Guides and Directories Books

unclear search methods. not specific.

This is the third of three basic guides by Facts on Demand press that I am very happy to have in my collection and to recommend to others. This one focuses, as its title suggests, on Public Records Online, going down to the county level, state by state.

It is not a tutorial in how to search public records, but it does includes helpful introductory chapters and the bottom line is that using this book is cheaper than out-sourcing the work, so if you have a need to search public records online, this book is certainly a valuable and cost-effective place to start.

The other two books from the same publisher that I recommend are Find It Online, Fourth Edition: The Complete Guide to Online Research (Find It Online: The Complete Guide to Online Research) by Alan M. Schlein, and Online Competitive Intelligence, 2nd Edition: Increase Your Profits Using Cyber-Intelligence by Helen Burwell, the Grand Dame of global information brokering who for many years published the absolutely top-notch Burwell World Directory of Information Brokers (I have the 1998 edition and it is still useful to me).

See also:
The New Craft of Intelligence: Personal, Public, & Political--Citizen's Action Handbook for Fighting Terrorism, Genocide, Disease, Toxic Bombs, & Corruption
Information Operations: All Information, All Languages, All the Time

This book is designed in the same format that most of the BRB Publisher texts are. Opening chapters are of general interest, moving into state by state phone and online information followed up by several appendixes describing online vendor information companies, government URLs, and privacy information. The State chapter which is 80% of the book, is broken down as: State Agencies County Courts Federal Courts Local Courts and County Record Retrievers This section is very resourceful, giving in detail what is permitted in that location and who can get the information for you. It appears that several of the BRB publications have been combined, and added to, to create this excellent source.

I did some shooting many years ago as a child and then went on to other things. Recently I've encountered some colleagues who shoot and I've joined them. I wanted a comprehensive introduction to rifle shooting, and I found it in this book. The Rifle Guide has nearly 300 pages of useful and well-written information. It includes some history of the rifle (going back to Colonial times), some fairly complex ballistics, good analysis of various actions, calibers, scopes, and hunting. There are also chapters on handloading, air rifles, and effective rifle handling. So what we have here is a truly comprehensive overview of the sport of rifle shooting. It has enough information to whet the appatite, but doesn't bog down in needless detail. Complete books can probably be found that cover each issue in much greater detail. However, the joy of this book is that it does not go overboard in details. So, the shooter looking for lots of information on any aspect of rifle shooting will not find it here. Nonentheless, any one searching for a high quality overview will find plenty of good reading and good information here. Definatley for the generalist rather than the specialist.

I found the book useful,from a reference point of view-the writer certainly makes his preferences known about various calibers and models of rifles he prefers for hunting small to large game.

Whether you've been shooting and hunting for years, or just wanting to get started, this book is a must-have for the rifle owner. It doesn't matter what caliber, modern, antique or muzzleloader, this book tells all you need to know about your rifle. Additionally, if you're looking to make a purchase, consulting this book helps you identify what you need for what purpose. The writing is clear and not too technical, although Fedala definitely goes into great detail, especially about ballistics. All rifle owners should own a copy of this book.

We just moved here to the U.S. and sometimes we where really "LOST" over here. But not any more. This Map is Great!!!
Big and clear pages und you can find any street you looking for.

I moved out of Chicago in 1969. When I found out I was to return for a week I figured things had changed a bit (especially my memory). I was right on both counts but the street guide never failed me. In all honesty, I would have rated it a 5 if the text had been a bit bigger for my "senior" eyes. However, all maps are a compromise of some sort and larger text would have made the 7 counties unusable in a modern car.

I purchased this for my college grad daughter who is relocating to Chicago with a new job. At first glance, we both think it looks quite thorough with good detail. I'm sure that it will help her find her way around with much less difficulty and (hopefully) stay safe and out of harm's way. It is cross-referenced well to the smaller area maps so it's easy to follow, and covers most of the Chicago area and nearby communities from Wisconsin to Indiana state lines.

For Amazon's price, the hopeful avoidance of unnecessary (expensive) miles and frustrations, and the convenience of spiral binding, I recommend this purchase for someone moving to or traveling frequently in the Chicago metropolitan area.

But I still want to get into this industry if at all possible. I've been in management consulting for several years now and have a few friends in the financial services industry. most of them have weathered the storm, though of course there are a few who've been handed pink slips. Still, I'm told that if you've got the skills and experience, you can still snag a job at one of the top banks. That said, I bought this guide to give me a sampling of what firms are doing these days, whether they're coming out of the worst of it, and who really has the most promising long-term outlook. I'm now considering a few firms that I hadn't really thought of before as possibilities. So I consider it money well-spent to have purchased this guide as a means of widening my net and hopefully landing a job in this field.

This is a good guide for the financial services industry in general. The 25 firms covered include commercial banks, securities firms, investment banks, credit firms, brokerage firms, and some that encompass all of those services. It helped me narrow my career research to focus on the areas of the financial industry that I am most interested in, and which top firms I should apply to.

