Electronics Books

Back many, many years ago, when the earth was flat and the sun went around the earth, I built a whole series of crystal radios. It seemed to me that something was lost when everything electronic became a chip and nearly everything you could imagine was made in Japan.

Now all of a sudden comes along this book. No, alas, there's not a crystal radio in it, but there's a short wave radio that's made with three chips. The complexity of the circuits is about the same as the old crystal sets. And the thrill of listening to WWV tell you the time as to be about the same as listening to the local radio station on the crystal set the first time.

There are quite a number of projects suitable for science fairs and the like. Come to think of it, building one of those electronic compasses from page 178 might be a good project even for an old kid of my advanced age.

I own several books by the author, and like his other books, this one is focused on construction details and how each particular circuit works, along with datasheets, as opposed to theory. So if you are looking for the theory of operation on individual sensors, I think you will be disappointed. However, if you are just looking for interesting projects to build, this book is full of good ideas for circuits. The projects range from the more simple and inexpensive, such as the overtemperature alarm, to the more complex and costly advanced electronic ion chamber. If you want a good book on sensors and the theory behind them you might try Fraden's recent edition of "Handbook of Modern Sensors". I notice that Amazon does not show the table of contents so I do that here:
Chapter 1: Audio Projects
Electronic stethoscope
Underwater hydrophone
Ultrasonic listener
Chapter 2: Light Detection & Measurement
Opto Listener
Basic radiometer
Digital ultraviolet radiometer
Digital ozone-meter
Sensitive optical tachometer
Chapter 3: Heat Sensing
Infrared flame detector
Freeze alarm
Over-temperature alarm
Analog data-logger system
LCD thermometer
Infrared motion detector
Chapter 4: Fluid Sensing
Rain detector
Fluid sensor
Fluid/water level indicator
Humidity monitor
pH meter
Chapter 5: Gas Sensing
Air pressure switch
Electronic sniffer
Combustible gas sensor
Electronic barometer
Chapter 6: Vibration Monitoring
Vibration hour monitor
Vibration alarm
Piezo seismic alarm
Research seismograph
Chapter 7: Magnetic Detection
Mag-Ear amplifier
ELF monitor
Electronic compass
Earth field magnetometer
Chapter 8: Sensing Electric Fields
Electroscope
Static tube
Simple electronic electroscope
Atmospheric electricity monitor
Cloud charge monitor
Chapter 9: Radio Projects
Lightning detector
ELF natural radio
Shortwave receiver
Jupiter radio telescope
Chapter 10: Radiation Detection
Cloud chamber
Low cost electronic ion chamber I
Advanced electronic ion chamber II
Geiger Counter
Appendix A: Helpful Contact Information
Appendix B: Data Sheets

Also great reference for the rest of us. As a robotics enthusiast, I found the subject of this manual to be of intense interest. After receiving the book, I was further amazed by the inspiring variety and depth of the coverage of the subject matter. MacGyver would have loved this book! For best results, I would recommend that reader has at least a basic knowledge in electronics.
Whether your intention is to give 5 senses to your robotics project, build your own weather station, or build a paranormal detection device, you're well on your way with this compilation.

Interesting collection of projects that require more than a simple trip to the Radio Shack to build. Each project has considerable scientific background information not just an electrical schematic and parts list. Many of the projects would make worthwhile science fair projects or other amateur science pursuits.

I used portions of this text during several embedded systems courses with Dr Peckol and it truly is an excellent resource and tool for an embedded engineer. It is a current, detailed, yet easily understandable look into all the aspects involved with embedded systems. I highly recommend this to anyone interested in this field or actively studying or working with embedded systems as you will no doubt benefit from Dr Peckol's insight.

I have used this text as reference to design and implement numerous embedded systems - from a simple numbers game to a wireless glove guitar.

The materials presented in this book walks you through the entire hardware/software thought process that is applicable to any engineering design. The book stresses the importance of developing a modular high-level design before any implementation - and to consider things such as use cases,extreme cases, scalability, performance, and safety. The book also goes over the importance of documentation - how to properly read and write design specifications/requirements, block diagrams, timing diagrams, etc.

In addition, the book covers the nitty-gritty details of digital implementation - from basic boolean algebra to complex kernel programming. The book also covers debugging/testing processes and common mistakes to avoid in embedded system development - backed with real-life examples. Finally, sample projects included in the book allow the reader to see and implement projects on their own.

