Electronics Books


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Electronics Books sorted by Average customer review: high to low .

Electronics
The 7 Essential Steps to Successful eBay Marketing
Published in Paperback by McGraw-Hill Osborne Media (2005-06-16)
Authors: Janelle Elms, Phil Dunn, and Amy Balsbaugh
List price: $16.95
New price: $4.90
Used price: $3.90

Average review score:

Very helpful!!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-11-22
I am new as an ebay seller and I plan to open a store soon I hope. I bought this book in order to get good, helpful tips and advices. I got them! This book goes in depth in every aspect. Very detailed oriented and this is what I wanted. Definitely a great buy and a must have.

Janelle knows her stuff
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2007-06-13
A Gotta Have book if you are planning on Marketing an eBay business. Great reference for the experienced eBayer.

And I thought I knew a lot about Ebay..
Helpful Votes: 17 out of 19 total.
Review Date: 2006-04-10
I have been selling on Ebay for over 2 years. But after reading this book I realize how little I knew about marketing my product. This little gem contains very valuable information about making the most out of Ebay's competitive marketplace. This book is interesting to read and gives clear step by step instructions for changes you can make to Market your Ebay items. Like I said, I thought I knew a lot about Ebay but I was surprised by how much I learned from this book!

One of the Best
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2007-01-31
I've been selling on ebay since July 2005. Part time. I've read 8 books on ebay. This is one of the Best. I have not had time to use the info in it. But have tried to impliment some of the tips. It is full of great ideas and sources of the kind of information one needs to be successful on ebay. I highly recommed it.

Fun to read
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 2006-06-25
This book is hardcore. Give a lot of info and can save painfull hours of try-and-faild. You need to read it.

Electronics
Administrator's Guide to e-Commerce
Published in Paperback by Prompt (DPI - 8/01) (1999-07-01)
Author: Louis Columbus
List price: $57.95
New price: $4.99
Used price: $0.38

Average review score:

Great Book!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2001-04-21
This book provides a great foundation for the classes I am teaching in e-commerce. It's chapters on site server also are excellent! I found the fundamentals section to be outstanding for handling the task of getting new students up to speed.

Great chapters on seeing how site server works
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2000-06-12
This book is really useful from the standpoint of providing an overview of what ESD is doing today, and how e-commerce tools from Microsoft are making it possible for organizations of any size to buyild their own sites. I found the chapters on managing a new site useful with some good suggestions for getting everyone on the same page from a development standpoint. Good reference book and teaching tool for new administrators.

This book is great!
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2000-04-09
I have been studying up on e-business and found this book to have a personable tone and many insights into how I could get up to speed quickly with terms and concpets to manage the outsourcing of our company's website quicker. I liked the chapters on building a framework for organizing solutions and found the chapter on electronic software ditribution very enlightening. An easy book to read.

Interesting journey through e-commerce
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2000-10-17
This book has interesting information about Microsoft's Site Server applications, and shows the plans for electronic software distribution Microsoft authored with key industry leaders. it is decidely pro e-commerce and provides an interesting approach to managing web development through cross-functional project teams.

Great book for getting my staff up to speed
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2000-03-30
I found this book to provide a level-set for my staff, who is working on the definition of our websites, and what we could reasonably expect with the resources onhand. This book gave us hands-on guidelines and advice from experience we could use for getting our site completed in the minimum amount of time with the least disconnects between what we wanted and what we ended up creating. E-Commerce is constantly changing, and this book brings all the change into perspective. Good teaching tool.

Electronics
Arrl Antenna Book: The Ultimate Reference for Amateur Radio Antennas (Arrl Antenna Book)
Published in Paperback by American Radio Relay League (ARRL) (2006-02)
Author: Arrl
List price: $44.95
New price: $47.48
Used price: $32.89

Average review score:

Good services from Amazon
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 8 total.
Review Date: 2007-01-20
This was my first time ordering from Amazon. Fast delivery.
But the unhappy is the ordered book missing the included CD-ROM disk.
Although Amazon credit back the book price, I need the losted CD disk.
If Amazon can help to get back to CD disk, I would completely happy the services.

YOU WANT TO BUILD YOUR ANTENNA BY YOUR SELF?
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-05-20
If the answer is "YES", then you have to buy this book.
You will be guided to "DO IT YOURSELF" of building the amateur and other band antenna...

