Information Books

I have only been through 2 chapters and learned so much already. You need to read it slowly to absorb the material. FAH

For my daughter I bought the whole of these books. This Outlook addition has been a good help for her. I recommend this for anyone

The colorful comic book cover of this book quickly grabbed my attention. The content of the book really doesn't have much to do with the comic character theme. The book is broken up into small lessons, which is good for someone like myself with a short attention span. This book is very easy to read and very well written, yet it is filled with a lot of humorous examples. I never thought I could enjoy reading a book about Microsoft Outlook, but I've got to admit this one made me laugh out loud at times.

Oh yes, it also comes with a very cool CD-ROM, so you can practice all of the examples on your computer without having to actually the program installed.

For millions of users, Microsoft Outlook is how they read and write email. This book explains in easy steps the many features endowed in it. Each chapter is divided into short lessons, with a lesson typically spanning no more than 3 pages. The intent is that a lesson is a very bite-sized set of steps that you can readily comprehend in a few minutes. Regular readers of O'Reilly books will recognise this as similar to their Hacks series in format. Though the Custom Guide books are more vivid, shall we say?

To me, the most interesting lesson was how Outlook deals with spam. The book said earlier versions of Outlook used a filter "that was almost worthless". But the current filter is asserted to be much improved. Though the details are proprietary, it appears to be some type of Bayesian with other techniques like a white list. The subject is scarcely closed. The lesson says that third party filters can also be used, to improve spam detection.

It is a great book if you have never used Outlook and you don't need the software on your computer.

The lessons contained on the disc are very detailed and easy to understand as you are walked through. After each lessons there is a quiz to make sure you understand the fundamentals contained in the lesson. The other good thing is you can use the lessons as many times as you like as you can reset the disc. Installation was easy just requiring you to put it in your CD drive.

It is a self paced system and after using it I definitely felt confident. For people learning at home without being on a shared server you can also complete this lesson for shared mailboxes and meeting requests.

Despite the widespread controversy surrounding the outsourcing of information security, organizations must understand and consider what costs and benefits are incurred and gained, respectively. Author C. Warren Axelrod has done an outstanding job of presenting the controversy surrounding the intersection of the two most dynamic, difficult, and controversial areas of information technology today, namely, outsourcing and security.

Axelrod begins this book by defining the scope of the treatment of the joint topics of outsourcing and security. Next, the author lays out the range of information security risk that are confronted daily, whether an activity is outsourced or not. Then, he looks at the risk of outsourcing. In addition, the author describes in detail the categories of costs and benefits. He also describes how the outsourcing costs and benefits relate to the Request for Information (RFI) and Request for Proposal (RFP) processes. Then, he looks at the outsourcing evaluation process that takes place once the information has been collected and sorted. The author then delves into the specific security considerations that affect the outsourcing decision and how they should be handled. Finally, he summarizes the full flow of the outsourcing evaluation and decision processes.

With the preceding in mind, the author has done an excellent job of presenting how outsourcing opportunities have become a continuous process as new services become available, new services of those services appear, and business takes on more of a global aspect. At the end of the day, it behooves a nimble organization in a competitive market to keep its outsourcing options open and its ability to evaluate choices finely tuned..

This book provides a great overview of the issues surrounding the decision to outsource information security and also gets into specific issues and recommendations chapter by chapter. Outsourcing Information Security is written clearly and concisely; making it easy to read given the depth and sophistication of the subject matter covered.

The author is truly an expert and shares important anecdotes from his own experiences that all can learn from. This is not a sugar-coated diatribe about the bliss of outsourcing, nor is it a condemnation of companies that use these strategies. This work gets to the heart of the matter from a balanced and measured point of view; leaving the reader to decide for him or herself, if they should consider outsourcing information security.

I would highly recommend this book for anyone who is interested in this subject and is responsible for making key technology decisions on behalf of their organizations.

There are a bunch of reasons to outsource information security. You can get specialists who have a broader range of experience than your own company. You can get an outside view of everything from how to read the various logs your system puts out to what anti-virus program to install. There may be a cost savings to have someone else be monitoring your systems along with several other companies at the same time.

There are a bunch of reasons that you don't want to outsource information security. When it hits the fan, you are still the one responsible (especially so now with Sarbanes-Oxley in force, the real rules of which we still do not understand and won't until it's been to court a few times). You have more control over your own people, and you can much more carefully monitor them. This is especially true if the outside company has reduced its cost by establishing the monitoring center in some place like India. You can much more easily check to see if your new employee has just come from a few years vacation in Marion, Illinois.

