Statistics Books

dr. field has done an excellent job of making stats understandable and spss user friendly. as a social psychology grad student, i enjoy the ease of use found with the index. if i forget the differences in rotation methods for factor analysis, i can quickly find clear explanations in the book. i suggest to all grad students and advanced undergrads using spss to get a copy of this text!

This should be the first book you buy if you need help with stats and SPSS. When I first began doing empirical research I knew almost nothing about statistics or SPSS, and had to learn virtually everything I needed to know about complex multivariate tests on my own. I had suffered through many of the relevant, canonical books before I happened upon Field. It was a V-8 moment. Not only does the book explain everything in engaging, easy to understand, often hilarious terms (a favorite example is the caption of the photo of statistician Bonferroni: "Carlo Bonferroni before the celebrity of his correction lead to drink, drugs and statistics groupies"), but again and again it answered questions I had that other sources didn't address in a practical way. One example out of many is how to calculate and interpret effect sizes, which SPSS doesn't calculate for all multivariate tests, or calculates using a measure that has been widely criticized. Field describes the rationale behind several measures of effect size as well as formulas for calculating them, including clear indicators of where to find the data in SPSS output.

Other reviewers have commented that this book is light on theory. I don't know enough about statistical theory to know if this is a valid criticism. But, I do think the book provides ample and detailed "whys" behind the "hows" that I haven't found elsewhere and that were necessary to help me justify the tests I run and how I interpret them. The level of detail and abstraction, in my opinion, is completely appropriate for most researchers and students.

This book was an enormous help to me in writing my doctoral dissertation. Now, I am a Communications scholar and I did a content analysis, so I didn't need to master a lot of highly advanced techniques. But nor had I taken courses that taught statistics in any depth. I was feeling quite at sea on some things. And for a dissertation, you really have to understand things, so you can defend it at the end. Although I had other statistics books and they certainly were helpful, this one that walked me through the tests I had been doing and -- quite simply, with patience and good humor -- helped me to understand why they were necessary and basically how they worked. I liked the fact I could read much or as little detail as I could absorb at the time -- there are quick summaries, clearly marked, or longer, quite simple explanations for those in a hurry, as well as in-depth explanations for things you really need to know thoroughly. It was having those choices that made this book incredibly helpful.

This book is perfect!! Very informative, the layout is systematically and on top of it all; statistics becomes fun. It is a pleasure to read this book!!
Thanks to Andy Field which made my life as a PhD easier!!:O)

Useful and entertaining stats books are hard to come by but this one has hit the mark! Comprehensive and clear explanations of statistical theory are provided as well as of SPSS output. Love the examples and icons. Who would have thought a stats text could make me laugh out loud?!

I could not exist without this product for reviewing old songs and artists

thanks

This edition lits the hits that most people forgot! I was looking for info on one it wonders and other fun trivia that we could enjoy at work. This book was it!

This is a great book for laying musical artists and song arguments to rest.It is also very informative and fun to read.

For some reason this book is very hard to get in the UK (a bit like a good train or bus service). Hence the need to purchase it from the international site of Amazon. Once obtained it is very useful.
It now also seems difficult to get the UK version, so good luck if you are hunting for either.

An excellent reference for any music enthusiast wishing to narrow his or her research. Well written, informative and accurate. Another typical Whitburn product worth every penny. The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits (Billboard Book of Top Forty Hits) 8th Edition

Supplement this one with his Billboard Hot 100 Charts (The Sixties) Billboard Hot 100 Charts - The Sixties. And lastly, while we're still in the 60's music Era, don't forget Whitburn's Bubbling Under The Billboard Hot 100, 1959-2004.Bubbling Under the Billboard Hot 100: 1959-2004: Joel Whitburn Presents

You can't go wrong here. The research he's done in these references to ensure accuracy and simplicity is incredible.

My only issue is that the book doesn't address how to use google analytics more. He gives a lot of suggestions, but there isn't enough guidance in actually how to use GA to pull the data he recommends.

This book is fantastic. Not only does it cover everything, but it does it in a simple way, an hour a day!

I reckon once you have finished this book you will be a head of the majority.

Must get for analytics.

This book is amazing. If you think you knew everything or are in an analysis slump, just flip through this book and you'll find something new to analyze.

I have used Web Side Story...moved to Omniture....also work with Google Analytics.....This book does a good job of getting away from the mountains of data, to provide a clear cut "THINK ABOUT WHAT THE ANALYTICS MEAN" on a business basis- definitely worth the time investment.

