Simmons Books

Fully updated for ArchiCAD 11, this book is a Step by Step Training Guide with two levels of learning. The first level uses a residential project to teach basic concepts and modeling using ArchiCAD; the second level uses a commercial project to guide the user through the development of construction documents (CD). By the end of the book, the user will understand the ArchiCAD interface, how to use its 2D and 3D tools, and will be able to develop a 3D model with corresponding CDs. The book is written by Thomas M. Simmons who wrote the Step by Step for ArchiCAD over the past 10 years.

I usually don't participate in these reviews, except to read them, and I wish I'd read some before buying this book. As a hardcore C++ programmer and moderately accomplished Java programmer, the title lead me to believe I would be getting something along the lines of what Myers and Sutter did for C++. I was sadly dissapointed. While there are a few nuggets in the text, it is also filled with errors and bad advice. Proposing not using anonymous inner classes because they're "not mainstream" and "hard to read", and more telling "not object oriented", tells me the author needs to do a more thorough research before writing his next book. Any technique, when abused or misused can produce bad code, however anonymous inner classes is an elegant solution to a particular problem set, and should be encouraged in those areas, not broadly poo-poo'd. Educate to the right uses, not discourage because "I find it hard to read". This was the diatribe in the book that pushed me to write a review. If you get this book for free, and have a high tolerance level, there are one or two things to be taken from it, however if you are a novice Java programmer, seek input from someone senior before buying into many of the bad pieces of software engineering advice offered by this book.

The book's title is misleading. The book delves into some not-so-well-known aspects of Java. Unfortunately, the author's arrogant tone is distracting. I also don't agree with the word hardcore in the title. All in all, if you've only been working with Java for a few years, then this book will open your eyes.

With all the criticism and found errors being correct, junior Java developer absolutely should not ignore this book.

Book is filled up with the good practical techniques and rules of the thumb described in a simple and effective manner. Some techniques, for example use of readResolve method in constant serialization, are explained better and in more practical manner than "Effective Java" does.

Real book's name should be "Practical Java development for beginners"

No need to read this book if you already have some experience with Java in a moderate sized project. I could not find any exceptional knowledge and is a little advanced than an entry level book. Book does not live up to its promise.

This book disappointed me. The title raised so high expectations. I started very enthusiastically to read the book and ended in wading through quite a mess.

The level of the book is intermediate, certainly not advanced.

The topics and treatment in this book are quite mixed in level and style. A little about the language itself (so I learned happily about the existence of labels in Java), a lot about the API (here I appreciated most the dynamic proxy and the reference package discussion) and even an entire chapter on design (which I did not like at all).

If you want to learn a little more about Java and have already read the top notch "Effective Java", then this book is full of useful suggestions of areas for further exploration.

I use to be a big Dale Brown fan, as I thoroughly enjoyed "Shadows of Steel", "Warrior Class" and "Wings of Fire". Those novels had a good balance between technical military descriptions and story telling. In "Air Battle Force", however, Brown started to stray a little too far from the story telling side of it, and in "Plan of Attack" he pretty much goes over completely to the technical side. The novel opens with an account of an American air attack against mobile Russian missle launch pads in Turkmenistan. It should be exciting, but instead we get a painstaking description of the American attack plane's weapons systems; when it fires a missile, we get a detailed analysis of the missile's capabilities, as well as an indepth look at the defense systems of the Russian launch pads. Only a few pages in, it's hard to tell if you're reading a novel or a glorified instruction manual.
The story itself is a little far-fetched as well. While I'm sure Vladimir Putin would love it if he had an overhauled nuclear bomber strike force capable of attacking the United States without our even knowing, the actual reality is that this would never happen, especially with the Russian defense budget in the state that it is. Character development is also sketchy; Gary Houser, who is described as an Air Force Intelligence genius, doesn't do much beyond curse at anything that moves. Patrick McLanahan's usual go-against-the-grain mentality is so routine by now that it hardly seems shocking anymore (though what is shocking is that he hasn't been kicked out of the Air Force by now). And finally, Brown is so eager to show the technical aspect of modern warfare that he almost completely ignores the human side of it. In the afore-mentioned opening battle scene, for instance, it's easy to forget that hundreds of Russian soldiers are killed.
Overall, I found this book to be a dissapointment. The idea of Russia launching a surprise nuclear attack against the United States smacks of 1970's Cold War paranoia and lacks any kind of believability. In addition, the non-stop technical jargon drags the story down and prevents any actual momentum. I used to count Dale Brown as one of my favorite authors, but suffice to say I don't think I'll be picking up any new books from him anytime soon.