The ARRL Antenna Handbook
Helpful Votes: 12 out of 23 total.
Review Date: 2005-09-15
The book was supposed to come with a CD-Rom. This person told me the CD was missing when they went to package the book. They sent the book free of charge and returned my money. I was told if the CD was to be found it would be sent free of charge. I consider this tops for customer service.

NOTHING beats the value of the ARRL Handbooks
Helpful Votes: 13 out of 17 total.
Review Date: 2005-08-03
This is the stuff all electronics professionals/amateurs/hobbiests' dream about.These are must-have electronics books,I get them every year or so....they are jam-packed with electronics theory and practice.Fantastic.

WOW
Helpful Votes: 9 out of 12 total.
Review Date: 2004-05-17
THIS BOOK WILL ANSWER ALL OF YOUR Q'S!!! WITH ALL THE REF MAT IN THIS BOOK I WOULD HAVE THOUGHT THE PRICE WOULD BE ALOT MORE!!!

Electronics
The Art of Computer Systems Performance Analysis: Techniques for Experimental Design, Measurement, Simulation, and Modeling
Published in Hardcover by Wiley (1991-04)
Author: R. K. Jain
List price: $95.00
New price: $45.99
Used price: $39.50

Average review score:

Clearly-portrayed wisdom that truly focuses on the art & craft
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-09-28
I purchased Jain's "The Art of Computer Systems Performance Analysis" for a 3-month graduate course, and I must admit that, in retrospect, I was a bit daunted by its size upon receipt (we were to cover the entire text). Further, I had my doubts about the relevancy of the text in the current environment, given its age.

But I must say, both of these initial questions proved wholly unfounded.

I've never used a text quite like this one before; it is a significant departure from the standard engineering text that weighs heavily on the side of analytical proof and mathematical equations, while foregoing textual elaboration. On the contrary, this book adopts a conversational tone whereby the author develops all of the book's topics in great detail, relying on substantial insight and experience. Truly, a breath of fresh air.

There's such a richness about this text, that a careful read--while admittedly quite time-consuming--is bound to give the reader a sense that he has just become the beneficiary of a heck of a lot of wisdom.

All of this is not to say the text is overly-subjective; in fact, there is plenty of detailed analytical analysis. It is just to say that the book is different, and one that exudes quality communication: it reads more like a lecture than it does lecture notes.

So, back to my initial doubts. It turns out that the verbose depth of material which constitutes the book's 720 pages is really a foundation of its main qualities: it is a very readable and highly-detailed exploration of the art and the craft of performance analysis. And it's for that foundational reason that its age is irrelevant.

A must have for all performance analysts/ engineer's ..
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2004-12-03
A solid book indeed. It has the right mixture of theory and practical cases well dealt with. The techinques must be tried for performance analysis and implemented in real time projects.

Technology changes, but how you measure it really doesn't
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 12 total.
Review Date: 2007-02-20
This old book is one of the most valued on my shelf. I was first exposed to it in a graduate class, and I have to say that the book is so good I was not aware that my professor was not a good instructor until I had him a second time in a class where the textbook was less than stellar. Don't judge the book by a quick perusal either. At first glance, especially if you are looking at Part I, it looks like one of those books on Six Sigma that will put you to sleep. In fact, the vast majority of the book is quite interesting.

Part II, "Measurement Techniques and Tools", are where things get interesting. The good part about this entire book is that it uses problems in the analysis of computer systems as the basis of presentation for all tools presented. The graphs are excellent, the mathematics are largely self-contained, and if algorithms are presented they are usually given in numbered steps and an actual computer program shown. This is one drawback of the book - it uses the ancient Simula language for its demonstration code. However, if you are familiar with C, Java, or any of the other mainstream procedural languages, you'll find that Simula looks like very readable pseudocode, so this should not be an obstacle to understanding.

Part III is a section dedicated entirely to probability theory and statistics. Starting with the simple definition of the mean, this handy section not only derives all of the statistics you need in this book, it talks about common mistakes made in applying them.

Part IV is about experimental design and analysis. Using the mathematics developed in part three this section talks about all aspects of designing a proper experiment for the measurement or simulation of a computer system, including common mistakes and the best choice for the size of your experiment.

Part V presents the key issues in simulation modeling. First it discusses simulation terminology, simulation design criteria, and stopping conditions. Random number generation is the subject of three chapters in reference to inputs to your simulation. Finally there is a chapter on the commonly used distributions such as Bernoulli, beta, binomial, etc. that talks specifically about random number generation algorithms for each of the distributions presented. What makes this section so valuable is that although you may have possibly seen the math before, more than likely you don't know the value of each kind of distribution. This section makes that issue clear in terms of modeling computer performance.