Technologies evolve, but the PROCESS by which we should collect and analyze online data in order to gain solid, actionable insights will remain constant for the foreseeable future.

I have been fortunate enough to work with some of the smartest online marketers in the business, and, to say the very least, most of these people -- especially those in the analytics community -- seem content to share their expertise in the most confusing and theoretical manner possible. But not Avinash Kaushik. And in "An Hour a Day," Avinash proves why he is the world's most trusted name in analytics: he brings us up to his level without unnecessary jargon, so we can actually understand how to do this stuff!

Without question, this book is required reading for ANY online marketer, business owner, or anyone currently outsourcing their web analytics. (Warning: You may become better at this than the people you're paying to do it for you!)

Have a website you're not properly tracking? You're not alone! Less than a third of e-commerce and B2B sites have sufficient web analytics tracking -- let alone a process by which to glean insight from it -- and it's not the technology's fault. The problem is that most people don't understand the VALUE and NECESSITY of web analytics. They don't realize it's the difference between sink or swim. For most organizations, web analytics is an afterthought; something pawned off to those with technical knowledge when it should really be understood by those who need to use this data to make serious business decisions. Well, folks, those days are over. If all you know about your site is how many page views, uniques, or (*yikes*) "hits" it's getting, you're in much worse shape than you currently realize, simply because you have no idea how much money and attention you're missing out on if you have no clear goals in mind or a system by which to quantify it.

If you're not measuring it properly, how can you ever claim to have an online strategy that's working? How else will you know how successful your campaign is? How else will you know which elements to test and optimize?

Whether you're a beginner or you know just enough about web analytics to be dangerous, you should absolutely buy this book today. The book pays for itself a hundred fold in the very first hour of the very first day.

The hero is a pragmatist in a Godless world. The protagonist, Frank Cassidy, had not had a day off in two years when he quits his job in New Jersey to go the the Upper Peninsula, Michigan for reason of a death in the family. He steals a car and later robs a man named Melvin. Frank's brother-cousin and his wife, Norman and Martha, dread the arrival of Frank and Honey and Robert Lee and Ernie, the children.

In the boarding house where they stay there is a hint of opulence. It is learned that the body of the deceased uncle, Ward, is being held by the authorities. Honey feels they should try to get jobs in the town. Frank works as a security guard and Honey in the business office of a college undergoing a transition from a community college to a four years residential college with a Great Books curriculum.

For Thanksgiving it is decided to eat at Cedar Lodge and stay there through the long weekend. Listed winter activities are ice skating and ice fishing. In a telephone call Frank learns that his cousin Norman is collapsing. Norman upended the sheriff's car when served with papers of foreclosure. Frank and his family go to Norman's place where it is discovered the dairy herd has been killed. In the end Frank uncovers and clarifies mysteries that have always surrounded his boyhood. The atmosphere created by the author matches the subject of the search for meaning by being indeterminate, foggy, bewildering. The children are presented in interesting realistic detail.

This is an unusual book, strange in so many ways I'm going to have trouble listing them all. I'll try, though. I will say that at some level I enjoyed this book, and if you can overcome the shortcomings that I'll list below, you may enjoy it more than I did.

For one thing, there's the issue of the author's name. This *isn't* the Michael Collins who was the first president of Ireland (of course not, he's been dead for 80 years) though the author was born over there. He's also not the astronaut who stayed on Apollo 11 while Armstrong and Aldrin wandered around on the moon. And he's also not Dennis Lynds, who has a series of detective novels featuring a one-armed private eye named Dan Fortune, and who writes novels under the pen name Michael Collins. This is the other other other Michael Collins. Very weird.

The plot of the book is pretty complex. All of the plot takes place in the late 1970s, a strange choice for the author. It works at some levels, though. Frank Cassidy is a small-time next-to-nothing, working at a burger joint, married to a woman who is at first a dispatcher for a trucking company. They have two kids, though the older one is from her previous marriage. Frank gets word that his uncle has died, and he decides to return to his hometown for the funeral. However his cousin and the cousin's wife are very angry at this.

This is where things begin to get strange. It turns out that Frank's wife, Honey, was married before, and her husband killed two people and is now on Death Row. She beats the son she had with the first husband. Frank, meanwhile, steals cars and money in order to finance their trip back home. As the novel progresses, there's not a single solitary character in the whole plot who's truly honest, good-hearted, and/or selfless. Everyone's out for themselves, dishonest, and nasty. It's sort of a cross between American Beauty and The Grapes of Wrath.