I'm used to being disappointed by authors that I'm not familiar with, but this one is a real shock. It's incredibly bad. I'm not a literary snob - I've read and enjoyed most of Tom Clancy's books. But really, someone who pretends to be a writer of novels should at least try to write something that has the basics - like plot, characters, and intelligible writing. It appears that Dale Brown has written quite a few of these books, and some people have actually read them. What a waste of time and trees.

OMG, what an awful book. is there a LESS than 1 star rating?? ;-) how appropriate that the author has a similar name to DAN BROWN of da'vinci fame who writes even MORE pitifully than dale. I am promising myself i won't make the same mistake as i did w/ brown's books, which was keep reading to see if they got better. brown's didn't, they were all so predictable and just god awful. i'm going to go on the presumption that DALE's will likely follow the same track and will save myself some hours of my life...

Now, about this book - i TOTALLY agree w/ anything negative said above - it just can't be said any better.

- way, way, WAY too much technical jargon
- i'm not a military guy so don't know all the protocol, but i can confidently bet $1MM that if ANYONE (even general george washington) did HALF the insubordinate things that mclanahan did, he wouldn't just be "demoted," he'd be courtmartialed in a heartbeat. reading about him constantly bending the rules and still getting things done thru alternate channels, without breaking a sweat, mind you, is just so incomprehensible as to be RIDICULOUS.
- story lines and situations that just come out of nowhere, with no explanation in order to "set up" the current scene
- totally agree w/ the above poster on the ridiculously futuristic weapons

i know you have to have an imagination to read these types of books, but there's imagination, and then there's RIDICULOUS.

I would have said the story is utterly preposterous until we got the new president of Iran and his dreams of recalling the 12th Prophet through nuclear war. But we now know that there was (and probably is) a system of checks and balances in even the most fanatical of governments. Ok, let's start with the bad:
(1) Plot - Russia succeeds in tricking the US and destroys most of our land-based nuclear capability with old bombers
(2) The neverending technical jargon - who CARES if it's an A64-S3 or a B22 portable plasma SAM. I, like 90% of the readers, learned to skip the redundant definitions and explanations.
(3) Lack of description of the nuclear attacks themselves. One of the reasons I read the novel was for the purported nuclear war episode. After a while it became routine...."He was thinking about home sweet home when suddenly a light, and no more thoughts were present" (variations on a theme)

Now the good:
(1) If true, a warning about complacency and assumptions
(2) Good action
(3) Great hero - Patrick rocks!

WARNING: A landmine of military jargon at its worst (or best)

This book is a very good story. I personally have never enjoyed High-tech battle books, but this book along with Air Battle Force are two very good High tech battle books that I recommend as a good read.

Someone who is not very interested in the subject, or who doesnt have a very good imagination cant really enjoy this book.

In this book, the author describes all of the weapons, and weapon systems very very much, which kind of got a bit tedious and dull. But overall the story was very good.

As many others have already said, I agree that it is probably time for this storyline to be put to rest.

The author's web site, also promoting their survey, attacks other web sites for 'failing the 95%' test. This test appears largely based on self-report and, given the voluminous reporting, is likely to be a psychometric Barnum effect. Emotional intelligence indeed!

I read the book looking for a way to measure character. Some years ago, Lee Iococca wrote that "there was no way to measure the fire in a person's belly". The Simmons Survey and other tools provided by the company do just exactly that. It helps to identify square pegs who might be in round holes.

There is nothing worse than putting a person in a position where they are likely going to fail just because we as managers and leaders are too lazy to make an effort to prevent this.....or use false economies in budgeting to not provide funds to accomplish this purpose.

This book might be organized to "flow" a little better, but, its contents explain character and how it can be measured very well.

