Richardson Books

Beginning Python is book on programing using the python language. This book serves as a tutorial or guide to the python language for anyone. If all you know is how to save text files,then you can learn python using this book. If you are an expert programmer then this book then this would be great if you love Java, C++, Perl, or any other language you will have a great time learning Python

I did not find this book very helpful for learning Python. First of all the book is not very informative. In each chapter, you are introduced to a new idea (e.g. lists) but you don't really learn much about it, different/creative ways to use it, or why you would want to.

Any book that purports to teach you a programming language ultimately passes or fails based on the examples it gives you in the text and the excercises it gives you at the end of each chapter. This is where the book is especially poor. There is only one example that runs throughout this book: how to make an omelet. On its own, it's not horrible. In general, program is like a recipe: you give it stuff at the begining and instructions and then you end up with a finished product (although, oddly, this analogy is never made in the book). The main problem, though, is that this is the only example. Every new idea is shown only once, in the context of this example, and many tricks that can be done with Python, but are not relevant to this example are not included in the book.

What's more, the excercizes are all keyed to the same example of making an omelet, which gets more and more ponderous with every passing chapter. Worst of all, as soon as your code no longer performs the way they describe, you're out of luck. You can no longer work through the ideas in the book and it is largely useless.

The bottom line is that there are much better books for learning Python. I would recomend getting "Learning Python" by Lutz and Ascher.

My primary compliment to "Beginning Python" is that it makes learning Python seem easy. .

The book covers a lot of Python basics like strings, numbers, operators, variables. It also covers advanced topics like network programming, extending Python through C/C++, threading, GUI programming and Python with XML. In the end it discusses about the new features of Python release 2.4. Last Chapter "Integrating Java with Python" covers - scripting with java applications, Jython, integrating Java and Jython, J2EE servlets in Jython. I find it useful for both python and java programmer.

Book provides exercises at the end of every chapter, which can help you for self study and better understanding of the concepts. The explanations and the code throughout the book are easy to understand

I think this book would be a good choice for someone in the beginner to intermediate range. If you are a programmer (C, C++, Java, Perl) then it may be a little slow for you. A lot of time is put into syntax, control flow, and basic data structures, it can get a little difficult to digest. I thought more could have gone into topics like "Writing Shareware and Commercial programs".

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn Python but is new to programming.

Python is one of those programming languages I hear about a lot, but I've never taken the time to pick up a book and find out more about it. To fix that, I got a copy of Beginning Python (published by Wrox) by Peter Norton, Alex Samuel, David Aitel, Eric Foster-Johnson, Leonard Richardson, Jason Diamond, Aleatha Parker, and Michael Roberts. Not a bad title to use to get started...

Contents: Introduction; Programming Basics and Strings; Numbers and Operators; Variables - Names for Values; Making Decisions; Functions; Classes and Objects; Organizing Programs; Files and Directories; Other Features of the Language; Building a Module; Text Processing; Testing; Writing a GUI with Python; Accessing Databases; Using Python for XML; Network Programming; Extension Programming with C; Writing Shareware and Commercial Programs; Numerical Programming; Python in the Enterprise; Web Applications and Web Services; Integrating Java with Python; Answers to Exercises; Online Resources; What's New in Python 2.4; Glossary; Index

When I first started reading, I was a little disappointed at the target level. Up through about the Functions chapter, it's information that any programmer should already know (loops, variables, etc.) and would be best used by someone who had never programmed before in their life. While they do say that particular demographic is intended as a reader, I was hoping for more. From Classes on, it's material that squarely hits where intermediate programmers live and breathe, and it's at that point that the book takes off (in my opinion). Using the basic Python skills learned in the first section, you start to see how those concepts are applied in real programs that actually do stuff. And given the wide array of subjects they hit (C integration, GUI development, XML, etc.), you should quickly learn how best to use this language in many of the common situations you'll run into on a day-to-day basis. The writing style and format is consistent, as well as their use of examples throughout the book. You don't find yourself switching gears every few pages for some new contrived example that just came out of left field.

