Morgan Books

Developing speech applications is not easy to master. Even with VoiceXML becoming more widely adopted, there are a lot of intricacies that that a developer must understand. This book will provide you with a solid foundation to become an effective speech application developer.

The book did very well in presenting the limitations of the current speech recognition technology (dialog design, large vocabularies, promtp design, etc.) and made suggestions on how to overcome such problems in specific situations.

When this book came out a couple of years ago it was the first and only book on designing speech recognition systems. It was very valuable then, but now more books are available that cover the same information and more, for a lot less money.

This book is simply the best for your bookcase if you are a voice dialogue designer. I would strongly recommend it to novice and expert alike, especially for those learning VoiceXML for the first time, or working with it day to day.

Grounded in hours of human-computer experiments, and a multi-disciplinary approach to user interface design - this book is a rare combination of a careful ear for human language and dialogue, extensive engineering experience, and pragmatic knowledge of the strengths and limitations of current voice recognition technology.

The second edition has brought it bang up-to-date. It cuts through the hype that has always surrounded each successive generation of voice technology - focussing always on the building of robust useable interfaces which work with the user rather than against them.

This book is so well organized and articulated it's bound to be of value to anyone doing ASR application development. My own experience in voice response runs from end-user representative to application designer and I found every chapter enlightening. In this second edition of Bruce and David's ASR style guide, I believe the end users will find the new sections on voice portals and managing your voice talent of particular interest. And all users should take particular note of the expanded discussions of usability testing and performance reporting.

I found the first version of How to Build a Speech Recognition Application so useful that I actually took the time to compared the new edition, page for page, with the original. That was a relatively easy task, because the authors retained the original section numbering wherever possible. My comparison showed that the original guidelines have been substantially updated, based on continuing research and the hands-on experiences of both the authors and other acknowledged experts. In addition, I believe the new sections and expanded discussions of critical design considerations are going to prove valuable to both novice and seasoned developers.

In short, developing effective telephony dialogues is a complex, rapidly evolving and downright expensive task. Given that reality, every development team ought to have at least one copy of this landmark style guide.

Author, Bruce Balentine's goal with How to Build a Speech Recognition Application is to produce the Strunk and White of speech recognition. An electronic musician and composer, Balentine was a pioneer in the speech recognition field. The text's examination of the problems of navigation from human perception to machine recognition give comprehension to even the layman. The book is well organized and structured with the +,/,- system which allows a novice to follow. According to linguist, Dr. John White, the first chapter could stand alone as a treatise on the dynamics of the human speech interface with the machine.

this book was in pristine shape; it got here quickly and was so affordable!!!!!!

I like this book because Tutu Tilly gets a tutu for her birthday and she wears it at the market, and at her family hay ride and she weared it at the swimming pool. It it a very good book. From Sophie

We just happened upon this book at the library. After the second page I realized this book was talking about my daughter!(or any little girl who loves to dance and loves pink!) After maxing out our renewal limit on the book, my husband and I decided to purchase the book for our little one for her 3rd birthday.We love it!

I bought this for my two-year-old who has become obsessed with two things -- ballerinas and books. What a perfect combination! This book could have been written about her! The storyline is simple, easy to read and has a great message. It should prepare her for dance class next fall. It is sure to become a favorite in our home.

We first purchased this book a few years ago when our oldest daughter was about 3 1/2 years old and she would wear a tutu EVERY day to school, shopping, etc. She often looked "silly" (just like Tilly in the book) but she was happy and she loved the idea of being a ballerina. This book perfectly captured the intensity of her desire to dress how she wanted. It really was a precious time in her childhood. We even framed an illustration out of the book and have it up on her bedroom wall because it so wonderfully captured who she was during those pre-school years. I wear my Tutu Everywhere is a great book for all those pre-school wanna-be ballerinas. We read it many times over and highly recommend it!

This is one of the most helpful computer books I have ever read. I not only learned from the numerous examples, I was inspired by their creativity to create content of which I'm proud, and to go from making a me-too product to something people will talk about.

