Multimedia Books

This is a very well-written study-guide. It gets to the point without getting too wordy. It could serve as a model for other study guides. But, I do have a few minor gripes. First, some of the pages were printed kind of blurry, a kind of shadow image. Second, there is too much preaching about what the author feels are best practices, some of which I question. Best practices questions are not on the exam, at least the one I took, and thus should be left out of a study guide except as perhaps small footnotes. There were also a few minor typos, but being a niche market I can forgive that for technical books.

This is pretty much the only material you need to pass the certification. I was thinking of getting the exam buster as previous reviewer suggested, but exam buster does not promise same day delivery of their products, and with the exam one day away, I had only this guide to rely on.

Here is the approach I took that might work for you as well if you are pressed for time: Work on the end of chapter exercises first, mark all the questions that you are unsure of, if you have the time, go back and read the chapters and correct your own mistakes (I skipped this one because of time issue), and finally check the answers at the back. Note all the ones you were unsure of or didn't get right and studied the reasons provided with each answer. If you don't feel confident of the topic or you have made enough mistakes in the questions, read that chapter.

Before I read the guide, I scored a 70% using Ben's site. After a day of going through the guide using the "algorithm" above, I got an Advanced certification the next day. It goes to show you how good the guide is. One thing to be aware of, some answers are not correct (ran into about 4-5 incorrect answers at the back of the book), thankfully the answer analysis are correct most of the time so you can catch any mistakes in the answers the book provides. Do Ben a favor and get this book, he really deserves the royalty.

Ben Forta's deep experience and practical application overflows from the pages of this book that I highly recommend. Of the dozens of computer books I've ever read, this one kept me astounded me with its perfect-sized chapters, handy reference and cross-reference segments, and the well-written pages. Not only is Ben Forta a good writer, he's an outstanding teacher.
Clarke Schroeder
Advanced Macromedia ColdFusion Certified

This is a very good book, however the coupon for 15% off of the exam is no longer valid. It expired December 31st of 2003.

This book does a good job of giving you information on every possible topic of the certification exam. I used the original study guide to take and pass the first exam. This book includes just about everything in the first book, and goes into topics that are relaevent for MX (i.e. CFCs, XML, Flash intergration, etc.). If you want answers in a few pages vs. a few chapters, then buy this book.

Over the years, I have read many books and written reviews of some that attracted my attention for various reasons. Recently, I discovered a book series that uses historical events and key persons to illustrate concepts and initiatives that could apply to business. The series, Lessons from History, is the creation of a consultant, Mark Kozak-Holland, and the intention of the series is to examine complex business problems by applying lessons from history. He uses historical case studies to demonstrate how challenges were overcome, offering a unique view for business and technology management to apply the lessons of history to their situations.

The book, Churchill's Adaptive Enterprise: Lessons for Business Today, brings the reader to the late 1930's and early 1940's with descriptions of the world situation and the state of politics and lack of preparedness for World War II that existed in Great Britain. When Churchill became Prime Minister in May 1940, his country was facing the onslaught of Nazi Germany alone, France and the Low Countries had fallen under Germany's control, and Britain was poised to be Hitler's next victim. As we know, Britain survived, it regained strength and allied itself with the United States and the Soviet Union to defeat Hitler and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. The questions "How did he do that?", "What were the actions and practices that enabled Churchill to emerge as one of the greatest leaders of the 20th century?" are the subject of Kozak-Holland's book.

This book is fascinating reading, despite the fact that the outcome of WWII is known to the reader. Kozak-Holland explores Churchill and his Cabinet and other advisors' actions to show how, under tremendous pressure, the Prime Minister transformed his organization to the modern-day version of an Adaptive Enterprise. An Adaptive Enterprise modifies the way an organization behaves, how it addresses and responds to change, giving it a competitive advantage.

With no room for error, the use of organizational adaptation, business practices and current technology, combined with the inspiration of the leaders, gave Britain and the allies the opportunity to turn the tide of the war to their favor.

In reading about the practices, technologies, and organization that Churchill established, we can see the emergence of governance and decision-making concepts well before they are widely believed to have been invented. Although the teams created centers of excellence for code-breaking, military command and executive oversight (Bletchley Park, Bentley Priory, Storey's Gate, respectively), the overriding need was for data and process governance, so that these centers could operate both separately and coordinated, depending on the need. These centers handled large amounts of disparate data from multiple sources, and the executive committee needed consolidated data in real time to make immensely important decisions. Developing a data governance approach and framework was essential and it had to be implemented in an unbelievably short time, with the future of Great Britain (and the rest of the world) hanging in the balance.

Churchill's need was for competitive intelligence, and the data supporting that effort was required to be as accurate and timely as possible, given the limitations of technology that existed in 1940. Data quality was deemed to be of utmost importance, and many analysts were employed to perform the data validation and meta data management tasks that are part of the modern data steward's activities. Validated raw data was given to leading analysts ("chief data stewards") for some synthesis and applied to answer the executive committee's questions and address challenges that erupted by the minute. At Storey's Gate, a sophisticated control center was created. It tracked real-time events from all theatres of the war, showing data identified as essential indicators for the allies' performance. The WWII version of an executive dashboard, the command center / map room became so important to Churchill that it was recreated for travel (train and airplane). When Franklin Roosevelt saw the traveling version on Churchill's first visit to the US, he had a similar center created. Eventually, the two command centers were aligned and governance was given the highest priority, enabling the fateful collaboration between Britain and her former colony (SHAPE - Supreme Allied Headquarters - Europe).

