Reference Tools Books

Excellent book. Easy to understand and accurate. This book will teach you not only how to work with improvised lock picks but also includes instructions and diagrams to build your own. There's no confusing jargon, and the accompanying illustrations are phenominal in their ability to illustrate the point and back the written instructions perfectly. This is a great referance for the aspiring locksmith. Want to get into lock picking but don't know how? BUY THIS BOOK!

I have 20 years experience as a Locksmith. Hampton has absolutely no clue about picking locks, and his book is a fairy tale. The man does not even know the names of the parts of the locks! He gives instructions for making lockpicks,that will take you hours to make, that can be bought for less than $2.00. If he was a real locksmith, why doesn't he buy them from a locksmith supply house? Why is he so concerned about secretive lockpicking? Locksmiths don't have any reason to be secretive-The customer is standing next to them while they pick the lock.
The guy is a slick operator who is out to sell books to gullible people;if you pick any lock at all after reading this book, you have been EXTREMELY lucky.

This book is the very bare bones basics of common lock type overviews and theories on how to open them. After purchasing it I found other websites out there that had published this book on the net. Book can be read in an hour or so, save your money or search it on the web.

Steve Hampton writes with a nice and easy conversational style and leads the reader through the basic tools and locks. And along the way he offers his advice on this or that. For example, Hampton's favorite tool is the diamond pick.He also likes to make tools from everyday items. On page 18 he shows how to pick a five-pin tumbler lock with a modified screw driver and a safety pin. My favorite tools are the Magic Keys which Hampton shows on pages 34 and 35. I sometimes astonish my friends with how fast I can open their warded locks without a key. This little book has a lot of secrets on lockpicking that won't be secrets anymore to anyone who reads it.

Steve Hampton writes with a nice and easy conversational style and leads the reader through the basic tools and locks. And along the way he offers his advice on this or that. For example, Hampton's favorite tool is the diamond pick. He also likes to make tools from everyday items. On page 18 he shows how to pick a five-pin tumbler lock with a modified screw driver and a safety pin. My favorite tools are the Magic Keys which Hampton shows on pages 34 and 35. I sometimes astonish my friends with how fast I can open their warded locks without a key. This little book has a lot of secrets, but if you read it, they won't be secrets anymore

A short little book for learning about combination padlocks, with a clever system for quickly eliminating possibilities so that you can crack a combination faster. Pretty straightforward, and no hocus-pocus.

After reading the first ten Pages, I was able to open my high-school locker padlock - after 30 years..
The book is clearly structured and leads you through the process logically...

If you want a book that tells you how to open combination padlocks, just like in the movies... this is not it...
This book tells you how to halve (maybe) the number of combinations that will open the lock. There is really nothing worth reading in this book. It narrows down the number of combinations, then you have to try them... one by one.
This book teaches you how to open locks, but youll never get any better, every time you open one, it Will take half an hour.

My suggestion, try a different book.

This book describes how a lock works with a couple of diagrams and how to open them in the shortest amount of time by only trying useful combinations : it's not because the dial goes to 40 that there are 40 choices, usually about 10 "gates". most locks combinations are low number-high number-low number or high-low-high, etc
These rules will let you make a list of combinations to try so that you find the right one as fast as possible.
All this could fit in a web page (and probably does). I don't think it's worth the price.

There is little insight, and no "trick" in this book. This book just tells you to do exaustive search, which means it just tells you to try all the combinations. It does point out that each "gate" on a lock is really a range of up to four numbers, and if you pull on the latch you can feel where the gates center. So, now, instead of exaustive search taking an amazingly huge amount of time, it instead just takes a huge amount of time. It encourages you to try the most likely combinations first, which is the vast majority of them. Gag.

Even if you value your time at minimum wage, you will save money by just BUYING A NEW LOCK, and that's without factoring in the price of this book or how exaustive search will make your hand hurt.

If you think twisting a knob back and forth for hours is fun, and you don't have the minimal brain power to make a table for it (the author says you don't have to understand his tables, and doesn't even mention the shocking ability to keep track of the last three numbers/gates in your head), then this book is for you.

