Macintosh Books

It was delivered right on time and in brand new condition like advertised.

Mary Plummer, whose fun book on Apple Soundtrack helped walk users through the features of what was once a relatively limited utility, has upgraded the curriculum for the revamped Soundtrack Pro, a tool some have called "the Photoshop of audio". Now, as a Photoshop user myself, I wouldn't say Soundtrack has quite the depth to yet make that claim ... however, Apple has indeed rebuilt it from the ground up into what is leaps and bounds beyond the clip/loop manager it had been before. And Ms. Plummer, who has seen it grow each step of the way, has penned the best (if not only, at this time) source with which to learn its awesome capabilities.

After a quick first chapter on getting familiar with the interface (a working knowledge of Mac OS-X is essential), the reader gets up and running with projects involving sound design for a video trailer and a suspense scene, performing in depth waveform surgery (one of the key new features of Soundtrack Pro), editing audio tracks, recording and mixing audio, performing refinements and adding effects to a multi-track recording, and finally integrating it with the other tools of Final Cut Studio. That covered all the bases with this user and, as with her previous volume, kept it fun and inspired creative experimentation. It is always refreshing to learn from an author who is both an expert and an artist herself.

If you have been working with Apple's Pro Apps for any amount of time, learning Soundtrack Pro on your own isn't really rocket science, and if you just use it for loops and sound design with Final Cut Pro/Express you probably don't even need this book. But it is capable of a lot more on its own, and if you find yourself wanting to get deeper into its uses and exploit Soundtrack Pro for all it's worth, you'll find this Apple Pro Training title a well-written, invaluable, enjoyable and fast-moving route to audio enlightenment.

Thanks again Mary!

Think of this book as driving instruction. Mary Plummer starts the car and now, you get to do the driving. The easy to follow comprehesive lessons in this book are more than enough to get you through the application. And once you have learned to operate the essentials, the rest of the drive is up to you. Turn left, turn right, speed up slow down, well, you get the picture. If you are the imaginative sort, this application can do things to enhance any of your video projects. This program even works for the rythmically challenged!

Bear in mind though, Mary's book is not intended to take you into the depths of award-winning audio post-production. If thats what you're looking for you probably need to seek an internship or hang around your local Guitar Centar. But if you want to learn how to be creative enough with Soundtrack Pro to keep your video viewing audience on the entertainment edge then this well-written book is a must.

I have used Soundtrack to score TV broadcast commercial IDs. Local commercials and proms are next. Shhhh! No one knows except me. Being paid for simply playing around. For more hot and interesting loops, see Douglas Spotted Eagle's book Using Soundtrack: Produce Original Music for Video, DVD, and Multimedia.

Great Book -- has helped me a lot to understad sound editing.

A word to those who are looking for a comprehensive reference and how-to book for Soundtrack Pro: this is not that book, nor is it intended to be. Instead, this book is a lesson-based primer that quickly takes you through many common tasks that anyone who is starting out in the world of audio Post-production will need to know at some point. The operative word being "quickly". This is NOT an in-depth look at Soundtrack Pro's most important functions, in terms of what they do, how they work and when you want to use one type of functionality over another.

Also, since the one person who took the time to write a real review mentioned it, if you're thinking about owning Soundtrack Pro and looking to see what kind of literature is available first, don't make the mistake of thinking STP is the "Photoshop of audio post-production." It's not, though it shares some common points with the progams that are. If you want the whole ball of wax, Logic Pro or Digital Performer from Motu are the tools you'll want to look at. Like Photoshop, they can perform a huge number of audio post-production and recording taks, but they're also hugely complex. Just depends on what your needs are and how much time you're able to dedicate to learning the toolset.

Overall this book is helpful in understanding how the Soundtrack Pro interface is laid out, and where the basic functional components are located and what they do. However, it's not the kind of book where you can look up a single important topic like "Voiceovers" or "eliminating ambient noise" and find 15 pages throughout the book on ways to accomplish those tasks. IOW, this isn't a reference work you set on your desk and find lots of answers as you go through the program trying to learn new things.

It's more like a 2 day class that covers a variety of basic lessons, compressed into a book.

Good Transaction, Thank you.

This book is ideal for both undergrad and grad students in the fields of neuroscience, pharmacology, and psychology. The information is arranged neatly with the authors introducing concepts at the cellular level (anatomy, physiology, and biochemistry), then moving on to intercellular signaling. From here, the neurochemical factors are introduced, outlining their functional significance at the molecular level. The last few chapters of this book expands on the role of several neurochemical interactions in the context of diseases like Alzheimer's and Creutzfeld-Jakob (Mad cow-like disorder), Huntington's (and other related basal ganglia disorders), and several Psychiatric disorders (anxiety, mood disorders, addiction, etc). The figures are excellent, and succintly explained. Several color plates are also included. Note that the book I bought has textual addenda/errata located at the back, in order to correct factual/typographical errors. Nevertheless, these corrections don't affect the whole integrity of the contents, but rather they strengthened it.