Can history teach lessons for modern business and technology management? Quoting Kozar-Holland, "Churchill's use of executive dashboards, real-time event models, institutionalized decision-making, and competitive intelligence analysis helped turn the course of history. It was the first time that intelligence (and governance) had been used on such a scale, across an enterprise and in such a strategic capacity." Modern business may not be engaged in the epic struggle that was World War II, but the use of concepts such as governance, and practices from historical events can give some perspective on their application in 21st century organizations.

There must be some kind of way out of here say the joker to the thief.
-- Jimi Hendrix

Today's business gurus evangelize the benefits of story like a TV evangelist on a book tour. Still, there are few authors who use story to teach business strategy. Enter Mark Kozak-Holland who uses the stories of history to teach the lessons of the adaptive enterprise. Long after you've read and forgotten strategy concepts taught in standard text books, you'll find yourself remembering and applying adaptive enterprise concepts through the stories in Churchill's Adaptive Enterprise; stories that breathe life into the sense and respond organization.

In Churchill's Adaptive Enterprise, author Mark Kozak-Holland shows how to create an adaptive enterprise by using lessons from World War II. In spite of Britain's stunning defeat at the Battle of Dunkirk, and her subsequent limited resources to wage war, Churchill was able to stave off German occupation and give America time to join the war, by making an entire country agile.

The author writes of how the German Luftwaffe believed they were on the verge of wiping out Britain's Royal Air force, and yet, Churchill, through a sense-and-respond network was able to make 50 British fighters seem like hundreds, and demoralize the German air command. Indeed, Churchill had his watchtower.

From a story perspective, this book is brilliant. First, the author didn't try to make up his own story, or worse, create a fable to teach the adaptive enterprise. No, that could of been a disaster. Why? Because Churchill's stand against Hitler is an archetype that is almost impossible to improved upon. I mean, even Spielberg, if he wanted to... would find it difficult to produce a better protagonist and antagonist than Churchill and Hitler. And that's why Saving Private Ryan is the story that it is. It's a story within the context of a larger story.

Second, the book provides a business case for agile.

Finally, if you're brilliant, you'll tell the Churchill stories to each other, so you change your corporate culture. And when your customers start to brag about your products and how you run circles around the competition, you will have differentiated your product in a way that others can't match. What's more, you'll now have your own stories to tell each other and new employees, keeping your adaptive organization alive and well.

To be successful in life or war, you need to be flexible... adaptive. Churchill was a socially adept animal -- He knew how to change and evoke change from others. Within Churchill lived a transformation machine. His mad writing skills were not bestowed upon him like the Queen's crown. In grammar school, when the teacher criticized his writing, he studied and practiced grammar patterns for hours. Later in life, when asked about his facile writing skills, he credited the grammar exercises for his renowned ability to turn a phrase.

Yep, Churchill was one hep, adaptive cat. When others were silent, he gave inspiring speeches; when others embraced rigid processes, he created agile frameworks; when others worried about the fate of England and fled to Canada, he calmed the masses; when others sought shelter during the bombings, he ventured boldly into the firestorm.

I truly believe that in order to move forward, we have to look back at our history. I believe the same is true of business. One of the best ways to solve problems and create innovative strategies is to look at those in our past who succeeded in these areas.

Churchill is a model for adaptation and problem solving. His business was Britain which was faced with two overwhelmingly difficult challenges: keep the British economy stable while also keeping the country safe from German invasion. In order to be successful in these endeavours, the leader had to focus his resources wisely to stay one step ahead of the enemy.

Despite it's usefulness as a model for business problem solving, Churchill's Adaptive Enterprise is a somewhat difficult book to read. The text is filled with IT and business terms so the average business person will need to flip to the glossary in the back of the book frequently to fully comprehend each concept. Moreover, many of the historical examples require somewhat in-depth knowledge of Churchill's exploits. I suggest reading the appendix at the back of the book before moving onto the regular text.

In May of 1940, England faced enormous odds. Since the previous September, the German armies had handily conquered Poland, Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium and the combined armies of Britain and France. France had surrendered and although the bulk of the British army was rescued from Dunkirk, nearly all of their military equipment was now in German hands. Furthermore, the Italians had entered the war on the German side and the German alliance with Russia seemed firm, as both sides had so much to gain by maintaining it.
Now essentially devoid of significant allies and low on supplies, the only hope the British had to carry out the fight was to make more efficient use of what they had. Therefore, the British carried out one of the greatest improvements in managerial operations ever achieved. Winston Churchill selected the right people for all positions, relying almost solely on talent rather than political or social position. His only concessions to political necessity were in allowing some leaders of the political opposition to have high government posts. For example, Clement Attlee was appointed Deputy Prime Minister during the war years. The direness of the times allowed Churchill and his appointees' great range in their actions and power. Fortunately for the British side, they were men of sense and effectiveness.
In this book, the actions of Churchill and his wartime staff are used as a set of demonstration cases for how effective adaptation can be in the business world. Despite the serious differences in the circumstances, after all, no business staff is really battling for its very life, the analogies work. Kozak-Holland does an excellent job in toning the circumstances down to a set of fundamental business circumstances. It has often been said that we must learn from history, this is a book where several lessons can be learned from history and in this case not all of the lessons are direct.
As Churchill showed, a strong will is necessary but not sufficient for success. You must be willing to delegate responsibility and be willing to let the people do their job without micromanaging. When the circumstances warrant it, you must be willing to fire people and also to hold the line against firing people even though others believe that they should be removed.
There is a great deal of business management knowledge that can be learned from this book. It has been said many times that the modern global business competition is just the next generation of warfare. While that is certainly debatable, the points of the debate are not about the fact, just about how far the analogy can be extended. As can be seen here, there are many similarities between modern total war between nations and competition between businesses.