This is a book I'll be holding onto in order to free up time to get some hands-on experience with Python. It gives me what I need to know along with numerous ways to apply that knowledge, and from there I can decide how much further to take my learning...

This book is interesting to see some of the differences between the Doberman standard in the U.K and in the U.S.
A lot of pictures from U.K Champion Doberman Pinschers.
It does have many usable diagrams of the breed standars in it.

I AM STILL WAITING FOR THIS BOOK TO COME. I THOUGHT IT WOULD HAVE COME BY NOW? PLEASE ADVISE. THANKS KEITH

I have recomended this book for years. I am a Doberman Breeder, and it is an excellent source of information. The has several different pictures, that expaline to the novice what the true standard for the breed should look like. It also give some training instructions, and some health issues are covered. I know it is a book that will stay in my refrence collection. Yes it is an older book, but still holds true, information.

The most current information on this typical family dog with special sections on color genetics and related conditions.

Page 17 -- recipe for Double Chocolate Brownies. Part of the recipe is missing. When do you add the eggs, vanilla and sugar listed in the ingredients?

I am surprised that someone didn't notice this since the first printing which appears to have been in 2002, but perhaps the error did not appear in those issues.

I just bought this book and it makes me hesitant to try the recipes -- just wondering if there are other mistakes (this one was obvious).

Note also -- there are only 117 pages in this book with 77 recipes listed (77 recipes if you include the recipe for the double chocolate brownies on page 17 which isn't complete). I think the suggested price of $25.00 is a little expensive for the content.

This is a delightful book for browsing and getting inspired. The photos are pretty and the recipes fine. I wish the author would have included a copy of the current menu at the time of publication. This would help in planning a visit to know if one wants to go for lunch, the real teatime or something else. Overall, I love the book and it is througly charming.

How disappointed I was in purchasing this book, especially considering how much I've read about the author. The writing is marginal, relying more on recipes from the tea rooms. The photographs are low quality, and do not typically depict the tea atmosphere as normally presented by the tea rooms. I was expecting "CLASSY" and got "TACKY". I think the author, Bruce Richardson, uses this book and his other to officiate his own tea room.

Bruce Richardson has done it again! After much success with "The Great Tea Rooms of Britain," loyal readers asked for and encouraged Richardson to do an American version. Over a three year span, logging alot of air and road miles, he has produced what so many have been longing for. He has given us the first-ever look into some of "The Great Tea Rooms of America."

While not feasibly being able to include ALL tea rooms in America, Richardson, based on his many years of experience in the tea trade, picked those that he thought best represented the fine art of tea. His knowledge is incredibly valuable. He begins the book with an introduction of tea itself and the history of the introduction of tea into America. Then begins the journey. With a wonderful representation of many different styles, twenty-one tea rooms are spotlighted, including: Brown Palace Hotel of Denver, Butchart Gardens of Victoria, British Columbia, Cliffside Inn of Newport, Rhode Island, Drake Hotel of Chicago, Dunbar Tea Room of Sandwich, Massachusetts, Dunshanbe Teahouse of Boulder, Colorado, Fairmont Empress Hotel of Victoria, British Columbia, Farmhouse Tea Shoppe of Dunwoody, Georgia, Disney's Grand Floridian Resort of Lake Buena Vista, Florida, Hydrangea of Wilmette, Illinois, Landy Mendl's of New York City, Lady Primrose's Thatched Cottage of Dallas, McCharles House of Tustin, California, Rose Tree Cottage of Pasadena, California, St. Regis Hotel of New York City, Sentimental Rose Tea Garden of Frazeysburg, Ohio, Swan House of Findlay, Ohio, The T Salon of New York City, The Tea Room of Savannah, Georgia, Waldorf-Astoria of New York City....and of course Richardson's own Elmwood Inn of Perryville, Kentucky. Included in the description of each particular tea room is a bit of history, delicious recipes, great color photographs (Bruce is also a photographer), and a narrative overview of his tea experience there. Included is Jane Pettigrew's (of London) editorial on Elmwood Inn. Each tea room's mailing address, phone number and website are listed in the back. I found the book to be informing, interesting and quite simply...fun.