It would be interesting to see how outsourcing information security would be treated by upper management. It's a cinch that they wouldn't understand enough to make a valid decision. You have to make the decision yourself, and unfortunately then you have to live with it.

This book is just about the only one on this subject. The author reports on some good situations, and some that didn't turn out so well. If this is a decision you have to make, here's at least a good start.

When it comes to the outsourcing of information security functions specifically, the situation is even worse. Far too few organizations know the inherent risks involved with outsourcing security, and don't properly investigate what they are getting into. The same company that makes it nearly impossible for an employee to enter the office supply closet to get much needed toner cartridge will outsource their intrusion detection, email and firewall systems without a blink.

One of the many reasons companies turn to security outsourcing and managed security services providers (MSSP) is to use their limited internal security staff for more interesting areas such as web development, VPN and e-commerce applications. They will then outsource the boring activities such as firewall and IDS monitoring and maintenance to a MSSP.

Given that activities such as firewall monitoring and administering an IDS in large enterprise requires 24/7 support, it is not unusual for a company to want to outsource such activities; monitoring and administering are not core functions of most organizations.

The trouble comes from the lack of due care often given to choosing a MSSP. With that, Outsourcing Information Security is a long-overdue book that asks the questions that are necessary before an organization decides to outsource any information security function.

The author's general tone is against the outsourcing of information security; but provides readers with the various benefits and risks involved in outsourcing security, and let's them ultimate decide if outsourcing security is right for their organization. It is the reader who must define, evaluate and manage those risks and determine if outsourcing is a viable solution. These include technology, business and legal risks.

The book comprises nine chapters and three appendices totaling a bit under 250 pages. The first two chapters provide a good introduction to and overview of outsourcing and information security, and the associated security risks.

Chapter 3 details various reasons why outsourcing information security makes sense. The chapter includes various tables and references to the many reasons why a company would want to outsource security.

Chapter 4 takes the other side and analyzes the risks of outsourcing. The chapter details the traditional risks, in addition to other factors such as hidden costs, broken promises, phantom benefits and more. The book shows that while many organizations hand over information security responsibility to their MSSP, when things go wrong, they can't effectively blame the MSSP. When things go wrong -- and they will -- all of the fingers in the world can be pointed at the MSSP, but the ultimate responsibility falls on the organization itself. With outsourced security, if something goes wrong, those fingers will point back to the company's security manager, not the incompetent firewall administrator in Bangalore.

The chapter provides a balanced look at the risk of outsourcing, and while calm in its overall approach, the chapter should at least make the person considering outsourcing information security think twice. In fact, the author concludes the chapter by stating "when all of the risks of outsourcing are considered, one wonders how anyone ever makes the decision to use a third party." Nonetheless, there is plenty of evidence that many security activities are indeed outsourced to MSSP, and are often satisfactory from both the buyer's and seller's perspective.

Chapters 5 and 6 provide a thorough summary of the costs and benefits of outsourcing, and provides a method with which to categorize them. The chapter is well suited for a CFO with its discussion of direct vs. indirect costs, controllable vs. non-controllable costs, and much more. These two chapters show that creating meaningful financial numbers to see if outsourcing makes financial sense is not such an easy task. It is important to understand that outsourcing sometimes makes financial sense, but certainly not all the time. For those organizations that don't crunch the numbers seriously at the beginning, these costs can later come back to haunt them in a big way.

Chapters 7 and 8 detail the processes involved in commencing an outsourcing project, from requirements gathering to placing policy against the outsourced company. A mistake many organizations make is failure to ensure that the MSSP is abiding by the client's information security policies, rather than their own.

Similarly, one of the most overlooked areas of outsourcing information security functionality is regulation. A U.S. company may be under numerous regulations, from HIPAA to Sarbanes-Oxley, GLBA, SEC and more; when they outsource their security functionality, the remote technician may not be under the jurisdiction of the SEC; but the corporate data still must be protected according to those regulations.

The main part of the book concludes with chapter 9, which provides a 20-step process to determine if an outsourced security solution is appropriate. In seven pages, the author specifies the various events, tasks and steps that make up the typical outsourcing project.

Appendix A provides a breakdown of the various services that can be outsourced, with Appendices B & C providing brief histories of IT Outsourcing and Information Security.

The only downside to the book is its $85.00 price, which is at the high-end for technology and business books. While the price is high, the book is a huge value for anyone considering outsourcing security. The book asks the questions that are often never asked, and details how the outsourcing of information security is not the slam-dunk that the MSSPs often portray it to be.