Reviewed by William E. Cooper for Reader Views (6/06)

Mark Kozak-Holland has written one of the best and most fascinating management, leadership, and business books I've read. As a retired Chief of Police with two graduate degrees, and one who teaches graduate school courses, as well as being the author of my own book "Leading Beyond Tradition," I found this to be a "can't put it down" book. It is a literal page turner, comparing Winston Churchill's incredibly complex set of problems at the outset of and during World War II with today's management issues, then providing legitimate and very well thought out solutions.

It is about the tremendous change the world and our organizations are facing and the need for being agile and adapting to frequently changing conditions. It is about getting the right people in, the wrong people out, and the right people in the right places. It is about having a vision and a strategy for achieving it; it is about change management. The examples used are incredibly profound and clearly applicable to today's business needs and environment. This book is a must-read and should not only be in every manager's library, but should be a university text book and part of every library. I strongly recommend Mr. Kozak-Holland's book. Well done sir.

This is a superb book-- I found it useful for both instruction as a reference on the syntax and form of doing things in Matlab with images and also as an in-depth text on the subject of image processing. Illustrated with easily followed examples and explicit description of the math involved in image processing operations, it provides a handy edge of explanation beyond what is available in the Matlab help files. This book is almost always signed out with a lineup at our university library, and is useful across many disciplines.

Great text for learning image processing and using it with MATLAB. Hopefully the instructor also uses its mathematical insight as well.

I bought this book for two reasons (a) I needed an overview of IP and (b) I wanted to examine different pattern analysis algorithms with a practical twist. On both counts, as an non-IP researcher, I was very satisfied. The book is very well laid out, so well in fact that it would put to shame many of its rivals. It served my needs. I can't comment on whether it will meet the needs of a broader community. I would certainly recommend it based on my experience.

This book has been really helpful to write my own tools for image analysis, such as leaf area index estimations from digital images and microscopy imaging analysis.

I think that for people involved in image processing and analyisis, this book is a must.

This book educates the reader in image processing and MATLAB. While I am experienced in both, I found the book to be an extrememly useful reference book for projects involving image compression and image representation. The book offered practical descriptions and useful code for computing the fast wavelet transform. It was especially useful in describing how the edges should treated. This is a big issue that other textbooks gloss over. I had never seen it described in a textbook, and it was described so well.

The color image processing chapter is excellent, and the image processing chapter is pretty good. Lots of explanation and code.

While the book stands alone, it can also be seen as a useful companion book to the more theoretical "Digital Imaging Processing" by Gonzalez and Woods (2nd edition). This is a different book even though it has close to the same name.

Published in 2004, this book is a bit dated. A few of the software publishers mentioned have been merged, acquired or gone out of business and all the products still published have had multiple new editions released. None of this, however, reduces the utility of this fine introduction to digital scrapbooking.

The authors begin with the absolute basics and move onward from there, which for the beginner to scrapbooking, much less digital scrapbooking, is an excellent route to take.

They begin with a (pretty dated) review of digital photography and move on to the essentials of image editing. Layouts are next followed by using photographs creatively, which is where the book starts getting really interesting. From here they move onto adding and manipulating text elements, how to use filters, plug-ins and effects and more on image processing. More advanced topics include making your own elements to use in your creations, such as backgrounds, buttons, ribbons and fibers.

Overall, this is an excellent and very well done introduction to digital scrapbooking. It may be a bit on the older side (four years!) but is still an excellent way to get into the craft.

Jerry

This is it, the one book you need to learn digital scrapbooking. Sally gives you clear concise step-by-step instructions that will take you from the basics of digital scrapbooking to more advanced techniques.

Chapter by chapter you will build your skills. Then have fun with the CD full of digital scrapbooking supplies. Paint Shop Pro is a great digital scrapbooking program and Sally is definitely a GREAT Paint Shop Pro teacher!!

(Sally's other books are great as well.)

I purchased this book before I committed to a particular software and it was so helpful. I used it to practice with free trial copies of various softwares to help me decide which one I wanted to go with. The examples are great. The text is easy to follow and thorough. I am very satisfied with this book and learned everything I needed to get started and even do some advanced techniques!

I bought this book for a start in digital scrapbooking. It is great for teaching some of the basics, but I have Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0 and the latest it includes is 2.0. Quite a few of the operations have changed when trying to do such things at adding shadows and combining layers. Needless to say I had to buy another book for 4.0. This has some great ideas however and some good information on filters.

If you are thinking of making the move to digital scrapbooking you will do well to read this book by Sally Beacham and Lori J. Davis. Assuming that you have not committed to one image editor, the authors use five popular image editors in the examples throughout the book. They demonstrate the similarities and differences between Jasc Paint Shop Pro, Adobe Photoshop Elements, Microsoft Digital Image Pro, Serif Photo Plus and Ulead Photo Impact. But this book is not about imaging software. It is about digital scrapbooking.