It is truly amazing what the unpublicized, interactive capabilities of QuickTime allow you to make.

I would warn anyone buying this book, use LiveStage Pro on a Mac as nature intended it; the Windows version is quite buggy and more than a little clunky.

By reading this book you may probably notice, that you are wrong and you will be surprised how much there is you can still learn about the subject.
The book covers every aspect regarding interactive content creation with QuickTime
It is a rich source of in-depth information and there is a wealth of ready to use functions. In combination with the many tutorials and samples it is valuable and useful for all who author interactive QT or intend to do.
For experienced users it is a real reference book even if your authoring environment differs from the one (LiveStage Pro) used throughout the book as many aspects and programming technics are transferable.

I just started using Live Stage Pro to author quicktimes 2 months ago and found the software's manual to be helpful but light on insight. In a nutshell 'Interactive Quicktime' is a crucial book to get if you're learning LSP (although the author goes into other methods of working with quicktime too). What can I say? It helps you understand what's going on within the world of the quicktime architecture and walks you through tons of projects to help you get it. I wasn't getting it with the LSP manual. As the author states it would be helpful to know a little bit of applescript or some other programming language but I'm picking it up slowly but surly and I've never written a word of code in my life. It's well worth the price.

This really is an excellent book. The examples that Matthew uses to teach in each chapter are useful far beyond just wired QuickTime. I keep it next to my desk for use in my other development environments as well.

For example there is a chapter on scripted motion which talks about linear interpolation, easing in and out, motion along mathematical functions, circular motion, paths and spline interpolation. I incorporated a few of these animation algorithms into my desktop applications and they work/look great.

Highly recommended.

If you think that QuickTime is just a media player for showing video and listening to audio, this book will make you think again. Delving into the depths of the QuickTime architecture Matthew shows the reader the huge breadth of interactivity that is possible and encourages the reader to think how techniques can be applied in different ways. Each chapter ends with an 'Explorations' section asking the reader to think about various topics that have been looked at, and how they can be applied.

The book is broken up into six main sections covering topics such as sprites- communicating with them, moving them, interaction, modelling physics etc. Other sections include the structure of QT, adding interactivity to existing movies, user interfaces, multimedia and communicating with the world.

Each section is subdivided into chapters looking at a specific area (39 chapters in all), and usually going through several small projects. ALL of these projects are included on the CD, often in both beginning and final forms so that you can go through all the steps or just look at the final version if you are more advanced. Because the book is structured with more complex issues handled later on, even a relative newcomer can work through the book, while the experienced QT content producer can go directly to the sections of particular interest.

There is a 42 day trial version of LiveStage Pro on the Cd as most of the projects are done using it, along with demos of several other programs and examples of the best QT work by other people.

In the introduction Matthew mentions that he often looks at the contents and index of a reference book first, as these tell you a lot about a book. Nine pages of Contents, twenty pages of Index, a Glossary and Appendix S! Even including a list of every file on the CD and many http links.

As Matthew explains how things are done rather than simply showing you the program-specific scripts a lot of the book can be applied to other multimedia environments such as Flash, Director and Runtime Revolution. I regard this book as required reading for all people working to create highly interactive media, whether they use QT or not.

In summary this book will revolutionise how you think of and use QuickTime. By showing what is possible rather than what is commonly used Matthew expands the interactive medium in a way that pushes the boundaries.

Highly recommended, and I found that the author quickly replies to any questions that you ask him by email.

Well, after asking endless questions to some of the "so called" self-acclaimed "experts" in the field of wet plate photography; Crawford's book was a breath of fresh air. I only wish that I could have come across this book early in my search. Instead I had to wade through BBS systems with adults who like to dress up and play "war" (i.e., the Civil War). With this book you will be able to bypass all of the fruitless searches you will have if you ask present day practitioners, who do not want to share the process (or are more likely unknowledgeable themselves). Save yourself the problems, efforts and misinformation. Buy this book!

. . . And it looks it. I can't tell you how many times I've referred to this book. It is one of the most - if not the most - useful book for nonsilver photographic processes I've ever had and I have quite a collection of this type of book.

