Systems Books

Systemantics is a humerous look at the world of systems and how they don't work. It is a book of tongue in cheek rules that are not only funny but true. John Gall used humour to point out the fatal flaws in our approach to systems of every sort.

Discovering John Gall's book a view of life. Gall spells out the failings of, largely, cultural assumptions in the realms of education, food production, corporate culture and so on, in ways that are easy to understand despite complexities. Systemantics represents a collection rules and laws that characterize and define systems (from corporations, organizations, religions to families and other social groups), and Gall cites notable examples that have graced the headlines (from the mid-80s, in my edition). With humor and wit, Gall outlines potential and obvious pitfalls. Despite its age, this book is even more relevant today since much of what Gall elucidates is even more rampant than ever. Fans of Daniel Quinn (author of Ishmael, The Story of B, etc.) may find this appropriate to augment their interests.

I like this book. It contains pithy and often humorous stories that illustrate every point. It also provides catchy labels for each major concept so that the author's ideas tend to stick in your mind. For example, The Fundamental Law of Administrative Workings (FLAW). This book has stuck in my mind and it continually reminds me to think twice before expanding any of my systems - whether they be cooking systems or computer systems.

I read the previous reviews -- the most of them came from people with engineering bend. But this book is not only for engineers, it is for everyone - managers, politicians, lawyers, programmers, urban planners -- you name it. As the matter of fact, you will never read a newspaper the same way after being familiarized with Dr. Gall's book. The Diberterque environment of your office will not feel like something extraordinary after you realize that there are natural reasons why it has become Dilbertesque.

I know the author personally. As a lawyer and a former executive, I found the book insightful, hilarious, and - even - depressing. John does an excellent job of uncovering cultural blinders we all labor under. Our genes have not prepared us to work in the gigantic systems and organizations that provide, govern, and torture us. I enjoyed the second part of the book ("Applied Systemantics") more than the more conceptual first part. This book is an important antidote to Organizational Development hucksterism.

Why when this set, deck and book can be had brand new for 32$ and change, why are you charging so much? I am not out to offend but as an avid collector I would like to know what makes this set worth the asking price?????
Yes I love this deck....I am not just a collector I read and have 2 favorite decks, this being one and the other is Magickal Tarot by anthony clark both are great decks, so if I am missing something here as far as the Tarot of Ceremonial Magick somebody please clue me in!!!!~!!!

...If I were stranded on a desert island" This is what a friend of mine told me when I purchased this book and deck. I figured that this was his usual superlative personality, until I studied it in depth.
Other decks merely scratch the surface of the correspondences between the Tarot, Astrology, Kabbala and the Hebrew alphabet; however, this one goes beyond the others by delving into Enochian, and Goetic attributes of the various cards. The book's appendices also have the Enochian calls as well as the various Goetic invocations.
Lon is a Thelemite, which is demonstrated not only his use of the same names of the Major Arcana of the Thoth deck, but also by the Thelemic imagery on many of the cards. That being said, this set is a perfect accompanyment to the book of Thoth. It helps decipher some of Crowleys more cryptic divinitory meanings.
This set is for anyone who has any interest in the Hermetic Arts. Everyone, from the greenest of Neophytes, to the most adept Magi can benefit from this set.
Do yourself a favor and buy this set!

This is not another novelty Tarot deck. In fact, it recaptures the true magical tradition of the Tarot as few decks have ever done. I have to admit that it isn't as pretty as the Crowley/Harris Thoth Deck or the Cicero's Golden Dawn Ritual Tarot, but it has something more than either of these classics ... in-your-face Magick!

The four Elemental Tablets of the Enochian system of John Dee adorn the Aces - with the Aces and Court Cards you can construct the powerful Enochian Tablet of Union. The Small Cards bear the names and sigils of all 72 Spirits of the Goetia, and the names of the 72 Qabalistic Angels of the Shemhamaphorash, and the degrees of the zodiac and days of the year sacred to these spirits. Want to project your astral body into the elemental worlds? The Aces and Court Cards display colored tattwa symbols used for that very purpose. DuQuette didn't just throw this stuff on some cards and call it Tarot. All these magical correspondences, even the colors, are organized with anal retentive perfection in strict conformity to the most revered magical and qabalistic traditions concerning the Tarot.