For those who know what their security issues are and look to outsource their security functionality to a trusted MSSP, Outsourcing Information Security shows how it can be done. On the other side, for those who are drunk with the panacea that outsourcing security is supposed to provide, Outsourcing Information Security will be a sobering wake-up call.

There are a bunch of reasons to outsource information security. You can get specialists who have a broader range of experience than your own company. You can get an outside view of everything from how to read the various logs your system puts out to what anti-virus program to install. There may be a cost savings to have someone else be monitoring your systems along with several other companies at the same time.

There are a bunch of reasons that you don't want to outsource information security. When it hits the fan, you are still the one responsible (especially so now with Sarbanes-Oxley in force, the real rules of which we still do not understand and won't until it's been to court a few times). You have more control over your own people, and you can much more carefully monitor them. This is especially true if the outside company has reduced its cost by establishing the monitoring center in some place like India. You can much more easily check to see if your new employee has just come from a few years vacation in Marion, Illinois.

It would be interesting to see how outsourcing information security would be treated by upper management. It's a cinch that they wouldn't understand enough to make a valid decision. You have to make the decision yourself, and unfortunately then you have to live with it.

This book is just about the only one on this subject. The author reports on some good situations, and some that didn't turn out so well. If this is a decision you have to make, here's at least a good start.

Outstanding work with clear illustrations and examples of how to improve your library research. I learned more about library research in this book than in all my years pursuing a doctorate degree.

A MUST have for anyone who spends time in the library. You do not have to be a professional researcher or academician to get useful tools from this book. My kids have read the book as well, and their research projects for school improved dramatically.

I strongly recommend this book is you plan any research projects in the future.

Dr. Mann really pulls out the stops with this excellent reference guide. After 18 years at the LoC he knows the tricks!

The third edition of Thomas Mann's "Oxford Guide to Library Research" is an indispensable friend for students and scholars, or anyone in the general public who has a hobby, a pet project or just the desire to know, and wants not only to improve their research skills but to learn - and take full advantage of - all the resources available to the library researcher in the Computer Age. When the second edition of the "Oxford Guide" was published, all the way back in 1998, computer programs in libraries were pretty much limited to a catalogue of a library's holdings, a smattering of databases perhaps, and Internet access, maybe. Dr. Mann unfolds the riches that may now be found at library workstations and the new ways to find the best on its shelves.

And you can't hope for a better guide. A reference librarian in the Main Reading Room of the Library of Congress for 25 years, Dr. Mann's firsthand experience in helping patrons get the most out of their library experience is evident in this book. While some would consign libraries and the outmoded technology they were built to house (known as books) to the dustbin, Dr. Mann reveals how computers have done more for library research and serious scholars than for the search for general, often disorganized and unreliable, "information" on the Web.

In the early days of computerization there was a popular acronym for the uncertain results of Internet searching, GIGO (Garbage In Garbage Out). It has been supplanted nowadays by the kinder, gentler "I feel lucky" or, for the happy-go-lucky, the "sloppy search." Use these methods, whether on a search engine or a library computer catalogue, you'll likely lwind up with thousands of hits. (Good luck.) But here's Thomas Mann to the rescue. In his chapters on subject headings, on keyword searches and on Boolean combinations and search limitations, he sets out to help you define your subject concisely and precisely, and choose the search methods that will get you to the best sources for your project, instead of settling for what is "good enough." (Is it?)

In "The Oxford Guide to Library Research" you will learn how the indexed subheadings in a subject browse on the library computer catalogue can turn up unexpected sources - instant bibliographies, so to speak - that are just right for your topic, as well as how to negotiate such as the electronic databases with full-text articles from thousands of journals and newspapers. The rest of the book is devoted to the range of print and electronic resources: the specialized encyclopedias on topics that you would never imagine have encyclopedias of their own; microform and CD-ROM databases; online programs that can locate books in a more distant library if it turns out that what you seek is not available in your local branch. An innovation in this edition of the "Oxford Guide" is facsimiles of the actual search pages of major databases to illustrate examples in the text. His invaluable chapter, "Hidden Treasures," has grown by half again from the one in the second edition, now noting print collections that are also available in online databases, as well as a selection of collections exclusive to the web.