I don't think you can go wrong owning a copy of this volume.

This is a great book it help me gain notion on the history of photography and alo show me ways to do photography the old way

This book is the primary source of knowledge for those who are new to alternative photographic processes. It is a must read for those who wish to know the history of photography, and who wish to dive into alternative processes. It gives a brief history of each process, and then practical knowledge to aid the reader in accomplishing each process. I would recommend this book to all my colleagues and friends interested in photography.

I lost my first copy and just bought another. Learn the history and the how-to's of several non-silver printmaking methods. If you're interested in these processes, this book will give you an excellent overview and get you started on making your own prints.

These books that are writen but the author are fun and easy to read, you can escape for a few hours, I recomend them very much, this a good flowing book. Helps you pass away hours in fun reading.

I had read this book some time ago, then went on to the others in the series. However, I found that I could not recall the details of the first tale, so I have just finished it for the second time. And, it is as great a read as the first time! I was reminded of just how prissy and odd Frank's son was, and the details of their first meeting and the days which followed.

I wish, however, that Johnstone had actually brought the men to town who were going to design and drive the ore wagons to the shipping point. One has to just trust that the plan went forward, and maybe even the ore which had been hijacked in previous shipping attempts was located and restored to the mine owners.

All in all, a really great book - if this was my first reading, I know that the next installment would have to be obtained quickly.

I commend this story to anyone who loves great western writing.

I didn't think I'd read a book to match Ralph Compton's, but this one grabbed me quick. Another outstanding author. A page-turner of a western, and a terrific character in Frank Morgan. This is writing at its best.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I have just finished reading it. Looks like the transition to the next installment is excellent. If you haven't read this book yet, be sure to put it on your reading list very soon. The characters are very well developed and the story is very exciting.

the Last Gunfighter: the Drifter, is now my favorite of all western books i have ever read. frank Moragn is straight out of a John wayne movie, heroic,, no-nonsense, quick to the draw,marshall. highly recommended to lovers of a good old fashion western shoot em up yarn. the gun play is non-stop, look forward to reading the rest in te series, the reprisal, the show down,, the rescue..

The things I have learned in this book are lessons many of us did not learn growing up. In order to break the cycles and patterns I observed from my parents unhealthy relationships I needed to learn a new way of interacting with men. This book is teaching me how to do that and I am forever grateful.

will recommend the book to anybody who wants a serious relationship,very good advice how to conduct yourself like a lady,and get a quality man

Author Jade Brode has written a "must read" for anyone desiring to be married, to the right person! It is with wonderful and sensitive insight that Ms.Brode shares both her personal experiences and the wisdom gained from those experiences. This book challenges its readers to make the changes necessary to see their dreams become reality. Great thanks to Ms.Brode for her generosity of both knowledge and wisdom.C.Poliak

This book is invaluable. It will give you focus and direction and help you avoid the pitfalls and denial most of us struggle with. I highly recommend this book!

What wonderful insight this book provides. Probably the greatest contribution to the dating process ever written. The work of the author in this book reminds me of other influential writings I have read, such as Dr. Benjamin Spock and Sigmund Freud. Definitely going to be a best seller! W. Weaver Marina del Rey Ca.

Morgan's Tarot is truly an inspirational deck. It is the only deck that I know of that communicates to people who have not spent hours memorizing and meditating on typical major and minor arcana symbols.

I have had a person tell me that I did not truly perform a reading for him using the cards because I actually made him look at the cards and interpret for himself (laugh). I only provided insight where he couldn't see an answer for himself immediately.

I highly recommend you to find a copy of this deck if you need some help laughing at yourself (this deck has multiple laughter cards). Be warned though, if you know the answer of your query in your heart, do not be surprised if you find yourself being harshly chastised for asking the question.

I bought this deck nearly 15 years ago. I have since purchased several other decks, but this one is, by far, still my favorite. The images and messages are light and powerful. They are clearly filled with love. I went in search of Morgan's Tarot in order to add them to my website. They are perfect for encouraging good self-esteem, which is especially beneficial to the content of my site. It is unfortunate that the cards are no longer available, but I will not give up the search.

