Part 1 (6 chapters) - Absolutely a waste of time, not worth a read. And the code examples are not related to JWSDP.

Part 2 (6 chapters) - Discusses on SOAP, UDDI and WSDL. The code discusses using a Older version of Apache SOAP and Apache Axis. The code needs a complete rewrite.

Part 3 - Discusses on JAXP, JAXB, JAXR, JAXM and JAXRPC. Good introductions but the JAXB chapter is based on DTD (which is obsoleted in the latest specs). JAXM and JAXRPC chapters just reproduces the Sun JWSDP tutorial...not much value addition.

Part 4 - Security, WSFL, WSIF (based on IBM Specs) currently these specs are obsolete no further releases.

It might've been a good book during 2002. The code and content needs an update to the latest specs and SOAP implementations.

Just as I stated in the title, it's a great book to start you with. It's written in a clear and precise manner where you could learn the basics of Java Web Services and not be intimidated by it.

It is a good introductory book to web services standards like SOAP, WSDL and UDDI but also goes further and talks about topics like WSFL, WSIF which are not covered by all books on web services but are essential to any real business processes exposed as web services where flow control and service unit(s) choreagraphy is as important as the single unit service request/response. Java specifications relating to web services are also covered like JAXM and JAX-RPC. I wish more examples and code was given, perhaps even a chapter or two, for ebXML which may not be a part of web services standards but still uses SOAP and defines industry standards for business to business collaborations especially dealing with supply chain commerce issues.
I agree with a previous reviewer (John Sfikas) that this book alone isn't exactly an eye opener for experianced professionals who have been dabbling with all the tools mentioned in this book like Apache SOAP, Axis, WSTK, Tomcat, Jetty etc. and know the challenges facing B2B collaborations on the internet quite intimately, but this book combined with "Building Web Services with Java: Making Sense of XML, SOAP, WSDL and UDDI" will give a much needed practical grounding to start making sophisticated web services in the real world. I highly recommend getting both these books but be prepared to use your brain and further what is presented in these books to deploy web services satisfying your needs. They will certainly not amount to spoon feeding you a near solution to your collaboration problems.

This is another Italian mafia book from a street soldier's point of view from him doing well to being almost beat to death. Wiseguy is a better street soldier book, but this is good and it is worth reading if you have some free time. Always some action going on.

This book gives an excellent up close account of the life of a mobster. It tells, in his own words, of his high and low points of his affiliation with the mafia. This a facinating story. Joe Dogs is one you won't be able to put down.

Joe Iannuzzi provides a look at mafia life not always glamorized by the media. Joe is lower level mobster, and is always trying to impress and provide his 'boss' with money. This book provides a realistic look at the in's and out's of mafia life as seen through the eyes of a lower ranking member. It is an entertaining, good read.

The Tribes of Israel have not been found because they were never lost. This theory, and this author was "stolen" by Herbert W. Armstrong, the discredited cult founder of the Worldwide Church of God. Read 2 Chron 30:6; 34:9, Ezra 6:17 and James 1:1 and you will find that the nation of Israel was destroyed, but the tribes, the people were not lost. They did not migrate to NW Europe. No reputable historian accepts this fallicy. Allen and Armstrong (a high school drop out) were not scholars.

The book is split in three parts. While the fist two parts are a recall of Biblical history, the last part is based on extra Biblical sources.
The first two parts are very good and will give anybody, who is not familiar with the biblical truth of the two houses of Israel a good introduction.

With the end of the second part the trouble starts.
Allen tells the reader that the prophet Jeremia in companion of some daugthers of the Davidic linage and a the scribe Baruch flee from Judah to Egypt and from there to Ireland. He claims that the ancient history of Ireland has this account in their writings.

I made an in-depth search to find these writings Allen is refering to. They do not exist! I have no clue, where Allen has these ideas from, but they are not biblical, nor in any way historical and are deffinetely not in the records of Ireland. But on these little tale, he builds the structure of British Israelism.
Because of his very good introduction on the topic of the "lost" tribes, the reader is tempted to take the Jeremiah story as given fact and is deceived in the end.
Unfortunately also author Steve Collins in his book "The lost tribes of Israel found" and others refer to Allen as a source of historical facts and run into problems and in the end loose their trustworthyness.