The accompanying book is filled with all the technical information necessary to actually begin practicing Qabalistic, Enochian, and Goetic magick. The deck/book set is in truth...REAL MAGICK IN A BOX. The first question I had to ask myself after reading it was..."Am I ready for this?"

I own the deck and book and i am pleased to say that Lon Milo DuQuette has both met and exceeded my already high expectations of his work. This deck has for me been a valuable tool and and a great teacher of different forms of magick. For an individual who wants to diversify his/her education this deck definately will help. The book that was written for it is also of great help and i would highly recommend it to you. All in all i give this deck a 10!

Best Deck Since Ciceros' Golden Dawn Tarot IMHO, there are basically four kinds of Tarot decks out there: historical decks, dating back to the Renaissance (and their modern re-drawings); visionary decks, ranging from the sublime (Thoth Tarot by Crowley) to the slightly ridiculous (Tarot of the Cats); correspondence decks, which conglomerate various occult symbols (such as astrological and kabbalistic symbols); and magical order decks (such as the Rider-Waite deck, the Thoth deck by AC, the Golden Dawn deck by the Ciceros).

Of course some decks cross over the boundaries, being visionary, including copious correspondences (not just suggestive imagery) and having their roots in a bona fide magical order.

Duquette's new deck is just such a deck; it is weighted heavily towards correspondences, so much so that its author calls it 777 (a famous book of correspondences)on cards. However it also includes very workable images which can trigger the imagination, good key words and divinatory meanings. And, it is the product of a reputable member of a magical order.

The frosting on the cake is the incorporation of the Goetic images and Enochian images.

I think this would be an excellent deck for divination (it works for me) while also conditioning the subconscious to several families of potent symbols.

I highly recommend it.

For anyone that tells you that you can't so solid code and script development on a Mac, they haven't been introduced to the application TextMate. There are several good options for doing power editing on the Macintosh and TextMate is one of those POWER options.

'TextMate: Power Editing for the Mac' by James Gray is a perfect companion manual for all TextMate users that want to lift the hood off of this power app and get to the nuts and bolts. If you develop on a Macintosh on a daily basis for work or fun and want to learn more about what you can do to make your life easier, pick up this book and you won't be disappointed. Written well and coming in at ~200 pages, there are 12 chapters which will teach you goodies in TextMate like how to create and use Macros, using Find & Replace to quickly edit text, and much, much more!!

The Mac is a great tool for developing code and TextMate is a great app for writing it, make yourself a more efficient coder today!!

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Books on editors are tricky things... I'm (still) a big fan and user of vi, but textmate is my tool of choice for more project level work for its capabilties. This book has brought me closer to to the keyboard level of productivity that vi allows for with its two modes.

Visuals:
The font size in the Pragmatic Programmers books is a little larger than say the O'Reilly books, which I personally like. Easy on the eyes. Screenshots are clearly printed.

Readability:
I found the reading style conversational and easy to follow. Of course, with this type of book which includes many keyboard short-cuts you really need to be at your computer and using them to commit them to memory. Even a reading of the book will give you insights into the power available at your finger tips with Textmate.

Practicality:
If you spend any amount of time in Textmate, this is really a no-brainer. This book will help you be more productive and get more out of your chosen text editing tool.

Audience:
The book does not list an intended target audience, but if you use Textmate at all I would say you have a bulls-eye right on you.

Overall:
If you use Textmate get this book.

"TextMate is actually a thin shell over a personalized team of robot ninjas ready to do your bidding."

The funny thing is, to people who have never used TextMate for more than a few minutes the above phrase sounds like an exaggeration. It's not. (As long as you can accept the analogy of "really awesome code running on a Mac" = "robot ninjas"...)

Anyway, this book targets a pretty specific market: 1) Humans, 2) who own Macs, 3) and use TextMate. I'm here to tell you that, if you're human you should have a Mac; and if you have a Mac you should buy TextMate; and if you have TextMate you should buy this book. So there, now it covers everyone.

