Languages Books

Lotus Domino support for EJB programming mode

Bob Balaban is a Louts Notes and Domino guru. After working for Lotus for many years, Bob certainly new the nuts and bolts of Lotus Notes better than just about anyone.

This book was way ahead of it's time. I heard Bob speaking about Domino and Java at The View's advanced technical seminar in 1999. At that time many Lotus Notes developers were just coming to grips with LotusScript (although it was introduced in Lotus Notes 4) and all of the new web features associated with Domino; HTML, CSS, JavaScript etc.

While this book is now dated, it is still one of the best on programming Lotus Notes and Domino with Java, and the only one that focuses solely on that topic. Many other books have glossed over this topic altogether. Although a couple of others have provided good treatment. If you are new to Notes and Java then it could still be well worth your while to pick up a copy.

Programming Domino 4.6 With Jav

Programming Domino 4.6 With Jav

This is by far the best and most useful book I have purchased in a long time! Bob has great insights on the future of Web interfaces to data and how you, as a programmer, can effectively work in the new paradigm. He does an excellent (and concise) job of helping you sort out the architectural options for the web: cgi/perl/asp/activex/etc. The book then has a detailed explanation of everything you need to know to program Domino in Java. I found Bob's speculation on the CORBA/IIOP and Domino v5.0 technologies especially useful in planning our IT infrastructure. Please buy this book if you are curious about Domino and Java! If you are new to Java you should also find a beginners guide. This is not a 'learn Java and Domino' text for beginners. Intermidiate and Advanced users, however, definitely need this book before they write another Agent in Domino or another CGI script in Perl. This book will wake you up to the future of the Web, Domino, and Java programming!

THIS IS THE FIRST TIME THAT I'VE EVER PURCHASED FROM AMAZON, AND I MUST SAY THAT I AM COMPLETELY SATISFIED WITH MY PURCHASE. THE BOOK WAS IN PEFECT/BRAND NEW CONDITION AS DESCRIBE.

I received this book in only three days and it was in better condition than described...Not to mention the awesome price that I got for the book and expedited shipping!! My school wanted $113.00 for the book...psshhh.

This text is required for Psych 103 at Stony Brook Univ., LI, NY
It is excellent.

If you've ever wanted to learn as much as possible from an introductory textbook in the area of Psychology, look no more. This book has served as a tremendous assistant for Psychology, and various other areas of study where psychology is certainly related. If you enjoy learning about cognitive and other behavioral functions of the body, this book is a perfect match!

The authors' use of case studies and real-life examples makes this more than a textbook -- and much more readable than one. I found myself excited about reading each chapter. And I know I'll be looking up things in it in the future. My only quibble is that I found many copyediting errors that I hope the publisher will fix for future editions.

A smart, fast read, but also practical and frank. Usable advice on query letters, proposals, networking, when to self-publlish and how to negotiate.

This is a nice place for prospective non-fiction writers to start investigating the process of what it takes to get published. A quick and easy read, the book's main benefit is as a reality check to knock the naiveté out of prospective authors. To be sure, pretty much everything Brown discusses is covered by other books on the topic, however, these often spend far too much time getting to the point and/or offering various bits of writing advice that aren't really germane to the nuts and bolts of getting a book deal. Quite properly Brown assumes you can write; and while his brevity is often a good thing, sometimes the rapid pace and flip tone leads to broad generalizations that can be slightly misleading.

He comes at the topic with a wealth of personal experience, having published some twenty or so books with a variety of major publishing houses. Despite this, his perspective is rather limited -- as a former financial writer (for Inc. and Forbes), all but one of his books are business titles. And the reality is that business non-fiction is a slightly different beast, and the lessons learned there can't necessarily be extrapolated to other nonfiction genres. Business books tend to be what Hollywood calls "high concept", that is, all about a central, easily grasped premise, and generally not particularly nuanced. So while much of this "insider's guide" is certainly useful for all prospective writers, some of the advice is very hard to apply to other nonfiction genres.