While I know there are many American tea lovers that are thrilled this book is finely completed, there must be as many international tea lovers that are just as thrilled, as this book makes for an excellent tea traveler's guide across the great United States of America. I assure you, you can find confidence in this wonderful book. With Perryville being home to me, I frequent Elmwood Inn and enjoy the pleasures of afternoon tea as prepared by my friends, Bruce and Shelley Richardson. (I feel so fortunate!) After all, this is the only American tea room to be recommended by the British Tea Council.

Wyman Richardson's account of life on Cape Cod, first published in 1947, is a delight to read even tho' much has changed on the Cape since then. This is a book to treasure in the dead of winter when one longs to 'feel the whims of the sea'or 'hear the slow low pitch of a cricket's song.' Richardson, besides being a physician, is a first rate nature writer. His 'other' life comes alive as he describes morning in the old farmhouse where 'you can look out the south windows over the ...grassy hills...over the blue water of Nauset Marsh' and in the early morning 'an orange moon slipping behind the western horizon.' Richardson paints pictures with words that draw the reader, however briefly, into the pages of his book. First rate. I loved it.

I picked up this book looking for a unique, personal perspective on life on Cape Cod. What I got was long-winded discussions of fishing. If you're into long descriptions of and justifications for fishing and duck hunting--you might like this book. The book is also annoyingly written. The author switches voice all over the place: back and for from "I" to "you" to "one." I found that very distracting. He doesn't seem to know that much about the Cape either. If you want ruminations on the quiet of nature--don't bother; try Thoreau's Cape Cod or Henry Beston's The Outermost House.

This is an important book because it, like Thoreau's journals, is a record of a particular place at a particular time. What did it look like then? What plants, birds, fish came and went? How did people think about the place? These questions are answered in writing that transports you back in time to an apparently quieter and more leisurely world. Yes, there's a bit too much on fishing and hunting for my taste, but I find that I just skip those chapters when I go back to this book, as I do every couple of years. A must for anyone trying to get a handle on Cape Cod.

Set in a small farm house on a Cape Cod marsh in a the 1940s and early 50s, it portrays the Cape in a time before masses of visitors changed it from an isolated backwater to an overrun tourist destination (a change that seems to have taken over so many parts of our country). I spent summers on the Cape as a young boy in the late 50s and early sixties, and Richardson's writing brings back that sense of wild emptiness and special light that used to make Cape Cod so special. The writing and lovely illustrations recall a time when you could have a hand in the gathering of your own food and take joy in the beauty of the process. We have gained much smugness and lost so much else since then; the House on Nauset Marsh brings back a sense of how lives connected to nature used to be.

It is surprising to see such a large amount of useful and well-presented information in a tiny volume like this. Although intended as a supplemental book emphasizing computer experiments, much theory is included, even if presented in a cursory manner. There are exercises and projects included for hands-on experimentation with the algorithms that are quite helpful. Unfortunately, it is too bad that the software does not work as promised, as this does subtract noticeably from the total learning experience. Note that this book is 12 years old, so you're not getting the latest developments in the field, but it is a good starting point for learning about speech coding. I would say if you can get it at a used book price, it is probably still worth the investment. It makes a good companion to the more modern "Speech Coding Algorithms: Foundation and Evolution of Standardized Coders" by Chu. The following is the table of contents.

DSPLAB: The DSP Laboratory Software.
Quantization: PCM and APCM.

Waveform Coding with Fixed Prediction.

Pitch-excited Linear Predictive Vocoder.

Waveform Coding with Adaptive Prediction.

Analysis-by-Synthesis LPC.

Subband Coding.

Projects.

Appendices.

Bibliography.

Index.

I gave this book only three stars. However, if the software had worked correctly, I would have probably given it four or five stars.

This is an excellent introduction to speech coding, but like the other reviewers, I failed to get the software to play out speech files (using soundblaster boards of various vintages - it always failed).

The text is very good and I would like to employ this in my teaching, but inability to hear the results is very frustrating.