As with all of the Pragmatic Programmer books, I found this book to be concise without missing anything important. You may be thinking, "200 pages about a text editor!? That's crazy talk!" But you would be wrong, my friend. The amount of functionality built into TextMate is incredible, but I didn't even know the half of it until I started reading this book!

I don't want to give away the ending, but:

Three of my favorite simple features I didn't know about until I read this book:
- Pressing [ESC] to complete the word you're typing.
- The built in TODO list functionality (so crucial!!)
- [Cmd-Enter] to add a new line below this one and go to the beginning of it.

Things I wouldn't have been able to do without TextMate and this book:
- Edit some of my Bundles to make TextMate work even more how *I* like
- Complete an after-hours Web Site project *way* under time and budget

Seriously. TextMate is the One True Editor for Mac (it makes me loath using any other editor on any platform) and this is a great book for learning how to *really* take hold of its power.

This book is the perfect primer for what I have found to be one of the most indispensible Mac OS X applications - TextMate. If you are a software developer or web designer or anyone else that edits text on a frequent basis and you have not already discovered TextMate, stop right now and visit http://www.macromates.com.

The Pragmatic Programmers' book, TextMate Power Editing for the Mac is a thorough introduction to TextMate. Edward Gray II has written a very accessible book, that covers the product very well.

The first third of the book is devoted to the basics - things you do every day in your text editor. The second third of the book dives into the details of some really sweet features of TextMate that you'll find yourself using all the time: bundles, snippets, macros and UNIX shell commands.

TextMate ships with over thirty 'bundles'. Each bundle is a directory of related files that provide additional functionality to TextMate. Let's say you're working on an HTML file. The HTML bundle will help you with loads of things related to your document: validate the syntax of the document, open the document in the default browser, refresh the document in the current browser session, insert open/close tags for the current word, strip all HTML tags from the document - just to name a few. Each bundle provides functionality that applies not only to the syntax of the language you're currently working with, but repetitive tasks that would apply as well.

As I mentioned, a couple dozen bundles ship with TextMate and many more are available for free download from various websites. You can even create your own bundles to extend the product in ways that only you can imagine. Here are a few of the bundles that ship with TextMate: Blogging, CSS, HTML, Java, Markdown, Objective-C, Python, Rails, Ruby, SQL, Subversion, Text, Textile, Xcode and XML. Bundles provide you with lots of help editing files and performing related tasks.

Snippets are a smart completion mechanism that go way beyond the simple concept of 'finish this word'. For example, if you are editing a Ruby file and you type array_object.ea followed by the TAB key (where 'array_object' is an arbitrary Array object), the snippet feature will automatically fill in the skeleton of the 'each' iterator, including the opening and closing curly braces, the text '|e|' with the letter 'e' highlighted. You simply type the name of the variable you want to represent the next element (or simply leave it as it is), hit the TAB key again and the cursor will be placed between the closing '|' character and the closing '}' character, ready for you to type in an expression. Very cool. This same trick works for dozens of different scenarios in your Ruby code. And that's just the snippets that apply to Ruby code. There are snippets that apply to a large number of file types.

You've probably seen macros in other editors and TextMate's macro facility works as you might expect: you start recording a macro, perform some actions and save the macro. TextMate saves the macros as XML files, so it's a snap to edit a macro after recording if you need to tweak it a bit.

The ability to fire off UNIX shell commands from within TextMate gives you another powerful tool to use while editing files. You can fire off one-liner shell commands by simply pressing the ^R key on a line containing a shell command. You can also use shell commands to act on all or part of the current document.

For the advanced TextMate user, the tail end of the book shows you how to create your own language syntax for use in TextMate, including how to describe the grammar of the language in terms TextMate will understand. So, if you program in some far out funky language that TextMate doesn't support out of the box, you can add the language grammar to TextMate and program away!

Overall, I found this book extremely useful and easy to read. TextMate ships with an excellent help system that will answer many of your questions. The TextMate Power Editing for the Mac book will take you beyond the built-in help and give you an in-depth guide for this great Mac application.