One point I think worth making is that the author isn't an American. You've got to wonder what these guys are thinking (I'm thinking of the guy who wrote American Beauty) when they move here in order to write stuff and tell us what jerks we are. I wonder if an American could move to Britain or Ireland and write a novel like this, and get it published, let alone receive awards. Needless to say, all the gushing blurbs on the back of the book are from British and Irish newspapers, which all insist (of course) that it reveals "America's long malaise".

The author *can* write, though. There's not that much of a plot, unfortunately. Instead, we get a bleak, desolate account of Middle America a quarter century ago. While the author isn't positive about anything, it's interesting to watch the characters wander through the plot. The mystery angle isn't (as is traditional) important to the book, and the solution, when revealed, seems rather forced and quick. Luckily, as I said, it's not that significant.

I enjoyed this book within these parameters. I might recommend it, but you've got to be aware of how annoying it can be at times.

This is where things get weird, however.

This book is a pleasure to read. The writing style is effortless - Mr Collins is a skillful and inventive writer.

The story follows a 1970s family who return to the Frank Cassidy's hometown for his dad's funeral. As the mystery around the death unfolds, other themes are also addressed. In a couple of generations Frank's family has moved from primary industry, mining and farming, into the service econony (flipping burgers). The novel shows the impact on families, on men and women and their ideas of their place in the world. Some people can survive in the modern world of corporate farming, of colleges which free people from their tie to the soil. It is not an easy journey but the ability of people to survive shines through, especially when the benefits of education are used to change for the better. In the background the impact of a war fought overseas is also in the air.

Ultimately, a novel about hope. Perhaps even an update of the American dream? Great book, deserves more recognition.

Frank Cassidy lives on the fringes of society in a succession of demeaning jobs, a wife with an ex-husband on death row in Georgia, an angst-riddled stepson waiting for his father to be executed and an innocent pre-schooler, obsessed with his toy dinosaurs. Frank's edge-of-desperation lifestyle can be traced back to his childhood, his father and mother killed in a fire that erupted on the family farm when Frank was five-years old. His memories of that time are dim, shaped by the overwhelming presence of his uncle, who raised him as one of his own, and the psychological evaluations the doctor hoped would unlock Frank's fragmented memory of the night of the conflagration.

As soon as he is old enough, Frank leaves the farm behind, along with all family connections, to make his way in a hostile world with no patience for an emotionally damaged survivor. His life since then has been a series of misdemeanors, an anti-social approach to the rest of mankind. Frank views his occasional petty crimes as the natural evolution of a careful society, like car theft, his deeds "preordained statistical probability", but refuses to believe that "stupidity and desperation equate to evil". When he reads of his uncle's murder, Frank gathers his family and heads for the past, a dark trek from New Jersey to the vast, empty cold of the far north in Michigan.

Along the way, Frank telephones his cousin at the farm, arguing about the purpose of the trip and the resolution of a shattered history. For Frank, this journey is like poking a stick at a bad tooth, as painful memories surge, taunting and confusing his every action, his haunted youth returning with savage intensity. He makes his way back to the kind of town nobody would willingly return to unless called by tragedy or loss. People here live in despair, inhabiting days frozen in minimal needs and obligations, waiting to thaw. At each phase of his odyssey, Frank is beset by images and memories, the flickering light of a television screen in a starless night, black and white reruns the backdrop for a tragedy buried in his subconscious that fills him with a vague sense of guilt, a mistrust of his own motivations.

Thirty years after the traumatic events that stole his childhood, Frank is called back into the chaos of his youth, the self-destruction that has defined every rebellious action since. Both distressed and comforted by a suffering family he can barely provide for, Frank plunges into what remains of his world, forced to redefine time and place, to make a stand in this frozen wilderness, drawing courage from his own need for resolution and the love of his dysfunctional family. He does so with consummate grace, a tragic character cart-wheeling through free-associative hell on a collision course with the truth. The prose is shadowed and disturbing, a painful view of the underbelly of American life, where the have-nots gather around a burning trash can in hopes of warmth in an indifferent landscape. Luan Gaines/2005.

~ Frank Cassidy learns in a newspaper of the death - possibly, murder - of his uncle, and goes back to North America to investigate any possibility of inheritance; to find out why his uncle died; and to sort out loose ends left in his head from a fire at his family farm in his childhood...