Part VI is on queuing models, and is probably the most difficult section in the book. Although it is one of the better written pieces I have read on queueing theory, it is not as easily grasped as previous sections based on reading the textbook alone. There are examples present, and the book does a good job of presenting "the big picture" as to the use of queueing theory in computer performance analysis, but you may need outside material to really grasp how to set up a queueing problem from a mathematical standpoint.

No other book I've found does such a good job of discussing all of the topics covered and clearly tying it into practical issues in measuring and monitoring system performance. I highly recommend it.

Solid book.
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 2002-05-29
I'm a performance analyst. I couldn't do my job properly without this book. It really is that simple.

a classic text..
Helpful Votes: 7 out of 8 total.
Review Date: 2002-05-18
This is an absolute gem. I really think that this book must be read by every CS/EE engineer. Performance analysis is always something that comes as an afterthought and engineers think that some some "mathematical" guy called a perf analyst will stop by after the product is completed and analyze the product. This is def wrong. PA should be done at every stage of production.

This book has been written assuming a novice reader. Several parts of the book have to re-read to really understand what the author is trying to convey, but trust me you will really appreciate it.

I suggest reading the following parts of the book(in order):

Part I (whole)
Part II (4, 5, 6, browse {7,8}, 9, 10 ) 10 is cool stuff..impress your peers with this
Part III (whole) read, re-read, re-read till you have digested every line..worth it really!!!!
Part IV (whole) read, re-read, re-read till you have digested every line..worth it really!!!!
Part V : You can skip this if you are not into simulation.
Part VI : Not really that easy to follow. I suggest Gunter's book for this.

Electronics
Bebop to the Boolean Boogie: An Unconventional Guide to Electronics (with CD-ROM), Second Edition
Published in Kindle Edition by Newnes (2002-12-26)
Author: Clive Maxfield
List price: $55.95
New price: $42.80

Average review score:

Great refresher!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2006-03-15
I love that I can just skim through this book & find the information that I need. It is really basic - clearly written with great examples. After being away from work for 8 years & being out of school for almost 20, it was a great refresher! Besides, Max proves that even geeks can have a sense of humor!

Makes Really Boring Stuff Interesting
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2005-03-19
As a student finishing my B.S. in Computer Science, I very badly needed something to liven up my CPU architecture and discrete math classes, which were horribly boring.

This book not only did a GREAT job of clarifying the finer points of boolean logic, but somehow managed make it interesting. I would recommend this book to anyone trying to understand the nuts-and-bolts behind what makes your computer tick.

Irreverent writing, good topics
Helpful Votes: 11 out of 12 total.
Review Date: 2005-12-27
Maxfield's book is unique, both in format and in content. And I'm not just talking about the gumbo recipe at the end.

The first section, almost 150 pages, is "logic lite." It starts with transistors, both MOS and bipolar. From there it works its way up to simple latches and such, and scratches the surface of state machines, with side trips to boolean arithmetic and such. The breezy, informal style will work for people put off by more academic treatments, but the logic design content stops way short of what any other basic logic text would present.

The second, longer section covers material sorely missing from all other logic texts I know. It starts with the simpler parts of silicon fab process, then goes through all kinds of printed circuits and hybrid packages giving a fair tour of the basic printed curcuit (PC) processes that were current when the book was written (1995). It even goes into gutsy stuff like the copper patterns in PC processes that have to do with heat flow during soldering. All those real-world facts earned this book an extra star. The "far out technology" chapter at the end is an interesting read, too, with its discussions of nano, optical, and molecular computing.

The book's weaknesses are significant, though. It would work well with any of several companion texts that would cover what this misses. That includes more advanced logic techniques, like alternatives to gate-level implementation and all the fussy bits of state machines. A standard logic text (e.g. Katz) would fill in those blanks. Going in a different direction, it does only a little towards talking about how PC layout interacts with logic design. More about ground planes, guard rings, power decoupling, RF emissions, etc. would fit well with the detail presented here, espcially when you see how much time and effort it already spends on "vias" vs. "holes." The little bit of analog discussion from the front would help here - why inductive effects matter at high frequencies, why distributed capacitance is different from lumped, why you'd have a high-value and low-value capacitor in parallel, and why that ceramic cap near the power input has a saw cut in the edge. A third possible direction would be the way Wirth's book on circuit design for CS students went: into the higher levels of design, letting tools attend to the lower levels. The biggest flaw is in treating FPGAs as exotic, out-there technology - by 1995, they were well into the main stream, and have very nearly killed off discrete logic and ASICs in many areas.

