Professional Books

Love Perl but wish it had the ability to work with the .NET framework? Well, this is the book for you! Let me tell you, if you program with Perl, then this book will earn its purchase price again and again. I've always loved the ease of programming in Perl, especially how well it works with sockets and network programming, but these days, you've got to be able to program Graphical User Interfaces. I've never been able to master programming GUI's using Tcl/Tk, but the C# like format of programming Visual Perl made creating Windows Forms a snap. The book gives so many examples of working with the .NET classes in any practical situation. Its got a great format including a discussion of programming with the .NET framework, a strong overview of programming in Perl, and of course the definitive guidelines to programming in PerlNET. It covers creating your own classes, components, forms, database interaction, and working with ASP.NET. It also gives an overview of working with the CPAN modules which is invaluable. The authors are intelligent, well-spoken, and are clearly experts in this particular area. You have GOT to buy this book!

This book was not only extremely valuable to me in understanding how to use Perl in the .Net Environmental, but also contains the best presentation of how to build pure Perl Modules that I have read to date. These concepts really jelled for me after reading and utilizing the examples presented in the book.

With my limited experience in object oriented programming, this book presented the topics in the right order to overcome my lack of OO experience.

I did have a few instances of failing to find specific terms in the index.

This book will continue to be a valuable resource as I continue to refine my Perl skills in creating perl modules and utilizing Perl in the .Net environment.

Love Perl but wish it had the ability to work with the .NET framework? Well, this is the book for you! Let me tell you, if you program with Perl, then this book will earn its purchase price again and again. I've always loved the ease of programming in Perl, especially how well it works with sockets and network programming, but these days, you've got to be able to program Graphical User Interfaces. I've never been able to master programming GUI's using Tcl/Tk, but the C# like format of programming Visual Perl made creating Windows Forms a snap. The book gives so many examples of working with the .NET classes in any practical situation. Its got a great format including a discussion of programming with the .NET framework, a strong overview of programming in Perl, and of course the definitive guidelines to programming in PerlNET. It covers creating your own classes, components, forms, database interaction, and working with ASP.NET. It also gives an overview of working with the CPAN modules which is invaluable. The authors are intelligent, well-spoken, and are clearly experts in this particular area. You have GOT to buy this book!

Can you mix Perl and Dot.NET ??
I didn't think so till now.

I found the mix of Perl and Dot.NET quite strange - that's why I was surprise to see a book on that matter.

I felt very curious to see how can it work together.

Perl has lots of advantages that make it such an enormous success - very easy to write fast and efficient code.
Ask any unix admin / programmer.

The way Perl works with the rich options of Microsoft's new engine is good. I like the combination. It works well, the examples are quite good.

The first part of the book looks similar to every Dot.NET one can find, but the second part is the value for this book - and that's why I liked it.

Good techinal explainations and examples.
It was a good investment for me.

Hi, All!
I am the lead author of this book. Together with Michael Saltzman and Robert J. Oberg we tried to make this book as good as possible.
The book will be useful for you whether you are an experienced Perl programmer that wants to learn .NET technology or you are new to Perl.
The first part represents a tutorial of Perl itself. In the second part we dive into exciting world of programming Perl inside the .NET Environment.

I hope you will enjoy reading and our code samples will be useful and helpful for you.

Happy reading and programming!

Abrams adds an important element of rigor that is sorely lacking among most valuation professionals.

As a Finance major MBA, this book is recommended. This is an effective tool kit to value firms.

As a Finance MBA, this book is recommended. Why? First of all, this is a practical book that would show us how to assess and forecast the business and cash flow. Furthermore, step-by-step approach is helpful in understanding valuation of privately held firms.

Jay Abrams' book is intended primarily for the professional business appraiser, although other financial professionals such as financial analysts, investment bankers, and venture capitalists may well find the book useful.

The business valuation topics covered include (not an exhaustive list): mathematical derivation of cash flow; appplication of regression analysis; theoretical and empirical superiority of arithmetic mean; adjusting for levels of control and marketability; empirical tests of Abrams' valuation theories; valuing startups; and measuring and apportioning dilution in ESOPs.

For each topic covered, the author presents a scholarly summary of past research, new empirical research of his own, and his conclusions. He discusses opposing viewpoints and in at least one chapter allows another author to present a rebuttal of Abrams' approach.

He emphasizes regression analysis of empirical data and quantitative analysis. Near the end he puts all the pieces of the puzzle together to present a comprehensive, unified approach to valuation that can be empirically tested and whose principles work for the valuation of billion dollar firms or small businesses.