The authors begin by discussing the pros and cons of digital scrapbooking and what you will need to get started. Besides showing how to make completely digital scrapbook pages, the authors also show many ways to integrate digital scrapbooking with traditional scrapbooking.

Next, they cover scanning photos into the computer and what can be done to correct and enhance your photos once they are in digital form. They discuss image corrections such as cropping, alignment, noise reduction, red eye removal and color correction.

The authors discuss two popular styles for scrapbook pages. The first style, faux-paper, emulates the textured paper, fibers, tags and other embellishments of traditional scrapbook pages. The second type, graphic design, has a more commercial look which emphasizes enhancement of photos and elaborate word art. They discuss how to use pre-designed layouts and how to design your own pages digitally.

Next, they begin to build a digital layout. They discuss color and how it should relate to and enhance your photos. Once you have chosen a color and texture for the background of your layout, you add your photos.

Text techniques and word art are a natural extension of digital scrapbooking. The authors discuss the importance of fonts and the digital effects that can be applied to the titles and journaling on your scrapbook pages.

There is a large section on plug-in filters and how they greatly expand the creativity of your image editing software. The special effects from these filters can be applied to your photos, digital background papers and embellishments.

The authors discuss how to save your digital page in the various formats for printing, burning to CD, emailing or posting on the web.

The accompanying CD contains several tutorials, clipart, over 100 fonts, trial versions of popular plug-in filters, sample layouts and page kits.

Lori J. Davis is a technical writer and author of many books on Paint Shop Pro. Sally Bracham is an author and teacher of Paint Shop Pro and related subjects.

July 2008
I originally reviewed this book in August 2005. Three years later I'm still turning to it for information. Still up to date, still usefull and still recommended.


August 2005
I've just read this book and found it to be a great resouce. In the introduction the author wrote that his " ... main aim was to provide a book that would help a complete novice shoot, edit, and output high-quality video ...." Ozer's intended audience is the person who has been given the responisibilty of creating instructional, training and corporate videos and needs to quickly learn how to do it. This is not a book for the person who wants a full time career in video, but rather for the worker who finds that this has been added to his or her job tasks. It may be a HR person who needs to make a video explaining new company policies, a teacher who needs to shoot a lecture, or a salesperson who needs to "interview" an engineer about the latest and greatest widget he's going to sell. While Ozer does not cover shooting weddings, news gathering, or documentaries, the techniques and methods learnt here can be used in making those as well as videos for family and friends.

Ozer makes four basic assumptions about the reader:
* They are working alone.
* They have only one camcorder.
* They are editing digitally.
* They are producing for professional distribution.

The three shooting scenarios covered are:
*Executive Briefing - a single person, facing the camera delivering a message to an audience.
*Interview - asking questions of one person.
*Discussion / Training - asking questions of two or more people who may be interacting with each other.

The first section of the book covers capturing audio and video, and lighting. Realizing that the reader may not have the budget of a major television network, he confines his discussion of these things to finding inexpensive solutions.

His next section covers workflow, editing and converting dv video to streaming video and DVDs. The book is not tied to one specific editing program or operating system. Specific instructions for different editors for each chapter can be downloaed from the author's web site. I found his discussion on choosing codecs for publishing to DVD or the web the best I've read. For once I have a roadmap to follow that I can understand.

Finally he covers distribution by using video in presentations, streaming and using closed captions. For those in education there is a great introduction to creating closed-caption text and why it's different from simply adding sub-titles.

It gives you practical information on such things as shot lists, lighting, audio and how to shoot an interview when you are both the interviewer and camerperson. This is a book about shooting in the field, not in the studio.

Highly recommended.

I had to read this book as part of a multimedia course that I took. The information for me as an IT educator was just what I needed. Jan takes the time to explain things in a level that we all can grasp. His pictures also are extremely helpful in reinforcing the concepts. He also adds humor (self-deprecating at times) which I enjoyed. I can appreciate that after going through a list of codecs. As a fellow college instructor I would love to take one of his face-to-face classes!

I'm not a pro videographer -- I got this book to help me take better video at my church, and at home and on some ocassional business videos. I thought I needed separate books on lighting, audio and how to shoot and edit the video itself, but this book tells me what I need to know with screenshots and illustrations that make it easy to understand. The first chapter in particular, "mastering the video shoot" illustrates some common techniques - where to place the camera, where to place the subject in the camera - that have improved my videos immensely. Highly recommended.

Libraries need to interview and archive footage from their interesting seniors, scouts need to capture their jamborees, and coaches need to focus on what is going right (and wrong) with their team. The list goes on forever, and all those volunteers out there doing the heavy lifting need to read this book, mark the pages and follow the steps! Jan Orzer's book is really saving me from a lot of errors, steering me in the right direction and giving me the confidence to try. If I follow the directions that he illustrates so well (and humorously) I expect to produce video that teaches, entertains and maybe even inspires the viewer. I have never taken a formal course and am finding my way as an amateur, but so far, with Jan's help, I am getting there with better results than I deserve to have, so this book is very good value, and I highly recommend it.