If you just want a light-weight intro to logic design and to the physical circuits that carry it, this is OK. It could have been better in all directions and, at this 2005 writing, you should check it's sell-by date. I gave it the fourth star for addressing PCs and mounting at all, not for addressing them well.

//wiredweird

Great book
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2006-02-24
Considering this book deals with what I consider to be rocket science at best and black magic at worst I think it does a really good job of explaining things. I'm still working through it and it still makes my head hurt but I recommend this for anyone like me who wants to understand this stuff and has zero background to do so.

Great Guide For The Electronically Perplexed
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2005-08-09
I grew up watching my neighbor, a mechanic, work on cars and it helped me pick up the basics. When I would try to take apart a transistor radio and figure out how it worked I was left with an assortment of colorful bits and no clues. This book is the remedy for my total ignorance of things electronic. Just how good it is I do not know due to my lack of knowledge in the field. I reccomend it to any interested beginners.

Electronics
Control System Design Guide, Third Edition: Using Your Computer to Understand and Diagnose Feedback Controllers
Published in Hardcover by Academic Press (2004-02-17)
Author: George Ellis
List price: $96.95
New price: $72.50
Used price: $104.69

Average review score:

A Rare Gem
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-06-14
Most texts on industrial control are long on theory and short on practice. This book is a rare gem that presents the theory (without overloading you on details) and then explains how to actually use the theory in practice. (One note: the practical applications are focused on electric motor control, which is the author's background.) If I had to have only one book on controls in my library, this would be the one.

Good tutorial of basic control system
Helpful Votes: 10 out of 11 total.
Review Date: 2002-06-22
This is a really good book that simplified control system for the real world. Most text spend too much time on theory and analysis and end the discussion with a bunch of equations and graphs without explaining how to implement the design. This book covers both analog and digital control, and lets you download a software from the author's web site. This software, ModelQ, lets you play with various parameters so you can see how the system behaves when it is not optimized.

One drawback with the book is it only covers PID control and its variants, but doesn't cover state-space control. While state-space control may be considered "overkill" by many control engineers, state-space is used in industry. The decision to use state-space is often not in the hands of individual engineers, so it may not be an option to ignore state-space. It would be nice if Mr. Ellis could cover state-space in his next edition of the book.

Clear, complete, concise, and practical
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2007-12-21
I had three main reasons for buying this book:
1. To bridge the gap between the control theory from school and the systems that I now design and build
2. To gain insight on how to improve the performance and reliability of real motion systems
3. To find ways to apply advanced techniques to help meet challenging performance requirements

I got all of this and more from this book. The topics covered clearly and concisely in this book span three courses I took at Cal Poly SLO: basic controls, digital controls, and modern/advanced control theory. Mr. Ellis does a great job of quickly introducing these topics and getting straight to the practical implications.

The free software and examples work well to illustrate his points quickly and easily while helping to commit the insights to memory. I also hope to use it as a training tool for our techs.

I highly recommend this book to anyone working with control systems, especially grad students and people getting started in the field. I look forward to reading his book on observers.

A practical control book
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2007-11-20
The author attempts to bridge the gap between theory and practice, and does a good job at it. Familiarity with control concepts will help one to get more out of the book, because the book focuses more on the practical aspects. The explanations in some of the sections can definitely be more complete, and thus I have to give it only a 4 star rating. Overall it is a good book.

Great way to get an alternative view on controls
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2007-05-18
Ellis has made a fantastic book on PID and similar control loops. He takes a very different tact than most controls books -- he writes with a voice similar to a handbook, but delivers enough content to compete with more traditional textbook-style controls books. It is light on the math in comparison, but I don't find myself wanting for more math.

I do a lot of controls design, consulting, and teaching. I recommend this book often and find that people that buy it uniformly track me down and thank me for the recommendation. I can't think of much higher praise for this book.