Despite the quantitative nature of the book, mathematically challenged readers without recent or extensive mathematical training should not hesitate to buy the book, as long as they are familiar with basic business valuation concepts. The book contains relatively simple and clear explanations of quantitative methods such as regression analysis; and the author has taken pains to include step-by-step procedures for performing regression analysis using Excel and Lotus. Indeed, one of the strengths of the book is that it makes quantitative techniques available to the appraiser who could not, without the author's help, understand the underlying mathematics or utilize the quantitative techniques with confidence and comprehension.

Overall the book is an important, well researched contribution to an in-depth understanding of important business valuation issues.

This text is an excellent addition to the business valuation literature. The author explores a wide variety of approaches with new methods that are easy to follow. A tremendous amount of work went into the preparation of this book and it is very well written. There is a chapter on startup companies that is especially interesting to me.

If you are at all interested in the income method for valuing businesses, I would strongly encourage you to buy this book. In a review on the back cover of the text, Shannon Pratt strongly recommends the book because the author presents "a scholarly summary of past research, new empirical research of his own, and his conclusions".

My only criticism and surprise is the lack of use of Monte Carlo simulation in these models, which is surprising to me considering how statistically focused the author is and how easy simulation is to learn and employ. Also, the use of real options for valuing startups is extremely important but the author does acknowledge this subject is beyond the scope of his book. Extremely well done and the author should be proud of producing work of this caliber. I'm looking forward to future editions and other books by Jay B. Abrams.

As a parent, I would highly recommend this book to parents who want their children to develop a love for reading. The concepts make a lot of sense.

I am a parent of a kindergarten and second grade child. Someone told me about this book a year ago and I just got around to reading it. I don't know why I waited this long. I've read lots of books about children and reading but Raising Readers is by far the best...FAR better than Jim Trelease's Read Aloud Handbook. This is not so much a book about what to do with your young child to teach them but how young children LEARN to read by reading to them. The book is informative, funny, easily read, and honest. Every parent of a young child (or even an older child) shoud read it.

I feel relatively certain you'll be surprised by this book, and very pleased with it. Like one of the other reviewers, I heard about it from a friend -- It's not the kind of literacy theory that gets promoted on TV. After I first read it 9 years ago, it was as if I finally understood something that I always should have understood, and something that I remember *wishing* I'd understood while growing up. The ideas and approaches that Bialostok clearly and engagingly lays out just make so much sense, though they are not the way most people think about reading. Since '94, I've given a copy of this book to all of my friends when they have their first kid. Enjoy!

I stumbled upon this book by recommendation of a friend. What an amazing book. Bialostok's discourse is fettered with concrete ideas, wonderful strategies, and parents and teachers will especially love this book!! (I am both). The narration is lucid and captivating - the editing is superb. I now understand why my friend was so excited over this book.

Bialostok presents information in Raising Readers that provide invaluable information to parents as well as teacher. As an educator and a mother, I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to encourage your child or students to become literature lovers. Bialostok uses language and ideas that are accessible to all.

Throughout my entire time as a pilot, I have been concerned with the huge gap that exists between the safety record of professionally managed commercial and military flight operations and those of general aviation pilots like me.

I am a 1,000-hour instrument-rated private pilot. I have been flying for about 12 years. Together with a partner, I own and operate my own single-engine airplane that I use frequently in the course of my business and daily life. I live in operate primarily within the Upper Midwest where the environment serves up daily challenges.

Over time, I have observed that most GA pilots seem to gravitate toward one or the other of the polar extremes. I think of them as the can-do achievers at one end of the spectrum and the pocket-protector types at the other end. The achievers are those successful people who seem to be able to do anything. They love a challenge and are risk takers. The pocket protector types love figuring things out and have an infinite willingness to wrestle with a question and figure it out. While there is obviously a broad spectrum in between, this has always aided me in sizing a guy up and figuring out how he approached flying. The best pilots I know posses the attributes of both.

My own personality has always been a source of concern in this regard. I find myself consistently falling short of the best flyers. I can claim neither the innate talent nor the tremendous focus and long attention span that these folks all seem to have. I was always a C student. And I do not have the benefit of a large resource-rich organization to support me. Early in my experience as a pilot, I gave it up - actually twice - because I felt so overwhelmed by the sheer volume of knowledge and tasks that had to be integrated successfully in order to achieve an acceptable level of proficiency.

