Publications and Media Books

The audio book is a great addition to my listening collection. We all know what it is like to finish a project behind schedule and over budget... This audio book focuses on was to handle an ever changing WBS. I definitely recommend this selection.

Reviewed by Stephanie Rollins for Reader Views (8/06)

"Managing in the Face of Ever-Changing Requirement" by Kevin Aguanno deals with the inevitable forces of change. He tells how to actually finish a project with all the adjustments change requires. His background is in software design management. His examples are based upon his experience in the software industry, but the lessons are for all to learn.

Aguanno points out that we must adjust projects to the internal and external forces that produce change or else customer satisfaction will decrease. He also acknowledges the financial impacts of change. How much value is the change going to add? Do the customers really need this change? Do they still need the project? Asking questions such as these will keep the project in alignment with the company's goals and objectives.

Aguanno explains the aspects of agile management and how they help adapt a project to changes. The backbone to this paradigm is to focus on the outcome rather than the processes. The focus should be taken off of documentation and put on the end result of the project. Most importantly, project managers need to be a liaison between the team members and the barriers that are hindering project progress.

In order to keep management's confidence in the project team, Aguanno recommends routinely showing the executives the project's progress. This lets them know of the impacts of change, also. When the project has ended, there will be no surprises.

There are two project flows that address change. One requires finishing the project as designed initially. Then make necessary changes. The other requires that the project development stop whenever a change may need to take place. The project design is analyzed, changes are made, and progress proceeds.

Since change is universally inevitable, all project managers will benefit from Aguanno's helpful hints. "Managing in the Face of Ever-Changing Requirements" is a perfect way to make the most of a long commute or work-out.

McQuail's masterful tome on communications theory is a respected standard for college students, and there's a reason this book has gone through so many editions. Just about everything a communications major will ever study is introduced and summarized here, and the number of different subjects covered is quite impressive. But on the flip side of that coin, there is a structural problem with cramming the material from four years worth of college courses into one book, no matter how robust it is. This text suffers from two inverse problems - there are too many subjects covered, while each one is not fleshed out enough. In short, it's impossible to be as inclusive as McQuail is attempting to be. Meanwhile, McQuail's writing is not only rushed and indistinct, which is predictable for a book that tries to consolidate an entire field of knowledge, but he is also guilty of dry, wooden prose and a severe shortage of elaborative examples. McQuail is also prone to textboxes and tables that appear helpful and illustrative at first, but are actually useless tabulated reproductions of exactly what has already been stated in prose form. This book's sheer exhaustive inclusiveness still makes it a useful encyclopedic reference work that communications students will find useful over the long term. But in the short term, this book merely offers indistinctness and confusion. [~doomsdayer520~]

Well, if you are either a media study student or an orninary citizen, this book will be a fundamental guide for your understanding of the various social activities. Once you read the theories simply explained, you will notice what you have not realized how much you were influenced by the media themselves.

With the deep understanding of the media theories in the book, I bet you could enrich your life and prepare for the better life ahead.

I was a bit disappointed in this book which seems to take somewhat of a critical perspective of the Midrash. Their companion book on the Talmud suffers somewhat from the same general malady. In other words, the Midrash is inspirational, and inspired, stories but that is about it. That was my impression. However, in fairness to the authors this is one of the few books that even attempts to make the Midrash accessible to the average non-Yeshiva reader. Be aware though, that this book very much oversimplifies the concept and sometimes shows a shallowness of scholarly understanding. A book which I prefer is linked from here: Learning to Read Midrash is a better book for my money but certainly more challenging. Learning to Read Midrash

The Oral Torah was handed down for generations from Moses. It is the complement to the Written Torah. Keep in mind that the original Torah was written without vowels or punctuation; the implication being that there had to be an oral Torah to understand the written one. Midrash refers to stories and details from the Oral Torah that clarify and add to stories in the Torah. The Oral Torah wasn't codified in the Talmud until about a millennium ago when anti-Semitism was so intense it appeared that the Oral Torah would be lost to posterity.

This book is presented in an easy concise format. The authors explain all of the Hebrew words that are used. The actual Biblical texts are juxtaposed with the Midrashic texts for easy comparison. Then each is followed by a D'rash, a short commentary. The root word of d'rash means to investigate. A lot of Christians tend to shy away from Jewish commentaries and such books are rarely sold in Christian books stores, even though Christians believe in the Hebrew Bible, the so called Old Testament. This is unfortunate because they are really missing out on a lot. Very few Christian ministers were able to answer my questions pertaining to the Hebrew Bible. A couple of ministers I consulted had never even heard of the story of Tamar and Judah in Genesis 38. The Jewish people are named for Judah/Yehuda.

I haven't read this book, but own it and just felt the other review -- left by someone who left a review intended for the book seller -- needs balance. Leaving through the book, it seems to be a serious and thoughtful and well-researched treatment of how imagery is used in advertising and the effect images have.

M. Glickman
Author, Beyond the Breath: Extraordinary Mindfulness Through Whole-Body Vipassana Meditation

Arrived in great condition but not in time for when needed. Therefore, book was returned and credit was given.