DV 101 is an easy book to get your arms around, whether you're a video newbie, or someone looking for a refresher course. The downloadable supplementary workbooks carry on the tradition of feeding you just the information you need, and nothing more. Corporate budgets being what they are today, chances are your department will not have funding for a large production staffed with pro videographers. I think you will find DV 101 an indispensable guide to real-world techniques that work without breaking the bank. From a business user's perspective, I can say Jan Ozer's book provides the information you'll need to produce respectable results that will delight both your target audience and your CFO.

I love this book. It's a robust mix of exercises and software how-to, unique among all the FCP books I've read. I'm very glad to have it in my library.

I wrote this to Wolsky, might as well share it with the world:
Hi, guys. I met you at the fcpug last Weds and bought a (signed!) copy of your book. I haven't started to do the tutorial yet but I can't put the book down. It's so clear and easy to understand, and I'm already implementing the stuff I've picked up just from reading, "Now, did he say.... option X? Oh, wow, it works." It's the best book I've seen and I tend to look at everything in hopes that where one person confuses me another will set me straight. Anyway, this is a fan letter. And the writing is extraordinarily fine, literate and grammatical. Thank you.

The author is candid in his discussion about editing with Final Cut Pro. The most valuable information to me was his numerious comparisons between FCP and other editing software. For example, he points out those areas where other programs might be stronger in certain areas than FCP and specifies those programs. I read the book cover to cover and continually refer back to it as a guide and inspiratoin when editing.

Reading many, if not most, software instruction books, is akin to being clubbed by a thousand hammers...overload, overload. They are constructed as reference books, but one has to fight through tons on incidental material to figure out how to use the program.

Tom Wolsky's Final Cut Pro 2 book is, instead, a precise tool, which gets you cutting in no time. Wolsky's credits list him as an editor and a teacher, and his book make it clear he is outstanding in both regards.

At first glance you might think that this book is the same as the other FCP click-step books for the manual-adverse. You'd be wrong. Tom has crafted an excellent instructional work that richly supplements, rather than reiterates, Apple's enormous, exhaustive FCP 2 manual. Certainly he has featured many pages of clear dance-step instruction throughout the book. But, more noteworthy, Tom also incorporates a great deal of contextual insight into why certain features might be useful to the reader and draws upon his professional experience to give readers insights into the professional post-production process.

This book quickly became the mainstay of my FCP editing library. The only feature that would improve upon it is a spiral binding enabling it to lie flat while open!

I was going to avoid reviewing this book because I'm too close to the authors and my copy was free so I thought I would be too biased, but the book merits a stellar review...bias aside.

Generator concepts are in bite size chunks and easy to follow, yet not so easy that they bore the reader. The book follows a natural progression in complexity and will be usefull to developers of all experience levels stepping up to the Generator plate.

The level at which the author's stand in the developer community gives them the opportunity to bestow their knowledge in "we know it all" manner, but instead they maintain a humbleness that says "hey, we're just developers like you who've had a lot more time on our hands."

Chock full of all the essentials, and the non-essentials, this book is a must have for the Generator developer (or the developer wanna-be) and looks to have a long shelf life.

Chris, Phil, Mike-nice work!

Finally someone to really take the shrink wrap off two of the best tools in the business. It shouldn't surprise anyone that the eccentric behind flashenabled.com would be able to show all of us common men how to take the next step with Flash and Generator. Awesome.

I was going to avoid reviewing this book because I'm too close to the authors and my copy was free so I thought I would be too biased, but the book merits a stellar review...bias aside.

Generator concepts are in bite size chunks and easy to follow, yet not so easy that they bore the reader. The book follows a natural progression in complexity and will be usefull to developers of all experience levels stepping up to the Generator plate.

The level at which the author's stand in the developer community gives them the opportunity to bestow their knowledge in "we know it all" manner, but instead they maintain a humbleness that says "hey, we're just developers like you who've had a lot more time on our hands."

Chock full of all the essentials, and the non-essentials, this book is a must have for the Generator developer (or the developer wanna-be) and looks to have a long shelf life.

Chris, Phil, Mike-nice work!

Want to learn Generator? This is it, bar none!
As a Generator and Flash trainer I always look for good material to add to class for future reading, this book will not only top the list but will be integrated into all future classes. Having used Generator since 1.0 I thought I knew many of the tricks but this book showed me a few that I have never seen before and will use immediately.
If nothing else know that the authors are top of their game and that the material for this book matches their excellence.

This book is a must-have resource for anyone interested in working with Generator. Mike, Phillip, and Chris not only know their stuff, but they did a great job at sharing their knowledge in a way that even a novice can understand. They are able to share their real-world experience, and make using Generator just a little (maybe even a lot?) more palatable for the average Flash user.

What can podcasting do for a business? That's the wrong question to ask, say Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson. Like any communication tool, podcasting should be applied as a solution, not as a goal in and of itself. "Podcasting ought to come up in larger discussions about ways to reach audiences, to convey particular messages, or to address specific situations and problems," they advise.
Hobson and Holtz are internationally known business communicators, bloggers, and consultants.
Besides detailing all the technical aspects of podcasting, Hobson and Holtz preach the gospel of strategic planning. Thinking about producing a podcast? First, address the question: What outcomes are you trying to achieve? Would it serve as a marketing vehicle, or to supplement public relations and financial communications, or to enhance customer relations, or to enhance customer support? And how will you measure the success of your efforts?
They offer many examples of podcasting done well. Purina's Animal Advice podcast, for example, provides information pet owners can use; it does not `sell product.' Stanford University podcasts offer faculty lectures, interviews, music, and sports content. Target groups include students and alums. IBM's The Future Of .... Podcast reaches investors and features interviews with engineers, product managers, and others in the trenches--not with PR or marketing staff.

