Virtual Reality Books

This book covers a considerable amount of ground by addressing the results of laboratory-based studies on human information processing and those attained in more applied settings. While I felt that the organization of information in the book was well done the overall results and recommendations given in many of the chapters were not a great revelation. For example, one author states that "attention can be disrupted when several items on a visual display are designed to capture attention" (p. 39), while the chapter on designing Web pages for individuals with disabilities suggests that one should "use a consistent, simple layout across all pages of the site", and "use large buttons and controls" (pg. 90). I'm not convinced that even relative neophytes to Web design would be enlightened by these and other such comments. However, my chief complaint with this book is that it is unequivocally the most poorly edited collection of chapters that I have ever read. Perhaps I'm a bit jaded from having read and graded one too many papers but is it too much to ask that a book addressing human information processing and Web design principles have correctly spelled words, proper grammar, and understandable formatting conventions (my personal favorite is Table 11.1 on page 141)?

While I liked the organization of the book (each chapter written by a different "expert") with few exceptions, there was very little practical knowledge delivered despite the abundance of minutia. For example, one author went into great detail about visual perception: proximal vs. distal stimuli, how the eye tracks across text, etc., but conclusions drawn were SO obvious, they could have been culled from the most basic design books (avoid crowding the letters in text; it makes it hard to read). Duh. From the title, I was expecting more human factors information, and less "no sh*t, sherlock" design tips (FYI the discussion on proximal and distal stimuli lead nowhere, and those were the most technical terms in the book).

A good book to understand the historical lexicon of cyberspace. This book is well written, but I would say that it covers a subject that changes so fast that it would have to be updated every three to five years to be worthwhile. I would borrow it, but I would not buy it.

Her theoretical suppositions are vastly underdeveloped. This book is primarily: 1)Straightforward documentation of outdated VR examples. 2)Practical approach to constructing models with regard to polygon counts and load times. 3)A chance for Bertol to publish plenty of her own tacky renderings. Too much the other side of Marcos Novak's trans-diarrhea...

Each chapter of the book is written by a different group of authors. Although authors themselves are respectable researchers in the field, this one more looks like a collection of papers rather than a "book". Also not all of them are good writers, so some of the chapters are extremely boring. Few concepts are just not explained to the level of detail I would have liked...in short this book gives you a "high-level" view. And at least I would not be able to implement any system explained without making my own assumptions. Of course, I should accept that I am not a master of this subject (but then isn't that the reason I am buying this book ?)
I will not recommend this book at its given price. Makes no sense to spend $175 on this

The book has a couple of good guides in it and for the most part I picked up some points, but the software instructions on how to use this RAVE engine is awful. They tell you to put it in win-cgi directory and thats it. Most people dont know what that dir. is or how to get there never mind loading software into it. If you like adventure this software is a mind twister.

The book is very weak in content and has absolutely no practical examples. I'm not an expert in XML, so I won't give a technical estimate, but with new technology like XML one should not only show his favorable opinion, but provide examples to prove it's value. Title is also very misleading - in fact you've got a combination of 'appreciating the need of xml' and XML short description.

This book has a cook-book style. The concepts taught are highly inadequate. Many of the explanations are just explanations of the source code, which occupies half the book. So, in the end, you would probably gained nothing much in terms of concepts learnt.

But if you just want the source code that works to paste into your program, then this is a good book to get....

This book solved a lot of problems for me. While much of the product coverage no longer applies, the theory and practice of the VPN, as well as the basic need for such a technology gave me the information I needed to convince my upper management to use VPN's better.

I'm new to the world of VPN. This book laid some ground work for me to start with. The other reviews consider this book as usless, but now after having read this book, I now have a basis to gauge other work by. After all, as another review stated, there is not much new material out there.

I didn't check out the publication date of this book when I bought it (1998) so my dissapointment is partly my fault. It is, unsuprisingly, very outdated (anyone actually remember the altavista tunnel?). However, much of the info that remains, even general VPN fundamentals, are flawed and innacurate. This book will hinder you if you are trying to understand proper VPN network topologies.

I so agree with "This book is a blot on O'Reilly's reputation. The editor(s) must have been asleep". I have many O'Reilly books, and they all are good...but not this one. I trusted the O'Reilly's editors. So I ordered this book before it was published. I wish I had the chance to read the reviews....

This book was a big disappointment. It does gloss over alot of the key VPN ideas, but there is not much substance. I've learned more from reading various tidbits off the internet.

Also, before you even consider using PPTP you should read the CounterPane cryptanalysis paper on PPTP.

http://www.counterpane.com/pptpv2-paper.html PPTP on windows NT is just not secure!

For a total newbie, this book might give them an idea of what to look for on the internet, but besides that I don't see too much value in this book.

I wouldn't buy it again, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone that I liked.

While AutoCAD dominates the CAD field, ArchiCAD aims to do the same for architecture. The book has many examples of how traditional architectural tasks can be performed under ArchiCAD. You can see traditional floor plans being laid out. Plus a natural extension into different floors of a building. As well as 3d image rendering derived from the blueprints.

For large buildings, or a group of buildings, there is also a neat feature of being able to define terrain that the buildings sit on. The text also discusses how to organise interior space, aided by reasonably realistic renderings.

The problem with the book is that it has the format of a large glossy coffeetable book. You know, the artsy kind, with nice pictures on many pages. But if you want an actual user's manual, this text may be somewhat deficient. And that is the problem. The very title bills this as a user handbook. It does not live up to that.

I got this book before the previous review was written, and boy am I sorry. It is essentially a nearly 300-page sales brochure. Fantastic examples of what can be done with ArchiCAD, but rarely does it give even the most rudimentary directions on how to do any of these things. No explanation of technique is found, just nifty examples of what you could do if you already knew how to do it. That any reputable author or printer would issue this bound joke is a point of lasting perturbation for me.

Save yourself the money. Save yourself the frustration. Don't bother with this overpriced, underwritten book.

I have waited for this book for 11 months.
I finally got it two days ago.

I was anticipating receiving a book with
many tips and tricks on how to use Archicad.

Instead I just got a broad brush history,
no good how to's,a limited how firms are
using it, and an incredibly insulting
talk about stories and layers.

The whole text of the book could have been
contained in one large magazine article,
but the designers of the book choose instead
to double space the sentences and leave a
lot of white space in the margins.
The composition of the pages is fine, but
I bought the book for knowledge
(which it did not contain),
not a pretty page format.

Don't waste your time or money.

I hope some one else does write a
good archicad book.I'll gladly pay
for one, but they should have paid
me for looking thru this waste of good paper.

I have never written a review of any kind of
book or product before, but this book was sooo
baaad that I am writing one now.

Jack Rogers AIA

The author of this book appears to have stopped short of actually completing it. The content is based on a Draft specification of VRML 2.0, and the examples will not work in final draft browsers. The publisher should have paid attention to the quality of the contents on this book. I hate to say this, but don't waste your money!

I have no idea where this author got their information, but it's presented with an air of authority (which should _not_ be present) and -ZERO- of the examples using sensors of any sort funtion in production release VRML2.0 browsers. Additionally, the description of Nodes, Fields, and the related ilk are merely warmed over without passing any substantial understanding or attempt to pass these concepts. Please, for the love of God, save your money and spend it on The VRML 2.0 Handbook or other resource.