussion of what physically happens, or, to be more precise, what psycho-physically happens. Auditory displays and auditory feedback are central to section 8, on sound design. The final section, section 9, reads almost like a Scientific American article on sounds in nature. It is very instructive. A very useful glossary of audio terminology concludes the book.
I highly recommend this book as a supplemental reference to anyone involved in the fascinating world of audio processing. However,this is really not for recording engineers, as there is much mathematics, signal processing, programming, and even some music theory involved.
I notice that Amazon does not show the table of contents, so I do that here:
Preface ix
Introduction xiii
1. Field Recording 1
A Quick Field Recording Primer for the Adventurous Sound Effects Recordist Mike Caviezel 3
Holding on for Dear Life: Recording the Automobile Mike Caviezel 13
A Brief Introduction to Binaural Recording Gordon Hempton Ken Greenebaum 23
2. Synthesis 27
Ambient Synthesis with Random Sound Fields Hesham Fouad 29
Band Limited Oscillators Using Wave Table Synthesis Phil Burk 37
Subtractive Synthesis without Filters John Lazzaro John Wawrzynek 55
3. Signal Processing 65
Finite Impulse Response Filters Stuart Allman 67
Infinite Impulse Response Filters Stuart Allman 79
Replacing Analog Filters with DSP by Using the Bilinear Transform Stuart Allman 93
Floating Point Fast Fourier Transform Hal Chamberlin 101
Fast Fourier Transform Using Integer Math Hal Chamberlin 127
4. Spatialization 141
Spatialization with Stereo Loudspeakers Hesham Fouad 143
Spatialization with Multiple Loudspeakers Ville Pulkki 159
5. Computer Techniques 173
No Need to Shout: Volume Controls and the Digital Sound Convergence Ken Greenebaum 175
Count in Frames! (Not Samples or Bytes) Ken Greenebaum 183
Introduction to the Ring Buffer FIFO Queue Ken Greenebaum 193
Wrapped I/O Ken Greenebaum 209
6. Computer Tools 225
SoX Sound Exchange Library Chris Bagwell 227
The Synthesis ToolKit (STK) in C++ Perry R. Cook Gary Scavone 237
The QEDesign Filter Design Package Chris Bore 255
7. Music Theory 257
Basic Music Theory: Notation, Scales, and Chords Benjamin Tomassetti 259
Basic Music Theory: Rhythm and Meter Benjamin Tomassetti 289
8. Sound Design 303
Designing the Auditory Narrative: A Methodology for Sound Design Maribeth J. Back 305
Sound as Information: An Introduction to Auditory Display Rob Tannen 329
Auditory Feedback for Computer Devices Linda A. Roberts Cynthia A. Sikora 341
9. Nature 361
Brainwave Entrainment through Binaural Sound Jeffrey Thompson 363
Introduction to Bioacoustics Jeffrey Greenebaum 375
Glossary of Audio Terms 395
Contributor Biographies 429
Index

Throughout recorded time, the ax has been a principle tool for carving out from the wilderness the homes, farms, and roads so necessary to the advance of civilization. Even today, those who use chainsaws and other power equipment still need to be familiar with the hand tools of their craft. In many situations, only a hand-ax will suffice for the felling of trees, the rough shaping of lumber, the creation of firewood, and clearing out the nooks and crannies of forested areas for other purposes -- including the planting of new trees. Cook's The Ax Book is an ideal "how to" manual of instruction enhanced with the illustrations of Whipple to provide what is simply the best introductory guide to the subject available to readers today. The Ax Book is a "must" for anyone needing to use a hand ax for any purpose, under any circumstances.

I have used an ax for years, and have heard stories from my family that included the ax, but I learned so much from this book I couldn't believe it. any one who uses a ax should have this owners manual.

I have a two year old and he loves reading this book. We have a routine now where I read and he does the sound and hand motions at the end of each page, for each tool. I highly recommend it.

Great book for young kids who like both Barney and tools. My 2-year old tried opening the toolbox Barney is holding on the cover when he first got this book! On each page Barney, BJ and Baby Bop are shown working with different tools: a hammer, a saw, a screwdriver and a paintbrush. Everywhere my son goes, he takes along "Barney's Toolbox" grabbing it by the handle cut-out from the board book itself. I'm pleasantly surprised it's still in good condition after 7 months of constant arduous use by my toddler.

I really loved this book. I've never been able to "get it" before, but with this book's help, I am actually able to crochet!

The instructions are excellent and don't leave anything out. The photos are clear and the illustrations are helpful. If you're new to crochet, this book will show you exactly how to do the patterns. It explains different types of yarn as well, so you don't go out and buy the wrong thing.

The projects are a nice variety; the apparel and accessories are fashionable and contemporary. Have fun trying it out!

This book has everything you need to know to begin the craft of crocheting. The instructions are extremely helpful, and the photographs and sketches tell you exactly how to proceed. No step is omitted here. There are a variety of projects; my favorite is the basketweave blanket. The "Tips", highlighted in yellow, are like having a personal instructor looking at your work. When the book is opened to the page you are working on, it lies flat because of its spiral binding.
Reviewer from Jenkintown

This book, along with its companion are a teacher's God send! The book is written to the reader as a writer - one writer to another. My students loved the way the book presented writing in such a matter of fact manner and not a formularic lock step blah, blah, blah color code blah, blah, blah. It's written by real writers to real students of writing. The strategies are incredible for creating thinkers of writing! My students are have open and honest dialogues about their writing without focusing so much on mechanics unless the mechanics of way something is written effects the way it is understood.