I am pretty sure that I can get by being a lousy fly caster and poor wing shot and still enjoy a pretty good life. I know that being anything other than an excellent pilot is unacceptable. I think that it is why this endeavor so absorbs me.

I have read everything that I could find on the subject. I attend seminars. I seek specialized training. I spend a lot of time talking with other pilots about issues of safety and competence.

Recently, I have asked the military, airline and other professional pilots that I meet how they (and their organizations) approach the subject. Their responses vary. Some of them adhere to the notion that it is simply a matter of having the Right Stuff. Others indicate that it requires the resources of the US government or a major public company. Many have actually been generous and helpful.

Finally, Tony Kern has given us all a model to work with that is both comprehensive and systematic. He has illustrated it with clear real-life examples make each of the component concepts vivid. This book is a real treasure. It is at once a clear description of the destination and it is the map and the compass that we can all employ along on the way.

A rare resource for insite into avaitions most critical element: The Pilot. No where else in aviation literature has someone captured the standards for professional airmanship. Kern gives the route to complete airmanship, whether you fly a Cub, or an SR-71. A valuable resource and asset for all training department libraries.

How important is this book? It is as important for pilots to read and re-read as Wolfgang Langewiesche's "Stick & Rudder". Than this, there is no higher praise.

Dr. Kern proposes herein a simple but profound model to help us understand airmanship and he proceeds to support, explicate and instantiate that model using clear and well-chosen case material.

This is good stuff! The author draws on his own experience as an Air Force pilot and on his academic background as a human factors expert to summarize elegantly a vast area of knowledge vital to every aviator -- whether military, commercial or GA. As an instrument rated private pilot, I found all of the material in this book very relevent to the issues I deal with when I fly.

The way of thinking about airmanship that Dr. Kern lays out is important to all pilots -- but I believe that it is overwhelmingly important to pilots who are not engaged in either formal training or in the pursuit of advanced ratings. Taking this thinking to heart will keep you growing as a pilot, and will ultimately keep you alive.

For pilots embarked on a professional career path, Dr. Kern identifies goals, exposes pitfalls and outlines methods that will complement and enhance any training program and any intended progression through the ratings.

Please, read, study and reflect on this work. It is outstanding!

Tony Kern has managed to pull together the wisdom and experience of "the best" pilots around. His use of case studies of real pilots and real situations includes examples from the military, commercial, and geneal aviation communities. In short, the book is useful for any pilot whether they are working toward their private pilot license or are employed as a senior airline captain. For many pilots, it will reinforce what they already know and practice but for many, it will provide the opportunity to become "old" pilots. If you fly, read the book.

Tony Kern has written a detailed, yet compelling, story for airmanship in the 21st century. His research is thorough, his examples are vivid, and his personal experience ties them together. As a safety professional, I was amazed to see that almost all of his "lessons learned" could be applied to ground operations, as well as flight. Wish I'd written the book!

Definitely a must for teachers, and I cannot wait to put some of the ideas into practice!! With this easy read, Eric Hougan lets the reader understand exactly what teaching is all about!! I told all of my teacher friends about this book as they will not regret it!!

I am student teaching now and struggling a bit with classroom management. This book had good ideas that are relatively easy to implent. I am going to try some of these strategies in my class.

This book gives great, practical advice for those just entering the profession or working toward a teaching degree. As a current teacher, I really like the strategies the author gives--they are realistic and seem easy to implement. I wish this book was around when I was entering the profession!

This book came in handy as a student teacher and when applying for teaching jobs. I appreciated the strategies on how to jump-start my student teaching on a positive note by creating relationships with my students and CT. Even though I have now completed my student teaching, I will continue to use many of the book's classroom management and discipline tips in my own classroom, such as the question & answer box and bellnote activity. I recommend this to any student teacher."

This book was very useful. I would recommend it to anyone interested in teaching. A pretty easy read, with a lot of good information that you can apply to daily life.

Rockin the Rockpile is a fantastic piece of work covering the Buffalo Bills of the American Football League, 1960-1969. Author Jeff Miller has packed it all in here, game summaries, oral histories, and a fantastic narrative that leads the reader through the formation of the AFL in 1959, and the following 10 seasons. Great detail in the game summaries/recaps, and wonderful insight into the inner-workings of the team from the players themselves. Rockin the Rockpile is a must-read for AFL fans, regardless of what team they call their own.

Great book with amazing information and very well written. Extremely interesting to read and just be able to open it to any page and read some very unique information.

Great to remember those years at War Memorial. Could almost taste the Genesee long necks. Enjoyed the recaps of each and every game. Would have liked to see more pictures of the stadium itself however.