I gave the book two stars, because the first two parts are very good and give a good understanding but the last part is a nice fantasy story based on the dreams of the Brish Empire that its monarchy are the descendants of the House of David, which is absolutely ridiculous.

This book is the most valuable book I have besides my Bible. It will show you the scriptures like you never have seen them before. It was well written by an amazing Bible Scholar in 1900. Most books on this subject will refer to this book. All my family and friends are reading it now. Enjoy!

It is difficult to believe that the author's writings in any way attest to actual FBI experience, or that his knowledge exhibits any kind of an in-depth appreciation of either Italian or Russian organized crime.His scenarios about either, in this book, are both weak and naive. It is just not believable, for example, that the hero, Donnie Brasco, has a daughter held hostage by the Italian Mafia in order to encourage him to find out about the doings of a Russian mafia group. The plot is extremely amateurish. The expressions used are exceptionally hackneyed and quite purile. This novel has no redeaming quality in that the author strives to create an honest or true reflection about any walk of life.

I absolutely found this book to be very Fascinating and Intriguing. I had never read a book by Joe Pistone before but when the series Falcone came out, I just had to read one of his books. I loved the series and found myself loving this book as well. I could not put it down. I felt the pain of donnie barns/brasco throughout the whole book. I wanted a little more suspense but i guess you only get that in the movies. But i would highly recommend this book and have given my book out already for someone to read and they love it too.

This book and the other book about him being in florida are fictional, the books say that. The book by him that is true is Donni Brasco, my life in the mob, by an fbi agent. If you are looking for a true story read that one. For good entertain ment read this one...

If you are interested in collecting artist-signed, fantasy, and greetings-type postcards, as is the author of this book, you will find more than 350 pages of this book devoted to your hobby. If you are interested in collecting postcards showing town views, real photo, and roadside America -- a much more popular hobby, as shown by the major auction websites -- you will find only about 30 pages devoted to your hobby. There is an 8-page introduction useful for all collectors.

I use this book frequently and, by adding my own "tabs" and my own cross reference table, have made it much easier to use. There are many important names in the work itself that are not shown in the index. As a result I am now working on compiling my own index to this book.

Between my mother and I, we've been collecting postcards for over 40 years (we also sell them on Ebay). Mashburn's excellent reference is the first book we recommend to people who ask us for a reference on postcard collecting. It is organized well, filled with important history and information, and has thousands of pictures and prices to guide the new and the seasoned collector. If you only buy one book about postcards, this is the one to buy.

I do not recommend this book for the following reasons.

1) It could be summarized in 5 pages

2) Some of the assumptions used in the model are not valid

3) I tested the model and it does not work

4) few equations makes it difficult to follow at some points.

There are some major shortcomings in this book. Major ones include assuming that the change in the log of the price of a stock is a gaussian random variable and that day to day prices are not correlated. I tested this and it was not true in any of the cases I tried. The world is not gaussian and events are often correlated.

For purely academic reading, this book may be interesting, but I suggest that anyone doing so supplement their reading with some real-life statistics of their own.

If you aren't too familiar with statistics, this book will be a challenge. Nevertheless, it is a very valuable book, and will help you separate fact from fiction on wall street.

Good points: Learn how to use probability theory to determine the expected returns of a stock, its likelihood of profit (or loss), change in margins, etc. Of particular interest--learn how to estimate the standard deviation of a stock's returns by using its high and low prices. This can save some significant number crunching, and you can use another short-hand rule to estimate the annual standard deviation from daily, weekly, or monthly data.

Of special importance are the 5 laws of finance-especially law 2. Law 2 states simply: You cannot use historical percentage changes in growth to predict future changes (more technically, past percentage growth has no correlation to future growth). What does Wall Street try to do--predict future growth by past growth (William O'neil readers take note.) A history of rapid growth is no guarantee of future growth. Likewise, a history of poor growth is no guarantee of poor future performance. Maybe Ben Graham was right after all.