The writing style makes the text an easy-read and the numerous diagrams and examples solidifies the concepts presented.

I highly recommend this book to any embedded systems engineer.

As a former student of Professor James Peckol and having read portions of this book in my spare time, I can assure any prospective students looking for a secondary reference that this is book to get!

This book provides the design processes and methodologies used in the real world (I am now in industry so I can attest to this) with some great examples. If you can take his class this is the next best thing...

This text book is insightful and extremely useful for faculty, graduate students and undergraduates alike in computer sciences. Up to date with much relevant information, presented in a detailed and articulate manner.

A very interesting and thorough biography of Vannevar Bush, who more than any other individual is responsible (for good or for ill) for the shape of today's scientific establishment. Well-written and engaging, with lots of interesting historical tidbits and good insight on the personalities involved. Excellent!

More than one person has written on this page that Vannevar Bush is "little known", "forgotten", etc. I am only 54 years old, but I remember seeing Bush's name in print many, many times while growing up. He was always described as crucial to American military and technological supremacy since 1943 or so. A few of his accomplishments: He mobilized American science and engineering during WWII. His leadership was crucial to the Manhattan project. His differential analyzer led to MIT's Lincoln Labs playing an important role in the rise of information technology. He was Claude Shannon's teacher.

Zachary deserves great credit for writing a book that offers many virtues and lessons of lasting relevance. Because the author's commitment is worthy of his subject, this book should have timeless value. The roles for science and technology and how best to harness them for prosperity and for security to enable the preservation of peace are questions which transcend any particular time.

The subtitle, Engineer of the American Century, is justified. Bush contributed to American society in many ways. He was a fecund, tireless inventor, helping launch Raytheon Corporation. He was dedicated to boosting the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and thereby strengthening society through teaching and seeking practical knowledge. He was a pioneer and convenor of advances in computing.

Clear-mindedly appreciating the gathering evil of Nazi Germany, Bush decided to do something, as typical. He left MIT and got to Washington as head of the Carnegie Institution. Though a Republican, he persuaded President Franklin Roosevelt that those who were technically educated needed to be harnessed within a National Defense Research Committee, in service to their nation's needs. By helping harness the extraordinary abilities of civilian and academic technologists to serve their nation in meeting the challenges of World War II, Bush helped unleash a cornucopia of inventions and advances in thinking, with extraordinary economic legacies (computing, electronics, medicine, radar).

A few words from Zachary:
--Bush's "was a life not of looking back, but of charging ahead."
--He had a "commitment to excellence and integrity that reinforced his belief in the power of one person to make a difference."
--"Bush shared Eisenhower's unease about the alliance between academia, the military, and industry"
--"The proliferation of nuclear weapons, the rise of environmental hazards, and the evident political partisanship of many scientists - all combined to engender a cynicism in the public about the aims and evidence of science."

Several other books of possible interest in relation to the contributions of technologists:
Philip Taubman, Secret Empire (2003)
James Phinney Baxter, Scientists Against Time (1946)
Biographies of Edwin Land
James Killian, Sputniks, Scientists, and Eisenhower (1977). Killian was a 1950s Bush, down to earth and his book is movingly endowed with wisdom.

This is a very well written and entertaining book about a scientific administrator who played a major effort in organizing the technical responses required to anticipate and successfully meet the challenges of WWII. His skillful analysis, technical comprehension and political astuteness not only provided outstanding leadership at the time but shaped the intractions of goverment, industry and the academic community in such a fashion as to remain intact to this time. One comes awawy with an enormous respect for Dr. Bush. He must have been one tough character and difficult to deal with but he got the jobs done. It is a pity that his battles with Admiral Ernest King have, to my knowledge, never been documented. The issues they disagreed about were not trivial and their interactions must have been awesome. I read this book shortly after completing Tycho's Island and the similarity between the two men and the administrative issues they dealt with is both striking and illuminating.

Good men are hard to find and good books about them deserve our attention.

I doubt that one American in a thousand has heard about how the Poles cracked the inscrutable German Enigfma code, and thus contributed mightily to the Allied victory.

Unfortunately the code-breakers were unable to help Poland, their native land, but unselfishly transferred their knowledge to their British and French allies.

This book deserves wider publicity !