This book will disappoint you if you don't buy it with the right frame of reference. It isn't a chatty book that starts out with pictures of a trip to a Japanese quarry, etc... Nor is it a dithering book that gives you every method know to man to do something. Nor is it a book by a master Japanese woodworker with a real understanding of waterstones. This series of books is designed to give in-depth coverage of one person's way of doing one thing.

So if you have no interest in taking a master's advice, and just want to be entertained, not the best read. But if you want a practical and fast way of getting your tools to the level of a master studio craftsman and teacher, then this is a possible path.

A lot of top craftsmen, at least those who write etc... actually do a lot of tool reviewing, promoting and such. So it is natural to fall into the assumption that expert craftsman have a thousand opinions about tools with no fixed technical adress. Really good workers, find something that works, and then get on with the work.

Kirby mostly wrote for Fine Woodworking when it wasn't a magazine that catered to beginers

Here's the whole book- Buy a grinder. Sharpen your blade. Use a waterstone, and make it sharper. Here's some illustrations.
Not very helpful. It didn't really cover anything for amatuers, but it didn't give much to a pro either. 2/3rds of the book is his view on how to set up a bench grinder.

One of the unfortunate facts about cutting tools is that they need to have a sharp edge to work well but using them takes away that edge. This is a wonderful little book by an expert woodworker explaining how he puts back the edge quickly so he can go back to work right away. It describes every detail including inconvertible facts as well as the author's many opinions. It's a complete system; it doesn't leave out any steps. Even though not every technique is useful to me I wouldn't leave anything out because that would inevitably leave out techniques that were useful.

With the help of this book I learned to hand sharpen chisels and plane irons. (I didn't try setting up a grinder the way he suggests.) Rather than trust my skill completely I used a honing guide from Lee Valley. I spent a very pleasant summer afternoon in the backyard learning how to sharpen with waterstones, a stack of dull chisels and plane irons, a bucket of water and a yapping puppy. I got wet and the yard got messy but I don't think anybody minded. A very rewarding afternoon, except when the puppy ran off with one of the pages. I don't know if the chisels came out sharp enough to shave with but they slice softwood like butter.

This book does an excellent job as a teacher for three reasons: It is written by somebody who knows what he is doing. It explains all the steps clearly and it doesn't leave out any. And I came out of the process fairly skillful at something I didn't know how to do before.

If you want sharp tools and don't give two hoots about all the theory and gab most books offer on the subject, this is a good read. The text is clear and the drawings are very useful. Plain and simple, it guides you toward all it takes to get your chisels and plane blades sharp and keep them that way.

I purchased this book to learn to get a keen edge on my tools in a minimum amount of time. This book offers a number of good pointers, although much of the advice is also to be taken with a grain of salt (the uselessness of sharpening guides, for example). Overall, a good book. The size and readability make it perfect for the workshop shelf as opposed to the office library.

WOW, This Helped me repair my grandperants Jeep. (witch will soon be mine in a few years!)i just want to say thanx

I bought this book so as to diagnose a problem with my transmission & torque converter. I found it to be pretty much useless. The pictures didn't show what I needed to see; the wiring diagrams weren't for the right year; the vacuum line diagrams for the vacuum lines that operate the hardware that actually puts the vehicle into 4wd were non-existent. If your jeep is stuck at the bottom of a hill somewhere due to the front drive line ripping the wires off the connector that goes to the neutral switch & back up lights don't look to this manual for help!

I found the information for a 1988 Jeep Cherokee to be vague, superficial, and many times, incorrect. This might be due to production changes in the 1988 year. In looking for information on automatic transmissions, ignition system, engine control computer, or transfer case dissasembly or repair, the book says that this is beyond the home mechanic. Well, few other repairs even require a book for anyone with reasonable experience. I believe they are copping out. It was not worth reading.

Not bad, but get the Factory repair service manual, which is more accurate. Some wire diagrams are different.. good for the newbie, but better get some advice first, like Always use Quadra-trac fluid
in Transfer case, never anything else, the Friction cones will not tolarate it, since it is a full time 4 wheel drive. ( from 73-79 borg -warner)

As a beginner in home car mechanics I found this book very helpful. It helped me already with understanding my Jeep Wagoneer '73 (V8, 360). And I used it to replace the powerbrake booster, the powersteering pressure line, rear suspencion leaves, door window, door lock and so on. New jobs are coming and this book wil help me, I sure...