This book starts off quite promisingly. The writer evidently knows the mechanics of how to write well. But the book lacks sufficient plot after about the first hundred pages (of a 360-page book) to keep the reader very interested in continuing with it. The journey to the end of the book becomes boring, too unstimulating, too slow, too drawn out, with too much description and detail just for the sake of giving description and detail, too much describing of humdrum life, with the reader wondering if the book is going to go anywhere sufficiently interesting to be worth going on turning the pages. The characters in the book aren't made particularly interesting in themselves. The story ceases to be interesting. The reader is left in the dark for too long as to where the book is heading to, or why all the details are supposed to be interesting, or what the point of the book is supposed to be. Whilst what really happened many years before, in Frank's childhood, is revealed to us in the last fifteen pages of the book, by the time the reader gets there, he will probably have lost interest in the tale anyway.

A few specifics in the plot that didn't really seem to fit together well:
1. It seemed odd for Frank just to dump Juniper, the family pet, in someone else's car, and for that action then just to be accepted by the rest of the family.
2. It seemed odd for Frank to go back home with specific personal missions in his mind, but yet then never actually to get round to meeting up with Norman and Martha face to face for the whole time he was up there.
3. It seemed odd for Norman and Martha just to run away without saying more to anyone, after their herd was slaughtered.
4. Why Chester Green was suddenly being referred to as 'the Sleeper' didn't seem to be explained.
5. It seemed odd for Frank, not rich, not to want to salvage any possessions from either house before they were bulldozed.
6. It seemed odd and too convenient for Frank suddenly to be interrogating Baxter, his new co-worker, for information, which was forthcoming, as soon as he met him.
7. It seemed odd for Frank just to be allowed to be left alone with Chester Green in a hospital unsupervised, particularly in later visits after he had already been suspected of trying to harm or interfere with Chester Green earlier on.
8. Why Baxter suddenly ended up in the sanatorium following the window-smashing incident and ended up getting ECT treatment wasn't very clear.
9. Frank suddenly realising his mother had died in a fall many years ago, by listening to tapes, didn't really ring very true.
10. The detail at the end of the book (page 357), of Frank killing the paralysed 'Chester Green' in the sanatorium, seemed to be a detail borrowed straight out of 'One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest', where the huge red indian suffocates the comitose Jack Nicholson at the end of that film. That conclusion seems to be borne out by a reference to 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' in this book, just a page later (page 358).

All in all, this was not a very satisfying book, for a variety of reasons - mainly lack of interesting plot and lack of interesting characters.

This book is an excellent tool. It focuses very specifically on effectively creating a business presentation. The tips were valuable to be and I have been creating presentations for several years. It will also be very easy to reference in the future.

This book is about making CONSCIOUS decisions for balancing the story board itself for hard facts, visual, ethical and psychological aspects, politicily correctness etc. but of course doesnt stop there.

The book shows and discusses which elements you need to convey your story and why you use certain presentation technics over others to achieve your goals.

The book is devided in 14 chapters. Each chapter is focused on either

a) How to create or develop your basic story or on
b) How to enhance it

(by using the described technics and its implications and reactons it will provoke).

What makes this book standing out is the careful analyzation of the aspects that came into play when giving an presentation.

That obviously includes the analytical skills itself but also the time and effort to explicitely mention and discuss (dis)advantages of each element.


The carefully chosen presentation samples will be disassembled throughout the book and taken apart into its peaces, analyzed, explained and put back together.

Where required, the example will be (dis)assembled several times to bring the points across.

Its the analysation of those presentations and its aspects to a granular level and putting the gained knowledge into a conscious presentation creation process that make the book so valuable.

Most books tell you just how to use software to make graphics etc. but this book tells you what you have to present to your adience to actually win them over.

The fact that the many aspects are explicitely explained helps you visualize the options you have at your disposal and the reason why you chose one presentation form over another.

While this book focuses on presentations that show off your assets and the art of persuasion. There is also a companion book "In the line of Fire" which focuses more on the defense to hardball questions.

I do also want to recommend a third book - "Dan Roams: Back of the Napkin" which focuses more on the technical aspects of how to find your story, and a strong focus on visualizing it fool prove and providing rock solid hard facts that wont be beaten.

What Jerry*s books does express very well is the fact that giving a presentation is like being an athlet.
You will have to exercise "verbalize" regularly to be in top form when it counts.

Good luck to you !!

Presenting to Win is a terrific book. I got a clear, structured, sensible system to create presentations that will skyrocket the level of mine. I will keep this handy every time. Thanks for sharing your wisdom, Jerry.