In reviewing the audio CD from Mark Kozak-Holland I was very interested in how he relates Winston Churchill's methods to modern day techniques such as the "dashboard". Knowing little to nothing about Churchill before listening - I now want to read more. On the negative side - the audio CD had a few moments where there was a reference to slides that you cannot see when listening to the CD. If you look beyond the quality of the audio and listen to the content - you will be pleased.

Reviewed by William E. Cooper for Reader Views (8/06)

In listening to this CD, which is less than an hour long, Mr. Kozak-Holland makes the attempt to create a comparison with Winston Churchill's management style and decision making skill with today's organizations and issues and challenges they face. He succeeds. Using the crisis faced by England at the start of World War 11, and the absolute requirement to make decisions at unprecedented levels, Mr. Kozak-Holland makes a compelling case for using the Churchill leadership style in today's organizations. He describes the need for true leadership in times of rapid growth and change, for people, systems, and finances.

Churchill succeeded in circumstances that were far more critical and dangerous than faced by many businesses today. His entire country and its people were at severe risk and he won. He won because of the character and principles he brought. By applying them in our world today, under important but far less critical circumstances, we can demonstrably show one success after another.

There is a real learning opportunity in listening to this CD. Good job Mr. Kozak-Holland.

Fans of the Broadway musical and costume design will love these paper dolls. The illustrations are wonderful.
Among the highlights are Eve Arden, Elaine Stritch, Bernadette Peters and the gorgeous Diahann Carroll, as well as the costumes from "The King and I" and "Evita".
I wasn't so sure about the likenesses of Lena Horne and Carol Burnett.
I would have preferred it if the book had been chronologically divided into two volumes so that each star could have been outfitted with more outfits.

A bit dry and not exactly riveting reading, this book worked well as a source for my masters thesis on women advertising copywriters. For that application is was outstanding. Anyone reading this book would pretty much have to enjoy saturating themselves workings ad agencies and creative departments. This is a highly specialized that book and does not look at ad agencies in a general way, but explores the dynamics of creative teams (copywriters/art directors) in London using interviews, research and analysis very specifically. This book is academic in tone. I found this book extemely helpful to my research and recommend it to anyone who needs to a source for the inner workings and sexual dynamics of advertising creative departments.

Reviewed by Regan Windsor for Reader Views (3/07)

Agile methods have gained momentum in the software development world but have been slow to penetrate the database development world. Scott Ambler describes how this is slowly changing and what database developers can do to embrace and introduce agile methodologies.

"Agile Database Development" describes the current collection of philosophies around agile database development, the challenges and misconceptions around agile methodologies, and what needs to happen to bring the data community up to speed with the software development world.

A large problem that database developers run into when trying to implement agile methods is a direct result of tools are not flexible enough to align with the agile methodologies. There is a need for automated database re-factoring and testing tools that allow developers to embrace JIT modeling and iterative methodologies. This isn't to say that agile methods cannot be currently incorporated - they can - but it often means manual database re-factoring.

The biggest area that database developers can benefit from agile philosophies without requiring a lot of development changes is around documentation and modeling. Increased efficiencies can be gained through the utilization of whiteboard modeling, brainstorming, JIT requirements gathering, and minimizing unnecessary or untimely documentation.

"Agile Database Development" takes a critical look at how database development can benefit from agile methodologies and what needs to happen to fully embrace these concepts. While traditional methods may still play a large part it is important for the database community to understand and evolve its methodologies. The world is moving at the speed of change - it is better to keep up than try to catch up!

Rao and Mendoza appear to be targeting a business or technology audience, that might be eyeing these burgeoning markets and wondering if they should establish a presence. For this, the country profiles can be very useful, as these are focused on telecommunications and wireless. Rather than being a general interest introduction to those countries.

They also explain the various stages of buildouts of WiFi and other wireless ventures. The reader can clearly see that the stages of development vary vastly between countries.

The book can also offer you a cautionary note about the potential pitfalls in investing in a wireless venture. See for example the details about the regulatory structures put in place by the governments. These can be formidable barriers to outsiders.

While I have not yet finished reading the book, I have read enough to appreciate the author's sensible approach to resolving the mystery of whether Atlantis ever existed at all, and if so, where it might have been. The author begins with a well considered analysis of Plato's accounts of Atlantis, and what factors may affect the truthfulness and accuracy of those tales.

However, I am more impressed by the author's early recognition that sea levels were much lower 12,000 years ago, and the outlines of continents would have been different, and so would the regions of human population (mostly along now submerged coastlines). This fact seems too often overlooked in previous or competing theories.

On the downside of this book, the first chapter was written with all the academic rigor of a cocktail party monologue, reminiscent of Erick von Daniken's "Chariots of the Gods". There seem to be a number of editing errors, or inconsistencies. The author seems to confuse "descendant" with "ancestor". Additionally, he neglects the archeological evidence of stone-age man using flint tools in America, while supposing that Atlanteans enjoyed a global, cosmopolitan culture, along side primative shanty-towns. Even with the ghettos in America, you find plastic spoons from McDonald's.

I almost threw the book away, but the following chapters made me glad I did not, and I look forward to completing the book and this review in the weeks to come.