So far! So good!

But a little bit hard to find the information. It is a textbook rather than a reference book.

The book is really for those wishing to delve into Linux and is looking for a reference that is understandable. Someone who has a working knowledge of other OS like MS Windows. The title is quite misleading because it claims to be complete but is NNNOOOTTT.

And most of all it contains a lot of errors or incomplete discussions like the four sets of 3-digit numbers in an IP address that consists of the first three sets being the network address and the last the host address. Although true on some networks, this is not true for all networks. I could name a lot of others but this should be enough to ward off possible buyers of this book who already have experience using Linux and need a good reference. If you are new into Linux, this book simplifies a lot of the new things that you have to learn but on the other had if that it your intent go ahead. The two stars is for this reason otherwise only one star would be given.

The discussion on file systems should have included disk quotas but was missing. The chapter on network administration alone could be the subject of another book but was treated quite lamely and contained less pages than the discussion on file systems. And there was no discussion on the three major groupings on file/device accessors - root/system, user, others.

I bought this book for an introductory UNIX course even though the second edition was recommended. I thought the third edition would be more detailed and up to date. I was wrong. Much of the detail on shell scripting and programming was lost with the new edition. Too much of the text in either edition is dedicated to installing Linux rather than administering it, a task better handled in a smaller user's manual than a textbook. The CD's are awful. There are only a few slightly useful applications included on them. If you want to install Linux on your PC, buy a complete commercial version off the shelf, along with a better book. Most commercial versions of Linux come with many useful applications for a reasonable price. If you must buy "Linux: TCR", buy the second edition, otherwise, O'Reilly's "Running Linux", although also heavy on installation detail, is a much better option. If you're looking for a Linux admin guide, try Steve Shah's "Linux Administration: A Beginner's Guide."

Much of what I know about Linux today I got from this book. I have read other books about Linux but none of them were so "complete". It is an excellent reference.

I was however a bit disappointed that SAMBA was not covered in more detail. Even if it was only just to help me set up a simple "peer to peer" network between a "linux-windows" box and a "linux-linux" box. Networking is covered in great detail and connecting to the Internet is one of the first things discussed in this book.(didn't we all want to get on the internet the first time we installed Linux? :-> )

This book is an absolute goldmine if you are looking to master al those Linux commands.

All in all I think that this book should be rated as one of the best Linux books(for it's scope) and should be on every Linux user's desk.

Get It...NOW

I feel that the author spent too much time and space on GUI interface to Linux at the expense of some other material, like SENDMAIL and SAMBA -- to which only fleeting refernces are made. GUI discussion detracts from a deeper understanding of the O/S. If you understand what's going on at the shell level, the GUIs are easy and should have been treated summarily in an appendix. I was disappointed that, for SENDMAIL, readers were simply referred to the O'REILLY book. For a 900+ page book that calls itself complete, I would have expected more. I understand that many topics in Linux require books in themselves for complete treatment, but a complete treatment of LINUX requires at least a basic overview of some of its main features, like SENDMAIL and SAMBA. I know you can't treat every application that runs on LINUX, but some biggies have been omitted or just skimmed over. Cut out the GUI stuff and add more discussion of these important services -- and get deeper into the heart of LINUX itself, the nuts and bolts, and not the superficial GUI interfaces. Most people who get into LINUX are trying precisely to get away from the undue overhead of GUI. Many shell commands find only superficial treatment with a perfunctory "See the man pages for more info." I don't like the man pages -- that's why I bought this book.

This directory is a "must have" for job seekers and networkers. Keep it in your personal library and use it year after year. It's well worth the money.

I've used with product about ten years ago and will continue to do so when job hunting. As other readers have already stated, sometimes the information on various companies dated and incorrect. I would not recommend buying one version of this book and keeping it for years as a reference book - again - the data become dated very quickly.

Despite small flaws, I do highly recommend this purchase. While this book has never directly gotten me a position, it has, however, put my resume into the types of hiring manager's hands I desire.

Also, all position levels can be found with this book. Most highly recommend however, I would start a job search with the newest version.

30% of the data in this book is wrong/out of date.

I sent out 100 emails; 30 bounced back. Sent out 100 faxes 28 were not valid.