The "noise" referred to in my earlier review was about lines of text in the book like, "This is an opinion sponsored by entity X-1513." That line doesn't seem to relate at all to the rest of the card's description. Or the du wacky du description? I read my own descriptions into those cards... DWD makes no sense to me at all. I usually take it to mean that I'm not looking around at what is really going on, that I'm navel-gazing.

I've had this deck for 20 years and I love it. Nothing to memorize, no esoteric secrets. Even tho it's a cartoon, it gives accurate great readings. The imagery and captions are in modern, new age vernacular with a 70's flavor. Everyone smiles when I pull it out. Easy to read and I hardly ever refer to the book, even tho I numbered the cards to match the entries. People don't find it intimidating and find themselves adding to their own reading. Get this deck if you don't take life too seriously and want to have fun with reading. If you want to mystify people you don't want this one.

Morgan's deck is my favorite ... with 'real life' images. When I first began looking at various Tarots, Morgan's deck was the one that felt "lightest" and "cleanest" to me, and so it was where I started. I've now been doing my professional readings "card free" as it were, for years ... as Morgan's cards lent themselves to the opening of my intuitive, to the degree I could relate the information faster than I could turn the cards. As to the "noise" referred to, Morgan had a Very tongue-in-cheek sense of humor, and didn't really believe the deck needed a book, but that each user could develop their own interpretation for the symbols. (in fact, when Morgan himself was publishing the deck, there was no book.) So, when U.S. Games stepped up to be the publisher, and required a book, as part of the package, Morgan's sense of humor stepped up to meet them. Just enjoy or toss out the humor, and use the underlying thoughts as your guide.

The cards, originally, weren't meant as a tarot or even as anything for anyone other than Morgan. When he described their origin to me, he said he was working as a dishwasher at a small place in the Santa Cruz mountains and studying his own personal development. He got some cards (I assume index cards) and started writing down the key ideas he'd been thinking about, just as sort of reminders for himself. There are even around a half-dozen cards in the deck that he attributed to the cook at the same place.
Morgan just carried the cards around to be reminders of his focus in terms of consciousness. (being a spiritual being seemed to make sense, easily, to him, but the "living a human" life was much harder to integrate and make sense of ...)
He described his confusion as other people started looking at his cards and getting something from them ... and started insisting that he should publish them as a tarot. (I'm sure those others pictured that as a simple path to a "well beyond dish washer" income for him ... when I met him, he was washing dishes, again, for a place that would trade food and lodging and some pay ...)

He found the artist ... and thus the black-and-white line drawings came into being ... and, from somewhere, scraped up the money to actually print decks ... and set about selling them himself. Eventually they gained enough "grass roots" popularity to be in Metaphysical (and other) bookshops all over the place, to the extent U.S. Games found him and picked up the rights.

You have to put this all in the perspective of the times, this was during the first waves of popularity of "awareness and consciousness" in the western world ... Timothy Leary and Ram Dass (under his other name) were exploring LSD at Harvard ... and many other folks were doing their own explorations along similar paths ... so, when I met Morgan, over a beer, I told him, first, that I'd been reading with his cards for years and loved them. Then I confessed, (somewhat embarrassed) that based on the mythology around, I'd been describing the author, him, as ... ' a drug-crazed hippy out of Santa Cruz...' ... he paused a long time, looking at me, and finally replied..."Boulder Creek, actually, but nobody knows where that is ... I guess Santa Cruz is close enough..."

Morgan passed over some years back ... and I have to confess, my first thought when I heard about it was, "Wow ... he made it ... he finally finished what ever lesson was SO hard for him to learn ... and made it out..." Being a spiritual being was pretty close for him to touch, it seemed ... but being a spiritual being living a human lifetime ... seemed to be a mystery to him for the whole time.

Scout Bartlett
Scout@LifeInsights.Net

While this book is written for church leaders--any business or nonprofit leader or manager will appreciate the idea-thon of very practical stuff.