This book also includes a CD-ROM which constitutes the book's contents, and provides nice figures that you can use as a reference. Overall, I recommend this book if you think you will embark on a career in the medical sciences, or if you are an undergrad that would like to go to grad schools.

For anyone interested in neuroscience, it is a must read. Basic Neuroscience gives a snapshot of where neuroscientists are currently doing research, including the edge of what is known and not known. Much of this knowledge has only been discovered in the last few years.

Some fresh angles on the memory problem can be pieced together from distinct bits and pieces included in this book on the brain's catabolic habits, on starvation and diabetes, and on the effects of alcohol and other drugs on the chemistry of the brain.

Alcoholism offers us clues to how the memory works and fails. In both chronic and acute alcoholism, it appears the pen of memory stops writing quite suddenly. In the extreme chronic condition, an alcoholic who has progressed to Wernicke-Korsakoff's syndrome can be trapped forever in a particular day - the day the pen of memory lifted.

For a few fortunate alcoholics the brain's working memory can be restored with early injections of Vitamin B1, which is thiamine. Thiamine is a very common co-factor. It operates in a great many different biochemical pathways. But look: One among those many pathways is quite possibly the biochemical pathway that is essential for -- and could thus lead us straight to -- the human memory machine. The grand prize. This helpful hint has never been followed up exhaustively, although there are lots of takes on what might be going on.

This book holds a second hint. Perhaps the same crucial biochemical pathway to memory can be interrupted at a different point, in a different way -temporarily -- in the brain of a drinker experiencing an acute alcoholic memory blackout. See pages 659-660 for a summary discussion of ethanol, glucose and ketone body catabolism in the brain.

Notice sometime, in the spirit of science, the horrible, noxious, acetone like odor on the breath of a heavy drinker. It is very evident on the morning after. Ketone bodies are still so plentiful in the blood that an observer can smell them, and the brain (perhaps thinking the body is starving) may have shifted gears to protect itself. Instead of glucose, which the brain almost invariably prefers to eat, the brain can in a starvation emergency burn ketone bodies instead. Whenever they turn up, as for example on the occasion of a drinking binge, the brain will sense an emergency and make the changeover from glucose passively and automatically. So perhaps this emergency shift away from glucose is another pointer to the biochemical pathway that leads to human memory.

Maybe sugar synthesis, via the phosphogluconate shunt, is an important part of the memory pathway. It we are talking about ribose synthesis, which is certainly one possibility, this would imply an interruption or a shift, within the programmable phosphogluconate shunt, to the production of sugars other than ribose. Downstream, the pinch on ribose production would also constrain the synthesis of nucleotides and nucleic acids. It is an in interesting possibility because some people are examining anew the long despised notion that nucleic acids might constitute a human memory store. See Steven Rose's The Making of Memory for this longshot idea.

The basic notion is that to make a memory machine, you could simply run the equations describing the Central Dogma in reverse. (The first step, from Protein back to RNA, is thought to be impossible. However, the cell essentially takes notes on its protein manufacturing activity, leaving behind discarded introns like a dressmaker leaving shards of cloth on the floor. From the cutout cloth, you can determine the pattern of the dress. An intron uniquely marks a gene, and an intron can be written all the way back to DNA. A sequence of introns, or some sort of intronic shorthand, would essentially tape record a sequence of protein synthesis - a program.)

Another possible memory storage medium is a sprigged together sugar or glycoprotein molecule, perhaps assembled in the manner of a ganglioside.

There are lots of other avenues of action for ethanol upon memory. For examples, Ethanol is directly toxic to the nerves of the hippocampus, it affects LTP there and it also bombs the daylights out of the liver, suggesting that alcoholic memory loss is not a biochemistry problem to be pursued in the brain alone. If you are interested in the memory problem, Basic Neurochemistry is a major resource and great hunting ground for fresh ideas.

As with any other text in neuroscience, you should first read Spikes (Rieke et al. 1996) as an essential preface. It will help you parse out which assumptions in this science can still be believed, post 1993, and which assumptions should now be sharply questioned or instantly discarded.

The topics in the book are arranged well. It is suitable for both junior and senior students. The concepts are explained clearly. This must be the most excellent book in this field for introductory courses.

It's interesting to see just how powerful AppleScript has become. Initially scripting languages were not well suited for general purpose programming because they lacked too many features and/or were too inefficient. Both of these constraints have gone away. Computers are so powerful, the inefficiency doesn't matter. And the languages have gotten enough features that in many cases AppleScript works just fine as a solution to a general programming problem.

It's about time for this book. Up until now the information about AppleScript has been thin. Now this tutorial has been published to explain the use of the language. I like Mr. Kochan's writing style. He starts off having you write a program. If you type it the way he says, the program has a bug in it. (Kind of like my programs.) That way, about the first thing you see is how AppleScript reports an error. With that out of the way, you can move on to learning the language.