Shel and Neville's book should be required reading for anyone who does a podcast, everyone who's thinking about doing a podcast, even for anyone who listens to podcasts.

They cover all the "nuts and bolts" in an easy-to-read, conversational style. They cover all the tech stuff, like hardware and software, making it understandable for even the non-techies among us. They explain the actual recording and editing process as well as how to get your efforts heard.

More important, at least for me, they go into great detail about the reasons WHY to podcast. They discuss podcasting as a business tool and how it fits into the overall communication plan.

If you wonder about Shel and Neville's credentials, check out their "For Immediate Release" podcast. It's produced twice each week (Monday and Thursday) with Shel normally being in California and Neville in England. But, both men travel for their respective businesses, so they're likely to both be in hotel rooms, halfway around the globe from each other. Yet their podcasts come off without a hitch (usually).

I can't imagine anyone getting into podcasting without reading this book.

This is an excellent, valuable, thorough, well-written resource. No relection on the authors or the book, but I made the mistake of paying for an "Amazon Upgrade" for this title (supposedly enabling online reading and use of the book in addition to the physical book). The text looks like somebody hosed it down (blurry, and the more you zoom, the blurrier it gets). Ditto for the images (text within the images is totally illegible.

This book was all I needed to get set up for my first podcast. I am one of those types who can't just settle for the basics, which can be an expensive problem. But this book will get anyone who is budget-conscious up and running with less than $100 out of pocket, assuming you at least have a computer.

If you are looking for some expertise about equipment or how to set up your rig in the studio, this is not the book for you. You might want to look for a book about home recording or even professional broadcasting. I have to give these authors big kudos though, this really is everything you need to know about *the basics* of podcasting. If that's what you need to know, you won't go wrong with this book. Oh yeah, it is very well-written and easy to read also.

Disclaimer: As a contributor to the authors' podcast, For Immediate Release, I might be expected to have a biased opinion. I do, but I also held the book to the standards of their podcast and their blogs. If it hadn't been good, I would have been seriously disappointed.

But not to worry, it's good.

Naming a book "How to Do Everything with Podcasting" is ambitious, but that was the publisher's choice. They have a whole series of "How to Do Everything" books. And while there might be things you can do with podcasting that aren't covered in the book, it's impressively comprehensive.

I particularly appreciated the details about sound editing in Chapter 9 when I had to assemble the interviews from the iMeme conference. (It helped, but with background noise as bad as that, there's not a lot you can do if you don't use a directional mic in the first place.) The only omission I'm aware of in that section is a reference to the Levelator, an amazing tool every podcaster should have. (It's free, too. Gigavox invented it in self-defense.)

I imagine many people will head straight to Part IV, "Make Money with Your Podcast," but I really appreciated Part V, "Use a Podcast as a Business Communication Tool." These 65 pages are pure gold for any podcast evangelist operating in either the corporate or small-business world. Shel and Neville start by pointing out that creating a podcast is not a business goal. Rather, podcasting is a tool that can serve a purpose in the business' overall strategy. If your company starts podcasting "because everyone else is doing it," the podcast is not likely to be a success.

There's also an appendix about legal considerations for podcasters, one listing podcasting resources, and a podcasting glossary to help you sort out the jargon. And to keep up to date (because things on the Web change so quickly), there's a website for the book at EverythingwithPodcasting.com. You can find Shel's mix-minus instructional video (for recording Skype calls without echoes) and a whole lot of other good stuff--including a long list of links to podcasts.

Three cheers and five stars, guys.

SRG

This book served as a guide to go from not knowing anything about iMovie to being able to create a large slideshow project. I ordered another guide first and couldn't get off square one. This guide allowed me from starting at no knowledge to understanding well enough to get my job done. The iMovie icon sat on my desktop for years before this book opened it's utility. A small and worthwhile investment to get the most out of this software. It has even given me the bug to get a camcorder and move from photography to videography.

I love this book. Its so easy to read and informative that it'll suit any age! Its an easy way to get the know-how on Imovie and Idvd and also helps seasoned ammatures (like myself) brush up on the commands and answers any questions you might have.

As digital video cameras spawn in the hands of you, me, parents and tourists like cockroaches in my kitchen we find ourselves needing the kind of technical and aesthetic help not really seen since the advent of `desktop publishing'. Once again a `Missing Manual' has come to my help. `iMovie 3 & iDVD: The Missing Manual' is an excellent book.

I previously reviewed iPhoto2: The Missing Manual and said "The target audience for this book would probably be a little less technical than myself, however when I find myself in a field I don't understand well I don't mind a little stuff for the absolute newbie" -- and once again this is true. iMovie 3 & iDVD: The Missing Manual finds me in an area where I am technically inferior. Once again I truly appreciated this book and its style.

The book is broken up into four sections, one devoted to video cameras and shooting a movie, a large one on editing in iMovie 3, and smaller sections on exporting out of iMovie 3 and on using iDVD. At the end are two useful appendices: the first is a menu-by-menu look at iMovie 3, and the second is an iMovie 3 troubleshooting guide. The latter is often needed and always useful -- iMovie 3 still has more than one bug.