Incredibly detailed book, evoking fond memories of a football era gone by. A must for all football fans, especially AFL/Buffalo Bills fans.

As one of the worlds biggest Buffalo Sports Memorabilia Collectors I was very excited to see this book come out. While filled with great stories and tales of the old AFL and a veritable who's who of old Bills interviews I was disappointed to find very little in terms of memorabilia (programs, ticket stubs, pennants, bobble heads, gum cards, jerseys, helmets etc. etc.) displayed. I think a color center spread of all the old items mentioned above would have added to this book tremendously. Also, for a book that centered on War Memorial Stadium (The Rockpile), there's only one aerial picture of it. Some different views of that great old place would have been nice. Still the book is a great addition to a Bills fans collection and a very worthy effort. To the author: Please contact me if you decide to do another book on the Bills or even the Sabres, Braves or Bisons for that matter as my entire collection would be at your disposal. John B.

Don and Martha continue to write about the customer experience from different viewpoints, each making great points and providing insight for both those who are recipients of that service and those providing it. As a member of the consulting field in this area, I always learn something more from reading their books.

This is an excellent book which challenges the most fundamental assumptions business leaders today make. I took it with me on vacation and couldn't put it down. Full of examples and best practices, this is easy to read and thought provoking. Don and Martha expose the crisis of "short-termism" which is increasingly challenging, especially in today's economy. They also highlight the evolving role of the customer given our networked and interconnected world. They share the latest trends and thinking on various topics from employee engagement to innovation to inspire leaders to think strategically about their customer experience design and the opportunities that will drive their long-term success.

Reading this book is just like being in a business presentation by Don and Martha. The text flows very fluently, pouring real life examples drawn from their extensive experience with marketing and customer management.
It is also like being in a meeting in our own business. If you are an executive with marketing and sales responsibilities and you already do your job 'out of the box', you'll want to read this book to inspire your actions. If you still have to prove your point inside your company, the book will give you tons of reasons to show your boss why the company needs to start doing things differently right now.
Concepts like "customers are the scarcest resource", "the experience you give your customers is more important than the message" come to life with abundant examples. Customer equity management applications get a lot more tangible, even if you haven't read Return on Customer: Creating Maximum Value From Your Scarcest Resource, the authors' previous book.
Highly recommended, easy read, but don't be fooled. This is high-impact matter, which may seem deceptively easy to execute. The final chapters about diversity and dissent, corporate culture and leadership bring forth the organizational efforts needed to push these concepts forward in the real world.
Extensive reference notes can help you further research the subjects covered, which is great in an environment of ever-accelerating change.

Don and Martha have done it again! They have identified and exposed one of the most difficult challenges in business today -that of short term-ism - or the obsession with making quarterly numbers at the expense of long-term and lifetime customer value.
They've dared to question some of the most fundamental business tenants and then provided evidence that new ones have emerged, such as the critical need to build and maintain trust, the necessity of employee empowerment, and the power of social networking, just to name a few.

Yes, this book is enjoyable to read; but more importantly, it has real-life examples, practical advice, and executable strategies for those who dare to build great companies for the future, not just the next quarter.

Elizabeth Rech
Hingham, MA

I read all books from Don and Martha. "one to one future" was the first and the best book I've ever read related to CRM. "return on customers" was a first attempt to demonstrate that company value isn't necessarely equal to EBITDA and value of shares. Don and Martha introduced here the concept of long-term view vs short-termism.
With this latest book "rules to break & laws to follow" - I've read it in one day! - they follow their concept of demonstrating what real value to a company means.
I do like especially the introduction of an "employee/empowerment"-dimension which was a little bit missing until now.
Real great book. A must for all leaders and managers.
René F. Lisi

I am a therapist who has used SandTray for over 23 years. This particular book offers clear and uncluttered information concerning the power of the tool of Sandplay in therapy. It is well written and offers several ways to use Sandtray in working with clients. The book has outline reviews at the ends of the chapters that are quite helpful in clarifying the chapter's key points. I recommend the book to therapists wishing to add to their body of knowledge. The book also stresses a most important issue.......the need for therapists to DO their own Sandtray work and to experience the power of the tool firsthand.
Claudia Alonzo, M.A., LMFT

This book covers all aspects of sandtray therapy. It demonstrates how it can be applied to many counseling modalities. It is well-organized. I enjoyed it immensely and will use it to create my own sand tray equipment.

this is a great book!buy it immediately if you want to find out what is sandplay therapy or you want to be a sand play therapist.

