Models Books

I am interested in purchasing this book but I don't know it's value? I want to offer a fair price. What did it cost new and what are they currently selling for?

This book is hardly ever in at our 4 county library system. SoI bought the last one ... had. I made the mistake of giving it "to read and return" to a train buddy. Bad mistake. The variety, workmanship and excellent graphics made this a treasure. Guess I'll just have to ask my master modeler friend and fellow singer about its whereabouts. Shucks, there goes a perfectly good friendship. In estate planning there is the old, old saying: "Once you give it away, it's gone!"

This is the most comprehensive collection of photos and data on the Yosemite Valley Railroad yet published. The book is not merely a rehash of photos that you have seen over and over, but many entirely new photos...a lifetimes collection. Jack's excellent eye for details and dedication in reaching out to those who worked on the RR, lived in the community, or researched this road, make this book a real treasure.

Yosemite's natural history and wonders had become well known by the mid 1850s, but few tourists wanted to travel to the remote historic valley via horse: enter the train in 1907, which allowed visitors to reach the park in less than a day, fostering an increase in park appreciation which continues to this day. Yosemite Valley Railroad expert Jack Burgess began his study of the railroad in the mid-1960s as he searched for an appropriate prototype for his model railroad layout: his interest in modeling led to much more than a casual probe of the Yosemite Valley Railroad system, as the 400 black and white vintage photos, maps and illustrations packing detail into TRAINS TO YOSEMITE proves. Rail buffs will find well over 300 pages of detail pack in not just history, but very specific train details, from switching routines and classification lamps to relocated lines and bridges. It is this depth of information which is the mark of the model hobbyist - and which lends so perfectly to a complete, comprehensive coverage of the real thing. Yes, TRAINS TO YOSEMITE is a specialty item for rail transportation or California-specific collections: but such holdings will find it essential.

This book is basically a collection of monographs, each on a different integral transform (and most by different authors). There are additional sections which are general references, but they are probably redundant to most people who would actually be using this book.

The book is a bit weighted towards Fourier transforms, but I found the Laplace and Hankel transform sections very good also. I also learned a lot about other transforms I didn't know much about (e.g., Mellin and Radon transforms).

This book may be the best reference out there for non-mathematicians regarding integral transforms, especially regarding the lesser-known transforms. There are plenty of other books on Laplace and Fourier transforms, but not so on most of the others.

I liked the worked examples for almost each important property of each transform. For me, that is how I learn these things.

This book contains great materials for engineering, research in mathematics. Every student or profesionnal can find all he needs. A top reference !

Excelente obra que nos muestra la forma en como sacar provecho de los equipos de trabajo en el desarrollo de proyectos de software. Felicito al Sr. Watts. S. Humprey por su visión en el tema.

TSP is a sequel to Humphrey's earlier book, PSP. That text concentrated on the actions of a single programmer or designer. Now in TSP, Humphrey expands the scope, to discuss what it means to lead and motivate a team of programmers. The acronym TSP stands for Team Software Process. But a close reading of the text suggests that you do not have to take "Software" literally. Your team might be a bunch of engineers or architects or financial analysts.

Though, to be sure, the examples in the text and several of the guidelines pertain explicitly to code development. Yet if you are a flexible enough manager and team leader, you might be able to generalise those guidelines to your situation.

Humphrey makes several remarks that some readers might cheer. He suggests that knowledge of specific tools and methods, while useful, is secondary to amassing an experienced and capable team. If you can do this, then they will surely be able to quickly pick up expertise in those tools or methods. If you have looked at job postings, you have undoubtedly come across those with a laundry list of detailed required skills. Some of which are mundane and low level. But try convincing that company's HR department of this!

On the subject of team building, he dumps on commercial team building exercises. You know. Where some consulting firm charges your company a huge amount for taking your team to an offsite location for a day of artificial exercises. While these may indeed build some espirit de corps, typically these is no relation to the actual work environment and real issues facing your team. But because team building is such an intangible thing, and impossible to quantify, the team wastes a day and the consulting firm makes money.