Electronics
E-Mail: A Write It Well Guide--How to Write and Manage E-Mail in the Workplace
Published in Paperback by Write It Well (2005-08)
Author: Janis Fisher Chan
List price: $21.99
New price: $123.98
Used price: $172.13

Average review score:

The Best Resource for Professional E-mail Writing
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-04-18
If you're looking for a guide on writing e-mails in a business setting, look no further. This book covers every aspect of writing e-mails and even some tips on how to organize your e-mail as well. The chapters take you through different topics regarding e-mail and at the end of each chapter are some activities that you can do to help build your awareness of your e-mail writing skills and how examining the messages you receive from others can help improve your awareness of writing skills. This book is perfectly designed for training courses, since each chapter could be completed in one training session. I recommend this if you are looking to write e-mails as professionally as you can.

Think you know everything about e-mail?
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-03-05
Like it or not, we live in a world of electronic communication. E-Mail: A Write It Well Guide is a practical and helpful guide for those who aren't totally familiar or comfortable with the medium as well as for those who use it routinely, but perhaps not always effectively or appropriately. Most important, it urges people to take their e-mail communication as seriously as their other written communication - and tells them how.

Clear, sensible and pointed advice
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-02-21
This book is exactly what every e-mail should be (and so few are): clear, sensible and pointed. Compare the advice here to the emails you receive daily and you will agree that it is filled with uncommon good sense. You'll find yourself trying to figure out how to secretly get copies to your colleagues! Jim Knutsen, President, Boatz Knutsen Communications

A Great Resource!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-02-21
Like it or not, all of us are up to our eyeballs in emails everyday. We feel pressed for time yet need to write coherent emails that effectively communicate important information. This guide is an excellent resource on how to write readable emails that come to the point quickly without leaving any of the important stuff out. After going through the material, I recognized a lot of mistakes that our company frequently commits in our frequent volleys of emails with clients. I wish I would have had this book sooner! Thanks for cutting through the jungle for us, Write it Well!
Thanks,
Mike O'Quin
PowerPointPartners.Com

Excellent Resource
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-02-15
As the author of an English reference guide/workbook, I think this book is exceptionally helpful to everyone needing to send out professional e-mails. E-mail has just about replaced informal memos and even reports. Therefore, we all need to learn how to convey the right tone, present a professional image, get our messages across clearly, learn the etiquette of e-mail, and avoid the pitfalls and hazards that e-mail technology poses. The author provides excellent, relevant examples and lays the material out in a logical, easy-to-understand fashion. I highly recommend it to individuals, HR departments, and training professionals.
Jane Straus
Author of The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation
and
Enough Is Enough! Stop Enduring and Start Living Your Extraordinary Life

Electronics
Effective XML: 50 Specific Ways to Improve Your XML (Effective Software Development Series)
Published in Paperback by Addison-Wesley Professional (2003-10-02)
Author: Elliotte Rusty Harold
List price: $49.99
New price: $29.74
Used price: $22.22

Average review score:

Excellent resource for both quality control and ideas
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-04-03
I bought this book quite a while ago and I absolutely the format. It's a great resource to just pick up and get great ideas, verify that you are on/off the right track and generally learn how to get to the next level with XML. Highly recommended

Great gap between book knowledge and effective use...
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2004-12-06
The flexibility of XML can often mean that there's a gap between using XML and using XML effectively. Elliotte Rusty Harold's book Effective XML - 50 Specific Ways to Improve Your XML (Addison Wesley) is an excellent way to move towards the latter condition.

Chapter List: Syntax; Structure; Semantics; Implementation; Recommended Reading; Index

There are obviously a large number of books that will teach you the semantics of writing and using XML. But just because you can create an XML file doesn't mean that you've done it well or effectively. Harold's book provides a bridge to being able to create XML files that will be usable in nearly all situations. The book starts out in the introduction with explanations of terms that are often confused (element vs. tag, text vs. character data vs. markup, etc.). Then there are four parts of the book that include a total of 50 tips that will improve the quality of your XML usage. Some tips are pretty basic, like "Include an XML Declaration". Others are more complex like "Verify Documents with XML Digital Signatures". But every one is practical and useful for making sure that your XML is widely useable by all potential applications.

Excellent bridge book to read after you've learned the basics of XML. This is a book that, when taken to heart and used, will cause your coworkers to thank you.

The best XML book I've read
Helpful Votes: 11 out of 12 total.
Review Date: 2004-10-22
Effective XML is a collection of about 50 tips for working with XML. Although XML seems is simple and easy to use, it's also easy to get wrong. I've often scratched your head and wondered why things like XML Schema, for example, just doesn't feel right. But it wasn't until I read Effective XML that I understood what was really awkward with it.