This is a handy little reference for a variety of time-saving tips and tricks. You'll definitely be able to economize your daily activities if you keep this book near you when building your reports and analyses. Don't be surprised if you dog-ear quite a few pages.

JR

An Excel User doesn't need to spend years in learning Excel, thus to get the most of it. An Excel User needs to know how to "kill the time" through Excel's Abilities. An Excel User just needs a book as "This isn't Excel it's Magic". It is a friendly Piece of Advise submitted in a gracious manner by the Excel Magician Bob Umlas,Microsoft Most Valuable Professional.This book will become "A Daily Excel Encyclopedia" to everyone who looks for Excel proficiency in job accomplishment.
A 21 century Excel User deserves this book. Do not miss Bob's Excel CLEVERNESS!!!
Pavlina

This book is full of quick hints that can save you time and frustration when working with Microsoft Excel. Many functions were identified that I never knew existed. This book is definitely worth the price. Enjoy!!!

What a handy little book chuck full of hints, tips and techniques by Bob Umlas. Bob Umlas is a Microsoft MVP and has held that honor since 1995 for his dedication to various online groups

The book is organized into 6 categorizing chapters: Features, Formulas, Keyboard Shortcuts, Printing, Miscellaneous, and VBA. It contains 142 pages with 84 tricks, tips and manipulative techniques, some of which are quite useful.

Some of the techniques covered are ones that you probably learned at some point but have forgotten. Others will be old tricks applied differently that will give you a new perspective. Plus there are many advanced features that are explained to stretch your skills. What impresses me the most is the practicality of what is presented in the book. The majority of the techniques are useful hints that can be put into practice rather easily.

This isn't Excel, It's Magic! is a fantastic book. I thought I knew a lot about Excel; but I now realize how little I did know. It is hard to pick a favorite because there are so many great head spinning, jaw dropping tips & tricks.

The book is well written with easy to follow examples. It makes unlocking the power of Excel an amazing experience. 85 great topics ranging from using advance filters to using vba bookmarks. A must have for beginning and expert users everywhere.

Thanks for a great time saving book, Mr. Umlas. You are a true magician!!

I bought this book for a baptism and found it to be very unique and quite adorable. There was a nice story in it, and also places for the family to write things about that special day. I would totally buy it again for another baptism.

Perfect gift for a baptism. Someone bought it for my daughter a few years ago and it is a favorite of mine. It explains the special day and has room in the back for writing about the day and for putting in special pictures. A great keepsake.

Readers should understand that this book teaches about Baptism from a Roman Catholic perspective. For instance, in the section "Why we Baptize," the author claims that Baptism is "necessary for salvation." This is contrary to what Protestant churches believe, and, unless I am quite mistaken, what Eastern Orthodoxy teaches. I don't intend this as a knock against the book, but non-Roman Catholics who want to understand Baptism and teach their children about the sacrament will want to look elsewhere.

I liked this book because it was not specific to any religion and it had space inside for recording information about the event (who was there, special memories, etc). It was given to me as a gift and I have given it to others for their baptisms.

Absolutely beyond my expectations...Written for the parents and the child. It will be a keepsake to pass on to future generations. Perfect way to help remember a very important event!!!

This is a really good book although it was writen a few years ago but still dazzling. Jim Gray who wrote it is known as the father of relational database systems (RDBS).

This book is about transaction processing of relational database systems. The theories in the book have been widely used in industry and business nowadays. The book does not only focus on the theory but also spend enough words on the issues of software and hardware implementations and performance.

However, many basic concepts in the book are not only limited to RDBS but can be also very useful in multi-threaded programming or distributed systems design and development.

I suggested every programmer, system designer, database developer, and of those who need a solid fundamental knowledge of computer science and IT should read it.

This book is the base for all who want to be a Gurus in a bigs systems OLTP with hundreds of TPS and hundreds or thousands of customes conected doing transactions or using a terminals. This is a book that you mast have mandatorily.