I emailed the publisher and they ignored it. You are better off going to the store with a laptop and inputing all the email/fax data and do a mass blast as this was published in 09/06 and the data is stale.

Not worth $65+, when you can do it for free in cafe.

I have used this publication in my career coaching business for several years. It is a tremendous tool for those seeking out credible recruiting firms.

The Good - This book is organized in such a way that you can referernce by preference. The Bad - Due to major turnover in the recruiting industry some of the information contained may not be valid by the time you have purchased and opened the book. The Bottom-Line is that despite some firms no longer being in busness, this remains a great reference tool to have. (Smiles) - Karen A Petersen (Orlando Florida 10/01/2007)

I am an Architect dealing with planning and early stages of projects. This book is concise, clear and comprehensive and I don't know what I would do without it. I had a well-used and dog-eared copy from the original edition of 1979 and have just updated to the current edition. The information is easy to find, not over-detailed and still seems to be under the control of one person. Highly recommended and good value.

A valuable and a must have book...but print and paper quality is not worth...it is very much like as if phocopied and binded...
Yagmur TOPRAKLI

I'm a graduate design architect, and i've been looking for a design standards reference. I came across this book, i've never heard about it before, as i was more familiar with Time Saver. But i was surprised by how good this book is and how sufficient the information contained is for all stages of design.
The Time Saver Book might be more comprehensive in some aspects and may also have more examples of different building types. But the price of this book is very good compared to the time saver, which costs much more. I definitely recommend this book...

I have been told that there was a review that said that there were errors in the book. This is certainly so, I should know, I am the editor! No reference book as comprehensive as this will ever be perfect. However, if you, the customer, finds one of these, please tell me. My e-mail address is David_Adler@compuserve.com. Thank you.

this cd cost 250 dollars, it is a plug-in program for autocad. it creats a new toolbar for autocad users to find images. However, i find this toolbar is NOT frinedly to use and it is hard to find images, and this software can't work in autocad 2000, it just can work with the outdate autocad (r13,R14). Further, this software not ever cover different size of common doors and windows. EDITOR, your CAD-library is not powerful enough. I personally believe this software is only worth 50 dollars.

This book has everything in it. Glad I purchased it.

`the food encyclopedia' by Jacques L. Rolland and Carol Sherman with `other contributors' is published by the Canadian publisher, `Robert Rose, Inc.', a specialist in culinary volumes with `Bible' or `Encyclopedia' in their titles. Some of these volumes, by their sheer size and volume of information, such as the `Food Substitution Bible' by David Joachim are genuinely worthy of their pretentious titles. With this volume, one should start to question its authority as soon as you see it's falsely modest all lower-case title.

The long and the short of it is that any book of this size and cost, with it's `encyclopedic' pretensions is asking you to take it as an authority on its subject. Lamentably, with about a third of the articles I read, the authority of this book is simply laughable.

The most serious problems are simple factual errors. For example, in the article on the `metric system', it states that a centimeter is 100 millimeters long. A centimeter gets the 100 in its name from being a 1/100th of a meter, being only 10 millimeters long, a millimeter being 1/1000th of a meter. Other errors are just a bit subtler, as when in the article on `sodium', it is described as a `mineral'. This in itself is mistaken, as sodium, a very highly reactive metal, simply never occurs alone in nature. It has none of the properties of any mineral, which are generally compounds of a metal and a non-metal. The article compounds the error by saying its mineral name is `halite'. This is the name of common salt or sodium chloride. An even more serious howler is in the article on `nitrate', which is described as an `organic' compound. All, I say ALL compounds identified with the name `nitrate', such as sodium nitrate, ammonium nitrate, calcium nitrate, and on and on, are INORGANIC compounds!

These two gross errors found after reading no more than a dozen articles reduces my faith in the technical accuracy of the book to a minimum.

The cover of the book brags about having entries on 8,000 ingredients, tools, techniques, and people. Regarding ingredients, I find a lot of variability in the articles. In an `encyclopedia', I would expect that every article on a distinct plant or animal would include the scientific name of it. There may be some vague rule at work here, but it doesn't make any sense to me to give the scientific name for New Zealand spinach, but do not give it for `nigella seeds' (or more accurately, the plant from which nigella seeds are harvested).