It's quite a comprehensive book, talking about things like classes of variables, there's quite a bit on string manipulation. Of course all the usual things like logic, loops, files and so on. He saves the description of AppleScript Studio until the end of the book, that way you learn more about the language itself and are ready when Studio comes in to help make the task so much easier.

Frankly the pickings for Applescript books is pretty slim. To have a new book on the subject is a welcome surprise. I would have preferred that the book had more exposition in relation to the amount of code, but that's a small gripe with what is otherwise a well written book. The basics are covered from the syntax of the language and the tools, to file management and logging. Then the author discusses scripting the common iLife applications. This is where I appreciated the up-to-date information as the other book on Applescript from O'Reilly is badly in need of an update.

I would have preferred some additional information on Applescript Studio, as this is an exciting new development for Applescript. But that is also a minor grip.

A must buy for those interested in a starting point for scripting their OS X box.

Finally a book about AppleScript that's not just for professionals. This book is for all Mac users that want to have some fun and learn how to write AppleScript programs. Kochan uses tons of examples and shows how to do some fun things, like write a guessing game, or write a program that says "Good morning" (or whatever is appropriate for the time of day). His iLife chapter shows how to write iTunes programs, and how to do things like make a photo album or DVD from a folder full of photos. This book rocks!

- A Mac Hobbyist

AppleScript evolved from an 80's language called Hypertalk. AppleScript has always been the realm of only a few hardcore enthusiasts until Mac OS X came along, which made many computing solutions highly scriptable and boosted the popularity of Applescript. Of all the books I've seen on the language this is the best, especially if you're new to the language.

This book can be a bit of fun too, as it is not simply about business solutions. Instead the author shows you how to use AppleScript to make an iTunes player and create a DVD slideshow. The book teaches the language by a series of short examples, each o which demonstrates a particular programming concept - how to write a loop, how to get a list of files, etc. Each chapter ends with a series of exercises to reinforce what you've just learned with solutions in the back of the book. The following is a chapter-by-chapter run down of the book:

1. Writing Your First AppleScript Program - Covers the basics via a simple program that displays a dialog.
2. Variables, Classes, and Expressions - The nuts and bolts of writing simple AppleScript expressions.
3. Making Decisions - Deals with control flow and getting input from the user.
4. Program Looping - A guessing game program demonstrates the use of the "repeat" statement and its various forms.
5. Working with Strings - The basics of constructing, deconstructing, and inquiring about strings.
6. Working with Lists and Records - How to use the two fundamental data structures of AppleScript. Also discusses more complex structures built from these two fundamental data types.
7. Working with Files - Talks about opening, closing, and modifying files in the AppleScript language.
8. Handlers - Handlers are what you'd call functions or methods in other languages. You'll learn how to write them, how to pass and return variables, and proper form for handlers.
9. Error Handling - How to handle errors via event handling. Known as exception handling in other languages.
10. Working with Applications - Talks about the "tell" statement, which is how AppleScript communicates with application programs. This is a very important chapter, since the primary use of AppleScript is to communicate with other applications.
11. Scripting iLife Applications - A fun chapter. You write programs that interface with iPhoto, iTunes, and iDVD, three of the applications in the iLife suite.
12. Script Objects - You learn how to craft data types that are compatible with object-oriented programming concepts.
13. Loose Ends - Miscellaneous topics covered include web services, the Script Menu, GUI scripting, and recording scripts.
14. Introducing ApplesScript Studio - Learn to use AppleScript Studio to develop a fancy user interface with AppleScript as the underlying code.
Appendix A - Exercise Answers
Appendix B - Language Reference
Appendix C - Resources

Highly recommended for the beginning AppleScript programmer, but that doesn't mean you'll come away with from this book with just beginner's skills.

