Bishop Books

For several years, Sun has promoted Jini as a means of developing Java-based distributed computing systems. As a practical matter, these systems are often mobile, and hence wireless. Think perhaps of the increasingly powerful and ubiquitous cellphones, PDAs and laptops. Less familiar to the public, but even more pervasive, are products using embedded microprocessors like cars and home appliances. Typically, most distributed systems have less memory and power than conventional computers, and their network connections may be intermittent. Developing applications to run under these conditions is tough, and Jini tries to make it practical. But in the last two years the pace of Jini development seems to have slowed. A rival open source approach, JXTA, has quickly grown and captured a lot of mindshare amongst developers. Its proponents say that it is far easier to learn and use. Naturally, Jini enthusiasts strongly disagree.

But for the sake of argument, suppose Jini is indeed more difficult to program. Then if you are Sun, it makes sense to develop useful utilities on top of Jini that simplify coding. JavaSpaces, for example. Which is the subject of this book. It is a Jini service (=utility) that can be easily used by other devices on the network. A JavaSpace holds data that can be read and altered in a transactional context. This means that if the set of operations in a transaction fails, it can be rolled back; a fundamental necessity in a distributed system, where things can fail in many ways. As the authors clearly demonstrate, you need know little Jini to understand and use JavaSpaces. The interface is very clean, having essentially only three operations: "write" - to put something into the space; "read" - to read an item from the space into your device; "take" - to read the item into your device and remove it from the space.

The book is short and succinct. The code examples are easy to grasp, without being simplistic. If you have been thinking about using Jini, or perhaps you already are using it, but are stymied, then try this book. In a day's reading, you can get its essence. A low risk investment of your time.

Suppose though that you are a JXTA programmer. Or maybe you are using some other third way to develop distributed applications. There is probably no analog of JavaSpaces in your environment. Consider investing a day of your time in this book. See if it makes sense of have something like this. If so, perhaps you should implement it?

This book shows how faith in God can move mountains. It inspires the reader to seek a closer relationship with God and makes you want to experience miracles, signs and wonders as this man of God has.

This journal is dedicated to the study of weapons, armour and fighting within the Roman World. The listed contents in the above blub are wrong. Cataphracti equites, quos clibanarii dictitant (A E Negin); and The Eining lorica segmentata (M C Bishop) are not in this issue, but instead you have "Klivanion revisited: an evolutionary typology and catalogue of Middle Byzantine lamellar styles" (Tim Dawson) and "A critical review of the Bishop version 1.01 Newstead lorica segementata in the wake of a prototype's creation. (L. Arik Greenberg), as well as "Reinforcing a Roman Helmet during the Dacian Wars" (David Sim) and "Pieces of Roman Military Equipment in a Roman Cellar at the Bemelerveld in Maastricht (The Netherlands)" (Bernard Van Daele).

The text is mostly written in English, with two articles in German and one in Spanish. All of the articles have excellent line drawings and B&W photgraphs. This is truly a needed addition to any collection about Roman military equipments.

Peter Connolly's article is eye-opening for those who have not studied the pila in various museums, and corrects some of the Hollywood notions and 19th century writings that improperly described the function and construction of this Roman missile weapon.

The 13 chapters (or books) of Augustine's "Confessions," written in 397-400, continue to enthrall and challenge readers. Augustine had just become Bishop of Hippo (a name that means "seaport") in North Africa, but the document he produced is no dry ecclesiastical pronouncement. Instead, in the intimate language, he pours his heart out to God and to his readers and confesses that even as a man of faith he still seeks understanding.

As Christians celebrate Jesus' resurrection, it is well to remember that Augustine's story of his own Easter faith is full of surprises. Augustine is convinced that God was at work in his life even, when as a young man, he turned away from the family faith to pursue a career as a teacher of rhetoric and to satisfy his own sexual desires. His mother Monica's fervent prayers were eventually answered.

There are many translations of the "Confessions"; one recent and clear one is from Henry Chadwick ($7.95 in paperback from Oxford World's Classics). But while the first nine books recount Augustine's experience in becoming a believer, the 10th book, on memory, turns to Augustine's present philosophical concerns. The last three books deal with questions of time and eternity, creation and redemption, and how the earthly world connects with the heavenly realms. For many readers it is not easy going.