Because the book is so diverse (an amazing feat considering the small page count), it is hard to single out any specific part as being a reason to read the book. The book doesn't just talk about schemas, the infoset, etc..., it digs down and really explains what is good and bad about the technologies and what the best ways to apply them are. All I can say is that I use XML day in and day out and have learned everything I know by trial an error. I've made many mistakes along the way. I've tried my best to learn from them, but Effective XML was the book that made everything click for me. The best part is that the book went well beyond just helping me see my errors. I've already applied some of the ideas to new work I've done recently and have been able to head off some of the problems I would have encountered.


Effective XML is by far the best XML book I've ever read, and quite possibly the best tech book I've read all year. I might even have to add it to my favorite tech books list. If you work with XML to any significant degree, I can't recommend this book highly enough.

How to Effectively Use XML
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2006-02-07
Elliotte Rusty Harold states in the introduction of Effective XML that the book is neither an introductory book nor an XML tutorial. Rather, it is a distillation of the author's experience using and teaching XML and how to use it effectively. The book does a great job of explaining how to use XML and its related technologies.

The book is divided into four major sections: Syntax, Structure, Semantics, and Implementation. Each of the fifty Items packs a lot of information into a few pages. The Items span topics such as why you should Include an XML Declaration (Item 1), Make Structure Explicit through Markup (Item 11), Program to Standard APIs (Item 31), and Write in Unicode (Item 38). Even the Introduction is valuable because it sets the definitions for XML-related terms used in the rest of the book that the author has found to be used interchangeably or inconsistently.

Item 24, Choose the Right Schema Language for the Job, provides a typical example of the great information contained in Effective XML. This Item discusses the strengths and weaknesses of four schema languages: W3C XML Schema Language, DTDs, RELAX NG, and Schematron. The use of programming languages to handle situations that the schema languages can't handle is also discussed. The Item ends with a set of questions to think about when selecting the schema language to use.

I found the book very readable and like that the information is presented in digestible chunks. Effective XML isn't meant to hype XML but to identify what the actual capabilities of XML and its related technologies are and how best to use them. The book does an outstanding job at this task.

Full disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of the book for review.

I wish the XML Schema working group had a copy per member
Helpful Votes: 7 out of 8 total.
Review Date: 2005-07-10
This is not a book explaining XML. This is not a book that goes into any depth on XML APIs. It is not a book explaining any one XML format like XSLT, RSS, or XSD.

Instead it is a book on how to work with XML. How to design an XML application to take full advantage of the facilties of XML: schemas, processing instructions, XSL transforms, namespaces. It is all structured to slowly introduce you into the complexities, and deserves to sit up on the bookshelf with Effective C++, Java and Enterprise Java.

If you already know the basics of XML, it is actually quite a good way to learn about some of the more esoteric concepts -from the pragmatic perspective. Too many XML books rant about how wonderful some feature like XML schema's extension stuff is, why XML is the most universal format ever, SOAP and WS-* the best protocol for distributed systems ever, and XQuery everything you need for an XML database.

This book bursts the bubble of hype with rational analysis of what makes sense, and what doesn't. Item 28: Use only what you need, is my favourite: A review of the main XML specs and analysis of what really matters, which comes down to #35, navigate with XPath.

If you are designing an XML schema/system/application, you need this book. If you have to put up with architects telling you about WS-MetadataExchange, WS-Transfer and RDF, you need a copy to roll up and hit them over the head. And, if like me, you are involved in standards bodies that produce XML related things, you need to buy a copy for all the other participants, so that what you produce will actually work.

Remember that XML is a language designed for use by people and machines. The machines have the upper hand. But with this book, and some thinking, you can design XML applications that people can use.

Electronics
Escape of Marvin the Ape
Published in Hardcover by Penguin USA Electronic (1995-07)
Author: Penguin Books
List price: $24.95

Average review score:

My daughter is 12 and this is still a family favorite
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-01-27
We've had this book for a long time and we still bring it out every now and then.
I think we enjoy the nostalgia of reading a favorite book together and we still
like seeing Marvin's adventures in the city and trying to remember where the
emu and the cat are. It took us years actually to find the emu on the subway.