I'm a tough grader, and four stars from me is doing very well! The bottom line is that this book is well organised, written clearly, and discusses a moderately difficult subject pleasantly and with competency.
The book fitted my background. I started programming in 1959, became proficient in FORTRAN by the mid 60's, added BASIC and LOGO when I bought my first computer a decade later, used HyperCard while it was being supported, dabbled in PASCAL, and learned too little C before retiring in 1996. When I bought this book, my last programming was ten years behind me, and modern computer languages weren't in my repertory at all.
I like a textbook approach -- clear exposition with plenty of examples, followed by problems to solve -- and Kochan provided just that. Often the examples preceded the exposition, and that worked fine, too. I prided myself on solving all the chapter-ending problems without looking at any of the solutions, and the book equipped me to do that, although a few problems in the later chapters took me a long time. Very occasionally I encountered typographical errors, but, almost always, what I had learned from the book allowed me to proceed. The point is not that there were typos here and there -- what technical manual is without them -- but that the book itself kept them from becoming an obstacle.
From the end of Chapter 4 I was able to begin using what I had learned, actually putting AppleScript to work. That provided motivation to go on and finish the book, which took three months, incidentally.
The book has an attractive layout and is blessed with an excellent table of contents, a comprehensive index, and a short list of other resources, all features of a well-written text, and all too often omitted.
Still, four stars, not five. Why? Had I bought the book when it was published in 2005, rather than in January of 2007, I might well have given five stars, but writing about current programming techniques, especially when referring to other programs -- essential in teaching AppleScript -- is aiming at a moving target, and as the author indicated would happen, the target had moved on. An example in Chapter 11 using iDVD that a 2005 reviewer praised doesn't work on the newer version of iDVD on my computer, and the gap was too big for me to bridge. Kochan warned that two web-service examples in Chapter 13 might not remain available, and one of them is gone now. Despite these glitches, both Chapter 11 and Chapter 13 are well worth reading and studying, but each has lost a useful example.
The book was unable to teach me the crontab feature in Chapter 13. I have not figured out whether a misprint, something outdated, or my own incompetence is responsible.
The publisher, Wiley, provides an errata list for the textbook on line and provides a place there to post questions; however, the site is also dated and did not help me. Most of the errata listed there came from me.
A principal purpose of AppleScript is to enable users to make more efficient use of other programs, such as Adobe PhotoShop and Apple iTunes, to name just two. This cannot be done in an elementary textbook, and Kochan illustrates what might be attempted without pretending to teach you to do it. On page 556 he cites "AppleScript, the Definitive Guide," by Matt Neuburg, saying: "This book explains many of the intricacies of the AppleScript language and is the recommended follow-up to the book you hold in your hands." I plan to find out. Neuburg's book, incidentally, wasn't suited to introduce me to AppleScript when I attempted to read it first.
The bits of outdated material listed above should not discourage you from buying and profiting from "Beginning AppleScript." I do not know a better place to start.

The reference in the oncology book for students, oncologists and specialists involved in cancer treatment

Although the Devita text is a good resource, it has important drawbacks. In every edition, including the latest one, too much information has been out of date even at the first day of publication. Several other major oncology texts somehow manage to avoid this problem much better. Also, since the text comes out every two years, information in the current edition is already at least 3 years old or older. Beyond this, the index is detailed but it still is hard to find specific information, i.e., the book is clumsily organized. Finally, the CD version has the worst search program that I have ever used. You can enter information with any degree of specificity and the search will retrieve (at best) a list of chapters and major chapter sections in which to look. You then have to read through miles of text to find the information that you wanted. Searchability is one of the main reasons for buying a CD and I consider the Devita CD virtually worthless.

this book is considered one of the text...that make the specialest so much satisfied by the quality and quantity of the information it contain and the it is discussed. but for us in middle east it is very [pricey]. you will understand that when you know that my monthly salary as an assesstent lecturer inradiation oncology dept.; Alazhar university, Cairo, Egypt;... a low price edition will be much helpful and very wise to prevent illegal copying of the book. thanks a lote

This immensely readable text is a gold-mine for anyone interested in cancer. It is a blessing that this text exists for understanding the pathology, treatment and prognoses of various cancers

Devita is recognized as the established text-book on medical oncology.
Its strengths are 1. the excellent introduction to the science of oncology 2. the comprehensive reviews of each tumour type (inevitably dated as is almost every text-book) 3. a sufficient coverage of all modalities of treatment to allow the medical oncologist to appreciate the contribution of surgery, and radiation therapy 4. a number of useful discussions of common clinical scenarios.
Its weakness is twofold: 1. if you are looking for a clear recommendation or approach to a problem you will often be better served elsewhere 2. the writing is hard going with a strong tendency to turgid US academic prose.
So who should read it? Any medical oncology fellow should read this or one of the similar books cover to cover. For consultants it is a useful starting point to review a condition not often seen, or provide a background to the field. In contrast to another reviewer I cannot believe a lay-person without a very strong health science background will be able to wade through it.

My number one recommendation for learning DVD Studio Pro ( versions 3 or 4, as not
much changed between 3 and 4, except adding HD authoring). If your a self taught person
like me, who likes to learn, or just wants to be able to author a DVD in an hour without
getting technically lost in Apple's Manual for the program, GET THIS BOOK!!!!

This book will take you from A to Z but seam to be a little outdted because Studio Pro is now 4.0 but anyway, this book is well done. I will gladly share it to my videographer friends.

Basically a excellent tutorial and reference. But unfortunately falls into the
do-everything cracks by forcing someone who wishes to produce a simple slideshow only to learn all about how to create complex video audio supported programs. Before the user can put together a slide show they will have to learn many functions that have no relation ship to what they ultimately want wind up with.

DVD Studio Pro was born as DVDirector, a $5,400 software package from a company named Astarte. Seeing a very good thing, Apple bought Astarte in April of 2000 and turned it into DVD Studio Pro for a price of $1,000. The first release was - well it was a first release. In competition with this software was DVDMaestro, a quite advanced product, but also a quite advanced $25,000.