Similarly, Brown downplays the extent to which his existing position as a journalist smoothed the path to the book world. He advocates a stepped process to approaching editors with one's pitch: start small with a query letter, then if you get a nibble, send a brief (around 3 page) mini-proposal, and then, only as a last resort, put together a proper full-scale proposal. While there's certainly logic to avoiding the substantial work of putting together a full proposal, a writer with his background (especially when working with a "name" co-author) can get away with the approach. whereas 99% of the readership for this book cannot. Probably the worst advice in the book is on page 52, where he argues against sending a full proposal even when an editor has responded "tell me more in writing." If an editor tells you this, you'd better come back with as complete and polished a pitch as possible, because if they're not impressed, they may not give you another chance.

The other aspect of full-blown proposals Brown doesn't acknowledge is that the process of creating the proposal will help you immeasurably in honing your idea and pitch -- and may well lead you to realize you can't write the book. Which is not to suggest that Brown doesn't like proposals -- he includes a complete one of his, and has annotated it with copious footnotes pointing out areas for improvement. This "peering under the hood" is a very strong part of the book, and is well worth examining (even though I actually don't like some of the proposal's arrangement).

Generally, whenever I read a book on this topic, I will jot down the few ideas from it that I found particularly unique or compelling. I didn't do that once with this book -- but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I've already read a lot on the topic, and thus have a good store of material. But this would make a great first book to read on the topic, as long as one recognizes its limitations and reads a few others for more perspective and depth.

I bought this book last Friday afternoon, and had read it entirely by the late evening - I could not put it down.

Not only is it filled with information to help get your first non-fiction book published, it is written in a thouroughly approachable and enjoyable style.

That "memo" is mentioned in the appendix about how this particular book came to be, and I thought it was cool to title a review like that.

Not mentioned in the above little summary is the "snide editorial comments by Ellen Kadin" (on the cover) which are dispersed throughout the book. Ellen Kadin is AMACOM's editor, an independent (and funny) voice to let you know how accurate Paul B. Brown really is. Most, but not all of them are affirmations...but they are all funny. If someone (like me) got the book from a library right next to all those traditional Chapter 6-1/2 books, you might want to skip the her annotations if you are actually reading it _in_ the libary, because you are likely to make enough noise (laughing, cussing, or both) to get dragged out by security...fortunately, I am good friends with my library's security.

With insight and irreverence Paul Brown lays it all out for aspiring writers. He takes you from book proposal to agent to publisher to promotion.

That's all that a would-be nonfiction author could want. He'll tell you things you don't want to hear, but must know in order to make your foray into writing a success.

Brown has endured book ideas that were rejected and books that didn't sell, along with a perennial best-seller Customers For Life.

If nothing else Brown knows his trade when it comes to publishing nonfiction books.

I'd like to point out errors in his 'Nontraditional Approaches' but from my observations, Brown is correct more than I'd like to say.

And, when he has a question, he knows where to go to find the answers, which, of course, he shares with readers.

If you don't like the idea of pitching book ideas to publishers, then maybe being an author isn't for you.

If you don't like the idea of a 40 to 50 page book proposal, Brown will explain why it's in your best interest to get through it, or scrap your idea of a nonfiction book deal.

If you want a bigger advance - and why you should try to get the most you can (besides the obvious reason) - are nailed by Brown in Publishing Confidential.

If your idea is to write a nonfiction best seller, then Brown's book will save you a lot of time, and serve as your tour guide.

You may not write the next top selling business book, it's not a guarantee, but Brown's book will help you get through it with his `insider's guide to what it really takes to land a nonfiction book deal.'

Brown delivers.

The best kind of manual doesn't just provide cookie-cutter activities but allows the readers opportunities to take and make them own. Raising Voices not only is packed with practical yet useful advice, it provides a springboard for one's own creative ideas to bring to the young tellers.

Raising Voices is a tried and true resource. Cordi and Sima have years of experience that they share in the book. In partnership with my local library, I was able to use this book to start a youth storytelling club. There are ideas for organizing and working with youth. But most importantly there are loads of fun exercises. The suggested activities spark creativity and the spirit of "can do." I would highly recommend this book to everyone. I felt like I had the two authors right by my side. Thank you and I hope you come up with another one!

