Computer and Science Books

I was mainly interested in the MES implementation part and I found those chapters quite inspiring. We are usually lead by "common practices" which form our experience and we'll use them throughout our work. But formalizing and being able to communicate a technology is always an issue (unless you're going to di it all by yourself).
Excellent.

"Domain Specific..." is another excellent book from the "Fraemwork collection". It is a set comprehensive reference books as well as a authoritative textbooks by experts in this growing research field.

The description of practical experiences as well as more conceptual descriptions, are usefull to understand the complexity of achieving high levels of software reusability.

Managers and academics, will find a lot of material to help them decide if this is the way to go. Our research group in Web Engineering at the University of Sydney (weg.ee.usyd.edu.au) will us it extensively to improve our development practices.

An almost indispensable 3-volume reading to understand the success of framework technologies in today's software systems. The books include most of the top
articles on the subject, providing a thorough insight in both design and implementation issues regarding frameworks, also complemented with practical experience
about framework usage. Although the work is mainly concentrated on technical aspects, the articles are comprehensible enough to be taken as reference material by
a broad community, for example, software engineers, programmers, or technology managers. The books are useful for anybody planning to include
framework-based techniques in software development processes or planning to improve current object-oriented practices. It is also an excellent source for graduate
courses.

Volume 1 lays the fundamental concepts supporting object-oriented frameworks, and describes the problems and challenges that this
technology raises in software development. The book covers topics such as domain analysis, development concepts and approaches,
documentation, and management, among others. Of course, the compilation of articles makes some parts little redundant, but this is a minor detail compared with the
fruitful contributions made by the book. In particular, the articles on reusing hooks, hot-spot-driven development, composing modeling frameworks in Catalysis, and
composition problems, causes and solutions, are a sample of the outstanding level of this work. Each chapter adds at the end a number of related questions and
student projects aiming to reinforce concepts and promote further investigation. As a comment, novice readers should take the sections concerning hooks and
hot-spots carefully because these topics are presented in a slightly confusing way.

Volume 2 focuses on specific framework implementations, dealing with existing frameworks for different application domains, such as businesses, multi-agent
systems, languages and system software. In this book, the readers will find a level of detail much closer to specific implementations issues than in the previous
volume. Nonetheless, the writing style remains mostly clear and accessible for a quite broad audience. The case-studies and experience reports described by the
articles show an attractive industrial perspective of the framework approach, and more important, they go an step forward in the road of a more mature discipline for
software development. In addition, a
CD-Rom with concrete examples of these applications is included with the book.

Volume 3 completes this series with a number of domain-specific application frameworks developed by industry, showing how to apply the concepts and ideas of
the previous books in software products. In this line, it includes very interesting frameworks for manufacturing systems and distributed systems, among others. It also
goes through concrete software scenarios, illustrating the benefits of combining domain knowledge and object-orientation expertise. Although the level of the articles
is rather odd, the volume certainly provides the readers a realistic picture of the problems of building and adapting frameworks by learning from others' experience.
A CD-Rom is also included with this book.

Overall, these framework books collect the state-of-the-art on framework development, offering a comprehensive and
easy-to-understand guide for both academics and practitioners in the field. It is clear that framework technologies will not solve all the problems (perhaps they rise
more challenges than current approaches), however, taking advantage of the framework possibilities can make your development process more repeatable,
productive, and also less painful. The gains of this retrain are no doubt a good investment.

A great reference and compilation of timely material. For anyone interested in frameworks targeted to specific application domains, this book surveys a broad spectrum of example systems while providing detailed in depth information concerning the particular requirements and features necessary for each domain.

This book in conjunction with the books "Building Applicaton Frameworks: Object-Oriented Foundations of Framework Design" and "Implementing Application Frameworks: Object-Oriented Frameworks at Work" are a series of three books that constitute a complete and necessary guide for the design and implementation of application frameworks. They are based on multiple academic and industrial contributors experience building a wide range of domain-specific application framework. These books are very easy to read and understand and you can learn from them not only what a framework and an application framework are, but also how to apply this technology to real world domains, like manufacturing, health care, distributed computing, real-time systems, simulation environments, ...