These two examples are actually minor parts of the text. But they really struck me (and perhaps you) as being very cogent analysis. Somewhat cynical maybe, but Humphrey has his wits about him.

Excelente obra que nos muestra la forma en como sacar provecho de los equipos de trabajo en el desarrollo de proyectos de software. Felicito al Sr. Watts. S. Humprey por su visión en el tema.

TSP is a sequel to Humphrey's earlier book, PSP. That text concentrated on the actions of a single programmer or designer. Now in TSP, Humphrey expands the scope, to discuss what it means to lead and motivate a team of programmers. The acronym TSP stands for Team Software Process. But a close reading of the text suggests that you do not have to take "Software" literally. Your team might be a bunch of engineers or architects or financial analysts.

Though, to be sure, the examples in the text and several of the guidelines pertain explicitly to code development. Yet if you are a flexible enough manager and team leader, you might be able to generalise those guidelines to your situation.

Humphrey makes several remarks that some readers might cheer. He suggests that knowledge of specific tools and methods, while useful, is secondary to amassing an experienced and capable team. If you can do this, then they will surely be able to quickly pick up expertise in those tools or methods. If you have looked at job postings, you have undoubtedly come across those with a laundry list of detailed required skills. Some of which are mundane and low level. But try convincing that company's HR department of this!

On the subject of team building, he dumps on commercial team building exercises. You know. Where some consulting firm charges your company a huge amount for taking your team to an offsite location for a day of artificial exercises. While these may indeed build some espirit de corps, typically these is no relation to the actual work environment and real issues facing your team. But because team building is such an intangible thing, and impossible to quantify, the team wastes a day and the consulting firm makes money.

These two examples are actually minor parts of the text. But they really struck me (and perhaps you) as being very cogent analysis. Somewhat cynical maybe, but Humphrey has his wits about him.

I work in the mining industry and most activities which are carried out in the mining industry involve an element of risk. Decisions must be made in a climate of uncertainty and the outcome is dependent on circumstances & events that in many cases are simply beyond the control of the decision-maker. The subjects of uncertainty and risk are thus highly topical in the mining industry today. This book is an excellent starting point for geologists and engineers who wish to get to grips with the conceptual and philosophical basis of uncertainty assessment as well as a sound source of information about the specifics of modeling and other techniques.

The authors use of the word 'policy' should not be a deterrent: this is a fundamentally technical book. They use the word policy to mean '...to evaluate, order and structure incomplete knowledge so as to allow
decisions to be made with as complete an understanding as possible of the current state of knowledge, its limitations and its implications'.

The book is set out logically and comprises:

1. An overview including philosophical frameworks, an extended discussion of the nature, types and sources of uncertainty, and an introduction to the required probability and statistical theory (Ch. 1-4);
2. A good summary of the state of research about 'human judgments of uncertainty' and performance of probability assessments (Ch. 6-7). The psychology of uncertainty assessments, notions of subjectivity,
methods of evaluating subjective risk scores, and discussion of the role of 'experts' are covered well. Readers interested in these topics might also want to obtain James Reasons' book 'Human Error' (1990,Cambridge University Press; ISBN 0 521 31419 4).
3. Two chapters on technical tools and approaches. Ch. 8 covers the propagation and analysis of uncertainty, and the following chapter gives good guidance on the graphical presentation of uncertainty.
4. Ch. 10 & Ch. 11 present discussion of large, complex policy models and some specific guidance on software,& are probably least interesting to a mining audience.
5. The final chapter (Ch. 12) is entitled 'the value of knowing how little you know' and includes presentation of methods for establishing the expected value of including uncertainty (EVIU).

The book is clearly written, well-informed and extensively referenced. It's a bargain.