Well organized, complete, nontrivial, wealth of sample code, interesting historical notes, good index. Magnificent work. Definitely worth the money.

God himself has spoken. You will understand what is the difference between real computer science (Jim Gray) and changing configuration values at random in your MySQL setup (Jeremy Zawodny style)

For nearly a decade this book has been the definitive reference on transaction processing. Although the more recent, May 2001 book titled "Transactional Information Systems: Theory, Algorithms, and the Practice of Concurrency Control" by Gerhard Weikum and Gottfried Vossen will probably supplant this book as the standard reference, there is still much material that makes this book useful.

In particular, this book covers the following topics in more depth than the newer boom cited above:
- Fault tolerance and availability, both topics are covered in depth from hardware and software perspectives. This is unique for a book on transaction processing in that most books on the subject confine their scope to software and databases.

- A wide and complete survey of transaction models. True, some of this material is about models that are falling into disuse, but the value is the way the authors go deeply into the mechanics. I've always felt that this part of the book is the most valuable because the principles can be refactored into hybrid models. Moreover, comparing this material with the newer book by Weikum and Vossen shows that these principles are still employed in today's TP solutions.

Material about transaction processing monitors is obviously out of date, but, like the TP models, the principles still apply to contemporary systems. My recommendation is if you are going to buy a single book on the topic get the Weikum and Vossen I cited in the first paragraph. However, if your budget allows, I also highly recommend this book as well because of the depth in which fault tolerance and TP models are covered. If you want to just learn the basics of TP I recommend that you consider "Principles of Transaction Processing" by Philip A. Bernstein and Eric Newcomer because it is less daunting than this or the Weikum and Vossen book (both of which are 1100+ pages).

This book is amazing, I didn't expect a book on software engineering to be so easy to read and understand.

Most of the other software engineering books I read are too academic and detached from the industry.

The case studies provided in this book are things I can totally relate to as a software developer. Question/Answer sections are great.

Overall this book is very well written, it is a true masterpiece.

The knowledge I gleaned from this textbook was directly responsible for my getting a high paying software engineering job immediately after leaving college - that alone should be a testament to its value. It gives a wide reaching survey (yet certainly not lacking for details) of the latest cutting-edge methods for software engineering as well as the tried-and-true methods that have been in use for decades, while placing a primary emphasis on writing software that is trustworthy on time and within budget. In a software engineering world where ethics have fallen out of favor and the "almighty schedule" has become more important than quality and security, this textbook is an extremely refreshing view of how to apply modern principles and process to produce not merely programs but supportable, trustworthy programming systems products. And best of all, Bernstein shows you how to do it ON-TIME and WITHIN BUDGET by performing quantitative cost and time estimation prior to and during the development process. If software engineering is to reach the level of professionalism long associated with other engineering disciplines, we must all embrace the methods and principles discussed in Bernstein's book.

It's important to note also that there are many case studies in this book from Bernstein's distinguished career at Bell Labs, and they are extremely valuable in learning what "works" and what should be avoided. Software engineering as a discipline doesn't learn from its mistakes as well as other engineering fields, but this book takes 35 years of hard-earned experience and the latest research by Bernstein, Boehm, Parnas, and others, and condenses it into what I consider the best software engineering textbook on the market. This is a must-read for any computer science practitioner who wants to consider himself a true engineer and a professional.

This book does a great job of covering the key tools and techniques used in the development of software systems. It is very readable, and is suitable as a course text or an informative reference guide for practicing programmers and managers. A wealth of case study material provides insights into how to develop reliable software, on time and within budget. Sprinkled throughout are pragmatic rules of thumb and metrics. A good read and a good addition to any reference collection!

The most commendable single aspect of this book is the extensive set of real case studies. The main author (Bernstein) comes from decades in high tech industry and this permeates the entire book. The book is extremely broad in scope too, so the prospective reader or student gets a tour of a vast array of related subjects. The quantitative basis for the entire book constantly reminds the reader of the usefulness of a quantitative approach to all sorts of aspects of software engineering. Prospective buyers can dive in to the text at Amazon and make up their own mind about the usefulness for their own purposes. Take a look!