On `tools', I find the book incomplete, but possibly not totally useless. There is an article for `China cap', but none for `chinois', or even any reference to `chinois' in the `China cap' article. I'll give our editors a small pass on this one, as the `Larousse Gastronomique' has an article on `chinois', but none on `China Cap' (and I do believe there is a small difference between the two).

But this brings up an important question. If you do not already own a copy of the `Larousse Gastronomique', the foremost authority on European cooking knowledge, why would you spend a sizable amount of money on this flawed book when for about half again the price, you can get a true authority.

This is not the end of the problems for this tome. One of its very best attributes is its sidebar articles of culinary biographies. I find the effort spent on this feature has given us an excellent selection of subjects, with practically no lightweight celebrities included. For example, it's longest biographies, including photographic portraits, are reserved for the most important 20th century culinary figures, such as the great American triad, James Beard, Craig Claiborne, and Julia Child. Among other American culinary notables, we get Alice Waters, Ruth Reichl, M. F. K. Fisher, Jacques Pepin, Paul Prudhomme, Harold McGee, Irma Rombauer, Pierre Franey, and Ella Eaton Kellogg. The last is interesting because neither her husband, John Harvey Kellogg, the founder of the Kellogg's food company nor other famous American food entrepreneurs such as H. J. Heinz or Milton Hershey are profiled. I was especially pleased to find articles on two Elizabeth David protégés, Jane Grigson and Alan Davidson, as well as the influential American expatriate writer, Richard Olney.

The selection is based almost entirely on those who have had an intellectual impact on American culinary habits. Thus, Waters and Prudhomme are in, but there is no mention of Wolfgang Puck, Emeril Lagasse, Bobby Flay, or any other `Food Network' fave. There is not even any mention of the Food Network, which may have been an oversight. But even this very nice feature has its flaws. Three oversights should tell the tale. The article on Jacques Pepin cites his years at Howard Johnson's test kitchen, but says nothing of this fact about Pierre Franey, even though Pepin was Franey's subordinate at this company. The article on the very much alive Diana Kennedy gives her date as `early 20th century'. The article on Julia Child gives the impression that Madame Child first enrolled in cooking school while living in the United States, and it was not for several years after that when she and her husband went to work in Paris. In fact, the two were married in 1946, moved to Paris in 1948, where Julia almost immediately enrolled in `Le Cordon Bleu'.

Overall, this book shows a dismal lack of editing and accuracy. Save your money for better books such as 'Larousse' or Alan Davidson's 'The Oxford Companion to Food' or 'The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America'.

How can a book call itself "Encyclopedia" but it has only 1 picture out of every 2 pages? That means a lot of food mentioned in this book does not have an illustration!

It also has basic errors. For example, it says a centimeter is 100 millimeters long. In fact, one centimeter is only 10 millimeters long. This makes the accuracy of the book questionable.

This is no casual consumer's guide, but an in-depth reference appropriate for college-level culinary school holdings and many a public lending library's reference collection. Over 8,000 ingredients, tools, techniques and people are profiled in an alphabetical reference defining cooking terms, ingredients, foreign ingredients and more. Many have cross-references and multiple spellings, and there's a healthy dose of culinary history in addition to tips on techniques and over a hundred biographies for prominent food people in the industry, both well known and lesser-known. Cooks seeking a serious all-in-one reference will find this a treasure trove of historical and culinary detail.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

THE FOOD ENCYCLOPEDIA:
Over 8,000 Ingredients, Tools, Techniques and People

By Jacques L. Rolland and Carol Sherman and contributors


This work is a one-volume collection, 700 pages, with countless helpful, colorful illustrations. This collection is arranged alphabetically with cross referencing. Many carry entries for additional information. This book is one you will keep close to your desk.

Chances are you are not comfortable with each of these entries. Test yourself:

* What is accoub?

* What is amlou made from?

* Where would you find bara brith?

* Had any Bath chaps lately?

* How would you serve bottarga?

* How would you use buffalo berries?

* Where would you likely order cala?

* What would you do with a cazuela?

* Ever heard of a charcoal biscuit?

* What's another name for a chinquapin?

* When would you serve ciecamarito?