Another reviewer has commented on difficulty playing the sound files. I experienced the same problem. I found a work around using some third party software, but I expected better from Georgia Tech.

I expected trouble free software. I didn't get it. Your milage may vary.

This book is written from a practical perspective and this makes it a pleasure to learn about speech coding. Practical exercises provided in the book are can be done with the software provided (2 disks) and this makes learning fun. As a beginer to DSP and espicially to speech processing, I have found most books very technical and difficult to follow without the guidance of a technical person. This book cuts through the technical jargon and gets to the heart of the matter. There are real audio files on which Digital speech processing can be performed, however i found that with my computer, i could not play/hear the sound files. The graphical user interface is straightforward and not difficult to use. I'm glad I bought this book.

Basics: 1990, softcover, 180 pages, 101 color photos, 280 b&w drawings, 360 species, range maps, seasonal charts

This book is a hybrid between an atlas and a minimal photo guide. All the birds of the United Arab Emirates are discussed here. The seasonal status and distribution of each bird is covered in 3 - 16 lines, depending on its frequency in the country. This is not an identification guide but a reference book describing the presence of the birds in the country.

Most (280) of the birds are depicted with a good black-and-white drawing. The 20 plates contain 95 species, which are shown in 101 color photographs. These represent the resident and expected visitors to the country. While some of the photos are a bit small, they are generally good. These photos were meant to showcase some of the UAE birds and not to act as a field guide. There are other books for that.

All of the birds have a seasonal status chart which is made up of a horizontal bar with all twelve months. The varying darkness of the shading represents the abundance of the bird during the year. Range maps represent the breeding ranges for about 75 species.

Lastly, 26 pages are dedicated to birding locations in the UAE. These locations are shown with maps along with notes on the area's habitat along with a list of expected birds.

This is book is a good data reference for those people wishing to get an overview of the UAE's birds, at least as of 1990 when this book was written. I'm glad to have added it to my library.

Other Related Books:
1) Field Guide to the Birds of the Middle East by Porter et.al.
2) Birds of the Middle East and North Africa by Hollom et.al.
3) Birdlife in Oman by Eriksen
4) The Birds of Oman by Gallagher/Woodcock
5) Birds of Al Jabal Al Akhdar by Eriksen
6) Common Birds in Oman by Eriksen
7) Inland Birds of Saudi Arabia by Silsby
8) Birds of the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia by Bundy/Connor/Harrison
9) Birds of Southern Arabia by Robinson/Chapman
10) Birds of Bahrain by Nightingale/Hill

The Birds of the UAE is not out of print! It was privately published and I hold plenty of stock and can provide it to anyone wholesale (35% discount) or retail (£17 plus £5 p&p) who wishes a copy. Contact Colin Richardson P.O. Box 50394, Dubai. Thank you...

This book does not fully explain the status of some birds in the UAE. Some species are commoner than they were in the 1980's. I do advice a birdwatcher coming to the UAE to buy this book as he/she will not find it useful at all. The latest guide to the UAE's avifauna is the Shell Birdwatching Guide to the UAE.

The lessons Elspeth Murray and Peter Richardson wish to convey about organizational change are important, applicable and easy to sum up: If you want to change, do it quickly. The first 100 days are crucial. Build "speed, critical mass and intelligent momentum." Traditional models of decision making and strategic planning take too much time and contain far too many bottlenecks, making them inappropriate for the Information Age. The authors have done their research and they clearly explain the key elements of change and how to apply them to a range of situations. In fact, the authors do too good a job of emphasizing their main points: The book's drawback is its repetitiveness. We recommend that leaders who haven't yet managed a major change or those who wonder why their efforts have not succeeded read this book - especially the first half. Once you understand the core concepts, you may be able to read the rest less intently.

I expect that in a business world that values speed over most things, Richardson & Murray's book would strike a sympathetic chord. Nonetheless, beyond the existence of a popular belief that the quicker the better is how business should be run, I know of no research which would substantiate the claims to this effect. Are the stories that are provided by the authors sufficient to confirm their statements? I think not. Business is always looking for the next fad, something that will make all the difference in as short a time as possible. Management authors and practitioners who collude in this misguided search for the Holy Grail do more harm than good. Organizations are successful in the long term if they engage employees' hearts, not if they focus on things and logic. This engagement and involvement, the establishment of a democratic community, are not attainable in 100 days - maybe multiples of a 100 days.