With a foreword by John Maxwell and high fives from Andy Stanley and Joel Hunter, this book also gets my five-star rating. The makes-you-want-to-read-it format has 99 chapters, but just 208 total pages. I dare you to scan the chapter titles and then put the book away. It's impossible. Test-drive these chapters: 2) Good Leaders Let Good People Go, 3) Count the Cost Before Hiring a Family Member, 8) If Someone Hasn't Left Your Church Recently, Your Vision Is Probably Too Broad, 19) Staff Ahead of the Growth, 29) Disgruntled Secretaries Drain Dynamic Leaders, and 31) Send Your Bankers Audit Reports and Birthday Cards Every Year.

Chapter 33 is "Sack the No-Huddle Offense." I'm a zealot for the value of weekly staff meetings. Stevens and Morgan correctly point out, "It takes discipline to gather regularly because there's never a good time to pull away from doing ministry to talk about ministry. The fact is, however, these team gatherings will help focus your efforts and allow your ministry to bear more fruit. Additionally you'll have the chance to bring encouragement and accountability to others on your team."

With 99 topics, the authors add quick-reading color commentary to most of the 20 buckets in my book, Mastering The Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Non-profit. Simply Strategic Stuff is good stuff.

Simply Strategic Stuff is by far one of the BEST books in church administration. Tim and Tony are the leaders in providing nuggets of Truth (with a capital "T"!) for church leaders to effectively run a church. How do I know? I am the lead pastor of The Pointe, a United Methodist Congregation, located in Albany, Georgia. Our church began weekly services in March 2006 and has grown in 11 months to an average of over 620 in weekly attendance. Managing a church that has grown so quickly has been a HUGE challenge, but utilizing the principles taught in this book have made all the difference. In fact, our staff is required to read 10 chapters (they are one to two pages each) each week and share how they will use one principle taught in this book in their area of ministry. A must read for every lead pastor and leadership team member. Don't miss out on an AWESOME book!

Great book! This is one of the most helpful books I have ever read on church administration.

I've read hundreds of management books for my business consulting practice, but few have had the practical approach as this little book. The ideas are focused on churches, of course, but many of them apply to any organization. And not only are the ideas useful, the book is just plain fun to read. I kept telling my wife, "Here, you have to listen to this one!"

Very practical and helpful, I will pull it off my shelf often to review and glean insight. It is full of practical wisdom from practitioners who understand effective ministry. Highly recommended.

This is a great book and really fills in the blanks, so to speak. We enjoy coming home from church and looking up the hymns from that morning and learning more about the song writer and the circumstances surrounding the hymn. More often than not it will lead to tears. I would recommend this to every Christian household.

I bought this book as a reference book to be put on my coffee table.
It is a wonderful history of many of my favorite hymns and looks wonderful
displayed on my coffee table. I would highly recommend it!

This was a gift for an organist/pianist. She loves the hymns included and the stories. The spiral format is wonderful for staying open for playing. She has already used it for a funeral and was pleased at the selection of hymns available. Highly recommended!!!

This book is beautiful! I bought this keepsake for a gift and the person loved it! It is not only fascinating but the book itself makes a beautiful addition to your coffee table! Well worth the price... it looks like it costs at least $50 or $60. It's a great gift whether you read music or not.

This is a wonderful book for anyone!!... There are songs with the words and music on one side...and the story of the hymn on the other side... Great spiral binding makes it much easier to read and to play from... I just ordered two more for gifts... the large print is a big plus for me as well.... you won't be disappointed with this fantastic book!!

Well done series. All three books are strong. Character development is good. Likeable, sympathetic characters.

Read these out loud with my 9 yo and the teenagers who thought they were too old for that; but their music was shut-off and magazine pages stopped turning the first night and after that just joined us. ;)

I would recommend for 9 and up to read on their own. We just chose to read them together.

These three books were exciting and heart-warming. The characters are fun and likeable (except for the bad guys, of course). I couldn't put them down; just kept reading until I was done with all three. Then I started looking around for numbers 4, 5 and 6. I would recommend them to everyone.