Dr. Mann's major goal is to get you to the sources you want, and ones you don't yet know you want, in the most direct and effective way; to make you think, not like a librarian, but as someone with a specific personal research goal, and to give you the knowledge and skills to accomplish it. He peppers the book with anecdotes from his firsthand experiences with researchers, the college student, the accomplished professor and the weekend scholar, while relating information in a conversational, descriptive fashion with sparing use of professional jargon. With "The Oxford Guide to Library Research" at hand when you get to work on your next project, you may discover that doing the research for it is half the fun of getting there. Or, maybe, all of it.

This is a terrific book for anyone interested in books and finding information. The author works at the Library of Congress, and has extensive experience looking for information of all kinds. he uses both print and electronic sources, and both to great advantage. His tips on using ordinary sources are exceptional; for example, did you know that the AMERICANA often prints important American speeches in their entirety? If you are a book lover, this is a useful guide, which you will use for a long time.

Besides being packed with information that will aid research at any level, it is an enjoyable read as well.

This book covers a lot of ground. It is generally considered to be one of the two (along with Honor Bound) major accounts of the POW experience in Vietnam. Unlike "Honor Bound" this book is not published by the Navy Press.

While writing a long article on a particular POW I was able to use this book as an excellent guide to the various timelines, facilities and actual implementations of the Code of Conduct. The book does not seek to be damning, except in one case where 8 men are named as total turncoats charged by their Sr. Ranking Officer with treason.

The book is smooth reading, but long. It is possible that this could be the only POW book many people will ever need.

As the title states, this is a definitive exploration of the experience of US heroes while in Vietnam captivity. Hubble's research is exemplary. The book is fact based with little bias. If one is interested in this topic, then this is the FIRST book they should read - from there, the reader can find particular people/topics of interest and branch out. The next book to read is "Honor Bound" by Rochester and Kiley - a later text using declasified sources. In reading these two books, a reader will come to understand the POW experience in Vietnam and appreciate America's TRUE heroes. Personnaly, I feel these should be required reading for ALL Americans - particularly our youth.

Researched over a 9 year time span using information gleaned from hundreds of interviews from Vietnam war POW's, this extensive saga of captivity is truly outstanding in its depth.

John G. Hubbell not only relates the stories of high profile POW's from North Vietnam, he explores the many aspects and rigors faced by U.S. servicemen in the brutal Southern Vietnamese prison camps. In helping the reader to truly understand the entire experience, this being a cautionary note to everyone, torture methods suffered by our U.S. servicemen are described very graphically throughout the text and may be difficult to read about at times.

Included in the superbly written and well researched narrative are maps of the various prison compounds, photographs of POW's and their captors, and the entire list of repatriated servicemen at Operation Homecoming in 1973.

"P.O.W. - A definitive history of the American Prisoner of War Experience, 1964-1973" is a very comprehensive and powerful study that makes for a lasting, memorable, and emotional reading experience. Upon recommending this book to everyone with interests in POW captivity, I would also like to suggest the brilliant and epic work "Honor Bound - American Prisoners of War in Southeast Asia, 1961-1973".

As a POW researcher, I would have been lost without Hubbel having gone before me to pave the way. This book continues to be a resource for me, a one of a kind history that says it all. I recommend it to anyone who wants to understand what the 566 POWs who were repatriated to the US in 1973 endured. The books by and about individuals give their person accounts, but Hubbel offers an objective analysis and global persecptive.

I regretted loaning my Readers Digest Press hardcopy of this book and never seeing it return. I had to wait years for the re-publication of this marvelous book.

This book is the quintessential book on the POW experience in North Vietnam, and I have read many of them. The atrocities committed by the North Vietnamese captors were barbaric, horrific, and inhuman. The POWs mostly Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force pilots and crewmen were left with no guidance other than their consciences, their moral compass, their pride of service, their patriotism and an outmoded "Code of Conduct" to fight back against unspeakable tortures designed to win over and break the "American Enemy" and score political propaganda points. For these prisoners, the war was not over when they were shot down. A new and completely unexperienced war commenced upon their capture, a cold, calculating battle to exploit those most vulnerable in the Vietnam War in order to exact concessions from the United States of America.

Against the background of these torturous events, North Vietnam's enablers from the U.S. and international anti-war activists cravenly cooperated with North Vietnamese officials to further undermine the courageous efforts of our POWs who endured barbaric handling to not betray their country's honor.

Not all POWs held up to the rigors of the "Code of Conduct" as well as the greatest majority. However, fortunately not having walked in their shoes, I cannot judge their behavior. The activities of the most stalwart POWs as well as those who were less so are chronicled it this very readable and very moving book. These were the true "heroes" of the Vietnam War. They have never received due honor and recognition. This book attempts to do so in a very meaningful way. If you read ANY book on the Vietnam experience, this must be the one.

