Practitioners Books

According to the author, the practicality of books on functions is often limited by the graphical content, and that books of tables like Abrahamowitz & Stegun "serve a very limited purpose" today (primarily to check function evaluating software). This "Atlas" tries to fill this void, and it does a respectable job. However, detailed function exploration and visualization is left to Mathematica users, the primary audience for this book. Without Mathematica 2.2 or later, and/or a C complier, a great deal in this title cannot be fully appreciated. Of course, the reader can often explore function behavior by plotting an equation using common spreadsheet software that came with his computer w/o using C or Mathematica. But much of this high-priced textbook consists of small blocks of C code and everlasting references to Mathematica notebook calls. Part II contains ~200 pages of Mathematica notebook descriptions and ~100 pages of C driver programs, not to mention the C code documented throughout the first 600 pages.

Most the "Atlas" graphics are small (~2") gray-scale screenshots of Mathematica plots. The quality of some graphics leaves something to be desired though (Figure 7.2.2 p. 119 for example), since many figures are obviously grainy (vertical lines and text characters often appear as broken line segments, not unlike a tilted faxed image). These gray-scale images are fairly bland - I expected at least a little color and only the highest quality graphics for a book calling itself an "atlas", especially for the asking price.

"Atlas" is no substitute for the timeless books of tables and equations such as the (inexpensive) A&S (ISBN 0486612724) or the CRC Standard Math Tables. In computing the error function (erf), for example, Dr. Thompson defines erf in terms of a function call of the gamma function, while A&S provides many, many more alternatives suitable for machine solution. The discussions here, while more generous than A&S, are much less detailed than an explanatory book like Numerical Recipes. Instead, pictorial surveys primarily forego a lot of the detailed explanation of the underlying function theory. A few of the functions, such as the Voight distribution, are hard to find in the classic references, but the reader will find very few new topics here.

I expect this title, being heavily tied to a particular software package and computer language, will find itself being re-issued in later editions as software inevitably evolves. I therefore wouldn't expect too many individuals paying $175 for what is almost a software book. All in all, a well packaged presentation but not quite the insightful, general purpose book for which I had hoped.

If you need to pass the PRAXIS II subject test in special education in order to receive certification in emotional and behavioral disorders, then this book will illustrate most of the major concepts with one or two exceptions due to its age.

Please get this book cheap in order to save tons of hours (and white paper) printing out information from Internet seach engines.

This book does have useful information, but the way it is formatted makes it difficult to understand. The book does not flow, the information is written through a series of bullet points. There are chapters, so you can go to the subject you want to learn, but within the chapter the information is not organized in a typical "textbook-like" way. Maybe if it wasn't such an in depth topic some bullet points would be beneficial, but hundreds of bullet points just make it harder to learn. Some people may prefer the way the book is written, I find it more of a hinderance then a help. Although it is written more for a vet than a student.

This books is very interesting to me. The members of the group described herein have a very obvious agenda that they are promoting, but I felt that they also wanted to empart some wisdom to the world.

I had totlly mixed feelings about the content. I really liked what the teachers in Part I did, but I felt that Parts II and III had a very anti-White tone.

Interesting, but not beathtaking.

After participating in two European projects with major European aircraft manufacturers and suppliers, the authors have written this book dealing with the development of DEPENDABLE Ada software. This book gives advice on the optimal use of Ada to design dependable software; it is not a presentation of the language.

this is a wonderful textbook for learning
but the shipment of amazon is bad, until I pay it for higher price, or it will delay and delay

This book focuses on how to distribute a software project over multiple geographic locations. It does cover the technology involved, though it is dated in the 1995 mindset (it ignores the Internet, and treats a 64K connection as "high speed"). It covers the use of formal diagramming techniques, conference calls, common file formats and a common database repository. The biggest drawback is that it ignores the management and people aspects of distributed software development. Most projects fail because they try using the same techniques and processes as when all the developers are co-located. The books tell how to build technology to distribute information but it doesn't say WHAT you need to distributed to ensure a project's success.

A clear, well-written and easy to understand guide for the student or practitioner of the law of Employment Discrimination. Now the bad news: it's v-e-r-y dated; this guide was published in 1986, before the 1991 Civil Rights Act, before the Americans with Disabilities Act, and before many groundbreaking Supreme Court decisions that have reshaped how courts look at employment discrimination law. I would recommend either Prof. Lewis' "Civil Rights and Employment Discrimination" or Prof. White's "Employment Law and Employment Discrimination" hornbooks, which are just as accessible and much more recent.

The author touches on about every topic concerning the startup of your own consulting practice. Some issues are handled in a summary manner however. I thought it was a little pricey for what I got from it.

If you are new to the Forensic game then this book might make good reading. A large portion of the book is on disk and data structure & geometry. This makes for interesting reading if you have not covered this before, but if you are an investigator, this will be 'old' and somewhat irrelevant news.
Chapters include information on;
* PDA/Electronic Organisers,
* Search and seizure of PC's
* A little on Network and encryption (informational reading only).
Overall, not a book I would recommend for someone who has "been there, done that". From each book I read I expect find a little bit of information that is new to me, but unfortunately I went hungry on this one! I probably wouldn't call it a 'Practitioners Guide', but more of a 'beginners guide'.