This book is an overpriced advertisement for the authors' $75 survey. It attempts to "measure" a person's Emotional intelligence Quotient (EQ) on 13 scales: Emotional Energy, Emotional Stress, Optimism, Self-esteem, Commitment to Work, Attention to Detail, Desire for Change, Courage, Self-direction, Assertiveness, Tolerance, Consideration for Others, and Sociability.

There is an awful lot of overlap in those categories. Overall, the writing style is simplistic and clunky. But even worse, this book is extremely redundant. About 1/4 to 1/3 of every chapter is duplicated almost verbatim in other chapters.

The book promises an objective tool to "measure" that elusive thing popularly termed "Emotional Intelligence". Although the chapter heads and book title all feature the term "measuring", nowhere in the text is an objective measuring tool or method offered. Subjective, vague "test" grid supplied at the end of the book does little but encourage you to spend more money on the "Simmons Personal Survey".

The text of the book details how to recognize obvious aggression, introversion, sociability etc. in others. The slant of the book has a strong workplace orientation. The bias is somewhat disturbing as it describes personality traits in terms of "positive or negative" judgements, and only as applied to the Western work paradigm.

The workbook portion is disappointing, presented only as an identical one-page template at the close of each chapter featuring oddly worded and ambiguous questions, such as: "Write down the type of person that someone you know fits best" (?)

The "advice" provided is somewhat helpful, but is general, and often vague. The "system" is not clearly integrated, so that from chapter to chapter the potential geometric complexities arising from the composition of all these traits taken together becomes increasingly incomprehensible. It would be nice to see the author describe characteristics acting in combination presented as more than an occasional passing remark. Instead the book focuses strictly on "how to manage" various individual traits in others (not in oneself, as the cover proclaims).

As an integrated "measure"of personality, I think tools like the Myers-Briggs type indicator and the 16 P.F., in use by professional career counselors, is far more comprehensive for the person seeking work-related or career direction. The title "Do What You Are" is a useful workbook based on the Myers-Briggs system. On the subject of "Emotional Intelligence" Daniel P. Goleman's work is less prescriptive and more informative.

On the plus side, the book does offer some tips for interviewing and screening potential employees. To this end, the manager or employer might find the book useful. One would still have to spend the extra time and money buying into that "measure" promised by the title, but not in fact delivered.

Everyone must always remember that even if a person or a professional individual has a high IQ or high grades; that does NOT necessarily mean that he/she is going to be successful in his personal , professional or business career; consequently, the book by Drs. Simmons is an excellent eyeopener to achieve a more lasting success in life, and also remember that it takes a few months (12-36) months to modify the bad habits learned during chidhood or adolescense; and that through REPETITION (replacing old bad habits by NEW good habit) one can modify the weaknesses of our bad habits; and also by being more open to good companionships, with good and positive attitudes and also it helps to be in good terms with GOD, to be able to transcend and endure in this hard battle of survival. I recommend this book and we hope that higher education also teaches and pays more attention to books like this, because if one goes to an institution of high learning , one is supposed to be given also the proper tools to be higher (emotionally) to be able to survive the ups and downs of life; so this should be a pre-required book in College and Master and Doctoral programs all over the world, and not only knowing the contents of emotional Intelligence, BUT putting them into practice, because it does NOT help too much just to memorize the contents of the book , if the person continues being mean to himself {auto-destructive (conscious or un-consciously)} or to others; in this respect , everybody should practice daily what this book teaches, in order to be able to achieve what Psychologist E.Fromm recommends from psychology : to be able to overcome the unreal ILUSIONS that we have about ourselves , and also to be able to overcome the distortions that we have of OTHERS; and this can be achieve raising our Emotional Intelligence following the methods given in this book . I hope that my comments have been of service to your readers.END

Just standard mumbo jumbo. Extremely elementary. The only secret is that it has none.

The Secret is out: This is not a very good book.. I was very disappointed with Windows XP Secrets.

I had previously bought Windows 95, 98, and Me Secrets along with several of their Office Secrets and was very satisfied.

The first thing I noticed was the length on the book. In "Me Secrets" the author writes: "...Windows Me is a minor upgrade-not a major departure from Windows 98...." Yet the Me book takes up almost 1,500 pages. Windows XP is the greatest change in the system since Windows 95 yet But the book has only about 700 pages, half the size of Me. Some things have to be left out. And they were. This includes the CD ROM that came with other Secret's books.