Well, this is certainly a much different type of software engineering textbook than I have seen in the last score of years ☺! I was a reviewer of early editions of Pressman, and a user of every edition since the second one at four different universities. Shooman's classic 20+ years ago is another early data point for a graduate course. The Software Engineering Lectures of Tom DeMarco and Ed Yourdon from 1979 are still shelved six feet away from me, and have been referenced in every undergrad and graduate software engineering related course I have taught since 1984. The same shelves contain Pfleeger, Leach, Lethbridge, Peters, Watts & Humphrey, Sommerville, Thayer and many others within the combined 12 foot lineal span. They obviously are used, but not to the extent of Pressman.

That may be about to be changed! Larry Bernstein's new text states on page 32 ".. none of these [principles of sound organizations] will work unless our profession recognizes the next core element in the evolution of software processes as a fundamental principle. Software trustworthiness is the next major area in which academic and industry must focus -- both for national security reasons as well as to ensure that the U.S. software industry maintains its leadership. The three attributes of software reliability, security and safety comprise trustworthiness."

I totally agree with the belief about where we should focus our attention in coming years, but not for the reasons that Larry cites. Let me explain:
* Having worked as a software/knowledge engineer on the Space Shuttle program for Rockwell International for four years, including the maiden flight of Discovery within a few months of my hire date in 1984, I am a very firm believer that the trustworthiness of the software in the shuttle and all the support effort was a gold standard at the time. I was also a full-time professor of CS concurrently, so could bring such issues to all of my classes. Although I have given up my dream of going to the moon, hatched when my small team of high school students fired off rockets in a farmer's field prior to Sputnik, I still hope to make it to the international space station, so a trustworthy system is not only of academic interest! In the last 20+ years, the ubiquity of computing, particularly embedded systems in all modes of transportation, makes such a standard a MUST, not just "nice to have" in our cars, trucks, planes, etc. When a team of Ford software engineers showed up in my office 10+ years ago, asking for help in developing safe software systems for next generation side impact sensors, I could not brush off their concerns! Obviously, software systems pervade the lives of many of the 6.6 billion people residing on this planet today, not just the billion or so who access the Internet. It is irresponsible, not to mention a direct violation of codes of ethics for computing and software engineering, NOT to develop such trustworthy systems.
* I cannot agree with Larry's rationale about the leadership of the U.S. in software. Trustworthiness of software systems knows no national boundaries! Other engineering artifacts do not know such artificial boundaries - do we want the bridges and high rise buildings of Europe, Asia, the Middle East, South America, Africa, etc. to be less safe, reliable and secure than those in the United States? I think not, if for not other reason than millions of our citizens travel to and live in those countries every day. Clearly, the lives of people across the world are just as valuable as those fortunate enough to live in our 50 states. The state-of-the-art in engineering methods is being advanced on a world-wide basis - why should we think software engineering education is somehow an exception? I would hope that this new text would be published in many languages and used by students and practitioners worldwide. I had first met Professor Bernstein on November 30, 2000 during my sabbatical to set up an International Software Engineering University Consortium (www.iseuc.org). So Larry clearly knows of my penchant for the world-wide importance of software engineering ☺!