We've all sat through presentations that dragged on forever, but led nowhere. What's worse, we've probably even given a few. As the author puts it, "The problem is that no one knows how to tell a story...and no one knows that they don't know how to tell a story."
Author Jerry Weissman boils it down to telling a compelling story. That's easy to say, but hard to do. With this book's guidance, you can become an effective communicator--whether convincing employees of the need to change, persuading prospects that you have the best solution or leading skeptical community groups to support your cause.

Presenting to Win overflows with practical advice on how to engage an audience by telling your story with a focus on what's important to them. You become an `audience advocate' whose concern for your listeners' needs puts them at the heart of your presentation. As Weissman describes it:
"Persuasion is the art of moving your audience from Point A, a place of ignorance, indifference, or even hostility toward your goal...navigating them through an unbroken series of Aha!s...to Point B, a place where they will act as your investors, customers, partners, or advocates, ready to march to your drum."

By following Weissman's detailed roadmap, we can learn how to tell stories that move and motivate our listeners by keeping them engaged from a compelling start to a big finish.

Silicon Valley Presentation Guru

Weissmann's first career was as a Hollywood producer and screenwriter. His friendship with venture capitalist, Ben Rosen, led him to his second career as a presentation guru. In 1988, he launched a business that taught high tech executives to move from feature-laden, techno-speak dissertations to engaging, listener-centric presentations. Yahoo, Intuit, Cisco, Microsoft, and Intel all benefited from his teachings.

The Opening Gambit is Just the Beginning
Weissman offers plenty of real world anecdotes, how-tos, and helpful graphics that convey how to grab and keep your audience. His opening gambit concept typifies his approach. He first offers the rationale, supports it with multiple success stories, and describes a broad range of opening gambits.
To engage an audience, an opening gambit pulls them out of a state of disinterest or suspicion about you and your presentation. Asking questions is one of seven such gambits discussed. In 1993, Scott Cook founder of Intuit (maker of Quicken and QuickBooks) faced a jaded audience of investment bankers. Rather than launch into a feature packed discussion of his new product, he asked two questions:
* How many of you balance your own checkbooks?
* How many enjoy doing it?
After a round of chuckles, he continued, "You're not alone. Millions of people around the world hate balancing their checkbooks. We at Intuit have developed an easy-to-use, inexpensive home finance tool named, Quicken." With this `Aha' moment, Cook was off and running.
Beyond the Opening Gambit--Components of Successful Presentations
Equally insightful chapters on presentation essentials provide a level of detail and clarity that leaves nothing to chance. They include:
* Story development
* Graphic design
* Delivery skills
* Tools
* Q & A techniques
In each case, Weissman

Presenting to Win: A Blueprint Worth Following

Weissman demonstrates that even those of us who aren't naturals can present to win. Learning what he teaches requires significant effort because his approach contains such a broad range of interrelated elements--and includes variations that differ depending on purpose, topic, and audience. Making it easy for our audience is hard for us. But, as Microsoft, Intel, Cisco, Intuit, and Yahoo learned, the effort is well worth it.

Jerry Weissman is one of those rare people who has written an authoritative sounding book about how to present and has the real experience and background to justify every claim he makes.

The book starts with the premise that the presenter must focus on the audience and that he must make them focus on him. He must understand the mental point they are at (Point A) and moves them to Point B. He must understand what is in it for them (WIIFY) and constantly use it as he constructs every slide to walk them to Point B. He must also understand the setting of the audience, and his main points of argument. Finally, he must tie those points together with a flow structure that fits his argument.

That's the first half of the book and as someone who has through some awful presentations, I can only wish reading this book were the equivalent of a driver's license for public speakers.

The back half of the book draws on his background in television and employs standard cinematic techniques to improve the appearance of PowerPoint. It's easy to overlook this part, but it makes a huge difference as well.

I've now had a chance to see people who have used these techniques for years present, and it makes a huge difference. I have also seen someone present in a tough situation using these techniques for the first time. This person is level-headed and not given to fads. His comment? "I wish I had run to Jerry's book ten years earlier."

If you speak in public, this is the one book you have to read, and re-read. It is common sensical, based in fact, and surprisingly intuitive.

Damn this book is Flawless it has Olympic stats it has some stats on the old players. The Only thing missing was 1892-1917 stats for players who did not play in the NHA or The NHL. I love the sections on the stats it has the players complete minor league and college stats as well as his Pro stats. It has the place he was drafted and all the transactions. This book has a wrap up of the Draft from 1965-1998 and does a fantastic job at it. The Stats and the Draft coverage is the best.

this book has anything and everything you want to know about hockey its almost to much stuff

If you like hockey, hate hockey, or do not know anything about the inarguably-greatest sports ever, then you definantly need this book. It's a great price too, believe it or not, and it's my personal bible. Anything I need to know about hockey is right here, every single player and all.