Apple mixed all this technology together with the golden third release at only $499. All of a sudden professional quality DVD authoring was available to virtually anyone.

This book starts with a discussion on what hardware you need to work with DVD Studio Pro 3. DVD files are huge, often measured in gigabytes. You'll need processing power, memory, and disk space. Starting from this simple view, it continues in a step by step basis through every aspect of producing a DVD. The writing style is clear and concise, with just the right amount of theory mixed in with practical instruction. Considered an intermediate level book, this is not exactly a beginners 'this is how you turn it on' book.

You'll note that this is also a very reasonably priced book.

Thank you Martin Sitter! I am a filmmaker/photographer who needed to move into the realm of making DVDs. You took me from A to Z in an informative, easy to understand way. I really liked how you started at the beginning of what the differences are between DVDs and CDs and especially what countries use what format (all those film festival markets!) Words like MPEG-2 video streams, encoding, and assets roll off my tongue now and it all makes sense!
You have opened up a new world for me and I am grateful!
- Lisa Bevis, Los Angeles, CA

I must admit, when I first purchased this title, I had high hopes. The subject matter is fascinating, and the author has a good reputation. Unfortunately, it was disappointing. The author attempts to use equal protection jurisprudence to defend the rights of cloned individuals (which is not a bad approach) but falls short due to a common affliction found among academia, hubris. The author spends the first part of her book attempting to refute common objections to cloning. In doing so, she effectively 'dismisses' anyone with religious beliefs, anyone with strongly held beliefs about natural processes, and goes to great lengths to construct straw men that she can then knock down. This is not an objective book, as the title suggests. It is an advocate piece, most likely expounded from some law review article she previously wrote. The most effective form of persuasion is exemplified when one can be intellectually honest, pointing out weak points in your own argument as well as in the arguments of others, and then advocating why your arguments are better. Sadly, that sort of honesty is sorely lacking in this opinion piece.

This book is superb. The writing is very clear and the restatement, at convenient intervals, of the points previously established is very useful. It gives a comprehensive, thoughtful and balanced account of the scientific as well as the ethical and legal issues concerning human reproductive cloning.

Those who argue against human cloning often suppose that clones will be identical to those they are cloned from. The absurdity of this position is demonstrated beyond any doubt by Professor Macintosh. The other arguments usually used to show that human reproductive cloning should be illegal and/or that it is unethical are also shown to be defective.

Her further claims that anti-cloning laws conflict with an important principle of egalitarianism and that they are, in American terms, unconstitutional, are very stimulating and supported with erudition and cleverness. Even those who are not convinced by them will find them impressive. Sympathy for her fellow human beings, whatever their ethnic, genetic or reproductive background permeates this powerful, important and inspiring book.

The title- Illegal Beings- is provocative and intriguing. Rape is an illegal act but any consequent babies are not illegal beings. Do laws against rape stigmatise those who are born as a consequence of it? If they did, would that be a reason for repealing them? Could not opponents of cloning - of whom I am not one- condemn cloning without thereby condemning clones? It will be interesting to see how they will respond to Professor Macintosh's arguments.

Although it is set in the context of the United States, of the laws of which Professor Macintosh's knowledge and understanding is vast and deep, the arguments are of interest and relevance to those living in other jurisdictions. Students of law, social sciences, medical ethics and applied philosophy will, in particular, find this book to be invaluable and intellectually illuminating.

Prof. Kerry Macintosh of the Santa Clara University Law School, who got her JD from Stanford, provides us with an excellent resource. Her book reads like a scholarly Ph.D. Thesis in addition to being a valuable case study on how to argue persuasively before a judge and jury. She supports her argument that anti reproductive-cloning laws passed in a number of states are unconstitutional and reinforce false stereotypes that stigmatize potential human clones as subhuman or unworthy of existence! Actually, if a clone were born healthy, he/she would really be nothing more than a "temporally displaced identical twin (say, by 40 years)," and twining (both identical and fraternal) is really nothing new in human history, is it? This seeming paradox is related to the "identity fallacy" that assumes that clones are somehow "more" than identical twins (actually they're less, since they had different wombs and maternal mtDNA). Take for example the false logic of the following argument: "It would be unethical to clone King Tut, since the world has changed so much since his day; how could he possibly fit in?" Really, it seems that our evangelical legislators fear that meddling in the "secrets of life," something which is only the proper dominion of God, will unleash unimaginable horrors.
[...]

Consider the following scenario: a married couple is told by a government official that they will not be allowed to have sexual intercourse since the woman among them may get pregnant. Sexual reproduction is very hazardous for embryos, fetuses, and gestational mothers they are told, and the statistics supporting the dangers in procreation is presented to them. The couple takes the statistical data to a trained statistician in order to obtain an opinion on the reliability of the data. The statistician informs them that the data is correct, including the statement that up to 75 percent of embryos conceived through sexual intercourse never make it birth. Most of the embryos do not implant in the uterus and are spontaneously aborted. The couple, because of the current legal environment that forbids behavior that leads to these kinds of dangers, is therefore prohibited from procreating using traditional intercourse.