When fear of God has left the land,
To be replaced by fear of man;
When Corenwalders free and true
Enslave themselves and others too,
When mercy and justice disappear,
When life is cheap and gold is dear,
When freedom's flame has burned to ember
And Corenwalders can't remember
What are truths and what are lies,
Then will the Wilderking arise.
~from The Wilderking Chant



Corenwald is in trouble. Six years have passed since Aidan first went to Tambluff in service of King Darrow. Those six years have not been kind to the king. He's grown increasingly paranoid and he's made bad moves. Prince Steren has served his father well, soothing and advising him, but now even he is losing influence and the country appears to be in real danger because of the king's foolish behavior.

And yet, The Way of the Wilderking, the final book in the Wilderking Trilogy, is not a dark and depressing book. In fact, it opens with a hilarious scene and the comedy, much like the Energizer Bunny, keeps going and going and going. I thought these books couldn't get any funnier. After all, how many funny feechie feasts, feechie sings, and feechie contests can one swamp produce?

Ha! I forgot the old saying, "You can take the feechie out of the swamp but you can't take the swamp out of the feechie." Fortunately for feechie fans everywhere, Dr. Rogers thought to take the feechie out of the swamp. What do you get when mix Dobro Turtlebane with a civilizer city? One disaster following another, in finest feechie fashion.

Rogers, as anyone would expect, does a fine job with the writing in this book. The prose is great, the scenes are well painted, and the descriptions are clear. As he did with The Secret of the Swamp King, the author once again weaves in a bit of a mystery for his readers. The difference is that in The Secret of the Swamp King, the mystery, when solved, brought some heartache, while in this final book the solving of the mystery brings Rogers' account of Corenwalder history to a satisfying and happy conclusion.

There are some hard things on the way to that happy conclusion, though. There is war, for one thing, and with war comes death. The role thrust upon Aidan is also a hard thing--a heavy burden. There are some deep lessons in this book, too--forgiveness, sacrificial love, reconciliation, humility, obedience, fighting against a false humility--all of these things were touched upon. They weren't dwelt upon, I think they could have been brought a little more to the fore even, but they were there in the lives of the characters as they went about the business of the story.

Altogether a great read. I have to give it five stars. I can't imagine giving that gallant and goofy Dobro anything less than five stars for his wonderful performance in this book. I would love to quote several of his lines for you--there are so many to choose from. He is not only funny, he is sweet and chivalrous and adorable in so many ways. (Stinky, too, of course, but that goes without saying.) I won't quote, him, though. I don't want to spoil the fun for you so I'll leave you to catch his show for yourself. He is unforgettable--truly one of the greatest characters every created.

Jonathan Rogers has capped off his Wilderking Series in style with this last edition to the trilogy! I rushed out to get this book after reading The Secret of the Swamp King and I wasn't disappointed! Mr. Rogers continues to ramp up the action and it seems the only one who doesn't realize Aidan is the legendary Wilderking of prophecy is Aidan himself. But that will all change in this exciting conclusion to the series. There are exciting moments and sad ones as well. But it all comes together wonderfully and never disappoints. Dobro Turtlebane is in rare form as he leaves the swamps with Aidan and tries to mingle with civilizers for the first time...not to be missed!--James Somers, author: The Chronicles of Soone.

Jonathan Rogers has created a literary world that I don't particularly want to visit - it's pretty much swamp and full of creepy crawlies, snakes and gators.

But I loved reading about his world, and I would kind of like to swing through the trees - Feechie style.

The series also sparked the desire to get my own Feechie. Though I don't know that we'd let it live in the house, it would be great to hang out with.

I recommend this series to adults as well as older children (eightish and up) of both genders.

Omniscient point of view makes sure we aren't in the dark regarding any of the characters. This engaging tale of war and integrity, and loyalty and brotherhood is inspired by the early life of King David.

Mr. Rogers (the author - not of the neighborhood fame) must believe that children are intelligent and creative and clever because he has written a series peppered with subtle humor that challenges vocabulary skills, and the world's view of how we are supposed to live.

Lovers of Narnia and the Princess Bride should eat this up like rotten lizard eggs.