The one reviewer who said it is typical "technical analysis" must not have read the same book. The main premise is that stock prices follow a "random walk"--meaning you cannot use simple technical rules to predict future returns with any degree of accuracy.

The author also pokes some holes in the components of "efficient market theory" especially CAPM. Beta as a description of an individual stock's price moves is questioned.

Bad Points: The lognormal distribution was not explained in enough detail. This is a significant flaw, as the rest of the book requires understanding of this vital concept. Once you can get that, you will reap immense benefit from this book.

This is an excellent book for traders. It successfully uses probability analysis to predict market and stock fluctuations. Nevertheless, it is too sophisticated for the typical compulsive investor. I recommend this book for people who have an above average understanding of market forecasting.

This book is overpriced and of poor quality. The paper and printing are well below current standards even though it was published in 2000. I really wasted my money on this. I did find his ranting about society in general somewhat interesting. Seems people complained about the same things in 1934 that they do now: Society is in a mess and the media is mainly at fault for this. What is the cure for all these ills? The Pilates Method.

If you are looking to get started with Pilates excercises don't buy this book. You can buy two or three of the others for the same price.

I am a Pilates instructor so I found the book immensely helpful in understanding the origins of the Method. I would, however, only recommend this book for an instructor or a serious student of Pilates as it is not an easy read. If someone is looking for a glossy, modern guide to Pilates, this is not the book. It amazed me that so many of the techniques he advocated so many years ago are so effective today. Both the vintage pictures and the text fascinated me! Again, this is an excellent book for people who really want to know and understand pure, unadultered Pilates.

I find this book very informative, not only historically but medically. As a nurse it's interesting to see what techniques are applicable to today and which we now know may not be safe. It's also interesting to see how Joe's original descriptions of his exercises have changed over the years, according to who is doing the teaching. I feel it was really overpriced for it's size, but for me worth it.

It is nice now that more than fifty years has transpired since "No Man Knows My History" was first published to take a look backwards. I was struck by the fact that most of the essays that Mr. Bringhurst published in this book were generally supportive of Fawn Brodie's scholarship. Some questioned certain sections of her book.

One particularly insightful essay challenged much of what she wrote on the matter of polygamy as it was being practiced by the Mormons in Nauvoo just prior to Joseph Smith's murder and subsequent Martyrdom. The essayist pointed out that while some of the specific information that Fawn Brodie may have gathered on this question may have been incorrect, her general conclusions about the practices going on in Nauvoo, were almost certainly correct. This is a particularly difficult issue to investigate. A secret practice occurring within a religious organization some 100 years prior to the time a book is written. It hardly seems surprising that even the best author might get some of the facts wrong. Its too Fawn Brodie's credit, that she got the general picture correct.

One essay that I found disappointing was much ado over nothing. The writer dealt with certain literary methods she felt Fawn Brodie used in writing her book. She suggested these were the methods of a fiction or literature writer, and not a historian. Actually, while Fawn Brodie was a history professor at UCLA, she got initial college degrees in English and in Literature. Fawn clearly had a talent many historians don't.....the ability to write a well-researched book in a manner that is interesting and readable by people outside academia. Something that that particular author that essay probably lacks herself.

Bringhurst himself includes an essay which was later part of his book on Fawn Brodie, "A Biographer's Life" that describes Fawn's early life, the immense amount of research and effort she put into the book, the reaction of the LDS Church to her research efforts, her attempts to explain the book to her Orthodox LDS family, and her subsequent excommunication which was probably largely orchestrated by her uncle, and subsequent President of the LDS Church, David O. McKay. There is alot of insightful material here which it would be nice for anyone reading "No Man Knows My History" to be able to examine.

Most of the essays are good. I recommend this book.