If you can't get this for your students, get it for yourself!

This is the second book in the "Better Writer" series from Leverage Factory. Designed for younger writers, this comprehensive writing improvement guide is helpful for writers of all ages. Features interview with professional writers, and dozens of Tips, Activities and Exercises to get your writing headed in a better direction.

These books are NOT your grandfathers writing books. They introduce helpful and effective methods to critique and improve every area of your writing.

Beyond OK is a book of techniques for applying image streaming and breathing processes to removing mental and physical stress from your system. It also includes some processes for using your internal attention to help others remove stresses from THEIR systems.

Also included are some processes for becoming more congruent about goal-attainment, by finding and deleting whatever internal hindrances have been blocking you.

The title Beyond OK reflects an attitude of going beyond remedial techniques and into the realm of generative, self-creating processes.

Deliberate evolution, you might say.

I highly recommend this book.

I've e-mailed Win that this book really ought to put him on Oprah Winfrey's show. Oprah's recommendation has put Seat of the Soul on the best-seller lists. Imagine her experiencing the pleasures of Beyond OK and recommending THAT experience for her audience. (A million people image streaming and breathing away stress would only help the party here on planet Earth, I think.)

Sean Collins p.s. I was speaking to a Silva Method graduate meeting here in Florida, and read the technique "energy column breathing" aloud from Beyond OK, and people approached me after the meeting to say that that was the most extraordinary self-improvement process they'd ever experienced. (And there are 100 techniques in the book.)

The techniques in this book really work. I tried some of the breathing techniques and they did exactly what he said they would do. I feel better, think more clearly, take in things faster.

I've read some inspriational books, how-to books, gee-whiz latest reports type books. This book is different. This one doesn't say "do it." This one says "try it and make your own observations." My observation is, it works for me.

Despite what the book review states, this is not a book about building your own router table and I have yet to find any plans. If you are looking for plans, you will need to buy either "Woodworking with the Router" or "Router Magic" which are also by Hylton. As the author states, "Using a router table is what this book is about".

It is an excellent book especially if you are not familiar with the router table. There are also ideas and techniques for the person who is familiar with the router table. Hylton is a great suthor and I would recommend any of his router books.

Excellent book. This is what a person who is going to get serious in router table working needs. Woodworking is my hobby. I build many things around the house, from dormers to desks, and cabinets. I bought a Porter Cable 3-1/2 HP router, a Bench Dog table, and a Bench Dog Lifter. I wish I had seen this book before I bought the table. Well, I bought it all at once. I would have made my own table. The book is very well written and the author (Bill) is extremely knowledgeable about his subject. He offers many options for building your own table based on your specific needs. The illustrations are great. It covers many different areas, such as making dovetails, different types of bits, how to make jigs and fixtures, etc. There are no adds about any particular brand, which is great. He focuses of process. This is a great book, built with high quality paper as well. I highly recommend it.

The title is a misnomer: Although the authors do indeed suggest how to "break through the chains of organizational structure", they provide an enlightening explanation of four different types of boundaries (vertical, horizontal, external, and geographic) which give definition to any organization. They do not advocate the total elimination of these boundaries (which is impossible, anyway); rather, they suggest how to rearrange them so that an organization can thrive. For the authors, there is what they call "A New World Order":

"In living organisms, membranes exist to give the organization shape and definition. They have sufficient structural strength to prevent the organism from dissolving into an amorphous mess....Like a living organism, the boundaryless organization also evolves and grows, and the placement of boundaries may shift....Because the boundaryless organization is a living continuum, not a fixed state, the ongoing management challenge is to find the right balance of boundaryless behavior, to determine how permeable to make boundaries, and where to place them."

This brief excerpt from the first chapter correctly suggests the purpose of this remarkable book: To explain HOW to meet that challenge. The material is presented within four parts plus a conclusion. The first explains how to achieve "free movement up and down" by crossing vertical boundaries; the second explains how to achieve "free movement side to side" by crossing horizontal boundaries; the third explains how to achieve "free movement along the value chain" by crossing external boundaries; and in the fourth part, they explain how to achieve "free global movement" by crossing geographic boundaries." Then in the Conclusion, the authors discuss "Making It Happen: Leading Toward the Boundaryless Organization." The authors also include a series of six questionnaires. By completing each in sequence, the reader is able to determine (a) where her or his organization is now located relative to "the boundaryless paradigm", and (b), what is needed to eliminate the "gap" between where it is now and where it should be.

Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to read The Boundaryless Organization Field Guide. It contains a wealth of hands-on set of diagnostic instruments, exercises, and tools as well as a disk with presentation slides in Powerpoint format.

The fieldbook is written in a very user friendly way. It provides information that can be used in various ways - presentation slides, workshops, surveys and inteviews. Each tool is explained in great detail - how to use it and the intended purpose. I borrowed a copy from our corporate libary and liked it so much I will order my own personal copy!