First book, "Building Application Frameworks: Object-Oriented Foundations of Framework Design" introduces application frameworks, their benefits and problems. It addresses all the fundamental concepts behind OO application frameworks and provides guidelines for OO application framework development. It is organized in eight parts. Part one provides a complete overview of OO application framework technology describing what is an application framework, what are the problems and benefits of application frameworks and how to use, develop and evaluate an application framework. Part Two presents some historical application frameworks and discusses some general guidelines to increase the reusability of application frameworks. Part Three describes how to build a framework analysing a concrete domain. The rest of the book provides all the necessary information to completely build an application framework. It presents all the concepts managed in framework development, which are the different development approaches, how to test the resulting frameworks, the problems derived from integration and a question sometimes forgotten but very important, the framework documentation.

This book, "Domain-Specific Application Frameworks: Frameworks Experience by Industry" is focused in the experience of industrial and academic contributors in the development of OO application framework in different domains. Each chapter covers step by step the complete development of an application framework in manufacturing, distributed systems, real-time systems, telecommunication, multimedia, chemistry and data visualization domains. It includes the motivation developers founded to choose application framework technology, the problems they had to solve and the final solutions they developed.

Third book, "Implementing Application Frameworks: Object-Oriented Frameworks at Work", shows step by step how to implement application frameworks in different domains. It is organized in six parts covering examples about i) Business Frameworks with different examples in sales and administrative domains, ii) Artificial Intelligence, iii) Agent Application Frameworks, presenting interesting frameworks for speech recognition, neural networks and agents. iv) Specialized tool frameworks, v) Language Specific Frameworks, vi) System Application Frameworks, which present and analyse the application of OO frameworks in combination with other methodologies as component-oriented programming, language constructs or constraint programming and vi) Experiences in Application Frameworks. This last section is very useful because analyse the lessons learned using the application framework technology.

This book is one of the best books I have read on Flash 5 techniques. I actually felt like I learned something after reading this book and going through their exercises. It answered questions I have always had when an animation did not work. He pretty much goes step by step with every exercise. He makes it easy to reread what you messed up on so you can do it again. Definitly a great teacher. If you are like myself and don't want to spend thousand's of dollars on a one or two day course learning the fundamentals of Flash 5, this book will definitly satisfy your needs.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough! It is simply the easiest
and best book out there for designers who wish to learn flash, bar none.
I started out knowing nothing about Flash 5 and created a great game
based on the old 50's Invaders from Mars movie, that everybody raves
about. Artists and graphic designers are usually not programmers, and
nearly all books about Flash are for programmers and are very hard for
us artists to crack into.

If I were to write a book for computer graphic design, I would use Mr.
Kaldahl's EZ Flash 5 as my blueprint to follow.

When I first received this book, I started my first project. I started getting excited because I was actually creating with flash! That is pretty much where the excitment ends.
This book is great for total beginners...which I was...but once you are done with the VERY SIMPLE projects, you really have no more than a beginners knowledge of flash.
That is why I am back at it again, trying to find another flash book to help me through my next stage which is putting MY ideas into creation.
See, the book didn't really help me learn to do the things I am interested in doing with flash. I don't care how to make a ball roll across the screen...if you know what I mean.

I strongly suggest for those of you who really want to learn how to use Flash, to buy this book. This book serves as a "beginner cookbook"! Last Fall, I took Flash 5 course by Brad Kaldahl and his book is excellent! In his introduction, he states:

"If you have never worked with Flash you will appreciate the easy to use, short, step by step projects. Rather than describing each palette and menu item and giving an explanation of what they do, you will learn by doing. From the second chapter on, you will be quickly producing exciting web content.

As an educator I designed this text because there are no book that tell you where you should start and provide a logical, easy to understand, progression for learning Flash. Both my students and I agree that the most enjoyable way to learn complex software is with short projects that show cool, fun, interesting technigues that can be used (or modified) immediately."

Authors who plan to write books on graphic design, animation or 3-D models should follow his example!

Be warned. Experienced users of other graphics software packages, looking to jump into Flash may find this book a little simple and repetitive. Having said that, let me also say that this book was exactly what I needed to get started. As a long time Photoshop/Illustrator/Pagemaker user, I was anxious to learn more about Flash and it's capabilities. I had even tried a couple of times to get through the provided lessons/tutorials, without actually retaining much.