Marvin the Ape
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-01-10
This is an awesome book. I used it with fourth graders to teach the organization trait in the 6 traits writing. The kids loved the story and suggested we write a spin off of the book. They did an awesome job and made their stories into books and illustrated them. Highly recommend it to get students motivated to write.

awesome book
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-01-04
I had never heard of this book before my son received it as a gift. He was about 9 months old and would insist that we read it again and again. He is now 4.5 and still likes it. And his little brother has enjoyed it just as much. The illustrations are fantastic and its fun to search for Marvin on every page. I highly recommend this book. I also love the language - it uses fantastic, descriptive words. My soon was 2 and used the words mesmorized and exhilarating because he learned them from this book.

The Fun's not in Finding Marvin: Its the Hidden Others!
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2006-05-08
My preschoolers love this book, not just because of the vivid illustrations that go with an easy-to-follow text - they love locating the hidden ostrich, police officers, and black cat tucked into nearly every single page. Check out the clouds...they look like fish, dinosaurs! Can you find Santa Claus hidden in Yankee Stadium's crowd of thousands?

I confess - my husband and I love finding the hidden pictures, too. Its also our favorite birthday gift for my kids friends. Get the book and scan the illustrations closely! Fun!

Currently my 3-year-old's favorite book
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2006-01-10
My three-year-old son enjoys this book so much because it lends itself to active participation. It is fun for him to spot Marvin, the escaped ape, in various settings ranging from a subway train to a ballgame to a ledge on a building. He also enjoys finding the two policemen who look for Marvin as he moves from locale to locale. I don't mind re-reading this book because of the clever illustrations and appealing New York City backdrops. And after reading the book for the first time, we have make a joke of finding Marvin--I say "Where's Marvin?" and he'll jokingly point to other animals or objects. His enjoyment of this book won't last forever, but it's been providing amusement for a few weeks now.

Electronics
Fast Fourier Transform and Its Applications (Prentice-Hall Signal Processing Series)
Published in Hardcover by Prentice Hall (1988-04-08)
Author: E. Brigham
List price: $118.00
New price: $94.40
Used price: $87.87

Average review score:

The Best DFT / FFT Book on the Market
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-05-31
I purchased the first edition of this book way back on January 10, 1975, when I was young design engineer, just breaking into the Digital Signal Processing business. I bought the book at the Stanford University Book store for a whopping $19.95. The receipt is still in the book.

The book was considered to be a DSP industry bible back then, and in my opinion, it is still the best book on the market today.

Mr. Brigham seems to be very detailed oriented. He methodically progresses from one subject to the next and explains each topic in a clear and concise manner. The book is loaded with extremely detailed graphics that give the reader a very good picture of the operation, properties, and mechanics of the Discrete Fourier Transform.

I consider Mr. Brigham's book to be an essential engineering resource. I have relied upon, and utilized the information provided in this book for over 30 years of successful DSP design.

If I ever misplace my time worn book, would I purchase it again? The answer is a definite yes. The money is well spent.

Outstanding classic
Helpful Votes: 12 out of 13 total.
Review Date: 2002-12-03
I am mainly a neurobiologist by training, but transform theory is very useful in visual neurobiology and visual psychophysics, and I've looked at and read dozens of books on various aspects of signal processing and transform theory. Much of this is surprisingly applicable to the brain science area, as the revolutionary work of David Marr and other scientists showed a quarter of a century ago.

But getting back to the present book, this is one of the best books I've read in the signal analysis area. Brigham's presentation of various aspects of the FT, including the continuous FT, digital FT, convolution integrals, and so on, is clear and concise, whether he's discussing theory or applications. Also, his disussion of the Nyquist sampling theorem is the best and easiest to understand I've read.

Interestingly, this theorem has quite practical applications, not just in digital sample theory, but in real life. According to the Nyquist theorem, no information is lost in converting from analog to digital form if the sampling frequency is twice that of the highest frequency in the signal. Well, have you ever used those audio headphones they have on commercial jetliners? The Nyquist theorem means they can switch the audio outputs at high frequency using well-known time-domain switching techniques rather than run copper to each passenger's seat. I've read that this saves 300 pounds of copper wire in a typical plane, the weight savings of which can of course be more profitably used for transporting other things. If you consider that 300 pounds is about the weight of your average couple, you can see how the savings would add up after even a few flights.

But getting back to the book, I first encountered this work 20 years ago, and I'm delighted to see it's still around. My neurobiology student friends and I all got turned on to this book early in grad school, and it was a great help. I still fondly recall the many enjoyable hours we spent talking about how Fourier analysis and other techniques such as the Laplace transform, temporal modulation transfer fuction, two-dimensional convolution integrals, two-dimensional point-spread functons, filter techniques such as the finite and infinite response filters, Kalman filter, Hammond filter, and so on, could be applied to our area. And it all started with this book. It's a true classic that has never been exceeded for it's clear and concise exposition of a very important mathematical tool in both engineering and neurophysiology.