Without exaggeration, Raising Voices - Creating Youth Storytelling Groups and Troupes is the most valuable guide for success in learning and practicing storytelling skills available. The extensive experience of the authors is presented in a volume that is well organized, articulate, intelligent, and complete. It is filled with information, observations from the authors, teachers and students. The book contains reproducible games, activities, and certificates that are inspired and fun! The gift of story with all of its power and magic is offered with sensitivity and appreciation for both teacher and student alike. I have utilized time and again the guidance in Raising Voices from my first workshop as a Teaching Artist specializing in storytelling to enhance literacy skills. However you apply storytelling - whether in a classroom activity or workshop in a club or troupe, this book has what you need to get started and keep going.

Raising Voices is a major reference developed for anyone who wants to encourage and nurture both storytelling and strong, positive, self-confident communication skills among young people. Judy Sima and Kevin Cordi offer the gifts of their experience and knowledge, as well as activities from fellow story-crafters who have successfully worked with new and youthful practitioners of the oral tradition. This is a concise and well-written volume; from its introduction to its index, this book provides creative narrative ideas and activities, useful reproducible materials, and excellent resources for the storytelling classroom or any organization that wants to develop a "youthful voices" storytelling club.

Maybe I'm just a wee bit biased, since I get mentioned in the acknowledgements, but even if that weren't the case, Judy and Kevin have done an incredible job of putting together THE resource guide for anyone interested in helping cultivate the next generation of storytellers. Whether you work with kidtellers in a school, church, community setting or another venue, this book is worth every penny it will cost you.

I've coached kidtellers at both the middle school and elementary school levels for about eight years, but Judy has been at this three times as long at her middle school. Her years of experience, along with Kevin's insights as the advisor to a high school telling troupe, are invaluable for any of us just starting in this venture. From the logistics of how to promote involvement, stories to tell, managing your resources, arranging opportunities for telling experiences and many things you never even considered, it's all in the pages of this book.

There are a very few other books out there that address the concerns of those working with youthtellers. The books by Martha Hamilton and Mitch Weiss, along with Len Cabral's storytelling book for kids, have long been among my favorites, and will continue to be. However, none of them covers the many aspects of actually organizing your troupe, helping it to grow and celebrating it's success quite like "Raising Voices." Of particular interest is Judy's approach to recruiting adults in the community and training them to become story coaches to the tellers. Not only does this allow the kids more frequent opportunities to rehearse and refine individually, it develops relationships across generations, something that is in danger of dying in our culture today.

If I had to limit myself to only one book to help me in my journey as a coach of young storytellers, this would be it.
Judy and Kevin have truly filled a niche with this volume!

Good heavy edition. Comes with box cover to protect it. Pages are of good quality.

This dictionary seems to be an excellent resource source. Highly recommended for students of all ages.

As a medical student, I have found this to be an extremely valuable asset to my library. Some of the other students I know simply scoff at buying something like this, what with the Internet being the golden egg to so many. There are times though, that using a book for reference is not only functional, but also sometimes even easier, not to mention you don't have to second guess the information like you sometimes have to when pulling something from the internet. I have to find various times and places to study, and cannot always have easy access to a desktop computer or laptop. This 2,256-page behemoth is just that, it is a monster of a book. However, the durable make of it coupled with several ribbon markers makes it user friendly as well as fun! It is very in depth, having etymologies applied when necessary. It also has over 2,000 illustrations and beyond punctuation and spelling, also goes in depth with historical references so that you are not just finding the source of what you are looking for, but also the history of how it became that way. The medical terms found within are helpful and I have used this every day in some of my own research assignments. It is expensive, but considering that you are using it to better yourself in one form or another, I feel it is worth the price.

I use unabridged dictionaries to keep up with the changes (mostly egregious) in our American English. I have 19 of them and the changes over the past 15 years are appalling. The dictionary is fascinating.

Received Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, Deluxe Edition from Woodys-Books. Price charged $167.33. Woodys-Books invoice sent with book $79.93. Requested refund and told by Woodys invoice in error. Woodys now showing price of same item for $105.89. Watch the price these guys charge.