The simple projects in this book allowed me to approach the otherwise non-intuitive Flash interface in a way that, while sometimes sophmoric, was at least not intimidating. In fact, rather than feeling dumb (as I sometimes do when reading instructional graphics books) this one actually made me feel pretty smart.

Take that for what it's worth. For the reader's reference, I consider myself to be of average intelligence. So I would say that the target audience for this book is somewhere slightly below average. Which, in this case, was just what I needed to get my feet wet. Having finished the book, I would not consider myself a Flash Master, but I think I've got the basics pretty well down. Now if I could just find a good intermediate level text....

I'd highly recommend this book for people who already know something about Catholicism, but need a bit more depth in order to understand why Catholics believe what they do. I have used it as a resource for people who are Catholic but it has been a long time since they have had catechesis, or for non-Catholic Christians who want to understand more about Catholicism.

It may be a bit too detailed for someone just beginning the Inquiry or RCIA process unless they want a thorough resource book, but in this case I would definitely pair it with a simplified copy of the Catechism.

It makes a great gift book too!

My seminarian friend recommended it to me. At times Opus Dei can be too black-and-white with no gray in between, but this book is still a wonderful way to connect all of Catholicism. I go to Mass regularly and have gone to a Catholic HS, but I still didn't feel like I knew my faith. This book was able to show me how we do know a lot about our faith, but we just have a problem making sense of what we know. Also, his analogies are brilliant. I use them constantly in explaining Catholicism to others.

This is required reading for the Catholic, literally as many catechism classes require it. It is also very useful for those wanting to learn more about their faith or the Catholic faith in general. It is full of useful information laid out in an informative and well written manner. It is easy to find information and questions. That being said it is also very dry, but its hard to make a book like this a page turner.

I've owned this book now for about 3 years and have read it through all the way, once. I've gone back to sections for refresher information, many, many times. What I like the most about this book is, if you do not have the capacity (time, or stamina) to read the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) all the way through - this is an excellent way to get "more than the basics" of what is in the CCC in a very clear, concise manner.

From the very first page (just like all catechisms of the Catholic church) it starts with the three fundamental questions. Who made me? Who is God? Why did God make me? Just that first page will have you hooked and you will not want to put it down. I constantly recommend this book to anyone over the age of 13 because it is that clear in it's method of explaining the faith. I do not believe this book is for anyone looking for a "dumbed down" version of the faith, and by that I do not mean there is anything wrong with the book written by Fr. Tregilio called "Catholicism for Dummies." Quiet the contrary, these two books are just for different types of readers.

Another interesting observation on this book is the different kind of people that love it. I have met such different personalities and ages of people (13 to 79) who love this book that I think that fact is also a recommendation of the book.

Read it, it's good for answering all your questions AND will untangle any misconceptions you have developed along the way, or just remind you of what you may have forgotten.

I highly and unreservedly recommend this book.

I use this text frequently for inquirers into the Catholic Faith. Every one says it is witten in a very interesting style. Many can't put it down once begun. Well written and faithful to Catholic Church teaching.

I have a virtual calculator called the DIY Calculator that accompanies my own book "How Computers Do Math" The Definitive Guide to How Computers Do Math : Featuring the Virtual DIY Calculator.

I recently added a "Conundrums, Puzzles, and Posers" section to the "Programs and Subroutines" page on my DIY Calculator website ([...]) and I've started to build a collection of simple puzzles for people to play with.

One of the first problems I posed was to count the number of ones in the 8-bit accumulator and to present the result as a binary value. I thought I had discovered the best-possible solution, until someone pointed me in the direction of the "Hacker's Delight". (In this context, "Hacker" refers to a hero who is manipulating code; not a nefarious rapscallion who breaks into other people's computer systems.)

I immediately ordered a copy from Amazon, and took delivery just yesterday as I pen these words. This book is fantastic - I kid you not - on the first page of Chapter 2, for example, I discovered at least five or six capriciously clever tricks that blew my solutions out of the water!

I highly recommend this book.

My first introduction to binary operators wizardry was in a 1st year, 1st semester course in Digital Systems at the Technion, IIT. I thought it was fun. While I was trying to write a computer program to compute Karnaugh Maps for me, I run into performance problems, and then some binary hackery helped me get back on the horse.

Since then, whenever I come across some binary trick I write it down with a few examples of usage and sometimes with some reasoning why it works.

Then came "Hacker's Delight" and I felt compelled to buy it.