This scenario sounds absurd, and one cannot imagine a society whose government would prohibit procreation because it deemed it too "risky." But human reproduction via nuclear somatic transfer, colloquially known as human cloning, has been prohibited for this reason, among many others. Those who want to outlaw reproductive human cloning frequently point to the supposed dangers in carrying it out. These dangers have not been validated, due mostly to lack of experimental data, but even if they were, this would still not be an acceptable reason for prohibiting reproductive human cloning, given the "dangers" of "ordinary" reproduction. If because of technological advances, reproduction via human cloning resulted in only 10 percent of the embryos failing to reach actual birth, would it then be viewed as a more viable method of reproduction? Probably not, for objections to human cloning are based more on irrational reactions than sound, rational, or scientific thinking.

Scientific and ethical refutations of the arguments against human cloning have appeared in a few excellent books in the past five years. This book includes many of these arguments, and the author refines some of them to make them even better. But she includes arguments that the reader cannot find in these earlier books. Her arguments are both original and fascinating, for they pertain to the legal ramifications of anticloning laws, the latter of which have been aggressively proposed by politicians who neither understand the science of human cloning nor its social, legal, and political ramifications.

The legal argumentation in the book occurs mostly in chapter three of the book, wherein the author attempts to show that anticloning laws will violate the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution and will result in an effective discrimination against children that are born as the result of nuclear somatic transfer techniques. She assumes, realistically, that there will be human clones born sometime in the near future, regardless of the status of anticloning laws at that time. These children will subjected to `existential segregation' the author contends. This is a kind of discrimination that is similar to kind experienced in the past by mixed couples who wanted to marry but were prohibited from doing so in some states by `antimiscegenation' laws.

What is most valuable in her discussion of the legal issues involved in anticloning laws is that it educates the reader on various aspects of constitutional law. The insights that the reader will gain from this part of the book will be useful even outside the context of human cloning. The equal protection guarantee she argues is applicable to anticloning laws in that these laws will `classify' human clones. This legal classification she argues will result in `strict scrutiny' and is therefore suspect under the equal protection guarantee.

Indeed there is much in this book that supporters of human cloning will find both interesting and important. It is important to note that the technology is now available to perform human cloning, albeit somewhat risky (but still within the boundaries of what is risky in `ordinary' human reproduction). As technology advances and the possibility of asexual reproduction via cloning or some other technique becomes even more viable, we should be even more attentive to the legal rights of those individuals born in this way. They should be viewed as full-fledged human beings, deserving of every right that all humans possess. They will no doubt have their imperfections or faults as all humans do. Hopefully some of them will work to ending all prejudicial attitudes and any notion of an `illegal being.' These kinds of actions on their part will certainly prove their humanity, if indeed any proof is needed. Hopefully the words in this book will be heeded by more people, and remove the author's status as a minority in rational and coherent thinking on human cloning. But the image of a beautiful newborn (cloned) baby in a crib will no doubt also alleviate much of the remaining skepticism or repugnance towards human cloning.

Kerry Lynn Macintosh, the author of "Illegal Beings: Human Clones and the Law," accurately portrays the science of human cloning, while explaining that most arguments against cloning are "false or exaggerated." The author, a lawyer, compares anticloning laws to racism and apartheid, and encourages the reader to renounce inappropriate stereotypes, "existential segregation," and anticloning laws, which are unconstitutional. The author also notes how prejudiced the anticloners are by describing their attitude as "...when it comes to human clones, we do not want their kind around here."

Having bought this book as a requirement for my Page Layout class, I was surprised to see that I actually used the book. Like the QuickStart book for Quark, it offers invaluable information clearly, and is laid out in a streamlined and clean fashion. I have used InDesign CS2 in the past, but CS3 had new tools and shortcuts. This book defines InDesign CS3 effortlessly which is wonderful for students. I have come back time and again to this book when I get stuck. Whether you're a beginner to Adobe InDesign, an intermediate user, or professional you will definitely find a use for this book.

Okay, I know I rated Blatner and Kvern's RWIDCS3 book 5 stars, but when you're on deadline and looking for a quick, concise answer on how to do something fast this one's the book to reach for. Frankly, do yourself a huge favor and keep both titles close at hand. They make a powerful duo.

I've used InDesign from the first iteration six or seven years ago ... I am reasonibly glib in all its nuances, until I got CS3.

This version adds a LOT of new methods and techniques which aren't too intuitive. But ... Sandee Cohen came to the rescue with this new, comprehensive manual, with a lot of test, methods and various explantions of techniques. As usual, you did good Sandee. Thanks for holding my hand while I scratched my head.