This is a fabulous resource for those who want to start using sandplay in their work with clients. The techniques that they offer do not rely on an understanding of Jungian theory. The information is very practical and immediately useful. It provides detailed information about working with non-directed trays, as well as ideas for directed trays. It also addresses issues in using sandplay with children as well as adults and couples. This book has thrown wide-open the door of possibilities. Highly Recommended!!!

A clear step by step guide to using sandplay, outlining a variety of directed and non-directed options for individuals, couples, families, and children. I referred to this book prior to and after attending personal training. A wonderful orientation to the set up and practice of sandplay.

Dr. Penfold's book was invaluable when I became a victim of therapist abuse. For one thing, it's very difficult to find material in book form on the subject. Who wants to admit to being used?! Two, its gut-level honesty helped enormously to relieve my own shame about having been duped and exploited, and to channel that into healthy outrage. Three, the fact that Dr. Penfold had been a victim herself--and was a highly educated, intelligent, and sensitive person--helped me see how easily anyone can be victimized in fiduciary relationships, where trust is an essential component of the "therapeutic" process. Finally, her painfully realistic assessment of current attitudes towards victims helped give me a clear idea of what I was up against legally. Power imbalances and old-boy (girl) CYA practices still overwhelmingly determine outcomes--but taking a stand against bullies brings immeasurable returns in self-esteem! Thanks, Dr. Penfold, for helping expose such disgusting, arrogant predators in the mental-health field. I LIVE, thanks in part to warriors like you!

Dr. Susan Penfold has made a major contribution with this book. Unfortunately, published by an academic press, I don't think that it has gotten the attention it deserves. She is not unique in being a professional who herself was abused by someone to whom she had gone for help -- but she is unusual in that she has had the courage to come out of the closet and talk about the experience in this remarkable book. For those who think "this can't happen to me, read on....." The book is important because it combines Dr. Penfold's personal experience with a thorough look at the "bigger picture" - that is, what is known about this type of abuse. It is especially invaluble for both those who have been victimized or who know someone who has, but also a very useful guide to those who treat victims of professional abuse. We regularly recommend it.

Gary Schoener, Licensed Psychologist, Minneapolis

SEXUAL ABUSE BY HEALTH PROFESSIONALS is an amazing combination of the personal and the professional. Not only does Dr. Penfold have the courage to come forward and describe her abuse in great detail under her own name, she also provides a professional framework for this type of abuse, including an explanation of the problem, the process, and the effects of professional sexual exploitation. This helps the unexploited reader understand the scope of the problem and the complex manner in which it occurs. In addition, it helps those victimized by health professionals understand that (1) it can happen to absolutely anyone; (2) victims are not to blame; and (3) recovery is possible. I read SEXUAL ABUSE BY HEALTH PROFESSIONALS during my recovery from therapist sexual abuse and, more than anything, it helped me stop blaming myself. Thank you, Sue.

Dr. Penfold is one of the very few of the professionals who themselves have been victims of professional abuse who has had the courage to share her story. Most are fearful of being subjected to negative attention. Beyond her honest and heartful story and experience, which will help other victims and professionals seeking to help them, she contributes a wonderful analysis of the problem and what is known about it in the professional literature. This is a very unusual "double barreled" approach and provides for great richness. This is a book that I have read more than once, and one which many victims of professional misconduct of all types find inspiring. As a clinical psychologist and someone who helps people with this sort of issue, it is an invaluble resource.

Penfold writes with two different "voices" for two different audiences. First, she writes for women who have been sexual exploited by health care professionals. Second, she writes for health care professionals. She was a sexual victim of a practicing psychiatrist (also her professor) while she was a medical student. Writing in two voices, one for professionals and one for laypersons, is an extremely difficult task. Penfold is impressively successful in her endeavor.

My first immediate and personal response was total disbelief. Feelings are difficult to intellectualize, but I will make an effort. The case illustrations are too bizarre and a professional observer (one without an agenda) could easily interpret these client/patient complaints as being delusional.

A long list of questions plagued my mind during the entire duration of reading this well written book. Most of my concerns have been left unanswered. Most importantly, Penfold does not come off as a sympathetic figure, but rather as someone who should have known better and responded to her difficulty with greater immediacy. The real problem with Penfold and perhaps all psychotherapists is that we possess sophisticated skills in employing rationalization to justify our mistakes and frailties to ourselves and others. At the end, I remained frustrated because Penfold never had the guts to file a complaint, but claims she is able to shepherd her sexually exploited patients to do what she could not. Her intellectual ability to explain her plight is eloquent, but nevertheless shameful. I hate myself for these thoughts because they are classic illustrations of "blaming the victim." In those circumstances, could I have done better? I like to think I could, but realistically I do not know what I would have done.