Why do I think this new text is different from earlier ones and would recommend strongly that all current faculty and practitioners consider it carefully, especially for an introduction? The rationale includes the following. The text:
1. Focuses on the increasingly vital role that trustworthy software systems will play in the lives of current and future generations. Consequently, it is quite easy to engage or "hook" students in an introductory software engineering course about the importance of the topic - they see the impact of the lack of such systems on a weekly, if not daily, basis. Many of them will be able to share personal and professional experiences. The marvelous column by Neumann in every copy of ACM's SIGSOFT Software Engineering News provides ample examples, in any case.
2. Is cleverly written with excellent and realistic case studies with real questions and answers
3. Draws on the demonstrated expertise of the primary author when he was the CTO for Bell Labs
4. Truly demonstrates the rationale for the role of quantitative software engineering methods throughout the development life-cycle, beginning on page 4!
Reliabilty = e-k?t, where k is a normalizing constant, ? is complexity/(effectiveness x
staffing) and t is the time the software executes from its launch.
5. Emphasizes the "why" as well as the "how"
6. Includes excerpts from student teams related to the growing use of Real Projects for Real Client Courses - RPRCC-in software engineering and other courses
7. Covers most of the topics in a traditionally-structured software engineering text, but does so in a more contemporary and intuitive way. Some of the topics in other texts that wind up at the end, hence often not covered, are main-line chapters in the Bernstein text*. The newest edition of Sommerville's text does indeed have a 20-page chapter 3 on "Critical Systems" and a complete 120 page Part 4 on the same topic, but this is certainly an anomaly among current texts. The Bernstein text emphasizes trustworthiness as a continuing theme throughout, with the continual use of quantitative measures - witness the large number of "Magic Number" boxes for empirical results and heuristics contained in virtually each chapter. I admit that there would be a "learning curve" for most of us, but hey, aren't we supposed to be paragons for "life-long learning" that we espouse for our students?
8. Has fewer pages than virtually every other text. This is a real advantage. Students (and faculty) feel they have a "prayer" of being able to use the material in one course!
9. Has nice on-line support site.
10. And, finally, Larry will go to great personal lengths to support his text ☺!

A couple of possible sources of improvement for the second edition would include the following:
1. Include Failure Mode Effect Analysis (FMEA) as a major component when designing critical systems. This is a common engineering tool that was used in the design and testing of the Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSME) over the last 30 years.
2. How can the vital concept covered in the text be applied to the massive task of rendering trustworthy the extant base of millions of software systems? The text does a superb job for developing such systems, but can trustworthiness be "bolted on" existing systems? I doubt it, but cannot see an easy answer here.
3. A friendlier website for both instructors and students would be helpful, ala those for other software engineering textbooks

*Topics in the text
Part I. Getting Started
1. Think Like an Engineer - Especially for Software
2. People, Product, Process, Project - The Big Four

Part II. Ethics and Professionalism
3. Software Requirements
4. Prototyping
5. Architecture
6. Estimation, Planning, and Investment
7. Design for Trustworthiness

Part III. Taking the Measure of the System
8. Identifying and Managing Risk
9. Human Factors in Software Engineering
10. Implementation Details
11. Testing and Configuration Management
12. The Final Project: By Students, For Students

I own a lot of books on NT Server (too many in fact) and this is one of my favorites. Anyone responsible for the support of NT Server should have this book without question. Curt Aubley has produced a book that is easy to digest yet comprehensively covers all aspects of optimizing NT Server in your own environment.

It includes many ideas and suggestions that you can implement immediately and see true performance gains. If you've ever wondered, "What RAID configuration would be best for my new application server?" or "Which performance monitor counter is really the best to use to monitor this or that?", then this book is definitely for you.

Let's hope Curt produces a similar book of the same quality for Windows 2000. This book sits right beside Mastering Windows NT Server by Mark Minasi on my desk, and between the two of these and Technet, one doesn't need much more to support an enterprise Windows NT 4.0 environment.

I've been very impressed with the results of implementing what I've learned from this book. I've used the techniques at a few different Fortune 500 companies, and all my clients have been very satisfied. I would reccomend this book to anyone who takes tuning Windows NT for the Enterprise seriously.

This is the best written book I have read to date. It starts out like it should...what to do if you don't want to read the whole book. I have suggested this book to many of my friends and they have the same feeling. Great Job Curt !!!! Publish another one !!!!

Mr. Aubley's book is an excellent technical resource which addresses the difficult task of correctly sizing NT Server implementations and also how to tune NT for maximum performance with regards to various hardware and software considerations. Mr. Aubley explains the complex tasks succinctly and concisely and draws on many obvious years of experience to present hands-on solutions and case studies for reference. I would recommend this book to any NT admin that is responsible for scaling NT beyond humble file and print services. It has presented approaches to the tasks at hand that I have successfully used to effect client solutions.