Those wishing a careful and scholarly guide through the "Confessions" will be delighted with the three-volume work of Carl G. Vaught, distinguished professor of philosophy at Baylor University. He writes that the books of the "Confessions" show a carefully structured thematic unity, which is portrayed in the titles of Vaught's trilogy, all published by the State University of New York Press: "The Journey Toward God in Augustine's Confessions (Books I-VI)" ($17.95 in paperback); "Encounters With God in Augustine's Confessions (Books VII-IX)" ($35 in hardcover); and "Access To God in Augustine's Confessions (Books X-XIII)" ($65 in hardcover). These books form a section-by-section commentary on Augustine's great work.

Vaught begins, as Augustine does, by asking lots of questions: "How shall we respond to a book as rich and complex as this? What approach should we take?" Vaught writes that though "Augustine speaks as a psychologist, a rhetorician, a philosopher and a theologian ... he speaks most fundamentally from the heart."

In order to best understand the "Confessions," Vaught writes, readers need to be aware of the time, space and eternal dimensions of the story. Regarding time, Augustine recounts his theft of pears when he was 16, his interest in philosophical wisdom and his being led astray by the Manichees (a sect that believed good and evil were locked in eternal battle). Spatially, Augustine's story deals not only with his outside world (the African church, the temptations of Italy) but the inside world of his own soul, the place he encounters God (though God is much greater than the soul and is its creator). The eternal dimension is about how God manifests himself in the created order, through memory and time and the sacraments, enabling Augustine to encounter the one who "made us for yourself"; and Augustine adds: "Our heart is restless until it rests in you."

Vaught's books provide the reader with an understanding of that rest.

Copyright 2006 Chico Enterprise-Record. Used by permission.

Wally Squad (undercover Judges), a Super Villain, a Rogue Psyker, and Dredd on the run... this book has it all.

After the last two books having taking Dredd outside of Mega-City One, this book brings us back to the home city of Judge Dredd, and it feels good to be home.

There is a lot going on in this book, and it keeps you guessing throughout. You are never quite sure which way it will turn.

In my opinion, this is the best Black Flame Judge Dredd book so far. I am hooked on this series, and if you are thinking of trying one of the Dredd novels, this is the one to try. You won't regret it.

While there is a small amount of reference to sexual activities, it is done tastefully, not graphically, and is not covered in detail.

Sisters Sarah and Meg Qullian are also best friends as they jointly own and operate the Hemlock Falls Inn in upstate New York. There is very little crime in their small hamlet, but when a murder occurs, it seems that the Quillian siblings are right in the middle of it. To their credit they have solved eight homicides but at the moment neither sister wants to even think of homicide because they are very busy in their professional and personal lives.

Fate ignores their wishes and dumps the body of George Nash in the middle of town so that two hunters discover it. George was a participant in a crime years ago that resulted in the death of a child when the Quillian sisters were small. Both witnessed it but it is Quill who remembers the details of it as if it were yesterday. One by one the members of the victims of that crime turn up in Hancock Falls and they all die except for the mastermind who designed the killing scheme. Quill has to discover who it is before even more murders occur.

Claudia Bishop has written an entertaining, quirky and off beat mystery in which the villains seem heroic and the victims seem diabolical. The Quillian sisters are as delightful as ever especially Quill who thinks she's dying of a dreadful disease even though her sister is convinced her symptoms are caused by an allergy. JUST DESERTS is a special treat for amateur sleuth lovers.

Harriet Klausner

As is seen on the T.V. show Fight Quest, the art of Kajukenbo is one the the most brutally effective martial arts in existence. Prof. John Bishop (for years one of the most respected authors of martial arts magazines)has spent years putting together and writing the first comprehensive book on this art. If anyone has questions about the art of Kajukenbo, this is the book you must have in your library.

Kepelino was a Hawaiian man born around 1830. He was schooled by Catholic missionaries, traveled to Tahiti in 1847 to open a mission, and became a prolific contributor to Catholic newspapers and Hawaiian language newspapers. He also sided with Queen Emma in her fight for the Hawaiian throne; this effort had him jailed and sentenced to hang for treason (the first person so sentenced).

He was eventually pardoned, and died in 1878.

At one point in his life he sat down with his missionary friends and dictated his recollections of life, legends, and customs as a Hawaiian. This volume, in English and Hawaiian, is that compilation.

Some tidbits:

"Special persons called 'Poe-o-kahi-kapu' attended to the private parts of a chief when he was ill and of the chiefess during her menstruating period. They alone had the right to do this service, no one else. If another stepped into the position he would be put to death. This was a post handed down in a family" (p. 130).