This book can tell you everything you every wanted to know about hockey and the tradition of hockey. You get to see so many stats about all the teams and the players of the NHL. A must have for all Hockey fans and players of the wonderful game.

I'm one of those schleps who had the misfortune of investing the CDN $70.00+ dollars on this book when it first came out, only to learn that many of the (in particular non-NHL) statistics were inaccurate or missing completely. This is understandable for the very early players, but still, it seems as though more effort should have been put into this initially. I am interested in the old Hamilton Tigers franchise, and prior to getting the book had already done some research into the early careers of some of the players. Right off, I noticed that there were problems with the Leo Reise and Goldie Prodgers listings. These--and no doubt innumerable others--were rectified in the later edition, but that is little consolation for me. I made my investment, and unless I can find the revised edition cheap, I have no intention on blowing more money just to finally get what I should have gotten in the first place. Still, it has been a useful book at times, so it's not a complete loss, I guess.

In Turning Numbers into Knowledge, author Jonathan Koomey takes the reader on a fascinating tour of the processes we humans use to solve problems, demystifying the often hidden aspects of these processes, and offering a wide range of best practices for critical thinking and problem solving.

The book is so accessible both because Koomey writes so clearly and for his frequent use of interesting case studies and examples. It would be a wonderful addition to high school or college courses on policy, statistics, the scientific process, or the media, and includes exercises at the end of each mini-chapter. However, it is also a valuable read and reference for anyone who reads the newspaper (I date myself), accesses news from any source, or performs analysis of any type.

The first part of the book explores the growing role of quantitative information in our lives. Next, Koomey provides practical suggestions for finding publicly available sources of data and tools for analysis, and strategies for keeping one's work organized. Part three provides a look at how to assess the validity and accuracy of a given analysis. It includes one of my favorite sections, "How guesses become facts," as well as guidance on utilizing someone else's survey data. In part four, Koomey walks the reader through several strategies useful in creating one's own analysis, including how to develop a scenario or a model, even if one does not have all of the information that seems necessary. Finally, there is an excellent section on how to present one's work clearly for the intended audience. This section covers topics such as how to create compelling graphs, how to use numbers effectively in oral presentations, and the importance of documenting sources. The book concludes with a short section on the value of analysis as a powerful lever in creating change.

In summary, Koomey does a great job of exposing the role that the assumptions behind the numbers play and provides a practical, useful guide on how to be a better thinker, analyst, and problem solver. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys thinking!

This is an excellent book. Focused more on the overall art of problem solving as opposed to specific problem-solving techniques/algorithms, this is one of those rare books that can change the way you approach a general discipline...that of problem solving in this case.

The organization of the book, the level of detail into which each section delves and the overall pace of the writing are all well-suited for a general reading audience. For those readers interested in specific algorithms related to problem solving, Numerical Recipes 3rd Edition: The Art of Scientific Computing may represent a better choice.

I highly recommend this book to all readers interested in problem solving in general.

I bought this book due to the overwhelmingly positive reviews - thought it would really get into the meat of the issue and provide some creative insight. What a disappointment! It is very user-friendly...to the point of being almost insulting at times...very rudimentary. Provides little insight into anything new and is really just a primer. It may be good for college freshment or HS students that need an intro into problem solving via "numbers" or those seeking a quick refresher but for anyone who has ever worked with even basic research (of any type...business, science, economics) skip - it will bore you to tears. In places it is downright silly and I honestly can't understand how it obtained the reviews it did.

Every researcher's first reference book is a comprehensive treatment of the methods, designs and analysis strategies needed for their discipline. This book is a complement rather than a substitute for such a basic research reference. It covers the tactics, organizational strategies--even attitudes--that are needed on a practical level to get research done.

I suggest using this book to do a quick "needs analysis" of your research style. Turn to the Preface and read through the annotated table of contents to identify the research tactic you most need to improve. (Mine was "Establish a Filing System.") You can assimilate the corresponding chapter in a few minutes and begin improving your skills.