Professor Ryding's master piece is best appreciated when used daily. The "Contents" comprises nine pages of jam-packed easy to use reference material. The seven "Index" pages provide additional verbiage in English as well in transliterated Arabic. The arrangement of the topics in the Index provides additional details that augment the Table of Contents section of this superb Reference. This book, I believe, was not intended as an English Grammar Guide. However, this is a unintended bonus but a bonus none the less.
This book comes in handy when explaining Arabic syntax to my English speaking colleagues. It helps to use the precise English term that best conveys the Arabic meaning. In any language this would not an easy task. To do so in Arabic is a daunting endeavor. Dr. Ryding, however, makes this task look simple and pithy. Any user of this Reference Guide will find just such a word every time.
As a Reference Guide you may go to any chapter to review the topic of your choice without the need to study the previous chapters or the following chapters. The topics addressed in each chapter are considered to be an integral part of the whole volume, yet at the same time these topics may be made use of without relying on the remaining chapters.
The section on "How to use An Arabic Dictionary" is very useful, see appendix I.
The "Glossary of English grammatical terms", starts on Page 686 of my copy of the book, hence the Bonus.
I highly recommend that the "Preface" and "Chapter 1" be read in their entirety, at least once.
This Reference Guide not only supports a student's textbook, but also assists the user of Arabic in a professional milieu.

It is extremely difficult finding clear texts on Grammar let alone Modern Standard Arabic Grammar. This Book is well organized and clearly written.I truly wish all grammar books were written like this. Simply a breath of fresh air.

This is by far my favorite book on Arabic grammar -- it is well organized, easy to follow, systematic and thorough. This book however is not for people who wish to start learning Arabic, rather it is better suited for students of Arabic who already have a couple of years under their belt and want a one stop reference for grammar.
It is perfect for review and editing - it has come in handy on MANY occasions for me.
The author uses a lot of linguistic jargon and this book is not designed for learning Arabic - it assumes that the reader has a decent grasp of Arabic.

SubhanAllah(Praise be to Allah), not only does this book greatly presents Arabic grammar but also makes you understand the English counterpart also. 2 in 1 deal, even though it is an Arabic Grammar reference but it will also increase you English vocabulary and strengthen you English grammar rules also.

I love, love, love this book, at last all of the mysteries explained. The ista prefix, helping vowels, hamza in detail and a whole page on Waa, all the connectors and more!!!. The downside, it is the size of a phonebook which makes it difficult to handle, I am afraid the binding will break, maybe it should be in two volumns

Robert's Rules of Writing, by Robert Masello is one of my favorites. Much like Leonard Bishop's Dare to be a Great Writer, this is a collection of writing tips presented in no particular order. Because of the format, I wouldn't recommend either as the first "how-to" book for a novice. But the scrambled format works well for me when I'm looking for a quick read during TV commercials. Many of the ideas offer practical help; others provide thought-provoking insight. You don't have to agree with every "rule" to enjoy this one.

I had the pleasure recently of reading Robert's Rules of Writing on a plane from Portland, Oregon to Chicago, Illinois. Rarely does a writing book come along where you get half-way done and look forward to the plane ride home so you can enjoy the rest, but that's how I would describe RROW. The author, Robert Masello, is knowledgeable, funny, clever, and has clearly been in the writing trenches and lived to joke about it. A refreshing refresher on how to create good writing.

God, I love this book. It is incredible. I've written a dozen published books and I still find it invaluable. Whenever I'm feeling stumped or blocked, I open my well-worn copy almost at random, and come away with some nugget that gets me where I'm going. In the nicest, friendliest, funniest ways, Masello is imploring us to be better writers. I have a shelf packed with books on writing, but this is the one I return to most often. I'd give it more stars if that were an option.

I reread this book constantly, it is just so helpful! and by the way the person who reviewed the book with only one star calling it unconventional...IT HAS UNCONVENTIONAL RIGHT IN THE TITLE!!!!