The Windows secrets Book usually contained:
Extensive instructions on nearly every aspect of the program.
This is sorely missing here. The instructions seemed rushed and incomplete. If your computer does not align itself exactly to the instructions, which often do not start at the beginning, you will find few alternatives or suggestions. More than just the instructions are missing; large sections of what Windows XP can do are missing too. This book is definitely not for the beginner.

Personalization Tips and Secrets:
Perhaps the biggest surprise is that there aren't that many secrets in general and in this area in particular. What I had like best about the previous Secrets books is that they gave me large amount of suggestions of how I could make Windows "my own". They offered `secrets" that allowed me to personalize and enable me to feel comfortable with my computer. In addition they offered additional tips to speed up many tasks. There were chapters entitled: "Making Windows Your Own" and "My system." One example: A secret I looked forward to each Secret's book to instruct me on how to change the opening and closing logos of my computer. Using their secrets, I had made, with tier instructions, my own personalized logo on boot up. No longer. This book just doesn't cover the areas it used to. This book is definitely not for the intermediate user.

There are more "tips" than secrets.
Matter fact there are really very few useable secrets and the tips are run of the mill. Since there is little space given to advanced subjects as the registry, and few secrets that you can really use, this book was obviously not written for the advanced use either.

No fun, no sense of reality in the writing.
The previous books were written with a sense of reality, a sense of humor and a sense of fun. All this is missing here. The sense of reality was often a tongue and cheek way of expressing the "secret" deficiencies of Windows and the ways of getting around them. There were even chapters called "Fun." In a field that is very serious, these books took the time to point out that these programs do not all have to be "heavy lifting", there was some fun here too. No longer.

Finally, the previous editions of Secrets came with a CD. For example, entire book, with a searchable database, was able to be loaded on your computer. This was great. You were able to get help instantly. No such book here.

This book provides a lot info on Windows XP - more out of the way kinds of things than you might find in other books. I used the Windows Me Secrets book, and frankly, though it was fully of a lot of junk. This book is very focused and I've found everything in it useful. Lots of good info on 3rd utilites. I do wish it had a CD, but I think it was worth the asking price

I haven't been using Secrets books (or a computer for that matter) since Windows 3.x, so I don't have a frame of reference for this new Secrets book like some of the other reviewers.

All I can say is if you are a moderately good computer user and want to find out a bunch of cool and (sometimes) weird things about XP, this book is great. It covers system items well and points out configuration things you might not notice on your own.

Just standard mumbo jumbo. Extremely elementary. The only secret is that it has none.

National Lampoon virgins are th only ones I would recommend this book to. A superficial history of the institution that the lampoon became is all it amounts to. Again only read if you are new to the national lampoon.

There are many inexplicable things going on in this book. Danny Simmons is not a very capable writer, he jumps around into every character's thoughts with reckless abandon. When I was reading this book, I kept wondering why he didn't just stay in one person's head and stay there. On the walks Crow and his cronies take around the East Village, they hop from St.Marks down to 2nd Street and back up to St. Marks without stepping off a curb. They walk down 6th Street which is a crosstown street. The character Candy is refferd to as both Candy and Candace Maria for no particular reason, it seems as if the writer is showing off his inside knowledge of this latina hottie who is his own creation. There is stereotyping galore, East Village types looking down their noses at folks from 'gasp' Westchester and 'yikes' New Jersey while they themselves are from those dreaded places. Crow becomes shaken to the core thinking about when he was in lockup apparently for protesting something or other? OK, on the positive side, the book is a quick and mildly entertaining read about a fun era in NYC history. Danny Simmons is clearly a talented painter,and a truly creative cat.

In order to tell a good story, an author has to know how to write. Unfortunately, Danny Simmons does not know how to write. He barely has a story to tell. He has thrown together stereotypical ideas of what urban life is and the people who live it. He uses every pararaph to conceal his insecurities by using large words and poetic phrases that do not pertain to the scene at hand. Talentless, boring, and uninventive- I pray that he does not come out with another one. The only thing impressive about him is his brother's money. And that is what probably got this supposed work or art published.

This book is a waste of time to read. The editor who bought this book wasted the publisher's money. The book went on and on about nothing. More than half way through it, the characters are still stuck on stupid, and haven't accomplished a thing. The editor just wanted to acquire the Simmons name. Don't waste your time folks.