With 38 different chapters covering topics that range from overcoming "Beginner's Mind" to "Use the Internet" there is something for every researcher. I can envision an undergraduate research methods professor leading beginning researchers through a needs assessment discussion and assigning them to both remediate their top weakness and sharpen their top strength--knowing all the time that many will be enticed into reading most of the other chapters, too. (I can also imagine a surly senior professor hurling it at his new research assistant with "Don't bother me until you have read this!" I suppose that teaching strategy would work, too. But I won't recommend it.)

The chapters are well organized and easy to learn from. Resources include both recommended books for in-depth exploration of each topic and a large number of relevant web sites for fast-click discovery. The book's own web site is a great place to start.

A great resource to sharpen your research abilities and an enjoyable read, this book is worth its place on your bookshelf.

It is different from, and for many purposes, better than a science textbook. More than enough science books have been written, but TNIK is better because it teaches readers how to think about the data on which science is built. Its fresh approach to understanding the natural world as well as human-made systems is a noteworthy improvement over the plug-in, grind-out perspective that academic classes typically offer and that turns off students.

This is a recommended book to read for people who would like to read about statistics and maths. People with few knowledge about these sciences will find it a bit difficult to read.

This is the best book I have found for a general study of the of neural networks. I found this particularly useful when looking at how to write my own NN frameworks. The depth of the mathematics allowed me to easily answer questions like: 'what if I replaced function abc with xyz'. I have found other texts failed to show key mathematical derivations, or to explore the subtleties of what the maths imply.

The book covers a plethora of topics from simple gradient descent through second order techniques and conjugate gradient, through to the use of 'bayesian techniques' (basically confidence intervals on network outputs), monte carlo techniques etc. Similarly error functions, non-linearities (sigmoids, softmax etc.) and data preparation are all treated.

The extensive bibliography also provides excellent references for further study, (a whos who of the field, as well as actual titles). My copy is now dog earred from frequent reading.

The theories of NN and PR are quite difficult to understand. But this book makes them much easier. The author can explain the concepts without using too much formula. If other authors could follow his step then the life is much easier!

If you want a very good, intermediate introduction to pattern classification this book must be on your bookshelf. It even does a very nice job explaining the EM algorithm in a few pages! Basic calculus is all you need to understand the book. A must read.

Mr Bishop's book is very well written and contains a lot of useful information on neural networks. It is outlined well and progresses in a logical form. If, however, you are looking for a book that gives discussions with concrete examples of neural networks applications or set ups, you will be sorely disappointed. The mathematical treatment is universally generalized with very few specific concrete examples shown. Even the exercises will not serve you well. The term 'graded' is used; however, that simply referes to the description of difficulty. There are no answers to these exercises, so unless you have a teacher or are already firmly familiar with the material, you will not know if you have completed them correctly or not. Even worse, the exercises are in general not written to reinforce concepts in the chapter, but in most cases extend the chapter material into new regions.

In summary, this book should only be purchased by someone already familiar with neural networks and their mathematical basis. Anyone else will be wasting their money.

Jaynes' book is a deep and opinionated exposition of probability theory and Baysean reasoning -- with detours into the nature of inductive reasoning, and a non-trivial investigation of scientific epistemology. The prose style is stunningly good -- by any standard, not just the low bar set by mathematical texts -- and the exposition is both rigorous and philosophically provocative. I'm a scientist, and can safely say I've not enjoyed a mathematics book as much as this one since I was a child reading Alice in Wonderland.

I actually bought this three years ago (or so) when I needed an emergency crash-course in statistics -- of course, I found it utterly useless as a cookbook! It sat on my shelf for years, and I looked at it guiltily, until I was faced in my work with far more complex situations than the usual recipes could cover. I sat down for a few hours and by the end I was hooked.

This is a refreshingly unique book about logical and statistical inference. It's the antidote to cookbooks of statistical tests.

I would recommend it to anyone who: understands calculus at a high school level, enjoyed a previous class or book on probability, and desires a solid understanding of statistics.

D.S. Sivia's short book is a good companion, because of its additional worked-out examples.

Errata: http://ksvanhorn.com/bayes/jaynes/index.html

Its hard to write a review for this book. There are definitely flaws, but the information in this book, is just not anywhere else. This is the first place I had ever seen a general form of the rule of succession, or a worthwhile logical attack on the Copenhagen interpretation. It is a very interesting and thought provoking book, but is also a good practical reference for advanced probability problems.

This is a great book. Getting it all together is well worth the price. Jaynes is always a joy to read, polemical and opinionated as he is. One of the very few writers who can put drama into the dry subject of statistics. This is a book about the subject of statistics, rather than a statistics book, with a lot of critical thought and criticism of other statisticians, and statistical paradoxes. It's not, however, the book to choose if you just want another text to help you pass your stats course as its more about the why rather than the how of statistical thinking and logic.