At first glance I liked the book. Short, entertaining chapters that make you re-think your thinking about writing. I actually found I felt comforted by the 'rules' since I seem to be following most of them. With over 50 articles published on the web, greeting card verse sales and several articles in local magazines, my bank account tells me I'm doing something right, but I'm in a constant state of "I could have done better." Rule #69: Grumble and Fuss, made me laugh at myself. With all of Robert's rules, education and experience, he's still a guy who speaks to the uncertain beginning writer in all of us.

The book came very fast in the mail. It was new in quality. I am able to teach myself Ruby from the book.

Superb introduction to Ruby and important programming idioms that every Rubyist should know. Shows you a small chunk of code, with significant lines numbered, and follows the code with descriptive paragraphs that show you what the code is doing. In effect, you learn how to read the code as you go through the book, starting with basic material and getting more advanced as you go along. VERY nicely done.

If you want to learn Ruby quickly and you can only afford to buy one book to do it with, this is the one I would buy! It has interesting little projects with well documented code which introduces you gradually to more advanced topics in the language. It is not a cookbook, but rather, a very well picked selection of programmes where new concepts are thoroughly explained and older concepts are reinforced. There are "hacks" to just about every script and I was able to learn more from this than I did from grinding through the Pick Axe. Amazingly, now when I pick up the Pick Axe it seems accessible!

Well worth the investment!

'Ruby by Example: Concepts and Code' is the perfect reference for anyone that wants to learn how to use Ruby, one of the hottest programming languages to come around in some time. With over around 300 pages of content spread across 45 examples, this book will give you all the basis you need to go from a non-Ruby user to someone writing good code immediately!! I think that the No Starch line has some of the most unique layouts you will find from any publishing line. Chapters are usually broken up into small manageable chunks that make it easier for the reader to actually learn and dissect the information they are taking in, fonts are clear and concise, and it's just an enjoyable easy read all around. While this may seem low in importance I don't think that's the case at all. Especially for a book where the user base is someone new to a language, environment or tool, I want a book that is easy to learn from, fun to read and makes me actually want to LEARN and look forward to the next chapter(s). If you want to learn Ruby and build on your development skillset, pick up this book and move to the fast lane!!

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Ruby By Example seeks to teach Ruby by introducing a series of small scripts, explaining how they work, often by showing some examples in irb, Ruby's interactive shell, and reinforcing the explanations with some suggested modifications to the script to highlight the principles just expounded. The closest examples in other languages I'm aware of are Dive Into Python and (to a lesser extent) Wicked Cool Perl Scripts.

This is a very nice idea, and there are some examples that are a cut above the usual fare: chapter 9 includes a Bible Code generator, and an implementation of the 'methinks it is like a weasel' sentence natural selection program from Richard Dawkins' The Blind Watchmaker. There's also mention of memoization, profiling and benchmarking, the Schwartzian transform for sorting, and even Symbol#to_proc. There's also quite a gentle introduction to Rails, which is probably sufficient for someone new to Ruby and Rails to move onto Ruby for Rails.

However, the execution isn't always perfect. Probably the biggest downside to this pedagogical approach is that there's not really one obvious place to describe how a particular feature works in depth, or the focus moves away from its practical use in a script. As a result, many of the explanations are compressed. Chapter 1 provides a 'crash' description of object orientation in 9 lines. Chapter 3 first mentions hashes, but compares them to functions, and not to arrays. Tail recursion is defined in a 4 line footnote in chapter 7. If you already understand these concepts, you'll be fine, but they won't teach you anything. If you don't, they aren't very helpful. At a couple of points the book also insists that everything in Ruby is an object, but code blocks (among other things) aren't until they're wrapped in Procs. For the more functional-esque techniques advocated in the book, this is a subtle point which could trip up a beginner.

Also, some of the examples are weak. Chapter 4 rushes through regular expressions, using them to compress whitespace, but why not also mention String#squeeze? Chapter 5 uses regexes to deal with XML and it gets the job done, but advice on using a real XML parser might have been more useful in the long term. Chapter 6 contains a truly contrived Buffy the Vampire Slayer-related example.

This isn't a bad introduction to Ruby, and it's a very admirable attempt to do something different, but I wanted to like it more than I did. If you already know some object oriented programming, this could make a good companion to a more tutorial-style book, like The Pickaxe.