This is definitely an industry i want to get into, despite all of the upheaval that's been going on in it. I appreciate that the guide doesn't hold any punches in terms of giving the real facts on what life is like at each of the firms and that times are still tough and will continue to be in this industry. that said, i'm hoping that the info i've learned from this guide and the specific Wetfeet company guides i've bought will gain me one of the very few and coveted openings at one of my top-three targeted firms.

This book is an excellent guide for anyone planning to golf in Ireland. Concise and clear information about specific courses along with other useful information about Ireland. If you plan to golf in Ireland take this along. I've used it on two trips and will take it the next time I go.

This well written and prettily presented book covers a lot of Irish golf courses. The authors have done their homework, there is plenty of useful information and the book would be a helpful companion in planning or taking a trip. Somehow, however, they seem to have missed conveying the idioysyncratic nature of Irish golf. Perhaps this is because each description of each course is identically laid out, and the course descriptions sometimes lapse into the generic. A well done and useful book but not a golf aphrodisiac like, say, Hamilton's "Great Golf Guide to Scotland."

This is an amazingly accurate and complete compilation of golf courses in Ireland. I am quite familiar with the golf courses in Country Clare and their summaries were right on! I only wish I'd had it a few years ago the first time I went but it will definitely go with me the next time. Just having the meters in yards for each course is invaluable.

Influenced no doubt by Anthony Bourdain's comments in 'Kitchen Confidential,' I've developed a little antipathy to celebrity chefs, with their catchphrases and signature lines of spices and kitchen equipment. At the same time, though, I keep finding myself drawn back to the cooking-themed TV network, where many of the chefs featured in this book find a home. For people who need to know whether Mario Batali is really from Italy or whether that hunky Bobby Flay is married, this is the book for you.

Despite the suggestion on the title page that this book gives us 'the dish on the stars of your favorite cooking shows,' there's nothing really gossipy or titillating here (maybe I'm misinterpreting what 'dish' means). Instead, most of the chefs receive a brief biography-cum-conversation that explores their background, how they got into cooking and then onto TV, and their philosophy of food and food preparation. All personality-driven, there are no recipes or food-preparation tips in this book.

Whether you're a serious fan of a particular TV chef (they have some, apparently), or just someone who stumbled across a cooking show and wondered who this person mixing salad with their bare hands was, you'll probably find the things you're looking for here.

I know a lady who is addicted to the weather channel. She's crazy. If you have to be addicted to a channel, it ought to be the Food Network. If you're on a diet (isn't everyone) and can't eat the things you want to, tune in. It's just like going to a nice restaurant, but it's free and nonfat. You can see the food on the screen and imagine what it looks like, but it's just not possible to eat it. I remember those old cartoons from a long time ago. The cat would be real hungry or something and he would start to eat pages out of a cookbook as if he could convince himself it was the real thing. This book has over 25 chapters about different chefs, but even if you just care about Emeril or whatever, it's worth it because each chef gets plenty of attention. It's fun to know what these people would want for their last meal on earth or what is always in their refrigerators.

I'm a big fan of cooking shows and was quite happy to find this book by chance at my local bookstore. It is great fun -- easy to read and very thorough. Covers all the major Food Network chefs and a few I had never heard of. Good sense of history as well.

I first picked this one up a year ago and found it really useful. But then I got hold of Trading Online by Alpesh Patel. Trading Online gives you more punch for you dollar (or pound since I got it in London)

The book is entitled `Wall Street City by the same name asthe Web site. But this is not just a guide tothat site. This is a versatile guide for newcomers making their first steps in personal investing.

`Wall Street City', the book, is divided into seven parts. One is an introduction to the investing process that forms the underlining structure for most of the book. Part Two tells where to find prospecting tools for stock - free lists, search engines, stock picks from market experts, and stocks unique to the Internet. Part Three discuss Web sites that offer research tools, such as company reports, earnings estimates, SEC reports, and so on. Part Four offer a brief discussion of technical analysis and where to find technical timing tools on the Internet and review 19 discount brokers. Part Five shows how to use Web resources to monitor your portfolio, the market, and industry groups, and how to plan for the optimum time to sell a stock. Part Six introduces you to Web sites that will help you to plan a portfolio through assets allocation. And Part Seven presents Web sites with educational content for investors.

The free CD-ROM in the back of the book offers free access to the Wall Street City site for 30 days and selected bookmarks from the book.

I recommend the book for beginners. But give notice: the book was published in April 1997 and the world of investing is changing very fast.

This book is an excellent introduction to investing in the stock market and researching stocks and mutual funds information through the Web. The book provides plenty of free sources of information and a few sources that I have found to be free but which you cannot find unless you pay for the Internet site subscription or read the book. Also, it briefly presents Internet resources available for analyzing options and commodities. The information in the book is well structured, clear, and interesting. I bought the book read it, reviewed it, and started applying its concepts within a week. I had three concerns in my selection of this book: given the nature of the Internet I wanted the most current information possible, I wanted information giving me choices of Internet sources without being limited to an investment system or web site, and finally I wanted a book focused on using the Internet for stocks and stocks related investments. This book met all my expectations. I specially enjoyed the information on insider trading and the performance of sectors in the market. I wholeheartedly recommend this book especially to those like me who are starting from scratch with little or no experience in using the financial, research, and assessment tools available in the Internet.