I wasn't disappointed at all! Not only it contained all of the tricks that I have collected, but also it contains a lot more in depth examples of how these tricks can come in handy when trying to squeeze performance from an implementation or save a few more bytes and bits.

The book also gave me a fresh perspective on the implementation of some well known algorithms with the twist of binary arithmetic. This was very enlightening.

I read the "BASICS" chapter (chapter 2) with a single breath of air, and just couldn't leave it down. Not only it was nice to have all these tricks summarized in one book, but also I liked some of the reasoning and the "so-called" proofs.

Remaining chapters were, as I mentioned before, a fresh look for me on known algorithms. This fresh look was through the glasses of binary arithmetic.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who feels comfortable with binary arithmetic and/or computer organization -- even just for the fun of it!

I'd recommend the book to developers who don't necessarily have a sympathy to this topic, but would like a Copy&Paste solution to some problems they have to tackle.

I really enjoyed reading this book, and I will probably reference it from time to time.

The term "hacker" in this book means someone who enjoys making computers do interesting tricks regardless of whether it turns out to be useful, not someone who is intent on circumventing computer security. Plus, how relevant would those kind of tips be coming from a book that was written in 2002? Don't let the author's definition of a hacker fool you, though - the tricks in this book are very useful.

This book is a collection of small programming tricks on various subjects. The presentation is very informal, and the methods use very basic computer math. You should know your binary number system backwards and forwards before you start this book. Either C or assembly language is used to demonstrate the hacks in code form. When assembly language is used, it is that of a fictitious machine that is representative of RISC computers. That is because the tricks are meant to be platform independent.

After disposing of basic arithmetic operations early in the book, the author turns his attention to more complex math problems such as calculating square roots. His discussion of the subject is both complex and simple. First, he explains Newton's method of computing square roots through a page full of equations that require some effort to follow. Then he gives an implementation that requires fewer than twenty lines of C code. This is followed by another method that is longer and more cryptic but executes faster, by using a binary search algorithm. Whether you are interested in the equations or merely need the C code to do your job, these solutions are efficient and elegant.

Other topics addressed include Gray codes, the Hilbert curve, and prime numbers. Gray codes are a method of arranging the integers from 1 to N in a list so that each number can be visited exactly once by flipping only one bit at a time. The Hilbert curve is a similar idea expressed geometrically: a single continuous curve which, given a space divided into a grid of squares, touches every square exactly once and does not cross itself. In each case, both the mathematical discussion and the code to solve the problem are provided.

The chapter on prime numbers is the most challenging mathematically but also one of the most interesting. It starts with a concise overview of various mathematicians' efforts to devise ways of finding prime numbers. The author is one of those people who periodically become fascinated by some problem and devote themselves to learning more about it and searching for a solution. The chapter ends not with the usual code sample, but instead with an invitation to continue the search for interesting solutions to the problem.

Clearly, the author views this book not as a finished collection, but rather as a snapshot of work in progress. After decades of interest-driven research, the author has amassed a collection of studies big enough to fill a book, and it is fortunate for the rest of us that he has written one.

They don't make them like this anymore. Amid the "Learning XXX in 21 days" and various other computer book for which depth is almost non existent (and are read like eating peanuts), this is a refreshing book that talks about solutions to sometimes common (IMHO) coding problems.
If you enjoy programming gems, or remember that beyond your C code there is a machine that executes your program, this is the book for you. For example, think how would you count the 1 bits in a 32 bit integer - the book has an elegant solution in log(n). Aside from this, the book has about 50 or so problems, with their solutions (and proof).
Bottom line: fine book, worthy to be near my Knoth, R&K and Stroustrup books.

This book is an absolute essential to the right reader. That right reader is either a low-level coder, a high-level logic designer, or someone who builds tools and libraries for same. In other words, not a lot of people. This is hacking at its bit-level finest, though. If you're among those few, or think you might be, or want a good laugh at the people who are, dig in.

It's good for things like counting the number of 1 bits in a word-length integer (hint: if you count the bits, you're doing it the hard way). It's good for things like fast division by an integer constant, or mod to a constant integer modulus (hint: if you perform division by dividing, you're barking up the wrong tree). If you can look into a 32x32 bit multiplication and see a convolution going on, you're way ahead of the game. The only tricks I know that didn't appear here are A) for purposes that almost no one has or B) for machines that almost no one has.