A complete analysis of the subject with the risk to be excessively rich of information

Plenty of Photoshop CS3 books on the market update information to this latest Photoshop release, but few offer an extensive desk reference packing in the latest tools and techniques of the latest program with easy details on how to do everything from simple adjustments such as specifying size to using layering and blending modes for advanced compositions and refinement. From full color screen shots and color examples of modified photos to techniques and strategies, Photoshop CS3 All-in-One Desk Reference for Dummies is one of the most extensive coverages on the market - and a perfect pick for any who find detailed Photoshop coverages confusing.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

If you are like me -- an intelligent (I hope) experienced computer person who has never used Photoshop but wants to learn how to do useful work (not just play around) -- this book is for you. For example, you can actually look in the index and find what you are looking for.

This is a great resource at a fraction of the price of the book from adobe. Highly recommended!

I liked "Photoshop CS3 for Dummies" as a good overview text - then I use this "Photoshop CS3 All-in-one Reference for Dummies" as a detailed text on most of the heavy features of Photoshop. I was pretty good with Photoshop CS and all the versions of the program before - but I am learning a GREAT deal from this tome on the more sophisticated features.

You could use this book as a first if you have a general idea
of basic concepts in quantum theory. It is a collection of
very nicely written tutorials. They are done by authorities in the field, and cover the main trends. I especially liked Jozsa's
chapter on quantum algorithms. By now there are also good textbooks that can get you started from scratch, such as Hirvensalo, or Nielsen-Chuang. If you have trouble getting hold the original journal articles, World Scientific just came out with a collection of major papers on quantum computation and quantum information, isbn 9810241178. It includes the full text [reprinted] of some of the papers which are cited in the present book; quite a few by the very same authors. That is a big help, as the papers in the subject are scattered and spread out over many different journals, and it might be hard to know where to start when
logging into the arXiv.

I read this books in all most 4 nites, and found it excellent to clear many dark concepts of quantum physics. I hardly recommended it to friends all over the world.

I have heard about this book when I was attending a series of lectures in Cambridge related to this topic, and one of the speakers was D. Bouwmeester. A. Eckert and A. Zeilinger are quite well known names in quantum physics, and this is assures for the high quality of the book. The book is clear in form and complete in its contents and reflects the professionality of the people involved in this research topic. It starts from the basic concepts, and gives the reader a complete perspective on Quantum Cryptography and entanglement, then is discussed teleportation, computation, including a step towards the experimental set up. Environmental decoherence, purification of entanglement and quantum error correction are discussed in the last chapters.

Definitely one of the best books on PHYSICS of quantum information and this subject. If you are in the field of Quantum Information and Computing you probably know that it lies on intersection of Physics (Quantum Mechanics), Computer Science (Complexity and Algorithms, Cryptography) and Mathematics (Vector spaces, Linear Algebra, Number Theory...) This one is exceptional for physics of quantum information and also for describing all important ideas behind 'strange things' that exist in quantum mechanics. Authors have properly described all experiments and ideas on quantum information, quantum cryptography and teleportation. This book assumes that you have some knowledge on quantum mechanics or basic concepts about this subject. If you have mathematical background and you want to know how those thing are made physically, you will not regret for buying this book!

What an awesome theory. Really makes you think about how the world actually works. Definite buy.

The "concept" of the Net is very important for the uninitiated. Your zeroing in on how the Internet should be viewed in the mind's eye is excellent. It's the idea or the "vision" of the over-all system as a "place" that is expanding its own boundaries in all directions gives your readers a sense of the sheer "enormity" of it all. And yet, all of it is reachable by a simple wire with a tiny, plastic push-in-and-click wall plug!! Marvelous. Robert M. Jackson, Jr.

I'm about half way through your book. In fact I'm on page 148 beginning Web Culture. I have found your book to be very informitive. Was very interested in the section on Gopher. Tried to get information on swollen joints, but reread and found that I needed to use WWW and Exite to pull it up. As I read your book I try the new reading out on my computer. Again thanks for the information.

Al Witte

I recently bought your paperback (The Pocket Guide to the I'Net) at the local Wal-Mart. Of course I was skeptical, since I've read or scanned through a dozen how-to books and intro-to books in my endeavours to learn better and train better.

But ... something about your style engaged me. So I bought the book. Halfway through it I think I know what it is I like about your text ... you're an Internet teacher who agrees with *me*!