"The commoners comprise only those people who have no chiefly blood. A chief is known by his name. This is a peculiarity of Hawaii. The name of a chief is tabu and cannot be given to a commoner or he would die. Hence the chiefs are distinguished by their names from the commoners and the commoners from the chiefs. This is a custom peculiar to Hawaii. Among the white people names are not significant, but to the Hawaiian the name is important. Many are the strange things to be learned about Hawaii. However diligently the foreigner seeks he cannot find out all. He gets a fragment here and there and goes home. A heap of absurdities is all he has to show from great Hawaii" (p. 142).

"There are many ways of planting taro. One way is called 'prodding,' another 'steering', another 'covering', another 'mounding', another 'stopping up', another 'leaf filling'" (p. 152; they are described in turn).

"There were many kinds of dances in Hawaii: There was the chest-slapping dance, the dance in which time was beaten with sticks, the dance with marionettes, and so on. All these things were sinful. Eyes, hands, feet and body ensnared the onlooker. The dance taught the young people to sin. he who had known no wrong would quickly learn it in the dance. There was no dance, not a single chant of Hawaii, that was not filthy. Hawaiian chants were all bad, even the name chants. They were all filthy. But the calling chants and some of the genealogical chants of gods and chiefs contained no double meanings, and the ancestral chants were almost free of them. All the rest of the chants were made by Lucifer" (p. 164, 166).

"Kane, Lono, Kanaloa were the Gods who made Heaven and Earth. These three Gods were one in their nature as God, that is, a very holy One-God-in-three, 'Akua-kahi-kolu.' Before them there was no Heaven and no Earth. ...They saw the light and the darkness and they were good. ...They said, 'Let us make a man, a being like ourselves, knowing all things.' ...They said, 'Let us make women to be a companion for the man, to bear seed for the broad earth.' ...They ceased making the earth and blessed it. This was the sixth period" (p. 174, 176, 178; written by G. M. Keone and T. C. Polikapa and included as appendix).

Clearly, it is difficult to tell what was truly Hawaiian and what was a "missionary Hawaiian" interpretation. That there is a European influence on Kepelino's window to his world I have no doubt. The notes on dancing are a good example. However, I would assume the farming notes are more accurate.

Giving the absolute and radical decimation of the Hawaiian race and its customs throughout the late 18th and all the 19th centuries, even Kepelino is missing information.

In a forward written by Noelani Arista, Arista stated "Kepelino's position within that changing tradition cannot be understood without considering the different kinds of education and training he received and the particular ways in which these influenced his intellectual production" (p. ix). I agree.

Arista also noted "While foreign missionaries expressed an urgent interest in preserving Hawaiian traditions, which they believed would soon be lost as a result of the decline of the Hawaiian population, some of the same missionaries tried to radically change, and even destroy the very traditions that they had asked the Hawaiian historians to commit to writing" (p. x). I see this as well.

Finally, the original translator of this work, Martha Warren Beckwith, wrote in 1931 that "...we must accept this record for what it is worth, an attempt by a Hawaiian of exceptional inheritance and training to explain the beliefs and traditions of the past as they had been handed down to those Hawaiians of his own time who interested themselves in these matters" (p. 7). She added, "Even those who demand more rigorous proof of the historical accuracy of the Kepelino manuscript as an exact replica of antiquity, may grant its value as the genuine thought about his own ancient heritage of a native Hawaiian who grew up during the stirring days of the missions and the monarchy in Hawaii" (p. 7).

But the evidence indicates a profound loss of Hawaiian cultural traditions within decades of the coming of whalers, European businessmen, and missionaries. Because of this, we depend on the accounts of Kepelino, Malo, and others to give us insight.

But this is almost the best we have, this glimpse into a Hawaiian life.

The book was in really good condition and it arrived faster thatn i thought it would. So what can i say two thumbs up

While attending community college, I was required to read this text for a class called: "Student Life Skills". While a lot of the information was more of a review for me personally, I feel that the topics covered within this text are definitely appropriate for high school students and especially college freshmen. I'm an "older" student--- going to college in my 30s----and as a result I found myself realizing that a lot of the suggestions in this book were things that I was already doing in my academic career.

This book is easy to read, clear and concise. The wording is simple and uses plain, everyday English. I also recommend utilizing as many online resources that the book has to offer. Even though it is geared towards college level students, high schoolers will certainly benefit.