The authors present a framework for rapid implementation of organizational change. They assert that creating understanding for the need for change, building momentum, and perhaps scoring some initial successes in the first 100 days greatly increases chances for success. Successful change calls for Winning Conditions, the book's core framework, consisting of: correct diagnosis of the change challenge; early development of shared understanding; enrichment of shared understanding; establishing a sense of urgency; creating a limited, focused, strategic agenda; rapid, strategic decision making and deployment; a human flywheel of commitment; identifying and managing sources of resistance; follow-through on changing organizational enablers; and demonstrated leadership commitment. Discussion and examples make this approach clear and show how it's applied. The authors are careful to distinguish between different types (or depths) of intervention. The book is outstanding in its scope and quality of thought. It is highly informative, gets to the meat of ideas clearly and quickly, and gives the reader solid value from start to finish.

This book tells you not only how you will use this book, it also shines some lights on the issues that seem to haunt you, gives directions to paths you seem to want to travel; It tells you how to work, what to listen to and where to improve your life, your self, and, by doing that, that of others. The book shows how different the paths we travel on are and at the same time how they're connected. The extensive knowledge of the writer of the great religious and filosophical teachings and books has been put into what i think an accurate and simple format. He shows how the great religions are different and the same, just as we people are all different and the same. The only way forward is to travel in each others company and tolerate - or accept, or use or acknowledge - the burden of differences. Everybody will find something about him- or herself in this book. For me, it showed that the best tale is the tale of your own life. It will develop itself when you live it and this book is one of the rare guidebooks. Reading it - even in bits and pieces - will be a joy and a milestone.

In his book Four Spiritualities, Peter T. Richardson tells us that, "Before history, there was generally a golden age of a perfect social order...dissolution and chaos entered in through disobedience and unfaithfulness."

It is true that the world became a better place because of the influence of a handful of wise men, prophets, and gurus, those who managed to overcome the handicap of our subjective, self-conscious state, in which we are limited to seeing only what is good for us at the moment.

Insight brings foresight, and both are the products of reasoning. Building a philosophy using Jung's theory is leaving out what Jung left out-the factors that make both introverts and extroverts see the world through distorted lenses.

The way to enlightenment is not through the methods that put us in the dark-reacting irrationally through fear (emotionally), or reacting irrationally through anger (instinctively). Nor is the way to enlightenment listening to that which keeps us in the dark-the ego.

Upon becoming enlightened what our wise men, prophets, and gurus saw was that the prevailing religions and political systems were not bringing about peace and equality. They were bringing about dissolution and chaos.

The masses were not to follow blindly, that is, aiding and abetting corrupt leaders, nor were they to pick up the sword against injustices coming from the top. They were to seek enlightenment from within.

If Jesus were to appear on the scene today he would encourage disobedience to the reigning warlords and false prophets, which would make him an enemy of both the state and the church.

It is true that our religions have passed on the words of the enlightened, but it is also true that the unenlightened, or those who have fallen back, have passed on distorted interpretations.

We know we have reached our goal when we are overcome with happiness just knowing we are alive, when following the Golden Rule is no longer a struggle but an added pleasure, and when we stop killing the messenger.

Richardson's ecumenical outlook is laudable, as it advances the cause of peace. But by failing to get to the root of the problem he offers only half-truths that lead to dead-ends.

Review of Four Spiritualities

This book was my first introduction to the idea that one's personality could be a strong indicator of one's preferred spiritual path. I found it fascinating and true to my own experience: I am the kind of person described by my Myers-Briggs type and I do have the spiritual preferences of my associated path in Four Spiritualities.