I was talking with Wendy Green last week (literally talking, not virtually) and described my reaction to your book. She encouraged me to drop you a line. She says you lurk on the misc.writing newsgroup from time to time and she recognized your name. (What a high-traffic newsgroup!)

I webmaster for my company (www.ag.org) and am also responsible to train anybody in our midst how to understand and navigate the 'Net. For a good part of the last year I lectured to our local Internet users' group and now moonlight at a local cybercafe teaching Internet classes for paying customers. So, my plate is full and I'm happy to find material which so nicely augments my own presentations!

For a while I struggled with the relative worth of helping people understand this beast. Especially when they're *paying* to do so! After all, these people just want to know how to send email and 'surf the Web', why should I waste time talking about its military roots for goodness sake?

So, if for no other reason, I appreciate your book for the affirmation I've found there. Of course, I don't *always* agree with your presentation or your choice of wording, but then who agrees with *anybody* one hundred percent? I can't argue with the facts of your text, though, you have certainly done your research! (I only wish it was footnoted! ) At heart I am a teacher and no matter what I do or where I'm at that's likely the role I've fallen into. From one teacher to another: you done good. (Of course, I'm sure you know that! The royalties should speak well enough!)

I bought your book 'Pocket Guide to the Internet' (Pocket Books) a couple of months back here in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and enjoyed it greatly. It was a great introduction to the Net. Thought provoking and nicely written. I continue to use it as a reference.

What is the internet?
How and when did it begin?
Where does the network go?
Who originally thought of the concept?
Why is the internet useful and necessary?
Was Al Gore involved?

All these questions and more (minus the Al Gore one) are in The Pocket Guide To The Internet.

From ISPs to Packets, from AOL to telnet, and emoticons to netiquette, it's all present. There's a wealth of knowledge in every chapter, and the steps are slow enough for all. In fact, many of even the most novice users of the Internet will find much of the information mundane.

The book provides page after page of helpful information, providing a multitude of web addresses, acronyms, and definitions that, if anything, provid a sort of printed dictionary/encyclopedia about the internet.

This is a great resource for someone starting at ground zero with no knowledge whatsoever.

This is a most useful book, tying together a host of modern concepts of strategic management and organizational development. I especially value the section on Learned Incapacity and the 17 basic syndromes of dysfunction. The time has come to educate the new generation of leadership and management as to the most common mistakes that leaders make as a way of innoculating against repeating failures of the past. Karl Albrecht's book makes a strong contribution towards development of a DSM for management maladies. Good show!

Karl Albrecht's latest book gets to the heart of organizational perfromance. He builds a compelling case that the root causes of organizational performance are directly linked to how well the collective intelligence is managed. Albrecht's vast experience and the case examples he articulates, demonstrate how organizations waste the majority of the combined intelligence that is available to them. He directly links a vast amount of "brain" research to organizational performance issues. The reader will find useful models checklists and tests to conduct their own diagnosis of their organization's mental accuity.

"The Power of Minds at Work" by K.Albrecht is exactly what I wanted to learn in terms of my training profession within my organization in Japan.
Particularly in the context of shaping visions with the shared needs, this book will be much helpful for any businss person to understand why we need to change and what to do in the daily business.

In 1963, Dr. John Gardner, in his book Self Renewal, explored "the forces and habits of mind which hamper personal growth, ranging from fear of failure to the comfortable web of the accustomed" Karl Albrecht's The Power of Minds at Work explores
the habits of mind which stultify organizations, resulting in
costly dysfunction, and then offers ways to free the organizations from those learned patterns. Reading this book stimulates thinking about one's leadership style and opens one's mind to many other options. This is an exciting book for anyone in a leadership role.

With the American economy in a crisis, he presents a timely invitation to the leaders of business and government organizations. Crisis foments great change. He invites leaders to use their own great intelligence and the collective intelligence of all the people in their organization as a powerful living organism, with undreamed of potential for productivity and innovation. With that invitation
he offers practical suggestions and a valuable chapter on thinking styles.
With the accounts of financial disasters due to organizations
operating without systemic intelligence, Albrecht calls for the mobilization of collective intelligence and a collaboration
between the leaders and employees in ways that give new meaning
to work. The vision for an organization shared by all the people
involved bears great motivational energy. He says, "The power of a common cause, together with a sense of commu nity and shared fate, creates a kind of competitive power that's hard to beat.
Just as our culture has viewed the human body as a machine, companies have also been seen as machines with the employees
as cogs in that machine. This book clearly acknowledges what
we now know: that any human system is in reality a living organism demanding respect as such. Stories of companies that have endured one hundred years because the leaders understood this fact set an example for success.
With excellent diagrams to stimulate one's fresh thinking,
and suggestions for fostering collective intelligence, Albrecht
inspires confidence in the kind of changes in organizations that
can restore our economy. This would evoke admiration for the leaders and organizations utilizing the great intelligence that he perceived working as a consultant s all over the world in the past 20 years. The underlying message seems to be: "You are far more intelligent and capable than you think you are, and so are all the people with whom you work." One comes away from the book thinking, "He may be right!"