I found the book invaluable. A friend of mine bought it for me for my birthday. I moved to Canada. Trying to negotiate the international book publishing market from Canada has been very difficult. When I was in England I just looked up the publishing agents or literary agents and off I went... into the post with my manuscript, but here, I find that things are so tricky over the internet and you can't look up information fast enough to get started. It can take all day and still you don't know if you have connected with a good agent. Writers and Artists Yearbook is a gold star in my book and always will be. I need my Writers and Artists Yearbook - but I left it in England. I miss it so much and need a new one. Please send me one to Canada soon...

Barbara

This desktop reference contains hundreds of pages of information that writers and artists need for their professional work. The hints and tips are useful especially for newcomers or beginners.

Although the book provides details of U.S. agents and publishers, it doesn't cover other U.S. information that would have been useful, for example, literature festivals, prizes, etc. UK information is covered reasonably well. Recommended for artists and writers interested primarily in the British market.

This looks like it would be a very useful book -- if you live and work in England, Ireland, or elsewhere in the United Kingdom. It specifically does NOT include information pertinent to the United States.

For the UK and Ireland, it lists newspapers and magazines, book publishers and packagers, TV/film/radio resources, publishers of poetry and plays, literary agents, societies, prizes and festivals. It also has chapters on writers and the Internet, copyright and libel, finance for writers and artists, art and illustration, and photo and picture research.

It is a practical and well-organized guide. But ONLY for the UK.

Expertly written by Gavin Ehringer (an award-winning columnist and features writer for "Western Horseman", among several other equine magazines), 100 Best Ranch Vacations In North America is an impressive guide to one hundred different guest ranches and packed with all the information one needs to know about selecting just the right ranch for particular budgets and tastes. Descriptions of the types of riding offered, details on ranch atmosphere and activities, profiles of typical guests, and a great deal more make 100 Best Ranch Vacations In North America a truly first-rate and highly recommended guide for anyone interested in experiencing an authentic taste of the Old West.

By Bill Marsano. The lure of the Old West and the Open Range is as powerful for those who want to get back in the saddle again as for those who have never so much as fallen off a horse in the first place. And so the dude ranch was born--a place where city slickers could go to grow saddle-sore and be laughed at, made mock by the few genuine cowboys--sorry, that should be "hands"--still on the ranch. Or spread. Well, that was then. Dude ranches have grown up so much that few use the term any more. These days what we have are ranch vacations.

They're not all the same, and to tell them apart you need a guide like this, which covers 100 ranches in 19 states (including, oddly enough, New York) and two Canadian provinces. Now most anybody can fling together a lot of data--phone numbers, addresses, rates, etc.--but Gavin Ehringer has done a better and more complete job than most (in one entry he notes that a ranch accepts Visa but actually prefers personal checks). Ehringer gives a lot more. Each ranch is introduced by a one-page essay that captures the spirit of the place and helps you tell one from another. Do you want a family vacation, kids and all? A place where you break most of your broncos poolside? Or a real, tall-in-the-saddle spread that will make you earn your memories with a few blisters and sore muscles? Ehgringer helps you sort that out.

And if that's not enough, there's a beautifully shot photo essay of vacation-ranch life that will have you humming "Don't Fence Me In" in no time.--Bill Marsano is an award-winning travel writer.

Compact, well written mobile reference guide to Active Directory. Was able to go from wondering "Active What?" to LDAP in 4 hours. This one will become an addition to my field library that I carry to client offices. If you are looking for a small easy to read and focused reference, this is it!

The small form factor of Hunter's book is a deliberate evocation of its ideal use. For a sysadmin who needs a quick, easy to read, guide to Active Directory. Specifically, to the most common tasks that you are likely to face. Hunter explicitly avoids a comprehensive discourse, in order to give you this quick guide.

Logically enough, the first chapter is on installing Active Directory itself. It is scarcely 40 pages. You should be able to absorb it in an hour or so, even with no prior background in this topic. Then the actual installation time itself doesn't seem so lengthy, from the chapter's descriptions.

On an ongoing basis, Chapter 3 might be the most useful. Hunter explains the typical day to day tasks on Active Directory that you might face. Again, less than 40 pages.

The book also has a chapter on large scale deployments. The advice in it seems fine. And Hunter put in the chapter to ensure that she covered this topic. I do wonder, though, about how realistically it fits into the book's goal. A large deployment strongly suggests a sysadmin who will have to devote considerable time to installing and running it. Of necessity, she will probably have to consult more comprehensive texts, given her level of responsibility. Whereas this book might be envisaged as targeting a smaller deployment, on just one or a few machines.

To be sure, you should certainly get a full reference book on Active Directory, if you are going to be running it. But consider using that mostly as informational backup, and perhaps using Hunter's book as the daily guide.