One Hundred (and one) years after the Mormon prophet's demise in Nauvoo, Fawn Mckay Brodie had completed a biography of him. This work on Joseph Smith's life has within certain communities has been received both with high priase and acclaim as well as severe condemnation. This controversy alone has raised the status of the book amongst historical, socialogical and literary reviewers. Newell G. Bringhurst brings this dynamic alive with a selection of essays about Brodie's offering from a variety of critical and careful perspectives.

The focus of this collection is not to examine the actual biography of Smith and its validity, rather it is about Brodie's work. Many of the relevant issues discussed about a task as she achieved are brought to light by the various essays: how meticulous was her research, the literary style are prose of the work, the reliability of her sources, the consistency of the work, the conclusions her work leads to, etc. All these were carefully examined by a number of the essayists. Furthermore, the character of Brodie was considered, i.e. her sense of purpose and accomplishment, perhaps her sense of duty. There are amongst each of the essays remarkable insights into both the work on a scholarly level and into the woman who created it all.

The synopsis of the collection as a whole is widespread praise for Brodie's ground-breaking effort. She has treaded into a life with such incredible care and insight which few have since unsuccessfully attempted to match. The biographer is given the credit she desrved with "No Man Knows My History" and later solidly earned with her other works.

I recommend this strongly for those who have an interest in examining historical research and particularly those interested in Brodie's research. For those interested in Mormon research, I suggest both this "Reconsidering..." and Brodie's biography be read concurrently or at least in succession.

Newell Bringhurst, a highly-qualified Mormon historian who is not active in the church, has assembled an interesting and balanced set of essays about Fawn Brodie's extremely important book on Joseph Smith. Devout Mormons reject her work out-of-hand (much of the time, I fear, without reading it--the Church has told them not to). But real historians are not fearful of research and of facts. This is the basis for this collection. The best essay is Bringhurst's own, which gives a clear picture of the difficulties Fawn B. encountered when researching the book, as well as an analysis of the validity of her methods. In spite of heavy indoctrination by family and community, Fawn B. managed to develop a clarity of sight and and desire to penetrate myths and propaganda that made all of her works important and unignorable by future writers on their subjects. The "pro-Mormon" essays in this collection, interestingly, tend to be the most bombastic and evasive--much like the master of apologist irrelevance, Hugh Nibley. Like a good historian, Bringhurst provides the evidence and leaves it to the reader's intelligence to evaluate it for himself--the exact opposite of what Mormon authorities do.

Read on RPGnet how the authors of SenZar were "anonymously" promoting their own game on the net, and it's evident that "reader" is such a person. I'll be equally "anonymous" and let you know they're doing this.

I purchased this as a guide to how *not* to write an RPG; I wasn't disappointed. There are many good, or at least interesting, ideas in this book but the overall effect is one of Munchkinism gone awry. It has some positive points such as a surfeit of imagination; however, the overall tone of the book can be inferred by the 'About the authors' at the end, which is as full of hyperbole and imagination as the rest.

If you have not played SenZar, then you do not know what you are missing. This is the BEST Fantasy Role-Playing Game! This is the game that beats the Wizards of the Coast (formerly known as TSR) Dungeons and Dragons / Advanced Dungeons and Dragons hands-down. No more are wizards limited by how many times they may cast a spell, or are priests limited to blunt-edged weapons only. Physical combat is simpler with characters having "Combat Value" (divded into "Attack Value" and "Defense Value") which determines what they need to roll on a d20 in order to achieve a hit.
Players can buy helpful skills for their characters (such as stealth, which enables them to surprise their opponents by moving without making noise and special powers (such as toughness which allows them to continue fighting even after receiving near-fatal wounds).
Players get to round out their characters' personalities with Karmic Attributes like "Overconfidence" or "Greed." There is no alignment nonsense. Characters are either "good," serving the "Cause" and the "Good Earth"; "evil," serving the "Anti-Life" and the "Dark Earth Mother"; or "neutral" serving themselves only. No need to worry about other ridiculous concepts like "lawful, "neutral," or "chaotic."
Do yourself a favor, buy SenZar, and begin playing the BEST FRPG in existence. It is the FRPG of the 3rd millennium. You won't regret your investment (both in money and time) in this game.