Employers are plagued by a dearth of leadership. Too many companies are populated by people who can't think for themselves and, worse, by people who can think but don't. Today, when brainpower is so critical to an organization's success, we limit ourselves by doing some really stupid things.

If that statement sounds a little brash, challenging, critical, and accurate, you ain't seen nothin' yet! After a quarter century of consulting to all sorts of organizations around the world, Karl Albrecht has earned an enviable reputation---and the bully pulpit to tell it like it is. His messages (and the book is filled with them) need to be heard by people in charge of today's departments, divisions, companies, agencies, and other organizations. We call these people "leaders," but in truth most are really managers or even administrators in leaders' clothing. Their ignorance, ineptitude, and avoidable blunders inhibit performance.

Leaders need to learn more about leadership. They need to understand leadership in its current context and, at the same time, appreciate how we arrived at this place on our journey. They need to appreciate their role, especially the importance of inspiring and supporting people to use their minds. Creativity? Yes, but an amazing proportion of workers can't---or won't---even think for themselves, limiting their potential for achievement.

Consider Albrecht's Law: "Intelligent people, when assembled into an organization, will tend toward collective stupidity." It's Dilbert ® come to life. Albrecht's assertion is that leveraging the intelligence of an organization can determine the difference between "smart" companies and "dumb" companies. In our increasingly competitive employment environment, companies that allow themselves to be "dumb" (or even just dumber than the competition) may be doomed to extinction. The differentiating factor is leadership, and how well that leadership can utilize the individual and collective intelligence of the organization's members.

This book will grab your attention in the preface and you'll find yourself wanting to keep turning the pages to absorb the knowledge delivered, sometimes irreverently, by the author. Each chapter is filled with insights of past, present, and possibilities that will add to the vital comprehension of how the quality of thinking can help or hinder achievement. A liberal sprinkling of examples, aptly called "Case in Point," bring principles and experiences to life in each chapter. A set of Key Indicators closes each chapter, giving the reader a handy checklist to apply the knowledge gained. This design is very user-friendly.

The first two chapters make the case for smarter organizations. The second section of the book explores Organizational Intelligence, focusing on strategic vision, shared fate, appetite for change, earning discretionary energy, alignment and congruence, knowledge development, and performance pressure. The last two chapters offer the reader some serious guidance in how to make their organizations smarter. Notes at the end of each chapter and a comprehensive 12-page index add value.

The Power of Minds at Work covers a lot of landscape. It's comprehensive, yet delves into sufficient depth to satisfy some of the thought stimulated by his commentary. Yes, you read that sentence correctly: some of your thought will be satisfied. Reading this book will inspire you to go further. Wise leaders will absorb the book, then invite their co-leaders to read and discuss Albrecht's messages....and apply the wisdom that emerges. The content in these pages will generate some rich, productive conversations.

Reviewer's Note: As author of "Impending Crisis: Too Many Jobs, Not Enough People," a wake-up call about the shortage of skilled labor in this decade, I urge corporate executives to sharpen their skills in leadership and drawing more from their people. "The Power of Minds at Work" is an excellent tool to build this strength.

Very practical, helpfull and easy to follow book. What is more important it gives you possibility to easily make your own templates for analysis and design.

Easy to read and understand. Good and practical methodology. Cover most essential parts of Software Analysis and Design.

I agree with every words that printed on the back cover i.e. the analysis and design techniques that really work.

An excellent book and well worth the price! Basic concepts that are often overlooked in real world projects are impressively presented.

I have read this book three times, and each I learn something new. It is nice to have a book that is independent of any development platform, and in PLAIN ENGLISH to boot. This book is more valuable than the course I had taken in college.

This book is for people who want to be productive. It is not for people who like sitting in all day meetings trying to come up with the CUTEST idea.

To get a straight forward answer on associative entities/relationships was like a breath of fresh air. I was told once that you should never have to use association tables. You should maintain the integrity of the database via code - yeah right.