This book is an excellent collection of classic Russian short stories in the original language plus and English translation. Couldn't ask for anything better.

you can make this as easy or as challenging as you like. You learn words when they keep popping up in the stories

A book of short stories from famous Russian Authors, Half in Russian and Half in english. The book loks intimidating, but the stories are selected to appeal.
The stories were capitvating and all were easy to follow except the cave. I did attempt to read the russian and the layout makes this easy.
I have now been introduced to different Russian authors that I will follow up.

Got this book a while ago, its way too hard for me for my level but the good thing is you can work through at a slow pace and still get a lot out of it. Stress marks are very helpful, would have been useless to me without them basically, and the glossary is also helpful although it doesn't include everything (good to have a dictionary nearby). Layout is good, that is, having the english on the adjacent page, makes for very easy reference to the english. Archaic language is usually noted and explained as such, which is useful. Great for reading practice, highly recommendable book for all skill levels (i have only been learning for around 6 months but have still got a lot out of it so far). Good selection of stories and enough to keep an beginner reader going for a long time!

This book works on two levels: One, these short stories are by the Russian masters of the genre. In English translation, they are powerful, evocative, and moving, on their own. There is a reason why Pushkin, Chekhov, and Dostoevsky are still popular: Those guys didn't write any garbage. They set the bar for all writers as high as it could go. I would especially recommend "Sleepy" by Anton Chekhov. Read it on Halloween night, as I did, for a good old fashioned fright.

Secondarily, for those of us learning Russian, these short stories provide fascinating and very challenging works to translate. Be advised, this is a high level of Russian literature, written for educated and literate native speakers, so it's a big challenge. Pack a lunch.

The short story format is especially beneficial. If you can get through one story, believe me, you are ready for the psychological reward of starting a new story.

This was an excellent read. I ordered mulitple copies with a plan to have it used at our high school as a teaching tool. Our English & Social Studies faculty members were delighted. The Debate team was especially impressed. It is timely & has caught the attention of our students, as we await Obama's arrival in Washington.

It was his speech at the Democratic Convention in 2004 that catapulted Barack Obama into the national spotlight. It has been his gift for oratory both in style and in substance that has propelled him into becoming the first African-American presidential candidate of a major national political party. Now leadership expert Shel Leanne explains, using Obama has a living example, how to combine oratory, body language, and the fine art of persuasion into a seamless presentation that builds trust and stimulates action in "Say It Like Obama: The Power Of Speaking With Purpose And Vision". A thoroughly 'user friendly' instructional manual on the art and craft of public speaking, "Say It Like Obama" should be read and studied by anyone who will be called upon to speak in public whether it be in church, in the board room, or from a convention platform. "Say It Like Obama" is a welcome and enthusiastically recommended addition to personal and community library Self-Help/Self-Improvement and Leadership/Management reference collections.

This is an excellent book! It is definitely worth purchasing. After reading Obama's speeches, which are so beautifully written, anyone wanting to understand more about who Barack Obama is and what he stands for should read this book. The communication practices Obama puts to use in order to reach across divisions and unite people tell us much about him. And we can learn from those practices and apply them ourselves. I recommend this book for professionals seeking to be more effective communicators. I will also buy Say It Like Obama for many young adults who can learn from the communication practices that have made Obama so successful. Say It Like Obama is a fantastic read and is very well written.

My late professor, Dr. Vernon W. Stone, of the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore, told all his students that if you speak well, people will listen. At last there is a great book that actually tells us how to speak well! Dr. Shel Leanne, thanks for writing Say It Like Obama: The Power of Speaking with Purpose and Vision. The remarkable book should be must reading for every school sudent and citizen.

Whatever your political views, you will learn a lot from this book, which decontructs his talks and explains why they work so well. Learn the rule of threes; understand the power of rhetorical and non-rhetorical questions; exploit the use and nonuse of "and" in a sentance. Lots more, including the key one of "show, don't tell. She ends with his acceptance speech and challenges you to deconstruct the speech and spot the techiques. And, in a clever marketing move she does not give you the answers, but directs you to her website where she provides them. First rate stuff.