Warren presents the coolest collection of slimy coding tricks ever collected, with full attention to the number of machine cycles and the compiler-writer's unique needs. I've seen a lot, and this is by far the biggest and coolest collection around. I have two complaints, though, a small one and a really big one. The small one is that the author didn't score a direct bullseye on my somewhat offbeat needs. Well, he never tried to - that's just me griping that he didn't write a different book. The big complaint is that pages, lots of them, just fluttered out of this pricey book and onto the floor. GRRR. This takes nothing away from the content of the book, until some critical page flutters off never to be seen again. Still, if you can keep a rubber band around it, this will be one of the deepest mines of coolness in your uber-geek library.

//wiredweird

Hex is an amazing sci-fi trilogy that will keep you enthralled from the very first page. In the late 21st century, scientists created the Hex gene to improve human knowledge of computers. The project was later abandoned, but mutants with the gene, known as Hexes, continued to be sought out and exterminated.
Years later, Raven, a Hex and possibly the most dangerous teenager in the world, along with her brother, Wraith, travel to London in search of their younger sister, Rachel. There they meet Kez, a streetrat, and Ali, a popular and rich girl who has just discovered that she is a Hex. Soon the group becomes engaged in a dangerous mission that could cost them their lives.
Containing interesting characters with distinct personalities, excellent descriptions, and an imaginative portrayal of the future, Hex is one of the best science fiction books you'll come by and the fitting start to a great series.

I read all three books in the trilogy over a year ago and have recently come to pick them up again. The best feature of the book is the idea, I love reading sci-fi books that don't actually feel sci-fi - the books that I enjoy explaining the plot to friends and family. The reason I didn't give the book five stars was because there wasn't enough romance, and there is always room for romance - where are we without it? Also I would have loved to have more information about the way of life that far ahead into the future, on a more day to day level. The last reason is because i didn't like Raven, although i know why she was cold and heartless I think hope goes a long way but i never felt she would change - it is definitely a first for me to love a book and not love the main character. Despite this the book left me wanting to find out more so it definitely earned four stars.

if youve seen the old movie hackers, then you'll love this. I love the dysfunctional family life of brother and sisters, the way the main character is a female, who feels alienated from the world around her because everyone else feels inferiror to her talents. Its a well written series, ive read all three hex books, and i was compleatly satisfied...hmmm, well it woul dhave been good if there was a little romance, but you probably cant have that. You fall in love with Raven, and hate the people she hates, you find them utterly annoying :D its a gotta read

The book was very well done. A bit cliche, but a good read all the same. The characters are believable and the book doesn't make you want to gag with details and mindless information. The only real complaint I have is something seemed to be missing from the explanation. I couldn't finger it, but there was just something not there. But it's definately worth picking up.

The most dangerous person in the 24th century is a 15-year-old girl named Raven --- and officially she doesn't even exist. Why? Raven is a Hex --- part human, part super computer. In the late 21st century, Hexes were created by genetically enhancing human children. Hexes can reach into the Net and access information systems from around the world. They can move around the World Wide Web the way other teenagers stroll around a mall. Raven has awesome powers --- she can control computers with her thoughts. Raven is in hiding, though, and she would like to keep it that way. If the secret government finds out that she is alive, she will be killed.

Children with the Hex gene must either fight for their lives, hide away, or be exterminated. The government doesn't want its people to know that Hexes exist. The CPS, a secret government agency, is on a mission to seek and destroy all Hexes. Most die no matter what they do. Raven's sister, Rachel, is already presumed dead, even though she had never shown any sign of being a Hex. While searching the Internet for some sign of Rachel's existence, Raven runs across another fate that Hexes face. A fate worse than death. It is this discovery that will eventually lead Raven, along with her foxy non-Hex brother Wraith, to the place where Hexes die.

HEX is book one of what promises to be an outstanding series by Rhiannon Lassiter. Lassiter does a great job of making the people in her books as real as possible. Even the minor characters have great personalities.

There is a reference to a New York disaster and some talk about terrorism, which takes some of the fun out of this book. This is minor, though, and doesn't take away from the fact that HEX is a book that you are cursed to enjoy.