The book is thorough, well organized, and even-handed. It begins with an introduction of the MBTI which is necessarily generic rather than detailed, but it's complete, even-handed, and pretty clear, no small tasks. Richardson associates the two central letters of the MBTI type with preferred path, matching NT with the path of Unity, SF with Devotion, ST with Works, and NF with Harmony.

Chapters 2 and 3 seem like digressions at first, but provide important background into the development of one's personality and the motivations and preparations which put us on a spiritual path.

Chapters 4 through 7 present the four paths - Unity, Devotion, Works, and Harmony. They include more about the type and its characteristics and clarify the nature of the associated path. Richardson even notes the approximate percentage of the population in each type and comments on the concentration of certain types in certain religious careers. His own preferences do not show here and his breadth of coverage, examples, mentors, and references are very satisfying. The chapters have some repeated chunks, but these places easily bear repeating.

Chapter 8 departs some from the more scholarly tone of the rest of the book, pulling in less familiar references to native spirituality, new age philosophy, Celtic traditions, and even four Christian orientations derived by an Episcopal priest from four genres of literature identified by a critic. It is in this chapter and especially the final chapter, 9, that Richardson's own passions begin to show and he offers advice and reflections for society and the future.

The book concludes with footnotes from the chapters; lists of resources for more study of psychological type, scriptures, and religious traditions; a list of credits; and a substantial index.

This book is a slow read because the subject matter is dense and complex and because Richardson's writing style is rather scholarly in places (this is the only reason for 4 stars rather than 5). Do not think, though, that having read this review you can skip the book. It is rich and full and well worth the effort, for time after time the measured unpacking of a sentence brings that delicious Aha!, that Yes!

My initial reaction to this cookbook and having perused through it is, where are the greens? I see a lot of cow milk and other animals' milk products and hens' eggs...not numerous amounts of vegetables healthfully prepared. The book can, certainly, have its uses and does have some truly vegetarian (vegan) recipes. However, many others have plant AND animal matter, hardly emphasizing anything great or green.

I just wanted to say that the cover goes very well with the title and I am sure that the cook book is useful.

Rosamund Richardson is one of the best cookbook writers I have ever come across. Her recipes are never-fail, relying on simple, healthy ingredients. In this cookbook, the dishes are so flavorful and interesting in texture that you don't even notice they're only about vegetables (I am not a vegetarian). She always shares her thoughts about the dish, and the pictures make you hungry just to look at them. This book also gives alternate ingredient choices for vegan cooks and consumers.

I first came across this book at the library and thoroughly enjoyed the read. Well written. Engaging. It's great. However, this paperback edition is so poorly produced I find it impossible to read. The type is uneven -- letters vary in thickness and some parts of the page are darker then others. It's painful and frustrating. I would check your local libary for a hardback edition before buying the paperback. Truly a shame.

After all the bowdlerized, westernized, censored, and in other ways mutilated versions of Greek mythology served up to the general reader in the English language, here at last is something approaching the real thing.

Richardson is the honest mythographer we should have been reading all along. This is emphatically THE book to read to your children (as well as to yourself), if you at all want them to have a taste of the deep and vibrant stories of the Greeks. The psychological and dramatic truth of the stories shines forth here like nowhere else, and Hamilton, Graves and Evslin are reduced (at best) to research tools in comparison to the vigorous prose and galloping pace of Donald Richardson. The Greeks approached the sacred stories that they viewed as the foundation of their existence with a great sense of propriety, so what is left after stripping away the modern translators' veil of Victorian prudery is the undistilled humanity of a long-lost people, earthy, humorous, astute, and profound, but in no way obscene or prurient. Paradoxically, the closer we come to understanding the minds of the writers of these tales, a people who lived and died thousands of years ago, the more we begin to recognize ourselves.

The only drawback is the terrible production of the book, but my copy dates back to the late nineties, so perhaps by now the print-on-demand technology has evolved to the point of putting out books that are more legible, and that survive more than one reading.

Great Zeus and All His Children is an excellent place to start the study of Greek mythology. Although it should really be stressed that this book is for ADULTS, it is interesting reading full of heroic journeys and tragic tales. A must read for anyone interested in mythology.

NOT FOR YOUNG READERS!!!!