Stochastic analysis, distributions, Monte-Carlo. All buzz-words whose meanings become clear with the aid of this vital tool.

As a graduate student of Dr. Gapenski's at Univ. of Florida 7 years ago I cannot begin to say how well this book prepared me to carry out sophisticated financial analysis for an $8 million revenue physician group, but also to refresh my memory of concepts to share with nonfinancial managers. A great text, complements his Intermediate Financial Management textbook perfectly. Also see books by William Cleverly at Ohio State and Ernest Pavlock (wrote the bible on physician group financial management).

Gapenski's book is the lead resource for the University of Texas "Alliance for Medical Management Education" modules on Health Care Contracting and Accounting and Finance. The book is an excellent resource, and is readable enough to be covered thoroughly and read by the physicians who comprise the student body.

Although I am an experienced photographer I have not been brave enough to venture into the world of RAW photography. Wanting to optimize the quality of my photos, RAW seemed to be the next logical step. However, I was unable to find any books on the shelves of the local bookstores that provided more than a cursory overview of RAW. Certainly, none of my questions got answered. After reading reviews about this book on Amazon I decided to order. I was not dissappointed. The book is extremely well-written in layman's terms with examples so that even the most dense photographer (such as me) could figure out how to shoot in RAW. I would certainly recommend this book to anyone worried about striking out into new territory!!

Understanding RAW Photography is a rare gem. In 140 pages, Andy Rouse explains the basics of how to deal with digital images from the photographer's point of view. This book is not 500 pages of fluff with some good information tossed in. It is a handbook of what steps the photographer must perform after the shutter is pressed.

Workflow is thoroughly discussed in 16 pages. Workflow is simply setting up the camera to shoot RAW file format, managing the RAW data, and editing/correcting the RAW data. This is tedious but not difficult work. Every DSLR camera manufacturer has their own proprietary software to deal with their own version of RAW data, so read the owner's manual for your camera and use the proprietary software or use freeware that accepts your camera's version of RAW data.

Chapter 2 "In the Field" has many excellent exposure tips, techniques for keeping the camera sensor clean, and backing up the camera memory card while on assignment.

The rest of the book deals with image editing, correction and processing, printing and digital asset management. These topics are discussed in a straight forward manner with enough information given so that the user can get an understanding of the process and then seek more advanced texts if greater detail is needed.

Every DSLR photographer today has the ability to become their own photo processing laboratory. Gone are the days of dropping off rolls of film at the processor's facility and then reviewing proof sheets or slides. Each user can set up the camera, capture the image, download the RAW files on to the computer, edit, correct, process and finally print the photos. This book helps the busy photographer understand and master this series of steps.

EXCELLENT BOOK FOR REFERENCE LIBRARY. GREAT SET OF THREE VOLUMES. SERIOUS BOOK FOR SERIOUS COLLECTORS.

If you've been looking for a book that offers BOTH wartime photographs AND multi angle/ close up studies of uniforms from actual collections, this book (and the two other volumes from that trilogy) is EXACTLY what you need. More than just a splendid coffee table book, it is an outstanding source of information about the history/construction and regulation for each and every variety of uniform issued to the various branches of the SS ( both BEFORE and DURING WW2) and it is worth every single penny I invested in it. As a militaria dealer, I could simply not afford not to add it to my collection. If you are interested by that subject and don't have those 3 books, then you are missing an essential resource. If on the other hand you want to know the subject in depth and do not plan to buy each and every book on the market, you have to get THAT serie. My only regret is that Mr. Michael D. Beaver is no longer among us to share his amazing knowledge of German Militaria.

The book was published by: Osprey Publishing. It was well written and is informative on the order of battle, training, unit organization and operations for the Airborne units that participated in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations, during WWII.

Gordon L. Rottman's US AIRBORNE UNITS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN THEATER 1942-44 presents the first of three titles to examine the US airborne divisions of the second world war. The history, makeup and engagements of these early forces would change the outcome of the war.