--- Reviewed by Kat, recent high school grad and young adult fiction diva

This book is absolutely solid, especially in its explanation of how consulting firms work. It has a number of helpful tips for what to look out for and what "smells funny" in a contract, and is good value for money just for that alone.

The salary information in it may be a little out of date, and the sample size of salaries is so small and spread out that it's difficult to know what the statistical significance is.

just what one needs to know about consulting in IT.fantastic

This book is good as far as providing lots of useful information, but I can't use its advice just yet as I am just getting into the computer field. In other words, its too advanced for me right now. I am going to order another book listed here, The Secret Path to Contract Programming Riches..." It seems to be perfect for those who want to start from scratch in the computer industry.

But, I will keep this Janet Ruhl book for reference when I am more ready to make the move into contracting.

This book is great for computer contractors or for those considering going into computer contracting. I read this book when I first contracting about five years ago (I thought I had already reviewed it, but my review does not show up). The information is still current and is greatly helpful for those, like me, who want to cross every 't' and dot every 'i', or at least to try to. A great deal of valuable information inside.

In my first book, "The Secret Path to Contract Programming Riches", I chose Janet Ruhl's earlier book, "The Computer Consultant's Guide", as required reading for an overview of the ins & outs of the consulting lifestyle, because it was the ideal complement to the highly specific and technical instruction for the raw beginners targeted in my book.

"Janet Ruhl's Answers for Computer Contractors" will now replace it, as required reading in the next edition of my book, for many reasons:

1) It gives promising contractors everything they need to maximize and maintain a contracting career.

2) It reveals the absolutely important insiders' tips on working with consulting firms, contract brokers and recruiting firms - I've been contracting for over ten years, and I've seen some really wonderful brokers and some really shady brokers. Read this book and put yourself a step ahead of them all.

3) It has answers to practically every important contracting question one can imagine.

4) It helps you decide if the contracting lifestyle is right for you and helps eliminate fears about moving into contracting.

5) By design, it is much more specific to contractors than her earlier book.

Bottom Line
If you are already a salaried computer professional or want an in-depth look at the contracting profession and have an itch for a more flexible, potentially more rewarding and higher-paying career, then I have no doubt that this book will be worth its weight in gold to your career! Now that we have this beneficial guide, I see no reason for anyone to have any unanswered questions about the contracting profession.

~ Michael Nigohosian, Author - "The Secret Path to Contract Programming Riches"

MadFinn is a really great book for people just becoming teenagers and how it feels. U get an inside look on how it will be ur first day at school and how many friends and enimies u make. Every teenage girl (...) should get a copie of Madison Finn TODAY.

ITS THE BEST BOOK EVA!!!!!

I loved this book BTW (MF humor). I know how Madison feels to want something and tries to do it and then chickens out at the last minute so I didn't par-take in her regret in not trying out for a show part in The Wiz. I think stage manager is a great role; she gets to know everything before the cast does and she gets to help with the costumes. But what I don't like is Ivy, yup, Poison Ivy Daly (meddling with Maddie's life as usual). Can't she just stay out of things for two seconds!? She, Aimee, and Fiona are all buddy-buddy now, leaving Madison to watch from behind the curtain again. Even Hart is not paying too much attention to her. But when the fat lady sings everything pops back into reality, which makes me happy. But while Fiona and Aimee were out of the scene it gave Madison the opportunity to introduce the new character Lindsey Frost into the series. She's a girl who can't be excepted, but does that stop Madison. No way!

I LOVED the Madison Finn book called Play It Again!!:)If you haven't read it I'll fill you in on this book. This book is funny and is about a girl named Madison and her 7th grade life at Far Hills Jr. High. In this book it's happy and can resemble what your life is like, like when Madison got nervous in front of her crush, that was a thing that you might have happen in your life. Another reason why this book ROCKS is that you can read every line of this book and picture it in your head like a movie, and I'm not talking about popcorn with that (just kidding). This book is funny from when Madison tells about when she fainted in front of the whole school when she was in 2nd grade. I also like this book because it is based on every day life and always has advice and answeres for your every questions. If your a Madision Finn fan well then you'll love Play it Again. My advice to you is I can't make you read this but maybe this review will. My last words I need to say about Play It Again, THIS BOOK IS AWESOME!!!!:)

Madison finds out who her true friends and enemies are in this book! Poisen Ivy is taking over madison's friends so maddie starts to feel left out since she chickens out of trying out for the play so she is the stage manger. When things go wrong will Madison's friends be their for her or will they fall into Ivy's trap! You will have to read the book to find out.