This book is very in depth and the author is clearly knowledgeable, so for that I give it high marks. However, as someone who was completely new to InDesign (and all Adobe programs), I was hoping for a guide that was easy to follow and that gave me some sort of path to take to become comfortable with the program. This guide claims to be "the quick, easy way" to learn but there is no step-by-step instruction and the pages are cluttered with information. I was hoping for a "classroom approach," and this guide reads more like a reference manual with no cohesion between instructions. It's got all the answers, but the presentation is clearly geared toward more experienced users. Anyone approaching Adobe products for the first time should look elsewhere. I am going to try CS3 for dummies and hope for better results.

With zero experience with layout programs, this book did a very credible job of walking me through and making me not only knowledgable, but competent. A couple of spots in the book I thought could have been better arranged...different order of teaching, but that is really a minor detail. A number of software books just take you through the keyboard strokes without detailed explanations of the tools, their properties, and especially, how those tools relate to actaul production. This book does a great job of giving the complete picture of not only how, but when and why.

If you've never used InDesign CS3 this book is for you.

This book is very informative and looks at women's health from a female point of view. Situations common to women's lives are taken into account and their impact on women's health is examined. Very interesting, you'll find things you have not considered before.

Good approach to the all-encompassing mind, body and and spirit of women, but needs to go further to be a prope textbook. Consider Gangi's view of holistic health and incorporate it with this one.

This book really opens up one's self-awareness. It is a way of life to be taught and learned. I swear and live by this book when it comes to my health and wellness. Highly recommended for any motovated woman.

I have arthirtis of the spine (ankylosing sponditis) and been told by doctors that there is no cure just PT. Dr Murray gives you an explanation of what went wrong, (while my disease is genetic why doesn't everyone with the gene get it?), nutritional vitamins and finally a diet to help and somewhat reverse the tide. Has it helped? In the two weeks I bought this book it has; my pain is less, much less, and while I am not totally faithful I am beginning to become a devout convert. If you have arthrits, ulcerative colitis (ra and uc are genetically related) or uncontrolled allergies, this man knows how to handle them. I've searched everywhere and he has the answer. Get this and the Balch Natural Remedies book and mate, you'll be right :-)

I am 40 and suffer from ankylosing sponditis (a form of rheumatoid arthritis) and before I found Dr Murray my back pain was intolerable to the degree I seriously wondered if I would ever have a pain free life again. Dark thoughts entered my head and I grew despondent. Then I found this book in a local bookstore and said, Why not, what do I have to lose? Well pain was the biggest thing :-). I read the book and have in the past 3 months followed somewhat faithfully. It is high on vitamins/minerals and that's where the cost comes in BUT when you figure what pain killers promise and what they deliver it's worth it. I am virtually pain free 75% of the time, sure I have relapses but I have hope and I believe I will be happy and painfree again much less deformed. I love this man and I love this book; what he has done for me goes beyond words. He is answer to a prayer and I thank him for that. He covers all types of arthritis from osteo to ra to as. He has alot of practical suggestions and most importantly it works.

Reviewed by: Curt Blanchard, Tucson Macintosh Users Group

I'm a manual kind of guy, by this I mean I actually read `em. Hardware and software manufacturers are not making manuals the way they once did. When you pay big bucks for something, you expect carefully researched and clearly written instructions and frequently these days, you don't get either. One of my hottest pet peeves is paying for nicely boxed software and getting only a CD with an onscreen manual. I paid more than a grand for my Mac and it came with a skimpy 48 page set-up guide. I had to pay another $30.00 for "The Missing Manual" (by Pogue Press/O'Reilly, a truly excellent resource, by-the-way) to get what I should have gotten in the first place.

Having grumped about all this, it's hard to fault Apple for not supplying an iTunes manual when they provide the application for free! iTunes is a fabulous, feature-rich application that I use every single day, but not all of its features are immediately obvious or apparent.

So, in comes Bob LeVitus to fill the voids. His "Little iTunes Book" is a goldmine of informational nuggets that will enhance your user experience and listening enjoyment. I've always liked LeVitus' writing, it's light-hearted but concise and to the point. The book is only a couple hundred pages and it's not something you sit down and read cover to cover. It's a reference book divided into logical topics - Burning CDs, Managing Playlists, Internet Radio, iPods, the Music Store and much more.

My only quibble is the author's assertion that downloading shared music from the internet without paying for it "may or may not be legal" and he devotes pages to the use of peer-to-peer networks. To my way of thinking, it is illegal without question. To be fair, he does agree that it is unfair to the artists. Apple got it right with the Music Store - download to your heart's content for 99 cents per song or $9.99 for most CDs - legally.

The Little iTunes Book is a highly recommended reference book full of good information and subtle tips. I'd judge it to be aimed at the Beginner through Intermediate level. The section on Visual Effects alone is worth the price.