An accessible examination of the FFT great for self study
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2007-01-01
This book is not just another terse math or signal processing book. It tries to provide an alternative to standard DSP techniques that develop the FFT adequately enough, but show nothing about applications and have the student believing that "The Butterfly Element" is something he can buy an armful of at an electronics store and assemble. All developments in this book use graphical techniques and examples that insure clarity in the presentation. The book provides not only a readable introduction to the FFT but a thorough and unified reference for applying it to various fields of interest. It is great for self-study. The text is divided into five major subject areas:

1. The Fourier Transform and its properties
2. The Discrete Fourier Transform - It is developed from the continuous Fourier Transform both graphically and theoretically. Its properties are examined as are numerous waveform classes via illustrative examples. Discrete convolution and correlation are defined and compared with the continuous equivalents via examples.
3. The FFT - The FFT algorithm is developed along with an explanation of why the FFT is efficient. Computer programs are developed that can calculate the FFT.
4. Basic Applications of the FFT - Presents the application of the FFT to the computation of discrete and inverse discrete Fourier transforms. There is an emphasis on graphical examination of resolution and common FFT user mistakes such as aliasing, time domain truncation, noncausal time functions, and periodic functions. The applications examined include Laplace transform computation, discrete convolution and correlation, and two-dimensional Fourier transform convolution. Computer programs are provided.
5. Signal Processing and System FFT Applications - The design and application of digital filters using the FFT are explored. A novel application of the FFT to multichannel band-pass filtering is developed in a way that can readily be expanded by the reader.

I highly recommend this book to readers who want a complete explanation and investigation of the FFT and its applications that is clear enough for self-study.

Written with the reader in mind.
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2004-10-01
I think this is one of the most understandable books in signal processing that I've ever come across. I get the feeling that Brigham had been frustrated by technical texts that were poorly written, and decided he wasn't going to commit the same sin. Plenty of carefully planned illustrations designed to help the reader start from a known place, and move step-by-step to an understanding of something new. Not just a bunch of faceless equations. I think this would be an excellent college text.

Like any in-depth text dealing with a mathematically complex topic, there appear to be a number of mistakes left in to keep the reader on his/her toes. But fewer than most. I highly recommend this book, even though I'm usually a pretty tough critic. I too have been frustrated by too many poorly written books.

Very good, but be careful, though
Helpful Votes: 8 out of 9 total.
Review Date: 2003-04-22
The book I have is ISBN 0-13-307496. It was published in 1974.

I am very happy about this book, I first read it in 1979 when I was 19, and I found it really marvellous. I agree with the other reviewers, but I must add a note of caution - the edition I have contains some errors. They are as follows;

p155, p157 - the factors w(11) and w(10) are incorrectly placed on the butterfly diagram 10.3 and 10.4 respectively,

p166, p168, p169, equations 10-26 and most equations following to the end of the chapter - the factors R(N-n) and I(N-n) should be R(N-1-n) and I(N-1-n), respectively.

I hope I'm right about this, but the convention is that the indices are from 0 to N-1, and therefore if n=0, then N-n is N - which not an allowed index.

Apart from these sort of errors (I havn't been through the whole book with a fine toothcomb), its really very good, actually extraordinarily clear.

One of its main benefits is that it doesn't veer away from the FFT to the very complicated developments such as fractional transforms and other developments which might confuse the sort of audience it's aimed at (which is definitely the graduates).

But if you want to look deeply into FFTs for a real application you will need a lot more. I must mention,for instance, that the implementation of an FFT needs fairly careful error propagation and rounding analysis, and this isn't covered at all in the book. Neither are prime factor FFTs. In fact the chapter "FFT algorithms for arbirary factors" is only a method of factoring into powers of two, and certainly not the prime factor decomposition which was developed later by Winograd, Chuo, and others.

It must also be said that while the DCT is practically a kissing cousin of the FFT, this naturally isn't covered in this text... but neither are the finite field implementations that are now taking many peoples imaginations to faster and faster FFTS.

Also, there are jolly useful things to know about, such as the FFT when you only need a subset of the output data points. There are pruning algorithms which greatly simplify the computations.

But it's very good as a starter, I wouldn't do without my copy!


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