This is the 3rd book in the series and it was the best one so far. Madison Finn's grade is putting on a play, The Wiz. She doesn't want to audition so she gets to be the Stage Manager. She is really excited about that but she soon feels left out. All she does in run and get props! And to top it all off, Fiona and Aimee are hanging out with Ivy! This book was used for my book report and it was really easy to do. One of my friends is using my copy of "Caught in the Web" for her book report and she says she has lots of ideas, too. If you want to: know what happens with Fiona and Aimee with Ivy, read a great book, or do an easy but still an A+ book for a report, buy "Play it Again"!

Well thought-out, clear and thorough book. I have several networks books, but this is by far the best I've ever used, even surpassing "Computer Networks: a systems approach". Another advantage of this book is that it has a website with quizzes and results to help reinforce the information displayed in it. A must have for anyone learning about networks.

I had to use this book for a graduate course. It has been very suitable for this purpose. The level of details is good, but not to the point of a protocol standard. If you need to master the concepts and do not want to refer to very superficial practical references or detailed standards this book is right in the middle. Lecturers will find it very appropriate and students will easly grasp the concepts. One can still use some parts of the book as a reference. If the required information is not there some of the references to RFCs and standards will guide the reader to more information elsewhere.

Just recently, I began writing network drivers for my custom Operating System and found myself a little in-the-dark about the proper format for a TCP/IP packet. This book proved to be a great read, and also an extremely useful reference later on.
Two thumbs up.

This may be the best textbook I have ever used. The text is concise and to the point with no extra "fluff". The illustrations are fantastic. The author has spent a tremendous amount of time on these... they take you directly to the meaning of the text, and give a strong visual and intuitive foundation to what has been written. Example problems with answers are numerous, and seem to be placed at exactly the points where you need to stop and work through concepts with pencil and paper. I really can't say enough about this text, I've read it cover to cover. It imparts an amazing amount of technical information without being dry... again, I think it's the illustrations that are so helpful, and it's nice that the author's style is direct and not wordy. I don't think you can buy a better TCP/IP book, this one's worth twice the price.

As a beginner, this book can deliver a full and clear picture about details of TCP/IP including each protocol alogorithm, characteristics and it's usage. One can easily understand the TCP/IP basic architecture even without any experience after reading.

This book is absolutely excellent. Gusfield walks the reader from simple concepts in string matching through advanced in a way that I found very easy to follow. Every bioinformatics researcher should have copy of this text.

A well written text book with an obvious bias to biological application, but maybe most useful for its clear explanation and rigour of string algorithms.

If you haven't read this book, you don't know biological string matching. The book's focus is clearly on string algorithms, but the author gives good biological significance to the problems that each technique solves. I came away from this book understanding the algorithms, but also knowing why the algorithms were valuable.

No, there isn't any real source code here. That should not be a problem - this book aims above the cut&paste programmer. The book in meant for readers who can not only understand the algorithms, but apply them to unique solutions in unique ways.

String matching is far too broad a topic for any one book to cover. The study can include formal language theory, Gibbs sampling and other non-deterministic optimizations, and probability-based techniques like Markov models. The author chose a well bounded region of that huge territory, and covers the region expertly. The reader will soon realize, though, that algorithms from this book work well as pieces of larger computations. The book's chosen limits certainly do not limit its applicability.

By the way, don't let the biological orientation put you off. DNA analysis is just one place where string-matching problems occur. The author motivates algorithms with problems in biology, but the techniques are applicable by anyone that analyzes strings.

The text sits at the intersection of computer science and computational biology. It centres around the observation made by the author and others that often in CS, one has to manipulate strings of text, which are just sequences of text. While in computational biology, a recurrent theme is how to deal with sequences of molecules. These might be in a DNA sample or in a protein.

Surprisingly, from this simple observation, Gusfield manages to gather together considerable material. Over the decades, computing has accrued many algorithms for text string processing. The book's merit is in presenting those which are also applicable in bioinfomatics. The level of treatment is sophisticated, from the computing vantage. Enough so that perhaps the typical geneticist might not be able to easily follow the narrative. But a researcher with a strong background in both fields might be able to benefit.