I own a lot of books on NT Server (too many in fact) and this is one of my favorites. Anyone responsible for the support of NT Server should have this book without question. Curt Aubley has produced a book that is easy to digest yet comprehensively covers all aspects of optimizing NT Server in your own environment.

It includes many ideas and suggestions that you can implement immediately and see true performance gains. If you've ever wondered, "What RAID configuration would be best for my new application server?" or "Which perfmon counter should I use to monitor this or that?", then this book is definitely for you.

Let's hope Curt produces a similar book of the same quality for Windows 2000. This book sits right beside Mastering Windows NT Server by Mark Minasin on my desk, and between the two of these and Technet, one doesn't need much more to support an enterprise Windows NT 4.0 environment.

[A review of the SECOND EDITION, 2005.]

In the last 15 years, GPS has moved from an expensive and specialised application to a mass consumer market. There are numerous books on GPS; mostly directly at that mass readership. These typically concern how to use a device with a GPS receiver.

By contrast, this book is meant for the engineer who has to design such a device. It is a compendium of technical papers covering many aspects you are likely to need. And undoubtedly some you won't, which should be reassuring. Because it means that you do not have to read all of this book for it to be useful.

The sensitivity of the GPS satellites and the resultant GPS ground resolution is amazing, as can be appreciated from some of the papers in the book. Due mostly to the stability of the satellites' orbits and their onboard atomic clocks. Chapter 7 describes how GPS requires corrections due to Einstein's Theory of General Relativity! Not just Special Relativity. As a physicist, I found this fascinating. GPS is perhaps the first field where General Relativity is used, not to be tested, but as providing a necessary quantitative model for getting correct results. Akin to how Newton's Equations have been used for 300 years in ballistics. Granted, most readers will be engineers, who might find GR a trifle exotic.

The book also has good coverage of the Russian GLONASS system. Perhaps for those who also want to use this for redundancy. Or to combine the signals from this with GPS for enhanced resolution.

I've been an engineer and PM working with GPS and GPS systems since the inception of GPS in the mid-80s. While employed by a major DOD research lab I was fortunate enough not only to have access to practically every GPS book and article available, but I also had the opportunity to meet many of the key people responsible for the design and development of the system (many of whom contributed to this text). From system design to receiver architecture, this is by far the best general reference I have found on GPS.

If you are looking at the first edition, please note that the publisher plans to issue a second edition in December 2005.

This is a great book to read if you plan on developing any type of GPS tracking system. While the book covers the the basics, you'll need some further resources on interfacing GPS receivers and such hardware to real-world devices.

An interesting article entitled "Tracking a Vehicle With GPS" can be read at www.closerworlds.com

A lot of mobile solutions are soon to hit the market such as mobile phones using GSM or GPRS to track a person. This book will help to understand how it all fits together. It would have been nice if the book could have touched on how older communication systems like VHF radios can transmit GPS data. For that you'll have to visit www.closerworlds.com or some other website with such resources.

I'm an aerospace professional that is very close to the GPS system. This book is one of the best in depth references that I could recomend. I am not a novice and this text may intimidate some.

I'm not a VB programmer, but I was able to understand the theory in this book, and I could easily work through the code examples to translate them into Delphi and C#. It's very hard to find a book (for any programming language) that explains 3D graphics in simple terms, and with useful code examples. Even though this book is getting a little dated, this book will still be among my highest recommendations for years to come. The basic theory does not change, even though programming languages evolve.

This is an excellent book. It covers many aspects of Computer Graphics including Vector Graphics, Raster Graphics, Animation, Curves and Surfaces, 2D and 3D Transformations, and Rendering. Each chapter comes with lots of sample code on the CD. The underlying mathematics are also nicely explained.

I only wish their was a 3rd edition for VB.NET.

If you just HAVE to develop graphics apps in VB, this is your best bet.

I am happy with my decision to buy this book, it has what I was looking for and even more than expected.

Highly recomendable.

This book is very close to perfection in covering topics of the graphics manipulation, which up to the current times was an option of C/C++ developers ( as far as availability of information and samples). It's good for novice and seasoned developers alike.