With a program as automatic and intuitive as "iTunes" it's all too easy to provide gratuitous information at the expense of the genuinely useful. Far too often in this book I sense that the author's instructions to the user about "how" to do things are counterproductive to what the program practically forces you to do all by itself. Rather I would have preferred more explanation of "what" the program does. For example, music files used by iTunes appear in 3 places--the iTunes folder, the iTunes library, the user's playlist. But it still isn't clear to me what the exact distinction is among them. Also, since the program permits multiple compression settings as well as no compression, can a user decompress and recompress without affecting audio quality of a given file? And the author, like many Mac users, touts "Toast" but without clearly explaining the advantages of a relatively expensive software program that essentially duplicates iTunes. Then there are questions about whether to burn with virtual memory on or off, along with questions about how many files a hard drive can support before performance is affected, that are neglected or only partially addressed.

The author makes a few good points--for example, most web sites promising MP-3 downloads simply aren't worth the bother--but not enough to justify the cost of the book, especially now that both iTunes version one and Napster are history.

Here is the dream documentation which seldom accompanies the software packages found on the market today. The software which is the subject of this volume is called iTunes, a free download from Apple.com. The inclusion of CD-RW drives on the latest models offered by Apple mandates that this book be written. Bob LeVitus is more than up to the task.

For those seeking help in the jungle of modern Mac computer technology, here's your chance. I was able to answer questions which have puzzled me for months regarding the manipulation of mp3, AIFF, WAV and CA-DA song files while using my Mac computer. Preparing CDs which I can use in my home entertainment center and my car makes for greater listening pleasure every day.

A touch of humor adds to the readability of this little 168 page gem. I feel certain that all serious Macophiles will want this book in their library, both for reference & for a good read.

Although this book is accurate only to version 1.x, it's still a great read. It's got some good web links, MP3 player recommendations, but most of all, it lists most functions and tells you what they're about.

Add to that a great dose of Bob "Dr. Mac" LeVitus humour, and you get an irresistable read.

Don't just judge this book by size. Every page on this book contains valuable information and good summarisations.

Excellent book! It took me out of an iTunes "fog" where I was never quite sure what I was doing into the "expert" realm where I am effectively functioning with a very large library of music. I can make playlists, rip songs, burn CDs, you name it! Thanks to Bob LeVitus for a great book! (Sorry, Apple, but your online help just didn't do it for me.)

Kawasaki mentions his experience in advancing money to others to pay in advance for their work. Read "The Macintosh Way" as young as you can. I'd be quite a few millions better off if I had read him sooner and taken his advice to heart. And it's not just the money....

I like GK. He is a colorful character with great wit. Being a huge Apple fan I decide to get this book. I'm contemplating starting a small service biz and bought this book for useful tips but I got very little out of it. Maybe it was ground breaking when it came out.

The book is really targeted for people that work in large consumer based hardware/software products. The book was written prior to the internet so they way companies sell and promote biz as well as the tips are somewhat outdated. Examples: Apple uses distributors to sell. Well in the US and most developed markets that ins't really true anymore. Apple goes direct and in some cases through retailers that are also distributors. If you want to get into a company get someone internally to champion your resume. This is already well known. Also most companies referenced in the book no longer exist (Ex: Compuserve) or stopped supporting the macintosh platform long time ago. Also the last chapter on "dating" in a tech world while amusing felt like a filler to complete the book.

There are a few good nuggets on presentations, demos, and maximizing your investment in trade shows. This was interesting but very technology oriented. There are also some interesting perspectives on Apple history and characters which Apple followers would enjoy.

So If you have a small biz that isn't technology based or you are not a fan of Apple there isn't much here for you.

Guy Kawasaki has written a great book on Apple and the Apple business method. Very funny. Extremely unique and marvelous, like Apple. Perfect for brushing up your Mac Evangelist skills! One of the best books I've ever read, and I'm not even done! Guy truly embodies the Macintosh Spirit. everything about the book, from the footnotes to the illustrations, is like the artistic perfection of Macintoshes! GUY KAWASAKI RULES!!!EVERYONE SHOULD READ THIS BOOK AND BUY A MAC!!!!!!

The teams I have been a part of that followed the basic attitude that Guy outlines here have accomplished amazing things against all odds. On other teams, the farther we got away from these ideas, the more mediocre the end results turned out. If you want to create an environment where world changing events will happen, you need to read this book.

Guy Kawasaki's "The Macintosh Way" empowers the very essence of understanding the principles of evangelism and doing the "right thing the right way" in business. This book and his other book " "Selling the Dream" should be required reading for startup companies. Values and principles in business are the key to success. Guy's keen sense of humour and reference to examples of what did and didn't work for the Apple Computer Corporation, while he worked there in the early 80's, is a fascinating perspective. Here, you will see how an successful company like Apple grows from innovation to mediocrity. For Mac users, this is a praticularly fascinating insight but should be required reading for all CEO's and directors of growing companies. It is an insightful collection of practicle examples of what and what not to do in business.