If you like definition-theorem-proof-example and exercise books, Gusfield's book is the definitive text for string algorithms. The algorithms are abstracted from their biological applications, and the book would make sense without reading a single page of the biological motivations. Gusfield aims his book at readers who are fluent in basic algorithms and data structures (at the level of Cormen, Leisersohn and Rivest's excellent text). The exercises are wonderfully illustrative, being neither trivial nor impossible.

All of the major exact string algorithms are covered, including Knuth-Morris-Pratt, Boyer-Moore, Aho-Corasick and the focus of the book, suffix trees for the much harder probem of finding all repeated substrings of a given string in linear time. In addition to exact string matching, there are extensive discussions of inexact matching. Even the discussions of widely known topics like dynamic programming for edit distance are insightful; for instance, we find how to easily cut space requirements from quadratic to linear. There is also a short chapter on semi-numerical matching methods, which are also of use in information retrieval applications. Inexact matching is extended to the threshold all-against-all problem, which finds all substrings of a string that match up to a given edit distance threshold. The theoretical development concludes with the much more difficult problem of aligning multiple sequences with ultrametric trees, with applications to phylogenetic alignment for evolutionary trees (an approach that has also been applied to the evolution of natural languages).

Note that there is no discussion of statistical string matching. For that, Durbin, Eddy, Krogh and Mitchison's "Biological Sequence Analysis: Probabilistic Models of Proteins and Nucleic Acides" is a good choice, or for those more interested in language than biology, Manning and Schuetze's "Statistical Natural Language Processing". There is also no information on more structured string matching models such as context-free grammars, as are commonly used to analyze RNA folding or natural language syntax. Luckily, Durbin et al. and Manning and Schuetze also provide excellent coverage of these higher-order models in their books.

This book is not about efficient implementation. If you need to build these algorithms, you'll also need to know how to write efficient code and tune it for your needs. This is an algorithms book, pure and simple.

As a computer scientist, I found the discussions of computational biology to be more enlightening than in other textbooks on similar topics such as Durbin et al., because Gusfield does not assume the reader has any background in cellular biology. Instead, he provides his own clear and gentle introductions illustrated with algorithms, applications, open problems and extensive references. Like most Cambridge University Press books, this one is beautifully typeset and edited.

This is not a highly technical Oracle book but it does demonstrate how many of the Oracle features rely on intuition instead of science. It is not the kind of book that you will refer to later, but it is an excellent one time read

This book is a great place to start to learn about performance tuning for Oracle. The book covers the different type of performance tuning methods in a neutral and matter of fact manner. I like the candidness of the author and the fact that he does not push or suggest one method is better than any other. Use this book to start to understand the different methods then move on to more in depth books on a particular performance tuning method. Take a moment and look at the Table of Contents

Lawson gives the Oracle DBA many useful ideas on customising your Oracle database. He pretty much assumes you already possess a reasonable background in Oracle. There is no wasted space on elementary SQL or Oracle tasks.

Perhaps the key chapters are 7, "Oracle Pathologist" and 8, "Analysing SQL Bottlenecks". Later chapters add important refinements. But if you are in search of quick gains, chapters 7 and 8 could be the most fruitful. The ideas in those might not have to involve a major overhaul of your architecture.

Great book,nice and easy to follow approach,fine life examples.

Among other things the author very intelligently also reiterates

the importance of a good self image and the importance of a

good relationship to co-workers in a very casual,realistic and

non intrusive manner

The technical Oracle performance tuning section doesn't start until Chapter 5. The first 94 pages of the book is spent on topics such as "Maintain a Healthy Skepticism","Blame should be Avoided","The Cost of a Poor Working Relationship", and "The Universal Law of Reciprocity". Although the author's advice on these matters is sound, the first 94 pages clearly does not provide what the users are looking for.

The crown jewel of this book is its technical explaination of wait events. Its explaination of v$SQL, v$system_event, v$session_event, and V$Session_wait tables is well worth your money and your time. If you do not know of these tables, then do yourself and your Oracle users a great service and buy this book and master its contents. You will not regret it.

The weakspot of this book is in the resolution of Oracle's slow performance. Although the book provides strong hints that most Oracle issues can be resolved with better indexing and index hints, the book does not emphasize it as much as it should. It also doesn't provide a whole lot of suggestions on how to optimize the SGA.