* What is a comal?

* Can you name nine different curry paste types?

* What is "blue rare?"

* What does the number, "86" mean to a bartender?

* What's another name for an elver?

* How would you use gianduja?
* What is Gueuze?

* How would you use joja santa?

* Can you tell some of the background of Madhur Jaffrey?

* How do you make mugwumps?

* If you order "omakase" what do you get?

* What is a pissaladiere?

* What's another name for a Fiddlehead?

* Do you realize there are 22 names for sugar types?

* What is toucinho?

* And. What is zhug?

If you can answer all these questions, you probably don't need The Food Encyclopedia.

This is a required textbook for a "Retirement Planning" course I'm taking in a Financial Planning program. In my opinion, the instructor made a poor choice. The book is poorly-written and quite cumbersome to get through. This could be such a good book considering the topics covered. But it is so poorly-written that I just can't seem to concentrate on the information contained therein. The only good thing I see about this book is that the chapters are short, thus one can get an idea about various topics, such as Social Security or IRAs, for example. But the book is fairly general, and when it should contain more detailed information, it fails in its presentation. Personally, I would not recommend this book. I'm sure there are much better books on Retirement Planning out there. Don't let the cool chick in her Yoga pose fool you.

This book was assigned reading for a CFP cirriculum. Presentation is somewhat uninspired, but the text does seem to contain a lot of detailed reference information.

I was somewhat offended by the presentation of "reasons for retirement plans" -- the text seemed to advocate structuring plans to benefit the business owners and key employees, while leaving the rest of the employees with as little benefit as possible. As a teaching text, I agree that it is important to understand the factors that impact these distributions, but the authors' attitude seemed to endorse this practice.

This book is difficult to use for studying for the CFP exam, because it is essentially unindexed. The topics are not very thorough, and so I found it hard to answer questions in my homework even after carefully perusing the relevant chapters. I think what is missing is enough analysis to help you APPLY the rules.

I am not sure that it would be much more useful for an employee benefits manager.

I needed this book for a Retirement Planning class in preparation for a CFP certificate. The book was a better value than from other sources, and I received it in time for my first class. This is my third class in Financial Planning and the text seems to be aimed at the practitioner in the field; so, it is somewhat difficult. However, it is very complete.

I am enrolled in the Certified Financial Planner designation program. Tools and Techniques of Employee Benefit and Retirement Planning is the textbook for the Retirement Planning module. I found this to be the most useful and practical textbook in the course. It is a book that will remain on my shelf for future reference long after I finish the designation program. The information in the textbook in written in a practical manner. It is easy to understand, well-organized and to the point.

This book contains some nice little tidbits of info but it is sorely lacking due to its lack of pictures. The 18 page long list of tool dimensions and weights gives you no real info without pics to show what they're talking about. With only 5 images in the entire book (including the front cover) I feel that 80% of the potential value of the book is missing.

Without pictures, this book is simply an expanded glossary of sculptural terms.

Rather boring lay-out, but it does provide info useful to help when looking for ideas not currently thought of when setting up projects. We use it in a fossil preparation laboratory for general review, but again, there are probably other texts that might fit the bill. Nevertheless I am glad our lab has it...too many young "creators" forget the obvious and this book helps remedy this problem.

As a beginning rock sculptor, I found this book very helpful. I would have liked more information on the "how" the tools are used and more information on which tools were best for which materials, but it really helped me to get started on my rocks. I would recommend this book for anyone getting into rock sculpting.

I took up sculpting several months ago, and I've found my "niche" with polymer clay doll-making. I've dabbled in ceramic and terra-cotta medium, but I'm also willing to try different methods of creations in the 3D World. I bought this book to give me some insight into different techniques, and that's just what it contains. Unlike so many books that try to be everything to everyone, this book gets down to the facts quickly, giving the reader a good idea of what a venture into a new sculpting medium will mean in terms of equipment and expertise. There are plenty of books that will walk a reader through every little step to create a clone of what the writer or artist has created. This book guides the reader towards the tools and different methods, without incringing on the reader's own creativity. I hope to find other books like this one on subjects like painting and photography, although sculpting is quickly becoming a passion and consuming most of my "art time". Bravo to the writer(s) and publishers of this book, and thank you!!