Enigma: How the Poles Broke the Nazi Code (Polish Histories) This is an adsorbing and fascinating account of how the Polish cryptanalysis team started after WWI in intercepting and decoding German secret radio transmissions by developing their own "enigma" machine. It details the history of French involvement and British aloofness toward something that was NIH (not invented here) and therefore deemed of no use to them. It also shows the distrust between the Allied partners in WWII of sharing the decoded information and how to apply it. It shatters the belief that the British broke the "Enigma" code.

The author Kozaczuk summarizes the facts: "As far as the first phase--fundamental to all further work--is concerned, it has been shown that the solution to ENIGMA, in all its manifestations during the years 1933-39, was a purely Polish achievement. The mathematical methods, Polish ENIGMA doubles, and ancillary technology, when passed on to the British, enabled them to exploit this achievement in record time." (p. 95). Among non-Polish sources that recognize the fact of the Polish achievement (although not necessarily without errors), Kozaczuk, in an Appendix to the book, discusses two books reviewed by Marian Rejewski (p. 257). In another Appendix, Christopher Kasparek and Richard Woytak provide further evidence for the same (p. 225). Finally, this book goes beyond ENIGMA by providing a good deal of auxiliary historical information.

Much of what has been written in the west about the German codes is sheer nonsense. For instance, the account of Poles physically stealing an ENIGMA machine from the Germans is a cock-and-bull story (p. 292). Unfortunately, the British seemed to feel no need to acknowledge their ENIGMA debts to the Poles (pp. 207-208). It is even more disturbing to read that, after Polish agents had stolen the components of a fallen V-2 rocket in German-occupied Poland and had arranged for these to be flown to England, British agents attempted to forcibly take away these components from the Polish agents. (p. 192).

There were about 10 to the 103 power different possible combinations in ENIGMA (p. 24). But, although machines may be ostensibly infallible, humans are not. The Germans had designed ENIGMA with certain intuitively-likely internal configurations, entered information into ENIGMA a stereotypic manner, and often got careless. Evidently, the Germans never had a clue that ENIGMA had been broken (p. 89).

There are ironies in this book. One of these is the fact that the Polish General Staff, thanks to ENIGMA having been solved by the Poles years earlier, had been able to identify 80-90% of the Wehrmacht forces surrounding Poland in August 1939 (p. 61, 66), yet this was of little military benefit to Poland in the massive ensuing German attack, as the promised French attack on Germany (p. 75) never materialized. Later, the Polish cracking of ENIGMA probably had played a more important role in the Allied victory in the Battle of Britain than the disproportionate number of "kills" inflicted by skilled Polish pilots (p. 187). The successful sinking of the Bismarck may owe to the Polish solution of ENIGMA no less than the tiny Polish destroyer Piorun having drawn the Bismarck's fire and thereby stalled for time. (p. 202). Still another irony is evident in Photo 13, which shows Hitler at his victory parade in Warsaw. The Fuhrer was strutting within sight of the building in which the Polish mathematicians had solved the ENIGMA before the war, thus sealing Hitler's eventual doom.

No account of espionage would be complete without discussion of traitors and collaborators. Of course, not all Polish service to the Germans was consensual. Far from it: "Volksdeutsche were citizens of various European countries, of German extraction, who, during the German occupation in World War II, officially declared themselves to be of German nationality and served the German authorities. In Polish Silesia and Pomerania, the Germans also used terror to force the populace of Polish descent to sign the Volksliste." (p. 221). Also, Kozaczuk writes: "Surveillance of a person suspecting of collaborating with the Germans was very difficult under occupation conditions." (p. 215). Although of course not written in this context, this fact addresses those who attack the Polish Underground for not assassinating more Polish informers involved in the denunciation of fugitive Jews.

It is clear that renewed German aggressive plans against Poland had long predated the rise of Hitler to power. Already by the late 1920's, all of the German political parties supported the wresting from Poland of those territories that had been under Prussian rule beginning with the time of the Partitions (p. 2). By the early 1930's, the Germans were actively and openly undermining Poland's half-rights to Danzig (Gdansk) (p. 11).

Finally, Kozaczuk provides a good description of the infamous Pawiak prison during the German occupation: "Named for its proximity to ulica Pawia--Peacock Street--the old czarist prison, built in 1829-35, would be blown up by the Nazis in August 1944, after they had processed one hundred thousand Poles--20 percent of them women--through it, murdering 37 percent of them outright and sending nearly all the rest to concentration camps." (p. 214).