I am writing not to review Danny's just fine first effort, but in response to the comment from "a reader from NY," who says: "The only thing impressive about him is his brother's money. And that is what probably got this supposed work or art published." Not liking the book is one thing. But anyone who has ever seen even a single one of Danny's paintings (some of which are represented in the book, albeit in shades of gray, which do them little justice), could have no doubt that "his brother's money" has nothing to do with why people keep buying them (the person in Charlotte, NC, who bought the painting that appears on the cover did not know who Danny was, let alone to what family he belonged); why some of them reside in places like the United Nations' permanent collection and have been auctioned at Christie's; why his work increases in value or why people flock in droves to his art shows, parties or any of the exhibits of young artists of color that he and his staff curate at either of his New York City galleries-because it's not just about him, you see. Critical analysis and CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM may in fact be necessary to the growth of any artist, but poorly informed and down right nasty personal attacks are the dreck of small minds, over-inflated self-importance and reveal much more about the critic than the criticized. Would "a reader" like to tell Danny what could have been improved upon specifically? I look forward to reading anything "a reader" ever writes (or seeing what he or she paints), for are we not told, "Criticism comes easier than craftsmanship?" Tell us "a reader's" real name and I will be the first one in here with my two cents. (Hope that's not too many "large words" for "a reader.")

Trying his hand at fiction, Danny Simmons paints a vivid, sexy and extremely hilarious portrait of 1980s New York and its decadent art world. But this isn't a book about art. It's a story of awakening. In three days Crow Shade is transformed from a scrounging Brooklyn coke addict to studnet of the artists. Ways. There's plenty of wine, women and white lines. But the most important thing is that by the end Crow is forces to see himself for who he really is, and more importantly who he wants to be. This is a wonderful novel that I hope reader don't sleep on. I'm about to read it again.

This book obviously reflects a beta version of FrontPage 2003- much critical information is either missing or just plain wrong. Also, it's not nearly as filled with insights and explanatory information as many similar books: often, there's nothing added to what appears in the actual program's menus and wizards. The book was poorly edited and its content flow very disjointed. Its graphics are not particularly useful. This book is simply a poorly updated version of an earlier version, obviously rushed to market to be the first out of the gate. I recommend that folks try other books.

I don't have a lot of experience with FrontPage, but this book has really helped me get everything moving forward. Good chapters and easy to follow content. I know I'll refer to this book again and again.

This book only offers the most of cursory looks at FP 2003. After the numerous chapters about navigating menus and using basic Windows commands, the quickness of the database section was disappointing. SQL was tossed at the reader without any acknowledgement of the structure.

But the biggest disappointment was that Dynamic Web Templates were not discussed at all! The term does not even show up in the index. Given that this is one of the new features of FP 2003, I feel as though I squandered the money I paid for on this book.

Only someone who knows absolutely nothing about FP and designing web pages would glean much use from this book. Given that set of skills, that person probably should not be building web sites to begin with.

This book was interesting at first, but while reading the bio on Peter Criss, it said that he wrote the song "Hard Luck Woman," when every kiss fan knows Paul Stanley wrote that song. It also had a bunch of typos and other misinformation. Didn't someone edit and check the facts? I don't recommend this book at all.

it was a good short book.there was only a couple of things i did not already know.but as a kiss fan that wasn't important.

This was a small, easy to read book. Unfortunately, no revelations or new information given. Pictures were nice, but many used over throughout the book

This one has more errors than should be allowed in a technical book. I run a network that consists of over 40,000 users, just about every OS available, and manage a slew of Proxy Servers throughout. Wanted to make the move to ISA so decided to pick this up. What a waste! Absolutely nothing in here for real-life situations. Should be unshelved, RE-EDITED, and then possibly re-written before being sold. Pick up the Sygress book. Much better explanations throughout.

This guide is far too light on configuration, routing and detailed information about clients

Finding good research material for the ISA Server exam was difficult, so when I came across this book I bought it and didn't know what to expect. Fortunately, this book had everything I was looking for, including relevant sample questions and lots of step-by-step instructions for key tasks. The book is written in an easy to read format. I recommend it to anyone who works with ISA servers or intends to take the exam.