First off, I can in good conscience only recommend this book to experts who already have a deep understanding of both Bayesian and frequentist probability theory. The most useful function of this book is to illuminate puzzling features of probability theory that niggle at the minds of experts. If you don't already understand the subject at a fairly deep level, Jaynes will only leave you confused. (I could not imagine the torment of someone trying to learn probability and statistics for the first time from this book!)

Expect little in the way of examples or practical solutions here. Jaynes is concerned more with fundamentals and philosophy. Phil Gregory's textbook, although overly fond of Mathematica, is a better intro to practical applications. What examples there are tend to be highly idealized, with a high amount of tedious calculation.

Jaynes died with his book in an unfinished state. What he needed was an editor, but what he got instead was a hagiographer. Rather than inject himself into Jaynes' work, the editor instead has left all of the flaws, incomplete explanations, and many out-and-out mistakes in place. This was a bad mistake. Too many important points are left as exercises to the reader.

Jaynes himself is highly infuriating on a number of points. He repeatedly argues for a Haldane prior as a non-informative prior for a binomial distribution, but doesn't come to grips with the fact that this improper prior gives absurd results in some limits, whereas the more commonly used and more robust Jeffreys prior is ignored. Jeffreys priors themselves are scarcely mentioned in most places, while discussion of how to apply KL information measures to construct non-informative priors is completely missing. Jaynes' commentary on the state of quantum mechanics will strike most physicists as misguided as at best.

I find it ironic that I have mostly negative things to say about a book that I rank at 4 out of 5. The trouble is that this could have been the greatest single book ever written on the subject if it only had better editing, fewer polemics, and a more practical bent. I find myself mourning for what this book could have been. What it actually is, however, is a great probability text from a Bayesian perspective. It contains many gems, but you have to wade through a lot to find them.

This book is a perfect storm of readability. Greenfeld approaches the virus like a murder mystery, hunting it down with his narratives of scientists and doctors looking for clues, and the exotic settings of China and Hong Kong draw you in. It's informative, well researched and covers every level of the SARS story, from meetings in Beijing to the daily lives of doomed apartment-dwellers in Hong Kong highrises. I read it in five days, and it's 400 pages. I would recommend it for anyone remotely interested in virus outbreaks, which should be all of us. Great book!

This is a very interesting look at the outbreak of SARS, told in a journalistic narrative voice by the editor of Asia's Time Magazine. It takes you through the eyes of many of the doctors and victims involved, and gives a strong sense of the feel of the time, the various cover ups, and how the discoveries unfolded. A quick and interesting read.

A fiesta for infomaniacs. Fascinating microbiology, world history, and an especially nice introduction to China today.

Favorite vignette: Q: Is it possible SARS can be transferred from humans to livestock?

A: You will be held accountable for your words!

My wife read this book first and urged me to do so. I'm glad I did. As a non scientist, I found Greenfeld's writing and analysis very understandable and riveting. From patient zero, a chop shop employee in one of Hong Kong's teeming "Wild Flavor" eateries, to the pursuit of patients in the steppe of China's rural areas, he has put together a concise and chilling treatise on how fragile life in this world can be, and make you wonder when another killer virus will emerge. I recommend this book to every infectious disease specialist out there and any lay person who wants a great summary on the killers that are waiting for their genetic lottery tickets to get punched.

Karl Taro Greenfeld (KTG) in his book follows the SARS virus from its early beginnings in Guangdong Province (China) in late 2002 right to its end during 2003. He starts off with the rumours flying around Guangdong in late 2002 and then follows the virus around to wherever it goes. He also covers the science effort to identify it and the efforts to contain it.

KTG calls SARS the first pandemic of the 21st century. Perhaps it should be called the first pandemic which didn't happen. The figures of infected people and casualties he quotes at the beginning of each chapter are an approximation only as KTG admits at the end of the book and I can well believe that because when you read about the virus's impact on China you would think that the casualty figures should be higher.

China comes out badly in all this. As official policy dictates that the virus does not exist, it does not exist and therefore it spreads virtually unhindered until official policy changes, which eventually it did. But guess how many lives could have been saved if official policy had changed faster or if it hadn't been formulated in the first place. When you read KTG's bit on how China works you can see that it will happen again. That's the terrifying bit I took home from reading this book. Imagine a virus that outpaces the speed at which bureaucracy moves. We could be all dead by the time they make up their minds.