Poles were instrumental in breaking the German Enigma code. I am glad that this part of not really known history is being popularized in English language. I have to admit I am not a person who likes reading a military history. But this book is so interestingly written - with the whole background of the impending war and also with some sense of humor whenever possible. It tells the story of how Polish mathematicians got involved (much earlier than the mathematicians of other countries, also Great Britain) into the work on breaking the code and how they build the machines which were helping to solve the codes. When the war n Poland became imminent they simply gave these machines to their French and British allies. Their difficult stories how they continued working on decoding German secret messages and how some of them survived while others died during the war. The book contains also a separate chapter about English code breakers and how they helped to win the war. Even their personalities are described. Interesting read!

This book gave me a lot of great ideas for the Second Life platform. I had no idea of the type of businesses that were in Second Life. Now that I have an idea of how to purchase land and have seen the various software applications being used to create product, I plan on experimenting with it for the next 90 days or so. From there, I'm going to continue using the platform to launch my Second Life business. This Book is fabulous!

Lanesa Stubbs

outstanding. this step-by-step guide is well-written, informative, and easy to navigate. the structure of the book allowed me to get straight to the topics i was interested in - it's clearly laid out and having first-hand advice from residents/experts was extremely useful and gave me confidence - there's a great chapter on Setting Up Shop, for example. It's a comprehensive how-to that makes the metaverse accessible to everyone.

Entrepreneur's Guide to Second Life: Making Money in the Metaverse

I figured this would be a useful book because when I was interviewed for it the questions were in-depth, thoughtful, and non-fluffy. And it turns out that the book is even better than I expected. This is a GREAT book for anyone who wants to start an in-world Second Life business, or for someone who wants to improve their existing business. I would have turned a profit quicker if I'd had it when I was a newbie!

This book is a great way to learn about the many financial opportunities that await you in Second Life. The layout is clean and colorful, the examples shown are interesting and inspiring, and it is a good examination of Second Life overall. The lessons ignite the imagination...where would I like to concentrate my efforts as an entrepreneur? What does it really take to make a business successful? How have others done it, and what can I learn from their experiences? Terdiman did his homework on this project and the guide provides a realistic look at what it would take to create your dream career.

Though a book of the 90's I have just used this book as a text in my course on virtual architecture in our computer graphics program. It worked superbly. The text stimulated long fruitful discussions (some for three unbroken hours) and put students in the state of mind to produce 3D based sites of significant meaning. Students took to heart Anders cautionary assessments on designing cyberspace and produced work that leapt well ahead of the work they were producing prior to the discussions. Anders chooses all of the best sources for his analysis of the similarities and contrasts between actual space and cyberspace, especially his use of Jean Piaget's interactional psychology as a base.

This is an extremely thorough introduction to cyberspaces and has many beautiful illustrations. This is an intellectually sophisticated book for non-computer scientists. It begins with a rigorous intellectual picture and then continues to survey existing cyberspaces with many insights along the way, that will please even techno-nerds.

The book fills in many details in the history of building cyberspaces.

Next year in cyberspace!

The accelerating growth of personal computing over the past two decades and the unprecedented rise of the Internet in the 1990s has led to a countless number of books. Many deal with particular aspects of this revolution - linear historical accounts, analysis of emergent psycho-social phenomena, how-to manuals on the latest program or technology, etc.. Very few however, manage to capture a broad overview and comprehensive analysis of this explosion. Fewer still have documented the wide array of less common technologies and research efforts that have accompanied and in many cases, presaged, the more familiar aspects of today's cyberspace.

It's not surprising then, that a uniquely comprehensive view should come from a member of the original generalist profession - architecture. In "ENVISIONING CYBERSPACE: Designing 3D Electronic Spaces," architect and media theorist, Peter Anders has succeeded in delivering one of the best and rarest overviews of the beginnings of the Information Age.

Integrity demands that I disclose that some of my own work is featured in this book, but what I discovered to my great surprise and delight, is that it's also filled with many incredible technologies and ideas that I was unaware of. Such is the difficulty in being aware of everything that's going on in our rapidly evolving era.

Anyone interested or involved in the design and development of information technologies would do well to read this book. The future is not limited to just a simple extrapolation of what's most commonly known today. The real Information Age is a vast, barely explored region of possibility around us and ahead. We're lucky to have Peter Anders serving as both Lewis and Clark.