The first section gives a great deal of incredibly useful information about video cameras and how to use them, including hints on various types of shooting such as sporting events, interviews and weddings. The technical information on cameras is perfect if you have yet to buy a camera, including a guide to which features are essential and which unnecessary as you can do the same thing (only better) in iMovie 3. When it goes on to the `how to shoot' section, you get pretty much the same advice you'll get anywhere, but since we didn't really read all of from the last book on video we read (and forgot half the bits we did read) it's nice to have it there again.

The second section does a good job of explaining the details of iMovie 3, even down to some of its shortcomings and bugs. I also appreciated the way it spent as much time on improving the quality of the finished film as it did telling me how to use the various parts of the software. It follows a logical sequence through the movie-making process, giving good details on how iMovie does the job, how to get the best result and what sort of things to avoid -- particularly useful for things like transitions and effects when less is best.

The third section, titled "Finding Your Audience," is a bit more of a problem. It really has nothing to do with finding an audience and a lot more to do with QuickTime. The section first spends ten pages telling us how to get our edited film back onto the camcorder or onto a VCR, then it spends a lot of time dealing with exporting to QuickTime, including posting movies to the web and some info on using the QuickTime player, including some "tricks" with QuickTime Player Pro.

The attention to the finished product in the second section carries through to the fourth section on iDVD, though the writing here is not quite as good. It is incredibly informative, however. I learned a great deal about putting together all sorts of iDVD projects, including ways of customizing almost every aspect of the finished product.

O'Reilly have the usual marketing stuff on their website while Pogue Press have the handy little Missing CD section with links to all the free and shareware software mentioned in the book. Neither has a sample chapter or the table of contents.

One of the drawbacks of getting free software is that we don't get good free documentation. One of the benefits of free software is that we can choose which `documentation' to buy. Some people might prefer the style of the `Dummies' books, others the style of Peachpit's Visual Quickstart Guide. I've had a look at all three and like the balance of depth and explanation that Pogue has in his `Missing Manual' series. I once again find myself recommending a `Missing Manual' to everyone. While catering to the beginner, this book goes deep enough that all but the most long-term user of these two pieces of software will find something to learn in this volume.

Yup. This book really made using iMovie for the first time a walk in the park.
Wiht absolutely no prior experience in this sort of stuff (the closest I've come is Photoshop Elements), I was able to, on the first try, make a music video of my son's first christmas.
I was then able to convert an old videotape from the late 70's into a gleaming, groovy DVD.
The book is well laid out, easy to navigate and above all, usable.
It's a five-star manual, no doubt about it.

I bought this book as an afterthought when I started using I-Movie. At first, like most of us, I thought--hey, I can use I-movie intuitively without a manual...but after my Imovie 3.0 crashed and corrupted the movie I'd been working on for 100+ hours, I was eternally grateful to have it nearby. This manual is wonderfully organized, very easy-to-understand, and answers virtually every question you could have about I-Movie and I-DVD. It walks you through everything from how to shoot footage that is eye-appealing...to editing it to a work-of-art in I-movie...to converting it to a Quicktime video and/or burning it to DVD. It is honestly one of the best manuals I've ever used for anything---clear, concise, yet comprehensive. Thanksfully, you don't need to read the whole book in order to "get started" with I-movie; rather, it's a great tool to pick up on an "as needed" basis while you're editing. This book is definitely worth the small investment. It truly is "the missing manual" for I-movie. O'Reilley has done it again...great job!

you know, i'm pretty much sick of what the world today has to offer. if i see another Gap or Nordstrom or Slick-Chic sitcom that tries to tell me what i should be, look like, or do (as in "Don't Think For Yourself-Let ABC") i'll choke myself with my own vomit.

Deliberately.

for weeks, i've been nervous about a painting project that's about to come to fruition, i've felt a void begin to eat in my comedy work, i've stopped drinking.

i'm dry.

then, in the mail, i get this gift-this wonderful gift a friend who works in a tie sent me.

"i know you- you'll love this book..." he said to me when it arrived.

and i did.

i'm a Carver fan, an Estep worshipper, a woman who adorrres Bukowski. a faithful commercial-book hater- to Sydney Sheldon i give the finger and the miserable like that dominates the Best Seller list that has to do with that form of smarmy apologia.

it takes alot- fiction or non- to impress me, make me want to write.

Gareth has done that very thing.

in a simply divine, concise use of language, i felt like he was taking me on this heathen-ess tour of areas to infiltrate the media. play with it. no longer try to fight being a consumer puppet-but showed me the way to help sever the strings.

i knew of some but never really put myself in a position, even in my imagination, to really be able to do it myself.

DIY publishing.

zine-dom.

pirate radio.

...Jamming The Media.....

i ripped through this book, read parts over and over again til it sank in if it needed to, began scribbling notes first in the book, then my notebook, then on my drawing board... (yes, i really do have one )

now instead of searching for free pictures of naked people and their friends on the Internet, i am actually up till 2 and 3 in the morning with something constructive.

i'm Jamming The Media...heh-heh-heh...

His book helped show me where to find the plug to HAL.

all i got to do now is pull....

thank you, Gareth.....

In his book, Jamming the Media: A Citizen's Guide Reclaiming the Tools of Communication, Gareth Branwyn writes about an alternative media, a Do It Yourself (DIY) media, where everybody can produce high quality messages from their desktops. He talks about every kind of medium from zines, which are noncommercial amateur publications, to the most modern multimedia technologies. In every chapter, he provides a "starter kit and resources" section to encourage the reader to experiment with the making of zines, music recordings, multimedia CD-ROMs, WebPages, TV, films, videos, radio and other kinds of bizarre media.