I have recommended this book to every developer I know. This book should purge your mind of every piece of useless information that anyone has ever told you on how to approach building and designing applications.

This book is exactly what the title says. It's the best book I've ever read about analysis and design techniques for building systems quickly and effectively. The techniques Dave teaches in this book include how to scope the project, define context, event, information, database design and architecture models, prototype, and design interfaces and internal components. What is just as important, Dave tells us how these techniques relate to and impact one another, and how they each fit into the emerging picture of the complete system. Dave also puts today's methods into historical perspective to provide some "Ah ha's" as to how we got to where we are today in systems design.

Dave writes in a terse, easy-to-read, plain English style. All jargon, theories and concepts are explained in a simple, straightforward words, emphasizing their practical use. I've been studying this stuff for years, and Dave has written the clearest explanation of event modeling I've ever read. Humorous examples and analogies are used to lighten up abstract concepts. The "Chicken Crossing the Road" example used to explain associative entities is unforgettable. Lots of delightful cartoons, diagrams, screens and models drawn by the author also underscore important points and keep the pace moving from cover to cover.

As an instructor, I would highly recommend using this as a text in systems analysis and design courses. Each chapter concludes with a quiz and there is case study that brings all the tools and techniques together in a system design for a veterinary practice.

If you're reviewing system design techniques or learning them for the first time, Dave's concise descriptions and humor will keep you engaged and moving along at a rapid pace.

We as users of the PSM with years of experience in the quality and measurements world tend to over complicate the measurement system we develop. This book is a yardstick and is a good tool to ground you when you are creating the measurements. It keeps your mind in the more simple and effective road to resolving the issues. Remember the old saying, "Keep it simple stupid (KISS)!"; this one helps guide you to accomplishment of this goal.

This is a good solid presentation of the subject that gives a good overview of the several types of approaches to measurement. While I would prefer that the subject matter also focused on software engineering as well, it does a good job of what it was created to cover.

This is a good read for anyone thinking about employing metrics for software projects. I have read several books and articles on metrics, software and program managment, in the last 6 months and this one of the few which was worth reading. Text is easy to read and the message and methods are presented in a straight forward manner. No, you will not find any amazing breakthoughs in software project managment in this book. What you will find is a good foundation for adding metrics which add value to software program management.

I would rate this book ****** if it were possible. If you are looking for material on how to start a "software metrics program", look no further. This is the ultimate reference on software measurement initiatives. The PSM method is compatible with the CMMI (Measurement & Analysis Process Area) and the foundation for the ISO/IEC 15939 standard. All of the authors are recognized authorities in software measurement and process improvement. Dr. Barry Boehm (COCOMO author) has written the foreword. The PSM process is sponsored by the DoD and the U.S. Army. The book itself is comprehensive, well-written, and easy to read. It provides ready-to-use templates such as "Measurement Construct Template", "Project Measurement Plan Outline", and "Data Verification Checklist". Chapter outline:

1 - Measurement: Key Concepts and Practices
2 - Measurement Information Model
3 - Plan Measurement
4 - Perform Measurement
5 - Analysis Techniques
6 - Evaluate Measurement
7 - Establish and Sustain Commitment
8 - Measure for Success
Appendix A - Measurement Construct Examples
Appendix B - Information System Case Study
Appendix C - Synergy Integrated Copier Case Study

Note: Appendix A provides 14 detailed, complete examples of measurement constructs ("metrics"). Appendixes B and C provide 2 comprehensive case studies (approximately 60 pages).

It would require at least a 2-day workshop to address all the information provided by this book (probably at 10 times its price). You can't afford to miss it if you are more than casually interested in software measurement. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

There is a wealth of material available from the PSM site, including the PSM Insight application and PSM Guidebook. However this book is not redundant because it is structured as a clearly written introduction to practical software measurement, that includes excellent guidance for implementing it into your organization. In addition, the 304 pages that comprise this book manages to convey the information contained in the existing PSM documentation, and does so much more succinctly.

I found the most valuable parts of this book to be the clearly described measurement model, and the way the authors distinguish between data that is useful to projects and organizational data collection and analysis. This material places PSM in context and is a sound starting point for an organizational SQA initiative.

The case studies reinforces the mechanics of PSM, and also contain advice and pointers for implementing enterprise-wide measurement. Although I've been following the PSM initiative almost since its inception and have read all of the copious materials available, I still gained much from this book. If you're establishing an SQA function or striving for CMM level 4 or above you'll find this book invaluable. The URLs provided will lead to even more material, including a free Windows-based software tool that fully supports the practical software measurement process.