Something that makes Peter Anders' _Envisioning Cyberspace_ especially interesting is that it's the work of an architect and designer, for whom the issues of designing workable, user-centered cyberenvironments are comprehensible. He's gathered and comments upon a wide-ranging collection of work that he finds interesting, efforts that approach and address the big issues if not always fully realizing them. It often reminds me of the 1991 anthology _Cyberspace: First Steps_ edited by Michael Benedikt (another architect), or some of the hot early-'90s books on Virtual Reality, in that it's full of enthusiasm and enjoyment at the elegance of possible solutions. In this hard-nosed commercially-driven era that's a breath of fresh air; the real kind, not the virtual.

An excellent text aimed at users who are competent at using spreadsheets but need the increased power and flexibility that the use of VBA allows. The examples are useful and the CD included with the book saves a lot of bother with debugging mis-copied code.

This book is really just what I needed to break the manual data-parsing habit! The examples are mostly from the realm of chemistry, but they're generally applicable to lab, field, and even scholastic or administrative applications. Mr. Billo has plenty of experience and has been generous in sharing it. As a bench tech who came to Excel without any prior education in the use of spreadsheet applications for comparative analyses, I highly recommend this book.

P.S. Excel is a powerful application for getting a good hard look at your data, but it's no substitute for real statistical software or programming languages. There are other good spreadsheets available; nevertheless, Excel is probably on your computer and if you're using Excel in the lab, this book's for you!

Unlike some books, this book is not just a paraphrase of Excel's help file. The book is written for the professional chemist. It uses examples from chemistry to show how Excel can easily handle many graphing and data analysis problems. The reader should have a basic knowledge of spreadsheets. If you haven't used spreadsheets before, this book will be overwhelming.

The first chapter is an introduction to Excel. Even the experienced user will find something new here. My favorite was learning that a shortcut menu listing all sheets in a workbook is available by right-clicking on any of the sheet tab scroll buttons.

The second chapter (10 pages) explains how to make basic graphs in Excel. Many people have Excel, but are unaware of how easy it is to make graphs with Excel. Chapter 5 shows how to construct advanced charts with, for example, multiple axis, error bars, and smoothed lines.

Chapter 3 starts to get into the power user stuff, such as making formulas more understandable by using named ranges. I had quit using names because they apply to every sheet in a workbook; this chapter shows how to make the name apply to just one sheet. The chapter also does a very good job of showing how to construct huge formulas ("megaformulas").

Chapter 4 explains how to use array formulas. This chapter is valuable because Excel's help file doesn't provide much information on using arrays. Arrays make for much cleaner-looking spreadsheets.

Chapter 6 shows how to use Excel's database features to keep track of, for example, a chemical inventory list. Since I don't use these features very often, it is nice to have them described where I can use them when I need them. The same can be said about appendix E, "Shortcut Keys for the PC and Macintosh".

Chapter 7 describes how to import data into a spreadsheet. If you have more data than you want, this chapter shows how to extract every, say, 10th data point.

Chapter 8 shows how option buttons, check boxes, list boxes, etc. can simplify use of a spreadsheet. For example, I needed to enter a number and convert it to pH, pOH, Ka, or Kb, depending on what was entered. Using the info in this chapter, I now just click on an option button, and the sheet does the appropriate conversions.

Chapters 9-12 are about spreadsheet mathematics. Goal Seek, linear regression and Solver are covered. What really makes this material useful is that it tells how to do a statistical analysis of the results, even for non-linear regression.

Chapters 13-19 illustrate how to use Visual Basic for Application (VBA), the programming language built into Excel. The code examples are clearly the work of an amateur programmer. "Option Explicit" is omitted, only arrays are dimensioned, the standard method of indenting to improve readability is not used, and-horrors-the author uses GoTo statements. Nonetheless, these chapters do show the basics of programming with VBA. The CD includes many code examples, including a neat program for formatting chemical equations. For example, it will subscript the 2 in H2O.

Chapters 20-23 are more applications. I especially liked learning how to deconvolute a spectrum with Excel.

The book isn't perfect-a few typos, organization could be improved, one of the files on the CD wouldn't open-but if you are a chemist and want to become better at using Excel, this is the book you need. I wish my company had given me this book when I started using Excel in industry. It would have saved a lot of time.