The media, as an institution, have changed their role to an interactive, public access space where everybody can participate. With passion and a particular writing style, Branwyn gives the recipe, step by step, of how to design, produce, package, distribute and promote written, audio, visual and even animate messages. Moreover, he opens the reader's mind to create a new kind of message full of feelings and expressions that crosses the barrier of conventional and commercial media. Talking about media pranks and art hacks, Branwyn affirms: "Anything that's out of the ordinary or worthy of a sound bite will find its way into the local and national media (albeit shoved into a little suffocating compartment)" (p. 248).

The author introduces his book giving an explanation on how the development of new technologies has contributed to the creation of powerful personal computers that can now be used as "a full-color publishing house, a broadcast-quality TV studio, a sound recording studio, or an island in the digital oceans of the cyberspace" (p.13). He then talks about zines, as an easy and funny way to get on the bus in this DIY media. Starting with a brief history of the print media, he tells some anecdotes about how "Factsheet Five", the mother of all zines, started as a two-sheets zine, distributed among twenty-five people, and converted into a nation-spread zine that can also be found over the internet. But Gareth Branwyn not only lays in theory. As in every chapter, when talking about zines, he develops "The Zine Hacker's Starter Kit", where he teaches many different ways of how to create a homemade a zine or other types of media with a very low budget. Other interesting sections are "Words of Wisdom", where specialists about each topic give advice on how can you communicate a message in a properly way, and "Resources", a practical guide with books, directories, catalogs and net sites, where the reader can learn more about each subject.

But DIY media applies not only to print or visual media, but also to the audio. "Never Mind the Music Biz" is the chapter where the author discusses DIY tape recording as an accessible way of self-publishing music productions. Musicians can now stop their search for big record companies to finance their projects. Instead, they can not only produce but also distribute their recordings by mail and by on-line sites (Web Pages with downloadable samples). Furthermore, he introduces other kinds of unconventional audio recordings as audio zines, which are compilations of music, rants, poetry, essays and other sounds.

Talking about audiovisual media, the author also has the answers to how to make high-quality multimedia, like CD-ROMs and broadcast media, like TV, video and film. To combine interactive text, sounds, video, animations and images, Branwyn proposes the CD- ROM. "It's like touring an art gallery" (p. 130), he affirms. Thanks to the use of multimedia technologies, an art multimedia publication, can become a fascinating documentary about the authors life, with video or audio interviews, entertaining games, an original soundtrack and even an interactive paint program. In addition, the CD-ROM technology "is moving into hybrid media" (p. 129), where the disc's content can be combined with on-line data. TV, video and film production, is another type of affordable media for the public. There is a big movement of amateur artists who are proud of making great movies with very low-budgets. Branwyn can convince anybody with some interesting ideas to communicate, to become one of those. One more time, he has all the answers to jump into the visual medium.

Finally, "Media Pranks and Art Hacks" is an interesting chapter were for Gareth Branwyn, the art and different ways of communication have no frontiers. As an example, he talks about "mail art", a kind of noncommercial art that consists in sending a letter to many diverse regions, allowing "people from diverse cultures and walks of life to share art, ideas, and information through the postal system"(p. 270).

I consider Jamming the Media a powerful handbook that should be read by anyone both in and out the communications business. Branwyn theory about how today's technology is reshaping traditional media culture is completely right. People can now open their minds in order to change their role from passive receivers, to active communicators. At least it was able to open mine. My next step is to install an old computer in my room in order to have a server where I can have my own Web Pages and distribute my neighbor's music band over the Internet. Moreover, it encourages me to continue producing short documentaries and enriching my experience in the audiovisual field. Furthermore, I particularly enjoy the author's writing style, with a clear use of the language, a particular bizarre vocabulary and a really attractive design.

The media is rightfully ours. The airwaves are actually owned by the American people. (Here in the US) The FCC "lends" them out to companies, organizations and such. The corporate monsters have stolen the airwaves from the general public that gave it to them.

So, it is right that we should be able to use our first amendment rights to use the media to express ourselves.

Pirate radio or microradio, zines, public access television, the Internet, tapes and CD's. It is not about money, it's about expressing viewpoints.

This book shows us how. It's a bit old (1997), but it's still a good reference.

Free DC! (Taxation without representation is against the law!)

This book is the bomb - it is an engaging read, and an indispensable reference. Whenever I have doubt about any of the projects I'm involved in, I open this book and take strength. Clear layout, comprehensive content, and inspiring ideas. A toolkit for media hackers, pranksters, or for anyone who needs to grok our role in media today.

Jamming the Media is packed with concise, useful information. The format of the book is designed to treat media types in a consistent fashion. At the end of each chapter, Branwyn offers starter Kits and Resources. The information is invaluable. An excellent writing style, cool format, and great references make this book a nice addition for anyone with an interest in media.

Topics covered: zines, music, multimedia, broadcasting ("pirate radio"), shortwave listening, media pranks -- this is a funny chapter, and electronic publishing.

The book was nothing like I expected. I expected a traditional treatment of using the media. Instead, this book has helped open whole new avenues of media expression. The book is not a how to manual; it is a how to think manual. Excellent work and a nice surprise.