The critical question is, if Penfold could not file a complaint, how can we expect our clients and patients to do so? The bottom line is that most therapists (male and female) are going to have difficulty in believing these bizarre complaints. However, here lies the saving grace of this book. In the end, the reader will become a believer and more sensitive to the possibility of this type of sexual exploitation. If Penfold's goal was to pressure health care professionals to be more considerate of the possibility of sexual exploitation among our peers, she has greatly succeeded.

Penfold offers a significant contribution to both health care professionals and victims of sexual exploitation from health care professionals. She opens the door to the subject matter by scratching to surface of this problem. Readers, professional and non-professional, will be left with more questions than answers, but I do not believe this feeling of ambiguity is a bad experience. I strongly recommend this book to health care professionals who are on ethics boards and admissions committees of advanced training problems. In addition, I think that professionals who come in contact with patients and clients who complain about sexual exploitation should recommend Penfold's book to them. Lastly, all appropriate academic libraries should adopt this book.

What use is a Web site if no one uses it? Too many Web design books and development tools provide cut-and-paste solutions to design problems without providing the developer with an understanding of fundamental principles.

This is where Dr. Badre's book enters the scene - in a big way. "Shaping Web Usability" does just what it promises, providing clear, cogent instruction in designing sites for people in all their needs and diversity. It promotes a robust methodology for Web design that can adapt to user requirements without sacrificing logic or cohesion. Badre's process also helps one communicate methodology and design issues to others. This book gave me the grounding I needed to explain to clients exactly why I had made a particular design decision and how it would benefit the site users.

If you are concerned about your site being used once it is published (and who isn't?), take a look at this book. It can't make your Web site for you, but it can help you identify and satisfy an online audience better than any other book on the shelves.

Dr. Badre has written an interesting work which thoughtfully examines two important concepts: genre and cultural context. In addition to plenty of solid HCI theory and empirical data, Dr. Badre provides clear examples of how close attention to the genre of one's site and the cultural context in which it is most likely to be viewed will provide a more useful and pleasurable experience for the user. With these simple and powerful concepts, Dr. Badre provides some excellent guidance to new and experienced website designers.

This book is unlike many other web usability books. It goes well beyond the cookie-cutter guidelines for fast web usability, and gets the reader thinking deeply about contexts of web usability. It focuses on the real important issues and concepts. However, it is not an abstract or theoretical book. The author illustrates the concepts and explanations with numerous real examples from the web. This book is a must read for web designers, information architects, and web usability engineers.

This is a serious work on Web Usability that attempts to define in detail the user context and to construct a user-centred methodology based on that context.

There are so many books on web usability these days and most of them are about web pages first and people second. Doctor Badre's approach, though, is firmly grounded on the human side of HCI and some of the material in this book is outstanding.

The chapter on "Older Adults" is a great example. Badre is fastidious enough to consider the different cognitive needs of people in this group and to consider the implications of those needs for the designer. Elsewhere he considers personality variations, the role of affect (or emotion), and many other individual differences.

In contrast, however, Badre has a strong leaning toward standards and predictability, which seems to contradict his comments elsewhere. Having identified the myriad reasons the web audience is uniquely diverse he nevertheless finds traditional HCI evaluation techniques attractive, and sometimes fails to bite the bullet.

For example, Badre insists that "Testing conditions ... should approximate the actual situation in which ...visitors are likely to find themselves." Yet he does not display any distrust of laboratory testing, questionnaires and all the artificialities of user testing that would suggest a more ethnographic approach.

The material on the test methodology is therefore somewhat weaker, but does not detract in any way from the main part of the book, where Dr Badre's experience in Human Factors allows him to illustrate with considerable skill the way design features can be adjusted to meet the cognitive abilities of real human users. In this arena, Dr. Badre is a leading authority, and it is for this, the main body of the work, that I would strongly recommend this book to web and usability professionals alike.

Clear and rigorous, Dr. Badre's book is an essential resource for the serious Web practitioner. Going beyond the usual lists of do's and don'ts, he gives the reader a strong grounding in the field of usability and how its principles apply to the Web. Web designers and implementors who read Shaping Web Usability will not only know what to do, but why -- so they can respond successfully to new and complex design challenges.