I have bought several books on using Excel for scientists, engineers, etc. However, of the six I have bought, this one by Billo is the most helpful.

If you already know the basics about spreadsheets, then this book is packed with pearls that enhance your productivity and get you powerful results. It will take me years to exhaust the potential.

The CD ROM with the book is very good as well, with examples for the more complex subjects.

I use this reference to evaluate complicated data with multiple interactions on animal and human data in biomedical research. I do research in PET (Positron Emission Tomography) imaging.

While this book is no substitute for a professional biostatistician, the book has helped me to not only follow the progress and interrelationships of the data but also to more clearly communicate my needs to a professional biostatistics firm. This also saves me money since it saves the biostatisticians time. I also think it improves results.

I highly recommend this book.

Books give idia opn core technology on exchange. I am happy that this book will not for paper passing orientation

Books give idia opn core technology on exchange. I am happy that this book will not for paper passing orientation

I am a Microsoft Certified Trainer and had the pleasure of sitting in on one of the authors presentaions. I expect the technical content of the book will be first rate. This should also be an easy read if half of her sense of humor translates well into print.

I am looking forward to the release of the book.

I wish this author would put pen to paper again - this book was a joy to read; succinct, apposite and conversational in tone. Brilliant!

This book is not generally advertised as being told from a Christian perspective and published by a Christian company. That information should be more effectively advertised.

Having said that, I really like this book. It's not overtly "preachy" and has great content. I've learned more about the History of Medicine while reading this to my kids than I ever knew. The content is not dumbed down for children, but it is easy to digest. It's told in a fun and interesting voice.

The author makes at least one (arbitrary and out of context) reference to the chapter's featured scientist's love of God. The chapter about Pasteur also discusses Darwin, and somehow relates Pasteur's discoveries to disproving Darwin's theories. The relation is a stretch and a completely unnecessary reference to Darwin and evolution.

This is a terrific volume which makes it easy to introduce a "grown up" subject to children as young as eight (IMO).

The narrative is packed with facts, character motivations/obstacles, and the subsequent lessons/results. All of this is presented in a gentle, non-frenetic pace unlike comparable titles...a great change! There is a lot for homeschoolers to develop from what is mentioned in these short, packed chapters. Which brings up a good point: for younger students, the best benefit will be from a read-aloud or group presentation. Because the text is so easy to read and interesting, my son devoured this book in a couple of hours and while he loved it, it's value is somewhat diminished if proper discussion doesn't take place and lead to further discovery. Older students who study independently will be intrigued enough to want to pursue further detail on their own.

Your children/students will LOVE working with this and so will you!

This is a really great introduction to the history of medicine for pre-teens, and also contains much useful and interesting information for the older child. This is the fifth science book for pre-teens and teens published by Master Books that I have purchased, and I have been very pleased with all of them.

An excellent overview of the history of medicine that integrates history, medicine and biography. Bravo! to John Hudson Tiner for not compromising. Suitable for young and old alike.

This book has helped me so much on Falcon 4,science it is A VERY COMPLICATED SIM!

The Falcon 4.0 Simulator (*not* a game) is a very good facsimile of an F-16 and its operating environment. The sim manual is very comprehensive and very good, but this book should be required reading if you want to further your air-to-air and air-to-ground skills and compete in the campaigns, especially if you fly multi-player. I reference this book and review the tactical concepts constantly.

Of particular importance are the anecdotes, or personal *real-life* stories that Pete presents at the head of each section. These are more than just "war" stories, they are stories with an important lesson to be learned, and they apply to the *virtual-life* experiences that you'll have in the sim. If you fly Falcon 4.0, you need this book.

5 stars eh? yeah the book deserves more than five if you ask me.If you thought that manual was huge this would look very thin in front of it but boy o boy it sure have a punch in it.What can i say more it really improved my games and now i am enjoying the game more and more Thanx Peter And James for such an excellent book

Written by Pete "BOOMER" Bonanni and Jamie "LINUS" Reiner, 2 actual F-16 pilots gives this book an even more authentic feel and there true experiences they share with the reader sure give you an idea of the tough job a Viper pilot has. The book is well thought out with 25 chapters and 7 appendix's devoted to all areas of the sim. It will surely add to your enjoyment of Falcon 4.0 ORDER IT NOW!!!